#are two characters rarely seen in a scene without each other? bonded pair | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

callsign-bunnie · 1 year

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The magic user au sounds so interesting! Id love to know more about how the characters act within the au, specially Rodolfo. I think your idea for him is really fascinating ^^

Ahh, thank you! Okay, so first, the game is gonna look really different in my storyline because A) accidentally made Rodolfo and Alejandro a two for one package (i'll explain in a moment) so Rodolfo is just kind of gonna have to be there for most of the scenes he wasn't and B) not a lot of the game actually makes sense with the new context (ironically the alone mission is completely fine). Personally, I'm fine with putting Rodolfo in more because he's my favorite character and I love writing for him, and C) a few missions are getting ret conned because they make no sense in the new context and also, I don't want to write them.

Second, I am probably gonna use this magic system for my next book because Anon, I have already spent wayyy too long coming up with details for it.

Anyway, let me tell you about the characters and stuff. Basically, first, I gotta get this out of the way, without thinking I made this idea where there are people born with mostly supplemental powers or powers that rely on others. (Rodolfo, for example, and Price). In most countries in North and South America, they pair up a physically powered person (called Elementals because I am lazy) with one of these supplemental/reliant powered people. A few examples are mirrors, healers, and those who can just magnify or mute powers on their own, but also Prisms. Ergo, Rodolfo and Alejandro are "bonded" and each other's "pair". Do you see how this accidentally makes them inseparable lol? (Also I have put too much thought into their relationship if anyone wants me to make a post just about that)

Prisms are also seen as kind of useless in other parts of the world where they're more rare.

Soap, specifically, is going to have this bias, though he doesn't realize it and gets better lol.

There's also a lot of bias for other Magi (my chosen name for these people unless it is problematic in which case, no it is not and I will change it) between each group of Magi. Like, Torches hate Blizzards and Aquifiers for obvious reasons, everyone hates Mirrors because they "steal" abilities, etc etc. (See how I put too much thought?)

Basically, i have a lot I have to preface for the characters. Normal racism and stuff still exists as well, but that's to be expected.

Oh and all characters have like One almost special move that they do (some have more but it’s mostly one) because I’m trying to stick with video game elements

Some details from my character notes I'm making:

Ghost

Same backstory just a little more fitted for this AU.

Spirits are rare and Ghost is one of the few left in Europe

For Spirits that are found and scouted for the military, almost all do solo missions. Ghost is the first in a while to work on a task squad.

Spirits can see each other when they’re “Cloaked” and this is why Ghost can’t cloak and find Johnny as Graves has several searching the town

Reason why spirits are so rare is they have to pull themselves back together and some “cloak” for the first time and just can’t pull themselves back

Cloaks involuntarily when he’s nervous

He ends up accidentally bonded with Soap and so can “blow” things up into shadow just by touching them

Can make parts of his body cloak without the rest cloaking (his special move)

Soap:

Was the most powerful Firecracker on his training unit, but has really bad impulsive habits which held him back a bit

Wasn’t scouted, still tried to sign up at 16 several times

Soap, due to bond, can use Ghost’s knives to blow people up into shadows

Gets hit in the alone mission with bullets that block his power, leaving him defenseless for the entirety of it

Smells like gunpowder all the time

Still a very proficient sniper

Calls Ghost’s ability “poofing” and gets his life threatened by Ghost

Gaz:

Was scouted at 18 and was the most powerful Telekinetic in his training unit

Still considered one of the most powerful

His special move is called “flicking” as he can send small objects flying at roughly the same speed as a bullet and is fairly precise with it

Keeps a bag of marbles that Price occasionally refills so he can use them to flick

He and Rodolfo break a window because both and curious how big of an item Gaz can flick when he’s magnified

Smashes a giant rock over someone at some point

Still fell out of a helicopter and had to use his abilities upside down

Found out his ability by breaking a window when playing marbles as a kid

Price:

Despite not being that great of a Prism, is a very very good soldier

Prisms in England usually get put in charge of Units and Squads due to their ability being helpful in keeping control of their men

Can just turn off powers like a light switch

Has a potential secondary ability because his senses are incredibly heightened

Can still feel abilities like other prisms

Alejandro:

Joined at 18 and Rodolfo followed, them being paired was only natural because of their already existent bond

One of the most powerful torches

Actually another reason Elementals are paired with someone is so if they get to be a problem, their pair can just be taken out which does pretty severe damage to the Elemental

Special ability is just straight lighting himself on fire and fighting people

When Rodolfo is magnifying him he can make giant fireballs

Doesn’t physically touch anyone anymore because he’s burned several people (including Rodolfo)

When he gets angry, his skin smokes and becomes too hot to touch, so Rodolfo mutes his powers

Not at all useless without Rodolfo but because of their trust, Rodolfo has a lot of control over Alejandro’s powers so Alejandro can just focus on fighting and keeping them both alive

Blood boiling is an accident thing, not something he has much control over

Tattoos glow when he’s using his ability. I think that is a cool trope

Rodolfo:

Is a fairly powerful prism, hence why it was even more natural for him to be paired with Alejandro

Alejandro doesn’t even know he can mirror because they’re very looked down upon and exploited by militaries everywhere

Special move is actually magnifying someone’s ability to the point they “burn out” and die. Doesn’t use it often because he loses all of his abilities for a while afterwards

Doesn’t stop him from blowing up a Firecracker in front of Soap because Soap asked if he was defenseless without Alejandro

If a Prism dies, their pair can “burn out” and die, so Prisms have to be trained really well in self defense, so Rodolfo is far from defenseless

Gets “has to be kept alive” privilege from the Los Vaqueros due to being Alejandro’s pair. In general in the Los Vaqueros, Prisms and healers are well protected not just for them but for their pairs

The fire in the one scene is replaced with him being stabbed and sprinklers being on because the whole fire element doesn’t make sense with Alejandro’s ability lol

Has a burn scar on his neck and cheek from getting into a fight with Alejandro. Doesn’t talk about them much

I have details for Valeria and Graves too (also a lot more for each character. Like a Lot More.) And I just have like way more details about the worldbuilding in general. Again, I’m a fantasy writer, magic systems are my favorite part, so just ask me anything, I can and will answer it

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jennana501 · 4 years

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A Case for Rexsoka

I’ve been around the block when it comes to ships. I’ve seen people obsess over them, and I too have been driven mad by obsession. I was a hardcore original avatar fan and I was OBSESSED with shipping Toph and Sokka together. Any time they so much as made an interaction I over analyzed it and picked it apart looking for clues that somehow would prove that my hunches were correct. It was because I related with both characters, and I loved their chemistry. I wanted them to have a romantic relationship because it would feel like some sort of personal validation.

I’m an adult now and nothing has changed. But it has been a while since I’ve desperately shipped two characters together that are not obviously romantically involved with one another, or who could be romantic behind the scenes or beyond the story shown.

Until Rex and Ahsoka.

And I’ve seen people be adamantly against it.

“No no no it’s just a brother/sister relationship.”

“No it’s gross she is a child”.

And of course being disagreed with on the internet can drive a person crazy, and instead of individually arguing with dozens of people online, I’m making this post once and for all to explain why I think Rex and Ahsoka have romantic feelings for each other. Especially Rex.

The argument I’ve seen, that their deep passion, commitment, love, admiration, and respect for one another (which are all so obvious you’d have to be...silly to not see it) are felt in a platonic fashion. Which, for the first 6 seasons and 8 episodes, I would totally agree.

But then Ahsoka comes back. And let’s face it. She is a woman. Age wise, she’s around 17, but everything from the maturity of her Lekku (which weirdly don’t get all that longer, especially compared to other Tagrutan women) to her poise and confidence, to her prowess as a warrior, a user of the force, and her ability to command soldiers as well as control her emotions points to her being an adult woman. She’s no Snips anymore; she’s no child. She’s grown up. And how her peers react to her illustrates how they now view her as an adult.

First there is Obi-wan. Obi-wan has always been a mentor to her, a sort of second Master. Obi-wan never hesitated to guide and Ahsoka or offer his council. He is proud of her when she succeeds, and will admonish her when she makes mistakes. When she returns and he sees her as a woman, he changes the way he treats her. He acknowledges her maturity by addressing her as an equal. He doesn’t admonish her. Instead he discusses with her, challenging her ideas and letting her offer an argument for them instead of putting them down and telling her how she should think or act. He also comes to her in his time of need, trusting her to help him with Anakin.

Then there is Anakin. We all know of Anisoka shippers, and they are perfectly able to ship and enjoy said ship, but we can all acknowledge that it is a crack pairing with no basis in the canon. Anakin portrays the perfect kind of brotherly love. He is excited to see Ahsoka, and is stunned by her unexpected reappearance. Things are harder for Anakin because he is used to their fun banter and sibling-like companionship. He’s constantly shut down with her business like manner and he struggles with coming to terms with the fact that she isn’t a little kid sister anymore. She is an adult with a mission and a plan. When he looks at her, he is endearing. He loves her. Admires her. And he can’t wait to pick up where they left off. There’s joy and adoration in his face. He is proud of her and what she has become, but he also feels alienated and even hurt because of how her adulthood has changed their dynamic.

Then there is Rex. When he first sees her, he wants nothing more than to reassure her that she still belongs. The clones had accepted her into their family. As far as they were concerned, she was one of them. When he looks at her for the first time, he’s beaming with the same adoration as he had had for her before, but also with a solemn awe at what she has become and what she has grown into. He welcomes her back into his life without hesitation.

But then there is a moment things shift so drastically that I paused the show and re-watched it half a dozen times. We all know it and love it. This face he gives Ahsoka. The Look.

What we see here is something we have never, EVER seen in Rex for 7 whole seasons. And it is my opinion that this is the first time Rex has been able to feel and express that he is attracted to Ahsoka. In other words, Rex has a sexual awakening.

Up until this point, Rex has been a sexless character. Nothing he does is flirtatious, sexy, or at all suggestive that he has those feelings inside him at all. Every sexual being has a moment where they are first animalistically drawn to another being. Characters who have already had this moment are easy to pick out. Obi wan. Anakin. Ventress. These characters have already experienced their sexual awakening. Ahsoka has too. Lux was her first object of attraction.

But Rex has never had this moment. Until this reaction.

I know some of you might be thinking “but Ahsoka gives a very similar look to Anakin, does that mean she is sexually attracted to HIM?” It’s a very good point. Ahsoka and Anakin share some cheeky playful looks during “Old Friends Not Forgotten”. We see many characters give similar looks to other characters, but does this mean it means the same thing as when Rex does it? The short answer is no.

When animators design a character, they establish the “range of emotion” for that character. You can easily see this when you look back at how many times you see Rex break from his stoic, captain’s face. He rarely laughs, smiles, or emotes in any way. This is why when we see him emote it is exciting to us as an audience. A character like Ahsoka or Anakin commonly show a wide variety of expressions. Ahsoka is much more likely to give a cheeky look than Rex is. So “the look” for Rex, means a lot more when he is doing than it does when another character does it, say Fives or even Obi-Wan.

Which means the writers are trying to tell us something about this moment.

This moment has changed Rex’s and Ahsoka’s relationship.

Now does this mean that they are going to go bang each other immediately? Does this mean the second they are alone after “Victory and Death” they start an intense, sexual relationship? Of course not. That’s not what this ship is about at this time. But the reason many of us ship it is because suddenly they don’t feel like brother and sister anymore. It isn’t entirely platonic. And the show does a good job to further emphasize this as they come closer and closer both emotionally, and physically during the finale.

Blocking is a huge factor in visual storytelling. During the finale, Rex and Ahsoka are blocked in a way that makes them as close as physically possible on the screen. This communicates to the audience that they are closer now than they have ever been. As Jedi and Clone Trooper. As friends, and as companions, their bond forged in the fires of war, struggling to find meaning in life as soldiers.

In contrast, look how Ahsoka and Anakin are blocked in their scenes. There is nearly always a gap between them, illustrating that they are distanced from each other emotionally. Rex is even visually inserted into the gap between them in several instances. Anakin and Ahsoka are growing apart, but she and Rex are growing closer.

We get to experience Rex and Ahsoka engaging in actions and conversations that we had rarely seen before. From casual banter, to moments of intense intimacy, to emotional peaks, Rex and Ahsoka interact more in these four episodes than in the previous six seasons. Part of this is because their maturity gap has closed. Ahsoka is finally Rex’s equal in experience and maturity. It is also in part because it is a unique dynamic. No Obi-wan. No Anakin. Rex and Ahsoka are equal leaders of the 332nd. There’s also the fact that they are put into life threatening situations and have no one else but each other.

But there is that “look” that is given at the beginning of all this that suggests something else, that as their bond undoubtedly becomes strong as beskar, there is an element of it that takes their relationship from the platonic to the romantic.

I feel every detail, moment, and piece of dialogue in the finale tells the story of this bond.

Many instances of their strong emotional bond have been spread throughout the internet, with most ready to acknowledge that they have a connection unlike any other, one that may even be described as a “force” connection. These last four episodes are so exciting because we see two friends reunited, but then we get to watch as their relationship transforms.

Even disregarding their implied attraction to each other physically, they dive into each other and hold on tight. Ahsoka shares deep personal worries with Rex, and Rex and her are shown opening up to each other in ways they have never opened up before.

We were all floored and dumbfounded at scenes such as these that show these characters at their most vulnerable. But they decide to be vulnerable together. Is it because they are all that is left of their 501st family? It part, this is definitely true. But by being this vulnerable they transform their relationship into something very different from what they had before. It will never be the same again, and it will be near impossible to back out of the emotional intimacy that these two have participated in. Once you have formed that kind of an attachment with someone, there is no going back, and as is seen in rebels, these two maintain that strong connection even after years of being apart.

This goes beyond their sexual desires or needs. They’ve forged a bond that cannot be broken. They have shared minds, shared pain and agony that only the other can understand. They’ve been isolated from the world, and all they have left is each other.

And at the end of the series, when we have Rex and Ahsoka broken, their world flip upside down and everything they ever valued or cared about lies in ruins before them, the idea that they still have each other is that beautiful seed of hope Star Wars is so good at preserving. Those of us who believe that their relationship could be romantic want good things for Rex and Ahsoka. We want them to have that love and share it with each other. Maybe only for a few moments, but having known it would be better than both of them living and dying without having that experience.

When we see the two in Rebels, for me it confirms that these two love each other deeply. But their lives can never be lived in a normal fashion. They cannot even be together as partners in life. The Empire has stolen this from them. The tragedy of this ship is that it can never be the way we want it to be. Rex will age and die long before Ahsoka is even halfway through her own life. They cannot live with one another. They cannot wake each morning with each other, at least not at the point we see them in rebels.

But they continue to love each other. Even over distance, even knowing that mortality will claim them with only a fraction of the memories that they deserve with one another.

So please, the next time you see some art or a fic, or a post like this, think of what I had to say. Rexsoka is about two adults, their lives destroyed at the hands of Sidious, but in defiance they still forge a bond that he could never break or take from them. And that to me is beautiful and something to celebrate.

