lunareclipse777

[lunareclipse777]

Why i adore Mulan (the animation of course)

when i was child, i absolutely loved binge-watching Disney movies (the OG ones, the ones during the renaissance and the rest) and with barbie movies and all. But one of my favourite movies was Mulan, as the songs were perfection, the storyline was brilliant and everything was just amazing. The side characters also grew and were given spotlight as much as the main character and they were so amazing and interesting.

but what would always remain dear to me is how Mulan understood her weaknesses in battle and fighting and used her strengths; that is her intellect, discipline, grace and courage, to help her. For example, since she was a thin person who would have had a disadvantage against brawny and muscled men, she chose to be quick on her feet and be careful with her movements. She used loopholes and thought outside the box which ultimately saved herself, her comrades, and her country. She wins in spite of her weaknesses. Or better yet she wins because of her acknowledgement of them.

and then there was her father whom was perhaps one of the most supportive and good parents in Disney movies. He wasn’t ashamed of only having one daughter, even though he was living in a patriarchal society and many would think of having only one daughter as an emasculating thing. He doesn’t fault his wife, actually loves her and doesn’t disrespect her nor does he wallow in pain for the son he never had. And while some people might point out the scene where the emperor’s advisor comes to enlist the men for war, and after Mulan cuts through the adviser’s words and protests against him, the emperor’s right hand, her father tells her that she dishonours him.

but he isn’t actually looking straight at her and he seems ashamed and pained to say this himself. But he has to, because as much as there are expectations for Mulan and the women, there are many equally ridiculous and absurd expectations for the men as well. They should discipline their family, their women, when they speak out of turn and do something wrong. They need to put their foot down when they do something out of the norm. So people need to cut him some slack there.

and had i mentioned the quote that made my day at the end of the movie?

“The greatest gift and honour is having you for a daughter.”

like that broke me, as her father just throws the «honour» and the the emperor’s gifts to the ground, embracing his only child, his daughter in a tight hug.

As someone who has a close relationship with her father and being an only daughter and child in a patriarchal society, it meant the world to see something represented so well on screen.

[lunareclipse777]

Let’s talk about the discourse surrounding Nesta’s actions prior to ACOTAR and the consequences that followed in ACOSF. A little take also on the HL of Spring as well.

As we’re all patiently waiting for the next book to be written, everyone is going through mental gymnastics in order to prove their points and defend their biases. Being someone who read this book is quite tiresome as the fandom can be toxic and just not open enough for difficult discussions that need to take place.

First of all everyone had faults, great faults, in this books. Perhaps that’s the most realistic thing SJM had written about in those books. No one is a saint and certainly they had done some very shitty things in the past and this almost reminds me of this quote that made me laugh out loud while going through different fandoms but in the end proved to be true for ACOTAR as well:

There is no good or bad character. It’s about who is your favourite war criminal. But the main issue with this book series is that when people mess up they are not held accountable for what they did if they’re the protagonists. The villains could do many heroic things and still be destroyed for what they did. The other problem is that there are few truly evil villains in these books as many villains in order to look more than just their bad deeds had turned into sympathetic tortured people despite being awful perpetrators and this often led the real villains to become cartoonish and flat. The last issue is that sometimes some deeds are just too evil and awful to be forgotten with a simple sorry. No matter who did it, it shouldn’t matter. For example, when Feyre was SAed by her future mate, it is brushed under the carpet never to be heard of again.

and even though Tamlin had done things trying to redeem himself, he has only been scorned, kicked down and emotionally hurt by everyone around him. True, he was wrong for locking Feyre up, but he was traumatised. (Not that it accounts and cleans up his fault but other characters’ messed up actions are forgiven because they were *traumatised* ehem Rhysand.) Others are given sympathy and more understanding when they were caught in his situation but whatever he does it doesn’t matter. I don’t say that all that shit show need to be forgotten but the best policy that could have been the best diplomatic approach to all this could have been forgiving but not forgetting. That’s the best thing SJM could have written for Feyre; to make her a bigger person who was mature enough to look forward to the future while not forgetting the past.

