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#with all the kate middleton conspiracies and detective work with photo analysis and media etc.#it just reminds me deeper how so much that occurred during 1D and especially with BG#could’ve only happened in the timeframe it happened in#when twitter and social media as a whole wasn’t as engaging and analytical as it is now#like there’s now such a need to uncover all the lies and curtains that hollywood and the industry pulls over on the GP#and with such a trend of exposing things and people in the industry#it would be like moth to a flame#so much shit could only be pulled off because of the vacuum of the time it was set in#imagine so many things that occurred during that era and the consistent weirdness of BG (especially with photos and videos)#it would’ve been torn to pieces by twitter internet sleuths in 2.5 seconds which would bring so much of the twitter GP obsessed with pop#culture to start threads and jump down rabbit holes etc.#it’s just always fascinating to see#especially when the buzzfeed article that occurred during BG that tried and failed to highlight all the inconsistencies#was like. the peak of coverage about it#on the other hand i’m sorta glad it did happen the way it did because imagine how much would be said about louis over that entire thing#and people would be ruthless#idk just some rambles
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Apology in Advance for the probable incoming Sulemio v Destiel Poll posts.
There are layers to why the dumb ship poll has me feeling so passionate, some are: -Sulemio more or less checked off a Bucket List Want I thought I would die before seeing it become a reality. That being: a Sapphic Anime couple where the main focus and story doesn't revolve around discovering or accepting their sexuality and showing it can be a successful story public perception wise and money wise (G Witch has some of that self discovery stuff but it's like a D or E level plot). And having it so the gay relationship can't be perceived away as besties or sisterhood or with a Bury Your Gays end. -wlw/GL ships constantly getting overshadowed by mlm ships or get played down to hype up mlm ships because "there can only be 1 lgbtqi+ ship" mentality in fandoms. -Sulemio fandom was vibing and more or less quiet until this rewoke us up here on Tumblr. We are all once again speaking and writing deep analytical lengthy posts about how deep, well written and portrayed the love between both characters were not only in subtext but throughly explicit sentences in dialogue or actions of Suletta and Miorine, and the world around them. I am very happy to join in and revisit the awesomeness that their story was since I can't truly replicate the journey that was watching their story as it developed in real time. (Shout out to my 2 het cis male acquaintances who nagged me to give G Witch a shot back when only ep 0 and 1 were out you guys freaking amazing. Bros gave me unforgettable memories.) -But a big one I see not getting talked about a lot is how this match up is giving a big and much needed reality check to western-media-live-action-only-consumers/fans that: Just because something is an animation it does not make that type of art/storytelling/show/whatever you want to call it inferior to live action. A few years back I saw so many west live action tv fans shit endlessly and mercilessly on Magical Girl Utena because of a similar ship poll where it had come down to live action fandom ship vs canon anime ship. (iykyk, I don't want to restart that shit up again since it hurt a lot to watch as someone who liked the ship that was leading but didn't watch Utena-I'm too weak for that hurt- see the show and its contribution towards actual wlw/gl representation get shit on) A lot of the criticisms and punchlines of statements were mocking people for getting attached to cartoons as "grown ass adults"; a criticism any animation enjoyer probably knows all too well. Post so many animation shows in western streaming sites get cancelled or be erased and locked behind vaults because the CEOs think there is no fanbase or value in creating animation, this sentiment more towards animated shows with depth in their stories. I think back to that poll and the ensuing shit show. To think about that back then and see a reflection of that situation with the Ship (Sulemio) that has been stated to be inspired by the ship from Utena (Utenanthy) that was shat on so much by similar media consumers back then who perceived and said animation is a lesser form of storytelling-after seeing so many animation shows I enjoyed get cancelled because of this same sentiment from people thinking no adult wants animation as entertainment- to see Sulemio beat "the greater known" ship from a western live action media show that didn't even want the gay representation associated with itself, it feels like properly bandaging a seeping wound that you were letting "dry out". This all still feels like ship war with ships and fandoms that shouldn't have reason to beef, but the catharsis of seeing such a: powerful, moving, and overall amazing story that is Gundam the Witch from Mercury (free on Youtube to watch btw) and Sulemio's love story get recognized when it still feels like animation as a storytelling device gets looked down upon and has partially been erased, is making me cautiously optimistic that maybe in a few years we can get our amazing in depth animated shows that got taken away because animated storytelling is "just for kids" or "isn't good enough".
