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bestworstcase · 11 months

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What characters do you think are bigger than their stories? Like, their original stories act almost like a prison, stopping them from reaching their true potential?

scream laughs in the Entire Cast of TTS 💀

which. it’s a disney princess cartoon, of course the character writing isn’t good—except, in a lot of individual episodes in s1-2, the character writing is actually really fucking good, and even in s3 when the narrative finally cratered in on itself there are traces, fingerprints, pottery shards of a story that could have been incredible if it were not doomed from the start by the fact of it being a disney cartoon.

like.

the writing team behind tts looked at rapunzel. looked at tangled. this disney princess story about a girl who grew up alone in a tower with nobody but a lizard and her viciously cruel, manipulative, abusive kidnapper, this girl who in the film is portrayed as a pure, sweet, innocent ray of sunshine. right.

and they went: the ray of sunshine is a shield she does not know how to put down, and this girl learned ALL of her social skills from an emotionally abusive manipulator, and now she’s a princess and a myth and a miracle and there is only one person in this story who can meaningfully tell her no.

and then they went: let’s give her a best friend who’s a little bit older, ambitious, hard-working, socially deft, and common. let’s make that best friend her lady-in-waiting on top of being a maid, and miserable in both those roles because all she wants is to be a guard like her dad. and let’s really lean into how she cannot say no to the princess, who learned 100% of her social skills from mother fucking gothel.

the core conflict of every single keyframe episode in this show is about the slow and painful death of that friendship, by rapunzel’s hand, until cassandra goes fuck this and literally! LITERALLY! steals rapunzel’s destiny, steals her structural role as the protagonist of the story, and throws herself into the arms of an Actual Demon because the demon is the first!!! person she’s ever!!! met who treats cassandra like she’s worth anything outside of being an appendage of the lost princess. and it tailspins from there, but like—HELLO!?

rapunzel the disney princess of all time. she barbecues her best friend’s hand with a rotting curse by accident and then has a whole episode about aggressively Not Apologizing. cassandra ends up apologizing to HER! for lashing out after HOURS! of rapunzel trying to corner her into talking about it. (note, not in a protagonist-centered-morality way: the episode begins with putting the reality that cass is disabled now because of rapunzel front-and-center, portrays rapunzel’s anger at cass as irrational and unfair, and makes a point of having cass say she’s still angry at the end; all of this is meant to be the death knell of the friendship and the next thing that happens is the arc where the Actual Demon befriends cass by being nice to her.) it’s fucking GREAT.

honorable mentions to: eugene “afterthought” fitzherbert, lance “he’s the funny black guy so him getting gruesomely almost murdered is about eugene’s romantic woes actually” strongbow, varian “convenient plot device” lastname, queen “the only alive mom in the series, we’ll throw her a crumb of characterization once every other season” arianna, adira “couldn’t figure out what to do with her in s3 so we wrote her out and then turned her into a mind controlled mook” lastname, and zhan tiri “all the depth and complexity of soggy cardboard” the ancient evil demon who nonetheless managed to be THEE best part of season three. and the separatists of saporia. and sugracha (best disciple). and tromus. and lady “we cast laura fucking benanti as a pirate anti-monarchist revolutionarybut we’re not going to let her sing, or appear in more than three episodes” caine.

#what makes tts so special is #no matter WHO your fave is #1. you think they were done dirty #and 2. you are right

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that-ari-blogger · 18 days

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The Boss Music Starts Playing, Part 1/2 (Mulan)

Mulan is my movie. Not the sequel or the reboot, the 1998 original. Mulan is my movie.

It is a story about identity, and as a non binary individual, this film shaped how I saw myself, and how I related to the world around me. It is also the direct cause of my obsession with cinematography. Mulan is my movie.

But I haven’t really mentioned it much on this blog before. This is the place where I rant about whatever piece of media takes my fancy, but Mulan has been conspicuously absent. I nearly devoted a series of my musical analysis to this film, for example, but didn’t for a reason I will get into.

However, on May 1st, four days before this post will go live, the folks over at Cinema Therapy uploaded a video titled Psychology of a Hero: Mulan. This was part of their series of breaking down characters from various films and TV shows to give their take from the perspectives of a licensed therapist and a professional filmmaker, and the video was better than good.

Now, I am neither a therapist or a filmmaker, but I do have opinions about the film, and I will not be outdone.

These boys stepped well and truly onto my turf, and I think it’s time to make my presence known.

Light the signal fires, we’re going to war.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Mulan)

I think it’s important to start off with how different Mulan is from every other Disney Princess. Because she technically is one, and that draws unflattering comparisons. It doesn’t matter what you do, when you are compared with Mulan, you will fall short.

Mulan is a psychologically complex character in a way that not many other Disney Princesses can boast. Ariel comes close, but in a very different way (unless you squint), but the others, while nuanced, aren’t as focused on the internalisation as Mulan.

Case and point, the “I want” song. In the Princess and the Frog, Tiana wants to open her own restaurant. That’s an external conflict, and one with measurable success criteria. Similarly, Moana wants to explore the world, again, external. Belle wants adventure and for her life to be more like the books she reads. Also external.

Mulan wants to be happy with herself.

All of these characters get secondary goals over the course of their stories. Tiana wants to get back to being human, Moana wants to save her people, Belle wants to save her father, and Mulan also wants to save her father.

But hold on to Mulan’s stated mission here, because it gets funky, and I will talk about that later.

Reflection forms a neat bait and switch with Honour to us All, because the first song of the film sets up a core conflict, and then Reflections inverts that.

I have a deep love for mirrors as symbolism in films. I think they are the easiest and most effective visual metaphor out there, and I think there is merit to my opinion. But I am fully aware that I have a bias shaped very specifically by this film.

Honour To Us All is a jaunty little song about what it means to be a woman, and it’s a song about aesthetics.

“Wait and see

When we're through

Boys will gladly go to war for you

With good fortune

And a great hairdo

You'll bring honour to us all”

All Mulan has to do is look the part, and she will fit perfectly. Combine this with the visuals of a makeover that rivals every film Anne Hathaway has ever been in, and you could almost miss that everything I have just said about this song is a lie.

“We all must serve our Emperor

Who guards us from the Huns

A man by bearing arms

A girl by bearing sons”

This song does some serious thematic setup about the gender roles of the society it is depicting. It goes into depth about what a woman must be (calm, obedient, work fast paced, etc.), but there’s also the fact that all men have to be soldiers.

Throughout the song, however, Mulan demonstrates her core strength, ingenuity. Mulan is a tactician, able to outwit people in games of strategy, as well as cheat at homework and chores. She works smarter, not harder.

Enter the Matchmaker, played by Miriam Margolys, who makes my point for me.

“You are a disgrace! You may look like a bride, but you will never bring your family honour!”

It turns out aesthetics are secondary to behaviour. The matchmaker essentially tells Mulan that her image doesn’t match her identity, and that she isn’t very good at being a woman. Which, for as much of a terrible person as the character is, is a remarkably accurate observation.

“Look at me

I will never pass for a perfect bride

Or a perfect daughter

Can it be

I'm not meant to play this part?

Now I see, that if I were truly to be myself

I would break my family's heart”

There are two main readings of this song, both of which I agree with, and I don’t think are actually that separate.

There is a hall of mirrors effect going on in the family temple. But it is made up of stones that represent the ancestors. Everywhere Mulan looks, she sees people expecting her to be something she is not, people she has brought dishonour to because of who she is.

The first is that this is a person who doesn’t fit in and can’t fulfil societal expectations. This is someone who’s in doubt about their dreams and doesn’t want to tell her family about that. This is a story about society not accepting individuality.

The second reading is that this easily the single most overtly queer song ever written, with themes of gender non-conformation. Mulan is a trans icon for good reason, but she also works as a non-binary hero as well for similar reasons.

Mulan doesn’t pass as a perfect daughter or a bride, is it possible that she was never meant to be a daughter or a bride at all? A ton of trans folk describe their experience in an extremely similar way to this, they were born the wrong gender, and now they are the person they were always meant to be.

On the same note, the last two lines will strike a chord in the heart of any queer person, trans or not, because coming out to your parents is a really difficult thing to do. Even if you have understanding parents (which, unfortunately, isn’t as common as I would like it to be), it’s still expecting people to accept a pretty core part of your identity. It’s vulnerability, and Mulan’s fear of breaking her family’s heart isn’t fear of them, but of herself. Mulan is terrified that she will hurt them by being who she is.

“Who is that girl I see

Staring straight back at me?

Why is my reflection someone I don't know?

Somehow I cannot hide

Who I am, though I've tried

When will my reflection show who I am inside?

When will my reflection show who I am inside?”

If you want a brief summary of what gender dysphoria feels like, I can’t speak for every trans or non-binary person (every experience is unique and equally valid), but at least to me, this song is pretty accurate.

On a personal note, I am non-binary, I undulate between they/them pronouns and he/they pronouns, but I am also fairly masculine presenting. This isn’t a part of myself that I find particularly fun. I like being able to sing bass, don’t get me wrong, but that pales in comparison to the fact that when I look in the mirror, it’s like I’m looking at someone else. I don’t associate my appearance with myself, which is frustratingly difficult to articulate, but more importantly, it has a rather large impact on my self-image.

My reflection doesn’t show who I am inside.

This song is why Mulan is a trans and non-binary icon. The plot itself doesn’t actually do much. It’s a story about someone following her own interests above the expectations of society, but this song reframes the entirety of the musical.

Make A Man Out Of You has some definite coding in it, but not in the way that people often associate. Yes, Mulan’s struggles to “be a man” are trans affirming, as they show someone gradually becoming more confident in her own skin.

But it’s the moment with the arrow that means the most to me.

“You're unsuited for the rage of war

So pack up, go home, you're through

How could I make a man out of you?”

This should be a victory. Mulan came to the army to protect her father, she doesn’t care about personal honour, so getting told she can leave with no questions asked should be an easy deal. Except once again, that’s not entirely accurate.

Mulan doesn’t start caring about personal honour, but she finds that drive in the army. So, the decision to complete the task on her own terms, because she wants to, is an important moment for her identity. Mulan is offered the chance to go back and be a daughter, or she can prove herself to be a man, and she chooses to stay.

However, I would argue that the non-binary reading comes in here, because Mulan doesn’t solve the problem in the way that is expected. She solves it in her own way. She succeeds in the life she chooses by playing by her own rules.

An understated element of this scene is the timescale it takes place in. Mulan is told to go home late at night, but its implied to be the evening. She then stays up all night to get the arrow.

The fact that its dawn for the shot in which she swings the two weights together implies that this isn't the first time she has done this, she has kept trying, and failing, but is powering through it to succeed.

Endurance is a key part of masculinity in this setting, at least according to the visuals of this song, and Mulan has just demonstrated that, while doing things her own way. She has utilised discipline and strength, and she has utilised her own ingenuity. Either she is just as much of a man as everyone else, she just comes at it from a different angle, or she is neither man nor woman, she is Mulan.

I think the moments in which the film goes out of its way to show Mulan’s separation from the men emphasise this reading.

“Just because I look like a man, doesn’t mean I have to smell like one.”

Notice how femininity isn’t mentioned here at all. Mulan is distancing herself from the idea of masculinity as presented in the story. To me, this comes across as someone who is neither a woman or a man, but something else, someone who falls out of the gender binary.

As a side note, the final chorus of Make a Man Out Of You plays really weirdly into the story’s idea of individuality and place, by showing the power of the cast of heroes through their synchronisation.

One of my favourite elements of the film is its visual identity, especially its character design. Because even the extras have all distinct styles and shapes, everyone in this world is unique. From the goober with the scam tattoo to the angy chef, everyone is their own person.

Even the silhouettes are different and distinct. I’ve seen arguments online as to the importance of silhouette in character design, and while I don’t think it’s essential, it’s a tool that can be used for scenes like the one in Reflection. There, the father and mother can be clearly read as each other, but their actions are also clearly identifiable as well, which helps to communicate their story through the barrier that Mulan is feeling.

This then relates to the army, and people’s strengths and weaknesses. The build up to this song does an incredible job of characterising the three stooges.

