#i feel like my lock screen is irredeemable because i hate how it looked when i didn't realize i could (sorta) change it

[apocalyptic-dancehall]

ooough. updated my iphone and oh my god it's not that much worth it

[bruciewayne]

forget me not

 stevetony, fluff, hurt/comfort, amnesia, 2.7k

Tony's smile is so goddamn bright, brighter than all the stars above them and the streetlights below them, all of Steve’s fears and doubts and anxiety dissipates into the clear night sky. 

The yes he whispers, floating out in a visible cloud of vapour, is the only thing Steve can hear, filling him with joy and pure, unfiltered love, Tony’s hands, calloused and strong, grip his shoulder and pull him up for a kiss that’s more smiles and teeth than lips and tongue and Steve doesn’t want it any other way. 

When they pull apart, smiling too much, too wide, to carrying on kissing, Steve slips the ring onto Tony’s awaiting hand, steady and sure.

“I love you,” he says, reverentially, as though the speech, hardly moments prior, hadn’t covered it, hadn’t truly encompassed the amount of love he could physically have for the man before him.

Tony leans up to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth, “I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

They take their time with each other that night, because they can, because what they have isn’t going anywhere. Steve knew from the start that Tony was it for him, the ring proves the feeling is reciprocated, that’s all. But he knows it’s so, so much more than that. It represents everything he thought were impossible at some point or another; it represents something he never thought he would have - permanence, unwavering, strong and steady. As constant as the skies darkening and as sure as the sun rising. 

There’s something gone, when Steve holds Tony that night, both exhausted, but in the best way, the way that makes you wish you were gods, never tiring and inexhaustible, just to carry on that minute, that hour, that millennia longer, Steve doesn’t miss the underlying feeling that what they had was a temporary sort of permanence. 

He’s not naive, he knows that divorce is a thing, he knows that, logically, they have a fifty percent chance of hating each other down to the very atom, a chance of all the love and fondness being replaced by sour bitterness and regret, but he also knows that nothing about them has ever contributed to the statistics, there’s nothing about them that went according to the universe, let alone conventional. He knows what the odds for them were. He knows that they were low, ridiculously, laughably so, but in the face of everything, in the face of the near-impossible (like throwing a million decahedron dice, one by one, and ending up with the digits of Pi. On the first try.), in the face of it all, they made it. They made it, together, longstanding and permanent. Officially. 

Tony’s lying on his chest when they wake up, the filtered, dimmed, sunlight, streaming into the room highlights their skin. It makes Tony’s hair look like silver and gold and the ring on his finger gleam and glitter. Steve can’t help it; he gently brushes a couple locks of silvering hair off Tony’s temple to press a soft kiss there, and then one more of his forehead, then his cheek, and finally, when he wakes, on his nose, just to see him scrunch his nose up, adorably, in confusion. 

It still gives Steve an insurmountable amount of nonsensical pride whenever he manages to confuse Tony.

“Good morning, beloved,” Tony says, voice low and thick, eyes still drooped as he blindly pushes his face towards Steve for a kiss.

“Morning, fiancé,” Steve replies, smiling and leaning into the kiss, humming softly.

Tony grins when they pull away, his eyes are still bright, but in that quiet way, like sunsets and sunrises, and still absolutely, without question and so far beyond doubt Steve can no longer remember it, breathtakingly gorgeous.

“I like how that sounds,” Tony admits, pressing a series of kisses to Steve’s collarbone, feathery-light and barely there; just a tease of what’s to come.

“Me too,” Steve says, taking in his appearance as JARVIS brightens up the room by clearing up the tint on the windows. Steve smiles as he sees more grey in Tony’s hair.

Tony, being both a classified genius and having known Steve for just about a decade, knows exactly what he’s smiling at, “Stop it,” he grumbles, burying his face into whatever part of Steve is closest.

Steve laughs, “You’d look good as a silver fox, baby.”

“I already look enough like your sugar daddy,” Tony says, as if he minds. He practically purrs as Steve runs his hands through his hair. Whilst he may be turning grey, he’s thankful that he’s not bald. Yet. 

“You are my sugar daddy,” Steve tells him, kissing his forehead, just on his hairline, again. “Keep it, just for a while, please?”

Tony pretends to deliberate and grumble some more, before he finally lifts his head from Steve’s chest, “You know I can’t say no to you when you beg,” he concedes, kissing Steve solidly on the lips.

At this point, the only reason Tony still dyes his hair is to keep up with public appearances, around Steve he doesn’t have to mask all that, hell, if it wasn't obvious already, Steve likes the grey hair. God, he’s lucky.

Steve rolls them over and it turns into a gentle push and pull for dominance, one that Steve easily succumbs to, moving so he’s gazing up at Tony, letting him work him, slowly, so damn slowly to orgasm, letting him use him for his own.

They have a good day, saccharine sweet, a day that goes on forever in the best way, but at the same time, it’s over in the blink of an eye, a day spent in their own bubble, riding the high that never seems to end.

The next day, Tony woke up with a kiss on his forehead and a promise to be back for breakfast. Steve’s an energetic guy, not the manic energy that Tony has; the one that comes and goes when it pleases, but the physical, tireless, near-boundless type.

Tony fully expected this. He can’t believe he’s going to spend the rest of his life with a morning person. Although, he supposes, it can’t be too bad when he gets woken up with kisses (and sometimes more if he can convince Steve to get his morning workout in some other form).

Tony also expected him to come back. 

Steve Rogers broke a promise.

A menial, mundane one at that, but it’s the principle of the thing. Steve doesn't believe in breaking promises, however menial or mundane. If he knew he was going to be back late, he would call, or text, or something, but when the clock turns past ten, it’s the first day in three years Tony’s woken to an empty bed, feeling entirely lost and confused.

Maybe he’s forgotten? Tony hopes, uncharacteristically naive, as he forced himself to get ready, quelling that rising feel that something is wrong, off, something greater than a missing text.

“JARVIS, when did Steve get back?” Tony asks, because it has to be a when, and not an if.

“Commander Rogers has not been in, or around the premises of the Compound since he left at six-oh-three earlier this morning," JARVIS replies, sympathetic. Because of course, Tony made a sympathetic AI. 

The uneasiness masks over whatever annoyance he had for his former self, and becomes even more potent when he crashes into Rhodey.

“Platypus! I didn--”

“Steve’s been kidnapped.”

Tony’s heart falls straight out the bottom of his stomach and just keeps falling and falling and falling.

The next few hours disappear in a chaotic blur of people telling him to go home, get rest, then him ignoring them entirely, because he’s not going to leave the life of his goddamn fiancé in the hands of SHIELD, then, once they finally realise that he’s not going home (and how can it be home anyway, if Steve’s not there?), hours in front of multiple 72” screens split god knows how many times, until they find where Steve is.

“You’re not going,” Fury says, blocking his entrance onto the helicarrier.

Tony just about resists calling for his suit to send a repulser to his face. “If I don’t go in the ‘carrier, I’ll follow it with the suit.”

“Nick,” Hill says, crossing her arms, “let him go.”

Fury grits his teeth. “We don’t have time for a psych eval,” he addresses the rest of the team on the helicarrier, “keep an eye on him.”

“What do you think we’ve been doing for the past five years?” Natasha calls from inside the carrier.

Fury moves out of the way, and gives them the go-ahead, watching them fly up, then tracking them on the screen in front of him when they slip above the clouds.

