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aksm · 10 months

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Doomed by the narrative is a popular, fun trope. It's what superhero movies are all about. If you take the average superhero you already probably would know how their story is, what tragic backstory they had, what events shaped their life, etc.

So what you'll see whenever there's a new story about them is those major backstory elements rehashed or subverted or played with or at least mentioned in some way. Because that's the story. That's the narrative. And the character is established by that narrative and therefore also doomed by it.

ATSV is no different. In fact it goes full meta with it. (There used to be a time when being meta was so cool until it was so goddamn overdone that it became stupid and you just want the earnestness of the pre-meta stories. You can only furiously 'wink wink' and violently*nudge nudge* the audience so much before you lose their interest. Anyway ATSV is fully earnest in it's meta that you don't even register it as being meta until you take a step back and look at the story being told. Like it's a proper metamodernist piece. Also I like how the two great examples of metamodernist media are both multiverse stories. The other being everything everywhere all at once, of course)

What the movie does differently is having how different people react to the 'Doomed by the Narrative trope’ be the forefront of the story. That is the story, actually. It also explores how valid everyone's reactions are. Even Miguel's (my hot take).

Like Peter B has lived as Spider-man long enough and has gone through most of the Spider-Man canon and was in a slump when we first met him. Like he even separated from MJ. But he rolls with it. Because that's just who he is. But now?

It was because of Miles Peter B got back into his groove and found his place again. It was essentially because of Miles he got back with MJ and had a baby and found stability in being himself.

'How do I know I'm ready, Miles?'

'You can't. It's a leap of faith.'

Miguel is angry but resigned because the one time he tried to defy the narrative it fucked everything up so bad. An entire universe was lost because of him. So now he’s doing what he genuinely believes is the right thing to do. He built the spider society to really make sure no one else can repeat his mistake and lose everything. Like what Peter Blond said in the first movie, 'because the only thing standing between this city and oblivion is me' except change 'city' to 'arachno-humanoid poly-multiverse'.

So of course he’s angry when Miles suggests that canon can be changed. That he can deny fate. Both because he’s convinced Miles is wrong and is going to get people killed and also if Miles is right than Miguel has to reckon with the fact that he’s convinced so many Spider-people to just adhere to the canon that had engulfed every aspect of his life now and let their loved ones die because he was convinced there was no fighting the narrative. That not everyone is as doomed as he is. Miles challenging that notion while there is concrete evidence of the notion being correct is cool af.

And Hobie, who probably knows he's doomed but has his own agenda for joining spider society. He's stealing knick knacks, building his own watch and shit. He might accept the narrative but he's not gonna live by it. If the narrative is gonna take him down he’s not going down limp. So of course when he sees Miles rebelling against the narrative he is fully on board. Miles exemplifies Hobie's traits. That is a proper punk.

And Gwen. My god. She escaped her narrative of being a dead spidey gf only to become a spidey trope herself. Seriously, an alternate universe gwen that doesn't die at the bell tower and instead is that universe's spider-woman? How cool is that? Oh wait. Your dad's gonna die and your Peter is also dead. Sorry. Haha.

Anyway, the movie opening with her and us seeing her current mental place was done so well. She misses Peter. She misses Miles. But both of these people aren't in her life anymore. Her dad hates who she is. She's depressed. But she's still spider-woman. And then the story happens and vulture and Miguel and then boom. Her father knows her identity. And essentially disowns her. She flees to the spider-verse. She can't go back home and she’s even more stressed out and angry when she learns that as Spider-Woman she's gonna lose her loved ones no matter what.

She lost Pete. And now she might lose her dad. So now she's in a limbo. By not going back home she is saving her father because he can't die unless she's there to not save him. The narrative will still eventually doom her. But she can put it off by having spider-people adventures and upholding the narrative that wants to doom her. Goddamn irony.

But she stops going along with it when she sees Miles' reaction to finding out he’s doomed. He doesn't give in to the narrative. He doesn't care about canon. He fights back. And that one little push gives her the spark to try and find out just how doomed she really is. And that ending scene when her dad stops being a police officer and really just becomes her dad. The doom lingering over her 'canon event' vanishes. He's no longer the capt stacey doomed to die in a spider story. He's a dad who's accepting his daughter wholly. I fucking love Gwen's whole arc in this movie.

And then there's Miles. Goddamn Miles, man. He was trying so hard to figure out what his narrative even is, but is determined that he can figure it out, that he can spread his wings and manage on his own and find his place and be himself.

Like, I would've written a paragraph dedicated to Pavitr on here but Miles already saved him from the narrative. Pavitr, my wholesome boy I hope you face no strife in life and everything goes absolutely splendid for you at all times my precious baby boy I love him.

Anyway, Miles finding out he's doomed? And how he finds out is from the people he thought would truly understand what he's about? And them not only accepting the fact that him (and all other spider-people) are doomed but going along with it? That has to be the biggest 'what the actual fuck' moment for him. It's so out of left field for him, understandably so. This whole building of heroes are all 'yeah. Peter from universe 573683 can't clock in today. He just lost his uncle' like that's such a fucked up concept that Miles will not even look at the reasoning Miguel or anyone else puts in front of him.

And this radical rejection is the best character take. I seriously seriously can't wait to see the next movie and see just how Miles deals with a narrative hellbent on dooming him. Spider society will be in shambles.

Obligatory 'Do it, Miles. Break the fucking canon.'

This post was inspired by another tumblr post that I can't find but it expressed my thoughts about the 'doomed by the narrative' aspect of it all but not in the words I had in mind so I wrote it myself

#across the spiderverse #spider-verse #Spider-Man #spider man across the spiderverse spoilers #miles molares #miguel o'hara #gwen stacy #atsv #atsv spoilers #atsv pavitr #atsv hobie #peter b parker

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tree-fence · 4 months

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kristen multi classing as a paladin? no. kristen multiclassing as a barbarian, RIZ multiclassing as a paladin. i know riz don't TECHNICALLY qualify, and maybe it "doesn't make sense" for kristen, but HEAR ME OUT!!!!

for kristen's whole life, all she was allowed to be was "the chosen one" or "that helioc girl", religion was the crux of her identity. her being a cleric AND a paladin (both religion based classes) is shoving her back into that same box that she's only very recently escaped. her being a barbarian, however, is a healthy outlet for her pent up rage. i really just want her to have a martial based class (bc butch kristen is IMPORTANT TO ME!!!), and i feel like being a barbarian could work so well for her character arc. barbarians are typically stereotyped as stupid (despite that being proven otherwise a lot (gorgug and ragh)) and destructive, and kristen, not only being a healer but also getting dumbed down A LOT despite being very smart fits well with the narrative.

riz gukgak, on the other hand, has always had a very innate love of mystery. he seems to treat his cases almost reverently, even tattooing his clues on his body (even though he was coked out of his gourd). he said he felt like he couldn't feel connected to his friends without a case to crack. you know what brings people together? GOD. let him be a paladin for the mystery goddexx and let him never feel lonely again. it also works with him being an undercover angel, because not only would he better understand what it means to work with heaven but he'd also have cool paladin abilities, which if you look into what they are, are really fucking rad, and could help him with his detective work. not to mention riz's unique connection to cassandra through kalina, who has been with him SINCE BIRTH. name a character better suited for the job.

also more rizten shenanigans (they are my favorite duo). they even eachother out completely, it's beautiful. riz is one of the most uptight serious bad kids, who's main thing is being dexterous, and brian murphy is a comically bad roller. kristen is the silliest goober of the bad kids, who is so laughably undexterous, and she has ally beardsley, the dice god, as a player. kristen brings out the best in riz, and vice versa.

they are best friends. they are perfect. kristen should get to rage.

#riz gukgak #kristen applebees #fantasy high junior year #cassandra #fantasy high #team rizten

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ae-neon · 1 year

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Okay I'm rereading some beginning chapters of acotar and Feyre says Alis and the two other servants look human/high fae. Like humans with pointed ears. Specifically described Alis as a brown haired woman.

It's probably the glamour, but a very interesting take on it.

Also Tamlin "plops" down into his chair as a horse sized beast AND THEN shifts back to high fae form??? 😭 Sarah what are you talking about?

Credit tho, this is probably the best Feyre is written. Smart, observant, thinking - still panicked but not making stupid mistakes. And kinda funny, she thinks Tamlin is wearing the mask in solidarity with Lucien since Lucien probably wants to hide his scar.

Lucien is a bit weird? In retrospect, he knows about the curse, about the sentries going despite Tamlin's reluctance but he's acting like Tamlin traded Andras's life for Feyre's?

Also sjm's manipulative writing. At no point has Tamlin done anything to save Feyre or earn her trust but she mentally starts switching from captor to saviour out of nowhere. It's only chapter 5 or 6. Be serious. She hasn't even been there a day and she's saying the humans were wrong about Prythian.

Alis and the other two servants cut Feyre's hair, why? Also Alis telling Feyre to take Lucien down a peg lol.

Alis says Feyre will be safe at the mercy of their master and just before she left the dining room Feyre saw Lucien bow to Tamlin as well as be talked down from throwing Feyre out. How does she not know he's the High Lord?

Lucien to Tamlin: you have zero rizz, my boy

Also Lucien: "we're not going to bite." Teeth gleaming in a way that suggested otherwise. Cassian stole this man's whole flow 🙄

Not Tamlin saying it's an honour for a human to be served by a High Fae, stfu.

