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misstycloud · 1 year

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Yandere superhero! HC

Imagine just running about your ordinary day life and suddenly everything is turned upside down, what you believed to be fiction and nothing more than child dreams became your new reality. Now you had duties and that was to protect the city and its residents from those who wish to harm them. It’s a tough job, one that no one would be able to handle all by themselves.

Luckily you got your trustworthy companion by your side at all times! You two fit together like pieces of a puzzle; managing to save the day hundereds of times. There was nothing you couldn’t do as long as you had each other. You knew each other well-or how good you can know each other without learning the other’s identity.

Secret identities is one of the top rules of being a superhero. It could be dangerous for your loved ones if your enemies got their hands on that sort of information. They would use your family and friends to blackmail and extort you. That couldn’t happen or all hell would break lose if the city’s heroes were captured and defeated.

In the beginning when you and your partner had first been assigned the role of heroes, he seemed fine with the rule of no knowing who the other person were behind the mask, and you were too. There wasn’t any reason for you to want to find out who his civilian identity was.

But then things began to slowly change.

It started with him wanting to stay together a little longer after missions and you agreed, thinking he wanted to discuss things regarding your work. Which is what you talked about originally until the subjects switched to different topics like hobbies, favourite movies, best book you’ve ever read. Just normal easy stuff, not so hard to answer right? There were millions with the same reply as you so there was no chance he’d be able to guess who you were.

He’d only thought of you as a partner and maybe even a friend up till this point, but new feelings has began brewing and he didn’t know what to do with them. Brushing it off as a silly crush he didn’t do anything else than initiate spending more time together to satisfy him. It didn’t last forever and he eventually needed more.

Needles to say, it wasn’t simple to balance the heroic deeds while exploring these foreign emotions, it made things complicated to focus during dangerous events. That wasn’t good, obviously. What if he messed up and the villain got away? Or even worse, someone could get hurt. Someone that could be you. No, he can’t that happen, he must stay concentrated.

Yandere hero, who wanted to respect your secret identity pact but is dying to know who is behind that mask. He understood it was important, however he couldn’t help it. Convincing you to break that promise is impossible, that he saw. Perhaps he can trick you into revealing yourself? You’d probably see through his trick though.

Because of your good relationship and media, it became common for people to ship the two of you as a couple. Which he honestly didn’t mind one bit, especially now that he realises just how deep his love for you goes. It’s almost as if he’d do anything for you. He wanted the citizens to know who you belonged with and that was made sure when those news articles were posted.

You couldn’t believe it. So much stress all because of a single photo. A picture an anonymous individual has secretly snapped has spread like wildfire under a scorching summer day. You and your partner’s relationship status was the city’s top subject; discussed by so many and apparently very interesting to the old as well.

And what the hell was your colleague doing basically enforcing those rumours? If he kept standing so close to you and swinging his arms around you, everyone would think you’re a pair. Which you were not. You already had someone you were interested in, though you’d not had the courage to make any move since a relationship would be near impossible for you right now. Having to run around and help civilians and defeat bad guys, a romance would not be befitting.

So how are you gonna deal with your friend’s recent antics? He’s trying to hold you at the site even after your work is done, ask more regarding personal life, and you actually caught him attempting to follow you when you were leaving to go home. You couldn’t believe it. Why was he suddenly doing all this? You thought you two were on the same side of things, so how come he is breaking all those promises?

Did he not understand why it was dangerous to reveal your civilian identities and people could actually get hurt if the wrong person got their hands on that information. But all he said was that no one would find out. That it would be fine if you two knew each other for real. It would be good for you to be closer, your work would be easier if you trusted each other more, or something along those lines was what he told you.

You did not agree in the slightest. It was a stupid idea and one you would not comply with. He frowned and hissed, “fine!” and disappeared into the night, leaving you alone on the rooftop with the cold winds hitting you in the face. You thought that was the end of it and life would return to normal.

