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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Divide”

Hello, everyone, and welcome back! It feels good to be doing some normal RWBY-ing in this strange world of ours. First, some supplementary materials.

Number One: In response to any (valid) questions along the lines of, “Hey Clyde, it’s now been a full year since Volume 7 was airing and you still haven’t answered my ask about it. Or the ones about Volume 6… what’s up with that?” I’ve created what I hope is an informative video detailing the problem:

vimeo

(I assure you, the Earth, Wind & Fire was a happy accident during the screen recording.)

Needless to say, there’s a lot and I’ve known for some time now that I will LITERALLY never get through all my asks. Which doesn’t mean I don’t want you to send future thoughts in! Just know that as we head into Volume 8 territory I’ll most likely prioritize those, as well as any Volume 7 asks that aren’t woefully out of date. But I do want everyone to know that I read all the asks I receive, appreciate them immensely, and think too much about hypothetical answers, even if I don’t have time to actually write them out 💜

Number Two: There’s a bingo board this year!

Jury’s out on whether I’ll remember to update it, but at the very least this serves as a decent glimpse into my — and others’ — expectations going into this volume.

Number Three: I’ve collected a list of things I’ve heard about Volume 8 from what seem to be reputable sources. I did this because RT is developing a tendency to talk up certain points and then fail to deliver, either because something was taken out of a volume/moved to another, or because RT apparently has radically different ideas about what including something means. So this might be handy to keep on file and ask ourselves two months from now, “Did RT actually deliver on what they promised?”

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

I was also going to include a list of all the threads that need to be continued/wrapped up, but honestly that would have taken too large a chunk off my life. Let’s just throw out the highlights:

Are we really going to have Qrow gunning for Ironwood?

Clover is dead regardless. Press ‘F’ to pay respects

Oscar bb you got shot please acknowledge this

Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this

Penny is a Maiden now. I feel like the fandom has been sleeping on this (myself included)

Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake.

Ren spill your deep dark secret already and it had better be something more than just ‘Oh no Nora might someday die :( ’

Salem is here so how the actual fuck is the cast surviving this?

Will Ironwood likewise survive his descent into antagonism? Yes or please yes no?

I think that’s all the biggies. I strive to keep lists like this in mind while analyzing, but honestly RWBY has a hundred moving parts that are abandoned or changed or simply retconned at the drop of a hat. So an attempt will be made.

Number Four (last one I promise!): Normal disclaimers and reminders for Recaps apply:

Please don’t fill up the already full inbox with flames. It’s still 2020. No one has time for that nonsense.

There will absolutely be typos and wonky parts because I try to get these out the same day an episode premieres. I have now been working on this for ten hours, nearly straight, and have no more energy for edits. Apologies in advance and RIP to my Saturdays.

I reserve the right to use stupid GIFs and memes at my discretion.

I strive to keep my focus on recapping/analyzing but salt tends to worm its way in… If you’re a die-hard RWBY fan with little patience for criticism, let alone (at times) snarky criticism, please proceed with caution.

No wait I lied, this is the last thing:

Okay, got that out of my system LET’S DO THIS!

We start not with the episode itself but rather Rooster Teeth’s (RT’s) strange non-promotion of it. If you follow my blog you may have caught the post where I pointed out that there was nothing on RT’s website to suggest that one of their most popular shows—if not the most popular show—was premiering today. Nothing on the main page. Nothing on the RWBY page either, not unless you count the Volume 8 poster background (easily mistaken for the Volume 7 poster) and the trailer buried all the way down past Episodes, past Merch, in the Bonus Features section along with videos like Live From Remnant and the volume intros. RT… the promotion of your feature show is not a bonus. This should be front and center! Honest to god, five minutes before the episode dropped I was checking the website for a Volume 8 section, a countdown, anything that would tell me the episode was imminent without relying on fans on tumblr to keep me in the loop. We got nada, zilch. I’m not sure whether that speaks more to RT’s iffy management of the series or simply the website’s horrible design—RIP losing RWBY on Youtube—but I was surprised when I saw the episode a few minutes after 11:00am. At that point I honestly expected to hear about a dely.

So that’s the mood I entered the premiere in, but truly? We start off strong. Things take a pretty severe nosedive later on, we’ll get to that, but I was impressed with our beginning and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that we start with our villains.

We open on a Cinderella character, Cinder, and thus I’m immediately pleased that we’re getting something about her backstory after all this time. Seven years! She appeared in episode one, folks! To say we’re overdue is an understatement. There isn’t a whole lot to go on, just a younger Cinder sadly scrubbing the floor, poised under a spotlight. What we learn, or potentially learn, is based far more in cultural knowledge than this scene. We know Cinderella’s story, which includes the abusive family, the longing for more, the eventual escape, and thus we’re able to read all of that in this image, despite the image itself not telling us any of this overtly. That means we could be wrong in our interpretation, but if we’re not it’s an easy shorthand in an already packed story.

What I’m really impressed with is the sound bridge between the scrubbing and her nails on the back of Neo’s chair. Fantastic way to confirm that this is Cinder as well as showcasing just how far she’s come. The sound of her labor has been replaced with the sound of her power and given that Cinder’s power is stolen, tied to a grimm arm, the property of a genocidal maniac… that’s messed up. It’s a Cinderella story gone wrong.

So yeah, Cinder tells Neo to head straight into the creepy, grimm infested blood cloud to see Salem and Neo is like, ‘Uh… no thank you?’ lol.

RT does a good job this episode with her expressions, ensuring we know exactly what she’s thinking despite an unwillingness/inability to speak.

Poor Neo might be in too deep, but I quite like the overall atmosphere of this opening. Say what we will about Salem’s awful characterization, at least she has style. This woman knows how to make an entrance and, piggybacking off of the Apathy, RT knows how to infuse horror elements into their fantasy. The red and purple coloring of the clouds, spiked whale teeth peeking through, bright orange in the background looking like explosions… that’s all 👌 Including the intro card.

The only thing I want to gripe about is this:

I’m sorry, why does the whale grimm have landing pads? Or something like it?? The whale otherwise works because it’s poised between the natural and the fantasy synthetic. It looks like a real grimm whale on the outside, but is sporting a throne room, a control panel, and other unnatural elements on the inside. It’s a visual indicator of Salem’s ability to control and change grimm. Now though, the additions are wrong, infringing on the line between organic and tech, the line between what helps the grimm individually (giving monkeys wings) and what just helps Salem. Every other aspect of the whale straddles that line wonderfully, adding to the creep factor, like a grimm version of the Uncanny Valley: it’s not quite a whale anymore… but landing pads? That looks ridiculous. Why does Salem even have that? How many ships are her people feasibly using? Why are there five?

Take it away, please.

Cinder waltzes in like this is a normal home visit, but Neo has an appropriate ‘What the actual fuck?’ face going on.

They approach Salem on her throne where Cinder immediately kneels, greeting her with, “My queen.” I mentioned during my trailer breakdown that I think Cinder is lying her ass off here, and I still think that based on a line we’ll get in a minute, but now at least we have a sense of how she can pull this off. A woman who started out as a (presumed) servant is going to know how to mimic subservience, even if her heart isn’t in it. Salem is very good at playing the girl who will still kneel and scrub the floor for you. She will scrub the floor, she’ll do everything you want, she’ll just be plotting her own rise to power while she does it.

There’s quite a bit of interesting cinematography in this episode, not all of it good, and I think one of the mistakes is here when we get a closeup on Salem’s mouth as she greets Cinder. A closeup like that should be reserved for more significant dialogue—“Rosebud”—and yet we get this shot again when Cinder tells Emerald to be quiet. It’s awkward and coupled with the numerous eye closeups we got in the trailer, I think RT is playing a little fast and loose with the camera. Each shot should add something to the scene, not distract from it. If you don’t have a reason for including a technique like that then leave it be.

Back to the actual dialogue though. We knew that Salem knew Cinder was alive and now it seems that she just expected her to come back? I’m slightly lost. It feels like we’re missing something here. Cinder goes off to secure the lamp, fails, nearly dies, wanders on her own for months, and then randomly shows back up on Salem’s whale doorstep, yet Salem isn’t angry at all? Did she have faith that Cinder would return when she has something to offer? Did she just not care about Cinder, considering her return an unnecessary but otherwise welcome surprise? That would make the least sense given that she holds the key to accessing Beacon’s relic… but that circles right back around to why Salem is seemingly indifferent to Cinder’s comings and goings. Surely she can’t actually believe that Cinder is loyal?

“So I trust you wouldn’t return to me empty handed,” she says. Yeah, trust means nothing in this show, Salem, didn’t you watch Volumes 6 and 7? Again, I simply don’t know. I suppose I’ll just chalk it up to confidence, that if Cinder did bail Salem knew she could track her down again. Deciphering her motivations and beliefs is a lost cause when the show continually gives us so little.

The important thing now is that Cinder does indeed have an offering and you can see that Salem is somewhat surprised at being handed the relic.

Cinder, of course, takes credit for the victory and we’re given another wonderful shot of Neo. ‘YOU took it?’

Oh, Neo. Best get out while you still can.

Tyrian appears having obviously made his way to Salem’s ship sometime between her arrival and now. The exchange is pretty standard for this group. He insults Cinder for failing and needing this victory to make amends, talks about how any win against Ironwood says more about his lack of intelligence than her skill, and Cinder… doesn’t have a whole lot of comebacks, actually. I’d say Tyrian won that verbal spar, enhanced by a better use of the camera when we get his tail looming menacingly towards Cinder and Neo.

He goes on to say that Watts was a “necessary sacrifice” so, uh… I’m just going to toss out the ask I answered yesterday. Based on our intro I’d say Watts is still significant to the volume—hacking Penny is my guess—but by the end? He could be in trouble.

(As a side note: I plan to analyze the intro next week. It’s just easier when it comes first.)

Tyrian also calls Neo “little one” which I just found absolutely hilarious. In an on brand creepy manner, that is. Not that Neo couldn’t kick his ass, but there’s something wonderfully chilling about having the serial killer use an endearment towards a potential victim, one that comments on her size while he’s looming.

In contrast, Cinder refers to Neo as a “valuable asset” and we get our third mood of the episode.

Who’s going to start a Neo reaction image collection?

It’s true enough on the surface—who wouldn’t want an ally who can turn into anyone else?—but we’re still bumping up against question of why Salem needs this. She’s immortal! She has an endless army! Magic! This scene works well with a villain who needs a skillset like Neo’s to succeed, but Salem doesn’t. RT is doing a great job writing a story thus far, just not the story we’ve previously been given. This isn’t the story they set up.

This will come back up when we reach the RWBYJNOR group. Just wait.

Before that though, the gang’s all here as Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel show up, all in new outfits.

I think I like everything except for the weird Xs on Emerald’s jacket—it’s way too distracting and frankly makes an otherwise good look ugly—and the fact that she’s showing her midriff in Atlas. Hazel doesn’t have any sleeves! Oh my god, why doesn’t anyone dress for the weather in this show?

Frankly, I found their reunion to be kind of lackluster. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it. Emerald does sound briefly excited, she does run, and it’s in character for Cinder to cut her off… it just didn’t resonate with me emotionally. I thought after two volumes of thinking she’s dead, then working through the knowledge that she’s alive, that I would feel Emerald’s shock and relief more, but I didn’t. And I’m not entirely sure why. I don’t want to level any accusations at the voice acting because frankly I know next to nothing about that skill (and from what I’ve seen it’s usually praised in the fandom), but I will say that throughout the premiere I was noticing it more than I ever have before. The lack of emotion here and some awkward deliveries later, like when Yang goes, “Ruby, there is no way Ironwood will cooperate with us” and I immediately thought, “Wow, that came out stilted.” These observations stick with me because, as said, voice acting usually isn’t on my radar. It’s not something I’ve studied or had practice analyzing. If you’d never told me that Ren or Qrow’s VA changed then after a year hiatus I literally wouldn’t notice… but there’s something about this episode that didn’t sit right. Anyone else get that sense, or was it just me?