Yao is brave to a fault, with a hot temper and a defiant determination that lets him, within ten seconds, barely blink in response to an arrow being pointed at him, and then try to climb with his teeth.

Chien-Po is calm and quiet, and the team cleric, essentially. He has an ability to defuse almost any situation, including the anger of Yao, but that translates into meekness and a lack of confidence in himself.

Lee, meanwhile, is charismatic, but that has come at the cost of most other aspects of his life. He isn’t wise or strong, and his intelligence is dubious. But weirdly, he’s a natural born leader.

The montages in Make A Man Out Of You then show off their development. Yao goes from letting his emotions rule him in the flaming arrows task, to a confidence that replaces his arrogance; Chien-Po develops a faith in himself that lets him move through the balancing test with ease; and Lee leans to prioritise technique over brute force to complete the same task.

But then that final chorus comes in, and the backing music cuts out to become only the vocals singing in unison, and you realise what this song has been playing at the entire time. Individualism is great, but individuals need to bounce off of each other and balance out each other’s strengths and weaknesses. That’s something just as vital when singing a cappella as when fighting in an army.

The song is also a mirror to Honour To Us All and continues to hammer home its theme of gender and gender expression. Blokes have it a lot easier than the ladies in this culture, but that doesn’t mean they are free from expectations.

“Tranquil as a forest, but on fire within.

Heed my every order, and you are sure to win.”

Guys have to be strong and warlike; they have to be obedient; they have to be willing to die. But also, there is the idea of “boys don’t cry” here. A guy must appear stoic, like nothing in the world can alter him, but he should be burning with rage inside. Bottle up your emotions until they explode. That doesn’t exactly strike me as the healthiest of expectations for anyone.

Essentially, Make A Man Out Of You is storytelling through song, which is the core mechanic of musicals.

Speaking of which, I didn’t end up doing a series on Mulan because calling it a musical is a little bit inaccurate. Mulan is defying its form by abruptly and abrasively ceasing to be a musical at the fifty-minute mark. In a film that is an hour and twenty minutes long.

Mulan’s final song is A Girl Worth Fighting For, which is a great song, but is an abysmal finale song, and that is the point. The tone shift is meant to be a gut punch, and it is meant to change the trajectory of the story.

This may seem like an obvious statement for a discussion of a musical, but the sound design of this film is phenomenal. Although the key to this isn’t the key numbers, it’s the quiet things. The ambience at the camp, the fact that the cricket becomes a typewriter for a scene, the musical flourish that is Mulan stealing the armour and how that incorporates her lite motif, and it’s the fact that the sound design of this movie knows when to shut up.

One minute. The dialogue cuts off for one minute exactly, kinda. Not a lot of time, but it feels like an eternity.

The song abruptly shuts down and the audience is witnessed to complete and utter silence as they take in the devastation. Then the wind starts to blow as they progress further into the disaster before a musical sting emphasises the horror of the moment.

Although the order in which that happens is interesting. The song has been playing with a stable loop of keys to ground itself. Then that abruptly cuts off as it is gearing up to a bombastic finish, but the camera is looking at Mulan and the three stooges.

You get a fun moment, then you see the shock on their faces, then you see the devastation. The emotion could be anything, but that fraction of a second crystalises it into dread, rather than loss, and that's the emotion that the rest of the scene builds on.

The colour palette even shifts, matching the smoke and the fire, but also implying the crimson of blood.

“Search for survivors.”

Shang gives an order in an attempt to break the silence. It’s an attempt to break the mood both a diegetic and non-diegetic sense. Shang is trying to find a purpose against the bleakness and trying to create noise again, but then the atmosphere consumes him, and he is gone.

Another musical sting hits as Mulan finds the doll, and the personal tragedy of a child whose name cannot be known becomes excruciating.

Then we see the battlefield, and besides the obvious, there are a few things that should be stated.

One, this instantly stops Chi-Fu and Shang from bickering. There is a slight moment of trust that develops between them, as, for all his faults (and there are many of those), Chi-Fu instantly empathises with Shang’s emotions, and becomes a comforting force.

Two, the battle didn’t happen in the village, if it did, there would have been a sign of soldiers within its walls. The battle took place down the hill, there was no reason for the village to be destroyed. This is the first time we actually see the scope of the villainy of the Hun army.

Up until now, Shan Yu has just been intimidating. He orders the death of a messenger, but that’s just one guy, and this is a war story. That just sets him up as villain with an easy “kick the dog” moment, but it’s not grand scale.

Here, it becomes that. This is a display of power, in that the Hun army destroyed the imperial army, but its also a display of abject cruelty, and its a statement of personality.

Shan Yu isn't Disney's most compelling villain. He doesn't get much character to work with beyond "angry man with a dope sword". What he does get, however, is a quiet sense of humour, and this scene right here.

Once again, the battle didn’t take place here, Shan Yu made a choice to destroy a village and, presumably, kill some villagers while he was at it.

To misquote the true expert of evil.

“The difference between a villain and a supervillain is presentation.”

I had trouble posting this as a single thing, so here is a link to part 2: (Link)

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allinmycorner · 7 months

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Dancing With the Stars celebrated Disney's 100th anniversary with a night dedicated to the music from the company's first century. We opened with a performance of "Bare Necessities" that accompanied the pros all riding in Hyundai IONIQ 5 SUVs which come with a Disney100 edition. We even got a glimpse of Val and Jenna's son Roman and he is adorable. Of course Mickey and Minnie dropped by to help our stars celebrate and the audience was even given special light up Mickey ears to wear in the ballroom as well.

On a somber note, the show paid tribute to former contestant Suzanne Somers who died over the weekend. They showed a picture of her before the show and Alfonso gave a little speech toward the end that was accompanied by a picture of her and partner Tony. It was a sweet moment.

Alfonso also had another sweet moment at the very end of the show when he wished former partner Witney Carson a happy birthday.

So who had a happy ending and who had their Disney Dreams crushed? Let's check it out!

Adrian and Britt: I'm not very surprised that Adrian got eliminated this week. His Viennese waltz to Dumbo's "Baby Mine" was nice but it didn't really standout. I always make it a point to really watch every dance and not let myself get distracted but even when this one ended, I knew I wasn't going to remember it. And I didn't. The most memorable thing was that he was accompanied by pianist Chloe Flowers on a special edition piano made by Steinway to commemorate Disney's 100th anniversary. So that didn't bode well for him and his elimination proved it.

Xochitl and Val: Xochitl landed at the top of leaderboard by herself this week with her paso doble to "Un Poco Loco" from the movie Coco. It was an unusual choice for a paso doble, which was acknowledged by the judges. The song is faster than the traditional paso and is more of a silly song while the paso is a rather serious dance. But Xochitl handled it like a pro and showed why she is a serious contender for the Len Goodman mirrorball trophy. I think this will be a routine that goes down in DWTS history.

Ariana and Pasha: Fun fact - Ariana used to work at Disney World after graduating college. It sounds like she may have been a princess based on Julianne's comments during Ariana's skybox interview. I can see it. Anyway, Ariana channeled Elsa for a contemporary routine to "Into the Unknown" from Frozen 2. And while it was a beautiful routine, it felt a little too safe for me. I wish Pasha had given Ariana some more complex moves and really let her act out some of the angst of this song, stuck between wanting nothing to change but knowing that there is more out there. Hopefully we get to see Ariana do another contemporary so she can really wow us.

Charity and Artem: Charity closed out the show with a waltz to "Part of Your World," paying tribute to this summer's remake of The Little Mermaid. She talked about how it felt to see a Disney princess who looked like herself and how she hopes to inspire girls who look like her too. And she continues to be technically proficient but she's still not topping the leaderboard. I still think her lack of emotional connection to the songs is what is holding her back. "Part of Your World" is an "I Want" song but Charity danced it with the biggest smile on her face the entire time. I think if she had played it more wistfully, it would've really elevated her routine and she could've placed higher.

Jason and Daniella: I loved Jason's foxtrot to "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. I'm not sure why it didn't get scored higher. I guess the judges might now expect more from him. Or I wonder if they saw something through the fog on the dance floor that we couldn't at home. But I think if he continues the way he's going, he's a lock for the finals - barring any surprise eliminations.

Lele and Brandon: I'm not sure why I didn't like this routine as much as I've liked Lele's other routines. She seemed to handle the rumba to "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King well enough. But it lacked something. Maybe it was a spark? Maybe Brandon played it too sweet that it lost the sultry? I don't know but it was something.

Harry and Rylee: There was some buzz that Rylee had stolen big sister Lindsay's choreography because Lindsay danced the quickstep to Toy Story's "You Got a Friend in Me" with partner Sean Spicer. So I watched Harry's and Sean's routines back-to-back and while there is one sequence that looks lifted from Lindsay's routine, they are still different enough to consider it an homage than outright copying. Though maybe the producers should've given them a different song and/or dance style. Either way, Harry did handle the quickstep well enough and I would say he was better than Sean - Rylee added some more complicated moves that he pulled off well. Harry may end up being this season's dark horse - we're just going to have to see.

Mira and Gleb: Mira danced a waltz to "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella and it was gorgeous. She finally let herself be lost in the dance and the music, which I think really helped her. Again, like most creatives, she is likely her own worst enemy. Once she stops standing in her own way, she'll really start to soar.

Mauricio and Emma: Mauricio opened Disney night with a paso doble to the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence from Fantasia. With Emma dressed as a broom, they danced across the floor with ease. The paso doble isn't an easy dance but he did well with it. Was it at the same level as Xochitl's? Of course not. But it held a charm all its own. And it's clear that Mauricio has fan support so I think he'll have a few more chances to continue to improve.

Alyson and Sasha: Alyson danced a jazz routine to "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast, though she was honoring the Broadway version and the start of Disney on Broadway. It was a nice routine but I feel it could've popped more. The judges gave her props for dancing with her hair done up to mimic Lumiere's top candle but I wonder if her performance would've been better if she didn't have to worry about it.

Barry and Peta: Barry talked about working with Bob Freakin' Fosse in the Broadway production of Pippin, so Peta hoped it would give him a leg up in their jazz routine to "He's a Tramp" from Lady and the Tramp. And it seemed to be going well until a trick went wrong. At first, I couldn't tell who messed up - Barry or Peta - in their lift but it seems it was Barry. That through them off but he seemed to catch up, though a little too late. But he's still fun to watch and hopefully the audience keeps him around a little longer despite sending him to the bottom three this time.

So that was Disney Night! Break out the tissues because the next show is Most Memorable Year night, which always promises to be a tearjerker. The show will also have a special tribute to Len Goodman as the current pros will be joined by past pros to perform a Viennese waltz to "Moon River" in his honor. For a moment, I worried that by "past pross" they just meant Julianne and Derek but no, they mean several past pros! Kym, Tony, Anna, Edyta, Karina, Maks, Louis and Mark will be joining in this tribute. So it will be nice to see them again and it see their tribute to Len.

See you all then!

