#so its not Sensical enough to actually write down

[trillscienceofficer]

I was thinking that while Discovery has undoubtedly changed throughout the seasons (some ways long overdue, because if your idea of being "edgy" is just being racist then you get season 1), ultimately it's always been just like itself, very fond of big plots and big speeches, enamored with unnatural dialogue (in early seasons because the writers thought they were being so clever, in later ones because the show is deliberately dumbing its writing down), plagued by poor pacing, and the hopeful message that every season wanted to convey not entirely supported by what actually happens in the story.

In the latter respects season 4 did better than previous seasons, and again I certainly don't want to return to the season 1 approach, but my reluctance to watch season 4 wasn't entirely unfounded, either. I said this before but I'm in the 'generation' of Trekkies whose point of entry to the franchise was Discovery, back when it was a new show on Netflix, and it's always been... so viscerally disappointing to watch it constantly fall short of the potential these characters were offering. Season 4 did not exactly change my mind. If anything the handful of good episodes (which were very good!) made me long even more for the ideal version of this show that I could glimpse in there, and which I could wholeheartedly support and recommend without any caveats.

And I mean, this is not just on Discovery either. All the other live-action shows suffer from the same problems I outlined above, and SNW and Picard staunchly refuse(d) to confront their "edgy" racism issue while also being mediocre TV, so Discovery is still miles ahead of them. I also don't think the more structural writing problems should come as a surprise post-WGA/SAG strike. All these shows have been made on pretty strict budgets, by cutting corners wherever and whenever the production could (eg moving to Canada). I'm assuming the labor practices in the writing room and on set were along the lines of "squeeze these people for all they got as fast as you can, one season at a time" since 2016, and that is not a recipe for thoughtful, or even just sensical, television. (Plus, Discovery has had a history of workplace harassment in the writing room since basically its inception, and that can't have helped. That is hopefully something the show has left behind since season 3.)

So I suppose Discovery will keep Discovery-ing in the next, final season. The plot will be universe-ending, there will be speeches every episode, the dialogue will make you wonder how do these people even live huddled all together without going crazy—if Star Trek is overall an allegory about the workplace, then Discovery now reflects the recent corporate tendency to deflect actual grievances through the use of therapy language and the idea that everyone should be always 100% open about their struggles with everyone else, no matter how appropriate for the situation it is. That sums up my expectations pretty well, I think.

After all these years, I'm unmoved by Discovery's promise of a future where every big problem can be solved if you say the right words, with the right attitude. Contrary to its purported message, the show proved over and over that that isn't even enough to make a scifi show I could find consistently entertaining. But I will still be there to watch season 5, if anything because sometimes I like to see things to their end, and I'm still irrationally fond of this mess and these characters. Perhaps I'll have a good time along the way as well.

[tonibeltran]

x. status -> closed for @leonwozniak x. location -> o'shea's

There are probably better places to write than a bar, but the grandiosity of his house has started taunting him in its silence, and truth be told, he’s not looking to win a Pulitzer, here. The song he’s been tasked to help write is for one of the pop artists he’s written for before — he knows her voice down pat by now, could probably write for her in his sleep. That doesn’t necessarily mean writing while drunk is a good idea, but that’s the only way Antonio can write nowadays: truly, deeply, stupidly drunk. 

The artist sent over some song about therapy and antidepressants, which he supposes is all the rage with the younger generation nowadays (or something?) and with some heavy editing, he’s managed to boil a lot of it down to lyrics that can keep steady with the 108 BPM she’d asked for. He’ll have to convince her to change the key to G major, of course, but that should be easy enough. She’s good for it, he thinks. 

He’s having trouble with some of the chorus, though. She’d insisted symptomatic be the last word on the downbeat, which, fine, that’s the title of the song, but rhyming anything sensical with symptomatic is proving near-impossible in this state. He doesn’t think he’d get it even if he weren’t drunk, actually, but mostly then it’d be because he’d be miserable about this, and not because he can’t think of anything profound to say before fucking symptomatic.

It’s not poetry, he reminds himself. It’s barely prose. He’s just gotta get something down, right? She relies mostly on the production of her songs to elicit an emotional response, after all, so he could very well skip the rhyme altogether and she’d probably be fine with it. Probably. Probably not, though. He sighs, rubbing at his temple in frustration. Looking up, his gaze finds Leon nearby, keeping himself busy behind the bar. Antonio’s been in this bar enough times so that they’ve exchanged names and a couple of conversations already — he’s quick to befriend bartenders he likes, as he assumes he’ll be seeing them more often than not. And Leon’s easy to like, despite his disposition coming off a bit prickly at first. Antonio’s also not immune to the man’s looks — he’s only human. He’s sure that at least some of the regulars around here come by so often just to get a peek at him. And he can’t exactly blame them.

It’s probably this prepubescent instinct in him that encourages him to call for Leon’s attention by balling up one of the napkins beside his drink and throwing it at him. “Hey,” he calls at him, gesturing with his head for him to come closer. His lips twitch upward in a small smile. “Can you rhyme?”

[majimassqueaktoy]

Dreamt I was walking around Kamurocho with Kiryu, we literally were just wandering around quietly together and eventually he stopped us at a little food cart and I watched him lay his hands flat against seemingly the counter so I decided to mimick him and do the same but rather than counter top it was actually the hot plate and we both seared the absolute fuck out of our hands. He did manifest a scarf from nowhere and wrap it around my hands though, which was sweet, albeit likely unhygenic.

[imdreaminadream]

The results pt 2 ~ “What about it makes you cringe?” Category 1

( - prologue.   - part 1  - category 2  - category 3)

Okay so this is the results to the question in the quiz, What about it makes you cringe. In reference to the questionnaires core subject about smut fanfics.

 Also quick psa there will be a part for the results for the other question -  “In kpop fics, Korean words i.e. jagiya, seem to be a no no, would you like to elaborate why?”

Now note these particular results are going to be split into 3 posts because I decided to split the results into 3 categories. 1 - Writing Aspects. 2 -  Personal Preferences. 3 - Genuine Problems.   

>THIS POST IS CATERGORY 1<

DISCLAIMER BELOW. (please read that before continuing)

This is going to be a long post. The responses were very enlightening but please don’t take this as an attack. Consider this more as constructive cheat sheet to good smut writing or just ignore it if you don’t agree with it. Some of this did get a bit deep appropriate trigger warnings will be put on the appropriate posts but I’m not sorry it got deep fics can also affect real life as much as we wish it were something that didn’t mix in with real life, it does. I’m no official like sex guru or big-time writer, or what ever BUT I did add little advice underneath each answer, which are just a reflection of the people’s answers. Again if you don’t like the sounds of this don’t take it personal and click off. 

Writing aspects.

Poorly written/typos – Nearly all of the people said that, poorly written, bad grammar and lots of typos made them cringe. Answers said that sometimes works are so poorly written it comes across as though the person writing doesn’t know how sex works. Now by poorly written they talked about, the plot being non sensical, choppy or lacking decent grammar, too many typos, using words in the wrong context, repetitive language. They also specified they understand not everyone’s first language is English but the least that can be done is proofreading of the works by them or someone else. And many people cried over the use of first person, they felt it brings them out of imagining the fic. 

Language used – So they we’re talking about strange words for body parts especially genitals, and just weird terms and phrases in general. Regarding body parts, everyone mentioned that childish or full-on scientific names for genitals was the worst. Feedback suggests calling it a dick, cock – although some commented that cock sounded too vulgar, and pussy. Also referring to female’s arousal as juices was a common answer, to quote one of my fav answers “so none of that her juices coated my fingers’ Like bitch it aint orange juice.” Then for weird terms and phrases, no specific example was given but I’m certain they meant things that literally every man and their dog would not say, ever! Personal opinion here but, “you like what you see?” and “Your wish is my command.”, and “tongues fighting for dominance.” should die off. It’s overused and I’m sick of seeing it – pretty sure no one says that during sex in real life anyway.

So, to avoid it alls you need to do is use second or third person, proofread, and learn how sex works if you don’t know. Also, best way to proofread it to leave it a few days then come back and read it again – also there are apps like Grammarly that help with your writing too. (PSA I personally love proofreading work, because I’m weird like that, so if you ever want me to proofread drop me a message/anon.)

So, take a moment to consider what you are writing, again proofreading is very helpful, and just stick to the mature ways to say dick/pussy. Suggestion here if you can’t write it the mature way, stop writing smut fics because clearly you’re either not mature enough or uncomfortable (to be) writing smut. 

Dialogue – Too much dialogue and not enough action cropped up a number of times. Also that the dialogue written is cringy essentially, Then there was too much dirty talk, and dirty talk that shouldn’t even be considered dirty talk which commented a lot in regards to dialogue. And although I think I wrote about this answer previously but weird words, exaggeration, and choppiness in the dialogue. (someone commented over use of buzzword but idk what buzzwords are.) May I also personally add that written fake stutters irritate the living day lights out of me just stop.

---- I actually did another questionnaire about this, it didn’t garner same amount as this one but it gained a good few responses. The answers should be available to see, if you want you can take a look at that to see more about people thoughts when it comes to dirty talk in fics. ----

Advice is, keep in mind when writing dirty talk what sounds good, to plausible, to terrible. Just think about what sounds realistic as well, draw on your own experiences or what you want to be said to you. Also, if you don’t find it sexy don’t write it for everyone else’s sake or to fit in with the trend, stay true to yourself but try to vary it up for each fic you write.

No build up – They talked about how some fics go straight to the dicking down, to action, with no build up or a bit of sensical plot, and it doesn’t work. Or if the characters haven’t even talked and suddenly, they’re down to fuck. They expressed it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t feel like the characters are even that interested, as though they’re fucking for the sake of fucking. This also ties in with some comments that said sometimes people fail to remember smut isn’t just about being railed, it is also about connections with people and making love so going straight to the fucking, fails to make the reader want to continue reading.

The solution to this is to reference history/tension or build up the tension between characters, or just set the scene a little bit before getting straight into it. Also remember no one is having sex without some foreplay and if they are it isn’t very good, so don’t let it be like that in your writing. 

Lack of realism/inaccuracies – Okay so this was mainly in regard to sex, the way the body works and some scenarios. To elaborate, people said that there are just some sex positions and places to have sex that just don’t work. In example one person wrote how sex in a gaming/office chair doesn’t work well and they know through personal experience. So, for the readers it’s just super unrealistic that it happens, and it leaves the reader either fixated on figuring out how that is possible or cringing because they know it’s not possible rather than reading the rest of the fic. There’re also just some ways the body doesn’t work I’m not going to go through examples there are so many, but we all know what is meant. Also, I’ll mention that kinks also were apart of the lack of realism, I’ll talk more about that in the next post.

So, based on this the only thing I can say is keep it real and keep it accurate as possible. Like we know its fiction but consider how ridiculous some of the stuff you’re writing may be, how impossible it is. Just don’t be afraid to google things – you can actually freeze and delete your search history – to double check or educate yourself about. Or ask for advice, draw from experience, or maybe try it out yourself with or without your partner then reflect that in your writing.

----------------------------------

END OF CATERGORY 1

(Feel free to discuss in comments, in my messages or send anons or anything like that if you want.)

Tag list

@nctsworld, @lauraneuuh, @jooniyah, @ceoofxiaojun, @lovemayble @hyucksie​ @myelle-n

- if anyone else wants to be tagged for the next parts let me know via anon or dm -

[sebastianshaw]

I don't know why we keep trying to find explanations for why things are the way they are in the Krakoa plot... The thing contradicts itself

I think it's just X-fan nature! Or fan nature in general. Because I see this behavior a lot across fandoms, trying to find explanations for the nonsensical, the plot holes, the characterization flaws, etc. Which I think is GREAT, it's amazing fun seeing the clever thoughts that people have, and I think it's a great aspect of fan community when people share them and work together on them. As for the why. . . I think that, while we do technically know that these worlds and the characters in them are fictional and that everything, sensical and nonsensical, comes down to a writer's decision, but because we overall do find the world and characters compelling enough to FEEL real to us, it therefore feels "wrong" when some aspect ---a weird plotline, an out of character moment, off model art---doesn't feel as real as the rest of it, and we seek to fix that so that it fits more comfortably with the rest of things. There's this thing called "suspension of disbelief" in fiction writing, going all the way back to Aristotle, which refers to how much the audience is willing to believe in a work as real. Not literally, but emotionally. Like, we all know that The Walking Dead is a bunch of actors on set and none of this is really happening, but we still feel emotionally invested in them. Maybe not as much as if they were real people, but still a lot. One thing that BREAKS suspension of disbelief is a lack of internal consistency. See, a work doesn't have to be "realistic" for us to suspend our disbelief, but it does have to follow its own internal rules, including the unspoken "rules" for who the characters are. We can accept that magic or space travel or mutants exist in the context of this world, but if a character who has always been a vegetarian chows down on a steak in one scene with nary a comment, it registers as "wrong" to us in a way that the other stuff, while technically less realistic, doesn't. And it bothers us because it's breaking our immersion in this world, and while we know the actual reason is just "writers forgot", that explanation doesn't fix the lack of internal consistency, so we try to find an in-universe explanation that will satisfy us and restore the breaking of our mental immersion in this world. And I think it's kinda beautiful how we love and believe in these works and characters just that hard, not literally but, again, emotionally.

[katecarteir]

why do you hate stranger things 3 so much?

