As a lover of books and a hobbyist writer, I hate when people misinterpret characters, even if they're not mine. Yes, fiction is amazing because each and every person will see one thing a little differently. That's the beauty of art.
But, there's a line between subtle differences in interpretation, and blatant mischaracterization of a character. As a student of literature, all of our interpretations must be backed by substantial evidence from the text itself and, if available, an external source such as a study or article.
What I see often, mainly in anime fandoms is that, people pick any character they find "hot" (I use the word hot because it's often this criterion they choose, usually for the vibe and/or design of the character) and then, proceed to imagine them in such ways that fit their fantasy, more often than not digressing from the actual message/emotion/meaning the character embodies in the story. Then, if this spreads enough, people actually FORGET the original intent the author had with them, and erasing them completely, to the point their name could be anything else, because it's not THEM anymore
(Levi Ackerman from attack on titan, who is literally not a cool stoic, but a hollowed out, traumatized grief stricken man with survivor's guilt and more. Hisoka from HxH, even characters such as Light Yagami from Death Note who is outright manipulative, perfect case of a god complex, narcissistic asshole etc.
Dazai Osamu from BSD: yes, the anime IS written as a comedy, but he is a chronically depressed forner assassin who's humour is a cry for help, and he suffers from obvious suicidal ideation.
Please, it's okay if you want them idealized. But be mindful. Because these characters might reflect someone VERY REAL situation and personal struggles.
Mine, from this list, are Levi Ackerman and Dazai.
Levi because I suffer, so much that sometimes I feel like quitting. But I stay for those I love. I stay because they told me they need me. I don't want to hurt my loved ones and my family.
And Dazai is my younger self. My self that has to exist to this day sometimes. Self deprecating, dark humour jokes. I laugh all the time. My family has always called me the Sun of their life. Now? I'm 22 and I was told I suffer from chronic depression since the age of 3, on top of being physically disabled. I can't stand, and I'm a runt in my family, who has a weak eye and one of my hands just like levi. By washing down these characters to likeable archetypes, it can hurt people unconsciously, even if actively in therapy, because then, even fiction says, if you are hurt? You're worth nothing and need to be fixed.
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This took longer than I anticipated. Iâm still not sure if Iâve covered everything I wanted to cover and I had to add some stuff since 12.21, but Iâm posting it so it gets posted before the finale. It is a massive info dump, and Iâm sorry for all the technical stuff, I promise it gets explained in there. I couldnât figure out how to truncate it without outlining it like a novel. I wish I had time for that, but I barely have time to outline my specs atm. I lso donât want to say that everything I say here is absolutely definitive, itâs just based on what Iâve observed and the patterns Iâve noticed. There are a lot of other factors that feed into this one that are also worth exploring but I donât really know how to include them without over complicating everything, so this is the main set that Iâm personally focusing on.
I dunno if anyone remembers this, but back when I metad about 12.12, I said I wished I could have done it in video form because the information better lent itself to a visual medium. Yeah, this is another one of those times. Someday I may modify this into a script and do that, but the season finale is basically today, so here goes.
Some of you may have seen a post go around where @k-vichan, @drsilverfish and @angelswatchingoverâ discuss what Alicia is and the questions surrounding her current state. (I canât get it to route to one of their blogs, but check them out)
@k-vichanâ mentioned something that this series has reminded me of since S5, and had themes which have prevailed through the show for a long time.(S7 on, especially.) I went back to watch it after I saw the post, to confirm with myself what I remembered. It had been a long time since I saw the movie, and I wanted to be sure before I wrote about it.
Of all the other works that exist, no other that I know of more closely seems to resemble the themes and message of Supernatural more than the 1995 film Ghost in the Shell.
I have no idea if this is on purpose or if they just both came across the same progression on their own (inspired by the Hegel dialectic) but they both share some common philosophies that have shaped my view of SPN since Iâve watched it, and especially this season. Even without having seen the movie in a long time, these thought processes and progressions seemed to prevail. If there is some real influence between them, what would it mean?
The below place contains spoilers for the ending of Ghost in the Shell, Theyâre further down though. Iâll mark them. Sadly, theyâre kind of important for my speculation, but you can skip them if you want.
But first, letâs talk about (a vastly simplified version of) Hegel (in relation to narrative mostly), theming and message.
