#it just seems so realistic in so many ways

[damienkarras73]

An essay on Furiosa, the politics of the Wasteland, Arthurian literature and realistic vs. formalistic CGI

Mad Max: Fury Road absolutely enraptured me when it came out nearly a decade ago, and I will cop to seeing it four times at the theatre. For me (and many others who saw the light of George Miller) it set new standards for action filmmaking, storytelling and worldbuilding, and I could pop in its Blu Ray at any time and never get tired of it. Perhaps not surprisingly, I was deeply apprehensive about the announced prequel for Fury Road's actual main character, Furiosa, even if Miller was still writing and directing. We didn't need backstory for Furiosa—hell, Fury Road is told in such a way that NOTHING in it requires explicit backstory. And since it focuses on the Yung Furiosa, it meant Charlize Theron couldn't return with another career-defining performance. Plus, look at all that CGI in the trailer, it can't be as good as Fury Road.

Turns out I was silly to doubt George Miller, M.D., A.O., writer and director of Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet One & Two.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is excellent, and I needn't have worried about it not being as good as Fury Road because it is not remotely trying to be Fury Road. Fury Road is a lean, mean machine with no fat on it, nothing extraneous, operating with constant forward momentum and only occasionally letting up to let you breathe a little; Furiosa is a classical epic, sprawling in scope, scale and structure, and more than happy to let the audience simmer in a quiet, almost painfully still moment. If its opening spoken word sequence by that Gandalf of the Wastes himself, the First History Man, didn't already clue you in, it unfolds like something out of myth, a tale told over and over again and whose possible embellishments are called attention to in the dialogue itself. Where Fury Road scratched the action nerd itch in my head like you wouldn't believe, Furiosa was the equivalent of Miller giving the undulating folds of my English major brain a deep tissue massage. That's great! I, for one, love when sequels/prequels endeavour to be fundamentally different movies from what they're succeeding/preceding, operating in different modes, formats and even genres, and more filmmakers should aim for it when building on an existing series.

This movie has been on my mind so much in the past week that I've ended up dedicating several cognitive processes to keeping track of all of the different ponderings it's spawned. Thankfully, Furiosa is divided into chapters (fun fact: putting chapter cards in your movie is a quick way to my heart), so it only seems fitting that I break up all of these cascading thoughts accordingly.

1. The Pole of Inaccessibility

Furiosa herself actually isn't the protagonist for the first chapter of her own movie, instead occupying the role of a (very crafty and resourceful) damsel in distress for those initial 30-40 minutes. The real hero of the opening act, which plays out like a game of cat and mouse, is Furiosa's mother Mary Jabassa, who rides out into the wasteland first on horseback and then astride a motorcycle to track down the band of raiders that has stolen away her daughter. Mary's brought to life by Miller and Nico Lathouris' economical writing and a magnetic performance by newcomer Charlee Fraser, who radiates so much screen presence in such relatively little time and with one of those instant "who is SHE??" faces. She doesn't have many lines, but who needs them when Fraser can convey volumes about Mary with just a flash of her eyes or the effortless way she swaps out one of her motorcycle's wheels for another. To be quite candid, I'm not sure of the last time I fell in love with a character so quickly.

You notice a neat aesthetic contrast between mother and daughter in retrospect: Mary Jabassa darts into the desert barefoot, clad in a simple yet elegant dress, her wolf cut immaculate, only briefly disguising herself with the ugly armour of a raider she just sniped, and when she attacks it's almost with grace, like some Greek goddess set loose in the post-apocalyptic Aussie outback with just her wits and a bolt-action rifle; we track Furiosa's growth over the years by how much of her initially conventional beauty she has shed, quite literally in one case (hair buzzed, severed arm augmented with a chunky mechanical prosthesis, smeared in grease and dirt from head to toe, growling her lines at a lower octave), and by how she loses her mother's graceful approach to movement and violence, eventually carrying herself like a blunt instrument. Yet I have zero doubt the former raised the latter, both angels of different feathers but with the same steel and resolve. Of fucking course this woman is Furiosa's mother, and in the short time we know her we quickly understand exactly why Furiosa has the drive and morals she does without needing to resort to didactic exposition.

Anyway, I was tearing up by the end of the first chapter. Great start!

2. Lessons from the Wasteland

Most movies—most stories, really—don't actually tell the entire narrative from A to Z. Perhaps the real meat of the thing is found from H to T, and A-G or U-Z are unnecessary for conveying the key narrative and themes. So many prequels fail by insisting on telling the A-G part of the story, explaining how the hero earned a certain nickname or met their memorable sidekick—but if that stuff was actually interesting, they likely would have included it in the original work. The greatest thing a prequel can actually do is recontextualize, putting iconic characters or moments in a new light, allowing you to appreciate them from a different angle. All of season 2 of Fargo serves to explain why Molly Solverson's dad is appropriately wary when Lorne Malvo enters his diner for a SINGLE SCENE in the show's first season. David's arc from the Alien prequels Prometheus and Covenant—polarizing as those entries are—adds another layer to why Ash is so protective of the creature in the first movie. Andor gives you a sense of what it's like for a normal, non-Jedi person to live under the boot of the Empire and why so many of them would join up with the Rebel Alliance—or why they would desire to wear that boot, or even just crave the chance to lick it.

Furiosa is one of those rare great prequels because it makes us take a step back and consider the established world with a little more nuance, even if it's still all so absurd. In Fury Road, Immortan Joe is an awesome, endlessly quotable villain, completely irredeemable, and basically a cartoon. He works perfectly as the antagonist of that breakneck, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote-ass movie, but if you step outside of its adrenaline-pumping narrative for even a moment you risk questioning why nobody in the Citadel or its surrounding settlements has risen up against him before. Hell, why would Furiosa even work for him to begin with? But then you see Dementus and company tear-assing around the wasteland, seizing settlements and running them into the ground, and you realize Joe and his consortium offer something that Dementus reasonably can't: stability—granted, an unwavering, unchangeable stability weighted in favour of Joe's own brutal caste system, but stability nonetheless. It really makes you wonder, how badly does a guy have to suck to make IMMORTAN JOE of all people look like a sane, competent and reasonable ruler by comparison?!?

…and then they open the door to the vault where he keeps his wives, and in a flash you're reminded just how awful Joe is and why Furiosa will risk her life to help some of these women flee from him years later. This new context enriches Joe and makes it more believable that he could maintain power for so long, but it doesn't make him any less of a monster, and it says a lot about Furiosa's hate for Dementus that she could grit her teeth and work for this sick old tyrant.

