#and she's the kind of person who can condense a whole show into like
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Propaganda
Barbara Stanwyck (Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity)—I hope someone else has submitted better propaganda than I because I don't want my girl's prospects to rest on me just yelling PLEASE VOTE FOR MY TERRIBLE HOT GIRLFRIEND. She is a delight in everything! She is often a sexy jerk! (It's most of the plot of Baby Face!) Even when she plays a "good girl" (as an example, Christmas in Connecticut, which more people should see) she's still kind of a jerk and I love her for it! She won't take men's shit and she sure wouldn't take mine!
Setsuko Hara (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, The Idiot)— "'The only time I saw Susan Sontag cry,' a writer once told me, his voice hushed, 'was at a screening of a Setsuko film.' What Setsuko had wasn’t glamour—she was just too sensible for that—it was glow, one that ebbed away and left you concerned, involved. You got the sense that this glow, like that of dawn, couldn’t be bought. But her smiles were human and held minute-long acts, ones with important intermissions. When she looked away, she absented herself; you felt that she’d dimmed a fire and clapped a lid on something about to spill. Over the last decade, whenever anyone brought up her lips—'Setsuko’s eternal smile,' critics said, that day we learned that she’d died—I thought instead of the thing she made us feel when she let it fall." - Moeko Fujii
This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.
[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]
Setsuko Hara:
One of the best Japanese actresses of all time; a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s After seeing a Setsuko Hara film, the novelist Shūsaku Endō wrote: "We would sigh or let out a great breath from the depths of our hearts, for what we felt was precisely this: Can it be possible that there is such a woman in this world?"
One of the greatest Japanese actresses of all time!! Best known for acting in many of Yasujiro Ozu's films of the 40s and 50s. Also she has a stunning smile and beautiful charm!
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She's considered by some to be the greatest Japanese actress of all time! In Kurosawa's The Idiot she haunts the screen, and TOTALLY steals the show from Mifune every time she appears.
She's considered by some to be the greatest Japanese actress of all time! In Kurosawa's The Idiot she haunts the screen, and TOTALLY steals the show from Mifune every time she appears.
"No other actor has ever mastered the art of the smile to the same extent as Setsuko Hara (1920–2015), a celebrated star and highly regarded idol who was one of the outstanding actors of 40s and 50s Japanese cinema. Her radiant smile floods whole scenes and at times cautiously undermines the expectations made of her in coy, ironic fashion. Yet her smile's impressive range also encompasses its darker shades: Hara's delicate, dignified, melancholy smile with which she responds to disappointments, papers over the emotions churning under the surface, and flanks life's sobering realizations. Her smiles don't just function as a condensed version of her ever-precise, expressive, yet understated acting ability, they also allow the very essence of the films they appear in to shine through for a brief moment, often studies of the everyday, post-war dramas which revolve around the break-up of family structures or the failure of marriages. Her performances tread a fine line between social expectation and personal desire in post-war Japan, as Hara attempts to lay claim to the autonomy of the female characters she plays – frequently with a smile." [link]
Leading lady of classic Japanese cinema with a million dollar smile
Maybe the most iconic Japanese actress ever? She rose to fame making films with Yasujiro Ozu, becoming one of the most well-known and beloved actresses in Japan, working from the 30s through the 60s in over 100 hundred. She is still considered one of the greatest Japanese actresses ever, and in my opinion, just one of the greatest actresses of all time. And she was HOT! Satoshi Kon's film Millennium Actress was largely based on her life and her career.
Barbara Stanwyck:
"THE leading lady of the golden age of hollywood. One of the only actresses to work independent of a studio, making short-term contracts that enabled her to make movies wherever she wanted. She had so much range, and could act in basically any genre. She's been rumored to be a lesbian literally since she was active in Hollywood; most notable is the rumor that she had a long time on-and-off relationship with famously bi Joan Crawford, her "best friend" for decades (They lived right next door to one another). She also lived with Helen Ferguson, her "live-in publicist" for many years. She was the quintessential femme fatale in Double Indemnity, and really pushed sexual boundaries in her pre-code films like Baby Face, and the famous screwball The Lady Eve, where she plays basically a downlow domme. Allegedly, when a journalist asked her if she was a lesbian, she straight up threw him out of her house. She even played a lesbian in Walk on the Wild Side"
"THE queen of screwball comedies. I adore her, I'd kill for her, I will cry if she's not gonna win this poll."
"listen ok she had awful politics she was a mccarthyist right wing wacko BUT she's so incredibly hot that i've deluded myself into believing i could fix her. if you see her onscreen she carries herself in a way that's just so effortlessly sexy AND she has just a stunning face. imo she was at her hottest in the 1940s but even as early as the late 1920s she had a rly captivating screen presence and just a beautiful face, and then post-1950 she was just irresistibly milfy so really she was just always incredibly hot. she was also an incredibly talented actress who was equally stellar in melodrama, film noir, and unhinged screwball comedy. the blonde wig they made her wear in double indemnity is notoriously silly looking but she still looks sexy in it so that's gotta count for something. i've watched so many terrible movies just for a chance at seeing her that i think her estate should be paying me damages."
"Not often thought of for her sultriness, Barbara Stanwyck was incredible in that she could actually choose to be hot if the role called for it, and then have a glow-down to look ordinary for another role. She wasn't the most beautiful or effervescent, but damn did she have rizz. Watch her with Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire teaching him about "yum-yum" or with Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve whispering huskily into his ear."
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"She is always the smartest woman in the room. Watching her play Henry Fonda like a befuddled fiddle in The Lady Eve was a highlight of my life. Femme fatale in Double Indemnity, comedy queen in Ball of Fire. She can do anything."
"She was part of my gay awakening"
"SHE'S A PRE-CODE QUEEN. She did everything, drama, comedy. The most beautiful woman in the world to watch weep. Beg for to step on you with those legs. Fun Babs story: Ginger Rogers was offered the role in Ball of Fire but said, “Oh, I would never play that part, she’s too common.” So they called Barbara Stanwyck and they said “We offered this to Ginger Rogers but she’s turned it down, would you be interested?” And she read the script and she said; “You bet! I LOVE playing common broads. [link]"
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I will start by stating that interior design is NOT my passion but I do have some thoughts of what kind of place Sirius would like to live!!!! For one, young Sirius is a certified city boy and would prefer to be in middle of everything happening aka in the city center.... I think he is relatively clean/organised, but there is definitely some healthy chaos when he is in middle of some project and either too immersed to it to care or maybe it is something that requires you to keep things scattered you know?????
Anyway I think he prefers quite neutral colors like black and white and maybe browns, trifted and unique stuff. He for sure has lots of posters and postcards that show his personality and interests on the wall and lots of fun dog related things his friends gift to him!!!! And maybe even an actual dog (a rescue mutt), who has the comfiest bed and lots of toys and is always welcome on the sofa 😍
I absolutely agree! I always imagined him having a flat at the top floor with a private (and exclusive) access to the rooftop of the building. I personally wouldn’t be able to actually live in an industrial style apartment, but somehow i cannot really imagine anything else that fits better the general vibes i have when i think about Sirius as a character. It’s rough, but stylish, with a powerful, overall masculine energy, which is by itself is not particularly welcoming, yet there are a lot of open space which can host a lot of people if it’s needed. it can be scary too as it usually has cool, dark tones, heavy materials, uncovered brick walls and metals… the whole city is visible from the large windows, yet no one can see what’s inside… I like the ambiguity of it too, how the manmade meets the natural light, and it is also such a creative interior style?.. I mean the whole using a factory building as a home is so out of the box thinking to begin with… and it looks so effortlessly stylish, whatever random furniture or decor (or lack thereof) is paired with it, I mean it just screams Sirius!
Let me share the “reference board” of 33 freaking pictures condensed into one so i can use it for coming up with my vision for Sirius’ flat! Also tagging @lovelymasks cause she also shared some thoughts and I love those too!
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The Saison Margeurite Puzzle
I have a lot of thoughts about MPGIS (most popular girls in school) but Saison is one that after S5 I have crafted a theory for. Or at least an explanation to the best of my vague ability. ( @ifrickupmywords I tried to condense it but...)
The Main Questions I'm trying to answer:
Pretends she’s French when she’s Canadian. Why?
A.) Could be master manipulator, points are showing this.
B.) Could be trolling, evidence doesn’t fully back this but it could have started as such.
C.) Could be a power trip. She obviously likes fucking with people but this point could go to either A or B.
Why France?
A.) Greater popularity points to be an exchange student than a “new student”.
B.) Being French would be easier to fake if she already knew French bc she’s from Montreal and grew up in Quebec which has a close tie to French as a language.
Why not Canadian?
A.) Doesn’t score cool points. Not an exchange if she just moved. Lacks “cool” accent and experiences.
B.) Could be past related. Past unknown.
Thus, Popularity Aim Theory.
If she’s aiming to be popular why the route she’s taking? It seems convoluted and uncertain.
What she has done so far is make her position un-topple-able by not staking her popularity on what she is but herself. So here's the timeline of events.
