PREACH - Blog Posts
i am way too late for any of this, but i felt like ranting a little (a lot) over tma, so here it goes.
i actually really, really liked the dreamlike quality of the S5 statements. i think they're some of jonny's best work. so evocative and just beautifully written, the feeling of horror so prevalent, so delicate, so entrapping. i would listen to them absolutely enthralled. what a submersive experience. so on that front, 100% would recommend.
the problems i have are mainly with the meta-plot. certainly, personal preferences and biases come into play here, bc i despise jonmartin with the fire of a thousand suns and would have loved a jonelias corruption narrative, but, i feel that, in his quest to appease the j-mart shippers, jonny sacrificed a lot of his story's integrity. also, i have no way of verifying this, but it also felt like he inserted his own biases in a way that wasn't necessarily productive.
ultimately, i feel like he disrespected his main antagonists and that essentially translated into a sort of irreverence towards his own story. elias was easily his most dramatic and interesting villain (regardless of what he originally intended for him, it's how he developed throughout the story & i think there is a certain honesty in a writer acknowledging and respecting that), stole every scene he was in, yet after his great villain reveal in S4, he is absolutely absent throughout his entire apocalypse. it creates a lack of catharsis that i find bothersome. his death is way too easy. yet when he finally appears in MAG 193, it is glorious. he is terrifyingly in the throws of religious ecstasy as the eye's pupil. such an interesting idea! so little it was developed though bc jonny for some reason doesn't like elias.
there's this entire commentary about how elias is really just there to be eye's pupil until jon takes over from him, bc it's jon the eye truly desires. as if after faithfully serving the beholding for two centuries and bringing about his ritual, the eye would just disregard elias and actually be interested in the one person who is unwilling to play ball. please be serious. not saying that jon can't be the eye's "special little boy" or whatever, but the nerfing of elias/jonah borderlines on petulant. ofc, jonny is the author and you cannot begrudge a man for writing whatever he wants, but, as a listener, i have to say it feels very unsatisfying whenever authorial biases directly affect the storyline. very deus-ex-machina. very unearned.
i also have a problem with how the eye was ultimately handled and, once again, nerfed. the introduction of this element in relation to the beholding, that it sees but does not understand, felt very trite to me. it was added as a way to de-power the eye and elevate the web. but how could it even be true in the context of the entity conceptualization? the reason scopophobia is a thing is because people fear someone is behind the watching. what they fear is judgment or someone keeping tabs on them and using that information to harm them in some way. that requires intelligence, a capacity to distinguish between the harmless and the incriminatory, a propensity for casting moral judgment, of holding people accountable, of assigning blame, of discovering people's deepest, darkest secrets, of weaponizing shame. no one is afraid of a crow or a cat staring back at them, because, while those are also living beings, they lack the higher intelligence that creates the context necessary for scopophobia. so how can the eye not possess intelligence? apparently it doesn't, because jonny decided he didn't like the eye and the spider was oh-so-cooler instead.
but that only lead to the spider being way too overpowered than it should have been. as the so-called brain of the operation, the web really manifests a lot of faults that could have been exploited, yet the character never do, because the web needs to be true It Girl for some reason. this all feels very childish. the web's motivations do not work in-universe. we are often told it doesn't have a ritual because it is content with playing its games of manipulation within the world as it currently is. and that honestly seemed a rather fair assessment to make, but later proved to be a red herring, because it was the web that was actually behind the eye's own ritual.
i have several gripes with this. 1. if the spider is so smart, why doesn't it/can't it have its own ritual and re-shape the world according to its own preferences? why does it have to piggyback on the eye's grind? 2. the spider's big plan seems to be bringing about the eyepocalypse just to convince the characters to let the fears out into the metaverse so it can start again. because, as it turns out, the eyepocalypse isn't really it's preferred state of being? it was the status-quo after all? the web DID prefer the world as it was, because it allowed it to thrive off manipulation and puppeteering, things it can't really engage in as much as it would like, since now everyone is trapped inside various fear domains. so, why-oh-why, not just leave the world as is? why even bring about an apocalypse in the first place if your intention is to always inhabit a apocalypse-less place?
i felt like this was such a plot-hole of an explanation the way it was presented. the web's greatest flaw was that it loved intricate plots so much there was a real danger of over-complicating its own plans and failing to see the forest from the trees, so to speak. the eye could have been used not to boggle down on meaningless details and ramifications, but to get a better sense of the bigger picture, something the web could very well lose sight of (pun intended). so the web's "plan" could have been ultimately rendered meaningless, because instead of choosing the simplistic, straightforward, occam's razor solution (no apocalypse, just thrive off the world as it is), it chose the overly complicated path that placed it in a situation it didn't thrive in (eyepocalypse) and made it even more complicated to get out of in the first place. it basically surrendered its destiny into the hands of people who had zero reasons to act sympathetic and could have very well chosen to destroy the entire world, fears included. and yet i am supposed to be in awe of the web's great intelligence and buy into the whole dumb eye propaganda?
