#me seeing poorly written female characters; oh man you deserve better writing :(

[the-owl-tree]

i’ll never be able to hate female characters in warriors the way i hate male characters. characters like ivypool and asir!feathertail will always leave me wanting better narratives for them compared to characters like crowfeather and bramblestar in which my first gut reaction is i hope you die in the game and in real life

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

[dreadnought-dear-captain]

Bisexual Steve Rogers and Fandom Misogyny

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 33 OF BAGHDAD WALTZ AND FRANK DISCUSSION OF SEX

I received an interesting comment on this latest chapter of BW that got me thinking a bit about writing a bisexual character, as well as thoughts about misogyny in the fandom. Now, I’ll admit out the gate that this may be a troll comment, but I kind of suspected that I might get some kind of blowback for Steve sleeping with Sharon in this chapter, and I wanted to write something on this subject eventually. I figured it these comments would be more like “HOW DARE” or something of that nature. What I did NOT really expect was  something like “you fucked up, that was disgusting,” which was the nature of this particular comment on Ao3. And while I think the “HOW DARE” comments are completely justified, the whole “eww gross” angle was frankly perplexing, and it made me want to dust off some old thoughts that I’ve had about writing a bisexual character in a fandom that claims to have this robust BISEXUAL STEVE ROGERS thing going for it.

First off, this person claimed that although they “read hetero,” they were still so grossed out by this scene that they refused to even read past it to find out what happens in the rest of the chapter. Godspeed, good reader. They didn’t even remark specifically on being disturbed by the fact that Steve was with Sharon, just on how disgusting the sex was. Now, you can ask my beta - I tried and tried to get away with writing their scene with less detail and enthusiasm, but she held me to task and insisted that I write this with as much detail as I would write Steve sucking cock and enjoying that. Because this character would enjoy both very, very much. And given that this is the deep third person POV, Steve’s enjoyment is paramount and the most important part of the scene. It is essentially a sexual reawakening for him, after being emotionally and biologically shut down for months and months, and so yeah, he needs to get INTO IT in order for that to happen. I believe I did four drafts this scene before it was passable, and I still probably could have done better at conveying his enthusiasm.

The word “disgusting” is maybe the most disturbing part of this reader’s comment, because why is enjoying giving oral sex to a woman “disgusting”? I will give myself a little credit that I didn’t write it so poorly that I belong in porn prison, and I didn’t dance around the details or avoid frank language because… why? He clearly has a thing for oral service, which is highly consistent with his overall character. If he was slobbering and moaning over Bucky’s cock, and it was important that he be drawn to the experience viscerally to pull him from his haze of depression and emotional deadness, I wouldn’t cut the details. I could have included so much more, even. I honestly just wanted to move on and finish the chapter. If it was a cock he was going down on, I also probably wouldn’t have received feedback that it was disgusting. Because Cocks are Good. More on this below.

My beta brought up this point - Why are we often more comfortable with the idea of someone eating ass - where literal shit comes out of - than we are someone going down on a vulva? And don’t get me started on how much nasty ass-eating goes on fics, like eating ass after, say, being in the field for days, unshowered, presumably after taking at least one shit in some cat hole somewhere. (Nom nom nom. So hawt.) Oh, but someone enthusiastically enjoying cunnilingus? FILTHY. Because lady parts are ugly and smelly and disgusting and we should only refer to them (uh, ironically??) as “m’lady’s flowering garden” (thanks for the inspo, @passioninthevines) or some other weird euphemism. Or, better yet, let’s just not have any of that yucky stuff at all. Hetero sex for bisexuals should be penis-in-vagina only, behind closed doors, in the past. Or, better yet, let’s just have it be an idea - a vaguely written jerk-off fantasy about Peggy Carter that never becomes anything.

I’m wondering if some readers throughout the course of BW have had a problem with actually seeing this kind of behaviorally bisexual character, one who truly is very sexually attracted to two genders, rather than one who is just like, yeah, I was into Peggy back into ’40s, who is now old or dead and definitely not a sexual object, but now I love cocks (ALSO?) so I am now an OFFICIAL BISEXUAL STEEB ROGERS! Hooray! Give me all the cocks! Or just whatever OTP cock the author chooses for me to suck/fuck exclusively.

As an important aside, I also don’t want to presume that there’s any “right” way to be bisexual, because we bisexual people already have too many stupid “rules” that we are supposed to follow and we’re never gay or straight enough for anyone. Steve in BW is just one manifestation of a bisexual person. Some bisexual people may be largely attracted to men and only have some minor interest in women or other genders. And/or other permutations of attraction and behavior! But this chapter had two major sex scenes for Steve - one with Sharon and one with Bucky (via fantasy) - in part to demonstrate his equal enthusiasm for both women and men. I even warned everyone at the beginning of this fic that he has an enthusiastic sexual interest in Sharon. This is what that looks like. This is not the first commenter throughout BW history who has expressed problems with Steve’s frank sexual interest in Sharon, though this is the first chapter where it’s been so thoroughly portrayed.

I feel like this is one example of bisexual Steve Rogers getting shit (via me, the bisexual author) for being bisexual because he’s not being the right kind of bisexual. He needs to be a collected, well-behaved bisexual, the kind who has tidy PiV hetero sex behind closed doors, in the past, quietly, with a grimace, while thinking about Bucky Barnes with longing and dismay at how fucked his life is. He can’t actually be into women still. That breaks the rules. Women are supposed to be a concession for the man he can’t have. Because women can’t just be desirable - especially not mothers. And they can’t be sexual beings. They don’t deserve pleasure, anyway, and they definitely don’t deserve to be eaten out with wild enthusiasm by an attractive man who wants them.  

Whether this is a troll or not, I can’t help but think that this speaks to the thick core of misogyny that runs through this fandom. It shows up in the wanton (often violent) killing off of Sharon Carter, the “good bro”-ization of major female characters to ensure they are written as de facto men rather than women, revulsion over hetero sex and vulvas, and the marginalization of bisexuality when it means having enthusiastic, genuine sexual and romantic interest in women as well as men. This is just to name a few. I’m sure there are many more places this insidious problem shows up.

I will gladly buy criticism of Sharon and Steve in this latest chapter of BW for other reasons, like huh, this was a really bad idea, perhaps. This wasn’t considering Steve’s attachment issues. But calling sex “disgusting” because one person possesses a vulva? (Because let’s be honest, trade out Sharon for Bucky or Matt or any other random dude, and I doubt this would even be a comment.) This saddens me more than anything. Honestly, I think this scene turned out well. It was written true to Steve’s POV, and it was very important for his character and for his development at this point in the story.

At the end of the day, it’s not really about whether we think their sex is hot or disgusting; it’s about the POV character and his experience and what it means to him. And whether you like the fact that he likes it or not, Steve is a behaviorally bisexual person (though, interestingly, not a self-identified one, at this point in the story). And this is BW. I don’t know what else people were expecting [shrug emoji]

Thoughts?

[noccalula-writes]

Can you give us your detailed thoughts on Avengers: Endgame?

SPOILERY THOUGHTS ARE COMING.

The basis of most of my gripes are: if Age of Ultron hadn’t been so shittily written, a lot of this could have been avoided. Not all of it, but a lot of it. But I’ll go line item by line item outside of that thought.

