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gotstabbedbyapen · 1 year ago

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Hyacinthus Iceberg Meme EXPLAIN (P3)

Part 1 ✿ Part 2 ✿ Part 3 ✿ Part 4 ✿ Part 5

It's time for me to answer your questions about this Hyacinthus iceberg meme. There is a lot to tackle, so I'll divide it into 5 parts for the sake of my sanity.

Quick disclaimer: I am NOT an expert in Greek mythology, just a fan of Hyacinthus who wants to learn about him and anyone related to him. Most of the things I'm about to discuss are just theories and speculations of a passerby on the Internet, so do not take them as valid facts!

Daphne is Hyacinthus' sister

There is only one poet who wrote about Daphne being Hyacinthus' sister. Well, it's not explicitly stated but he claimed Daphne was a daughter of King Amyclas and lived in Laconia, so it's not hard to piece it all together.

"This is how the story of Daphne, the daughter of Amyklas (Amyclas), is related. [...] But she got together a large pack of hounds and used to hunt either in Lakonia (Laconia) or sometimes going into the further mountains of the Peloponnese." - Parthenius, "Love Romances"

I have a joke headcanon that Apollo loves Hyacinthus because he looks like Daphne (Hya's sister) and Hyacinthus loves Apollo because he looks like Thamyris (Apollo's grandson).

Some K-drama angsty level of romance, eh?

The accurate hyacinth flower???

This has been a debate for quite a while now. Is the flower born from Hyacinthus' death the modern hyacinth or a different flower?

Even though most of us settle for the widely-known purple hyacinth (the flowers above), many argue that the flower can also be a larkspur, an iris, or a martagon lily.

I admit I prefer Hyacinthus' flower being the purple hyacinth or at least a similar ancestor. It's because Athena used to give Odysseus a curly hairstyle like the hyacinths, and that description is similar to the modern flower.

[...] Athena poured beauty on [Odysseus]— her abundance made him taller and more robust to look at. Then, on his head, she transformed his hair, so it flowed in curls like fresh hyacinths in bloom. - Homer, "The Odyssey"

Here is a detail that got me pondering.

In the "Abduction of Persephone" myth, when Persephone is returned to Demeter, she tells her mother about the abduction and we have this:

"[...] we were playing and gathering sweet flowers in our hands, soft crocuses mingled with irises and hyacinths, and rose-blooms and lilies, marvelous to see, and the narcissus which the wide earth caused to grow yellow as a crocus." - Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter

So Persephone is collecting flowers when she is taken, and one of those flowers is the hyacinth. It's unexpected to think Apollo and Hyacinthus got together before the seasons were a thing.

Zephyrus wears hyacinths on his flower wreath

There is one account I can find that talks about this detail.

"You can see [Zephyrus], I think, with his winged temples and his delicate form; and he wears a crown of all kinds of flowers, and will soon weave the hyacinth in among them." - Philostratus the Elder, "Imagines"

It might be a simple thing, but it had me thinking. Does Zephyrus wear hyacinths in his flower crown as a reminder of his former lover (like Apollo wears laurels from Daphne's tree)? Is it out of the guilt he has later or a sadistic triumph?

We'll never know.

Chloris creates the hyacinth flowers

For those who don't know, Chloris is the goddess of flowers and the wife of Zephyrus.

We all agree that Apollo created the hyacinth flower in the memories of Hyacinthus, but Ovid claimed Chloris (or Flora, her Roman counterpart) to be the creator.

"I (Flora) first made a flower from Therapnean blood [Hyacinthus the larkspur flower], and its petal still inscribes the lament. You too, narcissus, have a name in tended gardens, unhappy in your undivided self. Why mention Crocus, Attis, or Cinyras' son, from whose wounds I made a tribute soar?" - Ovid, "Fasti"

I don't like this version not because it's a Roman source, but because having Flora/Chloris creating the flower will reduce the heart-wrenching of Apollo and Hyacinthus' myth. Apollo lost his beloved to the hands of death, so having him make the flower as a tribute to their love and to always remember him will have a bigger impact.

Apollo is Hyacinthus' uncle/granduncle/great-grandfather

Look, almost all Greek mythology couples are related in some way. Apollo and Hyacinthus are no exception.

If we have Amyclas and Diomede as Hyacinthus' parents, Apollo will be Hyacinthus' granduncle on his father's side and great-grandfather on his mother's side.

Lacedaemon (Hyacinthus' grandfather) is a son of Zeus and Taygete.

"[Eurotas] left the kingdom to Lacedaemon, whose mother was Taygete, after whom the mountain was named, while according to report his father was none other than Zeus." - Pausanias, "Description of Greece"

Lapithes is a son of Apollo and the father of Diomede.

"Lapithes, the son of Apollon and Stilbe, the daughter of Peneus." - Diodorus Siculus, "Library of History"

"Amyclas and Lapithes' daughter Diomede had Cynortas and Hyacinthus." - Pseudo-Apollodorus, "Bibliotheca"

If we have Clio as Hyacinthus' mother, Apollo will be his half-uncle because the Muses are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the Titan goddess of memory.

I guess the only way to remove incest from Apollo and Hyacinthus is to have Clio as his mother but use the version where the Muses sprang into life from four rivers made by Pegasus.

Hyacinthus is the relative/ancestor of other heroes (Perseus, Heracles, Helen, etc.)

I used to make a family tree for ten generations of the mythical Spartan family (and an additional one for Perseus and Danae).

And since Perseus is the great-grandfather of Heracles, this means Hyacinthus is an ancestor of Heracles as well.

Here are some sources to back me up:

"[...] Lelex, an aboriginal was the first king in this land, after whom his subjects were named Leleges. Lelex had a son Myles, and a younger one Polycaon. [...] On the death of Myles his son Eurotas succeeded to the throne.." - Pausanias, "Description of Greece"

"On the death of Amyclas, the empire came to Argalus, the eldest of his sons, and afterward, when Argalus died, to Cynortas. Cynortas had a son Oebalus." - Pausanias, "Description of Greece"

"[Oebalus] took a wife from Argos, Gorgophone the daughter of Perseus, and begat a son Tyndareus, with whom Hippocoon disputed about the kingship, claiming the throne on the ground of being the eldest. With the end of Icarius and his partisans, he had surpassed Tyndareus in power, and forced him to retire in fear." - Pausanias, "Description of Greece"

"To Acrisius and Eurydice, Lacedaemon's daughter, was born a daughter Danae [...] When Acrisius later learned that she had given birth to Perseus, not believing that Zeus seduced her, he cast his daughter out to sea with her son on an ark." - Pseudo-Apollodorus, "Bibliotheca"

Apollo and Hyacinthus in the Trojan War???

Oh boy. This is the part many of you are screaming for me to explain.

I'll have to disappoint you because there aren't many texts about Apollo/Hyacinthus in the Epic Cycle (at least, I can't find all of them yet). But if we bust our brains, we can draw out some shower thoughts.

1) Was Hyacinthus alive by the time of the Trojan War, and did he participate?

The timeline is shaky and depends on which source you're looking at. Euripides' play "Helen" mentions the Hyacinthia festival, meaning our prince was born, died, and immortalized before the Trojan War.

"They will be gathered in a dance, at long last, or in games, or in all night feasts, in honor of Hyacinth, whom Phoebus Apollo killed during a discus throwing contest." - Euripides, "Helen"

On the other hand, Lucian's "Dialogues of the Dead" said that Hyacinthus was still in the Underworld after the Trojan War.

"Menippos: Where are all the beauties, Hermes? Show me around, I am a newcomer. Hermes : I am busy, Menippos. But look over there, to your right, and you will see Hyacinthus, Narcissus, Nireus, Achilles, Tyro, Helene, Leda - all the beauties of old." - Lucian, "Dialogues of the Dead"

From Lucian's work, either Hyacinthus will be resurrected much later after the war or never at all.

If we go by the version that Hyacinthus was deified before the war, I'm sure he will side with his homeland. Hyacinthus is a favorite hero-god of Sparta and great-granduncle to Helen, so there is no reason he won't participate in the war.

That leads us to the next point:

2) Can you imagine the angst potential for Hyapollo???

National pride is a big thing for Spartans. You know how Spartans mock other city-states and uphold their people. Hyacinthus must feel utterly betrayed when Apollo is revealed to be siding with the people who stole from his homeland. He loves the god, but he loves his homeland more.

However, unlike the previous point where there are sources to draw from, we got zero records of how Apollo and Hyacinthus interacted during the war. So it has to be up to our imagination.

When Apollo sent a plague on the Greeks, did he purposefully spare the Spartans because of Hyacinthus? Did Hyacinthus tell his men to not kill the children, lovers, or favored mortals of Apollo?

Did they avoid each other when the Olympian civil conflict broke out? Did they even talk to each other at all?

And most importantly, how would they heal after the Trojan War?

3) Do the Spartans celebrate the Hyacinthia in Troy?

Now, this one is funny. The Spartans worshipped Apollo and Hyacinthus together, yet Apollo is now the enemy of Sparta.

In history, Spartans did form truces and leave the battlefields to attend the Hyacinthia festival.

"Now the Lakedaimonians (Lacedaemonians), as the festival of Hyakinthos was approaching, made a truce of forty days with the men of Eira [in Messenia]. They themselves returned home to keep the feast." - Pausanias, "Description of Greece"

But this isn't the case in the Trojan War. No sources say the Spartans desert the battlefield in Troy to go home for the festival (makes sense because they have to travel across the sea, and their queen is still trapped in Troy)

So the question is: how do they celebrate them in Troy instead? Do they even celebrate the Hyacinthia when one of the honored gods is siding against them?

Food for thought...

TO BE CONTINUED

#hyacinthus #greek gods #greek deities #greek mythology #iceberg meme explain #long post #my ramblings #my theories #analysis #sorry for the long wait guys #uni classes are unifying to beat my ass these months #The Pen explodes with ink

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highrook · 7 months ago

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The Two Worlds of Highrook

(part 2 ) Nibiru

“Nibiru, the hidden twin, the unseen mirror, the cast shadow. A citadel island outside of time, created by The End to act as a shelter and a rebuke.” - The path across the water - Vilicent Moore

Niburu is a mirror world accessible only in dreams and ritual. It exists alongside the mundane world of BlackSands like a shadow, an ethereal isle of twisted terrain and cyclopean geometry. Dark tides lap at its ashen beaches, forming a barrier between the waking world and the nightmare domain.

Beyond the shore Nibiru is walled in labyrinthine circles, like Dantes visions. Strange geometric divisions, marking time and territory, like ripples frozen in water. Each circle is host to its own unholy denizens and uncanny architecture.

Nibiru floats outside of time or space and is only accessible through gateways that exist in the darkest corners of the earth or the deepest chambers of the mind. It cares not for the sunlit world and waits patiently for its demise. The Watchers of the First Circle writhe upon the ramparts, marking the fading sun with their unceasing gaze. The Key stands before the prismatic gates.

Influences

The mirror world that lurks unseen alongside Blacksands is named after the myth of the Niburu Cataclysm. This is a rich and multifaceted legend based on the idea that an unseen planet will one day destroy the earth, in an unavoidable catastrophic collision.

Although recent iterations of the idea are linked to millennial era conspiracy theories, the original source is taken from ancient Mesopotamian and Sumerian texts. In these texts, Nibiru is the "star of Marduk" - one of the most powerful gods of the Babylonian era

In the various interpretations this planet (also known as Planet X or Marduk) is described as invisible, hidden by astrospacial effects, or able to warp in and out of our dimensional plane. It is the home to a sentient alien race, described as gods by the ancient sumerians. It was part of the inspiration for the Lars Von Trier film Melancholia and has frequently resurfaced as part of internet memes and conspiracy theories. It is also a term in Akkadian language for a crossing or equinox.

