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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 1 day

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you know, i like hordak as a character. he's interesting, he's likeable, he's a good example of an abuse victim who isn't overly infantilized and coddled by the narrative. his relationship with entrapta was cute, his relationship with horde prime was tragic and i like that he at least gets a proper confrontation with his abuser, where he is able to declare his own independence and get some closure from his trauma.

however, there are two main problems i have with his character (some of which i've already talked about but i want to go into more detail):

1. hordak was not an effective villain. heck, he was barely a villain at all.

you cannot tell me that hordak was the main villain of the first four seasons when the majority of his screentime was spent with him either lurking in his sanctum or canoodling with entrapta.. in his sanctum.

at first i thought that hordak was going to be this looming presence that had control over everything and puppeted everyone's every move, and was this evil masterpiece who orchestrated everything behind the scenes but.. nah. turns out he's just an incompetent manchild who needs a literal teenager with no battle experience to plan everything out for him. how did he conquer half of etheria before that? who knows? not important.

hordak also has no meaningful relationship with adora, the hero. there were actually a lot of parallels that could be drawn from hordak and adora both being raised by abusers who valued perfection over everything else. granted, in that aspect, hordak is more like catra but there isn't even that many parallels with him and catra. there are, in fact, more parallels with catra and shadow weaver or catra and horde prime.

and okay, not every hero and villain needs a deep intertwined relationship or complex narrative parallels. but at least give us something? a proper interaction?? the show even acknowledges the fact that hordak and adora have absolutely no connection with each other, when adora asks him why he kidnapped her and he basically replies with "lol who are you again". and then he just randomly remembers her at the end of the finale and it’s supposed to be this touching, emotional scene except you feel nothing because these characters literally never interacted, what are we looking at?

adora is supposed to be fighting the horde, but it seemed like she was just fighting catra most of the time. as the hero who opposes etheria's oppressors, shouldn't adora mainly be targeting hordak, the person who started it all? and shouldn't hordak, as the leader of the horde, be more concerned about the rebellion having an actual god on their side? i guess it doesn't really matter if said god can be easily defeated by a inexperienced catgirl

it just feels like hordak didn't have to be a villain at all. we only know he does horrifying things, because the narrative says that he does. oh, and he tortures catra once and sends her to crimson waste, so i guess that qualifies as being a villain.

the point of a villain is to drive the central conflict of the story. to oppose the hero and to pose an actual threat to the status quo. any character who doesn't do this is merely an antagonist. in hordak's case, i don't even know if he counts as an antagonist. he's like that one edgy antihero with a dark past where he murdered countless people but it doesn't really matter in present time. it’s just there to add flavor and to enhance his tragic past, because war is obviously a fictional fantasy trope and totally not something that has happened in real life. /s

2. like many other characters in this show, hordak's character almost completely revolves around his love interest.

yes, entrapta taking care of hordak and boosting his self-esteem is endearing. yes, hordak breaking his defenses and being vulnerable around entrapta is very sweet. but apart from entrapta, the only characters who have any kind of effect on hordak is horde prime and catra. and.. i guess, imp? but again, imp is mostly just a stand-in for the cute animal sidekick.

i know that hordak was supposed to be a recluse but it's impossible to believe that this kind of person was able to start an army and feed them with false propaganda. again, if you read my post about cults and their methods of indoctrination, you would know that cult leaders are often very charismatic and friendly people. and i know the horde isn't exactly a cult but we are supposed to believe that at least some of the cadets raised there genuinely believed that they were on the side of good, when their leader was a mysterious shut-in who basically didn't do anything substantial and their mentor/superior officer was just actively radiating Evil Vibes™.

i just wish they did more with hordak’s character and actually made him interact with some of the other characters. he doesn’t even interact with shadow weaver that much, and she was his second-in-command. even if it’s not direct interactions, it would have been interesting to see the characters mention hordak more, especially the ex-horde soldiers. apart from the general “oh no he’s evil and wants to kill everyone”, that is.

like we see people talking about shadow weaver. we see adora open up about her relationship with shadow weaver and ponder about whether there’s some good left in the woman who raised her. we see glimmer talking about how powerful shadow weaver is and how she could help the rebellion. we see catra complaining about how shadow weaver treated her in comparison to adora. we see angella talk about how shadow weaver shouldn’t be trusted.

when you think about it, shadow weaver was much more of a looming menacing presence in spop, despite not even being a villain, let alone the main villain.

even when she was on the good side and helping the princesses, there was always a ceaseless feeling of unease and fear, because we’ve seen what she’s capable of. we weren’t just told that “shadow weaver is sooo abusive, she’s bad!” we see how she treats adora and catra, we see how she manipulates situations and people for her own benefit, we see how she slowly starts to get into glimmer’s head. the show actually does a good job with shadow weaver, and i have to give credit where credit is due. shadow weaver was genuinely a well-written character.

hordak is just.. there, most of the time. he acts evil enough to be considered as one of the villains but he’s not actually a villain if you consider it for more than five seconds. he doesn’t really do anything for the bulk of the narrative, he has one kinda cool scene where he stands up to his abuser and then he just peaces out with entrapta.

i don’t really understand the point of taking a main villain of the show and turning him into this. sure, the OG hordak was more of a comedic villain and wasn’t super complex, but from what i know, he still played an important role in a narrative and his humorous moments made up for the lack of a tragic backstory.

#also i'm feeling better now thankfully it only lasted two days #spop critical #spop salt #spop #spop discourse #spop criticism #she ra #anti spop #bad writing #writing errors

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laurelsofhighever · 9 months

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For me the most damning evidence for the argument that Loghain intended to usurp the throne before the Battle of Ostagar is the events at the Circle. You can argue the attempt to poison Arl Eamon was just to remove a dangerous influence from Cailan's circle of advisors (and what's more dangerous to Ferelden than an influential figure pressing for closer ties with Orlais), and that Howe's murder of the Couslands was a decision he had nothing to do with (but worked out really well for him until the Warden sticks their nose in), but the hostile takeover at the Circle is a different matter.