#rambles#rants#shower thoughts#sulemio#animation#g witch#gundam the witch from mercury#sapphic thoughts#fandom wank#fandom#fandom meta#lgbtqi+#media analysis#polls#pop culture#pop culture history#hollywood desperately needs change#ao3topshipsbracket
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Bob Dylan occupies this weird space of being among the pantheon of great American writers while also being a massive pop culture icon and rockstar so as a result the fanbase is a heady mix of people who see him through the lens of very serious and unflinching literary critique and analysis and people who want to put him on top of an ice cream sundae and eat him up with a spoon, and the weirdest part of all of this is that they're usually the same fucking people
#i don't know if this means we should bring more honest and unflinching critical analysis into pop culture world#or more performative pop culture obsession into serious critical analysis#but i highly suspect that it's neither#op
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that post about horror and social themes pisses me off so bad because its said with such a tone of derision for horror like wow did you know even STUPID HORROR can tell us about societal themes?? no shit genius its art. your analysis is base level at best and innacurate at worst and your disrespect for the horror genre has not gone unnoticed
#i HATE that post like its so 101 and also talking out of ass#but its so annoying. like yes fucking obviously what people are scared of in movies at a time and place can tell you what theyre scared of#in the real world. are you stupid. post that is a profuct of the curtains are just blue ass thinking#kora.txt#calling it a useless pop culture fact always gobsmacks me…..thats art analysis. are you dumb. (no you just consider horror to be)
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list of video essay creators i recommend watching
ContraPoints
Philosophy Tube
hbomberguy
oliSUNvia
F.D Signifier
münecat
Mina Le
Shaun
Big Joel
CJ The X
Shanspeare
Princess Weekes
Khadija Mbowe
Cheyenne Lin
Tee Noir
Rowan Ellis
verilybitchie
Kaz Rowe
Kat Blaque
Jessie Gender
Alexander Avila
Mia Mulder
Tara Mooknee
Zoe Bee
Renegade Cut
Intelexual Media
Lily Alexandre
Lola Sebastian
Yhara zayd
biz
Unlearning Economics
#society#politics#philosophy#video essay#video essays#youtube#pop culture#art#analysis#social media#media#history#culture
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finally comfirmed all my summer courses so heres the schedule!
for context: im studying at Korea University in Seoul for a 6 week semester abroad.
Period 1 - North Korea: History, Society, Politics
Period 2 - Media & Popular Culture in South Korea
Period 5 - Beginning Korean 1
im very interested to see how the class on North Korea will be, i have started some of the recommended reading as well as doing my own research & finding friends in the class and looking forward to it. definitely not a course i could ever find/take at a university here at home.
media & pop culture also super excited for bc i want to dive deeper into studying pop culture, performance art, fandom spaces and more within the realm soso bad
korean 1! i do have some korean learning and time in the country under my belt already but ive never taken an actual class (my speaking is very casual/informal bc of who/where i learned from lol) i feel like i definitely have missed or not fully understood a lot of grammar in the past also so i wanna kind restart the learning process w more structure :)
if anyone has questions abt the classes/program/study abroad/ etc lmk and ill do my best to answer !! excited to be back and motivated and study the things i love after a pretty difficult spring semester
#studyblr#study blog#langblr#langblog#language learning#languageblr#anthropology#studyblr community#study korean#learning korean#korean language#south korea#study help#study abroad#study motivation#exchange student#studyabroad#studyspo#kpop#media analysis#pop culture#korean history#cultural anthropology#anthro#korean#seoul
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Right. This has been a vampire thing since *Dracula* Dracula. For some reason that's so easy to forget.
#I think I know the reason actually it's because iconic pop culture monsters kind of get de-fanged (heh) in their ubiquity#Like you get to a point where even children are familiar with the archetype and ofc you aren't showing them the version with all the detail#So if you have a horror icon that ''everyone'' recognizes then most peoples' first exposure to them would be the kiddie-safe version.#Dracula#Dracula Daily#lit#lit analysis#Look it's been a while since I've read Dracula okay? Epistolary novels are not my favorite format.#The real-time gimmick is doing a lot to make that writing style feel fun for me to engage with instead of just annoying.
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Ch204 (p1), Cover and title pages
As I mentioned before, in spoiler posts, Snake and Finny are wearing variations on the costumes they wore to the Halloween party in ch120... which was less than two months ago (for them).
Snake's witch/wizard costume now looks more like he's a student at Hogwarts, while Finny's vampire outfit now looks inspired by Anne Rice characters.
But I also mentioned the glasses and the crown of thorns, which have been added to the costumes and hold separate meanings from the costumes. I see Snake's glasses as an indication he has trouble seeing the truth about Doll as an enemy. And that Finny wears that crown of thorns because of the burden he bears, the feelings of guilt he has for not telling Snake that his friends died... and how Finny had a part in their deaths.
#black butler#kuroshitsuji#finny#finnian#snake#halloween#cover art#cover page#title page#chapter release#chapter review#chapter analysis#crown of thorns#glasses#symbolism#hogwarts#harry potter#vampire chronicles#anne rice#pop culture#sheesh they were bobbing for apples less than two months ago#doll#circus troupe#circus members#observation#sep 15 2023#part one#part 1
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i know the accepted origin for monsieur mallah and the brain's epic gay romance is doom patrol V2 #34, and that's certainly the first time it was really explicit for sure, but has anyone else read the V2 swamp thing annual #3?
it was published in 1987, 3 years before #34, as a tribute to all the DC comics gorillas, so mallah gets a lot of attention in it and he is EXTREMELY gay coded. it ends up making his feelings toward the brain get presented in a very un-heterosexual way. and it's all tied in with the themes and structure of the annual's story so closely that it feels very, very deliberate.
