jacquelinemerritt - Tumblr blog

[jacquelinemerritt]

Tales From Earthsea Hurts...

My latest video about Tales from Earthsea is out now!

Go watch it and feel things. This one is really emotionally vulnerable, and I literally have cried every time I have watched the outro of it.

[jacquelinemerritt]

May your memory be a blessing, Toriyama

[jacquelinemerritt]

*sighs*

Assuming this is true, and it seems likely to be true, I'm going to be deleting all my writing from this blog again.

Absolutely sucks, given that I just put a lot of time into rebuilding it and getting everything back up on it, and finishing out the DBZA review series, but I don't want my shit getting scraped by an LLM if I can help it.

If I do delete everything, it'll be reposted on Cohost eventually, so follow me here I guess.

https://cohost.org/JacquelineMerritt

[jacquelinemerritt]

Does The Black Parade Still Hold Up? - A Video Essay

I have a new video out! It's about My Chemical Romance, being gay, doing crimes, the horror of the Iraq War, and what it means to let go of the people in your life who refuse to accept you.

[jacquelinemerritt]

My new video about Dark Souls is live! And honestly, it's really good :)

If you like it, and want to help support me, you can do so here on Patreon:

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 60 Review

What does it mean for an abridged series to go even further beyond?

Part I

I started this review series in 2015 because I loved Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, and I needed there to be writing out there that explained why I loved it so much.

It’s a funny thing, re-reading all of my old writing about it. Part of the nature of a weekly review series is that you tend to zoom in on the particulars, as that’s where the meatiest criticism lies. Going over the specifics of the story’s structure, how details in the show add to a greater whole, it’s all part of the process of finding out why something in a show works, or sometimes, doesn’t work.

It’s in those details though, that you come to a greater whole. By recounting the specific ways in which a story is threaded together, week after week, episode after episode, you start to bring forward recurring ideas, and piece together aspects that continually make a show work, and contribute to the greater whole. And when you’re critiquing a masterpiece, a show so lovingly crafted that every single detail lines up perfectly for its conclusion, you eventually are able to tie those thoughts together into what is hopefully a masterful conclusion of your own.

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged is the best possible version of Dragon Ball Z.

This might be the most contentious statement I’ve ever made about this show. It’s a statement I know for a fact the creators disagree with. But it’s a statement I believe wholeheartedly, and I even would go so far as to say that Dragon Ball Z: Abridged is closer to the spirit of the original Dragon Ball than Toriyama managed to pull off himself.

The original Dragon Ball manga is a masterpiece of its own. Akira Toriyama did a phenomenal job weaving together hilarious gags with thrilling martial arts action and compelling character growth, all while centering one of the most lovable, fun, and pure-hearted protagonists to ever be written. There’s a reason that it spawned an entire genre of imitators, and that’s because its blend of action, comedy, and growth were all executed masterfully.

I don’t think that Dragon Ball Z ever manages to capture that magic the way the original does. That’s not to say that Dragon Ball Z is a bad show, but by the time Raditz enters the story, the manga and show both change into something much more akin to a melodramatic soap opera. There’s so much waxing from the characters about how powerful these foes they’re facing are, and there’s very little levity sprinkled throughout these long, drawn-out fights, as the circumstances feel too dire for the characters to make jokes and be silly.

Silly humor was core to Dragon Ball’s charm though. The very first fight in the first World Tournament Arc is a gag about how Krillin is able to beat a martial artist who has never bathed and uses stench as a weapon, because he doesn’t have a nose to smell him with. The best side character in this series goes from being an angry, murderous criminal to being a cheerful, innocent sprite every time she sneezes, and she always sneezes at the worst possible moments for everyone. Hell, the entire Red Ribbon Army Arc is a joke about how Goku completely obliterates a major threat to the world on a whim, because none of them are martial artists, and not a real challenge as a result!

The very magic of Dragon Ball Z: Abridged is that it takes this melodramatic source material and finds the space within it to make jokes again. The Saiyans are a world-dooming threat, but Nappa is hilarious, and I will forever quote everything he said. Freeza is a genocidal tyrant who has taken the galaxy by force, but even when the world around him is unable to laugh, his spoiled, petulant attitude is funny as hell, and full of delightful dark humor. Even the darkest timeline of Trunks’ future is filled with jokes, whether that be the genuinely despicable ramblings of TJ and the Wombat, or a 50-year-old Bulma making a pass at Gohan, perfectly fitting her original boy-crazy characterization.

And phenomenally, Dragon Ball Z: Abridged manages to do everything I just mentioned without sacrificing an ounce of drama. Goku’s battle against Freeza is desperate, and his Spirit Bomb failing rips the ground out from under you. Future Trunks’ battle against the Cyborgs is tense, and his first transformation into a Super Saiyan is gut-wrenching. Even in the first season, before they fully found their feet, Team Four Star managed to make the battle between Goku and Vegeta every bit as tense as it needed to be, while still incorporating a constant stream of jokes.

So where does that leave us with Episode 60?

Part II

What, exactly, is the purpose of an abridged series?

I think it’s fair to say that an abridged series is, at its core, an adaptation of a work of art from one medium to another. This is a statement I’ve made before in these reviews, but I don’t think I’ve ever elaborated on it. It feels rather obvious to me that an abridged series be treated as any other adaptation might, because at the end of the day, that’s what artists like Team Four Star, LittleKuriboh, and Something Witty Entertainment are doing. They are adapting a work from the medium of televised anime to the medium of a comedy YouTube short, and making the same kinds of adaptational decisions in creating these series as a production team turning a book into a movie.

You can see this question of adaptation present itself as far back as some of the earliest abridged series, like Avatar: The Abridged Series. Most of that show intentionally leans into the weakest aspects of Katara’s character, emphasizing her feminity, thirst for cute boys, and quick temper far more than the original show ever did. Yet, in its last episode, Katara undergoes a significant transformation in the face of Paku’s sexism, and is completely reimagined with a new voice actress as she goes on a rant about the sexist ways she’s been written, and her refusals to stand for it anymore. The last episode of this abridged series ever made goes out of its way to critique both itself and its source material in its last episode, and it begs the question of how far an abridged series adaptation can go.

