#-when it expanded the world an important character and our understanding of WHY severance even exists is wild

[zuzu-romeave]

“this episode could’ve been an email” WHY DO YOU HATE STORYTELLING SO MUCH!!! WHY DO YOU HATE WORLD BUILDING AND GETTING ANSWERS AND EXPLORING CHARACTERS!!!!

[hopepaigeturner]

Will, Alice and the Question of Class

I’ve already explained a couple of my thoughts here about S3 subplots. And done a prior review of the Mondriches here.

Essentially:

I was disappointed that the only working class family in Bridgerton got sucked up into the upper-class and is now like every other character in the entire show.

Will and Alice’s storyline could have been used to show the rigid structures of class system in Bridgerton (more here). Will and Alice's ostracization from the ton, rather than acceptance, could have been explored therefore not only expanding the world but also letting the audience understand the stakes that Benedict and his working-class love interest will face in the next season. And give these two actors some meat to get their teeth into.

But also, and I think a bit more sinister, is how the writers positioned the conflict for the Mondriches.

The main conflict with Will and Alice becoming upper-class was initiailly portrayed as Will needing to give up his club as people of the ton would look down on him being a businessmen. (And truthfully there probs would have been stuff like that). In the first conversation/mention it was made clear that it was the rigid, prejudiced societal expectations that were causing this conflict.

Here’s the exchange from S3E2

“Mr Mondrich if you wish to be a part of society you must know, you cannot continue to run this place. Memebers of society do not work” “Does being a part of this world not man freedom to do what I like?” “Everything has limits.”

(Another little detail I think is worth pointing out. I find it interesting that the person who spouted all about the freedom of the ton to Will was a white moneyed man from a generationally titled family-Benedict Bridgerton. While the person to show Will the reality was a black Lord who was given his title by QC. I def don't think that is a coincidence. See! The writers do have some awareness yet why does it not extend to class?)

However, after that first mention, the narrative around this conflict shifted. The conflict shifted and became about Will’s struggles with letting go of the past.

See Alice and Lady Danbury Scene in E4

Alice M: “I did not wish to miss another ball, but I also was not looking forward to coming here alone.” Lady D: “Your husband should be here with you.” AM: “Mr Mondrich seems to be having a hard time relinquishing our old life no matter how hard I tug at him, he’s quite attached to his bar.” LD: “The Queen will not smile favourably on a man of ran working in a club. You must show Mr Mondrich that this new life is worth his sacrifice.”

If you look at Lady Danbury’s delivery of the line “your husband should be here…” it is slightly accusatory. Alice’s words signify that it’s Will’s personal choice that is leading to the tension between them.

Suddenly its not the prejudiced class system, its Will who is the problem.

And then the writers go further. Will’s indecision is the one affecting the family.

As Alice says in S3E5:

“Your ledgers will not miss you but your family will.”

At the engagement evening when talking about their daughter riding a horse  “All I could think was…I wish her father were her to see this.”

And this is how the conflict continues to be presented. Will’s conflict around past vs. present becomes club vs. family. Will’s decision to cling onto his past and working class roots is making him a bad father.

It’s framed that its It Will’s choice that is hurting the family.

So ofcourse he should give up the club! Why is he dawdling??? Family is more important than business!

And ofcourse they’re right but…do you see it?

The real problem here is the BS societal structures of the ton where class divides are as defined as a knife edge, meaning the only way to traverse them is to sever yourself from one to another.

Class structure is the real reason for Will and Alice struggle this season. The class structure, that prioritises lineage over labour, you could even say family over labour, is the problem here.

Yet this problem and this conflict is all framed as being Will’s fault.

And yes this is a fantastical romance show where five different styles of fashion are somehow all present at the same time—I don’t expect razor sharp class critique.

Like so much other media, both entertainment and otherwise, it’s a Bridgerton plays into the overarching narrative that the problems faced by underprivileged individuals are their fault rather than the societal/cultural structures that actually cause these problems. (Hit me up if you need examples).

And even worse? I bet the Bridgerton writer had no idea what they were saying with this storyline. I bet it was much easier to write this storyline in this way because it is easier to blame people than the structures intermingling with them. And therefore, it is easier for the privileged who sit on the throne of these societal structures to solve problems—just have the victims pay the price themselves.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Now, I probs need to go and grab some jasmine tea.

