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lesbianakaashi · 3 years

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The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

#khr #khr meta #anime analysis #shounen jump #katekyo hitman reborn #mirytalks #long post #manga

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gale-gentlepenguin · 4 years

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ML Analysis: Love Rival: Why Kagami works but is still hated and why Luka doesn’t but is loved

Now this will be my most controversial Hot take, a lot of you already saw the title and are already organizing your complaints. I don't care, you are free to do so.

In a previous post, I discussed what makes a good love rival and if you want a good explanation of that, click the in bold link.

This is a VERY LONG POST, so I am posting a read more. I would love to hear your thoughts on this analysis. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Did you want to include something? Let me know.

I think in order to organize this post I will be splitting it up as follows.

Why Kagami Works as a Love Rival

Why She is Hated for it

Why Luka Doesn't Work as a Love Rival

Why He is Loved despite it

Final thoughts

So lets get to it

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Why Kagami Works as a Love Rival

Kagami Tsurugi was introduced in the episode Riposte, where she is established as a straightforward, no nonsense fencer that wants to be the best.

Her introduction is solid, she establishes her base and what the audience is supposed to know about her from the getgo. We also get the impression that Kagami when introduced would be a rival to Adrien, as they are competing in Fencing, which makes for a nice twist when they end up getting along and Kagami begins the task of being a Love rival. She starts off as a foil for Adrien, but then the reveal is she is actually a character foil for Marinette.

What also helps Kagami is that the show is mainly from Marinette’s perspective, so we get to see Kagami as Marinette does, as someone that is competing for Adrien’s affections, cementing the Rival aspect of the Love rival. Kagami clashes with Marinette causing Marinette to in turn be more upfront with her feelings and push harder to try and win over Adrien. This is something a good rival does, pushing Marinette forward and making her have to try. This rival aspect of Kagami’s character give Marinette urgency, which is something that is needed in order to drive Marinette towards a conclusion, whether it is to pursue Adrien or move on.

Now as a love interest, Kagami establishes her relationship with Adrien in a different way then Marinette. Kagami’s straightforward nature allowed her to tell Adrien how she felt much earlier on, she pushes and asserts herself. This contrasts Marionette’s approach to wooing Adrien, and also has an interesting parallel to how Chat Noir handles his feelings towards Ladybug. Acting as a mirror towards that relationship. While Kagami is not flirtatious like chat noir, she is upfront about her feelings. She puts it out there and is understanding when Adrien isn't ready to respond, much like how chat noir is with ladybug. But the difference being that ladybug and Chat noir’s dynamic has a bit more complexity to it. Regardless, Kagami checks the boxes needed to be a true love rival.

Now the last and most crucial part about Kagami is the character at the core. Cause in the end, we know her and Adrien’s relationship wont be endgame, and interestingly she will be better off afterwards. Ikari Gozen does an excellent job filling in more information about Kagami’s character. In this we get to see that Kagami’s life doesn't revolve around being Adrien’s love interest, she is someone that has her own struggles and wants to find freedom in her own way, be friends with people, but she is awkward. Her development from this and Loveater shows how much she has grown on her own, how she has come to see Marinette as a friend, how she understands that there is more to life than just fencing. She wants to prove she is good enough, and wants to show she is worthy of friendship and love. Those are themes and traits that can be cultivated and grown. Kagami’s greatest appeal is that she can grow beyond her role as a Love rival, and that is why she succeeds.

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Why She is Hated for it

Now despite all of these great qualities Kagami has demonstrated as well as how perfect her character is for such a role, the fandom is mixed about her, some even down right hating her. Interestingly enough, the reasons they dislike Kagami is not because of her character. Especially when you consider the rise in popularity of Marigami. Its because of 3 other factors outside of Kagami’s control. Over-saturation, Writing, and Fandom trends.

Over-saturation seems like an odd choice but it perfectly describes the situation. In season 1, we are introduced to two other female characters that were reoccurring characters AND were romantically interested in Adrien. Chloé bourgeois and Lila Rossi. Now both of them can be considered antagonists, and that is kind of the problem. Two reoccurring female characters already have a thing for Adrien, and both of them are jerks (that being the lightest term I can use). Now we know Adrien would never end up with a bad girl, but that impression starts to stick and make it seem like a pattern. That Adrien only attracts bad people (excluding Marinette). By season 2, when Kagami was introduced, it just seemed to the fans like, “Oh great, ANOTHER one”. Despite Kagami being a good character, and someone that actually cares about Adrien outside of the shallow aspects that Lila and Chloé were invested in, fans were ready to write her off and, with how the show was written, you couldn't really blame them at the time.

The second is a bit more obvious, the shows writing. The largest offender being Frozer and Oni-chan. While Oni-chan was salted on by fans a bit excessively, I have no real defense for Frozer, Frozer was an awful episode and everyone involved should feel bad. Kagami suffers like many ML characters do from poor writing, now this doesn't destroy her character like many would like you to believe, but she gets portrayed in a more negative light when the intentions are not meant for it. Its a bit harder to explain, but just know poor writing and assume Zag interference was what caused issues.

The Last one is something that is a bit more controversial, Fandom trends. Now in season 2, fans really, REALLY, did not like Kagami. The first two reasons having a large impact on that, but what really made it hard for Kagami, was the fandom itself. Since she was introduced first, certain lovesquare shippers LOATHED her appearance, HOW DARE she jump in and disrupt the love square! There are more words that were used, most of which are very degrading towards women and I would not want to repeat. Kagami took the brunt of the fandom backlash, the one that ‘Ruined the Lovesquare’. And when season 3, or as I call it, the season of Salt, fans really hit her hard with hatred, the Adrigami fandom took a lot of salt from toxic stans, some of which didn't like adrigami because they hated Adrien and didn't want him to be happy. It is gross to think about and its tragic that she is hit hard by hatred simply for things outside of her control.

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Why Luka Doesn't Work as a Love Rival

Luka is the alternate love interest of Marinette and was introduced in Captain Hardrock. He is Juleka’s older brother and is a guitarist.

His introduction is not terrible, but it is not as strong compared to other characters, but I do believe it sets the mood for what he is as a character. His character is the friend’s nice older brother musician, thats kind of it. It sounds like I am being mean but that sums up his character. He isn't really a foil to Adrien or Marinette in anyway, there is no shocking twists or clever parallels to be made, its just Luka. Simply put, Luka doesn't work as a Love rival.

Luka isn't a rival character. He isn't competing with Adrien, he doesn't clash with Adrien in anyway that would help him develop. Adrien and Luka get along fine, there is not a single bit of tension or conflict between them. This isn't a good thing when they are suppose to be competing for the same girl. I already hear what you are thinking, ‘But Adrien likes Ladybug.’ you're right, why isn't Luka interested in Ladybug then? Why is there no clash with chat noir? The point of a Love rival is to push another character towards something, to be a measuring stick. Luka doesn't do that for Adrien, and that is why the rival aspect fails for Luka.

The next course would be the love interest part. Surely Luka is someone that works well as an alternate love interest for Marinette? You are somewhat right, he does work better as a love interest for Marinette rather than a rival for Adrien. But that doesn't make him a good love interest for her. In my take on Love rivals, there needs to be three criteria met to be an effective love rival/love interest, an unequal development of both character, a differing connection that the two share, and a character underneath that can exist outside of the relationship. Luka fails to meet 2 of these criteria. The unequal development of both of them, Marinette has shown some development from her interactions with Luka but the reverse is not provable, we have yet to see Luka really change because of his relationship with Marinette, we don't know how much Marinette has helped/hindered Luka with his struggles, the best argument I could think of was that Marinette helped him be more bold in silencer, but really that sort of falls flat because he has shown bold actions outside of that. Captain hard rock said that he wasn't really good at expressing himself with words, but he shows pretty capable of doing so with people outside of Marinette, like his sister, or expressing anger to Bob Roth, so I don't really see how that works. The other criteria he fails to meet is having a character should the relationship end, Luka’s relevance is tied to him being the other guy for Marinette to choose, we as a viewer have no concrete reason as of yet to see him grow or change after the split. It doesn't help that Luka has even encouraged Marinette to go after Adrien on multiple occasions. People say thats because he is truly selfless and ‘Because he cares’ but really it just shows how little interest he has in trying to win her over, it almost comes off as insulting to Marinette. The only thing that Luka managed to pass was by having a different dynamic with Marinette than Adrien had with her. But that dynamic is shoulder to cry on. I guess that explains why salt fics really try to make Luka into Adrien.

Luka’s character in itself isn't awful, he isn't a bad person or anything of the sort. He is inoffensive and thats the problem. A love rival is suppose to be a point of tension, one that pushes, one that causes development, a force that at its core is meant to help the characters grow, and Luka just isn't the character to do that. He isn't a love rival, or a love interest. Luka is a wall, a wall put in between the two main leads in order to cause a divide without causing tension.

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Why He is Loved despite it

Luka isn't a love rival, and yet despite it he is one of the more popular characters in the fandom. It was something so mind boggling to me, what did this character have that made him so well liked in the fandom? Why wasn't he as hated as Kagami was during her introduction? I found myself coming up with three reasons why this was the case. Luka was so loved because of Necessity, writing and Salt.

Much Like Kagami suffered from Over-saturation, Luka had the Opposite problem. Marinette’s other love interests all ended up losing interest by the end of the episodes they were in. Nino, Nathaniel, Theo (though it was for ladybug). All of them just got paired off with someone else shortly after. Marinette didn't have another person outside of Adrien that was potentially going for her attention. This necessity allowed for Luka to slip in and fill the gap. The fandom saw him show up and were excited! With Kagami *ruining* the lovesquare, they needed someone for Marinette to help mend her should kagami ‘Win’, and Luka won by default. So Luka was the one the screeching fandom saw as there answer.

The next key that helped Luka was the writing of the show. The problem with the writing in the show is that often the writing will clash and hurt the strong characters of the show. Luka, as someone that does not have any strong defining features is flexible and easy to write for the writers. It makes it easy for him to be written in a way that wont infuriate people because of bad writing. He is able to coast by without having his character be in jeopardy. In a way, he has nothing to lose.

The last factor is of course salt. Now in fandoms, salt is used as a means of criticism or used to describe problems with characters. Luka is someone that people don't really have a problem with, which during the season of salt, made him perfect for all those fics where they needed someone to be on Marinette’s side because Adrien was ‘the devil’ or Lila was an extra mean jerk. Luka didn't have any problems that were agitated by salt, so he was the perfect replacement for Adrien when the writer wanted to hate on the blonde. Luka was the substitute, he was the easy fix that took little effort to include. He was a nice older brother that already liked Marinette, perfect fix for any situation. Its rare to see Luka written in a negative light without his character being warped so far that he is a completely different character.

Luka is loved not because of the things he is, but simply because of the things he is not. He is used more as a means to an end rather than as a character. In the writing, he is more of a wall, while in the fandom he is more of a stand-in. At the end of the day, I don't know what is more tragic.

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Final Thoughts

Kagami and Luka are characters that were introduced in order to spice things up and add development for the main characters. I find that in some ways they do achieve that goal, but in other ways they fail. One of them embodies the spirit of a Love rival while the other embodies the love obstacle. Regardless of this analysis, your thoughts on Kagami and Luka are your own and you can love and appreciate them as you see fit.

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If you want to support my insanity. Buy me sushi please

#ml #ml analysis #miraculous ladybug #love rivals #love rival #Gale's analysis #Here is a f***ing thesis on them #Kagami Tsurugi #Luka couffaine #luka critique #luka salt #Im tagging it because I will get that one angry anon that complains I don't tag it #adrigami #lukanette #lovesquare #ml fandom salt #ml salt #salt talks #lovekagami

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turtlegirlave · 3 years

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So this has a ton of opinions which I usually stray away from but i really let all my opinions out here. Also there is definitely fact mistakes, probably name mistakes and some incorrect singing terms in here, I wrote this at 2 A.M. with a limited knowledge of theater I’m just trying to get a point across.

Why s2 of hsm the series should have been newsies instead of beauty and the beast:

They say straight up in the show “we need a real Alan Menkhen musical” and they pick beauty and the beast instead of newsies, a literal Broadway stage production???

At first I assumed it was because the cast was primarily male, but that isn’t even a reasonable argument. 1)as shown by s1 when a boy played sharpay, gender doesn’t matter when being considered for a role. 2), a cast with multiple male leads would give the gay men in the show a chance to shine, instead of shoving them to background roles like Chip. Not to mention Carlos is a dancer, and newsies is a musical driven by choreography. 3), since nini moved there are only like 2 lead females anyway, which works for the 2 female roles in newsies.

Casting Wise, the play works SO MUCH better!

Ricky: jack kelley is a much better role for him than the beast for many reasons. First, their personalities are very similar with the mischievous main teen vibe, so the role would be like Troy where Ricky can slip into it easier. Second, it fits him better vocally. It is very clear from listening to Joshua basset sing that he has a relatively high vocal range, and singing low notes or in a deep voice doesn’t come as naturally to him. Jeremy Jordan has a similar vocal range, where he stays in higher octaves and more rarely uses a deep, monotone voice (at least never to the beast’s extent). Ricky would sound perfect singing in Jack’s vocal range. The beast, however, sings almost exclusively in an extremely deep, monotone voice that Joshua cannot easily perform.

Ashlyn: not only does she look quite similar to Katherine, but they have similar personalities as well. Also, katherine’s high and bubbly singing voice would sound lovely with Ash’s, which is also high and bubbly but often softer. This would allow her to push herself to sing louder and more confidently. And she still gets to play a smart bookworm lead female role.

Kourtney: she was born to play miss medda larken. Mrs. Potts’ debut song “beauty and the beast” is a soft romance ballad, which does not match kourt’s stadium reach, strong, powerful voice. “That’s rich” not only shows off her vocals better, but matches her personality and voice much better with the grit and power behind it. Also, Mrs Potts as a character is the soft, motherly type. Miss medda is a rambunctious, empowered, “I got men if I want em but I don’t need em” kinda woman. Which role better fits the girl power, loud, activist, personal cheer squad type person that Kourtney is?

