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ladymelisande · 1 year

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The ironic thing about Hess ruining HOTD and only writing her ridiculous headcanons (and those of people who haven’t even read the book), ideology and biases into the show is that she is supposed to be a profesional. At least fanfic writers know the source material well enough, understand the characters better and some of them even write incredible stories that make sense (even if it is a canon-divergence fic). She’s a hack and very unprofessional, because even if she doesn’t like F&B, they are actually paying her to do a job (write) and adapt a story. Not liking the source material is no excuse for her to basically write her own fan-service, there’s a lot of people who dislike their job and still manage to be competent in it. She’s unprofessional and she doesn’t have the skills nor the experience for the job. Even D&D were way better adapting the GOT series at first.

For real, I mean, I don't like how she and Condal wrote Alicent, but I am still trying my best to give her a proper character in my story. The thing is, I don't think Americans know the difference between 'sympathetic villain' and antagonist as a role. Or the difference between giving characters a POV and completely changing them so the audience would sympathise with them. In A Feast for Crows, Cersei is not sympathetic, but that doesn't make her baldy written. I don't know what is with Americans believing that all characters have to be 'relatable' to them as writers, like... That's not only unprofessional but very immature. If she isn't able to write an antagonist that goes against her own values (ergo book Alicent being abusive, homophobic, and ambitious) then you need to read more and write more. If she can't write Alicent without aging her down, turning her into a lesbian like herself and suddenly making her love Rhaenyra and not hating her, then she is a shit writer, plain and simple. I have read both original fiction and fanfiction that can do better. I have written myself on the POVs of female characters that commit murder, rape, and child abuse without justifying these actions by adding one million sob stories.

For all that television American writers jap about feminism, they don't seem to want to accept that women are perfectly capable of committing the same atrocities as men without their prompting or 'oh, surely they had a sob story reason.' Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. Yesterday I was watching the news, and they showed a woman that with her husband, beat her own four-year-old child to death. The father of the child (the one that murdered the kid with her was a stepfather) made multiple complaints to the police, and they did nothing. This was the result. I wonder if, if presented with a story like that, writers like Hess would just invent some reason why this woman was some little victim of her accomplice.

I don't think you are a good writer if you are not willing to explore the dark sides of humanity and unless Hess doesn't consider women fully human, then I see no reason why she can't put on her big girl pants and write something that makes her uncomfortable without adding her 'stupid 'headcanons' to it. Matt Smith has talked many times about how he doesn't judge the characters he plays, even if the characters are scum because it's not his work to judge. From that alone, I can say he is a wonderful performer and writer. He clearly thinks like an adult, something that Hess doesn't seem to do. You can see it in her interviews and how first she openly judged people that liked Daemon because he did this and that but then backtracked because she got backlash and tried to sound like a normal person... While also pretending people criticized her because she is a woman and not because she is a shitty writer.

I could make a case study about how Americans seem to think that reading and writing things out of their comfort zone or things that are not 'relatable' somehow changes their moral compass.

#may answers #anti sara hess #hotd

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spaceshipkat · 1 year

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I’ve had Never/night sitting on my bookshelf for like a year, having initially bought it because I really liked Aurora Cycle (a series Kristoff co-authored), and now I’m hearing it sucks. Would you say it’s worth reading?

i would not recommend reading it, no. from what little i know of it, it reads very much like a cishet white guy who likes writing about lesbians bc it’s what he likes watching. plus, the main character is afaik a teenager when he writes her having explicit sex. and last, there’s a whole slew of messy problems with the rep for people of color, since Kristoff first said there’s a group of people in that world based on the Māori (in a very surface level “i don’t know anything about the Māori apart from the fact many of them have facial tattoos” way without looking into the cultural significance of tā moko and how to properly represent that on the page) and then backtracked when Māori readers came forward to say the representation he’s provided is lazy at best, disrespectful at worst, which led to him backtracking on his stance on whether or not he wrote the Māori in

this vid that goes into more detail about Kristoff in general. the only thing she leaves out is the aforementioned teenagers having explicit sex on page

youtube

#ask #noitsbecky127 #bad books #authors behaving badly

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elizabethrobertajones · 3 years

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Did Bobo really create the Wayward Sisters? If so, why weren't Jack and especially Cas included in that episode? That's my biggest issue with that pilot honestly, I mean, the fact that the show abandoned Claire and Cas' bond after season 10 and gave that storyline to Salmondean. Her bond with Cas is more interesting because of their connection to the Novaks. I also think that Claire and Jack would've made a more engaging dynamic and spin off together, I think they're strong characters & actors

Hi there!

Bobo isn’t the “creator” of Wayward so much as it can even have one, as it was a very organic idea, which even involved a healthy amount of fandom input. The original campaign in season 10 was for Wayward Daughters, and the idea picked up so much steam the altered title for, I guess, a mix of copyright and thematic relevance was the Sisters one. I’d say 10x08 was the real genesis of it as something that could be really solid. Once Kim and Briana were put together the chemistry and star power they could have had together was really meteoric as far as our small SPN world was concerned. Phil Sgriccia directed 9x13 and wrote 10x08 and was more of the parent of Wayward than any specific writer in that sense. Jody and Claire were pretty much common property of the show by that point. Claire was really introduced again in relation to plotlines and questions about Cas and less to do with them really going out of their way to re-launch her. I think they’d have been much cornier about it from the start and while YA protagonist diary writing her way through the end of Wayward Sisters was cute, it’s the sort of cutesy that really has to be earned. If she STARTED that way, like maybe me and 3 friends would be stanning her and everyone else would be revolted :P

(I am a YA fantasy novel author, but I do think everyone should make room in their hearts for this level of cheese)

In any case, Bobo just threw his hat into an already crowded ring with Alex, but obviously loving the characters and having his own personal wayward child to contribute did help elevate him to the prospective showrunner seat, but also all the other writers who’d written these characters except Dabb had left at that point. If Bobo was going to shepherd them through to their new show, he’d be the legacy writer, even though he was a new baby writer in the season Donna was introduced... Attrition aside, he did genuinely write them very well, loved their stories and was great with writing Jody when he could get her, so he would also have been a good choice even if all the others were left still...

But anyway. Season 10′s subplot for Cas was about Claire and learning some stuff about himself along the way, but she was used very much for his personal development and for Dean as well, being a mini Dean herself in a season where he had lost a lot of his sense of self. It’s a total accident of scheduling but Angel Heart (10x20) being the last episode before 10x22 is a nice touch in that regard. And while Cas tried really hard with Claire and awoke his inner Dad side so that he’d be more prepared for fatherhood next time, it was pretty insurmountable between them to have anything more than a bittersweet relationship where the best he could do was make up with her and see her somewhere safe. The fact of him looking like her actual dead father is horrendous the more you think about it and while she managed to see him for who he was instead of a horrible monster, that’s more than enough trauma to inflict on an already traumatised girl for the sake of helping Cas’s manpain and tidying up the sticky question of Jimmy and Cas’s right to the vessel.

Angel Heart very specifically ends with TFW mailing Claire to Jody because they know she’s already good with Alex in a genuine way and can handle these sort of issues and has done it before. And also because she can be a guardian who will not constantly remind Claire that her father is dead but something is walking around wearing a perfect reconstruction of his face. Carver era did a few things here and there with bodily autonomy and the problem of angel and demon vessels, but it was also really hit and miss. They’d get random waves of feeling guilty about it but then by necessity go back to stabbing angels in their still-living vessels an episode later. Claire was a way to address at the very least that whatever Cas was being put through was only a punishment on Cas and not on Jimmy as well, which is probably why we got such sappy Heaven scenes. We NEEDED to be shown he was in Heaven and largely okay with what was going on so that the show could justify using Cas at all as a character without breaking the code of ethics they tried to make their own characters adhere to. Aside from that it also gave Cas a side plot for when he wasn’t needed in the main plot, and any emotional connection to anything that wasn’t Sam and Dean.

Anyway 10x20 caused this huge fandom high which was followed by one of the lowest lows of the fandom immediately after, and both centred on female characters (in fact, now we know, 2 lesbians even! Though I’d wonder if, The Gay Agenda aside, Bobo spite-wrote that specifically because of the roots of Wayward) and I think that galvanised the whole movement of fans and hopefully some self-reflection in the show. They DID start making an effort in season 11, which shows some of the early signs of better inclusion but also backtracking or edging nervously away from the more intense Carver era stuff. Not just because Dean didn’t have the Mark any more but in general it was like someone had opened a window and let in some fresh air... Even before Carver bailed somewhere around the midseason to go do a different show and Dabb started to step up.

All this to say that the Wayward stuff was always about the female characters and making up for the past sins of the show. It’s even a riff on the “wayward son” line which obviously centres around male protagonists and their journey. Claire stumbled into being a part of it in the lucky way of being in the right place and time, but the journey had already started even in the season 10 momentum with earlier work and it was that which suddenly made the prospect that Jody had two young women living with her now seem like a starter for the next generation of the show as it was a mirrored format to season 1 in a way, if you took Alex and Claire as the new Sam and Dean. It was exciting but people flipped out after Angel Heart because stuff had been bubbling since season 9 and earlier in season 10, so this was just pouring more candy into an already visibly full bowl of potential tasty gems. It made a possibility seem real that hadn’t before because we already had Kim bitterly complaining that the CW refused to hear the case for a Jody spin off because she was too old. The next best thing was a Jody spin off where she was the Gandalf to some CW age appropriate characters.

(the CW is and always has been garbage)

Anyway in season 13 Jack was introduced as a Claire 2.0 but as a male character with staying power for that reason, but he was filling the space she left for Cas. He couldn’t be a father to her and neither really wanted that set up anyway. But thematically it had created the possibility of Dadstiel and the space he had in his heart for that. Since the show was in its waning years they would be looking for endgame and handing Cas an easy win with a son he could unconditionally love who would love him back unconditionally absolutely filled that gap. It was a non SamnDean thing that Cas could have for himself outside of whatever happened with them. Not sure the memo came back that he was supposed to have mORE than that but oh well it’s not real if you don’t watch it :))) But yeah Jack was always going to be linked to Cas’s endgame, he wasn’t a free-floating character such as Jody who could go where she wanted and do as she pleased. He was main story relevant from start to finish and tied inexorably to another main character’s fate. Because the show wouldn’t do that with its female characters they could be bundled into spin offs but in practical terms Jack was both never what the Wayward as envisioned by fans or writers was about, nor would he have been free to go.

Since it would have been about centering the stories of people overlooked by the main story, Claire a case in point that she had her life ruined in season 4 and it was a footnote until season ten, and then metaphorically more the concept of having queer and non-white characters in the mix of main characters, it would have represented a future of the story where the main show was unable to tread. Probably because of the CW. Also inherent biases in the writers. Bad cocktail. Jack is both too white and too male to fit the brief to ever leave SPN, and not only that but he is so as a precise mirror to the main white male characters, being passably any one of their sons if you squint, and meant to be instantly instinctively read as such... he was one of the safest bets of representing the show as the network wanted to imagine its target demographic.