“You look … better than before.”

Was that a compliment? I could have sworn Lucien gave Tamlin an encouraging nod.

“And your hair is … clean.”

HAHAHAHA

(Lucien muttered, “So typically human.”) racism.

Lucien was seriously upset about Andras. That hurts.

Tamlin immediately assures Feyre that he's helped her family with income. It's chapter 7. The tension is sucked out of the situation and Feyre's motivation to leave is nullified by the author. That's kinda bad writing. Narratively it makes sense for Tamlin to use this against her trying to escape tho.

Tamlin has magic ropes? Hands? That can just hold Feyre in place?

Feyre: he's lying. Also Feyre: faeries can't lie.

“Why be so generous?” Lucien gave me a look that suggested he had no idea

They literally just finished making sure she wasn't in love with anyone back home so she could fall for Tamlin easier. So Lucien knows exactly why???

Feyre misses sleeping next to her sisters 🥺

Nesta must be stretching her legs and smiling at the extra room. She was probably content imagining me in the belly of a faerie—probably using the news as a chance to be fussed over by the villagers.

She legitimately doesn't know anything about Nesta.

...maybe the villagers would turn on my family, not wanting to be associated with people tied with Prythian, and run them out of town.

acotar Feyre would punch acomaf Feyre in the mouth

"Your hair is … clean. A pathetic compliment." 😭😭😭

(“What in the bottomless depths of the Cauldron is—”) so you're telling me sjm actually used to use real lore and incorporate it into worldbuilding. Wow. Like this is such a good line and flows so naturally from an upset Alis because of course that is how fae see the world.

I couldn’t bring myself to look at my slightly uptilted eyes. I knew I’d see Nesta or my mother looking back at me.

I’d sometimes wondered if that was why my sister had insulted me about my looks. I was a far cry from ugly, but…

I bore too much of the people we’d hated and loved for Nesta to stand it. For me to stand it, too.

The dynamic between Nesta, Feyre and the ghost of their mother could have been one of the realist, rawest elements of this series...

#acotar reread #feyre archeron #lucien vanserra #tamlin #sjm critical #anti sjm #just in case

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fanfic-lover-girl · 5 months

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Android 18 Rant (17 was the better Android twin)

So I have been watching clips from the Cell Saga for nostalgia and to overcome my fear of seeing Imperfect Cell's disgusting cockroach face. Anyway, I was comparing the absorption scenes of 17 vs 18 and looked at how 17 was treated in the story versus 18...and I wish 17 was the android that was kept in the Buu saga instead of 18.

I think my feelings can be expressed in 4 main sections.

Fight Scenes

So 17 had more fight scenes to show his mettle compared to 18. 17 fought against the Z fighters, Piccolo and Imperfect Cell. 18 had her one badass fight against Vegeta and then faded away to sit still and look pretty in the background. And her fight against Vegeta is not truly that impressive. The fight sequence between 17 and Piccolo was way more spectacular.

Scenes Leading up to their absorption

I think Cell's absorption of 17 was WAY more horrific. Imperfect Cell gave 17 a bad beatdown and then we saw his entire absorption process from start to horrific end. When Imperfect Cell begins to transform we see 17 literally falling into the void as he becomes part of Cell. With 18, it's horrible how Vegeta let Cell absorb her and it must have been frightening to see Cell walk towards her mockingly with his tail ready. But I think still 17 has the edge over her. Plus 18's absorption seemed to be way more focussed on Krillin than her. Her "death" is less about something horrific happening to her than Krillin losing a possible love interest.

The narrative coddled 18

Why did no one try to kill 18?! Piccolo's goal was to kill 17 to prevent Cell from transforming. But's like after Semi-perfect Cell everyone lost their game. Besides simp Krillin, no one had any motive for sparing her. Why didn't Tien tri-beam her instead of Cell? His attack would be 100% guaranteed then. Why didn't Trunk blast her to bits when Vegeta was being a total dumbass (that scene did Trunks so dirty)? With Krillin, the show probably wants us to think he sees good in her, but why? Because she kissed him ONCE?? How does Krillin know that she did not enjoy a murder spree after she pecked his cheek? It's the height of foolishness that Krillin risked the whole world because he caught feelings. I doubt Krillin would have hesitated as much if it was 17 instead of 18. She was spared because she was a sexy girl. Lowkey sexism. She was just reduced to Krillin's love interest by the end. His own damsel in distress.

...But I will admit that Krillin would have likely spared 17 too given how he accepted 16 later.

18's Dumbfounded Look Post Cell Appearance

What pisses me off about 18 is how stupid she looks and acts when the time gets rough. The girl could not even bother to step in when her brother was being pounded into the ground by Cell. If you don't care enough about your twin to help at least run away. So many times, she stands around looking like a wide-eyed child when she should be escaping. Part of me thinks she had no self-preservation. Why not flee during 16's fight with Imperfect Cell? And then she takes her sweet time while Tien is risking his life to keep her sorry behind safe when he should have just destroyed her. And then she stands around looking like a blonde airhead AGAIN when Vegeta is fighting Cell. Darn woman, do you want to live or not?! You have the advantage of being undetectable with ki sense. What the hell are you doing?! 17 was a total idiot when he chose to not escape as well but at least he went down fighting. I bet 17 would not stand around gaping like a goldfish if the roles were reversed.

Watching Android 18 just makes me annoyed. She had one moment to shine and then faded into obscurity. The only reason she remained relevant is because she became Krillin's wife. Not that her being his wife served any greater purpose beyond making Krillin happy (and I admit that Krillin deserves his happiness). Unlike Chi Chi and Bulma who gave us useful child characters, Krillin's family is literally a waste of space in the Buu saga narrative. On Kami's lookout when she is arguably the strongest fighter there, it's Krillin, like the heroic guy he is, who goes out to protect everyone from Buu. It's a shame how the androids' unlimited energy just never comes up again. I wish Android 17 stuck around. At least he had a more entertaining personality.

These are my opinions and if you feel differently about 17 and 18 you do you. But 18 is just another DBZ female that ended with a sad whimper.

If I had to choose the best or most badass DBZ female, I would go with Videl or Bulma. Or even Chi Chi or Launch! 18 sure as heck does not deserve the title. I am happy for her and Krillin but that's about it.

#android saga #cell saga #cell dbz #android 17 #android 18 #dbz #dragonball z #android 18 critical #tien shinhan #future trunks #piccolo #imperfect cell #semi perfect cell #the cell saga was a hot mess full of mess ups #krillin #dbz salt #krillin critical

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raxistaicho · 9 months

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"God's gonna get Edelgard for this!"

Yup, we sure have gone there!

So a while, RandomNameless got an anon ask:

Insane that Sothis can watch Billy slaughter her children and subjugate Fodlan in twu piss, and still say she adores him. The devs were drinking the El Grey that day.

You know it's RN because the stupid nicknames.

So yeah, Anon's just angrily ranting that Sothis doesn't care about her daughter which established a false religion, made people suffer for a millennia, and tried to violate the laws of life and death, which, when Ashera did it in Radiant Dawn, was treated by Caineghis as an utter betrayal of her supposed core attribute of order.

“A blasphemy, you mean! How could the goddess of order violate the most fundamental natural law?”

Stay salty, anon.

RN herself weighs in on it next. I'm gonna let her go on a bit because the actual argument she's making needs to be stated in full.

That's what baffled me in Tru Piss lol, and first route bias etc etc meant Sothis was unsalvageable given how it became painfully obvious, even for someone who didn't complete the other routes, that the goddess Rhea calls "mother" is Sothis herself ! Bear in mind Hresvelg Grey meant Sothis couldn't interact with the cast bar Billy, will never talk to her relatives and will never have any influence on the plot. It's as if Elbert only talk to Mark, while Eliwood is still frantically looking for him, and Mark never tells Eli where his dad is.

So here, RN is misunderstanding the point of Sothis in the broader narrative. Yes, Sothis happens to be Rhea's mother, but "being Rhea's mom" isn't her role in the story. RN, because she's a huge fan of the Nabateans, wants the story to be more about the Nabateans, but it really isn't.

See, there's a reason the Agarthans are dispatched in one chapter in all routes and are never the final bosses or the true villains of the story: the story isn't about them. They're important to its background, but they're important for what they represent and what they do, not who they are. The Nabateans are the same.

Ultimately, the story of Three Houses is a tale of the conflicts between mortals and the divine, and the differing ideologies espoused by those who represent those sides. Edelgard firmly represents the will of mortal humans. Rhea, her antithesis, represents the desire of the divine to watch over mortals. Rhea, unlike her species is important because she is Edelgard's opposite. Thales, who might have been Rhea's opposite, is not as important because he isn't: Edelgard already serves that role. Dimitri leans more toward the necessity of the divine in human affairs, while Claude leans more toward the self-governance of humans while using the divine when necessary. There's a reason Claude sides with the Empire when he must, and the church only when he can control it for the purposes of promoting humanism.

Byleth is smack in the middle, fitting their dual-nature as both human and god, but they must choose a side in the end. In CF, they fully embrace the human, while in SS they fully embrace the god. VW and AM are something more in the middle.

