#but in reality she has a variety of nuanced relationship !

[keeperthemultiversemom]

If you are the multiverse mom.. And the original wh au is technically a part of the multiverse, does that mean the original cast is also your children?

*Peacekeeper chuckles*

"What a fun question ! Well, first of all... The original "Welcome Home" show is well... The original ! So not really an AU... According to what the others told me, the original is unnaccessible to multiversers. What can be accessed are variants, copies, if you will. I came from one myself !

Now... I suppose I am pretty motherly, so I would likely be motherly with them too ! But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't actually be my "children"... I have very few I consider my "children", actually"

[fandom-hoarder]

Do you have any fic recs for Mary finding out about wincest/weirdcest or just Mary bashing fics? (Maybe you already made a list of fics like this and I just haven't seen it!!)

Your fic rec lists are always awesome :)

DUDE lol~ I didn't have one, but now I do!

I've been working on an outsider POV rec list, so I started there. This only overlaps a little bit with the other list.

Tbh, I prefer Mary POV or nuanced crit fic over straightup bashing fic, so I'm light on that front, but there are a couple here that might scratch the itch. (If anyone wants to add recs of that variety to this post, though, please feel free if it fits the scope of the ask!)

Mary Finds Out/Reacts to SamDean ~ a rec list

_

First check out this post from hathfrozen: hunters are tactile

_

Sons And Mothers by deanandsam

Rating: Mature | Words: 632 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Dean and Mary have a frank conversation which leaves the older Winchester heartbroken. Good job Sam's there to pick up the pieces.

My Note: short and dialogue-heavy, not Mary-positive

.

Oil in the Lungs by jribbing

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 3652 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Some say cruelty is an art. Some say it's an accident. Usually, it's both at the same time. Dean thought he wanted this. Dean thought he needed this.

My Note: Dean observes Mary's neglect of Sam when she leaves the bunker, and can't help comparing her to John. Mother's day Sam n Dean Emotional Hurt/Comfort. [podfic by the author available]

.

Let Her Leave, I've Got You by Anonymous

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 7190 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: AU Season 12 Episode 3 The Foundry

Mary's a bit more interested in Sam and Dean's past, Dean cares too much, and things quickly spiral out of control. But hey, Sam and Dean have each other to lean on when things get rough.

My Note: This fic contains abusive John and an unfavorable Mary. Dean POV.

.

More than a brother by Rajatarangini

Rating: Mature | Words: 2087 | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary: It is only now, when Sam has come back from the dead, that Mary finds out that her sons are more than just brothers to each other.

(Mary POV)

.

As Angels Watched by Ninni

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 449 | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary: It's the little things that makes Mary wary, at first.

.

something you love and understand by monsterq

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 7221 | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary: In heaven, Mary makes an unwelcome discovery about her sons’ relationship.

.

Mary Did You Know? by AnonDude

Rating: Explicit | Words: 5032 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Mary meets a witch who possesses neither the power nor the ingredients and know-how to open a portal to send Mary and Jack back home...but she can provide Mary a look between worlds. Just one chance to see her boys for a few minutes until they find a way to be reunited again. It's her most ardent wish, save for actually getting back home, and suddenly it's in her lap — an actual, possible reality. 

But you know what they say… You should be careful what you wish for.

.

Pick up the Pieces by Dyed_Red

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 18940 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Filling the gaps in their stories is slow work, but piece by piece, Mary learns about her sons and the world she left behind.

(A canon-compliant retelling of S12 through Mary’s eyes, with some implied relationships but only as speculation and hearsay)

.

a skeleton terribly restless by remy (iamremy)

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 20518 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Mary knows she doesn't fit right in this strange new world she's woken up in, with these grown men masquerading as her sons, but she tries her best. She really does. She closes her eyes to all the things she does not want to see, and she lies to herself until she's convinced.

Until she can't.

.

(One more look) and I forget everything by thewrongsideofmorality

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 1447 | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary: After rescuing Sam from the Men of Letters, Mary stumbles onto something she wishes she hadn't

.

grateful by whiskeycherrypie

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 3911 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: John says something to Mary. Sam and Dean pass out in bed together.

The timing couldn't be worse.

*Now with chapter 2. Mary asks questions. So does Sam.

Picks up from 14x13.

.

Reckoning With Herself by Amoreanonyname

Rating: Gen | Words: 550 | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Summary: Mary Winchester reflects on the real reasons she avoided Sam and Dean for so long.

.

Heat Waves in the Middle of June by Anonymous

Rating: Teen+ | Words: 1161 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: This, Mary realizes, is the life she’s condemned her boys to. Hot summer afternoons on the road in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to their names, with nothing but each other.

.

Illicit Affairs by Anonymous

Rating: Gen | Words: 1488 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: "So moms back..."

Mary is back from the dead and faced with Sam and Dean's relationship that goes beyond being brothers.

.

they were each other's toxic cure called codependency by nowhere_blake

Rating: Gen | Words: 2172 | No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary: Mary’s back, Dean is gone and Sam stops sleeping. She thought she understood how deep her boys' relationship goes, but when Michael takes over and Dean disappears, she needs to reevaluate just exactly how scarily codependent the two of them are.

Coda to 14x01 Stranger in a Strange Land.

_

Hope these satisfy, gray!

[nekropsii]

Mituna Captor and Meulin Lejion?

MITUNA CAPTOR

Sexuality HC: Not much of a hot take here, but I see him as bisexual!

Favorite Ship(s): In the context of canon? MITULA. ALL THE WAY. That man DESERVES it. In the context of Sovereignstuck? Unreal Heir. That one’s between him and Retris Morage, my fantroll. I have got to post about it sometime!

BROTP: Hot take! I think he’s very close friends with Rufioh and Meulin! Bonus: In Sovereignstuck, his moirail is Latula! Do not separate them.

NOTP: CroTuna. In any quadrant at all. Yes, including Black Just... No. Absolutely fucking not. That wasn’t Blackrom, that was abuse. Huge difference.

Happy HC: I like to think that when he’s happy, he makes a buzzing sound. Like a bee! You can’t go wrong with a good ol’ trolls purring headcanon. Also, whenever he’s feeling particularly affectionate, his psionics spark a little and make heart shapes. He has no control over that. He is incredibly bad at hiding his feelings.

Angsty HC: Abandonment issues. Really, really bad abandonment issues. Like, breakdown level. He gets nightmares about it sometimes, but his grasp of reality isn’t all that great, especially when he’s freaked out or emotional, and he tends to think it actually happened.

Random HC: His favorite book in Sovereignstuck is Neuromancer! HUGE Cyberpunk fan.

General Opinion: He’s my favorite! I love my weirdo Cassandra parallel dearly. I think he’s got a lot of potential to be a nuanced, intricate character if you simply work to understand him. Which I have done for the fanventure. Thoroughly. I’m in charge of writing him. >:)

MEULIN LEIJON

Sexuality HC: Now, this one’s a doozy. I, personally, see Meulin as functionally AroAce, or at least somewhere on that spectrum. I think she likes the idea of relationships a lot, but isn’t very compatible with them in practice.

Favorite Ship(s): Romantically? None, really!

BROTP: [In the same time as Shrimp Heaven Now] Damara! Friendship! Now!!!

NOTP: I’m sorry but whatever her and Kurloz had going on was not healthy. I find it interesting narratively, don’t get me wrong! But I cannot in good faith say I ship them.

Happy HC: Her so-called overexcitement is because she has autism! She’s got a lot of love in her heart for her interests, and she’s extremely passionate about them. She writes a lot of fanfics for the media she consumes, and her fanfiction accounts for them are actually really popular! She’s a very good writer!!

Angsty HC: The fact that several of her fellow session members- people she calls friends- didn’t even try to learn Sign to help accommodate to her Deafness actually really makes her upset. The fact that she still has to communicate mostly verbally really frustrates her. It makes her get a little snappy sometimes, and she often winds up saying things she regrets later. A friendship or two was broken because of it. (She is fully in the right for snapping, though.)

Random HC: Secretly into horror and thrillers! She doesn’t only consume popular media and romances!! She loves to have some variety in her diet with the content she indulges in. It keeps her from getting bored! I will say, though, she is SUPER into Hannibal.

General Opinion: I love her. So much. You have no idea. Meulin actually meant a LOT to me when I was younger! I hadn’t seen any form of representation for the deaf/hard of hearing before, so it made me REALLY happy. I actually named my cat after her, lol!!!! She’s super underappreciated, honestly. She’s FUNNY.

[donttouchtheneednoggle]

oh oh 💋 what I would v much like to ask is how do you see Arthur and gwens relationship progressing after "Selfish" (which no joke ive read about 15 times now) - like do you think theres any coming back from that for Arthur or do you think there'll always be a part of Gwen that was hurt by him and his behaviour?

Oh boy now I have to think actual thoughts... For you Will I will 😘

I just. By s5 Arthur is not an actual person. He’s been reset so many fucking times beyond the point of any reason, so I honestly don’t know any reasonable way to reconcile with him.

Like s1 him (beloved, actually) understood in ep 3 that not all magic deserved the same treatment. He was capable of that nuance. S2 Arthur is absolutely furious that his father used magic for his own means then turned around and condemned it. He understood that hypocrisy. 

But by s5 he has been written over so many times that though he has no excuse he is just treading water for eternity. God knows how one stands being married to that. So I genuinely don’t know how you would reconcile with him or how he could repent. If he realised how wrong he was why did it take literally five years to realise something he understood at eight years ago, and why is it Gwen’s responsibility to make him realise that? This man deadass ‘rescued’ someone from being burned to death as a very direct consequence of his own laws without a shred of self-awareness. Does he not think of the horrors he permits, just as long as they are out of his sight? This man who really genuinely does love his people so much but has such a humungous blind spot towards so many of them? He just straight up doesn’t make sense past like s3 if I’m being generous but remember that time he held a kid at swordpoint.

Every time I think of an Arthur Pendragon redemption scenario post s3 all I can think of is everyone he cares about ditching him until he comes around. Because why should they humour him and continue their unconditional loyalty when he never thinks to take their feelings into account but insists they tiptoe around his, and makes it quite clear their place in Camelot where everyone they love is is conditional on his feelings towards them because his loyalty is conditional? (case in point: Gwen’s banishment. Arthur sends her out into danger and homelessness away from everything that she knows and loves because it hurt him to look at her, and banned anyone from even mentioning her because he was heartbroken but when Merlin tried to voice his own feelings he got threatened, and the knights straight up asked Gaius to keep any suggestion of Elyan’s dissent from Arthur quite clearly out of fear of what he might do to him) 

A’snd why should they return once they’ve left him? They all love him dearly and once in a blue moon it’s clear why, but it’s just not nearly enough. All his friends who comes from a variety of fucked up childhoods are capable of basic reason and awareness of others feeling (don’t get me wrong no one in this story is simply good they’re all morally complex yes Merlin yes the knights yes even Gwen they’re all still part of this regime aren’t they alas the story relies on it. and besides anything they all have flaws and a lot of them can be complete twats sometimes dkfkgkh) but Arthur is just so goddamn selfish after so many chances I just don’t think he’s forgivable by s5. There’s only so many times he can fuck over the people he loves and get away with it.

And now bestie we shall veer wildly off track See the way I see it there are two realities in Merlin. There’s the reality the show mostly focuses on. The one that Selfish is mostly set in. The fantasy that Gwen and the knights live in, that everyone in Camelot does except Merlin and Gaius and Lancelot do (Lancelot gets a near total free pass on everything. Man did his best and stayed in the system to protect Merlin. You could argue he should’ve dragged Merlin away from all that bullshit but i digress. He’s the exception :)). Where morality comes down to being nice to people and like. Not killing anyone but bad guys. There’s very clearly good guys and bad guys. In the context of that, they’re all great. And that’s why they're so easy to love, because within this system it’s pretty simple: they’re wonderful people. And it’s fun! It’s so nice to write writing this fantasy, where these lovely people really are just lovely people and being a knight is just running around the woods having fun and getting stabbed as the whump requires. (and there’s literally nothing wrong with just writing within this ndsmfkgkflg not every fic has to be a fuckin moral crusade which is exactly why I like it who has the time)

Then there’s the wider context. When you zoom out and really see the whole story. That they all serve and participate in a system that committed a genocide and continues to perpetuate it. The writers try to dodge it as much as possible by just sending them on fun quests but the knights’ principle job is to hunt and arrest enemies of the state. A lot of whom are sorcerers who are tired of being oppressed and demonized as soon as they show anything but total passive acceptance of it. And the sorcerers do not have to have committed a crime to be arrested, as is confirmed in 5x05 where Osgar kills several knights trying to escape being arrested and executed for literally just existing as a known sorcerer. And what does Gwaine call him? A heretic and a murderer. The only way I can find to redeem any of them in canon is have them be part of an oppressed group themselves and just trying to survive like Merlin is. Even them having nothing against magic falls flat because then why then do they stay and do what they do, and with no protest too? They are self-aware! 

