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guzhuangheaven · 4 years

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Which cdramas would you rate as having the best/most accurate costumes you have ever seen? And are also historically accurate in terms of culture and history?

We always dance around answering this question, because it is impossible (for us) to answer. For two reasons.

1) There is no such thing as historical accuracy in dramas

You can never know everything that is needed to know about how people lived, dressed, styled their hair etc. in ye olden times unless you are a time traveller who has actually lived in those times. Historical records, extant garments, paintings, drawings, statues etc. can give you an idea of what people dressed like/lived like at the time, but historical records are fickle. They do not necessarily reflect the lives of everyone in society and often can be imperfectly preserved, leading to gaps in the knowledge we can have today. Because of this, any dramas that claim to be 100% historically accurate in terms of their costume/make up/whatever is lying because that is impossible.

What dramas can do, however, is do extensive research on the cuts and materials of clothes/jewellery/make up people used at the time and try their best to recreate them with the materials available to us now. Even then, dramas, for the sake of aesthetics, will often take creative liberties, for example using chemical dyes that make clothes in colours that was probably very hard/impossible to get, or not available to that person in that social class, at that time.

All this is to say, I personally don’t usually scrutinise dramas for “historical accuracy” in their costumes, unless the drama is so bad that I can’t concentrate on the story and that’s what I turn to nitpicking to give myself a reason to keep watching. At the same time, I will forgive A LOT of costuming sins if the drama keeps me engaged with its story. Examples of this include Oh My General with its OBNOXIOUS use of colours and The Mischievous Princess with I don’t even know what to call this travesty they call costuming Ming dynasty.

However, this does not mean that dramas can’t try to be historically accurate, of course. To me, dramas that succeed in this area makes it clear that they have done research and consulted extant garments/historical sources to make their costumes look like it could reasonably have existed in the time the story it is set in.

I guess I will talk about Ruyi and Yanxi because I just know someone will ask us about it again eventually, despite the fact that we have sort of tried to avoid answering the question of whether Ruyi or Yanxi is more historically accurate the last time we were asked.

Here’s our very inexpert, very limited opinion, based on extremely limited research, on this question: both Ruyi and Yanxi clearly consulted extant garments/accessories of the Qing dynasty, and tried to recreate them in different ways.

There is evidence that Ruyi based many of their costumes on extant garments. We have a post about it, even though we do strongly suspect these extant garments were from the wrong time, i.e. they are late Qing circa 19th century, purely because they still exist at all, rather than the early Qing period of Qianlong. Yanxi also based its costuming on extant historical artifacts, including the use of the yunjian collar and the velvet flower hair accessories, which can be seen in paintings of women from around that time.

And then there is this headdress which Er Qing wears to her wedding, which has photographic evidence that it existed, but then the time of photography is clearly not the time of Qianlong.

However, the point we’re trying to make is that, because the Qing dynasty stretched 300 years, it is highly likely that both of these dramas did their research, then cherry picked the aspects of clothes and hair from different times of the Qing dynasty that suited their drama’s aesthetics. Does that make them historically inaccurate? Well, that depends on what level of accuracy you are after. But realistically, to expect them all to dress like it was really Qianlong’s time is likely almost impossible, not to mention would require the costumes to change, as both dramas spanned like 30 years.

Also, even when you can tell the drama did consult extant garments and artifacts, they can still fail in the making of the costume. Case in point, Danshu’s pheasant robe is very polyester and has printed “embroidery”, even though it was set in the actual Song dynasty when they would have worn this garment.

Compare that to Royal Nirvana, which was set in a fictional dynasty (based on Song), but managed to pull a pheasant robe that looked a thousand times better because it was actually embroidered.

Here’s a more important reason why we often don’t want to answer questions about what dramas are historically accurate:

2) We don’t know.

Can I just stress again that we are not historians of Chinese period clothing, history, anything? We’re not even Chinese and can’t even read Chinese. Any random “knowledge” we put on here is result of years of accumulation from watching dramas (so take everything we say with a fistful of salt) and yes, sometimes research, but in the sense of we google things. We also have to translate things on google translate, which admittedly is a little better these days especially from Chinese to Vietnamese, but still highly inaccurate sometimes. Sometimes we have sources that has been translated into Vietnamese or English, but whether that’s accurate is dependent on whether the source is accurate and whether the translation is accurate. tl;dr: don’t believe everything we say and don’t look to us for…you know, authority.

And on that note, regarding your other asks, unfortunately we don’t think we can answer them, simply because if you haven’t found the answer you want by Googling, it’s very unlikely that we can do better. Our series of post on Qing dynasty costumes exists because the popularity of Legend of Ruyi meant that this information was available in Vietnamese, and we just did a couple of steps to make sure the information was reasonably believable by looking up the Chinese sources and putting them through translation bots. We would not have been able to do all of this research from scratch.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, here’s some links of relevant posts on @ziseviolets tumblr, which maybe I should just have directed you there from the beginning:

Hanfu in television dramas

Recs for historically/stylistically accurate Chinese drama

- h

#ask #legend of ruyi #the story of yanxi palace #serenade of peaceful joy #royal nirvana #qing dynasty #yanxioutfits #ruyicostumes #song dynasty #theitgirlblog #tldr don't ask us about historical accuracy #we don't know and often don't really care #historical accuracy #guzhuang 101

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elaynetrakand · 3 years

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Now I want to ask you!

What would you have done differently in season 1?

What are your hopes for season 2?

🥰

Hi!

So, Perrin's storyline is probably the one I would change the most. I liked almost all of the changes the show made, but the few I didn't like were almost all to do with Perrin. I understand what they were going for with one of those changes (setting up his aversion to violence and his great fear of accidentally hurting someone), but there were other, better, ways they could have done it than by creating a fridged wife. And I really don't see why him being in love with Egwene and the whole love triangle was necessary. Many say his feelings for Egwene are also present in the first book, and I guess they are if you squint, but I don't see the purpose of it in either book or show. It goes nowhere and doesn't really serve to further the character development of any of them. (Caveat: They may be planning to explore it further next season in a way that will change my mind on that last point.)

I also think they sidelined Rand a little too much? I get that they were trying to keep the Dragon's identity a surprise right up until the end, but I don't think they were very successful. All of the show-only people I know had correctly guessed it was Rand by the end of the first episode lol, and none of them fell for any of the misdirection with Mat, Nynaeve, etc., so it feels like they sidelined him for nothing, and it kind of undermined the reveal imo. Especially in regards to Tam's fever dreams. It almost felt like a cheat for them to bring that in at the very end, like, "Oh, by the way, we didn't show you this extremely important detail earlier, but this very pivotal thing happened during the first episode!"

The only other thing I can think of is that the editing and pacing was a bit choppy at times. The most obvious example I can think of was Loial finding Nynaeve in the Tar Valon gardens, which felt very weird and abrupt, but would have been much smoother with a couple of small tweaks.

Oh, and since it does look like they are regrettably going for the dreaded Love Square that you and I dislike so much lol, I think they should have introduced all three of those female characters in the same season. So, they should have found a way to introduce Elayne and Aviendha this season as well as Min, or - more logically - pushed back Min's introduction until s2, since tbh her presence this season really didn't add anything that couldn't easily have been cut.

I have a few other random thoughts, but this post is already too long. And despite these nitpicks, I am really very happy with the first season. I think they got far, far more right than they got wrong.

Thank you for the ask! ❤️

#wot book spoilers

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andmaybegayer · 4 years

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Last Monday of the Week: 2021-03-01

First Monday of the Month. My boss just quit at work which means I'm now the only formally trained engineer left who has any particular specialization in embedded systems. This week is going to be a doozy.

I also wrote a Very Long set of media updates because I’ve been consuming some stuff that makes me think a lot. Never a good sign.

Listening: I spent all of Saturday playing Minecraft after talking with some friends about it during the week on IRC. Practicing what I preach with regards to my Large Biome Supermacy policy, which does involve a lot of walking. Hence, I started catching up on The Adventure Zone: Graduation again, I'm like ten episodes behind.

https://maximumfun.org/episodes/adventure-zone/the-adventure-zone-graduation-ep-32-by-a-haircut/

I don't really enjoy Travis' DM'ing style. It's very loose and he has a tendency to let players run wild without much structure which is a tricky thing to handle. He does a lot of worldbuilding and character design but doesn't seem to plan much in the way of arcs. That pays off sometimes (returning to the school to realize they broke a promise they made a few sessions earlier and had to deal with consequences, for example) and when it does, it’s really good, but it's finnicky. I know DM's who can do that, but, well, actually I know One Single DM who can do that well and she's absurdly smart.

Reading: Still on Worm, I just got past chapter 8 or so now. It lives in my phone browser so I've mostly been reading it whenever I get some spare time, which is a good sign. If a book doesn't grab me I need to really settle down in a quiet space to avoid getting distracted, but I can read Worm while someone else is on the phone in the same room.

It is a story with a lot of very well-conveyed feelings and events. It's very easy to imagine yourself in it. Characters actually act like they care about what they're doing, I feel like writing this took a lot of care to keep everyone on model.

There's also a certain care given to the superpowers that you'd usually only see in forum posts arguing about an actual superhero story. Everyone always likes to argue about how far you can push a superpower: can you use teleporting to fly? What prevents a speedster from catching fire in the air? Where does the energy for a pyrokinetic ability come from? Worm takes these and runs with them as a way to make absolutely any fight become a series of gambits relying on whether a power can or cannot be used to perform some high-stakes trick.

The world certainly has some underpinning contrivances to explain why no one gets killed very often but I've always considered nitpicking the base contrivances of a setting silly, because that's precisely what they are: contrived, in order to allow the rest of the story to flow from there. Like arguing about Omega’s abilities in the famous thought experi-*I am dragged off stage by the ratblr police for making a by now extremely stale joke*

Watching: I came and edited this section in like an hour before this posts because I keep on forgetting to put it in. I don’t really like watching TV and with my parents stuck at home in Pandemic Times it’s how they pass the time.

I did finish S3 of the Good Place. It’s very funny. I’m glad I’m watching it and I’m going to have to go find S4 because ZA Netflix doesn’t have it for whatever reason. It feels a little like it was written by Phillip Pullman if Phillip Pullman was a comedy TV writer.

I also really enjoyed the PBS Spacetime video about how time causes gravity. Love when an explanation of concepts is good enough that you drawn the conclusion on your own.

youtube

Playing: Visual Novel Hell plus Minecraft.

I spent approximately seven hours in Minecraft over two days. I tend to hop in and out of games for 1-2 hours at a time but there's a handful that can suck me in for an entire day. Minecraft, Warframe, Horizon Zero Dawn, Night in the Woods. Bastion, to a lesser extent. I end up avoiding them because I don't like loosing entire days, but I wasn't really planning on doing anything this weekend anyways.

Minecraft was mostly a long-ass trek to find a saddle, because as previously mentioned, I enjoy playing it with Large Biomes for the sense of scale.

I also completed Act 3 of Psycholonials and Eliza.

Psycholonials is odd. It is doing the thing that Hussie does where it dances around what's ostensibly the story to carry out the actual story. You get used to the trope after your first encounter but it still makes you wonder when the other shoe will drop, and of course, there's no reason it ever has to. The story may remain in suspended animation behind the every growing mess of narrative red tape tying the B-plot together.

Stories about Social Media have no well established norms. I think I might pick up Feed by M. T. Anderson and also perhaps Hank Green's books sometime. See what context they set that in.

Eliza is frustrating to me. It's a game for programmers, by programmers, about programmers. I'm friends with a lot of Capital P Programmers, the types who go to university and get sniped for developer positions at Seattle or Silicon Valley tech companies and who make great and terrible things and then warn you about the deep problems that underpin the slowly rolling ball of venture capital and bloated technology that is the tech industry. But at the same time, it makes me feel like I've burnt out on that conceptually before I even went in. It’s a whole other world that I’m familiar with but very distant from. In fact, that’s kinda how I feel about Psycholonials too. I’m familiar with the social media rat race but I also don’t go there. Parallels!

My cousins (who are halfway to Capital P Programmers, only so much you can do halfway around the world from silicon valley) warned me not to go into CS, because it would bore me, and that's a non-trivial part of why I'm in Engineering. They gave the same advice about Biology and Physics, without that I may have ended up in Microbiology. it’s not my domain, but because of how Engineering is going, you end up a lot closer to programmers than you think. I found out the other day that most of the software developers on my team have no formal tertiary qualifications, which is accepted in CS but of course, right out when it comes to engineering. It’s a whole other world that I kinda expected to skip around. I might go into this another time, since this post is already getting long.

Making: I haven’t done any engineering scicomm posts on here in a while so I started a few blank drafts and finally got one off the ground. With some luck I’ll have that ready this week. What’s it about? Not saying! It might change!

I’ve been doing layout for a custom keyboard, I need to call a laser cutting place and find out what their kerf requirements are so I can adjust the path accordingly. Wouldn’t do to burn a couple hundred rand on an oversized part, I’m paying for this, not my employer like the other times I’ve done laser cutting, so I’m probably not going to spring for getting one of their designers to check my design. At some point I should CAD up a chassis, but at the same time I might just buy some wood and go ham with a router once I get the plates cut.

