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#like you can have nuance and be ambitious and kill who you want for personal gain and still have people rooting for said woman
lya-dustin · 5 months
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watching hotd and magnificent century back to back and even girl fail!Hatice would mop the floor with Rhaenyra and Alicent and Rhaenys. like why were the writers so afraid to make them want power and be willing to kill for it.
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final finale thoughts!!
things i loved about the finale
QUEER GODDESS PATHEON YEAAAAAAH!!! i thought it was such a good way to find a happy medium between kristen committing to a worldview that felt authentic and nuanced without being catholic™ about it
everything to do with the scene of Ankarna trying to offer retribution to each of the bad kids, and each of them making peace with past wrongs instead of continuing to stew in it. i love growth!!!
FIG AND KRISTEN MIRRORING ANKARNA AND CASSANDRA
everything to do with mazey and fabian. of all the fantasy high couples aside from fidayda, these two feel the most like they make sense together- they have similar interests, they have similar values, fabian had a crush on her even when she was being 'uncool' (eg. twister) and how mazey actually picked up on that and appreciated the way he used his perceived coolness to extend it to others who might be picked on otherwise. this is the couple i most hope go the distance even post aguefort adventuring academy (again, aside from figayda ofc but i literally cannot imagine those girls breaking up over anything)
fabian's fetus sibling outnemesising him despite fabian building an animosity towards them the whole season before they were even conceived. peak fantasy high insanity
controversial but i thought the maryann/gorgug being introduced and canonised in all of 15 minutes was hilarious. it was very teen of them in a way that felt authentic. my ideal scenario for them is an end of year fling that becomes amicable exes bc they truly have nothing in common beyond thinking the other is hot (real of them) but i dont have a strong opinion on whether they should break up or not
also maybe controversial but i like that kalina is straight up bloodthirsty. she felt like an equal opposite to bakur- rather than being a devoted servant who became corrupted by proxy, she was trying to corrupt her deity into a form she preferred. thematically it extends to the complementary opposites thing ankarna and cassandra have going on (though i get it might be a reach).
"... thats a four. you know what it's for we don't have to talk about it"
squeem
riz coming in clutch with the character arc right at the last moment. i joked ab his neuroticism being part of his natural swag, but im glad murph not only made sure riz FINALLY addressed the way he was burning himself out, but also that by extension, he was burning out both fig and kristen bc riz has a very calculated idea of 'success' and while he had the best intentions, those two dont fit neatly into it
THE HOLD PERSON OVER THE LAVA??? RIZ'S 'very good on paper, but no practical application."??? i screamed
a second blimey-related divine intervention roll by K2 leading her to getting pinnochioed into a real straight british girl, in real non-dnd britain, is the best thing thats ever happened in fantasy high. a simulacrum was so powerful brennan had to do the dnd equivalent of sending her to a barn upstate.
adaine and aelwyn talking about killing their mother over icecream can be something that is so personal...
siobhan's incredible play with the earworm??? phenomenal, i gasped out loud
fig maybe moving into fabian's house even after she drops out so fabian won't be alone again... what if i threw up blood actually
i liked kipperlilly copperkettle being confirmed to be rotten to the core. 'the ritual looks very different when one accepts rage willingly' GOOD!!! i like evil ambitious teenage girls who try to burn the world down to get what they want. i get why they didnt bring her back, that detail definitely cemented her as in the zayne/penelope category of 'past villains who could possibly be redeemed'
FIG AND AYDA MY LOVES!!! sorry but not even the lesbian goddesses are doing it like these two. brennan put his whole pussy into creating ayda aguefort and my life has been changed forever
zac once again dming K2's alternate universe campaign
things i hated
ik it was payoff to the running bit and it made me cackle when it was revealed, but the implications of hallariel and gilear having a baby are so bad to me. fig talks up gilear a lot, and sure, he came around to being a good dad to her, but gilear has objectively been a shit stepdad to fabian and hallariel... is hallariel. its got to sting was watch your mom be basically catatonic for your entire life, and then suddenly prove that she was capable of being an present mother the whole time- just not for you. im hopeful that senior year will address this though!! lou has always been so good giving his characters' weighty emotional arcs that feel satisfying
i dont like the implication of trackerbees getting back together. i never thought bladebees was good beyond a realistic rebound, but trackerbees was SO codependent together, i dont think its a coincidence that kristen had her best emotional intelligence moments when forced to think things through on her own. tracker always struck me as kind of a 'fixer' type, like she feels most comfortable with someone she can act caretaker-y to (hence bouncing off kristen to another girl who had similar issues). i really reaaaally hope they dont regress back into their s2 dynamic
ruben's memory wipe. i thiiink the implication is that those who were the most willing to follow through on porter's orders maintained more of their memories bc they were in control of themselves and those who didn't were compelled into obedience (which might be why ivy and oisin remember more), but it wouldve been nice to actually see the lucy/ruben close friendship brennan said they had with him sobbing and apologising to her
it felt very weird that kristen didnt get some kind of resolution to her yearlong gentle prodding at bucky?? i think ally got sidetracked with the possibility of kristen getting back together with her ex that it kind of slipped from their mind (maybe bc to them the ankarna vision of her upbringing was kristen resolving her feelings towards her family but still), but considering all of elmville was coming apart, i feel like bucky's faith could've been swaying into doubt pretty easily. idk maybe bc ive become a trackerbees hater over the season but it felt annoying that that was what ally focused in on and not their character's more meaningful relationship with her little brother
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rach-amber · 3 months
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Hi, it’s me again (:
What was your favorite character traits about Rachel Amber?
Hey! Happy to see you and boy what a great question, thank you! Loaded answer ahead; TLDR, see the good in Rachel Amber.
Rachel's many things. Pretty, hot, charming, stylish, not to mention her lovely voice, these physical traits are already a great start for many. Then you have functional traits-- ambidextrous (can I just say that's hella cool, omg I want that too), social genius/people skills, straight As student, drama queen, masked with a layer of mystery, many people would've already fallen for her, in-game and out, me being one of them when I first got to know her as a character (so pretty much those were my fav traits of her).
But if we strip her physical beauty down and shove aside her fascinating skillset, who is she really? We may never know 100%, but some character traits can still be found.
Here are some of my favourite (&underrated) Yangs to Rachel Amber's sides. aka why Rachel Amber should get more love & less hate from the fandom
Ofc there are exceptions, but those are not relevant in this post; assumptions & headcannons are added
1. A good heart
Kindness to me will always be one of the most important character traits to have for anyone. With all that powerhouse of a Rachel Amber can accomplish, she chooses to use them with kindness.
With her social skills she chooses to lift people up, saving Hayden from a quickly-escalating scolding from Mr Keaton in ep 1, asking Chloe in a nuanced way if she's "taking (getting kicked outta Blackwell) this a little too well", kinda guiding her independent thinking rather than directly telling her what's right or wrong. (There'd be constructive criticism between Chloe & Rachel, which I stan in a relationship/friendship.)
With her intelligence she tutors Justin & helped him improve his algebra from an F to a C I believe? That's pretty impressive, ngl
with her ambidexterity.. idk, she makes Chloe happy :> (yes i'm totally referring to doing graffiti with her left hand on Chloe's insistence *cough*)
This is why I'm inclined to believe that tornado was not Rachel's revenge. She'd never choose to put Chloe, her parents, her friends, at risk; if she wanted revenge she could've killed the men w her powers. Sure you can say some of these might be her trying to live up to her DA father / principal assistant's duties, but at least she chose to do them. She could very well be a kid who doesn't give a damn or fluff through some of these things that requires time & effort.
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2. Sees the good in others!
One of the most underrated Rachel Amber traits imo. This girl literally has a reputation of "her friends are her friends", and does not discriminate in terms of friendship/who she hangs out with. She picked Chloe up from her lowest (saw her & praised her for backtalking the biker, defending Nathan, & "you're more of a hero than you think you realise", when Chloe didn't take Drew's money). Rachel stuck with Chloe when no one else did (puts up with her sh*t, which ofc Chloe does the same), literally chose Chloe to share her uncertain future outside Arcadia, did not take her chance to leave when she could in those 3 years, most likely cuz she wanted to leave with Chlo. She also hung out with Nathan (& Chloe when so many wouldn't), saw the good in Frank (yes. same as Nathan & Chloe his reputation is far from great and despite the unhealthiness of this relationship, she at the very least cared for the guy, & saw the humanity inside him), & very sadly fell for the portrayed "gone through some serious shit" act by Jeffers*n, all these showing her being an empathetic & sympathetic person.
I'll add non-judgemental as well, cuz it's why she's able to get along with so many people so well. Like what her VA Kylie Brown says in an interview, whoever you are, Rachel'd be like "hey you're a pretty cool person, let's talk!" It's inspiring. I love that about her. Gotta have more Rachels in the world.
3. Ambitious. Puts in the hard work. Persistent.
"One day, I'm gonna climb Mt Everst." says a 15 year old Rachel in Bts, who has posters of travelling in Asia (the green poster has Chinese words saying "go travel in China", amongst others), already speaks about her courage & ambition. And of course, leaving Arcadia with no one but Chloe for a better life. Yes you can say it's reckless, because it's a big idea for a teenager, but she didn't just give up on it. It stuck with her, and she worked hard for it. Doing photoshoots to get modelling jobs, maintaining her 4.0 GPA, finding opportunities to leave... she did those for 5 years. And in the comics universe, they made it out! Now they're over 22yos with an LA apartment, Rachel's in modelling gigs with her acting career kicking off... what could've been for game Rachel. (oh the things I'd do for Bts' ending to be Max appearing in the nick of time instead of that damn vibrating phone!) Also I wonder if in some universes, like the wheelchair Chloe one, a missing Rachel could mean she actually made it out without others knowing, instead of the darker end.