Obviously when Gwen was a servant she is not at all complicit she has no power over things and is just tryna like. Live. But she becomes queen. Yes because she loves Arthur but she still does. And she has a say in things and yet them go on the way they are. I get tired of people insisting Gwen is perfect and always completely innocent (you are doing her a disservice!!!!) and has nothing against magic. Like most of the knights her opinions on it are danced around and never really stated (which is ludicrous when this is meant to be the crux of the whole show). There’s no way she would become queen and not try to enact any change in four years if she believed it should happen (unless she was too afraid of what might happen to her if she suggested such a thing which is sadly  possible but opens up a whole other tin of Yikes). When she tells Sefa (her servant who she makes believe she’s going to die and uses her as bait to trap and kill her loved ones, sound familiar? FYRIEN.) that respect must be earned and cannot be bought with blood it is because she can afford that moral high ground. She can afford to preach nonviolence because her very existence is not outlawed. However much struggle she has to face as a servant turned queen and don’t get me wrong that is a very real and pressing thing that is neatly dodged around with the three year time gap, she has other powerful people protecting and backing her up and the option to rise above it and prove them wrong and if it comes to it she has the power to banish them. Magic users do not have that option when they’re being killed on sight and they certainly do not have that kind of power. The only power they do have is their magic used for violence. But as soon as they do they are evil criminals that now deserve to be executed. And as much as I love Gwen’s canon reaction to merlin’s magic I would not be pleased if I realised I’d been contributing to my best friend’s oppression for the last four years. (the magic ban is still largely Arthur’s fault don’t get me wrong. but the others are still complicit.)

It just doesn’t make sense. To establish how wonderful and kind and good these people are and yet not have them raise a single protest at how things are done. Yes they have grown up with the prejudice. Yes some of them have suffered as some consequence of magic. But to have that little nuance when they’ve met and been saved by and helped and protected good kind vulnerable people with or associated with magic who are the furthest thing from dangerous (Mordred, the ghost boy, the druids as a whole) evade the law that they uphold without ever once examining that core belief that magic is pure evil... It makes no sense. And they must believe it, because how else could they stand to remain in that system?

Which is why I dislike the prevailing idea that once Merlin’s magic is revealed everyone immediately comes round to magic because their friend has it. To grasp that a thing people can’t always control if they have or not and can be used to healing and creation is not inherently evil only when it becomes very personal to you is something I would believe only of Arthur.

I love Gwen and the knights more than anyone else on the show and I realised a while ago it’s partly because they commit the least atrocities. They’re usually innocent in any situation. Because they’re normal people with options. Merlin (he’s a complicated case) and Morgana (not defending her, let’s not go there) do not have those options.

Guess who does :)

Arthur fails to be a decent human being on both of these levels of reality. He maintains the oppression of magic users but he is also selfish and ignorant and uncomfortably near abusive at times towards his loved ones. Arthur does not live in the same fantasy that the others do, but he pretends he does. He hides behind it whenever his essentially tyranny is brought up ‘but I’m a good and just king 🥺 I’m not ruthless and irrational like my father 🥺’ and he’s NOT he’s right but his ignorance and selfishness are almost as destructive. He improves throughout the show only at the most shallow level. He stops bullying everyone around him that he has power over and learns a little bit about his own privilege. On the surface he is a much nicer and better person in s5 vs s1 but if you dig even a little bit I would say the opposite is actually true. I would take s1 Arthur who is a total dick but has normal morals and is capable of nuance over s5 Arthur who is so blinded by how far he’s come (as he’s told by all the people who for some reason still coddle him) and is utterly blind to the injustices he perpetuates.

Arthur has the most power of anyone on the show after Uther dies. There’s no possibility of him secretly being ok with magic but keeping his mouth shut out fear of banishment or worse. He knows things the others don’t, he’s been given unique opportunities to understand magic is not evil. Hell, he even understood it at the start. And I know. I know he’s been abused and brainwashed and I know that’s not easy thing to overcome. But the stakes are way too high to hide behind that and not at least try.

So while you can analyse the other characters to some extent as actual people despite the writing not doing them justice at all and maybe find workarounds that don’t make them actually not great people if you sit down and think about it, you just can’t with later seasons Arthur because he’s so badly written he’s straight up impossible.

So 🤣

I don’t know what Gwen will do. Within the confines of the show there’s no way she’d do anything but forgive him. But by that point everything’s overwritten itself so many times there’s no reasonable outcome. this show′s a fuckin mess :)

[c-is-for-circinate]

Ok, Hades gameplay reaction time!

(Because I have been terrible this quarantine year about posting thoughts about stories I've been invested in, and I'm really enjoying this game, and I'm playing basically blind and I have theories, and what is tumblr for if not recording those things to look back on later.)

I love this specific kind of fantasy/speculative fiction, that straddles the line between 'allegory clearly designed to explore a real-world issue' and 'the themes of this reflect real-world issues but also everything is times one million for drama and setting's sake'. I love it so much. Because, look, this is a story about a teenager/young adult trying to gather up the skills and resources and help he needs to escape his controlling, possessive, emotionally abusive father's house. That's it. Strip away all of the trappings, and that's what the story is about. By comparison, I think about Star Wars. (I love Star Wars too.) That's also a story about a dysfunctional fucked-up family dynamic. But that family is fucked up because dad went on a magic-corruption-induced killing spree, and his twin children were separated at birth to be raised in seclusion with the intention of someday taking him down, and look, that's cool, but it's definitely not how people actually are. All of the dysfunction in that family is an outgrowth of the fantastical setting, which means it is fantastical dysfunction. It can occasionally mirror or remind us of real-life interactions, but it's a fantasy. Which is great and fun to watch and very comforting and so on, but I don't necessarily want that in every story, and I love Hades because it is not that, at all. When you extend out the basic 'kid trying to escape his toxic home environment', Hades is the story of Zagreus trying to get out with the help of his dad's estranged, complicated, wealthy and powerful family, who are absolutely part of the reason why dad is Like That in the first place, and may not be any more reliable in the long run but who he needs right now. And his stepmom and teacher, who love him enough to help him leave, unconditionally and supportively (ask me how many feelings I have about 'look, Hades can't hurt me for helping you, don't worry about me, I am going to take care of you and that means helping you get out of this house' coming from an adult authority figure, ask me). And his dad's employees, who like him but also have to fear the old man's wrath, and walk that line in different places the best they can. And stepmom's long-estranged parent, because this is a story about families and how they split apart and come back together. And all of that is so real, so grounded in actual, concrete, this-is-how-humans-work family dynamics. But it's also individual. The story works so well because Hades isn't just a silhouette of the controlling asshole father; he is clearly The Way He Is for reasons, complicated ones, good and bad alike. The Way He Is has details, particularities, paperwork, a dog he pretends not to love and rely on. He is specific. Nyx and Achilles are specific, not just generic kind stepmom here to be a trope inversion and cardboard cutout teacher. Nyx has backstory and personality of her own, Achilles has a complex history, opinions, a missing lover, and they BOTH have very particular relationships with Hades that aren't just boilerplate script. Yes, there's abstraction there, you meet these characters in brief visual novel-esque three-line conversations over the course of dozens of escape runs, of course there's abstraction--but there's the very real sense that all of these people have nuance, have good and bad days, that they've made choices to be who they are, even if we don't know what those choices are yet. And, like Star Wars, some of the ways in which this story is so specific rely entirely on the fact of the otherworldly setting! I've seen stories that go the other way, that try to use their setting entirely as window dressing, and they end up feeling so flat I can't even remember them right now because they don't let the environment lend complexity and nuance to their characters at all. The environment these characters live in matters. The absolute control Hades exerts over his surroundings is a divine power. The fact that everyone Zag runs into, for or against him, is either immortal or immortally dead, changes how the react to

one another and to the situation at hand. The shape of his attempted escapes (gauntlet combat with a variety of legendary weapons) might be an allegorical construct of the genre, true, but it doesn't work in any sort of real-world setting where there exists the possibility of authority figures above or aside from Hades and his extended fucked-up family. That's part of why the family is so fucked-up in the first place. But these changes still fit well within the realm of, 'yeah, if you took this extremely real-life dynamic and added these factors to it, I can envision people doing this thing'. I can envision these specific people doing this thing. They add to the specificity of these characters. Letting them be influenced by their unreal surroundings makes them more real. So hell yes for good storytelling!!!!

I'm still relatively early in the game (by which I mean I'm like thirty runs in but only just got past Meg for the third time, because I am not good at this game, although in my defense it's only the seventh video game and second button-mashing game I have ever played in my life so there's that), but I'm starting to develop suspicions about Persephone. Because, look, outside of Persephone's absence from the underworld, this story knows its Greek mythology, uses it, revels in it. And there is some kind of mystery still shrouding Persephone leaving in the first place. She left a goodbye to Cerberus in her letter but not to her own son. Nyx has warned Zagreus multiple times not to let the Olympians know she's his mother. He literally never even knew she existed. That's complicated! Add to that, Persephone left--the exact thing we are trying and failing to do again and again and again. She left with one note, which means either she managed a one-shot speedrun out of the entire realm or she had some other way to leave, because if she'd washed up in the Styx pool to plod back to her room and try again, she wouldn't've needed to leave the note in the first place. And, you know, she's Persephone. Really quite famous for leaving the Underworld! Also quite famous for being forced back. So. I'm wondering if Zagreus, so conspicuously absent from her goodbye, has something to do with it after all. Six pomegranate seeds condemned Persephone to six months, half a year, half her life. I wonder if a child that's half of her her constitutes a fitting trade instead. Which, of course Hades would be even more resentful and dismissive and cruel to the kid he got in place of the wife he loved (who he chased away by being cold in the first place). Of course Persephone would have difficulty saying goodbye to her son in those circumstances. It would make sense. The tricky thing here is how the Olympians fit into it, because I also suspect the rift between Hades and Zeus sprang from Persephone's departure. And yet, if the Olympians never knew Zagreus existed, let alone that he's Persephone's son--how can he count as payment into the deal in their eyes? So in that case, what does Zeus think is the justification for Persephone leaving, after the pomegranate thing? Or are we just not doing the pomegranate thing at all? It would be a shame to lose it entirely, out of a story that really seems to enjoy the myths it's playing with. And there should be something complex here, something more than simply 'mom fucked off and left because dad sucked and now I'm following her because same'. It feels more complex than that. 'Mom and dad had a baby to try and save their marriage, it didn't work, but when mom left she had to leave me behind because otherwise dad would have gotten the cops and her extended family involved' feels more right, while still just as grounded in reality as the story has been so far.

I sort of want to write some meta about how each of the six legendary weapons corresponds to their original divine wielder, but I haven't unlocked all of their codex entries yet (look I am very bad with ranged weapons in this game ok, I am working on it), and I still need to think about the details. Aside from, of course, fuck yes of course Hestia's the one with the railgun. Leave drama and elegance and traditional weaponry to her brothers and sister (Demeter, who knows how to get her hands dirty, gets a pass). Hestia is out here to get shit done. With a grenade launcher.

[hunxi-after-hours]

pls spare some thoughs about liyang zhang gongzhu 🙏🏼 especially her relationship with xie yu. i would think that after all he has done to her, she'd feel some resentment towards him at least but to me it seemed as if she'd made peace with all of his reprehensible actions (forcing their marriage, attempt to kill her son?? + more) and loved him. moreover she seemed to always put xie yus interests above all and the one time she didn't, she asked HIM if he hated her.

(shakes out wrists) all right we want to talk about Liyang??? let’s talk about Liyang!!!

so! I’ve been thinking about how important it is to have a multiplicity of femininities portrayed when we write complex and nuanced female characters. Yes, LYB has its share of warrior princesses (Mu Nihuang, Yuwen Nian), but it also has its brilliant strategists (Qin Banruo), talented musicians (Gong Yu), government agents (Xia Dong), experienced doctors (Consort Jing). The women of the cast can be incredible forces of steel-willed determination (Consort Jing again, we stan), filled to the brim with deception and cunning (Consort Yue), torn between complex loyalties and feelings (Junniang), proud and resentful (Empress Yan), demure and loving (Xie Qi), fierce and independent (Lady Han), timid and compassionate (Consort Hui), saccharine and sly (Xiao Xin), caring and obedient (Prince Yu’s consort), righteous and devoted (Lady Zhuo). We get such a wonderful variety of women from various stages of marriage, class, social role, and agency in this show, which is nothing short of a miracle, considering how male-dominated the plot is.

Now let’s talk about Liyang. Liyang, proud and dignified. Liyang, restrained and demure. Liyang, iron-willed and ferociously protective. Liyang, who becomes the voice of the wronged in the final judgment.

Here’s the thing about imperial daughters--their lives are not their own to do with as they please. Their greatest contribution, by virtue of their birth and sex, will be to cement alliances: with foreign states, to keep war at bay for a few more years; with domestic ministers, to secure the loyalties of powerful men to the throne. It’s not great, but it’s the reality of being royal in a feudal society.

