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gch1995 · 3 years

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OMG! I’m watching the 2016 PPG reboot on reboot to make fun of its awfulness by comparing it to the far superior OG cartoon from 98’-05 version, and I just got finished watching the atrocious episode “Musclecup.” I know the girls are supposed to be very precocious for kindergarteners-first graders, and I know that Buttercup is the “toughest fighter.” However, I still am in awe at the sheer stupidity of the writers of this episode, who thought it would be a “genius” idea to write a storyline in which Buttercup, a super-powered little girl in the first grade, actually gets addicted to steroids because she wants to bulk up her muscles!

First of all, Buttercup is a child, so this storyline feels gross and unnecessary, even if she is the “toughest fighter?”

Secondly, it doesn’t even make any sense as to why Buttercup thinks she needs to bulk up her muscles to a beef-cake level since she was born with superhuman strength that easily allows her to overpower the average person, anyway.

Thirdly, it’s annoying that Blossom and Bubbles are yet again rendered to be completely helpless and ineffectual by the writers together against one villain together without Buttercup, the brash and brawny tomboy, there to swoop in and save them. I know I’ve complained about Buttercup occasionally getting the short end of the stick when she had centrics the OG cartoon in which she was either getting into trouble, getting punished, getting double standards, and/or suffering exceedingly and/or unfairly with the world getting turned against her, sometimes to the point of needlessly mean-spirited overkill of character derailment for either her and/or other characters in the episode she cared about. Yeah, the writers not knowing how to write Buttercup centrics where she was framed in a positive light, being treated fairly, and/or granted the same individual compassion and emotional support of her loved ones that she normally had otherwise, and that her sisters were granted individually in their centrics when they were in the wrong or feeling down, was an occasionally recurring flaw in the writing on an overall great show that started showing up sometime in her centrics in S2.

However, in the 2016 reboot, the writers seemed to have overcorrected the writing flaw of Buttercup’s occasional designated butt-monkey status in the OG cartoon by turning her into the main character Mary Sue of the show, who gets the most centrics, and who does all the saving by herself without the other two girls most of the time. In the reboot, this now has created a new problem of diminishing Blossom’s and Bubbles’ individual strengths and relevance in the story.

Not to mention the fact that reboot!Buttercup’s personality is pretty shitty. In the OG cartoon, she was generally portrayed as a jerk with a heart of gold. Here in the reboot, she’s been flanderdized into an openly arrogant, crude, exceedingly aggressive, disrespectful, loud-mouthed, mean-spirited, obnoxious, petty, nonchalant, and selfish brat. She disrespects Ms. Keane and mocks her when she’s teaching a grammar lesson to be a class clown in “Painbow.” In “Professor-Proofed” she gets her dad hurt by causing him to lose focus, sneeze, and get hurt when he’s working in his lab with a dangerous chemical by peppering her pancakes right in front of him, then doesn’t ever apologize to him for it, and even ends the episode doing it again with an evil smirk on her face right in front of him, causing him to get hurt all over again after sneezing when the pepper goes up his nose. She tries to steal one of Bubbles pigtails in an attempt to catch a crawdad in “ClawDad,” and didn’t apologize. In “Little Octi-Lost,” she steals Octi from Bubbles in the dead of night when they are all asleep to “teach her a lesson” for being so into it, which isn’t a good reason at all, then realizes she wants to go play with Octi herself, takes him to a state fair, and then tries to cover it up when she loses him, rather than tell the truth. In the episode “Man Up” she violently blows up in an aggressive rage, recklessly destroys an entire state fair, and accidentally gives Bubbles a black eye all because a villain calls her “princess,” and she hates being called that. The moral of the episode was supposed to be learning to temper her aggression, but unlike in the OG Buttercup centric, “Makes Zen To Me,” the lesson doesn’t actually end up sticking with Buttercup at all, and she ends the episode reverting back to being an overly aggressive and obnoxious jerk because “status quo is comedy gold.”

Granted, out of the three girls in the OG cartoon, Buttercup did have the greatest tendency to be the most aggressive fighter with the greatest instigator and rebel tendencies, and she had some ooc instances of suddenly being a very uncharacteristically greedy, sadistic, and remorseless jerk than usual to fit certain contrived plots in bad episodes, such as “Moral Decay,” though almost everyone in the fandom despises that segment the most of the OG series and pretends it never happened because it was such ridiculously out of character and mean-spirited derailing writing for both Buttercup and her entire family in order to turn her into the villain and punish her harshly in ways that didn’t feel fair or make any sense.

However, generally, og Buttercup genuinely did have the heart of a hero and love her family more than anything. While she did have trouble apologizing to Elmer for teasing him in “Paste Makes Waste,” she genuinely did still feel bad about it, even if she had some trouble apologizing for it, and she did learn to swallow her pride and do it at the end. She and Blossom tended to argue a lot because they both were very stubborn people, who had trouble making compromises, and admitting to it when they were wrong, and she liked to mess with Bubbles the most. However, she generally hated seeing either of her sisters getting hurt, and she was always quick to defend them in battles against threats. She generally felt bad about hurting her sisters, and apologized all the time.

Buttercup occasionally got irritated when the Professor became a doting, sentimental, and overprotective Dad™️ with her and/or her sisters in the OG cartoon in episodes like “Uh Oh, Dynamo,” “Mr. Mojo’s Rising,” “PowerProf.,” and “Oops I Did It Again,” especially because she didn’t like to be doted on. She got in trouble with the Professor more than her sisters, partially because she was genuinely caught being disobedient, making bad choices, or instigating fights with her sisters by him more often than they were, but also partly because the writers dealt her an unfair hand in the world in her centrics since they liked turning her into the designated butt monkey when she got in trouble in them in a couple of instances, such as “Moral Decay” and “Down ‘n’ Dirty.” However, even at her worst and most OOC, she would never have tried to deliberately hurt her dad for shits and giggles like she did in reboot episode “Professor-Proofed.” She and her sisters also never would have deliberately sabotaged one of the Professor’s romances for their own benefit because they wanted him to be happy in the OG cartoon.

Fourthly, I know he’s not in the episode, but if the girls are this irresponsible and stupid in the reboot, then why would Professor Utonium ever think to trust them to stay at home alone, while he goes to work for the day? Oh, right...It’s because he’s also been reduced to an idiotic, incompetent, irresponsible, neglectful, reckless, and selfish parent 9 out of ten times in the reboot, who has little to no knowledge of how to actually be a good parent at all, and usually only appears to make things worse whenever he does appear anyway by being a cliche and mostly unfunny bumbling bad sitcom dad. In the OG cartoon, it’s different because the girls are mature enough to handle staying by themselves for a few hours, even while he’s out at work, though he got babysitters for them when he was out at night to be safe, but in this reboot version, the girls shouldn’t be trusted to stay at home alone by him.

Finally, that’s the other issue in the reboot. All of the adults are morons who have no common sense most of the time. The writers really expect me to believe that an adult would be totally okay with giving a little girl steroids without any thought to just how gross and unethical that is? Yeah, I know it’s a cartoon, and even in the OG cartoon, the city of Townsville were complete idiots at times to fit certain plots, but I don’t believe any of them would actually ever be stupid and unethical enough to give steroids to a little girl with superpowers to help her bulk up her muscles, especially not without warning her first about how it could be dangerous.

#anti PPG 2016 reboot #ep: musclecup #I can’t believe they actually did a storyline about a superpowered first grader getting hooked on steroids!#the classic PPG wasn’t always a good show but overall it was a really great cartoon #they have completely turned buttercup into an obnoxious tomboy Mary Sue in the reboot #granted they’ve ruined all of the girls in the reboot but I’m focusing on buttercup in particular here #they completely ruined buttercup’s personality in the reboot!#buttercup utonium #bubbles utonium #blossom utonium

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theghostinthemoon · 4 years

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Look. I know, I know I’ve already made thousands of posts about this, but TUA is a show that’s very dear to me and some things about this season upset me.

Most of the criticism I’ve seen about TUA S2 is about the lack of development for Klaus and Ben and their roles as comic relief. Which was blatant and absolutely real. And has been fairly discussed. But because they are fan favourites I think we tend to overlook the other siblings.

Nearly all characters were reduced to a comedic version of themselves. Especially Luther and Diego. Who both had some pretty interesting moments but also most of them were straight up comedy. Not that comedy is bad, it was hilarious this season, but when it is the only thing happening on the show you start to wonder if the characters actually have any personality and relevance to the story.

Luther grew as a person and apologised to Vanya, that’s true (but was it 100% honest, though? Cause I’m still not sure). But apart from that, what did he do all season? Moped about Allison? Bantered with Diego? Followed Five around like a puppy? I did like that him and Diego did something other than fight this season, but I feel like it wasn’t 100% earned because we didn’t really see what prompted them to change (although, let’s be honest, that’s just how siblings are more often than not, so I don’t see it as a big issue).

Diego at least, unlike Luther, had the Lila/Commission plots. I really wished they had been better developed, because they had potential to. But instead they decided to rely more on the comedy (and saving JFK for some reason) at the expense of a more solid story. Would have loved to see Diego explore The Comission a bit longer (since it was actually plot relevant) and his relationship with Lila, and what that means to him as a character (because I feel like we’ve all forgotten about Eudora and how her death affected him).

Five is still just Five, nothing new. I’m neither happy nor sad about his character development but to be fair he’s had a rough couple of weeks since time travelling back and got no more time than that, so I get it.

Allison for me had the best arc and development. She had a good love story with Raymond (despite... basically forgetting she had a daughter until ep. 7) and she fought by herself for what she believed in. But in the end, she had to give up all she’d conquered and created and, like Vanya, once again lost the people she loved.

Vanya had a very, very good plot! But she also had her memories wiped out for most of the season, so she didn’t even get to properly interact with her siblings and their past. The growth she could have had throughout the events she only got to have in the last two episodes. She also ends up losing the family she built for herself. Fortunately, though, it seems that her siblings are finally taking her seriously and caring about her after last season’s events. Which, once again, I would have loved to see more deeply represented in the show. Because all we had were two or three small conversations while she still had no memories, the car scene in the last episode (which was beautiful, I admit) and Ben’s sacrifice in what was one of his only two emotional scenes in 10 episodes.

Again. I loved the comedy in this show and this season. But I think the characters and their development suffered a bit because of it. Time we lost that could have been used to build their relationships with themselves and with each other more. Even them standing up for themselves against their father was an absolute mess, but I’m hoping S3 will work through that.

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xkandy · 4 years

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Psycho Pass - timeline and why you shouldn’t hate on S3 that much

I’ve been following Psycho Pass ever since the original run of Season 1 back in 2012. I’d like to make you and everyone who disliked S3 understand some things. Hope I structure this well, here goes.

Obviously there will be some spoilers.

First let’s take a look at the releases in the PP universe so far. We have:

Season 1

Season 2

Movie

Sinners of The System 1,2,3 (2 being a prequel)

Season 3

First Inspector

Before I write anything I’m going to stop you and say that nothing tops Season 1. So there,now that we have that out of the way let’s continue.

Season 1

Takes place in late 2112-2113

Central characters are Akane and Kogami and let’s face it, for many Kogami is the one who carried the show, even if some consider him to be a “generic edgy” protagonist I think he’s pretty solid as a character at this point.

Akane has had MAJOR character development throughout the whole season and I’ll never forget how upset some people were that she was a noob. That was the whole point, she is a newbie and a model citizen who trusts the system, her character evolution revolves around coming to the realization that the system is flawed.

Makishima as a villain was phenomenal and not because quoting from books , but because his motives and reasoning were clearly established and he made both protagonists question themselves and the system.

Season 1 is written by Gen Urobuchi , the following seasons (except the movie) are not written by him.

Season 2

Takes place in 2114.

A trainwreck, don’t even want to go here. The disappointment was huge.

I found Mika to be extremely annoying and unbearable with 0 character growth. The only highlights for this season for me were Gino and Akane.

Onwards.

The Movie

Takes place 3 years after the events of Season 1, in 2116.

Nothing of major impact happens but if you love the old cast , namely Gino, Akane, Kogami you’ll enjoy this and I have a feeling this is what they were betting on and wanted to see: the public reaction to the old cast.