3. The Stowaway

Here's another wild bit of trivia about this movie: you don't actually see top-billed actress Anya Taylor-Joy pop up on screen until roughly halfway through, once Furiosa is in her late teens/early twenties. Up until this point she's been played by Alyla Browne, who through the use of some seamless and honestly really impressive CGI has been given Anya's distinctive bug eyes [complimentary]. It's one of those bold choices that really works because Miller commits to it so hard, though it does make me wish Browne's name was up on the poster next to Taylor-Joy's.

Speaking of CGI, I should talk about what seems to be a sticking point for quite a few people: if there's been one consistent criticism of Furiosa so far, it's that it doesn't look nearly as practical or grounded as Fury Road, with more obvious greenscreen and compositing, and what previously would've been physical stunt performers and pyrotechnics have been replaced with their digital equivalents for many shots. Simply put, it doesn't look as real! For a lot of people, that practicality was one of Fury Road's primary draws, so I won't try to quibble if they're let down by Furiosa's overt artificiality, but to be honest I'm actually quite fine with it. It helps that this visual discrepancy doesn't sneak up on you but is incredibly apparent right from the aerial zoom-down into Australia in the very first scene, so I didn't feel misled or duped.

Fury Road never asks you to suspend your disbelief because it all looks so believable; Furiosa jovially prods you to suspend that disbelief from the get-go and tune into it on a different wavelength. It's a classical epic, and like the classical epics of the 1950s and 60s it has a lot of actors standing in front of what clearly are matte paintings. It feels right! We're not watching fact, we're watching myth. I'm willing to concede there might be a little bit of post-hoc rationalization on my part because I simply love this movie so much, but I'm not holding the effects in Furiosa to the same standard as those in Fury Road because I simply don't believe Miller and his crew are attempting to replicate that approach. Without the extensive CGI, we don't get that impressive long, panning take where a stranded Furiosa scans the empty, dust-and-sun-scoured wasteland (75% Sergio Leone, 25% Andrei Tarkovsky), or the Octoboss and his parasailing goons. For the sake of intellectual exercise I did try imagining them filming the Octoboss/war rig sequence with the same immersive practical approach they used for Fury Road's stunts, however I just kept picturing dead stunt performers, so perhaps the tradeoff was worth it!

4. Homeward

Around the same time we meet the Taylor-Joy-pilled Furiosa in Chapter 3, we're introduced to Praetorian Jack, the chief driver for the convoys running between the Citadel and its allied settlements. Jack's played by Tom Burke, who pulled off a very good Orson Welles in Mank! and who I should really check out in The Souvenir one of these days. He's also a cool dude! Here are some facts about Praetorian Jack:

He's decked out in road leathers with a pauldron stitched to one shoulder

He's stoic and wary, but still more or less personable and can carry on a conversation

Professes to a certain cynicism, to quote Special Agent Albert Rosenfield, but ultimately has a capacity for kindness and will do the right thing

Shoots a gun real good

Can drive like nobody's business

So in other words, Jack is Mad Max. But also, no, he clearly isn't! He looks and dresses like Mad Max (particularly Mel Gibson's) and does a lot of the same things "Mad" Max Rockatansky does, but he's also very explicitly a distinct character. It's a choice that seems inexplicable and perhaps even lazy on its face, except this is a George Miller movie, so of course this parallel is extremely purposeful. Miller has gone on record saying he avoids any kind of strict chronology or continuity for his Mad Max movies, compared to the rigid canons for Star Trek and Star Wars, and bless him for doing so. It's more fun viewing each Mad Max entry as a new revision or elaboration on a story being told again and again generations after the fall, mutating in style, structure and focus with every iteration, becoming less grounded as its core narrative is passed from elder to youth, community to community, genre to genre, until it becomes myth. (At least, my English major brain thinks it's more fun.) In fact there's actually something Arthurian to it, where at first King Arthur was mentioned in several Welsh legends before Geoffrey of Monmouth crafted an actual narrative around him, then Chrétien de Troyes added elements like Lancelot and infused the stories with more romance, and then with Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory whipped the whole cycle together into one volume, which T.H. White would chop and screw and deconstruct with The Once and Future King centuries later.

All this to say: maybe Praetorian Jack looks and sounds and acts like Max because he sorta kinda basically is, being just one of many men driving back and forth across the wasteland, lending a hand on occasion, who'll be conflated into a single, legendary "Mad Max" at some point down the line in a different History Man's retelling of Furiosa's odyssey. Sometimes that Max rips across the desert in his V8 Interceptor, other times driving a big rig. Perhaps there's a dog tagging along and/or a scraggly and at first aggravating ally played by Bruce Spence or Nicholas Hoult. Usually he has a shotgun. But so long as you aren't trying to kill him, he'll help you out.

5. Beyond Vengeance

The Mad Max movies have incredibly iconic villains—Immortan Joe! Toecutter! the Lord Humongous!—but they are exactly that, capital V Villains devoid of humanizing qualities who you can't wait to watch bad things happen to. Furiosa appears to continue this trend by giving us a villain who in fact has a mustache long enough that he could reasonably twirl it if he so wanted, but ironically Dementus ends up being the most layered antagonist in the entire series, even moreso than the late Tina Turner's comparatively benevolent Aunty Entity from Beyond Thunderdome. And because he's played by Chris Hemsworth, whose comedic delivery rivals his stupidly handsome looks, you lock in every time he's on screen.

Something so fascinating about Dementus is that, for a main antagonist, he's NOT all-powerful, and in fact quite the opposite: he's more conman than warlord, looking for the next hustle, the next gullible crowd he can preach to and dupe—though never for long. For all his bluster, at every turn he finds himself in way over his head and writing cheques he can't cash, and this self-induced Sisyphean torment makes him riveting to watch. You're tempted to pity Dementus but it's also quite difficult to spare sympathy for someone who's so quick to channel their rage and hurt and ego into thoughtless, burn-it-all-down destruction. When you're not laughing at him, you're hating his guts, and it's indisputably the best work of Chris Hemsworth's career.

It's in this final chapter that everything naturally comes to a head: Furiosa's final evolution into the character we meet at the start of Fury Road, the predictable toppling of Dementus' precariously built house of cards, and the mythmaking that has been teased since the very first scene becoming diagetic text, the last of which allows the movie to thoroughly explore the themes of vengeance it's been building to. A brief war begins, is summarized and is over in the span of roughly a minute, and on its face it's a baffling narrative choice that most other filmmakers would have botched. But our man Miller's smart enough to recognize that the result of this war is the most foregone of conclusions if you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention, so he effectively brushes past it to get to the emotional heart of the climax and an incredible "Oh shit!" payoff that cements Miller as one of mainstream cinema's greatest sickos.

Fury Road remains the greatest Mad Max film, but Furiosa might be the best thing George Miller has ever made. If not his magnum opus, it does at least feel like his dissertation, and it makes me wish Warner Bros. puts enough trust in him despite Furiosa's poor box office performance that he's able to make The Wasteland. Absolutely ridiculous that a man just short of his 80th birthday was able to pull this off, and with it I feel confident calling him one of my favourite directors.