Starting point. “French Student”, grabs everyone’s attention immediately. Gets interest from the social hubs and is thus introduced to many of their connections bc she needs to be “shown around”. Is thus labeled a non threat to their hierarchy and they will only help her instead of try to pull her down from her “fumbling climb up the social ladder”.
Taking French as a class. Perhaps she “misunderstood” what French was, just like how English is, as a class. It would give her an easy passing grade and raise her GPA. Some classes give the opportunity to have a France trip (when that opportunity falls through she joins the French club which gets her that trip)
Her introduction. A “Good but Confused Student”. Goes to the “wrong” class but is earnest and obviously just turned around and is directed back by a teacher and likely got a tardy pass so she could make it to her other class and get her book and still make it in time. Endears her to the staff. They are likelier to be softer on her bc of it. (added bonus, she gains Blaine)
Blaine is a football player. Perfect for a least a romp which would earn her points with him an gain his ear. A connection to the male side of the popularity royalty would gain elevate her but he proves beyond perfect.
-Blain is naive and bc of that easily lied to. Anything odd she can pass of as her being “French” and not understanding. He’d believe her. He’d also tell her what he hears readily enough if she is his girlfriend and prom date.
Prom is easy to get into bc of Blaine and she is sure to be featured in at least the yearbook’s prom section bc of Blaine’s football status. Everyone will see her with him there and those not at prom will see her as the gf of a football player. Status instantly on par with the cheerleaders.
Baby Brittany. Saison is not stupid and would use protection if she wanted to avoid a baby. However I believe Lunch Lady Belinda got her thinking with her comment “the babies you two make tonight are going to be so stupid”. What gets the whole school talking about you, class and status regardless? A pregnant girl. Add in that she is the exchange student, the gf of Blaine, and kind but dumb? Everyone will want to support her. Again, she is zero threat.
Flashing forward she names Brittany after the one person who is most vocal against her. Making her a god parent. Tying the cheer squad to her and neutralizing or at least making peace with an actual threat. BUT only announces it after the stage is set.
She, whether planned or not, takes her pregnancy and uses it to it’s full potential. She’s amazing at grabbing opportunities when she gets them. Sure fire way to get the school to know she’s pregnant? Leaving the tests behind instead of hiding them. We know theres more than one bc Desmond (the janitor) says “and people be leaving these (positive pregnancy test) all over the gd floor” implying more than one all over the place. Someone and likely more than one will find them the rumor mill will start and speculation will rise. Thus building it up to a bigger reveal. Mackenzie was going to spread it around and ridicule whoever it was when she found out. (the confrontation between the squad and her is very interesting if you think about it)
But that’s not enough for the long haul. She needs a support system that can’t be rocked. She needs to cement her position thus “Babes having Babies”, it falls through but it connects her to Brittany for a while and its shown she already has a connection with Shay “practically royalty”. The whole school is basically beneath her now that she has a reality show and wants the influence she has. Even Brittany. It falls through yes but it’s what she wants. If the nation sees it it’s likelier for her parents to see or someone to recognize her and fake claim her. It cancelling is perfect bc it served her purpose and she can move on.
She has grown her connections and anything added is a cake walk. Her school image of being really tolerant of Brittany’s hostility also cemented the illusion of a “friendly and forgiving” nature. Again lowering her threat level and being welcomed by just about everyone.
Being added then removed from the cheer squad was pretty solid strategy wise. She got in for Cheer Nationals, a place she doesn’t have to act just dance and be on TV. It doesn’t have the risk of getting her fake claimed like BhB. But it guaranteed that she wouldn’t fall into obscurity. She kept part of the status boost her own reality show would have given her. She got kicked off after but that worked in her favor as it left the opening and she was known to be an ok cheer leader.
She left before it tanked on the social ladder and made connections with the outcasts (public image aiding this no doubt) and was eventually accepted back on the squad bc she used that easy opening to get onto what she knew would end up victorious. Fads come and go and she used it to build that network but she guaranteed a future when the fad died.
She does manage to keep her oblivious status or ditzy look when her water breaks in the lunch room. Either it happened really fast and she was caught unaware or she has balls of steel and timed it to deliver in the lunch room or at least start labor there. Deandra being a midwife could have thrown plans to go to the hospital out the window but she rolled with it. Either way, she rolled with it and is now legendary amongst the students.
All in all, junior year has her in a nice gray neutral zone escaping most of the drama that could tear her down. Keeping her good natured persona lets her keep all her connections and general popularity without risk now it's about maintenance. Which she does perfectly in s4. The exception is getting in the gun fight which couldn't have been foreseen at all. It does however prove the level of danger Brittany is and the importance to get her to fully believe Saison's act. Which I personally started fully suspecting because of Baby Brittany's weird ability to understand what Saison is saying. Dumb + Naive could make Genius but if Saison is brilliant enough to manipulate her surroundings to come out on top why not be able to pass it on?
Either way s5 shows how desperate she is to get Brittany off her back and neutralize that threat she poses.
That trip finally comes up and it'll either be a way to familiarize herself with France but Paris in particular to gain credit for the backstory she's fabricated and/or learn the french accent/dialect and drop the Canadian french. This is why she could have originally planed to go. (However if her parents were already in France at that time, the opportunity to show Rachel and Judith was there which would get back to Brittany eventually.)
She could also use it to “visit” her parents. Not inviting Blaine along with the excuse that it was a club activity. Speculation about how deep her knowledge and strings go it could be a complete spider web of strings she's pulling or she could simply be reacting to circumstances and taking advantage of it.
I fully believe she knew that Rachel and Judith followed her around and likely was testing that exactly bc she knew Brittany's tendency to... go to extremes. She just got confirmation at the drunken party about the Brittany bit. This is when I think she for sure made plans to show off her parents. That laugh and confidence just scream security.
The reveal doesn't exactly add much to it but it does show how she flips between to states relatively easily. In the end Brittany “came around” and with her in her corner there's little to no way her position will be shakable.
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Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Movie thoughts
These are my personal opinions!
Essential
From his origin, Superman has been a Jewish superhero and his tale of Krypton deeply tied to the Holocaust and experiences of Jewish refugees. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow expands on the theme of genocide, explicitly using the word holocaust a few times, and is by a Jewish writer. I really can't see how this story can be done justice without a Jewish creative team, including writers, producers, and director.
Since it is such a big blockbuster on the themes of genocide I also think it's essential they consult Amnesty International, ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and other charities. It's complex and emotional content for a superhero film, and especially with rising antisemitism it has to be handled well.
I would also love to see Jewish actors, and other creatives working on this film!
Krem can't "have a perspective", or a tragic backstory, or anything to make him more complex or redeemable. The whole point of his character is that he genuinely loves killing and only regrets it after his time in the Phantom Zone. The story has more than enough moral complexity on the side of Kara and Ruthye, it doesn't need a man who commits genocide to have a voice.
Ruthye should be played by a teenager or someone in their early twenties who easily passes for a teenager for her character to be impactful. With the success of The Last of Us, this is the one area I'm really not worried about.
Kara's actress needs some experience with tragic and complex roles rather than just action acting. I think a stage actress could really work.
I'd really like both actors to be Jewish, but with colourblind casting.
The aesthetic has to be bright and beautiful and artistic like Bilquis Evely’s work. The contrast between serious and tragic content and the ugliness of sentient beings against a beautiful universe which holds kindness is so important and makes this story unique. I so want her to consult on this.
Hopeful
DC should be working on a unified and recognisable aesthetic for their version of space. While the recognisability of Star Wars or Star Trek is probably too much to aspire to, I think with enough funding for creatives and inspiration from comics (let Everly consult!!!), something is possible. Also, use of real costumes and sets rather than CGI.
I understand that Kara's time on Argo City will have to be condensed into a shorter flashback, but I really hope we have more time on that for the different waves of radiation.
Niche but I’d love pre-apocalypse Krypton to be depicted as comic-style animation to show the distance/memory/innocence of Kara’s thoughts of it
The scene where Kara teaches Ruthye to wash her hands after the toilet is not only important but allows being unhygienic which women often aren't.
There should be as little exposition on Superman as possible. He's enough of a cultural icon we might need a shot of how he came to Earth, but not the whole becoming Superman thing. This isn't about him!
A consistent Kryptonian conlang for use throughout the DC universe would be great.
Films usually condense timelines, but I think there should be at least montages or timeskips to show Ruthye is with Kara for a while, and they see a lot of destruction
Let Kara Say Fuck (they probably can't have as much as she does in the comic, but she needs at least one. She's an ADULT WOMAN who has gone through so so much.)
Things I would like
The fact Ruthye stinks and is proud of it.
Ruthye asking if "@£!^%" is the name of Kara's lover
The fact Ruthye's mother gives her blessing for the revenge
The moments on the space-bus of Ruthye's personal space being invaded and how that links into her experience as a woman
References to poems about Supergirl
Ruthye being from a rock farm is important to her character and I hope they keep it, but I get it might seem a bit weird for audiences unused to comicsy logic
I think for simplicity's sake, Cosmo should be shot instead of Argo, and then Cosmo should be just a horse so as not to confuse new audiences.
