#the characters are all diverse and dynamic and they all go through SO much growth

[that-was-anticlimactic]

wha... whats mob psycho 100 about

the only thing i know about the window is when the ginger lost to sans

*deep inhale*

okay! so mp100 is about this fourteen year old named shigeo kageyama (aka, mob) and he is an esper and a SUPER powerful one at that!!! he works at spirits and such which is reigen's psychic business. here's the thing, tho, reigen arataka (ginger who lost to sans) is Not a psychic - he pretends to be one because he got bored one day.

mob is scared of his powers and doesn't like using them due to an incident from his childhood involving his younger brother, ritsu kageyama (aka best character baby boy my favorite my blorbo my skrunkly my silly little guy i have feeligngs). i won't spoil that tho! anyways, he has ✨trauma✨ because of it (so does ritsu) and reigen actually helped him out with it, even tho he was kind of just making stuff up, he actually really helps mob and is like a mentor to him!

along the way, mob meets dimple - an evil spirit who started a cult and then follows mob around everywhere!

teruki hanazawa (aka, teru) (today is his birthday!) - a fellow middle schooler esper except this boy is so very cocky and beats up thugs! he gets in a big fight with mob but the fight is very one-sided! they become besties <3

the plot really thickens in s1 at the bg clean up arc! ritsu is just a normal middle schooler - he's on the student council, he's *popular* (lol not really but he Is but he Isn't), he's good at sports, his grades are amazing... he's everything mob wishes he was. and yet... mob is everything ritsu wishes he was. all ritsu wants is psychic powers. he has a MAJOR inferiority complex.

luckily, he gets so stressed out about framing a middle schooler for stealing girls' recorder mouthpieces to lick them that he develops psychic powers! dimple manipulates him for a bit, ritsu has a breakdown, someone tries conning mob into giving them five million yen, ritsu starts becoming like teru was...

anyways, he ends up going to a facility that's trying to like... learn how to develop psychic powers and meets other kids with powers there (he goes under mob's name because he was mistaken for mob - he starts before he develops his powers) and that facility is how this organization called "CLAW" finds him.

CLAW is made up of *mostly* adult espers and they like... want to take over the world lol

also mob is in love with tsubomi but is a wuss (affectionate), he joins the body improvement club instead of the telepathy club because he just wants muscles and that pisses tome off (tome is the telepathy club president and she just wants to meet aliens <3), reiegn is conning people, teru gets a wig... it's a lovely show <3

[fishingfordreams]

manga recommendations pt. 3

memory, melancholy, and maturity

Totsukuni no Shoujo (The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún) by Nagabe

A harrowing and beautiful grim dark fairy tale set in a world populated with monstrous creatures that can curse people with a single touch. The story follows a young girl named Shiva and her otherworldly Teacher who live in a vacant village on the "outside." The story explores the dichotomy of light and darkness, good and evil, body and soul, and those who linger in the quiet spaces in between. Nagabe’s dreamy story book illustrations capture the fantastical and eerie world vividly, crafted together in fine lines and careful contrasts.

Dungeon Meshi (Dungeon in Delicious) by Ryoko Kui

A charming medieval fantasy story about, well, dungeons, dragons, and delicious food! The premise is simple: kill the magician of the dungeon and the golden kingdom shall be yours, or so the former king declared before fading to dust. And so, we follow a group of adventurers as they traverse the dungeon and, after losing their supplies and friend to a red-scaled dragon, meet a dwarf who teaches them how to prepare and cook monster ingredients. The story delights in monster designs and their anatomies and ecosystems, and boasts a diverse cast of characters that are as equally complex and well-developed.

MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan (Deep Sea Aquarium MagMell) by Kiyomi Sugishita

A gorgeously illustrated story following Koutarou Tenjou, a janitor and assistant keeper at a deep sea aquarium in Tokyo. The story quietly opens up a hidden, dreamlike world filled with strange and wonderful creatures that dwell in the dark depths of the sea. Sugishita beautifully captures the fleeting, tender moment of fondness and rumination that people experience while watching the majesty of the ocean and her inhabitants.

BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad by Harold Sakuishi

An absolute classic! A soul-stirring, coming of age story about music, brotherhood, and the angst of adolescence. It features a group of colorful teenagers who come together to form a rock band and the story focuses on their love, trials, and tribulations as they struggle to fame. The protagonist, Yukio “Koyuki” Tanaka, embodies the raw, honest, confronting, and liberating feeling of self-discovery and self-expression that young people often go through. His growth is slow and subtle, but so genuine and measured, and he becomes the force that eventually pulls the groups’ sound together.

Medalist by Tsurumaikada

A heartfelt story that explores the familial, social, and economical pressures of competitive sports, specifically figure skating. We follow Inori Yuitsuka, a fifth grader who is desperate to become a skater but has been constantly criticized by those around her and told that she’s too old to begin training competitively. All except for down-on-his-luck former figure skater Tsukasa Akeuraji who sees her potential and decides to coach her with the promise of winning a medal. Despite the somber premise, this is an incredibly uplifting story about building confidence, realizing your self-worth, and pursuing your dreams regardless of when you decide to start. The athleticism and elegance of figure skating is also portrayed beautifully through dynamic and expressive artwork and paneling.

Holyland by Kouji Mori

An intense, character-driven story following high school student Yuu Kamishiro who, after being driven to isolation by the abuse of his peers and with no place in society, ventures out into the night in search of his "holyland." He finds acceptance through violence and solace in the lawless brutality of the streets. The author meditates on human nature and explores the nature of one's emotions, particularly grief and hatred, and how they define us. Make no mistakes though, this is also very much a martial arts story and Mori balances both the technical and impassionate aspects of combat seamlessly.

(Includes depictions of self-harm, depression, bullying, violence).

[tenpintsofsundrop]

I’m rewatching Titans season 3 to catch up for season 4 and I really wanna dump about Dick a lil. I’m sorry if this is just garbled info that you don’t get but I really had to put this somewhere :’) feel free to just skim over this ask!

also i’m sorry if this is formatted weird, tumblr is acting up for me </3

i’m a tiny eeny weeny bit of a dc comics nerd and something I’ve loved about Dick’s character is his commitment to his family. In the comics, while Jason still has a strained relationship with his family, his relationship with Dick is stable for the most part. I get that Titans is about The Titans and not so much the ‘bat family’ but again, I would have loved to the family dynamics explored a little if there had been more seasons.

And it just hurts me heart to see Dick be such a bitch to his honorary kid brother. Like dude stop it please.

(also pleaser bear with me, I’m remembering stuff about Dick from earlier seasons just off the top of my head, so if i say smth that’s rlly off about his character, please correct me!)

In the comics, I especially love Dick’s relationship with his youngest brother, Damian. He takes a major paternal role in Damian’s life while Bruce is absent and some terrible, traumatic things go down and Damian just adores his brother for it, even if he’s too stubborn to admit it.

This isn’t me saying Comic!Dick>Titans!Dick at all! it’s mostly me saying I wish we could have had more of him as a whole to see how they adapted his character and his growth.

tldr; I’m sad titans was canceled because I would have loooovveeed to see more of Dick’s growth.

this is so funny omg. you need to talk to @star-mum because we have both decided that Titans!Dick is Public Enemy Number One and it sounds like you're there too

(long winded rant below the cut but thank you for letting me talk about this lmao)

so in general, I don't read a lot of comics, but I know a lot of comic book lore because of youtube videos, tiktoks, etc. (because my general curiosity brings me to watch videos about that stuff) and because Jaycen talks my ear off about that stuff and I love her for it <3. and it's also intensely interesting to me, because I read a lot of DC fanfiction (because it's one of the most diverse and well written fandoms when it comes to fanfiction) and you can always tell when someone is using comic book characterization for characters vs strictly Titans characterization for the characters - which, the ladder is rare. Most people are only fans of the comic version - which is very understandable.

But Comic Dick Grayson vs Titans Dick Grayson are miles apart (especially considering that Comic Bruce is a calm, well rounded father who adopted Dick out of the goodness of his heart and raised a well rounded, polite, charming son, and Titans Bruce is a sociopath who adopted Dick as a coping mechanism, emotionally abused him for years, which resulted in him raising a 'son' with intense anger issues and pent up rage, and then Bruce tried to commit suicide when he realized he made the same mistakes with Jason).

Comic Dick is the golden boy.

He is very sociable, charming, sweet - he's a playboy because he has intense natural empathy, and in general he's known as the 'golden boy' because he's well rounded in every aspect. He's smart, he's a people person (without pretending), he naturally meshes well with others, he has a good natural compass for justice, he's clever.

Titans Dick is a fucking mess.

Bruce emotionally abused, and it informs so fucking much of his character and his issues - he has attachment issues; he desperately wants a family/a long term attachment but he refuses to form one because he doesn't want to get hurt, so he is constantly pushing people away, he has pent up rage because of how he lost his parents (and because of how Bruce treated that loss, telling him that the world is cold and cruel and no one is ever going to comfort him in that world so he has to make his own justice through violence). He takes every single loss or injustice (however big or small) deeply personally, he doesn't fucking talk about his feelings or communicate properly.

And Jason does get the brunt of the ... wreckage? Of Dick's issues.

It is very clear that because Bruce 'replaced' him with Jason, Dick is consciously or unconsciously taking out his anger toward Bruce on Jason. This is not a problem in the comic books, because Bruce and Dick have a great relationship. But in Titans, Dick and Bruce have a lot of unresolved problems (as much as Dick claims he has forgiven Bruce) so when he sees Jason going down the exact same path he went down - no parents, no proper guidance in the world other than Robin and being Bruce Wayne's little pet - it makes him furious toward Jason because he is furious at a past version of himself.

So because Dick has a lot of unresolved anger and fucked up communication issues, rather than being gentle with Jason and guiding him (and becoming Jason's new mentor, a better mentor than Bruce) he just takes his anger out on Jason because he is unconsciously fighting a past version of himself that let himself believe Bruce Wayne was a good parent.

And when it comes to Season 3 specifically with Red Hood - oooof - I have so much to say about this.

Nightwing and Red Hood are such intense parallels in Titans.

When we first meet Dick, he is at an intense turning point with his violence - he is very brutal, and though it's clear that he thinks killing people is shocking and wrong, he thinks nothing of doling out severe, brutal, possibly life-changing and disabling injuries. And what really gets me is when Dawn is shocked by the level of violence that Dick is displaying, and she is clearly concerned by it.

So when he becomes Nightwing, he reforms himself - he comes back from the edge, he eases up on the violence, and he has a lot of self reflection and realizes that it wasn't about the criminals, it was about him. And he makes an effort not to be as violent.

But it's clear that when he sees Red Hood - someone who kills criminals without a second thought - Dick simply sees a path that he could have gone down. Especially with the themes of that season 'killing vs not killing'. Dick thinks that he's morally superior for easing up on his violence and not killing, but really, when he sees Red Hood, he just sees an alternate version of himself - someone who was fucked up by Bruce and went down a different path, and someone whose ways are maybe a bit more justified than he would like to admit.

