HAVE YOU CONSIDERED (I'm Fine I Don't Know Why I'm Writing In All Caps):

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED (I'm fine I don't know why I'm writing in all caps):

Anderperry, but as greek mythology?

As actual Shakespearean plays?

Because I have.

Todd and Neil as Orpheus and Eurydice.

As Hades and Persephone.

As Romeo and Juliet.

As... something else that I cannot think of right now.

I don't know, I just, like, yes??? They're just made for tragedies and myths, and yeah. Yeah.

Well I'm reblogging my own post (that feels weird) but the idea haunted me the whole day so I wrote a fic ab it and it has like, fun historical facts because I also like history :') if anyone wants to know about like, rhino elections or stuff like that

There's so many history stuff Liam could like and I need to know about it all. Does he prefer learning about specific stuff? Related to one country or place in particular? Does he only get his infos from history class or does he use Wikipedia and stuff? Is there a specific era that got him interested? If he knows about Mykonos, does he like war history and stategies? Would he watch the 'historian reacts to movies' videos on Youtube??? What's his favorite historical event??? Does he have a historical figure he really really hates??? Did he ever do presentations in history class, and if he did, what was it about??? Does he watch documentaries??? Has he ever tried those history quizzes things??? TEEN WOLF I NEED TO KNOW

heyoo!! sorry this is kind of an annoying ask so feel free to ignore but I loved all your thiam fics and they characterizations you have for everyone especially theo is so spot on and perfect so I was wondering if you could do a character analysis on any of them?

hi anon!! thanks so much for your kind words! i’m 99% sure this unhinged rant is not what you were hoping for but bestie my professors chose violence this week and my brain is made of soup so please. bon appetit

i really think the thing that's so compelling to me about theo is how fundamentally his character arc captures the themes of change and redemption that are at the center of teen wolf's dna as a show.

pretty much as soon as his betrayal is revealed in 5a, theo's framed as a figure whose very survival has itself become a selfish act. tara's heart is an obvious and visceral symbol of what he's taken from others in order to survive, but her death is also a direct parallel to what he does to tracy and josh, and what he tries to do with scott. like corey and mason and the rest of the chimeras, theo is a victim of the dread doctors - perhaps even more so. he was a child, taken from his family, raised in an unloving and unsympathetic environment for almost ten full years. as a result, his primary defense mechanism has become a twisted sort of ambition. gain more power, and no one can hurt me. gain a pack, and i won't be alone anymore. become an alpha, and i’ll never feel helpless again.

in 6a, after he's brought back from superhell (rip), theo immediately declares himself to be the same person he was before he was sent away. joke’s on him, though, because within three episodes he’s actively sacrificing his life for someone for the first time that we're aware of. when he throws liam into the elevator and stays to hold off the wild hunt, there is absolutely no reason to believe he’s getting out of there alive. nobody else has up to this point. s5 theo wanted liam to kill scott - kill his alpha and his friend, scarring himself permanently in the process - so that theo could kill liam and gain both of their power. s6 theo, unprompted, makes the choice to put his own self-preservation on the backburner in order to give liam the chance to survive another day. setup, meet payoff.

i really think a lesser show might've killed him there - redemption complete, a selfish existence thrown on its head and then ended. when it’s not doing the Absolute Most, though, teen wolf actually kind of slaps really hard. so instead, we get s6e10 the wolves of war (complimentary). this episode is a mess and i understand why people have issues with it, but i'm a wolves of war apologist just because of theo's final scene in the hospital. that shit is such immaculate character work. i cannot shut up about it. s6e10 tells us that what theo needed to be redeemed was never to die for someone - it's to fight with someone, to live with someone, to reframe existence and life and growth in terms of support and mutual benefit instead of selfishness. theo’s able to take gabe's pain, in the end, because he's no longer putting his own self-preservation first. but he doesn't need to die to prove that - instead, he fights at liam's side, and eases gabe's pain as he dies, and proves his survival does not have to be a selfish act.