I’d love to hear more ideas/dream castings for Kara and Ruthye/things people are hoping for :))
#supergirl: woman of tomorrow#kara zor-el#kara zorl el danvers#supergirl#kara danvers#ruthye#ruthye supergirl
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hi guys!! i'm liv and this is my cocky, shittalking tennis queen, cha soeun! v v v excited to write with everyone (but also am an absolute noob at tennis. i literally know nothing about it. i had to chatgpt so many things so i apologize if anything is not the most accurate!!!) but anyways, u can find her condensed intro below - apologies if her characterization is still a little bit of a WIP because i tend to build my character as i plot & write, but anyways, please hit like if you'd like to plot!! i'm also good with dc or ims!
key info
cha soeun, twenty four (jan 11 2000)
national team tennis player
capricorn sun, capricorn moon, aries rising
entj
personality
label: the spitfire, the heel
alignment: lawful evil
positive: ambitious, undeviating, tactical, confident, resilient, ebullient
negative: cocky, irreverent, brash, volatile, impatient, fiery
neutral: unapologetic
inspirations: heavily inspired by novak djokovic. other inspirations include succession’s shiv roy, gossip girl’s blair waldorf, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo’s evelyn hugo
career
turned professional at 15
rose to prominence at 16 after defeating the world ranked 50 and made it to the finals of the miami open where she ultimately lost (and threw somewhat of a fit. she broke her racquet and smashed a ball into the crowd. you can watch it on youtube. probably included in one of her many ‘cha soeun's worst behaviours’ videos) - earned praise for her resilience, but also got shit on a lot for how “unprofessional” she acted
played tournaments regularly following that but failed to win any major titles, although she did walk away with a few runner-up medals & won some smaller competitons
was still enough to get her called up to the national team at 18 (though not without a warning to get her shit together. she behaved for like three matches)
won her first major tournament, australia open at 21
hit her career best at 23, winning 3 grand slams in a year
off the court, she has been scrutinzed a lot for her lack of sportsmanship and irreverent attitude to most things. very polarizing to the public; some of the criticism is valid, but others not so much
the kind to chat shit before a game to mess with her opponent’s head. the kind to play with a demoralizing style, forcing opponents to play more impatiently, hit harder and take more risks. will pull out of a tournament if she thinks she will lose (her most infamous excuse was having a sore throat. was spotted at a karaoke bar the next day - she was very heavily criticized for this, and even soeun admits it was shitty of her to do that)
undeniable that she’s very talented and very hardworking, considered one of asia’s top tennis players but she just has a horrible attitude that makes it hard for some people to support her
background
wont add much but crazy, uber competitive family. father is ceo of a fintech company, mother is a healthcare cfo (i’m thinking her dad is some cocky tech bro who you love to hate. el*n musk dupe??)
basically raised their kids on steroids - find something you’re good at and stick with it. be the best at it. anything less than #1 is not accepted
soeun got lucky at five and realized that she liked tennis! and she was pretty fucking good at it.
her younger sibling was not as fortunate and spent their whole lives trying to find something they were good at and ultimately failing. soeun holds them as a reminder of why she needs to always keep trying and always be the best because there's no way she'll let herself end up like her younger sibling.
anyways yeah she just kept training and playing tennis. signed away her childhood but the fame and glory and attention was always more fun anyways
trivia
shes messy but it’s not like she actively tries to be? when you’re raised in a crazy competitive family where shit talk is the normal way of life.. it’s just how you live life
she’s very much an entertainer. invited to a few variety shows, which she excels at because she’s just loud and bright and funny (but she’s not allowed to go on anything live. she’s a tad too unpredictable for that)
genuinely believes in herself. the cockiness isn’t an act, she is genuinely and truly believes that she is the greatest and she can do anything. she doesn’t think that she deserves all the gold just because she's cha soeun - but because she knows that she’s talented and she works her ass off.
on that note, she is very, very, very dedicated to her sport. incredibly hard worker. will stay till dawn. will practice till her fingers are calloused and bloody!!
potential plots
first love! shes bi so i would love something where your muse has trained with her all their lives and you broke up but now you’re friends and she’s forcing herself to laugh around you and everything thinks it’s SO cool that exes can be friends but truth is it hurts!!! alot!!!
enemies!! someone who thinks soeun should shut the fuck up or that she’s ruining the beautiful sport of tennis or the olympics in general
besties <3 or unlikely friends!!! a soft spoken sweet person to match soeun’s fiery nastiness
enemies to fwbs… on the contrary, two very similar hot-heads! always at each other’s throat, sexual tension, you know the likes
pr friendship. she’s lowkey a pr mess and her team wants to “clean her image up” before the olympics so they pair you two together! idk they can end up being friends or beefing whatever works
the only other person who stays as late as she does. doesn’t have to be a fellow tennis player but someone who understands the #grind. sharing late night protein shakes after practicing till 3am vibes??
other tennis players!!
we can brainstorm!! i’m just vomiting cause as everything with life, i have procrastinated writing this intro until the very last minute! hehe
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Sissi, please satiate my very academic curiosity about your two OCs Dani and Elijah because I've seen you tag them on some very omg-thats-my-jam dynamics.
Like I need details. Whats their story? Do they hate each other and then oh-shit-regrettably-its-u hate-fuck in some Boston bar? Like I already have headcanons for them, we neeed moore 🥺
me seeing this ask in the morning
they're honestly one of my favorite OC ships, like top three AT LEAST. and honestly? hooking up in some Boston bar is not unimaginable! like you're not very far off at all and I love it 🥰 please tell me more headcanons *chin in hands*
you might regret asking me though because I have a looooooot to say! so much to say. too much, you might think 😭 but they have a long story, and I couldn't give them justice if I condensed it, so I think I'm gonna put this under a read-more
okay, so important context first: the setting is urban fantasy with magic and different sorts of monsters but the twist that it's all out in the open and the world has known about the existence of these paranormal things for a long while now.
Dani's in her mid-20s (around 25-27 at the start) and she has this the devil may care attitude with some serious abandonment issues (because her family situation is complicated and not the greatest). She's very rarely had real connections with anyone, whether platonic or romantic, so it makes her very lonely and basically the only person she's close to is her brother. She will pretend she likes it that way but I mean... she clearly does not. She's also a licensed monster hunter, but while most of her family on her mother's side, including her brother, were/are witches, she's got no magic of her own. So it makes her kind of an outsider even in her own family.
And Elijah isn't human. In fact, he comes from a different dimension altogether so he's a something but no one knows what yet because his kind hasn't really been seen ever before and people just don't have a name for it. He's a couple hundred years old which is old in the human sense, but not so much for their kind. Kinda early 30s in appearance. Elijah technically isn't even his real name but it's his human name and what he goes by for the entire story. His dimension is sort of splintering apart at the seams and his kind are dying by the millions so many of them started seeking refuge in other worlds, including our world. Of course they all have different attitudes towards humans, some think they should be peaceful and co-exist, some think they should just take over and subjugate humans, and some think that co-existence IS optimal but they don't think very high of humans regardless and don't really want to interact much. Basically like "you're just a small ant and I'm better than you in every way but I don't hate you so I guess you can stay." Elijah falls more into that category at the start, although he's actually curious about humans, but he's following his mentor's lead who's kinda like a father figure and the person who leads the group he came over with.
So anyway, Dani gets tangled up in this whole situation as she's one of the first person to actually see and interact with one of the others. You could kinda say they're enemies because Elijah's super loyal to his own people, and Dani's very skeptical and distrustful of them. But most of all, she really doesn't trust Elijah's mentor and that obviously creates some tension between them. So they start off on the wrong foot and they really can't stand each other first. It's a lot of unfair assumptions and prejudices basically, and they're both guilty of it. But they also clash simply because of their personalities.
Elijah's calm, collected, reserved, a bit cold some would say, he doesn't show much emotion and is entirely too serious for his own sake. Dani's more laidback and fun and likes to hide her pain with stupid jokes. She's also very much ruled by her emotions so she's hot-tempered and prone to make hasty decisions that often result in bad consequences and Elijah just. does not vibe with that. At all. There's definitely attraction from the start tbh but it's a "fuck, why them, I cannot stand them" kind of attraction. The "I think you're hot and I'm annoyed about it" kind of attraction.
They do become friendlier as time goes on and they find common ground and realize that they may not be so different after all. During this stage, only a few months after meeting, they actually end up sleeping together at a low point in both of their lives. It's one of those "you're here, I'm here, let's just make each other feel alive" kind of things. But because this is absolutely a slowburn, the next morning Dani's like "you know that was just a one night sort of thing, right?" because she does fool around with people often so it's nothing new to her but Elijah does not, isn't used to this, so he's like "uhm... yeah of course." But internally he's kinda spiraling about it. They don't talk about it, but ofc they're thinking about it.