Sothis is similar in a way, as a being who was once a god, died, came back as something less than a god, and chooses to sacrifice her powers to Byleth, thus remaining something less than a god. Sothis willingly chooses not to resume her role as the goddess (in Zahras when she decides to give her powers to Byleth rather than taking Byleth's body as her own in order to escape), and so her role in the story is not to be the goddess or Rhea's mother, but to be Byleth's guide, setting them at the start of their path and then departing so they might make the rest of the way.

But Rhea BaD BaD BaD,

And now we dip into the anti-Rhea conspiracy theory...

so her mother cannot take over Billy (something she canonically does in Nopes) to save her,

Here's another fact RN can't accept - and she calls Sothis a horrible mother for it - but Sothis doesn't approve of Rhea. Furthermore, Rhea's downfall in CF is almost entirely of her own making. She set the groundwork for Fodlan's oppressive social system, she refuses to allow it to be reformed, and she never questions why anyone would disagree with her. Because, for Rhea, reforming the church and Fodlan means resurrecting Sothis and submitting Fodlan to her divine rule, which becomes impossible without her church (it's already impossible because Sothis knows her time as the goddess is over and she's respecting the laws of life and death, but still).

and to erase Supreme Leader who hilariously tells everyone she doesn't exist.

It's not even that "hilarious". Edelgard's right in that the goddess worshipped by the Church of Seiros no longer exists: she's dead, and when she had the chance to come back, she chose not to. The Church of Seiros might worship a being with the same name as the gremlin in Byleth's head, but Sothis the head-gremlin and Sothis the goddess are a whole life apart from one another, and the Sothis we know chooses to remain the former.

But now we get to the real meat of this post.

Fantasy Invader.

Oh yeah!

I think this is a translation issue as Japanese Sothis doesn't say that "the stone in your chest is gone," she says "the stone in your chest...shattered."

Teaspoon Translations has it as "crumbled away" and has no ellipse, but who am I to question Fantasy Invader trying to make things look as sad as possible?

It broke, which would mean something considering it's supposedly her heart.

We bwoke Sothis's heart by killing poor baby Whea T_T

What's more, the game changed Byleth's Nirvana class to Enlightened One, and part of achieving Nirvana is purging oneself of attachments that might cloud your judgement.

But only if it's Edelgard. If it's Dimitri or Rhea, attach yourself as hard as possible in the hope they come around.

Also, in the context of Three Houses, detachment is a bad thing. Byleth grows out of being the Ashen Demon through attachment to others. Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude become their best selves when they open up and allow others in. Attachment is a good thing in Three Houses.

Ergo, by playing Safflower (the route being named after a type of thistle, a path of thorns if you will)

Ah, yes, I remember that one. It wasn't very good.

the player breaks Sothis's heart,

Oh he actually just said, "you break her heart :("

the thing that holds her essence,

No, because by then Byleth held her essence. Not the crude, physical matter Rhea shoved into their chest.

You'd think the person who goes all-in on religious symbolism would value the eternal soul over the ephemeral body.

causing it to seemingly disappear,

Except it doesn't? Her essence, I mean, not the Crest Stone. That's what the S support is for.

But sadly, Fantasy Invader has a way to explain that away.

It's a really bad way, but a bad way is still a way!

yet she leaves behind the Sothis you knew.

I'm sorry, what. Nothing indicates the Sothis from her S support is some... bizarre cast-off shadow of her.

Sothis, the real Sothis, abandons Byleth at the end of Safflower, leaving behind any attachment she once held as Byleth walked down the path of the Beast as per Dimitri's comment.

I'm sorry, what. Is it too much to ask that FI provide some evidence for this claim? I mean actual evidence, not his headcanon derived from his poor attempts at analyzing Buddhist symbolism.

Wouldn't leaving behind a part of herself to remain with Byleth go against this whole no attachments thing? That's a pretty big attachment! And if Sothis rejected Byleth, why would she do that? She can't just make a clean break from Byleth, she has to literally detach the parts of her... soul... personality, that care for them? Wouldn't that make her an incomplete being? It was a bad thing in the Tellius games when Ashunera split her soul into parts!

Combine this with the implications Sothis can come back if she recreates her body,

You know, that thing she demonstrates no ability to do! If Sothis could just make herself another meat puppet to incarnate into, Rhea wouldn't have had to spend a millennia trying and failing to do that for her.

and why Nemesis needed to kill her when she was asleep,

Because she would have defended herself and killed him if she wasn't? He didn't have a Relic or a Crest back then, he was just a bandit trying to kill the most powerful Nabatean in the world.

What, is FI trying to imply Sothis's soul just got stuck asleep because she died asleep and that's why she never bothered to come back the first time she died?

and you get an idea what's going to happen when that occurs as well as another piece of evidence Edelgard is an Agarthan in all but name.

And there we go, "God's gonna get Edelgard for this!" Sothis will totally self-restore herself at some unknown period of time in the future, kill Bad Red Lady, and make everything right.

Well if that's the case, why do you bother getting upset at anything Byleth does, FI? Just be like those Christians who are sure Jesus is coming back any day now and he'll fix everything on Earth when he does.

So yeah, yet more salty desperate self-assurance that Edelgard's totally gonna lose the minute the credits start, trust me bro.

I mean seriously, if her detractors are so certain she'll fail, why bother getting upset when she wins? It really makes you think.

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard von hresvelg #edelgard positive #sothis #buddhism #fantasy invader #random nameless

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shopcat · 1 year

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i've definitely said this before but no harm in repeating like i think... beyond what the writers intend or what they're actually attempting to aim for (if anything) i can see the stupid steve nancy "love triangle" Thing in many entirely reasonable lights and not one of them end in it actually being a love triangle. it's not a love triangle. and MAYBE!!!! i'm just tired of the steve haters of the world being like "season 4 steve sucks he's just so into nancy" FUCK OFF!!!! MAYBE YOU TRY AND HANG AROUND YOUR EX IN A STRESSFUL SITUATION AND SEE HOW YOU COPE. BITCH. anyway i think it's a testament to um character empathy and a love for their part in their narrative to view things not only kindly but ... logically and not just dismiss what could be happening either out of like panic or despair bc that's just not as fun at the end of the day and i am maybe naively hopeful. and instead it's just SO easy to contextualise and a story is only what it's telling YOU etc etc.

like how okay to me the 6 little nuggets speech coalesces all at once like, 1. steve and nancy got together in a period of their lives where the only problem in their lives was meant to be like. which college they're getting into. to each other they represent the like literal halcyon days of normalcy in an incredibly depressing twist on it where the nostalgic times they wish they could go back to was just Average Life. just Highschool. with the knowledge monsters don't exist and their friends aren't dead. in the continued battering ram of the upside down's particular brand of trauma year in and out wearing them down i think being around each other will always bring out that part of themselves that remembers what it was like When They Were Happy and i think the entire reason they seemed to revert so much to their roots this season in those little glimpses we see is because of this and this particular like, go of it the stakes were higher and their involvement was far more concentrated so um. when every move you make has weight it's not CRAZY that he wanted to let a little bit of it off and i think he sees nancy as this shining beacon of What Once Was, so YEAH in the fucking throes of the beginning of the apocalypse he latched onto her again a little. entirely understandable and not a VILLAINOUS TRAIT on either of their parts

this goes hand in hand with 2. steve himself is a notoriously avoidant incredibly actually NEUROTIC person. he wants SO badly to just cling on to what he once had he will unintentionally dig his nails in to it and we see this a LOT in the context of nancy especially during season one and like the first half of season two. he wants to Let The Bad Things Go and just go to the movies and be a couple normal kids again. whenever the upside down rears it's head again he doesn't react with like, preparedness or even fear he just goes straight to NO NO NO NO NO which is like. literally. but it's because he doesn't WANT to deal with it like at All. and i find that actually interesting juxtaposed with how nancy actively seeks out and cannot let the upside down go... maybe for what it did to her or maybe because she just feels she has to. who else is going to. and the initial reason she even bonded with jonathan or if you like to think so developed proper feelings for him is because jonathan ALSO sought it out. the upside down is a mystery to them that they want to solve and the upside down is a PROBLEM to get away from for steve and i think this is significant. so i think them experiencing something that feels bigger than it ever has in a context where it's all on them and where the kids they're taking care of are in genuine danger as well as themselves, coming right off the back of having to ESCAPE the dimensional hell they were this time not even metaphorically dragged into it's totally reasonable to look at one another and go GOD. it was so simple with you!!!!!

and while also 3. the speech itself was ... a death speech to be later quoted and reminisced upon a la "but you need to go on your rv trip!!! you can't die here!!!" and he'll go "you idiot... the six little nuggets were you guys all along" and 4. within the Literal speech itself he SAID the kids were "practice" and it was probably only ever intended to be a way to show his genuine connection to them and was never meant to be taken quite so literally as "i actually want 6 real life children that you my future wife will birth", it's also tied into 5. i am so fucking scared right now. and we used to be in love. and you're sitting next to me while my throat hurts from the ligature wounds given to me by a monster and you appreciate how i also represent a sense of typicality and grounded preparedness that you sometimes feel you need. and you're also scared. and i want to be normal and i want to be happy and i want us to be safe in the end and i want something to look forward to. and it's the simplest thing on earth -> i want to get the FUCK out of here. but we can't get the fuck out of here because we're driving towards our doom and i'm the one in the driver's seat. and i'm scared. and i want to say it because if i don't say it no one else is going to know. and she says that sounds nice because it sounds nice...