The interaction between Akane and Kogami is the highlight (another one being Gino vs Kogami).

It’s clear as day that Akane evolved as a character and Kogami is questioning his past, so let’s say some minor character development.

Sinners of the System

If you enjoy the universe and aren’t too attached to the main cast you will like these, although case 3 is about Kogami so I’m sure it’s the one most people will like.

Case 1 has some minor Mika character development (she still sucks imho)

Case 2 is a prequel that sets up some details about the storyline that will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Case 3 is the one you’ll want to watch if you want to see S3/First Inspector as it revolves around Kogami and him coming to terms with his thoughts when he is asked by a young girl to train her as he sees in her a version of himself and where this will lead (girl seeks revenge) .

His story arc regarding Sasayama’s death, revenge, Makishima is complete, it ends here as he decides to head back to Japan.

This triggers the potential for the future series/movies in the Psycho Pass universe to deal with the (possible) unresolved storyline of dealing with Akane once he gets back to Japan, because he will have to face her at one point.

So after Case 3 Kogami is already a complete character , there is no strong conflict or drive for him as the one which had driven the plot of season 1.

We already know everything about him.

Let me jump back to Gino for a brief moment, his first arc concluded when his father died and he became an enforcer, his current arc might be related to what I’ll get to in a second.

Season 3

Alright so here we are,a new season nobody was expecting and 2 new protagonists we expected even less.

Taking place in 2120 , 8 years after the events of Season 1 it follows Arata and Kei in their own CID adventures.

The tone of the series is vastly different from both S1 and S2, most notably :

it feels like those friendly buddy cop TV shows

the violence is greatly reduced, no more “shock value”

the side characters aren’t invested into, they’re just there for being there and plot devices (they’re alright, the new enforcers get some characterization but it’s not season 1 level)

Arata’s “skill” - if you think about it as high level empathy it’s gonna feel less dumb

Being new protagonists, the writers had to make sure we get to like them by offering us details about their past and what drives their motives, I’d say they did an ok job at that.

There’s no room for comparison to Akane and Kogami, those 2 are already established characters who have resolved story arcs and suffered changes.

Keep in mind Akane is 28 now and Kogami is 36, whereas the new protagonists are in their early 20s. They have time for character evolution, it’s easier to write new characters into the universe than deal with established ones such as Akane and Kogami.

Also, we see Kou visiting Akane while she’s in jail, her not being surprised means this may have happened before, which leads to further questions in the storylines that will definitely be explored in the new PP installments to follow:

Details on the incident which caused her to be in jail

What happened when Kogami returned to Japan and how the Sibyl system dealt with this

Kou reuniting with Ginoza, since both work for the hot blonde now

etc, you get the idea

First Inspector

It’s actually not that bad, I’m not going to spoil anything (well...not everything) but I suggest giving it a chance. If you don’t want to watch S3 just read about it and watch this, the most important things to take are from episode 3′s last scenes

Akane is released AS AN ENFORCER by Sibyl and will help Mika

Kogami is sent to get her, there will definitely be a recap between these two

Arata and Kei both have secrets regarding the case they worked on, not gonna spoil anything

Yayoi is alive, and will live with Shion. Just puttin this out there since they’re everyone’s favorite lesbians

Mika is still shit.

Gino is still based as fuck

Also, there is a post credits scene with Akane saying something along the lines of “ let’s talk about the incident that got me jailed “ . This was only in the theatrical release so you can bet your ass we’re getting more PP in the future.

Thoughts

Lastly, what everyone needs to understand is that S1 made PsychoPass become a franchise. A franchise revolves around different characters in the same universe, sometimes the focus is on the OGs , but sometimes it isn’t.

I would like to note here that Gen Urobuchi is responsible for Season 1 (you know, the dude who wrote Madoka and other stuff like that...) and he did a great job writing a compelling story. Did he want PP to turn into a franchise? This I do not know and I have a feeling this might explain his absence from the later installments of the series.

He wrote a complete story in 22 episodes which could have been left at that but seeing how well received the first season was it spawned a franchise.

What I want to say is please give Arata and Kei a chance (S3 protags) . They’re not that bad and they help the franchise stay alive as it seems they were pretty well received in Japan. Would you rather Mika be the main character again?! HELL NO

Now I love the main trio - Akane,Kou,Gino - as much as everyone but at this point they’re so high level it’d be hard to write a series just about them. Make one wrong move and the fanbase will hate you.

Also, this one is for all you Kogami x Akane shippers, I view their relationship as professional only but I’ll be damned if I didn’t scream at those 2 short scenes these 2 had in S3 and FI .Can’t wait to see the interactions between grown up Akane and seasoned peace-of-mind Kogami.

If you’re still here thanks for reading my rant, hope I made sense.

edited to add some stuff

#psychopass #psycho pass #psycho pass sinners of the system #psycho pass season 3 #psycho pass s3 #psycho pass spoilers #anime #rant #akane tsunemori #kogami shinya #ginoza nobuchika #mika shimotsuki #shion karanomori #anime rewatch

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realitywarpinq · 4 years

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(reposting bc tumblr removed my post from the da tags and I’d really love to know other people’s thoughts on Thomas and O’Brien bc I wasn’t here when s1&2 were airing so missed all the fandom stuff)

I had a lot of thoughts about this and in trying to put them into words I had even more and yeah needless to say it got quite long so… anyone who wants to read some character analysis and my thoughts about why Thomas and O’Brien’s relationship played out Like That pls see below the cut!

I think if Siobhan Finneran had planned to stay on the show we might’ve got a better arc for the two of them. S3 to me plays entirely like, upon hearing she wanted out, jf scrabbled around for a way to make her exit organic because he hadn’t previously considered O'Brien ever leaving Downton. Then, for lack of something better, he discovered a great old plot unsticking device, Homophobia.

O'Brien displays two key ‘positive’ traits throughout three seasons - 1) loyalty and 2) the softer side of her that appears when looking after those she cares for/is sympathetic to (s1 Cora miscarriage - though ofc there’s a large element of guilt to that - s2 Cora’s spanish flu, Mr.Lang’s ptsd and s3 when Alfred arrives)

While O'Brien’s 'blood is thicker than water’ ideology towards the Alfred/Thomas situation makes sense for her character, I’ve always seen the progression of s3 as an absurd overreaction. I mean, while it would be frustrating that your friend was unwilling to help give your nephew a leg up in his profession it’s like… not the end of the world? And Thomas has a point - he worked hard for years to earn his position and Alfred barely knows where to put the serving spoons.

Thomas actively sabotaging Alfred’s work (ruining Matthew’s jacket) is definitely something to fall out over, but trying to have him exposed, fired, arrested and sentenced to years of hard labour???? Hello???? A Bit Much, perhaps??? Also, from whom do we think Thomas learnt to behave this way in the first place??

She’s a ruthless person who will use anything against someone to achieve her goals - in this case revenge and humiliation. To get Thomas to make a move on such an performatively masculine and heterosexual man is the ultimate power play. It communicates that even though they aren’t friends anymore Thomas still listens to what she has to say. She’ll always be the wiser of the two, like she’s been the puppet master behind their schemes, and as much as he thinks himself too smart to deign to help Alfred, she can manipulate him as easily as she would someone who hasn’t spent years as her accomplice (and should know exactly what she’s like and capable of.)

If Siobhan hadn’t been leaving the show this would’ve been the perfect “checkmate” moment for her. It’s the ace in her deck?? (idk anything about cards) it’s her final move. She’s clearly known about Thomas’ sexuality for years and this is her saying “See how easily I can use this against you? Exactly so get back in line.”

Of course then Thomas could’ve pulled out his trump card, the soap. And then O’Brien would choose whether or not to call his bluff, ultimately settling on shifting the power dynamic in their relationship to more equal footing - if it wasn’t such a terrible secret for her I honestly think she’d be impressed by his threat. She’d underestimated him and it appears he’s actually learnt well.

So, in this bad timeline in which she left the show, when Jimmy wants to put the issue to bed and she seems hell bent on seeing Thomas behind bars, that’s the part where it all seems excessive to me, stumbling into ooc behaviour.

But they had to raise the stakes in such an ooc way in order for the wedge between them to be irreparable because she HAS to leave. Since s1 they’ve been thick as thieves, and how do you break a bond that strong? Betrayal of the highest order, which is not something we’ve seen to such a degree from O'Brien until now. It’s vicious and unrelenting, and comes right after we’ve been introduced to a more empathetic side of her in s2. A backwards step for her character. It’s totally fine for characters to go forwards and backwards in their progressions as people, in fact it’s more realistic that way, but she runs away to India and is never seen again.

We know O'Brien has been at Downton a long time from the way everyone talks about her, and in explicit canon Thomas has been there for ten years at this point. So how could such a fiercely loyal person do such a complete 180 on the only friend she’s seemingly ever had, downstairs or up?

Because of this it’s only at this point that I truly cry bad writing. Everything up until then could possibly be worked out between Thomas and O'Brien - they’re both strong-willed, goal oriented people with very specific moral codes and loyalties, they know how it is; cross them and they have to get you back somehow.

It’s just a shame that Siobhan wanted to leave, really, even though I completely respect the decision.

I’m so curious as to where Thomas’ storyline would’ve gone if she’d stayed. Baxter never would’ve replaced her and he would’ve had at least one friend/ally during the conversion therapy/depression/social isolation storyline that led to *what it led to*, if they’d even decided to go down that route at all with Thomas still having someone on his side. I also wish we’d got to learn more about O'Brien as a person, seen the more human sides of her that we got glimpses of in s2. There would’ve been ways to do that without reducing or overdoing the antagonistic role of her character.

tldr; looking at their relationship in s1&2, I think the only reason it went wrong was because it had to. If it wasn’t for Siobhan Finneran leaving I think Thomas and O’Brien would’ve had some entertaining ups and downs but ultimately stayed friends or at least allies. Maybe they could’ve even helped one another achieve lives outside of service if the show wasn’t written by an upper crust Tory who punishes any of his working class characters who dare to dream above their station and repeatedly uses gay suffering as a narrative device ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#downton abbey #thomas barrow #sarah o'brien #rob james collier #siobhan finneran

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blodreina-noumou · 4 years

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question: how sexist do you think the show is? I used to think it used to be the height of feminism (I was a dumbass) but I want your opinion on what it does wrong, etc because as time goes on the way the narrative treats female characters is disturbing to say the least, at least to me

Be kind to yourself, anon - at one point, I do think this show was pretty good in terms of representing women in a diverse, positive way. While not “the height of feminism” (which is a tricky thing to pin down anyway,) the early seasons featured a range of women of all ages, abilities, races, and most sexual orientations.

Back in 2014, when it premiered, I think it was actually doing pretty good work at not only featuring these female characters, but making sure that their storylines included agency and motivations that went beyond what the men in their lives wanted/needed.

But the show has slipped a lot since then. Not only have our standards lifted, but the writing itself has taken a serious dive, and season six was the lowest point so far, for me. If we look at the way the female characters’ motivations have changed from season to season, it’s clear that, at some point, the writers kind of forgot that these women have agency and conflicting motivations, and don’t just exist to prop up the missions of the men or children in their lives.

In s1 and s2, Clarke was all about making firm choices and sticking with them. She was motivated by the safety of her friends and the rest of The Hundred, and a general impulse to “do the right thing.” No one single person or role compelled her - she was flexible and realistically able to fit into leadership positions, rebellion stoking, and squad commander. Although she was backed into a corner, it still felt as though her choices were hers.

In s5 and s6, Clarke is a “mama bear” driven into a illogical frenzy at the thought of her adoptive daughter being put into any sort of danger whatsoever, despite that being a reality of the world when one actually has to interact with people. Her decisiveness becomes impulsiveness, and her motivations are drained of all their complexity. It just becomes “Madi, Madi, Madi,” with no room for anyone else, and even less room for flexibility. She’s one-note, now. By giving her exactly one motivation in her life, one singular person to focus all of her affection and need to protect on, she’s been stripped of all of her complexity and agency. This is made even worse by the fact that she spent half the season on ice, essentially dead to the world, while her body was inhabited by the most charming lil sociopath this show has ever seen - one Josephine Lightbourne. A character who should have been a refreshing return to that kind of complexity, but falls flat for her own reasons.