They find him in an industrial freezer, somewhere in Alaska, barely conscious, bloody, bruised and handcuffed by the wrists and ankles, muttering something over and over.

“...G. 98765420. Rogers, Steven G. 98765420. Rogers, Steven G. 98765420. Rogers, Steven G. 98765420. Rogers, Steven G. 9876…”

Tony rushes to his side, ready to laser off the handcuffs, but Steve flinches away and stops muttering, curling in on himself as best he can. They did this to him in mere hours. When he finds whoever did this, he’s going to leave them in a room with Natasha and a toothpick and not come back until the screaming stops. Tony immediately sheds the suit, “Steve, Steve, can you hear me?”

Steve still keeps as far away as he possibly can, but he seems to recognise him. “Tony?”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna get you somewhere safe.”

Steve knew that he was in the future, the HYDRA folk told him that much, and he remembers waking up before, he remembers finding out that all his friends are dead, he remembers the Battle of New York, he remembers the Avengers and he remembers moving into the Avenger’s Tower, previously Stark Tower, he remembers falling hopelessly, irredeemably, unrequitedly in love with Tony Stark.

But according to the bright red blinking, blurry numbers hanging above the door, he’s missed out on another couple years.

He hopes and hope and hopes that he hasn’t that all of that was just a hallucination or something, deliriously, as he feels himself being carried, being told not to go to sleep, not yet, because if he falls asleep, he might stay like that, he sees an older, grey-haired Tony, (well, two blurry versions of him), begging him to stay awake, slipping his hand into his and holding on. Steve tries to grip back, tries to curl his fingers around his, but he can feel himself lose consciousness, Tony’s already fading out, and he’s being manhandled onto something far softer than a helicarrier emergency bench.

Tony hates hospitals. To be fair, he’s never met anyone who likes them. Steve hates hospitals too. Does everything in his damn power to never go to them, to the point where, sometimes, in the beginning, when he still called him ‘Rogers’, he’d walk into the kitchen to find Steve digging out bullets with tweezers and bandaging the wound by himself.

He doesn’t miss that time, not really, he doesn’t miss not knowing Steve.

He’s lying in a hospital bed now, stable, according to the doctors, and it’s just a matter of time until he wakes up (if he wakes up). Steve looks so much smaller, weaker and vulnerable, so much more than Tony’s ever seen him, so much more than he ever should.

It’s almost unnatural and unnerving to see Steve with a breathing tube and an IV drip, and he’s not a particularly god-fearing, or religious man, but he finds himself making all sorts of bets, with God, with himself, almost selfishly, just so he’d never have to see Steve like this again.

He wakes up, because of course he does, because he can’t not, because Tony thinks the world can’t live on without him, because he knows that he himself can’t live on without him, because it would be a damn unfair fate for someone like Steve to predecease him.

“Congratulations,” Steve says, a little after he’s woken up, after they’ve established that the last thing he remembers happened in 2013, after Tony’s been warned, outside the room, by Fury, to take it easy with him - in 2013, they had just started becoming closer than just teammates, nowhere near to what they are now, and even though the doctors had said that he should regain his memories in the next week (turns out, HYDRA aren’t as good at memory wiping as they one were).

“On the marriage,” he confirms, quietly, in that voice that meant he’s just barely keeping down his emotions to save face for everyone around him, even if he’s down to subatomic particles, kept together by only forces that operate by the indisputable laws of the universe.

Tony doesn’t know what to say, so he thanks him, and watches over him as he sleeps.

He’s up and about in less than a day, back in the tower, going through routines that would have felt familiar to him years ago, but Tony has to root around in his own mind to recognise the way he goes to his own room at night, because why would he go to theirs when he doesn’t even know they’re together?

It hits softer than it should, really, because Tony knows that he’s going to be back to normal after a week, or because he’s so damn foolish that he thinks something irrational as love, something so irrational, the root of negative one seems positively simple in comparison, something like that, will pertain to guarantee that he gets his memories back.

He finds Steve smoking on the balcony the day after, another thing he doesn’t do as often anymore.

“I don’t know how close we are now, but may I confess something to you?” Steve asks, and it’s taken Tony all this time to realise just how lonely Steve had been at the beginning, and just how careful he’s been, even in his manner of speech.

“Of course,” Tony replies, like he always will, unbeknownst to this Steve.

“I missed another chance,” he starts, so utterly heartbroken Tony’s helpless to anything but wrap his arms tightly around him. It takes too long for Steve to drop his cigarette and respond, but Tony doesn’t let go.

“What do you mean?” Tony asks, quiet.

“I… when I woke up, the first time, everyone I knew was dead, Peggy had moved on, and I’m not-- I don’t resent her for that, or for everyone else, but I.. I lost a life and a chance at happiness, and all this, I know that we’re not… you don’t think that way or it was probably all in my head… but seeing you married and moved on… I know that I had been-- I had missed something…” Steve trails off, letting go of Tony, but not moving out of his space.

“I… Steve, you haven’t missed out on any more years,” Tony reassures.

“I hate this,” Steve says, filled with venom and bitterness, “I hate… I hate…” all his energy falls away, lost to the wind.

“I’m sorry,” he finishes, lamely, mouth barely forming the words.

It’s not a week. Steve’s back to him the next day, kissing him awake, the way he should, the way they’ve been doing for years now.

“I missed you,” Tony admits, leaning on his chest, even though Steve was with him, Steve gets what he’s trying to say.

“I love you,”  Steve says, and even though it wasn’t even a week, he’s still… he can’t tell Tony that he loves him enough, if not to show his love, than to prove it to himself: he’s allowed to love him, he didn’t lose everything, not this time.

Tony pulls a Solo, declaring that he already knew, and it makes Steve laugh, then kiss him, again and again, and again, reassuring and proving over and over until their lips are red, and they’ve whispered enough promises to fill more lives than they’ll ever lead, enough to satiate them until the sun rises again.

-

masterpost

[strawberryamanita]

alright, y'all, i'm gonna tell a story regarding racism and ignorance. it's gonna sound preachy and self-centered at first, but please hear me out until the end. CW: Mental Illness, Medication, Hate Crime, Death, Violence, Murder, Brief mention of Murder Victims.