So rather than being brotherly toward Jason, rather than acknowledging the legitimate mental illness and trauma that Jason has, Dick talks about Jason (and Red Hood) as though he is a concept. As though Jason is doing this out of spite and pure evil, because Dick wants to extinguish that side of himself that would have embraced Red Hood's ideals if he had gone down the wrong path himself.

Those are my thoughts lmao. Titans Dick doesn't have the capacity to be brotherly toward Jason unfortunately. That's why he's so annoying

[itsclydebitches]

Honestly, I think most of the issues in this season exist because they clearly planned four seasons. Ted was supposed to go through a flop era, where he'd be checked out and his divorce and overall shitty situation with Michelle (the therapist thing) would have bitten him in the ass, and he'd struggle with his own positivity. It's crucial for Ted as a character to be critical of his life in Kansas, otherwise his character doesn't do anything but serve as an enlightened american spiritual guide to a bunch of brits (NOT a classy plot line and not a good move, especially since most of the brits are either queer or poc). I swear to god, if they make Ted go back to Kansas and end the series with him returning to the status-quo, I'll riot. His story was clearly about trying something new and brave for the wrong reasons, and finding himself in the process! He was not happy in Kansas! He has built himself a life in England that he never had in Kansas (otherwise we'd see him missing his friends, not the never-ending loneliness).

But it's a season long arc, and a recovery process that would last them another season. I was sure they would stop after the fourth season, not the third!

I think they might have decided to wrap it up early, either because of the impending strike, or because Sudeikis got bored.

Sudeikis has come out and said (on a couple of occasions I believe) that the show was pitched as a three season arc, not four. However, as a fellow writer who always needs about 75% more time/space than she originally planned for a story, I can easily picture how a perceived three season arc could actually need four seasons once you're in the nitty-gritty of writing it. I also don't know enough about the inner workings of Apple TV and Sudeikis' creative process to guess at how everyone was originally conceiving a "season." Certainly the 7-10 episodes of today are a far different beast from the 24 episodes of decades past. If Ted Lasso was still three seasons but with season 3 clocking in at 19 episodes... that would make a hell of a difference.

Regardless, I do think this season needed more time and that the issues there are seen more clearly in "International Break" than anywhere else. Nate quitting his job from one episode to the next, Rebecca suddenly being able to laugh uproariously with Rupert, even Roy having this 'aha' moment about being with Keeley... it's not that I think the show hasn't been building towards these things (it has), but rather that the final push feels sudden and, though not out of nowhere, not what I was expecting to happen just yet if - as said - the show had more time to develop these complex moments of growth. Also, though I'm a big fan of the show's sprawling cast and I think that's integral to its overall messages (you need that diversity in characters and their relationships), there was a lot of 'filler' I think this season could have cut to better focus on those key dynamics. For me, Keeley is the most egregious example in that regard. Shandi and Jack added little to her story imo - beyond a without-a-doubt queer confirmation and a little growth in terms of being a boss - so I would have rather had more of the focus be around Roy and her company more broadly.

Anyway, yeah, HARD agree about Kansas. I've already written about how disappointed I'd be in that ending. Personally, I don't think I'd want a whole season of Ted's "flop era," especially since that's where he started out: the presumably useless American "wanker" who is driving the team into the dirt. The shorter arc we got this season where Ted struggles, doubts, and then makes a tremendous comeback worked well for me. What would I have given Ted instead to fill that time... I'm not sure, which is one of the reasons why I think the show does benefit from that three season structure. There's only so much you can do with the concept of "Presumed failure is not a failure after all and actually is supper successful" before you're forced to backtrack (which undermines the message) or just sit in the boring "They're great aren't they great everything is great" ending. So Ted's football arc works for me, we just need more time for all those relationships. Keep the basic structure we have in terms of overall plot, but add in episodes to fully take the characters through the conflicts Season 2 introduced: How does Nate possibly redeem himself in Rupert's clutches? How can Ted come to terms with Michele dating their therapist? Why is Beard still 'happily' dating Jane after Higgins' intervention and his violent night out? How does Roy overcome this all-consuming belief that he's holding Keeley back? What in the world is going on with Rebecca and this maybe baby? How is Trent going to confess his love for Ted?

As said, the season IS answering all these questions, it just feels like the short structure has landed us with, "This is a problem, this is a problem, this is still a problem, the characters are acknowledging it's a problem... oh look the problem is now solved off-screen/in one scene! Happy days."

[escapism-from-the-real-world]

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while but it’s a long post so… have fun

So, the power rangers movie, right?

Garbage.

As someone who watched power rangers growing up and is rewatching a lot of the series it does NOT hold up to its legacy.

All the characters lack any real characterization and they (the makers of the film) know it. Instead of showing us there growth, we are literally told, to our face, the struggles they are going through and how this connects them to each other.

They literally have to force them to interact and have heart to hearts because they lack so much chemistry.

And I think part of that is that they are all the “outcast/loner” archetype. Now, I usually really like this archetype in PR (read Dillon from RPM) but they have every. Single. One of them as this kind of character.

Instead of having a typical group dynamic with a heart, leader, smart guy, strong guy, and lancer, with diverse character archetypes, it’s all just, outcast who used to be popular, outcast with autism, outcast because she sent nudes of her friend to other people, outcast for some reason, and, you guessed it another outcast!

In other PR shows, we have so much diversity in how the rangers are. Like, PR is surprisingly good at having a bunch of completely different people mush together to form a team.

But no. They wanted to be edgy. And they could have been!

Like RPM would have been a great version to base the movie off of since its more mature and, in my opinion, the best power rangers and it is edgy! Almost all the world is dead and the air is toxic and the team is full of really interesting characters who just feel so natural and pretty much everyone had a tragic backstory where someone they care about gets hurt/killed by Venjix and it so good.

If I was the writer for this movie, I wouldn’t have so many outcasts. And I know part of it is they need a reason why they all gathered together and got their morphers, but PR has been putting a group of strangers into unlikely situations in order to form their teams for years but now suddenly you can’t think of a better way to bring them together than “they were all outcasts and didn’t feel connected to the city”

Also, Zordon is a bitch. Sucky mentor who doesn’t tell his rangers shit and doesn’t train them and is just disappointed no matter what they do. He barely changes by the end of it and I. Don’t. Like. Him.

Also, the little robot is not friend shaped. I don’t care what they were going for, it failed.

It’s like the movie runners completely forgot that part of PR is that ANYONE can be a ranger and its not just the angsty, lonely outsiders fated to protect the world.

Also the music choices? Bad. Horrible. I could’ve picked way better song choices and let the audience here it. Seriously, how do they not know how to use music?? Don’t even get me started on when they used the power rangers theme, that was so bad.

They should’ve used a orchestra version that shook your bones. But no, we’re left with an unsatisfying play of the theme that can barely be heard with honestly crappy suit designs that I don’t really like and bland, soulless characters that I don’t want to root for.

Just, why. It could’ve been so good, but it stinks. Especially in comparison to other PR shows like RPM where they were angsty and edgy but still fun and good and able to use fucking music in their show like holy hell how hard is it to turn the volume up a little

Ugh, I am so bitter about it. They all deserved better. They all deserved to be campy. Shit, man.

[notsosilentsister]

What is your female characters pet peeves? How do you think female characters should be written? And do you think people often minimise violence against women when it is subtle or passive?

One of my most reblogged posts on tumblr is quote by writer Foz Meadows, about the lack of redemption arcs for female anti-heroines. So that's definitely something I'd like to see more of, for instance. It doesn't mean that I think you should never write iredeemable female villains though. Firstly, because "should" is always a tricky word in the context of art, wouldn't want to sound dogmatic, etc. Secondly, because I don't generally mind cartoon villains; sometimes that's just verissimilitude.

Sure, I usually prefer multidimensional, dynamic characters with complicated motivations, drawn in a nuanced, psychologically plausible manner. But there's also a place in story-telling for cartoon villains and Mary Sues, broad archetypes and blank slates for audiences to project onto. Characters don't have to be relatable, redeemable, admireable, complicated, dynamic, nuanced, plausible, active, memorable, unique, not even interesting. The interesting thing about a piece of fiction doesn't have to be a character. Not every piece of writing has to be character driven. There is no way any individual character could be written that I would consider categorically wrong.

One does notice patterns though, some of which I'm not too fond of. The dearth of redemption arcs for female anti-heroines for instance. Or how the prototypical Blorbo on Tumblr is probably male.

A Blorbo is not necessarily a protagonist, or even a character with a lot of agency, lines, scenes. A Blorbo can play a quite minor role in the source material. The whole thing about the Blorbo is that the fans do most of the work themselves. They sift the canon for every crumb of info, no matter how meagre the yield, and create the most lavish meals by adding home-grown ingredients. It's an ever repeating miracle at the foot of the mountain, a perfect use-case for the age-old wisdom that a little can go a long way, with a bit of crowd participation, if you know the tricks.

But it doesn't just happen, there are some tricks, and they are, it seems to me, sometimes a bit neglected for female characters. A lazy writer might consider a female character as likelable by default, merely by virtue of not having her do anything overly objectionable. Or they might equip her with all sorts of interesting characteristics on paper, but fail to follow through on show-don't-tell. The biggest issue however, the biggest obstacle on the road to potential blorbo-hood, is being done with creating a character too quickly, letting her remain as the placeholder that was introduced in the first outline.

The important thing about a Blorbo is that you can imagine a life for them beyond the narrative of the source material. They must seem more than a mere plot device, an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome, a victim to avenge, a trophy to win, a provider of exposition, a token to meet a diversity quota.

Of course a lot of writers, in their first outline - if they use an outline - might start with plot devices instead of characters. Ideally these are just placeholders, to be replaced by the actual characters in revision after revision, as their image becomes clearer and clearer in the writer's mind and the organically evolve beyond their initial conception. Some writers say the characters take on a life of their own. I tend to find this too cute by half, implying there's not much agency on part of the writer. But I do think there's a valueable idea in there, the idea that you have to let the process take you beyond your first idea, because let's face, first ideas are often very dull. To allow a character to come alive in that way, there has to be willingness to let them grow beyond the place initally reserved for them by the placeholder, to create that space for growth in your mind, to revise and adjust original plans accordingly.

Some writers won't do that, they'll stick to their initial outline come what may, they have no curiosity for their characters beyond their plot function and they're never going to be my favorites. But not everything has to cater to my preferences, and compelling characters are not the only way to sell a story. That's not really my issue.

My beef is with writers who can apparently make that space for evolution for their male characters, and seem to stick with their first outline when it comes to the female ones. Of course I don't have any conclusive evidence for that, it's just a feeling you get with some characters who seem to remain mere placeholders to the end, there's just never the slightest whiff about them that seems to point beyond a first idea. I think this is a subtle violence already, this lack of curiosity, lack of imagination, lack of willigness to change plans to do a character justice, comittment to keeping a character in their original place. Especially because it's an attitude all too easily transferred to real-life-relationships with women and might trigger a lot of frustration and agression when women fail to serve the function they were assigned at the start.