4. Caring & thoughtful & protective & passionate partner/friend/lover!
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She listens to Chloe's problems (therapy session), she gives Chloe nice clothes to wear within the few days they'd met (what financially challenged Chloe needed, & in a way that wasn't awkward for Chloe), she sends post cards to Chloe while she's away (she thinks about her often), & "don't f****ing touch her". Passionate lover, I mean.. the way she kissed Chloe under that lamp (with high intimacy of course) is good enough an example. Chloe's the romantic one in my head. Rachel, the passionate.
*the way she puts her hand on C's shoulder after wiping her tears, OmO*
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So far these are the character traits I can think of, and your question helped draw out Rachel's positive sides that are too under-recognised. Thanks again! :)
These links helped me understand Rachel & Amberprice better, here for people's reference:
youtube
Because I choose to see the good in Rachel, I'm her defender through and through. Join me, if you can.
Edit: damn I literally wrote an essay, maybe 1 day there'd be a video!
This pain wouldn't be for Evermore.
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earlgodwin · 5 months
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ok so i'm re-reading blood and beauty once again, and i have to say that sarah dunant is the superior borgia fiction writer out there. i absolutely love her delicate and evocative writing as well as how she brilliantly humanizes the characters through compelling narratives. not to mention her attention to detail and meticulous research creates a rich historical backdrop, immersing us in the fascinating world of the borgia family. she also has an exceptional understanding of how hot and terrible cesare can be while still making him nuanced. it's a personal win for me as someone who's pretty much bored of his character being softened up and romanticized in other works. the more he does something awful, the more compelling he becomes to me (although he wasn't romanticized much in showtime's the borgias but his image of an over-ambitious, sadistic, gaslighting, and manipulative guy seems to appear innocent that watchers tend to overlook it, and some of his misdeeds were dumped onto juan, like making him the only one having an affair with sancia of aragon when cesare was involved as well, or having him kill lucrezia's lover, paolo, etc., which is why i wasn't as interested in cesare as i was in juan because juan does nasty acts, but you get an idea of why he did what he did and still find the human in the heinous.) the most phenomenal writing part for me was to not lean into the rumors by not having cesare kill juan because it's closer to historical reality. and as much as cesare's 'from envy to fratricide' pipeline can be groundbreaking like how it worked in showtime's the borgias, dunant proved that juan's murder can still be astounding without the fratricide. because even if cesare did have a tempting motive to kill him, as he wanted his position so badly, cesare's letters to him make me doubt that he ever had any involvement in his murder since the letters show so much fraternal love. i also want to add that rodrigo's deep love for his children, while being self-aware and devastated over the fact that he uses them and forces them into roles they're incompetent for and marriages for political gain, was a standout aspect in the book. in short, the book is emotionally engaging because it delves into the intriguing world of the borgia family's renaissance. imo, it's a must-read for borgia enthusiasts.
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serpentoflolth · 10 months
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This evening I want to dedicate a post to Varré, to my guilty pleasure. I have some headcanon about him too, or rather some theory about his story, or a part of it. After all, we know very little about our beloved surgeon, who hides his features behind a pale mask, from which we can only see his eyes, of a warm honey-colored nuance. I listened to his dialogues on youtube, precisely Stratek's video (his videos are gold), and the words he uses to approach us are not chosen by chance, on the contrary, he knows exactly what he wants and where he wants to lead us, but first, our dear White Face must taste our strength, prompting us to Godrick and his Grafted Scion.
First of all, it is clear that Varré was at the Roundtable Hold, it is clear that he had a Finger Maiden, and it is clear that he was at a time when such Maidens were not so rare to find. How long did our surgeon as Tarnished live (we take as a reference both the time before Mohg and the time during Mogh), before our arrival? Has it been years or centuries? I don't want to talk about millennia, but a hundred years could be plausible, like a simple decade, or like a lustrum. However, making a precise timeline is impossible, as no NPCs speak how long they've been in the Lands Between, but it would seem that people like Rogier, D, Diallos, and Corhyn don't have a Finger Maiden, or apparently do not... Instead, I am convinced that Varrè had one and killed her at the exact moment that he changed sides, becoming the emissary of Mohg himself, but also to show him his absolute dedication, as well as loyalty. It's obvious that there was something that made him abandon his mission to become Elden Lord; the reason could be understood from this speech that he utters when he's at the Rose Church:
«Ah-ha, your intuition serves you well. My doubts had been piling up, you see… The words of the Two Fingers cannot be trusted. Truly, naught but rambling, senile delusions. I believe, that when the Elden Ring was shattered, the Two Fingers were corrupted, their guidance; skewed. Even worse, the Fingers harbor no love for our kind. That's the part that irks the most.»
Is the fact that the Fingers have no love for the Tarnished really what really bothered him? All the while, Varré does nothing but talk about love, a sick and corrupt love that should come from Mohg, but is it simply that? Or does our dear White Face want power and strength, which he asks his lord before he dies? It is evident that the Fingers don't care if a Tarnished dies, they can wait for another, it is true that they do not care who will become Elden Lord, they only care about respecting the will of the Greater Will and that the Tarnished collects the Great Runes. It is also true that they do not give any strength or comfort, we are the ones who get power from the runes we gather. Therefore, their chatter, for an ambitious person like Varré, is useless and unpleasant, as well as perceiving this absence of affection that does not resound once in their language, then their words resound in his ears as corrupted, as if those creatures, since the Shattering occurs, have lost their mind, also struggling to get in touch with the Greater Will. Hence, being in their presence must have been an immense disappointment for him, especially after the immense effort to get a hearing.
He is not a man suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, since Mohg kidnapped him, since he stood before him and heard his words (it seems obvious to me that, someone as shrewd as the Lord of Blood, before giving his blood to the various surgeons, he spoke to them, informing them of every detail of his plan; after all, they are the ones who convey his word, in search of other Tarnished), he decided to change faction, he decided to see that new creature under a perspective that had never been given to any omen, deciding to serve him, because Mohg could be the one who would free the Tarnished from the yoke of the Two Fingers and the Greater Will, creating a world under his vision and that of the Formless Mother; moreover, Varré aspires to obtain great strength from the corrupted blood which, after the anointing, begins to flow in his veins: he is the only one who manages to dominate it, not to become an empty and violent creature like the other White Faces. Isn't this, perhaps, just a manifestation of his strength? Perhaps, rather than physical, it is mental strength, as he has managed to overcome the fear of being kidnapped. And I believe that, at the time he was kidnapped, he was in Godrick's presence, working there as a surgeon, but mainly helping him create new grafts, like the Grafterd Scion (this would explain how he knows about this creature).
Many see him as a pitiful and slimy being, Varrè is neither one nor the other. He is calculating, manipulative, cruel, but also pragmatic, charismatic, and well-spoken... but deep down, we know very well, that he likes playing with other people's minds, breaking people from the inside out, making him a dangerous man. He embodies the famous quote from "The Tragedy of Macbeth": "Look Like Th’ Innocent Flower, But Be The Serpent Under ‘T."
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dracomort · 5 months
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You are so right Tom Ripley is what you would get if you put Draco Malfoy and Tom Riddle in a blender lmao a well seasoned taco if you will 🌮
Sorry to bring the 1999 film to you awareness…I’ve almost finished the series and am debating checking out the film but the vibes seem a little off. Is it at all worth watching? It seems weirdly sappy and generally off brand for the source material
Tl;dr a bad adaptation but a... good film? According to people that aren't massive haters (ie. NOT me).
TALENTED MR RIPLEY SPOILERS FORTHCOMING
It's... the kind of film that is good if you're watching it without having read (and liked) the source material. Sort of like Kubric's The Shining. A lot of people enjoyed it, including people who have read the book, so bear that in mind. I tend to have extremely strong opinions on most things so you may still enjoy it but I loathed it lol. Brevity is not my strength so this is going to be long, sry.
You can read the following quote from the director and see if you want to see an adaptation of Ripley by someone with this opinion:
A legitimate gripe that fans of the novel might voice is that I entirely missed the point of the book, because the book celebrates an amoral central character who gets away with murder and doesn't seem to suffer for it. And part of the fun of the novel is that he doesn't seem to care. [...] You know that he'll have no remorse about killing other people to get what he wants. And there's a kind of glee in seeing him do it. But it's not a glee that I wanted to transform into the film, partly because of the nature of the way you experience film. But, if that's my technical position, it's also my moral position. I don't want to tell a story about a man who gets away with murder and doesn't care. It doesn't interest me.
Minghella
Sorry, but WHY did you adapt RIPLEY if that was how you felt about the source material. Tom is a deeply sensitive, emotional person, but also a stone-cold psychopath who not only doesn't feel remorse—bar brief moments of clarity—but also believes he's entirely morally justified in his crimes.
