Tumgik
#vaguely imbalance spoilers i guess?
Text
Sugar
Grad student!Nathan Bateman x older!fem!reader
Author’s note: I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS CONCEPT TBH BUT DON’T WANT TO GIVE SPOILERS SO WARNINGS ARE NON-EXHAUSTIVE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK I GUESS? (As ever, minors DNI, thank you!) And I blame Oscar at MEFCC in the black polo and @nowritingonthewall’s hc of young!Nathan sneaking into tech conferences for this one. (I’m imagining him as getting towards his mid twenties here.)
Word count: just a short one!
Warnings: power / wealth imbalance, and slight warning for dub-con due to this. Sexual touching (slightly public). Infidelity. Alcohol consumption (reader). As mentioned above, warnings are non-exhaustive this time to avoid spoilers. If you do need further info, however, you are welcome to DM or send an ask.
Tumblr media
“Not touching the oysters?” Nathan asks in as suave a tone as he can muster. The only oyster he’s personally sampled, so far, is the oyster sauce at his favourite downtown take-out.
Your plate of extravagant buffet food is discarded next to you, however, as you pore over a stack of documents at the hotel bar, a martini in a tall, flared glass languishing in your free hand.
You whip your head towards Nathan and look him up and down; as though deciding whether he’s worth the time of day, or whether you should immediately summon security to remove him from your field of vision. You seem to find him relatively inoffensive, at least, and grant him permission to remain in your orbit; for now. You hum contemplatively. “Decided I’ve had my fill of vile sensations for today,” you announce in a cool, assured tone. “I had to fuck my husband this morning. Twice.”
Nathan emits a low whistle. As much as he tries to take it in his stride - to act like he’s accustomed to affluent, worldly, cut-throat women like you - he isn’t. Honestly, he’s barely accustomed to anyone at all lately, since he’s immersed himself entirely in getting his start-up off the ground.
You’re older. Older than him, at least. Older than any woman he’s been with so far, he can’t help but think. That, along with your candidness, is refreshing. You’re not all giggly and earnest and chaotic like the young women he’s met around campus - which sounds far less exhausting to him, if he’s honest.
He looks you up and down in return. And, yeah. Shit. He definitely wants to fuck you.
“He doesn’t get you off?” Nathan asks, crude and casual, as though he has any business asking. However, he’s found that a complete disregard for social norms can -oddly- sometimes pan out in his favour. Sometimes. Besides, on this occasion he has to risk it, or social norms would dictate that he shouldn’t approach you at all. At least not before he’s in possession of an invitation-only credit card, or, has made a hard-to-come by appointment via your PA at the very least.
You take a sip of your drink and eye him over the brim. He likes that move. Your eyes are full of deliciously dark amusement as you appraise him. He thinks you may even like what you see. Might even find him refreshing too. “Well. It’s not love - or anything else so impractical. It’s strictly a business arrangement,” you explain, as though you have been waiting for an opportunity to vent and no-one has actually bothered to ask you. “He pays for my lifestyle and I put out. And occassionally have to, you know, run his fucking company, attend boring conferences to schmooze his investors, and generally mask his total ineptitude.” You gesture around you vaguely. From the tiredness in your tone, it makes sense that you’re hiding out in this deserted hotel bar, Nathan thinks.
He knows fine well who your husband is too. A guy many, many years your senior. Obscenely rich fucker too. CEO and founder of a huge ass telecoms company, recently diversified into various markets across the tech world. The company is running an agressive acquisition policy, buying out start-ups and hoping to find something that sticks. The “next big thing”. It hasn’t succeeded yet. Projections look mediocre at best.
Nathan, who very much considers his innovation the “next big thing” - the only game in town - had tried to corner your husband at the end of his rather lacklustre panel. After all, he’d done his research. Had identified the highest value targets he could network with in attempts to drum up some investment. He is trying to bolster his sorely under-funded start-up… which, if he is honest, has barely even “started” at all. He knows the tech. The code. He’s a certified genius, for God’s sake. He was just a fool for thinking that that alone would be enough. Frustratingly for him, it’s the schmoozing and understanding of the cold realities of the business world he struggles with. He seems to rub people up the wrong way, for some reason. Probably because they’re all assholes. Or, maybe, because they view him as too young or too rough around the edges to know what he’s talking about. Or, most likely, because they’re uninspired bastards incapable of comprehending his world-changing vision. Maybe all of the above.
So much then, for the supposed merits of the free market and the idea that the best ideas will prosper. His idea is the best, and he’s floundering simply because his daddy can’t buy him his way in. Instead of a reliance on the strength of the product, networks and power and money and nepotism appear to be king in this world. And, Nathan possesses none of these advantages. Even with the buzz around him at his faculty, and his full ride scholarship at 17 for being a fucking genius.
Anyway, after a failed attempt to schmooze your asshole husband, Nathan had quickly put together that the guy didn’t have a goddamn clue. That you were the brains (and beauty, by the way) behind the operation, and he was likely little more than the funds.
Also, the guy definitely didn’t seem like he’d be a pleasant fuck, by any stretch.
He grimaces somewhat at the thought.
“That’s what they say isn’t it?” You take a breezy sip of your drink. “Fake it until you make it? They’re talking about orgasms, sweetheart, and my last performance paid for these shoes.” You kick out your appealing leg, your shins bare and smooth beneath your pencil skirt, and you briefly show off your shiny, black, red-soled heels.
They’re nice. Sexy, on you.
Nathan briefly wonders why you’re being so forthcoming with him, a complete stranger; but you don’t strike him as someone who gives a shit in the slightest what other people think. You also strike him as someone who can make people think whatever you want them to think. One day, he hopes to have as much power over a room as you do - and that’s for starters.
He slips into the bar stool beside you then, uninvited, and you scoff. “Are you even old enough to drink, baby face?”
He bristles at that, thick brows pinching and nods slowly, peeking at you from over the brim of his glasses, his own eyes now dancing with a subtle, dark amusement.
You’ve already turned away though. It frustrates him that he can’t entirely hold your attention.
“Nathan Bateman. Student, MIT.” You gesture to his name tag with a perfectly manicured finger, and without looking back up from your stack of documents.
Now, Nathan glumly reassesses his earlier conclusion. You are being forthcoming because it really doesn’t matter what he, specifically, thinks. Because you’ve already estimated that he’s the guy in the room with least influence. For now, at least. You’ll see. “Better to check. Especially before you start hitting on me.”
He swallows. “Is that what you think’s happening?” Shit. Do you want that to happen?
“Isn’t it?”
He’d make some dig about you flattering yourself. But he knows fine well it’s the most likely reason any hot-blooded guy would be sidling up to you. You’re hot and unobtainable; which makes you even hotter.
Nathan watches as you idly spin your wedding band around and around. He’s surprised you can even lift your arm with that rock attached. When he notices it, he wants to fuck you even more than he did before, but he definitely can’t afford you.
“Actually. I wanted to pick your brains on something. You seem the kinda person who knows a good idea when she sees one.” Unlike the other idiots at this conference who’ve refused to give him the time of day. Maybe he should reconsider his pitch.
You scoff, still not looking up at him. “Honey,” you deliver in a silken, condescending tone, which he is surprised to learn makes him half-hard in his pants. “I charge for that too, and I get the feeling I’m a little beyond your budget.”
“Call it corporate social responsibility then. Supporting the students.”
“Sweetheart. I pay someone else to do that sort of thing for me.”
“Okay.” He takes it in his stride. Wants to show he isn’t fazed by you, even if he is. “Then I guess I am hitting on you. Unless that’s gonna cost me.”
You finally turn back towards him. Look him up and down again as if to remind yourself exactly what you’re dealing with. You study his cheap suit and his mop of curls and his freshly grown-out beard, and he is surprised how exhilarating he finds it to be under your scope.
Your lips curl with subtle amusement, your gaze growing downright wolfish as you survey him.
Fucking unreal.
You look like could eat him up and spit him out. Or… you could swallow, he fantasises briefly, gaze dipping down to your plush mouth.
You do like what you’re seeing, don’t you? Are intrigued by him. Finally. He encounters someone with some good sense.
“What’s it like?” he delivers with a smirk, feeling a resurgence of his familiar confidence as he successfully holds your attention.
You eyeball his fit again. “What? Tailoring?”
He bristles at your dig, but again, aims to present an unbothered exterior. “No. I mean.” His palm waves through the air. “Being a sugar baby.”
You tut at him. “Why, are you interested in a position?”
He arcs a single, thick brow. “I could be.”
“I don’t think my husband’s recruiting. Unless you want a 60-hour a week unpaid internship with zero healthcare and no dental.”
“No. I mean that…” His tie feels awfully constrictive around his neck all of a sudden. This is a bold move but… you have to speculate to accumulate, right? “…I could be yours.”
You clearly weren’t expecting that. And, as much as you try to pass-off that you’re used to jumped-up, cocky little shits like him offering to be your sugar baby, he can plainly see it throws you for a moment. Still, you compose yourself beautifully in no time at all. “I already have one man who saps my time and comes in two minutes flat. What would make you any different, honey?”
Nathan offers you a lopsided smile, opting not to contain the dark, lust-blown gaze smouldering behind his lenses. What does he have to offer, exactly, in this scenario? He purses his lips while he thinks, and then he lands on it: “I’m… hot.”
You look him up and down again, conceding - with a tilt of your head - that his argument is at least halfway compelling. “Hmm. Do you imagine, though, that I struggle for offers from hot, younger men?”
“Not in the slightest. You’re gorgeous.” And rich. “But I think you can do better.”
“Better like you? What makes you so special?” You’re having fun with this. He can tell from the glow in your eyes and the curve of your appealing mouth.
He offers you his best smoulder. It isn’t hard - there’s an easy chemistry between the two of you, he thinks. “There are things I don’t give away for free either.”
“Well,” you ask, leaning in close to him and cupping his chin firmly in your hand as you dip your painted lips towards the shell of his ear. “If I was to take you up on your very generous offer… What pretty things would you want me to buy you with the money, baby boy?”
Fuck. You smell good.
You smell edible, and his suit pants definitely fit far less well than they did when he donned them this morning. In fact, they’re getting increasingly tight around his crotch as his arousal swells for you.
With a tight swallow dipping down his neck and a rare nervous sweat dampening his shirt, he twists to gather some documents out of his backpack. You scrape your nails down his beard as he turns out of reach, and fuck, you’re doing it for him.
Then, gathering his cool, entering the domain he is expert in and is sure of, he flips to the page on costings in his business plan, sliding it across the bar to you.
He gives you a moment to study the text. The list of the equipment, personnel, marketing budgets and so on he needs to realise his rather extensive ambitions. Then, he leans in to you in return as you pore over his plan. He dips his mouth until his beard is tickling the shell of your ear.
“This would be a good start… Mommy.”
As you look back at him with a dark, lust-laden stare, looking as hungry as he feels, he wonders if he might leave this conference with some start-up funds after all.
If this comes off, then… fuck. He hopes you are as ferocious in the bedroom as it strikes him you are in other areas.
Your head is angled towards him, your lips parted in mild surprise. Your gaze briefly dips to the tenting arousal between his legs, and he doesn’t even attempt to hide it.
He has no idea where this will lead; but that’s the fun, isn’t it? Nathan is rather fond of experiments.
A hard swallow dips down your neck and you cross your legs, pressing your thighs together as you take in the substantial swell of him.
You gather a smile, and your composure. “Your business plan looks impressive, Nathan.” His name sounds good in your mouth. He wonders how his cock might feel in there too.
You hand the documents back to him, and you quickly gather up your things, slinging your stack of documents under one arm. With the other, you reach out your hand, offering it to him to shake. He obliges. “I’m certain we could come to some sort of… arrangement.” You free a business card from the holder in your tote and slip it gracefully into his top pocket.
He’s a little disappointed it isn’t your hotel room key, if he’s honest. He’d love to work on his current… problem… right away. “When would you like to… discuss things further?” he asks, as you dangle the promise in front of him.
“You’ll have to make an appointment with my PA,” you dismiss with a smirk. However, you seem keen to guarantee that he does. You’ll be fun to play with, Nathan thinks. “Will you do that for me, Nathan?”
He thinks about it. Decides it’s a no-brainer. “Yes.”
To his surprise, you then reach your hand down towards his crotch, pausing before you touch him and allowing him opportunity to protest. He doesn’t. And so, you settle your palm over the aching bulge between his legs. The warmth of you bleeds through the fabric, and Nathan struggles not to react to the pressure you apply, managing to limit himself to a ragged intake of breath. His eyes flutter shut, lashes fanning against his cheek. When he opens them again, he half expects his glasses to have steamed up.
“Yes, what?” you purr, giving him an abrupt squeeze.
“Y-yes, Mommy,” he stutters, almost choking on his words, and with that, you look very satisfied indeed.
He wagers, from the expression on your face, that you’ll definitely be motivated to seal the deal.
You sweep out and Nathan watches your ass sway in that tight pencil skirt as you go.
Fucking unreal.
93 notes · View notes
sanvitheartificer · 2 years
Text
The most common Century-era Davenport characterization seems to be “fairly serious and dedicated to the mission, maybe occasionally pulls some pranks but mostly no-nonsense”, and with Imbalance in mind I think this still works: Davenport tries really hard to be Serious and Captainly to the standards of Big Folk during the mission, but after ten years of mindwipe he re-evaluates how he approaches things and lets himself lighten up and just have fun with it.
I still like that interpretation a lot, but i've been thinking, what if he was just chaotic the whole time. Because, okay, I tend to correlate “dedicated to the mission” with “serious” but like, why? Maybe Davenport has always been dedicated to the mission and silly as hell.
And gnomes might have a different idea of what dedicated to the mission means, too! For gnomes, maybe that looks less like focusing all your energy and time on the mission, and more like noticing details, pulling things together, using every scrap of fabric and memory you have. Davenport doesn't lose his memories because the mission was everything he had; he loses his memories because his whole life he made into the mission. His family, his past, all of it. No matter how unexpected or unrelated it looks, gnome philosophy says it CAN be related and it can be used.
This gels with an old tumblr post I read a long time ago that I don't remember that well, that basically posited, what if the IPRE was just a fucking chaos institution and that's why the Starblaster crew members are as weird as they are for a scientific expedition. This makes sense in light of the name “Starblaster” and throwing together this entire mission in a year. Gnome-run IPRE that's always been literally this chaotic where the whole mission ethos is “sure, whatever, let's give it a try!”
758 notes · View notes
saixy · 5 years
Text
x*msai is gross and inherently abusive die mad about it
2 notes · View notes
fangirlfreckles · 3 years
Text
I finished Mister Impossible and...oof. All of my super spoiler-y, long-ass reactions/thoughts/opinions/theories/questions are under the cut!
Initial Reactions & Thoughts
Let's start with the biggest reveal: RONAN DREAMT BRYDE. THE FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKK. I am Boo Boo the Fool because I did not see that coming.
Also: reading the Bryde stuff was such a chore for me and there was so. much. of. it. I kept thinking, could he just bite it already? When will Hennessy shoot this motherfucker? And I don't know how to reconcile those feelings now knowing that he's an extension of Ronan :(
Second biggest reveal: all of the Moderators are dreams!! My theory is the government agencies have dreamers at their disposal and made them dream up the Moderators, so that if one of them is killed, they can easily be replaced. It's an ethical and moral dilemma that underscores the series - are dreamt people real? - but I doubt the government gives a shit since they think they're saving the world.
Maggie really chose violence by giving us one single Pynch interaction and making it painful af
Ronan's dream phone lock screen picture of him and Adam - so soft!! Someone draw it please
Adam eating the celebrity chef's gourmet waffle in like three bites with no reaction whatsoever, lol. Boy is deranged and I laughed for like five minutes
Adam's theory that dreamers have always existed and monsters and dragons were never myths, they were dreams, and we've never seen them because they've been sleeping for centuries, and that fixing the ley lines will wake them all up FUCKED ME UP. I can't stop thinking about it.