[katiica1412]

How I fell in love with the Trigun franchise.

This essay ist mostly intended for those who know at least one installment of the Trigun franchise and are wondering if they should check out the others, but mostly it's about the personal journey I had with this series. It's not meant to analyze the series in any deep fashion, because I think that would take weeks or months and several rewatches/rereads.

It's just about my feelings.

I wrote this on a whim but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Consider it a love letter. Also because it is inevitable, this contains heavy spoilers, especially for Trigun Stampede, you have been warned.

Trigun Stampede was a series I was actually pretty interested in, when it was announced. A reboot of a big name that is often mentioned in the same breath as Cowboy Bebop, which I hadn't seen yet either, but everyone had some kind of big respect for it, so it mattered.

Then it was even being animated by one of the most promising studios in recent years. Studio Orange, who are the runner-ups for 3D-anime with their amazing blend of 2D-animation and CGI.

So what could possibly go wrong here? At first absolutely nothing.

The pilot episode had everyone on the edge of their seats and left most people flabbergasted. I still consider it one of the best pilots I've seen in recent years. It looked gorgeous and sold me on the main character pretty quickly.

But the main goal seemed ….not too complex..... and even a bit too��. straightforward for my taste.

An evil twin brother.

A simple good versus evil story, I thought.

Then episode 3 came along and introduced the villain doing his glorious evil deeds in an extravagant fashion. But something was off. Our main character was blamed by the townspeople, even though he meant for the best? But you couldn't even be mad at the people because they were understandably devastated? The story all of a sudden got more layers. But I didn't get how important that dilemma would become in the long run.

I didn't get it.

I didn't get how much it would make me feel…..

The next episodes I enjoyed moderately.

I was watching weekly, so I enjoyed some of them more then others. I still was a bit irritated by the plot, even if I quite enjoyed the setting.

But they were seemingly wandering aimlessly on that desert planet.

I mean, eventually Vash and Knives would have to face each other…..but I didn't get what the story was trying to do until then.

Even when Wolfwood was introduced, I still hadn't understood. He was incredibly likeable and played off with the main cast very well. His backstory was told so beautifully in episode 6. Episode 8 was another highlight for me. We were finally getting a wonderfully flashed out backstory for Vash that made him so much more rounded. It was also greatly expanding on Knives' motives.

But then the episodes after…….I didn't feel it anymore….

I don't even know why.

Maybe I fell into that seasonal anime burnout, maybe I was just down…..depressed, call it what you will….

I didn't like watching Meryl and Roberto.

The dialogues irritated me and I was just frustrated I couldn't enjoy it anymore.

But then….

Then came Vash's dream sequence.

The flower garden lightening up in a beautiful red.

Rem standing at the tree in the middle.

A little Vash running towards her.

Jumping into her arms.

Smiling.

Her arms caressing him, and him feeling the safest, the most loved he has ever been.

…and I…

I felt that too. It was like an epiphany. I finally understood the core. It was like I was blind then began to see.

It was such an overwhelming content feeling.

I saw Rem being painted as mother earth. This story was about our world.

Their world.

About humanities' exploitation of the nature, of each other.

About the human condition as a whole, about hate, if everything could be overcome, but most significantly...

…about love and peace.

In its center was Vash who embodies it all, fights for it, even if he doesn't like it, and carries his message through the world, but at the same time it's about him experiencing the greatest cruelty because of his circumstances.

But holy fuck it didn't even stop there…… The most impressive thing had yet to come. The final episode. It's never been the same for me after that.

All of a sudden this show showed all its christian inspired glory! NOT ONCE I thought about this series as christian inspired… NOT ONCE. UNTIL THEY LITERALLY SHOWED US TWO FALLEN ANGELS FIGHTING OVER THE POWER OF GOD. EVEN THOUGH WOLFWOOD LITERALLY CARRIES A CROSS THE WHOLE SHOW SYMBOLIZING HIS SINS, YEAH I WAS BLIND.

After I saw that, I saw them everywhere! The motives! Every fucking where!!! Especially in Vash.

