#her personality is the same and motivations very similar but I do need to reevaluate her character

[vonkarma2]

❄️ for jacinto, ✂️ for crow, 🪤 for Gloria, 😨 for everyone you want

❄️ SNOWFLAKE - do people consider them cold? if so, what made them this way? 

omg is this a hard question. I’ve been trying to like go into their character but it’s really hard to think abt their psychology because their whole thing is they don’t understand people at all including themself so they’re very isolated. But it’s hard to like gauge what they’d think about things or like their motivations for the actions they take bc 90% of the time they don’t know either. So it’s hard to decide where the line is yk like what are the things they are sure of.

I think I’d lean into having them as a foil for Rocio whereas she is like not great at reading people but she like is capable of doing so lol and she does have a few people that care for her and she pushed them away. Whereas Jacinto has lost all of their family and doesn’t have any relationships left, but they wish that they still had someone yk. 

I think they are perceived as off putting but not cold because of their actions. Literally no one knows them personally but they have a solid reputation in the city for being distant but very polite and respectful. If you spent a lot of time with them they’d come off as like very overly formal, but if you only met them once they’d seem very nice. They’re terrible at talking to people and providing comfort to them, and they’re very aware of this, so they try to help via actions instead like mostly material generosity or sometimes introducing them to others that either are actually good at helping people or have similar problems etc etc. They don’t do this often though, only when the opportunity is very obvious. For the most part they stay by themselves.

I don’t think they literally do nothing all day lmao they like. Keep themself busy either with work (<which often involves following people like from a distance (they’re pretty recognizable due to their scarring even though they do know how to dress very inconspicuously + kinda disappear into a crowd) or chores or by like walking around in the city or in nature. But everything they do is very isolated unless directly talking to someone for work. When they do they actually come off as kinda nice bc of their politeness, and the people they have actively done nice things for tend to really appreciate it, even though if they try to make it up to them it typically doesn’t go well. They might come off as cold then because they’d mostly feel depressed they’re definitely going to disappoint the other person with their reaction or like. Lack thereof.

✂️ SCISSORS - what is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? how easily do they let go of people?

Sorry it’s too late you said his name so I’m answering for him. I have no idea tbh but I’ll try. I would say evidently not very easily considering how literally everyone treats him, but within the story there are a lot of special circumstances so no one is a good measure of how he treats people like, in general. My guess would be he’d immediately cut someone off for breaking one of his moral code rules or whatever but other than that he’d put up with a lot. (<For werewolves. For humans I think they could do literally anything to him and he’d be fine with it.) Actually, I might take it back, he seems pretty judgmental and condescending like to William that one time. More likely he wouldn’t have a casual relationship of any kind (friendship, romantic, professional) he’d either ignore someone or only engage in like the smallest of small talk. What do I know though he’s not my god damn character

Anyway now for the actual question. The thing is Cirillo will accept people for almost everything except the most heinous crimes in the condition that they apologize. If they seem sincerely remorseful he’d forgive them very easily, it’d be really hard for him to outright reject anyone because of 1) his belief anyone can change 2) his endless goodwill towards other people 3) his tendency to interpret his own actions in the worst way, like he doesn’t want to be a heartless person who abandons others, he wants to be someone who’s always forgiving and who others can rely on no matter what. The exception to this is if they hurt someone else and then that person met Cirillo, under those conditions like if he knew the other side of the story he probably would cut them off. He’d hate being caught between people and potentially being on the side of a horrible person even more so than he’d hate rejecting someone that sincerely wants to improve. Like he would never want to contribute to the other person’s problems yk

🪤 MOUSE TRAP - what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?

Very interesting question ok. The thing is she’s willing to confront danger, being reckless + liking the adrenaline and et cetera, BUT if it starts looking like it’s not worth like whatever the reward is (usually getting paid) she has no problem cutting her losses and leaving. Even if it’s for someone who desperately needs he help, she’d still be like sorry I tried very early on. So she’d face danger for almost anything, just on a dare tbh, but what would get her to actually face it and keep going? 

It’s pretty obvious but I think if she was on the verge of losing someone she really cared about, she’d do almost anything to prevent that from happening again. She knows how that would feel because it’s happened to her before and she hates it, she’d do anything to avoid that feeling. Anything else ummm not really? Maybe someone who she’d already disappointed but who forgave her for it, she’d be like really surprised by this and wouldn’t want to disappoint them a second time. At the very least she’d actually apologize to that person about running away.

😨 FEARFUL - when scared, do they go into "flight" or "fight"?

“everyone you want” means everyone in general bc I can’t back down from that challenge and look weak. Hopefully I will stick to short answers this time 

rocio- physical confrontation fight, social situation or something like that they’d shut down and try to ignore it 

cirillo- fawn, try to talk people down and appease them in any way possible. failing that he’d run away

angel- at first he’s be overconfident and fight but if he realizes he couldn’t win he’d run away

gloria- flight, she only fights for fun she is very cowardly around any kind of actual problem

lucia- run and hide. flight is definitely her approach to most kinds of problems 

jacinto: flight 

tiago: his instinct is usually to fight but he actively tries to suppress it, doesn’t always succeed

joanna: fight, she knows she can win almost any kind of confrontation. almost impossible to defeat physically or to intimidate in any way

laura: fight through verbal confrontation, if that’s not an option in the situation then yeah she’d run 

joseph: flight, he goes to others for help

victor: whatever gives him the best chance of survival in the long term, he’s in situations like this a lot so he does always try to de escalate a little first so he can gauge what the best decision is  

silence: fight immediately, even if they lose it’s more cathartic then like what she views as the inherent and cowardly loss of running away

inanna: very diplomatic but yeah if it comes down to it she’ll fight

shamash: flight, he’s not one for confrontation. Afraid of situations outside of his control 

david: depends on if he feels like he could win and/or what would most impress whoever he’s with aka kyungsun 

kyunsun: flight but I feel like she’d try to get back at the person later in some way.

gabriel: before becoming a wizard flight, fight afterwards. It made him very overconfident

yiming: he’d almost never get into this situation. if he did, probably flight. He can teleport anywhere in the world so he’d just like leave. If somehow magic wasn’t an option he’d panic try to get away at any costs including if he had to fight someone. he’s very powerful he could eviscerate people if he ever wanted to. but he doesn’t he’s nice <3

[misstrashchan]

Pyre/Greedling Meta:

I remember in the earlier volumes that a fair amount of people in the FNDM would compare Cinder to Lust from Fullmetal Alchemist, due to her femme fatale persona and voice seeming like an impression of Laura Bailey's Lust.

But as we learn more about Cinder and meet Salem in vol4, it's very clear that the version of herself she likes to present herself as is meant to come across as an impression, an imitation. Because she's trying to imitate Salem, the person who defines what power is to her.

And as that facade crumbles and we slowly start to see how deep Cinder's desires really run, it's far more clear to me that her character and story have much more in common with Greed, not Lust.

:read more:

Greed is the only homunculi who is willing to follow his deepest desires to the fullest, regardless of where that placed him. He was certainly willing to do evil, but wouldn't if that evil didn't personally benefit him. And, over time within the series, Greed comes to realise that his obsession with power, glory and seeking to become God, were nothing more than vain attempts to cover up his true emotional emptiness caused by a lack of connecting to others. And once he finds a cause and people to support who help and support him in turn, his character arc finishes with him, Greed, looking on all that he has, his friends, and is grateful. Content.

Which ties into the lesson of the Fall Maiden in the Tale of the Four Maidens in which Fall begs the Hermit to look around at all he has and be thankful. To be satisfied and content with oneself, which is a lesson Cinder has to learn in order to truly become a Fall Maiden.

Greed's desires are similar to Cinder's own ambition for power driven by her fear and insecurities, seeking to become a "godlike maiden badass" wanting to fill the emptiness and craving she feels, not yet realizing that this will not be what brings her true satisfaction to her, well, greed.

"Greed may not be good, but it's not so bad either. You humans think greed is just for money and power! But everyone wants something they don't have"

"You Atlas elites are all the same! You think hoarding power means you'll have it forever. But it just makes the rest of us hungrier! And I refuse to starve"."

I think it's very important to point out that Greed doesn't become good or redeem himself because he sees the error of his ways and wants to atone for the things he's done, rather he starts on the path to redemption by refusing to be a pawn to Father any longer, when realizing the power and glory he craves he wouldn't be able to obtain by staying and working underneath Father like the rest. His greed and dissatisfaction are what motivates him, though it is ultimately Ling who gives him the final push and convinces him to side with the protagonists.

And Cinder at the end of vol7 seems to be heading towards a crossroads of whether or not she'll stay with Salem, given how the Grimm arm that was "gifted" to her by Salem seems to be slowly consuming her body, she might have doubts about whether the kind of power Salem has promised her is really the kind of power she wants, and whether she's prepared to sacrifice herself to obtain it, or whether she could choose to strike out on her own. Again, some villains start on the path to redemption solely out of self interest.

It's also not just Greed's story I think Cinder's is remarkably similar to, but the stories of Ling and Pyrrha and the role they play in Greed and Cinder's stories, as their souls and stories are intrinsically intertwined.

The ouroboros tattoo and its meaning was the first thing that caught my attention, as it the ouroboros symbol represents eternal cyclical renewal. Of life, death and rebirth. And how that aligns with Pyrrha's incantation used to unlock Jaune's aura:

"For it is in passing we achieve immortality. Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee"

Cinder also has a tattoo of her own symbol that appears after connecting to Amber's soul and taking half of her power, just like the ouroboros tattoo appearing after Greed and Ling's souls were intertwined and he had taken over his body. Cinder takes the other half of the maiden powers after Pyrrha had been bound to them as her and Amber's aura were intertwined, making it likely that Pyrrha is a part of Cinder in the same way Greed and Ling are.

Both Pyrrha and Ling are considered to be people in positions of power and prestige with great expectations placed on them that they intend to live up to. Ling as an Xingese prince, Pyrrha as a world renowned champion fighter and promising huntresses, the "invincible girl". Both agree to becoming a maiden/homuculus respectively, despite the inhumane means of doing so and risk to their body, soul and life, as they believe obtaining this power will help their people.

"We can't transfer Amber's power to you but we can give you what those powers are bound to."

"Her aura"

"Her life... would become intertwined with yours. The question is-"

"What's that gonna do to you?" - (RWBY Volume 3 Chapter 6)

Greed and Cinder's stories are body horror stories about what you'll sacrifice for power, and the power they are "gifted" by their masters, Father and Salem, is concentrated in their left arm.

Interestingly, Greed's power that transforms him into an inhuman monster is his "Ultimate Shield" that makes him invulnerable, which is the exact opposite of the "power" that Salem grants Cinder that slowly crawls up her left arm threatening to turn her into a monster makes her more vulnerable than most, because she doesn't have aura to protect those parts of her.

Both Greed and Cinder are the most defiant of their masters wishes, and often Father and Salem experience losses and failures because they underestimated Greed and Cinder's ambition. What should have been an easy win at Haven for Salem failed because Cinder was overly ambitious in her need to to win, to feel powerful, and Greed's betrayal of Father is simply because his own ambition is greater than his, thus he would never be content to work underneath him, to be less than him.

Both are charismatic individuals and good at convincing others to work with them. They like to surround themselves with others and both are the only ones under Father/Salem to have their own subordinates (Wrath doesn't count since it was always Father's intention to have him become Fuhrer). Despite them clearly needing human connection, their relationship with their loyal subordinates we are introduced to alongside them is... Not Super Great. They might care about them to a certain degree, but at the end of the day they ultimately view them as useful tools and possessions.

Both of them speak of an emptiness they feel inside of them:

"All of these souls inside of me, and yet I still feel so... empty"

"It's... an emptiness. It burns. Like a hunger."

It's ultimately Ling thst acts as Greed's consciousness, as when he doesn't show any remorse over killing Bido, the last of the old Greed's followers, on the orders of Father, Ling is the one who drags out all of his repressed emotion, being able to feel his pain and see his memories, he forces Greed to face them and how terribly he treated his "friends", and to reevaluate his priorities and self, pushing him away from Father.

"It's nothing personal. I'm just doing my job. I am sorry, honestly!"

"What have you done, Greed? Are you determined to prove you're a monster? What kind of sick creature... would kill his own friend!?"

"He wasn't my... friend..."

"Then why do you remember him? And are you gonna try and tell me Bido was just making everything up?"

"Those were the last Greed's memories! They're not mine!"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU IN SO MUCH PAIN!?

Pull yourself together, Greed. I'm warning you. I'll take this body back if you drop your guard"

"They aren't mine... Father purified me and purged the old Greed's memories. Those memories aren't a part of me any more!"

"No! You're wrong Greed! It's not that easy! They'll always be a part of you! You can't just erase them from your soul! They were the only part of you that you chose!"

"Look at them! Can you not hear their souls crying out? You abandoned them. Your real family! You threw them away like trash!"

"Fool. If you turned your back on something you wanted, YOU DON'T DESERVE TO CALL YOURSELF GREED!" (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood episode 44, Greed and Ling)

If Pyrrha were to return, it's likely she would manifest and communicate more directly with Cinder than maiden predecessors usually do (though in all fairness we don't know the details of if maiden predecessors do or not), being more similar to Ozpin and Oscar's situation, rather than just being a part of her soul, because of how unnatural her interference with the fall maiden's power transfer was. The way Ozpin looks and speaks about it makes it clear he knows there is a very good chance he was recreating his own curse the GoL bestowed on him, and that this isn't like when he was the Hermit, giving his magic happily to the Maidens.

There's also the parallels between Ozma and Pyrrha's situations too, and how readily they accept their mission and fate, and in how they die, and I believe we still haven't seen the full payoff to those parallels with Pyrrha.

When Ozma reincarnates the first time, it's implied that he completely overtakes Ozma 2.0/ Oisín/Diggs (why do we have so many names for him), having not yet learned how to live with the souls with which he had been paired. It's not until much, much later when Oz is beginning to have doubts about whether he should stay with Salem , but still continues to go along with her plans that Oisín makes himself known, (and we know Ozma isn't used to him communicating with him with how suprised and shaken he is by this, which is strange considering he's been paired with him for a long while, unless Oisín hadn't made himself known before this) and is the one who finally pushes Ozma to leave Salem.