#dancing with the stars #abc #season 32 #adrian peterson #britt stewart

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raeynbowboi · 2 years

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Animation Analysis: Centaurworld

When I first saw the trailers, I initially wrote off Centaurworld as a mindless, stupid kid’s show. You know the sort. The kind that talks down to its audience and treats them like they’re braindead morons. Like Teen Titans Go. The entertainment equivalent of dangling keys in front of your baby to distract them. But I’m surprised to find I enjoyed... aspects of it. Wammawink and Horse had a great foil dynamic and their duets were often really compelling character explorations. I also found myself laughing at Glendale and her kleptomania bit a lot. Glendale was easily the funniest character by a wide margin, followed by Wammawink and Horse. The final villain of the Nowhere King and his backstory was also quite engaging. He felt like a tragic mix of Beast and the Little Mermaid, loving his Beauty from afar, and changing to be with her. I found all of these elements to work and be compelling. The music was also really good, having an almost disney-level quality in some of them. The show was also clearly written as a musical, as like a normal musical, there would often be reprised versions, or repetition of instrumentals from one song in another, which makes it less of a show with songs, and more of an animated musical where the music strings together quite nicely. However, there were other aspects that bogged the show down as a whole. I won’t knock the tone, since that’s going to be more subjective, but if you asked me what the actual theme of the story was, the only one I can really point to is Horse changing and having to learn to love and accept who she’s become, and also kinda sorta reads like an allegory for being trans or coming out as gay? You’re noticeably different, but hope not to lose the people you knew before you made that switch. Other than that, the only other theme I really came away with was maybe the juxtaposition of cutesy silly cartoons next to dramatic serious ones, trying to prove that even a silly cutesy cartoon can get dark and complex. But this is sort of where the show falls flat a bit to me, at least. It may have these ideas or themes like togetherness or acceptance, but doesn’t really explore these ideas thoroughly enough to make it clear that’s the moral we’re supposed to take away from the story. Yes, connections and family is certainly important, but why they’re important is never explored. Not in any way that doesn’t come off as comedic. The scene where Durpleton meets Chet certainly does a decent job at demonstrating found family, but it’s immediately undercut by the comedy of Wammawink arriving on a helicopter and Zulius appearing out of nowhere. That’s my other issue with the show. The characters are rather static. Aside from Horse and maybe Wammawink, nobody really changes by the end of the story. Durpleton has an arc about becoming a father, but it comes off more like Stabby developed Stockholm Syndrome, especially because his sudden change into a weird chibi baby form is never explained. Glendale is still a Klepto, Wammawink is still an overbearing hyperprotective guardian, Zulius is completely disregarded as a joke because we never see his backstory and he just... makes up with Sublime effortlessly, to the point where it basically becomes a non-issue. The only character I felt shows some growth is Ched, expect it’s not so much that he grows, as much as we learn his origins. And once we learn his origins, he keeps acting like an obnoxious tool, which fails to redeem his shitty personality. He’s not a Tsundere, he’s just an obnoxious bully who negs Horse at every opportunity. Some of the ending is also slightly contrived. The purple-haired lady (I think she has a name but I swear they NEVER say it in the show, they just call her ‘my lady’ or ‘princess’.) just knows to stab her husband, even though we’re not really sure how much she knows about who he is. We sure did have time for a dumb fandom/con plotline but not time to flesh out and actually explore her relationship with the general. Because we literally never see any part of their actual marriage. If you’re just looking at the flashbacks in sequential order, we see her marry the general, her lead the elk out of the dungeon through the sewers, and then the three of them together in the rift. That is literally all we see of that phase of her life. There is no indication of how she felt, or how she came to learn what was going on. We don’t get to see that change of mind, that ‘aha’ moment, which causes the Last Lullaby to feel weak. It lacks the weight it should have because we barely know who she is as a character. She’s in 4 episodes, and most of her screen time she just kind of... exists. We don’t really know how she feels or what she wants. And that’s sort of where Centaurworld falls flat. It spends so much time being whacky and colorful it forgets to really develop its characters. Which is why I have to sadly put Zulius into the box of bad queer representation. He’s just a joke character. He’s comedic relief. He’s just a bad gay stereotype with no deeper nuance or deeper character. He’s a surface-level cliché, and that’s so disappointing for a show that seems to want to present itself as progressive and open-minded. But being a gay stereotype is 99.9% of his character. Season 2 is also rather aimless until the finale movie. There’s this subplot of Horse needing a win, and to feel like her decision to stay was the right choice, but the main plot surrounding this subplot are kind of boring. The Horse thing is great and makes terrific sense for her character, but the episodes that facilitate this arc are rather uninteresting. Glendale helps a bunch of arctic centaurs with their anxiety, but I can’t really say this feels like any sort of conclusion to an arc. There was never this fixation on Glendale being hyper fragile to the point that she broke under any kind of pressure and would never be the type to lead or inspire others. She had running gags of anxiety and nervous break downs, but they don’t feel resolved by this episode. It just sort of comes off as a weird joke that Glendale has actually managed to turn a bad situation around to her benefit. At the end of the day, Centaurworld was... interesting. I’d be willing to give it a B- if only because there are plenty of shows more boring, soulless, and lacking any form of identity than this one. But character arcs stall out, and some side characters who feel like they should be explored end up sidelined. I would have bumped the show up to a B if it had committed to the major character death. But no, stupid kid show logic dictates we must treat a death scene with the utmost seriousness and then immediately undercut it by going “just kidding”. It’s to the point now when a character acts like they’re dying, I’m just looking at my watch wondering how long they’re going to milk this before playing an Uno Reverse on the whole thing. Centaurworld is honestly a mixed bag. It has good music and the main character is interesting, as well as the villain. But it’s also kinda rushed, and filled with side characters who are either stagnant or underdeveloped, leaving it as a decent and memorable show, but held back by lack of depth and focus on further details. I’m satisfied with giving it a B-. It’s above average. But, I doubt I’ll rewatch it more than once or twice in the future. Kinda like She-Ra. It was fine, but I’m probably not going to go out of my way to rewatch it again and again now that I know how it ends. Would I recommend it to others? Maybe, but they’d have to be people that I know would appreciate the show’s tone and aesthetic.

#centaurworld #spoilers #spoiler tag #season 2 #centaurworld season 2 #horse #wammawink #glendale #zulius #ched #durpleton

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vidalinav · 3 years

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I don’t know who needs to hear this, but...

y’all need to accept the fact that ALL of these characters are and can be horrible people. This is not anti post, this is a let characters be morally grey post. They’re flawed, accept that already.

I’m tired of seeing posts like but--but Nesta-- But Nesta what? We already know what her flaws are. They’ve been highlighted from day one. They’ve been acknowledged by every character including herself. They have never once been excused, nor empathized with though she needed that severely. She has made friends and no friends by being the way she is. She has made friends who understand her, and has a family who doesn’t understand her. Friends who take into account that she has been through horrible things, and a family who has not. A family who in her own POV has left her behind, because they did. I said this about Feyre, I’ll say this about Nesta, if in a POV someone says someone wronged them THEY DID. But she is not easy, and sometimes not nice. We know this, we accept this. I stan her for this because emotion often is not beautiful, but stop pointing out her flaws like we don’t know. We all know! We also know that she was aggressive for a reason, she was hateful for a reason, she was in a very low place, and she deserved healing and better, unjudgmental treatment by other people which she didn’t get. She helped in a war, she tried to get Feyre back, she talked to the High lord, advocated for the humans, showed she cared for Cassian in ACOWAR, etc, too. We know her perspective is biased and she’s never once been excused for her mistakes, but other character’s are not treated like Nesta is (like Lucien is, Like Eris is, Like Jurian is).

So, let me go through the ways that all of these characters are imperfect and that you just have to accept as a reader. Okay? Okay.

Elain is not going to be you’re pretty little doll that has done nothing wrong, because she has and she should. Elain was not a good character in ACOTAR, just as much as Nesta was not a good character. Elain does sometimes seem a bit oblivious to what is going on around her. Elain may be very nice and pleasant but that is and will not be all she is. She is allowed to make mistakes and she should be held accountable if she does. When she doesn’t do too much (because she doesn’t) or when she is not very helpful (whether by plot or by Feyre/Nesta’s POV-whether that is noted or not), we can be like okay, she’s in a bad way, because she was, she’s healing herself. But don’t be a hypocrite and please don’t make her victim of other people. Her narrative right now is that “Nesta coddles her,” but we already know that blame game. We’ve seen it in Nesta’s own POV. No one is in charge of anyone’s actions but themselves. If she wants to help, she can. Stop saying the IC won’t let her or Nesta won’t let her, if Elain wanted to help she can. She will find a way... or at least put her foot down, which we’ve already seen she can do. If Elain wanted to reject the bond right then with Lucien, she could, but she doesn’t. And, If Nesta says she wasn’t there and she chose Feyre (no matter how skewed that perspective is), and Elain shows in Nesta’s POV that she didn’t show empathy either to Nesta or even love in a way that Nesta could see, or try to understand where she was coming from vocally in the scenes she was featured in regardless of whether she was capable or not of helping Nesta (because she didn’t (i.e scene in library, the treatment spiel, and the “did feyre pay you?”, and also never being around while Nesta was there, but also ACOSF when she took a drink like she couldn’t handle the situation, and then laughed like nothing at all was wrong)) then she wasn’t there for her. She’s a complex character just as everyone else. Let her be a complex character! Flaws are not bad, please stop trying to negate flaws like they shouldn’t exist. She’s great and she stabbed the King of Hybern to protect her sisters, she let the fae into her home, and she chooses to be kind in a world that’s not very kind to people like her, and she’s got a whole lot of story to tell, but she’s a normal character not a disney princess. She’s not close to anyone. Why? That’s not anyone else’s predicament except her own. Neither is her life nor her actions. Okay?

Mor can be loved because she was very supportive to Feyre in Feyre’s POV, understood because she is the first LGBT character in this book and she lives in a world it seems where she has to hide who she is, and we as readers understand that she has been through also horrible things. However, this does not negate the fact that she is a horrible person sometimes, to both her friends and people outside of their little group. She was not good to Nesta on SEVERAL occasions, even when Nesta was not bad to Mor. This weird love-triangle kept happening because she didn’t want to just admit that she didn’t like Azriel romantically, whatever the reason was. She’s a complex character. Hate her/Like her, but acknowledge that no matter what you choose, she has fucking flaws.

I see posts sometimes about how people don’t understand where this Rhysand came from, like “he’s so awful in ACOSF, SJM did this to make Nesta look better.” What? He’s been a dick always. He’s just not a dick to Feyre but that could be argued as well really. We as readers can acknowledge though that he like all the rest have gone through horrible things, and though the horrible things he has done are not excused (i.e. murdering children, killing people, his court still having so many problems and their solution being lets go to Vallahan, putting up an evil front to just keep people in line, not instilling any action to help those who need it or not treating people like subject who depend on him as a ruler regardless of whether he likes them or not (i.e the Hewn City/Illyria)) we acknowledge that he can be understood at the same time that he is also a hypocrite. Generally he’s not bad on an individual basis. but he’s not “good!” He’s morally grey. As they all are, but because he’s a ruler, he should be 10x more responsible for all of these problems and for all of his flaws.

Azriel is a sweetheart and sometimes he’s understanding, and doesn’t seem judgmental. But he’s a psycho! I’m sorry. He’s got a lot of things to work through, I mean. We acknowledge that he has been through HORRIFYING things, but we also should not neglect the fact that he’s a creep and he tortures people on a regular basis. There’s no reason he should have had that insane long infatuation with Mor and now seems to have one with Elain. We understand why he does this, psychologically, but it does not excuse him for making Mor uncomfortable for 500+ years. Take all of him or none of him.

Cassian. I love Cassian, but he does not think before he speaks, he does have his head up the IC’s ass, and he’s does not connect dots very well. He’s sweet and he’s supportive, and I have less of a problem with him than some other characters, but!!!! He’s got flaws and those are not bad. Those do not make him unlovable, but he’s got them and they’re not going away.

Feyre has this same issue. She does what she needs to, she’s loving, she gives people a chance, and yes she was there when people needed her, she has also suffered a good amount, but Feyre’s suffering has been acknowledged by everyone. It has been given voice to, it has been reflected in empathy by every single character even when Feyre herself has not been a great character. She tends to be very one-sided in things, as in her own view is the only one that exists (though that’s everyone of them really as we’ve seen, there’s no nuance there) but she’s also not very emotionally intelligent and she does get into everyone’s business, when she should probably let people do their own thing (this has been her trait forever since ACOMAF I think). But she should also take more of a stance to be a ruler, because unfortunately she has that responsibility, and she should hold Rhys more accountable for the actions he does. It should not be a “let’s have sex and all is well” sort of situation. She’s a very biased perspective, but so are all of them. But she’s not perfect and we should never feel that she is. She is not the light of heaven that has glorified Prythrian, she is just an average human-to-fae girl trying to live. She deserves love, yes, but not more than anyone else and loving her should not mean hating other people, which this fandom and the book have a hard time realizing.

Amren... sigh... I don’t like her too much but for the thread I’ll continue. Amren is probably the only reason anything gets done, realistically, because at least she’s always thinking about the logistics of things. She’s horribly rude, and doesn’t seem to care about anyone’s opinion, but she’s 15000 years old or what not. Emotions probably have to be beneath her at that point, but that doesn’t mean I have to love her, and that doesn’t mean she’s an unflawed characters. She’s very flawed and I think that’s acknowledged but I don’t think any character has really held her accountable for being who she is, they brush it off and are like “Amren’s Amren.” But she’s morally grey for sure, getting to be a darker shade if you ask me (i.e Tyrant Amren). But I acknowledge that even though I hate her, she’s not ALWAYS horrible.