All of these elements make the myth a rich and inspirational source for the creation of its 'reflection' in Highrook. I'm not trying to create an accurate version of the myth in the game, but I am using the amazing premise and evocative lore as a seed to create my own dark mirror world - A cosmic shadow plane, an island citadel, home to transfigured beings, once human but now ‘ascended’ and incorporated into a pantheon of powerful nightmarish beings.

Just as the waking world of Blacksands emerged from my interest in the cities of gothic fiction and cosmic horror, the unseen twin of Nibiru is inspired by countless myths of hidden apocalyptic worlds..

#cosmic horror #indie games #lovecraftian horror #creative process #the horror at highrook

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arco-pluris · 5 months ago

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did you coin nontrinary?

https://leptrois.tumblr.com/post/652080651903909888/trinary-timeline I found a lot of links here crediting you.

I'm a bit confused on it's definition though. I think of nontrinary as just the trinary version of nonbinary, so it would include atrinary, midtrinary, anything that isn't strictly one trinary gender all the time (and any other specification that are applied to nonbinary).

but the definitions linked don't seem to match, like they seem more narrow.

so if I'm looking to credit a source for nontrinary, do I credit one of those links even though I use a different definition? And I'm not sure which one to credit, as the definition keeps changing.

also, what does "some people can describe nonternary as abinary with gender alignment" mean?

2 disclaimers:

Maybe I worded the definitions not adequately as I wanted. Mainly because I didn't put so much effort in describing them meticulously or because my English was bad, or because I had learning issues, such as dyslexia, combined with the fact that I probably had a manic episode (plus probably daydreaming, psychosis, dissociation, hallucinations, schizophasia, and glossolalia) while coining them. Honestly, I'm involved in all these terminologies, be it anonymously or sideblogs. Except some, such as anontrinary (by mogai-mom).

I like scales, I'm into hard sciences. So I have my own PoVs of everything, I like exogenous analogies and transdisciplinarity, and the urge to expand concepts and conlanging. Sometimes, in these situations, I divagate, that's when I'm explaining things you know. @gender-archival even said I recoined my own terms because of my "contradictory explanations" and I was using another pseudonym.

Answering directly:

Yes, as far as I can tell, I was bold to coin it independently. Maybe someone else used it hypothetically somewhere else, I couldn't be against this hypothetical use of it hypothetically. Honestly, it feels like I patented a gender when in fact it was always able to be defined in other ways that people would get what I meant, by analogy with nonbinary. So, use one of those links. BUT, when I coined non(qua)ternary, I technically coined nonternary as a potential synonym of nonquaternary (nonquadnary/nonquadrinary). That's because androgyne could be its own gender. Like the fourth gender wouldn't be hierarchically distinct from the third you know.

Last answer: that definition was suggested by @mogai-ringo, I think. Stereotypically, having an alignment is interpreted as being gendered or midbinarily gendered, and being neutrally aligned means that you're unaligned or nonaligned. If you think about it, it's nonsensical, but that's how some people see it biasedly. You can wait for her to explain about her PoV, maybe it would be better, because right now I'm not sane to guess so much something that I forgot exactly what I felt when using this sentence. If it helps (probably not), I was this anon. What will really help you is that I agree with everything said here. I like when people mitigate or evaluate my terms too, and a lot of the time it's accurate, except when they try to be narrower than me most times.

TL;DR yes I coined; it's not narrow and it should follow the nonbinary definition just replacing binary with trinary.

Comments

Btw, I don't mind other people semioticizing my terms. I actually like the idea of self-interpretation, philosophizing, and using them as they please. I don't mind prosifications. In this aspect, I deliberate a lot.

I noticed the term nontrinary was a meme back in 2021 or around. Like you know it's not a niched protologism anymore when big pages and high profile users start to react to it. And atrinary is nichedly popular I'd say, there are even a lot of backlash, commotion, and aftermath -trinary terms received. But I wasn't the first one to allude to the gender trinary and wikis make it clear now.

Important note

Something that I intentionally omitted when posting the second atrinary flag specifically is including the lack of full genderlessness (agenderness). Because then I interpreted that a- prefixed arities would always include agender (except anullary, but was that ever coined‽). That would be too late, except that I made some efforts in sideblogs to re-explain it and I'm not sure if that perspective caught on. Huh, you see wikis saying "not necessarily", almost like because neutrality and neutrois are seen as agenderedness. It's up for interpretation at this point. This I must confess that I recoined my own term.

#ryany #nontrinary #explanations #long post #txt #text #gender trinary #gender discourse

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steviewashere · 16 days ago

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Okay, in case you were curious, this is the post I was talking about! Now, here's the thing, the original post has the art now removed. Alright, dude, you removed the art good on you.

But!

I just realized that the OP from my reblog had removed the AI art, but then also removed my reblog from their notes!

Hey, dude, I'm calling out that you're making unethical art! AI art has been proven to be harmful to the environment, that goes for all generative AI—ChatGPT prompts, OpenAI art, AI generated text, AI generated memes, etc. This AI art that you made, OP, was clearly basing itself off of somebody else's art.

There's this wonderful drawing of Steve and his parents, which can be found here, that shares a shocking and disturbing resemblance to the AI's version of Steve Harrington. Now, am I saying this art is the only one to influence this AI image? No, but the similarities are stark and real.

It's also been brought to my attention, OP from my reblog, that you have used generative AI before for Steddie related art. (I saw the Eddie Hobbit AI—what the fuck are those tattoos? One of them looks like a curled up shrimp on his left forearm; last I remember, Eddie doesn't have a shrimp tattooed on him! Not to mention, OP, the guitar's fret board is entirely inaccurate! If you took the time to research what a fucking guitar looks like, you'd notice the little dots that are indicated on some of the frets—typically to show every other fret—are never directly next to each other! And I should know, I've been playing an acoustic guitar—much like the one Hobbit Eddie is holding in your little AI image—for over ten years, which is well over half of my life at this point). You are not slick, OP, it is clear you are prompting an AI machine to make art for you. And that's beyond disappointing. That's frustrating and ugly. Considering, too, that it seems like the AI is scraping the internet and basing the looks of your Steddie characters from other people's art; people, mind you, who are most likely still a part of the Steddie/Stranger Things fandom!

The people who do post real and authentic and beautiful art in this fandom are people who are some of the kindest individuals you'll ever meet, most likely work day jobs, they do this art in their free time, they want to work with you and make these images as accurate as possible, and some of them are making small amounts of money in commissions. And for you to act like what you're doing is something to be hidden; to delete comments, reblogs, etc. that is calling out the fact that you are generating art—that is all bullshit behavior.

Write what you want to write. Post stories. Make people coo and awe and cheer over your words, but stop this shit with scraping our own fandom for art that is soulless, inaccurate, and an amalgamation of estimations. Seriously, man, that is so completely uncool of you.

And I wanted to be nice, dude, but to see the fact that you hid my reblog from your followers and from other people outside of your blog, that is disgusting behavior, man.

Own up to the fact that you did use AI to make art for you. Apologize or something for it. It's easier to admit that you did something wrong instead of trying to bury that wrong under more wrongs. You're digging yourself a deeper hole by hiding your use of AI.

And, to everybody else reading this, obviously this an Anti-AI zone. I don't fuck around with this horseshit. It's destroying communities by way of pollution, it's using our clean water sources, it's using more energy than we could ever imagine using. And for what? Three dudes looking in different directions?

Get fucking real.

I saw AI generated Steddie art and everybody's just brushing by it to praise the story that the art goes along with. I can tell it's AI based off of multiple factors. But I don't want to be mean and make a big "call out" post about the AI art. What do you guys suggest I do?

It's just disappointing to see people let AI art slide because the story it goes with is cute or something—there are too many Steddie artists in this fandom to just be casually excusing AI art in favor of writing. Should I just post the reblog I have in my drafts, or is that too harsh and mean and critical?

Like, I think I can be critical of somebody who is also making art (by writing), but I don't want it to come off as me being mean, y'know? And I also don't want it to cause other people to be mean to the OP, because that's not cool at all.

#anti ai #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson

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clownsuu · 3 years ago

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Honestly Animatronic DJMM deserves a whole lot more love than he gets from this fandom. Human designs are fun but you gotta appreciate the source material too dang it. I just wanna kiss his big nose and hold his giant hand and I'd be happy. I know you share the sentiment

People who don’t like og DJMM are cowards 😤😤😤😤🥄🥄🥄🥄

Like if you like human djmm but not true giant enemy spider djmm? You aren’t a djmm fan smhhhhhhh how can you NOT love the giant bb mans- he is everything and more you could need in a giant enemy spider robot-

Also? Only fucking thing (besides that one thing cough spoilers I shouldn’t worry about spoilers but friend goes through my blog and hasn’t finished cough) that was sleeping when they were supposed to- making him a true certified good boy (at least to moon’s standards)

(Cw small rant MCHFHHDDJ)

LIKE SHID DUDE-

His part of the game was probably one of the most tense parts of the game (not saying a lot tbh the game lacks a bunch of shit) with the giant mans fucking spooking the shit out of you reaching his fucking H A N D into the fucking bathroom and crawling up the walls like a fucking cool ass sPIDER that he IS- and his music? Fucking b a n g e r- really sets the mood and the tension- some real mission impossible shit right there m8- plus the fUCKING HEAD TILLLLLTSSSSS GODDDD ITS ADORABLE- a giant man with small curious gestures- and then stops giving a shit about chasing Greg and just vibes on his lil stage

But back on point- Yeah- what the fard- I go and look for anything djmm related and there is basically zero- nada- majority of it being human version and though at least the human versions gives him more attention-? It’s more so for sex appeal and being hot- (I’m guilty of it I cannot lie LMAO- but iv been drawing more biblically accurate dj cause I absolutely adore this mans smh) there is barely ANYTHING about him and it’s sad. He’s more so seen as a meme than a character-

Fanfics with him in it is mostly just him showing up for maybe a paragraph or two and just leaving- rarely giving him any love and acknowledgement from the fandom as a whole and it’s sad. The other day I went to shop for any djmm merch anyone was makin so I can get me some of that sweet sweet giant enemy spider pride shit- and majority of merch was just sun and moon (don’t get me wrong- absolutely adore sun and moon- but DAMN they are the biggest attraction-) and it’s like sHIT- I COULD ONLY FIND LIKE- AT MOST 5 THINGS FOR DJ smhhhh

Long story short, dj is criminally underrated, and I’m going to speak to my (non existent) lawyers about it (and cry)

#my bread and butter #fnaf moon #djmm #dj music man #also yes I want to hold his giant hands and boop his big ass nose and call him my scrunkliest of scrimblos #but I CANT #So the next best thing is to make another character do it fOR ME #Aka moon lmAO #doing what a man like me cannot smh #plus their ship as robots is really cute I usually see people portray him as a gentle giant and I’m fucking eating that up like hot cakes

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medea10 · 3 years ago

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My Review of Princess Sara

And now I return for more World Masterpiece Theater.

Today’s classic is something I’m somewhat familiar with. The series is loosely based on the novel titled, “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. There were several adaptations for film and television throughout the past several decades including a Shirley Temple film in the late 1930’s, an Americanized version in the 90s, and about a bajillion Filipino adaptations. The one I’m most familiar with was the one that came out in 1995. I remember this film very well as it was played a lot in my youth and as an adult, I would come across it from time to time on HBO or some other station playing it. It was fine and all, but I knew that this film took artistic liberties and changed around a lot from the novel.

