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saltygilmores · 1 month

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Thoughts While Watching Gilmore Girls, Season 3, Episode 11- "I Solemnly Swear..." (That I Have No Memory Of Anything That Happens In This One Based On The Title)

The opening credits of this episode confirm we will finally be introduced to Alex (yay)! Alex stan here! Although quite honestly, I'm interested to see whether or not he lives up to the hype I've built up for him in my memory. .Stumbling almost totally blind into a mid-season episode is thrilling in a really pathetic way. I am being informed this is one of the lowest rated episodes of the entire series, but some low stakes mid season filler can still be good for the soul. Emily's former maid, Gerta from Germany, is suing Emily for wrongful termination after she was fired for being a Noisy Walker. Ah, rich people.

Lorelai sits amongst the delicious looking fake food whilst observing Sookie and Jackson having a loud culinary-based argument.

Lorelai puts Michel in charge while she and Sookie attend the seminar where Lorelai will meet her new totally fine and criminally under-rated B-Tier-Not-Luke Boyfriend, Alex, who shines bright but quickly burns out like a falling star, never to be seen or mentioned again. Presumably he is the second victim to be sucked in by the Male Gilmore Girls Character California Wormhole (Max was first, but eventually escapes). We learn Michel attended a fancy French hospitality college, while Lorelai has to attend a seminar at a Radisson called "How To Run an Inn". But then a witch put a curse on him so he ended up working for nickels at a tiny bed and breakfast in Nowherefuck USA. Tale as old as time. I made that last part up, but The Hollow is still where dreams go to die. Something had to go wrong in his life for him to fall so far. Michel: I predict it will be a total waste of time and money and I will be here to laugh at you when you return. So will I, Michel. So will I. Some more newspaper/Francie crap. Skip skip skip, skip to my loo... Maybe I'm missing something important, but it's a risk I'm always willing to take. The scene goes on forever (4 minutes). Lorelai recives an answering machine message from Emily's lawyer, who is voiced by...Seth MacFarlane. Peter, Brian, and Stewie Griffin and the guy who was bullying Lorelai at her college graduation. It's hard to unhear this dude as anyone but Brian Griffin. Anyway, Stewie is calling to request Lorelai give a deposition at German Gerta's trial to which Lorelai steadfastly refuses, but then a few seconds later changes her mind. Yawn. Lorelai and Sookie go to the boring seminar, then leave the boring seminar. They eat some free cookies in the hallway. ALEX, ALEX, ALEX...

Wheee!

He was just as hawt as I remember. Teehee! The first piece of Alex Lore we are blessed to recieve is that he is a business partner of some spazzy dude that Sookie used to party harty with back in the day, 14 hour booze and pot benders and what not, and the two fellas want to open a chain of coffee shops together. Well, at least they're not attending the Luke Danes School of Serving Folgers And Pretending it's Gourmet seminar. Alex, why are you so hot? Even his voice is hot! And funny too! Damn it Salty! You know what happens to him. Remember the cardinal rule you learned in Recapping 25 Year Old TV Shows School- Do not get attached to single-digit-episode guest stars! It's been less than a minute since he first appeared on screen, and I'm already enamored with their immediate and obvious chemistry. They tried to force that same type of chemistry/ dynamic with Jason through an entire season and it fell completely flat on its face. And I can tell you why (besides the fact that Jason and his storyline sucked eggs). In my humble opinion, JasonDiggerStiles was too similar to Lorelai. And it's never wise for Lorelai to date herself. It opens up a terrifying vortex, one which the world's premier Vortex Scientists have dubbed "Season 4".

An incredible businessman and probably good in the sack, too. Uh, just a hunch.

You two are going to break my heart. Until then I'll just try to enjoy the ride. More Francie crap. I am going to skip skip skip but I do want to observe what's on the lunch menu at the Chilton caf.

Mashed potatoes with gravy, asparagus, an apple and a can of Redbull for Paris. Rory is having her favorite beverage, a Hansen's soda (Raspberry flavor); along with a bag of Doritos. Plus, some kind of sandwich, but it's not her usual Prison Cafeteria Special of two slices of white bread. It looks to be some kind of wheat or rye bread with unidentifable innards. Possibly a BLT or roast beef with tomato? And a book for some nourishing carbohydrates.

A better view. We have deli meat.

I'm still skipping past the Francie crap, but I have several important questions first. Since when does Chilton have a parking garage? A dimly lit, empty one at that? Are there enough students and faculty for a parking garage to make sense? Is this parking garage ever seen again? Is this somewhere off campus?

Ahhh! There has been one Dimly Lit Confrontation per episode for the last 3 episodes. Dean vs. Jess on the dimly lit street. Dean vs.Jess in a dimly lit school hallway. Rory vs Ginger Spice in a dimly lit parking garage. But this one lacks the steamy sexual tension of the previous two. Pass. Back at the Inn, Michel admits to Lorelai he once...killed a dog? I think? Doggy annoyed Michel and doggy went bye bye? Wink wink? I don't want to think about this. Sookie's spazzy friend from the seminar shows up at the Inn sans Alex, which means he is irrelevant to me. Mr Irrelevant Joe doesn't know Sookie is married and admits he's had a decade long crush on her. Now she has to break his heart. Oh, sweet, sweet, pointless filler. Lorelai exclaims "That's some real Gatbsy pining." I mean, Luke came pretty close to Gatsby levels of pining. Where's his recognition?

Worth a shot. Sookie tells the Joe guy that she's married. He understands. We will probably never see him again. The end.

Embrace it, my Lesbian Whore friend. Rory and Lorelai rehearse sample questions for the upcoming court deposition. Yawn.

The kid has a lot on his metaphorical plate these days, you know? Cut him a break. You know what fucking bothers me? I have this clear memory of Jess making a brief appearance in this scene where Luke berates him (in person) for screwing up the food order! Time to go full conspiracy theory mode. What are They hiding from us? Where is Jess? How deep does the rabbit hole go? Since when is Jess responsible for placing supply orders for the restaurant in addition to waiting and bussing tables for meager tips, working at Walmart, and going to school (sometimes)? That's your job, Uncle Luke. And if he screwed up the order, you're still his manager, why weren't you supervising him? Is he getting a raise for these additional responsbiltiies or is he still getting paid in acorns? Stop the madness! I KNOW HE WAS IN THIS SCENE! More Francie crap. This time its between Francie and Paris in a bathroom with a tampon dispenser serving as a lovely backdrop. LET'S WRAP IT UP, PEOPLE. Rory and Paris vent their (sexual) frustrations through a fencing match. Paris is mad at Rory for reasons I don't understand or care about. Emily is mad at Lorelai for being both too honest and too unserious at the deposition. Jackson is mad at Sookie because he thinks she cheated on him with Irrelevant Joe and blows up at her. Yawn. Then more Francie crap. There is way too much estrogen in this episode.

But with less than a minute remaining, Alex calls and saves the day. He provides a much needed boost of testosterone to wrap up the episode. And I get to see his furnishings. Well, I was already informed of this, but if i didn't know, now I'd know...what I'm saying is there are fingerpainted pictures on the wall behind him. The dude has small kids. He's a confirmed DILF! Michel leaked Lorelai's phone number to Alex and we thank him for that. I'm still not going to overlook the whole erasing a dog thing.

You mean like how Luke buys Folgers and disguises it as his own blend?

Smooth as a fresh jar of Skippy.

...Says the woman who doesn't know when she's being duped with supermarket coffee (even when its being scooped from the can 2 inches from her face) and puts coffee grounds in the freezer.

Yayyyyy Alex and Lorelai! Yay! He is the only Luke Substitute I will accept for Lorelai. So I'm just going to go LA LA LA LA! for now while pretending this ship doesn't sink as quickly and spectacularly as the Titanic 2.0. Salty is quite pleased with this last-minute-of-the-episode, predictable turn of events. It will make up for the complete lack of Jess (and Luke) in this episode. Jess appeared in name only through The Great Lettuce Screwup of 2003, and in my hazy false memories. On the brighter side, it was also a Certified Dean-Free episode. This show is BORING without Rory's stupid boyfriends.

I do not get why we are suddenly looking at Lorelai through a window like someone is stalking her from outside the house. Dean, is that you? This episode was so threadbare plotwise that it was my first one-shot recap in a LONG time (it still took me over 3 hours to write, though! So your comments, feedback and reblogs always brighten my day and make all the effort worth it). As is the new tradition, here's the (wimpy) End of Episode Bingo Card.

#ALEX #gilmore girls #denise rewatches gilmore girls #gilmore girls season 3 #I solemnly swear #ISS #lorelai gilmore #3x11 #glorious filler #rory gilmore #emily gilmore #sookie #nothing on this show puts me to sleep quicker than Lawsuits and Newspaper Drama

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maximumwobblerbanditdonut · 6 months

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Tobias Menzies had more creative licence with Manhunt role than The Crown

"[There was] a bit more leeway to create the character that we needed for the centre of this story."

By James Hibbs

Published: Wednesday, 13 March 2024

New Apple TV+ drama Manhunt dramatises the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, which took place over the 12 days following his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

The series stars Hamish Linklater as Lincoln, while Anthony Boyle plays Booth, although the real centre of the drama is Edwin Stanton, the war secretary who is tasked with finding Booth and getting justice for Lincoln.

Stanton is played by Tobias Menzies, who is no stranger to playing real-life figures, having previously portrayed Prince Philip in seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown.

However, with Stanton having lived over 100 years before Philip, playing the two roles is a markedly different prospect.

RadioTimes.com spoke with Menzies exclusively, and he revealed the ways in which preparing for the two roles differed.

He said: "The honest truth is you have a bit more licence, because they can't, like, point to the footage of him walking into a supermarket and go, 'That's not what he's like.'

"So, I guess, a bit more leeway to create the character that we needed for the centre of this story. And it goes without saying, it's not a documentary, it's a piece of reimagining."

Menzies continued: "I guess I was keen to bring to it a sense of the kind of political creatures that were running the US then. They were men of, I get the sense, great moral purpose, a great deal of vision about what the country that they were building should or shouldn't be, and they were also men of argument, I think.

"You know, they could speak to a room, hold an argument over probably many hours. When you read the books, the political debate at the time was certainly not short on words.

"So yeah, I guess the kind of heat and the fact that it was a country at the beginning of its story."

Manhunt is based on James L Swanson's non-fiction book Manhunt: The 12 day chase for Abraham Lincoln's Killer, and has been described as "a conspiracy thriller about one of the best known but least understood crimes in history".

Manhunt will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday 15th March 2024 with the first two episodes, then episodes will be released weekly.

[https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/tobias-menzies-manhunt-creative-licence-exclusive-newsupdate/]

Posted 14th March 2024

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give-soup-please · 1 year

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having given good omens a rewatch in preparation for season 2, i've been doing some thinking. and i caught something this time around that i haven't noticed on previous watches. (keep in mind, i'm basing this info on the tv series because i'm in the middle of re-reading the book as well, and i'm not all the way through it yet)

most main characters had a theme about defiance or defying expectations. not just our beloved angel and demon.

crowley and aziraphale are obvious about this, they directly defied heaven and hell's orders in order to save the world. they broke away from heaven and hell and began to be on their own side.

and we have to talk about adam as well. defying satan, choosing to save the earth, choosing his friends over his heritage. he's told directly by gabriel and beelzebub to start the war, and he outright refuses. pretty obvious defiance there.

but i also noticed that anathema burned the next set of prophecies. this is after newt says 'you don't want to be a descendant your whole life do you?' or something to that effect. the prophecies seemed to be a burden to her more than a joy, seeing as her entire life had essentially been planned out for her. and so she ends up defying the idea of predetermined fate for her own lineage. she sets herself free in this way.

i noticed that newt wound up being romantically involved with someone who is technically his enemy, because he ended up with a witch. it's noted that newt's and anathema's ancestors were enemies, and that newt's ancestor burned anathema's ancestor at the stake. so newt defied expectations by romantically pursuing anathema, despite the generational feud. (if i can call it that.)

Shadwell too, who spent the majority of life being a pretty hateful guy, ended up romantically involved with madame tracy, despite the vitriol he had for her. and he goes against the teachings of his own army in order to do that.

madame tracy decides to give up offering her services, and chooses to be with shadwell. to me, it seemed to me that she wasn't happy with her career path, and found it somewhat irritating on occasion if her expressions were anything to go by. she chose her own happiness over pursuing a career that didn't really seem that fulfilling. i think i can make an argument here that she defied shadwell's expectations to keep going just the way she was pre-apocalypse. but the main point here is that she did something extremely difficult. happiness can be a hard choice to make, and a complicated one. but she did it, and she seemed pretty glad by the time the episode was over.

so what can we learn from these characters about free will, making choices, and the act of defiance?

aziraphale and crowley can teach us that we are not bound by strict moral laws, that morality itself can be relative, and that if two options suck, try and look for a third option or a way out. essentially, we get to choose our own side.

adam can teach us that we are not bound by our genetics and can make the choice to be better than our parents. we can choose to separate ourselves out from bad family members. just because our parents were bad, doesn't mean we have to be as well.

anathema can teach us that we don't have to be bound by tradition and what our ancestors did. we have the choice to abandon the worldview and throw off the shackles of expectation and predestination. we can break the mold, if we want to.

newt can teach us the same lesson there, i think. with the added addition that love has an ability to overcome certain barriers.

shadwell can teach us that it is possible to make a choice to let go of hatred and bigotry. (though, let's be real. that guy has a longgggg way to go. still, he can be credited for having a decent start) and with less hatred in his heart, he's got a better chance at being well rounded.

and madame tracy can teach us that it's never too late to pursue happiness.

it's late, i don't know how much sense this is all making. but i can't help but notice that good omens is a lot of things to a lot of people. and during my rewatch, i saw that there was a lot of focus on defying expectations, making better choices for yourself and others, and pretty clear themes on free will.

choices, choices, it's all about the choices we make and how they define us.

and as someone who has struggled with defying harmful narratives, who has parents who are not good people, as someone who has wrestled with ancestral expectations, who has struggled to cast off internalized hatred due to things that are not in my control, who is trying so hard to make choices that will lead to happiness...

good omens is an exceptionally meaningful work.

and tonight, as i'm in an overthinking and overanalyzing mood, i feel like i'm so close to grasping something important here about myself. about what it means to be human. there's something here about choosing your own path that i'm just on the edge of understanding.

an epiphany just on the tip of my tongue.

how apples are worth eating, and the cost of free will might have been worth everything that came after, sure.

but something more personal as well. something about how we can be more than what we're told to be.

i'm actually getting a headache trying to parse everything out. (yes, really)

these characters, all from wildly different backgrounds, with different experiences and traumas, all making the same choice in different ways. the choices that work for them.

hard choices, difficult choices, but ones that lead to joy, to safety, to love...

bravery, courage, doing your best when the chips are down and the world is ending (or at least, when it feels that way)

i'm trying to put all this information together in a way that makes senes, because i feel like i'm on the edge of something groundbreaking in a personal way.

if i figure it out, i'll let you guys know.