In s6 we’re introduced to one of the most interesting characters in The 100 universe. A cunning, cutthroat, cold young woman with a cheery disposition and enough cleverness to kill a cat with a smile. Josie has been alive, on some level, for hundreds of years. She’s seen untold violence, and has become a greedy, selfish, cruel woman because of it. You would think that this kind of person’s return to life in this universe would’ve been earth-shattering - that she would’ve had some sort of epic, evil plan, motivated by the need to grab more and more power for herself. But what did Josie really, truly want in the end, more than anything? To reunite with her ex-boyfriend and body-snatch until the end of time, so she could stay with him, forever and ever. She was motivated, at the end of the day, purely by her romantic feelings for a man.

That’s disappointing to me. Especially because, in the latter half of the series, everyone’s motivations, but especially the women’s, end up coming down to one person - a person who is dependant on them for affection/comfort/softness/love, etc. Basically, everyone has now been hamstrung by their inability to focus on anything other than one person. And for each of the women, that’s often meant taking on the role of supportive girlfriend/mother, rather than having agency and goals of her own.

Other examples - Emori was a background character for most of season six, basically Harper Mcintyre’d, right up until her necessary betrayal of Josephine and Murphy becomes relevant to the plot. Echo was sidelined by her longterm romantic partner, ending up in serious danger, while he gallivanted off making googly eyes at his (old??) best friend, and this was treated as perfectly acceptable. Raven has been reduced to nagging shrew, and was also more or less set dressing until she become plot relevant to Madi’s story. Madi herself was the literal meat puppet of a creepy dude controlling her brain. Abby lived just long enough to make a meaningful sacrifice as a grandmother and then died. And so on.

I think that, as the series went on, and more and more characters and set dressings and crazy scenarios were added, the writers had to simplify character motivations and story arcs. If you just compare everything Raven went through and had to do in s2 (losing use of her leg; learning to use a brace; her romance with Wick; cracking the Mt Weather radios; figuring out how to stop the acid fog; watching her first love die; dealing with her grief; getting seriously wounded again at the end of the season, etc,) with what she had to do in s6 (work on a motorcycle; chastise Ryker for being a body-snatcher; watch Abby die; save Madi from Sheidheda) - it’s clear that the writers have shelved certain characters for the sake of others.

And what ate up the most time this season? The story of the Lightbournes, which is ultimately, yet again, a story about how a small group of people are solely motivated by protecting only each other, even if at the cost of everyone else. Specifically, Josephine is motivated by wanting to protect Gabriel from death forever, and her parents (particularly Russell) are motivated by making her happy, whatever the cost.

A cautionary tale for our OG heroes? Maybe, but it sure didn’t feel that way during the season.

The weird flipside of this is the way Bellamy and Russell existed purely for women in this season. Bellamy wanted nothing but to save Clarke, Russell wanted nothing but to save Josephine. But the difference is that, even within their singularly-focused motivations, Bellamy and Russell still had agency, and they both ended up making more decisions for the women in their lives than those women made for themselves. They moved the plot around the women, who simply had no choice but to react accordingly.

I think the show is trying to not be sexist, but in its current bloated state, it’s gotten really lazy, and the writers have lost sight of the complexity and characterization that made s1-s3 more impactful. I think JRoth and Co are probably bored with this universe - that’s why s6 was such an insane leap in tone, setting, and world-building.

And I think, like most human beings, they’ve allowed themselves to get comfortable with what they’ve already achieved. Unfortunately, the “good representation” aspect of this show has suffered a lot for it.

The short answer is: on a “how sexist” scale from 1-10, with 1 being “super sexist” and 10 being “not sexist at all” - we started at an 8, now we’re at about a 4. The show has done better. It will probably never do better again.

#asks #anons #sexism #the 100 #the 100 meta #pop culture #stephspeaks #long post

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vedj-f-bekuesu · 4 years

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Alright, so in the middle of this S12 chaos (because no doubt that there’s more to come tomorrow), I actually saw Tournament of Elements for the first time. And I...think I might be falling on the unpopular side here.

I mean, it’s not terrible at all, in fact I think it’s alright, but I don’t think it has much flavour. Or at least, not the flavour that made Ninjago appeal to me. Let’s just go over points.

-This season has an upside; moreso than any old season thus far, there’s more MVPs amongst the main ninja. Zane is great throughout when we see him, Cole gets a surprisingly focused sub-plot, and Jay pulls his weight in the early part of the season immensely. They gets lots of moments to shine and provide some brevity that I appreciated. -That does mean however that I think Kai and Lloyd suffer for the tone shift. Lloyd especially is so boring this season, a far cry from the first two seasons where he was doing a lot of the legwork. Kai has a flash or two, but otherwise he’s either in serious mode or “annoying fallen for someone on sight” mode. He actually came off rather skeevy at some times too, The idea of the green ninja jealousy is done...well, it manages to conceptualise why this may be a thing after what S1 and S2 established (thoughts resurfacing in a bout of depression), but it feels like the execution is undercooked...which will be a theme. -Nya’s got a pretty strong arc, so that’s appreciated. You can definitely tell this season is setting up for her to be the water ninja, there’s just so many signs, but at least her character was active without that slant to it. That being said, the whole Samurai X thing is kinda abandoned this season, isn’t it? -Speaking of abandoned plots, that love triangle was done with way quicker than I was expecting. You get a couple of episodes where it gets to flare up, resolve it in the third, and then that’s it. Can’t say I hate that being undercooked, it was terrible. I guess the writers came to that conclusion too, because Cole was back to feeling like pre-Codename Arcturus (aka only doing it to spite Jay, not having interest in Nya). -Also speaking of undercooked...there’s Skylor. I can’t really come to hate her but that’s because she’s just such a bland character. She really is the generic action girl (something levied at Nya a lot even though I’ve never really seen it) and is mostly defined by either her romance to Kai (said romance being as hokey and cliche as it sounded, so the best romance of the season was still Zane and Pixal), or her literal relation to Chen. But I certainly won’t complain about her being manipulative and that because...you know...that was her job prior to her turn. -This can apply to almost all the Elemental Masters, who get small moments to show their stuff but otherwise are just more characters to add to the pile. The only ones who significantly stood out for me were Karlof, Neuro and Shade, and out of those only Karlof was for entertainment value. He does also demonstrate the power of character writing though; at no point was I distracted by him sharing the same face as Okino, the mannerisms and expression work was just so different between them. -Dareth I’m mixed on. He seems more like dead weight by the end of the season, but he had some good moments at the start, especially his surprising ingenuity with the Kabuki disguise for Nya. -Likewise, even Sensei Garmadon, Wu and Misako feel like they didn’t have much. Sensei Garmadon started strong, but then was kind of reduced to exposition (although he did end on a high note). Meanwhile Wu and Misako felt extraneous even though the final plot point hinges on their relationships. What? -Pythor, in some twist of fate, comes in with a fairly last minute play to be near the top of the character chain. He was back on S1 form, and it was good to see him in good form again. -I liked Chen. With the Overlord acting as such a stoic villain for the most part, it was refreshing having someone as comedic as Chen in the villain helm, while still being plenty vicious and capable of villainy. Clouse I should theoretically like, but again, he was way stoic. -It was also nice to see the cameos -If you like lore, there’s plenty of lore here (there’s even like an episode that’s basically that). It’s interesting to see, but wasn’t great for the flow of the story. -Pacing really killed this season for me, but for the opposite reason of the other seasons; it ended up going too slow. Like, after episode five, it really started to drag on me.

So overall, S4 for me is a season that has an interesting overall premise, and really sells that at the start, but loses steam before it gets to the end. Not helping is the fact a lot of the characters and many sub-plots feel like they’re underdeveloped, possibly being a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. This is the real start of the lore building so hopefully that pays off in interesting ways.

I guess I just don’t hold the same values in a series as other fans because I’d rather have the more light-hearted stuff with more serious bits sprinkled in than the rabbit hole the old stuff seems to be diving in to of taking itself way more seriously and caring more about the lore.

That being said, I’d still say it’s better than S3, that season just went up and down and it wasn’t cohesive aside from Zane’s plot. This one feels more thought out, but just isn’t for me.

Next up in terms of watching the show is Possession, which was very, very heavily foreshadowed at the end of S4. I know it also takes the dive into being more serious, but it’s also a lot lower on the characters in the plot so maybe it’ll have more time to play about with its ideas.

But more immediately next up is more modern Ninjago chaos, and I am way down for that!

#ninjago #ns4 #VEDJ-F talks #vedj-f reviews #I know this will probably be a controversial one #oof

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roominthecastle · 5 years

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@imyourplusone replied to your post:

This is a great summation. Without a doubt Agnes was conceived after the gratuitous boat sex of 2.22 but I’m unclear regarding Red’s confusion. If he and Lizzy were on the run, isolated and bam! made a baby followed by enough time passing that he sees the signs of her pregnancy then why would he doubt his paternity. Who else would he suspect considering he was with Liz everyday?

The timeline established by the episodes in S3A gets obliterated by the pregnancy reveal (*) but generally speaking, in this period (starting w/ 304) Liz and Tom are in contact. Red doesn’t seem to (want to) know specifics but he knows Liz and her pathological inability to stay away from him. After Aram blurts out that Tom’s back, Red asks Liz not to reach out. She promises she won’t but they both know she is lying. bc she is. She reaches out to him behind Red’s back 3 seconds later.

They are also staying close to the PO team during most of these episodes (304-307), and Cooper keeps meeting w/ Tom, so Tom is around somewhere as well. So Liz wouldn’t have to be away for too long if they decided to hook up for a quickie (or Tom could come to her and knowing him, the deed would take like a minute or 2, tops) - Red should be aware of this, too. And these eps show that Red isn’t necessarily around her 24/7. In 304, they get separated when the Djinn grabs Liz. In 305, Red goes to meet Ressler while Liz stays in the theater. In 307, he is away interrogating and torturing for what feels like a day. There could have been other instances that we weren’t shown where - for whatever reason - he had to leave Liz alone for a while, which created an opportunity to sneak off. We know she didn’t bc they clearly establish that the first time Tom and Liz see each other since 222 is ep 307 (by making Tom remark that he barely recognized her due to her new look, so he hadn’t seen her since she went on the run) and Liz is captured the next day. But again, Red doesn’t know this for sure (imo).

And there are several reaction shots and pointed moments featuring Red getting riled up whenever the topic of Tom comes up. He knows Tom’s close-ish, he knows Liz is more than capable of going behind his back to get to him (S2 is a testament to this), and when she tells him Tom wants to meet in 307, it doesn’t come as a big surprise to Red, he doesn’t even try to talk her out of it anymore. He just throws her a “that’s not a good idea”, then leaves to tend to some business alone. He just ditches her right there and then.

So I really just went with Red’s and Liz’s behavior here, re: uncertainty. He’s jealous but does nothing to prevent Liz from seeing Tom, he doesn’t track her movements (and he’s not always w/ her), so - as far as he knows - they could have hooked up while she was on the run, and that’s a seed of doubt that’s plenty enough, imo. And it only grows right after Liz gets exonerated and immediately goes back to Tom.

We have a gap - a couple of days - btw Liz’s exoneration (310) and her return to work (311) which she likely spends with Tom, and Red likely knows this bc when she shows up at his safe house for a meet in 311, Mr. Kaplan warns her that Red’s in a bad mood - and he really is. 311 is S3A jealousy: continued. He’s distant and testy (the complete opposite of how he behaved at the end of 310). He’s worried that Tom’s pulling Liz away again and that she seems so willing to go w/ him, which can easily nurture that seed of doubt about paternity: if it’s Tom’s, if there’s no doubt about it in her mind -- and there isn’t seem to be any he can pick up on (and he would) -- then a) they did hook up and b) Liz will be even less willing to stay w/ him now. Mr. Kaplan assures him that he’s not gonna lose her no matter what happens, but now we all know where Mr. Kaplan really stood on this issue (so Tom’s continued presence was playing into her hand).

Liz seems sure about paternity and no matter how good an observer you are, you cannot exactly date time of conception based on pregnancy symptoms alone (you can be weeks off, easy), so Red really has no grounds to question her unless he wants to add insult to injury here and he is smarter than that.