After watching several of these World Masterpiece Theater animes, I’ve come to realize that these series are pretty damn accurate when it comes to capturing the original source material. I mean yes, Les Mis took a lot of liberties to remove several characters from being killed off, but it was still top tier best version. All of these animes have to take a few liberties as they are all G-Rated. But they’re still very good nevertheless. I was curious about this particular story for the longest time and thought it was high-time I sit down and watch the anime version.

Sara Crewe and her father arrive in London from India. Back home, Sara was treated a lot like a princess and she acted like one. Not the bad kind, the Princess Diana kind, she’s a sweetheart. Sara is about to be admitted to a boarding school, Miss Minchin’s all-girl’s boarding school that is! Once at school, Sara was beloved by most of the students and praised by teachers due to her academic skills. On top of which, her father is loaded! Yeah, her father is in the diamond business back in India and so he has enough money to keep her daughter happy.

Unfortunately, when Sara’s father dies news also comes that the family is bankrupt leaving Sara without a penny to her name. Surely Miss Minchin will care for the poor orphan girl, right? Ha, I already know this story. Miss Minchin strips Sara of her education, clothes, and housing. Even though she tossed around the idea of casting the orphaned girl to the streets, Miss Minchin takes pity on the girl. Sara will live in a cold attic and work as a scullery maid. Sara is to do as she’s told by her higher-ups, never talk with the other students, and must work until she pays off her debts to Miss Minchin.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As I’ve mentioned in the past, only a few of the World Masterpiece Theater animes were dubbed into English. And this was one of them…sorta! Our good friends at Animax did one. And if you’re unfamiliar, this is the company from Southeast Asia that dubs anime into English. And if that still doesn’t ring a bell, look up the Cardcaptor Sakura dub and you’ve got your answer. As usual, this anime has made its way across the globe to many different countries and territories. Apparently, it was a big hit in the Philippines. So much so that there’s a plethora of memes surrounding this one series! As for the cast, it’s a mixture of veteran voice actors that are still voicing today, lesser-known voices, and one-timers. And as this is a part of the World Masterpiece Theater collection, some voice actors here were heard in other works throughout the years like Naoko Watanabe and Eiko Yamada. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Sara is played by Sumi Shimamoto (known for Okita’s sister on Gintama, Kanata on Lucky Star, Ishizu on YGO, and Flora on Berserk 2016)

*Becky is played by Teiyuu Ichiryuusai (known for Masao on Crayon Shin-chan)

*Miss Minchin is played by Taeko Nakanishi

DISLIKED CHARACTERS: Oh-ho-ho, I knew going in that I was going to hate two specific characters! Those two are Lavinia and Miss Minchin. Though when I watched the movie, it was more of a hatred for Miss Minchin overall and Lavinia was a passing thought. Has this anime changed my thoughts on these two?

Right from the starting gate, they are both detestable and will continue to be that.

Lavinia is a snot-nosed brat who gets jealous every time Sara gets attention from the teachers. But the greatest injustice done to Lavinia was that Miss Minchin took Lavinia’s role of class rep and gave it to Sara. So the bitch was butt-hurt. But when Sara’s father died and she loses her wealth, Lavinia showed absolutely no sadness. In fact, she was the only person in the room smiling. What a bitch! And when Sara became a scullery maid for the seminary, Lavinia made sure to screw around with Sara by any means necessary. She gets a kick from making the poor girl suffer or get yelled at. Seriously, every time you see this snot-nosed brat glare at Sara I’m screaming, “JUST LEAVE THE POOR GIRL ALONE!”

Thank God there was a second of peace. Lavinia’s father learned that Sara was once a student but is now a scullery maid and Lavinia being so insistent that Sara become her personal maid. He slapped the freckles off that bitch’s face. Give that father a cash prize and a trophy! Mind you I said one second of peace. The next episode she was right back giving Sara (and Becky) a hard time. Lavinia does so much to Sara that I can’t believe Sara managed to remain civil throughout the entire ordeal.

And as for Miss Minchin, she’s had it out for Sara from minute one. But because her father was wealthy, she decided to use Sara to show off to high society people. And the brewing point for Miss Minchin to vow vengeance against Sara was because Sara hid the fact that she was fluent in French. The audacity of this bitch! But again, because of Sara’s father, she sucked up. Miss Minchin’s true colors came out in front of Sara when it’s learned of her father’s death and failed diamond business. No pity on the girl who just lost everything. She was ready to throw her out on the street, but was begged by others to keep her as a maid.

Miss Minchin would be terrible to Sara. She physically abused her, starved her, forced her to live in unlivable conditions, and had the other workers (Molly and James) work her like a slave. One of the worst moments was when Sara got severely ill. Never mind pushing Sara to the point of illness, this woman had to think for a moment to get a credible doctor to look at her. She got the cheapest, drunkest doctor they could find who misdiagnosed her. Miss Minchin even thought about sending Sara to a sanitorium if this persists. Bitch, I can’t even with you! At least in this version, Miss Minchin never sent the police on Sara. Of the three versions to this story I’ve watched, I think this Miss Minchin was the cruelest. Only because we do witness her slapping Sara several times!

SHIPPING: I know I shouldn’t be shipping anyone with anybody. Most of the people in this story are young. VERY YOUNG! As for the adults, there were no romantic interests for anyone here. It’s plainly clear that Miss Minchin is going to die a spinster. None of the teachers had secret relationships with some guy like in the Shirley Temple version. And Miss Amelia didn’t run off with the milk man like in the 1995 version! None of that went down in this adaptation.

With that said…

Peter x Sara is cute! I would support the hell out of this even though it probably isn’t canon.

ACCURATE OR NOT: So let’s see if Princess Sara really stacks up to the novel “A Little Princess”.

*Oh-ho-ho, time to nail my childhood to a wall. As you know, I’m well familiar with the 1995 rendition of A Little Princess. If you’re like me and know this film from start to finish, get ready to have the balloon pop. Becky’s not black. The story takes place in London, not New York City. The story really takes place in the late 1800s, not World War I times. Ralph Crewe didn’t leave his daughter to fight in a war. And finally the most important fact, Ralph Crewe remains dead. Most of the things I mentioned here were used correctly in this adaptation.

*There are some new characters added to the series. And quite frankly, I’m not entirely sure who these people are. Except for the animals! With the exception of Ram Dass’s monkey, I don’t think Miss Minchin’s cat Cesar nor the family of rats exist.

*Most things in this anime are pretty accurate to the original source. But there’s a good chance that most of the episodes were either fabricated or stretched out to fit the running time. You know, fillers! Call me crazy, but I don’t think the book had chapters involving a Halloween party. Same goes for that episode where Amelia opens up to Sara about her past with her sister.

*It is unknown how long this experience for Sara lasts anime-wise. In the book, Sara’s time at Miss Minchin’s seminary was approximately 2 years. The way I see it, I don’t think Sara was a scullery maid for more than a year in the anime. If she were, we would have probably gotten an episode of Sara celebrating her first birthday without her father.

ENDING: Around episode 30, the home next to Miss Minchin’s seminary was sold to a gentleman from India named Mr. Carrisford. He was able to survive a gnarly bout with Jungle Fever, although now he’s confined to a wheel chair. But Mr. Carrisford has an overwhelming sense of guilt due to how things went down in India. See, he convinced his long-time friend to go into business with him involving a diamond mine. But the friend died from his Jungle Fever, leaving behind a daughter and a whole legal battle involving bankruptcy.

In case you’re not keeping up, Mr. Carrisford’s friend is Ralph Crewe, Sara’s father. Sara is just several feet from the gentleman who can save her from the living hell of Miss Minchin’s seminary.

But Medea, we’ve got over 15 episodes left!

Correct, dipshit! Mr. Carrisford doesn’t remember a lot, probably due to the Jungle Fever. He doesn’t remember Ralph’s daughter’s name. And he forgot where Sara was sent for her education. In fact, he was way off. Mr. Carrisford had his friend travel by boat to France in search for this girl. So I’m sitting here episode-after-episode screaming at the screen, “SHE’S RIGHT THERE, YOU IDIOT”. But because of Sara’s friendship with Ram Dass (Carrisford’s caretaker), he saw to it to repay Sara for her kindness. Ram Dass would spend days and nights going to the attic to give Sara warm blankets, clothes, and food. Sara thought it was a magic spell or a guardian angel looking out for her. It wasn’t long before Miss Minchin saw these special items in the attic and threw Sara out to sleep in a horse stable.

Things only get worse from here when one night the stable catches on fire and Sara almost burned to death. And then she gets blamed by Miss Minchin for starting the fire! This is the one and only time I’ve ever seen Sara stand up to Miss Minchin as she was not at fault. I know it’d be asking too much to have Sara tell Miss Minchin to fuck off, but this was big for Sara to stand up for herself. In actuality, Lottie accidentally dropped a candle when she was scared by (you guessed it) Lavinia and her friends. But no, Miss Minchin jumped to every wrong conclusion and threw Sara out of the seminary. Fortunately, Sara was taken in by Peter and his family and she was even able to get a job like many of the other children in the area.

Sara’s going to be a little match girl!

This anime hurts to watch. This anime hurts a lot.

Thankfully Sara’s stint as a little match girl was short-lived as Miss Amelia came looking for her and brought her back to the seminary. The only reason behind that is because there was a big care package addressed to Sara. Miss Minchin made it very clear that she still despises Sara. But Minchin flips her light-switch when she sees the care package contained beautiful clothing and such. Because she thought Sara was being watched by a wealthy and anonymous family member, she allows Sara to live in the attic and attend classes instead of doing chores with Becky. She goes back to kissing her ass. Again, the audacity of this bitch!

Moving back to Mr. Carrisford’s dilemma! He sent his solicitor to France in search of Ralph Crewe’s daughter. He returned with no such luck of a daughter. Then, they decide to hone their search to right here in England because this is where Ralph was from. Thankfully, fate intervened before they start another grand search as Sara came by the home to return Ram Dass’s monkey. Here it is, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Sara meeting Mr. Carrisford! He learns Sara knows some Hindu and grew up in India. He put 2+2 together and realized the girl from next door he’s been secretly helping was really Ralph Crewe’s daughter all along!

When Miss Minchin went next door to retrieve Sara, she was in for the shock of her life. Carrisford is going to adopt Sara. The diamond mine that was rumored to be a bust, was really fortuitous. Sara’s debts are wiped away. Not only is she inheritor to her father’s share, but she will also obtain Carrisford’s share when he passes (he has no heir of his own). And to top it off, he knows about the abuse of Sara so Sara is going to live next door instead of a creaky attic. You know, it’s not nice to kick people while their down. But fuck that, this bitch has needed a royal-ass beat down since episode one. Time for Miss Minchin’s sister to have her say!

MISS AMELIA: Throughout these 40-odd episodes, she is seen as the submissive sister, doing whatever Miss Minchin says. Amelia just stands there looking concerned every, single, fucking episode and does fucking nothing! She sees Sara suffering in silence with a smile on her face and says nothing to her sister. She even goes a step beyond that by begging Sara to forgive her sister several episodes prior to this very moment. We do get some light shed on Miss Minchin and Amelia’s past about how Miss Minchin worked odd jobs to take care of Amelia due to lack of parents. Not sure if this is really true or not, so I’m leaving it off my accuracy list. When Miss Minchin returns to the seminary and tells her sister what went down with Mr. Carrisford, Miss Amelia let her sister have it.

