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perpetual-stories · 3 years

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Story Structures for your Next WIP

hello, hello. this post will be mostly for my notes. this is something I need in to be reminded of for my business, but it can also be very useful and beneficial for you guys as well.

everything in life has structure and storytelling is no different, so let’s dive right in :)

First off let’s just review what a story structure is :

a story is the backbone of the story, the skeleton if you will. It hold the entire story together.

the structure in which you choose your story will effectively determine how you create drama and depending on the structure you choose it should help you align your story and sequence it with the conflict, climax, and resolution.

1. Freytag's Pyramid

this first story structure i will be talking about was named after 19th century German novelist and playwright.

it is a five point structure that is based off classical Greek tragedies such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripedes.

Freytag's Pyramid structure consists of:

Introduction: the status quo has been established and an inciting incident occurs.

Rise or rising action: the protagonist will search and try to achieve their goal, heightening the stakes,

Climax: the protagonist can no longer go back, the point of no return if you will.

Return or fall: after the climax of the story, tension builds and the story inevitably heads towards...

Catastrophe: the main character has reached their lowest point and their greatest fears have come into fruition.

this structure is used less and less nowadays in modern storytelling mainly due to readers lack of appetite for tragic narratives.

2. The Hero's Journey

the hero's journey is a very well known and popular form of storytelling.

it is very popular in modern stories such as Star Wars, and movies in the MCU.

although the hero's journey was inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept, a Disney executive Christopher Vogler has created a simplified version:

The Ordinary World: The hero's everyday routine and life is established.

The Call of Adventure: the inciting incident.

Refusal of the Call: the hero / protagonist is hesitant or reluctant to take on the challenges.

Meeting the Mentor: the hero meets someone who will help them and prepare them for the dangers ahead.

Crossing the First Threshold: first steps out of the comfort zone are taken.

Tests, Allie, Enemies: new challenges occur, and maybe new friends or enemies.

Approach to the Inmost Cave: hero approaches goal.

The Ordeal: the hero faces their biggest challenge.

Reward (Seizing the Sword): the hero manages to get ahold of what they were after.

The Road Back: they realize that their goal was not the final hurdle, but may have actually caused a bigger problem than before.

Resurrection: a final challenge, testing them on everything they've learned.

Return with the Elixir: after succeeding they return to their old life.

the hero's journey can be applied to any genre of fiction.

3. Three Act Structure:

this structure splits the story into the 'beginning, middle and end' but with in-depth components for each act.

Act 1: Setup:

exposition: the status quo or the ordinary life is established.

inciting incident: an event sets the whole story into motion.

plot point one: the main character decided to take on the challenge head on and she crosses the threshold and the story is now progressing forward.

Act 2: Confrontation:

rising action: the stakes are clearer and the hero has started to become familiar with the new world and begins to encounter enemies, allies and tests.

midpoint: an event that derails the protagonists mission.

plot point two: the hero is tested and fails, and begins to doubt themselves.

Act 3: Resolution:

pre-climax: the hero must chose between acting or failing.

climax: they fights against the antagonist or danger one last time, but will they succeed?

Denouement: loose ends are tied up and the reader discovers the consequences of the climax, and return to ordinary life.

4. Dan Harmon's Story Circle

it surprised me to know the creator of Rick and Morty had their own variation of Campbell's hero's journey.

the benefit of Harmon's approach is that is focuses on the main character's arc.

it makes sense that he has such a successful structure, after all the show has multiple seasons, five or six seasons? i don't know not a fan of the show.

the character is in their comfort zone: also known as the status quo or ordinary life.

they want something: this is a longing and it can be brought forth by an inciting incident.

the character enters and unfamiliar situation: they must take action and do something new to pursue what they want.

adapt to it: of course there are challenges, there is struggle and begin to succeed.

they get what they want: often a false victory.

a heavy price is paid: a realization of what they wanted isn't what they needed.

back to the good old ways: they return to their familiar situation yet with a new truth.

having changed: was it for the better or worse?

i might actually make a operate post going more in depth about dan harmon's story circle.

5. Fichtean Curve:

the fichtean curve places the main character in a series of obstacles in order to achieve their goal.

this structure encourages writers to write a story packed with tension and mini-crises to keep the reader engaged.

The Rising Action

the story must start with an inciting indecent.

then a series of crisis arise.

there are often four crises.

2. The Climax:

3. Falling Action

this type of story telling structure goes very well with flash-back structured story as well as in theatre.

6. Save the Cat Beat Sheet:

this is another variation of a three act structure created by screenwriter Blake Snyder, and is praised widely by champion storytellers.

Structure for Save the Cat is as follows: (the numbers in the brackets are for the number of pages required, assuming you're writing a 110 page screenplay)

Opening Image [1]: The first shot of the film. If you’re starting a novel, this would be an opening paragraph or scene that sucks readers into the world of your story.

Set-up [1-10]. Establishing the ‘ordinary world’ of your protagonist. What does he want? What is he missing out on?

Theme Stated [5]. During the setup, hint at what your story is really about — the truth that your protagonist will discover by the end.

Catalyst [12]. The inciting incident!

Debate [12-25]. The hero refuses the call to adventure. He tries to avoid the conflict before they are forced into action.

Break into Two [25]. The protagonist makes an active choice and the journey begins in earnest.

B Story [30]. A subplot kicks in. Often romantic in nature, the protagonist’s subplot should serve to highlight the theme.

The Promise of the Premise [30-55]. Often called the ‘fun and games’ stage, this is usually a highly entertaining section where the writer delivers the goods. If you promised an exciting detective story, we’d see the detective in action. If you promised a goofy story of people falling in love, let’s go on some charmingly awkward dates.

Midpoint [55]. A plot twist occurs that ups the stakes and makes the hero’s goal harder to achieve — or makes them focus on a new, more important goal.

Bad Guys Close In [55-75]. The tension ratchets up. The hero’s obstacles become greater, his plan falls apart, and he is on the back foot.

All is Lost [75]. The hero hits rock bottom. He loses everything he’s gained so far, and things are looking bleak. The hero is overpowered by the villain; a mentor dies; our lovebirds have an argument and break up.

Dark Night of the Soul [75-85-ish]. Having just lost everything, the hero shambles around the city in a minor-key musical montage before discovering some “new information” that reveals exactly what he needs to do if he wants to take another crack at success. (This new information is often delivered through the B-Story)

Break into Three [85]. Armed with this new information, our protagonist decides to try once more!

Finale [85-110]. The hero confronts the antagonist or whatever the source of the primary conflict is. The truth that eluded him at the start of the story (established in step three and accentuated by the B Story) is now clear, allowing him to resolve their story.

Final Image [110]. A final moment or scene that crystallizes how the character has changed. It’s a reflection, in some way, of the opening image.

(all information regarding the save the cat beat sheet was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

7. Seven Point Story Structure:

this structure encourages writers to start with the at the end, with the resolution, and work their way back to the starting point.

this structure is about dramatic changes from beginning to end

The Hook. Draw readers in by explaining the protagonist’s current situation. Their state of being at the beginning of the novel should be in direct contrast to what it will be at the end of the novel.

Plot Point 1. Whether it’s a person, an idea, an inciting incident, or something else — there should be a "Call to Adventure" of sorts that sets the narrative and character development in motion.

Pinch Point 1. Things can’t be all sunshine and roses for your protagonist. Something should go wrong here that applies pressure to the main character, forcing them to step up and solve the problem.

Midpoint. A “Turning Point” wherein the main character changes from a passive force to an active force in the story. Whatever the narrative’s main conflict is, the protagonist decides to start meeting it head-on.

Pinch Point 2. The second pinch point involves another blow to the protagonist — things go even more awry than they did during the first pinch point. This might involve the passing of a mentor, the failure of a plan, the reveal of a traitor, etc.

Plot Point 2. After the calamity of Pinch Point 2, the protagonist learns that they’ve actually had the key to solving the conflict the whole time.

Resolution. The story’s primary conflict is resolved — and the character goes through the final bit of development necessary to transform them from who they were at the start of the novel.

(all information regarding the seven point story structure was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

i decided to fit all of them in one post instead of making it a two part post.

i hope you all enjoy this post and feel free to comment or reblog which structure you use the most, or if you have your own you prefer to use! please share with me!

if you find this useful feel free to reblog on instagram and tag me at perpetualstories

Follow my tumblr and instagram for more writing and grammar tips and more!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

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jdrizzle15 · 3 years

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Her Second Return

Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.

But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!

I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…

A Father’s Words:

In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.

Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.

Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.

Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.

This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.

Building Relationship:

The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?

In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...

Representation of Hope:

At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.

Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!

In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.

In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.

It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.

Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them

The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.

A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.

Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.

The Void Screams:

Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.

Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.

And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.

Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.

The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.

Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.

Narnia Parallels:

Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.

Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.

Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.

The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ‘Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.

(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)

Norse Mythology:

The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.

Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.

I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.

The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.

The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.

There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.

This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.

Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.

It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.

Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!

(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)

Ambrosius and the Staff:

Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.

The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.

They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.

Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.

A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.

Musical Hints:

In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.

What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.

For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.

If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)

(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)

What We Didn’t See:

It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.

Pyrrha Parallel:

Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.

The Moment:

RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.

The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.

On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.

At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.

Transfer of Power:

As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.

A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.

Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.

This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?

An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.

It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!

And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...

Jaune’s Aura:

The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.

He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.

Pinocchio Allusion:

As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.

Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.

In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.

Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.

Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!

A Girl That Fell Through the World:

Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.

What Returning Brings:

Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.

As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.

Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.

I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.

It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.

I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!

As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.

I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.

I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!

@arcana-amicus

@catontheweb

@cosmokyrin

@gaydontmesswithme224

@jammatown919

@shadow-0f-x

They really helped get this thing across the finish line!

And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!

#RWBY #rwby vol8 #rwby v8 #rwby spoilers #Penny Polendina #nuts and dolts #mechanical rose #a little #Essay #more like dissertation #I haven't written this much in #probably ever actually #Have HOPE people!

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ukaiknowsbest · 3 years

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breaking down Ace of Diamond - the "Hero's Journey."

Using the model/guide presented by Overly Sarcastic Productions in their youtube video Trope Talk: The Hero's Journey, I will attempt to discuss how Sawamura Eijun's story in DnA is his Hero's Journey to becoming an ace pitcher in the Japanese HIgh School Baseball environment.

Blue from OSP put forward the 12 basic parts of the Hero's Journey Cycle. The illustration below will be our reference. I simplified a graph made by Signy Wilson in order to match OSP's less rigid guide.

disclaimer: I am by no means any kind of expert. I was just fascinated when I learned about the Hero's Journey as a general trope/framework when it came to writing stories. I want to apply what I learned by breaking down the story created by Terajima Yuuji in Ace of Diamond.

A. ORDINARY WORLD

STAGE 1. THE HERO IN HIS NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Hero: Sawamura Eijun. Captain and Ace Pitcher of middle school baseball team. He has no formal training in baseball whatsoever but was the one who gathered and convinced his friends to start a baseball club. He's the best player in their small team. Good at sports but bad at academics .

He is generally a baseball idiot and quite a naive/simple guy with a strong heart. He does not have any idea what competitive and pro baseball looks like because not only does he not have experience but also he does not watch the broadcasts on tv/radio at all.

Ordinary World of the Hero: rural town in Nagano Prefecture, where Sawamura formed a small baseball team with his childhood friends. Acording to him, as long as they all stay together they can always play baseball anywhere.

STAGE 2. THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

2.1 Problem/why hero's ordinary world is going to crumble: - He lessened his chances of being scouted/accepted in a good baseball school after he btchslapped an entire opponent team and the umpires in their first and only match as middle school team in Saitama Stadium.

He also has low chance of being accepted into the high school in their area (where his friends are all going to) because he struggles with his academics a lot.

Unless he does something he won't be able to be together with his friends and/or play baseball at all.

2.2 Caller of the adventure - Takashima Rei pursues Sawamura into Nagano Prefecture in order to scout him as a sports scholar for Seido High School, a baseball powerhouse school located in the West Division of Tokyo Prefecture.

2.3 medicine/ solution to hero's crumbling world: being a sports scholar for Seido. This would solve almost all of Sawamura's highschool enrollment problem and also give him the chance to play as much baseball as he wants.

STAGE 3. REFUSAL TO THE CALL

3.1 reluctance to go: Sawamura refuses to leave Nagano despite Rei's "sales pitch" to him and his family. He doesn't want to leave his friends just to play baseball in a stronger school far away because he had promised his friends that they would always stick together.

3.2 hero punished for this - his grandpa literally smacks/slaps him in being stupid and doubting his friends.!!! / technically circumstances are already punishing him for being a hotblooded baseball idiot in the first place.

3.3 do you think you have a choice - this is probably the only chance he'll get to play baseball with all his strength AND finish highschool.

B. EXTRAORDINARY / UNKNOWN WORLD

Venturing out into more competitive/pro baseball is a world beyond him. It's scary and unknown and he'd rather defeat bigger teams than leave his friends.

STAGE 4. CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

4.1 crossing physical threshold - Rei persuades him to at least check the school out with his own eyes. They leave Tokyo together for one visit.

4.2. crossing a metaphorical threshold - in that visit, sawamura, picks a fight with a senior who's bound for baseball drafts, works together with a nationally acclaimed catcher in defeating the senior player, thus changing his worldview because he had so much fun.

4.2. conscious and irreversible decision - Because of the experience he goes home conflicted. His family encourages him in their own way to follow his guts and heart and go to Tokyo.

STAGE 5. REALM OF ADVENTURE

5.1 hero learns to navigate the unknown world - Sawamura learns the harsh realities of being in a baseball school once he actually starts to live there. Our boy also gets educated in Baseball and Pitching 101. He also finds out the true personality of the catcher he played with before.

5.2 meeting allies/rivals/mentors - he learns about the team better when he meets a whole bunch of people: batchmates, coaches and senpais. He builds interesting dynamics with all of them.

5.3 trials and initial failures - Sawamura undergoes difficult initial training and is barely allowed to play in matches.

5.4 meeting enemies - Sawamura being allowed to play as relief pitcher in the games and face talented pitchers and scary batters mostly in tense situations.

5.5 growth, new skills - Sawamura grows with each match, thus bolstering his confidence. Sometimes he falters but he learns from his mistakes.

5.6 first major success - striking out scary batters with each new thing he learns.

5.7 major challenge that leads to downfall - seido vs inashiro finals match where he goes in full of confidence and courage but then he and his team gets defeated in a devastating way.

STAGE 6. BELLY OF THE WHALE

6.1 lowest point of hero where hero physically or metaphorically goes down - one month after their major defeat, a lot of intense practice matches and change in team dynamics, the team find out that Sawamura has the YIPS. This condition took away Sawamura's ability to pitch in his trademark style/ the only thing he was good at.

6.2 hero's darkest hour - without the ability to pitch, Sawamura questions his reality and why he is still on the team.

6.3 Face and overcome inner demons - with a lot of help from allies and mentors, Sawamura finds a way to bring back a bit of his ability.

STAGE 7. ROAD OF TRIALS

7.1 Discarding old self - In the duration of his downfall and eventual healing, Sawamura turns to books, meditation and becomes even more careful in maintaining his form and body.

7.2 Accepting the new role - instead of fixating on the ace position like before, Sawamura is just glad that he is still allowed to pitch as relief.