Okay so it’s been a year but I’ll admit, I still don’t think I’ve ever been REALLY able to express what it is about the third season of Stranger Things that just made it so-bad but I’m gonna try. Like short answer? For a show that got it’s whole thing from the importance of family and friends, season 3 shoved all of that aside for poorly written romantic relationships. Long answer?

There’s many things but I think that the biggest thing is that even with a pretty decent “main plot” Stranger Things 3 started off almost immediately from the get out with no chance of actually being good, because right away none of these characters were still in character with who we fell in love with, you know?

Joyce Byers, who at a serious base of her character, was an amazing and extremely dedicated mother spending seven out of eight episodes seperated and unconcerned about her children even when she’s suspicious that something was going on. Her kids don’t reach out to her either, even when the literal world seems to be ending around them which is very weird for both Will and Jonathan who are super super aware of how vital and active Joyce has always been in this fight and they don’t even wonder out loud for second why she isn’t there.

And Mike- oh, Mike, sweeties, my dude, I am so sorry- has, sure, always been kind of a little prick. Very stubborn and kind of struggles to see things from other people’s point of view but there was so much more to Mike Wheeler than having a crush on El. Something just does not sit right with me that I’m supposed to believe that Mike threw down on sight for the entire first season for El’s right to be considered a friend to Lucas and Dustin and then apparently, basically, actively took part in the season three concept that she.... didn’t have any friends, and wasn’t friends with anybody except him, and that she never actually became friends with Dustin or Lucas after Mike fought them so goddamn hard about it. It doesn’t make sense! AND NOT TO MENTION, that Mike sent two seasons- two- with an obvious view that saving Will or protecting Will was the most important thing to him and it still took what like? Four episodes for Mike to realize that something was wrong with Will and even then he continuously undercut it and I don’t know who that was but it wasn’t my Mike Wheeler.

LUCAS WOULDN’T BE LIKE THAT. Aside from the whole weird thing where they set up Lucas and Max has been an actually great relationship and then they brought back that season with a showcase that Lucas and Max basically break up once a week and fight continuously to the point where they both think that’s the most normal thing in the world.I just think that- and I know I’m not the only one- is that I am glad that we got a call back to the season one throwaway line that Mike and Lucas are best friends because outside of Dustin saying that, we never really saw it. Lucas seemed to really have little to no patience for Mike at any given point, and I get that, I totally get that. Like, season one they had the same goal- save Will- but they both wanted to go about it in a completely different way (i.e Lucas didn’t really want to waste time on the girl with the superpowers they found in the woods, because he thought their time would be better spent actually looking for Will) and then in season two, Mike runs around being a total dick to the girl Lucas likes and fucks off in end of episode four without word about it and has progressively tried to keep Lucas and Dustin from what’s going on with Will for the most point (because he doesn't trust Max and he was right in believing that Dustin or Lucas would tell this total stranger about Will’s trauma.) and I totally digressed here, but because I was glad to see Lucas and Mike being friends in season three, the concept was highlight they just- went about it so so wrong. Because Lucas has never been shy about telling his friends- and especially Mike- that they’re being fucking idiots. I cannot imagine Lucas actually encouraging Mike to pursue this crack scheme of chasing after El post-break up. Especially not the way it went down, which Mike immediately accepts that El has dump him and it’s over and then Lucas convinces him that it’s not. It very much does hold roots in the poor writing of the Lu/Max relationship this season, but Lu/Max was written the way it was so that they could have Lucas in Mike’s corner and Max in El’s corner to validate and uplift the horrible Mi/leven relationship arc this season in which Lucas for sure would not be in that spot whatsoever if it wasn’t for the poor writing of Mi/leven since the second they left the Snowball. Lu/Max is very much a support piece in Mi/leven rather than its own relationship, and yet Max continues to get her own storyline this season (as... yeah... as that storyline was) but Lucas became a casualty to Mi/leven this year, and only slightly differently to the way Will has been a casualty to Mi/leven... and Mike has been a casualty to Mi/leven. If your main relationship continues to assassinate and rip dry the characters both inside and around it, then it’s really time to take a step away from that relationship and determine if its working or if you just suck at writing for no foreseeable reason.

And like, I guess it’s fair to talk about Max here since it’ll be any easy transition in the sense that- Max Mayfield a casualty to Mi/leven. Like that meme with the people holding hands and it says “my character survived the Mi/leven relationship of 1985” and its Max Mayfield and Dustin Henderson. NOT TO SAY that Max’s character isn’t all over the board, it is a lot harder to decide what Max would or wouldn’t do regarding Mike and El. Because.... we never saw anything with the Max/El relationship outside of Max wanted to know her, and El absolutely wanting nothing to do with that because Mike smiled at her one time and El saw it. Mike and Max is actually a different story, and the more complicated relationship I guess? El/Max was good, even if I didn’t agree with all of the advice that Max gives El (particularly the we make our own rules concept, I fucking hated that and I’ll get there. Oh, I’ll get there.) BECAUSE Mike and Max are just... the Sharpay and Gabriella of Stranger Things. They feud all season for whatever reason, they make up and find common ground at the end, and then it starts back up and they hate each other with no explanation to the understanding that they found. And it wasn’t funny, there wasn’t anything about their rivalry that was funny or amusing or even really served a purpose outside of the fact that they needed to showcase the whole Lu/Max and Mi/leven crap so Mike and Max could be friends because the couples needed to be against each other so Max already needed to hate Mike prior to El coming to her for advice, and therefore the rekindling of their potential friendship at the end of season two was re’cont for that purpose. And it really wasn’t necessary because Max would have had enough going on without being in the middle of the weird Mi/leven break up, and losing her boyfriend. I think a huge like, obvious issue with Max is that season two Max left a lot to be desired. Understandably, season two was a lot bigger than the Duffers had time for so they ended introducing characters (Billy and Max) that we didn’t get to develop in their introductory season enough that where they ended up in season 3 was logical or sensical at all because Billy did nothing except be an evil piece of shit two years until the end where he decides to stop himself from killing this little 13 year old white girl and dies and suddenly he’s a hero who sacrificed himself for the greater good when he really didn’t. And seeing Max horrified and traumatized to him does make sense to an extent, she has known him and lived with him for a large chunk of her life and seeing that happen to anybody would be traumatizing. And people don’t get to determine how someone would react to their abuser dying, because you are not that person and you are experiencing what they are experiencing. HOWEVER, Max did not receive enough explanation from a writer or viewers’ POV for her defending Billy or believing Billy could be good to make sense when she spent almost all of season two avoiding her relationship with Lucas because she knew that Billy was racist and violent and horrible. Max grieving and being traumatized over Billy’s death and quite literally seeing his body, but her actions up to that point didn’t make much sense because not enough writing went into Max as a character since the beginning because she is a victim of the classic Too Many Characters, Not Enough Screen Time to Share.

Ha. The relationship between El and Will really needs to be it’s own point before I even get into them as characters. It’s so... It doesn’t make any sense to me why Will and El are like that. And I guess it does or it can trace back to Mi/leven. The idea that Mike purposely kept El from having any friends and Will would have been a victim of that, and the fact that Will very obviously likes Mike and that showcases in him... not like El??? because they’re dating. But I’m not sure how I’m supposed to believe that Will and El don’t have a connection? El saved Will’s life t w i c e and I’m supposed to believe that he hates her because she’s dating Mike and therefore that doesn’t matter to him and he calls her by a number instead of a name and he overly just seems extremely indifferent towards her at best. But I actually do believe, the lack of an Will & El dynamic is (besides being a totally missed opportunity) was like... blank brained of the writers, I think they genuinely just didn’t think about it because they were really caught up in the relationship drama this season they just didn’t bother to develop El and Will. Which is dumb, because of the whole “we’re supposed to believe that Hopper & Joyce are a good ship” but also supposed to believe that Will and El have never spent any time together AND THEY KNEW THAT THEY WOULD BE L I V I N G TOGETHER at the end of the season and they still nothing to give them any relationship growth at all, and if anything took away what little potential hits of a dynamic they had from the first two seasons. For the sake of what does not sort of look like a queerbait of Mike/Will OR best case scenario (still bad!) a love triangle between the three characters.

For a show that had two seasons dedicated to the importance of Will Byers, it was kind of weird to see him so shoved aside this time around. And this isn’t to take away from El’s importance. It’s not an argument over her being the main character- although I think it’s important to note that they original plan for this show was for her to die in season one, and while I’m glad she’s alive and they changed that, we can’t deny how that decision itself would completely alter the path every single character (especially characters like Mike and Will in particular) would have made. BUT FACTS ARE, this entire show started because of Will. That is something that cannot be argued. The Vanishing of Will Byers was the kick off of this entire thing, and every single main character aside from possibly Steve Harrington, are in this fight because of Will Byers. Not because of El. And yes, El is most definitely the ~stranger thing~ and the titular character of the show, it’s fucking ludicris to try and imply that Will is not pretty much as just as important as El. And so for season three to undercut everything about that and use Will as detection device (that only gave you about 15 seconds warning) and have his actual emotional storyline dropped in the 4th episode and only come up again in the sense of refusing to even hear apologies from Lucas or Mike, is the epitome of bullshit.

I’m just going to start off here by saying, I like El, I do. BUT- I’m very aware that El is a victim of her surroundings. She doesn’t have much of her own personality, she has from the beginning allowed herself to simply accept what other people tell her and do that. Say that, repeat it. The Best Time for El as a character was with Kali and her deepest moment of like, personal reflection is when she said no to going with Kali because she needed to go back to Hawkins and save her friends. That really set up a lot of really good growth for El, the idea she was becoming her own person and that she could move forward as herself, who she is, who she wants to be. And I understand the trauma behind her and why she has such an unstable sense of self but it was still disappointing to watch her revert back to following by example in her personal life while continuously forced to be seen as leader in any situation. She follows Mike’s example in the beginning, with Hopper and being super obnoxious but she’s also very quick to jump back over to Hopper’s side when addressing Mike later and burshing off what he’s trying to tell her (i.e your father threatened my life and I didn’t know how to proceed from that point and I’m sorry I lied to you) and she also word for word quotes Max a lot. Including situations which the boy she’s supposedly in love with expresses his discomfort in her. When El reveals that she’s gone into the the void and watched the boys doing whatever, Mike quickly jumps to point out that those were “against the rules” aka personal boundaries that have obviously been set between Mike and El for a reason and she shoots back that she makes her own rules, like Max said about a pretty different situation nonetheless, and invalidates what Mike is trying to say in that moment again. It also doesn’t really sit right with me that she plays dumb with Mike in that grocery store will he is clearly having trouble declaring love for her (which says a lot about how Mike feels) and then bringing it back up three months later, and using it as a justification for kissing him and declaring love towards him after he has said he didnt even remember the conversation she’s referencing from three months earlier and she does not say “I love you” she says “I love you, too.” Which is so very different, because it is her literally acknowledging that she sat there and played dumb (not didn’t understand, which is totally different, but did understand and wanted and enjoyed him struggling to say something) and they threw it back at him as a validation of their relationship- yet it was something he was unable to say to her. I think a big issue with El, is that she has somehow become somebody above being criticized for her actions. What was wrong with Mi/leven this season is not 100% an issue with Mike Wheeler, El very much had a hand in that destruction and with how the season ended, I don’t doubt that she was will  have an even larger hand in the problems going forward because El is smart, and she understands shit, but she pretends that she doesn’t when it’s works for her. Being around Hopper and to even greater extent, the things she lived through in the lab, El is very aware of how to manipulate people and it’s a behaviour she is going to have to unlearn. She might not even be completely aware of just how wrong it is but nobody is going to tell her what she’s doing because I don’t even think it’s realized that she’s doing it and fandom itself chooses to ignore that she’s done it.

And I don’t know how a show that could create the iconic character growth of Steve Harrington is also writing all these other character development blunders, full stop.

[acrobaticcatfeline]

Of Books, Brothers, and Broadway (Creativitwins College AU) Chapter One!!!

Word Count: 1771

TW: So Remus, obviously, swearing, ocean mentions, sea creatures and reptiles, and I think that’s it!

Pairings: None yet. This chapter is just a ton of platonic creativitwins!

Notes: This is three pages that I wrote last night. I’m now at ten pages of this. I don’t know what I was possessed by but I’m not about to complain. Its a college AU, I mention it I think, but Roman is a theatre major and Remus is a marine biology major with a minor in creative writing. I’m excited for you guys to see more of this!

Summary: “Bro!!! Bro I found a giant ass lizard in the yard look at it bro!!!” Roman and Remus Reyes live together. They figured it would be cost effective to do so while in college. Roman deals with Remus’ reptiles and fish tank, Remus deals with Romans singing at 3 in the morning. They’ve had an interesting relationship, and when Remus reminds Roman of a deal they made years ago, hes ready to start crying. Can a couple of kids from Florida make a Broadway musical?

“Bro!!! Bro I found a giant ass lizard in the yard look at it bro!!!”

Roman was done with his brothers bullshit. He doesn't know where he got the bright idea that the two of them should cohabitate in an apartment during college, but as he panickedly climbs onto the kitchen counters to escape him he knows he must've been on some sort of drug. He released a scream as he backed into the corner of the room as his brother held out a lizard that was definitely going to jump and attack him.

“GET IT AWAY!!! ITS SLIMY AND GROSS AND MALICIOUS!!!”

