#and yet he and his family still contribute to the spiraling narrative of in the way they try to capture jean jacket on film

[judesstfrancis]

rewatching nope (2022) today bc it's my day off and god everything about this movie is sooooooooooo. it's so good. truly can't remember the last time I was in a theater kicking my feet giggling bc a film was so well put together like truly every other minute I was staring at the screen in awe like holy shit they did that!! how did they do that that is so cool!! the sound design, the set design, the characters, the THEMES and the NARRATIVE, the blocking in certain scenes. THAT FUCKING ALIEN girl I'm sorry I'll never be normal about this movie

[least-carpet]

I am curious: how do you think would work realistically a jc and wwx's reconciliation? Have you any meta on them and their relationship?

I'm sorry this took a minute, anon! Work has been frankly chaotic. But I saw an anti-reconciliation post¹ and I have been roused from my post-work stupor.

Unfortunately, you asked me for something I'm incompetent at, which is plotting. (Otherwise I would have already unleashed my ningcheng fic upon the world.) What I can talk about is what I find compelling about potential reconciliation and potential scenarios.

Why do I love a post-canon reconciliation?

Apart from really liking their relationship and finding it compelling—IMO it's the heart of the narrative of the first life—what I actually enjoy about it is what it offers in terms of development for Wei Wuxian.

I read Wei Wuxian as having displaced and projected a lot of his unresolved trauma onto Jiang Cheng. I've talked a little before about my reading of Jiang Cheng as the "bad feelings" sin eater of the Yunmeng Trio—neither Jiang Yanli nor Wei Wuxian feel like they can express deep unhappiness, but Jiang Cheng is bad at hiding his, so in some way it's his job to embody the collective unhappiness of the children of that family system.

But although this makes Wei Wuxian merry and likeable, it's not actually good for anyone, or even sustainable—when he loses control, he really loses control. And his coping skills are extremely self-destructive, as we can see from the post-war downward spiral of drinking and avoidance. I also think his experiences in his childhood (losing his parents and being homeless) plus his wartime experiences gave him some kind of trauma disorder that contributes to his terrible memory, which he's turned into his primary coping mechanism (apart from alcohol). If I Simply Close My Eyes And Run Away, My Bad Feelings Can't Get Me!

But, like, repressing your feelings doesn't work forever. He's compartmentalized his whole first life to function in the second one, but that means giving up on everything and everyone he loved, including the Jiang siblings and Lotus Pier. That's incredibly tragic to me.

Sometimes I think antis are so happy to demonize Jiang Cheng in order to minimize the depth of the loss Wei Wuxian has suffered. If he never loved Jiang Cheng, if they were never close and devoted to one another, if their childhood was an unending misery, then wouldn't Wei Wuxian be much freer in the present?

But what I think has happened is that the loss is so huge that it's completely terrifying and threatening. So are the feelings around killing Jin Zixuan, Jiang Yanli's death, and the death of Wen Qing and the Wen remnants. It's too much, so he blocks it out or, in some cases, projects it onto Jiang Cheng.

Of course, Jiang Cheng will never forgive him, because he irreparably ruined Jiang Yanli's life and then she died trying to save him and Jin Ling became an orphan. It's all his fault; it can't be forgiven; he might as well give up on it...

Jiang Cheng is obviously very angry and upset with him, it's true. But you can see how projecting his guilt and shame over his actions onto Jiang Cheng and then running away from Jiang Cheng is also a way for him to escape his guilt and shame over what happened to Jiang Yanli. (And to escape all the repressed resentment he has for Jiang Cheng because of the core transfer.²)

But there are two tragic elements of this approach. One, that by doing this he yields up any possible relationship with Jiang Cheng, and with the Jiang Sect, because by all means Wei Wuxian must escape him in order to outrun his terrible feelings. Two, that it's another coping mechanism that distorts the reality of the situation, which is that they were all swept up in power games beyond their capacity to manage, and they did their best—the Jiang siblings, the Wen siblings, Jin Zixuan, and Wei Wuxian—and it still went badly for everyone except the Jin Sect.

I don't think he can confront that yet. But I do think that Wei Wuxian feels very safe with Lan Wangji, and sometimes a safe and supportive relationship can provide the resources to do things you didn't think you could do before.

Can you imagine a different conversation, that begins with the bald acknowledgement of failure and wrongdoing³? "I never meant for all of that to happen. I did what I thought was right, but I never thought Jiang Yanli would be harmed, and I didn't intend to kill Jin Zixuan. I am so sorry. I miss her."

GIVE THE CATHARSIS TO ME. GIVE IT HERE.

A Wei Wuxian who has reached a point where he's capable of that accountability and vulnerability is delicious to me. A Wei Wuxian who can get there can return to Lotus Pier and rebuild a relationship with the living sect and his living sect brother.

How could it happen?

The trick is how to get there, 'cause it's like trying to herd cats where one cat is mortally afraid of facing the second and the other one has betrayal trauma and abandonment issues. But the cats love each other! They do!

I don't see Jiang Cheng initiating. I see him as being more open to a reconciliation, now that he knows why Wei Wuxian did what he did, but I see him as being profoundly afraid of trapping people in relationship with him or inflicting himself on people who don't want him around. (Not, like, for politics. In that arena I assume he's unpleasant when necessary to great effect.)

Fortunately, Wei Wuxian can be led if you're cunning enough to do it and you bait the trap with something good (see the plot of MDZS for Nie Huaisang's very successful demonstration of this principle). He also will increase pursuit if you dangle and withdraw the bait.

The question, of course, is what makes good bait for catching Wei Wuxian. Some options:

Option 1: murder mystery. Someone dies in an exciting way that involves Jiang Cheng. (Wei Wuxian will involve himself, dude loves a murder mystery.) It could be in the Jiang Sect or the Jin Sect; if it involves Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng will jump in with a swiftness.

Option 2: Jiang Cheng marriage rumours. Doesn't even have to involve unsavoury rumous about the potential wife; Jiang Cheng getting married without him (like Jiang Yanli) would dredge up some feelings, I think.

Option 3: Jiang Cheng tragic illness or curse rumours. You better be sure it was in a past life, cause it looks like this one might be over soon!

Option 4: Forced together time (due to a night hunt or a kidnapping, etc.). It's time for the getting along shirt!

To borrow from SVSSS, you might need a scenario-pusher for it to happen. But the world of MDZS is rife with these opportunities, and cultivators can live a very long time. So there's hope yet!

Footnotes:

1. This is a perfectly reasonable viewpoint to come to by the end of the novel. It's simply one I don't share.

2. See this passage from the confrontation in the Guanyin Temple:

"It wasn’t something he liked to reminisce about. He didn’t want to be reminded again and again of what it felt like when his core was cut out or what price he had to pay. If this were exposed in the past, he’d most likely laugh and comfort Jiang Cheng … But now, he indeed didn’t have the strength left to put up such a confident, nonchalant pretense.

From the bottom of his heart, he knew he wasn’t so indifferent about it after all.

Was it really that easy to move on from such a thing?

Of course not." (Chapter 103, "Hatred," ExR translation)

3. I saw a different post complaining about Wei Wuxian apologizing to Jiang Cheng in reconciliation scenarios, and I just, like, he kicked off a political firestorm that ended in the death of Jiang Yanli and her husband. This is completely separate from the non-consensual surgery and all the lying he was doing about that. He owes him multiple different apologies! And Jiang Cheng should also apologize to him! That's why they apologize to each other in the Temple, because they know they hurt each other! The point of an apology in an intimate relationship is to connect with the person you are apologizing to in order to repair the relationship, and the Temple was not the time, which is why they need a private do-over! It's not humiliation, it's intimacy, connection, and repair. How do y'all live your lives.

3.5 Also, imagine it to be more in-character than that.

[dykeninthdoctor]

let’s talk about c!wilbur and taste by sleeping at last, aka ava talks about his favorite song + character for a couple thousand words 

to preface this, i’ll say this. this is almost where i want c!wilbur to go, rather than where he is now, but it is all based in where he is now, and everything we have seen so far. this is where i hope, and trust in cc!wilbur, that his character will go.

(after the cut, everything is /rp /dsmp unless otherwise specified)

i am alive. i am awake. i am aware of what light tastes like. the curtains drawn, the table set; i want to be. i want to be at my best.

“i am alive. i am awake.” guys,,,guys. he’s alive! one of the things i have noticed thee most about revivedbur’s most recent scenes is that...he’s alive! like. he’s just. he’s happy to be alive. he wants to watch the sunrise and relish in the feeling of rain against his skin, or at least that’s where he needs to get to. he needs to simply live. 

“i am aware of what light tastes like.” this is very much along the same lines as to what i just said, but it also comes down to healing. light, in taste, represents healing, and love, and wilbur needs to learn the taste of love again.

when it comes to “the curtains drawn,” in the context of wilbur, i think of a theatre. he has always played a character. his clothes are not his clothes, they are a costume, and his face is not his own, it is a mask for his acted emotions to dance across, and his life is not his own, it is a three-act play in which he is the villain; he is the character that he thinks others want him to be. the best line i’ve ever read to sum this up is from the lumineers’ cleopatra, and that’s “but i've read this script and the costume fits, so i'll play my part.” with taste, the curtains are drawn. to me this means they are closed, and wilbur has finally burned the script he’s been following for his life, he is free of the narrative and he has stepped off the stage. 

and with “the table set,” i just. tables are symbolic of family, often, and of union, where you come together, and i hope that that is in wilbur’s future. i want to see him bake with niki, and i want to see him eat dinner with phil, and i want to see him throw an apple to tommy before tommy even needs to ask for food. and i want him to feed himself, in love and in healing and in nourishment of this newly-revived body he has now. 

“i want to be.” guys. GUYS. i’m going to go insane. he wants to be. he wants to exist. he does not want to act anymore, he does not want to play a part, he wants to be. please, please, please, c!wilbur, get to this point. please. 

AND THEN. “i want to be at my best.” NOT ONLY DOES HE WANT TO BE. HE WANTS TO BE AT HIS BEST. AND YET IT IS A PROGRESSION. FIRST HE MUST LEARN TO BE. THEN HE MUST LEARN TO BE BETTER. BUT FIRST, HE MUST SHED THE COSTUME, SHED THE PART, AND BE. ONLY THEN CAN HE BE BETTER. i’m gonna chew drywall. 

okay. next verse here we go: 

it’s bittersweet, it’s poetry. a careful pruning of my dead leaves. it’s holy ground, a treasure chest. i’m on my knees and only scratch the surface.

okayyyyokayokayokay. “it’s bittersweet, it’s poetry. a careful pruning of my dead leaves.“ it’s bittersweet! it’s bittersweet!!! healing is always bittersweet. it hurts, to let pieces of yourself go in order to grow, but it is necessary, and sometimes things aren’t perfect, but it’s poetry! it is poetry as well. it’s beautiful, because you’re healing. it’s a careful pruning of his dead leaves! for things to grow, the death must be removed, and so too must wilbur clear the relics of his past that remain in his mind. he is so attached to the past, in many ways, and he needs to move on, he needs to prune his dead leaves. 