[thevalleyisjolly]

for the fandom of your choice/whatever is more applicable (although if u have any spicy d20 takes 👀👀): 3, 5, 7, 13 and 18

Ooh, thanks Jack! Had curry for lunch today so I'm full of spice and ready to let loose!

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I stay out of the general tags for a reason, but my top 3 all fall along the same lines - the idea that K is a "toxic" person to pair with Evan because they don't really "see" him for him (...which is exactly the flaw and the room for growth that Erika built into the character), the idea that Ricky was "bullying" Cody because he was upset about Cody's cultural appropriation, and the whole non-consensual brain surgery thing with Norman.

(The common theme is people accusing Asian PCs of being mean to their white faves and therefore deserving of all sorts of bad things. Funny how that's happened not once, not twice, but thrice, huh)

5. worst discord server and why

As most of my friends and IRL classmates can tell you, I'm not super active on Discord and am horrible at answering messages in a timely fashion, so I don't actually have a server that I particularly dislike!

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Keradin, Limon, and Evan Kelmp are the first ones that spring to mind. Keradin actually has some interesting character beats and flaws but I've never seen anyone try to engage with him as his own character, they just interpret everything he does as part of a relationship dynamic with Lapin. Limon is a fucking background comedic NPC and I am still annoyed that during and after the season, people were willing to credit him with so much complexity and interiority while downplaying/outright shitting on the actual PCs.

With Evan, I'm not a huge fan of the character concept to begin with but I'm even more livid that in one of the most diverse D20 seasons, fandom actively sidetracked and ignored and even denigrated every other character in favour of the sad white boy played by the sole white player at the table. To be clear, Brennan is great, nothing against the man, but I was in the tags when the season aired live and about 95% of the posts were Evan-centred. Sam, Whitney, and K barely showed up unless they were interacting with Evan or did a particularly funny bit. And that's not even getting into the hate and criticism that got thrown at K for daring to be in a mutual romantic relationship with Evan.

13. worst blorboficiation

See previous question, but oddly enough, I also feel like Emily gets this treatment sometimes? It's complicated because there's one portion of the fandom that acts like she's a terrible chaotic player who keeps trying to fuck up Brennan's plans for shits and giggles (which is outright wrong and misogynistic) and then there's another portion that acts like Emily's characters can do no wrong and Emily may in fact be the only player at the table who knows what she's doing at any given point in time while the rest of them are just comedic yahoos fumbling their way through dice rolls and jokes. Which, placing women on a pedestal is in fact also sexist, and it's not any better than the misogyny you're responding to. It's a huge disservice to the cast and it's especially a huge disservice to Emily - she creates incredibly complex and well thought out characters who have their strengths and their flaws, and acting like they're all perfect girlbosses who are right even when they're wrong erases so much of the depth that Emily put into them.

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

I mean, we all know my answer is of course going to be Cumulous Rocks, but as per a recent post of mine (and many posts in the past), the answer is also more broadly applicable to Zac and pretty much all of his PCs.

[willmarstudios]

Bookworm Will Review 2024 ( #13 )

Title: 'Right Where I Left You'

Author: Julian Winters

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Review: (MILD SPOILERS)

Reading books like this makes me wish younger, closeted, confused and scared me had more media like this.

Premise wise this was a really sweet coming of age story that any geeky/nerdy kids would really relate to. Especially those who are finding themselves in a sea of constant changes. Emotionally relatable on all levels; fresh out the closet me would know that ALL too well :'D

What I really enjoyed was the focus on different family dynamics with a huge diverse cast of characters and representation. It didn't feel like 'check box' style. Everything felt naturally intentional. The plot was a tad predictable, but sometimes you just need that in a book. I found no aspects of anything being try-hard at all given the romantic relationship roller-coaster of a subplot. Isaac struggling to choose between Diego and Davi.

Best friend, known forever, boy next door Diego vs. hot, hockey superstar Davi.

While a nice long conversation between everyone would've shorten the story, the miscommunication felt more like a more lived-through emotional experience. However the practice kiss had me going, oh. Messy! Which then just added another level of emotional growth Isaac and Diego had to go through.

The first pride and prom situations were SO real because I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggled to enjoy both once I was out. That disheartening feeling of not being able to enjoy prom with your friend group because of the pressures of going with a date, but also not finding/knowing/falling for another queer individual who'll go with you. Special shoutout to my friend Jackie (a.k.a Waffles) who really did her best to help me during our prom. Tough Love was something I needed and I apologize for being a sour grape throughout the night.

Then going to your first ever pride, being around those who are like you, with the expectations of finding your someone is not a healthy way to go about life. However, I understood Isaac in this case. You want that magic and story to tell. That movie moment! Thanks romanticizing straight media... Focusing so much on finding romantic relationship instead of enjoying the time with friendship. Thats its own kind of romance and not just because this book is TECHNICALLY friends to lovers.

Overall, I loved this book and really hope young BIPOC readers pick this up one day! We all deserve a happy ending

PS. A man is NEVER worth losing or ruining anything for. Trust me!

[booksandwords]

Strong Wine by A.J. Demas

Series: Sword Dance, #3 Read time: 2 Days Rating: 5/5

The quote:  “Divine Terza. Yes, of course. And I’m supposed to be the tactician.” “Yes, dear,” said Varazda, patting his shoulder, “but I’m the spy.” — Damiskos and Varazda

Strong Wine is such a perfect ending to the Sword Dance trilogy. Works on the idea of connection. Though there is a persistent storyline between Sword Dance, Saffaron Alley and Strong Wine, I think they could theoretically be read independently. There is so much more to be enjoyed from reading all of them in sequence. It is worth that knowing, epilogue excluded the Sword Dance series takes place over about six months. It's quite a short time frame. I do really recommend it for a series that plays with gender, sexuality and presentation.  Varazda and Damiskos have this wonderful and endearing relationship with boundaries and limits that are respected and diverse family dynamics. I do think it is the only series I have ever read that treats eunuchs with such respect. Respecting humanity, identity and potential for sexual nature.

Onto Strong Wine itself. It could be argued that Sword Dance is Damiskos's story, Saffaron Alley Varazda's, following this line of thought Strong Wine is their story. Unlike the previous two which are single perspectives, this is alternating. As you would expect is a book that starts with a happy and fairly stable couple shenanigans ensue to disrupt them. Some of this is partly their fault. But there is a sweetness to the lack of communication while we are in both Varazda and Damiskos's heads we know they want the same things a life. They both want to live together with Yazata, Ariston, Remi (and maybe Kallisto) in Boukos and both mention a child. But these two are not good with the words. What they are clear on is that family is important. We do get to see growth in the relationship some reflection on where they started. I kinda want to go back and reread Sword Dance just so I can relive their relationship.

On the story. It does well to tie up the plot lines from the previous books and leave readers happy. There is racism in play as the story moves from the more progressive Boukos to the less tolerant Pheme. This racism is of course directed at Varazda and it is handled well, both by him and the author. The racism fits contextually and isn't extreme. It also lets us see a reminder of exactly how ballsy Varazda can be, like confronting Dami's family in full Zash attire. The plot is paced just right and uses the characters to their best advantage. There is very black and white though some people are definitely leaning more one way than the other. Ino is a gem. I liked her instantly as is intended. The lovely lady is a pawn in a game she has no control over, as I'm guessing most women would be in this fictional world. She is written in such a way that it is clear to the reader that there is no threat there and you want her happiness. You want her to have what is hers and to chase her dreams. Better Varazda likes her too. The other great character is Timiskos, Dami's younger half-brother. I just adore him. He's trying and he's sweet and he's been through a bit for his family. I kinda hope that A.J. writes a spin-off with Timiskos as a protagonist.

Have a comment dump.

“You see how happy he is now? You see how the strain is gone from his eyes, how much more easily and genuinely he smiles? I did that.” — (Varazda) There is so much love and pride at this moment and it's beautiful.

Kallisto and her cameo made me smile. She is strong but there are some times when she is shy. And I'm happy about that.

There is something that both Varazda and Dami consider a hamfisted declaration of love or a statement of intention but I really think it's romantic especially for them. Where cohabitation is not done easily.

“I’m not engaged,” he said, because he wasn’t about to begin spinning a web of lies. “But I am not free to marry.” — (Damiskos) This is a polite way to hide the relationship while saying no. But it's still effective.

He snickered at the idea of a dream messenger from Dami. It would have been kitted out in a crisp uniform, and would probably have marched. — (Varazda) And at this moment I was laughing because I could see it.

“No! Five days. And yes.” “What?” Kallisto pushed him toward a seat at the table. “No, he hasn’t had a letter from Damiskos. It’s been five days since Damiskos left. And yes, Varazda has written him. You and Yazata really need to stop pestering him. Damiskos is his lover.” — (Varazda and Kallisto) I appreciate the love that Asterion and Yatza have for Dami. The ability to acknowledge how happy he makes Varazda.

Varazda’s second letter was short and written in Zashian. It was a passage from the Tales of Suna, carefully copied out: the song of the moon fairy pining for her absent lover. — (Damiskos) This is so romantic. Varazda is a romantic.

Varazda didn’t even glare, in any way worthy of the name—not like Damiskos knew he was capable of glaring—but his look was enough to make Korinna shrink back in her chair. It was deeply satisfying. — (Damiskos) This is such a gift to give a character.

“You’ve taught me so much about love. I don’t think I would have understood, before you, that saying ‘yes’ to my parents over this—sacrificing my happiness for something that wouldn’t really be good for any of us—might be dutiful, but it wouldn’t be loving. You taught me about happiness, too. You make me actually believe in it.” — (Damiskos) Okay so Dami is also a romantic. Just in a different way to his lover.

And Zashians never really understood about suicide, that for Pseuchaians it wasn’t always a choice of sordid desperation, but could be a dignified exit, the last way to do the honourable thing. — (Damiskos) Oh I love this cultural difference. This is quite a common thing, suicide as an honourable act but it can be hard to understand if you aren't raised in that kind of culture.

The only thing I'm kinda sad about in Strong Wine is we don't see anything of Varazda and Damiskos performing, especially Varazda. The series is named for his skill with a blade and ability to dance. But it really is a bit nitpicky.

[inawickedlittletown]

Queerbaiting and Buddie

(word count: 1,900)

I keep saying that I don’t want to spend any more time on 9-1-1 meta or fic, but the events of this weekend made me open up a document where I had some unfinished meta and in light of the S4 finale airing tonight, I thought I might at least write this: 

“Queerbaiting is a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBTQ representation. They do so to attract a queer or straight ally audience with the suggestion of relationships or characters that appeal to them, while at the same time attempting to avoid alienating other consumers.” 

That is how Wikipedia defines queerbaiting. And I really feel like everyone needs to read that and then read it again and realize that what is happening on 9-1-1 with Buddie is NOT queerbaiting. 

