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yunsoh · 3 years

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the way in which machi is intrinsically tied to yuki in her characterization directly contributes to her being stunted and unfulfilling as a character, and we’re unfortunately seeing that tenfold with the reboot cutting the smaller moments between yuki and machi that offer a more casual, normal progression of their friendship and their dynamic, versus the larger moments between them that are intensely emotional (machi confiding in him) or still at the very, very beginning fringes of their friendship (machi searching the school for him).

in the manga, we do get these other moments of connection between yuki and machi in which they’re still learning more about each other in casual ways. yuki learning that machi likes mogeta, machi learning that yuki gardens. yuki displaying that he’s understanding machi’s displays of emotion (giving her a gift), machi pushing herself in conversation with him because she wants to know him better. these are moments that show this gradual opening up of machi that became possible only because she allowed herself to open up to yuki. it shows us how she’s trying to change herself, starting with someone she’s found she can trust. her crush on him is, i think, trumped by the fact that she’s learning how friendship really works for the first time through her connection with him, and that’s highly indicative of her parallel to yuki in his earlier stages of the series.

we don’t get to see the culmination of her efforts in a real, satisfactory way because of their sudden romance, which was written in because yuki, as a main character, “had” to have a romance. they don’t have romantic chemistry beyond machi’s crush on him (which is, on its own, understandable, even if her perceived romantic feelings for him appear to be more of a misunderstanding than anything), and this huge jump in progression of their relationship leaves machi’s character feeling out of place in the scheme of things. however, the manga at least pillows this relationship with the interactions they’ve had, even if that pillow is pretty thin.

the reboot hinging on only the “big” moments and her crush on him in order to sell their romance makes machi feel more like a plot device for yuki’s narrative than an individual character, which is hurt further by the complete lack of basis for there to be a romance between them at all. this isn’t the impression i get with the manga -- while the romance is rushed and yuki’s motivations for telling her about the curse rely on her being a girl (versus relying on the depth of their actual relationship), there is a genuine connection between yuki and machi that serves to show her own personal growth, even if that growth is halted for their romance. she doesn’t feel like a plot device, but more that she was supposed to get more development than the series had time for.

the reboot tries to evoke that this development of their relationship exists, but just offscreen, through attempting to parallel it with other established relationships. we see this with the 3x5 cold open where yuki suddenly wanting to tell machi about the curse is conflated with ayame and mine’s relationship, which since the early part of the series has been shown to be incredibly trusting and long-standing. we’re seeing that now with the ending of 3x10 and (i assume) 3x11 with trying to parallel it with kyo and tohru. but the way that this only causes it to fail even more spectacularly is that it only serves to highlight the lack of development between them, and even further the lack of development for machi.

for their relationship, it makes even more obvious the very basic things that are missing in their romantic development (such as yuki having literally any romantic inclination towards her, or yuki telling machi anything about himself). for machi, it highlights that her development is contingent on their relationship -- she hardly exists as a character outside of her interactions with yuki, so when their scenes together are cut out, she’s cut out. while her development seemed prematurely cut in the manga, it’s flat-out nonexistent in the reboot. it feels very much like she was introduced in yuki’s story just so they could write their one-off conversation as basis enough for yuki to have a last-minute romance.

a lot of my frustration with this comes from the fact that machi wasn’t given the space to grow outside of her relationship with yuki, and so even in the manga, she’s not a complete character by the end of the story. she starts her arc because of yuki, starts to get some development through her growing friendship with yuki, and then it’s dropped (or considered “finished”) with her ending up with yuki. the reboot fast-tracking the process by cutting out the growth of their friendship only makes this issue more glaringly obvious, and it’s quite frankly painful to watch unfold.

#fruits basket #machi kuragi #yuki sohma #sorry this is incoherent i'm just. baffled by the reboot honestly #like i'm kind of a yuchi hater at this point so does watching the reboot do yuchi dirty make me laugh. yeah.#but i'm also a machi liker and the way that she's intrinsically tied to her relationship with yuki also means she's getting fucked up #which is majorly bumming me out all over again lmfao

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maxortecho · 3 years

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Is the final Michael centric I need to know cause that’s the reason i stopped watching tbf.

3x12 very much is and made me nervous about 3x13. I still think making Jones and Michael related was one of the biggest missteps of S3, and it was definitely one of the biggest factors in how much 3x12 annoyed me. It was frustrating that we didn’t get a Max and Jones one on one in 3x12–something the narrative really required after an entire season of build up—and we got Michael instead of Max trying to use Jones’s own abilities against him. In hindsight this feels especially egregious because we didn’t end up getting a Max&Jones fight in 3x13 either (like I always assumed we would get one!). Rather it was just Isobel&Jones and Michael&Jones before the final bit with Liz shooting Jones (I still enjoyed 3x13 though).

I’m just. Liz is supposed to be #1 and Max is supposed to be #2. If Liz’s Jones fight is being saved for 3x13, then use Jones&Max in the penultimate as build up to the main event.

And I know the reasoning was probably logistics but again this could’ve been easily resolved by making the mental fight between Max and Jones in 3x12 (which can be filmed on opposite sides of the room, as it was done so here!). This would have been a thematically relevant fight to the entire storyline given that, I don’t know, Max and Jones share a psychic connection and their minds exist in the other’s body right now? There’s also, oh hmm, the fact that Max has had this psychic ability since the very first episode of the series (and we now know the origins of that are Jones!) and this would’ve been the perfect pay off to that. Not the show retconning and pulling this Michael psychic ability out of their ass one episode ago.

I was watching the episode with my friend Witch and she pointed out a Max&Jones psychic fight would’ve worked so well given they’re in swapped bodies too. But we didn’t do that, and you could tell in 3x12 the show had no idea what to do with Max so he just walked around in circles at Deep Sky. Literally just unscrewed a box while having emotionally unsatisfying conversations 🤦‍♀️

Similarly Liz feels like she’s sidelined by Heath in 3x12–sidelined by his own scientific revelations and emotional moments. The plot is supposed to hinge on Liz’s science, but she keeps turning to Heath for answers. Then Liz has all of her important reflective conversations about science with Heath rather than, I don’t know, Max or Kyle. It’s Max and Kyle that Liz has a history with in terms of her science issues. We locked Liz and Max in a building away from the action but then didn’t even let them have any real relationship development that would support their inevitable romantic reunion in 3x13. Sigh.

All of that complaining about 3x12 aside—I was genuinely satisfied with 3x13. The fight DID feel ensemble, and in the ultimate climactic moment, the Jones defeat came down to Liz. A wonderful, epic moment for Liz to shine, and for her relationship with Max to be relevant to the plot. Max might not fight Jones in 3x13, but his content here was still interesting and dynamic. Also great was the cliffhanger, which was probably the most Liz-centric cliffhanger we’ve had on the show. So I’ll be interested to see what a total Chris season looks like at least 🤷‍♀️

#mo talks #anon #rnm asks #rnm spoilers #rnm criticism

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number5theboy · 4 years

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"The second season is much less emotionally impactful than the first." THANK YOU SAY IT AGAIN AND SAY IT LOUDER. For season 3 i would much prefer a return to the overall darker tone and themes with moments of humor sprinkled throughout, instead of the much more lighthearted mood that the 2nd kept. This family is still very much a dysfunctional mess, let's see that and explore that and deal with it please.

I don’t particularly want to make this blog about negativity primarily, but I will elaborate a bit here on why I think the second season is less emotionally impactful. Not too much, because there are several posts that dive into the shortcomings of this season, so no need for me to parrot too much. And for anyone who did enjoy Season 2 more than Season 1, you are absolutely valid and that’s completely fine, this is not an attack on you or your tastes.

The main thing that irks me about Season 2 is that it completely and utterly drops the ball on the promise the first season finale makes: that the siblings will be there for Vanya, help Vanya the way they never did in their childhood. There are a lot more emotional sibling plotlines that are abandoned, but this one is the one that unnerves me most, because the entire apocalypse plot of Season 2 hinges on the fact that the promise of the series finale is ignored. There is not much pay-off for the sisterly bond between Vanya and Allison; they barely interact in Season 2 despite Allison loving Vanya so much that she spared her life. There is no pay-off to Five taking on Vanya as his responsibility, of taking her back with them and making sure that she can control her powers. Specifically Allison and Five should have been the ones there for Vanya after Season 1, but they’re not, and it’s also very easy to see why: Season 2 brought in love interests for Vanya and Allison and literally just made Five repeat his arc from Season 1, including the fact that that arc peters out and never gets any real pay-off. And I love Ray and Sissy as characters, and I love the arcs they’re involved in in vacuums, by themselves, without taking what came before into account, but: there should not have been romance in Season 2. I hate that it’s romantic and maternal love that made Vanya control her powers instead of her siblings helping her, her siblings making amends for how they treated her, sibling love being how she controls her powers. The finale of Season 1 set up her siblings helping her to do better, and it just never paid off. Instead, we’re immediately jumping to semi-functional family, which is not what I wanted to see, thought I would see, with the help of everyone’s favourite lazy writing device, amnesia. The siblings can apologise as much as they want to Vanya, but we never get her side, at least none where she remembers. The only dynamic where something even remotely interesting in connection to that finale happens is when Five and Vanya have falling outs about who she is, and about which one of them is responsible for their troubles, because that’s the kind of conflict that should have come out of that Season 1 finale, but even there, we never see a real resolution except for the car scene which, while cute and powerful, was also very much not earned by the plot of this season. “For the first time, I don’t want to do it alone. I want to have my family by my side.” go off, writer team, who have apparently forgotten that Vanya’s entire plot in Season 1 revolved around her wanting to be included, she never actually wanted to do anything alone, she was forced to do so. It was a badly formulated line and just kind of sums up, to me at least, the disconnect between Season 1 and Season 2. I have other issues with Season 2, but they’re all pretty much connected to this central failure of connecting Season 2 thematically and emotionally to Season 1, specifically its finale. The emotions they are going for in this second season would have landed better and harder if they had been a continuation of Season 1.

As for Season 3, should we get one, I don’t want any love interests, and I don’t want the siblings to be broken up again. I just finished watching Derry Girls, and that show is so good at keeping its main cast of five together, to have them do things together, and that’s what I want for the Umbrella Academy. We deserve to see the siblings be actually siblings, especially with the set-up of the Sparrow Academy, a rival team of siblings.

#Negativity #Anonymous #Replies #this got saltier than expected sorry about that

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jonismitchell · 4 years

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Love dies in the city; or the romanticism v. modernism conflict on folklore

In my humble opinion, Taylor Swift’s 2020 album folklore is about the conflict between romanticism and modernism. It sets up the natural as a place of freedom and unrestrained love, contrasting this with the city (presumably New York) as a place of hiding and secrecy that ultimately dooms the integral relationship. In the end, Swift expresses her deepest desires to return to the natural world, to restart the timeline that began with her move to New York, something I will elaborate on when discussing “hoax” and “the lakes.” This storyline is the crux of the album, and the motif I’ve used to classify its songs into six distinct sections, which follow a vague plot that is not represented in the track list order.

the natural (seven, invisible string, betty) I would argue that “seven” represents the heart of folklore, containing what seems to be the album’s mission statement (“passed down like folk songs / our love lasts so long”) and describing the earliest point in Swift’s timeline. This song is the one most directly linked to nature, describing a childhood friendship that takes place in the woods. One lyric, “before I learned civility / I used to scream ferociously / any time I wanted,” implies that Swift found freedom in nature, when her secrets were mere promises to friends instead of the pain she had since hinged her life on. In addition, this song is pure romanticism. The interest in childhood is implied, we can reasonably assume both main characters to be seven years old. To support this, the song states “although I can’t recall your face, I still got love for you,” implying that much time has passed since the events. There is awe of nature (the “beautiful things” are the creek and the trees), emphasis on the importance of imagination (your dad is mad because the house is haunted), and a celebration of the individual (“just like a folk song, our love will be passed on,” where the love is the individual she speaks of). This is the dream that Swift wants to return to, and yet her characters already face conflict (the keeping of secrets, hiding in the closet, an angry father). She romanticizes her past into something she can escape into, creating a sort of mythos around an upset childhood.

Our next nature-intensive song is “invisible string.” She again makes a callback to childhood, citing a park where she used to read in Nashville. It would not be incorrect to categorize this as a love song, perhaps the most lighthearted one on the album. Swift emphasizes time and fate, both recurring themes in her discography. Like “seven,” “invisible string” draws attention to nature as a freeing and healing space, which sets the stage for her romance. Lines such as “gold were the leaves when I showed you around Centennial Park” draw attention to the ‘invisible’ connection the song depicts. In the bridge, she notes that there was “a string that pulled me / out of all the wrong arms, right into that dive bar,” implying a protection from the dangers of interpersonal conflict. Throughout the verses, mentions of any city stay tangential (“your first trip to LA… an American singer”) while the focus lies on her freedom. It is a dreamlike song, which implies that the city can be glimpsed but not detrimental, and showcases an utter belief in things working out.

