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psychee92 · 3 years

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Why ACOTAR 5 Is (Without a Doubt) Elain’s Book

Warning: This post will be a long one, and will analyze the series as a whole (including ACOSF). As you read it, please consider taking your shipping goggles off, as none of this has anything to do with shipping and everything to do with character development/plot/the overall narrative of the series/good storytelling. Thank you!

Main points:

Elain’s role in the ACOTAR series

Elain’s character evolution throughout the series

The foreshadowing in ACOSF (+ bonus POVs)

The overarching plot

SJM’s own words

The ACOTAR Series and Elain’s Role

We have multiple interviews of SJM saying that Nesta and Elain’s role started off as a fairytale trope: that of the evil sisters. Then, Nesta surprised her when she decided to go after Feyre in ACOTAR, and the rest is history.

The sisters went from being a trope to being an instrumental part of the series. In ACOMAF, they were a link to Feyre’s human life (a final thread that she needed to let go of), as well as a means to an end (first, by being a bridge between the IC and the Queens, and then, as leverage, or weapons that were used against Feyre in Hybern). The final scene in ACOMAF was the catalyst for everything that happened in ACOWAR—and everything that is yet to come—but, most importantly, it also opened the door to two new character arcs/journeys—two new protagonists.

The protagonist exists as a sympathetic device to drive a story. To be effective in this role, they are usually there from the inciting moment to the end.

The similarities between their journey and Feyre’s are astounding: human made into something that she was raised to fear; coming to terms with trauma; letting go of the past; accepting her new condition; and the list goes on and on.

Now, who had more to lose by becoming fae?

And who lost more than anyone else?

Elain lost a future.

She was happy, content, in love.

Then, everything was ripped away from her in the span of a few minutes.

She was turned into something she had been raised to fear, something that her own fiancée had been raised to hate.

And, if that wasn’t enough, she was also forced into a bond neither her, nor Lucien, wanted. Mated to a man who participated, even if unknowingly, in the loss of her life—of her future. A man who did not know her, want her, love her.

This, right here, is good storytelling. It sets the stage for what is to come—for Elain’s future story and character arc.

ACOWAR is centered around repercussions:

For Elain, this book is one of healing, at least on the surface. SJM built the foundation of Elain’s journey, evidenced by:

Elain hitting rock bottom

Erasing any hope of a future with Graysen

Severing the last thread to her human life (with the death of her father)

This book also emphasizes Elain’s vital role in future books by:

Making her powerful (a seer)

Making her instrumental in the war against Hybern (due to her visions)

Having her save both, Nesta and Cassian (the protagonists of ACOSF)

Creating a connection between her and Vassa (and, ultimately, between Lucien, Vassa, and Jurian)

Having her introduce the next big bad (Koschei)

Hinting at her being the only one who can locate the one thing that can kill Koschei (the onyx box)

So, when you add everything that we know from ACOMAF and ACOWAR, what do we have? Potential.

We also have a character whose journey has been building since ACOTAR. The most significant hint is the constant use of the “dirty hands” imagery in reference to Elain. But more on that later.

Once the ACOTAR series wrapped up, we learned that, while Feyre and Rhysand’s journey was over, Sarah had more stories to tell—specifically, Nesta, Elain, and the ICs. As such, ACOFAS had two purposes:

To wrap up Feyre and Rhys’s story.

To introduce the future plot/main conflict and, with it, the next couple.

ACOFAS, however, also served to set up the stage for future protagonists, as well:

We saw some progress in Elain (her keeping busy with gardening and baking, her still having bad days, her friendship with Nuala and Cerridwen, and her slowly finding her place within the IC)—all of this was brought up again in ACOSF.

We got hints about Azriel and Elain’s growing feelings for each other (a storyline that was present throughout ACOSF, and confirmed in Azriel’s Bonus POV).

We learned about Azriel’s estate—Rosehall.

We got Mor’s POV, and learned some new things about her which will probably factor into her future book.

Again, SJM spent time focusing on Elain, fleshing out her character (while still giving Nesta and her journey center stage), which only solidifies the fact that she will be getting her own story soon.

It’s interesting to note that Azriel was not given a POV like Mor, and had very little character development (in comparison to Elain).

Now, let’s look at ACOSF. We have:

New conflicts—with the Queens and Beron

A new villain—Koschei

An overarching plot that connects the conflicts with the villain—the alliance between Koschei, the Queens, and Beron

A secondary, but related, plot—Vassa and, with her, the Band of Exiles (Lucien and Jurian)

Potential weapons—the Made objects

A potential solution—the onyx box

What do all of these have in common?

Elain.

She is directly tied to both, the Queens and Beron (and the Autumn Court). She’s had ties to Koschei since ACOWAR (she was the first to tell the IC about him, after getting visions about him). Her visions, in turn, led to the introduction of Vassa, which created a link between them both (and Lucien, because of their mating bond). She is the only one, apart from Nesta, who can find the Made objects (and a 4th one was introduced in ACOSF). She is also the only one, apart from Nesta, who can Make an object. Finally, she is the only one who can locate the onyx box (an image she’s been seeing since ACOWAR).

As a seer, Elain is arguably the most valuable character in the NC. She has been having visions about both, Koschei and Vassa, since ACOWAR.

Most importantly, however—her journey has been hinted at since ACOMAF:

Her role in future books having already been established, what about Elain as a character, as a protagonist?

Let’s begin by looking at what a character arc is:

While main characters might face big challenges, character arcs have to do with internal, personal change. Characters will find their strengths and weaknesses tested over the course of the story—so that by the time they arrive at the story's end, they are a changed person.

When the protagonist overcomes external obstacles and internal flaws in order to become a better person, it becomes a hero’s journey.

At its core, this arc is made up of three points:

The Goal: Every character needs to have a goal. It might be to fall in love. Or it might be to make as much money as possible. Either way, their journey will be hindered by...

The Lie: A deeply-rooted misconception they have about themselves or the world that keeps them from reaching their true potential. In order to reach their goal, they’ll need to acknowledge and overcome the Lie, by facing…

The Truth: While the character may have their own plans, the positive change arc has its own goal: self-improvement. This is achieved when they learn to reject The Lie and embrace The Truth.

Now, let’s look at what we know about Elain:

The Goal: To defeat Koschei/the Queens/Beron.

The Lie: That she doesn’t have what it takes. That she is not as strong as her sisters. That she is the weak link, too gentle and sweet to get her “hands dirty.”

The Truth: That she is just as powerful AND capable as her sisters, and that she can do anything she puts her mind to (find the 4th object, discover the location of the onyx box, fight against Koschei/the Queens/Beron).

We already see SJM start to break down the Lie in Feysand’s Bonus Chapter:

This is followed by Feyre saying:

So not only is Elain not afraid to get her hands dirty, she’s also not afraid of getting hurt in the process.

ACOSF is filled with moments that hint at Elain becoming just as powerful (if not more so) than her sisters. She has a very important role to play in future books, because she is the only one who can locate Koschei’s box and the 4th object. Her visions have been instrumental in the series so far, and there is a big hint that she might have more than just seer abilities:

Powers. Plural.

It makes sense for Elain’s book to be next. SJM has been scattering crumbs for her story since ACOTAR, and she is the character who would add the most to the plot—the only character who can move the plot forward.

You cannot ignore all the foreshadowing:

= a literary device that writers utilize as a means to indicate or hint to readers something that is to follow or appear later in a story.

Clear foreshadowing in ACOSF (it would take too long to list all the passages in previous books, as well):

These are just a few examples but, for me, the one that gives it away is this passage (that can easily be overlooked) in Feysand’s Bonus POV:

SJM is basically telling us that, once Nesta’s journey ends, Elain’s will begin.

And it makes sense!

This series is about the Archeron sisters. About human women turned fae.

The first three books were about Feyre. The fourth about Nesta. It would not make sense to skip Elain, only to return to her story in the final book. Why?

Because, in order to defeat Koschei, all three sisters need to have reached their full potential. All three need to be healed, and strong, and fully in control of their lives and powers. You cannot cram everything into one book: Elain’s healing journey/character arc, Vassa’s own journey (because there is no way that SJM will NOT write a Swan Lake retelling—just look at her Pinterest board!), finding the 4th object, finding the box, and, ultimatly, defeating Koschei.

Feyre had a whole book to heal—ACOMAF

Nesta had a whole book to heal—ACOSF

Elain will have a whole book to heal, as well.

No other character adds as much value—or has as much untapped potential—than Elain.