I don’t want to go into the long history of queerbaiting because we would be here all day and anyone that wants to do some research should go and do so. There are a lot of resources out there. Use them. 

But the short of it is this: queerbaiting has a lot more to do with the way a show is promoted, with the way that anyone involved in the show talks about a queer ship, and with the show deliberately scripting scenes that hint at a relationship without any intention of following through. Expectations and wanting a queer ship to go canon and those expectations not being met do not alone equate to it being queerbaiting. 

For any of us that have been around a long time there are a lot of perfect examples and if you compare Buddie to any of them, they are very different. I’ll name a few:

Merlin/Arthur

John Watson/Sherlock

Emma Swan/Regina

Derek/Stiles

Castiel/Dean Winchester (though they did go canon...barely)

Lena/Kara

Buck and Eddie do not fit into that list. Which isn’t to say that someday they could belong there, but I just do not believe that they will even if Buddie never becomes canon. And this all lies in how Buddie as a ship has been treated both on screen and off. I’ll break it down by season. 

S2: 

Eddie is very clearly introduced as a new character, a straight Army veteran with a disabled kid and family drama. He and Buck have immediate chemistry. We can’t deny that, or deny that from that first episode there are immediate sparks. Unintended sparks, but sparks nevertheless. And it is easy to tell that no one on the production team expected that and the story reflects that. 

Yes a foundation for their friendship is formed and yet the season long story focuses on Eddie’s relationship with his estranged wife and Buck is dealing with his own growth after being left by Abby. Their friendship shines and their scenes are great but none of them suggest romance and there are actually a lot of episodes where Buck and Eddie barely interact in S2 aside from in the background or for small work related moments (this mostly happens after Shannon returns). 

S2 does give us the first acknowledgement from the powers that be aka Tim Minear that they know what the fans have seen. This is why the elf scene exists, but it exists in a space where it’s a nod to the fans and not meant to do much more than that. The other moment is during the call with the livestreamer. But S2, places them completely and without question on a strong friendship. 

S3: 

We see a lot more conflict for Buck and Eddie in this season and we see how close and important they are to each other. Those are the two main things. That can be read as friendship easily and it’s a season where both Buck and Eddie deal with their pasts and in one way or another start to get closure while their friendship remains intact. 

Yes there are some scenes that make us squint and go huh, wtf? (I’m looking at you kitchen scene), but narratively we also know that neither of these boys is ready for a real relationship with anyone, let alone each other. But we can bask in how close they are as well as how Christopher fits in into all of it. 

But in S3 we are also introduced to Ana and we see the return of Abby. We also get to see that Buck and Eddie have become closer than ever and that the lawsuit only serves to highlight the importance that they both feel about having the other available to them. I’ll also quickly mention that Eddie Begins worked hard to highlight Buck’s devotion to Eddie. 

S4: 

Without considering the events of the finale (I am avoiding spoilers and know nothing about it or the speculation), we’ve seen Buck and Eddie both grow and get further closure on their past. This season has paralleled them well and their friendship has not faltered, they’re as close as ever. 

The beginning of the season was heavily focused on Buck and we saw him grow as a person and begin to work on himself in a healthy way and we’ve seen Eddie be supportive of that. 

We also have Ana to consider and her relationship with Eddie as well as the return of Taylor and yet the appearance of these women has not changed the Buck and Eddie dynamic. And I find it fascinating that Eddie beginning to date Ana, is the thing that prompted Buck to start dating. The parallels are all over the place but it is the strength of the friendship and the way they care so deeply about each other that remains whether that becomes romantic is still to be seen, but it could still go either way.  

Off-screen by the end of S2, Tim Minear had already addressed Buddie by throwing in that elf scene in a wink/nudge fashion that said “I see you” and in the scene with the girl with the livestream with the comments. During S3 he tweeted about being frustrated by the fans demanding and being hostile and thinking that that would make him more likely to do what they want (I’m paraphrasing what I remember seeing). Tim has never once said that Buddie will happen or shut the door on the ship entirely, but he did say he did not want to engage in conversation about it because he doesn’t want to get into arguments with fans. 

Oliver has always been enthusiastic about Buddie and has even said that he would be perfectly fine with it happening both a while ago and more recently in promo for S4. Conscious of queerbaiting and not wanting to give fans false hope, he has specifically said that he does not know if it will or won’t happen and that he wouldn’t speak on that as he’s not the one making that decision. His support for it happening does not mean he has any sway one way or the other. He’s said this a few times and even wrote a letter to the effect to make it clear to fans that the last thing he wants is to disappoint someone due to something he’s said. 

All in all, it just isn’t a constructive environment for anyone working on the show to interact with fans on this topic because any time that they do, they get attacked by overly enthusiastic buddie shippers that in many ways are making everything worse. 

In all of the interviews from Tim that I’ve seen, he has always been very quick to hint at what was coming up on the show in a way that at times has been misleading on purpose. The number one thing that comes to mind is early in S4 where Buck was said to get a new woman in his life. Tim absolutely made it out to seem like it was a girlfriend while knowing fully well that it was a therapist. This is an excellent example of what promoting and hinting is actually like. No one from this show has done that in regards to Buddie. 

No one has gone out of their way to hint that it may happen in a way that excites the fans. And this is one of my main reasons for knowing that Buddie is not a queerbait. At no point in the life of the show so far has anyone used Buddie in a promotional way to bring in viewers. Because THAT was the whole point of queerbaiting in the past. 

It was a way that some showrunners found to bring in a lot of viewers when they needed to up their numbers in order to show networks they were worth keeping around. Someone figured out that LGBTQ people wanted to see themselves represented so much so that they would tune in to anything that promised an LGBTQ character in some fashion. It was a tactic that worked well in the landscape of tv where there was so little LGBTQ content on mainstream media that anyone wanting it would latch onto anything. And then they just wouldn’t deliver on those relationships or characters. In 2021, that is not the world we live in any longer. 

In today’s tv landscape there is so much to watch and so much to pick from and diversity has grown, it is celebrated. Queer characters are well represented as are queer relationships and queer stories. The times are different. A while back I was listening to a podcast (Bait: a queerbaiting podcast) and something I found interesting was how the hosts both agreed that in today’s tv landscape there is no more real queerbait and that we won’t easily find anything like the ships I mentioned above. I think I agree more with this than I expected to, because I do think that it exists in some spaces, but it definitely isn’t what it used to be. This is a good thing. 

Specific to 9-1-1, this is a show that has that diversity and that isn’t afraid of tackling that diversity and giving us interesting and nuanced perspectives and stories embracing that. We have characters of color, women in positions of power, a F/F relationship, two multi-racial relationships, a disabled character, other queer characters including a M/M relationship. There is so much in this show that embraces diversity and that embraces the reality of what the world looks like. To call it queerbait is to disrespect everything else that this show is and has done and the hard storylines that have been tackled that we would not have seen on tv ten years ago. 

And I get that Buddie would be another breakthrough. It would be a novel way to tell a queer story, and it would be amazing if it were to happen. The set up is there, but it isn’t fully realized, and Buck and Eddie can still be read as just friends if we take off the shipping goggles. But it also isn’t queerbait or likely to become queerbait and people have to stop calling it that. 

What Buddie resembles is one of the many unintended slow burn ships that have frustrated viewers in many forms across fandoms and we just have to go along for the ride and maybe it will happen. Or maybe it won’t. But if we know anything about relationships on tv, it is that a lot of the fun comes from the journey, even if the destination is good too. 

[aspoonofsugar]

RWBY Chain Of Faves

Who are your top 10 favorite RWBY characters and why?

Hello anon!

Thank you very much for this ask! I love talking about faves!

1) The murder kids aka Emerald and Mercury

I have talked about them here and here and I’ve shared some minor thoughts here and here.

I think their story has yet to enter its climax, so the metas on them are not as finalized as those on other characters. Still, the set-up is all there and I love it. As I say in the metas linked, they are a unit (body and soul, weapon and semblance). They are also two of the characters who mostly explore the cycle of abuse (together with Cinder, who is both victim and perpetrator).

I like how they are given the chance to screw up very very badly (and are given consequences for their actions), but are also always framed as two kids who try to be toughter than they are.

What is more, I love their relationship and their dynamic with Cinder. I think both bonds are very complex and are shown rather than told. This is why Emerald and Mercury’s body language is very effective imo. Their closeness is mostly conveyed through them glancing at each other or how they move around each other. This makes sense because they are in a place where they can’t speak freely.

In particular, I like that their relationship is deep, but not idealized. They care about each other, but are too scared to save each other. This is why Emerald needs the help of an adult (Hazel) to leave her abusive environment. This is also why she is recovering in a healthier environment that also lets her understand the consequences of her actions better. At the same time, Mercury who is instead stuck with another abusive mentor can’t currently escape.

When it comes to each one of them individually...

Emerald’s design and semblance are among my personal favourites. Her semblance especially is at the very top of my list. It has so much potential thematically and flexibility in terms of use (invisibility, transformation, specific illusions fitting a character’s flaw). I hope they use it more and in diverse ways in the future to show Emerald’s growth. For example, how cool would it be if she used it to help another character overcome a panic attack? Or if she helped Ruby enter the mental state to use her eyes with it?

I also really like she has a specific fighting style that fits her thief motif and is very different from others. It is less scenographic, but  very pragmatic and I love it.

I also liked the focus she received this season and I think it needs to be finalized. I am curious on how it will happen.

Mercury’s background is the one which breaks my heart the most. The little we know is horrible :( I also think it is a story that heavily relies on symbolism to convey the idea of abuse...

Marcus took Mercury’s legs, so he can’t psychologically escape the cycle of abuse... Marcus told Mercury he needs no crutches and Mercury is refusing to aknowledge his hurt and to heal... Marcus’s violence messed up Mercury so much he is not sure what he wants and his semblance is missing to underline it.

I wonder if we will discover more about his background or if what we have so far is all. I can see it go both ways to be honest. Also, Tyrian’s interactions with Mercury are interesting and meaningful, but also terrifying. I both want more and I am scared of having more :’’)

I am also looking forward to see how his allusion will be used. As for now, he has the potential to have at least three different motifs going on. The one of Mercury the God, the one of Mercury the metal and the one of Mercury the planet. Curious to see what is done with them!

Finally, I’m the One is one of my favourite songs because it is full of foreshadowing and perfectly conveys what their characters are about. I would love to properly analyze it one day, even if I have used it in multiple metas already :), so I am not sure I have new things to say.

The same can be said about their fight against Coco and Yatsuhashi and their fight with Cinder against Amber. In a sense, those two fights are complementary, since the first one foreshadows their major assets that are properly shown and charged symbolically in the second.

In short, their fight with Coco and Yatsuhashi is how they want to appear:

I'm the one that your mama said 'Don't mess with them or you'll end up dead That type they don't follow any rules'

Their fight against Amber is who they are deep down:

I'm the one That was born in a nightmare a murderer's son

I'm the one Who rose out of filth and was loved by no-one

3) Penny

She is the protagonist of the Atlas Volumes and has my favourite arc so far.