So as time goes on, they end up becoming really close as friends and literally everyone's shocked about this development but they just... see each other, you know? They get each other in an instinctive way that no one else does. Elijah's absolutely in love with Dani at this point but doesn't really understand what he's feeling so he never does anything about it, just pines from afar, and Dani's sort of still in the denial phase (plus you know, the whole "he's my best friend and I don't really have a lot of people I'm close to so I can't lose him"). Dumb shit, obviously.
There's a jealousy sideplot at some point because I like them but it's not a love triangle because I hate those. It's basically just more of Elijah pining to be honest. Lots of angst because that's just how I roll. Over time, there's like 2 or 3 incidents when they actually kiss (I could even see another one night stand at some point, it depends) but they always pull back or change their minds or something happens outside of their control and it just never ever goes anywhere. At this point, Elijah loves her and realized it, but he's actually kinda content to be just her friend. He's okay with loving her from afar because he doesn't really think it possible to be with her for real, and it's very sad.
Dani, on the other hand, is the opposite. She has also accepted the fact that she loves him and she does not want to be just friends. At some point, they have one of those heated arguments that end with Dani, finally too frustrated with this thing between them, blurting out that she loves him, and Elijah for his own reasons (he has a lot of shit going on) pretty much ignores it and pulls away from her. It's like "this is best for both of us, I'm trying to protect you" blablabla, it's stupid and although they technically remain friends, their relationship is very obviously strained because Dani doesn't forgive him for it. Like the girl can absolutely hold a grudge, but also this is probably the time he hurts her the most, so understandable. I mean you gotta know that this is the first time she said those words to anyone that isn't her brother, and she feels rejected, feels like doesn't love or want her, feels kinda worthless because he's an immortal being from a different dimension, ofc he doesn't want her, why would he, and she feels incredibly angry that she still loves him despite all that. It’s a cycle of self-hatred and resentment, and then all that, along with some other things, pushes Dani into spiraling and she has a brief evil arc, and that's another thing preventing them from being together. (She's pretty mean to him during this era but he's also one of the things that brings her back to herself so you know... fun stuff!)
Anyway, they do get together eventually. I'm undecided on this part because idk what works better yet. One possibility is that one of them, probably Elijah, shows up at her door before a big battle that's gonna happen and confesses and they spend the night together knowing it might be their last night alive. The other possibility is that one of them, probably Dani gets hurt during the battle and Elijah confesses while she's bleeding out in his arms. Either way, they don't expect to survive so they finally come clean, and then... they survive. So now they gotta actually confront this for once.
They decide to give a relationship a try, but it doesn't end well the first time. Sure, they're happy and disgustingly in love for a while but neither knows how to be in a relationship because neither have experience. So as soon as something comes along to shake their foundations a bit, the whole thing crumbles. The following crash and burn might even be the angstiest part of the story, idk. I'm gonna be honest, the end does get a little fuzzy, I haven't fleshed out everything yet. I know I want there to be a temporary character death at some point because I know it's cheap but I live for that stuff. So Elijah dies, probably while they're still broken up, and Dani definitely goes a little feral and sets out on an impossible path to bring him back. The good stuff. He comes back, they reunite, etc. I don't wanna say everything's perfect after that because they still gotta work on their issues, but they have a happy ending and that's what matters.
Tropes include but not limited to: slowburn, mutual pining, it was always you, battle couple, hot-headed & level-headed, unhealthy codependency/mutual obsession, soulmate coded, opposite sides of the same coin, not even death can defeat us, anguished declarations of love, sad people growing an intense connection from shared trauma, grumpy character who only smiles for love interest
Songs that remind me of them:
Remember to Remember Me by Isak Danielson - this one is pretty angsty, but it really fits a certain period in their story and every single time I hear it, it makes me think of them
An Evening I Will Not Forget by Dermot Kennedy
Evermore by Taylor Swift ft. Bon Iver
The Alcott by Taylor Swift ft. The National
Love Like Ghost by Lord Huron
Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
(Dani also has a playlist that she made for him even when they were just friends and it's super secret and she's kinda embarrassed about it but she does end up sharing it with him later when they get together. Fun fact, I did actually make that playlist on Spotify.)
Other trivia tidbit that I like but couldn't fit into elsewhere: Dani's full name is Danielle and she HATES when people call her that. Her parents used to do it when they were angry, and her brother still does it to mess with her or when he's disappointed with her. So no thank you. Except if it's Elijah. Other people say it in anger or admonition but Elijah says it out of sheer devotion, and she's very into it.
I could also like... make moodboards if anyone's interested? Or even if no one's interested...
#replies#rustoperator#lmao sorry you probably didn't expect a mini novel when you sent this ask 😭#im sorry but ily <3#also i did not proofread this before posting so im sorry if anything sounds dumb 😭#it's late and it was too long for me to muster up the energy#dani x elijah
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Ok I’m finally ready to talk abt dobrynya. As an aside of Catgirl nikitich from fgo. And as usual please don’t take me as a authority, if you are really curious look the stories up yourself, there are summaries online but you won’t find all the variants of the tales because some of them are said to have like 50 variations because they are meant to be performed as songs, and when performing them they would often be tweaked to suit the tastes of the individual storytellers. So what you end up w online or when handed out summaries in class is probably just a single condensation of a story which in reality has a whole multitude of variants. so keeping that in mind, what I know of these tales comes from a combo of like, 6th grade mythology, my Ukrainian roommate who grew up w these stories and refreshed me on them, and my scrounging around google for as many translations as I could find. Long post long you are warned
I don’t like dobrynya...
I adooore the Catgirl but I’ve had it out for dobrynya since 6th grade when we first read transcripts of these songs and there was a boy in my class who was super adamant about defending the misogyny in these tales. I even forgot about him before rereading a summary of dobrynya and marinka brought back the memories and I was just like oh yeah! This guy saw some pigeons chilling in a woman’s window and killed them, because he took it as a wanton invitation for sex (#symbolism) and after he antagonized her she pulled a Circe and started turning him into an animal to mess with him, and even brainwashed him into falling in love with her just to hurt him more, so like, yes she is definitely a “bad person” but the story takes for granted that in at least some varients of this tale dobrynya antagonized her first, or even just at its baseline that a woman being a bit whorish deserves to be attacked and have her pets killed and maligned as being in league with the devil. The same w another dobrynya story that starts w his mother telling him not to trample the nests of dragons, which he willfully ignores and so again he antagonizes the dragons by killing their young and they retaliate, and dobrynya is written to be the one in the right.
Fgo chose to make the dragons sympathetic and honestly this felt right to me as someone who found this unnecessarily cruel when reading it. Like. I get it, Dobrynya was written to appeal to a certain type of strong wise male authority trope, and back in the day dragons were symbolic of a specific unambiguous kind of evil (in light of reading about the historical man dobrynya was likely based on though, it compounded my frustration, because the man he’s likely based on sure committed a lot of mass murder under a similar mentality that all opposition had to be stamped out as cruelly as possible) idk for me he just feels very preachy and inconsistently characterized, and while there are plenty of good things underpinning the tales and a lot of my points of contention with him can absolutely be said of Ilya and especially Svyatogor, Svyatogor is written as a sympathetic but overtly evil villain, and at least the preachy things like Ilya overcoming being crippled because he was so good and pious, is based on a real historical priest whose spine showed signs of a deformity having been adjusted, and then like allyosha being the unconventional asshole of the 3 is also the point so while I don’t “like” him he didn’t quite irk me the way dobrynya does at times. dobrynya is the most conventional hero of these stories and the most popular to this day, so his sort of paradoxical personality and insisting he’s such a good pious person just…idk
One thing I do like in his tales is the underlying message that despite him being strong, his physical strength is never really enough on its own. It wasn’t enough to defeat the dragon, he had to pray for mercy and hold his place for 3 days, and almost lost the fight we’re it not for gods intervention. And it wasn’t enough to defeat nastasia, who just laughed and put him in her pocket. By this metric, nastasia is absolutely the unspoken star of these stories for me, because she shows up, looks at this often assumed to be a buff tough guy, goes “you are my poor little meow meow” and like that’s that like he’s married now he has a wife and she could crush him like a little bug anytime thereby rendering his strength completely invalid as a tactic for controlling her, its just really funny tbh, I’ve already admitted I love Svyatogor despite his far more egregious cruelty for similar reasons, there is something about a massive sadistic giant who can’t totally relate to humans just putting a little human in their pocket and being like “this is my anime girlfriend now” and I would read Infinite variants of this.
So the Catgirl dobrynya nastasia hybrid we get in fgo is great to me, although if she’s actually nastasia I wish they’d kept her huge. Bc the thing is, everything mean or irrational dobrynya does is so much funnier when rationalized as coming from a catgirl placeholding his identity. The fact that she is both patient and wise but also stupid and impulsive? Catgirl. The mean petty behavior like killing the birds? She is a cat… On that note, her bond with the dragons and use of the last name nikitich rather than calling herself nastasia does still sort of indicate aspects of this character are based more on marinka than nastasia. For example in one version of the marinka tale dobrynyas brainwashing breaks because she deliberately cheats on him with a dragon in front of him. And nikitich fgos max bond CE seems to be alluding to or making fun of this by flaunting her relationship with zmey as a positive one rather than antagonistic one. Considering her whole gag was marrying dobrynya for the lulz I can’t help but wonder. This reveal would not make me love her any less (plus I do think whoever she is she’s earnest about her love for dobrynya it’s just mixed in w frustration) I like both these women as characters and think that fgo would absolutely make Marinka sympathetic bc the writers understand that women like Circe and Medea are interesting and in the modern day deserve more consideration than to be labeled as irredeemably evil.
