#to be SO EARNEST and SO REAL with its representation

[lenin-it-to-win-it]

nothing like going to the tumblr tag for a book you just read out of curiosity and finding the authors HARD CORE vent posts like Instantly 

[animefeminist]

Genre conventions and a gentle story of recovery in My New Boss is Goofy

Content warning: discussion of abusive relationships and workplace trauma

Minor spoilers for My New Boss is Goofy Episode 1 – 6

When you think of “mental health representation” a light-hearted slice-of-life series probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It’s certainly not what I expected when I pressed play on a series called My New Boss is Goofy. Yet underpinning this fluffy office comedy is an earnest story of trauma and recovery. This being a fluffy comedy, there was a real risk that the protagonist’s trauma might be belittled by being filtered through the conventions of its genre—in other words, played off as a joke, treated as “no big deal,” or simply not addressed at all in favor of maintaining a comfy low-stakes vibe. Instead, the protagonist’s experience with an abusive workplace and the lingering physical and mental effects of this trauma are depicted with care and authenticity. As is the process by which the protagonist begins to heal now that he’s in a safe place—and now that he’s the main character in a sweet, low-stakes story where genre expectations basically guarantee he won’t get hurt again. Rather than ignoring or downplaying themes of trauma in favor of maintaining slice-of-life genre conventions, My New Boss is Goofy uses its positioning as a cozy slice-of-life story to tell a gentle, but still meaningful, story about mental health and healing.

The series follows 26-year-old Momose, who has just quit a horrible job with a boss that was verbally, physically, and emotionally abusive towards him. Anxiety racks Momose as he starts at a new workplace. Will his new manager beat him down in the same ways? The lingering stress of his past job and the fear that history will repeat itself is so bad it’s causing him stomach pains and he’s teetering on the knife-point of panic for most of the first episode. His new boss, however, is nothing like his old one: despite seeming very competent and serious, he’s an adorable airhead. This is the set-up for the comedy that is Momose’s new office life.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[tu-es-gegg]

i fucking .

i hate that it feels liek, at least in the trailer, no one thought of minecraft earnestly. like they looked at screenshots and gists of the game and went "haha ok we can make this for the kids" like oh my god, playing minecraft survival is such an experience because your are dropped into this uncharted land that is just generated and theres so many thigns to discover, but ultimately the decision on how to play the game, the end goal of it all; thats entirely up to the player.

and early game, its so serene, calm as you explore for resources, whether its the caves or above ground, then nightfall hits and then its a fight for your life out in the wilderness. and its the management of what you have and what can you build witht e blocks you got, and its the horror of the big caves (esp with caves and cliffs) that are filled with goodies but also monsters, its the joy of making something out of the stuff you gathered out of your own efforts, the exhiliration of going through the laundry list of progression from the nether to the end and then comes the fight against the ender dragon. the end poem.. a piece of literature that tell you that the player is everything and anything it desires to be, the player is the universe and the universe says i love you because you are love.

minecraft is so earnest in its gameplay loop of "do whatever you want" and its been that way for years in terms of its main java version. theres no undertone of "needing to cater to a demographic" because minecraft is for everyone and mojang for so long have worked with that.

this minecraft movie trailer just...reeks of corporate. liek it comes from the mind of some business exec that scoffed at teh screenshots and short blurb of the game, and took all the fuckass tiring industry standard of photorealistic and choosing to live action just so they can have physical actors' pretty celeb faces in the marketing and also so they can abuse the vfx/cgi teams in teh middle of animation unions as if world is hard enough...

like anyone who plays minecraft understands this is an unrealistic game, trees fuckign float so why is it live action???, it should be ANIMATED BUT NOOooooo they want better pay i guess we better loophole with vfx teams too

its like worse because its doing an isekai plot and like,. dont understand why, is it just for the actors to do a "why the hell everything a square XD" or for them to laugh at minecraft mechanics being not to real life? is that it you want your "good writing points" for that? you want a gold star for being sooooo clever?

im so unbeleivably upset but it jsut frustrates me that outsider views of minecraft is that its just a "silly blocky kids game for kids" like they think they can make everythign into cubes and think that makes a good minecraft representation, when that is not ever the case, what makes a good minecrat rep is understanding the source material, hell just PLAYING THE GAME IS GOOD ENOUGH and i doubt anyone here has even played the game or at least done so with earnest attempt to understand the game's core values

im sorry im bitching so hard but i lvoe this game, i have played this game for years and watched people play it for even longer, im so sick and tired of people putting minecraft in a box when its so much bigger, its a game of so many possibilies just from vanilla, but people who dont even play the game dont respect it's openess and hoensty in that freedom that is the central part of the game. they jsut see bight coloured squares and think its just for the kids who are dumb and stupid enough to buy anyhting thats a cube.

[sailoryooons]

Happy August Agust! For the fic request, how about some Yoongi fluff - Fae warrior Yoongi, while out on patrol, finds a human baby alone in the woods

❀ Pairing: Fae!Yoongi (ft. other members)

❀ Summary: Yoongi finds a human child in the most unlikely of places and discovers that perhaps he isn’t the most terrible father figure afterall. 

❀ Word Count: 1,754

❀ Genre: Fantasy, found family, fluff

❀ Rating: SFW 

❀ Warnings: Abandoned child in the woods, a little bit of tough love, Dad Yoongi who is like I’m Not Dad, vague world building, Yoongi teasing his kiddo, unedited!!!! 

❀ Published: August 4, 2023

❀ A/N: Okay this is my first attempt at kid fic and I tried to keep it short and sweet. I really wanted to add the members in like one giant family and like all these uncle vibes and influences and GOSH I think this turned out very cute! Thank you SO much for requesting, I adore you and you always brighten my day with your thoughts and comments!! This is unedited!

❀ Disclaimer: All members of BTS are faces and name claims for this story. This is entirely a work of fiction and by no means is meant to be a projection, judgment or representation of real-life people. Any scenarios or representations of the people and places mentioned in works are not representative of real-life scenarios.

| Masterlist | Ask |Hali’s Happy Agust |

Crickets sing their nighttime hymn as Yoongi rides along the road. The moon is a full, silver coin in the sky, painting the world in pale gray light. The evergreens on either side of the road glow blue in the light, their shadows long and stretching in haunting shapes. 

Yoongi does not fear the woods, no matter how dark the spaces between the boughs. He’s patrolled this route hundreds of times and he’ll do it a hundred more. Each night, he rides along the southern border, keeping close to the tree line that separates the fae and human territories. 

For the most part, Yoongi’s nights are boring. He watches packs of direwolves move through the trees and goblins chitter as they run through the bushes. Sometimes, he spots a redcap heading toward the human territory before seeing him and fleeing back into the fae country. 

Rare are the times he sees humans. The humans don’t dare to cross the southern forest that splits the continent in half. Though some villages and cities deep in the human lands no longer believe in the fae, the northerners near the border know that the fae are real and just beyond the trees. 

The time of war against the humans has long passed, but the memory of the fae is enough to haunt human tales and superstition over campfire. 

A soft cry catches Yoongi’s attention. He sits a little straighter in his saddle, tilting his head toward the forest that stretches between the two countries. The back of his neck tingles and just when he thinks it’s nothing more than a distant echo on the when, he hears the distinct sound of crying.

Spurring his horse into a fast-walk, he heads into the tree, following the sound. It sounds distinctly like the cries of a child, worry forming like a pit in the bottom of his stomach. 

It only takes a moment to find a bundle of blankets at the foot of a tree. Sliding from his horse, Yoongi feels his heart thundering in his chest, anxiety setting in as he slowly approaches the bundle. Instinct tells him he’s going to find exactly what he expects. Dread sets in when he looms over the bundle and peers down at the round, tiny face of a crying baby. 

A mess of dark hair sits atop the child's head. It’s swaddled tightly in wool blankets, but the bundle rocks as the baby has a fit. Yoongi crouches down slowly and reaches out gently, swiping the silk-soft hair from the side of the baby’s head. He swears under his breath when he sees small, rounded ears. It is the tiniest of babes, the runt of the litter.

Minutes pass. Yoongi stares down at the child that now cries in earnest, its wails sharp and punctuated with gasps from its mighty little lungs. Looking around, he sees no sign of parents. No footsteps, no horse tracks, nothing. 

A few yards away, Yoongi spots a circular ring of mushrooms and he tightens his fists. He could have spotted the faerie ring right away, but the babe was set down away from it, out of sight. Yoongi knows he’ll have to alert Namjoon immediately that someone has swapped a child with a changeling.

With a heavy heart, Yoongi reaches out and plucks the child from the ground. He bends down slightly and inhales, smelling lilac and milk. He realizes that the baby is a little girl, with plump cheeks. She opens her eyes and looks at him, their dark depths shining with the reflection of the moon.