Carlos and Sebastian: not only would this stop shoving the gays and only interesting men other than Ricky to background roles (sorry big red), but it would show off their talents. Seb would make a wonderful crutchy, with his innocent nature and likeness to the character. It would also give him a chance to flex his vocals and sing a duet with Ricky in Santa Fe, further developing the friendships in the show. Carlos could play really any of the main boys, I mostly think he would kill in this due to his dance and choreography skills, which newsies really emphasizes.

Big red: PLEASE this boy would be perfect as Ben Cook’s role (can’t remember the newsie’s name). They’re both the kinda dumb but endearing friend type, and he leads “king of New York”, a song with a killer tap dancing break, which is the whole reason big red wanted to try out! His chemistry with Ricky as crutchy would make that a fine role for him too, but since Sebastian has stronger vocals I think it’s better for him to take a more prominent role while big red relies on his dancing skills over singing.

Gina: though there’s no more lead girl roles, I think she would kill it as mr. Pulitzer. They could add some spice to the character through her insane dance skills, and she would play a great “cunning yet intelligent buisinesswoman” type. This dude also gets 2 or 3 songs, and honestly I don’t remember who she plays in Beauty and the beast so idk.

EJ: I admit Gaston is a perfect role for him and I can’t fit him into newsies well. He would play a good spot conlin, though it is a significantly smaller role. No one really cares about ej though so small loss.

Plot valuability:

doing newsies makes literally way more sense. Firstly, they are kinda planning entering this show last-minute compared to the competition, so to pick a show already written and choreographed for stage production would really save time. (Even though it would still need work to be condensed for a high school production). Second, miss Jen is so determined to stand out from the crowd and win the contest so she picks... beauty and the beast? One of the most popular Disney movies (and honestly with one of Alan’s weaker soundtracks compared to tangled, Aladdin, and the little mermaid imo). Having them do newsies, especially when switching up gender roles like casting Gina as Pulitzer, would actually make them stand apart from the dozens of schools performing Disney movies. It would also give a significantly more impressive vocal and dance performance, since the songs were written for Broadway singers rather than actors. The set is also more cheap and condensed, while still looking professional, which would help with their “we’re too poor and late to afford a straight-up aquarium so let’s do the most with what we’ve got.” Putting the characters in these roles would also not alter their development or main story plots much, besides strengthening certain friendships and pushing aside less popular characters (ej). It would also give more rep for the gays as well as switching up gender roles. Imagine, the gay guys get actual things to do in the show and aren’t defined by the sole plot of “my boyfriend rich” relationship drama! (I love these two but I am a tired ace). Also jerjor performs in both this and tangled the series, so it’s a double whammy for Alan menkhen representation.

Marketability: I know the musical has to be widely known and appealing to viewers. People watched s1 because they love hsm. People also love beauty and the beast, so viewership may raise with fans of the movie. Newsies doesn’t die here, though. It is a very widely popular play among theatre people, and existed first as a movie musical so it isn’t exclusive to theater kids. Also, fans of Newsies are generally between their tweens and early twenties, the exact age demographic for the show. Beauty and the beast is a classic and more widely known, but also doesn’t draw in large numbers of the exact age group you want. Also, the fact that newsies is a little less mainstream only helps the plot point of them choosing it to still have something well known while also standing out from the competition. Doing beauty and the beast is not only an awful choice for casting that limits the actors vocals or is completely out of their range, but it also makes them blend in with the crowd.

Final notes: beauty and the beast was IMO the worst choice for the play this season. Movies like Aladdin and tangled both have very energetic and loud soundtracks that allow these characters to belt their hearts out. Beauty and the beast has a very folksy, quiet, ballad type of track that limits the actors. The only actor that I think sings ballads better than big booming tracks is Nini, who isn’t even in the play this year. Ricky also sings great ballads, which is why ballads that are still slow but also emotional and powerful like “Santa fe” or “something to believe in” (which would sound AMAZING in his and Ashlyn’s voices) fit much better than the deep voice of the beast that he can not comfortably sing in. Also, the beast has very few songs whereas newsies would allow him to belt his heart out in nearly every song with that lovely voice he has. The age range of the newsies cast (that characters are supposed to be 17) fits better with these very teen actors than a movie about old fashioned French young adults. Really newsies was the best musical choice for this season, but I also believe beauty and the beast was the last one they should have chosen.

(After reading comments I rescind my statement that beauty and the beast was the worst choice, but it’s still second to newsies imo)

Feel free to debate me in the comments or point out my mistakes, I’m very open to other points of view

#newsies #hsmtmts #hsm the series #beauty and the beast #Disney #disney+#disney plus #jeremy jordan

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dreamsinger-rose · 4 years

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Reply to @somuchflippinglitter’s commentary of my TWT Branch’s Character Growth Post

(Did anyone notice how often we see Branch in monochrome in TWT, basically Gray Branch again?)

Hi! @somuchflippinglitter I’m actually happy to see such a long, thoughtful post. You make some good points, and there are other points that, if I may, I’d like to explain my reasoning more clearly. BTW this is a verrry long post that I thought would work better as a separate post rather than a reply to a reply.

The original post (scroll through the comments to see the commentary I’m replying to)

https://dreamsinger-rose.tumblr.com/post/616517422712848384/twt-spoilers-branchs-character-growth

Some of Branch’s actions can be seen as out of character, yes. For me, the main one is how much more mature he seems in some ways, such as not acting as sarcastic as in the first movie, but I have assume that he’s had at least a year of being social and developing meaningful relationships with the other trolls, who no longer regard him as the ‘crazy guy who lives in a bunker and still thinks the bergens are out to get us’, because he did turn out to be right. So he has less reason to be sarcastic, and more reason to care what other people think of him.

Yes, Branch was definitely the “love interest” here. But because he was, he was the one person with the influence to make Poppy listen when it really mattered. Also, I guess you could say it was “rubbed in your face”, but then, he literally told her he loved her in the first movie (which could have been friendship-love). I can see two reasons for Dreamworks to emphasize his love-interest status: to clearly tell the audience he’s IN love with Poppy, and to show he’s grown emotionally-open enough to make the choice to confess to her. This also implies time passing and character growth.

I looked up the symptoms of PTSD and he fit all of them, (in the first movie). But his PTSD wasn’t caused by the singing and dancing that attracted Chef to capture his grandma, it was caused by the trauma of her loss and his subsequent guilt and grief. The ‘not wanting to sing or dance’ was a symptom of his PTSD, not the cause itself.

That’s why after Poppy and the others comforted him and didn’t heap blame on him after he confessed how it was his fault his grandma got killed, Branch’s grief, and especially his guilt (and self-blame) lifted, and right afterward we started to see him healing. His symptoms began to subside. That “happy shout” came after his confession, not before. He was able to sing when Poppy needed it, and that broke the no-sing/no-dance block in his mind, and that helped him heal even more.

I personally have been considering Trolls Holiday canon, and TBGO as an alternate universe, since we know both have wormholes and thus it’s canon, ironically, for there to be other versions of Branch. For example Branch’s bed is vastly different in each. TBGO Branch does have the same basic personality as movie/special Branch but somewhat different experiences.

Either way, Branch’s basic personality to me is someone who is guarded and not very trusting and therefore prone to anxiety when things happen that are outside his control, like how he got all stuttery in Holiday “D-did you say wormhole?” The Trolls to Trolls clips in particular gave me a lot to think about, since he acts a lot less confident in some of them compared to his confidence in the first movie. Totally blew my mind that all Poppy had to do to make him cave in (high-pitched voice/submissive body language) was MENTION his bunker, never mind its location.

It’s true that sexiness is in the eye of the beholder, but actually I have some solid scientific/aesthetic reasons for thinking of Branch as sexy. First, Branch’s character has been designed to look masculine: large nose, mouth, hands, feet. Broad face. Bigger teeth, compared to Poppy. Thick hair, which implies virility, something females unconsciously look for in a mate. Also, rather than letting his hair grow random and kind of ragged like the other male trolls, Branch’s hair is always neatly trimmed, which implies good hygiene, which is also something people find attractive. Whether he’s an animated troll or not, he’s been designed to look very male and therefore appealing to those who like guys.

Second, I’ve read articles/studies on body language and dance choreography. The “hip sway/push toward us” in particular is characteristic of someone trying to attract a romantic partner. His open arms are seen as inviting/welcoming, which is appealing. Also, him pointing his toes toward someone, biting his lip, and what looks like direct eye contact are also body language that says “he’s into you”. The eye contact in particular will be seen as attractive because it implies confidence, which is universally considered one of THE most attractive traits for either/all sexes.

So my point is it’s not so much that he’s an animated troll, but that a live human who has similar features (big hands, etc) and uses the same body language and eye contact is going to be seen as attractive by a large number of viewers, who will respond on an unconscious level. The outward appearance – blue-green skin, long ears, is not really what we’re responding to as far as attractiveness goes. Thus, to me, an adult female; Branch is sexy.

So, by ‘acting out of character’, did you mean because he was (selfishly) having fun as he danced to the new-to-him Kpop and Reggaetron music? Or do you mean you thought since he left Poppy that meant that he was being selfish and protecting only himself?

You’re right that he cared less about music than other things, although since he was the one who liked Country music and he seemed to understand the Funk troll’s story on a deeper level than Poppy, it was my understanding that he DID care. The reason he seemed out of character is because despite Branch’s love for Poppy, we have to remember his basic, unshakable core characteristic: protection/defense.

In the first movie, he built a bunker to protect himself. He expanded that protection to Poppy and his friends and eventually Bridget, because he came to care about them all. We assume that he’s now friends with much more of the village. (I take his random comment “Ah, what a troll,” when talking about Legsly as support for this.) So now his entire village is under his protection.

He had to make the hard choice to go protect the village when he knew Barb would be heading there (Barb didn’t know Poppy had the string) since Poppy wasn’t doing it. And he couldn’t make her, he could only try to persuade her, which he did. So he was behaving true to himself. He IS loyal to Poppy, but when she essentially abandons her post to go to the Rock trolls’ home, he has to step up and do what he feels is the right thing, no matter how badly he wants to keep Poppy safe. That’s why I think he’ll be a good king, since he put the welfare of his people ahead of his need to stay with Poppy.

Branch didn’t go all untrusting with Hickory because Branch didn’t KNOW Hickory betrayed them. He wasn’t there when the disguise came off.

In your take on Branch and Poppy’s relationship, it’s true that them not having a “good connection” felt a little too convenient after all the relationship-building they’d had over the past year or so. To be fair, if you were writing the movie’s script and you needed some reason for Branch to get motivated to try to confess his feelings for Poppy, what do you think might have been a better scenario?

Me, I liked the high-five because it was symbolic of the progress of the relationship – no contact in the first movie, trying but unable to get a strong connection at the beginning of TWT and a strong connection at the end of TWT. But yeah, not being able to make contact made it sound like their relationship had backtracked instead of progressed, which is out of sync with all the previous progress we’ve seen.

I would have loved to have seen more “vulnerable Branch”. They probably had scenes like that, but had to cut them to keep the movie short enough. It could have been laziness, I suppose. But if there had been more scenes like that, the movie would have been a romance story rather than an adventure, and kids probably wouldn’t have liked it as much. I hope we get to see some cut scenes on the DVD. (Me, I would have liked the movie to be like a half-hour longer and all Broppy scenes, haha).

Thanks for taking the time to give me your beautiful long reply to my post, @somuchflippinglitter You were very respectful :) and I honestly think analyzing a kids’ character is really important since kids learn a lot about the world by what they see on TV. Not so much the fantasy, but the way people relate to one another. Like, Branch could have tried to take Poppy back to the village by force, but he let her make the choice that she thought was right, while he did the same. Each respected the other. And I respect you.

#Dreamworks' Trolls World Tour spoiler spoilers Branch character analysis explained

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justasmallbloginabigklainefandom · 4 years

Text

Final paper

Representation of queer women in the television show Glee

For Naya Rivera

Introduction

Representation of queer people has gotten better in the last few years, in both quantitative and qualitative ways. Yet, there is often still a discrepancy between the representation of queer women and the experiences actual queer women. It still happens that queer women are overly sexualised, lack depth or that they are marketed towards men as fanservice through the usage of the male gaze (Smith, 2018). The main reason for all of this is that queer women in mainstream media are often created by men.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary (n.d.), queer is defined as “of, relating to, or being a person whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual and/or whose gender identity is not cisgender”, but in this paper, we will only focus on portrayal of female sexuality of queer women. For this paper, I will look at the agency of queer female characters in the television show Glee. With agency I am referring to the subject being able to act in a certain narrative (McAdams & McLean, 2013). I will try to figure out how the audience reacts towards the portrayal of queer women in Glee.

There are two reasons why I chose the television show Glee. First, despite its many flaws, it is my favourite show. Second, Glee has always been a frontrunner when it comes with queer representation. Glee has a total of 23 canon queer characters (Glee Wiki, n.d.). Three of them are women in the main cast: Santana Lopez (lesbian), Brittany Pierce (bisexual) and Unique Adams (transgender). As stated above, we’re only looking at the sexuality aspect, so Unique will be left out of the analysis. Through a close reading of the series’ portrayal of its characters, I ask this question: “How does Glee allow an enjoyable queer viewing experience?”

Theoretical background

The representation of sexuality has become more prominent in television in the last few years (Kidd, 2014; GLAAD 2005/2020), but it is still portrayed in a heteronormative way to show that heterosexuality is the norm (Avila-Saavedra, 2009). Since women are also still underrepresented and often badly represented, it is interesting to look at queer women in general (DeCeuninck & Dhoest, 2016).