So I really don’t think that Jack has any place being in a spin off of the show unless you want more of the same. They tried to give us something different and the CW didn’t like it because it wasn’t more of the same. Ironically a Jack spin off, with or without Claire, would have more chance of being greenlit and more chance of success. But the spin off they put their heart behind was Wayward Sisters as it was. And I think it was absolutely correct that never mind leaving Jack out of it after his work was done in the lead up episode to help set the table, but honestly they could have cut all the middle scenes of Sam and Dean wandering in the woods and gained precious seconds with the girls and still had a functioning story with those guys. It was like some cowardly missive was sent that the show couldn’t actually go more than 10 minutes without showing a flesh and blood Winchester or the whole thing would spontaneously sizzle out of syndication and the money tree would wither on the spot. And in the mean time, we could have been having Banter with the girls. Or Claire and Kaia holding hands some more. The good stuff :P

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comradekatara · 4 years

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Lesbians, I seek your wisdom. Did Ty Lee and Azula like... happen?? In any universe? What's the story there? I feel like modern au Ty Lee might have enough freedom to stay the fuck away but is canon Ty Lee okay? Sorry if you've already touched on this. Thank you for continuously blessing us with your forbidden knowledge btw, y'all brighten the world.

well our knowledge is not remotely forbidden, because it is in the text!!!! the whole thesis of this bloggue is that we need to refer to the text when making any sort of claim about said text (in this instance, atla), but thank u for appreciating our Moste Important Work lol

okay so I know a lot of people think that ty lee genuinely loved azula, but I think it’s pretty clearly established in “return to omashu” that she is scared of azula?? and whenever she shallowly praises her, it is definitely to pacify azula and affirm her supposed loyalties. it’s pretty clear that if she actually felt like azula wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her, she would feel comfortable to initiate physical contact or gently tease her like she does with mai. ty lee’s facial expressions when azula isn’t looking are crucial to understanding her character, because she very rarely actually says what she means.

one of my favorite moments in understanding their dynamic is this scene in “the beach:”

ty lee: those boys won't leave me alone. i guess they all just like me too much.

azula: come on, ty lee, you can't be this ignorant.

ty lee: what are you talking about?

azula: those boys only like you because you make it so easy for them. you're not a challenge- you're a tease. it's not like they actually care who you are.

ty lee: *cries*

azula: ok, ok, calm down. i didn't mean what i said. look, maybe i just said it because i was a little [whispers] jealous.

ty lee: what? you were jealous of me? but you're the most beautiful, smartest, perfect girl in the world.

azula: well, you're right about all those things. but for some reason when i meet boys they act as if i'm going to do something horrible to them.

ty lee: but you probably would do something horrible to them. i'm sure they're just intimidated by you. okay, look, if you want a boy to like you just look at him and smile a lot and laugh at everything he says even if it's not funny.

azula: well, that sounds really shallow and stupid. let's try it.

notice who has the upper hand throughout this entire scene. ty lee a) notices that azula is jealous and rubs it in b) cries on command when azula insults her c) makes azula apologize to her and admit that she was jealous d) denies that azula could be jealous e) literally tells azula (and the audience) that ty lee is being shallow on purpose. ty lee treats azula the same way she treated all those boys. and she’s playing azula just because she can.

meanwhile, azula spends this episode furious about ty lee receiving so much attention from boys. but when azula tries to ensnare a boy of her own, it’s not a boy she actually likes or has any sort of connection with, but the boy she identifies as the strongest, most powerful boy (in terms of status) in the room. she doesn’t actually feel any attraction to him, she just wants the Best one. so it then becomes a question of who is azula actually jealous of when she sees ty lee basking in all that male attention? when azula “makes” ty lee cry, instead of reveling in her tears, she immediately backtracks, apologizes, and admits that she was jealous and didn’t mean it. this is a moment of unprecedented caring and vulnerability from azula. ty lee is still at azula’s behest, but she knows how to take advantage of her situation, how to toy with azula, how to have one over the master manipulator herself. (this is why I say ty lee is the scariest bitch in atla lol)

it all comes to a head when ty lee proves that she loves mai more than she fears azula. azula clearly actually cared about ty lee, had feelings for her, and was shocked to learn that ty lee didn’t feel the same. of course, she later convinces herself that she didn’t care about ty lee on a personal level, and was only using her, but the fact that mai chose zuko over azula and ty lee chose mai over azula (and zuko chose iroh over azula, in the end) completely shatters her.

so as to the question of whether or not anything happened between them, I think that ty lee managed to keep azula at arm’s length the same way she did all those boys on ember island. encouraged her and flirted with her to a certain point, but would have subtly expressed boundaries by pretending to be oblivious, and resorting to violence if she had to. which she finally does, not for her own personal safety, but for mai’s.

#analysis #azula #ty lee #maixtylee #azula&tylee #asks #captainfingersmith #their relationship is so fascinating #bc i feel so bad for both of them #also yeah ty lee loves mai so jot that down

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takaraphoenix · 4 years

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So I just finished the third season of The Bold Type and oh boy did they drop the ball in this one. I... really enjoyed this show until now but this season was just so intensely exhausting and honestly cringey.

The only good storyline was Jane’s. Her finally dumping that cheating piece of garbage. The way they handled her surgery and recovery and the struggle she had. It was incredibly emotional and well-paced and I genuinely loved the way they handled it.

But everything else was... pretty much garbage, in my opinion?

I mean, Sutton? Sutton and Richard, getting married, after being in a relationship for what, five years? And... they never actually talked about their future? They never talked about having kids? I hate this dumbassery of “let’s get married but like we never actually talked about how we imagine our future” and the way they handled that, with how Richard behaved? How he placed all the blame on Sutton? What in the world was that? She put her life on hold for him, repeatedly. It wasn’t because of her job that you guys hid your relationship for so long, it was yours. And when you decided to go to San Francisco for a job, she was just 100% behind you.

But now she’s deceiving you because... she... doesn’t read minds, or what? Saying “I want something like they have” is the broadest, least specific bullshit. Something, what? Their career, their marriage, their house? That does not specify that you want children. Saying “I definitely want children” is how you specify that you want children. To only blame her for not telling him that she didn’t want kids...? When two people are in this relationship and neither of them actually spoke up about their wants and needs here? That is equally both their fault.

Not to mention his... his reaction. Just, his reaction to everything.

When, only two months after the miscarriage, she wanted to have sex again and he just immediately goes “so x position is better for conception”, that was just... incredibly insensitive. I don’t know about anyone else but me, but... two weeks after losing a baby to already try again seems incredibly early and to overrun her like that instead of first, in a quieter moment, address the issue? Not to mention that this was an unplanned pregnancy and she just started a new, busy job so it really wasn’t a good fit time-wise.

His reaction to when she told him she didn’t want babies? The throwing and trashing stuff? It just will never sit right with me when men express their anger/frustration by smashing and destroying things right next to the woman. It is purposefully intimidating and reads far too close as a ‘replacement’, which also is always intensified by the woman jumping away instinctively, as Sutton did. Not... Not a great move. Really creepy.

And then they just... end it. Just like that. After this entire show had their will they won’t they build up to them getting married, it all falls apart like that, so unceremoneously and Sutton goes onto a completely self-destructive tour of discovering that she is, after all, no better than her mother, putting her somehow even below square one.

The worst offender however is whatever the fuck this show did to Kat. And to Adena. But let’s start with Adena.

Adena, an out and proud lesbian, a Muslim, a woman of color, a feminist. And now... a biphobe, apparently? Wow, that’s just such a great look on her.

It’s incredibly OoC for Adena. This woman, who met Kat when Kat was still thinking she was straight, who supported Kat through her self-discovery. And while Kat used “lesbian” as a self-identifying label twice in previous seasons, she always more leaned toward “queer” to label herself.

So to now have Adena, whose entire character was always about lending women a voice and standing up for them, who always supported Kat, who met Kat when Kat was still very much busy sleeping with men, now act biphobic when Kat comes out as bisexual...? It just... It really fucked Adena over.

Especially the garbage she was spouting. That if Kat now liked men, did that make Adena “just a phase” and were her feelings for Adena “even real”? That is just the most bottom of the barrel biphobic talk, this felt like someone just did one quick google search on biphobia and crammed them together and made Adena say that. It... just didn’t feel authentic for Adena, after how she had been represented so far and how she had acted and handled Kat’s journey of self-descovery.

I understand that they really wanted Kat to face biphobia and I genuinely did love the bonding moment that gave Kat and Oliver, but there was absolutely no need to throw Adena under the bus like this. They could have literally gone to that stupid lesbian-exclusive party and just have... have some random unnamed character act biphobic?

Considering this wasn’t even meant as a lasting plotline that’d be pulled through as a proper arc, because two episodes later, Adena suddenly got over her biphobia. Which is just another thing that makes it more ridiculous, because a woman like Adena, who is deeply involved with the community and who is strongly opinionated, would - if she really was biphobic - not just change her stance on that in like two weeks just because...?

It really showed that they used Adena not as a character but as a plot-tool for Kat’s plotline and it did Adena such a disservice - especially since she is one of your four (4) queer characters and she is your only lesbian.

Don’t validate negative stereotypes like prickly lesbians who only date Gold Star Lesbians because otherwise the lesbian feelings between them just aren’t lesbian enough and like how would she know they’re real if her partner isn’t also a lesbian?

And yes. Yes, I am well-aware we have a huge problem of biphobia within the community. I am well-aware that these type of lesbians exist. But, as mentioned above, they could have taken a minor character only introduced for this plotline to deliver this biphobia, instead of throwing their only lesbian character under the bus like this.

Adena is such a brilliant character and she is... so much representation? I mean, she is one of only four queer characters, of only two queer women, she is the only lesbian, she is the only Muslima, she is one of the only two women of color in the recurring/main cast. I genuinely don’t understand how you can look at a character like that and go “ah yes, let’s just temporarily antagonize her for another character’s plotline, which goes entirely against her own characterization so we will actually also totally backtrack on it after all is said and done”, because it’s... I don’t think there’s a real word for what this is, but it’s bullshit, to say the least.

Now about Kat. Who finally figured herself out this season. And then just immediately had to deal with the biphobia, but not for too long because that’d be too distracting, we have too much to do in throwing her character under the bus too, after all.

I mean seriously, Kat’s a biracial bisexual liberal woman, who had an entire season-long plot about being a liberal woman trying to carve a space for herself, for her community, against bigotry. Both, her being biracial and her being bisexual, has always torn her and made her not fit quite in and made her look for her place to belong and she fought hard for it.

So the natural progression for her character truly is to make her date a... I really do not want to type these words together, to be quite frank... but a Republican lesbian. And not just... be with her, but “come around” to her viewpoint. It was essentially throwing out the long-suffering plotlines of Kat fighting hard for her spot in favor of now being downgraded to a bar-tender who is fascinated by the Republican POV on life.

They really used Kat to antagonize liberals as sensitive snowflakes and show that “Republicans can be serious and have good points too!”. They turned Kat into a... clumsy oaf, at best, the way she handled herself around the politics this season? After she literally ran for office before, trying to become a politician herself? But now she is swayed or fascinated or whatever for “the other view-point”?

And just the timing, to have a “Republicans aren’t that bad!” angle in your show while Republicans are literally busy running your country into the ground? Ya really thought this was a great angle to work with? And for her, of all characters?

It made... absolutely no sense with how Kat had been portrayed so far to have her enthralled by this bullshit spouting Republican, because “different views are important and can be insightful”...

There are angles where, from a storytelling POV, you can introduce various views and make it very interesting to watch, but if your way of introducing this other view is literally by her defending her homophobic father who wants to help pass a bill on conversion therapy, I’m sorry there is absolutely no listening to that.

And that’s not being emotional. This is directly about the lives of human beings. There is no discussing that, there are no other opinions on the matter of whether or not children should be tortured into being straight.

And having her, very lacklusterly, say that she personally is against conversion therapy means... it... it means literally nothing if she is not speaking up about it and instead wants to bury evidence about her father supporting it and has no problems with him supporting it in the first place.

The ““cutesy”“ situation of her threatening to get Kat fired over this, Kat actually getting fired and her then accidentally getting Kat fired from her next job, just to graciously help her keep her job after all like some White Republican Savior was... very cringey to watch, but so was honestly every single interaction between them, based on the juxtaposition of those characters.

I’m sorry, as a lesbian, I have intensely strong feelings about how they utilized lesbian characters for bullshit agendas this season. First Adena for the biphobia angle and then writing a Republican lesbian in there to like... sell Republicans?

I just... genuinely can not grasp what that storyline even was, because it honestly just felt like Republican propaganda? And yes, propaganda. Because it undermined the already established liberal character that Kat had been, made her not entirely turn toward being Republican but suddenly be oh-so open minded about the views (after this plotline was literally introduced through, and I will say it again, conversion therapy. I mean seriously, you could have a liberal and a Republican have conversations with each other and “see each other’s points of view”, but you absolutely can not have that after introducing the plotline through one of the most horrific things that can happen to our community). They portrayed Eva as the understanding, calm, rational, charming party in this and made Kat the overly angry, emotional and downright doe-eyed one who learned so much from Eva, while not having Kat teach Eva anything. This was never portrayed as a mutual seeing each other’s viewpoints; Kat was the only one who changed over this storyline. And that is what made this not feel like an “equal opportunity POV exchange” storyline but like propaganda.

My very last critique point is the oversexualization of absolutely everything. I mean, yes, this show has always been very sex-positive and about women embracing their sexuality and I absolutely support this message. But... this season went... beyond that? It wasn’t just sex-positive it was downright negative on no sex. The utter despair for sex and linking it with success?

The plotline of how Jacqueline wanted to show women in “power” through fashion, but it was all about owning their sexuality and the first pitch immediately included lingerie. And worse yet, that thing where Ryan and Jane were not having sex.

The freaking intervention. Because... she was having a genuinely good time just having spa-days with her boyfriend instead of fucking like rabbits every hour of the day? That they literally put an intervention together there. That not having sex is oh-so bad, even though honestly, until that intervention, Jane did not look unhappy.

