#the difference between just these two instances from s1 to s3 is FASCINATING to me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

deadendtracks · 9 months

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Anonymous asked: hi, firstly, i’m currently rewatching PB and i just wanted to sincerely thank you so much for all your thoughts and metas. PB is one of those shows that will send me into Deep Thoughts and i’ve not seen many people discussing it as thoughtfully as you have on tumblr, so thank you! secondly, i’m curious if you have thoughts on the use of religion in PB. i had a lot of thoughts watching s6 about how we went from so many of the important scenes in s1 being set in church, to s3 having both the priest as a villain, but also the infamous quote of “religion is a foolish answer to a foolish question,” to tommy (seemingly - i have my doubts) believing in curses in s6. the show is obviously very heavily influenced by christian morals (particularly catholicism) and this idea that seems almost engrained in tommy psyche that he must “atone” for his sins. (i don’t think he sees it as religious himself, but it definitely is.) and, in contrast, there’s also this recurring theme (polly/their mum and the seances, arthur and linda/the quakers) that religion is “irrational” and that’s how you lose your mind (or your “true” self, in the case of arthur). obviously, that culminates with tommy in s6. he (arguably, like polly and his mum before him) goes mad looking for a curse to explain the unexplainable (his child having a medical condition he can’t control), with the unanswered question as to whether the curse he does find is even real - or if esmee is just making it up to get revenge. there’s also - i think - a fascinating intersection of religion and money where tommy seems to believe he can “pay” his way out of curses and sins (the sapphire to the lees, the massive grave he wants to buy for the families buried in that graveyard), which is also something (strangely, given this is all “[Romani] magic”) very catholic. especially interesting because jack nelson calls them both “catholic boys” - in church, at that. anyway, i obviously have a lot of thoughts, and was wondering what yours were. thanks again for everything you post! oh and religion anon again (forgot a thought, sorry!) there’s also obviously the question of grief and religion and the afterlife. the way tommy says in s4 that john and grace are just “gone” (like there’s no hell not heaven) but also he seems to genuinely (maybe?) believe in polly’s “gift” and the “spirits”? so many thoughts! thanks again!

Hi Anon, sorry I've been sitting on your ask so long, I was struggling with how to answer it.

First, thank you! I appreciate you letting me know that you've enjoyed my tumblr meta posts.

This ask is in itself basically a meta already, so I'm not sure what I have to add to it. I'd definitely encourage you to post your own meta so that you can get the credit for it!

Your ask covers a really wide range of topics around religion and I think it would take a long response to really get into everything you bring up, but I guess my most basic response would be that even if Tommy is an atheist now, he grew up within the Catholic church and his own culture and still carries those beliefs if only in a subconscious way, so I think that explains some of what you're talking about re: atonement, etc.

People are complex when it comes to the beliefs of their childhood and how those impact them as adults, and I do think that's what we see going on with Tommy in the series. He goes back and forth between talking about the dead as if they are present (referring to Grace in s3 as being by his side, talking to him; talking to Polly in s6) and talking about the dead as if they're just 'gone' (to Arthur about Grace and John in s4). I think the difference between these two instances is time and distance from the respective traumas of their deaths, as well as his general sense of mental well-being.

I also think belief in God and belief in spirits can be two very different things that aren't contradictory; that said, I'm not sure we're meant to view Tommy's talk of spirits in s6 as a sign of what he might believe if he weren't in significant mental duress. There's a lot of intentional paralleling of Tommy and his mother going on in s5-6. The things people say and believe in their lowest moments aren't always the things they would profess to believe normally; "bargaining" is one of the stages of grief for a reason, and Tommy's talk of paying his way out of his sins (to Esme, etc) is a good example of that "bargaining" stage. His daughter is dying, he's desperate and already pushed beyond extremity by Polly's murder.

