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kakarorin · 9 months

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Defending "The Road to El Dorado" from a couple racist claims, or how I, being so cheeky, like to call it: Covering myself in sugar in order to attract some nasty little bugs🐞

For some reason, 2024 seems to be the year when I can't tolerate "The Road to El Dorado is packed with racism" discourse anymore. A couple days ago, I stumbled across a very colourful gifset which encapsulated perfectly all the objectively wrong arguments (save for half... one... one and a half... It depends) I've ever seen people give out to explain why they don't like the movie (@/neechees: If by some unlikely chance you're reading this, I wish we could have talked about it calmly. I'm a very open-minded person, unlike you seem to be). I've seen them SO many times that I think I hit my limit. Long story short, I got defensive, which I regret, shame on me, told the op they were wrong, as they are, op responded, and I got blocked before I could respond back. I honestly don't know why they blocked me after responding. I don't know if they sensed I know much more about the Aztec Conquest than they do, but well... Occam's razor.

After I calmed down, tried to reach to them because I genuinely wanted to talk about it, and failed, I decided I was going to break their post down as minutely as I could, even if just to get it off my shoulders and toss it into the void, and polished what I told one of the people who reblogged op's post saying they were right into this lengthy post. Purely because I love debating about movies I love. And boy, do I LOVE this movie.

Before starting, I'm letting you know that, as far as I know, I'm 100% white. And I'm also from Spain (Europe. Clarifying this for the Americans), which understandably gives me the advantage of having lived (and living) through the subtle remnants of the wretched Spanish Black Legend. Yet none of these two things stopped me from looking up historical papers, podcasts and documentaries (further than YouTube's video essays, I mean) so I could understand that this sort of... slander was indeed, part of that concept. I don't see how being of a particular race or ethnicity gives you the right to speak about recorded history as objective facts without doing your research and applying your critical thinking to it, either. Does op think that just because they're Native-American, as they say (just in case, can't believe anything you read on the internet these days), a person who has spent hours, days, months educating themselves about Hernán Cortés, poor Malinche and the Aztec Conquest from serious sources can't have more knowledge than them? Smh, op, smh. It does give you right over feelings, and obviously, your own experiences, though. Hope you still understand that factual knowledge is an entirely different thing.

That being said, at the end of the day, save for the very easy-to-check historical facts (which I will provide sources for if asked, although I believe you can very easily research it yourself), this is my opinion about why "The Road to El Dorado" is regarded as much more racist than it actually is. If you want to give me yours or respond to it, please, by all means, do it. Respectfully and with clear and valid reasons, of course. Otherwise, I'll have to ignore you. Understand that what you read below is the limit of my thinking and reading. Enjoy, or hate. Call me a racist. Send a WHITE meme my way. Up to you.

I'd link you to the post, but I don't feel like it. They blocked me, after all. You can search my blog for it. It's tagged as "neechees". And be sure to read their tags on the post as well, for context. Anyway, here go their "objective truths". Debunking time starts... now:

(EDIT: This is filled with edits. See how my opinion can change and I can clarify or rectify? Anyway, stating the obvious, but I believe Spanish colonization is bad. In any part of the world. I won't give you a single good aspect of it, except for that at least it was based on a different mindset than British colonization. Maybe there are fairly good aspects. After all, they say Romans gave us Spaniards roads and sewage systems. We'd have to take a look at an alternative reality where it didn't happen to make an objective claim. But, believe me, if it had been for me, I'd have pushed Cortés off the ship a good bunch of nautical miles before he reached what is now known as Veracruz, whatever good things he ended up doing. Bear that in mind.)

1. The cultures are mashed up in one city, that is true. But there is no explicit racist (implying prejudice, discrimination or antagonism, as I understand racism, or as racism is actually defined) motive behind it. I don't think it's done out of unthoughtfulness, either. I'm pretty sure it's just done to leave the place ambiguous, because (tell you more later), with Cortés involved and what went down with him historically, that place is much more meant to be Tenochtitlán than the legendary city of El Dorado. They didn't want to make that so explicit because this is a retelling, after all (tell you more later). I honestly don't see how anyone could think that the resulting city and culture are portrayed in a negative way. Sometimes, I'm not even sure these people were paying attention when watching the movie (if they ever did). In fact, if it weren't for the title of their post, I wouldn't even understand the point in this.