For those of you who donât know who Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is, for my purposes, he was a German Philosopher and a man who looked like several instances of Jacob Marley. He had several ideas about how history and social constructs work. His ideas have been adapted over the years to suit fictional storytelling and they do an extremely good job of it. The great wiki creature sums up the work of Hegel thusly:
Hegel's principal achievement is his development of a distinctive articulation of idealism sometimes termed "absolute idealism",[16]in which the dualisms of, for instance, mind and nature and subject and object are overcome. His philosophy of spirit conceptually integrates psychology, the state, history, art, religion, and philosophy. His account of the masterâslave dialectic has been highly influential, especially in 20th-century France.[17] Of special importance is his concept of spirit (Geist: sometimes also translated as "mind") as the historical manifestation of the logical concept and the "sublation" (Aufhebung: integration without elimination or reduction) of seemingly contradictory or opposing factors; examples include the apparent opposition between nature and freedom and between immanence and transcendence. Hegel has been seen in the 20th century as the originator of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad;[18] however, as an explicit phrase, this originated with Johann Gottlieb Fichte.[19]
Already seeing some parallels? Good. (itâs ok if you donât. Wikipedia likes to word everything like a scientific abstract.)
I know it says the triad name was attributed to a different dude, and thatâs true, but in terms of our usage, weâre gonna keep dragging Hegel around with us on this journey because heâs associated with the philosophy behind it. So come, Hegel, youâre not getting out of this so easily.
The definitions for each of these instances are thus:
The thesis is an intellectual proposition.The antithesis is a critical perspective on the thesis.The synthesis solves the conflict between the thesis and antithesis by reconciling their common truths, and forming a new proposition
Sound a bit like SPNâs s1-5, s6-11 and ... now? Yeah, there might be a reason for that. Not sure if itâs on purpose, but considering how everywhere the dialectic is in writing, I wouldnât be surprised if it was come across and adopted at some point. At least to an extent. (also just freaking read that description of them there, thatâs so pointed, it pangs at my fingers when typing).
One the people who brought the Hegel dialectic into mainstream use in media was Blake Snyder, most notably in his book Save the Cat. The Book has been fairly influential since its publishing and itâs been used as a basis for many films and tv shows. I donât know if the book influenced SPN, but it may have (the book was released in 2005). Whether the book was a direct influence or not, there are certainly similarities. The show may be taking influence from Hegel directly, it may have evolved on its own as part of the human approach to storytelling or, it may have came from another work influenced by Hegel⌠like Ghost in the Shell.
The longer something exists the more it has to explain itself. This isnât true of all media, but itâs generally true of anything that wants to have a consistent, ongoing, story.
This is why shorts are allowed to be weird as hell and they get away with it, and itâs why SPN has been deconstructing itself for the last several years. Itâs also probably why everything is people.. Other than because budget. If this whole thought process is true, this season will mark the beginning of act 3, the beginning of the synthesis part of the arc, and if my speculation is correct, the beginning of sublation or aufhebung as Hegel used it.
For our purposes, and as it's generally used in media, sublation here means âassimilate.â To merge two opposing factors into a single entity, the two factors may not be even in scope. From what I can gather, the message of the entire series is âhumanity must learn to accept the aspects of itself that it runs from, that it others and demonizes as part of itself.â That may sound long, but messages in works are often sentences like that.
Reconciling the old to embrace the newâ has been what myself and some others have been calling the theme of this season. This fits into the message Iâve derived from the show by giving the characters the incentive to try new ideas and to learn from what theyâve experienced instead of relying entirely on past rhetoric. Not everything about the past is bad, but weeding out whatâs preventing positive progress and merging it to new ideas which better accept the real world is a step in progressing towards a culmination of the message. In order to do that, you have to dance the destiel a little. Cas is literally the ideals of the Winchester brothers, of âhumanityâ as represented by them. Thatâs his character role. Heâs also a supernatural being, linking him to the idea that âthe ideas that progress are within what we have deemed otherâ. This aspect of his character is enforced throughout the series and is come into direct text on multiple occasions. Dean is in love with a supernatural being that represents new ideals of progress and acceptance. To me this is what destiel ultimately is, or will be. Humanity (Dean) accepting that which it was taught to other (the Supernatural (queer) love of Cas, ie new ideals) as part of itself in order to progress as a person (species) to a better future. If one aspect of humanity (Dean) accepts it (culminates his love somehow), then the other (Sam), will be forced to accept it in turn because Dean loving Cas would give Sam a visual representation of reality being different than his upbringing and experiences had previously presented. Even in that paragraph, you can see elements of the Hegel loop poking through. You can also see some reflection on the show itself and its audienceâŚ
So, what does all this mean for the rest of the series? Obviously add sadness and pain where necessary. This is SPN after all, but as long as nothing directly opposes this narrative, this seems to be the direction theyâre going here. Eileenâs death was really idiotic and broke a lot of narrative rules, but it doesnât directly refute anything. Itâs a single instance and it may not even be true (it probably is, but man, either Bucklemming eated more purple berries than usual, they really shared the wealth, their entire purpose on the writing team is to sew misdirection, or somethingâs up here⌠possibly involving that last one.)