many things have already been said about the moral dilemma at the end of S5 and my take on that is that jon was right. it was the merciful and just solution to prevent other people from other universes from suffering at the hands of fear entities. but i will be indulgent and account that it is a difficult choice to make for anyone, since human beings are so survivalist in nature and the choice to just make the fears someone else's problem in the hopes of their plans maybe getting foiled more effectively by others is tantalizing. who knows what any of us would have chosen had we been in their situation? perpetuating the horrors on someone else just so you could get reprieve is so cravenly but it's human and i get it. however, by no means is this a happy ending the way it was framed by the narrative. what melanie, georgie, basira and martin did was horrible and evil, but it is never acknowledged in that way. the least jonny could have done is have jon resist martin's selfish decision and have martin genuinely kill him. but, no, martin gets his romantic send-off together with jon, with the open possibility that they get transported to another world where they could start over. melanie, georgie and basira get to start a new life in the entity-less world, after contributing almost nothing. the worst characters get to live & they're validated in their awful behaviour.
however. i do feel like there were other ways to resolve the eyepocalypse without resorting to a horrible sophie's choice in the first place, but that would require a more extensive endgame re-write.
Giant piglin Techno is just simply the superior version of Techno
like listen:
all technoblade art is good technoblade art, because it's technoblade and it's art. and no one should let one person's opinion dictate how they draw him. maybe they're just better at drawing human faces, maybe they're a shipper and not a nasty monsterfucker like i am, idk.
but also. i never once looked at a pink-haired twink and thought "yup that's my technoblade"
You really chose to speak factss
when aot was just abt to end, there were leaks ofc as there always are lol abt eren not really achieving any of his plans. and so much of the aot fandom, who have never lived through war, were genuinely upset over this. eren literally commits global genocide, he and his plan doesn’t deserve to achieve anything. especially not anything that would benefit him.
eren wasn’t one of my favorites until season 4 because of how utterly fucked up he is. he was a tragic MC who started off as a hero and as the story progressed, became a monster. even though we know what leads to his corruption, genocide is still wrong actually and having a characters worst fear come to life due to their own actions is the sort of tragic irony isayama loves. we’ve already seen isayama do this with reiner, zeke and grisha. it’s satisfying yet devastating at the same time how harsh the story is on them.
and the story should’ve been a lot more harsher to eren instead of the positive reaffirmation he got in 139 and from most of the fandom. eren claims the rumbling was for paradis, like thst shit didn’t kill off most of paradis’ population, and than he claims that it was for his friends (like pieck, who he has never even had a conversation with) but than he admits it was for himself - and it wasn’t satisfying at all because isayama wanted us to feel bad for eren and it worked. never mind the fact that eren killed his own mom, that he manipulated his own father for taking the FT for his own gain, that he annihilated 80% of the world - he did it for his friends 😊 so it’s okay! friendship >>>> genocide 😝
aot taking a very strong stance against eren’s actions and plan, denouncing them as wrong (bc they are) and showing them that nothing good comes out of them is wayyyyyy better the woobification and the mini redemption arc we got from him in the last chapter.
this is why i hate it when aot fans talk abt aot like it’s the greatest anti-war anime ever made. i think majority of aot fans are westerners or come from developed countries. it’s easier to understand war when ur watching cartoons of it instead of actually living through it. a huge part of the fandom justifies eren’s genocide, even with characters explicitly condemning him. do you really think it’s clear with its anti-war message when all we got was a few sad faces and a huge thank you from the main cast? one of the main themes in aot is the moral grayness of the world. the warriors did what they did because they were child soldiers trying to protect their families, EMA would’ve done the same. the scouts raided liberio (and were heavily against it). and masses of innocent people died in the name of other groups interests. there were literally no winners in this at all.
but why have characters that should’ve narratively and thematically been against eren suddenly forgive and praise him?
why break all the characterization, break all those different point of views, for the warriors specifically, if not for the final woobification of eren?
eren could’ve had one of the most extraordinary corruption arcs in all of anime just for that to be ruined and i will forever be mad abt it
You know, the more I think about it, Aang and Toph actually do have the makings of a good couple, not just an arbitrary alternate pair that frees Katara up for Zuko.