2. Oh boy, this is exactly what triggered me to say something instead of just putting it on my blog silently. This is how I know the op has ZERO knowledge about the historical event behind it, because they wouldn't say this is right if they did. There is no such thing as a (EDIT:) sufficiently collective "Spanish lie that Native-American (NA) people believed they were gods" (NEVER listen to a Spaniard who claims this. EDIT: Like López de Gómara. They're delulu), this has never had any kind of historical relevance (in the outcome and influence of history, I mean), and the NA people in the movie are not worshipping the white guys because they're white. The whole plot, arriving in a city and being mistaken for a god because your arrival coincided with an ancient premonition in such a precise way that it is fascinating, is exactly what happened to Cortés when he reached the capital of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlán. He was believed to be the reincarnation of Quetzalcóatl, and that's why he could enter the city peacefully and live in it for a short amount of time. The concept of the movie seems to be "What if this, instead of happening to a conquistador (in which is implicit the catholic element) who quickly said he was no god when he realised what was happening (because of the sin of idolatry), happened instead to two atheist looters who are ultimately good-hearted (NOT colonizers, because they didn't try to claim the land or control it) who weren't stopped by the fear to sin and took advantage of the situation?" That's it. The premonition happened to fall on a white man hundreds of years ago (who also came from the east, same place Quetzalcóatl left to and said he'd return from) and so does in the movie story because it mirrors real history, and, again, I fail to see the negative portrayal in all of this because it's certainly NOT because they're white. I think the op also took it salty that I said they had zero knowledge about "the very people they're trying to defend", which I still believe, but this is complex and I'll only explain this if asked. What I meant by that, on the surface, is that NA people also enslaved NA people. I seriously hope op doesn't think NA slavery is more acceptable if it comes from other NA people than white people. Who knows, at this point.

3. This is essentially right. It's the only thing I think is mostly right, actually. It's no problem for me, though. I love Chel, she's beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to me. But I can understand why it may put someone off. All good. However, I still wanna say that the Aila test is just a way of assessing indigenous women representation as positive and negative, and not the work in itself as problematic if it doesn't pass it. The Lord of the Rings doesn't pass the Bechdel test and I have never seen anyone calling it problematic because of that, nor do I need positive representation (I'm a woman. Sort of. It fluctuates) on it to enjoy it. Although I figure I'd feel the same if I were NA, I can't and won't speak for one. So I still give you that.

4.1. This is wrong in three ways. First, Tzekel-kan is not "demonized as evil". He is evil. He's not evil because he's NA, he is evil because he killed, he lied, and he abused his power. There are NA people in the movie who are kind and good (everyone but him, I believe), and then there's him. In every race and ethnicity, there are good, neutral and bad people. And people who are sometimes good, and sometimes bad. If all the NA people were painted in a morally white and good way, that special treatment would come off as positive discrimination to me. Why can't he be a sociopathic genocider AND indigenous at the same time without being considered as racist? Does that mean all indigenous people have to be/are morally white? If all the other NA characters were demonized, I'd understand it, but it's the opposite. Also, Tzekel-kan is loosely based off Moctezuma, the (redundant) emperor of an Empire who enslaved other NA people. And, surprise, just like Cortés, I don't think the guy was evil. I think this is probably another reason why they didn't want to make clear the specific culture. I could see the racism if they had tried to directly compare Tzekel-kan with Moctezuma, I would perfectly be able to see the claim that Moctezuma was a sociopathic genocider, and I'd recognise that as racist. But in this case, it's just loose inspiration. Not a parody.

4.2. There was NO genocide in the Spanish NA colonies. There was NO legal slavery, save for a few unfortunate loopholes (tell you more later). (EDIT: careful, I'm NOT defending his monumental fuck-ups or justifying him in any way, just so you know. In my opinion, he was a fair lot more bad than good, but not 100% bad. If you get me) Hernán Cortés did a lot of undeniably wrong things, but he did good things too. I don't think you can say he was a good person, no person who'd say that would be a friend of mine, but I don't think he was a 100% evil person. Just a person, sometimes good and sometimes bad. Still, when he was bad, he was bad. And what op said about that they didn't care enough about him to write his name properly, BOY how that ticked me off. People, for all you hold dear, you have to CARE to know about such important historical figures in order to understand the history behind them and the outcomes of their actions. Especially within such a sensitive topic. It's when stories like this are ignored or forgotten, that history tends to repeat itself. The fact that I care to spell Hernán Cortés well has not the respectful positive connotation they think, either. And despite what you may believe, we Spaniards do NOT think he did everything right and much less that he was a hero. I think some Mexicans think we all do, but I don't know why. Only the most idiotic "fachas" (ultraright people) do.

4.3. One, he was not enslaved (tell you more later). Two, well, since he tried to mass-murder the inhabitants of the city, I... I do reckon putting him away was a good ending. Jesus, he tried to purge the city of citizens HE deemed unworthy in the name of a divine power (=on a religious basis) with the clear intention to wipe them out. It's clearly stated more than once throughout the movie. If you didn't know, by objective definition, the name of that starts with 'G' and ends with 'ENOCIDE'. And when that failed, he actively tried to drive the colonizers to them. Only because of that, he was technically much more of a genocider than the historical Cortés ever was. Are his actions really justified just because he's indigenous? Doesn't he deserve a punishment just because of it? I see "slavery" (if it were. Since enslaving NA in Spanish colonies was illegal at the time, I'd say he was kidnapped, in the strict sense of the word. Bit funny to word it like that) as a punishment more than fitting for his crimes. I think you all should drill this into your head: ANY abusive leader involved in (I can't believe I'm going to say this, but socially unacceptable) murder deserves to be punished in some way independently of his race, ethnicity or religion. This is something I believe firmly, so you have very little room to debate with me on this one. Do try, if you want.