The Adam and Declan interactions were *chef's kiss*. Two bitchy assholes uniting because they both (grudgingly) love emo himbo Ronan Lynch - we love to see it!!
Jordeclan was delicioussssssss. Declan blushing over Jordan's postcard? What a cutie!! The two of them recreating their first date at the museum with the roles reversed, and Jordan whispering in his ear? SEXY. Jordan trying to make her portrait of Declan into her own personal sweetmetal? Precious!! Declan casually saying "when we're married" to her? I hope our girl fucked him on every surface of that art studio, because I would have
No coherent thoughts about Matthew, just pain
Ronan's interactions with the dreamer kids and his hug with Hennessy - fuck me up!! I've always loved his capacity for tenderness
Also: a seemingly single mother raising FIVE dreamer children??? Tell me more, tell me more
Unpopular opinion: Carliana didn't do anything for me in CDTH and I'm sorry to say I feel the same after MI. For me the issue is that one person has already experienced the entire relationship and the other person hasn't. It's a weird power imbalance born from time travel fuckery, and I'm not feeling it. Not hating on the ship at all, it's just not for me.
The Nathan backstory is fascinating to me and it feels intentional that Carmen constantly mentions him in her POV chapters. I already saw someone mention that maybe he dreamed a copy of himself and that's who Carmen killed at the beginning of CDTH, and the real Nathan is behind the scenes orchestrating a lot of what's going on.
I think Jordan is still awake at the end either because Hennessy is the one controlling the ley lines and the rules don't apply to her, or because Jordan is actually a sweetmetal and not a dream. The mechanics of sweetmetals are still confusing to me so don't ask me to explain this theory!!!
Maggie really expanded the world in the last few pages with all of the dreamed things falling asleep. I would love to see in book #3 the news coverage of what happened, how it gets explained and then covered up, and a reveal of how many dreamers there really are (or that there just are a powerful few).
Why I'm not worried about Pynch
Maggie already confirmed on Twitter that Pynch will not break up and she's not interested in writing about that kind of relationship drama anyway. If she goes against her word and/or kills off either Ronan or Adam, she loses her credibility as an author and her career will not recover. I'm not being grandiose; the Raven Cycle fandom essentially pays her bills by buying her books, and that allows her to continue writing the weird ass books she wants to write. She knows this, she ain't stupid, and I ain't worried.
(Side note: Maggie does use classic relationship drama tropes for Pynch, whether she'll admit it or not. In MI alone there's lack of communication, miscommunication, and the good ol' superhero "I'm cutting off the one I love for their own good/to save them from the bad guys". It's the context around those tropes - both characters have complicated magic and trauma, the government wants to kill one of them, the apocalypse is imminent - that make it fulfilling for Maggie to write and interesting for us to read).
Maggie likes to make her characters suffer and we often forget this between each book (myself included - I blame fluffy fanfic). Pynch angst is a given, as it is for any endgame ship.
MI made it very clear that Ronan and Adam still have a lot of growing up to do, and so it's probably healthy for them to be separated right now. Ronan literally manifested his insecurities and fears around his dreaming, family, and relationship with Adam into a cult leader and then became an eco-terrorist, and Adam is an actual con artist, creating fake friendships and swindling Harvard students out of their money with bogus tarot readings. Ronan is damaged, and Adam is fucking insane. They should be on a break!
Some characters are created to die. Take Bryde, for example. He will not survive the series because he is the Mentor and Villain in Ronan's hero journey. He also represents Ronan's inner demons, and Ronan must kill/defeat/destroy them by the end or else the journey was pointless. Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish, however, were not created to die. They've earned the right to live long lives after all the shit they've been through. (I'm not explaining this as well as it could be explained - English majors, where you at?)
Lingering Questions
Where the fuck were Mór o Córra and the New Fenian? You're telling me there's an ageless Niall running around and the Lynch brothers, ripe with daddy issues, don't think about him once during the whole book? Sus.
When is the pale-eyed woman (presumably their Aunt) from the Opal short story going to make an appearance? I'm guessing she's connected to Mór and the New Fenian, but I could also see her coming into play with Boudicca.
How does Bryde communicate with the other dreamers, and what exactly did he communicate?
Ronan created the rumors about Bryde at the Fairy Market, according to Bryde. How though? Rumors as dreamt things that people just wake up and *know* is some serious mind fuckery
How did the Moderators get a hold of Fletcher but not Adam? I imagine it wasn't for lack of trying on the Moderators' part, so where'd he disappear to?
Does shutting down the ley lines affect Gansey since he's basically made of Cabeswater and Blue because she's an amplifier? I don't expect Maggie to address it in book #3 since Gansey was barely mentioned in MI, but I'm still curious.
I know Maggie's vague about time, but it seemed to me that the book spans Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, and now we're into January because Adam is back in the dorm. Where then did Adam spend his winter break? Did he stay at Harvard (which wasn't allowed when I was in college)? Did he go back to Henrietta and stay at Fox Way? Or go the Barns alone? Maggie also won't address this in book #3 but it makes me sad to think about and I want an answer, or at least a long ass fanfic about it :(
84 notes · View notes
superthatguy62 · 3 years
Text
Final Fantasy III Fun Facts of the Whenever: Retcon Edition
The Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy III marks the first time the Famicom script has received an english translation. Being an easy source for comparison, it’s clear that the FFIII remake makes some changes to the overall plot; And not just the obvious change of the main protagonists.
Here’s some of those (spoilers, I guess?)
1: The Protagonists
First, let’s address the elephant in the room.
Luneth was conceptualized from the Onion Knights in the first place.
Arc is based somewhat on an NPC outside of Kazus.
Tumblr media
 Ingus is based on a soldier from Sasune during the curse.
Tumblr media
Refia is the odd one out: Not only is she not based on an existing character (as far as I can tell), but it’s emphasized via an NPC that Takka lives alone (which might explain why the devs put her with Takka to begin with.
2: Cid
Related to the above, Cid was heavily implied (but not directly said) to have worked for Saronia prior to the Flood of Darkness in the remake.
In the Famicom version, however, he used to work for Argus and even built airships for them. While Cid working for Argus isn’t impossible in the remake, he never mentions it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
ADDENDUM: A soldier’s line in the remake shows that Cid and Argus became friends and did airship research.
Tumblr media
3. The Floating Continent
A significant late-game plot twist in the remake is the revelation that the floating continent was created due to Xande causing the imbalance, which tore the continent out of the earth and hurled it into the sky.
Tumblr media
In the Famicom version, there was a similar plot twist. However, it wasn’t Xande who created the continent: It was Owen.
The Saronia Library’s Book of Owen 1 and Ancient Book 2 reveal that the ancients planned the continent’s ascension and location, probably as part of their enlightenment prior to the Flood of Light. Interestingly, Book of Owen 1 does not mention Owen lifting the continent despite a fan-translation doing so.
Tumblr media
ADDENDUM: While I didn’t mention it before, this has the knock-on effect of changing the time Desch became frozen: In the Famicom timeline, this occurs DURING the Wrath of Light. In the Remake timeline, it occurs AFTER. 
4: The Earth Crystal
In the original Famicom FF3, Xande is specifically mentioned to have used the Earth Crystal as part of his scheme to flood the world with darkness. The remake removes this... for some unknown reason, despite a continent being ripped away due to the Earth Crystal not being much of a stretch.
As an aside, the scene regarding the fake crystal Goldor had is part of the plot dump as a result, rather than being a separate scene, optional scene. The fact that Xande used it also pretty clearly implies that it’s in the Crystal Tower somewhere; in the remake, Doga says that its location is unknown (the Crystal’s speech implies that Xande’s still using it in the remake, but it’s vague enough whether it means that Xande only started using it after the world was restored, or if he was using it the entire time.
Tumblr media
5: Time and the Xande
Normally, I avoid stuff that the remake adds that doesn’t necessarily contradict the original (or whatever it is I actually mean and am failing to articulate), but this is a very special case: The remake heavily plays up the time stop nature of the flood of darkness and Xande’s motive is specifically said to be an attempt to regain his immortality, to the point where Xande himself gloats about it before the fight.
By contrast, the Pixel Remaster never really calls attention to it.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
ADDENDUM: Again, this has a knock-on effect, but on a grander scale: Unei eventually confirms that Xande was indeed frozen as a result of his actions, meaning that most of the issues the Floating Continent faced were actually due to the Cloud of Darkness. This includes the Great Earthquake that kicks off the game.
Speaking of the Cloud of Darkness, the reveal that Xande was under its’ influence is also glossed over in a single line by Unei. The remake goes further by having the Warriors of Darkness further explain how Xande fell under the CoD’s control.
Also, the Curse of the Five Wyrms (the curse that freezes anyone who looks into the mirror in place) kinda exists, except now Xande intends to feed the kids to Wyrms.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
So yeah
20 notes · View notes
turtle-paced · 3 years
Text
A:tLA Re-Watch: Fine-Toothed Comb Edition
I thought I could probably do this for a series I love, too.
They won’t all be as dense (and long) as this recap (’The Great Divide’, anyone?), and no set schedule. But I hope someone enjoys reading this, because I enjoyed writing it.
Also, this isn’t going to be spoiler-free. Analysis assumes familiarity with the entire series.
Book 1, Episode 1 - The Boy in the Iceberg
(0:07) The series starts with an intro. It’s a bloody good intro. First, we go through the four elements and the styles, showing Pakku, Azula, and Aang.
(0:19) Then we see a map - and if you know what you’re looking for, you can find a bunch of the landmarks visited or mentioned over the course of the series - while the voiceover starts talking about her own historical knowledge. Before the story properly starts, we get the sense of a character as well as the history. This gives us the setting. Four nations, one Avatar to keep balance between them, but this was “the old days”.
(0:34)  “But that all changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” We pan to a shot of Fire Nation soldiers, who we can already tell are industrialised. More to the point, the animation shows the Fire Nation attacking, and they’re attacking the fourth wall. This helps get across the point; though the show goes into detail that the Fire Nation is made up of ordinary people, and the Fire Nation has suffered from the war as well, the war is nevertheless unambiguously wrong. Before we meet a single Fire Nation citizen, before we get a good non-intro look at the setting, the Fire Nation’s soldiers have already shot fireballs right at the neutral, uninvolved viewer.
(0:46) We’re told that what makes the Avatar different is his ability to use all four elements, and we see Roku doing so. We also see Roku vanish. So we’ve got this big, central tension in the setting established. The world is out of balance from the Fire Nation’s war of conquest, and the means of addressing this imbalance is AWOL.
(0:50) This brings us from the old days to the present of the story, where the Fire Nation are winning. 
(0:59) We get more information on the character speaking. From the shots of ice and ships, a viewer might accurately guess by this stage that we’re listening to someone from the Water Tribes. Her father and the other men of her tribe left two years ago, leaving her and her brother behind. So this gives us some idea of the immediate circumstances we’ll be jumping into. Including a solid indication that the Water Tribes are patriarchal.
(1:12) Then, the most intimate character detail: the speaker, this Water Tribe girl, has not lost hope that the Avatar will return. We pan over an empty rock spire, up to the sky and the title screen.
This is a bloody good intro because in just over a minute, it’s given us an overview of the political state of the setting and the magic system in use. It gave us the narration, but it also showed the difference between the styles, the lines of the map, the Fire Nation attacking, and the Avatar using all four bending styles. On top of that, it gave us varying levels of detail as to the personal character context of Katara (who’s already got inner life), Sokka, and Aang (by implication, as the missing Avatar).
It took them just over a minute to do all that. Over the course of the series, we’ll see that the writers know how to say a lot with a little.
(2:00) The story proper starts with the siblings in the intro in a boat, in some very icy waters, a long way from anywhere. They’re fishing. We get a name for Katara.
(2:19) Katara grimaces and tentatively starts trying to waterbend the fish into the boat. So we see already that while she’s able to bend, she’s not got a whole lot of skill. We also get Sokka’s name at this point.
(2:40) Sokka ignores his sister in favour of concentrating on his own work and complains about Katara’s bending. He’s already the meat and sarcasm guy! More importantly, from his comments, it would appear that he isn’t able to bend. What’s also quickly apparent is that he doesn’t have all that much patience with Katara’s experimentation, and as a non-bender, does not feel this as a means of connection to his own culture (while Katara does).
(2:59) Sokka’s making muscles at his own reflection shows us early one of the biggest character flaws he’s going to have to work on: teenage insecurity.
(3:31) The show doesn’t go into detail here, but with the boat smashed, Katara and Sokka are in a real bad situation. ’The Desert’ levels of bad situation.
(3:42) Sokka is explicitly sexist here. The fact that he’s so openly sexist, to his sister’s face, is another solid indicator that the Water Tribes as a whole are patriarchal. 
(3:49) While this is pretty straightforward ‘Katara gets angry and accidentally waterbends an iceberg into pieces’, look at the movement of the water following the movement of her arms. Specifically, we see waterbending when Katara makes those big dramatic sweeps of her arms, not when she’s making little jabbing motions towards Sokka. Who wants to bet that if Katara were a firebender, the accidental bending would be from the jabs, rather than the arm-waving? The animators put a lot of hard work and thought into the bending and it shows.
(4:29) The fact that Katara’s outburst was a fairly normal sibling disagreement is reinforced by the fact that Sokka immediately puts his arm around Katara to help steady her as they cling to the ice. They might shout at each other, but they’ve also got each other’s backs when things turn more serious.
(4:37) A glowing light appears beneath the water, quickly followed by another huge-ass iceberg. Even aside from the glowing and the vague figures inside it, this is also clearly not a natural iceberg. Far too round.
(5:12) Confronted with a strange glowing figure in a giant ice ball, Katara’s first reaction is “we have to help” and running forward to do so. An establishing character moment that shows her compassion, her courage, and her proactive nature. Sokka, by contrast, is more cautious - he follows Katara, but he emphasises that they don’t know what this is.
(5:37) When Katara breaks the iceberg, a giant beam of light flashes up to the sky, in a giant signal for anyone and everyone in the area, ‘Inciting Incident!’
(5:46) Establishing shot of a metal ship. Despite the hard lines and points marking this out as a Fire Nation ship like in the intro, the ship is all in blue-grey. No black. No Fire Nation colours.
(5:49) Someone else is involved in this inciting incident, too. A young man with red and black armour - so likely to be an antagonist, going by colour-coding - and a nasty scar on his face which can be identified as a burn scar. One shot and we can see that a) this guy is Fire Nation and b) this guy has been seriously hurt by fire. The first thing he says is “finally,” which tells the viewer that a) he’s been looking out for something of this nature and b) he’s been doing this for a while. Two seconds of looking at Zuko, folks. It’s some information-dense storytelling.
(5:54) Our as-yet-unnamed antagonist turns to “uncle” on the deck and asks him whether he knows what this means. Iroh’s first seen playing a game and drinking tea (from a Fire Nation-themed teapot), complaining that he won’t get to finish it.
(6:13) A quick exchange of dialogue and we’ve got Zuko’s name and title. It’s explicitly confirmed that Zuko is searching for a “him” who is incredibly powerful. Iroh, by contrast, is not fully on board with Zuko’s goals and wary of his nephew’s obsession. He’s motivated primarily by concern for Zuko’s wellbeing.
But what I paused here for is this single, throwaway shot, where we get to see Iroh’s game. The Fire Nation is big into fire supremacy, but Iroh’s playing a game where the ‘suits’ of his tiles are represented by all four elements. (The designs are in red, so I’m wondering if this is a colonial game, or whether fire is highest in the suit ranking.) You can see in the corners that there are secondary symbols on each tile representing the previous element in the Avatar cycle, and if you cared to, you could probably work out some of the rules to the game. And as Zuko and Iroh discuss the location of the (air) Avatar, Iroh’s trying to work out where to put his air tile.