so, a little over seven years ago now, i was in an AP US History class. ***anyone i went to highschool with knows where this is going, and i *beg* you to please not say the name of the victim or show his face in the comments. i know that sounds backwards and goes against the movement, but i am so damn triggered by that name and that image that it'll send me into an extreme fit of panic. if someone in the comments asks who it was, i give you permission to DM them about it; otherwise *please* show my nerves some mercy.*** anyway. i was in this History class, and i had already seen some horrid stuff, and it made me cry and i had to ask my Art teacher in the next class period for a moment or a cooldown hug. as you can see, my psyche is already fragile, and i don't respond as "maturely" as my classmates did to these things. and then came the day of reckoning. all i had to do was keep my head down and keep taking notes and drawing like i already was for ten more seconds -- but i guess fate told me to look at the screen, because i was transfixed by the image. paralyzed, almost. it needed to be seen, and it made me look and i did. no sort of frightening imagery had ever *hurt* me the way this one did. i react to my emotions very physically, and i remember being in pain while i was stuck in the image's tractor beam. my veins ached. my arms locked at the joints. this image NEEDED my attention. i am not exaggerating when i say that this image left me a different person than i was going into that classroom that morning. the image followed me everywhere i went. i became a mad prophet, tears streaming down my face as i relayed to every one of my friends the events of the story and how broken my mind felt. i remember breaking down in front of my brother, screaming about how heartless someone had to be to "drown a teenager"(yes, it's THAT event, PLEASE DON'T SAY HIS NAME OR POST HIS FACE IN THE COMMENTS, I *BEG* OF THEE); the victim was fourteen, and so was my brother. and, like, this physical reaction was so bad that my organs were starting to shut down: my body was growing cold, i couldn't digest food, i felt like i was dying. i remember my mom and her then-boyfriend sitting me down to calm me down with "Blazing Saddles", and while watching the movie quelled the horrors in the back of my mind, it was only for so long. i called my former therapist, who lived all the way in Wyoming at the time. i prayed to God, honestly and genuinely, not the way i do in church to humor my older relatives. my then-psychiatrist diagnosed me with OCD-induced PTSD -- a label i still don't feel like i deserve from something as benign as a photograph -- and prescribed me with Klonopin, which i still take for emergencies. i had to walk around my school high to the point where i couldn't control my legs just to get some relief from my now-scarred brain. i still sleep with a light on. i still see his face sometimes. i hate my History teacher for not giving me a proper warning beforehand and not giving me a proper apology afterwards. nobody should have to suffer the way i was, i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. and then, thank goodness, it hit me. listen, i am white. i'm Irish, German, Polish and Slavic, and while back in the day none of those would've made me a proper white person, in 2020 i am white. i grew up very sheltered, my family did what they could to protect me from harm, and i don't even watch horror movies or go on rollercoasters because i know my heart can't take it. this sudden, extremely jarring exposure to something so viscerally human, so depressingly, saddeningly disturbing, so carnally horrific threw me into the deep end in a way that none of my other classmates had to worry about because they were probably exposed to it already -- especially my classmates of color. this was, without exaggeration, the first time i was hit with the reality of what it is to be black in America. i am completely serious -- feel free to laugh, i know it sounds absurd compared to the world we live in now. the harshest instance of violence towards a black person i had heard of then was MLK's murder. i was 17! it took that long for it to be spelled-out for me! the point of sharing my story is not to draw pity -- i did my grieving, i don't need a new shoulder to cry on, and i don't want to be seen as a hero because i had to spiral into complete hysteria just to understand that black Americans, as young as fourteen and even younger, live in a warzone. they have to think about being hurt at every fleeting moment of living in this country, and that the authorities will literally fight life and limb to justify their murder. that is *extremely* sobering. that History lesson ripped the rose-colored glasses right off my face, sat me down in a "Clockwork Orange" chair and made me understand. and honestly, it couldn't have happened at a more necessary time. this lesson was in 2013 -- right after Trayvon Martin, right before Michael Brown. i was thrown into reality right in the midst of all those police-issued atrocities, and while it didn't arm me or give me time to heal, at least it helped me understand what was now too loud to be ignored, at least for me. now, listen -- i still am enraged at my teacher for not warning me, and i still wish i was strong enough to hear about these tragedies to lend my black friends an ear. i had to be *mentally* hurt to understand how necessary it was to care about people who *physically* have it worse than i do. but compared to what they go through, i do still believe it's necessary that i was in class that day. i was going to say, "if it wasn't this event, it would've been some other murder that would've brought it to my attention"; but honestly, the imagery i was shown was worse than anything they'd probably show in a newspaper today -- and that's saying something. i want my experience to be a lesson to white people: educate yourselves, and use that knowledge for good. the world is not irredeemable, and it is not without hope; but it is in *bad* shape, and it has been for hundreds of years. unless you believe in reincarnation, as far as you know this is the only life you get (and if you DO believe in reincarnation, you already know that you have to be your best self to move into the next caste, so you don't have to listen to a white ex-gentile explain your faith to you); if you aren't doing everything you can to leave the world better than it was when you came into it, what has your life been for?

[elizas-writing]

Thirteen Reasons Why is Torture Porn; Using Graphic Violence to Make a Point

CW/TW: Mentions of suicide, rape/sexual violence, physical assault, and everything the Thirteen Reasons Why crew were told NOT to do by mental health experts

If you are in a crisis, don’t let a poorly written TV show tell you what to do; call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or the Suicide Crisis Line at 1-800-784-2433. Surround yourself with people who will support you without judgement and are willing to take the extra step to understand. If you’re struggling to find regular mental health resources, check out here for more options. You still have a life ahead even if it takes some trial and error to figure out what the hell to do.

So Netflix released the second season of Thirteen Reasons Why, and, what a shock, people hate it for upping the graphic violence and rape. I have no plans to watch it myself after reading through all the triggers, but suffice it to say that so little was learned from the first season. Plus, I’d rather not subject myself to that much distress for a TV show I knew there was no point in continuing after the first season. Everyone’s accounts across Twitter and Tumblr of the new season seem to match up, so I’m going off of that for this piece.

If you haven’t seen my review of the first season (with and without spoilers), I found that it definitely went too far to make a point and had really confusing characterizations, but there were select scenes, when they were done right, were kinda worth the wait-- keyword being “kinda.” There was a germ of an idea begging for good writing, but got sucked into shock value for the sake of shock value. And the second season offers no promises to improve.

Of the multiple graphic scenes of this season, the one which sparked the most outrage was the final episode “Bye” as Tyler (a serial stalker) is brutalized and raped by his male classmates. As a result of being pushed too far, he brings practically a whole arsenal of guns to shoot up the school during a dance, but Clay peacefully disarms him before he can go through with it.

So apparently the creators saw the criticism of season one and thought, “So, you want to see more graphic violence, rape, and terribly confusing characterization?”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, creator and showrunner, Brian Yorkey, wanted to explore more of Tyler’s psyche and “how a troubled man might be driven to consider this very difficult choice” after the bullying and ostracization he experienced in the first season. While I’d never wish rape on anyone, even fictional people--and a bunch of characters who mistreated him are total hypocrites--, Tyler is still beyond redemption for never understanding how his behavior destroyed Hannah’s sense of safety. The show puts him through that much brutalization to force audiences to feel sympathetic towards him while never critically analyzing why his stalking and coping mechanisms were wrong and unhealthy, regardless of what else was going on in his life.

It also promotes the dangerous idea that social outcasts and/or victims of bullying are likely to eventually become school shooters, which completely ignores factors like toxic masculinity or racist associations-- as was the case for shootings like Parkland and Santa Fe from this year-- which contribute to a white male sense of entitlement. Even though the lapses in logic are all over the place in the show-- particularly Clay having an emotional breakdown with Tyler, even though he made things worse in the first place by sharing revenge porn--, people had every right to distance themselves from Tyler as much as possible.

He’s a creep in how he objectifies his female classmates, constantly collects sensitive photos for blackmail, and his main outlet for anger becomes shooting guns at bottles and live animals, because society as a whole tends to only show men how to be emotional through anger and nothing else. This doesn’t help that when he testified, he apparently wanted to befriend Hannah to take photos of her to which she rejected (rightfully so) and thus his stalking began. It’s already so back-and-forth among viewers if Hannah committed suicide out of revenge or actual mental health deterioration, and subtly putting blame on her for rejecting Tyler is up there as one of the worst things they did to her. Not to mention throughout the second season, Tyler is anonymously putting up polaroids around the school of incriminating evidence in the case, particularly with Jessica, who is already stressed as is coming to terms that she was raped by Bryce.

