#but i think she just reflects very interesting aspects of the girls
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what if i cried and throwed up aka cat gets to take her girls to the riverlands
#my art#asoiaf#a song of ice and fire#catelyn tully#catelyn stark#arya stark#sansa stark#the starks#game of thrones#game of thrones fanart#got#a clash of kings#a storm of swords#a feast for crows#a dance with dragons#i just wish we got more of cat and her girls#obvi i am glad she hangs out with her eldest daughter son robb#but i think she just reflects very interesting aspects of the girls#anyways i think shed love to teach the girls games her and lysa played as children that are not really possible in the north#with the difference in weather and whatnot
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Time to ramble. I’m thinking about the way Arya and Sansa fans seem to get into this debate about who was more lonely and neglected in Winterfell. Which is kind of funny because then the arguments get totally reversed when debating other aspects of the characters. But anyway. The general arguments seem to be:
1. Arya was clearly the neglected outcast. This is clear in the meta narrative because of her connection to Jon and the fact that she doesn’t look like her true born siblings. The more direct evidence comes from the way Sansa and Jeyne teased her, the harshness of Septa Mordane, and Catelyn’s exasperation. It can be inferred that Arya feels a sense of insecurity wrt to her family ties as she wonders if her own mother would want her back after everything that happened. It can be assumed that she was a bit of an outcast based on her disinterest in the things expected of her as a girl, and we see the way many characters look down upon non-conforming women and girls in-universe. Sansa, on the other hand, receives praise from her mother and the septa and has two named close friends in Winterfell. She happily conforms to what is expected of her as a highborn girl and we can assume she would fit in in Winterfell.
2. Sansa was clearly the neglected outcast. This is clear in the meta narrative because she is the only one to lose her direwolf, which is the family symbol. The more direct evidence comes from contrast with Arya, whom Sansa observes can “make friends with anybody,” seemingly in contrast to herself. Ned agreed to kill Lady despite knowing she was innocent and indulged Arya’s interest in swordplay whilst being unenthusiastic about indulging Sansa’s interest in tourneys. Arya is demonstrated to be beloved by Ned’s men in a way we do not observe with Sansa. We can assume that Sansa didn’t feel like she belonged because of her interest in sothron culture, something none of her siblings share. Arya, on the other hand, is extroverted, makes friends easily, is northern in appearance, and has no interest in sothron culture, so we can assume she fit in in Winterfell.
I actually don’t think a lot of the points in the two arguments is mutually exclusive. We also have to remember POV bias. Arya doesn’t reflect on Any friends her age she had at Winterfell (I am not including Mycah because I am under the impression they became friends on the way to King’s Landing), but Arya is not one to reflect and reminisce. Sansa notices that Arya can make friends with anyone, but she doesn’t experience Arya’s inner world. What does Sansa mean by making friends? Does she see Arya having fun and being at ease talking to anyone and feel envy, since she herself feels like is performing, always minding her manners, when she’s socializing with most people? Could it be that Arya is friendly but struggles to find long term close friends like Jeyne and Beth, attributing this disparity to Sansa’s “ladylike” interests? Could it be that being teased by Sansa and her friends and scolded by Catelyn and Mordane has made Arya assume that other girls wouldn’t be interested in close friendship with her, causing her to be friendly but keep a certain distance? (**please note I am not trying to make a case for nlog Arya. I think keeping a distance because you assume you’ll be rejected is different and does not require that she looks down upon other girls, because there is no evidence for that here**)
I don’t have a good conclusion I just think it’s interesting that this is something that gets debated because the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. We can’t know because we get very few flashbacks and the story picks up when their normal lives in Winterfell end. I can’t speak to George’s intentions but if we pretend they’re real people I’d speculate that both would have felt misplaced within Winterfell at times, envying certain traits about the other
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regarding character design in gacha games- if you haven’t played many, I will show examples from some popular ones here. This is for reference regarding confusion as to why incels often play these games. This isn’t to cover everything in these games either, there are games with much more absurd designs and I’m not even going to get into the “sexy little girl” designs a lot of them have. In the future I plan to research more and intend to make a concise post regarding the incel relationship with these games. These character designs and tropes exist across societies and are enforced through many types of media - it’s not just gacha games alone perpetuating them. I think they are however hypervisual in this specific genre mostly due to the huge amounts of money being spent by players in “purchasing” them. again this is just for reference, if you already are familiar with female character gacha design feel free to skip this. I’ll put it under a cut.
gacha games are infamous for typically having extremely sexualized female characters who will usually flatter the assumed male player. Again there are some that designers and writers will dress more chaste or have them give the player shit, but by “winning” these characters they are now “yours” anyway, they are not real women and therefore can’t walk away. I believe a big part of this appeal is due to incel men wanting to control a woman designed for an audience of people like him. The hypersexualization serves both to flatter his idea of a woman’s true place (his consumption) and to create a very rigid and obvious differentiation between men and women during a time when women are fighting tooth and nail for their dignity and equal rights.
Nostalgia and rigid character design dichotomy can be seen in the extremely popular gacha game Fate/Grand Order, I believe a good piece of its success can be attributed to this. There are thousands of Japanese gacha games that take already popular anime franchises and create a money pit gacha with them, it’s been happening for over a decade now. These games usually make bank taking already popular characters and giving them hypersexualized alts and costumes. FGO is an interesting phenomenon to me because it seems like for a lot of fans, the Fate franchise’s cultural touchstone is now this actual gacha game. The game adds popular existing Fate characters of course, so you can see how different the gacha character designs are from the VN/animes:
When you can only watch them/read their stories, the characters are dressed like the above examples. When they are added to the game and you can buy and own them, they look like the bottom examples.
The (rare) depiction of darker skinned female characters in these gacha games is pretty uniform across the board- they are somehow, consistently, sexualized even more than the other female characters, they are often exoticized and sometimes have a “wild” or rebellious looking aspect incorporated. I would consider this something the intended audience expects to see, regardless of the truth, and the gacha game reflects this back to their customers, therefore enshrining this damaging stereotype to its audience. These examples don’t account for everything of course.
As to not offend the delicate male viewer, these games also typically design furry/animal characters by having the female retain the most human-like features (like a small and delicate face) while the male is allowed to actually look like the animal. When a female character has armor that conceals her sex, there is of course a version of her you can “upgrade” where she takes off her armor to reveal a very delicate girl in revealing clothing.
Typically, the consumer will see powerful, sturdy looking male designs that attempt to not alienate the straight male viewer first before adding “sexy” elements. In contrast, female characters are almost always very thin (often with exaggerated tits and ass) and her pose is chosen to show off her body first, before her power. This is an Arknights dual banner that displays this design philosophy well:
some of the biggest incel shitfits come from male designs they see as being sexualized and objectified as the typical female design. these are 3 characters Korean incels have lost their minds over:
In their world, the rigid sex dichotomy is breaking down and the hierarchal system of gender where men are on top is being threatened. they don’t feel powerful seeing lithe and skimpily dressed men, and they aren’t the hentai “femboy” fetish these guys seem ok with either. incels see these games as their playground. when designs like these are included, they see it as their job to rectify this. Lyney’s costume and demeanor is too “sexy” and “gay” for Korean incels, they mass dislike his character trailer and write hateful comments across SNS. Sinclair is shirtless and wearing a collar - Korean incels are furious he’s wearing less than the female summer character and see the collar as meaning he’s a “slave” for the female customer. This snowballs into them targeting a female artist on staff, Vellmori, and getting her fired even though it was a male artist who illustrated the cards. I’ve posted Korean incels comments on the Honkai Star Rail character- similar to Lyney, they are angry he looks “slutty” and/or “gay” since he has a boob window and detached sleeves. This is too similar to how the female characters are made “sexy” and it means women have prominent roles creating for these games, something incels of course hate. Regarding the role women should have in creating these games, a Korean incel wrote (after seeing photos that include many female staff members at Mihoyo) that they should just be there working at the cafe to serve coffee to male employees and look pretty for them.