[ ID: the cover to the swamp thing volume 2 annual #3. a golden gorilla sits menacingly in the center, looking directly at the reader. a torn white shirt is clutched in its fists and dangling from its fanged mouth. in the leaves and grass in front of it are the remains of the rest of a stereotypical safari outfit, including a rifle that lies propped on the gorilla's right arm. swamp thing's face is in the background, the red eyes glaring at the reader above the gorilla's head. end ID. ]
basically, the plot of the annual is that gorilla grodd has figured out a way to weaken the shackles of his mind prison in gorilla city, and he's using his telepathic powers to summon all the dc comics gorillas to free the rest of him and take down solovar through lightning magic. swamp thing... is also there. he doesn't do much. the annual is more preoccupied with the gorillas than its titular character, who's primarily busy having relationship drama with abby.
this drama is what the annual opens with. in the previous issue swamp thing apparently made a "merely human" comment toward constantine, which hurt abby's feelings since she is also human. this sets up the main ongoing theme of the story, about humans in relationships with non-humans.
this is very closely tied with the portrayal of gorillas in certain medias, particularly from the early the 20th century. the annual explores this very extensively, leaning heavily into the sexual implications...
[ ID: a series of three comic book panels featuring b'wana beast in his alter ego, mike maxwell, with his companion/girlfriend, djuba. maxwell is a blonde white man and djuba is a red-furred female gorilla.
panel 1: smiling, maxwell pushes an extremely phallic sticklike thing into djuba's mouth while she takes off his hat. their arms are around each other and their faces are very close. maxwell says, "don't have to play macho man with you... nooo. gimme a drink. gimme a drink..."
panel 2: maxwell and djuba's faces are touching now, their heads turned so they are cheek-to-cheek. djuba feeds maxwell a red bottle she has around her neck, and he sips from it. maxwell says, "just a tiny bit now... i have to drive our friend back... that's it..."
panel 3: a closeup of maxwell and djuba's mouths, basically touching. djuba's lips are parted and maxwell says, "ohhh yeah... that's it. i can feel it... i can feel it..."
end ID.]
[ID: a single panel of congorilla in his gorilla form. he has golden fur and is looking behind him to some bushes, where the heads of two black-furred gorillas are popping out. congorilla thinks, "i'm picking up the overpowering scent of females in the grove below and my blood's starting to boil. it feels good. too good." end ID.]
[ID: two comic book panels in gorilla city.
panel 1: sam simeon, a more anthropomorphized gorilla with human-style white skin, black hair, and visible chest hair, speaks to solovar, a non-anthropomorphized gorilla with blue fur.
sam says: "lemme tell ya... here i could do my best work! y'know, get into a little self-publishing, maybe put on a comic convention or two every year... i bet we could get thousands of atilla gorilla fans!"
solovar says: "umm, yes, of course. i see that your human friend is enjoying her stay here, too..."
panel 2: angel o'day, a thin white human woman in a strapless black bikini with her white hair pulled up, smiles at a crowd of four gorillas clustered around her. they all smile back at her, enamoured. one gorilla holds her hand and another writes something in a small notebook. solovar and sam watch on in the background. sam looks confused, maybe even hurt. he says, "angel...?"
end ID.]
this is primarily where the humor of the comic is supposed to come from. it's honestly a bit uncomfortable because most gorilla media--particularly ones with this sexual element--draws upon a lot of extremely racist and eugenist ideas when utilizing these tropes.
the annual mostly ignores this; except for a white savior-y joke with b'wana beast's introduction early on, race never really comes up and it's primarily just wacky horny shenanigans with white people and gorillas with zero interrogation or even acknowledgement of where those tropes come from and why they exist. since the comic isn't all that interested in acknowledging the questionable racial elements at play, i'll just leave the discussion at that so we can get moving along to the fun part of how mallah and the brain fit into all this, but i did want to point it out because uh. yikes.
anyway. moving on!
mallah and the brain are the first non-grodd gorilla-related team introduced, right after the relationship drama is set up with swamp thing and abby. while they are on their way to commit international terrorism and kidnappng, a lackey harasses mallah by asking him if he wants to have sex with lois lane. mallah spends the entire conversation looking completely dead inside.
[ID: a single comic book panel. roland, a white human man with orange hair holds a newspaper. he leers at monsieur mallah, an auburn-furred gorilla. mallah stares back at him blankly while smoking a cigarette. roland says, "whaddya say, mallah? how'd you like to get between the sheets with superman's girlfriend? y'think you're more her type? you got animal magnetism, don'tcha?" a speech bubble from the brain off-screen shoots back: "enough, roland!" end ID.]
so our entire introduction to mallah as a character is dependent upon him experiencing a microaggression deeply rooted in heteronormativity, and he is very clearly having none of it. interesting!
at this point, grodd's mind control beam reaches mallah. he kills all the lackeys who were picking on him, which the brain is really only mildly annoyed by, something that, sidebar, is absolutely hilarious. he could be more supportive of the whole microaggression thing, but ultimately he's just like: "why did you do it NOW? you should have waited until later!"
[ID: a single comic panel. cigarette still in his mouth, monsieur mallah kneels on the ground, holding the lifeless arm of a dead white man. the leg of another dead white man lies on the ground in front of him, and there are puddles of blood everywhere. standing in the corner and covered in blood, the brain says: "sacre bleu! mallah, what has come over you? why have you slaughtered them? couldn't you have waited until they had outlived their usefulness?" end ID.]
at this point, though, mallah turns on the brain and breaks his life support chamber. the brain is fine, but feels betrayed, and in his first line mallah explains his behavior simply by saying "c'est la vie!"