That said, I think I've written before about cultural beliefs and "irrationality/rationality" in this context. I do think you have to be a bit careful about talking about all beliefs in religion and the supernatural etc as 'irrational.' I think it's probably better to talk about Tommy falling into beliefs he himself would normally claim not to have or see as irrational as reverting to what he grew up with in moments of stress, and there's not really any value judgment in that one way or the other. His actions (murdering people in revenge for a curse) are a different matter. But the 'bargaining' behavior itself up to that point isn't particularly harmful to anyone, and whether or not you view it as rational or irrational might be very cultural-specific. If that makes sense.

there’s also this recurring theme (polly/their mum and the seances, arthur and linda/the quakers) that religion is “irrational” and that’s how you lose your mind (or your “true” self, in the case of arthur).

I think this bit is definitely all about Tommy's individual POV within the show: I'm not really sure the show itself is calling religion irrational and how you lose your mind. It's how Tommy very specifically looks at the world and the people around him. That might be splitting hairs but I do think it's an important distinction.

There's also the question of how the show presents Romani culture and spirituality; my assumption is they fuck up a lot but I don't know enough to make specific critiques other than I'm sure there are serious ones.

Anyway I don't know how satisfactory this response is, I'm probably not the best person to talk about religion in meta, it's not one of my areas of interest! So again I'd really encourage you to post your own thoughts, I think you have probably thought more about it than I have.

#peaky blinders #meta

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faithlesbian · 8 months

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hate that by late ats they're treating angel & angelus as fully divided personalities in a pop culture jekyll and hyde way when that was obviously not the case originally.

like as far as i remember on btvs s1-2 there's no pretense from him that his soulless self is a different person or persona, for example i think he says what he did to drusilla was "the worst thing i ever did". but by s4 of ats other characters are referring to things he did "as angelus" even when he uses "i" and "me" when talking about them. like the idea of two distinct personas for soulless and souled angel is so obviously a coping mechanism that makes the implications of it all easier to deal with both for him and for the people who care about him, but it's like the writers just kind of forget that?? the divide is artificial it exists to protect people from thinking about angel as a murderer and it's equally upheld by him and the other characters.

this is especially obvious in instances like waiting in the wings where he talks about seeing the ballet in the 1800s -- "i cried like a baby. and i was evil!" it's a positive memory and no one here feels the need to enforce the angel/angelus distinction because it's not uncomfortable to think about angel crying at the ballet like it is to think about him killing children. which would be a fascinating thing to explore in more detail especially in regards to how everyone else plays in to it bc it would be uncomfortable being friends with a (reformed) mass murderer! the excuse that it "wasn't really him" helps them to sleep at night but it is fundamentally an excuse! like in every sense this is a better option to explore than a supernatural jekyll and hyde situation

i need to go back and see whether this divide starts being properly enforced in btvs s3 or whether its solely an ats phenomenon bc they never committed to anything angel related in s3 but especially not to addressing s2, and if this started to emerge as part of that it'd make sense. anyway. the base idea of there being a difference between angel and angelus is 100% trauma response and denial from all parties imo and i love it that way

i also don't know if there's any commentary on this plotline from people with DID bc from my limited knowledge it does hit some of the notes of "split personality" in horror tropes and i'd love to know more about that if it's out there

#angel #<that's why all angelus posts go in my angel tag i do not recognise that as a different guy and neither does he half the time #mine

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merrilark · 2 years

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Give me your unpopular opinion about TUA 😘😘

sleepover weekend!

Besides loving Allison’s arc in S3, which I think I’ve already rambled too much about on this blog LOL, IIIIII... think my most unpopular opinion could be that I don’t really care for Di.lil.a, not because I think it’s an unhealthy ship, but because I think it’s a badly written unhealthy ship, and that Al.luth.er is a much better example of a well-written one.

Absolutely no shade to anyone who does ship them, though. I’m definitely someone who believes in the old fandom adage “ship and let ship”, but they’re really just not my cup of tea. I wish they were, because Diego is one of my top favorite characters and I’d really like to enjoy what looks like his romantic endgame.