It didn’t. The next mission he was acting coldly towards you, almost getting himself sliced up as he refused to listen and give you any of his time, claiming he’d do it without your help. Like you predicted it didn’t go as planned for him and you were forced to step in many times before he finally accepted he couldn’t do things alone. You were happy that he returned to himself and stopped ignoring you, until he started his shenanigans again and they were worse than anything he did previously.

After missions your partner lured you away to a secluded rooftop were he’d prepared a table for the two of you. On the white table cloth stood a tall candle, a flame dancing atop it. In the vase next to it was a red rose, fresh with life. Apparently he wanted you to enjoy a nice dinner after a hard day, you deserved it. While you agreed on deserving a little rest, it wasn’t with him you wanted to relax and it certainly wasn’t on some date he’d set up.

Feeling somewhat bad for him as you had to turn him down once more, you talked softly to him and explained to your best abilities that you couldn’t. You wondered if you should’ve made up and excuse first but changed your mind as it would be mean to do and you needed to be perfectly clear with him that you weren’t interested in him in that way.

The horrible sensation of regret filled you when his eyes welled up in tears. You expected him to scream at you, maybe even physically confront you. But bawl? No, that was not what you envisioned. Like before he ran away from the scene and you stood there silent in the dark.

When he reached his home, he ripped his mask off and threw it in the floor, punching the wall with every emotion whirling in his mind. He was sad, so terribly sad. What, you didn’t feel anything for him as he did for you? Not even a bit, an inch? Apparently not, as you had stated to him without uncertainty in your voice. He wanted to scream, hit something. Anything to forget his heartbreak. He’d fucked up. What if you wanted nothing to do with him anymore. What if you replaced him with someone new. A new and better partner.

He couldn’t let that happen. Why can’t you understand how much he loves you, the lengths he’s willing to go in your name. He was a bit ashamed to admit it but he was sure that if things stood between you and being a righteous hero, he’d chose you no questions asked. You were just so much more important than those random people he was forced to save on a daily basis.

Despite the rough conversation you two had the day before, he pushed himself to act completely normal; like it never happened. Although you were a bit worried about him since your rejection seemed to have hit him pretty hard, you let it go as he appeared like himself and you couldn’t let that distract you forever. You had a city to protect and you could not slack off.

You just had to hope his sad rejected state wouldn’t eventually turn into something else. Something like anger. Or worse, madness.

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fire-of-the-sun · 9 months

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Ilsa and Ethan: There's Still Hope

Spoiler Warning for M:I7!

I'm sure a ton has already been said about Ilsa in the new movie, whether it be lamenting her loss or developing theories as to her potential return in the next film, but here are some contributions I've been mulling over. This isn't going to be an exhaustive list of reasons why she's still alive, but I will try to address some and add my own thoughts into the mix.

I agree with the discussion that one of the best clues of this all being a fake out lies in Ethan and Ilsa's reunion near the beginning of the film. Ilsa plays dead during the fight and Ethan momentarily believes it before she attacks him and reveals herself to be alive. As it stands, this looks like a foreshadowing to her eventual, real death, however, I think it instead acts as setup to her still being alive. I think it's clear that her death fakeout exists to give us clues to her eventual return as well as deflect audiences from even considering it as we're trained to accept that foreshadowed events that transpire in most stories would simply be the end of it, but this isn't a typical story, this is Mission: Impossible, and nothing is as it seems and this film establishes that that's more true now than ever.

And if you're really going to kill Ilsa off, why do a fake-out at all? Why not just have her die later without warning and really shock the audience? Why already have the fans ruminating on the possibility early on and telegraph it long before it actually happens? Consider Julia's "death" in M:I3. The film starts in media res and there's a strong sense of tension throughout the whole film knowing that that's going to happen. Julia is going to get kidnapped and possibly die no matter what, but it's okay to spoil this scene in advance because she doesn't die. Because why would you tell the audience that's going to happen right away unless there's going to be some kind of twist where she lives? What's the point in watching the movie if you know that Ethan is ultimately going to fail and it's going to have a tragic, unsatisfying ending? Julia's death fakeout is a tactic meant to trick him and the audience and make him feel like he's lost only for the twist to be that he ultimately wins and Julia remains alive. I believe a similar tactic is being used with Ilsa which has the potential to be a very well-executed plot twist rather than a disappointing one if done correctly and not completely abandoned in the next film. I actually think that without the fakeout and just a sudden and completely unexpected death I'd feel more worried but, as it stands, I think the choice (among many others) actually serves to legitimize this all being fake.

