Generating Happy Chemical In 3…2…1

[rusted-fairy-wings]

There’s something really poetic and wonderful I think about the infinity train crew pairing the character who is widely agreed to be a blatant trans allegory with a character who has struggled with toxic masculinity.

I wouldn’t say it’s the largest part of Jesse’s arc or his primary struggle, but elements of it are definitely present with the whole “man test” he put Nate through.

And while I think more broadly Jesse and Lake’s arcs are both so much more complex and have so many more elements than this, I do think it’s rather interesting how much a queer/trans reading adds to book 2. Lake who fights society’s rigid expectations at every turn vs Jesse who conforms to them.

Something something foils and reflections

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

If I had a nickel for every time I watched a show where my favorite character was a girl who turned out to be a clone of a man, I’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.

[they-ruined-arcane]

genuine question, why do/did ppl so adamantly deny the fact that silco did in fact abuse & groom jinx? it’s like, literally & directly in the show. it’s not implied, it’s not hinted at, it’s literally what happened.

[wetsocksinbed]

yeah Maul - Shadow Lord is cool and all but WHY DOES DEVON HAVE EYEBROWS??? THOSE ARE NOT TATTOOS THOSE ARE ACTUAL HAIR. WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE ANIMATION DEPARTMENT I WANT TO TALK

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

New (un)intentionally canon trans Star Wars character just dropped.

[short-wooloo]

You know what? Ive had it, i am really annoyed with the little whiny complaints people are making about Maul "not getting enough focus"/Shadow Lord giving attention to other characters instead of being Maul aura farming 90% of the time (fuck yall for me having to use that stupid phrase), or acting like this is some sort of nefarious deception on the showrunners part, luring people in with promises of Maul and pulling the rug out

1. That's how television storytelling works, this isn't a first person perspective story like a book or video game, you need other characters and their perspectives

2. This is not some unique to disney sw thing or even a new thing in general, shows/movies/etc have used a character's name for clout and at the same time given attention to other characters before, its an old trick

3. At no point was this show advertised as being Maul only, the only thing that "implies" (if you only think for no more than five seconds) no one else would get attention in this show is the title, which is nonsense, in any case, from the start the marketing has prominently featured Devon and Lawson, it has been very clear from the get go that they are important (more so than the background nightbrothers everyone obsesses over) and this is their story too, and that they have their own supporting characters (Daki, Two-Boots, Rylee)

4. Relating to that, Maul is an established character, Devon/Lawson aren't, we need to get to know them, we don't with Maul, we know who he is

5. Maul has a fundamental limitation that Lawson and Devon don't have, his fate is already written, and he has the same mindset that he has now when he dies 17 years later, this means he cannot grow as a character, thus the show needs characters capable of growing and changing with the circumstances, Maul on the other hand is doomed to fail, he will lose it all and die on tatooine, the peak of his accomplishments and relevance being when he killed Qui-Gon in tpm 27 years ago, but Devon and Lawson's fates are undetermined, they can grow

Maul is a static character, Devon and Lawson are dynamic characters, and if you spend too much time with Maul, his inability to grow and change becomes a problem, as you're just focusing on a guy who will never change, that's bad writing and storytelling, and it struggles to keep audiences interested

Ironically, Maul here is in the opposite situation of what he was in Clone wars relevant to other characters

In clone wars Maul was the one who's fate was unwritten, while almost everyone else had already been decided by revenge of the sith

But in Shadow Lord Maul's fate is decided, he will die in 17 years on tatooine, but what will become of Devon, Lawson, etc is unknown

6. Maul is the reason the plot happens, it all comes back to him, he is why these characters are here and involved in what he's doing, he brought Devon and Lawson in, they are people of interest to him, they are extensions of Maul's story, Lawson being Maul's major opponent and Devon struggling with the choice to join or oppose Maul

7. Less is more, yknow Maul wasn't in TCW or Rebels that much right? He's only in 6 episodes of the original (2008-2014) run of tcw, 5 episodes of the revival (2020) run of tcw, and 5 episodes of Rebels

That's 16 episodes, Maul only appears in 16 across two shows that have over 200 episodes between them

But he makes an impact with those few appearances, and as a stated in point #6, everything in this show comes back to Maul, even when he's not there on screen he's there

8. Speaking of episode numbers, using less of Maul and giving time to other characters (who were actually advertised as being major characters not just random side characters you latched onto and decided were important because you liked them) is important because we have far less runtime overall