Below are a what seems to be where this is going in some form or another using the Hegel Loop as a means for the message:
1) Dean and Sam must face and reconcile with their pasts on all sides. Their past with themselves, their past with each other, their past with the important people in their life, their concept of family and how it has affected their lives and so on. Since everything must support the themes of a work if it wants to follow the rules, this idea has to prevail with every force in the current canon. Thus: Supernatural(Angels) vs Humanity(SamnDean), BMoL vs Hunters (Also mirror each other). Similar to their âforce conceptsâ, Sam doesnât really understand Dean, just like the BMoLs donât really understand hunters. They think they do, theyâre very efficient and rely on heavy research and technology, but their intel sucks. Similar also to Dean, the hunters arenât generally so keen on lending themselves to the BMoLs. They believe they have reason not to, and so too does Dean believe he has reason to keep Sam from knowing his true self.
2) The two ideals of the show must also be addressed and reconciled/embraced. I said before and earlier that Cas = the ideals on the show. And yeah, he does from what Iâve gathered. From s4 on, he has always mirrored the way the Winchester's and thus âhumanityâ operate on a thematic level as time as gone on.(Especially Dean, the âheart of humanityâ) This is because heâs the showâs âLove interestâ. Thatâs what the Love Interest does but boy, does he take it to new and interesting levels! Like Dean and Sam, he still has self worth issues, he still has issues with his understanding of family and where he belongs, what he can be trusted with, what heâs for. If you look closely, you can see him mirroring a lot of decisions on the sides of both brothers. As of now, they both are starting to embrace a new way of looking at things, and in turn, Cas is experiencing situations that challenge his beliefs and combine both perspectives into a single progression to âbetter waysâ.
Mary on the other hand, holds the old ideals of the show. She is basically s4 Cas and because she wasnât around to experience all the changes, she carries the old show with her. She is what Cas could have been without the influence of the Winchesters. Still headstrong and rebellious, but falling back on old ideas and operations. Dean and Sam have truly changed Cas, and Mary is a testament to that. Like Cas as well, when she was sent back to Earth from heaven, she rebelled, and weâre seeing her s4 and 5. Most likely she wonât last any longer because the show wonât need her to prove a point anymore, but what she represents is pretty clear to me. Maryâs mirror of Cas is twisted. It has a flipped perspective with the Winchesterâs being the original family and the BMoLs (Angels) being where she originally puts her faith because they share her ideals. Technically the Winchesterâs held Casâ too. His feelings of heart and freedom were found with them, but because of Maryâs situation and old ideals, she runs to the BMoLs instead.
Add Mick and some nigh omnipresent Cas references and you have a season about Cas, a season about ideals where Dean, Cas and Sam try to confront themselves, each other and the concept of family and duty that they were all fed stringently throughout their lives and times being with each other.
Those above concepts there are the thesis and the antithesis incarnate. They are the current state of affairs bumping against the old ways. This is their sticking point, they are coming to a head and they must. The pics and promos from the finale seem to enforce the idea that they will deal with the confrontation of a sort of reality, just as they have been slowly recognizing the need to confront their own hidden, unspoken realities.
3) At some point Cas, Dean and Sam will have to âembraceâ each other in however they plan on doing that. They will not leave all of their past selves but they will all move forward to something better and new.
4) Dean will probably tell Cas he loves him or some other gesture by the end of the season. Gotta visualize/solidify those themes, mâboy! Your medium says so. In turn, Sam will be forced to learn to understand a side of Dean he wanted to believe didnât exist and that he may have been actively hiding from because it would mean some things in his past would take on a new color with some possibly saddening meanings for him.