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #anathema #newt #madame tracy #analysis #late night ramble

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faustiandevil · 2 months

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A queer analysis of Dick Dastardly

I know it’s a cliché for the villains to be queer-coded at this point, but I think there is an underlying queerness to Dick’s character that hasn’t been explored in depth before. I will mainly be focusing on the two main TV series he appears in, Wacky Races and Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (further on it will just be shortened to Dastardly and Muttley), as well as the addendum comics that were made for both cartoons, as well as the inspirational sources that formed Dick’s character. I will be ignoring the 2017 reboot for this analysis as I’m not too fond of it to be quite frank and I also do not adhere to the canon of it that the Dick Dastardly in Dastardly and Muttley is the father of the Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races. If we are to look at the historical contexts for the series Dastardly and Muttley is shown to be taking place during WWI with how the design of the planes look, and Wacky Races taking place after that with its nods to Prohibition. The Vulture Squadron are also seem to be on the side of the Central Powers as they are trying to capture an American carrier pigeon, which also suggest that Dastardly and Muttley takes place closer to the end of the war as America joined the war on the side of the Allies in April 1917. This leaves very little a gap between the two series, in-between 1918 and 1920, so I would say that the character is the same person, he just ages, I know a wild concept, but it happens to the best of us. Even if Wacky Races were to take place closer to the end of Prohibition, late 1920s and early 1930s, it would still make the son Dick Dastardly a teen, which his design clearly does not suggest. Arguments could be made that he could’ve had the child before the start of the war, but I will be debunking those claims later on. Now with all that said let’s get into the analysis.

Dick Dastardly and Drag

Let us start right of the bat by addressing the elephant in the room. Now in Dastardly and Muttley Dick is hardly ever seen outside of his uniform, aside from a few costumes when trying to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon or when on his furlough in episode 10 Vacation Trip Trap. The only times he is seen in different outfits is in Muttley’s Walter Mitty-esque daydreams, where Muttley assigns various villain roles to his owner, and with the roles comes the outfits, but those are still very masculine in nature, but more on that later. In Wacky Races however there are a few instances where he dresses in drag, and two times it happens in episode 3b Idaho a Go Go.

Of course he dresses this way to thwart the racers from crossing the finish line, and in both times his main target is Penelope Pitstop, the only female racer in Wacky Races and someone who is clearly very feminine in both looks and personality, and while Dick does wear a dress, he doesn’t care enough to get rid of his mustache to make his performance more believable. He also calls it his Red Riding Hood routine, which suggest a few things, one being that this is indeed a performance, two that he has done it more than once if it’s a routine, and third that if it’s a routine then he is most likely the owner of the dress. With the grandma nightgown the ownership of it is questionable, as he is already inside the house, so it’s more likely that he has borrowed it from there, but with the Red Riding Hood one he is in the woods, and most likely changed in his car, and kept the dress inside the car’s trunk.

Another instance where he dresses in a more feminine manner is in episode 8a Hot Race at Chillicothe, where he gets into the role of a distressed mother whose baby is playing on the road, a very real fear based on historical context, as playgrounds didn’t really exist back in the late 1910s and early 1920s when the series takes place, so children often played on the road, and with cars slowly appearing more and more next to horses and carriages, and speeding becoming a new term in the lexicon, it was a sure fire way for accidents to happen. There was no real reason for him to get into the role of a mother though, he could’ve just as well played a distressed father, but I guess a woman in despair is more likely to get people’s attention. Again the ownership of the clothes is hinted to be his, as he changes into it while the race is still ongoing, not really leaving him with any time to buy or even steal one.

A more certain instance of Dick owning feminine clothes next to masculine ones comes from the Cartoon Network Presents Comic Issue #7 very cleverly titled Drag Racing. The comic starts off with Dick reading the newspaper and seeing that Penelope will be partaking in the Powder Puff Rally, an all-girls racing contest, declaring that he could win this, and of course by dressing up as a woman to partake in the race.

He then pulls out a dress from his car trunk, destroying any doubt that it belongs to anyone else but him, and even chastising Muttley that “of course these shoes match this dress”, implying that he owns multiple pairs to play dress up with. But again he doesn’t seem to care enough to adhere to the commercial beauty standards as he doesn’t shave his legs, arms and mustache, refusing to look like the traditionally feminine woman accepted by society. In all fairness everyone has body hair, so go queen, you don’t need to shave anything if you don’t want to. He then introduces himself to the judges, Peter Perfect and Pat Pending, as Drussila De’Spicable a name that one could very well imagine hearing in RuPaul’s Drag Race. During the race he never once seems uncomfortable in the dress, but his interest in the stereotypical feminine pastimes like shopping and going to the beauty parlor are very surface level. He will wear a dress and tag along, but that’s about as much, refusing to change himself to please anyone, and that seems to be the giveaway that he is not a “true” woman, but someone masquerading as one, which I call bullshit.

Penny, I love you, but that’s just rude and very untrue of a statement, it’s just straight up transphobia.

Interacting with other characters

Let us start with Dick’s relationship with Penelope Pitsop, as the two clearly have an animosity with one another. In the main cartoon series they don’t interact much, and if they do it’s Dick being a dick (hehe) to her. Like in episode 2b Beat the Clock to Yellow Rock he tricks Penelope to stop on a geyser and taunts her that he’ll help her, after he wins the race, only to get flattened when her car comes crashing down.

In episode 9a Rhode Island Road Race Dick states he cannot stand a pushy female, as Penelope tries to take the lead from him, and tries to distract her from the race by giving her chocolates, only to separate her completely from her vehicle. In the same episode he also accidentally lands in her car from which Penny swiftly removes him from. Now Dick has very much the looks of a traditional vaudeville mustache twirling villain who tries to kidnap the female lead as he is romantically interested in her, but he doesn’t seem interested at all and this episode shows them in the closest proximity to one another, literally sitting side by side, and he does not flirt or make any sort of moves on her, if anything he just looks confused to be there. Even the chocolates seem to be hinting at that yet again he has a surface level knowledge of women and that comes up more than once.

While the Gold Key comics mainly feature the same storylines from the cartoon, Penelope does seem bitchier in the comics, ready to use her looks to distract or turn racers against one another, usually Peter Perfect and Red Max. Just look at the below example from Issue #2.

Sometimes even Sargent Blast turns up to try and win her attention (Gold Key comic Issue #3), and once even Meekly mentions that he and Penelope danced together at the Pitstoppers’ Ball (Gold Key comic Issue #6), but Dick is never shown to be interested.

As mentioned before Dick also seems to have a surface level knowledge of what women like, as in episode 10a Wacky Race to Ripsaw, where he distracts Penelope with an Instant Beauty Shoppe. This same gag comes up in the Gold Key comic Issue #2 as well, and while in the cartoon it’s just shown as Penelope being distracted, it turns out differently in the comic. There Dick thinks he has the race in the bag when Penelope gets covered in mud thinking she’ll be too embarrassed to show up at the finish line, only for her to do the opposite and treat it as a mud pack and even calling him out on his lack of knowledge, very much in the style of “I know what you are, faggot”.

In episode 9b The Great Cold Rush Race they once again cross paths as Dick dressed as an abominable snowman tries to scare her, only Penelope just finds the creature adorable, and proceeds to run him over (mainly because her breaks don’t work on the ice), then noting that he makes the cutest radiator cap she has ever seen. I do love it when Penny’s more unhinged nature comes through, it’s really funny. He pulls a similar tactic in episode 12b The Super Silly Swamp Sprint where he once again tries to scare her only now dressed as an alligator, except she’s clearly a Florida woman with how little she reacts to gators prowling around her. While dressed as a gator Dick also manages to attract a female alligator that shows him a shortcut, but after the female gator is no longer useful he tries to leave, only for her to cling to him, much to his annoyance, once again not showing any interest in female partnership, human or otherwise.

The two do have one positive interaction in the cartoon, that being episode 13a The Dopey Dakota Derby, where Dick dressed as an outlaw tells her to draw, only for her to take it as to draw as in drawings and not guns, and Dick loving the portrait she drew of him. But for the most part the two are shown as clear opposites, and not particularly fond of one another, so there is no chance for these two to be in any sort of romantic relationship. She also did steal his one legitimate win in episode 1b Creepy Trip to Lemon Twist.

In Dastardly and Muttley Dick also has one interaction with a woman, in episode 4 Barnstormers, where the Vulture Squadron accidentally ends up crashing into a barn and the owner, Hilda developing a crush on Zilly, only to switch her attraction towards Dick by the end of the episode. He doesn’t show much of an interest in her when she’s attracted to one of his men, and he’s clearly put off by her when he becomes the subject of her affection, the way he even ignores the mission of capturing the pigeon just to get as far away from the woman as physically possible.

Remember how at the beginning I was going to dispel any doubts that Dick Dastardly has a child. Well in the Laff-A-Lypics comic Issue #13 there is one instance of Dick being attracted to a woman and is shown to be ready to get married to her, only for his twin brother, Dread Baron to put an end to it, claiming that he already has an illegitimate child, which was of course just Mumbly dressed up as a baby.

Of course it ends with a fatphobic joke, and a haha dodged a bullet there didn’t I, there can still be a queer reading attributed to it, as many gay men have went into a marriage thinking that maybe being together with a woman would fix them, only for both parties of the marriage to end up being miserable. Him thanking his brother is a way of accepting his queerness, and that it was probably for the best. I have no excuse for the fatphobia though.

Now anyone could say that Dick could’ve slept with Ophelia before the marriage as well, except in Cartoon Network Presents Issue #15 Drive and Driveability, he is approached by a woman in needing advice on love and Dick actually shows signs of vulnerability and answers sincerely. In that moment he has nothing to gain from the interaction, so one would assume that what he is saying is something that he himself believes, and would not take advantage of a romantic partner in any way if he truly loves the person. Considering also the historical period that he most likely grew up in courting and marriage were taken more seriously, than it is by the timeframe of Wacky Races where casual dating is more normalized.

Of course he quickly becomes disgusted right after that he has shown a more vulnerable side of him to someone, and storms of blaming the “scabby atmospheric countryside” for turning him into an extra in a Pride and Prejudice parody. Then he discovers that the Mr. Darcy in question is none other than Peter Perfect and starts chasing after him in a rage. Is it him being enraged that Peter would play with this poor woman’s heart in jest? Or is it that he just wants to steal his vehicle to win the race? Perhaps it can be both.

After he catches up with him, Peter is already flirting with Penelope and Dick in true queer villain fashion, breaks up the straight couple, hiding Peter in Penny’s trunk while stealing his car, all the while Penelope is cursing that Peter just drove off, even saying “Mother warned me about racing men!”. He also seems to be constantly breaking up another straight couple and that’s in the Magnificent Muttley segment of Dastardly and Muttley, where even if they are just Muttley’s daydreams, he seems to view his owner being very much against heteronormativity. Yes, I will call Muttley a homophobic dog, I’m not above the memes.

In episode 13b Dash to Delaware he did bake Penelope and Peter into one big wedding cake, but I guess he did realize later on that even Penny deserves someone better than Peter.

Now those are all the interactions he has with women, but let’s see how he is with men considering this is a queer analysis. In Dastardly and Muttley he is in a higher position than Zilly and Klunk, most likely a Hauptmann (Captain), and with how many medals he gives to Muttley as bribery, Dastardly could be well assumed to be a highly decorated war hero. Well, most of the time that is. The man is not often the brightest, but he had to do something right to get to the rank of Captain.

Now he shows no attraction to either of the Squadron members, and treats them more as colleagues he has to work together with, but indeed showing signs of affection at times, and doesn’t seem to be above it all when it comes to taking part in very questionable ways in catching one pigeon. He does seem to be a bit closer to Zilly, as he has a hard time understanding Klunk, and with the added language barrier it is harder to hold a decent conversation.

In episode 10 of Dastardly and Muttley Vacation Trip Trap he does forget about himself in the moment and goes straight for a kiss when he hears that his 2 weeks furlough has been approved, even if it’s just through the phone. He doesn’t even seem to notice that what he did was unconventional and deviant to the hetero norm, until the General reaches through the phone and pulls at his nose to reprimand him, but even then he doesn’t seem to care much for conventionality as he is off duty by that point. Can’t be court-martialed for homosexual crimes when I’m on vacation. In the Fun-In comic Issue #10 he even displays effete traits of singing and skipping when overjoyed, something that is usually stereotypically attributed to gay men.

In Wacky Races his interactions with all the racers are pretty much the same, with trying to sabotage them just for an easy win, but two instances can be read as possibly him showing interest in one of them, and that being Red Max. In the very first episode of Wacky Races 1a See-Saw to Arkansas he stops right before the finish line, because he is vain enough to pose for a photo finish picture, and letting Red Max win. Now a man who is so dead set on winning would really throw a race that easily? He doesn’t even seem mad about it. The other instance comes in the comic Cartoon Network Presents Issue #11 Fair Play, where all the racers switch cars, and Dick, a man who has had a picture of his car hanging in numerous shots in Dastardly and Muttley, lent it to Red Max. It’s also safe to assume that the racers decided by themselves who gets to drive which car, as the announcer is confused by the switcheroo and the new rules are explained to him by Lazy Luke.

Either he trusts the man enough not to crash his car, unlike the other racers, or he does have a soft spot for him. They are both WWI veterans, and both of them served in the Luftstreitkräfte, even if not in the same squadron, but the two of them would be the most likely to have any sort of common interests. In episode 11b The Dipsy Doodle Desert Derby however he does go I want that hunk obliterated and orders his genie to flatten him. The relationship may have hit a rocky patch there with Dick trying to commit straight up murder, and he does become more aggressive later on in the series, targeting Max more often than at the start. Guess the man got tired that his flirting is not reciprocated, or that Max was paying more attention to Penelope rather than him.

In Cartoon Network Present Issue #15 Drive and Driveability again, he is not allowed to race in the Northanger Abbey Invitational, for as the name suggest, it was invitational, and he was not invited, possibly due to war crimes against England during WWI. So Dick plots to steal one of the racers cars in order to snag a win. He immediately targets the subcontinental playboy, Hot Raj, and even comments on his appearance. He never once did that in any of the cartoons or the comics, and the only time he calls someone hot, it’s a man.

There are also two instances where he attracts the attention of men, and that’s when he is in drag. It’s also worth noting that he is the only one who gets flirted with in the Drag Racing comic while none of the other women do. He just got that special milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard I guess. He doesn’t seem to be overjoyed the first time though, as he clearly gets ogled at by two truck drivers in a very Tex Avery style fashion. Even a cartoon villain agrees that catcalling does not equate to flirting. The second time he does reward the officers with his attention a bit, as they clearly served they purpose of stopping the other contestants. Muttley on the other hand just growls at both times like the homophobic dog that he is.

The inspirational sources for Dick Dastardly

It’s quite common knowledge now that while also somewhat based in appearance on his original voice actor, Paul Winchell, Dick Dastardly’s main inspirational source was the British actor Terry-Thomas. One of his movies Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (further on it will just be shortened to Those Magnificent Men) basically served as a basis to Dastardly and Muttley, even borrowing part of its title. In the movie Terry-Thomas plays an upper class twit and a cad, called Sir Percy Ware-Armitage, who is ready to do anything to make sure that he wins. Huh, sounds familiar. Often times Terry-Thomas’ characters are on the lecherous side, only here that character trait is reserved for the French contestant, Pierre Dubois, who will sleep with any woman he meets. Good old stereotype based humor, am I right? Sir Percy hardly even interacts with the female lead, and is mostly shown together with his servant, Courtney, played by Erik Sykes, who he either bullies or schemes with.

