gweebonalysis

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ok. im gonna say it. some of y'all need to learn how to consume media without looking for two men that could potentially be romantic/sexual partners

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character who is so ready and willing to die for others forced to outlive everyone.

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something about smoke being rejected since childhood because everyone was certain his father's evil lived on in him. something about annie being the only one to call smoke 'elijah' and how that makes him soften. something about how just before they're truly reunited, annie says 'i dont want any of that smoke on the baby'. something about annie being the one who sets smoke free from his past and his sins and lets him be human instead.

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remmick and the vampires present a false dichotomy

Hogwood (the man who sold the twins the mill) and the KKK are very obviously bad, they are outright malicious bigotry, they use the n-word and plan to lynch the moore's and their community, they are so blatantly racist and hateful it's unavoidably obvious

remmick and the vampires however say that they believe in equality, say that they want to create a community, and yet remmick's goal throught the movie is to both metaphorically and literally steal sammie's ability for his own goal of reconnecting with his irish ancestors, a white man wants to harm a young and upcoming black man and use talents for his own goals without giving any regard to said black man's autonomy or agency

when sammie sings 'I lied to you' in the juke joint and calls forth the spirits from the past and future, it's a blend of cultures; west african, east asian, native american, and african american song and dance blend together across time and space to tell the stories of blues; where it takes its inspiration from, the music genres it then inspired, the complex history of black american culture and its intersections with other peoples of colour in the USA

when remmick and the vampires kill and turn the people in the juke joint, and then perform rocky road to dublin, only remmick's irish culture is on display, there is no influence from the black and asian people he has forcibly assimilated into his song, it's juxtaposition with the earlier scene is blatant, remmick is more than happy to assimilate people of colour into his 'community' of 'equals', and yet its only whiteness that is celebrated, that is normative

remmick claims that he's doing people a favour by turning them immortal, conviently ignoring that he literally has to suck the life out of them to do so, trapping their spirits on earth, he claims that he's the good guy, that the KKK were gonna come and lynch everyone at the joint in the morning anyways, conviently ignoring that he's doing the exact same thing; a white man leading a mob to kill a bunch of black people

in the final confrontation with sammie remmick repeatedly dunks him into the river, a forceful baptism. both the celtic irish and enslaved west africans had their religions suppressed and destroyed by colonialsm, had christianity forced upon them by the british empire, and in that scene we see remmick repeating that cycle, using christianity to inflict harm, and sammie reclaiming christianity, despite all the complex emotions he has arround it, as many colonised peoples have and still do, when he recites the lord's prayer

remmick and the vampires are no less racist than hogwood and the KKK, are no less predatory or evil, they're just less blantant about their bigotry, they represent the system, the normalised white supremacy that is seeped into the very foundation of culture in america, the point isnt that remmick would call any of the black characters in the movie the n-word, i dont think he would, the point is that his exploitation and desacration and inserting-himself-into-when-he-wasn't-invited of the juke joint is a microcosm of what white people have done to black american arts and culture since ever since there have been black and white people in america, and even before that

theres a reason vultures are shown early on in this movie

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The portrayal of white people who have been violently separated from their own culture stealing the power of black culture and music to try to get reconnected was SO literal and somehow not at ALL heavy-handed or trite. Fkn remarkable.

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Another reason I respect Sinners is how Pearline is treated.

She is a married woman that sleeps with Sammy, when she dances and sings she does it in a seductive/sexy way but she is never treated or viewed as a negative figure. She isn’t a whore, or a slut, and she isn’t viewed as a temptation to Sammy.

In fact, the only part of the movie where you are supposed to disagree or (maybe) dislike Pearline is when she doesn’t want to eat the garlic. The movie makes us grieve her when she is killed.

Any other horror movie would have given her a brutal death, it would have been “deserved”.

Instead, Sinners goes out of its way to show that she is a human being, and despite her sins we love her. Decades after she is killed, Sammy names his bar after her despite knowing her for one day. The movie honors her.

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Okay I want to do an actual analysis of it but Sinners reminded me so much of the first episode of the Midnight Gospel.

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Sometimes, to be a complex character, they have to also be a bit of a bad person. Layers aren’t interesting if there’s not something like that going on.

I feel like so many people will go 0-100 so fast with like realizing a character has a flawed ideology and immediately vilifying them, or they’ll take one nice thing they did and suddenly they’re a saint we need to worship.

I think people need to get okay with things not being 100% moral and perfect, or 100% evil and bad.

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Dear video essay creators. A video analysis is when you analyze a piece of media. No no look at me. A summary, no matter how thorough, is not an analysis. An analysis requires you to draw conclusions about the media such as authorial intent, real-world parallels, discussion about themes/worldbuilding/character motivation, and so much more. You have to stop summarizing something and saying that’s analysis. The Gaylors are doing more critical analysis than you. Is that who you want to lose to? The gaylors?

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okay i finished dungeon meshi….: i need to simmer my thoughts on it.

i also need to organize my notes i made on the other book i just read…

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Just finished MADK by ryo suzuri. this series has such a special place in my heart, it really showed me how far you can push a story and certain kinks. plus it’s just a deeply erotic and enticing piece of literature, from the art style to the dialogue, even the way the pages flow, it’s entrancing, it’s a page turner, it’s perfect.

The themes of this series are fairly straight forward, cycles of violence, hunger, what it means to love or hate and the power it has over you.

I think makoto was such a unique and interesting character, the way he wanted so deeply to not hurt anyone, but he was also filled with a horrible need to do exactly that, he gets off on it. Watching him slowly be moulded and groomed by J, it was sick and perverted by it was also so gratifying at the same time. I really felt that frustration along side him as J toyed with him, pushing him to do exactly what he wanted. It’s also just cool to watch a shounen esque rise to power, but really lean into how horrible a character is becoming. But even becoming so horrible, we still saw bits of that boy who didn’t want to hurt people. We watched him claim to destroy and use those who showed him kindness as stepping stones towards his goal, and he most certainly was cruel to them, and did bad things to them, but in the end none of them were.. that much worse off? I don’t know, i’m also still fresh off reading and need to gather my thoughts more.

But the main thing was the ending, oh lord. It was so deeply unsatisfying in the most satisfying way. You know it can’t be a happy end, that Jonathan desperately wants to disappear, and yet as it happens you feel that frustration, you feel that pain Makoto is feeling. To be so hungry, and to never be filled, to stay in that cycle and no matter how you kick and scream, there’s no way out but to continue. it’s a truly evil, upsetting mindset to have.

Don’t know how to end this, as you can see it’s my first post. I’m trying to engage more deeply with the things i’m reading and actually put my thoughts into words, but i’m just starting out so this may just be garbage doodoo words, but i want to improve! so let’s talk if you disagree or have something to say about MADK!