#gideon is pretty even when conflicted

[igotsnothing]

Beginning/Previous/Next

#the sims 4 #sims 4 story #sims 4 vampires #DARKER #Sasha #Gideon #i'm sad and mad at myself #i like fluffy things #this isn't fluffy #lilith is kickass #gideon is pretty even when conflicted #sashaaaaa #my baby #snitches get stitches

[anthurak]

Something I absolutely love about the alternate-timeline aspect of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is that it really feels like a logical extrapolation and ‘next-step’ to the genre/trope-subversion and exploration of the original comic.

Remember how the whole idea of Scott Pilgrim the comic is taking a very basic, generic and ‘tropey’ premise; ‘Boy likes girl, boy must defeat girl’s seven evil exes in order to date her’, and uses it as the backdrop and framework to explore, deconstruct and develop its characters.

Like how the biggest conflict at any given point of the comic is never the actual battles with any of the Seven Evil Exes, but rather Scott being forced to confront some major problem with himself or his relationship with Ramona (usually the former). How the true ultimate ‘antagonist’ for both Scott and Ramona isn’t any of the Evil Exes, but rather themselves. Their own long-festering hang-ups and insecurities that they’ve been refusing to confront or acknowledge that have in turn led to them being pretty shitty people over the course of their lives. For as bad as Gideon is, he’s still only a mirror showing all the bad that SCOTT could become.

So with that in mind, it really feels like the anime simply took this idea a step further: What if we took the basic, generic and tropey premise that nonetheless served as the framework for the story and held it together… and broke it.

When the narrative guide and scaffolding that held the original story on a certain course is shattered when the story is just getting started, where does the story go?

It’s actually one of the ways I think Scott Pilgrim Takes Off can be appreciated even if you haven’t read the comic or watched the movie. Even if you aren’t familiar with the story, the first episode makes it pretty easy to guess how this story should play out: Scott meets Ramona, they have their first date, they really hit it off and seem set to become a couple. We’re introduced to what clearly seems to be our ‘Big Bad’ in Gideon and our ‘Starter Villain’ in Matthew. Again, even if you don’t know one thing about Scott Pilgrim, by the time Matthew Patel crashes the party you probably have a pretty good idea how this whole story SHOULD go.

And then Matthew (seemingly) KILLS SCOTT in their first fight!

THEN the second episode ratchets things up even further when all signs point to Scott, our title character, being ACTUALLY DEAD for real. And then Matthew, again the guy who should be the starter villain, goes and beats Gideon Graves, the guy who clearly SHOULD have been the FINAL BOSS of this story!

And then the third episode sees Ramona, the girl previously set-up as the designated love-interest, firmly established as the new PROTAGONIST of the story. With Ramona given both an overarching goal in finding what really happened to Scott, and an ongoing character-arc of meeting and reconciling with each of her ‘evil exes’.

Basically, even if you aren’t familiar with the full specifics of the source material, I feel like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off can still be enjoyed as essentially a show that at first sets up what seems to be a fairly wrote and predictable story before flying COMPLETELY off the rails at the end of its first episode into something quite a bit more unique.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim takes off #spto #scott pilgrim ramblings #ramona flowers #matthew patel #gideon graves #rambling about genre subversion

[ooctlt]

I really like this blog most of the time, but sometimes you take reasonable earnest asks that are trying to be thoughtful, and are such a dick about it.

Like if it's the characters being dicks, fine. But you could say something in the tags or post to indicate you're not just viciously mocking someone for trying to engage.

I still haven't submitted an ask since seeing your response that led to comments along the lines of "anon should go die in a hole" for asking, pretty reasonably, why harrow would want to stay with people she didn't seem to like or want to be around or interact with.

(i know, because she does like them and does want them around but doesn't know how to show it) but it's an ASK blog. How do we hear that from her unless someone ASKS

i understand it might be surprising and a bit hurtful to see an ask answered with the characters being mean/flippant, and for that i do apologize that it wasnt made clear that it would be a common thing in this blog. id like to issue the disclaimer: there is always the possibility that the characters here will not take your question well. they might answer rudely, and instigating behavior is not only encouraged but expected on both ends. this does not reflect my personal opinions as the artist; there are over 250 asks even after i constantly compile duplicates, and i will answer the asks that i personally like.

i will assume you are referencing the two most recent posts where gideon acts rudely and i repost an old panel: for the former i thought anon was really sweet for being so heartfelt and encouraging, but gideon isnt the kind of person who needs to be told shes brave for doing that by a stranger. it was a simple act of survival. and harrow is still very much in the passive deprogramming phase. the latter response was meant to kickstart (spoilers) what i will call the "dicks last resort" arc, where i clean out the inbox and share more simple, low effort, but potentially rude responses*. this is because i have roughly drawn almost daily for 87 days straight, and would like to recuperate without being burnt out because i love this blog and i love art.

this leads me to my next point: some of these answers will be curt and short and rude, because they are easy to draw. if i only prioritized the "good" asks or to make certain ask responses kinder, or longer, it wouldnt be a daily blog. it would be a monthly blog where 5 asks get answered among 100s. i didnt anticipate people asking about harrows piercings, and i considered shutting it down by just having harrow say she likes them etc. but i did want to give more insight into harrows character even if she wouldnt say so herself, and that took roughly 3 full unemployed nights. if i treated every ask in good faith the same way i wouldnt have time for anything else, because they take more effort and have to be seriously considered for the future. i can retcon their favorite ice cream or play off griddlehark fighting - it takes more to keep track of a narrative about people talking Around their issues

* by rude responses i mean "this will affect the 679ers negatively, much like making your sim 🧑‍🤝‍🧑➖➖ someone" there are a few asks planned to hurt in the same way one drafts a bad end in a visual novel, and this type of interaction is encouraged. of course if you dont want them to get worse dont send asks telling gideon she should flirt with MILFs (you cant send this ask now i already said it), but i encourage the banter.

TL;DR this is the "characters think you are weird for personal questions" blog. i am sorry i didnt warn of the ask-response banter, because i also enjoy drawing these characters being dicks. i do like when aggravation and conflict leads to character development. "how do we get earnest answers unless someone asks" sometimes you will never explicitly get that from them, and thats what the dead ends are for: to let you know to try something else and read between the lines

#the reason why i did not say anything sooner is because i do not like making ooc posts on here often. i want a little intrigue and mystery #i dream of when people will actively discuss in tags and notes how best to confront these characters #actual ooc #and i will say. i will not remember to indicate in the tags that i am not mocking the ask every time #i cannot be responsible for managing everyones feelings if they are hurt that harrowhark or gideon reacted badly #which i have seen people do! in the notes saying that gideons behavior makes them hate her a little! good! #if you dont like the direction this blog turns then i would encourage you to interact selectively

[lemon-natalia]

Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Review

some final thoughts:

i have some (very) minor nitpicks that i want to get out the way first, simply because the rest of my opinions are really positive: i felt like there were some minor pacing issues, particularly near the beginning where the actual main plot took a pretty long time to get going - but overall it was a real whirlwind of a book and Muir is very good at dramatic cliffhangers that kept the energy up and made me want to read more. the big fight in the final chapter also felt a little repetitive at points, i think it could have been shortened down just a tad?

that out the way, overall i really loved it!! i’d heard good things and had high expectations to be fair, but it definitely lived up to them, this is probably one of my favourite books i’ve read in a while. it managed to be macabre and hilarious and heartbreaking all at once, and balanced the humour & horror elements well. the mystery aspects and plot twists also felt pretty well written, having both plenty of foreshadowing while not being immediately obvious.

another big strength is the remarkably compelling characters. despite there being a pretty large cast, and obviously some characters being more major than others, all of the Houses felt fleshed out and unique and had their own moments to shine. i also mentioned before reading I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of Gideon & Harrow’s relationship, but i ended up absolutely loving their complicated dynamic - it developed very naturally, and even when they came into conflict later in the book, it never felt contrived.

tldr; i cried a lot. amazing! 10/10. i think reading this has fundamentally altered my brain chemistry

(Fun fact: not including this post, i’ve written approximately 12,400 words about Gideon the Ninth in these liveblogs. that’s longer than the undergrad dissertation that I was supposed to be doing instead of this)

also thank you so much to everyone who's expressed interest and encouraged me in this liveblog - it was very unexpected but i’m glad people liked it! given i already have a copy of Harrow the Ninth, would people be interested in me continuing these liveblogs for that book?