Loghain's deal with Uldred was specifically to provide help breaking away from the Chantry in exchange for support - but support in what? The mages have no political power. The only thing they could provide would be firepower, and if Loghain was only planning to fight the Blight there would be no need for this deal, both because the Grey Warden treaties already compel the Circle's help against the Blight and because The Chantry had already given Cailan permission to use the mages in his fight.

Which means Loghain anticipated having to fight someone else, against whom he might be disadvantaged. Between his own retreat to Denerim and the general fiasco that was the aftermath at Ostagar, it's very unlikely he found time to hash out particulars with Uldred after the battle, so would mean they came to their agreement before it. This is really a chain of inference but it means Loghain was already planning to betray Cailan. Whether letting him die was originally part of that plan or if it was an opportunistic decision made in the heat of the moment, who knows? I personally lean towards the latter, because if you watch the cutscenes of him afterwards, h is clearly conflicted about his actions and there's a real slippery slope vibe to his arc in the later stages of the game.

#dragon age #dragon age:origins #dragon age origins #da:o #dragon age meta #anti loghain #although not really?#it's a sound tactical move #and it just adds to his complexity as an antagonist

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snekdood · 11 days

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#fave #videos #thank yoooooooou #you get it #characters arent people and people arent characters #people irl deserve redemption. characters dont need to have redemption and sometimes its hurtful to the story if they do #i COULD make a redemption arc for zero-- but it would be stupidly complicated within my characters relationships given whats hes done in #the past. plenty of my ocs still would never want to be in the same room with him. it just adds unnecessary coffee au drama thats just not #the focus of my story at all. and hes not even a real person. hes an idea- an amalgamation of bad experiences I and others have had #manifested into one being that seeks to inflict these pains #likely his redemption arc would come from no longer being a vampire. but idk where he would go. and i really dont care to write it tbh #i have other minor antagonists I think would be better suited for a redemption arc than him. hes just done too much shit.#just in the same way a lot of azula stans would say ozai is irredeemable thats how I feel about zero.#and its how I feel about azula too tbh. yeah her story is sad and its possible to sympathize with but shes like a machine at this point #her humanity has been stripped away by her abusive father- and I dont think it would serve the narrative to have her suddenly appear #in a therapists office and crying about her trauma or whatever.#in this video he mentions how some ppl think its more 'realistic' to have her redeemed but... i really dont think it is bud #clearly you have not dealt with an azula in your real life. they're impossible to get along with and MOST people stop interacting w them.#they do end up isolated and alone bc of their actiosn. even if those actions are informed by a complex abuse system.#its sad but its also an important story to tell so people can at least maybe see themselves going down that route and stop themselves #characters help give examples to people of what would've happened if they made this or that choice. and thats the purpose azulas narrative #shows. irl people deserve a second chance and thats why we make these stories so they can know to try to avoid acting a certain way that #will only in the end harm their chance at a second chance.#not that its impossible- just that less people will be willing to go along w you on it than there would've been before you fell down hard

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thedomesticanthropologist · 7 months

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I love the sheer wealth of interpretations of Astarion in fandom

- What a cunt

- Useless man in his flop era

- Dominant kink daddy

- Whining sub who wants to be dominated even tho he just escaped that exact situation (this one I am ???? With but u do u)

- Soft gentle soul who heals super fast and suddenly has no bad qualities at all any more and if you bring them up GOD, HE HAD ✨TrAuMa✨ it's EXCUSEABLE (y'all really stretch that one dontcha 😂)

-I see no man just a crusty white dog that's less than 2 feet tall and bites everyone

- A complex and deep character with flaws both because of trauma and despite it, who didn't start out a good man and doesn't end up a Paragon of virtue, who is trying with the person he loves but is very obviously a selfish person at heart who has no experience with altruism and even blatantly resents it, who doesn't want anything taken from him ever again, who wants to survive, be safe, be free, and also be a bit of a shit

-A perfect husband who wants children and a home and to settle down and wear sweater vests (Please all of these are exaggerations don't @ me)

-a BDSM slut who heals his trauma only to go right back to sex 24/7 but it's fine because now he does ✨aftercare✨

-All of the above at once

-None of the above but a secret third thing that only TRUE fans who REALLY GET HIM understand, u wouldn't get it, ugh, it's fine tho ( tell me you haven't seen this, there's always someone like this out there)

- Whatever you add into the reblogs/ tags and replies here! Please make it funny or at least not antagonistic, this is all in jest and good humor, none of these reflect my opinion. Or do they. Who knows 🧐😂😂

#no discourse only playful jabbing #we love Astarion #we know fandom is varied and insane #baldurs gate 3 #astarion #astarion ancunin #astarion bg3 #astarion romance

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lucky-slice · 3 months

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low key i think to deny Riko's trauma is to deny his narrative importance in the story.

like Riko's trauma related to his father parallels neil's. His concept of brotherhood adds complexity to Andrew and Aaron's relationship. He acts not just as an antagonist but as a foil to other character's relationship to trauma and violence.

to solely view riko through the lense of his actions is to miss the point. He is a character in a story, not a real breathing human being.

#i don't know guys like i though we were having fun here #lets go back to making up literary motifs that are probably nonexistent in a self published book series thats basically a sports manga #i'll start #isn't it nifty that riko was abandoned by his father and then abused and ostracized by his guardian figure in a very similar way to neil #isn't it fun that riko was cast aside by his father for his brother just as andrew was cast aside by his mother for his brother #isnt it fun that aaron kills someone to protect his brother while riko's story ends with his brother killing him #love earned through death in both ways #isnt it fun that riko's hunt to be the best ends with his brother killing him in the same way he essentially 'killed' kevin #by smashing his hand #isnt it fun how riko is just as desperate for love and attention and belonging as everyone else #there is a story in which riko is saved and heals from his past in the same way every other character does #the fun part is that story exists yet it is not the story that is told #like come onnnnn #“riko is evil”#“rikos trauma isnt as bad as *insert character”#“riko did this - riko did that - bluh bluh bluh”#im boreeeeeeddd #gnat be quiet #riko moriyama