I don’t know what it is, maybe it is the narratives insistence that the IC are good that makes everyone go off their rocker, but my god, I think I would love all of these character’s more if there wasn’t this insistence that they’re the “good guys” and just have them make mistakes, have them eat their mistakes equally, and have them move on, learn to do better, maybe fuck up again. That’s life lol that’s interesting, morally grey characters. But I write this post not to say they’re all horrible, but to say that it is unnecessary to point out the flaws of other characters in defense of another one. They’re all horrible. Acknowledge it, breathe it in, love them or hate them anyway, but know (whispers for dramatic effect) they’re all horrible. And that’s okay, because that is not all they are.

Have a good day.

#nesta archeron #cassian #feyre acheron #elain archeron #rhysand #mor #azriel #amren #acosf #acotar #acofas #acomaf #acowar

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rachelbethhines · 3 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne

So now we get to what is, in my opinion, the best episode in season three. However, it’s still season three, so that’s damning with faint praise.

Summary: Rapunzel tasks the kingdom with refurbishing the throne room. While breaking down a wall, they find a map to the Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne and Rapunzel decides to set up a race to the location. The teams, which consist of twos, are only allowed to look at the map briefly before the start of the race. However, Rapunzel's partner, Feldspar, brings a copy of the map with him and he warns her that the treasure is cursed.

Why Are You Just Getting to This Now?

It’s literally been months since you defeated the Saporians. Edmund had to have time to travel all this way to Corona and you’ve rebuilt an entire village since then. We’re talking at bare minimum three months or more.

Who just leaves a gapping hole inside their home for three months? Where did you conduct the government’s important business during that time? Is there any other structural damage to the castle or the town outside from previous battles that you’ve just left unattended? I understand that rebuilding Old Corona is important but those villagers have been evacuated and living elsewhere for a year and a half now since Queen for a Day. It wasn’t a priority, but this is.

Also this episode has to come after The Return of the King and Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf because Red, Angry, and Hamuel exist. It can’t just be slotted in somewhere else in order for it to make more sense. The writers genuinely planned for Rapunzel to be this disorganized and didn’t think to give a logical reason as to why.

Also Why Are You Conscripting Regular Citizens Instead of Hiring Professional Contractors?

Unlike Old Corona, which is a full on community that would require multiple building projects going on simultaneously and therefore could use volunteers, this is a single government building. It’s Rapunzel’s job as leader to make sure that that building is kept maintained and up to code. It’s her responsibility not the regular average citizen’s who has their own jobs to do and zero experience with construction.

Rapunzel is literally forcing these people to be slave labor for her under the pretense of ‘community’. She’s taking their time away from their own busy lives, forcing them to work a dangerous job, and not compensating them for that time, effort, and risk. And no, they’re not just volunteers at this point; because as acting queen, no one can safely say no to her nor can they just leave even when they’re clearly annoyed and fed up at having to do the work.

Lastly they’re untrained. They lack the skills and tools to this job. You need an architect, you need a safety inspector, you need actual carpenters and masonries ... maybe even an interior decorator... The point is you need trained professionals and part of being an administrator is using government funding to hire these people in order to make sure the work gets done safely and efficiently and create jobs and keep money circulating through the economy.

Rapunzel may not mean any harm. She might just be oblivious and untrained herself. But this is terrible leadership and the show never points that out. It never has her learn how to be a better a ruler so by the end of the series you don't feel she’s earned that title of Queen and you fear for the kingdom’s continued existence.

So Why Is This Here?

Why would there be a Saporian map to a king of Corona’s tomb hidden in the wall? What’s the story behind this?

Yes we know his wife was Saporian, but that doesn’t explain anything. Why would she need a map on the wall to her own husband’s resting place; assuming he didn’t out live her himself. Why would said map be carved into the wall of Corona’s castle and not written on a scroll? Why is it in Saporian when they don't speak that language in Corona?

Like I could come up with explanations and create this whole backstory for Herz Der Sonne and the first Saporian/Coronian War, but at this point I’d just be doing the work of the writers for them. They’re the ones who introduced this lore and had it inform plot points and character motivation; and then failed to explain any of it to the audience and adequately have it all connect back together in a way that makes sense.

The Moment When You Realize This Whole Episode Exists Because Zachary Levi Enjoys Doing an Ed Wynn Impersonation

Ok time to explain some behind the scenes Info.

This is Ed Wynn.

As you can tell from the gif above, he’s famous for voicing the Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. He’s also done a whole bunch of other stuff and was well known even before working with Disney, but the Mad Hatter is his most well remembered role today.

Many actors, particularly voice actors, like to do impressions of him because he has such a distinctive voice. Including Eugene’s VA, Zachery Levi.

Now I don’t know if the character of Feldspar was created specifically because the creators were inspired by Zachery Levi’s impression, or if they had this character already planned out and just casted him in the role since he could do it and it’d save them money. Either scenario is plausible and not unheard of in animation. But the long and short of it is, as a shoemaker, Feldspar is intended to be a parody of the Mad Hatter. That is why the character exists.

Now as I said, this isn’t unusual for animated tv shows. Quite often you get main cast members to voice secondary and/or one off characters because it’s convenient, efficient, and doable when working with audio recordings. Also quite often voice actors will do impressions of other famous people to flesh out these background characters. It’s also not out of left field for these secondary characters to get an episode of focus if they’ve been around for awhile and keep popping up in the story.

What is unusual, however, is to focus on said character in the final season when there are a bunch of other more important characters with unresolved arcs that need the screen time more. It’s an incredibly odd decision to highlight Feldspar here when we still got Varian readjusting back into society, Red and Angry settling into their new home, and Edmund running around off screen. And while some of these character feature in the episode, they’re just there for the jokes not for any development.

What’s a “Sap Pond” and How Does That Even Work?

Ok its a fantasy world, I get it. But the franchise does try to have a distinction between the magical and the mundane. Or at least pretends to try and have a distinction. There’s to my knowledge no such thing as a ‘sap pond’, and if such a thing does exist I doubt it’s an actual deep pit full of tree sap as shown here.

If you want characters to still be surprised by out of the ordinary occurrences and have the supernatural world be separate from the regular world; then you need to have the mundane world grounded in our known reality. Nature needs to function as real world nature would. If something exists in your world that doesn't in ours, then you need to either explain it or have the characters responded appropriately to it.

But You’re a Prince Now?

Look, I’ll buy that season one Eugene didn’t have unlimited access to the royal treasury as he and Rapunzel were still new to their roles and their relationship. But it’s been over two years since the movie ended.

Since then Eugene and Rapunzel have lived together, shared finances together, and currently are co-acting rulers of the kingdom. He’s also a bonified prince in of itself on top of being practically married to princess/queen.

Yeah I said it. Part of what makes season three so frustrating is that Rapunzel and Eugene are functionally married at this point, they just haven’t gone through the ceremony yet, and there’s no stated reason for why they keep dragging things out.

This is why we get out of place jokes like this that no longer reflect who Eugene is now as a person and feel like they belong back in season one or the even the movie itself.

I can understand if he wanted to join in the competition because it’s fun, but he’s not poor. Neither he nor Rapunzel needs the treasure. I’m not sure even Lance needs it because as Eugene’s best friend/adopted brother he’s piratically nobility at this point as well.

Royalty and the rich are not and never will be underdogs show. Stop trying to make them such.

So Why Feldspar Again?

This is such a half assed plot point.

Remember Rapunzel literally pulled out a book earlier to translate the map. Xavier not only knows the legends about the Saporians, but also keeps a book of magic lying around, and the Saporians are the only human people who have functioning magic in the show as part of their culture. Varian spent a year living and working with the Saporian leader, and knows how to decipher ancient scrolls written in dead languages. And said Saporians, are being currently held in the dungeons of the castle.

But you’re telling me that only a random cobbler can read the warning clearly written on the map?

They give some bullshit reason as to why Feldspar knows Sapoprian but it doesn’t matter. It’s a forced and contrived excuse to get the character involved in a plot he has no business being in. The story fails to justify the use him over the other more prominent characters who have closer ties to this particular subplot.

And We’re Suppose to Believe That Herz Der Sonne Was a Good Guy?

Why would a benevolent king who supposedly brought peace to a warring land have a doomsday curse involving zombies? Why would said king be enshrined a tomb that’s not native to his culture? What even is the treasure and why be buried with it?

There’s clearly more going on here regarding Corona’s past and the treatment of the Saporians as a people in their own right, but the show never does anything with it. Why introduce these complexities and world building if you’re not going to tell a story with them? Why have the Saporian subplot at all in a series already over stuffed with villains if you aren’t going to have them challenge your protagonist and have her grow into a more mature person?

I’m not dunking on the series for being ambitious nor for having flavor text to help flesh out the world, but it so aggravating that there’s no follow through on the show’s set ups and narrative promises. If you’re not going to give the needed focus to something then just don’t put it in. Cause once it’s aired you’re committed to it and the audience is going to hold you to account.

I haven’t seen plot mismanagement this bad since the 80s; back when cartoons had to battle network syndication, episode commissions instead of contracted seasons, and could be canceled at any time without prior notice. Now there’s still plenty of bad practices going on in the industry, especially as the move to streaming messes with things, but Tangled does not have the same excuses as say Johnny Quest, Dungeons and Dragons, or even Gargoyles did.

How Do You Even Know That Would Work, Rapunzel?

No seriously, how does Rapunzel know that putting the treasure chest back on the pedestal will stop the cruse? That hasn’t been established yet by any known source of information. Heck no one knew what the curse actually entailed until it was activated. Except for Xavier who oh so conveniently didn’t say anything until the last moment. If anyone should have the knowledge to on how to end the curse it’s him. But nope we gotta make the Rapunzel the infallible hero who is always right for no logical reason.

I don’t know how to explain this to you show, but perfect is boring. No one wants a flawless protagonist who can do it all 24/7 without any help whatsoever. And it becomes down right annoying to watch a hero who is clearly flawed still put upon a narrative pedestal as if they weren’t.

So Why is Varian Suddenly Useless In This Fight?

This entire climax is about showcasing the ‘power of teamwork’ by having the characters use their various skills sets and work together to defeat the enemy.

Except for Varian.

He’s treated at best as a spectator to the unfolding events and at worst as a damsel in distress.

Varian. You know the guy who is the series most competent and threating antagonist. Who brought an entire kingdom to it’s knees, twice. The only other character besides Rapunzel herself who could and does hold his own against other major antagonists, including super powered ones.

If this was just a one off incident, I’d just shrug it away as him being a glass cannon; insanely overpowered when well prepared but easily out of his depth when not. But that’s not what’s happening here.

Season three constantly nerfs Varian’s abilities, same as they did back in The Alchemist Returns, and there’s three reasons for this.

The first is to try and stop him from overshadowing Rapunzel and Cassandra. The writers don’t want to give him any more story focus for fear of him being more popular the the two girls. Which is a ridiculous and petty reason to write a character OOC but there you go.

The second is the on going issue of making Rapunzel needlessly the center of any and all solutions to every problem regardless of her level of involvement in the initial conflict. Yes, it’s her show, but she’s still not the whole world. Other people exist outside of her and it’s not fair to anybody when the writers ignore that simple fact.

Last is the writers sacrificing established character for a joke. And as already pointed out, even in this very review, Varian’s not the only character to fall victim to this. It’s just bad writing. Yeah the joke might be funny in the moment but you run the risk of jarring you’re audience’s immersion. In a series like Tangled where you’re constantly asking the audience to suspend their disbelief, humor needs to be firmly rooted in the characters natural behaviors and must evolve to match any character development.

Why not just have Varian throw a chimball or two, run out cause he wasn’t planning on fighting anybody that day, and then have the other characters rescue him? It’s not that hard to work in a joke while still being respectful of the characters.

So What Does Anybody Learn From This Episode?