Her arc is contradictive, sad and powerful. In a sense, her whole character is written to hurt :’’’) She is given a happy and enthusiastic personality to hide how tragic her story is.

Penny is an example of how to write a specific kind of tragedy, where the main conflict does not lie in the character’s flaw, but in the environment she is in. Penny wants to be a “real” girl, but others won’t let her. This conflict escalates until she tragically manages to affirm her personhood in death.

At the same time, she is given self-issues that can be seen as a flaw and tie to her environment. She is self-sacrificial and struggles to see herself as a true person. Still, this flaw does not really drive her plotline (others’ control of her does) and, as @hamliet​ has stated, it does not eat everything around Penny.

So, she dies tragically because she never gets the chance, not even to overcome these self-issues, but to properly face them. At the same time, her death is powerful and cathartic because she negates others’ control and manipulation. She negates the mechanisms that had her develop self-issues to begin with.

Is it a happy outcome? Not at all. It is sad and contradictive. It is gray, but this is precisely why it is powerful. It manages to convey and explore complex and contradictive ideas. It does not offer an answer, but only bittersweet questions.

I also really like how Penny’s allusion is used in the story. It is played straight in terms of plot since Penny becomes human as the story goes on. However, it is problematized in terms of themes. It conveys that humanity is about making choices and experiencing both happiness and pain. Finally, Penny’s final scene is an inversion of the original novel.

Penny is not the Blue Fairy’s creation, but the Blue Fairy’s creator:

She goes from Creation (passive, a child) to Creator (active, an adult).

Incidentally, Penny too has one of my favourite songs. Friend is beautiful and it perfectly describes her arc. It conveys how much she loves humanity despite how complex and painful it is. The music starting slow and melancholic to gain more power as it goes on describes Penny’s life beautifully. It is a story that ends too soon (the music interrupts at its most vibrant), but it is still a melody full of love for life:

An answered prayer A chance to Share the world To be a girl Who fin'lly felt alive

4) Cinder

Cinder is probably the most complex and best written character so far.

She manages to make me feel for her and to make me incredibly angry with her at the same time :’’’)

I have written several metas on her, so you can read my thoughts on her background, the focus she received this volume, how I think her arc will end and some minor symbolism.

Cinder is built on an equilibrium between victim and perpetrator. She is both and the narrative strikes perfectly with its framing of her. It is both sympathetic and strict and most of all tragic because no matter if Cinder wins or loses... she keeps spiralling either way and she can’t understand she is fighting a worthless fight.

She is also full of interesting motifs and symbolism. One I would like to explore more in the future (and for it to be explored more by the story itself) is her fall motif.

She chooses the surname “Fall” herself when it is decided her first target is the Fall Maiden. This makes for a nice juxtaposition between her and Winter.

Cinder is born with nothing. Her own name refers a substance almost completely burnt, something with almost no color. It is a very humble name, so she chooses a surname which is important. It is a surname that hints to her role as a vessel of the Maidens.

She is not chosen to be a Maiden... she is not supposed to be one. However, she decides she is going to take the power even if it is not hers. She is taking destiny in her own hands.

Winter is born with apparently everything. However, this is also why everything gets decided for her. She is given the name Winter before she was born. Similarly, Ironwood chooses her as the Maiden even before she discovers about them.

Cinder sees Winter as having everything Cinder deserves. However, she misses how Winter is facing very similar struggles. She might be given what Cinder is negated, but she too has to make that destiny hers. She has to take her story in her own hands, just like Cinder.

At the same time, Cinder’s fall motif is linked also to the idea of falling. She falls and makes others fall. Exactly like she burns and is burnt. The orange of her flames aesthetically calls back to the orange of the falling leaves.

This idea is also conveyed through Cinder constantly mistreating and even killing characters representative of sides of herself.

She abuses Emerald and Mercury aka her child selves.

She kills Watts aka her negative foil.

She kills Pyrrha and Penny aka her Maidens’ foils.

It is clear that all this hurting and killing parts of herself won’t end well for her. I mean, she, not Salem, is the one responsible of the two major deaths in the series (Penny and Pyrrha), so she is bound to receive consequences.

Another thing I love about her is how her intelligence is people focused. She is very good at reading and manipulating others and this is how she wins her major fights. This is both her flaw and her major asset. I like it because I think RWBY is good in showing different kinds of intelligence and Cinder’s one is very coherent with her personality.

Finally, I love how her Cinderella allusion is used. It is a deconstruction of the original fairy tale that is born from a question: “What if Cinderella were not the kind victim of the story, but a bad victim?”. It is also interesting how the key character in Cinder’s allusion is not the Prince or the Stepmother, but the Fairty Godmother who fails her twice (Rhodes and now Salem).

As a side note, I can’t wait for The Truth to be out in its complete version.

5) Oscar

Aka the one who deserves nothing of what he gets :’’’)

I love him because he is an example of how to write a character who is a cinnamon roll, but that also is not boring and has complexity.

His struggle is about his sense of self. He starts the story by wishing to become more than what he is, but he does not like that this “more” turns out to be about fusing with another person. He wants to grow not to lose himself to another entity.

This is his major fear:

Who will you see? There in the darkness When no one is watching Who will you be? When you're afraid And everything changes Will you see a stranger? Feel proud or betrayed?

This is well conveyed also by his relationship with the rest of the group. He starts as the odd man out and others mostly rely on Ozpin rather than him. He sometimes even seems to disappear behind Ozpin. However, as time goes on, he forges genuine bonds and he becomes dependable on his own. He becomes even more so than Ozpin because he has something Oz lost out of cynism. The ability to trust.

In the Atlas volume he is the character that embodies the thematic statement about trust:

Oscar: You want him to trust us? Then trust me.

The point is that to be trusted you should trust first, even if there is no guarantee it will work.

It is interesting because the theme of trust is explored starting with Ozpin, Oscar’s foil, who does not trust others, so our protagonists feel betrayed. However, in Atlas they find themselves in Ozpin’s shoes and must choose if to trust Ironwood or not.

Here, we explore a form of conditional trust. This idea is presented by Ruby, who wants to be sure it is safe to trust Ironwood. So she keeps secrets and studies him until she decides she can trust him... only to discover that was not the case immediately after. This happens because trust can never be completely safe. Actually, in its most negative declination, this kind of trust becomes the control symbolized by Ironwood.

No matter what, trust is always a leap of faith. This is why trust is a risk. Oscar shows this concept well. He decides to still trust Ironwood at the end of volume 7, but it does not work. Still, he does not stop and decides to trust Emerald and Hazel. This time his trust and faith are repaid. He is fred and gains a new ally:

I love Emerald and Oscar’s interactions btw :’’’) It is good that Oscar is the one who is growing closer to her. They escape Salem together and Oscar has not been hurt by Emerald the same way the others are.

Anyway, even if trust is worth it, the exploration of this theme in Atlas actually ends on a negative note. It ends with Cinder who is an enemy of trust because she uses others’ trust and feelings against them.

Anyway, Oscar is a key character and I can’t wait for his story to develop more!

6) Ironwood

He breaks my heart.

He is a an excellent tragic Hero.

He thinks he is the Great Good, but this is precisely why he spirals out of control and falls with his own Kingdom, hated by his allies and forgotten by his enemies.

His downfall stems from his inability to trust, his refusal of emotions, his single-mindness and mostly his convinction he is better than others. This idea is structural of Atlas society and is seen in many of his inhabitants. No matter the social class, we see multiple people thinking they deserve better and that they are above others. This is why Atlas falls and his people becomes refugees in the poorest Kingdom of Remnant.

Anyway, Ironwood thinks he is better than others, so he should be the one deciding for others as well. This idea is flawed and perfectly conveyed through his ideology of sacrificing everything. He feels he has everything, so he can sacrifice what he wants. Still, this is not the case. Others’ lives and feelings are not his. He doesn’t own them.

7) Weiss

I love Weiss. She has one of my favourite designs and one of my favourite semblances and fighting styles.

Her snowhite allusion being played to explore the idea of a dysfunctional family is very good.

In general, I love how much she has grown slowly, but steadily and how she has progressively become warmer. I enjoyed her interactions with her siblings this season. She also gets many moments where she shines for her humanity and intelligence.

She is both Snowhite and the Prince, but also the Huntress that changes and makes others change. She becomes an inspiration for her whole family and since the Schnees are all in Vacuo and she will eventually join them, I am curious if there is going to be more about their family dynamic.

Other than this, I am excited about her Nevermore summon, what is means symbolically and when she will use it.

8) Ruby

I think Ruby’s arc must still enter its climax and that she will shine towards the end of the series.

That said, I love her as a protagonist. She has an interesting set of skills that makes her competent, but not invincible. Moreover, I like how she is important and a participant of the plot, but also does not single-handedly solves everything by herself. She has to learn just like the others. For example, this volume she learns that trust is a risk and the importance of taking risks.

Moreover, she is actually very rarely the protagonist of a volume climax. Speaking of the most climatic volumes, Pyrrha is the protagonist of the climax in volume 3, Yang and Raven are in volume 5, Penny in volume 8.

The climax where she is the most in focus as a character is volume 6 and that is the volume where her eyes are explored and her personal arc is set up. That said, she still manages to be important and to contribute to the action in many ways.

I think her role is to inspire others and I guess that by making that speech this volume she is gonna grow into a symbol even more. If that happens it will be interesting to see what this means for her.

Apart from this, I am curious about her subplot with her mother and if it will tie to her choice to save Cinder with her eyes (since I think this is where we are going). She is going to be both Hood and the Huntsman who kills the Wolf and saves the Victim.

9) Nora and Ren

They are my favourite canon romance.

Their story starts with Ren getting focus (with Nora as a support) and is slowly shifting to Nora developing as her own person (with Ren as a support).

It fits for them to be one of the series main romances because as characters they both explore the concept of emotions and emotional intelligence.

I would say Nora is one of the most emotional intelligent characters in the cast. She is aware of her own feelings for Ren and tries to push their story forwars. She quickly picks up on Pyrrha’s crush and encourages her to make a move. Honestly, she sees herself as a dumb jock, but she is far from it. She is one of the wisest and most sensitive characters:

Nora: You shove people out so you don’t have to feel things that are hard!

Ren is ironically the one struggling with feelings, even if his semblance is all about emotions. In a sense, it is as if he develops it precisely because he struggles with this part of himself.

As a child he is easily overwhelmed by emotions like fear, which goes in the way of his actions. So, when he is under stress he deveops a magical power that lets him control this part of himself. However, as time goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that he should face his own feelings. And once he faces them:

Ren: No! No one is replaceable.

Then he becomes able to see both himself and others more clearly.

In general, both Ren and Nora must overcome their issues if they want to end up together.

Ren’s issue was his fear of being completely vulnerable and to open up with another person. Nora’s is her complete dependance on Ren and how she sees herself as only a part of him, while she is much more.