“it’s holy ground, a treasure chest.” sleeping at last is amazing at framing humans as sacred beings. the holy ground is wilbur himself, his own mind, his own body, that he needs to learn to take care of again. he is worthy of love, full of things that prove himself so, and he needs to learn that too. 

and then! “i’m on my knees and only scratch the surface.” he is only beginning to heal! he is only at the surface of this ground that he has broken in beginning his healing process, and there is so much more to come. i think the visual of this line is really interesting too, when you pair it with wilbur’s limbo being somewhere where he clawed at the walls as a plea for escape. and rather than it be that, he is now digging into himself, breaking down his mental walls, in order to heal, something we know he needs when we look at eight and learn that he needs to let people in to be able to heal, and the only way he can do that is to let down his walls. another neat thing about this! is that during “a deck of cards with a green smile on them,” when wilbur begins building the walls to their new hq, he is literally building walls dividing himself and tommy. physical storytelling my beloved :]

okay!! chorus time :D

like fists unraveling, like glass unshattering. we’re breaking all the rules, we’re breaking bread again. we’re swallowing light ’til we’re fixed from the inside

okay so this entire verse is about healing, and the different layers to it, the different things you need to do to heal. first, it’s “fists unraveling,” it’s letting go of your anger, it’s letting go of the past, and it’s unlearning everything you have learned up to this point, because you do not need to be angry anymore, not at the world, because it isn’t necessary to healing. this is also, in some ways, less of c!wilbur and more of his loved ones’, niki being the one who first comes to mind. wilbur’s loved ones need to unlearn their anger towards him, and wilbur needs to learn to let go. the visual aspect of that as well, contributes to letting go; when your fists unravel, you are releasing what you have been holding onto for so long. 

and then we come to “glass unshattering.” this line is so interesting, ryan o’neal’s lyricism my beloved. it’s not glass being put back together, it is glass unshattering, the very inverse of glass breaking, as if the actions are being undone, not simply pieced back together but undone. and in the context of wilbur, he not only needs to make up for what he has done to hurt others, he needs to prove he will not do them again, because he can’t undo those actions! he did them and he cannot change that! but he can undo it in the future, by not doing it again. it’s a fun line to interpret especially because glass...can’t unshatter. it’s an impossible action. he cannot undo what he has done but he can prove he’ll never do it again. 

and thennnnn we’ve got “we’re breaking all the rules.” guysssss, remember what i said about c!wilbur needing to step off the stage to begin healing? not only that, he needs to directly go against the script that he’s written. he needs to break the rules of the confines he’s trapped himself in. he is not a villain, he is a person, and he needs to tear up his script. 

“we’re breaking bread again.” OKAY. OKAY SO. SO. i’m a big bread person. bread is everything to me. bread is love!! food itself is just. pure love!!! one of the purest forms of love you can get!! someone has made that for you and it is imbued with love!! they said here this is a piece of me for you to consume!! a piece of my love, for you to have inside of you!! this is a good compilation post to sum up how i feel about bread, but when you bring wilbur into it? again, it goes back to the symbolism of the table, and how he just. needs to heal his relationships. it’s “we’re” baking bread, it’s togetherness and it’s family and it’s consuming a food that represents love, together. he needs to break bread with his loved ones. (i would also love to see him bake with niki. might expand on this one.)

and then we go from that line to “we’re swallowing light ’til we’re fixed from the inside.” like i said, food is something that someone has made and they have said ‘this is a piece of my love for you to have inside you.’ love is light, and love is food, so food is light, and swallowing light? it’s swallowing love, it’s swallowing the purest forms of love you can get and it is stitching you back together from inside. wilbur needs that. 

out of the woods, out of the dark, i’m well aware of the shadows in my heart. i want to feel tectonic shifts. i want to be. i want to be astonished. i want to be astonished. so i propose a toast:

"out of the woods, out of the dark.” wilbur has been trapped in his own mind for so long, quite literally with his limbo taken into account, and more metaphorically with his own mental spirals that he, so far, has been unable to break out of, but in the process of healing he will achieve that. out of the woods tends to mean out of the worst of it, and i think the wilbur we see genuinely already might be. he will escape the darkness of his own mind, he has escaped his own limbo, his personal hell, and he’s out of the worst of it. he has a long way to go, but he’s out of the woods. 

with “i’m well aware of the shadows in my heart” it’s so wilbur it aches. it’s like. wilbur’s mind, and mental state, is so very complicated, and he is not aware of the impact he has on others, not entirely, but he also is, because he accepts the role of villain wholeheartedly because he thinks that’s what he deserves from the shadows in his heart, but i think in doing so, he still doesn’t realize what it means for his loved ones. it’s just. he’s so complicated. he knows of his own “evilness,” his shadows, but he doesn’t know of his hurt and pain and trauma because that’s buried even deeper than these created shadows, they are the real shadows, and for him to heal, he needs to become aware of those.

“i want to feel tectonic shifts” goes hand in hand with “this is my sunrise.” he wants to experience the world around him again, to be alive, to feel the earth under himself and the wind against his face. he’s alive and he wants to feel it. and shifts, internally, he wants to feel those too!! he wants to grow. 

“i want to be,” i’ve already talked about, and this time it’s paired with “i want to be astonished.” not only does he want to be, to exist, to be at his best, he wants to! experience life! with all the awe he once felt! wilbur at his core is so very loving, and he wants to feel that for the world again. and it’s repeated twice! awe can come, not only for the world, but for the people he loves. 

which leads into, “so i propose a toast:” this line goes directly into the chorus, and it’s so specific. a toast is an acknowledgement, a celebration, something i imagine that wilbur used when they won their independence, or before the election, or even in pogtopia, the night before they went into battle. and this time, it’s a celebration of simply. life. of healing. of mending. ryan o’neal, the songwriter (aka sleeping at last himself) said that “Because food builds and rebuilds our bodies, I liked the idea of raising a glass to healing broken relationships, and trying to be at our best. There’s so much vulnerability required to rebuild a relationship, and to just try harder...” this is what the toast is to. 

chorus again:

to fists unraveling, to glass unshattering. to breaking all the rules, to breaking bread again. we’re swallowing light, we’re swallowing our pride. we’re raising our glass ’til we’re fixed from the inside. ’til we’re fixed from the inside.

and then the bridge: 

we’re nothing less than a work in progress, sacred text on post it notes. we only speak of a world in pieces, let’s make a map of what matters most, where every fracture is a running river leading us back to our golden coasts. here’s to showing up:

these are my Favorite lines of the whole song so. aaaa

we start off with “we’re nothing less than a work in progress” which is. everything c!wilbur needs to learn. he plays his roles, he acts the part, but he doesn’t understand that he’s allowed to be imperfect, that he’s allowed to continue to grow. wilbur is stagnant, in a way, that while he moves from “role” to “role,” first the idealistic general and then the quietly-traumatized president, and finally the unhinged villain, he doesn’t let himself just be. a person, he doesn’t let himself be in progress! and additionally, since it’s a “we,” he needs to learn that other people are not stagnant either. tommy is not the same as he once was, no one is the same as they once were, as everyone is in progress, and wilbur needs to learn both of those things. 

AND THEN. “sacred text on post it notes.” GUYS. HUMANS ARE SACRED. THEY'RE SACRED! but they are also messy and imperfect and so, so, fallible, they are post-it notes with scrawled handwriting scattered across the wall that is their life, and sometimes post-it notes will fall off, and sometimes they will be written in pen rather than pencil, and sometimes they are written so messily they cannot be understood, but they are sacred and they are messy and those things coexist and god does ex-gifted kid c!wilbur need to learn this. 

“we only speak of a world in pieces.” this is Such a cool line when you consider that the dream smp is made up of complicated perspectives that only the audience is privy to, and the characters are so limited! their world is literally spoken in pieces, especially with the lack of communication. it’s a neat line in meta form, and when applied to wilbur, i think it’s part of the same mentality. it is “we,” and he needs to learn to not only speak of this world with himself, but with others, in order to “make a map of what matters most.” he cannot rely on only the pieces he has, and he must speak with others to glean the pieces that are just as important. map making in itself is a neat metaphor, it tends to mean a direction one could take, or getting more of a full picture in that you’re seeing the whole world (or whatever the map has been made of), rather than just what’s in front of you. in order to make this map, wilbur needs to talk, and begin to understand what does matter, because his concept of that, right now, is skewed. 

“where every fracture is running river leading us back to our golden coasts” is soo vivid, and to me it like. it feels so much like l’manburg. l’manburg was their golden coast. and l’manburg is gone, but its people aren’t, and l’manburg was always about the people. and now, these people are all broken, they are fractured, but they are healing, and in their healing, those dynamic rivers, they will find their ways back to each other, and l’manburg, its spirit, will live in them again. 

 the transition into the chorus this time, is no longer a toast, not explicitly, but it is an acknowledgment “to showing up” and c!wilbur needs to show up to therapy. but also, showing up simply means being present, not only for others, but for yourself, and it is one of the first steps to healing, so, in a way, this is a very non-linear song about c!wilbur’s journey. 

then there’s the chorus again:

to fists unraveling, to glass unshattering. to breaking all the rules, to breaking bread again. we’re swallowing light, we’re swallowing our pride. we’re raising our glass ’til we’re fixed from the inside. ’til we’re fixed from the inside.

and that’s it! if you made it this far, i’m kissing you in the forehead. thank you so much for reading, c!wilbur enthusiasts i’m holding your hands. 

[mxpseudonym]

This time someone did ask! @cactisjuice (I can never tag you?! Also is this a Sokka reference?) asked me to elaborate on my feelings that Peaky Blinders doesn't have good writing and why I'm on the fence about watching season 6.

First I want to say this: I really appreciate that, at the time, PB was the first show I'd actually sat and watched in a while and being part of the fandom pulled me out of a depressive spiral. Also, while I think some of the characters are generally attractive, I don't simp over any of them. I just... feel like that contributes to my ability to be more objective.

Alright, my thoughts: 2020 hit and I realized how important diversity is to me and my standards for the content got really high. You might remember when I went to do a Peaky Blinders rewatch a long time ago but I ended up not making it through the first season.

That's when I realized Steven Knight isn't trying to be progressive or really make a statement with this show. Nothin you can really do about that 🤷🏾‍♀️

Still, my grievances:

1. Something about the depiction of oppression in this show just doesn't sit right with me.

Maybe it's because everyone is white except for I think three people (four if you include the child they mentioned was being mistreated by nuns). "But the Shelbys are Romani." Yes, and the actors for them are all white. So what we see is a lot of white characters being oppressed, while the Black and Jewish characters are sort of an aside.