First off, Steve. Y'all already know I’m a Stucky shipper, but even outside of the context of the ship - and I fully support people who feel their relationship is platonic but very intimate as long as they have been supportive of how emotional their story is, let’s do that more with male friendships please - you have to admit that there has been no greater, longer standing or fucking emotional relationship arc through the entire goddamn MCU than Steve and Bucky. Platonic, nonplatonic, whatever. We literally watch Steve tear down a branch of the goddamn government to get Bucky back, and since the first movie, Bucky has been his emotional touchstone. Steve’s singular dedication to rescuing and protecting Bucky has driven him to the heights of recklessness and has made him nearly sacrifice himself a dozen times.

But he ditches out on him, after he’s been dead for five years no less, to go back to the fucking fifties and derail Peggy’s entire well-lived life.

I don’t buy it. I think this was purposeful diversion to avoid appearing “too gay”, and it fucking infuriates me. There is an article on The Daily Dot that explores this better than I even thought to and you should definitely read it.

The idea of Steve getting to live a full life and be happy? Wonderful. But the way this was executed felt cold, clinical. We’ve spent more time developing emotional bonds with Steve than any other character in the MCU except maybe Tony, and yet we the audience were completely shut out of his feelings for the entire last half of the very last film. It felt like a door had been closed on us. There was none of the warmth of Steve, only the resolve of Captain America, and a very rash decision that felt so poorly planned after he said barely two things to the man who has been the axis of most of his decisions in this entire series.

Sam is absolutely the right choice for Captain America, though. That was what I was hoping for, and he deserves the mantel.

Tony Stark, love of my life, was set up to make the martyr play from the very first Avengers film. This is where it was always meant to go, and I have spent every movie since AoU waiting for it to happen. Honestly, I feel like Tony’s arc was the one arena where everything was done right (except, I’ll be honest, I don’t know how I feel about him having had a kid - I’m not mad at it, though). If you follow me you know I don’t think he and Pepper had real staying power no matter how much they love each other, but I also never anticipated that he’d be with anyone else, so this wasn’t a disappointment (I love Pepper, to be clear). I was proud of him. I was sorry he wouldn’t get to see Morgan grow up, but I was proud of my man saving the world.

I love him with all my heart. He’s made dumb decisions but when the metaphorical knife was against his throat, he came correct with absolute resolution.

Wanda might as well have been a cardboard cutout, which on one hand was fine because she had way more screen time in Infinity War than she’s had anywhere else since AoU (shudder), but she’s been reduced to this background character who got shipped off with Vision just so she’d have something to do (and yes, I know it’s comic canon, but it was so out of left field in the MCU that there was no way this wasn’t a factor in). Wanda is a wealth of possibility for a storyteller - think about the grief this character has endured (consider my consider, Wanda Maximoff diatribe from yesterday) and how she’s learned to use her power. Think about the evolution of going from a volunteer for a program to literally become a mutant to fight the Avengers and then becoming one and losing your fucking twin brother, the only constant in your life. Think about having to kill the only person you could try to put a life together with. Think about all of that and tell me she hasn’t been wasted in the background.

(Also - how in the fuck is Steve gonna tell his black best friend Sam that he preferred the fifties? Really? )

This brings me to what I think is easily the most egregious of all the fuck-ups in this movie - Clint and Natasha. This is where we can draw a direct line back to the problem in AoU, when Joss “Feminist Icon” Whedon decided that dropping a house, wife and 2.5 cardboard-ass kids we got zero development time on was a better answer than, oh, actually developing Clint as a character. Partially this was to promote Brucetasha, which as we all know went so fucking well through the rest of the movies, but subverting what he felt was the “obvious” ship for Nat (the irony of this being he said something along the lines of “well, Bruce and Nat made so much more sense to me” and pulled some lame ass Beauty and The Beast allegory out during an Entertainment Weekly interview about AoU and it’s ended up becoming one of the most hated creative decisions in the MCU as of yet.

Listen, if you want Clint and Natasha’s deep and intimate and formative relationship to be platonic-only, I’m cool with that. I ship ‘em but I also love male-female friendships that mean the entire world to the involved characters and are not romantic. But we were given a decision in AoU that was eliminated so many future possibilities and put us on the path we’re on now.

If you know Clint as a character, you know that he’s a loveable fuckup. THat’s kind of his schtick. I have no idea how they plan to make that work in the supposedly-happening Hawkeye series based on Matt Fraction’s run given that now we’ve got Clint married with kids and Natasha dead, but okay. Endgame takes Clint’s grief and weaponizes it, but naturally, we only ever see him killing people of color (they mention he killed a Mexican cartel, we see him going after Yakuza) ((if you couple this with the shaved haircut and the shitty Japanese-inspired sleeve, you start venturing dangerously close to white supremacist territory)).

Clint is dark and broken, and Natasha saves him - just like how Natasha was dark and broken, and Clint saved her. By not dying. So. I mean.

As I’ve said in another ask, here’s the thing: I would have been okay with Natasha making the sacrifice play if there had been no Bartons to bring back. I still would have been furious if they hadn’t loophole’d her ass back - What happens when Steve returns the soul stone? Do you get back what you paid for it? - but the idea that we had to trade the original female member of the team - the closest thing to diversity they had being a white woman is terrible but here we are - for one of the shittiest, most sloppily written things that Joss Whedon plunked down on a page? My blood boils.

It’s been like 4 days and I am still just beside myself angry about Natasha Romanoff. Furious. I love her and Clint and I don’t undersell the strength of their relationship but at the end of the day, she died so a man could go back to his family, because nuclear families are more important and Natasha has no one. I guess. I don’t know. I’m so fucking mad.

That pandering-ass “we’re doin’ us a feminism” scene of all the women fighting together, even though it made zero logistical battlefield sense and most of them didn’t even know each other, felt even more gross and cheesy and self-congratulatory considering what had just been done to one of the most important women in the series. But hey. We got a shot of a lot of women fighting. Hashtag feminism.

Thor’s ending was okay. Thor’s arc was pretty good. The fat jokes were shit but I loved the idea of Thor still being worthy even when he’s not who he used to be. I nearly came when Cap caught Mjolnir. Conceding New Asgard to Valkyrie was super smart, and I like that he’s going to go figure himself out with the Guardians.

Speaking of, Gamora’s whole story has made me feel gross. As the daughter of an abusive stepfather who also loved me a lot when he wasn’t being a monster, it def made me squirm. But the reality is I don’t give enough of a shit about any of the Guardians to care about what happens to them other than Thor, so. Chris Pratt can eat my entire ass.

The things it got right - pacing an insane amount of action in a way that never stalled, executing a beautifully woven and inlaid sacrifice arc for Tony, Paul Rudd in general - are so much smaller than the things that were just… gapingly terrible.

Did Bruce even get an ending? Did anyone remember what the hell he said he was gonna do? He got lost somewhere in the shuffle and I legit have no idea what his ending was.

Ugh. I need some ibuprofen and a nap. I’m gonna go back to writing my Natasha sex-shop au in which SHE WILL NEVER EVER EVER DIE FOR CLINT’S STORY DEVELOPMENT and wish I still drank.