Yoongi has no idea what to do with the child. But knowing he can’t leave her on the ground to die, he sighs and cradles her to his chest. Immediately, her cries stop. Her heartbeat thrums against his chest as he turns to his horse, careful as he mounts with the child in his arms.

“You’re only staying with me for a night,” he mutters at the babe, who has yet to take her round eyes off him. “You’re going straight to Jin in the morning.”

-

“Nari,” Yoongi sighs heavily, putting his head in his palm. “You have to eat your vegetables. I don’t care if you don’t like them. You can’t be a little runt forever, you have to grow strong.” 

“They smell weird,” she complains, shoving around the greens on her plate. Her wild, black hair is plaited down her back thanks to Jimin’s nimble fingers, and she smells like the lavender and oatmeal soap that Taehyung gifted her. “I don’t want to.”

This is one of the hardest parts of life with Nari, Yoongi things. What turned into housing a babe for a single night transformed into a life that Yoongi doesn’t yet know how to define. 

He remembers that first night. It was awful. The baby had cried all night, screaming with a rage that Yoongi did not know that human children possessed. He’d half-convinced himself by morning that the baby was actually a demon disguised as a human and had every intention of telling Seokjin to take her to a monastery in the human lands.

But then the sun had risen and Yoongi was reminded of a song about the dragonflies and lilies that his father used to sing to him. As the words came back to him, he found himself singing them quietly under his breath and for the first time that night, the baby was silent. Watching him. Curious. 

When Seokjin had finally arrived at the house, Yoongi found himself too enamored by the dark eyes and the blinding smile when he’d sing the baby and bounce, finally unlocking the secret to her silence and joy. 

Now, he doesn’t know how to get her to do anything. Nari is as stubborn as she was when he found her, and now that the five year old has a voice, she can talk back to him. 

“Let’s make a deal,” Yoongi sighs. He doesn’t know where a human picked up such a fae habit, but Nari perks up at the sound of a deal. She does nothing without compromise and is always looking to needle him into a bargain. She’d be a very good trickster, he thinks. “You eat your vegetables every night, and I will let you start training with Jungkook and I in the mornings.”

She narrows her eyes. “And with Uncle Hoseok in archery.”

He rolls his eyes. “And in archery.”

Nari extends her tiny hand over to him. “I, Nari of the Min Household, swear to hold up my end of the bargain by blood and bone.”

“I, Yoongi of the Min household, Sentry of Hala and Shadow of the King, swear to hold up my end of the bargain by blood and bone.”

Leaning over the table, Yoongi shakes her hand. It feels so small and fragile in his, but she grips him tight, squeezing her little fingers as much as she can. When she lets go, she gives a self-satisfied smirk and stabs a piece of broccoli and pops it into her mouth.

“I actually like when you use more salt,” she says around a mouthful. “These are fine, though.”

Only until her happy humming as she eats does Yoongi realize he’s been played.” 

-

“Stop crossing your feet,” Yoongi calls, crossing his arms over his chest. He watches you with laser-like focus, tracking your movements as your right foot circles behind your left. “You’ll get knocked on your ass if you keep doing that. Side-step, but keep your center of gravity wide, Nari.”

“I’ll knock you on your ass,” she mutters, correctly her foot work before bending at the knee and taking her stance again. Jungkook is across from her, wooden sword held up, grin on his face. “Jimin crosses his feet.”

“Jimin is the best swordsman in the kingdom. You are a little runt who can’t disarm Jungkook.”

To anyone else, it might seem mean. Perhaps it is. Yoongi doesn’t know how else to motivate her. Like Jungkook, Nari is a perfectionist with a vicious pride, driven by the need to do everything with the perfect execution. Like Taehyung, though, she is stubborn and hot headed. 

Jungkook leaps forward and the connecting thwack of wood against wood rings out again. The two of them fill the small clearing behind Yoongi’s cottage with clacking. Yoongi keeps his eyes trained on them, ignoring Namjoon and Seokjin who come piling out the house with Hoseok and Jimin behind them. 

Nari doesn’t break her concentration despite her audience. If anything, being under the full weight of her little family makes her swing at Jungkook harder. Yoongi sees the way her movements blend together, keeping a rhythm and flow of motion but no discernable pattern. 

When Nari spins under Jungkook’s wooden blade and uses her small size to her advantage to keep spinning and get to the side of him, bringing her wooden weapon down on his wrist and making him yelp and drop his sword, Yoongi straightens. 

While Jungkook yells about his injured wrist, Nari grins and looks over at the group of men gathered on the steps. Yoongi ignores them all as they cheer, shooting compliments at the beaming child and applauding her for disarming Jungkook.

Taehyung comes in through the gate, brows raised. “What are we cheering for?”

“I disarmed Uncle Jungkook!” 

“Did you? Do it again, I want to see!”

“No way,” Jungkook cries out. “She’s got a demon swing for a twelve year old. That shit hurts!”

“Jungkook,” Yoongi warns, making the younger blush and bow his head. “Language, please.”

“Yeah,” Nari teases as she picks up his dropped weapon and hands it to him. “Language.” 

Jungkook takes the weapon back from her with a scowl and she beams, flashing him perfect rows of teeth as she bows. Yoongi chuckles as Jungkook mutters under his breath, bowing in return before Nari turns and scampers over to Yoongi, her face red with effort and brow sweaty. 

“Did you see that, dad?” she gushes. “I disarmed Jungkook!”

Yoongi’s heart seizes at the word. It’s used so rarely between them. Something unavoidable, perhaps. For so long he had her call him Yoongi until she was finally corrupted by Namjoon and Seokjin to call them by family names. Dad. Uncle. Her family.

“Yeah,” Yoongi hums, opening his arm up as she plops down on his knee, tired. “It was very impressive. He deserved the smack on the wrist, well done.” 

“Aren’t you proud?”

“Yeah,” Yoongi smiles. “I am, Runt.” 

[hero-israel]

Now 30 years after "Schindler's List" came out, I give you the worst article ever written about it.

Join me for a wallow in the depths of Extremely Online lefty pseudointellectualism and Awareness Raising.

"For all its pathos and earnestness, the movie is too glib in its handling of the Nazis. The concentration camp commandant, Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes), is a sadistic monster who performs cinematic and dramatic acts of brutality to signal to the viewer that he is pure evil."

Yes, the movie sure was unfair to Amon Goeth. It's not like there was historical evidence of him doing exactly what they showed.

"In real life, when Nazis and their ilk are trying to gain power, they often lie about their motives or their goals, and use dog whistles to rally support. They talk incessantly about black crime rates, or, in the Nazis’ case, about Jewish crime rates, in order to create a consensus for strong-arm law-and-order policies."

The Nazis were just a warm-up act for the REAL threat: Republicans!

And, just like with Goeth, I guess this movie doesn't actually show what Nazis were like in real life. I guess when Adolf Hitler promised in 1922 that he would exterminate all the Jews, that wasn't real life, that was a wandering variant from "Across the Hitlerverse." And speaking of superhero movies:

"But you don’t need to deconstruct Nazi ideology or understand racist dog whistles to condemn the Nazis in “Schindler’s List.” You just need to watch as Goeth takes up a sniper position and shoots anyone in the camp who happens to pause for a rest. It’s no harder than rooting against Lex Luthor or the Joker."

This drivel was published 5 years ago, so the author had to have been like 17 at the time and is just barely out of college now, right? Right??? (*checks*) NO WAY, HE'S 52, ARE YOU FOR REAL??!

"The Jewish people in the film don’t try to resist or kill their German oppressors. They don’t even express much in the way of hatred or resentment... Jewish people are always object lessons, never conscious teachers. No Jewish character criticizes or explains the evils of Nazi propaganda. These Jews never talk about how they experience prejudice, or what they would need to fight it.... the Jews around Schindler only beg him to save their relatives, or praise him for his bravery. They never insist on their rights."

Well, there was that Jewish architect in the camps who talked back to Goeth for a second about how the barracks would collapse and he immediately had her killed. The movie is about people having been ALREADY ghettoized by a for-real genocidal regime once the genocide program is under way. Where was there supposed to be a dramatic lecture? And what Jew would have given one, to which Nazi, in which fucking ACTUAL GHETTO?

Again and again, this screen-addled, zero-life-experience baby WHO IS SOMEHOW 52 YEARS OLD WTF fails to confront the horrors of true Jewish history because his only frame of reference has been Twitter arguments about how sleeping with a mattress is secretly white supremacy.

"The targets of fascism are the people best able to express what is happening to them, and what they need to fight it. But “Schindler’s List” presents victims as supplicants. It doesn’t model any way to show support for journalist Jemele Hill, who fell out with her network for saying that Trump is a white supremacist. It doesn’t push you to show solidarity when anti-racist activists demand that Confederate monuments be taken down. It doesn’t tell you that anti-fascist actions are important — even when they disrupt someone’s meal. The virtuous victims in “Schindler’s List” never protest. Because of this kind of representation, it’s easy for people to claim that protesters aren’t virtuous."

