#in the past she has been treated as an object for other characters to fight over and either endanger or protect

[opbackgrounds]

With all respect, you sound weirdly over the top with this one Nami side-plot and demand way more coherency of it than anything else in the manga. You treat Sanji's love-heart gags way more seriously than Nami's abuse gags (or Luffy's eating ones or Chopper's infoptency ones), too. It sounds like a really bad-faith reading tbh. [For example, the dress line fits with Nami's fashion obsession which has legit reasons and her being used to being taken advantage of is literally her origin story, but you pretend like those readings don't exists?]

Well, firstly, this is my reading of the manga. I'm not going to go out of my way to think of how other people might interpret a scene, because that's not what I'm doing here.

Secondly, I've been very vocal about other storylines I don't like, including Chopper being incompetent, but the subplot with Absalom has been the most sustained bit of bad writing in the manga. It's going to get more attention, because there's more of it. There will be more negativity in the future when I get to other things I don't like. Fans of Punk Hazard, you have been warned.

Thirdly, if I've given the Absalom-Sanji-Nami story a bad-faith reading, you've given a bad faith reading of my analysis. My issue isn't and never has been Sanji's love-sick chivalry--I wouldn't have defended his fight against Kalifa during Enies Lobby otherwise--it is the tonal dissonance between the subject matter being displayed and the character's reaction to it. I even praised the parts of his fight with Absalom that highlight his self-sacrificial nature, even if it makes him act ridiculous such as taking a stab wound to avoid getting blood on Nami's wedding dress. That's silly, but it's the sort of exaggeration that suits the series, and fits in the same category as Nami hitting the boys when she's annoyed with them.

Like Hogback, Absalom's actions are coded with the language of male obsession and objectification, sexual assault, and rape. Both characters only only care for the objects of their obsessions because of their victim's physical attractiveness. The implication is Hogback gave Cindry a post-mortem boob job. Nami literally gets attacked while she's bathing. They're very similar characters, so I think it's fair to ask why they're treated so differently by the narrative.

I also said that I believe the marriage subplot could have been written in a way that's more innocent and lighthearted, but Oda merrily skipped over the line once he included the imagery of sexual assault. That is my line in the sand, and it is absolutely a black mark on both Sanji and the series as the whole that Oda decided to highlight the similarities between he and Absalom instead of their differences. It moves the character from chivalrous dweeb to sex pest, and it's a decision he's doubled down on many times as the series progresses.

Nami being okay with being forcibly changed into a wedding dress after being drugged into unconsciousness by someone who tried to attack her because she "is fashion obsessed" is patently absurd, as is her being "used to it" because of her past. What I was trying to express is that it would have been nice if Nami had gotten as angry at what Absalom did to her as she did when Lola was attacked. Perhaps I didn't express myself well in that regard, but all in all I stand by my criticisms.

[captainuranium543]

Hi! I just wanted to know your thoughts on this post here: https://www.tumblr.com/yamishika/761491771751596032/something-that-has-been-bothering-me-regarding-the

Do you agree with this? Disagree with this? Was this just a light comedic moment? It def feels out of character for Jellal to a large degree. You have such great takes on Erza in general, that I wanted to check about this. I tried looking at your posts (now that I have better cell service) and didnt see this on your posts list. Apologies if you’ve covered it already. Thanks in advance!

the post in question^

thanks so much for this ask actually cuz I have been resisting the urge to yap about this forever and now I have an excuse ahaha.

honestly I completely agree, I've been saying it forever but as fairy tail has gone on Mashima has kind of stopped putting as much thought into it has he did early on. Early on the characters where the center of the narrative and honestly I think that's when ft is at its best because that has always been the best part if ft as a whole. The tower of heaven and the trauma Erza and Jellal faced along with countless others had so much impact on the story as late as season 6 because of just how massive a tragedy it was.

starting with Erza and Kiria, it feels especially disgusting for this to happen to specifically Erza because she has spent so much of her life being treated as less then human already. In the tower her purpose was literally to work herself to death, they needed sacrifices and lots of them. As soon as she wasn't useful to them anymore she would killed without a second thought and her life would only be another number added to the massive death toll of the r system project. she wasn't a person in there, she was a tool. Even after the tower she was still under someone else's control (on a leash you might say) with Jellal holding the lives of her friends over her head to keep her quiet, constantly taunting his power over her by spying on her with seigrain in the magic counsel. this is exactly what happens with Kiria and it feels genuinely horrifying to see it happen again but still its just played for fanservice and I find that incredibly irritating.

as for the Erza vs Jellal fight in the Aldoron arc, here we have a scene that is objectively horrifying to both of them. Erza and Jellal share INTENSE trauma associated with mind control and the loss of free will, and yet the scene is played for laughs and fanservice.

I do understand why Hiro did this, if they took the scene seriously it would probably set Jellal right back into his old ways again of avoiding Erza like the plague which he doesn't want because he's trying to push them closer together. I get that but its still feels like such a missed opportunity to give them some kind of emotional development which neither has had in so long. I'm gonna get into my own idea for the fight here so bear with me.

The fight begins and they intercut it with flash backs to the tower of heaven arc, or even further back to their actual childhood, showing how genuinely afraid of him Erza is right now while also trying to control herself and keep her "fight" instinct at bay because she doesn't want to hurt him. the fight from her perspective should be chaotic, rapidly throwing her between past and present while she desperately tries to hold onto a sense of reality and remind herself its not him.

now imagine this, at some point she loses control and really starts to spiral and he gets the upper hand. she's totally beaten and exhausted after trying to fight him and her demons at once and while she's on the ground he approaches her, lifts her up, and we get a call back to this scene.

throughout this fight we never really see Jellal's face, its mostly been from Erza's perspective and when we do see his face its a flashback to a different time while he was mind controlled. Now in the present jellal says something, idk what he would say exactly, but its something similar to the "it was the color of your hair" moment where it reminds Erza of something he said to her while he was himself. Erza finally snaps back to reality, she looks down at him and we finally get a clear view of his face in the present, and we see that he's crying.

that is enough to fully snap Erza back and finally give the fight her all, because its not just for her sake its for both of them. he would never forgive himself if he hurt her so she's going to have to be the one to do it even if it hurts because its the only way she's going to save him. and more than anything she wants to save him. (Again, call back to the tower of heaven, she was to late to save him then and it weighs on her to this day, she wont be to late this time.) anyway fight ends shortly after that she knocks him out and she's crying because obviously she never wanted to hurt him either she's just taking one for the team (like always but that's another rant). Just before Jellal passes out he looks at her and he thanks her for saving him (ONCE AGAIN CALL BACK TP THE TOWER OF HEAVEN but this time its not manipulation he's being fr showing us that its really him now). he passes out, erza gets up, looks back at him maybe one last time, says shes sorry, then goes off to go keep fighting. fight over

case and point I think this could have been sick as hell and i'm sad it didn't happen. its not that I have a problem with fanservice I just think it should be tasteful at least a little.

[beanghostprincess]

You know, One Piece is all fun and happyness untill you learn that the world and themes are actually some of the darkest and most depressing things that were ever put on paper. The biggest potrayal of this tho is the fact that many characters have different running gags and quirks that are actually products of their horrible past trauma and messed up life.

Luffy- Wants to befriends literally everybody because of his fear of being alone and picks fights with all the people he doesn't like because he wants to protect his friends.

Nami- Her greed and kleptomania were developed because her mom literally died because sge was poor and was never able to give her and Nojiko all they wanted/needed.

Usopp- Makes absurd lies about everything because as a kid he had to keep lying to keep his mother happy and when she died he kept on doing so to keep himself safe.

Sanji- Puts all women on a super high pedestal because growing up women like his mom and sister wrre the only good people in his life and men like his Judge and his brothers were fucking awful.

Brook and Robin- Super S tier dark humor to cope with S tier dark trauma.

In other words, One Piece is just a comedy passing drmatic anime, but I think we all already knew that.

Ah, yes, I love this topic so much.

But I wouldn't say One Piece is a "comedy passing dramatic anime". One Piece is both comedy and drama. The drama doesn't hide behind comedy at any moment. You don't have to actively look for it or read between the lines to understand the characters. I think Oda is an amazing writer because he manages to just tell us/show us about his characters in the clearest and most obvious of ways. He throws hints at us over the episodes to then explaining it to us very carefully how his characters are built. This is why I find so difficult to understand why people (mainly from the general audience or, y'know, dudebros) don't get the characters in the first watch/read. An example of a comedy passing dramatic show would probably be just any sort of satiric comedic show in which they don't actually address the drama but instead make jokes about it. Like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (God I love that sitcom).