Regardless, the arrival of our other three villains really doesn’t amount to much, though I’m happy for all the Emerald and Mercury fans who get to see them in new outfits. The focus is still on Cinder as she delivers a line indicative of her true motivations: “That power will be mine.” Yeah, she’s not loyal to Salem, she’s just power hungry. Of course, Salem immediately takes note of this and raises her hand, in another nice use of the foreground, reminding her that she hasn’t given that order.

Cinder is shocked, angry even, but quickly covers it up with her “Without you I am nothing” line. If I caught it right I think she also calls Salem “Ma’am”? Hilarious. Again, skilled at playing the servant.

Also, before I forget, it’s worth noting that almost everything from our trailer appeared in this episode. Yeah, there are a few details like Nora attacking some tech and the group on their bikes, but on the whole we’ve already seen the majority of our promo material and will likely get most of the rest next week. It makes me both interested and nervous for what another twelve episodes are going to hold.

Salem opens her whale, or opens a portal type view in it, something that gives us a long-distance look at Atlas. I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but it’s pretty so I’ll take it.

She also delivers the frankly badass line, “Just because you’re more valuable to me than a pawn does not make you a player.”

She waves them all away with perfect ‘You mean nothing to me’ attitude and we sadly leave our villains.

Sad not because I don’t love my farm boy, but because things are about to get a whole lot messier.

Oscar has made his way to a camp of civilian survivors… all of whom are just hanging out in the supposedly deadly cold. Yeah, there’s a single fire, but at least four of them aren’t anywhere near it. Three of them also aren’t wearing gloves. What was that survival rate again?

A nice if gruff dude gives Oscar soup—water?—while showing off his… badger claws? I don’t know what kind of faunus he’s supposed to be, but he feels like the sort of two second, minor character who could easily become a meme lol.

Oscar thanks him (my polite son!) and hands the bowl back after a single sip. Which is impressive because I would have assumed the guy was giving me the whole bowl and just taken it. Hell, I’ve done that even when I didn’t assume it’s all for me. A Starbucks barista once approached me with a tray and a plate of samples, I knew I was supposed to take just one, yet for some reason my hand went to take the whole goddamn plate. He had to tell me off, then I was trying to explain that I didn’t actually want or think I should have eight shots of cappuccino all to myself, I don’t even like coffee, he clearly didn’t believe me… it was awkward. So good job, Oscar. You’re less awkward than me (though that’s not saying much).

Now a question, Oscar. Darling. Brilliant boy who has been through too much: why the fuck aren’t you talking to Ozpin? This will be A Thing later when he presents a lack of time to talk as justification for keeping more secrets (we’ll get to that too…) yet here is time! You’re just sitting there for who knows how long, with plenty of privacy to hide a supposedly one-sided conversation so the Mantle citizens don’t get weirded out or suspicious. Talk to Ozpin. Our headmaster gets two lines in this episode, utterly inconsequential lines like his airship scene, lines that feel like they exist to say, “See? He’s still included in the story!” even though he absolutely is not. Two volumes of mostly silence, a perfect setup to start the reconciliation process, but we’re going to put it off again?

Instead Ruby randomly and conveniently appears. I want to know how she found him. Oscar isn’t wearing a tracker. He clearly didn’t call them because he’s surprised when Ruby shows up. He fell alllllllll the way back down to Mantle and then wandered to a random part of the slums. You’re telling me they flew over the entire city—after beginning this search thinking he was in Atlas—and somehow managed to spot him from up in the air? C’mon. I would have rather had a beginning where Oscar makes his way back to the group himself, giving him and Ozpin time to hash things out.

“Need a lift?” Ruby says, eliminating that potential. Sigh.

Oscar immediately starts beating himself up when he gets onboard, saying that he “was stupid to think the General would listen.” Nah, you were stupid to buy into Ruby’s nonsensical confidence and for telling Ironwood he’s as bad as Salem. Sorry, Oscar, but everyone is written badly these days. I will, however, say that I am THRILLED at the group’s reaction to his return. Ruby says that she’s “just glad you’re alright.” Nora has a wonderfully tender moment where she hugs him gently rather than her usual glomp.

That? That added a year to my life. Everyone else seems relieved that he’s okay too, so kudos there. After four years of Oscar being an outsider in the group, this is one of the few moments that feel like he’s 100% accepted. Really glad to see it.

Now let’s see if it sticks after they learn Ozpin is back...

They fly to the Happy Huntresses’ base and I again feel like I’ve missed something crucial. When did they team up? I mean, RWBYJNOR was working directly under Ironwood up until the last hour and Robyn ran off to fight Tyrian/Clover in the last couple episodes. When did she have time to explain her (briefly) changed allegiance and why would the Happy Huntresses trust the group without that? Did Robyn share that Blake and Yang went behind Ironwood’s back for her? Do the Huntresses instinctively trust them because they’re now wanted by the military? How did they even run into each other?

Again, I think we would have been better served to have an episode before all this. Let Oscar make his way back and let the group struggle with the magnitude of their situation on the airship, before they find new allies. Transferring directly to, “They have help and a secret base and a plan in the works!” makes me feel like I missed the real premiere last week. You know, the one where Salem unexpectedly arrived and we left the group like this.

This is where we’ve ended up though. The group is cozy in this hideout, getting info from Joanna, and my only other thought is, “Why is she giving all this exposition?”

Shouldn’t it be May? I mean, we were told that she was going to play more of a role this volume, a promise that’s pretty important imo given her status as a (so far off screen) trans character, so why not put her in the role of mediator between the Happy Huntresses and RWBYJNR? Giving her that setup as a leader among her people as well as lots of lines would be meaningful. A trans character just existing and being a part of this fight! May could obviously still fill that role—I’m well aware that we’re only one episode in—but it just seems like a missed opportunity to me. Out of all the undeveloped Happy Huntresses, our premiere focuses on the one who has the least importance to the fandom.

As said, Joanna talks a fair bit but what it basically boils down to is trying to get everyone to the crater below Atlas. It’s apparently not safe, but it’s warm, which is what matters right now.

So… let me get this straight. You want to gather everyone into a not safe crater, by leading them through an army of grimm, so that they can wait there in case someone moves the Staff, thus dropping an entire city on top of their heads? That’s the plan? Which admittedly isn’t Joanna’s fault. This is another instance of RWBYJNOR having information that a leader does not and they should really consider speaking up about it. But of course they don’t.

Also, how long does everyone have in regards to the cold? Shouldn’t there be dead civilians by now? The time it would take to find the Happy Huntresses, team up with them, get settled in the base, and find Oscar says that things should be pretty grim right now (pardon the pun), yet every non-aura user in this city seems content to just hang out in the snow. Either the cold is deadly enough to justify moving everyone to the crater, or it’s mild enough to let everyone survive this long, not both.

After hugs are given everyone obviously wants to know what happened to Oscar. His response?

“It’s a… long story. I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.”

That’s a check for the bingo card! We’re halfway through the first episode and we’ve already got another secret. Yes, this is a secret. Oscar actively chooses not to tell anyone that Ozpin is back—something Ozpin himself comments on—and then skillfully draws attention away from himself with “I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.” Indeed, all eyes go to Penny. Oscar’s plight is forgotten, which is what he wanted. His justification?

Ozpin: “You’re not going to tell them?”

Oscar: “You and I aren’t done talking yet.”

Along with this look.

Oscar no. There’s so much wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s create a list.

As said, you had plenty of time to talk to Ozpin and chose not to. Miss me with this excuse.

You are now doing to your friends exactly what you and your friends did to Ironwood, which in turn is what Ozpin did to you! I can’t believe we’ve got Oscar critically side-eyeing him when they are still—still—repeating the behavior they drove Ozpin away for.

What is there to even talk about now? Oscar didn’t punch himself/Ozpin (lol) but he did steal Jinn’s name from Ozpin in the first place. You got what you wanted, drove him away, and have been lying and keeping secrets ever since. The only thing they should be talking about involves apologizing. Any further criticism—which is what Oscar’s expression and curt reply suggests—is beyond hypocritical.

Seriously, what needs to be discussed? There’s no reason not to tell the group unless Oscar wants to talk about whether they should tell them. There’s no good ending here...

Don’t you think it would be nice to know that Ozpin is back and you’ve got super magic powers while making plans to save the entire world?

This is all especially stupid given Oscar’s “Salem wants to divide us” reminder to Ruby in a moment. Oscar, you are doing the most to divide the group right now. By not forgiving Ozpin. By refusing to work with him. By keeping him secret from everyone else.

This is bad, friends, I worry for what the rest of the volume will bring…

The story is done with Ozpin for now so I guess I will be too. The group continues filling Oscar in and we get some shots of the base, including a rather prominent poster of what I assume are two Happy Huntresses. Did they die in battle perhaps?

It’s a little strange.

Oscar: “Where’s Qrow?”

Me: “Likely still making bad decisions.”

No one knows so they just drop it. Which I kind of get, only so much you can do to find him if he’s not out on the streets like Oscar, but it still reads as kind of iffy that two nieces look down at the ground for a hot second and then move on with their plans, content to leave Qrow to whatever fate befell him. In a minute we’ll see Yang firmly take Ren’s side regarding helping the people they can in Mantle, which frankly comes out of nowhere for her. I think an easy motivation would have been Qrow. Ruby wants to save the world, Yang wants to find and save their uncle, and that just happens to align with Ren’s desire to save the civilians who need immediate grimm and cold help. Don’t get me wrong, I like that there’s finally some division between the sisters, I just wish it hadn’t come about so abruptly. Ren had setup for standing up to Ruby. Yang did not.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Joanna lists the grimm horde and no heat as the major threats to everyone. The group agrees.

Me: What about Salem?

Joanna says that this is all doubly dangerous because there’s “no more military protection.”

Me: Oh, so now you want the military?

This is all so disjointed. Even more-so when Joanna mentions that Ironwood has stopped all evacuations to Atlas, likely due to the “hard light shields” that are the only thing standing between Salem and the city. Thing is, the show never makes this connection, I just did it myself based on this scene and the one that comes later. The show presents Joanna’s line as a pure condemnation. Ironwood won’t let more evacuees in because… he’s just evil, I guess. Yet there is a justification here, namely that continuing the evacuations even while he’s stuck without Penny leaves him wide open to a Salem attack, the death of everyone currently safe, but that argument is never presented to the viewer. I don’t need people to agree with Ironwood’s perspective, I just wish that perspective was offered as an option. The show is very good about acting like RWBYJNOR’s opinion is the only justified opinion, or simply the only opinion at all.

After everything is laid out Weiss goes, “We’re never going to sleep again, I just know it.”

I could make a crack about the lack of continuity and how the group should be collapsing right now… but that was a funny line. It can stay.

What is far more of a problem is the fact that no one is talking about Salem. Okay, that’s a lie. They do talk about her, but in a roundabout way like her presence isn’t impacting every decision they make. That’s the real issue. They’re acting as if Salem isn’t here right now, like she’s off far away, maybe approaching slowly, and they’re arguing over how best to prep the world for her eventual attack. There’s no emotion here—let alone action—to reflect that the series’ Big Bad has arrived and is poised to murder them all. Literally what is this? Ruby is yelling about warning the world and, ignoring the continued question of why that’s a good thing when the world can do nothing to stop Salem and knowledge of her continually drives people to horrible acts, she has yet to acknowledge that… she’s the world? Ruby is the world in this conflict. She, Mantle, and Atlas. Salem is here for you all. Right now. You are, this instant, in the situation you want to warn others about, so why don’t you try to do something about it? Or at least acknowledge it. Ruby wants to warn the neighborhood about a potential fire while her house is actively ablaze, and the fire could have totally killed her by now but decided not to for… reasons.