In regards to how some of these games are marketed, we can again look to the article written by a Korean woman who was a victim of feminist ideological verification.
character designs for NIKKE and Destiny Child:
what the gameplay for NIKKE looks like:
#limbus company#arknights#genshin impact#honkai star rail#fgo#fate grand order#nikke#nikke goddess of victory#destiny child
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skip and loafer chapter 55 thoughts
this chapter was so poignant but one aspect that stood out to me was all it told us about mika & mukai's dynamic so far!
mukai followed along on a whim & subsequently ended up witnessing a lot of vulnerability on mika's end, someone who he still doesn't have a good grasp on yet—after seeing her worst + being surprised by her capacity for kindness, his perception of her is continually being challenged & muddled. we've seen already how mukai is a very logical, cut & dry person in his thinking, so imo mika's Layers are both confusing & intriguing to him.
at the same time i thought it was interesting how mukai realizes that mika ALSO doesn't have a clear perception of him—though their scenes always feel very Intentional, they actually have not interacted a ton within the context of the friend group, esp given their rocky start.
so from there, we get this juxtaposition within mika & mukai's relationship where they are v unsure of each other and yet there's an odd sense of trust there. it's definitely not an ACTIVE trust, but something more peripheral; mika doesn't mind mukai being there while she talks to nao because, in her mind, mukai already knows abt this insecurity so she isn't revealing anything new to him. after opening up to nao, she apologizes to mukai for getting him caught up in her venting; despite this, it really struck me how this felt like such growth for her to simply move on rather than carrying the feeling around shamefully. it's like a weight lifts off mika's shoulders & it's cathartic for this to happen in front of mukai, who was the accidental catalyst for her confession to shima. mukai, in contrast, seems more unsure than ever.
he's puzzled to realize that mika's confession to shima wasn't fueled by a desire for reciprocation but rather the courage it took her to express her feelings openly, instead of always attempting to hide behind a facade & never experience the vulnerability in risking rejection. we know that mukai's experience of romantic confessions is almost entirely filtered through shima, since he's never been confessed to himself—and it's interesting how mika's confession to shima directly flies in the face of how negatively shima feels about being confessed to.
for shima, girls confessing to him has always been a sign of what's expected of him, people wanting something specific FROM him rather than liking him as a person—now that mukai knows how drained that makes shima feel, it's interesting that he learns mika's reasons for confessing & how they're entirely different, motivated by a desire to be brave rather than expecting something of the other person. nevertheless, this leaves mukai with a lot of conflicting thoughts in his head about how a confession should make you feel. again, he's very logical, so the ambiguity is confusing to him! (and all of us honestly)
but then, back at the house, we see mika through mukai's point of view—she shoots him a look!—at which point he decides that he couldn't think of being confessed to as "not that great." i'm just gonna let that sit there :)
so with that!! i loooooved all this chapter gave us to work with in the development of these characters, esp mika & mukai's dynamic!!!! with a character like mukai who spends so much time as an observer, it's so fun to see him start to actually reflect on his own point of view within the story, like he feels himself going from being the background character in everyone's lives to really developing his own outlook—and it's all thanks to girl of all time mika egashira who inspires EVERYONE to think nine million thoughts trying to understand her.
#skip and loafer#sukirofa#mika egashira#mukai tsukasa#mikamukai#tagging for before they get famous#this chapter had such powerful moments w nao chan and mika so ofc i was a mess reading that and then mukai thoughts were my most coherent#my meta#skip and loafer meta#zoe.txt
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How do you think Mobius will live his life in the timeline? Many theorize that something happens to Don and Mobius takes his identity so his sons live with a father. I prefer that Mobius reflects on his old life, realizes he can’t live it, and creates his own life.
Oh, boy, Anon. I have a lot of fanfic ideas for this, but let's get into the meta-analysis side of this before we get into the rabbit hole that is my washer-dryer machine of an imagination.
Mobius is not doing well. He is going through the stages of grief. I've written an extensive meta here regarding the darker aspects of his character and how he's at risk by the end of the series. I also wrote a brief meta here regarding how his grief might manifest.
With this in mind, I actively HATE the idea of Mobius spiraling to the point he becomes "corrupted". I don't what Michael Waldron did to Wanda. I guess you could make the argument that it would be interesting to see a man emotionally unravel in such a way, but I hold Mobius's unshakable kindness dear in my heart. I don't ever want him to lose it because it is essentially his superpower.
[Sidebar: comics canon House of M notwithstanding; Marvel and DC comics canon are consistently horrible in their characterization of exceptionally powerful women: Wanda Maximoff Jean Grey/Phoenix; Carol Danvers/then Ms. Marvel; Rogue; on and on; I'll throw Sylvie in here, too, because why not, it's true.]
I see Mobius mourning Loki for two years. Two years because, statistically, that is how long it takes for most people who've lost an intimate loved one to get out of clinical depression. During this period, I see him losing weight, wandering aimlessly between timelines, trying and failing to copy Don's life by taking a job that involves jet skis or aquatics more generally. B-15 would make a point to check-in on him and know he's not doing well, but Mobius, because he does not want anyone to worry about him, because he is used to being the person who keeps people together, insists he's fine.
MY FANFIC IDEA
I see Mobius eventually recognizing he needs a therapist, which he will find ironic and deeply troubling, but he's not about to give up on trying to live for Loki's sake.
And in his conversations with his therapist and B-15, Mobius will come to realize that he can still use his key strengths outside of the TVA: analyzing people, deconstructing what makes them tick, using that knowledge to help the other person, similar to a therapist but more active in support. Mobius is very well-suited to become a social worker of troubled and at-risk youth. I think he should pursue this and ...
Mobius will choose a branched timeline in the late 90s/early 2000s. There, he will meet a war-orphaned, thirteen year-old Wanda Maximoff, who is friendless and struggling to understand the nature of her powers (magic). Mobius is drawn to her right away. It takes time, but he eventually gains Wanda's trust.
Red. Red is Wanda's color. It's in her hair, her cheeks, her magic. Now that red reaches Wanda's eyes, filled with tears her anger stoppers. "You saw what I can do. What I did. The other kids call me a 'witch' 'cause that's what I am. A witch. A monster."
Mobius sits next to the young girl on the stoop. The sun winks at them through the green tree boughs, and he wonders, for a moment, what Loki might think of him now, finding solace in a child who needs solace.
"That's not true. You're not a monster, but I tell you what: witches are pretty cool." Mobius grins, knocking his knee against hers. The fabric of his slacks shakes, still too loose. "Y'know, my best friend has magic just like yours, except it's green instead of red."
Wanda peers at him, hopeful and dubious. "Really?"
"Yup. He had a tough time, too, being different." He leans closer to her, sharing a secret. "But things got better. You should've seen him. He was--is-- magnificent. You're magnificent."
Her lips purse into an embarrassed smile. She drops her head, thoughtful, and tucks her hands beneath the fold of her knees. "Where is he now? Do you still see him?"
The question is innocent, as all things are with a soul of thirteen. She doesn't mean to hurt him. Mobius knows this. So he takes the thorn of her words and presses it against his ribcage. His throat works. The ache comes and goes but never fully abates.
"Well," Mobius sighs. "He had to move on. Life is like that sometimes. People come and go. Things happen and ... there's not much you can do except hope they're okay. That they're happy and safe."
He can't look up. Not at the tree or the sun. He worries if he does, he'll start to cry, and that won't do when this girl who reminds him so much of his wily god has finally cracked a smile.
"C'mon," he says, rising to his feet. "Let's get you something to eat."
"McDonald's?" Wanda brightens.
Another thorn. He takes that one too and thinks of pretty roses.
"Whatever you want, kiddo."
#anon asks#asks#loki#mobius#lokius#loki series#loki season 2#loki headcanons#my headcanons#my fanfic ideas#loki meta#my meta#lokius fanfic#wanda maximoff#scarlett witch#my writing
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I finished redecorating all my villagers’ houses! 🥳
Design thoughts/infodump under the cut!
