#how did this get past the censorship?? am I missing something

[two-hearts-beat]

*after having body-switched* man in a woman's body telling a woman in a man's body that she can now find men to sleep with because she has his body!?!?!??

[marenwithanm]

OK SO EPISODE 11: TRAUMA GOT ME LOSING MY MIND TONIGHT READ BELOW TO SEE MY THOUGHTS

Shou and touichiro seemed pretty much the same except for two things. 1) touichiro's vision of Shou and his wife which was just... So good... The way that the coloring paralleled his vision of his wife in season 2 has me 😭 2) the other one I noticed was the double charge bomb they did together. This could have been in the manga and I just didn't remember it, but I'm pretty sure that's anime original and I am LIVING for it. Shou's trump card which he originally used to try and bring down his dad is now being used in tandem with his dad to help someone. It's so so good. (What's NOT so good is Shou's outfit, why is bones so determined to slander his sense of fashion?? But that's a post for another day lol)

(for an episode titled "trauma" it was rather hopeful in the end. Wonder if that has any sort of thematic meaning)

first, all the changes. I really adored all the build up they gave ritsu. His arrival was a bit abrupt in the manga, and I will forever love bones for not only having ritsu find the crash sight, but also find and take care of Teru. Literally yesterday I was thinking about how sad it is that Teru just gets left naked and hurt in the middle of the road, so that was very very nice.

Back to more Ritsu changes since I'm following the episode's progression of scenes! I really miss the "man this is overkill" line. I know it doesn't fit the tone but it was just really funny ok?

But for some bigger changes, I noticed they took out the rhubarb wire that Ritsu saved a body improvement club member from. Which is interesting, I wonder if that's because of change of setting or censorship concerns.

They also took out a lot of the implications of Ritsu's plan later in the fight. In the anime, he said something along the lines of "a big shock might stop nii-san" whereas in the manga...

Yeah, he basically flat out says "maybe if I get hurt nii-san will snap out of it" which hoooo boy sure is a line of dialogue.

The final change I noticed was between the two "Mob" and "Shigeo", mainly in the art. I LOVE how they're doing it, with Shigeo being a blank white outline and Mob having blue lineart. It really helps differentiate them and make them pop. Super cool.

Now, do I miss some of the manga content and am I sad to see it go? Yes. But did bones do an utterly incredible job at adapting this? YES!!! so even if i don't like some of the changes, I like some of the other changes, and I love it overall.

As for overall hype:

OH MY GOSH 100% RITSU IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT AND BOY DID IT DELIVER I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS

Also all of the parallels to previous things like having their fight on the bridge where mogami world Ritsu ignored him is spectacular. And the whole "I'm your little brother so let me help you" paralleling mobs "in your older brother, so I have to take care of you". And the music being the same as their original fight in the alleyway. I can't even...

SHOU CONTENT!!!! YES!!!! I CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE HOW HYPED I AM TO SEE MY BELOVED

Studio bones really just adores the super five huh? Hatori is still here lol and Joseph too

REIGEN AND SERIZAWA JUST SPRINTING PAST THE POLICE AKFJSKFKR YES THAT WAS SO GOOD

Tsubomi please move out of the way of the active tornado this is not a safe place my girl (and what an interesting character choice for her to wait, Tsubomi is such an enigma in all the best ways)

Oh rip to sakuri and koyama, you did your best. (Side note, imagine your ex CEO falling from the sky to duke it out with a magic middle schooler who just destroyed your workplace. Seasoning city is so wild lol)

Random side characters getting one frame my beloved! Minori moment!! Tokugawa and Shinji moment!!

In conclusion, episode 11 makes me lose my marbles and it was 100% worth the wait!

[mtc-4life]

Hello! I hope you're having a good day. I enjoy reading your posts about MTC and I was wondering if you could make a scenario between Jyuto and Ichijiku (cause I saw what's her relationship between jyuto on the fan wiki) where Ichijiku already knows about his past Jyuto finds out her past (is this make sense to you cause really need to polish my English right now)

｡ﾟ･ Jyuto finds out about Ichijiku’s past - Imagine ･ ｡ﾟ

☆ Author’s notes: Omg I know I took FOREVER to write this, but I sincerely hope you like it. And your english is good, I myself am not a native speaker yet here I am writing for tumblr lol.

- Is that all you had to report me?

- Precisely, miss.

- Don’t call me like that, sergeant Iruma. Why don’t you stop messing with your boss and take your leave? – Ichijiku glared as she replied.

- You’re really a tough one, huh – Jyuto couldn’t help but smirk at the woman’s rough reply.

- Hmph! Just get going already! When I thought there was such a thing as a little less stupid man…

- Alright, alright, ma’am – the officer walked towards the door – I won’t disturb you any longer.

Still displeased, Ichijiku stared at Jyuto as he opened the door with his red-gloved hand and finally left her in peace.

Jyuto walked around the hall that led to the Police Department’s entrance.

With each and every step, he wondered how could Ichijiku have possibly turned into such a demanding woman. To him, it didn’t seem like she had been manipulated by The Party of Words like other members.

Her hatred towards men always had seemed very intricate to her own personal beliefs. She always seemed dominated by an uncontrollable rage whenever the subject was brought up.

Jyuto was very aware men were no saints, and working in the police has only showed him the crimes many were capable of committing. Yet, he couldn’t figure out why would a woman such as Ichijiku would grow so despiteful of men without any sort of exception…

- Something certainly happened to her… - he muttered to himself as he finally left the building.

***

It was nine a.m. when Jyuto checked his wristwatch, which meant it was time to go to Chuuoku’s Police Department for his monthly report on the drug traffic investigations. He would once again talk to no one less than Ichijiku Kadenokoji.

The previous month had brought him deep curiosity as to why his boss had such a grudge with men, and thus, he tried to investigate a little bit into her past.

Of course, since she had a very important position in the government, it wasn’t so simple – Chuuoku had extreme censorship methods, especially involving any information regarding its leaders. Carelessly asking about her past could get the officer himself into jail.

Yet that did not mean there was no evidence at all.

Jyuto even questioned himself if looking for such scarce data was worth the effort.

He ended up doing so not simply out of curiosity, but also because a part of him that could never speak up wished to know what the current government was all about.

Who were the people behind the laws he disagreed so much with?

Why these women were so obsessed with rap battle competitions between men they alleged were so ruthless?

What could have possibly triggered the series of unexplained events that led to the installment of a dictatorship like that?

Things happened so suddenly after the war that Jyuto never understood fully what the country he lived in turned into.

If he could find out about Ichijiku’s past, even if just a little, he felt like things would finally make some sort of sense in his mind.

And so, he collected in secret documents from many police districts that mentioned any suspect delation linked to Ichijiku. In Jyuto’s mind, only something as serious as a crime against her could explain such rage.

One of these papers really caught his attention. It was a testimony made by Ichijiku herself accusing a politician of murdering a woman named Karin Shimozaki and her family. Ichijiku alleged it was due to the fact Karin knew about the corrupt scheme said politician was involved in, and since she represented a threat, he demanded a group of man to kill her.

The file had been shelved since then.

If Ichijiku’s testimony was indeed the truth about Karin’s death, then it was really concerning the police did nothing about it. Why would they ignore a murder accusation like that? Jyuto thought it was very suspect…

He pondered about this new discovery as he drove to his destination.

***

- As you can see, we have cleared out this drug dealing point in Yokohama for good.

- Great. How about the yakuza? – Ichijiku looked up for a second after reading the documents Jyuto had brought her.

- Well, those are a difficult bunch…

- Do not pretend, Iruma. I know you’re protecting that buddy of yours. This Samatoki does whatever he wants if it depends on you!

- Are you serious? – Jyuto looked disturbed – I surely do my job in the most lawful manners, but you cannot expect me to keep Mad Trigger Crew’s leader in prison, can you, madam?

- Lawful? You, Iruma? Don’t make me laugh! I know about your methods. – she replied with a challenging look on her face.

- Then you might as well know they are very effective, thank you – Jyuto said, confident.

- Hmph! So pretentious! You should hold your tongue when talking to superiors!

- But what if those above you are wrong? What if their actions do not respect one’s basic rights?

- What do you mean by this? – Ichijiku raised an eyebrow.

- I’ve read some documents. Karin Shimozaki was murdered a few years ago, but there was no further investigation to arrest the culprit. You reported that a corrupt politician was the responsible for it, but nobody listened to you. Am I wrong?

Ichijiku was in disbelief. How come did Jyuto find such evidence? What was he planning to do by knowing her past?

Jyuto looked at her seriously before continuing:

- Did you readily accept your superior’s actions in this case? Accepting a politician to take the life of this woman, whom I assume was important to you? Accepting the police unwillingness to investigate the case?

- I… What do you want from me, Iruma? Do you want to be promoted or something? – Ichijiku replied a bit irritated.

- Well, being promoted is nice, but that’s not my goal with this conversation. You might think I’m trying to use your past against you, but I assure you that’s not the case.

- Oh, very well! Because if it was I would have your past to use against you, sergeant! I know everything about you!

Jyuto smiled:

- That’s expected of you. Always ready for someone to knock you down. All I’m trying to say is that I understand where your grudge with men came from, but is this political system you’re in really a solution? Isn’t The Party of Words harming people’s basic rights anyways?

- You!!!

Ichijiku glared at Jyuto, but that did not stop his words:

- You’re a smart woman. I’m sure you can understand my point. It’s your choice to be in the Party of Words. It’s also your choice to leave it – he confidently stepped towards the door.

- Is that all the nonsense you had to say?

- Precisely. Now, I better leave. See you next month, miss! – he smirked as he opened the office door.

- Bastard!!! I’ve warned you not to call me like that! Always provoking, you’re not jobless because I’m terribly patient! – Ichijiku replied, completely infuriated.

- I know, I know – Jyuto laughed – I’m so competent you can’t even consider dismissing me!

The man finally left, closing the door right in front of an enraged Ichijiku.

Jyuto knew there was much more to her past than just this. It was still unclear to him how much Karin was involved in Ichijiku’s life.

Yet even without knowing this information, he hoped to have at least reminded Ichijiku of her own humanity.

She seemed to have involved herself with something against her own initial reasons to want to change the system.

Jyuto made a dangerous move by telling her such words. It was risky to confront The Party of Words.

But that was an attempt to make life for everybody in his country a little less difficult. That level of oppression was not acceptable.

In that sense, his motives made the risk of confronting Ichijiku worth taking.

Jyuto left the Police Department building with a hopeful smile.

[jacke-12]

Stagger Lee (1958) - Lloyd Price

Genre: rhythm and blues

Peak position on US Billboard Hot 100: 1

Rhythm and blues singer Lloyd Price, known as "Mr. Personality", had a few hits (such as "Personality" which earned him the nickname). "Stagger Lee" was his biggest, a now definitive musical incarnation of the story of Stagger Lee / Stack O'Lee / Stagolee, a dark folk tale about Lee Shelton's real life murder of Billy Lyons in 1895.

There have been countless versions of this song / story, of which I have heard a significant amount of due to a little past project of mine to hear as many as possible (I swiftly tired of this). There are many great ones - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds darkly comic version on Murder Ballads was mine and I imagine many's first introduction to the character, and of course there's Mississippi John Hurt's also definitive version. (For a more obscure one, I recommend Taj Mahal's. He has a wonderful voice and he even does sound effects.) However, this has remained my absolute favourite version, a raucous, lively track that Tarantinifies the violence (i.e. makes it hugely enjoyable in a morally questionable way).

Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife", which I have previously reviewed, scratches a similar itch to this track in the way it revels in the dark lyrical content. But I would say this track removes the sinister elements - it is simply too ebulliant to be anything other than hugely fun. I suppose it is sinister in that lines like "Oh he shot that poor boy so bad / 'Til the bullet came through Billy / And it broke the bartender's glass" become so good to sing along to, because he sings it with such eagerness. It's the sort of song that you could easily forget just how grim of a story it is, but that is almost always true of these folk criminals - the fictionalising of them makes details like Lee killing Billy to get his "brand new Stetson hat" back seem badass rather than reprehensible.

The song also sounds live and unpolished in a very appealing way (as does the whole album The Exciting Lloyd Price, a worthwhile listen even if it doesn't all match up to this track or the other single "Lawdy Miss Claudy"). Lloyd Price is fighting to be heard above the muddy chaos backing him, which reminds me a lot of what makes Bob Dylan's electric albums so good - the sound of the live instrumentation, especially the horns here, while not being as crisp or clear as some might like, have so much more character and grit as a result. It doesn’t always sound good, but in a song with a nasty edge like this it is absolutely fitting.

The fact that this sort of song could top the charts without censorship surprises me, but maybe censorship wasn't targeted towards something as trivial as murder. I am glad it did top the charts, as I imagine it would be much harder to stumble across it like I did if it hadn't. One of the best pop songs of the 50s.

[karelysse]

alright, at long last... it's time. i'm breaking this up into multiple asks because tumblr is evil. if anyone feels like i've missed something crucial, please hop in and lmk. also it's currently 1 AM, please forgive any typos you see. so, what the fuck do javi do, exactly? the short answer is he gave some rather... poor commentary re: yuzuru's SP. *when* exactly this happened is in question, some say it was once the entire men's event was over, others say it was right after the SP (1/?)

what did javi say? well it was in spanish, but here are some links for you to browse on twitter. here's a generous translation + vid: + the follow-up and here's an alternative translation (scroll down). this sparked a lot of backlash. why was he questioning yuzuru and his work ethic? why would he imply yuzu was lying?

this post does a good job of summing up the disappointment people felt. there was also a weird comment he made about yuzu getting gifts after an event but i can't find the clip. sadly some took it too far and flooded javi's insta, he ended up making a not-apology-apology post about it (tracy + brian both commented under it). but the damage was done, the majority of fanyus dislike/are neutral about him now

to me, the whole thing was very... odd. almost out of character, imo? javi hasn't always been the best with words, but he had so much praise for yuzuru's FS at these Olys, so why would he do such a 180? he knows the scrutiny yuzuru is under, he knows yuzuru wouldn't lie? it just doesn't make sense to me. that said, they're both grown adults and they've known e/o for 10 years. i have faith they'll sort it out for better or worse (especially since they're both scheduled for FaOI this year)

imo, after taking a month to reflect on it, i've decided that this one ugly moment (and i DO think it was a bad take from him tbh) shouldn't mean i can't look on the past with fondness. ultimately we don't know these people! again, it's up to them to figure out how they move forward from here. that's not my call and it's not the fandom's call. more than anything, i want yuzuru to be happy. and that's all for now! next time, i'll fill you in on the poetic tragedy of the whole mess. 💕

------------------------------------------------

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this! It's such a concise yet complete overview of the situation, and very lovely of you to send it to me. Now, after reading @fieryrondo's post, so beautifully worded, I don't think I have anything of notable interest to add.

I'll be honest and confess that I have no emotional attachment to all of this, learning about it so late and not being a direct witness to the events (which must have been a lot more dramatic for fans, as it was paired with the pain of Yuzuru losing at that time, I can only assume).

At the end of the day, Javi's a professional giving his opinion on something that wayyyy surpasses my understanding in terms of technicalities. I'm just here for the glitters. But I do think people have been way over the top in speculating on Yuzuru's woe and hurt and feelings of being mortally betrayed. This is not, in my humble opinion, the absolute treason people frame it to be. This isn't an attack to Yuzuru's integrity, and even if it was, welp, Javier Fernandez probably knows Yuzuru Hanyu better than I, a person on the internet who's never met him, ever will, so idc.

As I've been talking about with @sophia-helix, we can't silence every critical voice that raises itself against Yuzuru, that's silly + literal censorship + doesn't serve him in any way, shape, or form. And people are allowed to make mistakes!!!!

[kittyprincessofcats]

She-Ra S5 E09 - An Ill Wind

In which the Best Friend Squad’s back on Etheria and I’m back to writing up my thoughts about it. (The real question is whether I’ll manage to finish these posts before season 5’s one-year-anniversary.) I probably really don’t need to say this anymore, but there might be spoilers for the rest of the season in this post.

- I think it’s funny how Catra can’t stand teleporting, but what’s even more important is how visibly concerned for her Adora is each time. Have you seen how she touches Catra’s shoulders and looks at her with such a worried expression? D’awww.

- “Wow, you don’t trust the princesses? I am shocked.” No Glimmer, Catra’s 100% right. This has nothing to do with trusting the princesses; you really don’t know who’s chipped and which places are occupied by clones. Perfuma literally told you the rebellion was compromised.

- “Catra’s right.” THANK YOU, ADORA! (Also, I love Catra’s satisfied little smirk in the background when Adora says this.)

- I just paused the episode when they arrive in Erelandia and counted the Horde flags you can see hanging all over the town: 14, plus one giant Horde sign in the sky and a spire not too far away. Prime, are you compensating for something? (Also, Adora has an arm on Catra’s back again. Cute.)

- Is it a little disappointing that all the rebellions against Horde Prime on other planets got reduced to one brief exposition scene where a clone mentions they’re happening and a few quick images? Yeah. But I also get why the show just didn’t have the time for more and wanted to focus on Etheria.

- Speaking of, are those the magicats we see in the second image? Interesting… I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of Catra potentially being an alien as well. But then again, the show never clearly answers it one way or another, and there’s no reason magicats couldn’t have existed on multiple planets.

- Also, am I understanding this right: The Star Siblings started the intergalactic rebellion after meeting the Best Friend Squad? And now there are already rebels on several planets? Nice job, Star Siblings!

- “My heart aches for these misguided children.” I’m not sure if I’ve ever properly addressed the heavily religious symbolism around Horde Prime and his cult, but… that right there is *such* a Christian-extremist-coded line, holy hell…

- So Prime says he wants to use the Heart of Etheria “to bring peace to all the universe” and at this point I’m not entirely sure what his exact goal is. Does he just want to destroy all the planets with the Heart? Because I’ll be honest, I tend to find “I just want to destroy everything” a bit boring as a motivation in villains. What’s the point of him ruling the universe if there’s no one left to rule over? I mean, I know Prime had his whole “If there’s no one left, there are no wars, etc.” speech in an earlier episode, but that’s also just so dumb.

- Where did the Best Friend Squad even get those cloaks? Either way, Catra looks adorable with the outline of her ears showing under the hood. 🥺

- “I hope you, too, are full only of love for Horde Prime… and have no crippling doubt eating at your soul.” / “Brothers, there is nothing to see here!” Like I said in an earlier post, all of Wrong Hordak’s lines are absolute winners. Also, I love how the other clones just keep falling for his very obvious bluffs.

- Wrong Hordak learning to wink so quickly makes me jealous because I can’t wink. (No, I really can’t; I’ve tried. Whenever I try to only close one eye, I always end up closing both. If anyone has good advice on learning to wink, let me know.)

- I love the character designs of the mushroom people.

- Catra wasn’t wrong about the locals selling them out and not telling them anything useful. The others should listen to her more.

- Bow posing as the “average traveler passing though” is especially funny because I’m pretty sure there are no “travelers passing through” in times of Horde Prime.

Catra: “A town that hates princesses? Should I buy property here?”

Everyone else: *glares*

Catra: “Is what I would have said before I joined you. Go, team.”

😂😂😂 Catra’s quiet little “Go, team” in the end is what gets me most about this moment 😂. She’s adorable and trying her best, okay?

- I love how Wrong Hordak just calls everyone “brother” regardless of gender. Also, Adora’s little “Did you just wink at me?” / “That’s not how winking works!” moments are hilarious and adorable.

- “You’re wearing hooded cloaks, it’s highly suspicious.” Okay, mushroom lady’s not wrong, though. And I love how someone finally points this out, since hooded cloaks are so often used as “undercover” disguises in shows like this.

- That said, both she and mushroom guy earlier did try to sell the Best Friend Squad out super quickly. Like, I get that the locals are scared, but still… They could have tried to stay safe without running towards the clones to tell them everything right away.

- I’m just noticing that Erelandia has mushrooms everywhere. Obviously the people are mushrooms, but there are also mushrooms growing outside in the streets everywhere, and the shop they’re in is selling mushrooms and clothes with mushrooms on them as well.

- Both Bow and Glimmer blowing their covers almost immediately and Adora just quietly shaking her head at both of them in the background is amazing.

- Love Catra (and Melog) just casually stealing a mushroom from a mushroom lady.

- So Catra’s just chilling in a tree and eating stolen mushrooms and Entrapta wants to analyze samples that’ll be ready in 4-6 weeks – neither of them’s really helping right now. But then again, Catra wanted to leave in the first place because she thought the locals would sell them out (and she was right about that), so she probably thinks it’s not worth the effort.

- Also, you know who this scene with Entrapta and Catra is missing? Scorpia. If there is one problem I have with season 5, it’s that we didn’t get any Super Pal Trio reunion / moments with all of them on the same side now. (Or just in general, that we didn’t get to see Scorpia and Catra properly talking things out.)

- “That’s the windy one, right?” Okay, am I the only one who finds this line weird? Spinnerella literally has Adora, Bow and Glimmer trapped in a tornado as Entrapta says this. Obviously she’s “the windy one”? Entrapta can literally see that??

- “Lord Prime has given me peace.” Oh, I’m just realizing that’s just what Catra said when she was chipped. That’s got to be awful for Adora to hear again.

- Glimmer grabbing Bow and Adora’s hands and teleporting them out of the tornado was badass.

Adora: “How are we supposed to fight our own friends?”

Catra: “It never stopped you before.”

OMG. I love that Catra still considers their time as enemies as “being friends”.

- I really love Netossa’s entrance. What makes it really cool to me is that at that point the Best Friend Squad didn’t even know if there were any unchipped princesses left, so Netossa jumping in there with a casual “Welcome back, guys” was just an amazing moment.

- Also, I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but I really like that this season finally made Spinnerella and Netossa more important characters. (And I wonder how much network censorship of LGBT+ storylines had to do with them not being that important earlier on.)

- Hordak getting flashbacks of Entrapta again (while Prime looks at his older body’s memories) is just 🥺. I like how Prime talks about Etheria while Hordak slowly remembers more and more about his own life on Etheria.

- “So, the only person I’m fighting here is… my own wife.” I love the on-screen confirmation that they’re married! But also, Netossa wanting to attack Catra and Wrong Hordak at first was pretty funny.

- Catra and Glimmer’s respective expressions when they hear about Scorpia and Micah being chipped are a gut punch. Also, Netossa talking about how she has to get Spinnerella back is making me tear up.

- “Where are the rebels?” “Right beside you!” 😂😂😂 Amazing, just amazing.

- Love to see Catra taking out those bots. She’s so badass ❤️.

- “Be careful.” “Always am.” I wonder at what point Netossa started to realize what’s going on between Catra and Adora.

- Love Netossa whistling at She-Ra’s new look. Your wife’s right there, darling. But then again, who wouldn’t whistle at She-Ra’s new look?

- Honestly, why did anyone ever say Spinnerella and/or Netossa were weak? Their fight here really shows how powerful both of them are when they don’t hold back.

- “Stop holding back. She won’t.” Looking past how hard this must be for Netossa, this line really sums up why so many characters in shows like this seemingly become more powerful when they turn evil (or less powerful when they turn good): Because the bad guys have no reason to hold back.

- Adora firing a rainbow beam from her sword was amazing. I wish we’d gotten to see a bit more of She-Ra’s new powers this season.