We only have 10 episodes of 20-30 min runtimes, this is the shortest animated show season we've ever had, the glory days where clone wars, rebels, and resistance got 20 episodes a season and ample time to play around with the setting and characters are over, hell we're not even getting 16-ish episodes a season like bad batch did, even an 8 episode live action show season has more run time as they've got 30-45 min episodes

Maybe hopefully that will change next season but for now we've got limited time, so we need to give attention to the new relevant important characters so we can know who they are and what their deal is

[smolstarthief]

A part of me can't help but feel like the political aspects of Arcane get brought up so much (notably in fandom arguments or even the occasional "arcane critical" tag) that it seems like some of the meaningful messages get overshadowed and as much as it's not always a bad thing to debate, I feel like some of said messages should to be talked about more. Even just a tiny bit or something? And that's regardless if some of them were intentional or not, some of them are pretty good and effective.

Like come on: Break the (especially toxic) cycles either yourself or someone before you started? Love is powerful but also nuanced and multifaceted (as we're shown genuine but also twisted examples of it)? Not everything is black and white, especially in regards to conflict or trauma? Hell, as flawed as the "beauty in imperfections" speech can be it's not necessarily a bad message either (at least on paper depending on who you ask)?

Idk maybe I'm a bit naive or something but these are primarily things I feel like clinging onto and help see of the show's positives more. Like I said, the political discussions/critiques aren't always bad per se (I did stumble upon some interesting ones, including one that brings up how Zuan actually gets woobified to the extreme by the fandom which is interesting but I wonder about regarding hindsight). i just wish they weren't always the constant focus the more I think about it.

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

It’s a show that is and always was about the power of love and what it does to people. And some fans seem to be analyzing it as if it promised to be a political treatise. Like yes, the political atmosphere is interesting, but at least to me, it was very clear from the start that Piltover and the Undercity would reconcile. And nothing is perfect about, sure, but the show never pretends it is because the main thing that changed is that people are now beginning to lead with compassion and grace. Not everyone, or as much as we’d like to see, because obviously that’s not how the world works, but there’s hope now.

[americiumam]

i still don’t understand why people say jinx and caitlyn are “two sides of the same coin”

[timeforfingchaos]

I need like every fandom ever actually to grasp that a loving parent is not necessarily a good one, like if they're not dealing with their own issues they're probably not in a space to be a good parent and be able to deal with their kid's issues

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

And he didn’t even want to be attached to her. He basically says as much at Vander’s statue, and any time she expresses emotions or tries to emotionally connect with him, he basically only ever tells her to kill Powder or he just sends her away. So yea, he does care about her, but not bc he wanted to.

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

Why are fans now comparing Arcane with Star Wars. Did you forget Silco was an awful person and Maul is objectively even worse than Silco. Maul and Silco are crime lords that are bad people in charge of other bad people. No matter how hard they try they won’t be good parental figures. Regardless of who is worse

Okay, so to answer the three parts of your question:

1) the reason I’m comparing Arcane to Star Wars is because there’s a new show coming out (Maul Shadow Lord), and I really like both of them, and when I like things and see similarities between them (like with Silco and the Chembarons and Maul and the Shadow Collective), I do enjoy analyzing/comparing/thinking about them together.

2) in my post, many times, I stated that neither of them, especially Maul are good people or even good parents (e.g. “Now, by no means am I saying that Maul is a good father/parental figure. He is going to be really bad,” “obviously not in the running for Galaxy’s Best Dad,” “The whole terrifying her to goad her into acting out of anger and hatred is really really bad, don’t get me wrong”). So no, I didn’t lose track of that.