#furiosa: a mad max saga #mad max #mad max: Fury road #furiosa #imperator furiosa #george miller #mary jabassa #dementus #praetorian jack #immortan joe #max rockatansky #analysis #essay #anya taylor-joy #chris hemsworth #charlee fraser #tom burke #charlize theron #continuity #canon #arthurian literature #arthurian mythology #the matter of britain #king arthur #alyla browne

[mybedroomceilingsbored]

spewing whatever shit pops into my head for all my fav tma characters

ALRIGHT babes a whole entire six people wanted to see my opinions on characters so far (i just finished #103), but i don't rlly have a direction to take with this. i was thinking about giving them ratings but idek what i'd rate them ON lmao. SO!

Jon-ohoho he's so DRY and so FUNNY and somebody needs to bitch slap this man. how am i supposed to get a goofy workplace drama if he's so genre-aware?? i don't like him THAT much, but honestly the whole show would be a lot more boring without his paranoia. also was his skin rlly so bad that it took an entire MONTH to get him thoroughly moisturized? ur body is a temple, johnny boy :(

Martin-omg he's such a bean. i relate to this man a lil too much for comfort-he's bullied waaay too much by absolutely everyone in this podcast. if he reads too many statements and turns into another jon or smth i'll SWIM to the uk specifically to yell at the writers, this man is to be PROTECTED at all costs! also he SOUNDS like a fucking redhead. you can hear it in his voice. and it shows very clearly in his poetry.

Tim-hehehe ICON. s1 finale tim was honestly the greatest thing ever, the way he's changed is absolutely breaking my heart. prancing into the office during a worm attack and immediately sitting down on 20 cans of CO2 sounds EXACTLY like smth i'd do, honestly props to him for staying so calm during the whole thing. and the fact that he's fucking all these cops for information is just *chef's kiss* tbh, his entire EXISTENCE is a power move. he's got a statement coming up and i'm kinda terrified. he's been so.. depressingly realistic lately and i'm scared for him :(

Sasha/Not Sasha-sasha seemed so sweet, i wish i'd gotten to know her better before the switch! all i remember from her first vocal appearance is staring into space afterwards, trying to remember how i used to pronounce 'calliope'. i feel like her death/switch didn't hold as much gravity as it should've-i rlly wish i'd seen more of her! also, the way not sasha was the LEAST suspicious to jon-that monster's got acting CHOPS. we need her in the local theater group, HOW TF can anyone be that convincing?!?!?!

Monster Pig-last statement i listened to, so it's VERY fresh in my mind lmao. this pig deserves DEATH. i don't fucking CARE if it's "friendly", it ATE a FUCKING CLOWN. KILL ITTTTT. i am a VEGETARIAN

Michael-by FAR my favorite, the best character i've come across in quite a while, god's favorite princess <3 i adore this wonky man, he's such a legend. PEAK laugh. and he's so chaotic lmao!!! (no he absolutely did not die, what are you talking about???? that didn't happen. or Michael Shelley's tragic backstory that had me literally crying over a gd podcast, no way. i'm in DEEP denial) i adore how his first vocal appearance was just strutting into Jon's office, kidnapping a realtor, monologuing abt his identity issues, stabbing the archivist, and sashaying away. SUCH a funky dude, i adore him

Elias-he gives me bitter oldest kid vibes, this man needs therapy. what a kooky asshat, stop peeping on people.

Jude-hot in every way possible. sorry but it's TRUE. a rlly bad liar tho. not only does she speak in fucking italics, but you can tell she's giggling kicking her feet twisting her short little hairs as she's trying to get jon to shake her hand. bitch, you're sexy and you know it, SPEAK UP!!

Wormy Jane-an icon, honestly. the whole EMBODIMENT of ick. not to mention if i actually saw this woman i'd lose my SHIT, she terrifies the bejeezus outta me. her statement was what made me (sorta) stop picking at my face (for a little bit at least). i honestly wonder what she was on that made her stick her whole fucking arm in a HAUNTED WASP'S NEST. it's also so hilarious that she was camped outside Martin's apartment for WEEKS and nobody rlly questioned it-this woman is on a MISSION. slay, ick queen.

Melanie-this woman has more balls than anyone else on this damn podcast (ahem, elias mostly). we stan a girlboss with a knife-the way she was just planning to JUMP him??? melanie's 100% RIPPED, she SOUNDS like a gym rat i think. i wanna see her beat the shit outta all these ghosts :3

You're A Lighter-idk how to spell his actual name and i'm too lazy to look it up, so this is what y'all're getting. the snotty old library dude with such a kooky voice, all i could think of when i first heard him was the Kool-Aid man lmaoo. and he needs to take better care of his assistants!! EXTREMELY unsustainable :( he's like a bowerbird collecting all the shiny homicidal books.

Helen-she ATE my babygirl??!!!!?!?!!?! COMPLETELY unacceptable. i won't deny the girl's got guts for just.. chilling in Michael's creepy hallways, but COUGH UP THE CREEPY BLOND for christ's sake.

Trevor Herbert-10/10 honestly. i LOVED his statements, the vampires are SO CRAZY CREEPY and i love how he just kinda fucks around? does some light stalking? and usually ends up with a bunch of dead monsters! in essence, he looked an eldritch horror in the face, called it a slur, and whacked it with a stick. legend.

#my stuff #tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #tim stoker #sasha james #monster pig #michael distortion #michael shelley #elias bouchard #jude perry #jane prentiss #melanie king #jurgen leitner #<- HA figured it out #i'm getting all these names from the reccommended tags lmao #helen distortion #trevor herbert #wow i'm swearing a lot here actually #sorry lol

[biblioflyer]

To boldly go backwards?

Unpacking the attitudes behind people burned by Burnham. No, not those people. The other people. The ones who authentically seem to care about something other than protecting their image of Columbus as a cool dude.

This will be a series. If you’re reading this on the day it escaped my queue, the rest are queued for a 1 a day. If not, all will have the ‘Star Trek ethics’ tag in common. If I’m really on the ball, I’ll come back later and edit in links to the other chapters here.

I can see it now. Enterprise had its 1701-D cameos, Star Trek Picard had its Enterprise-G moment, and now Discovery’s finale will likely be controversial on the basis of Burnham placing the Progenitor’s technology out of reach of pretty much everyone. There will be many different ways of contemplating this, but I think you can sum it up as:

Did Discovery “give in” to techno-pessimism and in doing so undermine a core theme of Star Trek?

I don’t personally think so, but you might and I think I know why. Burnham is kind of, sort of applying a reverse Prime Directive on the Federation. She comes away believing that the Progenitor tech should not be entrusted to one person or even one civilization, and that ultimately it's unnecessary. So she “throws it away.” 