If they slept together, they used protection which reduces the chances of conception. Red just strikes me as the kind of person who would insist on it (Tom doesn’t), but no protection is 100% effective, esp in scripted shows, so a small chance is always there and enough to feed a bit of doubt.

if the morning after Red reacted as pleasantly as he reacted to her saving him, i.e. w/ a massive wave of self-loathing and a tortured “we can never do this again” or as he reacted to her “I love you” (=silence and pretending it never happened) or a combination of the two, then he can’t even really blame her for gravitating back towards someone who is vocal about wanting her and more than willing to “do it again” while Red is stuck in this impossible, never-ending battle that grinds up any hope of raising a child regardless of whose it is.

So in 311 he just suffers semi-guardedly as usual, and despite the whole “the world’s elite crime lords are about to vote on my execution for betraying them”, it’s clear what bothers him the most:

and this tense behavior seamlessly carries over into 312 and culminates in that “I assume Tom is the father.” Red can’t even look her in the eye after that as he is trying to process it. While he may have some doubts (no protection is 100%, her symptoms emerged “within range” of their coupling) but Liz is undoubtedly back on her Tom bullshit, so Red has no other choice but to assume she hooked up w/ Tom not too long after their time together.

He keeps telling her how much she reminds him of her mother and we could see that Katarina was in the same position when she got pregnant - stuck between two men under insane pressure and (understandably) choosing to go w/ the one who had at least a chance at offering her baby a sense of normalcy and relative safety. In the present, that’s not our Red, no matter how much he wants to be a dad to that baby.

(*) eps 301-310 actually take place over ~ 10 days (continuity links them up nicely), so I don’t think they wrote those w/ any pregnancy in mind. But something changed in 311 and from 311 onward a timeline was established retroactively (stretching these 10 days on the run into 3 months, giving us lots of narrative blank space) that completely excludes Tom as the father. There had to be some major revision happening in the background but to what end, I am not sure. Red fits in w/ this revised timeline. Tom doesn’t fit in w/ any version and I have tried them all.

#long post #tbl spec #i truly am just wildly speculating here but i hope i could get my point across #im def turning into that last gif now i can feel it #but thank you for indulging me :D #i am just writing fic at this point

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the-sixth-lion-blog · 5 years

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Things Happen For a Reason... Unless You Write For Voltron

There are tons of continuity errors and full on missing character arcs. So many, in fact, that I wonder if they didn't know how many seasons they were cleared for or how much time they had.

Has Lance Always Been Like That?

The Lance I met was a relatable character. Erratic, rash, defensive, but also empathetic, loyal and infectiously optimistic. Still, he's... The dumb one. That's his main title, the running joke, the flatness of his character.

So where did this suave, sweater wearing, humble nerd come from? He uses words that indicate a college reading level. He is capable of expressing his thoughts and emotions with beautiful fluency. It doesn't feel right.

This is a massive change from his fairly well developed character arc of him finding a place in the team, growing as a sharp shooter, being uplifting and learning selflessness. It also completely undermines his budding brotherhood with Keith to let him go have fun with Allura. Sure, we all like a well dressed Lance who uses big words and likes... Farming?

Yeah, so nothing about Lance's love for piloting persisted past Voltron I guess. His extreme passion for being in a team, his clear ability to shoot and his love of flying and exploring must have diminished the second he touched Earth and transformed into a completely different and unrelated field of work. I understand that, I promise, but it doesn't seem like Lance, who spent years overcoming his intrinsic dumbness to be a pilot at the garrison. We see him struggle for this! He wanted it.

He loved it.

And Speaking of Love

Guess what, this isn't going where you think it is!

That's right! Friend love!

These guys are best friends. They hang out, they know each other, they spend excruciating amounts of time stuck with each other at the Garrison on ships. So why does that all nearly disintegrate come Voltron? Lance and Hunk almost never exchange memories of their time at the Garrison. Anyone who has moved knows how fast those memories of their old life flow. And Pidge completely isolates herself. If you didn't know it you would never guess the three had been a lovely little friend group.

No wonder Lance had such a crisis when Keith showed him up as a pilot. Hunk and Pidge are immediately emotionally distant, his hero Shiro thinks he's a dumbass and he has to live on a crazy space castle with the usually angry and creepy closeted emo kid (adored by Shiro, who don't forget is Lance's #1 role model) who is somehow also clearly better than him.

Their friendship has been reduced to filler episodes.

Was That Shiro Cowering in a Corner or am I Imagining Things?

Nope. There it is.

Wow. Well. If I'm not mistaken this man has a rocket arm that delivers swift and capable punches. Now, that is clearly not as important to the show as his arm wrestling capability but if the writers wanted Shiro to have true, consistent and well written PTSD I would have accepted that as an explanation for his sudden inability to fight. But seeing as Shiro's nothing but traumatizing past (torture, losing his arm, being made to fight for his life in a space Colosseum while grappling with the existence of fully developed alien life that is trying to end earth, losing Sam and Matt, being trapped in a Lion, suffering the loss of Adam) has had almost no effect on his life past serving to provide minor exposition or to give Keith a chance to do something.

To further this point, here is a list of every time Shiro (not Kuron) got into a fight before and after Keith became black paladin. Here, a fight is if Shiro was outside of Voltron and engaged in any hand to hand combat or was injured by a malevolent being that was targeting him.

Ep 3 S1

Ep 4 S1

Ep 8 S1

Ep 9 S1

Ep 12 S1

Ep 13 S1

Ep 1 S2

Ep 3 S2 (in flashbacks)

Ep 4 S2

Ep 6 S2

Ep 7 S2 (in the astral plane)

Ep 10 S2

Now let's skip ahead.... 4 seasons... Oh man

Ep 12 S7

that's it

Ah. Hm. I think the data speaks for itself, don't you?

So what in the world happened to Shiro, gladiator and protectorate who would die for his team? When the enemy infiltrates his ship and attacks his friends, he is transformed into an inexplicably incapable soldier.

Shiro Actually Married "Adam", if You're Hard of Hearing

Have you happen to have heard the video guide for the ending of the last episode?

I'm a little skeptical of the source so let me know if this is incorrect. If it's real audio then I'm just disappointed.

Full Metal Paladin, Brotherhood

Sorry for forcing the title but it's the best thing that came to mind.

Keith and Shiro are close. Since they met, Shiro has been gently guiding Keith to his best path. Their bond is undeniable.

Out of all of the paladins, Keith should understand Shiro the best. So why in the world does Keith never bother to check in with Shiro? Strange migraines, not feeling like himself, making unnatural decisions? I doubt that anyone would see this as a warning sign for "clone," but anyone who has claimed a close friendship with someone will be concerned when they begin acting erratically. When Shiro mentions how terrible he's feeling-

(here is where I used up my image allowance so just imagine what I put in brackets)

He gets no response, and even Keith ignores his joyous outburst of "I feel so much better!". There's an appropriate "friend" response to that that Shiro does not receive from anyone. Keith, above all other paladins, is likely to know just how much Adam meant to Shiro, but Keith doesn't supply a shoulder to lean on at any moment. The writers want us to know that Keith loves Shiro. In what exact way I care not to delve into, though I would personally argue in a brotherly way. So why does Keith let Shiro's heart waste away like this?

[Shiro being sad which happens a lot actually]

Me too, Shiro. Me too.

The Allura of Power is Too Great

Why did the white lion choose Allura if not because of her intrinsic incorruptible self? And what changed in her heart or the story to make her seek dark power? She got infected with S1 Lance disease I suppose, because all of a sudden she's being dangerous and thoughtless.

[Allura opening up the stupid case and letting that thing out]

In s8, the situation is pretty dire. But it was dire before. She already learned not to trust Lotor, but then you know, he shows up and looks like Lance a little bit and that's enough for her to open up her arms and give dark alchemy a great big hug.

The white lion chose her over Lotor because she was bright and accepted her fate for the future of everything she held dear. What became of her, and why did we only see this change truly take form with less than an hour of the entire series left?

[White Lion jumping around with Allura]

Thanks for Making it Through This Post

There are hundreds of other things that I could mention, and feel free to add on to this with your own opinions! I know this isn't exactly plot continuity but characterization continuity. I hope that is okay! If you want me to focus more on plot next time, let me know 😊

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agentverbivore · 6 years

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I figured out how the Framework would fit into the daemon universe of Side By Side. it's genuinely sadder than canon, and I don't say that lightly. (although it's also better than canon, in that the terrible things don’t happen to "our” Fitz, so everything’s relative.) read on if you want to have your heart hurt a lot. (I’m really just posting it to have it all gathered somewhere.)

I mentioned at some point in my post-fic daemon ‘verse headcanons that when Fitz and Sarama are looking for Jemma and Caedmon (when they get swallowed by the monolith, ca. the canon s2/s3 hiatus timeline), they look for the subtle knife. I think that the Darkhold's aim would be for its evil being (or whatever possesses that book) to get ahold of the subtle knife.

so - SHIELD naturally finds the subtle knife.

and AIDA, when corrupted by the Darkhold (in saving the others, a la canon), uses the subtle knife to disappear into other universes to seek high and low to figure out how to gain a daemon, which is a thing that she fundamentally cannot have and cannot take from anyone else but wants desperately. having a daemon is the greatest indicator of being human, of having become “a real girl,” but there is no artificial way to fake a soul. but that’s not gonna stop her from trying to get one. [this is also why AIDA is later obsessed with intercision, and perfecting it to the point of keeping both the human and daemon intact. (which she also can’t do.)]

using the subtle knife to travel between worlds, AIDA at one point finds a universe where she meets Fitz's dad, and does something that convinces Alistair to stay with his family (thereby prompting the physical abuse rather than just the emotional abuse, and making that Fitz and his daemon more malleable to her own machinations later). but then AIDA keeps searching, leaving that universe, not caring about the effect she had on that universe during her brief visit.

eventually she comes to the conclusion that she cannot make her own daemon, and she cannot steal another's (she has tried over and over again). and she accidentally finds her way back to the universe with the abused Fitz + Sarama as adults, and it’s the Hydra-verse (although this time it wasn't something that she completely orchestrated, like in canon). and so instead, AIDA begins a campaign in that universe to convince people that daemons are a sin, that they are a disease that needs to be eradicated, that people having daemons is something that needs to be wiped out, just like the Inhumans. she uses her own superhuman strength (as a robot) as “proof” that she is better without a daemon, guarding her non-humanity closely. meanwhile, she’s convinced the abused Fitz (aka. Framework Fitz, but there’s no Framework here) to work with the Hydra scientists to develop a way to sever adults without killing them (the daemons are considered expendable here, so like in HDM, they disappear). (and to be abundantly clear: there is no physical or sexual abuse/relationship between them. it would give away that she is an android.)

because this Fitz is so much more malleable to outside influence, both from AIDA and from his father, he ultimately tests the intercision machine on himself, to prove himself to his father, to prove that he’s smart enough to do what everyone has said was impossible.

so, to be clear: in the daemon AU, this other, alternate Fitz literally has no soul. he has been severed from his daemon and she is gone.

meanwhile, in the prime universe, SHIELD is going spare trying to find AIDA - they know she's causing huge rifts in the fabric of reality, but they can't keep up with her. she’s abusing the subtle knife and it’s having vast and terrible repercussions. FitzSimmons (long since married by this point) help to develop a way to mimic the subtle knife without actually having the artifact itself. because of some reason or another, Jemma is testing it out and finds her way with Caedmon into the Hydra-verse - meeting the severed!Fitz.

imagine Jemma and Caedmon's anguish as they realize what happened to this other version of the man they love, the near inability to remember that he is not their husband but someone else - and yet he is a version of Fitz, while that Sarama has been reduced to dust.

that version of Fitz would ultimately need to die somehow - it would be a kindness at that point to end his suffering, dulled though it would be by the hollowness of being severed. Jemma would have a gun on him but couldn't do it - she can't hurt him, someone who in so many ways is her Fitz, even if he isn’t. I was gonna say maybe Radcliffe is the one who ends it, but, no... it has to be Caedmon. it's awful on like a dozen different levels but it would have to happen that way. especially because for those last few moments, with the lion crushing his throat, the severed Fitz would feel the touch of someone else's daemon. and not just anyone's daemon - the daemon of the person who he should be with, had she not been killed in his universe. and here’s where the “soulmate AU” part of this ‘verse because exceedingly painful, in that the severed Fitz would know the second that Caedmon touched him what had been missing from his existence. and so for those last few seconds of his miserable, ruined life, he finds peace.

and when the real Fitz, our Fitz, finally finds his way into that universe to help them wrangle Radcliffe and stop AIDA, the first thing Jemma does is not go to hug him, but to grab onto Sarama and hold her close, sobbing. it takes Jemma and Caedmon a very, very long time to be able to describe the horror that they had witnessed in that universe, and how much it shook them to their core - the emptiness that radiated from a soulless Fitz haunts them.