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So when designing these houses I had several goals in mind. Trinket is a movie production themed island and each villager has a role on set, so I wanted to incorporate parts of that into their houses. When possible I also tried to keep aspects of their original houses, and I tried to decorate them in fun and interesting ways while still keeping the space livable. That meant leaving plenty of space for the villager and a guest or two to walk around. Overall I wanted each house to be a comfortable place for the villager to live in! Last, I tried to give each villager their own little hobby or interest to add flavor. I did this a little bit on my first island with my villagers’ yards, but now that I have the DLC, I could go all out by decorating the interiors!
Individual notes (in order of the images above):
Quinn: I kept a lot of the original design for her, but I added most of the small flavor items. Quinn is the writer for Trinket Studios, but I decided she’s also a hobbyist chef! She experiments with new recipes for herself and her neighbors in her spare time
Jacques: I kept the underground music aspects of his house, but I gave him a couple of guitars too and some brick walls to spray paint. Jacques is the crew member who assembles sets and creates props, so I figure his music and art is where he gets to make things that are just for himself (and whichever neighbors want to come see!)
Phil: the main thing I changed about his house was the color scheme, I wanted to switch the red for cool colors like peacock feathers, to match Phil bc he’s a gaudy, big time actor. He’s one of the leads in the blockbuster museum heist/international spy movie that’s being filmed on Trinket. Small details but I love the pattern on his lamp, and the shell music box is playing KK Adventure, which when it’s played in a music box style ends up being a cute song for our action hero to relax to in his spare time
Ruby: okay I get that Ruby’s original room is space because she’s a moon rabbit and that’s her whole design but consider: cute little space themed cafe on a street corner. You see the vision. I had the song Space Cadette by Back to Yours playing on repeat for days when I made this. Ruby shares the lead actress role with Coco for the summercamp horror movie also being filmed on Trinket, she’s the alive version of the girl who comes back to haunt the camp
Jay: he is our other crew member, he’s in charge of plants and landscaping on set (very important given how many different nature sets there are). He also likes gardening and nature outside of work, and he likes to skateboard because… well because I had just gotten the item and it sounded fun! I wish there were more skateboarding items I could give him tbh, like a little ramp or something
Coco: this is one of the houses I kept the least inspiration from. Her original design is based in archaeology, but I wanted to give her something cute and sweet. Coco plays the vengeful spirit that gets awakened in the summercamp horror movie, but outside of acting she’s a very sweet girl who likes to make music! I think she and Jacques have both also developed some of the musical scores used in various movies
Sasha: I love this one so much!! I kept his house’s vibes and his stuffed animals, and I gave him a little stargazing spot and a firefly (bc if he’s gonna talk about the bugs whispering to him then I gotta give him a little bug friend). He’s the heartthrob lead actor of the summercamp horror movie, he’s very popular with the tween girl audience.
Monique: she’s a fancy, glitz and glam, well-known actress, so her home reflects that. I think I kept literally nothing from her original house. She has some record disks and a nice camera laying around, so she still finds some time for enjoying and making art in between all her fancy actressing. She’s currently the femme fatale in the museum heist/spy film.
Marlo: he’s an old old man who likes the simple things in life; building model toys and being an aircraft enthusiast. What’s the point of having a long successful acting career if not to spend it on lovingly crafting model trains and gundams. Once he (read: I) gets his hands on the model DAL plane, it’s over for you hoes. On set, he’s the Alfred to Phil’s Bruce Wayne.
Tiffany: this was the last home I decorated! Her home already had a kind of bar games theme, so I amped it up into a full club and bar! She’s the supporting actress for Monique, they’re a dastardly, hyper competent, internationally wanted, honestly pretty gay pair of art thieves. But in her spare time she mostly just wants to host huge parties for all her friends ❤️
And that’s all of them! They all also have their own yards that reflect more of their personalities and interests, and the rest of Trinket is covered in movie sets and cameras for both the two movies currently being filmed and several others from the studio’s past. It’s a very fun project that I’ve been working on for the past year or so 💞💞💞
#i also like all my little outfits#i think only some of the houses will be visitable when i post the dream address which SUCKS so i’m posting all of this here#but they’re all in their own little neighborhoods too and it’s so cute#if you read all this thank you ily i love trinket so much!!#acnh#trinket#sepulchritudinous#undescribed
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i may be just gasping at straws here but there is something just. so insane about how the nature of kendall and shiv’s relationship is somewhat cannibalistic. like shiv spitting in his drink and kendall drinking it anyway and the ‘i love you but i cannot fucking stomach you’ and the idea of kendall being the sacrificial lamb in 2x10 + shiv’s ‘can’t eat’ . like the whole consumption aspect of it all.. just wondering if you had any thoughts on it i suppose!!
YES very true. the kitchen scene is a callback to their childhood in more ways than one--it reflects the siblings' relationship with each other and with food and how they're linked (dyou remember the summer of competitive eating disorders:)). its notable that only shiv and kendall say they're hungry despite none of them having eaten dinner, and that kendall is the only one who ends up eating anything. roman licks the cheese as a joke, passes the ingredients to shiv, who actually blends the discordant foods together, and together they feed kendall this drink that is definitely terrible for him. siblings ! no but i do think its an unsubtle metaphor but it works ! kendalls position as the heir has always relied on roman being the weaker dog bolstering his position, on shiv being the baby who will never get it bc shes a girl. and if he wont drink the rest, they'll drench him with it, turn his own promised position against him in jealousy and self interest and a mistaken notion of love
and shiv spitting in it was very much foreshadowing, yeah. i liked how it was a callback to her spitting in kendalls notebook after the "rape me/i'm not the only one," incident during her speech--it was a childish act then, and its one now, and it shows how any attempts at enmity or solidarity come from the same place of shared abuse, of seeing someone better than you see yourself and punishing them for the traits you share. kendall drinking it again reflects how his position will never be untinged by shivs simultaneous understanding as well as animosity. mirror traps real
the way this all relates to the characters' relationships with food is also ofc very interesting. roman doesnt eat at all, he denies his body and sees it as evidence of his failure to be logan's son. he never wanted ceo, it couldn't have been him, dad's death cements the impossibility of the love he craved by which proximity to the ceo position was made valuable at all. shiv admitted she was starving but never ate anything, only asked her mom if there was food. she brings up food only as a move, only as something that can serve her, because to acknowledge it otherwise would be weakness. ofc this is reflective of her relationship with power, and love--she'll bring it up first so she's noted as being aware of the cards at play without showing her hand. but she never actually gets it because when she's said the quiet part out loud, voiced her ambition, there's nothing stopping the quiet parts of her weaknesses in this world from being consumed i.e. her womanhood :) in the end all she can do is acknowledge the fact of her starvation, and spit into the poisonous food bowl while still hungry.
ofc its kendalls bowl she's spitting into. he sees food as fuel, as something that gets him where he needs to go, but never actually enjoys it, and sees such enjoyment as juvenile--we're not at buckley anymore--but his firm belief in rationality and health corresponding to awareness means its another step to the ideal position that doesn't really exist. at the end of the day he will drink the concoction because he considers himself stronger for it. i did a fucking year in shangai, i'm ready, etc
ultimately this is reflected in their choices in the endings. roman says yes first then retracts with shiv. i think hes the one who says shiv has no stomach for admin which is like, him pinning the decision to support kendall as well as the consideration to kill him onto shiv lol. SHIV doesnt have the stomach for admin, and SHIV cannot stomach kendall, and it comes down to the same thing--shiv shutting kendall out bc she's never been able to digest his choices. this DOES relate to pierce ofc and logan throwing up at the breakfast and ultimately waystar being a declining corporation that could never have eaten up pierce. do you see what im saying do you see how it makes sense from this angle that shiv was the only one who ended up still "in," even if only as the ceo's wife. shiv being unable to stomach kendall is the final nail in the coffin--its acceptance of this fact. of the death of waystar, and by extension logan. anyway i keep thinking about how when they all trooped into the kitchen, wet through, kids again, there was never really any real food in the fridge :)
#shiv roy#kendall roy#roman roy#machinery#usually i would just tag this sibs but its not really abt them as siblings more abt them individually rip. organized blog at what cost#hopefully this makes sense lmao i rehashed some stuff but truly the kitchen scene is one of my favs and not just bc theyre having fun <3#i barely touched the surface when it came to pierce waystar being eaten etc etc but i hope the connections r clear. girls when METAPHORS#anyway. ty for the ask i enjoyed answering this <33#sorry it got so long lol i could go on honestly theres aspects i missed#answered#did not proofread btw so if you see spelling errors etc no you dont <3
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[ID in alt text]
hello and welcome to my killjoys stage adaptation ted talk, brought to you by That One Mutual Who Doesn’t Play About Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. i’m not including my whole presentation (that i didn’t actually get to present) because most of it is not of interest here - there’s not as much about the technical aspects which is what i want to focus on - but i am showing you my title slide because it slays. this will contain spoilers for the comics.