Now another movie that came out the same year as Those Magnificent Men was The Great Race, even having a similar premise of a worldwide race, except in this movie it’s done with automobiles rather than airplanes. Jack Lemmon’s character, Professor Fate, also served as inspiration for Dick, as Fate is also a scheming sabotaging no-good cheat, much like Sir Percy. It’s also very hinted at that Fate himself is queer, as he also never shows any interest in the female lead, Maggie DuBois, played by Natalie Woods, even looking very much surprised and confused when she kisses him, and being angry at his servant for trying to take a peep at her while she’s bathing instead of helping him with the car, and just generally finding her a nuisance.

Now disinterest in women does not make a gay man of course, but the way he interacts with his servant, Max Mean, played by Peter Falk, does often times hint at a relationship. They seem to be quite domestic with having dinner together at the same table, clinging to one another when something goes bad, Max making a comment that the Professor is always cranky in the morning, while sleeping right next to each other. Max even tries to kiss him at the end of the movie, only Fate refuses him. Fate also seems to have had or wishes he had a relationship with his rival, The Great Leslie, played by Tony Curtis, judging by how obsessed he is with him, and his outburst at the end of the movie very much suggest that he has some underlying feelings for him, despite having something already with Max.

Seeing as how clearly queer Fate is, an obvious source of inspiration, it’s not that big of a stretch that Dick Dastardly’s character would also be some flavor of queer.

I will only mention Monte Carlo or Bust! or Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (further on it will just be shortened to Monte Carlo) briefly, as it came out a year after Wacky Races has already started airing, so it cannot be properly listed as a source. Still it’s interesting to mention that Terry-Thomas now plays the son of the Sir Percy of Those Magnificent Men, called Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage, but basically playing the same character. The 2017 reboot might have taken the legacy idea from this movie. Tony Curtis also appears in this movie as well playing a character not too dissimilar from The Great Leslie.

This is also just mentioned as more of a fun fact, but both Terry-Thomas and Jack Lemmon have played together in a movie, and that was How to Murder Your Wife, another movie that came out in 1965, and which is very much queer coded. The movie's premise is that Jack Lemmon’s character, Stanley Ford, accidentally marries a woman, whose name we the audience never truly learn, and is just called Mrs. Ford, played by Virna Lisi, and turns his domestic life that he had with his very gay butler, Charles, of course played by Terry-Thomas, into jeopardy, where Charles often threatens to leave and throws hissy fits at the sight of the woman. Now I’m not saying that this movie was also a source for Dick, I’m just very heavily suggesting it.

Is he British or German?

Before we move onto the historical time period, we should take a look at his very questionable nationality first. He is clearly based on a British actor, and in some media Dick even slips into a very British way of speaking, yet he is shown to be serving in the German army in WWI. It can imply that he could’ve been a spy, but considering how much of a failure that man is, I doubt anyone from the British Army would try to use him for espionage, so he is most likely of mixed heritage, with Dick viewing himself more German as he was ready to fight for that country. Also the man wears this outfit of his own volition on vacation and goes mountain climbing, if that’s not German I don’t know what is.

The historical time period

During and after WWI gender roles have clearly been reshaped from what was previously expected. Trench warfare has put a lot of mental strain on soldiers and they craved emotional support, something that they heavily relied on women for previously. From the International Encyclopedia of the First World War: “Studies of British soldiers’ letters reveal that they imagined a strict dichotomy between a sense of martial masculinity, which entailed selfless devotion to the fatherland, and the loyal woman, who showed her dedication to the nation by supporting her soldier husband through the lifeline of the mail. At the same time, men also grew resentful of women for not sharing the horrifying realities of war.”. Women have experienced independence for the first time, and that also came in the form of freely having sex, something which conservative media outlets portrayed as a threat to the loyal soldier fighting for the country, while women called out on the double standard of it, that how come the soldiers were allowed to sleep with prostitutes in brothels and be unfaithful to their wives and girlfriends, while the women at the home front would have to remain loyal.

Again from the International Encylopedia: “As emotional connections with women were strained, men sought other paths of support. Front newspapers depicted men who were loyal comrades and devoted to the nation. But soldiers who wrote in these newspapers also expressed fantasies about gender transgression, disillusionment with the emotionally stifling expectations of the masculine ideal, and desires for nurturing and love, even with other men. Recently, historians studying front newspapers have emphasized the predominance of a hegemonic masculine image defined against the deviant, effeminate male “other.” However, men writing for front newspapers, especially the frontline trench newspapers, also mocked the hegemonic masculine image and explored new emotions and behaviors, even those deemed “effeminate” and “deviant.” They portrayed loving other men as a desirable and acceptable component of the front experience.”

The following quotes show that the front has clearly provided an escapist outlet for gay men as well as trans women, who could finally seek comfort in the guise of comradeship, taking on new roles previously assigned to women. Drag was also very much relevant during WWI, serving as entertainment for fellow comrades, but also serving as an escapism fantasy to some. “We poor men!” a poem written by a German soldier written for the newspaper Der Flieger (The Flyer) explores these fantasies of taking on a more feminine role for his comrades to elevate them from their suffering, often time in a comical manner, but also portrayed as sexual at times. Of course not all gay men are the same, and some tried to contest the “effeminate deviant” threat that some of them were deemed as, with portraying themselves as the perfect hyper-masculine warrior, who can both fight and provide an emotional outlet to their fellow comrades, the Fatherland’s perfect soldier in a way.

After the war sexual liberation movements had started to form. The Weimar era of Germany may not have been completely accepting of its queer citizens, but there was clearly a vibrant queer life to Berlin with its many gay bars and drag shows. Just a year after the war Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) a movie portraying homosexuality positively came out and starred a bisexual man, Conrad Veidt in the leading role.

With all this it’s not hard to imagine that Dick Dastardly could be a queer man serving in the war, and in the interim period of the Weimar era experimented with drag, and later on doing the same after moving to America where Wacky Races takes place considering how he only dresses more feminine in that series and not in Dastardly and Muttley. He could’ve also very well performed in drag in speakeasies considering how much he enjoys the theatrical nature of drag, and hiring drag performers to do shows were not uncommon during the Pansy Craze, which lasted right until the end of Prohibition.

Conclusion

With all this evidence I hope I was able to convey it cohesively, from inspirational source, to historical context, to the slight nods of it in the TV series and comics, that everything seems to be pointing at Dick Dastardly being queer in some way. Thank you very much for reading all this and I hope it was somewhat entertaining if not educational!

#Hanna-Barbera #Wacky Races #Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines #Dick Dastardly #Queer #Queer characters in media #Faustian Fables #I spent a whole day writing this essay #I went full insane with this one lads

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inbarfink · 1 year

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In the field of ‘seemingly-innocuous weird DHMIS gags that might be a hint of darker Lore’, I honestly feel like it’s worthwhile to pay attention to the Lamp’s idea of an Afterlife in ‘Death’.

Well, something tells me that when we die, we go into the center of the earth. Well, it's not quite the center. It's in-between the core and the surface. And we must re-live our lives but as a performance, for a new super-race called the Council. And every time you get it right, you get a pound!

First and foremost, because I feel it connects very well to the themes of the show. DHMIS is very much about creativity and art. It loves to play with Fourth-Wall-Breaks and using the conventions of television for horror and/surrealism. On some level the characters are already forced to perform a crude recreation of reality for an invisible and inscrutable audience. Because they are characters on a TV Show we're watching

A major part of the show's themes can be summarized somewhat-facetiously as ‘being a fictional children’s show character is Hell’. So maybe it can also be true on a more literal level?

And also, we already saw the Trio get a pound in the show, didn’t we?

Within the standalone context of ‘Jobs’, this is clearly just another Capitalism Joke. But I think it can still be a Capitalism Joke that also has a hidden second meaning?

Cause, like, I keep thinking of the Implications of the Trio getting a pound at the end of ‘Jobs’ and no other episode. Assuming anything about the Lamp's council theory is accurate. And there’s two major ways I can read it, two major ways you can say ‘Jobs’ differ from the rest of the show.

You could argue that ‘Jobs’ is the narrative that is the most ‘satirical mirror to the real-world’ out of all of the DHMIS’s TV Show Episodes. With all of the characters (eventually) slotting into the roles they’re ‘supposed’ to play in this workspace environment.

It especially stands in contrast to ‘Death’, where the entire plot resolves in all three of them refusing to actually play along with this crude facsimile of what death is supposed to be. Both Red and Yellow brought their dead loved one back in their own way and Duck basically annoyed his way back into the world of the living. As far as trying to recreate the living world as a performance goes - ‘Death’ will certainly count as a failure.

The other episodes are a bit less obvious but there’s certainly an argument for why the Trio might’ve ‘gotten it wrong’. Like, you can’t actually physically extract the insecurities that you’ve accidentally allowed to worm their way into your friend’s brain through your constant mistreatment of him with tweezers. They might’ve been ‘penalized’ for treating this metaphorical situation too literally or something?

It’s also possible episodes like ‘Family’ and ‘Friendship’ were penalized simply for being wrong for whatever kind of ordinary life the Trio lived before ending up in this puppety hell. Like, maybe in the ‘real world’ Red Guy was a lazy manager and Yellow and Duck were factory workers - but they weren’t really friends or family back when they were alive.

So Lily and Todney were like tools to try and push them closer to the kind of family life they actually used to have. And had they just accepted it, they would’ve gotten that second pound - but by rejecting it and reaffirming the bond they forged in this felt purgatory, they actually ‘got it wrong’.

But this reading is based on the assumption that before the trio died and came into being in this Puppety Hellscape they were fairly ordinary people who lived an ordinary life in a world much like our own. But there is another option - that is, that before the trio’s death they were in the DHMIS Web Series.

Because what is actually the most distinctive and decisive difference between the ‘Jobs’ episode and the rest of DHMIS TV? I can make up theories about the trio’s lives and how the different episodes may or may not reflect them - but one thing I can be certain of is this - ‘Jobs’ is the one episode of DHMIS TV which basically sticks to the formula of the Webshow.

That’s the episode where the trio gets pulled into a wild ‘educational’ adventure via a song from an anthropomorphic object...

That gets progressively more ominous

Until it climax in a wild flash of gore

And then flops them right back into their house, at the end of the song, with nothing to show for it but Trauma.

The important thing here is the characters lack of power and agency against the teachers. Every other episode of the TV Show has something more subversive happening to the teachers - such as the Students bullying them and driving them away-

Or killing them -

Or at least watching as someone else kills them.

As well as generally act with more agency and having more effect on the Plot. All of these are things that - if the Trio were tasked with reliving and recreating the Webshow - would obviously ’penalize’ them. By having more agency and being less helpless against the teachers - they are ‘losing’ under the judgement of the council.

Hell! The 'Jobs' song is also the only 'Teacher Song' that technically lasts the whole episode - just like the songs on the Webshow!

This would also add an extra dimension to the metaphor. Like, obviously the idea of being eternally doomed to try and recreate reality to the judgment of unknowable overlords can be some angle of a metaphor for the creative process and thus for the creation of DHMIS as a whole. But this is also also has an angle of adaptation? The pound might represent the creators' anxiety that their TV adaption will only be successful if they stick as closely as possible to the original Web Show and don’t try new things like they did in every other episode?

#don't hug me i'm scared #don't hug me #i'm scared #dont hug me im scared #dhmis #dhmis tv series #dhmis web series #dhmis theory #dhmis tv show #dhmis analysis #dhmis jobs #dhmis death

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moodooivy · 5 days

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Analyzing Alastor

I've been wanting to analyze our favorite radio deer demon Alastor for awhile. I want to discuss what makes him such a great character! First things first, what makes a good character. To me, a good character has to be entertaining and fit into the story/world setting in an organic way. I judge everything based on the 3 Ds (Insert dick joke here); Design, dialogue, and demeanor. It's easy to know what that means for a character, it gets more difficult with songs and episodes, but the actual analogy is the hardest to dissect since a character is the most vast. I will not be bringing up songs or episodes entirely for this analysis unless it is important to the character. Let's get to it. (Plz note that everything here is my opinion)

Alastor's design

A character's design is important. It has to be pleasant to look at and fit the character in a way that matches their personality, purpose, and who they are. Good character design should tell us at least 50% of who they are.

Looking at Alastor. What would you say his defining features are? To me, it's the ears, antlers, monocle, suit, and that yellow smile (I'm sure there's more but as of writing this I just got home from my first day of school so I don't want to spend an hour writing, sorryyy). What does this tell us about him.

First thing's first. Alastor is very obviously based off of a Wendigo. A Wendigo is a mythological creature originating from Native American folklore. They're most usually described as a cannibalistic beast that eats humans or possesses humans into eating other people. A lot of the times, they're presented as a deer. Hmmm who does that sound like? Alastor. In fact sometimes we can hear a wendigo sound when he's transforming to his demonic form. Anyway, anybody who digs into the past of Viv's creations would know Alastor was Vivienne's first creation that ended up in Hazbin Hotel. He was always a red cannibalistic deer. Though I do believe this is significant to his character still and am very glad these traits remained.

Alastor's monocle and suit seem more of a stylized choice. They make him look more at his time. More gentlemanly. Which was a very nice touch. It matches him.

(Look at him. Look at him and tell me he has a soul (Technically he doesn't own his)) One of the most iconic details about Alastor is his smile. The only times you'll see him frown is in single lucky paused frames. Design choices to the mouth like this can be touchy because if you do it wrong your character can look stiff and unexpressive. But I think the artists did a great job fixing this. Alastor isn't that expressive of a character, but it works.. Because that's the point. He's meant to be hard to read but at the same time when the show wants you to know how he feels you know. You feel his distress in the Finale, you feel his annoyance listening to the Egg Bois, you feel his pompousness in Stayed Gone. It's hard to judge how he feels in Hell's Greatest Dad however. It's hard to judge if he's genuinely happy around Niffty or Rosie. It's hard to judge how he feels when Husk is confronting him. This is good character design.

So I've spoken quite positively about Alastor's design. But it's not perfect. Let me say that if I had a choice I'd change one thing... I want to put it out there that I personally hate the whole "There's too much red!" argument... But I can't bring myself to argue about it when it comes to Alastor. And there's one reason why. I believe there was a missed opportunity with Alastor and it bugs me. Due to Alastor's old fashioned natrue I feel there was a missed opportunity to give Alastor a greyscale. Like old timey TV. I know he's not a TV but you guys know what I mean right? Or a browner color palette instead of red at the very least. That's honestly the only thing I'd change.

In conclusion, Alastor's design is honestly one of the best in the series. You look at this man and you both know exactly what he's about and nothing at the same time. You know Alastor is a sly lil guy just by looking at that constant smile. It's not exactly perfect as I can see how people would say, find that hairstyle a little goofy however. I personally think it fits him but yeah.

I give Alastor's design an 8/10

Before I move on I will briefly say that I personally prefer Alastor's new design. It just looks smoother and better. But I appreciate that this old design feels older and more vintage.

Ok, so I was about to put my full analysis in this post but its been two weeks since I announced I'm reviewing the show and I haven't posted anything related to that. So, I'm just going to split each into 3 and post this while I work on the rest of my review. Part 2 coming out soon! Next I will analyze Alastor's dialogue.

I apologize for this being so long, I just love talking about this show, it's so good! :3

Hazbin Hotel: Vivziepop

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #alastor #alastor analysis #analysis #character analysis #hazbin hotel review #review

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icedteaandoldlace · 1 year

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A couple years ago, my family and friends had a PowerPoint party where everyone put together a presentation and delivered it before the rest of the group. Mine was on Snowbarry and the fandom drama wrapped up in it, and though I initially wasn’t going to let it see the light of day on the Internet, because I didn’t want a bunch of angry shippers in my DMs, I’ve decided to go ahead and post it (‘cause tbh the worst luck I’ve had in this fandom has been with fellow Westallen shippers).