By throw it away, I mean she has it yeeted into a Black Hole where theoretically more advanced civilizations than the Federation can access it if and when it comes to it, but by that point it will likely be more of an anthropological curiosity to them rather than a new technological singularity.

Thus, the series finale of Discovery is one in which some observers might feel that a core premise of Star Trek, that of techno-optimism, is betrayed. While the grousing I think is likely to be hyperbolic, not all of it is necessarily a mask for something more nasty, feral, and likely to get a person kicked off any reasonably well moderated platform if expressed in the open.

What you think the core values of Star Trek are may actually be just that: a different understanding of what the core values are, and thus a different understanding of when they have or have not been undermined. I have my own take on those values.

For instance I despise Section 31 as a concept and storytelling device, believe it has directly attacked one of the most important core conceits of the setting: its fundamental optimism, and the damage this embrace of cynicism has done is continuing to ripple through Trek into the present day.

Yet at the same time, I also understand Trek as a set of modern fables, that the Federation is not a real place, and that it has a narrative function. That function being to model becoming aware of and confronting that which we should find repugnant and unacceptable in our own society if we were not desensitized to it.

Thus Burnham’s choice is one that can be read a few different ways, and that’s without getting into whether it was satisfying as a climax. While it is often derisively referred to as “NuTrek”, a label that both describes a worldview and a storytelling style anathema to those who prefer the more professional affectations, high regard for Classical Education, and “competency porn” of TOS & TNG or the more “neo-realist” shades of gray of DS9; Discovery is in many ways a fusion of the Treks of yesteryear. 

Sometimes it can be a lot closer to The Original Series in worldview than one might imagine in its willingness to indulge moral gray zones: “the Vulcan Hello” being a prime example. Other times it affirms the TNG obsession with personal and civilizational virtues as a thing one actively commits to upholding even when there are tremendous, even transformative benefits to be reaped by conceding. The refusal of the Progenitor tech being one of those examples.

This is something I’m going to unpack in subsequent posts in an attempt to try to sidestep some of the nastier fissures in the fandom and uncover what I think may be a genuine difference in the worldviews and orientations of some fans rather than, at best a distaste for the story structures and affectations of Discovery, and at its worst naked hostility to a crew that isn’t predominantly Anglo-European, heterosexual, and male. 

Next: What is the Kirkian ideal?

#star trek ethics #star trek #star trek worldview #star trek discovery #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #fandom commentary #discovery finale #discovery spoilers #michael burnham

[thursdayinspace]

This moment. This kiss. The amount of things going on here. It packs such a punch. This is a turning point, and this is an instance where they are not communicating their true feelings and know about it. Because what they need to say is simply too difficult. They are well aware of the cracks in their relationship, but they love each other too damned much to deal with them. Which is so human. I mean, do I like the fact that they're heading towards separation? Of course not. Do I buy it? Absolutely.

They have been through so much. Trauma heaped upon trauma. Death, death scares, abductions, the loss of their child, everything they've seen and done. On top of that now, there is his isolation. Nobody can carry somebody else's happiness on their shoulders all on their own. It breaks you. It's too much. But those two have always been there for each other. Always. And the very fact that they only have each other means they can't acknowledge the fragility of what they have, not even their own fragility, because they're aware of the other one's wounds and don't want to burden them with theirs, for fear of breaking the only thing they have.

And at this point, they know they have been quiet for too long. They have arrived at a point where talking simply won't fix it anymore. And what is so painful about that is that they love each other more than ever. All of that is in this moment. He tells her they can go away, just the two of them. He's begging her to stay, to turn their backs on everything and start over. She looks at him like she wants to believe him so badly, wants to believe that they can run from the darkness.

That kiss is so heartbreaking and beautiful because it's hope and despair at the same time. He's telling her that he knows things are broken between them, but they're still them, they've always made it through everything together. And she's telling him that this isn't them anymore. She wants to stay, but she just can't see how. The one thing they agree on: they don't want this to end.

The way she's crying into the kiss. The way he is so gentle with her. It looks like a kiss goodbye from her, and from him it looks almost like a wedding kiss, as if he'd just promised her forever. And in a way, he has. And in a way, she has too. It's an affirmation of love, of undying devotion, and of clinging with all their strength to something that they can feel slipping away.

They are still so desperately in love with each other, and they can't imagine being apart for even just a day. But the sad truth is that love is not always enough. They have taken terrible care of themselves. Just like you're supposed to put on your own oxygen mask first in the event of a loss of cabin pressure, you have to take care of your own well-being if you want to be able to take care of somebody else. They need each other like they need air. But they also can't go on like this.

I firmly believe that post-revival, they will be together forever. They will get their happy ending. But after everything they've been through and after years of pretending like they can take care of themselves and each other, it makes sense for them to arrive at this point. And still it is heartbreaking to see. They are it for each other. They're each other's person. But sometimes, that is not enough. (And sometimes, you still find your way back to each other and finally find a way to make it work. And they will.)

#txf #the x files #msr #mulder and scully #listen. I'm not the greatest fan of the movie. #but this makes absolute sense to me #I so want them to be happy together forever #I fucking H A T E the fact that they broke up #but I also kind of love it because you don't get rom-com endings in real life either #it just seems so realistic in so many ways #I still would have very much preferred to see them happy #BUT THEY WILL BE THEY WILL BE THEY WILL BE #txf meta

[designernishiki]

just a thought but like. if akiyama, who’s established as being a bizarrely talented investigator in y5, suspected kiryu’s death to have been faked (or at least “fishy” in his own words) basically on the fucking Spot, i feel like it just makes sense that majima would’ve been just as quick, if not quicker to see where shit wasn’t adding up and become skeptical that the whole thing was a coverup. reason being, in y5 he put shit together and figured out the grand scheme going on so damn early most people didn’t even suspect yet that there was any scheme going on. he then faked his own death well enough to get it in the papers and had masterminded himself all the way to the final boss (with some help of course) before things backfired on him. so he’s got some crazy good skills when it comes to reading people, figuring out their intentions, putting puzzle pieces together, etc– way better than he wants people knowing, generally– and he knows the hallmark signs of a faked death because he’s literally done it before. all that on top of knowing kiryu like the back of his hand and knowing damn well how hard this man is to kill, and how prone to running away from shit for the sake of the safety of people he cares about (for better or for worse) he is. he could absolutely put together that, if given the opportunity by some faction or powerful individual, kiryu would sacrifice his identity and status as a legit living person for the assured safety of others, or for yakuza tensions to diminish, or maybe even as an act of self-flagellation.

tldr: I think the reasons majima didn’t go rogue/apeshit after kiryu’s alleged death are that A) for once he has saejima around to reign him in and make it feel less like Everything has been lost, B) I think he’s legitimately known pretty much all along that kiryu didn’t die that day; nor would he believe it unless he saw it with his own eye.