It’s upon these scenes that I realized Netflix’s Thirteen Reasons Why can’t decide who it’s supposed to be for. It’s not for teenagers with how unrealistic and unidentifiable the characters are, especially coming from an adaptation of an 11-year-old book with an outdated understanding of teen mental health, bullying and suicide. It’s most definitely not for mentally ill folks with a history of suicidal thoughts because it’s so graphic, violent, and triggering, and on top of which, is grossly inaccurate on how depression works. Are they making it for the same people who can stomach Game of Thrones easily?

Above all else, does graphic violence have any point in film or television?

As mentioned in their first Beyond the Reasons special, the writers argued about needing that authenticity for Hannah’s rape and suicide scenes “to be painful to watch,” but it’s really not worth it if it has nothing else to say besides “look at this excess violence; you need to feel bad.” If you need to spoon feed your audience an explicit rape or suicide scene to emphasize how horrible those things are, it’s bad writing. They made the same mistakes with Tyler’s brutalization, which like I said, only exists to make you feel sorry for him and almost forget he’s an irredeemable character.

Film and television are super creative visual mediums; there are ways to convey an emotion or theme without triggering content or alienating your supposed intended audience.

I mentioned this before in my first review, but Perks of Being a Wallflower did incredibly well in portraying child molestation and an attempted suicide without going too far. The scenes of the molestation are cleverly cut and mostly in shadow where all you can see is Charlie’s aunt rubbing his leg and hear her whispering “Don’t wake your sister.” And when he’s mentally breaking down and suicidal, the camera just pans to the knife slowly before immediately cutting to the police breaking in, and then Charlie wakes up in the psychiatric ward. It’s a gut-wrenching scene every time, but it’s also smart in remembering the intended audience and walking that line before it becomes too much. It’s a great depiction of an anxiety attack where everything overwhelms you at once, and sometimes there’s gaps in your memory in what happened while in that state of panic. It’s never addressed what happened between the police arriving and Charlie waking up in the psychiatric ward. But it doesn’t need to give those answers; what matters most is that Charlie is safe and finally going to get the help he needs.

A scene can be way more powerful in what it omits rather than what it explicitly shows. What you imagine might happen can be more exciting and/or terrifying than what any director could have put on the screen themselves.

Early horror and thriller films are among the most successful of this, especially if they’re directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense. Sure, these films seem pretty cheesy when we in the 21st century are used to seeing much more violence and body horror, but they have their mark on cinematic history for a reason, and for an audience in the 1960s, this was horrifying. Take the famous shower scene from Psycho.

Instead of showing the knife penetrating flesh, it’s all edited in near-rapid cuts of “Mother” missing, Marion screaming and trying to defend herself, and shots of her feet with blood dripping into the water. It focuses more on the vulnerability of the situation, when there’s no chance for escape as you’re cornered against the wall and how quickly it all happens before you can react, complete with fast-paced editing and those high pitched violins. That kind of defenselessness freaked out actress Janet Leigh so much that she couldn’t take showers again without locking the doors and windows and leaving the shower door open. Hell, that still tends to be a common reaction for a lot of people who see this movie, and all without needing to show actual stab wounds.

And this trick in omitting some elements and highlighting others works well across genres for any scene motivated by any strong emotion. There’s probably about 50 different Disney films I can cite that do this well, but the one that sticks out the most is Tarzan.

Aside from Phil Collins singing, some animal noises, and a baby cooing, there is no spoken dialogue for the first 7 minutes, which is a really long time for an animated family film. Yeah, the song kinda hamfists in the themes of family and love from the get-go, but it’s otherwise a great introduction. You see these two families just starting out before they’re cut short by tragedy; one with the death of a baby gorilla and the other with the death of Tarzan’s parents, both at the jaws of Sabor. The former is only indicated by the sounds of the baby gorilla’s screams echoing in the jungle while we only see the aftermath of the latter through Kala’s perspective when she finds Tarzan.

Obviously with it being a Disney family film, they’re not going to actually show Sabor tearing up a baby gorilla or the human parents. As such, they have to rely on context clues for the audience to pick up and piece together everything else with their imaginations. When you think about it long enough, it’s a really dark beginning on how quickly unexpected tragedy can destroy everything you hold dear. And it’s all accomplished without going too far.

Does this mean we need to omit graphic violence entirely for a film? Not necessarily as it very much depends on what the film is and your target audience. But omission is a great practice in a story to explore what else you have to say besides “Look at this traumatizing shit. You should feel bad.” Of course, we’ll always have mindless films which just exist to be violent, and historical narratives and/or social commentaries in some cases need violence to portray the reality of a situation. But when you’re making something about mental illness with intent to help those like your characters, it helps to listen to what your audience and mental health experts actually want to see in such a narrative. And like I said before, the Thirteen Reasons Why creators completely ignored criticisms of season one and continued making the same mistakes just to milk their product beyond the source material. It has nothing else to say or do besides being needlessly gritty as opposed to creating likable characters or understandable motivations.

The only exception to this rule I can even think of is Deadpool 2.

I know it seems counter-intuitive to compare Deadpool 2 and Thirteen Reasons Why given the former’s more excessive violence, but bare with me here. I stand by that Deadpool 2 is way better at handling themes of suicide and violence in two hours than Thirteen Reasons Why ever did in 26 episodes.

The major differences? The intended audience’s expectations and well-written characterization.

Most everyone going in already knows what Wade Wilson is like. And this is definitely not the first time he attempted suicide in such grandiose and gratuitous fashion. The first film established itself as a wildly violent parody of superhero films, and the sequel continues that by poking fun at recent trends of these films going darker and grittier. In any other film, this would cross the line, but because it’s Deadpool, the excessively grotesque violence is to be expected. It succeeds in capturing the shock and dark humor (i.e Wade blowing himself up with his apartment, knowing fully well he can’t die) while still maintaining the weight of his emotional turmoil.

We actually get to know who Wade is and why he acts the way he does. There’s no drawn out mystery or fact-checking other sources or confronting side characters we don’t care about. We get his perspective alone, and that’s all we need to see his grief over Vanessa escalating to self-destructive behaviors and how he tries to find some family and meaning in life without her, even though her death is retconned in the end anyway. It’s all played for laughs, but you can’t help but feel sorry for Wade because he loved Vanessa so much, and they were a wonderfully sweet couple.

Another thing Deadpool 2 does significantly better than Thirteen Reasons Why is not forcing gray morality where it doesn’t belong, particularly when Wade tries to save Russell. It doesn’t matter if his actions lead to a horrible future; he’s just a traumatized kid who needs a proper family who will guide him. A lot of X-Men films try to play the heroes as the bigger people who are above murder and revenge. Yet Deadpool 2 doesn’t punish those like Russell with understandable hatred and motivations. It is very upfront that if you harm children, you deserve whatever hell comes your way-- which really hits home as Russell was put through metaphorical gay conversion therapy.

Meanwhile, I can’t even be bothered to care about anyone in Thirteen Reasons Why. The second season out of nowhere piles on excuse after excuse to justify the characters’ actions without them ever facing guilt or consequences. Anyone else with a remote chance at sympathy is just put through more emotional torture without rhyme or reason. I don’t care who has a drug problem, who’s gay, who dated who, the he-said-she-said, etc etc. If you’re trying to preach the ever-tired “it gets better” bullshit, when does it actually start to get better?