Sword Art Online: Abridged famously goes even further in its critique of its source material. Almost every character is completely rewritten to serve as both a more accurate representation of online culture, and a deconstruction of their original persona, with Kirito in particular standing out as a fantastic depiction of the kind of loneliness and self-isolation that comes with being a try-hard edgelord. It takes an entire season of the show for Kirito to learn to truly connect with other people, and that growth is made all the more satisfying by showing genuinely difficult it is for him to maintain anything resembling a positive friendship with anyone because of those edgelord tendencies.

These shows both have very different purposes, in large part due to the evolving understanding of what an abridged series is capable of between their creations, but they both raise a fairly similar question: what happens when you give everyone with a video editor and internet connection the ability to re-tell someone else’s story?1

The answer here is something I think is quite beautiful. The abridged series thrives outside of the realm of copyright locked down by rent-seeking ideas landlords, and allows individuals, groups, and communities to reimagine their favorite stories. Sometimes, what they imagine is as simple as few extra jokes, or a simple rant about the sexist way a character is written, and sometimes, what they imagine is a completely new version of the story that actually raises interesting questions and showcases compelling characters.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the abridged series found its roots in the copyright-less utopia of early YouTube, when anyone had the freedom to take something they loved or hated, and transform it into something completely different. The rise of Content ID has long since taken away this pure, unadulterated freedom from us, and I truly feel that the internet is worse off for it.

When it comes to Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, the show we are watching is the result of a bunch of people who love Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z more than anything else, asking what they can do to make the show funnier, smarter, and more meaningful. Team Four Star found their footing as writers when they began to focus on the comedy that came from character interaction, as we watched these huge personalities clash, and for every funny joke they were able to draw out of that foundation, they managed to draw even more pathos and catharsis for these characters.

Which is to say, Team Four Star took the idea of an abridged series, and went even further beyond.

Part III

Episode 60 of Dragon Ball Z: Abridged is a massive episode that provides a satisfying resolution to the whole series, and nearly every storyline running within it. It also highlights the relationship between its characters fantastically, placing most of the story’s emotional weight on the fractured dynamic between Gohan and his chronically absent father, Goku.

The entire first part of the episode is focused on the tension between who Gohan fundamentally is, and the man his father expects him to be. Goku has, in a stroke of fighting genius (the only genius he is capable of), perfectly planned out this encounter between Perfect Cell and Gohan. He’s manipulated Cell into hosting a tournament for the fate of the world, and placed his son in the perfect position to take down Cell and ascend to power greater than anyone has ever seen. And it’s all ruined because, as Piccolo perfectly points out, Gohan hates fighting.

The subtext of emotional strain between Goku and Gohan has been running throughout the entire series, but it’s finally brought to the forefront of the text in this moment. We see Gohan wrack himself emotionally and Cell wrack him physically, as he and Cell both try to force himself to fill the role his father has placed him in. Even as Cell violently births his own progeny to wreck Goku and his companions, in a last ditch effort to stir a fire within Gohan, Goku’s son cannot bring himself to be the warrior his father believes him to be.

Android 16’s speech and subsequent death changes all of that for Gohan. In a moment set to a breathtaking cover of Unmei no Hi, Gohan internalizes the lesson passed onto him by Android 16, who thoroughly eviscerated the liberal pacifism Gohan has been trying to embody. And Gohan gets angry. So angry that his power skyrockets, and he becomes a Super Duper Saiyan.

Super Duper Saiyan Gohan is fucking terrifying.

Throughout Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, we’ve come to know Gohan as an incredibly intelligent, exuberant, compassionate bookworm. Even though he doesn’t want his entire life to revolve around education and books, he still revels in knowledge and the opportunity to learn, and some of his cutest moments are when he is allowed to be truly childlike, like when he eagerly investigated Cell’s time travel pod for clues.

Every single ounce of compassion and love for life Gohan had before transforming into a Super Duper Saiyan is replaced with rage. Rage at Cell for destroying Android 16, a beautiful soul who did nothing wrong. Rage at Goku for thrusting him into this fight unprepared, and taking away the only hope he felt by throwing Cell a Senzu. And rage, most of all, at the world, for being so fucked up that he was forced into this situation to begin with.

Gohan’s rage is cold though. There is no righteous fury like Goku, no petulant tantrum like Vegeta, no sorrowful torment like Trunks. This Gohan slowly defines the word “filicide” for Cell as he effortlessly commits it, wiping out all of Cell’s children so quickly even Freeza, the most murderous being we’ve met in this universe, would be impressed.

That very rage drives all of Gohan’s decisions, as he lords his power over Cell and takes every opportunity to torment him. He blows away all of Cell’s limbs with a Kamehameha, and then guts him with his fist so hard that he throws up Android 18, and loses his Perfect form. It’s this blindness by rage that leads to Gohan’s greatest mistake, of not finishing off Cell, who tries to blow himself and the planet up in order to gain some kind of victory.

What’s perfect about this moment though is that while Gohan feels entirely responsible for his mistake, Goku knows better. He recognizes the responsibility he bears for Gohan’s bloodlust, and knows that the only way to make it right is to remove Cell from the equation altogether, teleporting the two of them to King Kai’s planet in bold move to save the earth.

Goku’s decision to sacrifice himself also recalibrates Gohan’s perspective, guiding him away from the rage that filled him before, so that when Cell returns, and murders Vegeta’s baby boy, Gohan doesn’t hesitate to put himself in harms way to protect Vegeta from a deadly blow. It costs him an arm, but his commitment to protecting others, even when it’s stupid, and even when it gets himself hurt, is true to the Gohan we’ve come to know and love. All that’s left for Gohan to do is face off against Cell, one Kamehameha against another, and draw on the strength and fighting spirit of his father to deliver the final blow.

Goku and Gohan aren’t the only two characters whose relationship is deepened in this episode. Vegeta’s enraged cry of “MY BABY BOY!” when Cell kills Trunks shows just how much Vegeta has come to love his own son, despite the airs he puts on to the contrary. Piccolo’s love for Gohan is also expressed incredibly here as he lectures Goku for not paying attention to the needs and wants of his son, who just wanted to receive love and affection from his father.

In fact, the love that these characters have for each other, and the ways they express it, is a theme that runs deep in this episode. Trunks love for all these folks around him is shown as he dutifully delivers them all Senzu Beans, quietly making silly puns to each of them. Krillin’s love for Android 18 is displayed wonderfully, whether through him gaining the strength to stand up to Vegeta because she’s resting in his arms, or through him wishing her and her brother free of the bombs implanted in them. Even Yamcha and Tenshinhan are given a moment of brotherly love, as they express for the first time in words how much they both mean to each other.