and finally 6. i think steve is like. mourning. i think he's looking at her and going i loved you once and i miss it but, integrally, it's past the point of return. we've grown and we've changed and maybe you're finally realising how much and she is so important to him and he loved her and he LOVES her but he doesn't Love her. she is the reason his life changed and maybe he never got to put to rest that he could never go back to the way it once was but he doesn't WANT to go back and he's SAYING this. he's going thank GOD you gave me the bump on the head and woke me up because i feel like i'm finally moving forwards now and i wish it could be normal but it can't and thank god for that. i am so scared of change but knowing you is what changed me and i am so happy for it. she introduced him to it all through one way or another and he never once even considered that a bad thing (though i do think he doesn't give himself enough credit etc etc). their talk in the woods before it is SO important to me because he's saying Thank you. and he's saying GOODBYE!!! he's saying yeah the person i picture next to me in this pipe dream is you because in a way it probably always will be you and because it Was always you back then. but i don't want to marry you. i want a place to settle down and have some kids even metaphorical and i know YOU don't want that. it's an acknowledgement of how much they've changed it's a conversation behind the conversation of looking into someone's eyes and telling them what you want and knowing they don't want the same and letting go of what once was even though like YEAH it's not the end of the world if there's still some sort of stirred up feelings. but it's not a love confession and it's not a man desperately trying to cling onto his ex while she (grown woman that she is) sits there and smiles at him for it and therefore turns her into a doormat and him into a creep or whatever the fuck the braindead masses are squawking about...

AND THAT IS THE REAL 6 LITTLE NUGGETS!!!! also i think to reduce two great characters independently to who they are To Each other is a disservice and there is no hidden plot within the plot dedicated to their romance in any deliberate way imo. or whatever. steve is not just Nancy's Ex and nancy is not just one half of a love interest bouncing back and forth in the worlds most tired misogyny ping pong of steve v jonathan. i think all the stuff this season it's the show's way of letting us see that nancy can see how much he's developed as a person and how even after all the hard work he himself put in for it and it's his own genuine kindness and literal body he puts in the line he still believes it's all because of her and he's grateful and while i have Low Hope i also must also have Hope that it will end... kindly. they both deserve an Ending and not just a massacre of characterisation.

#🍦#sts #also i hate how in s3 he . it was about him moving on from her. away from her. over her. and she was too. and then. Season 4.....#but it's fine... like i said.... there's reasons....#sometimes the narrative isn't 1 2 3 sometimes it's 1a 1b two L xyz 2 End

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orchidyoonkook · 1 year

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What do you wish someone would ask you about ‘To What We Were Before and All the things After’ ? Answer it now!

So I got this ask a hot minute ago and I wanted to sit on it for a while because I didn't have an answer.

And I think I've finally found one?

-> Why do you include certain scenes that people may not like or think fit the story in their opinion?

I got a comment on AO3 that actually made me think of this. It was something along the lines of "I hate it when girls fight over a guy" and my honest answer is:

Same.

I hate it. It's stupid. I've never done it as I see it as redundant and would rather just give the other person the thing they want and save myself the drama.

So why did I write it?

Because it was important to the overall story.

And just because I don't like something, doesn't mean that thing never happens. Girls fight over boys every day, it's a tale as old as time. And in the case of Yuri being a bit bananaballs about JK, once you learn her backstory more, I think you'll be able to see why she acts the way she does and why her past traumas manifest this way.

It's important to put preference aside when writing stories. It allows you to grow and experience things you normally wouldn't. It makes you uncomfortable in a good way, and lets you to put yourself into shoes you may normally hate or not understand. And then by doing so, potentially and unintentionally making yourself understand them and grow as a person.

Knowledge is power. And so while some people may see it as two girls fighting over a boy. When I wrote it, I saw it as:

A girl that gets defensive over a seemingly unreachable boy, lets you as the reader, learn about her in a way you may never have thought to before.

She seemed fine before that. She knows Reader has a life partner, she KNOWS reader would never do that to her. So why react that way?

To make you question her a little deeper.

Why is she so defensive? Is she really that clueless? Does she really have no self awareness?

Or is she maybe still a young girl at heart, one that’s clutching desperately onto once previously shattered dreams? Is she maybe looking for a man more powerful than her parents to sweep her away from her dreaded future?

And so when she’s confronted so harshly with reality by Reader, maybe she doesn't know how to cope properly, never learned how to.

And instead she learned to create a narrative that fit her needs better; learned how to escape bad feelings by pushing others away and blocking the bad feelings out and pretending they didn’t exist.

In the wise words of Ender Wiggan,

“In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves."

And you have to do that when writing (the way I do). I consider it forced, mutual growth.

#thank you for asking this #because Yuri gets a lof of surface level flack and that's okay #lot*#shes a difficult character compared to reader #but there is a reason for that!! and people sometimes just wanna read fanfic to escape reality #but i like having a touch of reality in my works #it makes it feel more real and cemented for me #anon #asks #twwwbaatta asks #twwwbbaatta #ms.mailbox📬

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 2 years

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if you're up for it out of the ones you know how would the other non-comics Edwards rank? (Unburied, HQ Show and whichever else you've seen?)

this is going to be considerably more hinged because I just straight up haven't seen a lot of the cartoons that Riddleboy has popped up on and generally have less feelings about them; the comics are where I really get crazy get stupid about him. but let's talk about a couple highlights! no ratings, they're all good little bastards.

John Glover (Batman: The Animated Series)

he's not my FAVORITE favorite but like. come on. he's a good little Riddler! he riddles like crazy! and I like BTAS rogues on principle, I love that they can definitely murder people but stay classy about it.

I usually prefer Riddlers who are driven to riddle by a desire to fuck (with) Batman, but I actually REALLY respect that this guy originally just wanted to murder his shitty former boss. that guy sucked and he did deserve to get disemboweled by a mechanical minotaur in an enormous labyrinth that Eddie apparently spent a year building on his own dime!

I'm also kind of indebted to his existence because Eddie in BTAS spinoff comics is just. my favorite little guy. him!

Dave Franco (Young Justice)

I'm gonna keep this quick because there isn't a lot to say: this Riddler kind of sucks but is also pretty much spot-on. like he's irritating but the whole narrative knows he's irritating; sweet baby Dick Grayson seems fucking exhausted the second he shows up and all the other villains at Belle Reve bully him like a bunch of cunty middle schoolers. I'm a simple man; I love when even the other villains want to kill this man on sight. his design also kind of sucks; like there are so many elements here that sort of work but just aren't that remarkable altogether? he looks like he does other bad guys' taxes.

having said all of that I do genuinely adore that in his first episode he's the only guy who manages to break out of Belle Reve during what was planned to be a mass breakout, especially given that the aforementioned bullying would strongly suggest nobody even told him that was going to happen. I love when he's the slippiest boy! escaping things is sort of a riddle; let him have that.

also, hey, I have to say this: it's just. so weird that he's Dave Franco. he's not bad in the role at all but. why.

Jim Rash (Harley Quinn: The Animated Series)

speaking of animated shows that know he's annoying and just roll with it!!

I like the Harley Quinn series quite a lot for a lot of reasons, mainly because it's not precious about the DC mythos and will frequently just do some buckwild shit with very established characters with absolutely zero hesitations. the Riddler is the opposite of that; this show knows exactly why and in what ways he's supposed to be an insufferable little freak and they go for it full throttle. don't love the bald + question mark tattoo look but he's gay so it balances out.

Hasan Minhaj (Batman Unburied)

yeah there's no normal way to explain this one, this version of the Riddler crawled deep inside one of my brain wrinkles and is still sitting there chirping like a cricket. I can't even explain why but if I think about him too long I begin frothing at the mouth. I think about him a profoundly abnormal amount and I feel great about it. he's only in four episodes and managed to rot a hole in my psyche in significantly less than that. I just think he's neat. he's awful. he's pathetic. he's my little meow meow. I don't want anyone to fix him. I'll cry if he gets worse. I want to see him implode. I've said it before and I'll say it again, whatever happens in season 2 of Unburied is going to make me truly unbearable as a human being.

#edward riddlehands

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chibivesicle · 1 year

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Trigun Stampede: Episode 1 review

To avoid being lazy and falling into the subgroup of a bitter nostalgic fan who watched Trigun on a fansub VHS tape before it was dubbed or on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, I have decided that I will faithfully review Trigun Stampede. This will be naturally in comparison to the original anime as well as the manga. Perhaps, I will become bitter and annoyed, perhaps not. However, I will do my best to review it as someone who has a soft spot in her heart for the original.

It goes that I will have spoilers for things if for some odd reason you haven’t seen the original so just keep in mind it will be in context to how Stampede compares to the original.

Episode 1 starts out in space with the Project Seeds ships flying near a desert planet. Vash is greeting all the people in the cryotubes and the ship is quickly met with disaster. Rem has Nai [Knives] and Vash go into the escape pod, Nai tells Rem to get in but she refuses and tells them this.

She doesn’t tell Vash to take care of his brother or there is no confusion as the door shuts leaving Vash to spend 130-150 years trying to determine what Rem told him to do in regard to Knives.

Rem just cries and makes it clear that they were import to her and her life.