I. theatre configuration & the set
no way are we putting this show on in a proscenium theatre. i am not going to make you sit there, in the nosebleeds, watching this story play out. my ideal theatre configuration for this show would be a mostly static set (not as many scene changes) with audience seating integrated throughout - think mimi lien’s great comet set design. you’re IN the set baby.
there would be two levels; the zones would be on the bottom level, along with the audience seating. scenes that take place in battery city would be on the upper level. (the budget for this show is 800 million dollars so this is of course possible.)
seating would be arranged in the round or using a thrust configuration, placing seating on three sides of a main playing area. this area could be used for placing scenery that is not a place the killjoys often come back to, or just as empty desert. areas such as the nest, dr. d’s hut, and the ruins of the destroya would be around the perimeter/among the seating. it would be colorful and messy, and would really immerse the audience in the vibrancy of the comics. on the upper level(s) would be a far more sterile environment for battery city and B.L.I’s headquarters. putting this environment on a higher level would force audience members to look up to watch them, emphasizing the oppressiveness of B.L.I and the way they prioritize themselves above the killjoys and people in the zones. this concept would work better with a thrust configuration, though, because if it were in the round they may have to turn all the way around to watch a scene on an upper level behind them.
i’m not a set designer but building sets is my main focus when it comes to theatre so the set is definitely what i think about the most and i do want to create at least a rough sketch of how i see this set in my head someday.
II. structure
before we get into the rest of the technical elements i wanted to talk about the structure of the play itself, because it kind of requires an idea of what the set would look like and how that would contribute to the structure. in the comics, the focus usually doesn’t stay on one character, group, or setting for more than a few pages. this is why i want a static set, so that there doesn’t need to be a scene change every thirty seconds. instead, audience members simply need to shift their attention to a different area of the theatre.
there are six issues of this series. the first three issues would make up the first act, and the last three the second. each issue would be one scene, though there would be shifts in focus/setting within each scene. this allows for a bit of flow and overlap between these shifts, especially in instances where they alternate very quickly, or one character speaking is meant to overlap with another comic scene.
III. lighting
while most of the setting is established by the set, lighting would definitely play into it as well, specifically by sticking to sterile, fluorescent lights for B.L.I and warmer lighting for the zones. colorful lighting could definitely also be used for the zones to reflect the lifestyle of the killjoys, and create contrast from the environment in battery city. lighting would also be an essential part of the climax, when the girl’s bomb goes off and she releases the souls trapped in the electricity of battery city.
IV. costumes
taking from a medium that is already visual, we already have pretty specific outfits for all of the characters. however, i don’t think exact replicas of the costumes would be necessary for a couple of reasons. first of all, it allows pretty much no room for the costume designer to interpret or play around. also, it’s not like we’re always getting a full body rendering of the characters and what they’re wearing, so it would be difficult to make really accurate recreations. the final reason is that we simply do not have the budget to do page-accurate recreations because we need it for something bigger:
V. motherfuckin puppets baby
one thing about me is that i love a good puppet. i also love theatre and i love puppets in theatre. there are two puppets that would be used in this show.
first, we have the girl’s cat. i know real dogs are sometimes used on stage, like in legally blonde, but i don’t know if that’s ever done for cats. i think it would be more difficult. so, my solution is a puppet. it’s also revealed towards of the end of the comics that her cat is actually a nuclear detection device created by B.L.I. so, using a puppet would enforce the idea that it’s not a “real” cat.
the other puppet is one of the aspects of this production that excites me the most: the destroya. this thing would be an absolute unit, something along the lines and scale of, if not even bigger than, the king kong broadway puppet. the construction and movement of it would likely depend on the theatre itself, but i imagine it similar to the king kong puppet in that it has people on the ground moving it as well as what looks like rigging equipment up to a grid.
VI. sound
kind of like the established style of the costumes, we have an established style of sound design for this show - danger days. i wouldn’t want to use any full songs - i don’t want this to be a musical - but parts of songs could definitely be used. for example, when blue wakes the destroya, i am absolutely using the intro to the song “destroya.” can you imagine sitting there watching this huge puppet robot come back alive while those drums and guitar play. i would fucking die (but maybe i’m biased because that’s one of my favorite songs on danger days).
since dr. death defying is a character in the show, and his broadcast from “look alive, sunshine” is used in the show, it would probably have to be re-recorded by the actor playing dr. d to make it clear that it’s the same character. this could also be done to his broadcast in “jet-star and the kobra kid/traffic report,” maybe for intermission or something, just for fun.
thanks to the mad gear and the missile kid ep we also have an idea of what music sounds like within the universe itself, which could definitely help with sound design.
VII. theme
since this project was for a directing class we did have to have an idea of what theme(s) we would focus on with our concepts for these shows as if we were directing them. there are a lot of themes throughout this story but the ones i would focus on would be identity and purpose. these ideas are communicated by so many of the characters in this story - the girl’s main conflict about whether or not she was “special” enough to lose their lives defending her, and korse deciding to put himself and his relationship over his position in B.L.I, for example.
inspiration for the theme definitely also comes from lyrics from danger days, specifically the bridge of “bulletproof heart” - “And though I know how much you hate this / Are you gonna be the one to save us / From the black and hopeless feeling / Will you meet 'em when the end comes reeling?”
IX. why on stage?
we already have comics to tell this story, and i know everyone and their mother is tired of stage adaptations instead of new works - so why put it on stage? admittedly, a lot of my reasoning is that i am a theatre kid who loves live theatre and really, REALLY loves danger days, so i wanted to combine them for this project (the last thing i worked on before completing my degree lol). but i also have several other reasons - i want to be able to immerse the audience in the world of the killjoys, putting them in the zones and having the action unfold all around them. the world of these comic books is just so fucking cool that i think it deserves to be really brought to life in some way. putting this on stage could also bring the story to wider audiences, since there may be people who don’t like to read comic books who can now experience it in another medium.
this may sound a little cheesy, but the feeling of driving through the desert listening to danger days - i want to take that and make it a hundred times bigger.
ok that’s all! thanks for reading :) i know it’s not all-encompassing regarding all the characters and plotlines and whatnot but these were mainly what i focused on when working on this project. gerard way if you ever want to branch out into live theater adaptations of your comics PLEASE hit me up i have. so many thoughts
#nobody asked for this but i rotate it in my mind a lot so here ya go#danger days#the true lives of the fabulous killjoys#mcr#my chemical romance#m
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Do you think YuYuYu is ableist?
IMO, i think the concept of having your disability magically cure isn't that bad, and some (not all, just some) disabilities can indeed be like a curse (like chronic pain).
I don't get why some just badly hate its ending where the girls gain back what they lost; the show isn't perfect (*cough* sexualizing minors *cough*) but the healing of their disabilities shouldn't be counted as one of the flaws.