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coriolisunset · 1 year

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something incredibly interesting i just realized about Witch from Mercury is how every antagonist's ability to play into the major conflict is so much informed by whether they are able to correctly recognize Suletta and Miorine's feelings for one another (ep. 19 spoilers to follow).

the initial in-universe perception is that Miorine is just using the naive country bumkin Suletta as a shield against the marriage game, so of course the Peil people are quick to assume Suletta's interest towards El4n to be romantic, and of course Shaddiq thinks he can just waltz in offering to rescue Miorine in exchange for her collaboration, and it goes terribly for both of those people!

the Peil council kills off El4n and replaces him with the flirtiest asshole they have, who then immediately proceeds to unsettle Suletta and drive her away! Shaddiq only manages to piss off Miorine, forever closing off an alliance with her and forcing him to take much more drastic and risky action (i also don't think it's a coincidence the last we see of him the previous episode is him rushing towards Earth, leaving his base in Asticassia much less secured, while cursing Guel for some stupid reason)!

meanwhile Prospera is the only one to see what's actually going on between her daughter and Miorine, so of course she manages to guilt-trip the latter by accusing her of only seeing Suletta as a shield while ensuring she will do what she needs from her by leveraging her love for Suletta.

i just think it's great writing, it ties Suletta and Miorine's relationship into the greater conflict in a way that adds to the drama and the complexity of both plot lines while feeling true to life in its depiction of wlw romance and gender dynamics

#g-witch #gundam: the witch from mercury #mobile suit gundam: the witch from mercury #g-witch 19 spoilers #sulemio

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daenerysies · 6 months

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why are alicent stan’s so gleeful about what the show has done to her character? book-wise she was an antagonistic, ambitious, manipulative woman who knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it; versus the show, where she has been turned into a constant victim to the men around her with no autonomy or agency what-so-ever. whether it’s otto, viserys, aegon, larys, she’s been reduced to a hypocritical, bitter, puppy-eyed woman with no want for anything in her own life; just a doll to be played around with and eventually discarded.

instead of being the calculating and intelligent woman who dog walks viserys up until his death (and even after) she's now his victim because of the decision to age her down to 15 rather than 18 like her canon age, and in turn age viserys up in order to further emphasize the age-gap and power dynamics. she is portrayed as an abusive mother on screen (physically and mentally to aegon, mentally to helaena and aemond), falling into the 'abused becomes the abuser' trope, which is a rather harmful stereotype. she told aegon that he would be king, but then began having 'second thoughts' when the actual usurpation took place, of which she apparently had no idea, "am i to understand that members of the small council have been planning secretly to install my son without me?" once again reducing her to a pawn of the men around her. these second thoughts took place because of her apparent 'reconciliation' with rhaenyra, as if a few words and hand holding could ever undue the years she spent undermining rhaenyra and attempting to have her and her children disinherited and shamed (mayhaps even killed due to the bastard rumors). she is now a victim to larys as well. larys, despite his lower standing than her THE QUEEN, is able to 'manipulate' her into doing sexual favors for him in order for her wishes to be granted. she has no control over the men around her and no respect from any of them because they know she is willing to bend over backwards to please them. she openly admits that she knew her father had been manipulating her for years, and she still fed into his bullshit. she only wants aegon to be king due to her 'misunderstanding' the words of a drugged up and dying man (and it being HIS 'wish' for aegon to succeed him, not hers). her only want in the show is 'to make a window in the wall of her prison.'

the greens were named for HER in the book. not aegon. not otto. not house hightower. her.

“the beacon on the hightower, do you know what color it glows when oldtown calls it’s banners to war?”

“green.”

except that it doesn’t in canon. house hightower’s only set color is grey, and their only beacon is the regular depiction of red and orange fire. there is no green to be scene anywhere to represent the hightower’s or oldtown or their beacon. the color green didn't have any meaning to her. alicent chose it for herself. she wasn’t ’showing off her allegiance to her father and house after being scorned by the targaryens’ it was a political statement that she CHOSE TO MAKE for herself. she was the leader of team green and was the main culprit in usurping rhaenyra and crowning aegon. she didn’t do it for her father, or her house, or viserys; she did it for herself, because SHE wanted aegon to be king.

there are ways to add complexities to characters without completely changing everything about them, and what they stand for. alicent might have partially fallen into the evil step-mother trope in the book, but considering it’s a historical account; we have next to no information on how she really feels. they could have deep dived into her feelings regarding the succession, how marrying the king without a male heir should have given her the privilege of being the future king’s mother, instead finding out the harsh reality; that viserys would not remove rhaenyra as heir, and that she was negated to only being the king’s wife and giving him spares. they could have played into how complicated her relationship with rhaenyra is, how angry and self-righteousness she would have felt considering the only reason viserys was made king was due to male preference primogeniture. why she felt the need to isolate and bully a child because of said child's father’s decisions. there were plenty of other roads that the writers could have taken to add actual nuance into alicent’s story, and not just adding in more unnecessary and brutal violence towards women.

all of this to say that aging her down and turning her into nothing more than a abused child-bride was not the way to go to add nuance to her story. women shouldn’t have to be tortured, neglected, raped, abused, etc. in order for the audience to like and feel sympathy for their character. that’s an inherently sexist and abhorrent point of view, and considering how virtue signaling a lot of her fans are it’s not surprising that they’re willing to overlook it for the sake of continuing their poor baby alicent ‘always a victim to the men in her life’ rhetoric; as if that was ever a core part of her character.

what they gave us in house of the dragon was not the real alicent hightower, just a cheaply made original character with alicent’s name slapped on her in place of a discount sticker. hotd's biggest crime was reducing powerful ambitious women to side pieces in the big bad men's war. why do women in this universe have to suffer in order for the audience to feel sympathy for them and their plight? and no, i'm not going to argue with anyone going, "b-but OBVIOUSLY you just don't understand her character uwu," i understand her plenty, thanks.

if you actually like alicent (or any of the women in general) in fire and blood you should be seething in outrage over house of the dragon's portrayal of them.

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bellesdomain · 2 months

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Thoughts on Female Greaseball

I just wanted to share my thoughts, my concerns about changing gender for Greaseball. Now we don't know the extent to which they're rewriting the show, and these concerns may well be addressed, we'll have to wait and see... but follow along with me here...