"What are we doing?"

With Cinder returning to Salem's side, full of doubt of whether she can go through with Salem's plan for her, to hurt and destroy herself for this power, and Emerald and Mecury (probably Neo too) likely betraying and cutting ties with Cinder too, which is going to leave her full of even more doubt, hurt, anger and additional feelings of betrayal and confusion. And more than anything, alone. Which would be the ideal time for Pyrrha to say to Cinder like with Ozma, "What are we doing?" To push her to reevaluate her priorities and self.

Imagine Pyrrha finally being able to manifest or communicate with Cinder, realizing she's bound to the woman who killed her. Knowing her emotions and memories in their entirety, feeling her pain and anger as if it were her own. And Ruby describing her as "Pyrrha thought that if there was even the smallest chance of helping someone that it was a chance worth taking" the Pyrrha who told Jaune "Everyone needs a little help sometimes" understanding what Cinder went through, and that if she couldn't save the world or make it better by attempting to kill Cinder, then, maybe as she is now, the one thing she can do to help save the world, to make it a better place, is by helping Cinder be better, helping her use her talents for good, like a true maiden should? (On a more fun note, imagining Pyrrha deciding to help Cinder but not missing any opportunity to be a playfully snarky little shit towards her. Because what is Cinder gonna do? Kill her again? Like tell me Pyrrha would not Do Both. And Cinder's not sure which she hates more: Pyrrha teasing her or feeling sorry for her)

Another interesting thing is how in The World of RWBY: The Official Companion states that Salem's goal is to possess all four relics, and to absorb the power of all the Maidens, which she means to at some point, absorb Cinder's power. It's likely part of why she favours Cinder and has such an intimate relationship with her (the Relic of Choice might have played a role in why Salem chose Cinder specifically) That transition of maiden powers from Cinder to Salem would be made much more seamless for Salem if she was grooming Cinder to be more like her, and was slowly becoming more Grimm, if she was treating Cinder like an extension of herself, because to Salem, she would be. Which is again, similar to Father and Greed, as Greed literally was an extension of Father created from him, and absorbed back into him when he became too disobedient and remade and reborn again.

The finale of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood has Father absorbing Greed's philosopher's stone in an attempt to claim his power, but Greed ends up sacrificing himself by inverting his Ultimate Shield inside of Father, making his whole body incredibly fragile and vulnerable so Ed is able to defeat him. In the end, Greed ends up being the key to their victory against Father.

I want to make it clear that I don't personally think RWBY will end with Cinder dying or "defeating" Salem. At least, not in the traditional sense. I can draw as many comparisons as I like between Greed and Cinder but at the end of the day they're two different stories with different themes. And I don't believe that kind of ending would align with RWBY's. One of the themes of Cinder's story is to find a way to keep living no matter what. And as for Salem, the only way she can "die" is to learn the value of life and death, which would require a much more different approach.

But either way, I do believe Cinder will end up being their key to victory one way or another, similar to Greed.

[dragonkeeper19600]

Houseki no Kuni vs. Steven Universe

Context: I commented on a Houseki no Kuni video on YouTube agreeing there was no point in comparing Steven Universe and Houseki no Kuni, as a lot of marketers have done in the past, because Steven Universe is clearly better. A Houseki no Kuni fan derided my view and “challenged” me to explain. So, I found myself writing an essay. An actual essay. To explain what Steven Universe does right and what Houseki no Kuni does wrong. And, I stand by it enough that I want to repost it here.

So, here we go. 

Let's talk character, shall we? Now, a lot of fans of Houseki no Kuni bring up the fact that comparisons to Steven Universe are mostly arbitrary, that despite being gemstone-based works, both have different rules, lore, characters, story, etc. All of which is totally fair and accurate. We shouldn't assume that two stories are the same or are even trying to accomplish the same thing because they both have a character named "Yellow Diamond" or "Padparadscha" in them. But, that said, there are a few story similarities the two works share. Both deal with a main character who undergoes an arc from an immature idealistic to someone much more mature and wiser. (Though, this is a storytelling convention unique to neither series.) Additionally, a major focus in both works is the main character's relationship to their main parental figure and role model. In Houseki no Kuni, this would be Adamant-Sensei. In Steven Universe, this is Steven's mother, Rose Quartz. Rose Quartz is deceased, of course, and Sensei is not, but for the most part the protagonists' relationship to these individuals is very similar. Both Phos and Steven go from idolizing these figures and seeing them as the epitome of what they themselves should aspire to to strongly reevaluating their previous hero-worship and coming face to face with all the hardship they've truly caused in the past. In this way, Phos and Steven can be said to through similar stories with similar lynchpins to start their journeys.

However, the moment you realize this crucial similarity is when the comparisons between the two arcs begin to crop up. And, in every way, Steven Universe is more dramatic, more focused, and has a better setup and payoff than Houseki no Kuni. And don't think I'm saying that Steven Universe is tonally darker than Houseki no Kuni because it isn't. That's not what I mean by "more dramatic." Dramatic doesn't refer in this case to scariness of subject matter or imagery, it refers to how strongly motivated the protagonist's decisions are. How badly do they need something and how are their decisions motivated by that need?

Let's start with Steven Universe. While Steven's goals. problems, and beliefs change a lot throughout the course of the series, there are two clear motivations that remain throughout his entire journey. They are:

1. Protect the Earth.

2. Who am I?

That's it. Everything Steven does can more or less be boiled down to those two things. The first problem represents the biggest physical source of conflict in the series. There are wild gem monsters roaming the Earth endangering the human population, many of the antagonists who come to Earth want in some way to harm the Earth. Keeping the planet and the human race safe is what motivates not only Steven but all his allies.

The second motivation deals with Steven navigating his identity as not only a gem hybrid but, perhaps even more crucially, as the only child and heir to someone he's been taught to believe was a great hero. His mother, Rose Quartz, protecting humanity from destruction. She led a rebellion against a tyrannical government to free other gems. Despite being an alien, she grew to love humanity and fell deeply in love with one human man in particular. She gave up her very life to have Steven. Etc., etc. From the beginning, Steven has been attempting to live up to his mother's legacy. In this way, Steven's second motivation, who am I, is even more important than the first because it is what drives him, and the rest of the Crystal Gems, toward the first goal. The reason they fight so hard to protect Earth is largely because of the precedent set by Rose Quartz. This is what changes wanting to protect the Earth because it's the right thing to do to needing to protect the Earth as a way to connect to Rose Quartz, someone they all love and long for. When you compare the two, wanting will always be less powerful than needing.

As the story goes on, Steven learns slowly but surely that the situation isn't as black and white as he'd thought. The monsters he'd been fighting are actually gems who underwent an involuntary transformation, most of the villains who attack humanity aren't doing it simply because of their wickedness but are directly reacting to what Rose Quartz has done. Their actions are the fallout of her actions, and a lot of the antagonists are motivated by very real and (as Steven discovers) justified hurt by what Rose Quartz did to them. Many of them are mourning people who were lost in the war she caused, several were emotionally wounded by her directly, including some among Steven's closest friends. Steven's view of his mother changes from sunny and worshipful to one of uncertainty and even resentment. But, through Steven's growing knowledge, wisdom, and attitude change, his goal of "Who am I?" remains unchanged. Because now, his goal changes from proving he's like his mother to proving he's not like his mother by becoming a better class of hero, one who heals instead of hurts. Though his quest of self-realization has changed from "I am the same," to "I am different," the core goals that motivate his thinking have not changed. 

Now, keeping all of that in mind, Steven's needs and how the most important figure in his life informs those needs, let's go back to Houseki no Kuni. Phosphophyllite starts off the series in many ways the same position as Steven. He's the youngest gem, he's weak, he's inexperienced, and he's naive. He completely idolizes not only his Sensei but also the fighting skills of the other gems, wishing to be as strong as they are. The main difference in their situations is that while Steven started off the series being adored by the other gems, Phos mostly only irritates his people, but in all other ways, Phos and Steven start off in very similar places. 

Phos's goal is also clearly established in the first episode/chapter of Houseki no Kuni: "I want to be valuable." Phos is constantly derided for being a worthless gem. With a hardness of only 3.5, useless in battle, and in general incompetent, Phos wants to prove that he can be useful, that he can be needed. So far so good. That's a strong motivation and a clear way forward for the story. The building blocks of Phos's arc have been put in place. 

The problem, the big problem that drags the rest of Houseki no Kuni down, is the execution. The inciting incident (the thing that gets the plot started) in Houseki no Kuni is when Sensei hands Phos the notepad and tasks him with writing the encyclopedia. Immediately, there's an issue of timing. Phos may be the youngest gem, but the story clearly establishes that when the story starts, he's 300 years old. Why is Sensei only now asking him to do this? The fact that gems are immortal beings doesn't change how many days and seconds long 300 years is, which is a lot. Phos's attitude and desire to be useful aren't a new thing, so why did Sensei wait until he was 300 to give him something to do? Like, what was Phos doing all that time? And, if Sensei was content to let Phos carry on doing nothing for 300 years, why did he decide now was the time to give him a job? Just a whim? Sorry, but a whim is not enough. Sensei doesn't need the encyclopedia done. If he needed it, it would have been done hundreds if not thousands of years ago. But no, he comes up with this on the spot, as Phos is lying in a bag in pieces, presumably just to make Phos feel important. 

But, okay, now Phos has been given a task. Finally. So, does Phos use this task to prove he can be useful? Does he strive to be the best writer/researcher he can be in the hopes that people will take him seriously? Does he even seem to care about the encyclopedia thing at all? Nope. His immediate reaction is to whine and complain that the encyclopedia assignment is not good enough. For the length of time that the encyclopedia remains a plot element (which is surprisingly little), Phos frequently expresses a lack of interest if not outright disdain for the project. Heck, even when Euclase tries to get him to investigate Ventricosus's shell, something he points out no other gem knows anything about and would be a huge discovery, Phos immediately tries to pass the task back to Euclase. They're outright asking him to do something important, something no one has ever done before, and he's not doing it.

Okay, that by itself wouldn't be so terrible because Phos finds another goal for himself in the form of Cinnabar. Early on, as Phos struggles to find a starting point for the encyclopedia, he talks to Cinnabar and discovers how bad his situation is. Cinnabar, too, carries on a task that he knows has no value (night patrol), he never interacts with anyone because the mercury constantly radiating off his body makes him a danger to everyone, and he's even more fragile than Phos with a hardness of only 2. Everything about Cinnabar's character seems designed to make him appear as the one person lowlier then Phos. Here is someone who could actually need Phos. Phos's vow to find him a better job (something only he can do) is a powerful moment because it shows how Phos is choosing to make himself valuable, by helping someone in a way no one else can.

So, then, Phos's bond with and desire to help Cinnabar is a big motivator in the story, right? 

That's a hard no, as well. After Phos returns from the ocean, his desire to help Cinnabar becomes mostly an afterthought. As the story goes on, Cinnabar becomes less and less relevant. The manga rapidly approaches the point where Phos never thinks of Cinnabar at all. Late in the story, the other gems actually find a better job for Cinnabar without Phos, something which is humiliatingly easy for them to do. I get that Phos slowly forgetting Cinnabar is supposed to be a tragedy, symbolic of him losing himself as more pieces are broken off and replaced, but it doesn't read as tragic because I didn't like the person Phos was in the first place. He was whiney, incompetent, and showed an inability to follow basic directions despite being 300 fucking years old. So, his transformation was just from "asshole" to "different kind of asshole." Yeah, I don't care about that. I don't miss who Phos used to be, and I don't like who he is now, so his transformation doesn't affect me as either positive or negative. It's just kind of a thing that happens.

But, why does Phos change so much? What is it that made him so bitter, so jaded (but somehow no wiser or more competent)? Well, that would probably be the winter with Antarcticite and his quest to learn more about Sensei and his connections with the Lunarians. Antarcticite's shattering and capture marks the first major personality change in Phos. It's the beginning of his cynical outlook, and his desire to rescue Antarcticite is what compels him to investigate the Lunarians, which leads him to Sensei. Since the Lunarians and Sensei are much more the focus of the plot, I'm not sure why we wasted so much time with the encyclopedia and Cinnabar if the true inciting incident was Anarticite's shattering (halfway through the anime!) but whatever. So, now we have clear motivation, right? We have a clear need, right?

Not really. Because there's no reason Antarcticite's fate would lead to Phos being suspicious of Sensei. There isn't. I get why he would become more interested in the Lunarians, but why would that lead to growing hostility toward Sensei? Antarcticite's shattering wasn't Sensei's fault, and none of the other gems who have lost partners have a desire to blame or question Sensei, so why does Phos? Because he's just special or something? Phos discovers that all the other gems suspect something's up with Sensei and the Lunarians, but they've all agreed not to bring it up because they respect Sensei. Phos was just as devoted to Sensei as everyone else, so why can't he let it go? He doesn't grieve more than the others, he isn't any smarter than the others, so what? It gets even more muddled when he realizes Antarcticite also knew and didn't want Sensei investigated. So, Antarcticite, Phos's main source of grief who is supposedly so special to Phos and his main motivator doesn't want Phos to investigate Sensei, and Phos still can't let it go. There's a moment (which is featured in this very video), where Phos murmurs to himself that he "just wants to know the truth." Oh, he just "wants to know?" So, we're back into wanting instead of needing. Phos's quest for the truth, by his own admission, is a want and not a need. But, just wanting is not good enough. Wanting is not compelling, wanting is not interesting. He has to need the truth about Sensei.