- “Please. I love you. Come back to me.” I’m crying 😢. That’s a nice first taste of all the “I love you”s to come in the finale. And I love that it works (even if just for a bit). The whole “power of love helps you break free from mind control” thing might be a cliché, but it’s a cliché I love, so…yay, awesome!

- But also, and I’ll probably talk about this more when I get to the next episode (that I had a few problems with), I like how Netossa doesn’t only rely on the power of love, but still realizes she has to first fight Spinnerella without holding back to get her into a position where they can even have this talk.

- Yay, mushroom town is saved!

- Catra reassuring Netossa that Spinnerella will be okay was so sweet. She’s really trying to be nice and I think she’s doing great 🥺. (Also, Adora looks at her so proudly.)

- I just noticed that when She-Ra replaces the Horde symbol in the sky with her sword symbol, all the Horde flags around town are already gone, too. Did Catra, Glimmer and the others just like… take all of those flags down in between fighting the bots? Or did Wrong Hordak maybe walk around taking off the flags while the others were fighting?

- That said, the rainbow sword in the sky looks amazing.

- “I think Horde Prime is going to know She-Ra’s back.” “Good.” Love Adora’s determined expression here.

- Geez Horde Prime, no need to punch the screen. The screen didn’t do anything to you.

- Okay, so Horde Prime finally decides to go to Etheria himself, and when he announces that, Hordak looks at the crystal in his hand – it’s all coming together.

- “This is where the rebellion is hiding out?” “Yup. Why, have you been here?” The looks on Glimmer and Catra’s faces here are amazing. People have of course already written all kinds of amazing metas analyzing their expressions, but the short version is that Glimmer seems to remember their fight fondly, while Catra seems embarrassed.

- Perfuma trapping them all in vines and demanding to see their necks is not only hilarious, but also shows that the rebellion has learned from their past mistakes. 👍

- All of their reunions (Bow and Perfuma, Glimmer and Frosta, Adora and Swift Wind, Entrapta and Emily) were super sweet – I like big reunion scenes 🥺. Wrong Hordak meeting Emily was adorable. Perfuma clinging to Bow and crying about how she doesn’t want to be in charge anymore had me laughing so hard 😂.

- Okay so, I know Frosta’s punch breaks the mood a moment later, but I really think Adora wanting to officially introduce Catra to everyone after seeing her standing there alone while everyone else was having big reunions was super sweet. The way her face falls when she sees Catra standing there sadly, the way she asks her to come here so gently… it’s just so sweet. 🥺

- Also, unpopular opinion, but am I the only one who didn’t really find Frosta punching Catra funny? (And the same goes for Scorpia electrocuting her in the next episode, by the way.) I know these moments are meant to be cathartic “drag the former villain because some people are still mad at them” moments, but Catra’s whole story is largely about being a victim of physical abuse. Wasn’t there some way for the story to make fun of her without having other characters physically assault her? I like how Catra’s redemption was handled overall, but moments like those kind of rub me the wrong way. (Netossa trapping her in a net was fine though, because that didn’t actually harm her.)

- That said, Adora’s “Catra’s with us now. Okay? Hmm.” was hilarious. I love how she just gives the briefest explanation and then turns away from Frosta with a smile and little “hmm”, just completely expecting Frosta to be fine with this now.

- That ending shot of all of them together is epic.

So, what changed this episode is that Erelandia was freed, the space group has reunited with the remaining princesses, and Horde Prime is heading for Etheria. Good episode!

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[murfeelee]

CQL/MDZS INSP - Gusu Arc Pt2c: The Gift

CAPTIONS AS TEXT

- - - Wei WuXian: Lan Zhan, I’m back! Did you miss me? Without me copying texts for these past few days? Lan WangJi: .... - WWX: Don’t be so scary! I’m here to apologize, by giving you a present! LWJ: No. WWX: Are you sure~~~? LWJ: ??? - WWX: Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan! How do you like my gift? I found one last night. Today, I caught another to keep it company! - WWX: What do you think? Am I sincere enough? I spent half a day catching it. Do you want them or not? LWJ: ... - WWX: Fine, I'll give them to someone else then. LWJ: To whom? WWX: Whoever is good at roasting rabbits! My food hasn't had much flavor lately. LWJ: Killing is forbidden in Cloud Recesses. It is the third rule on the Wall of Rules. - WWX: Fine, I’ll go down the mountain, kill it outside, and then bring it back to roast it. You don't want them anyway, why do you care? - LWJ: .... I'll take them. - WWX: NOW you want them?! Look at you—you’re always like this. Never speaking from your heart!

-- Mo Dao Zu Shi: Novel, Chapter 18 | Dongua/anime S01E05

MY THOUGHTS (rant alert)

IMO, CQL/The Untamed tv show adaptation ruined the whole significance of Lan WangJi’s rabbits and his later obsession with them.

I’ve already talked about the cultural significance of rabbits in ancient China, as a symbol of homosexual love. In MDZS, there are several scenes where the interactions between the 2 rabbits (who are both male) directly represent the relationship between WangXian.

In the original MDZS novel, Wei WuXian gave LWJ the rabbits as a peace offering, which marked the transition to a gradual ceasefire and ending of hostilities between WangXian as rival classmates/disciples.

The rabbits fight, but eventually end up horsing around and dry-humping each other, which scandalizes sheltered/repressed LWJ. He calls them obscene/filthy (depending on translations), but still decides to keep them--despite it breaking the rule that no pets are allowed in Cloud Recesses.

WWX only gave LWJ 2 male rabbits, but 16 years later, LWJ has an entire colony, all descended from the first 2--and we learn that Lan Xichen and Lan Sizhui have been helping him collect, breed & care for them all these years.

With the bunnies, we finally see the chronically stoic LWJ openly express interest/fondness for something, AND it’s directly related to WWX, and something WWX GAVE him, as an apology for being such a menace  LWJ not only accepted the rabbits, but he accepted WWX’s APOLOGY, AND accepted WWX as a person: obscene and filthy and a rule breaker, but one LWJ not-so-secretly liked anyway.

It’s been well-documented how much The Untamed had to modify aspects of WangXian in order to slip past China’s anti-LGBT+ censorship bans, but IMO there was ZERO reason to get rid of the scene where WWX gifted the bunnies to LWJ. The donghua/anime is also under censorship, and THEY included it--though admittedly, they snuck the scene in the post-credits, so it’s missable, unless you watch the very end of S01E05.

However, what The Untamed did instead was completely unnecessary!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought the random AF rabbits wearing the GusuLan headbands and living in the Ice Cave for hundreds of years was EFFING DUMB, and that the exposition dump Lan Yi gave was convoluted AF.

Where did these Ice Rabbits even come from? (Are they divine? Lan Yi’s are clearly ice-proof and immortal-ish and don’t need food, but we see Lan WangJi’s munching on grass, so....? I assume these are the same ones LWJ raises 16 years later, but...how????)

Yes, the rabbits wearing the Lan headbands gave WangXian the idea to share LWJ’s headband to get past the magic barrier, which gave the fandom its iconic “WangXian wedding scene Pt1,“ cuz the headband is sacred to family & S/Os, but come the heck on.

None of that in the Ice Cave was canonical to the MDZS source material, it was just made up for the show. They integrated it fairly well, but IMO they could’ve easily had WWX go back in the cave and steal the rabbits and give them to LWJ, but we never see the cave again, or get any explanation for LWJ’s colony 16 years later (IIRC). Rather than LWJ liking rabbits as a not-so-subtle clue to him being gay and them being a present FOR him from the guy he was developing feelings for, The Untamed merely used rabbits to represent what WangXian experienced in the Ice Cave.

I’m sorry, but as popular as the headband-sharing scene is in the fandom, IMO I don’t think the Ice Cave as a whole was that big a deal, especially not compared to the way more impactful cave WangXian was in later--Xuanwu’s.

By the show’s logic, why weren’t tortoises used as a symbol for them? They were in the Ice Cave together for a few hours tops. But they were trapped alone together in Xuanwu’s Tortoise’s Cave for a WEEK, and had to rely on each other to LITERALLY survive.

Eff those random AF bunnies--it was because of the tortoise that WWX found the Yin Iron and that LWJ sang his secret WangXian song to WWX and opened up to WWX and openly wept in front of him! That was HUGE! So The Untamed’s effort to push the rabbits as the symbol of WangXian’s love IMO lost a bit of its effectiveness, when they removed the original context & didn’t adequately supplement it.

TL;DR, The Untamed did the symbolism of the rabbits a disservice, and the Ice Cave was not that impactful of an addition to the story. The real resonance they had with LWJ is lost in the tv show, in favor of the rabbits barely driving contrived plot exposition with Lan Yi and the Yin Iron/Stygian Tiger Seal, which The Untamed also effed around with in ways I didn’t like--

Listen, I’ve said before that I think the donghua/anime is a much better adaptation of MDZS. I like The Untamed for its aesthetics, and for all the lovely things it gave us, but it took serious liberties with the source material. (And don’t get me started on that ending! U_U)

[watch-grok-brainrot]

wrt the new discourse on zhiji by pumpkinpaix and hunxi, has your stance on zhiji that the other anon asked about changed?

ok. so i think it’s unfair for you to think i follow the same folk you do even if i recommend them and that i read everything from them. while the first one is true, i do follow both of them, i don’t read everything from them. i follow a few hundred folk and it’s just a lot to actually read everything so i just kinda look at my dash when i have bandwidth (i don’t have much lately) and see what i see.  if you could actually link me to things in teh future if you want my opinion, that would be greatly appreciated. i’m not mad -- just pointing out different folk curate their tumblr experiences differently. 

Anyway, I found @pumpkinpaix‘s post and skimmed it. I didn't see an addition by hunxi. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it’s 6:30 am when i started this endeavor. cut me some slack. lol

tl;dr: my feelings haven’t changed. i don’t actually think my stance is that different. the point cyan made about "to use “soulmate” as a catch-all translation for 知己 changes the axis upon which the relationship moves” is more or less what i was trying to say when i rambled about all the different ways i would translate soulmate depending on context. I did say “if I were to see it in a novel or show I was trying to translate, I may translate it differently each time.” 

also, the goals of our posts were different. cyan wants to vent and contemplate and hers is a salt post. i was toasting in a warm fuzzy spot of shan he hell and wanted to share the joy and love. so of course out answers are gonna sound different.do i agree the way the english speaking fandom uses soulmates misses the point? yup. am i gonna do something about it? nah. i am so tired right now from irl. fandom isn’t something i want to spend excess bandwidth on to make myself upset. 

i get cyan’s ire. she is valid. I think cyan’s solution to translate as some sort of knowing/to know works fine. it changes the key word from a noun to a verb but it’s a nice solution if it works for her. 

cyan's point that the fandom misconstrues things and applies all the English connotations to Chinese concepts and then leans in on all the (inaccurate) english concepts while ignoring the layers of connotations of that original word is spot on. I don't think I'm quite as angry as cyan had managed to get over this one translation choice... But 1) you end up getting whiplash about different things (my annoyance lately is found family and yi-based family vs actual blood relationships and how fandom just throws familial terms around and remove all subtlety... and THEN get upset when you ship yi-based relationship folk because it’s suddenly incest? uh... what?.... *breathes in* but i’m not gonna make this a salt post....) 2) I agree it is an inherent problem with translation:  remember there are often not 1:1 translations of words from one language to another. i still maintain there are times where the word soulmates work but zhiji lets you pretend it’s never romantic if you need to. the lu xun line was not a romantic one, iirc. but i have seen soulmate, the person who knows me, bosom friend, kindred spirit, etc and they are all valid. even “this person SEES me” or “someone who gets me”, “someone i vibe with” works depending on context. as i said in my post, i would translate zhiji on a case by case basis. and let me be a little cheeky: if we don’t really look at what we’re translating and picking the words on a case-by-case and contextual bases, we risk producing something that sounds like MTL.  

anyway, i don’t really know where i’m going. this ask dragged me out of bed way too early and now i need to shower and start my day. 

have a good day nonny. and anyone else reading this. remember if you don’t actually know the language and culture, please be careful in the assumptions you make that aren’t crack posts.

i also know i leaned into the “how did this get past censorship” stuff for shl -- but the things i posted about are actually tropes/references that are usually romantic applied to wenzhou. the soulmate things is cute but i read a LOT less into the use of a single word than all the visual clues in that show... i’m still rambling. crap. need to shower. 