Now for Nesta, who became one of my favourite characters. Though she is a queen in her own right, i won’t be dismissing all of her actions. While i think the IC are just pure awful for not giving her a chance to redeem herself while they had given that to others, and while i also understand why they were less interested in becoming close to Nesta at the beginning, i think they just fixed themselves on something that was not the problem and Nesta being a bitch at the beginning was something else entirely.

They shouldn’t have held her accountable for not hunting or doing something while Feyre was hunting alone on the cold forest when she was only 14, when she and Elain had been children themselves and the parentified syndrome is something that many people and older siblings relate to even nowadays and it was just pure evil to do so. It was not Nesta’s responsibility to be the breadwinner, yes she could have helped when Feyre had gotten up to do something about their hunger and poverty, but she was a child herself and it was explicitly explained in the last book that she had no particular talents that could have saved them. She could have learnt, yes, and everything but at the same time, she was raised to marry well and was unequipped for dealing with poverty as Feyre had been considered the wild child and had more freedom before their poverty and so she could have been honing her survival skills then. If anything, it was their father’s responsibility to look after the girls and he needed to be scorned for everything not his eldest daughter in failing to do her neglectful delusional father’s duties in his place.

Then what makes me angry is that Elain isn’t as reviled even though we are shown in the first book that she could be more tone-deaf and in her own bubble even though she was only a year or perhaps less younger than Nesta. She could be petty and contributed very little to their home as well. She was even more shallow as while she had bought some paint for Feyre once, she was the one who i think used their hard-earned money the most and for stupid things. She dreamed to wear pretty things and bought stuff that wouldn’t have been of use for someone who was too poor to even wear them, while the rest of their cottage and clothes were falling apart. Yet she wasn’t as hated as Nesta.

What Nesta should have been held accountable for should have been her emotional abuse of Feyre and general coldness and distaste for her. And that should have been done while understanding that it was all due to a wrong coping mechanism she had since she was also used as a show pony for her late mother and abused by her grandmother. She did it because she now had control over her life and due to her anger and rage that she bottled up inside of her, she lashed out at Feyre (and sometimes at Elain as it was mentioned in the book). She had so much self-loathing and hate for herself and that’s why she couldn’t get on well with Feyre who was comfortable with herself. They should have held her accountable for not loving her as she loved Elain and for the fact that she sunned her youngest sister. Because that was something she could have controlled and was responsible over.

And i understand that the reason while she is so likeable in the last book is because of the fact that we reading through her own point of view and seeing her interactions with people who were not tied to her sister and her friends. The IC couldn’t read and see her private thoughts so they weren’t as knowing as us readers (as readers are the most well-informed in the story) that she truly wished to become good, that she had to fight many battles to heal. But SJM due to wanting to make the IC more grey and less sunny as they had become in the last few books, scrapped that and made them more overbearing and awful. And while that could be the result of seeing things through Nesta’s perspective, it didn’t work that way for many.

Amren became too bitchy while in the past books i liked her presence, Mor became much less understanding and was no longer a girl’s girl stating many controversial comments that made her awful while i didn’t mind her presence at all, Cassian who i found funny and almost good also became awful and his character was demolished and made into Rhysand’s yes-man and entitled over Nesta and always talking about her good boobs, and Az thankfully was just present. And Rhys- he was- he was always something… Feyre was also turned less of a person as we all know that pregnancy and motherhood rob mothers of their personalities in afictional world and she was less inclined to understand Nesta or stand up for her while she knew she was traumatised and in a very dark place. and the minus point for all was the whole pregnancy plot line that i do not wish to talk about now.

The thing is while the IC’s interference in Nesta’s situation could have been a good storyline and noble, they just sounded hypocritical and condescending. Like what was with Amren saying that people have it worse than Nesta? Is there a competition in being traumatised?? Huh, miss Amren?

Or that Nesta was humiliating them even though they had done far more worse gaffes and not in internal affairs but whenever they had a diplomatic meeting went someone it all just went downhill and who was there to fix it? Nesta! Like i understand it’s not good to be using the taxpayers’ money for your drinking and gambling but aren’t the IC shopaholics and heavy drinkers? And they have been doing this for centuries. They have been sleeping around and drinking and doing god knows what and yet they wish to be the moral high ground.