It was a long-time coming and I can understand a person like Amelia letting loose. Some people hold it in for so long until they’re filled to the top and explode. I’m one of those people, so again, I can relate in a way. Amelia spent this whole time contemplating whether to speak up about Sara’s abuse by her own sister or to shut up and do what her sister says. Hearing about Mr. Carrisford taking Sara snapped Amelia and she had a total breakdown. And all I can say is, “Bravo”! Amelia was absolutely right and I’m glad Miss Minchin heard it. It was all her fault. And if the seminary closes because people hear about Sara’s abuse, it’ll be all her fault.

BACK TO THE CONCLUSION: Fortunately for Miss Minchin, Sara is kind and forgiving. She had Mr. Carrisford give a sizable donation to Miss Minchin’s seminary. Miss Minchin was a notorious penny-pincher, so this should settle her. Sara gets quite the happy ending as she gets to live with Mr. Carrisford and still go to school. She has Becky become her personal maid. All of Sara’s belongings that were taken away when Ralph died are returned to her on Christmas. A little starving girl she helped early in the series has a happy ending as well. And we end with Sara and her new family go back to India. It’s for 4 months to settle things on the Crewe estate, but she’ll be back.

At least when she comes back, Lavinia won’t be there. Good riddance! At least they come to some sort of truce.

No matter what version of A Little Princess you watch, it’s always going to be a tough watch. Because of the size of this series, it can sometimes be too hard to watch. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story where a character takes on adversity and struggles. But there comes a time when struggle just becomes borderline torture-porn. You know those stories where the hero has to go through so much pain and agony and eventually get some sort of satisfied conclusion. The anime The Rising of the Shield Hero and the movie Precious comes to mind. Thank God Sara never had to endure what Precious did. Still bad though! At least with the movie adaptations to Princess Sara, we only watch Sara’s struggles for like, what, an hour or maybe less. This is over 30 episodes of watching this girl get abused. That’s 23 minutes per episode, mind you! Not just from Miss Minchin, but the cooks and one smarmy brat who has a vendetta. All the while, you’re telling yourself, “Dude, you know this story and it’s going to get better”. But it’s not an easy watch! There are scenes where you just wish they’d leave Sara alone or just wish for things to get better.

Is this my favorite adaptations of A Little Princess? Hmm…I don’t know! I really liked this version of the story, but I still have an attachment to the 1995 film. Granted, the animation is always a bit of a drawback when it comes to these animes. But I have to cut some slack as this was mid-1980s here. If you were a fan of this story, whether you saw the 1995 film, the Shirley Temple film, or any of the other adaptations out there, I give a recommendation. Track this down and give it a watch.

Okay Randomizer-kun, I’m giving you another shot. Please don’t give me an obscure hentai to watch in place of this.

Oh thank God, another Nippon animation!

#anime review #a little princess #princess sara #sara crewe #ralph crewe #miss minchin #becky #amelia minchin #lavinia herbert #peter #a little princess sara

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potteresque-ire · 4 years ago

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More ask answer about Word of Honour (山河令, WoH) and the so-called “Dangai 101 phenomenon” under the cut ~ with all the M/M relationships shown on screen, does it mean improved acceptance / safety for the c-queer community?

Due to its length (sorry!), I’ve divided the answer into 3 parts: 1) Background 2) Excerpts from the op-eds 3) Thoughts This post is PART 1 ❤️. As usual, please consider the opinions expressed as your local friendly fandomer sharing what they’ve learned, and should, in no ways, be viewed as necessarily true. :)

(TW: homophobic, hateful speech quoted)

After WoH had started airing, I had waited for one of China’s state-controlled media to publish opinion pieces about the show. Specifically, I’d like to know ~ what is the administration’s current take on Dangai (耽改), as a genre? How does it characterise the closeness of the same-sex leads—the closeness that is suppressed when the original IP, of the genre Danmei (耽美) was converted for visual media presentation?

This is important, as China is a country where the government’s attitude becomes the official public attitude. The state opinion pieces will be quoted and parroted, especially if they come from heavy-weight sources (state-controlled media also have their importance/influence hierarchy). Production of the upcoming Dangai dramas will adjust their scripts accordingly. Marketing tactics will also adjust, make sure it doesn’t spread “the wrong message”; Dangai and Danmei dramas have both been pulled off shelves during or immediately after its airing before (Addicted 上癮 and Guardian 鎮魂, respectively), despite having already passing the censorship board.

If a heavy-weight state opinion piece pans the one-lead-fawning-over-the-other scenes in WoH (there are a few of them), for example, scenes / lines of such suggestive nature will likely disappear from the upcoming Dangai dramas for at least a year or two. If the critique spills over to a harsh stance against the presence of queers in Chinese media, all future Dangai dramas can become strict “socialist-brotherhood” stories, their “no homo” message reinforced by, for example, by inserting a female lead (or changing one of the leads to female).

Whether the official public opinion equates the true public opinion or not, public behaviour in China is quickly driven by the official public opinion. Example: the Xi regime’s conservative stance on queer issues has already translated to a quick deterioration of queer tolerance in China; open expressions that were tolerated, even welcomed, just several years ago are now met with significant hostility in the public.

This is a reflection of the nature of their government. A quick thought experiment may explain this. Take … jaywalking. It’s probably fair to say we’ve all committed this “crime” before?

Will you still jaywalk if your government declares it immoral to do so? Where I am, in the United States, the answer is definitely a no. The public will probably laugh at (and make memes about) the poor official who made the declaration, kindly ask the government to do something useful for once (f*** off), and keep jaywalking.

Now, what if the declaration comes with a law that includes a one-year prison term + lifelong criminal record for jaywalking? Let’s say this law is fully executable and irreversible, given this being a thought experiment—nothing you, or the public, can say or do can contest it.

Will you still jaywalk, even if you disagree with government’s stance that the act is immoral? You’ve got a neighbour who continues to defy the law. Will you think twice before letting your young loved ones go out with them?

Very soon, jaywalking becomes “bad”—even though such “badness” had little moral basis at its origin. It is bad because the government has “characterised” it to be so—an authoritarian government that doesn’t allow challenge of the characterisation.

The retention of queer elements in Dangai is the jaywalking in the example. The Chinese government stepping in to characterise (定性) an event, a phenomenon etc is common, and the people know the drill well that they fall in line quickly.

If a powerful state-controlled media publish a negative opinion piece on the queer elements in Dangai / Danmei, therefore, those elements can disappear overnight.

My question had been: will the state do it? The Xi regime has made its distaste for LGBT+ representation in visual media abundantly clear with its NRTA directives. However, while the Chinese government typically puts ideology (意識型態) as its Guiding Principle, exceptions have always been made for one reason. One word.

Money.

TU is a legendary financial success story every production company (Tencent itself included) wants to replicate. As a result, there are ~ 60 Danmei IPs (book canon) with their copyright sold for Dangai dramas; this long line of Danmei dramas in the horizon has been nicknamed “Dangai 101”, after the name of the show “Produce 101” Dd was dance instructor in. These dramas are all competing to be the next TU by profit.

Adoration from fans is nice, but money is what matters.

C-ent is currently in a financial bleak winter. The anti-corruption, anti-tax-fraud campaign started by the Xi regime in 2018, which cumulated to a sudden (and unofficial) collection of 3 years of back-taxes from studios and stars, has drained a significant amount of its capital; the number of new TV dramas being filmed fell 45% between 2018 and 2019, and production companies have been closing by the tens of thousands. The tightening of censorship rules also means production is associated with more risk. The commercial sector outside c-ent is also eager for replications of TU’s success—they need more “top traffic” (頂流) idols like Gg and Dd whose fans are sufficiently devoted to drive the sales of their products. Such “fan economy” would benefit the government, even if it doesn’t have direct stakes in the companies in and outside c-ent. People’s Daily, the Official State Newspaper, previously published a positive opinion piece on fan economy in 2019, estimating its worth at 90 billion RMB (~13.7 billion USD) per year.

But if the state allows the queer elements in Dangai’s to pass the censorship board (NRTA) for profit, how can it do so with the current “No homo” directive in place? From previous experience (scarce as it may be), the queerness has to be sufficiently obvious for the shows to make the profit everyone is wishing for. Dangai dramas in which the leads’ romantic relationship remains subtle have not sold the way TU does, even if they are well-reviewed and feature famous, skilled actors (as Winter Begonia 鬓边不是海棠红 last year.)

NRTA, and the government behind it, can’t just say I’m turning a blind eye to the flirting and touching for the money. What can it say then?

Here’s what I’d thought—what it can say, or do, is to “characterise” these Dangai dramas in a way that leave out its queerness. It did so for TU. TU’s review by the overseas version of People’s Daily devoted a grand total of two characters to describe WWX and LWJ’s relationship—摯友 (“close friend”). The rest of the article was devoted to the drama’s aesthetics, its cultural roots. (The title of the article: 《陳情令》：書寫國風之美 Chen Qing Ling: Writing the Beauty of National Customs).

How could it do that? The State’s power ensuring few questioning voices aside, I’ve been also thinking about the history and definition of Danmei (耽美)—Dangai’s parent genre as the causes. Based on the history and definition, I can think of 3 ways the queer elements in Danmei (耽美) can be characterised by the state, 2 of which provide it with the wiggle room, the movable goalposts it needs should it choose to want to overlook the queerness in Dangai.

The 3 characterisations I’ve thought of, based on the history and definition of Danmei (耽美) are:

1) The queer characterisation, which focuses on its homoerotic element. * Summary of the characterization: Danmei is gay.

2) The “traditional BL” characterisation, which focuses on BL’s historic origin as a “by women, for women” genre. The M/M setup is viewed as an escapist protest against the patriarchy, a rejection of traditional gender roles; displays of M/M closeness are often “candies” for the female gaze. * Summary of the characterization: Danmei is women’s fantasy.

3) The aesthetic characterisation, which focuses on beauty—from the beauty of the characters, the beauty of a world without harm to the romance. * Summary for the characterization: Danmei is pretty.

The queer characterisation (1) is well-understood, and likely the default characterisation if it is to be made by the fraction of i-fandom I’m familiar with. Most i-fans I’ve met, myself included, would likely and automatically associate the M/M relationships in The Untamed (TU) and WoH with queerness.

The “traditional BL” characterisation (2), meanwhile, equates Danmei with BL as the genre of homoerotic works developed in 1970’s Japan for women comic readers, and has been widely interpreted from a feminist point of view.

Under such interpretation of “traditional BL” works, the double male lead setup wasn’t meant to be an accurate depiction of homosexuality. It wasn’t about homosexuality at all. Rather, it was about the removal of women and along with it, the rage, the eye-rolling, the unease women readers had often felt when attempting to interact with mainstream romance novels of the time, in which the female leads had mostly been confined to traditional women roles, and their virtue, their traditional feminine traits.

The M/M setup therefore acted as a “shell” for a het relationship that allowed removal of such social constraints placed on women. The lead with whom the woman audience identified was no longer bound to the traditional role of women, such as being the caregiver of the family. The lead could instead chase their dreams and roam the world, as many contemporary women already did or aspired to do; they were no longer limited to playing the passive party in life and in the relationship—and they enjoyed such freedom without risking the love, the respect the other male protagonist felt for them.

BL, in this traditional sense, has therefore been interpreted as an answer for, and a protest against the heteropatriarchal gender norm still dominant in societies deeply influenced by Confucianism, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China. The M/M setup is, at heart, (het) women’s fantasy. The inclusion of two young-and-beautiful male leads also satisfy “the female gaze” ~ the popularity of BL among het women has therefore been compared to the popularity of lesbian porn among het men. In both cases, the audience is drawn not for the homosexual element but by the presence of double doses of sexual attraction.

(Please forgive me if any of my wording comes as disrespectful! I’m not used to talking about these topics.)

The availability of the “traditional BL” characterisation (2) is key to bypassing queerness as a topic in the discussions of Danmei (耽美).