.........Or! OR! Hear me out here. Or maybe, just maybe, there could be another reason why the Holocaust doesn't look like a good match for someone being fired from ESPN, or for well-fed comfortable people protected by the rule of law yelling at a White House press secretary. Without checking - without doing even a five-second Google search - I am willing to declare as an absolute immutable fact of the universe that Noah Berlatsky considers Sarah Huckabee Sanders to be more dangerous, more fascist, and more Nazi-like than he does Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The overall mentality is that real life must be a screenplay - according to Berlatsky's written cues. Real life must be cinematic - according to Berlatsky's direction. And anything that differs from Berlatsky's internal script - "AOC uses the Infinity Gauntlet to stop voter ID laws which are the new Nazism" - is simply not credible as real life, as real history, and must be discarded and replaced by more of what he saw on Twitter.

After a long lecture, of course.

[ablogofsapphicpanic]

We need to have a talk about @sjmcrackshipmonth and the labeling of crackships in this fandom in general. Yes I am tagging this month specifically because I had a conversation with them about this already, that seemingly did not stick and this time it's gotten a little more personal. What's more is that it's a problem that's not just unique to this blog, but a concept that this fandom seems to struggle with

About a month ago, I messaged this blog raising some concerns regarding their tagging on their announcement post. They had tagged Emorie and Azris, which are two of the most LGBT prominent rarepairs in the fandom. I didn't really feel good seeing that a month for crackships had tagged two LGBT ships that are not crackships. I'm going to get a bit technical here, but please stick with me.

Fanlore defines a crackship as "is a ship that is highly ridiculous, bizarre, disturbing, and/or unlikely to ever become canon. The characters don't have any chemistry, never interact, are in different canons or timelines, are different species, one is an inanimate object, etc. Fans can and do sincerely ship a crack ship, but generally they don't take its chances too seriously and may like it precisely for its implausibility."

I understand that this month is for fun, and I love a good crackship. But seeing those LGBT ships labeled as something with that definition? As somebody in the LGBT community who loves to see the tiny bits of representation on the page we do get, I wasn't a fan of seeing a crackship blog in the tags. Hence why I messaged them last month and explained my problem.

The runner was very polite, and we had a discussion on the use of the term crackship, and why I felt it was inappropriate to tag those ships and include them in the month.

I understand they have good intentions with this, but I pointed out that they had a different route to go. Emorie and Azris were not the only rarepairs tagged, which is why I do believe this person was being earnest about their reasoning, but they were the ones that rubbed me the wrong way.

I was trying very hard not to come off as attacking this runner, especially after their explanation. I know crackship is used fast and loose in this fandom, especially considering many artists are doing 'crackships' on their patreons and whatnot that are really just rarepairs, and not just LGBT ones. But there is a serious problem with calling LGBT rarepairs crackships when LGBT ships are so scarce in this fandom. People call ships crackships just because they don't like them, or it doesn't match their own personal ideas of what will happen in canon. Which is extremely not cool, but seemingly not the intent behind this blog, and I'm not saying that, I'm just pointing out it's a real problem in this fandom. It’s one of many casual forms of homophobia that we throw around

But the problem came to a head yesterday. I had previously discussed this blog with @ofduskanddreams, who is a pretty prominent (and amazing) Azris content creator, because the tags also rubbed her the wrong way, but they were resolved and I had heard back from the runner that they would abstain from involving Emorie and Azris in their month.

That is the entirety of our conversation in all those pictures, including their promise to avoid using Emorie and Azris in the month. Everything was fine until yesterday when Kate realized they had reblogged one of her Azris moodboards. She didn't like that, and didn't want her content for a rarepair that she puts time and effort into to be thrown onto a crackship blog.

This was sent yesterday, more than 24 hours ago, not long after crackship month reblogged her post. As you can see, there is no response and the post remains on the blog. It was frustrating enough that in the span of a month, this person completely forgot or decided to ignore what I thought was a meaningful conversation, but now they're just blatantly ignoring a creator's wishes regarding their content. It's not okay.

I understand that people have lives off of tumblr. Outside of running months. But if you're going to take on the responsibility of a month, you need to be accountable, and you need to respect creators. Especially creators' wishes not to be involved. Especially when a creator doesn't agree with how their content is being portrayed in its involvement.

I don't know who's running crackship month. I don't know what their life is like off of tumblr. But I do know that this whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding the event and the runner. I'm not saying people can't participate in crackship month, nor am I saying they shouldn't. But I think you should be mindful of your content that you include in it and what you label it as, and even more mindful of how you treat other peoples' content.

Azris is not a crackship. Emorie is not a crackship. Tamcien, Rhyslin, Rhycien, FeyMor, Gwynesta, Morlain, so many others. None of these are crackships. Your LGBT ships are not crackships simply because they are not canon. And people need to stop labeling them as such, whether it's because people are just being outright hateful - which is oftentimes homophobic as well - or because people don't know what a crackship is anymore.

Edit: the runner has responded here and here and I encourage you to read their responses. Again, this was never intended to imply this runner was being purposefully harmful, or doing this with ill intent. It has simply been a long-running issue in this fandom that I wanted to acknowledge.

[lailoken]

hello Lailoken. I've been practicing my craft for over 6 years now and I've spent so much time researching, experimenting and worshipping. I take my craft very seriously. but no matter how hard I work, I can't seem to see my gods and spirits visually. I feel them in omens and in the way magic works when they're called on, and I even interact with them in dreams. but no matter what I do, I can't see them manifested visually when awake. do you think i'm doing something wrong? 😔

I'm sorry you're struggling with these doubts, dear Anon, but know that you are not alone. I have had multiple people express similar concerns to me in the past. The thing is, what you are describing about your interactions is what actual communion with numinous wights looks like for the vast majority of seekers!

I'm not totally sure how the concept of spirits taking consistent physical shape has become at all widespread, though my guess would be that much of it comes from very literal readings of mythology and representations of spirits in fantasy media. The truth, however, is that such interactions with spirits are not the norm by any stretch of the imagination. I won't claim that this isn't the case for anyone, as I don't like to claim certainty of most things, and people can be quite unique. But to be extremely frank, if you are seeing a lot of practitioners talking about seeing their spirits as if they are clearly and physically visible, they are almost certainly lying in order to self-aggrandize or experiencing some sort of psychosis. I realize that's a fairly serious statement, but I firmly stand by it.

Can spirits be gleaned as if physically seen? Yes, I think so. There may even be some people who are more prone to seeing such things than others. But I think those sorts of experiences are extremely rare, and people who say otherwise should be treated with wariness.

In my lifetime of practice, I have had visual experiences of this sort only a handful of times, and none of them was anywhere near as cinematic or dramatic as some might claim. I have seen hazy, luminous, and humanoid shapes in the periphery of my vision when working with the Fae, which were gone as soon as I tried to look at them. I have seen shadows coalesce in the benighted woods to take on the hyperrealistic look of an eerily grinning face, only to dissipate as candlelight revealed the scene further. I have seen the foam of running water take on shockingly distinct animal shapes when working with a river spirit, which turn to rushing foam again as soon as I focus on them. Aside from one bizarrely palpable experience I had as a young child—which has never been repeated, despite my explorations— these are what physical manifestations look like for me, and even these situations are few and far between.

When my Kith interact with me, I, too, experience it through omens, feelings, and dreams, and they are not any less real or powerful for it. In fact, I would argue that dreams are the place where one has the best ability to truly interact with spirits in a tangible way; its just a matter of training yourself to recognize and interpret different types of dreams. Working on lucid dreaming can also be extremely useful.

So, to answer your last question: no, I don't think you are doing anything wrong. It sounds to me like you are cultivating a meaningful and honest relationship with your spirit kith, and I encourage you to keep at it without comparing yourself to others on the internet. After all, it's difficult to determine when someone is offering earnest wisdom or just playing dress up, but you know your own experiences.

[mae-i-scribble]

I've recently read through all of fabiniku (my life as an ordinary guy who reincarnated as a girl or something like that for the english title) and it's just been such a fun and genuine time that made me so much more endeared to the series than I thought I was going to be going into this. And for me it touches on a very important part of representation and the argument that queer people will inherently tell queer stories better (spoiler alert i think this mentality is simplistic and unrealistic). Because full disclosure, yeah the author of fabiniku is not someone i assume is the best ally on the planet, and i dont even know if she's queer or not. Her author notes have some pretty :/// stuff in them about trans identity and the idea that being trans is a fetish or childish choice. However, there could also be translational errors messing up what exactly she means, and I can't exactly translate myself, so there is some doubt in that regard. But regardless of the author's opinions, none of that changes the very genuine and heartfelt story she is telling with Tachibana in fabiniku.