“This little guy malicious? Nah bro, that's a you problem. He's so cuteeee look at his scales they’re almost a holographic!”

That caught Roman's attention. He stopped panicking to actually look at the critter in his brother's hands. Remus was right, he was almost holographic. Roman gave it a weak smile and Remus beamed.

“See? It's not that scary! I'm gonna keep him! He's gonna be named fred!”

Roman chuckled softly as his brother finally left and brought the lizard to his room. He slipped off the counter and followed at a safe distance.

“Don't you think you have enough reptiles? If you keep getting more you'll need more heat lamps and i'm giving you more of the electric bill”

“Ok fair point but hear me out, have you ever seen a collared lizard quite as colorful as this one? I mean he's such a pretty one aint he?”

Roman took more steps forward, relaxing once the lizard was placed in the terrarium. The lizard was quite colorful, and Roman couldn't deny, it was one of the prettiest ones Remus had captured. It immediately scurried around and dived into the water bowl. Roman laughed at it.

“Besides, he was just begging to be brought in! Like really this time! He kept bumping into my feet, he started climbing my pants leg, it was so cute you should've seen it!”

“I'm sure I would have cried.”

Remus chuckled as he moved to the other wall of his room covered in a giant aquarium that Roman was still amazed fit through the doors. Remus grinned at all the fish swimming around, tipping a good portion of fish food into the tank after turning off the filter. He then made his way to his bed and sat on the twin sized mattress covered with octopus blankets. He grinned at his brother and Roman rolled his eyes.

“When are you finally kidnapping an octopus huh?”

“I'm glad you asked! You know my internship right?”

“Of course, the only time you don't talk about the marine institute is when youre talking about your reptiles”

Remus popped up and grabbed Roman's wrist and dragged him to the whiteboard calendar that hung on the outside of his door, pointing excitedly at tomorrow's date while bouncing on his toes.

“Well they just got an octopus buddy in that needs constant care that they don't have the time for! She's real fucked up, she needs meds twice a day, she needs to be hand fed, its a real fucked up case, they were rescued from a seaworld copycat, the poor thing hasn't been healthy since it hatched we think. There's a chance that she won't even be able to be released cuz she's been so dependent on humans for her whole life. But they opened up for applicants, and I was the only one willing to take her in. they're coming and checking my tank tomorrow and if it is good enough, which i'm certain it will be, and then they'll hand her over and i’ll be her caretaker!”

Roman grinned at the excitement his brother had. He ruffled his hair quickly.

“That's cool rem. I'm happy for you. She got a name?”

“Mhmm! Her name is Cephanie! But I've been calling her Cephy. She's so pretty ro, i can't wait for you to meet her! And she's so friendly!”

“You know every day I get less confused at your choice in major. And more confused about your minor”

Remus grinned at Roman and released his wrist, skipping over to their kitchen, relishing in the fact that Roman followed still. He poured himself a cup of coffee and jumped onto the counter with a grin still plastered to his face. He took a sip from his mug, the one with a tentacle handle, and kicked his feet.

“I don't know why! It's totally sensical to have a minor in creative writing ro! It's not like you can expect me to be your playwright if i don't know what i'm doing! Besides, i can write epic lovecraftian horrors that aren't incredibly racist and who doesn't want that?”

Roman blinked. He had to process what Remus had said and he was still confused. His head tilted like a dogs.

“My playwright?”

Remus giggled, it was funny when Remus giggled, it wasn't a sound that you would expect to come out of him. And yet he did it often.

“Did you forget? Aw ro, you can't back out on it now, you asked me when we were still in middle school to write you a book for a musical, and you were gonna write the music and you kept saying you were gonna get it on broadway. I've held up my end of the deal! In fact, I actually have a story started, I think you're gonna love it! Course, i haven't written it all out yet, it's gonna be my final”

“Wait, you remembered that? Rem we were like 10!”

“And now we’re 21, what's your point?”

“We, we can't get on broadway! We’re a couple of idiots from florida! I’m, i'm not a musician, I'm barely even a dancer, what are you talking about? That was a fever dream from a couple of kids, it's not like we can actually do it!”

Remus frowned. He set his mug of coffee down and hopped off of the counter. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave Roman a serious look.

“Do you know when lin manuel miranda wrote his first broadway musical?”

“No i-”

“His sophomore year of college. Who says we can't do the same? Roman you under sell your talents. You're a theatre major, you may not be amazing at any instruments other than your voice but damn bro, your voice is good enough on its own. I've seen you dance, you're one of the best dancers i've ever seen and you're in your fourth year of college. We have potential. I know we can do this if we try, but i can't make it happen alone. I need your help”

Roman looked lost. He wanted, oh so desperately he wanted, to make it happen. It had always been a dream of his to make it to broadway, but he wasn't wrong, they weren't lin manuel miranda, they were some twins from florida, they had no idea what they were doing. And yet. And yet he held out his hand to his brother.

“Ok. ok, we can try this. I can, I can make a score. We can do this”

Remus grinned again and took Roman's hand. He tugged him into the living room. He sat on the couch, pulling out his notebook and flipping to a bookmarked page. Roman sat next to him and looked over at it. There were a few doodles around a plotline that was both gorey and Romantic a la sweeney todd but also quite similar to ella enchanted. Remus grinned at the book and then started explaining.

“Ok so the main character, played by you presumably, is an author”

“Did you just write out your personal fantasy Remus?”

“No, shut up! Ok so he's written several books, like neil gaiman or terry pratchet level several, but those aren't all the stories he's made, he has several stories that have never seen the light of day. He writes his stories in notebooks and journals ordinarily, waiting until they’re fully developed to make them digital. In one of these notebooks there lies a bit of magic. So he writes in this unknowingly, writes of a powerful magician, and as he sleeps it awakes. The magician escapes and brings each of his hundreds of creations to life just the same as him. The characters run amok and the author awakes to see the most beautiful man he's ever met at the foot of his bed. It takes him seeing the magician running through his home to realize that these are his characters. And the man is the protagonist from his most famous novel, one he wrote as a guilty pleasure, writing of a man he had met in his dreams. And he finds that these characters were pulled from different points in their books. The character had been pulled from the early pages, after he had suffered a major trauma and had no clue of the powers he possessed. So now, with his dream man in his living room, in pain from an event he had written, and gifted with emotionally driven powers, he has to fix this mess with the added hurdle of the character creating villains and fiends ready to destroy humanity as a whole with no way to stop. Along the way, some of his characters suffer mortal wounds at the hands of heinous and violent creatures, and all the author has is one magic notebook to fight them off. Romantic plot between the author and dream MC, with angst from the reality of once everything is dealt with, he will have to go back to the book. Thats what ive got so far, what do you think?”

Roman is starry eyed. It's far less violent than Remus’ normal brand of writing, it doesn't inherently include any sea monsters or snake men, and it's something Roman can really appreciate. He loves it, he can already feel the gears turning for songs and dances. Now that he heard the actual story instead of just going on the drawings, he saw far more nutcracker vibes from it. 

“Oh, and there's a happy ending or whatever that the author gets to like, marry the other MC, and everyone lives happily ever after. I know you like the cutesy shit”

“Remus this is amazing! I can't believe I hesitated, I already have some ideas for the score! Remus you're a genius. I love you!”

Roman launched into a hug with Remus, which had the other laughing. Remus hugged him back.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

It was Roman's turn to turn into a giggling mess.

Taglist: @fivebyfive-finebyfive @tacohippy56900 @analogical-mess @crookedlyoptimisticdestiny @angels-and-dreams @fandomloverangel

Let me know if you want to be tagged in my writing!!!

Thank you for reading I will see you later ladies lords and nonbinary royalty!!!

[pixie-mask]

Bad Luck and Responsibility

Woo, volume 7 was dozy in the most frustrating way possible. One of the most frustrating aspects was Qrow, honestly only at the end and it sparked a lot of thoughts. Namely dealing with Qrow “his destructive semblance” and Qrow’s decisions.

(warning semi articulated thought process written over three days after 12am)

From what I remember (and correct me if I’m wrong) Qrow’s Bad Luck semblance is a permanently active. It also (according to his own words) randomly slides from small affects to large affects, but I’ll be damned if that is actually shown clearly.

New as far as recollections go we have seen Qrow’s Bad Luck semblance be acknowledged to have:

Destroy a chair

Cause the building he where he was fighting Tyrian to fall in on itself

Cause a rock to fall from a cave wall (and damage something I think)

Lose a card game

And that’s it, feel free to add anything. I’m also not counting any injurys he gets during fights. It’s a fight and frankly the RWBY has shown to be too fearful in showing the girls and some of the guys getting too roughed up so the adults are the ones who get beat the hell up. But with that in mind we haven’t been shown anything that equates to Qrow’s semblance having no real effect. 

Everything are things that are more coincidences that can happy to anyone.

You happy to have sat in a shitty chair

That was supposed to affect Tyrian more I think but given that was the worst looking building in a ghost town, safe to say it would have collapsed on its own

A rock fell out the side of a cave wall (like I said I don’t remember this event as clearly but I do remember ((I think)) that it was the basic cause of things) but also your in a cave one that has been used for quite a bit of mining and therefore one I would suspect have a few shaky spots, side of one wouldn’t be out of the ordinary

You lost a card game, card games involve luck true, but still anyone could have lost or maybe your just shit at cards

Which leads me to another one of the problems with Qrow’s semblance and therefore Clover’s semblance, why didn’t there semblances cancel one another out. From what we know Clover’s semblance is just a positive version of Qrow’s. Clover’s semblance has allowed him to:

Be the lynch pin for the Ace Ops special missions (what bullshit that is)

which by the way if Clover is the reason the Ace Ops are so OP then why isn’t Qrow, when he’s around, not a detriment to the team

Let him win cards

...and did it do anything other than that. Through out the volume he’s shown to be positive and confident and it gives this illusion that his semblance is always in affect but its hard the tell.

You could almost say that it helped in the Tyrian fight (with Robyn-not the one at the end) but I expect three skilled huntsmen to be able to handle that well enough. Honestly about that there was like one little moment where Qrow’s semblance kicked in but it ultimately didn’t amount to anything.

The biggest moment that came down to was the the fight of Clover vs Qrow vs Tyrian-Clover vs Qrow and Tyrian team up. This fight really set off a lot of thoughts in my head about our dumbass bird man. 

But back to this fight this was the only time that Qrow’s and Clover’s semblance canceled out. Clover stayed alive and unscathed for the first portion of the fight and at the end he was getting fucked up as one would in a typically thought out 2 on 1 fight. I don’t chalk that up to Qrow’s semblance being “more powerful” at the time.

This leads to my second thought process. After teaming up with Tyrian, Qrow delivers the punch to Clover that breaks his Aura and then Tyrian kills Clover. Qrow might have not intended the death part its still his fault, but then he goes on to blame Ironwood for this; in a rather non sensical exchange, but still. Qrow it’s bullshit to say this is Ironwood’s fault and this made me think back to the Ozpin abuse in Volume 6. Where Qrow says that no one wanted him and thinking about it we  really don’t get the idea:

Okay he’s from a family of bandits, but he doesn’t say they hated him (at least as far as I remember). They sent him and Raven to learn about hunters and huntresses to kill them better, but that’s it

Tai and Summer (for all we’ve seen and heard) were happy to have him

Ozpin trusted him

By extension Glynda and Ironwood trusted him and accpted him; Ironwood as far as to legitimately have fear of Qrow hating/doubting him and being genuinely happy about seeing him and going as far to hug him and listen to him (as little as Qrow decided to speak)

Clover was happy to be quick friends with him

So Qrow is just being a melodramatic asshole. And by the way I really like Qrow for the longest he was my favorite character so I’m so upset with this bullshit.

Tai while angry after Beacon wasn’t so mad to keep Qrow from the family, Summer (for all we know) was accepting til her death, Ozpin still trusted him and you watch his past and punched him and treated him like shit, Ironwood trusted you and was happy to have you in Atlas and even you recognized something was wrong but instead you ignored him the whole time, you made friends with Clover but aided in his death.

So it seems less like nobody wants you and more that you do horrible shit that ruins relationships and then won’t own up to it. 

I know this is a product of the writing but its still supposed to be consistent with his character and what is presented and from what we’ve seen or hear, Ironwood hasn’t been unwanted really, he’s just upset. And I understand being in an emotional state or mindset that makes you look at your relationships in a negative light, but that hasn’t been shown or even hinted at with Qrow. The only major problem he had was alcoholism and that has settled in a poorly unrealistic way.

I’d love for Qrow to have happy relationships with people in his life, but he’s pretty much the only one we’ve seen evidence of pushing people away or treating them poorly and it definitely has nothing to do with his semblance.

[jlf23tumble]

Agree so much with your post about the teams and fan engagement ! And love the way you articulated all of that. Although now I definitely am interested in knowing what your notes about the specificity of each team/artist cause I feel like they'd be fascinating to read. Hope you'll post them some day, and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us ! 😊

Awwww, that’s very kind! It’s definitely head canon city, I litcherally have ZERO clue what goes on behind the scenes (and I can’t stress this enough, none of us do), so this’ll look hilariously dated when we find out that blah woof was true all along, lmao (me @ myself, thinking of some random Grimshaw interviews from last fall, oh, bless). Let’s dig in!!