Queer women are often represented in function of male fantasies and they are often sexualized and can normally be described as conventionally attractive (DeCeuninck & Dhoest, 2016). This is due to the male gaze. Mulvey (1989) describes the male gaze as an act of depicting women and the world heterosexual view that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer. Mulvey writes that the women displayed have two roles: one as an erotic object within the story and one as an erotic object for the audience. There’s a third component that places women as an erotic object for the men behind the camera.

But Mulvey writes from a heterosexual perspective and that does not always capture the experiences of queer viewers (Gokcem, 2012). It is argued that the “gay gaze” (man to man or woman to woman) is more about understanding that there’s a homosexual act on screen and acknowledging that act (Snider, 2008; Gokcem, 2012). It’s less about the sex appeal or objectification of the characters. Evans & Gamman (1995) even claim that there’s no such thing as a “lesbian gaze” when it comes to good lesbian representation, but that it’s more about lesbian imagery that is created by lesbian filmmakers for lesbian consumption. To them, subcultural codes are the reason that even objectifying imagery of women is still different than the ones in the male gaze.

Subcultural styles can be seen as coded transposed into the specific context of youth (Murdock & McCron, 1976). Murdock & McCron speak about class differences, but this view of subculture can also be applied to the queer community. Huq (2006) says that the term subculture carries implications of the oppositional and unofficial. Both writings speak about youth, and not all queer people are young, but when it comes to media, youth can find solace in specific subcultural media.

Within media, agency is important. Agency can be defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices (Barker, 2012). In narrative theory, this means the degree in which a protagonist is able to affect change in their own lives or influence others in their environment (McAdams & McLean, 2013).

Glee’s background

When it comes to the quantity of representation, Glee has always been a frontrunner (Marwick, Gray, & Ananny, 2014). It has shown a wide variety of serious topics in the show. Glee has characters of different ethnicities, gender identities, sexualities and economic classes. Glee also has characters in a wheelchair, it has characters with down syndrome, and it has characters with mental health problems.

Unfortunately, the quality aspect of representation in Glee is less than ideal. There is racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and a strive to be well-abled and neurotypical. I am not talking about what happens within the show (as in, characters facing hatred from other characters), but by the way the show is written by its creators. Artie, the character in a wheelchair, constantly wishes that he could walk and he’s seen dancing in several dream sequences[1]. Queer characters could only kiss in “special episodes”, while their straight friends could make out anytime and everywhere[2]. A male character speaking out for himself is portrayed as heroic, strong and inspirational, while a female character speaking out for herself is portrayed as annoying, complaining and bossy[3]. Glee also portrayed heteronormativity by presenting its queer characters mostly as suffering while aspiring to fit in a heteronormative worldview, but also as happy and self-confident (Dhaenens, 2013).

An explanation for these underlying microaggressions can be ascribed to the fact that most people on the creative team of Glee were straight white men and when a woman did write a script, produce or direct, they were always working together with straight white men. Same goes for people of colour working in the Glee crew. They also had less episodes to work on (IMDb, n.d.). As a result, Glee often reflects a male heteronormative worldview.

Methodology

For this paper, I will take a closer look at Glee and its queer female characters. I will describe the three queer female characters and I will give some background. While describing the stories, I will look at how much the characters were allowed to exist with agency. Apart from that, I will also talk about certain fan reception towards storylines about the sexuality of these women and how they were allowed to express their sexualities.

I do have to point out that a lot of discussion is from archival material, since these storylines all happened in 2012 and 2013. I have spent time tracking down old blog posts and articles written by fans, but many have been lost due to domain changes or due to the deactivation/changes of blogs. I am aware that it is a huge methodological fault to purely rely on my memories, but Glee has ended years ago and people who once actively participated in discussions surrounding these characters have moved on. The posts that I have found were either difficult to find or they’re recent and written after the show. Not all posts are in-depth analyses. Sometimes they’re memes, but they still express the opinions of fans.

Analysis of Glee

I will split this section in 3 parts. Each part is about a certain character.

Santana Lopez

Santana Lopez got introduced in season 1 episode 1 “Pilot” as a background character. During the first season, she was portrayed as a girl who had sex with every guy in school and she actively sought out this sexual attention. In season 2, things started to change for Santana when it comes to her sexuality. In season 2 episode 4 “Duets”, Brittany and Santana are seen making out for the first time. At first, it wasn’t supposed to be a real storyline, but Naya Rivera, who played Santana, advocated for this relationship to become real and not a throw-away thing (NayaMitchell, 2011).

This changed Santana’s character from a heterosexual man-hunter to a deeply closeted lesbian. Her relationships with men became a way for her to hide her sexuality and Santana had to deal with a lot of internalised homophobia. This followed her all throughout season 2. This change was seen as abrupt by certain people and as a result, some people felt like they couldn’t get emotionally invested in the relationship. Others were happy to see female sexuality become a topic, since beforehand, Glee mostly focused on male sexuality (Marwick, Gray, & Ananny, 2014).

Season 3 showed Santana’s sexuality developing. In season 3 episode 4 “Pot O’ Gold”, Brittany and Santana decided to date, but Santana wanted to hide the relationship. Unfortunately for her, she got outed by Finn Hudson in season 3 episode 6 “Mash-Off”. The episode afterwards, “I Kissed A Girl”, dealt with the repercussions of the outing, but this episode was heavily scrutinised by fans and critics and even after the show ended, fans discussed how badly it was done (see Appendix for screenshots).

The episode tried to make Finn look like a hero by outing her and Santana even thanked him for it. Santana also sung the Katy Perry song I Kissed A Girl, which is a song that treats women kissing other women as a joke and a party activity for drunk straight women. Santana sung that song with a straight character named Rachel Berry, who appropriately sings the lyrics “I hope my boyfriend won’t mind it!”. Brittany barely spoke in this episode and Santana’s coming out to her parents got brushed off easily as something irrelevant that happened off-screen. A scene of Santana standing up for herself towards the other cheerleaders got cut and was only released after the end of the season (MrRPMurphyExclusive, 2012). Overall, Santana became a background character in her own coming out story, so that the narrative could focus on the straight boy who outed her (lesbianstana, 2018).

There is only one scene in the entire episode that focused on Santana, which is the heart wrenching scene where she comes out to her Abuelita. This scene is the only one where Santana gets to express her emotions to what has happened to her and this part is often regarded by fans as the only good part of the episode. There is a big reason why this scene stands out: it is written by a queer woman named Ali Adler, whereas the rest of the episode was written by a man named Michael Hodgson. Ali has written more media about queer women and she puts the narrative on them and their story. This scene focuses on Santana expressing and overcoming her struggles and not on Finn being the hero.

After this episode, Santana completely embraced her identity. For the remainder of the show, Santana was open about being a lesbian and she had relations with four other women and she ends up with Brittany. Santana’s confidence has helped a lot of young women feel comfortable with themselves, since it showed them that there is nothing wrong with liking other women. Her relationship with Brittany gave people hope (Marwick, Gray, & Ananny, 2014). This is especially true for women of colour, since not only did Glee show a confident lesbian, but also a confident lesbian of colour. Naya Rivera was aware of how Santana’s journey has impacted people and she said that she’s very proud of it (NayaMitchell, 2011).

Brittany S. Pierce

Brittany got introduced in season 1 episode 2 “Showmance” as a background character. She is also the dumb blonde with a lot of funny one-liners. Brittany is bisexual, but as a viewer, you never see or hear anything about her discovering her sexuality and coming out. She is the only of the 4 main queer character who does not have a storyline about sexuality and the struggles of coming out. Just like Santana, Brittany’s portrayed was very sexual in season 1, but she also mentions attraction towards women easily. This can be interpreted as a portrayal of a woman who’s very accepting of her own bisexuality, but it can also be interpreted as a thrown-away joke. It looks like Brittany’s comments about women are there to spark laughter.

In season 2, her attractions towards Artie, a boy, and Santana, a girl, becomes more fleshed out. In season 2 episode 18 “Born This Way”, she says that she thinks that she might be “bi-curious”. The word “bisexual” was barely used in the show and when it did, it was done in a very negative way[4]. Brittany referred to herself as “bi-curious” “a bicorn” (instead of a unicorn) and “bilingual” (not knowing what it actually meant)[5]. There is never a big revelation. The other characters in the show just know at one point that Brittany is bisexual.

After Brittany and Santana break up in season 4 episode 4 “The Break-Up”, Brittany falls in love with a boy named Sam. This relationship was not very well-received by Brittana (Brittany and Santana) fans and it felt like they were made fun of in season 4 episode 9 “Swan Song”, when Brittany talks to Sam that she does not want to date him to prevent a group of angry lesbian bloggers to hate Sam and turn violent. This felt very invalidating towards the feelings of queer women who found strength in the Brittana relationship (see Appendix for screenshots).

This relationship led to some debate within the fan community about Glee’s representation of bisexuality. Another problem of the Bram (Brittany and Sam) vs. Brittana debate was the fact that Brittany was suddenly allowed to express her attraction towards Sam way more than to Santana. The Glee Equality Project (2012) made a chart of how Brittany was allowed to kiss boys within the first episode of dating them, or even before dating them, but Brittany and Santana only kissed after 9 episodes of dating and after a fan campaign advocated for a kiss. Glee showed a big double standard in Brittany’s bisexuality and this led to anger (see Appendix for screenshots).

As written above, Brittany and Santana end up together in the end. Even though Brittany was not seen struggling, it was meaningful to have a happy ending for her. Heather Morris, who played Brittany, talked about the impact after the show’s end and how the Brittana relationship eventually helped people (FlyingHippopotamiSpy, 2015). Just like with Santana, watching Brittany be confident and comfortable helped young women realise that there’s nothing wrong with liking girls, or liking girls and boys. Brittany’s happiness showed that her sexuality did not prevent her from having a happy ending, which impacted viewers.

Bonus: Quinn Fabray

Quinn Fabray was introduced in season 1 episode 1 “Pilot” as a main character. Quinn is straight. Fans disagreed. Many people noticed that there was chemistry between Quinn and Rachel and people started liking them as a couple. Faberry (Quinn and Rachel) was one of the most popular couples in the show even though the characters were straight in the text of the show. That is due to the fan reception and fan work surrounding Faberry. As of July 2020, Faberry is still the 3rd most popular couple on the fansite AO3 (Shipping, n.d.). Fans often advocated for the characters to at least not be straight and Dianna Agron famously said: “Quinn could always go gay” (breakmelove, 2011).

During the show, there were little scenes[6] and pieces of dialogue[7] that indicated to Quinn not being straight, so that is why people latched more onto Quinn and not onto Rachel. That is why I’m only writing about Quinn in this paper. People believed that Quinn was heavily queer-coded. Queer-coding is “to be implicated as having or displaying stereotypes and behaviours that are associated (even if inaccurate) with homosexuality or queerness” (Kim, 2007, p. 157). It is often seen in a negative light, but more recently, queer-coding is also used to find positive subcultural codes in a text. That is what happened with Quinn.

In season 4 episode 14 “I Do”, Quinn gets drunk with Santana and the two of them have sex. When this got announced, fans were interested, since it seemed like they were finally going to acknowledge fans’ interpretation of Quinn. Yet, in the episode, it became clear that Quinn sleeping with Santana wasn’t out of attraction towards women, but more for experimentation. This led to disappointment and it also happens a lot that relationships between women are portrayed as not serious. This “heteroflexible” depiction makes women loving other women seem ‘bad’ and ‘guilty’ and ‘naughty’, basically like it’s a sneaky party trick to put more focus on the hot lesbian outcome (Jackson, & Gilbertson, 2009).

People also felt betrayed by the show. They felt like they’d been queerbaited, since the support for Quinn not being straight was already very apparent by this time. Queerbaiting is “a tactic whereby media producers suggest homoerotic subtext between characters in popular television that is never intended to be actualised on screen” (Brennan, 2018, p. 189). This has a negative connotation, since it feels like people are being lured in by false promises. Despite the negativity, there was also some positive news from women who liked to see it and found it enticing (Hogan, 2013) and still saw it as a sign that Quinn is not straight, despite her saying that this was just a one-time experiment. To this day, people still don’t believe that Quinn is straight (see Appendix for screenshots).

Discussion and conclusion

To answer the question “How does Glee allow an enjoyable queer viewing experience?”, I looked at the show and fan reception. The answer is that Glee allowed an enjoyable queer viewing experience when the characters had agency and happiness. The happiness led to a feeling of acceptance and belongingness for the viewers.

The stories surrounding the queer women in Glee have ups and downs. The flaws in the representation can be attributed to the fact that queer women weren’t a prominent part of the Glee crew. Yet, both Brittany and Santana have a happy ending: they’re alive, in love, and married. Fans seemed to enjoy the storylines when the characters have agency. When that agency gets removed (Santana’s outing not being about her, Brittany not being able to express her bisexuality without double standards), the storylines are not as well-received, since fans want to see the characters succeeding within the context and narrative of the show. Fans actively root for their happiness.

An interesting finding is that not many fans reacted towards the fact that Brittana consists of two hot femme cheerleaders. This wasn’t expected, since a lot of writing on bad representation revolves around the focus on the male gaze. This unexpected finding can be due to the fact that the relationship was treated fairly and not as a joke. Brittana did start out as two hot girls making out for fun, but it grew into a developed relationship. Another explanation might be in the faulty methodology: maybe I just never saw existing criticism and I didn’t have the time to ask people about it.

The representation of these characters have helped people and they also found a community, so the idea that subcultural media is correct. After all, fan’s interpretation of Quinn can show that subcultural codes are seen in media. Finding those codes also impact queer viewing of Glee. Even though it wasn’t always perfect, the characters have had a positive impact on representation for queer women. Especially for young people, Brittany and Santana were some of the first representation of teen female characters on mainstream television.

Afterword: in memory of Naya Rivera

This is not part of the paper, so you do not have to grade this and I don’t see it as part of the word count. This is just information that I think is important to share. Naya Rivera, the actress who played Santana, died on July 8th 2020 in Lake Piru in California. She was 33 years old. She drowned while saving her son’s life and her body was found on July 13th 2020. I am very sad about this news and I found it kind of hard to write this paper afterwards. I don’t believe in the afterlife or the whole “this person is looking down on you” stuff, but this was written in her memory and I hope I made her proud with this paper about her influence.

