it all goes back and back

"this is your body"

not even 'do you like it.' not 'are you sure?'

do you accept it? yeah--what other choice is there?

finished chapter 2. ok so so far soul-less kris has

eaten toriel's pie in the night

climbed out the bathroom window and slashed toriel's tires

switched on the tv and opened a dark fountain in their living room

presumably opened the previous fountains as well

"this is your body"

not even 'do you like it.' not 'are you sure?'

do you accept it? yeah--what other choice is there?

"this is your body"

not even 'do you like it.' not 'are you sure?'

do you accept it? yeah--what other choice is there?

"this is your body"

not even 'do you like it.' not 'are you sure?'

do you accept it? yeah--what other choice is there?

"this is your body"

not even 'do you like it.' not 'are you sure?'

do you accept it? yeah--what other choice is there?

Gosh, I have so much to say about just this little clip! 

Where to being…

Kevin is smart. He’s always been smart. Even when he was 11 and kind, sorta, completely off his nut. He knew exactly how to manipulate Ben almost immediately after meeting him. He came up with his own scheme to ruin Ben’s aliens’ reputations, he was a clever strategist when he and Ben were tethered together on that gladiator ship, he bargained with Vilgax and struck an alliance with an alien warrior who was 100x older than him. And that was all just in the OS, when he was still a small child. 

Kevin is very smart. 

Kevin does not need formal school. 

But, in our society, not have a high school degree, or an equivalency shuts a lot of doors and can be a hinderance. Gwen understands this and she wants Kevin to succeed, so she offered to help him to get his GED. Kevin realizes that this is important to Gwen and Gwen is important to him, so he’s willing to do what he needs to do. Here in this scene, he’s not agreeing to get his GED for himself. He can just go into space any time he wants and no one cares if you never went to high school in space. But he’s not living in space, he’s living on Earth where his girlfriend lives and his girlfriend thinks he should get a GED. So he agrees. 

How supportive they are of each other and how willing to understand each other’s feelings and work together is one of the reasons I love the Gwevin ship so much! 

But, wait, I have more to say about this clip!

Another point in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien that I will never get over is Gwen’s mother, Natalie. 

In this clip, we here her over the phone saying the phrases, “I always knew the Tennysons were a little weird, but…” and “…this is family. More importantly, it’s my family!”

Natalie strikes me as the kind of woman who places a lot of importance on traditions and appearances, and she probably came from a family that puts a lot of importance on tradition and appearances. We know Gwen’s dad is a lawyer (she mentions it in an episode once), and that her parents have more money than Ben’s. Gwen attends private school, and her family lives in a larger house than Ben’s does. So, Natalie probably married Frank more for his money and/or social status. “Rich white lawyer man”. 

Natalie probably did not realize she was signing up for aliens and superpowers when she got married. 

At another point in this same episode, Natalie makes a comment to Gwen, along the lines of “polite people don’t glow in the dark.” Which, in and of itself is a shitty thing to say in a world where there are more than one race that literally does glow in the dark and is something they can’t help. 

But when Gwen, Natalie own daughter, reminds her “I glow in the dark.”

Natalie’s only response is, “Not around me.” 

Which says to me that Natalie resents her own children to an extent. Maybe not consciously. They are her children after all. But it does seem very clear that Natalie’s love of her children is conditional on their appearance of being “normal”. 

I honestly wish the show had delved deeper into that detail. 

Sandra seemed so chill and accepting of the Tennyson weirdness. Aliens, and superpowers, and such. Gwen goes full alien and grown fifteen feet all to curb-stomp Zombozo and crew, and Sanda gets her a cotton candy. 

agot; chapter xxvi, jon iv

i have a post somewhere in my first liveblog about how gilly's perpetual listless misery after she is separated from her baby is seen as particularly disturbing and uncouth by everyone around her because she is making her grief too obvious. it is specifically against westerosi culture to identify yourself as scared or sad or alone. it's a theme with sam ofc, who people just see as being outwardly pathetic, but also very strongely a theme with theon who is so visibly tortured and broken, and then with jeyne who cannot stop weeping, and with gilly. when people are hurt in westeros that is one thing, but when people are too obvious about their hurts that is another. even if someone is not blamed for being harmed, they are blamed for being too obvious about the harm that was caused them.

it sort of goes directly against the famous tyrionism:

agot; chapter v, jon i

if knowing what you are involves acknowledging how badly you've been hurt, no amount of owning up to it will earn you anything but scorn

to me this is a westerosi social convention that is separate from how poorly they treat people with visible physical disabilities. it's not a judgement on who you are inherently (a dwarf, a bastard, a cripple, etc.) it's a judgement on... a judgment on what is regarded as "wallowing". indulging too deeply in your own hurt. shamefully bringing your hurt to the awareness of others rather than stuffing it down.

first, sansa logics out her own disassociation/trauma response as a sign of her good breeding. she is saddened by watching the young knight die, impaled on gregor's lance, but she is not overtly emotional. she initially points to her calm, measured response as a sign of her good breeding, but then admits that she thinks she has used up all her sadness in mourning for lady and bran.

i have an old post from my previous liveblog where i talk about this same excerpt in terms of sansa and jeyne's class divide, and i think i have a better understanding of it, now, in terms of westerosi expectations of behavior regarding surpressing negative emotions, not just in sansa's feeling of separation from jeyne and from tourney knights as a noble lady.

then, we see that sansa is incredibly perceptive about the people around her.

she sees through littlefinger's smile.

she sees through moonboy's reputation as a simpleton.

she even catches joffrey's own disassociative response to his father's violent outburst.

so we can see very clearly that sansa is empathetic and perceptive. she sees the truth that other people may not notice. and yet she purposefully turns away from it. she adjusts her own internal dialogue to reflect, not her true feelings, but what a lady would be expected to feel in this situation.

^ clearest example here is sansa retraining herself not to hate joffrey, but to hate cersei and arya instead. hating two women in her household is safe. is socially acceptable. is something she can deal with. hating her betrothed? prince of the seven kingdoms? the best possible marital match she could ever hope to have? the prince of her dreams? not something sansa can deal with. not something she has a social script for. not something she is going to feel.

this noblewoman's courtesy of aversion and avoidance is spelled out most clearly and also strained most severely by sansa's interactions with the hound:

and much like her baby sister arya is taught to look AND to see, sansa here is forced to look AND to see, rather than to look without seeing (like she will do later on with ned's tared head on a spike)