This series has so many details like this. It’s nuts. It’s also one of the things that makes rewatching this show really, really cool. And worth it.
(6:25) “I don’t need any calming tea! I need to capture the Avatar!” Zuko shouts. Aside from the joke, this does get to some of the deeper issues here. Zuko’s not calm. He lashes out at people in his anger, which can be provoked by some pretty trivial things. He also considers capturing the Avatar to be a need.
Meanwhile, what’s on the surface the start of a joke about Iroh’s tea obsession is also an introduction to Iroh’s campaign to get Zuko to look after himself. Sit down and enjoy some tea. Sleep. Eat. Get a hobby. Do something that’s not unhealthily brooding about his mission to find the Avatar, and by extension, earning the approval of his abusive dad.
(6:52) Cut to commercial break on Katara and Sokka staring up apprehensively at a glowing, expressionless Aang.
(7:07) Other side of commercial break, Aang collapses down the slope, gets caught by Katara, and poked in the head by Sokka. Tension deflated! Not to mention repositions Aang so that the audience can see his vulnerability.
(7:17) Aang wakes up and stares into Katara’s face. This is a real love at first sight moment. Personally, I never thought the series was going anywhere but Kataang; the question wasn’t so much ‘are they in love?’ but ‘can they deal with their romantic feelings maturely enough to be in a relationship?’ Not until the end of the series, they can’t.
(7:30) Then we get our first idea of Aang’s character as he plays up the ‘tired and wounded’ demeanour, only to grin widely and ask Katara if she wants to go penguin-sailing with him. Mischievous, fun-loving, social. His enthusiasm for animals is also demonstrated.
I also love our first brief look at airbending, which Aang just uses to help him get around on the ice. (The first look we got at waterbending was similarly utilitarian.) Unlike Katara at this point, Aang is clearly a good enough airbender to use his arts almost without thought. Airbending is just something he can do.
(7:43) Meanwhile, Sokka wants to know why Aang isn’t frozen. Speaking of characterisation. Sokka wants to know how this surviving in an iceberg thing worked.
(7:55) We get a name for Appa before we get a good look at Appa. Aang’s rush to Appa and address of his bison as “buddy” establishes that Appa’s not just a pack animal but a friend.
(8:02) And the fact that Appa is not a common animal in the area is first conveyed by Sokka’s spectacular jaw drop.
(8:17) “Flying bison” is our first introduction to the weird and wonderful animals of the Avatar universe. Six legs included.
(8:32) Again, because this show is really good, I just want to highlight Aang’s simple advice to Sokka that the bison snot will wash out as excellent early characterisation. Aang’s not laughing at Sokka, he’s clearly aware of the non-effect of bison snot on clothing (implying that he’s been the one to do laundry before when a bison has sneezed on him), and he focused on a simple thing that can be done about the unpleasant situation of being covered in bison snot.
(8:46) Katara and Sokka disagree about whether Aang’s a spy for the Fire Navy. This tells us a bit about how Katara and Sokka each approach situations. Katara’s looking at the person in front of her. Sokka’s thinking of the broader situation and potential implications. And they’re both right - Katara’s correct that Aang is not a Fire Nation spy, her read on him better than Sokka’s. Sokka’s correct that the giant beam of light could attract Fire Nation attention, because as we’ve already seen, it has.
This is actually one of the things that makes Sokka one of the best depictions of “the smart guy” I’ve seen, and one of the things that makes the cast as a whole so compelling. The resident smart guy doesn’t know everything, doesn’t think of everything, and has personal issues (in this case, his untrusting nature) that get in the way of clear analysis sometimes, so he doesn’t just benefit from alternative points of view but outright needs them to be fully effective. Meanwhile, Sokka’s not monopolising the team brain, and the rest of the cast can and do make regular, intelligent contributions to group planning. Everyone gets to be smart.
Also worth noting for the future, Katara sees the Fire Nation as evil, and Sokka does not disagree.
(9:10) With a mighty sneeze and an undeniable display of airbending, we get Aang’s name.
(9:21) While the subtitle “the Last Airbender” is a bit of a giveaway to the viewer that Aang is the only surviving human airbender we’ll see in the series, Katara and Sokka’s lack of immediate recognition of airbending and Sokka’s “pfffft yeah” reaction are the first in-universe indications that airbending, much like flying bison, is not often seen in the area.
(9:25) Sokka also refers to “midnight sun madness”, and indeed, while more than a day passes in these first two episodes, we don’t see actual nightfall. This is actually a bit of an inconsistency. The constant sunshine at the South Pole indicates that it’s summer there, yet as soon as we hit the Earth Kingdom, even the southern Earth Kingdom, it’s winter. So this is a minor error, something’s real off with the hemispheres of Avatar world, or the South Pole is the only thing in the series we see in the southern hemisphere.
This is also the sort of inconsistency I’m more than prepared to forgive, because it’s been done to keep the show’s timeline comprehensible and balanced. The series starts at the beginning of winter and ends at the end of summer. One season per element - water in winter, earth in spring, fire in summer.
(9:42) “The Desert”-style crisis averted via Appa’s presence, even if he’s not flying. Though since he’s got a saddle, the fact that Appa is a means of transportation was already clear.
(10:42) Meanwhile, on the Fire Nation ship, Zuko is out of armour and brooding.
(10:54) Iroh first hints, then openly states, that Zuko should get some sleep. (Sun’s still up!) But yes, again, we’re being shown that Zuko’s pursuit isn’t just an unquiet mind but not healthy, and Iroh’s trying not just to look after him, but to get him to look after himself. This includes outright discouraging Zuko from questing at all.
(11:12) Zuko’s response is a telling one. He’s not this dedicated to the goal out of the simple belief that the Avatar is alive and that capturing him would be good for the Fire Nation. It’s unclear at this point how or why Zuko’s honour could hinge on the capture of the Avatar, but it is clear that it’s a personal obligation to him.
(11:41) Katara knows Aang if he knows what happened to the Avatar. On Katara’s side, we see the importance of the Avatar to her. About all she can do to learn what happened to the Avatar is ask the new guy ‘what happened to the Avatar?’ and this is exactly what she’s done.
On Aang’s side, he still doesn’t know what’s going on - he thinks he’s been in the iceberg for a few days. He doesn’t know that the subtext of Katara’s question is ‘do you know how the war can be stopped, my family returned to me, and my home and culture preserved?’ His most recent experience is that being the Avatar loses him friends and family. So he lies and avoids that particular uncomfortable truth.
Though from the ‘just curious’ we can see that Katara doesn’t have much actual expectation that Aang will be able to give her a useful answer. Plus her non-reaction is used to make Aang’s denial all the more awkward for him.
(12:17) We get a sepia-toned nightmare sequence of Aang ending up in that iceberg. He and Appa were flying along when they got caught in a storm and dragged underneath the waves.
(12:30) Then Aang starts glowing, his demeanour drastically changes, and he waterbends the iceberg. Though it might be obvious from the title Avatar: the Last Airbender, the fact that Aang can use both airbending and waterbending would, per the intro, be a demonstration that he’s the Avatar. The show shows us these things.
(12:46) When Katara wakes Aang up, we get a shot from her perspective emphasising Aang’s tattoos. The meaning and significance of these is not explicitly stated, just highlighted as something outside of Katara’s ordinary.
(12:55) Establishing shot of Katara and Sokka’s village. There’s one decent-sized permanent structure, a low snow wall, and a bunch of tents, many of which aren’t in the best of repair. It’s obviously a barely-subsisting settlement.
(13:02) “Aang, this is the entire village,” Katara says. The entire village is 20 people, according to this shot. Aside from this low, low number of people, the demographics are obviously skewed. No adult men at all. The village is entirely women and children.
(13:08) The village also shies away from Aang when Katara introduces him. Sokka’s wariness of outsiders is the more common reaction.
(13:17) Gran-Gran gives part of it to the audience. Nobody has seen any airbenders for a hundred years. The fact that this coincides with the vanishing of the Avatar a hundred years ago may not be a coincidence. The intro gives this context to the viewers lets them piece things together in part, i.e., the airbenders must have been wiped out very early in the war, and this possibly has something to do with the missing Avatar. Without the intro, Aang doesn’t have that context, and is shocked at hearing that airbenders are apparently extinct.
Being Aang, however, he doesn’t pursue the thought any further. We’ll see Aang avoid things he doesn’t want to deal with again and again throughout the series, but it starts here, when he hears ‘airbenders are extinct’ and doesn’t immediately start asking for more information. 
(13:32) Continuing to establish Sokka’s character and the world he lives in - he assumes Aang is carrying a weapon, because of course kids Aang’s age would need and carry weapons. He doesn’t recognise it, so he wants to know what it is. But his inexperience also shows because he just grabs the damn thing. What if it was a weapon? Very safe.
(13:44) The basic mechanics of Aang’s glider are explained by Aang himself telling a bunch of curious little kids how it works. The information asymmetry works both ways. Most of the other characters know nothing about airbending and the Air Nomads.
(14:00) Aang takes flight to the oohs and aahs of the people of the South Pole. We cut back between Aang’s smile, Katara’s smile, and the villagers to show that Aang doesn’t just enjoy flying, he enjoys making others happy.
(14:12) More good Sokka characterisation: he built a watchtower. As well as personal innovation, we see that Sokka isn’t training himself personally, but putting an emphasis on technology and development.
(14:20) Meanwhile, Katara retains her sense of wonder, and she’s not afraid to show it.
(14:32) At this point, Katara does not really identify herself as a waterbender. This goes back to waterbending as a means for Katara to engage with her culture. She can bend water, but she doesn’t have the knowledge of waterbending passed down by her tribes that would help her claim the title of a waterbender.
This also begs the question: why doesn’t Katara have this knowledge, or access to this knowledge?
(14:44) Katara’s lack of training is made clearer here, as she tells her grandmother that she’s finally got a bender to teach her. So we’ve just learned there are literally no other benders at the South Pole, and probably haven’t been for years.
(15:03) Meanwhile, back on the Fire Nation ship, we see something a bit different. Zuko’s squaring off against some opponents while Iroh watches. Earlier we saw Zuko yelling at his uncle. Now we see Iroh taking charge, acting in his capacity as Zuko’s teacher.
(15:14) Power in firebending comes from the breath, Iroh tells us. We’ll see that concept come up again, and reflected in the depictions of firebending throughout the series.
(15:22) Also note the warmer colour palette for this scene, and how the sun has been clearly placed in the frame.
(15:26) Iroh demonstrates his point with a small blast of fire that peters out in front of Zuko’s face. This shows us a couple of things. One, Iroh’s got a lot of control. He’s comfortable aiming that blast at someone. Two, visibly burned Zuko does not flinch when his uncle demonstrates a move with fire in his direction. Given that we learn later that Zuko’s wound was deliberately inflicted by a family member, this reveals a lot in hindsight about how much Zuko trusts his uncle.
(15:33) Zuko demands to learn more advanced techniques; Iroh refuses.
(15:53) Zuko points out that the Avatar has had a century to master the four elements. Again, for the re-watch - Ozai banished Zuko and told him he could come home if this teenage boy could find someone who’d been missing for a hundred years and capture someone who’d (presumably) had the time to master all four bending arts. Heads, Ozai wins; tails, Zuko loses.
(16:01) Another thing that we’ll see throughout the series is Iroh refusing to let Zuko bully him, without actually getting into an open confrontation. Yes, I’ll teach you the advanced moves, Iroh says - after I finish my roast duck!
Off the top of my head, I can only think of one instance of Iroh yelling at Zuko, in a moment of some frustration for Iroh (frustration born out of fear for Zuko, at that). Otherwise, he stays calm in the face of his severely abused nephew’s anger, yet does not reward Zuko’s poor behaviour.
(16:15) Meanwhile, back at the South Pole, Sokka is telling the ‘men’ that it’s important not to show fear when facing a firebender.
(16:22) The joke being that Sokka’s talking to a bunch of kids who must all be around five years old. There are some deadly serious undertones to this joke. Sokka’s speech might be overblown and inappropriate to the audience he’s addressing, but he is legitimately trying to prepare for an attack on his home. He’s a teenager. Why is this his responsibility? Why are there actual kids getting this lecture?
Note also that nobody’s talking about getting the adult women involved in the defence of the tribe. Not even Katara.
(16:59) Within seconds of Sokka’s very serious warrior talk, Aang’s enlisted Appa and grabbed a spear to make a slide for the Water Tribe kids. Just because he thought it would be fun.
(17:09) “What war?” Aang asks.
The fact that Aang Rip Van Winkle’d his way into the show’s setting means that thought he’s not a stranger to the physical mechanics of bending, most of his information about the social and political aspects of the setting is incredibly out of date. Aang has to ask questions about things that other characters take for granted, which is often a pretty graceful way of expositing for the viewer. Plus it’s a source of conflict and tension for Aang in its own right, but I’ll get into that next episode and the episode after.
(17:15) Just like the incident with the extinct airbenders a few minutes ago, Aang ignores the information that there’s a war on to go chase a penguin. (Which have four wings and whiskers, in this universe.) Right here, we’re setting up the reveal for Aang that he napped his way into what is, from his point of view, a post-apocalyptic dystopian future.
(17:52) Katara attempts to strike a deal with Aang to score some waterbending lessons.
(17:58) Aang’s willing, but notes that he’s not a waterbender. (Technically a lie.) This shows us the extent of Katara’s ignorance of the world beyond the South Pole. She doesn’t know how different waterbending and airbending are. 
Aang’s return question of “isn’t there somewhere here who can teach you?” shows his ignorance in turn. Like I mentioned before, his information about society and politics is so out of date, and his innocent insensitivity here stings Katara with the reminder of how alone she is and how much her culture has suffered in the war.
(18:11) But in a serious good point of his character, Aang just goes “okay, how about the North Pole, then?” looking for a solution for Katara’s problem. 
(18:19) Katara reveals that the Water Tribes are actually cut off from each other, furthering the depiction of the isolation the war causes. As if the distance wasn’t bad enough.
(18:30) Aang is generous enough to offer to give Katara a lift to the other end of the planet. Like Katara just said, it’s not exactly turn right at the second glacier. Aang’s very casual about the distances and logistics involved. Travel isn’t a big deal to him. We’ll come back to this thought. Contrast to Katara’s hesitation.
Meanwhile, from Aang’s perspective, this is also a good way to avoid being the Avatar for a while longer.
(19:23) “I haven’t done this since I was a kid.” / “You still are a kid!” This is an oft-mentioned exchange that gets right to the heart of the differences between the world Aang grew up in and the world Katara grew up in. Aang’s a child and he knows he’s a child. (Again, more on this thought later.) Katara was forced to take on adult responsibilities years ago.
This is one of the most touching things about Aang and Katara’s relationship, though: they have fun together. It’s so simple, but Katara’s life was responsibility after responsibility. Aang’s presence in her life, his insistence on not taking on every single responsibility (at least not right this second), is a healthy way for both of them to make time for themselves and just enjoy life. Including, for Katara, age-appropriate horsing around.
(19:48) Aang and Katara come to a halt in front of something that casts a huge shadow. They stop right at the edge of the darkness the shadow casts, but don’t actually cross the visible line just yet.
(19:50) When we pan out, we see that it’s a Fire Nation ship, run aground on some more unnatural-looking ice. It’s an unmistakeable, unavoidable sign of the war’s presence at the South Pole.
(19:59) Since Aang doesn’t know about the war, he doesn’t have the same wariness Katara does about wandering into an old ship that might be booby-trapped. The dread isn’t ingrained into him like it is for Katara. And with that, they walk into the shadow of the war.
(20:28) We see here that waterbent ice punched right through the metal hull of the Fire Nation ship.