Minghella's adaptation manages to be both less progressive and less nuanced than the 1955 book, despite being made almost half a century later. It is also less true to the essence of the book than the French 1960 adaptation, Plein Soleil, despite that film being beholden to the standards and censorship of the mid-20th century. Minghella's film is, I think, a great demonstration of why the American audience on the whole never 'got' Highsmith. She was always far more popular in Europe and I do believe that is because your standard American audience couldn't handle the moral ambiguity of her books.
There's a lot you can read into with TTMR but, to me, the book has always primarily been about class, not sexuality. It has more in common with a film like Parasite than Brokeback Mountain or Maurice. Tom is the American Dream taken to its perverse extreme—a ruthless, ambitious, dishonest character who will do anything to get ahead in a world stacked against him. The class element is near completely erased from the Minghella film, with the focus instead on Dickie as some sort of manic pixie dream girl who Tom stumbles into the thrall of and becomes infatuated and obsessed with to the point of snapping and killing him when he rejects Tom's feelings. Yes, Minghella managed to play into every homophobic stereotype out there by depicting Tom as an explicitly homosexual character and... a violent incel who can't take a hint.
In contrast, book Dickie is stunningly mediocre to the point of being an embarrassment to Tom, far from Jude Law's character. If anything, Tom is the one who brings excitement into Dickie's life . Minghella's Ripley is a shy, ungainly nerd; Highsmith's Ripley has his clumsy moments—certainly never managed to win Marge over lol—but is a capable, charismatic and driven person in his own right.
E Shannon's paper 'Where was the sex?' does a better job of discussing the altered interpretation of Ripley than I can. I've linked SciHub as it's locked behind institution login on JSTOR.
Highsmith certainly explores sexuality with great sophistication, but ultimately sexuality remains subtext in the novel, while it dominates the film. To pursue its concerns, Minghella's film revises the novel's characters and invents others, all with the aim of redefining Tom Ripley for a Hollywood audience. Minghella's Tom is first and foremost a gay man besieged by a hostile, straight world and only secondarily an American social climber on the hunt in Europe. Ironically, Minghella's focus on Tom's "taboo" homosexuality leads to a story that is less-not more-subversive than Highsmith's, whose critique of American ideas of class is lost to the film's paradoxically conventional sexual conflicts. In fact, in one sense, the film altogether inverts the sexual context of the novel. Where the novel uses Tom's sexuality to critique contemporary ideas of class, the film uses Tom's class to critique contemporary ideas of sexuality. Highsmith's Tom Ripley is a diabolical "culmination of the American success ethic" (Cochran 162), while Minghella's Tom Ripley is a misunderstood casualty of sexual bigotry and provincialism and a victim of his own frustrated sexual desire.
And also:
Minghella's audience is encouraged to criticize the monolithic presence of the "straight culture" and sympathize with Tom's dilemma, while Highsmith's readers are asked to consider aspects of culture beyond gay or straight sexual identity. For Minghella, Tom is either gay or straight. Either Dickie loves Tom or he loves Marge. The complex, sometimes asexual relationships of the 1950s novel are replaced with the simpler, blunter sexual truths of 1990s Hollywood, where "homosexual" is becoming almost as normalized as "heterosexual."
They also make a good point about Dickie being arguably closer implied to being a closeted gay man than Tom, which is actually quite a depressing thought. You can understand why he chooses estrangement from his family with that interpretation. Also, his assertion that Tom is in love with Dickie's material possessions, rather than him as a person is something I agree with. Tom doesn't miss Dickie after he dies, because he views Dickie as the sum of his parts—those being his signet ring, his fancy watches, his shiny cufflinks and his nice shoes. Again, deranged <3
Ultimately, I don't believe that even the shadow of a character like Ripley can be adapted to the screen. Dostoevsky being a major influence of Highsmith's is no surprise. Tom reads a lot like one of his rambling, neurotic characters, his inner dialogue being his most critical, defining feature, and not one that can be brought to the screen. Still, Minghella doesn't even try lol. I hate it.
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shini--chan · 10 months
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Hello! I’ve read your Alfred x ColdWarSpy one shot and the oneshot of Alfred x Spy who’s target is England/England x Spay who’s target is America.
I love the way you portray Alfred! Someone on here once described him as: brilliant, ambitious, and ruthless. A combination of the superhero myths: Clark Kent & Lex Luthor, Captain America & Winter Soldier.
I love how you can portray him as still the sunny persona, and some of that may be part of his real self, but also the ruthless superpower that people forget about.
What more thoughts do you have on him?
Quick note: answering asks in a non-chronological order at the moment so that I can get around to emptying the ask box
Ooooo... another person who digs stirringwinds’s stuff. We stan. Also, thank you for the kind words.
In total, I have plenty of headcanons for almost all the Hetalia character’s, partially due to me being quiet the history buff. Warning for plenty of TV Tropes references, because I’m that sort of person that also uses TV Tropes as a Getaway Drug, so links!
Aside from the aforementioned characters that America shares parallels with, I see him having a lot in common with Indiana Jones. They are both the sort of figures that hold strong to a certain code, although with Alfred it often goes into the territory of American Execptionalism – a lot of the Utopia Justify the Means making him in the eyes of plenty of the other nations and even people a Well-Intentioned Extremist. This would also have some truth to it, given that his Puritan background would have left marks. Also has a habit of using Indy Ploys in which he has no concrete plan and just improvises as he goes. Has some negative side effects in larger operations, where he would need a more detailed plan aside from vague goals of establishing freedom and democracy or something of the sort. In simple terms, his thought process would sometimes be like this:
Situation A happens
Stuff happens
Situation B comes into effect.
Big on the Obfuscating Stupidity. On some part he is also very silly, and would just want to have some fun. On the other he would just want people to underestimate him. Think of Zaphod Beeblebrox from Hitchhikker’s Guide to the Galaxy. At times can also be as vain and narcissistic.
On both of the upper points – he has a tendency to over think matters at times, leading to the Centipede’s Dilemma. But because that’s one of the things he is generous enough to share, he loves invoking it in others. May or may not have killed Arthur in the past by yelling “Which foot goes next?” when the latter was running down the stairs, causing his father to stumble and break his neck. Yes, Alfred suffers from Comedic Sociopathy, especially when it comes to people he doesn’t really like.
Apropos people he doesn’t like – while Alfred is at times inclusive and loves experiencing other cultures, that wouldn’t apply to morality. Nations have difference moral nuances, things they consider right and wrong that can differ from their neighbour. America is of the opinion that his way is the right way – other modes of thinking would either be tolerated or outright condemned.
Torn between wanting to have adventure and a desire for a simple life. In that sense, he always functions best while living on a frontier, where he would have a mix of both. Always has new ideas, many seeming hare-brained to outsiders, and even to himself in retrospect. But he loves to be a Pioneer, so he won’t let anybody stop him, until it is too late, that is.
Is a surprisingly good cook, although it often involves things that other people wouldn’t eat. Literally can’t stick to the recipe because he would always want to try out something new. As such, he would seldom make the same thing twice. Except steak – the steak must be rare and the tea of the southern sweet variety or else.
Ranges from being a Southern Gentlemen to a loud and rude New Yorker with all of that Brooklyn Rage and everything in between. Though, aside from that, he would often put on the guise of that All-American Boy and turn up that Hollywood Charm.
I shall finish here before it gets out of hand, though you peeps are free to request more in the future.
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witchqueenvisenya · 1 year
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I like alicent in the same way I like cersei. they are both evil horrible women who only care about getting what they want and fuck who they maim or kill in the process. I find characters like that compelling. they both have trauma but their trauma twisted them into cruel people. I like characters like that. I dont make excuses for them or pretend theyre poor innocent victims. only slightly unhinged woman i don't like is sansa, I find her quite bland and dull, both in books and the TV show.
let me start out by saying that i have a strong love/hate relationship with cersei, but that its mostly on the love side. the way that i love her is exactly as you said; she does horrible things, is a horrible person in general and doesn't really care for acting otherwise. she knows she has the power, and she is unafraid to wield it, and what the idiots at hbo and (most)alicent stans will never get is that that is very appealing. women hardly get to be unashamedly powerful. the moment they do, they are labelled. (the other day i saw some aemond fan crying about how they didn't include him calling rhaenyra an "old whore" on the show.) many of these antis of powerful female characters are women themselves. their internalised misogyny makes them so threatened that they end up falling into vicious attitudes of hatred for any female character that happens to have agency and who makes mistakes.
while reading cersei, you can find many moments where you sympathize with her, even identify with her, because as someone was saying, she is not a feminist character by any stretch, but her story is definitely one with feminist themes. but at the end of the day, you are not supposed to see her acts and handwave them away because she has trauma. book!alicent herself takes the initiative at almost every turn of the war. she is the foremost voice we hear advocating for the greens. she is also an abhorrent misogynist who abused a child under her care and spread vile rumours about her, and effectively isolated her at a stage in her life where she was very vulnerable, for the sole reason that said child was a girl who would one day be queen, as opposed to her son. because of course her precious andal customs and her faith decree that a woman cannot sit the iron throne. precedent is against rhaenyra, but alicent chooses to go against direct law, the king's word, because she is that bull-headed and ambitious.
show!alicent is made to marry someone she wouldn't have chosen for herself (on the show) and she suffers a passionless marriage. instead of recognizing that rhaenyra herself is being made to marry, she chooses instead to hate her for the crumbs of sexual freedom she can carve out for herself. she is fixated on the fact that rhaenyra lied to her, disregarding that she did so to save her reputation from her obsessed father who had set spies upon her. this is literally all it takes for alicent to waltz into rhaenyra's wedding with her petty green dress.
it sounds like a fucking high school spat between frenemies. which is exactly what the sansa/alicent brigade thinks asoiaf is. everyone loves sansa the queen bee because she can charm people (spoilers, she cannot), because she can sing and recall the sigils of houses (what an amazing achievement, give the girl a medal), and daenerys the slut must be eliminated because how dare she assert her rights to her throne established by her family like that's practically unthinkable. alicent just happens to be the sansa placeholder in hotd, because as a very blunt green stan said targ antis watch hotd and love the greens because they are obviously as anti targaryen dynasty as you can get and they lead to the downfall of the house eventually. look at them being honest for once. where is your nuance, neutrals?
