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practically-an-x-man · 5 days

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more thoughts about Wish:

Chris Pine has the best voice acting in this movie by far. Dude could be a legitimately scary villain if the animation wasn't so goofy

I'm telling you dude, the man is acting his ass off but the script and animation style are just ruining all the emotion he's giving

Alan Tudyk is also putting in the work but the script is not working in his favor

Evan Peters needs more lines. His character is legitimately interesting, a young guy who just gave up his wish and is now weirdly lethargic all the time, but they don't explore it enough

Speaking of the animation, it felt very inconsistent. With the King especially we'd get like... one cool moment (like him stopping the globes during his solo song) but then it's immediately cut by these goofy Nimona-as-Ballister type motions

The facial expressions are generally overblown, past the point of "animation stretching the rules" and into "this just looks goofy"

Like I said before, it feels like a patchwork of a dozen other, better Disney movies. My dad and I were watching this going "Tangled. Brave. Frozen. Peter Pan. Mulan."

The third act is like... Rise of the Guardians meets that one scene in Trolls where they sing True Colors

The music is just inconsistent. I think it mainly comes from the fact that they had a pop singer/songwriter do the music rather than a musical theatre composer, there aren't any consistent themes or leitmotifs and it leaves everything feeling very disjointed.

Some of the songs on their own are decently catchy but they just feel like they're trying way too hard

The dialogue is the same way. It serves a purpose but it doesn't quite feel natural or human. Some characters are worse than others and the VO work plays a role but the script itself is just awkward

I think they've just set up too many characters here. If they took two people out of Asha's friend group it would leave more room to develop the others. As it is, I don't remember their names and I have no idea what they want

Except for Asha since she's the main character and Simon because he's the only one who stands out from the rest (again, really interesting character! drastically underutilized!)

Feels like the talking animals are only a thing because it's a Disney movie. Valentino I understand, animal sidekicks are a classic, but the chickens and squirrels and mice are just too much

As a whole there's just... no substance in it. It feels like they've tried to make The Disney Movie and just started making it without even deciding on the themes or characters' journeys at all

It is a heaping pile of deus ex machinas. Every single problem in this movie is resolved in some cheeky little deus ex machina, solely for the sake of a stupid joke or a cheap reference to another Disney reference

If you're gonna copy Lin-Manuel Miranda's composition style anyway... just hire Lin-Manuel Miranda. At least he knows how rhyme schemes and leitmotifs work

This movie is so fucking trite it makes me legitimately angry

Good points I guess (because I refuse to dish on a movie without pointing out something decent about it):

Some of the songs are kinda catchy

There are a few powerful moments of animation, mostly with the King

There are little gold character moments here and there: the King's desperation for power, Simon's character as a whole, Asha's selflessness sparking the initial wish, etc.

Some of the voice acting is legitimately good!

The concept itself is interesting, a King who hoards wishes to make himself more powerful. It had the grounds to be a much better movie, it just didn't act on them very well

The diversity in this movie is genuinely good! We see various demographics of people - race, gender, physical build, disability, etc. - and there's not much "Disney same face syndrome" like we've gotten in other movies.

#out of the two wish-themed movies with harvey guillen in them... yeah no i'm just gonna watch puss in boots

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zapsoda · 1 year

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the lion king remake and the ideas which produced it are so inherently anti-art. even beyond the simple fact that it came into being just as another "wahh captalism" soulless cashgrab remake. in other shitty disney remakes, you can see there is at least a twinge of artistic merit.

for example, in aladdin, wilson smith, though he was certainly cast because of his name, *is* capable of singing and acting, and the movie sort of molds to fit his version of the character. his presence shapes the artwork rather than being merely incidental or thoughtless. hell, hes still fucking blue. the movie still has a touch of whimsy as a silly musical about magical stuff should be.

the mulan remake, which was notably shitty and bad, at the very least had thought behind it. the people who worked on it wanted to do something different with their movie, they had goals and made meaningful changes, even if those changes were meaningfully bad.

the lion king doesnt have that shit. the kid who plays simba can sing but not act. john oliver cant act for shit, he is a talkshow host. the celebrity who plays adult nala has only been cast in movies *because* she is a famous celebrity. this cast, save for the few exceptions, is made up of big names at the expense of its art and effectiveness as a movie. who needs artists? who needs voice actors, when you have famous people?

all of the whimsy inherent to a *musical* about *talking cats* is sucked out because the director had this vision of making a "documentary." the lion king isnt suited to a fucking documentary. animals in documentaries dont sing and dance and perform hamlet. by using this framework to tell a fanciful story of royalty you are only making it worse and less impactful.

why in the hell should this be a documentary anyway? why dont you fly out to eswatini and actually film a documentary? whats the point of working animators to the bone to make a shitty one at home in la?

this director, john favreau, who i feel i should add is notable for his work on the marvel franchise, has said that 2d animation is something of the past, and is only used at this point in time for the sake of nostalgia, as though animation isnt an art form. to this man, 2d animation isnt a medium art is produced in, its an outdated technology, and i think this really speaks for a lot of the decisions he made within the lion king.

in the directors commentary especially, he himself admits that he sacrificed the story and visual appeal of the movie for the sake of "realism," for the sake of making it more documentary-esque, yet he arbitrarily contradicts this in the most absurd ways. the animals in the movie, because they are designed so that "realism" is prioritized are entirely incapable of making human facial expressions, yet because it is the lion king the sing and it looks weird as shit, because real lions' mouths cant movie in the same way humans' can.

scenes that are intended to bring out emotion come off as sterile, almost comedic. john tries to combat this saying the emotion comes out in "the color of the dirt" and "the way the backlighting makes the fur glow," which is just fucking insane. if you watch the movie you will see that he isnt referring to any dynamic coloring or lighting techniques, as it is animated to be as "realistic" as possible. in fact, the dirt he is talking about is just fucking dirt colored, and the fur is backlit and almost "glows" because true realism would mean you couldnt distinguish the characters from the background, so john allowed this artistic liberty to be taken.

furthermore, the beauty and atmosphere found in the original lion king are completely absent from this remake, which is strange, isnt it? the idea that nature is beautiful and deserving of reverence isnt an idea manufactured by the artists who worked on the original lion king, yet the settings found in this remake come across as washed out and lifeless with that ever-present, almost fluorescent white sunlight.

favreau has explained that when he watches movies and something like the sky is too beautiful, he is taken out of it, as something like that is "too lucky" in the real world, and therefore unrealistic. as such, he wanted the skies in his movie to be as cold and blank as possible throughout.

i pity this man who has never been able to see the sunrise or sunset, or the stars peppering the night sky, even one day in his life. or perhaps he has, and he thinks that the days in which he doesnt happen to look at the sky, it must look empty and cold.

all this is to say, it saddens me. i dont like the ideology behind the creation of this movie. i dont like john favreaus ideas about movies and i dont like the precedent it might have set with how much money it made. movies are an art form. animation is an art form. the original lion king is the result of so many artists putting their heart and their skill together to make a really fuckin bangin piece of art that *still* moves people emotionally to this day. it was only because of that that anyone even convinced themselves that they were into the new one, and i dont know how i feel about that. i dont think thats very good and i think its sad. some people have said its "this generations lion king." no it isnt. fuck you. this stupid shitty bad movie only has even the crumb of cultural significance that is has because of the original. theres no love or passion in that movie. theres no emotion. fuck you show your kids the original. *drops mic and trips while walking off the stage*

#my art

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practicalmagicintuitions · 8 months

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I don't know if you are aware of the new Snow White drama, but it is really getting people worked up.

I agree with what the majority are saying about Rachel Zegler, her behaviour and interviews, her PR team really needs to prepare her better. But there are some people saying that this backlash did not happen to Harrison Ford when he said he hated his movie, or if a male lead said this as well.

I still think the new narrative and their approach is ruining the original story. Why does every Disney Princess need to be a warrior or a leader? And this is coming from me, my favourite Disney princess is Mulan.

Authenticity is what they are missing in Disney these days. I loved watching Cinderella and Mulan just the same, because the story is original and authentic.

Ohhh, I am very aware 👀

If they refer to the new Indy movie and his comments (or the new SW movies) it’s crucially different and not because he is a man. First of all, those are legendary movies with a shitty sequels, so he can hate it. He doesn’t hate the original ones. RZ did hate the original. Ford is an already established, legendary, legacy actor he can say whatever he wants about his own movies. RZ is still an upcoming, next to no one little girl with an attitude who doesn’t say her opinion on her own movie but someone else’s.

Honestly, I enjoy this drama, because the 🐁 🏠 is in a trouble because their own misjudgment.

As I know even the new Mulan movie was bad, because she was this Mary Sue, a perfect fighter since she was a little girl, while in the cartoon she had to learn those skills.

It’s not just about the warrior and leader stuff, however sometimes it’s particularly dumb. Like what kind of leader SW wanted to be always? (according to RZ) Maybe she can lean a union for the not dwarfs? Jokes aside, it’s so tiring because all of those girl boss characters are as toxic as a toxic man. There is no difference. But somehow we should celebrate the female toxicity because… girl power I guess? Like they are bossy, arrogant, agressive, making nasty jokes, sometimes sexually harassing men etc. I can go on and on and on.

When I watched Barbie I was so touched how sweet she is. Her scene with the old lady or when she is trying to figure it out who is her owner or the end scene with the creator of Barbie. She was flawed, she made mistakes, she own them. That’s why this movie passed 1B. A success Disney movie cannot even dream of lately

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abbyawsome2006 · 13 days

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So I watched Wish last week

I wasn't prepared for it to be as poorly set up as everyone built it out to be- but it was genuinely so weirdly thrown together

So I wanted to rewrite some of the story (I've found out the fandom has done this countless times and I'm way late to the party)

Originally I wanted to try to keep the main storyline and just solve a few plot holes:

Switch Magnifico's villain song with Stay in Line

We get a backstory on Magnifico and he was blessed by a star to be a helper with wishes

(aka what Asha got at the end of the movie)

So that's why he knew the light was caused by someone wishing on a star and why he feels threatened

He went against what he was sent to do by abusing peoples wishes

He does still protect each of them but when someone dies without their wish being granted, the power is given to Magnifico

Because I thought it was odd how quickly he broke the first wish to when he was "addicted" to it

He's already addicted to absorbing them after people pass away

That's why he avoids granting so many wishes each year and why he puts so many limits on which ones he considers

It's only until Asha's mom that he realizes he can crush them and absorb the power quicker

Asha retrieves her grandfather's wish but can't give it back to him

Needs magic to do so?

I found it odd how quickly the queen went against her love

And Asha's amount of friends

All are practically irrelevant except for her best friend and the traitor

His wife watches him consume a wish and use the book to look for possible ways to track the star

And Asha doesn't approach her friends to help her

The queen does

She has already acted like she knew and cared for Asha specifically with the scene before the interview

So she tries to find Asha before Magnifico does

The traitor friend approaches the king oblivious and asking for help to find her

Having a hunch about her because her doubts and her disappearance from the kingdom he makes a deal with him

The same scenario in the original

The end can go down in a similar way

Maybe star is the sole reason that the tower opens and the wishes are on display

I think the end song is complete cringe

So less everyone is part star and more we need to trust ourselves to make our own wishes come true

Why do we entrust someone else to hold and grant them

New song entirely

With everyone gaining the hope and determination to make their own dreams come true, the wishes revive themselves and return to people

Her grandfather's is the last one and she escapes from Magnifico's grasp with it cradled in her arms

Maybe fall off the tower or something?