I just think that a show that praises itself on its queer viewpoints and puts the queerness so very front and center needs to step up their game and start including an asexual viewpoint. Both, in the show and in the magazine itself because everything they write and do comes back to sex and it’s starting to get really, truly tiresome.

Sex-positivity doesn’t have to mean that you reinforce that to be a strong, independent woman you have to have sex and that a relationship is only successful if they have lots of sex.

#The Bold Type #Season 4 #Phoe's Random Show Rants #Season 4 Review #Adena Deserved Better #Sutton Deserved Better #Kat Deserved Better #heck the viewers deserved better

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isaacthedruid · 3 years

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Steven Universe’s Representation and Music: an informal essay

As the first animated Cartoon Network show created entirely by a woman, Steven Universe’s run lasted for five seasons, a movie and a sequel-epilogue series. The show was far from perfect and its fandom wasn’t the best either but there is something so special about a show that followed lesbian space rocks and a young boy saving the world.

More specifically Steven Universe is about a young boy named Steven, who is half-Gem, half-human who protects the town of Beach City from evil. Gems are a kind of alien who take on the form of pastel-coloured women, to better assimilate with the rest of the world.

Rebecca Sugar, the creator, explains her colourful characters in a behind-the-scenes promo:

“I always dreamed of making a show that would have this mix of fantasy and reality. So, I wanted to make these fantasy characters that enjoy being with Steven as much, if not more than they enjoy being fantasy characters. The characters aren’t perfect and that’s what makes them so great.”

Steven’s family are known as the Crystal Gems, a group of rebels who fought against their government thousands of years ago and now live on earth. Steven’s mom, Rose Quartz was at the forefront of the fight, she did extremely terrible things and when she gave up her gem—-so Steven could be born—-she was left unable to form a body ever again. Steven, with only his dad and three alien women, must attempt to fix her messes and deal with the repercussions of his mother’s actions.

One of the main mechanics within the series is known as fusion, in which two or more Gems become a single being who is stronger and more powerful. The fused form takes on the physical, mental and emotional aspects of those who are part of the bond. As mentioned and discussed many times within this blog, fusions are a physical embodiment of different kinds of relationships. And for a show starring a primarily female cast, they do not shy away from using this mechanic to tell queer stories.

So explicitly that in 2018, the show had the first-ever lesbian wedding in a cartoon. Of course, representation wasn’t always as accepted in Steven Universe. Just two years before the big wedding, higher-ups at Cartoon Network told Rebecca Sugar, they not happy with the multiple queer relationships, so much so that they were ready to threaten cancellation.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she expressed:

“If this is going to cost me my show that’s fine because this is a huge injustice and I need to be able to represent myself and my team through this show and anything less would be unfair to my audience.”

Being LGBT herself, identifying as bisexual and non-binary, representation is important to her. For many queer people, especially grown-ups, they hope to see themselves represented in kids’ media today as they never had growing up. They want nothing more for children’s shows to say that being “different” or not fitting in with our heteronormative society is actually normal.

Within Steven Universe, you can find woman-loving-woman relationships, non-binary and intersex characters, woman-loving-non-binary relationships, asexual coded characters and basically every other letter in the acronym.

Rebecca Sugar even acted as the exciting force for LGBT inclusion within Adventure Time, originally working as a writer and storyboard artist before leaving to create her own show. She pushed for making the ex-romantic queer couple to be canonically part of the story and for it to not just coded into the dialogue.

A few years later, she returned to the show, multiple times, to compose over 20 songs that would air over the series 10-year-long run such as, “I’m Just Your Problem” which had lesbian subtext that would be confirmed later.

Some other iconic songs including “Fry Song“, “Remember You“, “Good Little Girl“, “Everything Stays” and even the finale song, “Time Adventure“.

Much like the show as a whole, there is something so special about the music she writes. In total, there were over 160 songs written for the franchise, some being short little tunes, no longer than a minute while others were full-blown musical numbers. No matter, all of them have their place within the show. Often when the character can’t express lines through speech, music is utilized to provide a more raw and poignant portrayal of their emotions.

Why Steven Universe is so widely loved is due to the music, as the overall story is not even close to perfect. Yet, everyone can agree on one thing, the music is unbelievably good. What is interesting is the different styles of melodies and backtracking used in the various songs, even more impressive is that every character has their own instrumental motif.

Steven’s motif is the ukelele as he is often seen playing the instrument himself, performing short little melodies and even writing the in-show version of the theme song. Additionally, Steven’s music uses a large amount of Chiptune synth, electronic music which is created using a programmable sound generator. Both instruments have a very childlike feeling to them, Chiptune especially as it is normally used in video game music like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the main musical inspirations for the show. As Steven is the lead, most of the music has Chiptune somewhere in the score and fun fact, the first song in the show, sung by Steven, “Cookie Cat” was actually written on an old Gameboy.

Amethyst is very loud and fun, her motif is electric drums which is extremely reflective of her character. As she can be angry from convincing herself that she is not good enough to happy and giggling from pranking Steven, her instrument can be used in so many ways as she is not a simple character. No matter what, for the few songs Amethyst has on her own (or in the score), her drums provide such an interesting emotional response to the situation.

Garnet is a fusion, so her motif is actually the combination of two instruments. Ruby is a drumbeat as she is a fiery and loud character, she is chaotic while Sapphire is her opposite. Sapphire is calm and collected, she has ice-related powers and is represented by Synth music. The characters together have a perfect unity, expressed by Garnet’s synth bass sounds, she is the equilibrium of two very contrasting characters. The music associated with Garnet, uses primarily the synth bass but Ruby and Sapphire’s individual instruments can be heard throughout her music. All three instruments are also heavily representative as Garnet’s main dancing style is Hip Hop which clashing with others’ softer dancing styles.

Despite, not being alive during the show, Rose Quartz still has her own musical motif as she plays a large part in Steven’s growth throughout the series. As well as being in many flashbacks, she is represented with strings, more specifically, the violin. Rose’s story is rather sad which quite is visible within her associated music, yet, she was also an extremely powerful character as she led the fight against the Homeworld government. Her strength can be heard with strong uplifts and swells in the music. She is never seen playing an instrument unlike the rest of the main characters but one person who plays hers is Pearl, a character Rose was possibly in love with.

For the complex and beautiful character, Pearl, her motif is classical and swing piano. She is visually represented as a ballerina for a large majority of the series, dressed in a leotard, a small skirt and ballet shoes. Apart from Garnet, she is one of the calmest characters in the show. She is a perfectionist and is knowledgeable on many topics. She has a dark past and her fair share of trauma, all of this is wrapped up in her music. From her traumatic past with Rose Quartz, the violin had been heard throughout her music, yet, when she finally dealt with everything, the violin was lost. Swapped out for a new instrument, a bass guitar which she learned how to play at the end of the series. Pearl is a character who has been through a lot and her music reflects it. As she grew, her music changed with her, becoming her own instead of something built off of Rose’s.

My personal favourite song is “It’s Over Isn’t It?” which is this heartwrenching and emotionally painful ballad sung by a broken woman. Pearl was in love with Steven’s mom. Yet, the feelings were not mutual or at least ended being reciprocated as Rose left her for Greg, Steven’s dad. It hurts because Rose didn’t just leave her, Rose Quartz also passed away. As the song goes:

That they didn’t really matter until you I was fine when you came And we fought like it was all some silly game Over her, who she’d choose After all those years, I never thought I’d lose … You won and she chose you and she loved you and she’s gone It’s over, isn’t it? Why can’t I move on? … Who am I now in this world without her? Petty and dull with the nerve to doubt her What does it matter? It’s already done Now I’ve got to be there for her son

Without Rose, Pearl has lost her place in the world as all she ever knew was her. Yet, now she is left to help raise a half-human baby and go on with her life. It makes it more difficult as this baby is the product of Rose and the man that she left Pearl for.

Pearl doesn’t want to hate Greg, she is angry at him but she doesn’t have hatred towards him. They may not be the best of pals at the start of the series but in the song called “Both of You“ has Steven, finally, begging for Greg and Pearl to just talk to each other.

Why don’t you talk to each other? Why don’t you talk to each other? Just give it a try Why don’t you talk about what happened? … You might not believe it but you got a lot in common, you really do You both love me and I love both of you … I know you both need it Someone who knows what you’re going through

An interesting thing about this song is that Steven is this to them, the person with Rose’s gem is singing to the two people who fought over Rose. It makes me wonder if this could be Rose speaking through Steven to her two loved ones. Whether it is or not, doesn’t really matter to the overall story but it is a fun idea to look at.

Overall, these songs are a literal representation of dealing with ones’ emotions in a healthy way, something that Steven Universe actively tries to teach their younger viewers about.

To say Steven Universe is a good show only for its music would be a false statement, it’s one of the strongest aspects but without the story or the characters, the music would fall flat and not have any of its passion.

#isaac rambles #steven universe #lgbt #steven universe music #cartoons #cartoon network #rebecca sugar #cartoon review

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longinglook · 4 years

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I’m going to be gone for most of the day so I thought that the best way to use up my last 10 minutes before leaving would be to write a multi paragraph post on what I think about Fighter’s behavior so here we go

(under a read more because this could get very very long)

so. fighter. our confused messy boy we are just starting to understand

i’ve read a lot of tweets/posts/comments of people that don’t understand his behavior or think that his storyline doesn’t make sense which has always left me a bit perplexed because to me everything he does seems justified and coherent to where his mind is at the moment so i’ll try to explain

but first, something about me kfmslkcls

i identify as lesbian but i have struggled with compulsive heterosexuality all my life, i’ve spent years identifying as bi because the scary part for me was not admitting that i liked girls but admitting that i did not like boys past the occasional crushes on fictional boys and let me tell you: a lot of what fighter does/the way he thinks reminds me so much of how i was and here’s a list of things:

1) he seems a lot more at ease with same sex friends, the only times we see him with hwa you can tell that he’s forcing himself to act a certain way, he knows he’s supposed to do boyfriend things like taking her on dates and kissing but he is not comfortable with it, he tries and fails at it. of course part of the reason is because of his father but not only does he seem uniterested in her, there’s always a sense of uneasiness when he’s with her, like he’s scared of actually having to kiss her. he’s fine with the relationship as long as it’s just texting and hanging out (like a friendship would be) but he seems not to want it to become phisical. since he’s a very confused boy he’s probably blaming all of this on his father forcing him into the relationship, instead of knowing right away that he’s not interested in her

2) thinking whatever he has with tutor is just friendship and teasing: i feel like this is such a common experience for most lgbt+ folks, thinking you just have a deep friendship with someone of the same sex, only to later realize it was actually a crush and you had no idea. ex. liking the casual cuddling and touches and looking for more, paying close attention to all the displays of affection, wanting to always be close and being a little jealous of everyone else that they interact with. I feel like a lot of people go through this thinking it’s just a friendship, especially if it’s with someone of the same sex because they are not even considering the option of it being a crush. that’s why fighter keeps saying that they’re only friends and he’s behaving like a close friend would, he just doesn’t let himself consider the option because it would be way too scary and that leads us to point #3

3) being too scared to say what he wants: he does this A LOT. instead of asking for something, which would mean saying it out loud and admitting it, he just acts. words can be so scary (again making this about me, i have id’d as lesbian for over 2 years now and ive come out to a lot of friends but ive never said the word lesbian out loud because it’s just terrifying to me), and fighter seems to only use them after he has acted to justify whatever dumb shit he has done with an excuse. saying something like “i kissed you because i wanted to” would mean admitting he wants to kiss another man (meaning he’s not straight) and that man is fighter (meaning he has feelings for him). it’s much easier for him to go with the flow and do first, explain later. and by explaining i mean lying, even to himself because deep down he knows, of couse he knows what’s going on but acknowledging it would have serious implications on his life.

also the way he reacts to tutor asking him if he likes boys is a big indicator of what's going on with him, it's his way of answering, not his way of avoiding the question. he can't say it out loud so he shows it but then he's scared of the consequences and no homos it. and the choice of replaying the question scene while they're making out shows us that fight is tormented by it, he's scared of other people asking him that as well, now that tutor has noticed it more people could as well and that's why he pulls away.