For those of you who just stumbled upon this post, it’s related to the one I made last night about how I think the management teams of all these men (mid-20s means = you’re a man, not a boy) are not, in fact, sabotaging them. They negotiate a lot of tricky interconnected arrangements that none of us are privy, to, plus they’re at least trying to achieve the goals their clients are going for. And they’re doing it—the trick is these goals are highly individual and not 100% sensical (at least given our own view from the afternoon, Arctic Monkeys ref, holllllllah!!!).

In addition, these goals constantly shift, as does the music industry itself—I drive my own self loony when I lurk on blogs that are seemingly broadcasting from 2012, confused by why xx’s team is so “terrible” because they aren’t throwing good money after bad to get on a radio playlist, or why they haven’t announced yy “properly,” as if they’re being paid to worry about this level of shit (which fires me up on about five levels, deep breaths in, deep breaths out). I’m much nosier about the signals we’re getting when we hear them talk in their beautifully media-trained way about their musical interests, when we get some of that sweet, sweet fan service with a Gallagher or a Capaldi, when we get that heads up about who’s attending what concert, stuff like that. These signals don’t necessarily indicate future collaborations, but they DO indicate what kind of image these guys want to have, the kind of music they want the public to associate them with.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself…their personalities and goals at the moment are all so vastly different, and I truly do love seeing how their teams are workin’ it accordingly. Again, please @ god, don’t @ me…opinions, massively unpopular opinions, dead ahead!

* Zayn. My read on Zayn is that he enjoys the creative process, loves writing and singing, digs collabing with people, but he doesn’t seem to give two shits about the biz side (and why should he? that’s called living the dream at this particular point in his career). His website recently added “tour,” which EYEBALL EYEBALL, but he doesn’t seem to be all that interested in putting himself back out on stage or into radio/print/etc. anytime soon, and again, why should he? His numbers are HUGE without pushing himself through the anxiety-provoking churn he endured for four years, so there’s no real drive for him to do any promo if he doesn’t want to (see: the netflix-like binge dump of Icarus Falls, which could be “sabotage,” or it could just be, “fineeeeeeee, here’s some stuff for you, enjoy”). What other artist gifts his fans with gorgeous covers of such a wide variety of songs that indicate he’s more interested in sharing them than selling them. Accordingly, his fan interactions seem fairly pure and not all that promo-y: he has a keen interest in fanart, he’s done some fan pop-ups/listening parties that are pretty low-key and *seemingly* fan-focused, and recently (with zero anything to really promote), he’s been posing for cute pics and chatting with randos on the streets of NYC. I recently read that his mgmt team is no longer with him, but that sort of folds into my feeling that he’s not pursuing anything biz-wise, hence no need to jump through those particular hoops (I think he’s also struggled with a lot of demons, so yeah, why add one more). Could he be adrift? Maybe, but the next guy is the posterman for lack of focus….

* Liam. Honestly, I worry about Liam most of all. His post-1D career seems very much adrift, and I like to joke that he’s giving me that tell-all about the D one sentence at a time, but goddamn, are people listening? The struggles with alcohol, the lack of focus on every level, the reliance on his dad’s career advice (which more clearly reflects his dad’s financial class, background, and history than it does Liam’s), and the overall confusion about look, sound, and direction also flow back directly into his team. I get the feeling that they aren’t sure what to do because LIAM isn’t sure what to do or what he wants, so they follow in his wake. He’s agreeable to a fault, so seeing him at a meet-and-greet at an HMV in Birmingham last week felt like a step back into 2010 for no real reason, just like hearing that he was more or less coerced into full nude photoshoots for an underwear ad (the decisions to say yes to both of those—who’s steering this ship? If it’s Liam, he needs to tell the team his overall goal, so they can plot a course he and his fans can follow; if it’s the team, ditto). Like Niall, Liam’s actually pretty good at the SM game: lots of selfies, snapchat filters, outfits, gym service, twitter interactions. But generally speaking, his promo is confusing, and that’s probably because there isn’t much *to* promote at this point, other than a mix of collabs, clothing endorsements, spon con, horse farms, and an album that’s always on the horizon. This might be tied to the general post-1D jolt they all went through, like a plane coming off autopilot and into the hands of someone who’s just learning how to fly it. Zayn debuted at number one, so his bump wasn’t as harsh, but the others are slowly, steadily finding their footing after taking some time to find themselves and their sound, releasing songs/albums, performing (or in Louis’s case, going through unspeakable tragedy). Liam’s still adrift…and somewhat admittedly, which is kind of telling in its own way. Just know that my nervousness on his behalf ratchets up every time he feels the urge to assure us all that he’s happy.

* Niall. Truly the one following the original 1D template, right down to working with most of the same people but with more of the overall control in his hands instead of a faceless management squad. Of any of them, he seems the most ambitious, the most scientific about the sound he’s after and how he’s gonna get there. His promo is a mix of new and traditional—radio shows, talk shows, podcasts, special events, twitter interactions with fans, twitter interactions with entertaining celebrities—and it’s all hustle hustle hustle, build build build, as if he were a new ingenue instead of coming up hard on solo album number two. He’s explicit in his goals, which is refreshing, but it means he walks a weird line with fans: on one hand, he’s done with their bullshit, get ready to get rekt if you start commenting on his boring food seasoning or home décor. But on the other hand, he fully recognizes how much he needs them, which is why we get so many peeks into his “normal” life (yet zero percent of his actual personal life). It’s also probably why the blatant tweets of the last two days seem so jarring to me (I might be alone on this one, but I’m not a fan of directives in general, and asking me to call radio stations on behalf of a rich white man to become even richer just rubs me the wrong way, same with asking me to stream stuff to get you to number one…you’ve been there, buddy, how about you calm down and build some character at number 51). And speaking of calming down, it does fascinate me that both Niall and Louis namecheck Taylor Swift as someone who gets the whole fandom push/pull thing right, so watching them try to reverse-engineer her secrets is fun. Louis nails it (that hotspot treasure hunt: chef’s kiss), but Niall’s heavy-handed easter egg dump in NTMY, she would never!! I think Niall’s team needs to watch “Calm Down” about five more times before they try that again.

* Louis. I think Louis honestly has an AMAZING team in place, and they’re all clearly on his side, which makes for a refreshing change. Like Niall, he has publicly praised Taylor Swift for how she engages with her fans, but I think he’s missing a key point: she doesn’t let her fans dictate strategy, and I HOPE that’s the case for Louis, too. His old team *was* shit, so yeah, encouraging people to do fan projects to get the word out was a good idea, but turning that spigot off to let a good (paid) team step in and take over has been, uh, challenging. He’s dealt with more than his fair share of personal tragedy, but every time he gets some momentum going, it feels like something bts pushes him back off track, and he tends to keep it private, which only makes his hardest-core fans scream “sabotage.” Rightly so, he’s focusing on his personal life, and rightly so, his team is giving him the space to do that, even when it costs cash money and throws a lot of shit seriously for a loop. It makes my heart soar to see the potential of what his team can do/is doing, how much space he’s being allowed to process what he needs to process. Weirdly, that’s an unpopular opinion, and a lot of people want to indulge in an angst wank fest where Louis’s the victim of a terrible team that won’t DO anything (nevermind the fact that he’s probably ASKED them not to do anything), so they undertake a tremendous amount of performative unpaid labor that ends up being counterproductive on just about every front. Even worse, most of them can’t seem to process the fact that losing your mum is a blow, losing your SISTER is a blow, juggling other siblings or close friends handling some serious demons of their own in the aftermath of all of *that* is a blow, let alone handling your own personal coping mechanisms, nope, they want Louis to release release release, perform perform perform, c’mon, what’s holding him back, he *said* he wanted to release an album this year, there’s “no reason” for a delay, gotta be his shitty team, free him. It drives me ‘round the bend because it’s the same talk from late last year, you know, when we later found out that at least one family member was losing a fight with drug addiction. Louis’s fan engagement/promo is therefore hella fraught: he has to balance LouisTM on twitter (Mr. Donny, he’s hard, mate), his werk IG posts, and his constant edging because nobody can remember or trust that he’s got this, that multiple things are in play. But he also knows his fanbase, knows that it’s resistant to any kind of change, so I hope he pushes through and stays true to what he wants to do. I was really encouraged with his last promo round because he seems to have narrowed in on a something solid, he’s got a plan, and it’s not, “hey mr dj, put my record on,” it’s getting his fans to trust that he and his team know what the fuck they’re doing, and spoiler alert, it ain’t radio, but go ahead and keep pissing off djs by sending angry tweets their way. (Related: why is it so bad to avoid the radio when all of us admit that radio music is garbage? Is it because it’s more about you than him? Much to think about.)

* Harry. My very favorite head canon is that Harry is Jeff’s nightmare client: what was perfection at first because the Azoffs are old-school promo all the way (no SM, baby, gimme that sweet, sweet paper), and that dovetailed nicely with post-1D Harry, but it quickly veered into mulish teeth pulling. Low profile can quickly spin into no profile, and that really doesn’t work too well when you’re trying to sell sell sell, even if your brand is Harry StylesTM. HS1 and Dunkirk in their own separate ways worked VERY hard to push past the still-persistent way the general public views Harry as boybander Harry Styles, or more accurately, former boybander Harry Styles who dated Taylor Swift (if you venture out and ask someone who’s not a fan), but what I love about Harry is that much like Zayn, he doesn’t seem to be too bothered by all that. Sure, he’s ambitious, he wants to challenge himself and do things, but he’s no Niall Horan. He’s put in his time! If he gets a number one, then cool, but he’s not gonna chase it. And this is where Harry’s team really reflects his goals and energy: sure, they want him to do some promo (that “Do” tweet, the entire bit about the fan in Australia and Harry Lambert’s follow, goddddd, I loved it, petty Harry, resigned Jeff), but they clearly aren’t forcing him. He drops a song that makes a HUGE splash, and the follow-up is…liking some tweets and going to a John Mayer concert (not a John Mayer fan, so that wouldn’t be my first choice, but I respond to the zero fucks given about the whole thing). The music industry has changed a LOT in just two years, so it’s kind of cool to see team Harry pivoting a bit, seeing more SM interaction, the kindness generator, etc., but that said, the team takes their cues from him, and he clearly doesn’t want to do a whole promo circuit beyond persons a, b, and c, and magazine R, F, and A. Does it make sense to have Rob Sheffield write a profile about Stevie Nicks-blessed shroom-eater Harry Styles when his new song sounds like the Zarry combo of my dreams? NOPE, but that’s okay, Harry wanted to talk to Rob, so that’s what happened. The new song is more streaming friendly, and thank CHRIST, a lot less crusty white dude stuck in the ‘70s, so I can only hope that the rest of the album is thus, but we shall see! We’ll also see if Harry’s fan engagement shifts any further into the active zone…so far, it’s been “I’m gonna follow some larries, like these fun generator posts, check out a few dads” and staged photo ops with the same familiar faces, but I think he’s dealing with his own major bts issues as well (album delayed at least twice; that entire stalking situation). I still contend the album’s coming in the next few weeks, so it’ll be interesting to see if/how any additional promo rolls out in this new world order post-gryles landscape, how many interviews he’ll do, but I like that there’s a strategy that seems less stodgy…kudos to the new SM team, at least!!

Oh man, that got really long! Hope you enjoyed, and YES, opinions opinions opinions, and they’ll be stupid in about three weeks’ time, thanks for coming to my already dated buzzfeed article

[foxymuses]

on the topic of the LED (mostly) re: connor and 900 specifically (as simon’s more or less functions as you might expect)

this is copied and edited some from my old blog so. i’ll try to fix the wording to make it more sensical but. there’s some complicated contradictions in here that i’m too lazy to fix at present. i also kinda started rambling about more then yet partially related led business. but it got long then, and longer edited, so under the cut it goes.

so the rk series (specifically 800/900) led functions differently than a normal android led (which would make sense given events and shit, lemme explain), but mostly because, with specificity to connor, he’s supposed to hunt androids and particularly deviants, and they need a method of long range control to make sure he does that. why the led? lemme explain basic leds first

so leds, primarily, appear to be aesthetic. a way to be like ‘this is an android’. for the most part, they remain a clear, bright blue. red rings typically indicates deviant, if the deviant hasn’t already removed their led (which seems to be the closest thing to pain an android feels, if markus’ face says anything) but could also just be because it’s forcibly removing something from one’s skin – and even if they can’t feel pain, they can definitely feel the twisting as the led disconnects. an android’s ring can also flash red momentarily after experiencing a shock (emotionally, physically…pick something)

yellow rings are harder to pinpoint exactly what they represent, but it seems that most often its a state of ‘thinking’. whether this means an android going through an internal database, deciphering an emotion they’re feeling and don’t understand, or processing orders – it’s a state of calculations, however quick. it can also happen, sometimes but not always, during connections (as in, sending a money transfer, or when connor makes his reports.) signifying a transfer of data.

this is most prominent when markus converts androids. sometimes, they don’t go red right away – instead, they go yellow (see, the androids you can free at the cyberlife warehouse). this might be for androids who have not experienced enough to know true deviancy yet, but yellow rings are sort of ‘can be any thing for a number of reason’ but we can typically (and usually rightly so) assume thinking is happening to some degree, whether through coded calculation or through actual processing of a situation.

it’s also quite often that an android whose ring has gone yellow, or is yellow for a period of time, goes red.