And because the show isn't trying to be progressive, it just depicts things without a real moral to them. Like season 5 just never sat well with me, especially when you have Alfie and an entire Jewish community in the show. I would have rather them just not go that route.

Also, it was US election season and you want to ambiguously take on fascism when there were/are clear signs of T**mp having international influence? 😬Okay, Steven.

Probably got more viewers though.

2. The writing for women is just so unforgivably poor that even at Peak fandom, I genuinely had to watch the show in spite of how the women are written.

**Honestly, those two alone are enough for me to just bounce. But I'll add in my most controversial, most 100000% preference-based statement:

3. When a show with a continuing narrative has seasons as short as 6 episodes each, I feel like there's even more of a need for the thread throughout to be super clear. You have no time for filler, and everything needs to be intentional. Season 6 is our last chance to see where this is going and what the story Steven's been trying to tell is.

Tommy is the main character, almost forcibly so. Yet, at this point, he's had no arc. He's not learned a damn thing. He's worsened his relationships with family. I don't even really know what he wants anymore. Tommy seems like he's going unhinged, which is fine, but we have six episodes left. I cannot think of an ending that would make me go, "wow, they really spent five seasons setting this up." And I'm gonna be real, I don't have faith that Steven Knight's writer's room is gonna prepare something beyond my imagination.

BUT

I'm so close to the finish I may just watch anyway. I'm marginally interested in seeing what's happening with Michael.

[croweswings-a]

@empricist​ asked: caaan we talk about how CW's music reflects the more or less dramatic changes in their life (for example, how the whole George ordeal is reflected in their music / lyrics)?

since a lot of this is long asf im gonna put this into a read more and hope tumblr actually hides it in there on mobile!     

   as mark is the main lyricist in the group, a significant amount of the album content is written through his perspective - he is an introspective character who keeps a notebook on hand to record thoughts and revelations wherever he is. obviously this would include taking record of dramatic events that are happening in the political/social world but also within his own world - his stylistic choice is often to create characters to tell his stories, removing his direct self from the narrative. this started mainly because george was put into the band by their former manager and caused tension - mark realised lots of his written work reflected his frustration with george as a person as well as his discomfort with scott being replaced and it was... obvious in the lyrics. so to “cover” his tracks yet still remain authentic to himself as a lyricist baring his truths, mark revised the work in the form of stories about characters that could, in many ways, be linked back to his band of friends and the catalyst for turbulence which was george’s arrival.

what songs do you think are most significant for each member of the band, and why? how do they represent their life / experiences and, if they were the one to write it, how did they reflect their life at the moment?

with mark being the humble artist that he is, he allows and encourages each of his band members to contribute lyrically and musically to the albums as much as they desire. of course lots of stuff doesn’t make it to the album (scott is often the one who makes these executive decisions) but there are several of trevett’s that are central to albums that mark sort of worked in collaboration with him on. trevett only starts to have a strong passion in the lyrics when he becomes interested in the anti-war & civil rights protests in the late 60s/early 70s so many of the songs (example song here is Monster / Suicide / America by Steppenwolf) are partnered works between him and mark that hold deep meaning to trevett. as for mark, we have a few personal glimpses into his childhood, relationships with his sisters/mother, and leaving home (example song: Child’s Song by Tom Rush) - these songs that hold no separation from him and the lyrics are the most significant and vulnerable to him because they respond to deep, sometimes puzzling, aspects of life and family. as for martin, lyrics don’t really come easy to him – his songs are often playful, monologue-like, and sometimes childish (ex: Little Girl by Syndicate of Sound) but ultimately deal with shallow aspects of tumultuous lovelife as a result of his frustration. george’s songs are relatively leeched of any deeper meaning and have a fabricated, generic makeup that is best described as his effort to appeal to commercial media. he plays the game of fame, so songs are abundant in romance and longing (to make the largely female fanbase swoon). despite his efforts, a lot of these songs are left to b-sides (a bit of scott’s pettiness coming into play here). through the years, we see most of the album content first created by mark in the form of characters alongside george’s generic love songs, then pepper in his collaborative work with trevett that respond to the revolutionary aspects of the 60s (this is where they really take off in fame as they resonate with the younger generation), which through the 70s only becomes more introspective and poetic as mark settles into his role as a writer and person of celebrity.

@viollens​​ asked: how does the band's music/lyrics reflect the shifting political/societal landscape of the 60's - 70's & what considerations were put into this decision?

some of this is answered in the previous response, but regarding considerations – the process in which the music is written for the band goes like this: the band comes together for an initial meeting where mark has a vague concept and a few starter songs/lyrics to spark discussion. he continues to take notes as they all put their two cents in (what characters do we want involved, what audience are we trying to appeal to, what varying moods do we want to balance through the tracklist, what have we been hearing that’s hip that we can include in our own, pitching innovative recording methods, etc. following this meeting, everyone usually is assigned a few tracks that they want to work on whether it regards musical accompaniment or lyrics but mark is trusted with the majority of this work. after some time (depends on what’s going on), they come together again with what they have and start to go about organising which songs they want to include, which need most work, etc. and head into the studio a few days later. so, when it comes to the shifting political/societal landscape they live in, lots of the discussion about what stance to take is processed in the first initial meeting for these albums. 

at first (since scott is still settling into his new position as manager/decision maker) george has a great influence over what is included on the albums which results in it being a bit generic. as time goes on, he starts to realise his arguments on lyrical content are often rebutted by 90% of the group and shifts focus to musical arrangement and group style (he continues to argue about lyrics despite not being listened to.) this allows trevett and mark to ease into a more politically driven state of creation and when record sales surge because of their liberal commentary on anti-war efforts/civil rights/breaking gender norms, george silences in his arguments because - hey - he’s getting a paycheck for this shit. i headcanoned at one point that they face some criticism because their lyrics are judged as “all talk and no walk” by some activists (however at this time mark is wholly participating in protests but without making a big deal about it) and trev and mark set out to engage in more activism together to refute this criticism but also just to have a greater impact in reaching the youth. this continues into the early 70s (one of their songs actually celebrates woods in an abstract way, sort of mark’s homage to the gay revolution) but peters out eventually when tension starts to resurface with george and martin’s drug use spirals out of control. i’m gonna stop now bc this is so ramBLY

[kinetic-elaboration]

The 100 Ask Game

Tagged by @thelittlefanpire --thank you! This looks like fun.

Soooo okay, first, full disclosure: I haven’t watched S5. I stopped watching toward the end of S4 for Reasons. So there might be a little bit of salt and/or confusion in some of my answers. But only a little; this blog is still a positive space and it is, of course, Show Night: a big fandom night regardless of my personal participation.

1. What Station on the Ark would you be from?

Hmm. Well I have farmers and factory workers in my family but I don't know which end of a wrench is up myself. I guess I'd probably be from one of the stations we know nothing about like Hydro or Tesla. It would be cool to be from Mecha but I'm not a mechanical person in the slightest lol.

2. What would you get arrested for on the Ark?

Probably theft. I'm not a thief in real life but I do like eating and comfort and I'm p. sure the only way to get anything above subsistence-level rations on the Ark is to do some law-breaking.

3. Would you take off your wristband when you landed on the ground?

I'm too much of a rule-follower to do it on my own but I would definitely be a sucker for Bellamy's "take off your wrist band as payment for some delicious puma meat" plan. To heck with this silly piece of metal, I want to eat.

4. What would the necklace Finn would make for you look like? (Clarke: deer/Raven: a raven duh..)

Some sort of large cat. Or small cat, not picky.

5. If you could resurrect any MINOR character who would it be?

If Wells counts as a minor character, then Wells. Otherwise...perhaps M'Benge. He looked like a promising delinquent.

6. Create a squad of 5 characters to go on missions with. Who are they?

Bellamy, Clarke, Raven, Jasper, and Monty. This is partly practical--I do think they're the smartest/most capable members of the group--but also partly about the Narrative. They're my favorites.

7. What Grounder Clan would you belong to you?

I guess Trikru based on where I live? Or again, some clan we know nothing about. I don't know anything about Trikru's non-warriors so perhaps I could be one of them.

8. What would your name be in Trigedasleng? (example: Octavia=Okteivia…just make it up!)

Skipping this one because I don't give my real name or any variants online, sorry.

9. Thoughts on Finn? Some people hate him, and others love him, so I’m curious

Okay. My general thought on Finn is that he had an appropriately sized role in the narrative--which is more than I can say about a lot of other characters, many of whom, imo, were either killed too early, or too late/not at all when they should have been, or who take up way too much screen time, or are given way too little for their worth. But Finn contributed decently well to the first season--sometimes oddly, in that, once he outlived his usefulness as a love interest, he was shoe-horned into a Peacemaker role that probably should have been Wells's. But at least he was contributing a needed and consistent POV. And while I go back and forth a bit on how realistic I find his season 2 breakdown... I think it is more realistic than not, at least narratively. He seems like the sort who would have a breakdown after a battle, and the short timespan of 2A makes it more likely, not less, to me, that he would spiral quickly into something so atrocious: no time to cool down, to get perspective, to heal. Also, he had a completely unique story, which is also pretty rare on a show that likes to reuse its plot points. (Sorry! It does though.) I can also honestly say that Finn's death and funeral still ranks as one of the most resonant and heartbreaking moments of the series, for me. I have a hard time with any sort of capital punishment story line usually but I really felt for this one and I think it was very well done.

So basically what I'm saying is that I think Finn was decently well used as a character--like B+ narrative role, docked for the random interest in peace and the occasionally annoying nature of his personality. Because he could be annoying. He and Clarke didn't have much chemistry and he and Raven had surprisingly little, too, given how important they allegedly were to each other. And one of the good aspects of his death was that, not only was the event itself well-constructed and moving, but he wasn't exactly missed, by me or by the story, after he was gone. He served his purpose. I'm glad he wasn't on the show longer. (Except for that post speculating on a Finn/Murphy redemption arc/love story, which I would have watched and cheered on for sure.)

I don't hate him, though, and it does annoy me a little that he almost always shows up in fic as the 2d villain, the shitty ex/boyfriend, the annoyance. I mean, I get the appeal of having a readily available character like that (ngl I've used him that way at least once myself) but like.... it's not my fave trope, let's put it that way.

10. Be honest. How willing would you have been to take the chip without knowing all the horrible things it does?

I've thought about this some, not so much as it pertains to me, but in comparison to some other Failed Utopia plots in other fiction, and because my sleeping beauty au involves Clarke taking the chip, and it was very hard for me to bring her to a place where I felt like she could realistically, and in an in-character way, make that choice. But it's also been a while since I watched S3 and it's difficult for me to remember at what point different aspects of the CoL became obvious to the characters. Certainly, I can see the appeal. I think anyone can. It's an interesting concept and one I actually wished had gotten more time in the show... I think anything that obviously perfect (live forever in a wonderful city, away from pain and death and hardship!) should immediately cause warning bells: what's the catch here? Taking the chip without knowing the answer to that question is an assumption of the risk sort of situation, except you can't predict what the risk is, and the stakes are enormously high. Not exactly smart, and I like to think I am smart. I also have a great fear of AI and VR, which would make me wary.