3) just because characters are bad people doesn’t automatically mean they’re bad parents, even though more often than not, those things go hand in hand. Some examples of characters who are bad people and good parents are: Marcus from Arcane, Singed from Arcane, Uncle Iroh from ATLA (bc remember, he still was a general of the fire nation, responsible for the destruction of a bunch of cities), Coach Brunt from Carmen Sandiego, and then, in a more grey area we have Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls and Jinx from Arcane (if you consider her relationship with Isha to be parental, which I personally don’t bc she does compare herself and Isha to Vi and herself, plus I wouldn’t consider her 100% a bad person, but I know that those are hot takes in and of themselves). And yeah, just to reiterate, I don’t think that Maul will be a good person or parent, and the comparison isn’t to make that point. I made the comparison because a) I wanted to talk about these shows, b) I love to hate Silco and will take any chance I can to dig into him, c) I’m really interested to see if/where Maul will go on the Star Wars Dad pipeline/spectrum bc Star Wars already has like 5 shows that all kinda revolve around competent soldiers taking kids under their wings, and this seems to maybe be a subversion of that, but it’d be really funny if they made Maul a good dad, and d) I was thinking and in a hypothetical where I had to choose between having Maul or Silco as a mentor/parental figure, I found myself gravitating towards Maul which surprised me considering how bad of a person Maul is, so I made a post detailing my thoughts on that,

Also, for context, this is the post that this ask was referring to:

Post by @mylastmoleculeofserotonin

💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 12 · This is my hottest of hot takes I have, but I think that Maul is/will be a better parental figure to Devon than Silco was

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

This is my hottest of hot takes I have, but I think that Maul is/will be a better parental figure to Devon than Silco was to Jinx. Now, by no means am I saying that Maul is a good father/parental figure. He is going to be really bad. However, he’s certainly better than Silco. So, let me explain (also, this is not supposed to be taken 100% seriously, I just like analyzing these characters, and personally would rather have Maul as a parental/mentor figure than Silco bc I hate Silco and Maul respects women).

If you like reading, feel free to look below the cut, but basically it bc Silco engineered the traumatic event that pushed Jinx into his care and then worsened the mental scars that that left to keep her solely dependent on him to turn her into a monster to be unleashed on Piltover, whereas Maul tries to recruit Devon to a cause and then corrupt her through emphasizing the reality that they’re living in to make her more afraid of him and the Empire and angry at the Empire to make her not want to leave.

First off, is how they approached their apprentice/daughter kids: Maul does the typical Star Wars dad thing where he basically stumbles into a kid that looks to be in trouble and takes her with him (and then, you know, locks her in a cell and basically threatens her, so obviously not in the running for Galaxy’s Best Dad, but still, better than Silco). Whereas Silco set out to capture Vander with the expressed purpose of luring his kids there so he could kill them all except Vi, whom he saw as “the prize of [her] secondhand family.” Now, did Maul kill kids, yes, but that was separate from his recruitment of an apprentice/daughter, so for the purpose of this discussion, it can be put on the back burner for now.

Now, we haven’t seen much of Maul’s mentoring/parenting style, so there’s not a ton to go off of, however, what we do have doesn’t look great. The whole terrifying her to goad her into acting out of anger and hatred is really really bad, don’t get me wrong, but considering the fact that Silco not only intentionally deepened the fractures of Powder’s identity by imposing expectations of flawless success on Jinx bc “Jinx is perfect,” and anytime she failed, it was because Powder is weak and therefore she needs to die, but also he did that based on her trauma that he specifically orchestrated in order to turn Vander’s daughter into a monster for the next stage of his plan (which was to unleash monsters onto Piltover, and considering how deeply terrified everyone was of Jinx and the fact that she’s referred to as Silco’s dog, I think makes it pretty clear what he was planning, especially bc he stated and demonstrated that he didn’t want to become attached to her even though he ended up so), which, again, I’d say, is worse than Maul. Because one of the key differences that Maul and Silco use to get Jinx and Devon to follow them is that Maul tries to get Devon, Ahsoka, and Ezra to join him through a common goal even if he then will try to keep them loyal through fear of what will happen if they leave (there’s no actual evidence for that last part, but I’m kinda using Savage as a baseline for this, however, that’s really different bc he’s an adult and Maul definitely is taking different tactics with kids, and it seems like this is going to be a Qimir corrupting Osha rather than a Dooku torturing Savage type situation bc that torture based stuff is a Sith tactic whereas the more reframing of moral principles seems to be a tactic of non sith dark siders), whereas Silco made Jinx dependent on him and only him and kept her in line by deepening the mental scars to the point where she kinda wasn’t able to live by herself. And I’m sure we’ll see more of how Maul tries to keep Devon loyal to him, so this point may become irrelevant in the coming weeks, but for now, Silco is clearly worse in this regard.

