Dead Soul

Sometimes when I read posts that go

"MM was trying to impose her heteronormative views on Patrochilles by making Patroclus feminine, in the iliad both were very masculine warriors"

I have the desire to just go and say

📣"In your pursuit of accusing MM of imposing heteronormative views you have failed to recognize that you yourself are imposing modern views of masculinity, femininity and sexuality into the Iliad

As not only these things weren't the same in the context of the Iliad, but also you don't recognize the multiple times where the narrator compares both Achilles and Patroclus to feminine things

Even Achilles compares himself multiple times to a motherly figure, and Patroclus takes the role of the wife by doing household duties during the embassy plus the famous comparison between him and Cleopatra in the Meleager story, while later Achilles takes the role of the closest female relative in Patroclus's funeral

Now, the role Achilles fulfills in the funeral could be interpreted as either a wife or a mother. And the concept of Achilles acting as Patroclus's mother might seem weird to a modern audience, but I think it reflects the sentiment Andromache expressed to Hector in book 6 "Hektor, thus you are father to me, and my honored mother, you are my brother, and you it is who are my young husband." So she's basically saying that Hector is everything to her; the most important and loved person in her life. Likewise Achilles and Patroclus are everything to each other, including father, mother, brother, and maybe even wife and husband

And so while the criticism of forcing heteronormative dynamics to Patroclus and Achilles is valid (criticism I personally don't think applies to tsoa, but that's another post) The idea of both Achilles and Patroclus taking what today we consider a hypermasculine role in their relationship to each other isn't just anachronistic but also inaccurate and it seems more likely that both performed a mix of femininity and masculinity within their relationship

Also, womp womp"

my problem isn't with what is in tsoa(I mean I've but not patroclus' character, it's thetis but yeah different matter)

My problem is that it's wrong to categorise him only as a healer. A 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙛𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡!

Patroclus was a fighter and still kind, gentle soul. He deserved to be that. He deserves to kill, who knows how many Trojans he killed In Iliad.. He did not deserve the character assassination where he killed Sarpedon, Zeus' Son, by fucking mistake. He.bloody.did.not. and i hated that.

Patroclus died and it is achilles fault but not in the way Briseis says it is. Honestly the way I was shaking, crying and laughing while reading that.

“How could you have let him go? You knew he could not fight!” like sir? Gods I hated her when she said this! Though other things she said were certainly not wrong.

Achilles is not ready to leave patroclus' body next day and leaves only when his mother promises she'll do all she can to preserve the body. Like my Thetis did not deserve that character assassination.

MM turns him into just a healer and goes with the same opposite attracts trope, same old het trope where one is stay at home wife and other is macho man. And if patroclus was female and someone turned og character into this...whatever it was, all would've shamed Miller. But because it's a man, people call it progressive.

That's my problem with tsoa and it ain't going anywhere. Sadly. There's no way one can turn into a positive thing. I don't see how it's gonna happen. Again I'd say the same thing. Patroclus deserved to heal and kill men. Tysm.

I love bbc merlin so much because despite the variety of plot points that drive me insane they’re all needed for everything to play out correctly.

I hate that Merlin’s magic isn’t revealed till the very end but also recognize how incredibly powerful he is that if everyone knew their external threats just. Wouldn’t be a threat anymore.

And I hate that Arthur never repeals the ban on magic but if he did than Mordred wouldn’t have had a reason to turn and the finale would fall flat.

I can’t stand Agrivaine but I understand that Arthur being betrayed by him is necessary in order to make Merlin’s perceived betrayal hurt more. That it serves to break down Arthur’s confidence in a time where he only trusts Merlin, who brings him back to himself. Then to realize that foundation of trust he’s had has been wrong and that he has literally been deceived by every single person he lets get close to him.

I hate how they ruined morgana’s character and while I still think it could have been done with more nuance, there is literally no major antagonist besides her. Plus she’s such an interesting one because of her connections to everyone before she slipped.

I hate that merlin tries to kill her, especially like that, and so early on. I get why he does it, and I get that it’s necessary to break morgana’s trust in him. I get that the whole point is that every choice he makes is to try and stop things and he does the best he can every single time, and it’s still never enough.

I don’t always like how we get there but GOD do I love the tragedy of it. For a show that’s so happy on the surface the tragedy of knowing there’s nothing any of them can do to stop the ending is SO GOOD.

It’s devastating to watch merlin lose huge pieces of himself, watch his morals change and shift, watch as the lines he won’t cross get pushed farther and farther away. He loses so much of himself to save Arthur and he STILL LOSES ARTHUR.

And listen I can and I will complain about some of the goofy ass plots but it’s so important to me that people recognize the seriously tragic narrative at the Center of it. I could go on for AGES about how each and every one of the leads is doomed by the narrative.

Gods I'd die! Cause each and every point is so right, and it hurts, it hurts so much to even think about it, how Beneath all fantasy drama magic happy kinda show, there's so much tragedy, you can't deny that many characters did wrong thing because Uther did wrong things as well, you can't deny that Arthur, even though brainwashed from the start, did play a role, you can't deny that even after all that, he didn't deserve their ire, you can't deny that Uther was a fucking bad father for sending his sole heir on dangerous missions all the time and it's not even a plot point, it's so in character! You can't deny Merlin Suffered so much and gained little in return, not even wholw happiness, you can't deny Morgana was horrible, but you can't deny she was treated badly as well!

Merlin's fears are right but that doesn't mean Arthur has no reason to feel betrayed, same about Morgana, damn I can go on and on but I just...

when you start reading again and it's like oh. oh . the sun actually does still shine.

NOTHIN TRUEER EVER

So true lol!

Like for whole week or sometimes months, I won't understand a single word, or will have any will to read, then comes that new dawn, and I've already finished a whole ass book, now onto my 2nd one. Lol.