#this is just my perspective

[astarions-wife]

Say what you want about Dark Urge/Ascended Astarion, but if I were the Dark Urge and I was finally free of Bhaal, only to immedietely be asked to kneel to another man? Blood would be shed.

[weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables]

So I watched Pinocchio and then I spent a whole day reflecting on it so my first response to it wouldn't be just angry ranting. I'm sorry but story-wise it's even worse than I thought.

I don't want this to be all negative so I'll start with the things I liked: the stop motion and visual effects were absolutely stunning. I loved the glow of cricket's eyes and the way rocks and nature in general were portrayed. Also Geppetto's outfit is very on point. The soundtrack was nice! And most of the songs. And I have zero complaints about the Cricket.

That's it for me.

I have so many complaints to make instead when it comes to the story. It looked to me like a game of telephone -like Del Toro watched Disney's Abominable Version, rightfully didn't like it, and decided to improve on that instead of reading the original. Which is an actual book written by an actual person for a real audience to touch on the very specific issues of a very specific time period.

This is not like a fairytale or a myth, where you can argue there is no original and there's room for interpretation or to put one's own spin on the story. Pinocchio is a story that works when set in its original time with its original premises. What Del Toro did is more than just "reinterpretation". He absolutely destroyed it, tore it down piece by piece until nothing remained.

And I like Del Toro's movies and his vision, but I knew this would be a mess from the moment I read his interviews on the topic. He says he believes the central message of Collodi's story is You must obey authority at all costs; this is apparent in his movie, where he insists obsessively on this point, having most if not all characters order Pinocchio to obey just for him to go No! in a clueless, spontaneous way. It's like Del Toro is constantly arguing with what he perceives the original story to be.

Which it isn't. The point of the story is that in order to be truly human, one must be kind, must care for the people around them, and should relinquish some selfishness in order to act for the sake of others, or to perform a duty. The duty in question was going to school. To become a real boy, Pinocchio had to understand Geppetto's struggles (this may come as a shock to those who only know Disney's "adaptation" from hell but Geppetto was so poor he made Pinocchio out of a piece of discarded wood) and put aside his desire to only have fun, always, in order to help his father when he was sick.

It doesn't seem like that bad of a message to me. [More under the cut.]

So let's talk about Pinocchio having to go to school. In Del Toro's movie the point that comes across is this: school is the mould thanks to which you learn to conform and obey. It's the fascist podestà who wants to send him there so he can be controlled. And yeah, school did prevalently have that function in fascist Italy. Which is Why Pinocchio wasn't set in fascist Italy! Pinocchio was written just after Italy became a nation (1861). Most parents didn't even see the need to send their kids to school at the cost of their free labour! People were poor! Kids had to work! There was an actual effort on the part of the government to convince parents in Italy to send their kids to elementary school. And it's in this context that books like Libro Cuore and Pinocchio were born. Geppetto is meant to be the model here. He sells his only winter jacket in order to buy Pinocchio's book, because he loves him and wants what's best for him!

And Pinocchio, who is ignorant of the world, is tricked into using the money to go watch the fair, because he doesn't know any better and wants fun and instant gratification. But when Mangiafuoco the puppeteer hears about Geppetto's condition, he sends Pinocchio home with some money for him.

And again, because Pinocchio has not gone to school, he is gullible, and gives up the money to the Fox and the Cat in order to make it grow into a money tree. Then the Fox and the Cat hang him from a tree.

Now I will never understand why Del Toro chose to erase the characters of Mangiafuoco and the Cat and the Fox (I'm sorry but Count Volpe is... Not the Fox) in order to focus such a great part of his movie on Pinocchio performing with the puppets, a scene that in the book lasts less than a day.

I will not touch upon the Youth Indoctrination Camp because it's just so far-fetched I won't even dignify it with more than a What the hell? I want to say something about his portrayal of fascism though, especially compared to how it was in Pan's Labyrinth. It tried to do what Jojo Rabbit did but it just fell flat, maybe because fascist regimes and Pinocchio do not mix well.

So the Turquoise Fairy is no longer Turquoise nor a Fairy. Now it's a Blue Eldritch Creature whose sister is Death itself. Fine. The design is great. It's not what the Fairy was for in the book though. She's meant to be sister and mother, gentle guidance and harsh reproach all put together. One could write an essay on the subject of the Fairy. And that whole thing with Death and Immortality? Super cool concept, makes no sense in the context of Pinocchio.

Pinocchio becomes a real boy at the end. Del Toro's objection to this seems... Childish. This is not an "ugly girl in high school gets a makeover" transformation. It's a metaphor. One that was meant for kids, as Collodi published Pinocchio chapter-by-chapter (think Dickens) and wrote the second part of the novel because the kids asked it of him! It was a well-beloved story, and for good reason!

Del Toro's changes feel disrespectful. How can you call it Pinocchio (even Del Toro's Pinocchio) if you remove the premise, all of the character's motivations are twisted, the setting is opposite to what it should be, the message is in direct contrast to the original, and most of the key characters are missing?