There’s a subplot, early on in the novel, that was cut from the show: that of Princes Jingning, the younger sister of all the princes. She is kind, principled, lovely, compassionate; Xiao Jingyan, in particular, is fond of her, which might be the strongest testimony to her character. However, a recent diplomatic treaty with Nanchu calls for an exchange of princesses: a princess from Nanchu would marry a Da Liang prince, and in return, Princess Jingning would go to Nanchu, leaving behind home and family, to cement the alliance.

Mei Changsu intervenes to ensure that the Nanchu princess does not marry Xiao Jingyan. He does nothing to stop the overall marriage of alliance, no matter how much Jingning pleads with her brother, no matter how little Jingning wants to leave, no matter that Jingning already likes someone, a young man of intelligence and virtue whom she can never marry because his rank is far below that of an imperial princess.

Are we seeing the parallels?

This isn’t to justify the feudal practices of arranged marriage, or the pre-modern perception that the worth of a woman was her ability to marry and bear children, but it is the reality many of our female characters face in this show. 

And so--for Liyang, in her youth, to have the sheer audacity to fall in love with a hostage prince? To not only plead to marry him--a man likewise below her station, though this time for reasons of international diplomacy rather than social class--but also to already be pregnant with his child? Holy heck, the scandal that would have caused would have raised total hell. Liyang needed to be married off, and married off quick--thus, her hasty betrothal and marriage to Xie Yu by any means necessary.

Again--this is not great. This is extremely yikes. This is also feudal society, with feudal social mores about gender and propriety. What choice does Liyang have?

(I also think it’s worthwhile to note that the narrative treats this whole affair with both desperation and muted terror. We see women from across the rear palace come together to defend Nihuang as best as they can from the same fate. Also, from the bottom of my heart, fuck Consort Yue)

At the end of the day, Xie Yu is not the worst person Liyang could have been married to--at the time, sure, his rank was far below what would’ve been proper for an imperial princess. But with the revelation of the Chiyan conspiracy, he becomes one of the most powerful military commanders in the state. The shock of their initial marriage vanishes in the wake of treason, and over the years, people come to see the two as perfectly-paired. 神仙眷侣, Consort Jing says in episode 4. A divine couple. A match made in heaven, one might go so far to translate.

Because here’s the thing about Xie Yu--he loves Liyang. Even after decades of marriage, he loves her so deeply, so ardently, that Jingrui’s Worst Birthday Party only ends because she intervenes. Liyang puts a blade to her own neck, and Xie Yu calls it all off, because Xie Yu loves Liyang more than he loves his own power.

Does this excuse Xie Yu’s actions? Does this make anything he does okay? Absolutely fucking not, holy shit. But. But. Think about this from Liyang’s perspective. She’s married to a man--not one she loves, but one who loves her dearly--of considerable power and means to provide for her. He holds nothing but kindness, and respect, and appreciation for her in his heart. She could have done much, much worse--she could have been married off to a different state, to live out the rest of her days in solitude and loneliness, far from her home. She could have been stripped of rank, demoted to commoner, for her impropriety and scandal. She could have been forced to give up her child--the one thing of her love she has left to hang onto--through whatever method her mother deemed appropriate. Liyang had always known that her marriage would be the most important thing about her--is her situation, then, so bad?

(Again, say it with me--fuck feudal society and its notions about female worth.)

What else is Liyang to do? She can’t reform an entire society and its Confucian values on her own; where would she even start? She can’t exactly run away, either; her identity is too public, her person too important--imperial troops would find her and drag her back within days. Could she decide to give up her secular life, to shave her head and live out the rest of her days in a Buddhist nunnery? Certainly--but would that really be better than her situation now? Is that what she truly wants out of life?

So she buckles down. She gets to work. She tightens her jaw and makes something livable out of the wreck of her life. She raises two sons and a lovely daughter. She gets by; some days, she thinks, looking at her children, she might even be happy.

(and then Mei Changsu comes to the capital and brings all of it crashing down in a single, horrific night)

Does Liyang love Xie Yu? Did Liyang ever love Xie Yu? This is a complicated question--what does it mean to love someone? It doesn’t mean marrying them, that’s for certain. It doesn’t mean building a life together with them, under the expectations and demands of society. You can attend public events and functions with someone without loving him; you can help someone out of his clothes in the evening and lay down in the same bed without loving him. You can build a house, a home, a family with someone, all without loving him.

Liyang forces Xie Yu’s surrender, and doesn’t regret it. She brings all of his desperate ploys to mask the truth to a screeching halt, and doesn’t regret it. She saves her sons, her friends, and doesn’t regret it.

But after she’s tied up those loose ends, secured political asylum for the Zhuo family, held one of her nephews at knifepoint, she comes back to Xie Yu and asks if he hates her.

What a question. What a question. In that question is hidden decades of polite, frigid marriage; of resentment on her end, for forcing her into a relationship she never wanted. Of resentment on his, that she never loved him, that her son out of wedlock remains in the world to this day, taunting him, reminding him that before Liyang was his, she had been someone else’s. 

I don’t think Liyang asks this question because she loves him and desperately needs to know the answer; I think Liyang asks this question because they have lived hand-in-hand, side-by-side, for twenty years now, and she has foiled his grand plans, had a hand in his downfall.

I think she asks because she genuinely wants to know. She cares for him, whatever that means; she cares just enough to offer him a knife, a dignified death, a way out. She wants to know what he was thinking, how he could ever have justified this to the Xie ancestors, what can be done to salvage the tattered remains of their family. Liyang does not have to love Xie Yu to love her children, and in this moment, it’s the future of her children that she cares about the most.

Liyang learned long ago that the dreams and ideals and passions of youth were nothing more than fragile illusions, dissolving, insubstantial, like mist in the sun. The only thing you can truly hold onto is family, and so, she holds onto her own, protects them with a violence and a fury and a ferocity that once belonged to a willful princess who nearly eloped with a foreign hostage prince.

Liyang is proud, and she is protective, and so, when the new crown prince and Mei Changsu make a monumental request of her, she refuses. Who is Mei Changsu to her? The agent of the downfall of the noble house of Xie, the one who befriended her son and then used him as a political pawn. What is the Chiyan conspiracy to her? A bloody massacre, months of terror, years of silenced grief.

Liyang has been beaten down for years, forced to keep up appearances, smile mildly when appropriate, make nice with other ladies of the court. The years have worn away at that proud, defiant spirit of her youth. Liyang has been downtrodden for so long, it takes her some time to recall what it is like to stand up again.

But oh--the risks. The danger of it. The possibility that she might lose what little of her family she has left. Could you imagine walking into the party of the most powerful man in the state, intent on ruining it with such a terrible truth? Could you imagine remaining composed, dignified, in the face of your brother as he screams for guards to drag you away, knowing exactly what violence and ruthlessness he is capable of? Could you face down the guilt and complicity of the man you were married to for twenty years, carry out this request knowing the disgrace and danger the unmasking of the Chiyan Conspiracy could bring to your sons?

Liyang has every right to refuse this calling. Even Jingrui--Xiao Jingrui, the best of them all, by none other than Mei Changsu’s assessment--absolves her of any blame.

She does not. 

She holds her head high, a letter in her hands, and walks straight into a revolution with her eyes open.

[klstheword]

I’m Your Man

PRESS QUOTES

“Immensely enjoyable, intriguing and complex.”“The film has an arthouse breakout potential, which might rival that of the similarly female-led German comedy Toni Erdman.”“Astute casting, of which the German-fluent Stevens is a stand out, will be a key selling point.” Screen International “Maria Schrader makes a witty, thought-provoking return to features in this fusion of science fiction and modern romance.”“Schrader's beguiling Berlinale competition entry could cultivate a substantial audience in international art houses — abetted by the rising profile of its helmer -fresh from her Emmy win for Netflix's 'Unorthodox' - and the canny casting of British heartthrob Dan Stevens as a boyfriend entirely too good to be human.”“Stevens is a wry revelation, progressing from rigid, unworldly physical comedy to near-living, breathing emotional turmoil, programmed or otherwise.”"Eggert's flinty firmness and Stevens' buttery elegance prove ideally mismatched from the off — their performances gradually compromise and meet in the middle, borrowing a little of each other's suaveness and steel along the way." Variety “There's no doubt about it, it's all in the eyes: an ice-blue stare, locked on you, promising satisfaction and loyalty without asking for anything in return. That's what love is, and Dan Stevens is the humanoid robot here to give it to us.”“German actress Maria Schrader returns to directing for her third feature, undoubtedly her most well-rounded, exciting work yet.”“The script, co-written by Jan Schomburg, is what catapults I'm Your Man beyond comparison, into something diamond-sharp – witty, hopeful, wry, sincere, and sly all at once.”“Schrader's thoughtful romantic study digs into mundane neuroses and existential fears with wisdom, and empathy, making sure to keep you guessing long after Alma and Tom have stopped gazing into each other's eyes. Romantic yet level-headed, charming but always clear-eyed.” The Playlist “When the odd couple begins to cohabit, the robot is a catalyst for self-reflection and self-doubt in this comedy-drama that's as thought-provoking as it is funny.”“Schrader draws sharp character comedy out of the premise, aided by terrific performances.” “British actor Dan Stevens — speaking fluent German with an English accent — is a consistently amusing physical performer, while Toni Erdmann star Sandra Hüller puts in an enjoyable turn as his handler. But Eggert is the star of this show. She communicates Alma's exasperation, frustration and soul-searching in a way that delicately balances comedy and drama.”“The female lead gives the story more than just a fresh spin. It's a chance to ponder on the psychology of attraction from the perspective of a professional woman with a complex interior life, free from the testosterone that drives many examples in the genre. And in an age of isolation, social media and online dating, I'm Your Man seems startlingly relevant.” Deadline “Dan Stevens is a soulful robot in winsome romance from ‘Unorthodox' director.”“Eggert, whose stern, tired expression eventually gives way to the deep sorrow beneath the surface, grounds the character's transition into credible emotion.”“The movie's thematic trajectory crystallizes in a bittersweet third act, as a series of poetic moments draw the story back to the roots of Alma's struggles, and suggest that no perfect code can solve her problems when the best antidote is her own ability to talk them through.” IndieWire “A gorgeous romantic comedy that explores ever deeper questions as the plot progresses.” Blickpunkt Film “Delightful.”“Tom is perfectly cast, as Stevens narrowly borders on the threshold of uncanny valley with perfect timing and body language. His stilted posture, swift movements, and uncomfortable stares also add a level of subtle connotation to the illusion of artificial intelligence.”“I'm Your Man is an energetic recount on the cycles of modern love.” Filmhounds “Dan Stevens is as perfect as can be in the role. Not only is his German perfect, but so are his mannerisms, his quirky robot tics, and his inability to act and feel human. It's not an over-the-top comedic performance, but Dan Stevens brings just the right amount of subtle "I am a robot" humor to the role that it made me burst out laughing multiple times.”“It's a light and easily enjoyable film to watch, with a lovely piano-based score and gorgeous shots of Berlin.”“Directed by Maria Schrader, I'm Your Man is a charming, entertaining sci-fi romance with superb performances and a smart story about the grand complexity of love.” First Showing *****“Slick, sophisticated and satisfying this dating movie with a difference sees things from a distinctly female perspective exploring love and desire in a scenario may remind you of another recent German comedy Toni Erdmann which also starred Sandra Huller as a put-upon professional.” “Maria Schrader directs with supreme confidence adapting her script from a book by Emma Braslavsky, and adding a suggestive cinematic spin to her intuitive grasp of the subtle dynamics of love and dating, and the chemistry behind acting, in a film that reflects the reality that love relies just as much on the lows as the highs to be emotionally fulfilling for the human psyche.”“Maren Eggert is superb as the thinking woman's love interest in a performance that is fraught with emotion as well as thoughtful dignity, never resorting to histrionics or melodrama.”“Benedict Neuenfels makes this a pleasure to look at with his lush summery landscapes of Germany and Denmark.”“But the film belongs to Dan Stevens who gives a nuanced performance in a difficult role as a robot that teeters between the ideal emotionally intelligent man and a geeky robotic guy you may even and have dated yourself and eventually grown to love – and even fancy – for his truly masculine take on life.” Filmuforia "Maren Eggert inhabits Alma in a way that's so persuasive and naturalistic it barely feels like a performance at all." The Hollywood Reporter "With the energy of a studio era leading lady from the 1940s or 1980s, Eggert effortlessly succeeds and invigorates as an intelligent woman who also exudes an intoxicating confidence." IONCINEMA "Eggert plays her with a brusque, self-possessed wit that may remind some viewers of Greta Gerwig…" "Sensationally funny and gently science-fictional the film's embrace of uncertainty calls to mind Toni Erdmann." The Telegraph, UK "Eggert plays this tug of war with compelling subtlety, leading with her apprehension but flowering emotionally in brief glimpses of unfamiliar joy, too." "It's in the tiny glances that catch you off guard, the rush of adrenaline and pleasure that you thought only belonged in fairytales that suddenly color your world a little bit warmer and the script catapults “I'm Your Man” beyond comparison, into something diamond-sharp – witty, hopeful, wry, sincere, and sly all at once." The Playlist "A beautifully different, breezy yet poignant love story that is nevertheless full of deep truths." Berliner Morgenpost "Like a successful flirtation, no scene, no gesture is without meaning, and there is always something to laugh about." Süddeutsche Zeitung "It is a mind game that tells of the all too human with wit and charm. Ingeniously, this film questions our very real relationship patterns, holds up a mirror to us humans. An artifice that turns the tables for once and turns the man into an object, completely attuned to female needs." Heute journal "An abysmally funny commentary on contemporary life in the midst of algorithms." taz "The fine dialogue and the great ensemble should fulfil the dreams of 74 percent of all cinema-goers." Spiegel Online "Eggert grounds the character's transition into credible emotion." IndieWire

[ouyangzizhensdad]

i've debated with myself so much about madam yu and saw you rt that post defending her and i read it but it still didn't sit right with me, i'm not chinese but i am from one of those taugh love mom cultures and still find her extra bad, i asked a few chinese people who don't stan the book and they were horrified at the defense and said that it was not normal, sure she shows regular ch mom characteristics but she's like the hyperbole of a ch mom so does anyone own the monopoly of wha's normal?

