#which is what that post feels like. tbh. that might be the crux of it

[jinkookspencil]

bts as musicals

simply put, bts as staged musicals i'm familiar with. a very random list and post i wrote up at 3am. it's not to be taken too seriously of course, and this is just my sleep-deprived opinion and take

namjoon - hamilton

i feel this is self explanatory for anyone familiar with both hamilton and nj

hamilton, entirely self written about a self-made man with the weight of the world on his shoulders who needed to prove himself, all while being completely in homage to rap legends through and through

HELLO????

hamilton is also a musical very centered around loss and i can really see that in joon

loss, rap, and the eternal internal struggle!!!

he'd have so much fun with it but it'd wreck him

satisfied especially

also i hate to make this point but when it comes to the hate that these two receive, sometimes it’s clear that it’s really forced hatred

seokjin - hairspray

the ladies choice amiright ladies?

obviously there’s link, the very attractive man who everyone wants 

who is hopelessly in love with a plus sized beauty <3333 so jin

jin has often expressed his love of being “unserious” and we all know he can be like that mostly on camera, but he definitely has that more serious side that really is the basis for his character

isn’t that vaguely reminiscent of hairspray too though?

we often think of it as this unserious musical but it actually has more layers than one might remember, discussing prejudice, body image, individuality, self-image, integrity

i think all of those things matter a whole lot to seokjin 

yoongi - les miserables 

fuck the system 

really, all about rebellion and revolution 

but also let me break your heart a little

and let me make you remember that you’re actually living life

very similar themes across both yoongi’s solo work and les mis - injustice, class, tragedy, loss, to name a few. while also being so sympathetic towards its varied characters, reminiscent of yoongi’s sensitivity and mindset

shit think of how yoongi might react to 'i dreamed a dream'

hoseok - wicked 

I think jack in the box just solidifies this as my pick for hoseok tbh

because there’s the childlike wonder side we all see and know (wizard of oz, j-hope of bts)

but then everything that surrounds it and the real story behind it (wicked, jitb)

both wicked and jitb offer a look into a “character” we think we’re familiar with, but it turns out we really aren’t

when we finally see them tell their story in their own words

elphaba struggles with her “role” and so does hobi, literally spelling it out for us in jitb

they both feel trapped, and thus reclaim and reinvent themselves 

It’s a very identity-focused musical/album that still links back to prejudice in our world, too and "where they fit in"

jimin - chicago 

sex

chicago is a look into fame/celebrity and corruption and ambition, and i think jimin has quite strong values when it comes to that

to me, it seems as though he finds those topics very interesting to think about

and also, how that all intersects with sexuality and gender

it feels like the crux of what chicago is as a musical but also who jimin presents himself to be

taehyung - west side story

i wanted something that’s a bit of a more classic musical for taehyung, and out of the ones i am familiar with, wss seemed the most fitting (tho i have a sneaky suspicion that one of the ones i am *not* familiar with might be more him)

taehyung is a romantic and, like nj, he almost romanticizes his losses and spends time looking back and reflecting on his own relationships and even his relationship with 'love' as a whole - layover proves it

so of course wss makes sense, the dance numbers, the longing, the risk of it all, the fact that it's story about "the power of love"

i think it'd leave quite the impact on tae, if he hasn't seen it yet

despite being a retelling of romeo & juliet (which tae would LOVE) wss also set the precedent for many musicals to come, much like tae did. looking back, it was very innovative for its time in so many different ways

musically, it's very taehyung. i could see him wanting to do covers of the songs. maria, tonight, and something's coming (he'd always go back to this song)

in every iteration of it, it's also very cinematic and very personal at the same time, which means it is very taehyung

jungkook - grease 

I didn’t WANT to pick grease and feed into that stereotypical ‘bad boy jk’ idea

but like i can’t not

and it’s not so much that it is representative of who jk is as a person

except aesthetically (the dazed cover is proof)

but that i can see jungkook himself enjoying the musical numbers and poking fun at john travolta, imitating him in his dance moves

i think he’ll particularly enjoy “you’re the one that i want” and might develop some sort of ‘corruption’ fantasy of turning a good girl bad

this might be me projecting that i want jk to do to me shhhhhhh

oh and he will go through a phase of calling his car “grease lightning” and sing the song every damn time he gets in it

yeah it'd be hard as fuck to get jk to get rid of his john travolta impression

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi! I really liked your post about your favorite siblings in stories. I was curious if you might expand on it--are tehre any other siblings you'd want to talk about?

Hi!

Thank you for the nice words! So, it has been a while since I wrote my fave siblings post. Here are some new siblings' relationships I love!

Ruby and Yang (RWBY)

Their dynamic has grown on me! Yang and Ruby are sisters, who could never be "just sisters" because of Summer's disappearence.

Yang feels she has to be Ruby's stand-in mom, jump in to protect her and always be emotionally available:

Dream of anything; I'll make it all come true. Everything you need Is all I have for you. I'm forever Always by your side. Whenever you need a friend, Never far behind.

She has to be strong like Summer.

Ruby feels she has to be Yang's hope, to be a perfect Huntress and to always be optimistic:

Past Ruby: That’s right! It’s up to you to make things better, isn’t it? Everything all depends on you! Your sister needs you, your friends need you, the whole world needs you to keep fighting, forever and ever, against an invincible monster that took your mother!

She has to be perfect like Summer.

Basically, they are both trying to be like their mother to the other, even if in different ways:

The petals scatter now Every nightmare just discloses It's your blood that's red like roses And no matter what I do Nothing ever takes the place of you

So, their shared arc is about moving on from this internalized mentality, so that they can become two independent people who still love each other.

Ame and Yuki (Wolf Children)

I love their siblings yin yang dynamic! Yuki and Amer are very well characterized and have wonderful complementary arcs. They have to choose if to be wolves or humans and of course they come up with different answers.

The best part, though, is that their respective developments lead them to take a path very different from the one you would expect initially.

At the beginning Yuki is energetic and enjoys spending time in her wolf form, while Ame is shy and dislikes moving around. Still, they both find something they wish so much they are willing to change for it.

Yuki craves human companionship and someone who would accept her for who she is. Ame is fascinated by nature and wants someone who would teach him about it. In the end, Yuki chooses society, while Ame the forest. It is this difference, which also leads to their final fight. There they both try to force the other to see things from their perspective. They want the other to make their same choice. Still, this is impossible because they are not the same. They take different paths and separate because this is the only way they can truly be happy. This doesn't mean they love each other or their mother any less.

The Russos siblings! (Wizards of Waverly Place)

Tbh... they are some of my favourite siblings EVER! And it is a crime I forgot to put them into the list :P Well, time to fix this mistake!

I love Wizards of Waverly Place and that is mostly because of the dynamics among the three siblings (+ Harper, who is a found sister to ALL the Russo kids and not just Alex). In particular, the crux of the series is really Alex and Justin's bond, which is great and my favourite relationship in the story.

Alex is impulsive, a delinquent and an underachiever. Justin is lawful, a star student and a hardworker. Alex is heart, while Justin is mind. They bicker all the time and never get along and yet they love each other and need the other to get their respective happy endings.

Alex learns magic from Justin and grows more responsible and hardworking by observing him. Justin mentors Alex and through her he discovers his true calling, which is to be a teacher. With time, we see this dynamic changing as Justin starts to mess up more and Alex is the one helping out. This is all part of growing up and discovering who you are.

Alex grows smarter, but keeps being motivated by her emotions and big heart (she puts in the effort for the competition, so that she can stay with Mason - an inversion of her Jerry giving up magic for Theresa)

Justin must deal with his hidden feelings. He must face his darkest side, like his jealousy, his pettyness and even how his deep love for someone can lead him astray. He has to accept all this if he wants to keep choosing the right thing

So, Alex realizes she can be more than just Justin's bad little sister and Justin has to face he can't keep building his own identity on being the smart one of his family. That is because all 3 siblings are smart (yes even Max), but go at it in different ways and have different talents.

Throughout the series, their final callings become clear. Alex's is wizardry, Justin's is teaching and Max's is business. All three get what they need and want.

As a cherry on top, Alex and Justin's arcs are foils and inversion of each other at any important step ;)

They have 3 important love interests that follow specific literary themes (Beauty and Beast for Alex and Romeo and Juliet for Justin). They have to learn when to let go and when to fight for the person they love, just in different ways and at different times.

They both fall behind in the wizard competition because they are trying to help people and they both get back in through the other.

In short, Alex and Justin are very well made siblings yin yang (yes by looking at this least you get it... I have a type). To this, you add some very funny sibling rivarly, clever burns and pettiness between them and Max and you get some of my favourite siblings.

[kaftan]

You know when you see a post and you’re like. Well. I do hold this opinion. So I guess in that sense I agree. But everything about how this take is being communicated is so repellent to me that I want to disagree on principle

[skytouches]

In the midst of my harrow the ninth reread still so I’m probably gonna start on Nona later than most people who pre-ordered it but I’m going to post a couple theories here that I have going in — keep in mind that I haven’t finished re-reading Harrow so I might disagree with myself when I’m done lol

The locked tomb is connected to Canaan house: my Big thought here is that the River connects the two, we only know of one entrance but I think the river is another entry point — harrow ends up in some bubble river version at the end of htn but that’s not what I mean — there are Multiple mentions of “brackish” water at Canaan (the fountain for instance), the River to my knowledge is neither described as fresh or salty (called oily and bloody) but brackish water occurs where rivers meet oceans and the salty and fresh water intermingle so it’s semi-salty — this would make sense with Canaan house surrounded by salty ocean water and the river as freshwater (standard for rivers) — there are other instances of salty/saline water like the pool at Canaan house and on the ninth which feel distinctly baptismal (like The River tbh) tho salty and I think that could be a grounding effect for necros? Like not something Practiced really but like a necro equivalent of a folk remedy/protection — beyond salt we hear of crux working in abandoned tunnels on the 9th and Abigail mentions something about tunnels at Canaan house soooooo 👀

And if this is the case then…who is in the tomb/s — I think Anastasia, Alecto, and Gideon are all contenders on the ninth in the locked tomb Alecto makes intuitive sense being the resurrection beast that God can neither give up nor defeat Anastasia makes sense as a decoy she builds this tomb with John and then ends up being the one buried there and she’s like the origin of the ninth, I think harrow could be a direct descendent so that may have given her a leg up in successfully getting into the tomb (or since they’re 9th traps she just intended for someone ninth time break in) also I think Anastasia has some parallels to Peter in the Bible being the rock of the church so it would make sense with the people on the ninth having sort of a secondary God with their worship of the locked tomb that it would make sense for it to be Anastasia also Gideon is my wildcard move but it makes so much sense to me for Gideon to be the body, that was one of my first thoughts even when they were in the pool in Gideon the ninth I was like OK but was it Gideon?? and on the one hand you would think Harrow would recognize her or that Gideon would recognize her when she sees her as well in harrows “hallucinations” but her hair is unseen in color she has the same eyes as Gideon after the lyctor trials and harrow plops all of Gideon stuff in her bubble tomb with her so I can’t shake it as an option… plus I think there’s gonna be a big plot with time in the two upcoming books — time kept getting mentioned in Harrow and so I think it’s possible that the body in the tomb is Gideon displaced in time