Computers Slot: I got WeeChat set up properly on my desktop, which technically was just a matter of getting my SSH keys moved over. It’s taking me forever to move in to Cinnabar, in part because Stibnite lost her boot partition and I haven’t bothered to fix it.

So here’s a pitch for WeeChat as a good quality Terminal UI IRC Client. Many of my closest friends live there and it has a good set of tools to help me keep in touch.

WeeChat is very configurable but with perfectly sane defaults, I didn’t configure it for years. The UI is smarter and less arcane than something like irssi, and if you enable mouse support it can be downright modern. Running it remotely like this limits some features but as long as you don’t mind jumping through a few hoops to do filesharing, IRC is really great like this.

One of the big ones is the ability to do that double-pane thing, I can keep an eye on two channels at once (really as many as I can cram on my screen, but usually two) which is great when you want to browse channels while talking in your home channel.

It also has a good array of remote access tools, from what I’m running up there, just weechat running on my server inside tmux connected over mosh for low-latency SSH, to weechat-relay, a relay protocol built in to weechat. At the moment relay only supports android phones and the glowingbear web client, but I’ve never really looked around since both of those cover all my needs. Easily one of the best ways to get IRC on a modern mobile device, barring maybe IRCCloud.

#last monday of the week #galena

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wingodex · 4 years

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So i’ve been doing some research around booker’s history and backstory from the comics (implied in the movie) and I’ve come across some conflicting information that I’m not entirely sure what to do with

So in the comic and The Old Guard Through History it says that booker started out as a counterfeiter/forger who joined napoleon’s army to avoid going to prison. In the comics it specifically says that he’s a counterfeiter, although in TOGTH it says he was convicted of forgery. Copley’s board (and it always comes back to that fucking board with me, doesn’t it) seems to imply that booker was a counterfeiter in the movie as well.

Not to nitpick, but that’s potentially a major fucking problem. You see, this is the laws regarding counterfeiting from the French Penal Code of 1810

132. Whoever shall have counterfeited or altered the silver or gold coin, legally current in France ; or shall have taken part in the issue or uttering of such counterfeit or altered coin; or in bringing the same within the French territory, shall be punished with death, and his property shall be confiscated.

133. Whoever shall have counterfeited or altered the coin below standard (de billon), or copper coin legally current in France; or shall have taken part in the issue or uttering of such counterfeit or altered coin, or in bringing the same coin within he French territory, shall be punished with perpetual hard labour.

Now booker could have maybe been counterfeiting billon or copper coins except he wasn’t because this is what those looked like around the same year as the coins Copley attributes to booker (and the coins on the board are Napoléons—French Gold coins).

So since booker isn’t dead before going to Russia, that could mean one of a couple of things. 1) he was convicted of counterfeiting before 1810 or 2) while he might have been a counterfeiter, he was arrested and convicted of forgery which often carried a less extreme sentence.

Now if he was arrested and tried before February of 1810, then he would have been convicted under the French Penal Code of 1791 (I couldn’t find an official English translation, so I’ve included the original French and my own translation)

Quiconque sera convaincu d'avoir contrefait ou altéré les espèces ou monnaies nationales ayant cours, ou d'avoir contribué sciemment à l'exposition desdites espèces ou monnaies contrefaites ou altérées, ou à leur introduction dans l'enceinte du territoire français, sera puni de la peine de quinze années de fers.

Whoever shall have been convicted of counterfeiting or altering legally current national coins or currency, or of having knowingly contributed to the exposure of said counterfeit or altered coin or currency, or of their introduction into French territory, shall be sentenced to fifteen years in irons.

It’s entirely possible that booker spent upwards of five years in napoleon’s Grande Armée. He could have been a part of the Spanish Campaign and depending on how things went for him, and when he was actually forced to join the army, he could have been a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition (if he was part of the Spanish campaign, he could have stayed in Spain or gone back to France after. If he was not part of the Spanish campaign or he went back to France, then he was almost certainly a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition).

Now as for the second option, that he both forged and counterfeited…. I have no idea how he might have acquired both the skills in metalsmithing and in printing to do that, but it sure would be cool if he had them (more to come in a later post, maybe. I have many ideas). Obviously whatever he was a part of was a much larger operation than just himself, though. Booker definitely had a gang, is what I’m saying. There were apparently counterfeiting rings all over France during this period so maybe he was a part of one of those.

And then in the comic they go ahead and say that booker had been in prison before??? I have to assume that happened after 1791 and the penal code. If he was imprisoned for counterfeiting, he could have been imprisoned from 10 to 15 years, depending on the exact crime, and if it was forgery he was convicted of he would have been imprisoned for 4 to 8 years. If he was imprisoned before 1791…. He probably wouldn’t have been. Unless you consider being a galley slave prison? And I have no fucking clue what would have happened to him for forgery without going through French trial records in Marseille because unfortunately there wasn’t really any kind of codified law in France until the revolution.

#steps in my quest to make a historical primer on counterfeiting fraud and forgery in 18th and 19th century france #i might go back and edit my sociogram post to include the information about napoleonic francs but we'll see #i dont want this to go in any of the main tags bcus it's mostly half formed ideas and rambling #also i am so fucking sorry about grammatical nightmare that is the original penal code of 1791 #i dont know why it's written like that but it was a pain to translate #but besides the fact that it sucks to read #it's actually kind of a major deal in lgbtq history #bcus it was the first example of a western code of law that didn't criminalize sodomy #le Peletier i see you #tog meta #tog blogging #also @ myself!!! take notes oh my god #please take notes or you will never find this information again

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lady-plantagenet · 4 years

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What hasn’t already been said: The Spanish Princess 2

Episode 3: GOOD Grief! (we finally have a good episode on our hands)

To all those of you keen enough to have come back for another segment of ‘what hasn’t already been said: TSP’, as opposed to have just been scrolling when you see this - welcome back! (Scrollers you too <3)

Drawing of Thomas More’s Son AKA who Margaret Pole at this point wants to be the step baby momma of ;).

To anyone who’s seeing this for the first time: what this is a list of observations, jokes, reactions and criticism which occur to me upon a rewatch. I wait every week until Saturday to do this so that I have had my fill of scrolling through the tag and aggregating what has already been said. I tried doing a whole spoof (here where I gave up 10% in) but tbh a) I don’t know the history well enough b) it’s more time consuming than I thought and c) this series is just not as funny or as crazy as TWQ, so it’s untenable. Having said that: This is not a hatepost. I’m not hatewatching this series and nitpicking on purpose but expressing my honest views and trying to find the good in it as well as the bad.

Without further ado...

First Scenes:

LMAO the way Wolsey suggests they break their alliance with Spain is freaking hilarious because the actor delivers the lines as if he were a high school girl making a personal attack by suggesting the prom change its theme to 70s disco to the chagrin of the peppy up-and-coming rival.

Also @ Henry VIII looking like the peppy up-and-comer’s bff and shy stan with that pencil bite and small smirk when Catherine loses her cool against Wolsey.

I’m sorry... who is Henry married to again?

Also what is Margaret Pole doing at the council meeting?? I’m not saying I don’t like it.

Margaret Pole warning against certain repetitive thinking creating madness :(((

Attempted Naked Twister:

Oh Catherine, what is with you and all the other STARZ protagonists and that weird politcky bedroom talk? Who actually finds this sexy?

‘Catherine you are unnatural’ ooof that line delivery was somehow haunting.

Was the whole ‘I can’t be rushed you are off-putting with your overpowering’ a callback to Arthur and Catherine? Apparently there’s another writer for this episode so I won’t put all subtly past them.

Scotland:

‘Shitey men’ asdkjashd

Look I’m tired of all this ‘my children won’t be safe’ line getting repeated. Look mate, murder of royal infants and children was not exactly a common occurence, even in cases of deposition. The Princes in the Tower are an exception to this but a very infamous case for that reason. Child murder was extremely taboo. In situations like this with an infant kid, no one is going to bother murdering the babies and taking their thrones, the lords will just vie for power and make themselves de facto rulers and oust the queen. It’s not a question of safety but a question of holding power. Stop giving all women characters perma mummy brains.

Maggie being all caring:

‘Barnaby’ *scoffs* ‘Such an English name’ - OH MAN 0_0 is Catherine mocking them for trying to adapt ? Like I know it’s meant to show her envy for Lina, but it’s coming out all messed up.

Our girl Maggie’s smile screams I’m beating your ass in chess.

Anyhow this is the least histrionic we’ve seen Catherine so far.

Chaplain vs Catherine:

I’m interested how Catherine will feel at Stafford’s execution given that I have noticed this show build up to a friendship between them.

Why is everyone laughing at the whole ‘will you delight us with new schemes’ line was not that funny?

LMAO at Thomas Boleyn’s attempted brown-nosing.

You know what? Ruairi is a decent actor. When he says ‘so you admit it? you lost the child because you tried to be a man?” the actor conveys Henry’s troubled mind, lowkey scare towards Catherine and bewilderment all in one. The way his eyes do not move but just widen emotionlessly also gives this sense that he is being manipulated (which I guess they are going for with Wolsey). Then the whole choir music in the background.. I don’t know.. I’m liking this, it’s creating a vibe of a king of haunted and increasingly paranoid Henry. I’m sure they are going for that, so good.

Ursula Pole and Mama:

Maggie Pole say ‘riches don’t keep you safe’ with tears in her eyes :’(. Please tell me how this is not her thinking on her parents and granddad Warwick and what befell them ;’(.

I find Ursula refreshing actually, don’t get those types of heroines often. But they are making her similar to a gold-digger, an exhalted marriage was first and foremost considered a thing of honour. Noblepeople wouldn’t speak in such mercenary terms regarding their marriages.

Post Mary Defiance:

I love the ‘horse’ nickname from Brandon n’awwww

Also just realised what made TWQ so atmospheric - that wierd ‘oooo’ sound effect in the background when a character was being paranoid or worrying. They are using it during Henry’s ‘How is it that I have no sons?’ and it is just... so effective.

Catherine calling them ordinary children... she just keeps striking me as more and more classist. Like ok, I know every royal was... but still, I thought she was meant to see Lina as a friend and equal despite her race and status. To add the race element, this kind of rubs me the wrong way.

Also it is so clear by the end when Catherine states how the king is upset with her, she expects Maggie to ask her about it.. but she doesn’t lmao.

Back to Scotland until Sexy boy fencing:

I love me this soft boi. Angus <3 <3

I like how they address that some men don’t really like killing and that violence isn’t inherent in a man’s nature.

Oh man, are we supposed to look at Lina’s house and deplore the impoverished conditions? It would go for at least 3,000,000 pounds in today’s property market?

Is Catherine being particularly classist again with ‘Why u not becoming a butcher Wolsey, ey?’.

Though I will admit the ‘but giving meat to the poor is also good’ was one of her only smart comebacks.

Just realised, Catherine’s pink dress pretty as it is, looks straight out of the 1570s... why?

Montage and After:

You guys are right, there is this weird longing between Henry and Wolsey lmao. It is actually insane.

So basically Catherine is officially depressed

OOOFF we have Stafford as regent instead of Catherine. (edit: I suppose it’s cause they go to France which they didn’t historically? Also if Stafford is at home then what is his son later doing in France, why would he be there without his father. This show didn’t think this through)

Meg Singing:

An impassionate speech is not too anachronistic. But despite the title of this post (what hasn’t been said) I will reiterate that 16th century and Medieval people’s problem wasn’t that they were ashamed of their grief and didn’t cry. In fact, crying was somewhat more socially acceptable then than it even is now! Even manly men like Arthur were written as crying in literature such as Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. Obviously you couldn’t go overboard, but in truth crying was indeed often too performative rather than hidden too much behind doors.

Pole and More UWUWU in France and after:

I LIKE THIS INTELLECTUAL FLIRTING

It’s nice to see a depiction of romantic feelings between mature and level-headed subjects.

God Mary Tudor is so beautiful in this scene jesus. and the music when she was being presented was also very beautiful.

Maggie Pole getting given ‘a modest income’ yeah... she was one of the wealthiest peers of her day.

Also Maggie’s lady cousin not lady aunt Frost!

‘shaking of the sheets’ lmaoooo

William Compton cracks the hell out of me. I love this guy. He is just so creepy and twisted yet super keen and friendly. ahaha He looks like a riot, I hope we see him more. lmao tiles.

Also this palace feels very anachronistic almost 18th century-ish.

I like the Louis and Mary sequence, it’s nice seeing him trying to make her feel less scared, but OMFG when he lay on that chair.. for one second I thought they were trying to kill him off already.

Scotland: ‘Love is an open doooooorrrrr’ + Last Scene:

I ship Meg and Douglas ahhhh this soft boi x strong woman match is everything Henry and Catherine could have been.

I wonder... why is Lina speaking in Spanish more than Catherine. hmmm Are they trying to foreshadow Lina’s eventual return home and how Catherine become a true englishwoman?

Conclusion:

7.5/10

I cannot in all fairness believe it. This was actually decent. I’ve given up on historical accuracy long ago so by this point I’m focusing more on how it stands as as drama. I mean, TWQ was also a flop when it came to grasping the complex issues of that era but why do I feel compelled to rewatch it every year? Because it had atmosphere when it came to acting, music, certain aesthetics (though the costumes let me down often). It felt adequately gothic and dark, yet bright and jewel-lish when it had to be, sometimes both at the same time. Some one-liners were also memorable etc...