Hi there anon, 

This is only my pov and I cannot speak from the perspectives of Chinese and Chinese diasporic people, nor for the people who wrote on the topic of Yu-furen (I can only speak of how I interpreted the posts I came across).

My understanding of the situation, however, is that they are not attempting to do with these posts what you are suggesting. You ask “does anyone own the monopoly of what’s normal”, which suggests you believe the posts meant to give a definitive answer on what is ‘normal’ behaviour, when in reality the posts seem to have been made with the opposite aim in mind: to remind people who do not share the cultural background of the intended audience of MDZS that there does not exist a single definition of what constitute “normal” behaviour and that fandom discussions dissecting every single action or word of Yu-furen’s toward any character to portray them as “clear signs of abuse” has been difficult to stomach and might even feel imperialistic for people who have been raised by parents who came from a cultural background where some of these very behaviours are not regarded as abusive.  

These posts, in general, have also seemed to attempt first to explain the nuances of Yu-furen’s relationship to WWX, which often gets wrongfully portrayed as her unequivocally being his adoptive mother or a legal guardian. She is not a mother figure to him and does not act toward him from that position. These have also aimed to remind people that the behaviours and care we feel are “owed” to “children” as a group are spatiotemporally specific, and influenced by a variety of factors--in this case, WWX being the child of a servant and a disciple of the sect. By reminding people that, in her position, in that specific spatiotemporal moment, Yu-furen would have been allowed to be much more extreme in her disciplining or could have simply refused to let WWX stay in Lotus Pier, what I feel these posters are doing is not telling Westerners that they personally think it would be appropriate behaviour towards a child, but rather highlighting that this means something wrt how Yu-furen is characterised in the context of the novel considering that the intended audience of the novel would be aware of that reality. Differently put, that it suggests a framing of Yu-furen as someone that does bark more than she bites even if she does bite. And aside from the irrelevant surface-level readings of Yu-furen as a sort of “girlboss” that seem to originate mostly from the CQL-verse in any case, I’ve never seen anyone suggest that she is irreproachable. All the serious analyses I’ve seen acknowledge that Yu-furen is meant to be a complicated figure or acknowledge that she abuses her authority in the sect by giving WWX punishments she does not bestow on other disciples. What they seem to disagree with is the ways western fans make sweeping generalisations and accusations without the relevant context, which comes off to them as insensitive and coming from a place of cultural ignorance.

Maybe it is time for a discussion that humanist thought, that which underlines so much of our modern understanding of rights and social progress, flattens spatiotemporal differences (or, as they often talked about, cultural differences), staying deeply rooted in Western supremacy when it aims to provide a single answer to what is right and what is a right. It can verge very easily into the evangelical and the imperialistic: we have only to look at the influence of the “global” LGBT movement has had on erasing  localised social organisations and identity markers by superposing themselves unto them as more intelligible ideas through which to barter for rights with the political class. Or worst, by having the “global” LGBT movement frame localised expressions of queerness as not progressive enough or harmful (sometimes I think back at Gaudio’s ethnography of queer men in the Hausa-speaking region of northern Nigeria, and how the men who took on the penetrative role in sex  generally switch to self-reference and being referenced in a feminine way and using “women’s talk”, and thinking “wow, they would be so cancelled or condescended to by tumblr kids 😬”). 

The point of this tangent is not to underline that everything about humanism or its influences on modern life are bad, but that it is an intellectual “tool” that can be do harm and be imperialistic and racist (since it is generally the White, Christian-adjacent, Western standards that are posited as the moral truth that defies differences in cultures and material contexts). And most of the discussions of what “adults” owe to “children” (ideas that are generally treated as homogeneous and clear-cut across time and space, as apriori categories), of what rights are owed to children, exist within these frameworks. Or, they might exist within the framework of “science,” as if science itself cannot be influenced by Western imperialism and researchers’ biases. Reading western language acquisition research and comparing it with cross-cultural ethnographic sociolinguistic research on language acquisition really highlights how some of the science that informs “good parenting” in the West is incapable of realising how much the material and cultural context of the West influences the results that are supposedly controlled. 

Or, again, the idea that science can help us define clearly and once and for all where the line between shitty actions and abuse, or discipline and abuse, should be drawn, is to me one that cannot be dissociated from a belief that science can provide us with definite truths about our existence as social animals as if these sort of truths were not inherently positioned and negotiated. It is an uncomfortable idea, isn’t it, to realise that two people can be against abuse but at the same time not draw the line at the same place? How do we best grapple with the discovery that “abuse” is not an apriori category but rather one that is constructed according to varying forms of positioned and shifting knowledge and experience? I do not have an answer, but I certainly think that fandom arguments will probably not be the best place for that level of philosophical discussions. 

To conclude, anon, I do want to acknowledge that your ask seems to come from a place of concern and perhaps even hurt. And that is perhaps why the posts from Chinese diasporic people in the fandom might appear to you as dismissive or flippant towards the interpretations of other fans of the novel. But perhaps without this prism of concern and/or hurt through which your perception of these analyses are filtered, you might have been able to notice a lot more nuance to their points than what your ask suggests. And that is not a criticism per se, but simply a reminder that, sometimes, some topics are difficult for us to approach clear-headed and to receive differing perspectives in good faith. In any case, I am certainly not the arbiter whose opinion on the topic will finally settle these debates, as such you might want in the future prefer to direct your questions (politely of course) to people who penned such analyses or who can speak from the relevant cultural perspective. If your aim in sending me this ask (because I reblogged a post you disagreed with) was to judge whether I passed your litmus test for being “morally just” to decide whether anything I have to say on any other topic is still worth paying attention to, well I suppose you now have your answer. 

[strangertheory]

I'd love for Will to be able to have the power of reality alteration because him being the most powerful one would be a very nice plot twist. But. Do you really believe they make him more powerful than El? I keep finding crazy comments on social media, suggesting it's the "El show" 😪 *sigh*. And I know some people who say it'd be anti feminist since Will is a boy. Thx

That’s a lot of interesting questions to think about.

I’ll attempt to address each thought that you’ve shared one at a time and provide you with my own opinions and theories about each:

You said: “I'd love for Will to be able to have the power of reality alteration because him being the most powerful one would be a very nice plot twist. But. Do you really believe they would make him more powerful than El?”

I have a lot of conflicted feelings about the way that the fandom often talks about characters’ powers and supernatural abilities in Stranger Things. (I also really dislike the way that the fandom has decided that they can’t appreciate and support both El and Will’s happiness and that their happy endings and successes are somehow mutually exclusive, but I’ll address the topic of their powers first.)

Fans often focus on the abilities and superpowers of characters as something desirable and cool but fans rarely spend time considering what it cost those characters to develop their abilities in the first place. Neither El nor Will suddenly woke up one day and had superpowers that they had conscious control over.

Certain impressive skills that people have in the real world might also be developed under extremely traumatic and undesirable circumstances and not because they wanted them: the powers represented so far in Stranger Things are very much like that variety of skillset.

El’s powers and her ability to control them are canonically shown to have manifested during her imprisonment, abuse, isolation, and manipulation at the Lab. As Kali says “They stole your life, Jane!” Due to El’s isolation from society and from love and affection and from having a family and from everything else in the world beyond the Lab she has a significant amount of early childhood social and psychological development that was stolen from her that she can never truly get back. A healthy, loving, safe environment for development and self-actualization that children deserve to have was not provided to El and she has suffered so much and she has had significant delays in her opportunity to grow and become her own person because of what was done to her. So yes, El has psychic powers that give her a variety of unique abilities that are very useful. But at what cost? If El were given the choice to abandon all of her powers in exchange for a loving family, a community of friends that she’d had the opportunity to know and spend time with since early childhood, a variety of passions and hobbies that she chose for herself over the years as she was growing up and engaging with the world, an extensive understanding of the world outside of the Lab based on her own exploration of the world and not only what people tell her or what she sees on television, and most importantly a sense that she is treated kindly because people truly love her and not because they want to exploit her and her powers for their own purposes: wouldn’t she make that trade?

Do I currently agree with the theory that Will’s subconscious mind created the Upside Down, the Mindflayer, the demogorgon, and even most probably created many other characters and fantastical plotlines that exist in the story? Yes. But I believe it has (so far) been unintentional, entirely subconscious, and is a mental coping mechanism in response to extremely traumatic circumstances that Will has faced throughout his life. Would Will’s subconscious mind creating significant parts of the Stranger Things universe represent a certain level of “power” that is greater than El’s? I don’t personally think they’re comparable. There are things that Will can probably do that El cannot, and vice versa. They will surely each have their own strengths and weaknesses and their own limitations that we may or may not always be shown in the series.

But what does "more powerful” really mean to us, and why does that question even matter? It was not El’s choice to have powers and it was not Will’s choice to have powers. Much of what I believe Will has incidentally created is creating a lot of confusion and suffering for him and for others that he cares about. If the story were about real people I’d be offended at the question of who’s more powerful and feel as though that question and debate is the sort that Dr. Brenner and his colleagues would have: “How useful is this child to me? Which child is more powerful?” I dislike the question because it feels like asking a parent which child is their favorite. I care about them both, and I don’t care about them because they happen to have superpowers: I care about them because they are nuanced characters that are very well-written and that I can empathize with as if they were real people. I respect why it’s a popular thing for fans to debate over which X-Men is the most powerful, for example, but that’s never been what draws me into scifi and fantasy stories. What characters choose to do under unusual circumstances and with unique resources (such as superpowers) is far more important to me than the nature and intensity of the powers themselves. I believe that the Stranger Things fandom does these beautifully written characters a disservice by focusing too heavily on their abilities and not enough on their feelings, choices, relationships, dreams, goals, and experiences that humanize them.

I love Stranger Things because of the humanity of each of the characters and not because some of them can throw cars through walls.

You said: “I keep finding crazy comments on social media, suggesting it's the "El show"”

El is definitely an important character in the story at this point in the show and she has some really fascinating abilities in the Stranger Things universe that often give her iconic moments and provide her an opportunity to be in the spotlight.

I believe that there is a reason that the writers have decided to develop many characters in the story and in my opinion it can seem hard to pin-point a “main” character at times. I think this is absolutely intentional on the part of the writers, and I predict that we will learn how Will’s, Hopper’s, and El’s storylines intersect in season 4. I think we will learn something new about each of the characters.

I do not personally believe that it is the “El show” any more than it could be argued that this is the “Steve show” or the “Hopper show.” But I do appreciate that fans have grown to love El’s character.

I strongly disagree with anyone in the fandom that insists that Will is not important. I can tell that the way that he was quieter in season 3 inspired some fans to dismiss his role in the series entirely, but I think they’re mistaken. Quiet and less assertive doesn’t mean irrelevant in a story like this one. I believe that much of what Will has been through is at the heart of the entire series, and I think that he will play a very critical role in future seasons. If some fans passionately dislike Will then they might need to steel themselves for some severe disappointment.

You said: “And I know some people who say it'd be anti feminist [for Will to be more powerful than El] since Will is a boy." 

I would argue that El embodies many traits that are often presumed to be stereotypically masculine by certain incorrect and outdated schools of thought: assertiveness, the ability to win in combat, determination, resilience, and bravery (among others.) There were eras in which these traits were not always valued and respected in women, and arguably there are still many circumstances under which they still aren’t. El is a complex character who is not written as a gender stereotype and I think that is powerful and important.

We need more characters of many different genders that are written as people. Complex, multi-faceted, and capable of many different things regardless of their gender.