That’s sort of just where I’m at w the dude. Fgo endeared me to him a lot more specifically because it’s -not- falling back on the portrayal of him as a big buff strongman who is always right, but playing to the parts of the story where he’s just sort of helpless and sad and overtly dedicated to a cause nobody else really understands, then gets bullied by women who are stronger than him. A guy who has to plow through the depths of despair to find hope and this hope is incarnated as a funny catgirl who displays all the machismo and paternalistic authority and all that but makes it fun and lighthearted bc you fundamentally cannot take her seriously. It captures the spirit of the tale in an earnest way and attempts to rectify what might not sit well with modern audiences, you can criticize that if you want, but fate has been doing this with its heroes by and large all along, so in that case its not a contention that would be unique to dobrynya by any means.
If you do like dobrynya and hate the catgirl like. That’s fine…like especially if you grew up w this tale I’m not here to shit on you for liking him. You’re welcome to challenge me on any point but the thing is you’re probably not going to change my mind, I wrote what I considered to be the positive aspects I took out of his stories up there which are often what get recited when talking about him, and which have even grown on me over time, but for me it never quite washed away the unpleasant taste of the more cruel aspects until fgo just decided to make him the most ridiculous character ever
#also I’m sorry most of these names aren’t capitalized my autocorrect keeps defaulting them to uncapitalized and I’m too lazy to fix#idk I’ll probably regret talking about this but my friends who enjoy that I enjoy dobrynya will like it at least
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https://www.tumblr.com/stromuprisahat/713794156044107776/i-just-cant-believe-that-the-writers-and
This kind of stuff depresses me. I'm really struggling not to be depressed by all this general negative vibe over Darklina that would have been spoiled this season, as well as those complaining about the ending.
Literally, these same people are complaining about the ending of the books, but now the ending of the series when it's great? An arc of Alina's corruption in perspective! Even this person wanted 1 and now they complain about it? I don't understand. For me, Alina's behavior this season made sense with this scene but for some it's... I don't know, it seems like they see it as blasphemy?
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion at the end of the day, but I do get where you are coming from as there is alot of negativity in the tags about darklina, or more precisely the writers and producers attitudes to darklina and how they were written this season, it seems to me like some wished that Alina had shown more emotion and compassion towards Aleks, the negativity can get you down. As I've said before I didn't mind how they wrote Alina this season because for one, I think it made sense for her character at this stage of her journey as she is feeling very hurt and betrayed so of course she isn't going to be feeling all compassionate towards Aleks, she hasn't had enough time to process everything. I think sometimes people forget that the show and the books are on different timelines. In the books Alina was more compassionate towards Aleks at the end but more time had passed for her, she had two whole books where she had time to process what her relationship with the darkling was and to except that in some ways they were the same. She had more time for that reflection. In the show they condensed the two books into one and so things happen at a much faster pace and not as much time has passed. She didn't spend as much time connecting with Aleks through the tether as Book Alina did. The other reason I am not that mad at it is because to me its very obviously not the end of darklina's story, he'll come back in season three and I think that is when Alina will have that self reflection and we'll see her express more emotion towards Aleks as her anger fades.
I do think it is a bit weird when people who complained about the book ending also complain about the show changing the ending but as I said before people are entitled to feel however they feel about a piece of media, if they didn't like the show ending either then that's ok, not everyone is going to have the same opinion, I happen to love the show ending and I am really excited to see Alina's corruption arc in season 3. I will say if you are getting depressed by the negativity in the tag then try not to engage with it, if its a blog that you know you don't share the same opinion as, or as you are reading the post you can see its going the negative way, then just scroll past, focus on the positive, its ok to have a different opinion from someone even if you ship the same ship, I don't always agree with everything a fellow darklina says. Just remember to be respectful to each other.
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Zelda OC #5 - Koci and Rina
>> (list of posts for other OCs)
(Same warning as last time - due to the amount of development that went into this one, it's gonna be a real doozy! Be prepared for a very long read!)
Tesni's development from beginning to end took place over the course of several years, but I never considered her a self insert until very recently. I actually didn't start getting into making self inserts (the most thinly-veiled ones, anyway) as a whole until I had begun to flesh out Tesni's current origin story, but that was about to change!
On a whim one day, I thought about what race in the Zelda universe I might be if I were to just plop myself in there. I considered traits about the different races that I liked, what fit me most in terms of personality... Like my own completely-daydreamed uquiz, before I even knew uquiz existed. And in that imagined uquiz, I ended up with Kokiri - I'm short, look way younger than I actually am, love music and wooded areas, and am a child at heart. I thought it fit pretty well! Plus, I always did like the Kokiri for their whimsical forest-dwelling aesthetic - heck, Saria was literally the reason I made my very first Zelda OC!
So for shits and giggles, I scribbled on a paper, word for word, "If Cici were in Zelda, she'd be a Kokiri" and underneath that I drew the very first iterations of Koci and Rina, who would remain as my main Zelda OCs/self insert to this day.
Koci and Rina were actually first named Lyot and Zumi, respectively. "Lyot's" design would remain relatively consistent for a very long time throughout her development - a WW-style sleeveless tunic, detached sleeves with loose ends, and knee-high (sometimes thigh-high) boots. Her fairy only stays purple for this particular drawing, however. In fact, there was barely any time between this drawing and the next when I decided to change their names entirely.
"Lyot" simply became my name - Cici - which really just solidified the fact that this was a self insert through and through. Meanwhile "Zumi" became Rina - and Rina has a real life story!
To condense it as much as I can, I once had a very vivid dream about an angel with jade green rings around her wrists. In the dream, she'd transfer them onto my wrists as a form of protection and carry me around outside to show me how my neighborhood looked at night. I woke up with absolutely convinced I had met my guardian angel, but I lamented having never seen her face (specifically, her eyes were shadowed over) nor learned her name. I called her the "Ring Angel" for the longest time, but wanted to condense it whenever I wrote about her, so I shortened it to "Rina." So in this instance, Rina became Cici's guardian fairy.
Like I said, the designs remained largely the same. The differences here were Cici's longer hair (which from this point on tends to switch back and forth from the short hair again), the snowflake hair clip, and the diamond earring - which was absolutely 100% intended to mimic Ghirahim's earring, because I was still thirsty for him (I was still developing Tesni alongside Cici!) Later on, Cici also got glasses. Not really sure why I didn't draw them up there dkjfg.
Additionally, to reflect her origin, Rina's color changed from purple to a faded green, and I made it a point to always draw her with her eyes shut. After that, her design has barely changed to this day.
Being a self-insert, Cici's personality was more in line with mine - quiet, kind of weird, a bit childish, and naive to a degree. Despite her being a Kokiri, she had the mental maturity of an adult, since I would feel really weird making what was supposed to be a self insert have the mind of a literal child. It was more like "I am very much an adult in nearly every aspect but now I am just smaller."
Unlike my other OCs at the time, Cici didn't really have an origin story or a purpose. I mostly just drew her in random silly situations, comics, and RP'd with friends about various Zelda stuff. I didn't bother sticking to any one canon world - she'd interact with Ghirahim because at the time, I didn't consider Tesni a self insert, but now I was much more shameless about my attraction for him.
Since I had self inserts named Cici for other fandoms at the time, I referred to this one as Kokiri Cici and later shortened that to Kocici to save a little time. For the longest time Kocici remained this silly, fun little vessel for memes, doodles, and overall just having a good time while I played and talked about Zelda games with friends. In some instances, Kocici was just with Rina. In others she was with her Zora brother, Kodi, and in others still she was goofin' it up with my friends' self inserts - well, Lee's, mostly.
However, it was around the time I played BOTW and started shipping with Link that I decided to flesh out Kocici. One of the first things I did was change her name once more, to something that both held onto the origins of Kocici and sounded a little more "Zelda" to boot - Koci! And thanks to Lee's wonderful art skills, I was blessed with a concept for Koci that would become her staple design to this day~ Here's a quick, plain version of it!
Now's where things get juicy! Koci's personality remained about the same - she is a self insert, after all. However, her story changed heavily depending on what world she was in! I have three different versions of her, so three different stories! They're a bit of a read (I know, there's already so much in this post kjdfg) so feel free to skim or skip to the end.