Fitz and Sarama are horrified to learn what terrible things they experienced in another universe, but it’s hard for them to ever really grasp what Jemma and Caedmon went through. they didn’t experience any of it, after all, and never met the other version of Fitz. it all happened to someone else entirely. so they try to comfort Jemma and Caedmon and remind them that they are fine and whole, and that they’re never going to leave them again.

#FitzSimmons #Agents of SHIELD #fsfic #fstag #thefitzsimmonsnetwork #SBS Tidbits #Academy AU #Verbivore writes #this is p much an edited transcript of a long schpeal I sent to my beta via IM lol #soooooooooooo I hurt #and also I apologize greatly to anyone who reads this #fanfiction #tw: abuse #tw: death

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blu-b · 7 years

Text

Cornish funny farm, a review (Poldark S3 E8)

I usually don’t do this kind of comment / summary, but after today’s episode let me chime in with a few things….

Behind a cut, for reasons.

Ross & Elizabeth 3.0: Oh finally, those two get to talk in private, and like adults. Yay! Now everything will be rectified…right? Right?

Ooooh far from it! They talk and talk and…. never come to the actual point?? Elizabeth hints at Valentine’s parentage, Ross asks if he’s his, Elizabeth says she doesn’t know - cue a brief hysterical fit where Ross accuses her of not wanting to tell (to what point and purpose should she?? Also Ross, mate, if you have any basic knowledge of how reproduction works, you’d know that this is not an exact science, at least not in your times), Elizabeth once again defending herself for something that is not her fault, Ross wanting to know what exactly George suspects…and the conversation starts all over again. Hello?? Get to the fucking POINT, people!

OK Ross basically apologizing for what he did was VERY relieving, as was seeing that they still have some sort of fondness for each other, albeit a sad one; but what was that bullshit about “never injure the woman I loved” - remember you kicked in her door and broke into her bedroom? Also, I’m not a fan of his borderline aggression when he says “You WON’T tell!”…too many bad memories of that one night™ .

And then, the weirdest and wildest thing ever: So the only way to save her marriage to George is by “giving him another child” and make it look like it’s premature as well. “When there’s some confusion about the date…” Yes Ross, really, are you happy to help out again?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, DEBBIE H.?? What’s this bumfuckery?? Why is Ross suggesting such a thing to her?? I can’t believe it…I was literally yelling at the TV like: “Ross…..Roooooss…..no, you didn’t..ROSSSSS ROOOOSSS NOO ROSS!!” What in fuck’s name did I just witness???? This can’t be serious. I’m still speechless.

Also, Ross, your many “all in good friendship” kisses to Elizabeth’s face are cute, but did you check if she really wants that? No? Ah, I’m smelling a pattern here.

And, what’s all that guesswork about who told George of their night together?

R: Have you never hinted to him….? E: How could I?? But maybe you said something to him….? R: Asjsalmnkbjamff!!! E: Oh, but who could have told him? Hmmmmm. Who else was in the house….. ………… ……….. ……….. Both, looking ominously out to the graveyard: ………………..could it be? Agatha….?

I mean, how stupid is that? Agatha basically told Elizabeth on her dying bed (stool) that she had spilled the beans to George, so…..dafuq?

I liked what they did with Ross “confessing” his feelings to Demelza, it explains a lot about his later actions and why he’s trying to hard to stick to his promise. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t say it in the end - of course he should, but for his character development it’s not important whether he says it out loud or just in his head; the main thing is that he has reached that conclusion and is coming to terms with his own feelings that were so unclear to him not too long ago. I really like season 3 Ross so far with the exception of the above examples, so yeah…there’s still hope.

Insert obligatory timeline glitch: “And for the first time in years, we talked. ” - Ross meaning Elizabeth. Ummm. Years? Valentine is like what, 2 years old? And there was that incident with the horses at the cliffs, he spoke to Elizabeth there, albeit briefly, but he did speak to her. “For the first time in years” makes it sound like they haven’t talked for a decade. Meanwhile, Jeremy Poldark has aged one day.

So, back to the talk. So the plan is to seduce poor George every day so that no one can tell exactly when a possible new baby was conceived? Very clever. Good luck with that.

Speaking of George….and ok yeah I��m biased here, but still….my poor precious darling boy! :’( The small victory of the election is tarnished by his family affairs. He so wants to believe little Valentine is his, but he just can’t get over old Agatha’s cruel words. Played to perfection by Jack, the internal struggles of a man who doesn’t know if he’s being lied to by the woman he loves, or has just been led on by an old woman’s spite. I liked to see that his nervous little habits increase, and it’s also quite telling in this context that it’s George who first loses his nerve in the dispute with Ross, not the other way round as usual (note to self: I do love when George results to cursing, shouting, or a threatening purr ^^). And that image of him sitting alone in his carriage almost broke my heart :-(

What was stupid though was that they put the confrontation in after Ross spoke to Elizabeth. He knows that George is suspicious of her and of Valentine’s parentage, and still he says something stupid like “…and so is her son!” - meaning Geoffrey Charles, of course, but it’s just such a cheap and obvious way of creating suspense. George very obviously and understandably thinks Ross is - in anger - referring to Valentine, and how can he not think that? Ross of course doesn’t say it with that intention, but it’s just stupid because he usually either says “Francis’ son” (because that’s what makes GC a Poldark in the first place), or simply “Geoffrey Charles”, not “Elizabeth’s son”. It would have made A LOT more sense to put this BEFORE the conversation with Elizabeth, so that Ross actually realizes that he has said something incredibly stupid to George and put Elizabeth under even more suspicion. The way it is, it’s just another cheap “Poldark vs. Warleggan” moment.

Then, Demelza. I almost felt sorry for her when yet another man tells her “You’re not perfect, but I’m not looking for perfection anyway…” - like seriously? Is Hugh actually getting her with the same superficial crap that Ross told her? Ugh. Don’t get me wrong, Hugh is cute and I like him, but I’m not sure I like / understand the way his attraction to her is portrayed. It’s all a bit too obvious and too much and…well, yeah. I don’t really care enough to delve deeper into it.

Morwenna’s storyline is finally getting a bit interesting, after endless hours of her looking at Drake like a moon calf and swooning over some flowers and standing at the window looking longingly out to…whatever. Worse that what they did to Elizabeth in s2, imho. She still doesn’t do much but sit there and suffer, but this time I’ve actually shed a tear for her because I’m finally beginning to feel a bit more for this character than just “ugh…!”.

Also, I get that Osborne is a horrible man that we shouldn’t come to like, but I’ve got to admit that he does have some comical moments, and especially perfect timing, so kudos to Christian Brassington for this portrayal.

Also, I kind of like Rowella. I wasn’t too into any of the “young generation” and I still don’t care a damn for Sam Carne and his what’s-her-face, and neither for Drake for that matter, but the way Rowella plays the fat vicar’s vices is kind of entertaining (and makes one wonder why her sister never thought of similar tricks, but she was possibly too busy looking out the window…).

Final conclusion: Almost every marriage in Cornwall is beyond botched.

One ray of light though, Dwight. Dwight is always right. Hahaha, I loved how he stuck it to fat Ossie ^^ But in general, he and Caroline don’t get nearly enough screen time in this season.

Elizabeth was again reduced to little else but holding Valentine and looking ominous, but I did love how in two scenes she got to actually decide something for herself, and how she takes on responsibility, not only of Morwenna, but in general. She seems more like the lady of the house now and issues commands, and she’s not afraid to use the differences in their rank to put Osborne into his place. Well done, lovely lady! *applauds* Also, I like how her feelings for George seem to have developed into something more than convenience.

Finally though, Ross and Demelza. Oh my. What a clusterfuck of bullshit. It all boils down to:

“My heart will always and forever belong to you…but, actually, trying out another man for a day would be kinda cool, and once I did that I’ll happily return to you and go on as if nothing happened, also btw you cheated on me so you are morally obliged to grant me this favour."

Wow. Kudos to Ross for his self-control and his patience with her. I’m not getting into the discussion whether cheating out of revenge is okay or not, and neither into any other for that matter, and while I admit that Ross has some horrible flaws and did abysmal things in the past, he’s trying so hard this season, especially with Demelza. That he makes a few remarks the like of “Not every man in Cornwall is in love with you” doesn’t really come as a surprise after the Fucky McMustache episode, but all in all and given that it’s Ross we’re speaking of, he’s basically snuggly as a kitten. Whereas my understanding for Demelza shrinks with every episode since season 2 tbh. OK so he doesn’t write her poems, so what? He doesn’t care what dress colour she wears, so what? She could be stuck in a FAR worse marriage with a far worse man (think Osborne), and also some of her antics are really rather pointless and just feel like random bitching because she doesn’t get what she wants (a large part of which seems to be the “ploughing” of a certain “field” if I’m reading this correctly; at least that seems to be what the script is hinting at).

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that they’re working through a difficult time in their marriage, and both of them are not easy persons, but - citing the books - all of this is about eventually understanding that there’s more to love and marriage than what convention teaches us and that in order to understand a partner and truly love them, you need to let go of them sometimes. And there would have been so many more ways to bring that across in film, instead of having Demelza be randomly angry with Ross and paying him back by cheating with the next best man who babbles romantic nonsense at her.

This was one of the more powerful episodes in s3, and still the overall feeling I’m left with is one of being sorry for all the persons who’d deserve more happiness than what they’re currently getting: Elizabeth & George, Morwenna & Drake, and Ross….

Oohooo and edit: No Ross, Elizabeth is actually not "the only person" who can do something about this spiderweb of lies you're both entangled in (especially not by telling another lie!). YOU could walk up to George and tell him face to face that Elizabeth is innocent, that you slept with his fiancée against her will and that you're sorry for what you did, and if Valentine should turn out to come after you, that you'll help support the child (even though George and Elizabeth surely don't need the money). That would come very close to a suicide mission, but it would be honest for once and you'd not be using Elizabeth to cover up your own mistakes.

#poldark spoilers #spoilers #poldark season 3 #not tagging this with poldark or character names because i don't wanna be sucked into fandom bullshit #my review #basically a rant #this is me just blurting out my first impressions #I need to see this again in order to appreciate it

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wendynerdwrites · 7 years

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Im glad that u also like archer. Ive been rewatching it (im on s2) and i feel guilty as a feminist for liking it so much :( i know a lot of the jokes are supposed to be ironic but i still feel bad for laughing, and my bf has made comments abt "how can u laugh at that as a feminist" (he isnt one, hes using it as a gotcha). How do u feel about this? Any advice for separating myself from toxic fandom to just be able to enjoy something problematic? Love ur blog btw happy friday 💋💋

Thanks, and don’t worry, anon: You’re not a bad feminist.

It’s funny you ask this, but I used to have an entire essay series on this exact topic, and on Archer, particularly!

My philosophy is: don’t ignore the problematic, examine it. Use it as a springboard for analysis so you can learn more about the issue conveyed. Use your problematic responsibly! Because, let’s be honest, there ARE no unproblematic pieces of media. So just use it to educate yourself instead. For instance: my love of West Side Story (starring Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria) got me to learn more about the issues of white-washing.

Being a feminist is not about being perfect, it’s about learning and being open to examination and learning. Use your fandom for good!

Laughter is the balm for the soul. And listening to your boyfriend telling you how to be a feminist… less so. Kind of the opposite.