Also, there is no way that SJM will postpone telling her story in favor of a male character (Azriel). If you’ve read any of her books, you know that it is always the female characters that eclipse the male characters.

Also, if Elain will become dark or even a villain (temporarily), then this will take place in her own story, and will not be used as a plot device for angsty!Azriel or for another couple to make sense/be pushed together.

If we look at the pattern in ACOTAR, we have:

The first book ends with a happily ever after. The MC has defeated the big bad and has walked off into the sunset with her LI. There are hints about a future conflict, but nothing is fleshed out (in ACOTAR, Feyre’s bargain with Rhys + a potential conflict between the courts and with Hybern).

The second book is all about development (both, character development, in the form of the MC’s healing journey, and plot development). The scene is being set for the final conclusion (the war/battle), and everything that takes place serves to bring the characters closer to the main conflict resolution. The book ends on a false happily ever after (Feysand’s mating bond, having what they need to annul the Cauldron’s powers), followed by a cliffhanger (the sisters turning fae, Feyre returning to the Spring Court).

The last book is centered around defeating the big bad and ends on a happily ever after for (almost) everyone involved. It brings the main players together in a final showdown that ends with good ultimately defeating evil.

If we are to look at this pattern, then:

ACOSF - Ends with a happily ever after (Nesta has healed, reconnected with her sisters, found her place in the IC, and has a family outside the IC—Gwyn, Emerie). She has defeated Briallyn, but the biggest threat—Koschei—has barely made an appearance, and there is no ending in sight.

ACOTAR 5 - Elain’s healing journey. Finding the 4th object. Knowing exactly what has been happening behind the scenes with Beron, the Queens, and Koschei. Finding the 4th object and uncovering the location of Koschei’s onyx box. Cliffhanger: Koschei has been freed/has found a way to free himself.

ACOTAR 6 - The journey to find the onyx box or a way to destroy whatever is inside. The repercussions of Koschei’s freedom. Vassa’s story coming full circle. Now that all three Archeron sisters have reached their full potential, they will most likely join forces/powers to hold off Koschei long enough for Vassa (because she NEEDS to have the killing blow) to finish him off.

This post is already long enough, but here are some honorable mentions that I haven’t spoken about because I wanted this to be a mostly character-driven argument:

The mating bond—Elain needs to either accept it or reject it, and I cannot see this happening in the last book because it would lose its effect (considering that they need to defeat Koschei in this book)

Elriel—The unresolved feelings between them need to be addressed/dealt with.

The Blood Duel—There is no way this isn’t happening. SJM wouldn’t mention it without it playing some sort of role in Elain’s book.

I might make another post (because I still haven’t addressed everything I wanted to), but Elain’s book is (without a doubt) next.

As a reminder: SJM has recently said that writing about characters that are hated/disliked is something that she loves doing. I think it’s safe to assume that, given the recent wave of hatred/dislike towards Elain, we are in for an epic journey.

#acosf spoilers #acotar 5 #acotar theories #elain archeron #pro elain #badass elain #elriel

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refinedbuffoonery · 3 years

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5x12 Thoughts

OH MY GOD THAT EPISODE WAS SO GOOD.

Let me just say that Monica knows how to write a HEARTBREAKER. I legit teared up a little when Desi first confessed about her ex-fiancé.

So let’s start with that. First off, shoutout to Levy for wrecking me. I felt Desi’s pain just as much as I felt Riley’s embarrassment two episodes ago. She’s literally perfect. But in all seriousness, this new era is really bringing Desi’s character to life. She’s three-dimensional. She has strengths and flaws, and (now) she’s someone I can root for. The potential for her to blossom has been there since day one, and I am thrilled to see it finally happening.

Also, since we got to see so much of her and Mac communicating (!!!) in this episode, I can definitively say that it’s Mac who is the shitty communicator in their relationship. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both shitty because they keep secrets, but when it comes to finally talking, Mac doesn’t listen well. His first thought after Desi told him her fiancé was KIA and that she’s not over it was how it affected him. Bruh. That is not “dropping a bomb” on you. That is sharing something deeply traumatic from her past that she hasn’t confronted yet herself. And Mac brushed it off. He eventually said the right thing by saying he’d work through it with her, but his initial reaction doesn’t sit well with me.

Despite my dislike of Mac’s reaction, if this is how he and Desi were portrayed since the beginning, I would totally ship them. This is the story of two imperfect people trying to make it work. All the signs point to them not working out in the long run, but watching them try (like this) is equally as fulfilling. Why? Because it’s realistic.

Still on this Desi thread, her friendship with the princess was perfect. I loved everything about it. There’s just something so powerful about female friendship (even temporary ones like this) that I honestly can’t put into words. The women on this show don’t get enough of that on screen, but with a woman now in charge, I think that will finally change.

While after this episode I’m ready to jump aboard the Desi fan train, my heart still belongs to Riley. I am so proud of her. She’s come so far, and yet she’s still the same stubborn, snarky hacker we met in episode one. Personally, I think paying it forward is one of the most beautiful things a person can do with their life, so seeing Riley do that is wonderful. She’s powerful in a lot of ways, but her ability to make a difference in these girls’ lives, in my opinion, takes the cake.

Speaking of powerful....Tristin’s acting? Incredible. I deeply admire the way she can convey so much in so few words. Her reaction when Bozer accused her of being shady was perfect, especially the part where she said not everything is a team thing. This is Her Thing. And I respect the hell out of her for it. And, don’t even get me started on the final scene, where she dropped the bag of Chinese food on the table, introduced herself as Artemis, and said “Let’s begin.” I will be thinking about that scene all week.

One last thing about Riley, before I move on. Her hair. I’ll write up a whole analysis about it later if y’all want, but throughout the show, her hairstyle has implicitly shown where she’s at emotionally, and you can see her change over time through her hairstyle. It’s been most notable this season; as she became more guarded, she started wearing her hair in sleek, tight styles. In the past, in episodes where she’s most vulnerable, her hair is down (but not straitened!). In this episode, obviously there’s a massive weight lifted off her shoulders after talking with Mac last episode. Thus, the loose hair. But, when she went to meet her hackers, she put it back in that sleek bun again. She’s there to help those girls, yes, but she’s also there as Artemis.

Dudes, I could talk about these badass women all day. (All night? I’m writing this at 2am lmao).

Okay. Time to move on. Oh wait....more women. I like how the nano tracker plot was woven into this episode, rather than it just jumping from the previous episode to the one after this one with nothing in between. In addition to making the plot more consistent and coherent, it was also a nice opportunity to bring in Parker and show her and Matty working together. Great creative choice.

And last but not least, Russ. Sofia really pulled one over on him, and he is still a little too trusting of her, in my opinion, despite her explanation. I don’t know why, but she still seems shady to me. Like, she just comes back and is like “Let’s pick up where we left off” and Russ is all “yeah let’s fuck even though I’m on the clock right now.” The man is clearly not thinking with his brain here. Side note: Mac walking in afterward and noticing the rumpled bed and making the classic dudebro “nice” face at Russ was hilarious.

Oh and one last thing. Bozer is still my MVP. He only got like three minutes of screen time, but between running the whole op, confronting Riley, and his little dance at the end, he’s really out here doing it all. Good for him.

Just like I’ve rated every other Monica-era episode, this one is a 10/10.

#season 5 thoughts #macgyver

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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

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Anonymous asked: I noticed you did post to acknowledge the death of Uderzo, the co-creator of the Asterix comics. I have to ask Tintin or Asterix? Which one do you prefer?

It’s like asking Stones or Beatles? I love both but for different reasons. I would hate to choose between the two.

Both Tintin and Asterix were the two halves of a comic dyad of my childhood. Whether it was India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, or the Middle East the one thing that threads my childhood experience of living in these countries was finding a quiet place in the home to get lost reading Asterix and Tintin.

Even when I was eventually carted off to boarding school back in England I took as many of my Tintin and Asterix comics books with me as I could. They became like underground black market currency to exchange with other girls for other things like food or chocolates sent by parents and other illicit things like alcohol. Having them and reading them was like having familiar friends close by to make you feel less lonely in new surroundings and survive the bear pit of other girls living together.

If you asked my parents - especially my father - he would say Tintin hands down. He has - and continues to have in his library at home - a huge collection of Tintin comic books in as many different language translations as possible. He’s still collecting translations of each of the Tintin books in the most obscure languages he can find. I have both all the Tintin comic books - but only in English and French translations, and the odd Norwegian one - as well as all the Asterix comic books (only in English and French).