“Ruby’s right,” Nora says. They have to tell the world so “they can prepare.” How? How are they supposed to prepare for this? The story cannot continue ignoring Salem’s immortality.

“Ruby’s right,” is all Blake says and I’m starting to thinks that’s why her character exists now, to agree with Ruby. It’s great that she’s getting a little distance from Yang, but man.

As Ruby asks whether Pietro can get Amity up and running despite it not being finished (called it) we start an incredibly odd sequence of flashforwards to their individual missions. I’ve seen a lot of praise for this already and though I agree that, in theory, it’s a good way to save time, I found the actual execution to be jarring. Upon thinking back through our timeline, it became clear they were flashforwards, but while watching I thought they might be flashbacks (especially since that’s more common).

Some of the shots, like Nora’s, just look awkward when you’ve got the exact expression and pose transplanted from one scene to another, like she’s a cardboard cutout behind a green screen. To say nothing of how the flashforwards ruin any suspense (I use that word loosely) in the conversation itself. If the question is, “Will they decide to go to the military compound?” then that question is answered when we see Ruby scoping out the compound, not when the group actually decides on the course of action.

It just made an already muddled scene worse for me, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue.

And of course, Amity can be used despite all the info last volume claiming that it wasn’t finished. Pietro suddenly acts like it is finished and the only thing standing in their way is Ironwood providing access. If that were the case, he would have used Amity weeks or days ago like he wanted to! When was it finished? Not after Watts commented on how incomplete it was. When did they get back the resources they needed from Robyn? It’s as ridiculous and retcon-y as I thought it would be.

Yang points out that Ironwood will never listen to them and Ruby counters that “he doesn’t have to.” They’ll just take the access from him. Because why wouldn’t they in a series where they’ve already stolen two airships? Stealing from the super evil military that Joanna wishes were helping them right now is just the group’s go-to plan nowadays.

Pietro isn’t sold on this plan though. He lists at least three obstacles they’d need to get through “and then… oh boy, I might need to think about this some more.” “And just to clarify,” Oscar says, “This is the easy option?” Um...no it’s not? We also know there’s an access point in Ironwood’s office so… why not go there instead? They really think the Academy is less guarded than the military base? There’s a potential justification here along the lines of, “After Neo and Cinder broke into his office Ironwood will have the place on high alert,” but unless I missed it the group doesn’t assume anything like that. They just listen to Pietro point out all the ways they can’t get into the military base and jump straight to that being the best option. It feels like a transparent way to create conflict for the group. We’ll just have them taking the most dangerous route despite an easy route being offered alongside it. Why bother mentioning his office at all? Just have the access in the military base. Boom, done.

It’s that conflict and the fact that Ruby tends to hear “You can’t” and digs in her heels. You can’t go to Atlas. I’ll just steal a ship then. You can’t defeat Salem. Watch me. You can’t break into this base. Guess what I’m doing! She’s dangerous in her fairy tale, meta-driven insistence that everything will turn out her way because she wants it to.

Speaking of, we finally—FINALLY—get someone challenging Ruby. Sort of. Not actually but it’s the closest we’ve ever gotten:

Yang: “Ruby, when we came here we said we’d follow your lead… but things haven’t exactly worked out.”

Now, there are two things to take away from this moment. The first is how utterly shocked Ruby and the others are. I mean, take a look at these expressions.

Ruby straight up can’t believe what she’s hearing. Weiss put her hand to her mouth like this is the most dramatic thing to ever happen to her. Oscar looks down in a ‘Yeah, I agree but please don’t look at me and make me admit that’ way. And Nora looks indifferent in the screenshot but animated she goes sort of stern, likely pissed that Yang would dare say that given her own agreement with Ruby. This not only reiterates that Yang’s challenge came out of nowhere—seriously, how did we move from following Ruby no matter what to this? Last volume she asked a single question along the lines of, ‘You sure?’ and when Ruby said ‘Yes’ Yang was entirely on board—but also demonstrates that no one has EVER said no to her before. Ruby is amazed that someone would challenge her. The act of challenging Ruby is, in and of itself, shocking. This group has gotten so used to following Ruby blindly that the teensiest little pushback is greeted with this.

Because it is teensy. This is the second takeaway: Yang barely challenges her and that challenge leads nowhere. She doesn’t accuse Ruby of anything, she doesn’t question her continued authority, she just broadly implies that things could be better. We followed you, now things are bad, take from that what you will. It’s incredibly mild as far as criticism goes, making the shock all the more, well, shocking, but it also amounts to—wait for it—nothing! Because Yang didn’t truly challenge Ruby’s leadership. She’s still in charge, she’s still calling the shots, and they’re still listening to her. We might have gotten some change if this division had been allowed to play out, but instead Jaune comes in with a, “Let’s go for both!” solution. It let’s both groups get what they want which, in turn, releases them from the need to grapple with whether they’ll listen to Ruby when she’s advocating for something they don’t agree with. We have now lost the chance to see whether, when push comes to shove, Ren and Yang will cave to Ruby’s will or stick by their own beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s more conflict than we’ve gotten in years, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly compelling conflict. It’s good by RWBY’s standards, which doesn’t necessarily make it good. The actual issues at hand—Ruby’s dangerous arrogance, the group’s loyalty, her choices up until now—are just swept under the rug. For all the visuals we get insisting that there’s this great divide in the group… there’s really not. Not in any way that matters.

Also, Ruby is an idiot. Okay, that was mean, but she really is in this scene. She’s actually not an idiot overall because she was written as wonderfully intelligent in the early volumes, but now? Lately? She makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

“But that’s how Salem got this far,” she cries. “By dividing us!”

Ruby… oh my god, Ruby. No one should have to explain to you that dividing people means turning them against each other, not literally dividing your team to complete separate tasks. This girl honestly thought that because there was this teensy disagreement and that half the team would complete Plan A while she and the other half completed Plan B, both of which notably work towards the goal of, “Protect people from Salem,” that this was somehow what Salem wanted. That is was dangerous. Honestly, it’s a scary look at her view of leadership too: If everyone doesn’t 100% agree with me and do what I say, that’s an objectively bad thing that the grimm queen wants, right? Does Ruby think that unification means following a single person (her) without question or variation? That would explain a lot...

The fact that Oscar needs to explain the difference to her is not good. It really doesn’t say great things about this version of Ruby. Though he was comparing Ironwood to Salem last volume, so really they should all be wearing dunce hats.

Penny offers to take the relic directly to Salem in exchange for her leaving the kingdom alone. I honestly didn’t expect that. If anyone took that risk I would have put my money on Ozpin (but of course, during all this talk of the women he knows best, he’s kept quiet). Oscar is again the voice of wisdom, pointing out that they have no reassurance that Salem will keep her word. At least Penny is thinking about Salem as a threat though, so kudos for that. When this plan is shot down she volunteers to get Ruby past the military security instead and, uh, she’s a little intense about it.

I’m not entirely sure what is going on with Penny. She disagreed with Winter but then seemed to come around to her point of view, enough to help anyway. They had another (stupid) disagreement about the value of individual lives, so that helps to explain why she’s teaming up with RWBYJNOR (if you ignore that Ironwood is also trying to save individual lives...). Did watching Fria die shake her up? Is it being the Winter Maiden that’s not sitting right? Does Penny have lingering feelings about the framing that haven’t shown up until now? Her status as a ‘real girl’? We’ve got a lot of reasons that could definitely explain this sudden need to fight, but we’re not told which—if any of these—is the driving force.

We’re then given a lot of little details. Someone points out that if Salem gets the staff and “create[s] anything else” then Atlas will fall (so yeah, let’s move the people underneath it). We still don’t know what exactly the Staff does because “creation” is kind of broad and “powering a city to float” doesn’t seem to sit within that category at all. Pietro gives Yang the keys to his lab so they can get the bikes. We see the group dividing in the flashforwards, something I do like, especially since the show has gone out of its way to break up most of the usual duos. Nora in particular is pissed at Ren for his choice.

“Oh, I’m saving Mantle because I actually believe we can do this.”

#yikes. Well, I did say I wanted a conflict other than ‘Oh no, one of us might die’ and it looks like I got it. But Nora, the only reason you can do this is because the plot is in your corner: none of you are collapsing from two major fights, you didn’t lose your aura so the cold isn’t a danger, the military is barely a threat all of a sudden, Salem is helpfully hanging out in her whale instead of killing you, and the story decided that Amity can function so long as you all are the ones who get to use it. That’s why you can do this. Ren, who follows in-world logic and doesn’t want to risk a whole kingdom’s worth of lives on a pipe dream, thinks differently, oddly enough.

As they leave though Penny gets a call from Ironwood. I know precisely what the fandom is going to say here: “This evil man is just trying to use Penny to open the vault!” Of course he is. He needs it open to save everyone he can, Penny included. Plus the concept of “using” her is a double-edged sword. What do we think the group is doing right now? Using her to get past the security. Penny’s power is a tool any way you slice it. Granted, Penny volunteers to help the group, but notably here Ruby speaks for her. Penny seems torn and Ruby takes the scroll away with, “She’s not going anywhere until you change your mind about Mantle.”

Sorry, Ruby, but coming from you that sounds less like a reassurance for Penny and more like just an order for Ironwood. Remember Harriet? We’ll stop attacking you provided you do what we want. Ruby has yet to learn about compromises, let alone acknowledge that she might be wrong. How about you let Penny decide where she goes, especially since by all logic she should have a lot of loyalty to Ironwood. She knew him before she ever met you. She’s worked with him since she was rebuild post-Volume 3. Despite what Penny has said, if the story would just let her think about his actions for a hot second—making her the protector of Mantle, sticking up for her after the framing, sending her to the party, teaming her up with Ruby, etc.—she might realize that the ‘He doesn’t want me to have friends’ and ‘He just treats me like a tool’ assumptions are just that, unfounded assumptions. But no, Ruby speaks for them both because Ironwood is evil now.

“If she makes it through our defenses,” Ironwood says, “everything that follows will be on your hands.”

That’s true! Kind of like how it’s own Qrow’s hands that Clover died. When you insist on making a bad situation worse you hold responsibility when the shit hits the fan. You know though that Salem won’t get through their defenses now, somehow, so that there’s no chance RWBYJNOR will be blamed for it. Or, by that point Ironwood will be so crazed that anything coming out of his mouth is dismissed, no matter how accurate it might be.

We then transfer to the Ace Ops who are, despite what the fandom theorized for many months, clearly upset about Clover. Also pissed. Which they have every right to be. Their friend and leader was killed. Imagine for a moment that Ruby had been murdered by Tyrian with an allies’ help. Exactly what do you think the group would do? Swallow it quietly and get over it? Ha.

I’ve already seen some speculation that Clover survived due to details like showing us the bandage and his room being listed as for a “Patient,” but he looks pretty dead to me.

He got gutted through the chest and left out in the snow for who knows how long. We saw him slip away. Qrow screamed over his dead body. He’s not breathing now. If RWBY suddenly claims he survived this, I’m calling BS.

Most of the other visuals we get here were already dropped in the trailer. Winter is pretty injured from her encounter with Cinder, likely permanently based on her new outfit. Ironwood had to replace his arm—and I am calling BS on that “Losing his arm is reflective of him losing his humanity” commentary from RT. Please go read up on a couple decades worth of ableism in media and then get back to me.

We get Ironwood’s line about the light shields and, notably, a whole lot of empathy. Regardless of what he might want Penny for, he still called her with compassion. He’s watching the Ace Ops mourn their friend. He’s talking about protecting his kingdom. The first thing he says to Winter is, “Thank you, Winter. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Ironwood has a heart! It’s always on display, which makes this scene utterly ridiculous.