It is, then, rather ironic that the final song with unique ties to the environment highlights an unanswered apology after the foundations of romance have been shocked. “betty” is ostensibly narrated by a teenager, James, who plans to make up for her mistake in a garden. This perspective ties into the album’s greater focus on time, in this instance equating innocence (“I don’t know anything”) with a natural setting (the garden, which is explicitly removed from society). At first, James wonders if Betty will allow an apology, but wants it to happen without anyone watching (“if I showed up at your party… would you lead me to the garden”). She then casts this hope aside, dreaming about being able to broadcast her love to the world without fear of judgement (“will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends”). It is also, then, relevant that the relationship is ruined when scrutinized (“rumours from Inez”). When considering how themes of secrecy and hiding come into the picture once the narrative travels to the city, it is interesting to look at how the hope of an public relationship prevails here. But in the end, James still dreams of going back to any relationship with Betty, no matter how private (“kissing in my car again”). Of course, Taylor Swift herself is James, and James is Swift, so we know that the secrecy dooms the relationship in the end.

the romance (august, illicit affairs) “august” describes a doomed relationship, perhaps meant to be the affair James has that prompts her apology to Betty. However, the story of a love that was never built to last has been referenced multiple times in Swift’s discography (“Wildest Dreams” and “Getaway Car”) and even expressly linked to summer on 2019’s “Cruel Summer.” These songs show distinct lyrical similarities to “august.” Hence, I feel comfortable describing this song in the context of those, rather than within the storyline of Swift’s fictitious love triangle. (Which is flimsy as it stands, but that’s for another analysis.) While there is no set location, this song describes one kind of coming-of-age (“whispers of are you sure”) and delves into the hope associated with a short-lived romance. Here, there is no secrecy to speak of, but a fear of what will come when a return to society comes (“will you call when you’re back at school”). My contrast for this song is saying it is “Cruel Summer” without the ‘happy’ ending. There is a privacy here (“meet me behind the mall”) but it is the instability of the romance that dooms it (“you weren’t mine to lose”). “august” is a time capsule, a reflection on the love that always would’ve ended regardless of the locale.

The next song, “illicit affairs,” is another one that ‘visits’ the city (for lack of a better term) but places the primary conflict in a largely undetermined setting. In fact, there seems to be a rejection of the urban (“take the road less traveled by”). In the sorting of tracks as they relate to different sub-themes, “illicit affairs” is the first song that says, without preamble, that secrecy is the death of love. While the word ‘illicit’ simply means forbidden, the verses describe sneaking around in a way that has been attributed to cheating since album release. There is virtually no acknowledgement of another character outside of the two lovers, save for the ‘him’ referenced in the perfume line. But it is not this person that the narrator seeks to hide from, it seems to be almost everyone. It could be construed as a song about adultery, but taken in the context of the rest of the album it reads as a lament for having to hide a relationship (most likely a romantic one between two women, but this is extrapolation).

the city (the last great american dynasty, mirrorball, mad woman) Now we approach the slew of songs that deal with the actual location of the city. The first song is “the last great american dynasty,” which seems the most removed from Taylor’s viewpoint and yet involves her directly (“and then it was bought by me”). We get an actual move to the ‘city’ (“Rebekah rode up on the afternoon train”) which is reminiscent of Swift’s own move to New York in 2014. Rebekah is immediately disliked by the people around her, blamed for her husband’s death to the extent where she flies in “bitch pack friends.” (1) Keeping with the theme of folklore’s similarity to a time capsule, one could see this song as Swift retelling her own purchase of Holiday House (and by extension much of the events from 2014/2015) through the lens of someone else’s life. Indeed, part of this theory is directly corroborated by the song through the lines “then it was bought by me” and “I had a marvellous time ruining everything.” In relation to the conflict between secrecy and survival of love, “the last great american dynasty” does not offer much insight. However, it effectively sets the scene for songs to come.

(1): I don’t know anything about Rebekah Harkness’ life, this is just how I interpreted the song.

After the initial move, “mirrorball” establishes the new dynamic between the lovers. In turn, it introduces the performative nature of romance in the city (which is referred to and combatted with the line “all these people think love’s for show / but I would die for you in secret” from “peace”). Swift expresses interest in a lover who is “not like the regulars,” who wants more than to watch her turmoil. Still, this song finds her drawn into the nature of performing, consistently showcasing her tragedy to let others see themselves to the extent where she cannot even let her guard down when “no one is around.” Even after the circus has been called off, she seems to have entirely integrated with the role of the mirrorball. This provides some introspection on her viewpoint: digging into insecurities under the viewpoint of desperately trying to save a sinking ship. Almost as a counterpart to “seven,” the lyrics to “mirrorball” show some characteristics of modernism. Individualism is represented through the focus on the person who is the mirrorball, while unrelated characters do not warrant much elaboration. In terms of formalism and experimentation, the format and structure of the song deviate from Swift’s usual manner. The concept of a person being a mirrorball (shown in the music video as a disco ball) is both a symbol and verges into the absurd. All the imagery in this track is based in large crowds; featuring a disco, a circus, and masquerade revelers. It both establishes the setting where love dies and assures that the relationship will end (“the end is near”).

“mad woman” is the final song which establishes setting more than storyline. It proves the city as a angry and dangerous place, one that is not sympathetic to “people like” Swift. We find her contemplating revenge on someone who has done her a great wrong, which is less attached to the general storyline but serves to depict the setting as actively hostile and worthy of contempt. When compared with other tracks, certain lyrics imply that the narrator is hell-bent on getting the last word (“they say move on but you know I won’t” / “you know I left a part of me back in New York”). There isn’t much else notable about this song in terms of what we are talking about, but it does frame several absurdist tendencies in the context of a destructive setting.

the death (cardigan, exile, my tears ricochet, epiphany) In “cardigan,” Swift reminisces on a long-past relationship, which has been interpreted to be James and Betty’s teenage melodrama. This is the first of many breakup songs, which idolize what has passed and mourn the loss. We observe many signs of the city (“chasing shadows in the grocery line”) and individualism (“I knew everything when I was young”). As referenced in “betty,” the cardigan becomes a symbol for the relationship at large. Moreso, the idea that the relationship was cursed to end as it begun is elaborated on here (“I knew you tried to change the ending”) even if it is not ascribed to secrecy yet. In reflecting on Swift’s past work, we see many signs of her being accustomed to this thought (“I can see the end as it begins” from Wildest Dreams and “I knew (...) we were cursed” from Getaway Car), but “cardigan” comes across with deeper pain regarding the whole affair. In tying different lyrics together (“back when I was living for the hope of it all” from “august” and “I hope I never lose you” from Cornelia Street), we begin to paint a picture of the true narrative behind the love triangle. Swift knew her greatest love would end—desperately hoped it wouldn’t, prayed they could ‘get away with it’—and finally channels her anger and sorrow into this retrospective. She almost accepts it: love dies in the city.

Another reflection on a past relationship is folklore’s only duet; “exile.” This song discusses an inability to communicate, the concept of determined endings (“I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending”), and plenty of ‘hiding in the city’ imagery. This sees one narrator (Swift) faking a relationship (“just your understudy”) to hide her true lover (in this context, Iver). Both agree on various facets that caused fallout (“didn't even hear me out... never learned to read your mind… couldn’t turn things around”) until the final disagreement (“you never gave a warning sign / I gave so many signs”). So while the song is fundamentally about a miscommunication, it is evident that much of the misunderstanding comes from ways of signalling the secret relationship. Presence of the city is acknowledged through lyrics such as “I’m leaving out the side door,” “out here in the hall,” implying that the narrators share an apartment. Nature also gets a brief mention here (“breaking branches”), but this usage explains that the freedom of the narrators is fading, just like their connection to the natural.

Most do not connect “my tears ricochet” to romantic fallout, but there is no denying that the song hinges around prominent death metaphors. Many metaphors used imply that the narrator has broken up with their lover, but still haunts the hope of what could’ve been. In the line “we gather stones, some to throw, some to make a diamond ring,” a connection to marriage is implied, divorcing the meaning from the loss of Swift’s masters. A crowd of people is repeatedly referenced (the ones in a sunlit room, for instance) and the lover must “save face” in front of them. This external pressure contributes to the greater theme of death of love in the city, which Swift equates to her own death. She describes herself as a recalcitrant ghost (“you know I didn’t want to have to haunt you”) but one her lover must have around (“when you can’t sleep at night, you hear my stolen lullabies”). This song is another one that recognizes Taylor Swift the writer within the lyrics; within this interpretation the “stolen lullabies” are the songs that the ex-lover inspired, work she can no longer look proudly on. While no explicit connections to the city are formed, it is obvious that some external pressure resulted in a damning betrayal, which was painful enough to describe as death.

The final song in this death theme is “epiphany,” which does not discuss the romantic timeline at all. Instead, “epiphany” is the culmination of two sub-motifs on folklore: water and war. In nature, water gains a passing mention in “seven,” but does not truly become relevant in this organization until “the last great american dynasty.” In “epiphany,” the water reference is “crawling up the beaches now,” which serves to distance it from the overall storyline. The song also deals with the war motif (evident in most of the songs, but “ease your rifle” is very literal) and contrasts soldiers at war to doctors during the pandemic. All of this builds on this section’s burgeoning theme of death. It fits in with the album theme, but does not display obvious modernist or romanticist hallmarks.

the chance (the 1, this is me trying, peace) Opening the album is “the 1,” a frequently disliked song but a very telling one. It is similar to “cardigan” in that it reminisces on a past relationship, but the narrator feigns contentment with her current situation. If all of folklore can be considered a time capsule, “the 1” perhaps describes the headspace of the narrator before they begin reminiscing: convinced they are alright, but not holding up very well. This song involves much city imagery (“I hit the Sunday matinee,” “I thought I saw you at the bus stop”) and deals with the aftermath of many events in the album. It is interesting that this song was one of the last written, as one can imagine the narrator went directly from “it would’ve been fun” to “don’t want no other shade of blue but you” (as described in hoax). The love has died here; but there’s a desperate hope to return (“if one thing had been different, would everything be different”).

Much like “betty,” “this is me trying” is another last-ditch attempt to save a failed relationship. Both songs find Swift in a doorway, ready to apologize, but “this is me trying” bears the weight of experience and less expectation that they will have a second chance. The increased maturity finds acknowledgement of faults without excuse (“my words shoot to kill when I’m mad / I have a lot of regrets about that”) and an attempt to come to terms with the death of the relationship despite pain. This, of course, breaks apart in the bridge (“all I want is you”) but, as Swift consoles herself, at least she’s trying. Setting-wise, this seems to be in a smaller locale (“the one screen in my town”) which calls to mind the “the only thing we share is this small town” from “Death By A Thousand Cuts.” There is also what appears to be a bar (“pouring my heart out to a stranger / but I didn’t pour the whiskey”) and an influx of people (“it’s hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound”). It is not necessarily the city, but rather a recovery period that does not go well.

If the painful instruction of “illicit affairs” acts as a foil to 2014’s “How You Get The Girl,” then the anxiety of “peace” complements 2017’s “Delicate.” While “Delicate” expresses the sufferance of an early, undefined relationship (“is it cool that I said all that”), “peace” begs the lover to reconsider the end one last time. As “hoax” makes undoubtedly clear, it wasn’t enough. We see the dangers of outside influence (“I’d sit with you in the trenches”) and the strength of the romance (“the silence that only comes when two people understand each other”). It is a final plea for someone to stay, a list of the success and a fatal acknowledgement of the worst. There is a declaration that sums up much of the album: “all these people think love’s for show / but I would die for you in secret.” As we’ve seen from other songs, it is the secrecy and the hiding that has doomed them. Swift sees this, she briefly suggests a return to the free and safe woods (“give you my wild”) but is ultimately stuck on the question of peace, which she wishes she could give her partner.

the return (hoax, the lakes) The original album closer, “hoax,” finds Swift leaving a part of herself in the destructive city that has become home. She makes an attempt to return to her home, only to find that it is not the way she’s left it (“my barren land”). With her lover, she has gone through a journey that changed her too much to return to innocence (“I can go anywhere I want, just not home” from “my tears ricochet” contrasted with “you’re not my homeland anymore” from “exile,” where the lover becomes the homeland). She turns to a bleak setting, using sparse lyricism and simple constructs to describe her pain and betrayal. While Lover highlights themes of likening one’s love to a religion, the Swift we see on “hoax” has given up on any sort of healing coming from her romance. All she acknowledges is that the circumstances of her love have “broken her down” and “frozen the ground” (from which she hopes a “red rose” will emerge in “the lakes”).

In “the lakes,” Swift tries to move forward but still sets her sights on the natural world, citing a deep desire to escape the scrutiny that destroyed her romance completely. This is a call to action for her former lover, a final request for shared freedom that reminds the listener of the lyric “would you run away with me?” from 2017’s “Call It What You Want.” Swift continues to call on aspects of romanticism she’s referenced on reputation and Lover to make her point. It then tracks that she has been inspired by this muse all along, and is finally asking for a return; both to the early romanticism her albums are built on and to her lover’s “homeland.” Her desire for a new home is evident, her conviction that her former lover should join her too great to be overcome.

The response of the muse to this, of course, is unclear.

#arden speaks #my analysis #taylor swift analysis #this is more than three thousand words #arden's essays

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spiders-hth-is-an-outlier · 3 years

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Today in Strongly Worded Opinions (That You Didn't Ask For), I'm going to assert that there are too objective ways to measure whether or not a relationship is strong in story terms – by which I mean, unrelated to whether or not readers/viewers personally like the dynamic or the chemistry of the actors (in such cases as there are actors involved).

So for the sake of clarity, be ye advised: this isn't about shipping, fuck it, ship whatever you want idc. Shipping a strong relationship isn't inherently better than shipping a weak one – heck, you could just as easily argue that it's the lazier, less creative route. Also, I don't care? I don't care, it's just fandom. Follow your arrow. This is about ways to discuss whether or not a relationship introduced into a text succeeds or fails as an element of the story – or really as I'm going to prefer calling it, if a given relationship forms a strong or weak story element.

For this I'm presuming that you're creating a relationship between a protagonist and a secondary character introduced as a piece of the protagonist's overall story – protagonist/protagonist relationships aren't really a different situation, but they do have more moving parts, so for simplicity's sake, let's stick with a Main Character (we'll call that M) and a Significant Other (S for short). Also, these relationships by no means have to be romantic; any relationship can be measured as weak or strong in story terms.

Also, I'm going to say everything here as though it were factually true, even though it's just my opinion, which is correct, but if you disagree then it's only my opinion, but I am correct. Ready? Okay!