Thus, the anime let’s the viewer know right from the start that people crashed on the planet and we know that Vash and his brother survived and it then cuts to a SUV in the desert with Meryl driving. Yes, the manga also starts off explaining that people crashed on the planet. But it isn’t revealed to be shown in relation to Vash, so, at the beginning of the anime we don’t know how he fits in this part of the narrative.

Meryl Stryfe is with her older colleague Roberto DeNiro and they are reporters for November Broadcasting. It is immediately apparent that Meryl is a recent college grad and this is her first job.

We can also see she has some lofty goals to change the world for the better as a reporter. However, she has to work with jerkass Roberto who rubs snot from his face on her resume, crumples it up into a ball and tosses it out the window. He refuses to call her by her name, is drinking on the job and chain smoking. Overall, I hate him and I want Milly back. The fact that some how anal retentive detailed oriented Meryl Stryfe forgot to charge the battery (and the fact they don’t have a spare to swap out in such a place) makes me cringe. When they walk up to Vash and she freaks out that he’s not dead cowers behind Roberto.

They are quickly found by the July Military Police (note to the subtitle peeps at CR who wrote it as JuLai) and the bad guy of the week hands them the wanted flyer. Vash looks much more like manga/anime Vash and he’s got a six million $$ bounty - not the sixty billion one that starts both the anime and manga.

Meryl sends them off his trail for a scoop. When Vash well, is Vash and all chatty with them, Meryl becomes such a flirty/flattered/ditz. This is only one of her facial expression/poses of over the top cuteness and - I hate it!

Why is a professional woman, who has to prove herself acting like this? Face it, women in the workplace deal with enough gendered shit and they went and made her all ‘Oh me? Reeeallly?? I’m just too cute uwuwuwuwu’. Excuse me while I go barf. Our man Roberto is already three sheets to the wind with his shirt tail sticking out as he looks resigned to be stuck with his stupid newbie and a weirdo outlaw.

Anyhoo, somehow they make it to Jeneora Rock with Vash’s wandering skills I guess. Meryl is looking rough as they walk to the main gate. Interestingly, she’s framed for a brief bit by a man with the weird emu/ostrich (not a thomas) creature with what appear to be metal coffins. Are these empty waiting for bodies or already full? Unclear. Is this man related to the Eye of Michael or just showing the wild west images from media of old?

This leads to the first time Meryl enters a saloon (sans Milly) and it attempts to recreate that first time of a petite professional woman out in the ‘frontier’. And it falls flat.

Yes, she gets made fun of when she enters similar to the original anime but we don’t have Meryl walking up to the barkeep, pounding her fist down and declaring the following: A banana sundae!

This is a woman who knows what she wants and she is fucking asking for it with authority. The animation pans to the shocked expression on the mens’ faces before showing this.

Milly may be the junior but she also knows what she wants! This then leads to the men heckling and intimidating them which comes to a complete stop when Milly’s strap breaks on her giant stun gun and the men decide to not mess with them. Keep in mind later in the episode when they are tied up, the minor villain, also realizes that Meryl is packing heat and backs off a bit as well.

Instead, junior reporter Meryl can barely ask for a simple water and gets mocked, by Rosa, not some burly male barkeep! Jeez, makes for a bad taste in my mouth when she is gushing about how great Vash is and gives Roberto a pass b/c he looks wise and hardened who tries to order a whiskey - like the man he is.

They notice that the city lacks clean water (if they set up a still they could clean it FYI) but it seems the creative team wanted something super obvious for Meryl to realize she isn’t in December or November anymore. Again, they introduce the role of plants from the get go instead of how the anime had the slow reveal about the giant light bulb things which were one of the few visual cues this isn’t an ‘old fashioned’ western. Along with the twin suns and extra moons.

While at the dying plant the July MPs are able to show up (they left the main door open?) and want to arrest Vash for the bounty, noting it would allow the town to get a new plant. Roberto decides to fix the solution, flask in hand by having the hot headed man duel Vash. Honestly, his argument is tepid at best but the unnamed MP goes for it and will reveal himself to be bat shit crazy.

The reporters hang back since the quick draw is on and Vash waves looking goofy and we do get a rapid shift in his facial expression when he’s no longer in line of sight from below. Roberto points out that Vash is a fool.

Meryl wants to help but he points out that she’d have been dead several times already. Which is factually accurate, but he wasn’t doing a good job of mentoring her to not die either. Compared to the original where we get a full five episodes of Meryl thinking Vash is a total goof and fool and couldn’t possibly be the legendary gunslinger, this one is quick to point out he’s not able to fit in this place.

Of course, Vash runs into the exact same issue from the original but revealed in a different way - he’s out of bullets. However, in the first one, he’s escaping the bounty hunters in search of him and he slowly knocks them out to steal ammo from them. This time he has a complete melt down and Rosa is willing to give 1 single bullet to Meryl to throw to him.

Honestly, this goes for the most epic badass how the hell did he do it with a single shot blah blah blah which - didn’t give me the feels. That’s the problem, we know that Vash is going to save the day and the town seems indifferent to him if he does or doesn’t.

His arm, which has already been identified as lost technology, could break solid rock and rip it out of the ground. I’m going to guess it likely doesn’t have a hidden machine gun in it anymore for extra protection. Current opinions on such topics have shifted and I can see Vash having the hidden machine gun as not being as cool anymore.

Trigun is like other anime/manga of that 80s/90s that were made for firearms nerds. Specifically, I’m thinking of Gunsmith Cats with Rally Vincent and May (I know that I’m really dating myself know bringing up this seinen series). Both Kenichi Sonada of Gunsmith Cats and Yashiro Nightow are seinen manga authors who are the right age to have been influenced by the western media that included crime noir/pulp/spaghetti westerns/dukes of hazard/gunsmoke etc etc stuff and it shows. I remember an interview with Sonada which I’m 99% sure was in Animerica magazine (now, I’m really dating myself) about all his research into firearms and making trips to the States to use them at a range and all sorts of crazy stuff like that.

The crisis is averted and the July MP are sent packing and Vash pretends to be a lucky bastard yet is still chatting with Meryl and Roberto. Roberto immediately calls him out on what his concern is and Vash just info dumps that he’s got a brother called Millions Knives. Wow, spare us the suspense and build up Vash. We get the flashback to the crash where it reveals in episode one that Nai orchestrated the crash, but don’t worry he saved the ship with all the plants so it is okay.

Vash can’t believe this happened and Nai makes it clear that Vash is his partner in this insanity. One of the insect birds flies to a very obvious bad guy layer where Knives is playing dramatic piano music as he learns that Vash been found and that he is to be brought to him. Stampede is throwing down the end from the start, Knives is the big bad and he has a plot to suck Vash into his orbit. He might have well had the long bad guy speech about how he formed the Gung Ho Guns and all that as well. Knives, why don’t you just monologue to your crew in episode one and save us all the mystery?

For someone with a great hatred of humanity, why is he playing the piano? He found everything about humans to be disgusting so why would he embrace a side hustle with music? I bet Midvalley the Hornfreak has been eliminated - saxophone is too 90s. It is 2023, bad guy with piano is in and badass sax is out.

The episode then ends with the scenes of Vash wandering and lots of sand. It seems alright. This was episode one, so we didn’t get our usual opening and ending so I can’t say anything just yet about the combo of both.

It seems just to mess with us, the episode doesn’t end with a philosophical preview but just this artwork. Vash is sitting on a rock outcrop looking at a ship that has crashed in a desert landscape. The background includes an actual photo, I wonder where it was taken. However, it indeed does look like the desert; I lived in one for over 7 years.

At the point where the mid episode commercial break was, we got a map of what they are calling the Seven Cities. The orange dot is showing the current location in Jeneora Rock. We can also see that July is still on the map. Did Vash not destroy it then in Stampede?

There is also an orphanage on the map as opposed to the one associated with Wolfwood in the anime/manga located in December. Which in both the anime and manga, December is alluded to be the most cosmopolitan and developed of the cities.

In the anime during the two year break when Vash disappears after Augusta and the Fifth Moon Incident, Meryl and Milly are back at the Bernardelli Insurance Society’s headquarters in December. It looks like a Gilded Age East Coast American city with paved streets, proto-skyscrapers and lots of motorized vehicles.

Note that the manga points out in volume 1 of Trigun Maximum that Meryl’s coworkers celebrate her birthday. And it reveals that when Meryl first encountered Vash and Wolfwood with Milly, she was 21! So yes, Meryl was a straight A student who completed her education and landed her job as an insurance adjuster/investigator when she was 21 and likely a recent grad and was the senior colleague to Milly!

I’d also like to note that the blonde colleague here Karen is pretty cool in the anime and manga recognizing that Meryl is an excellent employee and supports her either by preventing the other workers from being weird - or by her monologue in the anime about being happy that Meryl is chasing her career goals.

Episode 1 conclusions:

Vash - Vash appears to be pretty much Vash. I didn’t like his screaming/crying meltdown when he realized he had no ammo. Somehow, realistic tears seemed weird to me. In the anime he had the more of a comedic expression of horror.

I think the ‘Oh shit, I’ve got no bullets!’ gag worked better when it was low risk - Vash knew he could escape and no one else was involved. Taking the stakes up to for some odd reason try to save everyone from the cluster bombs which would fall next to the town (?) when it isn’t even clear it was a necessary action makes for a weak plot beat.