[razberryyum]

TGCF donghua Special Episode Thoughts (SPOILERS for episode & novel!)

Favorite moment:

Of COURSE that amazing ending sequence, which is the mirror of Dianxia's backstory at the end of the first episode, except this time from Hua Cheng's point of view. Speaking of, holy mother of YUM, dear gods, Hua Cheng:

Look at this "hideous" man. I am DROOLING.

Funny thing is, I didn't even know his appearance was supposed to be a secret, that we technically hadn't seen his face yet all this time. I remember we had a super quick glimpse of him in the Banyue pit and I thought that was his reveal, that that'll be all we'll get for now and I was fine with that...that is, until this ending sequence happened and we actually see him in his entirety. My eyes will forever never be the same. What was I even thinking??? The flashes in the pit were absolutely inferior to the real thing. No comparison. He is so gorgeous; I can't WAIT for Xie Lian to meet him next season.

Second favorite moment:

What I love about this scene is first of all it features some of my favorite lines from the novel, "If you don't know what to live for, then just live for me. If you don't know the meaning of life, then take me as the meaning your life." Even though Dianxia was playing it up for dramatic effect, I loved how he crawled towards San Lang and then uttered the lines with such conviction. I LOVED the way the music reached a cresendo during his words--hell, I love the music in this entire episode, this entire show, period. I also love how bittersweet this scene is: here Dianxia is so embarrassed by his own words that he even laughs about them, dismisses them, not know just how much of an effect they had on the person he said them to, how they really did serve to motivate that person to live on, to exist, utterly for him. Not knowing at all that that person he said what he now thinks were silly words to is right in front of him. The irony!

I'm still making my way through the book so I haven't gotten to the part where all is revealed to Xie Lian yet, but I can only imagine how shocking and emotional this particular revelation would be. It'll probably be ten years before we get to see all that in the donghua, if we ever do, but I'm gonna keep on crossing my fingers and hoping.

"I swear, whether in Heaven or or on Earth, you cannot find someone more sincere than me". The subs left out the Heaven or Earth part but it's still such a good line. Love also how San Lang precedes that by trying to reach out to touch Dianxia but is like too afraid to. The donghua really captured his feelings of...I guess I'd call it timid inferiority...so well.

I have a strong suspicion what that ring is (irl, I've seen companies advertising turning ashes into diamonds as a keepsake of your loved ones...never tried it so I don't know if it's the real deal or some kind of scam) and I cannot wait to get to that revelation as well. Putting aside the potential significance of this momento, the fact that Hua Cheng left Dianxia a ring to wear around his neck is already a beautiful gesture on its own.

I already miss seeing how San Lang looks adoringly at Xie Lian. In fact, I think I'm going to miss San Lang for quite a while since next season I think we'll be mostly spending time with Hua Cheng. Not complaining at all since Hua Cheng will no doubt look at Dianxia just as adoringly, but I will miss this cute guy.

Also already missing the cuteness that is Dianxia. I love all his expressions...the way he said "San Lang" just made my heart explode. How can he be this adorable??? Really, bravo to Jiang Guangtao-laoshi, his voice actor, for such an endearing voice performance. I actually started listening to the Qiang Jin Jiu audio drama because I've become a fan. Imagine Xie Lian being super seductive all the time. That's the ear candy I'm enjoying now, even though I only understand like less than half of the plot due to my shoddy Chinese comprehension.

Proud of how San Lang didn't just lose it when Dianxia cradled his face like that. This man really has unbelievable self control.

I loved that they were chatting in bed like an old married couple. I'm sure this is a glimpse into their future married life. 😁

Besides SanLian, I know Banyue was in this episode as well, I still think she's adorable and love her voice, and I'm glad she gets to enjoy a torture-free life now (I am assuming she does).

I'm glad we got this special episode to really close out the season, but I'm still kinda confused as to why we didn't get it at the actual end of the season but rather as an odd stand alone episode like this. Obviously it picked up right where the 11th episode left off, so it would've slotted in perfectly well. I was hoping the reason they held on to it was because they were going to attach a teaser PV for the next season, but alas that wasn't the case. I wonder if they just needed more time to finish the episode. I still don't quite understand how the Chinese donghua industry works: for something seemingly as popular as TGCF, you would think they'd have good enough budget and resources to finish episodes in time and to make more than just 12 episodes. There are other donghua shows I've seen on Bilibili that have blown way past 12 episodes, so I don't understand why they have to stubbornly stick to a dozen only for something like TGCF. Or is it a danmei thing, I wonder. They just don't want to devote the time and resources to danmei shows beyond just 12 episodes? So weird. Again, VERY GRATEFUL we're getting a second season. SINCERELY praying that we get many more seasons after so that eventually they'll finish out the book. God I hope I finish reading before the donghua team finishes putting out the show.

And that brings me to: Current Reading Progress...chapter 160. Look, I'm gonna be honest, I'm just not a fan of the whole jinx demon concept or the Brocade Immortal. I know all mysteries of the week lead back to the gods and their backstory, but as CONCEPTS, I was just NOT into them so I constantly got distracted. I know MXTX-laoshi was under a LOT of pressure from both censorship and just ridiculous deadlines (I was told she had to produce a chapter a day, which is INSANE), so I feel like a douchebag for even thinking anything negative about the book...not to mention I'm only on Book 3 still so maybe all of this will be wrapped up nicely at the end. But for now, yeah, those two as ideas are a bit underwhelming and almost silly (especially the Brocade Immortal) and maybe I don't need the backstory of ALL the gods. Anyway, before anyone yells at me, there's always a chance I might change my mind about all this by the end...which I hope to get to soon. Didn't finish the book in time for this special episode which was my goal, so readjusting the goalpost back a little further...hopefully just a tad...like a few weeks, because I DO want to get to the unrelenting pain soon so that I can get through the suffering and finally to the HuaLian happily ever after ending.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

can we adress how toxic some of these self/harm and suicide fics are?? as someone who has struggled with these issues, treating them as just a way for the two characters to get together, or one character to be the savior who cures someone of their problems? I'm so frickin over it. continuing to put your partner in limbo by threatening this behavior when they don't give you enough attention is a symptom of something major. This is not something i like seeing romanticized. at all.

[CONTENT WARNING FOR ENTIRE POST: heavy discussions of trauma, suicide, self harm, depression, political issue mentions, and eating disorders. Please proceed with care. I am not cutting the post because I think the message is important, so scroll past until my icon disappears <3 Stay safe, My Lovelies.]

Hey Nonny

Okay, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here because you mention you DO have struggles with these issues, so I’m going to state right up front here and say I AM NOT DISREGARDING YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AT ALL. Your view of this topic is valid, and it’s not something I am ever going to say is wrong for you. 

I would like to offer an olive branch, here, Nonny, and give you an alternative take on this, because I’m concerned that perhaps you are still coping with your own struggles and in return, you unwittingly and unintentionally are coming off as unsympathetic to other people’s coping mechanisms.

I KNOW how hard it is to see another view when yours is the only one that seems right, especially after a tragedy or after dealing with heavy things. But all I am asking is for you to temporarily extend some empathy as I discuss my thoughts in this post, and I apologize in advance if I come off as dickish, because, again, it’s hard to see past your own feelings, and I tend to give a “firm but understanding” approach to asks like this. It’s NOT meant to call you our personally. Just asking for an open mind.

I will tackle this ask in a similar fashion to this post here, which talks about shipping vs fetishization so CW for that, as well as like this post here, where we discuss pet peeves. My assumption here is that Nonny is unsure about what “romanticizing” actually entails, and how much this ask is basically Gatekeeping Fiction 101, a thing that’s been going on since the beginning of storytelling. The ask is perceived by me to be emotionally unaware of how unsympathetic it actually sounds, and in turn can unintentionally upset people who engage in these stories.

First thing’s first, Nonny, and I said it before, I GET IT. I understand what you’re going for here, why you feel it’s toxic, and why you think it shouldn’t exist. Here’s the thing, though: what you’re ACTUALLY calling for here is censorship and gatekeeping because YOU PERSONALLY take issue with something, want the fandom specially curated just for you, because it PERSONALLY OFFENDS YOU. And that, it itself, is what’s really toxic, here. Just because YOU are offended, does not mean that it’s not helpful to SOMEONE ELSE, and it’s selfish to make such a demand of people.

Let me explain.

As I mention in the link above re: shipping, many people read and write fics to cope with the reality of their own experiences. Nonny, your experience is NOT the same as someone else’s. Your pain is NOT universal, and you DON’T KNOW what that author has been through; for all you know, they spent 6 months in-hospital after attempting suicide, and they are now simply processing their trauma through storytelling. 

Or, “continuing to put your partner in limbo by threatening this behavior when they don't give you enough attention” ? It’s a VERY REAL THING that ACTUALLY happens in real life, and perhaps it happened to that author, or they want to write an alternate ending to their pain.

Or, “one character to be the saviour who cures someone of their problems?” is something a suicide survivor WISHES someone did for them. Because they feel alone in the world and don’t want to be alone anymore.

These stories are simply escapism for people, either to learn about or share what these mental illnesses do to people, or are the “fantasies” of survivors, of their ideal outcome to their own tragedies. Coping with guilt over the loss of someone they feel they could have saved. The brutal truth about realty.

And sometimes, it is because some people need a good cry and a feel-good happy ending, because real life? Well, it rarely has those happy endings and so few opportunities to let us cry, and sometimes life is just easier when we view it through the eyes of fictional characters. Do you not want someone to save you sometimes Nonny? And I mean metaphorically here, too. Someone to just take all of your hellish burdens off those shoulders for one day. Someone who will come in to save you from yourself. I know I do.

And, well, sometimes, Nonny, it makes people feel less alone in this socially distanced world.

They’re not glorifying that issue Nonny. They’re telling their story.

Here are some thoughts:

Romanticization: Some trendy teen outlet selling a shirt with “mentally diseased” written across it.

NOT Romanticization: A character in a story coming to terms with a diagnosis of mental illness and learning ways to adapt. Their partner is involved 100% and they learn together.

Romanticization: Sherlock merchandise being sold with “I’m a high functioning sociopath” (not mention ableist as all heck)

NOT Romanticization: A character self-harms because of depression, and character B helps the character through their pain and together they get proper therapy and treatment.

Romanticization: Calling yourself “OMG I’m so bipolar!” because it’s trendy.

NOT Romanticization: A clinically depressed author, who survived a suicide attempt, wanting to tell their story through characters the world is already familiar with, and one that a touchy subject can be expressed and understood by other people, because they’re not ready to write the “real” book. Fandom is a safety net for them.

See what I mean Nonny? We don’t KNOW what kind of pain these authors have PERSONALLY been through, and to censor them from having their voices heard and their stories told is just not on for me.

And let me be clear: YES OF COURSE romanticization happens EVERYWHERE. I am not denying that. But your ask is coming off like EVERY STORY EVER WRITTEN is glorification of something. By your logic:

Disabled people shouldn’t write about their disabilities because they’re romanticising themselves.

The authors with medical degrees shouldn’t write realistic med-fics because some where in the world, ONE person MAY HAVE had a similar experience as Character A and B.