Like, suppose the Winter Arc happened differently and Antarcticite's shattering was Sensei's fault? Like, Sensei does something or says something that leads to Antarcticite's shattering. The most extreme version of this is that Sensei shatters Antarcticite himself (something we've seen him do to Phos and other gems before) because Antarcticite accidentally discovered something about Sensei's connection to the Lunarians. And, suppose Phos was the only witness to this incident because it's winter and all the other gems are hibernating. And, let's further suppose that Phos tries to tell the other gems what happened when they wake up, but none of them believe him because Sensei is just so beloved. Now, Phos has a real reason not to go along with everyone's complacency, now Phos's quest for knowledge becomes a need instead of a want. Because now, it's not just curiosity driving him, he's compelled to seek justice for Antarcticite. And this goal sets Phos apart and makes him valuable in the way he always wanted because now he's the only one who will hold Sensei accountable, someone no one else is willing to do. And, this carries the same tragic irony that the actual story tries and fails to convey. In his desire for self-actualization, Phos has condemned himself to a lonely road no other gem would choose to walk and that he himself wouldn't have chosen at the start of the story. 

But, that's not the version of the story we were given. Instead, it's curiosity that moves Phos, and as he loses more pieces of himself, the things that he used to care about, rescuing the other gems from the moon, fighting the Lunarians, helping Cinnabar, all fall away as Phos constantly gives up on his previous goals in pursuit of new ones. Again, I get that this is supposed to be tragic, but if the main character can't be bothered to care, then why should I? It's not helping that Pho's character arc is caused by (not symbolized by, caused by) physical changes that basically means he becomes brain-damaged every time he loses a body part. Instead of changing and growing organically, as Steven does, Phos is instead having his mind, memories, and personality reset after every arc. That's not growth or character development, that's just stat change.

I could go even deeper into the series and all of its problems: how the Lunarians' motivation is also a "want" instead of a "need," how the series uses Buddhist imagery and motifs to trick people into thinking the story is more profound than it really is, how the character designs for the gems make them all look like the same person wearing different wigs, and how many of the side character have one-note personalities as opposed to Steven Universe's complex characters and unique character designs, but when you get right down to it, Houseki no Kuni's main core issue is that there isn't a good enough reason for anything to happen. Steven Universe has clear emotions that drive the story forward. Houseki no Kuni does not.

When I was in sixth grade, my language arts teacher told us that a story was not just a collection of events. It's not just, "this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened." It's, "this happened because of this or this happened to complicate this." Steven Universe does that. Everything that happens is a consequence of what happened before. Houseki no Kuni just kind of has things happen. Why does Sensei give Phos the encyclopedia assignment? Just a whim. Why does Phos want to investigate Sensei? He's just curious. Why do the Lunarians want to pass to the next world? They just think it'd be nice. Why did Sensei reconstruct Phos after 220 years? Because Sensei is a dick. 

In light of all this, I'm fully convinced that the reason Houseki no Kuni gained any kind of popularity at all is because of the art style of the anime. That's it. Because, when you really break it down, it doesn't have anything else going for it. Except the soundtrack, I guess. The soundtrack is nice. 

[softforcal]

hiii

hello! these types of questions are great don’t worry! everyones different but yeah, let me tell you about my writing process :) (this is a long ass writing rant and hopefully it’s helpful)

so for headcanons tbh, i just write them. like. i sit down and write it all in one go and tbh not much thought goes into them there isnt really a plot it’s just notes practically so headcanons for me are not difficult at all. fics/oneshots are where things actually heat up.

so for my fics i do note form outlines. what this means is i have all the major things that have to happen already lined out. i put it on a word doc on half my screen and the fic on the other and there’s no plan on how to get to each note point but i know i have to get there somehow, but having basic goals makes it easier for me.

when it comes to fics there’s usually a brainstorming process. i have two wonderful amazing loves of my absolute life @hereforlukescruff and @glitterprincelu and usually it will start with me saying an idea and we all just kind of start shooting ideas and bouncing off of each other. this process can take hours. like. i remember when i came up with gang luke (penumbra) i was in class and we ended up chatting about it for 3 hours and coming up with shit. when the main brainstorm is done i plot it all out. i have a few ocd tendencies, one of which is linear stuff means a lot to me. like i can’t start a fic at the end. i need to start at the start. so i’ll plan as much as i can but sometimes i stop at the middle and i re-evaluate once i get there and have a better sense as to where the story is going.

for me, characters are huge. like. i have the plot points but characters drive everything else. so i’ll often have a sit down and reevaluate what has happened to them and how they’re feeling and see if it’s all making sense for them, but, because i brainstorm a lot, usually i don’t end up changing much. strong characters are key my dudes. 

my biggest motivator to get to the end of the story is well, the characters. i love them so much and writing for them feels so comforting to me. LOVE YOUR CHARACTERS. but also. something ya’ll gotta understand about me is that i’ve been writing fan fiction for 8 years. i’ve probably spent an average of 2 hours a day (and that’s seriously low balling it) so thats 2x365=730x8=5840 hours that i’ve written and that’s probably too low to be accurate. so i’m a writer. i type fast as fuck and i’ve been doing this a while so writing comes very easy to me, ideas are constantly flowing. this is legit what im pursuing as a job so don’t be discouraged if you can’t write 10k in a day like I do because... well, i’ve had a fuck ton of practice. writing 10k in a day is pretty common for me i’d say, once i sit down with a oneshot i don’t want to leave until it’s done.

but. i also again, have a bit of an ocd thing and when it’s paired with anxiety, it makes it hard for me to stop. i need to get things done. to check stuff off my list. or i get bored. if i leave a fic for even a day or two, it’s likely i’m not gonna finish it. so for me, and i know this, its important to wait until i have a sufficient amount of time to bust something out and a plan makes it so easy because i don’t have to stop and ask myself “okay now what”

what more can i say about writing.... uh... characters. so important. dialogue. key. 

like i’ll start a fic with a general idea about an OC but as the fic continues they grow and i really enjoy watching them grow. i think a good rule of thumb if you’re having troubles with this is immerse the story view point in the most solid character you have (i’ll give an example of this in a moment) and use their perspective and musings on a different character, like what they notice, to promote growth.

example of what i mean when i say this. i recently wrote prince cal and from the start, he was my strong character. Ostara was new, she’s ashton’s sister, she’s back for the first time in a while. the very first paragraph establishes that calum is taken aback by how much she’s changed. there’s still some similarities to how she was growing up and i weave that comfort of the known throughout the story (with things like chicken fights in the pool or musing about how they used to play hide and seek as kids) but from the start, Calum is knocked off his feet by how beautiful she’s gotten and that’s a very obvious symbol of change, not just outside but in. so as the fic continues calum notices things about ostara. for example. the second time i wrote she was wearing a print of some sort, calum and i both mutually realized, ‘huh. she likes prints i guess.’ because ostara is ostara, i dont control her, in my brain she’s her own person, she’s dictating whats happening and baby just likes prints. and calum notices which says something about him, but its also little details like that that bring these characters to life. 

i mean. i don’t know how other people write characters. my characters are always alive to me. they have their own voice and knowing their reaction to things is second nature to me. but this can be attributed to the fact that i legit wrote fan fiction about actual characters (MCU, TVD, Teen Wolf, etc...) for 6 years and being able to step into those characters and do dialogue that seemed legit was the most important thing for me. so i have a FUCK TON of experience on characters. so once again, if its hard for you to step into your characters thats okay. maybe do those things where you have a fill in the blank sheet on whats their fav food, their fav colour, do they like summer or winter? etc....

i think there isnt one way to write. i think i’m blessed that i’ve ALWAYS been a writer. since i was like 4. you know in elementary when they made you write and they’d give you those little booklets and shit? other kids had like one or two at most but this whore was always on book number 6 or 7 like, im a writer. it’s what i am. it always has been what i am. 

im also a multitasker. so most of my writing is done while watching shows. which means its a double whammy for me. like. im learning about characters and plot WHILE writing so... as you can see, i’m hard core as fuck about this shit. 

my point is. my process is a process that i think is pretty particular to me. most people i know cant watch tv and write at the same time. most people don’t sit down and bust out 10k in one sitting. and thats fine. if you enjoy writing then do it. focus on what you can be doing better, this isnt a competition. at the end of the day, the only person you should be trying to be better than is the person you were yesterday, or last week, you know?

find people who are creatively inclined because holy shit it makes a huge difference. bouncing ideas off of supportive people is really important. without my friends, Birdie in Penumbra might be named Cherry, the Gang AU wouldn’t have an ending all planned out and ready to be written, and i would have missed out on so many hours of face time calls and back and fourth messages with two of the most important people in my life right now. 

so lets break down what the fuck i’m even saying

-find supportive people (but it’s important you support them as well. if they’re gonna let you throw ideas at them and help you out and pump you up, reciprocate hoe)

-focus on yourself 

-find what you’re good at. plots? characters? dialogue?

-find ways to strengthen the things you’re not so good at (character fill in sheets, plot planning, etc...)

-find what, at the end of the day, really works for you

-don’t put pressure on yourself. writing is for fun. it should be fun. and if it is fun, i think motivation will come easy? but i could be wrong, once again, i have an addictive personality and writing is a fix i need every day or i go insane. 

yeah. if ya’ll have any more writing questions let me know. i love answering these because i think it’s so interesting to really look at the process :) 

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam France season 3, episode 4 reaction

Manon really does come across as Lucas’ deeply invested mom, like if she started leaving educational pamphlets around the flat titled IT’S OKAY TO BE GAY I would not be surprised.

Episode 4

Clip 1 - What the hell, Mika

Manon is telling the flat about her time in London. Lucas seems a bit miffed judging by the look he’s giving her, to be honest. Annoyed that she interrupted his moment with Eliott? Or just perceptive that she’s leaving out pertinent details of her story and things weren’t so great for her? With Noora, she was openly talking about how things had gone wrong with her and William; Manon is hiding whatever happened with Charles and putting on a happy face.

But Mika and Lisa are overjoyed to have her back. The three of them together again, they’ll be so happy! Uh, what a great thing to say in front of your other roommate? Mika, Manon, and Linn are the Three Musketeers and Lucas is like a bug they graciously decided not to squash.

Manon thinks this is a temporary arrangement until Charles returns. Lucas asks when Charles is coming back, Manon says he’s finishing up a project and it’ll be like a week or two. Uh-huh. Probably not the case, but on the surface, she makes it sound very reasonable, things are A-OK in Marlesland.

Mika says Manon can have Lucas’ room. The fuck? Lucas is like similarly surprised and Mika yells at him letting Manon sleep on the sofa, that’s why Lucas isn’t hooking up with girls if that’s how he treats them. Again, the fuck?

Manon says she’s OK sleeping on the couch and Mika hushes her and goes on about how bad she looks as a way to guilt trip Lucas. I’m sure Manon appreciates hearing that she looks like shit. Lucas says something completely sensible, that Mika should give Manon his room then, and Mika is like WHOA SLOW DOWN. It’s only logical that Manon should get her room back, right? Lucas is like, but she left it to me and it’s not even the same flat. Mika is all, this is a family and you’re like a cousin. Lisa adds, a distant cousin. Dude, fuck off, both of you.

Mika and Lisa decide Manon should get Lucas’ room and Manon sits there. Lucas gets up in a huff. The hell did I just watch?

This scene was messy as hell and people were not happy about it!

Previously I had thought it was amusing that Mika and Lisa gave Lucas a hard time, because I assumed it was coming from a place of love. You know, how Eskild made fun of Isak for his room stinking and him being a cranky teenage boy. Maybe Lisa doesn’t care about Lucas as much, and she’s been shown as a very crabby character, much more than Linn, so I don’t expect her to be all warm and fuzzy. But Mika? He sheltered Lucas in S2. We don’t know if it was under the exact same circumstances, but Lucas was crashing at their place, and Mika had to know something was up, because why else would a teenage boy not be living at home? Why would he prefer to sleep in the cellar of someone who’s practically a stranger? And I’m not sure the writer was intending to make this scene come off as harsh as it does. But this scene made me reevaluate my take on Mika and his relationship with Lucas and the whole flat-share dynamic.

I was trying to compare the Isak-Eskild dynamic to the Mika-Lucas dynamic up to this point, through episode 4. Because we might be influenced knowing the Pride clip and other important moments are coming, whereas prior to Pride it’s possible we might have felt less warmth about Isak and Eskild’s relationship. After all, the meatiest stuff about their relationship is still to come - even the backstory about Eskild picking him up in a bar is mentioned first in episode 5. But nah, I feel like Eskild’s whole demeanor is just more nurturing and fond even when he’s teasing Isak even though he and Mika have fairly similar scenes so far in these seasons. When Noora came back, Eskild said that it had been chaotic in the flat, and that Isak was a good kid but lazy. But still ... a good kid! And when Isak pointed out that he was sitting right there, Eskild said there was no need to get jealous, he liked him, too. So, some gentle roasting of Isak, but mingled with affection. Whereas Mika didn’t have anything positive to say about Lucas in this clip, voted to kick him out of his room, and made a clear distinction between the other three and Lucas, with Lucas being the outsider they care less about.

Whatever they intended, it felt really mean. That’s Lucas’ room, not Manon’s. She never even lived in this apartment! It has never been her room! Were they going for some comic relief by having Mika and Lisa decide Lucas is the one to get kicked out of his room, like ha ha, they make him sleep on the couch? I would be a lot less annoyed by that if Mika at least were affectionate about Lucas. I don’t know, joking or making a comment like, “I love you, buddy, but you gotta take one for the team” (or something similar)? It’s the combination of him getting kicked out of his room and them dismissing him as not in the “family” that makes it feel nastier than intended. Because we know Lucas’ backstory. He’s a teenage boy with a father who left and a mother with serious mental health issues, who left home to go sleep in a basement of a near-stranger. He feels abandoned enough as it is. And Mika knows at least part of this history! It feels really fucking insensitive to kick Lucas out of his own room when Lucas is clearly upset about it. For them to call Lucas a “distant cousin” is the worst part, especially when they’re showering Manon with love.