Side note: I spent a ton of time making gifs but they never would work and so I had to use screenshots instead :(

EDIT: At the request of the OG poster of a few gifs, I have replaced them have also made some grammatical changes.

#ahsoka #captain rex #rexsoka #rexsoka week #the clone wars #star wars

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vegetafan72 · 2 years

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Valentine Fandom Ask Meme #9

Fandom used this round: Yu-Gi-OH 5Ds

I could potentially add all of Yugioh, but I don't feel that's fair since I haven't finished DM or Zexal yet, am currently still watching Arc-V, and haven't started Vrains. (Not sure if I'll watch Sevens and I refuse to watch GX except maybe the last arc where I hear it gets serious)

Also SPOILERS for the entire show! SPOILERS

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Your favourite non-canon ship?

Probably Ushio/ Trudge x Mikage/ Mina. I like the cops together; its cute and a better relationship for Mikage.

Is there a ship you didn’t like at first but ultimately started shipping?

Ya know, now that I think about it, I never really liked the Yusei x Kiryu/ Kalin ship, but I'm not so against it now that I reflect on it. Its got some good angst in it, I tell you what. And it feels more likely and interesting than Yusei x Bruno (which I still don't ship).

What is the rarest rare pair (that you ship)?

I'd guess it would be either Yusei x Sherry or Crow x Aki.

For Yusei x Sherry, it seemed pretty heavily implied that Sherry had a little bit of a thing for him. When she thinks of turbo dueling connecting their hearts, she imagines the two of them naked. Yeah, it might just be a metaphor, but she's still picturing him with no clothes. Sherry also seems quite focused on Yusei and, if I remember correctly, part of the reason she sided with Z-One at the end was to prevent Yusei's prophesied death. I'm not sure if its an unrequited crush that is canon or not or if its rare, but I don't see a lot of people talking about it.

For Crow x Aki, I do like them mostly as friends and definitely prefer Aki with Yusei, but I do think Crow and Aki have the foundation to become a good couple. But I think I've only ever seen one fanfic that had them as a ship, so I'm assuming its not very popular.

Name a popular ship you don’t get the appeal of.

Any variation of Yusei and/or Jack and/or Crow so Kizunashipping, Kingcrabshipping, etc. They were raised together as foster brothers so I see them in a sibling dynamic and I adore that brotherly bond for them. There's nothing wrong with shipping them together though since they aren't actually related, so for those who like those ships, go ahead and enjoy them. They're just not my cup of tea.

What is your most fluffy + happy ship?

... All of them have angst... It's kinda impossible to not have angst in 5Ds since it was a pretty serious Yugioh series. I guess Crow x Aki would have the least angst, at least involving them together as a couple.

What is your most angsty ship?

Probably, Jack x Carly for obvious reasons. Carly literally got murdered, Jack agonized over not knowing what exactly happened to her, he finds out she's his enemy, has to duel her and attempts to die with her, has her die in his arms, and admits multiple times that she was the woman he loved, even having that be a big part of his speech in the final duel against Godwin.

And then the next arc they acted like none of that happened which is angst inflicted personally to us through bad writing, not from something that was part of a realistic flow in the story for the characters.

A non-canon ship that should be canon?

Hmmm, I don't think there's anything I ship that I think should be canon. The only thing I can think of is Ushio x Mikage, but Ushio did have a canon one-sided crush on Mikage so its technically not non-canon.

Your oldest ship; the one you’ve shipped for the longest time?

I knew about Yusei x Aki and Jack x Carly for a long time before I really watched the show and I thought they were pretty cute without having much context, so I guess they count.

What ship represents the kind of relationship you’d love to have?

Yusei x Aki. They both have done their best to help each other and they have such a great level of trust too. I feel like at the very end, in that famous goodbye scene, they are so in sync that they don't even need words to express how they feel. I want that level of familiarity and relaxed coexistence.

Is there a ship that makes your skin crawl?

Lua/ Leo x Luca/ Luna. Literally, they are twins, not to mention little kids. I do get that they are super latched on to each other and I've been weirded out by Lua blushing at Luca at least once, but still, come on guys. Its just gross.

What is a character you can only imagine in one particular ship?

Well, the only canon character I ship with Crow is Aki, but I do ship him with an OC I made in the 3DS game, Over the Nexus. So instead I'll say I can only see Ushio and Mikage with each other. Ushio really doesn't have any other options and I don't ship Mikage with Jack, who would be her only other option.

What is your favourite canon ship?

Hnnnn, that's tough because both Yusei x Aki and Jack x Carly are amazing. Hmmm, if I absolutely had to pick one... UGH. I CAN'T. Seriously, I can not do it. I love Yusei and Aki for their support and trust in the other, but then I love Jack and Carly's cute dynamic of big, intimidating guy loves goofy, ball of sunshine girl. Both? Both. Both is good.

Name a ship that deserved more content.

Actually, I think I might have to say Ushio x Mikage here. I really liked the idea of them getting together, but the idea gets sort of dropped after Ushio overhears her trying to confess her feelings to Jack. Maybe it got mentioned or alluded to once or twice after that, but eventually it just disappeared. I also haven't seen any fanart, fanfics, or anyone even talking about them that much. I think they could have made a great background couple and deserve more content.

Is there a ship you feel gets undeserved hate in fandom?

I've seen some hate for Jack x Mikage. I don't even ship it, but I think its hated a little too intensely by some people. It is unhealthy maybe on Mikage's side, but you could easily spin it to not be. I don't think its that bad, its just not for me.

What is the first ship you had?

Again, I knew about Yusei x Aki and Jack x Carly beforehand. I probably shipped Yusei x Aki first.

Is there a ship that made you realize something about yourself?

Nope.

Is there a type of ship you always go for?

Just whatever strikes a cord with me I guess.

Is there a ship the writers have ruined for you?

Freaking Jack x Carly. Don't get me wrong, I still ship it, but the writers just acting like none of their development happened was stupid, poorly handled, and honestly insulting.

Is there a ship the fandom has ruined for you?

Maybe Crow x Sherry. I saw people talking that one up like crazy, but they didn't even interact till the very end and, even then, I didn't think it was anything ship worthy. I mean, she tried to use his kids against him. Crow had more chemistry with Aki in that duel than he did with Sherry. I just don't get it.

Have you ever created fan created content for a ship?

I tried writing a Jack x Carly fic, but I got kinda stuck and wrote other non-ship stuff involving Jack instead. I might go back to that old fic again, but I also have a new idea for a story with them. I may just do both. I also want to do something with Yusei and Aki and Crow and my OC at some point, I just need to come up with something I feel like I can write for them.

I've also drawn Crow with the OC, but only once and was just a doodle to see if I could draw them decently.

Favourite thing you’ve ever created for a ship?

Well, the only thing I've properly created was a doodle so I have to say that by default. Although, I was pretty satisfied with it. lol

Is there a ship you’ll never admit you have?

I... sort of ship Crow with myself. I know I ship him with my OC, but she's not really me; she's her own person. I have a lot of self-ships and I'm always embarrassed to admit to them, but I still do. I can't help falling in love with Crow. You can't blame me; he's absolutely adorable.

Have you ever started shipping a ship because of the fans?

I started shipping Yusei x Aki and Jack x Carly a little bit before I started watching the show because of fans praising them so yes.

What is one scene you want to see happen for all your ships?

Well, obviously they need to get to married and have children and live happy lives together. That's the best happy ending for couples.

Is there a ship you wish you didn’t know existed?

Lua x Luca. Because ew. That and Divine/ Sayer x Aki. I don't know if anyone legit ships that but I have seen it in tags for fics and it disgusts me. I hope its only shown to be a bad thing because that is certainly not a healthy relationship.

Name a ship that ended like you wanted it to.

Yusei x Aki. Yep, I actually liked that last scene between them. I think it conveyed that they clearly loved each other without them having to say it aloud. Words weren't needed. I think its safe to say they got together at some point.

Name a ship that deserved better in the end.

Oh, Jack x Carly! There's no other ship to put here. The writers did them so dirty. He just left her behind with the other two fangirls because 'women are a distraction' and she was just going to wait for him to come back? Dark Signer Arc Jack would never leave her behind. She's 'the woman he loves', REMEMBER WRITERS?! REMEMBER WHEN HE SAID THAT?!

Anyway, I'm freaking salty as hell.

Is there a character you have several ships for?

Aki I ship with Yusei, Sherry, and Crow.

I guess Crow is tied with her because I ship him with her, my OC, and myself.

What is the ship you ignore 98% of canon for?

I mean, all us Scoopshippers ignore the WRGP because of Jack x Carly sucking. I actually don't hate that whole arc, but it definitely has a lot of problems. The biggest one is Jack x Carly just suddenly not being a thing.

Is there a ship you like but you dislike the fandom?

I guess I get a little annoyed with Faithshippers complaining about Yusei and Aki not confessing their feelings at the end (because they didn't need to say it ya'll. They knew), but I don't dislike the whole fandom for that.

#ship meme #ask meme #yugioh 5ds #yusei x aki #yusei x akiza #jack x carly #crow x aki #crow x akiza #anti lua x luca #anti leo x luna #anti crow x sherry #trudge x mina #ushio x mikage #yusei x sherry #sherry x aki #anti divine x aki

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szivtalan · 4 years

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character ask: kagami, momoi, alex and himuro 👀👀👀

!!! omg thank u Ceru! u might be one of my favorite mutuals <33 (putting this under a read more just so I can speak at lengths about each individual character)

Why I like Kagami: this is where I sarcastically ask “why DON’T i like him” but that’s literally the next question so; he’s everything i want to be and more. He has the determination and the willpower to make his own dreams come true, he’s gay as shit, he’s tall and buff and well-adjusted, mature enough to live on his own at an annoyingly young age, he’s funny and dumb and a total himbo as well as an excellent advisor bc of how grounded he is.

Why I don’t: I’m... not really good with explosive people. Violent men with loud voices especially scare me, and I’d think I’d flinch around him a lot and that would make me rlly anxious.

Favorite episode: it’s a toss-up between the Seirin fam visiting his place for the first time (is it where Kuroko confesses his love to him and then passes out in his arms? idk), and the onsen episode. I also loved all his plays against Kise and Aomine. AND the training camp w him running a lot in the sand.

Favorite season/movie: season 2 probably because he’s not a jerk anymore, but he’s still on his way to shed off any asshole behavior stuck to him. And I actually liked Last Game?

Favorite line: “There’s no such thing as useless effort.” and “This is our drama and we write the plot.” because he’s so ridiculous.

Favorite outfit: all of his casual fits... comfy but manly is my Jam

OTP: AoKaga....they’re truly soulmates, star-crossed lovers, canonically brought together by fate.

Brotp/otp no. 2: KagaKuro, I love them

Head Canon: I have several collections because I think too much about this boy, but here’s something I think about his family: he doesn’t know what happened to his mom. He never asked, because it wasn’t relevant, and he didn’t want to inconvenience his dad by questioning him. Occasionally, as a kid he felt like he was missing out on something (seeing other kids with their moms, feeling like they’re being treated with much more gentle care because they have moms), but as he grew older he realized that nurturing behavior shouldn’t have been limited to only a mother, and that he was just straight up neglected without any regards to missing a parent in his life.

Unpopular opinion: I never realized this was an unpopular opinion but I’m glad he went back to America at the end of Last Game. Obviously, it’s sad that he had to separate from the others, but I felt like Japanese basketball has always been just a stepping point to him, and now that he’d beat the best of them, it was time to move on. And it also warms my heart that him getting scouted in the US gave Aomine hope to aim big, too. I felt like both of them would’ve felt trapped in Japan with their skill sets.

A wish: I want him to be happy and gay and to confront Himuro and tell him how hurt he was by how he treated him and probably do the same to his dad too

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: ....whatever I’d say Shinsun has probably written it/will write it, but I don’t want him to forget about the GoM just because he becomes a world-famous athlete.

5 words to best describe them: sweet child with anger issues

My nickname for them: not mine (it’s Sypha’s) but “Kags”, Kagami, Tigerboy, Kagababe, Baby

Why I like Momoi: she is SO nurturing and sweet and she cares so much about her boys!! I’m sorry it always turns into “how they remind me of myself” but actually I get feeling like a background character and being the moral/emotional/physical support of those who are more talented or in any way better than you. I feel a strange kind of kinship with her and also,,, feminine girls make my heart stop, and it doesn’t get more feminine than Momoi. Added: Aomine aside, the Touou team wouldn’t worth shit without her skills tbh, and she’s not in any way less than the GoM. Also, I appreciate her being the one person to try to keep their friend group together.

Why I don’t: Analytical People Scare me like!! how do u know stuff people are Unknowable!! I usually am also irked by her pointing out Riko’s breast size but I can just pretend that’s in a gay way (maybe Momoi likes girls with small boobs and she’s just bad at flirting) (also I don’t exactly liked her calling Aomine a “ganguro” but I have too little knowledge on the use of this word to say exactly why)

Favorite episode (scene if movie): uh the one where Aomine made her cry? It really came through how much love she actually has for her friends at that one.

Favorite season/movie: she was great in all of them!!

Favorite line: I can’t remember the exact quote and Google isn’t really helpful either but the one where she made Kuroko promise they’ll always play together or something? Or that they’re gonna beat Aomine?? idk?

Favorite outfit: I like all of them but mostly I just appreciate her wearing so many hoodies, she looks so cute in them

OTP / Brotp: it’s both AoMomo. I feel like the have the most special and strongest bond in the entire series.

Head Canon: She’s never been shown to do, but I feel like she wears Aomine’s clothes a Lot. Also, they definitely have sleepovers To This Day.

Unpopular opinion: Momoi is good at basketball and she loves playing!!! But try being successful in it when ur opponents are Giants and Way More Buff than you are

A wish: I wish people appreciated her more!! Both in fandom and in canon. She’s an amazing person and she has her own skills and strengths that are rarely explored or even mentioned anywhere.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: her falling out with her boys ;-; I do not want that

5 words to best describe them: strawberry sweetheart to steal ur heart

My nickname for them: Satsuki :> I feel like it’s a little too much to call characters on their first names sometimes but hers is so cute I can’t

Why I like Alex: yet again another woman with an extensive skill set. I love her persistence and again I appreciate getting disillusioned and finding your way back to the thing you love. Also it’s just sweet that she did that by teaching (again, something I can relate to)

Why I don’t: the whole “kissing children” thing rubbed me the wrong way but again, just like Momoi’s obsession with comparing breast sizes, it’s just bad/sexist writing from Fujimaki probably

Favorite episode (scene if movie): adshg any and all where she expressed that Himuro and Kagami are equally important to her <33 that shit makes my heart burst

Favorite season/movie: she only appears towards the end of s2 and in s3 so... I guess s3?

Favorite line: its so Bad that u literally can’t find the iconic quotes of these iconic ladies anywhere but... her story on finding her passion again through teaching kids, and anytime she mentions her fondness of Kagami and Himuro.

Favorite outfit: her iconic olive green coat with the short red shorts... wtf was that I loved it.