#lemon natalia reads the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #the locked tomb liveblog #the locked tomb #tlt #also to be fair i was reading this relatively slowly so maybe thats where the pacing issues come in #might be different reading it all in one sitting

[theres-a-body-here]

The Hillbilly with Tomie!reader

The Entity snatches up a new, manipulative survivor.

Infatuated with you at first sight

Even if you were kinda.....mean

You reminded him of his parents

You mocked and hit him for messing things up

Yet there was something that made him drawn to you

Like looking at a spiral

He couldn't look away

He remembers the first time he met you

You weren't afraid of him

You actually seemed pretty disinterested

In fact, you seemed bored with your current predicament

He found you during the trial, sitting on one of the tables at the Gideon Meat Plant

Your attention was fixed upon your nails, inspecting them with an air of nonchalance that belied the gravity of the situation. Despite having been abruptly ensnared by the Entity and thrust into a trial, an eerie calm seemed to radiate from you. You were downright unbothered. The Hillbilly's features twisted in a mixture of bewilderment and curiosity. He couldn't help but study you intently, struggling to understand the situation.

Max found himself utterly baffled by your apparent lack of the expected fear or panic that most survivors displayed upon finding themselves within the Entity's realm. In his mind, you should have been fleeing in terror like all the others. Intrigued, he cautiously closed the distance between you. Your gaze lifted from your nails, meeting his, and your expression shifted from one of nonchalance to annoyance in an instant.

"Hey," you addressed him, your voice tinged with frustration, "you mind telling me where the fuck I am?"

Max remained unable to provide any verbal response. Instead, a low, rumbling growl rumbled from deep within his throat, an attempt at communication.

A dismissive roll of your eyes accompanied your exasperated sigh. "Fantastic, stuck with a complete moron," you muttered under your breath, a hint of sarcasm dripping from your words like venom.

"Do me a favor and find someone around here who's not braindead, would you?" With a casual wave of your hand, you shooed Max away, clearly unimpressed by his lack of voice.

Max, however, wasn't oblivious to your condescending tone and gestures. A flicker of anger danced across his features, his frustration intensifying. Determinedly, he marched closer, his grip on his hammer tightening. The swell of his temper led him to raise the hammer threateningly, as if to strike you in response to your disrespect.

Your gaze abruptly snapped to Max, a sudden shift from annoyance to an intense, frigid stare. It was a gaze that bore into him, piercing and cold, cutting through the air like ice. "Huh?" you spoke, the detachment in your tone sending shivers down his spine, "You're actually considering hitting me? Well, go ahead then. Let's see what happens." Your voice, devoid of emotion, carried an eerie weight, the threat implicit in your words hitting Max like a jolt.

Max's reaction was immediate, but not in the way he might have anticipated. Your cold and unflinching demeanor struck a nerve deep within him, evoking memories of his parents and their harsh, berating ways. A wave of unease and vulnerability washed over him, leaving him momentarily paralyzed by the unexpected flood of emotions.

His grip on the hammer wavered, and then, as if weighed down by the weight of those memories, the tool slipped from his grasp and thudded onto the ground. An uneasy silence enveloped the space around you both, an unspoken exchange passing between your cold, unflinching gaze and his unsettled and conflicted expression.

Ever since that trial, he's been following you around

Almost like a lost puppy

He took you to his realm almost immediately

He wants you close all the time

You always come visit when you're both free from trials

You're even nice to him

Sometimes

The switch in personalities is so abrupt and drastic that Max sometimes wonders if he's next to a completely different person

He doesn't look too much into it

He loves it when you tell him to bring you something. He always does it quickly

He knows what he gets if he gets your things fast enough

"Oohh, you're such a good boy"

You pat his head

Max feels like he's in heaven

In trials, he downright refuses to hurt you. Even if he's sacrificed no one else

He worships the ground you walk on

Brings you charms from other survivors he kills in trials

"What the hell is this? It isn't even designer"

He whimpers and looks heartbroken when you don't like his gifts

You sigh and roll your eyes

"But I guess I can pull it off"

He instantly brightens up and pulls you in for a bear hug

"H-hey no touching!"

He doesn't hear you and sways you around a little as he nuzzles into your neck

"Whatever. Just don't dirty my clothes"

Maybe having a dog isn't so bad

#dbd x reader #dead by daylight x reader #Tomie!reader #max thompson jr #the hillbilly #max thompson jr x reader #dead by daylight #dbd #hillbilly x reader

[queeoretician]

I'm dying to know more about Gideon/Kiriona's feelings about her names as of the end of Nona...

The last time we had access to her internal monologue, she had just found out that she was named (inadvertently) for the man who killed her mother, and (probably more importantly) had been determinedly attempting to kill Harrow for the past several months. She also found out that her mother didn't really give a fuck about her, and was a bit of an asshole in general, and her father didn't exactly make a great impression in their brief interaction.

Then we see her again in Nona, and find that she's been given a new name, and has been made into "the Emperor's construct," and generally seems to be having a shit time of things even before the emotional whiplash of being kissed by Harrow's body only to find out that it's not actually Harrow.

So clearly out girl has been through A Lot and it wouldn't be surprising if she felt super conflicted about all the associations of both her old name and her new one.

How does she feel about the name Gideon now? We know that she isn't opposed to people continuing to use it, but does she resent it now that she knows where it comes from? I can imagine her going either way on G1deon having killed Wake, but there's no way she looks kindly on his repeated attempts to impale her adept. And when it comes to Wake there must be a ton of emotional turmoil of having imagined a mother who would have cared for her all through the hardships of growing up in Drearburh, only to find that her actual mother saw her as a thing, a bomb, a human sacrifice - there's so much shit for Alecto to explore here.

And then there's Kiriona - how much agency did she have in being renamed? Did Jod basically say "OK, you've got a new name now, kiddo," or was it more of a mutual thing (or even her own idea)? I could see it go either way - she doesn't seem to actively reject the name, but she could equally well be conflicted, apathetic, or actively like it (but have that be muted because she's clearly in a bad place).

I'm particularly curious about how the connection to her Māori ancestry plays out - I assume that historical Earth cultures are pretty alien to anyone born in the last few millennia, but she might find personal significance in it depending on how she relates to Jod. I hope Alecto explores this! It's hard to imagine her taking an interest in ancient history in general terms, but then again I firmly believe that she's smarter (and nerdier) than first impressions would indicate.