Many people can live with their disabilities, but others suffered from theirs, how come wanting to cure your disability is seen as ableist?
I totally understand what you mean, Nonnie. Though, I feel like the specific problem isn't that the characters were healed, but rather everything with Tougo.
Because at the beginning of the show before we know anything about mankai or the sange, Tougo is in a wheelchair. It's a fairly respectful depiction too! The chair lift at school, how she moves around and all that. The fact she's a member of the main cast and gets to fight along side the others is even cooler!
But then we learn "oh, she wasn't actually disabled! it was because of mankai!" and at the end of the first season, she doesn't need a wheelchair anymore. So we start out with amazing representation done in a respectful manner, only to end with that representation being erased.
Something I said in my review of the series (which you should watch :3c) is that yes, not being able to walk sucks and being disabled is not fun. But at the same time, it doesn't have to always be so bad.
For instance! I have food allergies. Peanuts, tree nuts, and milk can and will kill me. That is something I have struggled and lived in fear of my whole life. Whenever I see even a minor instance of a character saying "oh I'm allergic to that" I feel a bit excited because I am seeing an aspect of my personal life reflected back at me. An aspect of my life that often gets ignored or forgotten by others.
So if a character was like, idk CURSED with food allergies or something, and they spent their whole arc searching for a cure or lamenting about how horrible and agonizing it is to live with these limitations! Idk man I'd feel pretty bad.
It is a complicated issue that warrants further discussion. I know that the writers and animators behind the story put the utmost effort into respectfully and realistically portraying Tougo's disability, and they did an amazing job. It just sucks that the effort is no longer needed after season 1.
Not to mention, but Tougo losing her Doc-Ock ribbon stilts is just objectively a less interesting character design choice. All the girls can jump around and run, but Tougo's movements in season one were unique and super fun! So it sucks that it was lost moving forward.
Again, I recommend watching my review because I go into a bit more detail on my personal feelings of the matter (around 20:34 is the timestamp). It is a very nuanced topic that deserves further discussion.
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Alright I just need to get this out
Just finished watching this show and I enjoyed it, it was fun and a pretty decent sequel as well
BUT I noticed in the poster that there is some major color coordination going on so let us break it down
So Kitty's outfit is very true to her character- trendy, comfortable and making her stand out. As cliched as it is, she is wearing pants which symbolise her independence and her venturing into a new world to discover herself (aspects associated traditionally with male narratives) ergo the pants, but they are in a traditionally feminine colour thus signifying that she is still very feminine and "girly". Purple being her colour makes sense for her since she doesn't fit in the very standard Hollywood tropes of girly girl or tomboy
Moving on to Yuri- it is hilarious how her clothes in pink not only associates her with extreme femininity (mean girl coded) but also ties her look in with Kitty's with the colour tone. Her outfit is more patterned showing that unlike Kitty who is largely straightforward, Yuri is much more averse to revealing her actual self, additionally her clothes are definitely more posh than the rest. She is also the only one looking directly at the viewer, not at any of her so-called love interests. Is she looking at Juliana?
Then we have Dae who is supposedly the main love interest but he has the least defined outfit. It's literally reflecting the fact that he has zero personality- yes he is thrifty and cares about image to a certain extent but I'm assuming that because of all his family troubles he just doesn't have the space to be his own self, rather he has to mold himself to what people around him need to be. At first glance, you might think he has similar shades to Kitty with his blue jacket but his color is actually pretty faded out, possibly signifying that their connection is going away.
Next we have the curveball- Min ho. He is actually matching with Kitty with his very pastel green blazer and white undershirt (similar to Dae's) but his outfit showcases his more upper class upbringing like Yuri. He is also directly challenging Dae, matching him stare to stare indicating his interest in Kitty.
Lastly we have Q, who is the only one in darks, obviously referring to the fact that his love life is not tied in with Kitty but he is still complementary to her outfit due to their closeness as friends. He has a little bit of everyone, plaid for Yuri, white shirt for Dae and Min ho, his jacket is denim-looking to match Dae but the collar and the style makes it more formal like Min ho's, and lastly the deep bluish purple can be seen as the inverse of Kitty's pastel purple.
So basically the poster itself is indicating how the pairings and all are going to be made and it is evident only after you watch the show!
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A Tale of Two Hannya: Art Imitates Life
These are always kind of a trickier beast to write because by design the comparison casts a more negative light on a popular character. But they tend to be well received. Living near the path of peak totality for the big US eclipse, had me wanting to finish this one sitting in my drafts because well...we have both sun & moon themes as well as a dynamic of "upstaging" each other. Which is kinda cool. I really do think, when taken together, Kiku & Yamato give you one of the most interesting dynamics in this massive series despite the two faces almost never appearing together.
Let's step back a little though. Why? Why would our author structure so much of Luffy's story in Wano through the top two new faces for the arc? Almost splitting Luffy's story in half with mirror opposites; humble and helpful followed by flashy yet flawed. Pitting organic bonding against the spotlight. A very straightforward and earnest trans woman foiled by a deliberately inconsistent and ambiguous character falling somewhere you'd call transmasculine. Our Crane Wife and our Dragon's King's Daughter, forget the plot of One Piece for a moment...what's the reflection of our world they mirror?
As gross as it is to compare oneself to Doflamingo, I promise I'm going somewhere with this. And, to be fair I can think of a few specific people who'd make that type of comparison about me. I like to think I use my powers for good, but anyone with them would say that. Touched on it a little with the Otohime side story but over the 2010s I had my little strings in just about every corner of LGBT activism throughout a region that's now a solid gay haven in a conservative state. For the first half of that decade, it was thrust upon me because people saw how solid a representative a young, cute, well-spoken lady would be at diffusing old stereotypes. An MA in Political Science helped too.
Because it's currently Ramadan still, I'd like to share one story I feel was a high watermark and how it rippled in a way that is gonna shape my outlook here. When I noticed there was a shift. One I felt trepidation about aspects of initially and today feel vindicated seeing how Gen Z views their elders. It was Ramadan a fair few years ago now, while part of a board for something I got to know a local Muslim leader and his wife. They were used to inviting other community leaders to join them for Iftar, the fast-breaking meal. They wanted to show their young progressive members they were listening and respectfully invite someone trans, remember these are often very sex-segregated places. Even if there were some livid hardliners most of the women really liked me and you could tell it meant a lot to some of the older teen girls who really wanted to square more progressive beliefs with their faith.
Late 2010s, so if I told you there was backlash in queer circles guess who. More or less entirely people who'd fit that college radfem to transmasc mold. "I'd have gone to the women's side in solidarity and liberated those oppressed women being soo radical." "Don't you think what Rhea did was you know, kinda problematic? If I have to explain to you how it's low-key cultural appropriation I don't even..." "They only picked her because she acts like a little Barbie doll." Yes, that last one is peak feminism. They can call me wicked if they want; at least I was called to serve while they were all just rabble-rousers who decided they were the only morally pure enough ones to be local leaders. That's what this was all about, politics.
If you ask me personally about the current state of trans movements? It kinda comes down to that. Most Milennials, trans women, men, & even nonbinary folk, tend to use the community as a temporary safe haven but acceptance has come far enough it tends to stay temporary. Gender is but one aspect of our identity, the hugbox and group chats about pronouns only really feel like they're giving you something for so long. The holdout? In my experience that tends to be trans men or transmasc enbies who took a half-step before coming out in the relative privilege of radical feminist spaces offering a little space within. I don't have a whole lot of animosity towards these guys...it just feels like sometimes it becomes all of our problem when that radfem space pumped you full of a distorted vision of "male privilege" and you feel jilted you didn't get that by waking up one day and saying you are now man.
Was Eiichiro Oda going for all that? Fuck no. I was a longtime leader of a local movement, he's a cis author on the outside looking in. Better way these two make sense is more an author being aware enough (Japan had a similar trajectory over the last decade) these two serve well as standins for the extremes of what a teen today sees about this transgender community. Okama type caricatures just don't work anymore. Transmasc nearing 30 who feels like they don't even know what they want? Playing word games that feel like you never stopped and thought how they'd sound to other people? Chasing an idealized version of masculinity? It's not exactly an uncommon sentiment. It's a side-effect of finally getting that long sought visibility...scrutiny goes hand in hand.