The aesthetic characterisation (3) is very closely related to 2) in origin, but deserves its own point as a characterisation that can stand on its own, and may be more obscure to the English-speaking fandom given the common English translation of Danmei (耽美) as Boy’s Love.

Boy’s Love, as a name, amplifies the queer characterisation (1) and de-emphasises the aesthetic characterisation (3); Danmei (耽美), meanwhile, does the reverse.

Where does the name Danmei come from?

When BL was first developed in Japan, it used to have a now out-of-fashion genre name: Tanbi. Tanbi was borrowed from same name describing a late 19th century / early 20th century Japanese literary movement, known as Tanbi-ha and was inspired by Aestheticism in England. Aestheticism “centered around the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, and that it need serve no political, didactic, or other purpose”. Along the same line, the core belief of authors of Tanbi-ha was that art should celebrate beauty and reject the portrayal of ugliness in human nature, the darkness of reality:

…Tanbi writers argued that the ideas of naturalism writers such as “objectivism,” “truth is more important than beauty” and so on would “oppress human beings’ desire” so as to “lose beauty and human nature.” Accordingly, they insisted on “acute mental and emotional sensibility” [Ye, 2009].

(Source, with more details on Tanbi.)

Neither romance nor homosexuality were requirements for works in the original Tanbi-ha genre. BL borrowed the name Tanbi because its early authors saw their work created under the same principles: the emphasis on the beauty of their characters, their love (romantic and platonic), in a world that was also beautiful and untouched by ugliness such as sexism and homophobia.

The stubborn persistence on keeping one’s eyes trained on the beautiful, the willingness to turn a blind eye to reality for the sake of the beauty is built-in in the genre’s name. Tanbi meant more than beauty, aesthetics; its kanji form was written as 耽美; 耽 = to sink, drown in, to over-indulge in; 美 = beauty.

Tanbi, therefore, literally means to drown in, to over-indulge in beauty.

Over time, as the genre expanded its writing style, Tanbi eventually fell out of favour as BL’s genre name in Japan. However, as it gained popularity in the Sinosphere in the 1990s, starting with Taiwan and Hong Kong, the kanji of Tanbi was retained as the Chinese name of the genre.

In Mandarin Chinese, 耽美 is pronounced Danmei. A hyperfocus on the aesthetics, the utopian aspects of traditional BL is therefore retained in Danmei by its name. People’s Daily could therefore devote its review of TU on its aesthetics. Realism, including politics and all discussions of social issues, can therefore be swept aside in the name of respecting the genre’s tradition.

I’ve mostly been reading about and observing c-fandom, and I believe these 3 characterisations have all attracted its own kind of fans. Fans who care and talk about queer issues even when it isn’t encouraged by their sociopolitical environment, who shine a light upon these issues in their fan works. Fans who treat the M/M leads as if they were a traditional cishet couple, such as calling one of the leads 老婆 (wife) and assigning him biologically female functions when needed (via, for example, the ABO trope). Fans who insist the works must meet their beauty standards, rejecting those that fail (for example, if the leads are not good looking enough) by claiming they’re there for Danmei, not Danchou (耽醜, “over-indulgence on ugliness”). Fans who are drawn to the genre by a combination of these characterisations.

By the history and definition of the genre, all the above reasons for fanning Danmei are as valid, as legitimate as one another.

I thought about this related question then: are c-fans of the second (traditional BL characterisation) and third (aesthetic characterisation) groups homophobic? When I first asked this question, I—a fan whose fandom experience had been entirely in English-speaking communities—assume the answer was yes. I thought, in particular, the insistence of treating Danmei’s M/M couples as cishet couples in a homosexual shell had to be conscious queer erasure. How can anyone ignore the same-sexness of the leads? How can anyone talk about Danmei without associating it with homosexuality?

However, as I read more—again, specifically about c-fandom, and in Chinese—I realised the answer may be a little more complex.

Previously, I had largely thought about homophobia in terms of individual attitudes. This has to do with my current environment (liberal parts of the United States), in which the choice to accept or reject the queer community has become a close to personal choice. Pride flags fly all over the city, including the city hall, every summer, and most churches welcome the LGBT+ community. I hadn’t considered how an environment in which queers have never enjoyed full social exposure, in which education of related topics is sorely lacking, would affect Danmei’s development as a genre.

In such an environment, it is difficult for Danmei to evolve and incorporate up-to-date understanding of RL queerness.

The consequence I can see is this: Danmei is more likely to be “stuck” in its historical characterisation as (het) women’s fantasy inside than outside the Great Firewall, with its queerness de-emphasised if not erased—and it draws fans who are attracted to this kind of characterisation accordingly. This is, perhaps, reflected by the fact that the (het) women-to-queer ratio of Danmei / BL fans is significantly higher in China than in the West (Table 1 in this article summarises how Danmei / BL fans have split between different genders and sexual orientation in the Sinosphere vs the West in different research studies).

Another driving force I can see for Danmei to retain BL’s traditional feminist and aesthetic characterisations: women in China are not free from the social pressure that led to the birth of BL in 1970’s Japan. While many of them have achieved financial freedom through work and have high education, the young and educated have been subjected to immense pressure to get married and have children especially in the past decade.

In 2007, the China’s state feminist agency, the All-China Women’s Federation (中華全國婦女聯合會), coined the term 剩女 (literally, “leftover women”) for unmarried, urban women over 27 years old. The government started a campaign that, among other things, associated women’s education level with ugliness, and their unmarried status with pickiness, moral degeneracy. The reason behind the campaign: birth rates are plummeting and the state wants educated women, in particular, to nurture a high quality, next generation workforce. More importantly, the government sees a threat in the M/F sex imbalance (high M, low F) that has commonly been attributed to the country’s “one child policy” between 1979-2015, which encouraged female infanticide / abortion of female foetuses in a culture that favours surname-carrying boys. The state fears the unmarried men will become violent and/or gay, leading to “social instability and insecurity”. Therefore, it wants all women, in particular those who are educated, to enter the “wife pool” for these unmarried men. (Source 1, Source 2: Source 2 is a short, recommended read).

For Chinese women, therefore, patriarchy and sexism is far from over. Escapist fantasies where sexism is removed—by removing women from the picture—are therefore here to stay.

Danmei is therefore not queer literature (同志文學). The difference between Danmei and queer literature is highlighted by this reportedly popular saying (and its similar variations) in some Danmei communities:

異性戀只是傳宗接代，同性戀才是真愛 Heterosexuality is only for reproduction. Only homosexuality is true love.

The attitude towards heterosexuality is one of distaste, viewed as a means to an end the speaker has no interest in. On the contrary, homosexuality is idealised, reflecting the disregard / lack of understanding of some Danmei fans have towards the RL hardships of c-queers. The ignorance may be further propagated by gate-keeping by some Danmei fans for safety reasons, keeping queer discussions away from their communities for fear that their favourite hangouts would meet the same uncertain fate of other communities that previously held open queer discussions, such as the Weibo gay and lesbian supertopics. Such gatekeeping can, again, be easily enforced using tradition as argument: the beauty 美 is Tanbi and Danmei (耽美), remember, includes the beauty of utopia, where ugly truths such as discrimination do not enter the picture. A Danmei that explores, for example, the difficulty of coming out of the closet is no longer Danmei, by its historical, aesthetic definition.

[I’ve therefore read about c-queers viewing Danmei with suspicion, if not downright hostility; they believe the genre, by ignoring their RL challenges and casting them as beautiful, even perfect individuals, and in some cases, by fetishising them and their relationships, only leads to more misconceptions about the queer community. Dangai, meanwhile, has been viewed with even more distaste as potential weapons by the state to keep gays in the closet; if the government can shove the Danmei characters into the “socialist brotherhood” closet, it can shove them as well.

I haven’t yet, however, been able to tease out the approximate fraction of c-queers whose views of Danmei and Dangai is negative. The opposing, positive view of the genres is this: they still provide LGBT+ visibility, which is better than none and it would’ve been close to none without Danmei and Dangai; while Danmei may skim over the hardships of being queer, fan works of Danmei are free to explore them—and they have.

This article provides insights on this issue. @peekbackstage’s conversation with a Chinese film/TV director in Clubhouse is also well worth a read.]

That said, Danmei can only be dissociated from the queer characterisation if there’s a way to talk about the genre without evoking words and phrases that suggest homosexuality—something that is difficult to do with English. Is there?

In Chinese, I’d venture to say … almost. There’s almost a way. Close enough to pass.

The fact that M/M in traditional BL has been developed and viewed not as queer but as a removal of F also means this: queerness isn’t “built-in” into the language of Danmei. The name Danmei itself already bypasses a major “queer checkpoint”: it’s impossible to refer to a genre called Boy’s Love and not think about homosexuality.

Here’s one more important example of such bypass. Please let me, as an excuse to put these beautiful smiles in my blog, show this classic moment from TU; this can be any gif in which the leads are performing such suggestive romantic gestures:

How can I describe this succinctly? In English?

Two men acting in love? Er. That’s… the definition of gay, almost.

Two men acting gay? Well. GAY.

Right. Fine. Let’s go negative. Queerbaiting? … Still gay, because the word “queer” is in there.

[Pie note: for the record, I don’t think TU or WoH is queer-baiting.]

Personally, I find it impossible to describe the GIF above in English that I do not automatically associate with RL romantic love between two men, with homosexuality. But can I do it in Chinese?

… Yes.

There’s a term, 賣腐 (pronounced “maifu”), literally, “selling 賣 the rot 腐”, derived from the term known among i-fans as fujoshi and written, in kanji, as 腐女. Fujoshi, or 腐 (“rot”) 女 (“women”), describes the largely (het) female audience of the Japanese BL genre (>80%, according to Wikipedia). Originated as a misogynistic insult towards female Japanese BL fans in the 2000s, fujoshi was later reclaimed by the same female BL fans who now use the self-depreciative term as acknowledgement of their interest being “rotten”, for BL’s disregard of the society’s traditional expectations on women.

賣腐 is therefore to “sell the rot” to the rotten women; ie. the suggestive romantic gestures, exemplified by the GIF above, between the M/M leads are catering, performing fan service to their target audience.

[賣腐 is also a term one will see in the state opinion pieces.]

There’s nothing gay about this term.

I’ve therefore found it possible to talk and think in Chinese about Danmei while giving little thought to queerness. The history and definition of Danmei allow that.

Again, I’m not saying any of this to excuse homophobia among in Danmei and Dangai fandoms. The point I’m trying to make is this — given that Danmei has three potential characterisations, two of which can be discussed without abundantly evoking queer concepts and vocabularies, given that history of Danmei, as a genre, already favoured characterisation 2 (traditional BL), the government addressing homosexuality in its opinions on Danmei and Dangai is far from a given.

By extension, the popularity of Dangai may mean a lot or little to c-queers; by extension, the state can approve / disapprove of Danmei and Dangai in a manner independent of its stance on homosexuality, which is itself inconsistent and at times, logic-deying (example to come…).

This is both good and bad, from the perspective of both the government and the c-queer community.

For the government: as discussed, the “triality” of Danmei allows the state to “move the goalpost” depending on what it tries to achieve. It has characterisations 2 (the traditional BL characterisation) and 3 (the aesthetic characterisation) as excuses to let Dangai dramas pass the censorship board should it want their profit and also, their promise of expanding the country’s soft power overseas by drawing an international audience. These characterisations also allow the state to throw cold water on the popularity of Danmei / Dangai should it desire, for reasons other than its queer suggestions—despite the Xi regime’s push against open expressions of queerness (including by activism, in media), it has also been careful about not demonising c-queers in words, and has countered other people’s attempts to do so.