Quick disclaimer: I love all of these characters and their canon dynamics with each other, so I’m not bashing any of them here. I’m also not saying that anyone is wrong for liking the idea of Barry and Caitlin as a couple, or that shipping them inherently makes someone a bad person. But I am speaking critically about both the ship itself and a good chunk of its fandom (see: reading them for filth), and some of my points will be fact-based and some will be opinion-based. I myself do not ship Snowbarry, and that fact is made very obvious in this post, so bear that in mind if you wish to continue reading.

Also, the images are not sized to Tumblr’s dimensions, so I recommend clicking/tapping to see them more clearly.

As an additional side note, I made this presentation before the major Killer Frost retcon, so Frost is referenced as a part of Caitlin and not as a full-fledged individual separate from her. I’m also disregarding the last two seasons entirely because 8 was trash and I didn’t even bother with 9.

Now on to the presentation.

Just what is Snowbarry, you may ask? Snowbarry is the ship name for Caitlin Snow and Barry Allen, two characters from The Flash, usually shipped in opposition to Westallen (Barry Allen and Iris West), which is the main couple in Flash canon.

If you are not familiar with the characters on this show, take a moment to look at the chart above. Pretty self-explanatory. Got everyone’s names and relationship to each other? Good.

Moving on.

So right off the bat, let’s get into how this ship got its start. Barry Allen is, of course, a comic book character first, and it was already canon in the comics that the love of his life was Iris West, so naturally it followed that she would be the person he’d end up with in the TV adaptation. One noticeable difference between the Iris from the comics and the Iris from the TV show is that Iris in the comics was drawn as a white woman, and Iris in the TV show is played by Candice Patton, a black woman. This caused a big stir among Flash fans before the show even aired, because the TV version of Iris “isn’t comic accurate”.

Neither is Barry, a hunky blond man, now being portrayed by brown-haired beanpole, Grant Gustin, but that detail didn’t get nearly as much or nearly as dramatic of backlash. Most fans are very pleased with Grant’s portrayal of Barry, and some even think he should play him in the DC movie universe. But Candice’s casting was received with an inordinate amount of vitriol, with many fans going so far as to bombard Candice with death threats and other forms of harassment, and people began calling for Caitlin to be Barry’s main love interest since before the first episode even aired.

It’s worth mentioning that Caitlin wasn’t even a Flash character before the TV series; she’s a character from the Firestorm comics who was brought in for this adaptation specifically, so there was no basis to say that she would be a better fit for Barry when there was no preexisting relationship between them in the comics universe. (Comic accurate whom?)

So basically, Snowbarry as a romantic ship was born out of racism, if you didn’t pick up on that already. They became a popular ship, even among people who had liked Iris in the comics, and had their own ship name before anyone had even seen them share screen time. All because they didn’t want to see Barry in love with a black woman.

Now that you know how the ship originated, let’s take a look at some fan arguments for how it maintained its popularity after the show started airing. While there are some Snowbarry shippers out there who will state outright that they don’t like Iris because she’s black, most of them have the sense to not want to be thought of as racist, and have defenses for why they prefer Snowbarry to Westallen.

I have encountered a handful of Snowbarry shippers whose claims are genuine, and who even like Iris/Westallen, or even ship all three of them as a polycule. The majority of Snowbarry fans, though, dislike (if not outright hate) Iris, and claim that their reason for preferring Snowbarry is simply that it’s a better relationship, and/or that Caitlin is simply a better character.

A common argument in defense of this preference is that Barry has more chemistry with Caitlin than he has with Iris. I’ve often heard it said that chemistry is subjective, but it’s hard to believe that Barry and Caitlin have such great chemistry--or even that the people who say they do feel it with conviction--when the Snowbarry fandom relies so heavily on photoshop.

If Barry and Caitlin had such outstanding chemistry, it would show in their scenes together, and it would be easier to find un-manipulated images of them looking like a couple.

Furthermore, if Barry and Iris had such poor (or nonexistent) chemistry, slapping Caitlin’s image over Iris’s wouldn’t make it look like Barry was in love with her. If Barry and Iris were so lacking in chemistry, their scenes together would not be a desirable template to make Snowbarry manips out of.

As a bonus, here’s some shots of Caitlin with her main canon love interest, Ronnie. Ronnie is absent for the majority of season 1, and dead for the entire rest of the series, but he is hands-down the person Caitlin has the biggest case of heart-eyes for, as well as the person she has the most passionate kisses with.

On to the next pro-Snowbarry/anti-Westallen argument, which is that Barry and Iris’s relationship is incestuous. Because as is the age-old fandom philosophy, if you don’t have a good reason to take the moral high ground, make one up.

Do Barry and Iris share DNA? No. This alone makes their relationship non-incestuous, but even when you get into the particulars, their getting together is still...not weird or bad at all.

Did Barry and Iris grow up in the same house? Yes. Starting at age eleven. At which point they already knew each other as friends, and Barry had already developed a crush on her, and then had to deal with moving in with the girl he liked. Because he had no choice.

Are Barry and Iris legally siblings? Technically unconfirmed, but most likely no. Iris does refer to them as “kind of like brother and sister” in the pilot episode, but in the same sentence, she also says the words, “we’re not brother and sister”. And Joe has been referred to as Barry’s guardian, adoptive father, and (unless I’m mistaken) foster father, and Barry has also affectionately referred to him as simply his father, and called him “dad” once. Exactly what the legal terms of Joe’s custody of Barry in his childhood were is unclear, but it’s safe to say Barry isn’t his son in the full legal sense of the word, considering he still goes by his biological father’s name and he didn’t run into any legal issues in marrying Iris.

Regardless, it’s Barry’s relationship with Iris that should determine whether or not his getting with her romantically is weird, not his relationship with Joe. If seeing Joe as a father figure makes getting with his child incest, then you could argue that any combination of Team Flash getting together would be incest because Joe is practically everyone’s dad at this point.

There are scenarios in which a romantic relationship between two characters in a situation like Barry and Iris’s would be weird and uncomfy, and come off as practically incest even though it wouldn’t be in a literal sense. Adoptive siblings do count as ~real~ siblings, and a romantic relationship between two unrelated individuals who grew up under the same roof can absolutely have some of the same negative ramifications that such a relationship between blood siblings could have. But Barry and Iris simply do not have the kind of sibling-like relationship dynamic that would cause those kinds of issues, so that plus the fact that there’s no biological relation between them makes the incest argument, frankly, stupid.

Sure, everyone has their own comfort level on matters like this; the most believable/relatable sibling relationship on this show is between two characters with no biological or legal ties to each other, and who met in their twenties (more on them later), and it makes me viscerally uncomfortable to see people ship them as a couple because they’re too much like brother and sister. But I consider myself an expert on siblings--I have six of them myself--and that’s not what Barry and Iris are.

Perhaps the most common claim among Westallen antis is that Iris is a bad person, or at least a bad girlfriend, or maybe even straight up abusive. These claims are...incorrect, and once again we delve into outright making stuff up, when simply blowing small matters out of proportion doesn’t do the trick. No one is perfect, and Iris is no exception. That doesn’t make her a terrible person.

As a person, Iris is brave, caring, ambitious, stubborn, loyal, charismatic, honest, assertive, forgiving, jealous, selfless, and protective, among other things. As Barry’s partner, she is very gentle and supportive, and she is often the only person who can get through to him when he’s either being too hard on himself, or being too single-minded and needs someone to talk some sense into him. They don’t fight often, but when they do, their issues are usually resolved fairly quickly with open and civil communication. Iris shares the responsibility of protecting the city with Barry, despite not having any powers of her own, in addition to finding ways to help people outside of official Flash business. She has her faults, but overall she’s a pretty good and well-rounded person.

The one negative claim against her in this matter to have some degree of credibility is that the individual fan simply finds her annoying. Annoying is a subjective term, so I can’t really argue that someone is wrong for being annoyed by someone I find to be very lovable. There have been moments where I was annoyed with Iris, and I think that Iris is the bee’s knees. There have also been moments where I was annoyed with Caitlin. And with Barry. And even Cisco (and I’ll fight anyone who dares call Cisco annoying).

What this argument against Iris basically boils down to is nitpicking over her being human and thus flawed. Well-written characters should be wrong now and then, and even the most lovable person can be annoying on occasion. But when it comes to Iris, first of all, a lot of the criticism for her is non-factual, and often wildly so. But also, even when it comes to valid critiques of her, there’s a tendency to focus on the negative when her positive traits far outweigh them--yet when the same or even worse negative traits are present in another character, they’re often excused or overlooked.

I’m not going to pretend that Iris stans aren’t guilty of doing the same with other characters out of bias for their fave, too (and boy do they), but by and large, Iris is the one who is disproportionately judged unfairly and subjected to double standards by the fandom.

If you’re just a fandom puritan hellbent on liking only the most unproblematic of characters, then technically Caitlin should be the one getting more flack since she has the longer rap sheet between the two, and Iris has one of the strongest moral compasses on the show.

As for personal preference? Of course, it’s totally possible that someone “just thinks she’s annoying”--but the tendency of black characters (or any non-white character for that matter), women, and especially black women being labeled “annoying” regardless of personality is a little too common to be taken at face value, so I’m automatically suspicious of anyone who calls her annoying, and bases their whole opinion of her on that, instead of recognizing her merits (because if you haven’t guessed, it’s not very plausible that that many people genuinely find her annoying as a person with no underlying prejudices at play).

Now, there are some people who started shipping Snowbarry during season 1 (y’know, after actually seeing the characters in action), because there was actually some groundwork laid for it. Not much, but it’s not nonexistent. Barry had a few love interests before ultimately getting with Iris, and a fleeting romance with Caitlin was also considered, before Grant vetoed that idea in favor of prioritizing what he felt was the more interesting and satisfying relationship, i.e. Westallen.

There were a few hinting comparisons drawn between Barry and Ronnie in early episodes, and a few platonic-but-in-a-heteronormative-way interactions between Barry and Caitlin. One episode in particular more overtly teased the idea of a possible attraction between them that they were too hung up on other people to recognize, but nothing ever came of it (partly because that episode also served to introduce one of Barry’s temporary love interests, Linda). And even the more shippable moments in it came across as mostly one-sided, and more as Caitlin trying to get over Ronnie than as being truly interested in Barry (spoiler alert: it didn’t work).

There have also been moments of light fanservice with no depth, such as the two kisses pictured above, which are two moments that the Snowbarry fandom treasures, and points to as validation of their ship.

The first is of someone who is not Barry, Caitlin just thinks he is in the moment. It is actually Hannibal Bates (aka Everyman), a shapeshifter who is causing trouble around town by committing crimes while impersonating innocent people. He kisses Caitlin to distract her while she’s trying to work on something to negate his powers, and Caitlin is confused and weirded out by his advances. And while one could argue that she started to seem a little into her second kiss with him, if she was, it didn’t last. Regardless, she was clearly not feeling the first one, she was relieved when she learned that it hadn’t really been Barry putting the moves on her, and she got uncomfortable and jumpy later when, for a split second, she thought the real Barry was going to try to kiss her again (so romanticizing that situation isn’t concerning at all).

For the second pictured kiss, Caitlin was in the middle of a mental breakdown/being taken over by someone whose actions she was strongly opposed to when she was stable and in control, and she kissed Barry not because of any feelings she might have toward him, but with the intention of freezing him to death with her ice powers--yup, she was actively trying to kill him with that kiss.

So to review, there are two Snowbarry kissing scenes in canon, and both of them are:

nonconsensual

not done with romantic intent

not really between Barry and Caitlin

Moving on from the Snowbarry fandom’s perspectives, now it’s time to address the elephant in the room that no Snowbarry stan ever wants to address, and that is the matter of the dynamic of O.G. Team Flash.

As indicated at the beginning of this post, Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco are a best friends trio. This kind of friend group is a common occurrence in both fiction and real life, and in the case of fiction at least, it’s common for there to be a favorite friend (which is almost always the main character).

In the case of the two other trios pictured above, for example, Gordo and Miranda have their own friendship independent of their respective relationships with Lizzie, and Shawn and Topanga similarly have their own friendship independent of their relationships with Cory--but in both cases, each friend has a closer relationship with the protagonist (Lizzie and Cory) than they have with each other.

O.G. Team Flash also has one character who is closer with the other two than they are with each other, and is therefore the favorite friend. And in this case, that friend

is Cisco. By a landslide, it is Cisco. It’s obvious in the show-don’t-tell sense that he is the friend they each have the closer bond with, whom they are both more likely to turn to for comfort or advice, and whom they would rather hang out one-on-one with, given the choice between him or each other. But it’s also implied in the way they talk about each other.

Cisco has referred to Barry and Caitlin both as his best friend, independently of each other, and it’s a tough call to say whether he’s closer with one or the other.

Barry has referred to Cisco as his best friend (singular) multiple times, with no mention of Caitlin, but in the times he referred to Caitlin as one of his best friends (plural), he did so in a way that was inclusive of Cisco. He has never called just Caitlin his best friend the way he has with Cisco (or with Iris, before they started dating).

Caitlin as far as I can recall has never used that term in regards to her friendship with either guy, but it’s obvious who she’s closer with. For that matter, Cisco is easily the most consistent and most important person in her life, whether she is aware of that fact or not. (At this point in the original presentation, my mom interjected to ask why Cisco and Caitlin weren’t the big fandom ship then, and I explained that they act like siblings and canonically think of each other as such, so most of the fandom doesn’t ship them romantically because That’s Weird, and their canon platonic relationship is something that most everyone values as is.)

I mean, heck, in The Icicle Cometh--an episode widely regarded as a ~Snowbarry episode~ because of the amount of scenes Barry and Caitlin get together in it--Barry all but says outright, “Cisco cares about you more than I do.” (pictured above)

Seriously, what does that line even mean if it’s not an acknowledgement that he does?

Of course, many Snowbarry shippers don’t like the fact that Cisco is the favorite friend because it blows holes in their ship, so they rationalize that closeness by likening Barry and Caitlin to his parents, which is all kinds of wrong and gross and just, no.

Considered but not included for this slide (because it would be hard to fit and would’ve required providing context for a room of people who don’t watch the show) was a screencap of Barry asking Frost, aka Caitlin’s other side, “How do you convince your best friend not to save your life?” while referring specifically to Cisco, just to further emphasize my point.

And speaking of Barry and Cisco,

I could do a whole PowerPoint presentation dedicated to why they would be better and more sense as a couple than Barry and Caitlin!

(And for the next PowerPoint party I kind of did, plus I’ve made a few other posts related to this subject.)

It just doesn’t make sense to me to make such a big fuss over two people who are clearly each other’s second-favorite friend. Personally, I’d be a little embarrassed to be shouting from the rooftops about how much better Snowbarry is than Westallen, and how Caitlin is the person Barry really loves and should end up with, when they don’t even like each other as much as they like Cisco.

And for my final slide, here’s some screenshots of Snowbarry fans being awful and unhinged + my commentary on them.