Yeah the other characters learn some vague lesson on teamwork and getting along or something, but they’re not the focus of the episode. What do Rapunzel and Feldspar learn?

Unlike some people I don’t mind Feldspar’s existence. When’s he’s kept as a background character he works. In fact he’s one of the few townspeople who do work as intended, because he’s representative of the everyday citizen who’s often on the outside looking in on these fantastical events and therefore gives insight into what’s going on and the populous’ opinions on things without being a major player in anything.

That's fine, needed even, and I don’t mind him getting a single focus episode to gain a greater insight into how this world works or even flesh out his character more, but that’s not what we got. Feldspar doesn’t grow as a character because of this episode. I, as the viewer watching, learn nothing about him nor his life that I didn’t already know. This resolution with him resolves nothing cause it’s a ending for a conflict that was never established beforehand.

In fact what even was the main conflict of the story? Rapunzel being annoyed by Feldspar? Ok and..? Did she need to learn not to be annoyed by him? Was that a thing that needed to be addressed? Hasn’t Rapunzel already put up with annoying people before now? Was was this deficiency of character actually solved by this one interaction? Has she learned to be more appreciative, attentive, or open minded of others?

If you tell me it’s Rapunzel’s show then I expect Rapunzel to actually learn shit!

I expect the external conflicts to tie back into her interpersonal conflicts. If the external conflict does not do that than there better well be a another character who gets that focus instead without her hogging the limelight.

This Dynamic Adds Nothing

They set up this friendship with Varian and Xavier and it doesn't go anywhere. It never comes back into play and we never see them interacting on screen together again. It also undermines a future plot point that’s coming up later.

More over it doesn’t further either of their characters.

Xavier is still an extraneous exposition fairy. Turning his flat characterization into a one note joke does not erase that fact. Giving him a kid to tell stories to doesn’t explain his place in the narrative or give him purpose to the story. We still don’t know why he has these connections to magic nor how he knows all the this lore, and he doesn’t push the plot forward.

Meanwhile Varian maybe lonely but that doesn’t mean he needs yet another mentor figure in his life. We already have his father, who we barely see him interact with since coming back, and all his other ‘friends’ are way older then him already as well. Rapunzel’s the closest in age to him and she is constantly condescending to, well everybody, as she pretends to be more mature than she actually is. There’s no one in the story who Varian is on equal footing with, and no Angry and Red don't count as they’re far younger than him.

I don’t know what this series has against teenagers but it showcases some very unhealthy depictions of them; ether by constantly infantilizing them, traumatizing them while subjecting them to parentification, or just flat out ignoring their existence all together.

Teenagers exist and they need to be treated as teenagers. I don’t know how to put it more simply than that. Teens aren’t children. Teens aren’t adults. They’re teens. And when writing for them you need to understand that difference and acknowledge that they have a completely different phycological development and placement within society to anybody else. That’s why the category of adolescence exists separately from childhood and adulthood in the first place.

So to tie things back to the first point. The concept of Xavier and Varian having a friendship is not a problem. But as with so many things on this show, it’s the surrounding context and lack of follow through where the issues arises.

Varian needs a friend his age, who is his equal, more so than a mentor; if indeed Xavier is even intended to serve that function as he doesn’t do any real mentoring. This should have been an opportunity to bring Faith in and establish her better. In fact it’s reasons like this why she should have been a bigger character all along but we’ll get more into that as we get to her only ‘focus’ episode.

Conclusion

It’s fun seeing all the various character interactions and unique team ups. Also the humor does work. The jokes do land even if they do bulldoze through established canon. Plus seeing Rapunzel actually annoyed by shit going on around her is always entertaining as it humanizes her. If watched in isolation from the rest of season three, this is an enjoyable episode. But that’s it’s core problem. I shouldn’t have to find filler to keep me going in the last leg of the show.

This was pretty short comparatively speaking with the rest of the ones I have to write for S3, but longer ones are going to come out more slowly just due to real life and time. As always though you’re support is helpful in keeping going, and if you feel like you can donate to my Ko-fi and leave a tip there.

https://ko-fi.com/rachelbethhines

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #rapunzel #varian #anti-tangled #feldspar

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leaderintitleonly · 3 years

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Thoughts on Frozen?

Anna gets screwed. Promotional and just...yeah. These days, Disney is allergic to giving women complex emotions because otherwise it'd make them seem less perfect and that would anger Twitter. I mean they already lose their shit if a Disney princess cries! /Tom Hanks voice There's no crying in Disney Princessing! Elsa and Anna needed to hash things out, which really strikes me funny when I remember the making of this movie and they had this whole sister meeting. I'm estranged from my half-sister now. We don't talk. I had to accept I needed to let go and stop letting her blame me. There's a time when you stop fighting... It's when you need to fight for yourself. Sad side note, sure, but I needed to really see Anna and Elsa willing to fight for each other and hash out their problems. Show frustration. Show getting mad. Show getting upset. Emotion is healthy! So long as we process it and we learn to listen to each other, that's important. Frozen needed to work harder than that instead of "BIG HUG OKAY LET'S FORGET THIS!" Yeah that cut song probably shouldn't have been cut but Disney can't stop doing the "lol musical" meta either. And this could get longer but then that gets into Elsa's half as well. To be honest... Once Upon a Time, much maligned as it is? It does a pretty decent job expressing Elsa and Anna's post Frozen feelings and I somewhat love how on edge they are. I really believe these are sisters who would die for each other despite their ups and downs and have fought for each other. They have differences but that does not stop them. It's something I know Frozen can (and eventually does) achieve but it struggles to get a footing. Also just Anna really deserves more than to have Do You Wanna Build a Snowman, much as I love that song and whisper "Do you wanna hide a body" to my boyfriend like the sadist I am. I could mention surprise villains but that's been done to death. People have covered why Disney needed to be more firm with Elsa having anxiety if that's what they wanted to do. Generally I'm beating a dead horse here. Any problems I've had, so many other people have had them. Hey Elsa, you know what queens did? Arranged their sisters marriages so don't give me that "marrying in a day" shit. Frozen 2 does address some of my irritations which is great! But... that is not the point of a sequel. A sequel should be building on the story and not fixing the holes. Sure we can clarify some things but I should see some new story and a lot of it! I should have been enjoying Kristoff and Anna getting closer! And I have...no idea what we do with Elsa because those problems needed to be addressed then so we start a new story for her. I've lost how count how many times I watched Frozen. My nieces were enamored with the movie and then we had a little trip to Disney World. Weren't huge fans after that. I tried to watch it without them because it was only fair to do so. ...Did this turn into a pseudo Anna defense post? Oh my god. Oh my god it's a secret Anna defense post. You know I'd argue that Elsa doesn't get a good way to process her feelings, either and I'm equally angry about that. Generally every problem with any new "Disney Princess" movie is "why didn't you let the heroine have feelings and get to have healthy choices" and Elsa gets to share in that with Anna so... it's a defense post for her as well. It took me all day to write this. I hope I did right by you, anon. So many revisions. <3

#heigh ho mun #long post #some of my criticisms also come from kids asking me questions #cause i used to work in retail in children's clothing #kids love asking me questions cause i would wear disney pins or fun stuff so i was just a really big kid to them #and a lot of questions stuck with me #frozen is the one that had the most questions with wtf #btw i want to formally apologize to the duke of weselton i have called you weaseltown so many times to get children to giggle

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disillusionedmonster · 4 years

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I am pretty sure that most girls go through the phase where they want to distance themselves from being a girl. I went through this in year 5 to 7. I hated pink because it was too girly. I wanted male friends and to play with the boys because I thought they were better than girls. I hated bands and artists that were primary listened to by girls. I stopped liking horses and liked to talk about defacing Barbie dolls. I no longer liked disney princesses and wanted to have nothing to do with dresses. I understood that being a "tomboy" was somehow better than being a girl.

Then in year 7-8 I had a change in perspective that lasted for almost until the end of my schooling career. God I so desperately wanted to be pretty. I wanted to be thin so so badly. When I realised I couldn't be I started to choose clothes I knew would "hide" my weight, my belly, my thighs. I hated my face because it was round and not pretty. All I saw were my imperfections. Once in year 10 I found a dress and I loved it. I thought it was really pretty and I liked how I looked in it. Or so I thought. I realised after looking in the mirror my belly wasn't flat. I still went to the social wearing that dress but I hated myself the whole night. I didn't start shaving until I was in year 10 (I don't any more) because I didn't realise it was something I "had" to do until someone mentioned it. I used to wear my hair in a pony tail, but then in a school photo I realised it made me look like a boy and so I stated wearing a side pony to combat, and make up for it. My daydreams would always start with me being thin and pretty. I didn't even want to be appealing to boys, I just wanted to be pretty.

I was semi feminist at this point but when I hit uni it was better. I wanted equality but that was as far as I thought. Now I have finally made some peace with myself. I wear what I want, even though I have days where I put something on and look in the mirror and thing "Not today" or I catch my reflection while walking and hate what I see.

I am so glad that the trans movement was not a thing when I was a kid. I have no clue where I would have ended up. But I do know this: girls are trapped by misogyny and patriarchy and it has such a harmful effect and the trans movement provides an escape for girls, women and even men. It's a problem as all it does is sweeps mysogeny and the harm of stereotypes under the rug. I grew out of the dysphoria I felt and most kids do (it's in the DSM). Kids will no longer have the chance to grow out of it, they will see the trans movement and be like ah that's me. I think I would have if I was a kid again now. Kids and adolescents are able to transition. They can access pubity blockers and binders and other things. They are kids. They are not mature enough yet to understand the social complexities of gender stereotypes and patriarchy. I know I didn't. I recognised that girls were not as good as boys but I didn't know why. I am worried about the generation of kids who will grow up surrounded by this; being told by the media, professionals and those close to them they were born wrong and they need invasive procedures to fix the defect. What happened to the rhetoric when we were fighting so hard for acceptance and against plastic surgery? You don't have to change anything about yourself, not your appearance or likes. You can be you and exist as you are. Where did it go?

Why is it so hard to recognise that dysphoria is a symptom of patriarchy and misogyny in society? Why is the immediate solution to make people conform into the boxes they "should" be in? Why can we not exist as simply people who were born the way we were ment to be? Instead of fighting and tearing down the bullshit society and the media is vomiting, it is being affirmed and people are being sorted back into thier boxes. Capatalism is deeply tied up with the trans movement, cooperate scum profit from people's vulnerability and as such they want it to continue. I feel like I have been running from gender my whole life and when it felt like we were finally getting somewhere, it all came back and crashed down around us. I don't want these categories and definitions to be reinforced. I think it will result in a rise in more confusion. There is no such things qualities which are inherently male or female. We are just people who are complex and will never fit only one definition.

I might be rambling at this point, but I just want kids to be able to exist as kids. I want people to be who they are. Maybe that's idealistic and naive of me.

#radical feminism #radfem #gender critical #feminism #rad fem #personal #radical feminists please interact

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crowdvscritic · 3 years

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round up // JULY 21

‘Tis the season to beat the heat at the always-cold theatres and next to fans set at turbo speed. While my movie watching slowed a bit with the launch of the Summer Olympics on July 23rd, I’ve still got plenty of popcorn-ready and artsy recommendations for you. A few themes in the new-to-me pop culture I’m recommending this month:

Casts oozing with embarrassing levels of talent (sometimes overqualified for the movies they’re in)

Pop culture that is responding or reinterpreting past pop culture

Stories that get weEeEeird

Keep on-a-scrollin’ to see which is which!

July Crowd-Pleasers

1. Double Feature – ‘90s Rom-Coms feat. Lots of Lies: Mystery Date (1991) + The Pallbearer (1996)

In Mystery Date (Crowd: 7.5/10 // Critic: 6/10), Ethan Hawke and Teri Polo get set up on a blind date that gets so bizarre and crime-y I’m not sure how this didn’t come out in the ‘80s. In The Pallbearer (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), David Schwimmer and Gwyneth Paltrow try to combine The Graduate with Four Weddings and a Funeral in a story about lost twentysomethings. If you don’t like rom-coms in which circumstances depend on lots of lies and misunderstandings, these won’t be your jam, but if you’re like me and don’t mind these somewhat-cliché devices, you’ll be hooked by likeable casts and plenty of rom and com.