(putting the rest under a readmore bc its getting longer than i thought)

There's a reason fabiniku got its reputation as one of the queerest isekai's to ever isekai and that reputation is well deserved bc holy shit yeah these bitches gay and trans as hell. Fabiniku does something with its queer narrative that I personally really appreciate: it sidelines the queer themes. Now this may seem contradictory, but for me, I don't always want queer stories about being queer, I want the queer elements to be a part of the narrative without it being focused on them. And fabiniku absolutely delivers on this. It isn't the story of tachibana finding out he's trans and jinguuji finding out he's gay but also kinda technically bi now- it's a batshit insane isekai romcom about 2 best friends realizing they have feelings for each other. Of course, those queer elements are still very much there, but they're entrenched in the characters, not in the author saying "see this aspect of identity, i want to use these characters as a vehicle to tell a story about it." (Not that there's anything wrong with that, its just a difference in writing goals and how one goes about writing themes/stories)

Fabiniku was never trying to be anything profound or meaningful in terms of queer representation, its mostly a gag manga with some large overarching story beats, but the author's earnestness in portraying the romance and personal growth gives the series a real heart that 1)makes it enjoyable unlike some other comedy based isekai and 2) stops it from being offensive representation. Tachibana is a guy who finds himself becoming a girl one day without and warning, and his slow journey into realizing what exactly he wants in regards to his gender identity is never used as the butt of the joke or mocked. (I'm using he/him for tachibana bc literally as of a couple chapters ago we just got him admitting he may not want to go back to being a guy, he's still on the first steps of his trans journey). In the same vein Jinguuji's love of Tachibana is never truly treated as "only now bc tachibana is a girl, no way did jinguuji love him before nope nope." (yes the initial premise suggests this interpretation, but as the manga grows on it is increasingly clear that both these 2 loved each other before this isekai shenanigans began).

There's a lot more words in my head, but Im gonna wrap it up here. Fabiniku is hardly "perfect" representation, but it is telling a meaningful story with a lot of love put into it regardless. Blaming its mistakes on the author not being trans or gay while ignoring its strengths is useless nitpicking. I saw a post saying it would be a much funnier manga if a trans person wrote it, which is such an illogical point to make that I just had to go ????? at my screen for a minute. There's a lot to talk about with this story, and that's what you took away from it?? And im not saying there aren't criticisms to be made, I still think Jinguuji's arc should have been about him realizing that even if he didn't like women, it didn't change the fact that he was attracted to Tachibana- would have made for a more in character arc for him but again, the author was never intending for anything more than a romantic comedy manga, so I won't hold it against her too much.

Anyways everyone go watch or read fabiniku you won't regret it its so fucking good

[munamania]

ok everyone i watched lemonade mouth and do revenge tonight. i wanted to share my notes from lemonade mouth or at least the highlights. (edit from later jk i posted nearly every thought soooo sorry) not much to say abt the other one it was okay. lemonade mouth is my baby though

wen is such a hater

queer as hell movie

i like that this movie doesnt talk down to its audience it's still silly but it treats each character like a full person and it's earnest

flashes into their lives to get to their destiny to meet. i heart storytelling

TURBO BLAST.

'use your voice' ok dyke. sounds like jo maskin

'this is the underground (in all caps)' oh this is so rife with queer pleasures

principal brennigan.... what does this say abt society.....

this is so like gay club queer joy i know a place moment fates colliding queer utopia

music is everything adn everything is love btw

none of the girls are in competition for any of the guys and in fact are arguably queer coded. i mean overall obv the group is

showing the power of queer joy

like MUNA

random little commercial jingle was so catchy

people that have known and paid attention to each other forever and challenge each other to be their best selves through their very existence soulmatism. olivia and wen btw

WEN IS SUCH A HATER LOSER

dynamic lighting <333

'just because you cant see the agony doesnt mean it isnt there' ok gayass

'i could start a revolution' broccoli close up. hilarious theyre just fuckin around

naomi scott brings a comfortable bisexuality to her characters. me when im just saying shit

SOMEBODY.im gonna kill myself.

HAYLEY BG VOCALS OKKKKKKKKK

'or cher' get his ass mo

stella is a true action forward activist im obsessed with her. she and hazel callahan bottoms should team up and rig the school with bombs

lemonade mouth is such a sincere true inside joke for a band name they are all so lovely. theyre my losers club

Determinate. Get determined! Revolution

bridgit mendler egot when

'i like when you smile' theyre just giddy weirdo soulmates

taking away pride?????????? (lemonade)

corporate buyouts. capitalist ownership and what that entails

control

wen who cant deal with change whos living in honor of his mother's memory and his sense of idealistic family and those rigid definitions and olivias odd broken family and beautiful unconventional relationship with her grandmother and opened up raw vulnerability that she tries to protect but exudes in her songwriting largely inspired around and by him

adult babies. ok

FAGGOT BRENNIGAN!!!!! sorry

idk if this is a strange observation but it's relieving that it's not a huge deal for the boys to go in the girl's bathroom to be supportive and lovely to their friend

lemonade. symbol of hope revolution pride also fruity

i used to live and breathe for mo's little bass shimmy

disability representation ayo

mo's back vocals okayyyyyyy also the little dance!!!!

distributing lemonade to the masses!!!!!! proletariat comrades!!!

why r they literally revolutionaries im screaming

'political tirade' 'complete'y disruptive' slayyy

'decisions i make are for the good of this school' ok fascist

flagging

Dante's pizzeria -> HELL!?!

'maybe... we do matter' 'of course we do' ok yippee gay people <3

shes so gone... i just felt so understood

naomi has such a beautiful voice. the naomis should combine naomi scott produced her own shit it would be sooooo cool

olivia being forced to accept her full grief for her mother

friends are everything btw

seeing things in the clouds... natural human inclination to find purpose in everything

'i wish my dad would ignore me' REAL. it's complicated

dad in prison - i feel like they didnt touch that sort of thing often on disney idk maybe sometimes

BRIDGIT IS THAT GIRL.

more than a band. love and community and god in other people

these are my bestest friends btw

'im not pretending to be what im not for anyone anymore' ok gayass

they are such DORKS <3

MO SLAYING EGREGIOUS CUNT IN ALL THE CHAOS

theyre all so linked together in fate and time

oh bridgit is about to slay so immensely shes amazing

bridgit mendler school of acting

gabe saporta ass outfit stella has on

THEYRE FIGHTING COPS WITH EACH OTHERRRRRRR

music center of the universe and love

theater kids <3

okay that hug made me cry

'that is the limpest wrist fist bump i have ever seen' - lydia (about charlie and his brother)

there was some coming out to your family in that hug

fucking good lighting

lemonade mouth school of acting

fucking up that guitar i cannot lie im obsessed w that performance of determinate at the end it makes me cry every time and also that guitar is soooooo

this guy is cooler than steve harrington yeah i still just have stupid beef with that stupid fandom

kiss on the cheek is so sweet <333

he brought her a kitten. he brought her a kitten. he brought her new life/a feeling of rebirth of coming into yourself and just living. not perfect but okay. they could do peeta and katniss who will follow you to your ruined home and plant a garden there. i threw my pen across the room and screamed over this btw.

SHE MET MEL LEMONADE MOUTH

queer utopia

faghag pair

charlie = afycso, naomi scott ~ dianna agron, wen ryan ross pretty odd outfit

okay goodnight <3

[denimbex1986]

'The film: Writer-director Andrew Haigh (Looking, Weekend) has always had his finger on the pulse of contemporary LGBTQ+ storytelling and the queer experience, but All of Us Strangers sets a new high bar. The contemplative, dreamy drama follows Adam (Andrew Scott), a gay man who shares a massive apartment complex with one other resident, Harry (Paul Mescal). When Harry and Adam strike up a connection, it spurs Adam’s memories of his late parents — played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell — as he imagines conversations they never got to have after they died in a car crash when he was only 12.

Scott earned raves for his melancholy performance and his quicksilver ability to transform himself into a child of different ages purely through his acting choices. He made the rounds at all the major awards season events and did heaps of interviews, but he still largely missed out on nominations outside of the Golden Globes and Spirit Awards. Though they received even less awards love, Bell and Foy both turn in remarkable performances as parents out of time and space fumbling through their earnest efforts to love their son. Haigh was also in the adapted screenplay mix for his take on Taichi Yamada’s novel but never quite broke through. And while he isn’t as central or as flashy as Scott, Mescal is also riveting.