#however. I also think it would clash with his tendency to be way more cynical and nihilistic than his persona makes him seem #like I do think he’d be pretty fucking sure in his gut And with his logic that kiryu wasn’t dead #but there’d be a pesky depressive part of him that’d scold him for being too idealistic or hopeful in a world that’s so fond of #torturing him. he doesn’t think himself Lucky to say the least. but if he held out hope for saejima while he was on death row for literally #years and saejima did make it back to him in one piece eventually– he’d have some ammo to reason with himself if that makes sense #that + I feel like saejima upon hearing him spiral into supposedly ‘realistic’ nihilism would Strongly reassure him #via reminding him that HE made it back to majima in the end. and that saejima himself knows from experience what a faked death feels like #and how holding onto hope Can in fact be fruitful in the end. overall a bad time for majima after kiryu’s fake death obviously but #he’d be surprisingly stable with all that going for him. makes me think he and saejima would really be the ones keeping daigo from falling #apart. considering he doesn’t have basis for the kind of hope they’re capable of having. almost everyone important to daigo dies eventually #his dad. mine right in front of him. now kiryu. boy must have abandonment issues off the damn charts. #I also like to think he hung around shinada a bit after that incident to just have Something good and pure in his life occasionally. but #he’d be cautious and occasional about it out of fear that he’d ruin shinada’s life or cause him trouble #anyway. many thoughts about all this. they didn’t dive nearly enough into the old guard characters’ reactions to kiryu’s ‘death’ so. yeah #rambling #y6 #majima #kazumaji

[bl00dw1tch]

God. God. God. Holy fucking shit i love Avatar so fucking much

#horse.txt #im being so real right now it breaks my goddamn heart that so many people hate it on principle and go into it waiting to be disappointed #like. god. seriously? how do so few people seem to see the shit im seeing? how do people not GET its RIGHT THERE??? #idk man im like. high and the hd release is out so it feels like Christmas but this shit has been on my mind and its at like a precipice #its one thing when ppl just aren't into it but the absolute LOATHING and DISDAIN people harbour for these movies is just. baffling #i cant understand it #i hate statistics. why did it have to pan out this way #how can anybody hate this production literally decades in the making? the fucking DEFINITION of a Passion Project? #the labour and love and inventive GENIUS that has gone into these films--and #you know what? the writing ISN'T that fucking awful. its not perfect because no movie is ever fucking perfect and sometimes you #have to give a script and characters breathing room. room to make mistakes!!! because this fucking obsession with #'characters dont have to be realistic!' is BULLSHIT. and NO saying that does not conflict with the idea that Characters=/=real ppl in #discourse!the ideas can fucking coexist! having realistic characters is GOOD its fucking GOOD when theyre stupid and do shit you dont like! #because thats what REAL PEOPLE DO thats what makes them fucking COMPELLING thats what youre SUPPOSED to let draw you in!!!!!! #but noooo no no no no keep repeating your smurf pocahontas jokes and roll your eyes at anyone who does like it like theyre stupid #because you can't be assed to give something a chance just because everyone Else is calling it stupid #and you dont want them to roll their eyes at /you/ #i know this is dumb to be so heated about but im just. im sad man. im happy im having a great day!! but im sad #about how few people i can share it with yk..???

[caffeinatedopossum]

I don't understand why it's generally not socially acceptable to recognize your good qualities. Like I don't understand why it's bad to be a show-off or a know-it-all or to brag. Like I think most people know "those things = bad" but not why.

It also seems like people are always either waaaaay into one end of the scale where they are just so unbearably full of themselves and have preposterously high self esteem (and most people act like this is fine too? Like a lot of celebrities and white men specifically seem to be like this) and I don't understand why so many people respect them then. Or they're the complete opposite with self esteem way too low despite the fact that they have redeeming qualities.

I feel like maybe the reason it's considered bad to brag is because you might 'make' other people feel inadequate but see that seems like a stupid reason to me because the problem then is not that you stated an opinion of your own self worth but is actually that everyone else is conditioned to compare themselves to each other in a very unhealthy way. And I think instead of discouraging people from opening up about what they take pride in, what they like about themselves, what makes them feel happy or content or confident, maybe we could just be discouraging people from viewing those things as personal threats? Idk just trying to formulate some thoughts on this

#idk why but this feels like a very convoluted topic #like so many people are probably coming from different starting positions on this than i am and im afraid that might #make it be misinterpreted or something #like i feel like there definitely is a balance where some self esteem is too little and some is too much #it just feels like it is exceedingly rare to find anyone with ideal realistic self esteem and idk why #i also dont mean this in a way to say that every action is the responsibility of the people taking offense either #because obviously thats not how that works. its understandable to demand a certain amount of respect #and to accept that your words (even the ones you say about yourself) could negatively impact other people #and thats not necessarily on them for being defensive #idk social concepts are strange and foreign to me so im still figuring this stuff out and through an autistic lense to boot #so sometimes i feel a bit like im conducting a study or an experiment more than writing a blog post #im just trying to understand people because i need to #it seems like the overwhelming majority of allistics have absolutely no interest in why they do the things that they do #so i have to go around experimenting instead of asking direct questions about this stuff #because when i do ask direct questions they look at me like i just asked them if the sky is actually blue or if its just gasses up there #in case you are not the most common dimwit. the sky is both of those things. however when you ask someone a question #phrased like that about a topic they dont want to admit they dont know about. they will usually avoid the question or answer absurdly #its actually kinda funny you should try it sometime #now im distracted because i dont know enough about how the sky works and i need to know #anyways gonna go down a research rabbit hole methinks

[bylertruther]

sitting here wondering if the by|er fandom's resistance to AU fics is because for many this is their first time in fandom or if they just really Do like the canon plot of stranger things that much 🤔 hmmmmm..

#i was going thru my old ass bookmarks n jus cackling at how the Biggest fics in my previous fandoms were ALWAYS au that had #absolutely nothing at all to do with canon and literally no proximity to it whatsoever they were just in a completely different situation #and then here it's like .... very much not that way. some AU writers have a small and dedicated following but overall it seems like people #mostly prefer canon and canon continuation at college and such #which is fine! but it's like omg ... trying to rec au fics sometimes feels like trying to make a raccoon with rabies drink water #and it jus is so funny to me bc ive never experienced tht n realistically i have come to Accept this but still every time #thts reaffirmed i go thru a 'HUH?! 😳🤨' culture shock moment before i remember where i am bdhhshfndbdhdhd #like. i am Not going to expose myself bt i remember being in a fandom for characters that were not even american #and yet the Biggest fic that Everyone And Their Mother knew and revered was a sweet home alabama au. LIKE SHSBDJSJSNHSKSKS #it jus makes me giggle. #but speaking of that au...... HMMMMMMM..... THAT ONE /WOULD/ WORK SO PERFECTLY FOR BY//LER WOULD IT NOT.... 😳📝 HMMMMMMM !!!!!!! #many thotz 2 be thunk ....