That very love is also what drives Goku to refuse to be resurrected at the end of the episode, despite Cell having been defeated. He genuinely loves Gohan, Goten, Chi Chi, and all of his friends, and knows that the best way to show his love, for once, is actually to be away from them, and spend time in heaven with King Kai. He’s not afraid of the great change this will be, both for him, and the people he loves, and is willing to embrace the afterlife if it means safety for his loved ones.

Goku’s speech about embracing change and not being a part of his loved ones’ life anymore is also very easy to read as a coda to Dragon Ball Z: Abridged itself. He, and all the rest of these characters, are saying good-bye to us, the audience that has followed them on their journey for years, and they are all embracing the truth that it is beautiful to let this show end on its own happy terms. It’s ironic that, at the time, Team Four Star announced that they would be trying to continue this series, but it’s clear they grew to see the wisdom in Goku’s words too.

A similar message can be found in Cell’s final moments, as he gives us a beautiful rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. Team Four Star, just like this villain, has spent nearly a decade re-telling the three sagas of Dragon Ball Z they loved the most, and at every turn, they chose to do it their way. Sometimes, in the early days, that meant reference-based humor that aged like milk, but more often than not, it meant leaning into their strengths as comedic writers, taking creative liberties with the source material, and working to elevate the text of Dragon Ball Z to something even better than the original show.

I don’t know what to call that other than Perfect.

Epilogue

The journey that I’ve been on with Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, both as a viewer and critic, has been an incredible one. It has meant more to me than just about any other show I’ve ever watched, and stands up there with some of the most impactful art that I’ve experienced. It’s a show I’ve watched when I was suicidally depressed to find some sort of levity, a show I found enough depth in to meticulously critique every episode, and a show I’ve gotten even my shounen-indifferent partner to get extremely hype about, as I showed them the entire show in the lead-up to its fantastic finale.

What Team Four Star managed to create in Dragon Ball Z: Abridged is something genuinely special. It’s a show that makes me laugh harder than just about anything. It’s a show that’s made me cry more times than I can count too, as I was tearing up multiple times while re-watching the finale for this review. It’s even a show that I get to cringe at sometimes, when I think of the early seasons, but that cringing makes it all the more impressive how much Team Four Star improved as storytellers, and elevated their craft to tell their version of Dragon Ball Z better than anyone else could.

I love Dragon Ball Z: Abridged. I will always love Dragon Ball Z: Abridged. And even though it’s over, I know it will always be there for me, waiting for me to tag along with Goku, Krillin, Vegeta, and Gohan, as they power up and save the world.

Rating: 5/5

If you like my writing, consider supporting my continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1This question, you might notice, is exactly the same question raised by the existence of fan-fiction, and this is because abridged series are, at their core, no different from any other form of fan-fiction. An abridged series does, by its nature, require more work and expertise than a piece of prose on Archive of Our Own, but all it achieves, in the end, is a greater level of accessibility, like the difference between a written article and a video essay.

I genuinely adore that in this episode, when Piccolo goes to yell at Gohan to dodge, he’s already dodging Cell perfectly. What a great ending to a running gag.

Yamcha’s every line in this episode is great too. He just wants to be included, whether that’s in Team Three Star, or Cell’s plans for tournament entertainment, and I love him for that.

Super Duper Saiyan is also, just, fucking brilliant. Like, what a great way to use Goku’s silliness to get around the awkwardness of these forms being called Super Saiyan 2 and Super Saiyan 3. Vegeta calling the next form Super-Dee-Duper Saiyan just sells the joke even further. If the show had continued for another season, I genuinely would have loved the comedy of these characters shouting about being “Super-Duper Saiyan” or “Super-Dee-Duper Saiyan,” and would love to see a mock-up of Goku’s “even further beyond” speech with these terms in Team Four Star’s style.

Krillin Owned Count: 0. And as a huge fan of Krillin, yeah, this makes me real fuckin’ happy J

Also holy shit, did Krillin cum 39 times??? That’s super impressive for a cis dude, mad props.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged – Plan to Eradicate Christmas Review

Originally posted... today!

Instead of the true meaning of Christmas, we see the true meaning of an abridged series.

Over the course of Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, Team Four Star has established a lot of minute details about its characters. We saw in Christmas Tree of Might that Goku is earth’s most ardent defender of Christmas. We also learned that across the universe, very few people got to celebrate Christmas, as it was replaced by Freeza Day on any planet he conquered. And we learned that even before Freeza conquered Planet Vegeta, Santa was never able to visit them to spread love and good cheer, because the Saiyans tried to shoot him down.

Every single one of those details is capitalized on here in Plan to Eradicate Christmas. Through snippets of character interaction, we learn that Goku has been itching to defend Christmas yet again. We see Freeza’s ego displayed as he commands the Villains of Christmas past to referthemselves as the Villains of Freeza Day Past, despite them having agreed upon Christmas. Even Santa’s inability to deliver presents to Planet Vegeta is called back to, as Vegeta nostalgically recalls his favorite Christmas pastime of shooting energy blasts at Santa’s sleigh.

If these callbacks rested solely on referring back to things we already know, it’s possible that they could fall flat, but every single one is rooted in the nature of these characters we’ve come to know and love. Of course the violent egomaniac Vegeta would try to shoot down Santa’s sleigh. Of course Freeza would refuse to bow to the demands of Cooler, Turles, and King Picc…Lord Slug, who he all views as his lesser. And of course, the battle hungry, ever optimistic Goku would be salivating over another opportunity to save Christmas, his most wonderful time of the year.

The specificity of these characters is also what makes Santa work so well as a villain here. After our heroes defeat the Villains of Christmas Past, they are confronted by Santa, who reveals that all have been naughty and fallen short of the glory of Santa. Vegeta is, well Vegeta, we know what he’s done. Goku’s lust for battle endangers the entire universe, brought to the forefront with a perfectly timed ad for Dragon Ball Super, and Piccolo is held to account for his and his father’s past attempts at world domination.

Even Trunks is at fault, having time traveled so recklessly as to endanger the space-time continuum, brilliantly highlighted with a cut to what I believe is Dragon Ball GT footage. Only Gohan is without naughtiness, and is granted a present by Santa, but like every Christmas before, Santa gives him what he likes, and he likes books.