[buffythedragonqueen]

Why do they keep telling us we should stop dreaming of a better world? The Game of Thrones Finale

I will not lie: I am a nerd, and I had really studied before the last season started. In addition to that, for full disclosure, I had already bent the knee to Daenerys Targaryen in book 1, I stand by her, always will, and wanted Daenerys and Jon to rule together (I know, they are related, but it is the Middle Ages in Europe, it does not matter). However, the ending of Game of Thrones has been ... confusing. Confusing for me as a human really. 

I shall be forever grateful to the actors and the crew: all aspects of the show (but the writing)  were unbelievable, glorious, and should be covered, showered, with awards, but the writing ... should not.  MIND THE SPOILERS Aside from what was already said - the rushed plot that made no sense (so all the studying I did went out of the window), the trashed 10-years-long character developments, and countless wasted opportunities for potentially amazing dialogues (e.g. Daenerys and Cersei, Sansa and Cersei, etc.) - I was left bewildered and angry, with many questions about society, and the role of art in changing the world. Isn’t the role of art to remind us, and teach us, how to fight for ideas? For freedom, for equality, for justice?

I will be even more honest. I was triggered by the last 3 episodes, yet I kept watching, in the hope that the ending would have showed me what I had hoped to see. Eventually, to cope with the loss of Daenerys Targaryen (which never happened in my head, denial is always the way),

 and the disappointment, and the anger, and for the sole purpose of catharsis, I even dared to start writing what I would have wanted to see as conclusion of the show, which I linked here. And probably I will write myself a season 9 as a sequel for the show:  I am no writer, no psychologist, so this is merely my attempt to overwrite that last season in my brain, with the messages I would have wanted to see delivered by the end of the show, as opposed to what I saw.  I am mildly ashamed of what I am writing, it is maybe sentimental, possibly derivative,  maybe poorly written, but that is not the point here: I  had to express somewhere the ideas for which I wanted this show to fight, instead of perpetrating restraining and negative cliches. Watching the finale, I was left with many questions:

Why do they keep showing us toxic masculinity, instead of nice men?

Why are sex addicts sold as “average men”? The final all- males-council discussing brothels was appalling, not funny, appalling!

Why did they have one of the most powerful glorious female character in the history of literature gaslighted and killed by her boyfriend, who until that moment was one of the best positive male character ever written in the history of literature; he was courageous and sweet, generous and just and non-ambitious, a non-macho positive nice man. Why did they turn a perfectly nice guy into a murderer? Is there no way out? Why did they need to ruin Jon Snow, and leave us with Bronn and Tyrion? Seriously, Bronn? Seriously….Bronn? Jon, previously lovely Jon, left the stage to these sex addicts, for a spiral of hopelessness: should I infer from this that men are spineless, murderers, rapist, sex addicts, gamblers, liars, otherwise women put them in the firendzone (e.g. Jorah, Daario). 

So gents, those of you who are nice, will never be loved. Ladies, pets (cats, dogs, ferrets,…) are the solution. Pets.  

Why do we keep seeing sexism, instead of feminism? Specifically:

 Why do we keep seeing double standards: if a male ruler executes traitors is acceptable, but if a female ruler does the same thing it means she is mad? Daenerys had executed a bunch of enemies, as any king would do, yet in her case these were clues of madness. Oh well, we women are too emotional, aren’t we? (sense the sarcasm there) Sit still, look pretty, ladies. And do not forget to smile.

Why do we keep seeing that men judge women for every. single. thing. even though they are not really in a position to talk? Why did we see Tyrion and Varys (two men) discussing whether Daenerys was fit to rule, after she gathered the biggest army ever seen, saved everybody from the dead, actually fought into battle (while Tyrion and Varys were hiding in the crypts)? And why did we see a male character suggesting a man is more suitable than a woman to rule? It was one of the most appalling misogynist scenes I have ever watched in my life. Until a man told a man to execute a woman, without a trial, which brings me to my next question;

Is it ok that if man kills a woman, if he thinks it is right? Why was it represented as a heroic decision? She could have died in thousands of ways, yet the manipulated boyfriend, the only person she trusted, that killed her when she was vulnerable, with no explanation at all, no discussion aside from some ambiguous questions, seemed like a good idea; why?

Why did we see Brienne of Tarth, a warrior, writing about the man who had dumped her. in her nightgown. for his sister. after a superfluous-for-the-narrative one night thing. Why didn’t she write about herself? Why was she crying? Why did Cersei Lannister die crying? And of a death by brick, of all deaths? Why were all the women - warriors, mind- crying, pouring their hearts to undeserving men?

Between us, I was already angry at the conversation Daenerys had with the King in the North Jon, when he decided to bend the knee after Daenerys flew beyond the wall to save him (7thseason, episode “Beyond the Wall”). Daenerys says “I hope I deserve it”. OK. You raised 3 dragons, endured starvation, violence, gathered armies and fleets, freed cities from slavers, and lost a dragon to save him from his idiotic decisions: You bl**dy fu***ng do deserve it! Why did we see her asking for his approval?

Why are people with mental health issues feared and abandoned, instead of helped and supported? The mad-queen-twist was justified by the writers with a “there were clues” chorus. In my opinion it was not justified at all: there were clues she had occasional, and rare, anger management issues, and, in season 8, depression and anxiety; these could be a result of her PTSD, since she was sold and raped, and starved, and had to dodge people who wanted to kill her in many occasions, and not necessarily it had to be a hereditary trait. The people around her, and also the man who was supposed to love her, instead of building a support network around her and helping her, killed her. Too often individuals with mental health issues are ostracised, and treated with contempt, rather than sustained, so to me it would have been interesting to see a resolution of her problems (assuming she had any), rather than her impending doom.

Why was rape described as an occasion to become stronger? Why are we afraid to say what rape actually does to women? To victims? Why do we need to think that women recover and become stronger? Some do not recover at all. Some kill themselves. Why are we afraid of saying it?  It is not true that all that does not kill you makes you stronger: if it does not kill you as a whole, sometimes it has killed a part of you. As for the strength, I think that pain makes you impervious. It is love that makes you stronger. 

Why do they keep showing us competition between women, instead of sisterhood? Seeing Sansa and Arya fighting Daenerys for no apparent reason, was very disappointing. Seeing Sansa plotting against Daenerys, after the growth her character had in season 7 (”I am a slow learner, but I learn.”) was really sad: I was looking forward to team Dany-Sansa-Arya-Missandei-Brienne against the world, with packs of wolves and dragons as weapons.  That did not happen. Of course.

Why did we see weird racist scenes? The only woman of colour of the show died in chains. In chains. I do not think I have to add anything. 

Humans came out destroyed in this finale, as, apparently, one cannot change, ever: one is stuck with the hand one was dealt in the beginning, no matter the experiences, the fighting, the hopes, the work one has done on oneself; if one is born a slave, will die a slave; if born with anger management issues will not stop until everybody is dead (even though one had a spoiler about it years before, at the House of the Undying); there is no way out from toxic relationships; if born alone, even if technically the king, will still die alone; love does not conquer all, if one gets manipulated  well enough; and men can judge a woman, and, even without a trial, sentence her to death.