[imwritesometimes]

I'm meeting my brother's GF in a couple hours and I'm nervous lol help 🙃

#it's gonna be OKAY #it's gonna be OKAYYYYYY #he really likes her and from what he's told me she seems like a very nice girl and they seem well-matched #I just get so nervous meeting ANYONE new cause I'm like #lol hey I am fat and that's ALL they're gonna see/notice/take away from meeting me #the socially anxious chunked out chick :/ #on the other hand I used my curl mask today and my hair looks really nice so 🤷‍♀️ #realistically I think I am way more ashamed and focused on my weight and physical appearance than anyone else ever is #but nonetheless it's always there. looming. ready to make me burst into tears at any point #ur chunky. fat. not pleasingly thin. no matter how much you work out or how many fruit smoothies you have for lunch #ur always gonna be built like a european peasant woman running from the english while carrying a goat #I'm learning to accept it but it's HARD. especially in this state and town where plastic surgery is fairly common #erin explains it all

[kirbyddd]

why does wikipedia have the review from Games Workshop's own magazine about its own game as critical reception

#“hey if you need motivation to buy minis check out this new ruleset Warhammer that's got everyone talkin” wink wink #super vindicated to see all the reviews from back then saying how inane so many of the rules were #Warhammer was always that way right from the beginning huh #i always dreamed of painting those medieval minis though. i wish they still made them and not this new generic Age of Sigmar thing #ah-- looks like i may have spoken too soon. wargames foundry has the rights to some of the old scuplts and still produces them to order?? #ive just always wanted to paint some stout lil dudes with shields and banners. seems most the medieval minis today are much more realistic

[britneyshakespeare]

i dont know where to scream about this but i honestly feel some sort of weird relief that r//nbow high is declining. i knoooow i know it's popular and they've been such high quality dolls and collectors have loved them and some(?) people like the web series (or do they? ive heard mixed things but ive never had any interest in watching it) but oh god. i just. sometimes it takes me awhile to appreciate modern doll lines and their aesthetics but i just could not get past their weird fish faces and in general i do not like monochrome styling themes. i realize their designers did so much with their concepts, i realize a lot of heart and effort went into them, and i completely understand why so many people were floored with the quality of the dolls and the rate at which they were being put out. even though the prices kept rising for them, you could at least see where your money was going, like they were always so well-constructed and doing new things. but like. at the end of the day. on a very basic level they were just never all that aesthetically pleasing to me and it was kind of maddening to see all that potential going towards a line of dolls that had just... like... facial proportions i could not get past lol.

#i wasn't super into the way theyd ape (or 'pay homage to') modern celebrity/designer fashions #but like i get it. that's a strong brand aesthetic. it's NOT something i really care for but yeah. #i guess if you were to compare it to like. lol omg dolls and the way they do so many celebrity homages #i think lol omg elevates it a bit more. im not a HUGE fan of lol omg but im like ok i DO get it. #even tho the faces are flatter and more dead-inside i actually think that makes it more forgivable and doll-like for me. #like. r//nbow high just hits some kind of undesirable middle for me between cartoony and stylized and realistically detailed. #also not everything's about 'quality' and fabric diversity and working zippers and pockets or whatever #i mean those things ARE nice but at the end of the day i just prefer imaginative designs. things should have a mix #not saying rh didnt have those things but. oh god. i just. i just did not like the dolls in themselves #the monochrome thing again i just cant do it. i heavily dislike monochrome doll designs and unnatural colored doll hair #not that it can never be done (the wild colorful hair) but for me it's gotta be done in a very specific way #it has to stand out rather than blend in i guess? idk im not a design expert i have no reason to be so snobby about this #tales from diana #dolls #rant #i actually think whatever they've been doing w their latest line. downgrading everything in 'quality' and making them seem like #they're appealing to a younger audience before and cheapening the production... i think it makes them look less weird to me #i still dont LIKE them but like theyre not off-putting to me. like to me they look no worse #this isn't to like mock anyone who ever really was into rh bc i know that was a lot of ppl. i get it #i just felt VERY alienated by how popular they were and how much lavish praise theyd get all the time #bc overall the end product just lacked smth for me. that i felt like other doll lines had. which was... cuteness #anyway dont take any of my mean opinions too much to heart. remember that i was a na na na surprise fan #i own four of those dolls. so take everything i say w a grain of salt #(i loved them when they were still fabric-bound ngl i thought that was such a cool brand choice... it saddens me theyre hard plastic now)

[calentvre]

i think what i still prefer about naruto compared to most other super popular shounen and why it stuck with me is that its villains are human. they aren't supernatural beings with incomprehensible evil motives and aims! their reasoning can be traced to history and the systemic failures of the shinobi world. kishimoto is a poor plotter & eventually chickened out bc it got too complicated, but i still think in its essence naruto felt more impactful bc of this - most of the bad stuff that happens is directly caused by structural injustice and the inherently violent nature of shinobi society. while the tailed beasts, alien and dangerous, are arguably also villains, the tragedy they cause results more often than not from humans using their power for destruction. this is ultimately why the war arc and the ending with the deus ex machina -esque introduction of zetsu and kaguya is so disappointing; the series really did have something to say in its conception about the cycles of violence, the various consequences of war, and what society organized around army/police states results in, but all this is thrown out the window in favor of hand-wavey explanations excusing the characters' actions with fate and divine plans. in this essay

#naruto #it just feels more realistic and the stakes seem higher when it's all humans and structural problems!! #the war arc undoes practically everything that happened before it and i'll never forgive kishimoto for that #the most important themes and the whole thesis the series was building up to. all swept under the rug #i do like jjk for example but i was thinking about where it's going and how it could get there #and whether it could ever be as impactful as naruto to me. #this is re: demon slayer and chainsaw man as well and there are so many others too #where there just are other species that are more evil for some reason.. #it seems nowadays having some kinda supernatural villain origin is more common. not saying it's bad #and naruto of course did go down that road as well. sigh. kaguya sucked #but it didn't start that way...! #once again the version of naruto that exists in my head is so much superior than the real thing lmao #(0 days since our last nonsense (getting worked up about naruto)) #naruto meta #text

[lupismaris]

Recorded tonight's monologue with the line "loneliness and longing both taste like sea water, the problem is it starts in the lungs and by the time you can taste it it's too late you've already drowned." Safe to say lads we are not in fact stellar.