It's a Tale of Two Hannya because it's weaving in the story of one community experiencing a Tale of Two Movements. Two movements that are at times diametrically opposed (foes). That's where the upstaging or "eclipse" aspect comes in. The way beats for one influence the other even without trying. Why Yamato's the one trying to find a place and Kiku's already dealing with average pressures of being a woman. Regardless of how you feel about that personally, you have to at least acknowledge this is the general impression teens today seem to have. Hypothetically, you could get the same effect between a more clear-cut trans man and someone kinda like Kamatari.
Ultimately, Wano is about who we are vs the roles we play. We see other places where themes of just saying you fill a role doesn't mean you are. I've said Yamato's a gentle critique of the extreme "you are what you say your are" side of trans movements. I understand why people would want to see things that way, but gender is a social phenomenon. For the record, I do think it low-key radiates dude energy to not care about shit like cannonballing tits out into the main bath, no one should have to act a certain way and all that. But it's a good pair for demonstrating where we're at in general. The emotions they evoke out of readers are a good reflection of where young men are kinda at on all this trans stuff. And both are still portrayed as cool, friendly people. But I do see where it's coming from when Oda shifts that classic immaturity element from Kiku more to Yamato.
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Any headcanons for the student six during pride month? Not sure if equestria would have such a thing, as they seem a generally accepting sort, but seems fun to think about.
For the sake of this ask, I’m not gonna go into specifics as to what identities any of the students might have. I’ll leave that all up to your own headcanons.
Regardless of each students’ individual identity, it’s interesting to think about how their respective homelands might have regarded LGBTQ+.
I mean, I think we can all agree that dragons in general would probably not be the biggest supporters. From how they’re depicted in the show, dragons seem very conservative in how they portray themselves. This is how a dragon acts, if you don’t act this way, you’re a bad dragon. Not the best mindset for LGBTQ+.
So Smolder, once she sees just how open and accepting Equestria is about that kind of stuff…. Honestly, I don’t see the poor girl reacting great to it at first.
Smolder’s defining trial from the Tree of Harmony was addressing the seemingly conflicting aspects of her own self-image.
True, we only really got a surface level dive into that issue, coming to terms that she can be a rough and tough dragon while still enjoying traditionally feminine things and the contradictions between the two only exists in her mind, but that same mindset might get in the way of embracing her own identity after a lifetime of being told she has to be this one way.
It’s like Fluttershy learning to be assertive. It’s not a lesson you can learn just one time and suddenly change your entire thought-process.
So, once Smolder starts to realize she might be queer, I can see her having another crisis of self similar to the one from the Tree’s trial. That being said, just like the trial, I can see her coming to terms with it pretty quickly.
Smolder’s issues with self-image aside, she’s actually been shown as having a pretty good emotional maturity when it comes to reflecting on that image. It’s sort of why I consider her to be the Element of Acceptance in my whole headcanon about the students getting their own unique Elements.
The other species I can see not being all that great at accepting LGBTQ+ are the griffons. But unlike the dragons who actively suppress LGBTQ+ because they don’t fit the culturally accepted model with what a dragon should be, griffons are more just… painfully apathetic to the whole thing.
Like, they acknowledge that it’s a thing, they just don’t care to hear about it. I imagine griffon culture is very ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ about LGBTQ+ topics.
As far as Gallus is concerned, he probably didn’t realize he was queer until long after moving to Equestria. There was simply no-one to talk to about these sorts of things and he didn’t bother making enough of a connection with anygriff his age, boy or girl, to really have to address any actual feelings on the matter.
Once he does start to piece it together, I imagine he’d be a lot more chill about it than Smolder. Like, he’d be more embarrassed to be feeling things at all than who he was feeling things towards.
It helps that Gallus is already so disillusioned with griffons in general that, once he realized he was queer, he probably wouldn’t care about how griffons back home felt about it, it wasn’t any of their damn business anyway.
That said, I do like to think that if anygriff back home did give Gallus shit over it, Gilda and Greta would be pretty quick to put the fear of god in them. Not because they care about the little brat, they just have no patience for assholes.
As for the rest of the species, I can see being pretty positive in their treatment of LGBTQ+.
Yaks care about strength more than anything, but the concept of strength is notably a gender-neutral factor to them. You have to be strong to be a Yak, but who you’re dating or what your pronouns are have nothing to do with how strong you are, so go nuts.
Changelings already have a more complicated relationship between self and image than any other creature by the simple fact that they can make themselves look like however they want. In all honesty, terms such as cis or trans might not even apply to changelings. They just are whatever they want to be.
Leaving hippogriffs and ponies as the idyllic best-case-scenario, where everyone is accepting and understanding of the multi-colored tapestry that makes up individuality and your identity is not only accepted, but celebrated.
A little too optimistic? Maybe, but it’s a fantasy world. We can allow it.
Bonus: You would think Thracians would be like dragons and griffons, but they’re surprisingly pretty chill about that sort of thing. They may not celebrate the individuality like Equestria, but there’s no social punishment or stigma attached to it either. Hell, some of the great Thracian poets completely revolved their work around the subject.
Thracian kings like Diomedes took a kind of Roman approach to these sorts of things when it came to their subjects. You can live your life however you please… Just remember who your life belongs to.
#not a quote#answering asks#headcanons#lgbtq+#student six#Gallus#Smolder#Ocellus#Silverstream#Yona#Sandbar#Swift Foot#incorrect mlp student six quotes
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Yesterday, I was talking about how some bad P&P takes got me thinking about Legend of Korra's Mako and his bizarrely overwrought hatedom. I said I'd talk later about what on Earth that had to do with P&P, so ... here goes.
The Mako post is pretty long, but in summary, I have a theory that part of the reason his post-Book 1 hatedom was so intense was as a (very exaggerated, poor faith) response to the peculiar structure of his characterization in B1 in particular. Many of the more broadly sympathetic aspects of his character were concentrated into the first few episodes. Meanwhile, many of his later "character moments" were bound up in an unpopular love triangle in which the audience was continually reminded of his flaws while the early reasons for sympathy were mostly either resolved or relegated to the background.
The other part of the reason the hatedom was so off the wall is that ATLA/LOK fandom is just Like That (and often fandom in general, but Avatar fandom is particularly prone to this kind of excess).
Okay, so what does this have to do with P&P? Well, I find it interesting that Austen essentially makes the exact opposite choice with Darcy.
The post that got me thinking about all this is one that highlighted the multiple occasions in which Darcy is sympathetic to women and listens to what they have to say. All of the direct quotes came from after his first proposal, ranging from references to his affection and value for his sister, to his attempt to extricate Lydia from marrying Wickham, to various details later in the novel. A bunch of people pointed out that all of these quotes were taken from after the Hunsford proposal and argued that this isn't how he was all along, but a product of his character growth after Elizabeth's rejection.
I consider these bad takes on P&P because they ignored something that I think is important in terms of how his arc is crafted. Although many of the most sympathetic lines about Darcy come from after the first proposal, quite a few refer to pre-existing qualities or opinions or conduct.
For instance, Elizabeth's memory of his overt affection for the then-absent Georgiana is described after the proposal, yes, but the behavior happened before it. While we did see an example of him sticking up for Georgiana in the narrative, it wasn't given much emphasis at the time, and Elizabeth didn't seem to really register it as significant until she later recalls the pattern of behavior it represented. His emphasis on Georgiana's choice to tell him about Wickham occurs in the letter that Darcy writes almost immediately after the proposal, and seems to reflect his established way of thinking about what happened, not some great change in his opinion of Georgiana.