[ID: two comic book panels.
panel 1: the brain and monsieur mallah inside a tank. monsieur mallah sits at the controls with his cigarette, still a bit blank-faced but looking more relaxed. the brain stands in the corner, his dome broken and a burst of elecrosparks. he says, "y-you betray me, monsieur... crackle pop... i... i who created you... fitzz fitzzz. why, monsieur... cracklcrackpop... tell me, why??"
panel 2: an exterior shot of the tank zooming off through the desert, treads and billowing dust behind it. a speach bubble coming from the tank reads: "c'est la vie!
end ID.]
this ends up being a running gag in the annual, where the brain tries reaching out to mallah but the mind control is so strong that mallah just continues torturing him. it's poetic justice, since the brain's entire plan before the mind control happened was to kidnap a child and torture them, but it's also buildup to something at the end. we'll get to that.
first though, they pick up sam simeon and angel o'day from the angel and the ape comics. throughout the annual angel has been used as the designated "white woman all the male gorillas go bananas for," but i want to note that we never see mallah as one of those gorillas. we never see him interact with angel at all, in fact, except arguably once, where even under gorilla grodd mind control he is more polite than angel's friend sam:
[ID: a single comic panel of monsieur mallah, the brain, sam simeon, and angel o'day inside the tank. monsieur mallah is at the open tank hatch, lowering himself inside. next to him, the brain pops out of his life support chamber as a mess of wires and cerebral matter. sam simeon is at the tank controls, angrily clutching the wheel in one hand. angel grabs sam's shoulder, looking worried.
mallah says: "look! it is ze sign we have been waiting for! attack, mes amis!"
angel says: "sam?"
sam says: "shaddup!"
the brain says: "fzzt."
end ID.]
it's like the cracks the lackey made about mallah and lois lane earlier and how apathetic he was to the conversation. this mallah is shown to just be SO disinterested in human women compared to most of his male gorilla counterparts. he also doesn't show any interest in b'wana beast's gorilla companion/girlfriend, djuba, when she shows up, which one might expect considering the raging gorilla horniness and grodd's own brief flirty remark to her. but why? why is mallah so disinterested in all these women?
obviously it's because he's gay as fuck, but is that what the comic is actually trying to imply? i'd say yes! that is where the ending comes into play, and why i feel the gay coding in this comic is intentional.
after grodd is defeated by frying his own brain, we get one last scene between mallah and the brain. it's only a page, so i'm just going to paste it here, because all of it is... amazing...
[ID: a full comic page layout.
panel 1: a closeup of the brain lying in the grass. he is little more than a mess of cables and metal being stepped on by monsieur mallah's bare foot. a sound effect reads, "plltch!" the brain cries: "aakk!"
panel 2: monsieur mallah and the brain in the jungle at night. mallah picks the brain up from under his foot.
mallah says: "monsieur brain! what luck zat i have found you! come, we must move quickly! ze coup has failed and ze soldiers of solovar are after us. apparently he did not take kindly to my little uzi love taps."
the brain says: "m-mallah? ooooh-nooo..."
panel 3: monsieur mallah cradles the brain to his chest and runs through the foliage.
the brain says: "n-non! please, monsieur... leave me be... or better yet, kill me now! i can't take zis torture any longer!"
mallah says: "kill you? monsieur, you offend me! mallah owes you his own life, many times over! one of our old hideouts is nearby. i'll have you safe and snug in one of your spare life support modules very soon, wait and see!"
panel 4: monsieur mallah huddles under a large leafy plant, hidden by that and the grasses with the brain close to his chest. mallah looks out cautiously, watching as three shadowy gorillas walk by with flashlights and metal helmets. the outlines of mallah and the brain's dialogue boxes are dashed to indicate they're whispering.
the brain says: "y-you will? but i thought... i thought you wanted to destroy me?"
mallah says: "nuzzing could be furzer from the truth, monsieur. i am here to help you and care for you, to protect you and serve you in any way i can!"
panel 5: mallah races through the foliage, holding the brain tight. the gorilla soldiers are walking away behind them.
the brain says: "b-but... why?"
mallah says: "c'est l'amour!"
panel 6: abby arcane, a young white woman with white hair that has black streaks in it, lies on the ground. she is in a fetal position, her eyes shut. behind her, a lake stretches out in the great yellow moonlight, the great trees of the swamp further beyond that.
end ID.]
JUST. SO MUCH EVERYTHING GOING ON HERE.
the mind control is gone at this point, so this is the only point in the comic where we get to see monsieur mallah fully as himself and how this version of him would normally interact with the brain. and it's so... passionate and sweet? he just basically says that he's going to be always there for the brain because... because of love? whAt???? did he just straight up tell the brain that he loves him??????? oh my god.
and just... the way the comic has spent so much time sexualizing the relationships between humans and gorillas, and how the ending scene with abby and swamp thing after this is also so freaking horny, and here we get a human/non-human relationship where one of the parties doesn't have a body and they cannot be physical, and for them in this comic at least... it doesn't matter. because love. the way this explores and subverts the horny gorilla tropes in such a unique way. oh my god.
and it's treated as a joke, for sure. the entire punchline for the running gag of mallah treating the brain like shit for the entire story is "he loved him all along!" which. uh. questionable in so many ways. but the entire origin of the brain and monsieur mallah as a gay couple came from a joke in a one-off doom patrol comic, so really this is all in the exact same "mallah and the brain as a big gay joke" vein. it honestly makes me wonder if grant morrison read this annual and that's where it gave them the idea for #34. but idk.