Strong relationships have story functions; in reality nothing means anything and people just like each other because they do, but fuck reality, it's a huge narrative mess. And my basic premise here is that the story function of a strong relationship falls under one (or more, if you wanna get real fancy) of these three categories:

The relationship can unlock under-explored elements of M's story or character through mirroring or intimacy (often shows up as “friends to lovers”). There is backstory that hasn't been unearthed yet, or some reaction or experience in M's life that could advance the story, and S can serve as a means to get at it. Maybe M and S share a similar trauma or life story; maybe S is the first person M feels able to open up to about something profound and relevant. Maybe part of M's story is a conflict between how they seem to others and how they see themselves or their own potential; maybe S is the person who sees them the way they see themselves...or sees M as the person they're afraid they'll never be. The story goal being met here is giving M a boost toward successful completion of their story arc, so even though there could be conflict, S is fundamentally pulling on the same side as M in the major story conflicts, in such a way that by the end, the reader should feel like M's success is at least in part because of what they gain from their relationship with S.

The relationship can function as a piece of the story's overall conflict, or as a secondary subplot conflict (often shows up as “enemies to lovers”). Traditional romance novel plotting effectively slots the love interest into the role of “antagonist,” because the romance's conflict is generally driven by people not getting what they want from each other until certain win conditions are met. In this kind of relationship, M and S might be actual-facts competitors, or be divided by ideological concerns, or they might be forced into proximity by the plot but clash on some personality level. The arc of this relationship is typically going to be about the M softening up as the relationship develops – if M starts out ruthlessly single-minded, maybe realizing that they're running roughshod over S in the process is part of their character breakthrough; if the story is about M realizing that they've underestimated the complexity of the world around them, maybe coming to recognize S as an equal is how that gets concretized for the reader. Basically this is a story where S presents a problem that M has to solve, and the more central to the narrative solving that problem is, the stronger the relationship is.

The relationship can serve to divide M's goals (often shows up as “love versus duty”). This is a story where M has to accomplish two separate things in order to fulfill their arc, but those two things aren't easily integrated. One of M's goals might be fulfilling a vow, or filial duty, or seeking revenge, and the other goal is some form of protecting or obtaining S. If the story puts M in a position of having to choose, then the relationship is inherently strong; it's providing narrative drive, whether or not S is especially well-developed as an individual character. This one can be tricky, because a very weak relationship can serve a superficially similar purpose, by demonstrating M's devotion to duty or obsessive pursuit of whatever when M rebuffs S to keep them out of harm's way or to avoid distraction or whatever. The difference is that in those superficial cases, the audience is meant to recognize that aw, that's sad, M has really had to Make Sacrifices – but there's really no dramatic tension involved; we know all along that M is going to Make Sacrifices in purusit of the real goal. When this is done seriously with a strong relationship, the audience is meant to feel divided as well; Romeo and Juliet just doesn't work as a story unless the audience likes Juliet and Mercutio, unless they fully identify with the dilemma that Romeo is in when he has to either avenge Mercutio's death or spare Tybalt for Juliet's sake and the sake of their future together. That's a big fucking story moment, and it only works because the audience buys both relationships – Romeo's with Mercutio and with Juliet – as narratively strong, to the point where Romeo's choice is not a forgone conclusion. This one is much easier to get wrong, I think, than the other two are!

What I'm saying here is that a strong relationship isn't really determined by how personally compatible two characters seem to be; a lot of movies that fridge a character's wife, for example, rely on actors convincingly portraying, in a brief window of time, two compatible people who care for each other – I'm thinking of, like, Richard Kimble and his wife in The Fugitive, who I think do sell the idea of a loving and happy marriage, but the relationship itself is a weak one. The story only really needs the bare fact of it – “Kimble had a wife that he loved and then this happened” – to kick off the actual story; the relationship between Kimble and Gerard is a stronger one narratively, because much of the emotional tension of the movie, what makes it more effective than just a series of chase scenes, is the way their mutual respect evolves as they compete against each other, and the story question of “Kimble really needs an ally, is this the right person for him to trust?” It's such a strong relationship that it comes as a huge relief of tension when he does make that gesture of trust and it turns out to be the right choice. The audience is happy that Kimble will be exonerated, but the audience is equally happy that the conflict between these two charcters is over – we didn't like them being at odds because we didn't want either of them to lose! Now, would these two people ever be close friends, let alone come to love each other? No? Yes? Who cares? Kimble loves his wife more, but has a stronger relationship in this story with Gerard. From a writing perspective, it's trivially easy to introduce an S and say “M loves this person,” but it means relatively little. It's harder to introduce an S and say “some part of this story now hinges on how M navigates knowing this person,” but that's kind of what has to happen in order to create a payoff that's worth the effort. A strong relationship provides skeletal structure for the story; it can't be stitched on at the margins.

This is an even tougher sell in something like a television series, where the introduction of S may come in well after the story is underway and the bulk of M's characterization is already in place. That's why introducing a late-season love interest is a notoriously dodgy proposition! To demonstrate weak vs strong relationship in action, I'm going to take an example of what I think was a failed attempt and pitch some ways to doctor it up into a strong relationship: Sam Winchester and Eileen Leahy.

This is objectively a weak relationship. She doesn't materially affect the metaplot of the series, or drive any major choices, or reveal anything about Sam's character. She's just, you know, generally nice and attractive and Sam likes her, which is a fine start, but then the writers just leave her idling in the garage forever. But it didn't have to be that way! Say we wanted to make it a Type 1 relationship: super easy, barely an inconvenience! Eileen is very like Sam, actually, in that she lost her parents as an infant and then had the entire rest of her life shaped by the trauma and the pursuit of revenge. That's amazing. How many other people, even hunters, share that specific experience with Sam Winchester? Sam was physically changed by drinking demon blood in infancy; Eileen was physically changed by being deafened by the banshee or whatever it was in infancy. Even just allowing them to talk about that would have made the relationship stronger. Sam is affected by the fact that there is no Before Time for him; even now that they've long since had their revenge on ol' Yellow Eyes himself, he grapples with the fact that he's forever robbed of any memories of innocence or safety or a life that wasn't lived in the shadow of this killing. Eileen also has had her life's quest for revenge fulfilled, and also has to reckon with the fact that it doesn't actually give her access to the innocence that was stolen from her. Maybe she struggles with that. Maybe Sam can open up to her because she knows what it's like to look back on your child self and feel that however strong you've made yourself, you're never strong enough to protect that child.

What if you want to write something spicier than Sam and Eileen talking about their sad feelings? Okay, let's take a Type 2 story. Eileen has been a lone hunter with a disability all her life; it's fair to guess that even if she can't match Sam's physical strength, the fact that she's survived at all means that she's pretty indomitable. Maybe she's had to be ruthless, even brutal in her hunting style; maybe she has a shoot-first-ask-questions-never approach to hunting that she credits with her very survival, but that Sam finds excessively rash and bloody. Maybe they fight about it. Have her kill some ambiguous, maybe-not-dangerous monstery types, a werewolf or something, and Sam's like, hey, we really can't just-- and Eileen is like, look, I hunt how I hunt, come with me or don't. I mean, this is a retread in some ways of early season conflicts about who to kill and when, but everything in the latter seasons is a retread anyway, so whatever, and it provides something interesting to have Sam deal with this whiplash of how there seem to be two Eileens, the smiley, jocular sweetheart who eats pancakes with him and the one who kills like she's swatting flies. What if he wants one but not the other? It doesn't really work that way, does it? Is this something he can dismiss as a foible, or is this a dealbreaker? The dude is almost forty, if he distances himself from Eileen, how many more hunters does he think he has a chance to meet and marry? If she won't even listen to his concerns seriously, is it really a good relationship anyway, or will Sam's needs always end up taking a backseat to Eileen's?

A Type 3 fix could just come down quite plainly to, what if Eileen is ready to retire? She's had her revenge. She's lived her life on the hunt. Maybe she's done, and maybe she wants Sam to be done with her. Doing this in season 15 would circle Sam back to his season 1 story conflicts in a nice way, I think – why does Sam do this at all, if it's not for revenge any longer? Does he feel personally responsible for every dead person he could've saved but didn't – is that a reasonable boundary, or lack thereof, to set? Is a compromise possible – could he continue to coordinate hunts while also getting out of the field and starting a family, or is that still putting his family in the shadow of too much violence and danger to tolerate? What's Dean going to say? He's pitched a fit in the past when Sam said he wanted out, but he's mellowed with age, hasn't he? Maybe he'll get it now? But maybe Sam also feels guilty and fearful, because he knows Dean will hunt without him, so now he's in more danger because of Sam's choices, if Sam makes this choice. It's a little heteronormative, as story conflicts go, but it's thematically appropriate to Supernatural, and the fact that Eileen isn't speaking out of timidity but out of the same weariness that Sam has so often felt about the whole endless cycle makes it feel a little less “the little lady won't let me go on adventures anymore.” This might not be my pick of the three, but the point is that it makes for a strong conflict, a legitimate divided loyalty for Sam to wrestle with, and one that doesn't have a clear right answer.

Anyway, hopefully that helps illustrate what I mean when I say that the narrative strength of a relationship doesn't have anything to do with how likeable an S character is – Eileen is very likeable! But that doesn't substitute for building her into the fabric of the story in some way. My expectation is that a serious protagonist relationship should bend the story arc in a way that requires response, and if it doesn't, I don't take that relationship particularly seriously. Canon can declare a relationship real by fiat, but it can't automatically declare a relationship meaningful without, you know, making meaning of it.

Oh, and there's not anything really wrong with weak relationships – most M's are going to have several in the story. My point is just that the difference between a weak relationship and a strong one isn't really a matter of taste or preference, but has a functional meaning that can be tested and measured, and if there's argument to be had about it, the argument can take place on evidentiary grounds. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

#apparently i give writing advice now?

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ihavethoughtsplural · 4 years

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Blood and Chocolate: An Adaptation in Name Only

Previously: Section 0 - Introduction

Section 1 – The Book

Preface: The 1997 novel Blood and Chocolate is DENSE. The paperback only spans 264 pages, but the story follows the coming of age of a dynamic and flawed female protagonist, encompasses ancient werewolf legends and laws, goes in depth into lycanthropic politics, and also features a love triangle, a teenage soap opera, a forbidden romance, and a goddamned murder mystery.

Summary: Vivian Gandillon is a 15-year-old werewolf. A year after her father was killed in the fire that destroyed their home, Vivian is lost and grieving while her leaderless pack falls apart in the Maryland suburbs that they fled to. Aiden, a tall, gentle human classmate attracts her attention and presents Vivian an escape from the tangled, animalistic world of werewolves. Keeping her lycanthropy secret, Vivian begins to date Aiden, defying the laws of her people. Vivian is pressured to break things off by her mother, her five delinquent age-mates, and the would-be leader, Gabriel. Gabriel, a 24 year-old welder, is attractive, intimidating and the object of intense romantic competition. He, more than any other, tries to convince Vivian that her dalliance with a human is dangerous, eventually revealing that he speaks from painful personal experience. The story twists and turns, tearing Vivian and Aiden apart while pulling Vivian and Gabriel together. In the end, through many trials, Vivian discovers that she can’t escape either her human or her animal nature, and must embrace both.

Themes: Vivian’s central character arc finds her struggling with what she wants as opposed to what she needs. At the opening of the novel, Vivian wants to escape the violent chaos of her pack, with its painful history and uncertain future. She finds that escape in Aiden, with his Beaver Cleaver family, his lovably quirky friends, and his sweetness and simplicity. However, when the time comes to reveal the hidden aspects of her identity, Aiden can’t handle it. Despite his supernatural curiosity, he cannot accept the supernatural when it presents itself to him. His rejection sends Vivian into a tailspin of self-destruction that only ends when she accepts the love that Gabriel is offering, a love that honors all of what she is. To ultimately find happiness, Vivian had to give up what she wanted and embrace what she needed. In addition to this, there is also a great deal of time in the novel spent contrasting the human and the animal sides of Vivian’s nature. Her two suitors Aiden and Gabriel represent, respectively, the human and the animal. Scenes of Vivian socializing with Aiden and his human friends are juxtaposed with scenes of Vivian’s werewolf pack brutally vying for dominance. The very title of the book is a reference to this dichotomy, Blood – representing Vivian’s animal desires, and Chocolate – representing Vivian’s human longings. Throughout the novel, Vivian swings between these two extremes, at one point drinking herself into a heartbroken stupor over Aiden, then blacking out and waking up in her bed next to a severed hand. She tries, in her romance with Aiden, to balance her human and animal sides, but she only achieves that balance with Gabriel, a partner who also exists in the grey area between man and beast.

Highs: These are the aspects of the novel have captivated my imagination and kept this book in my collection for so long.

o Werewolf Society: It’s a damn shame that Klause hasn’t written more stories within this framework, because it is absolutely ripe for exploration and development. The enormous potential here is one of the primary reasons why this book has held my fascination for so long and why I have written so much (published and unpublished) fanfiction for it.

o Flawed Characters: No one who’s read the book will tell you that Vivian is perfect or even likeable 100% of the time, but it fits with her characterization as a grieving, lost teenager and serves to make her all the more like an actual person. Most of the characters are like that, with their good qualities balanced or sometimes overwhelmed by their less savory sides. It makes the fictional world feel richer and more realistic, despite the supernatural elements.

o Consequences: The characters in this novel make real, awful mistakes, and they face lasting consequences for them. One of Vivian’s mistakes – maiming Astrid while defending her mother, directly leads to Vivian’s ex, Rafe, getting sucked into Astrid’s revenge plot, leading to Vivian being framed for murder and the eventual executions of both Rafe and Astrid, during which Vivian is accidentally shot by Aiden.