Alecto is the soul of earth/it’s resurrection beast — I feel like this is all but confirmed it just makes so much sense w language used to describe her, Jod’s monstrous eyes, the beasts/monsters, the planetary flips in general etc my question is more the HOW or WHY like where did her body come from, Jod says he saved the world for someone once but not for himself…is the resurrection him saving the world? Is the apocalypse saving the world? Not sure of his motive so could be either like did he destroy everything so he could rebuild a better place or did he destroy everything so he could bring back one person and in that case…did he have someone he was trying to save and he then placed Earths soul in that body and slowly the soul overtook what was human — there’s also a mention of a “rib” out of context but nearby and that wording placement is interesting given the context of creation or saving a world and the rib of Adam being what was used to create Eve

Hubris is a bitch and the ianthe quote about her interest in “what eats us” or whatever kinda feels like she’s gonna get eaten by a mouth in the river…or just a resurrection beast maybe…the whole Cain/Abel thing def makes it seem like corona will be involved tho — also re-corona I know we were thinking this anyway but I’m just gonna restate that I think that she is the crown him with many crowns character she’s described in royal terms and in sun terms so often and she’s radiant and her name has a sun connection and I just always think of Louis the 14th the sun king and it just all clicks for me

Who is Nona? Idk bro. I think it could be Gideon and Harrows body and Gideon just doesn’t remember things because she was in the river too long and so her brain kind of got wiped but also I might just be placing her there because I miss her — it definitely could be a Alecto or Anastasia too lol I am so committed to Anastasia being a larger part of the storyline so I’m also throwing her many places as well but I whoever is the body in the tomb is a good bet because harrow goes into the river portion of the tomb and I think it’s possible that by doing that and by harrows body dying in the river that left a gap for the soul in the tomb to escape through the river sort of like a one for one exchange…so TBD

BOE: eden is earth which is Alecto… at one point Harrow asks who is Eden and doesn’t correct her by saying it’s not a person…suspicious

[namenoted]

so i had 2 posts in my drafts that are like...just really me spitting out thoughts about light and how others perceive him both in series and as an audience as well as a redemption factor, if he is redeemable, and overall how culpable is light to be held to his actions in comparison to the rest of the cast being held responsible for their actions -- it’s a long read and will actually go well with this amazing ask i just received:

also im relying a bit on this post ive made before in reference to this, so it’s not really coming out of nowhere.

and this post here.

this also just veers off a bit tbh it’s a bit of a random collection with an intended start and end but no vehicle to get there.

i don't think it's addressed so cut and dry in the manga or really at all to light directly as far as character development ... buut i think as an audience we're led to believe that unequivocally no, for the story and sake of death note given that it's a linear story with one outcome, i do not believe light is capable of redemption following solely the story as it is told.

i think it's really purposeful to see him get "progressively" worse. the crux of this for the audience and when we're supposed to know he is truly "irredeemable" is by killing L successfully and moving on. while we can say his behaviors before then are not justifiable enough to redeem him to us as the audience, we can see where the true shift of "this is a protag turned antagonist" and leaves the sort of illusion that light could potentially be shown the error of his ways. killing L was what really kills ties with the audience and makes light truly unlikeable imo. that is where most people also are turned off of death note and stopped watching, which is pretty common and also somewhat understandable. it's just interesting because L really isn't that much more morally sound than light, it's just how far we get to see L go versus how far light is able to go in the series simply because he lives, but we can see a pattern where L was becoming just as extreme as light in many ways to solve this case. you can argue using tailor for example isn't really "all that bad" because he was already going to be executed but a) that's not up to L the when and how and b) lethal injection versus public death via heart attack to prove a point are very, very different. that's not going into how he was willing to test the death note just before his own death. this is just interesting to note given that L seems to be the pillar of justice in the eyes of the fandom, and that just simply is not the case, but he is redeemable and more well-liked whereas light is very much hated authentically to his core.

so a short answer to the above: for the story, no. light is not redeemable.

as character explored more in-depth based on what we're given contextually and what we know about human behavior? more arguably...yes? but maybe not to the idea of redemption as we know or understand it, or something that we could "swallow" but there could be a figurative "change of heart" that might not wash away what he has done, but can revoke his feelings so to speak. there is a very thin line that people teeter on when referring to redemption and i think that tends to get combined with absolving all wrongs to make an unalienable and perfect right. that is not how the human heart works.

this actually leads me into another set of points as far as the idea of how a character like light is seen as irredeemable in comparison to a cast that is just as generally questionable as he is. we can argue there are characters that fall into a more neutral/good alignment such as naomi and matusda, but realistically that isn't who we're referring much to because they aren't the true holders of the story's presentation of good or evil, they are the shades of grey. the scope goes light as very evil, L as moderately evil (so a more "neutral" with an evil leaning), and  the true good as soichiro. even that is complicated if you look at soichiro's behavior, yet he is unquestionably good; but he made light. light is the direct result of being parented by the yagami family as well as a combination of my perception of what mental illnesses light is dealing with, particularly ocd and npd.

it's hard to say if light is redeemable, but in my opinion there is a path of redemption that could be had; this could be done in a multitude of ways. stripping away the memories being revoked and just going on the authenticity of who light is as a person without any other enhanced circumstance to sway him either way, again...arguably yes. just not in the way we might understand redemption. light is also a very fact based character, so he can be swayed better by logic than emotion despite being a very emotionally based person (imo) that works heavy on logic.

for instance like if you’re going to hold yagami up to the standard of accepting responsibility and culpability for his actions without giving him “fandom treatment” no one else is should be given the “sweet baby” “but I just think they’re cute” pass — if they’re not going to be judged, based, or merited in the same way that yagami, then why hold yagami accountable??? they all start to us as blank slates so. characters that kidnap, threaten, steal, kill, lie, cheat are all sort of put on this pedestal and absolved bc “baby” — but since yagami is so basically openly narcissistic to the audience and reliably narrates exclusively to us in a way we don’t get from the others, he never gets like even just a “wow that was smart”??

so in the end, im not asking for full redemption but he is a valuable character, and also im writing him so a little respect to me at least would be nice — also many of the death note cast are self serving characters so i don’t really buy the excuses i see for disliking light as a reason to dislike light, thus absolve him of the ability to have what most villains do (a chance).

— everyone has blood on their hands, there is only one true author intended good guy and even he has some major problems (soichiro) — anyways i could go on — i get it that yagami is so open and so manipulative and so almost downright mean internally in his monologue but — we see directly into light’s head. he’s a short protagonist turned immediate antagonist but he’s really not any morally murkier than anyone else in the series, he’s just very evil, but i don't think he's honestly the worst villain we've ever had. it's also important to just take his canon timeline into account too, it's easier to give him a 2022 gloss over while ignoring his geographical location, as well as his belief system, family dynamic, social dynamic, expectations, and the norms of the time. he is progressive so this is why i argue more on the yes as a character but no in the story.

also just a side note but we see several characters live vicariously through light. my prime example being: matsuda lives out his romantic fantasies with women like takada and misa via light to the point of encouraging yagami to cheat on misa with takada. just strange that this behavior is so encouraged, but it is not a factor that would or would not sway yagami. just an observation ooc. generally others are very invested in his personal life to an almost uncomfortable degree

— and just overall how pushy everyone is for light to be attracted to misa specifically. it isn’t just one person, it’s like the whole cast pressuring him as well as the fandom (imo). i find it interesting that he doesn’t necessarily crumble to this pressure as he makes it align to his vision, but it is pressure nonetheless. this is going to sound a little harsh, but while misa is beautiful, she just isn’t everyone’s type. that’s normal, that’s real life, and honestly it’s doubly so given their specific circumstances of meeting.

arguably there is a lot more to the light and misa relationship than we’ve already been told, but we have a clear understanding of how light is to misa, but there’s a lot we really don’t discuss as far as the entirety of that relationship. there’s a lot i feel that is swept far under the rug that creates a big imbalance of personal responsibility on top of a myriad of other things that is just formatively wrong from the start...and not just all at yagami’s hand.

that’s a post in and of itself, but this is what i have for now as far as some thoughts i’ve had swimming around all day. also we cannot say light’s non-attraction to misa is really relative to what he’s attracted to at all. that’s really not something we’re privy to since it’s not something we get in any authentic form of what a relationship with yagami would be like sans the death note. interestingly his two “choices” are dark haired and taller than misa. **i like misa btw i’m just trying to give a broader view**

[coldtomyflash]

Thank you for answering ! I did finish the fic and chapter 3 does a great job of establishing Snart's history with his soulmark, but it's also specific to that fic ? Like it's an explanation for how he came to feel that way about his soulmate in the context on that particular fic, I was wondering more about what it was about their canon characterization that made you decide this was how they both would react to finding out they were soulmates in the first place.

hmmm i didn’t come at it that way and i think therein lies the disconnect with what you’re asking and how i’m able to answer.

i didn’t start with “what would barry be like if he met his soulmate” or “what would len do if he met his soulmate” in a way that started from canon and then extended to a new setting.

i mean i sort of did, in that i went “what if they were soulmates” then went “len is a dramatic ho who would think that bank robberies and heists are the right way to woo his beloved and barry would be progressively more annoyed with this bullshit” then went “oh nevermind let’s take that idea but make it angst” 

but in many ways i couldn’t start perfectly linearly from canon because i was started in a world that exists just to the left of canon. the way soulmates are setup in that world makes everything just sightly different, and i had to take that into consideration.

so while i started with “haha what if len was a total brat” (much like i always start with tbh), the crux of the story’s starting point was the shape of the soulmate bond, the bleed. i’m a hopeless romantic who loves the idea of soulmates but i get stuck on worldbuilding details. soulmate AUs with the “first words” or “see in colour when you meet your mate” really leave me wanting more because -- what the heck would society even look like if that were the case and what are the millions of ways it would be different? 

so the bleed was baked in from the beginning, from before the beginning, half because there was a post that went around about “what if barry and len accidentally got psychically bonded thanks to a meta”. so psychic bonds and soulmates, that’s the setup.

then i dropped barry and len into that setup -- into that alternate universe i’d made with all its societal backdrop. and i knew i was writing for angst, and i knew i wanted it to be messy and complicated. i wish i could say that i sat down and was like “okay so if barry were soulmates with len here’s how he’d react” but i didn’t. instead i sat down and said “i’m making a story where barry and len are going to be bonded with an emotional bleed and they’re going to be soulmates and it’s going to cause problems.” and i implicitly knew i wanted to explore themes related to separation, expectation, and identity navigation.

so why was barry the one who pulled away, and len the one who wanted to bond? in part because it just seemed a lot more interesting to me, and i’d already written stories where barry is the one who is “all in” and len is the one who is reluctant to commit. 