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swan-orpheus · 2 years
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I was reading your tags and I think you’re one of the few people who “gets” the character of Syril. Everyone else seems to just write him off as a dangerous, power hungry, fascist but that isn’t really what the show has been telling us about him. It just seems like a lot of people are projecting and don’t understand nuance. I’m not saying he’s a poor meow meow or anything but a lot of these reads are just bizarre.
Yes, it seems as if folks are dead set on him being cookie cutter evil even while they express appreciation for the show's lack of a simple explanation for character motivations.
Certainly if he were power hungry, he would have behaved with a bit more prudence or chosen something more ambitious than corporate security, and as for dangerous, he is no Dedra. She is with the ISB precisely because she is more competent and put together and doubtless had to work her way up there. The ISB does not select folks merely based on their potential and I seriously doubt that you can have anything bad on your work history. He is also awkward and appears to lack confidence. She is everything professionally that he is not. I find it odd that folks always draw a comparison. They do share one trait: an inquiring mind. Which can either be an asset or a hindrance, especially within an unforgivingly rigid hierarchy. In Dedra's case it appears to be working for her, at least based on the trailers.
Hmm. Considering how little we are told about Syril, seemingly on purpose, it remains to be seen whether his own curiosity will eventually grant him a success. But apart from that one scene where Sgt. Mosk does all of the talking, we don't really know where he ultimately stands in the bigger picture. Dedra, on the other hand, is very clear about siding with the Empire's version of order, and wanting to locate rebel factions. All that we really know about Syril is that he has family issues and appears to like to exert control over others to make up for his lack of control in other areas of his life. (I don't think that it's a coincidence that he bullies Maarva, another mother.) I mean is he operating according to any particular belief system or his own personal issues with the corporate job being a convenient place to unwittingly role play them?? Does he have any friends? Evidently not. How long was he at his job based on the fact that he had recently altered his uniform and the way in which Chief Hyne addressed him? What did he do on his days off? Where is his father? Why did he keep the warrant puck? Was it an accident? Why didn't the ISB find it amongst his things? Does that mean that he kept it close to his person? As a reminder of his failure or as a symbol of something else?
For us, Cassian is this important figure in the narrative, but to Syril he was just a criminal with a rap sheet who killed a couple of company men. If he assigns particular importance to him at all, it is for what Cassian represents to him, not for who he actually is. Not yet at least. And what will he do if and when he does find him??
I just feel like there are far too many questions about this dude to draw too many hard conclusions about where he is going and who he will ultimately wind up being. And folks are much too apt to chuck him into a quaint little box based on their expectations.
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fireemblems24 · 2 years
Text
Crimson Flower Review
This is a long one guys. 
For a bit of context about this review. I didn't play Crimson Flower first. I played all 4 routes first, beating them back-to-back one in-game "week" at a time. I've realized in the fandom that knowing someone's route order is sometimes taken into consideration, so I wanted to share that. 
Oh, boy. I think the length of this review says a lot about Crimson Flower. Unfortunately, a lot of what's below is fairly negative, but that's mostly because I'm so upset at what this route could've been. Ultimately, I believe bad noise is better than no noise at all, and, say what you want about CF, but it makes a LOT of noise - good and bad - for better or worse. 
Crimson Flower wants to tell a story similar to Kingdom or Legend of the Galactic Heroes where a character, dissatisfied with the injustice of the world, decides to amend that by taking everything over and fixing it themselves. It flips the usual script where the person wanting to acquire power through violent conquest is little more than a cackling villain who kicks puppies as a hobby and turns said character into an ideologically motivated one, furious at injustice rather than seeking personal gain. However, Crimson Flower really misses the mark on its execution due to the confines of current Fire Emblem's storytelling abilities, how it often undermines itself, and also because it lacks what I'm now calling the three Cs of storytelling: conflict, consequences, and character development. 
Crimson Flower is too ambitious for Fire Emblem's current limitations, a point I'll touch on again in my upcoming Azure Moon review too. In order for CF to work, you have to believe in the change Edelgard's going to make. The problem is that Fire Emblem isn't a game that easily includes the political theory required to tell this story to its fullest extent or to tactfully handle aspects of this plotline like blatant imperialism and nationalism. Concrete details are dropped here and there in scattered supports, and, honestly, all of Edelgard's plans are terrible. From acknowledging that she never considered inequality to giving all the power to one person, these details only convince me she has no idea what she's doing. With Fire Emblem's current structure, I'm not sure there is a way for it to handle politics all that well, which makes me wonder why they added these details in the first place. 
CF also ends way too early for stories like this. And, no, I don't mean her killing TWSITD. Yes, that's a necessary catharsis totally missing too, but what I also mean here is the complete lack of the aftereffects of her actions. CF thinks they can end it with King Louis XVI getting his head lopped off or the British squatting in India and call it a day. It ends with TWSITD unresolved, a violent aggressor forcing herself on cultures who never wanted her to lead them, and a continent suffering through five years of non-stop warfare she also forced on them. You can't just pretend everything's magically resolved after Rhea dies and that Edelgard only needed to work for another five or ten years before skipping through flower fields with Byleth and expect me to take this story seriously.  At the same time, there's no real way for Fire Emblem, with its current structure, to realistically deal with any of this. 
There are, though, also major failings in CF's writing that have nothing to do with Fire Emblem's structure not really allowing for some of what CF's plotline demands. It severely undermines itself, creates bizarre mood whiplashes, and is desperately lacking in conflict, consequences, and character development.  
CF often undermines itself with its complete lack of nuance. Everything is far too convenient, simplified, and portrayed as very black and white. Killing Rhea solves the systematic abuse of power and everyone is peaches and cream about getting their nation invaded according to the ending cards. Rhea's an evil monster who hates humanity, Dimitri's a vengenance-driven murder machine, and Claude's scretly hoping to take over Fodlan himself. None of the legitimate grievances of Edelgard's antagonists are considered so the player never has to never feel potentially bad about what they're doing. And when what you're doing is textbook imperialism, that's a bit uncomfortable, especially when the country writing the story has yet to acknowledge their imperialistic past. This is a stark difference from the nuanced and sympathetic treatment Edelgard gets when she's the antagonist. Edelgard opines about all the blood on her hands with no thoughts about who is doing the bleeding. CF acts like there's no real cost to war because nothing lost is given any value in CF's writing, despite also wanting to act like Edelgard's made hard choices and sacrificing oh so much for the good of all (despite actually losing nothing). CF seems almost afraid of anything resembling self-reflection and opts for borderline hilarious lines screaming in neon letters "Edelgard good, everyone else bad! Please don't look behind the curtain." For a route that flirts with the idea of tackling systematic change and engages in imperialism 101, this is all incredibly disappointing and feels more like an angsty teenager's first anti-government/religion wish fulfillment wattpad fic than a story with depth. 
This white/black treatment of Edelgard vs everyone else undermines the very core of the story CF is trying to tell. It wants the player to simultaneously believe Edelgard is taking the road to hell to rescue everyone else while treating that road like a quick stroll through a sunny forest because it doesn't want you, the self-insert, to feel potentially bad. This issue, both wanting a "morally grey" story but without ever letting the player feel bad, is an issue with most routes, but is felt the hardest in CF.  
As a result of CF's unwillingness to engage with nuance at risk of making the player feel sad, there is a noticable lack of conflict, consequences, and character development. In CF, you take the biggest, baddest, richest country and curb-stomp everyone. Edelgard nor Byleth nor anyone else ever stops to question or disagree on anything. Nothing of value is lost. Everyone you mow down is secretly awful. There's no interesting conflict anywhere in this route. Likewise, there's no consequences. Edelgard can threaten to kill her classmates, hire known serial killers, tell everyone her enemies took actions her "allies" actually did, and never come clean to either Byleth or the Black Eagles about - well - anything, and everyone just nods along like drones. It's like CF forgot the Flame Emperor existed, because Byleth and the Black Eagles certainly do. It's impossible to invest in this route's storyline when the interesting actions characters take go nowhere. 
Because this route desperately lacks conflict and consequences, none of the characters are really allowed to grow or develop. Characters like Ferdinand and Petra seem set up for mini-storylines of their own, but do absolutely nothing. Byleth and Hubert agree with everything Edelgard does with no conflicting interests, debates, or questions. Even Edelgard gets very little development and seems barely different from the young woman in the prologue, except now she's not lying to Byleth - I guess. She has opened up to you and only you, self-insert, while Hubert's impact on her life is disregarded because only you, self-insert, ever really supported and understood her. 