Even though it has been five years since Glee ended, many fans are very shocked and upset by this news. People, including celebrities who grew up with Glee, have shared stories of how much Santana meant to them and how Naya’s portrayal made them feel okay with themselves. Loads of (former) fans have expressed how much Santana’s portrayal has helped them with acceptance. Santana was not a perfect character, but she was a milestone for representation. Naya was not a perfect person, but she will forever be remembered for how much her sheer determination to handle Santana’s storyline respectfully has helped young women everywhere.

Naya Marie Rivera

* January 12th 1987 - † July 8th 2020

Cause I feel that when I'm with you It's all right I know it's right

~ Songbird Glee version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJUgLEtA-74

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Queer (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/queer

Shipping Wiki (n.d.). Glee. Retrieved from https://shipping.fandom.com/wiki/Glee

Smith, A. (2018, August 10). 'Oral sex – and no scissoring!' How the lesbian gaze changed cinema. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/10/oral-sex-and-no-scissoring-how-the-lesbian-gaze-changed-cinema

Snider, C. (2008). Queer persona and the gay gaze in Brokeback Mountain: Story and film. Psychological Perspectives, 51(1), 54-69. doi:10.1080/00332920802031888

The Glee Equality Project (2012, December 6). Reaction post 409 “Swan Song” [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://glee-equality-project.tumblr.com/post/37381267319/reaction-post-409-swan-song-in-this-episode

Appendix

Santana’s outing

keepholdingontoachele (2011). Just noticed the “Here’s what you missed on Glee” voiceover saying that. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://keepholdingontoachele.tumblr.com/post/13547911507/just-noticed-the-heres-what-you-missed-on-glee

justanarchiveinabigklainefandom (2011). Santana coming out. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://justanarchiveinabigklainefandom.tumblr.com/post/13783395882/nayasexual-tenacitysuperbrains-it-wasnt-a

thelesbianladydi (2017, May 28). It has been 2008 days since…. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://thelesbianladydi.tumblr.com/post/161161858089/it-has-been-2008-days-since-santana-lopez-was

(see link for the full 9 reasons that led to this summary)

Brittany’s bisexuality

proudlyunicorn (2012, December 6). Brittany and Bisexual Representation: A Gleenalysis. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://proudlyunicorn.tumblr.com/post/37353682285/brittany-and-bisexual-representation-a

glowinthedarkparades (2012, December 6). Can someone please explain…. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://glowinthedarkparades.tumblr.com/post/37318713323/hummelsmytheanderson-can-someone-please

glowinthedarkparades (2012, December 5). Why is the Brittana fandom going apeshit? What’s happened? [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://glowinthedarkparades.tumblr.com/post/37292738950/why-is-the-brittana-fandom-going-apeshit-whats

iheartbrittana (2012). “… All the dreams …. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://iheartbrittana.tumblr.com/post/37241910228/all-the-dreams-we-had-for-brittana-as-a-couple

gleerant (2012). Bram, Brittana, and issues of visibility. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://gleerant.tumblr.com/post/36943266496/bram-brittana-and-issues-of-visibility

(full post is too long to screenshot)

Quinn’s queercoding/queerbaiting

diannaaagron (2020, July 5). The world if glee writers made quinn fabray a lesbian. [meme]. Retrieved from https://diannaaagron.tumblr.com/post/622846421520023552

blaineanderdumbass (2020, June 9). Can you believe quinn…. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://blaineanderdumbass.tumblr.com/post/620457887277498368/can-u-believe-quinn-was-meant-to-be-str-i

justasmallbloginabigklainefandom (2020). Me, in 2020: …. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://justasmallbloginabigklainefandom.tumblr.com/post/617643961118507008/me-in-2020-anyway-lucy-quinn-fabray-was-not

justasmallbloginabigklainefandom (2020). Quinn fabray: *exists* …. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://justasmallbloginabigklainefandom.tumblr.com/post/617643867261550592/quinn-fabray-exists-me-there-is-no

inimitabler (2018, Feb 3). You know what bothers me the most about faberry?. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://inimitabler.tumblr.com/post/170475507292/you-know-what-bothers-me-the-most-about-faberry

diannaagrn (2020). #it’s her she’s gay. [Tumblr photoset]. Retrieved from https://diannaagrn.tumblr.com/post/614675450454736896/its-her-shes-gay

Footnotes

[1] 1x19 “Dream On”; 2x10 “A Very Glee Christmas”; 3x11 “Michael”, 4x10 “Glee, Actually”; 6x06 “What The World Needs Now”. Kevin McHale, the actor who plays Artie, is abled and a trained dancer. The role for Artie was not written as a wheelchair using character.

[2] 2x16 “Original Song”; 3x05 “The First Time”; 3x13 “Heart”

[3] Too many episodes to source.

[4] 2x14 “Blame It On The Alcohol”; 5x02 “Tina In The Sky With Diamonds”

[5] 2x18 “Born This Way”; 3x02 “I Am Unicorn”; 3x12 “The Spanish Teacher”

[6] 1x15 “The Power of Madonna”, 3x14 “On My Way”, 3x15 “Big Brother”

[7] 3x13 “Heart”, 3x14 “On My Way”

#lb 2020 #lb uni #yea man it is the whole thing

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Vikings Season 6: How Lagertha’s Legacy Lives On

https://ift.tt/3n3LEgt

This article contains Vikings season 6 spoilers.

With the release of season 6 part two on Dec. 30, Vikings has come to an end. While the spinoff Vikings: Vahalla is set to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2021, it will pick up the story of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon conflict 100 years after the last events depicted in the original series. Thus the series finale of Vikings means we are saying goodbye to all the characters whose exploits viewers have enjoyed these last seven years. Whether in the flesh or in flashbacks, this is the final farewell. And no character will be missed so much as Lagertha.

When Vikings began, in the spring of 2013, it was a largely misunderstood enterprise (and still continues to be, by some). Premiering as it did on the History Channel, a cable channel best known for its WWII/Hitlerian focus in the 90’s and more current shows like Pawn Stars and Swamp People, many assumed that Vikings was a testosterone-heavy fight-fest created to feed the key male 18-49 year-old demographic that the network targets.

But that was never really the intention of creator/writer/showrunner Michael Hirst. As Hirst tells Den of Geek, women, particularly Viking queen Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), were always supposed to be central in the series’ storytelling.

“I was hoping she would be popular,” Hirst says. “History Channel is a male-viewed channel. And I think History Channel initially picked the show up because they thought it would appeal to that natural base. That they thought, ‘Well, you know, it’s obviously going to be a show full of battles and fights and so on.’ But I always thought it was going to be about Lagertha as much as Ragnar. And I like writing with women.”

Hirst’s focus paid off. Women, like myself, eventually found (generally through word of mouth) the series, and we loved what we saw. Lagertha and the rest of the women on the show were more than pretty faces and eternal victims. They ran the gamut from the initially innocent and oppressed Anglo-Saxon Judith (Jennie Jacques) to soft-power-wielding Gisla (Morgane Polanski) and Aslaug (Alyssa Sunderland) to shield-maidens like Torvi (Georgia Hirst) and Gunnhild (Ragga Ragnars).

But it wasn’t simply the variety of types of women on the show. It was that none of them were ever simple and they were never just plot devices. Whatever label their cultures applied to them, they have always exceeded them. The women of Vikings have been spouses, parents, politicians, strategists, lovers, and friends—everything that their male counterparts were, and often more successful in their endeavors than those men. It was surprising, and on a show like Vikings, something rarely seen on American television.

And Lagertha—farmer, visionary, wife of Ragnar, mother of Bjorn Ironside and Gyda, shield-maiden, Jarl and Kattegat’s queen in her own right— was the first among the women we tuned in to watch. Which pleased her creator.

“What was wonderful for me was that the show, on History Channel, was getting 50/50 male/female viewership,” Hirst says. “In other words, particularly Lagertha was making women watch the show. And it was about so much more than fights and battles and things. So I was really proud of that. And I think that Katheryn was just brilliant in the role.”

And she has been. Appearing in over 80 episodes (and directing season 6A’s “Valhalla Can Wait”), Winnick shows up more than any other actor, and helped the show bridge the gap when Hirst’s other primary antagonist, Ragnar, was killed off. Doomsayers predicted the end of the series after the departure of Travis Fimmel’s excellent Viking legend. But Winnick and Lagertha went a long way in ensuring we continued to stay engaged and tuning in.

Not that everyone was pleased. From the start, there has always been some Internet criticism of Lagertha that accuses the character of “forced feminism,” ahistorically expansive sexuality, and the impossibility of the existence of actual “shield-maidens.” Some have even argued that women do not possess the physical strength to wield historically accurate Viking weapons (despite watching female actors, Winnick and Georgia Hirst specifically, regularly do just that on Vikings on a regular basis).

In fact, Lagertha appears to be closer to the truth than even many historians assumed when the show began seven years ago. According to the series’ historical consultant and writer Justin Pollard, not only was “Viking society, for all of its apparent terrors to Christians, a much more egalitarian society than Christian society, and women had a much stronger role in it,” but despite “quite a lot of howls of complaint, since then, we’ve found a number of excavated bodies, often excavated in the 19th century, that have been reanalyzed and now been shown to be women.”

The most famous of these is the grave of what many historians had referred to, up until 2017, as the archetypical “ultimate Viking” of the tenth century, found on the island of Birka, Sweden. First discovered and documented in 1878, it was assumed to be the skeletal remains and grave items of a male warrior—sword, spear, axe, arrows, shields, etc. One year after Vikings premiered, an analysis of the pelvic bones and jaw by bioarchaelogist Anna Kjellström strongly suggested that the skeleton was that of a woman. In 2017, analysis of the DNA and Strontium isotypes on the skeleton by a team led by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson confirmed that the body was a woman, and consistent with the geographic profile of someone having lived in the correct place to be a Viking.

Lagertha, and women like her, weren’t a modern-day invention—Hirst’s women warriors were a strangely prophetic echo from the past.

Vikings Ending Explained

By Jamie Andrew

Nor are women incapable of the type of fighting we get to watch on the show. I brought up the point when I interviewed Clive Standen (Rollo) a few years ago, asking whether it was odd having Winnick, who stands as much as a foot shorter and weighs half as much than many of her male co-stars, on the battlefield. He laughed outright, assuring me that the actress, who holds black belts in two martial arts and founded three martial arts schools before the age of 22, is more than a match for those her character faces on the killing fields of Vikings–a not inconsiderable recommendation considering Standen’s own martial arts background. In other words, what we saw on the series was just as, if not more, real than the reality shows that make up a great deal of History Channel’s programming.

But whatever problems that naysayers may have had with the depiction of shield-maidens in general and of Lagertha in particular, her fans are legion and loyal. Word of her impending death began to circle as early as 2017. Article after article conjectured that she was always about to be killed off—even well past the point where most of Aslaug’s sons had given up their mission to avenge their mother.

So we had long been emotionally prepared for the death of the semi-retired Lagertha. That the means of her death was less glorious than the eventual end of her son Bjorn might have rankled had it not been so very much like the woman we have come to love. Both die in defense of their beloved Kattegat, but for Lagertha, the moment is about the heart of the show: family.

Vikings has always been less a historically-based action series and more a family drama told on an epic scale. And as it is as true now as then that rivalries and alliances, anger and empathy, misunderstanding and enlightenment, are constantly in flux in families. Lagertha has always had reason enough to hate her murderer. His birth alone might have earned him death at her hands. But like her equally illustrious partner Ragnar, she has never been as simple as the blood vengeance we traditionally and often erroneously associate with the Vikings.

Both are complicated characters, and capable of seeing the bigger picture when it comes to their family, to honor, to their fates. She recognizes that his actions are enough to rip apart the wounds only half healed among Ragnar’s sons. That she is able to comfort her own killer, to reassure him that he has done no more than live his destiny and hers, speaks to complexity and compassion all but absent in depictions of Vikings before the show began its run on History Channel.

And in that, Lagertha is precisely the embodiment of Hirst’s wish for the series:

“One of the things I most wanted to do was to overturn all the cliches about Vikings. I was told by some people at the beginning that I couldn’t really make a show about Vikings. Or, at least, I couldn’t make a show where Vikings were the heroes. Because they were always the Other. They’re the bad guys. They’re the people who come in the night and steal and rape and burn. And how could I make them heroic in any way? And of course, people thought they knew about the Vikings. Actually, they didn’t know anything, which is often the case. And so I thought, “Well, how do I show that?”

It turns out, you do it by creating a character like Lagertha. You do it by taking one of the most misunderstood members of a misunderstood culture and turn her into a hero who makes mistakes and silent sacrifices, enjoys triumphs and endures losses, bides her time and acts impulsively, regrets and doesn’t compromise, gives and takes, and loves and hates, and still goes on, even in death.

You make her one of us.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

And that’s why we have loved her, cheered her on, cried over her pain, and now mourn her end. Because Michael Hirst and Katheryn Winnick made Lagertha someone we could recognize some modicum of ourselves in, creating a link between Vikings of the 9th century and our own 21st century lives. She reminds us that carrying a sword in battle isn’t what makes a hero. Heroes are so much more than that, and while we will never wield axe or spear, the heroic is always within our own grasp.