Speaking of which, one of my biggest questions going into Alecto is about what kind of relationship she and her dad have - how much of her sorrow and jadedness in the final act of Nona are about her feeling disempowered by John's treatment of her, versus everything else going on? Her comments in the barracks scene hint at her not having a lot of say in her current condition (particularly "I am the Emperor's construct" and "Nobody locks me up anywhere"), and I think the most likely interpretation of this is that the whole super-soldier shtick and new name and everything were imposed on her.

But I also find it plausible that she was fully on board with being the heir to the Emperor, and an indestructible badass, and all that, but now that she has these cool things she finds her life dull and unfulfilling (particularly in the absence of a certain small dark necrosaint). In this case, it would give an added poignancy to her reaction after killing Crux - that scene would then be symbolic of her overall lack of catharsis and pleasure in getting the things that she wants in the absence of Harrow.

I really hope that Alecto brings her some measure of catharsis, and a reunion with Harrow that eventually gets them to a happy ending, but damn is there a lot for her to work through before we get there.

#the locked tomb #gideon nav #kiriona gaia #the locked tomb spoilers #harrow the ninth spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers

[franollie]

hi! how are you?

6, 9, 24 for steph and cass? and tim actually, just throw him in there, it's funny

Hi! I'm doing well!!

Steph:

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

God where to even start....we both have a need to prove ourselves to everyone, i'm also incredibly impulsive and i don't always think through my actions, im also super protective of kids because of some stuff i went through as a child, i could go on and on

9. Could you room with this character?

absolutely. we'd be best friends.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

OOOHhHH!! okay so I could take the easy route and say Gwen Stacy (specifically from her spidergwen comics) but in all honesty, Buffy. Oh my god she reminds me so much of buffy. If we took steph and stuck her in a supernatural tv show she'd just be Buffy Summers.

Cass:

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

incredibly stubborn, an intense desire to protect and take care of my loved ones, and suuupperrr competitive

9. Could you room with this character?

honestly, i don't know. Cass is a pretty sloppy roommate and while im pretty chill about a little mess here and there rooming with cass would be like rooming with a tornado and idk that i could handle it

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

i'm being so honest when i say i truly dont think there is anyone like her gideon nav

Tim:

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

identity issues that creates a point of conflict with parents :)

9. Could you room with this character?

no. we'd kill each otherASDGSHK- i kid, but in all honesty probably not. he's like an obnoxious brother to me; i can't help but love him but oh my god stop doing whatever it is youre doing.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Olruggio from witch hat atelier,,,,

Ask Game

#💌 #seafleafinder #stephanie brown #cassandra cain #tim drake #ask game #fran talks

[engie-ivy]

@wolfstarmicrofic's 30th: Surreal

1217 words

Sirius has always dreamed about Remus confessing his love, though he has accepted that's all it'll ever be; a dream. But when it does become reality, he mostly feels conflicted. Why can't Remus just let him move on?

Why Now?

It’s surreal, really.

He has pictured this moment in his head a thousand times in thousand different ways, and now it’s happening. Actually happening.

Remus is standing in front of him, telling him he loves him.

Sirius pinches the bridge of his nose. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Sirius has been in love with Remus since at least the end of high school, probably even before that. He had actually gathered the courage to ask Remus to prom, fumbling to give him a rose and everything.

Remus had said no.

He said that prom wasn’t really his thing, he actually didn’t want to go, and Sirius should just take someone else with whom he could probably have a better time.

After they went to college and became roommates, they grew even closer, especially when James moved back home to help his parents around the house as they were getting old, and it was just the two of them. When they were at the point where they’d fall asleep in each other’s beds and Sirius would lie on the couch with his head in Remus’ lap, Sirius had nervously suggested taking their friendship to the next level.

Remus had declined.

He told Sirius that he liked where they were right now. He liked their friendship, but that was really all it was to him.

Later, when James and Lily, Marlene and Dorcas, Benjy and Caradoc, and Gideon and Emmeline were all together, and it was often Sirius and Remus surrounded by couples, Sirius had asked Remus one more time to go on a date. They so often went out for dinner together or attended events together, why not make it a real date?

Remus had rejected him.

He apologized for just not seeing Sirius like that. He cared about him, so, so much, but not in a romantic way.

All in all, it has been pretty clear how Sirius feels about Remus for years.

He respected that Remus didn’t feel the same, but he couldn’t switch off his feelings just like that, so he kept on pining. Combined with the instances when Remus would kiss a boy at a party and Sirius would storm out of the room, or when Sirius would grow silent and sullen when they were at the bar and he saw someone flirt with Remus, or even the moment when Sirius had returned from a night out to walk in on Remus with some guy on the couch, and, humiliatingly so, had cried and shouted ‘Why not me?’, everyone knew that Sirius was smitten with Remus, including Remus himself.

Their friends were supportive, comforting Sirius when it got hard and always trying to get Sirius to move on, for instance by their attempts to set him up with other guys, which Sirius refused for a long time, as going on a date with one guy while constantly thinking about another guy didn’t seem fair.

Eventually, though, Sirius conceded.

He started going out with other men, and truthfully, he liked it.

Sure, no one made him feel the way Remus did, but he liked how his dates would react when they saw him, sitting upright, their eyes widening, how they would compliment him, and how they would try to impress him. He’s only human, after all. He also liked how they don’t mind showing that they’re interested in him.

After years of rejection, it felt good to be so clearly wanted.

Yet, Sirius didn’t feel anything for any of them, so he never accepted a second date, not wanting to lead them on while he didn’t see it with them.

Until Edgar.

Edgar was handsome and funny, with a cheeky grin and a sparkle in his eyes. He had made Sirius laugh all evening long, with his amusing stories and his forward sense of humour. When he asked Sirius for a second date, Sirius said yes.

For the first time, Sirius could imagine it. He could imagine finally getting over Remus and he could imagine maybe, one day, eventually growing to love someone who wasn’t him.

He could imagine finally moving on.

And now this.

Just as Sirius feels like he has a chance of moving on, the one thing he has so desperately wished for all these years, the one thing he has finally accepted he would never have, is happening. Remus is confessing his love to him.

“Really, Remus?” He asks. “Now? You’re telling me now?”

Remus averts his eyes, looking embarrassed. “I needed to tell you, so why not now?”

“Why not-?” Sirius shakes his head in disbelieve. “Are you fucking kidding me, Remus? I’ve been here! This whole time, I’ve been here. Waiting for you. Waiting for a sign. Waiting for... for anything, really. All you had to do was say the word, and I would’ve been yours. But you didn’t. You never did. Only now, now that I’m finally, finally, moving on you...”

“I’m sorry,” Remus says. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I know I’ve hurt you. I wish I had done things differently...”

“What is this then?” Sirius asks. “You don’t want me to move on, you like having me pine after you? You don’t want me yourself, but you don’t want anybody else to have me either? Or is this just some cliché case of only wanting what you can’t have?” He can feel himself getting more angry with each word, all the pain from these last years bubbling to the surface.

“No,” Remus says quickly. “No, Sirius, no. This isn’t something that I’ve suddenly come up with now. I’ve always loved you!”

“You... you what?”

“Of course I’ve always loved you. How could I not?”

“But why then? Why did you pretend you didn’t? Why, for all this time?”

“Because I didn’t think I was good enough for you,” Remus states simply. “I thought you could go and find better. I wanted better for you.”

“And now that’s changed?”

