Shirley Fenette - Tumblr Posts
Fandom Woes: Self-Righteousness of Modern Tragedy
I think I want to explain my case better about my beef with modern tragic/more-bitter-than-sweet fantasy/sci-fi, such as RWBY, Code Geass, and D.Gray-Man and it’s not necessarily the stories in of themselves
It’s the Self-Righteous Martyr/God-Complex of toxic contingent within these fandoms, to me they seem to ultimately not care the message the tragedy and suffering of these stories are trying to convey, but rather enjoy them and flaunt them for their own self-righteous megalomania
And I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it’s the tone, attitude and behavior of these people that give me that impression
For example with Code Geass and RWBY and the tragic deaths of Euphemia Li Britannia, Shirley Fenette, Lelouch, Pyrrha, and Penny respectively
As soon as that happened, many among the fandom would come out and theatrically proclaim the necessity of these tragic deaths, how it is so realistic an shows “thats life”, and brag how ultimately hopeful the stories still are and how it taught them how to be oh-so hopeful despite the odds, and I can see them act that way towards the burden of Allen Walker if the fandom was still active today as it was back then.
In any these cases, these people act as if they themselves were righteous martyrs, prophets of God,Life,Reality, usually the latter two because they claim "that's life" or "that's reality" all in a tone that reeks of holier-than-thou arrogance and vanity...
"Of my virtue, I am justly proud..."
Or worse, they speak with ghoulish glee and bragging about it gives them a feeling of power over these fictional characters as if they themselves are God almighty and it bleeds into how they treat real people who didn't like it by passive aggressively or belligerently belittling, judging, shaming, gaslighting, and sneering at them, implying the worse reasons of their distaste, and tell them to go watch a sitcom or slice-of-life anime or something
Then they are quick to condemn other fictional characters like Suzaku from Code Geass for being such a SOB and cheer on Watts putting Cinder on Full Blast, all while implying themselves to be such better people than both
Then they brag about what story was told with these ideas and concepts to be the end-all-be-all of these concepts in any fantasy/sci-fi epics that have even the slightest tinge of darkness and conflict and, lock them down into little theories, formulas, dogmas, and rule out everything else as a corruption, heresy, or a worthless little parasite, because they themselves are the infallible, all-knowing, and all-seeing “literary experts” who got everything all figured out and everyone else, wether the majority or minority, as peon reprobates.
Which then they pressure onto creatives with less power than them, especially when they disagree. All while they themselves can do whatever they want and do whatever they want with things they are unhappy with because “we know better than you”
I have experienced this expressing my ideas of what RWBY could have been instead, AU and Original work and been told it could only work as a slice of life anymore or a sitcom, or otherwise what I do with this stuff is ultimately meaningless and heresy and spiteful
All while they supported things like His Dark Materials Trilogy which is the Anti-Narnia written by a Atheist who hates CS Lewis and Christianity with a passion because he made the concepts more “interesting”
Or how making a sexy magical Captain Marvel with her own sailor scouts like Kamen America and her Kamen Corps because the creators were unhappy with what was done with the concept of Captain Marvel is nothing but a "Porno Captain Marvel Rip-Off"
while making an evil superman like Homelander and other nasty rendition of superheroes in "The Boys" by a guy who despises superheroes is totally fine because he knows what's the "interesting" end-all-be-all of these concepts.
All these things I describe can be summed up to figures in the Bible, The Pharisees
“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”-Matthew 23:4
They brag about the virtues and necessity of tragedy at the expense of fictional characters and real people, and boss around other creatives on what they do with this stuff, especially when they are unhappy, all whilst they themselves do whatever they want because they are supposedly so “objective”, they don’t need to follow the rules like everyone else
These prigs will tell others to “broaden their horizons” and give them the benefit of the doubt, but will refuse to give others the exact same courtesy because once again, “We know better than you.”
These self righteous people seem to only enjoy these stories not because of the message the tragedy and suffering is trying to convey, thats just a shield for them, but rather for their moral superiority and the thrill of power over others and being the measure of all things, for they know how life exactly works for specific individuals in specific genres and they know how to carry it out exactly.
They know with a "G"(gnosis) what's the end-all-be-all of specific concepts in ideas in specific genres and how to carry them out and they alone are the alchemists who can turn lead in to gold and everyone else is subjective and suffer from false consciousness.
In fact, I compare them to Digory’s Uncle Andrew in The Magician’s Nephew who though he could control other people by using their values against them to get them to do what he wants, while he himself doesn’t need to follow the rules, and basked in self congratulation of being a “great magician”
“Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.”
And while we’re at it and Code Geass is on the table, let me point to one of the antagonists of Akito The Exiled, Gene Smilas
He was the mentor and surrogate parent of Lelia Macal who sought to bring Europe to a brighter future, often invoking the tale of the venerable St.Joan of Arc.