I know what you mean, though. You're talking about the whole "making jokes/running gags about something when the reason behind them is actually way deeper". And I agree wholeheartedly.

Luffy has abandonment issues and that's why he keeps wanting to protect his friends and hates being alone, Nami sees money as safety and comfort because her mom died because they lacked money, Usopp's lies come from trying to make her mom happy because his dad left them, Sanji has an obsession with women because they're the only ones who never hurt him, Brook and Robin have no filter when it comes to dark humor because they've been alone for so long that the only way they have to cope is jokes and nobody gets them except them... And also:

We treat Zoro's relationship with Tashigi as comedic at some points but he has so much trauma regarding his best friend dying that he can't be close to someone who looks like her.

We make fun of and exaggerate Sabo's love for Luffy to the point of brocon/possessiveness because he literally spent most of his life having forgotten him and when he remembers his brothers, one of them dies, so of course he wants to look after the little one.

Boa's love for Luffy exists exclusively because she feels safe around him and it's the first man who has never seen her as a sexual object.

And a lot more of these but, basically, Oda is great at character building and writing because these are not things that you have to read between the lines. These are not exaggerations for the reader to understand what's going on with the characters. These are just trauma responses that constantly happen in real life. It's just a well-written story with awesome, realistic characters, and I absolutely love it.

[alvindraperzzz]

One thing I want to see explored more in both canon and fandom is Cassie’s relationship with Diana’s mission.

Cassie is a powerhouse. She’s a fighter. She’s aggressive, and loves kicking butt and taking down villains who deserve it. She’s been that way from her earliest appearances, and it never really changed, all the way through the end of preboot. That may be fine for most superhero characters, but it’s a constant that just doesn’t really make sense for a protege and disciple of Diana of Themyscira, who has a mission, ideals, and an approach to heroism that differs from most. I can’t think of a single plot line that explores Cassie’s relationship to Amazonian ideals, and how they (should) affect her work as a hero.

What are those ideals? What is Diana’s mission?

The specifics tend to change between eras, writers, and reboots, but Diana’s mission is to bring peace and justice to man’s world. That’s pretty vague, and broad, and Diana is canonically often distracted from it by crimefighting and superhuman threats (which, fair, hard to teach peace when some megalomaniac is tearing up a city).

“The superheroes of this planet and beyond… their mission is to avenge, to protect, to police. Mine is different. My mission is to teach, to learn, to serve. Hippolyta preached, as I and all Amazons believe, that with understanding and respect all things are bearable, believable, and possible.”

In its simplest explanation, Diana’s mission is one of peace and equality. She’s an ambassador, bringing Amazonian forms of diplomacy and social structure to man’s world, and creating reform through education, opportunity, and service.

“I am trained as a warrior, Barbara, but I am trained also to think of those skills as a last resort. There is no human conflict which cannot be served better with words than with the sword.”

Her greatest tools are not her lasso or gauntlets, but reason and compassion. Violent force is her last resort; while her use of violence varies by writer, that was a recurring trait for the best WW writers.

“We have a saying, my people. Don’t kill if you can wound, don’t wound if you can subdue, don’t subdue if you can pacify, and don’t raise your hand at all until you’ve first extended it.” —Wonder Woman, Vol. 3, No. 25

Diana may utilize violence when the situation calls for it, but her objective first and foremost is peace. Before violence, no matter what they do to her or what they’ve done in the past, she reaches out. She tries reaching people through conversation, treating enemies and ordinary people alike with kindness, respect, and empathy. Love without discrimination. Redemption and transformation over punishment. 

Cassie adores Diana. She believes in her, and shares many traits. She absolutely believes in helping people, and that protecting another is worth her life. But she’s also inclined toward holding grudges, and often has a very black and white perspective on good guys and bad guys. She has compassion in spades, but has a difficult time putting herself in other people’s shoes. She was always gung-ho for a fight, but after Donna’s death, and the string of losses that follow, she grows increasingly angry and unforgiving in both her heroic and personal life.

I want Cassie to argue with Diana’s nonviolent principles. I want her to struggle with understanding and incorporating this pacifistic view, when violence is so ingrained into her own view of superheroes.

I want her to grapple with Diana’s teachings, and be at war with herself because a bad guy might deserve punishment in her eyes, but that isn’t always the right path to justice.

I want Cassie to act as a diplomat.

I want her to talk villains down, instead of punch first, ask questions later.

In that Titans storyline where she visits Alcatraz and sees the terrible conditions there, I want her to say, “What the fuck is this?” And force a prison reform.

I want her joining Diana on outreach efforts, advocating as Diana does for education and equality, and acting as her liaison.

Just. Stories about Cassie dealing with the teachings of her mentor and the Amazons, whether it’s enacting those teachings or coming into conflict with them.

[coraniaid]

🔥 honestly just let loose with controversial btvs opinions I’m ready

So ... I think I've probably said this before, but at the risk of repeating myself: I don't like the way the show treats the idea of Harmony as a vampire.  In particular, I really don't like the way the show depicts Buffy Summers finding out that Harmony is a vampire (in Season 4's The Harsh Light Of Day).  I don't think it's consistent with her character as established to this point, and I don't think it makes much sense logistically either.

Before Season 4, I think the show is actually pretty consistent in how it treats the idea of 'becoming' a vampire.  Yes, a vampire remembers their past life: we see that with Jesse as early as Season 1's second episode, The Harvest. And yes, a vampire's personality is heavily influenced by the person they were when they were alive: again, see Jesse's continuing obsession with Cordelia, and also what Angel (almost) says in Season 3's Doppelgangland about Willow.

(Indeed, this is really the only excuse for Giles repeatedly telling Buffy about the crimes various vampires she faces in the first three seasons committed while they were alive: which he does for Andrew Borba in Season 1's Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, for the Gorch brothers in Season 2's Bad Eggs and for Zachary Kralik in Season 3's Helpless.  Why bother doing that unless it tells her something about the vampires she'll now be fighting?) 

So yes, a vampire remembers being human and (at least sometimes) retains a lot of their former personality.

But equally, the show has also been consistent up to this point -- and, more importantly, it has consistently shown that the characters in the show believe it to be true -- that the human does die when turned into a vampire.  The vampire retains the memories and something of the personality, but something ineffable -- call it a soul, continuity of self, whatever -- is lost.  As Buffy tells Ford in Lie To Me, you categorically do not "become" a vampire:

"... that's not how it works.  You die, and a demon sets up shop in your old house.  And it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life, but it's not you."

-- Buffy Summers, Lie To Me

This is why Buffy can't just let vampires turn people into more vampires, even if (as in Lie To Me) those people are willing for them to do so.  Because it's murder.  Because it's wrong.  It's something that's pretty much central to the premise of the show.  Not that it is necessarily a true belief about the world -- the show is fiction, after all, there is no objective truth to be found -- but that Buffy herself believes it.

And, at least for the first three-and-a-bit seasons of the show, she does believe it.  Ford gets turned by Spike, and -- just as she promised him she would while he was alive-- Buffy waits up by his grave that night and she stakes the vampire he has become.  She doesn't congratulate him on his plan to beat cancer succeeding because -- as far as she's concerned -- it did not succeed, it could never have succeeded, and her old friend Ford is already dead.  In Doppelgangland, after meeting the alternate reality vampire Willow, the gang all react as if their Willow has died: they speak of her in the past tense, they offer up eulogies for her.  They don't wonder why Willow has decided to 'become' a vampire.  They mourn.  Buffy blames herself, because (she thinks) her best friend has just died.

That's the other thing the show is consistent about.  By Season 2, if not earlier, Buffy has deeply internalized the notion that she personally has a duty to protect her friends and her classmates from harm.  And when she fails in that duty she blames herself.  Willow's a vampire?  Well, that must be because Buffy called her "reliable".  Angelus turned Theresa into a vampire?  Well, of course that's Buffy's fault: she's to blame for everyone Angelus kills, isn't she?  Buffy's new college friend Eddie's a vampire now?  Well, that's definitely her fault too, so she'll apologize to him even as she readies herself to stake him.

But then there's Harmony.

Granted, Harmony Kendall is not a particularly admirable person in life.  She's a bully, she's shallow, she's fickle.  She does not treat Willow or Marcie Ross or Cordelia kindly or well.  And when Buffy Summers, Class Protector, asks her to, she risks her life, just like all of the graduating class of 1999 - without powers, without destiny, without training -- to try to stop the Mayor's Ascension.  And we see on the screen how it ends.  One of the vampires she's fighting gets close enough to bite her; and that's the last we ever see of the human girl called Harmony.

Harmony is not a good person, but she dies a hero. She dies fighting to save the world.