He also is info dumping left and right instead of his ‘fake’ smile which isn’t called out until episode 9 ‘Murder Machine’ when Wolfwood remarks that he can actually smile.

Apparently, Vash doesn’t like donuts anymore. I am sad if this is the case for Stampede. I will forever love his ability to eat half a box of donuts while running and also have a full conversation. It makes the scene where Vash gets the large bag of fresh donuts only to break down and weep openly in public hit you so hard.

I’m not keen on how he looks in Stampede, again having a red jacket that says Project Seeds which is still in pristine condition would make the backstory obvious. We’ll have to see if he moves the same way as super lanky Vash, but the toned down look and obvious replacement arm aren’t giving him much of an air of mystery. It was a nice touch when Vash runs into the room where Rem has the photo of them next to an actual germanium in a terrarium with red flowers though. We are keeping the red germanium = perseverance and tenacity.

Meryl Stryfe - As of episode 1 is the ‘worst’ of her anime/manga original chara and Milly as well. Derringer Stryfe wouldn’t have walked into a frontier saloon and mumble she wanted a water b/c she forgot to charge the SUV battery and pack a spare to swap out! She’d walk in and demand her banana sundae! None of this - the real world outside the big safe city is scary, hiding behind your drunk superior. The whole uwu bit with Vash was just bad, it makes her look shallow and self-centered. Jumping behind Roberto more than once - not cool, not cool. Anime Meryl had a high opinion of herself which occasionally got her in trouble but it was valid; she was a capable person who got the job done and used logic to solve her problems. For an anime that came out in ‘98 Meryl is a character ahead of her time. I never found her annoying, I liked her. Only now that I’m much older, I can see that my younger self - who was younger than her at the time I saw it, she was a good strong female character who was representation for someone like me still not yet in the real world (though I avoided it with graduate school too).

For her character design, I’m also disappointed. They kept her suit coat, earrings and navy blue tights but that’s it. The puffer jacket/windbreaker is weird along with the beret/newsboy cap thing, jean shorts and high top sneakers. If you are going to be in the desert and you want to wear a hat, wear one with a brim. Okay? Those finger less gloves - WTF?

Milly Thompson/Roberto DeNiro - Wow, wouldn’t I as a young professional woman love to be assigned to teamed up with a chain smoking, on the clock boozing, jerkass partner who refuses to use my name? I’m sorry, I hate his character, he’s lazy writing, decreases the female characters for the main cast and his suggestions barely move the plot in a logical direction. You really think that July MP guy would honestly have taken is bait to quick draw against Vash? No! In the Trigun manga he’d just riddle Roberto with bullets and take Vash. Hell, if it were the anime, he’d riddle Roberto with bullets.

Roberto is just Don Draper from Mad Men but bitter reporter. He’d smell terrible from all the cigarettes and booze and sweat. They are setting up the ultimate cheese plot point where Roberto is like, “Nice job Meryl! You really nailed it.” and Meryl will have feelings b/c her boss who should have respected her from the start has finally decided to respect her! The emotions! The payoff! [excuse me while I go barf some more]

Why am I saying Milly = Roberto? Let’s look at the preview poster again. We’ve got our four main cast members right here. Vash is riding the bird creature. Wolfwood is holding onto Vash’s jacket sort of. Queue the Vashwood shippers. He’s got Punisher by the strap and he’s losing his right shoe to reveal - no socks!

What’s with the slip on shoes in the desert? Sand, so much sand and grit and crap is going to get in your shoes and you don’t even have socks?!?! Where are your white socks with your tan oxfords? The anime was cheap and made them look like some sort of penny loafer, but they did animate his white socks underneath and yes, I noticed them Madhouse.

Wolfwood you are unfashionable with your dorky white socks, but I kinda love them. The manga has lace up oxfords which makes more sense that he’d at least wear dress shoes as a wandering priest/clergyman. It was visually striking and didn’t make him look as somber with the all black from head to toe. The tan shoes broke that vibe in a good way giving him a visual pop/interest and also letting others know he isn’t quite what he seems.

It might be that they want to make Wolfwood look younger and hipper and he actually looks like Wolfwood as a kid here when he killed his parental figure.

It zooms out to see him from above (sort of a ‘God’ angle) and transitions to him entering the room through him physically stepping through the door and into his new career. He looks like he’s wearing hand-me-down shoes as a poor kid.

It goes with the hidden message, that he at least has shoes even if they aren’t the best for going outside of a small town or city. Poor orphaned kid with his second hand too large for him shoes. I love how we can even see that as an adult with the white socks that Wolfwood’s shoes fit, the white sock is flush with the tan while in the flashback we can see a gap between his sockless feet and the too large shoes for him. Nice detail, nice detail.

Meryl has a camera which she’ll shoot with. No Derringers. In the manga there is a short several page reflection/commentary from Meryl about the use of firearms. When I re-read it I’ll make sure to remember where b/c it was top tier writing. She explains how her father made sure she was trained in the use of firearms as it was a necessity on the planet. But she takes it a step further and explains what it felt like the first time she ever shot a man. The power of her monologue keeps brings the reader back to reality and to not focus on the sheer number of people someone like Wolfwood has likely killed and how it would be tearing him apart if someone like Meryl can articulate what it feels like to have this responsibility for the rest of your life.

And Milly’s replacement is Roberto as on the poster artwork, he’s got a small pistol in his left hand. Therefore, under that boxy ill fitting brown suit coat, Mr. Jaded and Bitter is packing heat. Ta daaaa! This means that with Vash, Wolfwood and him, Meryl doesn’t need to dirty her feminine little hands and use a gun. What will his backstory be if he has one? Former police officer? Or local sheriff or marshal who gave up and went freelance?

Kuroneko-sama - is missing! Where is God? What is she doing? I have watched the first episode three times and is she there? No! The horror, nya!

Last thoughts!

I’ve spent the past few days watching and reading other reviews about Trigun Stampede. This includes articles on media sites, ANN, Youtube reviews, Reddit and so forth.

Here’s what I’ve gathered

1.) There may indeed be a gender split on Meryl and Milly. As in female fans are disappointed at the putative smashing of Meryl and Milly into one character as opposed to having two women in the main cast of four. Roberto is also a jerk and not getting very positive reviews from women. I think a lot of fans regardless of gender are upset at Milly’s absence but the Meryl/Roberto combo is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way for very valid reasons. I just notice less male reviewers calling out how toxic and unprofessional Roberto’s behavior is and female viewers not keen on him at all. Or they think Meryl is the exactly same serious career woman (sir, are we even watching the same show?).

2.) Many people were first introduced to Trigun via the dub on Adult Swim. They were younger than me when they saw it and are from after the flex point where anime was more common and more accessible. Some of them never watched in with the Japanese cast and didn’t get the experience of Wolfwood’s Kansai accent which gives him a bonus gold star for me. I was already done with Trigun before the fandom had likely really solidified. Watching things like Noir, reading Paradise Kiss, and FLCL dropping hard cash for the official DVDs after watching a file shared fan sub. I have been told the English dub is good, but no Kansai accent.

3.) Excited by learning about the reboot at AX last summer, I watched all of the original to see if it still hit the feels. It seems a lot of the people reacting to it haven’t gone back for a recent refresh which might make critiquing it a bit harder since several reviewers said that Meryl was a reporter from the start or can’t exactly remember what happened at various points.

4.) Character designs are ruffling feathers. I don’t have an issue with the CG. I’m not a huge fan of it for animation, I prefer 2D but that is just style preference. But the character designs for very distinct characters which have been tamed for sure. Studio Orange is leaning hard into the sci fi element. The manga and Madhouse were western first - by a long shot with sci fi in a distant second.

5.) More major character role changes might be coming up. Meryl is a reporter. And then in PV 2 we have a black screen where we can hear a voice say. “Who me? I’m just an undertaker.”

Undertaker is specifically a British English term for a person who prepares bodies for burial or cremation. The screen then pans to a wide expanse of the desert and we can see a figure carrying a cross.

As he walks closer it reveals Wolfwood walking forward with his fairly accurate humor.

However, if this is how he indeed introduces himself in the anime, it will have changed his actual job besides being an assassin/hired gun.

I’m not sure it could equal the comedy gold that this sequence was in episode 9. You just know that Meryl skepticism is on the mark when she doesn’t seem to believe he’s who he says he is.

Fingers crossed, Wolfwood still gets that air of mystery by introducing himself as a priest/clergyman and not undertaker. Vash already blew his mysterious background a bit in the first episode, at least let Wolfwood have some since there is the possibility they include the Eye of Michael in Stampede. I saw you Livio in PV4.

Well that is all for now. Episode 2 comes out tomorrow and we’ll see how it goes!

#trigun stampede #trigun anime #trigun #vash #vash the stampede #meryl stryfe #roberto deniro #milly thompson #kuronekosama #anime review #episode review

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horizon-verizon · 1 year

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I know this might be a meme "for now" but do you think they will make rhaenyra's death some sort of an accident lmao

Let's be real, None of us thought that every an each crucial event will happen by accident, even Aegon's crowning, and luke's death are accidents...

So would they make Aegon lose his control over sunfyre or what other possible ways they could change rhaenyra's death? nothing will be book!accurate .

Yes it's very possible they will make Aegon regret it. That Aegon III just happens to stumble out and see his mom get eaten alive after he escaped his captors-because they may kidnap him from Rhaenyra before she tries to go to Dragonstone-and this makes Aegon regret his "impulsive" decision to have Rhaenyra eaten alive.