Is it even Pinocchio at this point?

It's like watching a beloved person die and come back all wrong. This is just a fraction of what I think about the movie and Del Toro's position on the original story. Again, it feels like he intentionally picked the worst possible reading in bad faith at every turn. Collodi's story might be a bit corny and on the nose at times but what part of Be Kind and generous do we object against? Is it not socially understood that we have a duty to each other when living in a society? Is that so objectionable?

I will close by saying that I don't think Pinocchio (original) is perfect. No story is. This one was written by a man in the late 1800s; some of its themes are to be taken with a pinch of salt. But all of it should be understood by looking at its context and purpose!

We don't believe in the modern-day internet version of Death of the Author (and historical analysis and character analysis) in this house. Nothing was stopping Del Toro from simply making his own original story... Since the only thing left from Collodi's novel are character names.

[hinamie]

to moving forward

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

[kaiju-naut]

“Sixer, it would eat you alive.”

[shouts-into-the-void]

I feel like the aftg fandom has just swung hard from one mischaracterization of Neil to another.

Yes, Neil is not an innocent little soft-boy like a lot of fans made him out to be pre-TSC, but he isn't some cold, calculated badass either.

He took out a hit on Grayson over Thai food. He doodles fox paws in his notebooks and hates vegetables. He insults FBI agents' parking jobs and he spent a bus ride staring over the back of his seat making heart eyes at his boyfriend. He manipulated the agents while eating takeout in the interrogation room. He canonically internally panics and overthinks the entire time he's attempting to manipulate anyone. He uses people's family trauma to manipulate them. He misses his mom.

Neil Abram Josten is a multifaceted character

[mxmarsbars]

he’s so gorgious

speedran this trend on twitter dot com ^.^ I love turning middle aged men into cutie pies

[heartorbit]

searching for a star that's still unknown to anyone!

[konans-stuff]

It's kinda weird, going to a majority white school as a black kid. Like as a kid you know that you have darker skin and you're a different race than most of the other kids. At first this doesn't bother you (at least in my experience ). You know that the other kids probably have a different way of life than you, but you don't particularly dwell on it. At least in the beginning.

For me that changed around third grade. When my teacher was suddenly serious and solemn and sat the entire class down and explained slavery to us. Particularly the enslavement of black people in America. I already knew about this, the black movement, and the speeches, the whole shebang. My parents and just about any black adult in my life made sure I did.

What came as a surprise to me was everyone else's reactions. They had never heard of such a thing before and as my teacher awkwardly explained how some white people enslaved an entire race, my race, I watched dozens of beady little eyes turn in my direction.

As if to say, "really? That happened to people like you? Black people?"

Let me make something clear, I don't think it was wrong of my third grade teacher to explain slavery to us because it's important to know. I don't think she did it out of some malicious intent to humiliate. I do not think that the kids in that class were racist per se or even cruel because I really can't attest to that.

What I'm trying to get at here is this: from that point on school made a point out of going over and over again about slavery. But it never got to the meat of it, not really. It was the exact same lessons, exact same homework, and the kids in my classroom weren't just kids in anymore. They were White Kids and I was a Black Kid and that seemed enough to be a divider. It seemed there was this constant caution not to offend me. And if it were not that it was back handed insults.

I don't have any hard feelings, kids are kids, it doesn't make it right, but yknow.

I'm not gonna say," there is no race, only the human race" because I have had many people tell me this as their defense for not being racist despite me not mentioning it to begin with. Point is! We're all different, even kids can see that. And that's okay. We should revel and enjoy our differences because it just makes society as a whole, better. However, I don't think we should draw a huge divider between each other. We'll always see someone and say," a black guy" or "a white guy" and that's fine and all.

I just don't think we should pit ourselves against each other. White VS Black. Man VS Woman. Right VS left.

Embrace our differences but don't let them tear us apart.

Of course I know it's not that simple by any means. I still think it's worth a try though, I think we can be a little better. I think I can be a little better. Just gotta try a little bit.

[chasiufan]

Nobody’s gonna buy ur 599$ marketable plushie stop tryna sell it to us -_-

[humbuns]

please never go away

[cupcakeslushie]

“And Four ends the fight with a clean leg amputation! Pop! Pops!! Did you hear?! Four won!”

“I heard you the first time. I’ve also already seen the battle myself. Keep quiet, and let me concentrate, or I’ll drain too much of your blood.”

[hinamie]

alongside someone like you

[paracosmicessence]

*giggles*

haven’t been very active bc of finals/holiday season isn’t very good for my mental health, these gay hedgehogs are the only thing bringing me happiness

[kroosluvr]

i had a dream a while back that maruki's palace was a gorgeous grand cathedral (though dilapidated, abandoned, and overgrown) kinda like this. also in the dream i was goro akechi idk what that's saying abt my subconscious