i also felt it very true to len’s character from a “i’m a thief” standpoint that he’d be a bit greedy/possessive over someone who the universe has literally said is supposed to be his, in part due to his past and how much he keeps people at arm’s length (but how obviously he thaws for the people he does let close). len might not want to open up or commit or be emotionally vulnerable under normal circumstances, but this is a sort of ‘sure thing’ in his mind, at least at the outset before that faith is shaken. 

barry though - barry was tricky, actually. i did have to figure out that if the central romantic conflict was going to be him pulling away -- why? 

if he was on board with it quite then it would be a much shorter story. i knew he would plausibly balk at being soulmates with len at the outset, but barry is a forgiving and kind person, so realistically how/why might he pull away?

so of course they bonded in/under terrible circumstances. that was like - step 1. otherwise, if len had been like “oh should we bond” and barry agreed, then there would be a lot of cognitive dissonance involved that would make barry retroactively justify his agreement to bond by interpreting it as being because he wants to be close to len. so i had to take barry’s choice away, and then realistically i think he’d react negatively because that’s overwhelming and the whole thing was a mess and very confronting.

but i also -

there’s this line from season 1 when he first asks Len for help, right before he goes to the bar. the thing that gives barry the idea to ask len, when he’s talking to joe at the precinct. “we only break the rules to help people”

it tells you so much about how barry sees the world. so. much. i could unpack that for days. and it’s wild that he immediately thinks about len as a result of breaking the rules for somewhat noble reasons???? just - what???

but barry sees himself as the good guy. it’s fundamental to his worldview in this really really huge way. and what we know about self-concept is that very close others become enmeshed/embedded into our self-concept: our partners literally become included in how we see ourselves.

if you see yourself as the good guy, and that is fundamental to your identity and worldview and necessary for you to be psychologically healthy because you’ve made it a cornerstone of your self-concept.... how the hell do you respond when a giant fucking grenade lands right in the middle of that self-perception and says “actually part of your self-concept now involves kidnapping, tormenting, and torturing your friends, also killing a dude just to test the cold-gun, also a lifetime of theft and murder, also betrayal can’t forget that sweet sting of betrayal.”

barry coming to len over time in his own way is one thing. barry having len bond with him as a soulmate out of the blue is about the biggest psychological threat possible. it’s threatening his sense of self, his worldview, the structure of his self-concept, his expectations for himself (which are too damn high, he has to save everyone, he ‘has to try’) and leads him to believe that others he loves will be disappointed in him or reject him for this because len has hurt them, and because barry is disappointed in himself for wanted to connect with len, with his soulmate, despite all the harm he’s caused.

as soon as that clicked for me, as soon as i put it in context of barry’s self-concept, everything kind of flowed from there really really easily.

i was overly ambitious in writing that out though i think because most people, barry included, don’t introspect a lot about the structure of their self-concept, and don’t have the language related to social psychology to articulate what it means to be psychologically threatened. so he doesn’t really understand his own reactions and why they’re so visceral, and when he does he’s lying to himself about how much of it is coming from the fact that he wants len and wants to be with len but he’s upset with himself for how deep he wants that because the absolutely massive guilt he experiences because of it.

aaaand all that brings me to pointing out that the obvious resolution there is having barry’s loved ones find out about len and accept len as part of barry’s life and show that these people aren’t rejecting barry for being with len. if/when that’s the case, barry is able to more authentically work through all this shit. but because of how they bonded and how goddamn secretive his is (canonically) about personal shit, he decided to hide his bond with len, which meant he wasn’t able to deal with literally any of this during the first several chapters and all of it compounded and magnified until it reached it’s first breaking point.

whew - okay that was a wall of text sorry not sorry i hope this helps answer your question but it probably just complicated things a lot.

[mrs-nate-humphrey]

I do think it’s... interesting, I guess, that by the time season 5 rolls around, Dan appears to have a significantly more holistic understanding of Blair as an individual than Serena, her lifelong best friend, apparently does. Without doing a full rewatch of the scene - as every time that I do, a cluster of my brain cells take a swan dive out of my skull and fall straight into hell - Serena’s whole speech in 5x24 about Blair and who Serena thinks she “really” is (pt. 1)

is just... heartbreaking, honestly. Setting aside how Serena might feel about Dan and Blair as a couple, the fact that she can look Dan in the eye and tell him that the “real” Blair - her best friend! - is actually a cruel, perpetually scheming liar whose incapable of loving anyone but herself and Chuck Bass is quite frankly ridiculous. 

I know that episode in particular is a forty-five minute long exercise in character assassination for Serena, but that particular exchange I think is really illustrative of how many of the people who are supposed to love Blair the *most* still see her as her high school self, and as a caricature of that even. 

I can’t quite remember which blog originally posted it, but there was this gifset going around GG tumblr basically juxtaposing the way Serena, Chuck, and Nate describe Blair versus the way Dan does, and while it’s sweet and all from a Dair perspective, the fact that her closest friends seem to have no interest in really, continually getting to know her anymore - not just who she’s been, but who she is now and who she’s growing into - is beyond frustrating. 

Blair loves to scheme, yes, she often lies, and she most definitely has the capacity for cruelty - but even season one Blair was still shown to be someone who was intelligent, intuitive, and deeply capable of love and even, at times, empathy. It’s no wonder Blair ultimately decides what she wants for herself is the vision of her life (married to Chuck, minions, Waldorf designs, etc.) she envisioned in high school, even if it makes her unhappy - how much support did she really have in moving beyond that?

you said this perfectly, i don’t really know what i can say beyond this or what i can add to the points you’ve made. honestly, the way everyone around blair guilted and pressured her to be with chuck was so uncomfortable to watch. eleanor trying to get chuck to stop the blouis wedding... (i am remembering that right, aren’t i? i’m very sleepy rn), serena being like “stop chuck from running away, bring him back” in the beginning of s4, nate’s continued friendship of chuck... all of it is actually terrifying to me, and the fact that this is ~romantic~ and not right out of a horror film is so strange to me, personally. 

this reminds me a little of a conversation @blairwaldorfisgay and i were having months ago about the NJBC - it’s so long ago that i can’t scroll up and find the chats, unfortunately, but the crux of it was mostly that we both felt strange about how much that particular friendship is glorified and idolised by a lot of people who watch the show, when the way it actually played out in the show was so ... toxic. like, did serena, nate and blair love each other? yeah, absolutely, they were each other’s families. did serena, nate and blair know how to support each other in a healthy way? no, not really! 

there’s something really tragic to me about the idea and concept of not growing beyond high school, especially when your high school experience was terrible. the way gg tried to kind of live in that particular bubble instead of letting their characters grow; the way they had the characters hold each other back and sabotage each other repeatedly (& yeah, it’s a drama show, i’m not complaining about the conflict, i just wish we’d had better conflict resolution, and hell, better conflict than ... *gestures at nate and serena’s love affairs* whatever that was) idk. thinking about it just makes me really sad, tbh.

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

Gotta say, Tumblr giving me nightmares is NOT a good turn of events.

It started out nice enough. I was hanging around with a bunch of friends I met on Tumblr. Obviously this is absurd, as if I’d meet anyone from here in the real world. Heck, when I told real world folks I don’t really use Facebook, but sent a link to my Tumblr not one of them were interested. Tumblr and the real world don’t connect.

Oh, and there was also a guy that was romantically interested in me with us. So clearly this dream wasn’t bothering with reality at all. Guys never even flirt with me, hell, I’ve never even been cat called! ** But dreams are dreams.

Anyway, everyone in the group started talking about something, a tv show, movie, or something. Whatever it was kept shifting. Dreams don’t you know.

The conversation turned to characters and everyone started assigning labels to characters. This character is a “insert label” or this character has “insert label”. 

 Now I was enjoying it at first. I loved that everyone was seeing themselves, ot at least what they needed to see, in these characters. These were characters where things weren’t ever said in the text, or the terminology or society at the time of creation wouldn’t have permitted it, and It was wonderful seeing people adopt them anyway.

Then it started to turn sour. Things like “only way to see it”, “everyone can tell”, “obvious”, “no other way to look at it”, and so forth were being said every other sentence. As far as they were concerned there was a label for each character and no other labels were allowed. 

I got uncomfortable. They saw themselves as being inclusive because they saw the characters as part of an under representative group, but they were excluding anyone else, even of  another under representitive group, that identified with the characters. 

They got to a character very dear to my heart, a character I’d identified with since I was a tiny child. They declared the character was absolutely something or other, I can’t remember what. The label didn’t fit me, but the character always had felt totally me.

So, I did something stupid. Since I was with good friends amd they were happily seeing themselves in the characters, I chimed in too. I said “That’s cool! You know, it’s interesting how we all see things differently. I’ve always seen them as..” and I described the way I’d always seen the character. The list involved a lot of personal characteristics that had made me indentify with the character.

I got shouted at. “NO!!! They are not like that!!!!” “If you can’t see that the character is only (insert label) then you hate people that are (insert label)!!!!!!” “You are trying to steal our character!” “You are obviously just prejudiced!!” “You are wrong! No one can honestly think that!!” “Why do you hate us?” 

I tried to argue quietly. I pointed out I liked them seeing themselves in these characters. It was completely valid, but I saw myself in this character and that should be valid too. I rarely saw someone like me in fiction, so this character had meant a lot. This character had been like a friend to me when I was a kid. 

“People like you don’t deserve friends!” 

And they left me in disgust. The guy said he was disappointed in me and walked away too.

Alone.

I didn’t hate anyone. I figured we all had our own versions of the characters, and mine was the one I needed, like the ones they had were theirs. Mine shouldn’t effect theirs. 

I was sharing because I thought we were friends. 

I thought I counted too.

I don’t belong anywhere.

I woke up crying, which is deeply embarrassing.

But you know, I get why I had the dream. I saw a post on here last night that reminded me of a few years ago when an online friend turned on me for not shipping their fave ship. Then I poked around a few minutes on a message board for a favorite fandom and ran into a lot of “one opinion allowed” kind of thinking. And running into the farmer yesterday reminded me how apart I am from the local community despite living my whole life here. Of course I had that dream.

TBH, it’s the crux of most my problems: I never feel I belong anywhere. 

Once upon a time I thought fandoms would be a way to belong. If only I could just meet someone that liked what I liked I’d have a place. At a child in the pre-internet days I had no real chance. A rumor that someone read comics or finding out someone had actually heard of Doctor Who could briefly stir a bit of hope. Inevitably the comic reader would move away three days after I found out or the person that knew of Doctor Who would have just seen two episodes and thought it was stupid, but it still would feel like a reminder of twinge of possibility. Somewhere out there someone liked the same things I liked, and I’d fit in. 

Funny thing, it never occured to me that if we liked the same thing that liking that thing differently might be a problem. I just figured that the important thing was our shared interest, not the small details of favorite episodes or whether a character made you swoon or cringe. 