Sadly, Thirteen Reasons Why can’t find that point, and I don’t trust it will given how little the creators learned from the first season’s criticisms. They don’t care about creating a narrative to help mentally ill teens. They have nothing else to say or do than to make money and shoe-horned in so much graphic violence under the guise of being “authentic” to compensate for a tired Degrassi knockoff which would’ve disappeared if it wasn’t based on a well-known YA novel. Graphic violence in media is a tool to be used carefully, and of course it will vary project to project. But if it just exists to pad your “deep, meaningful” story instead of developing characters, motivations and relationships, then it’s cheap, lazy torture porn, and it’s bad writing.

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[taeray]

I’ve seen Star Wars The Last Jedi twice now. Here’s my thoughts. Sorry it’s long, but I just have to give the glowy character review that’s been nagging at me.

Some people don’t like seeing so much Kylo Ren, but I don’t mind it actually. He’s an accessory to Rey’s story. We get to see unequivocally why he is who he is and then see him choose the dark side even when he has the chance to leave it behind. In my opinion, the question of who he is and what he wants seems answered now. He is Kylo Ren. He doesn’t want to be Ben Solo anymore. Sure he killed Snoke, but after seeing how Snoke emotionally manipulates him, berating one moment and then praising him the next, Ren turning on Snoke made perfect sense. Snoke did not win Ren’s loyalty with any need, he beat Ben Solo into submission by playing on his fears and feelings of inadequacy. That kind of emotional abuse usually yields one of two outcomes: stockholm syndrome level loyalty or unadulterated hatred. Ren turning on Snoke was inevitable. Rey just presented someone new for Kylo Ren to latch onto and focus all his need for validation. The moment she didn’t give him that he turned on her and was ready to blast her out of the sky and kill everyone she’s ever cared about.

I believe Ben Solo is dead. Kylo Ren killed him, along with his past, just as he intended.

Onto the next polarizing character: Luke Skywalker. He might not have been exactly what people were expecting, but I actually found him to be pretty believable. He’s not a hopeful farmboy anymore. He is an old man now; an old man who fought so hard to save his father, who tried so hard to continue the ways of the Jedi, lost his nephew to the dark side which is almost worse than losing him to death, inadvertently ruined his sister and best friend’s marriage, and inadvertently brought about the death of his best friend at the hands of his nephew.

Luke. Skywalker. HATES. HIMSELF. He blames himself for every bad thing that has happened to his family since Ben Solo turned to the dark side. And so he ran away. Just like Obi Wan did, just like Yoda did, just like Han Solo did. He gave up the fight, just like all of these strong men in his life did. It’s no wonder after seeing their examples that he finally gave in himself. He went to the island to die. Rey helped save him.

As for Rey. I don’t believe she’s out of character. She’s a good person. This is a girl, who when told Finn lied to her about not being part of the resistance, didn’t even blink. She just asked him not to leave. Many a person would have locked onto the lie and been done with him after that. But not Rey. She loves deeply, forgives easily, and she gives people many chances. When she found out that maybe, just maybe, Keylo Ren could see that a mistake was made and that he could come home, she gave that hope a chance.

And she didn’t do it for herself. She did it for Ben Solo, whose pain she got to feel herself. She also knew how deeply Luke was hurting. She could heal that hurt by bringing him back. Even more she hoped he could help save the rebels, people who saved her life and were taking care of Finn. Anyone who tries to boil it down to a crush on Kylo Ren is missing so many layers to her choice to try and save him. It doesn’t matter if the fans saw him as irredeemable, Rey needed to try for the sake of so many people other than herself.

As for Poe, I loved his arc. We had no real clue as to who Poe Dameron was after The Force Awakens. He had what, maybe ten minutes of screen time and it was almost never just Poe. No one can say he was out of character. Just out of fanon character. I personally loved seeing Leia teaching Poe, and the only way to teach him is to show moments of failure. The perfect student who does nothing wrong is not a character who needs their story told. It makes for a boring tale. Poe got a ton of screen time trying, failing, and learning from the Princess herself, clearly being groomed to take her place one day. If Poe did everything he was told and simply executed Leia’s orders, we wouldn’t have needed to see so much of him. Not to mention there is a massive leap to make between being a soldier and being a leader. Leia was groomed from a young age to be a leader since she was a princess. Poe has clearly been a soldier from a young age, but now it’s time for him to get out of the headspace of soldier and into the headspace of leader. Two very very different jobs.

That leads me to address Holdo and her choice not to tell Poe her plan. She obviously confided in those she trusted because they were executing her orders. It’s not like she was fueling the transports herself or even walking around the ship giving those orders to the grunts. She was giving the orders to people on the bridge and those orders were then being passed down the chain. She just didn’t confide in Poe, because being a soldier means following orders and he did not follow Leia’s orders. He was in the hot seat, had just been demoted for refusing to listen to his commanding officer. He was being punished. He had been removed from the circle of those who needed to know. Following her lead was a chance to prove that he could follow orders. Pretty normal military protocol. He failed to just follow orders for a second time, and Leia not only sided against him for it, she stunned his butt. I found that to be a wonderful progression for Poe and in the end he learned the lesson he needed to learn.

On the other side, the story of Finn is one of my favorites. He proves time and time and time again what a good man he is. I don’t care what some say, his wasn’t a tale of learning to be unselfish. That guy doesn’t have a selfish bone in his body. His tale is one completely solidifying him as the hero, the man, the best dude in the movie. Was he going to run from the rebel ship? Yes, but not for himself. Not by a long shot. He was going to make himself look like a jerk so he could protect Rey, his best friend and the person he would literally face his deepest fear for. Only Rey could make him go back to the First Order in The Force Awakens. His story in The Last Jedi shows him going back and facing the First Order for something other than Rey, proving there is more there than a potential love interest storyline. The moment Rose mentioned the tracker, Finn was ready to go to Snoke’s ship to shut it down. He didn’t have to be asked.

He’s just an amazingly good man. He is the moral compass of the movies, and he does not have to spend time with any potential love interest to further his character development.

Plus he’s just so darn loveable that anyone that spends more than five minutes with him begins to adore him. He’s the hot girl of the movies.

As for Rose, I love her. She’s loyal, she’s emotional, she’s capable, she’s strong, but she’s not exactly a fighter. Rose is everything women should want to see in a strong female character that is not stereotypically strong. I didn’t find her writing cheesy or corny and I don’t care if her character encroaches on any ships. She is a wonderful addition to the cast and I’m excited to see what will happen with her next.

All in all, The Last Jedi was amazing in my opinion. I enjoyed The Force Awakens, but The Last Jedi has already sucked me into seeing it twice in theaters and I’m pretty sure I need to see it at least one more time. I think it really showcases who the main characters are (Poe, Rey, and Finn), and gave each of them a chance for some storyline away from each other and the shipping wars going on in the fandom. Each one of them grew a little bit in the short time they were apart, and now they are ready to be the faces of the new rebellion. People in the universe aren’t going to be looking to the Skywalkers anymore, they’re going to be looking to the military commander, the jedi, and the heart of the rebellion to save them.

Bonus moments that made me squee:

-Poe and BB-8′s multiple romcom reunions where they run into each other’s arms scenes

-Poe being immediately bambuzzled at the thought of Finn being naked

-Adorable Finn and Rey experiencing new places and things (Finn at the casino and Rey with the rain)

-”If you see Finn tell him–yeah tell him that.”