As a side note, Ren finally confessing his feelings for Nora only to be (temporally) rejected is a great note for his character arc. He was repressing his feelings out of fear, but now he has grown enough to take a risk (opening up, showing vulnerability). Well, this risk does not pay off immediatley. Nora asks him for some time and this is surely not how Ren would have hoped things to go. Still, he understands and supports her. He takes an emotional risk that does not pay off immediately, but he is able to live with it.

In terms of writing, I also think Raven is top notch. Moreover, Winter is a lowkey favourite as well.

I also like some minor characters like Ilia, whose background is built on a very interesting premise that fits her chameleon motif, and Whitley who manages to be helpful even if he is not a fighter. Velvet also has a cool weapon and semblance that tie with her photography motif.

I also love Yang, Blake and Jaune aka the other members of the main cast.

In terms of design, many of my favourites have also my favourite designs (Emerald, Weiss, Mercury, Cinder, Penny, Winter, Ruby, Ren and Ilia).

Other than them, I love Neo’s design, characterization and fighting style:

Finally, I also like Tock’s design and concept, even if she only appears once.

Thank you for this ask! I had fun with it!

[thevindicativevordan]

You did one for Hulk (incredible btw). Got any thoughts on Spider-Man?

He used to be one of my favorites.

It's easy to see why Spidey took off as Marvel's premiere character, and competitor with Batman for the most popular superhero ever. If you'll indulge my DC bias, Spider-Man sits at the intersection between Superman and Batman. Like Superman, Spider-Man never knew his birth parents, and was instead adopted and raised by an elderly couple. Uncle Ben and Aunt May are the people Peter thinks of as his mom and dad, and it's their lives that help shape Peter. Both Superman and Spider-Man wear colorful red and blue costumes, both have iconic jobs working for newspapers with cantankerous bosses, and both have a lot of Jewish DNA in them because of their creators. Like Batman however, Spider-Man has a tragic parental figure's death to motivate him, he has a very poor reputation with the public, they both style themselves on animals, and both have strong roots in the cities they protect. That Peter's greatest foe, the Green Goblin, also stands at the intersection between Lex Luthor and the Joker makes for a great parallel. Add in that Spider-Man has the second best Rogues Gallery in comics, and it's clear Peter drew on the best attributes from his predecessors as a foundation.

What separates Peter from them though is that he was the first hero with real problems. Neither Superman or Batman had to worry about paying rent regularly like Peter did. Both stood apart from their peers by choice, while Peter wanted to make friends but wasn't able to do it. Krypton and the Waynes died through no fault of Supes or Bats, but Uncle Ben's death was something Peter was at fault for if indirectly. Then you had Gwen Stacy killed as a direct result of Peter's superhero career, introducing the idea of heroes who could fail. Spider-Man was pitched as the flawed hero, the human hero, the guy you could think of yourself as being if you got superpowers. You would screw up and make mistakes, but you'd try your best regardless. Of course the readers would be drawn to, and identify with him, and that's both the secret to his success and what keeps fucking him over. A lot of guys see Peter as their self-insert, so they keep trying to return to their youth through him which keeps derailing him as a character. My entry into Spider-Man fandom came during one of the brief lulls from Marvel trying to reset him to what they see as his "roots".

I remember seeing the Rami Spider-Man movies in the theater and being utterly entranced. I played the first Spider-Man movie tie-in game pretty religiously as a kid (fuck that level where you infiltrate OsCorp, those robots were insane), as well as other Spider-Man games such as Web of Shadows. Can still hear the theme song of the 90s animated Spider-Man show in my head, that show's versions of Green Goblin and Venom are still my favorite takes. All this is a rambling way of saying that "my" Spider-Man was formed during a period where Marvel seemed ok with Peter being more adult, something they've been trying to roll back ever since.

Peter was a college student in the 90s cartoon, the comics had him and MJ married (my first Spidey comic was vol. 1 of JMS' Amazing Spider-Man run, so Peter and MJ being married is the "default" for me), the video games were set in the Ramiverse so he was a college student there as well. It's such a weird era to look back on in retrospect given what's to come and what came before. Peter had problems and was flawed, but he was also so much more mature and thoughtful, intelligent in a way beyond just being a science whiz. He and MJ had a great dynamic as a couple under JMS. They were so clearly in love and also utterly unwilling to take each others shit that it was just a joy to read. That relationship really was something I dearly loved, and of course I took it poorly when Marvel broke the two of them up. Making it a plot where not!Satan comes down and takes their marriage away only rubbed salt in the wound.

Suddenly Peter was a lot more immature and stupid, and Marvel was insisting that this was "how he should be". Marvel was claiming that Spider-Man was all about youth, thus he needed to remain young and marriage free in order to work, which flew in the face of the character as I understood him. To me, Spidey was a character about the opposite, he was about growing up.

More than any other character in the MU, Peter was the guy who embodied character development. In his early years under Lee and Dikto, Peter was an asshole with a chip on his shoulder. Far from being the martyr figure everyone sees him as today, Peter initially just kept trying to make money with his powers. He was constantly moaning and bewailing his lot, because he was a fucking teenager! EVERY teenager treats ANY setback like it's the end of the world. Yet over a period of years, both in universe and out, Peter grew into the great hero everybody sees him as today. He became kinder, more charitable, and made friends with his peers. He acquired a steady stream of super hot girlfriends, ultimately marrying MJ. Peter married MJ before Clark Kent married Lois Lane, that's a huge freaking accomplishment! Totally makes sense that Peter would get married first because while Superman was more or less frozen in place like all DC heroes, Spider-Man was the one who embodied the Marvel trait of growth and change. The world kept throwing shit at him and Peter dealt with it as best he could, and that gave me hope because if he could overcome the forces arrayed against him to find some degree of happiness, so could I.

One More Day completely obliterated all of that. I didn't recognize this character anymore, I didn't care about the shallow relationships they teased him entering, relationships we all knew didn't matter. If Peter couldn't stay married to MJ, he wasn't going to last in a relationship with Carlie Cooper or any of the girls Slott set him up with. Peter being immature worked great when he was actually in high school and college, but Marvel wanted to write him as a high schooler without actually deaging him. The contrast between how he was characterized before and after OMD was just too jarring for me.

Ultimately I left for a while. I read Superior and Spider-Verse, but I was no longer religiously following Amazing Spider-Man any more. Checked out Ultimate Spider-Man which I had never read, and I enjoyed it, but I also held a grudge against it's success. Clearly this was the series that enshrined high school Spider-Man as the "ideal" status quo for a lot of people, and I couldn't help but blame the series for Quesada's successful torching of a more mature Peter Parker. I also read Spider-Girl which took place in an alternate continuity where Peter was still married and he had a daughter with MJ named Mayday. I loved that series a lot, and Mayday became my favorite Marvel superheroine. Eventually I came back to ASM with Spencer because a few of my fellows told me he reminded them of JMS, and I've enjoyed his characterization of Peter. Doubt the marriage will be coming back any time soon but it's nice to read a more adult Peter after how he was characterized under Slott.

Hard to say what the future holds for Peter. Tough to say for certain but with the end of high school Peter in the MCU approaching, it feels like we're on the edge of another shift in status quo for Spider-Man. May be that the creation of Miles is allowing Peter to finally start to mature again since Miles can be the corporate wet dream of an eternally young "diverse" Spidey. The insistence on putting Miles into more and more of Peter's stuff, with Peter mentoring him, makes me hope that Marvel is becoming more ok with Peter growing up. The Insomniac Spider-Man is a college graduate, he feels the closest in tone and character to the Spider-Man I grew up with under JMS and Rami. They even got to kill Aunt May off, something Marvel is still terrified to do in the comics, and the relationship between Peter and MJ is portrayed as crucial to both (as it should), even if MJ is a little too Lois Lane lite for my liking.

Hopefully Spider-Man can shake off Quesada's lingering influence and start being what he was created to be: the guy who moves forward rather than running in place.

[lgcyushin]

★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ character update q4 2021 ★☆ (gif credit.)

what are your muse’s current goals and motivations? yushin’s goal is to ensure that he improves in every aspect of his current position in agito and continue his growth, no matter which direction it brings him in. he means his in both performance and chemistry with the other members, especially his roommate and dormmates. he doesn’t have any plans to continue in acting, but does wish to remain relevant in vna and continue to become a better rapper, despite also loving singing. he doesn’t mind giving up lines if it means the proper balance from the producer standpoint with all the other members. yushin would like more commercials if he can nab anymore of those, in order to bring get more brand recognition for agito and himself. being in agito despite not going through future dreams is more than what he could ask for, after his short-lived musical acting career.  do you think your muse has accomplished any of their goals mentioned above? if so, how did they do it? if not, what do you think could help them accomplish that goal? continuing to practice, especially in areas where he’s lacking in the group. he believes he’s currently the worst dancer out of them all, so he does want to improve on that aspect, and improve on his performance and image. its a slow progression but everyday of more hours put into practice is helping every day.  also, in the beginning he might not have known all the members of vna as much as he’d like, other than a handful of the boys, but in his time with haru and jiho, especially jiho, they’ve became better friends throughout their time during pre-debut. granted, he already knew shinha very well, it was pleasant to have a friend prior to the conception of the group even though yushin knows it wouldn’t be too difficult to get immersed into the dynamics of the group. thankfully, they get along for the most part. other than when there’s a surprise bug that shows up in their dorms, or something like that...  describe one significant memory that has happened to your muse during this trimester (positive or negative). yushin thinks this trimester has been the biggest change for him. the career change definitely spun him into a world where he was completely doubtful of himself, and unsure if that’s what he wanted to do. there was a part of him that said forego the singing, and just go into acting, but the truth is being a musical acting was so diverse, and he loved both the acting, but moreso the singing and performing part of musical acting. without the singing, it felt.... wrong. no offense to the traditional actor, but that’s just not his style. when the opportunity came from the company for him to be considered for the lineup of a new group, yushin leapt at the chance, and it went from being one of the lowest lows in his career thus far, to the peak.  what is one thing you (as the mun) have learned about your muse throughout this trimester? i’ve learned that i’m really attached to him?! after my up & downs with my muses, and yushin being the only one at one point that i had, especially while writing this today, i’m truly glad i kept him as my muse, because despite losing the musical acting route, i didn’t know what was coming for him, even if it meant doing more trainee missions. i’ve learned more about him and i’m trying to get more social with plotting with people (when i’m not busy being.. busy. sorry in advance.) i’ve learned yushin is pretty adaptable because i never foresaw him getting into a group or becoming a rapper, but in the end, that’s exactly what happened so....! here we go. 

[boycottyashahime]

Alright, so I’m bad at Tumblr, and though I wanted to just reblog the original post from @strawberrycreampiefluff and put most of it under a cut or perhaps find a way to trim it, I couldn’t find a way to make it work. So, we’re starting a new thread. Here’s the link the other one if anyone reading hasn’t been following the discussion and want to catch up: https://strawberrycreampiefluff.tumblr.com/post/625063196626223104/what-do-you-think-of-this-whole-ppl-shipping

Anyhow, since we discussed this beforehand, I’ll start from the beginning, only working with the storytelling elements from the series, and I’ll leave out the latter part of the post regarding moralizing (which I mostly agree with anyway, so it’s no loss to me).