I can absolutely see why perhaps this dynamic was intentional, to highlight Lucas’ detachment and show his distance from everyone. But this doesn’t seem like Lucas’ problem. If we look at Isak, he was distancing himself largely due to his own internal struggles - like he couldn’t tell the truth to his friends, he thought his mom was a lost cause. His personality was very withdrawn and what he presented was fake. Because we followed Isak’s character development, we got to see him learn to reach out to others and be more authentic, and that came with having better relationships. This situation doesn’t seem like Lucas’ fault, though, it seems like the roommates’. So I’m not sure it really works for me, narratively. Maybe the point is that Lucas isn’t being cozy or friendly enough with them? I don’t know if we’ve seen enough of that to make this distinction. 

I was kinda wary about Mika at times last season, and was worried that they were going more for comedy with him to the extent of toning down Eskild’s more serious moments, his kindness and nurturing. I came around on him because he was there for Manon after the assault, but now I’m wondering how they’ll handle stuff like the Pride clip. I feel like it won’t seem earned. How Lucas is supposed to open up to someone who sees him as a distant relative rather than a member of the family? Isak was able to open up to Eskild because Eskild treated him with care. I hope they address that distance Lucas feels and have Mika explain that he does think Lucas is great and is glad he’s staying there or whatever.

Adding to this: Mika’s constant needling of Lucas being heterosexual and liking girls is starting to seem even weirder in light of this clip. Like I thought maybe it was him trying to cover for Lucas and act like he didn’t know his big secret. It was a kindness, because surely Mika knows or suspects that Lucas is gay - otherwise how did he find Lucas and hide him last season if it wasn’t a gay bar? We know Emma and Manon told him the gossip? But he seems so callous here that I’m wondering what his motivation is with all the hetero jokes. At a certain point it seems like he’s rubbing it in Lucas’ face, even if it’s not the intent. And that’s another reason why he might seem worse toward Lucas than Eskild was to Isak, because Eskild absolutely did not make hetero jokes about Isak like this, in a way that started to feel aggressive. 

Right now I’m just wondering what they’re doing with Mika and the Mika-Lucas dynamic, if they’re going to minimize it or if they’ll replace it with another relationship (like put in Manon or Alex instead) or if they’ll try to strengthen that relationship in the rest of the season.

Clip 2 - Manon’s about to bake Lucas a rainbow cake

In his room Lucas texts Eliott about how last night was nice and if he wants to do anything that afternoon. I like that he takes a moment before he sends it. Eliott replies that yeah, yesterday was nice, which makes Lucas smile. Awww. Something going well for him after getting evicted from his room. But Eliott says he’s busy and they’ll see each other Monday, which is a downer. 

However, I want to point out that Even told Isak in the OG equivalent that he had plans with Sonja, after telling Isak in the kitchen that he couldn’t break up with her (attempts to kiss him nonetheless). The scene with Noora and the roommates focused on her talking about how if Wiliam loves her, he’ll choose her, which was a clear parallel to Isak hoping Even will choose him over Sonja, only for Even to choose Sonja (that afternoon, anyway). Which sucked for Isak. By contrast, Eliott did not tell Lucas that he couldn’t break up with Lucille, and in fact said their relationship was ending and that he would like to be in a relationship with someone, “not necessarily a girl.” You know. As subtle as a hurricane. So there is much, much less room for Lucas to doubt that there are any obstacles with Eliott other than the technicality of dumping Lucille (and breaking things off with Chloé). That continues here, because Eliott just says he’s busy. Not with Lucille, just busy, which could mean anything. He might have to go visit his grandparents, he might have promised to go furniture shopping with his mom, he might have plans with another friend to go to fucking Disneyland. It’s a bummer for Lucas but not necessarily a reason for him to doubt that Eliott is really interested. So that tension isn’t as prevalent.

Manon comes in, Lucas resumes packing up his shit. To her credit, Manon says not to bother, she can sleep on the couch. But Lucas says Mika will kill him. Manon is like, it’ll be a few weeks, maybe a month. Oh fuck that. Why doesn’t Manon go stay with any of her other friends? Can’t she crash with Emma? Is she that concerned about putting up a front that everything is fine with her and Charles? Or that much in denial?

Also, did she just go from saying “It’ll be a week or two” to “It’ll be a month at most” within the space of a few hours? Because lol.

For a more optimistic take, especially since at the end of the clip Manon seems grateful and Lucas accepts that, it might be that Lucas feels he owes Manon since she offered her room to him at the end of S2. Which I would totally understand! But I wish it hadn’t come with Mika and Lisa being jerks about it.

Manon asks about that guy last night. Who is he? Totally casual. Lucas says he’s a friend. Who is this friend? Is he new. Totally casual. Manon comes across like a mom wanting to make sure her kid is socializing in kindergarten. Lucas wants to know why she’s asking all these questions. No reason! Totally casual. Lucas, not thrilled with this line of conversation, says if she wants her room back he has to move stuff out of there, so Manon leaves.

Manon clearly suspects that Lucas is gay, which we already knew, and that he and Eliott have a thing, and is trying to nudge him out of the closet, I guess. I do think she really means well and that she’s not asking for that spicy gossip. She probably wants him to know she’s OK with him being gay and trying to show him support when she knows life has been rough for him. It’s just that she needs to take a step back and let this thing unfold on Lucas’ terms. Lucas is obviously not ready to open the closet door. Both she and Mika are making this more stressful on him, I think: Manon is trying to probe him for information on Eliott and his dating life and that makes him defensive, and Mika keeps dropping comments about Lucas being straight which probably frustrates him, as a constant reminder that he’s not. 

Clip 3 - Protect Daphne at all costs

Emma ambushes Lucas at his locker. Manon didn’t tell Emma (her BFF) she was returning and Emma is surprised at that, so I think she’s trying to keep her Charles drama to herself. I wonder if there’s a particular reason that she’s not opening up about it, considering that Noora told her friends all about her epic romance with William not being what she thought is was. Does it have more to do with the court case, if they go through with that S4 content? Not wanting anyone to ask questions?

Daphne interrupts them, saying she thinks they got caught (re: the party). The headmaster caught her cleaning up in the morning and the furniture was still pushed to the side, so she said it was because they’re repainting the mural, but the guard still saw students there Friday night and they’re trying to figure out who it was. Emma is like, oh, the guard caught you Friday, that’s why I came back and no one was there. She and Alex were busy fucking in a classroom, lmao.

Some random girls say the party was great to Daphne as they walk by, so oh no, they won’t be able to keep it a secret! Oh my God, did you JUST realize this now. Are you kidding me. Congrats. Teenagers.

Is this going to come back later in the season at all? Because if not, this is gonna feel like a dangling plot thread. Daphne could’ve been like, whew, I think we got away with it, but her anxiety over it and the randos talking about it make it seem like it’s unfinished business. I’m not sure how any of that would fit in with the OG S3 story, so it would have to be a new addition to the plot, if any characters do get caught.

Daphne says at least the common room is popular now, and Eliott offered to repaint the mural. Emma asks who’s Eliott and Lucas looks at her as if scandalized. How can Emma not know the Eliott? I mean, let’s be real, that guy is hard to miss. Lucas offers to help with the mural because, you know, Eliott.

Basile appears down the hall. STAY BACK, DEMON.

Daphne thinks Lucas’ interest in the common room is because he wants to replace her as the head of the project. LMAO, I love that her mind goes there. 

Basile waves at Daphne and she gives him the finger. LOVE YOU MY QUEEN. He completely deserves it after he tried to plaster his pelvis against her at the party after she explicitly said she was uninterested in him, you know, that wacky bit of sexual harassment, comedy gold, har har. 

Basile says the more Daphne turns him down, the more he likes her. GOD FUCK OFFFFFFF

I might seem over the top with my hatred of him, but I don’t care. Are we really gonna do this shitty dynamic? In 2019? As if this isn’t the most basic textbook representation of male entitlement to women’s attention and rape culture? No means no. Daphne said no. Basile thinks her rejection is enticement rather than respecting it for what it is. 

Again, maybe they’re going somewhere with this! Maybe Basile’s ass will get roasted and flambéed over his attitude toward women in a way that finally gets through to him. Maybe he will have character development. We’ve seen plenty of sexist behavior from the boys, but with Basile it crossed a line into physical harassment. The fact that they’ve made one of the protagonist’s friends someone who does not respect a girl’s boundaries really doesn’t sit right with me. It’s like I’m not actually sure they do get how bad Basile’s behavior is, because it’s framed in a way that gives off comic relief vibes. It’s funny because Basile’s a loser and Daphne thinks he’s a loser! 

I hope he and Daphne do not happen. Hell no. Just get a Fleshlight, dude, and leave girls alone.

Basile is throwing a party on Saturday and he says his hot cousin will be there, who he has a shot with, Arthur is like WTF, Basile says cousins are OK, and I don’t care if this is meant to be a joke, I’m fucking tired, man. I’m not even gonna feel bad when Lucas ditches him.

Clip 4 - Lucas and Imane on religion

Alexia is telling Imane that Romain got super turned on by seeing Clara at the party and learning Alex is bi, and now he wants a threesome. OK, so he kinda sucks, too, for making his girlfriend’s sexuality about what his penis wants? Considering Basile, Mika, and Romain, I guess they had to throw in some shitty male characters to compensate for Eliott’s greatness.

Meanwhile Lucas is texting with Eliott about the mural. They set up a meeting on Wednesday, which makes Lucas happy. He also gets a text from his mom about seeing the devil leaning on him and to be careful. Creepy shit and not at all what a teenage boy flirting with another guy needs to hear right now. “The devil” being close to him - is the devil homosexuality? Not that his mom would know that, but I’m sure Lucas is taking those words to heart.

After Alex leaves, Lucas asks Imane how she can listen to talk about bisexuality and threesomes, isn’t it against her religion? I’m glad they kept in the text from his mom to demonstrate that it’s what prompted him to ask Imane about religion. A religious character seemingly at ease with bisexuality must seem important to him since he probably fears it’s the opposite of how his mom will be (well, in his case homosexuality). 

Imane says yes, bisexuality is against her religion, but it doesn’t prevent her from being friends with someone. Lucas thinks that is hypocritical. Well, although I think Imane probably doesn’t think it’s wrong herself - if she’s like Sana she disagrees with that part of her religion - I don’t care for the “hate the sin, love the sinner” attitude. I don’t think I could be friends with someone who disapproved of such an intrinsic part of me. That’s probably not what they meant, but it gives me those vibes.

Imane says Lucas is friends with Basile, does he approve of the way he speaks about girls and hits on them? Lucas is like … no. Errr, you seem to be pretty chill with it almost all the time, dude. Imane says it’s the same. And look, I get what she’s trying to say, we don’t have to agree with everything about our friends, but holy fuck @ comparing bisexuality to sexual harassment, as if those are equivalent things to tolerate in people.

Lucas is clearly not sold. Imane asks whether he has a problem with Islam. Lucas says he doesn’t have a problem with Islam, Islam has a problem with people. Like, for example, gay people. The dialogue becomes similar to that between Isak and Sana. Lucas says he believes in science, Imane says well according to the theory of evolution, homosexuals are useless for reproduction. Then she brings up conversion therapy, saying that people used machines to shock gay people into supposedly not being gay anymore, and those were created by science, so is his religion any more merciful than his?

There’s something a little off about this scene, in the way that Skam France sometimes is when they copy dialogue from OG. What’s off is that in Skam, Isak started off his rant by challenging religion from an intellectual level - he asked Sana why she was religious because she was smart and the world was progressing, implying that religion is outdated and well, for suckers. That it was illogical for Sana to be religious. That’s why she countered him on an intellectual level as well, pointing out that the science he believed in also was illogical in some ways. He specifically mentioned the theory of evolution as something he believed, which is why Sana uses that example. But Lucas is not attacking Imane’s religion from an intellectual perspective - he’s attacking it from a moral perspective. He’s say Islam has problems with people. He didn’t say anything about religion being illogical and antiquated and Imane being too smart for it, he’s implying that he thinks Islam hurts people. So when she starts talking about homosexuality being incompatible with evolution, it’s actually just a weird tangent she goes on, lmao? That has nothing to do with ... evolution having problems with people, or whatever, I can’t even describe it because it doesn’t make sense. Isak mentioned evolution but he started his argument from the perspective that science was right, before Sana even said anything. Lucas didn’t even bring up science until Imane asked, so comparing religion and science from a logical perspective comes out of nowhere. It’s just there because it was dialogue in the original show.

What does fit the scene better is her bringing up how scientists gave electric shocks to gay people to make them disgusted by gay sex, because that does address the issue from a moral perspective. Lucas says Islam has a problem with gay people, Imane points out that science has also lead to torture and suffering of gay people. It’s not a nice argument but I can at least see how it fits into the discussion by pointing out her Islam isn’t the only thing that condemns gay people, and she’s not wrong that science has also been used to enforce homophobia. They should’ve just cut out the bit about evolution because it doesn’t fit what they were talking about.

Clip 5 - If only this was the single Chloé clip this week

After class, Chloé’s waiting for Lucas, looking happy and cute. She asks Lucas if he wants to do something Wednesday after school and he says he has plans. She suggests a date on Friday, he says he has something with the guys, he can’t just leave them behind. Chloé’s annoyed and wants to know if they’re together or not. She says to call her when he’s interested and walks away. Lmao, so she pulled an Isak in 3.07, when he was frustrated with Even running hot and cold and texting him all “call me when you’ve broken up with your girlfriend.” Except Lucas probably ain’t gonna run to her doorstep.

I think this scene is better in context of the full episode, because when I first saw it, I was like ... what’s the point of this clip except to do an extra round of will-they-won’t-they with Chloé to make him look even worse, like Lucas has multiple chances to end this thing with her and he just strings her along. But in context of the full episode, what Chloé says works with what Eliott does with the mural meeting; he bails on Lucas, and his absence makes Lucas doubt Eliott’s interest. Lucas can’t tell whether he and Eliott have a thing or not, like Chloé can’t tell when Lucas says he’s too busy to hang out with her. Typically when you like someone, you make time to spend with them. The parallel is more obvious when you watch the whole episode and this clip leads directly into Lucas waiting alone for Eliott in the common room. Lucas is doing to Chloé what Eliott is doing to Lucas.

But damn, don’t you wish Lucas just let this flirtation with Chloé die here? She gave you the opportunity, dude! She gave you space!