4) on a similar note, teasing until tutor does something/not wanting to be the one to start it: this is pure fighter behavior, hoping tutor will be the one to start it so he doesn’t have to. i called this gay chicken last week, it’s fighter making everything into a challenge so he can blame it on tutor and say that he was just reacting. we can see how desperate he is for tutor’s attention, how happy he is when he has it and how frustrated he is when he doesn’t. he’s like a child who wants people to pay attention to him but doesn’t know how to ask for it, so they start annoying people. fight knows very well that he could just say hey tutor i’m here, please talk to me but how could he give a realistic reason for it other than because i have a massive crush on you meaning i’m not straight. he knows tutor doesn’t back down from a challenge and he riles him up because he has learned what that will lead them to. it’s like he knows there’s an easier way to get to that, but it’s scary so he just keeps going with his soundproof tesing tacting which so far has worked every time. also in general reacting is a lot easier than acting, again a personal example: if someone asks me if i like girls I’ll say yes right away, but if i have to start the conversation i won’t. (one thing i do a lot is to be like “hey i have something to tell you about myself but you have to guess it”)

5) backtracking/giving mixed signals: again he’s terrified, he knows what he wants but he knows what /wanting it/ implies. sometimes he follows his heart, but then his brain comes back to tell him that, hey, you’re kissing another dude and you’re enjoying it and of course he freaks out and leaves. i would be way more annoyed with him if the show had been portraying tutor as pining and in love, meaning that fighter has been giving him false-ish hopes, but after ep.6 we see that tutor himself still hasn’t admitted to himself that he likes fighter (in bold because i feel like this part is very important and often overlooked) so they are both confused about their feelings.

i don’t think they are actually confused, they know but they are scared which in my opinion is very realistic of how someone behaves when they thought they were straight and they are not. It’s not about being dumb or being slow, it’s about realizing that once you take that step and acknowledge you’re not straight your life changes. idk how many of you are actually not straight (i assume most just because tumblr) but like…… coming out is so stressful being straight is just so much easier you dont have to do shit i wish that were me

6) his father: i feel like we only grazed the surface of fighter’s daddy issues, but he seems to be a very controlling and inflexible man, meaning that he probably wouldn’t be thrilled at the idea of his son dating another man. we don’t know about fight’s past, and maybe he has already had crushes on men and had to repress them. fighter seems to be used to a pretty luxurious lifestyle, he can’t just fuck off and go against his father because he would lose his support.

so it’s not just admitting things to himself, which can be insanely hard on its own especially if you were brought up in a traditional family, it’s also having to deal with the reactions from everyone around you

I KEEP THINKING ABOUT NEW THINGS TO ADD TO THIS POST SORRY anyway i think fighter has already shown multiple times that he does care for tor, it's just in a very shy and lowkey way because he's scared of giving himself away but he does indeed worry about tor (ex. he notices tor is stressed about his test, he tries to help outat his part time job). it also seems that in times of urgency he's more explicit about ex. offering to pay off his debt when tor was being threatened or saying he's his boyfriend when the gross cafe dude was hitting on him

also can we talk about how heartbreaking and soft fighter can be when he lets down his guard and shows his emotional side ex. telling tor nobody has ever taken care of him like that or the way he looks every time tutor pulls away first... this poor boy is touch starved and he craves affection but he can't ask for it yet. he's going to be a real gem once he can be honest with his feelings

for future episodes i think that tutor and fighter are well on their way to realizing their feelings for each other and there's going to be some development soon, but i dont expect fighter to come out to anyone else in the next few episodes because there's a lot of work to be done still. i just hope they dont pull the /i dont like boys i just like you/ trope because i WILL drop this show. so. fast. please don't ruin this character please let him accept his attraction to men fully

in conclusion. i dont blame fighter for anything he has done so far, he’s scared shitless but knows what’s going on, i trust he will soon be brave enough to start being honest with himself and with tutor

man this did NOT take 10 minutes to write and i dont have time to proofread

#fightertutor #zee pruk #why r u #why r u the series #why r u?#why ru the series #why ru #fighter #text #meta

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dredreadsdrawing · 4 years

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Oc-tober Day 22: Good/Evil

Hooray for more old ideas! This one is one of the very beginnings of me thinking bigger stories. Believe this time when I say there's not much plot-wise for these two chars. I just haven't come around to actually fleshing out the story; instead I always just zero in on these two's personalities and chemistry.

So let's call the first character you see Baddie, and the gal offering to buy tacos Scruffy. They meet just like my comic details but I'll backtrack and give them context.

Baddie is an alien test tube baby, experimented on his whole life to become a weapon. He's basically feral with how little human interaction he's had, and after his van crashes and his chains break, he goes on a rampage hurting people.

Then comes Scruffy.

Scruffy is a kid from the streets, a pro at minding her own business and forcing others to do the same with her. But when she finds this kid that can lift a man up whilst only growling as he tries to bargain, her interest is piqued. He puts the man down but goes after her, and after running around for a bit, dodging his lunges, she manages to pin him, all the while poking fun at him by calling him "Bad dog!" She manages to calm him down, and treats him all night to food, fun and good company. He's smitten.

While out, some cute stuff happens, but here's something in particular. The whole night, people would scream slurs at her as she passes by, but she ignores them. When someone throws trash at her, Baddie responds. She holds him back by his shirt collar and drags him away. Once they sit down in a park she lays over his lap and explains her situation somewhat. Some people will just never like her. But it's alright by the end because she's living for herself. As a girl. Feral alien boy doesn't understand her dilemma at all, but he listens. To him, she's made it clear she's a girl. Why is everyone treating her like she's not?

Nearing dawn, just as she settles on the idea of bringing him into her broken household, he's swept away from her watch in just a millisecond, carried away by another unmarked van. And not seen again until years later.

He's finally been civilized. He can speak and he knows social norms. But he prefers to stay quiet and doesn't get close to anyone. He's been transported job to job, used as a mercenary to the highest bidder. The next big job takes him back to the familiar town he misses... Realizing this, he runs from the car into the streets. He visits all the places he remembers. They've all changed. He doesn't find her. He's devastated. He returns to his job's office by himself, where his new partner, a girl with eyes on him, is already being breifed. They are to take down anarchists with a peculiar set of powers. Among the photographs of their victims is hers.

In all those years, Scruffy missed the bugger, but she's also been busy surviving. She made a name for herself helping others. One day, she helped a weird-looking dog. It was dying in her kitchen, and with its final breaths it spoke to her. She must be the next defender of the earth...

With the dog's final word, it dissolves into sparkles, and they crowd around Scruffy. That's right. This is a magical girl story XD Though a less flashy one, so the sparkles and colors are a bit toned down.

Can't give too much details because I always gloss over this, but she gets a team (though I can only remember two lol, my very first fuckin lesbian couple!!!) and she starts fucking shit up for the big bad companies trying to take over the world for a bad alien's gain.

Needless to say she will run into Baddie in the field, but while he knows its her, she won't know it's him (cuz he fully transforms).

He'll still secretly help her sometimes, and she'll start to notice. She has hope he's not a bad guy.

He gets annoyed by his partner in crime's infatuation with him, doubly so when she makes fun of Scruffy. Needless to say, her fear of him outweighs her big mouth. She learns to shut up, though she still doesn't like Scruffy.

On an off-night, Scruffy will go to her favorite taco truck that's switched locations. That same hour, Baddie will be 'patrolling the streets' only for his nose to catch a whiff of the food he ate that faithful night. And wouldn't ya know it, they go to order at the same time.

Cue fireworks huehehue.

She's overwhelmed with joy at seeing him, she was always worried she failed him that day. He, who finally learned words and even traversed into multiple foreign languages, has his heart stuck in his throat. After getting their food, she drags him along just like the night they met, and they have a great time visiting the same spots. He already knows how much they've changed, but he loves hearing her talk about all the renovations and history of the spots. He stays mute the entire time. They end the night on that bench where she lays down at his lap again, and laughs at the end of a story of hers. He can't stop looking at her, and as she runs out of talk, she's beginning to notice. She smirks at him and lightly punches his cheek.

"What's so funny, punk?"

His first words to her.

"You're still as gorgeous as when I first saw you."

Ahaha, that sends her smile back and her face aflame.

So this guy can talk now.

And such a nice voice.

And not to mention..... He's hitting on her?

She hides her face and gets up. She's not used to this. That came out of nowhere!

He's terrified at her sudden movement, and grabs her arm.

"I-Im sorry, please don't leave! That night..."

She turns around and peeks through her fingers to see the same shy boy stuttering over his words.

"Means the world to me..."

Ah, well. He's fucking cute.

She stays and they talk some more before she has to leave. But they get eachother's numbers and promise to hangout more... Which they will.

They'll continue meeting in the battlefield and they'll make lame excuses the next day over brunch on why they have bruises.

He knows the truth, but he's afraid to come out. The best he can do is keep her safe in the fights.

Until the day she figures it all out.

#Oc-tober #October #Oc tober #Sketches #traditional drawing #traditional art #Bad Dog #Das the name od this story #Trans #Trans Girl #Aliens #Original story #Romance #Lol

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animebw · 4 years

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Binge-Watching: The Demon Girl Next Door, Episodes 4-6

In which I extol the virtues of good people being good, two utter dorks do their best for each other, and this show worms its way further into my cold, shriveled heart.

The Best Bean

Those of you who were around for my binge-watch of Kimi ni Todoke way back when know that I have a special fondness for shows were everyone is just... good. No qualifications, no asterisks, just good people trying to be good to each other while navigating the struggles and pitfalls of life. As someone with a preternatural disposition to see the best in everyone, I find that stories that speak to humanity’s inherent goodness always feel far truer to life than stories steeped in human misery. And I think that’s the real magic to what makes Demon Girl such a goddamn wonderful show; it’s fully committed to exactly that kind of heartfelt kindness. So much of the comedy comes from the fact that as desperately as Yuko tries to pick a fight with Momo, her better instincts always come out on top and before she even knows it, they’ve drawn even closer together. Just look at the beginning of episode 5: Yuko storms into the classroom fully prepared to unleash a new challenge on her foe, but all Momo has to do is say “Good afternoon” and Yuko’s already engaging in friendly conversation with her as if she didn’t just boast that today would be the day Momo dies. That ongoing contrast between the bombast of Yuko’s supposed destiny and the earnest mundanity of her actual life is the beating heart of this show’s comedy, from Lilith rushing to clear house for a dramatic dream meeting but still keeping her sweatpants on (”My ancestor is in lounge mode”) to Yuko’s friends’ nonplussed reactions to her soul getting sucked out. But it’s also the beating heart of, well, this show’s heart, able to sasahy between gut-busting gag-a-minute pacing and moment of genuine sincerity and sweetness as naturally as breathing.

And nowhere is that more evident than with Momo herself, because sweet buttery muffins, this girl is a goddamn peach. Yuko tries to stand on a desk to challenge her from on high (side note, their height difference is goddamn adorable)? Her first instinct is to get in close in case she ends up falling. That makes Yuko mad at her for overcoming her defenses too easily? She instantly backtracks and promises to be more respectful of her boundaries from now on just to make it fairer. Accidentally intrude upon her part-time job and snag a free wiener sample from her before it’s ready? Instantly apologize and don’t even notice that she’s still reeling from seeing her mortal enemy show up at her doorstep. Yuko gets so into challenging her that she knocks the wieners off the table? No worries, just set a new personal best speed for your magical girl transformation, save all of them before they hit the floor, and thank her for the opportunity to practice using your powers in a more creative way. Oh, and make absolute sure you’re subtly flirting with her every step of the way just in case you weren’t enough of a hopeless lesbian already (”You’re almost too pure.”) The Kimi ni Todoke comparison really is warranted here; Momo’s just as much of an absolute jellybean as Sawako Kuronoma, and I don’t throw that designation around lightly. It takes real earnestness to earn yourself a comparison to the most Literally Me character I’ve ever seen in fiction; not many shows have been able to be this outrageously funny by being this outrageously heartwarming and sappy.

What Can I Do For You

But Momo’s only one half of this equation, and Demon Girl wouldn’t be half the show it was if she didn’t same someone equally as wonderful to play off of. In many ways, Yuko’s far more obviously reactive than Momo, getting bounced around by her rival’s constant barrage of sincere compliments as they push her so far off course she doesn’t even remember where she started from. But these episodes make a concentrated effort to show that at heart, Yuko’s just as inherently disposed to helping people as Momo. She growls and whines and make a show of things, but when someone stand to benefit from her positive intervention, it doesn’t take much prodding for her to offer her services. The shopping trip with her little sister is a really wonderful example of this; she could have easily used those funds to pay back her debt to Momo, but she’s lived in relative poverty long enough to value the positive impact a good deed can have on people’s lives. So if buying her sister the camera she always wanted is how she can best repay all the support her family’s given her in turn (”Don’t worry, I’m good at exaggerating the stories I write.” “You’re the best little sister I could ask for!”), then that’s the only choice she could possibly make. She may not be as hilariously upfront with her positive intentions as Momo, but she’s no less determined to pay back the kindness done to her.