But circling back to why I don’t like them... I think my biggest thing is that with Allison and Luther, even though some scenes were framed in a romantic light (like the dancing scene in S1), you still knew that it wasn’t a healthy relationship. It was doomed to fail from the start, because it was born out of trauma, and it was clear that we were seeing things mostly through Luther’s rose colored glasses, who still hadn’t fully come to terms with Reginald’s abuse. Allison still had and has complicated feelings surrounding him, we can see that much in S3, but she never really committed and it was plain that Luther was more of a last resort security blanket. It’s psychologically fascinating and despite trying to play it as romantic here and there, the show doesn’t pretend it’s ultimately a good thing.

Diego and Lila don’t really get that.

Obviously an incestuous relationship is a totally different ballpark from two unrelated, troubled souls getting into a messy romance. But in Diego and Lila’s case, it’s still unhealthy, and TUA tends to ignore that.

Lila... has a lot of control issues. She frequently shuts Diego up when he tries to be vulnerable with her or talk about important things, like their relationship, or Stan, or the end of the world. Vulnerability is extremely difficult for Diego, so it’s hard to watch when he tries so hard to be open, and she changes the subject, tries to distract him with sex, or slaps him. It’s also pretty worrying that she goes out of her way to threaten Klaus so he won’t talk to Diego, or that she gives Diego the ultimatum of choosing her or saving the world (and by extension saving his family). It just... rrrrreeeally sets off my alarm bells for “the manipulative, jealous SO who won’t let you have any relationships outside themselves”.

Obviously Lila is as much a victim as Diego. I get that. I know why she acts the way she does. Anyone raised by the Handler would have mountains of issues. And if the show framed it for what it was, I wouldn’t be bothered. Unhealthy, toxic ships can be enthralling! But, unlike with Allu.ther, Di.lila is framed in a very “haha, my messy matches your messy and we have really kinky BDSM sex!” way that bugs me because it’s ignoring that what’s happening between them isn’t good for either of them. Diego is too scared to lose Lila like he lost Patch so he treats her like she’s something soft, and he doesn’t stand up to her as much as he should (which would help them both), and Lila is similarly too scared that he’ll hurt her so she puts him through emotionally manipulative tests and tries to control his decisions.

It could be fascinating to watch, but their bad behavior toward one another is almost always played off as sexy or funny, and in the rare instances when it isn’t, no one learns anything from it. Diego still bends because he has to play hero, Lila still gets her way, and they ignore their problems with another round of sex while the writing tries to convince us that nothing is wrong.

S4 could potentially fix some of this, because I do think they could be a good couple if they were more self-aware and worked through their problems... but I have my doubts. TUA doesn’t do romance well, and with a few rumors flying around that S4 might be shorter than 10 episodes, I’m not very optimistic that they’ll have time to deal with anything other than Reginald and, presumably, getting their powers back.

#this got so long i apologize LOL; if you can't tell the writing for this ship frustrates me #salvadoredaley #merri answers

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pynkhues · 4 years

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I just have ask, cause I need to just voice this.. (BTW I do love the show no worry) Am I the only one who thought it was such a stupid reason that the new FBI decided that the fake money was made by women was because they used fuckin' NAIL POLISH?!! I legit sat dumfounded, I mean... wtf? What, men can't think to add nail polish to their fake money?

Haha, I get why you don’t like it, anon. As a functional plot device it’s a little hammy, but I appreciate it as a thematic plot device so much that I actually like it a lot overall.

This show doesn’t really have a lot of recurring objects like many shows do, but when they are introduced, they usually serve as a means of underlining the gendering of spaces, crime and life, which is a theme this show is about as obsessed with as I am. I talked pretty extensively about the gendering of spaces and how the show uses them in this post (man, I should update this with the delicious new spaces in s3, because they continue all of these trends in such interesting ways!), and briefly touched on the gendering of objects too (namely Rio’s golden gun, and the dubby), but it really does extend well beyond that.

So let’s break that down a little!

(Under a cut to save your dashes!)

Functional vs Thematic Plot Devices

Plot devices take a hundred different shapes and forms throughout a story, and of course, always serve to drive narrative forwards, tell the audience something about a character, or drive home a narrative theme. Plot devices aren’t always physical – in many cases they can be a trope, expectation, lie, red herring, among many other things, but for the sake of this post I want to talk about physical plot devices.

