#edit: i just realized it’s taken out of context and doesn’t even include the examples from flashpoint 😭 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

incorrectgundamwingquotes · 6 years

Text

Child Soldiers in Gundam Wing

((I was just trying to edit this post and somehow deleted everything (insert internal screaming here) ANYWAY. Same thing, some minor changes, should look familiar if you got the zine... ;) ))

Child Soldiers and the AC Era

The young age of anime protagonists is something so common that fans no longer even pay it much notice, but in the context of Gundam Wing, the age of both the main and side characters can say a lot about the world itself.

It seems the age of some of the highest ranks (Treize, Une, Zechs, Noin) were incredibly young; Treize was only 24 and the others just 19. The young age of the soldiers seems to be consistent, because both Zechs and Noin were involved in combat operations from even before the start of the official series when they were only 13/14 years old. The Gundam Pilots were not considered traditional soldiers, so it is possible 15-year-olds were still considered too young for actual warfare - but then you have volunteer soldiers like Hilde, and she was only 15 too.

I believe the prevalent use of child soldiers in the AC era shows just how awful things were in the series proper.

Definition of Child Soldier

I think it’s safe to assume that the AC timeline follows some of the norms set by real life, so I’m going to use the UN’s definition of ‘child soldier’: they are children (defined by the “Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)”) as persons under the age of 18 who are associated with military organizations, such as state armed forces and non-state armed groups. These children “may be trained and used for combat, assigned to support roles such as porters or messengers, or used for tactical advantage as human shields or for political advantage in propaganda.” This can vary from nation to nation dependent on national laws regarding the age of majority, but those under 18 years of age is a safe default to assume regarding who is and is not considered a child soldier.

Why do people use child soldiers?

Child soldiers are used because they can be easily manipulated and will follow orders without question, either because they don’t know any better or because they’re being threatened/coerced into compliance. However, child soldiers are not the go-to resource for military power; they are a last resort used by desperate nations and/or factions. People aren’t using children in battle unless they’re out of other options, because not only is it morally bankrupt, it’s also bad for public image. Nationalism taken to its extreme proves to be a driving force for factions seeking political/militaristic power, but when all you have are mountains of dead children wearing your uniforms, you lose public support very quickly. It is also non-sustainable; leaders aren’t going to sacrifice their future workers by sending children out to die unless they absolutely must.

Now this isn’t necessarily true for recruitment; taking the United States as an example, the military recruits and recruits hard in high schools across the country, eager to pull in fresh graduates. However, the focus of this kind of recruitment is on graduates, who are typically 18 years old or will be 18 years old soon, and thus excluded from the protection of UNCRC.

There is also the possibility of military schools/academies, which is what Noin, Zechs, and Treize were enrolled in as children. However, graduation from such schools is not a direct route into military duty, it is a step: students still attend normal lessons (in addition to military lessons, such as history and fitness courses), but they certainly aren’t considered soldiers-in-training or the like. Just like their public school-counterparts, they’re expected to graduate from schooling at the age of 18 and then decide if they want to attend college/enter the armed forces/etc. But again, by graduation, they are 18 and considered legal adults. No military leader is going to traipse into a military academy and drag the top students of that school into an actual combat situation because they are actual children. This is true even for child prodigies; someone is still going to raise hell about a 13-year-old in a combat operation, even if that 13-year-old can pilot a mobile suit like a badass.

Alliance’s War Machine and the Use of Child Soldiers

The AC timeline is one that has seen decades of violent unrest and conflicts. Since the construction and mass emigration of people to the space colonies and the creation of the Alliance, conflicts have risen and been violently put down in a vicious cycle that eventually lead to the rise and fall of the politician Heero Yuy and the Sanc Kingdom, creation of mobile suits and OZ, and then Operation Meteor.

I’m going to focus on the Alliance, as they were an organized military force with a traditional set-up. I think through decades of on-and-off again warfare, population numbers may have seen a decline, leaving a growing vacuum of military manpower that the Alliance started getting desperate to fill. This would explain the simply absurd ages of their recruitment, exemplified by both Noin and Zechs as seen or otherwise referenced repeatedly in both Frozen Teardrop and Episode Zero.

Both Noin and Zechs are said to have graduated from the Lake Victoria Academy with the highest scores.

At ten, they were handpicked by Treize to take part in a Specials military assignment to suppress a revolt in Mogadishu in AC 186.

At 13, Noin takes part in an operation to quell rebel forces, also led by Treize.

At 15, Zechs is running around with the Specials—already dubbed the so-called “LIGHTNING COUNT”—to repress a terrorist attack on the Alliance in AC 191.

Even as teenage prodigies in their field, that doesn’t excuse the fact that they are still children, and they—as children—are still being used in active combat. And no one even seems to bat an eye.

Then we have Treize, who is introduced in the series proper at age 24. Wading through his history (again, through sources from both FT and EZ), we see he started as a piloting instructor for MS pilots in AC 188. Presumably he was 17 years old given that he was born in AC 171, but it could be close enough to 18 that it wouldn’t be an issue except he’s the INSTRUCTOR, which meant not only did he go through enough training and education to earn the credentials to be an instructor, but should have also gotten the field experience needed as well. Before the age of 17/18.

In AC 193, General Catalonia passes and Treize becomes the head of OZ and the Specials. 22-year-old Treize. He may be a charismatic genius, but were there really no alternatives that held more political power and military experience? Taking WW2 as an example, the leadership for both the Axis and Allied powers were between the ages of 50-70 years. The closest in age to Treize would be the leaders of the Hitler Youth, who were only pulled into active duty during the end of the war when Nazi Germany was running out of manpower. It was a move of desperation.

Through these three—and possibly Une but her history is not really explicated—we can see that the Alliance (and by extension, OZ) has a history of not just indoctrinating and training at disturbingly early ages, but also has no qualms about using child soldiers. Generally, people of high military ranks will have years upon years of service; recent graduates don’t just get to be base commanders or colonels. The fact that all of them rise in power at very young ages and seize high ranks shows a military that is either lacking in even the most basic of moral integrity (again, using child soldiers as active combatants is morally bankrupt) or revealing their desperation to fill the ranks.

This is not to say that they didn’t rightfully deserve their titles; these three are the elite of OZ, and they most certainly earned that recognition. But how would anyone know that they were such highly-skilled soldiers, unless they were actually put through combat? It’s not that their titles were earned at such an early age that’s baffling. The fact that they had the opportunity to earn them so young is the issue. Imagine learning that your neighbor’s 10-year-old is so good at piloting a fighter aircraft that they receive military honors; one of the first things I’d want to know was how did they learn to pilot an aircraft, swiftly followed by why were they even piloting an aircraft to begin with?

Treize is even more egregious in this context. He is the best of the best, but the military hierarchy isn’t based solely on skill – it also includes experience. Experience only comes with time, and no matter how many battles Treize may have won, it doesn’t mean he would rank higher in the hierarchy than those with 20+ years of military experience.

The only logical reason I can think of that would allot Treize the power to become head of OZ and the Specials is that there wasn’t much in the way of competition: everyone else was dead. As noted with the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany, leaders and soldiers as young as Treize, Zechs, and Noin could be explained by a lack of manpower. After years of mass emigrations to space and violent disputes, it’s reasonable to conclude that the Alliance was running out of soldiers and it’s likely entire generations were lost in conflicts prior to the start of the main series.

Gundam Pilots and OZ’s Reaction

The trend of young soldiers is continued into the main series, as shown with then 19-year-old Noin as base commander and instructor of the Lake Victoria Academy. She was responsible for training the Specials recruits, who were ready to graduate into active combat; all were considered young, though not as young as a Gundam Pilot – as shown when Noin is shocked and horrified to realize Wufei is just a “boy.”

While Noin is taken aback by Wufei’s age, she later joins Zechs in tracking down the Gundams and their pilots, and it certainly wasn’t to help them or free them from the influence/command of the resistance. Perhaps she is justified because she lost men to Wufei’s “underhanded” tactics, but she has no qualms helping Zechs find Heero later in order to engage in a duel. She aided a fellow adult (both she and Zechs are 19 at this time in the show) set up and carry out a duel to the death with a 15-year-old. The Gundam Pilots are considered enemy combatants, yes, but now there’s no hesitation when facing them on a battlefield, no second thoughts or remorse that they will have to kill literal children.

Because they aren’t children to Noin or Zechs, and are definitely not to OZ, at least not anymore. They’re enemy combatants. As seen with Soviet soldiers in WW2, anyone in a Nazi uniform is an enemy combatant afforded no mercy – even if the person in question is a 12-year-old with little to no training, pushed to the front lines by a desperate and dying command.

A good comparison for OZ would be to Imperial Japan in 1944: men under 20 were enlisted and at this time, kamikaze bombers were around 17 years old. In 1945, they used “volunteer soldiers” known as the Tekketsu Kinnotai in the Battle of Okinawa who were between 14-17 years of age; this parallels OZ’s reach into the space colonies exemplified with Hilde Schbeiker, a volunteer soldier who was only 15 years old. This would fit with the picture of OZ that the main series paints: extremely young leadership as exemplified by the main antagonists of the series, the young age of the Specials who are essentially the elite of OZ’s military power, and then the young age of the volunteer space army.

Then there is the extreme desensitization to the age of the Gundam Pilots. It’s initially met with surprise (ref: Noin vs. Wufei) or doubt (Duo’s publicized capture that is later handwaved as OZ propaganda by the general populace), and yet when met by soldiers face-to-face, there’s no pause to consider the moral consequences of imprisoning, fighting, or killing a teenager. Yes, the Gundam Pilots were trying to kill their enemies, but the age difference should give the OZ soldiers some pause to consider the implications…unless there was less of an age difference and/or a consistent desensitization and normalization of child soldiers.

This isn’t limited to just Alliance/OZ as well. Later in the series, we see members of White Fang trying to convince/coerce Duo into joining them. They know he’s young given that they know his identity and yet they still want him to join and become a figurehead for their organization, and to be active in their battle operations. When a group is using children to fight their battles and lead their forces, they’re not doing so because they’re well-supplied and powerful; they’re doing so because they need to and have no other options.

While it’s doubtful all factions were manned exclusively by child soldiers—we see quite a few military personnel who look older (but given that Treize looks like he’s in his 30s…)—there’s probably a fair amount of actual adult soldiers around. But not enough to keep a standing military force running, hence the use of the young.

Other Thoughts

Normalization of child soldiers would explain the makeup of Alliance/OZ, and it helps explain the extremely young ages of the highest-ranking members of OZ. It can also be naturally assumed that the colonial resistance was equal if not more desperate than the Earth factions (thus the whole ‘Gundams piloted by highly-trained and rather unstable teens’ thing). This desperation and unsustainable drive for soldiers helps to explain the whole OZ split with mobile dolls and then the ending with White Fang and Libra. OZ wanted to use mobile dolls to fight their battles because they were running out of kids to send into war. White Fang in contrast orchestrates and nearly succeeds in kick-starting Armageddon, barely stopped by the Gundam Pilots

But after everything is said and done, everyone across both the Earth Sphere and space colonies are just totally cool with peace now? After decades of violent hostilities, they’re going to listen to Relena’s pleas for peace? I would argue that of course they were: as a community, they had war fatigue and scores of dead.

Frozen Teardrop and the [Improbable Age] Retcon

Frozen Teardrop tries to explain the young age of the characters, which essentially boils down to this: world leaders live longer lives and so were reluctant to give any authority to their children so that they could keep their power. By the time they were ready to retire, the 1st generation believed the 2nd generation were “unused to having power” and so decided to pass on the torch to the “bright young minds of the 3rd generation.”

That is absolutely insane.

This would translate as: Baby Boomers are finally retiring, and decide to pass on the reign of power to Gen Z. While there’s nothing unusual about an older generation wanting to keep their power as long as possible, there is no way they’re going to hand that power over to “the bright young minds of the 3rd generation” because the 2nd generation was “unused to having power.” Because you know who else is unused to wielding power because of the 1st generation? The 3rd generation. The only time where ‘power’ (assumed to be political influence and/or military might) skipped a generation was when the middle generation was wiped out due to war (e.g. Russia post-WW2, who lost an entire generation to the devastation). Fascist Grandpa is not going to hand over power to the grandkids after years of hoarding it for himself. Instead, the younger generation either waits it out and lets the passage of time kill off the competition or takes the power forcibly (e.g. voting or violence).

In Conclusion

The general military workforce in the AC era is probably young as a whole, especially in comparison to real life standards. The fact that the Eve Wars were fought by a bunch of indoctrinated, hormonal youths would explain why character motivations are completely wild. These kids suddenly have a lot of power and a lot of sway, and they’re trying to figure out the meaning of the battles they’re fighting while they’re fighting them because the lies they’ve been fed since childhood aren’t holding up.

In short: the kids aren’t alright, and no one is helping them.

#gundam wing #not incorrect quotes #gundam wing meta #heero yuy #duo maxwell #trowa barton #wufei chang #zechs merquise #milliardo peacecraft #lucrezia noin #treize khushrenada #une #gw meta

169 notes · View notes

lightsandlostbells · 6 years

Text

Skam France season 3, episode 5 reaction

The opening clip gave me flashbacks to this SNL Totino’s commercial, another classic of gay cinema, so I FULLY expect to see some hot pizza roll action later this season.

Episode 5

Clip 1 - Still no yellow curtains???

Dramatic music. Lucas and Eliott are passionately kissing. The camera swoops over parts of their bodies. Eliott is smiley, Lucas gets in a kiss to Eliott’s nose. The level of intimacy is very strong, that shot of their legs tangled together is nice. I think it’s great that they didn’t back down from the kissing and physical contact in this scene; it’s not that it needs to be very explicit, just respectful and on par to what they’d give for a het couple, and they filmed Lucas and Eliott about the same as they did Charles and Manon last season. Skam was so good in how it depicted intimacy between Isak and Even; I consider it one of the defining features of S3, setting it above other gay romances in media for its lack of skittishness and double standards, and it’s been a consistent concern of mine that the remakes will be a step back in that regard. This clip was definitely reassuring.

Eliott asks Lucas if he’s his first guy, and Lucas just snorts so Eliott takes that as a yes. Lucas asks the same question and Eliott replies with this Even-worthy eyebrow raise, so Lucas is like, oh, I see! They laugh. So I that wasn’t an actual answer, lol? But I took it as Eliott having some experience with dudes. Could be a variety of things from kissing a boy to hooking up with one to a full-fledged relationship with a guy. Or the Mikael incident, if they include that in S4. They’ve apparently changed a huge amount, but that’s actually one detail that doesn’t need to be changed the way the bus storyline has to be, for instance.

We get some whispery voiceover as Eliott asks Lucas what he thought of him when he saw him the first time in the common room. We cut to them lying shirtless, so this is later in the day, after things got more heated. The lighting is very warm and golden, it’s a very romantic staging. Like there might as well be white curtains billowing in the breeze. (The curtains are white, but not billowy.)

Eliott volunteers that the first time he saw Lucas wasn’t in the common room, but on his first day in the corridor. Basically he describes the trailer to Lucas. Lucas didn’t see him but he was all Eliott saw. So that revelation happened fast. Not a surprise to anyone who saw the trailer (or you know, saw OG Skam) but it cuts out some of the mystery for Lucas - like Isak was doubting Even’s interest through much of the season, especially in this episode and afterwards, and when Sonja said the relationship was fake. Isak was so taken aback by Even revealing it in the last episode in part because he (and the audience) had doubted it so often. But Lucas has this reassurance from Eliott right from the beginning. Lucas just has so much more to go off from Eliott at this point: Eliott is more upfront telling Lucas how great he is, Eliott has said he wants to break up with Lucille and have a relationship with someone else who’s not necessarily a girl, Eliott didn’t choose plans with Lucille over a day with Lucas, Eliott told Lucas he wanted the double date to be just the two of them. Even when Eliott disappeared for a few days, he followed it up by apologizing to Lucas and saying he was sick. And that’s nice for Lucas, that he’s not doubting himself as much, but I have to wonder how this will affect the story? Or their relationship trajectory? When Eliott cuts off their relationship, it will come out of nowhere even more than in Skam.

Lucas whispers about what Eliott would have done if he didn’t go to the common room, or Lucas came to the bus earlier or later, as they lay there in their underwear with Eliott on his back, in between lots of kissing. The camera keeps cutting back and forth between kissing and talking, different angles, lots of pans, etc.

Eliott saying that he imagines two paths when he has a choice to make, but it drives him mad when he doesn’t know the outcome of the one he doesn’t take. So Lucas brings up parallel universes. (Piano music starts playing at this point, which seems to happen at significant Lucas/Eliott turning points, like the first time Lucas saw Eliott, or when Lucas played piano for Eliott. Like in OG, this conversation might have a huge effect on Eliott and how he sees himself and their relationship.) When Lucas makes a choice, there are all these other Lucases making other choices, like he’s surfing in Bali or in he’s in a NYC skyscraper signing a deal. I don’t know if these are things Lucas actually would like to experience in his life, or of they’re just examples of things that are so far and distant from his present reality, fun fantasies.

Eliott asks if maybe New York businessman Lucas didn’t jump off the building because he burned out. Lucas says that’s awful, Eliott asks if he’s ever thought about it? That’s good foreshadowing, a good hint as to Eliott’s state of mind.

Eliott says he doesn’t believe in parallel universes, though he doesn’t explain why (like Even say it made him feel lonely). Lucas says there are Lucases and Eliotts in other universes who are together right now. Lucille calls and Eliott groans, then says Eliott #425 can go talk to her, heh. Lucas #1 is very happy with that decision. They lie on each other and it blurs as the clip ends, as they fall asleep.

This is one of those clips that I completely get why people would love it, it’s very apparent, and I don’t think it’s bad, not at all, but at the same time it’s just personally not my thing. I’m sorry! Again, I understand why this clip blew up. It’s just ... similar to how I feel about cupcakes. People love cupcakes. I love some cupcakes! But I don’t care for a lot of cupcakes, like the really fancy ones with tons of frosting, because most frosting is too sugary for me. Do I get why people like the cupcakes with mountains of frosting, though? Or why people prefer the frosting to the cake itself? Absolutely.

Most of my issue is with the editing. There had so many cuts and jumps and I don’t think it served the mood or purpose of this clip. Actually, I found it really distracting. I could never just relax into the moment because of how the camera was spinning and panning and cutting between different points in time, something that has been done in various scenes in Skam and the remakes, but not usually with weighty dialogue happening at the same time? I found it hard to focus on what they were saying.

On that note, I don’t think the way it was shot was the best way to demonstrate to their chemistry. I think they have quite good chemistry! But there was so much moving around and cutting between moments that it began to feel like a series of poses rather than two actors working off each other, if that makes sense.

It just felt a bit too much like this clip was a perfume ad, lol. It’s very heavy and sensual and romantic, and it’s beautiful, but it’s not what I prefer from the Skam universe. It takes away some of the rawness and vulnerability of this kid’s coming out story - something that they’re still integrating into the show by keeping many of Isak’s struggles in Lucas - and makes it more full throttle OTT mature romance. Like - this feels like a romance between adults, not teenagers, and I don’t mean because of the level of intimacy/shirtlessness, more like the level of confidence, the way it doesn’t feel like they’re figuring things out, but that this is familiar territory (and for Lucas at least, it is not). And well, another some of that is because the actors are adults, too.

There’s some more stuff I can say but again, it’s just not my style for this material. In other contexts I would eat up this hardcore French romanticism, lol.

Clip 2 - Guess Who(’s not staying for dinner)

Lucas wakes up alone at 14:34 on Saturday. It’s later that day, so what’s his excuse for missing Basile’s party? Eliott is not actually there to keep him occupied. Is he just going to lay in bed and smell Eliott’s pillow or something? I realize he’s distracted but isn’t he going to be receiving texts from the guys?

Eliott left him a note on the pillow. It’s a hedgehog in bed, but when you open the note it’s a raccoon and a hedgehog in bed together with a little heart. AWWWW. That’s so cute. It’s so cute I won’t make any interspecies erotica jokes. The note says “Eliott number 3546 is a lucky guy” and that Lucas is handsome when he’s sleeping. Lucas looks bummed, though. I mean, I would be if I went to bed sleeping beside someone who looked like that and I woke up alone.

Lucas goes into the kitchen where everyone else is. Manon has been up early cooking, because she slept on the couch and got woken up by the neighbors. Lucas is like, oh sorry, forgot I’m not in my room anymore. WHY ARE YOU APOLOGIZING, IT’S YOUR ROOM. SHE HAS NEVER LIVED IN IT. (Also, I don’t think she meant anything by it, but her mentioning that she woke up early hearing the noise from the couch comes across as oddly passive-aggressive.)

But Manon is OK with it, because Lucas needed his room more! Eliott seemed super cool! UMMMM this is kinda weird. I know Eskild said the same thing but the situation seemed less pointed, like Manon’s borderline suggesting I know you needed the bed more than I did, Lucas, because of all the gay sex you were having last night.

The roommates all met Eliott when he left and Lucas covers by saying he’s a good friend who got too drunk so Lucas offered him a place to sleep. Manon is all “OK!” in a way that is too casual to be truly casual, if you know what I mean. Lucas gets on the defensive and says what, we can’t bring friends over here now? Now Manon is all, “OK...” in a way that says calm down, dude.

Mika eyes Lucas as he leaves. I don’t think they’ve really built that relationship in a substantial way, but at least they added that brief glimpse to show that Mika has Lucas on his mind?

Clip 3 - Cake!

Lucas and Manon walk into school, Lucas carrying baked goods made by Manon. Manon gets a call from Charles and ignores it. There needs to be a substantial Lucas and Manon heart-to-heart at some point. They’ve set up too much between them - I feel like their dynamic is more developed than Lucas and Mika, or Lucas and Yann this season.

The girl squad + Lucas sit around and eat cake. Well, the girls eat cake, Lucas is sitting back in his seat with his arms crossed. I know you are thinking about Eliott, dude, but there’s this thing people do called “eating our feelings” that works ... not very well in the long-term, but provides short-lived distraction and satisfaction. I recommend it!

There’s a mattress in the common room now and Manon asks, “Don’t you stop napping after kindergarten?” and I like Manon fine but she must have put some crack in that cake. Lmao, what human being is going to be like NAPS??? AN ABSURD TRADITION MEANT FOR TODDLERS. Like when you’re a little kid, you don’t want to nap, you want to run around and keep being an asshole; it’s when you grow up and become miserable that you start to appreciate the art of shutting your eyes in the middle of the day. Anyway, Daphne said the headmaster gave the students the right to nap in the common room. You know, that is a legit quality use for the common room, tbh. Everyone would use the nap room.

The downside is, as Lucas accurately points out, people are going to bang on that mattress. Well, I guess they could like … require the door to the room to be open at all time or something. Or put up a giant sign saying THERE ARE SECURITY CAMERAS IN THIS ROOM AT ALL TIMES. They don’t need to install security cameras for real, just use the sign to dissuade people. (Who am I kidding, none of that will stop the students from banging on that mattress.) Daphne is incensed at the notion, but Imane’s like, hookup-land is what’s gonna bring people here. LMAO. Again, not wrong.

They talk about the ugly mural some more (God I still do not get why everyone treats that mural like it’s a nude painting of one of the orcs from Lord of the Rings, it’s just a somewhat outdated mural, my eyes would glaze right over it). Lucas says he’s waiting for Eliott about the mural and Manon does a little “mhm” so he hurriedly changes the subject (good subtle detail).