By the way, I LOVE Tzekel-kan to death. Just the way he is. A charismatic, fanatical, sociopathic fictional high priest who tried to cleanse his city in the name of his gods through murder and human sacrifice, a practice that the other NA inhabitants very obviously did NOT enjoy (well, that definitely rings a historical bell). If you hadn't noticed, or perhaps thought it was impossible, let me tell you this: you can actually love evil characters without justifying their actions. It's legal. 100%. Unlike slavery in NA Spanish colonies at the time.

5. I don't see exactly how spirituality is portrayed as evil. More specifically, I don't see how the movie's actual magic is considered Aztec spirituality. Not a fan nor a hater of Hazbin Hotel, but I've seen one of the demon characters around Twitter using literal voodoo in a very unthoughtfully wrong way. That's a big no-no, in my opinion. And I see a clear difference with this because there is nothing in the stone jaguar magic that single-handedly resembles what Aztec religion actually was. I'm not saying this can't be done in a wrong way with indigenous NA spirituality, nor that they didn't take elements from it (they did), I just think that with all the context behind the movie, here it's just magic that serves a plot function. Aesthetic Aztec/Maya patterns appear here and there, arguably because those are the "places" where it's geographically based (and because Tzekel-kan is loosely based off Moctezuma, who was the religious spiritual leader who received the Quetzalcóatl premonition), but at the end of the day, I don't think it's much more than the fantasy you typically find in a kids' movie. No specific religion was portrayed as evil, no specific gods were portrayed as evil, the magic in itself wasn't portrayed as evil. In the movie, it was black magic because Tzekel-kan, who was evil, used it for evil. Who says that a giant stone cat can ONLY serve evil purposes? I'd use it for good, personally. Maybe transportation. Maybe architecture. Decoration. Festivities. (CW: 26-year-old making a boomer joke) Maybe to instill cordial fear among my neighbours.

EDIT: I've been thinking about this these days and I realised that in the specific stone jaguar "spell", Tzekel-kan needs to toss his poor aide into the mix for it to "activate". That is much more evil than neutral, so maybe I can kind of see this point now. And human sacrifice was part of some of these religions, after all, so maybe it does point towards Aztec spirituality. Still, as it didn't come off as evil to me until I've THOROUGHLY thought about it, I feel like questioning things. Does the "spell" need a human body, or an animal body would have served? The "recipe" doesn't state anything. It's Tzekel-kan who pushes him in. Do ALL the "spells" need a body to "activate"? Maybe not. I feel like maybe I can give you a part of this argument. But still... Hmm. I don't know. We were stuck with an evil religious high priest, but that doesn't necessarily mean ONLY he could use magic. Nor that ALL the magic was evil. But yeah, alright. I can sort of see this now... a bit.

6. I can give you this... for the most part. Knowing it mirrors history, and that historically, it was white men who rid the NA people enslaved by the Aztec Empire (which I believe is what the people of El Dorado ended up portraying, somehow oppressed by Tzekel-kan's sacrifices) of the Aztec Empire (even if woefully just to take their place), I'm not sure it's so simple. I still don't fully see it as plain white saviour narrative with that background info. In any case, I think my mind can be changed about this with the right argumentation. Surely not by a person who has no knowledge about history. Sorry, op.

7.1. For my next trick, I'll blow your mind: Cortés was no big bad evil genocider. He wasn't a golden-hearted saint or saviour either. Frankly, I believe most people think he was similar to Christopher Columbus (of whom I don't know as much, but sounds pretty 100% evil to me with what I have) by default. I'm also very certain they watched the movie and took that version of him as a faithful representation, but in reality he was very different. He was short, he was slender, he was way more charismatic, way less solemn and serious, and he had the reputation of a womanizer. He committed atrocities, like torturing and murdering the last Huey Tlatoani for rumours (Jesus, the Cholula massacre), but he also treated most indigenous people with respect (when he wasn't pathologically obsessed with gold), he talked with Moctezuma as if he were his kin, he always tried to negotiate before grabbing his arms, he listened to and followed the advice of an indigenous woman (Malinche). And once he had done the deed, his reputation was sunk, he was stripped of most of his titles and compensation for what he had done (karma? Possibly), and he had practically no say in the new territories. He went there for the gold above all, and all the crimes he committed were in its name. But unlike Miguel and Tulio (this is the reason why they're not colonizers, only looters), he ALSO wanted to seize control of the land for the Spanish Empire. As an anti-colonialist Spaniard, I can't help boiling up in anger every time I see someone call Miguel and Tulio colonizers. They are NOT coloziners, just like we are NOT colonizers. Our country was, hundreds of years ago. The people who claimed that land as theirs and believed that gave them the right to exploit it for centuries were. And believe me, if we're still here and have descended from humble families for more than 5 centuries, none of our ancestors saw a single piece of gold.