*coughs* I will always be a little devilishly amused at the character roles in this season and how they relate to the show and fandom directlyâŚ
5) Most likely Rowena and Crowley will reconcile at some point as well, but itâs hard to tell. They may resolve their issues by the end of the season in some form or another. Crowley mirrors a lot of characters and Rowena is sort of dark Mary, so their resolution will likely follow a similar trajectory + Crowley and Gavin feels or something. Maryâs probably gonna ascend like Gavin did. 12.21 and some general themes with Crowley overall have lead me to suspect that heâs holding the cards to this new reality. He does kind of mirror a lot of people with Rowena filling in the gaps, so him being the one to reveal something would make sense.
6) The BMoLs and the hunters will probably merge in some way. Thereâs likely a reason we felt there should be more names on that table. We will soon see Dean and Sam act as generals of the hunters⌠if that ends how I think it will, we will end with more names on that table and a defended legacy/Bunker. They will take the good of the BMoLs and incorporate it into the hunting world. Kind of a new Bobby network but with more stuff.
So then what does the finale entail?
Thatâs where Ghost in the Shell and Alicia may give us a clue.
If you have not already seen this movie, I highly recommend it. Its influence is seen in all sorts of places. A recent example is Westworld. It is a bit gory, so if thatâs really not your cup of tea, fair enough. The following contains spoilers for the movie and it will affect how I address what happened with Alicia and how I think it may reflect on the ending of the season. You are free to skip it, but it may be a bit confusing after. If you want to skip this section, press CTRL or Command + F and search âspoilers overâ in the box.
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Ghost in the Shell involves Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg who has feelings of limitation by her perspective. She believes that there is more to the world and she wants to experience and understand it.
Kusanagi: âThere are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carry a sense of my own destiny. Each of those things are just a small part of it. I collect information to use in my own way. All of that blends to create a mixture that forms me and gives rise to my conscience. I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.â
She is part of a Black Ops unit that investigates a hacker called The Puppetmaster who has been controlling people through their âghostsâ to do its bidding. âGhostsâ are basically brains or minds. In this world, cybernetics and biological aspects are fairly integrated but are not considered their own beings. Theyâre more augmentations for the humans rather than individuals.. In most cases. The people who are controlled by the Puppet Master are given false memories. They have no idea who they are or what their goals really are.
Over the course of the film, The Major and her companions investigate several ghost hacked people and the concept of identity. Eventually they learn that The Puppetmaster is actually a program created by an intelligence branch called Section 6.
The Major learns that The Puppetmaster has gained its own intelligence and has sought her out to merge with her and complete its perspective. It lacks the things a biological being has and has the vast knowledge of the internet. At the end of the movie, the two achieve sublation and combine into a single being, neither The Major, nor the Puppetmaster.
Before the merge, Kusanagi is hesitant. She fears losing herself to the merge and wants to remain an individual.
Kusanagi: You talk about redefining my identity. I want a guarantee that I can still be myself.
Puppet Master: There isn't one. Why would you wish to? All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.
This and their inevitable merge may sound like just a narrative decision, but really it seems like a decision based on philosophy of the work and its themes. The issue of stagnation. Ghost in the Shell argues that humanity would inbreed stagnation if it stayed the same (sound familiar?) and only change can save it, even if it stops being human as we know it. An interesting thing to me about the above is that it sorta addresses something directly stated in text in SPN:
Gah, thereâs no transcript for 12.19 yet. Paraphrase time!
âSomething something heâll lose what makes him specialâ
If there is an influence in Ghost in the Shell, no he wonât. I know there are some people that want Cas to stay an angel, and I get that. Itâs a fundamental part of him to many people, but depending on how they culminate Casâ âsublationâ with the Winchesters, he may become human as part of that metaphor. Just as the show may change form, but still be itself. According to GitS, he canât fear change to preserve âwhat makes him specialâ When Kelly is talking about the Nephilim, thereâs a decent chance sheâs really talking about Cas⌠and his birth.. As a human. Sheâs afraid something that is integral to him will be lost, but from what Alicia showed us, he will still be the same Cas.. just sans powers⌠and maybe + some emotions.
So what does this mean for SPN? Alicia gave us a possible clue. She became a âghost in the shellâ when her heart was placed into the twig doll, but she retained her caring nature and her memories. As far as anyone would need to know, Alicia is Alicia. Itâs possible she could be controlled, but since the ring is what controls her, I doubt Max would ever utilize it. We will probably never see them again, because they have given us what they were meant to narratively and them staying longer would mean they would have to explain themselves beyond that point. If we see them again, expect some weirdness.