They discuss getting WiFi in the room and one of the nerd dudes who showed up to the first meeting, who has been sitting in the corner, starts talking about how they can get set up WiFi. The nerd dudes have the password. Everyone is happy! But nerd dude says he would like compensation. Daphne assumes they are talking about her breasts as she is showing ample cleavage. Nerd dude says no, they were talking about the cakes. LMAO. I like this guy. Manon hands over a cake, the other girls are sad at the loss of cake. Understandable, but it seems like a fair trade to me. Also, there are multiple cakes and baked goods on that table, just scarf it down before the nerds come back for more.

Manon signs off with, “Bye, bitches!” The others talk about how weird she’s being. Well, yeah, but I’m wondering how her Charles-related sadness translates into her saying, “Bye, bitches!” Trying to put on a super happy and lighthearted facade? Would go along with all the baking.

This scene is cute and all, and I assume there will be relevance to something in the plot later on but ... what does it have to do with Lucas’ story or his POV? Other than a brief look at his closed-off body language (which didn’t last long since he was very engaged in the conversation) and a brief mention of Eliott and the mural, something that has happened before? There just didn’t feel like a point to his story in this clip, whereas every scene in Skam S3 felt like it had a point to Isak’s POV and advanced his storyline, telling us something about his mental and emotional state. I know that the other seasons of Skam didn’t have such a narrow focus, but usually there was some tie-in to what the protagonist was feeling. IDK, is this to foreshadow him and Eliott fucking on the couch? More hinting at Manon being off her game and having Charles problems? My guess is that they felt like they needed a girl squad scene sometime this week. If they had unlimited time for these episodes, I wouldn’t care if they had clips like this, but they do have a time limit, and so I think it’s fair to question if they’re making the best use of it.

Daphne is by no means required to have a boyfriend, I still root for lesbian Daphne at the end of the day, but that nerd dude who asked for cake instead of cleavage is already a better option than Basile.

Clip 4 - Lucas out of the loop

Lucas waits for Eliott outside of class, but instead it’s his bro Raptor Alex who exits. Lucas asks if the guy in his class is there. You know, the guy. Clearly the only guy who matters in Alex’s class.

Alex says Eliott isn’t there much, he freaked out in class the other day and doesn’t go anymore. Oh no :( I wonder what he means by “freaked out” though, like hopefully people weren’t gossiping about whatever happened? It didn’t make its way to Lucas, in that case.

The boy squad comes around the corner. Lucas completely phones it in when he apologizes to Basile. Not that I care about hurting Basile’s feelings, as my opinion of him is well-documented, but Lucas does, and he’s not even trying to sound sorry. And the family excuse is lazy and not believable at all, like with Isak it was also predictable but he put a smidge of effort into it. Lucas says the excuse like he’s on auto-pilot. The boys just let the excuse roll by, uninterested.

Lucas asks what happened at the party and Arthur says Basile went into the bathroom with Daphne and he won’t tell them what happened. Basile say she stayed on her knees in front of him for a long time. Which I take to mean she was barfing and Basile was holding her hair back. Also her hair smelled good according to him. SIGH. I’m sure this is the start of Basile/Daphne or whatever, but you know, it would be easier for me to buy that Basile is really a good guy if he did not describe Daphne in such an objectifying way. If you’re a fucking gentleman, why are you making it sound like she sucked your dick? I know toxic masculinity, ~it’s realistic, blah blah. They could’ve had Yann and Arthur make the crude jokes and Basile get serious and tell them not to talk about Daphne that way, it would’ve been character development. (Actually, now I’m wondering if there will be a moment like that later in the season. I can’t support Basile/Daphne at all at this point, but I feel like if they want to make him worthy of her in the slightest, he’s going to have to renounce his sleazy, perverted shtick very clearly.)

Lucas looks back after the boys as they leave him behind, not interested in telling him more, barely caring about his absence. He’s just not part of the gang right now. IDK, I think they should’ve directed Axel to play this more remorsefully - not his fault, I feel like they rushed this scene for time reasons? For instance when he sees the boys and apologizes to Basile, there wasn’t time for anything to land, like he didn’t care much, not even that he was disappointed in himself for forgetting. Just this look from Lucas at the end signals what he might be feeling.

Also, very weird choice to put this clip on Tuesday and the one with the girls on Monday? It makes way more sense to switch the two, because basically Lucas must not have interacted with his friends at all yesterday. Even though we’ve seen he has a class with Arthur and we’ve gotten a clip of that class on a Monday (although I don’t know how French class schedules work).

Clip 5 - Argh

When I started to watch this clip, I noticed it was 2 minutes and 43 seconds long and was like … are you kidding me? If this is the scene, we’re going to just fly through it? What in the fresh hell?

For comparison, the OG clip was 4 minutes and 36 seconds. And it didn’t have the end credits as this scene does, and it didn’t have this opening part with Lucas and Imane (or Isak and Sana).

Without the credits, this clip goes to 2:22. Eliott and Lucas meet outside starting at :55. Meaning there was about a minute and a half for the conversation that defines that second half of the season. Yikes.

Lucas and Imane are in class, I think they’re taking a test. She helps him out when he forgets something. There’s a lot on his mind and he’s not doing the best he can, I guess. Anyway, thoughtful of Imane to help him cheat (if this is a test)?

He gets a text from Eliott - is this a test or not? It’s not terribly important but LMAO at this teacher who (correctly) notices two of her students passing drugs under the table before class, but fails to notice the same two talking during an exam and one of them whipping out his phone during a silent class period. Cheating must not be a main concern of hers. Eliott is waiting outside the room, grinning at him through the window. So we have students talking to each other, looking at their phones, and non-verbally communicating with other students through the window. Now I’m really surprised that the teacher noticed the weed.

Lucas gets up to meet Eliott outside. Lol, really, dude? He’s going to get a bad grade just because he can’t wait a few minutes. I mean, the desperation is funny, but Lucas is not the brightest here.

Although I laughed a lot when Imane said he wasn’t done and Lucas was like, “Minimalism, Imane. Minimalism.” That might be the best line he’s had on this show.

Imane seems concerned but I’m not sure if she suspects anything’s up with him or if she’s just like how did I get partnered with such a dumbass.

So this clip was ... not good. Bad. It was bad.

This is the kind of content I feared we would be getting from Skam France based on the first two seasons. Luckily it’s been better than this on average, I really do think the show has improved! But not here. It’s such an important scene that I’m disappointed this is the one they bungled. There are multiple things that are ill-advised or underwhelming about it.

I’m aware that I can be harsh/nitpicky/critical about these remakes, but I really don’t intend to come from a place of default negativity, or like, FUCK THIS SHOW FOR EXISTING. And I don’t want to crush people’s buzz if they enjoy something! The reason I get so nitpicky is because I feel like it helps me better understand film-making overall. If a clip just doesn’t feel right, then I want to try to parse out why it didn’t work for me.

For starters, choosing to place this extremely intimate, private, honest, confessional scene outside. And not in some isolated space, but where tons of people are. You can fucking see students walking around behind Eliott when he’s glancing in the window at Lucas. As Lucas exits the classroom, you can see a girl headed in the same direction as him. I mean … what?? They are not remotely alone? Not only does it ruin the atmosphere of the scene, it tanks the plausibility of it.

Because Eliott’s waiting for him outside, and holy shit, gives Lucas a kiss on the mouth. Dude! People will definitely see you. He knows that he’s Lucas’ first boy(friend) per their conversation in bed, so what is he doing? I guess it’s cute but also, not a great idea to out Lucas like that Lucas hasn’t been with a guy before, Lucas has been deliberating no-homo-ing their interactions in front of his friends, Lucas has been trying to play up his relationship with Chloe (for instance slinging that arm around her when Eliott came to talk last episode, not to mention, you know, dating her while flirting with Eliott) so it’s a completely reasonable and likely assumption that Lucas is closeted and doesn’t want people to know he likes guys. I don’t think Eliott is a bad person for doing this, but it seems weirdly insensitive of him. (Even tried to kiss Isak in public in episode 8, but it was while he was manic, and I don’t want to make that same assumption of Eliott here.)

Eliott wants Lucas to leave with him but Lucas says he can’t ditch classes. Eliott says he’s told Lucille. He’s really brimming with confidence here, like he just swoops in for the kiss, he brings up Lucille without hesitation, he seems completely sure of himself. Lucas looks a little uncomfortable, though. Eliott is like, doesn’t that make you happy? Lucas says it does, although he doesn’t look that happy.

Lucas: “I just don’t want you to be sad if it’s my fault.” No offense because this is a tiny thing but this is one of Skam France’s typical flaws from S1 and S2, which they have largely improved on in S3, but here it creeps up again: adapting something from OG without retaining the context that makes it effective.

That’s a line from Isak, and it made sense in context for him, because Even was looking and acting very, very vulnerable when he said that he had told Sonja about Isak. Nervous eyes, hesitant voice. Holding back on his normally demonstrative body language - Even is very tactile but you can tell he’s very restrained at the start of that conversation. He speaks slowly and is very focused on Isak’s reaction, because he really didn’t seem to be sure what Isak would say. It was when Isak said, “Cool,” that Even started to relax, his eyes start to light up, because Isak responded positively. And when Isak said, “I hope you’re not sad,” it was to fish out what Even was feeling, because he needed that confirmation of how Even felt. Isak wanted to know Even wasn’t sad as a way to determine that Even really truly wanted to be with Isak. It’s a nice, subtle bit of dialogue.

Which makes zero sense here because Eliott is radiating happiness. He kissed Lucas on the mouth as soon as Lucas came outside! He’s smiling, his eyes are shining! It’s not subtle! LMAO WHAT. I guess you can take this as Lucas being insecure, but it just feels so bizarre and dense for a character to project joy as strongly as Eliott does and to ask whether he’s sad. However, maybe we’ll assume that Lucas really is just fishing for confirmation. The thing is, Lucas also has little reason to think that breaking up with Lucille would make Eliott sad. Eliott hasn’t said anything about not being able to break up with Lucille; he has made it clear that he would like to move on and have a relationship with someone else, not necessarily a girl. (Compare to: Even talking about how he felt like he was growing apart from Sonja, but saying he could not dump her, as well as not hinting nearly so heavily that he wanted to get into an actual relationship with Isak.) Eliott didn’t choose Lucille over Lucas the other Saturday when Lucas wanted to hang out, he was just busy, not necessarily with Lucille. (Compare to: Even saying he had plans with Sonja, essentially choosing her over Isak that day.) Eliott straight up told Lucas that he hoped their double date was just the two of them, that was his plan. (Compare to: Even feeling basically the same way, but not telling Isak outright in words.)

And throughout the season, Lucas has been even bolder in some ways than Isak was. He’s done more to go up to Eliott and try to chase him, he’s stolen a class register to find him. On Saturday he felt very confident about making out with Eliott and taking their shirts off. So you could take this as Lucas being insecure, but it doesn’t make a ton of sense even with Eliott ghosting the past few days. I don’t think it matches with the characterization. I think it’s just lazy writing, sorry, especially since much of the other dialogue in this scene is copy+pasted from OG. Or maybe more vulnerability and uncertainty was meant to come through at the beginning of the scene, but the directing and acting didn’t match up with that intention. Whatever happened, this is just an example of why this scene wasn’t very well-adapted. (Also, if Lucas is so insecure he can’t notice that Eliott is smiling happily and kissing him, then how did he get so confident within like 30 seconds to move in for a kiss in public? Overcoming both his internalized homophobia and his doubts to that degree in that short of a time?)

I do want to acknowledge that in Julie’s original script, the scene played out more like the one here, with Even kissing Isak at the very start and having his happiness and desire for Isak more visible. But in Julie’s notes, she also acknowledged that it was a hard scene to figure out and that the changes from script to shooting benefited the scene. Ultimately, this line felt right and fitting to the tone of the OG scene as it was filmed, but here it felt off. I didn’t get why Lucas was asking except because it was in the original show.

We get Eliott asking if Lucas would tell his parents, and at this point I was flabbergasted that they really were going to rush this hugely important, amazing scene to this degree. No room for buildup or mood, just cranking out the dialogue as if it’s obligatory. We get this conversation similar to OG where Lucas explains his dad feels guilty for leaving so he’s not going to say anything, and his mom is crazy so he doesn’t care. There is one nice moment where Lucas tells Eliott not to worry and Eliott says he’s not worried, but immediately asks why Lucas doesn’t talk to her. So you know, he is worried. That was a good, subtle moment. Eliott has a clear sad reaction to Lucas saying he doesn’t need crazy people in his life, and IMO it’s pretty obvious to viewers (though not to Lucas) but I still think Maxence did a decent job here.

Lucas is pulls out the drawing made for him, but Eliott just says Lucas is going to be late for class, all his warmth gone. When Lucas goes in for a kiss, Eliott ruffles Lucas’ hair instead. LMAO. Well, it’s not really funny at all in context of Eliott’s feelings, but it’s also just such a clear shutdown that I can’t help but find it amusing. Lucas does not find it amusing, stands there in surprise and confusion, looking down at his drawing.

Also, Eliott ruffled Lucas’ hair in episode 2, at the end of their lovely evening together, with a lot of sexual tension between them, so this is an unpleasant reversal. That moment felt like a “hello, I’m looking forward to getting to know you.” This moment is a goodbye.

Anyway, this scene was a mess!

Was there a reason why they were outside? Did someone see them? Is there going to be gossip? Why did Eliott kiss Lucas outside when he knows Lucas is closeted? Why did Lucas go in for a kiss at the end (more on that in a minute)? If there is a bullying/rumors storyline as people suspect, that could just as efficiently be done with, for instance, having them meet in an empty classroom and someone walks in on them or spies on them, or secretly takes a picture of them looking close. Maybe they don’t even see the person in the clip themselves, or they hear a noise but by the time they turn around, the person is gone. That way it would be more believable that they would kiss when they think they’re in total privacy, but could also lead to a storyline where the rumors get out. Or, you know ... there were rumors in OG because of Emma, so just have that escalate with Chloe. She fucking yells that Lucas is gay at the end of the episode. There’s just no need for this scene to be outside, it defies logic, and it kills the mood of the clip. It destroys the feeling of Lucas and Eliott having a secret relationship, it ruins the intimacy of making their feelings so clear to each other and of Lucas’ confession about his mom. It’s a really big deal for Lucas to tell someone about his mom! Overall the setting should reflect the content of the scene and this was just strange. Lmao, they didn’t even seem to go very far, weren’t they talking right outside the classroom? Is Imane going to look up and be like, hmm, there’s Lucas and Eliott having a conversation through the window?

I saw people be happy that Lucas moved in for the kiss at the end, and I mean, I get it, that’s the ideal outcome, for Lucas to be out and proud and comfortable with himself. I’m not going to rag on people for being happy about that. But I don’t buy it. He’s startled Eliott kisses him at the beginning of the clip. Then 60 seconds later he’s moving in to initiate a kiss. In public. Like … what is that doing for Lucas’ character arc? Is the only reason he didn’t want to kiss at the beginning of the clip because he didn’t know what Eliott had been doing, and not because of his internalized homophobia? How did he become okay with kissing him outside where people could see in just a minute? It just seems terribly weak for his characterization, and unrealistic that someone who’s so deep in the closet that he goes around flinging homophobic slurs and romancing girls can undo part of that in such a short time. (Especially combined with the Pride clip the next day.)

On that note, Lucas did not ask Eliott where he had been the past few days, there was no acknowledgment of all that Eliott had been gone, so if that was a problem for Lucas, it got swept away. Not as big of an issue as others, but it seemed odd that it went unmentioned when Lucas spent time looking for Eliott and trying to talk to him.

Why was this scene so short? I know there are time restrictions for the episodes, but why in the world was the cake clip necessary over more time allotted to this incredibly important clip? Just because they’re required to include the girl squad? Does the entire squad have to be in every episode, and was there no better way to include them? For example, instead of this clip, what if we opened with the girls eating cake and talking about the common room, but Lucas gets a text from Eliott and excuses himself, then meets and talks with Eliott? If there was anything relevant about the cake clip for future episodes, start with the girls talking about that, then Lucas gets the text and leaves. Seems like a way better use of time.

I don’t mind Eliott being frostier with Lucas at the end, turning away from the kiss, but he does such a complete mood change in such a short time span that it feels a little ridiculous that Lucas didn’t notice. Eliott up until he asked about Lucas’ parents: smiling his ass off. Elliot when Lucas said that thing about his dad: still a tiny smile, receptive to what Lucas is saying. Eliott when Lucas goes in for a kiss: not having it. There is one thing that they talked about in between Eliott’s mood change (or two, I guess, with Lucas mentioning hedgehogs). The mystery element is made less, well, mysterious and more obvious for both viewers and Lucas. Even still gave Isak a goodbye kiss, a parting affection, meaning that it’d be harder for Isak to immediately trace the source of the breakup to that conversation; Eliott is done with Lucas right that fucking second. I get that Lucas isn’t the brightest, but I’m also like … he’s really not going to connect the dots even a little? Even if he doesn’t understand the whole scenario, doesn’t that stick out to him? (Even when Raptor Alex said something like Eliott freaked out the other day?)

Eliott asking about Lucas’ parents was such a jarring transition, and it’s because of pacing. Even just asks it of Isak, too, in a way that could be jarring, but because of the slower pace, the more vulnerable atmosphere, the acting, it doesn’t feel like a 180-degree scene change, it feels more like a natural direction for their conversation to take. The boys tentatively began the scene and were somewhat walking on eggshells toward each other; Even’s question therefore has a kind of fragility that’s in line with the atmosphere, he’s testing out whether Isak will be OK if they date. There’s a lack of vulnerability in this scene, at least up until that point: Eliott is perfectly fine and dandy, Lucas is apparently conflicted but it doesn’t really land. So the transition of topic just feels sudden rather than fitting the mood. It’s just a hugely weird execution.

Stuff I feel bad about saying but I’m going to say it in the interest of honesty: I think Axel has improved a huge amount from earlier seasons and has done good work in other scenes this season. But it felt like Lucas was bored during this scene. I got zero sense of say, wistfulness from him talking about his mom. He didn’t even seem that happy once Eliott told him things were off and they were bumping foreheads? It could have been a much more layered performance. Like … I just don’t feel happiness for Lucas once Eliott tells him it’s off with Lucille, because Lucas himself doesn’t seem to care. I think his parting look of confusion was good, but during the conversation itself, it was lacking. Is it just because Lucas is putting up a front and not trying to show how much he cares? Then how does that work with him trying to go in for a kiss at the end? Like with the previous clip with the boy squad, I blame this a lot on the clip being rushed and not having time to really sink into Lucas’ emotions. But it was just unfortunate because the material in this scene is so complex.

Another thing I feel bad about saying but have to admit: Their chemistry has been good so far, but in this scene, it felt off. Like when Eliott went in to bump foreheads? Super awkward. He’s beaming and Lucas is not into it. And you can say that’s because he’s still not sure what’s going on, sure, but there’s no sense of like … wanting to lean in to the touch but feeling conflicted, or the gesture calming him or convincing him, it’s like Eliott is on a completely different plane than Lucas, and that doesn’t really make sense before Lucas drops the bomb about his mom. You can’t avoid that this scene between Isak and Even made such an impact because the actors were so in sync with each other. That scene felt overwhelmingly intimate, like we were spying on them in a private moment (which it was). The lack of intimacy here in what’s essentially a soul-baring moment is disappointing.

Just. Not good.

Clip 6 - Pride

Lucas is lying on the couch, his new home. Mika plops down and talks about how awesome the couch is, especially if someone like Eliott sleeps over again. Again, it feels jarring because there is zero buildup to this conversation, Mika says it right away, no easing into the conversation (and again, I know that there are time restrictions with the episode, and I’m sympathetic but that doesn’t make it feel less weird - not to mention I have quibbles with how they’re allotting their time). However, Lucas is like “seriously?” and Mika does seem to reconsider, saying that he’s there if Lucas wants to talk and getting up to leave. It works in the sense that Mika’s not been portrayed as sensitive to Lucas as Eskild was to Isak, so I can buy him being inelegant with bringing it up, but still, feels more like a necessity of them having to cram in this scene rather than a conscious character choice.

Lucas does decide to tell Mika about Eliott, and Mika seems pleased. Lucas wants to keep it under wraps, though, saying he doesn’t want to scream that he’s with Eliott or walk hand in hand with him. Which feels off considering he was ready to kiss Eliott on the mouth in public yesterday, which would scream he was with Eliott to anyone watching - again, why I feel that moment was inconsistent. Mika compares it to when Lucas was with Sarah, and Lucas says it was fake with Sarah. I like this bit comparing the two relationships. Mika is chill and happy for Lucas. Despite their relationship not being depicted in the strongest way IMO, it’s a nice moment.

Lucas says this doesn’t mean he’s gay, it’s fine to be proud of being gay, but he’s not gay as in camp. When Mika asks what he means, Lucas says he’s not going to tell people how many dicks he sucked over the weekend, or dance to pop music, or post naked pics on Grindr (especially damning since we saw Mika do just that a few weeks ago). Mika of course connects it to himself. Lucas tries to backtrack but puts his foot in his mouth further, saying he’s never going to Gay Pride and throw dick-shaped glitter on people just because he liked a guy. Mika gets pissed and the scene happens much like the OG Pride clip, talking about how the guys Lucas is talking about are suffering for just trying to be themselves. Mika gets pissed and walks off.

I’m fine with Mika’s reaction being more focused on anger whereas Eskild seemed more hurt and betrayed. Eskild and Isak were closer so that made sense. Mika seems more distant from Lucas so it works that the focus is more on his anger, less than someone he considers part of the family is degrading him.

This scene is so important in all contexts, all cultures, that I am really glad it’s here. Of all the things I hope that the remakes do include, the Pride clip is one of them - even if it’s not the exact same speech or dialogue, then a similar sentiment or lesson is really needed.

That being said, I do think they could have done this scene better from a storytelling standpoint, just by building up Mika and Lucas’ relationship and by not rushing the conversation. There are some nuances in the OG that did not come across here - like I think part of the reason that Isak started running his mouth about not being gay was that he noted that Eskild didn’t seem surprised, and Eskild didn’t deny it, saying he met Isak at a gay bar, and Isak was feeling some insecurity over being so transparent. That’s just my interpretation, though. However, Lucas also has not been dealing with the issue of stereotypes and generalizations to this point? His “gay test” was over something else, he didn’t call out the dance teacher for being too gay, etc. so this is like the first time he’s brought up this topic. I know we had the issue of generalizations mentioned by Alex and Imane but Lucas barely seemed affected by that incident. They could have built that up more, or preferably, re-wrote this scene to be more about Lucas’ behavior in past episodes, like him throwing around homophobic slurs just to distance himself from being gay. Have Mika call him out on that (like instead of focusing on stereotypes, Lucas says, “I’m not a [slur] just because I like a guy” and that’s why Mika gets pissed).

Side note, but it occurs to me that I don’t think we’ve heard about Mika and Lucas’ backstory at all? Like how Mika came to let Lucas hide in the basement before Manon invited him to take her room. I hope we hear about it in a future episode, because even if their relationship isn’t as important, it’s still something of an unresolved plot issue how Lucas came to live in the cellar last season.

Also, not to make light of this, but kind of awkward now because Lucas is living on the couch and can’t hide out in his room from Mika after this conversation.