OTP: she doesn’t really interact with people her age but I’ve heard she’s shipped with Masako Araki and I’ve seen some seriously good fanarts and like... Yes Good I’d Love To See It

Brotp: I feel like her and Himuro would be that sassy pair that Kagami tries and fails to contain and they get into all sorts of weird, absurd situations asdjs what I’m trying to say is Kagami has to bail them out of jail from time to time

Head Canon: fck me if I’m wrong but she’s the lesbian single mom of the two gay kids she reluctantly adopted from the streets

Unpopular opinion: it’s more like another headcanon, but she can dunk and she taught Kagami how to do it.

A wish: I’d love her to coach the Seirin fam more!! Pls let her be part of her children’s lives (she could also judge streetball games between the goms it would be fun)

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: anything about her being romantically involved with her pupils makes me.................no

5 words to best describe them: Beautiful Beach Blonde Basketball....goddess

My nickname for them: Alex!! sometimes An Icon

Why I like Himuro: em dash Asdgsdj I’m joking, I’m becoming more and more fond of the boy. Once I realized that he shouldn’t have been the “bigger person” in that situation and one year doesn’t really mean much when you’re that young and that hurt, I realized he’s actually a good and hard-working kid and I’m sorry for giving him so much shade. Also I really like his snark and sass, but that might not even be canon at this point tbh

Why I don’t: I’m still sort of irked by him beating down on Kagami because he was envious/mad, but I realized the aspect of that situation that Really got to me was how devoted Kagami still was to him after all that. That devotion was what felt toxic, nothing that Himuro actually did to him.

Favorite episode (scene if movie): the time they met up w Kagami just to exchange a dramatic socially distancing bro fist and a few encouraging words.... gays be Like That

Favorite season/movie: I really didn’t mind s3 Himuro

Favorite line: apparently he’s said some iconic stuff that I don’t remember (and my sources don’t seem really legit) but I’m gonna say “let’s see you become number 1, bro” because again, that’s just so ridiculous and endearing. On one hand he really went from loathing Kagami to rooting for him and wanting him to reach his full potential and on the other, honey ur like 17 stop speaking like That

Favorite outfit: his knitted V-neck sweaters and the black coat with the white fur.... boy’s got all the fashion sense that’s missing from Kagami

OTP: can I say.....AoHimu asdfh I ship 3/4 of these characters with Aomine what does that say about me

Brotp: KagaHimu. They can be sweet, but I’ve only ever seen Jake write them really well

Head Canon: I’ve been entertaining the idea of....trans Himuro.....

Unpopular opinion: everyone thinks that Kagami is the violent kid and Himuro is the chill, sweet child who’s somehow wound up with this mess of a fiery tiger, but it’s actually Himuro who taught Kagami how to fight and Kagami learned quite a lot of aggression from him

A wish: I feel like Himuro should’ve gotten a separate episode to explore his thoughts, feelings and past. He had so much potential as a character Is2g

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: him quitting basketball would fucking destroy me. I’d be devastated for others too, but it would really pull on my heartstrings if he just dropped the only thing he’s been so passionate about.

5 words to best describe them: gender-non-conforming emo child

My nickname for them: Himu, Tatsuya, Tatsu

#ask and i shall answer #izukillme #himuro tatsuya #alex garcia #momoi satsuki #kagami taiga #this is long as fuck #also happy birthday himuro??!!!!!

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sildarmillionsays · 3 years

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One True Ace Pairing: The MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, because of its nature of a shared universe, has a unique opportunity to feature a large number of strong platonic relationships. Superhero movies that came before the MCU didn’t have the space to develop these kinds of relationships, so they focused more on the romantic relationships and the hero-villain relationships.

The MCU, refreshingly, is able to spend as much time on the platonic relationships as they can on the romantic ones; and arguably the platonic pairings are more popular than the romantic ones. In fact, they can be more interesting than the romantic ones because these relationships can exist in a complex web, which is not possible for romantic relationships without getting uncomfortable.

I could delve into each relationship and each would require their own essay, but there is a channel called Implicitly Pretentious that already does that, so I will refer you there (and here is a link to the Marvel/DC playlist.)

In this piece I want to focus on the Clint/Natasha relationship, which is quite appropriate for my One True Ace Pairing series.

While we had already met Natasha (and briefly seen Clint) in previous MCU movies, their relationship was established in the first crossover film. The way it’s presented to us is, in my opinion, a tad over the top. Natasha is on a job (a drug bust?) in which the bad guys have her tied up when she gets interrupted by a call that tells her Clint is compromised. She immediately drops everything and goes to his aid. This scene serves 2 purposes: (1) to tell us she was a badass and was in control the whole time (but we already knew that from Iron Man 2) and (2) to spark interest in the Clint-Natasha relationship.

Of course, just because two characters of opposite genders have a strong bond doesn’t mean it has to be a romantic relationship. In fact Natasha shares a strong platonic bond with several of her male colleagues including Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Nick Fury. But part of me thinks that Joss Whedon did an intentional bait-and-switch with such an intentional over-the-top introduction to this relationship. It indicated that Clint was literally the most important thing in her life, period.

Again, just because someone is so darn important to you doesn’t mean your relationship has to be romantic. I just think it’s sad when the most important person ceases to be a major part of your life.

As far as The Avengers goes, it seems like Clint and Natasha are a huge part of each other’s lives. They work together, in fact they work very well together in a team, they are loyal and devoted to each other, and they care about each other a great deal. As much is clear when we see Nat rescue him from his mind control and later comfort him about it.

It is rare that we see two characters share such a strong bond and it’s not too stereotypical to hope two such characters will spend their lives together. So I can’t pretend that I was disappointed when I realized Clint had a secret family this whole time. On the positive side, Nat was not only aware of it, but also quite close with the family. We don’t know the details of their relationship. Perhaps Clint was already married when he met Nat. Or perhaps they didn’t get together because Clint was a family man and Nat couldn’t have kids.

I think Joss Whedon might have been going for the second explanation, although I personally prefer the first. Clint seems to have a loving relationship with his wife. When his paths crossed with Nat’s, it makes sense that he never let it take a romantic tone. After The Avengers, I remember Tumblr being abuzz wanting to know what happened in Budapest. We probably will never get to see that on screen. All we know is that he showed faith in her, brought her over to his side, and gave her a chance to "wipe the red off her ledger". But we did see a version of this in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when he essentially does the same thing for Wanda. That’s just the kind of guy Clint is. And in later films, we see that Wanda also has strong loyalty towards him.

But Clint and Natasha do go their own ways when he retires to be with his family and she goes to train the Avengers. Under the Russo brothers’ direction, their relationship takes on a very sibling-like vibe, which is a lot more comfortable for me as the viewer. Their relationship continues to be strong. They remain loyal to each other when they end up on the opposing sides in Civil War. And they come back together only when he loses his family in the Snap. He goes crazy and becomes a vigilante.

Natasha tries to rehabilitate him and this was one of the more touching developments in their relationship because she tries to do for him now what he did for her back in Budapest – a chance to wipe the red off his ledger. Clint and Natasha seem like a strange choice to send to retrieve the Soul Stone because they have no connection with it whatsoever, but they are the only pair who can possibly sacrifice someone they love in order to retrieve the stone. They fight each other to be the one sacrificed, but it is not only out of love for each other: it’s because they both want redemption for their past sins and now they have that opportunity.

In the end it is Natasha who wins and it makes sense to me as a narrative choice. In Avengers: Age of Ultron we learned that she feels like she can never be whole due to her sterilization and she fills the void of a family from her colleagues. But Clint does have the chance to go back to his family who love him and need him very much. A second chance with his family would be his shot at redemption. So she gets hers through her sacrifice.

I personally enjoyed their relationship arc. I was intrigued right away by the way Joss Whedon introduced it and then disappointed by the way in which he tried to complicate it (as he does). But the Russo Brothers took this relationship in a way that really resonated with me. In fact, I think the Russo Brothers did a great job with all of the relationships in the MCU and dealt with all the arcs so well that I feel satisfied enough that I’m not even particularly looking forward to whatever lies beyond Phase 3. But I think the Clint-Natasha arc is done because I guess she’s dead for now, and he will follow a new arc. But it was one of my favorite pairs in the MCU thus far.

Crossposted to WordPress

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themosleyreview · 4 years

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The Mosley Review: Best Films of 2019

Wohoo! 2019 has come and gone and man did it fly by. This year we had sooooo many fantastic films and this year was probably the hardest list to put together. I really wanted to include alot more, but I had to make a few cuts. Now I tend to keep my list to the traditional 10 films, but on some occasions I've extended it to 11. This is one of those occasions. I have one runner up that is worth mentioning and I think it should not be missed.

Missing Link: Many animated films are computer generated now and the art of hand drawn animation is rarely shown. The one type of animation that is all but extinct is stop motion animation. It takes time, patience and passion to bring to life characters with such sophistication and care in an almost forgotten art form. The masterminds at Laika are truly imaginative artist and this film shows that in every frame. Not many films take the story of the myth behind Sasquatch to fun places without being hokey and I was relieved that this film took it seriously and pumped so much fun and heart into the story and I think this was a hidden gem of 2019. Click the title for my full review.

Now, on to my list of 2019's best films of the year. If you want my full review of each film then go ahead and click the title of each film. First one up is definitely a fantastic sequel to a film that the author hated, but loved the film adaptation of his second book.

Doctor Sleep: The Shining is a classic that can never really be touched. Stephen King is famously known for disliking the film adaptation of his novel, but with his blessing placed upon Mike Flanagan's vision for the sequel novel, we got this magnificent film. Not only does this film pay tribute to Stanley Kubrick's film, but it also follows the same rules and visual structure while keeping the film fresh. The tone was consistent and the performances were across the board amazing. Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson and the talented Kyliegh Curran deliver absolute greatness. This film features stunning and intriguing dark moments, but definitely has one of the most disturbing scenes I've ever seen and its all because of Jacob Tremblay's performance in THAT scene.

Ready or Not: How many times have we seen the family initiation story in a romantic comedy? A dozen times I tell you! Well how about you take the same concept, throw in a fun horror version of hide and seek with a hint of the supernatural and great dark comedic writing. You get this fantastic film that is all of that and more. Luckily I stayed away from any major trailers for this film because in retrospect, the R rated trailer gave away too many of the fun gags. The performance of each family member was awesome and this was a standout performance for Samara Weaving. Every year from now on, this film will be on my Halloween watchlist. I loved this film and I can't recommend it enough.

Shazam!: Batman (1989), Superman (1978), The Dark Knight Trilogy and Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse are just to name a few of perfect adaptations of a comic book character to screen. This film was beyond perfection in many ways and the best DC film to date. This film had the right amount of fun, darkness and heart that embodies the life of the titular character. I could see the amount of genuine fun the cast was having on screen and the heartfelt performances of Asher Angel and Zachary Levi were outstanding. Jack Dylan Grazer stole the film with his amazing comedic speed and wit. This was truly a film I had high hopes for and it didn't disappoint.

Avengers: Endgame: How do you start a story in 2008 and bring it to an amazing and satisfying conclusion that wraps up 11 years of storytelling? You have a plan, a clear vision from the very beginning and with that it'll special success. Producer Kevin Feige set out on a journey to bring to life some of the best superheroes and keep them together in a cohesive and long formed narrative to complete a saga that's never been done before. He did it with the best talent behind each film's camera and The Russo Brothers have delivered the most epic film the superhero film genre has ever seen. I have waited my entire life to hear Captain America say "Avengers Assemble!" and I'm so happy I've lived long enough for my dream to come true. This was an emotional journey and end to The Infinity Saga. I really can say so much more about this crowning achievement in storytelling, but I'll keep this summary short.

Rocketman: It was only a mater of time before we got a biopic about the incomparable music legend Elton John. I was hoping that it would not shy away from his sexuality, addictions and his bright and explosive since of style. Well this film jumped right in and held nothing back and I loved every bit. It was truly a fantastical film that had enough gravity and style. The musical locations illustrate his most important moments in his life and are visually stunning and accurate recreations of his most iconic performances. Taron Egerton was Elton John and I loved that he sang all the music. This was truly a masterpiece.

1917: World War II films are a dime a dozen, but the World War I films are rare. Sam Mendes is one of the best directors and all of his films take you on a journey through the eyes, mind and soul of a character and he did exactly that in this film. The fact that this film is almost shot completely in one continuous take, gives every moment gravitas and tension as you watch our main character go along and across enemy lines to prevent an ambush. The score was truly haunting by Thomas Newman and my favorite piece from this film was from the flare scene. Such an stunning achievement in filmmaking should not be missed.

Joker: The clown prince of crime has had many iterations over the past 80 years. The most influential and canonical version of the character came from Frank Miller's The Killing Joke. Heath Ledger's take was iconic and made you scared because of his unpredictability. Joaquin Phoenix has taken the character and given a truly disturbing and authentic performance. As Arthur Fleck, we see through a constantly unraveling psyche, a man become a new and real kind of monster. Not only is this version the most unsettling, but it was beautiful. The cinematography was great and I loved how we got into the mind and heart of the character when he wasn't even speaking. This is a definition of how a person being pushed through horrible conditions can truly become a monster and yet be free. I loved this film and I think it will be studied in many acting classes from here on out.

Ford v Ferrari: There needs to be more racing films of this caliber! I love racing films that are not just about the cars, but also the drivers and their stories. This film was based on the true friendship between Carol Shelby and Ken Miles and I can't say enough how much attention to detail and heart that was put into every frame. The sound design in this film was crisp and powerful. The performances by both Matt Damon and Christian Bale was truly amazing and they had the best chemistry. Their fight scene was the funniest and most realistic fight I've ever seen between 2 friends. James Mangold is one of my favorite directors because of his focus on characters and story first before the action. This was a love letter to the world of racing and a respectful look at the lives of these pioneers of ingenuity and racing.

How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: How do you make a perfect trilogy? How do you wrap it up with a satisfying and emotional ending? You focus on the story and stay true to the message and heart you started with in the beginning. You let the character bonds naturally grow and make each adventure a learning experience. This film was a perfect ending to the franchise and I can't stress how much I felt like I was with Hiccup and Toothless on their journey to this conclusion. The performances from the cast were stellar as always and although the villain may not have been as great, he still was a good addition. The visuals were the best and the textures in the scales and sand were out of this world. The score by John Powell truly brought me to tears as I got to say goodbye to my favorite companions. If you ever owned a pet, you known the emotional bond that is forged. This was the ultimate pay off and as a pet owner I saw my dog in Toothless' eyes. I will miss this franchise. If you're not crying by the end of this film then something is wrong with you.

The Peanut Butter Falcon: There are some independent films that take a risk in going outside of the norm and telling a story that nobody would have ever dreamed. This film was truly something special and I can't tell you how happy I was throughout. This film focuses on an individual with down syndrome whose dream is to become a wrestler and it is something truly inspirational and heartwarming. Zack Gottsagen was truly brilliant and awesome in this film. I loved his journey and his will to keep going. Shia Lebouf delivers an equally powerful performance and his chemistry with Zack was very sweet. This is one of the best films of 2019 and the most important films of the decade.