7.2. This is part of a broader topic but Cortés acted in the name of the Spanish Empire, who, thanks to Queen Isabella the Catholic and the laws she passed, considered NA people as citizens of the Crown and therefore could not be enslaved (legally), not to mention genocided. Physically genocided, I mean, because the cultural genocide is undeniable. And still, while so many parts of so many different cultures disappeared, some things like the Maya and Nahua languages were kept. Even if little, that means something. I find some comfort in that, especially when you take a look at what happened to indigenous people in British colonies. In relation to this, there's this something that's been haunting Spain since a thousand years ago that gains relevance when talking about this, called the Spanish Black Legend. Basically anti-Spain propaganda coming from other European countries demonizing everything the country had done/does. It started out of rivalry and envy. Nowadays, it's hard to say. This is why Hernán Cortés is always seen as an evil genocider, but not other colonizers like Julius Caesar from the Roman Empire. It also makes my blood curdle because it sticks with us in the most annoying ways possible. While American people tend to think Spain is part of Latin America, European people tend to think we're dumb, don't know other languages apart from Spanish and only like partying, and our collective international sentiment, especially facing other Europeans, is often shame. Ashamed to say you're from Spain, because there's only so many "España mucho fiesta and siesta" a sane person can take from people who only come to your country to raise the living costs, drink, sunbathe and throw themselves off balconies to jump in hotel pools. Look "balconing" up. God I HATE British people. In any case, to wrap this up, this Black Legend is also why everyone believes the Spanish colonization was the same as the British colonization. By norm, the British predated, but the Spanish generated (in America, because the Spanish DID enslave African people), despite all the horrible things it did. Because it did them.

Lastly, and just because it was also part of op's response, I want to say that I have no opinion about what negative impact this movie could have in terms of being a version of the Colombian legend of El Dorado. I don't know anything about that. I don't understand it, either. If someone wants to explain to me in which specific ways making a movie like this about it could be harmful to anyone (not the legend in itself, I think you can see I know as much), please tell me so I can think critically about it and contrast it. But please, specify the harm and consequences so I can understand them.

Jesus, I'm tired, but I want to say you CAN dislike the movie. I don't give two floating specks of dust whether you do or don't. What I do care about is that most arguments people use to say so are wrong, or rather, lack historical knowledge to support them. Or rather, there is historical knowledge which flat-out cancels them out. There IS negative portrayal on the basis of unthoughtfulness (like Chel and the Aila test), but NEVER in a mean way. On the whole, it's not the unsalvageable blatantly racist skeleton that has to be kept in the closet under lock and key that some people think it is. And, by the way, I'm very curious about why I have yet to see the same discourse about Inca portrayal in "The Emperor's New Groove". Feel free to toss it my way in case it exists and it's just I haven't seen it yet.

If you've reached this point, congratulations. Here's a disturbing little fact about me as a reward: this whole fixation that I have started because in 2020 I had a dream about this Hernán Cortés and Tzekel-kan having sex.

#the road to el dorado #dreamworks #el dorado #racism #chel #tzekel kan #tzekel-kan #miguel and tulio #hernán cortés #neechees #tagging you as well in hopes to reach you. kinda growing fond of you #you go after my little meow meow who did nothing wrong #viva españa hostia #viva vigo. cagon tal #franco franco que tiene el culo blanco

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jjeinn-tae · 1 year

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Game I'll Never Make

So, last night I had an interesting intersection of inspirations which gave me a game concept that I think is really neat but I wouldn't personally be one to make it, even if I had time to (probably).

So, I'm alone in the apartment last night, taking a shower, which is usually one of my better inspiration places! But like, sometimes there's that weird nagging feeling of "What if someone is out there, somehow?" Like, one of those worries that you know is unfounded, but like, lone naked person in her shower doesn't really have much in the way of defense options in such a case.

So, that notion combined with a youtube video I had watched the day before. An analysis of various internet horror series, but like less well known ones. United in their shared theme of a Ghost in the Machine. https://youtu.be/4YHlYc_M0Ig

A few of those stories feature black figures in the sort of... Like, not a black person, but actually black, like a shadow existing in three dimensional space, as opposed to just being plastered against objects in our space. So, Interloper's Umbrella Man, and the... entity in Summon House I feel are primarily the inspiration for this idea, although there's this other shadow creature that I've seen somewhere that I can't place...

So, like, the game. Weird irrational fears of a woman living alone, that she is completely on point with. It presented to me as sort of a VR game, and like, there you are, showering, just having a relaxing moment (and, this is why I wouldn't make this game... VR game where you are a naked woman just touching yourself... Yeah, I don't want to make that. Xp). After you are done, you turn off the tap, kind of begin drying off from your towel draped over the curtain away from the faucet so it stays dry, and you open the curtain.

And there it is, some thing, looking at you. It is black nothing, with gangly limbs (and gangly fingers), but its eyes and a slit of its mouth are just... white for some reason... Seemingly existing outside of interaction with light. When you open the curtain and see it, it's already looking at you, but it's not really doing anything. It's not like, completely stationary, but it doesn't really make any major movement at you opening the curtain, doesn't immediately take an aggressive stance or anything. It is just calmly watching.