To me, the misogyny, the emotional and physical abuse, and toxic masculinity represented in the last three episodes of the show, represent the culture we are trying to fight, not the one that I would have wanted to stream to 60000000 people, including young adults, abused women, and people that hoped to see a message of hope, giving the dark times we are living: brave, sweet, courageous, honest, generous, smart, and mighty women and men, that work together for a better world; a world where there is redemption, freedom, diversity, and where people fight for what is important. 

For some reason, at some point, happy endings have started to be considered derivative. But people need hope. Young people need to be inspired, people who suffer need role models to help them overcome their pain. “Then they should not have watched Game of Thrones.” you say? I disagree. The show left the classic dichotomy between good and evil, and had complex characters that lived in the spectrum in between. The characters had the complexity of life into them.  

The greatness of the show, to me, was that most characters had overturned their destiny. If the final season had been written differently, GoT finale could have been the script for the resistance against violence, injustice, sexism, toxic relationships, defeat. It was not. 

I just want to add this: what they showed us is not true. Never stop fighting for what is important, even if it seems silly (like  getting angry for the last episode of a TV show): it does not mean one will necessarily win, it does not mean there will not be pain, but we can change this world into a better one. We can change ourselves, we can be kind to one another, we can support people who suffer, we can support  minorities. We can defeat the monsters, the ones in others, the ones in ourselves. We can break the wheel.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?”  Robert Browning

“Our fathers were evil men. All of us here. They left the world worse than they found it. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to leave the world better than we found it” – Daenerys Targaryen

[inthedayglo]

Still alive, and Who S11

I’ve been away, largely, for the last few months because of Doctor Who. I’m back now, though holidays, etc. may make that kind of spotty for a while.

I started watching this series late (hence avoiding Tumblr to avoid spoilers), which is pretty unusual for me--I’m usually chomping at the bit. Not this time. Why? A couple of reasons.

1. General wariness of the gender swap and Chris Chibnall. I don’t know if I’ve said this on here before, so forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but I was never a proponent of the gender swap, because I’m not a proponent of “just because we can!” in storytelling. I am a proponent of “because it would let us do X, Y, and Z that we can’t do with our current setup.” There’s no guarantee of success with either, but at least one shows some forethought and purpose. “Just because we can” shows neither. And with Chris Chibnall in charge, and his incredibly inconsistent writing--it’s an oxymoron if ever there was one, putting the man who wrote “Cyberwoman,” one of the most incredibly misogynistic things I’ve ever seen, in charge of a male-to-female gender swap--I was not about to hold my breath that any forethought actually occurred.

2. The BBC and apparently everyone else deciding to trash Peter Capaldi in order to promote Jodie was a massive, massive turnoff. Any decent marketing person can tell you there are better ways to create hype than alienating the viewers who are still mourning the previous Doctor. But no, they went for it. I waited until November to start watching--and wouldn’t have started then if one of my friends hadn’t begged me to so she could discuss them with someone.

My short verdict? “Jodie’s a great actress. The fact that watching Doctor Who has never, ever been a chore for me before does not fall on her shoulders. Chris Chibnall, on the other hand, has a hell of a lot to answer for.”

Because the fact is, this series was a chore. A largely incomprehensible, forgettable chore. I have trouble remembering that at least half the episodes even existed--including the ones I liked, like “Kerblam!” And I suspect that number will grow with time. There’s just nothing memorable going on here.

I appreciate what they tried to do, or what I can only guess that they tried to do, but it feels to me like “tried” is an overstatement. I’ve come to call this TARDIS crew the “ticky box” team, because it feels to me as if they said, “Ooh, let’s tick all the boxes for every possible kind of diversity! Won’t that be great! Then we’re done--nothing more we need to do on that front!” And it just doesn’t work that way.

I mean, there should be an interesting relationship between Graham and Ryan...but no. There’s almost nothing, and what little we do get comes so close to the end of the series as to beggar belief. Those two should be, at the very least, getting in each other’s faces right from the beginning--or else pointedly avoiding each other, or one of each. Instead, it’s as if nothing happened, except to Graham, just a little, here and there. And then right back to Situation Normal--until we suddenly get Ryan and Graham Are Best Buds out of NOWHERE at the very end.

Now, I’ve become kind of tired of the big giant overblown series arc over the years, so I’m not saying that going more episodic is a bad thing. I’m just saying even episodic telly in 2018 is being viewed by an audience that’s going to expect more than that, and that, frankly, deserves more. We didn’t get it.

After 10 episodes, I still have no idea what purpose Yaz serves, except to have given us a Partition episode--which was the only truly memorable one of the year, but she was just an excuse for it. For all she sees during that episode, there’s hardly any character development (do we sense a theme here?) But that fits with the fact that Ryan never seems to mourn his Nan, except in that YouTube video in the very first episode, or deal with his father’s absence, and even his conveniently invisible disability gets so little attention that it might as well not be there (and it’s so poorly explained that I was baffled in the first episode that someone his age could not ride a bicycle and why this was such a big deal. I guess we were required to do outside reading to figure it out--which, by the way, explicitly violates the BBC’s charter).

So basically we ticked all the boxes and still managed to make the old white guy the most interesting character on the show. Oops.

A lot of people liked “Rosa”, and it is better than most of what we saw, but here’s why I have issues with it:

1. Ryan seems to serve one purpose in this episode--to be slapped by a white man for trying to return a glove, and to fawn all over Rosa and MLK like a teen meeting Justin Bieber. The episode basically reduced him to the color of his skin and nothing else. (This is exactly what I mean about ticking all the boxes and deciding that’s enough.)

2. The villain is so negligible that he might as well not even be there. And, in fact, had they made systemic racism the villain instead of some unlikely 267684th century nobody, they’d have had a far better episode. That villain’s baked in, and this meaningless yahoo just distracts from it.

3. My biggest gripe: It paints Rosa Parks as a woman who took independent, spontaneous action when that couldn’t be further from the truth. A historical should know better, because a historical should do its homework. It didn’t. Rosa’s action was planned carefully with local NAACP folks who couldn’t use another woman, who’d already done the same thing, as a flashpoint because she was pregnant and unmarried. There is just plain NO WAY that what Rosa did would have set off a movement like it did if that movement wasn’t assembled and ready to respond to her arrest. Rosa could have picked any bus on any day. It didn’t matter. And yet, the episode hinges on the faulty historical read that says otherwise.

Is it a better episode than, say, “The Turanga Conundrum”? Sure. But so is the average episode of “Teletubbies,” because Tsuranga is literally unwatchable, and I know this because I kept trying and couldn’t do it. It illustrates every reason why Chibnall should not have been put in charge of this show, primarily that he tries to do more than the format will allow for, and he does all of it badly. His Doctor spouts meaningless technobabble more often than Geordie Laforge, and with far less plausibility and logic. She doesn’t even bother to notice that she’s endangering other people. And there are not only four lead characters to keep busy but also a handful guest stars who have almost nothing to do--nothing meaningful, certainly, because they each get about three minutes of screen time--but yes, absolutely, do bring on the pregnant guy just because you can. (Why “Just Because You Can” Is A Bad Idea, Exhibit A.) And the less said about the ridiculous villain, which on paper should have been phenomenally threatening and yet just wasn’t, the better.