CONSEQUENCES! They make the story more believable, more suspenseful, and this novel, with its cast of flawed characters, would not have worked without them.

o Assertive Female Protagonist: Vivian is refreshingly frank about her desires, which is very noticeable in her courtship with Aiden. Aiden assumes that he has to advance their physical relationship slowly so as to not frighten or offend Vivian, while Vivian urges him on. She doesn’t hesitate when going after what she wants, and she’s not ashamed of her sexuality. It’s a welcome change from the restrictions that western society places on female desire, and I’d like to see more characters like her.

Lows: Blood and Chocolate is far from perfect, but, in my opinion, there are three glaring flaws in this book, and I would be remiss if I didn’t address them.

o The Esme Question: The first point is one that, once seen, cannot be unseen. Vivian’s mother, Esme, is one of the women competing for Gabriel’s affections at the beginning of the novel. It is established that they go on dates (“Saw your mother go into Tooley’s bar with Gabriel last night.” p. 18), but Klause is not explicit about how far their relationship has gone. This ambiguity leaves open a potentially disturbing possibility:

It is canonically possible that Gabriel had a sexual relationship with Esme and then moved on to sexually pursue her daughter, Vivian.

Personally, I can reasonably believe that Gabriel and Esme never progressed beyond idle flirting because:

a. Vivian strikes me as the type of person who would mark her mother’s sexual partners as “off limits”.

b. Up until just past the Ordeal scene, both Esme and Astrid are still fighting over Gabriel, implying that neither of them had really “won” him.

c. The possibility outlined above seems like it would be a bridge too far to be included in a YA novel, especially in the 90′s.

Your mileage may vary. I’ve seen reviews of the book whose negative ratings hinge on the fact that Gabriel dated Esme at all, irrespective of whether their relationship was sexual or not. Honestly? I can’t blame them. If the mere existence of this possibility squicks you out, then it’s likely going to sour the ending and ruin the rest of the book for you.

o The Age Differences: The second point is the least defensible. At the end of the novel, Vivian is 16 and Gabriel is 24. That minor/adult 8 year age gap constitutes a “yikes” in my part of the world. Klause skirts this by establishing that werewolf society has some stark differences with human society, namely that a 16 year old female is considered an adult by werewolf law. This is still a rather uncomfortable detail to be included in an American YA novel, and the older I get, the more uncomfortable it becomes.

In addition to the Vivian/Gabriel age gap, there is the even wider Astrid/Rafe age gap. Rafe is Vivian’s ex and age mate, although there are reasons to assume that he is slightly older than her. This places him somewhere in a probable 16-18 age range. He is canonically younger than 21, which makes him, according to werewolf law, not yet an adult. Astrid has a son who is also Vivian’s age, which places Astrid somewhere in her late 30’s to mid 40’s. In the book, Astrid and Rafe have a sexual relationship.

To be fair to Klause, this is framed in the novel as being toxic and ultimately destructive to both Astrid and Rafe. Near the end of the story, Rafe finally realizes that Astrid has been taking advantage of him, turning Rafe, in my opinion, into a tragic victim of manipulation.

Let me leave this segment with a PSA:

If you’re reading this and you’re underage, please don’t enter into a “relationship” with an adult. The adults in these scenarios in the real world are predators, and they’re preying on your inexperience and naïveté. They know that you probably won’t recognize relationship red flags and they think they can pressure you into doing unsafe and unhealthy things in the name of “love”. Stay safe, kids!

o Sexual Harassment: My third and final low point is one that I have very mixed feelings about. As a result, this is the longest segment of this post, so strap in. In the novel, many of the interactions between Vivian and male characters are inappropriately sexual. The most egregious offenders are the Five, Gabriel, and Aiden’s father. The Five, Vivian’s male werewolf peers, are crass, rude and arrogant. Led by Rafe, they display a lot of entitlement for Vivian’s affections. The most pointed (and gross) of these displays happens on p.41:

“You’re not Princess Wolf now,” Rafe growled behind her. “Wait too long and we’ll take what we want.”

That? Yeah, that’s a direct rape threat! Rafe also goes on to grope Vivian at her birthday party. He’s a peach! Gabriel’s harassment mostly takes the form of unwanted advances. It peaks after the Ordeal, the battle royale where Vivian accidentally wins the right to be Gabriel’s mate. In the aftermath, Gabriel corners Vivian in her kitchen, forces a non-consensual kiss on her and declares his intentions to court her. Aiden’s father is notable in the contrast he provides. Vivian only interacts with him once, when Aiden invites her to a family cookout. During this scene, he repeatedly leers at her, makes suggestive comments and on p. 79:

Vivian could hear the innuendo in Mr. Teague’s voice. It made her skin crawl.

However, if you compare Mr. Teague’s harassment to Gabriel, the Five and others, you’ll find that there is a significant difference in Vivian’s reaction. Vivian isn’t afraid to bite back at the Five’s harassment – scoring vivid revenge for Rafe’s groping when she injures his genitals. She tries to do the same to Gabriel when he forces a kiss on her, but he relents on his own. We see a similar dynamic when Esme snaps at Bucky, another male werewolf, who catcalls her in a bar. This forms a pattern which suggests that forceful sexuality is a feature of werewolf culture. Vivian confirms this the first time that she and Aiden kiss on p. 51:

“He was gentle. She hadn’t expected that. Kisses to her were a tight clutch, teeth, and tongue.”

And this is where my mixed feelings come in. I don’t condone the harassment that Vivian experiences, but I understand why Klause wrote it. Any author writing inhuman characters can’t simply tell us that they are inhuman, they have to show it. The forceful sexuality of the werewolf characters in this book is one way that Klause clearly shows that they are NOT human and serves as a contrast to the human characters. But where does Aiden’s dad fit into this? His harassment is milder than the Five’s or Gabriel’s, but it disgusts Vivian in a way that the other harassment didn’t. Why? Sexual harassment seems to be a constant feature of her pack life. This isn’t even the only time that an older man leers at her – on p. 115, in the same scene where Esme gets catcalled:

Some of those male eyes strayed to Vivian, too, and she preened at the thought of being a threat.

That’s a far cry from the skin-crawling disgust she felt with Mr. Teague, but it’s basically the same offense. What’s different? We find it in a conversation with him on p. 74:

“I would think a girl like you would go out with someone older.” He winked at Vivian. Like someone your age? Vivian thought, repelled by the man’s lack of loyalty to his son.

Vivian’s disgust stems from the fact that the man flirting with her is her boyfriend’s father. She’s shown to welcome sexual attention from other older men, and she has no problems handling more overt harassment, but the paternal disloyalty sickens her. The overt sexual harassment is there, and if it makes it impossible for you to enjoy the book, I don’t blame you. Your feelings are valid, and I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong. Personally, I understand the authorial reasoning behind its inclusion, and its utility as a characterization tool, so it doesn’t prevent me from enjoying the story. Your mileage may vary.

Verdict: The 1997 novel Blood and Chocolate is flawed, but fascinating. It sets multifaceted characters into a tantalizing world of men and monsters, where the line between good and evil is blurred into nonexistence. It is, despite its problematic elements, my favorite book.

Next: Section 2 - Adaptation Challenges

#blood and chocolate #annette curtis klause #werewolves #loups garous #adaptation #katja von garnier #agnes bruckner #hugh dancy #olivier martinez #B&C-AAINO #cw: rape #cw: age gap

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t100ficrecsblog · 4 years

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an interview with @ravenreyes-0g (she/hers)

what are you working on right now? I'm working on both my Bellarke fic for BLM and a personal fantasy story that I've written and rewritten from the beginning to about 5000000 times because my ideas keep changing. My Bellarke fic is a modern day COVID AU that is also the longest I've ever done so it's been taking a minute to finish! :)

what’s something you’d like to write one day? A YA either historical fiction or realistic fiction LGBTQ+ romance. I have a ton of ideas for plots, but I haven’t quite gotten the chance to sit down and try to plot them out. For historical fiction, I’m very interested in the 1900-1950s era, especially the Roaring 20s and WWI/II so I’d most likely set it there! I’m all in for the angsty romance, but I'd definitely want to end it on a happy note (unlike my current fantasy work) and I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to write a character driven story that doesn’t focus so much on heavy plot elements - something I can’t do as much in a fantasy setting!

what is the fanwork you’re most proud of? This one is actually pretty hard considering how my writing style has developed since I started writing fanfics. But if I had to choose, I’d probably say my FirstPrince (Alex/Henry from Red, White, and Royal Blue) fic on Ao3 called To Love Another Is to Cherish Life Itself. The title is a bit dramatic but basically it is an angsty/fluffy one-shot that I wrote really late one night and did minimal edits to before posting. It definitely feels like the most in character and honest fic I’ve ever done, and it broke my heart to write about some of the darker stuff, but in the end I’m pretty proud of it!

why did you first start writing fic? Well, I’ve been writing fanfics since I was probably 10 or 11 years old (I had PJO phase that spanned close to a decade and I’m still not totally over it 😂) but I started publishing work on Wattpad literally the night I turned 13. That was actually my first Bellarke/the 100 fic! It started out as my predictions for season 5 and then evolved into a fix-it fic for everything I didn’t like about the season. I’ve abandoned it for almost two years, but I’m slowly coming back to it so...slow updates y’all :)

what frustrates you most about fic writing? Everything! Just kidding - I love fic writing! But if I had to choose, probably two main things tho. 1) Creating a plot for a long term fic - I’m sooooo bad at it because I always feel like I’m writing too much in line with the actual show/book/movie and it feels like copying. 2) Making sure that I stay honest to the character I��m writing about. I have a huge tendency to write my fics (ESPECIALLY my one-shots) from the POV of the character who was not the main character in the original thing (like my POV for my RWRB fic is Henry, the love interest of Alex/other main character). This means that the only look inside their head that we’ve gotten has been through the eyes of the main character - which can obviously be biased. I try to stay as honest as I can to my interpretation of the character drawn directly from the text - but sometimes that means that I can’t include scenes that I want to because it feels off/out of character and that’s always disappointing. (also dialogue is just...something I really need to work on)

what are your top five songs right now? Ahhh see it changes on my day/mood but right now it’s probably

1. The Last Great American Dynasty - Taylor Swift 2. The Garden - Dua Lipa 3. Mirrorball - Taylor Swift 4. Icarus - Emma Blackery 5. Betty - Taylor Swift

(taylor really blessed us with folklore...I’m in love)

what are your inspirations? Ahhh - there are many. First and foremost, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. It’s my favorite book for so many reasons, but it teaches me so much about writing and character development. Also Liesel and Rudy melt my heart every time. I also love all the songs listed above for inspiration, and I listen to I Get To Love You by Ruelle (it’s the Malec wedding song for any Shadowhuners fans out there!) whenever I write a really emotionally intense romantic scene. If you’re looking for amazing fic recs, I highly recommend all of HMS-Chill’s works (multi fandoms), clarkesbell, and DracoWillHearAboutThis on Ao3. Though not all of them write Bellarke/the 100, if you are in any of their fic fandoms, I highly recommend checking them out because they are fantastic writers!

what first attracted you to Bellarke? what attracts you now? Honestly? #1 - their development. I love enemies to lovers with my whole heart, but I honestly didn’t see Bellarke as romantic until the 2x05 hug where I was just hit with a wave of OMG THEY BELONG TOGETHER!!! Seriously, though, the fact that they go from enemies, to grudging allies, to co-leaders, to partners, to friends, to best friends, to soulmates just makes my heart go !!!! - Also they have insane chemistry, and that certainly doesn’t hurt. What attracts me to them now is much the same, but also how much they care about each other. They’d go to the ends of the earth to save one another, and it just blows me away how powerful their screen time is, even when their scenes together have become so rare. I also don’t thinkI’m ever getting over 6x10. I swear my heart actually stopped beating when I watched it live the first time.

BESIDES Bellarke, what character or pairing do you like best on t100? Ha! Umm, I actually really like Murven, both platonically and romantically. Their journey might not be as well developed as Bellarke’s but it is still a powerful one hinging on love and forgiveness. I love how Lindsey/Richard play off of each other on screen - it’s such a joy to watch! I’ve also loved the Octavia/Indra dynamic, but it’s kinda been tabled in recent seasons which is sad :(

why did you decide to start writing for bellarkefic-for-blm? Two reasons - 1) I wanted to do everything I could for BLM and it was so amazing that I could do that, and write works for my favorite show! 2) I was super curious about the prompts people would send in. My work right now is a modern day AU COVID fic where Bellamy and Clarke have to share a room together in an overcrowded hospital until one day Clarke disappears. It’s so different than what I usually write - bc I almost always write canon compliant/in universe fics - so it’s a nice challenge!

what’s your writing process like? Honestly it depends. For long/multi-chapter fics I try to plan out as much of it as I can, characters, plot, important moments, etc - even though I am not very good at planning. But for one-shots I tend to go off of emotion or feelings. Usually when I write one-shots, it’s because a particular line or moment in a book/movie/show really spoke out to me, and spurred this idea in my head. I always start with the line I want to get to at the heart of the fic and then write around it from there. I am definitely much more of a panster than a planner- which is why one-shots work much better for me!

what are some things you’d like to recommend? 1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Also, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz. 2. Musicals! They can be amazing inspiration - my favorites are Les Mis, Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Six, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Hadestown, Anastasia, Island Song, Newsies, & Tuck Everlasting! 3. TV Shows besides The 100 - Anne with an E, Shadowhunters (just pretend you haven’t read the books), French SKAM, Love Victor, HSMTMTS, Merlin, Lucifer, I think I’m just listing fandoms at this point 😂

Also, almost any Taylor Swift, Troye Sivan, Conan Gray, Dua Lipa, Emma Blackery or Harry Styles songs are amazing!

My handle is the same for everything - Twitter, Tumblr, Ao3, Wattpad (if anyone still uses that anymore), etc (RavenReyes0G). I also run a book review blog on Instagram which is @betweenthepagesandtea, so feel free to check that out too! Request a fic written by her via @bellarkefic-for-blm!