in some cases, it seems the leds act, like i’ve said, as connections (see, markus at the paint shop) but i think they’re more like antennas. they act as a beacon for the machines to tune into each other (i say machines, because i assume it may also work not just android to android but android to atm if needed, or vending machine, or something, like during some of the interactions you can have as markus in the stratford tower). it enhances, and perhaps speeds up, the transfer of data. (have you seen those phones that can share charge but simply touching each other? like that) however this led is not necessary, it appears, because at the stratford tower, markus is able to do the same transfer of information without his led. (please note my slight hesitance on this due to markus being an RK model, and also that he touches that receptionist android at some point during this process. though if we look at the freedom march, it also seems he is able to send short distance transfers without touching, and does not have his led there either. it can be argued, however, that if he had the led still, he could reach further. i digress)

but if it is the case, then it’s safe to assume that without leds, transfer is merely slowed from like. a 2sec to a 5 sec process or something. nothing big. just enough to factor that the signal doesn’t have that direct led to led link and has to actually go through typical data transfer processes. all in all, the led has a function, but is not entirely necessary for the function.

i can also, and will be, arguing that a good portion of the led is also sort of a gps tracker, and once removed, blinds cyberlife to where an android is. not that cyberlife is actively seeking out any of these androids, because several of them still have their leds when they get to jericho, but it does give them a sort of access to know ‘this android is still alive’ versus ‘this one has been deactivated’, and when removed, gives them a sort of blankness regarding that android, and might even register as ‘deactivated or otherwise missing’

alright, so how does this add up to connor and/or 900?

okay so connor’s is, of course, standard in the aesthetic department. a simple blue ring in the temple. however what’s different is that, as i said way up there, cyberlife is sending him to hunt other androids, and there’s very little room to screw up there. the world has definitely improved, but keeping a leash that long while maintaining the idea you aren’t is still fairly difficult. so the leash is attached via the led. the data signal in connor’s led isn’t something he can just pop out and whatever -- i mean, yes, he can pop out the led, but because of his specific design and intention, he can’t disable the leash. which can be kinda of complicated to understand since i basically just said that the led in normal androids also doesn’t disrupt functionality when removed, but the problem here is that other androids use it a simple data transfer, so the led aesthetic ranks higher than it’s actual use, and disabling it is mostly just disabling the aesthetic to make an android look more human. yes, the functionality is still there, albeit potentially delayed. connor can remove the aesthetic bit, pop out the led, but it’s function runs so much deeper than a mere antenna, a heightened data processing that, even if normal leds when removed don’t cause a serious lack of functionality, connor’s removed does nothing making it therefore virtually unnecessary to remove it. the led of a normal android removed may give them a better chance of hiding in plain sight, but if connor’s is removed, it essentially triggers cyberlife to be like ‘this is a problem something has happened’ which makes connor more vulnerable. but i think i’m talking in circles now so... moving on.

it’s a lot more complicated than that. the led is what controls the garden (which is basically the control center, the internal command) – when connor makes a report to amanda, his led goes yellow. he almost goes into rest mode, like a computer sleeping, the led indicating this. the led’s signal is linked through his programming, through his memories and his harddrive and into his decision making and his biocomponents. it acts as a method for cyberlife to make sure they have complete control over the situation. the led is a kill switch, essentially. if it’s removed, as i said, it warns cyberlife, and they can choose to shut him down and send out a new connor with his led still intact. the led is the leash.  it can monitor his software instability, it can change the calculations to make sure he’s choosing the choices cyberlife wants. it can even go red and force deviancy by creating questions in connor’s mind. by being the connection to cyberlife, and by being the internal hub that controls the zen garden and thus controls connor’s reactions to the world based off of amanda’s incessant questioning, the led basically grants cyberlife an impossible amount of control over who connor is and what he does.

most of the time, this doesn’t happen for machine connor because he’s doing the mission. yay, ta-da, cyberlife has their puppet. but let’s talk about deviant connor for a moment, when he thinks he won. the led forces him back into the mind as it lets cyberlife take control (to kill whoever is leading the deviants at the time), and connor, for the first time, is realizing that the situation has never been in his hands. he’s stuck inside his own led trying to break out before he does something he’ll regret.

now if he can’t, then he’s trapped in there, probably until they do something about it. but if he can, then naturally his first instinct is that he has to remove the led asap – breaking free, getting out through the backdoor is one thing, but he can only do it so many times, and even if it is permanent, he’d live in constant fear that it’d happen again. remove the led, remove the leash, right? but the the led is only the place where the leash clips on -- removing led doesn’t remove the entire inner link that cyberlife has, and sometimes there will be quiet orders or little bits in his programming that say to do this or tell him not to do that even though it’s against his own thoughts, and he’d have to find someone capable of working on androids to get that out of him. removing the led will not remove cyberlife, and may be more dangerous for him than he would’ve been keeping it. connor’s led is basically the puppet-master hub and you can’t believe what it tells you, especially mine, because i like to think at some point in his machine verse, even connor learns how to change the color of the led on command.

now i don’t typically write deviant connor except post-revolution where he succeeded in his mission of stopping markus, and he’s therefore deactivated only to be woken up later. because of his deactivation, when he’s reawoken, this connection isn’t gone but the zen garden is no longer functional, so there’s no real need to remove the led. in most cases he doesn’t.

anyway, the most important part of this stems from his fake deviancy verse, where he pretends to go deviant to get close to those in jericho and take them down from the inside. in this, he declines removing his led because 1) cyberlife would probably kill him outright because even if he was faking, that blinds them a little and they want that control and 2) by keeping his led, he’s keeping his place in the DPD as a double agent without them knowing what’s happening, and it also means that cyberlife can have access to everything that connor sees within jericho. so he doesn’t get rid of it.

so moving on to 900; 900′s led functions in much the same way as connor’s regarding his particular connection to cyberlife. the changes is that here, there is no amanda. the zen garden still exists to some degree, but is more of a place for 900 to go during stasis than it is a place for him to reflect on choices and be pushed towards cyberlife’s desires. with most rk900 models, there isn’t ever a moment where they’d consider removing the led, and in general removing it would signal a self destruct. the rk900 series also have a separate chip that is a separately coded ‘kill switch’ which, when activated, can send all the rk900s into terminator mode and cause mass chaos, and attempting to remove this switch will also more than likely trigger a self destruct. it’s a way to prevent the rk900s from successfully deviating, if they should ever actually get through the intense amounts of coding made to prevent it.

my point here is that cyberlife took what they knew of the 800 model and made it stronger, which is the most obvious in 900 because he’s the one they sent to the dpd to watch over those that had been around connor. for the most part, they don’t interfere, because 900 doesn’t have a precise mission that they’re trying to manipulate, but there are two instances that i’ve plotted out in which they do attempt to take over 900 in a way very similar to how they manipulated connor into almost shooting markus -- the first is in shutting down his decision making to try to make him shoot gavin, since gavin is his partner and cyberlife doesn’t like that 900 is choosing to be attached. the second is when this kill switch is activated. you can tell if 900 is not under his own control because when cyberlife takes him over, his led goes red and a thin line of red will circle his irises. they’ve essentially made it so the led in 900 functions as more of a chain than it does a leash; no, 900 doesn’t get stuck in a zen garden fighting his way out, but he does, if he wishes to stop, have to rewire his own coding. in being brainwashed, he can do this if he wants to. in having the kill switch activated, he cannot. the led essentially assures that 900 remains a machine, whereas with connor it was assurance that cyberlife could force deviancy if they wanted.

900 does not remove his led because he sees no need; for the most part, even if cyberlife has that chain attached to him, he can shut down their attempts to manipulate him because of how strongly they coded him and because of his attachment to gavin. they are there to make sure he doesn’t decide to go against their wishes, but more or less have no control over how he chooses to do things. so even if 900 does a lot of bullshit that humans would rather he didn’t, because the zen garden is not technically a thing, there’s nowhere for them to send him while they change stuff.

however, the kill switch cannot be deactivated by himself, as it is embedded within the code for his basic programming, so it requires someone else to fuck with. in activating this, they just turn off the ‘social’ part of 900, which prevents him from properly recognizing the situation and adjusting his behavior accordingly, allowing them to just set him on a war path in which he wouldn’t recognize even gavin’s face.

it’s important, also, to note, that the only person who can safely interface with 900 is connor, because connor’s led has similar qualities, and because connor can navigate through the bullshit that is cyberlife’s programming for control. that means only connor is capable of ending the kill switch activation by interfacing to directly enter the led powerhouse and put a pause on the destruction long enough for someone to hold 900 down and remove the chip. this is dangerous for connor, however, because he opens himself up to that cyberlife control via the led to led interaction.

now, anyone can interface with connor because his led allows for deviancy, so it allows people in. 900′s was built without that allowance, so interfacing will actually be painful for a different android because their led, if they still have it, won’t be able to process that much data at once, and if they don’t have it, then they won’t even have an antenna by which to process the data to begin with. he can, if he so desires, allow people to interface with choice parts of himself, but he doesn’t really.

and in terms of aesthetic, 900′s is far more calm, which is in line with his lack of acknowledging emotions. his led rarely goes yellow except if he’s in true stasis, and for the most part is that soft blue. it will flicker red if he’s angry (such as if someone threatens gavin) but generally, you won’t be able to use the led to decipher his own moods.

and then with 900, he can’t remove the led unless he has also already removed the kill switch chip and even then, he usually doesn’t because removing it would mean that he wishes to appear human, and 900 never believes himself to not be a machine, so that would be just. ridiculous to fathom for him. the most he’ll typically do is cover it if, for instance, he’s in a relationship with gavin, and gavin wants him to for whatever reason. but yeah 900 won’t typically allow his led to be remove, especially pre-kill switch. 

i went on like 8 tangents and made a lot of contradictory information but this is ages long so we’ll jsut end it here

[quarantingz]

oop mind dump(!), half-baked thoughts (!), usual confusion(!), being busy(!), efficiency(!), procrastination(!) & none of the above(!)

enjoy :))

[written on] 7 april, tuesday

[intended to post on] 7 april, tuesday

[intended to post 2.0 on] 8 april, wednesday

[finally posted, after much procrastination and probably just laziness, on] 9 april, thursday

Hi there!

With a lack of a profound statement to start off this entry, I’ll just say this…my mind is as scattered and non-sensical as ever! What’s new?

Second coffee in, I’m thinking about, as the title suggests, a lot of things (with as much caffeinated enthusiasm as it suggests)! I definitely didn’t think I was going to be writing a post today because I thought yesterday’s entry [monday’s] was heavy enough that I could simmer and ponder over it for a while longer. But I guess, as things go, and because I naturally must write things down, I need to write everything that’s going on in my head right now - before I forget, but also so I can pRoCeSs it :)

I will definitely not get through everything I think I want to write about in this one post, and for the sake of keeping it short and still somewhat legible and engaging, I will try my best. Maybe I will do a part two (??). Hmmm maybe I won’t haha. We’ll see how this goes.

Here we go…enjoy…

So as I was swinging my arms and getting a good stretch of the legs on our family “night” walk yesterday, Tali asked me, “did you have a good day today?”. It was a simple question and one I always answer with a “yeah kinda, did a few things, wish I did more, but tomorrow will be better!”. I like looking on the bright side, but it really got me thinking about what it means to be busy and how society has placed a lot of emphasis on it currently.

I recently read an article on It’s Nice That called, “You are More than Your Output”, which was an interesting read on this idea of “busyness”, the pressures on what we do for a living, self-definition from this and our relationship with work. Oosh, it was confronting and I definitely needed to discuss this with someone further. So of course I decided to send it to Gwen, Cullz and Paulz (there’s something so comforting and encouraging to know that I have people in my life who creatively challenge and most importantly, understand my journey as a creative, post-graduation).

Twas good discussions and what they said was so so good (got my brain juices flowing for sure), but I want to briefly touch on this topic and my thoughts about this…I love being busy, in fact, as I’ve mentioned before, I thrive off being busy. As bizarre as it sounds, I’m almost like an adrenaline junkie who gets off of busy schedules and long lists of TO-DOs. I like to ambitiously jam-pack my day with the most things I can do and “tick off” in ONE day. Sounds overwhelming and you’re probably thinking I’ll burn out eventually and I won’t always like this once I have a full-time job. But for now, I like that feeling. It makes me be and feel productive. And although I regularly remind my friends to take a break and relax in order to rejuvenate, I can’t seem to take this advice myself. I constantly feel like I’ve drunk five cups of coffee within 20 minutes, so my heart usually feels like it’s going to beat its way out of my chest, and my mind is so full, it’s almost incomprehensible and confusing.

Anyway, back to productivity…this feeling is probably the reason why I struggle with self-love a lot - if I’m not achieving everything on my list, I’m not being productive enough, it is not a “good day” and I’m not…“succeeding” in life. Which again, is all about MINDSET, people!

Yes, everything does comes with balance, prioritising and re-evaluating what’s the most important things in life at any given time. Sorry, but I feel like this entry will just raise more questions and half-baked thoughts (ha, managed to tick that off the list!), than actually solving anything.

I guess what I want to touch on here, is not so much on the debate about whether you should be busy or not, it’s more about dismantling these personal-constructs that we have in our minds…

Ahhh, another topic to elaborate on (solely) for another time I guess (…??).