But when the time came to supposedly save EU, did he bet on his own life like the Saint did?
No.
He decided to position himself as God and Lelia as Joan of Arc, planning for her to die as a martyr for his own gain and become Emperor of Europe, because she happened to be a young lady with good morals who wasn't afraid to fight alongside her troops.
Like Uncle Andrew, Gene was nothing more than a peddling magician, but worse, he saw himself as God who controlled Lelila's destiny all while basking in delusions of righteousness in his quest for power. While Uncle Andrew was at least scared straight by Narnia.
To use a description of the Pharisees from the TV Series Jesus of Nazareth(1977) but slightly tweaked,
He bowed before the Story of Joan of Arc, but violated the heart of it.
And that's why I am so irritable about Tragedy in these kinds of stories, it feels like they are no longer enjoyed out of humility, compassion, truth, goodness, and beauty.
But rather out of pride, vanity, power, cruelty, and moral superiority
and sometimes it tempts me want to write my inspired stories in a way that gives them all the finger rather than for what I saw these ideas and concepts could have been, just so I can give them a taste of their own medicine
I know that's wrong, but these people test my patience, especially when they keep invading other people's spaces, bypass other people's "curations" because "there's nothing subjective about this, I need to correct and educate you", and getting away with this kind of nasty behavior
Because they are perfectly “objective” and everyone else is “subjective” therefore “subjected” to their “objective” will.
@beatricehawthorne @vitamaeternum
Odds and ends from Code Geass 🍕
Code Geass Genesic Re;Code ↳ 【Black Knights】 Shirley Fenette
Critical Zero LuluShir Crumbs
After seeing THIS, of course I had to get my hands on Critical Zero to see if there were any other LuluShir bits 😂 Thanks to @nicerbutnot2u for reminding me I had this in my drafts.
I have to say, I only checked out the stuff of Shirley-related episodes, but it was a worthy purchase. I wanted to share some of my favorite tidbits but since I don’t have the time to translate, I just grabbed the kanji with an app and let DeepL do its magic.
Episode 12
- それと並行しルルーシュとシャーリーの関係にもようやく変化が生じるが、それば悲劇の始まりだった。
At the same time, the relationship between Lelouch and Shirley finally changes, but that is just the beginning of the tragedy.
Keep reading
The biggest LuluShir tragedy is that both Shirley and Lelouch only notice they have feelings for each other when they think they've lost the other.
Shirley only seems to notice and embrace her feelings after she mistakenly thinks Lelouch might be dating Kallen:
And Lelouch only notices after he accidentally gets her father killed and realizes he needs to give up on her if he wants her to be safe:
It's no wonder that finally acting on his feelings for Shirley is at the very forefront of Lelouch's ideal world, as shown in the special story published in Newtype 2008:
I suddenly remembered something I had kept in my breast pocket. That's right, these must have found their way to me precisely for this very moment. "Hey, Shirley..." "Hm? What is it?” "What do you think of classical music?" "Huh? Well, not much, really. I've never been particularly interested in it." "I just happened to have some tickets for a concert, if you'd like to come." "Huh?! You mean, you want to go with m—me?" "Yes, I want to go with you."
The fact that in Lelouch's vision — the world that CC herself confirms is Lelouch's dream and the way he desperately wanted his world to look like — he does a role-reversal so he can be the one to ask Shirley out to that classical concert is both, really sweet and really sad.
If only Lelouch had realized how happy he was at Ashford before, that classical concert could have been the start of his relationship with Shirley. But that's not what fate had in store for them, and Lelouch regretted it so badly that he wanted to do it all over again.
Alexa play Masquerade 😎
Artwork that accompanies Lelouch’s ideal world. Thank you @skania for bringing this to my attention! This is so pretty 💖
By Bio.
Yes, they're all cats now. And why not.
“Shirley’s feelings were one sided.”
Tell me you don’t know how basic storytelling works without telling me you don’t know how basic storytelling works 🙃 Lelouch is venting his feelings of loss to a now amnesia having Shirley and it immediately clicks in her mind that he is talking about a person he was in love with.
“I don’t know.” Doesn’t detract from this at all. At first I thought it was just added in for extra angst, but now I’m thinking this part of the dialogue is just as loaded as the last. “Right now, I don’t know anymore.” this almost sounds as if prior to the mess with Zero and Mao, he knew he had growing feelings for her. But now he’s so numb inside (rewatch the scene and just look at how lifeless he seems, especially the eyes!) that he doesn’t know how he feels anymore. If Mao’s arc wasn’t obvious enough for you, R2 says hello. Is it unusual for Lelouch to be devastated by the death of someone he cares about? No, but it is unusual for him to change his plans and mercilessly slaughter a group of people he collectively deems responsible for her death (even saying he’ll bring back the corpse of her killer to her as a gift, yandere much?).