It’s not that Snowbarry is an inherently bad ship or entirely baseless--no more so than many of the other fanon ships for this show--but the fact that it’s as mainstream as it is when it has such little canon support and such weak arguments in favor of it reeks of racism, with a dash of hetero-/amatonormativity. The most sincere and non-toxic Snowbarry shippers I’ve seen around tend to be multishippers and/or rare-pair fans, which is where I see Snowbarry as a romantic ship making the most sense. But for such a large number of people to be adamant that the show should change its trajectory to make Caitlin the love of Barry’s life instead of Iris? That’s just bullshit.

#the written version will probably take longer to get through than the version I presented live #anti snowbarry #anti snowbarry fandom #some brief shade at KV as well #The Flash

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miceysfandomcreations · 10 months

Text

DHMIS Episode 9, and the Nuclear Family

I wrote a video essay script for a class. Tagging @littlemoondarling Here it is:

Visuals, text, [length/minutes]

Loop the DHMIS series opening over and over

Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared is a tv series based on the viral internet videos of the same name. It is known for its surreal horror, zany humor, and medium blending in a package of a supposed kids show. From puppets to animation to live action. The original YouTube series could be considered a quintessential part secret-kids-media-not-what-it-seems-not-clickbait genre of horror, like Five Nights at Freddy. While I subscribe to the theory -

Game Theory’s DHMIS original series videos thumbnails float across the screen

That the original series was about the corruption of children’s television by executives and advertisers, this new series seems more interested in the characters. It also has more to say about a wide variety of topics. This leads to today’s video: Family.

[ 1.2 min.]

Switch to a frame of the family song from episode 9

Loop to job montage from episode 1

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s world is a broken, nightmarish world where things don’t make sense wrapped up in bold, primary colors. It is through this usage of surrealism, that it points out the hypocrisy of real-life societal systems. Things may not be this way one-to-one, but it sure feels this way. For example, in episode one, Red Guy snags an upper management job and ends up not having to do anything, like picking up trash, because the trash bin does it for him. Or how the Duck doesn’t mesh well with the workplace,

Loop Care Hound song visuals

so he gets sent to the ‘care hound’, fed a song that makes no sense, fed some pills, and when none of that works, gets confronted with this:

Show Care Hound

And gets turned into a happy little office drone. Now get back to work!

[1.2 minutes]

Back to family song

In episode 9, DHMIS applies this level of fantastical lampooning to the concept of the family, or more specifically, the nuclear family. At the start of the episode, our three intrepid heroes try to open a family bag of chips. Then, these two:

Show Todney and Lily

Proceed to interrupt them and claim they can’t have those chips, because they aren’t a family. The protagonists proceed to argue against them, saying that they either fulfill parental roles (even if they can’t agree on who the dad is), that they all live together and share the same lawyer, and Yellow Guy even has a biological dad.

Show Roy

These two don’t like those arguments, and say that a family requires “a full set”. They proceed to sing a weird little song on what supposedly makes up a family, like having a landline. They song is supposed to spell out FAMILY, but actually it spells out this:

Frame where Duck spells it out

[1.2 minutes]

Go to clips of T&L’s house

Anywoo, the twins take the three to their house to meet their family. Red Guy tries to find his own family, AKA people who are red like him. Duck goes back and sings about he doesn’t want to be in a family (he secretly does). Yellow Guy gets coerced into being the twin’s family mother so they could qualify for a family discount for a tub of chicken. Yellow Guy’s father, Roy shows up to save the day and is implied to eat that broken nuclear family. The gang reunites, and open their family sized pack of chips, only to see that there are only two left.

Intersperse with clips of mentioned plot beats

There are many things to take away about DHMIS episodes, just look at the vibrant theory community surrounding the show. From the way I see it, this episode is about the pitfalls of not only striving for a nuclear family, but also performing as one.

Photos of TV nuclear families

Todney and Lily’s designs call back to an American TV era starting in the 1950s, of shows centered around a traditional nuclear family. Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, The Brady Bunch. Breadwinner husband, stay-at-home wife, 2-3 kids, and a house in the suburbs. According to PBS’s The Rise of American Consumerism, the traditional nuclear family structure had its boom in the 1950s, with the baby boom and post-war economic opportunities. And within that boom came consumerism, AKA the way to do a nuclear family ‘right’. According to the article:

“Consumer spending no longer meant just satisfying an indulgent material desire. In fact, the American consumer was praised as a patriotic citizen in the 1950s, contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life.”

If you wanted the ‘right’ domestic life, you had to have cars, TV, fridges, toasters, vacuum cleaners, and of course, traditional gender roles.

[3.2 min]

Go back to family song and family rules frames

DHMIS criticizes these arbitrary rules for familihood through this twisted sort of nuclear family and the junk they consider to be quintessential for a family, even disqualifying the actual family members. I mean, it’s the 2020s, how many of you guys have a landline?

Go back to episode climax

The climax, where we learn the family’s nefarious plans, can even be a commentary on how our societal systems reward traditional family structures, while leaving those who aren’t in nuclear households in the dust.

Stock footage of homes

For example, home ownership. According to the Tax Advisor, the number of people cohabiting together is increasing, but because they don’t have an official document stating they’re married, home ownership tax laws become infinitely more complicated. And let’s not get into taxes in general for nontraditional families.

Episode ending footage

You can even take the ending, in which a family sized pack of chips only yields two, to be a commentary on the rising costs of living and supporting a family, even when it is nuclear. According to CNN, the average cost of a middle-income household to raise a child to age 17 has soared to over 300000 dollars thanks to inflation. Given the current economic situation, we’ll probably see more households with nontraditional living structures will probably increase as time goes on.

DHMIS opening footage

So what does DHMIS say about this? Well, it’s quite simple. You shouldn’t need to kidnap people or give your blood to a tree to be a family. Sometimes, all it is, are three people who care for each other, stick together, and share a lawyer.

[3 minutes]

[total time: 9.8 minutes]

Works Cited

Kelly, Claudia. et al. “Tax Issues for Nontraditional Households.” The Tax Adviser, 1 Apr. 2017,

www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2017/apr/tax-issues-nontraditional-households.ht

ml. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

Maruf, Ramishah. CNN, “It Now Costs More than $300,000 to Raise a Child, Thanks to

Inflation.” CNN,

www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/success/child-raising-costs-rise/index.html. Accessed

14 Nov. 2023.

PBS. “The Rise of American Consumerism | American Experience | PBS.” Pbs.org,

WGBH Educational Foundation, 2019,

www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-consumer/.

Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.

#dhmis #dont hug me im scared #dhmis meta #meta #video essay script

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destinyc1020 · 1 year

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Why do you think directors don’t take an interest in Tom? Finding out now that Paul Ling has no input in Fred Astaire is giving me TCR vibes. Like though I love the show, my biggest gripe is that the show had four directors with different tones and multiple writers when it really needed one director who had a deep interest with working with Tom and Akiva.

Even the press for TCR was weird to me because no one other that Tom and the few core cast promoted the show. Not even Brady Corbet, yet he hired Emma Laird for his next film. Do ppl hate Tom like what did he do?????

Im only asking because all actors in Tom’s age range have directors who want to work with them. For Tom’s end it’s silent. I never read young up and coming directors speak anon his talent. Just fans tbh.

I thought it was just because he did marvel but, a lot of actors have done marvel and still have directors interested in them. Like the daughter in barbie was in a marvel film. Heck Simu was in Barbie! I’m sorry for my rant. It really irritated me that Paul King has no interest in Tom other than fulfilling an obligation to Sony. I thought he would help write the script or produce at least. End of my rant lol

Why do you think directors don’t take an interest in Tom?

Anon, I love how you started off with a FALSE statement, and then proceed to base your entire argument in your ask on this FALSE statement.

Directors LOVE Tom. Why else do you think he keeps getting roles??

How does the rest of the cast not promoting the film equal people hating Tom?? Explain that one to me Anon, cuz I don't get your reasoning here. People must hate Amanda too, cuz she promoted the film as well? 🥴

Maybe they weren't called in to promote! Tom is the STAR of the show. I would think it would be more of an insult if he's the lead, and they interviewed everyone BUT him! Tom was also not only the lead, but also an EP on TCR. What were you expecting?? 🥴 Tom and Amanda are (no offense) the BIGGEST stars of that series. Why waste time interviewing actors for a series who most probably don't even recognize? (Again, no offense to the rest of the cast, cuz they were great!)

Like though I love the show, my biggest gripe is that the show had four directors with different tones and multiple writers when it really needed one director who had a deep interest with working with Tom and Akiva.

This isn't anything NEW Anon. This is actually pretty typical for a series. There can be various directors for a variety of reasons. I'm shocked you didn't know this?? 🥴 Doing TV is not like doing film where there's typically one director for the whole entire project. A series is different! Usually much more fast-paced as well.

And that's GREAT for them! But that doesn't mean that Tom doesn't have directors who want to work with him. Like, wth?? 🥴 Are you Tom's agent? Are you TOM? The answer is NO to both of those questions. You don't know what Tom has coming! He has probably been negotiating something even PRIOR to the strikes that you don't even know anything about.

Tom has had PLENTY of directors speak on his talent. What are you talking about??

I JUST posted an article that Akiva just did, and he PRAISED Tom in TCR! Maybe you all just don't read what I post lol 😅 (Which is fine), But at least don't your homework first before spouting WRONG information. 😒

Huh??? Seriously.... What does Barbie have to do with what TOM wants to do as far as projects?? 🥴

I’m sorry for my rant. It really irritated me that Paul King has no interest in Tom other than fulfilling an obligation to Sony. I thought he would help write the script or produce at least. End of my rant lol

Ugh...you know what... I give up.....

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ryansjane · 2 years

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i've seen love in the air (LITA) and i would like to argue in its favor... i think in 2022 we should all be past demonizing or belittling bl shows which plot focuses mostly on sexual relationships as if they're an unimportant part of lgbt people's lives (this has happened recently with ''only friends'', just after the trailer was released, its own director had to come out and /defend/ himself against what were blatantly puritan and subtly homophobic ''bl fans'' making this same argument). first of all, LITA is a romance bl so of course, the main plot is about the main characters falling in love with all it entails. and they do a excellent, excellent job at portraying 4 very different people in 4 different stages/backgrounds in life with 4 very different life experiences and how they come together and work through all things standing between them. LITA is more than a simple romance bl that says nothing once it's done. it has incredible SA survivor representation with all that it entails (dealing with PTSD, how it affects someone's perception of love and sex, how people help victims, how to slowly heal from it, etc) and it also has a great representation of ''you're more than just someone's boyfriend and being in love is not everything in life'' in the sense of academic success, hard work, determination, etc. yeah the NC scenes are good because the chemistry between the actors is great, but there's literally 5 NC scenes in 13 episodes total and they all make sense in the totality of the TV show.

i understand romance-based bls might not be everyone's cup of tea and people would rather watch things like triage, manner of death, not me or vice versa, which are more about the storyline than the love line, but ruling out LITA just because it's got NC scenes in it is doing a disservice to the effort and talent the actors have in portraying human, real and raw lgbt love experiences.

i hope you can give it a try, especially prapai and sky's story, since it tells a very beautiful tale of care, acceptance, overcoming trauma and building a healthy support system. <3

okay, that's another way to see it. the way you describe this series makes it sound way better than the basic university bl it seemed to be, which makes it seem actually interesting. I still probably won’t watch it bc I have many other shows in store & also sa survivor storylines that are too graphic bother me. (also mame’s OBSESSION with having sa survivors in every single on of her stories is weird, I’m sorry 💀 especially considering she’s romanticized sa multiple times as well 💀) that being said, I wanna make something clear (which I thought was clear if you scrolled to my blog but anyways): I am not against sex scenes. only friends is one of the 2023 shows I'm the most excited for, and I've praised p'jojo's (the same director) works featuring sex as an important part of life like the warp effect before. my issue with sex scenes in bl comes with bl not being a genre for lgbtq+ people to start with. it suffices to look at the original novels that inspire 99% of thai bl shows: they almost all feature & excuse sa in some form, and rely heavily on stereotypes of the small feminine main character with his pushy masculine love interest to only present ONE type of relationship, when lgbtq+ people are all unique & different. sure, bl has now a huge lgbtq+ following & many of the people creating bl shows are now lgbtq+ themselves, but that doesn't mean that most bl shows aren't still mostly meant for straight women. and if anyone opens their eyes for five seconds, they will realize that there is a reason why bl shows are a thousand times more sexual than straight thai dramas: bc most of those scenes are for fanservice rather than in service of the plot. and fyi I LOVE romances. it's the reason I love thai dramas so much, bc pretty much all of them are romances in some way. and I LOVE well done sex scenes like seanwhite's first time. so to pretend I'm demonizing all bl sex scenes instead of acknowledging the truth that most bl sex scenes are unnecessary & only there to arouse its audience is misplaced. if non bl thai dramas were as sexual as american shows for example, I wouldn't say a thing bc this oversexualization would be generalized (still not sure it would be okay though.) but here it's present ONLY in bl, which tells me everything there is to know.

xxx

#answers #also - I didn't start the discourse about love in the air so I would appreciate it to not continue further #I don't have the energy to argue about shows I haven't watched.#ALSO the thing with only friends is that it uses sex to carry a message - that often sex is used to avoid real intimacy & love with others #the sex in shows like don't say no & cutie pie said what? that the couple is in love? yeah we got it the first time.#(also a dumb pet peeve of mine is when people talk about a group of bl shows & don't put not me first cijdeihbdc let's be fucking for real)

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being-of-rain · 2 years

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I’ve listened to 5 of the New Series UNIT box sets now! Tbh a lot of my opinions have been what I assumed they would be, based on reviews I’d read and my opinions of the authors... I don’t know if that means I was too biased, but oh well!

Once again what I intended to be some stray thoughts turned into a lot of rambling, so I’ll put them under a read more. Spoilers for the UNIT stories involved.

Extinction- Fun action romp. The Nestene using 3D printers for an invasion is a pretty obvious one really. The series was mostly interesting for me because I got to know the new team, I love a good team in a monster of the week type series. Honestly I haven’t warmed to Josh a lot; not because he’s particularly unpleasant (though sometimes he can be annoying), but mostly because of the tropes he fills. Quippy action hero white guy (who’s only stopped from being the main character by not being from the TV show proper), and mandatory straight love interest for a character who Really didn’t need it. I don’t think Sam isn’t the sort of character that would usually endear himself to me, but again circumstances shaped my emotions; I sort of followed him over to this range from the very good Ninth Doctor Adventures finale, and he made a nice change to Josh (sorry Josh, he’s really not TOO bad, just not my cup of tea). Plus, UNIT’s international troubleshooter is very cool role. Shindi is an interesting character- again I don’t usually have much interest in extremely militaristic characters, but his flashes of being reasonable, understanding, and even caring made a nice change to the usual military. Jacqui was a great character for a UNIT series- but in this box set and number 3, the writers seem much more interested in the problems she could cause for UNIT rather than the fact that she might actually be right to cause them! She argues with characters a few times that UNIT shouldn’t be working so hard to keep the public in the dark on things, to the point that they drug the country’s water supply. And uh... Yeah, solid point. But no one bothers to give a counter-argument, even Kate barely deems it with a response, it’s just part of her duties. That’s a militaristic organisation for you I guess.