Why it wasn’t nominated: To be honest, this one is a real head-scratcher. The film is perhaps a bit more poetic than strictly linear, which simply doesn’t connect with some filmgoers. Not to mention, Scott is widely beloved in the industry and put in the WORK on the awards circuit (we’d like a collage of his snazzy suits this season). But he was also snubbed for his brilliant work in Fleabag by the Television Academy, so go figure.

All of Us Strangers also could've benefitted from a release date that didn't bury it near the end of December — it had a successful festival circuit run, so why not get it in theaters sooner and maintain the momentum?

From a strictly financial perspective, one could argue that Searchlight didn’t invest in All of Us Strangers’ campaign as much as they did for Poor Things, which secured 11 Oscar nominations. Often, smaller studios (or indie branches of bigger studios) don’t have the biggest budgets for FYC campaigns and they have to put their money behind what seems to be connecting most with voters (in this case, it was Poor Things, not All of Us Strangers). Poor Things is arguably a more provocative and wildly stranger film, but it does center on the coming-of-age of a conventionally attractive young woman.

Which brings us to the possibility of a grimmer truth: Despite massive strides in the industry when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation on screen, sometimes the Academy can still seem, well, homophobic. At best, they seem to only get excited about films related to the AIDS crisis (bonus points for straight actors playing AIDS victims. See: Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club). Famously, Brokeback Mountain lost out on Best Picture to Crash, still widely considered one of the biggest, most frustrating Oscar upsets of all time. At the time, pundits blamed older voters who didn’t want to vote for a gay love story. Nearly 20 years later, we would hope the Academy would be past that. But maybe the power of queer love still just isn't enough.

Why history will remember it better than the Academy did: Like so much of Haigh’s work, All of Us Strangers is an essential entry in queer cinema. Not only because of the sensual, heartbreaking love story at its center, but also because of the ways it distills the challenges of a particular generation to straddle the line of Gen Z’s openness and acceptance with the more closeted, repressive upbringings they endured. Scott’s Adam is actively trying to find his place, caught between the more unapologetic model of Harry’s sexuality and his loving, if lacking childhood.

Through the lens of sexuality, All of Us Strangers unpacks the primal need to be better understood by our parents, while also acknowledging that sometimes love is the best they have to offer. Grief is a thorny subject for filmmakers, in part because it’s such a unique and personal experience for each of us. No one mourns in exactly the same way (and that’s not even accounting for what society deems the “proper” way to do so). All of Us Strangers is deeply affecting in its melancholy, its intricate study of the furrows and sense memories of grief. The bruise it leaves on viewers’ hearts should linger long after this year’s Oscars.'

[autumnsup]

An Autograph's Tale

Or How My Obsession with Ewan McGregor Evolved and then Resolved Itself

(Be warned, this is not a short post. It does however contain a photo of possible interest toward the end).

The first thing you should know is that I am not really an autograph person. I’ve encountered a fair amount of people who might be considered celebrities, mostly after theater performances and at art events, but I can count on one hand the number of people whose autograph I actually sought. The main one being, of course, Ewan McGregor’s.

I’m pretty sure I can pinpoint the moment my obsession began. It was my first year of high school, and while I’d been crushing on boys left and right, I’d never had an honest-to-goodness movie star crush. That changed after I saw Moulin Rouge! in the theater, with one of my best friends. She managed to score a promotional poster for me afterward, and throughout the rest of high school and into college, I would keep the poster of Ewan pinned to my bedroom door.

My feelings about him were a bit complicated. I didn’t have sexual feelings, exactly, because he was older than me and shared a birthday with a relative. I would dream about him occasionally, but the context was usually theater, or performance, and not anything that might be interpreted as “real life.” I would kiss the poster occasionally, more out of curiosity than lust, and I listened to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack CD on repeat while I was studying, memorizing all of the lyrics and teaching them to my other friend who was equally obsessed with the music. I didn’t think Ewan had the greatest voice, but he was so earnest, so joyful, and so broken-hearted and raw by the end, that I couldn’t help but empathize with him and his character’s plight.

I suppose this primed me for the next level of obsession, which was triggered by the discovery of Velvet Goldmine. A relative had told me about the movie, and since I knew I already liked Ewan, I gave it a watch, and immediately felt a sense of Oh, these are my people. Just how much I identified with some of them, I wouldn’t realize for a while yet. I also didn’t realize right away that the movie and its characters were only loosely based on what had actually happened during the glam rock era, and I would assume that Brian Slade was in fact meant to be an accurate representation of David Bowie for an embarrassingly long time. I also didn’t realize how much of a patchwork quilt the soundtrack was, although I would love it to death and memorize many of the lyrics like I did with Moulin Rouge before (which was even more of a patchwork job, ironically enough).

In the meantime, Ewan’s career began to take off with the continued Star Wars franchise, which I had been watching since I was a middle-schooler. I wasn’t a huge fan of the movies, but once I’d started to obsess over Ewan, I watched them with renewed interest, until the day I happened to be in New York City during the one of the premieres. I can’t remember which one it was (maybe the third movie?) or which theater the premiere was being held at (Google? I don’t know it). But what I do remember was the incredible flood of excitement and adrenaline I felt at the thought that my chance to see Ewan in person and get his autograph was at hand.

It wasn’t the first time I’d tried. At some point (again, I’m very spotty on the timeline), I’d drawn a small portrait of Ewan and mailed it to a US address I’d found somewhere on the internet, asking for his autograph on a photo I’d torn from a magazine. I never heard back from his agent, and had contented myself with watching and collecting his earlier movies and various memorabilia like the Velvet Goldmine script. Which was why the thought of actually getting to meet him in person came as such a thrill when it seemed like a possibility.

Because I was a teenager with very little money saved up, there was no way in hell I could buy a ticket to attend the premiere, so I made it my mission to show up outside the theater as early as possible. The weather was overcast but not miserable, and I had fun watching all sorts of cosplaying fans arrive while the event staff set up the red carpet and barriers on the street side to keep passersby at bay. They didn’t block off the other side of the red carpet though, which I thought was rather strange, but I parked myself there so I could be among the first row of people to see the actors entering the theater.

Finally, the procession began, up a red carpet now surrounded by a sea of people and Storm Troopers. The first actor I recognized was Liam Neeson, dressed in a white suit. I was a fan of his too, after having seen Love Actually, and when he came our way to sign a few autographs, I almost died.

I didn’t ask him for one, preferring to let others take the lead while I furiously snapped photos with my camera, most of which turned out terribly once I'd finally developed them (yes, this was before digital cameras and cell phones with lenses were a widespread thing). From a distance, I could see Samuel L. Jackson strolling down the red carpet, plus a few other younger actors who followed Liam’s lead in approaching fans to offer autographs, but alas, no Ewan.

I would find out later that he’d attended an overseas premiere instead, which was disappointing but made sense, given that he was from Scotland and his wife was French and they had young children. To assuage the disappointment, I went to the Museum of Television & Radio and binge-watched Lipstick On Your Collar, which was very hard to find at the time. And that was that, I thought.

Sophomore year of college, I made the impromptu decision to study abroad in France. There were many reasons behind the decision, one of them being a crush I’d developed on a female classmate who was also studying abroad that year, but that’s neither here nor there. What ended up happening was that while I was living with a host family in France, I took it upon myself to write to Ewan again, this time through his agent’s office in London.

I kept it simple this time – no hand-drawn portraits, no glitter stickers, no magazine pages or anything besides a single sheet of paper and a heartfelt message, and of course a self-stamped self-addressed envelope. I wrote it, partially in French to acknowledge his wife and daughters, sent it, and forgot about it for most of the school year.

Until the day that my envelope returned in the post, and inside, much to my surprise and delight, was this:

It was a simple gesture, and while it didn’t come with the thrills and prestige I’d hoped to experience a few years earlier, it warmed my heart. Ewan is no longer my main man, so to speak, but I will always remember that breathless moment in France with a smile. 🤩

(Tagging some fellow VG fans here, but if anyone else has a celebrity autograph or crush story to tell, I'd love to hear it!)

@moonage-xx-daydream @silverfactory @mangle-my-mind

[herculeskosta]

ˏ⁀➷

HERCULES KOSTA ( he/him ) is a THIRTY year old DEMIGOD who currently works as a PERSONAL TRAINER at UPPERCUT CLUB GYM. ( hannah , twenty-eight , she/her/hers , bst ) .

STATS.

FULL NAME : Hercules Kosta .

AGE : Thirty .

DOB : 21 June .

PRONOUNS : He/him ( male ) .

NATIONALITY : Greek / American .

SEXUALITY : Heterosexual ( open to change ) .

POWER(S) : Super strength

HEIGHT : 6'2" .

EYE COLOUR : Brown .

HAIR COLOUR : Golden brown .

PROFESSION : Personal Trainer and Co-owner of Uppercut Club Gym .