Yes. Will is a boy.

Will is a young boy who has been bullied for having certain traits that are very often stereotypically seen by society as feminine. As being “womanly.”

I believe that feminism needs to be intersectional and seek to address the ways that all people and all genders are harmed by a society that devalues women and devalues traits, work, and skillsets that are associated with femininity.

Feminism should not be reduced and oversimplified to “girl power.” Anyone that reduces feminism to that does not, in my opinion, understand feminism.

“Feminism is the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.”

Devaluing admirable traits when someone of one gender expresses them but then deciding to value those exact same traits when they are expressed by a person of a different gender is prejudiced and anti-feminist because it maintains the false idea that certain traits only have value in people if they are a specific gender. 

El is a wonderful, empowering character and I appreciate that she is very well written and admired by many fans. But I worry when certain fans are more willing to appreciate a kick-ass fictional young woman that defies outdated and incorrect gender stereotypes but are not also willing to embrace gentler, more sensitive, less stereotypically masculine young men like Will with similar enthusiasm and affection.

Will is bullied and devalued by his small-town community for having traits and interests that are perceived as feminine and therefore, according to closeminded bigots like his dad, not allowed and are deserving of abuse and bullying. Will is arguably also devalued and dismissed by the Stranger Things fandom because he has traits that are perceived as feminine and undesirable in a young teen guy in the eyes of certain fans, too.

The devaluing and dismissal of gentle, kind, emotional young men is a feminist issue.

A character doesn’t have to be a girl in order to represent feminist ideals within a story. I know that there are probably plenty of feminists that will disagree with me (because there will always be people with their own opinions) but I strongly believe that Will's story is feminist as it has been explored so far (just as El's is.)

Anyone in the fandom that considers themselves a “Feminist” but that spends significant amounts of time criticizing Will Byers by dismissing him as “boring” and criticizing him for being quiet, sensitive, gentle, and emotional should take a good look in the mirror and reflect on what their personal brand of feminism stands for and whether their goal truly is “the equality of the sexes” or if their goal is simply hating men and only valuing and promoting stereotypically masculine traits in our society.

Feminism’s goal is not to make women more powerful than men or to make men less powerful than women, it is about the promotion of the “equality of the sexes.” 

Stereotypes are constructs our society has built and that impact the way we all currently relate to each other. Until society stops treating traits associated with society's currently constructed idea of femininity as something weak or bad then it is important to appreciate these traits in characters of many different genders and to value these traits in men (both in real life and in fictional stories) too. Anyone of any gender can be sensitive and sensitivity should not be seen as a weakness but rather as a strength and as something that's a valuable aspect of our humanity, and the same can be said for many other beautiful traits that society has wrongly decided to put into boxes and assign gender stereotypes to.

This complicated topic is incredibly important to me as a fan of both El and Will. I believe that both El and Will are feminist characters and that the series is very empowering and is challenging society’s gender biases through both of their stories. I hope that my response to your question was successful in communicating how I feel and resonates with you and with perhaps other fans who also care about El and Will and feel their own experiences, feelings, and identities validated by their story arcs.

Will some fans still whine and cry “sexism” and attempt to brand Stranger Things as “anti-feminist” if their hope that El will be the solo main character of the story and not have to share the spotlight with a boy is dashed? Sure. But I think they’re wrong, that their concept of feminism and sexism is incorrect, and that their priorities and their understanding of El’s value as a character is unfortunate. El is more than her superpowers. El doesn’t need to be “the strongest” or “the most powerful” in order to be an inspiring, complex, well-written, relatable, and empowering character.

Thank you for your Ask! I hope you don’t mind how long this response is. You mentioned a few things that I have some very complicated opinions about.

[amachja-moved]

SHIPPING INFO // answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. REPOST. don’t reblog.

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE?: I don’t typically tend to have OTPs that are not canon; I don’t spontaneously ship characters on a show that are not an actual canon pairing, even less so when there is no sign of them being the possibility of a pairing. I would say there are fandom-made ships whose aesthetics and possible dynamics I gravitate towards, or that I can see making sense, more than proper OTPs (because part of me also appreciates seeing platonic relationships, blame my lil aroace heart that doesn’t see enough well-developed, important friendships, for instance - doesn’t stop me from loving fanarts and pairings I stumble upon or am introduced to, like Mikasasha or Berusasha!). For Sasha specifically, Sasha & Niccolo is the main one, precisely because it is canon and makes complete sense - there really is no better match for Sasha than a cook, and the fact that he is a Marleyan doubles down on the Braus’ themes of tolerance and open-mindedness.  And of course, I have my ultimate BROTPs, namely the trio Sasha & Connie & Jean, and Mikasa & Sasha & Historia. Bffs and roommates Sasha & Mikasa. And since the train track episode, Sasha & Armin. 

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO RP WHEN IT COMES TO SHIPPING?: Pretty much anything goes! Except non-consensual stuff, abuse, things such as incest, paedophilia etc - nobody can ever convince me to include that in any ship whatsoever. I rp to have a good time and be full of feels, I love me a good angst, but those things I would not consider good angst. What I’m willing to rp includes pretty much anything else: fluffy ships, angsty ships, soft ships, tragedy, fun stuff, evolution from friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, and all and any nuance that we can think of. I like variety in my ships! And I like to go deep into the development, so the upside is, if you choose to ship with me, you will always have a partner willing to discuss the relationship at length and imagine all the details of it all, and start ten different threads (note that this goes with platonic ships too - friendships, family, etc). The possible downside you may find, depending on your own preferences, is that it takes me a little while to find my footing, and I like to put in the time to find the right tone so that the ship doesn’t just... jump out of the blue, if that makes sense? And sometimes I wonder if it may deter people or make them think I’m not as enthusiastic or involved in the ship, when in reality it’s the opposite. Shipping on tumblr also feels very different from my experience of shipping on a forum, where it’s all about long-term development  and commitment, and where I’ve had the same three ship partners for three years now, so maybe I need to adjust to the more ephemeral format of tumblr too. (what do you mean I completely derailed from the original question?)

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE?: I absolutely will not rp a ship where one character is a minor and the other is not. When it comes to AoT, I also will not ship Sasha with anyone who is already an adult when she is still a Cadet, including post-timeskip - for instance, I will not ship Sasha with a Levi, even when she is an adult. It just doesn’t sit right with me. 

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING?: Aye I am. I’ve never shipped a lot (I’m pretty sure this blog is where I’ve shipped the most, ever), partly due to being selective, partly due to not necessarily being very good at understanding the tumblr shipping etiquette because I’m a wee bit of a simpleton. But basically, I will not ship unless I have talked ooc with the mun of the other muse, and we’ve had a few interactions pointing towards compatibility of writing styles and personalities. I just want to get along with the people I ship with and enjoy their writing, and hopefully that they enjoy my writing too and want to interact regularly too! (what’s the point in shipping, otherwise) (or interacting at all, for that matter!)

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED NS.FW?: Eeeeeeh clothes go off and/or mentions are made of what happens below the belt?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ time to whip out that nsfw tag. WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH?: As of the writing of this post, Sasha is shipped with free-us​‘s Niccolo, gerichteter​‘s Bertholdt, and libartes​‘ Porco (you should check out their blogs, they’re awesome muns and muses). All three are very different ships in nature, which is always my main concern when shipping with multiple muses, so I am very grateful to them for writing those stories with me, building these relationships, and exploring very different dynamics that I find super compelling to write! DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU?: Yes please, though I believe this has become common standard in the rp community, so, yay!  HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP?: I love shipping, but I would rather have fewer ships that I have the chance to explore and develop in depth, through ooc talk and ic interactions and threads, than have many ships and not get to write them or very little. The interest of a ship, for me, lies in development. I also need balance with other kinds of ships (friendships etc), so all of you out there writing intricate friendships and other relationships with me, know that you have my love and gratitude and that you keep this blog going and my heart happy. ARE YOU SHIP OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS?: See answer above. I don’t know that I’m ship-obsessed, but I would say I’m ship-committed (good lord I hope I’m not scaring anyone away with this). And that goes for all kinds of relationships, not just romance! I’m always happy to trade headcanons and tailor our muses’ relationships, regardless of nature, so that it feels unique and can develop over time. Or just gush about our characters because if we’re threading/interacting, it means that I love them. (also platonic ships are awesome) ARE YOU MULTISHIP?: Yessir I am - though I do tend to ship with only one iteration of any given muse, because of my preference for variety I already touched upon. I don’t know that I would be interested in shipping with another Bertholdt as long as I’m shipping with Lani’s, for instance. Just a preference on my end, that absolutely does not constitute a requirement for my shipping partners - unless of course we decide to be exclusives, but that’s a different matter of etiquette. 

WHAT IS ( ARE ) YOUR FAVORITE SHIP(S) IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM?: Aaaaahfgdh Sasha & Niccolo, Reiner & Bertholdt (yeah, remember what I said about not shipping pairings that are not official? They’re the exception), Annie & Armin.  Also Reiner & a good therapist, this man needs help. 

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU?: Write with me, see if you like what you read, and shoot me a message so that we can discuss it :)

TAGGED BY: a friend on a different platform! TAGGING: if you want to do it, say I tagged you!

[yurimother]

LGBTQ Light Novel Review - Sexiled Vol. 1

When J-Novel Club announced that they would be releasing Ameko Kaeruda’s light novel Sexiled: My Sexist Part Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up with a Mythical Sorceress! I remember seeing some backlash on Twitter for the main title and cover art of the Sorceress, Laplace, exposing a solid third of breasts in a tight black dress. However, I dug a bit deeper into the work (because it is my job to do so) and was very excited at the prospective plot of women kicking ass, kissing girls, and fighting the patriarchy. After reading Sexiled, I am thrilled to say that my expectations were not only met, but exceeded by the length of a massive and impractical anime sword. This book is an excellent work of feminist literature and one of the best light novels I have ever read.

As the long title suggests, the story begins when Tanya Artemiciov, a prodigious mage, is fired from her adventuring party by its leader Ryan. The slimy, sexist, and cowardly antagonist of the book. Outraged, Tanya sets out to the wasteland to blow off steam in a spectacular and curse-riddled manner, when she accidentally releases Laplace, an ancient sorceress sealed away for centuries. After besting Laplace, the two women agree to form a party to enact sweet revenge against Ryan and take down the patriarchal society while they are at it.The story is not subtle at all with its mean themes. From the start, it is clear to the reader that sexist ideas dominate this society. Everything in the story, from the comments men make, “us men are just naturally better equipped for the job” to the oversexualized garments female adventurers are forced to wear, trace back to sexism. Great credit must be given to Kaeruda here, as the examples and instances of sexism are all taken from reality. The scores of female applicants to the mage’s school being docked mirrors last year’s scandals of Tokyo Medical School. Female adventurers are paid less and expected to retire early to start families, reflected the treatment of women in the corporate world. A full comparative list would easily take up half this review.

Not only are so many issues of sexism identified and explored in the light novel, but they are also each confronted by the heroes. Sexiled’s world and characters are typical of a power fantasy series. The protagonist is leagues stronger than anyone else, and the world has game-like qualities, with classes and levels. However, unlike the typical annoying male protagonist whose best defining character trait is “exists,” the women in Sexiled use their incredible powers to obliterate the oppressive systems. It is a pure indulgence to read, as there are few experiences more satisfying than reading descriptions of god-tier characters destroy selfish, egotistical, and demeaning men.

The sexist setting is the main focus of the story, which makes some of the plotlines predictable. However, there is a surprising amount of nuance in some of the issues presented. Tanya has lived her whole lives in this society and is thus blinded to the harsh reality and unfair circumstances around her. One of my favorite moments sees the women discussing armor and how revealing and sexual clothing is demeaning when forced, and empowering when chosen:

“‘Um, Laplace? You forgot to cover up your, uh… chest area.’ Hmm? Why should I?’ ‘Well, weren’t you saying we don’t need to show skin?’ ‘Correct–we don’t need to. But in this case, I want to.’”

Unfortunately, the plot is a bit monotonous. The one-note that is it, powerful women using magic to fight against sexism, is a superb one, but I would have liked to see a bit of variety or actions taken by women that were not solely motivated by men. It is disappointing to see that all the actions taken are in response to the atrocities of society, especially considering how feminist the book is. The points, while important, are merely the blemishes on a masterful work of art and culture. Sexiled remains one of the most engaging, fun, and relevant visual novels on the market.

Speaking of light novels, I have to mention and praise the prose in Sexiled. Usually, the writing in light novels is tolerable at best, and agonizing at worst. However, Kaeruda and the English translator Molly Lee, have done the unthinkable, crafting a light novel that is not only easy but enjoyable to read. Everything from the wonderful descriptions, entertaining dialogue, clever references, and wondrous use of profanity are highly polished and well crafted. A particular favorite of mine is Tanya’s incantation for the spell explosion, “From twilight, I summon the ultimate f***ing destruction! Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; heed my call and unleash your f***ing might! F*** this s***!” Sexiled has become the new bar for light novel localizations! A complete side note, Lee is also translating Seven Sea’s English adaption of the Adachi and Shimamura light novels, which gives me such hope for that series. Before I sing any more praises of Lee and Kaeruda, I should talk about the characters.