Speaking for myself I would be torn to decide between the two. Each have their virtues and I appreciate them for different reasons.

Tintin was truly about adventure that spoke deeply to me. Tintin was always a good detective story that soon turned to a travel adventure. It has it all: technology, politics, science and history. Of course the art is more simpler, but it is also cleaner and translates the wondrous far-off locations beautifully and with a sense of awe that you don’t see in the Asterix books. Indeed Hergé was into film-noir and thriller movies, and the panels are almost like storyboards for The Maltese Falcon or African Queen.

The plot lines of Tintin are intriguing rather than overly clever but the gallery of characters are much deeper, more flawed and morally ambiguous. Take Captain Haddock I loved his pullover, his strangely large feet, his endless swearing and his inability to pass a bottle without emptying it. He combined bravery and helplessness in a manner I found irresistible.

I’ve read that there is a deeply Freudian reading to the Tintin books. I think there is a good case for it. The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure are both about Captain Haddock's family. Haddock's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, is the illegitimate son of the French Sun King – and this mirrors what happened in Hergé's family, who liked to believe that his father was the illegitimate son of the Belgian king. This theme played out in so many of the books. In The Castafiore Emerald, the opera singer sings the jewel song from Faust, which is about a lowly woman banged up by a nobleman – and she sings it right in front of Sir Francis Haddock, with the captain blocking his ears. It's like the Finnegans Wake of the cartoon. Nothing happens - but everything happens.

Another great part is that the storylines continue on for several albums, allowing them to be more complex, instead of the more simplistic Asterix plot lines which are always wrapped up nicely at the end of each book.

Overall I felt a great affinity with Tintin - his youthful innocence, wanting to solve problems, always resourceful, optimistic, and brave. Above all Tintin gave me wanderlust. Was there a place he and Milou (Snowy) didn’t go to? When they had covered the four corners of the world Tintin and Milou went to the moon for heaven’s sake!

What I loved about Asterix was the style, specifically Uderzo’s visual style. I liked Hergé’s clean style, the ligne claire of his pen, but Asterix was drawn as caricature: the big noses, the huge bellies, often being prodded by sausage-like fingers. This was more appealing to little children because they were more fun to marvel at.

In particular I liked was the way Uderzo’s style progressed with each comic book. The panels of Asterix the Gaul felt rudimentary compared to the later works and by the time Asterix and Cleopatra, the sixth book to be published, came out, you finally felt that this was what they ought to look like. It was an important lesson for a child to learn: that you could get better at what you did over time. Each book seemed to have its own palette and perhaps Uderzo’s best work is in Asterix in Spain.

I also feel Asterix doesn’t get enough credit for being more complex. Once you peel back the initial layers, Asterix has some great literal depth going on - puns and word play, the English translation names are all extremely clever, there are many hidden details in the superb art to explore that you will quite often miss when you initially read it and in a lot of the truly classic albums they are satirising a real life country/group/person/political system, usually in an incredibly clever and humorous way.

What I found especially appealing was that it was also a brilliant microcosm of many classical studies subjects - ancient Egypt, the Romans and Greek art - and is a good first step for young children wanting to explore that stuff before studying it at school.

What I discovered recently was that Uderzo was colour blind which explains why he much preferred the clear line to any hint of shade, and it was that that enabled his drawings to redefine antiquity so distinctively in his own terms. For decades after the death of René Goscinny in 1977, Uderzo provided a living link to the golden age of the greatest series of comic books ever written: Paul McCartney to Goscinny’s John Lennon. Uderzo, as the Asterix illustrator, was better able to continue the series after Goscinny’s death than Goscinny would have been had Uderzo had died first, and yet the later books were, so almost every fan agrees, not a patch on the originals: very much Wings to the Beatles. What elevated the cartoons, brilliant though they were, to the level of genius was the quality of the scripts that inspired them. Again and again, in illustration after illustration, the visual humour depends for its full force on the accompaniment provided by Goscinny’s jokes.

Here below is a great example:

There’s a lot of genius in this. Uderzo copied Theodore Géricault’s iconic ‘Raft of the Medusa’ 1818 painting in ‘Asterix The Legionary’. The painting is generally regarded as an icon of Romanticism. It depicts an event whose human and political aspects greatly interested Géricault: the wreck of a French frigate, Medusa, off the coast of Senegal in 1816, with over 150 soldiers on board. But Anthea Bell’s translation of Goscinny’s text (including the pictorial and verbal pun ‘we’ve been framed, by Jericho’) is really extraordinary and captures the spirit of the Asterix cartoons perfectly.

This captures perfectly my sense of humour as it acknowledges the seriousness of life but finds humour in them through a sly cleverness and always with a open hearted joy. There is no question that if humour was the measuring yard stick then Asterix and not Tintin would win hands down.

It’s also a mistake to think that the world of Asterix was insular in comparison to the amazing countries Tintin had adventures. Asterix’s world is very much Europe.

Every nationality that Asterix encounters is gently satirised. No other post-war artistic duo offered Europeans a more universally popular portrait of themselves, perhaps, than did Goscinny and Uderzo. The stereotypes with which he made such affectionate play in his cartoons – the haughty Spaniard, the chocolate-loving Belgian, the stiff-upper-lipped Briton – seemed to be just what a continent left prostrate by war and nationalism were secretly craving. Many shrewd commentators believe that during the golden age when Goscinny was still alive to pen the scripts, that it was a fantasy on French resistance during occupation by Nazi Germany. Uderzo lived through the occupation and so there is truth in that. Perhaps this is why the Germans are the exceptions as they are treated unsympathetically in Asterix and the Goths, and why quite a few of the books turn on questions of loyalty and treachery.

Even the British are satirised with an affection that borders on love: the worst of the digs are about our appalling cuisine (everything is boiled, and served with mint sauce, and the beer is warm), but everything points to the Gauls’ and the Britons’ closeness. They have the same social structure, even down to having one village still holding out against the Romans; the crucial and extremely generous difference being that the Britons do not have a magic potion to help them fight. Instead they have tea, introduced to them by Getafix, via Asterix, which gives them so much of a psychological boost that it may as well have been the magic potion.

I re-read ‘Asterix in Britain’ (Astérix chez les Bretons) in the light of the 2016 Brexit referendum result and felt despaired that such a playful and respectful portrayal of this country was not reciprocated. Don’t get me wrong I voted for Brexit but I remain a staunch Europhile. It made me violently irritated to see many historically illiterate pro-Brexit oiks who mistakenly believed the EU and Europe were the same thing. They are not. One was originally a sincere band aid to heal and bring together two of the greatest warring powers in continental Europe that grotesquely grew into an unaccountable bureaucratic manager’s utopian wet dream, and the other is a cradle of Western achievement in culture, sciences and the arts that we are all heirs to.

What I loved about Asterix was that it cut across generations. As a young girl I often retreated into my imaginary world of Asterix where our family home had an imaginary timber fence and a dry moat to keep the world (or the Romans) out. I think this was partly because my parents were so busy as many friends and outsiders made demands on their time and they couldn’t say no or they were throwing lavish parties for their guests. Family time was sacred to us all but I felt especially miffed if our time got eaten away. Then, as I grew up, different levels of reading opened up to me apart from the humour in the names, the plays on words, and the illustrations. There is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child's eye view of the world.

The thing about both Asterix and Tintin books is that they are at heart adventure comics with many layers of detail and themes built into them. For children, Asterix books are the clear winner, as they have much better art and are more fantastical. Most of the bad characters in the books are not truly evil either and no-one ever dies, which appeals hugely to children. For older readers, Tintin has danger, deeper characters with deep political themes, bad guys with truly evil motives, and even deaths. It’s more rooted in the real world, so a young reader can visualise themselves as Tintin, travelling to these real life places and being a hero.

As I get older and re-read Asterix and Tintin from time to time I discover new things.

From Asterix, there is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child's eye view of the world. In my adult world it now makes me appreciate the value of family, friends, and community and even national identity. Even as globalisation and the rise of homogenous consumerism threatens to envelope the unique diversity of our cultures, like Asterix, we can defend to the death the cultural values that define us but not through isolation or by diminishing the respect due to other cultures and their cultural achievements.

From Tintin I got wanderlust. This fierce even urgent need to travel and explore the world was in part due to reading the adventures of Tintin. It was by living in such diverse cultures overseas and trying to get under the skin of those cultures by learning their languages and respecting their customs that I realised how much I valued my own heritage and traditions without diminishing anyone else.