Clip 6 - Lucas tries his hardest to show Manon he’s not gay

Lucas is waiting for Eliott, who’s not showing. He’s sent him a bunch of texts asking where he is. When someone finally does enter, it’s the girls including Manon. They show her the room. They ask her what she thinks and she’s like “...it’s special!” in the same way that Lucas said Eliott’s dubstep was good. LMAO all these kids keep talking about the common room like it’s a crack den, JFC.

But the girls are cute dancing about renovating the crack den. I laughed at Emma trying to get some life out of Lucas with that lowest of fives.

Lmao, it also kinda makes me laugh that Lucas is like, “I’m waiting for Eliott, he’s the artist,” and Manon is like “Who’s Eliott?” I mean ... he’s the artist, Manon.

I know her question was really “IS THAT THE GUY LUCAS IS SECRETLY DATING?” But damn, if Eliott had shown up, Manon would recognize him from Friday. If her questions to Lucas are awkward, imagine if she directed them at Eliott, too. 

Alex says it sucks that Eliott’s in a relationship. Daphne reminds her she’s also in a relationship. Well, better Eliott than the “Bisexual means you want a threesome, right?” guy. Daphne then realizes all of them are in relationships besides her. Imane’s like, excuse me? Daphne clarifies she means all the ones who can be in relationships, Imane stops her from saying something dumb. This exchange is a nice setup for season 4, with the girls not seeing Imane as someone who has crushes or can have relationships like the rest of them.

Lucas leaves, bitter that Eliott ditched. And maybe not overjoyed with the talk of relationships, including how it’s too bad Eliott has a girlfriend. Manon “subtly” follows Lucas out of the room. The girls are reluctant to let her leave them again, it’s cute. (Hey, I’ve got an idea ... if they don’t want to let Manon out of their sight, maybe let her crash at one of your houses?)

She asks if Eliott was the guy from the other night and Lucas wants her to drop it. Fair enough! Though he’s not making it seem less gay but snapping at her not to talk about it. Then Lucas sees Chloé coming and kisses her in front of Manon. He introduces Chloé to Manon as his girl and confirms that date she wanted on Friday. Manon’s like … all right, then.

Lucas, you had your shot, and you blew it. You fucked up, buddy. All just to keep Manon off your back. Word of advice: uncomfortably turning your head while your supposed girlfriend kisses you and emitting a look of “help me” is not going to convince Manon of your interest in this girl.

Again, Manon means well, but she should not be so in his face about his boyfriend. She’s straight, she doesn’t know the coming-out journey personally, she has to let him do so at his own pace. Like she immediately went after him and asked him about Eliott in the school hallway. So no privacy and he was put on the spot (also, she asked when he was in a bad mood because Eliott didn’t show up, although she couldn’t have known that much). She’s like a helicopter parent. Her intentions are certainly not bad, they’re just backing Lucas into the closet further because he feels on guard and defensive when she questions him. It’s not her fault that Lucas chose to kiss Chloé in this scene, that’s his choice, but she was a big reason.

I wasn’t feeling great when this clip dropped, so I missed some of the drama over it, but about the lack of Eliott - I don’t think it was inherently bad that he wasn’t in this scene, I think the biggest problem was that they inexplicably dumped three clips on Monday, which was a very strange decision, pacing-wise. There’s no reason that the Imane clip needed to be on Monday rather than Tuesday, for instance. And in all three of those Monday clips, working on the mural with Eliott was discussed, it was something hyped up, Lucas had plans Wednesday and surely something big would happen. So it definitely felt underwhelming when Wednesday rolled around and this clip wasn’t what we expected. In a way, I do see how it makes you feel what Lucas must be feeling. It’s disappointment. Plus from Lucas’ POV, Eliott has not given him a reason to doubt his interest in him, so this comes as a surprise to Lucas. He’s totally in the dark as to why Eliott didn’t show up. But I also can see the criticisms of the clip, because IMO, there is something a little redundant and unnecessary about what’s happening:  there’s an added week of Chloé drama (whereas in OG there was no real drama during the week with Isak and Emma - he was disappointed but she was just cheerfully planning their Halloween costumes) which already happened, Lucas already did the disinterest -> upset Chloé -> Lucas OTT apology/affection -> happy Chloé rodeo last week. Is it going to lead to harsher consequences and retaliation from Chloé later? If not, we didn’t exactly need it.

There’s also the fact that the girl squad is just so much more prevalent in this season than OG S3, and while I’m not opposed to them having a larger role (and I know that was required in S3 by the network), I also think that many of the scenes with them don’t add a ton to the story? Or maybe a scene with them adds something (like the bisexuality conversation last week) but there also just seems to be repeat material that we don’t need - for example, this deal with showing off the room to Manon, the girls having the same discussion about how the mural sucks, all of this really covers the same territory we’ve seen in previous episodes. We know the mural apparently sucks, everyone hates that mural, we don’t need to hear Manon’s opinion, too. We know the common room is apparently hell on earth, we don’t need to go over it again. It wouldn’t be the worst thing except we know Skam France has time restrictions, so every moment should count. And I feel like it’s taking away time from Lucas’ POV, distracting from his emotional state. Lucas is like ... materially involved in this common room project, but his emotional investment in it comes from Eliott, and that’s where these scenes should be focused. 

Clip 7 - Lucas’ endless series of bad choices

I had to laugh after the grumbling from the previous day’s clip when people were complaining about no Eliott and too much Chloé, when the first thing we see in this clip is Chloé.

Chloé waits for Lucas after class and gives him a kiss. He looks less than enthused and says she doesn’t have to wait for him. Lmao, this dude is not worth it, Chloé. I know you’re going to suck in your own way soon, but Lucas seems like the most un-fun boyfriend ever in your presence, and he changes personalities more than he changes his underwear, probably. It’s as if he’s sharing his brain with an alien and they trade custody of the body. And the alien is the one who acts nice and wants to kiss and tell you he’s falling for you, Lucas the human could not be more checked out of your budding romance.

AND THEN THERE’S ELIOTT, the people rejoiced

Eliott comes up and asks to speak to Lucas. Lucas’ alien takes over and puts his tentacle arm around Chloé and says sure. Oh my God, Lucas. You dummy. He could not be any more inelegant about chucking Eliott out of the boyfriend zone. Lmao, it’s a little childish but I mean, it sure works because Eliott notices the pointed gesture and does not seem thrilled. Maxence does some solid eye acting in this clip, glancing between Lucas and Chloé.

Eliott says sorry for bailing on Lucas yesterday, he wanted to come but had a problem. It’s presumably something mental-health related, not that Lucas would know at this stage. I don’t think we’ve had any hints about his mental illness yet? Just that he's new to the school, which could be for any number of reasons. He invites Lucas over tomorrow to make up for it, and it sounds like a date, but of course Lucas fucked this up by not talking to Eliott alone. Because Chloé is there, she brings up the date she and Lucas had planned, but suggests they turn it into a double date with Eliott and Lucille. So that’s how that happens. Interesting because in OG, it’s never confirmed but I got the distinct impression that Even planned the pre-drink with Isak, but it was Sonja who invited herself and Emma, turning it into a double date. It seems likely because she probably asked Even about his Halloween plans that weekend, and he couldn’t avoid telling her about the thing on Friday. Or she just found out. That was reinforced by Even’s “party-planner” texts where he seems to be barely concealing his irritation that she’s taken control of the situation just like she takes control of other parts of his life. In retrospect it fits with what we learned about Sonja’s personality. Here it’s Chloé who innocently suggests the double date, like I really do not think she suspected anything weird at all between Lucas and Elliot.

I know people were laughing at Chloé not noticing that Eliott was asking Lucas on a date, but I can’t blame her for not making that assumption, no matter how Lucas and Eliott are looking at each other, when Lucas is trying his goddamn best to keep her thinking he likes her. He just slung an arm around her, that’s an affectionate gesture initiated by him. And this dude gave her a whole speech about how he was falling for her, he passionately kissed her yesterday out of nowhere and introduced her as his girl. He’s leading her on far more than Isak did with Emma.

Also, we can’t tell exactly when that arm around Chloé’s shoulder came down, but it was sometime between Eliott talking about his problem yesterday and Chloé suggesting the double date, so I think Lucas slipped it off her shoulder when he realized Eliott was asking him out. 

Predictably, Lucas and Eliott are all muted while Chloé is excited. Chloé kisses Lucas but he looks after Eliott. Dude, you dug this hole yourself. 

Clip 8 - Double date

Friday night, the four of them at Eliott’s. Chloé talks to Lucille about binge watching a show and taking time for herself, encouraging Lucille to do the same. Lucas and Eliott are not having a good time, though I think that could be emphasized more in the visuals. We do get Lucille glancing at Eliott drinking and seeming not OK with that.

After Chloé asks whether Eliott and Lucille are the same age, Lucille says Eliott failed his bac last ear, which was RUDE. Why are you volunteering that information to random people? Especially when you know the painful circumstances of why he failed? Like ... he’s in the room with you, and you’re casually throwing it out there without thinking whether it might embarrass him or drudge up bad memories. Or, even worse, she’s pissed that he’s drinking too much and is mentioning it passive-aggressively. Eliott does not seem happy with her doing that, either. (Again, some good reactions from Maxence.)

Chloé: “By a lot?” ALSO RUDE. She at least doesn’t know his background. Eliott says he never went. It’s awkward. He wants to talk about something else. The angry tension between Eliott and Lucille in this scene is even bigger than the sexual tension between Eliott and Lucas.

Adding to that, Lucille tells him he’s drank enough, Eliott says she’s talked enough. Well ... accurate. She says she said it for his own good, Eliott’s snaps at her thinking she needs him, and throws back a retort about him failing his bac but still knowing how to count. She storms off. Maybe I’m the asshole, IDK, but I’m actually on his side here. Not that I condone rude comments from either of them, but she was pretty thoughtless bringing up the bac and I totally understand why he would throw it back at her. But it also makes their relationship seem even more dysfunctional than Even and Sonja’s.

Eliott apologizes to Lucas for having to see that, it’s just that this night isn’t going the way Elliot wanted. Lucas asks how he wanted it to go, Eliott says it’d be just the two of them. Lucas agrees. arghhhhhhblarghhhhhhhh. 

Here’s the thing: this exact same sentiment was present in OG Skam, except Skam didn’t need to spell it out for us in dialogue. Like … we got it. We got it from Even’s miserable facial expressions and the fact that he just sat there drinking. We got it from Isak and Even constantly shooting glances at each other while Emma and Sonja carried out on a conversation without them. We got it from the fact that Even asks Isak to leave with him, ditching his girlfriend as they’re both dressed up for a Halloween party in a couple’s costume. We got it from the music as we transition from the pre-drink to the bike ride, Even’s expression of misery transformed into radiant joy, both boys grinning as the lyrics tell us I wanted to be with you alone. It is abundantly clear that the night wasn’t going like how Even and Isak wanted, and they didn’t need to have the characters sit down and tell us that. Show, don’t tell. (Or, I mean ... the Tears for Fears lyrics flat-out tell you, but only after the characters’ mindset was established previously, so that the song just feels right after all that buildup, like a release of tension.)

The feeling at the start of this clip should be enough to communicate to us that Eliott is upset and he had something else in mind. I didn’t get that feeling. Maxence does fine acting but the directing itself could be much sharper to highlight the emotional atmosphere of the scene. If you watch the OG clip, at the beginning, every single shot has either Isak, Even, or both in the frame. When it’s all four of them, Isak and Even are shooting looks at each other while Emma and Sonja talk. Isak is a lot shyer about it and looks away; Even just brazenly stares at Isak, drunk and not giving a fuck. There are lots of closeups of the two of them, especially showing Isak sitting there looking awkward. The conversation between Emma and Sonja is actually background noise in much of the scene to the closeups of the boys, because that’s what it is to them - not something they’re a part of. By contrast, I felt like the way this was filmed, it made the conversation between Chloé and Lucille more of a focus, to the point where Lucas’ reactions were not. Eliott has focus, but Lucas? I didn’t feel like I was in his head. And there are some good things added in this clip, too, such as Lucille’s discomfort with Eliott made more plain, but if the clip was really effective at establishing what the characters were feeling - we don’t need Eliott and Lucas to tell it to us. We’d just feel it.

I really do like much what they’re doing this season. But stuff like this makes the writing weaker, not stronger. It’s like they didn’t trust us to understand exactly what was going through the characters’ minds, based on the acting and directing. No one needed this exchange in OG because it was perfectly clear what was Isak and Even were thinking.

Clip 9 - Polaris

Lucas and Eliott run down the street, and Eliott breaks into ... a forest/park area? Whatever it is, he’s breaking in, and Lucas is following, in the tradition of all Evens and Isaks.

I like the way they shot this opening part, of them walking through the woods in the dark, talking with just their little lights to guide the way. No forced music, just the quiet sounds of the night. I think you can hear thunder or an approaching storm in the background, to build up to the end of the clip. Lucas’ phone runs out of battery and Eliott says he will guide him. Totally not symbolic at all, Eliott with his light helping Lucas through the dark.

Their chemistry is also good, they’re smiling and happy to be with each other but there’s still some tension despite how blatantly upfront they’ve been about their feelings so far, and the conversation gets a little weightier when Eliott says that Lucas is the first person he’s taken here, not even Lucille has been here. It’s still very direct, but there’s something more like the Skam feeling that I enjoy here. Maybe it’s the pacing as they walk, it doesn’t feel rushed, or that this part of the scene focuses on the quiet, the natural atmosphere. It feels more organic than some Skam France scenes have felt in the past.

Eliott shows Lucas their destination and the music kicks in, because Eliott has brought Lucas into his movie. Of course it’s the tunnel out of Polaris. It’s actually very good placement for the music since again, we’re exiting the “real” world, sort of, and entering the movie, similar to how music was used in the pool clip for Evak. I love that Lucas seems stunned because he realizes the significance of where Eliott has taken him. Those butterflies in his stomach must be flapping their wings like crazy, because he knows how the movie ends.