And how does Buffy react to finding out that Harmony has been turned into a vampire?  Does she mourn her?  She's known her for over two years, by this point, far longer than she'd known Eddie.  Longer than she'd known Theresa or Jesse as well. We first see her in The Harvest, as part of Cordelia's clique, and so -- since Buffy tried befriending Cordelia when she arrived in town -- it's possible that Harmony was one of the first people Buffy ever met in Sunnydale.

Does Buffy blame herself?  It was her plan, after all, to have her fellow classmates arm themselves and fight the Mayor and his vampires.  She had to have known there would be casualties.  None of them have superpowers.  They'd just given her an award for protecting them.  This isn't like Theresa or (as she mistakenly thought) Willow.  There's no complex, convoluted chain of reasoning required here.  Harmony is dead because Buffy decided her best option was to ask her to risk her life.  Most of the time Buffy is wrong to assume it's her fault people have died, but this time I think she might have a point.

Just how does Buffy react to finding out that Harmony is a vampire?  Well, she says this:

"Harmony's a vampire?  She must be dying without a reflection."

-- Buffy Summers, The Harsh Light Of Day

She makes a joke of it. And ... uh, that's it. Although Buffy will run into Harmony again (and again, and again...) that's the most reaction we ever see.  We never see any suggestion that Buffy blames herself for Harmony's death: we don't even see her acknowledge the fact that Harmony is dead. There's no apology for Harmony.  At best, she's a punchline.  The fact that Harmony's dead is funny.

So yeah, I think that kind of sucks, frankly, and I don't think it's consistent with how Buffy was acting as recently as two episodes earlier.

But also ... how, exactly, can Buffy only be finding out that Harmony is a vampire now?  Graduation Day was months ago.  Buffy stayed up by Ford's grave in case he'd been turned.  Did she not bother to do that for the kids she talked into dying in a fight against the Mayor?  For that matter, how does Willow not instantly know that the 'Harmony' she runs into must be a vampire?  Did she not even bother to find out which of her fellow students died in the battle?

(Or, maybe, is the point meant to be that Harmony got bitten in the battle, didn't actually die at all, but then somehow got bitten again later that summer? Everything I've read online suggests Harmony was meant to have died in the Season 3 finale, but I guess it's not explicitly stated in the show that she did...)

More generally ... well, I think having one of Buffy's old classmates come back as a vampire is a solid writing choice.  I don't think it would have been a good idea to have it be one of the regulars -- that would have been far too depressing -- so a minor recurring character makes a lot of sense. Personally I'd have liked to see School Hard's Sheila come back in a later episode, but failing that Harmony is as good a choice as any.  And -- since the show has already established that a vampire's personality owes a lot to the human they were in life -- it makes sense (albeit it's a bit mean-spirited) to have Harmony as a vampire be vapid and self-absorbed.

I don't think it's quite as funny a joke as the writers obviously did though.  Funny enough for one episode, maybe two.  Not twenty-eight (across the full runs of both Buffy and Angel).

[sage-nebula]

if you could change ONE thing about sonic canon, what would it be and why?

Just one? Just one??? Hhhhhhh . . .

My first instinct is to say "fix how badly Tails was treated between Adventure 2 and Frontiers", because god, Ian Flynn was not lying when he said Tails was done dirty for the past twenty years. Yeah, he got to show up in a lot of games—but that doesn't mean a whole lot when his appearances in those games aren't good! But Frontiers makes it clear that Sega is at least aware of the problem and they seem open to letting Ian fix it. So while it has been so fucking suffering to be a Tails fan for the past two decades, I'm going to take comfort in the fact that he's treated really well in the IDW comics and hope that the games moving forward actually move forward, instead of backward. You never know with Sega, but I will cross my fingers on this one. If they let Ian write future games, then I have faith it'll be done well.

So since that isn't my answer, I'm going to say . . . take romance off the table for Sonic, period, forever, in every capacity, both in terms of "he has feelings for [character]" and "[character] has feelings for him."

First, Sonic being aroace is really important to me, as you already know. So taking romance off the table for him fixes that because he stands as aroace rep if he's not in any romances.

Second, I don't think these games gain anything by having romance subplots in them. These games are about adventure, friendship, and environmentalism. We don't need romance in there, too. It adds nothing, and if anything it just causes needless ship wank in the fandom.

Third, I think that the romance thing has only ever hurt Amy's character. Before anyone gets it twisted, there's nothing wrong with a female character having a romance story. It's straw feminism to say that female characters shouldn't get to have romances. But in this specific case I think that Amy having a crush on Sonic has only ever been detrimental to her character, for the following reasons:

— Amy was created because Sonic Team wanted Sonic to have a love interest. However, they also knew that it would be antithetical to his character to be in a committed relationship. Therefore, they created Amy to have a crush on him that wouldn't be reciprocated, which to be honest just feels mean-spirited. Like, first of all, it's not great to create a character of any gender solely to be a love interest. But also, to create a character to be a love interest but then they can never actually be that because the object of their affection doesn't return those feelings? Dude. It just feels mean! I know it's not that deep on their end, but still. It just makes you feel bad for her.

— The way Amy's crush was written in the late 90s / aughts was just . . . yikes. It sucks, because Amy had a lot of otherwise great moments in games like Adventure, Adventure 2, and Heroes. Make no mistake: had Amy not talked to Shadow on the ARK, he would not have helped and the world would have been doomed. Amy Rose saved the world. But that's overshadowed in the minds of many (especially casual players) by the way she harasses Sonic and tries to pressure him / force him to return her feelings. I know you and I disagree on this, but in my opinion it doesn't matter if he has celebrity status or that he's a little older—that kind of behavior is still wrong, because celebrities and older kids are still people, too. If Amy was my 12yo little sister, I'd tell her (kindly!) that she needed to knock it off. Glomping Sonic when he doesn't want to be glomped, basically telling him in Heroes that he's got no choice but to marry her if she beats him in a fight . . . again, she has PLENTY of other great moments in those games, but that gets overshadowed by how awfully her crush on Sonic was portrayed in them. It sucks.

(It especially sucks because I have a feeling it was written that way because "teehee girls can't actually be threatening :)" as happened in a LOT of anime that came around that time. Which, no, I don't think anything she did caused Sonic any lasting harm and she never would actually hurt him on purpose, slapstick humor aside—but still, "girls are so silly they can't be threatening :)" is still sexism just under a different brand and I hate it.)

— While the writing re: Amy's crush has gotten a LOT better over time (it's handled really well in IDW for example, where it's clear she still has a huge crush on him but also has ZERO desire to tie him down and is happy just to be his friend), in the games it's clear that Sega still thinks of her as just "Girl With Crush On Sonic" and as such they don't really know what to do with her. Granted, she's not the only character they don't know what to do with (again, Tails has suffered so much), but because Amy's entire conception was "Girl Who Has Crush On Sonic" it's pretty evident that Sonic Team doesn't really have any ideas of what else to do with her. But if that element was removed, they'd have to figure it out—which I mean, they should be able to do anyway, but it's clear they can't. Thank goodness the writers over at IDW can, sheesh. (And I do think that Ian did the best with what he was given in Frontiers, but compare how focused Tails' and Knuckles' goals are, versus Amy's. It makes sense that Amy wants to just go around helping people find love, but at the same time it's such a broad and unfocused goal that it's like . . . yeah, Sonic Team was like "girl = love lol" and called it a day.)

I could probably go on but this is an essay in and of itself, lol. Again, for anyone who skimmed, there's nothing wrong with a female character having a romance subplot and I do think that Amy's crush has been handled a LOT better since the aughts. IDW Issue 2, where she had her, "that's just what I love about you, I can't change you, I don't WANT to change you!" moment with Sonic was wonderful, and they've had many other great moments in the comics, too. But overall I think that Amy has been done a great disservice largely in part because Sega just sees her as Sonic's Love Interest™ (whose feelings he now reciprocates but won't act on), and I just think she would be better off if I could build a time machine and go back in time so that by the time Adventure rolls around she was able to stand on her own two feet as just another friend, rather than someone who is tied to a romance subplot that's never going to go anywhere anyway.

[aclosetfan]

Speaking of bad greens characterizations. I really fucking hate it when people characterize Butch as a predatory douche bro that only thinks about sex, especially when you're supposed to believe he's supposed to get in a relationship with Buttercup. It makes him so unsympathetic and it's not convincing at all that Buttercup would like him. It's lazy writing and I'm tired of how common it seems to be in fics. Buttercup would not put up with that shit at all.

Yesss, and on the flip side, Buttercup’s character is often reduced to being a physically aggressive bitch. I’ve read a good handful of fics where she’s frankly verbally and physically abusive to Butch literally only in response to general and socially acceptable flirting.