Someone broke their foot in ballet so they shouldn’t write a story about a ballet dancer who broke their hip because it may offend ONE ballerina SOMEWHERE in space and time who got sideline at the prime of their career? 

Stories about LGBT+ people shouldn’t be written because homophobes think it’s icky.

We shouldn’t write about wizards because it offends high school catholic pastors (an actual thing that happened)? 

How about cancer stories because kids die of cancer all the time? 

Non-fiction autobiographies about holocaust survivors is not okay.

Science books offend flat earthers, so we shouldn’t write those.

Books about the Big Bang and a 4.5 billion-year-old earth offends creationists, so burn those.

A now-adult child rape victim writing their survival stories to help get their often-in-power abusers behind bars are taboo.

True crime stories from detectives on those cases shouldn’t be told because they weren’t the victim.

Non-fiction in general because someone somewhere may have had that one singular thing happen to them.

How about coping with grief over a parent’s sudden death because I personally might find offense in that since that was a horridly traumatic experience in my life?

Do you see how progressively out of touch this argument is? (the answer to all of these: authors should be allowed to write them, because stories make us human). Your argument leads down the very dangerous path to censorship of books, the internet, and history... to have people only read and learn what someone else dictates, leading to... well.

I’m not trying to be a dick here, Nonny, I’m really not. But I think you’re really missing the entire point of fiction and story telling. I feel you’re failing in the empathy game here, and failing to understand what romanticizing really actually is. 

Whenever I get asks like this, I always feel like the Nonnies don’t really know much about pre-Ao3. I come from “early internet” fandom age, and I’m talking before tags existed. Back when I had to go buy a book at Coles and guess what was in it based on a cover description. No “amazon reviews”. No “harmful content warning” stickers. You just picked up that book, and sometimes you get a sweet story about a friends exploring an alien landscape, and other times WHOOOPS ACCIDENTAL ALIEN SEX I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR. And sometimes, it ended with a dark story about death, and the reality of coping with it.

Twenty years ago, books on the shelves at bookstores and libraries were the only place you could do your reading and they certainly do NOT have tags on them... Modern tagging of stories are a REALLY recent thing introduced probably no less than 15 years ago and was perfected by Ao3 (which was started in 2009). 

These days, there is no excuse if you only consume fanfiction on Ao3. Fics are tagged with proper possible-trigger tags 90% of the time. They have a VERY METICULOUS filtering system. You aren’t being forced to read the fics, you don’t have to read the fics, so use those tag filters, they exist for a reason.

So, with that in mind, I genuinely DON’T GET this attitude about people wanting everything sugar coated and saccharine by default. Especially when you can LITERALLY CURATE YOUR OWN CONTENT. Life isn’t sugar coated. And fiction shouldn’t have to be either. People tag fics with triggers for a reason.

As they used to say back in my early internet days: Don’t like it? Don’t read it. Don’t comment, skip, next story.

And to put this ALL into perspective, so that you don’t think I’m talking out of my ass, I’m going to reveal something here: Do you know what fics I can’t read, Nonny, because they trigger me? Eating disorders. That’s self harm, Nonny, in a very different way. But you know what? I know that those fics DO help other ED people so I’m not going to sit her and tell people NOT to rec or write them. And some of those authors who write those stories are processing their own ED through those stories, healing in their own way. And you know what I do when I see one of those fics? I don’t read them, move on, next story.

I’m sorry if you perceive this as me being harsh with you here, Nonny, and you DON’T have to agree with me and you can block me and never talk to me again, and I’ll understand. As I stated at the beginning, I’m offering an alternative perspective, and helping you to see that some people take comfort in these types of stories.

I think what this all boils down to Nonny, after all of this, and rereading your question a final time to see if I missed covering anything, is that (and feel free to shit on me if I am wrong here) I’m getting the impression – as an unprofessional outsider looking in – that you’re still struggling with your inner demons, whether you realize it or not. The tone and brashness of your ask has me believing this... It feels like it was written after a trigger-moment and you needed to vent AT someone because you are alone, and that hurts my heart so much. I truly hope you find peace in your mind, soon, and I hope you have someone to talk to professionally, or at least a friend. (tw under link, suicidal ideation discussion and links to phone numbers that can help you). I only wish the best for you, my Nonny.

Anyway. I welcome other people to chime in here, respectfully, and let me know if I have the wrong take here. Because I genuinely don’t think I do, but I am not a professional, so my entire thing that took me 3 hours to write here is probably moot. I’m especially interested (on anon in my asks if you’re not comfy with revealing yourselves) on thoughts from other people who have survived the original topics here, as well as any therapists and authors as well.

Take care of yourself Nonny. And please curate your own content for your mental health. Ao3 has an “exclusionary tag system” as well, please use it. *hugs*

[xbladekitkat85]

Why Clint is on Tony’s Sh*t List

Word count: A bit over 3k.

Chapter summary: Peter and Harley are brothers and the children of Tony Stark. Which is highly classified knowledge that nobody outside of the Avengers knows. Until Clint Barton accidentally spills the secret with a technology related mishap.

Warnings: A bit of language here and there. Tony threatening Clint’s life because he did an oopsie.

Peter's POV

In the school that is Midtown School of Science and Technology, everyone is basically a genius of some sort. You have biology geeks, math geeks, chemistry geeks, robotics geeks. You name a branch of STEM subjects, there are guaranteed to be at least 5 masters in every subject.

That being said, being a master in a subject doesn't mean that you would be instantly popular. Sure you might get hounded for homework help, but it doesn't mean you actually make friends as easily. It's more like people want to leech off of your knowledge and don't bother to get to know you.

There's a social pyramid in all schools and let's just say I'm towards the bottom of mine. I build Lego sets, I love Star Wars, I'm a whiz at chemistry and math. But people ignore the fact that I'm 'somewhat' intelligent and focus on the Lego and Star Wars part of my image. Which sucks big time. At least I'm graduating this year.

But at least I have my brother Harley to confide in. We argue over stupid stiff but we both enjoy poking fun at each other.

3rd person POV

Peter was sitting at his usual table with his small group of friends. Ned, MJ, and Betty made up this small group of people.

"So, what are you guys doing this weekend?" Ned asked the group.

"Uhhhh, I was planning on going to see that new movie coming out." Betty answered. "You know, the one with Emilia Clarke and what's his name."

"Oh yeah, I know which one you're talking about." Ned replied.

"You losers can go see a movie, I'm going to a protest outside of Oscorp." MJ replied, sipping her thermos of coffee.

"What did Oscorp do?" Peter asked curiously.

"They're trying to cover up an employee getting severely injured, the safety protocols are shitty, and HR is as usual, the worst part of it all in addition to the censorship of the incident online."

Peter nodded his head, eyes widened.

"Gotcha. I definitely understand why you're going."

MJ set her thermos down and opened her latest book, Speak.

Ned turned to look at Peter.

"Stark internship all weekend?" He inquired.

Peter shrugged and took a sip of water.

"I'm gonna hang out with Harley. Probably do some stuff in the lab. Usual stuff."

Betty shook her head in disbelief.

"I still can't believe you're friends with him." She said. "He's pretty high on the social ladder here. I mean I know you guys have the internship together but it's still kind of baffling that I never see you interacting in school."

Ohhhhh, if you only knew Betty. Peter laughed to himself on the inside.

Nobody at school knew that Peter and Harley were half brothers and the children of Tony Stark. Not even Ned or MJ knew although he suspected that MJ somehow knew or was close to figuring it out. She's scarily perceptive and freakishly good at knowing things about other people that she definitely shouldn't.

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch.

The four friends parted ways and headed to their respective classes.

*After school*

Peter arrived at the tower straight from Delmar's after picking up snacks for the weekend. He had grabbed an assortment, ranging from potato chips to pretzel M&Ms.  He waved at Ms. Maldonado, the lady who commanded the reception area and dashed to the elevator, scanning his pass when prompted.

FRIDAY greeted him when the doors closed.

"How was your day Peter? Harley is already waiting for you. He told me to tell you, and I quote, "Peter, I hope you remembered my PRETZEL M&Ms not PEANUT M&M's like last time. If you forgot, I'm going to steal that new Lego set you were planning on building tomorrow. And I WILL hide it somewhere you'll never, ever, find it. Insert maniacal cackling, blah blah blah."

Peter stifled a laugh at Harley's message.

"Uh, well my day was the usual, you know. And tell Harley I got his stupid M&Ms. And I grabbed him something else too if he promises not to threaten the Legos again."

"Sure thing, Peter."

He exited the elevator to the floor which housed the labs he shared with Harley. There were multiple as the duo tended to accidentally blow things up and would need to have another place to work while repairs were being done. Needless to say, Tony was more than a little annoyed that his kids needed multiple labs because they kept blowing them up. But whatever, he loves them and will pay for it as long as he gets to blackmail them with all the ridiculous stories of what blew up and how it happened.

Harley looked up towards the door Peter walked through and lifted his welding mask off his face.

"Hand over the merchandise, blockhead." He said, his arm stretched towards the bag of goodies Peter was carrying.

"Only if you promise to leave the Legos alone, biotch." He replied.

Harley rolled his eyes and dramatically lifted his hand in the air as if he was testifying in court.

"I promise not to touch the Legos." He said in a half joking tone.

Peter handed him the pack of M&Ms as well as a container of Oreos.

"I still don't understand why you like pretzel M&Ms." Peter remarked. "There's too much pretzel and not enough chocolate."

Harley stared directly at him as he tore open the M&Ms and popped a few in his mouth.

"I don't understand why you don't like pineapple on pizza." Harley shot back as he swiveled around in his chair

Peter groaned.

"We are not having this discussion again."

"Peter you're an idiot if you don't like pineapple on your pizza."

"Harley, you're a disgrace to the entire state of New York if you do. Fruit is not supposed to go on a proper pizza."

Harley chucked a bolt at Peter's head.

"Hey!" He protested as he turned to look at Harley. And then he saw a glint in Harley's eyes.

"Pizza is a dish with everything from the food pyramid. You have grain, dairy, meat, vegetables, fats, and oh, wait, you don't like pineapple so you're missing out. You could be getting every nutrient from the food pyramid but you're an idiot so you miss your daily serving of delicious pineapple on your pizza."

"Oh my god, stop."

The boys busted out laughing for a full 3 minutes, eventually with Harley falling out of his chair. Tony walked in to find his kids cackling at who knows what, and one on the floor, almost incapacitated by his laughter. He sighed before clearing his throat to gain their attention.

The boys sobered up and finally stopped laughing but they had unshed tears left from the fun.

"What on earth were you two dying of laughter over? Should I call a therapist? Do I need to be concerned? Did you eat something that you shouldn't have?"

Harley sniggered as Peter was trying to keep a straight face.

"He was eating pretzel M&Ms!" Peter said, holding back his laughter. "The type that should be illegal!"

"Peter, you don't diss Pretzel M&Ms, they're an underappreciated member of the M&Ms family. If you think pretzel M&Ms should be illegal, you clearly haven't tried the raspberry ones." Harley replied while doing his best to keep his face straight. "If anything, you should call a therapist for Peter and help him overcome his aversion to pineapple on pizza."

Tony looked even more lost than he was before.

"Ok, I don't know what I'm supposed to make of this. FRIDAY, show me footage of what the hell happened while I wasn't here."

"Sure thing boss."

Friday pulled up security footage of Harley and Peter's conversation. Tony watched it as the two teens were snickering behind him. After he understood the situation he turned to his kids and let out a tired sigh.

"Ok, I don't understand your sense of humor, but I came to tell you that we're having Italian for dinner."

Peter pumped his fist and Harley just shrugged.

"Italian is fine by me I guess."

"All right kiddos, be in the dining room by 7ish or else I'll cut the power to these labs. We eat as a family."