The jokes in this Christmas special all land so well because they draw on our understanding of these characters, who we’ve gotten to know over the course of the last decade Dragon Ball Z: Abridged has been produced. It’s genuinely delightful to see Team Four Star tackle a Christmas special once more as well, as they manage to turn a story from an uninteresting OVA with a generic villain into a hilarious Christmas romp.

Plan to Eradicate Christmas is a great example of what abridged series can do at their best. They can take weak ideas and repurpose them, giving them new life and meaning with a comedic edge. Team Four Star really did go and give us a gift in Christmas 2018, and showed us what abridging is really all about.

Rating: 4.5/5

Stray Observations

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic music Cliff Weinstein composed for this special. Christmas Eve-olution / Carol of the Hells is the standout track in particular. It is wonderfully ominous and builds perfectly to the final confrontation and group Kamehameha.

Thanks for reading! You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 59 Review

Originally posted September 13th, 2018

Awful parenting meets great storytelling.

Goku is an awful parent.

Up until now, that idea has been present in Dragonball Z: Abridged mostly as subtext, with it being most blatant in the way Gohan reacts whenever he has been forced to think about his relationship with his father, but here, in The Hard Cell, that subtext is made into explicit text, as Piccolo speaks out in righteous fury as Goku sends his son in to fight Cell, and then gives Cell a Senzu bean in order to give Gohan a fair fight.

I knew this was coming, as it’s one of the few moments in Dragonball that is so famous I couldn’t avoid having it spoiled, but even having it spoiled, the sheer shock of Goku’s recklessness and lack of care for his son was downright paralyzing when I first saw it, with the only relief being hearing Piccolo criticize Goku for his absolutely horrendous decision making and logic.

This is, without any doubt, an act of child abuse, and that reality is acknowledged here not only by Piccolo, who is even more furious with Goku in the abridged version than he was in the original (and he was downright pissed there), but also by the entire world around Goku, as Jimmy Firecracker publicly lambasts Goku for sending his son into a battle he himself was already losing, and Chi Chi madly picks up her TV and swings it around the room in a fit of blinding and justified rage.

That moment is pivotal, and thanks to Team Four Star’s stellar editing, voice-work, and writing, it feels exactly like the betrayal it is meant to be, with Goku’s decision to heal Cell using a Senzu bean coming off as particularly awful, since we hear Gohan’s thoughts just before as he realizes that he might have a chance against Cell. We even see that Goku’s plan is a complete failure, as Cell closes out the episode by wailing on Gohan, who lies caught by Cell’s attacks, being beaten to a pulp.

Without a doubt, Goku’s betrayal of Gohan here is the most important part of the episode, but the way it’s built to is equally compelling. This episode starts with Cell and Goku finally stepping up their game and beginning to actually fight each other, with Cell’s own obsession with Goku driving him to destroy his meticulously constructed arena, not realizing that Goku is far more interested in a casual fight than anything so grand and long-term as Cell dreamed.

It’s ironic, hilarious, and compelling to see their mutual attraction capped off like this, and it fits perfectly with Cell’s already obsessive behavior for him to want more than from this relationship than Goku, who has always been similarly non-committal, as we saw when he abandoned Freeza the moment he got bored.

There is a perfect balance maintained here that makes it absolutely satisfying to see Cell disappointed by Goku, while still feeling completely betrayed when Goku throws his son to the wolves, and yet even more compelling than that is the strange faith the Goku has in Gohan. As bad a parent as Goku is, he is about as far from being insincere about anything as you can get with a character, and for all the horror that throwing an 11-year old against a murderous monster is, you can’t deny that Goku genuinely believes in the capabilities of his son.

Goku’s actions here are objectively pretty horrendous, and the narrative does everything to reinforce that, but even with all of that going against him, the sheer faith Goku has in his son leaves us with a sense of hope that somehow, someway, Gohan is going to pull through against Cell.

A fool’s hope, to be sure, but a necessary bit of hope indeed.

Rating: 4.5/5

Stray Observations

As dark of a joke as it is, it feels entirely in character for Master Roshi to be in the sex-offender registry, and his reluctant acknowledgement of that throws a good bit of shade at Toriyama for unironically embracing Master Roshi’s perverted behavior, and by association, anime’s legitimately awful trend of normalizing pervy characters, especially old men.

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 58 Review

Originally posted September 12th, 2018

Basic and simple, but with a dash of something special.

When you get right down to it, Cell Mates is about as basic an episode of Dragonball Z: Abridged as they come. This is the first episode in a while that is focused on a simple fight between two powerful characters, and Team Four Star’s work here is as solid as ever, working from a solid dynamic of sexual/fighting tension between Cell and Goku, who probably want to bang each other as much as they want to fight.

It’s a unique dynamic too, with the only comparable instance of sexual advances between enemies being Zarbon, who had a far less consensual dynamic with the opponents he flirted with. Goku and Cell both are clearly into each other, something we’ve seen even more explicitly in previous episodes as Goku has consistently complimented Perfect Cell’s appearance, and by virtue of making the attraction mutual, Team Four Star manages to avoid a problematically queer-coded villain, since our main hero is more than comfortable with Cell’s sexual advances.

Aside from the lovely attraction between Cell and Goku though, there isn’t much to what makes this episode work that we haven’t been over before. Goku and Cell’s characters are wonderfully realized thanks to great voice work, a praise that applies to the side characters here equally well, and the best character from the last episode, Hercule Satan, continues to shine here, by continuing in his desperate attempts to explain away the supernatural power of Cell and Goku as science, showmanship, and illusion, despite literally being knocked into a mountain by Cell moments earlier.

What makes up the rest of the episode, outside of the fight, are small moments, like the ones given to Satan, but spread around the rest of the cast. Gohan’s sudden grateful feelings about being homeschooled after Goku embarrasses him and Chi-Chi on national television is great, as is Chi Chi’s own realization that from a distance, she sounds like a passive, possibly battered housewife with no say in her or her husbands life, an observation that also reads as subtle shade on Toriyama’s handling of her character.