After Tesni was finally christened a self insert, I no longer had a need for Koci and Ghirahim to interact, save for a bit of dialogue I wrote for shits and giggles if Koci were in Hyrule Warriors. So we can skip that. XD
In Breath of the Wild, Koci is born in the Korok Forest shortly before the Calamity, as the only Kokiri amongst her Korok siblings. The Goddess, anticipating this, instructs the Great Deku Tree to raise Koci so that she may learn to protect and bless the Master Sword for the hero to claim when the time comes. The Goddess sends down Rina, an angel in the form of a guardian fairy, to aid Koci in these blessings and teach her that this duty is given to her by the Goddess herself. In addition to Rina providing her with the sacred magic needed to bless the blade, Koci also grows up learning basic combat to fend off anyone who may threaten it.
Since Koci is sworn to the Master Sword's protection, when Link first comes to claim it, Koci and Rina accompany him in order to ensure it remains at its full strength. When Link is forced to undergo his restorative slumber, Koci and Rina return to the Korok forest to continue their duties while they wait for him to awaken. This version of Koci easily has had the most thought and substance put into her. This is the condensed version, and it would take a lot more text and time to explain it all! So I'll cut it here.
In Phantom Hourglass, Koci takes the role of Link and Hadiyah (Lee's self insert) takes the role of Tetra... though it's a bit different skdjf. Hadiyah has, to put it bluntly, gone on a fuck-quest to find Ganondorf... with the intention of bedding/marrying him... and not even saying bye??? So Koci, being a decent portion of Hadiyah's impulse control, sets off to search for her friend and hopefully knock some sense into her. With the minimal sailing knowledge she's inexplicably gained from Wind Waker (where did this happen? did she replace Link there too? who knows, not me kdjfg) she and Rina craft themselves a dingy little boat that promptly gets obliterated in a storm not 2 hours from their starting point...
Later, an unconscious Koci is discovered floating on a piece of her boat by none other than Linebeck who, despite being kind of a jerk is not actually a complete jerk. So he plucks her and the fairy bottle she's clutching from the water and at the very least ensures they don't succumb to hypothermia, and when Koci wakes, she and Rina explain that they're looking for their friend. From that point on, they basically follow the plot of the game~
And lastly, in A Link Between Worlds, old texts describe the Kokiri as an elusive race that were known and adored for their eternal, youthful beauty - so much so, that ages ago Kokiri were often captured and kept in the homes of corrupt Hylians as trophies. The Kokiri that avoided this fate sunk deeper into hiding until many thought they disappeared entirely. Koci grows up in her home village hearing these stories, and decides she doesn't want to hide like the rest of her people. She learns to defend herself and sets out with Rina to explore the rest of the world, but is still sometimes plagued with inexplicable nightmares of a particularly powerful captor who is rumored to still be alive today...
Yuga, still on his quest for beauty, decides based on these texts that he must have one of these lovely beings to himself to preserve in painting form. The "elusive" part holds true, as the sorcerer scours every corner of the land for one of these forest-dwelling treasures. When he happens upon Koci, he is upfront about his intentions. Koci, fearful that this is the captor from her nightmare but in disguise, fights back and manages to nearly kill him, but Yuga offers a deal - spare him, and he'll help her find the real captor. At first it's a thinly-veiled ploy to gain her trust and later backstab/capture her, and Koci knows this, but she agrees only because his power would be useful in the search for this person. Over time, their dynamic goes from "enemies" to "I'll tolerate you because you're useful to me" to "you're not the worst person on the earth" to "why do I like you" to "ah damn it we accidentally became romantically involved" kjdfhg
Though the stories are different, some things about Koci and Rina remain relatively consistent between them - Rina is always an angel in the form of a fairy, and Koci's weapons are always twin morningstar flails (though depending on what the story calls for, she can wield other basic items like bombs and such). I have other small headcanons about them, but I think this post is long enough!
And so ends the long road to crafting my main Zelda self insert that I use to this day! (And when BOTW2 finally comes out, expect to see a lot more of Koci and Rina~)
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Okay, so I will preface this by saying I AM a Polin shipper but NOT the show version.
It breaks my heart what they've turned Penelope into on the show. Was she problematic in the books? Sure, but not to the extent she is in the show. And, while I adore the fact that Penelope is plus sized, they did fans of the books so dirty by making her this absolute asshole in so many ways.
Also, your blog is wonderful.
Hey, hey! I feel like a lot of people are on the same boat as you and I find it heartbreaking for you. I can't say they were my favorite couple but I will admit they had certain appealing. Colin is a delight of a character in the books (not as much in his but that's another convo) and, actually, i wouldn't say Penelope is problematic in the books. Sure, what she does has some negative connotations and those affected have the right to be mad but she was mostly spilling innocuous gossip and relying on people's imagination to fill the voids. Penelope actually being plus size is a nice change from the books but that doesn't excuse her behavior. What she has done is atrocious and I hate to see people using the fact that she is fat as an excuse to forgive her actions. It's always "you don't like her because she is fat!" when it is because she is so entitled she doesn't even care that her actions are hurting others deeply. Does fat phobia play a role in this? Sure, I'm not gonna deny some people who hate her would be praising her if she her a thin girlboss. But the thing here is; we have rightful reasons to dislike her. I saw a lot of speculation about a redemption arc and I think it might have worked if they had expanded it throughout two seasons. One in which we could see her grow as a person, find herself and mature. And then another to find her way to Colin. But now they are going to have to condense that growth (plus making Colin an attractive character), the whole Eloise/Penelope make up and the romantic love history. All in one. Considering they are supposedly an ensemble show and therefore the rest of characters must have plots too... Yeah, i don't see it working. I also don't see any good reasons why the Bridgertons would accept her as one of their own without ruining the characterization of the siblings in the process.
Now to Colin. I'm sorry but I cannot fantom why anyone swoons over show!colin. They stripped him off his personality almost completely and gave him the charm and charisma of a plant. Right now he is just a rich cry baby. I am personally not physically attracted to the actor but I'm the type of person who can find a character attractive even if they don't feel the same for the actor. But this version of Colin is just so boring and plain. And it is not like they can't write a good male; both Anthony and Benedict are well writen and attractive characters. And Simon was way more likeable than his book counterpart. I don't know if it was a conscious decision to make Penelope shine brighter but it was a bad one. Hopefully they will leave him room to shine next season.
Anyway, I'm not the first one to point this stuff and I'm just gonna say I wished we didn't have to see the only plus size lead in a period romance be the antagonist just because she is jealous and feels insecure. That's not good representation.
Thank you for your asks and your kind words!
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Netflix's ATLA Thoughts (Spoilers Ahead)
I'd give it a 6/10. I wasn't in love with it like the original, however it was much better than I was expecting (especially considering the only other live action we can compare it to is so bad fans pretend it doesn't exist).
For the things I liked about it:
I think the costumes, special effects, creature designs, and fight scenes/bending were all pretty good. As far as adapting certain story lines (Jet, the mechanist, etc) I was surprised at how they executed them but not necessarily disappointed. Obviously they had to condense it down to fit in 8 episodes and I found that while it was different than I was expecting, their placement in the story didn't really feel out of place (to me) and at the end of the day, while the way they got to certain plot points was different, the overall end result was still the same. For example, having Zuko and Iroh go to Omashu was different but at the end we still get the part where Iroh is captured by earthbenders and Zuko rescues him. The fact that it isn't a one for one, verbatim adaptation is fine for me. I wasn't really expecting them to do that anyway and if I wanted that I would just rewatch the original. Though I am wondering now if they will still go to the library in season 2 and see Wan Shi Tong since they already met him in the spirit world, so I'm interested to see how that plays out.
Now as for the things I didn't like:
I did not like how they changed Bumi to be this bitter old man who only challenges Aang basically to be mean and "teach him a lesson" in a much harsher way than original Bumi did. I don't see why they couldn't leave his character as he was. I was half-expecting at the end for Bumi to say, "just kidding" and go back to being his goofy self. The parts where he was making jokes and acting crazy felt forced, like the writers wanted to throw it in just because it happens in the show, but because of how they changed Bumi's personality, it just felt out of place and weird.
On the flip side, I thought Zhao was a little too goofy and dramatic. Not that original Zhao was necessarily undramatic, but Netflix Zhao felt a bit overexaggerated with the way he talked. IDK if it was the actor portraying him like that or if it's how the writers wrote him, but either way, I didn't really care for it.
Aang can only talk to his past lives at their shrines? I don't really get the point of them essentially nerfing one of the Avatar's powers for no reason.
And lastly, things I am unsure about but want to see how they play out:
Zuko and Azula. I know they changed things for Zuko in having more moments where they show him "being good" and I'll be honest, some of those moments where he talks about "Father would never do this" or about "the honor of the fire nation" were a little cringy, and while Zuko is all about HONOR, it's mostly his honor he's concerned with at the beginning. I don't expect them to come close to getting the same impact with Zuko's redemption arc as the original (because the original is a masterpiece) but by making him "more good" at the start, it kind of lessens the impact of when he changes sides and of the character development he goes through. However, I'll stick it out and see what they do with it for now.