“No, I still think I don’t deserve you,” Remus admits. “But neither do they!” He shakes his head. “Seeing you with those other men made me realise that has nothing to do with me. I don’t think anyone deserves you. But you’re not going to be alone forever, you don’t deserve to be alone forever, and if you’re going to be with someone, why not someone who at least knows how much you’re worth and how much you deserve? Why not me?”

Sirius doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.”

Remus shrugs. “I admit that I’ve wasted quite some time, but forgive me for hoping that I’m not too late?”

“You have to mean it,” Sirius says, as he slowly starts moving closer to Remus. “If we’re really going to do this, you and me, for real, you can’t change your mind. If we do this, that’s it for me, there’s no going back.” He stops when he’s standing almost chest to chest with Remus. “If we do this, I’m gone for,” he says softly.

“Fuck yes,” Remus breaths. “I want it to be you and me. You and me forever.”

Remus wraps his arms around Sirius and pulls him into a kiss, and every chance, every desire, and luckily, also every need for Sirius to get over him disappears.

#my tumblr writing #wolfstar microfic #wolfstar #wolfstar fic #wolfstar fanfiction #marauders #marauders fic #marauders fanfiction #sirius black #remus lupin #remus x sirius #pining sirius black

[ooops-i-arted]

Rewatching BoBF because I really do enjoy it and it's a favorite of mine, but now it also just makes me sad because THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

First of all, that should've been saved for season 3 and not shafted Boba and Fennec/Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen in their own show. That was bullshit much as I loved the episode.

But imagine if they'd taken all the plot threads in that episode and actually explored and developed them.

Din is clearly suffering from missing Grogu, and conflicted because he knows Jedi are supposed to "forgo attachments"* and Grogu is with his true people/culture now, but also misses him so much and still wants to take care of him and be his father. This is a potential character conflict as Din struggles to support doing the right thing for Grogu with his own feelings of attachments that just gets brushed aside, first when Ahsoka tells him "Naw, don't go see him" and then again when they're hastily reunited.

*This is a Filoni thing and not accurate to the films, Jedi are allowed to have connections to their home life and culture, it's just that they can't use their love of that to overwhelm their duty to Do The Right Thing.

If we add episode 6 to the mix, we don't get to see Grogu train or have much conflict/development himself. He doesn't really get an arc about choosing Din, it's just a cheap cliffhanger. His flashbacks and training are shallow and pretty much just Easter eggs. ("Look it's Order 66 again! Look it's Jar Jar's actor! Look it's one of those laser balls like in ANH!") There could have been more depth to them, like recalling Order 66 and possibly linking his trauma to being a Jedi whether he likes it or not, or other trauma he faced between Order 66 and now (like how did he end up with the Niktos?) and showing that he still uses thoughts of Din to calm himself and still needs his father - he's just not ready for Jedi training and he still needs time to heal emotionally and be a kid. Hell, LUKE could've gotten a beautiful arc where he tries to rigidly hold himself and Grogu to what he thinks the prequel-era Jedi Order were like because he has unfairly placed so much pressure on himself as a teacher and Grogu as his first student, and then instead realizes he's bringing them both down and not doing right. Luke decides he needs to do more research of the old Jedi and possibly ultimately make his own path for the New Jedi Order, and instead offers Grogu the choice between him and Din freely, acknowledging he may not be ready to teach Grogu after all but willing to do so if that's what Grogu needs. Writing wise this would also be smart - Grogu chooses Din for now with the door open to send him back to Jedi training if you take the story that direction again, but you still got you Money Making Merch Duo back together.

Back to Din, we could've started him truly embracing the role of father to Grogu after their reunion, the two of them choosing to make a family together instead of a quick adoption ceremony after a season of Din calling him ward and sending him to training with no prep.

Din isn't great with the Darksaber in this episode, but he seems to want it. He learns its history. He makes an effort to use it and start training with it. He gets feisty when Paz challenges him for it. Even if he doesn't feel totally ready for all it symbolizes, he wants it in BoBF. Why did he suddenly give it to Bo? Because Favroni made him, that's why. Imagine if instead Din looked at all these groups of Mandalorians infighting - Bo and her posse, loners like Sabine and Boba, the Children of the Watch - and thought, imagine what we could do against people like Gideon if we worked together. We have had two season of Din collecting unlikely allies - a rebel shock trooper, an Ugnaught farmer, Guild leader turned Magistrate, a Tatooine mechanic, a deadly assassin, a simple man making his way through the universe, a disgraced Mandalorian princess and her lackeys - and gotten them to join his cause and led them into battle. He is a leader! He has it in him! And "reluctant leader being the best leader" and/or "leader who cares about his people over a throne" is an age-old trope that Din fits perfectly. He could've had an amazing arc of lone bounty hunter to apostate to Mand'alor.

Tack on to that an arc of personal identity as a Mandalorian. Instead of Din going to the Mines in 2 episodes as if checking off a list of boxes, we got a deeper dive in his character. Maybe he bathes in the waters of Mandalore as the Armorer requested and realizes he doesn't feel any different. Maybe exposure to different Mandalorians makes him realize there's more than one way to follow the Creed, and that's okay - and that's what makes him a good leader because he accepts all the little subcultures in the Mandalorians. He puts the helmet on and keeps it on again because he chooses to, because that's what works for him, but no longer chastises those who don't and realizes that he doesn't need the Armorer's approval or word of law to be Mandalorian. Maybe the Armorer herself learns to be less strict and rigid, or realizes Din is the leader who can get their homeworld back. When they meet again not as a member of her covert or someone under her "rule," but as equal leaders with mutual respect.

Another side thought, but imagine if they'd gone ALL THE WAY with Din being an apostate and the Armorer had made him leave his beskar. Unarmored Din must relearn his entire fighting style, struggle with feeling exposed and shamed with no helmet, reach emotional rock bottom and still come out on top by proving himself worthy, not just to the Armorer, but to himself. (I figure this will never happen since they need Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder to be able to physically be Din to do stunts and to help out the filming schedule since Pedro Pascal is so busy, but I do think the concept is cool and would've been some amazing, especially with Pedro's acting.)

#WE COULD'VE HAD IT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL #im so salty i can taste it #MY BOY DESERVED BETTER I LOVE DIN SO MUCH #the mandalorian #bobf #anti filoni #anti favroni #din djarin

[alastairstom]

Matthew, Alastair, and the Self vs the Other

I cannot for the life of me understand how people justify hating either Matthew or Alastair on behalf of the other. Like. Both of these characters are so beloved to me. They're easily two of my favourite fictional characters, and I'm not just talking about in TSC. I adore them, and I adore their complexities. As such, I feel that I am the appropriate person to write this essay.

(You can also expect another essay in the coming week that juxtaposes Matthew and Alastair's storylines as literary foils. The aim of this essay is not to understand their written characters, but to understand their dynamic as human beings).

Listen.

Shadowhunter Academy

At the Academy, Alastair behaved in a pretty homophobic way to Matthew, who was visibly not straight (and proud of it). It's worth noting that Alastair began the conflict here, with these statements. The stuff about Wilde being indecent was their first encounter, and he 100% perpetuated it again later with "what a fine wife you'll make for someone one of these days." The impact of this hurts Matthew regardless of the fact that Alastair was also gay. Matthew didn't know this at the time, and even if he had, it would have been unfair for Alastair to turn his own internalized homophobia on Matthew.