Even when Alicia was placed into the doll, she still looked out for Maxâs well being. Even when Cas was influenced by the Nephilim, he was still concerned with Deanâs well being. In a way, Cas has been a âghost in the shellâ for quite some time, with the question about vessels. With Aliciaâs gesture, Iâd say itâs pretty safe to say Casâ body is his and Aliciaâs is hers even if they can be controlled. Even if they can lose their free will, itâs not lost entirely. Even when she her body, she kept being herself in an entirely different body⌠made from fundamentally âlesserâ materials, she retained her heart and what made her, her. Adding heart and humanity to a vessel, still retains the heart of that person. Even if Cas is no longer an angel, he will retain that heart he has. Even if the show takes a new form, if it retains its heart, it will remain the show.
Cas is currently further possessed by the nephilim, but heâs still in there. And the nature of the apparent themes means it has to release him eventually.
On that note, if 12.21 gave me anything(other than deep confusion regarding what the hell is happening and several conspiracy theories), itâs further evidence of a possible GitS influence with Mary being brainwashed to do the bidding of the BMoLs to do their bidding and slowly remove her memories in favor of memories that suit them. In GitS terms, sheâs been Ghost Hacked.
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Spoilers over. Below are what I think all of this means for the ending of season regarding Cas and Dean since they seem to be the focus of assimilation. It depends on what the show thinks about the nature of Hegel, but each of the following scenarios is possible based on what Iâve been able to figure out:
Cas and Dean will occupy the same body: As a possibility to save Deanâs muffins from burning in the finale like Gadreel did for Sam in s9? Sure. As a permanence? Doubt it.
Cas becomes human but gets a new vessel. This is mostly just unlikely because people would hate it. Again, possible if temporary but TPTB, I do not recommend stretching this over a long period. Alicia looking exactly like herself makes this pretty unlikely.
Cas and the Nephilim wonât stay merged.. Thatâs redundant. He canât âmerge with humanityâ while merged with a half luci humanoid⌠no. The kid is symbolic of Cas, Sam and possibly Eve. Because of Casâ current nature and the nature of the supernatural and humanity and their sort of âforbiddenâ merging. Cas and the Nephilim are one atm, because their stories are. Which gives further credence to some sort of change. The kid is basically âpast present and futureâ incarnate. It contains all of those elements at the moment, but future is its focus, same with Cas and the themes surrounding him from what Iâve gathered. Its relation to Sam is pretty obvious, since heâs been related to âa potentialâ evil demon child for much of the series. It not being evil makes sense for his character arc.
I have no idea what will happen to the kid. Thereâs evidence for a lot of things. Some I like better than others. Theyâre mostly personal preferences at this point.
Cas remains as he is and voices that he is himself. If GitS or Hegel in general are an influence and the showrunners like this philosophy, this probably wonât be what happens. I know there are a lot of people who want Cas to stay an angel for various reasons, and they can believe that if they want, but it just doesn'tâ seem to be the way the story is going. I could be totally wrong and may have missed something, but the nature of stories is change. Cas canât go back to being full angel, not permanently anyway. Also, if the showâs message is as Iâve deduced, heâll have to be human in order to fully be accepted as part of humanity. If he powers up, expect him to power all the way down. Cas is a character and characters serve the story and vise versa, they are locked in an inseparable state with their themes. Cas is the themes in this story, he canât be a weird penguin forever. Thatâs not climactic enough for the medium he exists in. If it were a book, it would be more likely, but itâs unlikely in a filmed work. The show canât be a weird penguin forever either, especially if the GitS influences are correct(the non-reductable part is a factor, but if the message is thus, everything is humans). Again, I could be wrong, and I donât want to discourage other interpretations, this just seems to cover the most bases from what Iâve observed.
Iâm still operating under the idea that 12.12 is a microcosm of the season and possibly the series up to this point, so weâll see how that plays out. I expect Crowley to save the day somehow, some dramatic declarations, Cas injury and probably Mary injury, some fiddling with anachronistic presentation/perspective on reality and a prince of hell. For this particular exercise, I was more interested in what happens, rather than how we get to the happening.
Whatever way Cas ends up physically, I think itâs safe to say the show thinks Cas and Dean better together, even if the culmination isnât permanent at first.
I've just got to say I felt so much more sympathy and connection with that poor dad and his little 5-year-old boy from 2 episodes worth of background material than I ever felt for Riley. Proving the writers can do a good job when they want to with small details, so wtf was with Riley? I can't remember which podcast it was, but someone said it would've made way more sense for Harper to have almost shot Roan in 405, signaling the start of her mental health's decline. At least the moment would 1/2
2/2 have been used toward developing one of our mains, and Bellamyâs speech to Harper wouldâve packed a greater emotional punch for us all. Anyway, just a thought.
