#james dante

[michaelnotwheeler]

ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT I FIRST NAMED MYSELF AFTER THIS GAYASS MF

AND THEN AND THEN-

I RENAMED MYSELF AFTER HIS FUCKING HOMOPHOBIC BULLY

WHAT THE FUCK IS LIFE EVEN

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things The Bully Review

Synopsis: It’s been a year since Troy had his arm broken by Eleven. Still struggling with nightmares over the encounter, Troy enlists James’s help as he attempts to prove that what happened to him was only a trick. However, as he becomes entangled in events beyond his control, he begins to realize he might be way in over his head........

Of all the tie-in comics, books, and graphic novels related to Stranger Things, this is by far my least favorite. I didn’t have high expectations when I first heard what the premise was going to be, and reading it did nothing to endear it to me.

I’ll say right now that the only thing I liked about this graphic novel was the artwork and coloring. This is by the same team that did Stranger Things Zombie Boys and Stranger Things Erica the Great, and it looks amazing. Sadly, that’s all it has going for it because the story, and the main character they chose to focus on, ends up bringing this down.

This will be a short review because there isn’t a lot to talk about. Nothing that takes place here will likely play any important role in season 5, and it's seriously doubtful the Duffer Brothers are bringing back Troy and James for the final season.

The entire time I was reading, there was one persistent thought going through my head: What is the point of this?

I get the comics, graphic novels, and books are meant to expand the world of Stranger Things and flesh-out aspects and characters that the show didn’t have time to focus on, but this particular instance felt pointless and time-consuming. Troy and James are not characters that have appeared since season 1, and they’ve had absolutely no role in driving the plot forward since that time. They were just there to exist as stock bullies who made the main characters lives a living hell (similar to Angela and her ilk from season 4). Once they served their purpose (and got a humiliating comeuppance for their behavior), there was no need for them to be on the show anymore.

So you’d think if they were going to bring those particular characters back, they’d do something meaningful with them. Unfortunately, they don’t.

The story is set during season 2, with the major difference being we get to see it from Troy’s perspective as he witnesses key events: Will getting bullied on Halloween Night and (unbeknownst to Troy) hallucinating the Mind Flayer, the pollywogs, the rotten pumpkin patch, the demodogs attack in the junkyard, and so on. Troy and James basically act as observers during all of this.

It’s a similar premise to the Stranger Things Summer Special comic that came out last year: It rehashes the events of a certain season, except they stick in unimportant side characters who coincidentally happened to be there when those events were taking place. The difference is the Summer Special focused on Officers Callahan and Powell and was set during season 3.

Like Callahan and Powell in the Summer Special, Troy and James don't have a purpose here. You could cut all of their scenes in The Bully, and it would have no impact on the overall plot of season 2.

It doesn't help that Troy is extremely unlikable during all of this. If you despised him in season 1, you're not going to think any better of him here. He spends most of the story being an asshole, continues to harass Mike and his friends (and at one point is about to slash their bike tires out of sheer spite), throws rocks at squirrels because he can, and repeatedly treats James like shit (to the point James starts to get fed up with him).

They try to give Troy a Freudian Excuse in the form of his parents (similar to what they did with Billy on the show) with Troy's mom being a Karen and Troy's dad being one of those "Don't Apologize, It Shows Weakness" type of guys. However, it still doesn't do anything to make Troy likeable because the problem is Troy doesn't have any other redeeming qualities to fall back on. He's still a bully, and whatever measly attempts there are to make him look sympathetic fall flat. I remember this was discussed on the Stranger Things TV Tropes page at one point when someone tried to put Troy in the "Unintentionally Sympathetic" category, rationalizing that it's hard not to feel bad for him even if he's irredeemable, to which other users pointed out that since Troy is irredeemable, he isn't sympathetic.

The ending is where the graphic novel completely falls apart. Long story short, Troy and James end up near the same junkyard the night Steve is fighting off the demodogs to protect Dustin, Lucas, and Max on the bus. Despite James's meek suggestion that maybe they should go help Steve and the others (bonus points for that I guess?), Troy flat-out refuses. Both Troy and James later get chased by demodogs, and James ends up tripping and falling down as one of the demodogs closes in on him. Troy initially looks like he's going to help James, but chooses to save his own skin instead. Just when the demodogs are about to attack them, the Mind Flayer calls them back to raid Hawkins Lab. In the aftermath, Troy begins berating James again, and James finally reaches his limit with Troy, gives him a scathing "Reason You Suck" speech, and leaves. The next day, just before Troy is set to move out of Hawkins with his parents (because his dad lost his job), he goes to apologize to James and they briefly reconcile before Troy heads out.

Putting aside how the ending glosses over the severity of Troy leaving James to the mercy of the demodogs and expecting us to buy that James would ever want to be his friend again after that, the biggest problem is the moment doesn't feel earned. You can't spend 99% of a story having your main character be this awful, have him do the bare minimum to make up for it, and still expect the readers to care about him.