#bellarkefic4blm #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #bellarke #bellarke fanfiction #bellarkefics for blm interview

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traincat · 5 years

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What do you think of Johnny and Namorita?

Johnny and Namorita confuse me. Not in terms of the actual pairing of the characters – I think if any work had been done with their relationship, it could’ve been cute, and I like their initial scenes together. And obviously there was a lot to explore there potentially, what with Sue and Namor’s own history, and the Fantastic Four’s long relationship with Namor. So you’d think the comics could have built an interesting romance or dynamic out of that!

I admittedly haven’t read that much with Namorita, so I don’t know what is or isn’t out of character for her, but it doesn’t really matter, because once the relationship gets rolling she’s barely present anyway, which is, you know, odd, considering they’re supposed to be dating. They spend so little time together that it’s actually remarked upon in Fantastic Four v3 #55:

“I had this funny idea a guy was supposed to spend time with his girlfriend.”

Ugh, so, this in and of itself is not actually uncommon for Johnny in his relationships, which is part of what makes his reputation as a playboy or womanizer particularly mystifying. Post-Crystal, all of Johnny’s relationships get Weird in one way or another. There’s his relationship with Frankie Raye, which 1) is fairly shortlived in terms of the time they actually spent together, and again, we don’t see much of that time, 2) implies that Frankie was only attracted to Johnny because her own latent fire powers were reacting to his, and 3) takes place in a plot that hinges on Frankie and Johnny never having been naked together. Literally that is important to the plot leading up to Frankie discovering her powers. Oh, and then she leaves him for Galactus. Then Johnny’s next serious relationship is with Alicia Masters, which has uhhh the chemistry of a beige wall. Anyway, then they get married. Then Alicia turned out not to be Alicia at all, but a Skrull named Lyja, which flips the entire marriage and relationship on its head. And that is all of Johnny’s serious romantic relationships (discounting his high school girlfriend and several flirtations that never go anywhere) up until Namorita. So that’s already looking a bit dicey on his end; it is essentially his first relationship after his “marriage” and what I would label his fourth “real” adult relationship.

Though Johnny and Namorita knew each other beforehand, things take a flirtatious turn in New Warriors v2 #3:

It’s some pretty chaste flirting. Namorita and Johnny bond over the price of celebrity at dinner, then sneak out and kiss on the roof. It’s a cute scene overall. The problem is that’s… kind of the end of it. I mean, they’re apparently, after this point, in a relationship, it’s just that we see very little of it.

In New Warriors v2 #9, Namorita reacts to the news that the Fantastic Four have joined with Doctor Doom (who is really Reed trapped in Doom’s armor) with anger. We never see her and Johnny talk about this, which is funny, because we certainly do see Johnny talk about it with someone in the pages of Fantastic Four:

(Fantastic Four v3 #27) With most other characters, a scene like this would happen with their love interest, but when Claremont picked who he wanted Johnny to discuss things he went with… Spider-Man. Because again: Johnny doesn’t spend time with his girlfriend.

He and Namorita don’t break up after this – they’re vaguely together for a while longer. She’s spotted here with Johnny while an alternate Frankie Raye makes a “fire and water” comment:

Fantastic Four v3 #46 – as you can see, some time has passed, enough that you’d expect me to be able to pull up some scenes that are more romantic. Nope. I think maybe they might have kissed a few times in here but if they did it wasn’t interesting or pretty enough for me to have saved to my refs, and I save like, everything Johnny-related.

Namorita did attend some promotional event for Johnny’s movie, the Rawhide Kid, with him in Fantastic Four #50 (which is a nuff said – no dialogue). This, combined with the shared celebrity setup of the beginning of their relationship and the fact that even Ben remarks that Johnny doesn’t really spend time with her, leads me to sort Johnny&Namorita into a Johnny Relationship Category I called the Celebrity Relationships. This is a subset of Johnny’s relationships where he appears to be invested in them not because he’s genuinely romantically interested in the other person, but because both of them are public figures who receive boosts in the media for being seen with one another. Namorita is actually the first incident of these – and I think it’s very interesting that this is a trend that only starts happening after the end of his “marriage” and relationships with Lyja. (Warning for heavy discussion of sexual assault in that second link.) The other two Celebrity Relationships are with Kourtney, a supermodel he dates on and off during Marvel Knights who seems generally bored with him and breaks up with him after the Fantastic Four lose their fortune (although they do later get back together):

(Marvel Knights 4 #2)

And Darla Deering, a pop sensation, who Johnny even explicitly admitted he was dating because he was attracted to her lifestyle, not to her:

(FF #16)

Johnny’s a celebrity, and he loves being a celebrity, but he is also bad at being a celebrity and he has massive self-esteem and self-image issues. Pre-Lyja, Johnny’s obsessed with falling in love and getting married. Post-Lyja, Johnny starts entering these relationships that seem to be about staying in the public eye as much as being in the relationship, and Namorita seems to be the first of these. I do think he genuinely liked her; I just don’t know if I think he was attracted to her. (The first thing he does in the scene where they flirt for the paparazzi is compliment her new, more covered costume up.) We don’t know when they break up, exactly – it’s not on the page (what is) – but in Human Torch (2003) #11, which describes their relationship as “intense, passionate, and mercurial” (to which I ask: WHERE) Johnny says Namorita left him, while Namorita blames Hollywood and also states that she didn’t want to be swallowed up by the Fantastic Four:

Annnd then they part ways again after reconciling a little bit. It’s kind of a weird issue because we never actually see any of these “passionate, mercurial” fights, really. They’re just sometimes on the page together and then they’re not, and this comes in with an explanation that doesn’t really fit with what’s on the page. Which, to be fair, is not unique to Namorita when it comes to Johnny’s romantic relationships. I feel like writers try to make relationships work for him and then when the characters aren’t clicking they just sort of… fall by the wayside. And I think that’s what happened with Johnny and Namorita.

So ultimately my opinion is that I would have really liked to see more between them. The public eye aspect, the Namor aspect, the long history between their families, the obvious fire and water metaphors – I think there were places to go here, but they just didn’t happen.

#imperiuswrecked #johnny storm #*replies #traincat talks comics #long post/#namorita prentiss #also i think johnny's gay so

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manifestoonmoralmanlove · 5 years

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Help I’m being harassed by the #1 sexeist man! Review

Sorry I had this mostly finished on the backburner for awhile but Soulless grabbed my attention pretty hard. BUT NOW THIS IS FINISHED! I hope you enjoy!

Summarize

So the story is as follows…Takato is an actor who was voted Japan’s sexiest man for a few years in a row. However his title is usurped by this dude named Junta that he’s working on a new movie with. Takato is salty about this but is professional about it and just kinda harbors secret bitter feelings. He is polite to and gives advice to Junta when asked. Junta invites him out to drinks, Takato doesn’t want to but everyone within a 5 mile radius swoops in to pressure him into it so he caves.

GOD WHY IS THAT A THING? That for sure happened in Love Stage and I’m sure I’ve seen that trope elsewhere. Where not just a 3rd party will pressure a reluctant uke but like a fucking horde of strangers with nothing to gain from it just crawl out from under the fucking floor boards like little hack-handy roaches to advance this shitty plot.

ANYWAY!

Junta gets Takato drunk, films embarrassing stuff that he threatens to blackmail him with, and a fucking horror scene of a rape ensues. Like, not dissimilar from Junjou in the fact that the atmosphere is drawn as oppressive, the uke is riddled with very palatable fear, the seme wears crazed expressions, and behaves violently. Hell, Takato manages to shove him off and tries to lock himself in the bathroom for his own safety but Junta rips the door off its fucking hinges. Takato PLEADS like BEGS for him not to but he is violently raped against the wall while Takato cries saying OUT LOUD that THIS IS RAPE! Afterwards he’s crying and shaking, talking out loud about how he’s frightened if others find out and feeling humiliated.

Junta picks him up and is like, “Man I guess I got carried away, but like REAL TALK I have a crush on you. The rape was kinda bad I guess, but it’s not my fault cause I literally cannot control any of my actions. I can prove I like you by having gentle sex with you in the bed.”

Takato agrees to this.

I BEG YOUR FUCKING PARDON?!

The implication here is that Junta just looked SO SWEET! But like also it wasn’t gentle sex at all and Junta is going to continue to blackmail him. HAR HAR!

Like here is a hot fucking take authors and fans of this particular type of garbage… that kind of writing does not make this more consensual and okay.

Like if you threw a dude in a pit full of scorpions, and he is being stung by a thousand stingers and the poison is slowly and painfully shutting down all of his bodily functions and it’s all really gruesome…but then someone asks if he wants to be saved and the dude in the pit goes from screaming in agony to saying, “Actually I like it down here.”

Does that mean being pushed into that pit, and what he went through in that pit is okay? NO

What does him suddenly wanting to marry all of those 1000 scorpions mean?

IT MEANS YOU’RE A FUCKING HACK WRITER WILLFULLY CONTRIBUTING TO RAPE CULTURE FOR A QUICK BUCK YOU HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Like you can have your stories where a rapist is redeemed from his awful actions, but more often than not I see these fucking outrageous hairpin fucking turns in writing.

I mean, Junta does apologize? Which is better than some semes but honestly I’d rather him not even bother because he’s not sincere. He apologizes all the time for the sex acts he puts Takato through but goes on to blackmail him, hurts him, abducts him, and threatens him to his face with more rape. LIKE NOT EXACTLY FEELING AS IF YOU TOTES CARE ABOUT HOW HE FEELS ABOUT ALL THIS, BOYO!

The next chapter while they’re being filmed for the show Takato throws him against the wall and hijacks the dialog to make it sound sexually threatening. Takato IN HIS MIND ADMITS “DAMN HE’S ACTUALLY USING ENOUGH FORCE TO HURT ME!!!!” So after this shot, Takato gives Junta some advice and makes no shit, this fucking face…

And that…face, (improperly attached to what I presume is a series of straws coated in plaster masquerading as a neck) gives Junta that GOTTA RAPE NOW BONER!

So that’s what happens, he just violently drags off a kicking and screaming Takato in the middle of shooting and no one bats a fucking eye. SEEMS LEGIT! What’s baffling to me is they don’t even draw a sex scene for this.

MY BRO, WHAT IS EVEN THE FUCKING POINT THAN OF ALL THESE RAPE SCENERIOS IF THERE AREN’T HIDEOUS MELTING FACES AND WACKY INFLATABLE TUBE MAN BODIES TO GO WITH IT!?

But afterwards Junta says the classic creepy shit, “Give up already and become mine. I have no intention of giving you to someone else.” WE KNOW THE DRILL!

Takato looks up at Junta and goes, “Yeah guess I love this dude.”

AND LIKE FOR WHAT? FOR HUH? WHAT’S GOING ON HERE!?!!??!?!?!?!?

But also, are you fucking joking here? Like I’m not into the 10 volumes of “Am I gay or not?” bullshit we get in yaoi. But, depending on the pace and characterization, there’s nothing wrong with dragging out the love being 100% mutual. Here’s it’s in chapter fucking 2. Even Junjou went at a slower pace than that. When I read that I couldn’t help feeling like, “WELL WHAT’S THE CONFLICT IN THE NEXT 3 AND A HALF VOLUMES GOING TO BE?”

Which, admittedly is unfair, there can be lots of relationship conflict outside of mutually expressed love…However for a rapist/tsundere dynamic? That’s usually at least 75% of the conflict. But oh, maybe this means we’re going to get different kinds of drama! So even while it’s not good, we’re going to get something different!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

It’s utter NOT-CONFLICT is what we end up with. 3 different chapters are, “I haven’t seen much of him, that must mean he’s bored of me. Wah! Oh it turns out he was just busy. Oh that’s good.” PAGING FUCKING JUNJOU WITH THAT SUPER FUN, ENGAGING, AND INTERESTING CONFLICT HARDY FUCKING HAR!

Then we take a hard right into sorta worst rapist territory. What do you mean by SORTA worst rapist Faps?

Well……

There’s a new actor Takato is working with and this new actor, and the new actor’s coding as a bad guy is about as subtle as a punch to the mouth. So new actor gets Takato drunk enough for him to pass out, gives him a hickey and ????????????

2 things happen in these situations in yaoi typically

1.) SOMEHOW the seme MAGICS his way there beats up the worst rapist

2.) This happens after the uke and seme have a fight. So uke realizes how mean he was for not being 100% down with all the seme’s shitty behavior cause there is a worst rapist out there. He runs crying to the seme apologizing and conflict solved.

We sorta get the 2nd here…but not in a straight-forward way. For one there is no fight beforehand to set up any kind of relationship development. What happens is that Takato wakes up mortified at the possibility he was raped while he was asleep. He staggers around both in denial and utter shame. Seme shows up and like only adds to this panic by yanking him around, forcefully washing his body, and screaming that his SLUTTY, SLUTTY FACE MANIPULATES MEN into raping him. The seme tells him that they don’t have to have sex. Which good, but I mean the scene is not framed as if Takato is doing this out of kindness but almost as a dare. The implication being if Takato doesn’t consent that he is the OTHER MAN’S BOY NOW and they should just break up. So there is implicit pressure there, but he does seem to initial consent. Yet during the sex Takato internally cries about how much he hates it because his boyfriend is hate fucking him but he can’t say NO because than his boyfriend will hate him more.

LIKE FUCKING BIG YIKES MY FRIEND! IT’S SUPER UNCOMFORTABLE!