However, Alastair's statements are also understandable. Being gay in the late 1800s wasn't a walk in the park, and Alastair was likely having it consistently reinforced as shameful by Charles at this point. He was 15. He also was very clearly following the Wilde trials, which would have been terrifying for him.

Matthew is also a defensive person, and James was being consistently bullied by Alastair. I understand him coming to the defense of his friend. I get that. But he did, in the end, come at Alastair WAY too hard when he said that his father didn't love him. It's worth noting that Matthew didn't know the situation between Alastair and Elias, and he just groped around for fodder and accidentally hit something that hurt. But, like the Wilde stuff, that doesn't matter. The impact on Alastair was real and painful.

Onto the rumor stuff, the things that Alastair said about Gideon and Charlotte were inexcusable. Place this in a historical context. Charlotte is a woman, and one who's constantly questioned in her position of power. This rumor could have legitimately ruined her and the entire Fairchild family. I do not believe Alastair thought this through, but once again, the impact was there. This is a theme throughout their relationship.

Alastair, who is obviously extremely traumatized, was completely in the wrong for saying those things. 0 argument.

Matthew, who is obviously very mentally ill, was VERY MUCH in the wrong to blow up Alastair's things. 0 argument.

There's also an argument to be made that Alastair had no choice but to be a bully. I believe this. I fully understand him. He DID have no choice, and he deserves sympathy and compassion and forgiveness. I believe this unequivocally. No child- no human- deserves to be subject to the abuse that Alastair was at home and at school, and no 13-15 year old would have made a different choice.

But, at the same time, Alastair did not have to hit Matthew where it hurt like that. He could have stuck to the way he bullied Thomas, with periodic cutting barbs. That's also true.

Matthew's Great Sin

Fast forward a couple of years.

The only person to blame for Charlotte's miscarriage is Mother Hawthorne, an adult who used Matthew as a tool for attempted assassination. Full stop. The ONLY person. That's my preface.

Alastair is in no way to blame for Charlotte's miscarriage. Like, at all. I'm not even sure that he, to this day, knows what happened. This is indisputable. Alastair is, I would argue, unrelated to the reality of the situation.

Everyone reasonable can see this. Matthew himself is reasonable. Matthew himself knows this and has thought as much:

It was not the faerie woman’s fault, or Alastair’s, or the fault of any other soul. He was the one who had chosen to distrust his mother. He had fed his mother poison with his own hands. He was not a fool. He was a villain.

Of course, I disagree with Matthew's thoughts on Mother Hawthorne. I also disagree with his thoughts on his own culpability, but I'm getting there. My current point is that Matthew knows, immediately, that Alastair is not to blame.

However, the person that he chooses to blame is himself.

Matthew, prior to this event, already had incredibly low self-worth. Two clear examples:

“You may be a waste of space in a waistcoat,” he told Matthew Fairchild, “but at least your waistcoat is fantastic.”

He was sure that if he had not asked James to be parabatai, James would never have thought of asking him.

As a result of this unbearable pain, Alastair becomes something of a scapegoat for Matthew. He hates himself and treats himself poorly; he shoves off some of that self-hate onto Alastair, his literary foil (again, wait for that essay). The alternative is unbearable. In Matthew's eyes, he is a villain, and he needs to make a new villain.

Matthew already has understandable problems with Alastair. Alastair is the one that triggered Matthew's insecurities. Despite having nothing to do with the miscarriage, he makes for a fine scapegoat.

And, over time, Alastair is no longer Alastair to Matthew. Alastair is simply a concept that he has created, flanderized, and made into some untouchable and inhuman evil spectre.

Alastair's Return to London

By the time that Alastair returns to London, Matthew's hate for both himself and for Alastair are solidified. Carved in stone. Matthew is not equipped to face Alastair.

Alastair does not fully understand why Matthew hates him. This is incredibly understandable. There's no other way this could have gone, because Alastair is a person, and he is a person that knows nothing of the conceptual caricature that Matthew has cast him as.

So he apologizes, and he apologizes, and he apologizes. He does everything right, and I would argue that Alastair's in the clear for his past actions by the end of ChoG. (Not to the Thieves, but to a reasonable reader/outsider).

Alastair is, at this point, just some man that the main cast has beef with. He's a good guy. He's done his due diligence and apologized. They should, in both Alastair's mind and many readers', be good now.

Unfortunately, Matthew is not a reasonable reader or outsider. Matthew is a real person who was directly impacted by Alastair's actions at the Academy, which almost certainly led to some of his self-worth problems. He also incorrectly has essentially gaslit himself into thinking that his mother's poisoning is another way that Alastair has victimized him.

At this point, I will say that I personally believe Matthew to be bipolar. If he is not bipolar, he may have borderline personality disorder. This is unconfirmed, but there is a lot of evidence in the text. I could write an essay on this as well as someone who also is bipolar. What he does with Alastair- and later with Cordelia- is something called splitting. A person is either an evil and worthless villain or they are a goddess incarnate (respectively). There is no gray area.

In any case,

To Matthew, Alastair's constant apologies and lack of awareness about the impact he had appear dismissive.

Thomas frowned. “Matthew,” he said, his usually gentle voice remonstrative, “that was the past. It is time for us to be adults and forget childish slights.” “Thomas, you are kind,” said Matthew. “Too kind, and you wish to forget. But I am not kind, and I cannot help but remember.”

Thomas is too forgiving; Alastair has not, in Matthew's mind, sufficiently apologized for the imagined but simultaneously legitimate transgression. He must do so. Alastair must hurt as Matthew has, and he does not consider that he is engaging with an actual human being who only has one friend that he is about to destroy his relationship with.

Note that this is once again consistent with Matthew's characterization as protective of his friends. In his mind, he is saving Thomas from the abusive concept of Alastair. His being incorrect and that image not being an accurate representation of the man himself do not matter to Matthew's motivations.

At this point, though, Alastair is also unfortunately extremely triggered by Matthew's drinking. This is clear in ChoG when Alastair says,

Alastair’s expression went flat. “You think I would be relieved to hear she’s with Matthew? You think I don’t know a drunk when I see one? Believe me, I do. If he puts Cordelia in harm’s way—”

Not great, especially considering that Alastair has spent his entire life trying to protect Cordelia from a drunk:

Because he’s always bloody drunk, Cordelia. The only one of us who didn’t know that is you. [...] I wanted you to have a childhood, a thing I never had. I wanted you to be able to love and respect your father as I never could. [...] Who learned at ten years old to refill the brandy bottles with water each morning so no one would notice the levels had sunk?"

Alastair is correct. This is more than understandable. Matthew is, in that moment, taking Cordelia to a scandalous nightclub; he will, in a few months' time, impulsively run away with Cordelia to another country.

This conflict persists in much the same way throughout Chain of Iron, with Alastair getting more and more irritated that his apologies are going unheard and Matthew getting pissier and pissier that Alastair cannot conceptualize Matthew's rage.

I'll talk more about this in my Literary Foils essay, but:

It is only through self-acceptance that Matthew learns to forgive Alastair and, once again, view him as Alastair the Man rather than Alastair the Concept.

It is only through self-acceptance that Alastair is able to see Matthew as Matthew the Man rather than Matthew the Drunk that reminds him of Elias.

In the end, their budding friendship is only possible because they have done the work to better themselves.