-BB-8 being the true badass of the movie, his father R2D2 would be so proud

-Luke being the true, dramatic hoe we love and not only force projecting himself halfway across the galaxy, but force projecting himself in a new outfit, with a clean haircut, and then brushing fake dirt off his fake shoulder

-Leia proving once and for all that not only is she force sensitive, but she is possibly one of the most badass force users to ever live

-Women EVERYWHERE! Women in tie fighters, women working the computer consoles, women saving the day and destroying dreadnoughts, women with blasters ready to make their final stand. Just women women women in Star Wars, kicking butts and taking names. It was absolutely beautiful.

-Star Wars cementing the fact that even if a bad guy and his fascist bs seems like a joke, he can still be insanely dangerous when he gets people to follow him

-Rey and Kylo Ren wailing on Snoke’s dudes. That lightsaber fight was absolutely amazing and beautiful and so well choreographed.

-FINN AND REY’S HUG! BEST MOMENT OF THE MOVIE!

[saltpepperbeard]

Let’s Talk About The Last Jedi

So I’m feeling So Pumped about this movie that I feel the need to do one of my giant reviews. The Internet had me feeling such mixed emotions going into this movie that I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. I half expected to come out of the movie seething and pissed at every choice made, and then I half expected to be utterly and completely #Shook. And I can genuinely and thankfully say that it was the latter. With that being said, I’d love to get into screaming talking about it for anyone who may have doubts about seeing it, or anyone looking for someone with similar thoughts.

So then! I’ll give a quick spoiler free review before I dive into the deeper stuff. The internet, tumblr especially, made me think that this movie was going to be completely different from how it actually was. I went into the theater expecting certain things to happen that never did. I went into the theater expecting to hate the character choices and never did. I was almost nervous really, preparing myself for this movie to be a Phantom Menace as opposed to a Return of the Jedi. But no, it was its own thing.

In retrospect, the plot had surprisingly very little going on. I feel like the other Star Wars movies take place across weeks, even months. But in this one, all the action felt like it took place anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. Despite this, it managed to keep me incredibly invested, never really slow down, and pack a lot into a short time frame. SO MANY THINGS WENT WRONG SO QUICKLY.

I kind of like that though. It shows how unpredictable and unforgiving war can be. It made it seem more real, more organic if that makes any sense.

Even the characters that were introduced had me quickly invested in them. There was a character who only had maybe 20-30 minutes of screen time, and she ended up being one of the characters who made me cry the most. 

Everything was just nicely paced, characters were handled well, and it was overall just a really good movie. It made me laugh a lot, cry a lot, and come out instantly wanting to see it again. It might not be everyone’s favorite, but it definitely left a lasting impact on me. The amazing new characters, the action sequences, the answered questions, the lore, and the setup for a new movie completely locked me in. It’s re-watchable for sure, and will definitely be higher up on my favorite Star Wars movies.

...Now with that being said, feel free to follow be beneath the cut for more! Just a warning, there will now be Heavily Spoilers and Heavy Opinions™.

The Discourse™: OKAY. So I feel like this is the thing I need to address first since I’m an open air now, because this is what had me lowkey turned off from the movie in the first place. I went into this movie thinking there was going to be a romantic connotation between Kylo and Rey, and was admittedly bothered by it. Force Awakens clearly set up their relationship, with Kylo being drawn to Rey’s power, and Rey being utterly disgusted by Kylo’s actions. So to get it in my head that these two were going to be led in the direction of a romantic relationship had me cringing a bit.

I don’t have a problem with people who write fanfiction and kind of shift/manipulate their intentions for shipping purposes. But to have said motivations be canon would be...a bit concerning considering how JJ set them up to be.

And I can say that when I saw the movie, I was so relieved to see that it followed the arc that JJ introduced. I know a lot of people are holding on to the idea that Rey and Kylo were reaching out to each other, and were romantically/sexually invested in each other. But really, genuinely, I did not see this.

I saw Kylo wanting Rey solely for his power. I saw him craving power and craving leadership. His actions reminded me very much of, ironically, Darth Vader. I saw the same kind of motivations that I did with Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. Vader wanted Luke to join him in his quest to rule the galaxy, because he knew that having a very strong force-sensitive individual by his side would amplify his power. And I feel that was the same with Kylo. He knew Rey was force-sensitive. Hell, he got hIS ASS KICKED AND HAD A SCAR TO SHOW FOR IT. So he and ultimately Snoke both wanted her on the First Order’s side for that reason.

And then of course, Rey wanted Kylo on her side with the motivation of changing the war. I recall her talking about how beneficial it would be to have him in the light again. And that makes sense; having Kylo on the Resistance’s side would take a huge chunk of darkness/power away from the First Order. It would really change things the frick around if Kylo joined those he swore to defeat. So in knowing that there could potentially still be good in him, Rey pulled a Luke and attempted to bring him away.

Their little force connections were very interesting, but again, I didn’t sense any romantic longing. Any time Kylo reached out to her, he appeared to be attempting to corrupt her. I noticed that he would jab at her weak spots a lot, such as mentioning her loneliness and past burdens. And in knowing that channeling negative emotions such as those leads to the dark side, it can be pretty safe to assume that he was trying to get under her skin and get her to join his purpose.

Rey of course, resisted his dark intentions. She did however, reach out to him once. And I believe this happened because she saw potential good in him. She saw a supposed gate to reach his light side, and attempted to pass through it. She wanted so bad for him to be good again.

And of course when he appeared so close to be redeeming himself, only to shut it all down, she had no problem with shutting him out. She realized at that point that he was irredeemable.

Not to mention that Snoke had been instigating their little “Force Skype Calls” from the beginning anyway. He openly admitted to filling their heads with thoughts and tampering with their weak spots to break the both of them. So it never really was Kylo reaching out to Rey or vice versa anyway. It was all formulated.

SO ANYWAY, I was very much satisfied with the way their interactions played out. And just a PSA, I don’t really have a problem with anyone who ships them. If you like writing fanfictions and what not, imagining what could be, then you are definitely free to do so. I however, do not see any kind of romantic or sexual connotations in their relationship, so I was happy with how things were presented in this movie.

The New Characters: This is the part where I start screaming, bECAUSE H’OH MY GOD. I LOVE THEM????? WHAT GOOD KIDS???????? Rose quickly had me invested in her character with how smol yet heroic she was, and her chemistry with Finn was amazing. And then of course Holdo sjflksjdksds. Jesus CHRIST that woman. I cannot get over her character honestly. I was so frustrated with her in the beginning and felt like she was holding back the Resistance from achieving their goals. But then everything fell into place and her motivations were explained perfectly and??? The part where she sacrificed herself by slamming???? into the First Order ships at light speed in absolute????? silence?????? had me probably tHE MOST SHOOK I WAS IN THE ENTIRE MOVIE??????? AND SHE HAD SUCH A MINOR ROLE IN THE SCHEME OF THINGS BUT MADE ONE OF THE BIGGEST IMPACTS AND IT WAS SO UTTERLY INSANE

Rey: I have to admit, I was hoping that Rey would explore more of that “balance” between the force in this movie. She seemed to give into one side or the other pretty quickly as she attempted to figure out her purpose and who she was as a jedi. But I suppose ultimately at the end, she found her place and decided what path she was taking by shutting the First Order out and aiding the Resistance. I suppose I had it in my head that she was going to master both the light and dark side, becoming a Grey Jedi. I had images of her in my head wielding a double-sided red and blue lightsaber. And who knows; maybe she’ll explore more of this in episode nine. We still really didn’t get to see the type of Jedi she’ll become, and I guess that’s what I was hoping to see in this movie.