There’s a difference between chauvinism and normal flirting, and I think most people who write fics don’t know how to write the difference because chauvinism is hard to redeem. It’s easier to write Buttercup reacting poorly to someone checking her out because going “damn you look good when you fight” vs “I think of you as an object for my own sexual gratification because you are a woman and that is what woman are suppose to be because they are insuperior to men in all ways” isn’t easy if you’re a good person lol

Writing evil, ugly, or uncomfortable things is never easy, so people write only as far as they can go, and because they also want the greens to be together in the end, they don’t want their ship being depicted poorly, so instead of reacting to catcalling like “piss off man, that’s fucked up. Fix yourself” and establishing boundaries like “we’re a team now, so I need you to understand those comments trigger me” [in a not-therapy speech way lol]

Buttercup often goes, “you fucking dickless piece of shit I hate you everyone hates you! you fucking suck, tiny dick” and then hits him or some shit.

Which I could arguably see happening when your catcalled by a stranger or (more likely) your enemy, but in these fics they like . . . never get past that, they never become friends, she always continues to be verbally/physically abusive even after butch has been redeemed. And on top of it, their fights are ALWAYS about something he’s said about her physical attributes, but there’s no deeper “we’ve hated each other since we were six so we’ve got a LOT to hash out”

It’s “Butch thinks BC is hot, is a pig about it, which entitles Buttercup to beat him within an inch of his life and that’s it. And they never learn! That’s the gag. This is funny everyone because she’s sassy.”

Like he’s “redeemed” and then his whole life becomes this sad-boy, obsessive tribute to buttercup to highlight how badass and unaffected she is by his affection. they also continue to fight each other and I know some people irl are into those kinds of relationships on a kink lvl, but it’s just not sustainable to me, and also, her character just wouldn’t do that to someone she loves who isn’t hurting her back.

And I’m definitely not trying to say Butch’s behavior is ever okay, I’m just saying the amount of violence that he receives in return is so out of proportion, it’s uncomfy. Especially because these are always, like, high school fics?? so he’s literally 16 going “lol I think you’re hot” and she, a super hero whose seen/heard worse, goes “ill fucking kill you were you stand”

So basically, what I’m saying is if Butch is redeemed and learns to act normal about shit, Buttercup needs to too. Like Butch should be able to go “damn stop fucking hitting me all the damn time and calling me names,” and Buttercup should be able to confront that and change for the better because her behavior is abusive if she doesn’t! You can’t treat your partner like an unworthy dog!! And tbh her learning to confront why she reacts so violently to people hitting on her would make for a good story and allow the writer to critique society, forced super heroism, etc. it’s just as interesting as Butch learning to undo the toxic masculinity beaten into him.

Every character has room to grow!

Of course, if Buttercup being abusive is the story you WANT to write to explore that concept, go for it, but I don’t think that’s the vibe everyone’s trying to go for lol they just want steamy aggressive/angry sexual tension, which girly, I totally get, but if you let them fall in love ya gotta have them act like they’re falling in love.

[cruelfeline]

One of my Forspoken pet peeves is the rather common complaint that Frey is an unpleasant character. Or that she's too mean, too rude, too unsympathetic. I can understand personal character preferences, but I feel like the opinions I see, particularly in various reviews, move past personal preference and into "this is an objectively bad character" territory. Which vexes me for multiple reasons.

First and foremost: Frey has every reason on Earth to be sullen, snarky, unpleasant, and negative. Her life has been terrible. She spent the functional entirety of it growing up in the NYC foster system, only to age out and end up living alone, on the streets, with zero support network, zero safety net, and all of her trauma unaddressed and untreated. She's left in abject poverty, vulnerable to unsavory individuals who have zero issue literally trying to burn her to death.

She knows she was abandoned as a baby, and this is awful enough. But worse, in my mind, is knowing that she lived in the system her whole life, and no one claimed her. No one adopted her. No one decided they wanted her. And she was a newborn! It's one thing to have an older child not be adopted; that's a known difficulty. But a few-day-old infant? Just the notion that she entered the system at like... day three of her existence and was there the whole eighteen years with no one deciding they wanted her in their family has to be unbelievably crushing. Like... I can't imagine. I can't imagine how much it hurts to not only believe that your birth parent didn't want you, but that literally no one else did, either.

Now, moving on to her demeanor in Athia: people seem to find it off-putting that Frey behaves selfishly upon being asked to help Cipal's inhabitants. I can't say I do. What the Athians are asking of her is tremendous. To the point that, honestly, I find it a little bizarre that people, both real and Cipalian characters, are annoyed by her reluctance.

I mean... Jiminy Christmas, think about what they want her to do! They want her to go out into the wilds, a place filled with countless monstrous horrors, and fight them. With magic she's just barely learned to use. And because they don't know that she has Cuff with her, we can infer that they want her to do this all by herself. Just. Go ahead, kid. Go run around outside, in the Break-mist, with hundreds of mutated monsters and vicious zombies and maddened Tantas attacking you from all sides. Use the magic that none of us can teach you to use. Use the fighting skills none of us can train you in. And if you... I dunno, break your legs out there? Welp, none of us can come and get you! You'd better hope you can drag yourself back. Alone.

the irony of this is that Cuff's motives are terrible but the fact that he is there to guard and teach and guide Frey makes him more useful to her than all the Athians combined

It's absurd. What they ask of her is insanity, and while I appreciate that they are desperate people with no other options, I also think it's perfectly reasonable for her to balk at their demands. They're asking her to just... walk into hell for them. For them: the people who tossed her into jail the moment they met her. Who can blame her for not throwing herself recklessly into the role of "hero," in those circumstances?

And y'all know what? Ultimately, past that thick shield built upon years of trauma and pain? Frey is sweet. She's innately kind. She strives to be empathetic and helpful. She can be silly and playful and kind of dorky. She can't always get there because she is so accustomed to being in Defense Mode, but she still manages! She's absolutely precious with Homer and literally every other cat she meets. She's a sweetheart to the Cipalian sheep and clearly enjoys feeding them, plus is acutely aware of how they, too, might feel trapped in Cipal's walls. She empathizes with someone like Jennesh, who treated her poorly from the get-go but has potentially suffered in ways she's familiar with. Most telling to me is that she extends a hand to a creature like Cuff, seeking to understand and offer companionship to someone who has done nothing but harm everyone around him since his creation.

also she's interacted with Pilo multiple times and not killed him, which makes her a better person than I will ever be

Frey's character works for me because she has every reason to be as she is, both in terms of her past and in terms of what is happening to her now. She's built an incredible emotional shield to protect her from the abysmal circumstances of her life, and she's not shy about using it to protect herself. That doesn't make her off-putting to me. That makes her deeply sympathetic.

[sapphic-enigma]

Full disclosure I'm loving this arc because I feed on angst, but yeah anyone thinking that Mio et. al. are making an objectively good choice or even the best of a bunch of bad choices is gonna be in for a treat. And I'm looking forward to when Mio at least has to apologize and beg for her forgiveness.

Like, I'm not complaining about the writing - the choices are bad in a way that makes *sense* for the characters and it's a good direction for the narrative and their development to go. Miorine is not really emotionally fluent and also dangerously naive (oh yeah, I'm sure the daughter of the president of the company that's oppressing them will have *no trouble* calming some riots along with totally-unarmed Aerial which she's seen turn someone into red paste with a slap). Guel seems to be aware it's not going to work but is following along for his company. Eri and Prospera care about their plan first and foremost.

But like, even ignoring that what they did is a recipe for crushing someone's psyche, the school they're sending her back to is a nexus of both the political fight, the earth-space conflict, and whatever Quiet Zero will do. There was a terrorist attack a few episodes ago where a student died, and her only friends are earth house. Who are discriminated against, have been actively bullied, and were arrested on suspicion of said terrorist attack *recently*. Shes now not really important enough for people to want to use as a pawn in their schemes, sure. But neither were Seethia or Jubeju and it didn't stop them from becoming collateral damage.

Exactly, like I know the choices they're making make sense for their characters, it just pisses me off. Thats how I know its good writing because I have a strong emotional attachment to the story and the characters.

It's just infuriating to watch because I hate that Suletta has to deal with all of this bullshit because she's being used as a pawn or an excuse for other people's low emotional iq.

So far the story has been great. I hope they do make Miorine do something extravagant to apologize and make up with Suletta [im assuming this has a manga but I haven't read it if it does] because if not I'm be salty.

I really like the characters even if they piss me off with their ridiculous choices because they've been fleshed out in a way that makes it easy to believe they would do those things, and think its a good choice when its clearly not.