My old articles are lost, for the most part, but under the cut, I’ve pasted them for reference and included a great video on satire that also very easily applies to this discussion (just substitute feminism with the Holocaust)

Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)

Nothing and no one is perfect, so isnt it about time we learn how to call out the things we love?

We are all familiar with guilty pleasures: those things we like in spite of ourselves, that we are ashamed to admit we enjoy. Usually the term is applied to something we enjoy despite a perceived “lameness”, or because we’re not the right demographic for something. For instance, I still have a deep, abiding affection for Sailor Moon: that colorful, stock-footage-laced Japanese phenomenon that still gets me shouting “MOON PRISM POWER!” when I’m in the right mood. Yes, childhood is over, and yes, the show’s American dub did give me incest panic as a child, but I can’t help but love it.

But then there is the more difficult brand of guilty pleasures guilty pleasures that involve actual guilt instead of “mild embarrassment”. I’m talking about problematic faves the stuff that we love despite it containing clearly objectionable material.

willing18

(Image copyright Vertigo Comics)

…This is a panel from Bill Willingham’s Fables. The character there is Bigby Wolf, one of the main (anti) heroes of the story and the character the writer identifies with most. The person Bigby is waxing poetically on pro-Zionism to is someone literally called “The Adversary”.

Fables also happens to be one of my favorite comic book series on the planet.

Safe to say the issues surrounding Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East are a bit more complicated than that. And my own feelings on the matter are far more complicated. But this glorification of Israeli military policy is… um… in very tame terms… uncomfortable. After reading this, I resolved to only check Fables out of the library: a way for me to enjoy these comics in a legal way without financially supporting these ideas, however indirectly.

There are other problems with Fables: a lack of ethnic diversity, some murky racial and class commentary, and instances of some objectionable tropes, but there is a lot to recommend of these books as well. The stories are fantastic, the art brilliant, the characters well-fleshed out, and there is a definite progressive take on issues like gender and sexuality. But as much as I love this series, there is no getting around the fact that these stories have issues.

No excuses.

But it’s not just Fables that has disappointed me in the past. I am now and forever a Trekker, yet despite how horribly sexist episodes like “The Turnabout Intruder” are, or the very troubling anti-Semitic coding of the Ferengi. The Star Wars prequels famously had racist caricatures with the Trade Federation and the infamous Jar Jar Binks.

In the world of media, there’s no shortage of problematic content. From the novels of Robert Heinlein containing pro-fascist commentary, to HBO’s Game of Thrones misogynistic adaptation decisions, there’s nothing that is quite free of some messed up messages, subtle and blatant alike.

Now, when we talk about such media, we don’t merely mean triggering factors (i.e. the presentation, portrayal, or discussion of potentially traumatizing issues like domestic abuse, racism, hate crimes, substance abuse, or sexual assault), but rather how these matters are portrayed. A piece of media, such as Marvel and Netflix’s excellent Jessica Jones series, can portray certain issues (such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and mental illness) in a respectful, progressive, and sensitive light. Thus, while the content of the show can be triggering, the skill with which they portray these matters keeps it from being problematic.

In contrast, something like Game of Thrones, which portrays sexual assault in a thoroughly insensitive, exploitative, and misogynistic manner, is highly problematic.

Unfortunately, progress has been a slow-moving process, with many issues such as race, gender, sexual identity, mental illness, substance abuse, and violence only being examined in a more nuanced way fairly recently. As a result, almost all media is problematic in one way or another. Especially since even today, the majority of executives crafting, publishing, and greenlighting books, shows, comics, movies, and other forms of media are in fact cisgendered, heterosexual white men.

So what do we do?

Good news: here at Fandom Following, we don’t believe in dropping something you like just because it’s problematic. Why?

Because knowing, examining, and yes, even appreciating problematic content can be incredibly important. While certain content can be damaging, it can also teach us a great deal. Not only about current issues, but also about how to go about discussing these matters, and constructing narratives in general.

The racial issues in things like Star Wars and Star Trek can teach us much about how coding works, and how to avoid reinforcing stereotypes. The exploitation of women and rape on Game of Thrones can open up a dialogue of how to portray these things properly and improperly.

There are three tricks to enjoying problematic media: 1) Recognizing that there is an issue, 2) Being ready for a dialogue, and 3) Not ignoring or silencing the complaints about said issues.

Well, we here at Fandom Following have decided to tackle this issue head on with a series called “Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)”, where we will be exploring specific media franchises, creators, and works and, specifically, the problematic content they contain. In this series, we’ll be examining the issues, talking about why they’re important, discussing what this piece of media did wrong, how to approach the issue in a more progressive way, and the best ways to go about discussing the issue itself. Various writers will be contributing to this project, and we’re excited to present this feature to you!

So let’s get down and dirty, people. We all have our problematic faves. Let’s talk about them.

My Face is Problematic: Archer

Honestly, doing a post like this on Archer, a show which is deliberate in its dark humor, is a bit hard for me. Not because I like the show, but because I think there’s true validity in the argument that humor and narratives about really messed up, problematic stuff has its place. The show exists to be as outlandish and absurd as possible. The extremes and the awfulness of the characters’ personalities and their actions is the point.

I VUZ BORN IN DUSSELDORF AND THAT IS VY THEY CALL ME ROLF!

Joking about awful things, awful circumstances, and awful people is hardly new ground for comedy to cover, nor does it send a poor message, necessarily. Mel Brooks wrote a movie in which one of the characters was a Nazi, who wrote an overblown pro-Nazi musical produced by men deliberately trying to make a flop. Springtime For Hitler, as it exists in our universe, is not problematic. The Nazis are the butt of the joke, in which any pro-Nazi sentiment can only function if it is wildly fabricated and over-the-top, and even then, it will still be taken for satire. Because Nazis are utterly terrible, they built their movement on total bullshit that they dressed up in shiny boots and Hugo Boss uniforms and German exceptionalism and “glory”. This song-and-dance number about “Don’t be stupid, be a smartie, come and join the Nazi party” only ever deserves to be a joke, as the Jew who wrote it can tell you. Nazis fucking suck and it’s hilarious that anyone would ever suggest otherwise.

There’s justice in reducing Nazis to self-parody, and doubling down on that by making a joke about them being reduced to self-parody. Especially when said self-parody and depiction of it is crafted by the very people Hitler tried to destroy. No one enjoys or masters mocking Nazis like the Jews. Plain and simple.

Joking about awful things and how terrible they are can be a good way to process things and not allow them to hurt you anymore. Comedy, at its core, is a defense mechanism against horror and pain. There’s a reason slapstick is a classic subgenre of comedy that people have built entire careers around. Laugh at terror and pain to make it go away. Unfortunately, some of the things we manage to find humor in can really make you wonder if were all just terrible and have no limits.

Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by Frank McCourt about his impoverished, abusive, dangerous childhood in Ireland. In it, he chronicles his own starvation, life-threatening illness, abuse, and suffering at the hands of alcoholism and brutality from adult authority figures. He was a child laborer who went days without food while his father drank away the family’s money and abused the rest of the family, who often came down with horrifying illnesses as a result of the terrible conditions he lived in, and spent his formative years suffering along with all the people he loved. Three of his infant siblings die within the space of a chapter. We get a glimpse of the time when his father, overjoyed at the birth of his daughter, finds the will to stop drinking, stop mistreating his family, go to work, provide for his family, and just generally be a better person so that his children don’t have to suffer. For a short period, the McCourts have food, heat, and happiness. Then the baby promptly dies and Frank’s father is back in the pubs, once again squandering any pay he manages to acquire on alcohol and returning home at three am to scream at and beat his wife while his remaining children try to cover their ears and sleep on the cold ground.

Along with being praised for it being a both an unflinchingly brutal depiction of poverty and a testament to the triumph of the human spirit, the book is also praised for its humor.

Remember: Angela’s Ashes is a true story written by the very man who suffered through all of these horrible things. And it’s considered a pretty funny book. And the author who, once again, is the person who actually suffered all of these horrible things, actually did intentionally try to make people laugh as they read about that time he was in the hospital with Typhoid Fever and enjoyed it because it was the first time he’d been in a place where he was fed regularly and got to sleep in a warm bed.

Hilarious.

That being said, there’s satire and dark humor, and there’s just gratuitous, shock-jock bullshit. There are jokes that are terrible simply because of what they’re about and how they’re handled. George Carlin said that anything can be made funny, even rape, if you imagine Elmer Fudd raping Porky Pig.

If we can build entire films and musicals about how any pro-Hitler sentiment can only ever be taken as satire, isn’t that proof that you can joke about anything?

Yes, you can, but that doesn’t mean you should try, that the joke is funny, or that it’s alright, necessarily. Maybe Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and Springtime for Hitler prove that anything can be made funny and that’s okay. But if that’s true (and no, I’m not saying that it is), that still doesn’t mean every attempt at making something funny is either acceptable or funny.

Springtime for Hitler is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for any attempt to make a terrible subject the object of humor. Standards need to exist.

Unfortunately, the line between good or acceptable dark humor and simply gratuitous, insensitive, inherently problematic jokes can blur. The excuse of humor can only go so far. Yes, make light of Nazis. But there’s still a point where “humor” is used an excuse for people to act like assholes. And it’s an excuse that is used all too often. Radio Shock Jocks have been using that excuse to help reinforce racism and rape culture for quite a while. Whether certain dudebros like it or not, there’s a point where it stops being gross-out and just starts being gross.

Which brings me to Archer, the animated spy comedy on FX that premiered in 2011. Like many comedy series like Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a major part of the premise is that certain characters are, quite simply, terrible people. These characters and their abhorrent behavior is the joke. And, as the show is about spies, these terrible people are often put into highly dangerous, outlandish, and traumatizing situations.

So, the main characters, by virtue of their profession, spend a lot of time killing people in cold blood. Or trying to seduce or manipulate enemies. Or engaging in clandestine operations of sabotage that harm a lot of people. Horrible, violent things are going to happen, things violent enough to serve as narratives on their own. But most of the characters are as awful as the situations they encounter, so the horror is amplified. And it’s a comedy.

Indeed, in the first episode of the fifth season, we get the whole main ensemble recounting all of their actions and experiences working for the spy agency ISIS that we’d witnessed over the course of the show’s run at that point. Drag racing with the Yakuza, knee-capping the Irish mob, encountering human traffickers, 30 year affairs with the head of the KGB that only ended when the guy was blown up because one of the ISIS members had choke sex with the victim’s cyborg replacement, actual piracy, paying homeless people to fight for spectators, defling a corpse, defiling a different corpse, sexual assault, kidnapping the pope, blowing up oil pipelines, “smuggling Mexicans”

Yeah.

There are comedic arcs about cancer, illegal immigration, kinky S&M bondage murders, cocaine addiction… a lot of stuff, basically.

Now, take those situations, and add in characters who get aroused by things like homeless people, being choked, sex with food, and the thought of their mother dying. Who spend their weekends starting fires, making hybrid pig-people, rubbing sand into the eyes of their employees, competing in underground Chinese Fighting Fish tournaments, and calling in bomb threats so that they can get a table at a fancy restaurant. You get the idea.

And it’s all totally awesome and hilarious and god damn it I kind of love these characters.

This show has a season-long sub-arc about one of the main characters getting so aggressively addicted to cocaine that she not only consumes (literally) half a ton of it in the space of a few months, but almost gets her head chopped off for buying amphetamines from the Yakuza with counterfeit money. It’s one of the most incredible things the show has done.

Pictured: An absurdly self-centered man feeling genuine dismay and concern over his friend risking her life to achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty.

The title character has a butler named Woodhouse who practically raised him. One of the first interactions we witness between them is Archer not only threatening to rub sand into Woodhouse’s “dead little eyes”, but making him go out and buy the sand himself and check if they grade it, because he wants the sand to be coarse. He’s also done things like make the man eat a bowl of spiderwebs and deliberately keep him in the dark about his brother’s death and funeral.

Another character is a mad scientist and possible clone of Adolf Hitler who kills a young intern by giving him a drug designed to turn him gay. That’s one of the less disturbing things Dr. Krieger has done.

Frequent gags on this show include one guy repeatedly getting shot, another character repeatedly getting paralyzed (it’s complicated), people trying to remember the inappropriate puns that they wanted say as one-liners, the horrific abuse and neglect Sterling Archer has received from his mother his entire life, and basically everyone being a sex-maniac.