"Even if they hunt me! I'll just run away! I'll run, run, run, and keep running as far as i have to! And when things calm down, I'll quietly settle by their side again! I'm Vash the Stampede!"

I enjoyed all that symbolism immensely. I wouldn't consider myself the most religious person, but I have been raised in a Christian household and I do want to believe in the lessons of mercy, love and charity, like Vash does. I know, I'm probably oversentimental right now, but ...in the end this franchise made me feel...it wasn't wrong to think that way.

And that's not even all the series has to offer….it's overall a philosophical playground about morality.

So there was no escaping it, I had to know more about this story now.

The next thing I did was binging the 1998 anime by Madhouse. It has a very different approach to things, but it built on the aforementioned themes in a magnificent way. The presentation of the designs and setting were a lot more Western-genre-oriented and now I think, they're even better suited to make the themes shine.

After all Stampede was more leaning into the modern sci-fi elements and mostly focusing on the main brotherly conflict and the lore surrounding it, probably due to time contraints.

This version showed us a little more of the people living on this planet, and their unavoidable struggles. Different stories about people's dependance on others and the little resources they needed to survive.

This Trigun world was more painted as a world, where the crime rate was incredibly high, everyone has to carry a gun and unnecessary duels happen everyday. A cruel place to believe in such a thing as mercy. A place where more villains actively want to break Vash and make him turn on his pacifistic ideals.

Ironically this iteration had a lot of funny moments as well, it was easier to become attached to the characters that way.

It was also a great way of filling me in on a lot of information the reboot left open or still hadn't explored.

Vash was an even more conflicted character here and accompanied with Wolfwood's inner struggles, those two make the perfect antithesis to each other and Knives. Knives in this iteration could hardly be called a character at all. He feels more like a MCGuffin, even if he still gets a minimum share of development.

In the end this anime made me feel a lot of different emotions and with all its great fitting original content managed to tell a beautiful coherent narrative with a beautiful finale that leaves everyone satisfied.

Everyone but me….because I knew there was more :D

Something was still missing here….a lot of the lore regarding the twins and history of this planet that was explained in Stampede wasn't here.

So it was time for me to get to the best part. The finished source material by Yasuhiro Nightow himself.

Trigun and especially the sequel Trigun Maximum.

Imagine it that way.

If you take the best things of both animes and mash them together, this is what you get.

That's one of the reasons those two series complement each other so well.

Oh boy, where do I begin.

This one is daaaark.

If you thought the trauma presentation and villainous encounters in the other two animes were already hard to swallow, this shit's going to destroy you. It did me. I never knew how much underlying sadness a character and I could endure. But also at the same time Vash was the same as his 98 anime counterpart, witty, a jokester, an incredible gunman sure of his capabilities, an incredibly caring hero with ideals worth following, but also a tragic hero.

"What am I supposed to do?

I don't know anymore..."

This iteration shows all of the aspects of his character the other two already had, but also a lot more...

The same with Wolfwood and Knives.

It finally establishes Wolfwood as the second protagonist he has always been, as the 98 anime does introduce him way later in ratio with the lenghth of the manga. We spend more time with him.

Although Knives has a lot more charisma in Stampede, here he has a much more flashed out motive and plan. He seems the most threatening here.

Even his followers all get the time they deserve, Trigun Maximum is where Legato Bluesummers is the craziest he will ever be!

Since this story had enough time to be flashed out, they make the journey longer and harder for all the characters, and the moral dilemmas more complex.

The attention to detail is at the highest it has ever been and the fights and action scenes are a sight to be hold, ….including gore and unsettling imagery throughout.

It works a lot with atmosphere and auras the characters radiate, it doesn't overexplain anything and has some of the best one liners I've ever read, some of them the anime adaptations obviously used as well.

The scale feels enormous by the end, so much so that it overwhelmed me emotionally sometimes…..

If Trigun Stampede really plans to follow this at least a bit, we are in for a visual treat.

But even if they succeed and make it their own, which they, in my opinion already did, the sheer amount of missing content that needed to be adapted to give it the same emotional debth as the manga seems just too great for just another cour… Whatever happens I will be there and support it.