ALSO. that closing panel with abby waiting for swamp thing? yes, that's setting up a transition to a new scene, but it's also a reminder of abby's previous scene. swamp thing temporarily got hit with the grodd mind control beam and actually went to go impact the plot of his own annual, and she had her own big speech about her feelings:
[ID: a full comic page layout.
panel 1: abby stops at the edge of a lake, looking down at it. she is in a swamp with tall trees and a ramshackle cabin behind her. she says: "i don't understand, alec... i just don't get it at all. something's wrong with you... something's terribly wrong."
panel 2: a closeup of abby's hand touching the surface of the lake. she says: "one minute you're perfectly fine, the next you're unraveling. it's almost as if your personality were coming apart piece by piece... you don't have alzheimer's disease, do you? no, i don't think a plant can get that..."
panel 3: abby sits sadly huddled on the ground. her knees are pressed to her chest and she's stacked her fists on them to support her chin. she says: "it was probably what i said, wasn't it? i shouldn't have acted like that towards you, i know... sometimes i'm such a spoiled brat."
panel 4: a closeup of abby looking sadly at the water. she says: "i just wanted you to know that my feelings were hurt, and that we should work on what we have, alec... but i'm a stranger to you now, and that hurts worse than all the stupid remarks either of us could ever make."
panel 5: a distant shot of abby sitting and holding her knees while she continues to look at the water. she says: "i don't pretend to understand it... but i--i know where i belong... right here, waiting for you to come back. even if it takes forever. you are coming back, aren't you, alec? i mean... what would i ever do without you?"
panel 6: swamp thing under the water. moodily, he sits squatting with his arms crossed over his knees. a tire is half-buried in the sand next to him.
end ID.]
THE PARALLELS. the being hurt and hurting someone you care about but being determined to stay by their side because you love them. what. the fuck. what the fuck. this has got to be intentional and more mallah/brain fans need to be aware of this comic and add it to their lexicon because what! GAY!!!!
#monsieur mallah#the brain#doom patrol#mallah x brain#mallah and the brain#putting this in the tags because i worked HARD on that alt text goshdarnit#media analysis for me and me alone#pop culture gorillas#screaming into the void
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A year ago, I read Babel. Long short story, it became my hyperfixation for a few months. This essay is some sort of a rebutt towards some of the discussion I saw.
#babel rf kuang#babel an arcane history#babel or the necessity of violence#babel#rf kuang#booktok#book review#book analysis#booklr#books#books and reading#literature#pop culture#dark academia#oxford#english
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Extremely rare Homestuck post but I just had an insight:
The Strilondes and Karkat would totally be at home in Tumblr, wouldn't they?
#homestuck#strilondes#karkat vantas#like not only Roxy would love the wizard rp#but there's also shitposting for Dave#unnecesarily deep pop culture and shipping analysis for Dirk and Karkat#and irresponsible use of therapy speak for Rose#not to mention that great part of the tumblr accent is pretty much Karkat-isms without the capslock#thanks for coming to my horribly cursed and cringe TED talk
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someone's probably already said this better than I can, but I cannot stop thinking about how perfectly Pucci and weather contrast and simultaneously reflect each other. Pucci is Christian and devotedly so, yet his stand is covered in the alphabetical symbols for DNA, which is a literal quantifiable measurement of a person and often associated with evolution and natural selection, two scientific concepts which many extreme Christians vehemently deny. And his ability is to distill a person's entire being, their memory (and with it, their personality), and their Stand, into a physical object. He essentially has the ability to transform the ethereal, formless soul into something tangible, and a manmade piece of technology, at that. Weather, on the other hand, doesn't seem to share his brother's religious convictions, and yet has the ability to manipulate the heavens themselves. His ability evokes the very idea of divinity and is literally nearly god-like.
In Pucci's memories, parallels between depictions of the devil and Dio can easily be drawn. They first meet when Dio is hiding out in the church after hours. Dio is an invader, a creature of the night encroaching on holy ground and Pucci welcomes him in, suspecting but not genuinely knowing his true nature. It's ironic to know that "Dio" is Italian for "God." Pucci is drawn in by a man who calls himself god but is actually a demon. And Pucci's final plea to Dio whilst holding his sister's corpse feels quite Faustian; he'll give anything to bring back his dead loved one. And Dio, in a twisted way, delivers: Pucci is able to salvage his sister's soul, but nothing can be done with it. It's just a disc, a reel that he can view like a movie.
When Pucci finally "kills" his brother--aka taking his soul-- Weather is next seen in prison with his devil-horned hat for the first time. The irony is that Weather hasn't really done wrong. He committed no real crime aside from being unable to control an ability he was cursed with. Pucci's stand is a curse, too, in a way-- Pucci's stand, in appearance and ability, directly contradicts all of his religious beliefs; he is forced to stare his bleak reality in the eyes when faced with White Snake. Weather's is more directly harmful to those around him: he turns people into snails, causing them to lose their humanity and decay. It is corrosive, perhaps as he believed himself to be, blaming himself for bringing on his own and Perla's misfortune.
One of Stone Ocean's themes is appearances not being what they seem. The convict seeks justice and love. The corpse is alive and walking. And the man in the priest's garb is a devil, while the man with devil horns is innocent.
