#convo ;; niko & mel

[nikopark]

location: downtown Northpass tag: @mclvin​

“You’ll have about five actors in your quadrant to dress and design looks for. Grant will send you their measurements, thank you, sweetheart.” Niko released a long-suffering sigh as the voice memo faded out. 

With his own mother volunteering herself to Vanguard’s haunted house endeavor, and dangling a hefty allowance (read: bribe) at his own participation in helping with the festivities, it seemed like Niko had little choice in the matter. A text message came through not long after from Grant; the measurements, as promised. 

Niko considered them for a moment. Helpful as they were, he wanted a model or a mannequin at the very least to really see the costumes come to life. At that exact moment, he caught sight of a familiar permed mop of hair ambling down the sidewalk--with a body that, at a glance, was very close to the numbers Grant sent. He allowed himself precisely one second to contemplate before pulling over and rolling down his window.

“Hey!” He called out. “Mel, right? You busy?”

[zhilan]

was debating on voicing this or not, but saw a convo on talking about something similar so thought to share. Even if there's some true Melby fans, it feels like straight shippers have convinced the Charmed writers to go with Melby, and by extent straight shippers got to speak over queer fans on a queer story. Melby still feels forced and I just can't really back it up. I feel bad for Bethany, who apparently is gay herself, having people have this talk about a character she plays. 1/2

Pre Charmed I was one that never really saw much difference if it was a gay or hetro person playing a gay character. I never saw the big deal about whether a person of x sexuality or race wrote about a gay or poc characters. Charmed changed that, with Melonie Diaz seemingly being anti Abimel, not understanding why people shipp them. The writer stuff is self explanatory at this point, sad it feels like ppl r ok with gays getting less if it's cis het pocs benefiting. (2/2)

Okay, so a lot of things here but first we'll talk about Melby. I agree there are some people who do genuinely like them (but they’re few tbh). I was one of the people genuinely excited for Melby when Ruby was first introduced - especially because I was feeling zero chemistry from MelKat and I was so relieved they replaced Kat with Ruby as a love interest because for me personally, I do think Melby does have chemistry and I was into it. But the season progressed... and nothing. My big problem with Melby is that their entire relationship was developed offscreen, and the very very very little that we do have onscreen doesn't really have much continuity. I mean. Here's a summary of their development (like this is ALL the Melby content leading up to the ILY:

2x12, they meet

2x13, they wake up in bed together (awesome, we never even saw their first kiss LOL), end of episode they decide to be casual

2x19, they break up (even though they weren't even a couple??)

3x02, they're back together without addressing the issue with magic

3x06, they break up, again. make up again.

3x12, they're saying i love you

Like... literally WHAT?! what?!?! I've seen many poorly written wlw relationships (because that seems to be a standard for a lot of shows) but damn, Melby takes it to a whole new level. And I think the thing that makes it even more frustrating, is that the fact is literally all the other wlw ships, canon and non-canon (that's Melko, Melda, Melkat and Abimel) ... ALL have better writing, better build-up and better development that Melby has. It's the fact that we've had better wlw writing before this, that's why it's harder to just be okay with it because we know the writers are actually capable of doing better, so why are we stuck with a non-existent ship instead? I’d take Melko, Melda, Abimel and even Melkat whom I don’t really like - over Melby because they all actually have content. And Jada, Niko, Kat and Abigael are their own person, instead of a love interest written to fit Mel in whatever way is convenient (which is a whole other issue too). And it feels even more unfair when you consider Melby only gets about a tenth of screentime compared to the het ships on the show when Mel is just as much a lead character as her sisters.

And so yeah. And it sucks and it’s annoying because it’s mostly the straight people shoving it down our throats - blaming the lack of investment for Melby on racism when it literally has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with - again, the lack of everything! (And omfg, is2g when it’s the white cishets telling qwoc who ship Abimel we’re racist.... stfu perhaps??) Honestly, Melby scenes for me are cute - on their own, without context bec with context it just sucks. They’re enjoyable, but they’re not exciting because the best part about shipping is the build-up, the waiting-for-it-to-happen. Melby had none of that. And that’s usually the part where you start getting invested on a ship, yk. At least that’s how it is for me. 

As for Bethany, yeah I agree it sucks because... I mean I don’t know her, but I follow her Insta and she seems like a genuinely nice person (with a super cute cat!) and idk I mean I haven’t seen people tagging her or anything when expressing disappointment with Melby so I don’t think she’s aware of the discourse. (I hope, because she deserves better than that) but honestly none of the criticism for Melby falls on Bethany. It’s not her fault at all. It’s on the showrunners for having it play out the way that it has.