Shutdown- Yikes. I had no idea what they were even going for with the alien species of this one, until I listened to the behind the scenes where they explain that they wanted to do an ‘Ancient Aliens Inspired This Ancient Culture’ trope but with Asian cultures. Firstly, that trope sucks. Secondly, doing that trope but Orientalism-flavoured does not make things better! And they don’t even end up with interesting villains. For the series’ attempt at making an original alien species to base a whole box set around, they’re sooo dull. What, they’re like ninjas so they can be invisible and move fast? Is that it? They do realise that this means nothing on audio. And I didn’t even realise until I read on the Tardis wiki that they were linked with the aliens in The Diary of River Song series 1, something I’ve listened to a few times. Not to dunk on every aspect of this set, but who signs off on the box set titles? Because ‘Extinction’ is generic and doesn’t hold any special meaning in the story, and I don’t even know why this one is called ‘Shutdown’.

Silenced- My favourite of the first 4 sets, inevitably! It’s a really cool sequel to Day of the Moon. I can’t blame it for not trying to tie in the Silents of those episodes to the futuristic church of the Silence, that was never very clear on TV, and you can just assume that even if some Silents could travel off-world with the Tardis-like travel devices, not all of them could escape. It was interesting that at the end of the set, I think some Did escape again? If I remember rightly. Anyway, any 4-hour story where the characters keep forgetting the entire plot could’ve got very dull very quickly, but it was done so well that it was great to listen to the entire time. Like I said, I might be biased, but my favourites were John Dorney’s episodes. He’s such a good writer.

Assembled- I large part of why I love the Silurians is that they’re not generic bad guys. But despite that, I knew going in that they probably would be in this set, so I didn’t let it bother me. Also, I knew beforehand that Jo got a line or two about “political correctness,” so I tried not to let that bother me either (I don’t know if that line is as out of character as I think it is, or if I just immediately get red flags from anyone using it). So considering both of those things, it was a really pleasant surprise when Jo makes such a strong argument for peaceful negotiation with the Sea Devils, and actually succeeds! That was great characterisation for her. ...But despite that, she did come off as a bit daft in the fourth episode when she goes to try and negotiate with the Silurians, and after talking to them announces “you’re radicals!” as if that hadn’t been made extremely clear already. Maybe she was just thinking that they still might make a better government than the current British one. It surprised me that in a set that was advertised so much as ‘the one with the original UNIT characters,’ none of them appeared in episode 3, but in hindsight I guess I should’ve felt lucky that I got 3 other epiosdes with them, considering how often Big Finish hinges all the advertisement of a set on characters or villains that only appear in 1 episode.

Encounters- I really enjoyed this one! Like I said, I love a good monster of the week series with a good team, so having four episodes that featured mostly just Kate, Osgood, Josh, and Shindi was great. The Dalek one was enjoyable, if mostly because seeing those four characters with no other backup made a nice change. I double checked to make sure it came out before the TV episode Resolution, because the Dalek mutant being on a rampage reminded me of that. The spooky halloween one is one of my favourite episodes yet. I just love a well done spooky halloween ep, and with a fun setting and a really cool threat too. Even if I don’t quite understand what happened- was it aliens or demons? Either way, very fun. I enjoyed the Sontaran ep more than I thought I would, I liked how the Sontarans and UNIT worked together for a bit, that was a new take on the Sontarans that fits a UNIT spin-off very well. I kinda wish the UNIT characters treated the Sontarans a bit more officially though, like with official recognition and alliance, because they know that strong adherence to their military protocols is a weakness of the species, and I like it when UNIT are shown to be smart with their knowledge of alien species. The infernoverse (or infernoverse-esque, I guess) ep was tons of fun. I even enjoyed it despite the fact that it was mostly based around a very heterosexual premise, with a distinct lack of classic homosexually-charged mirror universe villains. (sigh) oh well. I guess I’m too much of a sucker for mistaken identity comedies. But someone needs to write a story with another another infernoverse, this time with evil gay Kate and evil gay Osgood.

#my thoughts #big finish #unit #kate #osgood #sometime I need to write some fic with these characters #hmmm I might be doing fictober coming up...

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fancoloredglasses · 1 year

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Red vs. Blue (so...why ARE we here?)

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(Thanks to TheRedBase)

[All images are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions. Please don’t sue me]

Now, those who are fans will complain that Red vs. Blue (or RvB) is still airing new episodes, so I shouldn’t be reviewing it. However, I have two arguments to that:

1. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve reviewed something still current.

(b) Rooster Teeth is no longer airing new episodes of RvB. They’re airing episodes of spin-off series.

First, a bit of back story...

The company that would eventually be known as Rooster Teeth was founded by Michael “Burnie” Burns and Matt Hullum. Back then, it was known as Drunk Gamers, and they would review video games after having more than a few drinks. Naturally, most video game companies didn’t want to give them games to review with a name like that (not to mention most banks didn’t want to lend money to a company based on the consumption of several adult beverages), so they changed the name to Rooster Teeth (which was a work-safe parallel to “cock bite”)

About this time, Bungie had created a first-person shooter franchise for the X-Box known as Halo (maybe you’ve heard of it?) While the first game was critically acclaimed, it was the second game that ties in to our story. One feature in Halo 2 was a multiplayer arena. While this sort of thing is commonplace now, it was still fairly new at the time. It was possible to link several X-Boxes together and play with each player on their own screen so other players couldn’t “peek” at where their opponents were since they were all sharing a screen (granted having all those X-Boxes and all those TVs was expensive, but STILL...)

Burns and Hullum (and their friends that were hired, including Gustavo “Gus” Sorola, and Geoff Ramsey) took advantage of this and, with Bungie’s blessing, jumped on a new sort of “filmmaking” this new technology made possible: machinema (making films in multiplayer games, usually with one player dedicated as the “cameraman”)

That’s why the first couple of seasons have that circle in the center of the shot; that’s the targeting area for the cameraman’s weapon.

Anyway, RvB told the tale of a civil war between two sides: the Red Army and the Blue Army, or at least one battlefield in the war: a box canyon on an unpopulated world known as Blood Gulch. (well, that’s how it started anyway) Why is a box canyon have such strategic importance? They never say.

[I would like to note that, since this is a video game, all of the characters look exactly the same except for the color of their armor. The only way to tell who’s actually speaking was for the “actor” controlling the character to quickly look up and down so the character bobbed their head.]

Now, let’s meet our total fucking idiots brave warriors, starting with Red Team.

Red team is led by Sarge (full name, Sgt. Sarge. If ever there was anyone born to do his job...) Sarge is totally gung-ho about the military life and is all for taking down “those no good dirty Blues!” Too bad he has no clue how to do his job, often rejecting common sense plans that would likely work in favor of the most recklessly violent plan he can come up with.

Sarge’s second-in-command is Pvt. Dick Simmons. Simmons is the closest thing Blood Gulch has to an IT guy and is a total suck-up to Sarge.

Pvt. Dexter Grif is the low man in the unit and is often the recipient of abuse from Sarge (most of Sarge’s plans involve Grif being horribly wounded, if not killed) Part of that may stem from Grif being the laziest soldier ever and likely at least 50 pounds overweight.

Finally, we have Lopez the Heavy, an android who serves as the mechanic for the Team, and is likely the smartest being in the canyon. Due to a malfunction, he can only speak Spanish.

Now let’s go to Blue Team...

The leader of the Blues (mainly due to being the loudest) is Pvt. Leonard L. Church. He’s about as clueless as the rest, but has the biggest potty mouth of the bunch.

The other member of Blue Team (wait, there are only two blues to Red Team’s four? Why the hell hasn’t Sarge ordered a full frontal assault (with Grif in front, naturally)? I mean...sure Grif might die, but I’m sure that’s a risk Sarge is willing to take!) is Pvt. Lavernius Tucker. Tucker fancies himself a ladies man, never missing an opportunity to lay down some innuendo. (bow chicka bow wow)

Early on, both sides got some new additions...

The Reds got a recruit named Pvt. Franklin Delano Donut. Yes, he has pink (or as he calls it “lightish red”) armor. I’m pretty sure he’s not actually gay, but he’s very effeminate and makes a lot of accidental homoerotic double entendres.

Meanwhile, the Blues got a tank (with an AI named Sheila) as well as a new recruit.

Pvt. Michael J. Caboose (played by Joel Hayman) is...well, he’s a complete fucking idiot (even compared to the rest; there is no way to sugar-coat it) who is convinced Church is his Bestest Friend In The Whole Wide Universe. What’s more, he’s a danger to anyone on his side (especially Church)

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(Thanks to ChaosAsakura)

As a result of Caboose’s little “accident”...

...Church came back as a ghost and...

...Blue Command sent a mercenary named Tex (AKA Agent Texas AKA Allison (no last name given)), who is Church’s ex. She also has an evil AI in her armor that eventually gets loose.

...and all of that is just season one!

Now, around Season 3, Halo 3 was released, so...

The gang got an upgrade (and continue to get them with every new game)!

Now, there are 4 “eras” of RvB

Season 1-5 are known as The Blood Gulch Chronicles, and center almost exclusively in Blood Gulch (with a quick stop in a different map to explain the upgrades)

Seasons 6-10 are known as Project Freelancer, which gives a bit of backstory on the Reds and Blues, as well as Tex’s origin, and introduces members of an elite (and defunct) unit known as Project Freelancer: Carolina and Washington (or “Wash” to his friends). This also marks when Rooster Teeth started using motion capture technology to enhance the action sequences for the series instead of using machinema exclusively.

Seasons 11-13 are known as The Chorus Trilogy, which sees the Reds and Blues drawn into another civil war.

Seasons 15-17 are known as The Shisno Trilogy, which involves the Reds and Blues traveling to their past.

Season 18 was its own storyline, while season 14 was a series of “alternate reality” shorts (including an episode where the Red and Blues end in the Rooster Teeth offices). Following Season 18, Burnie Burns left Rooster Teeth to pursue other projects and Joel Hayman was fired due to making some inappropriate tweets (which violated company policy) in 2020.

So, with the actor playing Tucker the only Blue still with the company, I guess the Reds won...?

But this isn’t the end of Red vs. Blue, as there was a spin-off series with an all-new crew, as well as occasional “PSAs” from the remains of the original cast.

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(Thanks to Rooster Teeth)

In addition, Rooster Teeth recently announced the final season (with Burnie Burns returning) this fall.

I should note that every episode is under 10 minutes long and, once a “season” is finished, Rooster Teeth splices them together into a continuous film and releases it on DVD. The DVD’s extras (starting with season 2) give a highlight reel of the story thus far.

The one on Season 5′s DVD sums up the Blood Gulch Chronicles rather well...

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(Thanks to SystemFreaKk13)

If you would like to watch the series, it’s available on Rooster Teeth’s website, as well as YouTube.

At this point, I normally would be fishing for requests for episode reviews, but given how the series is laid out, that’s not exactly possible.

#red vs blue #rooster teeth #burnie burns #matt hullum #geoff ramsey #gus sorola #machinema #halo #Fan Colored Glasses

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ultraericthered · 1 year

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Star Driver - To The Guy Who Didn’t Get It

It seems like whole decades have gone by since the early 2010s and it makes me feel so old, yet I tend to forget how somewhat different the online fandom/social media scene was compared to now, especially in regards to critiques of then-still running shows done on blogs. And I happened upon one on Blogger (Anyone remember that blogging site? Does anyone still use it?) by an anime reviewer who blogged his thoughts on different anime episodes after they’d aired. And back then in 2010-2011, Star Driver was one such anime.

To say he wasn’t a fan would be almost understating it given the scathing remarks he blogged about it on a weekly basis. While obviously his thoughts and feelings on it and mine could not differ more, I understand that people have different tastes and that’s perfectly acceptable and right even. ...But y’know the saying that goes “you’re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts and logic?” If your argument for or against something is based in illogical fallacies and disregard for objectivity and truth, even the sort of objective truth in regards to what’s grounded in what is canonical to works of fiction, it’s not a good argument and deserves to be torn apart. It doesn’t help that this blogger was that sort of pseduo-critic anime snob who had some ideas about how good storytelling, character writing, worldbuilding, and overall execution of a made-for-TV animated series should look like that I don’t think has aged very well on today’s online world. So even though it was years ago and on a whole ‘nother site, I just HAVE to rip this hater a new one here!

On Episode 1:

...wait, what the Hell is going on in this show? It's only episode one and I already feel mired in things that I don't understand, a sense of confusion that only feels all the more jarring after the sudden change in gears from comedy school setting to giant robots and people with masks jabbering about Cybodys. I'm sure this sense of confusion is kind of the point, and that all will be explained in due course, but I can't help but feel that this plunge into "the science bit" was a little too sudden - had it come at the very start of the episode it might have worked, but in jerking us out of our previous sedate reverie it just feels wrong.

In Which Anime Blogger Complains About The Entire Effing Point. The series is meant to hook you in here because you’re sent reeling from what’s going on, because you’re confused and don’t understand what’s being talked about and what’s being done, because of the tonal whiplash and clashing between two types of shows that leads to such insane high octane action and unashamed campiness. There is no “kind of” about it, it is absolutely the point. I swear that this came up elsewhere on the blog but this blogger was not familiar with the creators other works, mainly Revolutionary Girl Utena, and it constantly shows. If Star Driver, right out the gate, is How Not To Make An Anime, then Utena should’ve tanked and never recieved all the glowing critical praise it’s gotten over the years because it did all the exact same stuff with its storytelling and presentation. And he thinks the show needed to lead with the Cybodies and the Crux in order to let the viewer know that this wasn’t just some high school romcom anime and that we’d be in for some weird and exciting mecha stuff? Not only is that unimaginative and belittling of the audience’s intelligence, patience, and attention spans, but it misses that one of the earliest spoken lines was Wako saying “I smell a boy I don’t know”. The guarantee of silly weirdness was already given to us right there, we didn’t need to see the costumes and robots yet.

On Episode 2:

we finally come to what I'm guessing might well be our weekly dose of action, as Takuto and his Cybody Tauburn find themselves under attack by opponents looking for revenge, and of course the opportunity to get their more accomplished foe well and truly out of the way. While it looks for a moment as though they might succeed, in typical giant robot anime fashion Takuto steps things up a gear when he needs it most and wins the day once again. Hurrah! Again he shows he’s not watched Utena or any of the Sailor Moon shows, where this sort of usual “weekly dose of action” formula was common. And yes, that’s exactly how it goes. You figured it out!

On Episode 3:

On the other hand, it still feels like we're quite some way from understanding exactly what's going on, and I can't decided whether this is a good thing or not - it's certainly leaving me hungry to know more, but by the same token I feel like I need more information to actually settle into enjoying this show or otherwise.

“Can’t decided?” And no, it’s totally a good thing. If you’re spoonfed way too much information too soon, you coming to see the grand design of the series as it unfolds before your eyes and understanding it better wouldn’t be nearly so rewarding. The best stories give you only the most basic, general and digestible information right at the start, then more pieces of information come at you in gradual doses, big and small, so that the huge perspective-altering bomb drops of later on can come in naturally and feel earned. And once you have all the information and context behind everything, going back and looking over those earlier parts of the story that you’d first viewed through a lens of not knowing all information and context will make you see so much of what you’d seen and heard before in a new light.

Well, we're now three episodes in, and Star Driver remains little more than a pile of nonsense that doesn't know what it wants to be in terms of its plot. One minute it's a high school comedy, the next its some kind of harem show, then it's a drama of sorts before we move to the week's admittedly impressive action scenes where we get to watch some big robots fighting... now with added swords! I keep telling myself that there's something big, clever and more intricate in terms of the show's story just around the corner but I'm beginning to wonder - Star Driver is increasingly looking like some kind of "robot fight of the week" anime with little else to say for itself to the point of being wilfully obtuse.

