raifenlf

[raifenlf]

One thing that gets me is when there is badly written female character (and there's plenty) and people immidietely jump to the conclusion that she is mary sue.

Sometimes it fits, but sometimes it's just as far from the right conclusion, as one can get. When a person thinks of a mary sue, they usually think about this special and perfect character. Many of badly written characters simply don't fit there.

I think Sylvie from Loki show is the perfect example.

Spoilers for Loki show below.

When it comes to fifth episode of the show, her plan to defeat that misty thing is to get to it's head and sort of manipulate it. However her power levels in the show are not that impressive. She couldn't hold a baseline human for too long (the person she captured showed some resistance). She couldn't get to Loki's head AT ALL. And all of a sudden she could take out that thing, that MULTIPLE Lokis feared and wouldn't stand a chance?

It makes no sense from the power level point of view. Then why was her plan considered good? Becouse the only other plan was to stab the cloud. She isn't smart, she's mediocre, and the only reason she appears smart is becouse everyone else is straight up idiot. It's evident in the entirety of the show, but this one strikes the most.

This is one of the main issues many modern writers do while writing a "strong" character, (especially female ones). They don't write them as strong. They write them as mediocre, and then make everyone else weak.

Student becoming better than their master is impressive when the master was already a competent person. If the master was someone who barely could stand on their feet, and would only be able to speak like a drunkard, becouse they are drunk, it wouldn't be impressive at all, becouse everyone could be better than this "master".

Being the most competent person in a team of people who could work in special forces is impressive. Being the most competent person in a team of people who would shot themselves in a foot, while taking down safety lock isn't impressive in the slightest.

Defeating a powerful foe is impressive. Defeating someone who shots like stormtrooper isn't.

And so on, and so on.

The problem with many "strong" characters isn't the fact that they are mary sue, or gary stu. It's the fact, that they are the type of character, that makes "mediocre" sound like a compliment, and the only way to make them look better is to weaken down everybody else.

Compare older strong characters, with modern "strong" characters. Are their enemies weak, or strong? Are their teammates inteligent, or not? Are they learning new stuff, from competent people, or not?

That's why most of the people don't have an issue with Ellen Ripley, but they have an issue with almost every single MCU heroine. It's not misogony, it's bad writing.

[raifenlf]

i do think it’s interesting that in less than a decade after reviving both the jurassic park movies and star wars franchises, universal and disney, respectively, have fucked up what could have been never-ending theatrical cash cows to the point where the jurassic franchise is ending in critical disgrace and star wars has been relegated almost exclusively to disney’s streaming platform. how badly do you have to fumble bags that are mostly just “people and aliens in a far off galaxy and space” and “dinosaurs! what would happen if dinosaurs?” that the franchises became so devoid of any redeemable value that people are eh about seeing a cultural icon like darth vader wield his lightsaber or a website like rotten tomatoes, which grades on a heavy curve, especially for nostalgic projects, has your film at a 37% critical favorability and is being accused of making dinosaurs “uncool”. it’s fascinating. i hope the bubble bursts for marvel next.

[raifenlf]

there is no one on earth more loyal, forgiving, and ride-or-die than a current marvel stan. never has a lifeless soul-sucking hollywood machine tried so hard to smother people in endless content while simultaneously giving nothing. never has a production company so thoroughly drained every ounce of dignity from every actor it touches. never has a team of supposed creatives given up so completely and resigned themselves so fully to producing an unbroken stream of dog shit and yet!! and yet!!! there are still marvel stans!!! devotees!!! people who slurp it all up with all the enthusiasm and faithfulness of the most pious churchgoer and you know what? I can’t help but respect that. I’ve never had that level of steadfastness for anything. live your worst life, bestie, you earned it. 💕

[raifenlf]

[raifenlf]

All I see is a mistreated and disrespected man who was so desperate to be loved and looked at that he driven to lash out in a horrible way not only to fail, but to be told that he really is lesser and all his unhappiness is his own doing. That his only place is in following, serving someone else and keeping quiet. Only redemption can be being best for them and not the best version himself because the best version of himself is someone else.

When you think about it it's pretty tragic that from Loki's perspective after he took the throne legitimately everything went wrong because no one would listen to him, then in Thanos' realm he was turned into a puppet and forced to work for someone else, then the TVA took him and hurt him and had him working for them under threat of death and once he meets a variant of himself she acts exactly the same as the others towards him: he's treated with contempt, like he's lesser than her, like he's only valued as long as he's useful and he just... follows her around because at that point he's a shadow of the man he used to be.

And we're told that's growth.

[raifenlf]

Looking at Gamestop's website last night and I noticed something interesting.