The whole Tim Shaw thing is irritating for a series that went episodic, as if it wanted the best of both worlds and couldn’t manage either. Having him turn up in the finale is just annoying, and not just because I found the teeth thing revolting, but because it comes out of nowhere (yes, really, sending him back to wherever with NOTHING in between is still nowhere. Any setup you can find there is so thin you’d need a scanning electron microscope to show it to me). Mark Addy and Phyllis Logan should have made for good telly no matter how bad the script, but that concept apparently never met Chris Chibnall before, because even they couldn’t save it. And Graham’s dilemma, such as it was, should have been more interesting, but ended up just being utterly predictable instead. It’s all surface stuff. Style, perhaps, but no substance.

“The Witchfinders” is interesting more because Alan Cumming camps it up and because Downton Abbey’s O’Brien is the Big Bad, proving that Siobhan Finneran has the serious Big Bad chops we...already knew she had. It stands out for one reason only, for me, and that’s that, for the first time all year, the Doctor actually faces some sexism. Pity Chibnall thinks we have to go back to the 1700s to find it--I guess he figures we’re past all that now? The lack of realism in how the Doctor is treated on Earth grated on me for all ten episodes, including this one, because how did it take so long? How was this not part of the PLAN for a female Doctor? (Oh, wait--did I say “plan”?) “Honestly, if I was still a bloke, I could get on with the job and not have to waste time defending myself” is the story of every woman watching this show, every single damn day. I presume the people who wanted a female Doctor wanted it because they wanted to feel represented by this character--but this isn’t it. If I can’t call tech support without having to establish my tech cred every. single. time because I have the audacity to call while female, the Doctor shouldn’t be able to, either, much less wander into a situation and just take over. And yet, she does, again, and again, denying my everyday existence and that of every other woman on the planet. And we’re...not supposed to notice? Decide the 2018 on the screen is some sort of utopia we know doesn’t exist? What, exactly, are we to make of this whitewashing of reality? Yet another missed opportunity in a series riddled with them.

“Demons of the Punjab” is the only episode I really liked, because it’s the only episode that really told a conflicted, compelling story, though Thirteen is still saddled with being the Unnecessary Exposition Fairy and Yaz is frustratingly pointless in a story about her own past. It could, and perhaps even should, have been a bigger story. Continued lack of development for Yaz notwithstanding, it’s solid telly. More like this, please.

The Atlantic ran a piece extolling the show for “allowing” Thirteen to be weak and ineffective. It was, to my horror, written by a woman. It was not satire. I can’t say if Chibnall intended this outcome, to explore this “theme,” but if he did, he picked the wrong Doctor to experiment with. I’m as deeply offended by the idea that making the first female Doctor weak and ineffective is a good thing as I am by the implication that sexism died 300 years ago and by the way Ryan is presented in “Rosa.” IMHO, this take is a fundamental betrayal of what this character has stood for for 55 years--and of all the women who watch the show, and who wanted to see themselves in the title character.

On the other hand, this excellent, stunningly thorough piece looks at the whole series in great detail (seriously, fortify yourself and block out some time on your calendar, ‘cause it will take a while. It’s worth it, though). It works very hard to be as fair as possible. It also makes a very interesting argument that the surface appearance of Chibnall!Who is very progressive, but the inner workings are astonishingly conservative, and I think the author is on to something that explains, for instance, why CC thinks it’s okay to tick the boxes and then move on without a second thought. Appearance is meant to trump substance in S11, and whatever else you can say about progressive intent on S11, the fact remains that a white guy is still in charge.

(I find it fascinating that my biggest concern when I heard the show was coming back in 2005 was that, if given an actual budget, particularly for special effects, it would lose its charm and become a highly rated show that was all about effects driving the plot rather than plot driving the effects. It’s taken 13 years for that original fear to be realized, which is one hell of an accomplishment considering how easily it could have gone this way from the beginning--but that’s still cold comfort considering the quality we’re used to from Who.)

The second author’s most cuttingly insightful commentary might just be this (emphasis mine):

...the abiding moral of the Moffat era was that kindness and compassion were worthy ends of themselves. The Twelfth Doctor’s final advice to the Thirteenth Doctor was simply, “Be kind.” It is a damning indictment of the Chibnall era that the Thirteenth Doctor has failed so spectacularly at that one single piece of advice given to her by her direct predecessor. The eleventh season is a meditation in indifference and obliviousness, with the Doctor at best ignorant to the suffering of others and at worst actively complicit.

(This observation also harks back to my list of reasons for being reluctant to watch in the first place...)

Really, go read it. Even if you don’t agree with it, it’ll make you think. (You can skip the first several paragraphs about production improvements if that’s not really your thing, though his comments on the attempt to make DW “prestige TV” and what that means are insightful.)

I didn’t really mean to write this much, but this year realized my worst fears for the future of my favorite show. If you disagree with me, that’s fine; you’re certainly allowed--but please don’t ask me why I kept watching. It’s such a dismissive question. The obvious answer is “because I kept hoping it would get better, all evidence to the contrary.”

This show has sat in my heart for 32 years now. It made me who I am. I’m not about to abandon it without a fight. But this year was the biggest fight I’ve had to put up since I was 15 years old, and the closest I’ve ever come to despair while watching (which is saying something considering I was not a RTD fan--but S11 is giving me a new appreciation there).

I can only hope that Chibnall will resign and let someone who can do Thirteen justice take over. We need no repeat of the Series of Wasted Opportunities.

[5thinvictus]

A Fan Review of Stan Lee’s Lucky Man

or ... A Gift That Should Have Never Been Given

I’ve had a ton of fun promoting this terrible show and now that it’s over, I thought I’ve give a quick review on what I thought of it overall. 

So, TL;DR:  Overall Score: D+

Character Consistency: C-

Narrative Strength: F

Acting: B

Re-watchability: Minimal.

For some reason, people think that if a show/movie is based on a comic book, that excuses it from the same scrutiny that other fictional works receive.  Sorry, but this is actually very far from the case.  In fact, comic readers are often used to dramatically higher standards for plot, narrative, character development than most of the subpar movies and TV shows that find their way into production these days.

In Short: Lucky Man, just because you were based on a comic, does not excuse you from the most basic plot holes which abounded within your meagerly meandering narrative.

Click below for my detailed review:

The Good:

Elizabeth Gray (Neve McIntosh):

I enjoyed this actress and her character’s arc.  At first, you’re not sure what to make of her, but she proves that she’s a human being and not just a caricature of a strong female or a beautiful female.  She makes mistakes and then she seeks to correct them.  I liked this character a lot.  She grew and it was consistent and believable.

Samuel Blake (Rupert Penry-Jones):

No, I’m not biased.  Rupert is an exceptional actor, otherwise he wouldn’t be one of my favorites and this role was no different.  Regardless of how terrible the writing was, he was splendid.  Charismatic and likeably sinister.  I started to root for the bad guy at some point mid-season, and no, not just because he’s Rupert (I never rooted for Clive reader ... not even once.  He was such a asshole.)

His sudden reversal in the last episode was more than disappointing though.  They’d set up the villain to be very, very principled.  In fact, that was his most important quality and then, in the final episode, they completely reversed that?  In the end though, Samuel Blake was one of the best things in this season.