First off, to tell a story, you need conflict and resolution. You got to show the bad things, to then overcome the bad things. Greaseball is an antagonist in the show - he does bad things, we, the audience, don't support his decisions. Sure he's a lovable character but he's flawed.

Greaseball is the "Reigning Champion", he represents the present world (Electra represents the undefinable weirdness and possibilities of the future, Poppa is the cozy nostalgic past.) He's representing some of the bad things we want to learn to do better from through the course of the story.

"UNCOUPLED" is sung by Dinah at her lowest point. She's just been dumped and from what she tells us in that song, it suggests her partner has been borderline gaslighting her and emotionally abusive - she's blaming herself for her partner's choices. Her partner that she's singing about has been really shitty to her.

Now, with a masculine Greaseball, we all immediately recognise the Misogyny there, all familiar tropes of "he's left me for someone younger, prettier, thinner, less outspoken" fuelled by the toxic masculinity, objectifying women. This is showing the bad stuff that the characters overcome - this is the story arc. Masculine Greaseball is a recognisable trope, he's "Alpha Male" - all the privilege has led him to being able to take whatever he wants. But Feminine Greaseball, a queer woman as antagonist who's been abusing sweet Dinah, what trope does she fall into? Evil Lesbian.

This is a sung-through roller-skating musical about toy trains, there isn't room to tell complex character development for the average audience member - these characters rely on archetypes to be easily recognisable. There's so much room for the performers to add subtlety, context, subtext, sure, but the main picture is painted in broad strokes. And I'm not sure that replacing "Toxic Alpha Male" as a villain, with "Evil Lesbian", is actually progressive.

Maybe they've thought this through and already have solutions... maybe "Evil Lesbian" is the trope they want for one of their antagonists. It just feels to me that it would be more productive to be working with "this macho alpha male crap is a problem" than taking it out of the discussion.

#starlight express #starlightexpressldn #Also how do we STILL NOT have femme Electra?#FFS!!!#Electra was the first canonically bi and gender fluid character in mainstream musical theatre #rocky horror was not mainstream for a good while!#So many questions if they've done the work to pull this off #stex2024

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pessimisticpigeonsworld · 5 months

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There are a lot of people claiming that people are hating Alicent because they "can't handle a complex female character". And I'd agree with them, if Alicent was a complex character.

Alicent is someone HOTD is obsessed with making sympathetic, part of that is that they altered her motivations massively. In F&B, Alicent is motivated by ambition and resentment for Rhaenyra. Through this lens, her actions make a lot of sense. She factionalized court by demanding Aegon be made heir, she suggested Aegon be betrothed to Rhaenyra she spread rumors about the Velaryon boys' legitimacy, she raised her sons to despise Rhaenyra and her family, she forced Helaena to marry Aegon at 13, etc. All theses actions were to put Aegon on the throne, no matter the cost to her other children, Rhaenyra's innocent sons, and the threat of war.

In the show, by removing Alicent's ambition and making her solely motivated by wanting to protect her children, Alicent comes off as a hypocrite and an idiot at best, delusional at worst. Her turn from wanting to go back to being Rhaenyra's best friend after marrying Viserys to declaring war on her at court is jarring to say the least. Alicent apparently decided to believe that Rhaenyra could execute her half-siblings with no evidence other than that she didn't tell Alicent about her sex life. That's not a complex decision, that's just stupidity.

Alicent spends the entire gap of the ten year time skip abusing and undermining Rhaenyra and raising her sons to believe that the Velaryons are beneath them. If she was truly concerned about her children's safety, making a massive wedge between Rhaenyra's family and her own (which only endangers them more by removing familial bonds) is the dumbest decision ever. To add to that, Alicent is constantly telling Aegon that he will be king, which is treason. If any servants hear her telling Aegon that or him talking about it to her or Aemond, he could be executed or exiled. How exactly is that protecting him? She also teaches her other children treason, by constantly repeating that Rhaenyra's sons are bastards. Again, if anyone overhears Aegon and Aemond saying this, they could be executed, exiled, or tortured, as we see in episode seven.

Alicent refuses to actually do anything about Aegon bullying his siblings, only warns him to do it in private. Again I ask, how is that protecting her children? She refuses a marriage alliance that would raise the probability of, at the very least, Helaena's survival. I understand concerns over Helaena being like a captive, but again, this concern stems from Alicent's own doing. Rhaenyra has given her no actual reason to believe she'd commit the worst taboo in Westeros, but Alicent has driven a massive wedge between their families and has declared the political war she's so concerned about. Again: Alicent is the cause of the danger posed to her children.

Instead of agreeing to Rhaenyra's offer or betrothing Helaena to literally anyone else, she forces Helaena to marry Aegon when they are still children. This decision is completely hypocritical. Alicent expresses disgust by the Targaryen marriage customs back in episode five, now in episode seven, she is forcing her children to marry each other in order to strengthen Aegon's claim. Aegon despises Helaena and already has an alcohol problem by the time of the wedding, how is that a safe environment for Helaena? The show also made Alicent a child bride, which makes her decision even more confusing. Alicent went through the same struggles she's forcing on Helaena, yet she still forced them to marry so young, thus putting Helaena into the same misery she felt at the beginning of the show.

Changing Alicent's motivation to try and make her seem more "noble" makes her into a hypothetical idiot. Had the show kept in her ambition, she would be a complex antagonist. A woman who plays the system for her betterment and even pushes aside her children's well-being for it is an interesting character, much like Cersei. However, unlike Cersei, Alicent has a lot of control at court and over the king, making her an even more interesting rival to Rhaenyra. But in the show, Alicent is someone who refuses to better her life, despite having more than enough power to do so, and sacrifices everything she cares about in the name of those very same things. People pointing out and complaining about the inconsistencies and hypocrisy of Alicent is not them being "unable to handle a complex female character". It's them being rightfully irritated by a hypocrite who the narrative is constantly pushing as the ultimate victim.