2. The Tomorrow War (2021)

I thought of no fewer movies than this list while watching: Alien, Aliens, Angel Has Fallen, Cloverfield, Interstellar, Kong: Skull Island, Prometheus, A Quiet Place: Part II, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, The Silence of the Lambs, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and World War Z. And you know what? I like all those movies! (Okay, maybe I just have a healthy respect/fear of The Silence of the Lambs.) The Tomorrow War may not be original, but it borrows some of the best tropes and beats from the sci-fi and action genres, so much so I wish I could’ve seen Chris Pratt and Co. fight those gross monsters on a big screen. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 6/10

3. Dream a Little Dream (1989)

My July pick for the Dumb Rom-Com I Nevertheless Enjoyed! I CANNOT explain the mechanics of this body switch comedy to you—nor can the back of the DVD case above—but, boy, what an ‘80s MOOD. I did not know I needed to see a choreographed dance routine starring Jason Robards and Corey Feldman, but I DID. All I know is some movies are made for me and that I’m now a card-carrying member of the Two Coreys fan club. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 6.5/10

4. Black Widow (2021)

The braids! The Pugh! Black Widow worked for me both as an exciting action adventure and as a respite from the Marvel adventures dependent on a long memory of the franchise. (Well, mostly—keep reading for a second MCU rec much more dependent on the gobs of previous releases.) Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

5. Liar Liar (1997)

Guys, Jim Carrey is hilarious. That’s it—that’s the review. Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

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6. Sob Rock by John Mayer (2021)

It’s very possible I’ve already listened to this record more than all other John Mayer records. It doesn’t surpass the capital-G Greatness of Continuum, but it’s a little bit of old school Mayer, a little bit ‘80s soft rock/pop, and I’ve had it on repeat most of the two weeks since it’s been out. Featuring the boppiest bop that ever bopped, at least one lyrical gem in every track, and an ad campaign focused on Walkmans, this record skirts the line between Crowd faves and Critic-worthy musicianship.

7. Double Feature – ‘00s Ben Affleck Political Thrillers: The Sum of All Fears (2002) + State of Play (2009)

In The Sum of All Fears (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), Ben Affleck is Jack Ryan caught up in yet another international incident. In State of Play (Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10), he’s a hotshot Congressman caught up in a scandal. Both are full of plot twists and unexpected turns, and in both, Affleck is accompanied by actors you’re always happy to see, like Jason Bateman, James Cromwell, Russell Crowe, Jeff Daniels, Viola Davis, Morgan Freeman, Philip Baker Hall, David Harbour, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, and Robin Wright—yes, I swear all of those people are in just those two movies.

8. Loki (2021-)

Unlike Black Widow, you can’t go into Loki with no MCU experience. The show finds clever ways to nudge us with reminders (and did better at it than Falcon and the Winter Soldier), but be forewarned that at some point, you’re just going to have to let go and accept wherever this timeline-hopper is taking you. An ever-charismatic cast keeps us grounded (Owen Wilson, Jonathan Majors, and an alligator almost steal the show from Tom Hiddleston in some eps), but while Falcon lasted an episode or two too long, Loki could’ve used a few more to flesh out its complicated plot and develop its characters. Thankfully, the jokes matter almost as much as the sci-fi, so you can still have fun even if you have no idea what’s going on.

9. Double Feature – Bruce Willis: Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) + The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

Before Bruce Willis began starring in many random direct-to-DVD movies I only ever hear about in my Redbox emails, he was a Movie Star smirking his way up the box office charts. In the third Die Hard (Crowd: 10/10 // Critic: 7.5/10), he teams up with Samuel L. Jackson to decipher the riddles of a terrorist madman (Jeremy Irons), and it’s a thrill ride. In The Whole Nine Yards (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 8/10), he’s hitman that screws up dentist Matthew Perry’s boring life in Canada, and—aside from one frustrating scene of let’s-objectify-women-style nudity—it’s hilarious.

10. This Is the End (2013)

On paper, this is not a movie for me. An irreverent stoner comedy about a bunch of bros partying it up before the end of the world? None of things are for Taylors. But with a little help of a TV edit to pare down the raunchy and crude bits, I laughed my way through and spent the next several days thinking through its exploration of what makes a good person. While little of the plot is accurate to Christian Gospel and theology, some of its big ideas are consistent enough with the themes of the book of Revelation I found myself thinking about it again in church this morning. (Would love to know if Seth Rogen ever expected that.) Plus, I love a good self-aware celebrity spoof—can’t tell you how many times I’ve just laughed remembering the line, “It’s me, Jonah Hill, from Moneyball”—and an homage to horror classics. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 7/10

July Critic Picks

1. Summer of Soul (…or, When the Television Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

Even director Questlove didn’t know about the Harlem Cultural Festival, but now he’s compiled the footage so we can all enjoy one of the coolest music fest lineups ever, including The 5th Dimension, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, and Stevie Wonder, who made my friend’s baby dance more than once in the womb. See it on the big screen for top-notch audio. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

2. Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Robin Williams takes on the bureaucracy, disillusionment, and malaise of the Vietnam War with comedy. Williams was a one-of-a-kind talent, and here it’s on display at a level on par with Aladdin. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

3. Against the Rules Season 2 (2020-21)

Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, adapted into a film starring Jonah Hill), is interested in how we talk about fairness. This season he looks at how coaches impact fairness in areas like college admissions, credit cards, and youth sports.

4. Bugsy Malone (1976)

A gangster musical starring only children? It’s a little like someone just picked ideas out of a hat, but somehow it works. You can hear why in the Bugsy Malone episode Kyla and I released this month on SO IT’S A SHOW?, plus how this weird artifact of a film connects with Gilmore Girls.

5. The Queen (2006)

Before The Crown, Peter Morgan wrote The Queen, focusing on Queen Elizabeth II (Helen Mirren) in the days following the death of Princess Diana. It’s a complex and compassionate drama, both for the Queen and for Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen, who has snuck up on me to become a favorite character actor). Maybe I’ve got a problem, but I’ll never tire of the analysis of this famous family. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 9.5/10

6. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)

This month at ZekeFilm, we took a closer look at Revisionist Westerns we’ve missed. I fell hard for Roy Bean, and I think you will, too, if for no other reason than you might like a story starring Jacqueline Bisset, Ava Gardner, John Huston, Paul Newman, and Anthony Perkins. Oh, and a bear! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 10/10

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7. New Trailer Round Up

Naked Singularity (Aug. 6) – John Boyega in a crime thriller!

Queenpins (Aug. 10) – A crime comedy about extreme coupon-ing!

Dune (Oct. 1) – I’ve been cooler on the anticipation for this film, but this new look has me cautiously intrigued thanks to the Bardem + Bautista + Brolin + Chalamet + Ferguson + Isaac + Momoa + Zendaya of it all.

The Last Duel (Oct. 15) – Affleck! Damon! Driver!

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Nov. 11) - I’m not sure why we need this, but I’m down for the Paul Rudd + Finn Wolfhard combo

King Richard (Nov. 19) - Will Smith as Venus and Serena’s father!

Encanto (Nov. 24) – Disney and Lin-Manuel Miranda making more magic together!

House of Gucci (Nov. 24) - Gaga! Pacino! Driver!

Also in July…

Kyla and I took a look at the classic supernatural soap Dark Shadows and why Sookie might be obsessed with it on Gilmore Girls.

I revisited a so-bad-it’s-good masterpiece that’s a surrealist dream even Fellini couldn’t have cooked up. Yes, for ZekeFilm I wrote about the Vanilla Ice movie, Cool as Ice, which is now a part of my Blu-ray collection.

Photo credits: Against the Rules. All others IMDb.com.

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liathgray · 3 years

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yes im planning another fic even tho ive got like 75 others yes im using your ⭐spreadsheets⭐ no i have no idea wbat im doing but its gonna be a Doozy i already know ive been daydreaming about it for a good couple weeks

like its a royalty au but its also zelda which means im gonna havr to create 50mil new characters bcuz i refuse to half ass this (yes i just read the priory of the orange and am riding on the high off a well thought out diverse lesbian fantasy with multiple v in depth courts and what about it??????)

anyway anyway tips and tricks on creating characters??? thats gonna be the trickiest part of this for me i think???? ive never been particularly good at ocs so this is gonna be tough

qlso hi!!!! howre you!!!! its been q minute!!!!! 💜💜💜💜

- writnon

OMG OMG hello writnon!! It's so good to hear from you!

Honestly the way u know something is gonna be fun to write is if you've been daydreaming about it a bunch cause its like... brain rot for ur own ideas. I dont know anything about Zelda but that sounds SO COOL ok ok so for creating characters. Here are some lil tips

Know how important are they are

This will save you a lot go time and energy because really, you don't have to fully flesh out every character. Its perfectly okay to have characters serve utilitarian purposes (ex: the animal sidekicks in Disney movies exist so the princess characters have someone to talk/ voice their opinions to).

If the character isn't going to be around for long, you can just have them server their purpose and move forward. Not everyone has to be complex and that is alright! A simple character is a good character.

The Key Three

This is something that can really help with making your characters feel distinct from one another: give them three key... things.

Sorry thats king broad. What I mean is you can give key traits, emotions they lean towards, items/ people that are important to them, ticks, habits, hobbies, etc. Pick three distinct somethings for your character and keep it in the back of your mind, or write it on their lil character profile thing.

EX: for Alistair Teller, the key three were-- Cheery, vindictive, and conman. For Percy, the key three were-- planes, curious, and energetic.

It's good to have this sort of guideline when creating characters! its a base, cause once you know what their key things are, you can build more around that. Or, conversely, you can do it the other way and give the key things afterwards so that you have a better grip on how you want to writ them.

D&D

ok. listen. LISTEN. this helps I swear.

Give your OCs stats. Hell, give the canon characters stats! it helps to keep there from being a power imbalance with skills and/ or resources.

Stats are designed to keep characters from being too overpowered, and it applies to long form fiction prose as well. giving everyone at least ONE power move, and ONE thing they utterly suck at is 1) funny 2) makes any team dynamics better 3) adds layers to the characters relationships and 4) makes all of them seem more human by default. because they're already flawed in a simple way.

and simple characters are good! they're memorable!

I'm not saying you actually have to like... make a character sheet, but giving a character stats can spice things up a lot. Say your OC is trying to open a jar of pickles and they have an 8 or something in strength. they cant open the pickles! or if someone is trying to be persuasive and they have high charisma. they can persuade!

I think that this is also funny because if you have something happen and check a stat for a character and then cant do it, then it forces the other character to either work together, or more creatively, or pit them against each other, etc. etc.

Names!

Names don't matter. I know everyone stresses about this, but you ca replace names. I've done it several times. this is the very last thing you need to worry about

backstory

you dont need to write a life story. you only need a few moments. find moments that can shape who they are (things that can relate to their key things are especially good!) and have those waiting. You might not ever need to bring it up in the story, but knowing internally how your OC sees things will SUPER help to write them.

in screenwriting we call these the characters ordinary world. it sets up what is normal and expected for them, specifically. it makes up their worldview and how they interact with other people.

haha funny

use your OCs for really convoluted jokes. this isn't a tip its just really fun to do and no one can stop you.

#I hope this helps u a little!!#and I wish you the best of luck with writing!!!!#you got this babe mwah #writing anon #anon #writing #I need a tag for asks so bam #writing advice

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appleb18 · 4 years

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Cartoons Relationships Are Terrible

Back in the day of cartoons, the romantic subplots were simple and yet very heartwarming to see such as

Katara and Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Phineas and Isabella from Phineas and Ferb

But now, modern cartoons are taking romantic subplots into heavier territories that something that some live-action shows would do. While it does sound interesting that making relationships more realistic and complex but the way that has been written in the previous decade is pretty bad. The writers try to make romance relatable to the audience but fail on doing so such as making likable characters to really cringy and awful people, shoving down our throats of how cute it is and having the romantic subplot more focus than the actual plot.

Adventure Time and Regular Show

So you must be wondering why I put Adventure Time and Regular Show together instead of separate categories. The thing about these two shows is they used to have bad romantic subplots but as the show progresses, they really did it well and I have to say it did better than most cartoons that failed to do which I’ll talk about later.