*Time skip*

It was 2 am, Monday morning and everything was silent except for the faint noise of shuffling towards the ceiling.

Clint Barton was crawling around in the vents, obviously on his way to do something he probably shouldn't be.

He had lost a bet with Nat earlier and the punishment was that he had to steal something for blackmail off of FRIDAY's databases.

He quietly dropped out of a vent shaft into an important looking office. He didn't bother checking who it belonged to but he was already too far gone to ask.

"Ok Nat, what do you want me to look for?" He whispered into his earpiece.

"Check the computer on the desk. The password is written on a sticky note in your pocket."

He checked his pocket and there was indeed a post it with a password on it.

"Ok, what am I supposed to find?" He asked once he logged in.

"Look for footage from the labs." She said. "Check labs CTS2 and IAI1."

"CTS2 and IAI1, gotcha." He reaffirmed.

He browsed around until he found the cameras he needed.

"Ok, found em. What dates should I look at?"

"Look at this past Friday," She answered, "around 4:45 to 6:15 pm. Tony drank from a can of motor oil instead of his coffee cup. I would like this footage in my posession. For my entertainment, and possibly blackmail to pull on him."

"All righty, ok, uhhhh." He muttered as he searched through that window of time.

He watched snippets of the footage and fast forwarded a few times until he glimpsed footage of Harley swiveling around in his chair as Peter looked exasperated. He paused and rewound to see what the situation was.

As Clint watched the whole argument play out and the aftermath, a shit eating grin began to spread across his face. He emailed himself the whole interaction for his own entertainment (blackmail, cough cough) and went back to searching for what he originally came for. He eventually found it, sent it to Natasha, logged out of the computer, and climbed into the open vent.

"You get it?" Nat asked suspiciously.

"Oh yeah, I got it." He said, trying to hold back the mischievous laughter that was threatening to let loose. He checked his phone to see whether he got the email he sent to himself. But to his surprise and sudden panic, it was not there. His social media, however, was blowing up with comments about the two kids and who they were and theories people were spouting.

"Oh shit."

"What did you do, Clinton?" Nat asked in a threateningly monotone voice.

Clint banged his head on the vent, forgetting that he still had his comms on.

"I may or may not have accidentally exposed Peter and Harley as Tony's kids."

Nat was silent for a moment before she finally responded.

"Tony's probably going to kill you for this, so you should pack your bags right now. Make funeral arrangements as well and update your will."

"Ah shit."

*Monday morning, 6:45 am*

Peter woke up to his phone ringing. He groaned and turned on his side to ignore the call. The phone rang again and he sighed before reluctantly sitting up and grabbing his phone.

What the hell, who's calling this early?

He looked at his notifications and saw multiple missed calls and texts from Ned and MJ. Something must have happened because Ned had typed in all caps, 'PETER EVERYONE KNOWS! CALL ME NOW!' MJ's text just said, 'I knew already. Don't try to hide it from me whenever you come to school.'

Instantly, Peter was wide awake. Did the whole world know he was Spiderman? But how did this happen, who would leak that information and how did they get it?

He called Ned and before he could even say, "What's up?" Ned butted in with a sentence he was not expecting.

"Peter, when were you going to tell me your dad was Tony Stark?! This is even bigger than Spiderman! As your Guy in the Chair, I think this knowledge might have been missing in our conversations."

Peter was at a loss for words as he stood up.

"It's all over social media and people are going apeshit over this!"

"Ned, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet." Peter replied in a nervous tone as he began pacing back and forth in his room. "How do you know the source is credible? Remember what Ms. Hernandez said about credibility when giving information in an essays or whatever?"

"But Peter, Hawkeye was the one who posted it. You know, the Avenger who shoots arrows?"

Peter stopped pacing and froze midstep.

Uncle Clint was behind this? But why?

"You sure he wasn't hacked?" Peter asked as he feebly attempted to get out of this confrontation.

"No, it's security footage from a lab. Tony said in the video that you guys were a family."

Peter then realized that he couldn't worm his way out of this situation. The whole world knew he and Harley were brothers and the sons of Tony Stark. Of course this happened, why wouldn't it?

"I'm going to call you back, I need to talk to Clint." Peter said.

"Ok, just let me know if you and Harley are going to be ok or not." Ned replied.

"Bye Ned."

"Bye."

Peter hung up and took a deep breath before leaving his room to go find Clint.

He entered the kitchen and almost everyone was there except the one person he wanted to talk to.

"Hey, uh, where's uncle Clint?" Peter asked.

Uncle Steve looked up from his breakfast.

"He left last night. Family emergency."

"Uh huh, so correct me if I'm wrong but Clint left because dad was going to kill him, right?"

Suddenly everyone was avoiding eye contact with Peter. Yup, everyone knew what happened.

Just then, Tony walked in with a very irritated expression.

"I don't think you and Harley are going to be able to go to school today. Some kid from your school, Dash or something posted you go to school with him and know you both. So there are multiple news stations outside the tower and surrounding your school. Might be best to just stay home today."

"Is Uncle Clint still alive?" Harley asked as he walked in, yawning.

"He is alive," Tony responded "Not for much longer though."

"Dad, you can't just kill him." Peter protested. "It's not like he actually did anything that warrants his death."

"I don't think he meant to do it." Harley added. "He deleted it maybe 10 minutes after he posted it but other people recorded it on their own devices and re shared it. He probably realized what he had done and tried to delete it but of course, once it's out there, it's out there."

"Don't kill Uncle Clint, he's got a wife and kids. Besides, we need him on the team." Peter said.

"We don't need Clint," Tony said, waving his hand. "I already got a replacement set up."

Peter had not heard of this new team member that was apparently going to replace Clint.

"Who is it?" Harley asked curiously.

"Kate Bishop. She's already on her way here. Clint trained her to take over the mantle of Hawkeye anyway so it shouldn't be that big a deal." Tony shrugged. "She's a bit older than you two, 18 or 19, I can't remember at the moment."

"Ok, then, as long as she's trusted by you." Peter relented.

"Don't know what she might be like, but if Clint trained her, and they share similar personalities, whatever spirits above help us." Harley said solemnly.

Peter smacked Harley's arm.

"Hey!" He complained.

"She's not even here yet and you are badmouthing her already. Have some manners, dude."

"It doesn't matter at the moment right? You said it yourself, she's not here yet and I will 'have some manners' when she does."

All of a sudden, Peter heard a nearly imperceptible shuffling coming from above. He felt a shiver go down his spine and the instinct to get into a defensive position.

"He's right, you should have some manners young man." An unfamiliar voice boomed from above.

Harley looked around wildly in confusion.

"Who's there?! Are you a spirit from above???" He asked.

All of a sudden, a figure dropped out of the vent directly above Harley and tackled him to the ground.

"And that is Kate Bishop." Tony said, answering the question in everyone's mind.

Kate released Harley from her grip and she helped him up.

"Clint was right," She said, smiling. "Crawling through the vents to prank people is fun."

She looked up to the open vent and held out her arms, to everyone's confusion.

"Lucky, come on down!" She called.

To everyone's shock, a dog with one good eye poked his head out from the vent and jumped into Kate's arms.

"Oh crap, nobody has allergies to dog dander, right?" Kate asked, looking at everyone.

"Maybe? I'm not sure." Peter replied.

"Damn, I should have checked before bringing him, huh." Kate muttered.

Tony waved his hand at the dog.

"As long as he's potty trained, we should be fine." He said, trying to reassure her worries. "We're all fine with dogs."

Peter thought back to all the dogs he's pet on patrol. They always seemed happy to play with him and now there was a dog in the tower. Huzzah, he didn't get to only pet dogs on patrol now!

"Well, all's well that ends well, right?" Peter said.

"How about everyone gets acquainted with Kate?" Tony suggested. "It's not like you two are going to school today anyway."

Peter and Harley agreed and that day became a get to know the new team member day.

Peter texted Ned to let him know he was going to school the next day and invited him to the tower after school to meet someone. Oh the look on Ned's face when he found out would be priceless.

Taglist:

@frostedgiant

Send an ask if you would like to be tagged!

[the-scottish-costume-guy]

Ethics and context ramble time

I’m going to ramble a bit about ethics, who knows how long it’ll be. If theres a readmore a paragraph or two down you know it got out of hand. First lets get some terminology things out of the way: Ethics and Morals are not synomyms. Ethics is considered to be the “science” or morality and is basically a bunch of different theories on how to apply morality of a group. So when people say that we cant judge the past on todays Ethics I do look at my ‘Ethics in art’ class where thats all we did and laugh. We can’t judge them the way they would have been judged of course - but we are a new society with new ethical guidelines and the only way we Can judge the past is through that lens. Second thing to get out of the way: I am NOT talking about debating slavery or nazism, I feel like that should be a given. I COULD debate them but very quickly the answer would be “condemn the fuck out of that shit” so theres no need.  But I am talking about media because thats what I study and it worries me that people ignore very necessary context when looking at historical media. I’ve had conversations with people lately condemning star trek tos as problematic and backwards - then outright refuse to listen to explanations of how ahead of its time Star Trek was. (Though it didn’t have the first interracial kiss on American television sorry to disappoint, it was still during a time of heavy censorship and still a good battle to fight.)  The thing is its nearly impossible to judge old media without analysis and research and I dont expect everyone to do that. I recently designed for the black comedy “the front page” which I and my wardrobe team found to be uncomfortable, racist and sexist. Upon research I discovered that one of the writers was a strong contributor to the civil rights movement and that a lot of the intent and satire had been lost in the 100 years since it was written. Does it translate well today? No not really - but should it be condemned? No - it served its purpose well and is largely preserved today because of that fact.  And thats without even dipping into censorship, coding, and narritive/litrature movements of the past. Please consider that judging the ethics/morals of something from the past Does require a fair bit of research and even then is hard to be completely solid on because information will always be missing (though you can usually make a good informed conclusion).

[reputayswift]

Ever since I saw your exile literati gifset I cant get over how cyclical their relationship is! They really have seen this film before!! Why do you think Rory keeps coming back to Jess especially when she’s in a relationship with someone else?

Hey there! First off, thank you for checking out my Exile edit, I appreciate that a lot :) Secondly, this question sent me into an analytical spiral which is why you’re getting a response a few days late lol! I wanna preface this by saying that I’ve read a LOT of GG takes so anything I’m about to say has probably definitely been said more eloquently and concisely by someone else. Also I’m not going to get into comparing the boyfriends specifically because 1. I’ve watched the Jess eps more than any other so I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to talk on the other bfs 2. Conflict scares me :)

Okay so!

1. My (Somewhat) Reasonable Answer

I think they have a certain level of understanding that draws them back towards each other. I know Jess saying he “knows [Rory] better than anyone” in s6 is pretty controversial in the fandom (and I would never say Jess’s connection with Rory is deeper than her and, say, Lorelai’s) but that theme of “knowing”/mutual understanding crops up a lot for them (I’ve also seen a quote floating around from the writers saying they were intended to have a “meeting-of-the-minds” situation going on but all the sources I found for that were from Tumblr so not sure on the legitimacy of that).

Aside from both being bookworms they’re also both dealing with having others’ narrow expectations placed on them. The people of Stars Hollow (and in Jess’s case, his mother as well) reduce them to archetypes/caricatures of themselves (Town Sweetheart, Bad Boy). We see this pretty clearly when Taylor takes issue with Rory not wanting to play “Ice Cream Queen” once she sets her sights on college and Rory being hailed as the (literal) “poster-child of censorship.” Early on Jess susses out that Rory’s not exactly pleased with having this role forced on her (when Rory complains that her censorship poster is “stupid” Jess responds that “it’s the people who are stupid” and switches around the movie discs to get it taken down), which is one of our first glimpses at this understanding/peeling-back-their-images theme.