So basically, I want to talk about the way this show uses objects.

It might not seem like it on the surface, but this is a show that uses objects as plot devices a lot. Sometimes these are obvious – the money for instance, the Boland Motors car Turner drudges from the lake back in s1, the dubby (and ho, boy, I have a lot to say about that last one, but I’ll come back to that), the guns, Lucy’s phone, etc etc etc.

While these are, of course, essentially props, this is a show that typically lends a lot of weight to them, and in particular, it lends a lot of weight to feminine-coded objects that would in other shows frequently be dismissed as inconsequential.

A pearl necklace, an old lady’s porcelain figurines, a smear of lipstick on a pen cap, a child’s blanket, a new engagement ring, a pregnancy test, vials of botox, and nail polish, among many other things, become objects of narrative and thematic importance.

When it comes to these sorts of physical plot devices, I generally separate them into two categories: functional and thematic.

Functional plot devices are ultimately what they sound like. They serve an often purely functional purpose in the story. Things like the Boland Motors car that the girls took to Canada, dumped, and then was drudged up by Turner. It was used as a means of re-directing Turner’s attention on Beth, while also revealing to Dean that Beth had been the person who’d robbed him back in 1.03. More recently too, the hockey jersey that Ruby stole was a means of ultimately giving us a fun heist as the girls scrambled to get the money to pay for Beth’s life, as well as getting us to the pawn shop where Ruby would see the pen that Sara had stolen.

Functional plot devices – at their most basic – move plot forwards, bridge the gaps between characters and accelerate the action and drama of a story.

Thematic plot devices on the other hand serve a different purpose, and are often less bogged down, I find at least, in perfect logic. While they need to do what a functional plot device does, they also carry the extra weight of underpinning character arcs and often punctuating the key themes of the story. The sled in Citizen Kane is a really good example of this – as a functional plot device it’s just a specific sled and a sort of silly thing for a multimillionaire to want when he can buy as many sleds as he wants, but as a thematic one, we lean that it’s the key thing in his life connecting him back to his childhood, his innocence and his humanity, and comes to represent the central loss of the film.

Similarly, Harry’s lightning bolt scar in the Harry Potter series serves as a functional plot device to tell us and Harry when Voldemort is near, but it actually evades logic to eschew a greater purpose – which is reiterate the theme of motherly love and protection in the story.

Sharp Objects

Good Girls uses objects this way a lot and frequently shifts them between the two purposes, and it has done that since the very beginning. Using toy guns on the very first Fine & Frugal robbery for instance, was a silly plot point used ultimately to get them into the situation with Boomer at the end, but it also thematically represented the naivety of the girls in the robbery, and Annie and Beth’s powerlessness overall, but especially in the scene with Boomer (something immediately juxtaposed with Beth hitting him with the bourbon bottle). It also works effectively as a means of showing how far Beth would come across the first season as she held a real gun at the end of it, and the further slip of her moral character and what she’s capable of across season 2 and 3.

Sometimes they seem to appear as purely functional too, but evolve into thematic ones – meaning they are enriched with weight and purpose as they transition in their design.

A good example of that is Boomer’s cell phone in 2.03 which was purely functional – serving as a means of tricking the girls into believing they were disposing of Boomer’s body, not Jeff’s, before it was pivoted in the last scene to be used on a thematic and character level. By Annie listening to Marion’s voicemails through it, it served to re-link Annie to her own humanity, and underpin her arc with Marion that would ultimately lead to betrayal, redemption, grief and guilt.

The Dubby: a quick aside

The best example though, at least to me, is, of course, the dubby. The dubby does a lot of heavy lifting on virtually every story level, and I could honestly wax lyrical about it until the end of time.