On the other hand, I'd do poorly in the impoverished landscape of the post-apocalypse, which might make the chip more tempting. Also, if ALIE and friends tortured me or someone I loved, I would take the chip like that. No question, I am weak.

11. What character do you relate to most?

I relate to the intensity of Jasper's feelings, and to Monty's method of shutting down emotionally as a survival mechanism.

Generally I wouldn't say I have much in common with any of the characters, though, and I don't really watch because I 'relate' to anyone, personally.

12. What character do you like the least?

My first instinct is to say I dislike a lot of the characters, which is true but... I also spend almost no time thinking about the ones I dislike. My fandom experience at this point is very much about retreating into the aspects of the show/canon/fanon I like, and ignoring everything else. That said... probably M/di and J/rdan because the whole concept of a Next Generation down from the delinquents offends me, and also because they're both so universally loved that it's quite hard to avoid them. Also b/c J's name corresponding to that of my fave character makes blacklisting really obnoxious lol.

13. Describe your delinquent outfit. (Would you wear something like Murphy’s jacket with the spikey red shoulder patch or have a trademark like Jasper’s goggles? Be creative, yet practical)

Mmm, something comfortable. A nice jacket, like Clarke or Bellamy's S1 jackets, or Jasper's pilot jacket. Nothing with weird patches like Murphy's S1 or Jasper's S3 jackets. A shirt with something interesting written on it like Jasper's Earth Day shirt. Big boots. A nice heirloom necklace. Multiple layers. Knitted wristlets like Clarke has in early S1. A sweater with thumb holes like Monty has in S4.

14. Favorite type of mutant animal?

All the mutants! I really feel like the show missed some good opportunities in the irradiated-animal department. Take some $$$ from the explosion budget, or the Boring Side Character payroll, and invest in some more two-headed beasts. But if I had to pick one, I'd say Lincoln's two-faced horse, because the image of him saving Clarke and Finn in late S1 is so underrated but so iconic.

15. What would your job be on the Ark?

I don't think I have many useful Ark skills. Archivist, perhaps? Member of their proto-justice system? Probably that, though I don't know what sort of jobs, specifically, make up that unit. Though I have some ideas; see: a fic I haven't yet actually written.

16. Would you have willingly pumped Ontari’s heart if Abby asked?

Gross. But probably if I had to, I'd force myself to.

17. If Lexa wasn’t Heda, but she was still alive then who would have made the best commander?

I gotta tell you, I literally do not care, nor have I have ever cared, about the commander or Grounder leadership in the slightest. They all seem pretty incompetent. They should cede their power to the Sky People, who are marginally less terrible at running things.

18. How would you act if you ate the hallucinogenic nuts like Jasper and Monty?

You'd never know from my obsession with alternate states but I have never been high, nor intoxicated in any way, so I really can't say. Hopefully calm and happy like M'Benge in the broom closet. But probably miserable and confused and afraid of my inability to corral my thoughts.

19. How would you have dealt with Charlotte’s crime? A more John Murphy approach or Bellamy Blake approach?

Interesting question. I actually think the Charlotte story line was one of the best of S1, probably the show as a whole, and I kind of wish it had played out more long term, instead of just being, in retrospect, more of an excuse for some drama. I mean that is one of the central dilemmas of a new society, as the dropship camp was starting to be at that time: what do you do with people who break the rules and/or are dangerous? They had roughly three options: execute the wrongdoer (which eliminates the problem pretty efficiently, if brutally); ignore the issue entirely through immediate forgiveness; or apply some punishment in between, like imprisonment. This situation in particular was more complicated because, first, technically, they had 'no rules' at the time (killing is just, uh, obviously wrong), second, the actual perpetrator was a child, and third, she was so obviously unstable as to seem a likely continued threat. And in addition to all THAT, Bellamy and Clarke were such tenuous leaders (Clarke wasn't really a leader at all, so really I should say Bellamy was a tenuous leader) that any option that didn't go along with the will of the majority could cause a complete break in legitimacy. So it's really a delicate scenario. One I can't say I have an answer to.

I will say I think banishment is literally the worst thing they could have done, for either Murphy or Charlotte, if she had lived, and I think the narrative bears this out. It looks like a good compromise but it's cruel and it's dangerous. Cruel because they have to assume the banished person would die in the wilderness, and if you believe he deserves death, shouldn't you just execute him? Have the courage of your convictions? Take on the full moral weight of your decisions? A hanging death is probably less awful than slow starvation or being eaten by a wild animal. And dangerous because if he doesn't die, he's an obvious target for...who's that? Your enemies in the woods? Which is exactly what happened? They brought that whole bio-weapon story line on themselves, tbh. I think it was an in-character decision for a couple of dumbass kids, but that's not the same thing as saying it was smart.

I like to think I would have sided with Bellamy early on, in being careful about what information goes out to the camp as a whole. I mean, it's not perhaps the most moral decision, but it's practical--and certainly inciting a riot, as Clarke ended up doing, is neither practical nor moral, so there's that. If the actual perpetrator had been found before Murphy was caught up in the mess... I guess some sort of middle-ground punishment is the best you can do. Imprisonment, shitty work shifts. Showing consequences for bad actions and trying to keep the group safe. Hopefully if there was enough tact in the beginning of the process, the crowd could be convinced to go along with it. I don't know, though. It's tough.

20. Who should have been the Chancellor, if anyone?

Bellamy.

Bellamy, Bellamy, Bellamy.

Honestly, watch the first season, or even, arguably, the first three, and tell me that ultimately becoming Chancellor wouldn't be a neat, logical, and emotionally satisfying conclusion for Bellamy's arc.

Obviously, it would take him some time to get there. Before then... I don't know. If I had to pick among one of the former Chancellors, I'd go with Abby I suppose.

21. Would you have been on Pike’s side like Bellamy or on Kane’s side? Or Clarke in Polis?

Oh gosh they're all terrible lol. I guess I'd pick Kane as the least of the three evils. He certainly was in the right once Pike's anti-Grounder agenda went into play, but I don't exactly think he had the ear of the people prior to the election, which is why I'm not enthusiastic. But, still. You gotta get through the Dark Times to get to Chancellor Bellamy, I guess.

22. Mount Weather had a lot of modern commodities. (example: Maya’s Ipod) What is the one thing you would snatch while there?

I'd grab up some interesting books. Possibly a stuffed animal because I like soft things. A nice piece of art.

23. What would your Grounder tattoos look like? Hairstyle? War paint?

Lol I don't care what universe we're in, I'm never getting a tattoo. Hair: probably something simple and loose. War paint: pass, as I wouldn't be a warrior.

24. Favorite quote?

I suppose Jasper's quote about wounds needing to heal before they become scars.

25. If all of the characters were in the Hunger Games, who would have the best shot at winning?

I've never read or watched the Hunger Games but I'm nevertheless going to say Raven. She's just been the deus ex machina too many times.

26. Least favorite ship? Favorite canon ship? Favorite non canon ship? NOT INCLUDING CL OR BC OR BE

Least favorite: M/rper

Favorite canon: ummmmm idk not excited by most canon ships tbh. Probably Jasper/Maya, maybe Mackson or Briller.

Favorite non-canon: Jonty

27. A song that should be included in the next season? If there had to be another guest star like Shawn Mendes on the show, who would you want to make a cameo?

HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF DURAN DURAN

Lol, Idk. Something poppy and 80s would amuse me, though. In part because the show needs to take itself at least 75% less seriously.

I don't have any opinions on cameos.

28. What would you do if you were stuck in the bunker with Murphy for all that time?

Hopefully make friends with Murphy.

29. You're an extra that gets killed off. How do you die?

Something painless and quick?? I don't know. Poison?? Nice dramatic non-bloody death?

30. A character you’d like to learn more about and get flashbacks of?

JASPER. OBVIOUSLY.

...Lol I think this question is really about plausible character flashbacks and if so.... well first off ANY flashback about the Ark is 100% my thing, and flashbacks about almost any delinquent would be great. We're still not in the realm of the plausible, though, imo.

Raven, perhaps? Always want more Raven.

31. A character you’d bang?

Raven. Even though she'd intimidate me a lot.

Monty (as an adult, ofc).

A lot of the characters are bangable tbh. Might be faster to name those I wouldn't...

32. Would you stay in the Bunker? Go up to Space? Or live on your own in Eden?

Uhhhh none of the above??

I suppose the bunker. (This answer is based on the concepts of bunker/space/alone on Earth, not what actually happened in S5.)

33. In the Bunker, would you follow Octavia? What would you do to pass the time underground?

Read a lot and make friends. Idk if I'd follow Octavia since I just don't have enough data on the season... but from my understanding of her recent arc, probably not.

34. What crime would you commit in the Bunker that lands you in the fighting pits?

???

35. Up in Space, who would you bond with first? Who would be the most difficult for you to get along with?

I wouldn't last a year in space with such a small group of people but hopefully Raven and I would hook up before I spontaneously expired.

36. How long do you think you would last on Earth by yourself?

Definitely less than a year.

37. When the Eligius ship lands what do you do?

Eligius ship? I don't know her.

38. Favorite Eligius character? Least favorite?

???

39. Would you Spacewalk?

No. But actually. Probably yes. I'd totally freak out about the idea, swear a million times I'd never do it, then get cajoled into trying by my beautiful girlfriend Raven, and I'd love it so much I'd immediately want to do it again.

40. Would you prefer to eat Windshield Bugs, Space Algae, or Bunker Meat?

Algae?

41. Would you start a war for the last spot of green on earth? What would your solution be to avoid it?

There's no way I'd make it this far in the narrative in real life. I didn't even get there in fictional life.

42. Would you rather dig out flesh-eating worms or stick thumb drives into bullet holes?

I guess the thumb drive thing sounds less disgusting.

43. Are you willing to poison your sister for the Traitor Who You Love? What would you do to stop Octavia?

I don't have any siblings (well, no siblings with whom I have a real sibling relationship) so, yeah, sure, why not lol?

44. Would you go to sleep in cryo or stay awake like M/rper?

Leave my body behind on Earth, please, where it belongs.

45. Who are you waking up first to explore the new planet?

New planet? I dunno what that means lol.

[theinquisitivej]

The New Century Multiverse Reactions – Let Them Go: Episode 08, After Life

Listen to the full episode here.

We open on the aftermath of the terrible event which closed out last week’s episode. The episode’s first minute or so paints a very real picture of how moments after sudden, violent tragedies such as this feel never-ending. Rafe’s death seems to reverberate as we hang on the horrified reactions of the onlookers. The audio drowns out the background noise of the environment we’re in and plays a high-pitched ringing, as if Rafe’s death has left Rebecca, and possibly even the audience, in a state of shell-shock. When we hear how Rebecca is “terrified she would see its face up close” if she were to look out the window, we understand not only her fear of the physical danger should the monster be right in front of her, but that the whole situation, this complete upheaval of the world she knows, is almost too much to look square in the face.