Lucas texts Eliott that he told his roommate. I wonder what he was expecting from Eliott - probably support? Happiness? Eliott wanted to know how Lucas’ parents would react, and Mika’s not a parent but he’s someone in Lucas’ life, who lives with him, so it would be important. Instead, Eliott texts back, “That’s cool, I’m happy for you” which is frankly rather cold and detached, especially considering he follows up with the spiel about needing more time and them going too fast. This makes Lucas angry and he smacks the cushions. I think this is a good reaction, different from Isak who seemed just in disbelief that Even could be calling it off after asking to be his boyfriend the previous day. It fits with Lucas being more hot-headed and feeling out of control. He texts the guys about their plans for tomorrow, then throws his phone aside and sits back. Again, more like he’s pissed rather than stunned.

Clip 7 - Really bad night

The other three boys are playing a video game (not FIFA!) and Lucas is sitting there dejected, staring at Eliott’s last text message. The sound goes from happy fun-time boy party to sad droning despair when we cut from the others to Lucas, like he’s so checked out he doesn’t hear his friends, or the game, or anything, he’s just so focused on that one awful text message.

Yann, bless him, notices Lucas is in a bad mood, and has him get up and go to the kitchen with him. Lmao but also OUCH at Lucas wearing a hoodie that says “romance” at the worst possible time.

Lucas is super snotty about Yann not being able to find one of the many beers in the fridge, but of course Yann just wants to talk about what’s clearly bothering Lucas and why he’s avoiding them. Lucas denies there’s a problem, but Yann wants to know whether they’re friends or pretending? Lucas keeps denying and says if there was a problem, he’d tell Yann, and he just wants to enjoy the night. Curious way of showing that, sitting there completely checked out from everyone else and snapping at them.

I’m so, so glad they had this scene, because I think they’ve done Yann a disservice this season. They’ve cut out some Jonas moments, such as Jonas calling out Isak for his comments on the dance teacher (the French boys didn’t call out Lucas to nearly the same degree, nor single out his bad mood of late) and the scene where Jonas talks to Isak at his locker in episode 4 was not there. Basically, other than the scene in episode 3, there haven’t been many clips to this point that indicate Yann has been watching Lucas and growing concerned like Jonas was for Isak. This part is a great addition and I’m happy they had a moment to build up this relationship.

Arthur and Basile run in and say they got a text about a party at Chloe’s tonight, Basile thinks it’s his night to hook up with Daphne. GOD WHY. SHE SAID NO TO YOU. WHY MUST THIS TORTURE PERSIST.

They want Lucas to get them into the party, Lucas says Chloe is mad at him, Arthur says she’s not and it’s all in his head. How would he even know? They haven’t even been talking to Lucas lately. They just want to go to the party. Yann seems to be realizing that the situation is not good, but Basile says Lucas can’t do that to him, Lucas missed his birthday

Lucas agrees to go with zero enthusiasm, Basile wants a high five but everyone ignores him, thank God. Yann seemed happy when Lucas agreed to go, so I guess he thought Lucas was trying to have a good time instead of moping all evening, but Lucas was so blatantly not into it and peer pressured into going that IDK how you can think Lucas is anything but miserable.

The boys show up to Chloe’s house and Basile is already screaming and being obnoxious with people staring at him, but there’s a guy at the door who shoves Basile back and won’t let them in. In Skam, that guy at the door seemed like a total tool, but this guy? This guy is my hero.

Daphne comes down the stairs and Basile yells at her to tell the guy to let them in. Maria sees him and is all, hey, you were the guy who held my hair at the last party! Daphne is like, oh, so you hold any girl’s hair? And she walks off. Oh, fuck you, Skam France. Of course they’re going with Basile and Daphne. Lol at them trying to pretend Basile is a totally new character and not French Magnus when we get this subplot.

Basile is dismayed. Arthur says jealousy is a good sign. GODDAMMIT. This pairing is fucked up, I don’t care if I sound like a humorless uptight meanie SJW. It’s full of sexist tropes. Basile does not take no for a fucking answer, he’s disgusted and bothered Daphne over and over again, but she’s going to fall for him because he held her hair back one time. We’re just going to reward creepy male behavior because the creep didn’t actually rape her, I guess.

Lucas sees Eliott inside the house and shoves his way inside past the bouncer dude. No convincing the guy like Isak did, just shoving, which goes with his larger temper and sourer attitude. He sees Eliott talking to Lucille. But before he can get any farther, Chloe comes up and says he has no right to be here. Lucas starts to apologize for last time, and Chloe says she’s not mad about that, she’s mad that Lucas used her and treated her like a fool when he’s gay.

She outright yells, “You’re gay, Lucas!” in the middle of a crowded room so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone heard. JFC, Chloe. She is understandably pissed considering the way Lucas has played with her, but it is not okay to out someone like that. She’s being extremely careless. He seems like he’s not even totally present or hearing what she’s saying, like he seems in disbelief that she’s saying what she is. It’s a good reaction, like he’s overwhelmed by everything, and numb that she’s calling him out on what he’s denied to himself and others.

I actually could not tell if Eliott and Lucille disappeared, or if Lucas noticed that they were gone before he left the house. The way it’s filmed makes it seem like he was so rattled by Chloe that he just decided to leave. Eliott was already with Lucille so Lucas didn’t seem about to confront him (compared to Even who was not with Sonja until right as she showed up and kissed him).

So Lucas walks out and shoves Yann out of the doorway. Then shoves Basile. Then Arthur drops a comment about Lucas having a family issue, which seems … out of character, kinda. Mahdi and Isak had more of an established friction than Arthur and Lucas, AND Arthur was very supportive when Lucas first told them about his mom in episode 3. Basile was the one throwing a fit that Lucas canceled the party with the girls. I’m pretty sure that’s why people were speculating(/hoping) that Basile would be the one to get punched, because it was Basile with the prior issue. (But honestly, I feel like Arthur hasn’t been given a ton of characterization in the gang, and his primary role has been to egg on Basile’s pursuit of various women. For all people say Mahdi is underdeveloped? We still knew more about him at this point than Arthur, actually. We had more of a sense of his role in the group, and it didn’t seem out of nowhere that Mahdi would say that thing about Isak’s family.)

Lucas shoves Arthur against the side of the house. Yann jumps in, Arthur manages to hit Lucas in the head, which is shitty but tbh, I can’t get too mad at him since Lucas came out shoving everyone for seemingly no reason. Obviously Lucas is going through tons of shit but the boys don’t know the context, only that he’s lashing out at all of them.

And as a final blow, as Lucas walks away from the house, he sees Eliott and Lucille kissing against the side of it. Eliott seems happy and initiating the kissing with Lucille, unlike Even who seemed to only respond and get into the kiss after Sonja initiated (and IMO, had a twinge of sadness in his reaction). So Eliott seems way more suddenly OK with Lucille and satisfied with choosing her. Which is kind of interesting because Even was the one giving more mixed signals to Isak, while Eliott seemed so much more sure he was done with Lucille and ready to move on with Lucas.

Meanwhile, Arthur is yelling about how he wants to slap Lucas and how he’s been acting like an asshole for several weeks. Would’ve been good if we got some clearer signs that Arthur was upset about it? Not super obvious, but IDK, more focus on Arthur’s reactions, or being more passive-aggressive. Obviously he could have been bottling up his resentment toward Lucas, but from a narrative perspective, it feels like there should have been more of an indication. (There is some passive-aggressiveness from him in the SM content but I didn’t feel like it really carried into the clips themselves.)

Lucas storms home alone, then starts punching a door and yelling before clutching his fist and sliding to the ground, crying. His fist is bleeding. Again, way more rage, and it seems like the full extent of all that’s happened sinks in only at the end.

Social Media/General Comments

Eliott posts a drawing of rain on his secret IG with the caption “not scared” on it. No prize for guessing what that’s about, but still, very sweet! Not just in a romantic way but a nice moment for himself, not being afraid to take his life in a new direction.

Also, Lucas posts that he’s listening to a song called “Over There, It’s Raining” which is touchingly sentimental, heh.

Chloe is PISSED and is mad about being stood up alone with a crying Lucille and says she’s not going to forget it this time, he’s taking her for a fool. Which is ominous as hell and makes it seem like her outing him is going to be more deliberate, tbh.

Basile’s party was a busy night.

The boys ask “Where’s Lucas?” on IG and document their booze/grocery shopping trip, noting from time to time that Lucas isn’t there. Dude, why isn’t Lucas there? Eliott left in the late afternoon. Anyway, Yann in particular seemed annoyed about it since he seemed to bring it up. Although they were ready to buy Lucas ice cream.

I mentioned this in the last reaction post, but I have ZERO idea why the girl squad showed up to Basile’s party when Basile has been actively creepy to Daphne and when the boy squad was just shitting on the girls a few days ago when ranking them on IG. Not just being gross and sexist in general, but shitting on Alex and Daphne and Manon in particular. I’m serious, why would you even bother with these dickheads?

Sure enough, Basile tries to get a kiss from Daphne in an IG story and she goes for Alexia instead. Why. Why. (Not her giving Alex a kiss, that’s great. Why must I watch this other nightmare of a pairing happen.)

Basile said his hot cousin was supposed to be there, but it looks like just the boy and girl squads showed up, lmao.

The absence of Lucas is so well-documented in the IG stories from this party that it goes from passive-aggressive to just plain aggressive.

NO, do NOT let Basile and Daphne leave together. Daphne is really really fucking drunk. They’ve been gone for like 30 minutes…. Daphne’s friends just let her wander off with Basile when she’s super drunk and has made it clear she doesn’t want him? JFC.

I did not worry that Basile was actually going to rape Daphne or something, because that would be way too extreme for this show in this season. I did worry that we would maybe get more “comic relief” sexual harassment that the SkamFr crew doesn’t seem to realize is harassment. Plus, in-universe we have had Basile touching girls while drunk, we’ve had him being creepy. So while my knowledge of genre/TV prevented me from thinking he’d assault her, there are completely valid reasons to be concerned for Daphne in this moment.

The Skam France must have seen people’s horrified reactions to the Basile and Daphne content, because they broke Lucas’ POV to have a text message between the two of them. Daphne says “thanks for your help last night, you’re not so dumb (don’t tell anyone I said that)” and Basile is like, you’re welcome, hope you’re feeling better! And like … I’m relieved that this was all it was between them, but I’m still pissed this is where they’re going with it. I hate that Basile “not being so dumb” after all is going to be his redemption or whatever. This dude has been gross enough that it’s a meager consolation. It’s as if I kicked you in the face and knocked you down and then helped you stand up. One nice deed doesn’t make up for everything else.

Not to make generalizations, but: I have lots of problems with Noorhelm/William, in terms of sexist tropes, but there’s something about that storyline and his character that feels specifically like a female fantasy. I can tell a woman wrote it. Taking the bare bones of that romance: handsome rich bad boy falls for strong independent girl and changes his womanizing ways? Classic romantic trope. At its core, it’s not so different from something like Twilight, the “dangerous” guy and the one girl who’s special enough to break through his walls. It’s something that is appealing to women (not all women, obviously, but it’s disingenuous to pretend this isn’t a popular romantic dynamic.) It is appealing to women because the love interest is someone desirable.

The Basile/Daphne thing, though? Male fantasy. I can tell men were behind the camera (even if those dudes are not straight). Because I don’t think women particularly enjoy this dynamic. A gross dude who pursues a girl despite her being uninterested? Not really a fantasy that women have, that their nasty classmate or co-worker will keep trying to romance them until they’re worn down. In fact, many women have to live through this so-called fantasy and know it’s not pleasant. Basile is not portrayed as romantically desirable, and that’s not a value judgment on his attractiveness or anything, just a fact about his characterization. What I feel is that we’re supposed to align our empathy with Basile more than Daphne: the poor unlucky awkward loser who has a good heart, really, he’s just not the most skilled with girls. And that’s why it seems like it’s a male fantasy. The unlucky-in-love guy is the one who will get the girl at the end of the day. It’s funny and relatable to the male writer/director/crew because, no offense, perhaps they don’t get the girl’s perspective. The societal pressure and media characterization is not the same with the genders reversed. Men are socialized not to take no for an answer, to think that they are entitled to women’s affection.

Anyway, I really don’t think they expected some of the backlash to Basile and to Basile/Daphne, they probably figured it would be funny, like Magnus/Vilde, ignoring that Magnus/Vilde did not have the same consent issues and harassment. So in S4 it’s likely we’ll get more wacky Basile/Daphne antics and TMI, since they don’t have time to take the viewer feedback into account before they film the season.

Lucas trying to get Eliott’s attention by sending him a picture of a baby hedgehog is really cute. He also embraces that hedgehog motif by posting a pic of one on IG. I find that really endearing, like he’s latching onto something Eliott said about it, he’s making it meaningful. It reminds me a lot of Even latching onto every single thing Isak did and making it a Thing between them.

Meanwhile, Eliott had a shit time - he didn’t reply to Lucas at all, it seems, although Even replied briefly to Isak after he left, even though he didn’t give clear answers to why he’d gone. Eliott is instead posting pics of My Own Private Idaho alluding to his rough situation, saying everything will be all right, and then showing his raccoon fursona behind a brick wall after Lucas tells him that crap about not wanting mentally ill people in his life. Which is way too sad than anything involving a cute cartoon raccoon has the right to be.

There’s an IG story of Mika and Manon book shopping, referring to their “common passion” and mentioning a gay author, which makes me think they went shopping for LGBT-related books in relation to what’s happening with Lucas. I mean I guess their common passion could just be books in general, but I like the idea of them trying to find ways to help Lucas.

Mika also makes an IG post after the Pride clip about respecting “queens” and LGBT elders for their sacrifices and all the shit they’ve had to go through. It’s a more structured way of what he was expressing to Lucas in the clip and would have made for a great speech, although I think it makes sense for him to be angrier in the heat of the moment, and then this is him gathering his thoughts afterward, when he has more time to think about what to say. Great post, though.

After the end of the episode, Eliott posts some sketches of his raccoon and Lucille the cat being all cuddly, which I think were deleted later because I can no longer see them? But I think they’re the same sketches he had done earlier in the season, pre-Lucas, so it’s like him going back to the status quo, same as before, by getting back with Lucille.

Yann posted a pic where Basile and Arthur are happy and Lucas is so blatantly miserable that it feels like a parody, why the fuck would Yann even post that if he’s concerned about Lucas’ well-being.

I’m not French so please feel free to clarify or correct me if I missed something.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#skamfr reactions #skam france reactions

47 notes · View notes

memequeenjojo · 6 years

Note

you'd think after all the apologies hexd probably learn but nah he's just gonna keep being racist because he's racist, jan

Yeah, no. I’m gonna stop you there, bud.

I’ve recently started watching him again and (thankfully) skipped all the drama about him dropping the n word and the thing about him “promoting” the anti-semetic channel.

First and foremost: Those claims are false and can get you in trouble if you publicly state that. Felix said over and over again that he does not promote racism. At all.

You may have read articles from the Vice or any media for that matter, but probably didn’t watch any of his videos reacting to what he did and thus only got one side of the story (if you want to catch up I’d recommend his “Twitch Drama”-series and “Rating Youtuber apologies”.)

But let’s begin from the start, do we?

https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/17/14613234/pewdiepie-nazi-satire-alt-right

(I’ve picked this article simply to have some examples of how he misbehaved.) Yes, he said bad things, I’m not arguing about that. From August 2016 to the 10th of February of 2017 Felix featured Nazi imagery of himself doing or editing various things. Be it adding audio from Hitler, bowing over a swastika or including Hitler saying “Sieg Heil” (keep in mind I took these examples out of context), many things were wrong.

A particular video posted January 11 (taken down) showed two Indian Freelancers holding up a sign saying “Death to all Jews” which he paid to do (they didn’t know what it said and got off the hook).

For both cases he made he apologized, once with a post and once with a video. To me, this is the point where he realized his wrongdoings and wanted to speak up about them.

The Tumblr post explaining the case with the Indians shows, that this was to prove his point, though he did not expect them to actually go through with this. He says he understands, that such jokes are offensive. But let’s look at the video, shall we?

The video got taken down, I can only imagine because Felix got fed up with the media attacking him for him attacking back. He made another one later on the 24th of February (I recommend watching it!), in which he basically shows, that the Wall Street Journal article, written by three people, has an author who is a plain hypocrite, who publishes anti-semetic posts himself on Twitter (@benfritz). All in all he just talks about how most media is basically out for blood, even going as far as severing the ties between Pewds and Disney or other sponsors without contacting Felix himself first to get answers. Also, just to mention, his style is (obviously) an imitation of Himmler (leading member of the Nazi party) and an idol for multiple neo-nazi websites which he (again, obviously) knows.

Yes, he is the bad guy!

Alright, enough of that old stuff, let’s get back to the more recent things, like the “n word accident” 09/10/2017. While live-streaming Playersunknown’s Battleground game mode “Last Man Standing” he shouted “What a fucking n****r”. Now,that clearly accentuates his racist side, don’t you think? His own statement to this is, that there is no excuse to even say that in the heat of the moment. That’s right, shame on him. While most forgave him because, really, it can happen (but shouldn’t), others instantly jumped on what happened months ago, doubting that he learned anything. The developers of Firewatch, Campo Santo, even took down Felix Let’s Play of it because they didn’t want to be associated with his channel in any way, be it now or in the future.

Now, to make this not as long as I could I want to include the most recent one including him being called a racist:

PewDiePie promotes an anti-semetic channel!

Both media and himself published a statement. All of this started when Pewds wanted to promote smaller channels he liked, one of them called E;R who puts hidden, anti-semetic messages into their anime reviews. Felix himself did not notice them because he is not well versed in the history of The Third Reich, but after he came to understand he instantly deleted E;R from the recommendations. He did not want to promote any of that and distanced himself from that quite quickly.

Now, that was a lot, right? I just want to add a bit of a personal opinion on this.

Felix has learned his lesson, he knows that it is wrong. I, myself, had to read into this whole mess as well just to write an appropriate answer.

In my opinion this whole racism thing should’ve ended with his apology video in February two years ago.

He said the n word? Oh my god, so do million others each day, but he knows that it is wrong AND said so immediatly after. Did the media care? No.

Oh my god, he likes anime reviews! Does one of the journalists or anyone else for that matter tell him from person to person / via E-Mail yadda-yadda, that E;R put such jokes into their videos? No.

Yes, he did do wrong, nobody says otherwise. But you know who doesn’t want to let go, wants to squeeze as much as they can out of him?

The Media, simple as that.

Now, I know for certain who send this ask to me and I remember you telling me that you don’t want a discussion…

But if you can’t do at least some research and listen to both sides, then you are clearly no better than those who wronged Felix.

#pewdiepie #this is all i will say about this

49 notes · View notes

tadmean-aa · 6 years

Text

YEP, HERE WE ARE FOLKS

so. this is a post i didn’t want to write, but here we are. if you’ve followed me for a while you know i don’t like drama / public discourse, but i genuinely have no other choice. i’ve tried to handle this privately to no avail. and while i’d appreciate the word being spread about this person, you’re welcome to block this post or blacklist the tags. i’m not here to tell you who to interact with or start a fight. i’m not here to discouse this or argue. the facts are the facts, and the facts are that this user has stolen from me repeatedly, even after being asked to stop, and has taken credit for intellectual property and an interpretation largely inspired by coping with trauma. massive drama under the cut. sorry folks. i’ve tagged it as ‘long post //’ as well for mobile users.

tl;dr? @cvffeinequeen (whats good?) ripped me off majorly. it’s driving me nuts. tw for ic abuse mention.

on one hand, i thought about not writing this because it’s literally just tumblr roleplay. on the other, writing coco this way, this very specific way, has been a way to cope with my own similar struggles, and the last straw was seeing this person getting credit for their “creativity”, aka the things they blatantly ripped from me. to see someone being praised by unknowing people for taking a story that i crafted from my own hurt, a story that they’ve gutted and repurposed so they can roleplay with it instead of coming up with something of their own, was the absolute final straw. not to mention that if they’ve stolen from me and gotten away with it, it’s not unlikely they’ve taken from other sources as well. maybe someone else will come forward, idk.

if any of the screenshots or links below are not conclusive enough, feel free to come to me and i will try to get you better ones / answer your questions. this is a long post, but i’m not about to call someone out for the first (and hopefully last) time without bringing some hard ass motherfuckin proof. my old blog (tadmean.tumblr.com, or tadmean-a.tumblr.com if the first doesn't work) is available multiple times on the wayback machine if you need to check some of these for yourself.

for context, i found this user in the coco adel tag through an edit. i always like to see duplicates (it gets lonely being the only coco), so i clicked the url to see what their blog was like and maybe follow if they were cool with that. immediately, something stank. on closer inspection, i realized their bio was ripped directly from mine and reworded—examples below. bear in mind that they have changed their blog background color since then, which is why some of the caps dont match the current blog; it used to be this shade of red (?), now it’s a brownish pinkish color. the bio has also since changed, but i’ve included the three different versions. i sent these screenshots to a close friend the night i found this blog, as well as to another friend a couple days later / a week maybe? so that’s why some of these are discord screenshots.

BIO POSTS: ( pt 1 ) ( pt 2 ) ( pt 3 ) ( pt 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 ) ( pt 9 ) ( pt 10 ) ( pt 11 )

screenshots in hand, i instant messaged them and let them know i saw what they were doing. screenshots below:

DM CONVO: ( pt 1 ) ( pt 2 ) ( pt 3 ) ( pt 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 )

NEW BIO AT THE TIME: ( pt 1 ) ( pt 2 ) ( pt 3 ) ( pt 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 ) ( pt 9 )

BIO AS OF NOW ( 11 / 29 / 18 ): ( PT 1 ) ( PT 2 ) ( PT 3 ) ( PT 4 ) ( pt 5 ) ( pt 6 ) ( pt 7 ) ( pt 8 ) ( pt 9 )

past this, we just agreed to be mutuals and that, i thought, was the end of it. sure, the bio wasn’t all that changed, but they’d seemed to realize the error of their ways and i was naively optimistic.

from here, it temporarily got better. then got way worse. whether it was formatting ( x, x ) ( x, x ), ( x, x ) the names of tags ( x, x ), ( x, x ), personalized tags ( x, x ), musings posts ( x, x ) ( x, x ) (these being just a few), etc. this user has mimicked my blog to a T. but this is all just context. the thing that i’m here to talk about, however, are headcanons. i started writing coco as a way to cope with my own trauma/abuse & personality disorders; it started from the thought that if a strong character like coco can manage it all, then so can i. and it’s not like we have a whole lot of canon content for coco that might lead people to the same conclusion about her life—coco is a character that has maybe? 30 mins to an hour (being very generous) of overall content? the things i’ve written about coco is not stuff you can conclude from her canon material. period. she’s essentially an oc based on five seconds of material. if you have any doubts, remember that: coco has essentially no canon content or backstory. almost everything on my blog is a headcanon. that said:

LIST OF A FEW STOLEN HEADCANONS:

stole coco’s troubled home life as an heiress ( x ) and how she runs away later in v4 ( x ). this is the biggest one.

coco’s father has been the main antagonist of her story (way before weiss’s bg was revealed, or jacques was really even a character). this person has not only ripped off coco’s bad home life, but ripped off her father being the particular antagonist ( x , x ). they’ve also mentioned the similarity to weiss’ story but i can’t find the post. however, because this is ripped off, there’s no reasoning for why he’s the worse of coco’s parents. this is a common theme with this person: they take a headcanon and remove the fat from it so it’s not as recognizable. this also removes the context and reasoning for the headcanon.

ripped off small bits and pieces off my page: like coco barely sleeping ( x , x ), often getting detention ( x, x ) (something that’s not mentioned in their bio), sweet tooth ( x , x ), scars ( x, x )

coco’s full name being something she only gives to people she trusts ( x , x ) or people who would have it off her record, since it’s a reminder of her family.

oh, the best one! i posted a headcanon post specifically to literally see if they would take anything from it, and they did! blatantly! here (hair hc: x , x ) and here ( x , x, x , x). a link to my post: x and theirs: ( x, x )

in their bio, they write that these are headcanons they’ve been writing for years. well, funny enough, lots of the things they’ve taken are things i posted and started writing about years ago. so i guess in a way, that was honest. throwback thursday!

let me be clear: if you’ve interacted with this person, or if you didn’t notice, or you noticed but didn’t say anything, you’re not the bad guy. in these situations, the bad guy is the thief. period. i realize to some people this might seem silly, but i’m extremely sick & disabled and cannot work or really do much of anything; writing coco convincingly and making her relatable has essentially been my job, my sole motivation, for these past 3-4 years. i’ve poured hard work into this interpretation, only for someone to come along, butcher it, and claim it as their own. to you, it’s not a big deal, but to me? it’s years of work, stolen.

i hate to make this post. i hate serious posts, i hate drama, i hate anything that might discourage someone else writing for coco. i love duplicates! i’ve never had any issues before! but this person isn’t roleplaying as coco; if anything, they seem to be roleplaying as a version of my blog. which, not cool but also, creepy.

so, yeah. please dont send anon hate their way, this person is still a minor. but being a minor doesnt make theft okay! apparently we still needed that said out here in the rpc. thanks for reading guys, peace

#call out post //#long post //#theft //#callout post //#ok to reblog #ooc.#drama //#is it ? idk

13 notes · View notes

rainelot · 6 years

Text

GCF in Saipan- A Rant as of August 2018 (Posted December)

(Out in December since I wanted to get a more objective view on things and to edit it slightly. This is just as a memory record anyways so)

When I made this blog, it was meant to be a blog to rant about anything Bangtan that interested me. However, I recently encountered one of the most frustrating, interesting, and baffling two days of my life and I needed to address the cause of this with a rant (that I doubt people will read). The cause: Jungkook’s GCF in Saipan.