Star Driver knew exactly what it wanted to be in terms of plot, what conclusions it wanted to reach, and how it wanted to reach them - this dude is the one who didn’t know. The high school comedy, harem and fanservice antics, and human drama aspects of the show are all core parts of the show’s identity when on the island outside of Zero Time and are pieces moving in tandem with one another to service not only the mecha anime action-adventure spectacle but the larger narrative, character arcs, and fundamental core themes. The “big, clever and more intricate something” was always right there, thinly veiled behind the campy, stupid, ridiculous “robot fights of the week” show, as that’s the sort of thing Igarashi likes to do.

A commenter on this blog also had this to say:

Seriously, at this point we can dispense with the rest of the show and just fast forward to the part where that caged girl starts singing. :)

Uh, no we can’t, because if we skipped the island stuff and only took in the Star Driver/Cybody shenanigans in Zero Time, everything the story culminates in by the grand finale, and the two arc finales before that, would have no meaning to us, as such meaning was only found in the parts of the show set within Southern Cross Island daily life.

On Episode 5:

I thought that perhaps the previous episode of Star Driver was paving the way for a slight shift in the show's formula and way of doing things... but no, I was wrong, as episode five proves to be another rinse and repeat affair which introduces a character, ties them in to the Glittering Crux brigade and then finishes with a Zero Time battle between said character against Takuto.

I can actually see his point here, at least. It’s rather strange that “Meaning Of The Mandrake” was placed after “Wako’s Song” rather than before it, ‘cause if it had been the other way around, the latter four episodes of the first arc would feel like they had more momentum of importance compared to the first four. The third arc had a similar issue in terms of where they placed the backstory episode - the middle arc (”Innocent Blue Chapter”) is the only one where they nailed the contents and the pacing pretty much perfectly.

Even though we're five episodes in now, I still can't figure out just what Star Driver wants to be (if it even knows itself) - last week's episode seemed set to shake things up a little before this instalment brought us back to the same old episode layout while playing its plot mostly for comic value, right up to our school nurse being defeated while she's checking Takuto out. Okay, that moment was pretty funny (and there were a few other giggles to be had from this episode), but I have to admit that it wasn't what I signed up to Star Driver for and it needs to do a whole lot more if it isn't going to join the rather considerable pile of forgettable mecha series that decorates the world of anime like some elephant's graveyard.

Yes, Star Driver knows what it is and what it wanted to be, this is a “you” problem here, Mr. Blogger. The fact that it does offer such big shakeups every three episodes or sometimes every other episode shows that Igarashi and co. were well aware of what they were doing and how they wanted to play their cards. And oh, the sheer dumb of those later statements. If you “didn’t sign up to Star Driver” for all the goofy stuff that define it as Star Driver, maybe you should’ve thought twice about signing up for Star Driver! And if by even that point your impression of Star Driver was that it could wind up “forgettable” if it didn’t push for being more than what it was at the start, I just don’t know what to tell you. Youv’e got such a terrible attention span.

On Episode 6:

At last, this feels like a real step forward for Star Driver, away from its sometimes frivolous characters and plot progression towards what feels like a more solid footing.

Yes. That was the whole point. That was the whole PLAN. NIMROD!

On Episode 8:

Herein lies the major problem with Star Driver as it continues on its merry way - no matter what happens to the major characters within the show and no matter what developments emerge, it seems like the series is Hell-bent on keeping its episode format intact. This makes for a tiring and predictable viewing experience where we know exactly what's coming, but we still have to sit and wait for most of the episode for it to happen. This wouldn't be so bad if the build-up to the giant robot scraps were packed to the rafters with fascinating drama and character development, but this is rarely the case, instead leaving us with some rather overblown stuff that doesn't have any real impact. Sugata's plight should have made for a huge amount of potential, yet here we are with that part of the story seemingly resolved and yet virtually nothing was made of it. No matter how much I want to like Star Driver (and those fight sequences really are increasingly impressive), it just seems to disappoint me every time I try to give it another chance.

Once again, see Utena, which did the exact same thing of “Episode Format Status Quo Is God, But Not Necessarily An All-Mighty God”. That show had an entire midsection story arc where the conclusion was that its main villain and events were wiped from having ever existed and from the minds of other characters, as though the whole arc that spanned several episodes straight never happened - that’s something that should be decried as a giant time waster and a Filler Arc, but the effects of what happened in it and where it left our characters mattered greatly to the events to follow. A series doesn’t have to break its status quo and throw game-changing, character-effecting, crucially timed, urgently paced, high stakes developments at us every other episode in order to have narrative depth, character development, and plot progression. Sometimes, this way is good enough, where you have the gist of what the show’s all about and know what to expect and what you might predict, but may still be surprised, enthralled, and delighted by the execution and might even find you weren’t as ready for what you end up seeing as you thought you were going into the episode, meaning it’s NOT always a “tiring and predictable” experience, as you won’t always know EXACTLY what you’re in for in terms of the whens, hows, and whys of what gets played out in the story being told. During my rewatch, I noticed a lot of the good, juicy bits of drama and character development that were seeded into those breather periods on the island away from the Crux’s lair and out of Zero Time, and Sugata’s plight was far from resolved by Episode 8 - it simply was transitioned from one point to the next, as oftentimes when things reach an “end”, it’s actually just a phasing out of something that comes with a phasing in of something else semi-connected. The Adventure Of Life Goes On and all that.

If Star Driver was disappointing him, it’s because he set himself up for such disappointment first rather than go with the anime’s flow.

On Episode 10:

Star Driver has become dull and predictable, and there certainly wasn't anything on show this episode to change that. We're now even at the point where those previously spectacular mecha battles feel run of the mill, leaving us with little to look forward to each week. Something needs to break Star Driver out of its over-used mould, but at the moment I simply can't see anything capable of doing that.

Predictable, yeah. Dull? Hell no, hardly! And “I can’t see anything capable of doing that.” The You twins were RIGHT F**KING THERE!

On Episode 11:

So, another episode of Star Driver has passed, and I'm still utterly bored with its predictable layout and the knowledge that Takuto will always win his battle at the end of the episode one way or another. Even outside of the action, the whole story surrounding "Simone" felt horribly forced whilst proving to be equally dull in its own right. I'm seriously starting to think that this series is entirely beyond redemption now, but can I really drop a show after sinking almost six hours into it?

If he was so “utterly bored” of this show, what was he doing still writing these posts on it? Takuto having to win all of his battles at the end one way or another is a feature rather than a bug, and does not necessarily break immersion or enjoyment - a lot of the oldest comic books and action-adventure TV serials, the sort of stuff that inspired Star Wars, were like this, where the hero is allowed to be put in peril and leave the audience going “Oh no! How will they get out of this one?” without there being any hint of a doubt that they will indeed “get out of this one” in the end so that they can go on to their next thrilling adventure, rinse and repeat. It’s not super dramatic because it’s not made to be - it’s made to be FUN. It’s good old fashioned escapism and entertainment. If that’s not one’s cup of tea, then they ought to stop drinking it for no reason but to prove that they can.

On Episode 12:

While the comedy for this episode of Star Driver was far sharper than anything we've seen from the show of late, that's really all it has going for it as per usual - it got a few laughs, but was otherwise as dull and lifeless as ever. There are brief hints of movement courtesy of Kanako meeting and conversing with Mizuno, but considering we're effectively at the half-way point of this series it would be nice to see something other than the odd glacial snippet of plot progression. I too like to throw around words like “dull” and “lifeless” and “boring” and “tepid” and “predictable” and “frivolous” and “forgttable” and even “utterly” without really thinking about whether or not I’m applying them to anything that actually truly matches the meanings of those words but if they make me sound like a real critic who knows what the fuck he’s talking about then I use them, I R super smart! Again, the Black Rose arc from Utena’s midsection deserves mention here.

On Episode 13:

I really have nothing new to say about Star Driver now - it's utterly dull and lifeless, and the plot of this particular episode was plain to see within the first five minutes of the episode, making Takuto's eventual victory even more of a foregone conclusion then it was already. With no peril, danger or intense action to this show's name, what is the point exactly?

There it is again - “Dull and lifeless!” And in this episode’s case, it’s a Breather Episode and an actually well-placed one at that. I also described already what the point of the show is - to entertain and be fun, sincere and wholesome and even compelling to any who actually engage with it. It’s not a bad show, you’re just mean and joyless.

On Episode 14:

That said, I do have to point out that pretty much everything that was good about the second half of this episode was blatantly stolen from Evangelion (and more specifically its recent movies), but if pinching cool visual concepts and ideas from that series makes Star Driver better than I say go for it.

A mecha anime gets mind screwy and throws in some psychological and existential angst coupled with visual horrors? “Blatantly stolen” from Evangelion rather than just influenced by it! Overall, this episode hasn't left me with renewed confidence that this series has a clue what it's doing or what its end-game is, but it's at least managed to find a little more potential and promise to keep me watching for the time being. If only it hadn't taken so long to do so...

You’d had to have completely missed the underlining purpose of this episode to come to that conclusion. Everything about the Ayingott project and what Marino was doing as Vanishing Age’s substitute leader was thoroughly schemed out by Head and Ivrogne in order to move things to the next phase, which itself ties back around to earlier set-up with Sugata and Samekh, and what’s truly motivating Ivrogne in her actions. The series’ end-game is a clear picture that comes together like a great big picture puzzle whose pieces you weren’t even looking at ‘cause you were too busy whining about the series!

On Episode 15:

What's this? An episode of Star Driver that doesn't follow the exact same pattern of nearly every other episode that came before it almost to the second Stop the presses! After moaning about it for so many weeks, simply breaking out of Star Driver's cycle of drama -> Zero Time -> Takuto wins feels like a breath of fresh air which left me watching the clock and thinking "however are they going to fit a pointless Cybody battle into this episode?". Well, thankfully they didn't, instead giving the rest of the plot some much-needed room to breathe - something it did reasonably proficiently with plenty of angst and drama to lean on whilst also shifting the positions of a few key pieces on the show's chess board, most notably Sugata and our "mysterious" (or not so mysterious) painter aside from Mizuno herself.

Yeah, even this asshat couldn’t not give these episodes their due.

only to enter some kind of Endless Eight-esque state where every time she leaves she simply wakes up and has to start all over again - a situation which leaves her a nervous and bawling wreck in a ferry terminal car park after numerous iterations (again, much like most viewers of Endless Eight after a few episodes).

Including this here because it’s actually pretty damn funny. This alone wasn't enough to make Star Driver suddenly seem like a far more compelling series, but following on from last week's more focused offering the signs of improvement are certainly there to be seen. It has a way to go, but at last there's light at the end of the tunnel of mediocrity from which this show desperately needs to escape over the coming weeks.

If it wasn’t, then maybe it honestly didn’t even need to be? What it did for me was make these episodes themselves, and retroactively every episode that featured and slowly advanced the arc of the You twins, far more compelling in and of themselves. The remainder of the show could’ve tanked and it wouldn’t change how great this section was.

On Episode 16:

This leaves me with an episode that I'm rather torn about - the revelations and story built around Mizuno turned out to be quite a nice twist in the tale (although they arguably weren't used to their fullest extent) and the Zero Time section this week was absolutely stunning even by this show's standards, while the Glittering Crux finally reaching their so-called Third Phase after blathering on about it for several months is as much of a relief as it is a sign of some tougher competition for Takuto. Set against that, the whole flashback element into Takuto's past for this episode felt clumsy and bolted on, leading in to a sudden upgrade to Tauburn's powers that was boringly predictable but unavoidably so.

Fair point. I can see why the action grinding to a halt just to give us some backstory that ties directly in with Takuto’s big finisher of that day might feel off for some viewers and take them out of the whole moment, but I personally liked it and will have stuff to say on it later.

Thus, I don't know what to make of it all - certain elements of the series have moved in some decidedly interesting new directions while others look to be stuck in a rut. Overall I suppose that's an improvement, but it still isn't enough to turn Star Driver into a good series at this juncture, let alone a great one.

See what I said before about these Mizuno arc episodes. And to me, Star Driver was always a good series, and these episodes, plus Episode 20 and the final two, just solified it into a great one.

On Episode 17:

Just as it seemed as it Star Driver had broken free of its repetitive episode conventions, it looks like the announcement of third phase combat last time around has seen a return to the tried and far from trusted episode layout of weeks gone by - high school hijinks, Glittering Crux meeting, big battle where Takuto wins via some previously unknown/unexpected deus ex machina.

“This show...is still Star Driver! WHY IS IT STILL STAR DRIVER?!?”

On Episode 18:

I remain both bored and unimpressed with Star Driver again at present - every time is looks set to do something to come out of its coma of predictability, it somehow manages to ruin the whole thing. For what is supposedly an anime about Cybodies which could change the entire world as we know it if the Glittering Crux Brigade succeeds, there's still no tension or drama in anything we see - battles are finished with the equivalent of a flick of the wrist, and more time is spent on school life shenanigans than any form of character building or plot development. Perhaps someone should get the Madoka Magica team onto a mecha series when they're done with that show? By all accounts they could do a far better job than this effort which seems to borrow from numerous other similar series whilst completely missing the point of what makes those shows great.

Oh my God, this dude.... The anime is not “about” the Cybodies and the stakes of what should happen if Zero Time was broken and they were all active outside of it again. It literally ends with Zero Time broken yet doesn’t make anything more of it than what’s needed for the immediate focus of the final action. This is called “missing the forest for the trees.” There are some shows, even shows with giant robot fights, that are not made to ride and die on the sort of “tension and drama” that this blogger pines for. And in fact, a lot of the character building and slow-burn plot development to set up the next big advancements are in those smaller, so-called “school life shananigans” that he thinks shouldn’t be allowed in a mecha anime. The reference to Madoka here is important because it’s such an apples-to-oranges comparison; Madoka is a anime with plot and character drama that’s very tightly written, and drama and stakes that escalate by the episode, because it was a 12 episode one cours anime where continous serialized storytelling was necessary and breathing room a no-go. Star Driver, meanwhile...is not that. And how ironic that he said that last part when he himself was missing what made this show great because he was too hung up on his own preferences and expectations, likely influenced by other shows!

On Episode 19:

That aside, I felt that the whole "body snatching" aspect of this episode was rather a wasted opportunity - not much was done with a scenario that was ripe with potential, and Kou and Madoka were both so useless in their body switching roles that they frittered away the chance to cause some genuine chaos far outside simply messing with Wako's head.

Another valid, legitimate criticism. Those are more relieving to come by on this blog than outlier episodes are to come by on Star Driver!

On Episode 20:

After frittering away so many (read: almost all) of its episodes, it's nice to see things finally building in an interesting direction at this late stage - although I can't quite get my head around Takuto's parentage at this juncture (is Tokio really that old?), we did learn some significant information about the man at the helm of the Glittering Crux Brigade, finally see a fire (or at least a slightly damp match) lit under Takuto's feelings for Wako, and perhaps most important we got a Zero Time battle that was interesting for almost thirty whole seconds, which is a new record on my watch. With next week's episode also promising to continue in the right direction, can Star Driver pull out a decent ending to this tepid series? It won't be enough to save it from the halls of anime mediocrity, but regardless of that I sure hope it does so that my hours of watching this series don't prove to be in vain.