So I’m sorry but I can’t choose one over the other, I need both Asterix and Tintin as a dyad to remind me that the importance of home and heritage is best done through travel and adventure elsewhere.

Thanks for your question.

#question #ask #comics #tintin #asterix #personal #arts #culture

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findapennyloseapenny · 3 years

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James Ironwood is going to turn up again, and he’s going to be working for Salem. Hear me out.

So this is a possibility I toyed with in one of my first posts on this blog, and as I’ve been thinking about it more and more and rewatching the Atlas arc, it’s something that I’m becoming more and more convinced of. Let’s start with the basics. Ironwood was in Atlas when it fell, and that was, shall we say catastrophic. Enormous crash, followed by flooding. Definitely shouldn’t be survivors, right?

Except that that isn’t really how this show, or most shows, work. People survive a lot of intense injury in RWBY. Cinder got fucking flash-frozen and dropped several stories after her Aura broke. RWBY goes out of its way to signpost when someone is dead. It wants that emotional beat to hit hard. It doesn’t want ambiguity. Take Pyrrha, disintegrated before our eyes. Take Penny, first dismembered, then with that heartbreaking framing of her blood falling of Crocea Mors. Take Clover, gorily impaled. Even with Adam, who fell offscreen before his death, was obviously and bloodily stabbed all the way through his chest (twice) and hit a rock very hard on his way down. The most ambiguous they’ve ever gotten was Watts, but they made a point to show that Cinder had taken extra action to make sure he burned alive before Atlas finished falling. The show took time out of a very packed episode to show us his shadow, lit by flames as he screamed.

Notice that they did not take time to give us a similar shot for Ironwood. It’s the contrast between Ironwood and Watts that makes me most certain that he’s alive. They could’ve spared a few seconds to give us something similar for Ironwood, and they didn’t. So I’ll be astonished if he doesn’t make it out alive.

Watts actually contributes another piece of evidence to this theory. Between his death, Emerald’s defection, Hazel’s death and defection, and Cinder betraying Neo, Salem lost a lot of known, well-developed characters from her inner circle in a very short time. The only people she has going into Volume 9 are Mercury, Tyrian, and Cinder, and they aren’t exactly a well-rounded team. Tyrian and Mercury are bruisers, from a plot-perspective. They take orders and carry them out. They don’t make plans, they don’t have resource networks, they aren’t particularly good infiltrators or ambassadors. Cinder’s only slightly better - she makes plans, sure, but she’s impulsive, self-serving, and bad at seeing the bigger picture. She only brings a slightly wider range of resources to the table. This is not a team that provides a varied enough rogue’s gallery for very long, especially if Mercury or Cinder defect as well (which is extremely possible). This only stays her inner circle if the show is about to wind down or Salem is about to get blown out of the water for a bigger bad guy.

So, is the show about to wind down? Realistically, if they want to wrap up their plot threads and themes in a tidy, satisfying fashion, which I’m confident they do, the minimum number of volumes I think they could do that in is four. Volume 9 deals with Wonderland and sets the stage for RWBY in Vacuo, Volume 10 deals with Vacuo, Volume 11 sees a return to Beacon (and possibly a late game switch big bad switch from Salem to someone else, probably the gods), and Volume 12 sees the defeat of the big bad and the resolution of the show. That’s assuming an absolutely breakneck pace from a show that has consistently been content to take its time - relatively speaking at least, given how short each episode is. They spent a whole Volume dealing with the trauma of the Fall of Beacon, advancing the characters and barely touching the overall plot. I don’t think they’re going to speed run this.

All this to say, at minimum, we’re three-quarters of the way through the show, and I think two-thirds to halfway is more realistic. Salem can’t take point in any plot that involves societal conflicts, and I don’t think they can hang three more volumes of those on Mercury, Tyrian, and Cinder. Salem needs to expand her inner circle. Now, most likely, that will include at least one new character from Vacuo. Maybe people who’ve read the CFVY books already have a likely candidate in mind, I don’t know. But one person isn’t going to be enough to fill all the roles now left empty on Salem’s team, especially one person that we don’t already know, who has to be built up for us and fleshed out and sold to us as someone competent and scary and worth giving a damn about.

So why not sidestep some of those problems and dust off the perfectly good dictator they’ve still got lying around?

Let’s go beyond the fact that Ironwood is alive and without an obvious role in the plot while Salem has a job opening. What does Ironwood get out of teaming up with Salem? What does Salem get out of taking him on? What do we, the audience, get out of seeing this on our screens?

Let’s start with the first one. Ironwood has had a very taxing forty-eight hours. He has seen his precious Atlas destroyed and reduced to rubble. He has seen every one he ever counted on betray him (and with good reason, but I doubt he sees it that way). He has gone from being one of, if not the most powerful mortal man in all of Remnant, to having absolutely nothing. Who does he blame for this? Salem? Maybe, but if he puts the sole blame on her, that means he has to keep fighting her, something he has already decided is impossible. He made a desperate, terrible, appalling plan to avoid that outcome, and it failed utterly. He doesn’t believe she can be beaten. He will certainly blame her some, but there is a much more convenient target for the bulk of it - one that is easy to plaster it on, one that thwarted him directly, and one which he believes he can have revenge on.

He is going to fixate on Team RWBY and their allies. If they’d just listened to him, if they’d just fallen in line and done what he said, then Atlas would be safe and the relics would be well out of Salem’s reach. Their opposition led directly to his plan’s failure. He doesn’t even need to bend the truth for that, only ignore the parts that he has already been content to ignore - that his plan was fundamentally flawed from the start, both in its means and its ends, and that if he had instead listened to RWBY, much of this tragedy could have been avoided. But Ironwood isn’t going to blame himself. It is a very, very hard thing for someone as proud and self-assured as Ironwood to do, to look at himself honestly and acknowledge that he fucked up, really badly, and that the consequences of that fuck up will haunt him until he dies. It is a very hard thing for such a proud man to humble himself and try to make whatever amends are within his means, to apologize to those he wronged and strive to help them, even knowing that they may hate him forever no matter what he does, and be justified in doing so.

He will take the easier choice, the same kind of easier choice he has been taking the whole show, and shift his guilt onto someone else. He will blame RWBY. He was more than willing to sacrifice uncounted multitudes of people under his care to protect Atlas, and maybe the world too, for awhile. Now Atlas is gone, and as far as he is concerned, the world is doomed. What does it matter if he helps Salem hasten that along a bit, as long as he can avenge his city?

Salem, for her part, will find an exceptionally canny tactician, a deeply charismatic leader, and a man of nearly unshakeable determination, all wrapped up in a nice, emotionally unstable, easily manipulated package. Maybe he doesn’t have the tech-savvy that Watts did, but he has everything else, and so much more. She could find all sorts of uses for him.

And we, the audience, will get to see it all unfold. We will get to see the fall of James Ironwood from a principled, well-meaning, staunch defender of Remnant, a bit over confident in himself, a bit flawed, a bit narrow in his focus, but unquestionably heroic, to a dictatorial, desperate tyrant, willing to sacrifice anything and anyone on the altar of his own ego, a man who hits rock bottom through his own arrogance and cruelty and, when offered a shovel, starts digging even deeper. You thought the Tin Man lost his heart this volume? You haven’t seen anything yet. By the end of this show, there will be no one more tragically, brutally, painfully hollow then James Ironwood.

I wonder if, near the end, he’ll think about Lionheart. I wonder if he’ll still have enough of the man he used to be left to shed a single, bitter tear at the irony.

#rwby #rwby meta #james ironwood #rwby salem #oh boy this got long #obviously this is a lot of conjecture about a show that routinely blows my expectations out of the water #but this feels very right to me

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tb5-heavenward · 4 years

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You just know I'm going to ask about Covenant now, right?

well since you two are two of the only people who know about covenant (and i’m sorry bud, your editorial sensibilities are going to have to put up with my stylistic lower caps) and since I’ve finally watched that shitshow of a most recent episode, I am totally down to talk about covenant.

but first let’s talk a little bit about TAG

TAG is terrible.

Visually the show is gorgeous. It has improved by leaps and bounds and it was charming when it started and it is awesome now. WETA are absolutely the bedrock of what makes this show worth watching, and I love the visuals more and more as they continue to push those boundaries. The cinnamontography, etc.

The Thunderbirds are amazing. They are beautiful, intricate, wonderfully clever machines. Their pilots ain’t half bad either. If you know and truly love the show and think about them all as well and deeply as they deserve, I think it’s impossible to honestly pick a favourite. International Rescue is a fantastic premise. The Tracys and their associates are all strong, compelling characters who have been iterated into an updated retro-future and made universally deeper and more interesting.