And because of that, she’s able to make just as much of a positive impact on Momo as Momo’s making on her. We still don’t know the exact details of what Momo’s life was like before we first met her, but from the pieces we’ve gathered- his dislike of being a magical girl, the fact that she doesn’t have any family, how ill-prepared she seems to be for living on her own- it’s clear she was thrust into a bad situation way too early for any kid to realistically deal with, and she’s still struggling to overcome whatever trauma that’s left her with. Being a magical girl is a responsibility she just can’t handle all on her own, with nothing but her own thoughts for company. But then, out of nowhere comes this ridiculous klutz of a demon girl, stumbling into her life and literally setting to work scrubbing her mind clear of the black tar of self-loathing she’s become stuck in, to such an extent that she ends up going full Zuko “Clearing my mind of pain is so overwhelming that it literally makes my physically sick” in the process. Yuko is good for Momo, in countless ways she might not have even fully realized yet. Her unintentional support gives Momo a shoulder to lean on and a place where she can be comfortable with her identity as a magical girl. Her kindness worms her way into Momo’s physical home, not as an invader but a guest who sees the sorry state she’s in and offers to help her bear it from now on. Hell, Yuko’s already made such a huge impression on Momo that Momo’s subconscious mind repeats Yuko’s “I’m not crying, this is just eye juice” quip right back to her when they visit each other’s dreams. This is probably the healthiest relationship Momo’s had in a long time, and watching it slowly work its magic on her is truly compelling to behold.

Maximum Doki-Doki

That’s the real power of Demon Lord as both a comedy and a show; in the process of being a mile-a-minute laugh fest with too many hilarious details to count (Yuko’s expressive tail is a work of art all on its own), it uses that comedy to tell a joyful, uplifting, utterly adorable love story about two people who make each other’s lives so much better one awkward step at a time. And it is so, so, so, so goddamn delightful. Momo’s flustered reaction to Yuko calling them best friends? Wonderful. Momo accounting for Yuko’s clumsiness and wrapping her laptop in a million different layers of protection while making sure to build her spirits up in the letter she leaves? Sweet beyond words. Yuko realizing she’s unable to think of a single bad feeling she has towards Momo? Superb. Yuko’s explosive blush at Momo apologizing to her for being sick? Too damn cute. Momo’s embarrasses smile at accepting Yuko’s offer to come over for dinner some time like the utter disaster lesbian she is? God, I could feel my cheeks hurting from smiling too wide. This show is infectiously giddy, its central pairing overwhelmingly adorable. I was wrong to peg it as just a gag-a-second comedy in my first post; Demon Girl’s got a gigantic beating heart underneath informing that surface-level silliness, and watching it puts me in a truly wonderful mood.

And with Momo and Yuko’s bond so firmly established, there’s no telling where we go from here. At this point any notion of genuine animosity between them has been discarded, to the point where they’ve even kinda switched roles by the end of episode 6: for once, it’s Momo who’s trying to talk about important magic shit and Yuko who’s just trying to make sure her girlfriend’s doing okay. Hell, Momo even pulls out Yuko’s “Don’t think this means you’ve won” catchphrase, signaling that in her eyes, the demon girl next door has already triumphed over her in the only way that really matters. And now, she’s even put in the offer for Yuko to help her in her magical girl duties, an offer to let Yuko in on the side of her life she’s the most afraid of. That’s fucking huge, man. Will Yuko take that offer? Is there some way she can break the curse on her family without violence now that she’s made friends with the enemy, as it were? I know the manga’s still ongoing, so I doubt we’ll get the answers by the end of the season, but for now, I’m just enjoying the ride. The Demon Girl Next Door is a truly wonderful show, and I cannot fucking wait to see what comes next.

Odds and Ends

-Not gonna lie, that switch made the demon statue look suspiciously like a vibrator for a hot second. What a choice that would have been, huh?

-Yuko chilling in the spirit realm while Lilith’s fighting outside is sending me. Girl gives not a single fuck.

-”I have an invincible barrier up, so you can’t attack me, okay?” Okay, Lilith is fucking hilarious.

-Sudden massage chair? Sudden massage chair.

-”This curse is oddly specific!” That moment when a magical curse handed down through generations is more generous about necessary living expenses than late-stage capitalism

-Oh, that’s how you make the octopus wieners. I always wondered.

-”I can’t spend so much on something that doesn’t even have any edible parts!” WOW JUST CALL ME OUT WHY DON’T YOU

-Death by frozen water bottle. God damn, Momo’s a savage.

-”But this won’t work on me ever again unless you bring thicker slices of bread!” askjhaksd sucker

-”It requires a USB.” “Not good... I don’t even have a passport.” kslsjlskjdsls

-”Plus, aren’t dogs super strong? They have four legs!” I mean, I’ve heard worse reasoning.

-”Ah, times have changed since the Mesopotamian Era, huh?” Honestly, I hope that outfit does change, it’s way too leery for my taste.

-”I thought it was just a big rice paddle.” pfffft

-”I’M SO VERY SORRY PLEASE NOT THE SMACKREL!” ahahaha oh my god Yuko you utter disaster

-”Be thankful you found a working pay phone in this day and age!” HOLY SHIT I’M CACKLING HOW DID I MISS THAT

-I love how embarrassed Momo is about her magic peach stick. Dork.

-”The time has come.” Jesus wept I wasn’t expecting that deep a voice

-”You have a really large splash zone when it comes to food, huh?” Yuko is just literally me when it comes to food, isn’t she?

-”To be perfectly honest, I’m not okay at all.” askdhasd that freaking wall slide

Aaaah, it’s good to be back. See you next time!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #the demon girl next door #demon girl next door #machikado mazoku

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wetalkinboutbooks · 4 years

Text

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron

Summary: Magic has a price—if you’re willing to pay.

Born into a family of powerful witchdoctors, Arrah yearns for magic of her own. But each year she fails to call forth her ancestral powers, while her ambitious mother watches with growing disapproval.

There’s only one thing Arrah hasn’t tried, a deadly last resort: trading years of her own life for scraps of magic. Until the Kingdom’s children begin to disappear, and Arrah is desperate to find the culprit.

She uncovers something worse. The long-imprisoned Demon King is stirring. And if he rises, his hunger for souls will bring the world to its knees… unless Arrah pays the price for the magic to stop him. (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:

→ Geena: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

→ Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️

Overall: Kingdom of Souls is full of worldbuilding and characters that draw you in, thought sometimes their actions want to make you rip you hair out. BUT! We really loved this book and are excited to see where this trilogy takes us! Oh also, we should mention there are a few trigger warnings that Rena Barron has listed on the goodreads.

Spoiler-full review below!

The Good:

→ The Worldbuilding

Geena: So, one of the best things about reading this book was the amazing worldbuilding, which she based off of West African mythology. The kingdoms are complex, and the separation of the different people and their faiths was super easy to follow too. I’ve read so many books where they have some wildass worldbuilding that leaves you scratching your head but this author did a good job at making it easy to understand. Also, Rena Barron did such a good job at describing the magic system? When she introduced the witch doctors in the first few chapters I could just visualize how they were and it was like watching a movie in my head. Like I’m still thinking about that one witchdoctor and her tribe that came down on clouds….. Poetic cinema…

Kae: OK, so! I really enjoyed reading the differences between the tribes and how they are distinguished from each other. Some people had their bodies covered in tattoos others were known for their tall and lean figure, light eyes, etc. it was very wonderfully written and I always knew who Rena was talking about when she was mentioning the characters or introducing new ones. Sometimes others don’t do a very good job of separating characters by looks and they expect the reader to remember everything based off of personality, which is quite annoying. Rena did a wonderful job of giving all of the characters their own individuality so we wouldn’t have to struggle and figure out who was who even if they weren’t mentioned by name. The way she wrote the big city (which I cannot remember the name), was very well done and you could easily see the differences between the city and the tribal lands. I also love the way she incorporated the religious ties to magic in this world and the origin story of how they got their magic. There was a war between the gods, and the God of gods gifted humans with his magic. There are even mentions of fallen angels technically. It was just really interesting altogether.

Geena: Yesss, the origin story was also one of the coolest components of the book. Also, Rena Barron does this cool thing of interspersing chapters throughout the book that are from the perspectives of different gods and their opinions on whatever is going on in the book. I really enjoyed that even though the first time I read it I was lowkey confused.

→ Arrah

Kae: Arrah!! My sweet summer, very cursed child. Arrah is the daughter of two of the most powerful witch doctors in this world. Her mother, Arti, comes from a tribe where she was known for being the next in line to be the chief and a high witch doctor. Her father, Oshhe; who is the son of the high priestess/witch doctor and his tribe, making him one of the highest as well. This lineage from which Arrah comes from, left many to have very high expectations for her and her magical abilities. Unfortunately for Arrah, no matter how many magical rituals she went through, was not blessed with magic. She often beats herself up about it because she feels she has let her family down, and truthfully the only person she let down was her mother. Her mother is The high priestess, and I mean THE HIGH PRIESTESS The entire kingdom. So she often waves her daughter off and is not home most of the time anyway because she is fulfilling her duties at the temple. So our main character is very close with her father who is honestly everyone’s dream dad. oshhe is the epitome of a perfect father.

Geena: Reading about her relationship with her dad, I was like “it’s just not realistic.”

Kae: LMAO BUT HONESTLY THO!! So when the children start to go missing in the city people begin to worry. Arrah’s Self-proclaimed a little brother ends up going missing as well. This leads her to sell small pieces of her life in order to use magic for a short period of time and figure out who is stealing the children.

Geena: LMAO Kae’s “sweet summer, cursed child” is so accurate. All she wants to do is become a powerful witchdoctor so her mom will love her :( Despite everyone around her saying that her magic (or lack of) doesn’t define her, Arrah lives in a constant state of anxiety where magic is on her mind. She isn’t the most perfect protagonist and I liked that about her, she made dumb decisions and recognized they were stupid… but did them anyways 💀 A big fucken mood… But then again a lot of what she does throughout the book is driven by her need to help others, like finding her self-proclaimed younger brother or selling more of her lifespan to find a way to free her father from her mother’s spell. Her personal relationships are a wreck too like this girl had a crush on Rudjek, the future royal vizier, it was very much a two way crush but the whole time Arrah was like “Idk does he :////” like u absolute dumbo… EVERY SIGN POINTED TO “YES” AND SHE WAS STILL LIKE “I’m imagining things.”

→ Arrah’s Squad

Geena: Barron also wrote Arrah an amazing group of friends. Primarily, Sukar and Essnai, both her friends from the city who would travel to the tribal lands to visit their own tribes for the yearly magic ritual. Sukar was very much a himbo (like almost every guy in this book lmao) and Essnai was a wlw QUEEN who was the oNLY ONE WITH A STEADY RELATIONSHIP THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK. Barron really said lesbian rights by giving Essnai the most wholesome relationship. Sukar and Essnai didn't turn their backs on Arrah even after her family was banished from the kingdom for crimes that Arrah had nothing to do with, and even accompanied her when it was revealed that Arrah would have to die to set the world to its original state. Also…. Omg when Sukar, Essnai, and Rudjek found out that she gave some of her lifespan for magic they were literally that meme:

Arrah: So I did a thing

Them: What?

Arrah: Sold my life for 3 hours of magic

Them:

Kae: LMAOOOOOOO BINCH

Geena: I JUST LOVED HOW THEY WERE LIKE “U DUMB BITHC!!!!! I GUESS NOW WE ALL GOTTA HELP U DEAL WITH THIS” I loved their friendship so much :’)

Kae: IT WAS REALISTIC AF. I’d also like to mention how everyone and her friend group was basically like “Did you and Rudjek finally kiss yet? No? Typical.” And they would tease Arrah and Rudjek CONSTANTLY. Arrah’s friends had her back through literally everything and were ready to die by her and Rudjek’s side. They were some real ride or die friends when it came down to it. THEY WERE WITH THE SHITS.