Yes, Nesta’s coping mechanism is drinking and sleeping around and it’s not a good one, i know that, but this isn’t because she’s using them to hurt herself or due to health concerns but their anger is because:

a)she’s using their money. (Not health concerns)

b)It makes them look “bad”.

c)She should be with Cassian and she should be sleeping with him not other men.

and bonus point: they had been doing these things themselves.

like, if they wished for her to stop using them for coping mechanisms, they would have also told Cassian to not sleep with Nesta even if she begged because that is her coping mechanism. That until they were sure things were fine, perhaps at the very end of the book, we could have them finally in bed together. This could have been the most mature thing SJM could have done as well, but she threw it because of spice. And this could have been better as Nesta had been a victim of assault more than once and her body had been viewed as an abject to cater to men since she was young and it was instilled by her mother.

And it breaks my heart that she always dreamed to have a lovely courtship and she was only gaslit and fighting with everyone during “whatever” that was. and i wished that Sarah had kept her as an emissary because she slays as a diplomat despite the little interactions that she had in that area. (As the IC has no clue and no other job than making new enemies and doing social gaffes.)

[lunareclipse777]

Female characters in period dramas

I saw a satirical short on youtube concerning period dramas and their MFCs. And while i really never thought about this subject in particular, now do i see the problems i had with the recent dramas and their leading ladies

First of all, most of them are just slates, clean slates at that. They are bland, boring and they don’t seem to have any interest besides the most basic or archetypal thing ever. The non-gender conforming woman usually has her head deep in the books and is the first female student in a school or university. Or she’s a tomboy who wishes to only climb trees and hadn’t heard of hairbrush. The feminine character wants to marry and have ten kids and usually has an arsehole as her first love interest. She is only into sewing and fashion and is usually portrayed as an airhead. Like there is no problem with being a tomboy or a girly girl but these basic portrayals are just plain awful and stereotypical to say the least. I though that we had moved away from these things since legally blonde; a girly girl who loves pink, has many girlfriends, adores fashion, is sweet and kind but is an intelligent whip-smart girl who is a capable lawyer.

For example my own mother was a tomboy, she adored playing football (still is an avid football fan and knows all players’ names and knows every team on this earth) , loved wrestling with her brother and his friends, would run for hours and hide in trucks whenever they visited a relative’s farm so that she could “travel”, read a lot of books and anything she could get her hands on as well. Still, she liked to wear dresses, most of them had patterns and girly colours with flowers on them. She also had golden hair and coloured eyes unlike her sisters, so she was considered the prettiest by many as having light hair and coloured eyes in my country, especially in that region, was unheard of. She still collected teddy bears and furry friends as well and chose special cute names for them. She loves cooking as well.

you see where i’m going? Or for example my grandmother was a formidable lady as she was widowed in her late twenties- early thirties while having four young children, one only a newborn. She was a great beauty but enjoyed travelling with her girlfriends and would smoke (not a healthy habit but it was rebellious for girls in our country back then to do so) back when she was young, she has severely tattoos that she did back when she and my grandfather visited china together. She was very free-spirited.

But no, characters can’t have multiple interests. And what bugs me most is the fact that characters always complain about corsets while corsets were actually their saviour. *gasps*. Yes indeed it was. Like their historical inaccuracy is killing me. Ghose corsets were like bras and did much more and they supported the weight of those incredible outfits with their many draping and ornaments.

And when i went to the comment section of that video, people were all commenting about how it reminded them of Emma Watson’s characters which made me laugh out loud as it was kind of true.

The non-conforming woman who shuns marriage always ends up marrying a man who gives her everything and the feminine character who was actually fine with everything, has to mostly end up with the less dashing man who may or may not be awful. Like why can’t the non-conforming woman stay a happy spinster who actually is happy with her life? Why can’t the conforming woman end up with her prince charming and get her happily ever after? Like give my girls what they want. Because the married non-conforming woman sometimes gives the vibes of The Taming of the Shrew and not in a good way. (of course opinions can change but in all stories that is the case)

And why do these dramas make fun of being a smart person (woman) by showing that they’re always socially awkward and have their noses in a book. Like yeah, we get it, she is educated. But is it really the only thing that makes someone smart? Like i wish to see a FC that is street-smart or has a particular handy knowledge of something.