The bread and butter conceit of the show is awesome, the tension and conflict and creativity around solving complex problems that they manage to demonstrate in the course of a twenty-two minute episode sometimes just boggles the mind. When IR gets put up against the forces of nature and straight bad luck and pure, audacious dumbassery, we have gotten some of the best moments this show has to offer.

And those first season episodes were ugly as shit and everybody sounded the same and there were maybe three spare models between the entire NPC cast, but my GOD did S1 ever have heart. The soul of the show belongs to S1 and no one will change my mind about that. Try it. EOS was incredible. Skyhook was the definition of a balanced ensemble episode. Fireflash. Tunnels of Time. Relic. Recharge. Extraction. S2 came back swinging out of the gate with Ghost Ship. Up from the Depths was an absolute masterclass and actually changed the stakes in the show for the first time. Bolt from the Blue. Power Play. Hyperspeed. We all know which episodes were fucking good as hell. S3 comes out and the visuals have improved yet further. They have firmly found their feet as animators and as actors and as characters. We are finally actually starting to learn about these boys and their father, the most glaringly obvious hole in the show at large. Night and Day. Life Signs. And then SOS 1/2 and a complete and total paradigm shift. There is a sense of mortality to TAG now and it is an edge of realism that SHOULD be able to elevate it beyond what it’s been so far.

And yet.

TAG is fucking terrible.

Five years on, I am entitled to say, TAG is absolutely the goddamn worst sometimes, holy fucking shit. And what makes that terribleness terrible in and of itself—is that it’s because this show fails to recognize its most fundamental strengths. It fails to know what its audience will really connect to. And it’s because the writers’ room must be the goddamn wild west at this point, with the sort of nonsense these fucks are throwing at the wall and hoping to see it stick. It’s because whoever is in charge of the overall narrative arc of these seventy-odd episodes has not done what’s necessary to ensure TAG’s cohesion as a unified work.

(y’all hang onto your butts, i’m gonna do another brick wall metaphor.)

So what we have, five years on and seventy-odd episodes later, is a heap of bricks that WANT to be a wall, and we’re led to the impression that they’re SUPPOSED to be a wall, but they haven’t been put together by any single person. They have been put together by a rotating cast of a few dozen people who orient the bricks they’re given in slightly different ways sometimes, or who lay them at odd angles or who brought their own bricks from home for some reason. David Tennant is there. He must have cost at least half the budget for all of S2. All in all, he’s just another brick in the wall.

We know by this point that there is some asshole vaguely in charge of the idea of the wall. You can kind of tell that he’s at least heard of walls and he would definitely like to build one, but he isn’t exactly making it happen. There is an edifice here. It is wall-like, in some regions. At the end of the day though, most people who come across it also step over it, no problem. Or they chisel out the bricks that look to be worth saving and kick the rest of the wall over. That’s just fandom. That’s what fandom does.

Now, it is necessary at any point when talking about children’s media to talk about another series that ran three seasons over sixty-one episodes, and covered a level of geopolitical conflict over the course of a single year from the perspective of five incredibly gifted young people, all of whom were complex and flawed and sympathetic, and who knew they were responsible with putting the world to right with their own hands and set about doing that in the face of incredible odds, against villains who were no less than ruthlessly sociopathic.

ATLA sets a high bar. TAG was never going to be ATLA.

But fuck, I wish it had tried.

I wish the people who had set out to remake this story had sat down together and said, “Over the course of the next three seasons, we will tell the story of what International Rescue is. We will explain how it came to be. We will have strong themes that persist through the show and repeat themselves for emphasis: One Problem At A Time, You Can’t Save Everyone, Someone Has To Try. We will explain who these boys are and how they came to be this way. We will make it deeply and obviously clear what they do, how they do it, and why. We will give them limits. We will let them fail. We will give them flaws, we will let them clash with each other. We will let them grow and change. We will give them one deep, powerful loss that is the bedrock of what they became. We will put a powerful force in the world that loathes and opposes them at all costs. We will give them a tiny fragment of hope to chase and chase and chase and let them catch it only at the moment when they’v’e finally learned that they can let it go.”

I wish there had been rules. I wish there hadn’t been a new villain crammed into every season, in a show where the villains are objectively the weakest part. To add four villains to a show that barely has room for one and then to expect to make them ALL have a sympathetic edge somehow—it’s absolute fucking idiocy. I don’t care that The Hood is Kayo’s Uncle and Smiled In a Picture One Time. I don’t care that The Mechanic Is Apparently Being Mind Controlled Though No Indication Of That Was Given At Any Point in His History Until We Were Told So Explicitly. I don’t fucking CARE that Havoc Gets Yelled At By Her Boss Who Is Mean. I don’t give a shit that Fuse Is Apparently Too Stupid To Have Recognized The Moral Component Of Any Of His Criminal Acts Up Until He Inflicts Them On The Tracys.

You know which villains are objectively incredible in this show? Langstrom Fischler. Professor Harold. Francois Lemaire. Ned Fucking Tedford, who is a villain on the grounds that he is an obstacle, a problem to be solved, a concept of a person so hapless that they have multiple times strayed in the most incredible kind of peril. The strongest villains in this show are the ones who are just PEOPLE. People who are being careless. Or who are being greedy. Or who are being self-aggrandizing. People who exhibit traits equal and opposite to what our boys in blue exemplify.

I don’t know. We’re coming to the end of S3, we’re nearing their grand, incredible climax, this promised moment of potential reunion—and I wish I cared. I really wish I could. But there’s so much clutter. There’s so much their pulling DIRECTLY out of their asses in the home stretch. There are so many loose threads, there are so many concepts that were introduced and then never explored, or which were introduced in the end game and then never reinforced. There is so much information that we should have had from the start, so many mysteries that went unsolved and uncared about because they were unmentioned. There is not enough room for them to resolve anything in a meanignful way. There it so much that it seems like THEY didn’t know, and they SHOULD HAVE. They had time. Five fucking years, they had so much time to figure this out. And yet.

anyway.

So, covenant. Covenant basically a codeword for what I would’ve done differently, the last time I got mad about this whole endemic problem with the writing in this show, round about two years ago now.

Covenant is just a good word, really, and while it means something as a title, that relevance has kind of degraded a bit. It was going to be a rewrite of the end of Season 2, and sort of a retrofitting of Season 2 as a whole. It was going to explore the ideas that they put down and then never picked up, it was going to seriously address a lot of the core conflicts in the show and set things in motion to resolve those problems. I have it started. I have a good couple thousand words of the beginning, but it’s a good enough beginning that it could potentially begin something else, and so I won’t publish it here, in case I end up using it somewhere else. As is, it’s a priveleged-eyes-only sort of work, it’s only really been passed around my inner circle. If anyone is interested in hearing more about that, hit me up and I’ll elabourate. But for now, it is quarter past eleven, and I have ranted for long enough.

#TAG meta #negative #i mean if it's not apparent from the way I lead above the cut #admittedly I am being a clickbaity little shit #haters to the left tho please #to view media uncritically is to be a dumbass #don't @ me #scribeofred

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chamerionwrites · 5 years

Note

Do you have any favorite Elder Scrolls fics?

Do I ever. Rogue One plunged me deep into Star Wars hell and I still haven’t come up for air, so I’m afraid I haven’t read a lot of new TES fic lately. But there are a few old standbys which have always stuck with me. In no particular order:

Simra Hishkari: Rag and Bone - Sumptuous feast of prose and worldbuilding both, several of my bulletproof narrative kinks (stories within stories, liminality and borders both literal and metaphorical), extremely well-written adolescent protagonist (which imo can be deceptively tricky to pull off). Consider this rec to include the whole series.

A Rare and Unknown Pleasure - Pitch-perfect characterization that captures the way J’Zargo’s highkey hubris is oddly charming instead of annoying. Pitch-perfect blend of funny and serious. Tender and warm and comforting like hot chocolate (which is high praise from me, because my reading tastes often lean a little more in the direction of black coffee).

Vasa Jijri (Under the Skin) - Atmospheric and graceful and perfectly paced exploration of family and identity and culture. A rare Khajiit-centric fic (my very first TES character happened to be one, so I have sort of a soft spot for them).

Half The Conscience of Men - I’m a sucker for any story that deftly weaves narrative threads into a thematic whole, and this one does it with the quasi-religious metaphysical-visceral spookiness of cannibalism and monsterhood and transformation: lycanthropy, and the Wild Hunt, and the Green Pact, and a dragon in a mortal body devouring the souls of her kin. It’s listed as a WIP but I think it stands on its own as-is.