Tokio’s First Phase slowed his physical aging, which is why he still appears to be college aged at most. Oh, and more throwing in big sounding critic words/ “Tepid”? “Mediocrity”? By whose measure?

On Episode 21:

Not for the first time with this series, Star Driver hits upon something interesting only to render it utterly dull and useless with its staunch refusal to add any kind of peril to proceedings. In this case, we were finally faced with a conflict where someone absolutely had to die, no questions ask or no chance to sidestep this brutal truth... until the episode pulls out a deus ex machina so it can all end without anyone getting hurt. What. The. Fuck. Star. Driver. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why everyone is raving about Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the world it's woven where everything has serious and realistic consequences; this is also why nobody gives two flying monkeys about Star Driver any more. The sooner this show finishes and puts us all out of its abjectly mediocre misery the better.

I cannot with this doofus and his vocabulary. Here’s where the Madoka thing comes back (ironic since that’s the name of the character in question who didn’t get offed), and for one thing, it aged poorly given how Mami and Kyoko, two characters who we saw absolutely definitely die on-screen just come back to life at the end which sort of negates the weight of their deaths (though Sayaka doesn’t for some reason?), the serious consequences at the very end of the series were so mired in the fantastical that you can’t really call it “realistic”, and then after that initial series, everyone came back and a whole freaking Madoka multiverse was established, so it’s not exactly a super grounded, gritty, true-to-life anime experience. And second of all, it exposes how limited this person’s scope of what can pass for a solid, enjoyable, satisfying series with good storytelling even is. If a series isn’t like a steadily building, super tense, dark, bleak, violent and suspenseful “Anyone Can Die At Any Point” affair like Game Of Thrones, or even a one cours quickie filled with darkness and edge, thrills, chills, kills, shocking plot developments, mindblowing and/or soul-crushing reveals, and constant bordering-on-torture-porn misery and despair at every turn every week like Madoka, then it’s just garbage to someone like this. It’s so sad to me.

On Episode 22:

Mark, who is played by Takuto and really doesn't do anything interesting at all aside from getting to kiss Wako at the end of the entire ordeal. Which is, to be fair, a pretty awesome thing to do.

Another moment where even a first class fool can see reason.

Above all though, much of this episode is really just about hammering home the current state of Wako's heart when it comes to choosing between Sugata and Takuto, as though the end of last week's episode didn't make that entirely clear and we needed to sit through all of this to explain things. The state of Wako’s heart at the moment wasn’t about “choosing between Sugata and Takuto”, as she was starting to realize more and more after her birthday that she felt equal love for them both. The real drama that was being shaped here was the idea that Sugata could possibly renounce what his heart was feeling for Wako in favor of finally embracing and using Samekh’s power, which is the future that Keito was offering him and hoping that he would take.

I probably wouldn't be so harsh on this episode if it were ensconced within the first half of Star Driver, but with only three episodes to go the series still seems intent on pissing away what little time it has left on incredibly dull and forced plot devices in the hope of somehow seeming "deep" that really add very little to either the show or its characters. I know that Star Driver is a lost cause now, but there's still so much I want to like about it that even at this juncture I get frustrated by its inability to do anything worthy of note with its setting and the individuals within them. Goodness knows it has enough intriguing, likeable or downright cool characters to play with, so how we ended up with this tepid and clumsy cluster-fuck of a series is becoming increasingly mind-boggling.

You know why that entire paragraph got bolded. Take it away, Luke!

EXCEPT for “Goodness knows it has enough intriguing, likeable or downright cool characters to play with” - those words were right.

On Episode 23:

But what's this? A major plot twist involving Sugata? Wow, I never saw that one coming at all.

A good plot twist is one that makes logical internal sense within the narrative and character-based framework and advances the story in an interesting direction, not just one that you don’t see coming. I mean, he even goes on to say this and thus sound contradictory:

Okay, so Sugata's defection does make things a bit more interesting for the final couple of episodes, and it does also fit in better with the evolving relationship dynamic between the remaining maidens, Sugata, and Takuto.

However, that doesn't make this anything less than another clumsy implemented slice of utter mediocrity where Zero Time also means Zero Excitement and Zero Peril. Nothing has grabbed or surprised me even at this late stage of the game, meaning that the only real excitement I have left is the thought that in a couple of weeks I'll finally be done with this tepid series - fingers crossed it doesn't get licensed in the UK so that I have to watch it all over again though.

“UTTER mediOCRITY!” “Where’s teh EXCITEMENT and PERIL?” “This is most tepid series! TEPID, I SAY!” And of course he’s British!

On Episode 24:

Even a show as largely dull and tepid as Star Driver can't screw up its penultimate episode on account of being too dull... although episode twenty-four certainly tries its best at doing just that before the sheer weight of interesting stuff available to the series finally forces its way through.

And I don’t know what else I expected from YOUR penultimate effort!

Okay, I have to confess, the end of this week's episode of Star Driver was pretty damn cool - once I'd suppressed my laughter at the sheer stupidity of nobody recognising any Glittering Crux member until they remove their mask and go "hey, guess who?!", there were some awesome visuals on show and everything seems set up right to deliver a finale free from all the fluff and nonsense that the series has drowned in up to this point. The fact that it took half the episode to get to this "good bit" remains a blatant reminder of everything that's wrong with Star Driver, but at least for once it seems set to actually deliver on its potential - if only it hadn't left it so late to do so.

I’m starting to suspect this dude might actually end up liking Star Driver: The Movie better than Star Driver: The Show, as it gives him basically what he’s asking for in terms of cutting down on the “fluff and nonsense” and hitting off all the “good bits” of lore and drama and fighting action with marked high stakes and twists and turns and all that PLOT PLOT PLOT!, even when said “good bits” would feel hollow and stripped of all deeper meaning due to what was missed out on with the “building block bits” of the high school and island community content that are there to give you an actual connection to the characters, the setting, and the going ons. Again, reading this feels alien in an age where shows “cut too short” and having a lack of breathers and “filler episodes” is more bemoaned than celebrated.

On Episode 25:

It's taken half a year, but we finally we get the episode of Star Driver everyone had been crying out for from the very start.

................................. This fucking guy just went and said that “the episode of Star Driver everyone (read: he) had been crying out for from the very start”....was at the very end, as in the final episode, the episode that by its very nature had to be built towards and earned by a whole series worth of episodes leading up to it.

Crowning Achievement Of Dumb right there. Who thinks like this? That an action-based and character-driven serialized TV series has to lead with a series finale-worth of material from the offset in order to be deemed good? What is even the point of such a show if it can play not just its full hand but its full deck of cards right from the off-set? This is ludicrous and exposes what an impatient child this guy was. He had zero deep understanding of shit he was talking about!

Okay, it still has an utterly stupid plot (Head's motivations and actions come straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, and Takuto's decision-making isn't much better), but it had lots of awesome action and visual spectacle to make up for that lack of coherency.

That was the whole idea. That was his character, that he was like a damaged piece of art where underneath the deep, detailed, beautiful and enticing surface, at his core were some very simplistic ideas and desires. A seflish, petty, ultimately hollow and lacking man pretending to be a boy pretending to be a man and wanted to be a boy again.

Having seen this example of what Star Driver could have been all about somehow only serves to make the rest of the series all the more disappointing - if only the series had this level of tension and peril written into it from the very start, then we might have been able to forgive the ridiculous dei ex machina that turned up on a regular basis and the distracting slice of life shenanigans that would have served better as a spin-off series in its own right.

Again, ASS. BACKWARDS. It is only because Star Driver was about so much more than the surface level space tech lore and mecha action, because it did not carry itself with this level of tension and peril written into most of its regular proceedings, that this grand finale ends up feeling as grand as it does and carrying such a staggering amount of high quality to it, the quality it feels was built, reached, and earned rather than taken for granted. And if there was anything you found to be “distracting” in the slice of life shenanigans segments, it came from you rather than from the show, which was laying its heart and soul bare in all of those moments, offering up all the smaller pieces that were to be joined together to show you the bigger picture whole of the story, but your mind and your gaze turned away from it.

In terms of wasted potential, this Star Driver must rank at the top of the tree for the last year, and one line in this final episode really said it all: an exclamation of "this battle meant something". At the show's own admission it took twenty-five episodes to have a meaningful battle in a series built around such action sequences - I rest my case.

Twenty-four episodes of a show built around (but not necessarily super focused on or all about) mech battle action sequences were all stocking up its energy and budget as it built up to the Big One, the one that would be so meaningful that it’d retroactively justify and give validity to all the smaller steps taken towards it, at the very end. This sounds perfectly reasonable, yet this guy puts it as though it’s a serious flaw. Absolutely obtuse, illiterate, unimaginative buffoon.

There were also some choice comments I had to pick out:

There was so much potential depth in SD's universe... the Cybodies, the Entropeople, the Seals... and none of it was really explored that much in depth.

Almost as if those things were never actually made to be the focal points of the story, and that the greater depth lied elsewhere?

Not to mention the lack of focus on the characters. A lot of times it feels like they're there just for the sake of being there (i.e. the lesbians).

The characters who needed to be focused on and earn the shits given about them got their focus, though it’s true that some in this cast got very short-changed, the Vanishing Age lackeys especially.

Star Driver isn't meant to have a complex plot or anything, it's meant to be mindless entertainment. People are raving about it anyway, so I don't quite understand that part o.o

I am with the spirit of this post but not the letter. Star Driver’s plot, unlike Utena’s overarching storyline, is not especially complex, its events easy to follow and dictated by certain patterns that make it pretty predictable and its primary purpose is to entertain - to please, to thrill, to amuse and even to arouse. But to call all that “mindless?” Nah, that is giving it way too little credit. I’ve seen it in its entirety more than enough times to say with certainty that there’s a great deal of cleverness, brilliance and meaning behind this camptastic joyride.

Now here’s the blogger again with some imput on his own:

although it's also interesting that both of those posts are suggesting that "people don't get it" without really explaining what we're missing beyond having not seen Utena.

I’d not seen Utena in full by the time I watched Star Driver and I was able to get it just fine, so he’s right, it really is no excuse.

I comprehend the reason for the repetitive way each episode is framed, but to be frank that framing wouldn't be a problem if the show actually had worthwhile content within that frame - witness the reaction to Madoka's early episodes which were similarly repetitive in terms of their layout compared to Star Driver. I'm also pretty sure I "get" all of the allusions the series is trying to present, but unfortunately they're all tired old concepts that aren't remedied by dressing it up in some snazzy outfits.

It’s a purely subjective matter. If the content doesn’t seem worth your while, then OK, don’t engage. It’s not going to be the same for everyone. And yet again with the Madoka reference, even when in that show’s case it only had two episodes worth of standard formulaic Magical Girl layout before someone’s head got bitten off in Episode 3, so it was never interested in playing things straight and sincere the way Star Driver was. Deeper allusions within repetitious framework are just kind of Igarashi and Enokido’s whole thing, same as Ikuhara.

What really holes Star Driver below the water is that for all of its allusion, big set pieces and attempts to build a compelling character-driven narrative, there's absolutely zero tension in Zero Time - arguably any tension disappeared the moment we were told that Takuto dying would mean "game over". We know what's going to happen every single week, and that's where Star Driver makes the jump from "too deep for people to understand" to "dull". There is shed loads of potential in Star Driver, but by this juncture it's been entirely frittered away to the point where I doubt watching a couple of other series will suddenly help it much or cause some kind of "eureka" moment.

He’s argued this ad nauseum and it’s still not holding water. Stories where the hero overcomes their obstacles and “saves the day” on the regular don’t automatically lack tension just because we’re not biting our nails with suspense or even anticipation over who might die at any given moment or itching to see the status quo upended by some destructive instance of successful evildoing that the hero fails to stop. Sometimes, Saturday Morning Cartoon flavor works and is not “dull.”

Lastly, this is who he was responding to, who has some refreshingly solid, well thought out, well understood and very agreeable things to say on the matter. As such, I’ve bolded the ones that hit the best.

I generally enjoy reading your blog posts, and you have interesting thoughts on different shows but really it seems there are things you don't comprehend about Star Driver.

What I mean by saying that you don’t ‘comprehend’ aspects of Star Driver is not that it’s ‘too deep’ but more from a narrative perspective. You’re right in saying that the posts don’t explicitly explain what people are missing. But the emphasis is that ‘plot isn’t the point’ in Star Driver, it’s more about the allusions / symbolism / themes / characters. So if people focus on the former opposed to the latter, they’re ‘missing the point’. And it’s the case that most people relate/understand to traditional narrative. In Star Driver, the audience makes out the story for themselves using the allusions / symbolism / themes / characters rather than an unfolding plot and this is where people get lost, ie don’t understand therefore don’t like it. That’s cool. This way of storytelling isn’t for everybody.

I suppose it bothers me when criticisms like yours are based on a traditional narrative as opposed to the jigsaw puzzle way of Star Driver.

I’ll elaborate. Themes / symbolism / allusions / characters are the devices used for the audience to create their own overall understanding as opposed to an unfolding plot granting them this understanding. Generally speaking, this is how it was done in Utena, hence the comparison in the links.

In a conventional narrative we have conflict/tension/resolution (simplified form). Star Driver doesn’t utilise this as stated above. From your posts I gather that the lack of tension is your major dislike, and what I’m saying (and what the links are basically pointing out) is that Star Driver isn’t designed to have conventional narrative/plot (ie tension). This is why it doesn’t resonate with many people. This is what is meant by ‘not getting’ Star Driver.

Basically in Star Driver, there isn’t a straightforward pan of events that involve conflict/resolution or build tension to ‘tell’ us the story. But rather it’s the allusions/symbolism/themes AND how the characters work within these that ‘build’ the story.

I will use your example above of the lack of content within the repetition. Within the repetition we are given clues to characters’ motives. No, they’re not big world changing reveals. But using these clues (such as reactions, dialogue) and combining them with whatever symbolism is floating around, the audience is able to build the story. Star Driver requires the audience to be cluey and build, rather being given the story. Specific example this episode: Kanako notes that Wako was angry at Madoka for flirting with Takuto in Zero Time. This is a hint that Wako is leaning towards Takuto. Combine this with a frame last ep which shows Wako carrying Takuto’s watch (opposed to Sugata’s knife) reinforces this. The ‘story’ point here is that Wako has chosen Takuto, so the audience wonders how Sugata will react to this. Yes the audience will need to use various clues to work this out.

That is how ‘story’ is told in Star Driver. Putting together the puzzle. It requires the audience to be active and build it. Which is not for everyone. Which is perfectly fine.

It’s not that Star Driver is ‘too deep to understand’. It’s that the storytelling method of Star Driver doesn’t resonate with a mainstream audience. I just wanted to enlighten you to other ways of thinking about it because for me, criticising Star Driver using traditional narrative as your frame of reference (as you are doing), doesn’t hold water.

All of that. Beautifully put. This is the link they put out there too :https://revolemina.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/notes-on-star-driver/

Related: a more recent blogging of Star Driver from “Wrong Every Time”, who ironically seems to get it much more right than this guy. https://wrongeverytime.com/tag/star-driver/

And another great one!: https://randomc.net/category/star-driver/

Bottom line of this post: this person had no love for Star Driver to begin with; that’s why he couldn’t see its actual greatness.

#Star Driver #anime #opinion #criticism #defense #hatedumb #elitism #stupidity #misaimed fandom #completely missing the point

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