#character analysis#sort of#pinky's inner monologue#writing#stone ocean#jojos bizarre adventure#enrico pucci#weather report#domenico pucci#idk much about christianity#aside from what i know from pop culture#and living nearish to churches#so lmk if i got something wrong#huge fan of christianity stuff being appropriated for coolness and symbolism purposes in anime
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What I really like about the Bastard Son & the Devil Himself is that while they took away the obvious racial pointers of Fairborns being called White witches in the books and Blood witches being called Black witches, they still keep that essence.
Like, the Blood witches live in small communities and on their own territories and practice their culture, something for which they are being demonized by the Fairborns for. The Fairborns characterise the Bloods as savages and call their cultural traditions barbaric, without an attempt to understand these practices (or maybe the Fairs just assume that their way of living is superior regardless).
Fairborns are very much the oppressors in this scenario. For peace they demand a complete assimilation of the Bloods to Fairborn laws and customs. The way they organise is through a centralised government that 'rationalises' its actions and perpetuates its ideology. Also they have taken over the UK territory and eradicated or displaced the local Bloods. Here we have a struggle between the coloniser and colonised.
And on a caveat, Soul's plot line works in the same vein. His taking of Nathan's hearteater power is basically cultural appropriation. Since he doesn't have the bonds to the community and is not collecting powers to preserve others, but only for himself, he becomes the savage he accused the Bloods of being.
#the bastard son & the devil himself#nathan byrn#pop culture analysis#i really went of with this lol#so hope they'll get a season two 🙏#half bad
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I guess this is technically an Anti Wyler ship post, but about the Addams and their values:
I've seen some people say "Wednesday would date or be ok with Tyler because she herself performed autopsies, tortured her younger brother Pugsley", and other macabre things referenced or depicted in past Addams Family shows, and it strikes me as ironic and worrying that these people are misinterpreting what The Addams Family Show and characters countered in pop culture/society. Just because these characters like the dark, unexpected stuff, doesn't mean they are ok with murder, or that the Addams lack morals. They have them, they just don't follow conventional means or thought processes.
'They're creepy and they're kooky Mysterious and spooky They're all together ooky The Addams family...' 'Neat Sweet Petite...' 'Strange Deranged The Addams family'
Even counting the final verse of the theme song, nothing there says anything about actually being what they appear. Society views them as "Strange" or "Deranged", they may seem "spooky" to visitors (people unused to them), but they aren't as first impressions would imply, as the "Neat, sweet, Petite" line reminds us.
I think a part of this comes from the show also not fully being like the past adaptations where The Addams (despite contrasting conventional societal norms of what we think a "loving" family should look like) at their core were a loving goofy family, and challenged and disproved the conventional nuclear family. These type of people miss the point of who the Addams were, and that they were and are suppose to be the rep for the people labeled "oddballs/freaks" of society. Just because they are different doesn't mean they are pro murdering innocent people, and to say Wednesday would be ok with murder (when even despite that lacking feel of satire towards the conventional from this adaptation of the Addams the show itself has Wednesday working to stop and solve these murders all the while guided by a spirit called Goodie) makes me chuckle in disbelief. I think part of why Enid and Wednesday together drew so many people is that it captures and reminds us of that unconventional love, that quirky love, we got from the past adaptations when we visited the Addams Media, but that is detracting from my "Wednesday Addams is not ok with murder, nor is her family" rant.
#shower thoughts#rants#long post#media analysis#media literacy#the addams family#wednesday netflix#wednesday addams#pop culture#fandom meta#wenclair#anti wyler#I also think that the whole romanticizing serial killers trend plays into things but I would rather not open that can of worms
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BL & Critical Analysis
Pop culture critique & a how to do it... or something
This meaty question came from the lovely @huachengeye Thank you!
Codicil: I do not get paid for pop culture critique (although I once wrote book reviews professionally, long story). So I’m entirely a dilettante.
The Question!
Q1: Can you can shed some light on your process (of critical analysis)
This is a little like training your eye to edit a document (I bet you can tell that's not one my strong points). Or training your mind to look at data and data collection in terms of the results it may yield and what the initial survey says about the questioner's bias (or can bias results).
First, I have to ask...
Do you really want to train your eye to critique?
Because it will become a lot harder to immerse yourself in a piece of media if you constantly feel obligated to step back mentally and think about it from various perspectives.
In other words, you may enjoy BL, or all live action dramas, LESS if you try to think about them critically.
I have an intimate who is a pretty well known writer. She mostly writes humorous fiction. She's open about the fact that this means every time she laughs, she stops and thinks about why that happened and whether is could be used in her prose. She never gets to be fully absorbed by narrative ever anymore because her critical eye is always turned on, especially for the written word.
What you may sacrifice for critique, is a certain level of childish wonder.
I’m not sure i would necessarily advise doing this.
My Process
My process is essentially now visible in this blog. As I watch a show I take a few notes on it (which show up in the weeklies) and then at the end I go through those notes, consolidate, try to be witty about it, and write up a review.
The review usually has something about:
characters, tropes, plot
narrative & story structure & pace
how this BL fits in with the greater BL genre & history
any thoughts I have on the quality of the production, acting, and/or directing
my own personal feelings about the show
Thus my reviews tend to take into account several criteria.
For #1-2 I have a background in lit crit as an undergrad (and, like I said, I did once review books for a living) so these are kinda ingrained in me. I’m working on seeing the influence of soap operas, fan fic, and non-western story structures as critically valid, so these are the things I’m actively learning more about the most these days.