The internet seemed a miracle at first. You could live in the middle of nowhere without anyone for miles with a thing in common, but suddenly you could talk to people all over the world. There were fandoms for anything and everything, enthusastist and hobbiests with every passion under the sun. There must be so many places I belong.

Or not.

Turns out that fandoms, hobbies, and the like all have their norms, their general consensus, their proper ways, and so forth. Even the most niche ones, subsets of subsets, tend to have a bit of gatekeeping that ends up making me feel excluded. I can’t even fangirl right because I’ll inevitably interpret something in an atypical way or I’ll latch onto a character “everyone” hates. 

So honestly, I think I need to accept at this point I belong nowhere really. I’m an oddball among oddballs.

 I just have to content myself with being a feral creature wandering a wilderness and watching from the trees as others gather around the campfires. I’d like to think if I approached I’d be adopted as their pet weird monster, but that’s unrealistic. I’ve been chased away and had spears chucked at me too many times. It hurts too much. Alone may not be as fun, but I’ll live. I have so far.

**TBH, I wish I were asexual or something so it wouldn’t be so disappointing to always be ignored. But it’s just the way it is for me...so maybe I’ll get used it. I expect it will only take another 50 years or so! LOL 

[facelessxchurch]

What we’re your thoughts about the book?

Some asks were answered already in this post already so I just smacked those asks in here at the part where I talk about the topic in question, which is why the answer may not 100% fit the question.

Massive “Seasons of War” spoilers below the cut:

First off, of all, this book read like GoT/any zombie movie ever. With the necromancers being like the white walkers, Vile is the night king and daugar are the wights. even with the necromancers crumbling away after Vile got killed Tell me I’m not the only one seeing that.

I think there was a lot of fanservice and some confirmed headcanons in the book, which I really liked. Saracen magic got revealed, there was a return to the Leibniz dimension, the Vile vs Vile fight so many wanted finally happened (tho that was kinda underwhelming) and the Dead Men returned which I’m sure made a lot of people happy. 

Ravel poisoning Saracen during the war and Vile being so powerful bc of being dead were two popular headcanons that got confirmed. And I am personally so happy that this book killed the ‘there is no sarcasm in the Leibniz dimension’ headcanon bc I bloody hated that.

Finally, Landy tries to please the old fans instead instead of what feels like purposefully pissing them off. I guess the phase 2 book sales weren’t that great so far (nice try blaming it on the pandemic, but no). 

I’m also glad that the romance in this book was kept to a minimum bc The Val/Militsa kiss in the beginning, yikes, fanfiction has better written kisses than that. And the the dialog for the lesbian love triangle (bc for some reason Ms.Wicked aka Laura’s self insert is Militsa’s ex??) was cringy and stiff as hell, it felt more like first graders trying to do a dramatic play and not natural at all.

Surprisingly enough Mevolent’s and Serafina’s relationship seems to be the most healthy and romantic in the entire series and I have no idea if that was on purpose or if Landy just has twisted views on relationships.

I however am actually kinda happy with how Mev was written. He was sympathetic and charismatic, tho some of the stuff he did doesn’t fit to they way he’s characterised when he’s on screen (I know he is probably lying 90% of the time he speaks, but still). Like, banning all languages apart from English doesn’t seem like something a man who cares about culture, literature and art would do. It also seems kinda stupid bc those languages will be forgotten eventually and if they need an old text translated no one will be able to do it. Also, why English? Isn’t Mev old enough that his first/original language should be Gaelic? So weird. I have the feeling this was mainly done so Valkyrie (and with that the audience) can understand what the people on the continent are saying bc I very much doubt she understands/speaks any languages apart from English. 

But I loved that Mev was also shown as insanely smart. He managed to outsmart Val multiple times. And I love how he doesn’t need his magic to fight, how quick and agil and skilled he is. So I take it that his fighting style is more based on agility and not getting hit, and he uses brute force only when forced into it (by Darquesse/the Unnamed). I was wondering about that bc his armor is made of leather and chainmail instead of metal plates which is considered light armor and not something a tank type of fighter would wear.

What really rubbed me the wrong way tho was when he was talking Tanith and Skul and more or less stated the war wasn’t a challenge anymore ever since Skul died. Or when he was talking to Val being like ‘you’re more powerful than I could ever hope to be’.It bothers me even more knowing that Val is based on girlfriend!Laura. Does really everyone and everything in-vers, even a big bad like Mev, rub Skul’s/Landy’s and Val’s/Laura’s ego? Big yikes.

Crespular Vies is surprisingly fun. At first I thought the two men going after the Obsidian Blade were hired by the Unnamed, but since that wasn’t the case, I think Crespular Vines hired them that so he could show up in time to save Omen and his friends. I think him opening up to Omen about being Skul’s former partner came too unprompted, too quickly and that he is trying to gain Omen’s trust so he can get close to Skul through him. I think another giveaway that that’s the case is bc one of the men Omen had to meet to get his brother back wore a Cleaver outfit and Vies gave that man probably the same reasoning Omen gave him.

That said Omen’s chapters were surprisingly enjoyable. By what I had heard of others I expected a sad sack that can’t fight worth a damn. 

I’m not found of the Temper/Kierre stuff, it came out of nowhere.

Val is overpowered AF, it seems that she can get on Darquesses level with more practise/learning how to keep the doors open. She certainly needs to be nerfed.

Also I skipped the Darquesse chapters bc I’m giving negative fucks about her and the plague doctor.

The last 10% of the book were too rushed and felt like half finished thoughts.

Also I was kinda really bothered by the citizen of the Leibniz dimension. They were cartoonishly racist and it was very pretty black and white for the most part AKA everybody good is in the Resistance and all other sorcerers are evil/corrupt. That is also shown by there being children in the Resistance camp while there was no mention of children in the mage cities. In reality, most people are fairly mellow and it’s just a small percentage that is either really good or really wicked. I would have liked to see more racism towards mortals in form of apathy or ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ like I’ve seen it from Serpine in DotL. You know, make it a little less black and white.

Also, I understand the mermaids, but the bats in Europe were random AF. Like, I would understand it if they were just in Romania/Transylvania as a nod to the Dracula-typ vampire legends originating from there. As a plot-device they weren’t really needed to keep the protagonists from flying bc the danger of getting spotted by necromancer by doing so should be enough of a threat to keep them on the ground. This might seem nit-picky of me, but the bats just seemed so bloody random to me like wtf????

And also bc I’m a slut for magical creatures, I would have really liked to see more of them than just daugar and giant bats. Some undead cut together and resurrected necromancer experiments would have been pretty cool tbh. Like whatever the hell this is.

Something like zombie bears would have also been acceptable, I mean, bears are fucking terrifying on their own, let alone when undead and decaying.

I’m kinda pissed at China that she wanted Skul to kill Nef, but it does seem in character. Of course I still don’t like it bc I headcanon as Nef, Eliza and China having been besties during the war (no matter what canon says, I’m keeping that headcanon). I’m surprised Skul didn’t let Wreath have Nef considering that. Then again, he thought Nef might still be useful. And he was right. I loved how Nef actually had an essential part in saving the world by throwing the bomb. So proud of my boi <3 But Skul refused to kill him even after that. Could it be that Skul is finally getting character growth and development? 👀

Aaaand, China’s continuing to be a tyrant. With Tanith’s sense of justices flaring up shown when he killed the city governor, Erato, and Nef being shown to go after people that betray him (Lorien) I think those two are being set up to go after China to kill her (and to probably kill Creed too). Imagine Eliza joining the team bc she want a piece of China too.

I feel sorry for Baron, but at least he got a few speaking lines this time around. Still, I really wanted Nef to save him. :C Like, he suffered so much before he died too considering he spend a year alone starving and thirsty with broken legs in the middle of nowhere wft, why is Baron getting fucked over like this? #BaronDeservedBetter2020 he is the only honorable person of all faceless followers and he’s the one that gets screwed over in every book he shows up in, why tho- ��

Speaking of Nef, I absolutely loved him in this book, he was a delight and stealing the show whenever he was on the page, despite being used as  punching bag through pretty much the entire book. If people have always treated him that way I can see why he turned evil jfc that poor man. Despite that, he was still being such a clever, funny and relatable bae <3 He’s described as ‘cynical, and nasty but also kinda cheerful’ and as liking to ‘needle’ people (aka trolling and roasting) by Val and that essentially describes every shitposter on the internet ever. And I so loved the way he roasted Saracen lmao

And how he’s so clever, like the Lorien part was my favourite scene closely followed by how Nef essentially talked Remus Crux into getting himself killed, just 👌 smart snek boi, I love him <3 Also I hope he keeps poisoning everybody thoughts against Skul like how he had already been doing it to Tanith, he’s poison in human form and that’s just my jam.

That obedience bracelet was kinda fucked up tho.

Why does this thing even exist? Aren't electro shocks or any other form of pain enough instead of shutting his nervous system down/rendering him completely defenceless? I feel like some messed up mage 100% used it to keep himself (sex) slaves at some point in time :/ Landy might have gotten that idea from some fucked up hentai. Even the implications of the name "obedience bracelet".... I can’t be the only one that got creepy perv vibes from that thing, right?

Btw what the fuck happened to Harmony? You know, Leibniz Serpine’s girlfriend. She hasn’t been mentioned again. Did she die? She didn’t seem too found of him in DotL, was she plotting against him and he found out about it, killed her and fled the Resistance? Or did she die prior to him leaving and it was part of the reason he left bc she was the only thing that had tied him emotionally to the Resistance?? Or Landy just forgot  she existed. I would not be surprised.

Of course my biggest issue with this book was how he retconned Nef’s magic and how he took his trademark, his red hand, away, but more about that in a different post.

TL;DR: Nef was a delight even though he was done dirty. Mev’s scenes were a 50/50 split between good and bad. I actually liked the Crespulare and Omen chapters. The Unnamed was a disappointment. The last 10% of the book were to rushed and the final fights that were supposed to be the biggest were underwhelming. The rest is meh, didn’t really care tbh. Let’s be real here, I only bought this book bc Nef played a bigger role in it, anyways.

[dewdlebot]

Now that I’m thinking about Fable 4 and it wasn’t shown at E3 (maybe next year?) I wanna go into a more in-depth talk about my feelings regarding the leaks. This will be tagged with Long Post so y’all can skip it, unfortunately I’m on mobile so I can’t slap this under a read-more.

First/Third Person- Gonna be honest I wish they’d just stick with Third person and not bother with first. Will go into detail a few points below.

In Depth Character Creator- I see no issue with this whatsoever. God Speed.

Completely Open- Ok so, I’m not directly opposed to this, but I kinda wish they wouldn’t? I preferred Fable 1&2’s style of doing things. Have open areas that are interconnected. Again, I’ll reiterate why in a few points

No Guns- Eh, I have no real preference on this. Tbh if it fixes the combat then yeah I’m down for it.

