I'd love to hear your thoughts on S1 of ST being a tragedy! No main character dies, so I never thought of it that way before
I mean, nobody has to die for a story to be a tragedy (at least, in the modern definition. I'm pretty sure '(almost) everybody dies' is a requirement of Greek tragedies and Renaissance revenge tragedies). But also, no main character dies in season one...if you take season one as part of a series. Which it wasn't originally conceived as.
I am not going looking for copies of the original pitch bible, because I am lazy, and also I only saw them floating around this webbed site. But the show changed a lot from the initial pitch (Joyce had a Long Island accent! Lucas' parents were divorcing! Murray was there and named Terry Ives! Most of what ended up in Hopper's character originally belonged to Mr. Clarke! The original pitch bible is fascinating). And part of the original pitch was a proposal for possible sequels.
The Duffers' proposal for a possible sequel was "It's ten years later, and Eleven is dead".
So that's the setup. Everything that came after season one was made up wholecloth after season one was a hit and people wanted more, but also people loved the adorable little psychic murder child (cue the Duffers shockedpikachu.jpg) and Netflix obviously recognised it would be a bad call to make a new season without her in it. So it makes sense to take season one as a unit, as a self-contained story on its own. You can also take it as part of a whole, but it makes sense to read it first as a complete story. Especially given the thematic drift of later seasons and the way they are...I'm just going to say it, each new season is very much added-on to what came before rather than being built on foundation that the earlier season(s) laid. It is very clear there was never a planned five-season story arc from the beginning. (This isn't necessarily always a bad thing, when it comes to sequels, but it does mean it makes sense to 'read' each season as its own thing.)
Okay, now that we've established all of that. Season one has one very clear goal, one very clear stake for the characters: save Will Byers from the Upside Down. (I like this. It makes the stakes both extremely high and extremely personal, it makes it very easy to understand each character's motivation, it also keeps the stakes grounded in reality. I like this a lot.) And by the end of the season, that goal is accomplished. So at first blush, you're right, season one doesn't look like a tragedy.
But when you start to unpack it a little, you start to see just how many important things were lost along the way. It's most glaringly obvious with Mike and El, with Nancy and Barb. The whole Wheeler family is fractured down the middle, with Mike and Nancy on one side and Ted, Karen, and Holly on the other, and Karen, who's been trying so hard the whole time to be part of her children's lives and understand what's going on with them, is aware of the ever-expanding gulf between them but will never be able to cross it, and will never fully know why. Hopper's finally managed to snatch a kid out of the jaws of death, save a woman he obviously cares about from the pain of losing a child, and Joyce has finally had someone believe her, support her, trust her. But it became blindingly obvious to me on my fourth rewatch that Hopper's plan, from the moment he went to leave the middle school gym, was always to trade El for Will. And that decision (and the fact that Joyce obviously understands that he did something to get the lab to let them go after Will, but she obviously doesn't dare press him on what) has broken her trust in him, and left him with what looks like an equally heavy burden of guilt as what he was carrying before. The lab stays open. The government gets away with everything. No one will ever know the true extent of the hurt they've caused.
And in the end, none of it even saved Will. He's back. He's alive. But he's spitting slugs in the sink. He's permanently marked by the Upside Down, and by trying to hide it from his family, he's putting a crack down the centre of them, as well. They're losing Will, just as surely as they had when they thought he was dead, just without him going anywhere.
And there's still a hole in the world.
The fragile bonds of community, the things that people share in common, the way catastrophe can bring people together and bring out the very best in them, are the major thematic threads woven through season one. Human connection is the only thing that can change what seems inevitable, the only thing that can bring back what's seemingly lost forever.
And it's still not enough to protect anyone from the random tragedy of the world.
The love was there. The love mattered. The love bent the entire course of the world around itself.
And it still wasn't quite enough.
If that's not a tragedy, then I don't know what is.
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So here's our favorite bastard peacock of a man.
The one.
The only.
Jarlaxle Baenre. As a soft, snuggly plush doll.
...he actually looks a lot better in person, but the lighting in my room sucks this late in the day, so I'm gonna be taking him out for new & better pictures sometime this week. I'll take him, Jarlaxle, and Raistlin out on a little field trip to the park or something.
As you can see, I had him sharing the star blanket with Valas <3
The mushroom print did end up being too big after all, so it's hard to actually tell what he's wearing, but I just wanted to get him done in time to snuggle with me when I start Promise of the Witch-King. Eventually I plan on making a ton more clothes for him.
I also made Raistlin! I actually finished him last week but didn't want to post him until I found my jewelry set so I could make his moon necklace - still haven't found it, but I couldn't resist getting them both in the same picture.
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ok i finished binge watching tlok (except for season 2 listen im not getting into that mess again) and like. its literally not that bad????
like excluding the relationship shit (and most of season 2 I hate season 2) its literally not that bad. like I would rewatch that again it was so fun.
i just wish they developed the Friendships between the krew more. i will reiterate this again, the moment even a slight Concept of a found family has entered my mind I will NOT stop thinking about it. (the most memorable part to me was literally the krew just fucking around in a hotel room with a pai sho board while spying on aiwei. i want more of the four of them just doing really random shit together come on. please. please. ple
also the love triangle ruined All of their characters. like it was just not a great time for any of them. can we all agree to collectively forgive all of that shit because clearly they've all mostly moved on from that mess.
ALSO ALSO mako is literally not a bad character what. literally what. he's literally just zuko 2.0 but everyone hates him for some reason huh. all he did was fuck up two romantic relationships huh. wuh. why does the fandom hate him whuh. explain. the math is not mathing. like what. hes literally full of angst and everyone just ignores that in favor of "but he was a bad bf" what. if we can forgive(forgive?? idk if that's the right wording whatevr) zuko for the shit hes done can we also forgive mako for like. handling his relationships in a questionable manner.
he was like 18/19 at that point yall (and he also seems extremely emotionally constipated jesus) I think we can let this one go. or if you still arent happy with that lets forget about all the drama and have them in a polycule LMAO
anyways tlok very fun. very enjoyable like i could rewatch the fight scenes over and over again they're so cool. and also I love the characters sososo much. the fandom is so focused on the ships can we just like. look at the besties. they're best friends fr.
(korra is so pretty in season 4 actually she is everything to me)
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