7.3 Finding path out of the belly of the whale/The road back - After figuring out a solution to fix his pitching, he focuses on it and regains some of his ability. Sawamura is then allowed to play in matches. Just like before, he improves little by little as he recovers from each failure. He gains fresher mindset and new weapons, thus becoming an even stronger pitcher than he ever was before.

7.4 more trials - they face new opponent schools and old but improved opponents which test the best of Sawamura and the team's ability

STAGE 8. PRE SHOWDOWN BREATHER

every major match in ace of diamond has this part of the story but usually the most critical breather episode is the one before the final match.

8.1 show humanity of other characters - Somethng bad happens to the other mc without Sawamura knowing. This could absolutely wreck their chances of winning the final match. This shows that the other guys are not 100% invincible after all.

8.2 last chance to relax. - calm before the storm. It is also the time where they finalize sawamura's weapons.

8.3 quiet moment to reminisce - usually happens before each match. However the night before the finals was the major one because their old senpais went to visit their practice and encourage them.

STAGE 9. CLIMAX / STEPPING UP TO THE CHALLENGE

9.1 Final Showdown - Sawamura helps in the team defense with the best of his ability and weapons and he succeeds. Their team eventually wins Fall Tournament even with a few setbacks.

9.2 Apotheosis - Sawamura's worldview changed once he realises that even with his improvement and skill, his goal of being the ace is still out of reach for him.

9.3 Ultimate Boon - Sawamura gets to be a pivotal member of their baseball team and can play baseball as much as he wants with his team.

STAGE 7. ROAD OF TRIALS start again after the Fall Tournament Act 1 because Sawamura faces new challenges in Ace of Diamond Act 2.

Meiji Jingu Tournament - Play in matches without Miyuki

WInter camp and break - Intense Physical Training and development and improvement of his weapons which he will use and improve on throughout the rest of Act 2.

Spring Koshien where he realises that he has to do more in order to surpass the current ace which was Furuya.

Start of New Term/ Practice Matches - Sawamura and co. meets their new kouhai and team dynamics shift once again.

Spring Tournament / Summer Tournament - Sawamura meets old foes and new enemies. He also becomes the Ace Pitcher of the team, which adds more pressure on his part.

ACT 2 STAGE 8. PRE SHOWDOWN BREATHER

This is the big and long one before Summer Tournament Finals match where injuries and problems were discussed and feelings were explored.

ACT 2 STAGE 9. CLIMAX

Final (Or most hyped and awaited rematch) Seido vs Inashiro in order to qualify for Summer Koshien Nationals.

**everything after this point will be prediction and just my opinion

STAGES 7-9 start again

Koshien Nationals Arc.

STAGE 10. CROSSING THE RETURN THRESHOLD

Miyuki/3rd years retirement/graduation. Sawamura and his batch will have to lead the team.

STAGE 11. THE REWARD

Sawamura gets to play with his team as ace pitcher.

STAGE 12 / STAGE 1. THE HERO IN HIS NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Sawamura may become both ace and captain, same as his role back in his middle school team, albeit in a stronger school. Even if he won't be the next captain, as ace he will still be in a strong leadership position.

CONCLUSION

That's how Ace of Diamond is written in the style of A HERO'S JOURNEY.

Act 1 writing especially followed the trope quite rigidly.

Notes:

I still don't want Sawamura to be the next captain. I hope that does not happen. However if it does, it means the story will have gone back full circle. That would be quite poetic ngl.

Gotta applaud Terajima's pacing. Can you believe that the story only reached its lowest and most pivotal point at around episode 70 of the anime???? thank godt that after ep 63 I read spoilers about yips arc in tv tropes or else i would have dropped the series completely.

I had difficulty in classifying the events after the climax stage into hero's journey stages because technically sawamura has not gone "home" yet. Moreover the challenges and trials just kept on piling up after Fall Tournament.

In this whole story, Sawamura has experienced only one true "Belly of the Whale stage" during his YIPS arc. I don't think he really came to a low point in Act 2 other than his first official match as Ace Pitcher. I treated that in the same vein as the effects of Raichi's first homerun off Sawamura back in Act 1.

I realized that having stages 7-9 recur starting from Meiji Jingu to the current summer tournament is what made reading Act 2 quite frustrating for me. That's at least 5-6 arcs of endless roller coaster ride loops.

I consider Miyuki's departure to be the "CROSSING THE RETURN THRESHOLD" moment because playing with him was the major reason for Sawamura's decision to study and play in Tokyo. Something will change Sawamura when this eventually happens.

As Blue from OSP said, the Hero's Journey is just a general guide/framework to writing stories. It is flexible, writers don't even have to use it or all of its parts to make a good story. Terajima just seemed to have adopted A LOT of the hero's journey trope in his baseball series.

I wanted to add more pictures tbh but tumblr is a killjoy :(

This was a fun thought exercise. There were probably even some parts which I have used the tropes wrongly. Please feel free to dispute me.

I talked about Sawamura's mentors here (x).

#sawamura eijun #sports anime #ace of diamond #daiya no a #daiya meta #daiya discuss #hero's journey #long post #daiya thoughts

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fandomkru · 3 years

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Let's take a moment to appreciate how glorious 503 was, shall we? Because the implications of what teresa just did are huge!

She sacrificed the most important thing of her. What made her, her. What prompted James to return to her in s3 in order to do things differently. No one is ever gonna trust her the same way again bc now in order to survive and get to the top she'll willing to betray people.

Now, she is also losing the respect james had on her. She is becoming unrecognisable to him and I can imagine this will only get worse.. James has never betrayed anyone; loyalty is the most important thing for him and he just got hit in the face by her actions when just a minute ago he was vouching for her.

And imagine.. the person who was actually responsible for all that mess got a drink and returned to his mansion in Miami unharmed while an innocent person went to prison.

Teresa paves her way towards the Queenpin and these actions are necessary in order to get there. This ep's actions were a turning point for both the series and the character.

TL;DR: This is good storytelling and it perfectly follows Campbell's "Hero's Journey" where Teresa is currently going through the second act; which includes the central crisis of the Hero's adventure. Or if you prefer a more modern and simplified approach, she's going through stages 5 & 6 of Dan Harmon's Story Circle known as the "lowest point"😉.

#queen of the south #qots spoilers #teresa mendoza #now I'm really tempted to write a meta about the Hero's journey #we'll see lol

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thelastofgala · 4 years

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Here are some more of my thoughts on Parallelism in The Last of Us 2. I’m also thinking about Ellie and Joel in their “Nightmare Years,” and how the writers are using symbols, parallels, and the game’s promotional trailers to fuck with our emotions:

***Major Spoilers And a discussion of Grief Under the Cut***

My personal observation of Joel’s death in TLoU2 is that it was always going to happen, and that its occurrence so soon in the story, while shocking, was necessary and even predictable, based on the plot of the previous game, and obvious parallels between Joel and Ellie. Note that I’ve now played through the Hillcrest chapter and the second flashback with Joel and Ellie at the hotel. I’m currently in the fucking sewer system, and there are Stalkers like, everywhere.

Ellie and Joel: Parallels

In my last post, I wrote about Joel’s parallels mostly with Riley (and I have more on that, for a different post) but I also wrote about Joel’s parallels with Sarah, mainly that we begin TLoU2 with Joel, setting up certain expectations right away, ie: both Joel and Sarah meet tragic fates early on in the story propelling their heroes past the threshold and into their respective journeys. But Ellie and Joel, as protagonists, are the most compelling parallel of the game, to me.

Learning of Joel’s violent past as a hunter and seeing his life as a violent, amoral smuggler is much easier to understand once, via Ellie, we get a taste of the anger he must have felt after a member of the US Military shot and killed Sarah in front of him. The senselessness of Sarah’s death, our feel of betrayal and surprise from Joel’s point of view are then echoed in Joel’s own death scene in TLoU2, which we witness helplessly from Ellie’s point of view. A long time ago, I made a post wondering whether Ellie’s journey in TLoU2 would echo Joel’s off-screen journey in the years immediately following the Outbreak--what Tommy inadvertently refers to in TLoU as a “nightmare.” Sort of like the Abyss stage in the Hero’s Journey, it is in these nightmare trials that all hope seems lost, and we are at the lowest possible point of the story. I am definitely sticking with this interpretation after playing through a pretty big chunk of TLoU2.

The one major difference between how Ellie and Joel’s journeys are being portrayed in their respective stories is where their stories start: Joel’s journey picks up 20 years after Sarah’s death. He is through the Abyss, on the upswing, his path to clarity and renewal. With Ellie, however, the story starts in the descent. We, the player, are inside the nightmare that, with Joel, we only got to hear about, and even then, it’s all incredibly vague.

We don’t get to see Joel in his “nightmare years” with Tommy. We don’t get to know all the bad things he did and all of the hard choices he made in order to survive after Sarah’s death and up until the point that we meet him 20 years later in TLoU. We get hints from Tess, from Tommy, and stuff implied via Joel’s know-how, his obviously violent transformation from jokey single dad in the rural suburbs of Austin to dangerous smuggler in the Boston QZ. Instead of learning about Joel’s life in the years following Sarah’s death, we seem to be playing through them, metaphorically, as Ellie in the years immediately following his. Just a current observation on how the story is unfolding, to me.

Gameplay Empathy w/ Ellie

Starting with Joel’s death scene: I first noticed how the writers are using gameplay and point of view to fuck with our emotions while watching Joel’s actual death. I remember feeling, not grief, but intense, white hot anger. How did this work? In a couple ways, I thought. Having us play as Abby prior to the scene turns out to set up a totally personal sense of betrayal for the player. We previously fight from her point of view, relentlessly ensuring her survival in earlier scenes, only to then watch her murder Joel, with no way to intervene. Our sense of betrayal is compounded of course by the fact that we love Ellie, and Ellie loves Joel, and the way that Abby kills Joel, with a golf club in the basement of a lavish ski house in Jackson Hole, is somehow both barbaric and maddeningly mundane. For all of this, I felt, with Ellie, blind hatred and anger. I didn’t feel any actual grief over Joel’s death until visiting his house, and even then, I couldn’t even really acknowledge it until the first flashback at the science museum--hearing his voice again was what specifically did me in. In the moment of his death, I just kept thinking that it was bullshit, it wasn’t fair. He deserved a better death, right? There are no good deaths, I’d argue intellectually in the aftermath. But in the moment, I was fucking enraged.

This sense of simulated motivation and empathy for the player is really interesting to me. It feels linked hopelessly to the medium. In a movie, we need only to sympathize with our protagonist. We are vicarious voyeurs. But in a video game, we are willing and active participants, and empathy is more important. While playing Ellie on her relentless hunt through WLF-occupied Seattle, the player, like her, must be motivated by anger and revenge.

I am continuously intrigued by how the game is manipulating my emotions so that I may be placed in maximum empathy with Ellie at any given moment. Use of visual and story symbols like the guitar are mini-triggers which call Joel to mind at unexpected turns. We will be steadily solving puzzles, distracted into a lull by collecting supplies in a vast and beautiful environment, and then, boom: the guitar, and the song. If I ever were to lose you... It’s like an anchor to the truth.

The trailers have also, I’ve found, been a major source of grief and disappointment for me, placing me firmly within Ellie’s constant cycle of denial and realization as we go. For example, in the release date trailer, during a pivotal moment, it is Joel who places his hand over Ellie’s mouth, and it is Joel who says, “You think I’d let you do this on your own?” So when this happens in game, during the Hillcrest escape, its a huge moment. The player is filled with anticipation and excitement. We are going to see Joel. Regardless of whether it is real or not, we are going to see him.

But at this point in the story, it’s not Joel. In game, in real time, it’s Jesse. They’re fucking with us. It’s like we’re living inside of Ellie’s delusion, her grief and her fantasy. That Joel would be there at the last moment to save her life, as he did so many times in TLoU. As he did in the hotel outside of Jackson, with the Bloater who had her pinned to the floor. It’s not Joel, it’s Jesse. The disappointment is crushing, but the truth makes sense. It’s so obvious. Of course it’s Jesse. We’re just reliving the past, with Ellie. Over and over again, and we can’t escape. This game is turning out to be a very interesting mediation on grief, and how it follows us, how it can even change and mold our perception of reality.

These are my latest takes on TLoU2. As usual, they’re just personal observations and points of view, not meant to change anyone’s mind. I’m not finished with the game, so please no spoilers or spoilery comments in the replies. Thank you! ^_^ -gala

#the last of us #tlou2 #tlou2 spoilers #the last of us part 2 #gala's thoughts #grief #tw: grief

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cosmic-affinities · 3 years

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Under the Guise of Seclusion

Summary: The Symbol of Peace as a title died years ago, Yagi Toshinori has already caught up. No one was ready, no one ever will be. All anyone can do is take the first step to move forward.

Our story started on Dagoba Beach, it's only fitting that's where this one ends.

AO3 Link

Fair warning it's a bit cheesy but it deals with a heavy subject. I finally had to bite the bullet and write the BNHA obligatory All Might dies fic, this is what happened. I hope you enjoy it!

A secluded beach is what everyone else saw.

To Izuku, it was the first place he felt strong. The one place he could always go back to if he needed to ground himself.

Now, all it would ever be was a gut-wrenching reminder of what was lost.

But he wasn’t alone, never really was if he is honest with himself. It wasn’t just after ground beta, he guessed that you never realize something has always been there until you have someone point it out to you.

That thought brought a new wave of sadness over him, the one who reminded him would never see how much he truly needed the reminder.

The three hardest days of his life had come and gone in a succession much too quick for Izuku’s liking.

The first was a month ago, All Might was hospitalized, a week since they put him on a slowly ticking down clock, and three days since- well, it was a thought Izuku couldn’t even bring himself to think.

If he let himself think it, he would start to remember that, no matter how indirectly, he was the one that started the ticking down clock.

Now here he stood, at a funeral, he never could have imagined going to, let alone choosing where it was.

Izuku was surrounded by everyone that touched All Might, he knew All Might wouldn’t want anyone to be left out. Everyone from the entirety of the current Class 3-A to pro heroes, to Izuku’s own mother.

But most importantly to Izuku, Katsuki Bakugou stood, hand never leaving Izuku’s no matter the amount of nitroglycerin between them. If anyone thought the pair was inseparable before they now looked like fools, they underestimated how well the two supported each other and just how willing they were to drop everything for the other.

In three days, the longest they had been apart was to shower, even then they took them at the same time so they didn’t have to wait twice.

When asked down the line why they couldn’t let go of each other they always said the same thing, they didn’t even realize until someone pointed it out. They both had a theory as to why but it was one answer they had learned to live without.

Maybe it was because they were apart when it happened, maybe it was the only thing holding them together, or maybe it was just a small comfort that they needed.

Three days ago Izuku sat with his mother in his childhood home, making small talk, nothing more substantial than pleasantries, leaving the hospital that day had been particularly rough. Katsuki figured they would need their time alone and decided to pay his folks a quick visit to kill time.

Within the hour they were reunited, each with the news that their earlier moments were their last with the now fallen hero. Their mothers clung to each other with no hesitation, both had tears and cries for miles, they had to get away.

With nothing more than a simple look and a nod, they made their silent way, hand in hand, to the children’s park they used to play at together. Neither of them shed a tear that first day, they didn’t let themselves under the guise of wanting to be there for the other. They would later realize they were always there for each other and holding themselves back for even a moment was all for themselves, a reassurance that they could, they needed some faith in themselves.