Now, also, Silco gets further demerits for handing a military grade weapon to an unstable minor. Now, if it was just the pistol and the grenades, I’d call that mostly a tie with Maul for arming Devon with a red lightsaber and training her in the Dark Side bc both are essentially building on aptitudes that they already had, but just elevating it to a bit more of a deadly threat. However, giving Jinx a machine gun crosses the line, because there is no need for her to have that type of weapon because it is simply not necessary or justifiable (in fact, every time she fires it in S1, it is a detriment to Silco and his plans and the only time it is really actually useful and effective is in full scale battles, which further shows how he was only making her into a monster for the next phase of the plan); and being fair to Maul, he wasn’t the one who gave a deadly weapon and training on how to use it to a child and then put her through the trauma of war, so I guess that’s another point for him if you can call it that??

There is one thing that Silco has over Maul and that is that he actually loves/cares about Jinx, whereas Maul, I don’t think would care about her beyond having an apprentice (but again, this could be proven wrong in coming episodes as I don’t really have much evidence to back that up).

Lastly, please don’t take this too seriously. Ik that these two situations are almost too different to adequately compare. This was just made out of me thinking about it being like, huh, why is it that in the Man vs Bear thing, make it Maul vs a Man and I’d choose Maul.

[herbluefire]

people getting mad that arcane season 2 focused more on hextech is hilarious cause it's literally called ARCANE💀

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

THIS! It’s like they sat down to watch a show about unbreakable bonds of love, and magic, and then were disappointed when the magic and character’s relationships were prioritised over the political subplots

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

This is how I imagine how the pitch of Maul- Shadow Lord went:

Disney: C'mon, Dave, you've made like four shows that are all Lone Wolf Soldier(s) is Forced to Adopt a Kid. We gotta do something different.

Dave Filoni: So, what I had in mind was a Darth Maul show.

Disney: Amazing! There's no way Maul can be a paternal figure. Lets do that!

Dave Filoni: yea, yeah, sure. So I can start?

Disney: Sure!

Dave Filoni: 'Kaygreatthanksbye! No Taksie Backsies!!

[sarina-skywalker]

Red Hot Take: I actually love The Acolyte and am angry it got canceled to this day.

Qimir is hot.

Especially when he was pretending to be a dummy himbo

R.I.P Jecki Lon. You were the cutest little Swiss Cheese jedi. My shaylaaaaa

Depressed Dilf 😔

Mae just being a straight up Ninja Assassin was badass

Osha being the silly

THIS SCENE WASNT DUMB, EVERY LIGHTSABER BLEED WE'VE SEEN LOOKED DIFFERENT! VADER WAS ALWAYS AN EXPLOSIVE RAGE MONSTER AND THE CRYSTAL HE WAS BLEEDING WAS NOT HIS AND WAS FIGHTING AGAINST HIM, DAGAN'S RAGE WAS SIMILARLY EXPLOSIVE AND THE CRYSTAL WAS HIS. OSHA'S RAGE WAS FAR MORE CONCENTRATED AND THE CRYSTAL WAS STILL IN THE LIGHTSABER WHILE SHE WAS BLEEDING IT! HER CASE WAS EXTREMELY SPECIFIC!

[thatfoolinthehat]

I consider Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts getting three decent-length seasons and a conclusion to be an actual miracle. This never happens with animated shows like this (specifically from bigger studios) anymore. It's a show with mostly non-white (primarily Black) characters, a tone that is appropriate for kids but so much better if you're older, several canonically queer characters who are mentioned to be queer in the show itself, a very weird premise, character death, furries, complex stories, well-written villains, and an art style that looks like nothing else on TV - and it was allowed to live and finish its story in a satisfying way, even if it didn't blow up overnight and become the most popular show ever. And now it's getting taken off of Netflix, and that sucks really bad, but I'm grateful that it even exists as it does at all.

So many shows like this, on Netflix or otherwise, get canceled after a season or two for having even 2 of the things Kipo has in it. Shows with queer characters - killed off. Shows with unique art styles - killed off. Shows with premises that aren't part of already popular genres - killed off. Kids shows with darker themes - killed off. Dead End had diverse characters and was canceled right before the plot could ramp up. She-Ra had a diverse cast and a complex plot, but wasn't allowed to make the main characters gay until the finale. The shows that aren't canceled are given 8 20-minute episodes with barely any time to flesh out the story or the world. It's really depressing.