theo proves the point scott’s been making for the whole fuckin show. he's not only capable of change, but he does it - and he does it because he decides to. because he finds something - someone - worth fighting for. it doesn't erase the things he's done, but it does recontextualize them. i believe that in life we do the best we can with what we're given. theo was given tara's heart and a chimera's body and then - finally - liam's outstretched hand. good is a verb, not an adjective. theo is redeemed because he's given the opportunity to, and because he actively seizes that opportunity.

theo raeken is when dove cameron said “so you wanna talk about power? / well, let me show you power.” and when mitski said “open up your heart like the gates of hell / you stay soft, get beaten. / only natural to harden up.” and when khalid said “sister, sister, please know that i’m sorry; / i wish you could’ve stopped me.” and when mary oliver said “you do not have to be good... / you only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” and when rina sawayama said “i’m trying to be normal / but trauma is immortal... / i don’t wanna be a monster anymore.” and when silas denver melvin said “you are not as damned as you think you are.”

theo raeken and tragic hero essay... thing (idk what i'm doing)

in this... essay, i will talk about theo raeken as a tragic hero, because why the hell not.

tragedy as a literary genre goes all the way back to the 5th century BC, and is still written about today. it is a genre of drama focused on stories of human suffering, where a human flaw/weakness/choice leads to devastating events, traditionally ending with death. examples of tragedies include 'romeo and juliet', 'a streetcare named desire', etc etc.

so, anyways, tragedies have multiple components, with an introduction, a middle and an end, dramatic events, a character that is usually the tragic hero, and it all leads to catharsis (catharsis being the purging of emotion).

the structure would go more or less like that:

the tragic hero, central character, starts out in a good position (could be of high social standing, or maybe they're famous, successful, happy in general, etc), whose choices or weaknesses lead to a chain of events that end with their downfall. it could be oeudipus, killing his father and marrying his mother, and later being like 'oh shit'. because of their action or trait, the hero is now facing an inevitable ending, which is... tragic.

and that leads us to theo!

i consider that theo's tragedy starts with him watching tara die, and ends with him going to hell (we're ignoring season 6, sorry theo, maybe later), and would probably actually be composed of two parts (his childhood, and then him arriving in beacon hills again).

we have the tragic hero, theo, who, while he has good qualities, makes an error of judgement (that's an understatement) and lets his sister tara die of hypothermia, in order to gain power. that choice leads to his downfall, as he becomes the first chimera, being experimented on.

so we'll consider theo's hunger for power his tragic flaw (the 'hamartia' of the story, which is a factor that causes the downfall), that follows him all the way to the first episode where we see him.

then again, theo starts out great, but he ends up experiencing peripeteia; a reversal. while he was planning on taking over scott's pack, there is a reversal of situation, which means that it doesn't turn out how he wanted.

from then on, theo loses control over the story, kills part of his pack, loses the few 'betas' he had, becoming isolated, fails at everything he attempts, and, at the last moment, realizes what's about to become of him. before being dragged by tara into 'hell', he has a moment of 'anagnorisis' (recognition) of his fate, and tries to fight against it (pleading to be helped, trying to hold on something).

however, a tragic character, while they might fight against fate, cannot reverse it, which is why theo gets trapped in hell.

so in my opinion, theo shares traits with tragic heroes, and part of his story follows the concepts of tragedy.

where it lacks, however, is the fact that you probably don't relate or pity theo's downfall until you've watched season 6 and started liking theo (which doesn't go along the idea of the tragic hero being relatable), and thus there is little catharsis, except for general satisfaction at his tragic ending. theo also escapes, in a way, his tragedy, by later being released from hell (his ending is reversed).

anyways, the story has a tragic hero, a tragic flaw, some sort of catharsis, peripeteia, and some late anagnorisis, so i'll consider it a tragedy :).

(sources are

https://www.supersummary.com/tragedy/

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/agamemnon-the-choephori-and-the-eumenides/critical-essay/aristotle-on-tragedy

https://literaryterms.net/tragedy/

https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature

https://teen-wolf-pack.fandom.com/wiki/Theo_Raeken)

How I think Monopoly with the dead poets would go:

Meeks is immediately elected banker because he's the only one they all trust enough to not cheat (he is definitely not above cheating but he never has to because he's just annoyingly naturally good at games like this). Throughout the rest of the game he gets repeatedly harassed by everyone when he takes a second too long to give them their money, and he has to slap Charlie at one point for trying to rob the bank.