So far TSP 2 did not have any of this. Everything felt way too off and anachronistic. But not even consistently anachronistic. The music was also often very meh (though I just noted the absence of the spanish stringy theme that kept playing in season 1 - I guess I understand why), the dialogue very clichéd (‘alright lads let’s throw in the words: king, crown, power, fight, battle + other buzzwords and we have ourselves Shakespeare’) and so on... but I saw a change in this episode and I couldn’t initially point out what it was.

Upon rewatch, I identified some of the improvements (noted above) but above all: The producer was different! Boy does it show. Unfortunately, I think she is only for this one episode which really sucks. Come back! There is more chemistry between the couples, less predictable interactions, pervy Compton, cinnamonroll Douglas, better music, more scenic shots (e.g Douglas and Margaret in church) e.t.c. I hope it will match the rest of the STARZ productions in getting better towards the end.

Look it’s no masterpiece. But I’ll give credit where it’s due because at least this time it didn’t leave me feeling wanting and unsatisfied (if that makes sense).

#the spanish princess #the spanish princess 2 #lady plantagenet's series reviews #catherine of aragon #henry viii #mary tudor queen of france #margaret tudor #charles brandon #margaret pole

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davidmann95 · 4 years

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Comics this week (1/6/2021)?

Anonymous said: So thoughts on Death Metal?

Anonymous said: So... Future State?

Anonymous said: Today’s comics?

Dark Nights: Death Metal #7: There’s lots of dopey bits in here I’d normally critique much harder - we did not need this ridiculous comic to be the way to get DC to this status quo when assorted other series have been *trying* one way or another since 1998 - but the day a fascist mob was allowed to have a nice little stroll around the national capitol and a lounge in the literal seats of power I was very ready to spend my lunch break with an extremely big, extremely dumb event comic finale where I didn’t have to think about anything else for twenty minutes, and in that capacity I enjoyed it tremendously. Don’t know how all of Death Metal will eventually work for me on reread as the finale to 3 years of storytelling, but today it hit the spot.

Future State: The Next Batman #1: Good news, it rules! A very self-assured, almost leisurely intro to show off Derington’s chapter, a tiny straightforward Batman adventure to demonstrate the radically changed context in which Batman adventures happen in this new world and set up the basic cast for the next three issues. Weird as it is that he occasionally speaks like a normal young person (not bad weird, but WEIRD) I instantly buy this guy as the for-real Batman with the iconic shorthand Ridley dips into, and Derington/Bonvillain are an instantly definitive Batman art team. The Brandon Thomas/Sunit Kumar Outsiders backup is also shockingly fun, and even more stunningly Paul Jenkins and Jack Herbert are able to take the truly ridiculous Tomasi take on Arkham Knight and wring some real interesting material out of her in the final story here.

Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1: So hey if ANY comic here could use four issues of its own rather than two. This is a lot of fun, but it leans hard on the idea that you already get the basic idea of ‘Son of Superman’ to immediately leap into putting Jon through a physical and moral wringer rather than giving any sense of what his ‘normal’ day-to-day in the tights is like, and it’s a dense shot of fun I appreciated more on reread but this is screaming for some breathing room it simply doesn’t get. Also, a bit hard to get a sense of what this team theoretically doing Jon in the future for Infinite Frontier would look like, between the cramped storytelling and that Morrison’s touted influence as a consultant is all over the place with this baby. This really does feel like an attempt at repackaging the best of their New 52 take, and I wonder how differently it’ll be received a decade later and with Clark not being the one wearing the cape. If this all sounds like I’m more down on it than I really am, it’s in large part because this is an enjoyable diamond in the rough with a lot of promise, and the excellent Mister Miracle and Guardian backups only reinforce the potential. Regardless of any nitpicks however:

Anonymous said: TIME LUCHADORES. That is all.

Future State: Wonder Woman #1: A hoot! Absolutely gorgeous, and while I don’t know that I’m totally sold thematically on this as a new generation Wonder Woman specifically this is a fun teen/early-20s superhero romp period, and the one big twist on a standard WW concept it does have to offer is excellent.

Future State: Swamp Thing #1: I’m pretty sure this is really good but it would seem not even Ram V can crack making me care about Swampy. It’s me, not him, but it is what it is.

Crossover #3: Finally gets some momentum now that it can get into the big adventure but there are multiple moments where it feels like Cates is jerking off directly in all our faces, and one moment in particular where it feels like he’s screaming at us to thank him for it. Regarding the twist (rot13): V fjrne gb tbq V guvax gur Znqzna snxrbhg jnf whfg fb gurer'q or na rkphfr gb chg gung 'jbexf bs Zvxr Nyyerq' nq va gur onpx naq gurersber grpuavpnyyl unir vzntrf bs Fhcrezna, Ongzna, naq fbzr Zneiry urebrf choyvfurq va guvf obbx.

The Wrong Earth: Night & Day #1: A meeting years in the making! Been singing this series’ praises right along so very satisfying to see it hurtling headlong into its next phase.

King in Black: Return of the Valkyries #1: A mini-revival for one of Marvel’s quiet better books of the last few years, this doesn’t feel as if it’s missed a step and if you missed what Gronbekk and Ewing did with Aaron the first time I’d definitely recommend this even if you too couldn’t care less about King in Black shenanigans.

Miles Morales Spider-Man #22: After a string of weaker issues this gets back to form with the sort of casual antics and lived-in feeling that’s defined this book at its best.

Iron Man #5: God it is weird that this is the Iron Man book, and it rules.

Guardians of the Galaxy #10: This issue is a Morrison/Ennis/Hickman-tier OH MY GOD FUCK YES moment for a character who two months ago gun to my head I never could have envisioned such a thing for. Ewing and Cabal are too powerful and must be stopped before they decide to make Taserface my favorite character or something.

Eternals #1: The very definition of a perfectly constructed relaunch debut - never read an Eternals thing before in my life but by the end of this I get the concept and can parse how it’s been reconfigured here, have emotional ins with a couple characters and a sense of the general players, and think it kicks ass and want to see more of it, and also it’s drawn by Esad Ribic as all #1s should be along with most other comics too for good measure. Exactly what you want out of this team handling superhero space-godlings, to an extent I’m surprised Marvel allowed.

#Week's Comics #Opinion

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letsbenditlikebennett · 4 years

Text

Mister, I’ll Make a Wolf Out of You || Ariana & Simon Chatzy

Ariana sniffs Simon out at the farmer’s market and the two become quick pals. @inconvenientsimonstrocity

Why Ariana was going back to Nightshade Farmer’s Market, she couldn’t quite say. After the whole watermelon debacle last time, she was curious about what sort of other supernatural things they had going on in there. Maybe this time she’d just avoid buying anything unless she actually came across the black garlic she’d been looking for the last time. As she walked around, her nose was confronted with a variety of different smells from seafood to herbs and spices. There was one scent in particular that caught her attention and instinctively her feet followed it. It definitely wasn’t Ulfric or Lucas, she’d recognize them long before she ever neared them. This was someone new and she could feel herself perking up. There was a small grin on her face as the scent of the other wolf became stronger. As she rounded the corner, she saw him standing there at the cursed produced stand with the stupid watermelons. Ariana gave the woman running the stand a dirty look before she approached the man. He appeared to be around Ulfric’s age and had very sharp features. She knew he had to be able to smell her, too. “Hey,” she said, greeting him with a warm smile, “I’m Ariana. I think we may have some important things in common if you’d like to chat for a bit.”

Speaking of the variety of scents, Simon was curious about why he hadn’t thought of this before actually arriving at the market the… girl on the internet suggested to him for finding venison. It was strange how quickly the smells in the air could go from the alluring aroma of garlic to the oppressive odour of fish and the combination as they were were almost enough to make him consider just giving up and going home BUT… he endured. Because he really wanted some deer meat. Hopefully jerky. What he was currently in front of… was not jerky. Rather, he WAS contemplating to see if these watermelons were the aforementioned cursed objects spoken of by others or not, rubbing his nose absently. Suffice it to say, he was caught off guard when he was suddenly approached by a short, younger girl and he jumped back slightly, turning to regard her. “Oh, er… hi,” He replied, noting her smile before her scent, quickly becoming unmistakable to him, backhanded him in the face and he coughed in further surprise, torn between his body’s instinct to take a few generous steps away from her and his minds curiosity to lean in further and try to memorize it. “Ariana,” He replied quietly. He cleared his throat and straightened up. “I’m-- yeah, we might so…” He glanced over at the woman at the stand briefly before looking back at the girl-- the wolf Ariana. “Llllead the way,” He offered awkwardly as if this were the first time he was talking to another person.

Ariana could tell that the man before her seemed to be a little bit thrown off by her approach. She wondered if he was new to this. Could this have been the werewolf that Luke had been referring to. She supposed she would find out soon enough once they found somewhere a little more private. She nodded and led the way to the spot her and Winston had sat down to eat the last time they were here. “Yeah, there’s some tables and stuff that are pretty quiet over this way.” As they passed through the stands, she kept a careful eye and ear out for anyone around them. Could she be putting this wolf in danger by being around him? She wasn’t sure how much truth there was to there being a bounty on her head. Still, this was important. Their kind was meant to stick together. When she found the little area in back with the tables, she was relieved to see no one else was there. “We can grab a seat over here.” She sat down and studied him. “Do you know why I wanted to speak with you and what we have in common?”

Simon couldn’t help but feel a little awkward as he followed Ariana astutely through the market; a tall, scruffy-looking hobo man tailing after a girl who he guessed was likely still in high school probably would’ve turned heads in a more formal environment. Even if he lost her visually, he almost took comfort in the fact that he had picked up her scent well enough that he could probably track her on a better day. And with antihistamines. He’d probably need to tell someone about that one of these days. He tilted his head slightly when they approached the empty area, also internally thankful that there weren’t any bodies to listen in on them and he sat across from the girl. He set his hands on the table in front of him and chose to be invested in her outfit rather than look her in the eye. “You’re… Lucas mentioned you.” He replied softly. “You’re a werewolf. I’m assuming that’s the topic of this discussion.” He said before adding “Unless it’s not that at all and you want to mention my jacket, which I understand. It’s kind of-- it’s no looker,” He chuckled.

Ariana was relieved to have found the man that Lucas told her about. No one should have to figure this out alone. She had been lucky to have not known life any other way. As he spoke, she was sure to keep a close ear out for anyone that may have been approaching. She wasn’t sure how if he had a full grasp on his wolf senses yet. She made herself comfortable at the table and placed her elbows on the table. With a raised brow, she said, “Yes, Lucas mentioned you as well, but didn’t give me a name. He said you were pretty new to this whole thing. I’m sure that’s a pretty big change. How are you adjusting?” Prior she hadn’t actually noticed his jacket, so she laughed and added, “Damn, you found me out. I really just wanted to know where you got your jacket. Looks hella comfy.”

At least she seemed friendly, which appealed to both sides of Simon and the latter felt himself relaxing slightly from his formal position, especially as he noticed her do the same thing. “Yeah, it’s also ‘hella’ ugly and old.” He replied lightly, wishing they could keep talking about fashion instead of things everyone else seemed to think was important. Well, no, that wasn’t correct - he loved to hear about what other people thought were important topics. The more he thought about it, the more he just felt awkward to talk about himself like he had anything interesting to say. “I, uh… can’t complain,” He said mildly, itching his nose as if his body was subtly trying to call him out on the lie. “The deuteranopia is frustrating but that’s really a nitpick in the grand scheme.” He said, not untruthfully. “Oh, um. I’m Simon.” He introduced, thinking maybe he should’ve started with that. “Sorry.”

It was good to see the other wolf relax a bit. Ariana knew if he was new to all of this, the sensory overload may have been a lot to deal with. She wasn’t sure what having human senses felt like, but she knew the hearing and scent was extremely dull in comparison. She couldn’t help but laugh as she said, “You said it, not me.” She rested her head on her knuckles as he spoke. She listened closely, genuinely curious about what his experience with this whole situation was. Her face scrunched up in confusion when he mentioned deuteranopia. “Wait, what’s deuteranopia? I don’t know that word. I know there’s got to be a lot about this that takes getting used to, but it’s good to meet you, Simon.” She needed to get insight to determine if he was safe. He definitely shouldn’t be going through the full moon alone. “So, how long have you been a werewolf? What are your plans for the next full moon?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s uh, red-green colourblindness,” Simon explained. That was the terminology most people were familiar with, after all. BUT at least he couldn’t say he didn’t teach someone a new word. “I didn’t have that until about seven months ago. I can’t tell for sure because I don’t… remember the last handful of full moons,” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Lucas made a couple of helpful suggestions about the next time, though. He said I should hang out with you guys and we could go for a run,” He couldn’t help but let a small, timid smile cross his sharp features, if only because no one had offered for him to ‘hang out’ with them before. “He told me what it was like, being a wolf. He also said that that was a big part of their family and that he’d been turning since he was a child. What about you?” He asked, curiosity evident in his tone. “I figure you’ve been a wolf a lot longer, too. What does that make you feel? And you can be as honest as you want, I’m obviously not going to judge,” He chuckled again.