#matthew fairchild #alastair carstairs #tsc deep dives #chot #chain of thorns #chog #chain of gold #choi #chain of iron #tlh #the last hours #my meta

[terezis]

how Did you like nona tho?

short answer: i liked it! i didn't love it. as of this exact moment, having read it twice, i think that nona the ninth should have been pruned mercilessly and put into a very long alecto. (breaking dawn is 756 pages! they could’ve done it!!!) it didn’t need to be its own book, and does not do enough to justify itself as one. 

that said: it was still pretty good!!! 

long answer: i’m gonna be spicy first and then talk about what i liked LOL... spoilers under the cut

most of my criticism here comes back to the fact that this was originally meant to be the first act of alecto the ninth. you can tell. i definitely feel like i have read the beginning of alecto. like, don't get me wrong, most of nona stands on its own as a story, and it's a fun read; but you could have cut a good third of this book and it wouldn't have changed anything. 

we spend a frankly OBSCENE amount of time on nona's daily life when we could have gotten the picture in forty pages... and for all that she's deeply invested in her home life, her time at school, and her friends, the book fails to make ME care, which is disappointing because i know tamsyn muir is capable of doing so.

i mean, in the first two books everyone was uniquely delightful and felt like they could be the main character of a different story. it was hilarious to watch gideon interact with silas and colum; i love the original lyctors. but why should i care about beautiful ruby, whom i cannot distinguish from the other one, what's his name, born in the morning? we suffer? hell, even the angel???

you could replace pash with any nameless rebel and the story wouldn't change overmuch; the fact that she's apparently wake's niece has no relevance, except that it makes her hate zombies more… but most people in this book do, so who cares. what’s the point.

likewise, details and subplots that, in previous books, would have become relevant to the larger story at some point, don't seem to matter as much in nona. is that because they're going to be addressed again in alecto, or because they actually don't matter? i can’t tell.

take for example: hot sauce’s burns. compare it to something like abigail's backstory; it's a minor detail, but her interest in lyctoral history ended up spooking cytherea, which got her murdered, kickstarting the main conflict of the first book.

am i being too nitpicky here? did it not feel like those burns were supposed to be more relevant than they were? especially after we learn that she thinks edenites are too soft, so she hangs out with a fringe group implied to be responsible for the zombie burnings? but neither thing ever comes up again. is it just flavor? 

also consider: the different factions of the blood of eden, namely the hopers, who we’re frequently TOLD are major obstacles to the characters’ immediate goals, but who we rarely see become a problem. we suffer says it’s hard to convince them of anything, but they never really refuse her in any meaningful way. what are the stakes? is this the same group who previously killed 18,000 cohort soldiers with a space nuke? where's the oomph??? 

i feel like all of the above is also exacerbated by the fact that the entire book is told from nona's pov, and nona just does not give a single shit about the larger conflicts happening around her. it's not her fault. if i were her, i don't know if i'd care either. but as a result she spends SO MUCH of the book away from the action, which sucks when the best parts of this book are when she actually gets to be involved. 

i loved when she snuck out to talk to varun; when she listened to cam's tapes; when she and hot sauce ran off to see the broadcast. those parts fucked!!! i liked when she got to throw a tantrum!!! it was spooky!!! let her loose!!! i guess she has been let loose now, but it would've been nice if it had happened sooner.

look, i know this is a lot of criticism for a book i keep saying i liked. i really did enjoy it. harrow the ninth also had to grow on me, and u know i love that shit now. i like when a book is a puzzle, and the locked tomb is one of those thousand piece motherfuckers. right now nona gets a 6.5/10 from me, but mayhaps that will change on another reread.

anyways here's my highlight reel:

i was thrilled when gideon woke up and made a joke about stealing palamedes' girl

it’s so fucked up that ianthe wore babs' body like a little suit (complimentary) and when that body hugged corona omg. recall the last time the sisters saw each other. so fucking juicy. i love her

i LOVED the nun. pre-res anastasia? when she did the thing with the gun??? delicious

the thing with anastasia's bones at the very end Intrigued Me Deeply, and i want to know more about her relationship with alecto

the part where pyrrha told nona about her terrible shirt made me cry, which is funny bc the shirt had a sex joke on it

THE PART WHEN AIGLAMENE TOOK GIDEON'S FACE IN HER HANDS AND FLINCHED BACKWARDS BECAUSE SHE RELEASED SHE WAS LOOKING AT A CORPSE, AND SAID THEY KILLED YOU, AND GIDEON JOKED ABOUT IT, AND AIGLAMENE TURNED TO HARROW FURIOUSLY FOR LETTING GIDEON DIE, OW MY HEART

did not expect gideon to do a kill on crux, liked it, liked how she reacted to it, still don't think it's really gideon as we know her though

like she was MEAN. she was so sassy!!! i know she is sassy in general, but she was like NICE sassy in the other books, why is she acting like the villain version of herself, the stuff she said about becoming john's cavalier was so fucking weird, i don't think it was a front??? but why would she want that??? she was so MEAN

i hope she and ianthe are actually friendship bracelet wearing buds though like imagine when harrow finds that out. hilarious

i REALLY liked the fucked up nun. like a LOT

#Anonymous #ntn spoilers #nona the ninth spoilers #locked tomb spoilers #i have been refining this ask for like four days pls be nice to me i do not mean to ruin anyone's fun. LOL #the locked tomb #tlt tag

[burnwater13]

Grogu shivered when he saw the little vid of his dad telling Moff Gideon ‘He means more to me than you’ll ever know.’ Sure, he was Din Djarin’s son now. After all that work to free Mandalore and save Nevarro from pirates. But it was clear from that little bit of vid that the Mandalorian had really, actually, one hundred percent considered Grogu his son way before sending him off to Luke’s Jedi Sleep Away camp. 

That made Grogu very happy. His dad, Grogu really liked calling the Mandalorian bounty hunter ‘Dad’ in his head, had decided to save him no matter how hard it would be and no matter where he would have to go to do it. Fennec had shown him the vid when Grogu was grousing about sleep away camp for what Fennec said was approximately the hundred thousandth time. 

Grogu had countered that maybe it was the hundredth time, but that’s because there hadn’t been any good food on Ossus or at least Luke didn’t feed him anything better than a ration pack, which was the same as there being no good food. 

Now Grogu felt a little guilty about complaining that his dad hadn’t picked him up earlier from the sleep away camp. Even Luke had admitted that he wasn’t really teaching Grogu anything he didn’t already know. Grogu had his reasons for not running around with a lightsaber and cutting battle droids to pieces. It was just hard to explain those reasons to Luke or even Ahsoka Tano. 

Fortunately, he’d been able to explain them to R2-D2 and the astro-mech had brought him to Tatooine in the nick of time. His dad needed saving and Grogu needed to prove to everyone that he didn’t need to go back to the sleep away camp. His days of being a Jedi were at an end and he was on a path to be a Mandalorian. Although, he had to admit that he was a tiny bit conflicted by that. 

He loved his dad. Din Djarin was a fine, honorable person, who had grown in so many ways since he’d come into Grogu’s life. He no longer hated every single droid in the galaxy, just the vast, vast majority of them. He had made friends who weren’t cut throats and criminals, although the rates Peli charged had frequently been described as criminal. And sure, Fennec and Boba Fett, and Mayfeld, and even High Magistrate Greef Karga had some questionable personal history, but they had been true and loyal friends when Din Djarin needed them most.

If a bounty hunter who had spent so much of his time alone and with people brought in ‘cold’ could change like that, then maybe, just maybe, he’d be willing the ditch the helmet from time to time. Grogu had really liked seeing his dad’s face and he didn’t think people should get in trouble for that because obviously a bunch of other Mandalorians had managed to do pretty okay with folks seeing them and knowing their identities. 