[lunareclipse777]

Some thoughts

Sometimes, late at night life seems so scary to me. Especially since i will be 18 in a few months and will finish high school in a few months as well and life had never felt so vast and yet so full to me as now. Everything seems scary. Perhaps it’s because growing up is scary. Change is scary. And growing up is a part of a changing as well.

I feel as if i have barely touched the surface of life and there is much to explore and yet- yet i am too scared to leave the shore to explore the sea. It’s scary to think that there is more to life than there is to where you want to hang out with your friends after school or what you wish to do with your school holidays or when you and your friends would pray on phone together so that you would have a day off from school. There’s more to life and yet that prospect- the greatness of life is just too much for me to bear right now.

I cannot fathom that in a few months i won’t be a child anymore, that i won’t be only my parents’ daughter anymore. Not that i was spoiled or something but the thought that you won’t be their little girl anymore must be jarring as well. I suppose we would be mourning that notion together soon.

It hit me with force when my mother, a few days ago, turned to me and said: “Remember those days that you would talk with your dolls and create games with them?” That day i had started looking into university applications. Perhaps, thinking about the fact that i would be a university student soon made her think of a kid version of me. I know that she would be missed terribly. I miss her too, as well.

It is scary that when i am worrying about growing up, some of my friends had been wishing harder to grow up faster, that they’re looking forward to this new chapter of their life, that they are actually content with it and are so happy to be grown-ups. Some of them, like me, who are still 17 lie about their age and say that they’re 18. What good would it bring, pretending that you’re older by a couple of months?

I am scared and so confused about all these emotions and i only have a few months before i am kissing this chapter of my life goodbye, i think the best thing to do right now is to enjoy the ride while i can and stop worrying about it.

[lunareclipse777]

What i wish to see in female characters in books, movies and shows

Nowadays, people are frightened to write a female character. They are worried that their writing would be criticised and people would put words in their mouth just because they had written a woman in a particular way.

-oh, you wrote a woman who is gentle, loving and sweet? That’s so silly and incel of you. Very stereotypical of you.

-you wrote a woman who is snarky and sassy? That’s so unsupportive of other women.

-your FMC is a good athlete/ warrior/ knight? That’s silly because usually these kind of stories are written badly. Don’t try.

-your FMC wants to be mother and wishes to be married? So misogynistic. Ew.

-The woman you wrote wants to be single and is happy being that? You’re so into the whole «feminist thing», wake up. You shouldn’t write a man-hater.

see? Like even when you try to critique these tropes by writing nuanced takes on them with how you try to execute them on your characters, you’re still shamed and judged for doing so. Nowadays, people are afraid of taking risks.

It has been a while since i read a book that is about a woman or girl who seems real to me (i am not counting exceptional powers and stuff in fantasy). They are either these flawless saints who are the most powerful people that are either worshipped by their supporters or judged horrendously by the men in their stories, whom they always manage to kick their butts later, or they are scorned awful villains that are just evil. Like even their evilness is just for the sake of having a villain not because there is nuances to them. They are either bitchy in an awful way that put other women down or stereotypical girl’s girl, whom the writer tells us and reminds us each page that she is. Like, please, if you’re a good writer, you should show us not tell us by shouting it each and every single sentence.

i wish to see tropes being dealt with in a good way. Either by making fun of it while totally destructing it in one way and going around 180 degrees or you breakdown the trope and have nuanced takes on them that are mature and modern. I wish to see a good instance of female rage, not just over a man/ lover, but over being betrayed by a family member, friend, mentor, etc. i wish to see an ambitious woman, while professional, she doesn’t dismiss other people’s emotions and is not the «iron lady» that people try to dismiss them as. I wish to see a not laughable spinster/ unmarried young woman who is unmarried because a) she chose it b) for interesting and relatable reasons not the stupid «i don’t like men» and i swear that these women in movies and books are the first to get married, as if there choices before was childish and hysterical. i want to see a woman who deals with her trauma in a healthy way or she has some self-destructing coping mechanism that she learns to grow out of, while being supported by her loved ones and that she’s not being judged or shamed because of her mental health issues. I wish to see a woman who is not at first quite sure of what they’re doing. That they lack self-confidence and don’t believe in themselves while by the end of their journey, they grow slowly out of their shadows and they find their voice themselves not with help from a man. I wish to see a confident woman who beings others up with her and doesn’t have to be the bitchy stereotype to seem confident. She doesn’t have to be sexy or beautiful to be considered confident, but her aura and strength of character and how she doesn’t bow to anyone’s whims and demands should be the testament of it. I wish for the representation of sacrificing mothers and of women who are better off not being mothers even though they are decent people.