#house of the dragon #anti alicent hightower #anti team green #team black #rhaenyra targaryen #asoiaf #anti alicent stans #anti hotd #anti ryan condal

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zaenaris · 5 months

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＃50「Meet his fate」: and today we say goodbye to TR best antagonist

wow, they really gave Kisaki a gay ass weird flash back(?) about Takemichi?

That "I just wanted to be like you" wasn't in the manga (even if, reading between the lines, even from the manga the reader could get there was this feeling involved, beside Kisaki’s superiority/inferiority complex towards Takemichi)

I didn't expect it since his death in the manga is quick and brutal but it's a very good adaptation choice, it makes sense and it explains better Kisaki's contrasting feelings for both Takemichi and Hina. But surely we had some kisatake fan in the anime team for this episode which, again, good??? but really unexpected

I like Kisaki, he's a good villain, but, I'm sorry Truck-kun arriving and doing like in "Mean Girls" is still funny to me (and I talk as someone who appreciate Kisaki as a character and as a villain lol). But after that, the way his limbs are all broken and he's like that on the street it's really sad/horrifying, Wakui was able to show how much pain there was in his dying body in that moment, beside the psychological fact he knew he was dying and didn't want to, he still had so much to do for his evil plan.

They kept unchanged the moments with Inupi and Hakkai on Inupi's bike which is cute, especially considering their past with the Black Dragon, with Taiju as Inupi's boss.

I would have like to see the relationship between the inuneko duo and Hakkai and Yuzuha, prior the BD arc, where of course they're opponents: what I mean, is that I would have liked to see their "everyday life" relationship: did they have to watch over Yuzuha and Hakkai - we know Taiju has a weird/abusive sense of familial love, but he still cares about them and kokonui are his second in commands and most trusted soldiers- or were they indifferent to the younger Shiba Sibling? Something else? we'll never know.

It's also cute considering the Thousand Winter🥹 and Hakkai's birthday pic where he asks Inupi for a strawberry lol

They also kept Koko, that should be on Inupi's bike with him, but he walks away, alone for the first time (and he will be alone from now on, kill me right now)

Also, they closed the season with a weird cliffhanger?

For the other parts we really had some Big Cliffhanger™️, here everyone gets that something is pending but well… I guess they really had no time, they made a faithful adaptation of the manga, there was no time to add anything else. The arc is not really closed like that, we still have to say our proper goodby to Emma, Izana and Kisaki, we still have the inukoko farewell...

...but alas, it is what it is.

I hope we'll get the confirmation for a next season, that sure, will open saying goodbye to the tenjiku arc, -it opens with an ending... weird- but i guess there was no other choice given the pacing of this season

#tokyo revengers #kisaki tetta #hanagaki takemichi #kokonui #tachibana hinata #inui seishu #kokonoi hajime #inukoko #hakkai shiba #tokyorev anime spoilers #zae talks about tr #zaenaris #izana kurokawa #emma sano

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cipheramnesia · 1 year

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The Menu, to me, is such a fascinating movie. I'm going to come back to it and watch the way it's filmed more carefully. but the first time through is such a tantalizing and layered discussion about work, wealth, and inevitably life under capitalism.

What I particularly love about it is that at a very surface level reading it offers a sort of "introduction to systemic inequality," an easy to swallow metaphor of humanity literally consumed by exploitation to the point of annihilation, wrapped around a peppy little survivor girl finale. For me, stripping away all the tasty deeper subtext, it still fulfills the most basic component of a popular film, which is "having a good time." You do not need to try and "get it," you can simply enjoy it by itself if you like.

However, as soon as we get into the finicky details of the movie, especially our "final girl," it starts to get really interesting because the initial surface metaphor starts to fall apart and demand a more complex level of thought. (This will feature some spoilers.)

What I find fascinating is that our protagonist is a sex worker. The entire grand metaphor proposed by our chief antagonist, the chef, is you can divide the world into the served and servers. He has arranged what he thinks is a perfect and flawless illustration of this grand truth, and one unforeseen change fully undermines his entire thesis. She's a worker who provides a service, she's someone getting served by workers in the process of that service. Her job and her life weaves between both worlds and although it's possible to make some larger sweeping generalization, to do so would take the nuance away from the lived reality of most people who are at once point or another both things. This undermining of the chef's thesis is very much the point of the movie, not to suggest there is no class or wealth inequality, but rather as an entry into moving past the surface level binary view of "haves and have nots" into a more complex idea of how wealth and power affects people in different places of the hierarchy.

The movie itself presents each new act as a new item on the menu, which is a well-considered choice, as each step forward reveals more information that builds the complexity of the ideas in the movie and whets your appetite to consider it further. The plot, the characters, and the action in the film progress in a way that mirrors the kind of experience the menus title cards before each segment are describing. The restaurant itself being totally isolated, with every employee committed to their jobs with a cultish intensity lays a groundwork for the production of the idea that individual lives are disposable not just in the literal sense, but metaphorically, a quick sketch of the modern expectations of a workforce by capitalist society to consider their personal lives as disposable in comparison to their jobs. Ralph Fiennes' casting as the chef adds a kind of metatextual level to the proceedings, as he himself is an aspirational actor for many other working actors in the film industry. The way he is worshiped by his devout employees while viewed as someone meant to perform on demand by his employers is the kind of deeper exchange that our modern hierarchy expects from us. You can find a higher place in the world so long as you are always willing to trade yourself to anyone who can afford to purchase you.

This level of exchange, where we as individuals are the actual consumable goods in some way is more at the heart of the Menu than a simple binary division of class. It is also the reason to have a protagonist who is, in a literally sense, her own medium of exchange. The surface metaphor of everything as transactional and finite is deliberately broken time and again, because the antagonist, a chef, is unable to see a world more complex than his own route of understanding it, through food and cooking. He sees everything as abstracted, consumable without any possibility of restoration, resources as something which can only be exchanged but never increased or distributed. He is not the villain in the movie, that role remains with characters like the stockbrokers, the old wealthy gentleman, and our protagonist's date for the evening. But he is the antagonist because of his fundamental idea of the world aligning with the villains (even while ostensibly there to kill them) and in conflict with the fundamentally reasonable position of our protagonist, that she ought to live.