Also, obviously Eliott is shining that light, keeping that imagery present as he leads Lucas. He’s the one spot of light in this darkness.

They run into the tunnel (looks like Eliott grabs his hand) and Eliott shows off the place. It’s his home, which makes sense for a raccoon, tbh. Eliott wants to know if Lucas likes it or if he’s afraid. Lucas says he’s not, but Eliott circles around him, teasing him and asking if he isn’t a little afraid, shining his light on Lucas’ face. Then the light goes out and Lucas is in the dark, and Lucas does seem to get a tiny bit afraid, if only because Eliott disappears. Eliott turns on the light and cackles, a little farther from Lucas.

This is some really great cinematography. Actually, it might be my favorite cinematography in all of Skam France. I’ve been hard on the show because IMO it has some big flaws, but this is just a very good and striking scene. It’s playful, it’s got some tension. We know they’re going to kiss, but they’re building up to it, Eliott’s toying with Lucas (and the viewers). Eliott’s constant movement gives a sense of uneasiness - I wouldn’t go so far as to say creepy, although I can certainly get why others would feel that way, especially when Eliott’s face is lit from below by his flashlight - that’s a really common lighting tactic for horror movies or for villains, because it makes them look more grotesque. I don’t know if we’re supposed to think Eliott is menacing, but maybe there’s a sense of danger here? For Lucas, being alone with a boy he likes, knowing that more could happen between them, and with Eliott’s movement, the element of uncertainty. It feels restless, like something’s brimming inside him, and the distance between them keeps changing: sometimes Eliott is breathing down Lucas’ neck, other times he’s not close enough to touch. Then there’s the light, also moving with Eliott. It feels very visceral.

They laugh and Lucas strides forward toward Eliott, saying he’s not afraid. The symbolism is pretty obvious, Lucas in the dark heading for the light represented by Eliott, Lucas taking turns being bathed in Eliott’s light. Also, the music cuts out whenever Eliott turns off the light, and comes back when he turns the light on, so it’s like the “movie” disappears when Eliott does, because this is his vision.

Eliott turns off the flashlight again, and when he reappears, he’s standing right in front of Lucas. This time Lucas doesn’t just laugh it off, because, you know, Eliott is REALLY close. Close enough to touch. And Eliott is moving in with a little smirk for the kiss. Both of them are lit up, existing in the same world as the movie characters. Lucas has his mouth open for that hot Eliott smooch when Eliott turns off the light (again cutting off the music) and disappears again. What a fucking tease. 

It starts pouring rain all of a sudden, just in time for Lucas to be alone in the dark tunnel. Fun scenario! Not creepy at all! But there’s Eliott standing outside the tunnel, getting drenched, looking at Lucas. No light. Lucas walks toward him but he’s still under cover and staying dry, he stops before stepping into the rain. Eliott asks if Lucas is afraid of rain, too. (I really like this scene but is it just me or did they mix some metaphors here ... like it goes from the divide between light and dark to the divide between rain and shelter. It still works in the sense that one character is stepping into the other’s world, though.)

I like Lucas’ reaction to the question, you can see him making a choice in his mind. He holds out his hands - is Eliott thinking to himself, “Wow, he totally saw my movie at this point?” I mean I think he’s probably focusing on being about to kiss Lucas, but this is straight out of the storyboard, so in the aftermath when they’re just lounging in bed or whatever I’d expect him to be like “...were you stalking me online?” Anyway, Eliott laces his fingers with Lucas’, and Lucas starts to smile before launching himself at Eliott. They kiss passionately in the rain. 

Going to get out a slight criticism before I mention the positives: I had expressed concern when we saw the storyboards that the kiss was going to play out exactly the same way, and well, I was right. And I think the scene itself is very good! But in a way I do prefer that we didn’t see the storyboards before the kiss, or at least that they didn’t match so closely. I mean, Eliott is even wearing the exact same outfit as the cartoon version of himself. Because actually, this symbolism works completely fine on its one, without walking us through every moment of it? IDK, I think personally if we were watching this scene without the Polaris storyboards, everything would have still come across in terms of symbolism and imagery. There’s light and then there’s dark, there’s Lucas stepping out of the safety of the dry tunnel into the rain with Eliott. We could have worked it out ourselves, much as we did with the 21:21/rebirth imagery. It comes back to maybe not trusting the viewers as much, like with Eliott telling Lucas that he wanted the double date to be just the two of them. Going into the symbolism of this scene is like ... it’s barely even subtext, it’s text, to the point where I feel silly even talking about it. (It’s true that the Evak first kiss also directly mimics the R+J kiss, but I think that still leaves more to the viewers to connect the dots. Polaris itself was so highlighted and explained within the story, whereas with the pool kiss, obviously people were expecting the R+J reference once they got to the pool, but the setup is more subtle. Isak is watching R+J and we briefly see the pool kiss scene, but it’s not like … the primary point of what he’s watching, it’s just one moment that’s on screen for a second, along with several other clips, with the main focus Isak’s reactions as he watches. This is more like if Isak watched R+J but we saw him watching the entire pool scene and only that.)

THAT BEING SAID: this is still a beautiful scene. The music is really good, actually, it falls into that dreamy-creepy vibe so it’s adding some tension in the tunnel, but it’s also romantic enough for a first kiss. The build-up was very strong and even though these two have been very blatant with each other about being into each other, still created some tension as to exactly when the kiss would happen. I was fully expecting the Polaris recreation but there was also a point where I thought they would kiss in the tunnel (and they almost did). 

Again, Lucas’ reactions were very good. He showed the right combination of emotions leading up to the kiss. Also - and this is really important - this kiss scene was not rushed. That’s my big problem with a lot of Skam France clips, that they fly through them without taking the time to let the emotions develop or resonate (and I know there are time restrictions) but this one had good pacing. It let the moment build and allowed us to step into Lucas’ head, I could see him going from nervous and hesitant to taking those small steps to step into Eliott’s world and kiss him, to the urgency of the kiss itself.

The kiss itself is enthusiastic, to say the least, lol. I’m weak for Lucas tilting his head back and Eliott holding his face as they kiss. But the best part is actually their happiness. I love how they smile at each other and how Eliott turns his face to the sky in joy at the end, right before the hug. The hug!!! Great, tender moment. I felt the relief and jubilation from the characters. 

Additionally, I said this before when we first heard about Polaris, but big props to Skam France for doing their own version of the first kiss and putting their own imagery and symbolism into it. 

Social Media/General Comments

Lucas had an IG story of him packing up his stuff after he got kicked out of his room, so you know, that’s a wonderful thing for a kid who had to leave home to have to do again.

Daphne wised up (too late) and told everyone to delete their social media about the party. Were any pics actually deleted on the characters’ IGs? It looks like it, but Basile still has one of the boys in their costumes at the party, with the caption thanking Daphne. LMAO GOD what if this dumbass gets Daphne in trouble, I don’t think it will happen but it would not surprise me.

Lucas sucks up to Daphne by being like, I deleted the pics! Keep me updated about re-painting the mural! He emphasizes that he’s most interested in repainting the mural. Subtle! Although Daphne doesn’t seem to notice his desperation because she’s too concerned about Lucas trying to usurp her as head of the common room. She says she needs to check with Eliott and he plays it cool. Lol, I can’t wait for them to paint that mural and it being even uglier than the first one because Lucas kept fucking it up by drooling at Eliott instead of concentrating.

Imane posts a Maya Angelou quote after her talk with Lucas. “I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.” Hint hint, biology partners who might want to judge her for her religion.

Then there was the whole shitshow with the boy squad ranking girls on IG. OK … I’m not going to cancel them, but it IS fucking gross. I would be more tempted to cancel them if it were not called out by the girls directly afterwards, or if it weren’t intended to be something gross, like just a funny Boys Will Be Boys thing.

Especially since most of these guys (except Basile) are saying Daphne isn’t even in the top 20. FUCK OFF, WITH YOUR BAD TASTE, LOSERS.

But really, the fuck is wrong with them? The thing is that they’re not just ranking girls vaguely, alluding to them (like “the hot blonde” or whatever) which would still be gross. They’re naming these girls! We know who most of them are! And the girls they are naming are their friends, or at least people they’re friendly with? So disgusting. Why would you post this? I said I wasn’t going to cancel them but it’s actually hard to come back from this because it’s so pointedly cruel. Like Yann saying Manon is annoying because she cries too much, and the boys ranking Alexia outrageously low. I’m sure Manon loved that and it didn’t make things awkward in the flat. I mean I kinda feel less bad for Lucas having to crash on the couch, lmao, I hope Manon slept soundly in Lucas’ bed that night.

The girls retaliated by posting their own IGs and lol, don’t even tell me they’re just as bad, because they responded to a very personal sort of bullying (I mean, that’s what it was, bullying) and called out the boys’ bad behavior. They said Eliott was number 1, which is not wrong.

Gotta say, the boy squad is pretty bad. I know they’ll turn around in the second half of the season, but there’s just little endearing about them so far. Basile is a complete disaster, we know nothing about Arthur, and Yann has not been served well this season. Two of Jonas’ key scenes - calling out Isak’s comment about the dance instructor and asking him about the neon pre-drink after Even helped Isak get his locker open - have been removed or diluted. The calling out was pretty weak and spread among the whole squad, and we didn’t get the second scene at all. There was a great scene at the beginning of episode 3 with Yann and Lucas, and a great follow-up text message, but overall I get less of a sense that Yann is noticing Lucas’ strange behavior or that he’s concerned for it. 

I know that they were required to keep the girl squad around in this season, and I get it, and I can’t say that I don’t drastically prefer them to the boys at this point. I like them a hundred times better. But I also wonder if characters like Yann and maybe Arthur would get more development if the girl squad didn’t have so many scenes. I hate to say that, but a character like Yann is supposed to be Lucas’ BFF, and yet I feel that friendship is getting overshadowed by so many things. I know more about the common room and Basile’s dick than that relationship this season.

Also? Moving on to episode 5, why the utter fuck would the girls even bother going to Basile’s party after the boys pulled this stunt? It’s not even a week later, and the boys trashed several members of the girl squad by name. Did they really think yeah, these are the assholes we want to party with? Not to mention Basile also creeps out Daphne. 

Emma looks bored as hell watching Raptor Alex watch basketball. Perhaps a sign that relationship is not going to work on a level other than physical.

Eliott and Lucas get in some jabs at their girlfriends when Eliott texts that Lucille’s super down for the double date and Lucas responds with a cheesy picture of two smiling straight couples at a bowling alley. Lmao, I would kill to see that happen in a remake? An Isak and Even who get roped into bowling with the girls and then ditch them at the bowling alley. They don’t even take off their bowling shoes so they’re running awkwardly and end up getting banned from the bowling alley.

A fandom sleuth figured out that “Polaris” encrypted through the Caesar code, as hinted by the enter_polaris IG, is Eliott’s real Instagram (”srodulv), well done! On that IG Eliott has the following pictures (among others):

Eliott and Lucille as a cartoon raccoon and cat - his first furry romance

a drawing of a chocolate bar with “chelou” (weird) on the wrapper, posted after his first talk with Lucas

piano keys with the word “surprenant” (surprising), posted after Lucas played piano for him

my favorite, a picture of Oreo, the raccoon who was the inspiration for Rocket Raccoon in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, who passed away recently - RIP Oreo, respect to Eliott for honoring his raccoon brethren

a brain in a jar that says “lost & found” from perhaps when he had a bad mental health day 

a man underwater (sick Skam reference, bro) (but also, probably another mental health reference)

his raccoon fursona trapped in darkness - he was really struggling this week

a Betty Boop cartoon that seems to imply Lucille is a witch at his back?? and he’s not looking forward to the double date. also features a “mystery cave”

That miserable looking IG pic of the double date and Lucas’ reaction to Chloé’s kiss … sums up the level of enthusiasm he had, I guess!

Chloé texts Lucas after he and Eliott run off and says Eliott has a big problem, poor Lucille. There was some talk about whether Lucille told Chloé about Eliott’s mental illness and that’s what she meant, but personally I just took it as Chloé thinking Eliott was a jerk after telling Lucille to stop telling him what to do and making her stomp off to the bathroom, and then ditching her. And “poor Lucille” was just in reaction to thinking Lucille had to put up with her boyfriend being a jerk, not anything mental illness related. (Tbh if Lucille did tell Chloé … she’s a huge asshole for revealing that sensitive information about Eliott to someone who’s almost a stranger, although I suppose it’s in line with her casually dropping he failed his bac?)

I think Lucas and Eliott have good chemistry, but something about the directing is not as conducive to the chemistry as it could be. It’s not bad - like I said, they’re good together - just that with better directing it would make even more of an impact. Might have to do with timing and rushing scenes, or just allowing them to react more to each other. 

I’m wondering if they’re doing this Manon plot and kicking Lucas out of his room so he can go live with Eliott at the end of the season. Which… I think is kinda dumb, tbh, because I’m 90% certain they’re going to start Season 4 like right after S3 ends, not more than a week or two later. At least with Isak and Even there were several months of them dating before they moved in together, and Even had lots of time to bounce back from his depressive episode. I guess Lucas doesn’t have much of a “family” in the flat with Mika and Lisa, which is depressing, but I mean, if you think Isak and Even moved in together too quickly? Lucas and Eliott will have barely any time really being together before they take that step, and it will be right after a very tumultuous period for them.

Also, you can’t tell me that Isak moved out because he felt like he didn’t belong there anymore, or that Eskild and Linn wanted Noora there more than Isak and made it known to him. Like of course this is just headcanon, but I feel pretty sure that it was Isak’s (or Isak and Even’s) decision to move out since the flat was so crowded. I also think that Eskild would have kept his stray godkitten under his roof as long as possible if that was what Isak wanted, and they would’ve just dealt with it being crowded. I mean, he was asking William to move in at the end of S4, and we know Eskild doesn’t even like William much, lmao. He definitely likes Isak more than William, I think he’d be fine with him staying. With Lucas moving out, it’d feel more depressing, like maybe he just didn’t feel welcome in the flat. I guess it’d be positive for Lucas to be making a new home with Eliott, but still, it feels unnecessary. (I also think the Manon plot is also unnecessary, probably, but we’ll see where they go with it.)