HBO Max also seems to love to portray male-on-female domestic violence (even outside of episode 10/the show itself), and portray it as not a big deal.

(Aegon’s crowning, actually, goes as Septon Eustace describes and yes he had to be looked for. Wouldn't say that was an accident, since both Otto and Alicent both intended, in the show, to crown Aegon. Luke’s death.....never in a million years did I think they would actually go for Lucerys' death being an accident. Hated it on sight.)

Context: Thoughts and Criticisms for Why They do This

I think the show writers:

misunderstood that the account of the Dance in Fire and Blood is written against Rhaenyra and the blacks because all maesters studied from the Citadel, which is partially (very) funded by the Hightowers, so we must recognize where Gyldayn frames or uses language that is both misogynist and doesn't coincide with what the Westerosi/Targ culture/lore would allow

didn't understand the Septon Eustace was a green, so we must recognize his misogyny and ways he makes narratives for the greens that actually is self contradictory

misunderstood that Mushroom's words should be scrutinized and his aim was to be seen as a bigger player in the Dance and in Rhaenyra's life more than he would have actually been

prioritized appealing to performative activism for marketability (that brideoffires describes as an overall issue and applied to ASoIaF HERE)

didn't understand that a woman abusing a stepchild and "selling out" another woman all of her own will to benefit from the patriarchy for her own selfish ends is still an important story to tell

On the Evil Stepmother trope, this is written by ainomica:

But an evil stepmother who is evil when she is justifying abusing and even sexually harassing little children using her power in the name of the good of her family or her children ?? THAT IS FASCINATING....The REAL DRAW of the scene was to see the byplay of self-righteousness fighting against the obvious hypocrisy of her actions that has existed for Ninnicent since day one. This is why Condal and Hess’s comments are so irritating! They want to play Ninnicent as straightforward victim of situation when they have ended up writing an amazing hypocritical young woman.

And minetteskvareninova:

“Oh, we didn’t want to make Alicent just a stereotypical evil stepmother.” - OK, then? So how does that track with “make them the same age and also have this weird pseudoromantic connection going on” (because an actual queer relationship, or, failing that, a well-developed portrayal of a simple friendship wouldn’t fit the superedgy ethos of this stupid franchise I guess)? Is a bad stepmother-stepdaughter relationship so inherently uncompelling that you just had to change it into something else?! Like, what even is this?! This show thrives on toxic and complicated family dynamics! Daemon and Viserys’ whole dealio alone is worth dozens of metas and hours of opinionated video essays! How come you cannot think of anything interesting to do with a young woman marrying an older man (how much older is up to you, he was much younger in the book but whatever) with a child and trying to integrate into his family, and a girl dealing with her father remarrying soon-ish after her mother’s death?! One of my tumblr friends (I hope she’ll forgive me for calling her this, lol) faintingheroine has written whole books (in tumblr post form, but nvm) about a single turkish novel with this kind of relationship at its center! And like… It has no dragons, or battles or whatever. It’s just a girl and her stepmother failing to get along (and said stepmother having an illicit affair, but that’s beside the point). And people love it! It’s genuinely compelling!

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #hotd #house of the dragon #asoiaf asks to me #hotd writers #hotd writing #alicent as the evil stepmother #evil stepmother trope #alicent's characterization #hotd characterization #hotd critical #hotd comment #rhaenicent #rhaenyra and alicent #rhaenyra's characterization #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower

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olderthannetfic · 2 years

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Any ideas how to heal from intense top/bottom discourses full of vitriol? Im *mostly* a fixed shipper and I was not ashamed to admit it thoigh I wouldnt have attacked someone for having a different preference (unless theyre being assholes first) and that have had people call me fetishizer, heteronormative, etc and it did affect me bc i dont like being seen as inferior. but right now im in a ship where the idea of them being both switch make the most absolute sense so im open to the idea. But idk i feel like a hypocrite now and i just dislike the feeling that i coukd feel superior by making my ship switch and then be like 'oh no sweetie thats so heteronormative :)', ' fixed shippers should b allowed to like whatever they want :)' i have felt like i sensed a lot of superiority complex in many people and now I just duslike having a preference at all. Also idk i wish i coukd switch just to shit on both sides. Idk now i operate on pure spite and dont like the feeling i wish i could go back to my positive sweet summer child. I feel like being way too involved in top bottom discourse radicalized me instead and i have escaped the fandom but i cant really fully let go of the mindset now and its driving me crazy bc now everytime i look at fan stuff i cant help but judging them and hates myself for it. I feel bad reading smut now and now i started to understand why fandom the way it is now.

Its just funny bc i never opposed to switch until people chose to attack me for what i liked and now all i feel is just bitterness. Hell i did not like being overtly too concerned with top/bottom myself but the discourses made me have to assert my stance and it opened me to attacks to my character and idk now just semtences like 'x is soft despite dressing this way' triggered me.

"X is soft despite dressing this way" makes me want to hurl, frankly.

A lot of preferences for ship dynamics are stereotypical, but I don't think we need to read too much into that. Horny preferences are often reactions to a lifetime of encountering stereotypes and aren't easy to sway.

Actual sex preferences in real people just do not work the way they do in porn. Some people have the most stereotypical tastes ever. Some have the opposite. Some don't know what they like. Nothing makes sense because it's real life.

In fiction, people like whatever the writer finds hottest or whatever makes the narrative work.

If you're writing a realistic book for teens about what it's actually like to be queer identity X, then I would not include "the girly one is the bottom" nonsense. But if you're writing erotica as a hobby, there is no reason to assume or demand that it will be ~good representation~. Hell, even if you're writing romance novels professionally, they're just not about that. There are levels of offensive stereotype that I find to be beyond the pale, but cliched top/bottom roles are something a lot of audiences like and that I expect to have to wade through to find what I prefer.

As for how to heal, I suppose it's like any scarring social experience.

Maybe encountering chiller people will make you feel less pressured to have an angry and absolutist stance. Maybe going and consuming some media from radically different communities will make you internalize the reality of how small and stupid these arguments are.

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bloomingcockroaches · 2 years

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Hi I went down the potc rabbit hole recently and now I just want to rant for a bit and that is the black pearl backstory. (As a disclaimer I haven’t read tpof so things may not match up). So, irl pirates gained notoriety and fell into obscurity/were caught pretty fast so for jack to become a famous pirate within 3 years is very much possible but. He’s the son of the code’s keeper. He probably knows every one of the pirate lords since he was a teen (and started owing them money). There’s no (1/2)

way he served on any sort of civilian ship for long let alone became a captain of one - so I suggest he was, for a time, a privateer (a pirate’s only out for themselves so if you get your money from the crown sometimes it’s only your business). And when at some point he was ordered to act as convoy for a merchant ship with a cargo of slaves, he didn’t just free them - he stole the ship itself and went back to his pirating ways. Also when Beckett talks about burning and sinking the pearl I (2/3)

(3/3 I promise) have always imagined it was with jack still /on/ her because I cannot think of any other way he could have reached Jones (but then there’s the question of did he possess some kind of supernatural drowning protection (tia dalma??), or he just... sweet-talked Jones into the deal while being, for all purposes, dead which would actually be hilarious). Also I don’t remember if it was stated anywhere if Jones gave pearl her supernatural speed? (okay sorry of the abrupt end I’m done)

1. never apologize for messaging me about potc! i love it!!!!

2. i don’t personally hold TPoF as canon! i take what i want from it but for me it exists in the same realm as the actors’ head canons about their characters and deleted scenes: they’re true if i like them and they’re untrue if i don’t

3. on to your asks!!!

Nepotism baby Jack Sparrow is my favorite thing ever, especially since Teague is like chief pirate cop of all time. Like that’s so funny. It does not get funnier than that. You’re captain of the Troubadour, known and feared and infamous across all piratekind, keeper of the Pirate Code, older than dirt. You drag your stupid gay teenage fuck up to all your Brethren Court meetings because you’re hoping he’ll make something of himself for once. Cut to a few decades in the future and he’s divorcing your favorite coworker. What a world.

I have to be honest about the whole “Jack refused to carry a cargo of captured Africans” thing... it reeks of D/sney white saviorism. This is the only time in the series that chattel slavery is addressed at all. A series set in colonial Jamaica. Literally in the colony of Port Royal. The sequels of which are centered around global imperialism and the EITC. Isn’t it convenient that your quirky dreadlocked white boy was anti-slavery in 1760?

There were white abolitionists at this time of course I’m not saying it’s unrealistic for a white Englishman to be anti-slavery at this time. I’m just saying that it’s awfully convenient to put a little halo around Jack’s head and then never talk about slavery anywhere else ever again. Especially when one of your central protagonists is a Black woman. Especially when privateers and free sailors were instrumental in perpetuating the global slave trade. Especially when pirate ships and outposts in the Caribbean were often home to Black people who had escaped slavery.

Like... either create a series set in colonial times and pretend that chattel slavery doesn’t exist at all or do the significantly more difficult thing and integrate it meaningfully into your narrative. Mentioning it once just to make Jack Sparrow look good is lame af. I get why they cut it. I support them cutting it.