Can Ignore Main quest and never become a hero- And here we reach the crux of my issues with a potential open world and first/third person camera. It’s because NOT EVERY FUCKING GAME HAS TO BE SKYRIM. THE FABLE SERIES ISNT JUST A DAMN KNOCK-OFF ELDER SCROLLS. DONT TURN IT INTO ONE. That’s it. That’s my issue with this one

Players can build towns, ties into main quest heavily if you get the bad ending and fail- I uh, gonna be honest I don’t know how to feel about this one? I mean I guess Fable 3 had a somewhat similar thing going on but it wasn’t implemented the best so I’m apprehensive on this one but willing to see what it might be like.

Multiplayer- Ok what kind of multiplayer we talking? Something like Fable 3 where you can play with friends using your own hero’s to help each other out or some always online mmo bullshit? Because I’m definitely okay with the former, the latter can fuck off.

Unreal Engine- No opinion

Albion and Aurora are gone, “Lands Reduced to Fables”- Oh haha I bet y’all thought y’all were clever with that slogan. But uh, no I’m not down with this, what’s even the point of making a direct Fable sequel if your not gonna use the damn world? But I might be willing to be ok with this, will reiterate later.

The Spire was rebuilt and used by a Mad King to wish that an asteroid would strike the planet. He also wished it would happen again in the far future- What sort of contrived ass bullshit...? Look I’m just gonna be blunt, that sounds lazy as hell. It sounds like “we couldn’t be bothered to come up with a legitimate reason everything went to shit so uhh...here have a fucking asteroid. Also it’s your main damn plot because fuck you.”

Eons later and everything is new (medieval themed, new continents) and you have to stop the destruction of the planet again- I’m conflicted, on the one hand I’m ok with a medieval setting, not a fan of how we got to this medieval setting, because again, a fucking asteroid? REALLY?

Theresa and a Heroes Guild are preserved on another planet via a demon door- so I’m not gonna ask where this supposed new heroes guild came from because that would most likely be brought up in-game. But...didn’t Theresa die in Fable Journey...? Unless this is talking about her body and now she’s a ghost in which case: Coolio. Otherwise, I don’t mind them bringing Theresa back because she’s practically the one staple character the series has and I love her so yeah. Also demon doors have connected to weird places in the past so another planet isn’t out of the question.

Time Travel heavily involved in play- ok so I’m not actually against this in theory. Now this is where I’ll reiterate my point about Albion and Aurora, I’m not okay with them just being destroyed and forgotten about, HOWEVER! If they use this supposed time travel mechanic to let us go back to the time when Albion was still around then I can be okay with that! I think in this case it would be interesting to see.

Jack of Blades returns- 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 YES PLEASE BRING MY BOY HOME.....okay gushing out of the way this is actually the point I’m SUPER CONFLICTED ABOUT. Because on the one hand I am a starving traveler in a desert thirsty for any sort of content about Jack, on the other hand. ON THE OTHER HAND. I’m nervous to see what they do with him. I can deal with them bringing back the stupid sounding deep voice. But I don’t want a whole redesign of him. His current design is FINE. It’s GOOD. There’s literally no flaws to it. Leave it alone. And his personality is fun and charismatic and wonderfully evil, leave it alone. Just bring him back with Minimal redesign of his character design and personality and we’ll be good.

Now with that out of the way: I’m remaining cautiously optimistic about Fable 4 based on these leaks, I will be the first to admit I am heavily biased against games that are no longer in the hands of the original developers, but I understand that LionHead isn’t around anymore to take up the mantle, so I’m trying not to let it color my view of this game too much. Just...don’t turn it into Skyrim please.

[moviegroovies]

so to me, one of the hallmarks of a good piece of media is people willingly thinking about the characters after it’s over.

obviously, this isn’t like, a 100% success rate kind of thing. there are objectively good, enjoyable pieces of media out there that have no “fandom” type presence on the internet, because, while it exhibited great worldbuilding/storytelling/framing/what have you, it just wasn’t made up of the kinds of characters that people latch on to; the joke about avatar (2009) having less than 100 fics on ao3 despite being the best selling movie of all time for a solid decade is well known because of this phenomenon exactly. amazing cgi, solid plot, but at the end of the day, not that many people cared about jake sully. even still, i think this character-imprinting thing has an important, often overlooked role in intrinsically endearing people to movies that, outside of this factor, might be easily forgettable or even outright disliked. 

case in point: my movie of the day/week/month (how often do i post on this blog, anyway?)....

that’s right, lads, today i’m going to talk about the lost boys. 

if you’ve seen the lost boys, you’ll probably know that it’s not like, objectively, a masterpiece. in fact, if i were feeling particularly uncharitable, it would be easy for me to describe it as a fairly straightforward, low-budget horror b-movie, with a aesop-heavy and simplistic plot and a penchant for cheesy special effects, saved only by its rockin’ soundtrack.

...but i won’t.

i won’t, because using that description would leave out a detail i think it’s completely unfair of me not to touch on: the characters. i love them!! i was hooked from just about the very start of the movie by david’s creepy, affably evil leadership style, sam’s dorky little brother-ness, and michael’s 3cool5school airs. each of the characters, down to the frog brothers (named edgar and allan after the esteemed mr. poe, which really tickled me), the other lost boys, grandpa, lucy, and max, have their own distinct quirkiness that makes them memorable and draws me to want to explore more of their world, more of their stories. 

not enough to watch the infamous direct-to-dvd sequels, of course, but you get what i’m saying. 

there’s an old tip in writing that says something along the lines of “good characters can save a bad plot, but a good plot can’t save bad characters,” and that pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly on this movie. like, the plot itself is pretty much the message ‘peer pressure is bad’ wrapped up in some ugly monster makeup; not exactly cult classic material. however, like i’ve said, the characters and the fact that we get genuine, endearing interactions between them outside of just furthering the plot save it from the dumpster fire and, together, put together a story greater than the sum of its parts. no, it’s not a fuckin’ cinematic masterpiece by any stretch of the words, but it’s a fun movie, and there’s a reason i’ve watched it four times in the past three days, you know? 

(a good chunk of that reason was me slowly losing my grip on my sanity as i frantically put in the dvd over and over again, desperately trying to make myself attracted to kiefer sutherland so i could enjoy the movie to the fullest extent of my ability. i’m proud to announce a perfect success rate, and a slightly degraded sense of taste in men, reflecting the completion of that goal. 

if you too want to find something to lust after beyond his objectively ugly as sin face, trust me when i say it’s all in the voice. mmmmm) 

my favorite thing that the lost boys did was the exploration of different types of friendship and familial bonds. that’s the most striking thing about the movie for me; not only are the characters individuals whom i would like to explore, their interactions with each other are touching and worth exploring in their own right. there’s definitely something about some stories that drives people to write fanfiction (or is that just me? ha ha), and imo, the lost boys totally has it. in fact, while the fandom is sitting pretty at 600+ fics on ao3 (take that, avatar), i was honestly sort of surprised there weren’t more, exploring all the interesting ‘what if’s’ the film presented, and expounding on the bonds that we got to see the effects of in the limited screentime we had. 

what i liked about those bonds was that there were such a multitude of them. there were quite a few platonic bonds making up the crux of the movie (being, in my opinion, much more interesting than the main romantic bond which was explored through star and michael, although isn’t that kind of always the case in these 80′s teen movies? i can’t think of a single designated couple i was actually invested in except for veronica sawyer and jason dean... ferris bueller and sloane peterson, maybe? but i also feel like those two were making a cameron sandwich, so idk if it counts lol), but the way they were treated was cool in that they were unique: we got to see two different kinds of sibling bonds, with michael and sam emerson joking around in an easy, teasing way that totally screamed “wow, this movie was written by someone who actually has a brother” to me (isn’t it sad that some people have clearly never so much as seen a set of siblings in their life, judging by the way they write them?) while edgar and allan frog seem to take themselves more seriously, like a pair of army buddies, we got to see the pack-like bond of the lost boys and the (mostly) good-natured way they hazed michael into their group before things went to shit with them, we got to see star (and some of the lost boys, if you pay attention) being protective and maternal around laddie, and we got to see the uneasy alliance turned nerdy friendship between the frogs and sam. there are also three parent-child bonds that get explored, between lucy and her father (it’s a pretty sweet take on the kindhearted grown child taking care of senile-ish father thing) and lucy and her boys, each of which she has a distinct relationship with: sam is the baby, while michael she seems to level with and trust more, even after he starts getting into trouble and acting up. 

then of course there are two (three, if you count the widow johnson/grandpa emerson subplot, which.... i totally do) romantic relationships: star and michael falling in a sort of love-at-first-sight passionate relationship that soon dooms mikey and eventually saves star, while lucy tries her best to get back into the dating game with max, who is nefarious, of course, but also a little bit sad. remember what i said about what-ifs? i would love to see a fic exploring what might have happened had max’s plan worked out after all, but i guess that’s neither here nor there.

not to be a blatant slash shipper jumping on any two male characters who move or anything, but i think possibly the most important/influential relationship in the whole thing was that between david and michael; michael, obviously, got drawn into the lost boys’ circle by his insta-attraction to star, but he sticks around because of david. he pretty much ignores star once they get to the cliff that night, his attention focused on david because he’s there, and he’s intense, and michael is kind of a dumb bi bitch totally captivated. he drinks max’s blood at david’s taunting, and in direct opposition to star’s advice. there’s a lot i could say on this subject but tbh i’m running out of steam, so that might be a thing for a whole different post.

basically, there are a lot of cool interactions in this movie, and i think a lot of film makers could take note of that. even critically acclaimed, award winning movies being made in today’s world tend to fail to hit that special note, that character-imprintation which makes the audience not only stay engaged to the end, but also to care. not every movie needs that, of course; not everything can launch a darkhorse fandom the way the lost boys has, and honestly, not everything should... unless it’s trying to cater to my interests, in which case, well. 

if all movies were made to cater to my interests, i would have the time of my fucking life, but it’d probably be dark days for the rest of y’all.

thinking about it now, the lack of that element is kind of what makes me wary of the horror genre in the first place; i find so many of those movies just boring as all hell, because they’re too into the “scaring” thing without any of the “caring” thing. people, if we don’t care about the characters we’re watching, then who the fuck gives a shit if they get devoured by shitsucking vampires, anyway? finding the lost boys, a “horror” (i guess i use the term loosely) movie which relied heavily on those character interactions was honestly a godsend, because THIS is what i want to see more of. going down that line of thought, i think it’s honestly a shame and a half that the sequels which joel schumacher planned never got to see the light of day (and, of course, that we were instead left with the tribe, which for the life of me i refuse to fucking watch). the interactions between the lost boys could have been the most interesting part of the movie, if only they had been spotlighted a bit more. that would have been the case in the proposed prequel, the beginning, which would see the boys start out before they became vampires at all. reading about the script for that is honestly sending me, tbh. we could have seen that, and what we got instead were “sequels” that focused mainly on the frogs, when they connected to the original movie at all? where’s the fucking justice?

whatever. that’s the one thing about this franchise i never could stomach; all the damn frog brothers.

(till next time!)