“Oh,” Ariana exclaimed, she nodded and said, “Yeah, I guess I’m used to it since I’ve always been colorblind. Throw in some dyslexia and it makes school a blast.” Her tone towards the end hinted at her sarcasm. It had to be strange to go from seeing the world in full color to seeing only part of the spectrum. The rest of her senses were already so sharp, she didn’t quite mind having dulled vision. She noted that it’s been seven months and the not remembering the full moon was concerning. With the hunters out and about, he definitely needed to be with her and Ulfric to ensure his safety. “That means you’ve been a wolf for seven months now then. Spend it with Ulfric and I. There are people in this town who don’t think we should exist. It’s not safe to be out there on a full moon on your own.” It was a relief that danger hadn’t found him yet. Though maybe she wasn’t the best person to be around to avoid danger. She had to remember they were safer in numbers. “Yes, we’d love to have you run with us. It’ll be fun. I’ve been turning since I was a child as well. My parents were both wolves.” She skipped out on mentioning how they were killed. This whole thing had to be overwhelming enough without taking hunters into account. When he asked how she liked being a wolf, she offered a soft smile. “I’ve always been a wolf so I don’t really know anything else. I enjoy it though. I remember the full moons at this point and have fairly good control when it comes down to it. I find the full moon to be liberating. There’s something about running through the wood that just feels… right. I also like the advantage when it comes to strength, smell, and hearing. Comes in handy being well… short. How has the experience been for you? What you can remember of it at least.”

There was a brief glance of sympathy on Simon’s face when she mentioned dyslexia - that combination couldn’t have been that easy. She seemed bright and optimistic though; not the type to let anything keep her down. That was just the impression he got as he listened to her talk about her experiences, about what being a born wolf felt to her - that made at least three wolves now that were born with it. He took a mental note of the name ‘Ulfric’ and the usage of her past-tense mentioning parents - estranged? Passed on? She hadn’t mentioned it so he chalked it up to a negative memory at best. He also noted the similarities of experience between Ariana and Lucas - it felt right. A literal second nature, something Simon and other normal humans only thought they understood. The smile he hadn’t realised was on his face by listening to Ariana faltered when she asked about him, however and his gaze dropped back to his hands. “N-not as… exciting, I don’t think,” His brow furrowed as he struggled to remember even the following mornings of the first moons; he only vaguely recalled the most recent one and he really wished he didn’t. “I don’t remember the nights but… the next day, there’s usually blood and I feel like I got hit by a truck. Or pushed off a rocky cliff.” He explained, trying to sound plain about it but his fingers intertwined with each other nervously.

It dawned on Ariana that the soreness was probably from the transition itself. The body took a long time to get used to it. She wasn’t actually sure on the timeline of that herself. Ulfric grew up with other wolves, he probably had a better idea than she did. She hoped that wasn’t something that lasted too long. When Simon spoke about it, there seemed to be a certain amount of tension. She wished she had more answers, but she knew eventually it would get easier for him. That didn’t make it suck any less that he clearly wasn’t having an easy time with things right now. “I think the soreness is supposed to get better the more you transform. The same thing with your memory. Your hunting drive will be really strong in wolf form. I usually catch deer or some sort of other game.” She shifted away from leaning on her hands to convey what she had to say next was serious. She kept a close ear out for anyone who could be approaching as she spoke. “We have to be careful though. There are people out there who kill our kind. Especially on the full moon, we’ve gotta stick together.”

Though the aspect of it hurting less physically brought Simon a small level of comfort, he still felt himself withdrawing from her. Lucas had said similar things about feeling a drive to hunt, to be on top, about how freeing it felt and about how being together was imperative because of the Hunters, he believed Lucas referred to them as. It all sounded fantastic, for lack of better terminology. Ariana, Lucas and his family, they had an important aspect of this: Control. They had exposure to this side of themselves their entire lives. Simon, frankly, was a nobody and he was perfectly fine by that but he wanted to be a nobody who just happened to be friends with a bunch of werewolves. He didn’t feel free, he felt like his body had been pulled on a torture device. He didn’t feel control, he felt the exact opposite from the lack of memory, waking up covered in blood. He was turning 43 in November; his life was half over and he was just now being pulled into a circle of brotherhood he didn’t even know was a thing until a few days ago. Maybe Hunters existed because of people like him; he was fully ready to acknowledge and defend that Ariana and Lucas were sentient. He wasn’t - when people pictured werewolves, he was that picture. Mindless, aimless killing machines. And he didn’t think it was appropriate to discuss these things with Ariana… She was young and spirited, a promising individual for a good future. He didn’t feel like it was his place to be such a downer, not to her or really anyone else. “Yeah, you’re right,” He said quietly, feeling like he wanted to say more but he couldn’t bring himself to.

Ariana tried to think back over what she said that could have come across the wrong way. The fact people were out to kill them could definitely be enough to make someone uncomfortable. Then again, this whole thing was new to him. She wished she could relate to it a little bit better, but she knew between herself and Ulfric they could help him learn to be more in tune with his wolf side. More than anything, she wanted to make sure Simon was going to be safe. “Yes, I’m sorry if that was a lot to take in. We’ll help with both safety and learning to be more in tune with this new side of yourself.” She hoped it was comforting. It was hard for her to understand just what he was going through, but she wanted to try. She offered him a warm smile and tilted her head slightly, “It’ll be nice to have another wolf around. I’ve actually only recently started to meet other wolves.” She hoped maybe it could help her level with him to some degree though she did hate the look of pity people always gave her when she told them about her parents. She let out a soft sigh and explained, “I was really young when my parents died, so until recently, I hadn’t known anyone else like us.”

Simon’s eyebrows twitched faintly when she mentioned having lost her parents, piecing together more information. She was really young so they didn’t teach her; she had to learn by herself? That separated her from Lucas. She wasn’t aware of other wolves - she wasn’t raised here? The thoughts of Ariana having to grow and learn how to control and embrace the wolf on her own pulled Simon out of his temporary fugue and he lifted his head to look Ariana in the eye for the first time, his gaze conveying empathy with a gentle smile. “And yet here we are,” He said softly. He leaned back and sniffed thickly. “So tell me more about you, Ariana. What do you like, what do you wanna be when you grow up, that sorta thing.” He said as he knuckled his septum, turning his head slightly to keep an eye out on the exposed entryway they arrived from; he wasn’t sure why but he supposed he also wanted to be aware just in case someone who shouldn’t be overhearing their conversation wanted to listen in.

Ariana was pleased with how well this meeting seemed to be going. It even just felt good to be moving on to more normal conversation in the midst of everything that was going on. She leaned forward and rested on her elbows again, feeling eager to find out more about Simon, too. Wolf stuff aside, they were still people with hobbies and lives that weren’t centered entirely around being a werewolf. She started, “Well, I love soccer, cooking, and running a lot. I just started an apprenticeship at Trusty Wood so I’ll be going into carpentry. My sister still has some hope I may actually take some college classes, but I don’t know if I really want to do that.” She never thought she’d actually enjoy talking about school. She’d be happy to go back to a failing Algebra grade being her biggest problem, but that wasn’t how life worked. She solved the Algebra problem at least. Maybe they could solve this, too. She shook that thought. “What about you,” she said, “What do you like to do? And well, I guess you are grown up, so what do you do?”

Soccer, now that seemed like a good way to burn energy. Simon’s constitution never gifted him with an ability to play sports(until now, at least) but he found soccer the most entertaining to watch - it had the least amount of standing around and discussing superfluous things - he would’ve rather read a book during those times. He made a mental note to attend her games in the future. He also made a note that she mentioned having a sister. Didn’t bring her up when talking about wolves so he guessed she wasn’t one. That raised the question: Could one child be given wolf shifting as a trait but not another? Unless they weren’t related but either way, it meant Ariana didn’t spend her time entirely alone as either the wolf or the human. Oh, duh, she probably had an adoptive family-- but wait, did that work with orphaned wolf pups? He would probably learn some more of these answers in the future, so for now, just focus on THE now. “Me?” He asked. “Oh, uh... “ At least it wasn’t talking about being a wolf. “Well, I used to be a forensic technician but I’m a janitor at the Morgue, at the moment,” He decided to be honest with her. “I enjoy reading, learning new things… I need to get back into playing the piano. I’m out of practise,” He admitted, subconsciously clenching then unclenching his left hand as he said that.

Ariana had to wonder if the switch in jobs had anything to do with his transition, but for once decided against spewing out too many questions in one go. She had no doubt that they’d have time to get to know each other. Shifting focus to the piano thing would definitely be wiser. That had more of a physical aspect to it and she didn’t enjoy reading. Audiobooks were okay, but even so she usually preferred the sound of nature or a good song. She wondered if he hadn’t practiced because of the transition, too. She wasn’t sure how wolf hearing compared to human hearing other than it was intrinsically better. Once he got used to it, music at reasonable volumes was enjoyable. She really hated the piccolo though. Whenever she’d hear the marching band practice, the high pitches always sounded cringe worthy. “Piano, huh? Do you still have one you can practice on? I always enjoyed listening to music with piano in it. I’ve never played an instrument unless you count those god awful recorders they make you learn to play in elementary school.” She laughed a bit before she added, “Not sure if it’s our hearing that makes them sound so grating or if they really are just that bad. Is there a particular genre you enjoy playing most?”

Simon also laughed when she mentioned the recorders from elementary school. “You were right the second time; I couldn’t stand them as a child, either.” And he didn’t want to imagine how they’d sound nowadays given how much more sensitive his hearing tended to be. “And call me old-fashioned but I prefer classical - name any pseudo-famous pianist and I probably know a song or two by them.” As he talked, his right hand mimicked the motions of playing a simple tune on the table in front of him for a few moments before stopping as he sighed. “Unfortunately, I still don't… I didn’t bring a whole lot of things with me when I moved here,” He admitted, a dash of melancholy in his tone. “I’d like to acquire one soon though, just to give myself something to do in my spare time.” The feeling washed over him and he looked at Ariana once more. “I’ve never played a sport, myself - aside from what they made us do in P.E.,” He added. “What made you decide to choose… soccer--” He barely got the question out when he turned his head away from her suddenly and dipped it into the crook of his arm, sneezing twice. “Gah! Sorry--” He apologised hastily, keeping a hand over his face while the other fished around in his pockets and he felt something sink in his stomach when he found his packet of tissues but not the familiar bottle of pills. Of… COURSE he forgot them because why wouldn’t he have? It was just too convenient and a brief look of frustration crossed his features. “I’m sorry, that was terribly rude of me,” He apologised again as he applied a tissue to his face. “Um… sports. Yeah, that’s what we were talking about. Soccer.” He plowed right on through. Sports!

Ariana shook her head, shocked that they sounded that bad with human hearing and they were still forced to learn them. “Wow, they made us put on concerts with those things knowing how bad they sounded? Big yikes.” She nodded along and realized half the crap she listened to would probably not be up his alley. Post Malone was a far cry from classical piano music, but he was America’s Sweetheart. She did remember a few piano songs from her music history class though and responded, “The only piano song I remember by name is Moonlight Sonata… which may be for obvious reasons.” She laughed a bit at her own lame joke. Really anything that reminded her of the moon always stood out in her mind. “You should totally get one,” she said eagerly even though she had no idea how much pianos cost, “I’d love to hear you play sometime.” Her face lit up at the mention of soccer again, but quickly scrunched up in confusion at the loud sneeze. He seemed very thrown off by sneezing and apologized. She shook her head and said, “Don’t worry, we all sneeze. Unfortunately, being a wolf doesn’t give us a break from that… Well, clearly as you can see.” He seemed set on bringing it back to soccer and she was happy to talk about her favorite hobby. There was something about being on a team and getting to run around for long periods of time that really just suited her well. “I tend to prefer team sports and soccer is my favorite of them. Always running around and getting to be outside? Definitely a good way to burn off some energy. I’ve played basketball in the past, too, but I don’t enjoy it quite as much. Sports aren’t everyone’s thing though. Music is pretty badass, too. What inspired you to learn piano?”

‘Yeah, being a wolf is part of the problem, I think.’ The thought flitted through Simon’s mind briefly but he expressed genuine interest in Ariana’s enthusiasm for soccer though he made another mental note about her remembrance of Beethoven, giving her a small smile as she made the joke. Be that as it may, it was still a good song. “Tell you what,” He said first. “I’ll play Moonlight Sonata for you sometime if you teach me some of the ins and outs of soccer.” He absently took to scratching at his arms now as if the sneeze reminded his body that though his mind was having a good time, it wasn’t. It was fine, it was supposed to be a new moon. Maybe he was excited, bouncing back from that little pity party he threw. Was it a pity party? He couldn’t never tell. “I was… ffffive, I think, when I started playing and really, I only chose it because my mom told me I couldn’t be a velociraptor when I grew up,” He laughed, recalling the memory. “My parents both work in the medical field but I’ve always loved music.” That was when he wondered how different his playing would sound now given the changes in his… lifestyle. He also wondered how much a piano would cost. He would certainly look into it, now.

Ariana had decided that she thoroughly liked Simon. There was something about him that was sweet and endearing despite the fact he was a good deal older than her. He didn’t talk to her like she was still a kid who didn’t know anything about the world. They could level with each other and she looked forward to helping him learn the ins and outs of being a wolf. She extended her hand out to shake on it and said, “Deal. You play Moonlight Sonata and I teach you soccer. Sounds like a blast.” She grinned widely and was very glad that she found Simon. She noticed he seemed to be a bit uncomfortable as he was scratching his arms. She didn’t want to press too much so she focused back on his story about playing the piano. Five years old was super young. There was no way someone could have gotten her to sit down long enough to learn piano at five years old. “Wow,” she said, “That’s pretty cool you’ve been playing so long. Not quite as cool as growing up to be a velociraptor, but still pretty cool. I’ve always enjoyed listening to music, particularly on runs. What’s your favorite song to play?”