if women are villains in their story, i wish for them to at least have a goal. Why can’t we have a machiavellian politician who happens to be a woman? Why can’t the woman be the villain who started off as the «person with good intentions that committed crimes and became the antagonist later on»?

it has been years since i last saw a form of media that had compelling women in them and that’s alarming. Because people are afraid of being labelled and wish to be seen in the «right» track while in the future, this can lead to more problems because they tried to make their FCs mary sues, which is even worse. Because women are even judged from the first minute they enter the story, even in the fictional world.

If you found any recent good tv shows, books and movies that has interesting FCs please write in the comment section.

[lunareclipse777]

Morally complex characters

Nowadays, many books and shows are marketed as being filled with “grey” characters and complicated multi-faceted people with layers in their stories. Why do people like complicated characters? Because many enjoy wrecking their minds in order to understand people’s motives and i also enjoy piecing together different aspects of their characters.

but i think nowadays this term is overused because it draws people in. As i said, just because you put an awful character in your story and later give a short meh excuse to justify their actions… that’s not a morally complex character at all.

A morally complex character usually doesn’t have to explain anything to anyone. There is no need to justify their actions because as i said, after piecing together multiple accounts and aspects, after a while you can get the clear picture of their motives. They engage your mind to see things differently and most times many well-written grey characters are those who are as flawed as us and have their strengths and weaknesses. They aren’t there just to prove that the author or show runner has a writing prose or something, but actually adds to the story. These characters can sometimes put their personal goals above anything else and in this way, they wouldn’t care as much for other things, hence making them seem grey. People who have their personal interests and that’s it. They are sometimes people who do very awful and very heroic things without having a villain arc on the former or a hero arc as well. They are capable of very bad actions or very good and noble actions that is centralised on their own beliefs. They are sometimes people who do what has to be done, even though that action could be heartless or cruel. You can interpret their actions differently and that’s what makes them engaging and add to the story.

You can just paste a villain on the pages or TV and shout complex character right there and give them a few good actions to bring some sense of ambiguity to them.

That’s my shot two cents on this whole situation and it might not make sense but that was just something i was thinking about lately.

[lunareclipse777]

I don’t know what to think about Rhysand at all

Well, actually i know what i think about him but still, i am actually puzzled because i do know that’s not what Sarah wants us to see him as.

ok, so welcome to my rant.

I had been re-reading ACOTAR, well skimmed through it actually, after seeing a popular post about Rhysand and you know what, i wished to gain some insight on that matter. The post was a hit post about the high lord of the night court and it was just a little after i joined Tumblr. I clicked on one of the hashtags, which was very popular, and saw an abundance of anti-feysand content and was shocked to see stuff like that. I had read the second instalment of the series a long while the first book because i had either forgotten that there was sequels to that book or had somehow thought that there was not a sequel afterwards, that it was a stand alone. Most comments pointed at multiple scenes in the first book, which i had conveniently forgotten and was shocked to see so many different ideas on characters that i had different opinions on. Especially as someone who is active in Goodreads and Youtube, if there was someone shitting on the books, it was mostly about other stuff (or i had also forgotten this as well) and others were raving about Feyre’s mate, who saved her and was the epitome of a gentleman. I was perhaps also brainwashed and influenced as well and it was not until i read Nesta’s book that i saw a different side of Rhys that even though my mind was foggy about his origins in the first novel, i had found things connecting to his other appearances especially the first book. I decided then that i was no longer interested in him as he was hurting my queen Nesta so much and being such a judgemental ass to her. Sure, Nesta had had a 180 degree from where she started, but it all made sense in the last few books and she grew on me and she became one of my favourite characters.

Then after joining Tumblr and searching for different topics did i find interesting damning posts on the favourite bad boy in romantasy. And they made me so thoughtful that i started re-reading the series again and boy, did i renewed and changed my opinions on him.

