Bringer of Rain

Basically, Midpoints can oftentimes be a “fake out victory” or “false defeat.” They’re frequently the point in the story where the audience is led to believe that either the heroes have their win in the bag, or that they’re screwed. The fake out will tend to appear good in tragedies, and bad in stories that end happily. Not all stories necessarily have Midpoints that obviously fit this, but they’re pretty common.

As an example, in ST s1, the characters find Will’s dead body, leading them to believe that it’s over, they lost, and they won’t be able to accomplish their goal of bringing him back. It’s a false defeat, because Will isn’t dead and they do succeed in bringing him back in the end.

If they had instead wanted to end the season with Will never being found, they could’ve had a plot beat around the same point where all the characters(and us as the audience) are convinced that they had found him, or were about to, only for it to be later revealed that it wasn’t him and he was dead the whole time. That would be a false victory type midpoint.

To me, this concept gives extra proof towards CG being intentional.

Look for a second at the Midpoint of s5 by itself, which is the ending of Sorcerer. Do you guys remember the discussions people were having after s5 volume 1? I remember a whole lot of “Vecna is so cooked” type of vibes. The ending of that episode gave us both a superpowered Will and the return of Kali, which everyone assumed meant that Vecna and the MF were screwed. It also had a lot of Byler moments that had Bylers hopeful for the rest of the season. Additionally it was the point where Will comes the closest to fully accepting himself that he does in the whole series.

Hmmm… sure seems awfully victorious for an episode in the middle of the season, doesn’t it? So much hope, and then it ended… like that. Terrible, but with hints that it was that way on purpose. What else could you call Sorcerer except a “false victory?” In a way, it wasn’t just a false victory for the characters, but for us as the audience too.

It’s funny, because I remember after volume 1 thinking something like(as well as seeing others say), “Wait, but if that middle episode ended so hopefully for them, doesn’t that generally foreshadow the ending being tragic?” and then being like “nahhh why would they do that that doesn’t make any sense lol it’s probably fine.”

…Whoops.

I will say that there is one part of Sorcerer that reads as more “false defeat” than “false victory,” which is the plot point of the kids getting kidnapped. But, that moment is part of what I would argue is the one subplot that does end the season on a positive note. Yes, Holly and Derek and the other kids are possibly all still trapped in Camozotz with the rest of them by the end, but they are no longer Henry’s main target, and they are no longer separated from their friends and family. The story ends in a better place than it was in the middle, meaning that for that subplot specifically Sorcerer works as a false defeat.

But for the rest; Will’s powers/self-love arc, the crazy amounts of Byler, Kali’s rescue, all honestly could, and maybe should have been considered foreshadowing for the tragic ending just because they were all so victorious for the characters, while happening right in the middle of the season.

Making Sorcerer a false victory type Midpoint overall.

The thing I like about this evidence, is that it’s something you can’t really write off as a coincidence in the way you technically can but logically shouldn’t with most of the other evidence in season 5. You could maybe argue if you’re not thinking very hard that all the small details in the finale that point to cg were somehow done by accident but like… the basic plotline of an entire episode didn’t fall out of the sky, lmao. Like, the other things didn’t either, but this especially didn’t.

And you also can’t claim that the creators no longer understand or somehow forgot this very simple and fairly common narrative choice, because they proved themselves understanding of it not just in season 1, but literally the season before.

In season 4, the Midpoint is Dear Billy, where Max temporarily escapes from Vecna. The story leads the audience to think that Max will be fine and that her curse is broken, only for the story to end with her dying temporarily and going into a coma. It’s a very neatly written example of false victory.

Why the hell would they be perfectly capable of writing a false victory type Midpoint literally last season, and then suddenly forget in this one, but then also somehow do it successfully again anyway?

And when you think about it, don't Dear Billy and Sorcerer just feel similar in a way? At least, in the purpose they serve in their respective seasons. Hmmm. Veryyy interesting.

It’s just another way that s5 was made to be the way it is very intentionally. The entire season was written to end tragically, in the very bones of its story.

To me personally, this fact also proves LWG, because the rest of the show is not written that way. And that’s not just because of its optimistic themes and tone. In my last post I argued that the s4 finale was the Midpoint of the show as a whole. And when you look at how it progresses the narrative arcs of the characters and relationships, it just works way too well as a false defeat type Midpoint, especially for Mike’s relationships with both Will and El.

But in order for it to actually work as a false defeat, it needs a good, victorious ending that effectively proves that defeat to be… well, false.

So my question is, if they really did intend for the show to end tragically, why would the creators understand narrative conventions well enough to be able to set up the tragedy of the season’s end using its Midpoint, but then for some reason forget that very same principle when it comes to setting up the tragic ending of their story as a whole? If they really have known what their ending was going to be for so long, and did intend for it to be tragic, they easily could’ve had a false victory for the characters before s5, or at the very least not given them a possible Midpoint that is written like an obvious false defeat. The story has been set up to have a positive ending overall for a hot second. S5 doesn't disprove that, if anything it shows that they do know how to properly write and set up tragedies/potentially "cynical" endings.

I’m telling y’all, there’s a reason I’ve never doubted CG or LWG. The story has been preparing itself for it like a pregnant woman taking birthing classes for a while. Season 5 was just another step in that process. And to me, it being June now doesn't disprove that.

Anyways, yap to y’all later,

E_otic matter?

More like

Erotic matter 🤪

Exotic meaning unusual, different, mysterious.

Exotic matter as in states of matter we don’t haven’t encountered

Exotic as a synonym for stranger or even *gasp* queer

There were a lot of dick jokes this season guys 😭 what if we are missing something

So many jokes about towers and phallic objects and the entire season revolving around a wormHOLE and climbing a tower to enter a rift into the abyss.

And it’s not lining up! What’s taking them so long!

To fight a monster that looks like THIS:

And all of this again surrounding Mike building a bomb and wanting to listen to the dulcet tones of the Butthole Surfers 😭