“I  was trying to convey that considering the methods of storywriting and telling,  it would break the “pattern” Rumiko Takashi built up and lowering the  impact of Sessh character growth he would later experience.  A father-daughter bond is not inferior to a romantic bond, but it  would seem out of place, to have both his father and brother form a  romantic relationship with a human and then Sessh breaking that pattern  by introducing a new kind of relationship-dynamic - when he is the most  crucial character in the series when it comes to demon-human relations.”

I’m still quite unclear HOW the impact of Sesshomaru’s character growth is necessarily lowered from not having a romantic bond with a human. Why is the continuation of this pattern so important, in your view, to the character’s development? From my perspective, introducing a new relationship dynamic into and breaking patterns is actually a good thing in stories - It’s a great way to add variety and a different point of view to a narrative. Having characters take a pattern in a different, unique direction can add meaning in a way the reader couldn’t see coming, give the story unexpected dimension.

And you’ve already said that you and other shippers like yourself don’t see anything romantic while Rin is still a child in the original series, so that is effectively what happened. Since we agree that the relationship wasn’t actually romantic within the context of the original Inuyasha series, Sesshomaru took a love of a human in an entirely different direction than his father or his brother did. Which conveys complexity in how youkai can relate to humans that wasn’t in the established pattern. As a reader, I find that kind of thing fun and engaging, though you may disagree.

“A father-daughter relationship would still put Sessh in a superior position to Rin (as the father), not adding a lot to his character development other than him caring for one other human being.”

I have to wince here, because while yes, technically Sesshomaru is in a superior position to Rin in a father-daughter relationship, the implication here is that this can be compared to the sense of superiority he had over humans as a whole that you referenced earlier. Is a parent-child relationship really comparable to a racist outlook? I feel like these two things are quite unrelated, having two ENTIRELY different connotations from the word “superior”. One is an entirely natural superior position, using one’s greater experience, knowledge, and ability to facilitate the growth and guidance of someone still on their way up. The other is a wholly unnatural and malicious disregard for a person based on superficial features. Sesshomaru’s superior attitude toward humans before he met Rin was not based on a paternalistic concern, but complete disgust and the notion that they were entirely unworthy of consideration. The two connotations of “superior” here are just not analogous in the greater narrative.

“In a romantic relationship, both partners should be equals (anything  other is unacceptable), for this to happen Sessh would’ve had to lower himself  (his pride) to Rins level, since he was the one with the big ego and  humans were regarded as one of the lower creatures of the food chain.”

Again, I think it is entirely possible for Sesshomaru to learn not to regard humans as “lower on the food chain” through a relationship that ISN’T romance, but that aside, this whole notion brings up a question: why didn’t Rumiko Takahashi write Rin into the story as a young adult? We’ve already discussed how romantic implications to the relationship couldn’t exist while she’s still a child in the series, and why Sesshomaru and Rin are definitely NOT equal during the series. So if it was so important for Sesshomaru to be otherwise equal to Rin so he can lower his pride and truly consider her such, why was Rin not written as a fully autonomous adult so we could cut to the chase? It seems that if what you’re describing was really Rumiko Takahashi’s intent, it would have been a lot easier if the girl was already grown up. At the very least, our dear author could have ended the series when Rin was an appropriate age to actually make the point instead of leaving it hanging.

“Doing the exact same thing he criticized his father for, which  for him would’ve been humiliating in the beginning of the series. The  sequel (if you regard it as canon) goes even farther, making him create  his own half demons - the very reason he hated his brother in the first  place. His mother even said he becomes like his father in the strangest  ways - and the only “strange” thing we know about his father was his  romantic relationship with Izayoi.”

Since English isn’t your first language, I’m guessing you’re just mistaken in the map of this sentence, but the word “strange” here is referring to Sesshomaru’s behavior in relation to his father’s. What is strange is how Sesshomaru is like his father, not his father’s ways. This actually makes the opposite point - it seems to refer to the ways in which Sesshomaru is behaving as odd, maybe in relation to a pattern his father fit into.

“That’s why I think it wouldn’t fall apart if we draw the parallel in a wider context as you say, because other characters didn’t have the same starting point  as Sessh. I very much agree with you, that Inuyasha’s platonic bonds  would also count as a dog forming close bonds with humans, but in  Inuyasha’s or Shippou’s case, they didn’t need the same character  development like Sessh, since they had a different attitude towards  humans or “lesser-beings” in the first place (Inuyasha was even past the  stage of lowering himself, also out of romantic reasons btw, since he  was ready to become human for Kikyo).”

I’m curious as to how the parallel and pattern matter if it’s null and void because Inuyasha and the other characters we talked about have different character arcs. Of course they aren’t starting from the same place as Sesshomaru, characters never do. They’re varied and diverse because it would be boring as tar to write them all going through the same issues. My point about the parallel was that even if it could be said that there’s some similarity in how dog YOUKAI form bonds with humans to actual DOGS, it’s not really a good parallel, because there are other “species” of youkai much less friendly with humans doing it too. I’m having trouble understanding what this argument has to do with that.

In reference to the above, I agree, the example characters you cited didn’t have the same level of dismissive racism as Sesshomaru did (I say “same level” because Shippou does carry a bit of prejudice, even as a small child), but when that’s apparent, why is the pattern even relevant? Since the characters aren’t set to all learn the same lesson, their relationships shouldn’t really resemble each other’s in the long run either, should they? Writers use relationships as tools for character development, and they usually want to use the right tool for the right job. Maybe romantic love with a human was right for Inuyasha because he had issues with vulnerability and reconciling his half-heritage. What if SESSHOMARU benefited more as a character from an unconditional bond (free from the conditions of sexual/romantic attraction) to demonstrate to him how even the weakest creature is incomprehensibly valuable for reasons impossible to articulate, and they are worth using his incredible level of “superior” power to protect and defend them? It’s a different kind of humbling oneself than what you were talking about, but I think it’s just as meaningful, and it fits Sesshomaru’s character development neatly into the the original text. It doesn’t require Sunrise make a sequel more than a decade later to wrap up the character development that Rumiko Takahashi meant to do when Rin grew up even though she could have just written her in as an adult in the first place.

“But Rin will obviously not always stay 8/11 years old, she will grow  into her own person and become a woman (while living apart from Sessh),  creating a completely different power dynamic with Sessh. One that would  still be an imbalance, but much different than when she was a child.”

As far as the narrative was concerned, Rin COULD very well have stayed a child forever, though. She was written as a character in a story. When the story is done, so are the characters. You’ve said before and here that Inuyasha is just fiction, and it is, but accepting that means accepting that Rin doesn’t grow up without some prompting. She doesn’t age but through the hand of a creator, fanfiction authors or Sunrise. When you say she’s not going to stay 8-11 forever, what you mean is that actual humans who experience actual time are not satisfied with her age as it stood when the story ended, and actively impose time upon her.

And since applying time to a fictional character is something that has to be intentional, so too do the conditions you mention to create the perfect environment for the ship. The different dynamic that isn’t father-daughter, but still a little bit of not-weird power imbalance. The “lowering” of Sesshomaru’s ego in that specific romantic way (that I’m still not sure I understand, but we’ll go with it). The way in which the romance is developed without either character realizing it so that Sesshomaru can’t be accused of using the power imbalance to manipulate a girl he’s had authority over since she was eight. Returning to what catalyzed the change in Sesshomaru in the first place while carefully treading around the fact that it was built upon an unconditional relationship that now suddenly has conditions on it. That’s a lot of mental legwork to do, which is fine, because that’s part of creative expression. But you have to acknowledge that none of this would be necessary if the pairing were “obvious”.

It certainly wasn’t very obvious to some of us. We came to a very different conclusion, saw everything a bit differently. Now we’re being punished for having a less popular interpretation of this relationship, shut down by SUNRISE and told that we don’t get to have that interpretation, because they’re considered an authority on what is canon in Inuyasha, and they’re taking sides to squeeze more money out of the Inuyasha franchise with a next-gen sequel. It doesn’t seem to matter that Sunrise was never really very good at telling Inuyasha stories, or that next-gen sequels never seem to be any good for lack of stakes and boring plots.

Sunrise’s interpretation is still considered to be more “valid” than ours. And that really hurts. So, if you found yourself wondering why there’s so much vitriol coming from the anti camp, it’s a combination of this, and the fact that they don’t really have the option of avoiding the content they don’t like anymore. It’s kind of EVERYWHERE now.

So, there we are. I don’t want to give the impression from the above that I’m trying to tear apart your arguments to somehow discredit the pairing. Shippers gonna ship, whether it makes sense to me or not. But I did want to highlight how any of the things you bring up can very well be interpreted entirely differently.

Hope you’re doing well, and you did well on that exam. :)

[idreamtofmanderleyagain]

Been scrolling through the Martha Jones tag and I have some two cents. Bear with me, it’s been like a decade since I watched this particular arc. I intend to do a rewatch some time soon, but I’m working off memory rn.

(I’m also coming from the perspective of not having watched the 13th doctor’s arc (I prefer DW content with the Doctor as a character to crush on, and I prefer men/masculinity, so I’m sure the new stuff is awesome, just not exciting to me). So I’m hoping there’s probably been some growth and evolution within DW fandom, perhaps with a new influx of diverse viewers. So TLDR, I’m kind of...”old school New Who,” I guess.)

So all that aside, to be honest, I’ve always had a hard time taking the average so-called “feminist” content all that seriously when it comes to this fandom, because so much of it feels and sounds like half-assed girl power bullshit and usually ends with the all-encompassing “Fuck Moffat,” as if every problem with DW, show and fandom, boils down to his input and the people who like him.

 (Hint: it very much does not.)

To be honest I couldn’t give less of a fuck about Moffat, and I don’t much care to glorify RTD either. Personally, I just prefer to talk about particular DW narratives and characters on their own merits because I feel like I get a lot more mileage out of a complex analysis that isn’t based off seething hatred for one dude.

What frustrates me about the shit I see from DW fangirls on this site is just how blatant the actual disinterest in Martha as a character really is. Scrolling through her tag recently really reminded me of the lackluster response I used to see her getting, but certain things have become much more clear about it seeing it with new eyes.

It’s that same old girl-power shit again. See, the thing about the girl-power shit I’m talking about here is that it always seems to paint every female character with the same brush. It’s cookie-cutter Strong Female Character shit. Basically, if you can graft the same quotes or meta right over top an entirely different Who lady, you’ve essentially said nothing about that particular female character. Instead, you’re talking about the archetype of the female companion (which has always played on pop-feminist tropes). And that’s how people talk about Martha. They talk about her tropey attributes, but they don’t talk about her.