For #3: How does this fit into the history of BL? Since I’ve made it point to watch pretty much all BLs, I feel like I’m set up to think and talk about this. AKA the spreadsheet made me do it. But since I also have anthropology in my academic history, I’m very interested in how a BL represents for its country’s BL oeuvre. I try to judge KBLs against other KBLs (and Kdramas) and look for patterns and trends in how that country’s interpretation of what it “means to be BL” shift over time.
For #4: my IRL job is tangential to the entertainment industry so that’s accidentally trained my eye for film. I don’t know that I like this part about myself, but it’s happened whether I like it or not. And I don’t have a proper background in film critique.
Final #5: will discuss further in a bit.
Suggestion? Establish A Rating System
Come up with your own personal 10 star (or 5 star) rating system.
Write it down. Don’t be afraid to modify or adjust it. It’s yours, your tastes change, nothing is set in stone.
Pick one ideal example BL for each category that you’re very familiar with for your reference point. Then you can ask yourself, after you’ve watched a new one, whether you liked it more, less, or about the same as that show. (relative rating, similar to grading on a curve)
I change my examples regularly as my taste changes and as new BLs are added. The bar gets shifted, so to speak.
My Rating System
Your reasoning for rating a BL will be different from mine, but here’s mine as an example.
(Also I never feel bound by this, sometimes I give a show a 8/10 just because it feels like that’s what it deserves.)
10/10 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - my favorite precious squee!, faithful to tropes, happy ending, good chemistry, few flaws, high rewatch potential, makes me happy, examples: Semantic Error, Until We Meet Again
9/10 ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED - loved it and good rewatch potential but probably a few pacing issues or one big flaw, still made me feel good/comforted, examples: Cherry Magic, Bad Buddy
8/10 - RECOMMENDED - some concerns around tropes (like dub con) or story structure/filming but still satisfies as BL, moved me emotionally, rewatchable in parts or not rewatchable but important, examples: Love By Chance, Between Us
7/10 - RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS - i.e. isn’t quite BL, convoluted, not strictly HEA, too short/long, and/or chemistry issues, may have impact on other BL fans but not me (or on me but not others) examples: Make it Right, KinnPorsche
6/10 - WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED - probably around the ending or in narrative structure/cohesion or censorship, disappointed expectations, unlikely to rewatch, examples: My Gear and Your Gown, Love Mechanics
5/10 - WATCH IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO - but don’t expect much, it’s a total hot mess interesting only because it's BL and I'm probubly pretty conflicted about it, examples: Advance Bravely, Even Sun
4/10 - FATALLY FLAWED - but still basically BL, however... do we want to support this kind of behaviour? examples: Precise Shot, Work from Heart
3/10 - I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM WATCHING AND NEITHER DOES IT, just seriously why did this get made? examples: Blue of Winter, Physical Therapy
2/10 - IT'S DEPRESSING - they killed/tortured/etc the gay, save yourself, examples: The Effect, HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count
1/10 - IT'S AWFUL, I WATCHED IT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO, has all the flaws of 4-3 plus something even more egregious, personally triggering, example: My Bromance series, Round Trip to Love
dnf - self explanatory, but usually I drop because I feel like the narrative is already a #3 and/or headed for a #2 or #1 and then I’m told later that is went there, example: My Tempo
I hand out the fewest 1s & 10s. The most 8s and 7s. Everything else is pretty much on the bell curve you’d expect.
Q2: What resources do you use to build your reviews?
I listen to a lot of pop culture review critiques in podcast form, often about stuff I'd never watch. But I like the way professionals talk about these things, even if they aren't MY things or don't jive with my personal opinions.
Mark Kermode is my favorite film critic and we like the opposite stuff, but the way he talks about film is very interesting to me. His podcast mini series on the "business of film" is probably one of my must listens. For his main podcast (Kermode & May’s Take), I always skip over all the interviews, people talking about their own films bore me to death (especially if they are actors on the promo junket, save me please). His rants are some of my favorites of all time (try Pirates 3 or Iron Man 2). Someone else’s list.
I also like Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR because it brings in multiple perspectives and varied cast of critics who often disagree and the "things making me happy" is a grab bag of fun.
The Bechdel Cast is a feminist critique podcast from Hollywood insiders and they do recaps as well as critique, and it's always fascinating to me to hear what people latch onto in a narrative. However, I only listen if I am already familiar with the film they are discussing.
My background is in anthropology and I've lived all over the world so that helps train me to think in terms on culture's impact on narrative as well as linguistics and so forth. As a personality I’m also quite reserved and deadpan, grumpy, stiff, strict, and kinda cold. I think I gravitate to being an observer and an outsider which helps if you want to analysis stuff. Which is not a claim to objectivity, I don't think there can be objective analysis of pop culture.
But it does make me pause to think, "that made me FEEEL something" why? What am I feeling? How did the actor do that? The script? The direction?
These shows are meant to entertain, whether they are successful or not, for me (and what "successful entertainment" means to me) and how they are doing it is the first question I always ask myself.
Q3: What are the things you look out for when watching a BL?
I ask myself a lot of things I would when looking at any piece of art. Or even when shopping for clothing or a new car or reading a book.
Did I like it? Why did I like it?