WARNING: THIS IS ALL IN GOOD FUN. I claim no rights to what is true or not. Don’t take this too seriously please. Will have Koomin/Jikook references.

To start it off, I don’t like real people shipping. I don’t really care if others do it (as long as they remain sane and logical) but I personally didn’t enjoy doing it for one reason: I don’t know them personally, so it isn’t any of my business. I enjoyed their interactions with each other platonically, using what they gave us upfront as fuel, and whatever else that might be happening to purely up to them. For BTS, I never before cared much for shipping, and just enjoyed every interaction as it is.

Then I watched GCF in Saipan, the catalyst to my descent into a brief insanity. What I can say about Saipan is that it is a theorist haven, perhaps why I’ve become so interested now. By “theorist”, I mean NOT REAL, and my opinions should not be taken as fact. These are all just observations that I personally took from the GCFs.

Perhaps what I should say before going into Saipan specifics is that I watched Tokyo in my early days as a fan. I did not know the context of the song, I did not know Jungkook or Jimin well, so I didn’t think much of it. Of course, I acknowledged it was fairly romantic in setting, but I took it to be interpreted either platonically or romantically, and even now I don’t think too much of it. The video itself has a personal meaning to me: reciprocal love, any shape of it available, with little accents and layers that can be tilted and shifted for the viewer’s own interpretation (as all art). I don’t have too much to say about Tokyo itself, because of how straight forward it is. Saipan is the one that makes no sense if I tried to take it in upfront. I’m not very good at reading behaviors, hence my inability to see what others see as “moments”, but I have done some (very unprofessional) editing before and I absolutely love art analyzing, which the GCFs very clearly are to me.

For this, I will be isolating Saipan in a fairly tight bubble, with little unrelated topics. I won’t be including much outside Jungkook’s art (except in the skeptic area). Some previous GCF mentions/comparisons, some outside views strictly on the films as well will be referenced in the rant itself. Not going to include any deep reading into their overall relationship, mostly an analysis of the GCF.

I watched Saipan (at this point after being a fan for long enough to care) first thinking that something was off. Something wasn’t harmonious with each other. The second time I watched it, I realized the dissonance was between the film and the music. Together, it wasn’t coherent, which is different than all of his work so far. Tokyo, Osaka, even USA though being equally promo-related, they all had more to build upon meaning-wise, the perspectives matched within the film. Saipan’s song both in mood and in subject clashed with the film from beginning to end. Of course, all in my opinion.

Here is the song:

Now, before I go any further, I had an intensive discussion with a mutual on twitter, who is a multi-kpop non-BTS stan. She doesn’t keep up with Bangtan, but she likes some of their songs and is a casual listener. She is also somewhat experienced and knowledgeable in video editing and had very interesting input for the factor of “film sound”, the information from a document which she paraphrased. This was her input through the DMs:

“The Pacific Cinematheque has stated that there two types of sound in film, Diegetic and Non-Diegetic. Diegetic is the sound that we would also experience in real life. Non-Diegetic is any sound we don’t experience in real life like dramatic orchestrated songs or musical score or sound effects like the screeches in the shower scene Psycho.”

“So why do directors use sound? Well (and here it comes) it is to do any of the following 1. add mood 2. add atmosphere to a film. How? By adding these soundscapes that Accent or add another Layer of meaning to the film. The filmmaker wants the audience to perceive the scenes in a specific way, and sound/music leg scenes be seen in the specific way that the director intended. Silence in a film can represent something very important or a turning point. Music, specifically in film, has various uses, but most commonly it is used to “guide the emotional response of the audience”. Music is the clue in scenes, it’s like a huge signpost directing (pun cause the filmmaker is a director anyways off track sorry) the audience on how to react to a scene.”

“So basically what I am saying is that of course Jungkook is aware of the music he’s using in his gcfs, and he’s also aware of the reaction he wants from the films. He used that song because he wanted a specific reaction from the audience, he wanted us viewers to see what his intentions are and at this point I’m insane too cause all I’m thinking is that he wants us to react to Jimin and to focus on that.”

(I may or may not have told her multiple times through out my discussion with her that I feel like I’m going insane. I calmed down before writing this though, for the sake of making any sense and neutrality.)

These are just the basics. If you still aren’t convinced how important a song is in context to a film, then remember: before Jungkook even began making the GCFs, he was doing mainly covers of songs. And he said, specifically to the fans, that the lyrics of his chosen songs are important. He usually chooses them for a reason (what that reason could be, up to the viewer, since he doesn’t outright explain the choices).

So we established that first, Jungkook most likely chose this song with actual thought and intention put into it (again, take that intention with what you may).

Of course, what interested me was Jimin’s parts. Mainly because he is my son (even though I am fairly younger than him), and also because of the teaser Jungkook released shortly before dropping Saipan. Truth be told, I wasn’t really expecting the silly dance nor the punches to be included, as I thought that Jungkook only posted that to show Namjoon and the fans what was going on in the “behind the scenes” video Namjoon posted the day before. Perhaps a little blooper insight. So yes, I was surprised that the scene was included at all, much less becoming a gap-clip repeating between alternating clips of the group and other members. I was also surprised at the amount of time Jimin was shown, as after USA being a very equalized group video, I was expecting the same from Saipan. Similarly to USA, it was very work-oriented and promotional, and also both (definitely USA as from Namjoon’s Vlive) were most likely commissioned by Bighit.

Jimin’s dominates the bridge. By dominate, I mean he is the only one with a completely exclusive part in this particular GCF. Verse 1 was Taehyung, verse 2 was Hoseok, and the choruses are a mix. Jimin appears the most not only through adding up all the small clips, but because he takes up two solid blocks of the song, both with the same context and lyrics. The reason why the it’s hard for me to link the others with their individual parts is because of the way they were shot, the clips that were chosen, all very aesthetically pleasing but difficult to find depth or flow in. Jimin’s parts almost had a story line. This is important to me because of the lyrics, which we shall visit now.

First the meaning of the song. John K. in an interview: He describes the bouncy track’s meaning as “[about] evolving through young love, admitting to past mistakes and committing to giving someone the best possible version of yourself.”

To be honest, this song is not as ambiguous to me as There For You, Troye Sivan, Tokyo GCF. Sure, Troye Sivan is a gay artist, and the song lyrics are directed at a boy. But the lyrics themselves I do think can be taken in any shape of love. For Best of Me, this is not the case. I think Verse 2 is the clearest reason for this:

Waking up next to you

Got you back in my arms

Don't it feel like it use to

Like we were never apart

Never thought I would see you

Now we're loving in the dark

We can't fight this feeling

While I’m a staunch believer in lyrics being universally interpreted and available to all versions of personal view (take Osaka as an example, which is another fairly straightforward GCF), to make it simpler for myself right now and with the tinfoil hat on, I’ll stick with what the song can be most basically understood: lovers who are loving in secret, but wants to be let free.

Here comes a bit tinfoil (not really shippy, but more reading into what it could mean artistically. Purely subjective interpretation):

Now, without going into the ship or anything at all first, here is my artistic interpretation of Jungkook’s editing: the lyrics may be directed at Jimin, but I personally can also intemperate that Jimin in the video embodies the lyrics, or the lyrics embody Jimin in the video. Either way works for me. This is interpretation in the same way people interpret the smile of Mona Lisa (purely individualistic), and it doesn’t rely too much on Jungkook’s true intentions here. Again, I don’t claim any of this as the true meaning, as to me there is no true meaning needed for me.

In the video, Jimin shows the rawest actions. He barely pays attention to the camera half of the time, and when he does, it’s for the sake of the cameraman (Jungkook). This can be seen when in the second bridge part, he shows Jungkook his own camera just off screen, and during the second chorus, he high-fives Jungkook, just off screen once more. I believe Jungkook also chose these parts intentionally, especially the sneeze during the second bridge that he zoomed in on. No matter if the purpose was just to clown Jimin (also possible), it still leads an interesting narrative for me (I know I repeated this multiple times, but no, this may not be the intentions of Jungkook, and it is my own view on it as an art form). The lyrics “I don’t wanna hide no more” building up to “Imma let you get the best of me” was in sync with the way how Jimin bursts from a serious expression into a silly dance, with the silliness continuing later after the chorus and verse 2 into the second bridge. He is true to his actions, letting go of inhibition, essentially not hiding, lying, nor acting anymore. All genuine, silly, honest moments, such as the sneezing, the off camera action, etc.

The editing for the dance part is interesting too. As I said before, I wasn’t expecting it, so it was interesting when it seemed Jungkook added a separate track and layered other clips on top of the silly dancing. This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I can see it like the clips of the groups randomly were “hiding” the silly dancing. No particular meaning needed really, just a technique used in editing that, to me, matches the lyrics in an unintended way. Those were just my thoughts when considering the possibilities of the lyrics, and the visual is pretty cool in the narration. I know from experience that it’s much easier to layer clips (BTS eating) over a longer clip (Jimin dancing) rather than cut them individually to fit around each other. So that’s just a neat observation lol.

Artistically speaking, Jimin is the only solid narrative and character within the video because there seems to be an actual correlation between the actions he does chronologically with the lyrics given for him. I find it interesting how he and the lyrics embody each other as the video went on. Again, my personal take on a work of art.

Now here’s the ultimate tinfoil-kinda-shippy part of my post. ALL PURE SPECULATION.

This video can be conceptually all about the “hidden”. Looking at this as a GCF, in comparison to his two earliest works, it is a lot more promotional, like USA (I actually have some thoughts on USA and Bangtan as well, and may think about writing a post for it. It’s not gonna be as bad as this one though).

Perspective of GCFs before Saipan:

Onto the subject of music perspectives, Jungkook so far as established a trend of using the perspective within the songs to be directed at the people starring in it, most noticeably in Osaka, with the way the lyrics were directed/about either Jimin or Taehyung’s roles/characters in the film from a first person perspective speaking. Tokyo as well with the last few lines of “running running just to keep my hands upon you”, showing the camera in the perspective of being behind Jimin as he got farther away with the first person pronoun. USA with the “we” point of view, which is then including the film’s perspective as part of the “we”, especially noticed when Jungkook goes to shake Zedd’s hand. I assume then that Jungkook uses the music choices as a way to direct to the people or to include himself in it at some points, rather than being a passive outside third person view. Now that GCF in Newark is out, that is even more obvious, though I also find Newark to be a diverging path in his medium exploration, so the perspective is more centered around himself rather than those around him. GCF in Saipan was made with the same format as those before it so my thoughts on its techniques are the same (I will be ignoring Newark for now since it’s format is so radically different, as well as the fact that its creation doesn’t affect his previous works).

This is important in the case of Saipan being very dissonant with the the perspectives of the film and of the song. Beyond my personal artistic perspective above (which, in my interpretation, I believe is another layer to the narrative, as multiple meanings within art is always the best). Say that the lyrics are from the point of view of the camera as a character in the film (Jungkook), which so far it has been for most of the GCFs. USA’s perspective made sense in that it was a group song, and it’s about a "we”, including Jungkook, reminiscing the old days. Generally equalized screen-time for each member, first person plural perspective, you get it. Sure, the tone and mood of it was off, but at least the perspective made sense. Saipan’s perspective and mood both don’t make sense. As a whole, Best of Me as a song choice doesn’t make much sense, given the perspective of it. Very different to USA, which I previously thought Saipan was going to emulate for reasons already stated.

Saipan is biased to Jimin based on the film and lyric placement, as previously stated, and so narrative-wise, it is also Jimin-biased. The song choice itself is also strange in that Saipan’s song is very clearly not a group song. It is a song with a “me” and a “you”. During the bridges, it’s even more clear how the “me” and “you” works. With the camera being the perspective, the “me” is the singer speaking, and the “you” (if we base this off of how Jungkook’s use of perspective works thus far) is directed at whoever is on screen. The same way Tokyo was directed at Jimin, and in Osaka, Jimin and Taehyung appeared whenever the lyrics were directed at them (Taehyung appearing at “he’s taking your side of the bed” so he is the subject of the “you” in that set of lyrics, similar to how “running running just to keep my hands upon you” in Tokyo, the “you” was Jimin. Again, Jungkook uses the camera as part of the narrative, hence the use of communication between camera and “actor”).

Well, you may ask, why isn’t anyone else’s part in the going to be the same? Especially Hoseok’s part, which to be honest, I’m surprised no one mentioned much? They mentioned how the song had questionably romantic lyrics, and everyone freaked out about how beautiful Hobi was in the video (same though) but his part coincided with those questionable lyrics I mentioned earlier. Why doesn’t that indicate Jungkook proclaiming his undying love for Hobi? Well, the main reason is most likely “selective context”. That part by itself could allude to that, but as a whole, the film focused on someone else. So this is an example of taking parts of something to make a different whole. That’s why the structure of Saipan felt different than those before it. Tokyo was linear, Osaka was alternating between two, USA was group, and Saipan is... weird.

So, during the bridges, the “me” is the “I don’t wanna hide no more, I don’t wanna lie no more” and the “you” is “’cause what I found in you is so real”. Depending on who the camera’s perspective is, this can be taken in many different ways. However, USA makes me believe that the camera itself is really Jungkook (as I always assumed so) and not the fans, a third person, etc. If the “me” is Jungkook, and the “you” is Jimin - well, I did sort of lose my sanity for two whole days.

In short, for an entire two days I was convinced Jungkook was in love with Jimin or at least had some sort of romantic connection with him in some way. Not that they were in a relationship, I was feeling something much too sudden for me to give it labels, and much too isolated to consider any “big picture”. And I felt like I was going insane because of how out of the blue my own reaction was. As I said before, I’m no shipper. So it was shocking and a little terrifying when I was so convinced. (I am calmer now, and have a relatively more neutral stance on the pairing once more, thankfully).

The main reason why I was so convinced previously was because of one reason: with input from my perspective analysis, I believe the GCFs are from Jungkook’s point of view (as we all believe). With the song choice and the clips chosen, it was a surprise to me when I thought about the film more carefully. I don’t ship BTS because to me, those are outside opinions on what’s happening, behavioral analysis videos, coincidence theories, etc. Sure, they can be interesting, sometimes cute, but I don’t see any need to support or pay too much mind to it. With GCFs, it was different because this was not outside perspective. This was Jungkook. This was his video, that he filmed and edited and spent time on. Like with his covers, as he had told us before, they (could) have meaning. They (could) tell a story, that may change the way you view his work. So what exactly could he be trying to tell us has been interesting for me to interpret. Of course, I still don’t think it matters much to have an absolute “True Meaning” unless he gives out one, and even then, art is appreciated in many ways, with so many facets and personal subjective connections. I don’t think I’m right, just that it’s what I perceived. And for me, it took me off guard how disconnected from the rest of the film the bridges were. They were so different in mood, in style, the bias, the commutative narrative going on. I couldn’t understand what Jungkook was saying, unlike all GCFs previous where it felt more coherent and I could at least somewhat figure out his message. And while perhaps Saipan simply doesn’t have a message, that’s hard to believe with this ongoing narrative.

This basically comes down to the opposing ideals in my mind. On one hand, I would hate to assume anything about someone I don’t actually know, especially when it’s something so personal and not-my-business. On the other hand, I would hate to dismiss anything that could be meaningful from an artist who put a lot of thought and handwork into a project of their’s. Something my art teacher of four years told me before “don’t be scared of being wrong about reading into an artwork, because they want you to see the things you are seeing”. Perhaps it’s all on purpose without any personal meaning? Maybe. I’ll stick with the “meaningful narrative but not necessarily romantic” for my own safety.

Who knows? Here’s some counterclaims to cheer you up and help me regain sanity.

Speculative counterarguments with responses and more doubt and speculation (my irl friend helped to come up with some of them, just in case):

Counterclaim:The song is meant to be taken platonically, with more focus on literal meaning on the chorus parts “Imma let you get the best of me”, aimed at either the members or at the fans. The song may also be promotional due to it having the same name as one of their own song. This means the entire video was focused more on promo (like the end “Summer Package” text).

Response: Jungkook does care about lyrics, and even with promo possibly being the main focus (which I do think it is a big part of it), I don’t think he will choose a song with the same name at random. However, it is possible he wanted to choose a song with the same name (promo, personal reason, who knows) and also thought the lyrics applied minimally (and liked it musically). As I said before, I am a big “lyrics can mean anything” person, so taking romantic lyrics and using them for platonic or other situations is something I can see happening. So yeah. This is definitely possible.

Counterclaim: Jimin is focused on for the bridge part because of the lyrics “I don’t wanna lie no more” tying to his “Lie” solo from Wings (my friend is the one who came up with this one)

Response: This one I find there is a low possibility of. Mostly because even if that was the case, why would Jimin dominate the entire bridge, including the other lyrics? Jungkook could have easily edited in other members, like the mixture he does for the verses and especially the choruses. Just put in a little shot of Jimin at the lie part and move on. So, this is unlikely (along with the fact that I really doubt Jungkook chooses songs and clips based on that) Which leads to the next counter:

Counterclaim: Jungkook very simply enjoys filming Jimin most, due to familiarity and Jimin being more comfortable with it. He’s at the bridges for content symmetry and also because there were simply more footage of him because of ease and accumulation. He sees Jimin as a very fun and goofy person, so he used the funny clips. There is no deeper meaning behind Jimin’s shots.

Response: Sure, I guess. This comes down to “how personal are the GCFs for Jungkook?”, which I would personally say very much so but I digress. They’ve already proven that Jungkook enjoys pointing the camera Jimin a lot in recent interviews (5th army mainly). I still think the most questionable parts of the video was how Jimin was singled out at the bridge parts and what the lyrics could possibly mean along with that, but I won’t rule this one out for the sake of accumulating other possibilities, no matter how much I believe in Jungkook’s artistic vision and my innate enjoyment in getting random meanings out of everything for fun. Again, platonic intention is possible to me. You may disagree, and that’s completely fine. I’m still neutral about this, because hey, anything is possible. So don’t get too carried away.

Counterclaim: So what about Osaka, if you consider the lyrics literally? Does that mean Taehyung, Jimin, and Junkook are in a love triangle?

Response: Honestly, I would like to do a personal analysis of Osaka in a separate post in the future (if I have time). Here’s a taste of what I think of it in a shorter answer to Osaka in general: it is actually possibly my favorite GCF, reasons being that I adore the the little no-music cuts Jungkook did, and also because Vmin is one of my favorite relationships in Bangtan. Due to sentimental reasons, Vmin has a very special place to my heart. Osaka feeds that part of my soul I suppose. Now, about the lyrics and the supposed love training happening, the thing is that Osaka is very different from Saipan in terms of use of perspective, use of cuts, screen time, etc. Personally, I see Osaka as a film about the maknae-line as a whole, with a smidgen of Jimin-bias. I don’t see the film about a love triangle, especially not a romantic one. Hope I can make a separate post detailing this.

Now that I’m done, I want people to not overthink it too much (unlike me). Of course, Saipan for me personally was just incredibly interesting because of how off and strange it felt to me in comparison to the other GCFs, but in regards to shipping, don’t invest too much emotionally. Enjoy what you get from all members, get attached to a pair maybe. But don’t let it completely take over your life. I like the speculative agnostic approach best (similar to my favorite blogger in regards to KM). Sure, Saipan had me go insane for two days straight out of the blue, but coming down from the insanity was a learning experience, especially returning to my neutral stance, which I enjoy greatly.

Making this more clear once again: this is not a post exposing Jungkook or anything. I do not claim any of this as his real thoughts. In fact, I don’t even believe any of what I’ve interpreted entirely. Those to me are “possibilities” to be thought, but not to be declared as truth. I think I’m probably wrong about a lot of this. Since again, why else do people still question what exactly Mona Lisa was smiling so mysteriously about? (she knows something we don’t, as the critics say).

If you want a more impartial opinion on GCF in Saipan, I recommend this director's outlook. I recommend using a non-biased mind to read this non-biased outlook. It is very interesting by itself as a professional's opinion. Please do not take the post as fodder for ships nor the definitive meaning of Saipan (if there even was one, who knows). We will never know for sure unless Jungkook ever decided to explain it if he wishes to. And if he never does, that’s fine too. Distinguishing what is reality, what is our reality, and what is someone else’s reality is extremely important.

Thanks for reading if you did! Hope it wasn’t the most awful thing ever. Tell me what you think about my interpretation, my opinions, counterarguments and counter-counterarguments. I do like KM as a ship now in some way, but again, all in good fun, and I don’t really want to give the relationship any labels. I don’t really want to take any of this too far other than a long rant to let out some parallel universe thoughts.

This was made also before I really got into any KM speculation, and it’s all very interesting. But I currently don’t really want to form a solid opinion on anything, or read too deeply. Maybe I will, one day. Or not. Since like I said, I’m not good at reading people.

It’s very likely no one will even see this, but as a personal record of my thoughts, it feels good to put them down.

💦 ☔💦

#mine #jikook

9 notes · View notes

nectarinejellyfish · 6 years

Text

In this post, I want to address some of the issues of Powerpuff Girls Z, specifically related to the sexualization/pedophilic treatment of its main cast.

To be honest, I don’t consider this to be the only PPG show to have issues with pedophilia, so I’m not singling it out for that reason (the original is actually loaded with sex jokes, some of which involve the girls themselves, so it’s not exactly guiltless in this area). For now I’m just going to focus on PPGZ though, mainly because I’d brought it up at @safeanimations before, and I wanted to provide a better explanation of some of the pedophilic aspects of the show than I did previously.

Examples are under the read more, with screenshots/other images included.