For Adventure Time, Finn and Flame Princess broke up in “Frost and Fire” due to him deceiving her by having FP fight Ice King/Simon Petrikov for his amusement

After their break, he tries to rekindle his romantic feelings for Princess Bubblegum and thinks age is just a number in “Too Old”. However, it doesn’t end up too well that she has people to watch over and that’s when he realized that he really did donk up with Flame Princess.

Although he apologized to FP in “Earth and Fire” to her it didn’t fully restore their relationship and Finn still had romantic feelings for her and Princess Bubblegum.

Thankfully, Finn matures in later seasons.

Finn realized it’s better for him to be friends with Princess Bubblegum

He then fully apologized and realized what he has done wrong to Flame Princess and she tells him that he really matured and hang out by playing guess who and rapping in “Bun Bun”

and Princess Bubblegum, and Marceline. They both finally reconcile at the end of “Varmints” and start to hang out more which develops their relationship from being platonic to romance.

For Regular Show, in “Steak Me Amadeus' ' Mordecai asked Margaret to be his girlfriend and although she would like that, she can’t because she got accepted into college which broke his heart.

It didn’t last when he’s been reunited with CJ in “New Years Kiss”.

As the show progresses, the two become a couple but then things get complicated when Margret returns. It made things awkward between CJ, Mordecai, and Marget like CJ always gets jealous and runs away when she sees Mordecai and Margret together.

By the end of season 6, he dumps CJ in front of everyone in Muscle Man's wedding.

Like Adventure Time, Mordecai and Margret hangout and realized they should stay as friends in “Just Friends”

While Eileen and Rigby become a couple.

Now it’s time to talk about other cartoons shows and their romantic subplot problem

Steven Universe

Steven Universe relationships can sometimes be well written but most of the time can handle poorly.

Such as Lars and Sadie were starting to develop their relationship in “Joking Victim” however it repeats itself throughout three seasons until the end of season 4 where Lars develops. Then there’s Sadie trapping him and Steven on the island in “Island Adventure” so he won’t have to leave and they don’t resolve and don’t even mention it ever again in later seasons. All they show was Sadie scar and that’s it

In “Steven Universe: Future”, Sadie and Lars didn’t get together and she’s now with Shep and they did it off-screen. So throughout the whole thing with Lars and Sadie, they don’t get together. The show kept teasing it and they might get together in the future but the writers just said screw it, let's have her date a nonbinary while Lars goes on a space adventure. It feels like a waste of seeing those two characters that the show keeps showing them together and not have them become a couple. Unlike SvTFoE, Shep just came out of nowhere with no proper introduction and doesn’t establish they and Sadie's relationship and it’s really bothersome!

Connie and Steven's relationship was good for the first four seasons. It was really had good chemistry and she was a good partner for him

then season 5 came in and it kinda got ruins by after Steven escape from Gem Homeworld and coming back to Earth, it starts off with Connie leaving Steven with lion and never to be seen for a month according to “Keven Party”. The Steven and Connie arc was really bad like why was it dragged for five episodes? The whole thing could’ve been resolved in one episode by having them talk about their feelings like how “Mindful Education” and “Full Disclosure” did by they talk about their emotions instead of running away.

Then in “Gemcation”, Steven the most important thing to him is Connie's relationship than worrying about Lars and the Off Colours' safety. That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my life and I can’t believe Rebecca and the Crewniverse have written it like that.

Then there’s Ruby and Sapphire. I’ll be honest, the relationship feels like old Disney love stories like Cinderella, Seven Dwarfs, and Sleeping Beauty and that’s not a compliment. In “The Answer”, after they accidentally fused, they escape and wander Earth that caused them to fall in love which kinda contradicts what Garnet said to Jamie about love, at first sight, isn’t good in “Love Letter”.

In “Pink Diamond” Arc, the plot came to hold to make room for Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding.

While it is revolutionary that they show an LGBT wedding live on television but as a narrative standpoint, it feels rushed. The reason for that is after that Blue and Yellow came in after the wedding. They were no build-up or anything, they just came.The reason why they did it so some countries can’t take it down due it the main story which is stupid. It’s nice they represent LGBT but why in the middle of a major story arc, that’s just sloppy.

Voltron

So Voltron has a reputation of queerbaiting the audience that Shiro is gay and he has a boyfriend. The writers keep telling us on Twitter that they’ll show his boyfriend in season 7 but when it finally aired. It was terrible

The first time we saw Adam was a flashback but it was nothing, it was more friendship than romance.

When he finally shows up in the present he dies. Shiro goes to the memorial and signs than that’s it.

The writers really made a dumb move of hyping it up but they let us down by having him die. They try to make it up by having Shiro marrying some guy who has a very little screen in the final season. Similar to Regular Show with Mordecai marrying a batgirl but not dumb while Voltron trying to get brownie points for having LGBT rep.

Lance and Allura were really forced. For six seasons, Allura was never interested in Lance and only saw him as a friend but in season 8, the two confessed their love for each even though there wasn’t any chemistry nor sign that they truly love each other and they insensitively become a couple for one date. I would’ve supported if their relationship was established back in season 2

The Legend of Korra

The love triangle between was handled so poorly with bad timing, making characters look terrible, making things force and having it engage more than the plot.

For the first season, there was a love diamond. Bolin liked Korra, Korra likes Mako and Mako liked Asami and those two go out. Korra and Mako kissed which broke Bolin’s heart but he got over it but when Asami finds out when Korra was missing, she gets jealous. I understand that she was concerned about her relationship with Mako but during when Korra, the avatar that is missing while Equalis are on the move? That’s not the right moment to get jealous when Republic City is gonna be under attack but of course, Mako and Asami break and Korra gets in with Mako.

In season 2, things get worse when the happy couple keep nagging and they break up

Which he tries again with Asami

After Korra got her memories back but forgot breaking up with Mako, she asked him if it was bad however though he lied and everyone judged him for that dick move, especially Asami who started to have feelings for him again. Thankfully they broke up because that was just an awful way to get someone back by having their mind erased.

Also, Bolin was with Eska and it was abusive. Forcing him to be her man, changed his whole entire to match with hers and she forced him to marry her.

What’s worst about it is no one is concerned about him being with her and instead they just laugh like it’s supposed to be funny. Being in an abusive relationship isn’t funny and I hate how the show treats it so. By the end, they just forgot the whole thing that ever happened and moved on with their lives.

Season 3 and 4 kept the romance to a minimum with Bolin x Opal and Jinora x Kai but there was one romantic relationship that had to happen with no hints or build up and it’s Korra x Asami. By the end of the series, they decided to go to the spirit together while holding hands and having their eyes glazed toward each other and they become a couple.

While many of you may say that they hinted it since season 3, however, it looks like friendship. Blushing and writing to her isn’t enough to say they have feelings towards each other. That is what best friends do too. The creators even have to confirm that they are a couple and the comics showing their love while it’s nice and all but it would’ve been a lot better to show it either on streaming service or live television than buying volumes to see more of their pairing, it’s balderdash. Now it’s time to talk about a cartoon that has one of the worst romance I’ve ever seen in my entire life of watching shows.

Star vs The Forces of Evil

Star vs The Forces of Evil has one of the WORST romantic subplots I’ve ever watched, it is even worse than CW’s Arrowverse romance and that’s saying something. The romantic subplot makes Star and Marco look like terrible people that only care about each other more than other characters.

Jarco

Out of all ships in SvTFoE, Jarco has the most establishment than most others. Marco liked Jackie when he was little and it was bound to happen that those two will date. Ever since season 1, the relationship has been growing to platonic to a romantic couple in season 2.

Their chemistry together worked well but then “Sophomore Slump”. When Marco finally went back to Earth, he was obsessed with Mewni and Star and he won’t stop talking about and he still wears the cape. When Jackie told him to stop obsessing over Mewni which he tries to do but it got the better to him by he still wears the cape when he was on his date with Jackie. It’s really BS when Marco said to Jackie “You’re my best friend” which ruined everything that it established since season 1 and this, of course, caused them to break up.

Then he left Earth to go to Mewni the day after their break up. It’s a real shame that building up their relationship and giving Jacie character got shoved aside for Starco. Although she returns and meets up with him again I can’t help feeling that it just for fan service and being inclusive for Jackie being Bi

Tomstar

Before the show started, Star and Tom were a couple but broke up due to him getting angry very easily and he wanted her back for the past two seasons luckily he stopped trying in “Mr. Candles Cares”. Their relationship becomes healthier when Tom gives Star space and that causes them to get back together and not have feelings for Marco anymore.

Tom went through a lot of development for Star and it was a Mewni x Monster romance which is similar to Eclipsa and Globglor and it fits season 3. After rewatching it, it was pretty good. However, like Jarco, it was doomed from the start due to fans wanting Starco to be canon even though Tomstar was getting good. Also, Star was a terrible girlfriend to him.

Star never told him she kissed him, Marco did and when Tom confronted her about it, she got mad and tried to walk away.

She mistreats him by nagging somethings, blowing on his face and angrily ask translate

She declined on going on a vacation with him so she can be with Marco.

Even his mom was afraid that she might break his heart again and her response “Everybody breaks up. That’s what teenagers do! Teenagers are dumb”. He went through so much development, changed his character and gave her so much but she never returned the favor. What an awful girlfriend

Kellco

With Tom and Star getting together (for now) it left Marco feels devastated that she’s dating someone and can’t get rid of his feelings for her while Kelly doesn’t want to be with Tad which she broke up with him. They both have something in common and start to hangout and their relationship has developed throughout season 3 and he’s with her more than Star.

They became officially a couple as “breakup buddies” in “Kelly’s World” and it also when they did a perfect synchronization between two partners.

So they’re pretty much a good pair but everything changed when the episode “A Boy and His DC-700XE” and did an off-screen break up. I don’t care who or what you write but never, ever a major plot point or character development offscreen. Kelly finds happiness when she leaves Tad but they break up with no explanation. It was glossed over like for five seconds and Marco doesn’t even care about their break up, what an a*hole.

This relationship feels like a real waste of time and serves nothing to the plot nor character development, it was just there to waste time.

Starco

Before I talk about Starco, I used to ship it and I thought they were enjoyable characters. They would've worked in a relationship if things were written better and would have been the next Phineas and Isabella but sadly the writers messed up probably the easiest romance to write.

Season 1, Star and Marco became best friends. Although there weren't many romantic moments they still look pretty good together

Season 2, As Star was happy for Marco that she’s finally dating Jackie, the girl he has had a crush on since preschool,

on the other hand, she started to have feelings for him and she has trouble expressing it.

In season 3, Marco started to have feelings for Star which caused him and Jackie to break up. Star told him that he wants nothing to do with him romantically in “Lint Catcher” and Tad told him that he does have feelings for her in “Lava Lake Beach” and he wasn't happy to find out about it at all. Then in Booth Buddies, they were held hostage by some freak until they kiss and they were completely in denial about having feelings for each other

Then season 4 is when Starco becomes really sour. Star and Marco always keep saying that they don’t want to have feelings for each other and yet the writers have several episodes before the end of the series

. They never showed any romantic interest until “Mama Star” where he confessed his feelings to her and then they kissed in the second last episode. By the finale, instead of either of them going back to their dimensions they went back to the World of Magic and held each other. It would’ve been more meaningful if they got together before the end of the show.

It’s very odd that they risk their lives for a relationship that just started. However, for some miracle, both of their worlds collide and become one with no explanation of what so ever.

Starco could’ve been a lovely ship but the writers have to keep messing around with it till the very end.

Conclusion

Whenever a show presents a romance, I don’t mind as long it either fits with the narrative of the story it be fun but 2010s romantic subplots have been written very terribly by having it the main focus but sacrifice pacing and quality of the story, forcing characters to become a couple without establishing it enough in the show, and having characters go off for the sake of drama. Romantic stories can be simple and cute like Kim x Ron from Kim Possible, Suki x Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Starfire x Robin from Teen Titans and that’s all right. I do hope that this generation will fix what the previous decade of cartoons has failed to do.

