Park Chan Wook + Jeong Seo-kyeong when making The Handmaiden (2016): juxtaposes objectification with genuine representation of sex, in a way Sarah Waters said is true to her novel Fingersmith that the film took inspiration from. Male entitlement is rejected as violent and unwanted a contrast to love between women being embraced as a means for liberation. Films sex between two women as actual sex - the full-bodied, passionate union between two people, without objectifying the women by keeping a distant, neutral frame that has the body parts men want to leer at out of focus. Shows women having active desire for each other, with love and sex being two sides of the same coin for those characters, as a contrast to men's cold view of women as objects. Uses abundant POV shots and spends a multitude of scenes building up the sexual tension and emotional intimacy before going explicit. Fills the scenes with narrative motifs and symbolism, emphasizing Hideko and Sookhee as equals despite their class disparity, as well as creating the imagery that two women can fulfill each other without a man. Focuses on the women's faces, includes dialogue and lots of humor. The scenes sex are literally so emotionally charged and revolutionary for the characters they are ready to change their entire life course after - it's the only time they can be completely honest with each other, and that emotional journey is conveyed. Writes Sookhee reclaiming the Count's fake fuckboy line of "spellbindingly beautiful" with literally the most genuine emotion after seeing Hideko's *****. Films cunnilingus as equivalent, or even superior, to penetration as a sex act. Asked an actual lesbian what sex would make sense to include in the movie, and from her request includes scissoring while making the point is it's an advanced sex move. Addresses the complexity that while men can objectify sex between women, the concept can at the same time be appealing to women and it's possible to reclaim it for yourself. Visually spells out that men thinking something is for them doesn't mean it is (their entitlement leads to the men literally dying). Explicitly dismantles pretty much all lesbian tragedy tropes with intent, such as suicide/death/torture/mental institution, lesbian relationships as inconsequential or ending in betrayal, lesbians having sex with or being objectified by men. Literally makes the whole movie about lesbians reclaiming narrative tropes used against them, and has them Win Everything with the most happy ending ever.

People with gender and film studies degrees who make a living out of writing intelligently about these topics: two women naked so for men :) only men like lesbian sex, please cut to black next time bc my brain cannot comprehend anything important happened, as I associate women having sex with p*rn and nothing else :) it's "performing" for men when it looks pretty! (in a movie something is Real and not performing when it looks Ugly). we as a society can only move on from the dichotomy of lesbian dehumanization as either desexualized or hypersexualized by diving all wlw media into the pure a-touch-of-your-hand-made-me-cry-alone-in-my-room-for-10-years with endlessly obsession about chaste Gazing from a distance versus the icky icky sex stuff that only men want to see!

Squiggles, im so disappointed in Qrow, Clover and Robyn. Y'all literally have a member of Salem's forces cackling in the background but no. The P L O T decides we need a fight, so everyone's brain cells is gone. Robyn, actually got me mad, you shoot right after you hear word of something Ironwood does? No talking or anything. Just shoot.

*casually takes a long swig of tea* As Alpha 5 from Power Rangers once justly said, ay-yi-yi-yi! Key, m’boi, where do I even begin with the weirdness of this episode in regards to that moment? I’m going to safely call it that since it’s better than what I’ve heard other folks calling it through the grapevine.

Firstly, I have to ask the obvious question—

Why is Tyrian even being transported via regular Atlesian Airship? 

As we learnt at the start of V7CH7, Tyrian is a known criminal—a psychopathic killer wanted for several murders across Anima. So then why was he not being transported by a police airship? Y’know, like the one that was featured in the first and second episode of this season. The same kind of airship that took our heroes up to Atlas? Remember?

So how lucky was Tyrian Callows that Atlas sent a regular airship to transport him up to prison and not the version that’s been customized for transportingdangerous, vicious criminals into military custody such as himself? 

The PLOT was kind enough to highlight this little ship differentiation to us when it was used to unjustly incarcerate our heroes and take them up to Atlas. But now when it would’ve made more sense for Tyrian—THE KNOWN HOMICIDAL CRIMINAL—to be transported via this particular type of airship, especially given his track record…no that’s when they decide to use the regular ship? Y’know NOT the one where the room in the back is actually so cramped and tight; there isn’t much room to move around and do crazy things like…pull weapons on their so-called teammates or have battles and stuff. 

Not to mention that it’s also the one that window that keeps the criminals separated from the pilots in case they might try something fish to escape?

This is why I keep making the PLOT joke. I’ve noticed, especially within this season, that the CRWBY Writers have a tendency to rely a lot on plot conveniences for the sake pushing the story along. One example of this is when the PLOT has characters behave out of character or rather exhibit a type of behaviour that hasn’t been consistent with their personality up until this point so it ends up coming off very weird to the audience.