I did of course, really like to see her journey as she attempted to figure things out, and the small hints at how powerful she really is. I’M JUST SO READY FOR THIS LITTLE POWERHOUSE TO BECOME SUCH A POWERFUL FREAKING JEDI/FORCE USER.

Poe: I know a lot of people were complaining that Poe’s character was cut down, and he was made to be this “scoundrel” type of character. I even saw people going so far as to calling his character choices sexist because of how he disobeyed both Leia and Holdo. But honestly, I saw nothing wrong with his character choices. It was established pretty well in the first movie that Poe is very gung-ho, that he’s a bit cocky, and that he likes leaping before looking necessarily. And I think this movie only amplified those character traits.

I think Poe is our Han of the new trio. He tends to act before he thinks things through properly, and acts in the hero mindset. I think he would have disobeyed anyone who tried to give him orders, as he was so set on his plans and so invested in saving the Resistance in the way that made the most sense to him.

So he wasn’t problematic. Just a Good Boy who was trying his best and just wanted to save the day for his boyfriend fellow fighters.

Finn: FINNY-FINN-FINN IS BEST BOY. God, I love him. He’s just so good. His character is just so delightful, and I adore how he has the same fighting spirit as Poe. He’s willing to do anything for those he’s fighting for, and I swear to God, if he had flung himself into that charging gun, I would have flung myself down the theater’s stairs. Like I appreciate your sacrifice and character, bUT YOU ARE TO GOOD TO LOSE LIKE THAT SO YOU SIT YOURSELF DOWN. Also, while I love his dynamic with Rey, his dynamic with Rose was super cute as well. I’m glad he was able to establish a good relationship with her, and then also go to Rey in the end. My boy is surrounded by a lot of good friends, and I am So Glad.

Luke: So being overly dramatic must come from the male side of the Skywalker family. All the ladies have it together, but the mEN JUST LOVE THEIR STOMPING AWAY AND THEIR DRAMATIC CAPE FLINGS AND THEIR L’OREAL HAIR MOMENTS. But also let Luke rest, he is tired.

In all seriousness, this was actually another element the Internet had me real worried about. I was honestly expecting Luke’s character to be utterly butchered. Like, I was expecting him to not feel like Luke whatsoever. And admittedly, initially, I was a bit worried there in the beginning. He just seemed so cold and so unapproachable and so just...not himself that I was sitting there like ohgodohgodohgod.

But then I came to realize that Luke had been through A Lot; the poor guy was literally blaming himself for the entire uprising of The First Order. Like, despite Snoke being the one to seduce Ben to the dark side, and Ben ultimately failing Luke as opposed to the other way around, he could not see it as such. He carried the burden of starting everything.

And then I also realized that Luke has been a sassy lil dork since A New Hope. After all, he only wanted to go to Toshi Station to pick up some power converterrrssss! And then when he was learning the ways of the force with Yoda, he was impulsive and even quick tempered at times.

So really, he wasn’t out of character at all. Just really really really tired. 

He also probably saw a lot of his younger self in Rey. And in seeing what he became, and what he thought his actions created, it made him shut himself out, and therefore her as well.

It was so amazing however, to see Luke come back in full swing. Good God. To see him finally warm up to training Rey, all the way to seeing him LITERALLY PROJECT HIMSELF ON THE ASTRAL PLANE TO WHIP HIS NEPHEW INTO SHAPE LOL. LIKE YES. THAT’S HIM. THAT’S LUKE SKYWALKER.

And his death didn’t feel too out of place either. The whole thing with him finally being at peace, and that friggin binary sunset symbolism bullshit that decided to show up and murder me was a great touch as well. It’s like his arc made a complete circle, so his death felt heroic, it felt like he was laying to rest and allowing the new jedi to take his place.

Leia: I couldn’t handle Leia for a few reasons. First and foremost being, I would tear up whenever I saw Carrie Fisher on screen for obvious reasons. Secondly, she’s always been one of my favorite characters in the entirety of the Star Wars franchise, if not my ABSOLUTE favorite. So I of course adored watching every aspect of her personality on screen. I love Leia in the sense that she never has time for anyone’s shit, but is also one of the warmest and wisest characters in the entire franchise. And probably one of the strongest too; your girl has been to every circle of hell and back and hasn’t ONCE been tempted by the dark side. I absolutely adore her.

But what had me really really REALLY shook with this movie was finally FINALLY getting to see her use her force sensitivity. Like of course we got to see her reaching out to Ben and Luke, something she’s demonstrated in Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Force Awakens. But tO ACTUALLY SEE HER SAVE HERSELF FROM THE DEEP DARK DEPTHS OF SPACE BY UTILIZING A FORCE PULL???? I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT.

I had actually spoiled that one bit unfortunately, because I couldn’t live with not knowing if Kyle Ron killed his sweet mother or not lol. But even in knowing it, I was still crying and in complete shock in seeing it. I’ve always wanted Leia to show her jedi tendencies ever since I was a smol Star Wars fan. And even though it wasn’t much, seeing her legitimately using the force on the big screen...I’M STILL MESSED UP JUST THINKING ABOUT IT

And also on a little side note, I want to cry every time I think about Leia being able to see and feel Luke when she was on Crait. Her being able to converse with him, and practically reuniting with him just...MURDERED ME. IT WAS LITERALLY THE ONE THING I WAS HOPING FOR, AND WELP THERE GOES LUKE KISSING LEIA ON THE FOREHEAD AND CAUSING MY SOUL TO AGGRESSIVELY ASCEND.

The Creatures: It honestly cracked me up to see how much the Porgs and Vulptexes were hyped up, and then to rECEIVE SO LITTLE OF THEM. Any time they were on screen though, they were very delightful. The one scene where Chewie had a cooked Porg, and he got guilt tripped into not eating it by these little puppy dog-eyed Porgs had me DYING. And also the Vulptexes were heckin’ good doggos. Brought the Resistance out of the salt mines 10/10.

Overall: I would get into even more detail, but considering this whole thing is getting to be a legitimate novel and I touched upon what was most important to me, I’ll just wrap things up by saying I thoroughly enjoyed nearly everything about this movie. I went in with lowered expectations, and ended up being blown out of the water. It definitely has re-watch value. It definitely stuck with me. It definitely kept my fandom spirit alive, and made me all the more desperate to see what happens next.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens now that Snoke is out of the picture, and now that there are other force sensitive users in the galaxy. Please see: that smol baby bean at the end of the movie. I’m very excited with everything this movie set up, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what Nine will bring.