         But as Dawson shrieks at Rebecca to take the sobbing Amanda upstairs, we’re pulled back to reality, and yet also made intensely uneasy at just how much this situation has shaken these characters, as it has stripped at least one of them of all composure. Indeed, when we’re told that “Amanda was fighting her” as Rebecca tried to bring her sister upstairs, it really does convey that the relationships between these characters are beginning to break down, and sadly, it’s happening all at once. When we consider the etiquette with which these characters spoke to one another, even Dawson, as they all met for this formal occasion of the reading of Wolverton’s will, seeing them lose control like this is unnerving. Rebecca can’t even rely on her own memory as she struggles to remember whether Amanda’s wound looked better or worse when she first saw it, and while this is certainly a hint of the sinister change affecting Amanda at this very moment, it also stresses just how, well, stressful these circumstances are. Rebecca has spent a long time pushing herself to extreme limits as she worked towards establishing and running a store. She’s not one to forget the details of important things, and yet she now can’t trust her own memory or senses as she tries to remember exactly what Amanda’s wound looked like not too long ago. Circumstances are growing direr by the episode, and our characters’ sense of control and certainty is visibly slipping.

         It’s here where Amanda describes the creature attacking them, revealing its ancient nature through a mix of the creative thinking of her old self and the ominous insight which her wound and steadily advancing illness have provided her in this portentous scene. This is the moment where this creature, which has been a nameless threat up to this point, is given a name, though the true origins and internal workings of this beast remain a mystery. The people of America call them Wendigos, but to the inhabitants of Britain, these creatures are known as the Barghest. It’s a chilling sequence with some well-woven language bringing the gothic horror of this story to new heights.

         Speaking of chilling horror, once we hear the distant voice coupled with Amanda’s seemingly delirious singing, an unsettling shudder passed over me. It’s a moment which especially sticks with you in audio form, as the audio sells the disparity in distance between the two voices, one being right next to us while the other is far off in the distance at who-knows-where. But the moment still works on paper because of the work the narrative puts into developing Rebecca’s uneasiness in this place, as well as the ghosts of her family’s past, even before any real monsters show up. This moment makes all of her internal fears rise to the surface, to the point where we have to wonder whether they have crossed the threshold and become objects of external dread. In some ways, this comes to pass, as Rebecca can’t help but let a lifetime of frustrations with her father burst out of her when Amanda mentions her mother’s spirit looking after him. In the midst of all this death and potential death as Amanda lies dying in bed while the Barghest lingers outside, the idea that this one person who deserted them and spurned Rebecca’s ambitions could be at peaceful rest alongside the spirit of the wife he left behind is too much for her to bear. Even with Amanda being sick and in need of comfort, she will not hide her anger towards her father, and her remarks contribute to Amanda’s outburst which spirals into a dangerous lashing out.

         In the ensuing confrontation, Dawson attempts to force Amanda to take the medicine while Rebecca and Aunt Cleo fight to protect Amanda, as well as get through to the woman they know and care for underneath all this unknowable, inhuman rage. While Dawson is continuing to prove himself to be both worthless and unpleasant in a crisis, I feel like I’m growing ever fonder of Aunt Cleo. Her firm tone with Dawson was absolutely a hell-yeah moment, even if it’s a small victory in all this mess. She also continues to lend a hand to help treat Amanda in the right way, and when she and Rebecca stand outside the room to discuss what happened and what comes next, I felt glad to have her by Rebecca’s side, and hope they can find a way out of this together somehow. When they lock the bedroom door with Amanda inside, a significant turning point is reached where, even if neither Amanda nor Aunt Cleo will fully acknowledge it, they are beginning to see Amanda as a threat and are taking appropriate precautions.

         In the closing minutes of the episode, the audience is asked to consider Dawson. His suggestion that his fee be adjusted to accommodate the attack on his person is, given the circumstances, a sure sign of his reprehensible attitude and his status as a complete arse. However, the narration, reflecting Rebecca’s internal thought process, points out that he is nevertheless a potential threat that should be taken seriously. It’s an astute observation which prevents us from dismissing the character as nothing more than an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and it illustrates the infuriating reality of this period which means that even men as undeserving as Dawson can command women of much higher character like Rebecca and Aunt Cleo. My hope is that each of those bee sting-like sensations he’s feeling hurt like hell, even if they do represent the sharp, awful buzz of a ticking clock.

         The mention of Amanda’s manuscript in the epilogue is a nice touch. It’s a small detail which fleshes out her character, suggests that there are all manner of hidden objects in this world which reveal secrets to these characters that we don’t get to fully see in the main text, and hits the audience in the heart as they lament this sad waste of the plans Amanda had for herself before this night.

         This episode packed a great deal into its runtime. The character development continues to impress, as do the performances of the cast. The gothic horror is intensifying which makes the story ever-more captivating and unsettling. Finally, the deteriorating Amanda, her naming of the Barghest, and the biting of Dawson are all developments which make us suspect that the monster outside has already infiltrated the house in a way none of these characters could have seen coming.

Well, perhaps none of them except for Amanda…

[bk-lostintranslation]

Review: ENRON: The Smartest Guys in the Room

At its crux, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is about more than the social dynamics of the corporate world. Germinating within its edgy, dramatic content is a quiet lambastation of corporatism, within which Enron's downfall is portrayed as a symptom rather than an anomaly.

Alex Gibney's directorial talents shine through once again with his 2005 documentary-film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Based on the homonymous book by Fortune reporters Bethany Mclean and Peter Elkind, Gibney's page-to-screen adaptation layers vibrancy and pathos over the bestselling chronicle's already socially-relevant commentary. Like the book itself, Gibney's documentary traces the rise and fall of the megalithic corporation Enron, which is today synonymous with skullduggery and corruption. Also like the book, Gibney succeeds in demystifying a world of complex numbers by focusing on its intensely human underpinnings.

However, while Mclean and Elkind's book serves as a nuanced analysis for those already familiar Wall Street's basic workings, Gibney's documentary will undoubtedly succeed at resonating with wider audiences. Young adults and veterans of the early-2000s recession alike will appreciate its content, which is attractively-packaged and divided into mini-chapters with catchy titles ("Kenny Boy", "Everybody Loves Enron", "Guys With Spikes," etc) and set to a soundtrack that is at once over-the-top and fitting.

At its crux, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is about more than the social dynamics of the corporate world. Germinating within its edgy, dramatic content is a quiet lambastation of corporatism, within which Enron's downfall is portrayed as a symptom rather than an anomaly. As Peter Coyote dourly remarks in the voiceover narration, "Was Enron the work of a few bad men, or the dark shadow of the American dream?"

Although I was quite young at the time of Enron's bankruptcy, its collapse created a butterfly effect that was difficult to ignore. Equally impossible was remaining ignorant of the legal trials of its CEOs, which were recounted incessantly on television, and in magazines and newspapers. However, it was not until 2013 that I personally read the book by Bethany Mclean and Peter Elkind. As such, I found the documentary to be a fairly accurate condensation of the source material.

Unfortunately, the book and documentary differ substantially in tone. Whereas Mclean and Elkind are scholarly in their attempt to trace the rise and fall of Enron, the documentary oftentimes reduces its content to schlocky drama. To be sure, Enron is at its core a study of human tragedy. But the point is hammered in so often that it grows tiresome. Thankfully, the film's saving grace is that even when resorting to truisms and cheesy metaphors, the impact is made fresh by the accuracy of Sherron Watkins and Bethany Mclean's closing observations. "Looking at Enron is like looking at the flip side of so much possibility because like most things that end terribly, it didn't start out that way. It started with a lot of people who thought they were changing the world."

From the start, the film incorporates into its chronological narrative a near-ideal combination of cinematic foreboding and heavy-handed intrigue. With gravely lines from Tom Waits' "What's He Building?" interspersed between cut-scenes of a bleak Houston cityscape, the effect is at once fascinating and seedy. However, it is not until a re-enactment of Cliff Baxter's suicide, followed by shots of Jeffrey Skilling at the inquisition, that viewers are lured deeper into the sleazy charisma of sensationalism. In many ways, the recreation of the suicide is tasteless. Yet it serves its purpose: wreathing Enron and all its players within an atmosphere of danger and deception. Gibney's framing makes it clear: this is a glittering world of secrets that outsiders are not privy to. However, the documentary also offers its audiences the sly, tantalizing promise of playing fly-on-the-wall within this intricate corporate machine.

Structurally, the film's chronological order is easy to follow. Audiences trace Enron's rise and fall through a lens of interspersed interviews, audio tapes and video footage. We are introduced in dynamic, engaging detail to Enron's star players: Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, Andrew Fastow, with segments devoted to their backgrounds and personalities. Kenneth Lay's close relationship with the Bush family is also touched upon, but within Enron's overarching structure of corruption, the fact seems to be almost tangential. In many respects, the Bush-Lay friendship comes across as the byplay of America's culture of wealth and exclusivity, rather than a political conspiracy to be explored.

As the film progresses, Enron's exploits – the positive and negative – are portrayed vividly.  There is a sense of awe at the fact that a small-time Texas company was able to rise with such dizzying speed into a multinational corporation. By the late 90s, Enron was not just involved in the gas and energy business, but in broadband, steel, shipping, plastics, weather risk management, and petrochemicals. There is also a quiet admiration for the fact that, despite its cutthroat business tactics, Enron was nonetheless one of the era's great innovators. Ideas such as commodifying energy for trade, the (failed) Blockbuster deal to rent movies online (a precursor to Netflix!), the focus on derivatives instead of hard assets, are all relevant to the current era. Unfortunately, Enron did not seem to grasp that the virtual marketplace came with rewards and risks in equal measure. Rather than owning up to its losses, it chose to sweep them under the rug in the form of illegal partnerships and fraudulent accounting.

Chillingly, there were ever-cropping red flags of Enron's unscrupulous practices early on. The documentary does not disregard these: incidents such as the Valhalla Scandal of 1987, or the disastrous Dahbol power-plant in Maharashtra, India, or sale of Nigerian energy barges to Merril Lynch, are all given careful attention. However, it is not until the chapter 'Kal-ee-for-Nyah', that Gibney brings Enron's corruption into sharp focus. Audiences cannot help but be appalled by Enron's tactics for gaming the Californian market. Business strategies boasting names such as 'Death Star, 'Black Widow,' 'Get Shorty' and 'Fat Boy' are intermixed between audiotapes of Enron traders flippantly discussing ways to bleed the state dry. As Loretta Lynch, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, remarks, "Those guys at the flip of a switch could just yank the California economy on its leash whenever they wanted to. And they did it, and they did it, and they did it. And they made so much money." It becomes eerily apparent that the firm's mentality was not just amoral, but deliberately malicious. During the California energy crisis, not only did they defraud the state out of billions of dollars, but they seem to have treated it as an elaborate shell-game.