Borrowed Trouble - Great characterization and prose (you may be sensing a theme here). One of my favorite explorations of Skyrim’s Thieves Guild.

The Ones - This series isn’t finished and as far as I can tell isn’t going to be, but the premise (one dragon soul split between two dragonborns) is dynamite, the story is engaging as hell and the characters are wonderfully flawed and human and memorable.

This Is To End in Fire - Come for the premise of an all-female vigilante band, stay for the lovely atmosphere and a rare sighting of femslash in its natural habitat.

Like Lightning - Beautifully attuned to the specific and memorable details that make for great writing, simultaneously unflinching and compassionate in the way that makes for great characterization, and gut-wrenching in its depiction of both prejudice and PTSD. Also one of the most deeply lovable and heroic-yet-human (er, elven) protags I’ve encountered in fanfic, and my god the Ulfric Stormcloak characterization is good.

These are all Skyrim fics, but I was saving How to Disappear Completely (Morrowind) to savor before I got hooked into Star Wars, and much to my own embarrassment it’s still lingering on my to-read list but I know for a fact that @chameleonspell has marvelous worldbuilding and conlanging thoughts so I feel fully justified in reccing it in advance.

#ask box #tes #skyrim #fic recs #my posts

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littlesilverplatinum · 5 years

Note

😉 ; Are there any ships for your muse that you enjoy, or ships that you would like to see happen? 😳 ; What is something or someone you have always wanted to write with? i.e. a particular plot, a character, etc.🙄 ; What are your biggest pet peeves when it comes to tumblr? 😠 ; Is there anything you dislike about your muse? ☹️ ; Do you have any insecurities about writing and/or interacting with other people?😮 ; What is your favourite thing about your muse?😍 ; Is there anyone who inspire

Munday Meme Part 1Send a Symbol@heartbxnd

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😉 ; Arethere any ships for your muse that you enjoy, or ships that you would like tosee happen?

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Shippinghas always been fun for me, and Ihave always enjoyed the experiences I have had regarding the pairs I havegotten the pleasure of writing over the years. Regarding ships for Hikari that I enjoy? It’s not a canoncharacter ship by any stretch of the imagination – but I deeply adore the shipbetween me and my friend Red (@xhentai-man / @redicidium). Jay and Hikari still sit very, very dear within my heart, andregardless how many other dynamics we create for hers and mines characters – the two of them stand out as the original OTP of this blog.–Regarding ‘canon’ ships? (Aka, Hikari’s Main verse/Pokémon verse).I have always enjoyed the dynamic of villains/anti-heroesand protagonists – and I neverreally thought myself to get that, given that there a lot of… Well, let’s say there’snot a lot of respect for charactersthat are developed beyond their ten year old canonical counterparts. (And I do realize there’s good reason for itat times, and that Hikari isn’t exactly a shining example – as she is, in mindand body, still a teenager.) But, well, I have been proven a bit wrong with that, haha.

So, Archer and Hikari (@executive-geneticist) is a ship I’m looking forward to seeingdevelop as time goes on, and it’s a ship that I enjoy greatly – even if notmuch has been built around it as of yet, beyond small mentions of things.

(Then, of course, there’s the ships I havegotten to write with friends on the side, or through drabbles. You can countyourself in this category, Vani ;v )

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😳 ; What is something or someone you have always wanted to write with? i.e.a particular plot, a character, etc.

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Surprisingly, the people that I have really wanted to write with, I have gotten the chance to write with. If allthose experiences, at the end of the day, was enjoyable? Well, noteverything can pan out in your favor. But, most of them have left me feeling happy, and were great experiences.(And truly, most of these haven’t ended –and I still talk to these people as often as the opportunity presents itself.)–Plots that I would like to do is abit harder to give a true answer to,as I have so many things that I wantto write, but most likely won’t. I would love the chance of having a threadwith Hikari’s father, regarding his ‘healing’crafts of which he left his family behind to pursue. Yet I realize that it’s a bitimpossible, given where his storylays in this moment – and that I need to move him forward in his timeframe, ifI want to have interactions that would be genuinely interesting.

Other thingsare just… To get to try more different themesof interactions, be they adventurebased or something else entirely. Igreatly enjoy world building withinthreads, and so that’s something I will always jump on to work through with awilling partner, should the chance present itself. (This goes for character development as well – as it’s wonderful to getto share that experience with a writing partner.) AU’s, of course, are greatfuntoo – and I really want to do paranormalrelated threads, because they seem like they would be a lot of fun. Themes differ,and I do have ideas for severalthings regarding hauntings, possessions or… anythinglike it.–I just haven’t gotten the chance to write it with anyone, or present it tosomeone who I could do a true thread with… Ifthat makes sense?

—

(Eye roll emoji) ; What are your biggest pet peeves when it comes to tumblr?

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You’re trying to get me in trouble, aren’t you Vani?

This will strictly be about the rp side oftumblr, rather than the website as a whole:

Alright so…I’m sure this happens in any forumfor roleplay, but it’s something I have personal only noticed, since joiningthe tumblr rpc this past year. –Thread hoarders should really reconsider how they treat theirplatform. What I mean by that, is that it appears that people don’t see a limit to how many starter calls they will put up, how many calls for attention they give, so that they get piled up with things they need to do that – I suppose – makes them feel busyand important?A simplification of the matter, yes,but it’s always easier to understand things when they are simplified so… give me abreak. Lol.

Aka – it’s stupid of you to put out starter calls, or plotting calls, inbox callsor whatever you may do, when you KNOWthat you have 10+ threads and requests for starters sitting in yourdrafts. Because, y’know where that eventuallyleads you? You make a post that you’re goingto drop half of them, and only keep the interactions that you care about (often with friends – which isn’t bad mindyou)…. Only to then, in the samebreath, ask for more interactions.–As though you couldn’t understand WHY you had to drop things in the firstplace.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HAVING A FEWINTERACTIONS AT A TIME! Seriously… I personally can’t handleit, if I have more than a few threads going at one time – and often the threadsI have are ‘demanding’, as I write a lot. Which is the way I like it, but that’s beside the point… Peopleneed to know their limits, and understand that it’s pretty shittybehavior to either ask for a starter that you KNOW you’ll never get to, or to promise starters and replies thatyou never intend to do.

It’s even shittier, if you can’tmessage the person who wrote something for you to let them know that you’re not actually feeling thethread/starter you two have together. Seriously… Trust me when I say thatthe people that you reject along the way will be happier that you were honestwith them, rather than leaving them in the dirt without messaging them back.

We all makemistakes, and I’m not perfect in these things either… But I know my limits.

Just.Please stop.

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😠 ; Is there anything you dislike about your muse?

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I alwaysfind questions like this hard to answer – even if the givenquestion asks for something I like about my muse. Because, of course I like my muse – and ofcourse there’s things I don’t like about my muse. But it’s hard to point them out, as often youview your characters through a bit of rose-tinted glasses that are hard to lookbeyond.–Just… Simply regarding Hikari as a person?She really holds grudges againstcertain people, yet can’t stand up against them. She is weak in so many ways, beit physically or mentally. Yet it’s not something that seemingly affects her inher ability to function. Hikari willinglyblinds herself to some things, and indulges herself far too much in others. And it’s hard to explain these things, as it allhas to do with context – but Hikari has many flaws within her personality and behavior,and I do hope that, in general, it showsin my writing regarding her.

Other thanthat…. From a mun/writer perspective? Girl is taxing as hell- pfft. I don’tdislike it about her, as I really do enjoy writing her – and its reallyall I do in my spare time, when given the option to. Seriously- my mind spins around with scenarios andideas regarding Hikari and her world constantly, and I can’t shut it the fUCK UP. But it can be mentallytaxing sometimes.

Somethingthat I combat by simply… turning my focusto any of my other characters, haha.

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☹️ ; Do you have any insecurities about writing and/or interacting withother people?

—

Oh, absolutely! Though some of my fears haveleft me, as time has gone on, some still lingerand are seemingly… impossible to movepast. I do realize that, anyone that has ever talked to me for any longerthan a few minutes via privates chats can tell you that I’m,,, awkwardas hell. And I’m greatly aware of this fact, and it really doesn’thelp me in feeling as though I’m notan annoyance, or like I don’t say oddthings. I don’t know if it’s me having trouble coming into my own skin andfeeling confident in my thoughts and feelings, or excitements for certainthings – or if I’m truly socially inept haha. Either way – regarding characterinteraction… I, in general, just always stress about my writing. Thatit’s not as good as I would want itto be, that the starters I write for people lackdirection (even though they don’t appearthat way to me) and just… simplethings like that. If my way of writing is hard to read, if it’s toomuch, if Hikari is as flat as aboard and I just think that Ihave developed a decent character out of a protagonist that lacks anything besides appearance and the strengthyou give them along the way.