I literally don’t know how to respond to this. The gunshot made me jump, both because it’s a gunshot and because, again, what the fuck? I know I said that next volume RT might just have Ironwood descend into full villainy, shooting whoever he pleases now that he’s shot Oscar, but I didn’t actually expect them to do it. Because he never should have shot Oscar in the first place! I wanted the story to let Oscar grapple with it a bit and then quietly backtrack, acknowledging it as the mistake it was. The concept that Ironwood, empathetic Ironwood, rational Ironwood, always thinks before he acts Ironwood, let’s kids yell at him Ironwood, tried to team up with Robyn Ironwood, did everything Ruby wanted Ironwood, won’t kill Watts after he destroyed his arm Ironwood would shoot this guy just to shut him up is absurd. It was absurd then, it’s absurd now.

That being said, there’s a possibility he didn’t actually shoot the council member, but rather just (“just”) gave a warning shot down the hallway. I say this because the reactions to this are pretty tame. Everyone looks startled, yeah, but after the initial shot there’s nothing that I would expect if there was now a guy bleeding out on the floor. The council woman doesn’t scream. Winter doesn’t seem overly shocked. No one is running to try and help him. Basically, if Ironwood had just killed a political figure in front of six witnesses, entirely unprovoked, I would expect a bit more of a reaction than this. This feels far more like a, “Damn he’s not joking around, letting off warning shots to get people to leave him alone” not “WOW, our general just killed someone in cold blood!”

What I really hate though—beyond just assassinating his character—is how many fans think my friends and I are delusional for calling it character assassination at all. I hopped onto the RWBY tag for five minutes this morning and was bombarded with posts about how Ironwood needs to be murdered horrifically, anyone who likes him is sick, the Ironwood stans are as bad as Adam stans, you’re an idiot if you want him redeemed… because apparently the concept of a story writing a character badly doesn’t compute. I’m not here to argue that Ironwood didn’t do these awful things (regardless of whether he actually killed the guy or not). I’m not here to argue that they’re not awful. I’m just here to say that we never should have gotten these scenes in the first place, or if we were going to get them, we deserved an actual descent into murder at the drop of a hat territory. I’ve already explained extensively on this blog how early Ironwood was not accurate foreshadowing for this, and Volume 7 certainly wasn’t setup, but it looks like the majority of fans aren’t interested in examining whether any of this adds up. Which makes my job, as someone trying to examine this series somewhat objectively—in as much as that’s possible for any single viewer—as well as simply enjoy it as a show, really hard. It’s bad enough when a story keeps taking the characters you love and villainizing them, and doing that badly, but then when you turn to the community and see them rallying around the idea that you’re awful for being dissatisfied—you’re the bootlicker, you’re the blind stan, you can’t see what’s ‘really’ going on here… that sucks. For those of you happy and satisfied with Ironwood’s arc, that’s great! I’ve also seen a lot of posts hyping up the complexity of his character now. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what we’ve been given and I’d never want to imply that just because it’s not what I wanted it’s somehow wrong. I’m honestly thrilled that after a year of worry so many people have adored our premiere, including this scene. I just wish that I could say RWBY had given me something I didn’t want in a persuasive manner and that the fandom as a whole was a bit more welcoming of differing criticisms.

Not that I didn’t already know the RWBY fandom had its flaws, but still lol.

That’s basically it for our premiere. Nice note to end on, huh? Our final scene is of Salem using the lamp to set her bloodhound grimm on the city. Why doesn’t she just go herself? What was she planning to do here in Atlas in the first place, considering that getting the relic was a surprise? Who knows. Little about this holds together. But we do end with another awesome shot, so small favors.

It’s always strange concluding a recap, but even more-so when it’s a premiere, during a historical moment in the U.S., amidst all the nonsense that is 2020. So for now I’ll just conclude with three quick things:

The updated bingo board will be listed at the end of each recap, provided I don’t forget about it lol. Today I’m checking off tone (not nearly enough freaking out about Salem), the team keeping secrets (Oscar), and major plot point dropped (Amity is suddenly finished). I could also probably check off the cold not killing civilians and getting Amity up and running, but we’ll see if any changes with those.

I’m including my Ko-Fi link at the end of recaps now. Not with any expectations. Not with anything resembling pressure. I thought long and hard over whether to include it at all—let alone mention it here—because I love doing these and never want anyone to feel like it comes with strings attached. But life is a little harder and weirder than it was last year, so I figure it can’t hurt. Feel free to pass on by and I won’t be bringing it up past this note.

Far more importantly: thank you for reading! :D

(Bonus 4. Editing this was an absolute nightmare — damn you, tumblr! — so I apologize if anything is super wonky when I finally post.)

See you next week! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years

Video

youtube

CARLY RAE JEPSEN - WANT YOU IN MY ROOM

[7.80]

Give a [10]! or a [4]! We don't care! Anymore! (actually we clearly do care)

Josh Winters: The sound of the heart set aflame. [10]

Tobi Tella: Oh my god. The synths, the sultriness, that goddamn HOOK. Dedicated had a lot of great and fun, pop music, but this comes out of left field in the best possible way. It's one of the most direct and sexy things, she'd ever done. Is this what gay heaven feels like? [10]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Big "looks-up-grinning-like-the-devil" energy: when CRJ sings, "I wanna do bad things to you," the mischief is both inexplicably sweet and dirty. [8]

Michael Hong: "Want You In My Room" might be Carly Rae Jepsen at her horniest, but it's also Jack Antonoff at his least restrained, together making something that's thrillingly giddy. Carly Rae Jepsen drops some of those thinly disguised hints for more straight-forward temptations, coming across as intense where Dedicated erred more towards tepid. There's still room for coyness, with the distorted "want you in my room" bashfully buried in the mix and the way Jepsen's voice brazenly glides across the instrumental on the line "slide on through my window." But most importantly, "Want You In My Room" feels completely uninhibited and absolutely freeing as Carly Rae Jepsen delivers any line with as much of a wink as she desires. [9]

Kayla Beardslee: Pure joy. [9]

Edward Okulicz: Every song that goes by, I find myself enraged by how average I find the average Carly Rae Jepsen to be, and I'm not entirely sure that I'm not jealous of the euphoria she inspires in others. But honestly, she's no Vengaboys, let alone a Paul Lekakis; I believe Jepsen, but I don't buy her abandon. [4]

Alfred Soto: With Dedicated proving an ephemeral listen, "Want You in My Room" does a professional job as any discrete track at isolating her strengths: finding a hook for any title and singing as if any doggerel were Heidegger. The outro sax wipes the smear of the redundant vocoder, suggesting other paths that the arrangement avoids. [4]

Kylo Nocom: Given the runtime and production choices, one would think somebody had went out and decided to parody the style of Emotion with its Wikipedia article and five hours to complete the task. "Want You in My Room" slightly lacks sophistication in both songwriting and in aesthetic: it feels like half of the song is missing by the time the track decides to fade out, and the wonky percussion/clean guitars/fucking SAX are rather ungraceful signifiers of '80s kitschiness, as if hints were taken from Carly's turn with the Fuller House theme song. These tiny grievances immediately disappear once those robot-voices and shouts burst out, an exercise between restraint and shamelessness that's completely undeniable. I didn't register that the vocoded voices were actually saying anything the first few times I heard this, let alone the title, but it's quite sly how that turned out: the most explicit demand of the hook is obscured, leaving "I wanna do bad things to you!" which beats around the bush a tiny bit (thankfully, less embarrassingly than Camila) and additionally gleeful cheers before that lovely inquiry of "baby, don't you want me too?". I'm still frustrated this ends so quickly, but even this doesn't matter when it's the Carly song I've been using to soundtrack the crush-anxiety interludes of my life. Really, this could cut off after the first chorus and still be more exciting than nearly every other song on Dedicated. [8]

Joshua Lu: It's tempting to draw connections between Emotion and everything Carly Rae Jepsen has done since Emotion -- thematically, her work hasn't evolved much since 2015, with her primary concern being PG-13 depictions of love and heartbreak. But Emotion's portrayal of affection was grandiose and imposing, fit for blasting out the windows of your car as you get lost in the streets of LA, while Dedicated's take feels distinctly slighter and more intimate. "Want You In My Room" takes more of its cues from Kiss, if anything -- even overlooking the disco tinges and how that was the first time she worked with Jack Antonoff, Kiss employed intimate lyricism that could verge at times on the diaristic, with songs like "Turn Me Up" and "Curiosity." The song's title, conveyed through Antonoff's phalanx of robots, renders that closeness literally, but that intimacy comes through metaphorically as well, especially with that quintessentially Carly-esque grotesque lyric of "press you to the pages of my heart" and that absolutely filthy request to "slide on through my window." I'll always prefer this mode of Carly, whose depictions of carnal affection feel more genuine and evocative when she's cooing them in your ear instead of bellowing them to the world. Even the outro works for me; the music video helps to explicate that her lover has finally made it to her room, and the bleating saxophone becomes an aural metaphor of whatever the two of them are doing, now that the song has accomplished its purpose. [10]

Will Adams: The discourse around Jack Antonoff and his status as the supposed ingenue behind female pop stars' critical reappraisal is exhausting, mostly because it ignores my biggest gripe with it: the production is bad. As we've seen before, his penchant for vocoders sinks the songs and, in this case, the entire chorus. The rest is his typical beige, vaguely '80s, vaguely '90s, vaguely everything feel, as if those "Dreams" guitars haven't been done better elsewhere. Carly's not off the hook either, with lyrics as empty as "press you to the pages of my heart." The sax riffing at the end would have been nice had it not resulted in a fade-out, which only serves to let you know that no one involved bothered to write a bridge. [4]

Joshua Copperman: That post-chorus is peak Carly - her songs are best when they're anxious but sensual, innocent but winking. But that's the problem with this song, content to be an E*MO*TION throwback when the best cuts on Dedicated ("I'll Be Your Girl," "Everything He Needs") push her sound forward in ways that still remain consistent with her past. Antonoff's on autopilot, lifting his own Tom Petty rip from "Don't Take The Money" for his usual mix of 80s and non-80s signifiers. Singles Jukebox editor and writer Katherine St. Asaph's issue with Dedicated was that Carly didn't play to her fanbase enough. This goes too much in the other direction giving the gays exactly what they want but nothing more. That doesn't mean it's bad, but it's too slight when Carly's beloved for her maximalism. [6]

Andy Hutchins: Fun, frivolous, brisk, and brief in the way so many great pop songs are, and a better spiritual successor to "Africa" in 2019 than Weezer actually covering it. But I will admit that listening to the potential [3] or [15] that would have been CRJ riffing on Rye Rye's spin on Vengaboys was deeply distracting. [7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: "Want You In My Room" is the worst kind of song to write about: so self-evidently joyful and skilled in every aspect (those synths!! that sax solo!!) that it's hard to point at any one thing to analyze. Is it enough to just say that the song is the best execution of crush pop in the catalog of an artist who is the queen of crush pop? Is it enough to say that I listen to the song in the shower and my morning walk to class? Is it enough to say that this song (and really, the whole starting run of Dedicated) is an excellent soundtrack to a roadtrip with the one you love? I don't know, and I don't quite know how to express how good it is that Carly Rae Jepsen is around and making music like this, but I hope this helps. [10]

Jackie Powell: Carly Rae Jepsen knows her base just as well as she knows herself. All of the elements of "Want You in My Room" confirm that."...And I'll press you to the pages of my heart" in the pre-chorus proves how Jepsen simultaneously views love and her music. She loves fantasy and probably adores fanfiction (Does anyone have confirmation on this?) "I think I like when people look at music from a way that's this childlike magical thing that happens to us," she said at Electric Lady Studios recording her Spotify singles session. She has made it her brand for the nerds who love love--but struggle to capture it-- feel at home with the awkwardness and desire that they feel inside. Jack Antonoff knows how to extrapolate Jepsen's inner feelings and give them a sound; the track begins with three different percussive loops which symbolize the racing heartbeat of sexual and romantic excitement. The aforementioned Spotify session version of the cut further echoes the idea that this song is an orgy that would take place at a campfire for young adults. (I guess I just described Woodstock. Imagine Woodstock in 2019...oh wait.) She proves once again that both fantasy and desire are natural and shouldn't be a source of any shame. [8]