After all, the best twists are ones that you can see coming if you're really looking for it and that's okay. It's okay that we've figured it out - that means the director ultimately did their job right. Some viewers, especially more casual fans, are taking what they were shown at face value and not considering there's any more to it. They're falling for the trick and that's fine too, because a good twist is one that is set up in a way that leaves clues but also remains largely hidden especially as the audience isn't looking for it. A magic trick that deflects us from seeing what the magician is actually doing. When Ilsa shows up in the next film, some people will feel rewarded for their observations and others will finally see all the pieces click into place that they disregarded before and both be satisfied, but I digress...

Another huge scene to look to for clues lies in the team discussing the severity of the threat and really cementing just how difficult it's going to be to trick the Entity before the party. I think it's very possible that there are missing conversations here that we will not be privy to until the next film as Ethan would never let his friends be in such danger without having a real plan on how to protect them and the audience always knows what the plan is so when things go awry we're aware the complications were unprecedented. In this case, we really have no idea what they're walking into, nor do we see them effectively prep for it. Unless I'm forgetting something, why did Ilsa need to be at the party at all? Why would Ethan put Ilsa in danger like that for no real reason especially after already enduring those brief, agonizing moments earlier when he truly believed she was dead and had to consider a world without her in it and knowing that Gabriel has taken someone from him in the past? Ilsa is her own woman and can do what she wants, but we don't see him even trying to protest her inclusion and voicing fear for her safety for her to even refute.

The scene where Ilsa meets Ethan on the balcony afterward is incredibly short and could feel tacked on given that there's no real lead up to it, but it could very well be the aftermath of a heavy conversation where - feeling burdened by the weight of what must be done - Ethan leaves the room to think and Ilsa follows. She looks particularly chipper here despite the seriousness of what's going on and I believe her benign comments about Venice are purposefully meant to distract Ethan in an attempt to cheer him up. Notice how he shakes his head a little after he answers, like he knows what she's trying to do before giving into her and hugging back. She's calm because she has faith in the plan while he's nervous about it. As a side note, I think it was a touching detail to have Ethan return to this same balcony to grieve (publicly).

We also see Ethan and Ilsa looking at each on the boat before he takes her hand on their way to the party. This, of course, acts as yet another sweet gesture to showcase how strong their relationship is at this point but, again, Ethan doesn't seem that happy. This isn't a relaxing date (which they deserve), he looks tense as he takes her hand. Notice how he's fidgeting as he strokes her fingers and rubs his own fingers together in his free hand. It's like he's trying to hold onto her as much as he can knowing what's going to transpire and, once again, Ilsa looks like she's trying to comfort him by stroking his hand back, never taking her eyes off him. It's a nice continuation of the dynamic of their previous moment together.

And, if this is truly Ilsa's last outing? Why hold back on basically every aspect of it? If it's truly Ilsa's last fight, why not make it her biggest, baddest fight yet that showcases all of her skill but also begins to feel truly unwinnable? We've seen her face intimidating foes before, so if she's truly going to meet her match, you really need to sell to the audience that all her usual tricks aren't working and let us see on her face that she knows she's losing this fight, which would also help build a sense of dread. I've only seen the film once at this time, but I don't recall her looking too worried at any point at the party or during her fight with Gabriel. She's a brave and skilled woman of course, but she seemed incredibly unfazed by it all, almost like she knew how it was going to go. I want to add that there's no way of knowing for sure when entering into any fight that you're guaranteed to survive. Gabriel could have stabbed her anywhere and there'd be no way to anticipate that beforehand but, as I've seen pointed out, her hand is also on the knife when it plunges into her chest. The only way to know for sure where the blade would go to look deadly but still survive it would be to guide it there herself and that seems like something the skilled Ilsa would be able to pull off.