Arrah and Rudjek: *standing near each other*

The homies:

→ Arrah’s Dad

Kae: OK so we have Arrah’s father, Oshhe, who is honestly the kindest man that I have ever encountered. He is such a wonderful father to Arrah and does everything in his power to let her know that she is loved and that she does not need to possess magic in order to be loved. He is constantly showering her with the reassurance that she needs to have two accept who she is. Arrah is in love with the stories he tells her. He also allows her to hang out with Rudjek when they both know that Arti, Arrah’s mother, would forbid it. (Rudjeks father did some foul shit to Arti when they were young and she isn’t over it… which is understandable, considering he had her tortured.) sadly, Arti curses oshhe and he is under her spell. He tried to fight it, but his magic just isn’t as strong as hers. He is complicit in whatever Arti says while he is under her curse, but he is often sweating or staring off into the distance, because he is still trying to break free. He’s basically under my control, knows he’s under my control, but is stuck behind magical, mental bars watching everything go down well he can do nothing to stop it. It’s really fucked up.

Geena: Kae summed up Oshhe really well. We learn about how he met and married someone as unloving as Arti and it’s so sad. He’d always been in love with Arti from their time at the tribes, and he still loved her when she came to the kingdom and fell in love with the King. And he was the one there after Arti was freed from her torture, even though he knew that Arti would never love him back and that she wasn’t the same woman he’d fallen for. Also, when he tells Arrah something along the lines of that when she was born he knew she’d be the love of his life bc he loved his daughter so much it’s unREAL. He went to a dangerous forest and killed a mystical animal for her. And he would have killed the gods themselves if it had come to that. And like Kae mentioned he was under Arti’s mind control but was aware of the torture she was putting Arrah through, and when he finally gains back control at the VERY END… AND DIES RIGHT AFTER?????? BRO????? I WAS LIKE THE FUCK!!! HE DID NOT DESERVE THIS!!!!!

Kae: I WAS SILENTLY SCREAMING AT MY DESK

Geena: GIRL RIGHT… IDK BUT HER DAD JUST WARMED MY HEART. HE DIDN’T DESERVE HIS DEATH…

Kae: THAT SHIT HURTED.

The Bad:

→ Arrah NOT CATCHING A BREAK

Kae: So, I’m going to backtrack just a little bit. But when Arrah sells some of her so for magic, she does like this magic phantom walk and finds out that her mother is the child snatcher. Her mother discovers that Arrah knows this and curses her so she can never speak with ill intent against her mother. So whenever Arrah tries to get help or tell someone what’s going on she literally cannot talk. It’s pure agony for her. So her mother curses Oshhe, gets pregnant by a demon via possession of him, and is exiled from the country. So they take a boat and travel to this small town that is known for its unresting spirit activity. Time also doesn’t exist in this town so it’s very hard for her to keep track of minutes, days, months, etc. they get to like this hidden Temple where Arti gives birth to Efiya, the demon baby. Efiya grows rapidly. She is born, then she’s like 5 the next day, then she’s 10. Then she’s Arrah’s age, 16. Efiya is a SUPER powerful girl who has the power of actual Gods, and she is completely unstoppable. Arrah escapes, returns home to her friends, and they’re on a mission to try to stop Efiya. Rudjek dies, comes back, she and he ditch the homies because they don’t want the homies to get hurt. WELL!!!!!!!!!!!! Gotdamn EFIYA shape shifts to look like her sister, waits until Arrah leaves for a moment to collect herself after it gets a little HOT with Rudjek, and goes to take some herbs. OUR GIRL SAID I'M NOT GETTING PREGNANT. comes back and boom. She sees him having sex with her sister. She’s shooketh. And PISSED. And hurt. Then the homies find them, blah blah blah. And long story short, they find the temple of the Gods, she fights and Efiya and they basically kill each other. BUT Arrah comes back and learns her and Rudjek can’t be together. BUT THEY KISS ANYWAY. THEY WERE LIKE FUCK IT. I'M HERE FOR A GOOD TIME NOT A LONG TIME. Oh, yeah… and Efiya killed her parents. That happened. And her grandmother. And all the elder witch doctors because she wanted to steal their magic.

Geena: Poor girl was just knocked around like a ping-pong ball. One tragedy to another 🤕 First, she can’t do magic for SHIT and her mom doesn’t love her because of that. Second, the guy she likes is her mom’s nemesis’ son. Third, every single person she cares about is taken from her one way or the other, from her adoptive lil bro to her dad. Like I thought the book couldn’t get any worse when she saw her dad be possessed, but then Rudjek dies? And when he comes back to life he ends up sleeping with her evil sister thinking it was Arrah. Right, we gotta mention… in an attempt to free the demon king Arrah’s mom has a half-demon half-god baby, aka Arrah’s sister

Kae: SHE FUCKS A DEMON!!!!!

Geena: A DEMON IN HER HUSBAND’S BODY TOO… AND ARRAH WATCHES THIS HAPPEN IM SCREAM .. AT LEAST I THINK SHE DOES BC I HAD TO RE-READ THAT CHAPTER LIKE 2 TIMES

Kae: GIRL THAT SHIT WAS SO WILD WHAT THE F U C K

Geena: AND YEA…. TO TOP IT ALL OFF TURNS OUT ARRAH IS THE REINCARNATION OF THE DEMON KING’S SOULMATE…. SO THERE’S THAT, NOT TO MENTION SHE AND RUDJEK ARE ILL-FATED BC TOUCHING EACH OTHER SAPS ARRAH’S MAGIC (which she acquires permanently after some wild rituals her grandma does before dying at Efiya’s hands). THE LIST OF EVERYTHING THAT GOES WRONG WITH ARRAH’S LIFE IS SO FUCKING LONG OH MY GOD I FORGOT HOW SHIT SHE HAD IT

The Ugly:

→ Arti and Efiya

Geena: The ugliest villains can be found in this book. We have Rudjek’s dad that had Arti tortured, which broke her mind and twisted her into an unloving and terrible person. Hearing Arti’s story pulled at your heartstrings, but did it justify her killing 12 underprivileged children to resurrect a demon with whom she’d have a baby with JUST so she could resurrect the demon king. In my opinion… no. Not even just that, but treating your own child like shit and basically ignoring she exists until the very end of the book where suddenly she feels regret for neglecting Arrah for 16 years. Overall, on a scale of 0-10 Arti is a -5 when it comes to the mom scale. Also, Arti is a powerful witchdoctor, and she cant feign ignorance because I’m pretty sure she would’ve seen the future at one point and seen everything that goes down. The only good thing she did do was kill the man that tortured her and countless other women. I feel like I’m too harsh on her given what she’s gone through, but she essentially puts Arrah through the wringer by cursing her and forcing her to watch her dad lose his own body. I’M LIKE I DONT WANT PPL TO BE LIKE ‘UR JUS BEIN A BITCH, ARTI SUFFERED TOO’ LIKE yes she did suffer, but rather than taking action against those that put her through hell she chose to ruin the lives of innocents ju kno.

Kae: YES!! Arti was on some bullshit and I get she got fucked up and the love of her life was against her. But like… don’t take that out on your daughter because you can’t use her to get back at your enemies. I think that’s exactly why she treated Arrah the way she did. Arti married Oshhe for his power in hopes to have a powerful child. When that didn’t happen, she was pissed and started planning for that damn demon baby. Her actions are all based on revenge and power and in the end, they kill everyone. Including Arrah, though she doesn’t stay dead for long. She literally is like “Nah, I got shit to do.” And the gods are like “Mmm ... we can’t let our sister be reincarnated into you again… soooo, no?” And Arrah is like “Too bad bitches!” And zooms back into her own body.

And then there’s Efiya. Efiya is described as beautiful and looks much like their mother. She starts off as a sweet little girl who just likes being around her big sister. But once she learns human things, like playing and being a child, she gets interested in that, and begins to abuse her powers.

Geena: I was kinda disappointed on how the Efiya storyline went because like Kae mentioned, she had started off as a sweet girl who loved Arrah. And I had thought Arrah would run away with Efiya and train her against Arti but bOY WAS I WRONG. Efiya is powerful and she knows it, she kills countless gods and absorbs their power, and when she kills Arrah’s grandma she tries to take her power too but for some reason it doesn’t take. Instead, Arrah ends up taking her grandma’s magic (along with every other powerful witch doctor). This annoyed the fuck out of Efiya, bc she’s supposed to more powerful than Arrah, prettier than Arrah, and just generally better at everything. So, Efiya is like ‘I can’t take your powers or see your future so I’ll fuck your man instead” …… very much 0-100. Near the end of the novel I still couldn’t tell, did Efiya really love Arti and Arrah? Because on the one hand it seemed like she hated the prospect of killing them, but on the other hand Efiya didn’t care about skewering Arti. She was a complex villain for sure, kinda in the same way Arti was.

Kae: OH. AND THE DEMON KING GAVE ARRAH SOME OF HER PAST LIFE MEMORIES BACK. So like, now a piece of Arrah feels torn because she loves everyone in her current life. But she was married to the Demon King in a past life and he is determined to have her love him again. And I feel like a very small piece of Arrah does. The Demon King wants her back so they can resurrect demons, kill the remaining Gods, and take over the world like they originally planned. SO. THERE’S THAT. A big whammy for ya there. But yeah. Shits crazy.

Geena: KJDNFDS RIGHT THE WHOLE ‘MARRIED TO THE DEMON KING IN A PAST LIFE’ SCHTICK…. THE POTENTIAL FOR ANGST???? GOD I CAN’T WAIT. This is a love triangle I CAN get behind because it’s gonna be MESSY

Kae: He also mentioned possibly trying to kill Rudjek.

Geena: Oh yea oh man.... Wait... there is a meme for this

Arrah seeing the Demon King and Rudjek throwing hands:

Conclusion

Kae: SO! In conclusion, we loved this book. The story was WILD from Start to finish. Rena is such an amazing storyteller and her descriptions that were vivid without being overdone. You know how some others like to go on for 10 pages about the smell of the wind and the bark of a tree. But Ren does it right! My favourite part of the book has to be Arrah and Rudjek . being so awkward around each other and dodging the fact that they’re both in love with each other. It was really cute because neither of them wanted to ruin their friendship and I think that was very realistic. The friendships are also beautifully written as well. And the way Rena differentiates the cultures of the tribes from one another is amazing and I felt like I was there.

Geena: I agree to everything Kae said above, Barron does an amazing job in (like what we mentioned before) worldbuilding shit. AND YEA my favourite part was like when Sukar purposely hangs around Arrah to make Rudjek jealous JUST BECAUSE IT WAS SO FUNNY TO ME. But honest to god I’m so excited to see how it’ll go from here because it’s supposed to be a trilogy right, so there is SO MUCH that can happen and there are SO MANY paths this can take.

#kingdom of souls #rena barron #book review #kos #bookly #wetalkinboutbooks #bookblr #booklr #bookish #book blogger #book blog #book blogging #bookstagram #books #reading #book shelf #our review

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evesbeve · 5 years

Text

boundaries mean nothing

Summary: It doesn't matter if Klaus is having his afternoon bath — Ben will show him his new book right here, right now. In other words, this is how you fuck up a perfectly fine Diego Hargreeves.

(Read this on AO3 + FFN)

____

Ben's favourite thing about being alive was reading all the books he had missed out on during the last decade.

To be fair, he did read some of them while he was a ghost. However, it was hard to get Klaus to cooperate and turn the pages for him — as he literally couldn't do it himself — so he'd consider his new books a win.

There were so many great authors, and the stories were endless. Unfortunately, Ben's time wasn't.

Although there wasn't really a need for the siblings to get jobs — their father happened to be the largest billionaire out there — Ben had tried running some errands around the city, to make some pocket money.

He found himself spending all of it on books, and Klaus — being the voice of reason for once — told him to get to the library instead. Which he did, by the way, but nothing beat the joy of holding your own physical copy of Eleanor & Park.

But Ben also loved fantasy novels.

When they were little kids, he used to tell Vanya all about them. His favourite scenario was when Vanya had read said books too, and they talked about all these magical worlds together.

Ben missed being that person.

What he definitely didn't miss was cliffhangers in books.

He almost threw his most recent read out the window when it ended like that. It was such a beautiful story, with well-written characters and breathtaking scenery — Ben could see the mythical world right in front of him — but there was more to it, and it made Ben feel simply unfulfilled.

He had to tell someone.

"KLAUS!"

He didn't even think about it twice when he rushed out his room with his book in hand and entered the bathroom at the end of the hallway without even knocking.

Klaus, who was apparently having the best bubble bath of his life, didn't even flinch. He was buried by millions of bubbles, steam coming out of the bathtub's hot water, and blinding the mirrors in the room.