[roxannepolice]

Long asks anon again, here to offer my opinion on the current wank. Rey as a character is rather blatantly breaking sw story rules and nothing is going to get SFF fans hackles up like rule breakage. This is root of both the MarySue accusations and current wank. Rey has a tragic backstory thats doubling as the only failure she can call her own. But its a) damn near entirely offscreen and b) serves as convenient justification for why shes competent at near everything that comes up.

Reys instantly good at the force because of a convenient force download that to the best of my knowledge only occured in the noncanon KOTOR II and quite frankly cant blame most of the general audience for not getting because without prior knowledge or the novelizations why would they? She has darkness in her but as so far used and touched it consequence free and its almost entirely symbolically externalized on the Kylo (and in SW symbolism is Real in a way it isnt in other narratives) Shes strong in the force because Light rises to meet Dark but to quote the current crop of movies ‘thats not how the force works) or at least thats never how it worked before. Shes the first SW protagonist to go behind enemy lines and come out with both hands in the second movie. For ppl wondering how come Luke and Ani never get labeled MarySues, this is why, they got thier asses handed to them, Rey hasnt. There /is/ something /off/ in Reys story, and ppl pick up on it. if you can make a post (w/ over 1k notes!) about how great it is that a character meant to prop up 7hrs worth of movies has little to no character development to go through, somethings off. If multiple ppl can make posts about how its neat Rey can tap into the darkside (still characterized as evil in ST) consequence free (with some quite frankly stupid justifications, 'shes disciplined’ really? jedi lacked a lot of things thats not one of them) somethings off and again, if the only failure your main heroine has is /entirely retroactive something’s off/. If the story were getting with the is the story most ppl think we are, a 'female empowerment’ (i dont feel particularly empowered by being told I have an equal chance at being a deus ex machina but ok) than well, her story is over and theres no need for IX (hell it could have been over in TFA, most ppl assumed she had accepted her place as the future jedi in that one) and no need for reylo The ST was always gonna deconstruct all that came before it purely by virtue of being a sequel. The tragedy of anakin skywalker is now a farce, the happy ot ending now a tragedy, and the mythopoetic structure shot to shit in the name of serialization and perpetual warfare. this stand true for all the sequel characters including rey and ben. the only question is are we going to get anything out of it? I compare it to home renovation. You can knock out a wall and the walls gone, but new opportunities arise. With Benlo, I’m reasonably confident that there will be at least some attempt to take advantage of the new space. With rey and the resistance kids? not so much. it just feels like they knocked down a blue wall to rebuild it as pink one and at the point it just feels like a waste of time because ive seen this before. Ive seen pure cinnamon roll desert orphan reform jedi order If this was all youre going to do that the fuck was the point? which circles around to my problem with team good guy this go around and That Scene. JJ twisted the story into a pretzel to justify the winners of the last round being the underdogs again and then rian twisted so much further the storys head may as well be up its own ass. And then at the very end he shoots it all to shit and rushes to reassure us its all gonna be okay. He removes the entire point of the underdog trope /the tension that comes from the fact that they might lose/. I mean there wasnt a whole lot of that to begin with already but really? So theres no tension that Reys gonna win so her journey feels frictionless, and theres no question where shes gonna end up so full offense why give a shit? Thats where the whole 'can rey lose a fight?’ thing comes from. Ppl want conflict in her arc to justify its existence and give us a reason why this her story to begin with. if the only character going through growth for all three movies is ben, if the only characters whos fate is up in the air is ben, and if all the tension in the reylo relationship comes from ben, then why is this /reys story/? why not just make it about the character actually driving all the drama and thus, the story?   As a final thought, im going to add that having Kylo be aware and insecure that hes never gonna be as Iconic as Vader was a great story choice, regardless of where ends up. Current Rebels, on the other hand, seems to have not gotten the memo that they are never gonna be as iconic as Original Rebels, and the story itself seems to being trying to sell them to me as being better. Rey is Luke but better, Poe/Finn are Han wo the smuggler grit, and id be lying if i said it didnt piss me off.

&

Long asks anon to kick down ur door again, AND ANOTHER THING. SW is a lotta things. Subtle aint one of them, and St hasnt changed in that regard. If you have to debate it chances are either a) ur arguing counter to the text in which case mor power to you but not really helpful for predictions or intended meaning or b) /it aint there. A bunch of ppl didnt like anidala, but nobody doubted we were supposed to think they were in love by the end of AOTC, bunch of ppl didnt like poes arc, but no one doubts he fucked up by not listening to holdo was the intended take away. Which brings to rey and flaws or lack there of. Were told rey has flaws but she has yet to suffer any real consequences from them with the exception of The Damn Parentage Wank, which again, pulls the double duty of making her hyper competent at everything. Because rey has no consequences for her flaws, from a story function pov there aren’t any. If rey did have a flaw to overcome, we would all agree what it was

Now won’t you all just look at this beautiful, spot on rant which has been lagging in my askbox since the last time Rey’s flaws or lack thereof were the discourse’s focus (November, I believe?) and suddenly became a thing again, courtesy of Tweetgate. I think you really summed up the crux of this debate wonderfully, anon.

I particularly agree with the part about Rey not getting narratively punished for whatever flaws we’d like her to have (great point about returning from behind the enemy lines with both arms still in place), when SW don’t stay away from allowing characters to get “punished” even for otherwise applaudable features - vide Padmé, whose idealism is what Palps manipulates into gaining more power (this is why Padmé will never come off as a Mary Sue or too perfect, btw). But I’ll say even more - Rey doesn’t even get called out on her flaws, except for by Ben, who’s mostly dismissed as a baddie like Palpatine saying Luke was foolish to rely on his friends. Let’s just consider one thing - both Anakin and Luke get called out on their flaws by Yoda (Anakin repeatedly and by lots of other people for that matter) whereas with Rey, the same grumpy-yet-jolly senex pops up from the afterlife to further inform us what a great jedi material she is.

TBH, I have a very cynical theory as to why Rey is being pushed as the main character while it’s difficult to deny that it’s Kylo Ben who does all the plot heavy lifting. I’m pretty sure Ben’s arc was the first one DLF thought out (and the big question is, was it the only one they thought out) and only later on decided to make Rey the main character, which also involved much less spontaneous writing. Mind you, it’s not as if benepemption didn’t have a manufactured subtaste to it, but with Rey’s heroine’s journey stiff structure occasionally substitutes any in-world explanations of her actions (this is why I have to hope renperor has some narrative purpose rather than happening because lovers need to be separated and anti-hero needs to achieve what he wanted in 2nd act). I feel as if whatever potential her character had (and hopefully still has, pending IX) got smothered by layer upon layer of making her likable by everyone, which largely relied on negative characterization: she’s not helpless, she’s not too naive, not cynical, not too emotional, not too emotionless, not morally corruptible, not anything you’ve ever complained about regarding any SW character, not falling for the bad boy, not not not - and in the end it’s kinda difficult to say what Rey is like and while the goal of making her widely likable was achieved, it also made it almost impossible to view her as loveably flawed/annoying like the classic characters. And on top of all this is the matter of making her a nobody just like you!, as DLF appears to say with uncle Sam’s gesture (which also kinda assumes the existence of a Star Wars fan as some uniform entity? because if you identify with her, good for you, I just don’t understand why the franchise assumes I’ll identify with her by the grace of being a SW fan alone), because, as you excellently put it, the message here is that everyone can be chosen by God - which again, it’s not as if the saga ever contradicted this, so why the hell make a case of it? I can’t agree that it’s made into Rey’s flaw, though, imo her low birth only serves to further frame her as an oppressed virtue. And I definitely agree regarding too much of her growth being left off-screen, or before the story ever begins. The problem here isn’t even that it is left off-screen (it’s not as if we had huge insight into any of the pt or ot characters) but rather that her characterizations is left off-screen while being depicted as at least untypical (unique to put it bluntly) for her situation (same goes for Finn). A hopeful, kind person growing up on her on her own in slavery under a nicer name is a rarity and DLF makes a case for it being a rarity - and this sparks up curiosity in her past, as if market pandering to Re/sky wasn’t enough. So from this pov her un-reveal being frustrating isn’t just a case of not wanting to love her or her self only a potentially deeper psychological question getting answered with well, light.

I should add, Ben’s arc feels like the most spontaneous one (though Finn’s may yet be a masterpiece) and he’s the one to admit his fear of not living up to Vader’s legacy, because I think he’s the character serving as the creators’ vessel, more or less like Luke was Lucas’ avatar in ot. In his fear regarding Vader’s legacy one can feel Disney’s fear due to having bought popculture’s holy grail and not being entirely sure what to do with it. On this background, Rey (a literal scavenger of OT’s pieces) and rebels 2.0 repeatedly blessed by Leia come off as what DLF would want to be. And the result is that the character which was supposed to be Vader 2.0 proves the most original and surprising one, whereas “breaths of fresh air” come off as room aromatizers with “fresh” written on them.

And as far as the plot being bended into a pretzel and then disappearing up it’s own ass, well, a part of me is still hoping that taking virtually the same villains as before is a mythological-psychoanalitical metaphor of a nigredo repeating itself until the unconscious gets accepted by the conscious…. but, tbh, as the leaks flow this hope is withering.

[thekaijudude]

Ultraman Taiga Reviews (1/5): Ultraman Taiga First Thoughts

Official Information:

The son of Ultraman Taro (first appeared in ULTRAMAN TARO (1973)), who once saved the Earth. Deep inside, he wishes his father Taro to understand and recognize him, but he cannot admit his true feelings.

He has a strong sense of justice and is very enthusiastic. Along with Titus and Fuma, he founded the “Tri Squad”. Although still young and not skilled, but he dedicates to fight for peace on Earth.

Focus on the ‘he wishes his father Taro to understand and recognize him, but he cannot admit his true feelings’

DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR TO ANYONE?!

This is essentially the crux of Taro’s flashback in Ginga where he revealed that back in his childhood:

1. He was scolded by the Father of Ultra as Taro once told him his desire to follow his footsteps and hopes to be like him someday

2. Taro was also disappointed and sad from Father of Ultra’s response 

3. But Mother of Ultra explained to Taro that his father reprimanded him because he didn't want Taro to be like himself

4. But to aspire to be MORE than Father of Ultra

Do you guys know why the points are labelled?

Well, Taiga’s character development for the whole series would essentially be him attempting to trace Taro’s footsteps. This means that Taiga would most likely go through incidents similar to what Taro had gone through in order of the said points.