(20:56) Aang looks at the rack of Fire Nation weapons with confusion and dismay, while Katara gives Aang the rundown of how the ship’s been here since her grandmother was young, part of the Fire Nation’s first attacks.
(21:04) This, Aang can’t ignore. There’s a ship with weapons, run aground in not-too-accidental looking circumstances. He starts asking what the hell’s up with all this. In an owww my heart moment, Aang leads off by saying that this can’t be right, he has friends all over the world. 
Remember that from Aang’s perspective, this is only a few days at most after the final flashback in ‘The Storm’, an episode that showed the senior monks are starting to get very worried indeed about a war starting.
(21:10) Katara spots the thread and works out that Aang was in the iceberg for a very, very long time.
(21:36) Aang reels at the news that he’s a hundred years out of time and there’s a huge war going on. At this point, I don’t think he’s got a real appreciation of what that means (because that’s something for episode three), but it knocks him on his ass anyway.
(21:44) Likewise, I don’t think Katara’s got a solid understanding of what this means for Aang, but she tries to comfort him anyway. Fittingly for a character whose inner life was illustrated by saying I still have hope, she tries to get Aang to focus on something positive. Aang, who’s also an optimist, says that at least he got to meet Katara.
(21:59) Unfortunately, before they can head back to the village, Aang sets off a booby trap. And why would Aang be looking for booby traps? He grew up in a world where he didn’t have to worry about this sort of thing.
(22:10) The result is to send up a signal flare.
(22:24) And someone is watching. From Zuko’s perspective, he can’t tell how old Aang is, but he can definitely see airbending being used.
(22:45) The pan over to the village, along with Zuko’s line that he’s found the Avatar’s hiding place, emphasises that Zuko poses a threat to the village as well as just to Aang.
(22:50) We get a lot of close-ups of halves of Zuko’s face over the course of the series, and it’s always worth noting which side of his face is being used to convey what, because he’s definitely got a duality thing going on. This time, we cut to the “to be continued” on Zuko’s unscarred eye, i.e., the side of his face where his resemblance to his father is revealed to be unmistakeable.
Given that he’s apparently gearing up to attack an already war-scarred village doing nothing but just trying to get by…fair enough.
88 notes · View notes
Text
‘I’m sorry Erie’ (AEwVS one-shot)
[Alice, Erie, Tiara] Major spoilers for the game/ angst/ hurt and no comfort/ mild depictions of violence/ depictions of panic attacks
Hiii. Guess who made another advanced education one shot :). Not that I haven’t got to the history level yet, and this post may be edited for grammar mistakes and inserting additional trigger warnings if need be. Nonetheless, hopefully you enjoy :P
Somewhere in the History level, a water fountain sloshes lazily. The ambient noise of water splashing can be heard from all over the level, creating a soothing and natural lullaby, enjoyed by both staff and students. The sound of papers shifting can also be heard. Smooth thin surfaces lightly scratching against rugged, cold tile. A body shifts, desperate for warmth, barely mumbling about the chill they’ve grown accustomed to.
Sometime around 2:00 AM, Alice Freudenmacher continues to shift uncomfortably on the pathetic pile of papers she calls a bed. She opens her phone, and peers at the time with silent despair. Once in a fetal position, she rolls on her back and opts to stare at the ceiling. She’s already tried playing Tetris for some hours, but she’s grown bored of doing so nearly every night of the week. Turning the screen off, she huffs out of frustration before deciding what she wanted to do with her time. Too mentally exhausted to revise history questions and too frustrated to simply lie on her back, Alice thinks that going for a walk will do her good. Maybe if she spends some energy walking, then she would get tired and finally get some sleep.
Alice hesitantly lifts one leg at about 45 degrees, and let it hang in the air for a minute.
Nothing.
Alice smiled. This must mean that Tiara left a while ago, and she was left alone in the level. Tiara would have forced Alice to stay still, as she is disturbed by major movements. She puts her leg down and uses both to get up from her paper pile, stretching in the process. She’s still wearing the same clothes from yesterday, so she does not need to do anything else before pocketing her phone and beginning to roam. Alice begins to walk around her level, no longer concerned with the time. Her bare feet make soft taps on the tile, lost to the echo of the empty level. She walks towards a wall and gently places her hand on it, feeling the light and aged wallpaper beneath her palm. Keeping her pace, she continues with her mind on automatic, until the gentle ambience of splashing water can be distantly heard.
With her ears perked, Alice makes her way to the marble water fountain. Alice does not know where it came from, nor how the school would collect the funding for that type of thing, but nonetheless, it’s here. She walks over to the edge of the fountain, barely gazing her reflection in the dark. She briefly captured the neutral frown on her face, her eyes naïve yet darkened with fear. Without much further observation, Alice knows she has changed.
Much has changed since the curse started.
First, it was everyone around her. Since Mr. Cleany was a friendly person, he and she both got along pretty well. But suddenly, he became more involved with cleaning trash than anything else, leaving Alice with few others to talk to. In the math level, she was disgusted with the state of the cafeteria and preferred to stay away. Laura and Viktor won’t talk to her much either, citing that they had ‘more important things to do than talk to a measly human’. In the language level, Marzia would make snide remarks about how Alice was ‘undeserving’, given her small affinity for Erie. Phonty held the same attitude. She chose to ignore their comments, but they did not hurt any less.
She was so grateful to have Erie as a partner.
Erie was strong and was able to defend her from the verbal abuse of the other staff with rebuttals of her own. She had a confident attitude, and rarely backed down from challenges the staff or students presented her with. But she was also sweet and gentle, telling Alice that she is her favorite human, telling Alice that she loves her, that she will do anything for her, living for her.
That Erie would be there for Alice no matter what.
Alice breath lightly caught in her throat. Unwelcome memories start flooding into her mind, and no matter what Alice tries to do, she knows that she will have to relive what happened between her and Erie.
One day, as the curse was re-activated by Angell getting a notebook answer wrong, Tiara took over Alice’s body. Large black tendrils shot out of her body, tearing some new skin and breaking through where scabs had once formed. Alice could do nothing but cry out in distress as Tiara dominated over her once again, her mind fuzzy and numb.
“TIARA!”
Startled, Tiara quickly looks up. Stomping towards her was that robot girlfriend of hers, Erie. Just by the looked of unfettered rage of her screen, Tiara readied to defend herself.
“LET GO OF ALICE! YOU DO NOTHING BUT HURT HER!”
Not as fluent in English as Viktor, Tiara only hisses and growls at Erie, sending the same message. Tiara forced Alice to crouch as she brings up all four of her arms to the air, ready to fight.
If she could, Alice would be shaking from the emotional conflict. She knows that Erie is only trying to protect her, and she knew that what constantly happens to her body was not at all healthy. She’s always miserable cycling between sleep schedules, allergic reactions to spores, eating habits, and having no control over her body. She hates having to feel her wounds constantly reopen over and over again, the blood soaking her back and making her clothes stick. She hated all of it.
But by extension, she knows Tiara was no better fighting off the curse than Viktor. Alice can feel her personal isolation, her persistent longing for Viktor’s company, her lost desperation to save Tarwill World, her misplaced anger. Alice was aware that Tiara had come to a completely new dimension, with nothing to her name, and no one to talk to.
Fear was the emotion that bonded Tiara and Alice.
Without any control, Alice takes a front seat to Tiara lashing out at Erie. She jumps forward with her arms bared. Anticipating the attack, Erie lurches back, making sure not to get slashed by her foe. As Tiara focuses on slashing, Erie continues to sidestep her, noting the pattern of which her arms were being used. Luckily, Tiara’s tendrils were long and not scythe-like, so Erie easily grabs two arms, and seamlessly transitions them into one hand. That leaves the other two. Holding on to a pair, Erie utilizes her height and sweeps Tiara under her feet. Being unable to account for the imbalance due to the body she was in, she falls flat on her back and is pinned down by Erie, her other hands pinned by Erie’s knees.
“I WON’T LEAVE!! NO WANT!!” Tiara cries angrily.
Erie is blank faced. She slowly draws a small red plant from a back pocket and gently brings it to Tiara’s face.
“And I don’t think I gave you an option.”
Alice felt the rising anxiousness that rose within Tiara’s chest, uncomfortable and suffocating. She never felt Tiara being scared before, just angry most of the time. Now, waves of nausea were making their way through Alice’s torso. She had also never seen the crueler side of her girlfriend either. Maybe moody, but never so calm like the brewing clouds of a catastrophic storm.
Erie finally brought the plant in contact with Tiara’s face. All hell broke loose inside of Alice.
Tiara begins to scream at pitches that Alice never previously imagined, one that bring a dull ring to Alice’s ears. Tiara begins to howl from pain and thrashes against Erie’s weight, desperate to be free. Alice feels the panic, fear, sadness, and regret amalgamating in her chest, running through the polymorph’s body. Her vocal cords were suddenly ragged and choked as Tiara continues to struggle. Her skin felt like it was a flaming inferno that slowly melted her flesh.
Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! Please stop!
Finally, Tiara’s control seems to be weakening as she surrendered, and Alice seizes the opportunity to regain control of her body, the nuances of physical senses fully returning to her. Alice began coughing due screaming. As she recuperates, she can somewhat process what Erie was saying.
“Alice! Are you ok?” Erie gently asks as she gets off of Alice, tendrils now returning within her body.
“I’m...mostly fine.” She responds as she softly lays a hand on her side, nervously eyeing the wound where Tiara once was. She clears her throat.
“W-What was that plant you produced Erie, if I may ask?”
Erie grinned, a smile that Alice was strangely wary of.
“So, one of the students made it to Viktor’s home. And there are poisonous plants that can deter Tarwills! I told the student to bring one for me, so we can get rid of Tiara!” Erie said with enthusiasm as she looked down at the ivy in her hands. Alice also gazes at the plant, but with horror. Being a history teacher, she was somewhat interested in the history of the Tarwill’s existence. At her pestering, Viktor vaguely stated that their home was invaded by a plant, and said that he wished to speak of it no further.
That plant…it must be the one Viktor mentioned!
Alice spoke without forethought.
“Erie…no…please don’t tell me you hurt Tiara.”
She was met with confusion.
“What do you mean? Do you think it’s fair that she hurts you, but you don’t want to hurt her?” Something was coming, and Alice was scared of what may happen if she pushed this conversation. But, strangely enough, she still wanted to fight on Tiara’s behalf.
“But I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I think…I think I understand how she feels!”
Erie, dumbfounded, retorts with anger.
“IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT SHE FEELS. What matters to me is that you are ok. I could care less about Tiara! I’m tired of seeing you miserable all the time because of her.”
Alice felt an inkling of repulsion. Surely Erie was not so…inconsiderate?
“You have a point my love, but I think that does matter! You need to realize that Tiara is hurting too, and she can’t control her actions during the curse!”
“Then why can’t she just leave your body and go find someone else to pester, huh? I should not be arguing with you about this, it’s ridiculous that you offer yourself to someone that always hurts you.”
Both of them knew they were past the point of return.
“That’s not what I’m doing! I’m just trying to help and understand her! She doesn’t have anyone to talk to! She can’t go to Viktor; he only sees her as a threat!”
With Erie’s emotions fully derailed, she screams.
“I NEED SOMEBODY! I NEED YOU, ALICE!”
Both of the jolted from the sudden action. Alice’s passive nature made her and Erie’s relationship practically fight-free. And yet, here they were screaming at each other, casually misunderstanding each other.
Erie is the first to get up. With tears, she refuses to say anything more to Alice. The old conversation topic that always goes in circles was nothing new to either of them. What was new was the fight. Erie simply walks away, not bothering to heal Alice’s wounds. Alice so badly wanted to scream for Erie, to run back and embrace Erie with her arms. She wanted to be forgiven, to forget what happened between them. To tell Erie that she loves her forever and she’s sorry and that she’ll never act that way again. But she can’t, because that would mean ceding her point. And Alice did not want to give up on Tiara.
And just like on that day, Alice can only double over and sob into her palms.
Somewhere, as a hidden spectator watches Alice, they turn with silent and heavy footfalls to one of the level’s many walls. Making sure they are quiet and far away enough from Alice, they carve a message into the wall, big enough to be highly noticeable. They linger at their work for a moment, before gently sinking to the ground as a mask.
“I’M SORRY ERIE”
11 notes · View notes
innuendostudios · 4 years
Text
Thoughts on Even More Games
Tumblr media
[vague, unspecific spoilers for Heaven’s Vault, Later Alligator, and Life is Strange 2]
Thoughts on Heaven’s Vault
Heaven’s Vault is a game about archeology, which means it’s also a game about incompleteness. This is very clever. Inkle - also the developers of 80 Days, which I will play someday! - specialize in deep narratives that can be explored many, many ways, allowing for a lot of player choice. You make a lot of small decisions - do you share a discovery with the trader in exchange for a valuable item, or hide it so he doesn’t plunder it? do you go looking for your missing friend, or let her stay missing in case there are people trying to follow you to her? These all have their own little arcs and resolutions, and there are so many of them, and so many ways they can play out, that the game can never be played the same way twice. The overall story begins and ends in the same place and theoretically hits the same major beats, but the journey is tailored broadly and finely to each player; it’s a style of design Aaron A. Reed refers to as “not... a branching tree but a braided rope.”
Making a narrative about archeology is how you dodge the exponentially complicated nature of that design: if there are dozens of locations, characters, plot threads, bits of color, which can be engaged with at many points in time, or ignored, or dropped by the player halfway through, how do you avoid telling a story full of gaps and dead ends? Well... you don’t. Having only partial information and having to infer the rest is what archeology is.
The protagonist of Heaven’s Vault, Aliya, is digging up the secrets of an ancient civilization, having been sent by her academy to find a researcher who’s gone missing, and stumbling into his incredible discovery. Everywhere she goes, there are holes: she has partial understanding of the researcher’s journey and motives; he, in turn, had partial understanding of the mystery he was uncovering, and Aliya has only fragments of his knowledge; the ancient texts she translates are usually fragments of larger works, and she is guessing at the meanings of many of the words; the game’s constantly updating historical timeline has entire centuries with nothing but question marks. Aliya arrives in a new location and wonders aloud to her robot companion about what this place was, when it was founded, when it was abandoned, how her predecessor found his way her and where he went next and what he took with him.
The constant feeling of discovery - of unearthing - is magnificent. Site after site, I asked, “What is this place?” Always thinking, if the eventual answer is any good, this is going to be one of the best games I’ve ever played. And, in the end, it doesn’t give you an answer, it just give you enough to make the story feel complete. It answers by not answering.
Also, translating alien texts is just extremely my jam. I’m the weirdo who enjoyed the ending of Arrival but secretly wished the whole movie had been about xenolinguistics like the first half. I guess Inkle felt similar.
The game’s by no means perfect. I think I enjoyed the sailing between worlds more than most - it’s slow, but very pretty - but it’s going to discourage a replay. I don’t think the relationship between Aliya and her robot, Six, ever gets terribly interesting. Some of the archeology is a little too obviously game-y - sail around, wait to find a random ruin, beam Six down to grab an ancient doodad, translate a bit of text, lo and behold it’s from one of the sites you’re looking for and it’s narrowed your search radius somehow. (It gives Star Trek explanations the first few times - e.g. “it has radiation that only exists in one part of the nebula” - and then stops bothering.) And the game sags a little in the middle; it could’ve hacked out 3 or 4 dig sites and still given me the same experience.
But, all told, there’s magic in it, and it just feels good to be there. Do not sleep on this one.
Thoughts on Later Alligator
There’s not a ton to say about this game except that is charming as hell. Lindsay and Alex Small-Butera have build a beautifully animated world of cute alligators, one of whom is having a birthday party where he’s convinced he’s going to be murdered. He wants you to run around getting information out of everyone who’s going to be there, which you get by completing minigames. It’s a cast of weird and funny characters with weird and funny dialogue and there’s not much more to it than that.