Mulan esque scene where she hands it back to him

But it refuses to work

And it fades and crumbles

But he's filled with joy and accomplishment

"I remember. Asha, I inspired you. You not only made a change, but you granted my wish."

The stars curse Magnifico for not following the rules they set

Facilier and the shadows vibe reference

Star offers to grant the powers of the wishing star to her because she already proved to only want to help people

But she refused and said people should be able to work towards their own goals and wish upon the stars themselves

If they want a fairy godmother esque scene

A woman's voice talks through the crowd

And says she has officially granted two wishes

Her grandfather's

And her dad's

Who wished for her to trust the stars as much as he did

Anyways, I only based this off the rewrite by that tiktoker

Go give her credit, I love her version

But I will be writing a tie together based off other people's version which include the king and queen being villains together and starboy

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mountain-man-cumeth · 3 years

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What Went Wrong: An In-Depth Analysis of Muriel's Route

*Youtuber voice*

Below are the opinions of an uneducated individual on what could’ve left the majority of The Arcana audience dissatisfied. I will explore the plot, tropes, themes and morals of the Muriel route and try to explain what may have gone wrong. I will be treating the game as a novel since it's advertised as one.

1. Consistency. If you are unfamiliar with the chekhov's gun; it's a story writing principle that dictates each element you introduce should come into play (foreshadowing). Now let's start with a few story beats that were later abandoned or concluded in an underwhelming manner:

Muriel's blanket

Muriel's magic mark (on his back)

Forest spirit (spirits in general)

Lucio's upbringing

Circumstances of MC's death

Figurines/whittling/charms

Muriel's blanket is teased to be a tapestry, which would tie in with his later fascination with them later on, as it had been the only thing he had left from his past. MC neither sees nor comments on the blanket, we only know it exists thanks to other playthroughs and short stories.

Magic marks are an important point in the game. Every main route emphasises on how it affects the chosen LI. It's reveal is important in a way that it serves as a passage to a new act where the reader explores magic and Arcana pantheon as they are a monumental part of the overall worldbuilding. This exact point applies to the Heart of the Forest and how spirits interact with the world around them as well.

Whittling and Charm making are the only hobbies we get from Muriel's isolated life, their introduction helps the reader humanise the character by giving us a crumb of his everyday life. It's never mentioned again after the scene where MC asks him what he does. He doesn't idly whittle during their journey and charms only come to play in an offhanded reference during reversed ending.

The other two are also ignored but I will touch on Lucio later on.

Why do these matter? A few abandoned plot points don't make or break the story but on a grander level it hinders the audience investment. When we read, we like to think the details we notice will come to play eventually, we like recognizing references that were introduced earlier. I'm sure I don't need to give examples on this one, I don't think anyone will disagree.

2. Themes. Thematic influences this story utilized are all over the place, and it seems to me like it stems from the improper application of certain tropes;

The Hero's Journey

Home Sweet Home

Shell-Shocked Vet

Last of His Kind

etc.

Some of these tropes tackle themes such as;

Slavery

PTSD

Survivor's Guilt

Genocide

I'm not going to try to explain How to Write any of these topics. I'm not remotely qualified. I think it's better if I just give examples from popular media because whether you know how to write it or not, you can still understand when it's written well;

AtLA deals with genocide and survivor's guilt. It's in the name; The Last Airbender. Aang is the sole survivor of a culture he'd only had an opportunity to engage in for a handful of years. He left them with a childish tantrum and now they're gone forever. I can't think of another mainstream series that shows the gruesome reality of war and genocide better than this one.

When Muriel realizes his true heritage and loses Khamgalai is the point of the story where Luke sees his family's farm burned down, Aang goes back to the air temple, Treebeard walks in on the demolished part of the forest. (The inciting incident)

(Could also have been forest spirit’s death but it was too early in the story so I don’t consider it a missed opportunity.)

Up until this point the hero has their doubts, they're going through the motions but they are either underestimating the enemy or they're a passive protagonist. Either way, this is the point where the hero has to take the reins of the story. What purpose does this serve in Muriel's route instead? It simply validates Muriel's beliefs. He's useless, he isn't strong enough. We as the reader need a point to see where the hero takes a step to drive the story forward or whoever takes that step will steal the spotlight, it will be their story. As it is, this is the point where it ceases to be Muriel’s story.

PTSD got the worst end of the deal. Since Dragon Age fandom has a huge overlap with the Arcana I will use Fenris as an example; for those who are unfamiliar with the character, Fenris is an escaped slave. After the sex scene he vividly describes an experience that most people can easily identify as a flashback. The game never tells us that he was abused, it doesn’t show us him having a panic attack but it shows us that whatever transpired between him and the player character clearly triggered an unpleasant memory.

Arcana tries and initially succeeds to do something similar. We see that the character is untrustworthy, sensitive to touch, easily agitated, can’t sleep outside of his perceived safe environment… It introduces us the cause later on and the story has two options, each will drastically change the moral of the story:

Remember these as they will be important later on

Portray Muriel fighting as a bad thing; You can’t fight violence with violence angle or the fact that the villain’s forcing him into a situation where he’ll have to fight again makes the villain all the more intimidating.

Portray Muriel fighting as a good thing; He has the means to defeat the villain and he just needs encouragement. With great power comes great responsibility. By not fighting he willingly condemns everyone to an awful fate and that he is selfish.

I’d like to take a second to explore the 1. Option, I feel like the game may have intended to implement that idea but failed because of the implementation of Morga and choices presented for the player character: Morga is an Old-Soldier, these characters are often push the hero out of their comfort zone in an aggressive way towards complacency, they are a narrative foil to the mentor. For the first option to work the story had to show Khamgalai acting as a mentor and having the protagonists challenge Morga’s teachings(see Ozai-Iroh). As it is, Morga’s actions are never put under scrutiny (narratively) and her death feels hollow as a result. She didn’t sacrifice herself for the heroes due to her guilt, she died because she felt a moment of sympathy for her son which wasn’t explored before, she showed no intention to change nor any doubt.

It is clear the game choose 2. Option, it is a controversial choice given Muriel’s mental condition and the game is acutely aware of this, which is likely why Muriel’s PTSD will get carefully scraped from the story from here on out. (I won’t address other instances where his trauma wasn’t taken into account, I feel like this explanation should cover them as well.)

3. Morals. Every story, whether the author intends it or not, has a moral. The Villain most often acts against that moral and in turn can change the hero's perspective. Morals are not ideals; the morality of Killmonger isn’t that marginalised people should fight for their rights, it is that vengeance is just. Whether it’s right or wrong can be debated but what makes an ideal the moral of the story is in the portrayal. How the narrator depicts the events, how people around the heroes react... all are a part of portrayal.

The story choosing “Muriel fighting is a good thing” earlier puts in the foundation of a moral. The story tells us Muriel has to fight, it’s the right thing to do. He has to be brave for the people he loves.

This choice affects how his past actions will be perceived; now, him escaping the arena to save himself is cowardly, abandoning Morga is cowardly.

The story tells us it wasn’t, but shows us that it was. This is the end of the midpoint of the story, at this point we need to have a good grasp on what we should perceive as wrong or right for us to feel invested. If we zig-zag between the morals we won’t know which actions we should root for. But more than that, the conclusion will not feel cathartic as it will inevitably demonstrate the opposing ideals clashing at its climax.

Villain doesn't necessarily have to be sympathetic and Muriel's route makes no effort to make him as such, but they need to be understandable. What danger does Lucio pose to the status quo, what makes him a compelling villain? Whether he conquers Vesuvia or not doesn’t drastically affect Muriel’s way of life, he’s been in hiding for years. He doesn’t threaten to steal MC’s body, Muriel is not compelled to pick up arms to save his beloved. He wants to protect the people from going through what he’s been through, right? That is what the story wants us to think. But what has he been through? Fighting was his choice, Lucio tricked him into it. Lucio later tricked Morga, his own mother, to save his own hide. This tells us that Lucio is a manipulator, but he doesn’t manipulate his way into Vesuvia, he barges in with deus ex machina monsters. He doesn’t demonstrate his skills as a tactician by making deals with neighbouring kingdoms to get their armies. We don’t know his strengths therefore we don’t know his weaknesses. If he seems to be losing he can just conjure a giant dragon to burn everything down, we just can’t know. That is why the application of deus ex machina is highly taboo, the victories don’t feel earned and defeats feel unfair.

4. Tone. Playing with the genre is not uncommon and a game such as Arcana has many opportunities to do so. It is a romance story, everything else is the back-drop. The tone works best when its overall consistent but tonal changes act as shock for the audience to keep them engaged and keeping one tone indefinitely gets us desensitized. We can’t feel constant misery if we are not made to feel tinges of hope in between. Good examples of dramatic tonal change (that I can think of): Mulan - arriving at the decimated village, La Vita e Bella - the father’s death, M*A*S*H - death of Hawkeye’s friend. Two of these examples are mostly comedy which is why this tonal shift affects us so, it was all fun and games until we are slapped in the face with the war going on. There are no one liners in those scenes, the story takes a moment to show appropriate respect to the dead, it gives its characters time to digest and come to terms with loss. Bad examples are the majority of Marvel movies.

In Muriel’s route there’s never such a thing, Muriel has a panic attack and MC kisses him. This unintentionally tells us, the genre being romance, that the panic attack only served to further MC’s advances. It tells us that he’s never had the control of his life and it’s yet again stripped from him by the decisions of player character. This is not the only instance this happens. The story shoe-horns in multiple cuddle sessions between important plot beats. And it does the exact opposite during a moment where he is having a heart-to-heart with the person he loves by having the ghost of Morga appear to give an ominous warning/advice.

When he runs off during masquerade it’s built up to be an important plot point. Muriel will finally face his past, he’s been running away from it all along, and he will have an opportunity to be accepted back in. MC is supportive but ultimately, it’s meant to be Muriel's moment. But as I mentioned above this is not his story anymore so he’s not given any time to address his problems, instead a ghost appears to tell him what he needs to do, again. Because we need to wrap the story up, we don’t have time.

Remember how I said the 2 Options will be important later on, well here we are at the very end. Upright and reversed.

“Portray Muriel fighting as a bad thing”

This suggests that the triumph of Muriel won’t be through violence. Maybe he will outsmart Lucio in a different way, he won’t play his games anymore. This option suggests that Lucio will not be beaten by his own terms.

“Portray Muriel fighting as a good thing”

This option concludes with Muriel finally overcoming his reservations on violence and doing what's right to save the people he loves. And bringing justice to people who Lucio hurt.

If you are wondering why the upright ending feels random, this is likely why. The ending plays out as if the story was building on the 1st option while we spent chapters upon chapters playing out the 2nd one. It is unearned.