Vikram Joseph: There's probably not much that my 11-year-old self has in common with me right now. But I remember getting up an hour before school to listen to the radio, and the way that I would lose myself in pop music and it would carry me through the day, painting the cyclical banalities of breaktime and double chemistry in weird, vivid colours that I didn't fully understand back then. And it's not so different to the way that I respond to it now; the way that caffeine and Dedicated made my commute shimmer and glow on sticky mornings this summer. For me, "Want You In My Room" has been the album's febrile, halcyon peak from the start - a high-camp maximalist fantasia of love and lust, the rare ecstasy of uncomplicated desire played out in a technicolour dreamscape of synths, vocoders and sax solos. It took four months for it to acquire a music video, but there must have already been a million existing in our imaginations, us as the stars, cameras panning as we walk down streets as flamboyantly as our queer little hearts dare to. It's garish, sugary and barely sounds real, and that's fine - because great pop is escapist, always has been and always will be, and "Want You In My Room" makes me believe I can have it all (even if it's fake). [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Carly Rae Jepsen #pop #music #music review #writing

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mittensmorgul · 7 years

Note

I think one of the things about SPN that is so interesting is... characters lie. All the time. And we aren't always given obvious reasons to suspect they're lying until later when they say something contradictory. I saw a post the other day about Rowena and how she'd mentioned Crowley was conceived during an orgy (something I'd forgotten) and it occurred to me with later information we had... that doesn't sound likely if she knew who the father was and was abandoned by him. (1/2)

This has a point that's relevant, sorry. What I was referring to is the post about Becky and how we don't know why she and Chuck broke up because there is conflicting info, so we have to make our best guess. In a weird way, "canon" isn't canon, because a surface text reading doesn't account for characters being disingenuous. We aren't told which is the lie and which is the truth every time, we kinda gotta figure it out for ourselves using what we make of the characters and additional context(2/2

Hi there! And if this isn’t a potentially loaded question, I don’t know what is. And it’s something that’s even been raised as a question in text on multiple occasions, which makes it a valid thing for us to question and carefully consider. You may have seen this old post I reblogged a little while ago with an addition about context:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/162709800125/mittensmorgul-i-offer-this-up-as-a-metaphor-for

Congrats, you’re the anon I was referring to in the little blurb at the bottom of that post :D

I’ll start by saying that yes, we know the characters are capable of lying. In 6.03, Dean tells this to Ben in plain words:

Dean: Ben, I know you're lying... Because I lie professionally, that's how. Now tell your mom that you broke the damn thing and take it like a man. Okay? Okay.

He lies professionally. In 5.03, he explains why he lies to Cas, by lying about it:

Dean: Seriously? You're going to walk in there and tell him the truth?Castiel: Why not?Dean: Because we're humans. And when humans want something really, really bad, we lie.Castiel: Why?Dean: Because that's how you become President.

Dean’s explanation of why they were going to lie to the cops was also a lie. Walking into the police station and politely informing them the gas station explosion was caused by an archangel taking his vessel would’ve resulted in them being either laughed out of the police station or locked up on a 72 hour involuntary psychiatric hold. Yet Dean didn’t need to explain that to the audience, because we’re supposed to understand that fact. That’s where critical thinking skills come into play. We understand the humor of what he said to Cas anyway, without having to be led by the hand and told that Dean was joking there.

So I’d argue with your assertion that “Canon isn’t canon because characters lie sometimes.” It’s all still canon, because the characters DID say these things, but it’s up to us if we accept or reject the surface text reading as honestly intended dialogue, or sarcasm, or humor, or a misdirection, or a warning that there’s something deeper happening beneath the surface layer text. Sometimes the surface layer text sets off alarm bells because it directly contradicts other facts that have already been established, and in those moments we’re SUPPOSED to react by yelling out at the TV, questioning the character’s motives for saying something we already understand to be incorrect, you know?

It’s still incorrect to assume that EVERYTHING the characters say is a lie, or untrustworthy, or unreliable. Just because a character CAN be unreliable as a narrator doesn’t mean that they’re ALWAYS unreliable as a narrator.

It’s our jobs as viewers to apply critical thinking skills, combined with our previously established understanding of the characters, and the information we already have about the situation the characters are dealing with on screen, and then interpret the subtext and visual narrative cues the show has established over more than a decade of telling us this story, and not just make willy-nilly random assumptions about scenes, but incorporate ALL of that into an educated assessment of what’s most likely.

Because despite all of that ^^, and the fact that multiple interpretations are certainly possible, and character motivations and unverifiable statements (like Rowena’s story of how Crowley was conceived, or even Crowley’s story of having sold his soul for “an extra three inches below the belt” since that’s another character statement I’ve personally always doubted) are more open to potential interpretation than things like entire plotlines and situations that are directly contradicted by events we have seen or will see with our own eyes, not all interpretations of those larger events are equally probable.

It reminds me of the scene in 2.14, after Sam-possessed-by-Meg told a very one-sided and hurtful version of the story of how her father had died, having been shot in the head by John Winchester, leaving room for Jo to doubt whether it had been an accident that her father could potentially have survived if John had tried to save him instead of shooting him. Meg was deliberately trying to upset Jo, and it worked, to an extent:

JO: I know demons lie, but ... do they ever tell the truth too?DEAN: Uh, um, yeah, sometimes, I guess. Especially if they know it'll mess with your head. (Another swig.) Why do you ask?

Thing is, your very first assumption there, that the characters lie all the time, is equally untenable. Because just as often as they lie, they DO tell the truth. Not everything they say is equally open to interpretation or doubt. For a random fun-fact, like the situation in which Crowley was conceived, didn’t affect the larger narrative. It only provided characterization for Rowena. This was how she CHOSE to present herself when we were first introduced to her, but then we watched her character develop over the next few seasons. We began to understand her, her history, her motivations.

We saw her less as a carefree villain and more as a woman who’d been used, abused, wronged, and who’d reinvented herself multiple times as she amassed the power to not only take back control over her own life, but in search of revenge against those who’d wronged her. In 11.09 we learned the painfully harsh truth about why she may have originally been so flippant about Crowley’s father. And again in 12.11 we learned yet more reasons why she’d carefully crafted her cool facade, during her conversation with the witch who’d once thought of Rowena as little more than a disposable sex toy. So understanding Rowena’s history with the benefit of later canon and context, it not only helps us understand that her original self-narrative was a lie in the first place, but it gives us the ability to understand why she would’ve told that particular lie about herself. This is how you write complex, three-dimensional characters with depth.

Now with the Chuck and Becky situation, we have learned many things over the years about both of those characters, as well. Ultimately it doesn’t matter to the narrative why they broke up, nor does it matter whether Becky was telling the truth about why. The only thing a varied interpretation on whether she was lying there could potentially change is how we feel about her as a character. Do we sympathize with her? Do we have a greater insight into her as a “person” and what her motivations in life may be? Does a varied interpretation also affect the way we view Chuck as a character, especially when taken through the lens of late s11 Chuck episodes where it’s confirmed not only that he was God all along, but also in 11.20 we see through Metatron’s questioning of him, his motivations, his entire autobiography, that Chuck was sort of veracity-impaired as well? Being able to question the veracity of Becky’s statements all those years before lends us a greater understanding of Chuck as a character, too. Especially once we understand the depth of his denial over the original act that made all of creation possible in the first place.

Ultimately it doesn’t affect the larger story, other than to support our understanding of the characters, and offer a depth to explore the characters more fully.

That’s just good writing. It forces us to question things, forces us to really think about things, and hits us on an emotional and sympathetic level that colors our interpretations.

If the narrative just came straight out and told us all these things, it would be boring. The characters wouldn’t be three dimensional. We wouldn’t be able to think about them as if they were real people. They’d just be paper cutouts with words written on them telling us exactly who they were and what their motives and intentions were. There’d be nothing to actively engage us in the narrative.

That said, this is why looking at isolated incidents out of context of the rest of the things we already know and understand about the characters will often lead to wonky interpretations that don’t really work when viewed in context with the rest of the narrative.

I think this kinda-sorta addresses your question? I hope? This is such a difficult topic to discuss, because it does introduce subjectivity into the narrative. The thing is (and this is partly where the concept of “meta” differs from “headcanon” or “speculation”), at least the way I approach it, meta is grounded in postmodern literary critique, and not just random commentary on random things without a foundational understanding of how stories are told.

Not everything is as open to interpretation as everything else. There are rules to this gig, and actual meta will at least acknowledge that those rules exist. :P

#spn meta meta #this is how stories work #context matters #Anonymous

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airoasis · 5 years

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'Good Luck, Father Ted' | Father Ted | Series 1 Episode 1 | Dead Parrot

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/good-luck-father-ted-father-ted-series-1-episode-1-dead-parrot/