And if it's truly Ilsa's end, why not go out of your way to make it as sad as possible? What if Gabriel leaves her just alive enough for Ethan to find her and they have a heartbreaking final moment together where they perhaps exchange a line or two before he watches her die? Of course, to add insult to injury, the grieving process is pitifully brief, focusing more on Grace's reaction than Ilsa's own friends. Why not have a stronger reaction from Ethan, Benji and Luther that absolutely breaks the audience's heart? Just compare Ethan's reaction to Ilsa's death to the assumed death of Julia in MI3, the other love of his life. Yes, technically, that was a very different situation and Julia was his wife after all and Ilsa isn't, but they don't even compare. Heck, we even get to see Ethan mourn Lindsey, a friend, in M:I3 longer than Ilsa. I understand that the movie can't languish in sorrow for too long and Ethan is used to compartmentalizing to get the job done, but this is also one of the biggest losses he's suffered and right on the heels of proclaiming to his friends how he'd never let anything happen to them. This is also the longest movie in the series so far and it has no excuse for skimping on the aftermath of the death of one of its biggest and most beloved characters. Ilsa's death is sad but leaves you feeling more empty and disappointed than utterly devastated - at least for me.

We've also seen Ethan act before, as is a necessary skill for a spy, and I think the fairly subdued reaction to her death speaks to his ability to act realistically sad (he's had practice for this exact situation too as he's probably channeling all the awful things he felt when he believed her to be dead at the beginning of the movie) but also speaks to the fact that it's not actually real because if it was I think it'd be a far stronger reaction. Yes, Ethan could just be becoming desensitized to losing people after enduring it so many times but I don't think he'd hold back for Ilsa. His partner. His equal. Someone he loves deeply and offers his only chance at a life beyond this. That chance, that love, that happiness, are now gone forever and that's not something you just take in your stride.

And yes, maybe Rebecca needed or wanted out of this franchise to film other projects but that's only more reason to give her the best sendoff you possibly can and I don't think anyone, not even the director himself would be able to admit that this was worthy enough of her character and respectful to Rebecca. If even her final fight was, for whatever reason, purposefully undercut, then what else did the director choose to take away despite having so little to begin with and why? If, historically, it's not in his nature to pull something like this based on his previous work in the series and his own passionate comments regarding the character, why would he now? It's the overall lack of care in regard to her character all of a sudden that makes it all feel fishy.

And if this is it for Ethan and Ilsa, why not push the romance? Instead of just a hug on the balcony, why not feature their first kiss or, at least, a much longer conversation that cements where they really are before it all gets taken away? If the director attempted to include a kiss in the past but scrapped it because it wasn't the right time, he probably intended it to happen eventually. Why not sneak it in right before she dies if these are their last scenes together anyway? Maybe a kiss would only serve to telegraph her demise further by making the audience more nervous about her fate, but it also would have made it even sadder knowing they had finally reached that point right before she died. If the intention of all of this is truly just to make Ethan and the audience sad and it's going to hurt one way or another, you might as well push it as hard as you can to achieve the desired effect. Regardless, I believe that when she comes back in Part 2, they'll finally get that well-earned kiss and that's what the director is waiting for.

But why have Ethan lose another woman he loves at all? Why watch him go through an entire series where all he does is lose lovers only to have him ultimately end up alone especially after developing the perfect romantic partner with him and getting audiences on board with it over the course of multiple films? It all just feels unnecessarily cruel and, as it's nothing new for him, what is it really adding to the story or his character? Losing another lover is predictable at this point but bringing one back and actually letting him be happy? Now that would be a twist! What a triumphant moment it would be for Gabriel to see Ilsa return in the next movie (and perhaps have a rematch) and realize that he's the one who'd been duped? That the Entity is not infallible? That Ethan has been one step ahead of him this whole time?