And here we are ladies and gentlemen! This is the moment you've all been reading toward. This film was an automatic choice for me the moment the end credits rolled. The crowing jewel of 2019 is none other than.....

Booksmart: I have seen so many high school teen comedies about partying or loosing your virginity before graduation, but never have I seen a film so engaging and focused on the bond of two bestfriends. Their bond was the heart and soul of the film and you couldn't have asked for a better pair of actresses. Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever were beyond perfection in every moment of this film and they had me cracking up left and right. Their adventure over the course of one night was truly fun and you are along for the hilarious ride. Billie Lourd nearly stole the whole film out from under them with her surprising and hilarious appearances. The music choices in the film were awesome as well. The comedy in this film was so fresh and from the first 6 minutes of the film you’re locked into these two ladies chemistry. I can't stress enough how much joy this film brought me and for a film to be on my mind for the entire year and to have me constantly recommending it to everyone I know is an achievement of itself. Olivia Wilde has directed a true masterpiece and new definition of a coming of age story. I can't stop gushing about this film so I'll finish off by saying WATCH THIS FILM!

And that is my list of the best films of 2019 and man has it been a great year in film. Lets hope 2020 starts off the decade with a bang! Thanks for reading everyone.

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whencallstheheart · 4 years

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Mid-Season 7 Survey Results

You’ll find the responses to the 2 short answer questions under the cut. Apparently you guys aren’t into the love triangle. What a surprise!

What would you like to see more of this season? -

Lucas and Elizabeth

More friendships ans less if that stupid love triangle. I'm done with it.

Jack return

More serious plot lines, less filler plot lines that are just boring

The triangle to be over. Decide who stole your heart.

More Lucas and less of boring Nathan. I would love it if both Nathan & Allie left the show. Both have ruined the show for me. I am about to start recording the show, so I can fast forward their scenes. That is something I rarely do for any show.

Jesse and Clara. Lucas and his past. Lucas and Elizabeth.

I’d like to see more Henry, and less love triangle! I’d also love more about Lee and Rosemary starting a family, and Jesse and Clara settling into married life.

More townspeople stories other than the triangle. There are so many stories to tell. I’d also like to see a pastor again. I miss the services, etc

More Elizabeth story lines independent of Nathan and Lucas

More of Lucas and Elizabeth of course ? They are just so perfect. I love them because...he shakes things up for her, but he isn't to wild or not caring and solid enough for her. It's just perfection lol

The other kids

Lucas

Lucas and Elizabeth romantic scenes!

Lucas and Elizabeth getting together by the end of the season.

yes

More girls fun, like the bachelorette party, I was hoping to see more of that in the last episode. But the mixing of the two parties in the end was kind of a fitting ending. And more teacher/classroom moments

Rosemary! Florence and Fiona’s friendship. Meaningful plot lines for the whole town and characters who are not paired off.

Lee and rosemary

Baby Jack! Those twins and how they interact with the cast are priceless and adorable and sweet!

Lucas and Nathan friendship

Better story lines for Bill and Henry

Elizabeth in the classroom.

I'd like to see more good writing ;)

Opal

Lucas

something interesting apart form the triangle like, idk really just something interresting.

Nathan and Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Lucas together courting and starting a life together

Not sure

The triangle over sooner rather than later :)

Romance, more Mountie investigations, Elizabeth’s choice

Nathan actually being a mountie, the library kinda has disappeared, so maybe more of that, some storylines that aren't striclty connected to romance. And also more bonding amongst the boys, the bachelor party was super awkward and not because of Lee, because we've never seen them interact with each other before, Nathan only talked with Bill, Lucas only talked with Henry and barely Lee. The girls have lot more scenes together about other stuff then them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it seems like they are using the guys just as romance ploys XD

Henry fall in love

A little more drama. This series has had a lot of fun and the triangle have taken a lot of screen time. I would like to see more balance.

Carson & Faith

Deeper character exploration

more fiona/henry interaction. More interesting plot that would overshadowed the love triangle. Also Nathan/lucas....what Girl can dream...

Lucas and his past in more details. Gowen finding a woman

Henry Gowen!

I want more meaningful drama. To me the plots are resolved to fast. It feels like they rushing every moments.

I would love to see a plotline pick up speed. I DO NOT want this love triangle drawn out for 2 o more seasons

Nathan's mountie work

More of Lucas and Baby Jack!

I want Bill-centered stories that have nothing to do with any of his jobs...also I want to know more about Fiona

More Lucas and Elizabeth scenes and more students besides Allie. Seems like we’ve had a lot about her and haven’t really seen the other students much.

More of Elizabeth with her students, teaching and like the opal scene we had where she read to her!

henry/abigail but if not then henry

Lucas in casual clothing

More Nathan and Elizabeth moments with little Jack and Allie!

Henry and Elizabeth scenes

Better writing

Rosemary and Lee

More Elizabeth and Rosemary friendship

community problems

The coulters

BETTER and more INTERESTING writing!!! Please

Lee and Rosemary dealing with infertility.

More of Florence and Molly! Theyre useless right now, tbh.

More of Rosie and Lee! And Henry!

Elizabeth with the children

clear communication instead of romantic hints PLZ haha

Elizabeth and Lucas together

I would like to see Nathan do more Mounty stuff. More scenes with Henry.

More of Lucas and Elizabeth romantic moments together. Rosemary is pregnant . Maybe a scene of Elizabeth telling baby jack about his father and that he is always with them. Elizabeth and Lucas kiss.

More of Henry storyline . Maybe a love interest for him. More Elizabeth and Lucas moments. I think they have great chemistry and really hope they end up together. The Mountie storyline is dry and already been done. I don’t think it will happen this season but fingers crossed for Lucas and Elizabeth kiss. Even a kiss on the check would be really nice. Also more of baby jack.

Lee and Rosemary

Lee and Rosemary in a serious argument, Rosemary meeting a friend Lee doesn't like, the women of Hope Valley doing more together, Henry finally not being looked down on/frowned upon.

Rosemary and Lee

More of the Hope Valley kids! There’s been very few scenes with any kids besides Allie.

The growth of Elizabeth and Lucas's relationship. I'd like for them to explore their feelings and eventually fall in love (maybe next season?)

The kids, even with chicken pox they managed to be overshadowed by the adults. they used to be more present and be part of the plot. now it's just Allie, kind of feel like Elisabeth is not a teacher anymore...

More scenes with Lucas and Elizabeth. I'd also like to see more storylines with the Hope Valley kids.

Nathan and Ally

Scenario with Lucas and Baby Jack

Any other thoughts about the season so far?

It would ne nice to see other characters developement such as Molly, Florence, Ned who bring the sparkle of fun and lightness to the show.

Without Jack and Abigail, stop the season. WCTH no longer makes sense.

Too much make up - cut it out!

Hate how Brian Bird has turned the Hearties against each other with this triangle. Then the fact he gloats about it is so unchristian. Apparently Mr. Bird is not the Christian he claims to be with his behavior on social media. He loves the fact the Hearties are divided and the community has become hateful towards each other.

I just hope the triangle ends this season and finally be on the path to develop the second love chosen for Elizabeth

I’m unclear on who is in charge of Hope Valley right now. There was a mention of the town council in this week’s episode, did the head of town council become mayor? Did they get rid of the mayor’s office, and now the whole town council is in charge? I’m not sure why, but I think about this a lot whenever I’m watching.

I’m not a huge fan of this supposed love triangle. Not at all.

Not enough drama for this time period. We need more cliffhanger type moments. Stakes aren't high enough like they used to be.

They have done a FANTASTIC job. Honestly, this season, along with season 6, are my favs.

It’s been great

I absolutely detest the "love" triangle. It is out of character for Elizabeth to be attracted to two men. She's a one-man woman. Also I HATE the way this unnecessary triangle has divided the Hearties and caused so much ugliness.

Lucas and Elizabeth are constantly getting interrupted by Nathan. Less of Allie and more of the other kids. Little Jack walk and not be carried all the time. Lucas and Elizabeth dance at the wedding and/or on the trip they take. Nathan sees he is not winning over Elizabeth and Lucas

Excellent

I really want Elizabeth to end up with Lucas and show their love story

I'm leaning more towards Lucas mostly because I don't want the teacher/mountie storyline recycled but for both options, I would like more in depth characterisation.

I actually really like love triangles, so I don’t mind it at all if they manage it well. The season is certainly not good so far, but I’m mostly enjoying it and looking forward to new episodes more than in previous seasons. My expectations are very low, but I’m still worried they’ll manage to disappoint me in so many ways. On a completely positive note, I’m loving the importance of Rosemary’s friendship with Elizabeth!

I like it

Kevin is only there when he's needed for the Fione storyline, the guy that works for Gowen is in the back more than Kevin. Kevin actually doesn't make much sense since he doens't interact with many characters other than Fiona and the occassional storyline with the livery

Get storylines for Henry and Bill

It’s ok - some plot lines are strong and some are very weak and waste a lot of viewing time.

Not happy w/the triangle. #Hearties are too divided.

Better writing not so predictable

I prefer Elizabeth to be with Lucas because he isn't a Mountie, we already had that story-line with Jack and i just want something fresh for Elizabeth.

We need a love interest for Henry!

I hate the triangle! It is causing division among the #Hearties. I think if the writers are going to put Elizabeth with another mountie which i hope and pray they dont! They should have replaced Jack. I think this triangle is making Elizabeth look silly and the men look like teenage boys. It has took the Elizabeth we have known away. Lucas is so perfect for Elizabeth he reminds me so much of Jack and to put them together would bring back the excitement to the show it has lost.

It's really ok. I don't really get why some have these like, HUGE expectations. It's a Hallmark show, I only have 1 real expectation: Be good, and realaxing.

Please renew for more seasons. I love this show. This is a great season

Honeslty it's quite okay. I would like to have more active plots, but this is Hallmark, so it's fine

More Lee and Rosemary and a quick end to the love triangle would be perfect.

They really need to work in the Spanish Influenza of 1918

I like the evolution of Elizabeth and Bill’s relationship - he is becoming a father like supposrt foe her and surrogate grandfather to Jack Jr developing

It's like the writers are running out of ideas. They did better with S6 even with kicking out Lori

Triangle needs to end by season

I feel like Henry would have had a bigger role with Abigail, so I'm sad that his character has to suffer the consequences of the Loughlin scandal. He's still a very good character but he deserves more plot than he gets.

Don't want the love triangle go to the next season.

This season is an improvment because there is no behind the scnes drama to accomodate for, however, it still feels stiff or something. I am looking forwrd to seeing Jesse and Clara's wedding! It will be the best since Rosemry and Lee's

No, it's all good

Would like to learn more about Lucas' family!

It's been kinda meh, with parts i've adored and parts i've loathed. trying to stay open-minded

Nathan’s character boring and needy. They way the writers have written him is very off-putting. Allie is grating on nerves too. Where are all the other students? I realize the writers must have a plan in place, but I honestly do not understand why they are dividing the fanbase over Elizabeth’s love life. It’s heartbreaking.

Please have Elizabeth choose already!! I feel like the love triangle is being dragged out!! Lol! But I love all the Elizabeth Lucas scenes!

Love it!

This season is so amazing so far! I cannot wait to see what is in store for Elizabeth and the rest of Hope Valley!

The ensemble cast really shines through. And also Erin is doing really good work with what´s been given her.

I miss the previous seasons and how much more interesting they were

Drop the love triangle

I don't think Elizabeth has chemistry with either man

If things don’t improve - end the show. Sorry - but my honest opinion.

I would like see a less competitiveness between Nathan and Lucus, the way they are acting is just silly and it belittles both of them. I think it would be more interesting if they were friends 1st before they both became interested in Elizabeth. Other than that I like the season so far, it feels fresh!

Nope, everything is pretty solid. But i really hope they don't go the Nathan route.

It’s great to be invested in this show again!

I’d like them to stop trying to make Henry into a bad guy

I would like the triangle over

I dont want this love triangle to continue for too long because it is becoming confusing and annoying to watch. I prefer Nathan because i feel like Elizabeth has more chemistry with him than Lucas. I think she also prefers Nathan but is afraid to allow herself to make her feelings known because shes afraid of lossing him too. I don't see her with Lucas because he is everything she left behind when she chose to stay in Hope Valley.

I’m really enjoying it! The flowers episode was my favorite! Very sweet and romantic.

I like Molly having a job now, too.

It’s pretty good. I wish the love triangle would be solved soon.

I love Jesse & Clara!!!

Really enjoying it! Excited to see where the storylines are Going!

I could use a little less Nathan and Allie.

Less love triangle.... wishful thinking

#TeamLucas. That's all ?

Need to end the triangle

With Elizabeth being the teacher she should interact with all the students. Sorry, not sorry but enough of Ally

#When Calls the Heart #WCTH survey

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mrsreinhart · 5 years

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‘I Chased Cardi for Two Years’ How Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria cast her stripper saga.

“This is bigwig played by Frank Whaley — who I still can’t believe we got to play the role — a regular of Ramona’s (Jennifer Lopez). This scene is the first night of Ramona and Destiny (Constance Wu) working together. Strippers often work in pairs, or groups, because it’s actually a lot more advantageous to separate men from their money. And Constance’s choker is incredible.”

When writer-director Lorene Scafaria set out to cast Hustlers, the story of a group of gloriously scammy New York strippers based on Jessica Pressler’s 2015 New York Magazine piece, she knew one thing for certain: She had to get Cardi B to star in it. Who better than Cardi, an effervescent New York stripper turned world-famous rapper, to capture the absurd, darkly comic spirit of the dancers who slyly swindled hundreds of thousands of dollars from men who never saw it coming? The only problem: Scafaria didn’t know Cardi, nor was she sure how to contact her. So she did what men have been doing to Cardi since the dawn of Instagram: She slid into her DM’s

“I chased Cardi for two years,” laughs Scafaria when I catch her on the phone one afternoon in mid-July, as she’s deep in the process of editing and mixing the film — out September 13 — from a “big house on Mount Olympus.” After she sent that bold DM, Scafaria says a mysterious person associated with Cardi’s Instagram account sent back a phone number. Scafaria texted that number. “I got back a ‘We know, we’ll get back to you,’” she recalls. “I didn’t know if I was talking to her or somebody else.” Even now, a month before the film’s release, Scafaria isn’t sure to whom the phone number belongs. “I have two phone numbers in my cell: Cardi 1 and Cardi 2. I’m not sure if either of them are actually Cardi.”

Scafaria oversees the club-scene shoot at Show Palace, a Long Island City club where Lopez performs and where Scafaria actually cast several of the dancers. “The club was so alive — we had 250 extras in this space, 50 girls, 200 men. I was just running around trying to make sure everybody felt good and comfortable. We have this incredible comfort consultant, who’s also in the movie, Jacq the Stripper. She was walking around, talking to the girls, talking to guys, making sure that they felt good.” Photo: Barbara Nitke/Courtesy of STXfilms

Scafaria — who was initially hired solely to write the script, but then “worked really hard” to convince Annapurna (who first picked up Hustlers, now being distributed by STX Films) that “the director of The Meddler should be the director of Hustlers” — pursued the rest of the stacked cast with similar fervor. “I chased Lizzo for a year,” she says. “I met with Trace Lysette probably a year earlier, then wrote her a part. I knew I needed Keke Palmer so early on. I remember casting the Mercedes character and saying, ‘It has to be Keke Palmer.’ Jacqueline Francis, who goes by Jacq the Stripper on Instagram, was somebody I knew I wanted to write a part for as well. Mette Towley was someone I’d met with probably two years earlier.”