(The reversed ending, being reversed, also uses Option 1 path but in which Muriel can’t achieve his narrative conclusion)

The Coliseum is filled with people who are on their side against Lucio’s shadow goons. Because we can’t have people being on Lucio’s side without addressing the duality of human nature, even though it’s an important part of Muriel’s story. The people who watched and enjoyed Lucio’s bloodsport are no more, they are all new and enlightened offscreen. We completely skipped the part where Vesuvia comes to terms with its own complacency and Muriel simply feels at ease because the crowd is cheering on him now. This is what happens when you give the character a chance to challenge those who have been complicit in his abuse (masquerade scene) and completely skip it to move the story along.

Muriel doesn't get justice, ever. The people only love him now because he's fighting for them instead of his own survival. Morga or her clan doesn't answer for the massacre of Kokhuri, Vesuvia doesn't answer for the sick entertainment they indulged in and Lucio doesn't answer for Muriel's enslavement. It is not even acknowledged, nowhere in the story (except the very end of reversed ending, and even then it almost gets him killed so its clearly the wrong thing to do on his part) is a choice presented where Muriel has an opportunity to get any sort of compensation where he instead chooses to move on.

I don’t intend to straw man anyone but this is a sentiment I’ve seen a lot; “It’s a short story, a dating-sim, what do you expect?”

I expect nothing, I’m simply explaining why some people feel how they feel. It is a short dating-sim but it seems to me like it was aiming to be something more by borrowing elements that were clearly far above their weight range to tease something more and under deliver. It is okay to feel content with the story, and it’s okay to feel let down. If we had a unanimous decision on literature we would never be inclined to write our own stories.

#personal #muriel #muriel spoilers #tw: PTSD #tw: trauma #tw: slavery #tw: genocide #karayan

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brb-screaming-over-amphibia · 3 years

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Theories +Wishlist for s3

(these were made before the sneak peak and poster so some is confirmed/non-canon sorry!) Theories:

-I’m thinking that the first ep of Amphibia will have the Plantar family trying to cheer up Anne/get her mind off of things for a bit by going to places she likes (but they keep backfiring bc they’re places she, Sasha, and Marcy all went to) -At the end though, it has Anne find a way to really talk about how she’s feeling and acknowledge that one fun trip to the mall isn’t going to solve everything and that she’s still going to have moments where she’s sad and dealing with her grief but she can always count on her family and friends to be there for her when she needs them -(+ a bonus: don’t forget to live in the moment and appreciate what you have right now moments bc I feel like that’s a huge theme that will be there throughout the season)

-Sasha’s parents are neglectful (I’m thinking they might be rich and busy so that’s why, possibly controlling too), I just think it makes a lot of sense regarding her personality and attitude -them being divorced would make sense too!

-Beach episode!!! BEACH EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (maybe have parallels to Best Fronds???? 👀)

-An episode where Anne tries to find a way to control/channel her powers and at the end a huge attack or something big happens and the Plantars are in danger so she activates them instinctively and figures out how activate them at will

-The Plantars being confused about the names of places (Sprig: ”The Big Apple? But there’s no Big Apple?? And you thought Wartwood was a weird name!”)

-Frobo coming back bc OFC HE IS but i still feel like something bad will happen to him like i feel like there’s some kinda catch but,,,,idk man,,,,,let the big metal baby man be happy and okay -polly saving the day with her legs!!! like,,,,who knows what she can do now,,,,,,,with all this,,,,,,,,,,power,,, -for the christmas ep: maybe Anne missing her friends and wishing they were there? i feel like they probably spent every christmas together ;;; and maybe! sprig and the fam is trying to take her mind off of it! -anne using up her powers and the frog fam + her parents (maybe, depends on when they find out) having to remind her that she’s just a kid and she needs to rest too!!!! set boundaries!!!!! -and on that topic, i feel like anne would blame herself for a lot of what happened too and she keeps pushing herself to save everyone because she couldn’t save Marcy and Sasha but a core theme of the season is to accept that it wasn’t your fault and responsibility (kinda contrasting earlier lessons in s1 and 2 where it was the opposite) and her frog fam + parents (??) will have to help her learn this lesson -IDK THIS IS A LOOSE IDEA but what if!!! Anne has healing powers!!! It’d match her nature aesthetic and also help with the final battle?? Maybe its easier to heal herself than others????? -anne is more protective of sprig + frog fam (??) bc of true colors?? if they do this i will cry

Wishlist:

-more flashbacks of the trio!!! pls!!!!

-flashback of Anne meeting Marcy for the first time?? PLEASE???

-BABY PICTURES OF ANNE!!!! PLS!!!

-Anne going through the five stages of grief (i think if this were to happen, it’d be very subtle but it’d be good to teach to people that it’s okay and that people will mourn in different ways and for different amounts of time!)

-I do love the Sasha’s hair au where she cuts it off Mulan style bc HAIR SYMBOLISM!!! but i still really like the hair she has right now ;; I’d be happy either way though!

-reoccurring gags with the Plantar family meeting real frogs,,,there’s so much potential,,,,,

-LIKE WHAT IF SPRIG ADOPTED A FROG DJFGHSJD (this would be such a weird Goofy and Pluto situation djfgsdjhfgsdj)

-Marcy being freed not too late into the season!! I miss her and I don’t want to see her having a lot less screentime ;;;; (this is rough bc of pacing and stuff like that, I feel like i’d be happy if she was in 7 eps, in person)

-Anne using humor to cope with her TRAUMA (F)

-Anne getting THERAPY BC SHE NEEDS IT

-Anne missing eating bugs in her food (IT’D BE SUCH A FUNNY REOCCURING GAG)

-Flashbacks or family pictures or SOMETHING, ANYTHING regarding Sprig and Polly’s parents!

-The Plantar’s having a way to be able to see Anne regularly after they head home!! BC OTHERWISE I WON’T BE OKAY

-the iconic picture of the trio coming back up again! its been a HOT MINUTE since we’ve seen it and i’d LOVE to see it used in a SUPER emotionally charged scene like!!! what if!!! it was able to bring back Marcy from her possessed form!!!!!

-flashback scenes in the finale detailing all of anne + marcy + sasha’s adventures showing how much this whole ordeal has changed them and those around them!!! i will cry!!!!

-Valeriana coming back to help anne and the trio!!!! heck, a ton of the people who anne helped throughout the show coming back to help her!!!!! I WILL SOB!!!!!!

-MORE OF HOP POP CALLING ANNE HIS GRANDDAUGHTER/FAMILY I WILL LIE ON THE FLOOR AND SOB -anne’s mom mothering sprig and polly BC THEY NEVER HAD THAT AND THEY DESERVE IT, I WILL ABSOLUTELY BREAK D O W N -MORE YOUNG ANNE AND HER PARENTS FLASHBACKS/MENTIONS/PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -NEW OUTFITS FOR ANNE/THE TRIO??? i just want the good fanart please -also, sprig coping with his homesickness with Anne and them comforting each other bc they now both know how each other feel ;;;; (also sprig’s probably worried about wartwood and everyone in amphibia bc of Andriass so hah a that’s great) -BABY DOMINO???????? FLASHBACK TO ANNE FINDING DOMINO??????????? FLASHBACK ABOUT DOMINO MISSING ANNE EPISODE?????????????? those will all kill me instantly, without fail -i would LOVE to have at least a moment where Anne’s mom talks about how it was like before Anne came back, i mean!!! it’s been almost 6 months!!!!! poor thing!!! -IVY AND SASHA BECOMING BESTIES!!!!! IT’D COMPLETE THE FROG TRIO BESTIE TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -the calamity trio patching up each others’ wounds, idk if this could happen but i just WANT IT (fan content is okay too 👀) -more owl house references, thank you

#my stuff #amphibia #amphibia spoilers #amphibia true colors spoilers #amphibia season 2 spoilers #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #sprig plantar #polly plantar #hop pop plantar

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konako · 2 years

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Ruby Slippers could have been so much better than that. Maybe make the storyline longer, and not cram everything into one fucking episode and calling it done????????????????????

Opinions of what they should have done with it?

Agreed! They could have spread that out!!

Before I go into it: I know making a TV Show is hard. I know actors aren't always available (specially when they were once promised to be made regulars only to be pushed aside, forgotten and forced to find new work somewhere else). I know when you're working with the intellectual property of someone else, you don't have as many liberties as you would have normally, I know a network and its need to make money can get in the way of the script process, the filming, directing, editing. I know, I know, I know.

But in an IDEAL world,

working off the material we had up until season five, I sincerely would have made Red Warrior the ship here.

It made more sense for both characters. It made perfect sense, as the Witch's plan to imprison Ruby and leave a cauldron out with the convenient spell to break her free from the Wolf's body, just waiting for her "pack".

It was a pay-off, closure, an exciting happy ending* for Mulan, who deserved so much better!! And it was a perfect partner introduction for Ruby (meeting your True Love in your artificially aggressive wolf body, and being proven that this True Love can handle herself against a wolf and there's no need to fear the worst in the future, maybe)

[*their story wouldn’t end as they kiss, pfffft. I know better than that!]

I would have moved their story to even earlier in the season. I would have made it the B, C, D whatever parallel storyline there, and I would have given them more than two episodes to develop. Maybe every other episode they would have a single scene together, maybe two, maybe a tiny arc, solving the problem of the day — just so we could get a feel of how they were getting to know each other, learning about each other, connecting and working together.

The jump we got from 5x09 to 5x18 was a lot! (Thankfully, I know fandom can make wonders in that gap!) But I would have liked to actually see some development on screen, to then have the big pay-off of a Sleeping Curse. Yes, still that device. Yes, Mulan would fall into one, maybe a sacrificial move, as Mulan often does. Because we need this last reference to her past with Aurora, we need the closure there, and we need her experience to come into play for this. And Ruby would break it, to keep that sweet parallel to Snowing they had in canon — that I wouldn't change a thing of!! I loved it! Keep all the tiny bits comparing Ruby to Charming and Mulan to Snow. Nicknames, bumpy first meeting, working together, sacrifice, Sleeping Curse, True Love's Kiss and the "I always will". All of that! And sprinkle that in the many episodes they would get, have it happen naturally, slowly, before our eyes but under our noses, until it all comes together and you realize, hey! They're just like Snowing! But GAY! I guess gay people really are like normal people, huh!!!

My first option would have been to make Red Warrior happen. But if we can’t, let's work on Red Kansas.

Same thing. Spread it out. Introduce Dorothy way way waaaaaay earlier. Keep her on the entire season, milk Zelena's angst and redemption struggle using Dorothy as reference of her past. Actually use Dorothy as a character! Introduce her properly, give us more mysterious hints about what happened to her after she went back to Kansas, throw in a flashback or two, show us more of her temperament, of her fighting style, of her relationship to Toto, to Oz, to her duty to the people of it. Flesh her character out. And then, after we get one, two or three solo portions of episodes for her character alone, bring BROTP Red Warrior into the mix.