Ben knew Klaus had noticed him. That smug grin on his face fooled no one, regardless of how much he tried to avoid eye-contact.

"Do I have to run down the hallway again for you to notice me?"

At that, Klaus turned to Ben's direction slightly, faking a gasp. "Ben! I did not see you come in here, my dear brother. How may I be of-"

"Cut the crap, Klaus, this is serious," Ben said, ignoring his brother's jokes. "I finished The School for Good-"

"-and Evil, yeah, yeah, I've heard you say the title, like, ten million times," Klaus finished for him. "You almost had me convinced it's an emergency this time."

"It is an emergency!" Ben said. "You'll never guess what happened at the end."

Klaus turned to his side, resting his head on the bathtub's edge. "Unless Sophia and Cthulhu started dating, I'm not interest-"

"For starters it's Sophie and Agatha, not Sophia and Cthulhu," Ben interrupted him. "And second, they kinda did?"

Klaus coughed, eyes widened. "Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah, seriously!" Ben said. "Sophie was basically dying — long story — and Agatha just leaned in and kissed her? And then they disappeared out of thin air, and I don't know where, the book didn't say!"

Klaus somehow sat up, facing Ben. "Wait, wasn't there like, a prince that was into one of them?"

"Yeah, he-"

Klaus burst out laughing at this, much to Ben's annoyance. "He's stuck playing third wheel to a pair of lesbians! That's a low blow-"

"No, a low blow is that I have no idea what happens next in the book," Ben interrupted, but couldn't help but smile while speaking. "Let me read the ending to you-"

"Oh come on, you don't have to-"

Ben cleared his throat, trying to suppress his urge to laugh. "The kids gathered around Sophie, who-"

"Beeeeeeen-"

"-Sophie, who was-"

It all happened too fast; Klaus splashed a little more water than needed towards Ben, and Ben reacted a bit too late, resulting in the book being soaked wet.

Ben squealed.

"Oops."

"Klaus, you asshole, I borrowed that one!" Ben said, his heart shattered at the sight of the book's ink giving out.

"Oh come on, the library loves you, I'm sure they won't mind-"

"From Five."

"Fuck."

Mutual panic was shared between them, Ben blowing on the book's pages and Klaus almost tripping while getting out of the tub to find some towels. Ben pretty much snatched them out of his hands, wrapping the book in them.

Both of them sighed in relief, sitting down on the soapy floor.

"That was a close one," Ben said out of breath. "I mean, the book is still ruined and I still went through the biggest panic attack of my life, but at least-"

"Wait a second," Klaus stopped him. "Five reads fantasy novels?"

Ben had never even thought about it.

"First of all, rude," Ben said, "and second, holy shit?"

"How did you not notice?" Klaus gestured in confusion. "If Five ever handed me something that's not an empty cup of coffee or an old scarf, I would have flipped."

"A scarf?" Ben asked. "Five wears scarves?"

"Holy shit!" Klaus exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. "I guess we really don't know Five!"

"Okay, what the hell is going-"

The two brothers turned towards the door as it opened, revealing Diego in his nightwear, who screamed as soon as he laid eyes on them.

"WHAT THE HELL, WHY ARE YOU NAKED, WHAT-"

Diego shut the door closed. Ben had never seen him look so terrified.

"Relax, Diego," Klaus silenced Diego's screams. "Ben was just telling me about his new book."

"Five's book," Ben corrected. "Which Klaus absolutely destroyed, by the way."

"In my defense, I couldn't see how much water was underneath these bubbles."

They heard a pound on the door, and Ben was almost certain it was Diego banging his head against it. "How do you not see anything wrong with this," Diego half-whimpered. "What is wrong with this family?"

"When Ben here was dead, and I was out of juice-"

"Just say drugs, you don't want to make Diego cry even more-"

"-and I was out of juice," Klaus repeated himself, making Ben shake his head, "Ben would talk to me while I was in the shower to distract me from the bad boos!"

"In my defense, he spends like, four hours soaking in water, and there's not much to do while you're a ghost. I was so bored, you can't even imag-" Ben stopped himself, backtracking in the conversation. "Did you just say bad boos? Please never say bad boos again-"

"Anyway, things got out of hand, I went out of the tub to find towels, and alas, we saved the fantasy novel! Woo!"

"Yeah, barely," Ben added. "How am I going to tell Five-"

"Five reads fantasy novels?" Diego asked through the door.

"That's what I said!" Klaus clapped his hands in joy.

"Whatever, just-" Diego sighed. "Put on some clothes and go to bed, it's late."

"You got it," Ben said, getting up.

Klaus reached for the towel in Ben's arms, and Ben pulled away before he managed to touch it.

Klaus tilted his head in confusion, a fake smile on his face. "Ben. I need this to leave the bathroom?"

Ben shook his head. "No way, I want to make sure all the water is soaked out of the book."

Klaus stood up too, opening his arms. "Ben. I need this towel."

"You brought this on yourself Klaus," Ben took a step back as Klaus approached him. "No way, you are not hugging me in the nude."

"Beeeeeen~" Klaus teased, stepping closer.

In an attempt to get further away, Ben slipped on the soapy floor, falling back and into the bathtub, that was still filled with water.

Needless to say, it splashed everywhere.

Ben coughed, grimacing as he spit the soap out his mouth. "Klaus, I'm going to end-"

But it was too late. Klaus had taken ahold of the towel and wrapped it around his waist, heading for the door. "Have fun cleaning up, Benny!"

And just like that, Klaus disappeared. At least he had left the book on top of the radiator, safe from all the water. Well, the remaining water, that was.

Ben leaned back, hating the feeling of water on his clothes more than anything.

Maybe reading books wasn't Ben's favourite thing about being alive; planning his revenge on Klaus was. But first, he had a mess to clean up, and a sequel to borrow.

The distant sound of Pogo scolding Klaus for all the yelling only satisfied that need.

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ohfiendangelical · 5 years

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first of all, i want to clarify that this is not a callout post. it’s more of a personal catharsis thing — i don’t really have any ‘receipts’, though i do have numerous other witnesses and victims. ive been intentionally vague about this for about 5 years now, trying to keep the peace and avoid any unnecessary drama.

the story i originally gave when miranda and i parted ways was that we were simply incompatible; i implied that we were both good people who ultimately brought out the worst in each other. that is partially true — we were incompatible, and we did bring out the worst in each other. however, there’s a bit more to it than that.

i met miranda through the tumblr rpc in the early days of this particular blog. i was a young teenager. miranda was older than me, though also a teenager at the time; either a junior or senior in high school. she seemed sweet at the time, though shy and insecure. she also seemed sad a lot. we bonded over a love of the film moulin rouge and writing dark subject matter. we had our characters interact, and she quickly grew attached to both zero and i.

she quickly began to exibhit strange behavior. she would pressure me to do plots i wasn’t keen on and get extremely upset if i was hesitant. she was fiercely jealous and she would use her character, abra, to vent her personal grudges and vendettas against other writers and characters i interacted with. she accused a great deal of people in our circles of plagiarism (admittedly, there were a few cases of her suspicions proving to be true) and would bully them relentlessly, sometimes to the point of chasing them off the platform. she decided she didn’t like people seemingly at random and became hostile if i continued to speak to them.

she began to refer to me as her best friend within a few months of our knowing each other. i was not comfortable with this. i didn’t think i wanted to get very close to her, even if i had fun writing with her. however, she persisted relentlessly and pressured me into saying it back, and eventually i trained myself into believing it was true.

she forced the zero and abra ship. that may come as a surprise to people who knew us back then. i didn’t want to do it, but she would have a full-blown breakdown any time i said i didn’t see the two characters ending up together — so eventually i caved and engaged fully. this was another thing i had to learn to enjoy.

any time i made a decision for myself, she would be unhappy with me. this started out as rp- and character-based decisions only, but soon upgraded to any decision regarding real life as well. she didn’t like it when i came up with my own plot ideas and would fight with me. she didn’t like it if i talked to other writers, save for the few she deemed acceptable (until she inevitably had a falling out with them and i was not allowed to speak to them anymore). she didn’t like it if i wasn’t accessable 24/7. she became hostile if she found out i had plans or was not at my computer. she would become irritated if i talked about people in my life that she didn’t already know.

eventually, it got to the point where i rarely ever left my house, afraid of the reaction i would get. due to my mental health, i began to do homeschooling in the middle of my teen years (this was not related to her), which gave her unreserved access to me. i ended up losing contact with more than half my real-life friends. this lasted about 3 or 4 years — most of my formative teen years.

where i wasn’t allowed to have other friends, engage with other writers, have other ships, leave my house, or generally have any life experience, she was. if i brought up this contradiction i would be shamed and berated for being a bad friend. if i was worried about any of the decisions she was making — self-destructive habits, engaging with dangerous people in her real life, handling her money recklessly — i would be even further shamed. she kept me from her other friends, refusing to let me speak to any of them. she publicly played up her popularity with these friends, as well as her “fans” on her personal blog, while rarely ever mentioning me. if she wanted to prove a point, she would ignore me entirely to keep me in my place while championing and publicly lauding these other people. of course, if i spoke to almost anyone other than my few rp friends (which, again, were mostly selected by her whims), there would be absolute hell to pay.

she was fairly popular on her personal blog, and became regarded as an authority and critic on social issues. a great deal of her “hot takes” were extremely damaging, or not thoroughly researched. half the time she did not know what she was talking about. if anyone disagreed with her on anything — even mundane, small things that had nothing to do with social issues — they were deemed either racist or misogynistic or both. (miranda is a latinx woman, so she has had to deal with institutional racism. i want to make it clear she wasn’t a white girl crying racism — all of this is bad enough without misleading claims.) if she were informed she could not be an authority on the plight of demographics she did not fit into, she would throw a fit and talk in circles until she came up with something to make the other person, sometimes a member of the demographic she was representing falsely, appear in the wrong.

she had a great deal of internalized homophobia that offended me (i’m bisexual), and when i called her out on it, she grew highly emotional and guilted me relentlessly. i never brought it up again. after we parted ways, she came out as a lesbian. this was after years of her throwing a fit if i so much as said i’d kiss her in a playful context — though she sexted me once. she became distressed or annoyed if i ever mentioned it, which left me feeling rather dirty and used, especially since i was 17.

the body positively movement was gaining traction around this time, so she latched onto that, “reclaiming thickness”. the problem with that is that she was rather thin with slight curves. i, however, am heavyset — and was made to feel ugly by her for it while she also talked over me about thickness, fatphobia, and body shaming to further her own personal agenda.

i underwent extreme personality changes with miranda controlling my life. i was an outgoing and confident teenager, if not a bit obnoxious, before i met her; now, to this day, i am rather reserved and shy. i have trouble befriending people. certain typing patterns make me anxious (miranda had a distinct textual tone when she was upset). my self esteem isn’t what it used to be. i have to triple check my own perceptions of things — even now, writing this, i have to wonder if everything really happened the way i remember it, or if i am just melodramatic and oversensitive.

i have countless horror stories, fragmented anecdotes. examples of her behavior.

she once claimed to have taken a bunch of pills in a suicide attempt, then immediately backtracked when i, worried sick, was preparing to call someone, saying that she threw them all up and was fine. she went to bed immediately after, making it clear she was irritated at me for responding to what i can only assume now were theatrics.

when the older boy i thought i was in love with molested me, and i — young, confused, and upset, with only a few hours having passed — considered speaking to him again, she berated me and threatened to cut all contact, saying that she “didn’t think she could be friends with someone who would do that”. (she also berated me when i expressed concern that she was still in contact with someone who abused her.)

a few months after my brother, who i loved more than anyone in the world, died unexpectedly, she expressed the news had upset her because she “knew it would change things between us” — in her mind, my grief took a backseat to the inconvenience of my attention being elsewhere.

when one of my friends expressed interest in one of my characters she was especially attached to, she came at me in violent hysterics, saying “HE’S MINE”, as though he were a real person. this fight escalated to literal life threatening perportions when my friend became hospitalized, the violent bullying and gaslighting from miranda being a factor.

when i began to hang out with my real life friends again once a week after years of isolation, she claimed that i didn’t care about our relationship and that we weren’t “working out”, and she may not want to be friends with me anymore.

i have a lot more, but i think we’ve gone dark enough for now.

i also want to bring up the way i behaved. the relationship did bring out the worst in me. i began to think like her in a lot of ways. there were times when i was cruel and manipulative and selfish. there were times when i was mean to other people. there were times when i would react to something in a melodramatic, irrational way when it didn’t have to be that way. i think that i became a really bad person for a while. there are still some habits that i’m trying to unlearn — like not saying what i mean and then getting upset with people for not knowing anyway, or being harshly critical and judgmental of those undeserving, or seeking out affection through ridiculously convoluted ways. i’m working on it. (honestly, i’m deathly afraid of turning into her.) a lot of it has been worked out of my system after five years, but there are relapses from time to time.

when i began to tell one of my friends about what i was experiencing, i slowly came to realize it wasn’t normal. i came to terms that it was abusive. eventually, i reached a point where i felt brave enough to disconnect. i told her that i couldn’t do it anymore, and then said goodbye. she tried every trick in the book into getting me to stay, but i managed.

i will still get the occasional message from her every six or so months that proves she hasn’t changed and has no intention of changing. the messages range from hostile to desperate to sad and asking for forgiveness.

based on what ive heard from other people, she’s only gotten worse.

there are currently 6 other people i can think of off the top of my head who also had traumatic experiences with miranda. and that’s just the few i know of.

so, there you go — that person i wrote with for years and years and seemed so happy with was basically keeping me hostage. i know that may come as a shock to some, and not to others. i hope anyone else who has been hurt by her is also brought some relief by the truth finally coming out: no, you weren’t crazy!

if anyone else would like to come forward, too, i’m always listening. it may help to talk about it.