Mrs Reynolds's account of him explicitly encompasses his behavior for the last 24 years, from the time he was a child of four, and does not indicate any noticeable recent change. The account comes late, but refers to long-standing behavior. His attempt to extricate Lydia from her entanglement with Wickham, something he alone considers desirable, parallels his attempt to extricate Georgiana from her entanglement with Wickham. His original, successful attempt was described after the proposal but actually happened a couple of months before he even met Elizabeth. It's by no means clear that his intercession with Lydia represents some drastic change in his perspective on women/girls or what marriage to Wickham would entail.
Some of the quotes did reflect his character growth, because ... it happens, but it was definitely a mix of quotes describing how he'd always behaved, quotes describing his pre-existing opinions, and quotes showing his growth. It's just that many of the quotes themselves are gathered into the later novel, even if they refer to earlier Darcy.
Darcy's characterization is increasingly favorable to him from the letter onwards. We discover basically nothing that makes him look worse and many things that make him look better, both currently and retroactively. Some of these things actually took place on the page earlier, but Austen definitely seems to have deliberately left them understated and un-emphasized to preserve the mid-novel revelation of just how much of what Elizabeth/much of the audience believed about him was either wrong or insufficiently understood.
The worse he looks early on, the better he looks when we discover he's already a deeply principled person (if with the occasional asshole moment). And packing so much favorable information into the back end of the novel, whether it reflects new or retroactive aspects of his characterization, reinforces the favorable impression from the end of the letter over and over, building up and up so that the most recent and most persistent sense of him by the end is of someone who is simultaneously noble, heroic, and willing to listen and improve.
For a minority of readers, this structure can feel unfair and forced—I've seen some critics insist that readers feel their reactions to him and Elizabeth have been hijacked by the letter and the structure that follows. However, most readers don't feel that way, in reality. He's been beloved from the moment of publication—not by everyone, but by a lot of people. There is a reason his characterization and dynamic with Elizabeth are so iconic and influential. He's easily the most popular Austen love interest to a degree that can be overwhelming, and has been for a long time.
And in a way, that kind of echoes the OTT response of LOK fandom to Mako. Arguably, it's just as extreme a reaction, just extremely favorable because Darcy benefits so much from the structure of the novel and of its characterization of him in the second half, which supplies our most lingering impression of him. Whether this is good is subjective, and whether a more Darcy-like characterization structure would have dialed down the Mako hatedom is subjective, to be sure.
Given how much the hatedom seemed to fade as the B3-4 narrative leaned on Mako's loyalty, heroism, and personal foibles while leaving the love triangle behind, I suspect it would have helped, if for no other reason than that people tend to most strongly remember the last thing they saw, heard, or felt. Whatever the flaws in B4, Mako's willingness to sacrifice himself for others is basically the note his character ends on, and the whole "Mako is an abuser" thing became largely a relic of the B1-2 fandom (but esp B1). I don't think it's that the fandom improved, it's that their impression of Mako improved because of what they had most recently seen of him.
The reason I ended up sort of reflecting on this is that, as a writer, I do wonder how much I want to cater to this tendency of audiences, or even how much I want to bear it in mind. But I believe it's important to how many people react to characters, especially love interests.
And I do think Austen is (surprise!) very effective and polished in her execution of the structure she used to win the vast bulk of audiences over to Darcy and Darcy/Elizabeth. You can quibble with it as a thing and a few people do, but IMO, damn she did a good job with it.
#anghraine babbles#long post#austen blogging#lok fanwank#austen fanwank#lady anne blogging#fitzwilliam darcy#mako critical#to be safe!#anghraine's meta
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Film Review: Challengers (2024) (⭑⭑⭑⭑1/2)
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
An electrifying, passionate and heart-racing film, Challengers is the ultimate winner -takes- all story.
The story follows Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), who is a former tennis star, help coach her husband Art (Mike Faist), who is equally a good tennis player, for the ATP challenger tour. However, things get heated when Art has to play against Patrick (Josh O'Connor), his former best- friend and Tashi's Ex-lover.
The characters in the film are so individual, yet work so well together. Take Tashi Duncan, the ringleader. She knows how to win, and from being a former tennis prodigy, she knows how to manipulate situations to her advantage. From early on, she understands how obsessed Art and Patrick are with her. She plays both of them off, just like a game of tennis. Tashi being the ball and going from one guy to the other.
Art is the ultimate needy guy, but that doesn't make him unlikeable, in fact it's the complete opposite. As you're watching him on screen, you grow almost protective over him and are secretly rooting for him throughout. He loves Tashi and states this in the movie. He would do anything to keep her happy, but is also completely in awe of her just like when he was a teenager. He needs Tashi's approval, or at least he feels it.
Patrick is the complete polar opposite of Art. He's competitive, headstrong and confrontational. He wastes no time in letting Tashi know what he wants from her and is the only character in this film that doesn't appear to be scared of her. He even tells Tashi that he views her as a peer, not a member of her fan club. Safe to say that when Patrick is on the screen, it's never boring.
Now the relationship between Art and Patrick is complex. With Patrick being the most cocky out of the two, he finds any way to humiliate Art, which over time, chips away at Art's confidence. However, when you watch the film, it's evident that both characters need each other. After all, they both have a passionate love for tennis (they play together in tournaments). They both understand each other, all while being incredibly competitive. Competitiveness is what fuels these characters in all aspects of the movie.
Visually, the film is a warm saturation heaven. The set is bright and so is the costuming. The use of strong colours in this film, reflect the strong characters. And on screen, it's captivating. In my opinion, the styling of the movie has a very Italian look.
What really makes the film though, is the phenomenal soundtrack. The addictive club bangers keep your eyes glued to the screen. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross created the best movie score of 2024. It's punchy, seductive and spellbinding, that even once you leave the cinema you have the tunes stuck in your head. That coupled with the fast camera shots during the tennis scenes, it's cinema at it's finest.
The acting is superior. Zendaya's facial expressions keep you hooked. Especially in scenes with Josh O'Connor. She displays deep emotion on her face, fluidly, never stiffly. Or even at the beginning at the film when the camera makes a direct bee-line for her from the sidelines. Chills literal chills. Zendaya's acting is unique and mesmerising.
Overall, I'm left with a rush after watching. This film even manages to spark my competitive wild side. I think the dynamic of the love triangle is refreshing and interesting. To watch two guys fawn over the same girl hasn't really been done to this level before in Hollywood but it just works. Challengers is everything I would want a good film to be. And I'm going to say it now... Cinema is back!
Challengers is out now only in theatres.
Written by iloveannaliese ©
#film review#films#zendaya#challengers#challengers movie#mike faist#josh o'connor#patrick zweig#art donaldson#tashi duncan#luca guadagnino#movie review#album review#reviews#writers on tumblr#i love to write#writerscommunity#writeblr#writing#y2k aesthetic#girlblogger#this is a girlblog#cinema#film#movie#2024 movies#movie theater#film photography#y2k#fypシ゚viral
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Episode 2: Three Nocturnal Creatures
Well, appearances can be truly deceiving. This episode made an utterly fantastic job at establishing Nina as a very compelling protagonist. She was initially just a shy introverted girl escaping the responsibilities of life after a presumably bad situation, but Episode 2 expanded her to be a particularly multifaceted character.
First of all, she is a lot more responsible than I first assumed. She is completely self-aware of the situation she is and is taking all the necessary steps to make it on her own. She is not running away from life, but the exact opposite. Even though the idea of singing is appealing to her, she cannot see a future for herself as a singer so she is not willing to take the risk. And that is understandable in a world that has repeatedly told her to not take those risks and just do what she is told.
Nina comes from a somewhat strict family, and she has followed all their (understandable) rules with the reassurance that she was earning her spot in life as a good daughter. The incident that made Nina run away from home was her family not taking her side when a bully sent her to the hospital. We don’t have a lot of context for this yet,I assume it will be expanded later, but if Nina is not lying we can at least understand why she would run away. When an internal contract of trust between yourself and your family gets breached you obviously reconsider what is even the point of it.