One episode for their meeting and how they do not work well together. Dorothy at least. Notably. Ruby and Mulan are in perfect synch, but Dorothy doesn't work well in a group and she's trying to learn that. She's rude and blunt and she didn't care to learn their names, so when she yelled at Ruby to watch out for a trap, she chose a nickname. Have Ruby stare at her and question it. Have Dorothy poorly explain, blush of embarrassment visible, that she meant no harm by it, she just forgot her name. Then have Ruby laugh at how genuine she sounds, and have Ruby offer Dorothy a nickname back. Hint at the attraction from Ruby's point of view. End the episode with a sweet moment between the three, resting around a fire, Mulan petting Toto, Dorothy explaining Oz to them, fade that out slowly, let us appreciate what's coming next...

Then on to the next episode. Make them face a minor monster/enemy together. Show them learning to integrate Dorothy in their team, show Ruby protecting Dorothy, slow the moment down, have them gaze into each other's eyes, build that moment, cue the music, close-ups and gasping — then have Dorothy, entirely unused to physical and intimate human contact, pull away harshly, sending Ruby mixed signals. Drag that confusing feeling until the last second of the episode, and show us, the audience only, the truth, that Dorothy is just awkward and she likes Ruby back. Have Mulan give her a knowing look. End the episode.

Finally, have them face Zelena. Things can go as normal from them. A sweet Red Warrior talk about taking a risk and following your heart. Definitely the same Red Snow talk, that was the highlight of the episode for me!! Have Ruby risking it all to save her! Have the same self-doubt and have her exhaust her options, before she realizes she could possibly deliver a True Love's Kiss. And end it with it. Lovely, a new couple for the cast.

NOW, IN AN EVEN BETTER WORLD, we would have been able to see them after that. How they're still working as a Trio in Oz, how Ruby and Dorothy are adapting as a couple. How Ruby is overcoming her traumatic memories of Peter to be fully present for Dorothy, how Dorothy is terribly rusty when it comes to a relationship of any kind. Explore Ruby and Dorothy's love, Dorothy and Mulan's friendship and Mulan and Ruby's friendship.

Keep that Trio, for godsake! Stop introducing new characters and villains that will be used and discarded by the end of the first half of the season! DEVELOP THE UNDERUSED CHARACTERS WE ACTUALLY HAVE GROWN TO LOVE! Mulan! Gay! Ruby! As a wolf! Gay! Dorothy! Gay! Oh my god, the potential there!!! Keep tapping into it, stop worrying about new twists and reveals and bringing recognizable characters!! USE THE GAYS!!!!

#RL HC #RK HC #RW HC

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nostalgiaruinedme · 3 years

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Hey I love your fics and writing style and well since I've been meaning to start writing fics I wanted to ask you if you have some advice you'd give.

Ohhh advice? Sure, I can do that! I shall bestow all of my knowledge upon you now, but you gotta look below the cut. Shhhh, it's a secret~

Okay really I just knew this was going to be a really long post and didn't want to clog up everyone's dash lol. ONTO WRITING ADVICE

I kind of live by these rules in writing:

1. Know the rules before you break them 2. ANYTHING can be inspiration 3. Remember the doll 4. Use your resources 5. Don’t hold yourself back 6. Practice 7. Enjoy yourself!!

1. Know the rules before you break them

Pay attention in English class (or whichever class for the language you're writing in) and learn the grammar!! I don't always have perfect grammar in my fics and sometimes I consciously choose to ignore grammar rules to make it more impactful, but you HAVE to know the rules before you break them. Study those grammar lessons! Learn how to use the fun punctuation, like semi colons and em dashes and en dashes and all that good stuff. I know they're scary, but they're a lot of fun too.

ALSO PLEASE USE PARAGRAPH BREAKS IM BEGGING that's like, a HUGE problem I see with a lot of new writers. Paragraph breaks are not optional!! Change 'em when the main topic of the paragraph switches or when a new character is speaking. Overdoing it with paragraph breaks is better than underdoing it, I promise.

2. ANYTHING can be inspiration

Have you ever played Story Cubes?

If you haven’t, it’s essentially this game where you roll the cubes, they each land on a different image, and you gotta tell a story that uses all of those pictures. Some are literally just a question mark or a speech bubble and that’s what you have to use. Me and my siblings used to play the game a lot. And you know what? Some of those stories are the most creative ones we’ve ever come up with. When I say anything can be inspiration for a story or a character, I mean ANYTHING!

I based my Donnie design off of the vintage globes and journals I have in my bedroom.

My little sister threw a pillow at me and it inspired a funny scene I wanted to write in another fic

I designed two OCs off of Mars and Pluto and an ENTIRE 40,000 word fanfiction based off of a space documentary I watched

My NaNoWriMo story last year was based off of the concept of shadows and how cool I thought it’d be if they could talk

Me and my friend made an entire dystopian original story commenting on our world today. It was first inspired by a crack self insert Death Note RP we had at 13 years old. Not kidding.

Literally anything can be inspiration. Challenge your mind!! The best ideas come out of completely ordinary and unexpected opportunities, in my experience. You don’t need one of those super detailed and crazy expensive prompt books (though they are fun) to write a great story. Use music, use a color, use the sky, use your favorite food, use anything! Just find inspiration!

3. Remember the Doll

Remember Mulan?

We never got to see the Huns destroy the village and we didn’t get to see them kill anyone there either. But by showing that doll there, the animators took an entire battle full of death and destruction and summed it all up in one, heartbreaking moment. You don’t need to spend ten pages writing about how horrifying the bad guy was and listing everything he did from start to finish, nor do you need to write an analysis on why she’s bad. All you need to do is show one or two very meaningful ways they impacted the world... and you can do that with something as simple as a doll lying on the ground in a burning village.

Because the doll is there; the little girl is not.

There’s a quote that sums this up really well, and I have it written on the dry erase board by my desk.

“You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying in the road.” - Richard Price

And adding onto that, try to write more about what’s there, not what isn’t. Mulan didn’t say ANYTHING about the girl in that scene, but by showing what was there, it told us a story about what wasn’t. Focus on what is in the scene and it will tell your reader about what isn’t.

I do think writing a balance is good though, so I try and keep it around a 3/1 ratio of what is there vs what isn’t. Remember this is art though, not math; you can change the formula as you please just to make it feel right. It all depends on the scene and what you want.

4. Use Your Resources

You know how, in the artist community, there’s this sort of stigma around using references? And some artists have to make posts reminding others that there’s nothing wrong with using references and you even should use them?

It’s the same concept in writing!

There is NOTHING wrong with looking to other writers’ work or keep a thesaurus constantly open or bookmarking a reference page of other words to use than “said”. Nothing wrong with it at all! When I write, I always have two tabs open: my writing document and thesaurus.com. I have a folder on my computer bookmarks of ways to describe a smile and a body language dictionary. Before I write fanfic, I watch a “best moments of *character*” compilation video on Youtube to remind myself of how they speak. I watch fight scenes from The 100 or Avatar or Marvel while I write my own battles!

There are SO MANY resources out there for you to reference. Use them! And if you need some to start with, shoot me an ask. I have a ton.

5. Don’t Hold Yourself Back

One of the scariest parts of writing is the thought of “what will people think?” Creative writing is EXTREMELY personal, and you’re going to find a lot of you inside your work, including the thoughts you didn’t want anyone to know about.

People will discover how often you think about love. People will discover how dark your mind can get. People will discover the morals you hold that even you didn’t know about. They’ll discover that the person you swore you’ve moved on from is still on your mind. They’ll discover that the pain you swore you got over still hurts you.

“you can tell the deepest truths with the lies of fiction” - Isabel Allende

This thought scared me a lot, and still does. I’ve let go of and forgotten about so many story ideas because they were just a little too personal. I could write it and not publish it, but what if someone still sees? Writing, like all art, comes right from the heart and reveals a lot about a person. That paranoia of being known kept me from writing so much.

But I promise you, your most powerful stories are going to be the most personal ones.

I wrote Hated Resemblance based on my thoughts about myself, and I wrote Dagger From the Mirror based on thoughts about myself too. A lot of it is dark, most is painful, and all of it is scary to show the world. But I wrote it anyways and it’s created something pretty amazing.

Hell, even now I’m wondering if I should post that lil anecdote, but I think it’s the best way to make this part of my point stronger. See? Writing about things that affect you is the best way to make them impactful, even for something as simple as advice.

And even if you want to write about light and happy stories- you’re still going to have to get personal.

This all got pretty deep but my point is this: Don’t hold yourself back. Write what you feel you need to and it don’t worry about what anyone will think. Don’t hide that one sentence because you’re scared who will read it because you’re scared to be known so deeply. Add it in even when it’s scary.

That’s something I’m still learning how to do, and it’s a slow process that has taken years... but it’s worth it, I promise.

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.” - Natalie Goldberg

6. Practice

I started writing in 1st grade. I’ve written regularly since then, and this is my word count every month this year:

Most of that is fanfiction. Some are just random thoughts, some are really thought out posts or answers to your questions, and some are made up of original stories. That total words written number is since November.

You don’t have to write this much every month, I promise, I just don’t really have any other hobbies lol. My point is that practice is really really really important. Write a paragraph or even just a sentence every day. You’re gonna improve so quickly, I promise.

“Write every day. Writing is a muscle that gets stronger with use.” - Abbi Glines

But take breaks too!!! Don’t overwork yourself. Burn out is a real thing and you shouldn’t force yourself to write just because you’re scared you don’t write enough! Write at a pace that’s comfortable for you. There will always be writers out there who write more than you and even more writers who write less than you. That’s okay. Everyone has a pace they’re comfortable with, and you just gotta find yours. As long as you’re writing consistently, the numbers don’t matter too much. 50 words a day or 5000 are both good!

7. Enjoy Yourself!!

You’re here to have fun!

No matter what you’re writing (angst, romance, fix-it, AUs, hurt/comfort, fluff, ANYTHING), remember that fic writing is supposed to be fun!! You’re not getting paid to do this. On one hand, that sucks, but on the other hand it gives you the amazing opportunity to write literally whatever you want! Find projects you’re enthusiastic about, meet other writers, do collabs, make playlists for your story, create over powered OCs for the hell of it, ignore plot holes and write without regard to canon, or write the most realistic and in-depth canon-compliant book ever. Create the most self indulgent story you can think of!

Have fun. This is your story and you get to write the rules. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. Be proud of yourself. You can get all of the comments and feedback in the world, but if you’re not proud of what you wrote, it’s gonna be hard to look back on it with joy. Be proud no matter how many reads it gets—you made it!

“I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.” - Steve Martin

#can you tell I like writing quotes #I have a whole pinterest board full of them #asks #writing advice #writblr #fanfiction #meg rambles

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nostalgic-pancakes · 3 years

Text

F is for friends who do stuff together - the awake at 2 AM remix

Joan needs a swear jar, Talyn's a lightbulb, Valerie is tired and valid, and Thomas+Sides are very confused)

Summary- Thomas has had his sides around for... a long time. That's for sure. And he knows that nobody else can see them (except maybe Lilly, but she has sides too, so).

Pairings- Pintroverts, Thomas and friends, Thomas and Sides

Read on AO3

Word count- 2666

Warnings- It has character!everyone, and NOT their real life counterparts. Please remember this.