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vuelie-frost · 4 years

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Hair symbolism in Frozen 1 & 2 (and why Anna being queen makes total sense)

Elsa’s hair has been analyzed a lot, and we all agree that the loosening of her hair (coronation do -> braid -> ponytail -> fully down) represents her self-actualization and sense of internal freedom. Anna’s hair actually changes in the opposite direction. She starts with double braids in the first movie, to partially down in Frozen 2, and then total updo at the end. But Anna has always had an internal sense of who she is- she doesn’t struggle with her identity the same way Elsa does. Anna’s arc is all about fielding external forces, protecting the ones she loves, and maturing.

I posit Anna’s hair evolution is about moving from childhood to adulthood. But let me be clear: this is not in a way that fundamentally changes who Anna actually is nor in a way that makes adulthood out to be a stuffy, stoic inevitability. It represents moving into the next phase of her life with the grace and beauty of someone who has never compromised who she is.

Anna’s purpose as a fictional character is to mirror our own abilities, or lack thereof. She’s not magical. She’s overwhelmingly imperfect. She’s goofy and weird. She has always put her life on the line for her sister, and so while Anna has a strong sense of self, she’s almost always postured to help or support other characters. Becoming queen puts Anna at the center of her own story. While I have no doubt she’ll always be the person to cast risk aside and go scale a mountain in search of her sister, she’s enough to be herself & still accomplish great things. I think we all have this sense of suppressing certain parts of our personalities or interests for the sake of the world.

“if people really see me, they wouldn’t like me.”

“If people knew x about me, I wouldn’t be able to go very far.”

Anna becoming queen is VERY VERY important because she’s the one character in Frozen who feels no need to hide who she truly is. She’s us. She’s the human connection of the bridge. While both sisters are yin-yangs of representing different kinds of people (after all, I relate to Elsa more than any other Disney princess,) Anna’s the fairytale character full of yearning and dreaming and not-magic.

Elsa’s queenhood was meaningful for people like me who wonder if someone with my personality can accomplish great things. Anna, while more traditionally fitting for a queen role based on the personalities of past Disney princesses, was always characterized as the younger sibling type who felt like more of a spare & a punchline. She’s always been a little less mature than Elsa, a little less cautious, a little less cognizant of cause-effect in the real world. So becoming queen is the full circle of her arc. She IS enough. She’s MORE than enough.

I won’t wax poetic about the nature of childhood vs adulthood, as it’s been analyzed to death by people much smarter than me. But it’s a universal experience we all relate to and that’s why we love Anna’s blossoming. Anyway, just wanted to point that out. Anna in an updo is not the thematic equivalent of Elsa in an updo. For Elsa, it represented suppression. For Anna, it represents honor. And not in a boring regal way- in a way that indicates you can be your whole self & still pursue your future fearlessly.

(I always run the risk of oversimplifying Anna when I try to characterize her because she’s so intrinsically likable. We rely on her to be humorous, strong, brave, and capable. But assuming she’s just a happy-go-lucky figure 24/7 actually dehumanizes her. It’s the same as assuming all extroverts in the world are constantly cheery social butterflies. It does people a disservice to simplify their personalities. It’s easy to see Elsa as internally complex, but harder to see Anna that way unless we’re intimately aware of how people like her function. So I always talk about her with the disclaimer that I might be misrepresenting her, and I’m sorry if so.)

#vuelie-frost rambles #frozen #frozen 2 #anna #elsa

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sebastianshaw · 3 years

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Shaw & Skadi for the kid meme!

Name: Sigvid Skadisson Shaw. I know it should be Shawson BUT FUCK THE RULES. “Sig” is a pretty standard prefix for a lot of Norse names from the word “sigr” meaning “victory” and “vid” from the Old Germanic “widu” for forest. Gender: Masc and male-presenting but beyond that I’m not sure? Trans man? AMAB non-binary? Look, he uses he/him (maybe they too) and people THINK ‘man’ when they look at him, that’s all I know General Appearance: Tall and beefy, he couldn’t NOT be. Medium pale skin that gets even paler in winter but tans easily in summer. Black hair, or so dark brown it might as well be black, and very dark eyes. His hair, unlike both parents and most of his Asgardian brethren, is actually kept short, and while he has a beard, it’s not the big one. The reason for this is functional; short hair is better if you’re spending a lot of time in the wild. Stuff gets stuck in long hair, it can get tangled in branches at the worst times, it’s hot in the summer, and it can literally freeze in the winter if it gets wet. His attire is very much out of a Viking fantasy, but less on the “heavy armor” end of things and more on the “wearing lots of furs and skins” side. He doesn’t look like someone you want to fuck with, but he also doesn’t look like he’s going to war. He carefully avoids any kind of dangling amulets, charms, or other jewelry that could get caught on anything, but he’s got a sort of leather toolbelt containing various survival tools made from wood, bone, etc. Personality: Sigvid, as you might guess from his attire and the reasons for it, is an outdoorsman. Not as a hobby, not as a lifestyle, but an EXISTENCE. He thrives in the natural world as Sebastian does in the business world, finding ways to survive in even the most adverse of situation. Whatever Mother Nature is doing around him, he can not only make it through it, he can work it to his advantage. His closeness to the natural world, his close observation of it, means that he sees both the facts and errors in his father’s mentality. He sees that the strongest predators will pick off the weakest prey, that the winter will take those who do not prepare, that mother animals will neglect and even devour their young if they’re sick or runty. He also sees that prey are more aggressive than predators, how some creatures will adopt and nourish infants that are not their own or even their own species, how some will share their kill with no benefit to themselves, and how even the smallest and most humble animals can make it through things that the larger, so-called stronger ones did not. Sigvid is very pragmatic, like his father, very practical, very self-preservationist. He has to be. But he’s also very spiritual, not in a way that connects to some distant god, but the world around him, to earth and nature. Not some idealized hippie-dippie conception of nature as a loving mother that is always in balance, but an acceptance that it is a greater power that he cannot control, he can only hope to survive at best. It keeps him humble. It also gives him a much wider, more relative perspective on things that is not human-centric, or Asgardian-centric for that matter. My Shaw often says that he admires human accomplishments above all else, that no other animal has built cities, computers, cars, and so on. And he is correct in this. But Sigvid always points out, how many termite mounds has man built? How many times do humans migrate thousands of miles using an innate sense of the Earth’s magnetic fields? How many fish have we hunted by literally sensing the electricity in their bodies? Yes, humans are “the best” if we judge them by standards HUMANS MADE. Judge us by the base standard of any other species, and we flop. Same for judging any species by the standards of any other. Nothing is “more” or “less” evolved than anything else, more complex does not mean better, and nor does being bigger, stronger, meaner, or even smarter mean a species is “better” or “more evolved” either. Survival of the fittest is not about that, nor about individuals; it’s about how well a species fits its environment and niche. A slime mold is just as evolved as a person. Sigvid is very passionate about this, though he’s not the type to speak up most of the time; he’s stoic and saturnine, used to keeping his mouth closed and his thoughts to himself, because most of the time there’s no one to talk to. And that also means he’s learned to exist without the validation and approval of others---ironically, something that is much like his father, learned in a completely different environment.

A lot of this, obviously, comes from Skadi. He was at side her since infancy learning to hunt and track, learning the difference between wood sorrel and white clover, how to tell when a moose is about to charge, and what it means when the woods go quiet. This connects deeply to Skadi’s Jotunn side in particular, which in Norse lore are thought to have symbolized the inherently chaotic and uncontrollable nature of, well, nature! Though Sigvid would not, nature it’s chaotic, it’s actually very ordered, people just don’t bother to understand what’s inconvenient to them. But where he differs from Skadi is that he’s not a Disney princess. Animals don’t hang out with him. He doesn’t nurse injured creatures back to health. He doesn’t keep pets. He does not see them as friends. They are not less than him, but they are not allies, they are beings he co-exists with, avoids, or eats. At least, until a thylacine started hanging out with him. Yeah, a thylacine. The extinct Tasmanian tiger. Who knows where it came from or why he’s attached itself to him, but he’s very adamant she’s not a pet and he hasn’t named her, but she is THERE. Sometimes. She isn't at his side like a dog, it's more she's following him from a distance and she pokes her head out from the trees somewhere. She's not a pet. She's more a parasite. But unlike Shaw, Sigvid doesn't use that term in a bad way, and he's fine with her presence. He's just curious where the hell an extinct Australian animal came from? Obviously, Sigvid is not interacting with people a lot, but when he does, he’s far less awkward or boisterous than people expect. He doesn’t have the overt weirdness people expect from a hermit, nor the bombastic warrior cliché of an Asgardian, or the vicious stereotype of a Jotunn. He has a quiet but overwhelming elegance, not like an aristocrat but like a great stag emerging from the forest. He chooses his words carefully, and can say much with just a few. He walks the middle ground between judging by individuals and judging by species; he does a little of both. He has preconceptions and generalities that he believes in about each group, but also believes in room for exception. After all, he’s not what a lot of people expect, is he? Despite this, he’s frequently misread as disliking people, but he doesn’t. He is utterly neutral on them, he just prefers his own way of life. Likewise, he tends to be very neutral towards individuals, and this also is often misread as dislike. One thing he does dislike though, is when people try to endear themselves to him by talking about how they agree animals are better than people, or say stuff like you know only man kills for pleasure. . . .this actually just annoys him. Firstly, a lot of animals do kill for pleasure. Secondly, when people say animals/nature is better than people. . . .they’re forgetting that people---humans, Asgardians, Jotunn---are animals too. This is just another way people, of any sort, try to insist they’re something special and different, whether in a negative or positive way. It doesn’t impress him. What impresses him tends to be how well people work within their niche, whatever niche that is. Like Shaw, he doesn’t really judge in terms of conventional morality, but a person’s success----Sigvid’s definition of success is just much wider. Like, maybe you dive for a living---are you a good diver? A great cafeteria worker? The best toilet cleaner in the tri-state area? He admires that and he commends you. When he is angered, he stays quiet, and his response is swift and physical; he either leaves or strikes physically and then leaves. When he feels sufficiently bonded with someone. . . he is still quiet. He appreciates a person who doesn't need to be filling the silences between them to feel comfortable and kinship. And kinship for him is rare, but he's not lonely----just also not adverse to it, as many assume he is. People assume a lot about Sigvid, and most of it is wrong, but he's also very chill with it. Sigvid is a very chill guy.

Special Talents: Besides the obviously mentioned talents for hunting, tracking, foraging, survivalism, and nature knowledge? Many people think he’s some kind of seer because he’s good at predicting storms and such, but actually he’s just very good at reading the signs most people aren’t attuned to. He also presumably has the attributes of Asgardians and Jotuns (super strength, etc) but if he has a mutant power, it has yet to manifest. Also cannot assume a Frost Giant form. Who they like better: Skadi, though eventually he does respect his father for performing so well at what he does

Who they take after more: I think both equally in different ways Personal Head canon: -He really likes amethyst geodes. -He finds a lot of manufactured foods, like chips or snack cakes, to be WAAAAY too strongly salty or sweet for him to stomach, is allergic to Red Dye #40, and he finds the taste of domesticated animals to be weird. - Not much of a dairy person, but ghee is good -Dislikes when people stereotype hillbillies as stupid; as in like, people who are genuinely living in the hills and mountains of the American Southeast, they're an interesting people with their own unique culture like any other group that lives off the land in isolation---which he respects---and not interchangeable with typical rednecks. -He doesn't typically carry anything with him that's not a necessity, if he knows he's going to be seeing people soon, he will pick up knick-knacks he finds in abandoned places and distribute them like a weird Santa Claus. Who, he's met, by the way, and according to him, Father Christmas is something of a badass. - He will always buy your homemade soaps, and I have no idea what he's doing with them. Yes, maybe he's using them in the normal intended way but IM NOT SURE?? - Pops up in art museums. People never expect him to be here, in these cathedrals dedicated to human creation, but he is. I think he views art a bit differently than the average person, but he's there all the same. - He's an Aquarius but there is a LOT of Saturn in his chart - The first Midgard movie he saw was Forrest Gump. He was expecting it to be about something else because of the title, but he enjoyed it and LEARNED THIS DANCE Face Claim: n/a

#sigvid #kids #kid meme

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