“Yeah, well… I guess there isn’t a lot of demand for professional velociraptors so piano it was,” Simon chuckled as his hand went up to rub at his jaw either out of irritation or contemplation - this question always made him think because he seemed to have a different answer every time. “I think to choose just one would be tantamount to only picking one book or one best friend.” Indeed, books and music WERE his only friends when he was a child. She did not need to hear this depressing-but-factual claim. “I’ll just be broad and say I’ve always preferred Chopin. Again, stereotypical but everyone has something. What kind of music do you like, whether on runs or just in general?” He asked, finding that it was rapidly becoming easier to talk to her; she seemed ambitious, forward, and eager. She had a ‘bull by the horns’ mentality about her, a trait he couldn’t help but appreciate regardless of the source. He recalled just earlier when he felt awkward following her and realised looking back, people might’ve thought that he would’ve been trouble when in actuality, he would’ve been the one IN trouble.

“What a shame,” Ariana said with a laugh, “It would’ve been really cool to meet a professional velociraptor.” Maybe she spoke too soon. Next thing she knew White Crest would reveal some dinosaur like monster that would make her eat her words. Oh, well, she couldn’t let it ruin her A+ jokes. She listened as he mentioned Chopin. “Huh, I’ve definitely heard of Chopin but don’t know if I can actually remember a song from them. Oh well, probably nothing you’d like. Unless you’re secretly a huge Post Malone and Khalid fan in which case, you’d really be full of surprises.” She giggled a bit at the thought of him jamming to Posty. Simon definitely seemed to be opening up a little easier now. He seemed a bit hesitant at first, but now conversation came easily. She had no doubt they’d be an awesome pack.

Simon opened his mouth as if to say something, paused, then closed it again. “Iiiii have never heard of either of those, so we’re even.” He admitted, making a note to look them up later. Was the man’s first name Post? That was interesting, certainly more interesting than his rising frustration with his immune system as he muttered a low ‘excuse me’ and turned his head again to sneeze twice more. At least he had a tissue this time. “Sorry,” He cleared his throat, finally relinquishing what he had been suppressing in the name of good conversation. “But is there any way we could walk and talk to the nearest corner store or pharmacy?” He swallowed what little pride he had. “My allergies aren’t happy with me.” He gave her a sheepish half smile, eyebrow twinging with embarrassment and no shortage of guilt, feeling like he was prioritizing things wrong and cutting their talk short. It was his fault, after all, that he forgot any form of medication.

Ariana laughed along at Simon not knowing who Posty and Khalid were. “I didn’t think you would, they’re pretty popular with my generation. Not sure they’re really up your alley.” They were a far cry from classical piano music. Both artists were fun though and she particularly loved Post. As Simon sneezed again, Ariana gave him a sympathetic look and said, “Bless you.” At the mention of walking to the corner store with him, she nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yeah, for sure! Want you to be comfortable. Seems like the allergies are treating you pretty rough today.” As an afterthought, she asked, “What are you allergic to?”

The weight that always sank to the pit of his stomach whenever Simon felt inconvenient lightened when she seemed willing to accompany him. Then again, part of him figured that she wouldn’t turn her nose up to a bit of walking - she did play soccer. He sniffled and got to his feet, pushing in his chair and he paused for a lengthy moment when she asked her most recent question. He could’ve said anything; indeed, they were at a public market full of conflicting scents and overwhelming aromas. It COULD’VE been anything but… it wasn’t and no matter how embarrassing or detrimental to his character information was, Simon didn’t like lying. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Dogs,” He said first, then exhaled and pointed to her slowly, then turned his finger to point to himself as he gave her a look that said ‘yyyyep’.

Accompanying him to the corner store was really no big deal in Ariana’s book. She was just excited to know another wolf and that her and Ulf would be able to help him adjust to this new life. When he answered the question on what he was allergic to, she looked at him incredulously. Dogs which translated to wolves. Which meant he was allergic to her and himself. Big fucking yikes. “Wow, I’m surprised the bite didn’t like… counteract that. I’m sorry, that’s gotta be not fun. Let’s go get you some allergy meds so you feel better.” Once again, she was directing the way so Simon could have everything he needed to feel comfortable and not sneezy. She didn’t want to be contributing to the wolfy sneezes.

“Yeah, you’d think being mauled then subsequently, er…” Well, Simon didn’t want to call it ‘cursed’ in front of someone who had been born with it though he felt like it would be a long time before he accepted being a werewolf as anything other than a ‘parasitic relationship’ or ‘curse’. “Biologically altered--” Nice save. “Would’ve negated that. I guess we can’t all be so lucky,” He chuckled with another sniff, tending to his face with the tissue again. He still felt guilty and immediately thought about how he could’ve translated that answer better or less awkwardly but he settled for a quiet “Sorry.” He was always sorry. What he was more than sorry right now though, embarrassing admittance of his body’s rejection against his own kind now aside, was thankful that Ariana both stayed and still offered to lead him given how unfamiliar he was with everything in town. Wolves really did stick together but he wondered just how big of a liability he still was - wasn’t the ‘pack’ only as strong as its weakest member? That’s how human groups worked, or… what managers would tell their beleaguered employees to scare them into being more productive. He had to stop being negative. “Er… Sorry if this isn’t the right time but I’m glad you sniffed me out, Ariana,” He glanced down at her with a gentle smile.

Ariana did her best to hold back a grimace at his mention of being mauled. That has to be traumatizing and it made her more determined to help him feel comfortable as a wolf. “We’ll just have to keep a hefty supply of allergy pills and tissues then,” she said with a sheepish grin. More than anything, she wanted to be good support for the transition he was going through. There was pep in her step as she directed them to the corner store. She was happy she found another werewolf and someone that she was actually able to help. Her’s and Lucas’ situations both felt hopeless. It was nice to have things with an easy solution like simply watching out for him and teaching him about being a wolf. “I’m glad, too. I think you and Ulf will be fast friends. Good to have you as part of the pack.” She gave his arm a playful punch as they made their way up the block. Their pack was really coming along and it left Ariana with a warm feeling. Maybe things could work out after all.

#mister i'll make a wolf out of you #simon #// i can't lie #a conversation with vi inspired this title #wickedswriting

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threewaysdivided · 5 years

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Hey, I know this is like a billion years from where you are in YJ:DW, but I had this thought strike me: what if Danny could see and talk to Jason Todd's ghost? (assuming Red Hood isn't YJ canon) There's so much potential for angst there, especially if Danny is the only one who can see him, and decides to try and get Jason to cross over. Or heck, what if Danny had a hand in Jason's revival?

That’s a neat idea that definitely has some good angst potential. Have to admit though, I’m not entirely sure how it would work within the ghost-lore headcanons I’m using for YJ:DW specifically.

I can write a longer post on this if anyone wants but Basically ghosts in the Deathly Weapons-verse break into 2 unrelated categories that get lumped together for looking sort-of-similar on the surface: Ectoplasmic (the ones we see in DP) and what we’ll call Shades (DC ghosts like Secret, Deadman etc). Ectoplasmic “ghosts” are their own inter-dimensional entities so they can’t really “revive” in the traditional sense, and “passing on” is pretty much limited to accepting what they are and chilling in the Ghost Zone forever or straight-up discorporealising/ re-dying. Shade ghosts are the more traditional original-soul-bound-to-the-physical-world; either because external force is trapping them there, or because they were willful/ powerful/ knowledgeable enough to bind themselves. These ones can potentially be “revived” more easily, and can “pass on” if they’re released from whatever is holding them to this world.

If Jason came back as a Ectoplasmic ghost he’d work the same way DP ghosts do; most likely everyone would be able to see him unless he had some kind of Young Blood-esque visibility condition (in which case anyone who fit the criteria would also see him), and outside of extreme edge-cases revival would be off the table. (Throw a ‘plasmic ghost into a Lazarus Pit and they’ll just climb back out, except now wet and mad at you for giving them a skin condition.)

More likely that Jason would come back as a Shade-ghost (especially since he seems intended to revive in some capacity in YJ canon), in which case he might only be visible to certain people. In such a case though, I’m not sure it would be Danny who sees him.

I feel like Danny would be the least emotionally and symbolically connected to Robin!Jason of the Wayne-household residents who’ve appeared in YJ:DW. As mentioned in this post Danny kind of falls in this weird spot of being Dick’s Brother first and foremost where all the other Bat-Kids are Bruce’s Son/Daughter, and he has some personal qualms about Dick handing off the Robin mantle (and how close he feels he can/ “should” be to Jason) to work through because of that. Outside of the both-technically-death thing, I’m not sure there’d be much reason for Jason’s shade to attach himself to Danny as an anchor compared to Bruce, Dick, Alfred or even possibly Tim or some location of personal significance (unless Danny seeing him is due to the ectoplasm, in which case other ecto-ghosts should see him too).

Although, in this very specific hypothetical, Danny is probably one of the better people Jason’s ghost could attach too. We’re about a billion years from the end of YJ:DW right now but Grief and Healing is going to be a major theme of the core emotional arc, so by the time Jason comes along Danny’s going to be much better equipped to deal with even his canon death. Add to that that Danny’s had to work with ecto-ghosts and therefore tangentially-death-related problems since he was 14 and he’d be less thrown by Jason’s “reappearance” and more likely to think “this could be a ghost problem” early on compared to Bruce and Dick whose first thoughts would likely be “this is an illusion caused by losing my mind from guilt/grief”, especially if Danny can’t also see him. Plus, by that point Dick and Bruce do trust Danny pretty implicitly and let him take point where ghosts are concerned.

If Jason did appear as a Shade ghost, Danny’s process would probably look a little something like this:

Confirm that Jason is, in fact, a ghost and not a product of him going nuts

Work together to find a way to prove this to the others (while also working through any personal feelings and unresolved communication/ conflict issues)

Call in Bruce, Dick and Alfred and let them know

Family drama/ angst ensues

Collectively find Dr Fate/ John Constantine/ any other amenable magic-spiritualist hero who exists on Earth-16 to figure out how best to Deal With This.

As for Danny helping Jason (or other ghosts) to “pass on”, I kind of feel like that’s…. not really his ballpark. I don’t see Danny as someone who’d compulsively seek out other ghosts and feel obliged to “move them along” unless they were actively in distress or causing damage/ distress/ fear/ pain to others. Like, Johnny 13 wants to ride his motorcycle at full tilt through the streets of a town, terrifying the citizens? Get in the thermos or get out. Johnny 13 wants to ride his motorcycle at full tilt down a long, deserted county road? Fine, just don’t go into towns or bother other drivers. He’ll leave them alone so long as they leave other people alone.

In that regard I see Danny as sort of the fixer compared to Jazz’s counsellor - if a ghost is acting up because of some problem (or comes to him for help) then he’ll deal with it so that they can leave, or at least chill out. And if he can’t fix it (because the solution is harmful, the ghost’s nature/powers are too inherently dangerous or they’re just there being dicks by choice) he’ll capture and send them back to the Ghost Zone (or find someone who can exorcise a Shade) to remove the problem that way. He might gently float the suggestion, but if Jason wanted to pass on then that would be Jason’s choice to explore unless he specifically asked for help or became distressed/ disruptive enough to force Danny’s hand.

Similarly, I think revivals wouldn’t really be Danny’s ballpark either; it’s not a solution he’d like and he has neither the knowledge, interest, skills or equipment to actually facilitate any of the rare reliable edge-cases methods of resurrection. Danny prefers to keep to the ‘best left alone’ side of ‘Meddling with dark forces best left alone’ as much as is possible.

Personally I kind of prefer the revival stories where Jason isn’t around until his actual return. I think there’s more easy gut-punch mileage in most of those versions. That structure forces the other characters to accept that he’s “not coming back” and try to process all the conflict and pain that it brings, only to then sledgehammer the new status-quo by having him reappear, now changed, at point where his death has significantly altered their dynamics with him, his memory and the other characters. By comparison, having him come back as a ghost and then revive kind of smooths and flattens that trajectory to one where anyone who can interact with him (even indirectly) gets their emotional healing accelerated, and the status quo eventually slips back closer to how it was (with them mostly just having to adjust to physical limitations of the new form he takes), only to reform fully when he “comes back” for real.

But, anyway, that’s part of larger personal nitpick with the use of “ghosts” in stories. I find that the meaningful thing about death (and that seems to get weirdly missed by a lot of works) isn’t the moment of impact itself so much as the persisting loss and how the survivors cope. We are haunted by absence more than by presence. Most cases of bringing the dead character (or at least their mind/personality) back in some capacity tends to soften the weight of that for me, unless the ghost is meant to function as a some kind of metaphor for the healing/ acceptance/ closure process and “move on” when the other characters do.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this long and somewhat tangential ramble. It probably won’t be happening in YJ:DW or YJ:DW-EU but in a story which took a more hardline all-ghosts-are-dead-people/ horror approach to world-building, I can definitely see the someone-seeing-Jason’s-ghost set-up having a lot of angst and uncanny potential. (I know there are a couple of fics like that already out there but I can’t remember their titles right now, sorry!)