Other notes- AU where instead of Vine, c!Thomas left chemical engineering for signing with a really dope theatre company with his friends. He still meets Nico at the mall, but Nico's a new writer for the company! All the sides are friends too! Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Look, the first time was an accident, okay? Joan was tired and a bit incoherent and what was Thomas supposed to do?!! Leave them be? No! So Joan ended up staying the night.

Except, the next morning was when everyone had entered the courtroom together and they'd gotten WAY too dramatic over whether to lie to them about a text they'd made like… two days ago and that Thomas had only seen after combing through a barrage of memes and that Joan probably wouldn't remember, come to think about it. But that was hindsight and after the utter nightmare that was a whole day (A whole day!!) with Aunt Patty the day before, Virgil and Patton were absolutely freaking out, probably giving Deceit (Who, in hindsight, Thomas knows as Janus) a little extra leeway into the conversation that day.

Either way, Joan had stayed the night in order to recover from the utter sleep-deprivation that they'd been going through, and Thomas had forgotten about the fact that Joan was even there for most of the morning, only seeing them after the entire courtroom spectacle (and a suspiciously dire warning from Virgil) at breakfast, and them leaving to see Talyn a little after (with plenty of hugs involved, duh).

Then Thomas told Joan the truth over the call, and Joan had said The Line (as Roman, Virgil and Janus call it with an oddly cryptid-like voice) and Thomas felt himself go frigid.

Since when did Joan know that Thomas talked to his sides?! Had they learned their names? Figured out that Thomas might just have a few extra screws loose than they might have initially thought?

"Maybe they even hate us now because we got so crazed over one little text and--”

“Virgil. Not helping!” Thomas yelps, and Virgil catches himself in his spiel of worst case scenarios, looking a bit sheepish. Patton and Thomas smile at him reassuringly (he hopes) and Logan clears his throat, causing everyone to turn to him.

“Well, Joan seems to be aware enough of the fact that you speak to us, but mostly considers it as you, as they had said, ‘talking to yourself’, and besides, you didn’t name-drop us too many times, anyways. And while it’s not really...ideal, that Joan thinks you talk to yourself for this long-”

“You can say that again, Stephen Hawk-Nerd”, murmured Roman. Logan winces, and Thomas kind of wants to hug him, so he does.

“Yes, Roman, and as bad as that nickname is, note that this is not, in fact a worst-case scenario. This can be put down to the fact that Thomas has some strange personality quirks-”

“Did you just do some wordplay there, kiddo?” Patton beams at the implication, while Logan, currently being shared by Thomas and Virgil, just groans and descends further into the contact.

“No, I did not, Patton, but what I am saying, is that this is not too bad. We can talk about it as a general personality quirk. This is fine.” Logan finishes, and becomes a heap in the total hug-pile of Thomas and Virgil, flopping over. Huh, he (as usual) has a point. Maybe this can work.

The second time was a pretty near miss, but once again, it was unexpected! He and the sides were just watching Mulan together as usual! They were piled up together, blankets in hand, and yeah, it might look weird to anyone who can’t see the sides, he guesses, with the blankets stretched out in places that have nothing to stretch onto, but once again, he wasn't expecting someone to come over! But anyways- whatever happens, happens. He's trying to be better about it.

It really doesn't stop Janus from pulling out all the stops (teaming up with Virgil, even!) when it comes to having to come up with an alibi to Terrence over why the blankets are arranged so strangely, even though there is literally nothing keeping it afloat. In the end, it's not the most believable lie, but Terrence is busy with Valerie just after, so he probably doesn't really think about it too hard. Besides, Thomas has always been a pretty quirky guy! ("Which could be an insul--" "Jack and Sullen, we love you very very much, but please, for the love of all things Disney, please breathe and take out your fidget cube..") So hey, what was a new quirk when added to everything else?

Meanwhile, Terrence is trying to figure out what the fuck he just saw, because he's pretty sure that there were more than one Thomas there, and Thomas only has two other brothers. Also none of them dress like twenties mobsters or are semi-transparent.

Nico was having a good day. In fact, he still is!

He and his (amazing) boyfriend were sitting on the couch- though more draped on top of each other than anything while binge watching ELITE and Tiny Pretty Things, while also being pleasantly high (as opposed to stoned).

Things only entered strange territory when during one of the flashback murder-y scenes in Tiny pretty Things, a strange man who looked like an even more chaotic Thomas with some grey hair on him entered the room from seemingly nowhere, and proceeded to occupy the sparse space on Thomas’s lap with his head, essntially just napping on his boyfriend’s lap while also being kind of see-through (???!!!???AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH). Thomas noticed, waved a small wave and started playing with this weird guy’s hair.

Nico is now a little high from the bong that he and Thomas had shared, but not enough to hallucinate, especially since, when the high was pretty much gone, the guy was STILL THERE. MIERDA. At this point, he’s just going to call it ghosts. Thomas doesn’t seem to mind too much anyways, so they must not be harmful. Nico decides to table this for another day and go back to binge watching crazy maniacs with his very soft and warm boyfriend, and let the remainder of the high coast along.

"We have to talk about the Thomas thing." Is the first thing Joan says without any bullshit, as soon as everyone except Thomas himself, Gavin (because it's two AM) and Quil are packed together in Thomas's living room, where he just binged Parks and Rec with everyone. They've all finally managed to shove Thomas and Quil back to their respective areas of sleep after 42 hours without said sleep, and nobody was allowed to talk loud enough for them to wake up.

"The… Thomas thing?" Asks Valerie. Oh that sweet summer child. Joan once again quietly calls everyone's attention by asking Talyn to shake their hair around like a neon-coloured alarm bell. This was especially effective in the otherwise dark kitchen where they were trying out glow in the dark hair dye.

"Well, as of lately, we've been seeing a lot, and I mean a lot of really weird shit coming from Thomas. Everyone, recount your experiences." Joan says in the most serious voice they've got. "I'll go first."

They wave their hands like Matt Mercer, as if they were setting up a dope DND campaign. Quietly, of course.

"Well, about a month ago now, I was cleaning here, at Thomas's, because I was sleep-deprived and would have crashed and died if I'd tried to go back to mine and Talyn's. So most of the night goes normally, as one would expect, but when I wake up in the morning…" Joan readjusts their beanie. "I hear Thomas in the living room, talking to people called Logan, Roman, someone called Pat, Virgil and 'deceit'. And this debate becomes an ordeal, alright? He re-enacts a whole entire ace-attorney style courtroom scene with these imaginary people? I called him out on it over the phone when he apologized for some random thing- I don't remember, and he kind of just… admitted that he talks to himself? And moved on.

Everyone absorbs this new information. Camden keeps braiding Talyn's hair.

"But that's not too big of a deal, right Joan?" Whispers Camden, tying up the elaborate mini fishtail plait in Talyn's hair. "I mean, thanks Thomas we're talking about. He could have been rehearsing or something- isn't he JD in the next production of Heathers?"

Terrence speaks up next. "Yes, this would have been all well and good, had the Blanket Incident ™ not occured."

Valerie shakes her head. Why are her friends like this? Oh wait. They’re all theatre nerds, queer and D&D players.

"In the blanket incident ™, I was walking past Thomas's room, as one does. HOWEVER, while he was watching Mulan, I noticed something wrong with his blanket pile!"

"What, that they don't have any Vetal Miking references on them? Because that's the true tragedy here."

"Nope, sorry Tal, the weirdness here was not about Vetal Miking references, but the fact that parts of the blanket were freaking floating, in thin air! I have discreet pictures!"

"What the fuck, Terrence." whispered everyone in a strange, haunting unison that could only be possible at two AM as they saw the very strange pictures.

"And that's not it!" Pipes up Talyn, who is now realising that they are very close to becoming too loud for 2 AM kitchen chats, and makes an effort to quiet down.

"At breakfast today, Thomas's waffles were making themselves- Thomas can't cook, y'all. And he can't even use is fucking waffle iron. And he was on the other side of the room! Talking to Quil!" After Quil left, he told the waffle creator to chill out because the stack was getting too tall!"

"Is this about Thomas's ghosts, guys?" Asks Nico, the new cute boyfriend and new theatre company writer as he plops down in Quil's usual spot. Nico's nice- everyone likes Nico except maybe Nico, to which, well, mood. ALSO- ghosts?!!

"Nico what the fuck do you mean by ghosts, you serial killer in training?"

"One, just because I have to write a serial killer in this new script and I'm enjoying it, it doesn't mean I'm gonna be a serial killer, you tonte. Two: yeah, the ghosts that follow him around and look just like him? They seem nice enough." At everyone's super unspoken request to elaborate, for fuck's sake, he takes the hint and does.

“Oh! So the first time I saw them, I was at the mall. You know, where Thomas and I met?” everyone nods, and Talyn readjusts their braces.

“So there was this guy in a hoodie- Virgil, as you said, and the Disney prince. Roman, I think. And they were just kind of… there? Roman was holding Virgil’s shoulder affectionately, and that’s about it. They were only really visible after about three or four hours of us talking, though.” Some of the people hum.

“Then, we were watching a movie and these two guys who also look a lot like Thomas just kind of lounged? On the couch? They were pretty faint, like if their brightness was decreased to about thirty percent in Photoshop.”

“Hey, same!” says Terrence.

“Yeah, so those guys- the one in the green t-shirt that has the legs on the bus meme- so weird- kind of just stretches onto Thomas’s lap and stays there, while the twenties mobster just… curls up to his side? And thomas is probably like, used to this because he kind of just lets it be and curls the meme shirt-”

“I think it’s Remus.”

“-Remus’s hair absentmindedly and moves on.”

“Fuck.” Whispered Joan very softly, but with great feeling.

“So what do we do about it?” asks Camden. There, finally, someone asks the real questions.

“Well,” puts forward Talyn. “They’re not harming him, right? And he’s had them around for a long enough time, right? So what’s the harm? Thomas is just haunted and will probably be on Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural at some point when he dies but hey, if he’s cool with it, we are too.”

Everyone seems to agree with that, and they’re in comfortable silence, until Valerie asks everyone to go the fuck to sleep, we’re still doing the Heather’s costume rehersals and Death Week starts in two days. With groans and cracked joints from Talyn, everyone hobbles off to their respective rooms in the duplex.

Meanwhile, a certain white-streaked side and his hoodied companion are listening through the wall, far away from what anyone can see, and they both visibly sigh in relief. That didn’t go too badly. The question remains: what do we do now?

“They KNOW????” exclaims Thomas, the next day in the (thankfully empty) breakroom, in between rehearsals- Candy Store is being run through and that means that everyone else is outside.

“Yes, Thomas, they know. Or they somewhat know, I suppose.”

“Yeah, because they think we’re-Thomas is being HAUNTED!!’

“Are you not haunted, then?” comes a voice, and Thomas turns around, forgetting to let the sides dissipate in his surprise. It’s Nico, with Talyn and Valerie close behind, who are clearly taking in the six other guys in the breakroom. Well, fuck. The cat’s out of the bag for good, he guesses.