#spent the afternoon with pne of my childhood friends whose effectively my sibling she got married in may i was a groomsman #and she mentioned she and her husband were going to CT to spend new years with our other family friend jack and their family #with whom i coparent at times and who is the other nonbinary friend in the group etc #and i just said that sounded phenomenal i wish i had exciting new years plans maybe bew years 2024 we all do something together #and she calls jack unprompted to suggest my bf and i come up as well because she thinks that would make the holiday even better #and I'm in love with the idea but we realistically cant afford a hotel right now so we probably cant go #but my rejection dysphoria is fixating on the fact that she has cultivated the kind of relationship in which #concrete plans and invitations are made and i only get the 'youre always welcome we love you and can't wait to see you' #which if you have any neurodivergence you know isnt an invitation and is hilarious cause jack had as many issues as I do #so its hard not to feel like a failure and the forgotten friend pr the one who only gets a call when someone needs something #which isnt the truth but like goddamn at midnight it definitely seems that way

[yellowocaballero]

that excerpt was great and tbf when is layla's life ever easy lol

(this is random rambling but) the christmas mention once again makes me wonder about steven and jake's relationship with their judaism though (apparently there's a mezuzah in steven's apartment in episode 2) and i wouldn't be surprised if jake has a complicated relationship with his faith the same way marc does

anyway have fun writing and fingers crossed we'll get to see it soon (in the meantime will probably just reread the first fic lol)

Honestly? Shocked Steven knows he's Jewish klajsdf.

Marc's relationship with Judaism is similar to his relationship with the military and I think highly indicative of the show as an MCU/Disney+ show. I know that seems random, but - I was really, really hopeful the entire show that they'd acknowledge Marc's Jewishness. Please go look up the number of Jewish characters in the MCU, Marvel Universe at all, and probably Disney+. And they totally did acknowledge it! It was there!

Did the show have a relationship with Marc's Jewishness? That's kind of weirder. imho one of the most powerful shots in the series is Marc throwing his kippah on the ground and smashing it - before clutching it to his chest, asking for forgiveness. There is so much there. I could pick those few seconds apart and analyze it. His religious identity as a connection with his mother, father, God, his self-identity. Just a few super powerful seconds.

Like, a few. Seconds. Implied, mostly. There and visible, but we get like one thing that could be overlooked no matter how important it actually is.

It is the exact same thing with Marc's military experience. I spelled it out in the fic, I think - Marc has a sad story that many people have. Runs away from abusive home to join the military, probably just after he graduated high school but maybe even before. No college education. Spends his adult life in the military, which severely exacerbates his mental health issues. Gets discharged from military for having the mental health issues that it exacerbated. Is tossed out with no job skills, no support system, and no safety net. Can't hold down even a crappy job due to mental health issues. No VA support or disability benefits from the military. Has absolutely no skills but what the military gave him. irl the guy is homeless, in comic book land he joins a mercenary group. Mental health gets worse, he does bad shit, obviously he becomes Moon Knight, etc. Like a lot of Moon Knight it's a depressingly realistic background that many people have, and that highlights how badly the military fucks up vulnerable people. People like Marc are homeless. It's hard to remember and understand, but Marc genuinely never had a chance. Khonshu is a metaphor for the military industrial complex -

You can draw all of that from a SENTENCE. One scene of Marc running way, one brief explanation from Marc. It was very obvious to me because I know this crap, but it's only a sentence.

Because the MCU is rabidly pro-military, it will never criticize the military, half of it is military propaganda, it's funded by the military. Disney+ just as bad. Disney would never, ever criticize the military. So Marc gets a sentence - a sentence that explains his whole life, but you really have to stop and think about it. It's bonkers that it's such an effective and grounded criticism, but...is it...??...?? Schrodinger's criticism? Do I want to be generous and say they were censored? Do I want to be harsher and say that they're pulling a Bisexual Loki again? Do I want to go into my final verdict of the show as doing a really wonderful job showing and not telling, but ultimately kind of wishing that they were able to tell too and that I blame Disney for that?

This isn't what you asked at all I'm so sorry :(. Why do I never actually answer the question :(. fwiw Jake is a very philosophical guy who probably reads a lot of meforshim and has knock down drag out theological arguments with Matt for hours that both of them pretend not to enjoy, Marc has an extraordinarily complex relationship with God that I don't feel comfortable dissecting because I know I would make it way too Catholic; he stopped actually practicing or doing any celebrations when he ran away from home, and, I am shocked Steven even knows,,,

#my writing #i have a mental illness its called being raised conservatively catholic in many ways #and I'm worried that I won't be able to leave that at the door due to my upbringing #im already worried that I do! so I try to step back from that #but god I would REALLY love to like that would be SO cool to dig into that #I'm just not the right person #besides that into my digression #it's hard to remember that Marc just had no chance. #like the only thing he had going for him is that he seemed to be middle class #but that doesn't matter much when you're completely cut off #I think Jake and Steven knew that they had no chance but Marc doesn't #his final posistion is comic book the mummy adventurer superhero #but the show does a very good job of pointing out that #in reality this guy had no chance and realistically he would have never had a chance #the inherent tension between the superficial the mummy and superhero #vs the more inner depressingly realistic life of a guy like marc #cool show!

[orcelito]

The sad thing about my discacc reread and stat collection is that . I haven't even reread chapter 5 yet. Just from the first 4 chapters, the number of times Akira and goro have written to one another on-screen are 7 to 4.

Already, Goro is behind by 3 times. And now that I'm at the point where he cuts himself out of Akira's life, that divide is only going to get bigger... and bigger... and bigger...

Honestly, im looking forward to seeing the truth of the situation laid out in numbers. It'll be truly disheartening to see how many times Akira kept Trying, even though Goro kept ignoring him...

& then there's the knowledge that we only really see a small sample of it all :)

#speculation nation #discacc shit #akira HUGELY has undersold how badly this fucked him up #the panic attacks are a symptom. not the core issue. #goro was a fucked up 15 year old and they were way too codependent. even with how their relationship had Issues at the time #he made some Bad Choices but he really had no way of knowing just how badly it would fuck akira up #and i am going to DELIGHT in having some tangible numbers to go along with it #realistically tho. akira wrote to goro almost every single day. for two and a half goddamn YEARS. #hundreds and hundreds of unanswered messages. continuously Trying and Trying and Trying #keeping a strong face up for goro. ....most of the time. because he doesnt want goro to worry #but he experienced many. many many many lonely nights. cried himself to sleep more times than he could count. #panic attacks on the regular. both before the convo on goro's bday (panic born from lack of knowledge) #and AFTER it too (panic born from the Horrible knowledge of just how bad it was) #realizing only after goro was gone just what he meant to him. #realizing that when he tried to kiss people. he could only think about goro. #he spent two years absolutely crushed by it all. trying his best to live out his teen years as a teen should. #hanging out with friends and participating in sports and laughing and Seeming okay #but always. always always always. at the end of the night was an aching loneliness. #because none of them could EVER be goro. no one but goro ever could be. #.....AND his sister Rei got front row seats to all of this. no fucking wonder she resents goro so badly lmao #she'll have a role again soon. i have many thoughts about this. #i really want to address Akira's pain about this properly. since it's obvious that he's not going to lol

[bl00dw1tch]

more monkey thoughts. Dont look at me im just trying to explain/figure out More reasons why they (moreso LEMH) make me go crazy (again)

OKAY Full disclosure. this was spurred by some posts ive seen floating around and they are Objectively correct and i agree with them, but the wordage they use is what bothers me and makes me think--its about the general and growing frustration and dismay over LEMH's portrayal and like... increased Importance in LMK, at the expense of like, literally all the other characters new and old.