Like think about it; the first time he sees her is in an enchanted forest (well, a swamp, but a magic spiritual swamp) and she’s all ethereal, laughing, dressed in white. He realizes it’s his destiny to someday meet her. He finally does, and she’s nothing like he expects. He pursues her, but she brushes him off. Desperate to get her attention, he challenges her to a duel. Despite her formidable skill, she has a glaring weakness that Aang is uniquely equipped to exploit and he defeats her easily. He follows her home to try and convince her it’s her destiny to be with him, and even asks for her parent’s permission. He tries to figure out why she rejects him and learns that she’s living a lie and denying her true self to appease her family. Finally, she decides to run away with him and her father gets pissed and sends some goons to rescue her from the boy who “stole her away”.
Also, Toph being an aristocrat makes her something like a princess, and a Rebellious Princess at that.
Already, they’re using way more classic romantic tropes for Aang and Toph than they ever did for Aang and Katara. But let’s dive deeper.
Aang’s whole story is about trying to find the balance between being true to himself as a human being and being what the world needs him to be, something Toph could probably relate to having spent her whole life pretending to be a proper lady and a helpless blind child to appease her parents when she really wants to be an independent outspoken tomboy and ends up accomplishing way more by embracing her true self than trying to be what others want to force her to be.
By design, as Aang’s earthbending teacher, she facilitates character growth in him by helping him overcome his difficulties bending earth, which requires a temperament opposite to his own. It was likely her influence, helping Aang become more assertive and steadfast, that played a crucial role in developing the unbendable spirit that allowed Aang to overpower Ozai and take away his bending.
Aang and Toph also have some unique qualities that make them special, but can also be isolating. Aang of course has his Avatar powers, which puts a huge burden on his shoulders, but it also allows him to see spirits and access the spirit world, while Toph’s blindness comes with some obvious disadvantages, but also allowed her to sense the world in a way others couldn’t, which helped her to pioneer new earthbending techniques such as metalbending.
Aang and Toph also have pretty good chemistry together as friends. Toph, being a tombody, likes playing in the mud and other activities that Aang is into but Katara isn’t. Toph also includes Aang in her scams while Katara doesn’t tell Aang about dressing up as the Painted Lady.
Aang and Toph also have a lot of complimentary qualities. Aang comes from a monastic order of peaceful communal living, world travel, and few material attachments, but has a strong desire to remain attached to things like pieces of his culture, his bison, his beliefs and practices, his friends, and the girl he loves while Toph comes from an aristocratic family of great wealth and restrictive formalities, which she gladly gives up to live a free and independent life, though she struggles to reconcile that with her homesickness. Aang is highly spiritual, even for an airbender, because of his status as the Avatar, while Toph is especially physical, even by earthbender standards, because of how she compensates for her blindness. Aang is pacifistic, introspective, unsure of himself, but strongly principled while Toph is aggressive, abrasive, confident, and mischievous. There’s a lot that Toph has to offer Aang besides just being an earthbending teacher and there’s a lot that Aang could offer her in turn being so different from her.
Aang and Toph being the same age also allows for their relationship to come off as more equal, which would go a long way toward making a friends to lovers romance come across as more natural and believable.
I really like the platonic friendship they had in the show just fine, but if romance is meant to play an important part in Aang’s journey, he and Toph are a much better fit for each other than Aang and Katara. If they had just cut out all the moments of Aang mooning over Katara in season 1, and moved the season 2 opener with the Earth Kingdom general who used Katara to force Aang in to the Avatar State to the tail end of the season, like right before or right after arriving in Ba Sing Se, after Aang’s had plenty of time to get to know and love Toph, nothing would be lost by making her Aang’s love-interest instead of Katara.
Wildbrain era fr ruined Jay so much the fandom just completely forgot what his character was about I'm crying 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭(I opened twitter and saw the polls today 💔)
most of the time jay being mischaracterized is because people for some reason use the 11 minute era as like the complete basis of his entire character… i'm so glad DR exists because otherwise the last thing we'd get of his character with crystallized would be jay giving a peace speech, THAT fucking ramen song and a pee joke because he literally does nothing else in what would have been the final season of the original show
It's quite curious how Jay is seen as a "selfish asshole" by the fandom for wanting to be his own person and for people to stop taking advantage of him, or that it's his fault for not being able to be the same as before, but nobody acts like that with Zane being the Ice Emperor even though both are victims of their circumstances
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why is privacy so eroded. I get treated like a nutcase if I say no, I don't want strange companies taking pictures of my home and putting them online for maps or whatever. I don't want to be in the background of your tiktok, and I think it's weirder for you to assume I'm okay with it than it is for me to politely ask you to refilm it so my face isn't in the frame. I don't enjoy handing my employer a list of every online account I have and feeling under surveillance when I'm just shit posting or sharing pictures of my cats or garden harvest. I don't want to hear your private calls on speaker on the bus, esp when the person on the line doesn't know you're broadcasting their words to strangers. I don't want an algorithm guessing what will piss me off the most so I spend more time online, engaging with shit I don't want to see or hear out of outrage. I don't want any of this. it's total ass.