Both the main characters in Sexiled are lovely. Tanya is confident, powerful, kind, and a hilarious drunk. She seamlessly transitions between ruthlessness in battle to loving and compassionate when speaking to her friends. However, she never loses the sharp wit that helps her stay refreshing and hilarious. While I adore her, I am entirely entrenched by Laplace, who also goes by some fantastic pseudonyms, including “the Wicked Dragonwhore” and “Stone Cold Stunner.” She has an immense amount of self-confidence and an irresistible bravado. She is also very playful and enjoys teasing Tanya. The interactions between these two make for some of the best moments in the volumes:

“‘That look on your face says you think I’m nothing more than a human-shaped balloon.’ ‘Damn right!’ ‘Wow… I wish you would’ve at least tried to deny it…” They are perfect together.

Many of the female side characters have equally precise and detailed treatments. Nadine Amaryllis, a low-level healer that joins the girls’ party, is likable and has a comprehensive and dramatic backstory that functions as one of the work’s best reveals. Additionally, the minor villain, Katherine Foxxi, is one of the more dynamic characters. She starts blind to the sexism in her world but slowly changes throughout the novel. Unfortunately, Foxxi is also the focal point for one of the book’s only bad sequences. I would not be surprised to see a full redemption story or maybe an anti-hero persona for her in future volumes. However, the male villains are decidedly shallow. In fact, there is not a single half-decent, or even well-intentioned man present in the story. I do not mind, but it is a bit suspect. Other light novels have had similar villains and themes while still allowing for nuance and avoiding stereotyping an entire demographic.

The yuri elements in Sexiled are pretty minimal. Most of the story focuses on the women’s’ quest for revenge and their fight against the patriarchy, leaving little room for romance. There are a few light service moments where Laplace kisses Tanya, such as when she unlocks the mage’s full potential, but other than that, there is no physical contact. However, the strong bonds between the characters are apparent, and they all share a few touching scenes before the final chapters. A particular favorite of mine is Laplace using magic to make Nadine fly. There are also clear indications that the characters have multiple targets for their affections. Both Laplace and Tanya are implied to have interest in Nadine, as well as each other, thus sewing seeds for future romantic plots. While subtle, intense romantic relationships are present, and they add to the story while never distracting readers from it, which is a massive plus.

Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kick Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! is an absolute must-read. The detailed and phenomenal writing is matched beautifully with strong female characters, hilarious dialogue, and exceptionally satisfying moments. It manages to expose the flaws of our society while providing an escape for those who suffer because of them. It does not make any profound or unique statements but allows the reader to revel in its indulgences. Sexiled is a spectacular masterpiece of fantasy and feminism that far outpaces other works in its genre and medium. This book is easily a new obsession of mine, and I cannot wait for the English release of volume two.

Ratings: Story – 10 Characters – 9 LGBTQ – 3 Lewd – 2 Final – 9

You can purchase Sexiled digitally now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2J14WCj

Review copy provided by J-Novel Club

[itsclydebitches]

Why do you think it is people can't accept or view woman as abusive? Whether it's mothers, wifes, girlfriends, or just friends? Is it because men are usually the abusers in media and therefore accepted as the abusers in real life always? Do people out there really not think woman can be both physically or emotionally abusive to men in their lives just as men can be?

As with all of these topics there’s no one reason why such thinking comes about, but rather a complicated intersection of ideas, teachings, assumptions, personal experience, culture, etc. Part of it is that statistically men (in the US and UK anyway) are more likely to be the abuser and the media does reflect that, so some people tend to conflate “usually” with “always.” Even though those are obviously two distinct situations. Which is how you get antagonistic responses to those who advocate for men who suffer from abuse. Some see it as a means of drawing attention away from the ‘real’ problem of women victims, rather than acknowledging that both things exist simultaneously: a predominance of one gender being victims and the other gender facing a unique hurdle because of that predominance. When we teach - overtly or implicitly - that only women can be abused, we set up a scenario where men must first prove that what they’ve suffered can and does exist at all, let alone that they as an individual suffer from it. We see this with rape as well. Women must navigate a world that acknowledges that they can be raped, but tends to deny that it happened to her (she was asking for it, she should be grateful, etc.) Men, meanwhile, often hear that they simply can’t be raped, full stop. Because that’s something that only happens to women, because men always want sex, because a man could have put a stop to it, etc. And if this seems at all confusing, contradictory, complicated, and other difficult ‘c’ words, it’s because it is. Different genders who experience abuse simultaneously have commonalities that should inspire solidarity among the groups as well as individual circumstances that have to be taken into account. There is no one size fits all explanation here, which is precisely why intersectionality exists. 

Thinking about those individual factors though, gender norms absolutely come into play and feed those broader ideas about who can and cannot be abused. To put it simply, the concept of (toxic) masculinity does not provide room for men to be victims of abuse via women, simply because they are supposed to be inherently stronger and thus protected from assault. I experienced a perfect example of this bias while discussing Caroline Flack’s assault arrest. To be clear, we had almost no details about the case and were speaking very generally about abuse as a whole, rather than what actually happened between her and her boyfriend. This was also prior to her suicide, so take this as a conversation pretty much entirely removed from her specific situation. Basically though, the conversation revolved around the utter disbelief that a girlfriend could assault - let alone consistently abuse - a boyfriend. This person was grudgingly accepting of emotional abuse, but physical was off the table. After all, he’s a big strong guy and she’s so tiny. You’re telling me he can’t catch her arm when she goes to hit him? Or just hit her back? When I began to point out the problems in this thinking, the lack of understanding as to how abusers work, and begin to introduce the concept of victim blaming, they responded with, “I’m not blaming the victim, I’m blaming his inability to defend himself!” Which is a response that made me stare into an invisible camera like I was on The Office. Frustration aside, this conversation does a decent job of demonstrating the biases at work here: 1. Men are pretty much immune to abuse because abuse is almost entirely physical. 2. That immunity stems from clear-cut ideas about how man and women develop: he will be big and strong while she will be tiny and weak. 3. Abuse is not a complicated form of conditioning but a one time thing that anyone with the correct tools (strength) can stand up against: just stop her from hitting you. 4. If you somehow fail to stop her you can (and will instinctively want) to get revenge by hitting her back. That will demonstrate dominance and put an end to things. Problem solved. Obviously there is a lot to unpack there and that’s coming from a liberal, progressive, otherwise empathetic person. This kind of thinking runs deep. 

I want to emphasize that people get degrees in this, write books, spend their whole lives studying and working through such a nuanced subject... so a blog post response does not a perfect answer make lol. Nor does a BBC vid with a clickbait-y title, but experiments like this - simple as they are - can help to demonstrate that thinking: 

“My first thought was... he looked a bit soft... he looked a bit soft letting her hit him like that... I wouldn’t let a girl hit me.” 

“I think the man must have done something to the woman” 

There’s such a pervasive idea that men, as men, are the dominant gender that any evidence of abuse is automatically reframed as a) something he secretly enjoys, b) something he brought on himself, or c) proof that he’s not a “real” man and is defective for suffering from this. It’s a view that is perpetuated in fandom as well as real life. When Salem kills Ozpin it means he obviously did something to deserve it (trying to escape with the kids) because only guilty men suffer like that. When Yennefer takes control of or invades Geralt’s mind it means he secretly liked it because only weak men would stick around to suffer through something they were uncomfortable with - and Geralt is the opposite of weak. Then these stories - as stories written by an author who controls all events, responses, and outcomes - further paint these assumptions as correct: Ozpin is condemned as a horrible person (see, he deserved it!) and Geralt’s true love is shown to be Yennefer (see, he secretly doesn’t mind!) because these are characters who adhere to the whims of fallible authors. That doesn’t represent reality, but it can help perpetuate our perception of it. The author who fails to acknowledge a man’s abuse that they’ve written is no different from an author who fails to acknowledge a woman’s abuse that they’ve written. How the audience responds to those relationships, however, is very different. We’ve reached a point now where we can say stuff like, “Just because fictional Anastasia Steel has been written to think the way Christian Gray treats her is sexy and healthy doesn’t mean it is,” but we often fail to apply that same fiction/reality distinction for men. Instead, women abusers of all varieties - from genocidal Salem to “just” insults/threat of magical retribution Yennefer - are painted as badass or secret victims because the alternative would be acknowledging that men have the capability to be victims at all. Especially powerful men who (supposedly) have every means of defending themselves. 

As one woman in the video puts it, “the stereotype that women have less power than a man” is ingrained in our culture and it hurts men and genders not on the binary as well as women. It’s just that the damage to women is the most obvious and, as said, at times much more common. But that doesn’t mean these other impacts don’t exist. This is why feminism is inclusive and anyone who tells you it’s only for women hasn’t done much research. There’s a difference between people who may use such situations as a means of erasing all the shit women have to deal with (Men’s Rights™) and those who acknowledge that the limitations put on women and the abuse they suffer has the added concern of negatively impacting those around them. They’re baises that don’t help anyone. 

[fireemblems24]

Lonato’s Rebellion - Black Eagles

So, you know when Claude called Edelgard naive? Well, turns out, he’s right. There’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m more excited than ever to strap in for the ride.

Possible spoilers under the cut for Black Eagles (extremely) early content.  I talk a little about what kinds of stories I go for, pretty please, please, please don’t guess what route I’ll end up liking best based off what I said, as I’m playing them all at the same time to try and go in without any bias towards a route. 

Edelgard. What to say about Edelgard. I honestly have a lot to say about Edelgard and it’s what, chapter three? As per usual - some of it good, some of it . . . not so good. 

Like with Claude and the Golden Deer, I want to give a head’s up that when I critique something or point out a flaw in a character, I don’t mean to disparage them. On the contrary, one of my favorite things in fiction is watching a good person screw up royally, all the suffering that ensues, and come out better for it (and happier, I like that too) ~ (compulsive need to mention FMA:B’s Roy Mustang and Rurouni Kenshin’s Kenshin). So I’m not hatin’ on your girl, I’m just a tad - concerned. 

So let’s start with the good. Edelgard is one hell of a motivated, driven, confident young lady. She’s a stark difference from other FE lady leads (much love to them, Elincia and Eirika are my queens), but some variety is nice to see. She’s intelligent, capable, analytical, and she’s got some big ideas. 

But even more than that what I find the most impressive about her is her ability to imagine a world that’s different despite everything being the same-old-same-old. Most people are a product of where they’re raised and accept things as normal that others might find weird. Some of this is kinda harmless, but some is harmful because the status quo isn’t always fair. More than one of Edelgard’s supports mentions a world where inheritance doesn’t matter as much as ability. That’s a pretty huge change that most people wouldn’t even be able to conceptualize, and not only does she envision it, but she’ll have the power to make a difference as one of the three great nation’s of Fodlan’s leaders. 

However, I’m a strong believer in the idea that someone’s greatest strengths can also be their greatest weakness, and Edelgard’s drive and vision might go a bit too far. 

So - uh - can we talk a bit about her response to Lord Lonato’s Rebellion (you know, what this post is supposed to be about) because I’m just a little bit concerned, and by that I mean a lot. 

We’re treated to a scene where Caspar, Ferdinand, and, hell, even Hubert seem disturbed by what just happened. They aren’t the only ones either - the Blue Lions gang also seemed pretty shaken up by what happened (albeit, it’s a much more personal story for them). Nearly the whole cast sees what happened as a pointless tragedy, and I’m inclined to agree with them. 

Not Edelgard. I admire her initial take. She thinks not everyone who died in the battle died a pointless death because they died for what they believed in, even if ultimately their battle was pointless. I can see where she’s coming from, even if I personally think Lonato accomplished nothing other than throwing the lives of his citizens away. Her different perspective makes her more interesting, and isn’t what I find so alarming. 

It’s that next bit. You know (or maybe you don’t), where she says she aspires to be like Lonato, someone who’s “willing to risk the lives of my citizens for a just cause.” Um . . . that’s . . . not something to aspire too. 

Fighting for change isn’t bad, the problem here is that Edelgard is getting to define what a “just cause” is wholly on her own. She’s the leader of a nation. It’s her job to look out for the people, not use them to further her own goals. Ultimately, her goals sound good, but she’s still showing a blatant disregard for the lives of Mr. McFarmer who doesn’t care at all about her lofty “just cause” and just wants his crops to grow so he can feed his family. 