As for Azula, I'm not sure yet how to feel about how her and Ozai's relationship is going so far. She's supposed to be the prodigy child, "born lucky" and Ozai's favorite, so to see him "playing games" with her and treating her like original Ozai treats Zuko is very strange. It seems they're trying to go with the whole, "he's making her stronger by forcing her to win his approval/compete with Zuko" but the thing with Azula's character is that she's already supposed to be one of the strongest firebenders out there. I guess maybe they could be trying to already plant roots for her eventual mental breakdown with the pressure of trying to impress him adding to whatever else will happen in the future. Once again, I'm not sure if I like what they're doing but I'll at least wait and see where they go with it.
In the most literal of senses, the show is mid. Not wonderful but not awful either. (And way better than M Night Shyamalan's mess of a movie)
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I decided to watch season 3 of the witcher (the first 5 episodes that are out at this point at least) and by the time I finished it, I kind of forgot why I had been so hesitant to start watching it in the first place, aside of course the whole Henry Cavill leaving thing (and to clarify, I'm not watching season 4 and onwards because he's absolutely correct in why he's leaving, the show won't be the same without him, and the whole Joey having to write a 7000 word essay to get proper representation vis a vis Jaskier thing etc etc) because honestly I thoroughly enjoyed s3 so far! I did think the 5th episode was a bit.. or a lot 'meh'? But still. Then I remembered ofc that I'd been so hesitant because season 2 was ASS.
Anyway, I never watched Blood Origin, and after looking around the witcher subreddit and seeing that everybody apparently fucking hates s3, which I've concluded I liked so far, and also hates Blood Origin, I figured hey it might just be another one of those things where I would feel differently than the people who hate it.
So I just finished watching it and oh. my god. It SUCKS. ASS.
It's so fucking bad!!
Now I won't do what a lot of people have and go EUGH WOKE LEFTISTS RUINED IT or IT'S FULL OF BAD ACTING because what the hell are you talking about. First of all the only truly good thing about Blood Origin imo was the diversity. The most interesting story lines imo was Meldof and what happened with Gwen, I would have loved to see more of her story and her getting revenge, and Meldof was so endearing! I really loved how Francesca Mills played her. The humor came across as humorous, the grief was sad, and the weird goofy offball energy was delightful. I also think she did the fight scenes really well!
Also Eredin and Brían's story would have been so much more interesting to explore than what we got. Like hello? High ranking fancy schmancy general falls in love with a low born merchant? Even goes so far as to betray his ally for the sake of raising his lover in society, so they can be together without sneaking around? That's a classic premise for a reason! The reason being it's compelling and romantic! I love that shit.
I also don't feel like we needed seven characters. I loved Scìan and wish we had seen more of her life both before and after losing her clan. I didn't really feel we had time at all to get to know Brother Death and Zacaré at all, and even though I especially liked the actress who played Zacaré, neither of those two characters really made much impact on their own. I feel like they could have been condensed into other characters to make fewer stronger characters instead of many weaker ones. I also don't think we really learned very much about Syndril as a person, so if he had been combined with Zacaré, I think that would have worked better.
BUT I think every single actor in that show acted their heart out. They put their whole entire pussies into it!! And they did a great job with the material they had to work with. Unfortunately the material was bad (like jesus christ. by the power of friendship and also singing to calm the hulk like 3 times can we do literally anything else. Also everyone fucking singing the rose song like we GET IT but it felt so inauthentic and staged.) Also Fjall and Éile you knew each other for like 3 days calm down. There was no reason for them to fall in love aside from man meets woman and they are in physical proximity. I understand logically that they traveled together longer but it was SO rushed on screen. It was bad.
Anyway the costume design was gorgeous, and the makeup was as well. The fight scenes were nicely choreographed and shot. The effects were pretty good overall, I think!
But the pacing was bad, the script was bad, the dialogue was bad, it was bad. Beautiful but bad.
#i really really wanted to and thought i would like it but i just didn't#i think somewhere in there was a good story but it just wasn't what we got#the witcher#the witcher s3#the witcher blood origin#the witcher blood origin spoilers#blood origin#blood origin spoilers#my post
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can only blame the writers for characters not caring about their friends/lovers/family. need to get from point A to point B in the plot pronto and, like u said, that makes everyone seem super arrogant
people here talked about nightcrawler's deal with his friends (real eye opener for me now that folks condensed this mess) so i'll mention mystique and rogue
as u probably know, rogue is mystique's favourite child and someone she really cares about... making it super weird that they barely interacted since krakoa started in 2019 with mystique not even seeming to care about rogue's first death or showing up to her first resurrection
anyway, mystique leaves the island in immortal xmen#10 because of a prophesized great threat up ahead and lo and behold, 5 years later, the start of sos happens and, u know,
every resurrection got super corrupted, every realm/dimension got taken over, chimeras were made with every krakoan mutant's dna, sinister played dollhouse with everyone, ... hell on earth all around
so with that kind of foresight on what was to come and headstart in her hands, surely mystique warned rogue about the threat before leaving? or even brought her along in her escape? or got more discreet by reaching out to her during the timeskip to explain the situation?
no to all of the above: mystique left before manure happens and rogue, as far as we know, stayed on krakoa when sinister's takeover went down
in sos, mystique basically abandoned rogue to fall into sinister's clutches like everyone else, never once thought about her in ixm#10 or during the timeskips of sos, didn't look for revenge against sinister (unlike all the times she went on a big spree for just believing rogue was killed back in the day) and didn't warn her about the dark future ahead (unlike the time the xmen were prophesized to fall and she went past the mansion's security system just to warn her daughter)
in a sad way, the rogue of the sos timeline must have gotten the closest to the feeling of pure parental abandonment nightcrawler has, due to the same person no less
all of this... because the x-office didn't include the excalibur series (rogue's) as part of the comic tie-ins for the event, making sos just feel even more... cut off from everything??? dunno how to explain but yeah
I hear what you're saying, I too hate how there's never enough time to learn each individual story and close each book, but the writer's find priority somewhere ad they devalue others.
I think in the case of Mystique and Rogue it goes somewhat like this:
Mystique's role in SOS was very brief, but it was connected directly to her wife Destiny who played a much bigger part. I don't know a whole deal about Destiny's relationship with Rogue/Kurt but her actions during that event was to make sure only Mystique's well being was taken care of (until it wasn't lol). A whole lot of families got broken up once it hit the first five years and this event was so condensed to the mainline story we would never see individual peoples (outside of the main cast) deal with the fallout. Unfortunately, we have to suspect the worst that Rogue was left behind to fight on her own while Destiny took Mystique away to protect only her.
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Just finished watching the first ep of the Urusei Yatsura reboot!
Spoiler free thoughts: The art is super cute and I like Kamiya Hiroshi as Ataru a lot, even if I love the original most forever and always. But the pacing feels rushed and there is no comedic timing, it's all just go-go-go. :/ Hopefully once they get past the establishing episodes it’ll calm down a bit??
I also like the new opening and ending!
More spoilery thoughts under the cut:
Ok so they condensed the whole tag game and the "Ataru and Shinobu try to talk to each other on the phone but Lum interferes" episode into the first one, and the problem with that is...it really rushes things.
I've been rewatching the old series leading up to the reboot, and I really think the pacing is way better. Sure there are slow moments (a consequence of animation being more time consuming I assume?), but it knew how to create a mood and let you sit in the world.
I think this might be a problem with a lot of modern anime (though I honestly don't watch a lot so I can't say lol), but there's just no room to breathe. Every scene is like watching race cars do a lap; you think you've seen one but then it's gone and the next car is flashing by already.
So you don't really get any establishing of the status quo or characters before it's shaken up; I assume because it's aimed at people who already know the story/characters???
But the gags during the tag game of different methods Ataru tries are pretty much gone too; even the final way he catches Lum is turned into total dumb luck rather than Ataru being smart (well. In a pervy way, but you know, being smart at mischief was his whole thing). So I don't think it's a good introduction to people who are totally new either.
Which I think is what they should have gone for?! If you were going to cater mostly to old fans, you'd be better off doing a one-off OAV with the old cast like they did for the Rumic Theater stuff. As a reboot, I personally think it should be focused on completely new fans, so what's the point if they can't do the comedic timing right and don't even do gags?? It's a romcom, heavy on the com???
So that's my #1 concern going forward, is if they can't figure out how to make the jokes land because the timing is so rushed. I don't think this kind of slapstick is necessarily going to land with a modern audience unless you really sell the timing, so...meh.
THAT SAID, I really did enjoy Kamiya Hiroshi as Ataru. even though every time I heard Ataru's original voice actor doing his dad's voice I really wished it was him still doing the voice lol
I mean, I get it, he's old, it'd probably be harder for him to portray a high schooler nowadays, but oh man. I can still hear the old Ataru in there and it's like 🥺🥺🥺 SIR PLEASE I MISS YOU
I read that Lum's original VA is going to be voicing Lum's mom so I'm excited for that. New Lum is alright, though she's going heavier on the "cool" rather than the "cute," which I understand, just because the old voice is so iconic. You gotta differentiate somehow. I definitely prefer the old one, but the new one isn't bad.