I would enjoy dissecting The Menu scene by scene because there's simply so much going on in it, for me personally. I think there's something excruciatingly interesting to be said about the protagonist being a sex worker, in particular because the movie itself does not chose to view this in an exploitative way, but rather uses it to serve the larger idea that humanity cannot, in fact, be broken down into a consumable resource alone - that giving of yourself does not mean a loss to yourself. I also believe there is a distinct turning point in the movie where Ralph Fiennes sits down at a table, which is to me a huge change. It is the movie making an effort to draw a line under the real thesis, that even the antagonist who insists throughout the movie that he exclusively exists as one who serves, who gives himself up one bite at a time until he is exhausted, even he is someone who cannot exist in his own idea of a false binary.

The chef here is not wrong in recognizing the existence of exploitation, or even necessarily incorrect in his ideas of addressing it through violently usurping those in power. I would argue that overall the conclusion of The Menu doesn't disagree with the notion of hierarchical exploitation innate to modern society. If anything, it serves to illustrate even more how much this trend is ultimate a downward spiral of inevitable and total destruction.

However, it is a movie that is meant to be optimistic, a movie about hanging on to our human connections even when we have some exchange between each other. It's about caring for other people, caring about what they do for us, or caring about what we do for others. The conclusion, and our survivor girl, are a recognition of that hope and that potential which still exists.

(edited from bad casting memory)

#the menu #horror movies

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the-banana-0verlord · 7 months

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Bear with me cause I'm gonna go on a rant that will probably be a bit incoherent but I'm brainrotting rn

so this concerns the webtoon community(although it's probably a widespread phenomenon in fandom) but

Y'all love complex and morally gray female characters(or even just characters of every gender) until they are complex and morally gray

I've seen a lot about this especially for Annabel Lee from Nevermore so I won't touch upon her case in this rant but the point still stands for her go read analysises.

so today i'm gonna be discussing Rastha, also known as Trashta:

I haven't read up to much after the remarrying of Navier but I feel like my point still stands. Also spoilers

Imo, Rashta is a complex and sympathetic villain. She grew up as a slave and believed her child was dead (child who was a also later used as leverage to blackmail her.) It's logical she tries to up the ranks to never live as miserably like this. She's a product of unfortunate circumstances. I do not think she's in the right, but that's kind of the whole point of her character to be the antagonist.

Also, she didn't want to be Navier's ennemy at first??? She wanted to live in a world where she was happy and that's valid. (Navier's reaction was also valid mind you.) She acted like she was indifferent to her first baby's fate yet she let herself be blackmailed because she DID care for it. She goes throught emotions and layers and that makes her complex.

Yet despite being sympathetic and half of the bad things in the webtoon happening not being her fault, she's the most hated character.

I hate Sovieshit and her blackmailer much more. Sovieshit was really using double standard against Navier like "oh yeah i'm allowed to have a mistress and divorce you just cause I feel like it and i'm using you for my own benefit but don't you go remarrying yourself or having a lover you're mine >:((((". Sovieshit is borderline a mysogynist (he only wants a delicate woman he can control to do as he pleases) but no Rashta is the real horrible villain we must demonize her.

Now her blackmailer(i forgot his name but if you read the webtoon you know who he is). Most of it his fault. He is using and ataking advantage of Rastha who wnats nothing else than to be free. Sovieshit is painted as a bit sympathetic(wrongly might i add) but this guy is just plain evil. But he's not more hated than Rastha????

I'm not defending her actions I just want people to see further than their noses and realize that characters can be good without being good people.

Now even if i see it more for female characters this is real for male characters too but kinda in the opposite route? Like in twisted wonderland, the characters are MADE to be villains yet people smooth them over as poor little meows meows and babygirls. It's funny as a joke but it erases their entire personnality and complexity, while morally gray female characters get demonized for having the same grayness.(Also i'd like to add that Vil schoenheit, a feminine male characters gets also demonized like female characters so i'm starting to see a pattern here.) So double standard much?

in short, don't say you like complex and morally grey characters if you can't handle them correctly. They deserve better than you

#trasta #the remarried empress #webtoon #twsited wonderland #rant #analysis #media analysis #theoverlordmonologues

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 5 months

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i think i've mentioned The Magnus Archives before, but i wanted to talk about it again, in connection with Catra's redemption. The Magnus Archives is a fictional horror podcast with an overarching storyline and amazingly written characters.

[spoilers for TMA below]

one of the themes that was briefly explored in the final season was about forgiveness. it was a very brief moment but it really stuck with me so i'll share it with y'all.

this right here was so important. for context, one of the characters, Daisy Tonner, was a cop who frequently engaged in police brutality. there was nuance to this since she was an Avatar of the Hunt but simply put, she thought she was doing the right thing. regardless of her intentions, a lot of people were killed or grievously harmed by her. for similar reasons, she tries to kill Jon, the protagonist.

later after disconnecting from her entity, Daisy realizes her mistakes and feels painfully guilty about everything. she couldn't bring back the dead, she couldn't reverse anything that she had done. all she could do at that point was to just stop engaging in violence and try to be a better person.

she bonds with Jon after some time of mutual awkwardness. Jon, being lonely himself, wasn't entirely opposed to talking to her and they even form a friendship of sorts. for context, Jon has hurt people too and he could relate with Daisy's guilt and her attempts at redemption.

in the transcript i shared above, Jon is discussing her crimes with the other characters. the thing that was so refreshing about Daisy's redemption is that Jon wasn't forced to forgive her. she put him through an extremely traumatizing and agonizing situation that he couldn't forget. his trauma was taken seriously and while he had begun to consider Daisy as his friend, that doesn't mean he forgave her. and she knew that. she understood that she didn't deserve forgiveness, but she still worked on trying to be a better person.

and later on in the series, Jon even expresses his appreciation for her friendship and admits to wanting to say goodbye to her.

i feel like this is the best way to write a redemption arc. of course it's nice seeing the bad guy being forgiven and accepted by the other characters. but sometimes you have to acknowledge that some people go too far and while they deserve a redemption, they don't deserve forgiveness. the other characters can still appreciate and respect their attempts at redemption, and even become their friend but without being forced to forgive them.