Most of the content is praise for Martha’s strength and intelligence. Some quote superimposed over gifs of her face along with a line-up of other Who ladies. 

And a curious propensity for people “defending” her feelings for the Doctor as “understandable” and how it wasn’t “annoying.” Basically every argument like this boils down to lukewarm sympathy for her unrequited feelings for a man who truly belongs to the white fangirl fave proxy: Rose.

I’m going to make a more in-depth follow up to this post after my rewatch so I can make a clear and cohesive analysis, but for now, here’s the thing. Martha feelings weren’t unrequited IMO.

The Doctor very deliberately seduced Martha.

In the family-friendly storytelling language of DW (and because the Doctor is more of a demi-sexual or gray-ace sort of being) The Doctor essentially deliberately pursues the DW companion version of a “one-night-stand” with Martha as a balm against his constant grief, and deliberately keeps her at arms length as that relationship evolves into a “friends-with-benefits” dynamic. But from Martha’s perspective, she was experiencing a hot-and-cold dynamic with a man who flirted with her, literally kissed her on the fucking mouth, and pursued her company. 

The problem wasn’t that the Doctor wasn’t attracted to her or incapable of loving her. he most assuredly was, in both cases. The problem was that he was obsessively keeping his emotional energy on his own grief, and compartmentalizing his growing affection (platonic or otherwise) for Martha to avoid feeling a kind of cheater’s guilt. He wanted his grand companion romance again, without the emotional investment (and the potential for grief that entails). If he never had the relationship with Rose prior to Martha, then Martha 100% would have been in Rose’s shoes. 

And I will double down on that by saying it’s shown later, with Clara and Twelve, how this kind of behavior manifests for the Doctor as a grief response. And he was most assuredly in love with Clara (despite how dense fandom also is about THAT).

There is no reason to believe that the Doctor could never have loved Martha with just as much intensity. and IMO, racism is a huge reason why Martha and 10 wasn’t a thing in canon, because if we got an unrequited love story with a white girl, more than likely it would be a lead up to it eventually being requited. 

So when people “defend” Martha in that way, and praise her for her ~intelligence~, it’s kind of like this gross pat on the back to the poor unloved black girl who just couldn’t quite cut it in comparison to the amazing white ingenue for the white male heartthrob. That’s straight up just the entire vibe. And honestly, please, save your faint praise, because it’s weak next to the emotional complexity and possibilities of Martha’s actual story.

And for the record, the way we talk about the things Martha did (particularly during the Master episodes), and hyping up Martha’s strength, often ignores her vulnerability and softer feelings. Which tbh, was literally the entire emotional throughline of Martha’s arc. It’s interesting that fandom perceived Martha as an interloper in their fantasy romance with the Doctor (through Rose as proxy), but fail to identify with Martha in the same way, despite the fact that Martha’s entire arc feels primed for that exact kind of vicarious romantic longing experience that DW fangirls love to immerse themselves in. I can in fact think of several Doctor/OC fics with thousands of hits that play up an unrequited fake-out like that.

[fyexo]

200925 SuperM Dives Deeper with Super One

We meet the game-changing and boundary-breaking supergroup everybody needs to know.

There’s a rumble in the ground, a rupture, a star shining in the sky. Like a meteor landing on a quiet plain, SuperM – the Avengers of K-pop – landed in our lives, igniting the industry in unprecedented ways. With K-pop now considered a global phenomenon, how much more innovation is required to demand attention? The answer lies in the Capitol Records and SM Entertainment supergroup: the first K-pop act to debut in the US who immediately stole the show and made music fun again with their record-breaking 2019 introduction. SuperM consists of a diverse group of stars hailing from different groups: Taemin from SHINee, Kai and Baekhyun from EXO, Taeyong and Mark from NCT 127, and Ten and Lucas from WayV. They are the future, the charismatic force managing to both elevate and inspire. With Super One, the group’s first full-length album released on 25th September, they graduate from simply jumping and popping (Jopping!) to invoking the sincere emotions of listeners while simultaneously lighting up the room in the way that only they know how.

Baekhyun – the soulful vocalist, humble leader, and oldest member of SuperM – opens up about their growth: “When we first met, I could tell that the younger members were feeling a little nervous. But aside from working and performing together, we also naturally spent a lot of time together off stage, too.” In fact, their chemistry is palpable: “From sharing the same rooms when we were on tour in the US to shooting a reality show together recently, we made a lot of memories. Now, we’re like close brothers. We feel very comfortable with each other.”

Since joining the supergroup, Baekhyun’s Delight, released in May, became the first album in 19 years by a Korean soloist to sell over 1 million copies. Baekhyun says, “Shortly after completing my solo activities with ‘Candy’ [the lead single], I regrouped with SuperM, and I definitely feel more at ease in a group.” As evidenced by their discography, which fuses elements of hip-hop, pop, and various other genres, “We are always experimenting with different styles and trying to create something new so the synergy that we bring to the stage is very distinct and unique.”

Taemin has found similar success with his solo endeavours, recently releasing his best-selling project to date just this month. His 3rd Korean studio album, Never Gonna Dance Again: Act 1, hit number 1 on several iTunes Top Albums charts including the US and Canada. The graceful performer ponders the importance of embarking on this journey with the rest of SuperM. “Through our individual teasers, we wanted to tell a personal story about our beginnings—from how we developed our dreams to how we got to where we are now. They are reflections of our past that allowed us to become the artists that we are today.” For Taemin personally, who first debuted in SHINee in 2008, “This experience helped broaden my boundaries as an artist and I’m very thankful for that.”

Taemin’s wisdom is apparent in how he interprets his growth, “Although I’ve performed abroad many times before, SuperM was formed with the global market in mind so I took this as a new challenge and a great opportunity for me to learn and grow even more. Through SuperM, I was able to get closer to my international fans and learn more about their cultures. Because of the opportunities I’ve had more recently to perform on a global stage, my stage performances and mannerisms have improved and this has made me a stronger artist.”

Branded as fast-moving and dynamic, there were certain expectations for them to continue on this path. The motifs are intentional, but fitting, and as the endearing Hong Kong rapper Lucas puts it, “‘Movement’ and ‘speed’ for us carries a deep meaning and represents our strength and energy. It also describes how SuperM is always moving forward no matter how difficult the situation may be. There is no better tomorrow if you’re not moving forward.”

Taemin further reflects on this. “I think fans will be surprised to hear mellow, medium-tempo tracks that are not performance-based. Incorporating the performance element is of course one of the most important parts of what SuperM does in our music, but this time, we also wanted to emphasise a message of hope.”

Kai, lead dancer of EXO and Gucci ambassador, who will also be embarking on his solo career soon, shares that “I really want to perform ‘Infinity’ and ‘Monster’. Together, they form our title track, ‘One’. I’m excited to perform ‘One’ as well, but also would love to showcase the two tracks separately, as I think that would bring a different charm on stage.”

The love for this track is echoed by Taemin, an expert when it comes to this fusion of songs as SHINee also had a combination of tracks with 2012’s ‘Sherlock’, a mix of ‘Clue’ and ‘Note’. “With K-pop, you often have a gradual change of genres in one song, but ‘One’ brings together two completely different songs, so it’s fresh—but it still sounds very natural and seamlessly put together.” He adds, “The members’ vocals really stand out through these tracks so I hope fans enjoy!”

B-sides like ‘Together At Home’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ are like a comfort blanket for fans, suitable for the current world climate. Kai recognises that impact and describes it as intentional, “Music can really lift your spirits when you’re feeling down so I hope people find healing and happiness while listening to our music. That would make us very happy.”

“FROM SHARING THE SAME ROOMS WHEN WE WERE ON TOUR IN THE US TO SHOOTING A REALITY SHOW TOGETHER RECENTLY, WE MADE A LOT OF MEMORIES. NOW, WE’RE LIKE CLOSE BROTHERS. WE FEEL VERY COMFORTABLE WITH EACH OTHER.”

Prior to the official album drop with title track ‘One’, several songs were released, each accompanied by their own electric music videos. The single, ‘100’, has lyrics written by youngest member Mark, who explains, “For ‘100,’ I wanted to really bring the energy of SuperM, because my verse opens up the track, and I wanted to really complement the song while emphasising our strength as a group and that we have the capability to be at the top.” The Canadian rapper, whose positive energy is contagious, says, “Taeyong and I also wrote our verses for ‘Together At Home,’ and I think we tried to keep the lyrics closely tied to the overarching message of the album. So for that song, we tried to envision what it’s like to be “together at home”, so staying connected to the fans and our loved ones while we are physically apart.”

Ferocious single ‘Tiger Inside’ was released on 1st September, and NCT leader Taeyong describes it best, “as a hip-hop song with an Asian-themed vibe. One part of the lyrics says, “Wake up the tiger inside” which I think describes SuperM’s energy really well. He eloquently personifies the group through a more artistic lens. “SuperM coming together is almost like a painting created using these different colours, to create a new work of art.”

Though promotions are hectic, Taeyong opens up about life outside of the spotlight, sharing, “I personally spent a lot of quality time with my family and also creating new music.” Mark has also been in tune with his rhythmic side, adding, “I’ve been listening to a lot of the new music that’s been coming out… Recently, Big Sean’s new album and Dominic Fike.”

The fashion of the group ranges from traditional Korean wear to modern hip-hop stylings, reflecting the merging of cultures, sounds, and themes apparent in their music. Lucas took a special liking to the outfits they wore for this comeback. “I wore a black outfit in the ‘One’ music video and it made me feel like a fictional character from a film or a book. I really liked the concept of that look. For ‘Tiger Inside’, I wore this beautiful emerald colour outfit with gold embroidery and intricate Asian-themed details—that was another one of my favourites!”

With everything going on in the world right now, Ten, the multilingual Thai singer and dancing king, says, “Right now, our biggest goal is to interact closely with our fans in the best way possible given the current situation. Even though we can’t meet each other in person, we want our fans to know that we are always thinking of them and that we are always trying to create opportunities to make us feel close.” He mentions ‘Beyond Live’, the platform SuperM spearheaded earlier this year to provide a virtual concert experience for fans.

“We are always thinking of fun and innovative ways to interact with our fans so we are definitely planning on doing many more online promotions that bring us closer together.” He elaborates, also sharing that he’s excited to finally perform songs off of Super One.

This album is a new era for SuperM, whose journey as a group has been far from ordinary but delightfully rewarding. As Baekhyun concludes, “When SuperM was first announced to the public, it may have been odd to see members from different groups come together like this to form a new group. But in spite of that, our fans have always cheered us on from the get-go and we’re incredibly grateful for their support.” SuperM’s awareness of the times they’re in and ability to adapt allow them to be a tantalizing force in the industry.

Though awards and accolades are nice, what makes this group special beyond their obvious talent and charm is the passion, grit, and hard work they put into what they do, and Super One is the ultimate care package and culmination of their gifts. Through music, they remind us that we all have the power to unite together as one no matter where we come from.

Ashlee Mitchell @ TMRW