First, I want to establish that in this adaptation, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are all 13 years old, and attending middle school. I couldn’t find any official character bios in English, but I found some in Japanese, which I’ll link to, since they confirm the ages of the characters:

http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/ppgz/chara/index.html

As for the grade level, in both the Japanese and English language versions of the show, it’s specified that the girls go the same junior high school. I’ve seen some statements floating around that the girls go to high school/are in their older teens in this show, so I just wanted to clear this up briefly.

Before I get into scenes from the show itself, I’m just going to point out some official artwork produced for the show (mainly for DVD/CD covers and other similar merchandise)

All of these images have some...uncomfortable choices for depicting three middle schoolers. There should be so many ways to depict kids that don’t come off as vaguely skeevy, but this is...not it. I could probably write at least a couple paragraphs to point everything unnerving in these images, but the general problems with all of these is skimpy clothing and weird poses, which result in awkward things like Bubbles having her butt practically showing in the second image, which could’ve easily been avoided had the pose just been changed slightly

Getting to the show itself, there are definitely bits where the characters are drawn in really undeniably sexualized ways

This is a screenshot of Buttercup from the show’s second opening sequence. This is an incredibly pedophilic way to depict a 13 year old in a swimsuit, everything from the pose, to the way the highlights and shadows are used (I mean, what other reason is there for putting highlights on a kid’s crotch), to just the way the swimsuit is drawn (like no normal swimsuit would be absolutely skintight and suction to the body like that, for her chest to look that way)

Next, I'll touch on some episodic content. The first scene I’m going to bring up isn’t a case of sexualizing minors, but it’s...somewhat related, in a ‘not condemning harmful age gaps’ sense, and I’ll try to explain my concerns with it as best I can

In episode 46, Blossom tries to ask a guy who's clearly a good deal older than her on a date. (How far apart they are in age is unclear, but the screenshots below can kind of give an idea. It’s not obvious from the screenshots I took but he is wearing a school uniform, I think, so probably a high school student? Too old for a middle schooler at any rate) In other episodes, Blossom is frequently attracted to older/adult male characters, to the point where it’s something of a running gag, but usually it goes unreciprocated on the guy’s end - but, not in this episode. He initially turns her down, but after the villain Him uses his magic to possess him, the guy breaks up with his girlfriend, returns to Blossom to tell her that he’s fallen in love with her, and asks her to go on a date with him, which she happily accepts.

Once the other girls catch onto Him’s plan, they show up to undo the magic and snap the guy back to his senses, and then he goes back to rejecting Blossom.

Even though this all happens within the context of a guy being manipulated by a villain to do these things, I feel this was a pretty badly mishandled subplot. The fact that Blossom was romanced by someone who appears to be quite older than her, and he even succeeds on taking her on a date, without anyone else initially knowing about it, is ultimately really quickly brushed over. Nothing in the episode seems to portray Blossom as being in any real danger, she doesn’t learn anything from the encounter, even the other girls don’t really comment on it at all when they rescue her. If anything it almost ends on a gag note, like “haha Blossom almost got what she wanted, too bad it was just a trick”, as if we’re supposed to sympathize with her for having the date ruined.

And this scene bothers me more in the context of this being in a show where underage girls are already being sexualized, because portraying one of them as being super willing to date an older guy and there being no consequences for it, ends up feeling like it was written with some pretty bad intentions (I realize out of all of these examples, this is probably the most ‘ymmv’ one, but considering this scene was troubling enough to someone to be censored in the dub, which I’ll touch upon later, I figured this was worth bringing up)

The other two scenes I’ll bring up both come back to sexualization again. The first is from episode 20, where the Rowdyruff Boys make their introduction, and pull a bunch of pranks on the Powerpuff Girls, including...running past them and flipping their skirts.

There aren’t any actual panty shots in this scene (what would otherwise be a panty shot in the above image is obscured by Boomer’s arm), but it’s still portraying sexual harassment of the girls as a joke. Also, it's pretty gross that Bubbles reaction is obviously supposed to look ‘cute’ here, like as if this scene wasn’t skeevy enough, this gives it even more a fanservice vibe rather than it just being a gag (not that I’d excuse it if it was portrayed in a strictly humorous manner, but I’d argue that trying to make the girls look ‘cute’ while being sexually harassed does actually make it a whole lot worse)

But, I can’t even say this show is free of panty shots, which brings me to what is probably the most glaring instances of sexualization in the entire show, even considering everything else.

In episode 36, Him is once again the main villain, this time using his magic to put the girls in embarrassing or uncomfortable situations that they end up blaming each other for, to cause a rift in their friendship. Him ends up using his magic to create a large heart-shaped hole in the back of Blossom’s gym shorts, right as it’s her turn to perform a vault, causing her to flash her underwear to her entire gym class, and then there’s a closeup of it

And it probably seems like it wouldn’t get any worse than this, but then, shortly after that, Blossom has a flashback to what happened, except in the flashback she’s in a different pose that’s somehow a thousand times worse?

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHOT? WHY DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IT WAS TRACED FROM PORN??

Seriously, what else was this pose supposed to evoke??? And if the plot of the episode required a character to be put in an embarrassing situation, the show could’ve gone with fucking anything else like messing up a presentation or falling asleep during class, it’s like they purposefully went with something that could be be construed as fanservice and then proceeded to execute it in the most blatantly pedophilic way possible

So yeah, that’s a lot of the bad stuff, and it’s...pretty fucking bad. All of this stuff mainly pertains to the original (non-dubbed) version of PPGZ, as for how the English dub differs - some scenes are heavily edited or removed. For example, the scenes with the older guy asking Blossom on a date, were completely rewritten in the dub so that he was merely a comic book artist that Blossom was a fan of, and they meet up to discuss comic books rather than it being a date. So any pedophilic/creepy age gap implications from that episode were more or less written out in the dub.

However, the skirt flipping scenes are still in the dub, all that was cut out was the moments where the boys hands reach under the skirts to flip them, but then the rest just plays out like it did in the original. (So for those two screenshots of the skirt flipping scene - the first one doesn’t make it into the dub, second one does.) Also, the first of those two panty shots made it into the dub too, they just removed the second one (for incredibly obvious reasons).

That’s everything that I wanted to cover, hopefully this was an adequate (if somewhat jumbled) explanation of the show’s sexualization issues. I realize the examples above are probably do not represent the entire show (or even the majority of it), but the presence of stuff like this definitely deserves to be acknowledged and taken into consideration when discussing/evaluating the show

39 notes · View notes

frankcastled · 7 years

Text

So, I was drunk and told people to fight me on facebook about the MCU, and people did and this is my response to one of those people who said, “the villains are trash.” I just decided to post it on here for The Discourse. I love The Discourse. (Also, it explains why I refer to another person while writing this. I don’t feel like editing.)

So, your comment is super broad. I dunno if you’re referring to some villains or all of them, but I agree and disagree. Are all the villains in every movie perfect? No. Some of them have been underwhelming, that’s for sure. Malekith is a good example of this. And then on the opposite of the end of the same spectrum you have Loki, who is arguably the best villain. But let’s make him an exception to the rule, because he appears across multiple films and thus he has room to develop and grow as a villain and a character, even beyond the Thor films and so, like the heroes, he has a character arc that makes sense and just naturally makes him a good villain.

But anyway, I’m assuming you’re talking about the infamous Marvel villain problem. Well known and although I don’t know the specifics of the argument, I’m going to pick out a few standalone villains who I think stand well on their own and actually present the heroes with real stakes.

First, Obadiah Stane. So, I think a fair argument can be made, that in a way, he is the catalyst for everything in the MCU. For one, there would be no Iron Man without Obadiah. I mean, he had Tony kidnapped, which is subsequently the reason Tony developed the Mark I in the first place! He’s the entire reason the Iron Man exists. In Civil War, we see the opposite effect: where Iron Man, as a result from mere existence, spawned a backlash. It’s pretty much the entire plot of Civil War: heroes create villains. But with Obadiah, he was a villain who created a hero, which I think is fascinating (and fine, a lot of stories follow this narrative, but in a world where superheroes are generally an accepted thing, it’s fascinating within this context). Not only that, but he has a history with Tony and with Tony’s father, Howard. Did the movie explore him fully and completely? No. That’s, I think, part of the problem with the villains in the MCU, most of them are given their one movie and because they are killed off, don’t have room to develop or grow the same way our protagonists do (again, the exception being Loki). However, I think Obadiah is also a great start for the MCU, plus the kind of villain who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. He goes out of his way to have other people do his dirty work: having Raza be the one to kidnap and kill Tony, trying to get the scientists to build an arc reactor, etc. However, at the end of the day he realizes that he has to do it himself and does exactly that.

Stakes: He got his own Iron Man suit, makes him and Tony evenly matched. Perfect introductory villain.

Second, Red Skull from Captain America. I’m not even entirely sure that I even like him as a villain, so much as I like what he does for the movie and for developing Captain America as a character. But, I’m gonna throw him out there, because I’m already writing an essay here and may as well go full force. So, Red Skull first and foremost serves as a foil for Captain America. He got injected with the serum, etc, etc and yet here he is, the bad guy to Captain America’s good guy. He is the, “it was important for the super soldier experiment to pick the appropriate person to do tests on because this is what happens if we pick the wrong person” scenario. He is the “what if” scenario. He is like the dark side of Captain America. I think that’s important to establish for Captain America as a character because so much of the first movie is all about pushing his character and motivations and the Red Skull also kind of serves as a cautionary tale of, “this is what happens when you get greedy and power hungry and search out power for the wrong reasons.” But, it also establishes why he’s a formidable foe for Captain America. He has the same abilities as him. He is a match which also serves to show that an ordinary person could not take Captain America time (yeah, yeah we see this demonstrated multiple times when he takes out 20 henchmen on his own, but whatever). Again, I don’t know if any of these points necessarily make Red Skull a good villain, but I also think it was necessary for him to the the first villain (but also he’s a nazi and yeah this movie came out ages before, umm, well today’s current political climate, but suddenly Captain America straight up fighting a nazi is relevant again, but I digress).

Stakes: Also enhanced with super soldier serum. Is literally Captain America, but the evil version. Perfect introductory villain.

Captain America: Winter Soldier. I’m including this movie, because the villain here isn’t the traditional Marvel villain and I think that’s part of the reason why people love this movie so much. It’s complex and explores something very real and tangible (in my humble opinion, I think it’s slightly overrated and I have movies higher than this on my list, but I loved this one nonetheless). So, we’re made to believe the Winter Soldier is the villain. Makes for great drama and I would say a good twist, but considering the trailers gave it away— Anyway, he starts off as the villain, but as the movie progresses, lo and behold we find out that it’s really Hydra that’s behind all this!!!! *GASP* Not only that, but somehow Hydra is still around. And I’m not going to get too wordy, because Hydra ends up falling into the Loki category of villain, in that, they become a well developed and established organization being developed across multiple films, but hey! Still, they count as a valid villain and the fact that Hydra infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. and manages to compromise them, I feel speaks volumes for how powerful they are.

Stakes: Is an en entire organization whom Steve Rogers has history with and thus it dissolves his trust of others in general. Of course there are stakes.

Next we have one of the newer entries to the MCU: Spider-Man, or rather, The Vulture. So, I think part of what makes him a brilliant villain, maybe only second to Loki, is that he is so damn relatable. Which is the point. He represents the blue collar worker and the struggle they encounter in today’s world. He gets his job taken away (by one of the HEROES no less!) and is left being obsolete. Machines and technology are basically doing what he does (because are we really going to believe that Tony Stark has physical and living people doing the jobs that his Iron Legion can feasibly do or any other specialized drone that he may have made to do clean up) and that’s kind of the one thing you hear a lot about today: people are being replaced by machines! People with a limited skillset are having their jobs taken by machines! They’re being left behind and forgotten because they have never done any other job but the one job they just had taken away from them. The Vulture presents such a modern day dilemma for so many people, especially nowadays (coughminerscough). And so the Vulture forces us to question a lot. Do the ends justify the means? How far is too far? How bad is he when he was literally doing this to keep a roof over his family’s head, a family we know about and grow to care about prior to the big reveal and thus compromising how we feel? He’s one of the more complex villains I would argue. His entire character arc is about being able to obtain materials to make weapons so that he can sell them and literally keep food on the table and a roof over his family’s head (hey, remember which other famous character was a weapons manufacturer and made his living off selling weapons and facilitating war? Hmmm, he might have popped up once or twice in this movie already…). Ultimately, yeah, we know what he’s doing isn’t great. He sells to only criminals (that we know of), I’m sure part of it is out of necessity considering that he kept all the debris illegally, and what better way to make sure your client base doesn’t talk than to make sure they’re already criminals who aren’t going to go blabbing since they live their lives outside of the law, anyway. I could go on, but I won’t.

Stakes: Well, Peter Parker is a high school kid with powers and the Vulture has alien technology and is an adult, so pretty evenly matched. Arguably the Vulture has less morality than Peter Parker, as well, and thus will aim for the kill, unlike Peter who obviously aims to keep him alive.

The living planet, Ego. Okay, so this one, again like Red Skull, I’m not even entirely sure if he makes a good villain, or because I like the purpose he serves and the way he drives the story. But, he’s gonna get thrown on here. So, this was never a secret, but hey turns out Ego is Peter Quill’s father! Hurray! How happy for Peter Quill. Ego ends up being the opposite of Winter Soldier, in that he is meant to be a good guy until he’s revealed to be the villain. I think this is part of makes the second Guardians movie really compelling. There isn’t a real villain until the final reveal. Even the Sovereign, who arguably are something of a secondary antagonist, are more of a nuisance to the Guardians rather than an outright villain. Anyway, part of the whole Guardians’ storyline is the concept of family (if the use of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain didn’t give it away, then I don’t know what would have) and that’s why Ego makes such a suitable villain for this movie. Peter’s own biological parentage isn’t really family, not in the same way Yondu was and not in the same way the Guardians are to Peter. Ego is a necessary villain because it makes an incredibly relevant point, that hey, your family isn’t actually who is related to you by blood, but about who you make your family. That people who share blood with you can be the people who make you miserable, but that does not mean you have any obligation to them. Honestly, the movie said it best, “Sometimes, the thing you’ve been looking for your whole life is right there beside you all along.”

Stakes: Literally a god. Does not get harder to defeat than this. Someone straight up died, so.

Final villain, I swear. I thought having a nice variety of good and relevant villains was important for the discourse. Hela. (Huh, three of my villains from the three most recent films.) So, first I would like to point out, I think Hela was vastly underused. I don’t think she had much screen time and I think she should have had more, but that being said, I do think there was one very important thing that Hela did accomplish, and it honestly makes up for her lack of screen time. So, at the end of Ragnarok, you have everyone on the ship and Asgard has just turned into a fiery hellscape. Fun stuff. Taika then has this moment as Korg, where Korg talks about how they can rebuild Asgard because it has a foundation, etc. only to then have any semblance of a foundation blow up. It’s a joke. However, it’s a very important joke, (to be fair, the following of what I’m going to say kind of is a shot in the dark and based on only two viewings of this movie) I think part of the point of Korg making light of what has just happened, despite the seriousness of the situation (Thor no longer has a home. He has all these people with him that he needs to find a home for so they can rebuild their lives and start anew and that’s something very serious), but remember Hela’s entire arc in the movie? For the most of the movie, she talks about her life before Odin imprisoned her. There’s a scene where she destroys a mural and reveals another mural underneath that showed her and Odin conquering the world. She talks about all the conquests she and Odin have, building an empire (kind of sounds like white colonialism, if you ask me) and I think that’s kind of the point of her character? She reveals Asgard for what it is, a sham. She reveals Odin for who he was. She shows that the foundation of Asgard was built upon conquests and wars and that after she was imprisoned: lies. Ragnarok isn’t just about Asgard dying, but about Asgard having a fresh start. It’s the cyclical nature of what Ragnarok really is and I think it’s part of why Korg makes light of the whole situation. There was never really a foundation for Asgard. It was covered up and in the end, it was built on something dirty. Hela, while brief her appearance is, serves to expose all that. She was a villain because her father made her that way, that much is clear. She didn’t want to conquer Asgard because that’s what villains do, she wanted to conquer Asgard because that’s literally what she was told was true. She was the rightful successor, but also she probably truly believed that. In fact, you see her giving Asgard the chance to simply accept her (which, to be fair, from the POV of the people, that’s a lot to ask when they’ve literally never heard of her, so you can’t blame them, but you also can’t blame her) and she might have ruled with an iron fist, but again, that’s how she was raised. Wars and conquests, and in a way it makes her character arc kind of tragic. In all honesty, I kind of hope she ends up coming back because I think she’s fascinating (and I’ve heard that in the comics Thanos has a thing for her, and to be honest, I am here for the evil, villain couple).

Stakes: She is Thor’s sister, therefore is a goddess and is level with him in the sense they are both otherworldly beings. Also, she can create weapons from nothingness. Literally Thor and company can’t defeat her, they bring back the hell monster to get rid of her (and to be honest I am not even sure that she’s dead anyway). People died, people less powerful than Thor and friends.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, congratulations for making it through my rambling! Here’s are just how I think the villains stack up individually in terms of being awful to being excellent.

Terrible, glad they are dead. 3 out of 10 stars.

Tim Roth (Lmao, okay that’s the actor, but god knows what his character’s name is, I admit I’ve seen the Incredible Hulk like four times and it’s at the bottom of my MCU movie list)

Malekith

Okay, probably could have been better but the movie was good so I don’t care.

Whiplash + Justin Hammer

Killian Aldrich

Hovers in the middle of being “eh” to being “good.”

Kaecilius + Dormammu

I liked them, not sure of public opinion, I could defend in a fight.

Ronan the Accuser

Ultron

Darren Cross

Zemo

Villains I think are good and just wrote a literally essay about

Obadiah Stane

Red Skull

Hydra

Ego

Vulture

Hela

The only collectively good villain in the MCU that most people agree on

Loki

#rosie cries about marvel #marvel

15 notes · View notes

bluejanuarysky · 6 years

Text

Low Ranking: How to Fix and Avoid (An Expert Guide)

With professional fascination and the assistance of skilled SEO specialists, your business may leverage SEO trends to arrive out at the top in 2018 plus beyond. Analyze your website's overall position, including SEO, usability, performance, plus backlinks. Algorithm adjustments in 2018 seem to center on reducing the effectiveness associated with old-school SEO techniques, with the May 2015 Google ‘Quality' algorithm upgrade bruisingly familiar. From an natural search perspective, we feel Youtube . com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn in most cases remain the particular social media sites that provide the most important SEO worth or for you to drive organic visitors to brand sites in 2018. Because millions of people decide to use their particular digital devices, the opportunities intended for SEO and content marketing may continue to increase. In other words, focus upon the things you can manage, like on-page SEO, content high quality, website design, social media marketing footprint, plus overall user experience. Because it takes a great deal of effort and time to find the best techniques, I have got integrated those must use on-page SEO techniques here. Here are Top five SEO trends and techniques regarding 2018 to boost search motor ranking that you must maintain in mind. Google will be constantly rolling out updates in order to its search engine algorithm… plus while the basics of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION will never change, you have to make use of updated tactics to get your own website ranking higher in the particular search results. However, before we get to our main event, I must note that after our 2017 edition of SEO trends launched last year on Search Engine Journal, we heard a couple of complaints about just how long it was. Utilized by more than 3 mil websites, Yoast SEO is the particular only SEO plugin that a person will ever need to create your content appear on SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Mobile SEO, within my opinion, will dominate SEO developments in 2018. While the core SEO procedures won't change too much, the particular way we do keyword analysis and form our strategies may. Keywords would be the base of SEO. Then upon your post and pages the particular Yoast SEO plugin now provides a section to type within your meta keywords as noticed in the example below.

A person can use this configuration in order to improve your mobile SEO concerning providing users best design with regard to all devices. Many people try to consider their SEO strategies into their own own hands, but this may lead to a waste associated with time and resources. SEO Check - which can test out your website plus give you tips for much better search engine optimization. In order to understand more, check this infographic through Digital Marketing Philippines, which talks about the very best trends that will you should know if a person want to transform your SEO technique this 2018. Using a common sense approach in order to SEO, you can do your personal keyword research and do SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION yourself. Due to the fact the niches are fairly wide, I'm fortunate to have the lot of keyword opportunities (as opposed to doing SEO intended for a local business). Within this post, we've broken lower the top SEO techniques to assist you skyrocket your rankings plus boost your quantity of monthly website visitors. In case you want your site in order to rank in today's digital entire world, you need to satisfy Google's SEO criteria. Finally, many SEOs regularly evaluate their competitors' backlinks to determine those they could recreate for his or her sites too. The basic principles behind search engine optimisation (SEO) and high rankings within Google haven't changed much within the last decade. As this is still the start associated with 2018, it will be fascinating to see these and additional SEO trends emerge since the 12 months progresses. As location-awareness and behavior-pattern-awareness become part associated with an SEO toolbox of 'context' of user intent, savvy SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tool providers, Google included, will certainly find opportunity in 'nano-moments' intersections of location, intent, context plus prior behavior (or predicted behavior). Not only perform you want to use HTTPS because it is a standing signal for your SEO attempts, but also to be able to ensure a person are giving your customers the particular safest experience. This is typically the taking treatment of of SEO that individuals spend probably the most time and the particular most optimisation on. This is definitely why it is so amazing that this script is flipping whenever it comes to backlinks, along with more authoritative unlinked words becoming the ones that fight by means of algorithms one of the most effectively. Therefore, having the Google My Business profile is definitely essential for local SEO because it enables you to show up in these results. Hazel, SEO Consultant and founder associated with SEO+, works together with companies throughout the UK. She's curious in making websites work successfully and it has a popularity for increasing traffic, leads plus sales. And if they find the particular content useful, they might actually bookmark it. Which is exactly what off-page SEO is all regarding beyond link-building. Moreover, Google will certainly continue to elevate the importance of usability and technical SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION factors, such as site safety, page speed, mobile friendliness, plus navigability. Still, the key phrase element of SEO is becoming more and more difficult with Google Adwords concealing volume data. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION specialists started to abuse Pr to be able to enhance the rankings. This blog uses the particular tagline Learn SEO Straight through the Search Engines, ” plus it doesn't tackle easy topics. Learn Search Engine Optimisation From The Basics Find the very good Keywords On Web page & Off Site SEO! Here's a good example exactly where we try to find says of Active Campaign, with simply no link to, utilizing the SERP Tool from the LinkResearchTools SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION toolkit. While this particular holistic approach will eventually get rid of a lot of the problems created by some SEO professionals through the years, I believe that search engines' engineers will certainly initially overestimate the precision associated with their AI, leading to Penguin-level collateral damage. One important aspect associated with taking care of SEO is definitely identifying issues that are harming search engine rankings and decreasing the traffic you get through SERPs. You are able in order to put up a team yet it would take a great deal of time because you will need to create substantial research and training just before you can incorporate it. This this case, hiring the solutions of an SEO firm is usually the best choice for a person. So in particular in case someone is pasting links upon a spammy site, or probably a previous SEO went away from and ran some script in order to place links and a few of forums, and you aren't clean that up for whichever reason, and you don't have got a manual action, but a person want to make sure this doesn't even get that much, then the disavow file is definitely a great method to simply like preemptively say well I realize about these issues, I may wish to lose any rest over them, I'm just heading to disavow them and obtain them taken out of the particular equation. Mobile phone optimization for local users, together with the rise of tone of voice search, can provide an outstanding way to produce a effective SEO strategy in 2018 simply by facilitating the search experience by means of personalized and relevant answers. You may also rate the particular work on an SEO business in the position of your web site in the search result with regard to your keyword. Given that so much data has proven that mobile traffic has overtaken desktop in past times year mobile turns into a bigger factor for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION each day. There are a few factors that effect Domain Authority, but the important point here is that DA is really a significant Local SEO ranking factor. How will your business employ SEO strategies in 2018? Views expressed here by Contributors are usually their own. The SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends for 2018 as properly as the years to arrive are not some detached ideas you need to tackle individually. Simple, easy-to-read content material may help with voice research SEO. Canonical: This particular plug-in handles content syndication, which usually essentially allows other blogs in order to create your work (similar in order to franchising) without hurting your home page's SEO ranking—simply by adding the rel=canonical can get your brand name and content out on the particular internet in multiple outlets, making sure a better reach and bigger market without hurting your own lookup results. SEO webmasters must usually be looking forward in purchase to stay afloat amid the changing technological environment and Search engines algorithm updates that dramatically change organic search results. Given Google's recent formula updates, which are getting more and more smarter and more aware associated with low-level SEO tactics, there is definitely no truly no longer any kind of replacement for authoritative, interesting, plus unique content that generates natural virality. We might become living inside the age of artificial cleverness, where SEO marketers are constructing more personalized websites with the few tweaks to UX plus spending hours creating content regarding RankBrain. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in 2018 is actually a technical, analytical and innovative process to improve the presence of a website in research engines. Search motor optimization or SEO is probably the most essential method in order to drive targeted traffic to your own website because it results within improved search engine placement.