They made their way back to Izuku’s house, guiding the pile they once identified as their mothers, inside with them. Their mothers stayed together, finding comfort in the warmth of their best friend that they could find nearly nowhere else. Inko knew she couldn’t be alone and Mitsuki wouldn’t dare leave so they found themselves asleep next to each other, a result of their collective emotional exhaustion.

Izuku and Katsuki would have been in a state not too far from that of their mothers if they had not been on a couch. Again neither of them had to speak to know that Izuku’s room, not updated since middle school, was no place for them to be at the moment. Instead, they curled around each other, both so thankful they could do this, no longer angry because they couldn’t.

They wished to be back there, warm and comforted by the familiar smell and feel. Truly, they wished to be anywhere other than a secluded beach under a beating sun that felt no remorse for their loss.

They had listened to prayers and condolences, even gone as far as to accept them as kindly as they could, now they waited for the first person to make their own personal remarks.

Everyone was hesitant to make the first remark, some of the older pro heroes remembered how during even the most somber of moments All Might would make the first move and start the rigorous journey of lifting spirits. When asked why he never hesitated to be the first to speak he always said that the first step is the hardest to take, he would personally take as many as he needed to if he knew he was helping.

Izuku thought he could try to do the same but, unlike times where his body moved seemingly without permission, it was now frozen. Stuck. Waiting for another to take that first step, waiting for the person who would never take the first step again.

It was finally an uncharacteristically slow Gran Torino who stepped up first, he told the story of how Yagi Toshinori, once a frail young boy, was able to bear the weight of a room full of mourners and allow everyone to start becoming better. He admitted to that being the only reason he stepped forward, thinking of Yagi at his lowest made him realize that if he could do it then there must be some redeeming quality to it.

Next was Aizawa, he told the story of how he managed to corral one of the big three into helping him get over his own fears, eventually leading directly to his now-husband and indirectly to everything else in his life. Only a few were surprised at the sentimentality, everyone else knew these things were not taken lightly and this was the best moment to show everyone else how much All Might knew he meant to them.

All of the pro heroes made their way to the front, each giving away a piece of themself along with All Might. Everyone shuffled their way to the front, whether it was to say a sentence or to tell a story, they made as much peace as they could for the time being.

Eventually, only Class A was left, Katsuki broke the ice and made his way to the front with a squeeze of Izuku’s hand, it almost felt wrong as they split.

“All Might meant a lot to everyone, it's not fair to try and say he meant more to me because he always put all of himself into everything he did, including any connection he made. Whether he was saving you from a crumbling building or, in my case, from yourself, he made sure to make you feel as if you were invincible. I wanted to be angry, I really did, but he was the one who knocked it into my thick skull, that anger was a tiring front to keep up. He has been my hero since I was a snotty little brat, I have the holographic collectible cards to prove it, but in the past few years, he put an entirely different definition on the word hero. A hero isn’t just someone who defeats villains, it’s also someone who stops them from becoming villains in the first place, even someone who does nothing but save others is a great hero, a lesson I could have desperately used a long time ago. That being said, he taught me how to be a traditional hero, which in itself is a heroic act. He will have a permanent place in the hearts of everyone who has ever even so much as heard of him, we can all only hope to have a fraction of the impact he has had.”

Katsuki finished with no further conclusion, opting to head straight back to his place next to Izuku. Once their hands were linked, each held a bit tighter.

The rest of Class A went up, the girls went together in a small group, and everyone else went in pairs or by themselves, Izuku never moved. Finally, as Koda finished saying more words strung together than anyone there had ever heard him say, Izuku looked at Katsuki. It was the understanding in the ruby eyes that finally unstuck Izuku’s feet from the floor. He got the message of ‘it’s ok if you can’t go up there’ and knew he had to.

He walked up slowly, he was one of the only people to know every single person in the room personally, this led to him feeling as if every eye was watching him, he squared his shoulders and cleared his throat.

“I almost didn’t come up here. This entire time I had been trying to will my feet to move forward, take a step, and then another but they wouldn’t budge. That was until it hit me that even though All Might is- ahem, even though he is no longer with us he will never truly be gone. Whether you notice the influence he had on heroes or a simple look from someone, that reminds you of his never-ending compassion.

Every single person here knows how much All Might means to me, I am almost positive everyone has been subjected to at least one of my rambling sessions about him. Knowing that gives a glimpse into what he means to others, before he was my mentor he was another hero on a pedestal, and yet, as unattainable as he seemed, he touched every single person on this planet who believes in what's right and has seen him in action. A long time ago some lunatic said All Might was a true hero and, although I would like to reiterate that he was a lunatic, he was somehow right. All Might was able to give even more than himself if he needed to, he set his limits to smash them and set new ones.

Once his limits were finally set he still didn’t stop there, from there he guided others on their journeys of breaking down their own limits, unknowingly talking All Might’s down with them, he cultivated so much joy from seeing others succeed and so it was enough.

He continued to say that everyone was just enough, there is nothing more you need to add or take away, everything someone is has always been there, they just figured out how to mold it in the best possible way. I'm just glad that he saw what he needed to, in me.

Where we are all standing is not quite as random as many might think. Yes, it is a secluded beach that won’t be disturbed by anyone other than those allowed in here today, but it is also the start of the rest of All Might’s honor. This is where he trained me nearly four years ago, this is where he gave me the best thing I could ask for: a legacy to grow into. Although it wasn’t just for me.”

Izuku took a longer pause than normal, asking Katsuki to join him up front with nothing more than a look. Soon the duo was standing next to each other, linked by their hands.

“Many people have talked about everything All Might has given them, and all of the best things in my life can somehow be attributed back to him. That means that now All Might is permanently within all of us, we all know his phrase of ‘I am here’ and that ‘I’ now has to become all of us.

It won’t be today, it might not be for a while, but I can say with the utmost confidence that everything will be alright.

Why?

Because we are here.”

I wrote this in May of last year and only recently decided to brush it off and post it. It felt unfinished for a while. A friend pointed out to me that it is going to always feel unfinished because that's how the grieving process is. There is no neat bow on the end of a loss. All there will ever be is something that feels unfinished. I wrote it the night before my first birthday after a hard loss so this was lowkey a bit of therapy lmao.

Thank you for making it to the end of this fic! I respond to every comment so if you want to make my entire existence all you have to do is leave something below!

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obscure-sentimentalist · 4 years

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for ya boi tate 2, 3, 10, 18, 30, 38, 44, 57, 64, 70, 80, 92, 100

For the original character asks

Oh, Tate, my sweet boy who wasn’t even supposed to be an original character, but evolved on his own and silently demanded that I tell his real story. He was entirely unanticipated, and now I can’t shut up about him.

Character context: Tate Merlyn, hailing from the being-reworked-and-written Distortion ‘verse. Tommy’s twin brother in a world where Malcolm decided to bring his young sons to the League of Assassins and train them for his own purposes. It takes many years for the brothers to get out, but they eventually settle back into Starling City, falling in with a certain vigilante operation and forming a tight-knit friendship (and later become roommates) with Felicity.

2. Do they like animals? Well, Tate doesn’t not like animals. However, the circumstances of his life didn’t give him a chance to have a pet, nor put him in contact with domestic animals often, and he never really let himself feel anything about that lack. At first impression, he’s ambivalent about animals.

But find him in a brighter future and give him a kitten to hold or a dog to run into on the street, and he’ll melt the second he makes eye-contact with them. Lots of soft, dopey smiles all around.

3. How do they dress? Ah, yes, a topic that honestly shouldn’t hurt as much as it does.

Given that this is a universe where Malcolm is an even shittier father than in canon and has two sons who he’s shaped into his personal weapons from a young age, Tate doesn’t have a fashion sense for much of his life. When he isn’t in League uniform, his clothes are all black and gray, meant for utility and nothing more. The most he’ll allow himself is whatever excess warmth he can get from an old sweatshirt or hoodie, if one is on hand.

Even once he’s free enough to choose for himself, for a long time, Tate just… sticks with his wardrobe and its utter lack of character. Practical is fine, and it saves him time if he just grabs whatever’s in his drawer without looking--it’s about all the same, anyway. Why add another step?

It takes active intervention from Tommy and Felicity (and an incident involving a laundry mix-up) for Tate to start introducing more variety to his closet. He still opts for deeper, darker colors (more autumnal) for everyday wear, but at least it’s color. He’s also into flannels, though he has to be careful with any facial hair he might have, because he’ll make himself ripe for lumberjack-related playful mockery.

There are also plenty of warm sweaters and sweatshirts, because Tate loves being cozy, though the colors of those tend to lean on the lighter, softer end of the spectrum. He loves them, and over time begins to wear them more often than just around the house.

10. Do they have any nicknames? “Tater Tot.” There was no escaping that one, especially with a brother like Tommy. It’s often met with a fond “asshole” in reply, because these boys are such children.

He’s been called a few other silly things by those around him, though not quite to the level of a full-on nickname. Still, they’re often said quite lovingly, which fills Tate with a sort of warmth.

(He can’t say the same about the other names he’s gone by, so… he’ll take this.)

18. What flaws do they have? Tate’s biggest flaw is that he’s self-sacrificial as hell. It’s a character trait that sets up his whole role in the story, one that’s evolved painfully over time and the consequences of which are hooked deep in the narrative. Tate is just a dear, tragic boy whose attempts to protect and save his brother at the expense of himself go catastrophically wrong sometimes, and it takes him a very long time to unlearn that behavior.

Tate has plenty of other heavy-stuff flaws, but in more lighthearted terms… he can’t cook an edible meal, no matter how hard he tries. He can bake a little, if it’s just cookies or box-mix cake, and he’s a tea-making master, but any actual entree stands a fair chance of being toxic for human consumption. His archery skills are also abysmal--despite it being his father’s forte, and later surrounding himself with so many bow-wielding vigilantes--to the point where a plate of pancakes is more likely to be lethal than arrows fired by Tate. The people in his life lovingly refuse to let him live these foibles down.

30. What music do they enjoy? For the most part, Tate likes whatever songs make him happy, or simply jive with him. He’ll dig into some artists if more than a few of their tracks already appeal to him, but by and large he’ll rely on stumbling across individual songs that have a nice sound, no matter the genre.

He does tend to favor pieces that are more instrumental or have subtler, simpler vocals, though. It’s partially because that’s best suited to his quiet demeanor, and partially because lyrics are a bit of a tough spot for him, especially with more emotional, introspective songs. He can certainly appreciate well-crafted songwriting, but every once in a while a line will strike him in a particular, relatable way, and it makes him uncomfortable. Tate’s also a bit of an old man with a lot of top hits, grumbling about how he just wants some fun tunes, but here’s everyone talking about their bodies and other people’s and what they’re going to do with them, can he please just get songs about platonic affection every once in a while.

38. Are they the hero, or anti-hero? Definitely a hero, even though he won’t think of himself in those terms for a very long time, and his introduction in the present of the narrative--catching him at his lowest, darkest, most threatening point--sure doesn’t make it seem that way. His journey from that stage to the soft, heroic boy he becomes is messy and complex, but so meaningful.

44. How do they speak? Examples - Are they soft spoken, hot heated, vulgar Truly, my favorite part of this precious boy, the most defining Tate trait. He just… doesn’t speak much.

It’s not that he’s not good with words, or doesn’t pay much attention--Tate is pretty damn eloquent when he wants to be, and is observant to a fault. He’s merely incredibly selective with when and how he uses his words, which is a very distinctive contrast from Tommy’s frequent need to say something. Tate is fully capable of getting his point across with his body language and expression alone, or lets his brother do the talking for both of them.

To some extent, this is his nature, to be quiet and lean more into the nonverbal, but it was certainly exacerbated by the conditions he grew up under. In dealing with Malcolm and any sort of League business, Tate’s instinctive defense was to keep silent and speak only when expected--typically in response to or in clarification of orders. Quiet became less of something calming and wanted; and more of a necessity, a protection, a falling-in-line.

Tate may speak more often--not by much, but somewhat--in better times, but that’s because he feels comfortable and free enough to do so, and he’s leagues from being as talkative as Tommy. Still, even his silence is different, more expressive of his current mood instead of just serving as white noise, a smothering and muting of his feelings.

57. What do they do when they are happy? Tate is just a very tactile, huggy guy when he allows himself to be, and that often becomes particularly clear when he’s in a good mood. The happier he is, the more octopus-like he gets with his clinginess, but it’s sweet.

Either that, or he just dives head-first into his love of tea--making it, organizing his collection of it, buying more of it...

64. Do they like to dance? If he’s asked, Tate won’t answer that question--he’ll just silently raise his eyebrows and stare pointedly back at whoever brought it up. (If it’s Oliver or Roy, there’s another layer to the look, a clear returning of the question to them in challenge.)

The truth of it is yes, he does like to dance if the music and time are right, but he looks like a suburban dad at a barbecue when he does and he’s well aware of that fact. Better to act like he’s a townsperson from Footloose than hint that he even attempts to have a sense of rhythm.

70. Do they like themselves? Oof.

Tate… he’s done things. Granted, most of them were because he never actually had a choice unless he was willing to risk the consequences (if he was the assured sole recipient of them, he’d be more likely to; unfortunately, this was rarely ever the case, so Tate would fall in line for Tommy’s sake), but Tate is still accountable for how they went down. For as much as he can attribute his actions to trying to keep himself and his brother alive and free from as much harm as is avoidable, there’s still literal blood on his hands.

The thing that burns Tate the most, though, is the one decision he made of his own volition with the direct intention of hurting Tommy--again, for his safety, but that doesn’t make it any better. While the twins reconcile and rebuild their brotherhood even stronger than before, it’s still a blackened spot in their history even with the truth of it unraveled.

The question of whether or not Tate likes himself will be met with a vehement no for longer than anyone around him might expect, even as he gets more comfortable in his new life and knits himself into a group of people he can trust and who care. It’s recovery from the harm of the past, but Tate won’t feel comfortable in saying he likes himself until he figures out who that even is.

It’ll take time, but one day he’ll have a positive response.

80. How would they fare in a zombie apocalypse? Oh, Tate has the necessary skills down pretty darn well, knife expert ex-assassin and survivalist that he is. His biggest problem in that situation would just be the bitter frustration that he spent nearly 20 years of his life just trying to make it through a terrible situation, and he gets out only to be dumped into this? It’s another long fight for his life, which is disheartening for a guy who’s finally let himself admit that he just wants a chance to actually live. But he’ll handle it with grim determination, and hopefully with his brother at his side.

92. If they were given minutes to live, what would they do? Who would they want to see and say? Tate wouldn’t say much of anything here--he rarely ever needs words to express himself to the fullest.

Depending on the timeline--even solely focused on his better days--the number of people he’d want to see varies (thankfully, it grows as the years pass). But if he’s on a tight time limit and can only choose a few, then it’s without a doubt Tommy and Felicity. The three of them are the core found family (well, the twins are obviously twins, but still), the foundation of Tate’s life free of his father’s plans. And all Tate would want from his last minutes is to have the two of them present, to hold and be held in a tight group hug.

Tate is truly a simple man--just give him his people and a hug, and he can make peace with the situation.

100. Are they a day, or night person? Tough to say with Tate. For most of his life, he’d never really had that luxury--he’d be up at the asscrack of dawn or wide awake under the night sky depending on what was required of him. He’s adaptable by necessity.

But if we look to his better future… he’s still kind of middle-ground. He’ll generally be up at a reasonable definition of early in the morning, but also likes to take naps around the house when it’s particularly sunny and he’s not busy. Likewise, Tate will be fully alert at night for the amount of time he needs to be (whether it’s for crime-fighting-related activities, or just movie night), but will pass out the second he drops onto his bed, if he feels safe and comfortable enough with his surroundings to do so.