contrast this to SPOP where literally all of the characters have to forgive Catra after everything she's done to them. it doesn't matter how much damage she caused, as soon as she expresses the tiniest bit of guilt, she is instantly forgiven. there's no question of how the other characters feel, their trauma is not valid.

also, i have a feeling that if any of the characters refused to forgive Catra, she would have immediately thrown a hissy fit and spiralled right back to square one. i mean, look at her reaction to Frosta punching her.

by the way, i want to add that Daisy was also a traumatized character. she was also a sympathetic antagonist and she was partially controlled by the Hunt (whether the entities controlled their avatars or not was an unanswered question but it was confirmed that the Avatars were at least 80% in control of themselves). but she still did what she did and no amount of tragic backstory could justify her actions. if only the writers of SPOP actually stopped to think this through, instead of just hyperfocusing on getting Catra and Adora together.

anyway, if you like cosmic/existential horror, lots of angst, deep psychological stuff, complex morally grey characters, and queer representation, i highly recommend TMA! it's the whole package.

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piglet26 · 6 months

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Reylo Scenes: TLJ

Rian Johnson gets loud vocal dislike for trying to make part 2 to JJ Adams film and his treatment of Luke Skywalker. Now I'm going to be honest..... Star Wars fans complain. That's part of the passion of it all. I guess. One area that he did succeed in was Reylo. He dealt with it with complete mastery. His invention of the forceskype or forcetime which allowed the protagonist and antagonist to actually talk was genius.

To add, I read the novelization which does expand on the story overall and it's great to read. There are comics as well. All which expand on the story.

Rian Johnson also is due a thank you for this moment.

We'll call this no-more-daddies-Ren. That face should not be covered up.

Romance has always been apart of Star Wars. Yet, in the sequel trilogy there was this hyper paranoia of anything feminine and so anyone who sensed a romance happening I guess was just an unhealthy fool.

From a pure storytelling stand point, the dynamic between the hero and the villain is genuinely interesting. The fact that they are Ying Yang, alike but different, bonded yet on opposing sides and they attracted to one another only adds to the drama. It's the richest dynamic of the sequel trilogy.

So to all the Reylo haters

In the first forcetime scene the rules of the forcetime get established. Rey can't hurt him physically (yet) and Ren can't jedi mind trick her.

The production team continued to show their balance yet opposition. When Rey wakes up the warm sunlight is on her face and her smooth cheek. In Ren's scene the light on his cheek is mechanical and the skin is scarred. Rey is surrounded by nature. Ren is surrounded by technology. They both have a childlike innocence to them. Something is happening to them that had never happened before. Something unique even amongst force users. Ren is curious. Rey is just pissed off.

Ren is a man who feels very let down/betrayed by everyone in his life so by the time we meet him in The Force Awakens he doesn't want or need anybody. Within his comic Ben Solo is described as someone that everyone, including his peers, watched for signs of darkness. He's a bitter, hurt and jaded young man.

Rey is the denial queen. She has a childlike way of thinking that is purely optimistic. She latches onto people very quickly Finn, Han Solo, Chewie, Leia, Luke on and on. She understand the stories of the resistance, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, but doesn't understand any of the complexities. She's a very 'this is the truth as I know it so it must be the truth' kind of person.

When we arrive at the second Forcetime.

Rey overlooking the ocean. Ren overlooking the first order. Ren begins hearing the ocean waves. Rey begins to hear the snap of electricity. Ren sensing her turns and Rey, sensing him, adjusts and there they are.

Rey, understand that she can't physically act out her anger against, verbalizes it. She's angry, but she wants the anger to be simple and it's not. He is tied to her in a way in some way.

What's interesting is Ren is very open to her in wondering why the force is connecting them. In the book Rey describes his eyes as hungry. Also, Ren wants to be understood by her. He uses this moment to reach her and get someone to understand a portion of how he became the man he is. The audience sees him approach her, get into her space, challenging her emotionally, physically and her ideas about him.

"ah, you do" if it's possible to verbally create a orgasm....Adam driver accomplished it for women. It doesn't hurt that these two seem to always be eye fucking each other. The intensity in which they lock onto each other and don't pay much around them any mind. The actors writers dream of.

The scenes serves a purpose though. Kylo is once again shift from simple bad guy to complicated bad guy/human being. She doesn't know everything. In the mix of all of this is her experience with Luke. She disillusioned and she's disappointed with Luke. Her experience is shifting her to understand Kylo's position more.

Which leads to their third forceskype aka shirtless Ben

Rey, girl, you're not asexual. It's the first where we see she does have a reaction to him physically. She opens herself to understanding. She wants to know if he had a good reason for killing his father. She also expresses her jealousy of him. He has a family, he had a father who loved him. She would give anything for that. Kylo is also expressing his pain and how relates to her. They both feel abandoned by their parents. Kylo wasn't abandoned in the way Rey was, but he feels abandoned. Kylo looks at Rey like 'hey you don't see the similarities between us?". You also being to understand Kylo Ren's need to embrace the dark side because everyone on the light side failed him.

Part of her journey in The Last Jedi is about embracing her womanhood. After the force bond with the shirtless Kylo Ren. She goes to the dark sided vagina cave. She jumps in and when she emerges her childhood hair buns are gone. Rey enters in this vision and looks for answers as to who/where her parents are. Nothing is revealed to her. She didn't find the answers she was looking for and the hope that she will find them goes out of her. In this moment she's desperately lonely. Here our hero spiritually seeks out through the force bond the one individual she feels will relate to her, our villain.

Why do people call this scene "The Finger Touch Love Scene"

Cause the level of intimacy these characters reach without many words and without being lewd. Rian Johnson, bravo!

The way Kylo Ren is just present, reassuring and nurturing as Rey relays her trip into the dark cave. This is a moment where he could stoke her negative emotions to the dark side. He doesn't though. He's completely emotionally present for her. Kylo Ren sits within his ship in a area that's lit with a soft blue light as he reaches towards her he's in the warm of the firelight. Now he is physically present for her.