In 2018, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies will be more focused towards visualizing the information because it will provide an online method of users. With the particular explosion of mobile search, we're going continue to see SEOs appear narrower than regions, counties or even even suburbs. According to the particular survey, 77% of our clients voted for user experience since the main SEO trend with regard to 2018. Google has introduced (at least) a ‘percieved' risk to posting plenty of lower-quality pages upon your site to in a good effort to curb production associated with old-style SEO friendly content dependent SEO 2019 PDF on manipulating early search motor algorithms. Since a person working on the particular fringes of SEO, not our daily focus, it's great in order to have this broad overview intended for getting at least the fundamentals right on my websites. With voice research becoming as popular as this is, featured snippets are using a huge part within the particular SEO game. We understand a lot about our customers but just a small amount associated with that information usually switches in to an SEO strategy.

Smart SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques always come down in order to great content with both customers and search engines in thoughts. Search motor rankings, above-the-fold calls to activity, prominently placed images, and innovative anchor text do not create the call with regards in order to your marketing success — these things of your users perform. All of the other factors of SEO, content creation, plus web site design certainly play a part in influencing the visibility associated with your marketing material, but simply no amount of visibility will create someone follow you into your own sales funnel unless you are usually acknowledging, addressing, and meeting the particular needs of your users. With a good increased focus on user expertise, Google has challenged the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION community to pay for even more attention to the overall encounter of a web site and how the particular content interacts with users, instead than just the basic components that many optimize toward. Whether you are usually a marketer or a company owner, or even a organization for SEO, it's always helpful to research and learning fresh SEO tactics. I'm curious - sometimes along with your chapter-based guides, you have got them all on a one page like this one, yet sometimes they're separate pages along with an overview page like a type of intro + table associated with contents, like the Keyword Study for SEO Definitive Guide. More significantly for us as SEOs, it indicates that the power of hyperlinks to rank websites is established to decrease, as well since the power of good user-engagement metrics on the website (and anything that improves them) will be increasing. Even as we head in order to 2018, SEO is becoming significantly important as more businesses are usually aware they require it in order to get found online. If youโ€d like to know more about doing keyword research that will give a boost to your SEO activities, head over to our completeย long tail keywords research guide and find out some of the FREE tools in action. Wise SEO activities improve your own rankings in the search motor results page (SERP). 1. Enhance your Google My Business Entries (the top local SEO rank signal) to help improve nearby visibility and branding. Big Brand name campaigns are far, far various from small company SEO advertisments that don't have any hyperlinks, to begin with, to provide you but one example. SEO has been misinterpreted by these Internet marketers mainly because they assume that you will find much better ways to get visitors plus SEO takes a lot associated with time and effort which is not worth it. If you are usually after growth and targeted visitors then search engine traffic is usually really a traffic source that will you seriously have to think about. These happenings of the particular past year will shape upward mobile SEO in 2018. SEOQuake: A plugin regarding your web browser, not Wp, SEOQuake allows users to rapidly and seamlessly assess SEO features of any website without starting up extra programs. Earlier they will were always concerned about the particular SEO ranking factors, as these people keep on changing with the particular periodic algorithm updates rolled out there by the search engines. Within accordance, over the years SEO's have spent large amounts associated with time building inbound links, plus some have even tried manipulating this part of the lookup algorithms. You can find really two sides to SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, the first is the specialized part of it and the particular second can sometimes be a lot more of an all natural personalisation play among online businesses. Bambrick Media is a electronic marketing company based in Brisbane with a strong concentrate upon SEO We also specialise within PPC, Social Media Marketing plus Website Design To consult associate of our SEO team regarding your digital marketing goals, make sure you get in touch via our own Contact page or give all of us a call on 1300 719 835. Though it might seem easy, in order to implement the correct SEO methods, you need to have a sound understanding and an in-depth knowledge of what is new or on the horizon with regard to ranking factors. Really simple to see why tone of voice search optimization will continue in order to grow in importance for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Because they look issues up on visual search equipment, such as Google Images plus Pinterest, it's important to improve SEO on all image plus video content. We have some great ratings, but we are always searching to improve and see exactly what the future holds for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Fairly recently, I've observed a resurgence of on-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION factors making a difference within search engine rankings. Don't forget to incorporate the particular basics of SEO, featured thoughts, rich content (like videos), hyperlink earning, and UX in your own strategy. Based on how relevant these keywords are for your business, you can start shortlisting them for your own SEO optimisation process. I actually have a guide for Wp local SEO in my routing menu but most everything will be the same even for non-WordPress sites. This particular could create friction and the particular impression that many well-designed internet sites are very poorly optimized with regard to SEO. Unfortunately, 95% of hyperlinks from SEO link building never ever bring a single new website visitor aimed at your website. With that being said, carry on reading to discover more regarding the SEO trends for 2018 and what they mean intended for your business. In order to find out there how I do it, check out Article Czar for a free of charge gift and details of exactly how I use article marketing plus SEOcious to get top Search engines listings. A successful internet marketing strategy may usually involve SEO, yet it also consists of the particular use of paid advertising upon search engines, building high high quality websites to interact and convince site visitors take action via enquiries or online sales, creating analytic programs to allow web site owners to measure their achievements and improving a site's transformation rate. Shift of Desktop computer First index to Mobile Initial index, Priority of Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in ranking, trend of Tone of voice Search etc. Technical SEO to help assure search engines like google may crawl your site efficiently. So - THERE IS NO BEST PRACTICE QUANTITY OF CHARACTERS any SEO could lay down as exact best practice to GUARANTEE a title will display, in complete in Google, at least, since the search snippet title, on each device. The SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION adage length is strength” had been supported by our industry research which found that longer articles has a tendency to position significantly higher on Google's very first page. Google Traffic is near to non and it's getting difficult to keep investing budget in SEO. I was initially concerned regarding ranking my sites and this was too hard to find out about SEO. Talk to your marketing group about how to include Tone of voice into your SEO plans. While SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION assists with driving traffic in order to your site, the designing component helps in grabbing the interest from the users. Right now is the time to spend more attention to long-tail key phrase phrases and to local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. As a result, the SEO's job nowadays much more than keywords plus backlinks. Sign up for our own weekly SEO and daily SearchCap newsletters regarding a recap of all the particular latest SEO related news, guidelines and tactics from Search Motor Land and other sources most over the Web.

John talks regarding the key reason why entrepreneurs and business owners should make use of LinkedIn, and how they may use it to enhance their own website's SEO, and increase research ranking. 2017 is coming to an end, and it's that time of the year where we start exploring the important thing SEO trends for 2018. With the presence associated with an improved algorithm, it will be now undoubtedly vital to utilize whitened hat SEO techniques for efficient Link building. 1 of the biggest mistakes all of us see businesses make with nearby or organic SEO is simply diving in at a technical level without understanding what their own strengths or weaknesses are. So, Digital Marketing Experts, it's time to enable your own content and promotions for tone of voice searches to make it worth with regard to SEO 2018. The outcomes are not instant, you can use the time on attempting other Internet marketing techniques whilst SEO would go to function. Before getting in touch along with any of the SEO Business find out how the company keeps the below mentioned points or even not as on- page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION helps to create better hyperlink and social media content marketing and advertising helps your company to contact the height of success.

The school methods of SEO are actually phased out and the new lookup engine algorithms have introduced the new at-par levels for various other techniques that should be regarded while creating a website style. We all do advanced SEO for Lot of money 500 websites and our strategies are built on these concepts. Now, the only method to appear in the lookup engine pages like this will be by uploading your videos upon You Tube or through video clip SEO. On-Page SEO is normally accompanied with Off-Page SEO, that is definitely based on building trustworthy incoming links for your site : this is most frequently known as linkbuilding. As the behaviour of a user searching search engine optimization company in Mumbai ” could be different from a user looking for seo company in Chennai Therefore, advertisers should not battle in the same way since they will used to do in the particular previous years. Whether you are the marketer or a business proprietor, learning new SEO tactics plus following best practices can assist you secure a safe place on the internet.

0 notes

zombolouge · 7 years

Note

Ah you are too kind!

(cont) Maybe it's because I'm only at the beginning and I take things reeeally slowly, but still, it'd be nice to be able to fix this. One huge question though: how do you write from a child's perspective? For example, in the story I'm writing, Link is 10 in the first few chapters. I'm having trouble with conveying his thoughts across, since they either sound too mature or too childish. I keep saying 'his mother' whenever she does appear, and after a while it gets repetitive - but I don't think I'd use her name since Link wouldn't call her that. So how to go about writing from a third person child perspective? Thank you so much for your tips!

Ah, yes! I went through this same thing when I started writing again myself. I wrote a LOT when I was younger, then stopped for about 9 years before I came back to it. (I started writing again in 2014, seriously about a month later). Then it was like picking up a rusty bike and trying to make the wheels go. There are several things I wrote that will never see the light of day because they were terrible. But that’s all part of the process! So don’t feel bad if it all feels like a disaster at first, because it gets better. In the beginning, your main concern is to just try and write as much as possible, and to finish things. Once you get that down, you can start making things better through editing and more critical thinking. ^_^

Okay, so I can certainly share what helps when I write longer fics, though this process doesn’t always work for others. When I wrote Tearing Down the Heavens, it started as a mish-mash of scenes that I had half-written that I was stringing together. I think by like chapter ten I had already gotten overwhelmed trying to do that, and I opened a word doc and just made a list of the “important plot moments”. Over time this grew into a true, blue outline.

I don’t think I could write such longform fic without the use of an outline. Some writers can, and some writers even find that an outline completely ruins their creativity, but for me it’s a necessity. Sometimes my outline is incredibly detailed, including lines of dialogue or descriptions or notes about backstory and themes. Other times it’s not more than a line or two about a scene. For instance, the first chapter of A Hundred Years in the Making has a very detailed outline, where I wrote out almost all the dialogue between the King and Vallus. I ended up changing it as I wrote the scene around it, to make it flow better, but the base was there. In contrast, my notes for the portion where Link is traveling to the castle were vague (I actually only put “Write shit about Link’s feelings while he’s on the horse”, which is not particularly helpful notes to myself, but there you have it). I also don’t tend to flesh out the outline all at once. For instance, I may know that I want a certain thing to happen, but I don’t know how I want it to play out or any other details. So I’ll make a note in the outline that says something like “Character tries to leave, gets caught by other character” or something. Then, as the earlier chapters get written, I may add more context, so I could end up with something like this (I’ll use some of the older outlines for Facing Down the Void for this example):

“Autumn wakes up in a panic, convinced something is wrong.

- Solas is trying to leave, she races through the cold night air to find him and confronts him. He is hurt, miserable to be back around her and torn about what he must do, so he is cold to her. His attitude breaks through her calm, and she starts to cry as she yells at him, demanding to know why he’s leaving again. She doesn’t understand, he doesn’t want her to, but the sound of her voice breaks his heart. He turns and makes his confession, kissing her even though he knows its the worst thing that he could do. She is stunned, and finally lets him go as she processes thing.”

That eventually turned into a pretty complex scene that I wrote very early on and edited several times before it was published.

The reason why I find outlines necessary is that I have trouble writing something if I don’t know where it’s going. I need to have at least a general idea of what I’m building to, or it takes me about 8 times longer to write a chapter. It helps me do proper foreshadowing, and it helps me understand character motivations and growth arcs better. For instance, in As Bright as the Stars, I knew that Saeyoung was going to lie to try and hurt Nicky from the get-go. I had been setting that betrayal up from the start of chapter one. If that moment had been a surprise, however, if I hadn’t planned it, then it wouldn’t have the proper groundwork laid before it. Twists and turns in the plot are what make a story gripping, BUT, they can’t come from nowhere. Your reader should look at surprises and say “I did not see that coming, but I should have”, not feel like it came completely out of left field. You should be able to point to your previous chapters and say “see, there is the proof that this could happen”. Otherwise the shock is cheap, and people tend to lose interest.

Outline will help you map out events, get foreshadowing in place (important for pretty much all types of stories, including things like slow burns), and understand the characters better. Because when you outline, you are forced to think “what would this character do in this situation”, which then makes you think about the character and think about how they react to things and how they think. Although your story is still going to throw you curve balls, and you shouldn’t be afraid to change an outline when needed. In As Bright as the Stars, I didn’t realize that Vanderwood was going to be such a huge part of it at first until I wrote her first chapter and realized “oh shit I have feelings about this character that need to be told”. I then paused writing the story and worked on my outline to expand it to include this new revelation. So things will still happen that weren’t planned, but at least you have good starting points to handle them better.

I’ll be honest, though, part of my process is pretty much nonstop consideration. If I am not actively writing, I am usually thinking about writing, or thinking about characters, or word choice, or themes. I’ve written entire scenes in my head on my morning commute and then hurriedly outlined them once I arrived at work. I’ve spent actual hours thinking about something a character did and trying to figure out WHY they did it, to understand that character. So don’t feel bad if a good chunk of your “writing time” is just sitting around and thinking about it, because you have to work those things out at some point before the words will start to come.

Flow!! Okay, so one of the best things for flow is reading it out loud. You will, in fact, feel like a moron reading your own work out loud to yourself, especially at first. But hearing the words spoken into your ears will trigger different processes in your brain than just reading them. This can often highlight points where there are problems, or where the word order doesn’t work. This goes double for actual dialogue, which should be read out loud until you feel like you have become the characters. If a scene feels weird, it’s usually because your making a character say or do something that doesn’t feel like something they should say or do, which will throw everything off.

Another thing that I find helpful for both flow in general and dialogue is to map out a scene in very specific, very bland details. (ESPECIALLY FOR ACTION OR SMUT, THIS MAKES THOSE SCENES SO MUCH EASIER). So I would open up my outline, or an empty doc, and write something like this:

“Character A (Jeffrey) opens the door.

Sees Character B (Heather) arranging matches.

Jeffrey: Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware...(pauses, curious) What are you doing?

Heather glares. “I’m arranging matches.”

Jeffrey: “Oh.” (pause) “Why?”

Heather (upset): Because it’s what Sebastian would have wanted!”

Jeffrey closes the door slowly.”

I can then look at that outline and turn it into a scene because I have enough notes to go off of, and I know what’s supposed to be happening at any given time, so it lets me focus more on the descriptions rather than the ideas. I wrote up a quick example scene based on that outline (it is rushed, so forgive me if it isn’t a masterpiece XD)

“Jeffrey placed his hand on the cold door handle, already feeling the weight of the other room bearing down on his shoulders before he had even turned the brass. The house was quiet, and the room was quiet, but he was certain that there was unhappiness beyond the threshold. Still, it was a door, and what purpose would doors have were they not meant to be opened? He twisted his palm, pulling the knob along with it, and pushed the wooden boards forward to reveal the room beyond.

He was surprised to see Heather within, standing in front of a table with one hand on her half-cocked hips. She didn’t look up as he blinked at her, taking in the silent scene with all the dignity that he could muster in such a situation. The house was silent, so he had presumed that it was empty. His error had been the source of his ominous premonitions, knowing that the room had held misery without knowing why. Heather’s presence had that effect on them all lately.

He cleared his throat, wishing that he could be a thousand miles away from this position at precisely this moment. “Oh, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware...” his words trailed off, flat and lame in the deadened air as she shifted, moving just enough so that he could see the stack of matches on the table before her. She lifted one in her long fingers, the tip of the match the same ruby color that was smeared across her fingernails. She held it aloft, inspecting it for something, judging its character like a redheaded soldier that had been stripped and homogenized before being shipped off to war. She then took it and placed it atop a second stack of matches, piled in a tower that shuddered with the weight of the new addition. “What are you doing?”

She narrowed her eyes into a sullen glare as she looked at him, clicking her tongue before offering the obvious. “I’m arranging matches.”

“Oh.” he nodded, a compulsory action, as though this made perfect sense. He should have left it, should have mumbled some apology and retreated from the room, but his damnable sense of curiosity burned too brightly in the back of his throat to clamp down on the question before it came tumbling out. “Why?”

She rounded on him, her hands clamping into furious fists that stuck to her sides, the matches in the tower tumbling across the table in careless disarray. “Because it’s what Sebastian would have wanted!” Her voice wavered between madness and grief, and he winced at the force of it, seeing the tears that he had unleashed. It was too much, too great a burden to bear in this moment, on this day. He felt sorry for her, sorry enough to furrow his brow in a voiceless apology that would do less to disturb the fraught air than words would. He felt sorry, but not sorry enough to reach an olive branch across the divide between them. Instead he backed out of the room, shutting the door with the slow deliberation of someone who knows he could have been a better person if he had just left it open. Her cries of frustration followed him out, and he knew that he was a terrible man.”

I think I spent about ten minutes on that little scene, and that was mostly because I had the blueprint of that outline to go off of. I knew what the characters were doing, and I had notes about when it was important for them to feel a certain way, so it was easy to create a bunch of flowery prose around it (well, not EASY, but certainly easier than if I had just tried to plop it out onto the page from nothing). Now, I usually write out all my dialogue in this manner before writing the full scene, ESPECIALLY important dialogue or dialogue involving more than 2 characters. Just write it out like a script, with the name of the character followed by what they said, and that’s it. Maybe a note or two of what they did or how they said it, but only if it’s really important. What this does is let you focus on what they’re saying and if it fits their character, without getting bogged down in irrelevant descriptions or worrying if you’ve used the word “said” too many times. It also makes it easier to read out loud to yourself to check how it sounds. The dialogue should always be able to flow and sound good on its own, with the rest of the text removed. If it doesn’t, then there’s a disconnect in the way they are speaking that will interrupt the flow of the whole scene.

Okay, now on to your more specific question. Writing children!

So one important thing to remember is that children are not stupid, nor do they think in baby talk (or talk that way). They also don’t tend to think of themselves as juvenile, because in their minds they already know enough to be basically an adult. This is especially true for a 10 year old, who usually wants to be out in the world experiencing things on their own, unless they’ve experienced something in their past that would dictate otherwise. They think they know everything, and that parents are just being dumb when they restrict them or make them follow rules.

One thing about writing children is that they tend to be a bit more literal than adults. You won’t get a kid saying a lot of cutesy babytalk, but you will get them being point blank enough that it can be adorable or comical. It is also important, when writing a POV from a child’s perspective, that they will be lacking certain knowledge or ways of expressing things, but they won’t know that. So, for instance, if I were to write the scene of Link from Ocarina of time seeing Ganon taking off with Princess Zelda (just before she throws the Ocarina), I might try something like:

“He saw the horse thundering across the bridge, massive and domineering. He couldn’t quite see who was riding it, but he felt a sickening feeling in his stomach all the same. Anyone who rode a horse that mean couldn’t have been a good person.

His fear was confirmed when the rider yanked the reins of the beast, causing it to rear up above Link’s head. He felt like an ant, hapless and waiting to be crushed under the foot of something dark and nameless. The horse returned to all fours, flaring its nostrils, and Link could see that man - Ganondorf - was astride the saddle, Zelda clutched in his metal-clad arms. The Gerudo smirked, and it made the feeling in Link’s stomach coil and writhe like a snake. A furious snake that was trying to flee from the scene, trying to force the person around it to move away, but Link stayed rooted to the spot, his feet as still as tree trunks. He could have gone his whole life without seeing something so evil as Ganondorf smiling, the glint in his eyes like poe-fire. It made him feel small and insignificant, a spec of dust in a whirlpool. It made him feel sick, and if he had been able to move he might have turned and wretched into the grass beneath his boots.

Ganondorf dug his heels into the horse’s ribs, and then everything happened in a flash. The horse surged forward, straight towards where Link was standing, and he had to leap out of the way to avoid being trampled. He felt something big and heavy bump into him as he was in the air, and the breath disappeared out of his lungs with a short wheeze. He hit the ground, and he thought he heard someone yell his name as he blinked, trying to clear the daze. Everything felt fuzzy, like reality had become a vague humming sound in his ears and nothing more. The sound of hoof beats turned from thunder to drums, and then faded slowly as the horse galloped away. Link tried to breathe, unable to keep himself from trembling as he did so.

Zelda had been right. That man was a terrible man.”

So, in this little snippet, I tried to keep things more simplistic than I normally would have. I avoid phrases that are overly flowery, and get to the point a bit quicker. I also avoid saying “Link was terrified”, because a 10 year old might not have the experience to know what terror feels like. They also may not want to ADMIT they are scared, especially not in the moment when adrenaline is high. Instead, I went for describing what he feels, so that the reader gets the idea. Additionally, when he gets hit, I made it more vague. If Link were an adult, I would have changed “He felt something big and heavy bump into him as he was in the air, and the breath disappeared out of his lungs with a short wheeze. He hit the ground, and he thought he heard someone yell his name as he blinked, trying to clear the daze. Everything felt fuzzy, like reality had become a vague humming sound in his ears and nothing more.“ to “He felt a blunt object slam into his side, just below his ribs, driving the breath out out of his lungs on impact. Shock rolled through him as his dodge carried him into the ground, the princess yelling his name as the horse retreated. He was dazed from the blow, and as he floundered on the ground he tried to shake away the humming buzz that was affecting the clarity of the world around him.” The difference here is that Link would have known he was hit by something, and where, and he would have had the words and understanding to know that he was in shock from the blow, and been able to take better effort to try and restore himself.

Okay, so on to your final question, about what Link calls his mother...you’ll want to avoid using all forms of the name, because that would sound weird. If you feel like he would call her “mother”, than you should stick to that. If you feel like it’s getting repetitive, you can try changing up sentence structure to add variety, but be careful you don’t do it too much. Depending on the scene, you may not need to continue listing her, and just revert to “she”.

For example:

“Link’s mother smiled, as warm as the sun above them. “Come, sit with me.” she pat the grass beside her, and he ambled up the hill to join her. She was still smiling, and he tried not to look sullen. He must have failed, because she folded her hands in her lap, giving him a knowing look. “You’ve been bickering with your father again, haven’t you?”

“No.” he sounded like a spoiled brat even to himself, and rolled his eyes as he gave into her ability to know everything he was thinking before he had to say a word. “He’s just...he’s so...”

“Stubborn?” She quirked her eyebrow skyward, and he laughed and nodded, feeling the anger in his chest dissipate as she brushed his hair off of his brow. “He can certainly be...firm. You know that he means well, don’t you?”