I’m not French so please feel free to let me know if there are any translation or cultural issues that I missed.

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

[i-just-like-commenting]

Timeless rewatch (part 8/?)

Getting close to the end of season 1 here. As always, spoilers through season 2...

Episode 13: Karma Chameleon

I tried taking notes for this episode but they mostly degenerated into variations of me writing “FUCK YOU WYATT” in all caps. I remember that I was upset with him after this episode the first time I was watching it, to the point that I had to kind of take a break from the series, during which it got cancelled, then uncancelled. I was not anticipating how much it would still piss me off a year later.

I’ve been saying that Wyatt and Flynn are very similar personalities, but this is the episode where Wyatt goes full Flynn. Just...the episode isn’t even subtle with comparing Wyatt and Rufus to Flynn and Anthony. The latter are both the sensible, practical scientists who agree with what their ex-military friend is doing but question whether their reckless, constantly failing plans are actually the way to go about doing it. And both of them get ignored in favor of escalating levels of violence.

Wyatt storms into a hotel room waving a gun at two innocent people ffs!!! And then he gets one of them killed! How is this any different from any of the shit Flynn has done all season?

Well, I’ll tell you one way: Flynn isn’t under any delusions that he can just go back and be with his wife after pulling all the shit he’s pulled, whereas Wyatt, after admitting that Jessica would “be horrified” (his words!) by the shit he just pulled, seems to think it’ll all be okay and he’ll get to be with her.

No, that is not how this works. Flynn may be an arrogant jerkass who is incapable of noticing his basic logic error about teaming up with Lucy in the future, but he’s way more self-aware than Wyatt. That may be more due to being a decade older than him than anything personality-wise.

But even his motivation...I watch the opening scene where he tells Lucy what he’s doing and it is so obvious that he is as motivated by a fear of letting Jessica go and falling for Lucy as he is by any desire to save his wife. He literally makes her cry, and what is Lucy’s reaction? “What do you need me to do?” i.e. she caves instantly to his emotional needs rather than sticking by her - correct! - idea that his whole plan is stupid and is going to fall apart immediately and he GETS AN INNOCENT MAN KILLED.

Hell, this episode goes out of its way to show how nice and good that barkeeper was, and then Wyatt gets him killed! I know, doesn’t kill him directly, but as I’ve said with Flynn, reckless endangerment and depraved indifference are a thing. Wyatt shows them in abundance this episode, and I am so mad at him for it.

Episode 14: The Lost Generation

...of course he does get better. He’s rightfully penitent by the next episode, ready to reevaluate his choices, focus on the now, and move towards the future, and for the next six episodes, 1.14-2.3, I was very Team Wyatt, he was showing so much progress. Knowing how much he backslides, though, makes it hard to completely disengage from my rage at him in 1.13.

Anyway, this episode. One Timeless blogger I’ve taken to following for her spot-on takes on what went wrong with Wyatt last season argues that Lucy is bisexual and yeeeaaaah I can definitely see this especially after this episode. Why don’t you gawk at Josephine Baker a little more there, hon? And the camera cuts between her and Rufus’ unabashed attraction and there isn’t much difference.

One question I had by the end of this episode is how aware Rittenhouse is of Flynn’s journal. They know, via Emma, that he has one, but she doesn’t seem to know whose it is. Then Carol gives Lucy’s hers shortly after this...did Emma guess what “LP” stood for and passed in on to Carol, completing a loop? Or was she completely incommunicado, meaning that Carol gave the journal to Lucy because she wanted her to do it, not for time travel reasons? I could see the latter still being nefarious, as it would make for easy spying on Lucy’s personal thoughts. If I remember correctly, she never writes in it this season, and it didn’t appear in season 2. I would think she still has it, and I’d like to see her start writing in it randomly, just to get her thoughts down like her mother says, then retrieve Flynn’s copy and realize they’re the exact same, letter by letter, dun dun DUN.

Fwiw, Limburgh’s refusal to oppose Rittenhouse, along with Carol’s lack of a deathbed repentance in 2x10, are what make me skeptical of Jessica ever fully breaking away from Rittenhouse. She may decide she doesn’t like Emma, what with Emma shooting their guru in the head, but that Rittenhouse upbringing is hard to fight. I also want to know more about what Lucy was supposed to do and why they waited until she was in her 30s to tell her. I have a feeling that the complacency of her personality might have been completely intentional - the Rittenhouse heir has to do what she’s told.

[oumakokichi]

I'm not sure if you already got this ask from me or not But I was wondering what you thought of tenko and what her relationships with other characters was like, not just himiko. I still love ten I ko just was just wondering on her other relationships cause those are never talked about.

I think Tumblr probably ate the other ask because I couldn’tfind it in my inbox! But I’m always happy to answer this kind of question.

Tenko is wonderful and I really, honestly adore her. Idefinitely agree that although her relationship with Himiko is very central tothe plot and to her character, it’s a shame that it’s kind of the only thingthat gets touched on when talking about her. She’s such a team player and suchan essential protector figure to the whole group that I really don’t think theother characters would have been the same without her. Even after her death, sheleaves an influence on not only Himiko but the others as well, and it’s reallynice to see.

The instinct to sort out her relationships is, of course, tosort them between guys and girls. It’s certainly true of course that Tenko iswary of the guys around her. She considers them the less trustworthy part ofthe group, the people most likely to provide a threat—and to some degree, she’snot wrong, considering the aspects of “masculine” or “male” behavior that shedislikes the most are often aggressiveness, hostility, anger, etc. Ouma andMomota both often get a big seal of disapproval from her, because between Ouma’smanipulative behavior and Momota’s reckless tendency to rely on violence, sheclearly views them as bad influences at times.

She much prefers the company of the other girls, preferringto give them the benefit of the doubt and also trusting most of them enough, especiallyearly on in her first FTEs with Kaede, that she goes so far as to think thekilling game itself wouldn’t provide a threat at all if there were only girlsat Saishuu Academy. Tenko is so much more comfortable around other girls thanaround guys that she very much believes Neo Aikido is a necessary form ofself-defense which can help provide that sort of safe space which she’sinterested in. And of course, she’s the self-sacrificing type, so she constantlyoffers to protect or stand in for the other girls as much as possible.

Still though, this is all mostly from a surface level. Tenkois undeniably wary of and uncomfortable about men with good reason, but she’shardly mean or dismissive of any of them. Her relationship with Saihara isexcellent proof of that. In Chapter 2 when Saihara first begins trying totackle his hesitancy and anxiety about exposing the truth, he puts aside hishat and comes down to meet everyone at the cafeteria. Tenko is one of thenicest and most supportive members of the group of his decision, and from thispoint on she has quite a few really genuinely nice interactions with him.

Having looked up to and admired Kaede herself, she’sextremely understanding of why Saihara liked her so much and why he misses her.Kaede’s absence is felt strongly by the whole group following Chapter 1, but Ithink it’s felt perhaps the most strongly by figures who admired her drive toend the killing game and her urge to protect everyone. Tenko certainly fits thebill for this: regardless of her distrust for the guys in their group, it’s anundeniable fact that she wants to protect each and every single one of themfrom actual harm.

She’s still wary of Saihara and even of the other lessaggressive or hostile boys in the group, of course, but it’s always to thepoint of confirming that she and the other girls are safe, that there’s no onewho would harass them or peek in on them or do anything obscene oruntrustworthy. When it comes to their actual feelings or troubles, she’s alwaysfairly understanding and generous with her time.

In Chapter 3 when her SHSL research lab opens up, sheactually wants to help both Himiko andSaihara confront their personal weaknesses. With Himiko, her biggest flaw isher laziness, but with Saihara, she wants him to tackle his insecurity, and she(hilariously) uses her aikido throws in order to help set them on this path.This “training” to confront one’s own weak points is something that sticksaround even after her death, as Himiko, Gonta, and Saihara in Chapter 4 verymuch honor Tenko’s memory by continuing to practice in her research lab inorder to get stronger.

Tenko is certainly someone who values the lives of the grouparound her, despite the misconception the fandom had at first that she would besomeone extremely cruel or uncaring to the boys. But I think it’s prettyevident from her horrified reactions to Amami and Ryouma’s deaths that she undeniablycared quite a lot about keeping everyone safe.

Death, pain, and suffering were things she was extremelyaverse to no matter who they were affecting—which would sound like an obviouscomment that could apply to anyone, except there’s so much in ndrv3 about manyof the characters not valuing human lives the way they should unless itbenefits them. The fact that Tenko was so open and honest and wore her feelingsabout these kinds of things on her sleeve is actually quite refreshing incomparison to how many characters claim to be open and honest but actually hadquite a few secrets they were hiding or things they were lying to themselves orthe rest of the group about.

Also, just as Tenko’s interactions with characters likeSaihara and even Kiibo are interesting, because she clearly views them aspotential friends and acquaintances despite not letting her guard downentirely, her interactions with Angie are extremely interesting from the girls’side of things. Tenko begins the game with an inclination to believe the bestof all her fellow girls, but I think her conflict with Angie did open her eyesin a lot of ways.

She still clearly cares about Angie as an individual anddoesn’t believe the worst of her even when it becomes clear that Angie is goingon a pretty strong power trip in Chapter 3. Angie’s death upsets her just asany of the other deaths do, and even in the midst of the whole ReligiousStudent Council conflict, Tenko recognizes that Angie’s not doing bad thingsintentionally per se—she’s actually quite frightening because she’s a genuine,true believer in her religion and her fanaticism is extremely risky in the effectsit might have on Himiko or the other student council members.

But seeing Angie’s willingness to throw other people (namelyHimiko) under the bus firsthand in Chapter 2 was quite a shock for someone likeTenko, who’s so loyal to the core and would never do anything of the sort.After having envied Angie’s ability to become friends with Himiko so easily,the idea that Angie would just toss aside that friendship in order to saveherself and act as though it played no part in the trial or meant nothing toher was something that went against her entire core beliefs.

Like Momota, Kaede, and Gonta, Tenko is someone who admiresbelief in other people above all else. Even when things get hard, even when allthe evidence says otherwise, she’s very much the kind of person who wants tobelieve in the people she admires, trusts, and respects no matter what happens.And unlike those three, Tenko is particularly interesting because to somedegree, she actually does recognize that blind faith isn’t necessarily alwaysthe best course of action. It’s not a smart decision or a very practical one.

But still, she wants to believe according to what she wants. To a slight extent, she doesdo the “doubting others in order to get to know them first”—because she can acknowledgethat trusting wholeheartedly isn’t perhaps the smartest choice of action but it’sstill something she consciously made the decision to do.

Angie’s self-serving nature and tendency to jump ship assoon as the situation isn’t serving her purposes was something Tenko really didnot like, and it showed. She joined Angie’s student council in Chapter 3 onlyto keep an eye on Himiko and make sure that a similar situation to Chapter 2couldn’t happen again, but the two of them continued to butt heads quite a lot.Angie’s decision to “resurrect” Amami as per the motive the Monokumerz gavethem, her refusal to listen to any arguments against this, and the fact thatshe just put herself in charge without really needing or requiring anyone else’sapproval meant that Tenko argued with her quite a lot—something that I thinkactually bothered Himiko a lot more than it bothered Angie.

To summarize, Tenko’s relationships with the group oftencenter around her trying to put herself as a sort of protector figure. Many ofthem are interesting because for the most part, she is someone who is willingto reevaluate her opinion of people if proof of their trustworthiness (oruntrustworthiness) presents itself. And in spite of her seemingly extreme orexaggerated reactions, she’s actually incredibly fair and objective when pushgets to shove.

Her wariness of the boys in the group is extremelyunderstandable given her aversion to any physical contact with men and the factthat she’s so fixated on self-defense—and her blind trust in many of the girlsin her group is actually addressed with characters like Angie, where even Tenkocan’t help but revise her opinion when she feels that Angie is clearly justusing Himiko for her own purposes.

I love Tenko a lot, so thank you so much for asking me abouther! She’s great and I’m still so glad that she’s been much better received bythe fandom ever since the game launched. I still wish she hadn’t died at all,but I’m glad that at least her death had a very real and lasting impact onHimiko and even the other characters throughout the rest of the game. Again,thank you for asking!

[survivingart]

GETTING YOUR STORY ACROSS (MARKETING AND BRAND AWARENESS)

It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of a design studio, a student at the Academy or working retail by day and creating art by night — a day only has 24 hours. If then you want to make something out of your life, time management is imperative.

While all of the people who work a 9-5 job have time management enforced into their lives by their workplace, those of us who are self employed don’t have a boss to tell us when to work and when to have our lunch break. And with no HR person breathing down our neck and telling us what to do and when to do it, we have to do this ourselves. 

From calculating taxes, checking contracts, planning meetings to learning about our craft and following some sort of news platform so we actually know what’s happening in our field. Oh, and making art, right?! Sometimes freedom can be quite constraining.

But where in this incredibly dense equation of the-things-we-should-be-doing and having-no-time-to-do-them should we squeeze in the most important job of all — marketing?

Not as cool as being a bohemian artist, not as rewarding as making a sale or signing a new licensing deal but probably much more important than everything else mentioned, marketing our work is the only functional way to propagate our ideas into the world.

And today’s world is already quite full — full of people like us, doing things that are similar to ours — so saying we need to have a strong game would be an understatement.

But while many of us think we need to be creating Hollywood-like movies about what we do or making some blown-up statements on how our work will “change the world as we know it”, it really could and should be much simpler:

Make your art simple to understand by making your process transparent. 

Not by showing boring two hour videos of us mixing paints and priming our canvases, but by maybe sitting down in-between the drying coats of paint and speaking about our work. We should be documenting our process — not by defending our right to have one, but by explaining our motivations with simple language and a good story.

Give those who are interested in your work a glimpse into your mind and your process. Document how you clean your brushes (or how you never do), why you use a certain brand or type of canvas (even if it’s because it’s the cheapest — sincerity is gold) or show pictures and write about the books you like to read.