LOCATION : Evermore ( 2 bed apt ) .

FAMILY : Amphitryon Kosta ( adopted father ) , Alcmene Kosta ( adopted mother ) , siblings ( none ) , biological parents ( unknown ).

PETS : Greek shephard, Laila .

PIERCINGS/TATS : None .

SMOKING/DRUGS : Yes / no .

BIO. ( skeleton )

HERCULES should have been a hero at high school. He was tall, fit, cute ( if he could trust his mom’s word, which he unfalteringly did ). Sure, he was a little naive, but movies told him that didn’t really matter. He had HEART, and he could lift his dad’s truck up to check its suspension like it was nothing. Yet for whatever reason, a nice smile and an earnest introduction just brought him ridicule and distrust. THE THREATS NEVER CAME TO PASS — not once a punch from the strongest guy on the football team couldn’t land, and Herc remained standing as if it was a fly that pummeled into his chest. Still, his hidden power just painted him more of a freak. He was ostracized, stigmatized but, most prudently, he was CONFUSED. Why didn’t he belong here, in this world where kindness, strength and sincerity were supposed to be celebrated ? OUT IN THE REAL WORLD, it started to fall into place . His get-go attitude was appreciated ( when it benefited the other party ). His strength was admired ( when it came with a wink or win for the team ). He found that helping people helped himself and, truthfully, he didn’t mind that. In fact, he figured that's how the world should work — karma, or something akin to it. BUT HERC’S NAIVETY will forever be his Achilles' heel. He trusts too easily and, worse, he refuses to entertain the idea that believing the best in people could ever be a character flaw. He’s not all brawn and no brain, he just doesn’t want the world to CORRUPT him the way he’s seen it corrupt others. He wants to make his parents proud. He wants to make Phil and Peyton proud. And if the risk is a lifelong representation as a dumb jock, so be it. When he finds his place, everyone there will love him for who he is. THOUGH HE DOESN’T KNOW IT, Evermore is the most at home Hercules has ever felt. The people here are a little odd, just like him. He goes to the gym regularly, he helps people who need it, his parents are fed and content, and he feels inches away from … belonging? But that hope doesn’t sit alone, and a looming fear drips like a slow poison into his bloodstream. Something dark is following him, and he worries he won’t be strong enough to face it head-on.

HEADCANONS .

Hercules currently lives in a small, modest apartment, just twenty minutes driving distance from his parents, AMPHITRYON and ALCMENE. His parents were honest about the circumstances of his adoption when he was ten years old, but he’s never seen them as less than his mom and dad, and he’d lift the world for them. Still, on quiet nights he does ponder the details of his biological parents — why they let him go, and if they might explain his supernatural strength.

Though his name’s on the lease for UPPERCUT CLUB, he’s not exactly ‘business minded.’ Phil deals with pretty much everything ( and deals is exactly what he does ). Hercules is the FACE, and it’s a job not done by halves — he’s a little embarrassed, actually, to see photos of him in tight gym gear plastered all over the shop, in local magazines, and grinning nervously from the gym’s Insta stories.

Hercules has a Greek Shepherd called LAILA, named after Lailaps, the myth of a magical dog who was destined to always catch its prey. When he saw the story on the little white card at the shelter, he felt an immediate connection with her — a creature with a gift that, under the wrong influence, could easily become a curse.

Over time, he’s become very settled into routine. He blames Phil’s training regimes, mainly. He’s up at dawn, protein shake and egg on toast, 10K run with Laila, food shop for his ma and pa, PT sessions and group classes, dinner in Uppercut’s office ( meal prep from Sunday ), and home in time for some light TV. It’s almost, sort of, dare he admit it, boring ? And something inside of him yearns for an extra drip of danger in his daily life.

He’s a SOFT ROMANTIC and extremely inexperienced. Catch this boy blushing and stuttering at the mere glance from a pretty lady but, if ever the time comes, he’ll be at the door with flowers trying his damn best not to mess it up.

[itz-bug]

Saw blue beetle today !!!! And i am happy to say it was very good and fun :D definitely go see it if you can

Gonna talk about it lots under the cut! To be honest, this post is more for me to just record my own thoughts for myself, but you’re welcome to read if you’re looking for the movie opinions of a certified Blue Beetle Enthusiast, or if you’re desperate to feed on the Ted Kord crumbs the movie leaves for its viewers. (To be honest most of it is me talking about Ted sorry. hes my bbygirl)

- very minor spoiler warning -

First things first:

Jaime was so good!!!! His character was so sweet and earnest, and they aged him up to around 22 (he’s literally just graduated from college), which I think makes him a very unique superhero. He’s just returned from school as a first gen college student and feels like he’s finally in a position where he can provide for his family, only to realize he’s still totally unprepared for the real world.

Speaking of family, the Reyes family is the backbone of the film, and each of Jaime’s family members is given their time to shine. Another breath of fresh air for comic book movies! Not only does the hero have a family, but the family consists of fleshed-out characters who all bring different strengths to the group. I liked Milagro a lot specifically. Like Jaime, she’s also been aged up and is now probably 17-18. I thought she was written super well. She’s sarcastic and relaxed, and her relationship with Jaime is perfect sibling representation. Milagro is given a surprising amount of emotional moments, adding to her depth but also not taking away from any of Jaime’s development. Honestly, if you’re on the fence about going to see the movie, go see it just for the Reyes family dynamic. They’re seriously all great.

The other main supporting character is Jenny Kord, Ted Kord’s daughter. Jenny is smart and resilient, and I enjoyed her a lot, despite her bearing very little resemblance to Ted personality wise. I know why she exists: to push the plot and act as the link between the two blue beetles. She’s also Jaime’s love interest because of heteronormativity reasons. Still, I thought her character was done very well. Jenny is half brazilian and thankfully NOT Beatriz da Costa’s daughter. Her relationship with either of her parents isn’t explored much. Her (unnamed and presumably unimportant) mother died when she was young, and Ted disappeared off the face of the earth when she was only eight— I think. To be honest, the timeline confused me a little.

Anyways, Ted Kord is portrayed very interestingly in the movie. Not in a necessarily bad way, though. Ted makes zero physical appearances in the film outside of a single, vague painting of his likeness where he has a mustache and maybe a beard (wow!). That being said, his face is totally unremarkable and unrecognizable. Which is fine. I’d almost prefer them to keep him vague unless they give him a full-fledged appearance.

BUT, there is a scene where Jaime has to change clothes, and Jenny offers him some of Ted’s old clothing, and Jaime walks out in a bright blue windbreaker tracksuit. It’s totally 80s, totally silly, and totally Ted. The nod towards not only Ted’s outrage fashion sense but also his 80s dad vibe was very much appreciated.

There are lots of little moments in the film where Ted’s silliness seeps through. His lab is one example. Jaime describes Ted’s gadgets as “batman but if he had ADHD.” In the Bug, the computer has a female robotic voice that addresses him as “Teddy,” which Jaime’s uncle compliments as sexy. Ohhh the Bug. Easily one of my favorite parts of the film. It’s beautiful. It looks just like it’s comic book counterpart, with the little trapeze rope swing and everything. It also has a “beast mode,” where, when triggered, the Bug plays 80s rock and starts destroying everything around it. It’s also capable of poison gas farts. Perfect. Ted’s personality shines through everything he’s left behind, giving me hope for whatever might be in store for his character on the big screen.

The only reservations I have about Ted’s transition to film would he his relationships. His sister, Victoria, functions fine as a villain but isn’t anything special. She’s a capitalist. She’s evil. Like Jenny, lacks similarity to Ted himself. As for Ted’s dead wife (sad but also it’s hard to care), Jenny describes her mother as the one who “showed Ted the world was worth protecting,” which doesn’t sit quite right with me. For one, it seems weird to make a dead, non-comic-canon character so relevant to Ted’s superhero origin, and also, I think Ted deserves a little more credit than that. I’d like to think he’s always been a good guy, plain and simple. It also means Ted couldn’t have been a superhero for very long, which I think detracts from his coolness. I think Jenny even said Ted became blue beetle when she was a young girl, so it sounds like he couldn’t have been a hero for more than like 10 years? It just seems like a strange and unnecessary change to make. Then again, I realize most of the people watching the movie care very little about the second blue beetle, so I guess I can’t complain too much while knowing the intended audience.

That’s not gonna stop me from talking about boostle though!!!!! Unfortunately, Booster Gold is not so much as even hinted at in the movie, which I kind of get but still mostly hate. It just feels wrong to have a movie where Ted Kord’s career is one of the driving plot points and Booster is nowhere to be found. They are a package deal, DC!! I wasn’t even really expecting a verbal mention of him. Literally just a gold star somewhere in the lab, or a pair of yellow visors, or a blue and gold poster, or SOMETHING.

The life of a boostle fan is one of disappointment.