“Could you get everyone else during lunch break? I’ll explain then.” Talyn nods and leaves with a smile, telling him that they’re not mad at him, while Nico asks, voice farther away “So are you haunted or not?”.

“So they’re… aspects of your personality that you’ve been able to manifest since you were a kid?” Camden asks, a bit disbelieving, even as Logan, Roman, Patton and Janus drape themselves over Thomas on one of the beanbags in the breakroom, filled with other nerdy gay young adults. Logan pushes up his glasses, ready to go on another tangent. Go wild, you funky little dude.

“Well yes, that’s exactly what we're saying. I myself am the embodiment of Logic- every fact that Thomas has ever learned, and his, and these are his words, not mine, ‘the only braincell’. He makes the air quotes to go with the expression, but is also smiling fondly.

“Classic Thomas.”

“Yes, Valerie, I am inclined to agree. However, this is not specific to Thomas. Other people can, in fact, do what Thomas is. Lilly Singh is one of them- the reason that she and Thomas are even friends is because in high school Thomas caught her talking to one of her sides in the art room.”

“So wait-- we can summon sides too?!” asks Nico, and he and Camden look genuinely excited, but Thomas knows the answer to that question.

“Unfortunately no, not really. You have to have an extremely active imagination, and also be ‘innocent’, as society would put it. I’d say näive.”

“For example, I couldn’t make any more sides after i was fourteen, because I watched the news by then.” pipes in Thomas. Joan seems to process this first, nodding and grinning sardonically. “Ah yes, the news. Wrecking childhoods since forever.” everyone nods in gay syncing, because gay minds think at the same time.

Valerie suddenly speaks up; “So how many sides do you have, Thomas?”

Thomas perks up, because his sides are possibly his favourite metaphysical beings (as narcissistic as that might sound) “I have six! My logic, morality, both creativities- Kids and Family and PG13-and-up, anxiety and deceit! I have two creativities because of catholic guilt and my mind’s inherent need to cause chaos, I guess.”

“Valid” replied Valerie.

The rest of break passed by pretty smoothly, with questions being passed back-and-forth about what the sides truly were, considering they clearly were not just Thomas, and Virgil even felt okay enough to come in later! So that was good. Though he kind of wishes Remus had made fewer Heathers jokes- Camden was starting to look squeamish, even as Nico frantically took notes of gorey facts to use in his script.

Honestly, Thomas thought to himself. What was I scared of?

Irrational things. And rejection, replies Virgil in his head. He laughs and pulls him in for a hug, and tries as he might to deny it, Virgil is looking pretty chuffed.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #character thomas #nico flores #nico flores x thomas sanders #pintroverts #not rpf #do not repost #ts virgil #ts logan #ts remus #vee's writing #2021 #f is for friends verse

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ourimpavidheroine · 2 years

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Just curious but you referred to Mulan with male pronouns so do you view them as a trans man? I just recently re-watched it for the first time since I was little and wow but yeah I kinda see him that way now, or at the very least gnc or genderqueer. (also I was Living for Shang's bi-panic, poor boy smh)

I absolutely think Mulan is a trans man.

The entire first part of his story is about how deeply uncomfortable he is being perceived as female. The clothes, the matchmaking, all of it. Mulan clearly does NOT want any of it at all. AT ALL.

Look at me You may think you see Who I really am But you'll never know me

Every day It's as if I play a part Now I see If I wear a mask I can fool the world But I cannot fool my heart

Who is that girl I see Staring straight back at me? When will my reflection show Who I am inside?

He even sings about it! Staring at himself with all of the makeup he's been forced to wear and that hair comb, wiping away the makeup and taking out the comb. The song even ends with him sad, stroking down the long hair that signals to the world that he's AFAB. We see that motif, of him with a face that presents half as female, half as male, more than once.

When he decides to exchange the comb for the military orders and cut off his hair we see Mulan, for the first time, as a confident, determined man instead of a reluctant, unhappy woman. Of course Mulan is doing what he is doing to keep his father safe from the war! That's a huge part of it. But Mulan is also doing it to escape life and marriage as an AFAB, make no mistake.

Ping - his chosen name - is awkward and overcompensating his masculinity, something that is often part of the trans experience. Many, many transfolks go straight from 0-60 at first as a way to "prove" their gender. (I'm thinking of the daughter of a very close friend, who transitioned 15 years ago. At first she was stereotypically femme, with a full face of constant makeup, her hair coiffed perfection, always in some sort of dress or skirt, etc. It had a lot to do with needing people to see her as a woman and not the boy she'd been perceived as for 19 years. She and I talked about it when I picked her brain about writing Juziya. Now after 15 years of hormones and 15 years to be in her own skin she can slouch around in yoga pants and a messy bun and no makeup because she doesn't feel like she has anything to prove any longer, if that makes sense. She can choose to be more femme if the mood takes her but that's choice on her part, not because she feels like she has to be.)

Even still, Ping is in his element. Why? Because everyone sees him for who he is.

Even when he's forced back into female dress he does not revert back to femininity. Look at the way he walks, moves, rides his horse in the end of the film, in the dramatic scenes at the Palace. Like his friends, he is a man in a dress.

And yes, of course we have to have the Disney ending of him taking back the identity that his family wants, that of being a girl, but that's Disney. It was never going to go any other way.

And as far as Shang goes, the man is the son of a career military man and a military man himself. Shang is 100% comfortable with men and 100% comfortable with the little troublemaking twink. It is only when it is revealed to him that Ping is AFAB that he freaks out, because he's having a pan-panic.

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svynakee · 4 years

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Mulan (2020)’s idiotic cultural appropriation of chi is really stupid

Qi is a real thing. Not in the way that oxygen, or electromagnetic waves, are real. You cannot find an atom of qi. You cannot measure qi with a device. Qi is real the way romance, or luck, are real. And in the same way that the romance most people experience isn’t the same romance that is depicted in movies of passionate, melodramatic, wild love, the qi in wuxia and other genres is not the qi experienced in real life.

Now, when it comes to romance movies, the concept of love at first sight does not need to be established. It is accepted that there can exist, in the setting of the story, an unseen powerful force that drives strangers together on the whims of fate. There doesn’t need to be a professor pointing at a blackboard explaining the mechanics of destiny, and the evolution of true love, for an audience to willingly accept that love at first sight can be real for the sake of the story. In this way, it is unnecessary for there to be a martial arts master in every story that uses qi to explain what qi is, why it exists and how humans have learned to harness it.

However, the individual story’s take on qi should be established. If there are organised, respected, powerful sects teaching students to use qi, then assumptions can be made about how society views qi, how developed the study of qi is, the place of qi users in this world. If qi users are almost mythical and tend to hide in seclusion, assumptions can be made. If the emperor’s strongest generals proudly use qi in battle, assumptions can be made. If a teacher cautions against improper usage of qi because it can result in both physical and mental harm to the practitioner, assumptions can be made. And even if nobody bats an eye at the fact that the duke’s eldest son and the third imperial prince are doing flying leaps across rooftops on market day, then assumptions can be made about qi, such as ‘using qi is so common that the price of cabbage is more interesting than watching someone doing magic parkour’.

Simply saying ‘qi exists and is for warriors’ does a poor job of worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is important because it sets the stage, gives context to the stakes, lends weight to the protagonist’s struggles. What does Mulan (2020) tell us about…’chi’? One important thing to note is that in Disney’s Mulan (2020), chi is referred to as a skill; ‘he has strong chi’, ‘he has a talent for soccer’. In Chinese works, qi is the energy, the skill is qigong, which is qi (air) + gong (effort). A martial artist therefore has strong qi, or skill in qigong. They are not skilled in qi. In the following points, I will be discussing Disney’s idea of chi, so I will use their terminology.

Only men can use chi, but chi is also available to women.

Not being true to yourself poisons your chi.

Chi is for warriors, implying that women cannot be warriors (this is actually uncommon in Chinese wuxia stories, more common in historical ones where QIGONG AND WITCHES DO NOT EXIST).

The existence of a woman with chi powers is unusual and a cause for alarm, but not unusual enough that the Emperor dismisses the idea after hearing ONE REPORT FROM A RANDOM SOLDIER.

Those in the Imperial army are trained, briefly, to use chi – this is shaky because I think the commander talks about how chi can be used, and Honghui’s compliment to Mulan implies that her usage of chi is what makes them equals, meaning Honghui can also use it.

People recognise that chi allows humans to do super gymnastics and have enhanced reflexes, enough that when the villagers see a young Mulan doing these things, they are freaked out. Or the ancient Chinese really hated backflips.

Despite women using chi being so taboo, Mulan’s father decided to teach his daughter chi just because she was born with a high midichlorian count- I mean, high chi. When she displays chi abilities in front of other villagers, her mother gets angry and tells him to stop teaching her. Yet Mulan still retains her chi proficiency into adulthood, meaning either her father continued to teach her, or chi mastery lasts for a lifetime. In that way, using chi is a bit like riding a bicycle.

Rourans can use chi to run up walls, but Mulan’s friends are only shown to do this very briefly near the end of the movie, with normal Imperial soldiers failing to use this ability.

The Emperor of China is a proficient chi user. His chi lets him use drapery as weapons (actually a common technique in wuxia, the idea being that qi is personal energy and a skilled practitioner can channel their energy into any object, giving them sharp edges or huge kinetic force).

When a woman can use chi, she is a witch. And this is where this becomes HILARIOUS. Because there IS a witch in Mulan (2020).

Xian Lang is a witch.

In her introductory scene, Xian Lang is shown POSSESSING A MAN, her physical form completely disappearing as she does this. She then nails two long range kills using throwing stars and engages in melee combat, easily defeating Imperial guards despite being outnumbered. She is later shown to turn into a bird, or a large swarm of bats. She never turns into multiple birds or a single bat.

Xian Lang was an outcast as a young girl because of her chi. This is why she joined the Rourans, despite being Chinese (as evidenced by her name). She believes that Bori Khan will make a world where girls like her, born with strong chi, will not be outcasts.

Bori Khan treats Xian Lang horribly, being prejudiced against her gender and dismissing her strength. The Rourans in general also hate her for being a witch.

Xian Lang saw through Mulan’s disguise easily and also identifies that she has strong chi.

Oh and Chinese stories rarely have witches, Xian Lang should’ve been an nugui, kind of like an evil spirit or demoness but from Chinese folklore.

Here’s the thing that I find the funniest about the world Mulan (2020) has created.

Women should not be allowed to use chi. It has given all the proof for this rule to exist, and none to dissuade me from agreeing with it. Because the movie gives us two women with strong chi. Mulan, who actively suppresses her chi, and presumably only learns to use it during her training with the army. So, she is a chi beginner. The other woman is Xian Lang, who is immensely strong despite not looking much older than Mulan. She is probably the strongest character in the story, and definitely a chi master. The only other contenders for the title of strongest chi – not gender restricted – are the Emperor and the Commander. I believe the Emperor is stronger because Bori Khan lures him into a trap and still loses men trying to capture him. He restrains the Emperor with a ton of thick ropes. This guy is terrified of the Emperor and from the few times we see the Emperor fight? I don’t blame Bori Khan at all.