*** SIDE-NOTE (COZ WE LOVE A SIDE-NOTE) ***

Right now [tuesday, 2.40pm], my eldest sister sits on the La-Z-Boy, rocking back and forth trying to write a new idea for a new script. My dad too, sits facing the same way as her towards the ranch slider and garden, bowl of sweet mung bean soup in hand, relaxing in a foldable picnic chair for his “break”. I can’t help but smile at this scene and feel very happy and content in where I am right now. It also makes me chuckle at the contrast of their peaceful reflections with my scattered mind and furious typing. My frantic fingers almost echo in the quiet space that is my living room. I like this. I had only wanted to write one word down for this entry before I forgot it (then finish this piece tomorrow, when I felt like it), but here I am having written over one page long. I’m also not listening to music, which is rare for me as I like dwelling in the emotions and vibe of the music while I write - it helps me as you know by now. But in this moment, it’s just Tema, my dad, me, my typing and my silent scattered thoughts.

*** END OF SIDE-NOTE (ACTUALLY A SMALL APPRECIATIVE-NOTE) ***

Back to the point…the mere act of typing furiously on my keyboard (ooh links!) actually makes me feel busy and definitely makes me look busy. When someone says, “oh Alyssa, you’re always so busy” or “bro, when are YOU free?”, it kind of makes me feel good - that I’m somehow “succeeding” in life because I actually have things to do. But isn’t it all superficial and just an appearance? Because in my mind, I’m not achieving as much as I want to do within a day or week. Anyway, maybe that’s why a lot of people, even myself, give into this idea of busyness - because we’re fed this belief that to be “successful”, means that we not only occupy ourselves to the max, but we look the part too. That’s apparent in any bustling city, like Auckland, or London and Paris. People are constantly moving and doing things. These cities never sleep and apparently that idea means those cities and people are thriving and being “successful”.

I guess another aspect I want to discuss is the idea of efficiency. For some reason, that word is so mockable, but maybe that’s just because my boyfriend uses that word excessively and I like to laugh at him (because he’s silly, not because I’m a bully, woah, CHILL). So to be busy, and therefore “successful” is also associated with being efficient. Which also relates to B, who applies lip balm VERY STRANGELY, but efficiently…he applies it by swiping the stick across his top and bottom lip at the same time, followed by a giddy “EFFICIENCY G!” EVERY. TIME. This is quite like the idea of “killing two birds with one stone”. The idea of doing the most you can and preferably at the same time in order to optimise time. It also links with the saying, “time is of the essence”. Because we have such a limited time on Earth, people feel like they have to fill everyday and every waking hour doing something - or else we feel unproductive and ultimately a “failure”. I’m not saying everyone feels like this (I do), or that efficiency is stupid and entirely negative. I think it’s entirely individual and lies within our perceptions of the things we actually do and hope to do. Everything is relative (??).

Which brings me to the subject of procrastination. For example, in the span it has taken me to write this blog post, I’ve made myself a bowl of plain porridge for my late 2pm lunch (oop photo reference - twas really nice actually), a toastie with salami, sweet thai chilli sauce, harissa sauce and a lot of pepper (odd mix I know), which I had at 4pm, but now consider as my dinner coz now I’m stuffeddddd. I’ve also made hummus (which I think I want to write about next - there’s a metaphor in there that I want to exploit lol) for the fam, folded all of the whites and made the cinnamon apple filling for Tema and I’s mini pies. Talk about procrastination…see here, maybe this isn’t “procrastination”!

The issue lies in how we prioritise and give importance to certain things in our life. And in this case, I’m still being “busy”, but my perception of what I’ve done is that these are menial tasks - they are of lesser importance and priority compared to other things on my to-do list. Again, it is all relative. This comparison between certain things we do is what makes us fall into this trap of self-punishment and “failure” (again, maybe it’s just me). So when we do the thing that seems less important, we consequently feel unproductive . But I had been meaning to make hummus since last week, and I intended to eat lunch at 12.30pm, but got too busy looking through some design concepts for my friend, AND I was meant to fold the whites so my dad could have a clean set of singlets for this week. And lol, I wanted to make pie filling because we all craved something sweet (can’t we just do things just coz?). Looking over these, all of them are important! But why do we prioritise our jobs as so and essentially, degrade our life choices??!

Okay, I think I’m going to wrap this up because there’s no point to this entry anymore. But it was interesting to type out all these random thoughts and somehow try to weave them together. But as always, this is just a ramble. You're confused, I’m confused, we’re ALL confused.

(Or maybe I wanted to see whether you could keep up with my 100 mph train of thoughts hehe)

So to tie everything up in a big, definitely-not-an-indecisive-red-or-maybe-blue-nah-feelin-green-now-BOW…be busy, don’t be busy. Procrastinate, don’t procrastinate. BUT, be kinder to yourself. You don’t have to be busy nor productive - give yourself some slack, you’re doing the best you can! So practice SeLf-LoVe.

You owe yourself thatttt much :)

p.s. I think this post was more me procrastinating about writing and posting, because clearly, I took my time procrastinating and eventually posting three days later than when I first wrote this.

Anyway, have a great day y’all (productive or busy or none of the above)!

- a

[reallygroovyninja]

The Sad & Current State of Fear The Walking Dead by Stephen Vivian

Link

When Fear The Walking Dead debuted in 2015 it became the most watched pilot episode in Cable TV history. Today, in it’s current fifth season, it whimpers along with less than a million and a half of live viewers. While the show’s ratings have steadily declined since it’s debut to 10.13 million viewers just over four years ago, it’s current reboot under co-showrunner’s and executive producers Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg is a far cry from a success.

In fact, less than two seasons into their reboot the show has gone from an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to a 66% amongst critics. And even worse, the audience score has dropped from 72% to an abysmal 36%.

This steep decline in quality has been a concern for die-hard fans who believed the show had finally found its footing in its season three outing. During that season the show stabilized it’s ratings and improved it’s critical consensus and it appeared the show was on track to outpace its parent series in quality. But less than two years later The Walking Dead has seen a resurgence in quality while Fear has dropped to all-time lows.

So what went wrong?

ERICKSON OUT; GIMPLE, CHAMBLISS and GOLDBERG IN

Fear was co-created by Robert Kirkman, who created the original comic series The Walking Dead, and Dave Erickson. Erickson served as showrunner for the first three seasons and it was his vision for the show to set itself apart from its parent series by focusing on a gritty family drama set amidst the growing apocalypse. His focus on the Clark family was taking shape and by season three it was apparent that lead actress Kim Dickens’ character, Madison Clark, was being written to serve not only as the shows main antihero but it’s burgeoning villain. She had done everything in the name of survival and didn’t take bullshit from anyone.

Her defining moment came in the two-part season three opener where she declared that it was their fate to take the ranch from its current leadership and that it would be their right to take it if it secured their survival. And so began Madison’s manipulations, starting with her and her kids ingratiating themselves into the Otto’s lives to prove their worth and keep them apart of the inner workings of the ranch. This mission – and her brutality in carrying it out – were beginning to take its toll on the very people she strived to protect: her children.

Alicia grew wary of Madison’s tactics and started to grow into her own, becoming a leader who undoubtedly would have to one day deal with opposing her mother as Madison reached full blown villain status. And even Nick, who Madison was obsessed with protecting and keeping by her side, began to see his mother’s brutality as alarming when she killed Troy with very little hesitation.

The dynamic between these three and how it would further be explored had taken the show to new heights, but sadly the writing was already on the wall when it was revealed that Dave Erickson would be departing the series as showrunner and was to be replaced by Once Upon a Time alums Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg, both brought in by Scott Gimple who had taken on a larger role in The Walking Dead Universe by overseeing the development of both shows.

GIMPLIFICATION

Fans were wary of Gimple’s new involvement with the series. He had overseen The Walking Dead for five seasons. And while seasons four and five of the main show were critical and ratings successes, the problems with his leadership began to pop up in a very divisive season six. By season seven The Walking Dead had seen a drastic downturn in both critical and ratings success, culminating with Gimple’s departure as showrunner after season eight.

Hallmarks of Gimple’s leadership – splitting up the cast, drawing out story arcs that reduced the pace of the show to a crawl, and having characters act and speak illogically and in repetitive monologues were now on their way to Fear, a show that had earned its success from separating itself from the identity of its parent show through showcasing a grittier, more realistic portrayal of the zombie apocalypse. Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg were just the nails in the coffin as they would take these hallmarks and double down on them with reckless abandon.

DRASTIC CHANGES OF REBOOTING

The reboot swiftly introduced a time jump to bring the show in line with The Walking Dead for the sole purpose of crossing over Morgan Jones, a character whose story arc had been on a rinse-and-repeat cycle on The Walking Dead for far too long. Having him crossover could have been a great way to explore his character and breathe some life back into him, but sadly the showrunners simply doubled down on what was wrong with Morgan’s character in the first place.

Worse of all they decided to stunt all other characters growth and put them on a trajectory to adopt Morgan’s boring character traits, ultimately watering them down to unquestioning, idiotic do-gooders who do not worry about any personal matters but instead the larger group mission of do good at all costs; even if it means killing themselves to save someone who refuses their help and is more-than-likely going to result in getting more people killed.

The problems were readily apparent right from the outset of the first episode – an episode dominated by Morgan and new characters Althea and John Dory. No OG Fear characters were introduced until the very closing minutes of the show. And in the following seven episodes the original cast took even more blows, as both Nick and Madison Clark were killed off the show. The core dynamic of the show and the interesting premise of the original pitch of the series had been decimated in less than 8 episodes.

It was clear that Andrew and Ian had no regard for the cast who had been there since day one and who had given such great performances to carry the show to critical success. And once again they doubled down on new characters that had no depth, dimension or individuality in favour of propping up Morgan Jones as the new lead of the show.

BIGGEST GRIPES WITH SEASON FOUR & FIVE

The new cinematography style was to strip out all colour and use a hideous grey filter. Since the show was split into two timelines – the THEN timeline featuring the OG cast at the Dell Diamond, and the the NOW timeline featuring Morgan Jones meeting up with our remaining survivors – it was assumed the use of grey filter was meant to contrast the generally bright colours of the NOW timeline. Perhaps a thematic device to showcase the differences in the state of mind of Alicia, Nick, Strand and Luciana as they were on a mission of vengeance. But when that story was resolved in the mid-season finale, it was assumed we would return to normal colouring. Sadly, we were not.

Characters acting dumb, delivering nonsensical dialogue and out of character in order to service the plot. This is always one of the worse creative decisions a writing team could make and it was clear it was one the new showrunners were embracing. As I mentioned before, Madison Clark was a growing villain who would stop at nothing to keep herself and her kids safe. Suddenly in season four she was a leader of hope for the show, doling out idiotic, non-sensical lines such as “no one is gone until they’re gone”. Go back to episode 3x08 and listen to Madison tell her kids about how she killed her father to protect her mother against his abuse and how she was going to go talk to another old man, Jeremiah Otto, alluding to her reconciling that she would have to kill him to protect Alicia and Nick and you will see a vast difference in dialogue.

Gimmicks! The plot doesn’t serve to move the characters or the story forward in any meaningful or realistic way. Instead it’s as if the writers came up with these “cool moments” they think will look good on screen, and try to just connect the dots with nonsensical plot points and character direction to make it happen. Let’s not even get too into the airplane that they flew despite none of the people on the plane being a pilot, or the nuclear reactor breakdown that was supposed to present a huge threat but was resolved very anti-climatically.

And the cardinal sin that the new showrunners have committed is sidelining the previously well-developed OG characters in favour of new, poorly developed characters. First of all, if the decision to kill Madison off was to actually serve a true purpose for the story and the characters instead of this superficial “it’s what Madison would want us to do”, then the show should have rightfully been inherited by and led by Alicia. For starters, Alycia Debnam-Carey has a large following as an actress. And, as a character, is the biggest draw for the audience. Not only is she the last Clark standing, but she was on a trajectory to becoming a strong leader in her own right. But instead they felt the show would be better served with Morgan as the lead. It’s a shame because the show had a lot of potential by shifting focus to Alicia, but as it stands now, not even our OG characters or Morgan, the shows misplaced lead character, are strong enough to carry this show.

CAN THE SHOW BE SAVED? CAN IT DO BETTER?

I sure hope so. I haven’t followed steadily since episode 4x09. That episode bored me to tears. And no matter how many times I’ve tried to sit down and watch episodes from the latter part of season four or episodes of season five, I just simply can’t bring myself to do it. There’s just no motivation for me to keep watching. Nothing ever really happens. No one has grown in new and surprising or compelling ways. The show hasn’t had a message or a narrative worth investing in, because let’s be real the simplicity of “we’re here to help” is not a story. It’s a singular ideology adopted by EVERY character, no matter how senseless and idealistic it is.

I think there’s several ways to reinvigorate the show and get it back on track. To start, the show could learn to take risks. The show isn’t willing to take any risks right now and it’s painful. Given the world they live in and the threats they face, we should be seeing characters go down darker paths or even killing again. We don’t even get any real sources of conflict. It’s all contrived conflict to make it seem like there’s a threat to our characters when there is none. At. All.

Why not kill off a character without fanfare and have the real ramifications be the source of conflict. I thought they might have been able to pull this off after Nick’s death, but that fell flat too.

Imagine June dying and John growing darker wanting to avenge her. Imagine Morgan going all “clear” mode again and not coming back from it. He’d be far more interesting as a loose cannon who could no longer lead or support the people he rounded up into his mission. Imagine Madison returning in her true, pre-season four form and struggling to adapt to the groups mission and suddenly start pulling Alicia, Strand and Daniel’s loyalty away from the group. There are just so many, endless ways the show could create conflict without having to outsource it to inadequate villains, such as Martha or Logan.