Still, the optimist in me is saying to hold onto hope. There’s a Booster Gold series in the works, so maybe DC is saving up for a totally reinvented blue and gold origin, or there’s some connection between the two that has yet to be discovered. Hopefully. Surely DC wouldn’t be stupid enough to overlook one of its most iconic duos? haha?

Okay. This post has run a lot longer than I thought it would. Ultimately, Blue Beetle is a very good movie that does the characters of Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes justice. It’s fun and silly but also heartfelt. Even though there’s a few minor things I’m hung up on (because I’m insane), Blue Beetle did a lot of things right, and I feel like this movie has been one of the best comic book adaptations yet. Here’s to hoping we see a live action Ted one day, and he doesn’t totally suck ass.

[thisisatesttai]

Why the superhero genre needs The Boys

The thing I love about The Boys is what it says about the people who tell us they are the heroes.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe implies to us that people like soldiers and billionaires and Walt Disney are heroes, this is part of its ultimate narrative. It gives us an idealized version of these people which, in-universe, holds up; we understand why these characters are making these decisions, it’s still a well-told story. But the association is not-so-subtly drawn between these institutions and the heroics of the characters. If we can imagine that Tony Stark is a billionaire who’s trying to do right by the power he already has, we can believe that Bill Gates is, too. I mean, Elon Musk had a cameo in Iron Man 2. That’s why we need a show like The Boys.

Which is hosted on Amazon so don’t kid yourself into thinking it’s a replacement for real-world action, it just happens to be able to say something about it.

Everyone on The Boys is someone we’ve been told is a hero. A-Train is an athlete, Starlight is a celebrity, Homelander is the police and the military and the government all rolled into one, and we see how they use and are abused by that power and that tells us about those institutions. We can see how the real life Tony Starks see the world as Vought sees the world.

The Starlight plot is honestly my favorite, because my worry going into a show like this is that it would be decidedly anti-superhero. You see, I like superheroes. God damn it I love superheroes. If you’re going to repurpose the conventions and tropes from my favorite genre and associate it with the horrors of the real world, it’s easy to make the case that the genre is the problem. I mean, that’s how Internet discourse works, anyway. But in Starlight, we see a fully earnest representation of what a superhero is meant to be. She genuinely believes in herself and wants to use her power to help people, but she’s a victim of these structures, too. So the show becomes about how those power structures will squash any kind of genuine act of heroism.

Now, these are all things that are present in the comic. But one worry that I have with these kinds of deconstructions is that they stop there. Even the most optimistic reading of Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns--let alone something like Wanted--stops there. But The Boys goes on to examine how ultimately, everyone is a victim of this situation. A-Train is a victim of trying to hold onto his ticket out of poverty. The Deep is a victim of stigmatisation and male posturing as much as he is a perpetuator of it. Everyone at Vought, from Ashley to Stillwell to Stan Edgar is struggling to survive in this abusive system just as much as anyone else. The structures are what needs to go.

Even Homelander, a monster by any metric and the mouthpiece for the ideology that creates these power structures is ultimately a victim as well. He believes with all his heart that might makes right and fights every day to make sure that it stays that way, and we can see how that fight is killing him. How the things he longs for get farther out of reach the more he clings to his position of power. (Spoilers for season three btw) Even though he’s created this ideal, there’s still someone who embodies that image better than him. Soldier Boy is a more manly, more rugged, more confident version of Homelander--and even he was just like Homelander, with someone disappointed in him. It’s a cycle, and that cycle is the problem.

All that gives some context for Butcher's persona. Butcher represents the worst version of what The Boys could be. He rejects the power structure that gives Homelander power, but keeps all the ideologies that created that structure. You gotta be mean, you gotta be tough, you gotta do whatever it takes by any means necessary. And he may be right in this scenario, in the short term, because of the situation they’re in, but he has no concept of a world after that. “Scorched Earth” and all that. It makes me really apprehensive as to where they’re gonna go with his character in the next seasons, because he is being given every reason to double down on that. Things could get really interesting, but I worry they’re gonna get too repetitive on the way.

And then there’s Hughie. I love how he presents the real-world practice of this philosophy. Starlight is the answer to the Butcher question of where you draw the line and still accomplish what needs to be accomplished, but in Hughie we answer the question of how this heroism translates to a world where we don’t have superpowers on our side. His conversations with Starlight and his support of her are something we can carry into the real world as an application for the metaphors at work in the series's allegory. Maybe it’s because I just like thinking about Everything Everywhere All At Once, but I feel like at the end of season three, Hughie is learning the ideal that Waymond represents. He--and really, all the Boys except Butcher--show us how caring for the people around you is really the only form of heroism that exists. As long as we’re paying attention to each other and trying to make each other’s lives easier, we can identify our enemies and dismantle what they’ve built. Sometimes that requires violence because the situation is particularly desperate, but it also presents alternatives.

Anyway, The Boys is really good cape shit for a world that has a lot of mediocre cape shit.

[joeabdelsater1]

Blog Post 6: Hyperreality

This is a continuation of the previous blog post that explored the meaning of reality and its manifestation. In this post, I will try to define hyperreality and illustrate its applications in the real world through different media objects.

At the core, hyperreality has always existed in our lives through our daily perceptions and through our interpretations of the universe we live in. For this reason, it is very easy to identify signs of hyperreality within human creations and media. In the modern and postmodern times, hyperreality meant the corruption of reality, as proposed by the French sociologist and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard back in the late 20th century. In our contemporary world our understanding of hyperreality and its principles morphed, and its existence extended from simple representations and simulations into immersive experiences created by digital technologies. The embodied notion implies that media, images, and symbols alter our experiences in the shared spaces whether digital or physical, sometimes to the point where the simulated or represented reality becomes more meaningful or influential than the actual truth. Thus, it is fair to say that the expansion of digital technology, as well as the constant influx of pictures and information, contribute to the emergence of hyperreal spaces in which the distinction between the real and the virtual becomes increasingly hazy.

It is no secret that the use of mobile phones is the most widespread among all mediums nowadays. So, when we take the example of games such as Wizards Unite (2019), it is easy to understand why developers chose to build it for AR (augmented reality), which is more accessible than other platforms. Through phone cameras and screens, AR games place "the user in a world in limbo, neither entirely virtual nor real, and neither fully connected nor disconnected" (Nuncio and Felicilda, 2021, p.43). The player needs to be present in both worlds at the same time in order for the game/simulation to be complete, which creates the hyperreality state of being. In that fashion, hyperreality erases the identity of the individual and creates a new type of existence for them separate from their true one. We can also argue that players using different accounts for the same game can result in them having multiple identities existing at the same time, which is not possible in the real world, but is only possible within hyperreality. In fact, Baudrillard examines a person's entry into the simulation critically, defining four essential views which can be applied to video games. First and foremost, the game reflects a basic reality. Second, it acts as a deceptive veil, distorting a basic reality. Third, the game may conceal the lack of any basic reality. Finally, in certain cases, the game becomes a self-contained entity; a pure image separated from any basic reality. As such, forms of realism are established in gaming experiences, showing layers of intricacy in the player's existence through hyperreality. Additionally, AR games like Wizards Unite push players to go out there and explore places in their environments that they have never visited before. This ensures that people make real physical efforts to progress in the game and gain tangible or tactile experiences throughout, which gives it a much more realistic feel (Nuncio and Felicilda, 2021).

Sometimes, the earnest attempt at making creations feel realistic and human-like can lead to erasing the fine line between the natural and the synthetic. The increase of realism in the design and animation of video game characters for example was meant to raise the level of engagement of players. In fact, advanced facial rigs and animations are put in place in order to make players empathise and connect with game characters and appreciate their emotional state. The contrary was proven when people were disappointed in instances where the level of realism fell slightly below expectations and the graphics were not convincing enough (cited in Tinwell, 2014). This phenomenon is called The Uncanny Valley, a concept proposed by Masahiro Mori. It's an effect which is critically concerning in the world of 3D and CGI (computer-generated imagery), as establishing a high level of realism in characters might elicit a disturbing reaction reminiscent of the uncanny valley. Viewers may be disturbed when characters resemble human appearances but lack genuine characteristics such as natural movements, textures, and reactions. A social media trend emerged from this concept this year of 2023 where makeup artists would try and make themselves look uncanny simply by exaggerating some facial features and hiding others. Even after the makeup is done, the character represented is still recognised to be human, but the result gives viewers an eerie feeling and a high sense of discomfort. This kind of occurrence is comparable to the situation presented by Mori (1970) in his text which mentions that a prosthetic hand, despite appearing to be a human hand, falls into the uncanny valley due to its artificial features (Mori, MacDorman, and Kagek, 2012).