Teach Me Tonight has probably some of the most obvious examples of this. When Rory asks Jess why he’s not planning on attending college (when she knows that he’s more than capable, despite his lack of effort in school) he says:

“Ask my mother, she could give you a couple reasons. Oh, and I’m sure Principal Merton can chime in with a few good ones. In fact, ask your mother. She doesn’t know me all that well but I’m sure she could improvise a few things.”

Notice his response has everything to do with others’ uninformed expectations and nothing to do with his own desires! Then we have Rory saying her dream is to be an overseas correspondent and Jess initially thinking it sounds “a little too rough for [her]” (going off of that gentle Town Sweetheart assumption) then immediately pushing that away and assuring her she’ll do it.

Then we have Lorelai’s Graduation Day/The New York ep which is a huge turning point for their relationship! This whole interaction when Rory boards the bus back home really emphasizes the breaking-through-expectations point:

“Why did you come here?... I mean, you ditched school and everything. That's so not you. Why'd you do it?”

“Because, you didn't say goodbye.”

“Oh...Bye, Rory.”

Especially in conjunction with Rory’s confusion regarding her own actions after the fact:

“This is not who I am. If I were to write this down in my diary and I would read it, I would be like, Who is this freak? This isn't me.This isn't my diary. I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't skip school when I have finals coming up to go see a guy that isn't even my guy and end up missing my mother's graduation, which I wanted to be at so badly. That's someone else. That's someone flighty and stupid and dumb and girly.”

So we not only have Rory going against her own responsible schoolgirl image, but also Rory breaking through Jess’s assumption that people expect/desire him to leave (not caring enough for a warning or explanation). My friend @sanssa has a great post expanding on this better than I ever could :)

Alright so! The controversial s6 “WHY DID YOU DROP OUT OF YALE?” ep! Jess showing up (denim jacket, tousled hair, sparkly eyes...) having finally harnessed his own smarts with a published book is perhaps the perfect example of how the Jess x Rory relationship empowers them to seek out their own desires despite expectations:

“Jess, you've got such a great brain. I knew that if you could just sit down and stop shaking it around, you could do something like this. I knew it. I knew it.”

“I know you did...I just basically wanted to show you that. Uh, tell you...tell you that I couldn't have done it without you.”

Fast-forward to their mid-dinner argument, where Jess says:

“I know you better than anyone. This isn't you...What are you doing? Living at your grandparents' place, being in the DAR, no Yale — Why did you drop out of Yale?!

You could (and many have!) argue that this wasn’t his place to interfere (if you’re not invested in Jess I can completely understand how having the boyfriend with the least screen-time show up — tousled and sparkly as he may be — to tell her he knows her best and she’s — in kinder words — wasting her life away would have you saying “Who’s this guy?” lol) but when you look at their history of pushing past each others’ fronts and get to Rory’s resulting realization;

“[Jess is] doing something...I’m not. I mean, what am I doing? I'm living with my grandparents... I'm palling with my grandmother and being waited on by a maid. I come home, and my shoes are magically shined. My clothes are magically clean, ironed, and laid out. My bed is magically turned down. I'm in the DAR? I'm going to meetings and teas and cocktail parties?... And wasting my time partying and drinking, just hanging out doing nothing,”

I personally interpret it as him telling her a hard truth she was shielding herself from accepting. And of course we see his intervention in-part sets off her reconnecting with Lorelai and getting back on track with her schooling/dreams, in much the same way Rory pushing past his “no one expects anything of me so I’m going to do nothing with my life” assumption motivates him to pursue writing more seriously.

Then finally we get to the Revival where Jess finds Rory in a slump again and encourages her to write a book about her and her mother:

“Where is this coming from? What inspired you?”

“I was frustrated. I was talking to Jess —”

...

“Last night I outlined the first five chapters just like that. That’s a sign...This is it, this is what I’m supposed to do.”

TL;DR: They understand each other in a way that lets them see past others’ assumptions/expectations to the true, complicated them in a way that empowers them to follow their dreams and be better versions of themselves

2. My Extremely Biased Hopeless Romantic Answer

There’s some sort of soulmate/red string of fate thing going on, Alexa play Invisible String

[fiftytwotwenty]

Movie Monday - Nov 16th, 2020

"My Favorite Foreign International Films"

So something I learned earlier this year is the Academy Awards category, "Best International Fim" - previously "Best Foreign Language Film" is somewhat flawed.

I read up on the category/topic more during the 2020 Academy Awards when Parasite had a breakthrough year.

First off - Why the name change?

Well, in the broadest aspects the word "Foreign" can be considered Politically Incorrect - by labeling an entire film - a piece work, or an entire film crew as foreign you are basically saying they are "Other" which could be construed as lesser. Renaming the category to "Best International Film" is a step to seem more inclusive as films should be a universal experience - the category is after all a celebration of World Cinema.

The name change however did not change any of the qualifications in regards to reaching the award ceremony - such qualifications as:

The featured language in the movie needs to predominantly Non-English - so this majorly affects countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom - you know, because if you speak English you must be American - you have no added culture.

This rule/mindset screwed over Nigeria, a country whose official language is English due to its past British rule. Nigeria submitted the film Lionheart, THE COUNTRY'S FIRST EVER SUBMISSION, to the 2020 Academy Awards and was disqualified as the English language was widely used in the film.

So to recap - An African country was disqualified from even being considered a nominee at the Oscars because their Official Language was not "Foreign" enough.

Now, just because English is your official language does not automatically exclude you - Australian, Canadian, and the UK film makers have made Non-English films just so they could be considered for the category.

Another aspect of a International Film category is that Each Country Chooses just ONE movie to represent their country - Only ONE. When it comes time all the International Films are finally whittled down to just 5 nominees for the Oscar ballot.

For most countries, like Italy (14 Oscar Wins - 28 nominations) and France (37 Oscar nominations - the most of any country, and 12 Oscar wins), this does not pose any issues as they are very open in regards to their selection process.

But when you consider countries like Russia, China, or Iran where creativity is censored or suppressed you are mostly likely not getting the best of the best.

Due to the censorship some people suggest creating an International panel to assist with each country's film selection, but how much power do we provide this panel and how will this affect countries like France and Italy that do not seem to have censorship issues?

These are some of the main issues the International Film category faces currently.

So now that we talked shop - it is time for me to talk about my personal favorites - I will note all these films are must sees in my book, but do not necessarily garnish repeat viewings.

Also, I am leaving out Amélie (2001), a true personal favorite, off the list because everyone and their hypoallergenic service dogs loves the film as well.

Without further ado...

In Order of the Rising Sun:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

Origin: New Zealand

Language: English

Director: Taika Waititi

Synopsis:

A national manhunt is ordered for a rebellious kid and his foster uncle who go missing in the wild New Zealand bush.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

Origin: Hong Kong, China

Language: Chinese

Director: Stephen Chow

Synopsis:

In Shanghai, China in the 1940s, a wannabe gangster aspires to join the notorious "Axe Gang" while residents of a housing complex exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf.

Dogtooth (2009)

Origin: Greece

Language: Greek

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Synopsis:

Three teenagers live isolated, without leaving their house, because their over-protective parents say they can only leave when their dogtooth falls out.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

Origin: Italy

Language: Italian

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Synopsis:

A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.

Raw (2016)

Origin: France

Language: French

Director: Julia Ducournau

Synopsis:

A young woman, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.

Abre Los Ojos (1997)

Origin: Spain

Language: Spanish

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Synopsis:

A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured.

Relatos Salvajes (2014)

Origin: Argentina

Language: Spanish

Director: Damián Szifron

Synopsis:

Six short stories that explore the extremities of human behavior involving people in distress.

So... There you go, Happy Viewing

[paulisweeabootrash]

2020 mini-review pack

Di Gi Charat (1999)

Episodes watched: 7

Platform: VRV (Hidive)

Di Gi Charat (pronounced like “carrot”) is a series of fast-paced 4-ish-minute shorts nominally about Dejiko and Rabi-en-Rose, rivals trying to be Earth’s greatest idol.  Who are, respectively, a catgirl and a bunnygirl.  Oh, and also they’re aliens?  That’s... uh... certainly a premise, I guess.  The actual show consists of self-contained gag-filled episodes with no ongoing story, in almost a sitcom kind of way, throwing the characters into situations without context, but with a stable “baseline” situation (unlike, say, Pop Team Epic, where the characters serve more as stock personalities playing different roles in different sketches).  Dejiko is a snarky schemer.  Rabi-en-Rose is a snarky schemer whose main activity seems to be bothering Dejiko at work.  Puchiko is a small and quiet child and behaves accordingly.  And Gema is... something?  I have no clue, honestly, and neither does the fan wiki.  Other recurring characters fill stock roles such as “manager” and “otaku”.  A lot of the humor centers around poking fun at fandom.  It’s a show by, for, and about otaku from an era before our current internet culture, and since I’m a millennial and not from Japan, that makes it unusually hard to evaluate.

W/A/S: 8/2?/5?

Weeb: Chibis.  Catgirls.  Idols.  Kappas.  Kawaii verbal tics.  Akihabara.  Low-detail background characters who look like blobs or thumbs with faces.  Kanji left on-screen but untranslated.  Particular sorts of highly-exaggerated facial expressions we may have become familiar with through emoji, but which still haven’t made their way into American media generally.  This is ludicrously Japanese.

Ass: This really isn't that kind of show.  Although it is certainly designed for adults, as evidenced by the presence of phrases like “naughty doujinshi”.

Shit: The art is fun.  It has style shifts from comic strip to watercolor painting to mainstream 90s anime, and looks better than some of its contemporaries that were, uh, “real” shows.  The opening takes up about a quarter of the total runtime and gets annoying quickly (but that's because it’s clearly designed for being part of a broadcast block, not binge-watching).  Still, unless I’m missing hidden cleverness on account of not having the background knowledge, there’s not much to it.  It’s just okay.

-----

First Astronomical Velocity (band, active 2011-present)

Platform: Spotify, surprisingly

Okay, this one is a bit different, and I’m jettisoning the whole format for it.  Remember how I said the music-centered episodes of SoniAni were actually pretty good, even though the modeling-centered episodes were so offputting I never finished the show?  Well it turns out that First Astronomical Velocity, Sonico’s band, has released several IRL albums.  Physical copies may be a little hard to come by, but official uploads of a lot of their music can be found on Youtube and Spotify.  Do your musical interests include at least two of: string arrangements that would be at home in a particularly sappy movie soundtrack, 90s-00s alternative rock, synthesizer beep-boops, and that constricted cutesy Japanese women’s vocal style (you know the one I mean)?  Then this is for you.  They’re a pretty good... uh... alt-pop-rock band, I guess is what I’d call them.

-----

Interspecies Reviewers (2020)

Episodes watched: the entire 12-episode season

Platform: I plead the 5th.  But it’s getting a video release soon, so it will finally be legitimately available in English!

I started this year with a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show, and now I’m ending the year with... a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show.  But unlike Nekopara, this show had me cracking up, eagerly clicking “next episode”, and not complaining about the premise.  I’m sure a lot of people do have a problem with this show’s premise -- which centers almost entirely on various forms of sex work -- and I understand and respect that they will want to skip this show.

But for the rest of you: Interspecies Reviewers is a wildly-NSFW comedy about a group of fantasy world adventurers who gain fame and fortune reviewing brothels of different species.  I expected excessive nudity and fantasy tropes, but I didn’t expect to also get serious thoughts.  Like showing, in the golem and Magic Metropolis episodes, some of the unsettling problems that are looming IRL as deepfakes and sex robots are in development -- note especially the contrast between consensually and non-consensually basing automata on real people in those episodes.  Or the discussion in the last episode of how much riskier sex would be in a world without magic (i.e., ours).  This is a much smarter and more interesting show than you’d expect, considering that it has so much sexual content that it got dropped by two of the networks airing it and even its US distributor.