I can't wait to see how that earth mission goes sideways because that's going to be a crazy episode, especially since they left Suletta behind. When she gets back to school [if they don't find a reason for Suletta to follow them to earth] she's going to be a mess. I'm sure since the riots on earth are getting worse the bullying is going to be amped up x100. [Personally i think nika is going to have something to do with Suletta going to earth since she's been getting low screentime the last few episodes]

I have love hate relationship with angst driven plots. On the one hand its good story telling but on the other hand my heart can't take it and i get sad/angry. I just hope they don't end this season on a cliffhanger before miorine and Suletta talk.

[inukag]

I recently saw what you said about Kikyo not doing anything positive for Kagome after realizing Kagome's kindness after she healed her and I agree so much. That went nowhere because it feels like Kagome was the only one doing kind things for Kikyo even though she has little to no reason to feel compelled to help. She could've definitely apologized the way she treated her at the beginning of the series.

Yeah, that’s one of my main beef with Kikyo’s character arc. She does a lot of bad things early on in the series that are just... completely swept under the rug. Kagome’s feelings towards Kikyo are only portrayed as “jealousy” when she has plenty of other valid reasons to dislike Kikyo, that Rumiko never brings up after a certain point. And when she does mention it, like in the Mt. Azusa arc when Kagome mentions that Kikyo used to want Inuyasha dead, all we get is Inuyasha saying “she’s not like that anymore” and Kagome agrees. It feels cheap. 

I get that Kagome is the protagonist, so it makes sense that she’s the one being challenged and tested throughout the series. But at some point when Kagome constantly saves Kikyo, always has to “learn to respect Inuyasha and Kikyo’s past” and we don’t get a single scene where Kikyo does the same for Kagome, it feels very unbalanced. Some people will argue that Kikyo is the mature one because she “stopped trying to interfere with inukag and just minded her business” but.... not actively causing harm is just the bare minimum and ignoring the harm that you’ve already caused is not a sign of growth or maturity, in my opinion. It’s also easier for Kikyo to “get over” the negative feelings she initially had for Kagome, when Kagome has been nothing but kind to her from the beginning. 

People also sometimes try to argue that Kikyo helped Kagome by giving her an arrow to fight Naraku when they were looking for the last shikon jewel shard, but she only did that because she was weak (after almost getting killed by Naraku on Mt. Hakurei) so she couldn’t go fight Naraku herself. Or people argue that she helped Kagome by giving her the bow from Mt. Azusa... when really all she did was give her the directions to get it, and then she died so she wasn’t going to use the bow anyway. 

I don’t even care about Sesshomaru, but I can recognize that he “redeemed” himself better than Kikyo did. He tried to kill Kagome twice at the beginning of the series, but then he directly saved her life twice later on. He constantly tried to fight Inuyasha to steal Tessaiga from him, but at the end he willingly broke Tensaiga to give Inuyasha meido zangetsuha. He’s not a good person at the end of the series, but his wrongdoings are balanced by acts of “good” that directly benefit the main people that he wronged before. 

I feel like Rumiko’s mindset towards Kikyo is that, well, Kikyo is the one who objectively suffered the most, she is doomed to a tragic fate while Kagome is the “lucky” one for being alive, and she wasn’t a bad person before being resurrected as a vengeful revenant, so that means she doesn’t need a redemption arc. But I disagree with that mindset because good people can do bad things and still need to redeem themselves for it. Just look at how Sango apologized for stealing Tessaiga from Inuyasha, and how she apologized to Rin for almost killing her (AND risked her own life by giving her poison mask to Rin to make up for it). 

Also causing hurt to other people because you’ve been hurt is wrong, even if it’s something we can empathize with. Again, Sango is a good example because she suffered a lot too but she doesn’t use that to excuse her wrongdoings. Or Inuyasha, when he transformed into a full demon and slaughtered a bunch of human bandits, he immediately tried to prevent that from happening again by working on mastering Tessaiga. Kikyo “wasn’t really herself” when she was first revived, but neither was Inuyasha when he transformed, and that didn’t stop him from taking accountability for his actions. 

I don’t think Kikyo needed to explicitly say “I’m sorry” to Kagome, but any positive actions towards her would have been welcome. I also feel the same about Koga, but since Koga’s character is not very important to the overall story and he’s mostly treated as comic relief, I’m not as annoyed by it. I’m more bothered by Kikyo because I think she’s extremely interesting as a character and if Rumiko had tried less to make her look good, she would have ended up being a better character.

[destinationtoast]

first thoughts on Ted Lasso s03e05

(I had to watch it without captions, so I missed a lot. hoping to watch again with captions later.)

I'm pretty displeased with the Shandy storyline. I had so many fun backstories in mind for the two of them from back when they were roommates, and so many directions their current relationship could go... but that was far more boring and annoying an outcome than anything I'd considered.

Roy's description of breaking into a bedroom and beating someone seems way too premeditated for how we've ever seen Roy's anger work. (It's also very dark, but I have no problem with dark. it just doesn't seem like the right kind of dark for Roy, imo.)

bullying doesn't usually happen when one kid loses his temper at another... that's two kids getting in a fight. maybe his teachers mischaracterized the incident, but if Henry's actually bullying, it's going to take more to get past it.

kind of weird that Richmond was all wins two episodes ago thanks to Zava, then all losses this episode in spite of Zava (but with no explanation of what changed, unless I missed it)... maybe it would have made more sense from a writing perspective to have him suddenly quit at the beginning of the episode, leading to their string of losses? The quitting was also so abrupt... I hope we find out later that Rupert bribed him to quit, or something -- but since they'd been losing anyway, it's not like that seemed necessary.

It was entertaining to see the coaches begging for Trent to give advice, but I wish he'd been able to actually join in a little more then instead of just immediately getting shot down.

I didn't buy the turnaround of Jade starting to feel sympathy toward Nate. She never stopped smirking at him (and her boss offering him the best service made no difference to how she treated him), so I fully expected her to keep smirking when his date walked out on him.

I still hate the psychic storyline. I am happy for more time spent on Rebecca, but not this. (I'm also allergic to fertility storylines, but i don't object to that in the same way as the dumb psychic storyline.) Less staring at green matchbooks and running into exes just so someone can say a random line from the psychic, please... more interactions with other characters we care about!

omg Man City... I'm gonna need SO MUCH more fic about young Beard and Ted!! :D

I'm super into Keeley and Jack, and the way that they hooked up. I still am going to fantastize about Keeley getting her footballer threesomes, but now she has a girlfriend, too. XD (Can't see Jack hooking up with either Roy or Jamie, lol)

I'm going to be annoyed if we never get any further discussion of what exactly went down between Roy and Keeley when they broke up.

definitely my least favorite episode of this season, but it had a couple very bright spots.

[mystery-star]

Whumptober 2023 – Day 26 | “You look awful.”

Characters: Cort, Ellen

Words: 755

 Warnings: mentions of violence and death

A/N: Day 26 for Whumptober, today’s prompt: "You look awful.”

-

At some point Cort had lost track of how many days he had spent in the ‘care’ of Herod and his men, and that even before they reached Redemption. One beating followed the other and same with humiliating remarks. Once in the town the days had been a bit more structured but in his opinion he was treated even more cruelly each day. When he’d learnt that the man who wanted to see him wasn’t really one of his enemies that wanted to kill him he didn’t know if he was glad it was Herod instead. No, in fact he soon found Herod was worse because anyone else might have just hurt him even more and then killed him but Herod had so much more planned for him. Like making him join he contest and hurt or even kill people and then treating him like a hero for doing it. Or trying to remind him of the ‘good old times’ that he wanted to forget and live a better life. Right now he didn’t even know if he could ever go back to being a priest. And if he did, definitely not in Hermosillo again, fearing that maybe the people there had learnt who he had once been. And he needed to start over anyways so it didn’t matter if he went looking for a new place.

Somehow, a part of him wouldn’t even have cared if he died at some point in the contest. At least then it would all be over and he wouldn’t need to figure out what he could do afterwards that he wanted to do and was something he could do because his consciousness allowed it. However, things had started to look slightly better when Ellen, who seemed to be his only friend in that godforsaken town, had approached him with a plan to get rid of Herod once and for all. Not that he truly approved of killing him but he knew that it might be better to kill Herod than letting even more people die due to him. But the hope of the plan was only short-lasting because after the ‘staged’ duel with Ellen, Ratsy, one of Herod’s henchmen, thought it necessary to beat him up even more and harder than the days before and had even broken his hand. But when Herod killed him the next day for ‘ruining’ the contest Cort couldn’t say if he felt gleeful about his death or not. Maybe a little. He also was much aware that even though his old friend and mentor offered him a fair fight it would not in fact be fair. But it didn’t matter because after all he and Ellen had planned something on their own as well. And a part of him even didn’t feel too bad when half of the town was blown up, thinking maybe the people did deserve it a little. If only to be shaken up and shown that the way they behaved was not the best. After Ellen had shot Herod, the applause and joy Cort had expected from the townspeople didn’t come. At least not right away. She picked up something from the ground, tossing it in his direction.