But none of the casting really congealed until Scafaria reeled in her biggest fish: Jennifer Lopez, who plays the strippers’ de facto matriarch and criminal mastermind, Ramona. “The moment I finished the script, I realized: Oh my God, Ramona is Jennifer Lopez,” she says. “Jennifer Lopez is Ramona. The two of them are the same; they have all of these similar qualities. It has to be her.” Once Scafaria landed Lopez, everything fell into place. “Casting was made infinitely easier once Jennifer was attached. Everybody really, really, really wanted to work with Jennifer. That was the beauty of making this movie, too: casting what felt like the right people for each part, and watching them interact the way that they should with each other.”

“This is really the scene where Ramona and Destiny meet. This is the scene that was in my head and on paper for so long … It was our last night of filming, actually. Destiny has seen Ramona inside the club, and she goes out to the rooms where Ramona is having a smoke to talk to her and see if she can get to know her. And Ramona opens up her fur coat and tells Destiny to climb inside, and Destiny does. And then Destiny’s done for.” Photo: Courtesy of STXfilms

Scafaria was particularly impressed with the way Lopez rose to the physically demanding task of playing a career stripper. “She’s obviously such an unbelievable dancer, but she trained so hard-core for this. Pole dancing is not like anything else. It required muscles you don’t know you have. So we did treat it a little bit like a sports movie in that way.” Lopez even did a bit of field research with her fiancé, Alex Rodriguez: “She and Alex went and visited a strip club, and she was able to give me some … insights,” laughs Scafaria.

“Here, Ramona is training Destiny — giving her a little bit of a pre-lesson in pole dancing, and showing her some moves. This is early in their relationship, right after they’ve met. It’s really a very funny and beautiful scene. There’s a certain composer’s music that plays throughout the movie — I can’t say who yet — and the piece that plays here is really remarkable.” Photo: Courtesy of STXfilms

Scafaria says she felt “like a matchmaker” as she watched the cast quickly bond with one another. Lopez became particularly close with Constance Wu, who plays Destiny, a newer stripper who Scafaria describes as the “protagonist of the story, who Ramona takes under her wing.” According to Scafaria, Hustlers is “really focused on these two women and their friendship,” and Lopez and Wu followed suit. “Constance and Jennifer love each other. There was this very beautiful sister relationship that was unfolding. And Keke and Lili [Reinhart] together, they’re so adorable. Trace and Mette really hit it off. I always feel like mom — I’m like, ‘They don’t have to love mom, they just have to love each other,” laughs Scafaria. “We had a pretty remarkable time together; it was an incredible bond for something that was shot in 29 days with 15 women.”

Though Scafaria didn’t get to meet the real-life dancers on whom the film is based, she says she used Pressler’s article as a “jumping-off point,” and turned each character into a sort of “conglomerate of people I know, have known, met while making this and researching it, and reading between the lines of Jessica’s article.” Scafaria was also insistent on casting Julia Stiles as Pressler herself. “The movie wouldn’t work without Jessica as a character,” says Scafaria. “She represents so much: the audience, me, the idea of feeling a certain responsibility to be truthful and authentic to the story.” But most important to Scafaria was maintaining a sense of empathy for the characters. “I felt instantly sort of protective over them,” she says. “Because I don’t think they’re being judged for where they ended up in the crime that they committed. I feel they’re being judged for where they started. And that, for me, made it a story really worth telling.”

Lili Reinhart, Jennifer Lopez, Keke Palmer, and Constance Wu celebrate a successful night of fishing — which required two takes with an unpredictable champagne cork. “The champagne was kind of flying everywhere. Constance said to me, ‘Are you sure you want me to do this one more time?’ And I said, ‘I really do.’ And she said, ‘You’re tempting fate.’ And I go, ‘I know, but we need it.’ So she popped it off and it hit a light and cracked it.” Photo: Barbara Nitke/Courtesy of STXfilms

That razor-sharp vision for what Hustlers should be was what helped her land the directing role. “I felt like I’d seen a scene in a strip club in every single TV show and movie ever,” she says. “It’s a setting that people have used time and time again and we’ve only seen that from one side, for the most part. I was fascinated by what this story represents: gender as it relates to money, the American Dream, the fact that people rarely think of women as ‘blue collar.’ It’s certainly a period piece also, about 2007 and 2008 and the financial crisis, and how it changed this industry — and these women.”

#hustlers #hustlers movie

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thewhitefluffyhat · 5 years

Text

Feminist Relevant Themes

<-Previous (Introduction)

To talk about Magia Record’s writing in detail, it helps to understand how the game is structured.

Magia Record has many story modes:

Main Story: The main plot, centered on new protagonist Iroha arriving in the city of Kamihama to search for her missing sister. Everyone can read this at any time, and new chapters come out every few months.

Another Story: The events of the Main Story, but told from the point of view of the original Madoka Magica cast. Also always available to everyone.

Magical Girl Stories: short stories centered on one specific magical girl - usually they tell the backstory of the girl’s wish. Can only be watched after obtaining the character in the gacha.

Mirrors Story: A very slowly updated story unlocked by completing many player vs. player battles.

Event Stories: Short stories that come out roughly every two weeks. Sometimes introduce a new character for the gacha, sometimes related to a seasonal holiday. Playable to anyone around during the event (and will be stored in the archive afterwards).

Costume Stories: Tiny story snippets involving a character wearing a special outfit. Implemented one year in and unlocked by obtaining both the character and the outfit in question.

Good

Female Friendship

As with the better side of magical girl media, the game’s biggest feminist plus is its complex female characters and focus on female friendships, including some great examples of female mentors and role models. The mechanics of the setting are even tweaked to facilitate this - gone is the TV series’ lonely, competitive system that isolated girls from each other. Instead, in present-day Kamihama, witches are so strong and plentiful that magical girls are better off forming teams to support one another.

While this change arguably waters down some of the thematic weight of the original (in that this isolation was another example of how Kyuubey’s system is an easy metaphor for other oppressive systems), I find it a worthy trade-off. Allowing for magical girl teams to exist results in much richer possibilities for interactions between characters, especially welcome in a sprawling game with far more narrative content than a one-season anime.

And the game takes good advantage of this - no two magical girl teams are exactly alike, both in terms of internal dynamics and how they interact with other teams.

Doppels

The main gimmick of the game’s story is the existence of “doppels” - a mechanic where a magical girl partially transforms into her own witch to unleash a powerful attack. And from gameplay to story to art, doppels are excellent. They look cool and they’re rewarding to unlock and use in game. From a feminist perspective, I also love the idea of reclaiming witches, the “adult” form of magical girls, into a source of salvation and empowerment for girls* instead of a curse. On a meta-level, it echoes a common magical girl trope of the character transforming into an older version of herself, while specifically to Madoka Magica, it’s a creative way to dismantle the misogynistic implications of Kyuubey’s system!

(*There are supposedly drawbacks to doppels, but that bit of setting mostly serves to make them a ~dangerous forbidden technique~ that shouldn’t be overused.)

Struggling against class prejudice

The tensions between different wards of Kamihama are a key component of the setting, and affect many character interactions. One aspect the Magical Girl Stories are good at is showing how arbitrary and hurtful this discrimination is, and how difficult it is to overcome prejudice once it has become entrenched. It’s made abundantly clear that Kamihama would be a better city without these attitudes - the question is, how to get there?

A variety of careers

Several girls make wishes or have backstories centered on what they want to do when they grow up. What’s especially neat is that most girls ask for the opportunity to follow their passions, rather than having a talent magically granted to them - thus avoiding the pitfall of having a female character’s abilities originate from a power granted by a male character.

The range of career interests depicted isn’t as amazing as it could be (In a cast of 80+, I would love to have more than three girls representing STEM), but there’s some decent variety. Many girls aspire to take over their parents’ family business, for example.

And even some characters who follow more seemingly feminine careers (a model, a chef, an artist, etc.) have serious narratives centered on the skill and effort needed to succeed in those highly competitive fields, which is quite refreshing to see.

Mixed

The many different ways to be a girl

The nice thing about having a large cast of female characters is that it gives plenty of opportunities to show how all of these characters are different. And in general, Magia Record does very well on this front! One aspect I’ve particularly been enjoying is the how the cast has widely varying tastes in fiction. Yes, there are girls who like dreamy romances, but there are also girls who bond over their shared love of a hotblooded shounen series!

Where this falls down somewhat is an overuse of “but look, she has a secret feminine interest.” Sometimes this plot can work, if coming at it from the angle that superficial judgments can be misleading, or that there’s nothing wrong with having feminine interests. But when all the more masculine-presenting girls end up with a hidden fondness for stuffed animals, the sheer repetition becomes rather irksome. It’s as though the game feels the need to insist “but look, she really is a girl!” because the audience wouldn’t believe it without such a trait.

LGBTQ+ characters

In terms of LGBTQ+ content, the game feels rather similar to the original anime and other Madoka spinoffs. That is to say, there are tons of shippable f/f pairings that get teased, but as of the present, only one new playable character (and a tiny sample of minor characters) are explicitly confirmed to be lesbians. No trans or otherwise queer characters either, unfortunately. (Though of course that’s not to stop a good interpretation or headcanon!)

However, as a whole, the game is oddly averse to showing the characters in active, healthy relationships. One of the early frustrations I had with the new character’s portrayal was that the game’s one mutual gay relationship was never directly shown on-screen and gets broken up in favor of more ambiguous teasing. That being said, all the het relationships are treated similarly, either never being confessed and requited or never getting shown on screen. So… I suppose there’s not actually a double standard here, but players hoping for lots of canon yuri content might end up a bit disappointed.

Also, a note on Homura specifically - this game’s version is “glasses Homura,” who hasn’t realized she’s in love with Madoka yet. So despite what you might expect given Rebellion, in Magia Record there’s nothing beyond heavy hints and ambiguously cute scenes between her and Madoka.

Characters with disabilities

A few characters in the game have difficulty speaking. It’s not made clear if this is a speech impediment or something like social anxiety (or autism - I know I’ve seen headcanons for that). There is some depiction of these characters getting bullied, but in each case the character ultimately finds a group of friends who love and support them as they are.

After two years, now there is technically a magical girl who uses a wheelchair. (And it’s a cool custom wheelchair too!) Unfortunately I hesitate to count this as a full positive, because shortly after she appears in it, the character becomes unable to transform and fight for an unrelated reason, so we haven’t seen her in battle since. But who knows - the story’s still moving forward on the Japanese server, and there’s likely to be more content with her in the future.

At the end of the day, though, this is a setting with magic wishes and healing effects. Thus, it’s very common for girls to wish to cure someone’s illness, or to use their abilities as a magical girl to cure themselves, which can easily fall into ableist tropes.

College age magical girls

Yes, really! Although even the oldest characters are only nineteen. However, there’s also a subplot about how two of the nineteen-year-olds are losing power because they’re older, which… hm. The message that we all need to accept passing the torch to the next generation is generally a valuable and good one. Aiming it at older teen girls just on the verge of adulthood is where the implications nosedive into unfortunate. Young girls already get far too many messages that their worth is entirely dependent on their youth/beauty/innocence and that it’s better to stay a “girl” than to be a fully grown “woman.”

The entire reason it’s exciting to see college age magical girls in the first place is that even now, it’s rare to see adult women as protagonists in these types of fantasy adventures. By introducing these young adult characters only to caveat their inclusion with“they’re getting too old to be here”, it puts a very sour note on what’s otherwise a welcome expansion of the Madoka Magica universe.

(It’s also hilariously contradictory to other spin offs in the Madoka Magica franchise, including the implications of the anime canon itself, so… whoops?)

Bad

Lack of diversity

(Particularly racial diversity.)

The only non-Japanese magical girls are from the pre-existing Tart Magica spin-off set in medieval France… and Meiyui. (And maybe Alina.)

Meiyui is a complicated case - her family has ties to both Japan and Hong Kong. Meiyui herself is a fun character, but she also ticks a lot of the checkboxes for a Japanese stereotype of a Chinese person (a la Xiao Mei in Fullmetal Alchemist). As a white person only familiar with US culture, it’s not my place to make a judgement call here, but I’d love to hear from someone who knows more!

The largest disappointment, though, is in wondering what might have been. The Madoka Magica anime implied that there are magical girls all over the globe from every different time and culture, so the game’s narrow focus on one modern Japanese city greatly limits the setting from its full potential. And even within that limitation, the sheer homogeneity of the new cast is starting to get awkwardly same-y.

The arc two’s logo teases what might be girls from several other backgrounds, though, so perhaps this will improve in the very near future. Of course, success will depend on the writers’ abilities to handle other cultures. Which, when given the example of Meiyui, might actually be cause for concern...

Revolutionary Girl Utena, this ain’t

In a game full of decent-to-good backstories, you’ll sometimes hit an unfortunate and very disappointing outlier.

My personal least favorite is the victim-blaming one mentioned in the content warnings. Another low point is a story where a girl frantically diets as a response to another girl’s comments about her weight.

Then there’s the backstory the above picture comes from. It involves a girl who has to drop out of sports because her next school only has a boy’s team - and instead of challenging this situation, it’s the inspiration for her to discover she’s actually happier as a cheerleader anyway. Hm.

This last case is actually pretty emblematic of the game as a whole. Whoever’s doing the writing (the credited scenario team is four people, and from the names at least two might be women?) mostly seems to mean well, but they occasionally step hard into the -isms that come from not actually thinking about the problems with the status quo.

So the game isn’t typically hateful, but it doesn’t push the envelope in any revolutionary directions either. As a result - and it feels weird to say this, but - I really miss having Urobuchi as the writer. Sure, his writing had its own problems, but in comparison, it was at least genuinely thought-provoking. The way that even the adult female characters got complexity and screentime, that whole conversation between Sayaka and the misogynistic men on the train, the compelling exploration of consent and determination that underlies the whole anime – even six years later, these aspects hold up and stand out.

Magia Record is an inversion – far more pleasant on the surface, but without the backbone and depth that made the original so thematically intriguing despite all the suffering.

Next (Other Writing Aspects)->

#puella magi madoka magica #pmmm #magia record #magical girls #feminist analysis #my blog organization tags #magia record analysis #my feminist friendly magireco review #madoka magica #magical girl genre #magia record jp #magia record na #my ramblings #haha this section is so long #nothing else even touches it #and even then there’s so much other stuff I could rant about lol

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stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

Text

Bismuth

Steven Universe is a show about solving problems with healthy communication instead of violence. It’s also a show so centered around fighting that our main characters have signature weapons that act as literal extensions of themselves.