Which like, I could see a post-assault sex scene full of the emotional intensity of the anger, guilt, shame, fear all intermingling within both of them working well. (Not that post assault consensual sex is much of a thing.) That they’re trying not to think of what Takato went through but it’s eating at both of them. THAT COULD BE A REALLY INTENSE, WELL DONE SCENE! However this is framed like seme ~taking back what’s his~ in a really cold, pissed-off way that’s AT BEST really insensitive to what the uke just went through and his current emotional state. While Takato ~letting him~ cause he’s afraid his bf hates him for getting raped by someone not him. Junta also disappears without a word, making Takato fear that YEP HIS BF DON’T WANT HIM CAUSE HE’S DAMAGED GOODS NOW!

But who has to apologize? THE UKE!

Also it turns out Takato was not raped cause worst rapist couldn’t get it up after Takato said his bf’s name in his sleep. This is framed as better not cause of what the uke went through, but he didn’t really CHEAT so Junta can forgive him.

LIKE REALLY MY DUDE? YOU STARTED THIS OFF WRITTEN TAKATO MORE REALISTICALLY DEALING WITH THE DENIAL, DISGUST, AND SHAME OF ASSUALT AND INSTEAD JUST DEGRADED INTO THE SAME VICTIM-BLAMING HORSESHIT! GET FUCKED!

So the resolution is that the relationship is fixed and Junta threatens and blackmails the rapist. Which, I’m glad he didn’t get off scot-free but those interactions felt less like protecting the safety of Takato and more like, HE’S MY PROPERTY NO TOUCHY!

So from here we take a big turn.

Most of the 3rd volume is a big back-track to the beginning of their relationship before it was romantic or sexual. And boy howdy it feels like a retcon for the fuck awful pace of the 1st volume.

Basically it’s about how Junta became obsessed with Takato while working on a movie cause idk he’s pretty and he accidently heard Takato say something shitty about him once. While I wouldn’t call this good the fact that they actually let this blooming of affection take place makes it the best chapters so far.

Like at the end Junta resolves himself to let his feelings be known and to start a romantic relationship with Takato. Without the context, that felt like almost sweet? That he’s accepted his gay feelings and wants to share his life with Takato. However if you REMEMBER THE CONEXT it means that Junta planned to drug, blackmail, and rape Takato WHICH YANNO REALLY TAKES A SHIT ON YOUR CUTE LITTLE FEATHERS BLOWING IN A BREEZE TO GO WITH HIS CUTSY MONOLOG YOU SHIT-SUCKER!

But lordy the next chapter comes along which is a retelling of this prequel from Takato perspective. The only saving grace here is that it’s not nearly as long as Junta’s. Basically Takato realizes that Junta is OUT for him, and has a fucking frightened panic attack in his car afterwards. He’s literally shaking and monologing about how scary the situation and Junta are. And this isn’t me even inferring words in Takato’s head, he repeats scary over and over. Takato even decides to over book himself so he’ll have fewer chances to interact with Junta. So he does the classic ~pass-out from overwork~ thing so Junta can save him and from here we immediately transition to,

Oh now it’s modern day and they’re banging…..okay????? VOLUME ENDS

The next plot point comes down to this:

Paparazzi are OUT TO GET THEM! There is a photo leaked that isn’t really suggestive at all and Takato pretty much loses his job for it. However Takato finds out there is a much more damning picture of him and Junta, so he decides to break up with Junta, and like…just literally do whatever the paparazzi wants in order to protect Junta. But like, what’s the point of hiding it from Junta? And if this dude is going to blackmail you, what are you going to do to make sure their demands end or don’t get to the point that they’re unfeasible to continue giving in to them?

HAHA OH WELL!

Takato doesn’t even get to see the paparazzi again, his producer finds out and sexually assaults him to PROVE A POINT!

AND BOY HOWDY I’M WAY INTO THAT TROPE! LOOKING AT YOU OURAN HOST CLUB!

Cause HAHA nobody could literally want anything out of a wealthy, well-connected actor other than gay rape amirite?

Meanwhile Junta is cultivating a rumor that he’s having an affair with an actress. Cause of fucking course Junta figured that the only reason his boyfriend (whom is often upset at how shitty he gets treated by him) is an elaborate ploy to protect him from the paparazzi. But you know OF COURSE we see the actress and Junta flirting a bunch to stir the pot in a private setting but like…they only need to be seen on an outside date once. This means that he’s fucking lying if he says that he only did it to SAVE BOTH OF THEM FROM THE PAPARAZZI. He was getting a kick out of it, which I think you could argue that he was being unfaithful or in the very least being a fucking dick about it.

But, Junta goes on TV and says that he’s not having an affair with the actress or with Takato but he is moving in with Takato.

Yeah nothing dispels rumors of an intimate relationship like the announcement that they’re MOVING IN TOGETHER! Now, as I understand it, the housing market is very different in Japan from the west and therefore it’s less of a huge TELL of an intimate relationship if two people move in together. But even if that’s the case, saying you’re moving in with someone you’re accused of having an affair with…is not helping my friend.

However it is phrased this way, and immediately the entirety of the media believes this whole-heartedly, and the paparazzi guy (despite having a much more damning picture he hasn’t released) is like, “Wowzers he’s so smart, he has BEAT ME! I’m giving up being paparazzi. That man CHANGED MY LIFE FOR THE BETTER! HOW COULD I EVER THANK HIM!?” Even the fucking company that hired this paparazzi guy is like, “WELL I’M TAKING MY BUSINESS IN A NEW BETTER DIRECTION! THAT JUNTA GUY SURE, SHOWED ME!!!!”

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING!? You might as well have every criminal in Japan throw their hands up going, “WELL GOLLY! DID YOU SEE HOW GREAT THE ACTUAL RAPIST AND ABUSER JUNTA IS? BEST NEVER DO A BAD THING EVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

GO EAT EVERY DICK!!!!

That’s pretty much the end up to this point. I mean, there are some odds and ends chapters here and there but they’re pretty much excuses for sex chapters. And like, even though those are pretty rapey, I kinda respect them more than when you attempts to interject some semblance of relationship drama, cause holy hell that paparazzi shit ugh.

Though if you’ll allow a side rant from me about how the story treats sexual assault. According to the author it comes in a lot of flavors and most of them are awful.

For one: if it’s a hunky guy who loves you: Rape is great.

For two: if it’s a hunky guy but you already have a rapist errr boyfriend: You’re cheating.

For three: if you’re being obnoxiously sexually harassed by your superior….BUT YOUR PRODUCER IS AN OLDER EFFEMINATE GAY MAN: It’s hilarious and harmless and helps cement your Marty-stuness.

For four: if a woman is being groomed by a superior: It’s a bad thing that should be stopped.

3 and 4 happen within the same chapter but the author is so oblivious at the hypocrisy of the framing it’s absurd.

Story

Okay so the story is a mess. The relationship progression goes way too fast for it to make sense, and negates a lot of the drama you could have had. It’s possible that the editors wanted sex ASAP for some kinda quota, and that’s not necessarily bad. But it really burns my biscuits when people think, “Oh that means lead with rape and that they’ll be in mutual love by chapter 2.”

Sure most tsundere stories have a bit more lead up until the uke can confess he likes the seme back but this is not the right way to break that mold. The hairpin turn makes no sense and neuters a lot of potential conflict.

It puts the comic in a pacing hole to start and the rest of the story does little to mitigate this. I think there was an attempt to rectify this by going back to the story BEFORE they were a couple. However that was horrible botched as well. It brings the pacing to a screeching halt with a volume of Junta being like “OH NO HE’S HOTTTTTTTTTTT” despite the time devoted they do very little to give them an actual relationship or investment in his personality. It’s all a one-sided pining boner for hideous wiggle mouth.

The content of the writing is just embarrassing too. I can be a more forgiving in the sex-excuse side chapters. But like there’s a side chapter when Junta is magiked into a child and for like what? So we can coo, that the author drawing a small snowman with a poorly defined face and pretending it’s a child is super adorable?

So we can excuse the shitty way Junta behaves? Is anybody weirded out that 3 year old Junta is more thoughtful and respectful than his adult-self? YOU CAN’T EVEN WRITE HOW CHILDREN BEHAVE YOU STUPID SIMP! UGH!!!!

But also the arc on the paparazzi just ended in a total train-wreck of awful writing no question.

Sexual politics:

They’re fucking atrocious here.

1.) The first scene is framed as a brutal rape but 30 seconds later its fine and they’re in love.

2.) The handling of the ~worst rapist~ trope with big buckets of victim blaming and as if Takato was ~cheating~ is horrendous.

3.) The worst rapist is also a sex worker. So we’re framing sex workers as bad people and sex work as a bad thing. BUT GOLLY KEEP DRAWING GRAPHIC SEX SCENCES!

4.) The sexually predator producer of Junta being framed as harmless cause he’s effeminate is god fucking awful. It’s also this bizarre homophobic double standard that this man (and by extension his gay brother) are a joke because they behave stereotypically gay and aren’t ashamed of being effeminate. MEN ARE ONLY HOT IF THEY ACT LIKE PREDATORS IN A MANLY WAY, OR ARE ASHAMED OF ANY SEXUAL SUBMISSIVE OR EFFEMINATE TRAITS THEY HAVE! I LOVE WATCHING MAN ON MAN SEX BUT SO HELP ME GOD IF THEY’RE ~GAY ABOUT IT!~

5.) They ~sorta~ take sexual harassment seriously when a female actor is being groomed. Like they joke about it but also DO SOMETHING TO STOP IT really fucking muddles what we’re supposed to think about sexual abuse at all here.

6.) Takato’s producer sexually assaults him to ~prove a point~ that Takato is putting himself in situations where rape COULD happen. The fuck is this horseshit! “These men could do the very bad thing of raping you. Let me demonstrate what that bad thing looks like cause I’m sure you’re UNAWARE!” THE FUCK!? Also this sexual assault is framed more seriously than Junta’s producer because this producer is coded as MORE ATTRACTIVE and less openly QUEER! ONCE AGAIN I EXCLAIM! THE FUCK!?

7.) Takato OPENLY describes Junta as scary and calls his acts stalking, kidnapping, bullying, blackmail, threats, and rape. He also tries to actively avoid his boyfriend at times, yet are we not to take ANY of this seriously? Are we not to take this seriously cause this behavior is acceptable when the one dolling it out is attractive and charming? Are we not to take it seriously because we can’t except Takato to be honest about how he feels about any of this? I don’t believe in given a blanket free-pass when Takato doesn’t consistently express desire in Junta’s abusive tendencies. Like maybe you can argue some of the sex is consensual but can you argue that Takato is into the blackmail, when he never mentions he likes it? Can you argue he’s into the non-stop attention when he SOMETIMES BEGRUDINGLY admits he enjoys it? If so does just that get a blanket pass?

JUST UGH! YOU’VE GUYS HAVE PROBABLY HEARD THIS RANT FROM ME BEFORE I FUCKING HATE TSUNDERE SEXUAL POLITICS!

Characters

Takato

Okay so Takato. What’s this dude’s deal?

Okay let’s start with some boring basics: He’s a hard-working actor who strives to be professional. He’s a perfectionist, who seems to easily and joyfully take on the role of mentor/protector. He does seem to take himself too seriously at times. He appears to subtly prod at people who have wronged him or others rather than confront them directly. He’s also shown to be a tsundere with a submissive streak.

There’s nothing bad on its face about this characterization. However Takato is described as an intelligent professional actor, with years of experience. Yet his handling of the paparazzi thing is pretty much he goes to shit and opens him up to more rape cause lol hot. I could maybe understand this characterization if the paparazzi thing really hit Takato on a personal level and he made some irrational choices due to feeling as if he was being attacked or that he was going to permanently lose his job.

However he is shown as calm, as he’s making these choices and openly states that he will gladly give up a career he worked so hard for if it would save Junta’s career. Did he not, even for a second consider he could save both of them? This is not consistent with his characterization and it exists to put Junta on a pedestal he does not deserve.

SPEAKING OF…

Junta

So…this fucking guy. Junta is a young up and coming actor with early success. He’s shown to be an impulsive, passionate person who relies heavily on an ~angelic charm.~ He has no shame in using calculated, underhanded methods in order to achieve his goals. He is shown as impatient, has a temper, and is openly disrespectful to his partner.

Yet the world fawns over him with praise for how attractive, charming, and ~resourceful~ he is. He is described as having a few low wage jobs out of high school and therefore he’s an expert in EVERYTHING FOREVER!

I believe they were trying to humorously contrast Junta having a sweet, innocent angelic charm, with the reality of him being an aggressive a-hole. However they do not frame the aggressive a-hole side of him as bad but rather as HOT. Like I GET THAT on some level but since he’s a manipulative, abusive, rapist, it just reminds me of all the REAL LIFE INDIVIDUALS who put on a good face for the public but to their partner they’re monsters.

Art

I legit hate this fucking art. Like straight up and down, I have a hard time even reading it on a visual level. Like the anatomy is OKAY and the backgrounds are OKAY but a lot of it is less than okay. The worst culprits are the character designs, the necks, and the expressions.

I am so done with mediocre artists churning out, not only same-faced characters compared to their own art, but characters that are basically same-faced compared to the main-stream. The only thing unique here is that Junta has dark hair underneath his lighter brown hair. OH GOLLY! It’s so fucking bland and Junta’s got best seme in the Chil Chil awards and I’m so salty about that I could give the dead sea a run for its money. UGH!

The necks are super long, thin, twisty, sharp angels, and with her sad attempts at tendons it looks as if they’re constantly tense. And in worst case scenarios they don’t look as if they’re attached to even half of the chin. Yeesh!

The expressions…fucking lord. In the best of times, the facial spacing is just bad, with eyes and mouths off center, and ears too low. The author has no concept of how lips/faces work so all the kisses are REAL BAD. It’s either just like…triangles smashed at each other, no lips involved, or they’re like 1 foot apart layering their tongues on each other like they’re building a fucking sandwich.

The worst of times is Takato’s sex faces. THEY MAKE ME WANT TO VOMIT-SCREAM!