#i'm not doing any formatting on this post because it feels needlessly vain to worry about aesthetics when this is kinda serious #anyway give this a read #if you want to reblog it that's okay too #it felt very cathartic to write this out! but also stressful #☆ offscreen .

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wbwest · 7 years

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New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/08/25/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-82517/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 8/25/17

In movie news, there was quite the controversial casting this week, as the color lines blurred for some comic book adaptations. First up, it was announced that English actor Ed Skrein would be portraying Japanese character Ben Daimio in the upcoming Hellboy reboot. Now, according to what I’ve read, Daimio’s Japanese heritage heavily influences the character, so this whitewashing of the character doesn’t seem to be in the best interest of the character. I mean, after the problems with whitewashing in Doctor Strange, Ghost in the Shell, Aloha, The Great Wall, and Ni’ihau, you’d think Hollywood would avoid shit like this. Yes, movies are made to make money, but it’s not like Skrein is a bankable star worth slotting into the role, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Usually this is done for the film’s STARS. Damon, Johansson, Stone. This is a secondary character, so it really wouldn’t have hurt them to seek out an Asian actor. Normally I’m just like “Well, Hollywood’s gonna Hollywood”, but this decision just doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Next up, 24: Legacy’s Anna Diop has been cast as Starfire in Warner Bros’ Titans series, slated to air on DC’s upcoming digital service. Some folks are saying they should’ve cast a Latina, but she’s gonna either be painted or CGied in orange, so it’s not like it’s gonna matter at the end of the day. Personally, if they wanted authenticity, I think they should’ve cast an actual orange alien princess. Right now there are just too many unknowns for me to get excited about this. I mean, DC announced the digital service without a lot of information. What’s gonna be on it? What will it cost? How much of the DC library will be available to be housed on it? As for Titans, this is the show TNT passed on. Ya know, the home of such illustrious shows as The Librarians and The Last Ship. I mean, they’re basically just about a notch up from what we got in the 90s from Universal’s Action Pack lineup. If Titans couldn’t fit anywhere on that schedule, then it probably just isn’t “ready for primetime” yet.

Speaking of aimless Warner Bros decisions, they announced 2 different Joker movies this week. First up is an origin tale, directed by Todd Phillips of Old School fame, and produced by Martin Scorsese. Hmm, one of those things is not like the other. I mean, why would Scorsese touch something helmed by the dude who gave us Road Trip? And who even WANTS a Joker origin story? First of all, it’s reportedly not even going to be part of the DCEU, so why confuse the audience with a story that won’t even really “count” in the grand scheme of things? Nobody needs a standalone origin of a take on a character they’ll likely never see again. This is just as foolish as Sony’s Don’t-Look-For-Spider-Man-To-Appear Venom movie. Next, the guys behind This Is Us (SO hot right now!) and Crazy, Stupid, Love are working on a Bonnie & Clyde-style Joker and Harley film, with Jared Leto and Margot Robbie reprising their roles from Suicide Squad. Since this would sort of negate the empowerment that Harley gained by the end of Squad, it’s believed that this actually means that the planned Gotham City Sirens film, also slated to star Robbie, is now dead. Honestly, I could do without either of these movies. I found Leto’s take on Joker to be…interesting, but Less is More with that character. Plus, I don’t really think the DCEU would be strengthened by this sort of movie. It’s not the world-building they need to be doing right now, as they haven’t even figured out the core of their star characters like Batman and Superman yet.

In TV news, Christopher Sebela’s comic Heartthrob has been optioned as a TV series by Felix Culpa – a production company launched by actress/Elvis’s granddaughter Riley Keough. Now, comics are optioned every day, and the final product never comes to fruition, but I hope this series sees the light of day. I’m actually a big fan of the comic, which is published by Oni Press. Set in the late 70s, it focuses on Callie, who’s received a heart transplant while the process is still in its infancy. Given a new lease on life, but still told she’s basically living on borrowed time, she decides to change her life when she meets Mercer, a charming guy with a shady side. She immediately falls for him, and he teaches her how to be bad, like rob banks and commit other crimes. She gets off on the rush. Pretty soon, however, she realizes that Mercer isn’t real. No, he’s actually the ghost of the guy whose heart is now in Callie. So, it’s a Bonnie & Clyde story where Clyde’s calling the shots from the afterlife. The book is published in “seasons”, so the first 5-issue miniseries wrapped up back in early 2016, while season 2 is hitting stores now. If you’re looking for a new comic not from the Big Two, I highly recommend it.

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In music news, Taylor Swift did a whole social blitz to announce that her next album would be called Reputation, and would be released Nov 10th. On top of that, the first single was released last night, with rumors that the video will premiere at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards. Ya know, the same awards hosted my Taylor’s enemy Katy Perry. Yeah, that should be pretty interesting to watch. Anyway, the new song is called “Look What You Made Me Do”, and I’m not too impressed. It lacks a real hook, while the chorus itself is basically spoken. I feel like it has all the ingredients for a great song, but it’s not living up to its full potential. If this is an indicator of what to expect on Reputation, though, I’ll admit I’m curious. It can’t be worse than Perry’s Witness.

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Speaking of Katy Perry, we got the premiere of her video for “Swish Swish”, which was reportedly her diss track against Taylor Swift. After a lot of backtracking and sucking up, though, it seems Katy wants to put that feud behind her. That’s why this horrible video does everything it can to take the bite out of a song that was never really that biting to begin with. I mean, just look at it – Molly Shannon? Terry Crews? Even Nicki Minaj was clearly CGied in, as I’m sure she didn’t wanna be anywhere near this shitshow. The sad thing about the Perry/Swift feud is that Katy bailed on it the minute she realized the Swifties were a more powerful lobby than she had thought. Nobody was feeling her SNL performances, and Witness didn’t exactly fly off the shelves. She realized that she can’t really survive by making enemies, so suddenly she became conciliatory to save her ass. Plus, it’s kinda lame that this blood feud started just because Taylor stole a few of Katy’s dancers for her tour. Anyway, you’ll never get those 6 minutes back. You’re welcome.

I had the pleasure of joining my buddy Zac for his new podcast, The Zac Shipley Show. He’s treating these first few episodes as pilots for ideas he’s wanted to try, so our ep was called Streaming Pile, where we talked about the worst things we could find on streaming services. I talked about a Star Trek: Voyager episode where formerly perky pixie Kes returns all middle-aged and bitter. You should check it out, and give a listen to his other episodes while you’re there!

Song of the Week

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I’ve been a big Maren Morris fan since she released “My Church”, and I was really into her next single, “80s Mercedes”. With this song she continues not to disappoint, as I love the groove on this thing. Listen to the bassline. It’s not a dance song, yet you can do a MEAN two-step to it. Hell, I think you could even do a casual version of The Hustle to it. This will definitely go to #1 given time.

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

NBC’s planned reboot of Xena: Warrior Princess – which would’ve featured a full-on lesbian relationship between her and Gabrielle – is officially dead, as they said “it didn’t warrant a reboot”. Man, if only other studios would realize this about some of their projects…

Director James Gunn mentioned in a Q & A session that the 3rd Guardians of the Galaxy film would set up the next 10-20 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yup, you’re just now realizing your own mortality. I’ll give you a minute to deal with that.

Speaking of Gunn, he’s attached to write the pilot for (and possibly direct) a reboot of 70s series Starsky & Hutch. This adaptation is supposed to be similar in tone to CBS’s upcoming S.W.A.T. and not comedic in tone like the 2004 Ben Stiller & Owen Wilson movie.

Surprising every critic in Hollywood, Netflix has renewed the maligned comedy Friends From College for a second season.

Known for controversial publicity stunts, Alamo Drafthouse is reportedly organizing a Clowns Only screening of the new adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

We got a new poster for Thor: Ragnarok. So many colors!

Michael K. Williams has reportedly been cut from the Star Wars Han Solo film, as Ron Howard’s reshoot schedule conflicted with another role that Williams had accepted.

There are, like, 8 different Knight Rider reboot treatments floating around Hollywood, but the latest rumor is that one of those productions is looking at John Cena as Michael Knight, with Kevin Hart as the voice of K.I.T.T. Of course, it would be a comedic adaptation, a la the popular Jump Street franchise.

Super Troopers 2, the sequel to one of the most overrated films I’ve ever seen, will hit theaters April 20th, 2018.

Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson will star in Nasty Women, which is a female-led reboot of the Michael Caine/Steve Martin classic Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Independence Day: Resurgence‘s Jessie T Usher will star in Son of Shaft, with Samuel L. Jackson potentially reprising his role as John Shaft (from the 2000 reboot film), the nephew of the original John Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree, who is also in talks to join the movie. Man, that gave me a headache.

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Always on the cutting edge, here’s Sesame Street’s parody of 2017’s song of the summer, “Despacito”

According to the creators, the Netflix series Stranger Things will most likely end after its fourth season

The actress formerly known as “Andrea Zuckerman”, Gabrielle Carteris, has been re-elected to a 2-year term as the President of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)

Ryan Gosling will host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, with musical guest Jay-Z, on Sept 30th.

Jamie Bell is developing a Jumper TV series, based on the 2008 film about teleporters

Suicide Squad 2 is reportedly being fast tracked, but I hope they fast track it right into the garbage. I mean, I enjoyed the first one, but I don’t need a sequel.

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I like Nick Kroll, even though I never saw even a second of Kroll Show. Anyway, he’s got a new animated series about puberty called Big Mouth coming to Netflix and after watching this teaser I am ON BOARD!

We’re a month away from the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, and it was revealed that it will be rated TV-MA, for Mature Audiences. Now, it doesn’t mean there’ll be tits and phasers, but it does mean they can tell more complex stories. That said, I still feel like they don’t truly understand the source material.

After a scathing essay from his ex-wife went public, accusing him of adultery and other generally shitty behavior to women, Joss Whedon went underground and the fan site, Whedonesque, shut down after 15 years.

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We got a new teaser for Netflix’s The Punisher. With the rate I’m getting through these Marvel shows, I’ll probably get to it just before Evie goes off to Hogwarts.

There was a national solar eclipse this week, which was the first occurrence since 1918. I’m sure you might’ve heard something about it. It was kind of a big deal. Folks were pimping out special cardboard glasses on Craigslist for insane amounts of money, and the American President made news by looking directly into it. It seems that it had a strange effect on different folks. For example, Netflix viewership went down 10% as people went outside to view the phenomenon. Not everyone understood what was going on, bless their hearts. At work, a frantic parent called in and said “Y’all watching the news? You hear about this eclipse? Is it serious?!” Apparently she thought it posed some sort of danger to her kids and the school. No, ma’am. It’s just a beautiful sky ballet. Anyway, the eclipse was EVERYWHERE. I didn’t get to see totality, but it was still nice to stand outside for a bit on a nice day. What am I saying? I hate the outdoors! Well, it was nice to not have to work for a few minutes. You couldn’t escape the Eclipse Fever at the start of the week, so that’s why the Solar Eclipse of 2017 had the West Week Ever.

#80s #Batman #Comics #Country #DC #Indie #Knight Rider #Marvel #Movies #Music #Politics #Pop #Race #Star Trek #Star Wars #Television #West Week Ever #Wrestling

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