We also get to see Tien continue being a badass, as he refuses to let Goku leave his past tournament victories unacknowledged, and then holds his own victory over Vegeta, who has nothing to say when Tien smugly asks him how many Gokus he’s beaten, since unlike Tien, he’s never actually beaten Goku in a fight. Krillin also continues to be socially inept here, glibly making a “Saiyans, amirite?” joke to Trunks, before realizing his racist faux-peau and having to nervously course correct after.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the absolute best part of this episode, wherein Team Four Star demonstrates that their meme-game is ridiculously on point, by having Cell’s multi-form fight against Goku be set against a custom-made rendition of “We Are Number One,” from the show Lazy Town. That song, which is fantastic in its own right outside its presence as a meme, works perfectly here, as in this moment, Cell is just as inept a villain as Robbie Rotten and his clones, and is only splitting into these forms to show off and warm up for the real fight ahead.

I don’t know if Stefan Karl (may he rest in peace) ever saw or heard about this use of his famous song, but if he did, I suspect he’d be quite happy with the way this song is used to make an fast battle scene just a little more upbeat and fun, as that is definitely what that song does here.

Rating: 4/5

Stray Observations

Also, to anyone curious, this is my absolute favorite version of “We Are Number One,” and I couldn’t help but hear its lyrics instead of the original’s when hearing AinTunez’s version in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy-3KI2eHi4

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 57 Review

Originally posted September 8th, 2018

A brand new character steals the show.

Hercule Satan fucking rules.

That could legitimately be my entire review of “Opening Serumonies,” and I don’t think anyone would mind, because first, it’s obviously true, and second, it’s about all that needs to be said about this episode. Hercule Satan is a goddamn incredible character, Antfish brings him to life brilliantly, and all of the jokes around his character land with aplomb. I don’t need to provide a good defense here either, because if you’ve seen the episode, you probably already agree with me that he’s a fantastic character, and love him just as much as I do.

I say all of that, and yet I know full well that based on this episode alone, I can’t exactly justify or explain my love of Hercule Satan, though he does get a hell of an introduction here. Satan is very much the kind of egotistical character we’ve come to love in this show, but unlike Vegeta or Freeza, he actually starts off as a genuine hero, entering the #CellGames and stepping up to fight Cell one-on-one, despite not having an inkling of how strong Cell actually is.

Even as Satan hogs the spotlight in this episode though, both in the narrative itself and also literally taking the spotlight off of Cell and our heroes, we see a glimpse of depth to his character in his detailed explanations of how Cell is pulling off seemingly impossible feats, as well as in his urging to children to not recreate the violence they see on screen at home, aware of how his celebrity makes him a role model.

We also get to see a vulnerable side of Satan, as he is at first baffled by, and then apprehensive in responding to Cell’s detailed personal insults, calling for a commercial break to recover from the shock of Cell seemingly being able to describe his personal history in great detail. He’s also made vulnerable in a much more literal sense, as when we finally see him attempt to take on Cell, he’s swatted away like an annoying bug, slipping down a mountain as a bloody, beaten mess.

With all of that, you could be forgiven for assuming that the episode is literally just about Hercule Satan and the lead-up to his battle with Cell, but his story actually only takes about a third of the episode’s runtime, with the rest focusing on our main cast’s arrival at the games, and apprehensions about taking part in such a violent contest.

The only two characters who seem to be unaffected by the #CellGames are Goku, due to his love for fighting, and Android 16, who is far too distracted by finally meeting the man of his dreams, the man he wants oh so desperately to kill, and yet cannot bring himself to muster the courage to ask Goku to do so until it is far too late. It is clearly one of the great tragedies in our modern storytelling era, and if anything happens to 16 to stop him from getting to fulfill his dream of killing Goku, then I am going to riot.

#JusticeForAndroid16

Rating: 4.5/5

Stray Observations

I am just now realizing that all of the characters wear pointy boots because Akira Toriyama probably can’t draw or hates drawing feet. And it’s kind of adorable because those pointy boots mesh perfectly with Toriyama’s aesthetic.

Oh, I fucking love Jimmy Firecracker too, he’s exactly the kind of awful, trend-chasing, sleazeball journalist that would cover something like the #CellGames as a wrestling event, and Xander Mobus does a near pitch perfect impersonation of Jeff Bennett’s radio announcer from The Legend of Korra/that same old-school radio announcer voice that you hear when a TV show or movie wants to call back to serialized 1930’s adventure, and I am all about that type of voice.

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Broly - Legendary Super Saiyan Abridged Review

Originally posted September 5th, 2018

It’s difficult to care about such a shallow character, even as he has the trappings of coolness.

I am probably not the right person to review this movie. In fact, I’m not even sure I’m capable of approaching this movie with the critical lens it deserves, because of one simple fact: I do not find the concept of Broly to be inherently cool. And I feel like this movie was written for people who find Broly inherently cool, whether or not they believe that he works as a character in practice.

It’s difficult for me to simply accept Broly as cool, because for me, I tend to only be impressed by a character’s “coolness” when I’ve already seen that there’s more to them than whatever external trappings make them that way, or in the best stories, when what makes a character cool is shown off right alongside their depth.

For a good example, we can just look back at Vegeta, who, to me at least, only ever started to feel badass after we started to see how much of a petulant child he is at his core, and how much he has to struggle to succeed against Freeza and his warriors. Vegeta struggling against enemies he legitimately fears, and coming out successful, is what makes him feel badass, not just his ability to quip off perfect one-liners or keep up his façade of confidence at all times.

Broly’s story prevents him from having any kind of interesting struggle here though, as unlike our heroes, he didn’t gain his power by training, or having close encounters with death; he gained his powers by simply being born into them, and having his Super Saiyan state triggered by hearing the name of a baby he hated.

The immense amount of power Broly wields against our heroes does make him an effective antagonist, I admit, but without a struggle of his own, and without any kind of actual reasonable motivation, Broly simply does not work for me, and I can’t bring myself to care at all about him.

And that’s a problem, because while the movie clearly makes fun of people who think Broly is “so cool” by having Vegeta fawn over him, it still seems to find some value in his character’s existence and coolness, mostly by treating Vegeta’s proclamations of Broly’s coolness as genuine, while having him express frustration at Broly’s shallow motivation.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Team Four Star liking Broly on some level, of course, but I have so much trouble wrapping my head around the idea that you could have a genuine affection for such a shallow, flimsy character that I end up feeling lost, almost left behind by this movie’s expectation that I am supposed to be interested in Broly on some level. I don’t care about this legendary Super Saiyan, and nothing short of a complete reinvention of his character is likely to ever change that for me.