And here you are, naked in the shower, with a towel like partially covering you. This thing might not be immediately hostile, apparently, but it's also in the direct way of you like, leaving. So, are you waiting there for it to take the first action? Or, do you try something? What do you even have that you can do besides attempt to run past it... If it wanted to grab you, it probably could if you tried that... Honestly with those long arms it probably could now even... Um, try to hit it with a shampoo bottle? Well, if it can even be hit, you've probably made it angry regardless now...

#game inspiration #game ideas #i will not make it #probably

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vincememes · 3 years

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castlevania (s4) quotes

WARNINGS: CRUDE LANGUAGE, MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE, SEXUAL INNUENDOS & IMPLIED SUICIDE. these quotes are taken OUT OF CONTEXT & from youtube videos . spoiler warning . feel free to adjust pronouns / names as needed !

❛ what did you just say? ❜

❛ i said “shit”, okay? ❜

❛ yes, it's just that you never, you know, curse. ❜

❛ i never used to, and then all this happened. and then you happened. ❜

❛ yes, you. i was nice. and then i met you, and now i'm like you. ❜

❛ it's all your fault! you did this to me! ❜

❛ i found you turned into a statue in a fucking tomb! ❜

❛ god, this is getting on my nerves! i wish i could fucking kill you twice! ❜

❛ wakey wakey, you shower of assholes. ❜

❛ can someone please come over here and kill me? ❜

❛ sacrifice your ethics, your morals, sacrifice your soul to the task. ❜

❛ you don't deserve my blood. ❜

❛ we have a second chance. ❜

❛ don’t you have anything better to do? ❜

❛ ah, so you’re bored. no ... you’re worried. ❜

❛ are they sidelining you? ❜

❛ they’re not- it’s not like that. ❜

❛ these are things of the past now. ❜

❛ which makes you a thing of the past, and that’s bothering you. ❜

❛ well, you are a diplomat. ❜

❛ i didn’t pick the name, that’s just what they call us. ❜

❛ so use a bloody hammer, there have to be a thousand bloody hammers around. ❜

❛ no, i need a special hammer. ❜

❛ huh, your special hammer? ❜

❛ would you stop? ❜

❛ like a flute with no holes, for fingering? ❜

❛ so when you blow it, nothing comes out? ❜

❛ good god. ❜

❛ i’m bored and it’s fun to horrify you. ❜

❛ well, make it work faster. ❜

❛ if they get upset i won’t be able to stand in front of you for long. ❜

❛ you’d stand in front of me? ❜

❛ i’ve been doing it for weeks. ❜

❛ you know what i’m going to say. ❜

❛ yes, well, it needs to be perfect or nothing will come out of it in the end. ❜

❛ ugh, you’re disgusting. ❜

❛ we need to get you out of here! ❜

❛ and go where? ❜

❛ somewhere safe. i can’t have you in harms way! ❜

❛ if you’ll excuse me, i have to go and get killed now. ❜

❛ never enough time, in the end, is there? ❜

❛ you’ve gone mad. ❜

❛ i’ve been mad. this doesn’t feel like it. maybe i’ve gone sane. ❜

❛ if you came here to kill me, kill me. but leave her alone. ❜

❛ are you the threat? ❜

❛ i’m done. take your revenge. i hold no malice. ❜

❛ i am not here to kill you. ❜

❛ we need to grow up, revenge is for children. ❜

❛ but i refuse to exist like this. ❜

❛ and i want to see what’s so special, about this sun you keep talking about. ❜

❛ it’s fine. it’s what i want to do. ❜

❛ be free. ❜

❛ what will you do? ❜

❛ ì think i’m gonna write a book. ❜

❛ the future should know the mistakes we made. ❜

❛ recently i’ve come to know the value & beauty of things that live longer than i do. ❜

❛ is this all there is to it? ❜

❛ you are a silly man. ❜

❛ i’ve worked towards this for weeks! ❜

❛ of course you have. you feel guilt. you want redemption. ❜

❛ we were both mistreated by the human world. ❜

❛ we can, and should, move forward. ❜

#yes yes i know this is mostly hector & lenore convos #but in my defense for some reason the videos i've seen on youtube are actually??? entertaining??? with them??#weird bc i hated lenore in s3 lmFAO #s;; castlevania.#castlevania rp meme #castlevania rp starters #castlevania quotes #rp meme #ask meme #rp starters #rp starter meme #askbox meme #rp ask meme #suicide tw

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pricechecktranslations · 2 years

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random question but ive seen videos of it popping up on youtube recently, have you ever watched/had any thoughts on the DoE musical? it definitely seems to... take a lot of liberties, and ive also heard that a lot of it is just plain bad. but its kind of hard to tell with my only rudimentary understanding of japanese (much less what standard musical acting and props etc are held to there.) just sort of curious if you have any general thoughts. i will say i think i actually like mariam's design more than the grey-hair one lol

I've seen the first 2 iterations of the DoE musical, and I've listened to the official music CD of the 3rd.