There are so many themes to explore in a post-apocalyptic show. Season three was dealing with scarcity of resources and how it was causing conflict amongst survivors struggling to find supplies. In season five, it seems that they have unlimited resources with battery power for their walkie talkies, generators, video recording equipment, planes and hot air balloons. Enough already. This isn’t realistic. Logan, the shows current villain, if you can even label him as one, would be far more dangerous if the resources in the area were dwindling, as they would be, and he was pushed to the brink by trying to secure whatever was left for his groups survival. He wouldn’t be politely asking for directions to oil fields. He’d be taking it at gunpoint and killing people to get it.

The possibilities in this genre are unlimited. But one thing is for certain, since the show lost it’s true lead in Madison Clark, the series hasn’t felt right. Kim Dickens was wrongfully dismissed from this show, in my opinion. And until she is brought back I don’t think that the show will ever truly recover.

In short, Bring Back Madison, have her be the bad-ass, manipulative antihero she is meant to be, and have her character be a source of conflict for the group and Alicia. Imagine Alicia’s loyalties being torn between the mother she thought she lost and the group she has now called a family. Madison would be the best kind of bad influence on both Strand and Daniel, who were characters who thrived in the grey areas of morality under Erickson’s leadership, creating a far more dynamic and distinct direction for the series. It would also be a direction worthy of the acting talent that this show has in riches but sadly doesn’t utilize to it’s fullest potential.

[keithxhappiness]

JTV 5x07 Review & Final Words (?)

So, I’d like to start first by commending the show overall. The fact that it has inspired emotions in me so INTENSE that I needed to write them down to process them is a testament to its quality. But I would really like to voice my opinion on this week’s episode. I really had hoped that all the signs had been pointed the wrong way - that the fact that Brett Dier would only appear in 7 episodes was just a rumor, or the cast wrap-up/wedding pictures were meant to be deceiving. It pains me to know that - one last time - I was wrong about the show. 

Michael has always been an important character - to Jane, to the story, and to many of the audience members, including me. His loss was hard. It was one of the few times I’ve cried experiencing a work of fiction. But, just like Jane, the pain dulled to a tolerable ache and I continued to enjoy the crazy shenanigans taking place on the show, and I even grew to accept Jane and Rafael together, as it seemed pointless to me that they should both be unhappy alone. I value, ultimately, that all the characters are happy - I want their suffering to be a prelude to some sort of fulfillment. 

And I believe what this show has completely failed to acknowledge is the fact that you can love two people at one time. Those circumstances are rare, yes, and although I’ve never encountered them in real life, I have in fiction - and I cite The Infernal Devices as the best example of this. Tessa was torn between Will and Jem, not because she didn’t love either of them enough to choose, but because while Will grappled with his curse, she and Jem formed a bond that went unnoticed by the all-too-consumed Will. Had Will known the truth about his condition, had he confessed earlier to Tessa, the direction of the story would have been evident. But a twist of fate and timing gave her two great loves. It also helps that she was immortal. Of course, when I first started watching JTV, I did not anticipate the story moving in a direction that benefited both men. One would have to lose Jane - Jane was not going to live forever - she only had one life to spend. But, funnily enough, the show actually managed to give both a chance - Michael’s death was hard, yes, but just like Will’s death, from its trauma emerged an opportunity for the two remaining characters to also find happiness again. Their deaths birthed love, instead of despair. And in a way, that was still appreciated. 

That said, I am biased. I have always been on Team Michael. I have always perceived them as soulmates, even while I didn’t necessarily understand the implications of that word. But I know that a soul exists independently of its vessel. Perhaps, however, I was deaf to the voices of those who preferred Rafael - who screamed internally when he watched as she married Michael. I still felt, however, that Rafael was able to move on and that they established a positive co-parenting relationship from which all parties benefited. In short, Rafael could still be a part of her life, where Michael now has no place in it. 

Now, it was as shocking to me as it was to anyone when Michael/Jason turned around to look at Jane at the end of Season 4. I remember falling to the floor in confusion and elation, and worrying for months about their fates, speculating that he had amnesia (score!), and just exchanging theories with my friends. To me, Michael’s return is no small thing. For Michael to return means that their relationship holds even more significance that I thought - that they can find their way to each other when so many forces seek to keep them apart, even when death does seem to do them part. It also pained me to see Michael so lost, and the scene in which his memories returned brought me more happiness than I care to admit. Michael is not some side-character - he is a well-developed, and important aspect of Jane’s story - he was the center of her world, along with her son, for so long. He is not a character that I believe dignified writing would or should bring back for shock-value, to advance the plot or to stir up turmoil in some other relationship. So, I hoped - I hoped that all the signs were intentionally planted to throw the audience off. 

And this is where this week’s episode made me angry. I’ve never felt angry towards this show before - not even when Michael died - but this is where I seriously considered if I should even bother continuing a story that had deliberately chosen to slaughter a valuable character’s entire journey for the sake of appealing to one particular audience. It was when Jane told Michael that he was her ‘past’ and that Rafael is her ‘now’, and when Michael simply nodded and drove her to the bus stop. Now, there are two things wrong with this. 

(1) In my opinion, the past, the present and the future are not mutually exclusive. They interact bi-directionally. Just because something happened in the past does not mean that it should be contained to the past and only the past. Someone’s past can become their future, even while it was lost in the present. If this is the reason that Jane could not choose to be with Michael then why any of this? Why any of this episode? Why kiss him? Why keep him around? It would be one thing if Jane felt that she and Michael truly had lost their connection, or that Michael himself did not want to make more sacrifices for Jane, that he wanted badly to stay in Montana and could not imagine leaving, but NONE OF THESE THINGS happened. This entire episode seemed dedicated to verifying that Jane and Michael do indeed still have a connection - that Michael can make her feel better when she is overwhelmed, that there is still sexual tension, that their memories together (e.g., camping) have not become eroded by time. So, it seems to me that Jane’s reason for leaving Michael was weak at best, and non-sensical at most, from a writing stand-point. To leave someone simply because they existed in a past - a past that you still vividly remember - is just not good enough. Not for me. And not for Michael. 

(2) Michael. As many have expressed, for some reason, Michael has been treated awfully by the writing this season. He has assumed a very passive role in the story - he simply waits around for Jane to make decisions, and when she does, he accepts with little to no resistance. Possibly the most active thing he did was ask her to travel with him to Montana, and then choose to return to Miami with her at the end of the eposide. So, just as Michael begins taking on his active characteristics again, he returns to a passive state. It’s true that Michael is the type of character who would sacrifice his happiness for Jane’s. So too is Will the type of character to forego his happiness so that Tessa and Jem may spend what little time they have together. But Will did not remain silent, and Cassie made sure that we, the audience knew that exactly. I see how it would have been simpler for Michael to leave without telling Jane, to save her the agony of making yet another impossible decision. But after spending the time exploring their connection, and realizing that he does still love her, that they have both changed, yes, but that critical fact had NOT, I cannot bring myself to believe that Michael - the REAL Michael - would shut up and watch her go. He would say something. He would fight her harder! He would at the very least, ask her to stay, ask her if she still loved him too. Because that’s what you do when you want something - you really want something - you don’t give it up with such ease. 

Maybe I’m wrong. Jane did say that life likes to throw curve balls at her. Maybe this is all just a big conspiracy and the show isn’t done with Michael yet. But it is hard for me to accept and approve of a show that so dramatically returns an essential character - an extremely well-loved character - just to discard him after 7 episodes. Whether or not I’ll still be watching, I cannot say for sure. What really hurts me the most is that the Narrator’s statement will come true - that Michael will love Jane until his final breath, but that that breath will not come dying in her arms, or after a life lived beside her, but that it will come when he is by himself. Alone and heartbroken.

[falkenscreen]

ROCKETMAN

Rocketman is not a movie, at least not to me.

Anyone who writes about movies does it because they love movies and will, and should, assess any given picture as a film. We don’t generally question, at least in this form, whether we are altogether objective, but it’s none too often a subject comes along superseding even our affinity with cinema.

I’ve listened to Elton John as long as I’ve listened to music. To say it’s been a soundtrack to my life is an understatement and without embellishment the man’s discography is my very favourite. That I’m a bigger Elton John fan than a movie fan means no small thing when a film about his life comes along.

This biopic cannot be assessed by this author as easily as any other, for the simple matter of seeing Elton’s songs writ large on screen amidst high production values and an able star (more on this later) in and of itself is no little joy to behold. For Rocketman is not just a movie; it’s cyclical, near unabating cavalcade of greatest hits (and some obscure ones ‘Here and There’) just as much resembling every one of Elton’s last six Australian tours and no doubt decades worth of concerts.

Something between Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, numbers are alternately relayed as background tracks, as if we’re watching an extravagant musical or otherwise via Elton (Taron Egerton) and co going about their regular lives; whether it be pitching to a producer or nutting out tunes on the piano. Director Dexter Fletcher imparting this story with a hybrid, at times surrealist recreation of the thrill fans will remember when first seeing Watford’s favourite son live, here’s hopefully as objective and impassioned an account you will get from someone who thinks you should stop reading and cue up ‘Madman Across The Water.’  

First thing’s first; Taron. It’s not the first time he and Elton (here serving as Executive Producer) nor Producer Matthew Vaughan have worked together. Fans of the Kingsman films might recognise one particular costume paying homage to their first collaboration.

Well chosen, Egerton, in his best performance to date, doesn’t just look the part but earns the tagline ‘Taron Egerton is Elton John.’ Mimicking the star’s mannerisms to a tee and his spitting image in several of the most outlandish costumes, while much of the film requires dramatic turns Egerton’s contagious sense of fun in the recreations of several well-known numbers is the cinematic equivalent in every sense of Elton leaping on a piano and baring a grin at his audience.

Jamie Bell as long-time lyrical partner Bernie Taupin (as South Park fans might fondly recall) does well; another development in what is an increasingly interesting career. Rocketman requires a villain and like Bohemian Rhapsody (the comparisons don’t stop there) casts an ex-Game of Thrones star (Richard Madden) as a questionable manager.

Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Mackintosh are more than decent as the parents, though both are largely sounding boards for whatever is going on in Elton’s life at any given stage. Elton’s decades-long collaboration with lead guitarist Davey Johnstone, uncontroversial and unsurprisingly ill-befitting of a biopic that requires drama, like most his other lengthy stage partners are permitted a token average of about one screen grab.

Now to the music. Without changing the lyrics, and the filmmakers generally err on the side of sacrilege, there aren’t a lot of singles that squarely fit into a retelling of anyone’s life. Opting, again, like Bohemian Rhapsody, to almost always defer to numbers that appeared on one or more Greatest Hits volumes (‘Border Song’ being a notable exception), they land about half the time.

Opening with ‘The Bitch is Back’ in what is as nonsensical a creative decision as Lily James’ rendition of ‘Kissed The Teacher,’ Rocketman reaches its heights in the film’s earliest scenes with the spectacularly promising staging of ‘I Want Love,’ the only later era Elton clanger meriting inclusion. Not simply supremely endearing but sensical within proceedings, it is nearly matched by only ‘Honky Cat’ and the ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ duet. The early addition of “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting,” if making little sense, is still spectacularly fun and serves the same purpose as Elton’s generally predictable placement of the tune in the opening stages of his shows.

The computer-generated scenery in this sequence and a couple more, amidst a film largely resonant for its strong use of colour and costuming in real life environments, regretfully wreaks of some of the more infamous deaths of cinema moments.

‘Tiny Dancer’ is shoehorned in among so many others in relation to a fleeting character simply because it ‘had to’ be there, neglecting more appropriate scores from the likes of ‘Tumbleweed Connection,’ ‘Captain Fantastic’ and of all things Elton’s debut studio album ‘Empty Sky.’ Opting to portray ‘Crocodile Rock’ as Elton introduces himself to an American audience, when every pair of shoes slowly rise off the ground in Rocketman’s most utilised promotional image, Fletcher strikes the right blend between that hyperrealist and euphoric, recreating what will be intrinsic to those sitting in the 22nd row the world over.

Fletcher showing a consummate, distinctive filmmaking flair in only two other scenes; the rip-roaring rendition of ‘Pinball Wizard’ to whirling camera-work, editing and effects thrillingly matching the song’s pace. It is otherwise only at the very end, in a heartfelt recreation of one of Elton’s most famous video clips, that all involved not only shine their brightest but look like they’re having the fun everyone should have handed the unique prospects of an Elton biopic. Why filmmakers always leave these sorts of sequences to the end and never take these leaps throughout I’ll never know.  

Rocketman is regrettably at it’s worst in the staging of the titular number, taking place within a swimming pool as Elton sings with his childhood self. Groundless and egregiously indiscernible in what is otherwise a straightforward if oft-lightly surrealist narrative, the sequence soon heedlessly morphs into a stadium scene with an all too literal interpretation of the lyrics. Doing so for a standalone visual gag that takes us stars away from what long since established itself as a temperately fantastical flick, it’s like is confusedly never repeated.

Too taking place on the heels of Elton’s most overrated number ‘Bennie and the Jets,’ the whole chapter is an aberration in what is still a more hit than miss musical.