In the first book, he is Amarantha’s sword and lover, the evil guy, the one we need to fear. He threatens Feyre and tries to separate the main couple from one another and taunted Lucien and many others as well. While he saves Feyre, it’s only a form of business transaction. But i suppose that’s fine if it ended like this but no, something happened that was brushed off in the rest of the books and in all of the fandom’s memories.

In order to make him more morally ambiguous, Sarah J. Maas has him SA Feyre! Like WTF is this? Like sure, if he had remained the villain fine, but why, why is this portrayed as some kind of a fake persona that he has put on himself? Is SAing people morally ambiguous and acceptable under some circumstances or didn’t we all agree that this is a heinous thing and should not happen no matter what?!

Like dude, the other thing it doesn’t make sense is that Rhysand himself is a victim of SA. So you mean that if the victim becomes the perpetrator in circumstances, it is fine and reasonable? Like where did we agree that abusers and assaulters can be exempted for their crimes id they were morally grey and had a tragic backstory?

And argue with the wall about this matter because he, a 500 year old male, drugged a 19 year old girl and forcibly fed her alcohol and made her perform dances from his lap and dressed her in a way that she didn’t want and it was as if she was naked. He kissed her forcibly while she was with someone else and literally was a walking red flag. And all of this, after a sorry excuse about him trying to seem like a high lord of his court and keeping up with appearances, everything is brushed under the carpet and no one- no ones perhaps besides Lucien comments on this matter and even then it is brushed off as well. Like nothing happened. Like it was nothing. Literally many books on booktok romanticise awful behaviours and as someone who was old enough to start on romantasy novels but was too young to understand the toxicity behind some books, it was truly an awakening.

[lunareclipse777]

The misunderstanding of Arya Stark

Ok, so the Stark girls had caused so much discourse online in the these past years. People always come to different conclusions each passing day and everyone has something to add to their story. With each re-read everyone seems to get different and new perspectives and they get to see some hidden easter eggs in the chapters, foreshadowing something.

But still, there are some people who always bash the Stark sisters or are pitting them against one another, still not learning that these books are not about who’s a saint who’s a devil, as really there is not a single angel or evil spirit in the books and everyone has there flaws, sometimes big flaws… and most importantly, these girls, they are not even teenager or barely considered one, they have been caught in this awful war which had stunted their growth in some ways and ripped them of their innocence and childhood. They are in constant thoughts of survival, even Sansa who’s not living in the streets.

But it pains me that just because in the show, due to those idiotic show runners’ decision, Arya had been made into this Mary Sue who, if you don’t remember, killed the Night King, truly mocking the freaking prophecy that had everyone on their toes.. and how people seemed to realise that Sansa was always a little girl, especially in the very beginning, that the shift started against Arya.

I adore both girls and they remind me of different girls and women that i know in my life, and some of their simpler mishaps remind me of my own as well. They are so humane and so relatable when you had once been a little girl yourself. Arya reminded me of those who truly tried to fit in the society but failed, due to their different set of talents and their world views, and who despite how unkind people had been to them, even their own siblings (in her case, Sansa) they have a huge heart and prevailed against everything. but there is much more to this as this is the surface level of things to me.

Arya’s story at her core is mainly about a lonely homesick girl that wishes to return home to her surviving family members, even though she knows everything and everyone she knows had changed forever. She is a lost little girl who dreams of home in her waking hours and when she’s sleeping. She has seen so much that an adult, much less a child, should not have been able to see. She had seen so much cruelty and had done everything to survive as a young kid on a street, a member of the small folk, that she had been desensitised to violence. It genuinely made me so sad to read her POVs in the later books, they teared me up as she had so much sadness in her even though she was just ten or a little older. Sure, she dreamed of adventure, some might argue, but i am sure that this had not been what she wanted ever in her life.

After seeing their wrong ways, some Sansa-haters decided to turn against Arya, even though she had done nothing wrong. Both sisters fought time to time, as all siblings do and let me tell you that sisterhood is one messy relationship that might drive anyone crazy if they don’t understand, but that’s life. Both girls realised that despite their spats that had been so bitter for them back then, they had become inconvenient and rather funny as they look back. Perhaps they regret ever being too harsh on one another and both dream of being reunited with one another, especially Arya as Sansa has no idea that her younger sister is alive.