Basically he squints and his eyes get so watery it looks as if they replaced his eyeballs with just well…water. You can’t make out pupils, irises, NOTHING! But the mouths are the pinnacle of puke-inducing. They’re these enormous squigglies with no rhyme or reason, just oozing saliva like a breach in a dam. At best they’re cartoonish in an unerotic way. THESE SQUIGGLES! I CAN’T STAND THEM! YUCK!

TL;DR

Poorly drawn and written Rapist/Tsundere garbage. While it doesn’t hit EVERY little overplayed trope, it’s still pretty cliché. Just, it’s similar and up there with Junjou in the shitty department if you ask me.

#Dakaretai Otoko Ichii ni Odosarete Imasu #Help I’m being harassed by the 1 sexeist man!#review #comic critique saturday

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thesffcorner · 5 years

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Glass

Glass is written and directed by M Night Shyamalan. It’s the third film in a series that started 19 years ago with Unbreakable and takes place 3 weeks after the events of Split. It follows David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who after the death of his wife, has become a vigilante, dubbed the Overseer by the public. He has been trying to find the Beast (James McAvoy), who has in the intervening time kidnapped 2 more sets of girls. However, during their confrontation they get ambushed by the police and admitted into a sanatorium, under the eye of Dr Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist who has three days to ‘cure’ both of them from their delusion that they are superheroes.

I really enjoyed this film. It still suffers from some pacing and dialogues issues, as do most of Shyamalan’s films, but a lot of the problems I had with Split, are fixed here. It’s a clever examination of our culture’s perception of superheroes and extraordinary humans, and I think it’s a fitting conclusion to David, Kevin and Elijah’s story-lines.

I think the best way to talk about this film, would be to go over the characters, because much like Fantastic Beasts, the positives and negatives are tied to the various character story-lines. So, in descending order let’s start with the positives.

Kevin Wendell Crumb:

Kevin’s character, I feel has both the strongest arc, and gets most of the screen times, so it’s only fitting we start with him. In the intervening time between Split and Glass, the Horde, we find out has kidnapped two more sets of girls, a group of cheerleaders being the last one. All of the personalities we saw in Split make a comeback, and while I still maintain that Hedwig is the MVP, and best character, I was surprised at how much I both liked and looked forward to seeing Dennis, Patricia and Kevin himself.

I really do have to comment MacAvoy; he is genuinely the reason this character works at all. He has such a good grasp on all these different characters, that me and my friends just had fun guessing which personality had the light in different scenes, and we all guessed first try, often without even McAvoy having any dialogue. He is so good at creating different mannerisms and body language for each character, and they are all (especially the main 5) are recognizable and distinguished from each other.

I was also happy to see a ton of the other personalities. I didn’t count, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we did see all 24 of them; there are two scenes where the asylum uses hypnotic lights to cycle between the different characters in Kevin’s body, and we get a taste of most if not all of them. None of the other personalities get any real weight to the story, but I did like the subtle hints that the Horde was disintegrating, with some people joining Patricia and Dennis, and some maintaining to fight against them.

Speaking of Dennis, I was SHOCKED that I actually liked him in this film. I think the smaller role actually helped establish what was meant to be his conflict in Split, which was his desire to protect Kevin, and Patricia’s indoctrination that only the Beast can truly do that, with his hesitance to kill any of the girls. He is faced with Casey, and her being amicable and caring about Kevin are what really push him over the edge into realizing the Beast is wrong, and I really liked that.

Patricia was the weakest of the mains in Split, but here she gets some interesting scenes with Elijah. She is the Beast's priestess and first disciple, but even her faith and commitment waver in the face of someone like David Dunn who is capable of all the things the Beast is, and maybe even stronger. She was the one that was the most susceptible to Dr. Staple’s ‘therapy’ because she’s the most committed to the idea that the Beast is superhuman; if he isn’t and he is just a mad monster, than Patricia has to come to terms with the fact that all the people she killed for him were innocent and for nothing.

Hedwig doesn’t really get an arc, but he is still the most entertaining and funniest character. He gets several scenes to shine with Elijah and David, but the stand out was definitely his ‘relationship’ with Casey, which brought some much needed levity to this otherwise bleak film.

Kevin, who didn’t get much time to shine in Split, gets a bigger role here. I thought the idea of him more or less imprinting on Casey because she was the one to show him kindness and their shared trauma was fine as a character turn. What I didn’t really like or understand were the weird romantic undertones between them, and also Casey's speech to him about what happened to her uncle after the Beast let her go, should have made no sense to Kevin, since he didn’t know about her scars; it felt like it was directed at the audience, as Shyamalan realized Casey didn’t get any conclusion in the last film.

As for the Beast, I really liked the way Elijah essentially manipulates him to fall perfectly in his plan, and I think the film does a decent job at presenting the duality of him being at once, there to protect Kevin from the world, and at the same time a destructive and evil force in the world.

Elijah Pierce:

Speaking of Elijah, he was by far my favorite character in the film. Samuel L Jackson is great in any role, but here he brings a real joy to this character that’s at the same time appalling, and sympathetic and pitiable. He makes terrible decisions, hurts people and has no concern for anyone other than as to how they fit in his grand scheme, and yet you can’t help but root for him. He’s incredibly clever, and his medical condition makes it near impossible for me to hate him, mostly because there are plenty of characters who treat him poorly in the film.

This entire plot hinges on his plan, and while I won’t spoil it, I will say that I DID NOT see either of the twists coming, and I was pleasantly surprised with the direction the film took. Jackson got some great interactions with both Willis and McAvoy, and I really liked that he not once is tempted to believe that what Dr Staple tells him is true; that’s why she decides to perform the ‘procedure’ on him immediately. I also really liked the scenes he gets with his mother, especially at the end; I thought that was a very touching moment, and humanized a rather monstrous character.

David Dunn:

David was the only character I feel like was rather wasted in this film. He has a lot of screen time especially at the start of the film, while he’s still trying to find the Beast, and I really liked the Batman/Oracle dynamic he has with his son Joseph throughout the film. Unfortunately, once the characters are in the asylum, he sort of gets lost in the shuffle, and doesn’t really have a proper arc like Kevin or Elijah. He basically goes through the same arc he had in Unbreakable, except less well executed, and faster.

and he’s the one that really puts a wrench in the ‘therapy’ Dr Staple has, which is hard to explain without talking about Dr. Staple.

Dr. Ellie Staple:

Dr Staple specialized in people who have delusions that they are superhumans, so she spends most of the film trying to convince the three, especially Kevin and David, that they don’t. Except this isn’t really convincing as a potential twist, because we KNOW that David and the Beast are capable of doing superhuman things. With David, he’s never been sick, he’s never broken a bone, he survived a train crash that killed everyone else, he can lift more than weightlifters in their prime, he can sustain heavy blows and injuries in his body, and he looks amazing for someone who at that point is probably around 60. Even the explanation of his visions felt too contrived; the movie doesn’t make an effort to disguise the way he figures out Hedwig is the Beast by showing us the ‘clues’ that he supposedly picked up on to make that judgement; it’s very clearly some form of superpower, and I don’t see how anyone in the audience would believe even for a second that David isn’t superhuman.

The same goes for the Beast; I don’t care how good at parkour and rock climbing you are, you can NOT walk on ceilings, stick to flat surfaces or throw metal tables like they weigh nothing as a human, you just simple can not. Getting shot at point blank even via a malfunctioning shotgun would KILL YOU. This whole section felt like wasted time, because I as an audience member at no point believed any of it was true, and really disliked that out of all people the one that it worked best on was David.

There is much more I can say about Staple, but I won’t because of spoilers. The one thing I will say, is that it makes sense that she would try to dissuade the trio from believing they are gifted first, and I understand why that part was in the film, I just feel like maybe it would have worked better, if we didn’t already have two previous films where we establish their powers already.

The other thing was that she was just a horrible psychiatrist. Letting Casey talk to Kevin, but not letting Joseph see his dad, claiming that David attacked one of the cheerleaders when there are witnesses that he didn’t, using water to subdue David in what is essentially torture, while at the same time telling him his fear of drowning and isn’t actually his kryptonite because he’s a regular man… look it makes sense at the end, but without that twist, you begin wondering WHO RUNS THIS SHOW? How is this legal?

Casey, Mrs. Pierce and Joseph:

Joseph was the one who had the least amount of screen-time and least to do. I liked his role as a tech wizard, Oracle-style figure to David, and I enjoyed the scene where he writes a speech to convince Dr Staple that his dad is just a senile old man who was at the wrong place at the wrong time, but other than that he doesn’t have much to do.

I liked Mrs. Pierce the most, because I really like her relationship with Elijah. I appreciate that she acknowledges that he is not a good man, and has done horrible things, while also loving and caring about him deeply, and being proud of his intelligence and strength. She was a really good character.

Casey I liked better here, because she was a little more proactive, but I still don’t really understand why she cared about Kevin to the extent that she does. First, he did hold her hostage and try to eat her, ate two of her classmates, and then ‘let her go’ in the sense that he left her locked in a cage at the zoo. Why was she so touched by that so much that she was willing to get involved with him again? I don’t think the film really does a good job at distinguishing between her relationship to the Beast vs Kevin (I’d even throw in Dennis in there, since their interactions are also creepy), and even if we say that her attachment is purely to Kevin, the film doesn’t really explain why she would want to do anything to do with him!

Some Miscellaneous Thoughts:

I did like the breakdown of the superhero genre, and the play with tropes and conventions like the Villain Team Up, the Former Villain Joins Forces With the Hero To Defeat a Bigger Threat, the Twist in the Third Act, Secret Plan All Along, etc. I liked how the secondary characters filled out a roles in each of the heroes’ lives like the Sidekick, the Emotional core, the Mentor. I even liked the self sacrifice to bring light to truth aspect of the story.

However, I think that there were definitely things that needed improvement. Like I said, the middle part does drag, and the ‘therapy’ angle didn’t really work and felt like a waste of time until we get to the climax. I also thought that the idea of superhero books being a fictionalized history lesson on real things was interesting, but the way the movie presents it, it’s both not a convincing case and not very interesting, because it does sound crazy. The other thing that tied into this was the idea that Staple’s therapy and similar measures have worked so well for centuries, until specifically Elijah came along; that seemed a little unreasonable as well.

Conclusion:

I liked this film. If you like Shyamalan, slow, character driven explorations of the superhero genre and or any of the actors, go see it. If you don’t, then skip this film; don’t go into it thinking you’ll get Watchmen, because you won’t; the closest would be season 1 of Heroes.

#glass #glass review #film review #moni talks

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akria23 · 7 years

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The one with the foundation:

I’ve heard Sterek referred to as a crackship more time than I can remember. Every time however, I find myself laughing more than side eyeing, and that’s not just because this is a term usually used by the same fools that think we have enough power to ruin their ship but not enough intelligence to alter the reality of our own…

No, you’ll often hear many stereks say that Sterek is the only ship within Teen Wolf that’s makes much sense romantically. That’s not just them bragging on our fabulous ship. That’s them speaking on the natural authenticity that makes up the duo. The potential that was squandered and tossed aside. The fact that reality that unlike some Sterek isn’t built on the pretense of only exterior planes, created to steer the story. But, the fact that they’re compatible because of internal builds that genuinely comes from own individual personality. That their development points are naturally highlighted. There obstacles already would’ve been set. Haters call Sterek a crackship when it’s one of the few relationships in the show that kinda writes itself.

Thats in part the reason we’ve got the most fics....

Romance in story form is essentially the viewing of two characters falling for the true essence of one another. They have the ability to not only see each other for who they truly are under their self-created mask, but also show the audience the potential they both individually cater to and through their relationship the growth both can substantially achieve. A character’s ‘perfect match’ is one of logical reasoning. Motivation, like it does with everything else, pushes the romantic subplot. These characters are thought to be destined because they ‘fit’ so well, because every portion of them from back-story to personality connects and expand their story.

Stiles is the only character that appropriately fits Derek. Love/trust was Derek’s downfall. Love/trust would have been the development he had to grow through (internal growth). It was his wall to climb so to speak. It created his mask, it’s his internal struggle. So why Stiles…(The main ones for now) He’s human, he’s young, and he’s the opposite of Derek’s stoic. What is the recurring theme between these two characters? That’s right…if you said trust, give yo self a gold star! Basically he connects to every element of Derek’s back-story…and internal struggle. Stiles could have been (should’ve been) the walking dynamite. Their relationship would have placed Derek in the position of remaking choices on some previously bad decisions. Falling for Stiles creates the process of having to face the past and therefore having a chance to…oh yes…grow from it. When I say old issues I mean the offset of Kate and Paige – meaning – love/loss, fear, trust, fault, intimacy, fragility, betrayal.

Understand this, Derek had 2 levels of love…he should’ve had 3 to bring it full circle. Love was taken from him via Kate and then he also took it from himself via Paige, it would’ve been earned back via Stiles. Fear was relearned via Kate and consumed him via Paige, it would’ve been overcame via Stiles. Betrayal was the only truth via Kate and the lesson via Paige,the growth point via Stiles. Fault was set via Kate and began via Paige, and would’ve been reassessed via Stiles. Intimacy was a lie via Kate and naïve via Paige, reborn/real via Stiles. Fragility was himself via Kate and life via Paige, it becomes nonexistent via Stiles. Trust was betrayed via Kate and never given via Paige, it then would’ve been a meeting ground via Stiles.

The verses of Love:

Paige’s love was young and fresh before he had known that a touch can be a betrayal. That kisses and unspoken connections can hide true intentions. It was his tragic end with this young girl that started his belief of falling short, of finding fault in himself. Fear wasn’t something Paige gave into, she liked him wholeheartedly, knowing his kept secret. Derek however, gave into the fear of her being a lesser species, of her not being able to accept who and what he was, and it led him to taking choice out of her hands. He assumed her mortality to be a fragility. To be human is to be weaker, to be lesser in just about every aspect. Easily manipulated, overpowered, and killed. Derek even didn’t have true understanding of humans and therefore also lack understanding and true respect for them as creatures with their own capability.