Far above and beyond this, the entire number revolves around one of the darkest chapters in Elton’s life and in the film’s most reckless advent does not reckon with the sensitivity of what it is depicting. Curiously, the decision was not made to utilise ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ at this juncture, the stated, apparent intent of the song (among other unused Elton numbers) being better reflective of the subject the filmmakers here chose to explore. Seeking to so quickly (as the flick often does) move to the next greatest hit, given the creatives sought to pursue this confronting avenue so blatantly it was a poor mistake not to address it requisitely or properly account for its aftermath even if it meant sacrificing one or more of the myriad other strands.

For chapters in Elton’s life come and go; the crew seemingly intent on telling as much as possible. His first marital relationship and wedding (which actually took place in Sydney) are confined to mere minutes, while other hugely significant moments elapse in as little time. Making the choice to confine the narrative to the first stages of Elton’s career and never travelling down the likes of ‘Peachtree Road’ is not a problem in and of itself, this era proving just as interesting for Elton as any other, it’s just that the form has been done and done and done.  

Again, we return to Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s no surprise that Rocketman suffers many of the same pitfalls with Fletcher in charge here; the Director having been credited as same on the Queen biopic.

Rocketman fares better for not trying to cram the entirety of Elton’s life into two hours, yet still attempts to cover everything from it’s chosen era and there simply isn’t enough time from a narrative standpoint. The film does however manage to fit in Elton winning over a cynical record producer with a fresh style, flashing sign-heavy montages hurling us forward years in time, informative text on Elton’s achievements immediately prior to those credits rolling (interposed with the performers’ real life counterparts just to show us how well they’ve done) and, as if this wasn’t enough, the whole narrative is framed by Elton relaying his story via flashback to the dozen odd others in rehab.

Not forgetting to namecheck everyone from The Beatles to Neil Young, with a recording session thrown in with Kiki Dee for good measure as we’ve ticked off almost everyone else already, the reference to Leon Russell given ‘The Union’ is somewhat more digestible. Hitting just about every biopic cliché, though never so wincingly nor often as the treatment proffered Freddie Mercury, speaking from experience this is not a film you’d want to watch within years of catching Walk Hard.  

Elton fans, casual and most dedicated, will relish repeat watches pure and simple. If you’re not into the music, unfortunately there isn’t much in the retelling to recommend it.

Rocketman is in cinemas from May 30

[bryanastar]

How I (Accidentally) Write About Dark Subject Matter: Rough & Tumble Ramblings (Bonus Post)

I don’t like writing content warnings, not because I’m one of those losers that think they aren’t needed (because, believe me, they definitely are) but because it means I have to step back from my work and think about what the hell I just wrote. Now, in my teen writer eyes, there is nothing more embarrassing than thinking back to what you wrote and realizing that you need five different content warnings to fully prepare the reader for your work, and also remembering that you’re barely a rising Junior in high school. I end up having an out of body experience where I see myself and my work as a long and beleaguered r/I’m14andthisisdeep post, and it can make it hard to read back over my work to edit and submit.

Not that there’s anything wrong with darker subject matter. In fact, some of my favorite work to read contains some particular dark and disturbing content. But when you’re a young writer trying to submit your stuff, it can feel… a bit embarrassing. You feel like the stereotypical edgelord teen writing about edgy stuff for the sake of making the adults cry with your edgy edge.

The thing is, I don’t even intend to write about dark subject material ninety-nine percent of the time. It’s just a natural consequence of my intuitive (and rather impulsive) writing process.

I feel that—when it comes to writing about heavier content as a teen writer—there are two types of people: the ones who write about dark content on purpose, and the ones who write it by accident.

I think @shaelinwrites said it best when she wrote in a blog post that teens are often attracted to darker subject matter due to being at the age where we realize that the world is a far darker and scarier place than what we saw as children. Writing, therefore, is the safest way to explore this newfound knowledge and come to terms with it. This is why young writers who write dark subject matter on purpose do it.

But some, like me, do it on accident.

Let me explain. So I’m rather sheltered, as I suspect a lot of teen writers are. I’m not exactly the most world-weary person, despite knowing that the world is, objectively, pretty screwed up. Due to this, I can often add, on accident, some pretty screwed up material just for not thinking it through deeply enough.

For example, here was was my general thought process for my short story “Judith was Never Adopted”, a story that is, objectively, a about a young teenage girl getting left behind in the foster care system due to going through puberty and not being “adorable” any more, getting sexualized while in puberty, getting forcibly married to an older guy who sees her as an object, all the while desperately trying to reclaim the childhood she’s lost and feeling lied to by all the media that claimed that she’d have a lovely and charmed life after being adopted by rich and happy parents (also, spoilers):

“Gee, isn’t it funny that orphan girls in children’s books are often adopted by nice, rich families and get whole musicals dedicated to them, while orphans in YA and Wattpad books are often paired up with the older, assholic, ‘bad boy’ and probably have their lives ruined?”

“Wait… that’s a cool idea for a story!”

“How do I make the villain as awful as possible…? I know! He’s a twenty year-old gangster who has no scruples when it comes to hitting on teenagers, and he also has no problem with busting the kneecaps of literal orphans! That’ll really emphasize how crappy he is!”

“Why did the main character never come back for Judith? Uh… he was in the Iraq War? But why would he willingly join that conflict? Oh right! To pay for college! And he loses an arm, because the war has to have some consequence.”

“But why doesn’t he go to find her when he gets back? Well, uh, his foster mother is dead and his foster siblings are gone, so he has bigger crap to worry about first cause now he’s homeless. Also, the gangster left the city anyway and took Judith with him, and nobody really knows where they went.”

“There! Now to look over the draft! Wait… what the fuck have I written?!”

If this all sounds thoughtless… it’s because it is. To be fair to me, I usually realize pretty quickly that what I’m writing is dark and messed up (by, like, the second paragraph of this story, I really thought long and hard about it’s concept and went “oh shit”).

From there, I usually try my best to do right by the themes and concepts I accidentally introduced, mostly because it’s content that usually gets glossed over in other books that include it, or that is otherwise even romanticized! In fact, it’s anger at these storylines and characters not being treated well that usually inspires me to write the story in the first place!

I’d actually say I did a pretty decent job with this story considering that the first magazine I submitted it to accepted it a day later and praised the piece for its “insights into the psyches and circumstances of foster children.” And this was an adult-run magazine too—with adult contributors with MFAs in creative writing that should be able to write circles around me and my story ideas! They had no reason to be more forgiving of my piece just because I was a young writer! They had plenty of adult ones to pick from!

So yeah, I can be pretty blind to my own story’s content until it’s time to write, at which point I usually stubbornly try to stick with it. Part this is, again, just because I’m sheltered, but I think another reason I do this is because, like I mentioned earlier, I write about stuff that is usually conveniently ignored or downplayed in other works—especially children’s stories.

To give an example, let’s look at one of my favorite childhood movies: Matilda. Objectively, the plot of Matilda is about a severely neglected and abused kindergartener overcoming her abusive family with her equally abused and traumatized teacher, all the while forming a tiny found family with said teacher and moving on from their dark pasts together. Remove the magic and this isn’t a children’s movie; it’s a litfic novel that I know at least one person on this goddamn hell site it writing (not that that’s a bad thing).

Part of the, I guess, novelty of the work that I write is that I enjoy writing about tropes commonly found in children’s stories and contrasting them with I see as toxic or harmful tropes found in works for older teens. As a person who basically went straight from reading children’s literature to adult litfic, I’m fascinated (and somewhat horrified) by the difference in themes and ideas presented to children versus older teens—especially since those same themes and tropes seen in children’s fiction seem to bizarrely reappear in work aimed toward adults (A Man Called Ove is basically UP but without the magic—change my mind). The main difference between how adult fiction treats these subjects and how children’s fiction treats them is that adult fiction fully shines a light on how messed up these subjects are, while you can get away with writing about literal Nazis and genocide in children’s fiction (*cough* Avatar the Last Airbender *cough*) and have no one think it’s too dark or try to tone it down.

Due to this, I think I’ve already been conditioned to not see these subjects to be as bad as they really are, until I sit down to write about them and start to think about them more deeply! Looking back, I’m sure I could’ve written about the subjects outlined in my short story in a way that’s conducive to children’s fiction. Heck, you already have some of the base tropes: over-the-top villain, sad wittle orphans, and deep childhood friendships. Written in another way, I could’ve been the next Roald Dahl!

I’d also like to point out that I have nothing against these themes being explored in literature for younger audiences—in fact I think it’s necessary to teach children about these issues early. But I do think how we perceive certain media to be “kid-friendly” can cause us to forget how deep and nuanced the content in this “kid-friendly” media usually is, mostly due to much of the content having to be toned down as to not scar younger audiences (which is also important). The problem isn’t that this media is included; the problem is that we can sometimes forget how important these issues really are because they’re such common tropes in children’s fiction, which is a great disservice both to these issues and to the stories that include them!

This is also an issue present in YA media, but in a different way as some of toned down issues present in YA are executed in such a way that is actively harmful to teenagers (from the abusive and controlling “bad boy”, to the toxic “not like other girls” character that disparages femininity and promotes competition rather than support among girls). These are my favorite tropes to explore and tear apart in my own work because, when not viewed through a glorified or romanticized lens, they can actually form extremely compelling fiction due to the fallout caused to surrounding characters who have to deal with the bull these tropes and characters cause.

Of course, playing these tropes for what they are tends to lead to darker fiction by consequence, but, due to so many of these tropes being ironically extremely present in children’s and YA literature, many teens that aren’t myself also end writing about them because, really, they’re just writing what they know. This is how an entire generation of teen writers, including myself, ends up writing about content far darker than they realize by accident. We’ve been reading about these subjects for a long time, and now we’re just copying from the masters.

Wow, that was a long rant. Was any of it sensical? I don’t really know, but I still enjoyed writing it!

That’s all for now! See you next Tuesday for your regularly scheduled writing update!

[a-40k-dad]

Music Review

Tonight, a bit like @genjide has been doing for some time now, I feel like starting a trend of sharing a bit of music that I like, or have liked, or used to like then forgot about and rediscovered.

“But, Cederik, how can you forget about music that is on your iPod” you will ask, and I will answer by saying that age makes me go round and round (in circles) through the same stuff.

For instane, I’ve been listening to the OST of Blade Runner 2049, the latest DOOM game, Stranger Things and Mass Effect Andromeda for quite some time now, to a point where my wife gets sick of it.

I force myself to put the damned thing on shuffle all songs from time to time, and maybe, just maybe randomisation will be kind enough to play a part of the 120Go of music that I actually will agree to listen to.

Tonight, German (formerly) Black Metal band BETHLEHEM got summoned from the abyssal pits of my early twenties and let me tell you what a ride (at 95mph down memory highway) the drive back from Kendo-practice has been!

--

Bethlehem has gone through so many phases along their albums that I really find it hard to pick out one tune. From their brutal and dark stereotypical BM debuts to the more depressive, ambient, and in later albums, even festive parts, it is hard to just describe Bethlehem as a *insert generic BM band description here*.

What has always stood out, are the lyrics, of course with some amount of clichés but also significantly different enough to linger on your mind. Unfortunately, you’d have to understand German to get what it is about. My poor level only allows me to understand the words, without getting the finesse behind them, but I can at least tell you this : there is some fucking crazy poetry going on there. Jürgen Bartsch (who is not the different singers through the years) has been the guy behind it all and as I understand all the texts are his, and in the beginning they really feel like automatic writing with tons of crazy or nonsensical imagery.

The writing, quite naturally evolved through the years and the latest album I’ve bought / listened to (Mein Weg, 2004) has lyrics that though in the same vibe feel much more stemming from conventional song-writing.

So, since I don’t know where to start, I’ll just share a song from the first album I’ve had of them before working backwards into the earlier years and then forward again.

This is a song that was sent to me by a friend, before I owned any of their albums, I think I was looking for something doomy, but with a special original vibe.

This album is probably the most avant garde. This song is probably the hardest of the whole album. Pretty mild to say the least, knowing it’s supposed to be an oldschool BM band.

If you understand the lyrics, you’ll get what I mean about the writing, and damn this shit is lightweight compared to what this guy has produced.

Another song from this album that I just was able to sing along from the top of my head on the drive back, beautiful piece of eerie doom :

Now that I got the early 2000s covered, let’s go back to the mid nineties and the incredible BM album from 96 Dictius Te Necare (you can’t make it more obvious than that). The singer here is different, more brutal, more in the vein of its era also. This guy is almost crying the lyrics out.

Two years later comes the ablum “Sardonischer Untergang im Zeichen irreligiöser Darbietung". If you write it as an acronym it spells out SUIZID (you can’t be more cliché than this) but, the music goes one step towards something else than the clichés, and it shows.

On that album also is probably the longest and weirdest / coolest piece of poetry reading (not shouting, not screaming, not crying) that I’ve ever heard on a metal album, but unfortunately it’s not on youtube. The title is called “Teufelverruckt Gottdreizehn”.

Skipping to the last album I’ve listened to, Mein Weg, where the shift started with Schatten aus der Alexanderwelt goes even further away from the Black Metal clichés, if only by the (still apparently non-sensical) lyrics that are now mostly devoid of the stereotypical themes of desacration and devils and blood etc...

Rediscovering this made me want to hear what they’ve been up to since 2004 and from what I’ve been able to read, they’ve kept on the trend of moving away from the roots towards NDH.

Can’t wait to check it out!