So it’s probably weird for me to then say that despite not caring about Broly, I still rather enjoy this movie, even if it loses me about halfway through. One weak character does not a movie break, and the movie is at its best when its focusing on the much better defined characters we all know and love.

Korin and Yajirobe’s wedding reception is very sweet, as is Goku’s horribly inept attempt to get Gohan into a good college. I also love how effectively Paragus plays to Vegeta’s ego, leading him to New Vegeta with ease by simply referring to him as a king, ultimately earning the role of Vegeta’s Royal Vizier through schmooze alone. There’s also the running gag of calling Trunks a princess and using she/her pronouns for her, which is a good time because misgendering cis people is always a good time, especially since Trunks clearly isn’t that bothered by it in the first place.

And I would be absolutely remiss if I failed to mention the Shamoians, a diminutive race of lifestyle submissives, who willingly subject themselves to slavery and beatings, simply because they get off on it. Reframing these aliens as consenting to their treatment opens up a lot more avenues for comedy than If they were played straight, and Team Four Star consistently toes the line between pointing out how absurd this concept is, and being respectful of their collective love for a slavery kink.

Most importantly though, we’re shown that these aliens ultimately do have boundaries, as while they at first salivate over the idea of Broly treating them cruelly, when it’s clear that he’s going to endanger their safety, they scramble to remember their safe word, making it clear that his actions are no longer something they consent to. It’s funny because they’ve been submissive so long that they’ve forgotten their safeword, but it also serves to reinforce the idea that their exchange of power was only okay because of their active consent, an idea that is absolutely essential to ethically practicing kink.

It’s small moments like these, Goku’s search for the person who killed South Galaxy, and Piccolo’s dismay at Gohan possibly not getting into his preferred school, that keep this movie interesting for me, and while I will probably never be able to enjoy Broly as a character, thanks to the other characters still being excellently portrayed, I don’t feel like I have to. One legendary Super Saiyan is enough for this girl, after all.

Rating: 3.5/5

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 56 Review

Originally posted September 4th, 2018

A somewhat overstuffed, but still delightful and funny, episode.

“Deities, Devils, and Doing the Dirty” is easily one of the most tightly packed episodes of Dragonball Z: Abridged, mostly by necessity, since it has to cover all of the remaining events that take place before the start of the #CellGames. How effectively it manages to fit all that plot into its relatively short 16 minute runtime is questionable, but while the pace feels a bit blindingly fast at points, Team Four Star here ultimately still manages to fit it all in without making the episode feel overstuffed.

Picking up where the last episode left off, is the continued story of Chi Chi trying to get pregnant with Goku, and this is easily the funniest story with the clearest progression. We see Goku vent about his sexual exhaustion to Krillin, who is still the perpetual virgin, and try to come up with clever ways to get out of having to meet his wife’s intense sexual needs, only to ultimately realize that the best way to deal with this issue is to confront her directly.

By that time though, Chi Chi has already gotten pregnant, something which excites and baffles Goku, who had no idea that sex is how you get pregnant. Goku’s foolishness here feels completely in character, as does his initial willingness to rise to Chi Chi’s “challenge” even as it exhausts him, and the constant stream of sexual innuendo sprinkled throughout his dialogue is genuinely delightful to watch.

We also check in with Bulma as she continues to work on fixing Android 16, and discovers an old video clip in his memory files, playing it back for her father. This video is a bit of original animation to Dragonball Z: Abridged, and it tells the story of Dr. Gero’s son, a member of the Red Ribbon Army, as he records a brief video message for his father just before being killed by Goku. It’s a dark and tragic bit of storytelling that helps further humanize Gero, as well as Android 16, and on its own, it’s quite well done, subtly conveying the relationship between this boy and his father.

In the context of this episode though, it feels a little jarring, and the lack of gravitas to the rest of the proceedings is a major factor. I’m also not sure there’s a better place to include this bit of storytelling though, since the show needs to move on to the #CellGames, and the show is certainly better off for having delved into 16’s origins this way. I just wish that the tone of the episode was better suited to this tragic reveal, as the constant jokes surrounding this video leave it feeling out of place.

Thankfully the other two stories match the episode’s overall tone far better, even if the biggest story feels rushed. After escaping up to Kami’s lookout, Goku has a discussion with Piccolo about recreating the Dragonballs, and ends up teleporting to Namek and kidnapping Dende in order to have him remake them, and take up the mantle of Kami on his own.

Having Dende back is easily my favorite part of this episode, as there’s no other character in this show whose level of sass matches his, nor is there another character who plays off Gohan so well (except maybe Piccolo). Dende all too eagerly signs up for taking up the role of Earth’s God, and all the horrifying responsibility that comes with that role, and he even shows a level of brash confidence that can’t be rivaled by any other character, as he blatantly threatens Popo’s life for calling him “Little Green.” I felt exactly as much delight at this arrogance as Popo did, as he twisted his mouth up into a smile, and I genuinely hope that we get to see more of Dende as Earth’s God in the future.

Unfortunately, as great as having Dende’s character back is, the way the episode blows through the story of him recreating the Dragonballs and taking up his divine mantle feels rushed, like we’re seeing this story displayed in its briefest form, and I feel like adding a little more time in between each beat of his ascension would give this story the time to breathe that it needs. As for what we needed more of, the obvious answer is to try and fit in more Dende crushing hard on Gohan, since it only accounts for less than a full minute of time as it is now, but I’m not able to say whether that change would have been possible given the footage and time they had.

The last story that takes place in this episode does not feel rushed or out-of-place, thankfully, and it’s quite the clever gag as well, as a group of reporters interview Cell, who proceeds to regale them with the entire story of Dragon Ball, from the beginning of the original series to the #CellGames here. It’s a very well executed joke that we see in very short snippets throughout the episode, and it ends perfectly, with Cell murdering his interviewer for forgetting to call him “Mr. Perfect Cell.” That’s the story beat we end the episode on, serving as a perfect slice of the entertainment terror yet to come.

Rating: 4/5

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Dragon Ball Z: Abridged Episode 55 Review

Originally posted September 3rd, 2018

Sometimes, it’s nice to just hang out with well-written characters.

In the process of reviewing a show week after week, it’s easy to lose sight of the nature of what makes that show enjoyable, as the demand to say something relatively interesting about the show requires that the show provide you with something worth saying anything about.

This is a long way of saying that in my previous reviews, I focused a lot on whether or not each episode was moving the story forward, as any episode that pushed the story forward tended to also provide me with interesting things to talk about, and had a lot of trouble finding anything of value to say about the episodes that were less plot focused, and more character focused.