Just, y’know…casual such things.

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😮 ; What is your favourite thing about your muse?

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See theabove answer regarding what I dislike about my muse. It’s just… such a hard question ;;

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😍 ; Is there anyone who inspires you or that you look up to?

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My biggest writing inspiration to this day,and who has really changed the way I write for (hopefully) the better – is themangaka Asano Inio. Specifically, though it’s not the only work of his that I deeply enjoy and take inspiration from, Oyasumi Punpun. Just… Though its imagery,rather than written work where you have to imagine it all on your own, thingsare just told in such a beautiful manner – I feel I just have to capture those elements within my own writing.And I do really hope that I do itjustice, or that I can get at least even a fractionof a thousand closer to being as goodas him at telling stories and build characters that feel real. It’s a big reasonfor why I don’t try to (or subconsciouslydon’t) shy away from things thataren’t pretty regarding mycharacters. Let them have horrible, horriblethoughts – let them fail and do thingsthat are wrong. It makes them feel all the more real, or at least to me. Take inspiration from places that I havebeen, imagery that stuck out aboutthem and find the small things inlife to focus in on, that makes it all feel like a dream. Be they the way raindrops off a leaf that has fully come into its own, vibrant spring color – or the way rain sounds against wooden boardson a late summer evening.

That’s what Asano Inio has inspired me to do, and I am so grateful to have found his work.

…. Now, of course there’s people within thiscommunity that inspire me as well – and I do feel I can tag them, as all ofthem are friends of mine who I enjoytalking to both in just private, and ic. These are not the only people I enjoy writing with or for – but they are people whose writing I really enjoy, and I treasure beingable to write and talk with:

@xhentai-man, you soviet scum ;v you know i love everything we do@the-executives-stratagem, plotting with you is sO great and I love everything that we have going @executive-geneticist, you’re a joy to talk to, and your writing is engaging as hell and just… yes plz@puffyhat-kotone, best Lyra in the world I adore her with my whole heart, good wife best wife!!@magicmagikarp, out here bringing me high quality material and writing 10/10 would recommend

#(ooc - mun)#-games-#munday #this is long woops #erik cant shut up no matter what #also #dont read more unless you want some honest thoughts hfdklfhdskhdkls #shh dont tell anyone alright??#friend love hi love yall fhkdhfkds

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crazygirlbookclub-blog · 7 years

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Some thoughts about Alex Tizon’s “My Family’s Slave” piece at The Atlantic:

I’ve struggled with what to say about this piece for a few days, not because I don’t have any thoughts, but rather because, reading the slew of responses that have come out since it was published, I’m finding my thoughts seem to exist outside the two main camps of thought: 1) this was moving, touching, or in some way an emotionally profound and cathartic piece of writing about an extraordinary terrible situation; or 2) this was a calculated piece of writing that excuses, softens, and sentimentalizes slavery and the author’s complicity in that slavery. As for 1, this piece was deeply, deeply troubling and I’m concerned by anyone who finished it and thought “ah, how touching.” As for 2, I agree strongly with the critiques that say Tizon let his mother off the hook; even with the wealth of detail about her abhorrent actions, one is still left -- perhaps inevitably, but far from morally acceptably -- with a son’s love for the complex personhood of a mother, despite everything. As for Tizon himself, the overwhelming feeling I got from his piece was one of self-hatred; there are of course details that blur his acts of complicity, but I nevertheless felt at every step he hated himself and knew he never once made anything resembling reparations to Eudocia Tomas Pulido, also known as Lola. I’ve seen people argue that he eventually “did right” by her, but my impression was rather that he realized there is no way to “do right” by someone whose life has been stolen from her. I did not take the money he gave her, or any other aspect of his treatment of her later in life, as him trying to “make up” for her enslavement. I understand why others may have read it that way, but I felt, for better or worse, Tizon knew that he had participated in and enabled an unacceptable, unforgivable, moral abomination that hurt in very real and unfixable ways someone he claimed to love. I saw someone say that a shorter, better version of this article would’ve said “Slavery is monstrous; owning a slave made me monstrous” but that’s, to be quite honest, not far from how I read this article. Ultimately, though, even if Tizon knew that he’d committed an unforgivable sin, this is still the story of a master’s son. That’s a problem, undeniably.

So why read it? What I found most -- compelling? worthwhile? -- about the read is the way in which Tizon illuminates the ties between kinship structures and Eudocia/Lola’s particular form of enslavement. Sarah Jeong has a long thread on twitter elucidating her reading, much (but not all) of which I agree with, but the most salient point to me is that Alex Tizon understood that Lola was a slave and he also considered her family: that doesn’t lesson the horror of the slavery, but rather indicts family and kinship ties as structures that enable and support, in particular, feminized exploitation. Jeong asks us to consider Lola’s enslavement not unique -- culturally or otherwise -- but rather, as Jeong says, “There is horrific exploitation embedded in the chains of our familial ties through centuries. No exceptions for any of us.” This is not in any way to deny the horror of one situation, but rather to understand the ways that kinship structures built on heteropatriarchal, racist, imperalist ideology are embedded with the idea that “domestic labor, labor coded as motherly love” (as Jeong says) involves harm, abuse, and exploitation. Tizon loving Lola, Lola loving him, doesn’t make him any less complicit -- instead, it enables his complicity in new ways, ways that are perhaps harder to talk about and that are in a way especially loathsome but that I see him attempting to get at in this short, imperfect, highly upsetting piece. What’s more, I see us being asked to (to borrow a friend’s articulation) look at the intersection of “this person acted as my mother” and “this person was a slave” more carefully throughout history and the present. What does the exploited feminized labor of nannies, au pairs, mail order brides, and heterosexual marriage historically have to do with slavery? This isn’t, to me, diminishing the evils of slavery and labor exploitation but rather gesturing toward the ways in which slavery is built into our most fundamental structures, including the historical structure of motherhood itself.

Did Eudocia Tomas Pulido really love Alex Tizon? She said she did, but I suppose we can never know. If she did, was it stockholm syndrome or was it that he was a child she’d never been allowed to have, the only family she’d ever been allowed? It matters and it doesn’t: it matters because whoever Eudocia was, whoever Lola was, she wasn’t the person in this article; she was her own person, even as so much of her life was stolen from her. It matters because maybe if she loved him, her life was easier; but then again, maybe if she loved him, it made it that much harder. I don’t know. But I do know that whether she "really” loved him doesn’t matter inasmuch as she was coopted into a structure of slavery that depended on the structural expectations and exploitations of motherly love, regardless of whether she felt it or not, and through that selfsame system the next generation of her exploiters, her slaveowners, were created in the people she described as her children.

There is obviously a cultural context to this article, not because slavery is “okay” when it’s practiced by non-white people, but because slavery can look different depending on who and how it’s practiced. Yet I’d actually argue that one of the greatest flaws of Tizon’s article is his insistence that the slavery he describes is a Filipino thing, that it doesn’t happen in America, because the exploitation and slavery he describes is, if not universal, at least structurally omnipresent in ways I consider worth continuing to interrogate and challenge.

Last note, I have no interest in “defending” Tizon, whatever that might mean. He’s dead, and even though he died suddenly and the article was not intended to be published posthumously, it was, and so it has the feel of a deathbed confession. People are calling him a coward and I understand the impulse. He’s dead and I can’t hold him accountable in the ways I think we would all like to do. I can and will say: He was a slaveowner; he described himself as such; I don’t know that anything else I say can indict him more fully. Yet if this is all the story we are to get about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, then I don’t necessarily think it’s worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Her life is worth remembering, and mourning, and all of the structures that enabled her exploitation deserve to be destroyed.

#also i think there's obviously a discussion to be had about intersections between this and the figure of the 'mammy'#i just don't feel qualified to get into it

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topmixtrends · 5 years

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I REMEMBER THE FRISSON of excitement that rippled through this nation two summers ago as we anticipated the Great American Eclipse. It was ours and ours alone, starting in Oregon and ending in South Carolina. For a few brief minutes we could forget about the hate exploding in Charlottesville and Donald Trump’s “blame-on-both-sides” travesty. The heavens were about to upstage the new president, turn off the lights, and cast our world into a profound, welcome stillness.