#obscure-sentimentalist writes sometimes #and cries about Distortion 'verse #and yells about her sweet boy Tate #truly I have not had my heart stolen by an original character like this ever before

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selfcontrolbuilders · 4 years

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Self-Control Story - Chapter 2: Betrayal

Hargon left Ice and Malroth together for them to catch up on each other while he went to the chapel Atlas, Pazuzu and Belial once used. He closed the door with a loud slam that echoed through the empty castle’s hallways and knelt in front of the statue of his god.

-My Lord, please, tell me what have I done wrong-he said-I have taught them the teachings, I have made the lines between creation and destruction clear and I treated them well… Then, why? Why did they turn their back on me and followed the builder? I don’t understand.

His previous life flashed before his eyes, reminiscing everything he’d lived before that one fight against the Scions. Atlas, Pazuzu and Belial’s smiles whenever he invited them to eat with him, the draining chore of resurrecting each ally that had fallen and been brought back to his castle, the attack on Moonbrooke, the curse he cast on the Princess, his long strolls through Alefgard when he was beginning to climb the steps to leadership, the happy times with his first followers, his childhood memories and dreams…

-Don’t blame yourself, it’s their fault, we all choose what we do and don’t-a voice echoed through his head.

-It’s not that, father, I just don’t understand what does that builder have that I don’t…

-You shouldn’t worry about that, it’s just going to busy your head and distract you from your actual responsibilities.

-I already know that, Profa-he started yelling before he realized something.

They were just fragments of memories from his past life. He laughed at himself, he really was going off his rocker, wasn’t he? Losing himself like this would only lead to the same ending, he mustn’t do it, if not for him, for the ones that still believe, like them.

The days passed, with each passing one the bond between the builder and the god only tightening more again. Hargon felt at exclusion. In the past, it would be him the one next to Malroth speaking lively, had he succeeded on summoning him before the three Descendants of Erdrick came. He missed it, those times where the Master and him were close. The remnants of that relationship were limited to memories the high priest had of the two speaking.

Today was an awfully lonely day. Malroth and Ice were walking around the garden in the lowest floor. He was drumming his fingers on the throne, bored of waiting for Malroth to finish what he started. He still remembers talking to him and hearing anecdotes such as Zoma’s early days, when he still was a young child. He missed the long walks they took speaking of the world and its great history. He had always wanted to expand his doings to the Light World when he was finished with Torland. Ascending and finishing Zoma and Baramos’ job.

He smiled. He sure had had a lot of imagination, hadn’t he? Such foolish dreams, out of his reach… Wow, he was getting nostalgic now. And… It was a new kind of nostalgia. It wasn’t the anger or regret… It felt good. For once, looking back felt good. He brought his right hand to the left side of his chest. He felt so warm… So… Heck, he didn’t even have words to describe this feeling. He could feel tears sliding down his face as his crooked smile became even bigger. Was this… letting go? No. He wasn’t finished yet. The grudge was still gripping his soul tightly. Then… Why did he feel like this? This didn’t make sense, at all. This was unknown land to the priest, who got up and started pacing back and forth in search of an answer.

Oblivious to that inner turmoil were the two friends hanging out at the garden. Ice looked at it and smiled.

-You know, even if Hargon is the big baddie of this story there’s still some good inside him-he said to Malroth from a slightly high wall, moving his dangling legs continuously-I mean, look at the beauty he has created. Even those who are evil do know how to make beautiful things… That reminds me, Rendarak looked like heaven. Once this is over I promise I’ll bring you there for you to see it with your own eyes, and we’ll make flower crowns, and friendship bracelets, and we’ll make a castle there, a good one, and we’ll live in that heavenly place!

Malroth watched amused how his friend fantasized of a happy ending despite the current predicament. The smile plastered on his face was enough to brighten the whole place. His light mood was something Malroth liked, but it was also the cause of his sorrow and pain. Creating a bright future without looking at the present… It was something he loved to do.

-Malroth, do you think we can evade this whole “End of the World” thing? I’m sure if you ask Hargon nicely in the right moment…

-We could try, but I don’t know how he’ll take it, the Master said looking at the garden’s exit.

The pair walked through the halls until they reached the lower throne room. To their surprise, Hargon was pacing around the room like he was doing some kind of exercise.

-Hargon, sir, there’s something Malroth and I wish to talk to you about-Ice said calling for the priest.

Snapping out of his daze and stopping his train of thought, the priest motioned them to speak while sitting on his throne again. This brought many memories about his past to…

-Um… You see, Malroth, if it doesn’t bother you, could we… Stop this plot to destroy the world? I’m actually very comfortble here, where the Scions of Erdrick do not disturb.

Hargon chuckled. What an interesting situation.

-So he hasn’t told you, has he?-he mused looking at Ice.

-Told me what?

-Hm, hm, hm… Well, the fact he’s a Scion of Erdrick himself, of course-he said truly amused.

Malroth looked from Hargon to Ice and from Ice to Hargon. His expression was one of confusion, what was Hargon talking about?

-He’s… right, as much as I hate to admit it. I am a Scion of the legendary Erdrick, but I quite hate the story of my family. They are nothing more than murderers in my eyes. I know monsters have feelings and should enjoy what nature gives us, even if they are willing to destroy everything. So… I don’t think I’m going to slaughter anyone any time soon. If you still want proof I can get rid of the Sword my ancestors wielded and the one the Prince of Midenhall used. I don’t really care much for them in the battlefield. I have only kept them because they are craftsmanship, creations of dedicated builders willing to give their life so the world may be at peace.

-Truth to be told, I think you deserve to hear my opinion about you-Hargon said-In my eyes, you are far more heroic than those who throw themselves into the battlefield, fighting to make your dreams come true and all of that. Many people have already left that fight when they are your age, but you… You insist on keeping that fight, battling more in that one than in others. That is what a true hero should be.

Having thrown his view into the topic, Hargon suddenly became conscious of what he’d let out. Was he… feeling nostalgic because he still wanted to fight for his childish dreams? Whatever it was, the whole fighting for dreams thing sunk really deep into the other two’s minds. It was the first time anyone ever said something like that about heroes… At least in Ice’s point of view.

-So… Can we stop the End of the World?-Malroth asked.

-Do as you wish, Master. I no longer care what you think on the matter. I was the one to give you wings, but I am no one to make you fly in the same direction I do-he said getting up-I shall leave you two now, for I have a matter I must tend in another place.

Hargon left the throne room and started walking through the hallways. He did care about the Master’s opinion on things, but seeing his constant refusal for his destiny now that the builder was here… It was the right moment to part and not return. The Master had turned his back on him, and so did his followers, what was left for him in ruling in a castle with nobody to rule over? It was the time for a change in his life.

-Perhaps… The reason they left me is because I am still not strong enough-he thought aloud-Perhaps… The Master sees me as a weakling in comparison to that accursed builder and has decided to change his ways thanks to his new counselor. Well, if he’s not willing to end this world and the real one, I shall try it. I have nothing to lose now if I try.

He didn’t have an idea about how he’d do it, but he knew he wouldn’t figure it out without trying. He had a theory about what had happened to Malroth and this illusion, which seemed to have developed a consciousness of its own. This world was lasting far more than he had expected and calculated while Malroth was a dormant spirit waiting for the builder. This may be due to his own mind playing an important part on its appearance, since he didn’t have control over what he poured or not into it. Childhood dreams, old friends, enemies, ideals, ideal endings… He’d seen all of them while he watched how the Master and the builder did their journey.

Take Moonbrooke as an example. Atlas had succeeded in taking over the kingdom and making most of them believe in his doctrines. Also, where were the three heroes, the three scions of Erdrick? Another theory put over the one he had: They turned into the Heroes of Hargon. Or, if that wasn’t the case, they could have died or anything like that. That was why nobody ever spoke about them. And, the Princess could have been from centuries ago, for what he knows. There was a legendary builder, the had been building before in this illusion, sure, that gave quite a lot of margin of time. In fact, that builder had been what modern humans would call a Beta Tester for the project. The Princess must have been forgotten because she never saved the world, and, in consequence, she didn’t try to rebuild the kingdom. What about the other two Princes? They’d never listened or seen Cannock and Midenhall, but they must have suffered the same fate, forgotten. In fact, there is a probability Midenhall and Cannock fell and became part of the territory of the Children of Hargon if you take that side as the whole monster collective under those doctrines. They could even possibly be Furrowfield and Khrumbul-dun, or even the Isle of Awakening in that matter. Or they were perhaps further away than those islands. Perhaps the heroes turned into his most trusted allies… It would make sense, in a way, since there were two men and a woman forming the Trinity currently.

He had a theory about Malroth. He was like a child, with no memories, so open to be influenced… Of course, that was just one part. How could he care so much about his allies and have no hesitation crushing his foes? How come he felt betrayed and didn’t even ask for an explanation about his imprisonment? Perhaps he’d been more influenced by Hargon’s own ideals than they’d both ever think. Hargon was vengeful by nature, caring about his allies, easy to piss off whenever the theme of building was brought to the conversation… Of course, he was also a bit sadistic and merciless when it came to taking down an enemy, that’s why Moonbrooke in the real world had been reduced to flames and poison.

Another funny thing about his illusion was the strange swap between Rendarak’s climate and Moonbrooke’s climate. Rendarak in the real world was a snowy hell of wandering gigantes and Moonbrooke was a beautiful grassy plain full of forests. In the illusion Rendarak looked like the fabled Paradise humans talk about and Moonbrooke has been reduced to a lot of mountains, snowy plains, ash and bloody dirt.

Whatever caused this massive merging of thoughts, feelings and memories in an illusion whose original purpose was to confuse the Scions of Erdrick was left unknown, being this kind of thing new even to him after being taught a whole lot of things such as advanced Math, monster languages, history, martial arts, magic…

His pace stopped when he fell into realization. If his memories had been merged together in an alternate reality, then the World Tree should be around here somewhere too. If he wasn’t mistaken, he had drawn a map of islands where there was one in which a massive tree towered over everything else. All he had to do was go South from Moonbrooke’s island. But for that he had to get out of Malhalla first. Ruura wouldn’t work here… There was no way he’d ask Malroth to get him out, and the monsters were now on the creation’s side. There was just one option left, but it was risky. As the son of a half-dragon he was a quarter-dragon. There was a possibility he may be able to control his transformation between his Draconian form and his monster form. He knew sometimes, when he was very, very angry at his subjects he felt his throat go hot and he sometimes spat fire on them, which meant that when he was very mad he could turn himself into a dragon “at will”.

Ice was teaching Malroth those games you do clapping hands with a friend in the throne room. Due to Malroth having four arms it was more difficult than usual. Whenever Ice told him to move his right arm somewhere Malroth either did it well or mistook it with the other right arm. Ice partially understood it was because he still wasn’t completely used to have two pairs of arms instead of one, but he sometimes felt exasperated.

-It’s been a while since Hargon left… Do you think he got sucked into one of those gravitational orbs and died?

-Isn’t he already dead?-Malroth said tilting his head-I mean, the Scions of Erdrick killed him after all.

Ice shrugged it off and kept playing. Unknowingly, he was letting Hargon escape to begin a recently cooked plan B.

Why was the Master not loyal to his fate? Why weren’t they the good friends they used to be? Why was he with a builder even? Had he not learned his lesson already? Destruction and creation are not compatible! They are opposites! Monsters and human cannot get along. He’d learned the lesson when he heard his father’s story, mercilessly killed by a human.

-Why did you do it, Malroth? Why did you ally yourself with humans?! Why does everyone leave my side the most painful way possible?!-he screamed from the top of the castle, all of his pent up feelings surfacing-“Oh, he’ll come, I’m sure of it!” “Just a little more…” “Humans aren’t that bad.” Fool! Have you heard yourself speak?! You are nothing but a mere fool! You don’t even shadow your past self! You! You…!

Wings came out of his back and he started morphing into a dragon. He took off and started flying towards the emptiness of the world. He immediately cast a spell to cross from the Malhalla to the accursed lands below. (Note: If you haven’t noticed, when Hargon takes Malroth as a hostage and starts speaking from the sky a certainly familiar red planet can be seen amidst the dark sky… I wonder if it’s Malhalla canonically…) He flied near the sea, alerting the marine monsters that still were there and had not gone to the promised land. His wings created a wake on the sea. He took out something from his necklace, a red translucent stone and looked through it. The world tree manifested itself before him, growing bigger with each passing second, finally, this was it, he was going to…

-Not so fast, mister I’m-so-cool-with-dragon-wings-I-decide-to-leave-my-god-abandoned! You’re not going to do what I think you’re going to!-a voice shouted when he was almost at the World Tree.

Dang. It had been too good to be true. Malroth and the builder were close behind him. He had to fend them off for now. If he ever tried to fight the master in its full power he’d be dead unless he had a good hand or an ace up his sleeve, and his ace was just a few meters away. He flapped the wings furiously and advanced towards the World Tree as fast as he could.

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thesecondcircleofkel · 5 years

Text

Gift

Aizawa x Reader (gender neutral)

3.5K

Summary: Aizawa receives a gift that he simply cannot turn away.

Warnings: none

To say that you were tired of the rain would be an understatement. The downpour had barely let up over the past few days, and if it kept going on like it was, you were going to have to swim your way back to U.A. It was already hard enough having to pack up the majority of your belongings in order to move to the campus, and the rain did absolutely nothing to alleviate your struggles. It also made things seem much grimmer than they already were, which should have been difficult everything considered. Between what had happened at the training camp and the Kamino Ward Incident, it certainly seemed like U.A. was currently experiencing the lowest point of its history.

It was a blessing that Bakugo had made it through everything relatively unscathed, but Ragdoll’s Quirk had been stolen, and while you weren’t privy to all of the details, you knew that All Might could no longer use his Quirk, either. Whether it was because of his physical condition or something else entirely, you didn’t know, but you were glad that he was able to stay on as a teacher even though he had to retire as a hero. The whole situation was still a mess, though, and you could only hope that Nezu’s dorm idea would help things to settle back down.

As it was right now, you and the rest of the teachers were having to move to the U.A. campus along with the students, in the hopes that having so many heroes close by would keep them even safer than they already were. You were sure that the principal had other reasons for keeping you all so close by, but that information hadn’t been made known to you, and you weren’t going to make things any harder on yourself by trying to figure everything out. You were just going to roll along with all of it and do your job as best you could.

The only reason that you had journeyed out into the torrential downpour this go around was because you needed a few extra things to make your new room on campus feel more welcoming. You had contemplated just waiting until the rain stopped to go out, but now that you had finally finished unpacking, you wanted to be completely done with setting up your room so you could focus on relaxing until classes started.

You had just crossed the street after leaving the store when a faint rustling caught your ears. Normally, you wouldn’t have paid much attention to random noises like that, but the faint mew that followed it definitely put you on alert, and you immediately started searching for the source of the cry. It didn’t take you long to track the noise down to an alleyway, where it seemed to be coming from underneath a dumpster.

With little regard for your clothing or dignity, you crawled onto your belly in order to look under the dumpster, and there you found a small kitten, soaked down to the bone and shivering. The poor thing was too tired to even think about resisting you as you reached under the metal receptacle and delicately grabbed it. You quickly stood up and put the kitten under your jacket, holding it against your stomach to give it as much warmth as possible as you ran back to U.A.