My one issue with this episode is that Nina’s backstory is a little bit cornier than I imagined, but I think it connects well to her character and her recurrent emotional outbursts. This is less of an archetypal shy anime girl being quirky and more of a young teen finally tasting the lows and highs of not just independence, but freedom of any kind.
It’s interesting Momoka’s thoughts about the positive aspects of a band reflect her situation with Nina's family and character so well.
And Nina is completely done with the idea of even being part of a community. She is going to live alone and carve her own path.
This leads us to Nina’s social issues and wow, this was easily the most hard-hitting part of the episode. Nina’s social skills in the first episode were pretty good, so I don’t think most people were guessing she would be the type to struggle making friends, but it only adds to the unexpected depth of her character.
Momoka and Nina connect really well, probably due to the easy-going mature personality of the former and Nina feeling immediately attuned to her due to being a fan, but the appearance of another high schooler with even a hint of a sharp tongue makes Nina’s mind spiral into full doomer mode as she gets reminded of some of the bullying she endured. She doesn’t want to fall into that same cage again. So logically, she runs away just like she did last time.
Initially I believed this scene was rushed, but it serves massively for Nina’s character. As Momoka confronts her, Nina first blurts out she was feeling threatened by Subaru's words.
But she immediately takes the burden of the issue on herself. No, it wasn’t Subaru being mean. The problem is that Nina doesn’t deserve friends, she is too dumb and spoiled for them. Going from blaming others just to change your tune to a self-deprecation spiral to justify the fact you cannot put in the work of making friends was like looking into a mirror. And now I think Subaru’s previous remarks being so inconsequential only serve to make that point and Nina's current path of meaningless self destruction clearer.
Raise your hand if the following dialogue is painfully relatable to you.
Thankfully Nina isn’t completely alone. Both Momoka and now Subaru care about Nina, and want to channel her despair into something productive that gets her out of her doom spiral. Momoka only finds it beneficial for the both of them she enters into a band with her as she feels like her trauma would make for some sick angsty beats.
I’m a big fan of this show’s self-awareness being less about breaking the tension of the scene for the viewer and more about trying to get Nina out from the sheer darkness of her doomer mode. Makes the experience very diegetic. The room lighting up as Momoka and Subaru laugh at Nina just bawling her heart out is incredibly heartwarming and establishes a tighter connection than some other shows could do in their entire run.
It would be easy to say Momoka and Subaru are taking advantage of her and undervaluing her pain but the show does a great job at showing how much they care for her well-being.
Momoka sees a lot of her young self in Nina, and that reflects in her song writing. Their unique relationship as artist and fan allows them to have an immediate connection that is easy to perceive and well developed throughout these two episodes.
Subaru gets a lot less screen time, but even with the terrible first impression Nina makes she is still makes a conscious choice to keep the friendship going. Her good social skills aren’t just for show, she is clearly empathetic to Nina. She noticed she was very uncomfortable when they first met, and proposed to leave her alone for the night.
I am very much looking forward to how her character will be expanded in future episodes and if her rocky start with Nina will lead to fun places.
Overall, while I think the first episode was tighter, this episode was fantastic at showcasing Nina’s character and the absolute mess of a personal journey she is undertaking. I adore this show so far, and I can’t wait to see more of these girls.
Episode 2: Great
PD: Cute AF abusive dad.
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c3e52 thoughts
pre-break
while the inability to Send balances what each party can do a little better, it’s still concerning for bell’s hells in general. until this passes, they can’t communicate--it’s time for some reckoning with the thought that either side might be dead and the other wouldn’t know.
edit: they can’t pull off a dream communication without dealing with at least some aspect of the ruidus pull. communication is down.
i’m in love with deanna and FRIDA. i love them. aabria iyengar, queen of playing powerful divorced ladies who still are at least a little in love with their old partners. deanna is adorable and there’s no goddamn way that that’s all there is to her. i want her to wring chetney of all his little secrets. this is a resurrected cleric of the dawnfather who carries around giant blankets and stew. i don’t know that its another dusk/yu scenario, but she’s played by the woman who set off the calamity by blighting a tree, even though she’s the opposite of laerryn in terms of hit points. i have no doubt that she’s going to be so fun to watch. i hope they get an arc with the uthodurn team and not just an episode or two. i want to see best girl aabria iyengar!!
FRIDA slaps so hard. all of it, the multiclassing, the aesthetic, the gnc of it all, the acknowledgement of the gods without binding action to them, eating the coin, the RECORDINGS OF LAUGHTER. in less than an hour they got fcg to start on the crisis of faith that i wanted to see, by eating a coin. i love them. so much. i cannot wait to see where they go from here. they’re definitely in a very different mental place than fcg--rather than searching for purpose and relying on a god for purpose, they found their purpose in deanna and serve with a sense of presence of being that i think fcg is just really finding. mind you fcg has only been with bh for like 2-3 months while FRIDA has been with deanna for two years, so i think that fcg is just getting their start to this arc.
post-break
exuc bottom table reunited on the top table. i love the energy. having the deanna-chetney interactions while they’re sat next to each other is very fun. the tall people table.
the death ward! the conversation! the wolfing out! chetney’s really going through it. it isn’t quite what i expected, and i’m fully hoping for aabria to go apeshit in the next session. it’s about separating flaws of character from the things that are out of your control and finding a way to work with what you have.
lots of different commentary on the gods from deanna and FRIDA. i’m intrigued by the possibility of them working out this philosophy as the gods pull away from the world and/or are besieged. the gift of rest for the gods from the pov of an aeormaton is something that i think may not get the attention it deserves; i really want to see fcg have the time to reflect on what they actually think of the gods in the absence of the changebringer’s guidance.
lots of funny little moments e.g. lightning tiddies! i smirk in monsterfucker! the one true god! the applebee’s solstice! all of the puppy comments and the top table reactions! it makes the tension of the fight more interesting through context.
the dream sequence is going to be super important going forward--even though they didn’t get to see the LAO party, knowing what the vanguard accomplished is going to have to inform their future action from here on out as an overarching quest. while we’re hitting on chetney and fcg in terms of purer personal arc development, it’s going to be on imogen to keep track and stay in control as the apogee solstice is used. we have no idea if this power level can be sustained for longer than the period of the solstice, but if it does, bell’s hells is going to be in some serious trouble going forward. that immobilizing beam is noticeable, and it’s about time that people start taking note of ruidus as something beyond an omen.
the repercussions of having PvP risks interacting with other people! BH is so used to just dealing with it that even when they try to warn people it comes across as just a casual thing.i know i said it was all of our easy PvPers, but i don’t know that i was expecting the immediacy. the fact that FRIDA played so well with it--signal flares, using diplomacy and trying to find the gnome inside of the wolf. also the concept of an aeormaton v werewolf fight resulting in an aeormaton werewolf is going to have interesting implications for the curse of lycanthropy--what is it binding to and how is it sustained in a body that does not have the necessary parts to be an organic being.
c3e53? predictions/wishlist (whenever the uthodurn party meets again):
chetney processing this ep and what it means for both him and his relationships with the party, as well as his relationship with death
deanna popping tf off, i have hope that it won’t be a fakeout. there’s something more beneath all of that yarn.
fcg’s crisis of faith that they’ve been putting off + FRIDA interactions
fearne taking on responsibility as the only one of uthodurn BH who isn’t an immediate PvP risk. she’s really holding onto the party with all her might. i don’t think i’ve ever seen ashley be that loud in character as fearne.
FRIDA’s FCG interactions and considering what deanna means to them when other people are in the picture
imogen fighting the pull of the moon and maybe working out the communication issue
not as much reflection on missing party members as i would have liked to see, but that’s just personal preference, and anyway that’s what fic is for.
#critical role#critical role spoilers#cr spoilers#bell's hells#c3e52 spoilers#chetney pock o'pea#fresh cut grass#fcg#imogen temult#fearne calloway#deanna leimert#cr frida#cr speculation
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