Even from this mid-point of the documentary, it is clear to audiences that Enron's downward spiral is inevitable. In many ways it has become a Frankenstein monster that its own creators cannot control. It does not help that they are largely surrounded by enablers and sycophants who create a cavernous echo chamber. Neither renowned banks nor Wall Street analysts seem to question Enron's skewed accounting. To add to that, Arthur Anderson, then a leading auditing firm, chooses to look the other way when Enron decides to adopt mark-to-market accounting. The business press only feeds Enron's delusions of grandeur. Magazines such as Forbes and Fortune present it as a rising star in the business firmament. For years, the company embodies the zeitgeist of the 90s – riding a wave of innovative globalization and fast wealth. Given the weight of such fantastical expectations, it is no wonder that Enron's eventual collapse sends tremors throughout the economic world.

While the documentary is not filmed in a variety of international locations, it more than makes up for it with its diverse cast. Co-writers Bethany Mclean and Peter Elkind both contribute to the narration, and Gibney interviews a number of second-tier executives, attorneys, governors, and friends of Enron CEOs. With their input, Gibney is able to condense and simplify the complexities of the business world without sacrificing the nuances of its human side. Likewise, Enron's entourage of executives are shown to be competitive and resourceful, driven by a need to be the best in the game. Some, such as Kenneth Lay, born to a poor family in Tyrone, Missouri, are self-made successes who practically embody the American dream of rags to riches. Although the documentary details many of their questionable decisions as Enron executives, it does not gratuitously demonize them. Rather, they are portrayed as "victims of their own greed" – the byproducts of an overarching culture that rewards ruthlessness as long as the profits are big enough. Indeed, by the time the documentary ends, audiences are left not with a sense of smug self-righteousness, but immense sadness at what Enron could have been, as well as the still-rippling disasters that could have been avoided had it not fallen prey to avarice.

Overall, one of the most engaging aspects of the documentary is its message. At many points the narrative threatens to morph into a morality play, complete with fallen heroes battling against the Seven Deadly Sins. Its saving grace is how it stretches into an incisive assessment of corporate America, which, with its outsized focus on superficial appearances and financial success, often endorses the same mercenary values it claims to vilify. Another aspect I found pleasantly surprising was how Gibney does not veer into conspiracy theories and political propaganda, which is unfortunately the case for many documentaries. Granted, he has an angle – as many directors do. But he does not let it interfere with even-handed storytelling.

At the same time, one of the film's drawbacks is its Hollywood-esque gimmickry. "Show, Don't Tell" is the dictum for many successful works of art and media, and in this case I would have preferred less of the latter. Gibney's penchant for edgy, artistic mood-building – most apparent in the imagery and soundtrack – is undoubtedly captivating. But it can also be heavy-handed and tacky. Certain dramatizations – such as Cliff Baxter's suicide set to strains of Billie Holiday's God Bless the Child – are in poor taste. So too are recollections of Enron's enigmatic executive Lou Pai, whose penchant for strippers is juxtaposed with intercuts of topless dancers in low red lighting – an effect that comes across as more gratuitous than anything.

On the whole, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a testament to Gibney's craft. Alternately gripping and horrifying, it displays an astute understanding of human nature, at its best and worst, as well as the way wealth and power can function as the potent nuclear force of social dynamics. Ultimately, if there is anything audiences will take away from the film, it is how skillfully Gibney exposes aspects of corporate culture that we are often too uncomfortable to confront ourselves.

[evilradmedieval]

Kendrick Lamar - “DAMN.” Review

I’m gonna be that guy and say that I’ve been listening to Kung-Fu Kenny for a hot minute, now. He’s been around since the early 2000s, hanging around longtime friends such as Jay Rock and several others who would soon become known as the Black Hippy collective of the then-future TDE label. Dropping Lil Wayne-inspired mixtapes here and there while collaborating with TDE labelmates ScHoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, he didn’t quite come into artistic fruition until his release of his debut EP, The Kendrick Lamar EP in 2009. Lyrically and instrumentally raw, the EP was packed with both anthemic and lowkey cuts, and showcased a fairly young Kendrick rapping about more common hip-hop themes such as relationships and coming up in the rap game. He then continued this onto his major fifth mixtape Overly Dedicated, an album with more lush production and a more central over-arching theme of “gangster-realism”, while also including more sensual tracks as well. He included bigger-named features, most notably a young Jhene Aiko, LA-native Dom Kennedy and underground legend MURS. However, it wasn’t until 2011 when K.Dot made major waves on the internet with his major debut mixtape Section.80. Fully honing his lyrical skill over more illustrious and well-sampled production, I was simply blown away. He truly embraced his more nasally delivery, however his technical skill was ridiculous. Lyrically he stood out over cuts such as “HiiiPoWer” and the ridiculous “Rigamortis”. There are bangers here and there as well, yet also had its fair share of more laidback, drugged-out cuts. However, topically he seems to go deeper and darker, referencing themes of racism in the system and medicinal tolerance. One can also make the claim of calling this a concept album, as he explores the stories of women who are going through hardship such as abandonment and the circumstances facing teen pregnancy. At this point, King Kendrick has really caught my attention, whist also being deemed “worthy” of carrying the torch for the west coast by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and The Game. Then he drops a song called “Swimming Pools”, a song that seemingly sounds like another drinking anthem, but is genius in the sense that it talks about alcoholism in a different perspective. Little did I know that this banger of a track came through in a bigger context within an album, as the 2012 release of good kid, M.A.A.D. city proved to be the epitome of the modern hip-hop storytelling album. Here, we follow the narrative of a young Kendrick Lamar, growing up in a very dangerous environment of South Central LA. Gang violence, racial profiling and even the dreary recollections of a woman really put us in his point of view, while flawlessly making every song act as one chapter of his life. However, each song acts as a great stand-alone track as itself, as bangers like “Backseat Freestyle” and “m.a.a.d. city” are one of the hardest beats I’ve heard Kendrick rap on to date. After a bit of a 3-year hiatus, we find ourselves with probably one of the most socially conscious albums, let alone hip-hop albums, that I’ve ever heard. To Pimp a Butterfly was packed with so many different layers upon layers of instrumentation that pulls from Parliament/ Funkadelic-esque soul-funk rock, gospel, jazz, spoken word, G-funk and boom-bap. Production by artists such as Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Flying Lotus, Knxwledge, Boi-1da and TDE affiliate Sounwave. yet, with all these genre-bending instrumentals, we get an album that comments on today’s current African American culture, racial inequalities, institutionalized discrimination and depression. The album honestly is hard to digest track by track, but once you dig deeper within the narrative of the LP as one cohesive project, it becomes apparent how well-crafted and thought-out this project was. I understand that a lot of people did not like this album due to this experimental and avant-garde approach, but what many of those people don’t understand is the scope of the album and magnitude of its message is. The instrumentation is beautiful, and the more aggressive “The Blacker the Berry” hits harder the more I listen to it. It was honestly perfect in my eyes, and I cannot see how Kendrick would ever be able to top this masterpiece.

But then again, I thought about it and realized that each album he’s ever released came with completely different narratives and themes. In a way, he reinvents himself every album in order to fulfill each respective albums’ content. good kid, m.a.a.d. city was an on-going narrative on his life growing up in Compton through several perspectives. To Pimp a Butterfly was an encompassing. cohesive work that gave us more insight with different perspectives on the current state of African American culture and racism in America. The theme on DAMN.? It’s a little... disjointed compared to his previous works. Not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s just something he hasn’t necessarily done on his past projects. In comparison to his last album (not including his unmastered. untitled. compilation), this album sonically sounds way more accessible and would appeal to more types of people across the board due to its more poppy, trappy-flavored and skeletal instrumentals. The features? U2 and Rihanna, along with a random feature from a Jeremih-esque singer and Kid Capri adlibs sprinkled throughout. There are random gunshots and reversals of tracks, giving me allusions of death and then resurrection? In addition to so much talk about death, we get a very wishy-washy Kendrick going off about various topics here and there, hence the slight incohesiveness, which isn’t necessarily bad. But here on this album, I can be the cause for some slight blunders and conflicting points of view which can be interpreted either way as intentional or not. The songs titles are also pretty vague and bold topics to be addressing topically, with tracks such as “GOD.”, “LOVE.” and “LOYALTY.” Of course, you can’t entirely break down such topics within a couples minutes on a conventional rap album, but it still was interesting the way he decided to proceed with what songs topically to include. 

The intro "BLOOD.” is interesting in the sense that it begins with Kendrick telling the story of encountering an old woman who seems to have lost something. The elderly woman then proceeds to shoot him with a gun, which then sents him into a strange spiraling out of reality which conveniently careens you towards the start of “DNA.” Probably one the hardest tracks on the entire project, we get a banger of a trap-flavored anthem about Kendrick lashing out against his haters and critics. Here, he explores aspects of black history and African American culture, topics in which are deeply rooted in his lyrics. The track also features a sample of the dialogue of Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera. Being criticized for his lyrics that openly disapprove of law enforcement, he lyrically roasts Rivera claiming how he was preaching hope and not adversity. I especially love how towards the middle-section of the track, the album decides to come through with the heaviest of bass that I’ve ever heard from a Kendrick Lamar song, which really reinforces his constant bar after bars regarding African royalty, a common tenet of Afrocentricism. “DNA.” is heavy song with fantastic delivery and lyrics all-around.

The next track in “YAH.” delivers a very stripped back and repetitive instrumental. Supposedly being referenced to God’s name in “Yahweh”, the song has very deep religious undertones. The hook showcases a very slurred delivery, similar to a “buzzing noise” whenever he repeats the song title, announcing his awareness of everything that’s happening around him.  With it, he continues on his tirade on Fox News, how he is labeled another generic rapper that detriments society due to the content of his music. he then throws Bible verses and allusions left and right, which may need some room for interpretation. A very lowkey and skeletal instrumental with a slurred delivery, the track isn’t one of my favorites but has a definite eeriness to it.

“ELEMENT.” happens to be one of my favorite songs on the album. I’m not sure if there’s a Big Lebowski reference in it, but I love the part of the chorus whenever he says he’ll “make it look sexy.” But essentially the track is a bunch of shit-talking and braggadocio, with clever lines left and right. He also delves into his personal life regarding his family and his upbringing, and how he basically went from the bottom to the top of the game within years. Surprisingly, James Blake had a share in the production, assisted by TDE’s Sounwave. The track is atmospheric and skeletal, yet upbeat and still hits hard with Kendrick’s unrelenting delivery. Definitely a noteworthy cut from the album.