There are plots revolving around mind-control, drugging people, and hypnotism. You can imagine the paths some of those episodes go down. Yes, there is a character that has tried to sexually assault one of her sleeping co-workers. And later deposited two unconscious, naked coworkers in a bathroom stall with an octopus, in an episode that has already made tentacle hentai jokes. Yes, the openly gay character on the show is often the target of jokes about him being gay or a woman from his coworkers. Yes, the female lead, a black woman, is referred to as a “quadroon” at one point by one of the characters.

Yes, the following exchange of dialogue does take place in an early episode:

“Oh my god, you killed a hooker!”

“Call-girl!”

“No, Cyril, when they’re dead, they’re just hookers!”

And yet… Oh my god. How it manages to play around with stuff in an amazing fashion. For one thing, it is amazing how often this show skewers micro-aggressions and fucks around with stereotypes. And, despite how unabashedly messed up it is, the writing in it actually manages to be oddly pro-social progress in ways that most modern media doesn’t even seem to be aware of.

I take pride in my sex work and I will not put up with your bullshit!

For instance the “hooker” referred to in that exchange? (spoiler alert: she wasn’t really dead) She’s Trinette, and she an unbelievably refreshing and strangely progressive depiction of a sex worker. While she’s a minor character, every time she shows up, it’s awesome. Trinette is a sex worker who is unashamed of her job, a woman who truly does take pride in and enjoy her work, who does not put up with poor behavior from her clients, and is just generally awesome. She call people out and makes them pay for any mistreatment she receives, from calling out micro-aggressions by insisting on her preferred terminology for her profession (“Call-girl, you puke!”), shaming men for their sexual misdeeds (“How can you cheat on Lana bare-back?!”), demanding restitution for any injuries or threats she’s suffered (Threatening Archer into giving her his car after he fakes her death and stuffs her in a rug to fool Cyril into thinking he killed her), and determining her work and clients (“What about Trinette? She said that? Damn it!”). When she has a baby, she gives it her last name along with his father’s (“Magoon-Archer”) and she unapologetically proud of her Irish heritage. She’s easily one of the most functional characters in the show, and every one of her appearances on the show manage to defy at least one whore-phobic trope a minute. She’s the best.

Then there’s the show’s handling of race, which is mixed. While arguably the most important female character in the series (the show, despite its name, is very, very much an ensemble, especially as the series progresses. But in the early episodes when they focussed on fewer characters, she was the one who got the most screentime) is Lana Kane, a highly-competent (for ISIS) African American woman who is really, really well-developed, there is also the fact that she’s the only POC in the main cast. Granted, part of that IS the point. One of the earliest episodes is “Diversity Hire”, where, aside from Lana, the spy agency is so overwhelmingly white that they hire a “diversity double-whammy!” Conway Stern, a black Jew.

“Sammy Gay-vis Junior!”

Now, granted, that doesn’t sound great the way I describe it, but there are so many great moments in this episode alone. For instance, when Mallory Archer, terrible woman and owner of the spy agency mentions their lack of diversity, Cyril, the tragically white accountant and “nice guy” puts his hands on Lana’s shoulder and says he thinks they’re pretty diverse, a statement Lana finds hilarious. Cue Sterling Archer, other horrible person, telling Lana she’s “black-ish”, then responding to her offense at this with “Well, you freaked out when I said quadroon!”. The framing of this entire discourse is that Cyril and Archer are fucking idiots and Lana is of course taking offense because, duh, she should. The episode proceeds with a lot of references and discussion about racism, highlighting casual racism in a nuanced, funny, and organic way. For instance, Archer’s relief that Conway didn’t sleep with his mother. While Archer freaks out about anyone sleeping with his mother, regardless of race, Conway believes it’s racism on Archer’s fault. And in no way does the narrative act like he’s overly-sensitive or irrational for thinking that. Because the stereotype about black men seducing white women and fear from white men about this is still a very real, pervasive thing that has somehow managed to survive in our “enlightened” times. Of course Conway encountering a guy who displays a downright violent fixation on whether or not his new black coworker is sleeping with his mother will assume it’s a race thing. Because why would anyone be so preoccupied with such an idea? In that situation, it’s almost certainly based on the long-standing paranoia white men have about black men’s sexuality “conquering their women.” It’s one of the most common varieties of anti-blackness in existence.

Of course, since it’s Archer, who has kidnapped a LOT of people under the suspicion that they were having sex with his mom, we know this is the one case that it isn’t racism. It’s Archer’s disturbing, Oedipal relationship with his mother. He even kidnapped and threatened his role model, Burt Reynolds, for dating his mother. When he says “Not in a racist way” to Conway in this episode, it’s actually true. He’s just honestly that screwed up where his mother is concerned.

Conway’s conclusions on this, regardless, are still framed as a totally understandable. To the point where the episodes suggests that it would make no sense for Conway to think otherwise. Part of the joke is that no, Archer isn’t a horrible racist at all. He’s way too screwed up for his actions to be motivated by racism.

And before anyone asks, no, this wasn’t the “episode that acknowledges that racism is a thing.” You know the ones… The episodes that talk about race and why racism is bad to prove to the audience that they’re not racist, then proceed with the rest of the show, which never acknowledges race and racism again. There are frequent instances of highlighting racism, from violent outright bigotry to common micro-aggressions to clueless white people demanding how the thing they just did/said could POSSIBLY be considered racist! They’re not racist! How is THAT racist?! Cue Lana face-palming.

I just really, really like this. It doesn’t just end there, either. Racism is called out pretty frequently on this show, and not in a cliche, strawman way. Nor is it treated like something that only exists in the form of aggressively bigoted bad people shouting slurs and holding cross burnings. Nope. The “heroes” of this show just say shit that you could easily imagine someone saying in real life, shortly before getting defensive about any racism on their part. It’s treated as a common, pervasive thing that Lana and other PoC have to deal with every day, and the offense they take at it is treated as nothing short of sympathetic or justified (even in the cases of misunderstandings, like with Conway). This includes Mallory telling Lana to “put [the race card] back in the deck!” as reminder of how much of an unapologetic douche Mallory is.

It’s made clear: people say and do some super racist shit on a regular basis with realizing it or meaning to, and regardless, it’s still uncool and people have every right to get upset and call you out on it. See: Ray’s bionic hand at the end of season six.

Lana’s reactions and how they’re framed is usually pretty awesome. Mostly they come in the form of small, reasonable confrontations, which are never framed as an overreaction on her part. The fact that she “freaked out” when Archer called her a quadroon is framed as “well, duh, of course, she should.” Then there are instances like when she, Archer, and their child visit a high-end nursery school where they encounter a pretty obvious racist. The guy ignores and dismisses Lana at first, then expresses surprise at the fact that she’s the mother of the child (despite the baby being black), remarking about the “times we live in” and telling Lana “good for you!” when she informs him that yes, she is the mother, not the nanny or the maid.

Not all of the racism stuff stems from Lana being back, either. They skewer bigotry against Latinos on a pretty regular basis. When an Irish mobster rants about Latinos (he doesn’t refer to them by that name) “taking American jobs!”, Archer immediately calls bullshit, recalling actual history of the Irish being accused of that exact same thing during the mass immigration of the Irish to America during the potato famine, and it’s just as shitty and bigoted to say such things about immigrants now as it was in 1842. He is extremely irate about a mission ISIS is assigned to do on behalf of border patrol to arrest people who just want to get a job, and he ends up siding with and befriending the Mexican illegal immigrants he encounters. All of this while aspects of certain Latinx cultures are often highlighted, often very favorably (“Ramone is Latino, so he’s not afraid to express affection.”)

That being said, there are still a lot of issues in the show. The lack of diversity is definitely an albatross around this show’s neck. Especially so many seasons after the “Diversity Hire” episode. While I do praise Archer for not treating racism as a thing that is rare and only needs to be addressed in one twenty-minute block of time, it is telling that the lack of diversity at ISIS is never addressed again.

Then there’s the approach to sexuality. The show loves gross-out sex humor, especially regarding Krieger. And the depiction of sexuality is actually pretty mixed. On one hand, the openly gay character in the show adheres to a lot of stereotypes about gay men: he mocks Lana about her “knock-off Fiacci drawers”, his go-to alias is “Carl Channing”, his free time is spent at raves, and he loves to make effeminate poses. He’s also a frequent target of homophobic jokes and remarks. His outrage at this is treated as being every bit as valid as Lana’s, but it doesn’t change the fact that their main gay character is basically ALL of the stereotypes, as are a number of the other gay characters.

“Alright! Were off to get our scrotums waxed!”

Then there is the sexual assault. Which, once again, is called out for being what it is, in defiance of many common biases (such as the idea that female-on-male sexual assault isn’t a thing). But this show is way too flippant about this.

While I consider Archer to be very sex-positive, allowing every character, regardless of sex, age, or orientation, to be comfortable and expressive about their sexuality without judgment (a lot of jokes, yes, but not any that come off as particularly shaming). Almost every character, male or female spends a fair amount of time naked or scantily clad. We see Archer stripped down just as often as Lana. And the fan service isn’t relegated to just women who adhere to the typical youth and weight obsessed eurocentric standards we all know and hate.

Pam, who is a big woman (and often the target of fat jokes, which the show always treats as nothing short of detestable) is a total sex goddess who grows to be utterly confident in herself as a woman to the point where she’s giving Mallory (one of the most desired women on the show) advice. When she reveals that she keep ingesting cocaine because it’s made her thin with big boobs, Archer is utterly dismayed, telling her she was way better off the way she was, acting horrified that she’d risk her life to be “hot”, and just generally freaking out about Pam’s desire to be thin. It manages to avoid being cliche or empty given that Archer considered Pam the best sex he ever had before she got thin, to the point of blowing off assignments just to have sex with her, because she’s just that awesome. After she gains the weight back in season six, she’s still sexy, making Archer’s jaw drop in the episode “Edie’s Wedding.” She’s also unapologetically pansexual, which is awesome.

Mallory, meanwhile, is still actively sexual and treated as desirable. While sex and sexuality are always sources of gags and jokes on Archer, never do the jokes about Mallory’s sexuality ever come across as ageist. Sure, some characters make ageist comments on the show, but it’s never treated as valid. Mallory is still treated as being extremely sexy and confident about it. While Mallory is generally a horrible person, her enthusiastic sexual agency is never once treated as a flaw or something disturbing or gross. What’s disturbing, gross, and worthy of ridicule is her son being so preoccupied and reactionary about his mother having a sex life. It’s clear: if you have a problem with Mallory having a lot of sex and enjoying it, you’re the one with issues.

Even the one young, thin, white woman in the main cast gets to be unapologetic about her kinks. It’s really only a problem when her desire for choke-sex motivates her to lead a KGB cyborg to the ISIS safehouse. Or when she coerces Cyril into sex. And generally acts like a violent, awful person.

Essentially, there’s no tolerance for shaming women for being sexual. All of it, regardless of preference, age, size, or race, is nothing but fun and should be enthusiastically represented. “Can’t talk, got a pussy to break!”

Being a predator is shameful. Having belly rolls is not.

Who on Earth finds this funny?

But, then there’s the flippancy about sexual assault. There ARE gags about Pam and Ray dropping their pants when encountering an unconscious Cyril. And sorry, but the framing of it is all manner of screwed up. There’s tons of sexual coersion as well. Another one of the most problematic instances comes in an episode of season two, where Archer is repeatedly sexually assaulted by a sixteen-year-old German socialite. The show goes out of its way to make it clear that Archer explicitly refuses consent, that he’s being violated, yet the show treats this as funny.

While I get that this is a comedy show and that in-depth exploration of the trauma of sexual abuse isn’t going to be something they can spend a lot of time on, the option they should have gone with is, you know, not base an episode around a german schoolgirl raping the main character. It’s not funny, guys. It’s not necessary. It’s actually just uncomfortable and off-putting.

The show mentions things like alternative gender identities, emotional triggers, and sexual exploration in ways that treat these things as totally valid, which is good. It also frequently portrays poor people as jokes in and of themselves, which is a lot less good. While materialism is lampooned frequently, it’s not treated as a joke in and of itself the way poverty is.