So, in that, I only had to mention “mother” once, but you still knew exactly who I was talking about (I think, at least lol). There are also other ways to indicate things, but you definitely want to avoid things like switching from “mom” to “mommy” to “mother”. In this instance, “Mother” is the stand-in for her name, so you would treat it as such. You ALSO wouldn’t switch to her actual name if you’re in Link’s POV, because he wouldn’t think of her that way.

Oh boy, I rambled for waaaaay too long. Hopefully this helped??? Haha, I am very sorry that this is so terribly verbose, I got carried away.

If you have follow-up questions, feel free to let me know. And if anybody else has different questions, you can also feel free to let me know. ^_^ And of course, this is not a hard-and-fast rulebook. These are just the things that work for ME, which may not be helpful to anyone else. Everyone’s process is different, so don’t feel too frustrated if you try this stuff out and it is utterly useless XD

Thank you so much for thinking of me, and I hope that at least some of this is usable to help you get your story written!!!!

#zom gets asked #writing advice #I rambled I'm very sorry #anon friends #Anonymous

4 notes · View notes

basic-baka · 7 years

Text

WRITING TUTORIAL #02: PROLONGED WRITER’S BLOCKS

(tip jar) | (patreon) | (questions?) | (paying patreons get the pdf & exercise sheets) | (please like/reblog if read)

Writer’s Block: Prolonged Edition

Writer’s block is annoying as it is. There are a multitude of reasons why such a thing occurs, especially if you haven’t had any ideas for a while. This article will not make any assumptions about your mindset or why you have your prolonged writer’s block. These will contain tips and exercises on how to help overcome the prolonged writer’s block you may currently have. This is based from my experience as I’ve lived through it myself. It’s fine if this doesn’t apply to you – this is a general article about how to overcome such a writer’s block and my general advice to you.

The Beginnings of Overcoming: Outside in Nature

One thing that prevented me from writing was the lack of inspiration. While I was trudging through life and trying to overcome depression – there wasn’t anything that truly inspired me. One way to overcome this is to watch nature. If you’re able to, go to a field, meadow or park, and look around you. Often, being away from the computer and the television helps because, honestly, it’s very distracting.

Bring a notebook (physical or tablet) along with you and maybe some music. Music while outside can bring inspiration out of you. If you have a pet, bring the pet with you on these walks as you can watch them walk around with you. Being in a new environment, on top of being outside, would help relax you and can see the world in a different light. Even if you’re unable to go to a field or a park, if you’re closer to a body of water – take your time being outside and being in the water’s presence.

Sometimes, it’s good to be outside your comfort zone – which may be inside. You do not have to stay there for a prolonged amount of time – 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes to an hour would be good enough so long as you’re able to focus outside.

It’s impossible to ask to forget your problems – because that will never happen. Rather instead of trying to “forget” your problems, you should instead try to connect to your feelings and problems to the outside world. How would you describe your feelings within the realm you’re in? If you weren’t you, how do you think another person would react to your problems – your troubles, your life?

Connect your problems to what nature has in front of you. Most likely, it’s not accurate. But, in that case, what part of nature would?

For the Impossible: Bring It In

While it’s easy to say “go outside and find inspiration”, more often, it’s impossible. Maybe you live in the city or you live on campus where it’s always bustling – you just don’t have time to go outside. This is when you need to take the time to look up what your ASMR sound is. ASM is defined as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response which is an experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine.

Please do this only when you have time to spare.

After what you discover what your ASMR sound is, I would recommend downloading an extension that would allow an automatic replay of the YouTube video without being obnoxious about it. Thankfully, these are free to download and install.

Grab your favorite headphones and just listen to that ASMR sound. Close your eyes and allow yourself to relax with the sound. What could happen while this goes on?

Opening a window could help, if it’s at all possible. Listening what goes on in the outside world could bring inspiration for what you might’ve thought transpired out there.

Another thing that could work is watching a show or movie from a different genre than you usually would. With fresh eyes, you can see something that people who are a fan of the genre couldn’t normally see. What would you have done in that situation? This doesn’t apply to good shows/movies but it can also apply to terrible media as well. How would you have written it better? Would the same events happen? How would you handle the situation?

When all else fails though, you can always just plug in your headphones and listen to music with your eyes closed. There might be something in your favorite song you may have missed, a lyric you might’ve missed its meaning the first time around… and if you drift off to sleep, well…

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Usually, you’ll hear people tell you to take inspiration from your dreams and, honestly, they’re not wrong. However, dreams are not always pretty, safe, and beautiful. Sometimes, you have nightmares. Nightmares about morality, death, murder, and other horrible subjects will come up. Nightmares are created within the mind to scare you or remind you of your anxieties. Most people don’t really understand what you’ve been through and sometimes, the best way to make them understand is to write about it.

Write down your nightmares along with your dreams. They’re just as important to keep because you could make something grand from it. It’s up to you if you want to alter it for a story or an element you’d like to change about your dream – but if you write it down when it’s still your head, you can see where your mind is heading towards. Personally, I like to edit my nightmares and create them in an alternate universe. Once I make an article on how to create an alternate universe for fanfic stories, I’ll go into greater detail.

It’s easy to avoid the subject because no one wants to face their demons. It’s fine if you don’t want to use your nightmares – it’s only a suggestion.

I Thought I Said…

If at first you don’t succeed, write exactly what you think. Write exactly what comes to mind – of course, you don’t have to publish them for everyone to see. You can scribble it down on a piece of napkin at the restaurant you’re at or while you’re studying and a random thought comes to mind. This will also help you develop a good habit of writing down things on top of it so you don’t forget it.

Some of my best ideas come to me at random points during my day. I like to write it down and keep it to myself and I get to thinking – How can I add this to the story? When should this event happen? Why should it happen and why is it so important it does?

Because of how you think, you could easily take a familiar story and change it to something you want to see put out there. This ties in to the previous advice to watch something bad and let it inspire you to do better. There’s a joke going around that if a book like 50 Shades of Grey is able to become this successful then anyone can – and they absolutely can but you have to start somewhere. But, where should you start?

Ask Six Questions

When I was in elementary school, my teacher wanted us to be more aware of current events. He had told us, while we went through the local newspapers, we should ask the article six questions to understand the world around us especially when we were young. However, as I grew up, I’ve taken these lessons to heart and used them in my writings. If I am unable to answer these six questions in any shape and form, then it’s not something worth writing. Here are the five questions and I’ll also post some examples to help you understand. Granted, you don’t have to able to answer everything but get a general feel for it. Practice asking these questions when you’re perusing the Internet, watching TV, playing a game, or even reading an article:

WHO: These people are the subject you’re focused on. What is their purpose? Are they a victim, survivor, perpetrator? What is their personality like? However, sometimes the subject is the narrator. Who is the narrator? Would they be someone you would trust? Why or why not? Is there a particular reason why they’re doing what they do in the first place? Like a sentence, once you figure out the subject, everything else will follow.

WHAT: This is what you’re trying to figure out: what is the subject doing? What had the subject done to get in this situation? What happened? What was the situation that led up to the current event? The person in question, be it narrator or otherwise, should be able to describe what is going on in the article or event. Other questions could include: What is the point of this? What is the moral?

WHEN: One of the bigger problems with figuring out an article or a show is that: they don’t make it clear when this takes place. Be it day or night, in the past, present or future, location and time adds so much more context to what you’re consuming. A problem I have with most media is that it’s often not clear when this is supposed to take place. Attitudes change and it also depends when this person wrote it. Are they emotional? Are they upset? Are they indifferent? This sort of context matters. When a person posts something when they’re emotional, they’re not going to be entirely clear on what they’re talking about. It makes this a little easier to read when you realize at what period in this person’s life did they post it.

WHERE: Another big problem a lot of people do not consider is where is this article or media takes place. Context is everything when it comes to perusing these sorts of media. What sort of audience are they trying to reach with this location? If it’s not clear where this is located or where it’s posted, then it’s most likely not sure either. The local culture, or sub-culture (whether it’s the Internet or an actual location), is very important for context of the story or article.

WHY: One of the most important questions on here. Why did this person choose to write about this? What is the point of the story and why is it the story? This is the reason why the article exists. Figure it out. Once you figure that out, you’ll understand a huge chunk of the media and it’ll make more sense in the long run.

HOW: Honestly, this is a pretty important question that most people tend to ignore. How in the world did this come to happen? How did it end up like this? This doesn’t apply to just backstory – but this question could also apply to wonder how they could accomplish the thing. How did she become a queen when she grew up in the streets? How did he fall so far down from his promising career? Something must’ve happened for these people to get from point A to point B.

These questions work for me because they are generic enough to reach a bigger scope of additional questions but they’re specific enough to where it makes it a bit easier to answer. I had been asking these questions for so long that it became second-nature to me. As with any habit, you must keep up with it until it becomes routine for you. Practice makes perfect, and thankfully these questions can apply to literally any media you consume.

#writing tips #writing #inspiration #writer's block #writer's problems

15 notes · View notes

ml2338 · 5 years

Text

Wendy White

Wendy White, an American artist, is famous for producing aesthetically pleasing contemporary artworks with a hidden strong meanings.

During her lecture, she described her practice, influences, and interests by going through specific artworks she has done over the past years. When defining her artistic practice, she explains that she has a liberal idea of what art should be, in fact she claims that it is all about connotations of materials. She is taught that depiction was illustration and that there is a deeper meaning of combination of a materials, and to obsess over quality.

She describes her work as being positive however it has reasons for doubt and she tries to include that paradox in order to tell real stories occasionally being “tongue and cheek”. Her recent sculptures connote symbols of optimism presented as clean ideal gestures and she looks into symbols that resembles images found from weather apps to instagram buttons to emojis. Such as using black cloud icons, pixel hearts, and rainbows.

Additionally, she likes creating randomness like uninvited marks on the walls, and makes tweaks to her artworks over time. “I hate things ending, I want paintings to drift off into an illusion of space, to not end or finish abruptly” She prefers the Brooklyn bridge over the Manhattan bridge because it looks as if it is trailing off into the sky. She likes challenging space, because it doesn’t just have a defined space or end like shapes. This is inspiring because she has taught me to view things in a different way where things do not have to seem confined on materials I use like paper. She has changed my viewpoint on art by empowering me with the knowledge that art is like freedom, there is nothing holding it back, it doesn’t need a finishing point. This reminds me of the quote taken from the video on Edward Said called Framed: The Politics of Stereotypes in News: “How does it feel to be fixed, captured, framed?” The similarity is obvious between Said and White here, White doesn’t want to feel limited and trapped in her artworks and wants it to never end, it is the same concept when Said reminds us when we are reading the media. He suggest we make the implicit explicit and not be fooled from what the media feeds us and it is up to ourselves to discover the real truth. This also reinforces White’s idea of the use of symbols and materials with connotational meaning, in order to us to see the deep truth behind her artworks.

Car culture has always played a big influence in her theme of work for the last couple of years. According to her: “Cars themselves used to be time capsules” which links to how she got this interest and inspiration of cars from her father who was into them. When she was young she would experience her dad always working on car projects in the garage independently most of the time. She identified his work as “sculptures”. Also, she found retro stuff really trend based and she wanted to incorporate this gesture into her artworks. So she started looking at sticker use which she incorporated into her car interest. She would take series of photos of stickers stuck densely onto parts of cars most of the time on the windows, in order to produce a satisfaction of polarizing and personalizing the object and making her own personal story out of it. In her lecture she stated “women were always the prop or prize for car ownership but rarely the drivers”. Being a feminist with an obsession with cars, she incorporates these two inspiring stimulators which made her cut up sexist ads found in car magazines to make collages. She has a firm belief that “Men ruins things, and they make sure there are laws set in place for preventing women to do all the stuff they can do”. Therefore cars played a huge role into her retro phase and developing her feminist personality. This reminds me of Stuart Hall because he focused his interest into mass culture where he explored at the influence of mainstream media in gender, race, ethnicity, class, and religion. In the video he described one of the problems with mass culture is the male dominated society on gender’s ideas, he therefore went on about how although some people agree with these views, some were unsure, and others like Wendy White disagreed with these ideologies completely. Some people portrayed opposition to this through protests and bloggers on social media, and here White does it through her artworks. White, also interested in graffiti work which links to her retro style, is very similar to another feminist artist, Ana Mendieta, who was a part of the second-wave feminist movement where she created a graffiti artwork called: “Blood Writing” created with this dripping bright red paint resembling blood which showed this text: “SHE GOT LOVE”. This piece has a central focus on the violence issued on women. “Love” connotes the action of sex and the paint signifies the violence which dedicates this piece on rape culture. Like White, she incorporates texts and these symbols (fake blood) in order to convey the deep inner meaning of an artwork.

Taking on an interest in connotational materials, she uses symbols sometimes emoji-like to connote personal meanings through her artwork for example the black cloud. It was this emoji like symbol which came from her piece: Santa Cruz, which was made in summer 2016. The black cloud symbolizes escape, optimism and a longing for innocence. It was about the dark side (hence the color black) of the American small town life that she grew up in, teenage dreams and adult let downs. I find her use of materials to be very inspiring and clever in order to convey such a strong personal meaning through minimalistic and simplified symbols / objects. The video: Whitewashing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has got me pondering on where, why, how and who decided colors were set to their specific connotations. In the video, Oliver reinforces the idea of Hollywood Whitewashing and its existence in the modern day. For example, in 2016 the academy awards’ nominees were all very white for both men and women, some say this is due to the fact that Hollywood isn’t giving enough good roles to the darker skinned actors and actresses, others say the reason is because Hollywood prefers white over darker skin for example in the movie the Prince of Persia, a white actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, is playing the role of the Prince who should have darker skin, and a white blonde actress named Emma Stone casted into the movie Aloha, who played a character who is meant to be half asian. Both of these actors didn’t have any edits to their appearances to even make them look like their characters. This is similar to the CNN Concatenated video, where we see white reporters only for one of the most popular news reporting channels available. Not only has this been a modern problem but this has occurred over history on screen like in past movies such as in the Conquerer, John Wayne plays Genghis Khan and in West Side Story, Natalie Wood as Maria, etc. According to the site https://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-black/ the color black connotes negativity, fear, death, evil, gloominess, etc. whereas white connotes positivity, purity, goodness, safety, cleanliness, perfection, innocence, etc. Therefore just from comparing these connotations, I can’t help but notice the similarity to racist stereotypes of skin color. Why is black chosen to be negative and white as positive? This brings into perspective of the Guardian’s article: There is no such thing as western civilisation, where the concept of the Golden Nugget is explained. It is where in the western culture, ideologies becomes the “norms” where it is the traditional views. These ideologies could incorporate race, nationality, religion, culture and gender. Every belief passed down from generations, which causes the labelling of people’s identities. This relates to the the black and white color connotations, because in the past of the western culture, white was the predominant color whereas black was the inferior one. Therefore these connotations seemed to be derived through the Golden Nugget concept.

By trying to be concrete but not literal, she decided to explore texts use. Texts became a way of architecture. She uses the word itself as both form and context. Several things that influenced her to display texts in her work is from the vibe of Chinatown, it’s signs and Steven Rendall’s book: Practice of Everyday Life Chapter of Walking in the City. Cities like Chinatown seem to have their own secrets, this fascinated her that she took pictures just to look at the signage signs and to explore and compare how they have developed or faded and what parts were town down or remained. Not only did the architecture excited her but also the body language of the people there, how they walked, posed and leaned on the exciting chinatown architecture. She goes on to explain the importance of body language by describing how boring Jackson Pollock’s work is unless there were people standing in front of it which made it seem alive and much more interesting. This fascination of space of abstraction was activated by figures, humans with the essential to move around and that there was no such thing as scale so she thought about how architecture can be dominating and comforting at the same time like how on the street, pedestrians and building facades interact in the same way. This is what pushed her to realize that photographs themselves were the anchor to what she was looking for, she believes that it is the real thing that has its own set of perimeters that pushes paintings into another space, an atmosphere of tangible space that buildings occupy which lead her to create a series named Photobuilts.

0 notes

suzanneshannon · 5 years

Text

Advice for Technical Writing

In advance of a recent podcast with the incredible technical writer and Smashing Magazine editor-in-chief Rachel Andrew, I gathered up a bunch of thoughts and references on the subject of technical writing. So many smart people have said a lot of smart things over the years that I thought I'd round up some of my favorite advice and sprinkle in my own experiences, as someone who has also done his fair share of technical writing and editing.

There is a much larger world of technical writing out there. My experience and interest is largely about web technology and blogging, so I'm coming at it from that angle and many of the people I quote throughout are in that same boat.

Picking something to write about

If you want to write for CSS-Tricks and you ask me what you should write about, I'm probably going to turn that question around on you. It's likely I don't know you well enough to pick the perfect topic for you. More importantly, what I really want you to write about is something that is personal and important to you. Articles rooted in recent excitement about a particular idea or technology always come out better than dictated assignments.

My best advice:

Write the article you wish you found when you googled something.

— Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) October 30, 2017

That said, I do maintain a list of ideas specifically for this site. Any writing can be done on assignment and sometimes that elicits the spark needed for something great and on-target for the audience of a site.

Write at the moment of learning

The moment you learn something is the best time to write. It's fresh in your mind and you can remember what it was like before you understood it. You also understand what it takes to go from not knowing to knowing it. That's the journey you need to take people on.

If you don't have time, at least try to capture the vibe wherever you save your ideas. Don't just write down "dataset." Write down some quick notes like, "I didn't realize DOM elements had a .dataset property for getting and setting data attributes. I wonder if it's better to use that than getAttribute." That way, you'll be able to reload that realization in your brain when you revisit the idea.

What have you learned in just the last few days? I bet there is a blog post there. Manuel Matuzovic does an excellent job of putting this into practice with the "Today I Learned" (TIL) section of his blog.

Comparing technologies is an underused format

Here's some advice Rachel shared that I don't see taken advantage of nearly enough:

There is a sweet spot for writing technical posts and tutorials. Write for the professional who hasn't had time to learn that thing yet, and link it back to things they already know. For example explaining a modern JS technique to someone who knows jQuery.

— Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) February 20, 2019

Tell me about how this new framework relates to Backbone. Tell me how this CMS relates to WordPress. Tell me how some technology connects to another technology that is safe to assume is more widely understood.

Technology changes a lot, but what technology does doesn't change all that much.

Careful with that intro

The main comment I add on tutorials I review is to ask for an intro that describes what the tutorial is about. I'm 600 words in and still don't know what the tutorial is about and who it is for. #writing

— Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) January 5, 2018

Not getting to the point right at the top of technical articles is a dang epidemic. The start of a technical article is not the time to wax poetic or drop some cliché light philosophy like, "Web design sure has changed a lot." You don't have to be boring, but you do need to tell me what this article is going to get into and who it is for.

Brian Rinaldi says:

“Does the title make the article sound interesting?” If the title interests a reader, they’ll typically read the intro and decide, “Is it worth my time reading the whole thing?” A common mistake I see in a lot of technical posts is either too much introduction or, alternatively, far too little.

A single well-written paragraph can set the stage for a technical blog post.

Careful with the title, too

I remember a conversation from years ago with content strategist Erin Kissane where she strongly advised me to choose boring titles for everything. Not just the title of blog posts, but for everything, including the names of sections, tags, and even subheadings within posts.

Here's the thing with boring: it works. Boring isn't the right word either; it's clarity. The world is full of clickbait, and maybe that's effective in some genres, but technical blogging isn't one of them.

A nice clear blog post title: Getting Started with GraphQL, Phoenix, and React by Margaret Williford

A terrible version of the same: Build a web app with modern technologies in 30 minutes!

What's a web app? What technologies? What's modern about them? What's with the weird time limit?

SEO matters and Margaret's article is going to do a lot better in both the short and long term with that clear title.

The outro

Ben Halpern says that the next most important thing after the intro is:

[...] the last paragraph.

People don't read top-to-bottom the moment when they arrive, so there is a good chance it's the second paragraph people read. Personally, I find the beginning a lot more important than the ending, but there is a certain art to the ending as well.

A lot of people just <h2>Conclusion</h2> and write a few words about what was just went over. Honestly, I don't hate that. It falls into this time tested pattern:

Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em

Tell 'em

Tell 'em what you told 'em

That helps your message sink in and brings things full circle. Technical blogging isn't terribly different from marketing in that sense. You're trying to get people to understand something and you're using whatever tricks you need to to get the job done. A little repetition is a classic trick.

Make it scannable

Brian Rinaldi says:

[...] the wall of text can be easily be made less intimidating and appear much more visually appealing through the use of visual elements that break it up. The easiest is to simply place section subheadings throughout your post.

I agree: subheadings are probably the easiest and most powerful trick for scannability.

Other methods:

Lists: Like what I'm doing right now! I didn't have to use a list. Paragraphs might have worked as well, but a list makes contextual sense here and is probably tricking some of you into reading this. Or at least scanning it and getting some key points in the process.

Images: Please make them relevant and contextual. Skip the funny GIF. Screenshots are often great in a technical context because they provide a visual to what might otherwise be a difficult concept to explain. I like Unsplash for thematic imagery, too, but you can do better than a random picture of trees, a woman drinking coffee, or a random rack of servers.

Illustrations: The abstract nature of an illustration is your friend. It tricks people into having a quick thought about what you are describing. They generally take a little work to pull off, but the pay-off for you and the reader can be huge.

Videos: You can't simply drop a 42-minute video in the middle of a blog post, but if you can make it clear that you are demonstrating something visual and the video is less than a minute, it can be a powerful choice. You've always got <video autoplay muted loop controls> as well to make it GIF-like.

Blocks of code: Technical blog posts are often about code. Don't avoid code, embrace it. I love how Dan Abramov sprinkles in code blocks in blog posts not so much to demonstrate syntax and setup, but to make points. I'm going to recommend Embedded Pens as well, because they're fully interactive demoes in addition to serving as code blocks.

Tables: Don't forget about tabular data! Presenting information (particularly data or definitions) in a table makes it more understandable than it would have been any other way.

Collapsing sections: The <details>/<summary> elements make quick work of collapsible content. If you've got a large section of content that is good to be there but doesn't need to be read by everyone, collapse it! Our reference guide of media queries for devices is a decent example of this in action.

Whatever you pick here, you should pick things that help enhance the points you're making even if in some ways it feels like trickery. It's trickery to help readability, and that's a good thing.

My favorite technique? A little bit of design. Use design principals like spacing, color, and alignment to help the readability of posts. We even go so far as to art direct some posts where design can enhance the central point being made.

The point here isn't to do away with walls of text altogether. Sometimes that's exactly what's needed because you're asking a reader to deeply read a passage that they otherwise wouldn't get what's needed from the content. However, more often than not, a post can strongly benefit from some healthy use of white space.

Use an active voice

I find this one a little tricky to wrap my head around, but Katy Decorah has a great presentation about technical writing that explains this point in great detail. It's kinda like using present tense and stating a point directly rather than passively.

Passive: "After the file is downloaded..." Active: "After you download the file..."

Passive: "The request is processed by the server." Active: "The server processes the request."

Here's another clear explanation with examples by Neal Whitman, read by Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl):

The key point is made about a minute into the recording.

There are lots of words to avoid

"Just" is a big one. Brad Frost:

“Just” makes me feel like an idiot. “Just” presumes I come from a specific background, studied certain courses in university, am fluent in certain technologies, and have read all the right books, articles, and resources. “Just” is a dangerous word.