He knew all about the Armorer’s argument that Din Djarin had failed to abide by the Creed. He had become dar’manda and an apostate, whatever that meant. But, and Grogu liked to point this out whenever possible, if Din Djarin had kept his helmet on, then they never would have gone to Mandalore and discovered that you could still reach the living waters and find the secret Imp base and ended Moff Gideon’s evil plan. A lot of good had come from that action and the Armorer had seemed changed by that as much as Din Djarin had been. 

Of course that had also lead to his dad putting his helmet back on forever and Grogu was not a fan of that. He wanted to be able to point out to people that he and his dad shared a lot of physical characteristics if you knew what to look for. 

First, they were both handsome. It was very obvious in Grogu’s case and a lot less obvious in his dad’s case because of that silly helmet. Then they both had brown eyes. As Grogu understood things, humans were really big on using eye color to show their relationship to their children. Finally, Grogu and his dad had adorable ears. 

Grogu had been told that often at the Jedi Temple and anywhere else he’d traveled. Both Fennec and Peli said his ears were his most adorable feature, next to his smile. And there was that! Grogu had almost forgotten that his dad had a great smile. Sure, he’d been a little sad and a lot emotional, but their smiles were an absolute match. Ask anyone. 

So, if you asked Grogu, he’d have to tell you that his perspective on his dad was reflected by his thoughts on Mandalore, when Din Djarin had been captured by the Imps.

 “Moff Gideon. You have something I want. You may think you have some idea what you are in possession of, but you do not. Soon, he will be back with me. He means more to me than you will ever know.” 

#calendar prompt a day #the mandalorian #din djarin #grogu

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Bill Cipher

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Gravity Falls is one of the greatest cartoons of the 2010s, a fantastic mystery series filled with weird and mysterious monsters. And among those monsters is a bizarre interdimensional demonic triangle with a top hat who sounds like the dude who made Twin Peaks. How much weirder can you ge than that?

Bill Cipher started off as a one-shot monster of the week summoned up by season 1’s reoccurring antagonist Gideon, but considering how he appears so much in symbols throughout the show and just how fun and striking the guy is, he was upgraded to the overarching villain of the whole show, responsible for many of the mysteries and the conflict of the grand finale. So what made this evil Dorito so much cooler than the psychic incel voiced by the dude who made The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack? Read on and maybe I’ll have an answer.

Yfg kilyzyob mlg. R'n mlg gszg hnzig.

Motivation/Goals: Bill is the archetypical trickster and deal-making devil we’ve seen across the ages in fiction, promising wealth, power, and knowledge to suckers in return for furthering his goals. And what are his goals, you might ask? Fuck if I know. Bill seems to relish in pure and utter chaos with no rhyme or reason, his true motives beyond “Call in my friends and fuck around with reality” being beyond my puny mortal understanding. Frankly, it’s really refreshing to see a Disney villain who simply relishes in bringing about the apocalypse for shits and giggles, especially when the classic Disney villain was dying out around the time this show was airing in favor of twist villains like Hans and that Zootopia sheep.

Performance: After being shot down by David Lynch, Alex Hirsch decided to jumo in and voice Bill in a “bad” David Lynch impression. Bad is in quotations because the impression is quite frankly pretty spot on, and much like Lynch himself it adds a sort of surreal ridiculousness to Bill. Hirsch really is the MVP of the show he created, and Bill is one of his best performances in it, though I hesitate to call him better than Grunkle Stan.

Final Fate: The best Disney villains get the very best deaths, and Bill has one of the best of them all. After falling for a ruse between Stanford and Stanley and slipping into the latter’s mind as its being erased, Bill pitifully begs Grunkle Stan for his life. In a move that would make Captain Falcon proud, Stan responds by fucking punching Bill out of existence. FUCK. YEAH.

Bill ends the series as nothing more than a statue. Probably. His final secret backwards message does imply he may return someday...

Best Episodes: The “Weirdmageddon” finale is definitely Bill’s finest hour, but I’ve gotta say “Sock Opera” is a standout as well, as Bill takes over Dipper’s body for his own goals. It hits even harder if you read the real-life version of the Journal, which has Bill pretty blatantly say he was going to make Dipper commit suicide. Jesus Christ.

Final Thoughts & Score: Bill is easily the most impressive Disney villain in recent memory.

Recent Disney movies have seemed content in either making the antagonizing force of a movie a nebulous force like generational trauma, or otherwise have a really bad twist villain. The last time we had an honest to god Disney villain was Tamatoa, who gets a single scene in Moana before vanishing from the film. We just haven’t been getting the sort of high quality antagonists we had back in the 90s anymore.

Bill, though? Bill is just about everything you could want from a villain. He’s funny when he needs to be, he’s terrifying when he needs to be, he wields insane magical power, and most importantly, he absolutely relishes in how much of an evil lunatic he is. He’s like if Kefka was made by David Lynch, and was also a triangle. It’s just beautiful.

I think what makes Bill so great is just the sheer simplicity of the character, from his design to his motivations. It’s very much what you see is what you get with him; he just loves chaos, and he wants to spread it even if it means blowing up the world. He’ll fuck over anyone to get what he wants, and nothing is too low for him to achieve his goals. Villains like this can be very fun to watch if they’re written well, and Bill is written exceptionally well. Every episode with him in it is easily one of the best episodes of the show; even his debut episode, which some have argued is his weakest appearance, is still one of the single best episode’s of the first season. He’s just that damn good.

Bill Cipher gets a 10/10, which isn’t particularly shocking; he might be the best thing Alex Hirsch created for the show after all. If Disney never makes a good villain again and just sticks to generational trauma or awful twist villains, well, at least they’ll always have Bill. 

Sv nzb lmob hxliv z gvm sviv yfg sv'h zm vovevm rm nb svzig.

#Psycho Analysis #Bill Cipher #Alex Hirsch #Gravity Falls

[leofrith]

I saw that a lot of people hated the latest Mando episode but I'm not sure why? It didn't seem to contribute much to the story, like I'm unsure how it developed the characters or relationships, but I wasn't thinking "man this is terrible"

i mean. i think you pretty well answered your own question since the whole point of a show, a movie, a book, whatever is to tell a story of some kind. even episodes that qualify as "filler" will contribute to the story in some way, even if it's not in service of the Big Main Plot. whether in terms of character development or the development of relationships between said characters, filler episodes do serve a purpose, just not in a show that has 8 episode seasons that range anywhere from only 33 minutes to an hour, in which there has been more time and attention paid to meaningless action set pieces than, i dunno, actually developing the characters in any way?

and i disagree with you in saying that this episode didn't contribute anything to the story because it did! din has now given the darksaber to bo-katan! something that was previously established as being impossible because it must be won in battle! but hey, here's a stupid loophole we just came up with to justify wrapping up the "din as a reluctant leader" plot line in the most boring fucking way possible (also, we basically lifted it from rebels. sorry!! we don't do originality here).

honestly, it's really not just about this last episode. this episode was fucking bad, but for me it's just the final straw after a season (more like two, because s2 as a whole wasn't this bad imo but it still wasn't much to write home about either) of mostly awful, incoherent writing. it was 45 minutes of shiny colours and celebrity cameos that felt made to distract viewers from the fact that they have no fucking idea what they're doing with this show (and they have explicitly confirmed that they don't).