#Jason Todd #seeing ghosts #I mean to be fair YJ:DW takes about a billion years to update #The main story will finish 6-9 months post S1 #So most of the Legacy / Invasion characters won't be there #but I did have the loose idea that some of the major S2 and timeskipped events would still be canon in the Deathly-Weapons-verse #I quite dislike many storytelling/ execution choices made by Outsiders so I'm declaring any reboot content non-canon to YJ:DW #But it seems like Jaybird was intended to come back #I find it kind of hard to deal with YJ!Jason because of how cake-and-eat-it they've been about his character #they seem to want to use his death/revival for impact without actually doing the work to make it impactful within their own series #he's ended up as this odd non-entity in canon #which means I have to invent a bunch of conjecture from broader comics with literally no substantiation #IDK maybe YJS4 and beyond will adress that #Young justice: deathly weapons #DPxYJ #ghosts #shade ghosts #ectoplasmic ghosts #kaiobeast #3WD answers

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youtiaoshutiao · 7 years

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hello, i wanted to ask you what changes in a love so beautiful made you mad? i am sorry if this is a troublesome question, i have not read the novel bc it isn’t translated in a language i can read so i do not have a clear perspective

hello anon! sorry i took so long to reply, i was trying to organise my extremely jumbled thoughts HAHA (which I mostly word-vomitted to @ggongzhu about :P) and i was also busy over the weekend! i’ll attach my thoughts under a read more cut, and also if you haven’t finished watching the drama yet and you are afraid of spoilers do be careful because i’ll make references to the later episodes as well :P

disclaimer: i still really do like the drama a lottttttt (seeing how my tumblr is almost like 100% about alsb hahaha) and perhaps a lot of my opinions are just me being too sensitive and making a mountain out of a molehill (given that i watch the episodes multiple times because of subbing/giffing and i’ve read the book about three times as well)… please forgive me if so :(

1. on a structural scale, i feel like there is a problem with the pacing of the drama, coupled together with the increase in screentime and altering of plot of the secondary leads (mainly wu bo song). the book is mostly set in the time period three years after the breakup and high school/uni is presented as flashbacks/in the outtakes and epilogues. While i’m fine with the drama doing a linear timeline as I do think it’s less messy and more appropriate for a drama, I do feel that they spent way too much time in high school, especially with regards to developing an (what i felt was completely) unnecessary love triangle, at the expense of the main leads’ development. i especially felt that the jealousy scenes, while amusing, were kind of excessive? they could have cut down on that as they were mostly the same narrative after a while and didn’t lend much to building the story. in addition i also thought that the addition of these love triangle/jealousy plot lines kind of weakened the characterisation of jiangchen for me. like jiangchen saying “you were really embarrassing today” in episode 5 because he was jealous, which i really thought was a super harsh and not really in line with his character (he’s more of awkward and aloof and bad at expressing himself, not mean D:), and also the endless jealousy scenes kind of didn’t make sense after a while because he does know that xiaoxi likes him!!

and i just felt that all these needless plotlines to “dramatise” the story just kind of came at expense of what could have been a more coherent drama, or a drama with better pacing. lots of netizens said that episode 18 onwards just felt like a powerpoint presentation where it was just scene after random scene, and it didn’t really flow well? they could have expanded more on the post high-school narrative i felt to make it more coherent, or explored more things, like the ambitions of the five of them (among which, only Jiangchen’s was properly explored, which was a nice touch the drama had that wasn’t in the book :) ), the three years they spent separated to drive home the point that jiangchen really needs xiaoxi, etc.

and while I admit that i’m not the biggest fan of wu bo song and I found his character quite annoying, it’s not that i’m opposed to the addition of secondary leads, it’s just the fact that the additional screentime and additional scenes end up weakening the main leads’ characterisations and taking time away from what could have been used to explore the main leads more that makes me rather sad ):

[okay the rest of the points are mostly plot-related]

2. i didn’t like how they made post 3-years breakup Jiangchen kind of a 霸道总裁 (which is a Chinese fiction/entertainment trope, which is smth like an overbearing chaebol). the drama changed the reason for the breakup which was different in the book (in the book, Jiangchen’s parents were both alive, and Jiangchen’s mother’s disapproval of their relationship and blatant dislike for Xiaoxi was the initial catalyst that eventually triggered Xiaoxi to break up with Jiangchen), which was fine! and actually I thought the drama’s handling of the breakup was quite realistic and portrayed well. But then the drama’s version of the breakup had both parties be at fault.

So taking that into consideration, the last scene of episode 20 didn’t really make much sense at all (where Jiangchen asks Xiaoxi to apologise to him). The drama used the exact same words as the book did, but it doesn’t make as much sense in this context. Because in the book xiaoxi broke up with jiangchen cos she was insecure as his mum didn’t like her and as they slowly drifted apart, so from jiangchen’s pov it felt like xiaoxi broke up with him over nothing, whereas in the drama it’s totally different as jiangchen actively left for beijing instead, so the apology thing just seems really weird and kinda rude of him??? And the scene before that, where he wiped her fingers in front of their entire group of her friends was just so improper and rude of him? (The fake girlfriend thing also features in the book (and in fact Xiaoxi introduced the girlfriend to him whom he then roped into his fake girlfriend scheme), but this scene was added in the drama and the way the drama presented it just weirded me out)

In addition, some of the sentences drama!Jiang Chen says - like “We definitely will get back together” or “She’s always been mine” was just D: nooooooooooo

3. the way they dealt with xiaoxi’s character. My impression in the book was that though she wasn’t a good student, and she was often slow on the uptake especially with regards to Jiangchen, she wasn’t helpless and she was actually a very independent woman (post-breakup) who was quite perceptive and had a high EQ in her dealings with her friends (Jiangchen being the only exception, where often she subconsciously feels lowly in front of him and hence often misreads him) . So while Shen Yue portrayed Xiaoxi really well and managed to toe the fine line between being cute and silly and being annoyingly silly, I really wish that the drama had made Xiaoxi less helpless because book!Xiaoxi definitely wasn’t so!

And even if they wanted to retain all the “helpless Xiaoxi” moments in highschool, what really made me quite disappointed was how in ep 22, drama!Xiaoxi ended up getting the whole book deal through Jiangchen’s interference and through him paying for vanity publication, which I thought was doing the character such a disservice (though it highlights Jiangchen’s selflessness and sacrifice etc, but. but. but! couldn’t the drama have picked something else to showcase that). In the book, Xiaoxi got her book deal entirely through her own efforts and I really wished the drama showed that as well ):

In addition, I thought that the drama could have dwelled more on Xiaoxi’s internal thoughts. Like… why does she like art? Why did she decide to get back together with Jiangchen? Why did she get upset when Jiangchen teased her about her proposing to him (which was discussed in the book, but the drama didn’t and i think according to @ggongzhu it made it seem like she was just upset as she thought the guy should be the one proposing)?

Haha but then conversely, there are things that I thought the drama did better than the book!

1. The medium of it being a drama allows us to see Jiangchen fleshed out more compared to the book. In the main part of the book (excluding the outtakes), everything is written from xiaoxi’s first person pov. so sometimes she will write about how she feels very lowly in her relationship with jiangchen, or feels like she cares too much while he cares less, or how she rarely hears any romantic words from him; or because she misreads Jiangchen, lots of times she will think that jiangchen is angry with her when he really isn’t. But then from his small actions and from the outtakes which are written from omnipresent pov, you can tell he does care a lot about her and stuff. (Personally, the first time I read the book I was a little ?_?, and only on my second/third read did I begin to appreciate all the little moments where you can see Jiangchen’s love, ehehe)

In the drama, because we are watching from 3rd person pov, we can see all his little smiles and stuff so we know he does like her right from the beginning, which makes for very satisfying viewing, I must say. [But back to the drama’s flaws: even though this is the case, the way that the drama narrative presented him, actively doing things that hurt xiaoxi (like calling her embarrassing, like leaving her for Beijing without discussing beforehand - like he only told her when he was at the airport) when he’s upset with her/jealous, makes him seem kind of self-centred, which brings me back to the first point I made about weakening of characterisation hehe]

2. I really like the addition of the friends group! Which was not in the book :) I love Lin Jing Xiao loads and she’s such a good friend to have *_* It would have been nice seeing more of her and her astronomy career, actually (same goes for the rest of the gang)

3. I really liked the whole subplot about why Jiangchen decided to study medicine in the end. The little scenes, like his relieved smile of wonder after Lu Yang was saved by the school doctor and an adrenaline jab; him meeting the little girl in the hospital and having an unexpected convo that tugged on his heart strings; him telling Lu Yang that he also wanted to stay by Xiaoxi’s side, eee that was so poignant and lovely. Also really liked how in that same episode, we got to see some relationship development between him and his younger brother! (who did not exist in the book, ahaha)

4. It was also touching having Jiangchen actively admit that he was wrong to Xiaoxi and seeking forgiveness, especially knowing what a proud person he is :)))

haha oh man anon sorry for the word vomit!!! and I hope I did make some sense hahaha and that i’m not nitpicking ahaha. It’s just, so many things about the drama adaptation were on point - like the cast, the sets - that it just made me a little sad to have the drama narrative and script ruin it a little for me. ): let me know what you think and have a good week ahead!! :)

#a love so beautiful #致我们单纯的小美好 #replies #i'm not really sure if i'm making sense hahahaha #drama watching #random thoughts

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progmanx · 7 years

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So? Part 2?

Well, now that it’s been released digitally, I can actually answer this question. Thank you for your patience. So, uh, spoilers, if you haven’t read Turf Wars Part 2 yet. I guess.

Short version: It’s just as bad as Part 1 (if not worse), but for slightly different reasons. For mine and @lokgifsandmusings‘s thoughts on Part 1, you can read our several articles about the first installment, as well as our good friend Bo’s take on Part 2 who makes some excellent points on why nothing works. I’m going to do my best not to reiterate the things he’s discussed, as I think his work does a better job of laying out that argument than I could. So go read that first, if you want.

Slightly Longer Version (That’s Shorter Than The Short Version?): Mike (there’s no way Bryan is actually consulting on anything aside from the art; Asami is his baby) clearly neglected to rewatch his own series/re-read his own series bible, and the scope of this negligence goes so far beyond nitpicking it’s baffling. The narrative threads and characterization of our two heroes are jumbled and essentially nonsensical.

Extremely Long Version: Sigh. I would like to preface this by asserting that my opinion of Turf Wars is in no way related to the work I did with RRaU, or Spin the Rails as a whole. Sure, I thought a lot about the world and this relationship, but frankly no conclusion I came to couldn’t also be reached by anyone else who puts in the time. Just because Mike continued the narrative differently doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like it automatically. The fact of the matter is, I really wanted to like this. It just so happens that the method Mike chose is…like, kind of the worst possible amalgamation of bad narrative decisions he could make short of turning full edgelord.

This got extremely long, hence the moniker, so it’s under the cut.

Anyway, my problems and critiques of Turf Wars are that of the product itself, how it chooses to continue the story of the animated series proper.

Now that that’s out of the way: I kind of hate almost everything about it. Yeah, I’m probably gonna lose followers for that. I want queer rep, and I want it badly, but if we can’t even criticize what we get without getting thrown out onto the street, how will it get any better? It’s not all or nothing.

Not even Turf Wars is all or nothing. I still stand by what @lokgifsandmusings and I said in our pieces regarding Part 1: It’s an overall good thing that it exists, and it’s not hurting anyone. However, that does not mean I think it itself is actually anything close to good, narratively speaking.

If I really had to boil down all of my problems with this…since Bo’s argument regarding how these books are overly stuffed with narratives that have no connection to one another aside from the fact that Asami gets kidnapped (we’re gonna dissect that one) and that none of it actually serves any purpose other than treading water for…something is so comprehensive and great. Seriously, read it!

Fact of the matter is, there’s no reason for any of these narratives to exist. It doesn’t push anyone’s character forward, with the exception of Zhu Li, Toguka (who even cares?), possibly Keum, and I guess by default Raiko by making him more of a jerk. None of those characters are the principal cast, meaning that this whole damn thing is, as far as I can see, really weird, overwritten filler.

Filler for what? I have no earthly idea, but if the only thing that changes out of this graphic novel series is that Zhu Li becomes President, then…you could have done that off-screen. Like how Raiko won. Neither Bryan nor Mike know how to write politics (or business, but that’s another conversation) so why not? Saves a lot of time.

Okay, so, there’s one other change that could happen in this “filler arc”. And it’s something that everything so far seems to be pointing to as a resolution. For anything to make sense, Asami has to basically say to Korra, “I’m a liability and will only keep getting in the way, so we either have to keep our relationship a secret or break up.” Probably to get rejected by Korra, or the world, or something. Which is just…terrible and ridiculous, as I’ll outline more in this post/rant/essay/dissertation. It has nothing to do with them being a same-sex couple, which is somehow both not as bad (because that shouldn’t matter) and worse (because of Kya’s infodump in Part 1).