The post Vikings Season 6: How Lagertha’s Legacy Lives On appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/387HG2f

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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codetrainwreck · 6 years

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Code Geass Season 1 Interview Collection

All of these interviews were translated/summarized by Celiss @ GameFAQs

CLAMP Summary of the Newtype Ookawa Nanase x Taniguchi Gorou interview. Note that the early designs on that page are by Ookawa Nanase, but the finalized CLAMP original art (not to be confused with the finalized KimuTaka character designs) were done by Mokona, a different CLAMP member. All info listed are from Ookawa and Taniguchi themselves; dialogue in ""s means those are the parts I didn't rephrase at all. - Suzaku originally had a "sharper" look to him. Ookawa -- "Originally I imagined him as having Chinese-like, sharp, single-eyelid eyes." Taniguchi -- "In order to have Lelouch stand out more, I had this design changed to a softer, rounder image." - On the early design for Lelouch (white hair) Ookawa -- "I imagined Lelouch as someone everyone will find to be "cool"; a beauty, to put it simply." Taniguchi -- "We talked about Tackey & Tsubasa as well as early Kinki Kids." (Popular Johnny's idols in Japan) - Ookawa attended the Episode 1 sneak preview / test screening; according to her a large number of reporters and other mass media-related personnel showed up as well because of the pre-show hype. When the 1st episode ended, the room went dead silent. With the fast-moving plot and the episode ending with Lelouch going "Die, all of you" as he Geasses the soldiers into killing themselves, everyone was left speechless. However, the momentary silence was later broken by tremendous applause. Taniguchi himself wasn't at the screening, but he heard about what happened as well. - How did CLAMP come to be part of the Code Geass project? Producer Kawaguchi was the one who wrote to them first. That was the first time CLAMP heard from him, and also the first time they received a request to design characters for an anime. The members only met the director more than a year later; they were already on board the project when the characters and world view were nothing more than a vague concept. CLAMP offered some "interesting ideas" and these helped shape the world of Code Geass. - The character illustrations shown on the page are preliminary designs; when these were first drawn Code Geass wasn't about a war with an Empire but something different. Taniguchi said "We're making a hit show", and wanted to create a show which appealed to everyone. They ended up using the Johnny's artistes (Tackey & Tsubasa; early Kinki Kids) as a sort of model for the characters (probably Lelouch; those Johnny's artistes are usually thought of as "Prince" types, especially early Domoto Kouichi of Kinki Kids) - The character "Zero" was decided from early on, and is one of the characters left unchanged even when they adjusted the story. CLAMP members call Zero's mask "Tulip" (because of it's appearance) They wanted to create a mask never seen before in previous Sunrise shows. They were told to create a mask showing only one eye, and there were two possibilities for that, the other being the masks used in palaces (...which kind of palace? Asian or Western?) Taniguchi -- "When I saw Zero's mask, my thought processes all came to a halt (laugh) It was extremely simple yet had impact." The biggest merit of having CLAMP do the designs is that, according to Taniguchi, they can come up with things normal animator-turned-designers can't. The clothes, for example, may seem impossible (*coughZeroandC.C.'scostumescough*), but CLAMP still went ahead with them anyway with the simple reasoning that "These are better!" - How did the designing process work? CLAMP members drew a certain number of illustrations, handed them to Taniguchi and Taniguchi would later return it to them with his own comments. The designs would be changed according to his wishes and the cycle repeated. The comments ranged from "I want you to redraw just this part" to "I want you to add this part of the character with this part of that character and come up with a new character." Taniguchi pretty much gave CLAMP free reign over the designs, telling them not to worry about what the CG world was like, and because of that they came up with all kinds of variations, from SF to Classical, for things like the military uniforms. There were altogether some 40 ~ 50 designs; C.C. also had traditional Japanese clothes as well as Western Barbie-style clothes. (Now we know why C.C. cosplays so much. Taniguchi probably included them because he thought it would be a waste not to...) - Ookawa -- "Taniguchi doesn't like girls with big breasts." (This is true; Taniguchi is famous for being anti-fanservice. He supposedly hates "jiggling chests" the most, but it seems that since GunxSword he's had to compromise on this area because frankly, sex sells) Ookawa - "Even though I drew all kinds of female figures and body shapes, only the flat-chested designs were returned." (The unreturned designs = No Good) Taniguchi: "It's not that those aren't allowed (laugh) It's just that when you transfer them on to the screen it usually ends up even more exaggerated, so I wanted to keep the original designs under control, at least." - Taniguchi also likes having characters who have something different on one side of their bodies (the "unbalanced" balance) Lelouch has one red eye, for example; Villetta's and Jeremiah's hairstyles also fall under this category. Taniguchi -- "I like it. It's sexy, don't you think?" Ookawa -- "You like characters with sex appeal, huh." Taniguchi -- "Sex appeal is important. CLAMP's characters are all sexy. That's another reason why we decided to request designs from you." - Before doing the character designs, KimuTaka spent every day copying CLAMP's art from their artbooks and manga. After analyzing CLAMP's art to his best ability, he then started on the character designs. He did his best to design them in a way so that the other animators would be able to draw them without deviating from CLAMP's original artstyle. - According to Ookawa, Schneizel was designed with "Lelouch's arch nemesis" in mind. The most time was spent on his design. Taniguchi wanted someone who could appear either good or bad and had a large sense of scale (2 meters... okay so he probably wasn't referring to height, but still) - Lloyd is the professor-type CLAMP is good at (Ookawa's own confession), but originally he wasn't supposed to be that much of a mad scientist. It happened mostly because of Shiratori Tetsu's acting (In the audio commentary for episode 1 Taniguchi mentions that he gave Shiratori free reign over Lloyd's character) Ookawa was surprised when Lloyd turned out the way he did. - Which characters do the CLAMP members like? Mokona (she did the final character original art) liked Clovis, so when she saw that he was offed after only 2 episodes she was really depressed. According to Ookawa, Clovis was killed off a lot earlier than originally planned. Taniguchi apologizes for this, and then remarks that Jeremiah, on the other hand, has survived longer than originally planned. (The power of 2ch, indeed) - Taniguchi: "If you rewatch the first half of the show after watching episode 23, you might discover new things you didn't see before." He refuses to say what these things are, saying that this is an enjoyment exclusive to viewers who noticed themselves. - Okouchi was the one who insisted that a mask was necessary in order for it to be a Sunrise anime. - Ookawa -- "Director Taniguchi is someone who makes it clear what his likes and dislikes are, and this really helped our work. I like Cornelia, and I hope she can be happy." (I'm sure she'll get along well with Fu-kuyama, that crazy Cornelia fan) - Ookawa seems to be a Lelouch fan. She says that she worries whenever Lelouch does something stupid or uses the Geass in a wasteful manner. - CLAMP will still be doing the designs for the sequel, or perhaps have already done them. --- Animedia Q. Is it true that the Emperor is invading countries because he is looking for (Geass) "ruins"? A. In episode 19, General Bartley said "The Emperor decides which country to invade going by the location of the ruins" (I'm not sure how gg translated this). It is unclear whether this is truly the motive behind the invasions, but as the General has been investigating this for a long time, his statement that there are other such ruins, at least, must be true. Since a gigantic Geass mark surfaced on the Kaminejima ruins, it appears that it is somehow connected with the Geass. (Well duh) Q. What exactly is the "Mental Elevator" (Intellevator) the Emperor mentioned? A. This is still very much a mystery. However, because this is something coming from the Emperor, it may have to do with the mystery of the ruins he is said to be searching for. (...Double duh) Q. What is the 2nd Imperial Prince Schneizel looking for? A. Bartley and co. are picking up where Clovis left off with his investigations, which is why they went to Kaminejima. It seems that they have a vague suspicion on what the Emperor's objectives are, and intend to get a jump on him. At this stage this is all we are able to infer. It is probable that there is a certain something the Britannian royalty all wish to obtain. (...? Immortality? Pizza? And Schneizel vs Emperor, go! If Schneizel isn't a bad guy, or had nothing to do with Marianne's assassination, Lelouch should just team up with him already >__> With Suzaku, the Emperor would be dead in a day) Q. After episode 23, what will become of Britannia's "Area 11"? A. As we have just reached the part where the next step of the battle would be to destroy the Britannian government office (the palace-like building with flags), the answer to this question will have to depend on the outcome. Should the Black Knights triumph, Japan may have its rights restored while the Britannians may be forced into a vulnerable position this time around. (Take away all their cellphones! That'll teach 'em!) However, both the Chinese Federation and the EU, names which have repeatedly come up in the show, are both keeping an eye on the situation. How these two forces will act is something to look out for in the future. Q. What happened to "Good Morning'd" Orange? A. I too am surprised. Even though it's amazing that he's made a reappearance in the show, it's "Good Morning'd" after all. (Meaning the line destroyed the serious, cool mood of the scene XD) It seems that after the Narita battle, he was picked up (in the same sense you pick up rubbish / abandoned animals), turned into a subject for experiments and then modified. I'm sure many viewers have already realized what happened because his silhouette is in the OP. The resurrected Orange can't be beat! (Literal translation = "is the strongest") Q. What happened to Shirley's "memories" erased by the Geass? A. Basically, those memories will not return. The Geass works only once. Having seen the memo with her own handwriting, Shirley made her own inferences and somehow managed to grasp the truth of the situation. Although there was a subtle scene in episode 23 where she reacted to the name "Lulu", with the situation becoming increasingly hectic, her chances of meeting Lelouch again will diminish. (What does this mean? She's not going to get her chance to confront Lelouch about the truth after running away from it in episode 22?) Q. Will Kallen's real identity never be revealed to her friends in school? A. Although Suzaku already knows about it, he didn't say a thing about it in school, so as long as Suzaku and Kallen herself keep quiet no one will know. However, in episodes 24 and 25 Kallen, along with Zero, may storm the government office. What will become of the school when the settlement becomes a battlefield...!? (Are they hinting that the school will be in danger --> Black Knights come to the rescue --> Kallen's identity is finally revealed?) *The caption for Nunnally's picture: Sayoko's position itself has become somewhat ambiguous. There isn't a single person left who is protecting her... (I noted this because this sounds bad. Protect her, Arthur!) *The caption for Milly's picture: Having given up on Lelouch, she plunged headlong into the engagement with Lloyd. However... (However...? JUST JOIN THE BLACK KNIGHTS ALREADY!) Q. If the settlement is attacked, what will become of Nunnally and Arthur? A. In episode 23, it appears that the school is still somewhat safe and peaceful. Although Nunnally was frightened, she still has "the mysterious" Sayoko-san with her. Sayoko was told by Diethard to "Stay as you are and wait for further orders." (Episode 21) Things should be alright. Is Arthur with them!? (No, he's obviously outside taking down mechs left and right) However, should Japan achieve independence, Britannian schools would be in danger. *The text below (not in the blue boxes) written by the magazine writers (not the CG staff) says that if Lelouch doesn't go back to Ashford, Nunnally's safety will be "a candle in the wind". However, since this is his beloved sister we're talking about, it makes sense to think that he will definitely return in episodes 24 and 25...!? (...did they really need to end the sentence with an interrobang?) Q. Will "Chigusa"-san join the Black Knights? A. Chigusa-san = Villetta. She's currently cohabiting with Ougi and living a life reminiscent of the Showa period (...loving couple, wife waiting at home etc?) The octopus wieners she made for Ougi's bentou truly had a lot of impact. However, because her memories disappeared not because of the Geass, they will return someday. With that the two of them will become mutual enemies, which will make things difficult. *The lower text says "There is no way a Britannian female Knight will pass all her days living a lovey-dovey life in secret. But don't cry, Ougi!!" (I... want to see him cry >__>) Q. When will C.C. give the OK to Lelouch the Geass user? (This is the literal translation of the question; it seems that what the question is trying to ask is: Exactly what does Lelouch need to do in order to fulfil the terms of the contract?) A. This is far from clear. It seems that C.C. sealed the contract with Lelouch with a certain objective in mind. This contract is valid until that goal is reached. (Does this mean that once her wish is fulfilled, she can / will take Lelouch's Geass away from him?) For Lelouch, his goals are to defeat Britannia and the Emperor and also to create a happy world for Nunnally... However, what C.C. stands to gain from these goals of his remains a mystery. Q. Is Wall h4x Suzaku's (okay, so it actually says wall-runner Suzaku) physical prowess that of a normal human being's? A. Yes, he's a normal human being. It's just that he possesses extraodinary physical capabilites. It seems that his excellent Knightmare piloting skills has to do with him being unexpectedly compatible with Lancelot, and nothing more than that. Lloyd of the Special Dispatch was quick to notice this. (...? What about Fake Okouchi and Real Okouchi's previous hints about there being a secret behind his abnormal physical strength? Unless this answer is supposed to be a red herring?) Q. With Euphie dead, is Suzaku's mental state alright? A. He can't be alright, can he? That's not the usual him. If you listen carefully he said "Ore" (? He was still Boku-Suzaku during the phone conversation though, but I might have missed him saying "Ore" in episode 23), even though he had been using "boku". However, it seems that that is Suzaku's original personality. Up till now he's been faking his personality because of what happened with his father. He can no longer continue his facade now that he's snapped. Rather than saying that he will be somewhat like a beast from here on, it would be more appropriate to say we will be able to see Suzaku's real personality. Q. Why is it that up until the very end, Suzaku still doesn't have a "cellphone"? A. It's because there is a clear rule regarding this; Elevens and Honorary Britannians are not allowed to have one. It's a Britannian rule. This was probably decided in order to nip any possible insurrection in the bud. Also explains why Cecile-san had to personally come and get Suzaku (in episode 17) Q. After episode 23, what will Suzaku's next move be? A. To take revenge? For Euphie. Against Zero! Perhaps he isn't thinking about the future at all. Although he's fighting as a Honorary Britannian, it seems that he's just rushing headlong into the battle with personal grudges to settle. However, he pretty much cannot die due to the "Live!" Geass on him. A rather painful future may be awaiting him. Q. Who is more amazing? Suzaku vs Lelouch 10-point showdown! 