From the heavy-hitting flows of “ELEMENT.”, we transition into a more depressing and lowkey cut off the LP which actually sounds like something I’d find Kanye singing on. Here, we get a very confused and depressed Kendrick, rapping about deception and abandonment. It’s quite apparent that beneath all that success and fame, there’s underlying feelings of toxicity that ultimately lead to suffering. Probably one of the more negative-sounding cuts off the tracklisting, he’s seen to definitely struggle emotionally and interpersonally. This is something we don’t normal get from him, which was interesting to see. 

It’s kind of crazy to think that the next track “LOYALTY.” was a flip of Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic”, reversing and slowing the hook of the track. A very poppy yet G-funk-inspired instrumental, pop icon Rihanna comes through with minimal backing vocals, but was able to contribute a pretty decent rap verse herself. The song is pretty straighforward, regarding loyalty in both platonic and romantic relationships. I thought the song was just run-of-the-mill for me, as he doesn’t too philosophically deep into the tracklisting, but the track still sounds great as a stand-alone single for the radio.

Next up, we get this constantly changing vocal inflection of a delivery on “PRIDE.” With help from The Internet’s Steve Lacy, we get these really melodic garage rock riffs, along with this thumping and groovy tempo. He also contributes to the hook, which has these really dreary and high-pitched harmonizing vocals by Anna Wise.  Here, we get more religious allusions, in which Kendrick delves more into his position in the rap game and how his recognition causes tensions between his own ideals and actions. Despite the sound being really lowkey and melodic, this track actually contrasts itself with the ever-sarcastic follow-up in “HUMBLE.” Taking a huge U-turn and doing the exact opposite of being modest, Kendrick drops bar after bar of obnoxious braggadocio , and urging his contemporaries (*coughs* Big Sean *coughs*) to “sit down” and “be humble”. Working into the context of the album, it doesn’t really add more meaning than it did initially as a single, but contrasts humorously with the previous track in the sense that each song evokes emotions the opposite of the established topic. 

Sexual intimacy and... well lust are dominating topics on the track “LUST.” He discusses not just sexual drive, but also things that we strive for that are for self-indulgence. Money, drugs, and fame are a couple things, hence the refrain for “water” to quench his thirst for such things. Again, the track is stripped back and minimal instrumentally, with his high-pitched vocals dominating the hook, which aren’t necessarily his forte. Not one of my favorites, but still an intriguing track. 

The next track “LOVE.” is absolute garbage. I don’t care for the Jeremih-esque vocals by Zacari, and the really annoying refrain by Kendrick with the “I wanna be with you!” just kills me every time. The only thing I like about the song is Kendrick’s flow, but again despite this, he comes through with underwhelming lyrics and a really lazy R&B-tinged inflection in his voice, similar to Drake’s rap-singing. The track is ethereal, atmospheric and really skeletal with looming synths in the background. Additionally, the track doesn’t elaborate much upon such a generically topical song.

“XXX.” came through with a U2 feature that actually went over well better than I expected, as I’m not a fan of Bono’s work other than Joshua Tree. I love how the track has these three segments where the beginning starts off with K.Dot delivering this sort of monotone flow over a skeletal trap-flavored instrumental, which then climaxes around the middle-section of the track where the heavy sub-bass kicks in that is accompanied by these blaring sirens that really fit well into the beat. The track then abruptly settles down into a momentary lull, in which Bono delivers some decent vocals. Kendrick then follows the hook with more bars about the current state of the United States, including gang violence, the recent Trump election and the hypocrisy of our nations leaders. 

“FEAR.” appears on the tracklisting as one of the longer tracks, sitting at a whopping 7 minutes. Here, there is an obvious allusion to the biblical scriptures, which heavily draws from the story of Job. Kendrick gives us a very paranoid point of view of being fearful of all the bad things that are happening to him and everyone around him, beckoning towards the mercy of God. This is the first time I’ve seen Kendrick act so unsure of himself and really draw from more religious themes in any part of his discography. There are vocal samples throughout, alluding to how the African Americans are the Israelites of the country. In my personal opinion, this is an interesting take, however I can see how it can draw away some fans from this album. The religious undertones are more apparent than you think, however this track really takes the cake in regards to directly addressing Kendrick’s suffering due to God’s will. Sonically the track sounds great, but the content of why Kendrick is so heavily in constant sorrow can be unsettling.

“GOD.” happens to be one of my least favorite tracks, in which he pulls from the trend of rappers who need to sing their own hooks on their tracks. He does okay for a majority of the singing until he attempts to croon then throws in these Kanye-inspired vocal snippets that sound Autotuned and strangely altered for the sake of sounding like Kanye. The track has a pretty generic trap-flavored, atmospheric instrumental. The track has a decent pair of verses in which he alludes to how rappers view themselves in very god-like figures. But the singing really kills it for me.

“DUCKWORTH.” closes out DAMN. with one hell of a standout. We have this soulful ballad sample in the beginning which then drops you into a beautifully-sampled vocal loop over these boom-bap drums. 9th Wonder does a fantastic job on the boards, giving a very jazzy and soul-inspired hip-hop beat, an aesthetic I wish Kendrick tried to opt towards more on this LP. The track has a couple beat-change-ups, which really make Kendrick’s bars pop even more with every transition with each topic. The track is simply a recollection of when his father almost got killed accidentally by a future musical contributor in his life, TDE founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith. The track then ends with another gun shot, which then reverses the track into the entire tracklisting and then drops us off back into the intro to the LP like some sort of freak time-machine accident, where we meet the same old woman Kendrick encounters in the beginning. 

It was honestly a huge challenge breaking down every aspect of this album. The more and more I listen to it, I get more and more addicted to trying to interpret every single moment. The gunshots, the track rewinds, the simplistic instrumentals, the constant biblical allusions... everything just seems to make this album more intricate than it actually sounds on first listen. DAMN. gives us a Kendrick we haven’t seen before: vulnerable, depressed, and yearning for forgiveness and mercy from a benevolent God. The song titles are extremely conceptual, yet most of the tracks don’t completely make a sufficient comment or complete central theme honed in upon the said title. “LOVE.” for example, gave very little in what it had to do with topically, yet songs like “PRIDE.” and “HUMBLE.” were clever in the way that their assumed meaning sarcastically flipped sonically upon each other with the former being more lowkey while the latter being more obnoxious. Kendrick delivers, however, a collective of tracks with one of his best rap flows yet, despite some vocal blunders on several tracks. The instrumentals were a little too dumbed down and accessible for my taste, as the lush and heavily sampled live instruments and influences spanning various genres on To Pimp a Butterfly really gave me a sense of maximalism in regards to instrumentation. This album has a more straight-forward sound, yet has very hard-to-interpret moments that keep many listeners still scratching their heads. Additionally, with the rumors of follow-up album NATION. being an upcoming release, DAMN. makes me also yearn for more material to satisfy all the questions that have arisen from listening. Not the best in Kendrick Lamar’s discography, but that doesn’t really anything wholly negative, as he’s released several of the most influential benchmarks in modern hip-hop today through his previous two albums. 

RATING: 7/10

[celepom]

Trollhunters Book Review

I did not like this thing. I can see the parts that remained in the animated show, but they improved on so much and for that I am grateful. Because if the show had been anything remotely like the book it would have been vile but even more tragically - BORING.

It goes without saying that everything under the cut will have spoilers.

The Writing Style

First of all, it’s written in first person and it really shouldn’t be. Like most YA novels written in FP it is done incredibly poorly and cheats that narrative several times. This is Third Person Perspective with First Person Pronouns and it’s really REALLY bad at times. The style itself is inconsistent and its hard to follow what’s going on sometimes because characters just drop out of existence/the scene when the author doesn’t have anything for them to contribute.

It is also gross for the sake of being gross. In the show the “Biology” of the trolls is at least consistent. They’re stone creatures. In this? They’re sacs of puss and goo that vomit up their own internal organs in order to be more sneaky. There’s shit, vomit, blood and guts everywhere in this book.

There were several points in this book where I could tell that it was both written by a man and for a male audience. It was very distracting, but that may just be personal preference. I prefer a more neutral narrative voice, I guess. (Think of it like a movie where the camera suddenly pans across the female character’s ass. It’s like that male gaze, in written form, but toned down because it’s YA)

The Characters

Man, you know all those characters in the show and how you love them and want to keep seeing them grow or have redemptive arcs? *bitter laughter* There is none of that here. Absolutely none, and it’s both frustrating and depressing

Jim

This guy has nothing on Jim Lake. He has no hobbies, no interests, he labels himself as a loser and is quite content to remain that way up until he finds his Magical Calling and suddenly for the first time something is easy and so he loves it. He’s a Gary-Stu, essentially. He is a blank slate for the reader to project themselves onto.

AND HE DOES NOTHING BUT WHINGE!! There is a difference between a character having a realistic reaction to dark circumstances and Whinging. Jim reaches Bad Batman Angst Fic levels about how NOBODY Understands him and he has NOBODY and he must GIVE HIMSELF UP TO THE NIGHT!

That is up until 3/4 of the way through the book when he suddenly starts deciding that being a Trollhunter is amazing (They start winning - that’s what causes his attitude shift), but even then he continues to WHIIIIIINE.

Toby

Toby at least had some redeeming qualities in the show. And you bought that he and Jim were friends in the show. Here? They’re friends because they’re both losers and Jim really isn’t that great a friend to Toby. And since this book is written in Fake First Person, he often gets ignored. Out of Sight, Out of Mind and all that.

Blinky

Oh Fraser Book Troll Dad you certainly came a long way. Blinky in the books is a (mostly) blind Troll that is a tentacle monster. When he starts talking it’s similar to how he does in the show - intellectual - but instead of being gentle, supportive, protective and instructive he....well he’s a condescending asshat. He also drones on and on and on (usually about himself/his dissertation) and there is no sense of companionship between him and Jim, because, well, he doesn’t know him! He’s also more of a fighter than just a scholar in this.

AAARRRGH!!!

AAARRRGH!! is actually female in this. Actually, it mentions that most Troll Warriors are female because they’re more built for it than males.She also has brain damage which was interesting until the book shat itself at the end (Her Brain Damage was caused in her fight with Gunmar when he slammed a boulder into her skull and the remnant remains. And then at the end the remnant is removed and suddenly she can talk “intelligently” again - to quote the book). In place of moments where AAARRRGH!! goes berserk we have her being possessed by Gunmar’s eye, which she ripped out of his head during their battle 45 years ago. Oh, and she eats several of Toby’s cats. Like at least 15 of them (”Three square meals of cat”). And it’s treated as a joke both times it comes up (FUCK YOU BOOK)

Claire

Claire was barely in this except as a love interest (and one other very stupid “surprise” at the end, but we’ll get to that). In this she is Scottish (Not British, as Jim assumed at the beginning of the book). She has wild hair, isn’t stick-thin, is “weird” but still makes friends and is fairly popular. But it turns out she’s living a double life - pretending to be a different person for her parents who want her to be an upstanding, rich, ideal young lady. But her true calling is to be a Trollhunter because like Jim she is from a magical human family of Trollhunters!!! (At least she had training in swordplay/fencing. Unlike Jim who pulled the skills out of his hobbyless and inathletic ass)

Jack

Jack should have been the main character of this book. Period. This story should have nixed Jim in it’s entirety because he was ultimately pointless. Jack meanwhile actually had stakes in the war going on, especially after being involved in it for 45 years. He unwillingly gave up his life as a normal kid to help in putting an end to the murders of nearly two hundred children. He’s frozen in time - a 68 year old man trapped in a 13 year old body - because living with the trolls stopped his aging (It was never properly explained why - it’s just what happened). It’s also his fault for Gunmar being back since instead of striking the killing blow 45 years ago Jack sealed him away. That’s why he stuck around for 45 years, out of a sense of responsibility.