The things he found so lacking in humans as far as his last relationship goes, Kate taught him otherwise. He learned of the destruction and chaos they’re capable of and his own weakness. Kate loved making him realize how small he was. She defined powerlessness for him. Every corner that had strength for him, she erased. She was proof that humans could be dangerous and overpowering. She was a master at using anything in her arsenal, from weapons to her body and simple emotion, as a way of getting close, as a way of getting what she wanted. It goes without saying that the things Kate did to Derek left a huge impression on him and how he reacts and interacts with others – def humans. When we meet him, he has no interest in such creatures, much less any respect for them. It’s not to say he hated humans, but his experiences hadn’t shed light to those being good bonds to create (those that weren’t already there).

And then there’s Stiles. He’s human, but this does not stop him from being intelligent, a protector, and necessary on the battlefield. He is usually one of the first volunteering to go when a life is in danger. He has in fact fought many creatures with more physical strength than he. He does not however feel a need to make these creatures feel powerless. By no means desires to truly over power them. He is not threatened by allowing Derek to have his own natural abilities. Has many times called for those abilities and admired them. Has been the thing that has saved Derek’s own life and protected that of his younger sister. Fragility was the line between human and wolf and Kate failed to toe it during their relationship and so did Derek during his relationship with Paige. His relationship with Stiles could have furthered what he was already doing through Stiles - learning to respect humans and their natural abilities. . We get a Derek that learns to not only accepts Stiles touch in his most vulnerable moments but also drags him in himself (i.e the dream).

Being a young human helps Stiles complete Derek’s cycle because of the mirror action that places Derek either on the other side of his narrative or places him back at the hinge of old decisions. This is the narratives time to test him and see how he comes out the other side. The story could have explored many plots that connected to Derek’s past. For example Stiles mortality. There have been moments in the show that’s hinted at Stiles desiring power of some kind and that was never explored in a way that really tested him and his desires. The mortality issue being a theme in their relationship would have mirrored his issue with Paige and put him on the edge of that decision making again. Same for the age and the decision it could’ve been brought to the table.

But, these topics (love/loss, fear, trust, and fault) are also things Stiles and Derek share similarities in and could have really stimulated pure understanding of someone else. Stiles mother/Derek’s Parent’s plus sister – Losing those they care about – Nogitsune/Kate – Falling short and finding the consequences to be upon their shoulders. Derek could’ve really helped Stiles through a lot of stuff he went through, except the show just always glazed over everything.

Part 2 Sneak:

The Dynamic:

Fear, trust, love. I find most people never look further than the surface when it comes to the first two. Often people take the glare and threat scenes and define that as the dynamic, forgetting the other important moments that highlight oppositions. Stiles is often the one to seek Derek or place himself within Derek’s vicinity. No shortage of smart mouthing off, nicknaming, or standing up for himself, or even for Derek. It’s the same with mistrust, I think that was something that went out the window quicker than Stiles would have liked. He wanted to mistrust Derek, more than he actually mistrusts Derek. In fact, a few times we see Stiles requesting Derek’s trust (i.e “Yeah you need to trust us…BOTH of us!” or “Can’t you just trust me?” scenes). This aspect reveals more of their own inner need. Knowing that he’s one of the few characters that knows of Derek’s past and seeks to find out more, it makes sense that he desires this man’s trust on some level. Trust takes value over terms like love for these two people because they’re the types that would find it difficult to speak of such things. Trust has been a squabble for Stiles since early in the show. Not so much about him trusting others but getting other to believe in him (Lydia, his father, his mother through her sickness [give or that that confusing narrative], and then later Scott). Whereas for Derek it’s been people being untrustworthy (his uncle, Kate, himself, Jennifer, Scott). This is why the ‘dream’ moment is so powerful. Because in this moment the audience gets to view how valuable Stiles is in Derek’s mind/perspective. Derek’s mind seeks out Stiles to buffer the trauma, because he trusts him, there’s no fragility in Stiles what so ever. He is the rock that calms Derek and gets him to accept what needs accepting without subterfuge. It makes sense that his minds goes there because most often when he’s waking from some kind of danger it’s to the face of Stiles. Stiles has been there for him physically, emotionally, and/or mentally since they’ve met, despite all, despite any. That wasn’t the first time Derek had gone to Stiles. It is however, the first time we get so many layers together for them in a scene – fear, trust, fragility(lack of), and intimacy.

Note: I’m telling a lie...the second part will probably be long cause this one got nothing in it lol. But I think it the last for my Teen Wolf Articles so - shrugs.

Teen Wolf Articles

Scott McCall

Stiles Stilinski

Derek Hale

Sterek: Foundation

Sterek: BWRWW: Derek

Upcoming: Sterek BWRWW: Stiles

#stiles stilinski #derek hale #sterek #teen wolf articles #tw #one more to go #stiles x derek #eternalsterek #credit on video #not mine

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nitrateglow · 6 years

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Thoughts on The Last Jedi (spoilers under the “keep reading” line)

I originally wanted to just make a small list of things I liked and did not like about this movie, but I’ve come to realize my feelings are a bit more complicated than I expected. I don’t hate it, nor do I think it is the worst film in the series; however, I am baffled by the arguments that it’s somehow a clever deconstruction of the Hollywood blockbuster formula or finding new ground for SW. If anything, I found it an aimless, poorly paced retread of familiar tropes and ideas with only a few interesting elements to save it from being mediocre.

I’ll start with what I considered all-around good: the acting is excellent across the board. Every actor is game, doing their best and even elevating the material at times. It was a bittersweet experience to see the late Carrie Fisher here and even with her limited screen-time, she brings a great deal of dignity and spunk to the princess/general we know and love. Mark Hamill gives one of his best performances as Luke, communicating worlds of pain and regret with his eyes alone. While he isn’t one of the greatest actors of all time outside of the voice-acting world, he is incredibly effective here. Thankfully, Oscar Isaac gets more to do this time around. And everyone else is on the whole fine, even great at times. I was also impressed with the visuals and editing, which are often breathtaking, especially on the big screen. The casino planet was pretty rad too; I can so see the rich and powerful hanging out in such a place. And—everything else is extremely mixed for me.

This movie reminds me of Attack of the Clones in that it is all over the place tonally. I am all for genre hybrids or movies that can touch on several emotional shades at once, but it is a hard thing to do and this movie isn’t up to that. One minute it’s dead serious and in the grand epic mode, then the next we’re dealing with broad comedy more appropriate for a Marvel film. That juxtaposition felt awkward in the prequels and it feels awkward here.

For all the critics’ talk of this movie breaking new ground, I remained frustrated by the same old rehash of lines and themes from the OT. There’s still the good versus evil, the empire chasing rebels Everything is also rushed beyond belief, which seems like a weird conclusion to draw about a 2 ½ hour movie. Rose is barely developed, despite her potential to be a great character (her romantic feelings for Finn are woefully half-baked; I would say the only thing that even makes you believe she was into him was her slight bout of hero worship in her initial scene with him). Finn doesn’t evolve beyond what he was in TFA. Rey doesn’t change, despite the challenges posed to her ideas about the Force by both Luke and Kylo. Her training with Luke, if you can even call it that, is basically nothing, even less than the crash course Luke got from Yoda in Empire. We’re led to believe Luke has some great development, but that’s yet another thing that has little payoff.

Overall, I am torn on Luke Skywalker’s characterization. On one hand, I believe he would become disillusioned with the Jedi after he lost his nephew to the Dark Side—however, do I believe he would stay on that island after hearing one of his oldest friends was MURDERED by the former student he feels he failed? I’m sorry, I don’t. I know people change as they get older and I know enough cranky old people to see how life can beat you down and make you emotionally exhausted. But the thing about Luke is that he’s stubborn and contrarian; when Yoda and Obi-wan told him to give up on Vader (a Sith who committed WAY worse sins on a much grander scale than Kylo-Ren ever did), he went with his hunch that his father could be redeemed, even though he had only his gut instinct as evidence to go on. I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t try to right the wrong he did to his nephew. Him retreating from the conflict feels as false as the strong-minded and very active Padme losing the will to live at the end of Revenge of the Sith. His death sits even less well with me, since I feel the character had more to do and should have been more active in trying to aid the Resistance and train Rey.

Kylo-Ren is more interesting this time around, more conflicted and morally ambiguous. His temptation to turn to the Light mixed with his savagery is great. His interactions with Rey, which are simultaneously uneasy and charged with sexual tension, are fascinating. And yet, like so much else in this movie, it all goes nowhere. I still have no clue why Kylo is drawn to the Dark Side. With Anakin, it was an outgrowth of growing up as a powerless slave and losing those he loved to war and violence, which makes it clear why the idea of a fascist dictatorship would appeal to him. For Palpatine, it was because he was a greedy psychopath. But Kylo? I have no idea what he feels he’s getting on an emotional level from the Dark Side. What do Snoke and the Dark Side promise him that makes turning evil so tempting? He didn’t hate his parents, however lacking he felt they were. Luke was hard on him, though we learn that’s because the kid was already turning to the Dark Side. So where does it all originate? I have no clue and I think, yeah, it’s not unreasonable for me to understand what motivates one of the major villains of this new trilogy. Because otherwise, it is hard for me to be fully invested in him as a character.

In fact, the whole First Order are just disappointing villains, a second-rate empire. I have no idea how they were able to come to power, not only because it’s never brought up in either this film or TFA, but because these guys are about as competent as the Three Stooges. Hux is a punchline subjected to “yo mamma” jokes and proving himself utterly useless time and again. Phasma is pretty much like Boba Fett: she looks cool and fights well, only to get killed off without ceremony. Snoke is a dumber Voldemort, built up as this clever, evil genius only to be proven even worse at underestimating his employees and enemies than Palpatine! I was never a fan of the character to begin with, finding him bland, but here, he just shows up, cackles evilly, then dies in a rather comical manner. How did he come to power? It has to be more than just his powers; even Palpatine was a politician and he preyed on the Clone Wars’ devastation to convince people to make him Emperor. But Snoke? Nothing.

The pacing was also a huge issue for me. Now, I normally dig slow pacing—but this was excruciating, probably because I felt like the story was going nowhere much of the time. Finn and Rose are wasted, given nothing but a McGuffin side-quest. Every time we cut to them, I just lost so much interest. As for the political “subtext” (if you can call an explicitly socio-political monologue subtext) in the Finn and Rose sub-story, I’ll just say I agree with critic Tim Brayton on the matter:

And this plotline feeds right into the absolutely unforgivably terrible subplot, which is the adventures of Finn (John Boyega) the cowardly ex-storm trooper, and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), the class-conscious engineer, who go on a fetch quest that is every bit as pointless as the whole matter of the military nonsense, only even worse, because it hinges on terrible comedy, bad CGI, and a spectacularly horrible moment when Johnson stops the film in its tracks to provide a ruthlessly on-the-nose lesson about economic inequality and the military-industrial complex, and I hate this all the more for the film's message in this moment being one I passionately agree with - if something has to be artless and awful, better that it not take down a cause I hold dear as part of the collateral damage. And it really is awful; the worst thing in the movie, despite the best intentions of various film critics to defend it (I am sorry, but "has politics I like" is not all it takes to make a movie good. If all you want is for a film to spit your ideology back at you, and it doesn't matter if this is done with any grace or artistry at all, congratulations: you are a Stalinist. I like politics in movies - I love politics in movies - but not every political filmmaker is Sergei Eisenstein, and they should damn well not be treated like they are).

I have no problem with this political/social angle being there; hell, I love the idea of the Rose character and the theme of inspiring the downtrodden (the idea of legends and the power of storytelling really appealed to me, and I loved that last scene with the kids re-enacting the OT story in the stables), but like so much else they feel underwritten and clumsily implemented. It doesn’t help that this side plot feels oddly disconnected from everything else and is far less interesting than Poe or Rey’s stories. And once again, I feel like it accomplished nothing whatsoever, much like the majority of this story.

Now, people might argue the main theme of this movie is about failure and how we must learn from it, thus making this side-plot appropriate. The thing is, I don’t think anyone besides Poe learned much of anything from their mistakes or failures, let alone Finn and Rose. According to writer/director Rian Johnson, one of the big inspirations for this film was the 1964 classic Three Outlaw Samurai, a movie in which the titular heroes become disillusioned with the samurai code and the corruption of the culture in which they live. Concepts such as honor and loyalty become muddied. TLJ is clearly trying to weave a similar theme, with Kylo, Luke, and Ghost!Yoda calling for a new age in which the Jedi and Sith are no more. The problem? Kylo still embraces much of the Sith ideology as much as he claims he’s let go of it (okay, yeah, Abrams claimed he wasn’t a Sith, but that seems more like an in-name only affair given the dynamic between Kylo and Snoke), and Luke, for all his “the Jedi gotta go” lip service, ends his life by triumphantly claiming, “I will not be the last Jedi,” implying he’s passing the torch to Rey. So much for questioning the past.

At the end of the day, the movie left me frustrated and hollow. I’m not very excited to see where they take the story next, because it’s clear they’re going with same-old, same-old, only with vague motivations and no sense of direction. I don’t get what the big point of this new trilogy is. The OT is at its heart about Luke coming of age as a Jedi Knight and redeeming his father. The PT is a tragedy about the fall of both a man and a democracy. The sequels though? I have no clue. I don’t think they go far enough in their attempts to challenge our ideas about the Force or the Jedi, or good and evil. It’s the same old rebels versus tyrants fight, only this time around the villains are more inept than usual and the good guys, for all their failures, don’t appear to learn much of anything.

#thoughts #i think the conflict within me beats out even Kylo-Ren's!!

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