The design can be a little frustrating. Some minigames, if you lose, you don’t get to try again. Some are annoyingly finicky. You need to complete them all to get the true ending, which means, in my case, playing the game three times to complete all the bits you missed or got locked out of. The ending was a little different each time, so it wasn’t a total wash, but the game’s on a timer that only advances when you play a game or take the bus, and once you’ve completed most of the games there’s a lot of traveling back and forth from one nowhere to another just to advance time to the next unskippable plot beat.
(It’s also a little unclear what you’re missing as you try to get the final ending, as some of the ongoing puzzle are optional.)
But I can’t get mad. The game is too damn cute! Each character is lively and unique, with tons of personality, and the dialogue is just clever enough not to fall into empty adorkability.
It good.
Thoughts on Life is Strange 2
Somewhere, early in the development of Life is Strange 2, some Dontnod employee wrote in a design document “Episode 4 - cult?” (but in French) and nobody told them “no.”
I will not forgive them for this,
After twenty minutes of LiS2, I was ready to yell at everyone who had reported it was boring. It has one of the most powerful, gut-punching openings of any game I’ve played in recent memory. And all through the first, second, and third episodes, I was in love. Unlike Before the Storm, this was its own creature, willing to make dramatic departures from the original game’s template. Instead of controlling a character with supernatural powers, you play as the superpowered character’s older brother. The one with the magic is a 9-year-old, unable to fully understand or control his abilities, suffering a recent trauma, and needing to be guided through a dangerous and racist world. All the ambition missing from Before the Storm is back, and this time the animation isn’t creepy and the writing is wildly improved (thanks to some journeyman script work from Fullbright’s Steve Gaynor) and I even have a computer able to play it on higher graphical settings.
But nothing good lasts.
Everything good about the series screeches to a halt in Episode 4, the one where some asshole said “cult?” and didn’t get a Nerf football thrown at their head. And it’s not just that it’s a terrible idea; it’s actually sort of amazing how much the game relies on an alchemy of plot, tone, theme, and writing, and how a slight imbalance can throw the whole thing off. Episode 4 has scene after scene that are powerful in their conception - brothers reunited after a violent rift; a boy having his first conversation with his estranged mother in nearly a decade; getting interrogated by the feds for a crime that can’t even be explained by physics - fall flat because the writers can’t think of anything interesting for the characters to say. (Steve Gaynor’s name stops appearing in the credits as of this episode.)
And here the game’s rickety bits, kept delicately together for three episodes, start to shake apart. Dontnod’s overly-earnest voice direction, which I didn’t notice in the early episodes, started to wear me down. (”Could you sigh mid-syllable, like you’re slightly overwhelmed with emotion?” “Sure, on which line?” “All of them.”) The thinness of the secondary characters, most of whom pop up for one episode and disappear, became more noticeable. The lack of a mechanical hook like the time rewinding of the original game, and the attendant commentary on choice-based games and power fantasies, made the game feel less substantial. The surreal imagery of the original, obligatorily evoked in the prequel, is sensibly absent, but there’s nothing equally striking that replaces it. Even the branching path decisions become less clear: the end-of-episode stat screens for the final episodes mentioned at least a dozen choices I didn’t even know I’d made, some of which were critical in shaping my younger brother’s morality and were not necessarily the choices I’d have made if I’d known I was making a choice at all.
Come the final episode, I got An Ending that seemed right for the way I’d played, but much of the way I’d played felt accidental.
So what are we to make of this? Life is Strange is a beautiful disaster, an ambitious disaster, where Life is Strange 2 is almost less interesting for being  more competent. It has a huge mess of charged topics - American racism, teens losing their virginity, raising a child outside the nuclear family, grief and trauma - and, while it handles them without the gracelessness and sledgehammer subtlety of the original, it doesn’t come to any conclusions about any of them. LiS1, for all its jank, had some opinions, where LiS2 falls into the category of “this sure is some shit, innit?” games.
It starts with a powerful premise, deeply relatable characters, fine writing, beautiful art, but can’t even manage, in the end, to be a disaster. It is the only game in the series so far to be forgettable.
76 notes · View notes
pumpkinpaix · 5 years
Note
hi again! previous anon here, just remembered a question. there's something that's been nagging at me about the show's lan parents storyline — LXC tells WWX that story about his parents and it seems like it's meant as a parallel for LWJ and WWX. But the Lan parents thing sounded like a super toxic/unhealthy relationship? like their mom was literally being kept against her will... maybe i'm just missing the nuance for the parallel? would love to hear your thoughts on this!
(ask con’t, sorry it’s long) i’ve just gotten out of a bad relationship not too long ago and gets really leery of cdramas portraying control as love (ie one love interest preventing the other from leaving, or clear power imbalances as with period dramas). i really don’t think that’s what’s happening here but got kind of uncomfortable too at the “i want to bring someone back to gusu/hide them away” line LWJ had earlier. might you have an alternate interpretation? i’m almost sure i’m misreading!
So a couple things first: thank you so much for asking me this question because my thoughts about the untamed/mdzs have been so much and turbulent that having a specific thing to focus on is really helpful, AND it’s also really flattering that you think I??? would have worthwhile thoughts???? about this really complicated thing.
Second: I want to make sure to say that no matter how strongly I feel about my interpretation, no matter how long I spend composing this response, you are not obligated to change how you feel. If that line still bothers you, it still bothers you. Our experiences are different! And it’s okay! That being said, haha, buckle up I guess, because WOW do I have a lot of things to say.
Spoilers up through episode 43, obviously, with allusions to the novel. I will try to keep any details about things that happen post-43 vague.
Let’s begin with this moment:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
“Was he right to do this?” || “I don’t know.”
[id: image 1 is a screenshot of lan xichen asking “was he right to do this” and image 2 is a screenshot of wei wuxian responding “i don’t know” from episode 43 of the untamed /end id]
I think we need to think about how to answer this question before we can answer your question: how can we interpret the relationship between lan wangji and lan xichen’s parents? Was it moral? Was it okay? Was it right? This is clearly a question that lan xichen has been wrestling with his whole life. And from this scene, I think that he’s made his peace with the fact that it’s always going to be a question for him, not because the inherent morality is unclear, but because of the emotional subjectivity he’s always going to hold for it. He doesn’t expect wei wuxian to have an answer because he doesn’t have an answer himself.
Something that I remember from the novel that doesn’t make it into this scene, though, is what wei wuxian says after lan xichen asks, “can you understand why my father acted this way?” and he nods, is the explanation he gives: he hated the person who had murdered his mentor, but he also loved her so much he couldn’t bear to see her destroyed. Unable to live with himself, he married her, swore to protect her, and then imprisoned her for the rest of her life. Tormented by his contradictions, he then locked himself away as well. lan xichen agrees.
lan wangji and lan xichen were raised without their parents—largely, they were raised by their upright uncle, who, due to his brother’s behavior, took up the responsibilities of sect leader and parent at the same time. (It’s really no wonder that lan qiren has such a vicious dislike for wei wuxian: he loves lan wangji so much, and he’s so afraid to watch the child he raised repeat history. Beyond that, I think it’s pretty safe to say that lan qiren probably harbors not insignificant resentment towards his brother for the harm he did to both his children and to lan qiren himself.) Lan qiren is not married and as far as we know, never has any romantic entanglements after he begins raising the lan brothers. So where does that leave lan wangji and lan xichen in terms of models for romance? All they have is the fraught relationship between their parents. 
lan wangji is not good with words. He expresses himself primarily through action, which we see time and time again. When lan wangji says to lan xichen, “there’s someone I want to take back to the cloud recesses. take them back and hide them away,” I think he’s trying to explain (with words) his feelings for wei wuxian in the only way he knows how: by making a reference to the only romantic relationship to which he and lan xichen were firsthand witnesses. lan xichen canonically understands wangji better than pretty much everyone: he sees straight through him at Biling lake when he invites wei wuxian and jiang cheng along to hunt the water spirits because he knows lan wangji wants wei wuxian to come. He asks if he wants loquats even when wangji refuses them. So when lan wangji says that, lan xichen first repeats the statement carefully to make sure he understands what’s at stake, and then he says something very crucial: “you only fear that he isn’t willing”.
I think this says a lot— specifically, that both lan xichen and lan wangji understand firsthand the pain their father caused and what exactly was wrong about it. I think what lan wangji is saying between the lines is, “I’m in love with someone. I want to take them home with me. I want to hide them away from the world to protect them. I fear this makes me like our father, whose love led him to do such terrible things to our mother, and by extension, to us and our uncle. I can’t repeat his mistakes.” And lan xichen, understanding all of that, gets to the heart of lan wangji’s inner conflict: wei wuxian is not willing, and lan wangji refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps, no matter how tormented he feels about the person he loves, no matter how much he wants to.
Every time lan wangji tries and fails to get wei wuxian to return with him to gusu, it’s with the intention of trying to help him, trying to protect him from the other sects, trying to pull him back before he does something unforgivable, much like his father’s motivations for bringing his mother back to gusu (“he swore that this was his beloved wife and that anyone who wished to hurt her [for her crimes] would have to go through him”), but unlike his father, lan wangji never forces wei wuxian to do anything. He never keeps him locked up, never forcibly kidnaps him. Not only that, but lan wangji is also willing to fight wei wuxian when he believes that wei wuxian is doing something inadmissible: heis the only one to stand against his initial forays into demonic cultivation, and physically confronts him on the roof at the nightless city. Would he have actually followed through on killing him, had things gone differently? Maybe, maybe not, but at the very least, it shows that he, unlike his father, was willing to try to destroy the person he loved when he crossed the line.
Anon, you’re right that there’s a parallel between the lan parents and wangxian, but I think the key is how they parallel each other. Lan wangji doesn’t repeat his father’s mistakes. When he finally does bring wei wuxian back to gusu and hide him away to protect him, wei wuxian is not there against his will, and, I think also importantly, lan wangji is with him. It’s no accident that lan wangji’s residence is the jingshi, the place his mother was imprisoned for his whole life, and it’s no accident that he brings wei wuxian there. But lan wangji doesn’t lock him there and abandon him like his father did with his mother: he’s there with him the whole time. Lan wangji, when all is said and done, is finally ready to stand by wei wuxian in spite of everything he did, unlike his father, who couldn’t do so with his wife: couldn’t destroy her, couldn’t stand with her. lan wangji makes his choice. “I regretted that I couldn’t stand with you at the nightless city.” The parallel is one that emphasizes contrast in spite of similarity.
All this ties vaguely into bigger themes present within the story, particularly the tensions between freedom/restriction and parents/children. These are like, two whole other essays haha, so I won’t get too deep into the weeds (unless you or anyone else wants to ask me!!! bc, anon, believe me, I would BE WILLING!!!) but:
1. lan wangji and wei wuxian are fundamentally very similar people, even if their personalities are not. They have incredibly strong moral compasses and want nothing more than to be righteous and to live with clear consciences about their choices. The difference is in how they go about that. wei wuxian chafes under rules, breaks them when he finds them unjust or unimportant, and thinks that he doesn’t deserve to be punished. When lan wangji finds that his moral compass conflicts with the rules he chooses to live by, he prioritizes his own sense of justice, much like wei wuxian, but he also accepts the punishments that are given to him without complaint. wei wuxian cherishes freedom over all while lan wangji lives under strict regulation, but the point is that they both take it too far. wei wuxian is righteous to the point of arrogance, flaunts his peers’ judgments and warnings to his eventual downfall. lan wangji, after doing what he thinks is right, allows himself to be punished without protest so severely he’s bedridden and imprisoned for three years. I would say neither of these approaches is… ideal, and I think that’s part of why wangxian feels so profound. They temper each other’s worst weaknesses. (rereading this, i’m not sure i’m 100% behind everything I just said lol, but again, an essay for another time)
2. Like lan wangji is paralleled with his father, wei wuxian is paralleled with his mother, zangse-sanren: free-spirited, mischievous, and ultimately meeting a tragic end for the choices she made out of that desire for freedom. He too is able to eventually escape his mother’s fate, just as lan wangji escapes his father’s. The parallels between parent and child are strong for almost all the mains, though not all of them manage to free themselves and achieve some measure of happiness, and this in itself relates to the even bigger questions of what matters more: your heritage, or your actions? Your heritage, or your upbringing? What can you do to avoid making the same mistakes as your predecessors?
I’ve already talked about this wrt wei wuxian and lan wangji, but the same goes for characters like jiang cheng, jin zixuan, wen qing, wen ning, mianmian, jin guangyao, su she, nie huaisang, jin ling, lan sizhui, ouyang zizhen, xiao xingchen, song lan, xue yang etc. like the list is endless. Part of why mdzs/the untamed is so heartwrenching is watching history repeat itself while the protagonists, who are also acutely aware, are nearly powerless to stop it. The juniors end up being the breaking from all that: willing to defy their parents, make their own decisions about right and wrong, recognize that a person’s actions should speak louder than the rumors that run on their account.
tl;dr: the lan parents’ relationship is toxic and hurtful to everyone around them. wangxian absolutely parallels it, but in a way that highlights how they differ from their predecessors, tying into larger thematic issues of the story.
eek that was almost 2k words yikes!! I hope my enthusiastic rambling helped you see that “take them back, hide them away” line in a different light haha, but I want to say again: you’re not obligated to take my interpretation as fact, and you also don’t have to think everything about wangxian is perfect to still like it. We all consume and like imperfect stories! I totally get your feelings on weird power dynamics/inequalities in relationships because… it’s abusive? it’s terrible? It hurts to see?? esp given what you said about your own experience, like yeah, for sure!!! but for me? when lan wangji says, “I want to take someone back to the cloud recesses—take them back, hide them away”, it reads as a really powerful, self-aware expression of what it means for someone like him to fall in love.
EDIT 16 APR 2020: I find myself only agreeing with ~85% of this after many months of reflection. /o\ *hides face* leaving it as-is because it’s what I wrote at the time, but! you know. I have changed some of my views.
771 notes · View notes
bxdybcg · 3 years
Text
Young & Nadia
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 21:13 Odette just took the head so she shows him the box and fridge and is like... i figured why vampires need fridges
sineater — Yesterday at 21:14 He's glad the head is gone. He doesn't want to see that man ever again [21:14] probably teases her about her and Si becoming besties
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 21:15 "I said the same thing but in a weird way? The focus on it helped me process it. Could you feel that?" [21:15] "The gremlin is.... something else. But you were friends at one time too. What does that say about both of us? I start to see why people think we are similar"
sineater — Yesterday at 21:16 "How you process grief is individual to you. Even if it is keeping that asshole's head in a freezer. There are worse ways to deal with it. Does it talk to you or is it just staring back at you?"
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 21:17 "It just... I don't know its not that it's his face, it was just a focus I needed. Could have been the empty fridge at this point. How are you coping? How is Hector?"
sineater — Yesterday at 21:22 "We were. He's a good devil on the shoulder but as long as you are aware of yourself he can't do much. We are you are a lot like what I used to be like. Before Maladh anyway. That's not a bad thing why I sired you." "Ah something to put the actual feeling on. I'm getting there. Had my moment with Selin. Hector is being assessed. Kisuke has asked a specialist to come see. Apparently she did the eyes on... Sai. Yeah Sai. He's quite keen to have her so she can hopefully help. As for Hector himself until he gets his memories I'm just going to keep my distance for the both of us. But I keep asking. At least have a vague presence"
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 21:27 "I am aware of what I do... most of the time. But I did morbid things too... I don't judge him for that. We are very different but similar at the same time and I can't believe it took me almost two hundred years to figure it out. I'm glad I did because... it helped me."