The Cinematography:

The angles.  The shots.  The lighting.  The costumes.  They were all lovely.  Consistently so.  I enjoyed how good Lucky Man looked.  The crew is phenomenal.  They should have taken the writers’ salaries and divided it up to the cast & crew.  They deserved ALL of the success of Lucky Man.

The Locations:

They really made London look incredible, but something has been bothering me quite a bit.  Did they really need to fly to Hong Kong to film?  There were very few shots that even gave hints that they were there and honestly, they could have cgi’d in most of that stuff.  Clearly they were more focused on having fun filming than actually making a good show.

The Bad:

Suri Chohan (Amara Karan):

Good lord, this character was a brick.  I felt nothing for her and I usually relate quite a bit to spunky, nerdy little sidekicks.  She was dumb at every corner.  Everyone got the drop on her.  She was hyper emotional.  She tried to sleep with the tall detective ... randomly.

I’m sorry, but she didn’t seem like a real person at all to me.  She was a caricature of some ideal Mary Sue.  Everyone loves Chohan.  Chohan is morally and ethically perfect.  Yeah ... no.  I’ve better things to do than watch a character I cannot relate to in any way, shape, or form.

Harry Clayton (James Nesbitt):

James Nesbitt is an incredible actor, but Harry Clayton was such a miserable character that I didn’t care if he lived or died.  He killed so many people.  He was overly arrogant.  I didn’t care about this character at all.  In the later part of the season, I started to fast forward through most of his scenes.

The Narrative:

This was by far the worst aspect of the show.  Nothing ever really made sense.  Nothing.  It was a strange combination of scenes people wanted to shoot coupled together loosely with vague reasons and meandering dialogue and unbelievable character motivations.

The What-The-Fuck:

Eve Alexandri (Sienna Guillory):

I totally understand being pissed at Harry because he let you die.  I totally get that angle and they could have used that beautifully.  They could have built a narrative around her that reinforced her falling for Blake, but they didn’t.  They didn’t even bother.

She’d been brought up to protect the bracelets and it took Blake less than a day to tear her down?  Absolute bullshit.

Blake kidnaps her, after she said she would listen to him, and throws her off a bridge (which she nearly dies from), and she forgives him and not Harry?  Absolute bullshit.

So, she will forgive an hot stranger from trying to kill her, but she won’t forgive her best friend who did so to save another life?  Absolute bullshit.

And then, in a matter of days (or weeks?), Blake has turned her into a ruthless killer and she convinces him to kill his entire family in front of her?  Yeah, what?

She has no principles.  No loyalties.  No ethics.  She has a poorly fabricated fight with Harry and then runs to Blake.  After one fight.  One.  She can be turned away from her entire life’s goal because Blake winks at her?  And then, in the end, Blake says ONE mean thing to her and she tries to kill him.  And then, in the end, she turns on Blake suddenly.  “OH NO!  NOT THAT MUCH INNOCENT BLOOD!”

Absolute bullshit.

What a miserable and unbelievable character.

A scantly clad Samuel Blake:

Ok ok ok.  Yeah, this is absolutely a “what-the-fuck” topic.  As much as I enjoyed seeing him shirtless (and pants-less) ... over and over and over again, it was absolutely pointless and shouldn’t have been in the show.  EVEN THOUGH I FUCKING LOVED IT: That whole ... “I’m gonna walk through the morgue naked.” scene was unnecessary and it really did detract from the story.  Why didn’t he just take the doctor’s clothes?  Seriously.  He was heading out to meet Eve and he just happens across some pants ... he would have taken the Pathologist’s pants.  Anyone who argues otherwise is an idiot.

This was such blatant fan baiting / fan service.

A side rant here: As a fan of RPJ, this nudity really should have been fun, but the hardest part of it was the fact that there’s a small but very vocal minority of Rupert’s fan base which consider themselves his Morality Police.  It’s really just a handful of people using multiple accounts to fabricate dialogue, in an attempt to shame him (mind you, by directly tagging him on Twitter), on an almost daily basis, over his body.  They also shame fans for appreciating his body and no one better find him sexually attractive or you will be targeted.

Plot Holes:

I’m just gonna go over the holes in 3x08.  There are holes in EVERY episode, but I’ll focus on the last one because I want to push everything about this show out of my mind now.

Wasn’t Blake a drug addict?

At some point, I’m convinced the writers changed and they completely forgot about the most fundamental flaw that we’ve been given about Samuel.

In the last two episodes, that was just gone.  Since it was such an important aspect that they were setting up in the beginning, you’d think that it would come into play at some point in the finale.  Withdraw or making him entirely numb again (Like in Sam and Harry’s first fight).  It should have come full circle.  It should have played SOME part in his demise, but it didn’t.  In fact, there was no point to it at all.

It didn’t make him more or less evil.  It didn’t make him more or less relatable.  They didn’t use it in a way to explain anything.  Not his actions or his motivations.  It was complexity that was added as a superficial trait and then not used in the narrative at all.

Shameful writing.

ಠ_ಠ

Wasn’t Blake the head of a massive Chinese mafia?

At some point, they completely forgot about the Wu Chi.  His prison fight was fabricated ahead of time and the Snake Hands carried out his instructions, and then ... just vanished.  He is supposed to be the head of a massive Chinese mafia and yet, they all just vanished.

Any Wu Chi guards at his factory?  Nope.  Of course not, otherwise how would Harry just sneak in at the end.  Any Wu Chi guards helping him infiltrate Madame Cheng’s stronghold?  Nope.  I ... guess ... not?  Did they run out of money for asian extras?

Couldn’t they have scrubbed the unnecessary trip to Hong Kong to pay for more extras?

So, what was the point of him being a Dragon Head again? 

In the end, there was no point.

ಠ_ಠ

Blake was all about planning ahead and he didn’t steal the Uranium BEFORE he got himself purposefully arrested?

Don’t even get me started on the plot from 3x06.  Blake’s plan was to get arrested, fake his death, and break out?  Even the whole “waking up in the morgue” thing didn’t make sense.  Why didn’t Eve get his body out?  Why was she just waiting outside for him?!  Ugh, I digress ... focus on 3x08, focus on just 3x08 ...

So Blake’s been setting up this fission chamber for a while, right?  He brags about buying that factory years earlier in preparation.  In fact, he’s even got a handful of handy scientists to get it all up for him.  How clever, I guess?  But, he never bothered getting the Uranium before he purposefully got himself arrested?  His entire plan hinged on being able to get his hands on MOTHER FUCKING URANIUM ... and he didn’t plan ahead for that ... at all?  His entirely plan was to wait until his access was revoked and then find someone to torture the information out of?

That’s ... uh ... really, really weak.  This entire fission / nuclear thing seemed like an afterthought in the writing room when they realized they’d written themselves into a corner.

Writer 1:  Ah shit.  How is Blake even gonna destroy them?  It doesn’t make sense that the Torches would bring the forging weapons to London.  They had to have hidden them, right?

Writer 2: *having just watched The Strain*  I KNOW!  Let’s have him NUKE THEM!

ಠ_ಠ

Seriously, Harry basically killed that poor scientist.

This wasn’t a plot hole, but it seriously bothered me.  You know that man.  The one he strangely head butted.  The one messing with the fission machine.  Was the man even evil?  Did he know what he was hired to do?  Did he know that the controlled fission reaction was to destroy magical braclets and the chain reaction would melt down and likely kill him and thousands of people?  Doesn’t matter, he wasn’t useful to the plot, so Harry just ... killed him.