Not every episode has an action sequence, and not every action sequence is a fight, but this series is no stranger to glamorizing combat. For all its talk about how true strength means more than physical might, the use of physical might to hurt others isn’t always frowned upon, even by our peaceful hero. To compensate for this dissonance, fights that would normally leave fatal wounds instead end in a process so harmless that they called it “poofing.”

Our ninety-eighth episode begins not with a title card, but a dramatic-looking scene that’s soon revealed to have no stakes, capped with Steven bemoaning that “dying a bunch in video games is emotionally exhausting.” The temporary nature of death is ingrained in his life—his very existence involved his mother not quite dying, but becoming half of him—and while the show at this point has acknowledged that violence can scar the body and soul, the only permanent consequences we’ve seen precede Steven’s existence. Shattering, the Cluster, and Corruption are ancient history, and were actions taken by the villains our heroes rebelled against. We’ve never had to deal with the moral implications of ending a life, and because this is a kid’s show there’s a chance we never would have, because the game isn’t quite as fun once permanent consequences are in play.

After a comedic foray into Lion’s mane, Steven pops a mysterious bubble we saw all the way back in Lion 3, flies back into his room, and shouts that he’s made a horrible mistake. And after the initial reaction from the other Crystal Gems, we linger in the room to get one last message from his television screen before he jumps back in:

Game Over.

“We are the Crystal Gems!”

I love everything about the title reveal of this episode. I love that we have to wait for it, so we’re forced to pay extra attention when it arrives. I love the not-quite-still shot of our two leads sizing each other up as the name of our episode and new character slowly fades in. And I love the chill but chilling music that sets the stage for the life-changing story ahead of our hero.

Aivi and Surasshu give characters distinct instrumentation, Peter and the Wolf style, but folks like Rose, Greg, Connie, Lapis, Peridot, and even Lion also have distinct motifs (sometimes a few, in the case of Rose and Lapis) using these instruments. The four main Crystal Gems are unique in that they’re defined mainly by their sound: Garnet is the bass holding everything together, Amethyst is the drumkit keeping up the tempo, Pearl is the piano accompanying others, and Steven subs out a traditional main instrument for chiptunes (many people have pointed this out, but I think this video does the best job of exploring it). Garnet as a concept eventually gets a motif that largely appears when fusion is involved, but the principle of associating these four main characters primarily through instruments holds true throughout the series.

Bismuth is a Crystal Gem, too. And whether it’s intentional or not, I love that this is shown by her lack of a distinct theme song, leaving her represented by her instrument in the same way as our big four. And the instrument we get for a heavy metal stuck in the past is a reverse electric guitar.

On the subject of sound, we just started and I've already waited too long to talk about Uzo Aduba. Bismuth is beautifully animated and has a stunning design, and the extra large crew for this two-parter did wonders on her facial expressions and body language to breathe life into the character, but all of it would've fallen short without a magnificent voice actor tying it together. This is a complicated and ambiguous figure, who laughs hard and burns hot but knows how to keep quiet, and Aduba hits every emotional beat with ease.

Aduba is especially talented in humanizing Bismuth’s rage, balancing loud shouts with twinges of sadness and jolly war stories with drops of venom. Her monologue in the Forge is one of many examples of Aduba’s greatness: after building up fervent momentum as she works with burning lava, she lowers her voice to a triumphant but menacing whisper when revealing that she chose to create weaponry. Aduba made a splash by finding a real person in a character reduced to the nickname “Crazy Eyes” on Orange is the New Black, and while Bismuth might not be as extreme of a role, she’s made great by an actress who refuses to dumb down angry women.

Bismuth is a zealot, but why wouldn’t she be? She faced the same oppression that drove the other Crystal Gems to rebel, and is mentally right in the thick of it while Garnet and Pearl have had thousands of years to move on. The leader that inspired and encouraged her to build weapons not only refused to use the Breaking Point, but fought her, bubbled her, and lied about it. We see it in Bismuth’s face the moment Rose is first mentioned around her, and even though this could be read as concern over her leader’s whereabouts, our knowledge that Rose’s version of events clashes with Bismuth’s hiding place sets off early warning bells.

Bismuth’s wordplay here is perfect for a character who often means multiple things at once: “Rose really is something else” works as a commentary on how strange Rose was, as a reference to her physically becoming something else, and as another hint of Bismuth’s true feelings about her leader’s betrayal. Her clever use of language soon becomes ingrained as a character trait: we obviously get the triple pun on her name (not three puns, but the same pun three times), but I’m a bigger sucker for the phrase “upper crust” playing off her disdain of Gem elites with geological terminology. It’s great to see such cleverness when characters with massive frames and aggressive attitudes are so rarely graced with wit.

Bismuth is angry, but she’s more than her anger. It’s balanced by (and caused by) her huge heart. She gets along famously with Garnet and Pearl, and cares deeply for her fallen friends, but she’s just as warm with Amethyst and Steven. An underrated element of Bismuth is that it doesn’t forget that Amethyst is in the middle of a major arc: even though she’s not the focus of the episode, she’s still reeling from her fight with Jasper and is uncomfortable around another huge interloper in her life, this time someone whose existence furthers the notion that Amethyst isn’t a “proper” Crystal Gem. So Amethyst is awkward at first, then sows seeds of suspicion when Steven is entranced. It speaks well of Bismuth that she treats Amethyst as an equal worthy of respect without question, and Amethyst soon comes around when Bismuth praises and upgrades her whip. This giant-sized episode is the clear product of long-term planning and collaboration, but it still remembers to tell a quick Amethyst story to keep us invested in her ongoing development.

But it’s Bismuth’s relationship with Steven that makes up the bulk of the plot, and as dumb as it might sound, the character she reminds me of most is Tim Curry’s version of Long John Silver from legitimate classic film Muppet Treasure Island; yes, Long John Silver in general works for this analogy, but Tim Curry is the definitive version, fight me. Bismuth isn’t as treacherous as old Long John, but they share the tightrope act of being at odds with young protagonists that they earnestly like. There’s nothing fake about their moments of bonding and pseudo-parental advice, and while both are angling to convert a child hero to a questionable cause, it’s done in part to maintain a friendly relationship. Again, Silver is more of an outright villain—his lust for gold lacks the nuance of Bismuth’s well-intentioned justification of extreme violence—but these are gregarious antagonists that our heroes build meaningful connections with, and ultimately learn lasting lessons from.

Steven is all in on Bismuth’s ardor at first, grinning with shared passion after she rallies the team to keep fighting Homeworld. He’s a little less on board upon seeing Amethyst’s weapon upgrade, and his unease grows during the sparring session, but for all her intensity, Bismuth is fine with him not wanting to fight. She welcomes his own “rituals” with glee, and even though our first look at this sees her spiking a birdie into the sand so hard that the beach explodes, the montage otherwise shows her fitting right in. Even the foreshadowing of Bismuth’s views on weapon lethality during Lonely Blade is lighthearted, with the bonus of showing us how far Pearl has come in regards to fiction since Steven the Sword Fighter.

It all comes together in a poignant discussion about Rose. This is the last time she’s ever spoken of in a purely positive light before the story of her shattering Pink Diamond comes out; not every conversation about her is negative after this reveal, it’s never quite the same. We focus on Rose as a champion of differences: this is the Rose who said a servile pearl could be a warrior, who accepted a new fusion when nobody else would, who told a runty amethyst she was perfect the way she was. Bismuth is telling us what we already know, but personalizes it, showing how inspired she was by it, and Steven reacts to this umpteenth version of the Rose Was Great speech by admitting his fears of not measuring up for the second episode in a row.

Bismuth’s response sums up the entire lesson of Steven’s original series arc, and it’s such a moving affirmation when paired with Change Your Mind:

“You are different. That’s what’s so exciting. You don’t have to be like Rose Quartz, you can be someone even better. You can be you.”

The tragedy is that this hopeful message is undercut by Bismuth’s idea that a “better” Steven is one who uses deadly force. And the speech as a whole is further marred by a subtle hint of Rose’s mendacity: Bismuth mentions that she was “just another quartz soldier, made right here in the dirt,” but even before the Pink Diamond reveal, we already know Rose is from Homeworld from earlier episodes like Rose’s Scabbard. Retrospect enhances the sensation, tinging the uplifting speech with the kind of gray that we’re going to see a lot more of in the future.

There’s an awful inevitability to the ensuing fight as our heroes descend into the Forge, coming right of the heels of Bismuth telling Steven they need an alternative to fighting fair. Steven repeats his progression of reactions towards Bismuth all at once: first confused, then super excited, then gradually realizing something isn’t sitting right. But this time we can’t end with a day at the beach.

(The mood is ruined a little by the adorable commercial transition, and the summarization of the scene upon cutting back from commercials in a way this eleven minute show has never dealt with, but fortunately the bulk of the scene goes uninterrupted.)

Steven obviously isn’t going to use the Breaking Point, and we get a prolonged shot of them standing at odds in mirrored positions from their title card encounter before Bismuth’s hand tightens into a fist. To her, this isn’t a fight with Steven, but a continuation of her fight with Rose, and her anger at her deception is fueled further by the not unreasonable assumption that Rose is still lying as Steven. In Bismuth’s mind she isn’t attacking a child, but a veteran warrior who for some reason took the form of a small human, so she goes all-out.

Steven has been called “Rose” plenty of times by Jasper, and this will continue in our very next episodes, but it’s gotta sting harder when the person doing it just told him that Steven was enough. And the fight itself is no joke, which is a relief after the brawl in Steven vs. Amethyst was all joke. The hits land just as hard, and we get the same awesome choreography showcasing Steven’s floaty powers and spiky bubble in action, but Bismuth isn’t kidding and Steven is on the ropes. His sandal melting away is as graphic as we’re gonna get, but it’s still a great sign of what will happen to him if he falls. His shoelessness also allows for a neat reversal of Bismuth closing her fist to begin the fight: after limping on the other foot to avoid the heat, the first we see of him after the second bubble of the episode pops is a close-up of his bare foot steaming on the ground. He’s forced to hurt both himself and Bismuth to end the fight.

We’re on the cusp of learning the “truth” about Pink Diamond, but the beginning of Rose’s souring portrayal is right here. If you squint hard enough, Rose’s actions in the past could have been justified by her not wanting to shatter anybody, and by Bismuth being an extremist who left her with no choice. But as she stands impaled by the sword she once forged, Bismuth’s rage can no longer hide her grief. Even if Rose was right, and that’s hardly a sure thing, it’s twisted and terrible that she never told the other Crystal Gems the truth. It doesn’t matter that we eventually learn that this was a lot more complicated than it seemed because Rose was Pink Diamond, because in the moment, the person who just tried to kill Steven is saying that Steven’s mother did an awful thing, and despite everything the show has told us until this moment, she’s making a good point. Steven has no time to dwell on it before the other shoe drops (hopefully not into more lava), but it’s telling that Bismuth only acknowledges Steven as himself again when he says he’ll be honest.

When Bismuth gave Steven his pep talk in the living room, the audience didn’t know her full story, but she did, so she still loved Rose despite everything. She was hurt by her, and was willing to fight her, but she looked up to her leader despite it all. So it’s a real turn when she uses same language that encouraged Steven moments ago to make a new point: he could be better than her because of his potential to be spectacular, but also because she set the bar low by doing horrible things. Bismuth is all about that wordplay.

I’ve got a lot to say about my problems with Bismuth’s story after Bismuth (or rather the lack of one) that I’m including in my giant-sized features section below, because a giant-sized episode merits giant-sized features. But within the episode itself, I think silence after the fight is the right choice. Steven has been in danger before, but this is the hardest a person has ever tried to kill him, and it was one of his friends. A new friend, but a friend.

Bismuth marks the beginning of the end of this era of the show, an era when Steven’s series-long arc to fulfill his mother’s legacy was relatively straightforward. In yet another example of Bismuth’s wordplay, his life story swivels around a Breaking Point. The core of Steven Universe may not change in the way it does in Bubble Buddies and Mirror Gem and Catch and Release, but the core of Steven Universe is forever affected. His imminent guilt complex begins with stabbing Bismuth, and despite the hardships to come, he becomes a better person for surviving it.

But at least he doesn’t shatter her. That would really do a number on the guy. Can’t imagine how guilty he’d be if he one day did shatter an imposing zealot from the Gem War days with a history of confusing him for Rose Quartz...

Future Vision!

This is normally a section that lists small bits Fragments of foreshadowing, but because Bismuth is a double episode with tremendous impact on the shape of things to come in ways I already talked about in the review proper, I want to use this space to talk about the elegance of Steven Universe’s structure. I’ve referred to the fifty-odd episode chunks that make up the story on numerous occasions, but I think it’s about time I buck up and call them Acts.

Act I of Steven Universe is the first season, Act II is the second and third season, and Act III is the fourth and fifth season (with the movie and Steven Universe Future as epilogues), and I think viewing the series through this lens really makes the structure shine. There are many examples of repeating themes and moments that this interpretation makes clear, and as an example, I want to talk about how a recurring phrase signifies a turning point towards the endgame of each act.

In Act I, the slow-burning mystery of where the Gems came from begins at the midpoint, Mirror Gem, and escalates in Warp Tour with the introduction of Peridot. But we’re still doing regular episodes throughout, because Steven’s life is bigger than his past and there’s no pressing need to address his alien heritage when it isn’t directly affecting his life. It’s not until Marble Madness when this story ramps up, with Peridot's discovery of our heroes hurtling us towards a finale that sees Steven come into his own to defend his friends against old foes from beyond the stars who thought them long dead. The turning point is marked by Pearl taking a stand to proudly declare:

“We are the Crystal Gems! We're still alive, and we're still the guardians of this planet and all its living creatures!”

Jumping to Act III, the slow-burning mystery of what Rose did to Pink Diamond is actually solved with some time to spare. Things seem to be wrapping up at Garnet’s wedding in Reunited, especially because we’ve reached the same episode count of the other two acts. But then Blue and Yellow Diamond crash the party, bringing together the entire main cast in opposition. As in Act I, this shifts us onto the path towards the finale, this time one that sees Steven bringing the Diamonds together to heal the damage they did on Earth. This turning point was a bit less subtle:

“This is our home! Our planet! Our friends and family! We are the Crystal Gems!”

Act II is more stable than I or III, chronicling the period after Steven becomes a competent Crystal Gem but before everything is turned upside-down. He has adventures befitting his role and helps his friends and family as he grows more comfortable with his mother’s legacy, but unbeknownst to him, it’s the calm before the storm. Through it all, that legacy and that group are the bedrock of Steven’s life, and Bismuth begins to unravel his sense of security, leading to a finale that destroys our hero’s comfort zone. The turning point comes as Bismuth shatters not an elite Gem, but the fake image of one, and roars a battle cry that shows that there are some missing pages in the story of Steven’s happy family:

“Listen up, you Homeworld upper crusts...”

“We are the Crystal Gems!”

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

Likewise, this is normally a section that lists plot elements that don’t add up, and I can’t imagine reviewing Bismuth with addressing Bismuth’s treatment as the show continues. There aren’t many other places to write about it until Made of Honor, as the most notable element of this discussion is her absence, but it’s a flaw beyond this episode itself, so it’s going here.