1. Knightmare piloting skills: Suzaku 2. Hunting ability: Suzaku 3. Game skills: Lelouch 4. How they treat Nunnally: Lelouch 5. Popularity with the girls: Tie 6. Popularity with the guys: Suzaku 7. Studies (Science/Maths): Lelouch 8. Studies (Humanities/Arts): Lelouch 9. Independence (Cooking): Suzaku 10. Independence (Money concept): Lelouch (Lelouch wins 5-4. Lelouch is actually pretty good at cooking (It's part of his official character profile, IIRC; Sayoko also mentions this in her Diary section for DVD vol 2's booklet) Some of the reasonings behind the Lelouch vs Suzaku results are pretty nonsensical, actually. For example: 9. Independence (Cooking skill): Suzaku Lulu has been feeding Nunnally ever since their childhood days. His cooking skills are absolutely perfect. Suzaku received a strange Onigiri (Cecile's) Therefore... ...What does that have to do with cooking skills? >__> If anything that only proves Suzaku isn't human. As for Popularity with Girls, it's a tie because while Lelouch may have a hidden fanclub at school (I forgot who said this... FO?), Suzaku is popular with older women. This is also part of his official character profile; Suzaku admits it himself in the booklet for DVD vol. 03. However, he denies being attracted to them, but considering his first love (a house maid) happened when he was 3 years old... >__> Suzaku wins in the Popularity with Guys section because Lelouch doesn't really mix around with other students, only with his fellow Student Council members. This isn't really fair considering Suzaku probably has a hard time getting along with other classmates as well, but I guess that all changed after Euphemia knighted him. Though I think if it had been Zero vs Suzaku Zero would have won hands down. Zero has Diethard (Obsessed stalker), Tamaki (Tsundere) and Orange (also a stalker when you think about it >__>) --- Taniguchi Some interesting stuff from the Taniguchi interview: - Taniguchi appears to be hinting that Suzaku will have more scenes in the 2nd season. He mentioned that for viewers who want to watch this show thinking of Lelouch and Suzaku as double protagonists (Like Kazuma and Ryuhou in S.cry.ed; however, officially, Lelouch is the only protagonist in this show; everyone else is a supporting character), this motif will come up from here on. (He probably means that the difference between Suzaku and Lelouch will be made even more obvious in the future) - We'll be seeing more of Lelouch romantic relationships (probably in the 2nd season) According to him they decided not to put too much focus on those in the first 23 episodes because it would only complicate matters. It was necessary to show what Lelouch's primary focus is (Destroy Britannia; happy world for Nunnally) - V.V. will be a key person in the 2nd season; same goes for the mysterious long-haired Chinese guy (? Girl?) shown in episode 23. - By episode 26 (Taniguchi probably means 1st episode of the 2nd season; it seems that he's thinking of Code Geass as one whole continuous season) viewers will be able to see what Lelouch currently has in mind and what he intends to do next. - In case the sequel wasn't greenlighted (they already received the OK for it back in December last year, at least), they had an alternative route prepared for the story to take, one which would have ended the story in episode 23. It would have been a non-conclusive ending though; according to Taniguchi it was more of a "psychological" ending for Lelouch (think EVA ending) - By Taniguchi's own admission, the real story has only just begun. --- Kawaguchi The Kawaguchi interview itself is quite strange. It feels as though Director Taniguchi, Scriptwriter Okouchi and Producer Kawaguchi all have different interpretations regarding the show. On the subject of the phone conversation at the end of episode 23, Kawaguchi says that Okouchi originally wrote the scene intending to dramatize the mistaken nature of Lelouch and Suzaku's friendship (lit. trans: how it continually "passes each other by"), but Taniguchi said "If you need to confirm it, then you're not really friends" (The "After all, we're friends, aren't we?" line) and had the meaning of the scene changed. So... are they truly friends or not? I suppose they're "friends" in the sense that they truly care about each other, yet at the same time they can't be "true friends" because they're still hiding all sorts of secrets from each other. Kawaguchi, at least, is adamant that Lelouch and Suzaku cannot be considered friends. I'd like to see an Okouchi-only interview next to hear what he has to say on this matter XD Also, Kawaguchi referred to Lelouch as "Lulu" twice in the interview. Kawaguchi is a big fan of Lulu Quality, indeed. --- The infamous phone call in 23. Producer Kawaguchi actually offered an explanation in his interview on why Lelouch has Euphie's number. We know that he definitely has her number saved because "Euphemia" showed up on his cellphone; we also know that calls from unknown people show up on his phone as "No Number" (episode 13 -- assumed to be a call from Ougi and episode 15 -- Mao) Basically the (lame) explanation is: "They must have exchanged numbers on the deserted island (laugh)" I wonder what name Euphemia saved Lelouch's number under though. She can't possibly have saved it under "Lelouch"... she's not that much of an airhead... right? >__> Though "Zero" is a lot worse, but not as much as "My First Love, Eheh <3" --- Fake Okouchi questions from 2chan 1. (Did Suzaku know that Zero = Lelouch at the end of episode 23? If so, did Lelouch realize it as well?) No comment. 2. (When exactly will episodes 24 and 25 be aired during the summer? Will they not be aired first via Biglobe's internet streaming?) I don't think so . We weren't able to secure the slots in time. It's a little thick-skinned of me to say this, but to make up for it the animation and the directing etc. will be impressive. 3. (It seems to me that Suzaku is more important to Lelouch than Lelouch is to Suzaku. What exactly does Suzaku think of LuluNana?) To Suzaku, Lelouch is more of an old friend. As for Nunnally, rather than her being just the sister of a friend, it appears that he thinks of her as an important person. 4. (Will Lulu and C.C.'s line "Bestow upon me the mark of destruction! Consecrate it!" used in the pre-airing CMs appear in the show? A word about this line please.) I don't think the line will appear in the show. The lines said in the CMs are more like "catch copies" <"catch phrases" in English> 5. (Did Suzaku see V.V. or C.C. in episode 22? What was the reason behind it?) <-- The light silhouette in front of the Gawain It was C.C. It's somewhat like the mirage(?) of C.C. only Lelouch could see in episode 1. He saw it because he has the Geass potential. 6. (C.C. talked to Marianne in episode 23. Is Marianne in the World of C?) No comment. 7. (How does C.C. go about choosing Geass users? As long as they have potential everything's fine? For what reason did she choose Mao and Lelouch?) It's a secret, but the main criteria involved in the choosing is related to the bloodline as well as where and how the person grew up. 8. (In episode 7, C.C. said "The blood does not rebel" (Children take after their parents) Whose blood was she referring to? The Emperor's or Marianne's?) Both, I suppose. C.C. was teased *by Marianne* a lot, so I think she just wanted to get her back for it *by claiming that Lelouch takes after her?* 9. (Who's stronger: V.V. or C.C.?) It depends on what you mean by "strong", but if you were to make them fight each other mano-a-mano I think C.C. would be declared the victor. 10. (Will the "Lelouch being good at household chores" character setting be used in the future? Is it true that he made Zero's costume himself? Will such hidden character settings appear in the drama CDs etc?) I think the scenes that were cut from the show *such as the kiss with Kallen?* as well as the character settings that have yet to be shown will be included in the drama CDs and such. *He didn't actually state a specific media* 11. (What's the meaning behind the OP shot in which Lelouch rides a horse? What about the mugshots? Whose hand is it in the scene showing someone trying to grab hold of the person floating with the Geass mark?) Horse-riding is a sort of reference to piloting a Knightmare *they're "mares", after all* It implies that his (Lelouch's) main role isn't to pilot a Knightmare *he's more of a commander*, unlike Suzaku. Also, his elegant way of spurring a horse onward shows his prince-like quality / nature. This is further supported by the background, which was drawn with the Britannia homeland in mind. As for the mugshots, I think that those show the key characters whose actions help move the story forward, but I fear that only the director knows the truth of it. As for the hand, I think it's probably Nunnally's. (Actually I don't know either, but the skin-tone is the same as Nunnally's) 12. (What is the debt from 7 years ago? Will it be revealed in the 1st season?) The "Debt" doesn't only refer to one specific thing. One of it has to do with the Kururugi family forcing LuluNana into confinement *in a storage shed, no less* 13. (Will the Emperor's past cronies and Knight appear in the show?) That would depend on the 2nd season. 14. (Why is it that even though Nunnally calls Marianne "Okaa-sama" (polite), Lulu calls her "Kaa-san" (informal)? It's rather strange for royalty to do that.) I think perhaps it's a sort of code showing how he respected, trusted and in a way depended on his mother. The same goes for Suzaku calling himself "Ore". *Meaning it's a sort of clue about what goes on in their heads* 15. (How much time has passed in the show between episodes 1 ~ 25?) The actual length of time is made ambiguous, but I suppose it's quite close to the broadcast length in real life. *About 6 months?* 16. (The difference between a Knight and an Elected Knight (Suzaku, Guilford) please.) Originally, the term "Knight" is a general one referring to all Knightmare pilots. Elected Knights such as Guilford and Suzaku are those chosen by the royalty as personal protectors. It's just that for the convenience of the conversation there are times where the term "Knight" actually refers to "Elected Knight". 17. (A hidden character setting, please. Anything is fine.) In the early planning stages, Rivalz was named Radner *? Katakana = "radona"; I have no idea whether this is a name or whether he's referring to another famous person or what* and had a much bigger role. In a way, he had an evil side to him, more so than Lelouch, and was truly "bad company". However, if he was to be made into someone who had too much in common with Lelouch, Suzaku's existence would have less of an impact and thus changes were made. 18. (Will the period in which LuluNana lived by themselves be shown in the show? Or will these be covered by the Picture Dramas and Drama CDs?) Unknown. 19. (Was the Marianne shown in episode 22 part of C.C.'s memories? Why did Suzaku faint?) Rather than say that was C.C.'s memories, it would be more appropriate to say that was a scene showing her "vision". *That's exactly what he says in katakana* Suzaku collapsed because of C.C.'s shock attack. 20. (Villetta once said "Britannia is scary" when she was still Chigusa. Were those her real feelings?) That was her reacting to having been seriously wounded and having lost her memories. Besides that, she felt peaceful during her time with Ougi and was also influenced by his way of thinking. 21. (What are the requirements for the reactivation of Suzaku's "Live!" Geass? How will it affect him, exactly? Make him go berserk?) He will return to his original way of living and become more and more honest. *His "boku" personality is a false one used to protect himself* 22. (Are there plans to use the cut Zero / Kallen kiss scene (Source: Megami Magazine) in the future?) It is true that that scene was cut. A lot of adjustments were made around episode 20. The kiss event was to give Kallen courage after she lost her nerve to continue to act as a member of the Black Knights. Originally there was supposed to be a sequence of scenes showing her remembering the kiss, shaking off her hesitations and fighting whenever she was about to be discouraged. 23. (A word about the Emperor and Marianne, please.) No comment. 24. (What is the relation between V.V., Suzaku and Nunnally?) For Suzaku and Nunnally, it's just as I said in the answer for the 3rd question. As for V.V. and Suzaku, no comment. At the moment V.V. and Nunnally are not connected. 25. (A word about the future of the Ashford Academy Student Council members.) The school will become a part of the battlefield due to various calculations *? from which side? Nina...?* 26. (A hint about love relationships. Also, a word on why Euphie fell in love with Suzaku. Is Suzaku no longer a virgin?) No comment. *Yeah, 2chers like asking which characters are virgins. See: Virginity Theory* 27. (Kaguya called herself The Goddess of Victory. Did something happen before this to support her claim?) Unknown. --- Ura de Net Geass! Participants: Tanaka Kazunari (Tamaki VA) Yoshino Hiroyuki (Secondary scriptwriter / series composition) Kawaguchi Yoshitaka (Producer) Morotomi Youshi (Producer, MBS TV station side) - An 8 hour meeting was held to determine C.C.'s name and real identity. Supposedly none of the participants ate or drank throughout the whole thing (Okouchi: "Give me something to eat!") According to Yoshino, whenever he thought the meeting was about to come to an end, someone would start up again and the meeting would continue with no end in sight. XD - The title "Code Geass" was a fairly last-minute decision (the tentative title was "Lelouch of the Rebellion") The production team were in a panic over the lack of a proper title; "We need a title to design the title logo!" etc. - Yoshino: "A strange scriptwriter joined around episode 12." (referring to himself) According to him, for episodes 1 ~ 11 all he did was comment on Okouchi's scripts: "Oh, I like this. I don't like this. This is cool." etc. Okouchi got annoyed and told him "Why don't you write the scripts then?" (Yoshino wrote the scripts for episodes 12, 13 and 19) Dark Okouchi >__> - Mao's repetitive clapping didn't exist in the scripting stages; Taniguchi was the one who later added it to make him "more annoying". Also, according to the producers, the Mao arc had the highest ratings o__O - Originally, Toudou was supposed to join Lelouch's side much earlier. They talk about the Diethard and Toudou shot in the ED. All are baffled by it; conclusion: "Only Taniguchi knows." - Okouchi wrote the script for episode 18; according to Yoshino, Okouchi told him: "Isn't it exciting, leaving viewers wondering whether Lelouch Geass'd Suzaku?" Yoshino: "So how are you going to wrap this up?" Dark Okouchi: "I'll think about it later!" XD Each time Yoshino asked him if he's thought of it yet, Okouchi would reply: "Not yet." Seems like Okouchi is a fairly laidback character XD - Yoshino ended up writing the script for episode 19; supposedly he requested to do it, saying "Oh well, if (Okouchi) wants me to write a script, I might as well do the island arc." (he's more or less the fanservice supervisor for this show) According to him (and the Newtype Taniguchi + Fu-kuyama interview), this was how Lelouch's trap was supposed to work: Lelouch successfully digs a proper hole --> However, a boar appears behind him --> Lelouch tries to Geass it: "Lelouch Vi Britannia orders you to SIT!" --> Geass doesn't work on animals --> Lulu Quality Tragedy (Wait, isn't this just like that one fancomic? o__O) However, Taniguchi changed it all, telling Yoshino: "Well, in the first place, Lelouch isn't capable of digging such a hole..." - The reason why the writers made Kallen stand on Gawain's shoulder instead of getting into the two-seater cockpit with Lelouch in episode 19: "There's no way Kallen will hand over the 2nd-pilot position to anyone else once she's in there." Good point. - Will we see Gawain engaging in electronic warfare? Maybe, maybe not. However, officially Gawain is equipped for it (Druid System) The producers and Tanaka all agree that Gawain is pretty much a h4x mecha in this show. - According to Tanaka, right after the airing of episode 22, 3 of his friends rang him up asking "What the hell was that? I need to know what happens next!" etc. According to Kawaguchi, "some of the viewers may have been satisfied with the handshake in episode 22, but actually, a lot more people would have been upset..." - After episode 23, the production team received letters from fans saying "Okouchi is so evil", "Dark Okouchi" etc. According to the 4 of them, Okouchi doesn't like that. Realizing Okouchi may be listening to this, they start sucking up to him, saying things like "Okouchi is a wonderful person!" "He's an... *long pause* honest person!" Tanaka: "I love Okouchi!... okay, moving on..." XD XD XD - Tanaka says he isn't allowed to talk about episode 24, but he dropped some hints, like: "I had no idea that part in episode 23 was a foreshadowing" and "So that was what that person was doing". Okay...