'Good Luck, Father Ted' | Father Ted | Series 1 Episode 1 | Dead Parrot

Proper that is a Tuesday dealt with let’s take a look at Wednesday no half 7:00 mass i can take that and probably could you take the 8 o’clock at all proper i will be able to take that as good no um the 1/2 6 evening Mass on Sunday night mass too early no predicament i can take as well I just make an observation mornin Ted Barney Google Google there may be a there is some shaving cream simply there no there may be now not that no your gran no on you oh where precisely Ted simply there beneath your ear right here sure and there’s a there’s slightly extra long past no there may be nonetheless only a contact two minutes it can be far and wide the location Oh God how on the planet did all that get there I did not even shave this morning so what are we doing at present Ted confessions and mass and things like that I feel sure to huge things like that it can be nice being a priest is not it Ted god it can be beautiful out oh wait let L you Ted fun lands come to craggy Island it is going to be right here Saturday oh yes this is the fairground thing oh i might no longer a lot curiosity in that type of factor myself to be sincere they’ve acquired a spider baby what a spider baby you realize it’s kind of a freak show factor you comprehend it’s received the body of a spider nevertheless it’s honestly a youngster how is that this a child does it have a nappy on us or something no when does it have the head of a little one no good if it appears like a spider and it does not truely gurgle at your anything how do you understand it’s in reality a little one to hold it in a pram Dugan are you definitely definite about this you’re now not complicated us with a dream your head or whatever no truthfully I saw it on the information truthfully oh oh wait no clearly no did you say it it was a dream yeah have you ever been finding out identical to I informed you Bob Ted i have yeah yeah sorry about that however we should go anyway Ted come on it would be excellent last 12 months I had to go together with the horse-using and it used to be simply great I did not understand you could trip horses well it wasn’t an actual horse Ted adore it it was once this ancient fella with a saddle on him go it have to’ve been about eighty you already know of direction he could not go very speedy like you know I was once form of lashing him with the weapon all could not get a lot of a response out of him you realize and how long have been you up on them i would say it used to be about but an hour so that you were upon an eight-yr-ancient man riding him round and deciding upon him for 60 minutes you realize that picture will stay with me for the leisure of my lifestyles I all said yeah it is satisfactory is not it come on we should go no i don’t think I could take the thrill to be honest believe I just say if there may be something on the television soap a style of jumper is basically but they’re simply going learn the historical diagram good day father Ted Kelly speakme howdy father sorry to disturb you my name is Terry McNamee i am producing the software religion of our fathers for small screen television Aaron at the second doing a designated on priests who work in isolated communities and i was questioning for those who’d be all for speakme to us good that is that’s very um that’s an awfully enjoyable fifth of Our Fathers is my favourite software you already know well you we’re the first individual we suggestion of address that I could come over and we would offer you a small rate in your drawback support a ailing ok nobody no have got to be anybody Ted only a second Oh rapid query how precisely do you get to craggy Island father it would not seem to be on any Maps no what wouldn’t be on any Maps no Terry we’re now not precisely new york now the pleasant way to to find it’s ordinarily to head out from Garlin or relatively north till you see the English boats with the nuclear image on the facet even very nearly the island when they’re dumping the old glow-in-the-dark one factor are there every other monks dwelling there with you our researcher would not mention any person else um good no there isn’t any one else right here i’m going to see what Saturday then i will provide you with a call after I get there I the reply back Ted certainly not activate the television when father Jack’s asleep you know how he is but he is normally asleep sure well any person who served the church as long as he has deserves a leisure simply particularly an honor for us to shield in his old age you recognize yeah look at him dreaming of earlier glories indubitably girls pay attention now we have received a certain deal with in these days it is very kindly volunteered to take him all by means of volleyball practice and he is simply reminded me that it can be very heat at present so there will be no need on your tracksuit tops hi there father Dougal McGuire right here and welcome to this week’s prime of the Pops after which at number 45 this week is father Ted Crilley when I’ve obtained the vigour and the quantity 15 for the 16th week in a row his father Jack Hackett with IMS Sleepy breeze how does that cup shake get on the tv is the tv broken once more father yes we have now an concern manner there may be nothing flawed with that that are not able to be fixed with the visual you understand chortle within the head to park and now then who’s pretty me please mrs.Doyle T sec I find mr. Doyle you need to have a cop i know thanks mrs. Doyle truthfully i would like have a cop are you definite an hour tart no i’m no longer in the mood types all right so like a while but you’re no longer have a drop oh thanks mrs. Owen oh i am satisfactory Noorie they take apart father and significantly no and what do you say to a cup take off cup this cup of tea take off oh gosh there was once a phone name prior from a Terry McNamee all correct who’s that Ted I’ve never heard of him anything to do with there wasn’t at the tv sure he is coming to Vic’s tv yeah good you’d be right here tomorrow or 12 grand yeah that’s good you called someone Ted nonetheless not working you are effortlessly the quality doo-doo-doo-doo better than the entire rest penis god Ted you nervous the life out of me they are doing the ancient pop megastar thing undergo dougela I was once Ted yeah it used to be fine being on television today I suppose I’ve caught the historic television tube guide with the mattress canine get some sleep you do not get overtired do you ever want to get into television you’re unhappy Ted annoy i would not imply to send that form of factor fairly yeah yeah i do not believe you’d be so much just right at it definitely why no longer well you realize you are a bit critical are not you and your eyes are bit crossed yeah they may be a little wonky tag you recognize the cameras can decide upon that up you recognize i’m not cross eyed Dugan you’re a bit of no Ted certain half the time I don’t know if you’re talking to me your father Jack dude why do not you just get some sleep right just must say the ancient prayers our Father who art in heaven hallowed hallowed be thy name Papa do not preach doodle you recognize that you can reward God with sleep flip your head a vegan for a tiring day God there’s tons of ways that you could praise God isn’t that head like that point you instructed me to reward Him by way of you recognize just leaving the room that used to be a just right one sure Ted mmm Ted yes knock-knock who’s there father Dugan McGuire goodnight Doga right here you bit better than others that’s it you made it then I consider so there isn’t a indication that it is craggy Island there is no indicators or whatever it is there a man looking at you with the t-shirt saying I shot junior ahh you are here so what the line could be very dangerous father you’re a giant muffled i am on a portable cellphone you caught me by using shock while you phoned me you know how i am on the toilet so the place will we meet at any place we can get just a few excellent photographs any nearby landmarks no what no there are no landmarks here now Terry no no longer all comprehend although the island itself is a kind of landmark relatively the general rule is if you are heading away from it you are going in the right course correct there’s the area feeling well that sounds good it’s not a discipline fairly nevertheless it has much less rocks in it than most areas father i’ll meet you on the area now how do I get there ask Tom there he’ll aid you out correct father Thanks Holy Mary mom of God content material i’m so sorry it was once just a shaggy dog story try to avoid doing that once more dougela hello idea used to be particularly herself it’s the final thing i need you are proper there Ted anyway it can be time for Jax walk time in your walk father Jack the clips can i convey up the mobile land head he’d love that no he would not take him around the cliffs and this time if you’re going close the edge placed on the brakes he was only simply lucky the final time and you are no longer coming your self i know I suppose i will stay here and pray for a at the same time Oh what are you after Ted i’m not after something dude it is now not unknown for contributors of the clergy to hope every now and then it likes more than to get out the fresh air that’s it now in your go is that bill however man this is given each single whatever once he is out thirty is a first-rate time he is aware of they will not kiss when I’d be half that father what you as much as your self well I suppose i will simply stay here and have a little of an historic pray all correct fill in the power it is to the weekend buyers are reminded that our services are at a reminder of the unavailability I don’t even was once on here hi there fatter hey Tom inform your nuts and did you get them listed below are made it EJ i might like to film a discuss with the island Faust I imply quality correct so I just wait within the field noticed her Farah this time I’ve killed him in newcomer i might have got to talk to about that later i am doing an interview for the television maintain your arms on the perimeters what’s rather cows database you could have a face like a parrot it well is he is got some unfair between us ah no fatherhood good day John Oh Paquito his father your thanks I’ve acquired to satisfy any one now actually i’m going to be interviewed for a tv software really are that’s first-rate you understand father i will kill you outstanding on tv well thank you I say you’ll be greater than a fit for a homosexual Borden or Terri Morgan or any of them give me a couple of weeks to get to their stage I have got to go now i’m trying to track down this film you’ll be able to they usually most often wish to do just a few shut-united statesof master shots and Nadi’s and that such thing we will be late onset get a popularity is the form of Marilyn Monroe variety see you soon don’t bother Ted get them i could not run cheese out of it over here at present come here look at me oh howdy Ken what are you doing right here anyway Ricky was once interested on this form of factor you are speculated to be taking Jack for his stroll well i am are the cliffs had been closed in these days i might kiss be shut doodle hope you are aware of it wasn’t that they had been long past you kissed forgot how could they just disappear corrosion come on off that me straight to the youngsters with you there may be just another cop returns to head with him you are straight house to you right here i might wish to hear to any extent further nonsense each person else is right here do just right you’re a priest you are purported to show some decorum this wasn’t a priest don’t you say that so he advised me one time he doesn’t even think in God take all the credit at head however what the crater demise it is called out considering it was a younger fella killed on it last yr come on i’m sick and worn out York dead appear there’s a fortune-teller come on we will have one go in there do not rest your money on that stuff – we’ll take you on no account comprehend there probably whatever in it it’s rubbish how might any one suppose any of that style of nonsense simply no extra ordinary than that stuff we learned in the cemetery you realize heaven and hell and eternal lifestyles bitch take it severely Ted well you are so two men to take it seriously oh yeah yes having had an everlasting life yes of direction I let you go in you go residence straight after that good i will I promise that every one correct whats up let’s go Ted cuts on one scared off favored i will do it and that you can watch hey there sit you have got to move my palm with silver silver i don’t elevate massive luggage of it around supply me a pound now i’ll interpret one card at a time please I wasn’t concentrating and perhaps it might opt for an extra no no this is a long-established misunderstanding the Grim Reaper doesn’t mean loss of life in a literal sense rather it’s going to imply the loss of life of an ancient culture and the beginning of a brand new one i do know what that is it can be regularly a couple of new lamp i am getting for my bicycle good it’ll not become clear at the subsequent auto that is really weird there’s simplest presupposed to be one in each % hiya Tom it can be as a substitute Crilley round but he’s yeah he is in Dale that is a foul scar you might have acquired there tongue the place did you get that it was a in an argument oh i am hoping you is not going to say anything II did Lester I’ve had worse than that i will weed past anteed that to me appear like a deer faux thank you my father jacket electing some residence it can be virtually 5:00 in time for his ingesting goodbye that is where I acquired this okay Shema Israel has lower back to me come on no father we higher be off come on there you might be father we obtained here at last yet another father’s useless to the arena do you don’t know what’s going on gende nevertheless it’s time Kiran come on yeah you heard from from from the tv well yes we simply asked you a few questions Wow am I going to be on the small screen television good sure we’ll off with a historical past of the island and then transfer on to how lifestyles has converted for the Islanders economically and socially father how would you say the individuals’s religious beliefs right here on craggy Island were littered with the arrival of tv and larger entry most of the time god no they’re speakme to generate great there i’m it’s me appear i’m on the telly no God does he relatively exist I mean little I have no idea i do not even consider in equipped religion spiderbaby it’s got the body of a spider but the mind of a baby it would not fairly chunk you uh on SN gotten older no I are not able to suppose it either i’m on the television yup shaking in the air a baby has been lodged in the tunnel of gods if that if we can have a nurse please to the tunnel of gods thanks a goat and child have now come to be potential together and the North has become involved in the within the instant and an additional Norse is required to unlock the Norse we asked for beforehand thanks you

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batterymonster2021 · 5 years

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'Good Luck, Father Ted' | Father Ted | Series 1 Episode 1 | Dead Parrot

New Post has been published on https://hititem.kr/good-luck-father-ted-father-ted-series-1-episode-1-dead-parrot/

'Good Luck, Father Ted' | Father Ted | Series 1 Episode 1 | Dead Parrot

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msfcatlover · 7 years

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Just posting links to some of my favorite MP100 AMVs that I found. Mainly so I can find them again at some point (I lose everything. Even bookmarks. Even playlists. At least this way I’ll see it whenever I go back through these tags.) but also in case anyone else wanted to check them out? I’m leaving a little review of each.

Obviously they all have spoilers for the show, and most of them are flashy with pretty fast cuts. So, um, be aware of that.

【MAD】--- Good song choice (based on the subtitles, anyway,) smooth cuts, interesting use of transparency. This one is nice because it actually makes an effort to match the meaning of the lyrics to the meaning of the scene its using, while still knowing where to cut the scene in order to keep up the pacing, which you really don’t get enough of in AMVs. It’s hard to put into words exactly what I like so much about this one, but I do recommend it.

[CROSSFIRE] --- Listen. I don’t know if those tiny gasps in the beginning are part of the song, added sound effects, or what...and I don’t care. It breaks my heart. The song choice is pretty good, and the transitions are mostly smooth, although there’s some filters and extra flashes added that bother me a bit. I do feel it could have ended at 3:17 and the video would have been stronger (ending on a heavy moment of loss and a quiet point in the music,) but oh well.

Paranormal --- This one kinda fascinates me. It watches more like a trailer than a music video, using instrumental-only music combined with some of Mob and Reigen’s lines from throughout the show (with a few others) to build this really beautiful, tense mood. There’s a few clips I think weaken that mood (like the sword bouncing off Reigen’s neck,) but otherwise it’s pretty damn strong.

I Get Wicked --- It’s... okay, it’s mostly just different fight scenes spliced together, and the editing is a bit wonky in places (I think a few clips are allowed to go on too long, a few transitions don’t work, and have no idea what’s up with the fast-forward in the beginning.) That said. I love how this one puts a focus on the parallels between the Scars and our heroes; the way it’s set up, the lyrics even seems to go back and forth on whose perspective they’re from. I don’t know if that’s what the creator was going for, or if they were just going for “Look how cool these fights are!” but either way. I like it.

FINAL - Awakening --- Aside from a couple weird transitions at the beginning (why the lyrics? Why the lens flare? I dunno,) most of the transitions in this one are really smooth and manage to match the scenes together in a way that feels good to watch. It follows the peaks and valleys of the song really well, and picks scenes to make those crescendos hit well. I don’t read more complexities into it, it just feels good to watch.