Overall, CF was a massive disappointment. If it had the guts to follow through on some things, it maybe could've been my favorite route. In the hands of writers less concerned with self-insert pandering and willing to "go there," it would've had a vastly different review and ranked among my favorite stories in Fire Emblem's franchise. Instead, we get a shallow and uninteresting let down. 
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codenamesazanka · 2 years
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I see your frustration with the heroes conditional empathy in bnha and your (very correct) thinking in that unless hero society changes nothing will get better, in knowing that: do you think there will be a 'subversive' ending/bnha part 2 ? Since the hero kids are just starting to see/feel the villains and the bigger picture? (I mean deku's seen it for awhile, but I don't know where he thinks he's going, with what he believes should happen vs what hero society will actually do)
I really really really want there to be a Part 2!!!! I would love for HeroAca to do a Chainsaw Man where Horikoshi gets to take a break, recuperate, plan new things, maybe move to a magazine where he can indulge in the worldbuilding and horror-tinted concepts he seems to like and where people can appreciate his furry characters.
Unfortunately, I have to think there won't be. I feel like going any further into changing Hero Society would be approaching topics that just might be too heavy, too much, too ambitious(?) to be done while keeping the core vibe of HeroAca. We've already got fans who think the Villains should all be killed, so a manga about not just saving these mass murderers but 'forgiving' them and integrating back into society? oof.
Plus, these topics might also too boring, because it'll have to talk about judicial systems and laws and ethics. I mean, I would love that; but I can see the challenge in incorporating fistfights into that to keep with the action genre.
Even though my dearest wish is that this 'end' we're approaching is just AFO being defeated and Shigaraki 'saved' from his clutches but he still hates Heroes, and therefore Part 2 would be where Deku faces off against Shigaraki/The League/Villains regarding how society should be rebuilt, I don't think that will happen. Deku doesn't have a vision for that after, and after Shigaraki abandons his plan of 'Destroy Everything' for something lighter, Shigaraki probably doesn't have a specific vision either. And therefore enter the MLA, except they're a libertarian cult with issues of their own.
See, I don't know where exactly Deku thinks he/heroes/society is going, and I think he doesn't know it either, because Horikoshi doesn't quite have the right answer for us as well. That's the issue with examining that in Part 2.
A Part 2 would likely be rebuilding a society, and even after 5000 years irl, people haven't come up with a plan that satisfies everyone about how to do just that - and to write something thoughtful and intriguing, nuanced, popular, just - that's not a task I would force on anyone if they don't feel they can handle it. Can Horikoshi handle that? Maybe, maybe not, it's up to him to decide whether he wants to tackle it. A Part 2 would be even more focus on the Villains and criminals and how they have valid points, and Villains arcs are already apparently considered 'taboo' for JUMP. HeroAcaLand is a futuristic sci-fi Japan, but it reflects modern-day Japan and its issues; it's more direct and less allegorical than a story set in an original fantasy-land would be. Somehow I think questioning the status quo is not something Shonen JUMP would like to do.
As much as I berate Deku and his friends about how disappointing they are, I know it's not 'their fault' as much as how Horikoshi writes them and handles their actions in response to the questions he set. Personally I think Horikoshi knows what their responses should ideally be and he's taking a really agonizingly long way to get there and that's frustrating especially when other readers think the kids are doing great, but that's probably me projecting and being blind to the true intent, whatever it is. Is Horikoshi pointing out their conditional empathy and is he showing the trying to tell us that all Villains should be saved, no just Shigaraki, Toga, Dabi? Or is that just my interpretation? Am I even making sense? There's so much to talk about the story, what the story seems to be about, how the author is handling the story, if the author is successfully getting the story to be about what it's about, what purposes the characters serve towards that goal, etc, etc, stuff I should've paid attention to in lit class that I've fried my brain and forgot what I'm trying to say.
But basically, yeah. I think the Hero Kids have conditional empathy and that's something they need to fix. I think they can't just save the STD trio and call that a happy ending when all the other Villains are left to continue get hunted down by Heroes. I think that's the point the story is trying to go for, but sadly I don't think there will be a Part 2 to examine that in detail because it'll be quite a Topic, one that's A Lot and Too Much. I hope there's at least one line before the end where we know society has changed and all Villains are saved.
Sorry for the ramble! Thanks for the ask! Please have a good day!
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melis-ash · 3 years
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have you watched elite's season 4 finale already? what are your takes on caye and phillipe? no judgements here tho, just want to know your opinion on them
 Hello, nonny! Yes, I did. My opinion about Caye and Philippe has several different aspects (which a litle bit conflict with each other).
Lets write long post.)) Sorry for mistakes and typos, English is not my first language and I`m not really good with grammar.
1) Caye and Philippe story is feminist retelling-reverse of the Beauty and the Beast, where main characters didn`t became couple and The Beauty left her Beast not for Gaston other romance, but for her own path. And their relationship helped the Beast to realize his past mistakes and make to want to fix it, even if it`s too late . Comparing with many other things in that season that storyline was not bad. Really. There MANY problems with s4, I think the best stolyline had Rebe and Mencia, it was really good, and in my personal opinion, despite many flaws, Caye and Philippe storyline is second one for me. Kinda it was not really good, but it had plot, idea, composition and message. Writers knew very clear, what they tried to say, and despite obvious lack of screen time, they handle it, and this story, despite it doesn`t connect with main plot, resonate with main storyline on the level of their ideas. (About it later.) I know, Georgina is feminist, so I wonder, could she give some advice writers? Kinda “it can work better if...” something like it.
2) Personally I`m very disappointed how OOC was Caye in that season and how few screen time she had. For me Caye from s4 feels like too much different person than in s2-3. I wanted character development for her, but something more slow and realistic. S4 Cayetana feels like all her character development happened between s3 and s4 (and partly in special, which really was very good), and I don`t believe in it. Caye from s4 is good character, but there is no real connection with Caye from s2-3.
I knew, she was very upopular character in s2-3, so maybe creators afraid to gave her too much screen time. But also they still wanted she was part of story and write redemption arc for her. And honestly, anon, these two thing can`t work together well. When you write redemption arc for well written nuanced character that Cayetana was in s2-3, you need give character enough screen time and nuances. But it seems, s4 writers don`t care enough about writing S1-3 characters in character. In s2-3 Caye was bad girl, but also she was comedy relief (but s4 has very few comedy moments), she had family (where the fuck her mother and granddad now? We know only that her mother cannot work in Las Ensinas, but don`t know, why), we saw, that she did`t sleep almost, because she learn in Las Ensinas, worked as janitor and still hung out with rich kids. (I think I began feel compassion for her, when realized it). It that seson she almost has not other scenes than with Philippe. OK, she was pariah in school during previous year, but if writers began that things with Caye and Rebe friendship, can they continue it. Rebe and Caye both had problem with their love interests and they never discussed it. Only time they speak about Philippe was in 402. Also Benjamin fired Azucena, and wanted to expel Samu and Omar, but Caye still works there? And Benjamin still protects her even? Why? I mean, after whole thing with scam in s2. Maybe it because protection of Polo`s mothers, but it never was said in s4 even. It seems, Benjamin knows things about her story with Polo (like he knows about Philippe`s past), and it could be really interesting possiblity to bring on scene that aspect of situation and Benjamin`s character and him and Caye interaction. 
Also there is something with Georgina`s acting in s4, in most of scenes she acts as different character, so maybe it was and her (as actress) decision too. I wrote before, she is feminist, and maybe she wanted to bring more feminists vibes in s4 Caye, because it makes storyline works better? Given how few connection with previous seasons on script level her s4 story had, it make sense even, it`s just feel OOC for me, because Caye is not feminist at all. She is strong and ambitious, but she is not type of women what call themselves feminists, and when she said “I became my own Fairy Godmother” in s2, she meant that she was forced to do it. Caye was girl who wanted to be princess from old school Disney animation. In s3 she wanted to live and study on Polo mother money in London and was fully OK with it. When she refused their proposition, it was because thoughts, that Polo could be alive and even more or lesser happy in other school without those her messages, haunted her. Plus when Polo died, he thought Caye was with him more because his money than because Polo himself. I remember, in her first scene Caye read  The Second Sex, but it was spectacle for her schoolmates. And when she spoke with them about her fake rich life, it always was “look how rich and glamour I am”. Partly she spoke in this way because she knew very few about rich people`s life, but also there were some of her dreams. She wanted to be rich and and be part of this glamour life. In s3 she became in some way, and she had a lot of possiblities to understand how many shit, pain and tragedies can hide for glamour facade. Theoretically she knew it before. But she was exctremely poor, so it was a little bit difficult for her to think about it too much.