#code geass #interviews #translation

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filmandthefemalegaze · 3 years

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Interview with Hayley Cox

For this project, I decided to conduct an interview with my friend, Hayley Cox, a current Film and Directing student, to help understand what it is like to create film through a female perspective as well as highlight her experiences in a male-dominated major.

Maddi Young: Hello! Would you please introduce yourself?

Hayley Cox: Hi! Hi! I’m Hayley Cox, pronouns are she/her. I’m a student at the University of Central Florida currently majoring in Film and Directing.

MY: First of all I want to thank you for taking some time and answering my questions. I really appreciate it. To begin, could you explain what drew you to pursuing a career in film?

HC: Yeah! Growing up I never got tired of watching movies. I would watch them all day if I could.When I learned about the amount of people it took to make a film and the fact I could be one of them, I sort of knew right then that it was what I wanted to do. People love to be entertained and there are so many stories left to tell. I want to be one of those people, telling stories that I’ve held in my head and heart since I was a child.

MY: How has your path been, studying this in college and being on sets?

HC: I have loved most of my classes and I like learning about different ways to tell a story. But, it hasn’t always been easy. I recall my final project my freshman year. My partner was a guy and we were co-directing our short film we had spent the semester writing. I had written most of the script. He would give me his ideas and I would write it. I did the storyboards and the shot list prior to filming, while he did the call sheet and found actors. On the day of production, I was basically running around like an assistant. Making copies, setting up the snacks, and organizing the props. He kind of took over as the director but then I noticed how badly the takes/shots were. Boom mics and lights could be seen in the shot, which would only make post production more difficult. So I kindly stepped in and pointed out what we needed to be careful about. For the rest of the day it was more equal amongst the both of us on filming, but I couldn’t help but feel like I overstepped. Which is completely ridiculous since we were partners, and in reality I had done most of the work. After we wrapped and started editing, we only had to turn in one copy for our production class. When it came time to decide whose we would turn it, we had only watched mine before he said to turn in mine. I’m proud of the work and I’m glad he liked it, but the effort wasn’t equal in the slightest. I felt like he got to receive credit for my hard work, and he was happy to do so.

MY: So, would you say that he took advantage of his identity as a man to make you do the heavy-lifting? And expect you to do so?

HC: Yeah, I think so. Back then, all I cared about was doing my best. I didn’t notice the extent of it, that I was putting in all the effort and he was reaping the benefits.

MY: This leads into my next question regarding men’s place in film and the “male gaze”. Have you heard of this term before?

HC: I have. Honestly, though, I couldn’t explain to you exactly what it is.

MY: That’s okay! It’s still a relatively new phrase and/or concept. The male gaze is essentially the way men, whether that be the director, the audience, or the character in the film, view women. It’s typically objectifying, seeing women as sexual beings, or, well, objects.

HC: Yes! That’s what I was thinking.

MY: Yeah! So, do any films come to mind when you think of the male gaze?

HC: Uhm...now that I think of it, it feels like a lot of movies would fit that description. Like, Marvel movies for instance. I love Marvel, but Black Widow is always shown in a sexual way. Including unnecessary shots of her body that I guess are supposed to appeal to the male viewer. Even her, and some other female characters’, costumes are sexualized for no reason. The fact that Scarlet Witch wears a corset in battle is insane.

MY: Right? The objectification happens so passively sometimes that we don’t even think twice anymore. But, the more we talk about it and the more we demand for better from these directors, the issue will begin to lessen.

HC: I agree.

MY: Now that we’ve talked about the male gaze, have you heard of the term, “female gaze”?

HC: No, I haven’t. I’m guessing it’s kind of like the male gaze, just through a woman’s eyes instead?

MY: Yeah, kinda! It’s a little different though. In the way that the male gaze is objectifying, the female gaze typically personifies. And since men are the oppressor in society and women are the oppressed, the female gaze cannot be an equal to the male gaze.

HC: That makes sense. So like, women characters for instance. They aren’t written to objectify the male characters, they're written to see the male as a person.

MY: Exactly.

HC: I feel like that also explains the motivation of characters, in respect to the director as well. Like, why female characters shot or written by women see a male counterpart and romanticize it, making them a person even when they don’t know them. And male characters [shot by men] see the female characters as sexual beings or as devices to further their story.

MY: That completely makes sense. It reminds me of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope.

HC: *laughing* Oh my god, yes.

MY: So, now that you’re familiar with the term, can you think of any movies you think exhibit the female gaze?

HC: Let me think for a moment.

HC: Portrait of a Lady on Fire comes to mind.

MY: Could you elaborate on why?

HC: One of the main characters is a female painter, and she’s commissioned to paint another woman, but she can’t reveal that she’s there to paint her. She has to secretly observe the other woman and her body, since it’s like the 1800s or something and they can’t take pictures. So the movie is basically about how a woman is perceived through another woman’s view.

MY: I love that movie. It’s directed by a woman, too.

HC: Yeah, so that adds a whole other layer. How a woman chooses to shoot a woman versus how a man would.

MY: Kind of on that same wave length, when women shoot films the idea of making it “feminist” is always looming overhead. What do you think makes a feminist film?

HC: I think a “feminist” film is one that gets the audience thinking about the role of women in real life, not just in the movie. It enlightens the audience on what it could be like being a woman and how women are treated by society or others. There’s more to it, of course, but that’s initially what I think of.

MY: I think that’s a good explanation. Now, since you are a women entering the film industry, do you feel pressured to create movies that qualify as “feminist”?

HC: Hmm. Yes and no? I mean, I just want to tell stories, like I said before. But being a feminist is a part of who I am and how I view things, so I think that they’ll be feminist whether intentional or not. But men never have to be asked that question, you know? They just get to create. And I don’t know, maybe they should be asked it.

MY: True.

HC: I do feel a pressure sometimes, though. As a woman in directing. We’re still the minority in the field, so every time a woman succeeds- or fails- everyone knows.

MY: Also true. But I think you’re doing a wonderful job.

HC: Thank you so much.

MY: I just have one more question. Do you have any advice for other women, or young girls, wanting to pursue a career in film?

HC: Yes. Your gender should not hinder your success in the industry, no matter what anyone says. Out of the many jobs in the film industry, find the one you love and do it.

MY: I love it. Thank you again, Hayley. It has been so fun to talk about this with you.

HC: Same! I feel like now I’m going to be noticing the “gazes” when I watch movies now. So thanks for that. *laughs*

MY: Oh, you are so welcome.

_______________________________________

#mine #interview

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alternamarian · 4 years

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I won't be posting WandaVision spoilers until after one or two more weeks; and since I have no plans to watch the Black Widow movie in theaters (I had no plans even before the pandemic), I think I'll ramble a bit about that character for now — regarding, in particular, the first two Avengers films. I really won’t go very much at length, but this still might be considered a long read; also, since anything said by the weak and ugly about the strong and the beautiful is immediately met with suspicion, I will continue after the break.

I will first address the recent allegations against the writer-director of these films. Considering that I have never been much of a fan of this person or his work (I think I’d be diplomatic to say that I despised Buffy, was bored with Angel and just sort of liked Firefly), perhaps I’d be considered more than inclined to believe what’s been said of him. I certainly see no reason why those who have spoken thus would lie; and none, as far as I can tell, have a reputation of starting drama, as the cool kids say. But reputation, favorable or otherwise, is not an absolute standard. And as of this writing, the allegations remain allegations.They’re most likely true, but that’s as much as I will say for now about the matter. My focus is more on Black Widow.

Not surprisingly, Natasha Romanoff is another character who isn’t among my favorites. Nick Fury described her as ‘comfortable with everything’, and while I do think that’s changed significantly, I still think she will do and say things that I will emphatically disagree with and most definitely not support. None of that changes the fact that I object to her treatment in Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron — particularly in that interrogation scene, and in relation to Bruce Banner.

Ever since I first watched the film, I’ve been disgusted by what Natasha Romanoff’s been subjected to. I know the interrogation scene, as with other scenes in the shows I’ve listed above, are presented as Girl Power™ moments. And they’ve always struck me as instances of Girl Power™ as just another form of objectification/abuse. Yes, I know Natasha Romanoff says Agent Coulson is interrupting her work. I know she beats up the bad guys, leaving them hanging in chains. She’s nonetheless presented as a piece of flesh for the audience to leer at and leak their fluids over. And I would say the same about how certain female characters have been dealt with in those other shows. After all, a Badass Woman™ is one of the many images commodified for audiences to buy and consume. If that consumption is done in the name of women’s empowerment, then that’s another profit for industries that profit from objectifying persons. (What? Do people think the humanity and personhood of consumers is upheld and maintained in these transactions?)

And in those shots where Black Widow is tied up in a chair — menaced by several men — how many teams of hair and make-up professionals (not to mention post production staff) were deployed to produce that Roughed Up™ aesthetic? — The carefully tousled hair; eye shadow and mascara deftly smudged, and with that tint of lipstick to contrive the exhausted-but-still-sultry look. The subsequent punishing of the interrogators is part of the spectacle of a woman in duress, her smooth skin gleaming with sweat, (half-) wrapped in a form-fitting mini black dress, tied up and presented for the pleasure of the viewer — including the writer-director himself. (No, I would not be surprised if all this was made primarily for his own pleasure. I can’t say for sure if he tells himself that Black Widow’s Baddassery™ justifies the maltreatment, that ‘she can take it’ and therefore it’s all good, or if he likes watching women inflict as well as suffer abuse, but I get the sense he does both.)

Later in the movie, Bruce Banner — who is already established as a sympathetic, well-meaning and very unstable character — understandably loses control of his anger, and so turns into the Hulk and goes after Black Widow. The audience is almost obligated to cheer as the Hulk lets her feel the extent of his rage. After all, didn’t she lie to him when she was sent to recruit him? She’s just getting some well-deserved comeuppance, isn’t she? And no one forced her to be in this mission in the first place: she’s a professional spy participating of her own free will, right? She said so herself: she’s working. And if her job is in the service of humanity, her servicing the viewers is just an added bonus, isn’t it?

All this, of course, makes the subsequent so-called romantic subplot in Age of Ultron all the more outrageous to me. After being so insulted and debased (let no one forget she was also called a ‘mewling quim’), she’s supposed to fall for — and thereafter be abandoned by — Bruce Banner? Really? — Appealing to him with gentling phrases, arousing him with proposals of ditching the Avengers and setting up new identities, murmuring about how they were both turned into monsters by clandestine entities and their life experiences? Really? I, as a viewer and supposed Hopeless Romantic™, am supposed to project myself onto this character with Hollywood-star looks, and gush over this star-cross’d Avenger couple? I expect the writer-director to have gushed repeatedly over his canonized fanfic. But I don’t have to. In fact, I vehemently object to the suggestion.

Welp! I meant this to be a casual post of my disjointed thoughts, and I think I’ve rambled on quite a bit already. So I’ll stop for now. I’ll ramble again about Wanda Maximoff later.

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ginnyzero · 5 years

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Women in TV Pt 2

(I am continuing my discussion about females in television…)

I like a good procedural. There is something about them. They tend to be neat and tidy, the mystery gets solved. The bad guy gets caught. The good guys win out the day. Sort of like my favorite types of movies, action movies. Except procedurals can do this in under an hour, a feat that no action movie has yet captured. I’ve tried my fair share of them. Some are just too creepy (Criminal Minds) or too boring (Leverage) or I get several seasons in and something leaves a very bad taste in my mouth so I go look ahead on the wikis and realize that this is just spelling trouble. (This method hasn’t failed me when I got behind in Grimm and Castle.) In fact, the procedural that I’ve somehow managed to stick with despite its flaws is Bones. (I keep meaning to pick up Rizolli and Isles to watch, but keep being distracted by Project Runway.)

Both Bones and Castle revolve around the ‘job oriented’ female role that solve crime. Temperance “Bones” Brennan is a forensic anthropologist and Kate Beckett is a murder detective. These are both very strong, very intelligent women who had to work hard in fields dominated by men to get where they are. Regardless of the series being named Castle for the main male protagonist Richard Castle, the viewers know that the series really revolves around the women in Richard’s life, his muse, Kate, his mother, Martha and his daughter, Alexis. There is also Laney Parish, Kate’s best friend and the M.E. for the precinct and Victoria Gates, the tough as nails police captain. There are plenty of strong females to choose from.

The series Bones also revolves around Temperance, her friends, co-workers (often the same thing) and interns and primarily her working relationship with Seeley Booth. Bones has more strong female characters outside of Temperance. There is her best friend Angela who is there for emotional issues (I’ve learned things from Angie). There is Cam, her boss. There are the rotating interns, though there are more males than females among them. There is also the DA, Caroline.

Both series have strong female characters going for it. Ones that stand up for themselves. They have life goals and plans and the men in their life are nice, but not necessary. So, why did I stop watching Castle, but continue with Bones?