But somehow, Kipo managed to avoid most of that. I don't know anything about what happened behind the scenes, or if the creators had to fight tooth and nail to keep it the way that it was, or if it was shortened or had much of it cut out for mainstream appeal. But this show wasn't massively popular, and it was 100% its own thing, and it managed to have a good ending. This never happens anymore. Kids cartoons can't be queer, Black, complex, story-driven and visually daring without getting axed, and I have massive respect for the creators and the fact that they pulled it off so well. This show deserves so much more love than it gets and I hate that Netflix has locked it off from us, but I'm so thankful that there exists at least one fantastic and original animated show that didn't die before its prime.

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

Am I going crazy, or do the She Ra characters line up weirdly well with the Arcane characters.

Vi = Adora

Jinx = Catra

Caitlyn = Glimmer

Jayce = I'm tempted to say Seahawk, but I feel like with his knowledge of hextech and trying to live up to certain expectations and everything, I think Bow is more accurate.

Viktor = Entrapta, and hear me out on this one bc not only are both of them extraordinary inventors who achieved immense power, but like, wherever they went, it was that side who would win.

Mel = Castaspella (it makes sense, I promise)

Silco = Shadow Weaver

Ambessa = Double Trouble, strangely enough. (I was expecting her to be Hordak or Horde Prime, but with all the manipulation and the fact that for the Bringing the Rest of the Evil Army, they were both manipulating/making worse Caitlyn/Glimmer and their dynamics with their allies. So Ig this makes Rictus Hordak? Which, tbf also kinda fits.)

Ekko = Netossa (they both really need to get more love for holding everything together as everything crumbles)

Isha = Melog

Sevika = Scorpia. Trust me, it feels wrong at first, but the more you think about it, the more it works

Huck = Wrong Hordak

Vander = Micah (yeah)

Heimerdinger = Angella. (It's diabolical that this lines up so well)

Steb, Maddie, Loris = Perfuma, Mermista, Frosta respectively (The only reason Maddie = Mermista is bc of how dangerous to the good guys/useful to the bad guys Mermista was when she got chipped).

The Arcane = Horde Prime

Singed = That Imp baby that was dead set on making everyone's lives worse and still somehow got a good ending that was shown for like 2 seconds at the end

Like, Ik its not exactly 1:1, but like, it's a lot closer than the vibes of the shows would lead you to believe.

[kyliafanfiction]

There's so many interesting 'it could have gone differently' moments in the first three episodes of Season 1, and now I notice when making that hexcrystal bomb, Powder used two crystals.

if she'd just used one, would it have done enough to allow Vi, Vander etc to get clear?

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

Yes! I love this little detail bc the monkey had 1 gemstone around its neck and 2 shoved inside, which paralleled how Jinx’s pistol was designed to be powered by 1, but Isha shoved 2 more into the chamber. And unless I’m mistaken, in the alternate universe, instead of dropping 1 crystal as she ran out, Powder dropped 3.

So yea, I think if she had used 1 it would’ve worked as she intended it to. However, (and Arcane does a wonderful job with this kind of character work) she was never going to only use one because she needed it to work.

[thehauntedhousespicketfence]

and i’ll say it again, there’s a difference between liking a character because i think they’re a good person, and like a character because i think they’re an interesting and well written character.

caitlyn from arcane is a brilliant example: when i say i like her, im NOT saying i agree with her actions, or think they were justified in any way. im saying that this FICTIONAL character was well-written, that i can understand where her actions were coming from, that i can see she was manipulated and her grief was used against her, and that i think she is a complicated and compelling character. because this is FICTIONAL. and NOT REAL.

she did horrible and disgusting things, but what makes her a good character is that you can understand why she did them. no i don’t agree with it anyway, but the important thing is that i can see why, which in my opinion makes her a good character. if i can understand a ‘villain’s motivations and sympathise for them at times despite the bad things they’ve done, then yes, i think that makes them a good character. not a good person.

because she is a FICTIONAL CHARACTER, and me saying i like her doesn’t automatically mean i agree with every single last thing she did

thank you for coming to my ted talk

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

THIS! Caitlyn is an incredibly well written villain. I love her for what she brought to the story and everything, but she’s still a villain (she’s basically Arcane’s Anakin Skywalker, and everyone loves Anakin Skywalker).

Like, there’s a whole DnD alignment chart for different ways of liking characters and Caitlyn for me is squarely in the Love to Hate category along with the likes of Silco and Pong Krell