"Yes. It was just... a thing. Mhmmm... that's good, I trust Sai, I trust his judgement. Selin and you are... better (assuming she knows bc duh she gotta know it all)? See, I feel the same way about him. And Mark. I don't know I was not ready to see or hear from anyone. Not even you. Sorry I pulled away but I needed this. The head helped me numb all the confusing feelings. You, Raisa, Shin. She was the first person I saw because she just showed up. Kind of glad she did because otherwise the head might would have started talking to me. hehe."
sineater — Yesterday at 21:38 "I have in the past too, started wars. Not something to be proud of. Si's a controlled evil I guess is the best way to put it. Yue knows how he ticks and so uses that to his advantage. Our anger is similar. I just have not had much cause to be that angry and hopefully it will be a while until I will get that angry again"
"There is no judgement here. If you feel better for it then that's all that matters. I didn't realise they were twins. I met Kai a month ago maybe a bit longer? Not that part matters. I know Yue works with them. If he trusts them then they are doing something right. We are... getting there. Something I have to work with but I rather that than her out of my life. You don't need to apologise for how you deal with grief as long as you are not a harm to yourself or to others that's the important thing. Could have started singing 'another one bites the dust' or 'burn baby burn' would be apt with the chemical burns."
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 21:59 "I know, and our bodycount is not much different from each other. I just did it in the name of duty at the time and didn't start them. I know I will be less prejudgemental about Si, his progeny -- vampires in general. But hey, as long as he can channel this sadism into something productive? because this now? no idea what went down but Odette is... doing medical stuff on it. Yes, I hope so too. If it wasn't for Sai just grounding me.... I would have burned the building down with all of us in it. I am glad I didn't. Speaking of... how is Jae? I think she is the next person I need to see -- if she wants to."
"They are both my bosses and I adore them. You really should get to know them. Each of them somehow a genius in their own way? Like Sai, he's got the whole tech thing going on so... Well, you did mess up but you both love each other and have found just the perfect fit. I think she also knows its worth holding on and working it out. That's the thing, I knew if I didn't pull back I would have eventually harmed others but instead I was just... processing. Hmm... Interesting. But I think I will ask him about it because he might just... wants to get excited about it and I am ready to hear it -- shh, no spoilers. I already sent Si thank you flowers."
sineater — Yesterday at 22:21 "They are similar yes... I did it out of anger. A lot of anger and a devil on my shoulder. You can be cautious about him there is never harm in that. He's just different and very much likes to use those around him for his own gain. Yue always has to be at least one step ahead of him and that was why he pretty much exploded when he found out about Si running for mayor. Because for once Si was ahead of him. Which can be dangerous. Yue channels it not him he is very much on a leash with Yue you just don't see it because though Si would never say it. He is very loyal to him. Medical stuff... I guess I'll avoid my labs for a bit then. Ah so that was what he was doing. I am glad he was there then. Jae, well I think she has retreated somewhat. I think she will be with Marcus. He'll ground her. I think something like this being played like that it has caused her a lot of humiliation. I just hope she doesn't completely retreat from us. I am not happy at the situation but I know she was played like the rest of us. I think Yue will try and get her out."
"I will especially since you speak so fondly of them. They also seem to care a lot for those that work with them. Don't see that a lot. I did and I will never say I didn't. I own up to my mistakes not hide them. We'll see but I am cautiously optimistic about it. It takes a lot to know yourself I'm glad you did take the time. . You sent him flowers. I think he'll appreciate it. "
"So what else did you want to talk about because i know you are excited about something and the things I have come up with is found someone else to sire or something big has happened?"
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 22:37 "I don't let others use me, that's not going to be a problem. Well, the mayor thing had me really angry too but then... Well, he definitely is something else. Don't worry, she will return me the skull. I don't think she will leave any of it in recognisable shape too. Which might... not be a bad thing. Maybe if I had gotten just the skull from the beginning the whole head situation would be less weird."
"I don't know who Marcus is either -- I am so behind on family things. I will... reach out to Yue. Yes. I need to get to know him better. As for Jae... whenever she is ready... or maybe I should just try? What do you think? Maybe she needs to hear it from me? Or do you think better not. Well, first of all I wanted to apologise for disrespecting her property, but I don't regret it. At least we got Hector our alive."
"They care. They do. They are wonderful. And their brother is the mayor. I am very... weirded out by the whole situation, yes. And I am not a fan of tech -- you know i barely handle my smartphone. But I trust Sai. I didn't know what else so I thought... yes. But I had to send him a thank you."
"Well, a few things. Also Mark but I think that's something I need to figure out on my own. Don't get me wrong but I don't want any kind of influence on it, whether it be good or bad -- I am only angry at him. Nothing else. But, moving on... I know this girl and she has asked me a million questions about vampires last night. And basically... what if someone dies with two kinds of vampire blood in them? I thought if anyone you know about it."
sineater — Yesterday at 23:12 "I didn't think so. I was a lot younger and very stupid.  He's a gremlin, looks cute but if conditons are right... absolute monster. Good, I think that face will make me see red for a very long time. Thank goodness I don't see any way of me seeing it anytime soon. It is what it is and I really wouldn't think too deep on it"
"I have met him through times of being a Liaison. He's a nice guy. I think he has his hands full with Jae's latest progeny from what I hear. You should meet Yue. He may act cold but he does care for his line. I think he does want to get to know you more too. He's not one to push though. I think she would appreciate it coming from you. I'll approach her soon as well. It's something for us all to face. I don't think what you did was wrong and I will stand behind you on that. Yes alive but traumatised for sure."
"Ah the Virgin mayor. I know Yue was keen on having him in. He doesn't like power imbalance and he was keen to have someone neutral. No ties means no favouritism or subconscious bias. Tech I can live with but I am good with being as I am. Don't think I can pull off the heart eyes like Sai can. He does actually like flowers believe it or not. Though not like roses more like spider lilies. I think."
"Mark... I'm not going to give my opinion on that as he is your progeny. It's not my place to say anything so unless you ask I won't offer. Ah, been curious about this myself actually in theory it could create a double bond. Our blood has magical properties to it. I think bound to the curses Shiva weaved to create us. It's not been knowingly done because it would be a lot on the newborn. They would be linked to the emotional states of two sires. They would have to be sound of mind and stable emotionally and so would the sires. It's a cool concept thhough always wanted to try just would have to get a lot of others involved if I ever were to do so"
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 23:22 "If anything, it helped me find... closure."
"My aim is to meet everyone. Tell me about cold. I have been avoiding everyone. You let me find my own way but I was wrong. And thank you, that helps me. In all of the things. You know what? All those years, we are distant, together. But no matter what I do... you are the most important person I have ever met. Not only because you gifted me an eternal life. You made me, shaped me into who I am. Even if I get angry at you... That's it."
"Oh yeah. Do you think that's true? The virgin thing? I mean it's a running joke ever since but it didn't really harm him either. He won. Well, we all were on the same page then. My ex ran but... I voted against her."
"Good to know because I sent him just those I think? They looked weird enough to be like his thing. Roses I wouldn't have considered for him. Even if real black one's were to exist."
"I think I will talk to you after I saw him first. I mean I do need someone to process it and you are the first person I usually tell my stuff too. Even if I did not do it in a long time."
"Well. I like her. So... I guess what I am trying to ask you is... should we ask Shiva about it before we do it?"
sineater — Yesterday at 23:43 "That's the important thing"
"Good you should. I let you be you everyone takes their own time to get to where they want to be doesn't make you worse or better. It makes you, you and I wouldn't change that. I was also worried if I tried to pull you to us you would pull away completely. Which is the last thing I want you to do. You are also important to me, don't forget that. I have lost enough progeny in my life. You and Hector are important to me. I would start a district war with no regrets should any of you come to harm. I have a habit of that."
"It's a total rumour. He was nervous and he wasn't really policing his words. How they may be interpreted. I'm good at reading people he is no virgin just may not have a lot of time for a lot of partners. Which is a shame he's really good looking. Considering the ordeal we just went through I am glad you did."
"Spider lilies signify death or final goodbyes. Though they are hauntingly beautiful as well which is also right up his street. Spider lilies are safer much safer"
"I am happy to listen as always. He is your first progeny after all."
"We? I mean yeah of course I would love to no ownder you got so exicted about this. I would really like to look into this"
sarcastrophicv — Yesterday at 23:51 "A war won't be needed for me. But I know where you are coming from. I would do the same for Raisa and Shin. And this is why I don't cling to either, Raisa came back to me and Shin loves to travel. See, you taught me that. You as a sire made me into a good one."
"I figured that. And I agree but.... hmmmm... boss brother, you know? Maybe you should... you know, score with the mayor. You and Selin together."
"He is but he fucked up majorly. i decided to not blame myself after he said he wanted to be better than us. US? no, he disgraced us."
"Who else would I be asking? I considered Raisa or Shin might be ready for their first sire but i think, seeing as this is a special case let me just praise myself and she will get the best option available. How do we contact Shiva?" 18 March 2021
sineater — Today at 00:20 "Would still start one and I don't think I would be the only one either. How are Raisa and Shin? I never had any doubts of you being a good sire"
"Yeah I can see that would be awkward. I can see if she is up for it. If not then I wouldn't mind it being more intimate"
"He said that? that would not have sat well with me if he said that to me. Sure we are not exactly unique but we are special in what we are. The bond, our ability to live forever. See the world change and learn with it. Wouldn't give it up for anything"
"True, still privileged nonetheless. Shiva could be found at her work she works with Kisuke at the hospital I believe. Best bet to try there first."
sarcastrophicv — Today at 00:27 "Good. Raisa was a little bit worried about me but I assured her I'm fine. I can't pull away like this again. Next time I will let all of you know."
"Have fun and don't spare me on the details."
"See? If it was not for that then I would have felt guilty. Excused cutting the bond because of pain  or some shit -- We are fucking perfect and it's sad it took for this to happen for me to realise."
"Oh perfect. Do you want  me to reach out to her or do you want to?"
sineater — Today at 00:32 "I think we would all appreciate that"
"I won't"
"I know Yue would have not liked to have heard that. I would not beat yourself up for it. You have all the time in the world it doesn't matter how long it takes to fully accept being a vampire"
"I think you should meet her. Would be a good opportunity for you"
sarcastrophicv — Today at 00:36 "I'm sorry. I just wanted out of there and home and not deal with the world. But I know for the future."
"He... heard it. But I didn't see his reaction. He just... handled it wonderfully professional and although I can't feel him, I just know he was angry. Is he okay? I really should meet him again."
"Alright, I will schedule my appointment with a therapist."
sineater — Today at 00:44 "Enough apologies what is done is done and you didn't hurt anyone so stop it."
"He wasn't a fan of the situation as a whole. Yue has had a lot recently but then considering the life we have been through he is not a stranger to a lot going wrong at once. Most of his progeny learn quickly though he may appear calm internally he's a storm sometimes. He doesn't like to open up though."
"We all need one. Highly recommend it"
sarcastrophicv — Today at 00:46 "Wow, okay. I am trying to make up for the lack over the years. But okay. Thank you for making me feel better. I would be... not me if it wasn't for you."
"I have seen his newest there too. I missed out on so much, I didn't even know there was one until I saw her."
"of course you would."
sineater — Today at 00:52 "You are you, I accept you as you and you do not need to apologise for being you. Hmm I just helped you along the way. You took the steps"
"Lavinia, I like her. She will be a lot of good for Yue. She just has to survive his temper spikes. "
"Damn right I would."
1 note · View note
torterragarden · 4 years
Text
OKAY so I finished A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes last night and I have some thoughts - some good, some bad, a lot of why - and I’m gonna put as many of them as I can gather in one post. Obvious spoiler warning
All right so let’s get one thing out of the way. I know what a lot of people were apprehensive about this book being about a young President Snow. I wasn’t. I always knew going into this book that no matter what Coriolanus Snow was like as an eighteen year old, there was no fucking way you were going to make me like him hhhgfkshj I mean how could I, when I’m thinking about Snow from the original trilogy the entire time? But that also wasn’t a deterrent for me, because while I don’t like him as a person for obvious reason, I don’t dislike him as a character. I thought he was a good villain in the original trilogy, he was effectively creepy and threatening. Even if I don’t exactly like Snow, I don’t think he’s uninteresting, so I was okay with reading a book about him. I do love a good villain origin story anyway
The draw of this book wasn’t really Snow’s backstory, tho. I mean, the draw was that it was a THG prequel, and I love THG, but aside from that what interested me was the idea of seeing the earlier days of post-war Panem. I remember when I was hyperfixated on THG, one thing that I was curious about was what the first years of the Hunger Games were like. Kind of a weird thing to be interested in I guess, but I wondered what they were like before the Capitol’s technology had developed as much as it had by the 74th Games. I wondered what kind of clumsy mishaps had happened in the first few years, while they were still figuring out how they would work. I wondered how both the districts and the Capitol would have felt about them with the war still so fresh in their minds. Welp. Got my answers I guess
I did find this insight into the war and the Games interesting, if not really needed. What I found really fascinating was how different these Games were from the 74th, and both are equally horrifying. Part of what made the 74th Games so disturbing, aside from the obvious, was what a spectacle the whole thing was. The tributes being dressed in pretty costumes and paraded around the city, the betting and sponsorships, the interviews where tributes need to be charming, all this pomp and celebration for an event where children are forced to fight to the death. And yet the 10th Games and the ones before it were no spectacle at all, really. It’s all so uncerimonious, the kids are thrown into an old amphitheater with weapons and that’s that, hardly anyone even watches, it’s just a thing that happens and most people tune it out but in the end 23 kids are still dead. The ceremony and celebration of later Games is disgusting, but the cavalier and cold handling of the early Games is cruel and disturbing in a different way
Suzanne Collins is not a subtle author. This hasn’t changed
The Capitol kids are spoiled and entitled and lacking in compassion but they’ve also lived through a war and are still dealing with that and that is kind of cool to see. Some of them are very vindictive toward the districts, seeing the Games as a deserving punishment for what they went through because of the rebels, others have just enough empathy and awareness to think “hey, these Games are pretty messed up”, but not enough empathy and awareness to like, want them to stop really. The Capitol experimenting with their own children being mentors is an interesting concept, and I liked that some of the Capitol kids got genuinely attached to their tributes, not just to fuel their own ambitions but as people. Most notable in Lysistrata and... Snow, but we’ll get to that
By the 74th Games everything is so dressed up in spectacle that  the average Capitol citizen doesn’t even seem completely aware these are real kids that are dying. They’re basically toys to them. The 10th Games are far from reaching that point, and the average Capitol citizen sees them as distasteful and unpleasant, but a necessary evil. I enjoyed seeing the seeds planted for what the Games would eventually become
Sejanus! Easily my favorite character in this book, which is not saying much because no one in this book is nearly as interesting as the characters from THG. But! I do like Sejanus. A kid from the districts moving to the Capitol, forced to be part of the Games as a mentor while his sympathies still lie very much with the districts and the rebels, (sort of) befriending Snow, it makes for a good character. By the halfway point in the book, earlier than that even if we’re being honest, I was really just reading because I cared about Sejanus
Lysistrata is cool too. I like her. 
Clemensia seemed like she was gonna get a cool subplot of sorts and then it was just kind of dropped?