Wrote a lot, put my thoughts under a cut

When it first came out, I'll admit I was a little defensive of it. Not because I particularly liked it, but because I think a lot of people were hating on it solely because it made changes. There were many presumptions of what would be in it that I thought were unfair, and some complaints about its content that stemmed entirely from the watcher not understanding Japanese (ex, I saw complaints that Kyle "turned evil and attacked Germaine at the end for no reason" when what actually happened was that Ney spread a rumor Germaine was Michaela's murderer, an event that happened in the novels).

That said, I thought the first production was not great. Most of the actors couldn't sing, the acting was melodramatic or wooden, and of course like most people I didn't like the story and character changes (mostly Kyle and Michaela, though I do understand it'd be hard to properly work their character development into such a short amount of time). The costumes weren't especially good, the new songs didn't mesh well with mothy's original pieces that were left in, the choreography was strange, and there were parts of the production I thought seemed kind of cheap (ex, Riliane's candy castle was waaaay too small).

I did sort of like it, though. I thought it had its own kind of charm, separate from Evillious. I liked maybe half of the new songs they introduced.

The second iteration was MUCH better. It added back in some elements that were previously taken out (and by that I mean Elluka and her prophecies), the costumes were better, the acting was better overall, more of the cast could sing, and the new person cast as Allen was SIGNIFICANTLY improved over the original, which made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the musical. I genuinely liked the second run.

I have plans to watch the third one in the future, but for now all I've seen are clips. I will say, the official CD is quite good, and even songs I thought were kind of painful to listen to are made tolerable in it. However, if those Youtube clips are any indication, this does not carry over to the live performance. I think it's safe to assume the CD was done in a studio.

#i will preface all of this by saying that i have poor taste in music and musicals #so don't assume my opinion is what yours would be if you saw it #i also have not watched any other japanese musicals #so i don't know what the standards are

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unnamed-atlas · 3 years

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please give me an as unhinged as possible introduction to slenderverse. i crave information -🐌

Okay so like it all started with marble hornets except marble hornets generally isn't considered to be a slenderverse series because slenderverse actually refers to all the series that came after it that all tend to inhabit the same collective world, but people just lump it in with the slenderverse because it was the inspiration for the slenderverse.

So anyways Marble Hornets follows a group of ex film students in Alabama. Specifically it starts with this guy Jay in 2009 who can't mind his fucking business and Jay used to have this friend in college named Alex and he was helping Alex with his student film Marble Hornets. It was a really bad film and eventually Alex starts becoming slowly unhinged and stops the project and threatens to burn all the tapes from it and Jay is like 'no actually just give them to me' and he never sees Alex again and so years later he's like 'I'm gonna go through these tapes and put them on youtube to document the project 😌' except uh oh turns out the reason Alex became such a bitch was because he was being stalked by the series version of slenderman, The Operator, and now Jay is too, so Jay does some breaking and entering and also stalks multiple of his old college friends and begins getting chased by some dudes in masks. He eventually finds Alex but uh oh it turns out Alex actually fucking sucks and has killed multiple people from the old film crew and now wants to kill Jay, this girl Jessica that Jay accidentally dragged into this whole fucking mess, Brian, the lead actor from the film who is now running around the woods in a mask fucking with Alex, and Tim, who may or may not have been the one who accidentally originally brought The Operator onto the set. And so Jay and Tim fight a bunch but then they're actually really fucking gay until things finally start to catch up with them and Alex kills Jay, Brian dies in a series of unfortunate events, and Tim kills Alex in a mixture of self defense and revenge. And that's the end of that until the comics come out several years later and we get to see what happens to Jessica in the Aftermath of everything. News flash: things are not okay on her end either.

So like after Marble Hornets became such a huge deal and was seen as such an innovative work of interactive horror online, people decided "Oh shit! I want to do something like that too!" And also began to make complex interactive pieces of online horror media based around the online mythos of slenderman. The whole thing was that he could really stand for anything and the lore around him was so undefined that you could use him to tell practically any story. And people did.

The most well know and highly acclaimed of these is a series called EverymanHYBRID that follows a group of guys in New Jersey who are fans of Marble Hornets and start a health and fitness channel with the occasional appearance of slenderman in the background as an Easter egg, except uh oh they start to notice instances where he is in the videos and they did not put him there. Anyways they all end up dead at the end but not before accidentally proving mutiverse theory, enduring an insane amount of trauma, making sure we know that they are stuck in this looped struggle against the universe for eternity, and introducing one of the most iconic horror villains of all time, this fucker named Habit who is the possessive manifestation of all of the worst impulses and ideas of humanity. He wants to kill slenderman, he eats a baby at one point, and the best part of the series is all of his interactions with Vinnie, one of the original three guys who in his search for answers ends up betraying all of his friends to work with Habit if it means a chance at ending the cycle.

