#post-TROS Mood

Do you think, with patience and force of habit, you will end up loving me? LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE (2014) dir. Christophe Gans

Arcane | S02E05: Blisters and Bedrock

Fena got a Japanese tsundere swordsman as her leading man lol

When Twist Villains go Bad(ly written)

Sometimes I think a lot about “twist” villains. Villains that are first cast in the role of love interest and then revealed in a TWIST to be bad and afterward their entire personality changes. Ya know. Hans. The Darkling. Maven (I only ever read book one of the Red Queen, so I dunno if he became a less cartoony villain later on). Show Daenerys. 

What bugs me about these twist villains is that they are essentially two characters. The before character and the after character. The character that the author was writing back when they were trying to conceal the twist. And the character the author is writing now as an ‘AH HA!! GOTCHA!!”

The implication is that the character after the twist is their “TRUE SELF” and the character before the twist is a fiction. A performance. But the author is afraid that we’ll get their twist too early so they don’t actually build those villainous elements into the character and foreshadow it. Then they’d risk not being able to SURPRISE the reader. And they want to feel all superior about tricking us and laugh about how “sometimes you can’t trust a pretty face”.

But the result of this desperate “GOTCHA” is some cheating in the writing and a lot of retconning.

For instance, once in Frozen, Hans is shown smiling softly at Anna when no one is looking at him. It’s just him on screen. Why did he do that?? What was the reason if not just to lull the audience into a false sense of security?

And the Darkling is clearly driven by a desire to help the Grisha but post twist I guess he’s just okay with allying with Grisha-enemy #1 Fjerda (and they’re okay with allying with him somehow too???)

Everything about their demeanor changes. Everything about their dialogue. It doesn’t feel like a gradual transformation. It feels like a good/evil switch.

And some might say “its a warning because sometimes you can’t TELL who’s going to be evil because they’re liars :)”

But a character pre twist and post twist should still be recognizable as the same person and have a consistent character.

Take Petyr Baelish for instance. The moment we meet this man, we think he’s sketchy. Ned thinks he’s sketchy. This man is a liar and a politician. But…..lots of people in King’s Landing are liars and politicians and Baelish seems to be helping Ned. He even gives a reasonable motivation! It’s because he’s friends with Cat that he’s helping Ned. But he also flat out says: “you shouldn’t trust me”.

So when HIS twist comes, it IS surprising at first. We kinda thought we had his motives figured out. But it makes sense AND he’s still the same person afterward. Same vibe entirely. Nothing about him transforms when he stops lying.

And then there’s the twist villain that descends unexpectedly into villainy. Annakin was a good example of this (perhaps because we all knew it was coming). He was always brilliant but also impulsive and hot headed. He’s driven by his fear of losing those he loves, especially after the loss of his mother, and it’s those good intentions that lead him over the edge. But he’s still the same person after the switch. He’s just deeply changed. Certainly his arc was handled ten times better than that of Daenerys

On another level, I hate that usually the “twist villains” are there SPECIFICALLY to shame female characters for being stupid or gullible or naive. Like “oh you silly girl. Trusting this bad man who looks pretty but lies. You’re just like our young readers. They’re also stupid and need a LESSON to know DON’T TRUST ANYONE, especially someone who makes you FEEL LUST.”

But so rarely do these fictional twist villains act like real life abusers or men that they actually need to watch out for. Because the author is hiding the red flags because they want their twist. It’s just…it’s bad foreshadowing. It’s bad character writing. It’s annoying over all. No thank you.

Ben Solo who wanted to become a pilot, like the scoundrel father he so looked up to

Ben Solo who loved calligraphy 

Ben Solo who was named after Ben Kenobi, our Princess Leia’s last and only hope

Ben Solo who spent every night desperately seeking sleep to escape the voices that haunted his mind

Ben Solo who thought he could never go back to his mother, his only home

Ben Solo who was the grandson of the former Queen and the Chosen One

Ben Solo who had Royalty and Greatness flooding his veins

Ben Solo who split his spirit to the core killing his father

Ben Solo who in his loneliest moments didn’t even have ghosts to turn to, who begged his grandfather to show him the way

Ben Solo who was not the one to RISE. Who got a 10-minute “redemption” as the accessory to the girl. Ben Solo who was laying in a PIT during the action.

The last of the great Skywalkers… Ben Solo who no one mourned

Rey's parents are terrible but TROS makes them seem like heroes.

The "Rey Palpatine" BS is stupid enough on its own but I hate HATE what this movie is trying to do with her parents. No matter the reason selling you kid is not something that should be shown in a positive light. TROS does just that. Rey being unfazed by the fact that she was sold as a kid is disturbing, the fact that she seems to be thankful to her parents for it is a beyond damaging messege to send.

"they sold you to protect you" might be one of the most toxic lines I have ever heard in a film. It justifies the actions of rey's perents when they LITTERLY TOOK MONEY IN EXCHANGE FOR THIER DAUGHTER. JJ redconned half of TLJ but he decided to not change the rey being sold plot line. He only added a new reason, now they did not sell her for drinking money, now they profited on her because they wanted to protect her. Excuse me, what the actual fuck??

Her parents literally subjected thier daughter to a lifetime of abuse and hunger, to child laber, to all the dangers of living alone on Jakku and took money for it. That's not a statement of parental love, that's just fucked up.

JJ could easily write that they left her on Jakku, that's all they could do before Palpatine cough them. But no, better make them find a slave owner and sell her.

And don't even get me started on the whole Unkar Platt being a "mean-spirited guardian" BS.

A mean-spirited guardian is that one uncle you have that keeps on making rude comments about you, and you kind of hate him but ultimately you know that when a push comes to shove he would go to hell and back for you.

Unkar Platt bough her, and made her work for him. She spend her whole life scavenging ship ruins in order to get food. In TFA we see that Unakr would gladly let her die of hunger if she didn't bring him new parts.

He's a slaver, he enforces child labour, he wouldn't care if rey lived or died.

REY'S PARENTS AND UNKAR PLATT ARE TERRIBLE PEOPLE, TROS TRIES TO TURN THEM INTO HEROS.

Reylo

" We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy. Join me. Please. "

Darklina

" You were meant to be my balance. You are the only person in the world who might rule with me, who might keep my power in check. "

Writing about a child rapist did not make Vladimir Nabokov a child rapist.

Writing about an authoritarian theocracy did not make Margaret Atwood an authoritarian theocrat.

Writing about adultery did not make Leo Tolstoy an adulterer.

Writing about a ghost did not make Toni Morrison a ghost.

Writing about a murderer did not make Fyodor Dostoevsky a murderer.

Writing about a teenage addict did not make Isabel Allende a teenage addict.

Writing about dragons and ice zombies did not make George R.R. Martin either of those things.

Writing about rich heiresses, socially awkward bachelors, and cougar widows did not make Jane Austen any of those things.

Writing about people who can control earthquakes did not make N.K. Jemisin able to control earthquakes.

Writing about your favorite characters and/or ships in situations that you choose does not make you a bad person.

It’s a shame that in this day and age these things need to be said.