“The law has come back to town” she stated and Cort looked at the object, wiping some dust off it. A Marshal’s badge. It seemed like the item weighed a ton in his hand or more the responsibility that went with the badge if he was to decide he wanted it. “And you should get something done about your face. You look awful” she said, mounted up and then led the horse out of town. Only now the cheers from the townsfolk started, applauding Ellen and looking after her as she rode out of town. But Cort’s eyes were still fixed on that Marshal’s badge in his hand, not sure if he deserved the duty. Or even wanted it, considering how these people had treated him the past days. Sure, no one helping him might have also had to do with their fear of Herod but actually mocking or hurting him too despite having no quarrel with him? Slowly he looked around the town, looking into happy faces wherever his gaze went. Slowly, people came over, slapping his shoulder, touching his arm, congratulating him on the job or asking if he had a place to stay. Cort even managed a little smile as he firmly held onto the badge in his hand. The town really deserved a chance of redemption.

[thedragonagelesbian]

SO my ideal version of dragon age: asunder would go something like this:

Rather than having Wynne reveal midway through that she was sent by the divine to create an opening for reforming the circle, have it be established from the beginning as the main driver of the novel’s plot.

I get why it’s played the way it is in the book, because none of the point of view characters have any reason to know this in advance, and Wynne has no reason to reveal it any earlier, but. For me personally, it is the single most interesting thing in the entire damn book.

It is the ONLY alternative to the war that’s been brewing for the last three years. The only thing that can prevent the inevitable and that is in and of itself doomed to failure.

It opens up a lot more opportunities for AGENCY, something the current book and its most favorite boys are sorely lacking. And it highlights the tension between individual agency working against and within systems of oppression that are unfathomably large and obstinate

Imagine the political machinations, the Orlesian court drama, the tragedy of it all as our main character comes to realize that there is no other way forward because the templars will never concede.

Move up the Seekers of Truth and the Templar Order breaking away from the Chantry. I actually like a lot of how Lambert is written (minus the Black Divine shit), and the fight between the templars and the first enchanters is one of my favorite parts of the whole book. But in keeping with wanting the plot to hinge around the tension between the Divine and the Order, I want their separation from the Chantry to happen earlier, rather than being solely a reaction to White Spire.

Also more templars than just Evangeline should break with the order.

No more Wynne society has progressed past the need for Wynne.

Our new protag is a spy/instigator within the Loyalist fraternity. Her true beliefs on the Circle are known only to a few (such as Leliana), and she and Adrian have a VERY homoerotic rivalry until protag’s deception is revealed. Adrian helps her see that the reforms she’s been secretly advocating and fighting for won’t actually change anything, and then they kiss about it.

I dunno how much of Cole/the ghost of White Spire plotline I’d keep either... I’m usually never one to turn down a Weird Magic B Plot, but I’m much more mixed on Mr. Mind-Reading Objective Arbitrator of Morality and Hating Adrian.

He also has the Rhys thing of his entry point into the plot being SO dependent on his interpersonal relationships (namely, his affection for rhys) that it precludes more expressly political or ideological engagements & investments

Which is fine as a character flaw (hi hello varric tethras lover here) but should be treated & explored as such

If BioWare is holding me at gunpoint, Rhys and Evangeline can still be there i guess but they’d be a couple at the start of the story with a lot more attention given to how they navigate that relationship secretly within the Circle

Some of the Pharamond plot can stay, but it definitely feels like Gaider took the carnage at Adamant as far as possible just to have some hope of lending credence to the templars’ existence.

It’s not that Pharamond’s experiments CAN’T have unwanted and deadly side effects, particularly given the nature of magic in this world, but like... fucking reign it in my guy.

Also someone shows him love and care and gives him a chance to recover because JFC his story is so dark and often outright cruel

I think other than that, the story beats would stay more or less the same.

A lot of these aren’t fixes for problems per se but ways to tailor the narrative to cater to me specifically, but... The main thing that drew me to reading Asunder in the first place WAS the political backdrop. I wanted to learn more about the balance of power in Thedas pre-Inquisition and what, if anything, people in power were doing about the Circles before the start of the war. There are glimmers throughout Asunder of a novel that is much more interested in the play of power and politics (and actually SAYING something about power and politics beyond ‘but sometimes ppl fighting to change things BAD’). As a protagonist, Rhys stymies the parts of the book that I found most interesting.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

The End of Year Movie Roundup You Didn't Know You Wanted (And Don't)

Crikey Mc Crikington IV! It’s been an interesting couple of years in the world of movies and TV, hasn’t it? Ever since 2016, it’s felt like good movies and TV shows are rare gems bobbing around in a sea of filth, never getting the attention they deserve and then disappearing back into the undifferentiated swill of garbage. It’s not that good stuff hasn’t been getting made- it’s just that it’s been struggling in a landscape dominated by absolute, reeking arse. But since, ooh, the latter part of 2022 to now, things feel a bit different, don’t they? It seems like the good stuff has been gaining ground; that- for a change- neither the alt-right, froth-mouthed dicks or the woke-washed virtue-signalling shitheads are winning the culture war. Instead, actual culture seems to be winning. Fancy fucking that. Of course, when I say ‘culture’, I don’t necessarily mean high culture. Nope. I’m talkin’ ‘bout that sweeeeet pop and pulp culture, y’all! Of course, there’s been a fair amount of blithering crap, too, but with the companies that push it (mainly Disney) haemorrhaging money like someone stabbed a bank, most of it feels increasingly irrelevant. So, I’m going to use this blog to deliver capsule reviews of the things that- to me- exemplify the best of last couple of years of pop culture, meaning some cack will make it into the mix. They’re not in chronological order or anything, by the way (though I have stuck the films ahead of the TV series). They’re just in the order that I felt like writing about them. Oh, boohoo, cry me a fucking river- it’s not like you pay for this shit.

John Wick Chapter 4 You’d think watching Keanu Reeves get thrown down stairs and off tall objects would eventually get old but, for some reason, it really, really doesn’t. The John Wick films are truly excellent pieces of cinema and have been from the start. Aside from being incredibly satisfying, violent, gritty revenge movies with fight choreography that would give Ghandi a hardon, they’re also beautiful, intricate exercises in subtle, intelligent world-building in which just a few key words or phrases- or a carefully-selected symbolic object- can pack an enormous amount of information into a few seconds. Oh, and they’re contemplations on the nature of honour and consequences that somehow transcend and act as a comment upon the genre of their birth without ever feeling like a trite condemnation or deconstruction of it. The fourth part does an excellent job of tying the series-thus-far together and providing a meaningful conclusion, which also happens to come loaded with some of the most brilliantly inventive action sequences of any movie from the past fifty years, a sound-track to die for and set-dressing to fucking drool over. No, it won’t be the last one of these- the films make too much money to just bury after four, despite the very final ending- but I appreciate that the movie treats itself as a finale and actually pays off and ties up all the storylines we’ve so far encountered. It’s nice to see a movie that acts like a movie rather than a mere episode of something; that has the panache to commit to the pretence of to its own myth-making. Easily one of my favourite flicks for a good, long time.

Smile Have I reviewed this before? I don’t remember or care: it’s so good, I’ll happily tell you how good it is a million times! In horror films, mental illness is very often the seasoning on a big plate of terrifying shizz, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it used as effectively as it is here, with the main character understanding from the get-go that the supernatural horror she’s experiencing mimicks a mental breakdown and tailoring her responses and survival strategies accordingly. Meanwhile, the unnamed entity manipulates perception and its victim’s psychopathology in a way that’s clearly designed to eat away at her sense of reality while also making other people think she’s crazy and alienating her from her support network. The result is a tense, terrifying cat-and-mouse game between an intelligent, adaptable protagonist with wits and an actual, physical body on their side and an unknowable, awful entity with absolute power over their perception of reality but no corporeal form with which to threaten them. The threat feels plausible and horrifying, but we- as viewers- never become inured to it, because it also seems surmountable: we don’t just switch off and accept the lead character’s fate (a problem with a lot of horror movies) because there is a chance of survival, and we feel that right from the off. The body-horror reveal of the monster’s true form (or, at least, the form it chooses to project during the final stages of its assault) is spectacular, gripping and shit-your-pants scary. Seriously, this film won’t just have made money for cinemas: it will have saved countless laundromats and dry-cleaners from going out of business. It’s trouser-ruiningly good. If you need to be scared out of your tiny mind at short notice, I can whole-heartedly recommend Smile.