And then there are a million other smaller series. My favorites are personally MLAndersen0 and The Record of Stan Fredrick, but I've heard a lot of really good things about DarkHarvest00 and WisperedFaith. If you look into the fandom you'll probably hear a lot about a series called Tribe Twelve, which was almost as big as EMH when it was running and was also really fucking good but then the guy who made it got called out for grooming and disappeared off the face of the earth so We Don't Talk About It.

The thing that really defines it all is the way all of the slenderverse series crossover. They all tend to tie together in some way. Some of my favorite pieces of media in the slenderverse are these types of interactions, like Stan's calls with Michael/Patrick, or Shaun's death at the hands of Habit, or that one fucking scene in SF where him and Susan are looking through all of his case files looking for information on the rake and Susan pulls out a binder with habits fucking purple duck tape on it and Stan immediately is like "fuck no, I don't care how much info those guys have, if we're ever desperate enough to deal with them it's already too late" and then it's never mentioned again but I'm pretty sure he does actually end up interacting with Vinnie in the 3rd season so i guess he must've gotten pretty fucking desperate lmao. It's all absolutely insane because of the way everything comes together if you look at the big picture, and there's no one right interpretation of the lore because of the different ways different series stories interact with eachother.

Anyways it all fucks and I love it.

#grooming mention #long post #you said unhinged i come bearing unhinged

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gigslist · 3 years

Text

How Hollywood Killed the Oscars

Conceptual performance artists and the ethics of art and activism…

Foreword: I investigated and wrote this at the beginning of 2021, but had to wait until the pudding proof. I only sent it to those I knew personally who would think about it. I feared that rest of you would’ve castigated me.

Traveling and working in the arts I've lived and worked with different cultures for years at a time. Arts and trades friends and I lobbied Australia gov to save an Aboriginal sacred site as a natural open-air arts venue in Byron Bay. I’ve lived in Haight Ashbury for the past 20 years. One of the reasons I like San Francisco is that all races get along here. That is until BLM. Then everybody was deer in the headlights afraid of each other. Now people are trying to shake off the whole BLM and other acronyms and get back to being nice to each other.

But it was scary-ass sh.t. A white chick was trying to gather people for a riot on Haight Street. I wiped the slogan, in big letters, off her van. She came out of her van swinging her baseball bat. I let my Outback Ozzie Battler come out and a tai chi maneuver to fend her off. Then let out my inner Haight Ashbury freak and screamed like a crazy psycho at her.

Then I told the huge black armed security guards on Haight Street if they see anybody with riot and its slogans to nip it in the bud. Anybody who’s worked with big crowds at concerts knows about crowd psychosis. A frot man or front woman on stage has two jobs. To entertain and to keep a crowd under control.

Then I did some research to see what the fuss is about...

The Black Lives Mater movement reclaims slavery as a 1960's protest. It so wasn’t about that! I live in a loft in Haight Asbury, which was the speakeasy for the Black Panther’s fundraisers in the 1960s. The original bar is still here. So are some interesting hidden cupboards. We assume they were stash boxes, because cannabis was illegal in the 1960s. But I digress from why BLM and associated acronyms are blowing smoke up your ass. In the 1960s the Black Power Movement was not about slavery. Black Panthers and associates couldn’t claim black slavery as a protest. Because their ancestors were slave traders. White slavery has been around for thousands of years and is still going. I’m not an expert on the subject, but you can look it up in a real history book. Some Hasidic Jewish men still sell their wives and daughters into sex slavery. There are non-profits in New York about it. If researching black and white slavery, try the non-USA versions for perspective. Below is a nutshell. The American black slave trade was self-defense. After thousands of white settlers kidnapped and sold into slavery in Africa. Such as the town called Roanoke. The whole town of settlers taken twice. Roanoke sits on the African slave traders’ route from South America. From their fleets of ships on the sea, African slavers could see the smoke of the settlers’ cooking fires. There were no US navy and Coast Guard to defend the coasts back then. The problem with studying history is that ancient aliens aren’t interesting anymore. Art history is the most nit picking. Why art gets created and destroyed. What’s the motivation? Wha’s in the artist’s head? The origin of their inspiration? Is their work really a protest, or art dressed up as activism? Are they creating the art for art, ego, madness or money? The founders of Black Lives Matter. Patrice Collors, and AOC, real jobs are trained performance artists, from Hollywood. There are years of LA arts industry press about them. Their act is public group performance. Getting crowds to gather to do something, including public agitation.

That act didn't sell enough books to pay for multimillion$ houses and $25,000 restaurant tabs. So they called themselves Marxists and touted black rights spiced with fake history. To get uneducated students riled to cause riots. Now Patrice Collors does red carpet at the Oscars. For hyping up people to hate each other and hurt each other and destroy businesses and lives. To young men angry and attack defenseless elderly people and other races. That’s not art, that’s a nasty ego with greed and madness. Yes?

If you work in the arts or media for a few years in California you see psycholical patterns in artists seeking fame in Hollywood. Red carpet at the Oscars and multimillion$ houses are their ultimate goal. Else they wouldn’t be in Hollywood. New York or San Francisco is where top art for art’s sake is at in the USA.