How did Harry know how to remove the Uranium?

He just walks over, reaching in to the machine, turns it and pulls it out.  He didn’t even know what it looked like.  I guess he was just ... lucky?  Pfffttt.  Whatever.  It’s just a little thing, but it’s still fucking lazy.

Why wasn’t Blake armed?  What the fuck was he doing?

There’s simply no way that Blake would have been walking around the factory without his gun.  He would have just shot Harry from above.  And before anyone says: He wouldn’t risk the fission machine!  He was wearing the bracelet.

This was so fabricated.  Was he pooping or something and that’s why he set his gun down on the desk?

And again, why didn’t he have Wu Chi guards ... or even a surveillance system set up?  There’s NO WAY that place didn’t have security if he had a fission machine INSTALLED in it.  And he already said he’d owned it from several years.

Seriously?  WTF Lucky Man.

ಠ_ಠ

Why didn’t Blake notice Eve had escaped?

She was tied to the fission machine and he didn’t even notice she was gone.  Ok then ... maybe it was because he was high?!  They didn’t even bother to address it at all.  Not to mention the fact that ... wasn’t it unlucky to Blake for Eve to have escaped?  Wasn’t he wearing the bracelet?

Also, wasn’t it unlucky for Eve to have put the other one on him?  Shouldn’t she have tripped or something?  Shouldn’t he have been able to stop her BECAUSE of the bracelet he was already wearing?!

Writers: Create the rules for your world and then stick to them.  Don’t change things because you want a scene to play out a specific way.  You make the rules, so stick to them.

ಠ_ಠ

Harry’s hiding in his brother’s flat.

The entire country is on the lookout for Harry and Blake.  He’s considered a domestic terrorist at this point and he’s hiding ... in his brother’s flat.

Where the fuck is Mi5?!  Seriously, no.  This is SO dumb.  FFS.

No one’s tracking his brother or his brother’s phone.  No one’s bothering with anything.  Harry keeps walking out into public.  He approaches the Security Guards in the URANIUM shipment (armed guards), and even tells them HIS NAME.  I find it unlikely that security professionals wouldn’t have been even MORE briefed on him than the general public (which already was).

ಠ_ಠ

Eve was pregnant.

I guess this was a poor attempt to explain away her sudden motivational shift, but it was so contrived.

So what?  Samuel forgot to wrap it?  Fucking unlikely, don’t you think?  Was he super, super high one night or something?  Because, you’ve shown us he’s incredibly pedantic and he plans everything TO A TEE.

I guess Eve forgot she wasn’t on birth control either?  Maybe she was super high too, I guess?

Maybe the condom broke and it just slipped Blake’s mind?  Given, unplanned pregnancies obviously occur, but I find it unbelievable that it would happen between these two characters as you’ve presented them to us.

Also, how long were they even together?  Was it days or was it weeks?

In the end, she was the character I felt should have gotten her just deserts MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE and yet, she lived.  She was inconsistent, without loyalty or morals or ethics, and she gets to live.  Thanks Lucky Man.

ಠ_ಠ

So ... To Summarize:

Lucky Man wasn’t a good show, but it was a hell of a guilty pleasure and I’m actually gutted it’s over, because I loved watching Rupert work again and hot damn, did Mr. Penry-Jones look smashing in it (as always).

Cheers.

[its-ashleyreads]

Finished: 22/07/2020

Christmas Under the Stars by Karen Swan

Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Summary:

For best friends Mitch, Meg, Lucy and Tuck, life couldn’t be better than it is in their hometown of Banff, Alberta. Meg and Mitch are about to be married, Mitch and Tuck have a thriving snowboard business, Lucy is expecting her first child, but all that changes during a winter storm that leaves one of them dead. Suddenly everything that once seemed so perfect is thrown into a new light. Relationships are destroyed, dreams dashed, and nothing will ever be the same again. But at least with all that darkness it’s easier to see the stars.

Review:

This book was dramatic as fuck. Every time I thought it had reached the peak of ‘shocking revelations’ another one was unearthed. But somehow most of the characters never really seem to deal with them. There were so many secrets revealed within the last 50 pages or so and the author didn’t give them a chance to sink in which made it all just seem a bit pointless. The story was interesting, I love the idea of one death in the friend group throwing everything into turmoil, but that premise didn’t really work for me in this instance because the author couldn’t choose between telling the story from just Meg’s perspective or the perspectives of other characters as well. I think for this type of idea to work she should have written either entirely from Meg’s point of view or given equal weight to Lucy and Tuck’s experiences. As a reader, it felt like Swan didn’t give a shit about any characters other than Meg and Jonas. Every chapter from Lucy’s perspective seemed to be writing her off as crazy, she hardly mentioned or grieved about Mitch at all, and there were very few chapters from Tuck’s point of view, when he was the second most important person in Mitch’s life.

I really enjoyed Meg as a character, and I thought she was super well rounded and complex. I like that she didn’t grieve for Mitch in that stereotypical way of just crying and screaming, because grieving is so different for everyone and there doesn’t seem to be too much representation of people just kind of, getting on with things after someone they love dies (at least from what I’ve read). I loved how independent she was and how everyone wanted to treat her like a wounded animal, but she was like ‘fuck that’ and fought off a bear instead. Like a literal bear. Female protagonists in books are typically shown to be either shy and meek, or strong and outgoing, but Meg was the perfect blend of both. That being said, the one part that I really didn’t like her in was when she went to dinner with her sister, and that stranger, Hap, grabbed her ass and then she was really apologetic about ‘overreacting’ and ‘ruining the night’ after she’d gotten herself out of that situation. Like, dude, a strange man grabbed you ass and it made you uncomfortable, so you left. That is exactly what you should have done! But instead of making that a teaching moment about sexual harassment, Swan had Meg go out with and then have sex with the creep. Go feminism!

Lucy on the other hand was so poorly developed I had to stop reading twice just to rant to myself about how much more compelling she could have been. Lucy starts off as the seemingly shy and meek archetype but by the end, had only one personality trait: crazy. Every wrong thing that happens in the entire book is pretty much just blamed on Lucy, and yeah, Lucy sucks but making her the real reason behind Mitch’s death and making him her baby’s daddy was just lazy. The fact that the tourists were back before Mitch went out to save them was dumb, the fact that Swan tried to play off Mitch’s death like a murder, also very dumb, but the dumbest thing by far was that Lucy somehow orchestrated his death. I understood, and even liked, that it was written that she was abusing Tuck and not the other way around. Female – male domestic violence is only ever taken seriously unless it’s the woman being harmed and I like that Swan showed how even “manly” men can be abused by their female partners. I could see Lucy being prone to violence in that way, but the way I read her character I could not see her being capable of premeditated murder and then not even feeling bad about it! I mean, that’s just my interpretation, maybe other people can see it, but I just can’t. I thought it was lame and that there was a real chance to build a complex villain out of Lucy but it was quashed by just making her irredeemably evil and then at the end of it all just saying, ‘she’s got PTSD, oh well!’