Down the Road with Reigen --- First: I straight-up love the choice of music. In this context, the use of filters works much better, because each one is matched with a distortion in the music. The timing is pretty impeccable, and there’s a couple of really nice transitions in there. Also. I like the use of name cards. It’s integrated really well, matching up to the beat of the music, and almost... makes you feel more grounded in all the craziness? I don’t know how to describe it, but the re-introduction of the characters works really well. The last 10-15 seconds are just an endcard, so once you see Ritsu on the couch, know that the music video is over.

Little Lion Man --- *breathes* This one. The transitions are so smooth. The clips are chosen to match the original meaning of the scene with the lyrics, while still being edited to match the pacing and tone of the lyrics. I keep trying to pick a part that I love best to pick apart the details and how well they’re done (Ritsu’s chorus? The way it uses Mob and Reigen’s first meeting multiple times to bring out the same feeling of warmth it was tied to with the first one? Gosh darn everything about the end sequence?) but I can’t. If I had to pick anything to critique, I’d say the beginning’s a little abrupt and the clips don’t quite fit together as well for most of the first verse, but... still. Watch it. I implore you.

Hey Brother --- The creator openly admits that his one was directly inspired by the last; it shows. Most of the clips fit well with the lyrics and tone, and it definitely taps into the emotional core of Mob and Ritsu’s relationship in places, but... There are several cuts that I feel are too abrupt, taking you out of the rhythm of things by throwing your senses off, and I feel it does rely a bit too heavily on Mob fighting Claw. For a video about the brother’s relationship, it’s surprisingly light on Ritsu, doesn’t show a much of Mob’s conflict around attacking Claw, and it leaves out the forest scene altogether. I feel like the forest scene is kinda vital to their relationship in the anime, don’t you? I know I’m being much more critical of this one. It’s probably because I watched them back-to-back, and one works so hard to use the same techniques that are so good in the other that any flaw in the execution really stands out. If you want my recommendation, between the two of them you should watch this one first.

NEW DIVIDE --- Honestly, I love this one just a little bit more than the Little Lion Man video. But where I had trouble explaining how and why I loved that one, this one I can explain very easily. Are you ready? LOOK AT THAT MOTHERFUCKING LAYERING. LOOK AT THOSE TRANSITIONS. HOLY SHIT, IT’S ALL SO SMOOTH, IT FLOWS SO WELL, I CAN’T EVEN SPOT WHERE SOME SCENES CHANGE OVER, ARE YOU SEEING THIS?! The places of overlap, combined with the match-cuts, combined with the timing...! Wow. Just wow. Just... wow. How? Magic. Watch it.

"Run Mob Run" --- Okay, I’m not going to scream and rant over how impressive all of these are. This is another one that chose a good song, and has good, smooth transitions; the stand-out thing here is the pacing. As the song builds up the tension, the cuts change speed, coming fastest in the middle and at the end, but never feeling clumsy or abrupt. The change in speed makes the cuts that are held on longer feel weightier (and they, too, do not linger long enough to throw off the timing.) It’s a good, solid video that feels good to watch, even if it gets a bit hectic towards the end.

Lone Digger 100 --- Last one, and I’m running out of words. Which worries me, because I want to give this one a ringing endorsement; the timing is just about perfect (just watch Reigen pop the Black Orbs in time with the beat,) the transitions are smooth, and the choice of music... You know I don’t listen to a lot of electro-swing? Which is weird, because every time I hear it anywhere, I love every second of it. This is the only video on this list that actually made me laugh, and the way it matches its clips is really fascinating to watch, several of the transitions are pretty damn clever, and while normally I don’t like it when AMVs include dialogue from the program (as either altering the volume of the music, cutting it out entirely, or having them talk over the lyrics are the most typical methods,) this one times the clip that does so so that it falls at a point where the music has no lyrics and is relatively soft, making it actually work really well. The use of text is a little odd (sometimes it works really well, other times it throws me; I wish they’d kept up with the initial theme of integrating it into the environment or gesture of the clip somehow,) I do recommend giving it a watch.

#my life #mp100 #video #music #100% fanfiction #sorta #not really #mine

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themonkeycabal · 7 years

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Christmas Gift Fic #9

(technically still Christmas where I am!)

Okay, here’s another. I might get a couple more out this weekend, but I hate to promise that.

@whyarealltheurlsarlreadytaken asked for: can you do a ‘run verse au where darcy and clint have a romantic relationship.

I hope this is kind of what you wanted. It got away from me a little bit. ... enjoy!

***

Darcy couldn't sleep.

Well, no, that wasn't right. She did sleep, and she slept hard, for about four hours. And now she was wide awake staring into the dark.

SHIELD was gone. Weird. And freaky. It hit her every now and again, just out of nowhere. Wham.

Except, it wasn't entirely gone. It was just underground now. Like she was, here in her pitch-black room, in a bunker complex, with all that was left. That was the freaky part. How fragile it all felt. Not just the agency, but the world. Everything felt egg shell-thin.

Licking her dry lips, she reached out to turn on the lamp. It was old, part of the ancient equipment and furniture leftover from the base's early days, and it cast a sickly yellow light over the small, private quarters she'd claimed while she was lending a hand at the Playground. She would so make a shopping run at some point, when she could get away for a day. There was just so much cleanup to do, to get started on, to dig out, to glue back together. And so few hands to help.

Phil was out there now, somewhere in that shaky world, looking for his agents, trying to round up who he could. They were starting to trickle back in ones and twos, here and there. Sometimes he'd even find a whole pack of them, gone to ground in some forgotten bunker or safehouse, holding tight together while the foundations fell out from under them.

Rubbing a hand across her eyes, Darcy swung her legs out of bed and let out a long breath. The clock — a regular, old-fashioned, tick-tock, with hands and everything, clock — read a quarter after 3. Ugh.

Her thoughts ticked along with the little second hand — too much to do, too much to do, too much to do. As soon as she drifted from that hard sleep, into something lighter, her mind filled up with all those too many things, and now she was wide, damned awake. Bleh. She loved her father, but sometimes it sucked to be his daughter. He'd probably never slept a whole night through in his entire life for just that reason; the tick-tock brain that never stopped.

She laughed at herself and stood . That was such a creakily retro analogy for Tony, he'd be horrified by it. So, of course, she made a mental note to share it with him at the earliest possible opportunity.

Standing, she took a moment to stretch, trying to do something positive, good for her, self care, that sort of thing. Plus, she had such a crink in her neck from being wedged under floor plates and behind cramped server racks trying to fix everything Hydra broke and trying to upgrade everything else. The stretching helped a little, and woke her body up a little more, so at least she had some of the energy her brain was demanding. And then she went out into the dim corridors, only every third bulb lit for night-time lighting and power conservation. 70-year old diesel generators and stealth power grid taps could only take them so far.

Darcy had them on an arc reactor now, though, and Tony had been surprisingly peaceable about that suggestion — well, they argued a little, but that was them. It helped that Phil immediately promised its existence was need to know, and only he and May would know anything about it. Well, and Darcy, but she was the one who installed it and who would maintain it. When the device came in disguised as a Newegg box, Phil gave her a tired smile and tried to joke she was the electrical systems chief now. Then he begged her not to blow up what was left of SHIELD. 'Cause he was a funny guy like that.

The corridors were empty as she wandered down to the hanger. The Bus needed a little more work, though all critical systems were up and humming. Now, while it was quiet, she'd take care of her pretty flying baby.

There was an eerie stillness as she walked, her eye picking out the old SSR eagle painted on a wall, and her steps sounding particularly echoy. With the twisting halls, endless side rooms, and all, it was like a pretty sweet first person shooter where she got sucked back in time to fight an alien invasion in the fifties or something.

She wasn't sure how far the base extended, parts of it were still closed off, again, to conserve energy. And because there were only a couple dozen people knocking around the place. It was better to cluster everybody closer, it made everything feel less lonely and depressing. Except, it still felt lonely and depressing. Though, maybe that was because it was 3am, the most depressing hour of the night.

When she got to the Bus, she went up to the lounge first and started the coffee maker, then she sat at the briefing table and called up the systems. Avionics were good, flight good, servers good, nav good, some of the lab systems were still a little wonky and something was slowing transfers to the main base servers. That might be software, but it could be hardware, too. Skye was software, but so many of the systems were slagged, hardware was a real possibility still, too. She'd go over it again.

"So, according to Natasha, you're not my trainee anymore."

Darcy jerked and nearly fell out of her chair. Putting a hand to her chest, feeling the wild hammering of her heart, she turned a heated glare on the man who was leaning against the opening to the lounge.

"Damn it, Barton. What the actual hell?"

"Sorry."

"Wow, no you aren't."

He pouted and stepped into the room, walking over to the bar and the coffee maker. "I am. I didn't mean to scare you."

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, still trying to settle the surge of adrenaline.

"You're cranky."

Darcy let out a whoosh of breath and ran a hand through her hair. "It's 3:30 in the morning, I wasn't expecting anybody to be around; this place is like a post-apocalyptic horror movie at night. Forgive me for being wigged at you popping out of nowhere."

He poured them both a coffee and brought her a mug. "Okay, for real, sorry. I got in a couple hours ago, you were already asleep. May found me a bunk, but I couldn't sleep either. I'm still on Prague time. Sucks. What's your excuse?"

She wrapped her hands around the warming mug. "Stark brain? I was asleep, but then, you know that bit where you kind of wake up to like roll over or something? My brain kicked in with all the shit I've got to do, and I couldn't stop thinking and here I am."

He nodded soberly and sipped at his coffee. "Sucks," he said again.

"Yeah. Are you sticking?"

"With SHIELD?"

"Yeah. Or you gonna take my dad up on the full-time Avengers gig?"

"I don't know," he said, shrugging. "Honestly. That's why I'm here, I told Phil I'd talk to him first. I owe it to him."

"Sure."

"I guess you're all in," he said, voice mild and free of judgement one way or the other.

"I guess I am," she admitted.

"Is that what you want?"

"If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here."

"Is that true, though?"

She cocked her head and thought about it. "Yeah. I really think it is."

"Okay. Cool." He tapped his long archer's fingers on the mug. "This spooked Nat pretty good. I think she's out. Or, maybe like a contract player. If Phil needed something, she'd help, but, you know what I mean."

"I do."

"You've got options, you know? Like, you could do anything, go anywhere, work for anybody. Some of these people, SHIELD was all they had, but you've got … well, everything."

"Because I'm the spoiled rich kid, right?" She bristled a little and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Don't get like that. It's true and you know it." He swept an arm out over the table in a broad arc. "The world is your oyster. You could go get five doctorates like your dad, go start up a company in … whatever it is you'd want to do. What would you want to do?"

"I don't know."

"Really?"

"I never knew, Barton," she said quietly. It was true, it was her thing, it had to be all over her evals. Maybe he never really believed it, or never understood just how completely absolutely true that was. She never knew what she wanted. Never. And it wasn't something she ever felt really comfortable with. Everybody around her was so focused and she was … aimlessly drifting.

"I had vague ideas, some kid fantasies, you know, but never anything I was super into," she said, forcing the words out. "I picked political science because I've always been interested in people, in how the world works, and, of course, with a father who's a defense contractor, government was something I was tangentially familiar with. But, even that wasn't really a passion. I never had one. I always envied my friends who did, you know? Who knew exactly what they wanted. Like Rico and his computers, and Marley and design. But me? I never knew. And," she smirked over at him, "I thought you knew that."

He stared at her for a long moment. Long enough that she looked away, staring down into her mug. "I told you I never saw you. You are a mystery to me. You've been my trainee for over a year, and I don't know hardly anything about you."

"You know plenty."

"What if I wanted to know more?"