3) So I think more mention of Caye`s story from s2-3 could make her and Philippe story better. Philippe himself have same problem as Polo in some way: he is rich guy, and his mother indulged him too much. Caye saw how Polo`s mother indulged him and saw where it ended. Not good for Polo and many other people. Marina and Polo could be alive and Samu`s family could live with him in Spain, if Polo`s mothers raised their son better. Even if Caye don`t care much about Guzman or Samu and she never knew Marina, she had enough time between seasons to reflect of situation. So with more s2-3 reference that “matter of education thing” Caye says to Philippe`s mother could sound not only as sort of feminist  slogan, but as something very personal and painful for Caye. She was in love with boy, who was spoiled too much by his parents (like Philippe), and it brought a lof pain him, his friends, Caye. I don`t say there are not at all attempts include previous Caye experience in s4. For example, when Caye does google research about Philippe and finds nothings, she is still suspicious because she know, how easy money could erase some thing.  Also that thing with Pilippe`s mother. I think after conversation with her,Caye realized that Philippe`s and Polo`s promblems had very much same roots. But such moments really have not enough space. Guzman had at least one scene, where he speak about his reflection on s1 evens (where he compares Mencia and Marina). I would like to see something like it with Caye.
4) Many things in Caye and Philippe storyline feel offscreen. We know they regularly talk in school, but see very few of it etc. Actors have good chemistry, and since they both like fashion design, it feels enough for beginning of communication, plus Caye had crush on Philippe long before they met, plus she was first who was really friendly with him in new school (in some way it`s repeat of Caye and Polo story, but with more positive vibes). But I want to see more illustration, why Philippe fell in love with Caye so much.
5) Now about Philippe himself. I saw many hateposts and hatecomments about him, and it`s really funny, because I constantly see how many people in this fandom love Polo and think he deserved better, despite Polo is murderer. Yes, he killed Marina out of emotion, but she is fucking dead. She will never resurrect. Guzman will remember till grave that his best friend killed his sister and then was killed by Guzman`s ex-girlfriend, because policy failed to handle their job well. Samu`s brother was forced to left Spain because it. But it took 2 seasons for Polo to understand he needs go to policy and confess he killed Marina. Caye didn`t understood how wrong her actions were till Polo`s death. I don`t know how long was Elodie`s rape, but at least Philippe didn`t need someone`s corpse to realize his mistakes. Inside standart of this show that guy isn`t hopeless. “Everybody deserve second chance” was important point in Caye`s story in s2-3, so now I wonder how writers will play this card in s5 in relationship between Philippe and Caye. 
Also I want to say I was wrong, when doubted in Pol Granch acting, he`s good additon to Elite cast.
6) Caye x Philippe storyline and main storyline. In that seson Elite brings of scene, in additon of another murder and drug traid, sex crimes. Prostitution, rapes. It`s interesting, that connection here takes place through Ari, girl, who has serious problem with sexual behavior, when she`s drunk. She`s know it`s perfectly, but also she knows, that when woman says “no”, it`s means “no” and end of story. I really like her role in Caye and Philippe story and I hope in s5 there will be at least some scenes with her and Caye. Also interesting point were Ari`s word that she never report to the police without prove. It feels ambigous. She knows, Phillippe is not angel at all. But also there is other side of coin. I think, she also knows, reputation can be ruined very easy. During s4 there was subplot with discussion club. And Samu speak that ex-criminals cannot become somebody else, even if they wants. Their reputation in society was ruined. In final of Philippe story he sent Elodie his confession. So maybe writers tried to write about theme “can criminal, who admitted his mistakes, to became somebody else?” through season and I think they will continue it in s5.
Sorry if this all sounds muddled and too long. Maybe later I will make some additon into reblogs to this post, I don`t know.
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hunxi-after-hours · 3 years
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Hi! This is the same anon who asked about the "gang" translation. Thanks for your response, it's really enlightening to know that. Though something in your response got me curious about something else. You already talked about Yu Ai in detail before, but you never talked much about the other four masters who attacked Yan Wushi. Sure it's pretty easy to sum them up, but still, what's personal opinion of them? ʕ⊙ᴥ⊙ʔ
sldkfjsdlkjf 《千秋》 anons, know that I love and cherish you all for chasing down literally every single thought I have ever had (and many that I've never had) about this text and its characters
(you can find my Yu Ai nonsense here, along with Chen Gong)
all right all right let's speedrun this, who do we have:
Xueting Fashi - criminally underused character who deserves his own spin-off novella. Yan Wushi has an established enough rivalry with him that Yan Wushi has an insulting nickname for him (老秃驴 / 'old bald mule'). Friendly reminder that no other rival gets that treatment, so like, I have questions. Was apparently exiled and/or departed himself from Tiantai Zong (??!), then became one of the Big Ten (!!!??), and I want to know more about THAT spicy backstory. Or I'm simply weak for characters who are reasonable and competent but willing to kill a man, and Xueting fits that bill exactly
Dou Yanshan - RIP m'dude the donghua turned you into a bit (a lot) of a loser. he... exists? lacks classiness and screentime and well-developed motives that other characters receive, unfortunately. I do think one of the funniest things about him is, immediately post five-way ambush, he goes two-on-one with Guang Lingsan against Shen Qiao, and when the going gets tough, simply nopes out of there like "nah I'm good that's enough dueling for one day" and leaves Guang Lingsan out to dry. Love that for him
Guang Lingsan - what a delightful chaos agent and another character who also deserves a spin-off novella. I am continually perplexed and fascinated that we never meet anyone else in Fajing Zong, and occasionally amuse myself by imagining that he's a sect of one (1) person and just powerful enough that no one can really do anything about him. I have so many questions about his cultivation (battle guqin battle guqin BATTLE GUQIN--) and think it's awesome that his relatively alternative cultivation is developed enough to 1) kick many asses, 2) take down Yan Wushi (with help), and 3) land him on the Big Ten list. Also like, is the only character to call Yan Wushi just 'Wushi' onscreen (on-page?) so like. even more questions, I have them
Duan Wenyang - another deeply underrated character who--yeah I'll keep saying it--could carry his own spin-off novella. I think there's a lot to unpack about race and ethnicity in 《千秋》 (which I am most definitely not qualified to do), and I'm still quite salty about how the donghua plot changes flattened that nuance into (sigh) pretty straightforward Central Asian stereotyping and xenophobia. We get all sorts of tantalizing hints about Duan Wenyang's character and backstory (he's biracial, better--cultivationally--than Kun Ye, politically clever and ambitious) and he's one of those characters whose story clearly continues on after the end of the book. One of my favorite moments of him is in the first fanwai chapter where he and Yu Shengyan race to the foot of Half-Step Peak and run into Shen Qiao coming down with Yan Wushi, and all of their past conflicts and enmity are put aside in favor of jianghu priorities and relationships, Duan Wenyang's concern for his shizun, and it's like. yeah that's the jianghu spirit all right and it gets you right in the hidden feels
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sovpologist · 3 years
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hi, genuine question! I want to like Mara, but d2 lore shows her, in my eyes, as selfish and cruel, set on her own goal with no consideration for others. At least that's what I got from marasenna lorebook.
Why is she liked by so many in community? I feel like I'm overlooking something over things I mentioned above, but I would appreciate a perspective from someone who likes her character! If it's okay to ask!
its totally okay to ask!! this is going to be a long post so im going to put it under a readmore :)
i just want to stress first that mara is like.... widely disliked by many in the community. it used to be very unpopular to like her and if you even said anything remotely positive about her, people would reply to your posts and send you anons about how you were a terrible person for liking such a manipulative and toxic character. it was only recently that community opinion kind of started to shift, and people started to actually appreciate her character as nuanced and interesting. i definitely dont think this is because of me or anything crazy like that, but ive tried to correct misconceptions about her and cultivate a space on my blog at least where people can just openly like mara and not feel like they have to qualify it by constantly assuring people that they know mara's done bad things too (because literally every character in d2 has done bad things, and somehow people understand that liking the uldren doesnt mean you support him killing cayde but cant apply that same concept to mara for some reason). ok, im getting off my soapbox now and im going to just talk about why i like her.
mara is genuinely just such a fascinating character to me. reading the marasenna im really struck by how alone she is, even as a 19 year old human. her mom has essentially abandoned her and says that she's mara's friend but not her mother, and mara's father is never mentioned, so mara literally has no parental guidance or supervision or love. this puts a lot more of her pre-awoken actions into context, such as her not knowing how to interact with people and preferring to keep herself away from the rest of the crew. everyone mara loves leaves her. her mom stays in the distributary, uldren is distant in his efforts to impress and surprise her and then dies, and sjur dies too.
i also love mara's character arc, although it kind of makes me sad. mara is so painfully human in the earlier parts of the marasenna. she's awkward, she's lonely, she thinks her and uldren's secret language is "cool," she gets embarassed at her mom's embarrassing petnames, she hero-worships alis li and listens to her advice. watching her lose all of this and crystalize into a queen is so interesting. remember, mara didn't go out into the fight between the darkness and the traveler bc she knew she would gain power and create the awoken, its stated that she went out there to die. so a 19 year old just trying to die peacefully ends up witnessing firsthand the power of the dark and light and being tasked with essentially creating a new species, knowing that one day she wants to go back and fight the darkness. she becomes such a politician and has to scheme and plot and really loses her humanity while following ALIS' advice- alis was the one who told her that people need a mascot, not a friend. this also makes for a really interesting scene where alis grants mara one favor, and instead of asking for political power, even though mara is such an intensely political and scheming person, she tells alis the truth about the awoken and asks for forgiveness. alis, who mara looked up to, doesnt forgive her, and mara really internalizes this and starts to permantantly close herself off. mara made herself into a queen and lost her humanity in the process. there's a couple people who see the real her, like sjur, but even sjur doesnt really understand her. but her relationship with sjur is also so well written and interesting, sjur being the one person she lets herself drop her mask around and just act human. i made a post about this once, but even mara's speech patterns change around sjur, becoming much more casual and "normal." however, at the same time, mara's mask/persona is a part of her character, and one that i love. people hate her for being "mean," but i like characters like that. mara doesnt take any shit, even from the protagonist, and has her own plans and goals that she doesn't feel obligated to share or change for other people. she's ambitious, sticks to her guns, and doesn't allow other people to influence her.