1. Perhaps Taiga would have a flashback where he wanted to prove himself to Taro but kept getting rejected 

(Cause maybe Taro knows that Taiga is always following his own footsteps and not improving beyond)

2. Taiga would feel more and more dejected over time as Taro failed to recognize him

(But Taiga being Taiga, he refused to let his feelings be known to Taro, which resorted him to venture off on his own and found the Tri Squad and attempt to continue to prove to Taro on his own journey)

And I can definitely see Taiga referencing this misunderstanding he has about Taro dismissing him throughout the series, and seeing that he’s ‘young and enthusiastic’ he might be rash at times and get into trouble too eagerly for the sake of proving himself to Taro, which is where Titus and Fuma has to step in

(Serious speculation from this point forth)

3. (Probably during the last few episodes, maybe when fighting against the final boss or Tregear) 

Someone or Taro himself would tell Taiga what Mother of Ultra told him when he was a child

4. Taiga, with the understanding that he had mistaken Taro’s intentions all this while, has a newfound determination and defeats the previously undefeatable opponent (may be final boss or Tregear)

Note how each point of Taiga’s character progress would mirror Taro’s own?

So yeah this is essentially the formula I think TsuPro will stick to for the main Ultra now, aside from that, Taiga will act as the main focus of the majority of the episodes and will be essentially be the ‘driving force’ for the Ultra-Ultra dialogues as Titus and Fuma (Esepcially Fuma) being the more ‘senior’ members of the Tri Squad will be reining him in from making rash decisions.

But we’ll definitely see Taiga getting into that ONE trouble where it’ll trigger the final boss, be it Tregear or something else. And Taiga would probably spend like 2-3 episodes reflecting on his behavior and actions for the usual ‘Reflection Arc’, which we may see only Titus and Fuma without Taiga for awhile. All this is needed for the eventual “Learn to be an Ultraman” standard recipe.

However, I do reckon that we wont be seeing other Ultras making a cameo in this series except for perhaps Taro himself near the end as I suppose with the amount of sheer plot content TsuPro has pumped in, it’ll more or less be a ‘contained’ series. 

(Unless theres gonna be a Ultra Fight Taiga)

Design Review:

From the silhouette we got in last month’s scans, tbh I expected the mask/ultra horns to be bulkier, but I guess it turned out pretty okay-ish

Also I simply LOVE the fact that Taiga also wears red gloves like Taro, he’s simply an absolute TREAT for us Taro fans (Taro was the first ultra series I got into)

But overall, his design is very reminiscent of the Showa Era, simple color scheme, simple body patterns, simple everything.

Tho his color scheme is predominantly silver in contrast to his dad which is red, guess he got it from his mom 

(Speaking of mom, is Taiga gonna get the Zero treatment as well? Whereby his mom would be MIA? Presumably)

(AND speaking of Zero, theyre gonna interact at one point, but I just don't see it happening within the series, maybe some references but not a straight up cameo from Zero)

(I just need to get used to the BLUE ultra protectors tho, it stings my eyes whenever I look at it for some reason, but I can get used to it soon enough XD)

So yeah that's all about Taiga for now, ill add on in separate posts if I think of anything else of if we get any new info

Stay tuned for the next ‘First Thoughts’ post, where ill be going through Titus!

[thedragonsexcalendar]

The Great Re-Branding (Logo) of 2019

Stupid Font

Back in 2015, when the first edition of the Dragon Sex Calendar (DSC) was released—I had designed the whole thing with zero anticipation of longevity. The calendar was simply a silly concept, yet one that might have a chance of succeeding, due to its stupidity alone. So I hired artists to paint gorgeous images of dragons banging, designed the calendar, built an accompanying Word Press website modeled after a Harry’s Razor’s website (LoL). I did all of this just to prove to myself that I could do it. Nike status. It was one of those ideas that if I didn’t follow through on I’d beat my self up for eternity about. Just like not telling that special someone you loved them, or not being able to apologize for something wicked you said to someone in your youth and you have no way of finding them now to properly apologize. I never anticipated that the 2015 Dragon Sex Calendar would sell out—elevated to cult status thanks to a post on Reddit in a subreddit called r/thisiswhyimbroke (thanks Adam at thisiswhyimbroke.com, BTW). So, all this to say that in that hustle and bustle of creating the first DSC I went with one of the first fonts I found on dafont.com that I felt worked. Times have changed. And I hate my current font. Sorry, "Motion Picture" font! I will always appreciate you.

Branding Crisis

Ever since the aftermath of the success of the Dragon Sex Calendar, I’ve had a branding crisis. I’ve been battling between two different "company” personas. How do I present myself? How seriously do I take myself? Do I position the calendar as a super-serious piece of art and market it that way? Or position it as a silly product, filled with subversive humor—marketing it under the guise of “seriousness,” (and everyone is in on the joke). These types of questions have had a big impact on the overall design over the years—everything from the printed calendar itself to the website, and especially the logo. The results have been a weird hodgepodge of both ideas. A deformed hybrid. This is what the homepage looked like back in 2015. Quite charming actually.

Sad Interlude

Short interlude. I’ve had a rough 2019. My wife and I miscarried twice. In May of this year, my brother Philip died in a car accident. He left behind a pregnant fiancée, who gave birth to my nephew Sullivan a month ago (he’s the spitting image of his dad BTW and I’m going to spoil the fuck out of him). The grief around the loss of my brother and our miscarriages has drained me mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. It’s impacted my relationship with everyone in my life. I’m quicker to anger than before. Things stress me out easier. I’ve had trouble focusing. But, I’m getting better. I’m aware of my grief and my “new normal” and am trying to forgive myself for setbacks but also work harder on loving those around me. All this to say I haven’t able to focus on the calendar or put much energy into it at all. For the last few years, and during all the heartache this year, I’ve known that I’ve needed to fully dive into the Dragon Sex Calendar as a brand. I’ve been ignoring it and taking it for granted. And in a way, refocusing on it has been a bit healing for me. It’s a place to put all this energy. And the first step in diving back in has been to get some professional help.

Re-Branding

Yes, I’m seeing a therapist but I’m talking about a BRANDING therapist. Enter Seafoam Media out of St. Louis. One last thing—my brother left me some money when he died. His best man speech at my wedding he spoke about how proud he was of me, at the man I’d become, and how I’d always followed my dreams, no matter how stupid. This was a direct reference to the Dragon Sex Calendar. The only way I could have ever afforded to work with a creative agency was through his grace. Thank you, Philip. I love you.

I’ve met with the agency, Seafoam Media, a few times now—most recently this last month. I a 4-hour brainstorming session with their team of experts; the social media person was there, along with the google analytics person, the copywriter, and mega supervisor who knows everything. They gave me some insanely solid advice. I’ll go into that in another post. Needless to say, the Lil’ coal in my heart was ignited by the kindling of creativity. (Barf-worthy analogy).

I’ve been making updates to the website over the last month. Which, if you’re a regular visitor you’ve probably noticed. This will continue to be updated as I come up with more and more ways to optimize and bring you guys value. Because that’s the whole point. To build a community of people who love this stupid-ass calendar and return time and again to look at my content. I can’t wait to engage with you people.

via GIPHY

On to the crux of the branding crisis. In many ways, the logo IS the product. It IS the company. "It is known." (said like Ygritte from GoT).

A good logo adds an extreme amount of value. Knowing this and not doing anything about it is something I’ve been struggling with for 5 years. And it’s finally time for a change. So this font is what I’ve been using since 2015. I want to take this “logo,” wood-burn it into a baseball bat, wrap the baseball bat with barbed-wire, and pay someone to shove the barb-wire-wrapped baseball bat up my ass 3X.

Although I’m an Art Director by day, I’m shitty at logo design. Super shitty. And tbh, sometimes the last thing on earth I want to do when I get home from designing things all day is to do more design work. So….I’ve hired an amazing agency to design a new logo for the Dragon Sex Calendar. Check out their website https://coldcastlestudios.com. This shit is amazing. Here are some samples of their logos:

My direction to them in this process was literally, "We realize how stupid the product is but we're positioning ourselves as if we take ourselves completely seriously.” With that in mind, here is a sneak peek, guys, of the preliminary look and feel of the logo. I put a bunch of ridiculous watermarks over the logo for some reason. The next round is going to include a design with a frame around the logo, a la the World of Warcraft logo—to see if that looks good and serves the logo.

I simply cannot fucking wait to reveal it to all of you. I will finally have a brand. This brand will live across all print and social media. It’s the next chapter in my company. And I couldn’t be more excited. This logo will provide the base for future, ridiculous calendars, pins, coloring books, electric cars, personal spacecraft, and dolphin tattoos. Let me know what you think of the preliminary design in the comments below. I love you all!

[janiedean]

Ok I need to know your thoughts about this Green Book mess

... pray for me anon XD

anyway, never mind that my general thought is that I’m really sad the mule didn’t compete this round because then it’d have deserved all the awards hands down........

tldr: the fact that people are outraged is the proof that tumblr at large can’t recognize classism when it hits you in the face.

in longer words: 95% of the hot takes I’m reading are Patently False And It Shoes People Haven’t Seen That Movie.

in much longer words: counting that I haven’t seen all the nominees but I did see both blakkk/lansman (which from now will be BKKK) and blackpanther and green book (and borap but that one wasn’t gonna win best movie anyway so) and I guess that is where the crux is, so, in order.

bkkk was obviously the best movie of the lot quality speaking. in an ideal world, it would have one. except that bkkk is a movie that’s heavily political and if y’all think that the oscars would give a prize to the heavily political movie that directly criticizes the administration in power then y’all missed the part where that’s not what happens at the oscars. last time it happened it was 1978 and the deer hunter won and I still don’t know wtf was the jury’s state of grace at that point, but in 1980 they had apocalypse now in the list and kramer vs kramer won. like. guys. if you have APOCALYPSE NOW on the list and anything else wins in the major categories then you’re a joke. and tbh it surprises me that spike l/ee is still hoping he might snag a major win that’s not for screenplay with these parameters - they’re not gonna go there. hasn’t happened since ‘78. come on;

bp was not a best movie flick. like, guys: it’s not even the best mcu film around as far as I’m concerned and while it most likely deserved the technical awards..... seriously? like. if neither GB nor bkkk won then any other movie on the list had better shots than bp. I can’t even think people seriously assume it was best movie material or ON PAR WITH BKKK as in, ‘if bkkk doesn’t win then THAT ONE should have won’. like, no;

now: green book was a *safe* pick in the sense that it wasn’t as heavy-handed as bkkk when it came to be political so it was the perfect choice if they wanted to go like ‘oh hey see we gave the award to the movie about racism without giving it to the one raising the middle finger to donald trump’, but differently from moon/light (which according to me was the most political political win of the last ten years like guys sorry that movie was nowhere near as good as people said back then and I found it incredibly overrated, and before you tell me that it’s because I didn’t understand it: exactly the point. the wire is one of my fave shows ever and it tacked all the things moon/light tried to except that it did it vastly better and I actually got it for how well it was written, moon/light completely failed in that sense and I’m glad if it was a good movie for the people it was directed to but it didn’t engage beyond that target imvho but never mind that) it actually tackled very well a series of issues I never see discussed in US cinema when it comes to *racism-themed* movies and I thought it was a really well-made movie that nailed a lot of things especially when it came to how classism and racism interject themselves in the discourse and how you don’t get out of discarding one of them so easily.