I really don’t care about Snow in this book. There’s no real reason to care about anything that happens to him. He’s not even fun to hate or anything, he’s self-serving and entitled but it’s not in a way that inspires particular loathing. He’s just utterly unengaging. Of all the bad things I can say about Snow, I shouldn’t be able to say he’s boring
Lucy Gray. I wanted to like her. I guess I did, but her only purpose is as Snow’s love interest and I was so not on board with that. I don’t particularly want to read about Snow being in love in the first place, but I definitely don’t want to read about him being in love with a girl from the districts. A girl that he’s mentoring in the Games. A girl that he is using for his own ends, whatever feelings he develops for her later. It’s completely unbelievable that these two would fall for each other. I have no idea why they’re together! No idea why they care for each other! It’s forced and awkward and just plain not written well! I remember in the early days of the fandom, people sometimes said that Peeta’s love for Katniss felt poorly developed too, because what reason did he have to love her aside from her singing voice? But I don’t know, Peeta’s characterization shows him as very idealistic and romantic at heart, so it didn’t seem unfitting that he would be a bit... dramatic about his feelings for Katniss at first, and as we saw their relationship develop over the series it felt more natural. Snow is not Peeta. Snow is calculating and ambitious and unconcerned with people around him and does not seem like someone who would fall head over heels for a girl like Lucy Gray in a matter of days. And on Lucy Gray’s side, what does she like about Snow? He gives her food, he helps her through the Games, he’s handsome, but shouldn’t she be distrustful of anyone from the Capitol? Again, I’m not buying that she would believe his helping her would be for anyone’s benefit but his own. The power imbalance combined with just how unbelievable the whole thing is made the romance incredibly unpleasant to read
The only time I felt interested in the two at all was the last 20 pages. That was a genuinely exciting scene, their own private Hunger Games as Snow calls it. But the impact was lessened by the fact that I never bought into their relationship in the first place, and I think that was the point? Maybe? Snow definitely gets over his infatuation for her fast so I guess it was, but it just... none of it was developed or paced well so the whole thing feels jarring and weird
Why did it take until the last 20 pages of the book for me to understand the Point of it? The biggest issue with this book is how boring it is. It’s 500 pages long and it could have been a lot shorter, it’s meandering and slow and there’s no sense of plot or urgency, no sense of emotion. The whole time reading I kept thinking “what is the point?” and then I got to the end and I realized, okay, the point is that Snow values power and success more than he values goodness and love. So? I knew that, and if you’re going to make the point something I already knew you could at least try to make it interesting. Getting through this was a chore most of the time
I don’t feel like Snow needed a love interest in this book. I think this entire book could have worked fine without a romance between him and Lucy Gray. He already has more than enough motivation to want her to win, and his relationship with her isn’t the (relatively) interesting or impactful part of this book. His relationship with Sejanus is. Which is not to say I think they should have been together lol, imagine making President Snow gay, yikes. But like, Sejanus serves as his foil throughout the whole book, the few scenes that do stand out are mostly between the two of them, their relationship is developed in a far more believable way than the romance with Lucy Gray is. Sejanus could have been the one who made Coriolanus realize “fuck trying to be good and fuck the districts, power and success is all I care about”, and that would have been fine! At least Sejanus and Coriolanus are vaguely compelling together!
There are a lot of references to THG in this, of course, and a lot of them felt very... why. Not necessarily bad I guess just. Why? Did we need an origin for the hanging tree song? Did we need Lucy Gray to also sing Rue’s lullaby? Did we need to make such a point of Coriolanus hating mockingjays, did we need to be reminded that katniss plants are a thing? It all comes off as a bit... desperate, I guess? Because there’s really no point to all of these references except to remind us of the far superior original trilogy. And I guess they don’t need to have a point, but shouldn’t they? These are such obvious references, shouldn’t they do something? And if the point was to give Snow more connections to Katniss, then why do that? We already know why Katniss was a threat to him, it didn’t need to be made more personal than that. It doesn’t even matter! None of it matters!
I’m not leaving this book with a better understanding of Snow. This book didn’t even tell me anything interesting about his rise to power. It was just a lot of nothing
I don’t hate this book, and I’ve read a lot worse than it. But the feeling it leaves me with is “what’s the point”. What was the point in reading this? Even the few bits that I did like ultimately feel like. I didn’t really need this, and it wasn’t worth pushing through 500 pages of this. I like Sejanus and Lysistrata and maybe a few other characters, but they don’t leave an impression the way the characters in the original trilogy did. I’ll forget them pretty fast. I’ll forget this entire book pretty fast, and the only plus side is that it at least wasn’t bad enough to actively ruin THG for me. The original trilogy is still one of my all-time favorites and I can easily forget this book is part of the same universe
I can easily forget this book, and that’s a damning criticism for a book I had such high hopes for
8 notes · View notes
curlytale · 4 years
Text
Time for Curly’s Stormlight healing Theory™ (ROW pre-released chapters spoilers maybe)
As of right now there has been up to chapter 7 in the RoW preview chapters, so my theory here might be related to what I read there. You have been warned.
As my husband and I have been reading the chapters each week and listening to the audiobooks as part of our reread, we got into a discussion about the extent of what stormlight can and cannot heal. So I decided to try try and put my thoughts and observations here in a vague theory post. IF there are any WoBs or things I got wrong, let me know!
What we Know Stormlight can heal:
1. Surgebinders holding stormlight. A Full Radiant or squire holding stormlight can heal physical wounds sustained while they themselves are infused. Being injured then drawing in light also heals the wounds as well. Stormlight also removes toxin’s from the body, like alcohol. Stormlight seems to mimic the body’s natural function to try and heal the most vital functions first before moving on to lesser/less life threatening injuries. 
This is only in regards to recent injuries though. With The Lopen, we see that stormlight can heal injuries from farther distant in the past as well when he regrown his arm.
Yet stormlight doesn’t seem to heal all injuries indiscriminately, for example, Kaladin’s slave brands never healed despite him holding a lot of stormlight at times.
2. Edgedancers and Truthwatchers using regrowth. Using the surge Progression, two of the orders can use their stormlight to heal the injuries of others. We see both Lift and Renarin do this, infusing stormlight into another person to produce what I assume is a similar effect that all radiants get from their natural healing. I do wonder if they used this surge on themselves if it doubles their natural healing rate or what, I don’t know if BSandy has said anything about that.
In Rysn’s Oathbringer interlude though, I believe it is mentioned that she had tried to have her paralyzed legs healed by Renarin, but it didn’t work, mentioning something about the injury happening too long ago. Her injured legs were considered part of her Identity now.
What does this tell us?
Stormlight seems to be able to heal best injuries that are recent, focusing on healing the worst of the injuries before moving on to lesser ones. Stormlight however doesn’t seem to be able to heal injuries that a person considers to be part of themselves, their identity (Rysn’s legs, Kaladin’s brands).
Why was The Lopen able to grow an arm then? Best I can guess, despite all of those one armed jokes, The Lopen must have perceived himself with two arms. For something to become unhealable, it has to be a part of your identity somehow. The Lopen’s cognition must have been in such a way that the way he viewed the loss of his arm allowed him to regrow it. So while Kaladin continued to view himself with Slaves brands and thus could not heal them, Lopen viewed himself with two arms and that allowed him to regrow one.
Perhaps somehow Rysn would change her cognition, shifting how she viewed her paralysis and thus allowing it to be healed. Changing someone’s cognition and perception isn’t easy though. It would probably take a little something called:
Therapy
Part 2: Can stormlight heal the mind?
Seeing that Kaladin is still depressed, most I think would say no. Here is the thing though, With modern medicine we know that chemical imbalances in the mind can cause some kinds of mental illness. That is still technically part of your physical body, even if it mostly effects you mentally and/or emotionally. I think stormlight could help heal Kaladin, so why hasn’t it?
Because Kaladin doesn’t know anything is wrong. Kaladin has had to deal with the darkness and melancholy since his youth. To him his moods are normal, just a part of who he is. His Depression is part of his Identity and cognition at this point because that’s his normal.
I think stormlight could help him deal with his depression, but it won’t as long as Kaladin’s cognition doesn’t see anything wrong. So I theorize that if Kaladin could somehow get some Therapy and learn how to change his about his mental health, then slowly the stormlight could help him in a way modern medication might.
I doubt it would be easy, and I’m no expert on dealing with mental illness, but I think it could work. Unfortunately I don’t think Roshar has anything like modern therapy really, so it would take a lot before we see anything like I theorize could happen.
2 notes · View notes
thepringlesofblood · 4 years
Text
watch out, i’m spewing nonsense into the void again
so uhh
this is more thoughts on taz amnesty finale and why one very specific part of it doesn’t jive with me. spoilers under the cut, and I loved the entire finale except for this one part. 
disclaimer: it’s justin’s character im not gonna tell him what to do with his life or question his agency and it was still real sweet and nice and all, this is just Me and why it squicked me out so much 
so i’ve really tried to give ducknerva a chance since at first I thought I was just rejecting it because it was unexpected and usually w/ taz i’m 100% on board with whatever’s canon, but now that it’s been A Bit, i’m realizing that the problems I have with it are not just shock value
and like it’s really sweet kind of but it just squicks me out for several reasons 
1. it felt just a tiny bit forced/last minute.  
2. the whole power imbalance of minerva literally watching duck grow up and being a mentor figure for him for decades made me uncomfortable
3. ever since one of the first episodes of amnesty where duck said that thing about 'I’m tougher than your average— I was gonna say bear, but I mean, that’s technically, I guess, still accurate’ in That Voice, I have been 100% convinced that Duck is as gay as the fourth of July and excepting the final episode of Amnesty nothing confirmed or denied that so I just figured it was canon??? and maybe that one’s on me for assuming but like the way he said it just sounded like a character decision to me. 
4. the whole power imbalance of minerva not understanding earth or earth relationships and i know that this relationship is a long way from the whole ‘born sexy yesterday’ trope but like it still kinda weirds me out to have a romantic relationship where there’s this great informational divide. plus we know literally nothing about how romance/dating/courting/relationships/people work on minerva’s world and now we don’t get a chance to explore that or understand it.
5. this one’s on me for getting my hopes up but i was so, so happy that finally i saw a strong, important, respectful friendship between a man and a woman that wasn’t romanticized or sexualized, a teacher-student bond where a man worked under the tutelage of a woman and it wasn’t diminished or othered and her agency and expertise were never called into question and I’ve spent so, so, so long watching strong male/female friendships unnecessarily and forcibly turned into empty romances that don’t make sense that when I watch media with a man and a woman in it, I constantly dread that they’re going to get together just Because. 
our society is so filled with compulsory heterosexuality and I just can’t shake the feeling of tiredness and sadness and anger I get from being blindsided by a relationship between a man and a woman. it’d be one thing if there was a beautiful and satisfying buildup, like with Lup and Barry, or something established and then built upon like Magnus and Julia, but it wasn’t. 
and I know that a good relationship is built on a good friendship but it also requires established romantic attraction and I just never felt that between them. 
6. this is tiny and not really relevant tbh I personally hate Rome’s appropriation of Athena so my first association for ‘Minerva’ is Minerva McGonagall, the teacher of a chosen one who is probably like 30-50 years younger than her, so in my weird little chain of associations it just wasn’t a possibility. 
7. this is the first time in the 3 or so years I’ve been listening to TAZ that I’ve even vaguely disliked part of it. so maybe i’m blowing this out of proportion, and maybe i’m wrong and maybe i should just support it and shut up because its cute and wholesome and sweet and all but it just doesn’t sit quite right with me and I can’t jump onboard that train. I wish I could. TAZ has been really important to me and has gotten me through a lot of hard times and been something I’ve come to depend on in media for being a space to get away from All That Bad Shit Going On In The World, and this was like a very very very tiny crack in the facade for me and I know im being dramatic but that’s just what it felt like. 
i’m not trying to throw shade or hate or nothing, and i hope to god justin mcelroy never sees this bc he’s done so many wonderful things for this world and this is just the One Small Part i happen to be on the fence about. it just made me feel a little tiny bit distant from the story and I’m not used to that, I guess. 
5 notes · View notes
Text
so being abused the entire first 2 decades of your life: what’s up with that? Night Posts Edition
- classic when finding some “uh oh relatable!” content abt various Disorderres and there’s some thing like “many symptoms overlap with ptsd” and it’s like ooh which one is applying to me?? i mean spoilers the idea that The Grouping Of Non Nt Traits And Experiences Into Distinct Classifications is not actually...an exact science and for all intents and purposes it makes no difference if i am going “oh god #me” at an informative post about adhd if actually its ptsd acting exactly the same anyways so. but yknow it’s wild n zany being like “am i overstepping my bounds b/c this was caused by coping with trauma possibly? what audacity” and etc when it really....that doesnt matter....
- also ugh @ retaining things that downplay abusers’ responsibility for their actions (in specific things you’re personally dealing with, not like, as a general stance) and shift blame onto yourself like........you have to get so used to treating someone’s Abusive Behavior as something inevitable that you can’t ever expect them to stop doing, and thus pretty much considering someone abusive like a force of nature because they’re just gonna do what they’re gonna do whenever they next get Set Off rather than like.......a person who is responsible for their own behavior and in control of their own choices and like. especially zany when you’re a kid and they’re your parent so there’s the Power Imbalance of them being an adult and the other power imbalance of them being in control of your whole existence. but so like even just the other year i was taking the blame for calmly speaking back to a grownass man close to thrice my age raging at me and saying like, not verbatim but the idea of like “ugh i know it was partly my fault for even saying anything back to him because i knew he’d just continue to yell but unfortunately i just refuse to weather that kind of behavior without standing up for myself at all anymore” but like no!!!! that’s shifting all the responsibility for this other person’s behavior onto myself, like i Made him choose to shout at me at like 4am because he sucks and has some kind of superiority power trip issues. cuz i am well within rights to respond to anyone addressing me and it’s Not my fault at all that he chooses to react the way he reacts. 