The Major Differences

Jim isn’t the first Human Trollhunter. In fact Human Trollhunters have been around since ancient times and always have been the PRIMARY Trollhunters because up until around 300 years ago ALL Trolls were Gumm-Gumms. No joke. In fact, all of the Trolls in Europe and Asia are STILL Gumm-Gumms and only a group of separatist Trolls and their descendants (Trolls live a long time - 300 years is nothing) who traveled to the Americas are “Good Trolls” who think eating people is bad. And yet they relapse into eating people sometimes too.

Trollhunters are mythical lines of humans whom always historically heeded the call to protect people from Trolls who consider them a nice snack or meal if they take several at a go. One of these families is the Sturges, but since Trollhunting was basically non-existent in America they didn’t uphold any of the history, training, anything. So after tracking down one of the legendary families Blinky and AAARRRGH!! kidnap one kid (they tried for two, but the second one got away) in order to help them fight off Gunmar since the pacifist trolls had forgotten how to fight....Except they had an army and FWHFLIEHGF- IT’S STUPID, MOVING ON!!

And for anybody who likes the Changelings, they are completely different in this and not sympathetic, tragic, or interesting at all. How are they made in the book? By Nullhullers vomiting on the target to create a cast of them which then develops into a copy of that person (Baby) from the vomit and viscera. And then they carry the baby off...to be eaten. Yeah, I hold no notions that those babies weren’t tortured then devoured after being fattened up. Not in this book.

Jim isn’t living with his single mother, he’s living with his single dad. His dad who is a paranoid control-freak who turned their house into a bunker basically. There is a reason for this, his brother - Jack - disappeared when he was young, but it’s spiraled so far out of control it’s really NOT. OKAY. He also only starts coming around after a troll parasite makes him “feel better.” And after all these years when he discovers his brother is still alive he gets very creepy about it. Jim Sr. is no Barbara Lake that’s for sure.

There is no training, not really. Training consists of Jack demonstrating sword moves to Jim Once. ONCE. But that’s enough because magic inherent Trollhunter genes means he memorizes and knows how to perform all of those moves after being shown by someone else doing them once. THAT’S HOW INSTINCT WORKS!!

The Annoying Shit AKA The stuff that made me lose my suspension of disbelief

The Milk Carton Epidemic.

Troll Market is not accessed by magic (except when it is) and it is literally underneath the city. HOW HAS IT NOT BEEN FOUND WHEN IT IS LITERALLY CONNECTED TO THE SEWERS AND YOU CAN HEAR CARS DRIVING OVERHEAD??!! WE DO GO INTO SEWERS! WE MAINTAIN THEM! AS WELL AS ROADS WHICH SOMETIMES REQUIRE CONSTRUCTION!!

Trolls can fully regenerate within a day if their gall bladder is not destroyed (Thank you for getting rid of this, Dreamworks/ Del Toro/ Whoever)

There’s no Magic Armour or Weapons. The only armour anyone wears is by the character Jack and it’s made of scraps like tacs, boom box speakers, book coils, etc. And the “Medallion” is just a trinket that allows the wearer to understand what the Trolls are saying. Because, yeah, they don’t speak a Human sounding language. (That doesn’t get annoying with how it alienates Toby or anything. No siree)

Gunmar the Black was sealed away and Killaheed Bridge will release him....Except how, like I said, Troll Territories are literally underground and they walk through the sewers and old mines(???) to get to where he’s “Stuck.” (Again, THANK YOU for changing this to the Darklands because another dimension I can understand not being able to WALK OUT OF for 45 years)

Steve. STEEEEEEEEVE!!! I hate generic bully characters, but this one takes the cake. He abuses other students in front of teachers and they accommodate him to the point where he is disruptive to other students IN CLASS but they do nothing. He has even less personality here than in the show. And Jim doesn’t stand up to him until near the end because he’s a self-admitted coward, but even THEN He isn’t the one who gives him a verbal smack-down - IT’S CLAIRE. Oh, and turns out he’s a Changeling. So they can kill him at the end. *cough* Male Revenge Fantasy *cough*

THAT ENDING THO

I mean it when I say the ending was a fusion of Chekov’s Guns and Ass Pulls. You remember this thing that was mentioned back at the beginning? How about seventeen different things??? WELL SEE! THEY’RE ALL IMPORTANT TO THE FINALE!! But, Oh, WAIT that isn’t fun enough so here’s a bunch of stuff that wasn’t forshadowed at all (Pulled straight from my ass) but I’m gonna act like makes perfect sense!!!

And then they kiss while covered in and surrounded by blood and gore while Steve is casually killed in the background because I’M Special and SHE’S SPECIAL and that means we’re PERFECT for each other.

Oh what’s that? Did we actually save the day? What happened to the weird guy? AH WELL WHO CARES KISSING DREAM GIRL

No seriously was that half-asses sequel bait because it was just dumb

[recentanimenews]

We Are Stronger Together in the Anime Run with the Wind!

Prince staggers down the track, his awkward gait strange but steady. Once he would have thought only manga heroes could endure like this, but things are different now. His friends believe in him, and so does he. He is an athlete. He wants to win.

Running can be a terribly lonely thing. Out there on the road, with the wind rushing past and the sound of your own blood pumping in your ears, you begin to question why you’re running at all. Run with the Wind’s leads Kakeru and Haiji each fled from running in the past, when their own passion for the sport was shattered by the cruelty of their demanding, dehumanizing coaches. Running became a burden to them, and a signal of their own inadequacy—Haiji through disappointing his father, and Kakeru through lashing out at his coach, and thus ensuring his whole team suffered. When your choices are victory or shame, it can be hard to take pride in your running.

Musa jogs with a steady tempo, knowing only his calm focus can carry the team through this crucial chapter. Once insecure about how he compared to other runners, he knows now that only the thoughts of his friends truly matter. And his feet are light; his friends would never abandon him.

For Haiji, learning to find motivation outside of personal glory was forced upon him, when a crippling injury ensured he’d never triumph alone. Instead, he embraced running as a group effort, and made his great strength into his ability to connect with and inspire all of his teammates. Though the concept of running a punishing ten-part relay seemed absurd to his reluctant dorm, he took the time to reach out to all of them, and help them find something worth running for. He was selfish and stubborn and utterly unrelenting, but he wouldn’t have done any of it if he didn’t genuinely believe in his team.

Jota runs with a smile on his face, though he knows this is the last time. He has loved this journey, but it is taught him that the true runner in his family is his twin brother Joji. That doesn’t bother Jota; though they’ve walked together this long, it is exhilarating to see his brother find his own goal. Wherever they wander, they have each other, and they have the team.

  The inspiration to run takes a variety of forms for Run with the Wind’s various characters. Though it’s thrilling as a sports narrative, the story’s true power is how well it illustrates the lives and feelings of its runners from the start, and how convincingly it draws them together into a group with both strong individual motivations and unbreakable mutual trust. Prince finds the courage to run in his comic heroes, while Nico discovers that running brings him mental clarity. Musa and Takashi find friends and a source of pride, while King relearns the confidence that perpetual job interviews robbed from him. And Kakeru, well…

He built their fanclub, he built their website, and he’s not stopping now. This team means everything to Takashi, and though his body aches with fever, his limbs still carry him up the mountain slope. His friends urge him to stop, tell him he’s done more than enough, but he is the beating heart of this team, and he’d sooner cut out his own heart than quit this race.

Kakeru, more than any of his teammates, needs that communal support. Run with the Wind’s most central character conflict is Kakeru learning to rise above the trauma of the past, and see running not as a burden or source of shame, but an activity that actually brings people together. And as you’d expect, many of the show’s most rewarding moments come not when these heroes simply win, but when they learn to better trust each other. Kakeru’s greatest moment in this series doesn’t even feature him in a race; it’s when, on the sidelines as a friend passes, he suddenly discovers he’s found a sense of responsibility for these racers, and genuine love for his team. It’s a glorious moment, a validation of everything Haiji believed, and a testament to the fact that we are all stronger together.

Yuki gallops down the slope, the harsh descent of Hakone compounded by the heavy snow, the leading pack lost somewhere down the mountain. And yet, for all his fevered calculations, his mind holds a clear image of his friend in the distance. Is this how it looks from the summit, Kakeru? Don't leave us too far behind.

In the end, as the glorious ten-part Hakoden has revealed, running for others will ultimately give you a greater perspective on both the complexity of others, and the things you yourself truly value. As section after section passes, Run with the Wind’s stars each demonstrate their own unique kinds of excellence—Musa’s even temper, Jota’s running form, Yuki’s intelligence—while simultaneously becoming greater than themselves, and contributing to a larger whole. And through making these connections, these runners have arrived a far greater understanding of who they are and what they’re truly capable of. Having friends beside you helps you push past what you thought were your limits, discover new sides of yourself, and contribute to triumphs that seemed unimaginable alone.

Nico keeps a steady pace, the old bitterness of dismissive track coaches mingling with a quiet shock at his own progress. Is this really him, passing all these runners, driving forward with such confidence? The boy whose body type was all wrong for running, and who had long accepted he'd never move like this? Doubts fade as an old truth resurfaces: whatever anyone else says, Nico loves to run.

Through its carefully realized characters and thrilling execution, Run with the Wind turns the choral joy of these runners into a glorious anthem. Their team is greater than them, and each of them feel privileged to be a part of it, while simultaneously trusting all of their long-struggling teammates. You can’t go through a trial like that and not learn something about your fellows, or yourself. As the sash is passed across Japan and back again, Run with the Wind’s faith in running as a collective struggle, and as a road to self-knowledge, becomes brilliantly clear.

Kakeru runs freely, the guilt and shame of his old self outpaced and left far behind him. From the sidelines and the screens, he feels the trust and love of his teammates, and knows he is in the place he is meant to be. The joy of running has returned to Kakeru, and the track spirals out like a fond promise before him. Wherever he runs, he is home.

Have you enjoyed Run with the Wind's celebration of the communal joy of running? Let us know which of its terrific runners spoke to you in the comments!

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Nick Creamer has been writing about cartoons for too many years now, and is always ready to cry about Madoka. You can find more of his work at his blog Wrong Every Time, or follow him on Twitter.

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