And Melonie. I mean yeah. I have nothing against her, really. But as far as wlw representation goes, we know that she has a voice in the writers room from one of her interviews and even Abimel aside since that’s not the canon ship, I feel like it’s important to notice that even for Melby she doesn’t really push for more of it. She seems very content with what we’re given (which is next to nothing lbr) and I’m kinda meh about it — and I agree this is where the difference between having hets play gay characters matter. Because gay people will usually push for better gay representation because it’s personal to them and they know exactly what it means to the audience. Like look at how Chyler Leigh from Supergirl is constantly pushing for better wlw. And of course that’s not to say hets never do that because some do (like Azie Tesfai, for example bless her soul), but then for some it’s just a job. And to be clear, I’m not hating on Melonie for not doing more, but I think it’s also true that an actual lgbt actor might make more effort.

** I always think there should definitely be poc writers for poc characters though, that’s non-negotiable. And lgbt writers for shows with lgbt characters. Charmed is lacking in both, unfortunately. 

[c4nt1]

good stuff 2018.

* Woke up bullet wound-free. Celebratory gun shooting is dumb. – January 1st

* Received reddit gold from /r/analog as a reward for winning best male portrait in their ’Best of the Year' Awards for 2017. – January 9th

* Niko made me a great breakfast sandwich. Sounds really simple, but that shit was bomb. – January 19th

* Met and hung out with Primo, a local rapper. He’s pretty cool. Looking forward to possible projects in the future. – January 28th

* Had a really good round table convo with Gabe, Niko, and Epocast. – February 1st

* Visited Amsterdam. It was lit. – February 9th

* Hung with Mom, and ran into/caught up with an old friend. – March 9th

* Attended Steve and Mel’s wedding, and partied w/ my Minnesota friends. – March 15th

* Hung out with Kaitlin, and got to learn more about her. Also, visited the Speed Art Museum for the first time. – April 15th

* I got to hang with Yazmin after work. Had some insightful exchanges with her. – April 30th

* Finally got my hands on a Pentax 6x7. I love this thing. – May 11th

* Witnessed a shooting star this morning at my bus stop. – May 15th

* Had a great night at Kaiju w/ people I love. – May 18th

* Had a Krispy Kreme doughnut fresh out of the oven for the first time. That shit was incredible to say the least. – June 8th

* Visited Falls of the Ohio with Bianca. I have not been here since Josh passed. It was nice to see it again. – June 17th

* Explored Red River Gorge with Gabe and Bianca. – June 24th

* Had a really fun game night with the guys. Also, enjoyed a victory outing with Bianca, Niko, and Chris. – July 7th

* Stawdew Valley finally has a co-op mode! – August 3rd

* Went to Minnesota for the weekend and hung with my Northern buds. – August 16th

* Played some Melee with Gray after training for a few weeks. I'm not the best, but my game's improved a lot. – August 30th

* Found some long lost FP-100C film. Rare af. – September 12th

* Finally got some Xbox 360 controller batteries, and started playing Deadly Premonition. – September 16th

* Got my visa for China. Timing is too close for comfort. – September 27th

* Went to Beijing to visit Shatrice for Golden Week. – October 1st

* Stylosa, one of the main influences on how I play Overwatch, and competitive video games in general, acknowledged me during pre-registration day at BlizzCon. – November 1st

* Experienced the opening ceremony in the Overwatch world cup arena. It was the first time in awhile I teared up from overwhelming joy. Also, got really close to the world cup stage during a game! – November 2nd

* Watched the Overwatch World Cup with Evan. – November 3rd

* Got to see the ocean today at Seal Beach. – November 4th

* King of the Hill is on Hulu! – November 6th

* Found a cool thrift/army surplus store. – November 30th

* Went to Minneapolis for the weekend to hang with peeps and go to a DJ show. – December 14th

* Managed to get an Emergency Exit row seat on my way back home, bought a Nintendo Switch, and ate some butter cake that Abbi made. – December 16th

* Gabe and Bryant came back to town for a visit. – December 19th

* My Minnesota friends sent me some Earl’s Cheese Puffs in the mail. Blessed af. – December 24th

* My supervisor let me take New Years Eve off on short notice, and retroactive PTO for Christmas Eve. – December 27th

* Had a good New Years Eve with friends and Smash. – December 31st