Why may the government want to throw cold water on Danmei and Dangai? They are still subculture, which the state has also viewed with suspicion. In 2018, a NRTA directive explicitly requested that “c-ent programmes should not use entertainers with tattoos; (those associated with) hip-hop culture, sub-cultures (non-mainstream cultures), decadent cultures.” (”另外，总局明确要求节目中纹身艺人、嘻哈文化、亚文化（非主流文化）、丧文化（颓废文化）不用。”).

Subculture isn’t “core socialist values”. More importantly, it’s difficult to keep up with and control subculture. 環球網, the website co-owned by People’s Daily and Global Times (環球時報), ie, The State Newspaper and The State Tabloid, famously said this on its Weibo, on 2020/03/04, re: 227:

老了，没看懂为什么战。晚安。 Getting old. Can’t figure out what the war is about. Good night.

The State also cannot stop subculture from happening. It doesn’t have the resources to quell every single thing that become popular among its population of 1.4 billion. What it can do to make sure these subcultures stay subcultures, kept out of sight and mind of the general public.

Characterisation 1 (the queer characterisation), meanwhile, remains available to the state should it wish to drop the axe on Dangai for its queer elements. I’m including, as “queer elements”, presentation of men as too “feminine” for the state—which has remained a sore point for the government. This axe have a reason to drop in the upcoming months: July 23rd, 2021 will be the 100th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the state may desire to have only uniformed forces and muscled, gun-toting “masculine” men gracing the screens.

What about for c-queers and their supporters (including group I fans)? What good and bad can the multiple characterisations of the genres do for them?

For c-queers and their supporters (including group I fans), their acceptance and safety are helped by the Dangai genre, by the Dangai 101 phenomenon, if and only if the state both characterises the queer elements in these dramas as queer (characterisation 1) AND their opinions of them are positive.

Personally, I had viewed this to be unlikely from the start, because a queer characterisation would mean the censorship board has failed to do its job, which is embarrassing for the Chinese government.

Characterisations 2) and 3) are not bad for c-queers and their supporters, however, and definitely not “enemies” of Characterisation 1); they can not only serve as covers for the queer elements in Dangai to reach their audience, but also, they can act as protective padding for the LGBT+ community if the content or (very aggressive) marketing of the Dangai dramas displease the government — with the understanding, again, that the “traditional BL” arm of the Danmei community is itself also highly vulnerable by being a subculture, and so its padding effect is limited and it also deserves protection.

The downside to achieving LGBT+ visibility through Dangai is, of course and as mentioned, that these dramas are, ultimately, deeply unrealistic depictions of the c-queers. The promotion of these dramas, which has focused on physical interactions between the male leads for “candies”, can encourage even more fetishising of queers and queer relationships. The associated (character) CP culture that makes and breaks CPs based on the dramas’ airing cycle may also fuel negative perception of queer relationships as attention-seeking behaviour, something that can be initiated and terminated at will and for the right price.

Finally, with all this said, which characterisation(s) have the government taken re: Dangai and/or WOH? And what opinions has it given to its characterisations?

PART 1 <-- YOU ARE HERE PART 2 PART 3

#pie metas #yizhan #bjyx

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mychampagne-mybubbles · 3 years ago

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I absolutely need to share this

The “little“ summary:

Holivia was rumored to be in Italy by Xmas, such as her brother, her sister, his sister, his mother, his mother's boyfriend and the whole gang... According to these rumors "they" (whoever that refers to) were there days ahead of Christmas...but then the dates shifted, and "O" went from "even left before Christmas" (to spend her with her kids) to be there “after just for pics (27th?)”, Harry left right after the walks Christmas not without leaving behind a nice picture of his hands & (some "Succession tv show") merch taken around the 17th...🙄😓

In the meanwhile, a non-father Louis was reunited with the Californian kid for Xmas. Instagram stories bombing as sources, where the nail colors of the sister in question were quite tricky, the lack of natural reactions, the combo of characters in the scene...(maybe they were in Italy too…😏) made out the whole play doubtable not less shocking though. I cannot stop imaging this child, facing all those presents together in an awe... by November? beginning of December? 🤣 (who knows?) They Larry taught me well how not to trust appearances. The timeline is flexible when it comes to them, and I am not ashamed to admit that I see things with a filter and a shield.

A couple of days later, in a 11 habitant remote village in the middle of Italy, we saw the LOT jacket walking by a man... Holivia! What a surprise!! Just to discover some minutes and a few memes later that they were actually being followed by an entourage... ( why am I cracking? this was supposed to be serious 😂… or not!) were those some adventurous fans that followed them?, lucky ones that were just camping in the countryside in December? the named siblings... ? (“Oh… oh…who?!” I dramatically question myself resting my hand over my forehead…😮‍💨)

And yes, a reminder of the Holkers (I like to imagine there exists a Holivia-walker version that does the dirty jobs… not this one thoug but.. funny idea!).

Along with the pictures and the many rumors from before-during-after seeing Harry, Holivia and different family tree members (depending on the version) were “caught“ walking nonstop until they were identified, we also got the usual "Italy location" in Harry's ™ IG profile, Alessandro's NYE coming up party rumors, and A LOT... A LOT of backlashes and calling out... fair and not so fair judgments all thrown at once.

On the other hand, after people digitally stoned Gemma for traveling, turned out she was sick ("no covid") in her bed; the one spotted now in Italy apparently is Louis ( who has come back to his NFTs chatrooms on Twitter)… I meeaaaaaaaannnnnnn….🙄

The media has followed the flow all this time, making the expected noise with the most accurate sources as usual: Rumorology. Harry getting to know the kids "slowly" (when we got this same rumor back in DWD filming season), Harry introducing his mother and his gf so the wedding is coming ( when we got this already during LOT), even now apparently they are both in LA again... 🥱

All this mess without counting on that it all started when Emma got covid, making Harry consequently a direct contact, which triggered some reactions from the very beginning; and not commenting on how this brittle fan base perceives and experiences every step of the way.

ObViOUsssLY, I don't know what is going on with them, have several possibilities considered but this is not the post for it, just have to admit that this is weird and ugly perceived no matter what part of the fandom you are looking from; even if you want to justify it I have and keep on trying, it smells like a purposely total mess! We are mere observers, so lets hope for the best, lets hope it is worthy.

#harry styles #louis tomlinson #larry stylinson #fakeholiviashit #stunting season #merry stuntmas #freddie #bg #baby gate #babygate #WTF

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marathoning-barbie · 3 years ago

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Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)

So, extra announcement at the top because this is a hellsite. I wanted to tag this post with a warning for discussions of antis*mitism, but I don’t want this post to get blocked because Apple sucks. This is also why I’ll censor a bunch of these terms even though everyone knows what I’m talking about. I’m sorry if you usually have the antis*mitism tw blocked.

My feelings on this movie are very complicated, and this review is going to be very different from the others.

Swan Lake was my second favorite as a child. To this day, I have an obsession with the ballet Swan Lake because of this movie, and in a way with ballet dancing in general.

There are a lot of unnecessary scenes in hindsight, mostly thanks to its source material (I wanna say it’s the most accurate adaptation of the first three movies, but then I remember Erasmus), and the forest animals are horrible, apart from Lila, who I actually kinda like this time around. The dancing is once again gorgeous, and I just can’t thank this movie enough for introducing me to the soundtrack of Swan Lake, and how it contributes to my interests to this day.

So let’s talk about Rothbart.

Rothbart is the main villain of this movie. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind him much usually. I actually love how weirdly supportive he is of his daughter Odille. Guy does everything in this movie just to please her. So what’s the problem? Well, let’s look at their designs:

Now, before I go on: I do not want to accuse anyone of anything. I also don’t want to insinuate that everyone who doesn’t see this the same way, who never noticed the connection or who still enjoys the movie is a bad person. I genuinely think that what I am going to bring up now was an accident — a very unfortunate combination of events. I mean, Rothbart was just his name in the ballet, and he’s often already portrayed as an owl-man in that, so why not give him a bird-based design?

Well, because you’re going to get a man with a Jewish name who looks like he jumped straight out of N*zi propaganda. He really is only a step below the Happy Merchant on sheer offensiveness level, hanging out and cracking open a cold one with the Harry Potter goblins (specifically the movie version, when they decided to film the Gringotts scene in a location that had the Star of David on a floor mural). The fact Barbie usually looks like she should be on some neon*zi meme with the 14 words does not help.

Once again, I fully believe this was an accident. His name was taken from the source material, and the nose is clearly supposed to resemble his beak when he’s in his bird-form. Unfortunately, Jewish people have historically been connected with birds by antis*mites (and there’s a good argument that the original ballet already includes some antis*mitism), so… make of that what you will.

The simple fact is that some associations cannot be removed, and it simply makes me too uncomfortable. This problem with him has been brought up online quite a bit when I looked into it, though I haven’t seen it specifically in fandom discussions on tumblr yet. However, I noticed it by myself without any influence on my first watch, so I’m shocked not a single person working on the movie ever went “Hey guys, isn’t this a little… weird?” Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler was a Jewish woman, and they really could’ve honored her memory a little better — especially considering she only died a year earlier.

I am not going to review the movie further at this point. I'm sorry this is such a short post in comparison to the other reviews, and I'll probably upload the PatP review in a few hours already to make up for it.

If you check the ranking, you’ll see that I have noted this movie in particular down as “Unrankable”. I can’t ignore either my rampant nostalgia, or how uncomfortable Rothbart makes me. If it wasn’t for all this, it’d end up fairly middling, still in the good section, but below Nutcracker. If you want to rewatch some Barbie movies, feel free to include this one, it’s a classic, after all. But if these unfortunate circumstances make it so you don’t want to anymore, I can’t blame you.

#barbie #barbie of swan lake #barbie swan lake #barbie movie review #barbie movies #yeah sorry I was just too shocked when I rewatched this movie for the first time

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fantasmalforces · 3 years ago

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@maximuses SAID: Can we get a fuckinnnn uhhhh ✨ + Three Card Draw + for Kimmy and Rayn

💜 Tarot Practice Meme // ACCEPTING 💜

The Star - Rayn

You are one with the divine. Your energy attracts positivity, as you dream bigger and with fresh energy. After recent turmoil or upheavals, you are in a good place to rebuild and look to the future with renewed hope and a sense of faith that everything will work out as it should. Keep an eye open for new ideas and new outlets to foster your own growth, and let your true self shine through.

// In terms of the way we discussed Rayn’s first meeting with Kim, this is accurate. Rayn’s been hunting this serial killer for years at this point because he’s responsible for Kennedy’s death and she’s thus far been unable to stay one step ahead of him. This new attack that Kim is linked with is the closest she’s been to getting an almost immediate lead on finally catching him. She optimistic and hopeful about the potential outcome of it, and her renewed sense of determination is making her seem more personable. It’s showing the truest version of Rayn - the version of her that is hopeful, and kind, and happy, and full of wonder and righteous sense of justice.

The Magician - Kim

The present situation is in your control. Cycles can be broken or changed, and new ideas can reach physical reality with the application of yourself – your success is created, not bestowed. Clever legerdemain can get you what you want, though it might appear to be tricks to others. A powerful representation of skill and dominance, the magician serves to remind your chosen purpose is also one that requires commitment – clear the field of play of distractions and focus on your goal. You have all the power you need, if you just dare to use it, in the furthering of your goals.

// From what I remember where the last season left off (and from what you’re telling me in DMs), Kim is taking matters of her life into her own hands at the moment. She has realized how strong and truly limitless she is. She is making her own fortune and creating her own success. She’s getting what she wants and she’s doing so in her own way. To others, it might seem like trickery or deception. But she is focusing her determination and commitment on her work and on her relationship - at least to some extent. She knows she has all the power, and she’s making the most of it to further her goals and expectations. he question is, will she fall because of her hubris?