It doesn't help that this small, pathetic reconciliation Troy has with James doesn’t address the issues audiences had with Troy in the first place. Fans were angry and disgusted with him because of things he'd done on the show: Bullying Mike and his friends, making homophobic (and in Lucas's case, racist) remarks towards them, mocking Will's death when it supposedly happened, and threatening to cut out Dustin's teeth with a knife if Mike didn't walk off a cliff that would have inevitably led to Mike's death had El not intervened. They made Troy too much of a Hate Sink to the point it's borderline impossible to make him redeemable, and this graphic novel does nothing to alleviate that.

If Troy's story had been about realizing how awful of a person he'd become and making a genuine attempt to atone for his treatment of the Party, from apologizing to them to putting in the hard effort of making amends and maybe even trying to become their friends (similar to the arc Steve had in the first 2 seasons), that would be one thing. I don't know how many people would have bought it or cared, but there would have at least been a purpose in that. It would have given Troy some much needed character development, and it would have added depth to a character who was pretty one-dimensional to begin with. But the way it's done here doesn't work. It also doesn't help that other comics (like Zombie Boys and Dungeons and Dragons) demonstrate that Troy really hasn't changed and is still the same bully he's always been:

Imagine if they came out with a comic or graphic novel centered around Angela from season 4 that had Angela continue to be a vicious bully to others (even after El smashed her face in with a roller-skate), gave her a flimsy sob story to justify her cruel behavior (which would do absolutely nothing to make her look sympathetic), enlisted her friends to get revenge on El by following her all the way to Hawkins, consistently treated her boyfriend Jake like shit during all of this, ran afoul of Vecna's monsters by chance and proceeded to abandon her friends to save herself like the coward she is, and then offered a measly "I'm sorry" to them later which would get treated as a heartwarming moment. All the while, Angela would have no further role in the show and wouldn't ever appear in season 5.

Would anyone care about this story? Would there be any point to this? Would it change anything about how awful of a person Angela is?

If your answer to these questions is a resounding NO, then you can understand the issues I have with The Bully.

I wouldn't recommend this graphic novel. It's a shame because, as I said before, the artwork and coloring is pretty, but that arguably makes it worse. At least with the Summer Special starring Officers Callahan and Powell, it was a one-shot comic that's currently available on Kindle for a low price. This graphic novel clearly had effort put into it, it's pretty pricey to buy, and the result only highlights just how mediocre and inconsequential it is.

And to be clear: I've liked other graphic novels Greg Pak has written (Zombie Boys is one of my favorites). I don't know if this was a story he decided to write, or if it was mandated from the higher-ups at Netflix and/or Dark Horse, but either way, it's a major miss.

[merryhaze]

‘the poem ends, soft as it began-‘ Chapter One: on the very moment all was lost

“Saturday, November 12th, 1983

“Dentist’s office opens in five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!”

For a split-second there’s only the cold pressure on his throat, his voice screaming Mike’s name, and the swooping sick feeling of being flung from a cliff far higher than the one Mike is going to leap from.

Then Mike disappears with a yelp, and there’s nothing at all.”

Chapter One found here on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45858634/chapters/115412002

Playlist:

[justawanderingfan]

Screw canon they’re all bisexual (to me)

[thesoldiersminute]

THE SOPRANOS Season 5 | Episode 13 "All Due Respect"

[diioonysus]

flowers + art

[texaschainsawmascara]

[laugier]

[natlacentral]

avatarnetflix: is a firebender in here or is it just the cast of avatar: the last airbender at the premiere 🔥🔥🔥

[cinnamorollbf]

rwrb + @poems-of-a-lover's text posts

[lascitasdelashoras]

John Sokol: Retratos de autores en sus propias palabras.

George Bernard Shaw: "El camino del héroe"

James Joyce: "Ulises"

Robert Lowell: "History"

William Faulkner: "El sonido y la furia"

Robert Penn Warren : "Audubon"

James Tate: "Riven Doggeries"

John Keats: "Lamia"

Walt Whitman: "Hojas de hierba"

Eudora Welty: "Powerhouse"

Henrik Ibsen: "Hedda Gabler"

Dante Alighieri: "Infierno"

Jorge Luis Borges: "El milagro secreto"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Salmos de vida"

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things Zombie Boys Review

Synopsis: It’s been a year since Will disappeared and was rescued from the Upside Down. Now he and his friends are attempting to adjust back to normal with little success. Will is struggling with PTSD, and his friends are on-edge as they’re failing in school. At Mr. Clarke’s suggestion, they team up with a new transfer student named Joey Kim, an aspiring director, who encourages the Party to make a zombie movie for extra credit, as well as to help them come to terms with what happened the previous fall.......