Tuck was another character that I felt just had so much more in him. We got a few snippets of his inner turmoil and I really wish that we got to see more. I couldn’t imagine losing someone that was essentially a brother and best friend combo. They grew up together, ran a business together, did everything together! Tuck’s grief should have been more prominent, especially since every time he was mentioned from Meg’s POV he was demonised. And let’s be clear, he was a douchebag, but he was a douchebag who deserved to be understood.

The love story portion of the book was completely adorable, and I was rooting for Jonas and Meg from the moment Mitch died. Jonas was so sweet and kind and respected Meg’s boundaries! (Wow the bar is literally so low) Like, obviously their meet-cute, if you can even call it that, was a bit out there (literally), but I didn’t even care because meeting a hot astronaut over radio is now one of my ultimate fantasies. I loved how Meg seemed so conflicted about letting herself fall for someone else so soon after Mitch, and how she kept having to fight with how she was grieving vs. how everyone else wanted her to grieve. Even throughout the story I kept catching myself judging her for “moving on too fast,” which makes me a huge hypocrite because I used to hate when people did that to me after I lost someone I cared about. But the best things about a book is when it makes you question yourself and how you view things. And that’s what reading is all about, looking at things from other people’s perspectives. I would say writing is about that too. Slipping on someone else’s skin. Thinking how they think, speaking how they speak, living how they live.

Which brings me to my next point: Canada. The descriptions of the Canadian wilderness and the landscapes were spot on! Truly wonderful descriptions about both Toronto and Banff. But what really makes Canada, Canada, are the people. And let me tell you, a Canadian would NEVER call a goalie a “keeper”??? We’re not at Hogwarts, pal! Throughout the book Swan consistently used English terms for things, which I gave a pass when she was speaking from Meg’s perspective, Lucy on the other hand was Canadian born and bred. She would never have called a stroller a ‘pram’ or a vacuum a ‘hoover’ or Alberta a fucking ‘state’! When thinking logically, I know that these are very dumb things to be mad about, but I’m a Canadian woman living in the UK and the language over here is vastly different from the language back in Canada and I don’t know, maybe I feel like it’s a bit of a misrepresentation of Canadian culture and phrasing, or maybe I just like to be outraged over trivial things. Who knows? Sure as fuck not me.

Overall though I liked this book. It wasn’t great or terrible, it was just ok. I had trouble rating this book at first because I felt like it could only either be 2 or 4 stars. I still don’t really feel like 3 stars suits it but it’s the only number between 2 and 4 so I guess it must be.

 Also: There is literally no Christmas in the entire book. It gets mentioned near the end but that’s it.

[misterbitches]

first thing fuck the anon who was rude to you 😤😤 but DON'T BE SORRY FOR YOUR ANSWER that kind of thing was exactly what i was expecting from you when i told you about this drama lmao i really like reading your thoughts about this kind of stuff , not to mention i also learn a lot \o/ could i ask you why you don't like lee min ho? i thought he was cool in the series but i'm not gonna lie : i was not here for the romance i could not care at all about them (1)

(pt 2!): JUNG EUN CHAE DESERVED BETTER ON THIS SERIES and oH OH I SEE YOU LIKE WOO DO HWAN SUPERIOR TASTE AS EXPECTED i heard he's gonna be in another drama soon! and hell yeah i watched my country and i'm still not over the ending my mans hwi and seon ho deserve a better ending not to mention that the good old homophobia had to give them female li ( and that's all those women were 🤢 how hard is it to write better stories for women?) 

i think the previous one may be from my (now defunct) film blog from grad school. it was about blackness in film so it literally says (this is a nicer way of me putting it: [get abused and die  n word] lmao which i wouldnt mention but im very not happy rn so i will complain

i honestly hate LMH’s acting. and als (and this is very very me) he was dating suji and their age gap just eternally pissed me off. i heard he was terrible with park min young and didn’t defend her at all when she was attacked (they dated after his drama city hunter) and idk. i’m tired of hearing about these actors with alal these young it girls. just a combo of things.

i haven’t gotten back to it and i dobt i would like it now but city hunter? idk if you have seen it. it is from 2012 but at the time it SLAPPPPPEEEDDDD. like i LOVED that show so i had to be able to put up with him somehow i watched it like 5 fucking times LMAO. i was also a big kim woo bin fan and i was probably rly snooty about him not being lead in heirs. it’s so silly, all my problems with these people seem so far away but yea.

what was the romance like? idk if you have seen goblin either but fuck. it’s not even kim go eun’s fault and tbh i feel kind of bad for her (also there was this like rumor she was going out with this actor and his text messages to her are SOOOOO WEIRD and i just felt really bad for her? and creeped out? lol) she’s a good actress too! then i saw lek 5 eps of govlni and swore ms eun sook was my MORTAL ENEMY. 

ohhhhh MY GOD OK U WATCHED MY COUNTRY. I DINT EVEN WATCH THE LAST EPISODE. IF U REPLY TO THIS PLS TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS LMAOOO. i fucking couldnt do it i was like THIS IS SO FUCKING DUMBBB

and 1000000% part of the issue is that seolhyun cannot act and she desperately needs voice training (her tone ....like bitch how do u cry with the SAME DAMN VOICE i was crying 10m ago and i cant even speak normal!) and then all the women. fuck i think the owner of the gisaeng palace (forgot what that’s called) was probably the best and that was like...towards the end. and that ugly jawn getting with one of the gisaengs? also her face was so distracting bc her jaw. omfg i just. :( 

i wish they could have like been together without that girl there (hwi and SH obvi!) 

and they had SH (right?) like the girl char too? also what the FUCKKKK WITH HIS LITTLE SISTER? SHE WAS LIT THE ONLY FEMME CHAR I LIKED. i remember being shocked and my friend was like “bitch it was a fuckin red-ass herring” and i kNOW i just lIKED HER???? SO I WAS LIKE??????? 

if you haven’t seen nokdu flower i super recommend. it has all the things you brought up of course but the peasant revolution is an enormous feat of class solidarity. and i am like almost positive the men back then were trash to women but there’s some things i have never seen done in a drama and am very happy about. the female characters are real cool. like even if one doesn’t know how to fight (which isnt the case) the mind is actually sharp. 

and because it’s hard to put characters or people that were so...hm...commonly exploited? the ex slave owner that raped his slave before she was freed (jo jeong suk’s character, half bro of the other MC) was seen as a fucking rapist. like actually. and i havent seen that happen really at all. dramas are so rare to have leading women be abused in any like..very sexual? way. i hate to say “penetrative” bc that is never close to the breadth of the pain that abuse brings but it’s like you’re only truly ruined if you are forced to have a penis inserted into you. and when male characters were disgusting, the audience knew how we were supposed to feel about them.

gisaengs are also “technically” slaves. at one point they were fucking owned and the hold barely stopped there. so i fucking hate speaking of these really prolific women as if there was a choice in the matter. does it even count if you literally cannot afford anything else? i cant remember, but i’m pretty sure NF was not too bad abt this.

it sucks cos like....automatically you want to like female characters but when they are flawed and just written so poorly it is so glaringly obvious. and i’m not a fan of being handed scraps and liking a woman just bc she’s there. in fact it’s even more insulting. how fucking hard is it to write people we can even extract a little bit of like...hm humanity from? it really isnt hard lmao. patriarchy :)