- also that i was ready to excuse my being blamed for this by others because they were closer to that person than they were to me and i was gonna be like “okay i Get wanting to defend someone who’s closer to you” but no!!!! actually!!!! i may get it but i don’t condone excusing anyone’s horrible behavior in the least just cuz you know them or they’re friends or family or something. in fact that’s terrible. i’m just primed to be Used To It because of the weird situation of parental abuse where there’s other people also trapped in this location and daily life with an abuser and if someone “causes” the abuser to start being shitty then they’ll get blamed / resented for that. me and my siblings seem more like friendly acquaintances b/c we had to be pitted against each other in these kinds of ways for eons until we were all in our teens and got some more Space and kind of realized that we weren’t each others enemies and got closer and my dumb little brother was old enough to stop being a whiny binch and Owed me for helping him with math hw over the phone from 2 hrs drive away lol.....jk, sort of.....we did get along great eventually but then i left thanks to said abuse and us talking via twitter isn’t at all the same as us being able to talk in person :/
- also one thing that sometimes Strikes me is that when i’m like blandly recalling incidents of abuse like “oh yeah, that time” it bothers me less to think about stuff that happened to me specifically than to think about times it was Other people who were being treated that way. the latter was always equally or probably more upsetting and it always felt just as bad in the moment anyways, there was no major distinction in the Abuse In Progress experience if it was directed mostly on you than on other people
- all my life i’ve also been super stubborn which never helped and even Abuse MaGee would have to try to get creative with Disciplinary Systems and there was this golden “punishment” which was eat dinner in your room by yourself and i was like oh my god can i really. the horror of Family Dinner was like, this dark comedic farce playing out in that house for all our lives. christ. speaking of being stubborn this one time my sister cut my toe with a knife (half accidentally) because i refused to stop swinging my legs despite her holding the knife under the table lol and i also refused to tell on her b/c we were All In This Together (that is, Us vs The Abuser, which always took precedence over any internal conflict in our faction lol)
- always remembering how my “’”””””””defining”””””””””” trait was always getting good grades except the only reason i ever felt this pressure was the time my sister caught shit for getting a C, and i wasn’t even getting A - F letter grades yet and was already like jfc guess i can’t like....get a single C ever.....the joke is i’ve always been a godawful student who hates school, i just also managed to get great grades fairly easily, b/c of the devil probably. i’m sorry
- love to wonder what interests i might have been able to explore if i didn’t want to hide anything i was genuinely interested in and other True Thoughts And Feelings from my ‘rents. who knows!!! even now i’m not sure what i like and my vague ideas about it are all mostly In Theory and i don’t have any hopes and dreams b/c of never being able to really consider my own interests and desires and also because when every day of your life is basically spent in survival mode about everything else, that’s not really conducive to having dreams and ambitions. see also: like, being really poor
- The Weird Experience when only one of your parents is abusive and the other parent is also experiencing spousal abuse and so like, even though they’re your parent, you know that they don’t really have equal power as the abusive one because they too are being abused? it’s a complicated thing b/c that’s how every individual experience with abuse is (complicated). and so you’ve got this bizarre situation where maybe someone cares about you but they can’t really protect you from this other person. and like, my dad is crap and in some areas even a crappier person than my abusive mom and also i hate him, but i only hate him for certain things lmao not for being abused or some ways he tried to deal with it. i know what’s trash and what’s not
- the zany experience of No One Will Help You Ever.....lucky for me i eventually figured out on my own that what i’d been living with all the time had actually been abuse for real all along! and yet still i knew that like, there wasn’t much i could immediately do with that information because..........yknow, what do you actually do. i was basically already 18, so. and even if i hadnt been. there’s nothing to do for it!! just sucks to be you, basically. but an exception is that when one day i texted my friend to ask if i might be able to leave my house overnight and crash at their family’s place for a little bit, their parents immediately were like Yes Of Course and they let me stay there for a week and were very nice about all of it. between them and the nice trans lady who gave me some more Housing Assistance by letting me stay in her spare room for like, most of december.....my Allies. plus someone who talked to me via online once i bailed on my ‘rents! if they read this they know who they are and they have continued to be so kind and generous ugh love and appreciate you
- god just individual occasions of “THIS bullshit that i went through this one time” of especially ridiculous incidents.....i could go on for eons
- sort of tangentially related and related to the first point but ugh specific memories of Moments In Which It Continued To Be Revealed To Me That I, Individually, Was Prone To Being Kind Of Socially Ostracized.....like my ass started noticing that shit as soon as i was around other kids aka preschool aka 4 yrs old.......like i’m usually somewhat withdrawn and cautious and quiet in social situations especially what with the association that “misbehaving” = trauma exposure so, yknow, that might be a way that you’re pressured into just keeping to yourself and keeping your head down. but talk about “i don’t really relate to other people my age” lmao like i always preferred interacting with adults really while by and large dealing with the other kids felt like a challenge that i was never gonna actually come out on top of and i still remember individual Efforts i’d make to ~fit in~ and Participate that just fell flat or got me actively excluded....Ugh City........and it’s like, i could make a list of Social Traits i think i have that help make it difficult for people to be interested in interacting with me, or “contribute” to those joyous occasions when you get to sit back and take in the thinly veiled contempt directed at you by various shitheads, but like, even that’s not really the right way to explain it. its kind of more a Greater Than The Sum Of Its Weird Parts sorta combined experience where i guess i just have this kind of Negative Je Ne Sais Quoi that gets ya the social brushoff / rejection. c’est ce que c’est. the joke is i actually like people and socializing In Theory, i just usually don’t get to do it. shoutout to the advanced relatability of alana calling everyone Acquaintances b/c i literally did/do that lmao......like are we friends if we don’t talk all that often? it’s part on me cuz i’m crap at being the person to initiate conversation cuz too often i assume i’d be an annoyance and also b/c conversation with me is like, not great lmao but still......ce’st l’a v’ie
anyways (clip from that fuckin song where it’s like WHO CAN RELATE lmao.mp3)
13 notes · View notes
Text
Legacies 1x12, There's a Mummy on Main Street -- Review
I bring you another episode of Lega-Trash. And considering how this episode says it in the title -- it's all about mummies -- you would think I would like this episode since the Brendan Frasier Mummy films are my favorite films of all time (excluding 3, I refuse to acknowledge that film's existence) but this episode, real shocker, was beyond boring. This episode just kept dragging on and on. It brings shame to the Mummy genre.
This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding Legacies, the spin-off of a spin-off that should never have come to pass, but here we are. I'm not a fan of this show, have never pretended to be one, so if you're looking for Legacies positivity, this is not the place for you. Move along, this is not meant for you. I'm very critical about this show. Keep in mind these are my thoughts and feelings about this mess of a show. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling you how to think and feel. You don't have to agree with my opinions but I would ask that you respect them, please. Also, spoilers for the episode. So if you haven't seen the episode yet, watch the episode and then come back...otherwise, read at your own risk. But let's be real here. I'm sure my followers who end up reading this have no desire to watch this show and use my ramblings in these reviews as a substitute for actually watching the show...those selfish jerks...just kidding, I love all my followers and please, only watch the show if you really want to. I'm making a sacrifice watching the show so you don't have to.
I honestly don't know what to say about this episode that I haven't said before. It's not even so much that Legacies is a "bad" show (well, I mean it is) but the real grievance I have with this show is just how damn boring it is. 10 minutes go by and you feel like it's been 30 minutes. Everytime I watch an episode, it's the longest 42 minutes of my life. Beyond all the rampant misogyny disguised as feminism, beyond all the lack of understanding pertaining to mental illness, beyond all the cringey dialogue, this is just a boring show to watch. The episodes are badly structured, it barely has a plot, and most of the characters are either dull and bland or just super annoying and unlikable (and in Hope's case, both). Really, these episodes should not be 42 minutes long. There's not enough story to the "monsters of the week" to warrant 42 minutes and the character drama occurring isn't interesting enough to hold my attention for the remainder of the time. I think what really bothers me about this show's formula is that the monsters have very little to do with the internal character struggles within the narrative. A good Motw show incorporates the monster as a tool to explore certain themes within the characters' development, plus also adding onto the show's seasonal mytharc and plot. But that isn't the case with the show. The monster and the character drama are always kept self-contained and separate from each other. And that's not a good formula for a MotW show and I think that's why the episodes feel stilted and badly structured. The episodes are missing a sense of cohesion that would make you enjoy an episode all the way through. And then you tack on the show's other problems and it just becomes a mess.
But anyway, enough with the rambling. What happened in this episode? Alaric feels guilty about letting a slug infect him and causing him to throw the urn into the river so he's on a mission to get the urn back. He realizes, somehow, that the urn is stuck in a dam near this small town so Alaric takes Dorian (the therapist's boyfriend), Emma (the therapist), Hope (because why wouldn't he) Kaleb (the teenage vampire who loves feeding on humans) and Josie and Lizzie. Don't ask me why Alaric thinks it's a good idea to bring teenagers along with him on this very dangerous mission, we all know he's a horrible headmaster. But anyway, the group ends up in this small town, Dorian goes scuba diving for the urn and there's a mummy on the loose going after the urn and bringing lots of African hornets to help it out on this venture. After this town gets attacked by hornets, some government operation shows up to give aid but it turns out these are the people in charge of Malivore. They ask for Alaric's assistance in dealing with the mummy (that's where the Charmed Ones come in) and compelling the townsfolk into forgetting everything (that's where Kaleb comes in). The mummy gets taken care of, it pops up for round two, it gets taken care of again. The government organization makes a vague threat about paying a visit to the school and Alaric and the teenagers leave. But not before getting the urn back as Kaleb compelled one of the government peeps to steal the urn and give it back to them. But unfortunately, they end up giving the urn back to the shady government organization as said organization is holding Dorian and Emma hostage. So this entire episode was a waste of time.
Now let's get into the drama of this episode because this show being a MotW show is a farce, this show is a soap opera, plain and simple.
So there's drama between the Charmed Ones and we're finally starting to see some sort of female something build between them but it's still pretty weak and pretty bland. And yes, I'm calling them the Charmed Ones because that what they are. JP doesn't have a single original thought in her head, we all know this. But basically Lizzie is angry with Hope for being on this trip with them because once again, Hope is infringing upon her time with her father, there's that abandonment trigger again we all know Lizzie has. Lizzie accuses Hope of setting a fire in Hope's room on purpose a few years back that lead to Lizzie losing father-daughter time with Alaric because Alaric then had to deal with the fallout on that. Hope is adamant that she did not set that fire, why would she because she also lost half of her belongings including the only drawing she ever made with her father. And Lizzie also accuses Hope of being responsible for spreading a horrible rumor about Lizzie's bipolar disorder as this fire incident was what lead to Lizzie's first manic episode. Hope swears up and down she did not set that fire and she certainly would never spread horrible rumors about Lizzie's disorder as she also hails from a crazy family and she could just as easily have these kinds of issues. And here's what I don't like about how the show approaches mental illness. Having a family who have displayed psychotic behavior causes you to be crazy. I don't like that. And I don't like that Hope feels she can compare her situation to Lizzie's. They're completely different situations. All the horrible things that the Mikaelsons did, that all came from vampirism. Being a vampire wasn't what made them horrible people who needed redemption. That was a product of specific situations, and really there's very little proof beyond Hope's self-entitled narcissistic personality that she's likely ever to display. Before the Mikaelsons became vampires, they were relatively stable. Hope is relatively stable. She's bland and irritating but stable. The things that the Mikaelsons did that were bad were a result of specific situations leading them to make those decisions, if Hope doesn't have those kinds of situations, it's entirely possible she won't display their kind of behavior. Basically, if Hope ever goes dark, it's most likely less of a trait she inherited through blood and more of a learned trait. What's going on with Lizzie is something that's completely different, this is something that's manifesting within her own body. This is a chemical imbalance inside of her brain (which is a popular theory among the medical community on what causes bipolar disorder) that causes her to make the decisions she does or lose control. I certainly don't excuse Lizzie for any of the things she does as a result of her disorder but what's going on with Hope and what's going on with Lizzie are two completely different things and should not be compared on the same level. Plus, I don't like the insinuation that because you have a crazy family, that means you're privy to bad behavior or a mental illness or on the flipside, if you don't have a crazy family and you have a mental illness, then you're just crazy.
But it's eventually revealed that Josie was the one who started the fire in Hope's room. Josie had left a love note in Hope's room basically saying she had a crush on Hope. Josie immediately regretted it and was ashamed for doing such a stupid thing but couldn't get back into Hope's room to get the note back so she used a fire spell to get rid of the note but the spell overshot and caused a massive fire. I don't understand why Josie had a hard time getting the note back considering all the insane things we've seen magic do in this franchise but I guess teleporting an object is just too much for this world's magic system, that's where the line is drawn. But wait, there's more to this drama. Josie felt so ashamed and didn't want Lizzie to find out that Josie actually spread the rumor about Lizzie's disorder and told Lizzie it was Hope. Her reasoning is that she was worried that if Lizzie ever found out about the note, Lizzie would try and destroy Hope because that's what Lizzie always does whenever Josie forms a connection with anyone else. So once again, we're making Hope and Josie these pure and innocent creatures and painting Lizzie in a horrible light. I just, I don't even know where to start. First off, Hope is super intrigued to learn that Josie had a crush on her and Josie's response was, "well, who wouldn't." Considering Hope has no friends and indeed in the previous episode, it was remarked on how weird it was to see her socializing and gasp! being friendly with other people -- I find this really hard to believe. And also, why is it necessary for everyone to love Hope? If you needed further proof that Hope is Elena 2.0, here it is. Everyone loves her for no apparent reason and it's remarked on as, "who wouldn't love Hope?". Well me, for starters, but that's beside the point. So moving on, while all this kind of sort of tracks and kind of sort of works even though it's at Lizzie's expense, it's not how I would've done it. Because Josie is continually becoming so one-note on how pure and perfect and innocent she is with her only flaw being her co-dependency, I would capitalize on her co-dependency flaw here. Here's how I would approach it. Josie was noticing that maybe Lizzie and Hope were starting to aknowledge eachother and starting to become friends and she got jealous. I actually could kind of see a potential playful teasing kind of frienship between Hope and Lizzie if cultivated. Josie has spent her entire life being so co-dependant on Lizzie that the prospect of Lizzie moving on and not needing her help anymore was a frightening thought for her. Josie exists, at least to her, to be there for Lizzie and Lizzie suddenly not being there and taking away Josie's sense of importance caused her to lash out a little. Maybe instead of a love letter, she sends a hate note or something saying to stay away from Lizzie but after she left the note, she immediately regretted it and was ashamed about it and but couldn't get into the room to get it back so she tries to use a spell to insinerate it but an actual fire starts, the fallout happens, Lizzie is angry they lost time with their father and out of Josie's own anger she makes a comment to Hope about Lizzie's disorder and it all goes from there, thus eternally making Lizzie despise Hope and Josie got what she wanted, Lizzie's continued dependance on her. Basically, I want to see Josie in more of a selfish light. I want to see that not only can she be selfish but it can also be petty and childish and vindictive much like Lizzie's behavior can be. While it makes sense that Lizzie's narcissism can play into jealousy, it also makes sense that Josie's co-dependancy can play into jealousy. Josie is selfish in the sense that she needs Lizzie to be dependent on her dependence and if Hope were to endanger that, Josie may have a difficult time being faced with the prospect if finding her own worth. Thsrd are selfless ramifications in co-dependency behavior but there are also selfish ramifications in co-dependent behavior.
We also get treated to this line said by Dorian while he and Emma are on a date. "You wouldn't have worn those shoes if you didn't like me a little." I don't speak for all women here but I don't choose to wear high heels for anyone else but me. I like the way they look on me, I like the way they make me feel, I don't do it for anyone else's gain but myself. You, good sir, can take your misogyny and shove it where the sun don't shine. And then it gets worse at the end of the episode where Emma comes clean about kissing Alaric while being infected with the slug. And this leads to Dorian punching Alaric and quitting. Good riddance, he won't be missed. But I'm sure he'll be back to rain more misogyny on this show. And the whole escalation to the punch is really weird. The slug doesn't possess you. It lowers your inhibitions which means there was a part of Emma that wanted to kiss Alaric. And I don't think Alaric even knew about Dorian. It was just two people getting caught up in the moment, I'm certainly not defending Alaric or Emma here but hey, sometimes it happens. Plus, I get the feeling Emma and Dorian haven't been together very long so was all that really necessary? Did we need to go all caveman and be all, "How dare you touch my woman, I must defend her honor and also prove she has no agency in her decisions". JP's feminism at her finest.
I'm also confused on the plot of this show. I don't really understand what Malivore will do if it's opened. It'll unleash all the monsters locked inside and somehow that brings an end to all supernatural creatures?
I'd give this episode a C. It's more of the same. A blah episode in a blah show.
8 notes · View notes
garden-ghoul · 7 years
Text
gurguliare replied to your post: post mortem, s3 spoilers. mostly just archiving...
i have mixed feelings on the soft boy thing because i think lem came across as pretty darn ‘bad’/careless/capable of causing damage in s1 and … like … i don’t appreciate being hammered over the head with this stuff just because other audience members aren’t getting it, which is maybe not the fairest reaction. i mean i didn’t mind most of the THINGS lem DID in-season but i think the smugness over how they’d Deconstructed the Trope was unwarranted
yeah that’s a really fair thing to be annoyed about. I just think some things are important to hit people over the head with in case they don’t get them, and like, I’m generally in favor of making sure people are thinking about power imbalances and how they end up used. uhhh this is partially about the waypoint radio episode on the same topic I guess (because I can’t distinguish the two discussions from each other) but just like, it’s cool that they’re using the fact that people will listen to them ramble for 3 hours to spread info they think is important
also a friend patiently explained to me that the mix of antisemitism/indigenous rights stuff is unfortunately actually a very frequent pairing in the context of palestine discussions, so, whoop whoop i guess :\ fantasy hyenas where better to encode this
I am not SURPRISED that this is a frequent combination, and like was vaguely thinking this as I was writing that complaint. but uh if austin was trying to make this an explicit metaphor for palestine he totally failed and also it was shit, and I resent this whole thing. I am not EXTREMELY INFORMED on the palestine matter but it seems to me that in both cases there were... multiple indigenous groups in the area... it’s not like the halflings and/or jews came from a totally different place? (I typed jalflings, which is another good jeans typo along the lines of jandalf) this is bad discourse and I don’t want it on my blog, whatever. gnolls rock and jews also rock and that’s all there is to say on the matter.
6 notes · View notes