On a functional plot level, it’s there to ultimately get Beth shirking Rio’s instructions and throwing her weight against him in their partnership. It forces her to confront the fact that she views herself and Rio as equals, when the reality is – in situations like that – they’re not. It also gets us to confrontations between Beth with Dean, Rio and Ruby, as well as Annie and Ben (I told you it did a lot of heavy lifting!), served as the means to which Noah and Annie met (boo), revealed Rio’s hand emotionally, and forced Beth to face on a textual level (as opposed to subtextual level) her changing relationship with her home, with her role as a mother, and ultimately her children.

On a thematic level, it explores all that and more! Not only is it deeply, deeply symbolic of a loss of innocence (a baby blanket in a drug den!) – something that’s reiterated by the girls almost being raped in that house – but Rio’s desire, for whatever reason, to give it back to her (something actually reiterated in 2.08 when he tries to handle the baby hitmen for her) – a really, really interesting beat for a character that seems to revel in her moral decline. Rio has, I think, always wanted her to be both. Again, something that is the clearest we’ve ever seen in this episode – he wants her to own up to what she is (a drug dealer) during their fight, while simultaneously trying to restore her to a seemingly frivolous comfort as a mother. It’s complicated! And I love it!

It’s also a highly feminised object that is weaponised against Beth twice. Firstly, by Jane as a means of guilting Beth (she lost it in the drug den), then criminally (by the, y’know, criminals), and then Beth actually weaponises it herself against the woman in the craft store in a female hierarchical sense which is totally fascinating to me and feels very true of Beth as reiterating the sort of alpha woman she is.

I could keep talking about this, but let’s move on, haha.

Claws

It’s not just about character arcs though.

Thematic plot devices are also often used as symbolic touchstones to re-emphasise the key themes of the show overall, and it’s in this sense that the nail polish operates – to me – really effectively. The writers aren’t saying that nail polish is only used by women, they’re saying that it’s a feminine-coded object deemed frivolous or silly by a patriarchal society (which it is, even when men wear it), and that women can use that dismissal as a weapon.

In other words, the key through line of the show.

The girls have operated with this sensibility since the show began, acting within underestimated, feminine-coded spaces and using them, basically in a way that messes with people’s expectations. It doesn’t always work in their favour, but that’s not a bad thing, and I don’t think that that’s the story this show is trying to tell. Rather I think it’s simply trying to say that these things are active, and can be powerful and used in interesting ways. They’re not passive or frivolous as history has told us.

They’ve frequently actually tried to use female-coded objects in crime before too – namely Marion’s figurines, the secret shopping scheme, the botox – all of which failed in unique ways (all of which too were briefly entertained but ultimately rejected by Rio, and it’s interesting that a key transition in Beth and Rio’s relationship occurred around Boland Motors – a masculinised space that Beth feminised on her takeover of it – I spoke about that quite a bit in the gendered spaces post I linked to above!)

The nail polish though has been the first true, pure success of a weaponised, feminine-coded object in the crime storylines, and it’s not an accident that that has coincided with the launch of the girls’ operation and their pure success without Rio. Being able to use it to make the money has been key to representing their feminisation of the crime world and the crime space on a thematic level, and I’d argue represents a ‘full circle’ moment with the success of their returns-for-cash scheme working with Rio originally (again, a feminine-coded operation).

Like I said in my gendered spaces post – Beth, Ruby and Annie are at their strongest and smartest when they’re utilising the familiar, feminine-coded world and weaponizing it, as opposed to copying Rio’s highly masculine-coded world (one of the clearest examples of this ever on the show was this season actually when Beth realised she couldn’t intimidate Gil like Rio, but could blackball him in PTA mom mode). The nail polish is actually a key symbol of that too, and the fact that it’s identified by a female FBI agent is about reiterating the same themes. Phoebe has a chance to take down the girls and close in on them because she doesn’t underestimate that world like Turner did and Rio’s still prone to doing.

The nail polish in that sense formed not only a functional plot device (with making the money in the first place), a thematic one (the underestimation of feminine-coded objects by men), but a bridging device that makes Phoebe a real enemy to the girls. It also serves as a great narrative underscore as Phoebe removes that nail polish from circulation, not only indicating that Phoebe operates in that space as well as Beth, Ruby and Annie, because she’s a part of that world in a way Turner wasn’t, but forming a terrific narrative parallel where as Beth loses further control of her operation, she also loses control of a key ingredient which gained her that operation in the first place.