For once you were somewhat grateful for the rain, because nobody was around to stop or question you as you stormed through the campus gate and sprinted to your room. You immediately threw your shopping bags down and went to your bathroom, where you wrapped the kitten up in a towel. You held onto it until it finally stopped shivering, and then switched the damp towel out for a fresh one. The kitten (who you found out was a little lady when you switched the towels out) obviously appreciated what you were doing, if the purring was anything to go by. You started to rub her behind the ears, and that was enough to send her straight to sleep.

Your next dilemma was figuring out what to do with her. It wouldn’t kill you to keep her yourself, and you assumed that none of your colleagues would care if you had her, either. Vlad had been able to bring his dog with him, so why would it matter if you had a cat in your room? The thing was, you were pretty sure that you knew someone who would enjoy having her even more than you would. Aizawa’s love for felines wasn’t exactly a secret; you had lost count of the times that you’d caught him looking up pictures of cats on his phone during his down time, plus you’d seen him trying to feed strays on many occasions. The question was, did he already have a cat? And if not, why?

You could just go directly to the man and ask him all of that yourself, but you were afraid that it might be awkward. For whatever reason, he was always quiet around you, quieter than he normally was, at least. You weren’t aware that you had ever done anything to offend him, but maybe you were just being paranoid. You were a little hyperaware of everything he did on account of…well, you’d be lying if you said that you weren’t attracted to him.

It wasn’t just a physical attraction, either. There was just something about that overly serious attitude of his that got to you, and then when you added his strange habits on top of that (his sleeping bag being the prime example), your curiosity was certainly piqued. What really sealed the deal for you was the USJ incident. Just seeing how far he went to protect his students, how he kept fighting even through injury, sent your heart soaring and the admiration that you already had for him grew tenfold. So yeah, you were a little nervous around him, and that was only made worse by the fact that you had no clue if he even liked you. Hizashi assured you that he did, but you weren’t convinced.

Speaking of Hizashi, he’d probably have some of the answers that you needed. You quickly took out your phone and sent him a text.

Y/N: Yo Mic, can you pop over to my room for a minute?

MIC: But Y/N I juuuuuuuuuuust sat dooooooownnnn.

Y/N: Dear god, I can hear you whining over a text. Just get over here. I need to borrow your knowledge.

MIC: Weird, but alright.

There was a knock at your door shortly after that, and you opened it to let Hizashi stroll into your room.

“Now, Y/N, just what was so important that you-ooh! Kitten!”

Hizashi had immediately spotted the ball of fur that was now curled on top of your bed, still asleep even through his loud voice. Whatever he was going to say was put on the backburner as he went to sit on your bed, where he picked the kitten up and put it on his lap so he could have easier access to pet it.

“Is this why you had me come over?”

“Yep. I’m trying to figure out what to do with her.”

“Are you not keeping her?”

“If it comes down to it I will, but I was thinking of trying to give her to someone else, first.”

“Oh? Someone I know?”

Based on the devious look in his eyes, Hizashi knew exactly who you were talking about, but he was going to torture you and make you say it. The glare that you gave him was very unimpressed.

“Yes, Mic, I was thinking of giving her to Aizawa.”

“Well, well, how convenient of you, Y/N, wanting to give Shouta a gift, and it’s one of his favorite things in the world, too. One would almost think that you were trying to impress him.”

“Look, I have no qualms with strangling you, Hizashi. Be helpful for once.”

“I am always helpful, thank you very much. Just admit that I’m right and then we’ll move forward.”

“You’re not right! Not in those exact terms, at least. He just so happened to be the first person I thought of when I found her, for obvious reasons.”

“So, you’re not denying that you’re trying to impress him, is that what I’m hearing?”

“I don’t even know if he likes me, Hizashi! For all I know, he’s barely tolerating my presence as it is! Although, knowing him, he’s probably just indifferent towards me, but that’s not the point! Does he already have a cat or not?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s…complicated?”

“How so?”

“They just don’t…like him.”

“What?”

“Cats just seem to have a natural tendency to hate him, Y/N.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope, they hiss at him on sight.”

“I don’t know what to make of that, Hizashi.”

“I mean, I don’t think he’s ever tried to get a kitten before, so maybe it’ll be different? Maybe she hasn’t grown into her anti-Eraserhead instincts yet.”

“So, it won’t be catastrophic if I offer her to him?”

“Probably not.”

“Probably not…that’s totally the answer I was hoping for.”

“You’re really putting too much thought into this, Y/N. Just offer him the cat, and if he doesn’t want her or she hates his guts, then you keep her.”

“I suppose you’re probably right. For once.”

“Don’t be mean. Besides, she’s obviously the perfect cat to have on campus. Look at her, still knocked out even through all of your shouting. Little thing must have nerves of steel.”

“She’ll definitely need those around here. Well, I guess I should go see who the little lady will be rooming with, huh?”

“Wait, I have an idea! Just give me one second!”

This whole living on campus situation was certainly going to have interesting results, considering that it was only the first day and Hizashi had already bolted out of your room like a bat out of hell. You were almost scared of what he had gone to get, but when he came back just as quickly as he had left, you saw that he had only went to get a strand of ribbon. Where he had gotten it from, you wouldn’t question.

“Presentation is everything, Y/N!”

“You know what? If you think you can safely tie a bow around that kitten, go for it. Entertain me, Hizashi.”

“Are you doubting my bow-tying skills, Y/N? You better watch and learn, because you are about to witness a master at work.”

You wouldn’t exactly describe him as a master, but he did manage tie a rather nice bow. He made sure that it was loose enough around her neck that the kitten could easily slip out of it whenever she wanted to, and then he put her back on the bed with a cheeky grin aimed your way.

“I stand corrected. Now, if you’ll be so kind as to excuse me, I have an appointment to go embarrass myself. Thanks for the help, Hizashi.”

“Any time, Y/N! I expect to be the first person invited to the wedding!”

“Feel free to leave now, Mic.”

“Fine, fine. You’ll thank me later, Y/N! I’m the best wingman this school has ever seen!”

U.A.’s greatest wingman promptly received a door slammed in front of his face. You could hear him laughing the entire time he walked away from your room, and you prayed that he would trip and fall on his face. You doubted that karma would be that kind to you, though.

After giving Mic ample time to make it back to his own quarters, you swallowed the lump that had taken up residence in your throat and started to march your way towards Aizawa’s room. You were at the halfway point before you realized that you had forgotten the cat. After a short trek back to your room to retrieve the still sleeping kitten, you finally stood in front of the ominous doorway of Aizawa’s room. Every fiber of your being was screaming at you to turn around, but you took a deep breath to steel your nerves and knocked before you could chicken out.

You waited…and waited…and then you started to contemplate all of your life decisions. It would be your luck that he didn’t answer the door. Did he not hear you? Should you knock again? But what if he was asleep? God forbid you wake him up from the slumber that he so desperately needed. He could have stepped out for a moment. You could always wait for a few more minutes to see if he came back. Wouldn’t that make you seem like a weirdo, though, just hovering outside of his room and staring at the door as if it had personally offended you somehow? What a tough decision to have to make…

“Something wrong, Y/N?”

The sound that came out of your mouth was beyond undignified. Obviously, you had been so lost in thought that didn’t hear Aizawa walk up behind you, and you really wished that you had been paying more attention. You were pretty sure that the noise you’d made was so awful that it was going to haunt his nightmares; it certainly would yours. At least he hadn’t seen the kitten yet.

“Well, your stealth skills certainly aren’t lacking.”

Why couldn’t he have just said something? It didn’t have to be anything to lighten the mood or make you feel better, but just something. The silence was killing you, and it was moments like these that made you wonder if he actually hated you. He was just…staring, and you were starting to feel like he could see right through you. Was there something on your face? Why was he just-

“Are you alright?”

He very pointedly nodded his head down, causing to you to finally realize that you were in fact still wearing your dirty and wet clothes. That explained why he was staring: he probably thought that you were either crazy or stupid. Fantastic. He was probably also wondering why you had one of your hands behind your back. Seeing how your day was going so far, he was probably waiting for you to pop a knife out on him or something. He must have been planning the best way to disarm you and take you down. You were probably looking way too far into this.

“I’m fine. Just peachy, really.”

You were not peachy. You were actually quite disappointed in yourself, plus your clothes were wet, and now that he had pointed that out to you, you realized just how cold you were because of it. You were not peachy, at all. You were already so done with all of your own bullshit.

“Anyways, I just…uh…fuck it. I found a kitten earlier, do you want it?”

You had never seen Aizawa’s eyes shoot open as fast as they did when you brandished that kitten at him. She was still asleep, head lolled to the side as your hand supported her body. He seemed mesmerized by the tiny ball of fluff, taking in every little detail about her, from her white paws and underbelly, to the light grey tabby pattern that covered the rest of her body, all of which was topped off by a red bow hanging loosely around her neck.

“The bow was Mic’s idea.”

For once, Aizawa looked like he wasn’t sure how to comprehend what was happening. He kept switching his gaze from you to the kitten in your hand, and it was making you anxious. Maybe you had been a little too forward with your offer. Or maybe he just needed a little push, given what Hizashi told you about his unique effect on cats earlier.

“Do you want to hold her?”

He looked at you like you had slapped him.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Just give it a try. She’s a sweet little lady, so I’m sure she’ll love you.”

You really hoped she would, at least. You had waited a long time for an opportunity to come around to actually build some sort of relationship with Aizawa that went beyond ‘coworkers’. Obviously, talking to him was not your strong suit at this point, so the kitten was the best chance that you had. You could only imagine that your hopes would be completely shattered if the little lady decided to scratch his face off at first sight.

Before either of them could sense your own nerves regarding the situation, you quickly shoved the kitten towards Aizawa, forcing him to take her from you. He held her at a distance at first, like he was waiting for the inevitable bad reaction to start, but when she still didn’t stir from her sleep, he took the opportunity that he was given and held her closer as he started to pet her.

You both froze as the kitten finally started to wake up, but you let out a very audible sigh of relief as she only stared at Aizawa for a few seconds before she nuzzled her head against his hand and started to purr. Aizawa looked thrilled at her affection, at least, he looked as thrilled as someone of his countenance could. Honestly, you weren’t quite sure what to make of the Totoro-style grin that he was sporting, but you’d take it as a good sign.

“See? No anti-Eraserhead instincts in this little lady.”

“You really did talk to Mic about this.”

“He’s actually said that to your face before?”

“Multiple times.”

“How shameless. But, ignoring Mic for a minute, now that we know she won’t attack you on sight, do you want to keep her? It’s not like we live far from each other now, so if you ever need anything, I’m more than willing to help.”

“…There’s no logical reason for me not to keep her, so long as you don’t want her.”

“Who wouldn’t want this precious angel?”

You emphasized your statement by scratching the kitten behind her ear again. Aizawa didn’t flinch at your close proximity to him, so you took that as another good sign.

“But, I think she’ll make you just a little bit happier than she would me. Just a little, though. Now, since all that’s settled, I’ll leave you two alone to bond. Let me know if you need anything!”

You quickly walked around Aizawa with the intent of going back to your room before you had the opportunity to embarrass yourself in front of him again, but a hand on your forearm held you back.

“Wait, Y/N. I obviously need to go get a few things for her. You should come with me.”

To hell with Mic, he had just lost the title of greatest wingman at U.A., and it now belonged to a tiny little kitten. It wasn’t exactly a date, but you’d take the chance and run with it. He was still holding your arm, too, and the warmth radiating from his hand was enough to make you practically melt on the spot. It also reminded you of just how cold you were.

“Yeah, I’d love to. I should probably go change first, though.”

“That would be a smart decision. We’ll wait here for you.”

It took all of the willpower that you had not to skip back to your room, and even more of your effort was going to have to be put into wiping the giddy grin off your face before you went back to Aizawa.

Speaking of Aizawa, he was going through his own struggle to quit smiling. He was afraid that he had chased you off with his unintentional cold demeanor- Mic had told him that you thought he didn’t like you before- but there you were, in all of your cheerful glory, giving him a cat that actually seemed to like him. He wouldn’t let the opportunity go to waste; he had been struggling with his own emotions and the illogical reasoning that they brought with them, and that was why he had been acting so strangely around you. In actuality, he was quite fond of everything about you, from your dedication to your job and hero work to the small things, like the way that you greeted him every morning.

Now that the ice had been broken, he’d make sure that you knew exactly how he felt about you. He wouldn’t rush it though; he didn’t want to take a chance on scaring you away again. For now, he would take things slow, and that meant going to pick up pet supplies with you even though he already had just about everything he needed in his room from his previous attempts to befriend strays. It wasn’t the most logical thing to do, but he could live with that, so long as he was able to make progress towards a relationship with you. Maybe the two of you could bond over picking out a name for the kitten; you did find her after all, so it was only fair to let you help with that since you weren’t keeping her. At least it would be a good conversation starter.

#bnha #bnha x reader #mha #mha x reader #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #aizawa shouta #bnha aizawa #bnha eraserhead #aizawa x reader #scenario #imagine #reader insert #gender neutral reader #kittens #i struggled so much with this one #pitifully so #i'm gonna tag mic too since he's in half of it #bnha present mic

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clairen45 · 5 years

Note

Because Finn is the only character, for me, who has a distinctive and unique "relationship with everyone. He had this kind of banquet relationship with Han, so he has this romantic relationship with Rey. Now, with Rose, it looks like he has this great relationship. In person? King. Yes, Rey " By King BoYega. Do you think this statement could mean a novel Rey and Finn in the ninth film? the actor seems excited about the possibility.

Hello Anon, I must admit I was confused at first by your question, which I assume is a quote from an interview of John Boyega, possibly a translation… I could not find the reference, but I will still address it as I understand it.

First, I’ll be clear: I think Finn is a great character. And yes, if there is a trio, as there always is in SW trilogies, in this current ST, it is obviously, to me, all about Rey, Kylo AND Finn. Finn is quite unique as he gives a face, a mind, and a heart to the otherwise soulless anonymity of the stormtroopers. All meant to be interchangeable and replaceable. It was a stroke of genius, but also a logical development honestly, to have a stormtrooper undergoing the hero’s journey. Logical development, because of course the masses need to get a face and a voice. And of course, the lowest of the low, aka the stormtrooper, needs to get his own redemption arc, and his own story, moving from the cold matricule to getting christened with the name of the mythical Irish giant, Finn. One that is associated with the giant’s causeway, a story where a hero moves boulders (umm….) to pass onto the other side and fight his enemy. I am currently writing a piece on bridges in Star Wars, so that is a theme that I find particularly interesting.

Yes, as you seem to point out, Finn is also quite unique in the ST as he seems to be the one who gets to interact with most characters from the story: Kylo, Phasma, Poe, Rey, BB8, Han and Chewbacca, Maz, Leia, Rose, DJ, Hux… He gets even to see Luke even if he doesn’t interact with him. So, yes, up close and personal with the other characters is his thing. Which to me goes with the trope I have in mind about Finn. I have always expected Finn to play an important part in what I see as the rise of the stormtrooper, with other following his lead, questioning the organization and shedding the bucket and the armor. In TLJ, they had planned a scene when Finn was trying to rally the stormtroopers, but they cancelled it. Presumably because it might come as a very important part of the last episode. I would love to see Finn not revel in the destruction of former comrades, but rather to enlighten them to new possibilities, and bridge the gap between FO and Resistance. It would seem like a logical conclusion to his arc. Finn as Moses really. Getting a revelation in the desert in VII, and finally taking on in IX the role of leader and hero, helping liberate his comrades. But with Rose, not Rey, as his Zipporah, something that we get through Rose saving Finn’s life at the end of VIII.