[psyga315]

On Character Empathy (Or Why I View Atlas As An Icy Dorne)

So, I figured I’d do an essay on character empathy. RWBY has created dozens of characters that are all awesome, cool, cute, and very, very empathic. People literally cried in Volume 3 and the finale was filled with nothing but rage and grief towards the writers. It was perhaps the highest point RWBY has ever reached. But that’s what happens when you make a character likeable and then kill them off. What happens when you make a character unlikeable, but eventually have them try to be on the right side of a conflict? Well, you get the scene that this essay is based around: Jacques’ final scene in Volume 4 when he tries to tell Ironwood that locking up Atlas is a bad idea. To briefly recap, Ironwood gets a memo from Winter that shit might get real in Mistral. Because of what happened to Vale and Beacon, Ironwood had every right to try and prevent that from happening again. So, he does what anyone with a huge military authority would do: lock up the Kingdom of Atlas. From his standpoint, this makes sense. He’s worried that Atlas might be next (Sadly, it isn’t, but that’s dramatic irony for ya) so he decided to defend it before people sneak across disguised as students like what happened last time. Now, this definitely reeks of current time politics and I certainly agree that James is going about this the wrong way. It’s just too bad that, as far as we’re concerned, he’s in the right. I’m not saying in this current situation. No. I’m saying in the entire time we saw him in RWBY. Yes, he seems like a dick at times, but from all the moments we do see of him, he’s doing his best. Even CRWBY said that they wanted to make him look like a prick, but ultimately have him be this reasonable authority figure, which we do see in Volume 4. His opponent… not so lucky. And this is where character empathy comes into play. Jacques Schnee, for as much as we heard and seen of him, is literally the polar opposite of Ironwood. Whereas Ironwood comes off as a good character despite his shortcomings, Jacques is established to be a bad character despite his moments of clarity. Case in point: when we first see him talking Weiss into singing for the charity ball, it’s very clear that he’s manipulating her into singing to make him look good, even when the song she sings paints him in a negative light. Despite this, though, he had some method to the madness. Jacques wanted to hold a charity ball to help show Remnant that Atlas cared for when Vale was attacked… But I’ll get to how they really cared later. This could have been another Ironwood situation where, we’re meant to hate this man, but his reasoning is so sound that we can’t help but to like him. The problem is that the framing of the scene makes it so that we’re meant to feel threatened by Jacques. Especially since we’re going through the eyes of Weiss. Which is why most people outright voiced hatred for Jacques when he slaps her and then stripped her of her heritage, effectively making her a prisoner. Yes, Ironwood sold out Ozpin and moved so much military forces into Vale that it almost seemed like an occupation rather than a guard, but he never slapped someone and dragged them through the dirt because they spoke back to him, and when he did the latter in Volume 3 when telling RWBY they got disqualified, he made it clear that he wasn’t actually the one making the call. Jacques, however, was the one making the call. He was the one who slapped Weiss. And like that, our empathy for him went down the drain while empathy for Ironwood didn’t waver. Which brings me to the crux of why I made this essay: Forgive me when I side with the apparently crazy guy who, based off his past experiences, is locking up Atlas to better protect them from a possible threat over the blatant child abuser whose every line of dialogue has been nothing but trying to save his own skin. And the problem is that this falls entirely on character empathy. We’re told from the very first time we’re heard of him that Jacques is a jackass. Even the World of Remnant episode on the SDC paints him in a negative light, though that’s thanks in part to the narrator. When we see him in a talking role for the first time, he’s as much of a prick as we heard him to be. So thus, our empathy for him is already meant to be low, and after the charity ball, it only dropped from there. At his final appearance, all he has to offer to the debate is the long list of emotional baggage he left on Weiss and a clear message that he’s only in it for himself and that his children are just property to him. If CRWBY meant to have Jacques be concerned for Atlas’ well-being, they sadly screwed the pooch so hard, that the scene is actually karmic comeuppance for him. See, in-between the aforementioned slapping and disinheriting of Weiss, Jacques grounded Weiss for talking back to him and would only end up going anywhere if she kisses up to him. Ironwood practically did the same thing to him. He grounded him and the entirety of Atlas and people can only get out with the Council’s approval, which, considering how he has two seats, means his approval. In short: Jacques has to kiss up to Ironwood. Sweet, sweet karma. The problem is that, in this scene, it seems that people believe Ironwood to be going off the deep end. That this is a scene where we should be concerned for his sanity. It’s where people say that the child abuser is in the right for once in his selfish life. And to that, I can see their point. Ironwood is essentially locking everyone up. There’s no beating around the bush. This is a man who is clearly abusing his authority for “the greater good”, even when he believes this is what’s right. The overall gist is that “when Jacques is telling you this is a bad move, it’s a bad move”. The problem I see, however, is that he’s had a scene prior to this where he tells Ironwood that what he’s doing is a bad move, and his dialogue and the conversation afterwards point out that it’s only a bad move because it affects him negatively. And now we get to the charity ball scene where CRWBY pretty much paints Atlas as a whole in a negative light. During this scene, Weiss encounters a guy who pretty much established that he had no idea why the charity’s even happening in the first place, even when the painting he’s looking at and hitting on Weiss over has the purpose stated right there. The camera even focuses on it right after to show just how easily he could have seen it and saved himself some face. It doesn’t help that, when he guesses what the charity is for, he asks if it’s for Mantle, Atlas’ former name before it became… well… Atlas. Showing that he only cares about what happens in Atlas. Then a trophy wife speaks up and says how Beacon deserved what it got. This, right here, is the clincher and shows us just how unsympathetic the people of Atlas are. Volume 3 showed us a lot of shit happening. To quote Blake: “People are dead.” And these are people we knew and cared for. Penny, Pyrrha, even Roman. People have died to this incident. And here’s this bitch saying how they “deserved it” for the lack of “proper defenses”. That comment would be such a slap in the face to anyone who has personally lost a loved one to such an incident only to hear someone in passing say “they deserved it for lacking the proper defenses”. It’s an even huger slap in the face if you tried to be that defense, only to fail and then hear this bitch laugh at your misfortune. Thanks to these two characters, CRWBY established what the civilians of Atlas are. Imagine for a moment, a man dying from his wounds. People all over are trying to help him, calling an ambulance, patching his wounds… and yet there’s this one woman passing by, just looking at her phone. Atlas is that one woman. Only caring for themselves when others are hurt, wounded, or dead. And this is probably a problem in of itself. Basing an entire kingdom off the behaviours of two minor characters, but the problem is that, with the dialogue made afterwards, it’s made very clear that two characters are meant to represent the civilians of Atlas as a whole. And thus, paints the entire kingdom as an unsympathetic lot. It doesn’t help that Atlas, or back then, Mantle, was said to be on a villainous side during the Great War. And while you can point out FNKI or Penny as the exceptions of this, they’re Huntsmen. They are not regular civilians. It would be like judging America as a whole based off the celebrities who were born there rather than the actual people who live in it. Thus, we have two unsympathetic characters (Jacques and Atlas as a whole) getting karmic retribution. This essay was made to prove why I view Ironwood’s decision to lock up Atlas as an awesome moment instead of a moment where I should be concerned. Actually, scratch that. I was concerned when Ironwood declared he’d lock up Atlas. Not because he was going off the deep end, but because I thought Weiss would never leave her abusive father’s prison because of it. And that’s basically what it boils down to. Jacques and Atlas get sweet karma dealt to them and I had to ask “and what Ironwood is doing is a bad thing why?” Because, as much as I see it, Jacques is going into the same situation he put Weiss in and Atlas’ social bubble is being a gilded cage. The problem lies in character empathy. CRWBY devoted so much of Weiss’ limited time to show us how evil Jacques and Atlas that when it came time to show that Ironwood is going off the deep end, I ended up scratching my head at why people are so concerned. Klein is their one exception, but he’s more or less tied to Weiss and is not some random civilian like Henry or the Trophy Wife were. So don’t be surprised when I say I cheered when Ironwood decided to lock up Atlas, because the person arguing against him spent all is screen time being a selfish irredeemable douchbag.