The Loki TV series version of the "Lady Loki" character in Sylvie's action figure is on clearance and selling at a cheaper price than other action figures. If you look up a couple rows, you might notice the one at the very top is the real and true Loki in feminine form, the Marvel Legends Series Loki Agent of Asgard figure. This action figure is more expensive than Sylvie's action figure and is not on clearance. Interesting...

[raifenlf]

Last Week Tonight, March 16, 2022

[raifenlf]

Oh my gosh, this so much!!!!! Like, I don't think I've ever seen two characters in any show or movie have less chemistry.

There have been couples I didn't like that I would admit had chemistry. There have been couples I didn't like that I would think didn't have a lot of chemistry. But nothing like this. They had negative chemistry, if possible.

My feeling with chemistry, too, is that if the chemistry is good, other characters don't have to comment and the couple never has to kiss. You can feel the connection just from their looks, interactions, body language, vibes, etc. But on this show, they had to have Mobius tell us Loki was falling for Sylvie and they had to have the kiss because otherwise, it would not have been apparent they were going for something romantic between the two because there was just nothing there whatsoever.

And oh, it was so painful to watch. And I have watched a lot of really bad soap opera plotlines. But yikes, Sylki was such a mess in every way imaginable.

Any time I come across gifs/images of the allegedly "tender" moments between Loki and Sylvie, I am completely at a loss as to what I'm supposed to be seeing. Where is this so-called "wonderful chemistry" the shippers are on about? All I see are two actors who look palpably uncomfortable next to each other. One is at least trying to put some effort into it, the other looks like she's about to vomit at any moment.

Even on Lamentis the "look" they give each other comes across as awkward and weird, like neither of them know how they're supposed to feel or what facial expression to use. And don't even get me started on the blanket scene. It doesn't help that they're forcing a 40 year old actor to act like an awkward teenager with a first crush, opposite someone who's only believable when she's belittling him.

I realize to some extent chemistry between two people is subjective, but am I the only one who just...doesn't get that from Tom and SDM? Like any time they're sharing a scene together it's like they both would prefer to be literally anywhere else. They're just barely hiding the fact that they both want to flee. And Tom seemed more...engaging? alive? interested? opposite Owen, Gugu, and Wumni, but since most of his screen time is with SDM from episode 3 on, it all just feels painfully forced and awkward to watch. The secondhand embarrassment is real.

[raifenlf]

I just can't get over the falling in love with an alternate version of yourself as self love. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard outside of politics. How do you live your entire life into adulthood and think self love and falling in love are at all comparable? And that was the idea going in? Really!?!

It's self love

-It's weird that they kiss

There different people

-Then how is that self love?

Because they're both Lokis

It's concerning but many people think it's the same thing. Just one look at any relationships forum and you'll see countless people who don't know how to be alone, who think you need a romantic partner to live with, that unless someone loves you romantically you're worth absolutely nothing. All this is bullshit of course but in a society drunk on amatonormativity does it really come as a surprise?

Movies and shows do this all the time, they ruin other type of relationships for their characters because they believe romance is the one and only thing that matters (plus those characters are shown to be happy and forever healed now that someone else loves them romantically), and those who are not paired up either end up dead or they're given a 'different' family to live with.

No wonder so many people equate romance with self-love. In the Loki series they accidentally portrayed an excellent case of co-dependency but refused to sell it as such which leaves some fans simping for a pairing that's entirely one-sided and incredibly damaging for Loki, but since Waldron and Herron keep calling it self-love they pretend Loki loves himself now. A guy who calls himself a monster and a narcissist is a guy who thinks high of himself, right?

[raifenlf]

[raifenlf]

I have to ask someone, what do the showrunners think it is that makes Sylvie so damn special? Is it because she’s female? Is that it? We’re just supposed to be in shock and reverent awe of her amazing, terrifying…..gender? Am I understanding that right? I mean, these people do know that Lady Loki IS a thing, and that we were all expecting to see her at some point, right? They do know that Loki IS genderfluid and can be both male AND female, right? Oh, wait. According to them, Loki doesn’t even know that! Ah!

And she’s not even really Loki. She’s no more wholly Loki than she is wholly Enchantress. What she is is this lazily written, lazily created mishmash of two completely different characters. It’s like they couldn’t fully commit to creating Lady Loki, and they couldn’t fully commit to creating Enchantress, so they ripped both characters in half and stapled this character together with the shreds, slapped the name Sylvie on it and called it “completely original”. So here we have this “completely original” character, running around with Loki’s horns and Enchantress’s costume designs, going by the name Sylvie who gets to “be her own person”. Lucky her, huh?