That doesn’t mean that there is anything inherently wrong with the more character focused episodes of Dragonball Z: Abridged, though, and “It’s Been A Year If It’s Been A Day” is pretty exemplary of Team Four Star’s strengths when it comes to writing these character focused episodes.

It helps that unlike earlier entries in this season, this episode makes no pretensions of attempting to move the plot forward, but even if it did, part of the joy of watching Dragonball Z: Abridged is getting to hang out with its cast of funny and infinitely likable characters, and that joy is present even when the show struggles to move the plot forward (mostly due to the wonky pacing of its source material).

This episode is chock full of great character moments too, with the standout being Gohan asking Piccolo to make him a Gi just like his. Kami and Nail both point out that this causes Piccolo’s heart to skip a beat, and I know my reaction was much the same, as this request not only cute on its own merits, but also speaks to the depth of Gohan and Piccolo’s relationship. I mean, Piccolo puts it best himself when he asks Gohan if he wants a Gi like his father’s, and that is ultimately what Gohan wants, since Piccolo has long since been a better father to him than Goku ever could be.

The heartwarming, healthy relationship between Piccolo and his son is put into hilarious contrast with the somewhat manipulative relationship between Gohan’s biological parents as well. Goku and Chi Chi are not exactly cooperative in their attempts to raise their son, and this all comes to a head when Goku brings back Gohan after causing Chi Chi to miss out on a full year of his life. Chi Chi’s method of making up for that loss, while not entirely healthy, is definitely understandable, as she holds Goku to his promise of giving her another baby, one that she will hopefully not miss out on as much time with, and who Goku won’t push into his same fighting lifestyle.

Of course, I know all too well that Chi Chi’s hopes here are in vain, since their next child takes after Goku far more than Gohan ever did, but it’s still pretty clear that this is Chi Chi’s motivation in forcefully demanding privacy with her husband, and riding him until a great Kamehameha wave fills the sky.

There’s also a certain level of visible fear in Goku, but it’s the type of fear that, at least to me, is very similar to the exciting fear I get at the prospect of being… well…. overstimulated by my partner, and it’s genuinely quite funny to see, as it makes it clear that Goku absolutely does not dom, which feels perfectly congruous with his character.

Perhaps I’m reading a bit much into this, but either way, Team Four Star clearly had a lot of fun leading up to this sex scene, and all of these factors make it one of their funniest, and… stimulating, scenes yet.

Rating: 4.5/5

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

On Episode 60

Originally posted September 2nd, 2018

Android 16′s speech is directly in support of anti-fascist resistance, and specifically affirms the value of the work done by self-identified “antifa” groups, while rejecting the liberal notions of pacifism and nonviolent resistance embodied by Gohan’s character.

No, I’m not joking about this in the slightest, and yes, I know that KaiserNeko said that Android 16′s speech isn’t meant to be read as political commentary. It is still absolutely valid to read politics into a speech about resisting those who would perpetrate genocide, and it’s entirely possible that a specific political commentary could have worked its way into the show whether or not the creators intended for that message to be there.

Whether or not 16′s views will be justified by the show as Episode 60 proceeds is still to be seen, but for now, his argument stands unchallenged, and the episode’s meaningful argument in favor of violent resistance is made even stronger by Gohan’s power up at the end of the episode.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Another Confessional Essay

Originally posted June 21st, 2017

If you’ve ever read my writing before, you can probably tell that I’m not that not a fan of the “confessional essay” style that’s become immensely popular on the internet in the last few years. To be perfectly honest, except for a few rare instances where this style of essay is brilliantly crafted and fits the subject matter incredibly well, I tend to find these essays boring and lacking any real substance.

The exceptions that I love are generally essays that relate deeply personal experiences and tie them back effectively to a main point, as in people of color writing about their personal experience with racism, trans people describing their experiences growing up and how they discovered the truth about who they are, or abuse victims describing their experience with abuse and its effects on their lives.

The topic I need to write about fits the second of those three, and so despite not being a fan of the format, and despite preferring to keep my essays and my journaling eternally separate, I need to use the format. Because right now, I am stuck with a burning realization that I don’t know any other way to process: I don’t know how to be a woman.

Now, I’m going to follow that statement by making clear everything that I’m not saying by that. I am not saying that I’m not a woman, I am one and have always been one. I also do on a certain level know “how” to be a person who is accepted as a woman, and I know of many models for womanhood that I could embrace and follow if I desired.

But I don’t want to be any of those women.

The problem here isn’t that I don’t know of ways to be a woman, the problem is that I genuinely don’t know how I am supposed to be both myself and a woman, both in the sense of feeling that my own self is fully womanly and being able to be accepted as a woman without changing who I fundamentally am.

What’s ironic about this is that I have no such confusion about what kind of girl that I am. I know exactly who 6-year-old Jacqueline is, who 13-year-old Jacqueline is, who 16-year-old Jacqueline is. I can envision who I would’ve been growing up a girl at each of those ages, and when I need to feel more feminine, regressing my mind into one of those younger ages and embracing my girlish immaturity makes me feel more secure in my gender identity than anything else possibly can.

But I have no such retreat within my present. I genuinely don’t have a feminine adult headspace that I can turn to when I need to both feel like my adult self and a woman at the same time. Perhaps this is the dysphoric effect of living in a house for over half a year where no one will openly acknowledge your gender identity, and I’ve even arguably come close to creating such a headspace through the persona I’ve crafted for my work as an online tech support advisor, but that persona, as convincingly feminine as it usually is, breaks down whenever​ I need to analyze something critically, take charge of a situation, or even just feel any emotion that isn’t overwhelmingly positive.

More than that though, even in the space where I feel the most creatively free, writing criticism, I don’t feel like I’m able to convincingly write in my own voice and simultaneously write in a voice that makes me clearly appear to be a woman. Now, I’m not saying that all women writers sound a specific way, nor should they, all I am saying is that there are certain styles of writing that project femininity significantly better than others, and that those styles clash inherently with my own style of writing.

Take this essay, for instance. I’m attempting to write in as close to the style of the confessional essay as I can muster, but even with a topic as personal as this my tone has been rigid and commanding, and it only shows the frustration that I’m feeling, not the sadness, insecurity, or hopelessness that I’m feeling in genuinely not having a clue what I should do about it. A good confessional essay would’ve shown all those emotions through with its writing style, but my default writing style is taking over my ability to write here, and I sound nothing like the confessional essay I’m drawing inspiration from.