Luther: The Fallen Sun Fuckin’ Nora, Idris, do you want some mash to go with this absolute banger of a movie? I found out after watching it that this flick got mediocre reviews and that really only serves to demonstrate that most film critics couldn’t find their arses with a state-of-the-art laser-guided arse-finding system. I suspect that the problem most critics had is that they went in expecting a police procedural and got a neo-noir thriller in which the method of investigation is less important than the spectacular nature of the crime, the heroism of the protagonist and the character of the setting. This is a slick, stylish little movie, polished until it slightly outshines most supernovas. It’s set predominantly in a version of London that feels less like the modern world and more like the city in the grip of the Crays- its like a parallel universe where the tropes and aesthetic preoccupations of the Diamond Geezer era never went away and instead evolved alongside technology. That was also the original Luther series, of course, so you’d think people would know what to expect, but it’s been awhile since that aired and modern critics and audiences apparently have the memory spans of fucking grasshoppers. Now, to return to the point: style, an interesting world, a compellingly psychotic villain and the presence of Idris Elba all make this a good film, but the reason it’s a great film is much more basic: it actually makes you feel things. It depresses me that the bar has sunk that low in recent years, since movies purport to be art and the whole point of art is to make you feel stuff, but very few modern movies have engaged me like Luther, which absolutely nails its pacing, scripting and acting to produce something that hits right in the soul. Without spoiling anything, there’s a bit involving a room filling with gasoline while a filament slowly heats up to ignition-temperature… and halfway through, I realised my heart was racing, my palms were starting to sweat and I was clenching my teeth, desperately hoping that the two characters trapped inside would make it out alright- even though I’d spent most of the movie wanting to slap one of them. I’ve seen movies with clashing armies and exploding planets that felt less epic. A truly well-crafted movie can do more with a single lit fuse than a standard-issue flick can achieve with an entire fireworks display. And that’s why you ought to see this movie.

If you’ll permit me to go a bit meta before we move on, this is also the thing I’ve been begging for since the BBC ruined Doctor Who and deprived me of a lead in the mainstream media I could relate to and root for. I mean, I know Doctor Who's good again now anyway, but I appreciate this too. We’ve got a British hero who thinks his way around problems and displays a laudable- even noble- version of masculinity that’s been missing from screens for a really long time (and he gets to be the hero right up until the end- there’s no fucking bait-and-switch bullshit here). We’ve got a world that’s sufficiently different from the real world to be worth exploring. We’ve got absolutely zero virtual-signalling impinging on the plot and characterisation. And that’s it. This is literally all I fucking wanted. Not so fucking hard, was it, mainstream media? Why the fuck did I have to wait so fucking long?

Oppenheimer And now, ladies and gentlemen, we come to a piece of cinema so glorious- so beautifully-crafted and intricate and meaningful- that I have absolutely no hesitation in calling it the best movie of the decade. I also have no hesitation in calling it ‘Boppenheimer’, because it is an absolute fucking bop and I’ll fight anyone who says different. Folks, if this movie is still playing at a cinema near you, go and see it. If it’s not, find some other way to see it. This isn’t just the height of Christopher Nolan’s movie-making career- the apotheosis of his talents and a showcase for the amazing actors he can attract- it’s also a true cultural moment: something that everyone should share in and appreciate together. It’s hard to describe what makes this film so fucking good, but you know what? I’m going to have a crack at it! Ostensibly, it’s a retelling of the invention of the atomic bomb and the aftermath of its first detonations in a theatre of war. But it’s so, so much more. It’s a character study reflecting on the motives, flaws and redemptive qualities of a Jewish man terrified that Nazi Germany would unlock the power of the atom before the allies. It’s a reappraisal of this man- who has oft been condemned for bringing such an evil invention into the world- recognising that he was a pawn of much darker forces doing what little he could do to spare the world yet greater evils. It’s an exposé of the way the US government of the time exploited and then tossed aside the nation’s brightest minds; using their insight and intellectual labour but refusing to listen to their dire warnings about the misuse of the power they were developing. It’s a study of the prejudices and flawed relations that characterised life in the 1940s and 50s. It’s a deep dive into the workings of the mid-20th Century scientific community. It is, quite simply, brilliant. From its visualisation of atomic physics to the ingenious ways it finds to show Oppenheimer’s doubt and guilt over the use of his weapon, Oppenheimer is a once-in-a-generation piece of media whose import and significance can’t and shouldn’t be denied. I thoroughly expect it to take its place in the western cinematic canon alongside Citizen Kane, Doctor Strangelove, The Seventh Seal, Alien, The Truman Show and other lightning-in-a-bottle one-offs whose existence could never have been conceived before they came screaming into existence with the swagger of inevitability and- appropriately in this case- the explosive roar of sheer newness.

Er… I really like this film.

Slumberland And now, a family film! A fucking excellent family film, in fact! Loosely based on the Little Nemo in Slumberland comic strips from the 1930s (and I do mean loosely), it’s a movie about a troubled young girl dealing with tragedy by escaping into a very literal world of dreams, which ultimately serves as the route and method by which she forges new, meaningful connections in the waking world. And if that sounds a little heavy, don’t panic: there’s also a scene in which we learn that the most popular dream in Canada involves riding a giant goose like a fucking dragon. I don’t want to spoil too much of this one, because every dream sequence and plot-point is delightfully inventive and unexpected and really deserves to be experienced fresh. It’s rare to stumble onto something so thoroughly and completely charming and it’s always refreshing when you do. Slumberland handles important themes with a lightness and dextrousness that makes them accessible and comprehensible to the younger members of its audience while keeping its world and plot vital and interesting for older viewers who might already have had their fill of such themes. Normally, I’d deduct points for gender-flipping the main character from the source material, but on this occasion it’s a bit of a non-issue. The Nemo of the comics was a bit of cipher and- if you really need him to be in it, it’s kind of heavily implied that this Nemo’s father was the original. Besides which, Jason Mamoa’s over-exuberant dream-dweller, ‘Flip’, provides a sympathetic masculine presence for any young lads in the audience and he gets nearly as much screen time as the ostensible POV character. So, having addressed the elephant in the room, all that remains to say is: THIS IS A VERY FUCKING GOOD FAMILY FILM. Though maybe not quite as good as…

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Excuse me, but what fucking right does this film have to be as good as it is? I mean, it’s a spin-off of a minor character from the Shrek films about a talking cat going on a quest to find a magic star that grants wishes. Why the fuck is it one of the best things I’ve seen in years? I mean, on the surface, it’s just a really fun family flick. It’s funny; its set-pieces are creative; its characters are entertaining and larger than life; its animation style is fresh and frankly enchanting. But then it also decided that it wanted to be a meditation on confronting the ageing process and its implied threat of mortality. And it fucking nails it. It’s not prescriptive or lecturing: it sympathises with Puss’s fears as he realises he’s used up all but one of his nine lives… but it ultimately shows that his increasing age doesn’t have to define him. Add a few quiet, tender moments of the kind often missing from the hyperactive movies of the last few years, a wonderfully psychotic villain and a B-plot about the value of found families, bonded by love rather than blood, and what you have is a truly excellent slice of entertainment that wears its heart on its sleeve and, in a landscape littered with insincere corporate garbage, is remarkable for its sincerity.

A Haunting in Venice Okay, brutal honesty time: Kenneth Brannaugh (who I just misspelled) isn’t as good in the role of Poirot as David Suchet was. However, it feels unfair to judge him or his take on Agatha Christie’s classic mysteries by that metric, since Suchet’s Poirot was a spectacular, long-running, genre-defining figure who probably won’t be equalled in televised detection fiction any time this millennium. Judged on its own merits, A Haunting in Venice is a deliciously intricate, intelligently-realised film which succeeds in saying something new about its central character and doing something new with its genre. Loosely based on Christie’s The Halloween Party, A Haunting in Venice takes on the overtones of a horror story and pits Poirot against forces that may be genuinely supernatural in a setting and world that embraces gothic aesthetics and conceits as much as it does those of the detective-genre. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will see that A Haunting in Venice finds just the right balance between horror and rationality and toys with ambiguity in a way that a lot of modern movies- keen to over-explain things to an imagined audience of thickos- might miss. It also knows how to treat its subject matter with sobriety when it counts without sacrificing an overall sense of playfulness.