you say she's selfish, and i think it is easy to brush her off as selfish and doing everything for her own gain, but there's a lot of subtext and outright text in the marasenna and other lore that shows mara genuinely believes that the only way to fight the darkness is to become a being on the same level as the darkness and the traveler. she doesn't let the awoken become immortal gods, which some people regard as a bad thing, but she did that for a reason. mara understands that a people who are eternal and ageless will never grow as people, and she knew that the darkness wanted them to just be complacently sitting aside in their little realm while it does whatever it wants. mara wasn't going to let that happen, and knew she had to find a way to encourage people to leave paradise. you can dislike the way she went about this, essentially encouraging conflict and war among her people, but she did not just do it for her own gain or amusement. mara has also been hated on for starting the reef war/firing a missile at the house of wolves, people act like she did that just for fun too, but the eliksni fleet was heading to conquer earth. instead of just hiding and building up her own resources, which wouldve been the logical thing to do in this situation, mara put her own fleet and power on the line to draw the eliksni's attention away and help earth. she doesn't do things solely bc they benefit her, but because she genuinely loves and wants to help earth. her uncaring persona is a mask, the thing that she feels she needs to be for people to have faith in her.
i have more to say but this is already so long and ive said a lot, so i'll end it here :) at the end of the day, some people are just not going to like mara and thats totally fine. she's not everyone's type, bc she IS ambitious and manipulative and sometimes cruel. i just wish she didnt get a disproportionate amount of hate for being like that when i know for a fact that if she was a male character she would not get this much hate, and i wish that people could just dislike her normally without lying about her or misinterpreting her character and motivations. but if you dont like her, you dont like her! sometimes we just dislike characters, sometimes for well thought out reasons snad sometimes just for no reason! thats completely fine, as long as you're respectful!!
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we are our family, even if we don’t want to be.
Titans 3.07
a bit over halfway through the season, and we still don’t have all of our main characters on the board! i love this show.
as always, typing this up as i watch. live reaction, baby! *shadowboxes*
SPOILERS AHEAD
1. i don’t think i’ve mentioned this before, but i kinda miss the old ‘dc universe’ intro. it was cool! the whole idea of it was wild and waaaaay over-ambitious, but also very very on-brand because of it.
2. this is... the third time we’ve seen dick sleeping this season? that’s a record! checking another thing off my s3 wishlist...
2.5. i guess i rag on titans all the time for its wafer-thin plotting and bad pacing, but i have to admit that this season has been a step-up from the last one in this regard. titans has very reactive rather than proactive protagonists, and a lot of the last season seemed to be: x happened, the team reacted badly, then y happened, they reacted badly, etc. this time around, it’s not a huge leap up by any means, but at least they’re doing something about it. 
i do appreciate the focus on character arcs over everything else. and when i say everything else, i mean it: arcs that started two seasons ago with no big cathartic moments, intermittent payoff and multiple relapses. big bads have ranged from interdimensional demons to superpowered assassins to whatever in the world scarecrow is, but trigon’s big weapon against the titans was to... use their worst fears against them. slade’s was to... use their fears to break them up. crane’s is to... use red hood to use their fears to break them up. even the threat of gotham’s citizens being in danger doesn’t feel real: gotham is mythologised into an entity of its own, infecting our heroes like a parasite. like. this is not to say that most other superhero media aren’t big character arcs intertwined with the main plot, but titans doesn’t even make pretend that it’s anything but.
anyway. that’s my entry #2345 to ‘give a grand unifying theory for titans’. thanks. i’ll be back with more.
3. “anger is just fear in a little black dress.” god I HATE HIM
(what’s he doing with barbara’s likeness? oh... oh god. a terrible thought just occurred to me. what if they introduce hush at the very last minute for plastic surgery shenanigans? would you put it past this show?)
3.5. jason, nooooooooo
3.75. i mean, they’re making it very clear here that scarecrow is the one in control--the one who’s always been in control--and is manipulating jason and literally poisoning him, but i hope it doesn’t end up erasing nuance or jason’s autonomy. if jason’s to reckon with the issues that brought him here, then the lines of responsibility will need to be set somewhere. 
(this applies to dick as well but more on that later, i guess.)
4. just--the phrase “40% loss of income” is so funny to me. like, gotham is full of these larger-than-life characters who are idiosyncratic beyond belief, colourful and dramatic and creating chaos just for the sake of chaos, and then there’s the regular criminals and their henchmen who just want to make a quick buck sitting down with pie charts and graphs, griping about the joker reducing their returns or debating high risk investments in, i don’t know, two-face’s next scheme.
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“yyyyeeeeeaaah, my financial advisor is telling me that going all-in with a guy who literally makes decisions on the flip of a coin is probably not the greatest idea.”
4.5. god i hate smug!smarmy!scarecrow so much
4.85. as big plans to “control” gotham go, it’s pretty bog-standard. clearly scarecrow has some bigger plan in mind but it really feels like we’ve got no clear insight into him and he’s this generic creepy mystery-man who knows more than he lets on and springs a twist/cliffhanger every now and then. i liked the scenes with him and dick in 3.04 where it seemed like he was genuinely on the backfoot and things weren’t going as he predicted. for all of his faults, dick is at least familiar with scarecrow’s bullshit and knows not to give what he wants.
5. i mean... i see where dick is coming from with the “he’s not jason anymore; he’s red hood” because his immediate glaring concern is scarecrow’s drug and the damage it could potentially cause gotham? i do not doubt that it’s something batman drilled into him, too, but when you’re expected to take point on a situation where the lives of an entire city weigh down on your shoulders, it’s better to simplify things and prioritise. i’m not saying it’s great or healthy! gar is absolutely right to consider this facet of the situation. it’s just dick can’t.
6. hmmmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMM. 
i don’t know that i’m super fond of this iteration of oracle???? it looks like a cross between cerebro from x-men and jarvis from iron man. it’s giving me second-hand embarrassment. somebody help me.
(at least they remembered dick’s middle name is actually “john”. i like to think bruce printed D in that contract because for a while he genuinely thought richard “dick” grayson was his full name. duck duck goose, dick dick grayson, i don’t know alfred, the kid was in a circus, maybe they thought it was funny. or maybe it was a test in anger control, who knows.)
6.5 “maybe you two would like some time alone?” even AI can’t help hitting on dick grayson in this universe.
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“oh mr grayson, if i only had another eye to see you better...”
6.8. on one hand, it’s a bit disconcerting that the title of ‘oracle’ has gone from barbara herself to this gigantic machine; from my impression of the comics-verse, barbara had an extensive computing and surveillance system, true, but she was very clearly the brains behind the operation. on the other hand, i’m kind of glad that the ethical boundaries that this kind of surveillance violates is a sticking point for barbara. (tho let’s be real, the nsa would kill to have this in their arsenal).
6.9. also it’s now obvious that scarecrow’s big plan is to take control of oracle itself. it’s why he had lady vic take that picture of her eyes, or why he’s meddling around with it on his computer.
6.95. if only i could ‘command sleep’ anybody overstepping their boundaries re: personal information...
7. “you can just sit back and watch as the titans destroy themselves.” i mean... he’s not wrong
8. “dick’s parents were killed by a criminal mob; he won’t work with them.” it’s wonderful that you have this insight into dick, kory, i just wish we could’ve watched some of these conversations actually happen on-screen.
8.5. i’m glad that kom’s being treated with such nuance and understanding, though it’s obvious that she definitely has a Plan of her own. (and did i entirely imagine her ability to mimic other people flawlessly at the end of s2? or is that going to come into play at some point?) i think her story has the potential to be genuinely poignant, and in a universe where being Different, either because of mental health or physical differences or whatever else, leads a straight line to Evil, it’s important to acknowledge and then emphasise that the mere fact of your existence as a Different Person doesn’t predispose you to evil. maybe your act of destroying a system that has destroyed you and not scrambling to “fit in” is only evil as defined by that system. 
8.8. “you’re trespassing, i should call the authorities, i feel unsafe.” now this is a villain lady who’s definitely aware of her privilege.
8.85. kom smirking knowingly at her sister is everything.
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“oooh that’s the kory i remember”
9. conner and dick working together woo!
9.25. god i hate a villain who’s always just a step ahead, no matter what. so crane anticipated dick using oracle to track his personal communications and set him up? how did he know when exactly dick would get to do this? how long did he have that poor man tied up in that van?
(the “save me, grayson” is a nice touch, tho. send dick spiralling even further! because if there’s one thing dick will do, it’s take responsibility for every goddamn thing that goes wrong.)
9.5. ahem. i’m going to need a million gifs of conner yeeting dick across that yard, fandom, thankyouverymuch.
(i understand conner is invulnerable to explosions, but how do his clothes survive??)