Similarly, movement in 3D animation has a huge impact on this effect; natural movements increase viewer affiliation, whereas unnatural or awkward motions cause discomfort. A direct example of that would be Quantic Dream's technical demo, "The Casting," which was created for the highly anticipated game Heavy Rain back in 2006 and was showcased at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Despite emphasizing the realism of a human-like figure capable of eliciting emotions, Mary Smith the protagonist, failed to meet the audience's expectations (Tinwell, 2014). This experiment exemplified the difficulties in generating emotional resonance in virtual characters, and this situation represents a wider debate of hyperreality: the attempt to imitate authenticity in digital worlds, as shown in Mary Smith's uncanny qualities, raises concerns about the blurring lines between reality and simulation. The audience's criticism and disconnection highlight the difficulty of navigating realism and avoiding the disadvantages that the hyperreal can bring into virtual storytelling.

Sources:

Nuncio R. V. & Felicilda J.M.B., 2021. Cybernetics and Simulacra: The Hyperreality of Augmented Reality Games. [pdf] pp.39–67. Available at: https://www.kritike.org/journal/issue_29/nuncio&felicilda_december2021.pdf [Accessed 19 Dec. 2023].

Tinwell A., 2014. The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation, A K Peters/CRC Press. [e-book] Available at: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/the-uncanny-valley/9781466586949/chapter-06.html [Accessed 19 Dec. 2023].

Mori M., MacDorman K. F. and Kageki N., 2012. "The Uncanney Valley". IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. [e-journal] vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 98-100. Available at: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/document/6213238. [Accessed 20 Dec. 2023]

[clairenatural]

i had a dream that sam and dean took cas to an art museum and showed him all these paintings of angels and it was like that scene in vincent and the doctor and cas said these paintings are beautiful because they depict the angels as human when a true angel could never be described as anything but monstrous and i woke up crying

anon i love this SO much. i love it so much i had to write it. this is 1.4k, destiel, human!cas

They’re making their way out of the city, monster killed and day saved, when Castiel sees a poster, pasted up on the side of the plywood wall of a construction site. It’s an angel—he doesn’t recognize the artist, but he’d guess late 19th century. Be Not Afraid: a History of Angels in Art, it proclaims, the logo of the city’s largest art gallery tucked into the corner.

Castiel stares at it. The angel on the poster stares back, wings spread and staff raised. Valiant. Something in his heart twitches, but it’s hard to place. He still has his blade, tucked safely into the trunk with the rest of their frequently used weapons, and he never had wings like that; even the shadows, the ones they showed to humans, were simply the closest representation to the real thing possible in this dimension (his back aches anyway, dimly, his human body reacting to the loss as if they were real severed appendages. He ignores it).

Dean notices, because of course he does. He stops, because of course he does, and flags Sam down before his long legs can carry him too far ahead. “Hey. You good?”

Castiel isn’t sure how long he’s been staring at the poster, but it’s long enough that Dean is obviously concerned. “Hm? Oh. Yes, I’m—I’m fine.”

Dean nods but doesn’t move. He considers the poster. “Art gallery, huh?” he asks, avoiding the obvious elephant. Castiel appreciates it. He nods back.

“I’ve never been to one,” he offers, as explanation. It seems odd—he can remember the painting of the Sistine Chapel, he remembers watching with fascination as humans began collecting the smaller paintings into collections and museums, but he’d never been inside one. It hadn’t seemed necessary. Humans collect art in large boxes to remember their history, but Castiel has seen it all.

Dean seems surprised by this. “Seriously?” Castiel nods, and there’s a pause, and he’s about to turn and keep heading towards the car, and Kansas, and home, when Dean claps him on the shoulder and turns to call over his own.

“Sammy! How do you feel about seeing some art?”

“You want to go to an art gallery?” Sam sounds incredulous, and is closer behind him than Cas expected. He hadn’t noticed him retreat the half-block he’d managed to gain on them.

“Yeah, why not? Come on. What happened to ‘a little culture wouldn’t hurt, Dean?’”

"What happened to ‘I’ve got plenty of culture, eat your damn burger?’”

“It’ll be fun, Sam,” Dean counters. Something in his tone has changed. Cas doesn’t think too hard about it.

There’s a long pause, and Cas knows there’s some sort of communication happening he can’t hear or see. “…Okay,” Sam concedes. “Okay, sure. Yeah. Let’s go.”

So they do.

Dean makes a comment about “haven’t been in one of these since I was a kid,” before they all fall into the hushed silence of the museum floor. It’s nice—nicer than Castiel had expected. Not in aesthetics; the building is sleek, and modern, and the art is obviously beautiful. But it’s nice to be there. It feels almost Holy—humans, funny creatures they are, with their habit of treating their own culture with the respect of something divine. Creating houses of worship out of museums and libraries and living rooms. 

He wanders through the various exhibits but doesn’t really pay attention until he ends up in the exhibit from the poster. He’d managed to lose the Winchesters halfway through the photography exhibit, when both the brothers had gotten distracted. Castiel had continued onward anyway, on a mission, and by the time he finds himself walking into the angel exhibit he’s on his own.

He comes to a stop in front of one of the largest paintings in the room. It’s not the same angel as the poster. It’s several, actually, looking over what appears to be Mary and a baby Jesus. The angels are beautiful—smooth, flawless skin. They have long hair that looks soft, even in paint. They’re wearing white robes, and their wings are white and dove-like. None of these angels have several heads, rotating bands of fire, or thousands of eyes. They’re beautiful, but they aren’t angels. The human who painted this didn’t know that, of course—none of them did. Humanity was faced with the concept of divinity and conceptualized it as a version of itself.

“The real things ain’t as cuddly, huh?”

Dean’s voice startles him, which he hates, both because he hates being startled and because he’s still adjusting to Dean being able to sneak up on him.

“I was just thinking,” he starts, pretending he’d known Dean was there the whole time, “you paint us like we’re human.” Not ‘us’ anymore, he reminds himself, but he brushes that thought off. Not now.

Beside him, Dean snorts. “Yeah, well. If you’d told any of those Renaissance guys that the real angels are dickhead balls of celestial intent, they’d’ve arrested you for heresy.”

Castiel shakes his head. “No.” he pauses. “Well, yes. But that’s—” he turns to face Dean for the first time. He notices Sam over Dean’s shoulder, focusing intently on a painting a few feet away and obviously pretending not to listen.

“My father—God—Chuck,” he cycles through, which will never not be weird, “created us first, but not in his image. We weren’t worthy of that. Only you were. Humans, his perfect creation, modeled after their creator. But then—” he turns back to the painting and gestures to it. “You created us in your image. You thought about divinity and you couldn’t conceive anything more Holy than yourselves.”

Dean shifts. He tries for a laugh, but it comes out short. “Well, damn, Cas. Way to make a guy feel self-centered.”

Castiel turns back to him. He blinks. He frowns. That’s not what he means. “Most of my siblings thought so,” he agrees. “But I always thought it was an honor. Look,” He turns again and reaches out for the painting, only remembering a few inches from its surface to not touch it.  “This one has a lyre. You always paint us playing music. But music, art….these are human things, Dean.” He lets his hand fall, but keeps his eyes forward.  “We’re soldiers. They don’t teach us to play the harp in Heaven, they train us to fight. But these angels are…soft. Kind. Angels you trust to protect. The kind of angels people pray to, build churches to.” He looks back at Dean, who is staring at him with a frown. He holds his gaze, steady, and takes a deep breath before finishing. “I wish I was—that any of us were—worthy of being depicted this way. I wish we were the angels you paint us as.”

There’s a long pause while Dean searches his face, obviously trying to decide on the right reaction. If they were at home, Cas thinks Dean might reach out and hug him. Instead, Dean reaches out to clap a hand on his shoulder—he lets it linger there, and Cas knows what it means, so that’s okay, too. “For what it’s worth,” he starts, and his voice is softer than the last time he spoke. “You’re the closest thing to those angels that I’ve ever seen.”

It’s a nice sentiment, but Cas smiles sadly as he turns back to the painting. “I’m not any kind of angel anymore,” he points out, and tries his hardest to keep his voice neutral.

Dean squeezes his shoulder and tilts his head, trying to recapture Castiel’s gaze. “Hey. Look at me.” Reluctantly, he looks back over. “Your wings weren’t what made you a good angel, alright?” he brings his other hand up to poke into Castiel’s chest. “That was all in here.”

He sounds like he’s quoting the Wizard of Oz, and Cas wants to make a joke about that, but he’s also never wanted to kiss Dean more. He doesn’t, because they’re in a museum, and they’re still working up to that, but he makes a note to do it later. Instead, he reaches up and pulls Dean’s hand away from his chest, links it in his own, and squeezes.

“Thank you,” he says, and it’s earnest, and it’s for everything.

Dean smiles. He understands. He squeezes back.