Again, objectively that is INCREDIBLY true and i feel it 200%!!!! Its frustrating because they just yoinked aspects of SWK's relationships with characters like DBK from the original JTTW and Shoved them on LEMH like theyre Tropes that can be shifted around without consequence--it seems fine and interesting when you first watch LMK with no context or background knowledge, but after knowing what his ACTUAL deal was in the book, looking back on LMK makes what they are doing with LEMH feel lazy and Genuinely poorly researched, rather than an intentional divergence from the original story--because as a general rule of thumb, even if the fans dont Like what you changed, you still want the things in your story to be done On Purpose, like you at least Tried to put effort into it! Its about showing the audience that you think they deserve a narrative that was crafted with Care, not just slapped together and thrown out for a quick Hype/Cash grab, yk???

Anyway So THATS the thing, and thats all cool!!! My issue (and i cannot stress this enough this is Me being Silly and Obsessed with the Six Eared Macaque im a chronic blorbo haver there is no Cure) is that those posts Also tend to talk about LEMH as though... he is a boring character. As though he's just kind of "eh". Or at least thats how my Admittedly biased eyes read them--no beef! Its just gotten me to thinking and now i want to try to write out What im thinking and Why, bc thats a helpful thing to do when you're struggling to figure in your head, obvs obvs

And im of course willing to admit that Yes, in the original text, he is just kind of There! He serves his purpose (aiding in SWK's character development) and then he dies and he doesn't come back again! Hes kind of a metaphor but hes also just an annoying guy! Hes not presented as anything special! I get that that is what is Canon, and thats theres no way to really like... read anything deep into it. Bc theres literally nothing there.

But my problem is that i cannot let characters like that just Be. Especially if the premise of said character could be absolutely FASCINATING if you take it all Completely seriously and At face value--if you try to see whatever is going on for them through their eyes, their minds. Its like.... You can buy a shirt from the store as is, and some might be fine Wearing it as is--while other's might see that shirt and decide it needs a bit of hemming and perhaps some embroidery on the sleeves. Altering it does not change the fact that the original design is what it is--thats just One altered shirt that one person is wearing and perhaps lending to a friend or two, yk???

I love metaphors l. Sorry that dragged on, back to monkey--

To me? LEMH exists in a nebulous state of inevitable connection with SWK--because i like to take the "LEMH is SWK's ~dark side~" thing seriously. In my eyes, they are literally the same person, the same qi, split into two bodies.

There are stories that exist today that explore this idea, characters with this kind of relationship--and i find them incredibly compelling! Because i adore stories that play with the question of what makes a person a person. What seperates you from your maker/origins? What is your purpose in life when you are intrinsically connected to another person, at your very core? Does that mean you exist For them? Do they exist for you? How does thinking that way affect a person, mentally and emotionally? How does it affect these characters, specifically, in conjunction with their personalities and the lives theyd led up until the point they knew about this connection? Have they always known about this connection? Only one of them?

How much more drastic would it affect you if you were essentially a nobody--and the person you are connected to is a public figure? Like Sun Wukong?

Id go crazy. Id go fucking insane? Can you imagine. Its about the potential!!!!! The potential of what knowing something like that would do to someone!!! Im losing the words im apologize i need to calm down--im Not done yet.

What i am getting at here.... is that LEMH would likely work Best as a character who's metaphorical aspects are taken Very Literally--especially so if the story also decides to lean into the idea of his hearing reaching through to the past and future, in any way. He is a character that would thrive on being portrayed in a way that allows him to be a bit Meta, if that makes sense

Yes, you Could just let him be a silly monkey who decided to start shit with SWK for giggles one day--that can absolutely have its merits! But that does not satisfy me, and that is why i am so passionate about him. I want to take my little guy so so fucking seriously because i think it would be SO fucking cool. And a very useful and convenient way to explore ideas about relationships with The Self--since in my eyes, that is what his relationship would be with SWK.

AND ALL THIS STUFF ABSOLUTELY HAS ANOTHER SIDE TO IT, HOW IT ALL COULD AFFECT SWK ON HIS SIDE??? LIKE HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT i dont know if i want this post to be That long so i might stop here and come back later to talk abt it from SWKs side in a rb or something--

anyway point is. I thank LMK for introducing me to the Six Eared Macaque, but upon further analysis the way they did him is actually pretty garbo, and im biding my time for till someone introduces me to or Makes a version of him that takes him to his full potential. thats all thanks for coming to my TED talk, get out of my house please

#horse.txt #jttw #xiyouji #liu er mihou #six eared macaque #sun wukong #god this is missing so many smaller thoughts and ideas and shit but i have no idea where to squeeze them in. #theirs lots of stuff going on in my head but its a pain to organize #lemh needs to be a tragic angry antagonist who feels slighted by the world for being dealed the unfortunate hand he was dealt. #even if the fact that he doesn't have what he wants is still technically his fault. kind of like a petulant child but more drastic #and of course SWK having to come face to to face with all that and recon with how lemh doesn't just remind him of himself #in a way he literally IS himself--just with some parts switched around or more prominent than others #he could still kill him or not--theres lots of ways to play with that (personally im curious about the angle of it being a metaphor for sh) #(and/or repression of the self in the Bad way--at least for a short time--because that seems realistic in relation to the original meaning #of that chapter) #with sanzang trying to get him to be less violent and cruel to their adversaries because it is detrimental for his spiritual development #the fact that him Killing lemh (a part of himself) is the tipping point for him to be less murder-happy is very interesting to me #and i like to think that while it was good for him in the long run it may have had very negative and Painful immediate consequences as well #because becoming a better person by Any method is never a straightforward one and done path--backsliding and mistakes are inevitable #itd be nice to see more stuff on the side of the fandom ive been in that explores that more #especially since that was like... the whole point of jttw in the first place #so much for not making this post any longer WHOOPS