First, I understand from a storytelling perspective why Bismuth is bubbled again. She’s a major new element that couldn’t realistically be sent to the barn like Peridot and Lapis, and is so at odds with our heroes that it would mess with the direction of the series. In particular, the reveal that Rose shattered Pink Diamond would go from being a story about Steven coping to a story about Steven and Bismuth coping, because Rose shattering someone goes against the whole reason she fought Bismuth in the first place. The simplest solution to not having Bismuth dominate the upcoming story is putting her away until the plot demands. And we do eventually get some lip service to why she was bubbled again for so long: she did, after all, try to shatter Steven with the Breaking Point at the end of their fight. She seems cool with it, and it’s not as if she was suffering in there, popping back out as if no time had passed and integrating well with the team afterwards.

But it is baffling that there isn’t any conversation about trying to talk with her instead of keeping her locked away. We don’t need a proper trial, but the idea that this team wouldn’t allow Bismuth to make her case and wouldn’t try to help her work towards a mutual understanding is not only cruel, but cruel in a way that makes no sense for these characters. I’ve called the underuse of Malachite the show’s greatest blunder, and I stand by it because Bismuth’s treatment is much more than a “whoops.” Communication is everything to this series, and the idea that Bismuth was too dangerous to be reasoned with is, to me, Steven Universe’s greatest sin.

Garnet and Pearl in particular never mention any alternatives, or even bring her up to a meaningful degree. This is supposed to be one of their best friends. And after we learn about Pink Diamond’s shattering, it’s bewildering that Steven doesn’t consider the Bismuth of it all outside of her factoring into his guilt complex in Mindful Education and a brief mention in Storm in the Room. On both an emotional and logical level there’s no reason to not include her more in Act III. Like, let’s say in the worst case scenario she’s freed and furiously attacks Steven: he already defended himself by himself against her, in a lava-filled arena where she had a huge advantage, so obviously with the other Gems he’d be safe. And let’s say Steven is traumatized by nearly getting killed. Understandable. Even if Pearl also nearly got him killed a few times, it was never with murderous intent. Except that if that’s the rationale, I feel like Bismuth deserves to have that explained by him at some point during her imprisonment. He could tell the Gems, he could confide in Connie, whatever, this is something that needs to be said out loud. If we’re going to have her locked away indefinitely, there needs to be more than stone cold silence about why the Crystal Gems came to such an extreme solution, seemingly without a second thought. There was more discussion about the ethics of bubbling Peridot than Bismuth, and Peridot was a full-blown opponent at the time. There was more discussion about the ethics of rehabilitating the Centipeetle, a being corrupted into what seemed to be an unthinking monster, than a fully sentient ally who did a bad thing.

I’m not gonna knock this episode down any pegs for this in my rankings, because it’s not really the fault of this episode. Yes, it could have included Steven’s conversation with the other Gems, but this story was already full to the gills and there was plenty of time in future episodes, particularly episodes after the shattering story comes to light, to address it. Bismuth works fine on its own, but demanded further stories that it never got. Made of Honor does a decent job of bringing Bismuth back, but that’s after over fifty episodes of a misguided but heroic and loyal friend being imprisoned without any attempt at mediation.

I get that it would’ve been a lot of work, and that the bubble method was more convenient. But making a character this great only to treat her this way is a disservice to both Bismuth and the Crystal Gems as a whole.

(Also, less importantly, this episode was marketed as 100 thanks to the inclusion of a few combined shorts as numbered episodes. But yeah this was totally episodes 98 and 99.)

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

I ended on a bummer note there, but like I said, Bismuth by itself shouldn’t be held culpable for not having a Too Short to Ride or Alone at Sea for Bismuth down the line. It still doesn’t make my top fifteen, but it does make my top twenty, which matters because the list is expanding next time to account for our actual hundredth episode.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Bismuth

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#bismuth #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

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megexpress · 5 years

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Can you so kind of the way some main characters see aquamera relationship ( from the movie) please ?

Hello, anon~

This got long but I’m sure you expected that from me, anon.

If you’re new here, welcome to my screaming. It gets lengthy because I can’t shut up.

Let’s start with Tom. (Is Tom a main character? No. Do I care? No. We all need more Tom in our lives.) Tom was wasted when he and Mera first crossed paths. He didn’t interact with her and he passed out once Arthur finished buckling his seat belt, so he couldn’t have possibly overheard the conversation Arthur had with Mera. When she saved his life, he was just brought back to life so I’m sure he had other things on his mind than how his son can’t stop staring at this mystery woman. However, the scene changes from Arthur clinging to a freshly-revived Tom to all three of them staring out at the destruction, so the conversation that happens after that is left to interpretation (which I’ll gladly do).

I’m sure the first thing Tom did was thank Mera for saving his life. After all, without her, he’d be dead. Logically, next would be formal introductions. If either Mera or Arthur didn’t say anything (they wouldn’t mention that she knew Atlanna - no need to open that can of worms), I think Tom would quickly pick up on the fact that AquaMera had met before. Their conversation is too informal to be a first interaction. Plus, some random stranger from Atlantis wouldn’t have saved his life since Atlantis is the reason Atlanna was taken from him. Arthur would have to admit that he met Mera when he fought Steppenwolf and Tom would tease him. “Oh, that beautiful badass?” “I never sa-” “I think you did.” “You nearly died, old man.” “I’m fit as a fiddle thanks to Mera here.” (While Mera is all ’We don’t have time for this, you two,’ she’d also grudgingly find them charming.) Arthur would just huff and explain to Tom what’s going on. (They drove to the Lighthouse and Mera stayed the night so that her and Arthur could leave early the next morning. You can’t convince me otherwise.)

When Tom sees AquaMera together and how they interact, he can sense it. He has a feeling that not only has Arthur’s future just been put into the fast lane but that this woman just got into the passenger seat. He can see that Arthur is a little blunt, yes, but he’s also comfortable around this woman, almost relaxed. He raised Arthur and knows not to take this lightly - Arthur doesn’t have many friends. It’s rare and should be celebrated. This random woman swam onto shore and into their life so easily, almost reminiscent of how he met Atlanna. Coincidence? Tom thinks not. He has an inkling that these two are going to be a force to be reckoned with. His eyes twinkle in pride when he sees them off.

Next is Vulko. Vulko’s first interaction with AquaMera is when they are discussing Atlan’s trident. He’s relieved to see Arthur and in awe of the fact that Mera got him to come (a feat he wasn’t able to achieve). Though he would never ask, he wonders how she managed. Then he looks at the way they are with one another. They’re…friends? Didn’t she leave to get him just last night? That was quick. He likes that they seem to be comfortable with one another. Arthur keeps glancing at Mera and she keeps meeting his gaze throughout the conversation. Interesting. Their camaraderie will be of benefit during their search for the trident.

It’s not until he has to physically restrain Mera from helping Arthur that he starts to get a true inkling. Vulko is protective of Arthur, true, but he has also known Arthur for years. He gave Atlanna his word that he’d watch over him. Mera never made such an oath and she has known Arthur for a lot less time, yet Vulko had to stop HER from intervening AND shuffle her away. This bond they seem to share is quite strong. Mera has dedication to Atlantis, but her desperation to rescue Arthur goes beyond the throne. He can see it when their eyes meet during Orm’s interrogation of Arthur and when they both speak up on Arthur’s behalf (not to mention their shared fear over Arthur challenging Orm). She cares about him, perhaps more than she fully realizes yet. He wonders if Arthur feels for her in return… That’s confirmed for him later.

As for Orm, the audience knows that Orm is aware of Mera and Vulko secretly meeting with Arthur to usurp the throne (thus the tracking bracelet). Therefore, before Orm ever sees them together, he already knows that Mera and Arthur are allies. He knows that, from now on, Mera will be wherever Arthur is and vice versa. Orm expects Mera to argue on Arthur’s behalf but he doesn’t expect the fear. He can see it in her eyes. She’s scared for his half-brother. Is it only because she is scared for her supposed king? That’s when Arthur swims into the room with his snarky comment and he is watching her face. Oh. He sees the way Mera’s eyes swiftly move from Orm to Arthur, the way the concern bleeds into her expression before she attempts to erase it. Too late. So, Mera has feelings for Arthur. He turns to Arthur. If Arthur reciprocates those feelings, Orm could use that to his advantage.

He tests his theory by asking Vulko to take his “betrothed” away and waits. The silence is deafening. He turns to Mera once more. He sees the way she looks up from under her eyelashes, never breaking eye contact with Arthur. Well, if he wasn’t sure about her feelings before, the mournful look of regret and apology on her face confirmed it. When he turns to Arthur, he sees the betrayal and… longing? Oh, this is too good! He really dug the knife in with that one. Now that Orm has already taken a figurative swing at their hearts, now Mera gets to watch as he rips Arthur’s heart out in battle. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for that meddling Mera! (Sorry, had to shoehorn that in.)

This is also when Vulko’s suspicions are confirmed. He had the intuition about Mera’s feelings but to see it laid bare before him? With that shared look? Arthur looking thrown and heartbroken? There is no doubt in his mind that Arthur and Mera are in a liminal space regarding their relationship, so to speak. Not acted upon yet, he feels, but he can see the tension simmering. If it wasn’t for the impending doom, he would approve. He has known both Mera and Arthur all their lives and feels that they would be a good match. Even from the little amount of time that he has spent with them, Vulko believes that they feed off each other’s energy well. Where Arthur has weakness, Mera has strength and vice versa. It’s not a relationship he would have expected, but one that makes perfect sense when he witnesses it. It’s amazing the beauty that can grow from the unexpected. He silently applauds Mera when she aids in Arthur’s escape, knowing that they will lean on one another in their journey.

Black Manta is kind of a wild card. The only reason why I include him in this is because you asked for main characters from the film and he will presumably have an even larger role in the sequel. The only information he had regarding AquaMera came from Orm ordering him to kill Arthur and the ‘woman he is with’. He doesn’t know the nature of their relationship. It’s not until he shows up in Italy and sees Arthur catch Mera in his arms that he realizes something might be going on here. It’s not coincidental that he decides to shoot when they are leaning in for the kiss. At the moment, he couldn’t care less about the woman. His main focus is Arthur and messing with his life. He refers to Mera as Arthur’s “lady friend,” but doesn’t comment on the relationship beyond that. However, he tucks the knowledge away that the Aquaman has a strong bond with a female Atlantean with fiery red hair. One that seems to go beyond mere friendship.

Finally, we’re at Atlanna! Keep in mind that Atlanna was there for Mera’s childhood when she couldn’t be there for Arthur’s. The way Mera speaks of her throughout the film, and even in Justice League, Mera has a great deal of respect and love for Atlanna. (Yes, girl, have that positive relationship with your future mother-in-law!) Atlanna knows Mera quite well - her character, her tendencies, etc. The only knowledge Atlanna really has of Arthur is from when he was extremely young, but even then he was a gentle, loving soul. She doesn’t believe he’d have changed much. Not with Tom raising him. A N Y W A Y S, Atlanna first sees Mera when she saves her. Do you know what the first thing Atlanna hears? Arthur yelling for Mera. He repeatedly yells her name. He yells it maybe four times (just like she yelled his name in Italy, btw). He is yelling in blind desperation. If Atlanna had turned fast enough, she would have seen him sprint out of the water. Perhaps she heard his feet hitting the water as he ran to shore…

I’m sure Atlanna notices the way her son cares for Mera. Notices the way Arthur and Mera share looks of understanding, uniting themselves in quiet confidences. Atlanna witnesses the fact that Mera would willingly put herself in danger and fight the Karathen at Arthur’s side, despite being hurt. She wanted to be with Arthur and being in pain wasn’t going to stop her. While Arthur is fighting the Karathen and Atlanna is tending Mera’s wounds, she takes notice that Mera can’t stop fidgeting. She’s worried. Atlanna stays quiet, though. She won’t meddle in her son’s love life, but she understands. She understands the desire to be with the one she loves. She’s been separated from her love for far too long and her heart aches every second they’re apart.

Atlanna and Mera feel the surge of energy when Arthur retrieves the trident and she sees Mera’s eyes widen. Atlanna feels the connection between AquaMera. It’s profound. She can sense that it’s new and unexpected, but she can also sense that their love is like her and Tom’s - absolute and defies expectation. She greatly approves. If she had been the meddling kind, she would have tried to pair them up in their youth. When Arthur kisses Mera’s head, her heart warms. The pride she feels for Arthur is overwhelming and her happiness for him is beyond words. If Arthur loves Mera even a fraction of the amount she loves Tom, then it is a truly special relationship, indeed.

(Bonus: King Nereus knows, too. He can sense it while watching Orm and Arthur duel. He can hear Mera’s erratic breathing, the way she desperately follows every movement, her winces at every hit. Her betrothal to Orm was borne out of duty, not love. Therefore, her concern must be for the other. When she stormed away, he thought it was because she refused to watch any longer. It wasn’t until she crashed the coliseum and helped Arthur escape that he truly realized how much she cared for him. His daughter? Going against Atlantis in favour of the bastard son of Atlanna? It’s an unprecedented turn of events for him. Later, when he sees Mera kiss Arthur amidst the melee, he isn’t surprised.)

Wow. Props to anyone who actually read this far. This was a lot and I even forced my own mini-headcanons in, lol. I hope you enjoyed, anon~

#AquaMera #thx for the msg anon~#Aquaman #Aquaman spoilers #spoilers #u know what? screw it.#long post #not putting this under a read more because i'm not the only person having probs #opening people's blogs. so you're all welcome for seeing this giant block of text #i'm rly posting this at 4:30am not knowing if i have to work at 7am or not. cool.#also wrote this giant novel instead of working on that fic i said i'd try to post today

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allthefilmsiveseenforfree · 5 years

Text

Stan & Ollie

As a bit of a comedy nerd, I was so so excited to see Stan and Ollie. It’s the story of Laurel and Hardy (played by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly) from about 1937 to 1953 - the bulk of the story takes place long after the heyday of their motion pictures and focuses on a European “comeback tour” they mounted in the early ‘50s in an effort to drum up interest for them to start making movies again. Their partnership had faltered after the dissolution of their motion picture contract, and this tour was the chance for them to get to know each other and become true partners again. Do they succeed? Well...

Like all the best love stories, the film digs deep into the relationship and the obstacles they have to overcome in order to stay together. It’s a tender and thorough character study of one of the most beloved entertainment acts in American history and it was a truly beautiful experience to watch.

Some thoughts:

There is a loooong walk-and-talk steadicam shot through the studio at the very beginning that is just fantastic. It gives such a rich glimpse of the world within the studio system, and all the different kinds of pictures being made all within feet of each other. God, I’m a slut for old Hollywood narratives.

Laurel and Hardy were such comedic geniuses, it’s easy to forget the work they put into their craft. One thing that struck me - did they do bits literally everywhere they went? When you’re as quick as they are and have that easy rhythm, it appears as easy as breathing. As the film goes on, though, it seems they might actually be trapped inside the roles they’re performing. It’s as if their whole lives have become a bit, because they’re each only seen as a counterpoint to the other person. Never as individuals, but as one half of a pair, incomplete without the other. The sense of loneliness and isolation that clearly enveloped them both in these intervening 12 years is never made explicit, but is acutely felt.