I also have a few things I only briefly want to mention.

Meryl and Milly are awesome. They don't have a big role to play, but it's sufficient. Love them.

The action scenes and visual presentation in all of the iterations, but mostly in the manga, are nuts. The weapons and fighting choreographies are crazy and inventive, thus really enjoyable and infectious.

Legato is the best villain in this story, sorry Knives, of course you're doing well too.

No, I don't ship Vashwood, but I understand why some would.

And lastly, over the studiing of this franchise I grew incredibly attached to Vash. He is probably one of the best protagonists I've ever watched growing.

By now, I have watched Trigun Stampede three times, in sub, german dub and english dub. I have watched Trigun (1998) two times, in sub and in german dub. And last week I have finished reading Trigun Maximum the second time.

In the span of five months.

It never got boring…. And I don't see me letting go of this series anytime soon.

Thanks for reading!

[uncle-fruity]

Okay, so this is kinda like a few separate things. If you're trying to encourage kids to enjoy reading, you probably don't want to start with Dickens. But if a kid ends up really liking big caricature type characters and somewhat grim coming of age stories that touch on classism, then you can point them towards certain Dickens novels when their reading improves to that point. At the same time, a book like Their Eyes Were Watching God is a little more accessible than the thick prose of Dickens, so it's very much a case of figuring out which classics might actually appeal to kids if you're trying to get them to read classics outside of school. And then there's stuff like Alice in Wonderland, which is a classic that was actually written for children, and might be more fun to read than something like Moby Dick. But I think the main thing is not shaming kids for wanting to read some types of books over others, or enjoying certain genres. I think, when it comes to independent reading, kids should be able to read whatever they want. From there you can find the things they like and see if you can match them with classics they might also like, if that's your goal.

But classics *are* important for several reasons, even if they're not the best way to introduce kids to the concept of reading for fun. I think the person above me is right that too often we equate classics with white authors -- often because the people who are compiling the lists of the most important literature are often white & privileged. And, historically, the people who had greater access to publishing and distribution were white. However, I think it is a mistake to assume that when we say "classics" we are only talking about classics written by white folks. Nora Zeale Hurston is not white. Langston Hughes is not white. Maya Angelou is not white. Ralph Ellison is not white. Murasaki Shikibu, Matsuo Bashō, Frederick Douglas, W. E. B. Du Bois, Laura Esquivel, Toni Morrison... None of them are white. Admittedly, they are often overlooked in education in favor of white authors, but it's not because the classics themselves don't include POC, but rather because the POC who wrote literature that would later be considered classics are under-represented in the classroom. So, I think when we're talking about the classics, it's important to understand who is recommending what to you and why. Personally, I think it's a little racist to imply that the category of "classics" merely refers to white people lit, as opposed to expanding your knowledge of which classics written by POC exist and trying to promote those more often to make it so we associate the classics with more non-white lit.

Finally, as a person who loves to read classic lit of all kinds, the thing about reading classics is that their importance is multifaceted. It's good to build critical thinking & analysis. It's good to get an idea of the foundation of literature that a lot of our contemporary faves were inspired by. It's good to get a sense of historical opinions and lifestyles -- again, not just from white authors, but from *all* types of writers, because that will give you a wider understanding of the same topic from different perspectives. This can also provide context for some of the systemic issues we have today -- knowing the history of what the system is built on, how much we've changed since then, and what we haven't changed helps us unpack everything and address things happening in the current era with some idea of why it's like that, and how it got to be like that. Classic literature provides important context for our world AND contemporary literature. It's not necessarily about the lessons the classics are trying to teach us (although they can be good lessons sometimes), but more about how the classics have impacted culture & society and how some classics can give you a more intimate understanding of old timey cultures & lifestyles represented within them. I feel I could go on, but I need to go eat instead of nerding out.

In short: yay reading! Read what you want when you read for fun! But also yay classics! They may be boring if you're just starting out, but there is so much that they offer beyond baseline entertainment! And booo racism -- if your teachers are only assigning you literature written by white people, challenge that. There's a lot to read out there! Best of luck, potential future bookworms!

people will read books they Do Not Like™ and then wonder why they hate reading