Even worse is Edelgard seems to only understand her own echo chamber. Many of her C-supports so far revolve around Edelgard trying to help her classmates. That’s good, right? Well, in a vacuum, yes. The problem is there’s a consistency of Edelgard not considering her classmate’s point of views. She’s trying to help them by making them into what she thinks is better for them regardless of how the classmate feels. Nothing highlights this more than her supports with Caspar, who she’s actively pushing towards her cause despite Caspar’s flippant attitude towards it. Petra’s another one where Edelgard tries to inspire her to shoot higher and Petra doesn’t do much but politely agree, a huge difference from Hubert’s C-support with Petra where he seems to understand Petra’s precarious situation as a political hostage far better than Edelgard. Most of Edelgard’s supports are like that so far. 

Except Ferdinand. I have a LOT of high hopes about his future supports with her, because he can potentially give Edelgard some downright amazing development that I can’t wait for. He’s positioning himself (as per his support with Hubert), as someone who is going to challenge Edelgard and make sure she knows what she’s doing instead of nodding along. It’s extremely telling to me that his B-Support is locked currently. I’m assuming this is because her character arc isn’t ready for what Ferdinand is going to bring to it. I’m a bit hesitant to get too hyped though, since so far Ferdinand’s been nothing but an annoying clown-act not taken at all seriously by anyone, but I hope and pray that changes, because this could potentially end up one of the most interesting and dynamic relationships in the whole game. 

Edelgard’s heart is in the right place. She sees the current system isn’t good and wants to change it rather than letting the status quo continue. That’s fantastic. That’s something to admire. That takes some real strength of character. The only problem is, Claude’s right, she’s naive. She’s unable to see anyone else’s perspective but her own and probably has little understanding of  how little the average person is going to care about the causes she’s willing to send them to die for. 

Ultimately, I’m guessing the BE route will be a lot about upsetting the status quo and bringing change to Fodlan - addressing things FE has largely ignored in the past like the not-so-great reality that is Feudalism. This could turn out amazing if done right. My personal hope is that Edelgard does something rash, screws up, takes time to self-reflect and grow, and ultimately come up with a more nuanced, deeper understanding of the whole world around her - to see beyond her own perspectives and then use her status to enact the change she wants and make Fodlan a better place for all. This is honestly one of my favorite kinds character arcs, so BE is looking pretty awesome so far if I’m on the right track.

[michaelandy101-blog]

The Top 25 Movies About Social Media to Add to Your Watch List

New Post has been published on http://tiptopreview.com/the-top-25-movies-about-social-media-to-add-to-your-watch-list/

The Top 25 Movies About Social Media to Add to Your Watch List

Social media has inspired comedies, dystopian thrillers, documentaries, and horror movies.

Here is a list of the best movies related to social media, in no particular order.

1. The Social Dilemma, 2020

Documentary

Netflix

A popular movie that can’t be recommended enough.

Even if you’re in the business there are parts of this movie that will still startle.

Featuring interviews with people who invented a variety of the algorithms.

This movie balances the shock factor of what’s going on behind the scenes of social media with insights into how social media can be improved.

2. Love, Guaranteed, 2020

Romantic Comedy

Netflix

Stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Damon Wayans Jr., Heather Graham, Kandyse McClure (Dualla on Battlestar Galactica).

Social media is defined as a social network, and what kind of network is more social than a dating app?

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

This romantic comedy follows an attorney and her client who claims that a dating site guarantees love is offering a false promise.

As evidence, he offers himself, who has engaged in a thousand dates and failed to find love.

3. The Hater, 2020

Thriller

Netflix

This is a great movie that you might never have heard of but should definitely check out.

It’s a fast-paced thriller and drama about using social media to settle personal scores.

The hero of the movie is both likable and worthy of loathing.

Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a Polish movie and you might have to read subtitles.

This movie tells a story of harnessing the power of social media like a weapon against those who may or may not deserve it.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

It’s highly relevant in today’s world of disinformation amplification yet it’s not really about social media in the same way that a movie like Taxi Driver is not about guns.

Both movies, Taxi Driver and The Hater, share a theme of the misfit trying to fit in and not really able to find a way in until circumstances create an opportunity.

4. Emily in Paris, 2020

Comedy-drama

Netflix

I cheated.

This isn’t a movie.

But so many who have an interest in social media marketing and movies will find this so interesting that I had to fit it in.

The central character – Emily (duh!), is a social media marketer from Chicago who is sent to a Paris office where she’s met with skepticism.

She changes her Instagram handle to @emilyinparis and starts posting photos, her account goes viral.

The series is from the mind of Darren Star, the writer behind such hits as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and Sex and the City.

If any of those are your favorites then it’s likely you’ll enjoy Emily in Paris as well.

There’s a bit of suspension of disbelief necessary regarding the social media, but Emily in Paris is fundamentally a fantasy not a documentary.

A little fantasy helps to get through these dark and pandemic times.

5. Die Influencers Die, 2020

Horror

Roku

This is a B-Movie slasher exploitation flick about a group of easy-to-hate influencers meeting dreadful ends.

What’s not to like right?

Millions of social media followers are dangled in front of a small group of social media influencers in exchange for spending the night at a reportedly haunted studio in Las Vegas.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

For those who enjoy heavy metal, are annoyed by social media influencers to no end, and harbor a fondness for killer clowns…this movie is for you.

6. Spree, 2020

Social media satire/Horror

Amazon, Vudu

A spree is defined as a sustained period of time during which an unrestrained activity is indulged.

That’s pretty much what this movie is about, a rideshare driver going to the ultimate extreme to achieve Internet fame.

Starring Joe Keery (“Steve” in Stranger Things), Spree is a dark and violent comedy that’s not necessarily for everyone.

7. #realityhigh, 2017

Dramedy

Netflix

This is a teen dramedy about a girl going through the social media popularity rabbit hole and becoming another person to please others.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

8. Hard Candy, 2005

Thriller/Horror/Revenge

Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

This is an under-the-radar movie that might make some uncomfortable.

It stars Ellen Page (Juno, Umbrella Academy), Patrick Wilson (Conjuring, Watchmen, Aquaman), and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Grey’s Anatomy, Sideways, Princess Diaries).

The movie won several awards including three at the 2005 Sitges Film Festival (Best Motion Picture, Best Screenplay, and an Audience Award for Best Motion Picture) and four awards at the 2006 Spanish Malaga Film Festival (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Cinematographer).

Ellen Page won Best Actress at the 2006 Austin Film Critics Association Awards.

This is an intelligent suspense and thriller.

But it’s not for the squeamish.

It can get grueling for some.

Ellen Page stars as a 17-year-old teenager who entraps an older man via a chat room.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Expecting illicit activities the teenager turns the table on him.

Again, I must warn that this movie is not for those with delicate sensibilities.

9. Searching, 2018

Thriller

Amazon, Vudu, YouTube

A movie starring John Cho (Harold & Kumar, Star Trek) in the missing person genre.

The daughter goes missing and police lack leads, so the father takes to the Internet to trace the daughter’s virtual steps to find her.

10. Ingrid Goes West, 2017

Comedy

Hulu

Stars Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Aubrey Plaza is a great actress who consistently surprises with the quirky nuance she brings to her roles and that’s also the case here.

This film is in the stalker genre but it’s also a satire of the influencer world.

11. The Social Ones, 2020

Comedy

Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

This is a mockumentary and parody of the influencer culture, taking swipes at Instagram stars and fashion bloggers.

12. A Simple Favor, 2018

Comedy/Thriller

Amazon, Hulu, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube

This is a Paul Feig movie about a video blogger who gets in over her head after she befriends a woman who causes her viewership to soar.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

It’s like a noir because it has a femme fatale.

The mystery and thriller quality of the story kept me watching.

13. Smosh: The Movie, 2015

Comedy

Amazon, iTunes, Vudu

Satire of YouTube stars starring two actual YouTube stars.

Directed by Alex Winter, star of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

14. Friend Request, 2016

Social media mystery/Horror

Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube

A woman accepts a friend request whose mysterious death sets off a series of deaths of those who are friends with the woman.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

15. Unfriended, 2015

Social media horror

Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, Vudu

Instead of a group of young people at a camp getting murdered, it’s people on a group chat that are meeting their demise one by one.

16. The Assistant, 2019

Comedy/Satire

Amazon

Short film 13 Minutes, available on Amazon Prime.

Comedy/satire of being an assistant to a social media influencer.

17. The Circle, 2017

Thriller

Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, iTunes

Starring Emma Watson, John Boyega, Bill Paxton, and Tom Hanks.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

This is a cautionary tale of living life on social media based on Dave Egger’s novel.

18. Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, 2016

Documentary

YouTube

A documentary that explores how the Internet affects society today and may affect it tomorrow.

It asks probing questions like “will our great, great-grandchildren grow up in a world where they have no need for human companionship?”

Werner Herzog is a consistently thought-provoking filmmaker.

19. The Great Hack, 2019

Documentary

Netflix

A chilling documentary about not just about Cambridge Analytica but about the surveillance Internet.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

20. The Social Network, 2010

Drama

Netflix

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, this movie is based on the story of how Mark Zuckerburg came to found Facebook.

Highly acclaimed and a must-watch movie.

21. American Meme, 2018

Documentary

Netflix

Featuring Paris Hilton and DJ Khaled, it’s a behind the scenes look at what it means to be a social media star and the conflicts between the reality and what’s presented.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

22. Disconnect, 2012

Drama/Thriller

Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

Starring Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Alexander Skarsgård, Frank Grillo.

Three stories interweaved around human interaction via social media.

Lives are changed, conflicts arise, some characters face a reckoning.

All of the actors are top shelf, including a strong performance by Frank Grillo – a character actor who’s been in dozens of popular films including Mambo Kings, Minority Report, Zero Dark Thirty, and several of the recent Marvel superhero movies.

23. Catfish, 2010

Documentary

Netflix

Documentary and indie film of two brothers who strike up a relationship with a woman over Facebook, with both sides misrepresenting who they are and their motives.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

The movie is the origin of the term Catfishing, which is the practice of pretending to be someone you are not – like pretending to be an associate of a famous person over the Internet in order to woo someone.

24. Chef, 2014

Comedy-drama

Amazon (free), iTunes, Pluto (free), Vudu, YouTube

Starring Jon Favreau, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Sofía Vergara, Robert Downey Jr.

This is a feel-good dramedy.

A chef gets a bad review over Twitter and he responds in kind.

The Twitter argument goes viral and results in unanticipated events in his personal and business life.

It’s partially about the transformative effect that social media can have on a life.

25. You, 2018

Dramedy/Thriller

Netflix TV Series

This is not a movie.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Again, I cheated.

Yet it deserves to be included in a list of things to watch and chill.

The show is absolutely binge-bait, it grabs you from the beginning and you hang on tight as the story takes unexpected twists and turns.

Without spoiling anything, the series is about a smart likable guy who meets a cute college student who is between relationships.

What seems like a romantic comedy turns into something else entirely.

An enjoyable series, well worth a try.

More Resources:

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Image Credits

Featured image by the author

if( !ss_u )

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1321385257908563');

fbq('track', 'PageView');

fbq('trackSingle', '1321385257908563', 'ViewContent', content_name: 'social-media-movies', content_category: 'social-media-marketing ' );

// end of scroll user Source link

[eagles-translated]

I’ve been getting a few asks about the storylines in season 2 and I haven’t had the time to respond to them all yet, so I’m making this post and answering all of them at the same time. Thanks to @elliephunk80​ for giving me this idea! 💛🌞

Contains spoilers up till episode 7 of season 2.

I’ll be dividing this couples-wise, since most of my questions seem to be based around the relationships in the new season! They are:

Felicia & Jack Elias & Klara Ludde & Amie Elias & Amie (saving the best for last ofc)

Felicia & Jack

Starting off with Felicia and Jack, which I’m honestly not too crazy about. I definitely like the addition of Jack as a character, but I’m not entirely sure this relationship is a good fit.

In my honest opinion I feel like these two are sort of an odd couple and it hasn’t been addressed by anybody except Elias, who brought up the topic of Jack being Felicia’s old babysitter and how it reminded him of a “sleazy porno”. I wouldn’t go that far, but from what we know there’s a pretty big age gap considering Felicia still isn’t 18 yet and Jack seems to be in his mid-20s. 

And I also just don’t see them having that much in common besides them having known each other in the past and both being good-looking people. It just seems sort of strange, and I don’t get what they see in each other for them to be a real couple. It started out as just a hook-up when Felicia was both drunk and high, and it seems to still be more focused on appearances rather than them actually being in love.

I’m also sort of fearful for Felicia. We know she’s in a really vulnerable state right now - still not being over Ludde, having lost her best friend, her parents divorcing, and being back on drugs.

I still don’t know if Jack really is cheating on Felicia with Olivia (the girl that texted him) but I would say he is. Jack is incredibly confident and charming, which makes him able to easily lie and manipulate people. We know he’s not an entirely good person since he’s already lied to Elias about now knowing that Mats would bring him back to Eagles. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did hook up with Olivia and ended up being a really good liar.