A final note: its predecessor, Death on the Nile, was probably the weakest of the Brannaugh trilogy (and Venice does feel like the final entry in a trilogy), despite the welcome presence of Dawn French as an eccentric communist lesbian. Death on the Nile made its Poirot a little too prickly and unforgiving and also had him reflect Christie’s real-life conservative-with-a-small-c politics, which (though confined to one or two lines) made for uncomfortable viewing at best. While I understand the intention was to contrast him against characters who today’s viewers would find more relatable, it served to rob the protagonist of some of his wisdom and mystery (Poirot needn’t be a paragon of progressivism- in fact, that would be just as bad- but he ought to be above such things; a rarefied figure concerned less with politics than his own moral imperatives). Luckily, Venice seems to have learned from these mistakes and eschews even minor forays into politics, preferring instead to focus on character drama and a battle between rationality and magical thinking to generate its various tensions. Yeah. Good choice.

Peacemaker That more or less does it for the films (well, the good films- the dreck will get their own blog at some point), but there’s still a couple of telly shows I want to talk about. Starting with this one! Peacemaker is one of the funniest, most over-the-top shows of the last ten years. Billed as a superhero program, it’s really more a comedy and ode to schlocky pop culture framed that uses a superhero story as a framing device. While it also has some important and timely things to say about the threat of climate crisis and ends on a bit of a downer (which I won’t spoil), the overall experience is one of hilarious, ludicrous, over-the-top scenes punctuated by some of the best heavy rock ever used in any show’s soundtrack and a lot of down-time devoted exclusively to really, really funny dialogue. If you liked Archer but felt it could benefit from more heavy metal interludes, the comedy here is very much in the same style: people talking at cross-purposes in a way that leverages their clashing belief systems, background and mental illnesses for comic effect. Ultimately, as with Archer, its acerbic tartness also serves as cover for a heart of gold. There’s no meanness of spirit or coldness to Peacemaker. If anything, I’d describe its approach to characterisation as joyously redemptive, while its overt inclusivity isn’t the clinical box-ticking of most Hollywood ‘diversity’, but rather seems to stem from an all-embracing, eclectic fascination with the way human beings are shaped by background and divergent life-experiences. It’s really, really good to see this done well for a change.

Oh, and there’s bits that are also a bit sexy.

One Piece I never got round to watching the original One Piece anime, despite my abiding affection for Japanese animation. That wasn’t a deliberate thing- there was just always something else to watch first. As it turns out, that was a stroke of luck, since I now get to watch the English-language, live-action adaptation fresh and it’s a fucking delight. It’s also so profoundly weird that I have no idea how to explain why it’s so good to a normal, sane reader. Between the violently revolutionary fish people, the murder-clowns with detachable body parts, the fruits that give you superpowers, the badass martial-arts chefs arguing over oregano, the sexy, plus-sized pirate queens, the sea-snails that act like living telephones and the high-ranking military leaders with very silly hats, it’s kind of hard to know where to start. What I can tell you is that the whole world of One Piece is absolutely fascinating: a nautical civilisation of a thousand islands whose technology seems to have evolved in such a way that sail-based ship-travel, gunpowder cannons and neon lights are all in use at the same time; where traditional aristocratic societies coexist with violent samurai clans; where piracy is less a crime than a lifestyle choice. I can tell you its characters are compelling and ridiculous… yet also compellingly, sincerely heroic in a way that western-origin protagonists are rarely allowed to be, lest the show-runners be accused of reinscribing toxic ideals. I can tell you that the fight scenes are epic and the special effects regard little things like physics with a magnificent degree of contempt. And, of course, I can tell you that it’s bloody good fun.

Doctor Who 2023 Specials After a shaky start with The Star Beast (which kinda felt like the first draft of a better script to me- see my full review) the Who specials shaped up to be some of the best telly in years- high concept sci-fi and cosmic horror seen through the lens of off-beat humour and silliness that my home country still does better than anywhere else. After the wilderness of the Chibnall/Whitaker years, the specials felt like getting Doctor Who back as an early Xmas present. I won’t go on and on here since I’ve written several full reviews for the individual episodes, but I feel it’s important to state again my delight that this exists.

And that’s probably enough to be getting on with, don’t you think? Well, guess what: you don’t get a vote! This is the end of the blog whether you like it or not. You can piss off now.

[animeisokaysometimes]

As of today 10/17/2022 I am officially caught up on One Piece. Been slowly working my way through - a couple chapters a day - for the past few months, and I have finally read all up through chapter 1063.

Gotta say, one of the biggest and most appreciated parts of reading through the whole thing was how fucking anarchist the manga gets in the second half. The frank discussions of how the government utilizes systemic power to enforce (often racialized) hierarchies of power that hold down the lowest of people in the world and prop up a small minority of rich asshats was definitely appreciated. Anarchist Oda-sensei was not expected but was definitely appreciated.

Anyway I’m here to give my ranking of all the straw hat pirates based on my own 100% objective opinions

1. Luffy. Going into this I was expecting him to just be the stereotype of dumb shonen protagonist, and he kind of is, but he’s also so much more. Both in his literal being, with his belief in fighting for freedom, and in him as a story element, with him being a symbol of hope and rebellion and being able to accomplish near anything if you have the strength of will to fight for it. Luffy grew on me real hard through the whole thing.

2. Robin. I love Robin. I admit, part of it is probably how tied she is into the search for the poneglyphs, a plot thread I’m really interested in, but as a character she’s so interesting. I just love seeing her happy with the other members of the crew. And I love me a good enemies-to-friends arc. And the moment she finally asks the rest of the crew for help, so she can continue to have the will to live on, is absolutely beautiful.

3. Usopp. Love this silly little guy. His pre-timeskip to post-timeskip arc of being a coward to learning to stand up for himself and being this ripped strongman, to revealing that, yeah, he’s still a coward in his heart of hearts, has been a super fun ride to go along with. And his post-timeskip design is pretty hot, gotta say

4. Nami. Honestly, Nami’s character is kind of just fine to me. I like it, but really I gotta say that so much of my love for Nami is tied into the arlong park arc. I feel like her moment of finally asking for help from the rest of the crew feels even more iconic than Robin’s. That said, I definitely think it’s worth discussing how Oda treats his female characters, with the sexualization of the way they’re drawn and their treatment in the crew. It’s disappointing, for sure. And there is a decent number of different body types among women - more than I was expecting - but of course, a lot of the not-idealized/sexualized body types are mostly just found in villains, so... that’s pretty disappointing.

5. Zoro. He’s super strong, his lack of sense of directions is hilarious, and he is absolutely way too serious to belong in this goofy-ass cartoon. But that’s just part of what makes him so great <3

6. Jinbe. I really like Jinbe! Obviously, we haven’t known him as long as the rest of the crew, and he’s only recently officially joined the crew, but man do I love his design and his sense of levity. He’s a good guy.

7. Franky. Honestly, for a little while after his introduction Franky was #1 on my favorites list. His bombastic personality was so good, and I loved that. Then the timeskip happened, and I just really do not like his post-timeskip design. Also, he’s taken a more backseat roll a lot post-timeskip it feels like, so his bombastic personality hasn’t had as much time to shine.

8. Sanji. I gotta say, I do NOT like the trope of “character who is just a horny pervert” that Sanji kind of falls into. Obviously there’s a lot more to him, and his struggle with his nature as a part of Germa has been really fun to read through. But I gotta knock him points for his perviness. Overall still love the character though

9. Chopper. Chopper is just not that interesting to me, I guess? He ends up taking a backseat a lot of the time, it feels like, so he doesn’t get as much time to shine lately, and the stuff with him making an antidote to Queen’s virus was cool, but that wasn’t really portrayed all that interestingly I guess. Love Chopper, for sure, but he’s just not as interesting to me

10. Brook. Love the skeleton puns, love the cool soul-control powers, love the ice-based swordsmanship that sets him apart from Zoro. Brook’s great. But he is also the worst example of the main cast of the horny pervert and I cannot say I appreciate that.

...

Special shoutouts go to:

- Yamato. I’m really disappointed Yamato isn’t joining the crew after the Wano arc, cause I really fell in love with his strong personality and recklessness, and his trans swag. I am definitely hoping he’s gonna come back and join the crew at some point in the future, but if we really are approaching the final arc(s) of One Piece, there may just not be time.

- Boa Hancock. Love the whole relationship between Luffy and Hancock. Hancock being so desperately in love with the one man who doesn’t immediately swoon at the sight of her, and Luffy just being the ace king he is, not caring at all about romance or sex. Love it.

- Sabo. Definitely feels... weird that he was introduced right after Ace’s death. Like, “oh no, Ace is dead, but WAIT - Luffy has ANOTHER brother!”, like Oda still needed Luffy to have family he cared about, but hadn’t thought that one through before Ace’s death. I do like Sabo a lot, just wish he’d been introduced earlier in pre-timeskip I guess.

[daydreamerdrew]

The Incredible Hulk (1968) #205