One thing that broke my heart was that Noé still tried to ask Vanitas first before he lunged at him, even with the fucking insane pressure on everyone at that moment.
Noé doesn’t believe in looking into peoples memories or drinking their blood without consent. That goes against all his moral beliefs. He doesn’t want to become what everyone (aside from maybe Domi and Louis) already see him as. He doesn’t want to become what he already thinks he is.
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I saw this post that made me realize that this command/warning is incredibly specific to a group of vampires . Can we just take a moment to note how shit vanitas’s luck (or really, Teacher’s intentional planning) must be to run into an archiviste? Out of all the vampires he could fall into this situation with,, it was a vampire breed known for accessing someone’s memories. I don’t know about the second part with luna but if that is the case,, holy shit .
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and that last scene with vanitas ,,, oh god . I feel like he switched to autopilot almost as if it were trained or burned into him (not just in the chasseur training way though) . I think half of it has to do with his chasseur background but the other half is something he learned from the VOTBM and he was told to protect at all costs. I mean, he’s literally quoting luna when he says all this, including “kill that vampire” I assume (which could either just be “that” as in general archiviste or it could be multiple? or maybe luna knew it would be specific to Noé,,, anyways). My point is, I think his brain is literally forcing itself to fall back into old ways as a way to cope with the situation at hand and make sure nobody ever accesses luna’s memories. I wonder what would happen if a vampire where to drink and/or see luna’s memories ? Would it have an effect on them/ their formula ?
that’s all . i apologize for the mess ahdjshjsnsns
So I never got to do my analysis of Together Alone and Escapism, so I am going to do mini quick analysis!
Together Alone:
Confirmation of the pink pearl theory.
Even heavier reinforcement of the conformity beyond conformity theme, they are getting even more overt. We have literal cog people. I like it, actually, but I have seen the discussion since and it is surprising hour many people are just ignoring this stuff. It is clearly vital to everything happening.
The ball as Steven envisioned it was never going to work. That was pretty obvious from the beginning.
Blue and yellow pearl are fantastic.
The title "together alone" is a big clue to what is really going on here. This episode is the opposite of the episode "alone together" web Connie and Steven first fuse.
I'm that episode, they were alone but they were together. In this episode they were together, but by trying to play by gem society rules they we separating themselves as isolating themselves. This was the wrong way to go about this. What they were aiming for was a revolution, a radical restructuring of how the society works. This cannot be achieved within the rules designed to isolate and enforce conformity.
And so we have the hero of this episode, Connie, step in. Dance, fusion, you all saw it. What happened here could not have been better if the gems had planned it. A diamond fusing with an organic in order to cheer up from disappointment, and it happens in public. Then the crystal gems all fusing to show solidarity and to stand with stevonnie, proving definitively that off color fusions are not alone was huge.
So huge that one pair comes out on the spot. In full view of the diamond authority. How many others were there in the crowd who were not as rash? This one event would spread throughout gem society and change everything. Nothing can be the same after it.
And it was all because Connie was willing to break character, so to speak, she prioritize Steven's happiness over an obviously failed plan.
Other note: love the gem pair, I hope we see them again.
Now, notes for escapism: lots of odd stuff in this episode, too odd to really guess at what is going on. My guess is it is foreshadowing for the future of the show and I am going to skip deep analysis. We don't know enough about what is going to happen for meaningful prediction, and I want to get to the next episode. So just small notes.
Steven and Connie are the cutest ever.
I think Steven could have fit through the window but that would mean leaving Connie behind. I am sure this would only have been used as a very last effort, probably if they were starving.
Steven was away for a very long time. Connie supports him the whole time, even after she falls asleep.
Steven why didn't you just write in the dirt to start!
Anyway, in conclusion for these two episodes: we stan Connie in this house forever and if you want to watch a show where people execute perfectly on political machinations go watch game of thrones. Connie was the hero of these episodes and no one can convince me otherwise.
Like the interesting thing I see about this conflict is that it is internal and interpersonal. Part of the issue is that the whole thing is essentially a tug of war between Miki and Chiffon and Miki’s mom helps her get some perspective; but part of it is more that Miki simply struggles to be honest with herself and properly communicate what the issue even is, because she deeply struggles at expressing much vulnerability, and has clearly always been something she’s uncomfortable with even as a child. She wants to be strong and stay as strong as the others, but she doesn’t necessarily want to admit that she can be weak too, and that creates a slight clash between intent and action.