So yes! Less function, more theme, but I don’t know.

I’m pretty into it, haha.

#gg 3.08 #gg 3.09 #set dressing #beth boland #ruby hill #annie marks #rio #gg 2.07 #gg 1.01 #welcome to my ama #Anonymous

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kingofthewilderwest · 7 years

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I think why I’m intrigued about VLD’s current storytelling direction between Shiro and Keith as respective leaders... is because it’s a direction I myself wouldn’t take as a writer.

I respect the writers completely and believe they’ve already proved that they know what they’re doing in this series. Long-term story arcs have been beautifully laid out and paced; individual episodes nicely formatted; foreshadowing has been cleverly built up for instances like Keith’s Galra heritage and Operation Kuron; parallels and divergences from Defender of the Universe make for intentional work. So I am quite sure they know what they’re doing here, too.

Yet what I see in the story are two fascinating conflicting directions for character growth occurring simultaneously. How one would most logically take Keith from this point... and how one would most logically take Shiro from this point... sort of conflict.

On one side, we have Shiro. He’s a character who started in the Black Lion as the leader of the team. While he is a natural leader, he also contains his fair share of weaknesses and needed growth to be a leader. His greatest challenges thus far - especially in S1-2 - have been handling his PTSD, and struggling to have a strong bond the Black Lion. I feel that neither of these arcs have come to completion. He’s still struggling through trauma and hasn’t dealt with it.

And as far as the Black Lion and a strong bond are concerned... I don’t feel like the story is done with that either. I’ve seen great analyses discussing how Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion might not be meant to be... how the Black Lion shows preference to Keith even as of S2... and how the growth in the story is the Black Lion moving increasingly decidedly away from Shiro. There’s a lot of merit to this idea, in which case Shiro’s arc would be about him moving away from a Paladin.

But I feel that doesn’t completely take into account we have seen multiple episodes dedicated to Shiro building a bond with Black even in S2. And the takeaway from those episodes is not that Shiro is becoming increasingly incompatible with Black, that he’d be a better fit elsewhere. “Space Mall” shows Shiro spending a lot of time to build a stronger bond with Black... and that works. Black doesn’t get tempted by Zarkon again after this point because Shiro demonstrates an ability to trust rather than command the Black Lion. Shiro leaves the exercise feeling his bond with Black has deepened. And then there’s the S2 finale. Shiro demonstrates growth with Black again... by unlocking teleportation abilities in Black and retrieving the black bayard. The black bayard he’s seen using in the show opening, in fact! He’s had growth in his bond with Black, even while Black has currently moved from Shiro to Keith.

I as a writer would therefore feel like the logical progression forward in Shiro’s arc is that he continues this growth. Take Shiro a step back away from Black so that he can handle the personal issues debilitating him. Have him finally quit instinctively hiding his PTSD, open up about it, work through it best he can. Have him quit taking on everyone else’s burdens as a leader without seeing to his own problems. Have him take up a support role that helps him act as a more well-rounded member of the team rather than the single leadership head every other Paladin reveres. Then have him return to Black with all the more power to his character.

For dropping Shiro as a leader would be an odd step back for his character growth. It’s not that being a Paladin is an automatic “upgrade”, and it’s not that he can’t do great works outside of being a Paladin, and it’s not that a broken bond with Black means he can’t move forward, either... but the focus of his character arc thus far almost seems to necessitate he returns to Black at some point. To have that continued character growth where he gets over his own inner demons. To have that continued character growth where he can, in fact, build that bond with Black. To have Shiro never return to Black is of course possible, and his bond can be talked away as “Keith fits Black better, I realize now I can’t be the best fit,” but it would be very hard to have a satisfying character growth arc that way. It would be very hard to build a satisfying character arc with growth and development that way. It’s hard to build Shiro and have him develop increasingly powerfully as a character without some building with Black.