And yet the Emperor never possesses people. He doesn’t turn into a bird, or a swarm of bats, even when these would have FREED HIM AND SAVED HIS COUNTRY. Notably, none of this is ever stated as being against chi law. None of these abilities are stated to be the result of evil experimentation, forbidden techniques or any other taboo method. In the worldbuilding of Mulan (2020), Xian Lang’s chi is only evil because she is evil. And she is only evil because she is a woman with strong chi.

Mulan is a woman with strong chi.

The implication, the weird mess that Mulan (2020) has made, is that All Women With Strong Chi Become Witches. And men CANNOT become witches. Men cannot possess others. Men cannot shapeshift. Men can possibly learn to use throwing stars, but this is debatable. Women can not only do all these things, women are FATED to do so. If a woman is born with strong chi she becomes a witch.

And I don’t blame the ancient Chinese for wanting to suppress witchcraft! It looks hecking dangerous! They can possess anyone. They can break into secure spaces by shapeshifting. Sure, it’s not ethical to deny women access to chi because they could potentially become supervillains, but I can see why they went to that conclusion. The movie does nothing to address this. Mulan doesn’t vow to teach girls to use chi for good. But that’s FINE, because Xian Lang only became evil because of sexism, which is solved now, so cue the happy ending.

Even disregarding how the message of the movie is “girls get bullied for being born weird unless they prove themselves worthy of basic respect”, what is this WORLDBUILDING. Is Mulan in danger of poisoning her chi again and becoming a witch? If chi is for warriors, does that mean civilians can’t use chi? What if a farmer is born with strong chi, do we exile him until he becomes a warlock for the Rourans? How often are girls born with chi and how many of them suppress it correctly? Are they killed if they fail? Do they just join a circus and masquerade as acrobats?

Disney, chi is not a magic you can just throw around! It’s not bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! If you have a magical world, you need to teach the audience about the magical world. INSTEAD OF JUST POINTING. AT ANOTHER CULTURE. AND SAYING “THIS IS REPRESENTATION AND IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS TAKE IT UP WITH THEM”. Yes, qi is part of my culture! CHI. IS. NOT. Its your abomination, stop using OUR STORIES and OUR TRADITIONS as a shield for YOUR SHODDY, LAZY, IDIOTIC WRITING.

Anyway all they had to do was not add ‘chi’ and have Mulan doing normal martial arts for fun or something. Just make her a normal tomboy. Sometimes girls like sport it doesn’t have to be because they were born with baseball magic.

#disney #mulan #mulan 2020 #mulan live action #disney mulan

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unpopularly-opinionated · 4 years

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To get it out of the way, I didn’t drop a dime on Disney to watch the new Mulan movie, but I have seen it.

The TL;DR, non-spoiler review is, when you compare it to the original animated movie, it’s about a 3/10, but when you judge it as it’s own movie, I think it’s about a 7/10.

Pre-post edit: Before I wrote everything below (which is filled w/ spoilers btw so be warned), I wanted to give this a 7/10 on it’s own merit w/o comparing it to the original, but after really examining the message of this version it’s really difficult to give it a 7/10, so I’ll say 5/10.

It’s not a bad movie, I just think the message it sends is kind of fucked up and a huge 180 from the original, which I know I said I wouldn’t compare it to, and I’m not, but just objectively the messages are contrasting.

The movie isn’t actually that bad, it’s just different and similar in very odd ways. The whole movie felt really conflicted over whether to make it it’s own thing separate from the original, and whether to make it a 1:1 copy of the original. Put into words, I think it just had a bit of an identity crisis.

Some aspects of the movie that they changed from the original don’t immediately make it clear why they were changed, which leads me to believe they wanted to make it it’s own thing, but then they threw in clear scenes that were from the original, and evidently the movie is called Mulan, so clearly they didn’t shy away from that.

Some of the changes made sense. It’s very obvious they wanted to try and go for a “more serious” tone for the film. This is likely why there’s no singing which is the biggest missing feature, but also likely why Mulan is missing her humor from the original, and why her grandmother isn’t in this, and obviously Eddie Murphey’s Mushu and the Cricket. This movie isn’t funny, and it’s not supposed to be, which is fine.

The changes that didn’t make immediate sense to me though were small changes, such as changing her family name from Fa to Hua, or even changing her fake name from Ping to Jun, or the Huns to the Rourons, or the family worshiping a Phoenix instead of a Dragon, or giving her a younger sister, etc. Very small minor changes which don’t ultimately change anything of the film or plot itself so ultimately aren’t a huge deal but then why change them? This is what I mean when I say it seems like they wanted to make this movie their own thing...but also the same.

The scenes they decided to recreate weren’t obviously 1:1, but I think they did a pretty decent job. The Matchmaker scene happens. The lake scene happens. They soldiers talk about what they look for in a woman and all say relatively the same things. Those were pretty cool scenes.

Hands down, the instrumental version of Reflection was the best ever. They used it a couple times and every time I get chills cause I was just fangasming over it. Really minor detail, but fuck was it awesome to hear nonetheless.

The action was actually pretty well choreographed I thought. It really reminded me of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon with the sort of flying through the air, running on walls, etc.

The actor they got to play the villain, Bori Khan (also different from the original), looks identical to the animated Shan Yu. Like as identical as a real human being can be to an animated character. I honestly thought that was perfect casting. I don’t recognize him, or 99% of the actors in this (honestly the only one I recognized at all was the general from Rogue One), but he was great.

Some of the more major changes were...a bit hit or miss. This movie evidently focuses a bit on what they call Chi, which is kinda magic but also kinda not magic? It all gets vaguely Disney-explained but Mulan’s Chi just makes her a pretty decent acrobatic fighter. The enemy “witch” uses Chi to straight up transform into a hawk or a swarm of bats among other things, but she’s sort of implied to be more advanced with Chi than Mulan is so that’s okay I guess. The Emperor also has Chi and he briefly uses it to...make some fabric defy the laws of physics briefly I guess.

The part about the Chi that bothered me slightly was how they used it to reinforce this sense of otherness about Mulan. Obviously Mulan has always been about a girl defying social norms to save her father and to bring honor to her family and country, but in this version Mulan has Chi, and girls aren’t supposed to have Chi. Only boys can have Chi, and women with Chi are seen as witches and are usually exiled. This is the story behind the bad “witch”, she was exiled for having strong Chi.

The reason why this felt like an issue is because it sort of takes away the fact that Mulan is “just a girl” infiltrating a male-dominated space to defy social norms and do what only men are “allowed” and “capable” of doing. Instead, she’s some pseduo Jedi-like character with abilities that not only show her as more capable than the men, but also not like other women.

So whereas in the original you could point to Mulan as an example and say “See, women can do what men can do” you can’t do the same in this movie because this Mulan actually has something that makes her special and unique that not every woman might have. To use another Star Wars reference, Chi is quite literally the Midichlorians of Mulan. Whereas before any woman could do what she could do, now only some women like Mulan can do what she did.

Another weird aspect was I guess the message of the movie. Like, people say this movie was made for China and uh...yeah, the message of this movie kiiiiinda proves that.

Throughout the training parts, the General emphasizes the virtues they all live by which are engraved on everyone’s swords: “Loyal. Brave. True.” and the conflict stems from the fact that Mulan isn’t being true by hiding her identity, which is why she’s failing as a soldier and I guess a human being and it’s only after she embraces who she is that she starts kicking ass.

There’s also the scene at the very beginning with the Emperor, like in the original, where the soldier tells him about the invaders approaching. In the original, the Emperor was a very kind and caring old man who cared more about his people than anything else. Evidently, they tried to like...make it more realistic or something, I guess, so in this the Emperor doesn’t really seem to care about his people, and he keeps emphasizing in that scene and throughout the movie that they need to “protect the dynasty” which was just weirdly loyalist.

And then of course the end where they’re supposed to repeat the message of the film, the part you’re supposed to take away which is...”devotion to family”. That, along with the previous two things I mentioned, really make this movie feel like a 180 from the original. Whereas the original was about a woman defying social norms to be protect her father and bring honor to her family, this one felt more like a woman defending her country and vaguely reinforcing those social norms...?

Perhaps I misinterpreted, I don’t know. I just thought it was weirdly the opposite message the original sent.

#random rant #mulan 2020 #mulan #disney #long post #spoilers below

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captaincoffeegirl515 · 4 years

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I just saw the live-action Mulan movie, and in short, it sucked.

It’s not worth the money! Not worth the 37 dollars you’ll need to pay so that you can merely rent the movie. Don’t worry, I pirated it. I didn’t give Disney any money, and I’m writing this so you won’t have to as well.

To think, my mom was so excited about this film especially since we are Chinese and the animated Mulan film was one of her favourite Disney films. But throughout the film, we were disappointed again and again.

First of all, the directing, camera work, pacing, and editing was terrible. The pacing of the movie was all over the place. The fight scenes especially, were so erratic and badly put together. Either they’d have the scene move at a normal pace but would cut and change to a new angle or perspective multiple times until you can barely tell if there were any hits or what they were doing. Or they would do slow-mo and do a zoom-in on Mulan’s blank, stiff face.

They had Donnie Yen, a famous martial artist and actor, doing some incredible swordsmanship and martial arts in front of the soldiers but then they ruined it by constantly cutting away from him to some random blank-faced soldier. What wasted potential!

Did I mention the blank faces. Everyone looked so stiff during the movie, barely any proper acting done. This was especially obvious with the Witch, whose face barely seems to move. The most emotional I saw her was when she had teary eyes, but still, the rest of her face stayed smooth.

My biggest problem lay with the fact that they took the sexism of the animated Mulan movie and managed to crank it up to a thousand. The whole concept of chi/qi was wrong. For starters, real chi lies in everyone, and it does not give you superpowers or suddenly makes you a good fighter. But in the movie, apparently only men can use chi and gain superpowers, and that if a woman somehow had chi then she’s a witch and must be outcast or killed. And it made it seem like the only reason Mulan could keep up with the men or be better than them was because she had these superpowers. I honestly have no words to express my anger and disappointment at this.

I understand they removed Mushu in the live action since it was offensive to Chinese mythology. But replacing it with a phoenix based on Greek mythology?? That made no sense. And not only that, the CGI was terrible. Not only did it look obviously fake, my siblings and I all felt like the phoenix was made of paper. One of them joked that it was a kite. The coloring also reminded me of the bird in Wings of Time that I saw in Sentosa Singapore.

Btw, Chinese don’t have any concept of witches or witch hunts. Lord knows why Disney tried to put more Western concepts when they wanted to make an Asian movie.

Moving on to the characters and their chemistry. In short, there was none. Little to none actually. I don’t understand why Honghui was supposed to be her love interest. No chemistry and barely any meaningful interactions. They met with him insulting her and continuing to insult her throughout most of their scenes. The “love interest” also spent a lot of his time staring at Mulan like one of those creepy perverts that you try your best to ignore. Is this really the kind of lesson you want to teach kids?