The way the show often portray legitimate abuse for laughs also often goes overboard. While the show does a good job of exploring and following through on all the ways Mallory’s abuse screwed up Archer, there’s a point where the volume of “abuse humor” gets to just be downright gross. Dark humor is one thing, not being able to go an episode without a “Haha, ten-year-old archer was abandoned in a train station at Christmas!” joke is, uh… Not great.

Archer is an awesome, immensely watchable show. But it’s not one I always feel clean watching. It’s a show that celebrates extremes, yes, but there’s a point where certain lines are crossed and it’s just problematic rather than gallows humor.

Archer is one of those series that really makes me struggle to distinguish the gallows humor from the simple tastelessness. To give pause to the idea of problematic content being the “point.”

The line blurs with Archer. A lot. It often manages to distinguish itself with the things it gets right, especially since they often do well on things that most shows, movies, and books are often terrible at. And that’s enough to buy it some goodwill for when they screw up.

But seriously, guys, please stop treating sexual coercion and child abuse as bottomless gag wells. I would have really preferred to have Pam and her awesome sexuality without her sexually assaulting Cyril and Ray. It’s not funny or clever or edgy. It’s just gross.

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yesterdaysdreams · 6 years

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Ask a Dietitian: Milk and Milk Alternatives

By now we hope you’ve received your copy of Weekday Weekend and tasted some of Emma + Elsie’s delicious recipes. I’ve said it once, but again, what I love so much about this cookbook is its versatility and flexibility. So you eat meat? Cool! Unwilling to sacrifice cheese? (Guilty!) That’s okay too. That said, we’re received lots of wonderful feedback and questions regarding the “dairy rule,” so we wanted to go ahead and tackle milk and milk alternatives. While I’m so excited about this topic, in my reading it seems there are a lot of theories floating around and much research is still inconclusive. We dietitians believe in evidence-based practice, so hopefully we can keep this post as objective, unbiased and informative as possible.

In the cookbook, Lindsey and I preface the “dairy rule” with the disclaimer that we ourselves consume cow’s milk and cow’s milk products. However, we try to follow a few basic rules and shop smart (more on this below). Please understand if cow’s milk isn’t your thing, you can absolutely still consume a healthy, balanced and sometimes superior diet. Some studies even suggest the avoidance of cow’s milk can improve certain conditions like IBS andacne. Furthermore, cow’s milk allergy is considered the most common allergen in children under 2.5, so hallelujah, alternatives exist! Lindsey has already completed loads of research and gone into great detail about calcium and vitamin D, specifically geared towards those plant-based eaters out there—you can read more on recommended intakeshere. But without any further adieu, let’s begin by covering cow’s milk.

Cow’s Milk (8 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 0-8 g fat/8 oz )

Okay, so you drink cow’s milk and stock your fridge with cheese and yogurt. Fab. Cow’s milk is affordable, nutritionally balanced and the most easily accessible milk option available to consumers. Providing a healthy amount of protein, calcium, vitamin D and phosphorus, it has long been considered an integral part of every meal. However, is it really as great as some claim? From a socioeconomic perspective, when you consider that nearly20.1 million free lunches are distributed every day in the U.S., there is no arguing that a carton of white milk is a nutritive option when compared to other options available in schools. However, for most of us, it can be very easy to overdo it when it comes to dairy. Reality check: one ounce of cheese (about the size of a pair of dice) equals one dairy serving. (Waah!) That’d make for one sad looking cheese board.

The RDA for calcium (for those 19 years and up) is 1,000-1,200 mg/day, which is easily achieved by consuming 1-2 sources of dairy alongside fresh fruits, veggies and meats. This is why the World Health Organization and the American Diabetes Association are now backing plant-based diets. Friendly reminder, a plant-based diet does not equate to a vegetarian/vegan diet. Plant based just means focusing on mainly fresh fruits, veggies, tubers, legumes and whole grains.

Back to the cows; when shopping for cow’s milk products, here’s what we recommend:

No hormones, ever: Specifically rBGH and rBST. rBGH is a growth hormone given to cows to increase milk production and, interestingly, is not permitted for use in Europe or Canada. While studies are inconclusive, it has been shown that rBGH has caused adverse health effects in animals, so for now, probably best to avoid these hormones.

Try to keep it local: Heck, if you can, tour a neighboring dairy farm so you see exactly where your dairy is coming from. If your local dairy is transparent and welcomes observation and community involvement, chances are the treatment and feeding practices are desirable. Look for cows to be grazing and active—these are signs of healthy cows, which equals healthier consumables for you!

Buy organic: As mentioned above, grass fed or pastured cows, are preferred. For a milk to be labeled organic, the cows must be pastured at least 30% of the time. Furthermore, grass fed cows produce milk with higher omega-3 and CLA content. I typically recommend 1-2 servings of whole fat dairy products a day as the fat aids in vitamin absorption and promotes satiety.

Milk Alternatives

Whether you’re playing by the ‘Weekday Weekend’ rules or if you avoid milk regularly, it’s important to be aware of the many different milk alternatives available to you. With more people seeking alternatives, the market is booming. Interestingly, certain regions of the world have been known to consume milk from camels, reindeer and elk as alternatives. However, for today’s post, we’re going to take a hard look at some of the more attainable milk alternatives:

1. Soy Milk (7 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 4 g fat/8 oz)

Perhaps the first real “milk alternative” to hit the scenes, soymilk appeared on U.S. shelves in the mid-1980s. Soy milk is easily accessible to shoppers and an excellent source of protein, vitamin A, vitamin B12, potassium and calcium —great news for vegans and vegetarians!

Despite these perks, questionable claims regarding the health effects of soy have left many puzzled. From possibly causing cancer to affecting fertility, soy is the king of controversy when it comes to health foods. We could go on about this, as there is a lot to consider (spoiler alert: future blog post coming soon!). However, for the sake of this post, I’ll keep it concise. Quality soy is safe in moderation; it does not affect thyroid function in those with healthy thyroids and the American Cancer Society has stated whole soy foods can reduce the risk of certain cancers. When you shop smart (organic, non-sweetened versions), soy milk is an excellent choice when consumed smartly and in moderation.

2. Almond Milk (1 g protein, 1 g carbohydrate, 2.5 g fat/8 oz)

Made using ground almonds and water, almond milk is largely … water. So don’t be surprised when you notice the protein and fat content are significantly lower than, say, a handful of almonds. Almond milk is often fortified with vitamin E, calcium and vitamin D, so it is a good vitamin/mineral substitute if eliminating cow’s milk. Just remember you’ll need to balance your meal with protein and fat coming from other real food sources.

3. Coconut Milk (0 g protein, 2 g carbohydrate, 5 g fat/8 oz)

Coconut milk is quickly becoming all the rage, and for good reason! Remember, we’re talking about the slightly watered down version meant to mimic milk’s consistency, not the stuff you’ll find in the can on grocery store shelves. Coconut milk contains no protein and less calcium than cow’s milk (100 mg/8 oz in coconut milk vs. 300 mg/8 oz in cow’s milk). However, it is a good source of MCT’s, a healthier form of saturated fats which provide a wide range of health benefits when consumed in moderation. RD recommendations to counter the nutrient deficit? Toss in an extra handful of almonds or kale to split the difference and come out on top.

4. Rice Milk (0 g protein, 22 g carbohydrate, 2 g fat/8 oz)

Unless you suffer from multiple severe food allergies, rice milk isn’t my fave. Just look at the nutritionals—it’s basically just starch and water. No protein, minimal fats. Sure, some brands are fortified with calcium, iron and vitamin B12, but for all intents and purposes, I’d try another milk alternative first before settling with rice milk. Also notable, detectable levels of arsenic were found in Consumer Reports testing of rice milk, so it is recommended to consume no more than ½ cup per day and not give regularly to children under 5 unless otherwise advised by a physician.

5. Hemp Milk, Unsweetened (2 g protein, 1 g CHO, 6 g fat/8 oz)

Many say hemp milk is an acquired taste thanks to its earthy, seedy flavor. Once you get past the taste, as long as you are getting calcium from other dietary sources, I give hemp milk the green light! Made by mixing water with cannabis seed (sorry guys, no other snazzy side effects), hemp milk is a great source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids and is often fortified with calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12. It’s a great option for those who battle with gas, bloating or other IBS symptoms as it is low in oligosaccharides, the gas producing sugar present in some milk and milk alternatives. The downside is the low calcium content and high price tag that comes with a carton of hemp milk.

6. Goat Milk (9 g protein, 11 g CHO, 10 g fat/8 oz)

Goat’s milk has a nutrition breakdown similar to cow’s milk while being lower in lactose, making it easier for some to digest. It is also higher in vitamin A, potassium and calcium than cow’s milk, making it the preferred post-exercise drink for many, thanks to the extra load of electrolytes. It has a somewhat strong flavor and does contain casein, technically not making it approved for those with a true milk protein allergy. However, studies have shown that goat’s milk is very low in Alpha S1 casein and primarily contains Alpha S2 casein. In layman’s terms, this means that some who have traditionally been unable to tolerate cow’s milk are able to handle goats milk. Depending on the severity of your allergy, goat’s milk may be worth a try after discussing with your physician.

7. Cashew Milk (0 g protein, 1 g CHO, 3.5 g fat/8 oz)

Cashew milk is the slightly more nutritious option than almond milk, thanks to the added fiber, antioxidants and copper present (which aids in iron absorption). Cashew milk is a good option for those who are wary of soy milk but still want a little more bang-for-their buck than almond milk. Take note of its miniscule protein content and be sure to incorporate real food protein to make up for this loss.

8. Pea Milk (8 g protein, 7 g carb, 5 g fat/8 oz)

Pea milk is quickly becoming my new obsession. I mean really, it’s equivalent in protein to cows milk while providing fewer carbs, #winning! It has 50% more calcium than cow’s milk and legit, tastes a lot like milk. Only downside is the higher than usual amount of omega 6 fatty acids. However, some brands, likeRipple, do a great job at counteracting this by adding in extra omega 3’s.

Whichever route you choose to go with milk, just do your research and remember, everything is good in moderation. Unless you are affected by malnutrition, malabsorption or another medical condition where your physician asks you to supplement your diet, most of us following a healthy diet don’t need more than a glass or two of milk/milk sub a day. Lindsey is going to chime in with some information regarding pasteurization of milk products, as I think there is some confusion about this process. Thanks, as always, for reading and please feel free to comment with your favorite milk alternative!

A note from Lindsey:

Ultra-pasteurization. What in the world does this even mean? How is it done? Why is it done? Why does it seem like organic milk is always ultra-pasteurized? Does it mess my milk up? There are a few of the questions you may have around the subject of ultra-pasteurization and I am here to clear the air. Pasteurization is a process that involves heating milk to kill potentially harmful (and beneficial) bacteria and extend shelf life. Your standard gallon of milk is typically pasteurized by a process called High Temperature Short Time or HTST. This involves heating milk to 161 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds. Ultra-pasteurized milk is heated to a higher temp (280 degrees) for 2 seconds in a process called Ultra High Temperature (UHT) pasteurization. So why the difference? It all comes down to shelf life. While standard pasteurized milk and UHT milk both spoil in about five days after they’re opened, before opening UHT milk will not spoil for 70 days versus 15-21 days for standard pasteurization. This is desirable from a retailer’s standpoint and is why many organic milk brands offer a UHT version of their milk—the retailers are more likely to carry organic milk in their store when they are unsure of how it will sell if it can stay on the shelf longer. Critics of UHT milk cite that nutrient content is lower and proteins are damaged in the process that may be harmful. However, evidence suggests UHT and HTST milk is similar in nutrient content to raw milk. While changes to proteins in the milk may occur after pasteurization, evidence that this is harmful is lacking. Pasteurization does kill some bacteria that may be beneficial, but this does not make the milk unsafe. So, don’t feel alarmed when you see the terms pasteurized or ultra-pasteurized on your milk’s label.

Credits // Author: Sarah O’Callaghan with contributions from Lindsey Kelsay. Chart design: Mara Dockery. Photos: Emma Chapman, edited with ACS desktop actions.

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