It really came down to how the showrunners handled their characters in crisis. At the end of Season four of Castle, Beckett was put at a rock bottom state by the showrunners. Instead of sticking to her ideals and being the woman that we had spent four seasons worth of show time with, Kate Beckett instead was written to go to Castle and say that Castle was completely right and she was completely wrong. This lead to the next half of a season of Kate questioning whether or not she and Castle should be together due to their financial and supposed social disparity. And whether or not Castle was truly right and Kate was truly wrong was quickly sidelined for this soap opera-ish, high school feeling plot line that didn’t end until Alexis was kidnapped and by then, I didn’t care anymore. I felt insulted that my intelligence and that a female character like Kate Beckett was reduced to this emotionally at high school level moron when she’d never exhibited such traits before.

Whereas, when Temperance faced a crisis and was close to rock bottom, while she sought Booth’s comfort, she didn’t give up the core of who she was to do so. And in the continuing seasons, when Temperance and Seeley sought to build a family together and decide on things like job versus home and house buying and where Christine should go to kindergarten, Temperance never abandoned the core of who she was as a character. They may have argued, but they also compromised based on each other’s values. If something is important to Seeley, Temperance would consider doing it because what is important to Seeley is also important to her. She didn’t question whether or not she and Seeley should be together in a high school angst ridden way. They worked together. They were forming a family together. She didn’t see how there was much difference. They got along at work. So why couldn’t they get along as a couple? (We know it doesn’t work like that, but logic!)

Now, there will be some who argue that Temperance having a baby was against her character and they liked the fact that she was an outspoken advocate for not having children, on the other hand, I also see Temperance feeling she has a duty to pass on her genetics in hopes of passing on her intellect. (Not that this really works, but you get the idea.) She is very logical in her thought processes, so once she was pregnant, I couldn’t see her terminating it. She never exhibited a great deal of maternal emotions after either.

Two words: Character consistency.

Procedurals don’t all have to revolve around solving crime. Some shows are more of “monster” or “crisis” of the week variety. The show The Librarians I think falls under “crisis” of the week. Despite the title, the Librarians really isn’t about the four librarians, but it is more about their guardian and protector, Eve. But the title The Guardian was already taken and the television show is continuing in the universe of some made for TV movies in the vein of Indiana Jones, “The Librarian and the…” The idea is there is a Library that is a holding vault for magical artifacts and original edition books and The Librarian is the keeper of it and goes out and collects artifacts for safekeeping so those with villainous intent can’t get their hands on them. And The Librarian, who is generally a genius of some sort, needs to have a Guardian since, geniuses can’t always be counted on to act rationally and save themselves when they are in the throes of intellect. The series starts off with The Library choosing a new Guardian in the form of Eve and they discover that the villains of the season are killing off those that have potential to become the next Librarian. So, plot happens and the new Guardian is left to train up four apprentice Librarians so to speak, while The Librarian goes off to do his own adventures. She, the Guardian, and the apprentice Librarians end up having their own adventures as she ‘trains’ them to survive.

(I find this whole concept refreshing, perhaps it is the appeal of Ghostbusters, where the nerds can also be action heroes and save the day. The Librarians doesn’t leave me with the slimy aftertaste of Ghostbusters however.)

What I liked about this show is the use of a female protector rather than a male as we normally see in shows such as this (or movies for that matter, the Terminator anyone) and that Eve is smart enough to bring more than just brawn to the table as she deals with a group of ‘geniuses.’ She has to be, at times, the social glue that keeps them all together and interface with those they come in contact with. What was really nice about this show that unlike with Killjoys, her love interest, the Librarian, wasn’t around so by force, Eve couldn’t be reduced to a love interest role. If she often played the role of the fool of the Tarot deck, it was to get the apprentice librarians who play the role of the Pope, the intellect card, to get their head out of theory and into the moment. Which if you have been around any artistic or intellectual types, one knows that sometimes getting them to do anything but talk is like herding cats.

Eve had her flaws. There were times she most certainly didn’t want to be there. She had a short temper and would rather use her gun to solve problems. The lack of clear planning often annoyed her. Along with the Library’s tendency to reorganize any space she tried to make for herself back to the way it was before she rearranged it. The story as the Librarian stands wouldn’t be the same without Eve, as they actually showed in one episode where Eve visited four different timelines where she died in her role as the Guardian protected the four apprentices and how things went horribly wrong in those universes.

I can only hope that the Librarians continues in this vein and in the second season doesn’t reduce Eve to the role of a love interest.

(Once again, to be continued…)

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blogwonderwebsites · 6 years

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Business The Kavanaugh nomination just got even more complicated

Business The Kavanaugh nomination just got even more complicated Business The Kavanaugh nomination just got even more complicated http://www.nature-business.com/business-the-kavanaugh-nomination-just-got-even-more-complicated/

Business

(CNN)Democrats are demanding an immediate halt to Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination process after his increasingly troubled hopes of reaching the Supreme Court were hit by a new allegation of sexual misconduct as a young man.

Kavanaugh quickly denied the new accusation by a female former fellow student about an alleged incident when he was at Yale University in the early 1980s. He branded the story reported by The New Yorker as part of a smear campaign by Democrats, a charge echoed by the White House.

The fresh trouble for Kavanaugh emerged hours after arrangements were finally locked in for a Senate hearing on Thursday at which his first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, will allege that he sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers in high school.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, responded to the new allegation by calling on the Republican committee chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, to order an “immediate postponement” of any further action on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Her intervention is likely to focus extra scrutiny on the accusation reported by The New Yorker and to raise the stakes even further for Thursday’s hearing at which Kavanaugh is expected to present a vehement defense, which now looms as crucial for his confirmation hopes.

“I also ask that the newest allegations of sexual misconduct be referred to the FBI for investigation, and that you join our request for the White House to direct the FBI to investigate the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford as well as these new claims,” Feinstein wrote.

Grassley’s office issued a statement accusing Democrats of again actively withholding information from the rest of the committee only to drop it at “politically opportune moments.”

“It increasingly appears that they are more interested in a political takedown than pursuing allegations through a bipartisan and professional investigative process,” Grassley’s spokesman Taylor Foy said, while pledging to evaluate the new allegations.

Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the man who would enshrine a conservative majority on the Supreme Court for a generation.

But the allegations against him have emerged as a severe complication for Republicans, who are under intense pressure from their grass roots to swiftly confirm him while they seek to mitigate further damage with women voters who strongly favor Democrats in November’s midterm elections.

If Kavanaugh is eventually confirmed, it will be by the tightest of margins because Republicans can only lose one vote in the Senate if all the Democrats stick together.

So Sunday’s developments and Thursday’s hearing will intensify pressure on two of the Republicans seen as the most likely to flip, Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Outgoing Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, is also a potential worry for the White House.

There was no immediate reaction to Sunday’s new allegation from any of that trio.

A new allegation

The New Yorker story focuses on an allegation made by Deborah Ramirez, 53, who was at Yale with Kavanaugh and said she remembers him exposing himself to her at a dormitory party.

In a statement, Kavanaugh issued a strong denial.

“This alleged event from 35 years ago did not happen,” he said in a statement. “The people who knew me then know that this did not happen, and have said so. This is a smear, plain and simple. I look forward to testifying on Thursday about the truth, and defending my good name — and the reputation for character and integrity I have spent a lifetime building — against these last-minute allegations.”

Kerri Kupec, a White House spokeswoman also issued a statement.

“This 35-year-old, uncorroborated claim is the latest in a coordinated smear campaign by the Democrats designed to tear down a good man,” the statement said. “This claim is denied by all who were said to be present and is wholly inconsistent with what many women and men who knew Judge Kavanaugh at the time in college say. The White House stands firmly behind Judge Kavanaugh.”

Ramirez was initially hesitant to speak publicly, she told the magazine, partly because her memory contained gaps because she had been drinking at the time of the alleged incident. She was unsure of Kavanaugh’s role in the incident at first, but after six days of carefully assessing memories and consulting with her attorney, Ramirez told The New Yorker she felt confident enough in her recollections to say she remembers it was Kavanaugh who had exposed himself.

A classmate of Ramirez’s who was not at the party and who declined to be identified, told the magazine that he is “one hundred per cent sure” that either on the night of the party or in the next day or two he was told Kavanaugh was the student who exposed himself to Ramirez.

Several classmates of Ramirez interviewed by The New Yorker or who issued statements to the magazine said they had no memory of the alleged incident or disputed her account of events.

CNN has not independently confirmed The New Yorker’s reporting.

Despite Kavanaugh’s denials, the new allegation will add even more significance to Thursday’s hearing, and may cause new pressure on Republicans to reverse their refusal to ask the FBI to reopen its background check on the nominee, who is currently an appeals court judge.

Kavanaugh is likely to face intensely embarrassing questions at the hearing from Democrats about his drinking, his sexual history and his behavior as a young man, both at Georgetown Prep, a private school outside Washington, and at Yale in the 1980s.

Kavanaugh has vehemently denied he assaulted Ford as a drunken teenager at a party. But he is now facing a fight for his reputation as he battles to keep a cherished prize, a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court from slipping from his grasp before millions of TV viewers.

Though he has repeatedly asked for a chance to give his side of the story, the fact he has to testify must be seen as a weakening of Kavanaugh’s position, since had Ford not agreed to appear, it is likely he would already be days away from being confirmed by the Senate.

And there is always the risk that however credible his presentation, political forces unleashed by the hearing evolve in unexpected ways, defy attempts by his supporters to control them and ultimately weaken and even destroy his nomination.

There is so far no indication that Republican leaders on Capitol Hill or in the White House might begin to consider whether the controversy over Kavanaugh’s past is beginning to hurt his chances of confirmation. But any nomination that becomes becalmed is vulnerable to new attacks and information that could weaken the momentum towards confirmation.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Sunday that multiple senior White House officials had privately expressed concerns last week that a second Kavanaugh accuser would emerge. At least three senior aides said last week they were confident Kavanaugh would be confirmed but warned a second accusation could derail his nomination altogether.

Ford agrees to testify despite complaints over process

After days of contentious deadline nudging negotiations, Ford’s lawyers announced on Sunday that their client

would take part in a hearing on Thursday

, even though several disputes about the terms of the hearing remain unresolved.

“Despite actual threats to her safety and her life, Dr. Ford believes it is important for Senators to hear directly from her about the sexual assault committed against her,” said a statement from her lawyers.

One of the biggest risks of Thursday’s hearing is that it solves nothing.

It’s possible, given accounts of her character by friends who have appeared on television, that Ford emerges as poised and courageous as she makes her allegation.

But there’s also a chance Kavanaugh, who has been practicing for his testimony for days with White House lawyers, also makes a believable case as he testifies after Ford has made her allegation.

Democrats are furious that Grassley, of Iowa, will not call witnesses requested by Ford, and that Trump has refused to order the FBI to re-open the background check process to encompass the alleged assault back in the 1980s.

There are also signs that many Republicans have already made up their minds.

“What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation?” asked South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on “Fox News Sunday,”

arguing that Ford’s case would not meet the standards of evidence

required in a court of law.

Democrats, however, charged that Grassley’s limits on the scope of the hearing reflect indifference to the suffering of a woman who said she was assaulted.

On Sunday, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the

credibility of Kavanaugh’s denials should be called into question

because of what she argued were his dishonest accounts of how he decides cases based on the merits and not on politics.

“His credibility is already very questionable in my mind and in the minds of a lot of my fellow Judiciary Committee members,” Hirono said on “State of the Union.”

“He has an ideological agenda, is very outcome-driven.”

Read More | Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN,

Business The Kavanaugh nomination just got even more complicated, in 2018-09-24 08:48:13

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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blogparadiseisland · 6 years

Text

Business The Kavanaugh nomination just got even more complicated

Business

Grassley’s office issued a statement accusing Democrats of again actively withholding information from the rest of the committee only to drop it at “politically opportune moments.”

Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to be the man who would enshrine a conservative majority on the Supreme Court for a generation.

If Kavanaugh is eventually confirmed, it will be by the tightest of margins because Republicans can only lose one vote in the Senate if all the Democrats stick together.

There was no immediate reaction to Sunday’s new allegation from any of that trio.

A new allegation

The New Yorker story focuses on an allegation made by Deborah Ramirez, 53, who was at Yale with Kavanaugh and said she remembers him exposing himself to her at a dormitory party.

In a statement, Kavanaugh issued a strong denial.

Kerri Kupec, a White House spokeswoman also issued a statement.

Several classmates of Ramirez interviewed by The New Yorker or who issued statements to the magazine said they had no memory of the alleged incident or disputed her account of events.

CNN has not independently confirmed The New Yorker’s reporting.

Ford agrees to testify despite complaints over process

After days of contentious deadline nudging negotiations, Ford’s lawyers announced on Sunday that their client

would take part in a hearing on Thursday

, even though several disputes about the terms of the hearing remain unresolved.

One of the biggest risks of Thursday’s hearing is that it solves nothing.

It’s possible, given accounts of her character by friends who have appeared on television, that Ford emerges as poised and courageous as she makes her allegation.

But there’s also a chance Kavanaugh, who has been practicing for his testimony for days with White House lawyers, also makes a believable case as he testifies after Ford has made her allegation.

There are also signs that many Republicans have already made up their minds.

“What am I supposed to do? Go ahead and ruin this guy’s life based on an accusation?” asked South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on “Fox News Sunday,”

arguing that Ford’s case would not meet the standards of evidence

required in a court of law.

Democrats, however, charged that Grassley’s limits on the scope of the hearing reflect indifference to the suffering of a woman who said she was assaulted.

On Sunday, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the

credibility of Kavanaugh’s denials should be called into question

because of what she argued were his dishonest accounts of how he decides cases based on the merits and not on politics.

“His credibility is already very questionable in my mind and in the minds of a lot of my fellow Judiciary Committee members,” Hirono said on “State of the Union.”

“He has an ideological agenda, is very outcome-driven.”

Read More | Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN,

Business The Kavanaugh nomination just got even more complicated, in 2018-09-24 08:48:13

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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