So about the nature of the relationships… There are people who see through Finn, for what and who he is, and also who or what he may become, and there are people who don’t get it. I would say that two people fail to see through and understand Finn. Hux, for one, who doesn’t fathom right away what the self-awareness of Finn might mean on a larger scale (something Phasma, on the other hand, immediately gets, hence her desire to eliminate him as soon as possible). And Rey. Yes, Finn’s best friend and the girl that mattered to him the most in the galaxy. She doesn’t understand him. She fails to see that he has a romantic attachment to him. She fails to see that he lies to her when they meet. She doesn’t understand his need to run away. She doesn’t see through him, shortcomings and qualities included. She loves him fondly, like a brother, she cares deeply about him, and she is deeply moved that he came back for her on Starkiller, for the very personal reason that no one ever came back for her before. They have a touching and cute relationship. Romantic for his part, as made obvious in the novelization of TLJ where Rose is exasperated by his feelings for Rey. But not on her part. See, on the other hand, how she opens up to Kylo (and not Finn) about her feelings and her past, when she is very guarded with others. How she sees through Kylo, right away, and never through Finn.

But, in comparison, many people get to appreciate Finn’s potential even before he sees it for himself. Kylo is the first one, actually, who feels something about him and surprisingly does not act upon it during the village massacre. Then Phasma, who sees him immediately as a glitch to deal with and eradicate. Poe, who ushers him into humanity with a new name, new clothes, and eventually a new identity as that he will embrace in TLJ. Han who sees through his lies and calls him out on his bs. Maz who calls him out on running away and give him purpose (and the saber) on going after Rey. Rose who prompts him to become the hero she knows he can be. DJ, as the counter example of a man who never takes a side and who calls him out on his ignorance.

So Ok, was Boyega excited at the possibility of a romantic development for Rey and Finn… ummm…. Let’s not forget that this actor is also one of Kylo’s biggest fans. And I am pretty sure he had some idea about what the endgame was. Just look at all these interviews where the actors seem to mysteriously hint at some unexpected romance. Seriously. It happened. Many times!

Listen, there is NO romantic development planned between Rey and Finn. None. They are friends. They are family even, if you will. But there will be no romantic development. It is great that we get to see more of their interactions in IX because Rey and Finn were a refreshingly cute pairing in VII, but don’t expect any love story between the two of them. This ship was never meant to sail.

#reylo fandom #reylo #finn fandom #star wars episode ix

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valkyrieelysia18 · 5 years

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RWBY Rewrite: The Schnee Family

Hello there everybody! Welcome to the third post in this undetermined number of RWBY Rewrites posts because at this point anyone who is watching RWBY for the story clearly needs to get their head checked. I debated the topic for this one for a while and have now settled on getting to one of our most prominent families in Remnant: the Schnees.

Being the ones in charge of the Schnee Dust Company, which supplies the majority of Remnant’s Dust, as well as being Weiss’ family, it makes sense that the show would give them focus. Unfortunately, the Schnee family as well as many other elements in the show have fallen victim to the time crunch of the writers juggling too many things at a time. It’s honestly a miracle that Weiss’ character is written as well as it is. In fact, it is the best written of the four girls (though not without its issues) and part of that is due to her collection of songs. Though in my opinion, you could argue that the soundtrack does a better job of telling the story than the actual show.

In this post, I’m going to be going over Weiss’ immediate family as well as her grandfather. As of now, I’ve been thinking of rewriting RWBY in five main arcs: Vale, Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, and the Final Showdown. The family would be set up in the first two arcs with them getting most of their conclusions in the Atlas Arc, mostly regulated to cameos or mentioned in passing afterwards.

Nicholas Schnee

The founder of the Schnee Dust Company, outside of that WOR video, we honestly don’t know much about him and that makes sense considering that Nicholas most likely died before the beginning of the series. Considering my Rewrite series would throw out those videos, I would keep Nicholas regulated to mentions of Schnee Dust Company past and potential flashbacks in Atlas.

However, I would add one thing to his characterization that I think would tie into Weiss’ journey pretty well. Weiss, especially at the beginning of the series, strives for perfection in all that she does. Above all, she definitely looks up to her grandfather’s example. During a time in Atlas when she’s at her lowest, with her father’s icy words piercing her mind, the hateful looks of the Faunus directed at her, she despairs at ever living up to her grandfather’s legacy. Only to talk with someone (currently I’m thinking Professor Polendina) who personally knew her grandfather who would tell her that Nicholas was by no means perfect. He was a very warm, good hearted, jolly man, but he would occasionally let out a rather racist remark and had a rather explosive temper. Contrary to the SDC image, he wasn’t a saint. That said, his views were actually pretty progressive for his day in terms of his business practices and his treatment towards the Faunus. Ultimately, Weiss would learn that while her grandfather was by no means perfect, he never stopped trying to better himself.

Jacques Schnee

You know, I have to give credit where credit is due: Jacques is actually pretty well written. Okay, he’s not the pinnacle of how to write an parental antagonist, but his role in the story and his at least emotionally abusive relationship with Weiss is actually pretty well done. It helps that he’s not completely talk, his actions also do reflect on this such as cutting Weiss off, forcibly carting her home after the fall of Beacon, his grip on Weiss at the party as well as his smacking of her afterwards, and even disinheriting her and keeping her under house arrest until she gives into his demands. Yet above all, he is a cut throat businessman who will use anything to benefit him. It’s a good example of how just because someone in a story is not a good person does not necessarily mean that they are a bad character.

Honestly, the most I’d change with him is make it more apparent in the show of how he uses everyone beneath him for his benefit (going back to the Atlas Corruption theme I had last post). Show people protesting outside SDC Headquarters or better yet show the dust mines and how dangerous they are to the workers especially without the necessary safety measures which Jacques is cutting back on in order to make as much profit as possible.

Another change I would make is in the Atlas Arc is that Jacques tries to get Weiss back under his thumb, but can’t. By this point, Weiss would be legally an adult and therefore can’t be forced into anything. In fact, his disinheriting her ironically freed her as there’s nothing he can hold over her to make her fall back in line. His part of the plot would culminate in Jacques being in mortal peril, left alone by everyone (even Whitley, his favorite child) to die only for Weiss to step in. It would end with Weiss saving his life, but not saving him from the law and jail. He needs to pay for his crimes, not just his actions against her.

Winter Schnee

Much like Jacques, I don’t think Winter was written all that badly. I guess the only complaint is that I wish we could have gotten more mentions to their relationship before Volume 3. Personally, I also would have liked her to have been at the Argus base inspecting Cordovin and briefing her on the situation in Atlas, only to run into her sister and her friends and therefore avoiding one of the most poorly thought out plans in the show.

In this Rewrite, I would have Winter shoulder more responsibility in leadership and rise to the occasion. In regards to that, I would also have Qrow apologize for his actions to her. Much like Weiss has to prove her resolve to others, Winter eventually gets Qrow to realize he’s been judging her by associations and not her as an actual person. On the flipside, Winter would realize that Qrow’s problems and concerns with Ironwood aren’t entirely unfounded.

In the ending of the Atlas Arc, Ironwood will resign his positions as General and Headmaster, as will many others due to an inquiry of the Atlesian military as the deep routed corruption is being brought to task. And given his abuse of power, his council positions would be separated so as to prevent this situation from repeating. This, along with other events, would go to show that our heroes’ actions have consequences, for better or for worse. Ironwood’s general position would pass to a Rudolph Vermillion, a male reindeer Faunus who after the inquiry would be the person with the most military experience with a clean record(and partially for diversity) that the group would be interreacting with during the Atlas Arc. His headmaster title, however, would go to Winter as I feel she would actually do well in a teaching environment. And let’s face it, we only had three women in positions of power in the show: Glynda was treated as the clean up maid, Sienna got stabbed, and Cordovin is definitely not what I would call leadership material. Winter would continue to a pillar of support and offer the group her well wishes (as well as threaten Qrow to make sure her sister comes back in one piece.

Willow Schnee

I think that her name hasn’t been confirmed in the show, but I like it and I need something to call her so I will address Mama Schnee as Willow.

You know, I’m not really fond of the dead parent cliché, but this is one case that I honestly wouldn’t have minded if they had killed her off. She had never been mentioned prior to Volume 4 (much like my next entry) and with Winter seeming very parental in her treatment of Weiss, I’m pretty sure most of the FNDM assumed she was dead. Then it turned out that she was alive, with her making no physical appearance in the show and is basically made out to be an uncaring drunk. And such a thing wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea if not for the fact that almost every mother in the show is either dead or terrible. We only have three good moms in the show and two thirds of them are a lesbian couple that was introduced after the halfway point last Volume.

Personally, I would keep her much more apparent in her children's lives. Being rather sad, maybe still have a little bit of too much alcohol from time to time, but make it clear that she does try to connect and be there for her children. This would lead to her kids viewing her in very different ways: Winter views her with scorn that she stays with Jacques while Whitley alters between ignoring her and seeking her comfort. Weiss would be the middle ground as she seeks to understand why Willow married Jacques and make her realize that she can leave him and there are people she can count on to help with that.

Which does lead to the reasons as to why Willow didn’t just divorce Jacques: half emotional abuse and half for her father and the company’s sake. As anyone who has been in an abusive relationship knows, it is very hard to leave when you get into it, especially if it feels like you don’t have anyone to help or support you. That is especially compounded when you consider that Jacques is the reason the SDC has managed to thrive and that a divorce of this kind might permanently damage the company. In fact, it would have been one of the main reasons she married Jacques and finding out how badly he took advantage of that power would be an utter shock to her. Her arc would be about her taking steps to get back to her old self and using her skills to aid others. She and Klein would watch over the company for Weiss (she never really had the skills or desire to take over the business, but realizes someone needs to watch over things for now) until she returns to take her place as the head of the SDC.

Whitley Schnee

If there is one character that has a significant divide in people’s opinion of them, it’s Whitley. Some people think of him as a potential victim of Jacques’ abuse while others think of him as a little shit. Personally, I lean towards the later as it seems Jacques does value Whitley (having a picture of him on his desk and none of his daughters and the family portrait has him smiling while everyone else looks very uncomfortable). Though to be honest, Jacques’ treatment of his children may be likely to get compliance to a degree, but unlikely to foster any genuine love and loyalty. So I get the impression that Whitley is not so much loyal to Jacques as loyal to his own interests and that is what I would play up.

Have him very much fall in line between Jacques in public and disparage his sisters, but show little hints of his true emotions when no one else is watching (either flashes of anger or impressed looks). A change I would have made in Volume 4 is him being there in the library as Weiss is leaving. Weiss would immediately assume he is there to stop her, but he is actually okay with her going. At this point, there’s no disadvantage to himself in letting her leave thus making him similar to Jacques in that he cares about his own interests first, but he’s not as controlling and is willing to let others do as they wish so long as they don’t interfere with his goals.

The Atlas Arc would involve him getting some snipes in at Weiss and her friends before getting a dose of reality in seeing exactly what a huntsman/huntress can do as well as watching the things he was sure would protect him fail and leave him vulnerable (like say, a White Fang assassination attempt). As such, he will abandon his father when things are at their most dire. After Weiss takes her heiress title back and takes over the company, that leaves the two with a very uncomfortable talk. Weiss does not like or trust her brother, but he is family and she would rather not have him as an enemy. So learning from her father’s strict control, she offers to pay for his education as well as a monthly stipend in exchange for signing a legal contract that he will not enter the SDC or join a competing dust company. Otherwise, he can do whatever he wants. There’s a bit of back and forth between the two of them ending with Whitley expressing genuine respect for his sister and wishing her well on her journey.

As for Klein, he is great as he is and I honestly wouldn’t change anything.

Those are my general thoughts on it. If you have anything to add, don’t hesitate to comment. Next time, I think I’ll be touching on a character that will be much more morally gray in this rewrite.

#rwde #rwby rewrite #jacques schnee #willow schnee #winter schnee #whitley schnee #nicholas schnee #guess you'll guess on the next one #klein sieben

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nicnacsnonsense · 5 years

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Character Arcs and Plot Progression in Moana

(Cross-posted on AO3)

Introduction

Moana is a good, solid movie. The animation is gorgeous, the characters are likable, and the songs are catchy and powerful (with one exception on those latter two, but apparently I’m in the minority on that opinion so we’ll just leave it at that). There are arguably a lot of clichés in it, but I don’t mind that, in theory. The ending was also really good and a fun flip on Disney current trend of twist villains.

All that said, this is a good movie, but it’s not a great one. When I watched it for the first time I left the theater feeling the world of Moana was disappointingly small and the emotional beats were often lacking. I’ve thought about this a lot off and on over the years, and have decided a lot of this is down to problems with three things: the general plot progression, Maui’s character arc, and Moana’s character arc.

In this post I’m going to break down what I think the problem is with each of these things, and propose one way you might fix each specific problem. Upcoming will be a second post which will be a script doctor of the entire movie with alternate solutions to all three problems that come together in a cohesive whole.

Disorganized Plot

Our story begins with Tala, henceforth referred to as Grandma, telling the story of how Maui stole the heart of Te Fiti in an attempt to give humanity the power of creation, but instead destroyed Te Fiti and caused darkness to descend across all of the Polynesia. Whoops. Within these first few minutes the plot of the upcoming movie is pretty clearly defined. Our protagonist will have to traverse treacherous waters in order to restore the heart of Te Fiti and save us all from encroaching death. A solid straight-forward premise with a lot of potential.

We then spend a while on Motunui, establishing Moana’s character and why she specifically is going to be the one going on this adventure. Our inciting incident occurs when Grandma tells Moana to get Maui to restore the heart of Te Fiti, then passes away. Moana leaves then finds Maui very quickly and faces no real challenge in getting him to join her. That is, while Moana does nominally face obstacles, the only things she does herself is get out of a cave. The ocean solves all her other problems for her – it rescues her from the storm, deposits her on the island where Maui is, (and there’s no challenges to finding him once she’s there) and the ocean thwarts Maui’s attempts to steal Moana’s boat or to leave himself. Because of this lack of difficulty and because Maui is our secondary main character, this feels less like step one on the adventure and more like the last bit of set up before we begin the journey.

Next we have an encounter with the Kakamora, then Moana finally convincing Maui to commit to the returning the heart, a trip to Lalotai to get Maui’s fishhook, what I like to call the nighttime conversation of deep sharing, a montage of Maui learning to use his hook again and Moana learning wayfind, a failed attempt to restore the heart, Moana’s lowest point and then finding her resolve, and finally the successful returning of the heart before we fall into the denouement. If we take out the character beats, we’re left with what amounts to a random encounter, then a fetch quest, then two attempts at the final boss. While the trip to retrieve the fishhook is necessary to complete before restoring the heart, as Maui needs the powers of the hook to hold Te Kā off, it feels more like a side quest, though that may be at least in part due to the whole sequence with Tamatoa feeling like something out of a completely different movie altogether. Meanwhile the encounter with the Kakamora is pointless and achieves nothing really. It could have been useful in making the world feel bigger and in selling how dangerous things are now without Te Fiti and her heart if it was one of a few such encounters, but by itself it just feels out of place.