Pretty sure Rileyâs role was supposed to be taken by Bryan, but they lost Bryanâs actor to a better role. He was just a minor character, they had to let him go to a real contract. I donât think they had the time or necessary characters in story to have a good substitute, so they inserted Riley into the slaves to fill the slot.Â
Sometimes tv shows are limited by the realities of their business and this absolutely interferes with their ability to tell a good story. Whenever I watch a show, even one a adore, I ALWAYS leave a possibility open that Hollywood will screw over the story and the show and the writers and the audience.Â
But this doesnât mean the writers are bad, it means the situation was bad and they did their best with it. This one was less effective than the last time they lost (fired) an actor. They got rid of Wickâs actor, and the Wick character, despite the important role he had to play in the coming season. But this time, they had a character that they could use to fill in as the emotional connection for Raven. Sinclair. They just switched the love relationship from romantic to parental/mentor, which was actually a really nice touch and very deftly done. It worked perfectly with the story and added a dimension that would not have been there with a romance.Â
You didnât have a problem with Sinclair in season 3, did you? That fix was some good writing. You didnât notice. Thatâs because you donât notice when writing is good. You just believe it and are transported into the world in a way that everything feels natural.Â
Because Iâve also been tracking the long term themes and storylines, and because I knew about Wick, I watched the Sinclair storyline with a double vision. I could see Wick in EVERY scene. It was his role. Itâs a little disorienting. Iâm lucky that it wasnât as clear the first time I watched it so I could just purely enjoy Sinclair.Â
I donât agree that Harper would have been better in that role. What reason would she have to hate Azgeda? Her trauma was in the mountain. In the woods. With Trikru and the mountain men. And she was on Kaneâs side in the Arkadia confrontation, not Pikeâs. She had no connection with Farm Station or their struggle. Her descent came from not being able to save that guy, because sheâs been on team hero. She worked to become like Bellamy and she failed. Worse. She didnât even try. She was scared and just let him die. Giving her Riley/Bryanâs spot would have sold out Harper, for a scene that was about Bellamy. Plus it would have weakened Montyâs storyline with Harper, that wouldnât have been able to develop into something lovely in the face of a too soon mental break. It was much better they inserted someone else into it than take someone away from their storyline. Sinclair at least ALWAYS was in a storyline that was about loving and supporting Raven, even if it was low key.Â
Writing is not just about the one scene that doesnât sit right. Itâs about how that scene or character spreads out and touches the rest of the story, the other characters, the other plot elements, the themes, the symbolism. Writing is like creating a web of interconnecting moments. You tug on one, and it pulls the others, possibly changing the entire pattern.Â
When something doesnât sit right with you, follow the other connections and see where they lead and the chain of cause and effect that creates the whole story. Jumping to âbad writingâ first the way so many people do means youâre not following the threads. If you follow the threads and still conclude that itâs bad writing, then okay, because sometimes it is, but you at least need to consider the rest of the story and the other possibilities for meaning.Â
Dear Rosy, am I the only one who's getting fatigued by all the L mentions this season? I'm finding it harder and harder to believe they're in service to the plot and am leaning more toward their being the show's big "mea culpa" for S3 with each passing episode. Will we ever be through with it? Is that why we're pulling back in all the other dead characters for balance like Lincoln, Jake, Wells (finally!) etc.? Is this part of a larger point? If so, I want Raven and Clarke to discuss Finn ASAP.
I am also getting fatigued by L mentions. Less about the grief and more about the retconning her into a good leader.Â
No, my friends, she had not surpassed tribalism. She was just trying to keep Azgeda in check and under control. Most of season 3A was about her trying to block Azgeda from gaining more power. So having Roan claim she surpassed tribalism doesnât really sit right with me. I mean, she placed her own choice of leader on the Azgeda throne and gained control that way. It is NO DOUBT that Roan is a better leader than Nia was⌠or at least has a better vision. He still hasnât managed to get his people under his rule, but there have been extreme circumstances.