Arya is a child and she has a good heart. She has been kind to strangers. And yet people try to villainise her in some way. Her story had had its ups and downs and you know what? That makes it even more tragic and impactful in my opinion. She deserves better as much as Sansa, Jon, Bran and Rickon do. I will be patiently waiting for the next book to see them reunited as i know they all want that so much.

[lunareclipse777]

We all need therapy after Arcane season 2…

And i will go to my grave saying that Jinx is alive. Cause a) it’s true. b) it’s true. And c) cause we (the desperate shattered depressed fandom) say so and because of proofs.

[lunareclipse777]

My hot take on modern shows and movies

(So, first of all, this is my opinion so if you disagree we can all have a nice conversation about in the comment section.)

I don’t watch movies and shows as much as i used to. Hell, i have gone without watching something for months and i never felt bored or anything. Not that my life had been interesting, no but there were things i could do that were interesting than watching a movie or a show.

I haven’t found a good movie or show in a while, besides Arcane that is and i watched it as a non-league of legends player and still fell in the whole thing as it had amazing voice actors, brilliant scores and an amazing plot line that while it was as similar time to time from the games, it was very different and a new deal for the gamers as well. It was new and worthy to be watched.

but that was it. Nowadays everything is a sequel that nobody asked for (unless it’s Inside Out, lol) or a remake of a remake of a remake, a show adaptation from a movie, a live action, a movie from an awful or meh book (looking at you It Ends With Us)…

like why isn’t someone creative coming along the way to make new stuff?! Like at least if the adaptation was nice or something, i wouldn’t nag but nowadays they are shit as well and you can only wait for the one hit movie in the cinema that happens once a year and everyone would be talking about it for the rest of the year, even if it had came out the first day of the year. If you’re lucky, you will have two of those movies. (Like Barbenheimer)

I don’t have anything to look forward to now that Arcane is over as well. Are you guys looking forward to something?

[lunareclipse777]

Alicent has become a 2D cardboard character (hear me out)

HoTD truly killed the storylines with the second season. Like, despite some minor stuff it didn’t like, the first season was brilliant and deserved much more recognition and awards in my opinion. And this scares me, that how an easier storyline has been adapted badly in the second season, and how this might show that the adaptations from other Fire and Blood series can be easily destroyed due to their complexities.

So, i begin with Alicent. Her actors, both her younger and older versions, were very good. I loved them. But the issue was with her storyline. George always makes compelling female characters as he said once, women are people too. And with this concept he makes interesting, worthy characters with different storylines and not really stereotypical. Even his antagonistic female characters had their own drive, ambitions and while some were psychotic, not all were like that.

Alicent’s first story change was her age which made her into a more complex character and destroyed one of perhaps rare, stereotypical storylines that George had written about; the evil stepmother. She was a child bride and married her best friend’s father, the king, after being coached by her own father, the ambitious hand of the king. A very interesting take on the story I suppose. While tragic, it made us sympathetic to her plight and slowly see her naive sweet world view that most children have at that age destroyed. She changes as the rest of the characters. To the point that when Rhaenyra marries, she is no longer the girl that was afraid of dragons, calls supporters to back her up against her former friend, the crown princess and the one she might have shared some queer affections for, when it was time.

It is a long journey but one that shows her growth and how she learns to not a pawn but a player in the game of thrones.

but in the second season, everything was thrown in the window, like girl, you just plotted for some sixteen years, perhaps more, to be the queen mother. While i understand her contempt against killing her former best friend and stepdaughter, i refuse to understand why on earth after her grandson being murdered, she just believes that all those two decades of plotting and campaigning for her son’s throne rights can be forgotten. They made her go back to Rhaenyra and sell her son to her. Like, yes, she misunderstood Viserys’ prophecy being about their son, but it just made no sense that she was also not happy that she took it that way as she wanted Aegon to be king.

The second season should have been a special or cut really as it made us all confused about people’s drive as it made everything counter what we know about them in the first season. Perhaps the only thing they fleshed out more was Aegon and Aemond’s relationship but that is also up for debate.