I can't easily see his character arc feeling satisfactory without giving him back Black. Not with all the time they’ve spent on Shiro having positive growth with Black throughout S1-2. The trajectory he’s been on thus far has been building up with Black... not learning to step aside from Black.

Now on the other side, there’s Keith. Let’s also not forget Lance and Allura and their respective character growths, too, but I’m focusing mostly on Keith right now. The whole “two leaders” concept, as it were. Keith’s obviously being built up as a leader - first Shiro tells him to be successor, then Keith does take on the role of Black Paladin, and now he’s in the stage where he’s learning what it takes to be a good leader. He’s still not making the right decisions, but we see that kernel of good leadership ability in him.

Of course it’d only make sense to develop that! Write that story of a character coming into his own as a leader. Write that story of how he builds and becomes a powerful head to Voltron. Write that story where Keith Kogane becomes the leader we are so familiar with in DotU and VF and all the other past Voltron materials out there.

To not write Keith into that firm leadership role doesn’t make sense. It’s clear where his trajectory is headed: become a leader to the team. To completely abandon the central concept of Keith always being a leader in DotU and VF would be bizarre. Keith’s always been leader. Keith always will be leader. You can’t peel him back into the Red Lion now.

I as a writer wouldn’t make this plot tangle myself. We have two characters, Keith and Shiro, who seem that they would best develop forward by being in Black and leading Voltron. To not give Shiro back Black feels unsatisfactory. To have Keith lose Black feels unsatisfactory. And I think that’s why the fandom is so much in debate about what the state of the Lion switch will be. Everyone sees different angles on how different trajectories work, based upon what storytelling momentums work.

I would have taken the less complicated route. Give Shiro a solid character arc in S1-2 where he learns how to bond with the Black Lion. Make it feel even more decidedly like he and Black have a lasting bond by the end of S2 rather than one that’s just been unlocked to a new stage. Either that, or have him just about to start to make headway. Perhaps still have him going through PTSD struggles, and just starting to make headway... and then have him die at the S2 climax. Build in that parallel between VLD Shiro and Shirogane Takashi of Golion. Create that logical transition point in which Keith must step into the role of the Black Lion’s Paladin. Build Keith from there into the leader we always knew.

That sort of story arc would be satisfying because the story would start with an unexpected Black Paladin... and then explain how Keith came to fill that role. It’d have enough of an arc to Shiro that it wouldn’t feel like the writers are dropping a character arc (or either that, they’re intentionally severing one for emotional effect), and of course it’d allow Keith to have a great arc without another character mingling in the same area as team leader. It’d be a great stepping stone for Lance and Allura, too. It’d be a great, sad moment of emotional impact and demonstrate the risk the Paladins must take in their duties. And it’d have a lot of evocation to the original content from which the Voltron series came.

Honestly, from S1 E1 I thought Shiro was slotted to die.

That can never happen in VLD now. Everyone’s realized Shiro can’t have a death mid-story, that he probably can’t die at all and have a logical story be told. The writers have introduced too many new, complex tangles regarding Shiro in S3. You wouldn’t throw in a whole story of a clone without wanting to do much more with the character! The start of Operation Kuron signifies a huge launch point into much more development with Shiro.

So there’s part of me that’s nervous some character won’t get the development they need. Another part of me is selfishly nervous that Shiro won’t get the development I want. There’s another part of me that feels I have The Narrative Plan for future seasons with Shiro and Keith all figured out. Another part of me that has No Idea What The Writers Are Planning. And a whole bunch of me is very intrigued about how this will all play out.

The writers know what they’re doing. We all see they’re clearly setting up character growth arcs. They’ve already proven they can execute great writing. It’s just a matter of us as audience members watching that writing unfold.

#long post #non-dragons #vld #Voltron: Legendary Defender #Voltron #Voltron Legendary Defender #Takashi Shirogane #Shiro #Keith #Keith Kogane #analysis #my analysis #this blog is going to be Voltron heavy today as I prepare for S4's release #Shiro is an odd unknown #the other characters have more past and history #Shiro is The New Thing (TM) in this reboot

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