But as the skies darkened, traffic jams clogged the roads. Millions tweeted, blogged, broadcast, live-streamed. From a cruise ship, Bonnie Tyler belted out her signature song, “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” to the swaying, bespectacled crowd. Not since 1776 had America been awarded an eclipse all its own, and for one sweet day we were one nation under God, indivisible, heads tilted in awe and anticipation.

It is hard to imagine a celestial symbol better suited to a dramatic tale than a blackened sun. Shakespeare and Milton used it, and so have American writers from Mark Twain to Stephen King. Now add to that list Rachel Barenbaum, who places an eclipse squarely at the center of her ambitious, sweeping debut, A Bend in the Stars. Set in Russia at the beginning of World War I, her novel takes us on a harrowing ride in pursuit of the solar eclipse of 1914.

The significance of these celestial events radiates far beyond science. As the Earl of Gloucester warns in King Lear, “These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good for us.” For some, an eclipse is a sign of the devil; for others, it foreshadows the end of the world. And for one of this novel’s protagonists, Vanya Abramov — a passionate young scientist whose hazardous journey we follow over 450 pages — it holds his future. Through it he hopes to disprove Einstein’s early theories about relativity and to secure a life in the United States, where his family can live safely.

Vanya is convinced that Einstein’s original theory is doubly flawed: it failed to take into account the effects of gravity, and it was based on the assumption that objects move at constant speeds. Early on he tells his skeptical sister, Miri: “Gravity bends space and light. The eclipse will prove it. And that proof, it will change everything.”

Even though he is barely out of his teens, there is something of the mad professor in Vanya — his disheveled appearance, his obsession with equations, his distracted air. His sister points out that his scheme sounds delusional, and the reader is likely to agree. He has no way of getting to the eclipse; he doesn’t have the necessary calculations to disprove Einstein; if he actually witnesses the eclipse, he needs photographs of light bending in order to make his case. And for that last, crucial step, he has to rely on an American scientist who has never heard of him.

As if all this uncertainty weren’t deterrent enough, Vanya also faces a powerful enemy at home, a creepy character named Kir. He is the chair of Vanya’s department at the university, a brooding presence with enormous hands. Kir hovers around Vanya waiting to snatch his latest calculations. Already he has stolen a batch of Vanya’s notes and published them under his own name, to great acclaim. When Vanya protested, Kir whispered, “Remember you’re a Jew.” Antisemitism hangs over this novel as an oppressive, ever-present shadow, embodied in any number of characters eager to destroy the idealistic and daring siblings. Through graphic descriptions, Barenbaum brings into sharp focus the threats and assaults Jews endured under the tsarist regime.

At the beginning of A Bend in the Stars, Miri and Vanya are living with their grandmother, a wise, tough woman who serves as the local matchmaker to the Jewish community of Kovno (present-day Kaunas). She escaped the pogroms of Odessa and now sees signs of the same violent hatred infiltrating this town. She says to her grandchildren: “Death will come, again. They’ll blame us Jews. For war. For starvation. Cold. Haven’t I taught you? Hasn’t the past been loud enough?”

The tsar’s army is rounding up Jewish men to use as fodder in the war. Vanya signs up before they can conscript him. That way, he reasons, he can request a post near where the American scientist is expected to witness the eclipse. Miri thinks her brother has made a deadly mistake, that on the battlefield he’d be lost in his equations and wouldn’t survive. Neither, she thinks, would her handsome fiancé, Yuri, who is a surgeon and Miri’s mentor at the local Jewish hospital. She sees in him a softness that she adores, and she is stunned to learn that he, too, has signed up for the army, and that he vows to accompany her brother on his quixotic quest.

Meanwhile, Miri is reluctant to leave Kovno herself, despite her grandmother’s warnings. Recently she has been promoted from doctor to surgeon — a rare accomplishment for a woman in Russia, and unheard of in this town. Just as this most deeply held wish is realized, her family urges her to leave, and she resists. But within days of Vanya and Yuri’s departure, Miri’s life takes a dramatic turn and she has no choice but to flee and go searching for her brother and fiancé. Accompanying her is Sasha Petrov, a dashing defector from the army whom she rescues and hides in her grandmother’s cellar.

Some elements of this setup seem unnecessarily convoluted, and at times the reader’s patience is strained as Barenbaum reiterates the novel’s premise. But as Miri boards her first train with Sasha and we begin the siblings’ harrowing parallel journeys, Barenbaum tightens the pressure and pace. We are with Miri and Vanya every step of the way, racing across Russia, leaping from train to train, and hurrying through short, tense chapters. Like a constantly ticking clock, the chapters written from Vanya’s point of view begin with a reminder of how many days, how many minutes, how many hours remain until the all-important eclipse. In the chapters written from Miri’s perspective, tension comes from the grueling trials she and Sasha endure to reach her brother and fiancé, and a growing attraction that is unspoken but hard to ignore.

In many ways, A Bend in the Stars reads like a folktale: the young heroes face an arduous journey and a difficult quest; they are brilliant and good-looking and pure of spirit. The villains, of course, are odious and ugly — one is described as having a nose and cheeks “littered with broken blood vessels and pores that looked like gaping holes.” But this is not purely a good-versus-evil adventure. A third of the way through, a wily sailor named Dima appears, and with him, the story gains texture. Dima is rough but endearing, a schemer out to make as much money as he can. If that means double-crossing the “pathetic soldiers,” well, that’s just the cost of doing business. When it seems Dima has betrayed Yuri and Vanya, Yuri takes him for a Jew-hater and asks, “Why does it still have to come down to that — to being Jewish?”

Barenbaum names the five main sections of the novel after months in the Jewish calendar, which itself is based on astronomical phenomena. In so doing, she threads into the novel’s fabric two central themes — what it means to be a Jew in Russia in the early 1900s, and the power of celestial forces. “Life doesn’t travel in a straight line,” we are told early on, and Barenbaum herself bends time and space by bracketing the novel with chapters set in modern-day America, which provide a startling and rewarding denouement.

Some of the novel’s best writing is in descriptions of place, whether it be a horrific hospital scene, a train station coated in coal ash, a city’s bejeweled spires, or a river that “smelled of waste and moved so slowly sticks oozed past like slugs.” Barenbaum embeds the reader in a three-dimensional world of slums, cities, and war-ravaged countryside, far from the gauzy shtetl tableaux one remembers from Fiddler on the Roof. She is equally deft at capturing dramatic events. A tussle in an alley, a long-anticipated kiss, a woman giving birth — in simple phrases, Barenbaum builds toward these moments, lingers on them, and wrings out every particle of suspense. The eclipse itself she handles with straightforward effectiveness:

The last shadows fell over the fruit trees in the orchard. Light came through the leaves in the quarter-moon shape of the eclipse.

A black veil slid over to the house and covered the dacha.

The animals that had been so loud just seconds earlier, stilled.

Day turned to night.

Occasionally, the writing is overly intense, as when a character describes an eclipse as a passionate act, “the kind that makes a woman want to jump into the bath with a man after a sweaty day.” Conversely, at times the writing goes limp. In one instance night is simply described as being “as dark as dark can be.” As the story reaches its conclusion, Barenbaum rushes through events and I found myself wishing she’d slow down and allow the story to breathe. The narrative of Dima the sailor, in particular, gets short shrift and is wrapped up in a summary. But these are minor complaints. The novel offers an epic adventure that spins through rich terrain; several engrossing love stories, including one between remarkable siblings; and a scientific intrigue that pits dark ambition against a passionate love of science.

From my deck in Massachusetts on that August afternoon in 2017, I watched the day turn mildly sullen. Crescent-shaped shadows spilled from the colander that I held in my hands. Even though mine was the slimmest of partial eclipses, I felt its power, and my smallness. Likewise, with the eclipse of 1914 as both backdrop and main event, A Bend in the Stars reveals our collective impotence against the whims of the universe. And yet, the characters Barenbaum brings to life demonstrate resilience in the face of prejudice, steadfastness in the face of defeat, and the ability to love even when the world has cracked with hate.

Jean Hey’s essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Plain Dealer, The Chicago Tribune, and Solstice Magazine. She is currently at work on a novel set in South Africa.

The post Celestial Events: On Rachel Barenbaum’s “A Bend in the Stars” appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books http://bit.ly/2YtGcHO

#Los Angeles Review of Books #topmixtrends

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