Did it move me? Why did it move me?
Did I react? How did I react? To which bits? Why?
What tropes and narrative beats was it using to manipulate me and my expectations? Did it meet those expectations? The promises it set up at the start? Did it fulfill the watcher-contract during the course of the narrative?
Did the filming successfully telegraphy the journey I was meant to take? Did the actors?
But also... would I rewatch it? Am I tempted to do so the moment it ends? For which bits?
The statistician in me wants to point out that these questions say a lot more about me and my relationship to art than it does about the art itself.
For example
Did I like it? Means... I'm motivated by pure taste and personal preference and complete subjectivity. This is in part formed by a person's background, life state, whole experience with culture and pop culture and society, family, friends. Taste is also just "that" bit. You know, that bit? Likes lemon deserts over chocolate ones, gravities to spicy food, favorite color is green, decorates with potted plants. Just my taste is my taste. I like what I like.
Yes I have some criteria that subconsciously come into play: I look for clever story structure, subversion or manipulation of tropes, parody, not hitting any of my dislikes (like dub con). But also I have other biases impacting whether I like it (like physical appearance) which I can try to check but usually can't fix. (For example GMMTV's Gawin/Fluke looks so much like an ex of mine I really struggle with his screen presence.)
Did I like it?
The fact that this is the first question I ask myself also should tell you I'm motivated by the emotion these narratives engender. I want them to transport me and move me. I my case I want to feel comforted and satisfied and happy. The ones the make me feel discomfort, especially for too long in the narrative, I am simply going to like less. Sometimes less than I feel like I should (see my struggles with masterworks like ITSAY, YNEH, or The 8th Sense). The very BLs that most professional critics would tout as the best examples of the genre for a wider audience often turn out to be the ones I struggle with the most. (They are also, fortunately for me, the least representative of the bulk of the genre.)
In other words there is ALSO a part of me that genuinely likes and enjoys the trashy stuff. Even the trash I trash watch.
So I would advise you to come up with your own questions. Ask yourself what you want from these shows when you watch them.
What motivates you?
Why are you watching them at all?
What brings you joy from an art or entertainment experience?
What do you want them to do for you? To you?
You are going to experience them (and therefore analyze them) from this perspective whether you like it or not. So understand yourself is paramount. It's about your relationship to the art, not the art itself.
If I were to give you an assignment I would say start with one BL you really enjoyed, perhaps not your favorite but one level down. And then do one you really did not enjoy. And think about why...
Happy analyzing!
(source)
#bl analysis#bl critique#flim critique#bl industry#industry insider#film analysis#bl reviews#bl review#relationship between viewer and show#The 8th Sense#why do I like it#why do you like it#feelings nothing more than feelings#feminist critique#The Bechdel Cast#Pop Culture Happy Hour#Mark Kermode#recommended podcasts#Semantic Error#Until We Meet Again#Cherry Magic#Bad Buddy#Love By Chance#Between Us#Make it Right#KinnPorsche#My Gear and Your Gown#Love Mechanics#Advance Bravely#Even Sun
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My t swift posts rarely make a splash but if I may get on my soap box to compare two lyrics from “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” rq
Regardless of my thoughts on the rest of the song, “I was tame, I was gentle ‘till the circus life made me mean/don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth” is an AMAZING pair of lyrics. It’s effective, heart wrenching, and incredibly visual. The kinda line that makes you run your tongue over your own teeth to make sure they’re all still there. It’s almost a tear jerker and it’s one of Taylor’s specialties: a highly specific line that becomes universal in the way that so many people, specifically women, feel silenced and traumatized by what life has done to them.
Compare this to “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.” Which should be just as effective, but I don’t think it is. Partly because it’s more accusatory in tone but mainly because it almost IMMEDIATELY became a meme. Taylor nation was posting the pic of the five holes in the fence with this lyric. And yeah, if you find one you relate to, it can be a funny meme. But it adds a little bit of corniness or millennial style humor to a song that insists on taking itself completely seriously. Like women were stabbed in the brain and killed in asylums, you just didn’t get tickets for a concert.
Now obviously Taylor wasnt raised in an asylum but she’s never been in a circus either but she really only received backlash for the asylum line. Circuses and asylums can both be places of incredible abuse but, personally, I think the circus is a much more apt metaphor for the entertainment industry. It embodies the often cannibalistic nature of celebrity along with the call of the spotlight.
Throughout this whole album Taylor keeps trying to evoke the “crazy poet locked in an asylum” imagery and I just don’t think it works for her. It’s an image that removes her agency in a life that she 100% chose and built for herself. She is much more the circus performer who feels they can never quit than she is a clinically insane patient in a hospital. WAOLOM loses its effectiveness when it stops being a lament on the trials of the entertainment industry and instead becomes an insistent whine that Taylor swift the individual will always be the victim.
#the circus like tells you what happened and you infer that she’s suffered and feel sympathy#the asylum line says that you will never suffer as much as her and you think about it for two secs and realize that’s just not true#I will give her a little grace because she is certainly not the first person to cartoonify mental health#like pop culture has watered down asylums etc a lot in recent years#taylor swift ttpd#like she’s sooooo close to the point#Taylor swift#ttpd#the tortured poets department#the tortured poets dept#who’s afraid of little old me#song analysis#lyric analysis#ts ttpd#waolom
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