Hollywood artists will do and say anything to get their time on the red carpet. A conceptual artist can tell themselves it is all art, no matter what it is, harmful or not. To them it is nothing but art and a form of madness, but the lure of money brings the ego, “fame”, into it.

I'm an art historian. I research why art gets and destroyed. Including marxism. That Patrice Collors actually trained in marxism I find doubtful. African Americans are staunch Baptists. God bless them and their amazing music. Marxism doesn’t mix with freedom of art or religion. Follow the money and do the math. The total is an artist doing her “art” for money and ego’s sake for the red carpet and multimillion dollar real estate. Not for art’s sake, nor the people’s sake, and not for her people's sake.

I’ve not looked into AOC, because what I found of Patrice Collors was blowing my mind enough. I actually thought AOC was an organization. What made me notice AOC is a selfie video rant that youtube autoplayed. To jaded cynical me who's seen it too many times... AOC looked like she’d had a “bump”, roadie slang for a dose of heavy drugs. Even the freaks in Haight Ashbury said “… she looks like she’s on crack.” Their words, from hardened rock and rap concert roadies. Seen a lot of people on many kinds of drugs in San Francisco and Hollywood.

“Interventionalist History” What AOC seems to be accusing those who don’t disagree with her.

“…a policy of interfering in another nation's affairs through coercion or threat of force. Intervention can be political, military, economic, cultural, or humanitarian, or often some combination of these...” study.com

“…an intervention is defined as a threatening act that is unwelcome by the target of one's intervention…” britannica.com

“… practice of intervening specifically : governmental interference in economic affairs at home or in political affairs…” merriam-webster.com

“…coercion or threat of force… unwelcome by the target of one's intervention… specifically: governmental interference in economic affairs at home…” What is BLM and AOC and associated acronyms doing to everybody who doesn’t agree with them in their home, the USA? How can anybody truthfully agree with anything based on fake history or fake news? The reason why so many people publicly agree with this cr.p is fear of being threatened, bullied and Black List. Even if they don’t understand what the cr.p is about.

The Hollywood Black List has turned USA screen offerings into unwatchable cr.p. Even on TV. It’s now rewriting history books into Ancient Aliens and winged beings with super powers. Instead of the truth. The truth that people from prehistory to the 21st century are smarter than Hollywood and media allows us to know. That’s the real reason why the Oscar ratings are at record lows.

Hollywood is writing for teenagers who want to know about sex and violence and ETs. They are not writing for jaded adults who want to relax with something think about. They watch the same English TV series over and over every night to avoid the Hollywood sex and violence. It’s also why youtube and social media are popular. Now I’m talking like an art historian.

I’m always surprised at how many USA citizens prefer English TV. Including hardened roadies and ICU nurses living in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco. They see violence and sex on the street and at work every day. They want to relax and think about something else on their time off. Once people are out of college, they are usually over the sex and violence. And kiddie lit is for baby bumps.

Pump sex and violence into kids’ heads whenever they can hack into it. Which is every night after the parents are asleep. And on their phones going to and from school. And accosted on social media by predators every 10 minutes. What will happen?

Remember that concentrated light, the screen, is the strongest hypnotic medium ever. Clinically tested and used by all the “secret agencies” and as medical therapy. Hypnotize sex and violence and UFO’s into impressionable minds for more than ten, 10, years on end. What will you get? Think about it.

Another thing that often surprises me is the politics of many people at the top of show biz. The producers behind the producers. They also don’t watch the sex and violence shows. They are progressive conservatives, not liberals, even in San Francisco. They feel safe talking to me, because I’m from Australia and an open minded neutral observer. And I'm too jaded to be bothered.

You could castigate me, but in show biz “The proof is in the ratings.” Hollywood created this big m…f… mess by indoctrinating hate and fear and greed! The Oscar ratings told you so. Hollywood is who can cleans the big m…f… mess up.

Make money from art yes, that’s why we are all here, we work in the arts industries. But don’t indoctrinate people to be hateful and fearful and greedy and call it art. Allow people to be adults. Allow people to be nice to each other.

In case you haven’t looked it up, all art and music originated out of spirituality and religion. Not out of politics.

The ancient Romans actually changed their laws to accommodate the Hebrew region. It was the Hebrews to wanted to fight anyway and destroyed all the art. Hollywood movies are not history.

Grow up and play nice and allow your children to be children and allow them grow up in a safe world that plays nice. A dripping tap fills a bucket of hate or a bucket of nice the exact same way. You are a public mirror, will you mirror hate and fear and greed? Will you mirror a community of all races and cultures living in harmony?

That is what the Black Panthers were really about. That is likely why their fundraising speakeasy was in Haight Ashbury. Nobody hated anybody in Haight Ashbury in the 1960s. They wanted the freedom to be and do what you want to.

And do no harm, because all lives fucking matter.

You all need a sense of something higher than yourselves to be humble to. It will enable you to stop being self-entitled assholes.

With Love

GigsList

#patrice collors resigns from blm

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