Knox buys everything he lands on, forgets to call rent, gets really unlucky, and becomes bankrupt 15 minutes in. He is an incredibly sore loser and spends the rest of the game sulking, after asking if he could be banker now he's out and being yelled at immediately.

Neil takes pity on all the shit, low-value properties than no one wants and buys up the really crappy side of the board, taking his responsibilities very seriously. It turns out to be a great tactic and he ends up with an unassuming wall of death with hotels left right and centre, and everyone hates him for it. (He makes sure to be distracted by something and not call rent when someone lands on his properties who's doing badly.)

Cameron takes way too long deciding how to spend his money, and is also constantly referring to the rules, despite loud objections from Charlie. He likes to correct the way they're playing but nobody listens to him. He also constantly ends up in jail, which he is not amused by in the slightest, but which the others most decidedly are.

Charlie causes the game to be at least 60% more chaotic than it would be without him, by aggressively throwing money at people he owes, denying that he owes anything at all, moving houses on the board around when nobody's looking, demanding he be paid only in $1 bills, flicking his piece across the board in the vague direction he's supposed to be going, and chucking the dice at Knox's head at various intervals. He is also the cause of many tears in the paper money and the whole board being flipped at one point. Nobody even knows how well he's doing because he mainly just sabotages other people.

Todd is either ridiculously good at this game or just gets really lucky because he manages to get all of the really expensive properties and have loads of houses on them all. He calls rent in the most polite way possible but Meeks still has to stop Charlie from lunging himself at Todd when he calls rent on him. Todd and Neil have the most civilised business interactions ever, and are always thanking each other for their hospitality when they land on each other's properties, and promising to visit again.

Pitts doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't understand the premise of the game until about half an hour in. He has to be repeatedly reminded which counter is his, and what he owns, which is very little. Eventually he lands himself in jail with Cameron and just decides to stay there and everyone lets him.

Gave Collateral (2004) a spin because it’s my summer of curiously going through an actor’s catalogue and piecing together ideas about film as a mad scientist does. That said… Tom Cruise deserved a bid for the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as Vincent. My ass was thoroughly frightened. Enough to keep from asking what kind of crazy he was tapping into for that role.

Just one thing though. I know the movie alluded to it plenty of times- shoutout to Michael Mann for the excellent visual storytelling and the unsettling flow of shots btw - but I’ve been wondering why Vincent spared Max at so many points — why he went to all the trouble at Fever. The Feds had their scapegoat and he had his out. A man of his intelligence would know that after the club panic and the feds marking Max as Vincent that it’d only draw attention to himself to stick together. He could’ve easily spared time and trouble dumping Max to get another driver at gunpoint. Hell. He coulda just took the fucking cab at that point, he beat him outside! There wouldn’t have been any reference for his next kill for Max to warn anybody about. 

I won’t cinemasins this and say ‘oh well it’s just bad writing’ or ‘plot hole for action!’ like no. I’m suspending my disbelief here wholesale. I just wanna know what Max wants to know; the particulars of why Vincent picks him at the detriment of his tight schedule.

A man who checks his watch at every step is not someone who dilly dallies. There’s no real scenario where his decisions play out in any tactical or organized setting… Which means that his choice is an emotional one. I’m super interested in pondering about it. What’s the investment? I could say that Max is the most clever cabbie he’s pulled the scheme on, but with someone like Vincent that wouldn’t matter now would it? The “now let’s see what else you can do” line after that very special pinning scene suggests to us that he’s trying to see something… But what is it, and why does it matter? He is indifferent, he said it himself. Yet he’s picking out all the right ways to push and nudge Max into the life he’s been missing out on all these years chasing perfection and being passive. It’s a fun kind of redundant and complex with a hint of dark humor in talking to that man’s mama and saying they’re friends. Out here telling lies. You wrong for that 😭