But L surpassing tribalism? Unless you are saying that sheâll kill ANYONE, no matter if they are Azgeda or Trikru, if they threaten her personal power base that keeps âthe peace.â  I guess thatâs not about sides, right? Yay. I surpass tribalism because Iâll side with anyone who gives me power! And kill anyone who tries to take it away. Cool.Â
However, I do not think the lost characters reminders is just because of L. We need to remember the lessons that those characters taught. Oh well, maybe thatâs why the âsurpassing tribalismâ talk, because they have to find a something that L could possibly have taught Clarke that was good, instead of just âYouâre Wanheda, Youâre right. You get to dictate because youâre special.â But they CANâT because L was set up as an antagonist not like Wells or Lincoln, who actually worked to fix the problems between the people.Â
Aw, man. They are doing fanservice. Theyâre pretending that L didnât destroy her people with her disrespect of everyone not Clarke. Theyâre pretending that she didnât terrify her coalition into silence or kill anyone who challenged her, or betray the her oaths and the laws sheâd set forth. Theyâre pretending what Lxa did in season 3 was good. If it was so good, and it was such wise leadership, then why did it lead to her death because all her people thought she was betraying them? From villagers, to Indra, to the coalition, to Titus himself. Are they really just going to pretend that didnât happen?
Well crap.Â
Season 3 they told a dark, draining, story that was ugly, but had narrative integrity. It was true to itself. It was internally consistent, despite the wild misinterpretation by the fandom. That was never about the story itself, but about fanon.
Season 4 is a lot more fun, but the story is beginning to lose integrity. Theyâre using fanon to interpret what happened last season into the story. I really really hope they acknowledge the disaster that Lxa let happen in Polis, stop blaming the sky people for what L let collapse.
Roan was her prisoner. She betrayed him. I guess heâs fine with it now that she bought him and made him King?Â
I wonât be happy if they excuse abuse of power and tyranny because of the pressure from a fandom who doesnât even watch the show anymore.Â
I find this disappointing. They should not sell out their story. Iâm also keeping a close eye on the science fiction/space/raven story line, because itâs worrying me. There MUST be internal consistency in science fiction or fantasy or it all falls apart. I can accept bad science, but I can not accept breaking the rules you set up for your world.Â
Clarke will always remember ppl who she lost but please.... she cried for Well and Finn 2s and she has cried half a season for L!! No more mourning... and has to be considered also that the end of the world is coming, She is going to spend the last months crying? Sure Jan. She won't want love or being happy? Sure Jan. I'm sorry but that doesn't make sense with the narrative. Anyway when the BC kiss happens Cls will say that is fanfiction, fanservice and disrespectful but ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
I agree with you but Iâm trying not to be snarky about it. Which you did not manage. lol.Â
I think weâve got a refusal to move on in fandom, which is not a problem in the The 100 itself. The narrative keeps moving, and Clarke will move on from L. They might think itâs an insult to Lâs memory or to the fandom, but the writers have to maintain artistic integrity and continue to tell the story they are telling, rather than cave to political or popular pressure.Â
Itâs no good when itâs someone elseâs politics, and itâs no good when itâs yours. Artists make mistakes and they misjudge the political and social climate sometimes, and thatâs okay. That mean there is more for us to talk about as an audience. We get to address that which is problematic and reflected in the art as part of our culture. This is not a bad thing. Being âproblematicâ does not mean that a show or a book is worthless. It means we TALK about it. It means we change our world. It means we create our OWN narrative, our own stories. All good things. And when we create our own stories, we do not want someone elseâs political or social or emotional desires to dictate the stories we are going to tell.Â
I hope The 100 stays true to the story they are telling, have always been telling, even if that makes part of the fandom angry. For a show or book or other piece of art to CAVE to political pressures, to appease a segment of the population because they donât like something? I donât think that IS good.Â
I say this as an artist and a writer. When I create, while I am thinking about my audience, if I am too concerned with the audience and not with my own vision, my art becomes compromised and is no longer my story.Â
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If bellarke doesn't happen will you be pissed or will you just move on? I feel like I've spent so much time shipping them, that if it doesn't pay off I'm gonna be really sad.
I will just move on.Â
I still like the show. I really hope they donât build up this narrative and then screw it over. I mean, Lost was a great show, but I think it got away from them and they didnât really know how to pull all the pieces together, so their ending was just a mess, but I donât think The 100 has this problem. I think they had a good idea of the end point of their story from the beginning⌠at least at the point where they decided to go more mature.Â
The 100 is a different kind of story telling, I think. They are making the effort to tell a whole cohesive story, not just a bunch of adventures in a mysterious/fascinating setting. It seems to me that the CW is looking to create a lineup that has more in common with cable shows like GOT or TWD or Mad Men even (in the storytelling mode) rather than the typical broadcast tendency to tell episodic adventures without the long game plan. Or at least,thatâs what theyâre asking The 100 to be. It may be different with the DC comic hero lineup.