"I don't know what that means. Like, what? My favorite color?"

"Red," he said immediately. "That one I know."

She laughed and looked up at him. He smiled back.

"Purple," she said, jerking her thumb at him.

Clint raised his chin and sniffed. "It's the color of royalty, you know."

"Sure," she said with a little smile. "So, what do you want to know?"

"What would you do? If you could do anything at all … which, you know, you actually can. What would you do?"

"This."

"Come on, Darce," he whined.

She shook her head and jabbed a finger down on the table. "This. For real. This is what I want."

He chewed on that for a second and then countered with, "You were in SHIELD to help your dad, I know that."

"Yeah, and then SHIELD fell down. I know how big this is, how hard this will be, but …" she leaned towards him, intent and focused. "When we were in those tunnels and you were being an asshole—"

"Hey," he protested and frowned.

"You were," she insisted.

"I … was," he admitted contritely. "Yeah, sorry."

She waved it off and forgave him with a smile. "Anyway, when I saw those people on the platform. I knew. For the first time in my life, Clint, I knew what I wanted. I knew what I could do. Me. I could help those people. I could help the world. Phil told me I could, and you and Nat, and my dad, and Thor, and everybody. But, that moment is when I knew it for myself. I could do it, I had the resources, the training, the knowledge, the contacts, everything … I could do it. I can do it. It's what I want. I want to rebuild SHIELD."

Darcy waited for him to respond, but he just pursed his lips and stared at her thoughtfully. Again with the staring. And it was his 'watching her like a hawk' (ha ha) look. Uncomfortable. Sucking in her cheeks, she looked back at the systems readouts for something to do, for anything to distract her from the sudden super intensity.

Her relationship with Clint had always been pretty relaxed, even when they were training. He liked team sports, and beer, and cheesy movies, and 80s action shows, and they could kick it in easy conversation. She'd tease him about being a disaster, but she admired him, too. Admired his dedication, his skill, his way of looking at the world in all its simple and complex messiness — which was basically Clint in a nutshell anyway. But, this … early morning talks where, because of exhaustion, overwork, whatever else, she let herself open up in a way she never really liked to. This was new, and sort of uncomfortable, and really with the staring already. God, Barton.

"Okay," he said at last.

"Okay."

"I'm in. I'll tell Phil when he gets back."

Darcy looked up and frowned. "Wait, what?"

"I'm in with SHIELD."

"Oh," she said and tried to think of what she ought to say to that, she wasn't expecting it. In fact, she was pretty prepared for both Nat and Clint to bail. "Well, good. Yay. Glad to have you."

"Yep," he said, his voice bright as he nodded and grinned. "I believe you."

"About what?"

"That you'll rebuild SHIELD."

"Well, I mean, Phil —"

"Yeah, you and Phil. It's called conviction." He gave her a crooked smile. "I think you're nuts, but I like it. That's my kinda crazy."

She laughed and gave his leg a little nudge with her own. "Jerk."

"Yep." He propped his chin on his hand and kept watching her. "You're not my trainee anymore. You're like … what? Like, Phil's number two or three?"

"Four or five? Or lower? I don't know. May, then maybe … I don't know. You or Hartley?"

"Oh, is she here?" he asked, looking interested and pleased. "Awesome. She's wicked with a knife."

Darcy grimaced. "We, uh, maybe don't get along so well. Maybe?"

"Oh …" He thought about it for a second then nodded. "Yeah, I can see the personality clash. Give her a chance, though, she's good people."

"Yeah, that's what May says." Darcy shrugged. She could give Hartley another chance, but would Hartley give her one? Maybe she'd have to work for it. Ugh. "Her team, though … I mean, Idaho's okay, I guess. Though, Christ, he thinks he's a world-class chef and I swear to you, he could burn water. And Hunter's just straight up obnoxious."

Clint's eyebrows rose. "Lance Hunter?"

"Yep."

"Huh."

"You know him, I guess," she said, pressing for that story. They'd be a weird combination. Probably not something anybody'd want to witness.

"I do. Sort of. It's a long story," he said with a sigh. "We have an ex in common. Way awkward."

"His hell-beast ex-wife? His words, not mine."

Clint snorted a surprised laugh and it took him a second to stop chuckling. "That's the one. Ha. Oh, yeah. I should buy him a beer. Awesome."

"Come on, she can't be that bad."

With a challenging look, Clint straightened up and started to tug off his shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?" Darcy asked, alarmed and startled and not prepared for the Barton striptease.

"I'm going to show you the scars."

Darcy laughed and lunged forward to catch the hem of his shirt before it could clear his chest. She tugged it back down. "Keep your shirt on, geez."

"No, you'll be impressed."

"I'm plenty impressed, promise. Please, keep your shirt on." She had a hard enough time not staring at his arms, she didn't need him to strip for her, too. He was a damned attractive guy, and she'd always noticed that. He was also a dozen years older than her and her SO. It was just … some things were not for thinking about too long, or else that way lay heartbreak or something. But she liked his squishy face, and his dumb boy sense of humor, and his frankly magnificent arms, and his crazy intense focus when he was being all sniper dude. Ugh, no Darcy, don't go there.

He was looking mulish and he jerked up the side of his shirt anyway, ignoring her protests and pointed to a scar low on his back. "That one."

"She stabbed you?"

"No, but I got stabbed because of her."

"Well … ouch?"

"Yeah, totally. That hurt."

"Poor baby."

"Kiss it and make it better?"

She gaped at him for a second and shook her head like she misheard. "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know?" he said, scratching the back of his neck. "Reflexive? Don't make it weird, Lewis."

"Screw you, Barton," she said, laughing again.

"But, you know, if you wanted to, I wouldn't stop you."

"Who's making this weird?"

"Me?"

"You." She was still laughing, though, because, really, Barton?

"But, uh …" he moved his hand from his neck to rub at his ear. "If you wanted to, maybe, go out for coffee sometime."

Her mouth went dry and there was a strange fuzzy buzzing in her head, because he couldn't have just asked what she thought he asked. Right? "We're having coffee now."

"And it's good, right? What is this?" He looked down at this mug before picking it up and draining the last. "Too good for an airplane and way too good for SHIELD."

"Phil's a coffee snob."

"Oh, right." He stood up and walked away to grab the pot. "More?"

"Sure."

He poured them both another and then sat down again, fidgeting with his mug. "I meant it, though. Like, maybe someplace with normal people. And we'd go, you know, as normal people."

"Neither of us are normal people," she said quietly.

"Normalish. You're not my trainee anymore," he said again. Then licked his lips nervously and took a big gulp of coffee. "Believe it or not, I'm usually better at this. You are damned hard to read. Also," he held up a finger to make a point, "I am not afraid of your dad."

"Noted." She rubbed at her eyes and tried to sort through the last five minutes. She didn't … no, she didn't ever expect this. "For real?"

"Yeah, I mean … uh, if you want. I'd just …"

"What about Natasha?"

He gave her an understanding smile and shook his head. "Darce, Nat is my best friend. That's like … I don't know, you and Rico."

"Oh," she said and made a face. She loved Rico, but yeah, no, she would not date Rico. That would be too weird. "I don't know what to say."

"Well, hey, if you're not into it, that's okay. No harm, but …" he trailed off and was silent for a moment before he continued. "I like you. I've always liked you, like as a person, you know? You're fun, you're weird — in a good way — you're easy to be around. I don't know. I just, I like when we watch the A-Team and drink beer and talk about whatever the hell. I like laughing with you."

"I like that, too," she said quietly, really trying to take this all in. Well, if nothing else it sure as hell shorted out her brain, wiping away that endless tick of 'too much to do'.

"We could give it a try," he suggested. "Frankly, I think we'd make a badass pair. I can really see it. You'd bring it with the high tech, I'd bring it with the sniping, then we'd go out for Coronas and tacos and be awesome. I'm liking this."

"Coronas and tacos," she echoed, still trying to work through the short in her brain.

"With lime. For both, of course, because fish tacos." He leaned towards her, his eyebrows raised and something open and hopeful on his impish face. "I like being around you, not a lot of people get me, but you do, and you make it so damned easy to just be, if that makes sense."

"It does," she agreed, because, well, it was always easy to be with Clint. Not lazy easy, but like she didn't have to think about who she was with him. She just was herself. Whatever and whoever that was. And he was way opening himself up here, so she should probably give him some of that back. It was only fair. "I think I could go for Coronas and tacos. I, uh, you know, every guy I've ever dated, it didn't always go so well, because I was keeping secrets. Which, of course, you know." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Olympic sport?"

"I wasn't wrong," he grumbled, "you're good at it. I mean, come on. I'm a spy. Hell, you even pulled one over on Nat. Crazy."

"I guess I did." She mused on that for a second. That was pretty good. "Anyway, you know my secrets now. That'll be new."

"Oh, you're still a damned mystery, for real. I'm not just saying that."

Her lips quirked up into a little smile. "I keep you on your toes, Barton."

"Please do." He reached out a hand and tapped the back of hers. "No pressure. Just, you know, tacos. See what happens."

"My dad throws you off the building."

"I'm still not afraid of him. And, I have a grappling hook arrow."

Darcy laughed. "Of course you do."

"It's awesome."

"It's 93 stories."

He thought about that and winced. "Well, uh, I'll call Thor. Teamwork, yeah!"

And finally that reserve she'd built around herself for her whole life started to crack. Maybe not entirely done away, but a little light was getting through. She reached out and touched his face. "I like your squishy face."

"It's not squishy," he said with a pout.

She poked at his cheek and laughed when he snarled. "Handsome face."

"Better."

"Yeah."

"So … tacos?"

"It's like four in the morning."

"Tonight. Tacos."

"Tacos. Tonight," she agreed.

He grinned. "Awesome."

Darcy gave his cheek a last pat and sat back. "You know, I think there are rules about agents dating."

"Then I'm out," he said easily and without hesitation. "I'll tell Phil."

"Come on, we could use you."

He thought about it for a second then shrugged. "There's like thirty agents left. What's Phil going to do? Ground us? Though, you know, I could do the independent contractor thing, too. I can still work for SHIELD, but be out of the chain. That actually might work better. With the Avengers and all."

"Sure, sure."

"SHIELD's been my world for a long time, Darce. I think I'm ready for there to be other things in my life now, you know? I'm good by that."

"You're sure?"

"I am. You had your revelation in those tunnels, and I had mine. And, I think that's part of why I got so mad at you. It wasn't the secrets, I just …"

"I was keeping them from you."

"Yeah," he admitted and bowed his head. "I want more. And, I let myself believe I had it, and then I realized I never really told you that, and you were keeping these secrets, and people were shooting at us, and I could have lost you right there. And … I didn't like that. It freaked me out, too."

She let that sink in for a minute before taking his hand. "Okay. So tacos tonight and then we see what happens."

"Awesomeness happens."

Giving his fingers a squeeze, she laughed. "High bar, Barton."

"I'll clear it," he promised with a cocky smirk.

"Just so you know, there aren't any more secrets. Okay?"

"Okay," he accepted that with a nod. "But, I want to hear about those fantasies you had as a kid about what you'd do when you grew up."

"Forklift driver."

Clint guffawed and tugged on her hand, pulling her closer to him. "Really?"

"And astronaut."

"That's a gimmie," he protested. "Every kid wants to be an astronaut."

"And an architectural mad genius who designed secret lairs."

"Okay, you're not far off of that one. You could totally pull that one off."

"I know, right? So close." She leaned up and kissed his cheek. "I've got to actually work on the one secret base I've got on my hands now, though, so it's time for you to take a hike."

He returned her kiss with one of his own. "Okay. Fine. I'm tired now." He stood up and pointed a finger at her. "Tonight. Tacos."

"Tacos. Tonight," she agreed again, smiling.

#my fic #christmas gift fic #darcy lewis #clint barton

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