The High Priestess - Relationship

There are great secrets to be learned, but you will be hard-pressed to make sense of them without also seeking a deeper understanding of the world around you. Clarity will only come by looking into the heart of things and embracing and trusting in the influence of a source of feminine energy. This is not a time for logic – secret wisdom of intuition to guide your way through the task at hand. You are surrounded by unknowns and change is a foot, and you might need to rethink the things you’ve held onto a certain tees. This is a season for subtle influences, not over messages. Tiny details can hold great symbolic significance, so look for signs to guide your next moves.

// Okay I got a juicy interpretation of this one. We talked about how their first meeting would be about them working together to find the true culprit behind the serial killings and the murder Kim’s client was framed for. In the process of helping with the investigation, Kim is inevitably going to get involved in the secret world of Mythics all around her - as well as the dark reality of what it means to live life in a post-war world. Likewise, Rayn will get a deeper understanding into the world of humans and what kinds of struggles and constant dangers they live under. They’ll end up having to develop a trusting relationship with each other and learn to abandon logic for intuition. Because after all, who can truly say why mad men do what they do? As they investigate, the world around them is going to change and they’re both going to have to make the tough realization that they need to let go of the idea of the world being the way they know it. They have to look into everything for a deeper meaning, both in their personal and professional lives, and leave no stone unturned. Every little thing must be explored and considered with a greater sense of significance if they want to keep moving forward and see the end of this trial alive. And who knows - they might come out of this closer than they expected what with all that “feminine energy” going around~

#// ooo this was fun~#{ open your eyes : ask }#{ we will rock you : mutual }#maximuses #{ the vigilante beastwalker : rayn }#[ Kim and Rayn tbt. ]

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brawltogethernow · 5 years ago

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How much can you tell about a fan from how much they like Raimi Spidey

Who you are based on your Raimi Spider-Man opinion:

1. The best Spider-Man adaptation! You don’t like new things and don’t adapt to change well. You’re probably an older Millennial or Gen X. You respect an iconic scene and cheesy drama and don’t retract your enjoyment of something when the pressure is on you to do so. You like adaptations of superheroes more than the comics.

2. The most comic-accurate Spider-Man adaptation! You have never read a comic these films were based on. You may have never read any comics. You read or heard this opinion somewhere and are parroting it, and may think you can verify it’s true because you read one Avengers issue from after 2002 where Peter Parker cameos. You have high potential to become a deep comic nerd someday who will be embarrassed you ever said this so watch out for that.

3. Revolutionary for its time, paved the way for later comic book films, pared down the source material out of necessity - respect without enthusiasm You’re a little jaded but you’re trying not to let it get you down. You’ve gained immunity to MCU hype. You were happier before you did, but you can never go back. Analyzing fiction is second nature to you.

4. I just hate them Toby McGuire is consciously on your list of celebrities who could not get it. You turn over interests fast and see disliking things as its own activity, a dark mirror of fandom. You have strong negative opinions of properties you have not personally checked out and you’re happy that way because dissing stuff with people makes for good conversation.

5. Must a movie be “good” to like it? Is it not enough to have colors moving on the screen very fast. I respect you. You’re the better timeline version of the first category. Self aware and witty, a little insecure.

6. They’re bad because [thirty minute list of flaws] Wow you’ve thought about these movies a lot. You like review and analysis series like CinemaSins. (You may have a flaw list for CinemaSins specifically: It’s just an example.) Possibly an aspiring writer. You’re very plugged into pop culture and it doesn’t really occur to you to avoid media just because you don’t think it’s good.

7. I liked the first two when they were newer but they didn’t age well. Your persona is very go with the flow, not very opinionated. You consume media casually. In school you liked whatever bands your classmates did.

8. I have a soft spot for them but the effects are bad. You like MCU Spidey. You overestimate how empathetic and discerning you are. You don’t judge quickly but you do judge heavily.

9. I can’t hear you there’s only room for one Spider-Man movie in my brain WHAT’S UP, DANGER?

10. The third one ruined the whole trilogy! THAT’S what ruined it for you? You’re not wrong but your taste is unreliable.

11. I love [ship]! You’re very resilient. The weird kid. You glom onto stuff you like and don’t let go. Natural resilience to acting because of peer pressure, though you can take emotional hits from it. Probably internet friends with the three other people as deeply invested in this version of this ship as you are. Excitable in both positive and negative senses. You still use ff.net a lot. Above average vintage and otherwise lesser known comic knowledge but your attention is divided. The rare media targeting you is the 2017 cartoon if you’re a Parksborn and the Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane comic series if you’re a PeterMJ.

12. Uh I saw one or two in theaters? I don’t really remember them. You only read this list this far down because you like seeing people discuss their pet topics regardless of whether you understand them. May have to hit up a search engine to be sure what “Raimi” is.

13. Directly responsible for a lot of bad 616 trends, weird storylines, and character assassination. You’re a dyed in the wool comics nerd. Don’t get so mad you forget why you even like superhero comics. Go drink some water. You pirate media because capitalism can’t sustain how much you read.

14. Directly responsible for a lot of great 616 storylines!!!! Also a dyed in the wool comics nerd but all your favorite storylines are in the early aughts (and maybe late nineties), which was a formative time of your life. You like dropping niche comic trivia as talking points, also from this era. You not only actually go to comic shops but also have a pull list. Pour one out for the Ultimateverse amirite?

15. Peter sure turned into a giant spider and gave birth to himself because of this movie lmfao. You embrace the humor and weirdness in situations to stay sane. You know weird history or science facts and like to pepper them into conversation. Your ideal history rant is arranged to be reminiscent of that meme with the guy knocking over a giant domino with a row of successively smaller dominos. You feel the most enjoyable parts of comic community are online. You might be on Twitter. You could beat the above category in a trivia-off but would probably flub the execution due to being put off by them. You vibe with nihilism memes but you care just under the surface.

16. My blurry half-remembered impression of them isn’t negative You’re nice. You like cute desserts. I feel like you had an anime phase and go to cons.

17. Garfield Spider-Man sucks!!!!!! That’s not actually a Raimi opinion but you think it is. Low humor is just humor to you and you don’t see that as a problem.

18. I’ve been waiting for you to PRAISE the Amazing movies actually? You like Taylor Swift and would be super down for it if Kindred turned out to be Gwen Stacy. You’ve been screaming for years. You don’t like the Raimi films but don’t have time to get down on them while defending your own maligned property. You know Fant4stic was objectively not great but you’ll defend it. Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield live in your head rent free. You like to curl up and watch some good looking people having a tragic romance okay.

19. Spider-Man 3 is a cinematic masterpiece. You like shock humor and stoke attention from internet trolls on purpose. You discern your own opinions and don’t give a damn about anybody else’s.

20. I’m very two cakes meme about Spider-Man content! Raimi good! MCU good! Webb good! All the cartoons are good! I see a red mask and a thwip and I riot. A pure soul. I don’t understand you, but that doesn’t reflect well on me.

#raimi spiderman #spiderman #horoscopes #spidey #marvel #i'm a 3 with a little 6 13 and 15 #mirrorfalls #asks answered

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tetriquinn · 4 years ago

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Dream SMP locations/moments/characters as their respective canon Homestuck songs.

/rp /dreamsmp (based on characters, not creators)

Source: I said so.

SUPER LONG LMAO

The links go with the descriptions above them. Mobile formatting makes the list really confusing. Sorry about that.

The entire SMP. I tried to assign this to a specific event but I couldn't. Eternity is just too powerful. It literally has the best moment in all of Homestuck music history. That kind of raw energy cannot be defined by a single event. [Eternity Served Cold] Tommy, Tubbo, and Wilbur joining - L'Manburg War

[Sburban Jungle]

Pogtopia/Manburg War

[Welcome to the New Extreme]

The First Disc War(s, if you include the other disc-related conflicts)

[Showtime - Imp Strife]

The first half of the Final Disc War

[You Killed My Father (Prepare To Die)]

The second half of the Final Disc War

[Showtime - Piano Refrain]

The Eggpire after Tommy died (Yes I know I’ve made this joke before shut up it was my best meme)

The Banquet. Before the... y’know... murder part.

Actually no, The Banquet including the murder part.

[Pumpkin Party]

Ghostbur entering the prison

[Love You]

Revivedbur exiting the prison (er, just kinda showing up where he died I guess

[Hate You]

Manburg Festival (October 16th)

[Harlequin]

January 5th (New L'Manburg Festival + Ranboo's Panic Room)

[Dark Carnival]

The period between Tommy's death in the Prison and Tommy's revival

[Heir Of Grief]

Ranboo & Fundy's ice cream shop; Niki & Puffy's flower shop

[Moonsetter]

Revivedbur and Quackity with the burger shops

[Beatdown]

Ranboo and Tubbo with the burger shops

[Candles And Clockwork]

Jack Manifold. Just. In general. (AND NO IT’S NOT JUST A SOLLUX JOKE YEAH THAT’S RIGHT I SAW ONE OF YOU FUCKERS MEDIA SHARE THIS ONE TO HIM LAST WEEK)

[La2t Frontiier]

That little arc where Tubbo was trying to be a detective instead of mourning the violent and brutal death of his best friend

[BL1ND JUST1C3]

Doomsday

[Even In Death - T’Morra]

What? You thought I was going to say Carne Vale? You thought Doomsday was [S]: Game Over? Amateurs.

When Dream and Techno inevitably break out of the prison because let’s be real that’s happening one way or another (bonus points if Techno finds out about Dream manipulating Ranboo and goes apeshit)

[Carne Vale]

My DSMP sona when she encounters someone who manipulated the kids

Las Nevadas/ Casino Q

[Black]

The Syndicate lmfaooooooooo (I’m only half kidding here)

[I’m A Member Of The Midnight Crew but it’s the nice a capella version that everyone likes because it’s objectively the best one]

That one time Tubbo finally went to visit Tommy in exile and thought he [S] Game Over’d himself

[Flare]

The stream where they created Church Prime

[Creata]

PLEASE let Tommy just go apeshit ONE time every time he does even one SMALL THING for himself the entire fucking universe turns on him please he deserves to let it all out and kick actual fucking ASS EVEN ONE TIME COME ON

[Valor]

Tales From The SMP/ Karl in General

[Temporal Shenanigans]

Karl’s karaoke nights (yes I know this one isn’t a canon song but it’s a mix of 3 canon songs plus Space Jam okay it counts)

[Slam Jam]

Anyone remember the Karl Reef?

[Fuchsia Ruler]

Wilbur turning a drug van in the woods into an entire country

[WV: Become the Mayor of Cans]

The Dreamon Hunters, my absolute beloveds. My favorite arc on the entire SMP.