As one possible alternative, we could have Moana not have the heart when she sets out. Maybe the ocean showed it’s choosing of her a different way, or maybe she wasn’t chosen at all, she just sets out to do it because it needs doing. In this version Moana’s only objective is to find Maui to ask him to restore the heart. She finds Maui after overcoming some genuinely difficult obstacle on her own, and makes the ask. Maui agrees, and Moana’s like great, mission achieved! And Maui’s like yeah, sure, buuut I actually need you to take me to get my hook first. So they go to Lalotai and get the hook from Tamatoa. And Moana’s like great, now you can restore the heart! And Maui’s like totally, buuut we need to find the heart first, I don’t actually have it. So they journey to the area of the ocean where Maui thinks he dropped it and they manage to retrieve it after overcoming some obstacle. One possible idea there is for them to encounter an island covered with a profusion of plants, all way larger than normal, causing to think, yep, that’s probably where Te Fiti’s life-giving heart is; how fortunate it’s just being used by plants and not been found by a monster. Except it turns out in addition to growing large and plentiful, Te Fiti’s heart has also caused the plants to grow sentient, and they don’t want to give the heart up. Moana and Maui successfully retrieve the heart, and at that point we can proceed to the confrontations with Te Kā more or less as per canon.

This plot progression allows our lead up to confronting Te Kā and restoring the heart to now become a series of finding x, then y, then z, then the final confrontation. Each thing Moana finds flows into needing to find the next thing, making the story more cohesive as a whole.

Additionally we can take our three major character beats that all take place between Lalotai and Te Fiti – the nighttime conversation of deep sharing, Maui relearning to use his hook, and Moana learning to wayfind – and spread them out between the plot beats. So we have Moana finds Maui and secures his help. Then on the way to Lalotai Maui teaches Moana about wayfinding. They get the hook back from Tamatoa, then on the way to the heart, Moana helps Maui to figure out how to use it again. Finally, as they are approaching Te Fiti, heart and hook in hand, they have a nighttime conversation of deep sharing. By spreading these out it should help build a feeling of distance between each location, making the journey seem longer and the world bigger.

Maui’s Vague Arc

Maui’s arc baffles me, in that I’m not sure what it’s even supposed to be. This I think comes back to what I mentioned earlier about not minding clichés in theory. The problem is with Maui it feels as though they decided on the cliché “disillusioned loner becomes a hero through the power of friendship” and then started applying story and character beats that went with that cliché without considering how those tropes would interact together or with the narrative. The result is a bit of a mess.

As mentioned before the movie opens with the story of Maui stealing the heart of Te Fiti. What’s weird about this is everything about the story, both in the way it’s told and in the way it’s visually presented frame Maui as the villain. This works fine on the first watch because even though even someone who lives in a cave still saw the Blu-ray box art and knows Maui is going to be a good guy, it’s plausible he wasn’t one at the time. On a rewatch though it’s weird to see Maui’s fairly menacing expressions during this story. Still, it can be argued this is Grandma telling the story to the best of her understanding, which is not necessarily a complete and accurate one, and the visuals merely reflect that. Okay, but that raises the issue of why Grandma would ever think asking Maui to restore the heart would be a good idea. In the scenario where Maui stole the heart to give to mankind, it makes sense to go to him and say, “Thanks for the thought, but this is working out pretty terribly for us, so we’d like you to return the heart.” But why would you approach someone who attempted to steal something for their personal benefit and give them that object and think they’ll go give it back to its rightful owner? How does that follow? But okay, we’ll go with it. Maybe Grandma is worried since Maui took the heart, he’s the only one who can put it back.

Moving forward, Moana arrives on Maui’s island and confronts him only for him to reveal, plot twist, he’s actually a hero who stole the heart not for himself, but for mankind. Except then we get an immediate plot twist back that Maui is a selfish jerk who leaves Moana to die in a cave, refuses to help her restore the heart, and then leaves her to be killed by the Kakamora. But twist back again, he really does want to be a hero to all and Moana is able to use that desire to get him to agree to restore the heart. But that doesn’t stop him from continually trying to get out of it, as though this is something Moana is forcing him to do rather than something she’s convinced him to do, and being extremely dismissive of and arguably flat-out mean to Moana.

The thing of it is there are a lot of different ways you could explain his behavior. Maybe he really does care about mankind and want to be a hero again, but he’s so afraid of Te Kā/convinced the heart is a genuine curse on him for stealing it that he can’t face this one particular task, and he’s lashing out at Moana for dragging him into it, despite deep down knowing she’s right. Maybe he wants to be a hero again because he wants the adulation of mankind, but he doesn’t actually care about people and feels this task is too much of a risk to be worth it. Maybe he’s only agreed because the ocean is basically refusing to give him a choice and he feels forced into it. Maybe he only agreed as a way of conning Moana into taking him to get his fishhook back, and he only decides he’s actually going to help with the Te Fiti thing after she saves him from Tamatoa. Any of these could work, but the movie pursues none of them, leaving his motivations unexplained and confusing.

Back to the plot, next they go to Lalotai and Maui gets his hook back, finds he can no longer use it effectively, and almost gets killed by Tamatoa, only to be saved by Moana’s quick thinking. There’s also a point in Tamatoa’s song where he references Maui having been abandoned in the past and brings attention to one of Maui’s tattoos. After they escape Lalotai, there’s a brief moment where Maui expresses a new found appreciation for Moana because she saved his life, but that character connection is immediately undercut by the humor of Maui’s hook continuing to malfunction.

Cut to later, and our nighttime conversation of deep sharing. Though it technically appears to be astronomical twilight as opposed to true night, but that’s less important than all the other ways this scene falls flat. The scene begins with Maui being despondent about his hook not working. Eventually he sits up with his back to Moana, prompting her to ask about his tattoo. We find out over the course of the ensuing argument that she believes the story behind the tattoo could explain why he can’t use his hook anymore. If they’re not really thinking about it, this can make sense to the audience. We were just shown this tattoo in a way that emphasizes to the us that this is important right after we were shown Maui’s inability to use his hook. In that context, Moana’s insistent questioning is justified – saving her dying island and presumably every island dying everywhere is more important than Maui’s reticence over talking about his personal issues.

But once you move past the framing and think about the logic of the situation, that assumption makes no sense. Why would this tattoo showing a woman chucking a baby into the ocean have anything to do with Maui’s hook? Why would you think any of his tattoos have anything to do with it? It’s been a thousand years since he’s had his hook; shouldn’t your base assumption be he’s out of practice and he just needs to keep at it until he can get back into the swing of things? In that context Moana’s questioning comes off as harassment. She asked him about something personal, he declined to answer and she kept asking and asking over repeated protests and even smacked him with her oar a couple times. Not hard, but she’s still hitting him. Eventually he grabs the oar away from her, throwing her into the ocean in the process.

When she gets back on the boat Moana reminds Maui of what’s at stake and says she only wants to help. Okay, fine Moana’s made this weird assumption, but given that her behavior is understandable, and it makes sense that her half-apology, half-explanation would placate Maui. What doesn’t make sense is why this would prompt Maui to explain the tattoo. Because while Moana might make a weird assumption, Maui should know the tattoo has nothing to do with his hook. It can’t, despite what the movie tries to imply, because that is something that happened when he was an infant, and he successfully used the hook for many years after it.

Maui tells her his backstory which is basically his parents threw him away, the gods gave him his fishhook and made him the demigod Maui, and then he went back to humans and started doing stuff for them, but it was never enough. What “it” was and who it wasn’t enough for is left undefined; best guess is that the adulation of humanity was never enough to give him a sense of real self-worth. Moana tells him essentially maybe the gods and the ocean chose him because they thought he was worth something and also self-worth comes from within not from gods or magic fishhooks. This comes off more as clichéd advice born of general sympathy than true friendship and deep empathy, which is not particularly emotionally satisfying, even if it does make sense as Moana doesn’t really know Maui that well and they aren’t friends at this point, or arguably ever.

Regardless, this encouragement is enough to give Maui renewed hope and he tries the hook again and everything goes perfectly. So he’s told he doesn’t need the hook and that’s the key to let him use it again. Apparently he was having performance issues, and he just needed to relax and let it happen naturally… One hopes that wasn’t the metaphor they were deliberately going for, but there it is.

After that we have the back to back learning montages, then the first confrontation with Te Kā, then Maui and Moana’s falling out where Maui leaves. I’ll come back to this scene later, but for now in specific reference to Maui’s character and his character and actions alone, it actually works well. His anger at Moana feels justified, and his psychological reliance on his hook has been established enough it feels believable that the possibility of losing it would cause him to leave.

Then he comes back and offers literally zero explanation as to why he did so. Not even a stupid joking one. He just kind of laughs awkwardly and goes to fight Te Kā. This would be fine if he had seemed conflicted when he left or if we had seen something in between leaving and coming back showing him reconsidering, but failing that there needs to be some indication of why he changed his mind. As it stands, the end of his character arc here falls flat because while his return indicates some sort of growth, we don’t know how he’s grown or what triggered that growth.

I have so many ideas of different ways you could take this character arc, probably because it’s so vague. That being said, since I’ve talked about this a lot already, I’ll stick to one fairly simple one here. You can keep everything the same except for two scenes, the one where he leaves and the one where he comes back.

The scene where he leaves would start the same, with him angry at Moana and blaming the damage to his hook on her and her need to prove she’s special. But in this version, she turns it back around on him. She’s not the one with the need to prove she’s special, she’s just trying to save her island. Maui’s the one who wants everyone to think he’s the hero of man, but a real hero would have tried to restore the heart of Te Fiti the second he realized what a mistake he’d made, not sat around in his cave and sulked for a millennium. He doesn’t care about humans, he just wants them to worship him to make up for his parents never loving him. Moana immediately realizes she went too far, but Maui leaves before she can apologize.

When Maui comes back she tells him she’s sorry, and he accepts it. He agrees that she crossed a line, but at the same time acknowledges she was mostly right about him. If he wants to be a hero, then he needs to start acting like one. Thank you, you’re welcome exchange, because that part is amazing and gives me shivers, then the rest of the movie as per canon.

Just these two adjustments fix so much. The inclusion of Maui’s backstory with his parents now feels necessary because it comes back later. Maui’s accusation that Moana risked their lives to feel special is no longer supported by the narrative – which is odd as it’s never a part of her character elsewhere – but called out as him projecting. His desire to be a hero contradicting with his actions and treatment of Moana is now a feature, not a bug. And finally his character arc is clearly defined as him starting as a fake hero only in it for the accolades to bolster his own sense of worth and growing to become a real hero in it to help people because he was inspired by Moana’s example.

Moana’s Disjointed Arc

Moana’s character arc is kind of bizarre. The opening establishes her central character conflict very well: she’s pulled between her responsibilities as the daughter of the village chief and next in line to lead – represented by the song “Where You Are” – and her own personal desire to voyage the ocean – represented by the song “How Far I’ll Go.” Then toward the end during her lowest moment, Grandma’s ghost shows up to comfort Moana, and Moana realizes these two disparate parts of herself can exist in harmony and together they make up who she is – represented by the song “I Am Moana” which is reprise of both “Where You Are” and “How Far I’ll Go.” It’s very moving and bringing those two songs back is very powerful, except…

Except there is nothing related to this character arc between those key points. Ultimately it’s less of a character arc and more of a pair of character pillars with nothing connecting them. The reason we don’t see any of this struggle during the middle part of the movie is it is fundamentally incompatible with plot as they have it. Moana’s character conflict is between her duty to her people and her love of the ocean, and the plot is her saving her people by going on an ocean adventure. There is no conflict there. The conflict was resolved the moment Grandma gave her the heart of Te Fiti and told her to restore it.

This causes a problem toward the end, because when there is no conflict, then the only way to cause her to hit that low moment and give up is by making her feel like she failed, but that’s doesn’t give us the veneer of crisis of self we need to justify the next song and to make it feel as though her arc has been completed. So the movie throws this conflict at us where when Maui leaves he tells Moana the ocean was wrong to choose her, and this apparently breaks her and makes her give up. Except, Moana never seems particularly concerned about the whole “Chosen One” aspect. Maui harps on it much more than she does. She’s here because she wants to save her people. During their nighttime conversation of deep sharing Moana explicitly says, “I don’t know why the ocean chose me. You’re right. But my island is dying, so I am here.”

As a side note to that, the whole idea of Moana being chosen is a little weird, because throughout most of the movie everyone seems convinced Maui is going to be the one to actually restore the heart. This means what Moana was chosen to do was to take Maui to Te Fiti. Maybe it’s just me, but water taxi doesn’t feel like a job that requires a chosen one.

If we want to keep this same character arc, then we’re going to need to make some changes to the plot. We’re going to really embrace the rebellious princess cliché. In this version Moana feels a lot of pressure at the idea of becoming the next chief of the village, compounded by her certainty she won’t be able to live up to her father’s example and also by the unexplained blight that has recently began destroying their crops and killing off the fish. Sailing is her one escape from everything. Moana gets older, the blight gets worse, and the pressure continues to grow. Grandma dies, and that’s the final straw – Moana straight-up runs away. No noble intentions, no heart of Te Fiti – at this point Moana’ doesn’t even know the heart’s been stolen – Moana just can’t take it anymore and leaves.

Soon after leaving she runs into Maui and, being a big fan of his from all the stories of the cool things he’s done, asks if she can voyage with him. He agrees to let her join him on his quest, but remains vague about the exact nature of it at first. They voyage together for a while and overcome a number of obstacles. Said obstacles can be things Maui says need to do to move their as of yet undefined quest forward or they can be random encounters like the Kakamora are in canon. Finally, during their nighttime conversation of deep sharing, Maui tells her the story of how he tried to give humanity the gift of creation by stealing the heart of Te Fiti and how he seriously firetrucked that up big time. He’s spent a long time running away from his mistake, but now he’s going to own up to his responsibilities. He gives Moana an out before their confrontation with Te Kā because of how dangerous it will be, but Moana reaffirms her intention to help.

They face off against Te Kā, and Moana nearly dies. She freaks out because this is way beyond what she wanted. She wanted to explore and have adventures, not face a real and imminent threat of death. She doesn’t want to do this anymore, so Maui leaves to try again on his own. Moana descends into an existential crisis: being a voyager is not what she thought it’d be and her guilt over abandoning Maui brings back the guilt over abandoning her people she’d been suppressing. Stingray Grandma shows up to comfort her, and makes the revelation the blight on Motunui is being caused by Te Fiti’s lost heart. Moana realizes that abandoning her people, though wrong, is what brought her to where she was meant to be to save them. These two sides of herself come together because she can fulfill her duty to her people by being herself and she can face the dangers on her chosen path if it’s to help her people. She heads back to Te Kā and Maui, and this time she’s the one who enters the battle at the pivotal moment to turn the tide. The rest again goes more or less per canon.

This way there is genuine conflict between Moana’s people and her love of the sea until the moment of resolution at the end. Further, Moana’s lowest moment is now caused by an actual existential crisis, not just a lack of confidence in her ability to do the task, so it makes sense it would be resolved with a realization of self. And as a bonus you can still use the song “I Am Moana” without changing it all, because if anything I feel it fits this version of the story even better than canon.

Conclusion

I just want to close out with two quick reminders. First of all, despite my complaining I do think this was a good movie, and I would recommend it to anyone who loves the classic Disney animated movies. Secondly I do plan to write another script doctor for this movie this time addressing all three of these issues I found in different ways than I have above and in a ways that work together cohesively. Finally, if you have thoughts on this, if you agree with me, if you disagree, if you have an idea that I didn’t consider here, I would love to hear it and discuss it!