There are plenty of others to avoid, which which I've written about before. Read the comments in that last link. Long story short: there are lots of words that do more harm than good in technical writing, not only because they can come across as preachy, but because they usually don't help the sentences where they're used. Try taking "just" out of any sentence. The sentence will still make sense without it.

Simply Clearly Just Of course Everyone knows Easy However So Basically Turns out In order to Very

Be mindful of your tone

Tone is concerned with how you say something in consideration of the context. For example, you wouldn't deliver bad news to someone with a happy tone. The way you express yourself ought to be aligned with the situation.

This is our tone goal on this site:

Friendly. Authoritative. Welcoming. We're all in this together. Flexible (nondogmatic about ideas). Thankful.

MailChimp has a very extensive guide to theirs.

It's worth pointing out that tone and voice are separate concepts. I like to think of voice as never changing (it's your personality which is a part of who you are) while tone changes to suit the context. In other words, you can have a professional voice while communicating in a friendly tone.

I don't think there is one true tone that is perfect for technical writing, but since the high-level goal of any technical writing is to help someone understand something complicated, you can use tone to help. A joke in the middle of a set of intricate steps is confusing. A bunch! of! excitement! about something might feel out of place or disingenuous, but being drab and lifeless is worse. I'd say if you're writing under your own name, let's feel a little bit of your personality as long as it's not at the cost of clarity. If you're writing under a brand, match what they have established whether it has been codified or not.

Careful about length

The general tendency in technical writing is to write too much rather than too little. Wade Christensen:

Whether trained by school assignments with word minimums or just uncritical, most of us write too much. Beyond approaching each draft with a ruthless cutting mentality, there are several ways to write short from draft one.

Word limits can help, even if they're self-imposed.

I heard from a fledgling editor recently who struggled with his writers submitting posts with high word counts, so he suggested they keep it to 1000-1500 as a guideline and that seemed effective. This post is roughly double the high end there, for comparison.

The real solution, if the resources are there, is ruthless editing.

I personally don't find that writing too long is the only issue. I've had just as many occurrences of writers going too short and not digging into the topic deep enough. I don't like focusing on the length; I like focusing on the clarity of the delivery and usefulness of the content itself.

Side note: Breaking up a post into multiple parts (as separate posts in a series) is not a solution for posts that are too long. In fact, it can exacerbate the problem. Do that only if the different parts are thematically different and can stand alone without the other parts.

Don't stop yourself from writing

There is an invisible force, built from fear, that keeps a lot of people away from technical blogging. "Meh, everybody already knows this," you might think. (They don't). "What if I'm wrong and someone calls me out?" (You aren't wrong if what you're doing is working for you.)

There can still be blockers even if you overcome those fears and start putting words to screen. Here's Max Böck:

There is a thing that happens to me while writing. I start with a fresh idea, excited to shape it into words. But as time passes, I lose confidence.

The trick for Max is not to wait too long and to ignore feelings holding you back:

I’ll publish something as soon as I feel confident that all the important points I want to get across are there. I try to ignore the voice screaming “it’s not ready” just for long enough to push it online.

Jeremy Keith goes so far to say we shouldn't even keep drafts:

I think keeping drafts can be counterproductive. The problem is that, once something is a draft rather than a blog post, it’s likely to stay a draft and never become a blog post. And the longer something stays in draft, the less likely it is to ever see the light of day.

The chances that your writing helps someone is pretty high! Matthias Ott:

Even the smallest post can help someone else out there.

Think you're too inexperienced? You're probably not, but even if you were, a perspective from someone with less experience is still useful. Ali Spittel:

If you have a blog post that contains mostly correct information, or at least your interpretation of the topic, then you're experienced enough. There are lots of excellent posts out there from the perspective of newbies, and they're really important!

Fear is a real thing in writing and dealing with it can be debilitating. While it's primarily geared toward creative writing, The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield is a good read to help break through the fear.

There is no one perfect style

We each have our own unique perspectives and writing styles. One writing style might be more approachable to some, and can therefore help and benefit a large (or even small) number of people in ways you might not expect.

...says Sara Soueidan. She continues:

Just write.

Even if only one person learns something from your article, you’ll feel great, and that you’ve contributed — even if just a little bit — to this amazing community that we’re all constantly learning from.

Technical blog posts don't have to be devoid of creativity. You could create a wonderful technical blog post that is an annotated chat room conversation between two developers learning from each other. Or a blog post that is a series of videos that build on each other.

The more introductory, the higher the bar

The web is saturated with beginner-rated and surface-level blog posts. There's a sea of crash courses, 101s, and intros out there. You've gotta knock it out of the park if you want to stand out from the pack and be useful.

There is no particular change in tone necessarily for a beginner-focused post. You don't need to do the equivalent of talking slowly or talking down. You only need to be clear, and clarity is valuable to readers at any skill level, not to mention appreciated by them as well. A very advanced programmer can and will appreciate the clarity in a technical blog post even if it's something they already understand.

But the bar isn't that high in general

You don't need a decade of experience to write a blog post. I'd say it's closer to a day of experience, a desire to write, and having something to say. I think you'd be surprised at how little you need to do to make a blog post stand out and be read. Put in some effort, make clear points, focus on readability, and you will do well.

I hope the advice in this post helps!

Abstraction is helpful, but real-world examples are sometimes better

Christine writes:

It’s one thing to describe a high-level concept, and another to explain or illustrate how that concept applies to the real world. In technical writing, you’ll often be covering complex or hard-to-understand subjects, so it’s even more important to use a well-placed example or two to showcase why your topic matters, or how it relates to the real world.

I find myself pushing back on code that is too abstract more than I push back on code that is too focused on a real-world use case. I'd rather see ["Charles Adok", "Samantha Frederick"] than ["foo", "bar"] or [a, b] any day, but more importantly, what is then done with that data to make it feel like a relatable programming scenario.

But avoid real-world examples that come at the cost of clarity. If abstraction is useful to drive a complex point home without getting lost in the details, so be it.

Blogging opens doors

Everyone I've ever met who had ever actively blogged has said that blogging has had a positive impact on their career. Besides being a public demonstration of your ability to think and present ideas, it helps you understand things better. To teach is to learn.

I'd attribute my own blogging as the biggest contributor to any success I've had. Here's Khoi Vinh, a designer ten times more successful than I'll ever be:

It’s hard to overstate how important my blog has been, but if I were to try to distill it down into one word, it would be: “amplifier.”

You get better at what you do.

There is no way around it: practice makes you better. The expectations around practice are sometimes very clear and culturally ingrained. In order to get better at playing the piano, you take piano lessons and practice. We all know this. But people also say "Oh, I'm a terrible cook," as if cooking as a skill is somehow fundamentally different than playing the piano and doesn't require the same amount of learning and practice.

You get better at writing by writing more. That is, writing with stakes. Writing and then publicly publishing what you write such that people read it.

You can go to school for writing. You could get a writing coach. My thinking is nothing teaches better than writing often. Whatever it is you sink time into is what you end up getting good at. Is 10,000 hours a good framework for you? Go with it. Heck, I find even people that sit around watching a lot of TV end up being pretty damn good at watching TV.

Your voice alone < A story with context < Stories including others < Research and data along with stories including others

An article where you just say some stuff is OK. You're allowed to say stuff.

But you can do better.

An article where you tell a true story about how something worked for you is better. Context! Now we can better understand where you are coming from when you say your stuff. Plus everybody likes a story.

An article where you combine that with quoting other people's writing and stories is even better. Now you're painting a larger picture and helping validate what you're saying. Context and flavor!

An article where you combine all that with research and data is the best. Now you're being personal, acknowledging a world outside yourself, layering in context, and avoiding being too anecdotal. Kapow! Now you're writing!

Are you pitching?

Read what the site says about guest writing. Here's ours.

Not to scare you off, but 90% of submissions are garbage. Maybe 75% is outright spam and another 15% are people that clearly didn't read anything we had to say about guest posting and are way off base. I can usually tell from the quality of writing in the email itself if they'll be a good guest blogger.

I say things like that, and then feel compelled to remind you the bar isn't that high.

Are there any useful tools?

There probably is, but I don't wanna link you off to tools I can't vouch for. All I use is Dropbox Paper for collaborative writing because the sharing model is easy and allows for co-editing and commenting. Plus Grammarly because it catches a ton of mistakes as you go.

📝🎉

The post Advice for Technical Writing appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Advice for Technical Writing published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

0 notes

unlovedaddict · 6 years

Text

Do You Recognize the 12 Warning Signs of Low Ranking?

Once we reach the fourth quarter of 2017, it's time in order to start thinking about the season ahead and what to anticipate from SEO in 2018. That's why SEOs are usually starting to aspect in the objective behind each search query plus optimize the content and consumer experience accordingly. As Bing's Duane Forrester said, all SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Ranking signals revolve around articles of some kind” highlighting the particular impact good content has upon your web site. Coming up with refreshing and unique ideas day within day out is incredibly tough, however necessary to keep your own site not only relevant plus engaging for the audience, yet optimized for search engines such as google. Soon after this article focused around a major on-page SEO factors that will impact the search ecosystem was published by Google, a debate about prominent Offpage SEO trends that can disrupt the world of SEO in 2018 sparked in the industry. Nonetheless, auditing your competitors SEO gives you new ideas on how you can grow your local business, improve its SEO, target new keywords, and beat your competition in the process of doing so. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION involves communicating aboutness” in the specific context to both individual users and technology. Here are Top five SEO trends and techniques with regard to 2018 to boost search motor ranking that you must maintain in mind. Google will be constantly rolling out updates in order to its search engine algorithm… plus while the basics of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION will never change, you have to make use of updated tactics to get your own website ranking higher in the particular search results. However, before we get to our main event, I must note that after our 2017 edition of SEO trends launched last year on Search Engine Journal, we heard a couple of complaints about just how long it was. Utilized by more than 3 mil websites, Yoast SEO is the particular only SEO plugin that a person will ever need to create your content appear on SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Mobile SEO, within my opinion, will dominate SEO tendencies in 2018. While the core SEO methods won't change too much, the particular way we do keyword analysis and form our strategies may. Keywords would be the basis of SEO. Then upon your post and pages the particular Yoast SEO plugin now provides a section to type within your meta keywords as noticed in the example below. A person can use this configuration in order to improve your mobile SEO concerning providing users best design regarding all devices. Many people try to get their SEO strategies into their own own hands, but this may lead to a waste associated with time and resources. SEO Check - which may test out your website plus give you tips for much better search engine optimization. In order to find out more, check this infographic through Digital Marketing Philippines, which talks about the very best trends that will you should know if a person want to increase your SEO technique this 2018. Having a common sense approach in order to SEO, you can do your own personal keyword research and do SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION yourself. Mainly because the niches are fairly wide, I'm fortunate to have the lot of keyword opportunities (as opposed to doing SEO regarding a local business). Within this post, we've broken straight down the top SEO techniques to assist you skyrocket your rankings plus boost your amount of monthly guests. In the event that you want your site in order to rank in today's digital planet, you need to satisfy Google's SEO criteria. Finally, many SEOs regularly evaluate their competitors' backlinks to recognize those they could recreate for sites too. The basic principles behind search engine marketing (SEO) and high rankings within Google haven't changed much within the last decade. As this is still the start associated with 2018, it will be fascinating to see these and some other SEO trends emerge because the 12 months progresses. As location-awareness and behavior-pattern-awareness become part associated with an SEO toolbox of 'context' of user intent, savvy SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tool providers, Google included, may find opportunity in 'nano-moments' intersections of location, intent, context plus prior behavior (or predicted behavior). Not only perform you want to use HTTPS because it is a standing signal for your SEO attempts, but also to be able to ensure a person are giving your customers the particular safest experience. Cell phone SEO trends and strategies can continue to morph and change. While I understand all about the SEO things: SEO title, focus keywords and so on, my challenge is writing different headlines that contain all the particular focus keywords. Canonical: This connect to handles content syndication, which basically allows other blogs to distribute your work (similar to franchising) without hurting your website's SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking—simply by adding a rel=canonical will get your brand and content material on the web in several outlets, ensuring a greater get to and bigger audience without harming your own search results. I am curious - sometimes with your own chapter-based guides, you have most of them on a individual page like this one, yet sometimes they're separate pages along with an overview page as the sort of intro + desk of contents, like the Key word Research for SEO Definitive Guideline. A much great number of social media events will highlight that your articles is well engaged with the particular users as well as this is likely to create the value for the users, consequently SEO experts must leverage nicely for the social media plus brand mentions as well. Indeed, 2017 saw many major leaps forward for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, from an increased focus upon machine learning for search motors to modifications in our method that consumers search for info online. Really widely believed that mobile looking, mobile advertising, mobile SEO advertising, plus much more are no longer 2nd in priority” or afterthoughts. Technical knowledge because technologies plays a huge role within creating, optimizing, and benefiting through every available search marketing possibility (e. g., AMP, PWA, wealthy results, angular SEO). The particular field of search engine search engine optimization (SEO) is indeed ever-changing. On-page optimization, furthermore called on-page SEO, ensures that will search engines a. ) realize a page's topic and key phrases, and b. ) can complement it to relevant searches. In 2018, SEO strategy must contemplate however we have a tendency to consume visual content, and the way search engines transcend text to explore ever-changing search habits. These SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION crawler programs resemble Google's very own crawlers and will provide a person with an overview of just how your page will perform within SEO rankings. You are able in order to put up a team yet it would take a great deal of time because you've got to create substantial research and training prior to you can incorporate it. This this case, hiring the providers of an SEO firm is usually the best choice for a person. So in particular when someone is pasting links upon a spammy site, or probably a previous SEO went away from and ran some script in order to place links and a few of forums, and you still cannot clean that up for no matter what reason, and you don't possess a manual action, but a person want to make sure this doesn't even get that much, then the disavow file will be a great method to simply like preemptively say well I am aware about these issues, I may wish to lose any rest over them, I'm just heading to disavow them and obtain them taken out of the particular equation. Cell phone optimization for local users, together with the rise of tone of voice search, can provide an exceptional way to produce a effective SEO strategy in 2018 simply by facilitating the search experience by means of personalized and relevant answers. Since that action can indicate losing all search engine visitors, Web Strategy Plus always suggests sticking to SEO techniques that will fall within Google's guidelines. As the matter of fact, the strength of any website lies within the DA. Domain Authority is usually SEOmozs calculated metric for just how well a given domain is usually likely to rank in lookup results. You should restrategize your technique to local SEO to create sure you are picking upward on voice searcher intent intended for keyword groupings around your company or industry. Sometimes the best method to improve local SEO is usually to correct previous mistakes. In today's rapidly shifting planet, SEO techniques can change upon a dime—and the worst component is that you might not really even know it. Hacks that will could have won you the front-page result as recently since 2016 are not only outdated now, but they may also hurt your website's rankings. As shown above, when a user will say some thing like Tell me something regarding Semantic SEO? ”, Sir Jerrika Link might be invoked. SEO provides you with a shot at ranking intended for the terms which your clients use, so you can find out better business. When it arrives to on-page SEO, I'm particular you've heard enough about the particular meta tag and keyword thickness for one lifetime. Awesome article i don't understand about youtube SEO but right after reading this article i completely understand how to rank video clip on youtube and google furthermore. Brand building is the particular new link building and off-page SEO strategy in digital marketing nowadays, given that when brands turn out to be true to their core beliefs, messaging and personalities, it will be easy for them to sink into and dominate their target viewers. So what will be something the average joe may do to help boost their own SEO rankings for a specific keyword? Placing hyperlinks for your other website web pages, is a great way associated with enhancing your site and utilized properly, internal links can end up being a useful weapon inside your SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION arsenal. In 2018, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION strategies will be more focused towards visualizing the information since it will provide an online method of users. With the particular explosion of mobile search, most of us continue to see SEOs appear narrower than regions, counties or even even suburbs. According to the particular survey, 77% of our clients voted for user experience because the main SEO trend with regard to 2018. Google has introduced (at least) a ‘percieved' risk to submitting plenty of lower-quality pages upon your site to in a good effort to curb production associated with old-style SEO friendly content dependent SEO 2019 Slide on manipulating early search motor algorithms. Because a person working on the particular fringes of SEO, not the daily focus, it's great in order to have this broad overview intended for getting at least the essentials right on my websites. With voice lookup becoming as popular as this is, featured snippets are using a huge part within the particular SEO game. We understand a lot about our customers but merely a small amount associated with that information usually switches straight into an SEO strategy. All of all of us need to reduce old strategies and work on evolving strategies to rank on top in 2018 Listed would certainly be the TOP 10 SEO trends that are in buzz for 2018 which will definitely set a person on your way to getting a trending name on the particular internet. Being an SEO specialist, you should plan your marketing and advertising strategy keeping the mobile SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in the mind. This means, unfortunately, SEOs need to play their video game and provide just as significantly structured data as possible in order to that Google can manipulate plus display it to their customers as it wants. There is usually a ton of detail in order to ranking in the SEO entire world, to rank in Google's outcomes. There is no secret regarding SEO in 2018: Two Words and phrases: Mobile Speed. Google drives 96% of cellular search traffic, and you might have noticed that the vast majority of the latest trends within SEO are tied around cellular users, while desktops are getting a secondary touch point intended for a lot of users. Pursuing the most happening SEO Developments continues to be the primary value of efficient Digital Advertising strategy in recent days. Whether you are usually a marketer or a company owner, or even a business for SEO, it's always advantageous to research and learning fresh SEO tactics. I'm curious - sometimes along with your chapter-based guides, you possess them all on a individual page like this one, yet sometimes they're separate pages along with an overview page like a type of intro + table associated with contents, like the Keyword Study for SEO Definitive Guide. More significantly for us as SEOs, it indicates that the power of hyperlinks to rank websites is arranged to decrease, as well because the power of good user-engagement metrics on the website (and anything that improves them) is definitely increasing. Once we head in order to 2018, SEO is becoming more and more important as more businesses are usually aware they require it in order to get found online. If youโ€d like to know more about doing keyword research that will give a boost to your SEO activities, head over to our completeย long tail keywords research guide and find out some of the FREE tools in action. It does obtain pretty technical, so if a person know nothing about SEO or even digital marketing, you might desire to do some quick analysis on your own to guarantee you know the terms getting discussed and what they imply to your businesses specific requirements. These types of links don't require any specific action through SEO specialists, they are simply given by websites that want to refer to your internet site or content. This particular really is optional but indexing categories online can also enhance the relevancy of your delighted to boost page rank plus increase your traffic and enhance your WordPress SEO. SEO helps people to discover businesses or any kind associated with information that they search on-line and list them by reputation. Also, like I stated before, if you've read any kind of other great posts about SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends, or how to boost your search ranking, please include them in the comments area, (with a brief description associated with what makes the post special). As Google along with other search motors roll out updates, local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is becoming even more essential. You wager they actually. But, the backlinking attempts on most SEO companies out there there leave an unnatural hyperlink pattern that Google can observe from a mile away. I have been making use of WordPress SEO by Yoast with regard to a long period and upon all of my blogs along with no single problem. Mainly because Backlinko is in the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION niche, I'll look for movie keywords using searches like key word research tips”, building backlinks” plus SEO tutorial”. I've observed success with making videos recently and am looking forward in order to using your SEO tips in order to help my videos rank upon page 1. AI will shape fresh SEO trends in 2018. Some posts are usually definitely about SEO, such because this one: SEO Marketing Technique: Methods for Success in 2018 This particular post begins with a declaration that few if any SEOs would dispute: Businesses should make use of 2018 to break the poor habit of viewing facets associated with an SEO marketing strategy because a one-time exercise. Because they look issues up on visual search equipment, such as Google Images plus Pinterest, it's important to enhance SEO on all image plus video content. We have some great ratings, but we are always searching to improve and see exactly what the future holds for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Fairly recently, I've observed a resurgence of on-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION factors making a difference within search engine rankings. Don't forget to incorporate the particular basics of SEO, featured thoughts, rich content (like videos), hyperlink earning, and UX in your own strategy. Based on how relevant these keywords are for your business, you can start shortlisting them for your own SEO optimisation process. We have a guide for Wp local SEO in my routing menu but most everything is usually the same even for non-WordPress sites. This particular could create friction and the particular impression that many well-designed sites are very poorly optimized with regard to SEO. Unfortunately, 95% of hyperlinks from SEO link building never ever bring a single new guest to your site. With that being said, carry on reading to discover more regarding the SEO trends for 2018 and what they mean regarding your business. In order to find away how I do it, go to Article Czar for a free of charge gift and details of exactly how I use article marketing plus SEOcious to get top Search engines listings. A successful internet marketing advertising campaign may usually involve SEO, yet it also consists of the particular use of paid advertising upon search engines, building high high quality websites to interact and convince site visitors take action via enquiries or online sales, creating analytic programs to allow web site owners to measure their success and improving a site's transformation rate. Shift of Desktop computer First index to Mobile Initial index, Priority of Local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION in ranking, trend of Tone of voice Search etc. Technical SEO to help assure search engines like google may crawl your site efficiently. So - THERE IS NO BEST PRACTICE QUANTITY OF CHARACTERS any SEO could lay down as exact best practice to GUARANTEE a title will display, in complete in Google, at least, because the search snippet title, on every single device. The SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION adage length is strength” had been supported by our industry research which found that longer articles has a tendency to position significantly higher on Google's 1st page. Google Traffic is near to non and it's getting difficult to keep investing budget in SEO. I was initially concerned regarding ranking my sites and this was too hard to find out about SEO. Talk to your marketing group about how to include Tone of voice into your SEO plans. While SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION assists with driving traffic in order to your site, the designing component helps in grabbing the interest from the users. Right now is the time to pay out more attention to long-tail key phrase phrases and to local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. As a result, the SEO's job nowadays much more than keywords plus backlinks. Sign up for the weekly SEO and daily SearchCap newsletters intended for a recap of all the particular latest SEO related news, suggestions and tactics from Search Motor Land and other sources just about all over the Web. John talks regarding the key reason why online marketers and business owners should make use of LinkedIn, and how they may use it to enhance their own website's SEO, and increase research ranking. 2017 is coming to an end, and it's that time of the year where we start exploring the main element SEO trends for 2018. With the presence associated with an improved algorithm, it is definitely now undoubtedly vital to utilize whitened hat SEO techniques for efficient Link building. 1 of the biggest mistakes all of us see businesses make with nearby or organic SEO is simply diving in at a technical level without understanding what their particular strengths or weaknesses are. So, Digital Marketing Professionals, it's time to enable your own content and promotions for tone of voice searches to make it worth with regard to SEO 2018. The outcomes are not instant, you can use the time on attempting other Internet marketing techniques whilst SEO would go to function. Before getting in touch along with any of the SEO Business find out that this company retains the below mentioned points or even not as on- page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION helps to create better hyperlink and social media content marketing and advertising helps your company to contact the height of success. The school methods of SEO are actually phased out and the new research engine algorithms have introduced the new at-par levels for various other techniques that should be regarded as while creating a website style. We all do advanced SEO for Lot of money 500 websites and our strategies are built on these concepts. Now, the only method to appear in the research engine pages like this is definitely by uploading your videos upon You Tube or through movie SEO. On-Page SEO is normally accompanied with Off-Page SEO, that is definitely based on building trustworthy incoming links for your site -- this is most frequently known as linkbuilding. As the conduct of a user searching search engine optimization company in Mumbai ” could be different from a user looking for seo company in Chennai Therefore, advertisers should not battle in the same way because these people used to do in the particular previous years. Whether you are the marketer or a business proprietor, learning new SEO tactics plus following best practices can assist you secure a safe place on the internet.

0 notes