It’s so weird to see certain actors or actresses in roles when they’re known for one iconic thing. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but seeing Moaning Myrtle as Hardy’s wife is a fucking trip, man.

Speaking of, the wives (Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda) are a delightful duo on their own. They couldn’t be more different, but they both love and are protective of their husbands, and their oil-and-water dynamic is a delight to watch, especially in the rare moments in which they find themselves on the same side of an argument. I would watch their comedy duo routine just as happily as I would some of Laurel and Hardy’s best stuff.

I can’t believe Hardy betrayed Laurel in this way - and the fact that, even 12 years later, their chemistry is still off-the-charts. It’s a testament to their bond and to Reilly and Coogan’s performances to sell all these overlapping, nuanced emotions.

The performances are the heart of the film, and boy, do they deliver. Reilly is fantastic as Hardy, lending a worn physicality to everything he does offstage, and an unbelievable light on his feet bounciness to all his actions onstage. And Coogan is eerily, uncannily able to channel Laurel’s facial expressions and movements in small, mimed bits that he performs usually for an audience of one. The receptionist in a waiting room, or the waiter at a restaurant - no audience is too small for his rubber-faced moments of silly physical comedy.

Jeff Pope and A.J. Marriot’s script is fantastic at a slow build of tension leading to an inevitable confrontation between the two partners that airs years of grievances and slights in an explosion of accusations and bitter confessions. It’s rare to see male friendships depicted onscreen this way, just as fraught and deeply felt as a romance, and all the elements come together perfectly to make this friendship feel as deep and intimate as the truest romantic love story. I would love to see more films treat friendship in this way.

I will point out one flat note in an otherwise lovely symphony - there was an incredibly lazy man-in-a-dress type transphobic joke that I recognize would be part of the comedy landscape of the time. BUT, the makers of this film could have easily substituted a different historically appropriate joke in its place, or just cut that one line entirely without it affecting the film at all. It was not vital to a scene or a character’s development - it was a throwaway line in an otherwise gorgeous movie that felt cheap and gross. Just a reminder that these choices may seem small but they can have a huge impact on the audience’s ability to lose themselves in the story.

On this episode of Did I Cry? The answer is a resounding yes, primarily during the final 15 minutes of the movie. Just one continuous weep for the power of friendship.

Even if you don’t know much about the history of comedy or Laurel and Hardy, Stan and Ollie is a lovely time at the movies that reminds you of the magic of motion pictures and the power they have to change lives. More than that, it’s a movie that will make you feel deeply and laugh easily, and I can’t think of a better reason to see a film.

#119in2019 #stan and ollie #stan and ollie review #laurel and hardy #steve laurel #oliver hardy #steve coogan #john c reilly #shirley henderson #nina arianda #movie reviews #film reviews

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xanderuwu · 6 years

Text

for whom it may concern; here’s a letter

i wrote this long fucking rant about voltron, enjoy (click here to view on google docs)

My name is Alexander, I’m 23, and here is my sob story. I’m a bisexual trans man who grew up in a tiny village where people believed that being LGBT+ was just as bad as being a child molester. I spent the first 20 years of my life hiding my truth because of the fear & shame that was ingrained in me as a child; I was disgusted by myself. I have never gone a week in my‬ ‪life without contemplating suicide - I’ve tried to kill myself 9 times, the first time was when I was 8.‬

‪One of the main things that kept me afloat during my childhood & teen years were stories in any medium; film, TV, books, I swallowed them whole & they kept me sane. But they never made me feel goof about myself or my life. I didn’t experience the impact of good representation until I saw the first season of Glee in 2009 when I was 14 (that show went downhill as it went on too, wow). One of the main characters on Glee was gay & had an arc in the first season where he came out to his father, & his father … embraced him.‬

‪… I remember crying in bed, watching the coming out scene over & over in shitty quality on the Youtube app on my old iPod. I had never seen anything like it. Sure, I’d seen LGBT+ people in media before, but they were always either stereotype-ridden jokes, or they led miserable lives & never got a happy ending. & in so so so many cases … they died. Or their partner died. Or they got AIDS. Or they were framed as disgusting degenerates.‬

‪I’d never seen a parent accept & embrace their gay child. I had never seen a gay character who “made it” with loving friends & family. It gave me courage, it made me hopeful.‬

‪Hope is the most powerful powerful tool we have when it comes to suicide prevention within the LGBT+ community. Every day, thousands of people toe the line between life & death, & THAT is why our representation is so important. Yes, it helps normalize LGBT+ people to the cisgender & heterosexual audiences, but you have no idea how much hope & joy can blossom in the hearts of vulnerable LGBT+ people from good representation that shows LGBT+ characters being embraced & loved, finding partners, falling in love, getting that happy gay ending we so rarely get to see in media. I’m certain that that gay kid from fucking Glee of all things, saved me from the brink a few times.‬

‪In December of 2014, when The Legend of Korra made Korra & Asami the romantic endgame, I cried. Cried for all the LGBT+ kids who would, perhaps for the first time, feel good about themselves. I also cried for the child in myself who still struggles with the shackles secured around his feet from a childhood of isolation & self-hatred, because he needed it too. & then we got record-breaking amounts of well-rounded LGBT+ representation on Steven Universe, a show that not only features same-gender romances, but also explores gender & challenges toxic masculinity. & last year, Disney Channel, the fucking DISNEY CHANNEL, had a character on Andi Mack come out as gay! Freakin’ DISNEY, man! & Korra was on Nickelodeon, Steven Universe is on Cartoon Network - those are all huge traditional television broadcasters where shows have to be assessed by a whole lot of boards in order to make sure they’re suitable to broadcast.‬

‪Netflix, on the other hand, has more freedom. Many of their live-action shows have had explicit LGBT+ representation. Watching as more & more mainstream TV shows & films with prominent LGBT+ characters get released makes me believe in the change, from when i was a kid in the early 00’s to now.‬

‪I first encountered Voltron: Legendary Defender in the form of gifs, fanart, & screencaps on Tumblr. The first thing that caught my attention was Allura’s design; she’s gorgeous & I’m weak. I found out that she was from the Voltron reboot which, not gonna lie, sounded kinda dumb to me at first. I watched Voltron: Defender of the Universe as a kid, not because i’m old enough to have been a child in the 80s, but because we were a family with six mouths to feed & no disposable income that could be spent on cable TV. So we got public service television, & they ran a lot of cartoons from the 80s because they were cheap to license I guess.

Anyways, I was obsessed with VDOTU (we’re using abbreviations now because this is getting stupidly long & typing is hard) as a wee lad, Allura was my favourite character because she had long hair & a pink uniform - as I said, I’m weak for pretty people. So in late June of 2016 I watched the first season of VLD & I was so pleasantly surprised. VLD is animated by Studio Mir; one of my favourite animation studios, & the show has writers & producers who have also worked on Korra, so that, in addition to the show being distributed by Netflix, made the possibility of clear-cut LGBT+ characters & storylines seem more plausible. ‬

‪I loved the first season of VLD. I very quickly latched onto Keith & Allura, but as I kept watching I found myself adoring the whole team. Having Pidge be a girl was cool, & I was so excited when I found out that she was voiced by a gay actress! & whoever came up with the idea of making Allura, Hunk, & Lance brown deserves a high-five. ‬

‪(We’re getting to the real meaty LGBT+ rep rant soon, just stick with me here because I wanna talk about some other gripes I have with this show first).‬

‪So, we had a show with a diverse main cast of characters, good writing & pacing, a good balance between character & plot, & gorgeous animation. I was excited to see the second season.‬

‪However, the second season was when some of the show’s main flaws popped up for the first time. That nice balance between character & plot from the first season seemed to have driven right off its tracks and straight into a bio-hazardous lake. In the first season, each character got a fair amount of attention, but in season two Hunk & Lance were just … barely there? Keith is my favourite character & I liked the Blade of Marmora stuff, but Keith’s amount of screentime came at the expense of other characters, especially Hunk & Lance. Having Keith’s entire arc in season two pretty much only involve himself & Shiro did every character a disservice. & the reveal that Keith was Galra was so underwhelming. We only saw two characters react to Keith’s alien heritage. The episode with Keith & Hunk in the Weblum was lovely, but we haven’t really gotten team bonding episodes like that since season three so :/ And oh God, the whole subplot of Allura, a black-coded character, being “racist” against the Galra is a WHOLE other mess that I don’t think I can adequately explain. Just, why. ‬

‪Season three was good, the balance between character & plot seemed to be getting back on track & the lion switch-up made for some good character development, especially for Lance & Allura. Episode four was a mess though like y'all could’ve been just a liiittle more sensitive with that kind of stuff. Also it is embarrassingly obvious that in the first two seasons, Allura was portrayed as being around Shiro’s age & the two of them shared moments that seemed to be hinting at a future romance - until, suddenly in season three Allura is at the same maturity level as the other paladins? What, is it because that was when you decided to have Shiro be gay because you weren’t allowed to kill him after season two, & so instead of doing Shiro/Allura you started pairing Allura with Lance? That’s just absolutely stellar mate.‬

‪Season four - character/plot balance swings off the rails once more & to this day it hasn’t been recovered. This was the season where y'all’s plot became way too fucking convoluted & too damn big! The plot takes so much room, OF COURSE character development suffers! Season five had the same problem, & whoops Allura has a new love interest! It’s Lotor, a grown-ass man! Great! Totes loved it!‬

‪Season six had some good moments but again, y'all’s plot left no fucking breathing room for the characters! Also, Lance’s crush on Allura is suddenly True Love now? At this point you need a fucking Excel sheet to keep track of the plot & subplots. Lotor was an asshole all along & betrayed Allura? BITCH WE BEEN KNEW! Lotor’s betrayal could be seen from miles away. Bad.‬

‪SEASON FUCKING SEVEN HERE WE GO.‬

‪You ruined Keith’s entire character. Plain and simple. Keith & Shiro’s backstory was the highlight of the entire season. And in those flashbacks we see Shiro’s BOYFRIEND! Shiro is GAY! Shiro being gay & having a partner was revealed at San Diego Comic Con in July, & fans were so fucking happy. Remember at the start of this monstrosity of a letter where I talked about LGBT+ representation in media igniting hope? That was what you saw from fans after SDCC; pure joy & hope. It was amazing, people cried because they were so happy! & the showrunners said we’d learn more about Adam & get to meet him, shit I was so hyped!

Was Shiro, the character who has struggled the most in the show, going to get a … happy ending? As a gay character? With his partner of the same gender?‬

‪…‬

‪Y'know,‬

‪There’s still probably hundreds of thousands of LGBT+ kids who are growing up in a similar environment to where I grew up. They feel the same way I felt. That … indescribable loneliness that pierces through your bones, the self-hatred & hopelessness that weighs too much, you are the deer and the headlights is every person whose approval & love you need most. ‬

‪& then you see someone like you in a story, & they are happy, they aren’t alone, because people like us aren’t destined to be tragedies.‬

‪It gives you hope.

‪VLD could’ve given that to people y'know? And maybe that’s the saddest part, that instead they chose to kill the man Shiro loved, & thus put their only remaining confirmed LGBT+ character through even more suffering. ‬

VLD killed 50% of their confirmed LGBT+ characters. ‬

‪Imagine if they’d killed 50% of their female characters.‬

They killed Adam to show the gravity of the situation, to show that with war comes death. But LGBT+ viewers don’t need that reminder. We die every day. We know war, we know that war walks hand in hand with death.‬

‪And we didn’t even really have any feelings about Adam aside from “Shiro’s boyfriend!!!” We only got a tiny snippet of his & Shiro’s relationship. From a basic storytelling standpoint, killing someone like Colleen or Sam Holt would have been so much more effective because we know a lot more about Pidge’s relationship with her parents than we know about Adam & Shiro.‬ Adam’s death fell flat because we never knew him or his & Shiro’s relationship.

‪So why did they decide that the gay characters had to lose? VLD could have made something beautiful, something that would help people. But you didn’t.‬

‪Why didn’t they?‬

‪And why, in the same season, did they suddenly make Allura show signs of returning Lance’s feelings, despite her having shown zero romantic interest in him for over a third of the series? Why did they push Keith & Acxa together, two characters who had never spoken before this season? ‬

‪They take away the prospect of a same-gender romance, & then shove some half-assed straight relationships in our faces? It’s as if they’re doing this to be intentionally cruel.

‪Even if Adam somehow returns, that doesn’t repair the anxiety & hurt they caused their LGBT+ fans. With this season, VLD gave us the same age-old tale we’ve been told since we could understand words.‬

‪Happy endings belong to straight people. Gay people are doomed to live through tragedy after tragedy until we die young.‬

‪I believed in this show. I honestly thought the slow-burn romance would be Keith & Lance. Already in season one they had the “bonding moment” that was a textbook example of how to convey romance through visual storytelling. In that scene, Lance said “We are a good team” to Keith, & that was supposedly just bros being bros? But in season six, Lance says the exact same phrase to Allura as a flirty line, so what’s the deal here?

Are Allura and Lance the slow burn? Allura had never shown interest in Lance before now, when she suddenly noticed that Lance is … nice? What … is this? Honest to God, what is happening? VLD really decided to do the guy-likes-girl-girl-doesn’t-reciprocate-but-if-guy-keeps-trying-she’ll-like-him-back-eventually thing? Ah yes, If you flirt with a girl & she ignores your advances, you shouldn’t stop & move on, you should keep pushing, that’s how VLD staff want people to treat women I guess.‬

‪Keith & Axca … looked at each other three times & now they’re in love. Very good slow burn, I cried, 11/10.‬

‪Had the straight romances at least been well-developed I might’ve been slightly less angry. But no, you killed the man Shiro loved & then presented us with some gourmet heterosexual nonsense - no really, where are your Michelin stars because this hetero bullshit is top notch, truly.‬

‪I’m not saying this as a bitter shipper. I’m saying this as someone who invested so much time into your show, only to be severely let down. VLD has had some incredible episodes, but season four & onward was a massive display of incompetent storytelling. It’s as if seasons one through three were created by a different team!

Not to mention the showrunners themselves, who have consistently been dismissive of valid concerns from fans, & when given chances to confirm that Keith & Lance’s relationship was strictly platonic, they instead remained vague, instilling hope in fans - giving people false hope to string them along so they’ll keep watching your show is cruel.‬

‪There are so many other things I could say here, but I’m running out of time.‬

‪Y'all could’ve done extraordinary things with this show & these characters. You could have made something amazing, your show could have been remembered as a trailblazer. But instead, it’ll only be remembered as a clusterfuck & as an example of what not to do, for future creators to learn from.‬

‪I don’t know how or why y'all ended up turning your show into a damn mess. I don’t really care. I just wish you hadn’t exploited the fragile hopes of LGBT+ people.‬

The only thing that can save y’all now is if season eight makes me physically shit hundred dollar bills so I can buy a fucking boat, sail to the middle of the ocean, and just scream for a good six years or so.

Thanks.‬

#xander.txt #queue #voltron

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