Rey is completely raw. She's allowing herself to be seen emotionally naked. This is the first scene where she gives him something with free will. She gives him union.

She reaches out from underneath the blanket. He takes his glove off and they slowly, innocently, reach for each other. The eye contact they maintain as the force theme begins, we as the audience understand something profound is happening. Within them, in this moment, there is a balance in the force.

They both have a vision of one another. Ren sees her past. Rey sees a glimpse of his future. This is the moment for Reylo, they both said to themselves "we're never letting this go". Rian Johnson confirmed it's from this moment that Ren decides to kill Snoke because that's the only way to protect Rey from him. Rey shift her belief system to complete Team Ben. She doesn't have a plan when she goes to meet Ben within the First Order. She just has complete faith in him that when the moment matters he'll stand by her.

We arrive at the elevator scene and just prior when she arrive onboard the supreme in a coffin from the Falcon that has his calligraphy on it. It's their first interaction after that intense force bond.

She expresses her faith in him and the possibility of a future. This is the first scene where she walks up on him. She wants that closeness and connection now. He's closed off we come to understand later, he's become he's protecting his mind from Snoke understanding his true intentions. They both express what they saw in their vision and conviction that one will join the other. It's canon that in this moment Kylo Ren wanted to kiss Rey.

Snoke - It's not his story. Kylo Ren looked like a badass killing him. That's all we needed you for boo. However, I did enjoy the internal dialogue of Snoke that the novelization affords. Through the force Snoke can feel Kylo Ren's need for approval which is something that frustrates him. He can feel his conflicted nature for Rey and for the light. He can feel his pain and confusion when Snoke says he bridged their minds (he didn't). That was enlightening.

My favorite moment is right after Kylo kills Snoke and Rey and Kylo looks at each like

"You with me?"

"Yeah, I'm with you"

And they turn to face the pretorian guards. They are with each other, but they do have a misunderstanding on what that means.

The fight scene is great and beautiful. Kylo Ren is a supportive partner to her and she to him. Kylo support her body with his and he takes on the majority of the Pretorian guards. He has a moment when he checks in on her, she get's hurt, he's upset and scared but then centers himself. When he's in trouble she supports him. It's described in the novel that they can feel each other's emotions through the force.

(Couldn't find the gif of her getting cut)

#star wars #ben solo #reylo #finnrey #rey skywalker #rey star wars #kylo ren #kylo x rey #ben solo deserved better #ben solo x rey #ben solo lives #rey

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befuddledcinnamonroll · 2 months

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15 Day BL Challenge

Day 7: Favorite Villain

I do like me a good villain. But good villains can also be hard to find. There's a lot of one-dimensional villains out there, or they're so horribly abusive & homophobic that you just want them to die.

I much prefer villains with some dimension and complexity, though I can be won over by a villain who's just clearly having a ton of fun.

So who to pick...

I do like Vegas a lot, but I kinda don't see him as a villain? He's an antagonist for sure, and does some dark stuff, but he's clearly a victim in a lot of ways, and gets the secondary romance in the story. Not that that's mutually exclusive from villainy, but it's just not how my brain categorizes him.

I looooved Heng's portrayal of Chalothon; he did so much to add dimension to a fairly thinly-written character, but we didn't get to see Chalothon's change of heart, or the incredible acting Heng would have brought to it, so that makes him slip down overall for me. (Can you just imagine the scene of Chalothon giving his Naga soul to Tharn? We get so few good villain turns in BL. I'm so pained at the deprivation).

I do have a soft spot for Aoey in Lovely Writer, largely due to Bruce's acting. He's a very interesting character in terms of a person who had a chance for his own beautiful real love story, and just made all the wrong choices, time after time. (I mean who in their right mind would say no to Chap?)

Oh who are we kidding, y'all know I am a fanatic for Not Me. I'm going to have to go with my boy Todd.

Sing is such a versatile actor, I don't think he gets nearly enough credit for what a chameleon he is. He's really good at fluffy roles for sure, but when he had to turn on the menace as Todd, he absolutely delivered.

He plays Todd's turn from "helpful friend" to "rich bastard" perfectly and in such a believable way. He's chillingly realistic in his belief that the only way to change the world is to buy it, and make it his.

And of course we can't talk about Todd without talking about his relationship with Black, how fucking thrilled Todd is when he realizes Black is awake from his coma (that Todd is responsible for), and how these two consistently try to kill one another, but can't, because of their deep fucked up love (they bone in between fights, you can never convince me otherwise).

Also, the scenes between Gun & Sing are goddamn acting masterclasses.

If we ever get our Joong Archen serial killer show, Sing needs to be his accomplice.

@negrowhat's full challenge here

#blchallenge2k24 #blchallenge2k24 day 7 #not me the series #sing harit

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velvet-cupcake-games · 2 months

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Happy Tuesday!

This week I wrote a scene and did some important editing and plotting work.

We also have a nice sketch going for Alvin's replacement sexy silhouette (in the new style that you can see in Robin's route).

All the threads are coming together for the various twists in Will's route. My writing process is about half pre-planned and half extemporaneous - I find my dialogue in particular is better if I just let it flow as I write and allow the characters to inhabit the scene.

Will's route is the opposite of Robin's in some ways. Robin's political/conflict plot was fairly simple, Robin vs. the Sheriff for the leadership of Nottingham. It was his relationship plot with Marion that was more complex. Will is the other way around, his relationship development with Marion flows pretty naturally (for a rivals to lovers, that is), but there are a lot of chess pieces being moved around in the background of his political/conflict plot. There are multiple antagonists that Will brushes up against, and not all of them are moving out in the open. Most of our antagonists are not nearly as straightforward in their confrontations as Geoffrey!

So it's been a lot of fun to take the basic plot building blocks I put together for the route and add more antagonist involvement behind what's going on. Plus I need to make sure Will and Marion get the clues they need to get from point A to point B. It's a ton of fun to weave all the threads together but it does mean I need to go back and add bits to earlier scenes more than I did in Robin's route.

#made marion #made marion dev update

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