Observations:

Unlike prior reviews, this one won’t be thick with theories and speculations about season 5. This is a stand-alone graphic novel that focuses on the trauma and internal issues the characters go through following the events of season 1. I appreciate this because, while I do like what season 2 did with its exploration of trauma and grief, there were aspects the show didn’t have time to fully flesh-out before they threw these characters into life threatening situations again. Having a story that goes more in-depth about their struggles (and does so in a mature way) is refreshing.

This graphic novel is written by Greg Pak. He would also go on to write for Stranger Things The Bully, the short story Erica’s Quest, Stranger Things Tomb of Ybwen, and Stranger Things Erica the Great!

The artwork for the graphic novel is beautiful. Hats off to Valeria Favoccia for the artwork, Dan Jackson for the coloring, Ron Chan for the cover art, and Nate Piekos for the lettering.

The idea of the Party making a Zombie Movie and drawing on past experiences to write their story and craft certain scenes was fantastic. There are plenty of people in real life who use creative outlets (writing, filmmaking, drawing, etc) to deal with personal stuff that’s happened in their lives, and I’m glad the graphic novel touches on that. Bonus points for showing some of Will’s drawings:

They do explore the issues other members of the Party are dealing with, but Will is at the center of the plot. At this point, he hasn’t really dealt with what happened to him in the Upside Down. His drawings, as well as his attempts to have Joey direct the film as a comedy, are a coping mechanism so that he doesn’t have to relive past trauma. There are parts of the graphic novel that are difficult to read because his friends have a hard time understanding where Will is coming from and why he treats the movie as a joke. It doesn’t help that, barring Will, none of them really want to talk about what happened.

But of course, making the zombie movie allows them to open up. Not only do they have fun doing so, but it also leads to a comforting scene towards the end:

Speaking of which, they introduce a new character named Joey Kim, who directs the Party in his Zombie film:

Joey falls into the category of “Characters who sadly weren’t on the show, but should have been” levels of cool.

Not only is he an aspiring director with a knowledge about how films are made (and whose mom works for Sony), but he manages to blend in well with the Party, and his friendship with them feels authentic. He’s empathetic towards Will, listens to Will’s creative input (even if he doesn’t always agree with it), and it’s heavily implied he isn’t just making the movie because it’s a fun idea, but because he’s trying to help Will deal with his issues:

On top of that, he’s one of the few characters who comes to Lucas’s defense when he’s targeted by Troy and James.....

.....and he genuinely listens to Lucas when Lucas worries about their film invoking the “Black Character Dies First” trope:

I wish he'd been on the show and became a permanent member of the Party. I love his character! 😊

Speaking of Lucas, they pretty much cement that while Troy and James frequently target the Party for bullying, their harassment of Lucas is racially motivated. From their slurs directed at Lucas, to this particularly nasty moment:

I know this isn’t the only time in the series Lucas has been targeted out of racism (*cough* Billy Hargrove *cough*), but for all the fans who repeatedly insist this isn’t something Lucas to deal with.....................YES IT IS! Even the novel Lucas on the Line goes in-depth about it, and provides Lucas with a first-person perspective about all the hateful bullshit he puts up with on a daily basis. To put it bluntly: I don’t have any patience for fans out there who either want to pretend Lucas hasn’t been subjected to bigotry, or who want to downplay/erase the racism that other characters on the show and in the comics/books have directed at Lucas.

I also like how they call back to Mike’s grief over losing El, and how Dustin (despite initially appearing to be adjusted) is also trying to sort out his own problems:

It’s sweet to see the Party bonding and continuing to reinforce their friendship. I love how the Zombie movie they made was a success, and how the graphic novel ends on an uplifting note:

Also, the makeup they used for Zombie Will and Zombie Mike was great 😅 :

Overall, this is a must-read. I enjoyed it, and it’s one of my personal favorites.

Side Note: I recently got a new phone that I’ve been using to get photos for these reviews, and I’m still figuring out how to use it. I know previous reviews I’ve done have had pictures/photos that appear sideways instead of upright, and I will be going back to fix those.

[llovelymoonn]

bloody love

caroline walker bynum women mystics and eucharistic devotion in the thirteenth century \\ via @dolcemania \\ aleksandra waliszewska \\ faiz ahmed faiz feel and listen (tr. sain sucha) (via @aridante) \\ bones and all (2022) dir. luca guadagnino (via @filedio) \\ james kirkup the love that dares to speak its name \\ via @sickthing​ \\ aleksandra waliszewska ernest hemingway the old man and the sea \\ greta waller el corazon [“the heart”] (2021) \\ nancy kuhl suspend (via @geryone) \\ nickie zimov a kiss \\ dante émile love song for two vampires

kofi

[crazy-together-cambria]

You ever reading a book and can like so clearly imagine a ship edit of the characters, but it unfortunately isn’t adapted into a movie?

[dr-milfi]

“Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while, a great wind carries me across the sky.”