There is always time for a short piece of content.

When you don’t have time to set-up a video camera; why not take out your phone and make a short handheld IGTV video or Facebook video or even a story on any topic that you like — connected with your art or maybe even just about what makes you tick. Lots of content on the platforms you feel comfortable with is the best way to go if you can’t afford to run ads on Facebook or Instagram.

Your work, life or personality aren’t boring, and they surely aren’t unimportant!

Some people religiously reread a few books that are special to them every year (something I could never do), and the intentions and the drive behind doing so are actually fascinating to people like me, who after finishing a book usually toss it away and find another one to read. 

My point is; even the minuscule things that we do in our lives can be immensely interesting to some people and in reality, usually exactly these minuscule parts of our personalities give others the ability to connect with us on a personal level. 

You don’t become best buddies with someone just because they like art as much as you do, because liking art is too broad of a subject to be relatable. You get close because of having or liking the same kind of artists and their works and only if both of you understand them in approximately the same way. 

To get there, both need to first share their personal aspirations towards a certain topic, and be sincere about it. Otherwise it’s like opening your Facebook news feed and looking at vaguely interesting ads about pant tubes — you kinda like them, but just couldn’t care less about them being there. 

In the end, we shouldn’t just be painting pictures on canvases and Fabriano paper, we should be painting mental images onto the minds of our followers and soon-to-be-followers. Only so can we ever succeed in expanding our reach to the people who really care and genuinely like our work.

CREATING ATTENTION 

Art is obviously emotional and as such its value is determined absolutely subjectively. The big question though is how, because even though ambivalent, subjectivity can still give us a lot of various starting points to think about our target audience.

How people recognise a good story in objects and experiences differs from person to person — that’s why it’s subjective — but usually we can find basic guidelines that can help us define this perception. The main idea behind this exercise is to find what is most important for each person, that we are trying to understand.

What are their needs? What do they wish for? Do these wishes and needs have a certain urgency? Do they provide pain or discomfort for them and can our art elevate or even completely fix their issues?

Even though art is seen as the complete opposite of utilitarian — especially is we look at contemporary art — it could not be further from the truth. If nothing else, the baseline of what art can do is to catch attention. To intrigue and incite curiosity about itself in those that experience it.

Art has to be interesting. It can be either “avant-garde” or challenging, but at the same time it can be personal and quaint; there is no “standard” that defines what interesting is, except that whatever it is we are creating should stand out in the context of everything around it.

An apple on the ground of an orchard is about as interesting as a grain of sand on a beach, but that very apple, placed in a vineyard will catch people’s attention, because they ordinarily wouldn’t have expected it to be there. The same goes for art; anything we do should aim to be exceptional, compared to the environment it resides in.

But this doesn’t mean that we need to run naked in the streets while reciting the Yellowist manifesto, because there are much more subtle ways to stand out, and truly great art is always made in a subtle, but disruptive way. Think about all the one hit wonders in the music industry — they might have been successful with one song, but after the initial boom, they slowly fade into the background.

Their problem is, that they have been trying to impress and communicate to the kind of people that need constant novelty and excitement to give them their attention. And because they focused on people that needed cheap thrills, they themselves become one in the end.

Only those that build their novelty and intrigue with a long timeline in mind and cultivate the attention of the people as a friend or acquaintance, not a passing circus or magician, are able to find true success with their creative business.

Because, while a magician may be able to entice and amuse us for a few hours, after we’ve seen the show, there’s really no point in going back another time. We’ve seen all of her tricks, laughed at all of the jokes and it just wouldn’t have the same novel effect on us as it did the first time.

But comparing it to our favourite book, that we have reread a thousand times, or our favourite TV show, that we know by heart and still binge watch from time to time, these objects and experiences never seem to really get dull. 

Quite the opposite, they get better and better over time.

QUALITY AND QUANTITY

A lot of people today speak of quantity as the defining factor in getting your message into the world — with Gary Vaynerchuk being at the forefront of this movement. 

But I think we do need to take a closer look at this model.

I still think quantity plays an enormous role in content production — especially as the amount of blog posts, podcasts and images on the web is increasing exponentially — but there is one important truth that many of us may overlook in this conquest of trying to reach the eyes and ears of the masses. 

Quality is king and quantity is his servant.

I get why the amount of information is being pushed as the most important factor; too many of us focus endlessly on tweaking and re-editing our content, too many of us spend hours making our images, texts and videos “perfect” and thus miss a lot of opportunities of growth and consequently reach.

The 80/20 rule still applies to everything in the universe; 80% of effect is produced by 20% of our effort. Of course, we shouldn’t confuse this with the idea that we only have to do 20% of the work and get 80% of the rewards. 

We still need to do all of the work. And regardless of how much “all of the work” actually is — 5 min or 5 years of input, it doesn’t really matter — the effect is always more or less the same; most of what we do will not bear any fruits, but a fraction will. And that fraction will create the most effect.

Here the real argument for quality begins to take shape; if 100% of what I did was only average or “merely” good, the effects of it will embody the same kind of qualitative force. Good things lead to good results, average work produces average products and services, but excellence, excellence can’t but create exceptionality.

In order for any one of us to reach excellence, we have to first begin our path with average tools, common techniques and boring (and many times tedious) practice. But after such a rhythm has been established, after the almost masochistic pleasures of repetition and rigorous practice become part of our being, I believe all of us need to again venture further into the unknown.

And this means reevaluating everything we have been doing up to this point. A child may have enormous dependence on his training wheels when learning how to ride his bike, but after they succeed in mastering balance, speed and manoeuvring, the support has to be taken away, exposing the reality that all they have done up to that point was mere practice for the real thing.

In the end, all we do — regardless of whether we write, sing, paint or dance — we do so as a form of diary, a succession of traces that we leave upon the world. It doesn’t matter if our creations ever get exposed to the public; even those of us that never publish our creations and keep our diaries, paintings and songs to ourselves , we inevitably all do the same. 

We create marks upon the world, knowingly or not, by accident or in order to be remembered. Regardless though of why we do what we do, I believe one thing is for certain. 

Such marks should be born out of the highest efforts that we can endure, if not to grow, at least to know that whatever we did mattered, perhaps to some, or maybe none, but always to ourselves.

from Surviving Art https://ift.tt/2OGteVE via IFTTT

[omnipop-mag-blog]

http://time.com/5263569/michael-brun-dj-interview/

Michael Brun didn’t plan on becoming a DJ. He intended to become a pediatrician and give back to his native Haiti as a doctor. But fate showed Brun a very different way of giving back: by promoting the local Haitian music scene to the world through his exuberant dance tracks.

Brun, who was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, grew up playing instruments. But it wasn’t until he found electronic music as a teen that something clicked, and he discovered a knack for producing his own tracks. Still, it was always just a hobby on the side. Haiti didn’t have much of an electronic music community, although he was able to seek it out online.

“I realized that’s what made electronic music special — it was a truly international culture. There were no barriers of language or ethnicity,” he tells TIME. Brun ended up being one of the first electronic music artists in Haiti, snagging gigs as an opening act for major visiting artists like Avicii.

But as his hobby was taking off, Brun’s education was picking up, too: he attended a military high school in Indiana on a scholarship and college as a premed student. At the same time, big-name DJs like Dirty South and Hardwell were reaching out. His played his first music festival at 19 to a crowd of 10,000. Suddenly, music seemed like a viable career path. So he dropped out of college and started playing major events like Coachella and Electric Daisy Carnival and releasing remixes that picked up millions of plays.

A few years in, he took a step back to reevaluate his place in music. He returned to Haiti, launched an independent music label and started working with local artists and arts organizations. “It felt like I needed to go home to go further,” he explains. “I was trying to figure out how to stick to the core idea of helping people. How do I put that into my artist career in a way that’s not tacked on? I wanted it to be really a huge part of the music itself.”

Now, Brun has embarked on a new project: collaborating with artists from around the world and bringing Haitian sounds into the mainstream as a cultural ambassador for his island home. Just last week he released his latest, “Positivo” with Latin megastar J Balvin, and announced a North American tour inspired by Haitian street parties and featuring fellow Haitian acts. Brun sat down with TIME to reflect on his path in music, his responsibility as a Haitian representative on the world stage and what it means to thoughtfully exchange — and not appropriate — music from different cultures.

TIME: How did your more recent musical evolution happen? What kicked things off after you returned to Haiti?

Michael Brun: I was learning more about how preserving and understanding culture allows a community to control their narrative. I got in touch with an artist institute in the south of the country that’s fully scholarship-based. I went to visit and thought it was really cool they were developing the arts. [Our work together] became the song “Wherever I Go.” Because we did it with students and because I’m independent, the money from the song could go back to the scholarship fund of the school to support future artists, future leaders of the country.

When I put it out, I happened to be in Times Square, so I took a photo of myself with the Haitian flag. A woman walking by laughed at me, because I don’t look traditionally Haitian; I’m mixed. In Creole, she was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I answered her in Creole. She freaked out, and we both laughed. In that moment, she felt at home. I posted that story on Facebook and it happened to go viral. It was the first Haitian song I’d ever done. It got viewed by a million people in 24 hours, and the video really caught on and became a hit in Haiti.

A radio hit?

Yeah! The way you know you have a hit in Haiti is you can’t escape it. You hear it in the supermarket, on motorcycles, at barbershops. I realized it was a hit when I visited the Citadel in Haiti with my family and I heard it in the distance on a motorcycle. That whole experience working with the students, figuring out how to incorporate pride of my country and identity, explain how my Haitian culture has allowed me to do what I’m doing — I always hoped that that would help others be proud of where they’re from, and to see there’s no limit to what they can accomplish if you know your roots.

That song is a mix of EDM plus pop plus Haitian sounds. Can you describe what Haitian music is and what you draw from?

Haitian music spans many genres. The more traditional classic ones are compas — that genre is zouk, like Caribbean music, but really romantic dance music, a slower tempo that’s very popular around the Caribbean and Haiti. Then there’s carnival music. And there’s rara music, which is a traditional African-Haitian mixture, very raw — horns, drums — it’s like parade music.

I didn’t just want to take a few sounds and drop it into something. I wanted it to come from a point of view of studying what the great artists before had done, the messages they were trying to tell, and what’s the importance of this drum rhythm or this horn in the scope of Haitian culture and history. The rara music represented to me the rawness of Haiti. Those rhythms actually came from different parts of the country and different parts of Africa. The instrumentation is raw because it’s like from the earth — a goatskin drum, or a horn made out of a sheet of metal. It was just what was around you, but playing these ancient rhythms. I thought it was so cool that it’s almost this untapped sound that people preserved like a book, so future generations could somehow feel connected to their ancestors.

So now you’re working on this progressive project releasing a song a month or so, incorporating those traditionally Haitian sounds.

When I did “Wherever I Go,” I felt like something clicked, that that combination of sounds made sense. One foot was in Haitian music, one foot was in international sound — and I do think there’s an international sound, whether you hear it in reggaeton, Afrobeat, even in pop music now, this shared vibe that everybody is connecting with. That made me realize something’s changing now.

When you see songs like “Mi Gente” or “Despacito,” or Portuguese like “Bum Bum Tam Tam,” it’s almost like indigenous music taking root around the world. It made me aware that Haitian music shares so many similarities with everything else going on. Yes, there’s a traditional aspect that’s very local, but there’s also an aspect that’s international. My goal is to figure out how to see it as just a hit song, versus a song from Haiti.

And to not get pigeonholed into being part of a “world music” genre.

Exactly. As I’ve been working on this project and making these songs, the core of it is raw. I record a lot on my phone, on the street — claps, horns, yells, different rhythms. I’m trying to capture that feeling in the moment. I’ve realized that the sound of the street in Haiti is not that different from the sound of the street in Colombia, or Benin, or Paris or the U.S. These artists that I’m working with get that. I hope the message people get from it is that there is a universal sound now. And it’s OK to do something in a different language. Don’t be scared of that.

There is some backlash against DJs for appropriating sounds. How do you think music creators can be better at keeping in mind the history and traditions of sounds you’re incorporating?

That concept of exchanging versus taking is key. You can’t just take stuff. You’re hurting the people you’re taking from and you’re hurting yourself, because you’re missing out on the richness of the sounds and the story behind it. The way I’ve been trying to approach this is, if I’m working with an artist from another country, I’m not just working with them, I’m trying to get the whole concept of their culture, why they do what they do, their motivations into the music itself. Preserving your history and understanding your place in the scope of your country and the scope of a sound allows you to do so much more. And you make a better product in the end.

It sounds like you position yourself as an ambassador for Haiti. You’ve also not been afraid to share political statements on social media. How do you think of yourself as a representative of Haiti?

People have always said bad things about my country. I feel it’s a personal responsibility, as someone who people listen to or look to for what Haiti represents, to help Haitians be proud of where they’re from. Haiti is iconic in the western hemisphere as the second independent country after the U.S. in 1804. It’s the first black republic in the western hemisphere that won independence from colonial rule through a slave rebellion. Haiti helped in the revolutions of many other countries over the course of the last 200 years. It’s very important for people to know that, because once you place the achievements on a timeline, you understand the significance of the country. That’s been lost because of images of poverty, images of corruption, images of lack of education.

Think about a little kid in Haiti only listening to the news, watching TV, seeing that their country is a “piece of s–t.” How do you have any worth if that’s what you’re seeing and hearing? You’re continuing this cycle of negativity and lack of value. In my life I’ve been able to achieve because I had positive reinforcement, I had a good education. That’s why I’ve been so involved in education: I believe it empowers you, regardless of what you decide to do. I ended up dropping out and becoming an artist, but my education is with me my entire life. It’s not about being political, it’s about letting people know that your value is linked to how you talk about yourself, the way that people talk about you.

That’s why I’m so adamant on having pride in the country, despite having issues. Issues can be fixed. But if you lose who you are, it’s a whole other problem, and I won’t let that happen.

The post New story in Entertainment from Time: Haitian DJ Michael Brun Is Bringing His Island’s Sounds to the World appeared first on OMNI POP MAG.