specifically, with SPOILERS FROM THE MOVIE under the cut SO GO AHEAD AT WILL OR NOT:

now: all the posts ‘this is the usual movie about the white guy who gets the black friend’ already are obviously from people who haven’t seen it because they missed the basic point, as in: that the white guy is poor and uneducated and isn’t *racist* because he’s a terrible person, he is out of ignorance and not knowing any better BUT at the same time he’s not so narrow-minded that he doesn’t have fairly forward opinions on other -isms (see THAT REVEAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MOVIE after which he goes like ‘I’ve been a bouncer in most of new york’s night clubs do you think I mind that thing’ which is a thing the audience wouldn’t have thought since italian-american men from the 50s/60s notoriously came from a fairly -PHOBIC culture in that specific sense), and that the guy being italian-american ie a *white* category that back then did not have *white privilege* put him in a lower class position than the black guy;

on the other side, it was spelled that the black guy’s issue was the contrary in the sense that he’s rich, he’s cultured, he speaks five languages, he’s not a stereotype and since people want stereotypes or expect them, he can’t seem to please either side and feels alienated from both, which I think is a discourse that should be way more relevant in a website where people talk all the time about people of color not being stereotypes and so on;

like the entire fucking point of that movie is that white guy overcomes his racism unlearning his ignorance and black guy has a few realizations about how classism works and reconnects with his heritage throughout the entire thing;

and the fact that it was the black guy explaining the white guy how to write the poetic love letters without grammar mistakes and got him to appreciate finer things in life while the white guy helped him get down to earth (which he plot-wise definitely needed - he was unhappy af before XD) *and* at the same time the movie never fucking forgot that skin color > money when it comes to systematical racism in the south (ie the scene where they get stopped by the southern policeman and white guy punches him bc he basically told him that being italian-american was being half-the-n-word and black guy tells him ‘yeah well I handled that my entire life you could deal with it once’ was FAIRLY DAMNED OBVIOUS even if it also showed that it’s Not How Things Should Go) was imvo a very good narrative choice/balancing;

also, I was really appreciating that scene where don asks tony (a guy who has no idea who orpheus is and thinks orpheus and eurydice is about orphans) to shorten his name because vallelunga is too difficult to pronounce and tony’s like ‘if the people you play for are so cultured they can learn to pronounce my name properly’ because like guys that’s a thing that happens with all non-anglophone names and seeing it come from someone who hasn’t had an education but doesn’t want to be *made better* because that doesn’t make them unworthy and then only accepts help when he wants it and doesn’t come from a position of ‘you need to look more presentable’ but from ‘I want to make your life better’ was really fucking nice excuse me, because it *did* make a point about how not being formally educated means that people are considered lesser when they shouldn’t have to fight for it, and I thought that the class-switch in there was a really great idea;

anyway nvm my specific opinions about specific scenes, the point is: green book is not heavy-handed and admittedly is a lot more sugary than BKKK and has the feel-good ending that makes it palatable for easy wins, but the content is fucking everything but sugary or devoid of discussing Serious Issues that I almost never see tackled in this kind of US movie and if people actually wanted to watch a movie that sees the subject counting that class relations exist, that some -isms are culturally learned and can be overcome, that money counts when we’re discussing how people are treated in the US, the *earned whiteness* concept (because tony is *white* but hasn’t *earned whiteness* and it’s plenty damned obvious) and that class relations are not automatically clear-cut *especially in the US* then green book is an absolutely valid choice. and like...... it wasn’t white saviorism in the sense that WHITE GUY GETS REDEEMED AND BECOMES UN-RACIST, it’s about two people growing and learning from each other and the fact that tony’s racism is tied to a) upbringing while being poor b) not literally knowing any better but that it doesn’t really take that much for him to see that his opinions are wrong when usually it’s poor black person vs rich white person, and actually that’s why I thought calling it reverse driving miss daisy was reaaaally not getting the point, so if people actually saw the damned movie before deciding it’s terrible that’d be nice;

I also think sp/ike lee was beyond rude in his, er, reactions to GB’s win, but then again... listen guys I love the man’s movies but since that time he went like ‘clint eastwood can’t make movies about charlie parker’ (??) and dismissed the italian partisans’s associations complains about what he did in miracle in st. anna (a movie I did actually really like but they were right about him villainizing the resistence when he could have not) with basically I DON’T CARE THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE ISSUES WITH HOW I, AN AMERICAN, DEPICTED A FAIRLY IMPORTANT PIECE OF ITALIAN HISTORY... like he needs to chill and to realize that there’s a thing called losing with grace and he’s not doing it.

tldr: bkkk imvo deserved to win way more and tbqh if I was spike I’d complain about bp having gotten more awards than his movie when bp really is the safest choice ever if we wanna talk about politics win, and I can agree that GB was a political choice, but it was not a bad political choice nor a racist one and actually it raised a lot of issues that I’d like to see explored more in movies because they usually aren’t. on top of that I thought mahershala ali’s performance in gb was fucking stellar and definitely was miles better than his part in moonlight (but like... bc he was in moonlight for TWENTY MINUTES, he was co-lead here) and I’m honestly baffled that when he won for moonlight there were gifsets everywhere and here there aren’t when this role was WAY better and more nuanced and with more to chew, never mind that again, he deserved it just for the speech under the rain I was discussing before. but like..... of course we’re all ignoring it??

also: I’m really laughing that tumblr as a whole is crying about GB winning when until two days ago bkkk was the worst thing ever because adam dr/iver starred in it and OMG OF COURSE HE WAS CHOSEN TO PLAY THE KKK MEMBER BECAUSE HE REALLY IS RACIST [lmao as if spike l/ee would work with a really racist person] and no one on this website gave a single fuck about it when it came out except for adam dr/iver fan blogs but now everyone is like OMG WHY DIDN’T BKKK WIN???!!!!! like guys you didn’t care about BKKK until a day ago and now I’m supposed to think you were rooting for it all along? when you all hated it because omg how dare they cast ky/lo ren in something where he’s not a bad guy? like we serious? come the fuck on, no one on here cared. and the fact that if blackpanther had won no one would say BKKK not winning = UTTERMOST CRIME just says all about how a film’s quality is judged around here. bye, I said my piece.

[snapedefender]

just a question, what's up with people (you included) criticising remus for being a bystander when his friends harassed snape & then making excuses for snape doing the exact same thing?? in fact i'd argue snape's was worse bc he showed no remorse, no regret, nothing. when his friends harass mary he doesn't even deny it, he just calls it "a bit of fun". remus at least had the grace to feel bad. so we can nix that speculation that snape didn't properly know about it bc he clearly was aware...

why is snape "just trying to fit in" but remus "just doesn't want to get involved" (disclaimer ik u didn't write that post) ... remus was virtually friendless until hogwarts due to his condition and after the marauders befriended him, was terrified of doing anything to make them stop being friends with him. that sounds like trying to fit in to me. not to say i believe bystanding is okay but it seems like a double-standard when snape is justified but remus isn't. could you clarify?

personally idc if people like whatever character but i just cannot stand seeing those dumbass posts (not talking about you) where they try to shit on lily for not standing by snape. as if it was her responsibility to ~fix him~ while in the process of fearing for her life and the lives of muggleborn friends and family at the hands of the same terrorist group snape's friends were emulating, and snape himself was slowly but surely affirming his allegiance with neither remus' or snape's bystanding was okay BUT I can't completely blame remus for not stepping in tbh. after firmly aligning himself with that sort of crowd, surely he knew someone like remus would not be on his side. would snape have even accepted his help? before the whomping willow incident when he was suspicious of remus being a werewolf (and it's clear that he is, at best, disdainful of lycanthropes), who's to say snape wouldn't have responded exactly like how he did with lily in SWM?

okay, this is going to get long. 

first, there are a couple of reasons i can be okay with snape’s potential bystanding and not be okay with remus’ bystanding.

1) snape is not a prefect. my biggest problem (and my most vocal dislike) of remus’ actions during SWM is that he is a prefect at the time - he’s not just another student. he was handed the responsibility to watch over and speak up for his fellow students and he should do that regardless of whether or not the people are his friends or not and regardless of whether they’d welcome his help or not. that’s the responsibility he signed up for. snape is not a prefect and doesn’t have the same responsibility, so i hold him less accountable regardless - if snape were a prefect as well or head boy, i would be much more upset about him letting those kinds of things slide, bc it’s actually his responsibility to try to stop them, not just a moral obligation.

2) we actually don’t know that snape was THERE during the mary attack. the ONLY thing we know is that he knows it happens. the scene:

“D’you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?”Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face.“That was nothing,” said Snape. “It was a laugh, that’s all—”“It was Dark Magic, and if you think that’s funny—”

not great, i’ll agree with you there. i’m not HAPPY about snape’s response per se, but i don’t share your absolute faith that snape was active at the scene and that he stood by and watched it happen. he may have heard about it, as lily did; we don’t know for sure. all we know for sure is that he’s aware of the details, not that he was actually present to DO any bystanding. which is another reason i find it easier to forgive snape than to forgive remus - i actually can witness remus standing by and doing nothing, but i don’t actually see snape do it... only the possibility that he MIGHT have done it, ya feel?

3) i don’t think remus is sorry about it. that’s probably my biggest crux right there. i think he feels more guilty about it than, say, sirius who clearly feels zero guilt about it at all. but when he’s confronted about his actions by harry, remus tries to explain it away, tries to victim-blame, tries to say boys-will-be-boys, but never actually says anything about feeling sorry about his behavior toward snape. and you’re right that we never see snape express remorse for mary (tho i would like to put forward that it might be because he wasn’t actually involved in her bullying, since we don’t know for sure) but we DO see snape express remorse for a lot of his other ugly actions, including his nasty words to lily and his decision to join the death eaters. so it’s hard for me to forgive a character who doesn’t particularly express remorse for something but it’s easy for me to forgive one that does. 

second, as far as lily goes, i agree that she has the right to sever ties with snape, but i do wonder that she assumes something of him that we don’t necessarily see in the text. it would have been helpful on rowling’s part to give us more than a few vague clues about snape’s allegiances at the time of their falling out - was he actually contemplating joining the death eaters when lily accused him of it? we don’t really know how “set” he was in his allegiances at that time.

third, as far as snape accepting remus’ help, that doesn’t matter. remus has a duty to offer it regardless of it’s accepted or not. i mean, i would argue that any human being has that duty, but as i said above - remus is a prefect, in a position of power. just as lily stepped in, remus should have stepped in, regardless of his personal feelings toward snape or the likelihood of snape accepting his help. i’m not saying it’s not understandable that remus would be hesitant or that i don’t get his reasoning. but it’s still a failure on remus’ part (just as calling lily a mudblood was a failure on snape’s even if we can understand his reasoning) and one that actively hurt another person.

finally, i think my biggest problem is that many people will try to pretend that remus was the “nice one” or that he did less to bully snape and deserves less of snape’s hatred for that or try to make snape’s dislike of remus petty. but the way i see it, remus stood by and watched even when he was under an obligation to step in - and snape has every right to hate him for that as much as he hates james or sirius.