Positives are again the art, really love the colors and the old art style being modernized. It's cute af
Really miss the old sound effects/soundtrack, but the new ones are cute too. Again, I like the energy of the new op and ed.
It was trippy seeing Ataru with a smartphone in the opening but using an old rotary phone in the episode 😂
I really don't understand the choice of squishing the intro tag game and the phone episode into one though, I think both really suffer for it. The old show knew how to set a tone and have "serious" moments to set you up for the punchline of the next scene, but this one really...doesn't. It's all rush rush rush so you don't have time to enjoy jokes or establish character much. It honestly feels kind of like an extended trailer?? 間が足りない。
Which again, might be just because it's the first ep and they want to get the premise set up and over with, but...I just don't think it's a good introduction. I really don't think the comedy lands at all, so I have no idea what people without nostalgia goggles are going to get out of it.
But I have the biggest nostalgia goggles of all, so I'm gonna keep watching it lol
#urusei yatsura 2022#uy 2022#urusei yatsura 2022 spoilers#kamiya-san is kinda making this thing for me tbh#if i didn't already like him idk if i would have liked this ep as much#i love the old show so much :(#but it could've been worse#i'm not impressed with what i've seen of mendou in the trailers though#kamiya akira is like. the king of screaming. love torturing his characters#this new mendou is kinda just flat#but who knows when he actually shows up maybe he'll be really good
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Have you ever seen Jane the Virgin? It’s another CW show and the main character, Jane, gives me TOTAL Dan vibes - very much like Rory in that respect. She’s a writer with a very vivid imagination and a lower middle class background that gives her a rocky relationship to her wealthy friends, and I could totally see Dan relating to her if he happened to somehow catch that show on tv lol. (Also, the fandom discourse about Jane is basically identical to the fandom discourse about Dan. 🙄)
I have not seen Jane the Virgin but I have heard so much about it from my friends who have! That's an interesting parallel and I do think it'd be hilarious to have Dan writing fanfic for a CW show shhfjgkgk. I asked one of my friends about the parallels though, since she's watched both shows, and she disagrees strongly, RIP 😔😔 In retrospect I have no idea what her opinion on Dan is, and I am too scared to ask agdhjgkhl why do I do this to myself!
#anon#she was understandably like ???? at me#because this came sooo out of nowhere#but she said she'll tell me more about what she thinks later#and she's the kind of person who can condense a whole show into like#a 15 minute rant#so im hoping that whatever she tells me is solid enough for me to form my own opinion#crossover#for tagging sake#wondering if i should watch jtv for myself but like#the premise of it didnt feel like my cup of tea#then again i DID watch all 6 seasons of gossip girl#so im not gonna pretend im immune to cw shows 😔🤡#thanks for sending this in!!!#will add to this response if necessary
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barring the no mercy route being an influence in this case, how would you describe chara's personality? I cannot describe them well at all despite them being my favorite character. they're too complex lol. all of the meta i can find at this time as them described at both extremes of innocent & evil but i don't think that's accurate
TW: discussions of canon dark topics such as abuse , death and suicide
i love talking about chara, i've talked about them at length before lmao. thank u for giving me a chance to talk about my beloved child.
you can actually read a character exploration i'm doing in a mini-arc for Askfallenroyalty. actually, if you want one condensed post, this comic sums up chara's motives
My interpretation:
chara is an abused kid and suicidal kid*(1) who ran to mount ebott to die.*(2) upon learning that monsters are made of love and humans aren't*(3), chara began to hate humanity. the deltarune prophecy*(4) makes them to be The Angel despite being a human. Feeling undeserving of this title and obligated to fulfill it, Chara wanted to be a good kid more than anything.
But then the buttercup pie incident happened. They've accidentally*(5) poisoned asgore and came up with a plan to ensure the prophecy could be fulfilled and take a hit against humanity. Two birds with one stone -who cares if it's also a personal win too? then obviously the plan goes up in flames and they and asriel are murdered. then asgore wants to kill of all humanity.
your influence*(6) gets Chara onto a path of redemption or a path of destruction, mirroring the deltarune prophecy's two main interpretations.*(7)
in summery: chara is a scared kid trying to fit into a world that demands violence by the past actions of the previous generations. The war massacred monsters and locked them up with a kill-solution -ensuring that further violence would be needed to be free, thus continuing the cycle of violence.
chara is just a kid. they knit, they make macaroni art, they loved their family and had a best friend forever.* (8) but they're also vengeful, they cared so deeply for monsterkind they were ready to die and had no idea they'd be awake as a soul, they were prepared for death. they're complicated, you can't have one side without the other. while i’ve never wanted to murder anyone, i can still relate deeply to chara and see myself in them a lot. the tragedy of them -the fact they never really got a “happy ending” like everyone else just haunts me and it’s why I spend so much time making AFR. I just... love this character so much, i want this kid to be happy. (not that it could ever be easy to get there, happy endings aren’t free.)
And frankly, seeing this hurt kid get demonized just rubs me the wrong way, and it feels completely against the morals Undertale tries to tell with it’s story. I see it as a cautionary tale against violence and dehumanizing others for the sake of hate and violence. how kids can be influenced by the violence -or kindness around them. you don’t need to forgive the ones who hurt you, but killing them is not always the solution -though sometimes necessary as framed in the Undyne the Undying fight.
People get both Undertale’s themes and chara wrong the most, and for the game that’s meant the world to me it bothers me more than it should lol. It’s a Good Story, and I don’t mean to frame my interpretation of the character or themes as 100% canon and I know Mr.Fox’s brain to confirm it kinda deal, but with all the time I’ve spent analyzing and thinking it over I do think it’s not off in the general direction of it lol. And besides the author’s intent isn’t really the end-all-to-be-all. It’s what you get out of the story and the themes that matter and stick with you. No one can take that away from you.
Sources and evidence:
"* If you're cuter, monsters won't hit you as hard." -faded ribbion flavor text * "The ends of the tools have been filed down to make them safer." -gardening tools in New Home (and iirc Toriel's home as well, too lazy to double check rn) * Where are the knives. -no mercy chara (this and paired with the previous imply there are no sharp objects in reach of chara's home because chara can't be trusted with sharp objects out of self harm. This doesn't necessarily mean abuse but paired with them hating humanity so deeply, being suicidal and a child it paints a picture of abuse.
"* I know why (chara) climbed the mountain.* It wasn't for a very happy reason." -asriel post pacifist epilogue dialogue
"* Love, hope, compassion... * This is what people say monster SOULs are made of. * But the absolute nature of "SOUL" is unknown. * After all, humans have proven their SOULs don't need these things to exist." -Library book on monster souls)
* Legend has it, an 'angel' who has seen the surface will descend from above and bring us freedom. - gerson
"* It takes at least a human soul... * And a monster soul. * ...* If you want to go home... * You'll have to take his soul. * You'll have to kill ASGORE." -Alphys. Because boss monster souls are the exception and can persist after death for a short period of time, Chara could of killed any of the family members to escape the underground.
this implies escaping wasn't the goal -it was to die (considering they already attempted suicide to fall underground the first time, this is explicitly suicide.) the plaque doesn't mention or speak like monster/human fusion's consumed soul would be aware. chara had no way of knowing they'd be awake.
also the whole thing with the pie is a prank. cups of butter. -> buttercups. putting flowers in a pie is a joke to do, we see Chara is similar to Toriel (they mimic her speech in the no mercy monologue, they say “greetings” as she does like how Asriel says “howdy” like Flowey does. Chara makes puns and jokes in the flavor text all the time.
https://imgur.com/a/zP18P -dog food bag at different LV. "When the protagonist first encounters Mad Dummy, they are given the option to beat it up. Choosing to beat it up prompts one of three responses depending on the protagonist's LOVE." (source: undertale wiki)
If the protagonist’s LV is 1, the response becomes "(You tap the dummy with your fist.) (You feel bad.)"
If the protagonist's LV is between 2 and 4, the response becomes "(You hit the dummy lightly.) (You don't feel like you learned anything.)"
If the protagonist’s LV is between 5 and 7, the response becomes "(You sock the dummy.) (Who cares?)"
If the protagonist’s LV is 8 or higher, the response becomes "(You punch the dummy at full force.) (Feels good.)"" This implies Chara (who is the narrator) will feel different about the dog food -which references the classic phrase of "glass half empty/full" showing your out look in life. Then hitting the dummy show's Frisk's out look on violence depending on LV. Note that by the end of it, it's no longer "you feel..." but "feels good" This is Chara.
7. “* Lately, the people have been taking a bleaker outlook...* Callin' that winged circle the 'Angel of Death.' “ -gerson “* Only the fearless may proceed. * Brave ones, foolish ones. * Both walk not the middle road. “ -the first plaque in the first puzzle room with Toriel. The idea is to walk on both the left and right sides -you can’t go half way in the middle. this mirrors the “true” endings are only accomplished if you stick to no mercy or pacifist only.
8. literally their home in New Home is a treasure trove of pre-game chara characterization.
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