Both times their partings were filled with so much emotion, this part got me good 😭 Shirley intuitively knew what was coming, and she would rather live with the memory of her father’s death at the hands of the man she loved than forget about Lelouch completely. That is how much she loves him. And Shirley means so much to Lelouch, he says himself that her smile saved him every day. She gives him peace amongst his brutal war against Brittannia. But Lelouch would rather her not suffer even if it means he loses his connection with her.
Her death scene is just as impactful in showing how much they care for each other, and is also a direct parallel to R1 when Shirley loses her memories. It is heavily implied that after they die they will both be reborn and find each other again. They even have their own love song. In this life they couldn’t be together because of the war with Brittannia, but in the next life….
Shirlulu paralleling each other.
How much more obvious do ppl need it lol
The funniest thing about Genesic's au where Lelouch dies instead of Shirley and she takes over as Zero is that she kind of does a better job of it than Lelouch? Like, she heals Rolo's psyche, she gets Nunnally out safe, the FLEIJA doesn't go off, she gets all our main characters to meet up and have a discussion (tragically, we only get to see her informing them of Lelouch's death), and, obviously, she doesn't sow the seeds of her destruction by murdering a whole compound of kids and unarmed scientists (but Cornelia still gets out of the geass compound anyway, courtesy of Jeremiah). Granted, this is partially because Lelouch left a battle plan and put a leash on Rolo by ordering him to obey Shirley, but still
Like, Sunrise really said, "actually, things would have gone better if our main character had died three-quarters of the way through and been replaced by his civilian semi-girlfriend"
CODE GEASS FEMSLASH WEEK DAY SIX: COSTUME CHANGE
The funniest thing about Genesic's au where Lelouch dies instead of Shirley and she takes over as Zero is that she kind of does a better job of it than Lelouch? Like, she heals Rolo's psyche, she gets Nunnally out safe, the FLEIJA doesn't go off, she gets all our main characters to meet up and have a discussion (tragically, we only get to see her informing them of Lelouch's death), and, obviously, she doesn't sow the seeds of her destruction by murdering a whole compound of kids and unarmed scientists (but Cornelia still gets out of the geass compound anyway, courtesy of Jeremiah). Granted, this is partially because Lelouch left a battle plan and put a leash on Rolo by ordering him to obey Shirley, but still
Like, Sunrise really said, "actually, things would have gone better if our main character had died three-quarters of the way through and been replaced by his civilian semi-girlfriend"
I just find it interesting that Lelouch has kissed basically everybody at least once, and his reaction was always :I
BUT
This is his reaction to just the IDEA of being kissed by Shirley
Very telling 🤭
Also unlike with the others, when Shirley did kiss him we couldn’t see what type of face he made. It may have been a spur of the moment thing, but I bet mentally lelouch.exe stopped working.
By Bio.
Yes, they're all cats now. And why not.
Fukuyama (Lelouch's VA): Was it intentional that it ended like that... cut to black?
Taniguchi (Code Geass Director): Right. In the last scene, Lelouch walks into the darkness... very symbolic.
“Shirley’s feelings were one sided.”
Tell me you don’t know how basic storytelling works without telling me you don’t know how basic storytelling works 🙃 Lelouch is venting his feelings of loss to a now amnesia having Shirley and it immediately clicks in her mind that he is talking about a person he was in love with.
“I don’t know.” Doesn’t detract from this at all. At first I thought it was just added in for extra angst, but now I’m thinking this part of the dialogue is just as loaded as the last. “Right now, I don’t know anymore.” this almost sounds as if prior to the mess with Zero and Mao, he knew he had growing feelings for her. But now he’s so numb inside (rewatch the scene and just look at how lifeless he seems, especially the eyes!) that he doesn’t know how he feels anymore. If Mao’s arc wasn’t obvious enough for you, R2 says hello. Is it unusual for Lelouch to be devastated by the death of someone he cares about? No, but it is unusual for him to change his plans and mercilessly slaughter a group of people he collectively deems responsible for her death (even saying he’ll bring back the corpse of her killer to her as a gift, yandere much?).
Both times their partings were filled with so much emotion, this part got me good 😭 Shirley intuitively knew what was coming, and she would rather live with the memory of her father’s death at the hands of the man she loved than forget about Lelouch completely. That is how much she loves him. And Shirley means so much to Lelouch, he says himself that her smile saved him every day. She gives him peace amongst his brutal war against Brittannia. But Lelouch would rather her not suffer even if it means he loses his connection with her.
Her death scene is just as impactful in showing how much they care for each other, and is also a direct parallel to R1 when Shirley loses her memories. It is heavily implied that after they die they will both be reborn and find each other again. They even have their own love song. In this life they couldn’t be together because of the war with Brittannia, but in the next life….
What is this, I don’t even.