Why the push to make her seem so special? They force her and push her on the story so hard. The show starts implying that she’s “superior” before we even get to lay eyes on her (it’s either close to the end of episode 1 or right at the beginning of episode 2, but it’s quick, they don’t waste any time). And right after that the show just gets laden and saddled with her. They harp on her “superiority” relentlessly. They take every opportunity to use her to one-up Loki in every way. They make him be the idiot clown as a contrast to her “TrAgIc SeRiOuS HeRo On A MiSsIoN”. The narrative framing is so manipulative and so strict, it’s like they don’t want to give the audience a choice whether we actually like her or not. You have to. This is how it is. She’s the bestest, most specialist, most tragical, most superior Loki ever. Naturally. Why wouldn’t you like her? If Loki loves her, you have to too. If Loki thinks she’s amazing, you have to too. If Mobius likes her better, you have to too.

Why do they have to do this? You didn’t see Hawkeye trying to convince the audience that Kate Bishop is the superior Hawkeye, or convince us that Yelena is the superior Black Widow, or that Sam is the superior Captain America. Why this need to tear Loki down, I don’t understand! They even have to say her trauma is “worse”. They couldn’t just say her trauma is different! Even her trauma has to one-up his! Her trauma is worse because of course it is. Of cooourse it is!

If they wanted her to be the new Loki, then they could’ve just cast her as Lady Loki. Period. And let her have her own show without Loki’s physical presence as a stepping stone for her. It wouldn’t be the first time they made major changes without explaining anything, right? If she’s so incredibly special, people would’ve latched on to her without Loki’s help, right? People still would’ve watched it simply because it’s new Marvel content.

I just can’t believe they dragged Loki back into the MCU for this. I’m sorry, this is a lot of negativity to be dumping on you, and you don’t have to post this or respond, but you’re just such a safe, understanding blog. Thank you!

Oh thank you honey and I agree with absolutely every single thing you say here, you're 100% right!!

Frankly the only explanation I have is that they used her to outshine Loki but they didn't give a damn about her story either so they had everyone around her either falling in love with her, telling her she's their favourite or worse: the variants who had refused to follow Loki and took about half the episode to finally agree to fight alongside him, they immediately choose to follow her even though they don't know her.

It's the only way they've got to tell the audience to like her: if everybody loves her, so should you! Well, guess what:

[raifenlf]

Berenstain Bears + Horror by Frank’s Kid

[raifenlf]

 They aren’t even trying to be subtle about their antisemitism anymore.

To sum up: The new Harry Potter game involves shutting down a goblin rebellion, keeping them subjugated. Oh and the goblins are going around stealing wizard children.

Since the goblins are basically Jewish caricatures, this has shades of Nazis and other groups through the centuries shutting down the Jews anytime we dared to get “uppity”. And the whole stealing kids thing? Can we say blood libel?

From now on, anyone who is all “the HP goblins aren’t antisemitic caricatures” is going to be blocked. And that includes you Pick Me Jews who are saying that. I’m tired of this.

HP fans DNI. You have been warned.

[raifenlf]

fucking harry potter outdoing marvel in queer rep and doing in the trailer, I just .. ?? that's legit so embarrassing girl help

[raifenlf]

Saw the Ms. Marvel trailer and once again, following the trend, it appears that they decided to adapt one of the most beloved and celebrated comics of the 2010s by taking characters, stories and the visual language, but just at a surface level and without going into the themes or the heart of the story.

I wish to be proven wrong, especially with a character as beloved as Kamala, but considering what they have done with their other show based on beloved runs of the 2010s, I wouldn't get my hopes high

[raifenlf]

Remember that time that Marvel Studios whitewashed and genderswapped a prominent Tibetan monk just so that they could market to China since the CCP doesn’t recognize Tibet?

Remember that time that Marvel Studios erased the existence of Steve Rogers’s gay and Jewish childhood friend and instead decided to age up his teen sidekick to replace him?

Remember that time that Marvel Studios decided to make Peter Parker a whitewashed version of Miles Morales instead of either using Miles in the MCU or staying more faithful to Peter Parker’s character?

In the same vein, remember that time that Marvel Studios erased the Parker family’s poverty and talked down about the historical Aunt May for not being a “real” breadwinner unlike their version?

Remember that time that Marvel Studios completely erased Wanda and Pietro Maximoff’s Romani and Jewish heritage and turned them into literal HYDRA agents?

Remember that time Marvel Studios erased Sam Wilson’s canonical superpowers because they weren’t “grounded” enough and yet made every excuse to incorporate the superpowers of other characters that were much more far-fetched?

Remember that time that Marvel erased Clint Barton’s deafness and took nearly a decade to finally release anything that even alluded to him being deaf in the MCU?

Remember that time that Marvel Studios more or less erased the history of one of the founding Avengers and only included her as a minor side character with a brief cameo to distance themselves from something in the comics that never should have happened in the first place?

Because I do.