It’d be one thing if I just couldn’t adapt my writing style to another format though. I know my writing style is rigid, but in general I like the way it makes me come across. What upsets me though is that me not being able to adapt my style to function as a confessional essay means that I cannot adapt my writing style to a more “feminine” style of writing, even as I try to do so now.

If you don’t believe that, just ask yourself, each time I’ve mentioned confessional essays, who have you pictures as the authors?

I know that I’ve only been picturing women, or people close to women on the spectrum of gender.

Now think about everything I’ve written here, the writing style I’ve used, and the way I’ve presented my information​.

What voice have you been hearing in your head as you’ve read through it?

You don’t need to answer that.

It’s been a man’s voice.

And I don’t know how to change that.

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.

[jacquelinemerritt]

Review: Bad and Boujee by Migos

Originally posted June 19th, 2017

Rain Drop, Drop Top, Why Bad and Boujee Spent 30 Weeks as a Chart-Top

I feel safe saying that the feeling of turning on the radio or trying to listen to the current line-up of chart topping music and running into a song that feels physically repulsive is a universal one. You think to yourself, “I might as well listen to what’s popular these days,” and maybe you don’t mind most of what you hear, or generally dislike most of it, but either way, it generally makes sense why most of the music you are hearing is popular: it’s catchy, fun, upbeat, or has some quality that it makes sense for people to enjoy. But then, that song comes on, and you question the very existence of popular music in general, because everything about it seems to go against what you believe it is possible for a person to enjoy hearing and listening to.

“Bad and Boujee” by Migos is a song that I know for a fact has inspired that same kind of repulsion in a lot of people, and it’s not exactly hard to understand why. It like most trap music has a musical aesthetic that is commonly categorized as lazy and uncomplicated (this isn’t a correct categorization for this song or trap music, but we’ll get into that in a bit), and lyrically, the song seems to wander aimlessly on the surface, at a glance seeming to serve no purpose than your basic “cash, drugs, hoes” brag rap that is admittedly a little tired at this point. This song only really seems to have one point of appeal, and that’s the complexity of flow that the Migos maintain in every verse, and even that is the kind of thing that only a seasoned listener of hip-hop is going to be able to notice on a first listen.

Both of those negative surface observations about the song are flawed observations though, the most obvious one being that this song is musically lazy. The beat to “Bad and Boujee,” while simple, is musically fascinating; the chord progressions used in this song are incredibly dissonant, and the melody never provides any sort of musical resolution, leaving you feeling unsatisfied and tense as hell. This use of dissonance and unresolved melodies is the kind of thing that I never thought I’d see in a song that has been at the top of Billboard’s charts, and yet here we are, in a world where the styles of the musical avant-garde are finally in the mainstream!

Of course, that raises an interesting question of how a song like this has even made it into mainstream success in the first place. Now, any follower of the trap music scene probably already knows this, but a big reason that a song with the musical complexity of “Bad and Boujee” can make it into the mainstream is because the entire genre of trap music has been slowly paving the way here for years, and the Migos are just one of the latest groups in a genre that has been pushed to the forefront of hip-hop by others.

There’s more to it than that though, because the Migos have had eight songs in the Top 100 in the last two years alone, and even the rise of trap music can’t fully explain that kind of rise in chart dominance. If you had to ask me what exactly explains the sudden dominance of trap music, I’d argue that the shifting political climate has left us feeling a lot more musically open to music that uses dissonance and unresolved melodies to make us feel unsatisfied through our music, and I’d also argue that a group like the Migos is a far better example of what trap music can be than previous dominating trap artists like Future. Gucci Mane, or *shudders* Waka Flocka Flame, because unlike those artists, the Migos actually care about tying their music to the themes of their lyrics.

That probably sounds a little weird to say if you’re looking at their lyrics on a surface level, right? After all, how can a song that can’t even seem to stay on the topic of a girl being both bad and boujee have lyrics that relate thematically to the tense and unsatisfying beat behind them? And to that I say, listen a little more carefully.

“Bad and Boujee” opens with a few lines that set the tones and goals of the song perfectly, describing how in the Black community, there isn’t any sort of generational wealth, but there are a lot of black people who are able to rise into wealth for the first time in their family’s history. You can hear the resentment in Offset’s voice as he mentions this, even as he tries to laugh it off, and he immediately goes into a chorus describing the type of life his financial success has brought him, full of drugs, women, and violence. The tension in the beat comes into full play here, reinforcing just how dangerous Offset his crew are, as does the unsatisfying resolution of the music, letting us know that despite his attempts at a celebratory tone, he’s not able to enjoy the spoils that his successful life has brought him.

Offset’s verse from here simply serves to expand on his lifestyle, but we also get to see clear signs that the “Bad and Boujee” life he is leading is as tense and unsatisfying as a beat, with lines like “I tell that bih to comfort me / I swear these ni**as is under me / they hate and the devil keep jumpin’ me.” Offset cannot trust the people who have surrounded him since he’s become successful, and he must command the people who he believes should care for him to comfort him when he needs it. He even follows up a statement bragging about his wealth and taste (I’m young and rich and plus I’m boujee) with a sign that he still doesn’t feel safe living this life as a black man in America (I’m not stupid so I keep the Uzi).

Lyrically, this obviously isn’t exactly new ground. Rappers have covered the topic of how wealth doesn’t bring them emotional satisfaction before, and have gone into even more detail on how their wealth doesn’t bring them safety from the specter of racism either. But Offset isn’t trying to tread new ground here; it’s clear that on this song, the focus is on keeping the flow interesting while painting an honest and clear picture of the lifestyle he leads. Quavo and Lil Uzi Vert’s verses both have this same focus, and to this song’s detriment, neither of them are as interested in painting a picture of danger and being unsatisfied as Offset is, but both, and Lil Uzi Vert especially, do an excellent job of keeping the song’s flow unique and interesting. If trap music is going to dominate popular music for the next few years, and this is the most popular example of what it can be, I can safely say I’m pretty happy about the current future of popular music.

Rating: 4/5

Critical Eye Criticism is the work of Jacqueline Merritt, a trans woman, filmmaker, and critic. You can support her continued film criticism addiction on Patreon.