[At The Price Of Oblivion]

Tubbo sitting over the remains of his country on L’Manburgian Independance Day earlier this month (yes I’m spelling it as “Independance” because that’s what their constitution said okay it’s their fault not mine)

[Three In The Morning Aftermath]

Tommy leaving Exile (or him being revived I guess idk)

[Savior of the Waking World]

If Sapnap ever DID ANY LORE COME ON MAN YOU HAVE THE MOST POTENTIAL HERE

[Time On My Side]

The big final battle against The Egg that we never got :(

[Battle Against an Unfathomable Enemy]

Enderwalk Ranboo it’s literally perfect

[Black Rose / Green Sun]

I don’t think I even have to tell you what this is for. Look at the title. You’ll know.(Dream in the Prison in case you’re seeing this way in the future and don’t have this context)

[Constant Confinement]

Ranboo & Fundy doing dumb shit together (the good ol’ days)

[Wacky Antics]

I could use this for an actual, plot-relevant location, but no their SCUFFED-ASS NETHER IT HURTS SO BAD PLEASE SOMEONE JUST FIX IT IT’S SO GARBAGE (except for the portal hub that looks really nice)

[Underworld]

Ranboo’s lil’ Ender particles (chat) jammin to fuckin’ Cabinet Man or some shit during lore

[Arcade Thunder]

Tubbo’s execution

[Trials And Execution]

Clingyduo when they actually get to fight/hang out together canonically

[Skiain Skirmish]

Revivedbur (yes I’m serious)

[Hardchorale]

Dream XD

(I FORGOT IT HAD THE FLOWEY LAUGH AND I GOT WHIPLASH WHILE TYPING THIS DUSIGYUSIHV)

[Lordling]

Dream getting posessed by the Dreamon and having to be exorcised (yeah remember that? Probably not.)

[Sunslammer]

The Inbetween and The Other Side fighting to get Karl to listen (Another one I’m pretty sure is canon)

[Derse Dreamers]

The final battle of the SMP. It’ll happen eventually. It can’t last forever, you know

[Rex Duodecim Angelus]

This went from a shitpost to a very long, fairly accurate (and fairly full of memes) analysis help I’m so tired.

Honorable mentions that I couldn’t add because they’re technically not canon songs:

Eret all the time

[Let Me Dance, Let Me Glisten]

The Eggpire just being able to understand The Egg (I say sarcastically, as if I don’t have this song written in a fictional language memorized)

[Futma Kul Shemtor (Hymn of the Horrorterrors)]

#homestuck #homestuck music #dream smp #dsmp #dteam

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demonfox38 · 4 years ago

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Okay. Made it through the last season of Netflix's "Castlevania" interpretation. Thoughts are below the cut.

I've often thought of this series as the exploitation version of "Castlevania," and hiring Malcom McDowell confirms that.

Although, I find it hilarious that both Malcolm McDowell and Patrick Stewart have ended up voicing the same character. I'm sure there's a "Star Trek Generations" joke to be made in there, but I'm not Mike Stoklasa.

Also, I was cracking up a bit when Varney's plot twist happened. Mostly, because it came off a bit Skeletor-esque in vocal performance.

Also, also—laughing that the final boss went the "Castlevania: Lament of Innocence" route despite barely touching on that game's plot.

Animation had its ups and downs with this season. It seemed like there were some frame issues (not enough inbetweening.) I do appreciate how they incorporated more of Alucard's SOTN animations into his fights, however.

Additionally, some of the fight scenes' pacing seemed to have issues, particularly regarding weapon recovery.

The whole bit with St. Germain was off. Like, he's a weird asshole in "Castlevania: Curse of Darkness", but he's more of a weird asshole there in the same way that casually encountering "Doctor Who"'s Doctor would also be strange. Not a straight up villainous boob. Kinda makes sense thematically to have another character who is willing to do horrible shit for their lost loved one, but the series honestly did not do a good job establishing her. Like, did she even have a voice actor? Or a name? All I'm saying is it was much easier for outsiders to get the Lisa revenge thing Dracula had going.

Also, how dare you joke about not being deaf and then have a villainous monologue, TV show.

Greta's a good girl. Well, outside of being an occasional homewrecker. Point is, she's competent and trying her best to save people in a bad situation, and anyone having issues with her is not to be trusted in the same way that you don't trust people who don't like Rochelle from "Left 4 Dead 2."

Look at me. Do not trust people who do not like Rochelle from "Left 4 Dead 2." Yes, her writing could have been better, but she's still a viable character. Let people Thunder Child their ships on the rocks of your better self. Got me?

Also, y'all really need to embrace more polyamory. Or understand the fact that Alucard's not going to love just one person in his life. Dude lives to be at least 600 in the game's timeline. For a dude who loves humans, constricting him to just one who may live to be 100 at best is cruel.

There are some interesting philosophical dialogues going on here, but I can see where some people may lose their patience for them. Considering one of Castlevania's most popular memes is a philosophy debate, you're just gonna have to suck that up. My personal favorites included the topic of acting versus reacting, as well as having agency in one's story.

Striga's battle theme was cool, but otherwise, the music was forgettable. Yes, that is a sin. Punishable by Death? In this series, maybe!

The gore's still over the top. Which, okay, fine. There's a bit of that in game. It's just generally a bit more reserved with it or uses it in crucial boss fights.

RIP doggie.

The Targoviste plot's a bit of a wash, but it doesn't feel as useless as Trevor and Sypha's previous plot predicament. It's just nothing of a surprise, considering how many times the writing has played the "authority figures are useless" and "dark secret surprise" tropes in this series. Like, Greta being reliable is actually more surprising than anything with this plot.

I cannot emphasize enough how boring I found Carmilla's interpretation and plot arc. You guys could have had a giant, naked lesbian riding a skull and spewing magic at people while her cat-eared girlfriend jumped them for extra damage. But no. Vanilla lady with a scarlet sword for you. So long. Farewell. Auf Wiedersehen. Good night.

Gotta say, as much of a deviation from his source character as he is, Isaac really turned out well in this series. He's definitely evidence that you don't always need to stick to source material.

His Abel is fucking sick, dude. Way to go, king.

Also, I was expecting more violence from Hector this season. Oh, well. At least he got a teeny bit of a spine.

Look. I'm not an alchemist by any means. I'm just a bit baffled by this season's emphasis of obtaining a Rebis. Like, any time the game series has talked about the Magnum Opus of Alchemy, it's more been in pursuit of making a Philosopher's Stone (or at the very least, a Crimson Stone, as seen in "Castlevania: Lament of Innocence.") Pulling a Rebis out of the aether is…well. Could have been more interesting than it was. I mean, it was a bit nightmarish, but it really didn't do much.

Sypha's really never getting back to her family, is she?

Love the idea that the cross subweapon is basically a fancy chakram.

GERGOTH. BUDDY. FRIENDO.

Really appreciating the monster variety in these last two seasons. I mean, that's a big selling point of the "Castlevania" games. Not so much vampires standing around and bickering in dick-waving contests.

Breaking out of the bullet points to hit on the big subject of this season—that is, the ending being surprisingly happy.

There's been a lot of shit that's happened over the last few years. Obviously, a pandemic. Konami's run by pricks. Then, there's the situation with the allegations of sexual coercion with Warren Ellis. Additionally, the terrible ending of "Game of Thrones" likely impacted how this season was developed, considering it seemed to be chasing its progression in construction. (I mean, look at Carmilla and Daenerys.) I don't know how many people were happy with the last season of "Castlevania," but from my POV, it double-tapped itself in the foot with the way it pushed simultaneous sex and violence in its last two episodes. My point is, there was little taste for additional darkness, considering everything that has been happening. Society is drained.

A happy ending was what people really wanted. And man, did this pull through, in that regard. But, there's a conversation to be had in if this swerved too far or if it violates some artistic integrity to give people what they want. So, let's have it.

Look. Man. Have you seen a "Castlevania" ending? When you do it right, it's crumbled castles and rainbow-colored skies. If you do it really right, it results in a pretty girl holding the main character's hand. There is happiness in these games. Hope. Forgiveness and redemption. If this is supposed to be any bit an accurate interpretation of these games, it absolutely should end in such a joyful fashion. (Okay, maybe giving Dracula and Lisa a second honeymoon at the end was a bit much, but I get where people would want that.)

Did some items need to be addressed more? Absolutely. Alucard staking people and Hector getting sexually coerced into servitude are some pretty big topics to just wave away. (Oh, shit. That second part is even worse now with what Ellis was allegedly doing, isn't it?) I suppose I'm just glad the series didn't go full Sephiroth with Alucard. And at least Hector finally took some stand in his situation, even if it wasn't the bombastic, hateful revenge I'm used to seeing from this character in other stories.

I think the creators of this series were trying to save this show from the fate of "Game of Thrones." (To some extent, perhaps the "Voltron" re-interpretation as well.) There's so much media out there anymore that if a production team doesn't nail the ending, their creation gets wiped out of the collective consciousness. To that extent, I think the creators were successful in saving their series. Did it do damage to itself in yanking out of its construction and themes? A bit. But, in doing so, it pivoted back to being more like a proper "Castlevania" product. (And of course, by proper, I mean anything ignoring "Lords of Shadows." God, people need to stop chasing other products when developing "Castlevania" stuff and just let the series be as it is.)

I am very curious as to how much of this season was part of an original draft and how much was revised in backlash to everything that has happened. It doesn't seem like Trevor was intended to survive, but to some extent, Sypha had to. (I mean, until she has a kid, anyway. See "Lords of Shadows" series for dickery regarding that.) I'm also wondering if there was more intended for the Carmilla subplot, as much as the series was banging on about her invading locations. I'm not even sure St. Germain was intended to be a villain all along. Getting into a bitchfight with Death? Sure. Doing what he did here? That's a weird arc, dude.

If you come away from my POV with anything, it should be this: GO PLAY THE GAMES.

Do it. Do it, you ghouls. Go to the Steam store and download the "Castlevania Anniversary Collection." Boot up your PS3 or 4 or 18 or whatever and get "Symphony of the Night." Throttle Nintendo's stores until "Aria of Sorrow" or "Dawn of Sorrow" or "Harmony of Dissonance" or whatever rattles out of their moldy pockets. Find a ROM. Find an ISO. Just play a game. Especially, one of the ones made before 2010.

"Castlevania" as a game series isn't about hordes of vampires dick-waving at each other or edgy swearing or being grim and dark. Some of that stuff's there, sure. But, at its core, it's what game developers created when they looked at Universal Monster Movie creations and went "That's cool. Let's fight that!" It's a series about pushing technology in MMC chips to make rich, vibrant music. It's about flourishing artwork and layers of sprites dripping particles and gore onto players. It's sober and goofy and very pro curry.

The thing is, "Castlevania" players have their own unique connection to the series. We're the weirdos you see clapping their hands when a mutilated dinosaur shows up on screen. It's not because the monster alone is cool. It's that we've fought and struggled and bodied that thing through several floors like a goddamn "X-Men: Children of the Atom" stage. It's kicked our asses. We've kicked its ass. We've got a connection to it that you just don't get from passively watching it barf lasers through a computer monitor or TV screen. Like, you know how people go, "Well, the movie wasn't as good as the book?" It's obnoxious, sure. But, those who read the source materials have to go to the effort of constructing their own sets and people to understand what's happening. In a similar fashion, game players build up their own skill set to reach that next rung.

Maybe you don't always get a payout when you invest your resources into something. But, there is a sense of accomplishment, seeing what you can do.

There's a reason this series got an adaptation. I mean, outside of Konami's head executives wanting easy money. "Castlevania" is a fantastic video game series. Has it got a few problems? Oh yeah. Especially after outsourcing and pachislot machines became all the rage. But, there's a reason Simon and Richter Belmont are playable in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate." There's a reason I spent a significant amount of time playing these games and writing or drawing fanworks for it. These games are wonderful. Beautiful. Difficult, but inspiring. Reasons I will still bang on about them decades years down the road.

When I get exasperated by layers of angst and edge lord content this Netflix series generated, I want you to know why. The roots of this show are good games held captive under poor management. Some people on staff know this. I wish they had more scenario and writing control. But mostly, I don't want to shit on them or their work. (Well, other than perhaps the obvious target.) I just want you to see what I love in these games.

And also to watch Crashervania. Because that's legit.

#castlevania #netflix castlevania #spoilers #tl;dr play ball or SOTN or a Sorrow game or something

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