And Ling? Yao? Chien-po? What happened to them? Their names were barely mentioned and their characterizations were so one-dimensional. There were not enough scenes building them up as proper characters, which made them easily forgettable. Because of this, we also had trouble telling all of the soldiers apart, and this includes Honghui and Cricket. Cricket was initially mistaken as Chien-po. There was even less time emphasizing their friendship with Mulan. I also didn’t understand why the need to add Cricket in the movie as another soldier. Disney still didn’t give him any proper growth or arc beyond that one shining moment with the arrow. I also didn’t understand why he suddenly decided to play dead at the end of the corridor fight. Another “dramatic moment” that fell flat.

Where do I begin with the Witch? Shan Yu was an incredible bad guy already. Why did they try to make his falcon human and have her as a witch? For the most part, it seemed like she was just there to drive down the movie’s point that women should be subjugated. She had the power to kill Bori Khan easily, but… chose not to because she thought he would help make her not an outcast?? And even when she changed sides, instead of idk killing Bori Khan when he tried to shoot Mulan, she just… flew… in front of… the arrow… and died. Wow.

What was Bori Khan’s revenge supposed to be anyways? For the most part, it looked like he was trying to slow-cook the Emperor. Like what was up with the random forges and the 2 inch pool of lava?? Were forges back then even hot enough to make lava and have it stay red hot the whole time even when it was in that pool?? Also, swords do NOT melt that fast.

Also, the part where Bori Khan was talking to the captured Emperor was so unintentionally funny. Like at the end of every sentence he would just suddenly make sparks with his weapon at the Emperor’s face. If it was a one-time thing, it would have been fine. But he just… kept… doing it. And with every strike I just started laughing more and more.

The Emperor was… something. Of course he was probably one of the men who has chi powers judging by his sleeve attacks. Honestly, that part felt so random, my siblings and I were all laughing and going “what??”. His voice was so clearly dubbed in, and badly done. He also seemed to have been given the clunkiest dialogue in the movie. I also miss the scene in the animated movie where Shan Yu tells the Emperor to bow down to him and the Emperor replies, “No matter how strong the wind blows, the mountain cannot bow down to it.” because that line was awesome.

The sister’s character was also completely unnecessary. According to Disney, she’s to showcase Mulan’s devotion to her family and give her more motivation to do what she does. But?? She took her father's place in the war to protect him?? Wasn’t the whole point of her story is her pretending to be a man to protect her father from certain death?? Is that not already a huge motivational factor and shows her devotion to her family??

Does anyone else also find it weird that when Mulan was in the army, everyone referred to her by her full name? Like everyone had their first names and were called that, but for Mulan it was always Hua Jun? Btw for those not aware, with Chinese names, the surname is at the beginning. Hua is Mulan’s surname. So shouldn’t they be calling her simply as Jun??

Moving on, I have to bring attention to several of the changes in the movie. It’s like they cut out all the scenes that gave the movie an emotional impact and replaced it with bland scenes that didn’t add to the story at all. Her decision to take her father’s place in the war and steal his armor was replaced with some weird thing about her getting lost and the phoenix having to bail her out.

The incredible moment when Mulan gets the arrow from the top of the post was replaced by bringing two buckets to the top of the mountain. Anyone who is strong and determined enough would have been able to do that. With the arrow, she needed to think and strategize, using the weights to help carry her up. With the buckets, she just used her chi superpowers.

The drama and shock as the happily-singing soldiers come upon the destroyed village becomes a drawn-out traveling scene that has the General asking Mulan to marry his daughter, and then cuts to the army at the village.

The scene where it looked like Shang was going to kill Mulan but then he spares her because she saved his life is gone completely since they decided to split Shang into two characters instead. Even Mulan’s line where she says, “You believe Ping, why not Mulan?” was given to Honghui instead, robbing Mulan of her moment.

Honestly, there was no need for the Witch and her fight scene with Mulan, but apparently in the movie, chi is weakened by dishonesty. It’s weird that the Witch is even telling her that since they’re supposedly enemies, and telling her about the dishonesty will make Mulan stronger.

Another thing is Disney’s weirdly intense focus on arranged marriages and matchmaking, with multiple characters mentioning whether or not they are matched or asking others if they are. Even at the end, the sister goes “oh I am matched”. I didn’t see the point of having that in the movie.

I almost forgot about the trebuchet/catapult! The Rourans are supposed to be a Nomadic people. Where are they finding the time and energy to drag that gigantic thing around? I also have to mention that the Rourans had some incredibly good aim when firing at the soldiers but missed by a long shot when they fired at where Mulan was hiding. That was… dumb, to say the least.

How did Mulan even get there anyways? And how did she carry all those helmets with only two hands? I’m even giving her some leeway because there are people who can control a horse with just their legs. The actress for Mulan also has clearly never fired an arrow before and was not given training for it. The way she loaded the arrows and how her fingers sprung open like that screamed CGI arrows

And now I’m remembering the random horse gymnastics the Rourans used to turn around on their horse so that they could fire arrows while riding. It looked cool, yes, but I don’t think that was the most efficient way to turn around.

Back to the fight scene, Mulan managed to go from chasing the Rourans into the mountains and fighting the Witch, to back to where her army was, then somehow teleported to a different mountain behind where the Rourans were. She also somehow outran an avalanche?? She also killed her own men in that avalanche. Not the best plan in my opinion.

Ultimately, Mulan’s growth and arc to become a soldier and hero of China was undermined by the fact that she was already perfect due to her chi powers. There was no need for her to grow and train because her chi made her strong, her chi made her skillful. And because of this, she lost her relatability. I hate to say this, but she became a Marysue.

I don’t know where to put this but Mulan’s makeup and outfit for the matchmaker scene was the ugliest thing I have ever seen. Green eyebrows?? Really?? What happened to her face? What happened to her dress? Everyone’s costumes also felt unrealistically colorful for a poor farming village.

Lastly, I’m sure many of you know that Disney worked with, credited, and gave thanks to the Xinjiang authorities. Those authorities are responsible for imprisoning up to TWO MILLION Uighur Muslims in concentration camps, forcing them to learn and be patriotic about China’s communist doctrine and propoganda, not allowing them to practice their faith, and subjecting them to horrific conditions, torture, sexual abuse, forced sterilization, brainwashing, and other abuses.

To end this overly wordy review, I don’t understand why Disney would willingly get so much wrong. They tried very hard to make changes and appeal to the Chinese audience but refused to have Chinese creators to help with the screenplay, directing, costume and makeup, etc. Now all they’ve done is alienate said audience.

#mulan 2020 #mulan #disney #rant

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fillingthescrapbook · 3 years

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Do the writers of theCW's Kung Fu watch their show?

I don't really have the energy to write everything that isn't working on this show... But just in case this post reaches eyes that are connected to the show, here's a list of things that the writers might want to keep in mind while breaking and writing the second season.

1. Watch your show.

I am begging you, writers of Kung Fu: watch your show. Take down notes on what you've written and what you've established. Take note of character chemistry, of the strengths and weaknesses of your actors, directors, fight choreographers, set designers, etc.

Let's not have a dead character sometimes appear as a wise mystical ghost in one episode, and then a personification of Nicky's subconscious in another. Let's not have a character say "I want what [our parents] have" in reference to his failed romance just mere episodes after the parents almost split up because of a kept secret. That they didn't even really resolve. And let's not have character arcs appear and disappear willy-nilly, like Althea's sexual harassment storyline that only crops up when it's convenient.

Sure, it's great to have themes in episodes--but just because a storyline doesn't fit the theme doesn't mean it should stop moving.

2. Don't fall in love with your characters and actors.

I don't mean romantically. But that too, I guess?

Here's the thing. Zhilan is a cool character, I get it. But we didn't really need to see her in every episode. Her actions can happen off-screen and it wouldn't really affect the show. Because while her endgame does connect to Nicky, everything she does leading up to it does not.

Eleven episodes in, the only thing we really needed from Zhilan was her first encounter with Nicky in the pilot--where she becomes the yardstick to which we measure Nicky up to; her face-to-face with Nicky at the museum--where we see that while Nicky has grown, she still has much to learn before she can defeat Zhilan; and then the fight alongside Simon Lau, where Nicky sees that she can now hold her own against Zhilan--but she still has weaknesses that Zhilan can use against her.

Outside of those encounters, we don't really need Zhilan. We didn't need her to team up with Kerwin and have all those scenes with him. Kerwin could've been introduced via Nicky and Henry's research only for him to side with Zhilan, sure. But having Zhilan approach him in one episode, and then sprinkling them around so many episodes just talking, making out, killing, stealing, etc? Those scenes only took time away from developing Nicky as a character.

3. Develop your main character. Please.

Nicky is very unlikable. So is Henry, by the way. They're charming, but that's thanks to the actors. The characters themselves are selfish and thoughtless. They act without fear of consequences, and why would they be afraid? The show never deals with the fallout of their wrong decisions. Because of that, the characters don't grow.

How can people aspire to be Nicky? How can people root for her to win beyond not wanting the bad guys to become more powerful? We can't. Because Nicky is not worthy of our respect or affection. She is impatient, impertinent, and immature. Flawed characters are one thing, but Nicky is a hero with all the virtues of a one-dimensional villain.

4. Ask your script supervisor if they're okay.

Kung Fu airs so many scenes that could be fixed by someone on set going, "umm--is there a better way to film that?" Like Zhilan showing Simon her pendant to tell him she's a guardian too. The pendant was nesting on her bare skin for all to see. We could argue that Simon was reeling from the death of his bodyguards--but the conversation between him and Zhilan started prior to the deaths. And it was preceded by him getting warned by Nicky that a woman was coming to steal his weapon and kill him.

And then there's the Zhilan-Kerwin love-making and off-screen Myanmar adventure that was interspersed throughout an episode of Nicky searching Canada for her long-lost aunt. Nicky went on a road trip, had a scavenger hunt, had a lengthy conversation with a plot device, got lost in the woods, had an interlude with a wolf, spent the night in the woods, traversed more of the mountain to find her aunt's cabin which she then thoroughly explored. Meanwhile, over at the Zhilan-Kerwin show, the set, costume, AND lighting implied that all their scenes transpired in the span of hours.

5. Figure out a better way to have fight scenes.

The pilot's fight scene at the monastery, and then with goons when Nicky was back in "San Francisco", was organic. Nicky's fight at the secret poker club during the second episode was a little eye-roll-inducing, but it still had a purpose. But some of Nicky's fights since then just felt forced. Like the fight with the pool players during her Canadian road trip, and the frat fight with the kids who wanted to scapegoat a Chinese kid into paying for their crime.

But honestly? I wouldn't mind the per-episode fight scene requirement if the fight scenes were actually any good. But they're not really fun to watch. They're dizzying most of the time, and they're edited so clunkily. Kung Fu peeps? Watch Disney's Mulan live-action film from 2020. Let that be a guide of what not to do.

And finally--

Just...talk to each other. Sketch out the entire season, and don't just make stuff up on the fly. Create a character bible of who the characters are--their history, their traumas, their favorite shit. And use the bible to make sure your characters don't suddenly become someone else for plot's sake.

Fix your show, Kung Fu writers. Make it a show that Asians can be proud of. Please.

#Kung Fu #The CW #tv talk #tv review #Asian representation

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