They could have easily made Alicent this Margaret Beuforte-esque character cause in the books, she kinda was. She believed in her son’s divine right to rule over the seven kingdoms. She plotted while the crown princess took refuge in Dragonstone, faraway from King’s landing. She built her son’s support and plotted while her friend was faraway, the first of her mistakes. She loved her children and cared for them, even though that doesn’t make her a good mother as we know she manipulated them and was sometimes not present especially in the earlier years due to the trauma of her marriage that stunted her, she cared. She wanted them to live. She was a Hightower, so i think after Nyra’s betrayal she would have leant into her ambition. She was so ready to plot against her ex-best friend’s right to rule. But they only toiled to the fan service and made her more confusing.

They could have easily made an interesting story: In the later seasons, she would start as this hopeful queen mother, while powerless in the council, but not as much as portrayed in show, she would be heard when giving advice and felt great confidence in the green’s victory as she believed that they were the righteous and had been wronged by the non-rightful self-proclaimed queen (in her own mind). But later as the losses prevailed, she slowly loses her faith but like a madwoman clinging to her crown and desperately trying to win in the end, so much so that after the black’s victory, she becomes so desperate that she tells her young fragile granddaughter to kill her husband, the not much older son of the black queen. She weeps and weeps in confinement until she dies, reminiscing the old days. They could have easily made her dream of a childhood memory of her and Rhaeynra in front of the tree they were sitting in front of, at the beginning of the show as she died in the end. See how easy it was?!

She became what anyone in her position would have become. There was no need to rehash her story. They wronged her and robbed us from an interesting complex character that existed and was hinted at all the first eight episodes in the first season of the show. Because Rhaenicent was what could have been not what happened. This was just some lovely queen romance back when everything was nice and lovely-looking for the girls. It was their girlhood, their dreams and it ended when Alicent’s betrothal was announced. There were moments of affection, especially in the early years, but afterwards all it remained was a cold void and a harsh desire to sit the Iron throne. Alicent was wrongfully turned into just Rhaenyra’s old love, forgetting all her past traumas and life.

i am convinced that George’s books can’t be adapted anymore…

(feel free to disagree as i don’t believe many would agree)

[lunareclipse777]

My thoughts on Eloise and Penelope

Ok, so first of all, i don’t care much about bridgerton. I’m not a die hard fan as i merely watched it in the background while family members were watching it.

but i know one thing, and it is the fact that it suffered and still does suffer from writer’s attempt for making a girlboss character with “grey” morals but end up flopping either way.

like sure, Eloise was cool and likeable in S1 when Daphne, the main protagonist that season, was not. I enjoyed seeing her onscreen and while she was the archetypal wild high-spirited feminist sister, she was nice to have on screen. She cared for women and the suffering plight and gave Penelope grace while many, including her own mother and sisters, didn’t. She was a great friend actually. Though not without her flaws.

In S2 everything changed and well, they started slowly villainising her even though her going out in the world and learning from the poor and their situation was very authentic (at least to me). They destroyed her character in order to put another woman on pedestal, cause we know lazy writers hate having more than one woman shining. And that woman was Penelope.

like, fine i get it. But they just changed Eloise in this cold very selfish and awful bitch who didn’t care for anyone but herself and her problems. Pen was babied and made out to be this saint while she destroyed reputations, attacked people in her gossip column unprovoked and nearly destroyed her own family’s and the family that she was supposed to love’s reputation. Like please, what bravery do you see in this act when she was humiliating other powerless women like her and making things harder for them? I don’t think in real life, in modern times, anyone would be calling her a “queen” for gossiping and posting shit posts on twitter against people.

I don’t know, but to me, it seems that the writers tell us that not supporting a gossipy petty girl who dragged people into mud makes you a bitch, much like Eloise. Like did they forget about Marina? Was that being a girls’ girl? Is that a girl-power moment for all of us to cheer on? I mean, if they hadn’t destroyed Eloise’s character so much or Pen’s actor wasn’t well-known, pretty and beloved, people would have had another reaction, i am sure.

Pen’s “glow-up” required El’s glow-down. This show has always had lots of problems and issues but this one- the just flopped the easiest thing. This was the final nail in the coffin for me.