What bothered me the most about the airship ride wasn’t so much that Robyn, Qrow and Clover had an argument regarding Ironwood’s decision to abandon Mantle. I wasn’t bothered by Robyn got angry about that. It didn’t even bother me so much that Tyrian managed to escape. Nope my issue with this moment was it happened solely out of plot convenience. It was executed this way PURELY FOR THE PLOT.

The PLOT needed Robyn, Clover and Qrow to get into a scuffle so that Robyn would train her arrow on Clover only to have that very same arrow miss her mark and purposely set Tyrian free. Just as how the PLOT conveniently needed our so-called heroes to transport Tyrian up to Atlas Prison in a REGULAR AIRSHIP AND NOT A POLICE AIRSHIP just so Tyrian could easily kill the pilots who were left unprotected by our gaggle of heroes who were too busy fighting each other to watch the very homicidal prisoner they were supposed to escort up to Atlas. This only happened because PLOT.

But inspite of this, that’s not even the part that upset me. 

The part that got me was when Clover and Qrowstarted stupidly fighting each other and…STILL KEPT FIGHTING EACH OTHER EVEN WHEN TYRIAN ESCAPED! 

There is literally a part where TYRIAN AND QROW ARE FIGHTING CLOVER…TOGETHER? And I just…I…I can’t even. I have no words for this moment.

It wasn’t even done in a clever way that would make sense like—Oh I dunno, perhaps….Clover and Qrow drop their previous dispute and gang up on Tyrian to arrest him since he’s the bad guy but Tyrian ends up stinging Qrow and the poison makes Qrow start to hallucinate again and think that Clover was Tyrian and that’s why he and Tyrian are fighting him in this shot?

That would’ve made more sense than TYRIAN AND QROW…FIGHTING CLOVER TOGETHER…SINCE CLOVER TRIED TO ARREST QROW AND INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON FIGHTING TYRIAN…QROW FIGHTS CLOVER?

I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE THAT INSTEAD OF FIGHTING TYRIAN TOGETHER…CLOVER AND QROW STILL FIGHT EACH OTHER WHILE TYRIAN FIGHTS THEM….????!!! 

WHAT?

I have seen the Writers do many things for the SAKE OF THE PLOT that hadoutwardly annoyed me (coughsV6CH9coughs). But this is one of those times when I’m just in awe at what I’m seeing and the decisions being made to achieve the effect the Writers were attempting to make.

And to make things worse for themselves, they go ahead and killed Clover off. Adeath that…to be honest, did not surprise me.

 Is it odd that I felt nothing when Clover got killed? 

Not because I didn’t like his character but…based on how it was handled.

This should’ve been more impactful to me…but instead it wasn’t BECAUSE OF ALL THE NONSENSE THAT HAPPENED TO LEAD US INTO THE POINT. 

I mean….the visual is pretty neat. The art in the shot is pretty nice. I’ll toss them that coin. But…how?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL ANYTHING FOR CLOVER’S DEATH AND HOW IT IMPACTED QROW…WHEN YOU JUST SPENT THE LAST COUPLE OF MINUTES HAVING THEM FIGHT EACH OTHER…EVEN WHEN THE FREAKING ENEMY THAT THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE ARRESTING IS FREE AND NEITHER OF THEM STOP THEIR FIGHTING TO FOCUS ON HIM? 

I mean to be honest; I was expecting Clover to die. And ironically enough, Iexpected him to probably die by Tyrian’s hand. But…not this way. 

NOT in such a STUPID way as what we got.

That’s my gripe. This whole scene. This whole fight. This whole scenario was STUPID! AND IT MADE THE CHARACTERS, PARTICULARLY OUR HERO CHARACTERS LOOK LIKE IDIOTS! 

CHOOSING TO FIGHT EACH OTHER…INSTEAD OF YOUR COMMON ENEMY? BECAUSE…PLOT?

Instead of feeling hurt by this moment, I’m more surprised than anything else. I am in awe that this happened the way it did. And what’s sad is that this episode was written by Eddy and Kiersi. The TWO NEW WRITERS! This was theirepisode. Everything that happened in this episode was of their creation.

People got mad for the weird way that Miles and Kerry wrote things for the sake of the PLOT for the past few seasons of RWBY since V4. Now I’m afraid that Double D and Khaleesi are going to get their own share of comeuppance from the FNDM since they wrote this episode.

Kiersi…Eddy…you were supposed to be the chosen ones. Your addition to the Writing Team was supposed to put an end to all the weirdness in the writing of RWBY. Instead you’ve joined it.

Sorry if I sound overdramatic here. I’m not mad at this scene from the episode. I’m more stunned than anything else.

Just…stunned.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)