Anyway, on to the biggest issues above all: our two “protagonists”. Well, more like the title character and also that lady she’s banging. Because it’s really hard to see how Korra and Asami are actually relevant to any of the narrative threads in this story aside from the ones they are forcibly pulled into so they can react to things. And this isn’t even accounting for how Mike is somehow able to write literally everyone else just fine except for Korra and Asami! It’s so freaking weird!

Korra, even more than she was in Part 1, has been almost comically back dialed to her Book 1 characterization. At best, it’s Book 2, but that is a stretch. Everything she does it to try and bust some heads, and even goes out of her way to physically assault Raiko’s campaign advisor. This isn’t even accounting the flagrant abuse of the Avatar State in Part 1, or the many other microaggressions that keep popping up.

Book 4 Korra would not do this. That was like—it’s her whole fucking series arc. She doesn’t look for fights! She tries to resolve them before they get bad, and especially with Asami she backs down and tries to diffuse and explain the situation. Like, you know, that time when Asami snapped at her in 4x07 in contrast to how Mako snapped at her also in 4x07?

But it goes deeper than tossing out years of character growth because “lol conflict”. I felt that the interactions between Korra and Asami here read embarrassingly straight. What I mean by that is, it’s how I imagine a straight dude would believe “special” relationships (ie queer, who aren’t) should be written. It’s something that a lot of non-queer writers struggle with, since there’s this false belief that treating those “different” from you as unique or better props them up, when in reality it artificially props them up in a way that is inherently insincere. Mike wants to show us he understands how important this relationship is, and how it’s important to him, but the words he’s choosing have the opposite effect.

It reminds me of the “Magical Negro” trope that originated in Hollywood as an absurd, and then eventually harmful, overcompensation for making sure people knew that they weren’t racist by making every minority character in a given film the perfect wisdom to set the hero on their journey. It’s same basic principle, as Mike is trying to make sure as loudly as possible that we know he’s super supportive of all of this…but the outcome is just plain weird and dangerous, even though his intentions are absolutely good.

Remember that bit in Part 1 where Asami says that the Spirit World is special and unique, like their relationship? Welp. It’s not. It was exceptionally well-written and true-to-life in its queerness but I guess not anymore, huh?

They’re more caricatures of their former selves than they are actual characters in these moments. The purest irony here is that these scenes, the “relationship scenes”, are actually pandering. Like, while the show wasn’t and yet anti-korrasami people kept yelling that it was (it wasn’t; that’s not how animation production works) boom, here we go. Actual pandering. (And yes, this is an entirely subjective opinion, but isn’t that kinda what this ask was for?)

Thirsty Asami, Overprotective Korra; these characterizations not only don’t make sense, but they’re exactly what the fandom has been asking for despite neither of them really fitting at all with previous characterizations. These things are supposed to build off one another, and yet they just go in random directions. Okay, fine, in fairness, Thirsty Asami only doesn’t make sense in the context we see it here, rather than a general sense. She can be horny, but that was the weirdest segue to that sort of tone, and it felt shoehorned in as fanservice. Need proof? Look no further:

I mean, seriously? The final lines of the TV show? That’s…every single fanfic writer has at least considered doing that because of the free sentimentality points due to the emotions attached to that final scene, but good lord that is some blatant not-helpful fanservice that, to me, feels automatically pandering right there.

Because that’s what their relationship reads as in these comics. Fanservice. It’s meaningless fluff that seems as though it’s actively refusing to progress either character in personal and communal growth. It serves no other purpose than to reinforce the idea that Asami is a liability (and that Korra’s feelings are the so super strong for her you guys that she’s overprotective lmao). Which is so beyond absurd a notion to have, according to the show itself, because Korra has been present for almost every doofus Asami has decked:

This is also depicted in the end of Part 1, where Korra chooses to save Asami (who is either drunk or high as balls considering her hilariously inept and counter-canon combat performance) from a rock instead of Tokuga. Which just ties into what happens to Asami at the end of Part 2. Yes, the kidnapping. I already talked about the kidnapping, and lo and behold, I was right. Tokuga kidnaps Asami to get to Korra (how original!), and is weirdly okay with them being in a relationship. Remember that homophobia in this universe that may still exist in the Fire Nation because nobody bothered to clarify that? Welp, apparently it didn’t mean squat because Korra just flat out tells a security guard that she’s dating Asami when they were all like “hey let’s keep this to ourselves for the time being”. Even the supervillains don’t care that queer people exist, I guess?

Which of course leads to this scene:

Okay, no. No, there are…so, so many ways to get out of this scenario. First, that’s not a real knife. It’s a fire made in the shape of a blade. It does have mass, but whatever level of “sharpness” it has can’t really retain shape because it’s FIRE. It’s not ice. Asami could presumably just run through it, suffering some nasty burns, and jump to safety because there are plenty of people there who could catch her. Second, that dude is an old man. Asami has taken down multiple terrorists simultaneously. She could just kick him in the balls with her heel. It’s super easy. Third, Asami has been trained in “self-defense” since her mother was murdered (we’ll circle back to this) by firebenders, the implication being that it was the Agni Kai Triad.

So, Hiroshi, being a hardcore genocidal anti-bender crazy person with a daughter insists that she start learning to defend herself at the age of like 5…what do you think those lessons are? I’ve covered this in my Jings and Other Things post, but frankly it doesn’t take a whole lot of thought to realize that “oh he’d make sure she was trained to fight against benders.” That actually circles back to point two, since hey, remember how firebending works?

Remember when Uncle Iroh was all “firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles”? Which lead to Zhao getting his butt kicked by Zuko? All Asami has to do is knock the wind out of this old geezer and jump. Or break his concentration, because, again, not a real knife. This is something she would absolutely know.

Elbow his stomach, kick him in the balls, bite his knuckles, break his nose with the back of her head, kick out his legs, throw herself backwards—the list goes on. Something so fundamental to the universe, to the point that it was sort of Zuko’s whole thing, rebelling against Sozin’s perverted firebending teachings (DANCING DRAGON FORM) through the previous series, being ignored and seemingly retconned because…Mike forgot? And didn’t do any research on his own work to make sure it remained consistent? Uh, okay.

You don’t need to be an action director to think of any of these, especially if you’ve seen the TV show in question. Also, just as an aside to Korra not being able to locate Asami…she, uh, has spirit GPS? Remember that? Through the vines? Found Wu, and Jinora. Just kind supports my theory that Mike forgot to watch his own show. Since that was like, important to Korra’s healing arc.

Anyway, for Asami’s character as a whole…good lord. I don’t…she’s, again, either drunk or high as balls. I mean how else do you explain her being super chill and okay with working with Zhu Li in the first place? Didn’t her husband steal her company? Something that Zhu Li had to have been complicit in considering she was in prison with him? None of this makes any sense! Asami’s convictions on what is just and what is not are kind of her core (remember the Equalists?), so for them to just be thrown out because plot is a little strange and disconcerting.

I’m not saying she wouldn’t work with Zhu Li for the good of the city; she did the same with Varrick and that rings true to me because it’s not like she spent three years rebuilding the fucking thing. Of course she’d be protective of it! It’s also her home. But all of that pales in comparison to the single most glaring thing that is addressed briefly, in passing, in Part 1, but isn’t even mentioned in Part 2:

I just—Korra got a phenomenal healing arc. Asami is the second half of this couple that they are banking these book sales on, and she’s not given room to grieve? To acknowledge that her father was not only murdered, but sacrificed himself to save her life and how complicated and conflicting those feelings have to be considering he tried to murder her back in Book 1? Yeah, that is a meaty subject matter that can absolutely be tackled by a comic. You just sort of have to actually do it and not sweep it under the rug. But that’s what they do, despite the fact that he’s been dead for, oh, I dunno, like less than a month? Nobody can recover that quickly. No one. Not even the Avatar, and we literally saw that in action.

I get that Kuvira isn’t physically in this, and that the corpse of the massive mecha-giant that could not have possibly been moved via conventional means (it was covered in vines that not even Korra can safely remove, remember?) is randomly missing after Korra and Asami get back from their vacation but I really feel like Raiko’s surrender directly leading to Hiroshi’s death is something that could easily be dug into. Even if it’s not totally rational, because it doesn’t have to be because grief and emotions are not rational.

I mean, I doubt I need to get into the fact that Asami is once again sidelined in a plot that should be about her (the reconstruction effort was literally her thing between Books 3 and 4), since that one is just—it’s there. That’s what it is. Zhu Li gets it because she’s around, I guess? And because Raiko is a terrible President who needed to get ousted anyway (why is he not letting people get their food???), but why wouldn’t whatever theoretical legislature just impeach him while Korra and Asami were on vacation? What purpose does this narrative actually serve since we already don’t like Raiko and would want anyone in that position that isn’t him? Preferably someone who lost in the first round of elections—I’ll stop there. It just unfolds with the slightest tug.

SPEAKING OF DEAD PARENTS (perfect segue) remember when I reminded you that Asami’s mother was murdered by firebenders? After a break-in? When she was five? Wow that must have been pretty traumatizing for her considering it literally radicalized her father into becoming a genocidal maniac. Which, you know, makes it extremely strange that this isn’t brought up or addressed when Jargala and her crew do like, the same thing to Asami.

Wow that’s scary, isn’t it? Possibly PTSD flashback level scary, if Mike had remembered that important aspect of Asami’s history. Yet this is not brought up, and it doesn’t seem to inform Asami’s character at all despite the fact that it should probably be the second thing that comes out of her mouth when she discusses the encounter with Korra.

But wait, it happens again with Tokuga, who just ransacks her place, which just makes it worse. It’d be bad enough not to have Asami explicate this connection the first time around, because she could be bottling her emotions (she does that), and we find out about this later, but to do it twice in the same graphic novel? In quick succession? Yeah, Mike just plum forgot.

I don’t think I need to explain further why being lazy with a canon that you yourself poured your blood, sweat and tears into is not a great look. But that’s what the story Mike wrote is saying.

So, yeah, those are most of my issues with Turf Wars Part 2. Thanks for reading through to the end!

Other random thoughts on how none of this makes sense:

Why does Republic City have Kuvira’s military armaments in a warehouse? Even if the war is somehow over, which it can’t be because that’s not how anything works, it’s still Earth Empire property.

Why do any of those mecha-suits even work after Varrick’s EMP?

Why is Ba Sing Se offering relief efforts when that’s the capital of the country that just invaded the United Republic— seriously they’re still at war you guys you can’t just capture the enemy commander and win

How does Tokuga’s half-spirit form allow him to control spirits? Wouldn’t that make them hate him more?

Why do the triads agree to work under him when all he’s got is a tentacle arm? They could just set him on fire and be done with it

What is the point of Keum, like, at all? Why does he even exist? He got kidnapped at the end of Part 1, but we have no emotional stake in his existence

Why are Mako and Bolin relearning how to value one another’s different skill sets? This is like the fifth time or something

#Anonymous #asks #turf wars spoilers #korrasami #meta #the legend of korra #korra #these are all just my opinions #turf wars

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jenniferpalmer94 · 4 years

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iheardarumorxxx · 4 years

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Midnight Sun, Chapter 6 - Blood Type

Did you guess that this chapter opened up with Weirdo stalking Bella? Because you guessed totally right.

Our ‘hero’ is going on about how he spends the entire day of school watching Bella through the surface thoughts of other people. See, it’s totally okay for Eddie to use people as his own personal Bella CCTV, because they are paltry and insiginificant hoomans. Who cares that it’s extremely creepy and invasive not just to Bella, but to the people who’s heads Eddie has decided to hijack. It’s not as if they matter anyway, right?

He shits on both Mike and Jessica again and I’ve already ranted at length about why neither of them deserve it, so I’m not gonna do it again. But I am gonna talk about Angela. I don’t like Angela. It’s not really her fault that I don’t like her. She’s soft spoken and sweet and kind, but the problem that I have with Angela is the same problem that I have with Esme. She exists to be a soft, fragile woman, hand-wringing and the only ‘good’ friend that Bella has. She doesn’t actually have a personality to speak of.

And now at lunch, Eddie is TRYING SO HARD to set up a red herring about why Bella is Looking Sad after glancing at the table he’s usually sat at. He goes on for like a whole ass paragraph wondering if she’s sad because she’s gonna miss the stupid dance that she’s made perfectly clear she doesn’t want to go to. He’s supposed to be an uber smart Pire with a brain so much bigger than mine, but the thing is? I can use fucking context clues to understand that Bella looked at the Cullen table, noticed that Eddie wasn’t there, and then looked sad because he wasn’t there.

See, Eddie. I don’t need your stupid mind-reading powers to figure shit out.

I'd never paid much attention to a human's diet before.

Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. YOU WERE A FUCKING HUMAN BEING LIKE A CENTURY AGO. Yes, I give you that diets and shit have changed since you needed to eat food, but the fact still stands that you absolutely had to eat food yourself at one time. AND YOU HAVE TWO MEDICAL DEGREES ON TOP OF THAT. If you were, like, in your fucking 500s or something, I might buy this bullshit (excluding the fact that you have two medical degrees). But you aren’t. You died in, like, 1901.

I motioned with my finger for her to join me.

Small point for SM and Midnight Sun here. In Twilight, when this scene happened, Bella said that he lifted his hand and twisted his wrist and like, crooked his finger in a gesturing motion and it was way too many words just to say ‘he motioned me over with his finger’ or ‘he beckoned me over’. At least this book didn’t pull that shit just to pad out the word count. This time.