Again, just bc this is tumblr so I feel like I have to extricate everything with tweezers: I’m not saying it’s bad or unrealistic that Jack Sparrow would be anti-slavery and would go so far as to do something significant about it. I’m saying it’s narratively weird that you would address the global institution of chattel slavery only once and only in order to make your dreadlocked white protagonist look good.

You are right about a lot of TPoF things btw! In TPoF canon, The Black Pearl was originally a ship called The Wicked Wench and Jack sailed it as a privateer for the EITC. I think this is irreconcilable with him being Captain Teague’s kid but that’s a whole ‘nother story. When Beckett ordered Jack to transport human cargo he refused and freed them instead. To punish him for disobeying orders, Beckett had his beloved Wench burned and sunk and branded him as a pirate. Later, Jack made a deal with Davy Jones to raise her from the depths and give him 13 years as captain in exchange for his immortal soul. Davy Jones agreed, but when he rose the Wench from the depths her hull was charred black. Jack renamed her The Black Pearl.

I’ll be real it has been maaaaaaaaaaaany many many years since I read it so I can’t remember about her supernatural speed... I’m pretty sure yeah that Davy Jones gave that to her.

I think your version of events is incredibly cute I love it. Jack being sunk with the Wench then picked up by Davy Jones then selling his soul works so so well. Especially because one of the things I love most about Jones is that he just very obviously likes Jack Sparrow very much. He just tolerates him so much for so long. Like he won’t stop giving him a break. Jack’s two super powers are being annoying and charming and they work on Jones so well.

The only thing I don’t like about this is that one of my favorite parts of AWE and Jack and Barbossa meeting again is that they’re doing so as dead men. They’re meeting on the other side of a 10 year feud facing the prospect of the end of The Age of Sail, looking at the world shrinking before them, and they’re dead. They’re dead and they’ve come back wrong and the world has moved on so quickly without them.

And if Jack was sunk with the Wench that makes him dead already.

Which, “dead from the beginning” is one of my favorite themes ever but I don’t think it fits Jack very well. For me, AWE is in many ways about Jack coming back as a sad rabbit, a humiliated rabbit, a why-oh-why-must-this-happen-to-me rabbit. He has finally faced death, which he has spent all these years running from, and he has confirmed that he has no taste for it.

Anyway that got super off track but tHANK YOU for sharing your thoughts and ideas xo xo xo

#ask tag #anonymous

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potatoleeksoup · 1 year

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3, 4, and 13!

ty!!!

(3) what were your top five books of the year?

in no particular order i loved:

mrs caliban by rachel ingalls. this is SO good. ingalls went straight on my list of forgotten 20th century women that i want to become. actually it's an extremely short list but she's on it right behind my forever queen gina berriault look her up

what you can see from here by mariana leky. honestly this has faded from my memory a little bit since i read it in the spring but i remember being totally obsessed with the prose and narrative movement of this. id love to relearn all my german and read this in the original and also all leky's other books (i believe she has other novels but idk if any have been translated?)

a home at the end of the world by michael cunningham. is it boring to recommend michael cunningham maybe. did this book make me insane and do i frequently think about specific lines and phrases from particularly the first third of it YES. michael call me i just want to talk

the tree and the vine by dola de jong. being in secret unrequited love with your roommate is so scary and horrible ! this book is like a very very sharp gemstone !

all fires the fire by julio cortázar. cortázar is one of my favorites ever and this collection is just like completely complex and perfect like a box of bitter chocolates. right after german i will be learning spanish in order to experience these stories for the first time in a new way again

honorable mentions to:

reprieve by james han mattson. it's possible that this isn't good but i had SO much fun reading it. one of the only books i have read over the past few years that i found really and truly exciting. escape room novel!!!!

the glassy, burning floor of hell by brian evenson. good book! but MOST importantly my favorite title of the year.

anddddddd interview with the vampire. sorry. i loved this.

(4) did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

definitely rachel ingalls! i had heard of her but never read her and i am so pleased to have finally dipped my toesies into her work. maybe rivka galchen too... everyone knows your mother is a witch was good and i am excited to see if i like her other work even better. and dola de jong! i had never even heard of her! if any of her other work is ever available in english translation i will be sprinting to the library

(13) what were your least favorite books of the year?

ahh yes my favorite. hating. let's see...

the charm offensive by alison cochrun. unfortunately had to revoke the bisexuality card of the dear friend who recommended this to me. stupid and really bad in ways that matter (fetishistic strange representation of gay men) as well as ways that are just annoying (horrible prose and overtherapized emotional narratives)

a visit from the goon squad by jennifer egan. sad that i broke my 11 year streak of never reading this but it was required for a class. the PULITZER PRIZE? for LITERATURE? are you SURE?

the snow queen by michael cunningham. goddamn the higher they climb the harder they fall!!!!!!! this was one of the worst structured and most sloppily and fluffily written novels i have ever read. and from the king of structure and perfect sharp prose himself. sad... well there's other fiction writers

how to find your way in the dark by derek b miller. a genuinely antisemitic book recommendation from the aforementioned formerly bisexual dear friend. horribly written and with a bad case of my protagonist is the specialest little boy in the world. special shoutout to this book for inspiring the novel i am currently working on by being so bad that i looked at it and thought even i could do a better job at this

the temps by andrew deyoung. no more clever little books by clever little guys. it is appropriate that the cover of this is green like toxic slutch because it gave me horrible indigestion. thinks it is so smart about the world and is so fundamentally mistaken about every single one of the issues it tries to tackle

and i COULD GO ON!!!!! there are bad books being published every day on this bitch of an earth!

this was so fun i love yelling

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planet4546b · 2 years

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ok sam is the narrator right. right. u definitely said that somewhere i’m not making that up. imagine me sticking a microphone and obnoxiously large camera in ur face while i ask this: do you have anything to say on sam and jackie’s relationship specifically in the sense of narrator vs person trying to escape the narrative. what does that look like

leans directly into the microphone. no comment

hgkldsahjkgld but no youre right sam IS the narrator and sam and jackies relationship is weird on SOOOOO many levels as a result. what it mostly looks like is a mess that ends up with jax dead and sam even more haunted than she was. lets go.

sam and jackie are parallels in one of the like. most literal senses of the word. like :

both take objectively selfish actions that cause huge amounts of destruction for personal gain (sam leaving her tower, jackie abandoning their universe). both of them justify this as necessary, on different axes (jackie justifies it on a very small and personal scale, sam says she's trying to save the world)

both of them have families that they love deeply, and are deeply motivated by the loss of. similarly, unlike almost anyone else in the story, both sam and jackie are taking actions to try to get their dead family back. jackie will actively acknowledge this and talk about it. sam refuses to acknowledge it even in her own fucking head

both of them are 'outsiders' to this specific universe. sam is a woman out of time, jackie is a person out of place. if you cant guess the pattern by now, they also react to this one in inverse ways - jackie does a lot of going 'wowwwww this shit is crazy lol haha' while sam mostly feels terrified, lonely, and deeply unsettled by seeing the world as it is now

both of them know that the end of the world is coming. and this is where the narrator/person escaping the narrative dynamic comes from: jackie just wants out before the end of the world. sam wants (or tells herself she wants, it's complicated) to save it. their respective roles come entirely from this difference in response. they also completely and utterly trap each other in these roles as a result of their inability to communicate/understand each other

so they already kind of hate each other because they're so similar and HATE seeing in the other what they see in themselves (ie. jackie being open about saving their family when sam is doing the same thing and wont admit it makes sam constantly livid) and then all of that completely comes to a head wrt their position about the apocalypse. they sorta argue for each others positions here, if that makes sense - sam, the narrator, knows that she is doomed but silently wants very, very badly to find a way out, which she is equipped to do AS A NARRATOR but WONT because she thinks shes doomed, while jackie, the character in the story being told, does everything they can to get out while knowing silently that they will never be able to, and makes sam worse as a result. and jackie only realizes that its sam that's the narrator, that it's sam that's the reason they can't get out, like AS sam is about to kill them. it sucks so bad.

the parts of s/n that aren't about grief or various communication breakdowns causing the apocalypse are about responsibility, and thats a LOT of what this mess of a relationship hinges on. jackie completely gives up their responsibility to the world they were in. sam, who has been motivated COMPLETELY by senses of obligation - to the world, to her job, to her family, to eric, the list goes on - sees this and is so fucking resentful of it (why can't SHE give up and go home, why cant SHE stop this stupid quest entirely when they can, it's not fair) that she genuinely and actually cannot allow jackie to live, which is what their final confrontation comes down to. sam kills jackie because she cannot imagine a world where someone (read: sam herself) can give up their responsibility like that and still be forgiven, and this is the EXACT SAME REASON she becomes the narrator at the end of the day. if her and jackie had been able to see eye to eye, if they had tried to understand each other, maybe sam would have realized that she could have been forgiven and would make a different choice at the end, but they can't because theyre the same and they hate each other for it. its so messy. it is so fucking messy

thank you for the DELICIOUS question bc i could literally talk about these two and their fucked up relationship and how it makes sam worse and makes her specifically look terrible for like. days.

#asks #luna #signal to noise #hilariously in almost every previous version of this story these 2 were in a relationship. can you believe it #they really do make me bonkers to think about though. like UGH sam you have SO MANY problems i love youuuuuuuuu #thank you again though muah you like exactly understood the core of their relationship even though i havent talked about jax a ton #like you just Get It. ilu <3

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