W/A/S: 5/10/4

Weeb: Although heavily influenced by the Western fantasy media canon of European mythology and Tolkien and tabletop RPGs, familiarity with the tropes of fantasy anime will help you “get” this too, as will familiarity with the -sigh- character dynamics and censorship practices of hentai.  Especially because it’s a comedy, there are probably also instances where I have completely missed topical references or wordplay that a Japanese person would get, but I can’t think of any specific instances right now of “there was clearly supposed to be a joke but I missed it”.

Ass: Look, this could not possibly have more sexual content without unambiguously becoming porn.  Genitals are (almost) always carefully hidden by viewing angle or conveniently-placed glowing (something lampshaded in one episode as an actual feature of one of the species they review), but otherwise, expect lots of nudity and almost nonstop crude humor.  Do not watch this with children.  Do not watch this with your parents.  Do not watch this with friends you don’t know well enough to know how they’ll react to something like this.

Shit: This show is better-made than it deserves to be.  It’s pretty dumb at points, but it’s fun enough to make up for it.  The art is consistent and pleasant, and the opening and ending themes are extremely fun, but it’s not a serious standout in any of those departments.  Also, I swear the background music is stock music, but I don’t remember what other show(s) I’ve heard it in before.

Stray thought: Crim is a precious and relatable cinnamon roll and I love them.

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OreSuki OVA (2020)

Platform: Crunchyroll

So, I know I didn’t cover the whole season in my initial review, but I still want to mention the hour-ish-long finale of this show, which was released straight to streaming.  Short version of the rest of the season: Joro starts to actually fall for Pansy, but a new challenger, Hose, appears.  He is irritatingly attractive and effortless at maintaining the right persona for the situation, leading Joro to describe him as “the main character”.  Hose is the sociopathic manipulator Joro wishes he could be, and Pansy, who has a bad past with him, clearly wants nothing more than for Joro to stand up to him.  But, since this is OreSuki, it’s not going to be handled simply.  No, instead, strap in for a grand finale of Joro and Hose competing in, and trying to manipulate through rules-lawyering, an absolutely ludicrous competition to win the right to date Pansy.  And, on top of it, we also get to finally see how Sun-chan got to be the way he is and what happened at that pivotal baseball game that set off the whole plot.  What has Joro learned from the experiences of the past season?  You’ll see!  And you’ll facepalm about it!

Really, you must watch this if you watched the regular season.

W/A/S: 6/5(!)/4ish

Weeb: Basically the same as I said before.  Gags referencing other Japanese media, anime and otherwise, and it's better if you’re familiar with the high school romcoms and harem comedies Joro thinks in terms of.

Ass (and slight content note): -sigh- Why does the camera need to be there?  Also, Joro, you just committed a little bit of sexual assault for the sake of this contest.  Stop.

Shit: I want to rate this overall better than I did the regular season because I think it’s an excellent finale overall because, even though it ends in a very “let’s leave everything unresolved” way that’s common in media that rely on absurd relationships to propel the plot, it does so in a way that makes sense in character.  I personally think it would’ve been stronger if it had, well, confirmed its title, and at least some of the other “challengers” had lost interest in Joro, but I guess they probably want a Season 2, since they have so much more source material to work from.  There are... oh god 14 light novels?!  That is too many.

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Your Name. (2016)

Platform: DVD

Two high schoolers -- small-town girl Mitsuha, from Itomori, and big-city boy Taki, from Tokyo -- find themselves in each other’s bodies for a day.  They both think at first it must be a very vivid dream, but when it happens again, and they start finding clues like notes they don’t remember writing and comments by friends and relatives about their out-of-character behavior, they realize the body swap is real.  This begins a relationship of mutual understanding that nobody else can really understand -- or would even believe (except Mitsuha’s grandmother, who is... familiar with this phenomenon) -- and the plot then pivots to a tense adventure where they use their connection, some crucial information Taki has, the skills of Mitsuha’s friends, and the intervention of Itomori’s patron deity, to save the town from an impending disaster.

And that’s all I’ll say about that, because I really do think this is something you should go into blind.  My only remaining comments are that (1) the red string of fate is critically important imagery, and is particularly interesting to me here because, if I took a particular scene correctly, Mitsuha made her own red string of fate from sheer necessity, which is a very different twist on that trope, and (2) I am now curious about the history of the body-swapping phenomenon in-universe.

W/A/S: 4?/2/2

Weeb: As mentioned above, symbolism of the Red String of Fate shows up throughout the movie, as do the occasional distinctly Japanese quirk like a wildly out-of-place vending machine or a café with dogs, and but for the most part it’s a cross-cultural story of understanding and dealing with someone else’s life, and of forming a connection other people don’t -- can’t -- truly understand, and to some extent of divides between urban and rural and modern and traditional that I think could play out in any country with just the local symbolism tweaked.  The significance and content of Shinto beliefs and practices depicted, particularly kuchikamizake, are made pretty explicit, so although foreign to the vast majority of the non-Japanese audience, I feel like this movie also has nearly no barrier to entry for people not familiar with the cultural context, so I don’t want to rate it very high on this scale.

Ass: Look.  It involves teenagers switching bodies.  What do you think they do?  Especially Taki?  But it’s played for laughs, not titillation.

Shit: This movie is beautiful and punched me in the feels and was very satisfying.  The closest I have to a complaint about any aspect of it is that the musical breaks that I guess are supposed to mark acts of the movie almost make it feel like binge-watching a short series instead of watching a single self-contained movie.

[ctl-yuejie]

opinion on the term bl?

uhhhhhh…very complicated. I might have written a whole rant post before on the topic on this blog on an empty stomach so it was most likely not very nuanced (I think it was about people saying that The Untamed didn’t count as BL).

buckle in, this got suuuper long

tbh i first came into contact with the term in the early 2000s and since the internet didn’t play any role at my age then, the only context I had were magazines (here in Europe) and manga publications.

I knew that BL was a whole genre in Manga and that it featured gay romance and that fans / content creators would refer to themselves at fujoshi. Now, at that time I was only figuring out that I was bi, didn’t know any Japanese and didn’t have any friends with cultural ties to Japan.

So based on the magazines I read, I started to believe that “Fujoshi” literally meant “Rotten Girl” because of the taboo of same-sex relationships and the tantalizing sense of the forbidden that comes with it.

While I read some BL manga (couldn’t tell you the titles anymore), I never referred to myself as a Fujoshi or being into BL because both terms seemed to apply only to Japanese people and the sense of “the forbidden” in regards to same-sex relationships didn’t fit to my reality (having been to a same-sex marriage with my family at age 8 etc) and also felt demeaning to me.

After learning Japanese and living in Japan I didn’t really question my aversion to the terms, since I did have access to the internet now but didn’t think of fact-checking everything I had “learned” pre-internet (I think it is important to note here that the magazines weren’t the highest in quality in terms of journalistic prowess nor scientific in any way. They were just short entertaining articles, aimed at teenagers like me, trying to profit from the still ongoing wave of japanese pop culture in the west) and my only experience with both bl content and real life fujoshi wasn’t that positive:

My feelings on BL and fujoshi culture were heavily influenced by 

- the wave of very sad and traumatizing gay movies in Japan that most of the time ended in double suicides of the main characters

- rape storylines getting romanticized in manga

- pretty heavily stereotyped gay characters in main stream tv series that were only there for comedic relief

- the Fujoshi I knew back then being weirded out by the thought of same-sex relationships between women and basing their thought on gay men solely on the content they consumed 

- not finding the hailed “subversion of traditional gender roles” or discussion thereof in the BL my friends consumed. 

- my gay friends in japan having very frustrating encounters with fujoshi who started to treat them like an open air circus and not making them feel supported in real life 

- people around me making judgments based on attractiveness on whether gay people should get supported, while the hint of a celebrity being gay was weaponized  against them

now, this pretty much sums up, why I tended to have negative thoughts on the subject and felt more sympathetic to the push from some people in the queer community in japan to please retire terms like “uke” and “seme” when talking about real people.

since then, i didn’t intervene when other female friends in japan would use the term for themselves, because it still was a term coined in japan and those people were actually supportive of queer people so i didn’t see how me being preachy about it just because of my experience and not calling myself a fujoshi or fan of bl would be of any help and/or called for.

jump to 2018/2019 and i started to read more papers about it on a whim because i started to watch Crossing The Line and for the first time in a long while I was in a fandom again where people called the genre “BL” and themselves fujoshi/fudanshi.

I came to know that what I assumed the origin story of the term “Fujoshi” to be had been misreported (shocker) by the magazines back in my youth and that apparently the term was also widely used in Thailand, Taiwan and Mainland China. especially the knowledge that apparently TERFs were behind a pushback of the term made me reevaluate my opinion.

Since I have really no insight into Chinese or Thai culture it is not on me to judge whether it is appropriate for people there to use BL as a genre signifier etc and from all I have read, in some cases it is really about finding a way of creating and distributing queer content in a place that is not lgbtqi+ friendly or use it as means of finding expressions for one’s own sexuality etc.

Obv. there are genre conventions I will get annoyed about and criticize (all female characters are evil etc) but those things are also not BL exclusive so there’s not much sense in condemning a whole genre that at least tries to push some conventions.

With the Internet and a global push for more lgbtqi+ rights there is now definitely a strong symbiotic relationship between queer content and real life social changes. so being harder on queer content (in general) because it isn’t perfect doesn’t make anything better for queer people. 

nowadays there has been some wonderful content in japan with a push for real life legal changes as well, taiwan has the marriage for all and thailand is also pushing for a civil union for everyone.

especially in the case of mainland china with strict censorship rules i will congratulate anyone who tries to sneak some ambiguity in. it saddens me that the rules are as strict and that there are even more hardships for lgbtqi+ people in real life but i would never say that not creating any content that could be interpreted as queer should be favoured over trying to do something, regardless of how lacking the result might seem. 

The reason why I ranted about BL as a genre term recently was mostly directed at western fans with no cultural ties to any of the aforementioned cultures, but i definitely didn’t stress that enough in my previous post.

Since I still don’t call myself a fujoshi or being into the BL genre I am suspicious of western fans calling themselves as such. because i project my own experience and knowledge on them and there are people out there who definitely emphasize the cheeky “rotten” side of themselves while not knowing (like past me) where the term comes from and that it does’t have to do with any “forbidden fruit”. i assume a certain laziness when straight people will try and convince me that they are allies to me, because they consume BL series, but will still call me “the man” in the relationship etc.

There can definitely be a need for a similar outlet that allows people to write about gender roles, sexualities etc in a similar way but very often the argument of “it is female empowerment to be into BL” is just warping the origin story of the term into an excuse for homophobic statements. I see the term get applied to western shows as well (when there isn’t a need for using a Japanese term, especially not when there’s a missing understanding of its origin) and actual mlm shows in asia being dismissed just because it doesn’t fit the BL genre conventions (point and example: people in the west discounting The Untamed as mlm content because they weren’t explicit about it; What Did You Eat Yesterday getting dismissed because of similar reasons and the diversion from presumed age and beauty standards of BL as a genre). That way western fans made BL feel quite restrictive and not interchangeable with mlm anymore, which just confounds me.

in the end it also comes down to scope: someone writing fanfiction, producing small indie series cannot really be harmful even when they content might seem so. so regardless of what the genre entails it is important to put everything in perspective and whether this is the hill someone wants to die on, instead of leaving space for artistic expression, cultural differences and celebrating the steps into a more loving world for all.

tl;dr: I feel many emotions; there’s always space to learn more and I am grateful to everyone who made posts about the racism in criticizing the terms “Fujoshi” / “BL”; I don’t use the term myself, but only feel wary when westerners use it; personally I prefer to use mlm or wlw as content describers but I am also not 100% satisfied with that as well

ask me my opinion on ______