"Why don't you sit with me today?"

A nitpick, if you will. The way that Eddie boy phrases this question makes it feel a lot more like a command. He isn’t asking if Bella wants to sit with him. He’s not really leaving that clear No option open for her with this phrasing. It feels extremely controlling and based on what we know about Eddie and his controlling tendencies as a boyfriend, I don’t like it.

Eddie and Bella are talking, all the while Eddie is going on about how he’s SO DANGEROUS and shouldn’t be friends with Bella and how part of him wishes she would just get up and leave because that would be safer for her.

Hey, Eddie. Why don’t you get up and leave, you pissant? Sure, he’s going on and on about how it’s hard to stay away from her and how he’s so IN LUV with her, but dude? If you genuinely think you’re dangerous and shouldn’t be around her DON’T BE AROUND HER. You can’t pull this stupid shit where you go on and on about how she shouldn’t wanna be your friend or be around you while also asking her to eat lunch with you and hanging around her and STALKING HER AND SNEAKING INTO HER BEDROOM AT NIGHT. You don’t get to have it both ways.

"What are you thinking?"

NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS DUDE! IF SHE WANTED TO FUCKING TELL YOU WHATS ON HER MIND, SHE WOULD! GOD FUCK OFF.

Right. Okay. I’m good. Caplocks off.

Ugh.

^^^ That is actually written in the book. And not as dialogue, either. It’s thought. It’s Edward’s thought and inner monologue. Wanna know why that sucks? There are a lot of reasons but the biggest one is this: SM goes out of her way to make it seem like Eddie is so old-fashioned and fancy. She makes him say some of the most ridiculous things in the interest of making it clear to us, the readers, that he is sophisticated. The Pire that is 109 and talks like a Walmart Brand Mr. Darcy just thought ‘ugh’.

I chided her

STOP with the creepy fucking paternal imagry. God, I am not a psychologist, and I would never presume to assume anything about anyone, but the way SM writes Edward and Bella’s relationship (and really all of the relationships in this series) reeks of Daddy Issues.

Mr. Banner was blood typing today.

This is absolutely fucking bonkers to me, and in the original Twilight, it was only an excuse for Bella to show of her FEAR of blood. Her ridiculous fear that was off the charts and over the top. They were just doing cell division, like, two days ago? And now they’re blood typing. And instead of theoritically doing so, they’re blood typing the actual students. Without written permission slips or warning anyone who might actually have issues with blood or needles in order to let them opt out. This isn’t how high school curriculam works, and it is absolutely not realistic. Even if it’s just a special one off thing, you can’t just stab kids with needles without parental consent.

but I wasn't hearing Debussy's notes for long

Bitch I fucking CALLED IT that he was listening to that Debussy song that first time he mentioned his favorite CD. Brownie points to me.

I wasn't going to stand around arguing with the wretch.

Leave Mike Newton ALONE, dude. And ‘the wretch’ is real rich coming from the guy who thought ‘Ugh’ a few paragraphs back.

Anyway, Bella got so sick and dizzy from one little drop of blood that she’s about to pass out on the sidewalk. It was stupid in Twilight and it’s stupid here. If Mike had lost an arm and was just pulsating blood? Sure, I’d buy the reaction, but a little tiny prick on the finger? And he sits like a couple of tables away from her? It’s an over the top reaction and if I was anyone in that class, I would think she’s doing it for attention.

Eddie just eats this shit up, though. Because its an excuse to fawn all over Bella and be a big strong man to rescue her.

The ‘I usually am’ in response to Bella saying Eddie was right about something made me see red for a minute. I fucking HATE this pompous, stuck up, douche canoe.

"People can't smell blood."

Good news, guys. I’m a vampire. I know this because I, too, can smell blood. I am now sparkley and Better Than You. So it is written.

But in all seriousness? Ed? You’re a fucking moron.

Anyway, Bella gets out of going to gym by ‘looking pale’ and Eddie comes to the conclusion that we have all figured out long before this that Bella thinks Eddie is attractive. Bella goes against Mike’s clear wishes not to invite Eddie to the beach with them, and invites him anyway, but because it’s La Push and, ya know, Werewoofs, Eddie can’t go to there. But instead of just saying he has plans or doesn’t like the beach or something, he just shits all over Mike some more and it makes me angry.

I was almost angry that she was leaving me.

Okay, I’m gonna level with you guys and share something personal. I had a really possessive boyfriend in college. Like, had to check in, let him know where I was and who I was with and all of that shit. He got mad at me if he didn’t hear from me for a while and was constantly accusing me of cheating on him and shit. That line right there? That like really freaks me out and gives me flashbacks to that terrible relationship. This is a red flag if I’ve ever seen one. Things like this are why people say that Edward Cullen is an abusive boyfriend.

And right after this line, he’s fucking dragging her to his car and insisting that he drive her home. It’s just creepy, guys. It’s all the warning signs that someone could ever need about someone, but it’s being treated as this loving relationship and it just makes me so uncomfortable.

There is something I wanna say in regards to Eddie. As a character, it’s okay for him to be kind of an asshole. There’s room for growth in that, there’s something for the character to strive to change. But his behavior is painted in this light that makes it seem like he’s wonderful and amazing, all rose colored love fantasy, and so he never changes and never learned to be a better person. And the shades of abuse are there, not even hidden in subtext but overt, and that is why I hate Edward so much. Not because he’s an asshole, but because I’m supposed to like him just the way he is, and not hope that he changes for the better.

The way that Bella talks about her mom makes me mad. That’s more of a rant for Twilight, but even just the things she says out loud are annoying. She talks about the woman like she’s incapable of taking care of herself, despite the fact that the woman raised her for 16 years. In Twilight it’s worse, because when she even bothers to think about Renee at all, she’s talking down about her.

They’re in front of Bella’s house having a dumb conversation about Eddie being DaNgErOuS again, and I want to puke with how heavy handed the ‘romance’ is supposed to be. Bella is like ‘i don’t care if you want to murder me and leave my corpse out in the woods’ and Ed is like ‘well... actually...’ and I hate that I’m supposed to think that they’re in love.

They’re having some more inane small talk. Literally this entire relationship is just small talk until they get to the sparkley meadow and make out a little, and then it’s ‘i would die for you and love you so much and you’re my everything’ like zero to sixty. I will admit that I fell for my partner really quickly, but we also talked about more than the fucking weather and our families. We had actual meaningful conversations and got to know one another.

This chapter ends with Eddie telling Bella to be careful at the beach (like any good father would) and laughing at her when she gets annoyed about it. The fact that he laughs at her expressing annoyance pisses me off. And he calls her an angry kitten again.

God, but I hate this asshole.

That’s chapter six, guys. Feel free to reach out in messages and DMs if you wanna chat, or if you have any recommendations for what my next book recap should be. Feel free to buy me a snack, my CashApp cash tag is in my bio. Until next time!

#sierra recaps stuff #midnight sun #midnight sun spoilers #ms chapter 6 #abuse tw

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neonoires · 7 years

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IT (2017) WAS GREAT!!

Okay, let me start by saying that I read the book a couple of times and I’m familiar with the miniseries so I am familiar with the verse. I am also a fan of the horror genre in general so for the most part horror films aren’t really “scary” to me. I was also never afraid of clowns which seems to be the major driving force of fear towards this series. Also, everyone’s idea of “scary” is going to be different and I did not find this to be scary. There were some jump scares here and there that got me and my theater so that was fun. I also think that children being murdered and having hallucinations about their worst fear is horrific enough for me so...

But like I said, the film was great. It is entertaining, the cinematography is on point, and the cast did well. What I enjoyed the most about the film is the relationship between the Losers Club. I also appreciated the psychological horror of it as well as the coming of age feel. It felt like the 80s films that I grew up watching and loving. I don’t think they make films centered around children like this anymore without making them talk like adults and behave as if being a child is beneath them. They really acted like kids which is a review I found myself rolling my eyes at until I saw the film and understood what people meant by that. The cast certainly deserves credit for being so young yet being able to captivate an adult audience in an R-rated movie. Speaking of it’s R-rating, it wasn’t really gory, just sort of fucked up and creepy. The blood scene in the bathroom seriously made me so happy because it was so good. I also loved the group scenes with the cast although I appreciated the private encounters each had with Pennywise. I would find myself wanting more of the cast to be on screen as a group. My only complaint is the ending, I felt like it was way too rushed but I understand that this is just the first part of a series. It was kind of like jumping off a cliff and belly flopping into water.

Sophia Lillis, who plays Beverly Marsh: was extremely mature. I think that her storyline had me the most invested partly because I am a woman and I understand what it’s like being sexualized at a young age. Sophia made me like Beverly a lot more because you can tell that she really understood Beverly’s real fears and issues that she went through. Her home scenes were so heavy and I found myself envious of the people who went into the theater blind because before it was revealed that her father is a pedo, you could feel her very real fear.

Jaeden Lieberher, who plays Bill Denbrough: was fantastic. On an unrelated note, what impressed me the most with this actor is how he handled the press for the film. He is quite the little professional and you can tell with how well-spoken her is with the media. I can see him having a long career after this and I’m interested to see him. As for his character, I admired how he took on Bill’s bravery and desperation to find Georgie. I was inspired by how little regard he gave for his own life once his brother was taken and his denial of his brother being dead really made me feel for him. However, I think that if his brother wasn’t the one taken he will not be a compelling character to me simply because I did not see him as the “leader” of this club. That’s not Jaeden’s fault though, that’s always been my thing with Bill.

Jack Dylan Grazer, who plays Eddie Kaspbrak: is a fucking natural. Honestly I did not plan to like this kid as much as I do but he fit this role so well. Eddie was an absolute delight to see on screen. I wanted more of him and his family life on screen partly because I am a lot like him. He was hilarious and literally everything he said had the audience laughing. His fear and near death really fucked me up, I can’t even lie. Then that possession moment in the house reminded me of the Exorcist which was so fucking sick. Plus he is so freakin’ adorable, I hope that his growth spurt won’t fuck up his future acting chances because he is hilarious.

Finn Wolfhard, who plays Richie Tozier: TBH I wanted to see this film before I found out that Finn was in it but once I realized he was in it, I definitely set out to see it opening weekend. I could go on and on about Finn in general as an older Stranger Things stan but I won’t lol. Finn did amazing as Richie and I was worried at first because Mike Wheeler is no Richie Tozier. Richie is one of my favorite characters and I wasn’t disappointed in his portrayal. The only thing was the omission of his encounter with IT. The clown room was good and all but that’s not THE encounter. I understand the omission though because it’s something they reflect on as adults. I just know Finn better be in the flashbacks. He was also such a bad ass so I was a proud fan.

Chosen Jacobs, who plays Mike Hanlon: I wanted more of Mike, I can’t lie. I think Chosen did a great job, with what he was given though. I also like how it sort of touched on how seeing IT made him mature as a person which is also sad. Originally he didn’t want to zap the sheep but after the incident in the house and being surrounded by that much darkness it made Mike dark too. I kind of wished that they played on that more because that’s quite the change and character development. I felt a bit of an absence with him though which is understandable I guess because here are 7 kids with 7 different stories. Mike was also racially persecuted in the books and I feel like the movie sort of didn’t go into that which wouldn’t have been a bad thing. I’m not saying have a bully call him the N word but I think acknowledging his race would have been more realistic.

Jeremy Ray Taylor, who plays Ben Hanscom: Okay so I’m super salty about how things played out between him, Bill, and Bev because I was rooting for him. Even though they were all “losers” and “outsiders” I really felt like he played the underdog so well. I hope he gets all of the credit for showing how Ben overcame so much and how he and Mike kind of got the ball rolling when it came to investigating this shit. I stan him so much and tbh I felt like Jeremy is also an underdog as well because I typically see most of the cast together without him. LOL he seems a little weird in real life too which I love because I’m a weirdo as well so I feel him! He was lots of fun to watch, didn’t think I would like his character.

Wyatt Oleff, who plays Stan Uris: I wanted more of Stan tbh. And I was reeeeeal worried about Wyatt even though I like him a lot. There were times when I was wondering if it was intentional for him to be that awkward or if it’s the way Wyatt acts. BUT I really admired the non-verbal acting Wyatt did for Stan in the film. Just seeing him in the background and how he behaved was so entertaining. That meltdown in the sewage really broke me, especially knowing what becomes of Stan in adulthood. Throughout the film Wyatt definitely made up for the initial cringe acting moments. I’m trying not to nitpick because he’s a kid actor and he really did do a great job.

Nicholas Hamilton, who plays Henry Bowers: literally LOOKED like an 80s/early 90s bully. That hair. That face. LOL he looked like he was plucked out of Stand By Me or something. I was expecting him to be way cuntier in this film since Bowers is a racist, antisemitic, and sexist piece of shit in the book but shout out to this kid for doing his job by showing how much of a sociopath he is.

Bill Skarsgard, who plays Pennywise/IT: was menacing and not too try-hard. The previews made me nervous about this because I thought he would be way to cringe and trying too hard to be scary but he was creepy as hell! Of course, modern movie magic helped with this but I appreciate the effort from Skarsgard and how dark he could get. His performance was fantastic but as I stated above, the kids carried the film which should be expected.

GO SEE IT! It’s not perfect but I give it a very solid 8.5/10.

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fitprocafe-blog · 5 years

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