And it’s really only once she finally realizes that in many ways, in that moment, Chiffon and her were quite similar, and that all she was doing due to her actions was driving her away, that she manages to work through things and be sincere.
It didn’t go as planned, but the results were still quite interesting in their own way.
Survey Revisited
I have two original character descriptions/synopsis:
A. He’s a werewolf rogue. A handsome con-artist and thief with a tragic backstory who’s on the run. His enemies are powerful, influential, and dangerous, but he’s fast, cunning, and ready to do whatever it takes to survive…
After escaping from his difficult past, he cleaned up his act and built a life for himself on the straight and narrow. But when things go south for his cursed girlfriend and tragedy strikes his family, he finds himself falling back on old habits. After successfully stealing a vast sum of money from some very nasty people and crossing the wrong secret organization, he finds both old and new enemies hot on his trail. Quick and cunning though he may be, he may need some extra help to get himself out of this situation…
OR
B. He’s a scruffy, anxious, 20-something who’s down on his luck and estranged from his family. His girlfriend left him, he dropped out of school, he started living out of his car, his compulsions are back, and he accidentally stole a bag full of money from the mob (he took the wrong duffel bag, okay?). Now he lives in terror, surviving on bad coffee and whatever he can scrounge up, because the mob is out to put him down for good.
He’s afraid of spending his ill-got cash, because he’s certain that the bills are marked and will lead his enemies to him. So he moves from place to place, hoping to god that he doesn’t find a bomb attached to the underside of his car… Or that he does find a bomb attached to the underside of his car, because at least he’d have seen it and might be able to run away. And if it’s a bomb, well… at least it’s just a bomb, who knows what the vampires are going to do to him…
I’m not going to be posting original works on this blog beyond technical writing stuff (unless asked). This is just an example/a survey to test a hypothesis.
So, if one of these characters was going to be the lead character in a book, which character would you rather read about? A or B?
Overview of results: Sparse/Not enough to make a concrete statement about anything
A: 4
B: 6
Both- 2
(I ended up asking some of my friends and family to fill things out a bit, so these results aren’t reflected on the original survey post.)
The Purpose of the Survey- Intent vs Outcome
This survey was meant to test a theory. I call it the ‘it’s no fun unless someone’s hair is on fire’ theory or the Hair on Fire Theory. The core idea is that given two works, the one with the higher stakes will be somewhat more interesting to a potential reader. A character who faces great adversity, who is afraid, and who wishes to avoid causing/experiencing suffering will be more interesting than a character who doesn’t face a task that’s too big for them or fear causing/experiencing suffering.
For the purpose of the survey, I took one of my favorite original/rpg characters, Fred the Werewolf, and described his situation twice. Version A presents Fred as capable, talented, and empowered character (how most other in-world characters who aren’t Fred probably view him if they haven’t spent much time around him). Version B represents Fred’s perspective on the situation--his life, which he was finally getting back on track, fell apart and now the mob and the vampires are after him. And, as talented as he is, he’s scared out of his wits.
I think my outcomes reflect less on the Hair on Fire Theory and more on the current state of the respondents. I say this because several people commented about how they their personal experiences and current state were impacting their choice. For example- one of my respondents was dealing with a stressful family situation and Version B reminded them of that situation.* Some of the other responses and comments were along a similar vein as well and I feel like if I’d gathered more information I could have drawn some interesting conclusions.
I think a good way of approaching these results is taking it as a ‘personal need’--do you need a hero who can solve their own problems and is tough and confident right now? Or do you need a hero who is facing a monumental struggle that he doesn’t feel or seem at all ready for?
It’s not a ‘right or wrong’ answer. It’s a ‘how you feel’ answer. And in those cases you choose what you need.
(Admittedly there were also at least two people who considered these prompts from a ‘which one has the better writing’ perspective. So that’s something else to consider...)
What Went Wrong? What Went Right?
It’s mostly my bad. I think I didn’t frame the options correctly and I should have really spent time making them different. I also think it would have been improved with a greater variety of characters. Like if I’d given you five characters and split their stories in the same way (non-stressful/stressful) and then let you go down the list I think the information would have been more valuable.
Nevertheless, I think I can firmly say that even if I didn’t get the results I intended, I did end up learning something about what people prefer to read and why. And that’s always a cool thing to know. So I’m not going to call it a failed effort.
The other important thing I learned is that people would be willing to read about Fred. Which is good, considering that he’s on my radar right now--I’ve been writing his backstory between bouts of fanfiction-ing...
I’ll do a better survey next time!
*Using this example because respondent is a relative and doesn’t mind sharing. Like. At all.