pretty well every remaining plot thread from last season has now been resolved in the most boring, narratively incoherent ways possible. din and grogu are separated? let's reunite them on a totally different show between seasons instead of actually exploring how their time apart affects them in any way that is remotely interesting!! gideon has been arrested by the new republic? no!! he actually escaped off screen almost immediately and who knows when we'll actually address that!! din has the darksaber but doesn't want it and bo-katan does want the darksaber but refuses to take it? we've just made up this insane loophole about how bo-katan saved din which means the darksaber should be hers, rather than exploring any of din's internal conflict as a leader or his external conflict with bo-katan over that title. etc etc.

they're even dragging out things that have already been resolved!! like din's dislike of droids, which was ostensibly resolved at the end of season one when ig-11 saved his life, but for some reason came back even stronger than we've ever really seen it in this episode. and for what? the comedic value of watching him kick droids and drop zingers such as "you had me at battle droids"? this show is incapable of resolving any of its plot lines in a satisfying way and is now retreading things that have already been addressed. and they're doing it with a $15 million per episode budget. there are people who are starving, jon.

i'm not even going to get into how shitty the politics of the show are because other people have already articulated that in ways far better than i am capable of, and i also really don't expect amazing political commentary from star wars to begin with. but they apparently can't even manage the low, low expectation of "show that tells a coherent story" for fuck's sake. because the whole show is just a product placement for toys and merch and other star wars shows. so i don't know what i expected.

#i had no expectations and yet i'm still disappointed #if i sound angry it's not specifically directed at you anon lmao #this probably isn't all that coherent but i truly do not have the energy #and also have roughly 182769469124 things i would rather dedicate my time to right now than thinking about this shit show #anyway this is probably the most i'm gonna say on the matter #because i'd rather think about things that don't make me feel annoyed and miserable #answer #anonymous #mando spoilers

[lemon-natalia]

Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 36

well this was a remarkably long chapter wow

Go Camilla, coming in clutch! And Gideon has her longsword back at least to give her a bit of an advantage

Silas and Colum struggled against Ianthe as a newly formed Lyctor still in conflict with Naberius’s soul, Harrow, Gideon, and Camilla vs. a ten-thousand year old Lyctor, even with all three of them, is not remotely a fair fight

'But now this benighted vision stood before its natural predator’ ok i’ll admit i wasn’t sold on Harrow for much of the first half of this book, but i would now like to state that she is pretty fucking awesome

‘But her smile was long and sweet and beautiful’ awwwww, these two, i think this is the first time Gideon's called Harrow beautiful? also even fighting an eldritch being Gideon cannot help but notice hot women

‘We do bones, motherfucker’ fuck yeah, well put!ohhh Harrow and Gideon fight so well together and just incredibly in tandem … which of course horribly foreshadows Gideon’s decision at the end of the chapter 🫠

WHAT’S THIS, it's HARROW with a STEEL CHAIR!! If the chair was a bunch of skeletons and perpetual bone

and of course Harrow can’t resist boasting even in the middle of a giant fight. Good For Her. also this girl faints so much

oh and Ianthe’s back for Meat Battle Round 2: Electric Boogaloo! Ianthe vs Cytherea feels like a kaiju fight except with more bones and meat and blood

'You’re very brave - a bit like another Gideon I used to know’ wow what with all the dramatic fights and revelations happening the last couple chapters i totally forgot about the other Gideon, confirmation i guess that they were involved somehow back when all the Lyctors were first created?

poor Camilla, imagine you spend what you think are the last moments before your horrific death third wheeling

these two just cannot stop sacrificing themselves for each other can they 😢😢

'And she fell forward, right on the iron spikes’ my brain is totally bluescreening right now istg if Gideon dies permanently i will lose it

#lemon natalia reads the locked tomb #tlt #the locked tomb #the locked tomb liveblog #gideon the ninth

[eldritchtouched]

Gideon as a mystery genre archetype?

Something I've been mulling over is Gideon's position in the narrative. And I think he is like a specific mystery archetype- the detective/cop/whoever character who's generally wrong.

The archetype in question is pretty standard in mystery works and has been since the start of the genre with Sherlock Holmes. What makes me think this is both how often Gideon's wrong or missing crucial information and, importantly, how he's wrong or missing information.

It's kind of a meme that he's called the All-Knowing but incredibly ignorant of things or just flat-out wrong (that Marika wants people to war eternally and a Tarnished can't become Elden Lord). But I think it's intentional. The structure of Elden Ring and other Soulslikes is mystery-esque, imo.

It seems like Gideon does the thing that archetype tend to do. Those characters are supposed to present plausible red herring explanations that are oversimplified and lack key information that recontextualizes everything. These explanations sound like reasonable conclusions to draw and are often something the audience might easily slip into thinking if they're not paying attention to the finer details.

It acts as a good contrast. In mysteries, it's used to establish the more competent character as being more competent for noticing details the other character omitted if any details are remarked upon before the end. It's also used for similar reasons during the actual conclusion of the mystery as part of the 'game' mysteries go for, especially fair play stories and howcatchems.

It's also used to add conflict between characters. It means the actually good investigator has to deal with the more incompetent investigator's bullshit and cut through it.

For example, in A Study in Scarlet, one of the detectives assumes the word "Rache" in blood is the name Rachel, but Holmes points out details that mean it's intended to be rache, but the writer isn't German. Someone might reasonably assume someone was writing the name of a killer and and was noticed, after all. But those details are important.

Or, when the character ends up being right about something, it's either something that literally anyone following anything in the story would conclude ("got stabbed in the chest = murder"), or the problem is that they cannot actually articulate how they're right properly, or their evidence is super shaky, or their conclusion is in spite of not having enough information which makes the audience balk.

For example, Lassiter in Psych knows that Shawn isn't a psychic, but can't pin Shawn down. It's a gut thing that Shawn's faking it, and he's right, but he also can't put the pieces together of how he's right in that conclusion.

And how someone is right or wrong matters from a narrative perspective. It's why Hbomberguy notes all the stuff with BBC Sherlock not working in relation to being a mystery. While Sherlock is narratively correct, it's the process of how the pieces come together that matter. It's also why a common conflict in mysteries is "I know x did it, but I have to prove it despite y detail [which allegedly exonerates them]."

Generally, why the generally wrong characters are generally wrong varies by the writer and the tone of the works. In some cases, it's that they're hopelessly conventional and set in their ways. Other times, it's because they're lazy. Or they're stupid. Or they're in on it and actively lying. Etc.

In Gideon's case, at least part of it has to do with him getting almost all of his information secondhand. He's incredibly dependent on his informants to do the legwork and this inevitably means he's getting their interpretations of information and they may not necessarily want to share all the details with him for one reason or another, or may not get access to key pieces of information.

Likewise, he's also hiding information from the player character and initially tries to kill the player character via Ensha.

Ultimately, even when Gideon is right about anything, the audience will never accept that he's intelligent because his correctness isn't based on being well-reasoned or having all the pieces of information. He hides too much, he has an agenda, and he's also missing too much information. But, unlike BBC Sherlock, this seems to be the point with Gideon.

#elden ring #elden ring theory #sir gideon ofnir #it's a bit meta in that it's more about structural position imo #i devoured mysteries when I was younger and I couldn't quite put my finger on what was bugging at me about his stuff until now #idk I kinda want to go back to watching some mysteries #i was watching columbo and psych for a bit but then my elden ring hyperfixation returned lol