Next part is here.

#Moana #Disney #Maui #meta #fan essay

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Jessica Jones - ‘A.K.A. I Have No Spleen’ Review

"My name on your case file does not make me a victim."

Jessica Jones is forced to confront her own vulnerability.

You can imagine how well that goes.

There's something interesting going on this season with Jessica Jones and the way they're layering the plot across episodes, and I'm really grooving on it.

'The Perfect Burger' and 'You're Welcome' pulled the time honored conceit of telling more or less the same story from two different perspectives for the sake of making some interesting character contrasts and burying a couple of reveals. That's usually a good trick, structurally speaking, since not only does it allow you to do some character exploration, it also has the bonus effect of making your season feel more tightly focused. 'I Have No Spleen' pulls another variation on this trick by essentially having Jessica spend the entire episode pursuing a false assumption that is ultimately revealed to be a mare's nest before it circles back to the exact same ending point that the previous two episodes shared and giving us some new and unexpected information.

So, that's essentially an entire episode's run time devoted to a side quest that turns out to be irrelevant and mostly serves to mark time until Jessica can be in the right place under the right circumstances to finally pick up the real scent. I say that pretty baldly, which makes it sound like a criticism, but it absolutely is not. It allows a lot of space for character work without feeling like the plot is treading water, and like the technique used in the first two episodes results in the storyline maintaining a lean and focused feel, which is a really good look for the show. If there was a specific complaint I had about season two, it was that it often felt more sprawling and unfocused than it was intending to be. These first three episodes feel like a very specifically designed course correction to that.

There's a clever use of audience assumptions here, since we're all more or less on the same incorrect page. We and Jessica are assuming that she was the target of the attack, and that therefore the attacker must be someone who has a beef with Jessica. This naturally leads both Costa and Jessica to assume that it's one of her clients, since the quickest way to get irritated with Jessica is to have met her. Jessica takes it one step further and assumes that it must be the work of Andrew Brandt, her most recent investigatee. Brandt is of course the ever-so-charming gentleman who had his sister beaten up in order to acquire a statue, and the resident of the apartment that Trish and Jessica both ended up in. See both previous episodes for that complete story.

Of course, that turns out to be not at all what's going on, and we'll talk about that in just a moment, but let's dig into what this episode really had on its mind when it wasn't pretending to be hot on the trail of Jessica's attacker. This episode was about two women who see themselves almost entirely in terms of eliminating all trace of vulnerability from their lives, and what happens when they have the illusion of invulnerability stripped away.

Speaking of invulnerability for just a moment, I can't have been the only one who'd forgotten that Jessica wasn't technically invulnerable, right? When she was stabbed I was genuinely surprised and had a very clear moment of, 'Wait, she can't be hurt, can she?' We get so used to heroes with super strength and the power of jumping really high that we subconsciously just assume that freedom from being hurt is part of the standard package. And of course, it isn't. If it was, Luke Cage wouldn't be so special. Well, sure, his abs would still be pretty special, but that's beside the point I'm making at the moment.

One of the goals for Jessica this season is an attempt to live as a hero. She's genuinely trying to be a better person and to use her powers in a heroic way, as a result of the events of last season. But in her mind, in order to be a hero you have to be invulnerable and she has just had it proved that she is not. That's an incorrect assumption on her part, of course, but it really makes sense for her as a character that she would see things that way. This was actually a really nice way for the show to pick back up the most successful aspect of season one, the way it addressed the sexual assault survivor metaphor. In Jessica's situation, with what Jessica has been through, nothing can be as important to her as her sense of self protection. No burger is perfect enough to protect Erik Gelden if he was in any way responsible for taking that away from her.

Jessica's plan for regaining the sense of control that she needs just to get through her day to day life is to solve the mystery of her attack on her own and not let the police handle it, which is entirely on brand for her. It's touching that Costa kind of gets that and lets her do it. Her plan gets a bit of a setback when she finds out she's been on entirely the wrong track, however, and it's here where the episode shows what I was talking about earlier in regard to a 'treading water' plot not being without value. This is the story of Jessica Jones needing a win in order to regain her sense of security, and not getting it, and that's a story worth telling. Particularly as the thing that ultimately allows her to stay in the hospital and thereby metaphorically accept temporary vulnerability, is the text of help from Jeri Hogarth.

Jeri is Jessica's mirror at this point. She's starting to be unable to ignore the impending acceleration of her ALS symptoms and is desperate to find ways to regain the sense that she's in control of her own life. Unfortunately, for Jeri that seems to involve deliberately seducing her ex-lover in an attempt to break up that ex-lover's current happy marriage, which is... I mean, where do you even begin to unpack that? The look of disappointment on Jeri's face when she finds out that Kith and Peter have an open marriage, and therefore her successful seduction of Kith was entirely meaningless, is heartbreaking and complicated. And look at that, it occurs at exactly the same point in the plot as Jessica's lowest moment in the hospital.

What makes this all fascinating is the scene which is really the emotional core of the entire episode. Jeri comes to Jessica's office, and among other things they discuss one another's current weaknesses. What's fascinating is the fact that they're both constantly attempting to turn the conversation away from their own problem and instead express sympathy and support for the other's. Neither of them can bear to be the object of concern for even a moment, despite the fact that they both quite clearly do care about one another's troubles and the expressions of sympathy they're making are 100% genuine. They're just also a way to avoid receiving sympathy themselves. That's just a great scene.

As for the side characters, They carry on much the same. Malcolm continues his journey to the heart of 'pliable ethics.' Trish continues to embrace the life of a superhero with all the verve of a college freshman who just discovered environmentalism, and is just as intolerable while doing it. Although it was hard not to sympathize with her when her co-host told her she was born to sell crappy clothes on shopping TV. Trish and Jessica's relationship has always been my favorite thing about this show, and I have such grave concerns about where this final season is going to leave them.

And while I'm sharing concerns and hopes, could Malcolm's new girlfriend Zaya maybe not turn out to be evil? Please? Because I'm getting a serious 'I'm going to turn out to be evil' vibe from her. Similarly, I'm really hoping that Erik the burger guy doesn't turn out to be evil, although I find him kind of attractive and everything in my personal dating history guarantees that that means he's evil.

Of course, the real winner of this episode is clearly Doctor 'I Love to Make Spleen Puns.' Totally loved that guy.

Bits and Pieces:

-- I really enjoyed the detail that the hospital totally understands about superhumans and factors that into patient care. That was just a really nice bit of world building.

-- Does Jessica's superpower set involve having a better than average immune response? Because what the show said was accurate; the duties of the spleen are also taken on by the liver and, to a lesser extent, the lymph nodes, but maybe Jessica doesn't want to put too much reliance on her liver handling the job. I'm just saying.

-- Did Jeri have any reason other than trying to break up Kith's marriage to have Malcolm spy on Peter? I think I might have missed something significant regarding that.

-- Minor quibble, but the hospital would have discussed her spleen situation with her before getting Jessica a medic alert bracelet. For one thing, insurance tends to not cover them, and for another they take a bit to get made. There's no way that she would have found out she'd lost her spleen that way. I get that it's 'show don't tell' narrative shorthand, but I felt obligated to put the real information out there.

-- While we're talking sound medical advice from your considerate television review website, blood in your urine (for males) is absolutely typical after blunt force trauma to the torso, and typically will be released before the flow of urine, not after. It's most often nothing to be concerned about, but check with your doctor if it persists or worsens. DouxReviews is not a medical practitioner, and should not be viewed as a source of diagnostic feedback.

-- I was just thinking that Jessica shouldn't be able to walk around as casually as she was doing when she collapsed and passed out. Thank you, show.

-- I suppose that, technically, what happened to Wendy in season one might be described as a tragic accident. But that feels like underselling it.

-- Reading between the lines, Jeri cheated on Kith with Wendy and then left Kith for her.

-- My favorite moment of kindness that I've seen on television for ages: Malcolm, knowing that Jessica would resent any help he gave her as pity, prepared a bill for his time in advance so that she had an out to protect her dignity. That actually made me go 'Awwww' out loud.

-- I adore Gillian, Jessica's new assistant, and have a million questions about her backstory.

Quotes:

Doctor: "That's what I'm trying to ex-spleen to you." It's hard not to love the doctor.

Jessica: "Where would a liter of bourbon a day fall on the reckless scale?"

Jeri: "The Cale Caesar is quite filling." Kith: "Talk about faint praise."

Kith: "See? All of the wine."

Jessica: "A hero is strong. A hero is invulnerable. A hero has a goddamn spleen."

Jessica: "You've been a hero for five minutes. I've been one half my life." Trish: "You've been super, Jess. There's a difference."

Gillian: "It's 12:29. I'm taking lunch. And there's a client waiting in the office. Should I tell them you've recently been the victim of a violent crime and are currently indisposed?"

A really focused and well structured entry into a season that I feel is only just getting started. I mean that in the best possible way. I think the word I'm looking for here is 'disciplined.'

Eight out of ten cases of unabashed verve.

---

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

#Jessica Jones #Trish Walker #Jeri Hogarth #Malcolm Ducasse #Marvel #MCU #Jessica Jones Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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benperorsolo · 5 years

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Can we really call SW a fairy tale? Because the modern understanding of the fairy tale is very much shaped by Disney and that’s just in the 20th and 21st century. Older fairy tales tended to be a lot darker if I’m not mistaken, and SW always seemed to draw on older things like myths and heroic journeys. I’ve listened to the commentary where JJ said “if” SW was a fairy tale, but I think he was making a comparative point about how it wasn’t a fairy tale. I don’t know I’m probably wrong

Yes, we can call it a fairy tale. George Lucas has called it a fairy tale multiple times.

“Rather than do some angry, socially relevant film…I realized there was another relevance that is even more important — dreams and fantasies, getting children to believe there is more to life than garbage and killing…Once I got into STAR WARS, it struck me that we had lost all that — a whole generation was growing up without fairy tales. You just don’t get them anymore, and that’s the best stuff in the world — adventures in far-off lands. It’s fun.” (x)

“I realized a more destructive element in the culture would be a whole generation of kids growing up without that thing, because I had also done a study on, I don’t know what you call it, I call it the fairy tale or the myth. It is a children’s story in history and you go back to the Odyssey or the stories that are told for the kid in all of us.” (x)

“Well, I had a real problem because I was afraid that science-fiction buffs and everybody would say things like, “You know there’s no sound in outer space”. I just wanted to forget science. That would take care of itself. Stanley Kubrick made the ultimate science-fiction movie and it is going to be very hard for somebody to come along and make a better movie, as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t want to make a 2001, I wanted to make a space fantasy that was more in the genre of Edgar Rice Burroughs; that whole other end of space fantasy that was there before science took it over in the Fifties. Once the atomic bomb came, everybody got into monsters and science and what would happen with this and what would happen with that. I think speculative fiction is very valid but they forgot the fairy tales and the dragons and Tolkien and all the real heroes.” (x)

“Indeed, it was his fascination with children and his penchant for looking at the world as if he were still a child himself that led him off on his whole “Star Wars” odyssey. And it was in no small measure because he had young children of his own that he continued trying to see the world through youthful eyes. It was from this impulse that what he calls his “modern day fairy tale” – formed out of a transnational pantheon of mythological figures that became the serial morality play known as “Star Wars” – continued to develop.” (x)

Additionally, George talks often about how Star Wars is not meant to be realistic but rather irrationally romantic and idealistic:

“So I made my bid to try to make everything a little more romantic. Jesus, I’m hoping that if the film accomplishes anything, it takes some ten-year-old kid and turns him on so much to outer space and the possibilities of romance and adventure. Not so much an influence that would create more Wernher von Brauns or Einsteins, but just infusing them into serious exploration of outer space and convincing them that it’s important. Not for any rational reason, but a totally irrational and romantic reason.” (x)

“You can’t, and how do you explain a Wookiee to an audience, and how do you get the tone of the film right, so it’s not a silly child’s film, so it’s not playing down to people, but it is still an entertaining movie and doesn’t have a lot of violence and sex and hip new stuff? So it still has a vision to it, a sort of wholesome, honest vision about the way you want the world to be.” (x)

“I wanted to make a kids’ film that would strengthen contemporary mythology and introduce a kind of basic morality. Everybody’s forgetting to tell the kids, ‘Hey, this is right and this is wrong.‘” (x)

So.

Yes. Star Wars is a fairy tale. Period.

Not only is it a fairy tale, but it is a fairy tale that does not even pretend to be real science fiction. George expresses total disinterest in making Star Wars anything resembling ‘hard’ sci fi, as well as a total disdain for realism. Star Wars, as George says, is planetary romance in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter, etc) whose purpose is to uplift children (yes— Star Wars is for children) with a modern fairy tale that touches them the same way campy pulp like Flash Gordon touched George Lucas. Star Wars is supposed to inspire children and the child in all of us to aspire to a better, more moral way of life. It’s supposed to make us believe, as George says, that ‘there is more to life than garbage and killing’; to remind us ‘of the possibilities of romance and adventure.’ Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what you think the definition of a fairy tale is. This is what George means when he talks about Star Wars being a fairy tale. Pulp, romance, and idealism taking people to the stars. There are so many quotes by George detailing this from one article that I quoted alone that I couldn’t fit them all. To claim that Star Wars ever was about realism or some sort of gritty dark mythos in outer space is just ignorant.

Additionally, I think you are making a false dichotomy between myths and fairy tales. They are the same thing. Fairy tales are an iteration of mythology. Older mythology is not magically darker than current mythology— the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen are not the only people who ever wrote fairy tales, and frankly speaking, they are early modern authors from a historical standpoint. To set up the Hero’s Journey in contrast with the optimism of modern fairy tales is also just…factually not correct. The basic steps of the Hero’s Journey are in Campbell’s own words:

“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” (x)

The structure of the Hero’s Journey is one of leaving the ordinary world, encountering trials and suffering, reaching the Abyss (this is Campbell’s term) or lowest point, overcoming this abyss, and then returning to the ordinary world full of wisdom to share with your fellow man. To suggest that this journey is a) separate or different than the structure of the fairy tale or b) more ‘realistic’ or ‘darker’ than a fairy tale is incorrect. Fairy tales are examples of the Hero’s Journey, and the Hero’s Journey basically outlines a happy ending: the hero overcomes his demons and returns victorious back to his home to share what he has learned with others.

Lastly, I don’t agree with your interpretation of JJ’s commentary quote. The quote is:

“For example, we looked at it like a Western, or a fairy tale…You’re probably going to have a castle and a prince and a princess, if you’re looking at a fairy tale. We wanted to have these fundamental, not cosmetic, but prerequisite elements, these locations in which we can set our new story and our new characters…But when his mask comes off, you see Adam Driver, and he just looks like a sort of prince.“ (x)

So, not to be rude, but I think you’re just not interpreting this quote correctly. JJ didn’t say, ‘If this were a fairy tale x would happen, but it’s actually y so z will happen.” He explicitly said —like literally, I have it bolded—:

“We looked at it like a Western, or a fairy tale.”

JJ is explicitly saying that they viewed TFA as a fairy tale, and because they viewed it as a fairy tale, they included elements like castles, and princes, and princesses, and then goes on to say Adam Driver is made up to look like a prince. He’s saying: if Star Wars is a fairy tale, then it must have these elements, and then goes on to explain how it does, as a direct consequence of intentionally shaping it to be one.

#nonnie #asks #meta #fairy tale #for my own purposes so i can find this ask again bc this took a long time

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