The fact is that not only did he deny it but he then shamed Felicia for blaming him and causing a scene, ultimately shifting the focus in the argument to her and making Felicia feel bad that she even confronted him in the first place. Jack says that maybe they shouldn’t even be together, which causes Felicia to backtrack and apologize. It’s actually pretty impressive how Jack was able to spin that around to blame Felicia and make her apologize. But it’s not a healthy relationship - there’s this toxicity, the age gap, and I just have a bad feeling all around about how it will end. I really don’t want Felicia to spiral even further down.

As for the fight in the season 2 trailer, that could very well be Jack and Elias! Elias is incredibly protective of his sister and if Jack did indeed cheat on her and it came out that would be a pretty plausible reason for them fighting.

This is a very blurry and low quality picture, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was them. In fact, I can’t see who else it would be. At the time of the trailer releasing I was unsure of who it could be since we hadn’t yet seen Jack in any scenes and how he would fit into the story, but now I’m like 90% sure it’s him.

Elias & Klara

Moving onto Elias and Klara, the unexpected couple of the season. They actually have pretty good chemistry in my opinion, even if they’re not really my preferred pairing.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but we have to consider how much time has passed since that incident. It’s been three months since Klara posted that video and it’s been, what, almost five since she filmed it? I know Felicia is still incredibly hurt but the fact is that three months is actually a pretty long time when you actually think about it. You can’t stay mad at someone forever for something they did, and Elias said himself that he doesn’t blame Klara for what she did. She wasn’t the one who cheated on her boyfriend/betrayed her best friend, and it’s pretty clear that Klara holds some regret to the way she posted the video.

Might be getting sidetracked here, but I’m actually not mad at Ludde and Amie anymore either. They’ve apologized and apologized for three months straight (maybe Ludde more than Amie, but still) and there’s just not that much you can do when the person you hurt doesn’t even want to listen or talk to you. Eventually, you just kind of move on. I honestly feel like Felicia was really annoying when she threw food at Amie and told her to be quiet. Like, yes, we get that they both hurt her but the way Felicia acted and the fact that she couldn’t just be the bigger person bothered me and made me sympathize with her less.

Back to the question - I feel like Elias and Klara make a lot of sense and Klara seems to be becoming a better person when she’s with him. She’s not a complete monster. She’s just a teenage girl with a complicated living situation and probably some jealousy issues. Don’t get me wrong, I hated her back in season 1 for being so nasty, but she’s honestly improving as a person.

I agree. I kind of miss Sara but I like that she doesn’t really hang out with Klara as much anymore. I actually wish that Klara would’ve become more ostracized from her school friends to emphasize how alone she is, but she seems to still be pretty popular so that was kind of disappointing. I thought the fall-out of her posting the video would be worse, but I guess not.

Anyway, I like that they’re taking a disliked character and making her into a better person. Feels like it’s been done a few times before, but I still appreciate them doing it. I hated s1 Klara for being so one-dimensional, but s2 Klara is well on her way to being a pretty good and nuanced character.

First off, I appreciate you too! 💛 But I think I actually disagree a little on the whole Klara thing - yeah, she didn’t really “pay” for what she did, but she’s still aware that what she did was wrong and could’ve been done a whole lot better than posting a video for everybody to see.

If Elias likes her and they’re happy together, I don’t see why they wouldn’t work! I don’t want them to be endgame, but so far I’ve liked seeing them together because they have really good chemistry and they seem to understand each other. 

Ludde & Amie

Ludde and Amie have kind of grown closer this season, not only because they worked on the demo together but also because they both hurt Felicia. I think they’re both feeling really lonely but they’ve bonded as friends. Notice that I said friends and not as a couple, which I’ll explain down below.

So as we know, Amie kissed Ludde in episode 6 when he was in the hospital after having been injured during the hockey game against Karlskrona. She immediately seemed to regret having done that and ran out without an explanation, leaving Ludde alone and confused.

I honestly don’t think Amie has any romantic feelings towards Ludde. I think she might mistake her feelings for a crush or something, when in reality she’s just lonely and appreciates Ludde always being there for her and giving her compliments on her musical ability. Ludde was complimenting Amie at the hospital, saying she was amazing, and I think Amie was just really touched by that and maybe wanted to thank him somehow, and ended up kissing him. And then she freaked out and left because oh my god did she really just kiss Ludde. It was an uncomfortable and awkward situation and that’s probably why she ran out.

However, I really believe that if she had just stayed to explain and apologize, Ludde would understand and they could’ve just laughed it off. But this is a drama show so of course that wouldn’t happen! 

Do I think the writers are making them into a couple? No, definitely not. They know that season 1 was sort of predictable and cliché, so they’re making season 2 as different as possible by including these unexpected pairings such as Klara & Elias and Amie & Ludde. But Amie and Ludde won’t ever be a couple, because Ludde is still very much hung up on Felicia. I don’t see them as a couple either - yes, they have music in common, but they work way better as friends than in a relationship.

I think the kiss was written to 1) be unexpected and throw us off, 2) ensure the viewers that Ludde is still in love with Felicia despite spending so much time with Amie, and 3) to show that Amie is feeling really lonely after having lost her best friend. 

I feel like Amie is getting just as much screentime as she did in season 1, though! She’s got a storyline with Ludde and she’s definitely still a main character. Personally I’m really enjoying the way they’ve divided the time this season.

In the first season, Felicia got way too much screentime and I know they did that to show how many things she went through, but because of the short 20-minute episodes that didn’t leave enough time for everybody else. This time around, it seems more fair and like we’re getting more variety in the storylines. With this change, Elias has also gotten more screentime which I love (because he’s my favorite character, duh) and I feel like if Amie got more screentime than she’s already getting, it would sort of disrupt the whole “balance”.

It’s always difficult to make sure that the characters are all getting enough time to develop their storylines so I can understand your frustration. It’s especially difficult with so few episodes.

Unrelated topic, but an example of this would be Mats and Petra. They’ve both had a few scenes in season 2 but at this point, when we’re seven episodes in and they haven’t been in a single scene together, it sort of feels like the writers forgot about their past relationship. It seemed like the writers were going somewhere with them in S01E07 - Road trip, but maybe that was just to parallel Elias and Amie’s relationship? Bringing us to the next and final subject -

Elias & Amie

Man, these two are SO incredibly popular despite having only shared a few scenes in season 1. And don’t be scared if you think the writers forgot about them, because if you saw the Q&A with Stefan H. Lindén who is both the creator and one of the producers of the show he had some really interesting things to say about them.

He emphasized that the writers know how much the fans want to see them together and that they did have plans for Amie and Elias in the future, just that it might take some time because of how the character dynamics are right now after the fall-out of the Halloween incident (and the fact that Elias is currently in a relationship with Klara).

This is totally a valid opinion too! They’re two vastly different characters and while that’s probably the reason they’re such a popular pairing, it could also be a little off-putting to some people since they don’t really seem to have anything in common. In fact, Amie has a lot more in common with Ludde, but I’d actually argue that her chemistry is better with Elias.

I think we should wait until we get more scenes of them interacting though, however long that may be. 

All in all, I just wanted to express how excited I was to see the scene in the hospital and how excited Elias was to see Amie (and even complimenting her hair aaaa). He expressed that Amie and Ludde did mess up, but he doesn’t seem upset or mad at Amie at all which was a relief. He just got so adorable around her and I’m really impatient to see them together haha but I have total faith in the writers!

To finish this off, there’s still 3 episodes left so anything could happen. It’s really exciting to see what will happen with Amie in Stockholm and with Ludde having turned himself in to the police, and I absolutely can’t wait for the next episode!

[nat-geography]

Why More Young People Should Watch Anime

A Blog for Weebs ヽ(ﾟｰﾟ*ヽ)ヽ(*ﾟｰﾟ*)ﾉ (ﾉ*ﾟｰﾟ)ﾉ

Anime is Cool too!

This blog is for anime fanatics, weebs, or simlpy for people how are interested in the world of anime.

Why do people give anime a chance? Is it simply just for nerds and geeks, or is it because you just avoid it altogether because it isn't mainstream? Anime has always been viewed as uncool but in reality, it is cool. Just like regular television shows, anime has a variety of genres; however, anime always relates to being a good friend and building relationships. Through providing quality content anime relates to life, supports gender equality, exposes different cultures and sheds light on social issues while being fun and creative.

How it Relates to Life

When you're at that point where nothing will stand in the way of what you want.  

What do you do?

Anime helps to understand real-life situations as a student in school. For instance, bullying is a constant issue for students for being different or an outcast. 

In the show, My Hero Academia; the main character Izuku Midoriya, was born without superpowers in a world where every human has one. He was always bullied for having a dream of becoming a superhero, especially by his friend Katsuki Bakugo. Midoriya overcomes the bullying by training hard gaining a superpower and getting accepted to the best school for superheroes. Midoriya is an example of persverance that can take you to never give up on being yourself. 

Displaying Gender Equality

There is a wide variety of gender equality, where both men and women are powerful. Gender inequality affects everyone, from stereotypes, discrimination, or rules of how both genders should act. In this generation it affects our behaviour, study choices, ambitions and attitudes about relationships.

This is especially true for the discrimination against women. In Naruto, Sakura is viewed as weak, useless, and always needs protection from her team members whenever on a mission to the point where she thought she was useless. During the chunin exam, Sakura cut off her hair as a symbol of her new vow to be stronger. In the end, Sakura's attitude and behaviours to be equal with her team made her an important part of the war by mastering medical ninjutsu. This shows that women asr tired of being opperessed and need new outlets of adventure and creativity. 

Another example is Mereoleona's from Black Clover, an incredibly powerful woman who uplifts others as a mentor. When Noelle was struggling to understand her power, and was being verbally and emotionally abused by her older siblings. Mereoleona was there to comfort her by telling stories of how incredible Noelle's deceased mother was; also she has the strength to surpass her mother. 

Cultural Representation

Anime showcase different culture, not only Japanese but American as well. As an example, Cowboy Bebop’s "mushroom Mamba" episode is a reference to Coffy, a 1973 African American movie. The title "Bebop" refers to a musical style developed by African Americans closely related to jazz. The scattered sound of bebop with the smooth jazz tunes take the show through its seemingly meaningless moments and other moments when the atmosphere is heavy and nuanced.

A show that exposes Japanese culture is Tamako Market, which is about a daughter working at her family business making mochi; a popular Japanese rice cake dish. It displays real life of a family and their friends.  

Lets Get Serious for a Moment

Social issues such as mental health are important, especially since it's common for young adults. For example, young adults are more likely to have anxiety, social phobias, and depression.

Angel Blast is an anime about dealing with death, in a high school afterlife, people try to understand why they died and why to find inner peace to move on. After the main character Yuzuru Otonashi finds out he's dead, he convinces himself that he must help everyone pass on into a better place. He does this by talking to his friends, asking them how they died and what is keeping them in limbo. By talking to his friends Yuzuru was able to help them get over their anxiety and fear of why they are in limbo. 

In the anime, School-live the character Yuki suffers from PTSD but no one knows because her personality is very energetic, optimistic and positive, she always tries to do her best for people. The show exposes the struggles and mental stress not only for Yuki but her classmates as well. It has a worthwhile element that impactful, showing what mistreated mental health can do to a person. 

Conclusion

In the end, anime is for anyone, but more young adults should take interest in it because of the way it relates to life. anime always relates to being a good friend and building relationships, a take away from watching anime is being able to see situations from a different perceptive that could help a person. 

References 

DecafPixelKat. (2018, April 3). 'Cowboy Bebop': The Movie and TV References You Missed 20 Years Ago. Fandom. https://www.fandom.com/articles/cowboy-bebop-the-movie-and-tv-references-you-missed-20-years-ago.

Ellis, T. J. (2020, May 20). 5 Powerful Life Lessons From My Hero Academia. Anime Motivation. https://animemotivation.com/life-lessons-from-my-hero-academia/.

Ellis, T. J. (2020, May 21). 12 Of The BEST Anime That Accurately Describe Japanese Culture. Anime Motivation. https://animemotivation.com/anime-about-japanese-culture/.

Ellis, T. J. (2020, May 21). 9 Meaningful Anime Shows That Reflect Real Life Problems. Anime Motivation. https://animemotivation.com/anime-that-reflect-real-life-problems/.

FANDOM. Yuki Takeya. Gakkou Gurashi! Wiki. https://gakkou-gurashi.fandom.com/wiki/Yuki_Takeya.

Penn Medicine. (2018, April). 6 Facts Parents Should Know about Mental Illness in Teens – Penn Medicine. – Penn Medicine. https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2017/may/teens-mental-health.

Portrayal of Black Anime Characters Throughout History. (2016, September). https://pobacth.tumblr.com/.

Rose, I. (2020, September 14). From Tsunade to Mereoleona: Looking for Shonen Jump's Lady Mentors. Anime Feminist. https://www.animefeminist.com/from-tsunade-to-mereoleona-looking-for-shonen-jumps-lady-mentors/.

VIC. (2018, June). Gender inequality affects everyone. Victorian Government. https://www.vic.gov.au/gender-inequality-affects-everyone.