So because Iâm looking at the type of story they are telling and the way they are telling it, I have hope that the ending will stay true to their narrative. I BELIEVE the narrative is focusing in on Clarke and Bellamy. Could I be wrong? Of course I could be wrong, but Iâm looking at a lot of evidence, narrative, literary devices, allusions, sound track, cinematography, and it all points in a Bellarke direction. I get told Iâm reaching or delusional. *shrug* Â If looking at the textual evidence and how it fits into the history of literature, film and tv is reaching, then ok.Â
If it doesnât work out? I will survive. Iâll be pissed off, but itâs still a good show and I hope they donât sell out. I think they are aware of what happens when  show sells out or craps out, and I donât think they want that.Â
CLs always say L could have been voted out of the commander position but they fail to realize she would have NEVER gotten removed because of C. Why do people never understand that very important (also key/ignored) detail? Thoughts?
Because they didnât want L to die, so they think âshe didnât have to die!â and look for any plot device to stop it from happening as if the writers were saying that there was no other possible way to tell the story. Of course they could have found a way to let her live. But the truth is, she died because this is the story they were telling. She had to die because itâs their story. To not kill her just because she had passionate fans means they wanted the writers to sell out their story so one particular fandom could have their imagined happy ending. What a betrayal of the narrative that would have been.Â
I donât think the fans should get to tell the writers how to tell the story. They say their idea would make a better story, but itâs simply not true. Their idea would be an entirely DIFFERENT story, one that is not THIS story.
You canât tell someone else how to express themselves artistically. That is a recipe for bad storytelling, censorship, homogenization, inauthentic voice, etc.
If the fans speak up and the writers want to take that into consideration, thatâs their choice, but to demand a certain ending. No.
Fan fiction is there for us to rewrite or transform or imagine new stories. That is ours. We can write our own novels, develop our own tv pilots, wrangle the political reality of hollywood on our own (you want to talk about injustice? that is where the real injustice is.) We need to transform the landscape of publishing, the media, hollywood, television, awards, reviews, public opinion⌠not one particular story that didnât give the fans the happy ending for one gorgeous, fierce LGBT character. (meanwhile totally ignoring the other gorgeous fierce LGBT character who is the actual hero of the show.)
Just saw a trailer for yet another Jason Bourne film. More under the cut because Iâm tired and annoyed, and Iâm just rambling at this point
Say the Bourne franchise was a horse. They mutilated that horse until it looked like a wolf, then they beat it long after it was dead, then they squeezed the blood out of a field of stones on top of it, and then they buried it.
And now theyâve decided they just need to piss on its grave.
Weird thing is, I didnât even love the books. I liked them. They were sort of interesting, fun, well written enough. Great pacing. Action is well written. I fully respect that changes have to be made to translate a novel to film. But you donât fuck with a narrative like they did. You just donât.Â
Like, imagine if a decade from now, some company buys up the rights to The 100 long after it crashed and burned, and wants to do a reboot.Â
But Lexaâs character is re-cast as effectively Pike now, with all the tyrannical ego, remorseless genocide and all. And Raven? No longer exists. Octavia and Harperâs characters are merged and most of their personalityâs thrown away so she can be Jasperâs love interest. Lincoln doesnât exist. Anya doesnât exist. Costia? Merged with Ontari to create tension of a potential future love/hate triangle. Finnâs characteristics override Bellamy in a takeover of his character (while Finn, as a character, is written off, which his mass murder being handed to Jasper for whatever reason), and for all intents and purposes, Lexa is recast as basically who we know to be Bellamy Blake, dude and all. Oh, and ALIE doesnât exist, same with the city of light, but Mount Weather is much bigger and basically fully represents the American government, with the Ice nation as its attack dogs. And it turns out Wells Jaha, inexplicably, was an evil mastermind and was communicating and controlling Mount Weather, and turns out to be Clarkeâs mortal enemy.
Like...sure, that could still end up being an entertaining show, but Iâm pretty sure a lot of people would be super pissed at the utter defiling and illogical characterization and narrative decisions.
Same with the Bourne films. Like, okay as mindless action films, but Iâm always too baffled at their choices to actually care too much about whatâs happening in the movie outside of all the terrible changes theyâve made. I know enough folks liked them to get as many films as they have, but...