9.8. oooh crane is already in oracle! i’m just sitting here laughing helplessly because they’re overpowering this goddamned guy so much. he can build a lab in arkham’s basement! he has access to lazarus puddles! he has minions working across gotham, including a fully functional chemical laboratory staffed by chemists who only answer to him! he has the crime families of gotham quailing in his very presence! he has assassins at his beck and call! he’s enough of a manipulative bastard to have red hood under his thumb! and now he has enough of a tech know-how to not only be aware of oracle, but know how to hack into it! i’m sick of exclamation marks! i’ll shut up now!
9.95. dick leaving behind that smouldering grave for a person he failed to save without taking a second to process how he feels about it and running towards his next plan to corner scarecrow: a microcosm of where his head’s at right now.
10. really hammering in the themes of this season, aren’t we. 
10.25. the interesting thing is the titans repeatedly call themselves a family this season (none more so than dick) and while that found family has helped encapsulate and put away their traumatic experiences with their ‘original’ families, it’s meant that they’ve not really dealt with those issues. and dick and gar and jason come from ‘found families’ of their own: they are twice removed, traumatised two times over. they still cling to this identity however, and because of it they’re losing each other. a family isn’t static. it’s an ever-evolving dynamic and you have to put in work constantly to keep it healthy.
10.5. anyway, that’s entry #2346. i’m here aaaalll night.
11. lookit gar the detective! half-transforming and using his powers to deduce things! what a hero! i’ve said this for a long time, but gar is the bedrock of this team, and an unsung one at that.
11.25. i’m confused about him calling this room jason’s though. it seems to me that this is dick’s room that jason later used, and one that dick’s using now. so the unmade bed isn’t really jason’s fault; dick was woken by barbara that morning, and in his hurry, he left without making his bed.
(it still confounds me that bruce didn’t find jason another bedroom in that gigantic mansion of his. you really didn’t give this kid a chance, did you?)
12. oh well. so much for the oracle.
13. ... sorry, wait. you didn’t think i wasn’t going to address the bit with dick right now, did you?
12.5. i honestly don’t think it’s very complicated: dick’s been reeling from one traumatic thing to the next, and just when it seemed like at the beginning of the season, he felt happy and secure with his team and his place in the world, bruce ups and leaves gotham to him, specifically naming him a successor and calling him a ‘better batman’. he’s lost garth and jericho and donna and jason and now hank and dawn. he’s not even sure where rachel is or what she’s doing. after being told that batman was a psychopath for moulding him into a weapon, he’s also been told that his failure to be a ‘better batman’ lead to further disaster. of course he’s going to get batman-goggles. of course he’s going to be a prick. 
12.8. i don’t know what to say. i feel his frustration acutely. i don’t think he should’ve said what he said to barbara (can people stop pushing her around this season????) but that pressure to step in where your parent fails? to clean up their messes and try to think like them? to fall into habits drilled into you when you developed them as coping mechanisms growing up? I FEEL THAT. 
every step he’s taking he’s putting 110% of himself in it and scarecrow’s still playing mindgames with all of them: i absolutely feel his desperation to take control of that game and turn it on scarecrow, no matter what it takes.
and he did apologise almost immediately, and finally--finally--actually works with barbara. 
12.9. again, not excusing him! but i get it. and i think that’s a sign of great character writing.
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“did you know i just reminded emmram of all of her daddy issues? what the fuck????”
12.95. i love that dick&barbara, kory&kom, and gar are all approaching solving this mystery from different angles, each as valid as the other. also, conner is there as... emergency bomb defuser man?
13. it’s like all fancy rich people in fancy rich houses do is pour fancy rich alcohol into fancy rich glasses on pristine, untouched tabletops. i wonder what it’s like to live like that.
13.25. I KNEW IT! poor michael. it was nice knowing you.
13.5. man, kory is contending with a lot of issues that she’s successfully bottled up and compartmentalised until now. the cold reality that a child can seek out their parents as refuge and they can view the child as a piece to be moved in a greater game (never out of cruelty, though, never, and somehow that makes it worse), that truth of blackfire’s treatment on tamaran because she’s different, and her own culpability in what happened. she exchanged one family for another, after all, and left that family to die and her sister to suffer. like dick, like gar, kory’s being forced to reckon with what the titans are meant to be, the larger implications of creating their found family in their own space.
14. it’s probably because it’s one in the morning and i’ve had two glasses of wine but i did not follow that bit of exposition at all and victor freeze??? what? 
anyway. look at them solving things! together! go team!
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“you made a deal with the mob?” oh the sense of betrayal on his face! fuck off, dick, your issues aren’t kory’s. 
15. conner is really sweet and a bit of an awestruck crush on kom is to be expected. especially after that power rangers-esque transformation (i say this as a former huge power rangers fangirl. i’ve seen every series until 2007 including the original japanese versions and written fanfic for all of them. so i love a cool costume transformation, is what i’m saying.)
also?
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FUCK YEAH
16. i love the gotham crime families just chillin’ around eating ice cream. I LOVE THEM
16.5. that was a fun fight sequence, if marred slightly by that bit of awkward flirting between conner and kom. i wonder if she’s really planning to use him in a larger scheme to get kory back to tamaran, or maybe something else. 
16.75. so i’m assuming that scarecrow has jason either so paralysed by fear that he can barely move, or jason’s withdrawing from the drug that he’s been sucking in every few minutes. 
17. it’s nice to see them chill after a successful mission! and it can be awkward, but conner’s crush on kom and him striving to impress her is also, well, uh... cute.
17.5. i guess the dick/barbara scene was inevitable, especially given the... unresolved nature of their relationship in the flashbacks? and they’ve been through a rollercoaster together this episode, discovering and then destroying an incredible tool within a matter of hours, re-discovering just how well they work together as a team. dick’s swimming in the nostalgia. i don’t expect it to last as a long-term relationship, but i totally get why this is happening now. and hey, they’re cute!
i have a weeeirrrrd feeling that kory is going to leave to tamaran at the end of the season and that dick and kory will rekindle--or rather realise--their relationship just before that. it’s going to be devastating and beautiful and painful and i will be writing essays about it which would be me just wailing into the screen.
18. gar found molly!!!!!!! MOLLY’S BACK! \o/ gar is the BEST
19. that was a fun episode! i love this silly show, even if it does destroy me sometimes <3
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mintchochipkookie · 3 years
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I love your opinions on Ron Weasley. And Ginny. And movie Hermione. Good job. 100% agree.
Ahaha omfg I honestly don’t have anything positive to say about the HP movies? I started reading the books when I was 4/5 years old, so anything I say would be an understatement of how important the books are to me (let’s not focus on the fact that JKR is a raging TERF for now please). Because movies tend to have a more widespread reach I’m so PISSED about how every character, relationship, backstory, theme, and major plot point of the series was absolutely decimated. Harry and Ron/Ginny/Hermione are the most glaring ones because they’re also the most prominent characters and form the 2 main (canon) ships.
I feel like Movie!Hermione is the best example of surface-level feminism, and given how influential HP was, I think had it been carefully handled, Hermione could have really been a groundbreaking female portrayal in young people’s media specifically. She was turned into film’s favourite “badass girl who takes no shit and is always in control” trope and stripped of any depth and nuance. Book!Hermione was a seriously flawed character, and it was her flaws that I loved and personally related to the most. Yeah, she’s brilliant and ambitious and all that, but this is the girl whose boggart was literally just...not doing well in a class. Someone who used a potentially life-threatening device just so she could take every class to prove something to herself. Someone who freezes in scary situations and it’s RON who needs to remind her that she is a witch who can produce light/fire with her wand. Someone who is incredibly stubborn and temperamental to the point of being disrespectful and hostile to innocent people. Someone who is so stuck in her ways and refuses to look at different perspectives.
The movies occasionally toy with these qualities but ultimately SHE is the one who is always saving everyone’s asses without any help and is the voice of reason. To the point where you don’t even understand why you need Harry or Ron there. She’s just an idealised version of what she should be. She gets some of Ron’s best moments, the most frustrating of which is “if you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too”. Remember how Ron was basically bedridden from his injuries and he STILL had the courage to stand up for his best friend? Remember how Ron stands up to Draco repeatedly for both Harry and Hermione? Remember how RON was Harry’s most treasured person who was taken from him in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. Remember how painful Ron leaving in Deathly Hallows was for Harry and how irritated he would get with Hermione alone???? Ron’s best trait was his loyalty and the love he had for his friends. And what do we get in the movies? Ron standing awkwardly while Hermione cries and hugs Harry before he faces Voldemort. Cool. Which by the way Harry doesn’t even do in the books because he couldn’t bear to see them before walking to his death which is SO much more powerful and emotional but that’s not relevant here.
Ginny is simply stripped of any personality when she was so charismatic in the books tbh. Book!Ginny is actually probably closer to Movie!Hermione in terms of temperament than anyone else, but with more substance. And the Hinny stuff was just so god awful in the movies, like David. Mr Yates. Buddy. Is THIS what you think romance is?
And the number of people who think Hermione was too good for Ron, oh GOD. Are you fucking kidding me. I mean if you’ve not read the books, I guess that makes sense. But in the books, they literally balance each other out and can go toe to toe with each other. They care about each other so deeply and in terms of personality they are both equally matched and no one person truly has the upper hand. There is no one else I can see either of them with.
It’s been years since I read the books and I really wish I had the time to re-read them, just so I could properly articulate my feelings and opinions UGH I just really miss this series
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