I don't think I'm alone when I say that the best possible ending for the series and Ethan's story is to get to live his life with Ilsa given he wasn't able to with Julia, trusting the IMF in the hands of new operatives like Grace to carry on in their stead (notice how they focused on that other new recruit during Ethan's introduction as well like they're preparing him to pass the torch). He finally gets to go with Ilsa like she asked him in Rogue Nation and in Fallout and they both finally get out of the game and live happily in the peace that they helped ensure and so deeply deserve. Ethan has sacrificed his own happiness to save the world so many times, why can't he and Ilsa finally get to find some happiness with each other? This series has had it's bittersweet moments but it's never been a tragedy. The conflict is meant to feel insurmountable (it is called Mission: Impossible after all) but the heroes still win and get to be happy and I expect that to continue to be the case in the very end.

Now, I understand and agree with confronting real consequences as we face our final antagonist of the series, but I would honestly predict an actual death from Luther or Benji in the final film - staples of the series and longtime friends of Ethan - that would hurt the audience too but not steal a future from him and perhaps Ilsa's "death" is also meant to deflect from the real death that's coming which would still, naturally, makes things very bittersweet. That being said, if this series wanted to continue to lean into happy outcomes over sad ones, then simply having Ethan get to live peacefully in the knowledge that he was able to keep all of his friends safe would be enough for him and for me.

As of now, I'm actually feeling hopeful about the potential for Ilsa to return. I think there are currently more viable reasons for why she could still be alive than dead and I think it would vastly improve the story they're telling rather than take away from it or feel forced because, as it stands, the execution of her death does feel less than the caliber of what this series is capable of and a surprise return would certainly remedy that. It wouldn't feel like a gimmick given the nature of the series, nor do I think it would undermine the death scene we got since it didn't have any impact on the plot and barely any on the characters anyway. Ilsa returning would improve things, not take away and if this all works to bring her back, it will take what was a lackluster plot point and unceremonious exit of a major character to a brilliant showcase of subterfuge both for the characters and the audience and the latter sounds more like the Mission: Impossible I know.

The first time Ethan faked the death of a woman he loved to protect her; he lost her. Now he's had to do it again and this time, he'll get her back. There's still hope.

#mission impossible #mission: impossible #ethan hunt #ilsa faust #ethan x ilsa #ilsa x ethan #mi7 #mi7 spoilers #mission impossible dead reckoning #mission: impossible dead reckoning #ilsaethan #mission impossible dead reckoning part one #mission: impossible - dead reckoning part 1 #dead reckoning part 1 spoilers #julia meade #luther stickell #benji dunn

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the-cat-and-the-birdie · 5 months

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'You're reading too much into ATSV.'

[aka meta analysis is good for the soul]

I often get told on this blog that I'm reading too much into plots or scenes or things in general.

And honestly, fair point. I do the most.

And as a writer, I will say that I do it out of pure respect.

[actual photo of me reading the script and going for my 'reading too hard at ATSV notebook']

Movies take years to write.

People spend months of their lives genuinely toiling over these characters, often times creating more work than what can ever be reasonably used. Months of revisions and scraping work.

For weeks, about a dozen people probably went to sleep dreaming or thinking up what Hobie would wear, what Gwen would say, what emotional cues Jess will have.

A lot of people dedicated years of their lives and creative labor into that story.

To me, it isn't at all bizarre to take an hour out of my day to sit and consider the story they spend a lot of time trying to tell.

Compared to the labor they have given me, multiple 40+ hour work weeks for years - an hour or two is literally nothing lol

It's literally the least I can do.

As a writer, I feel like its only right to sit back and look deeper into a story.

To analyze the writer's intentions, or examine their storytelling tactics and abilities.

We are taught to consume media so quickly and rapidly that to offer time to critically analyze a piece of work is considered bizarre, too much work, or pointless.

As if there's nothing to read into. Or as if speculation and meta analysis is helpful to no one.

If someone spends five hours drawing fanart that is accepted. If someone spends two hours writing fanfic, this is expectable behavior.

But I spend the same amount of time to look deeper into the work of the writers, and often times I'm met with surprise or treated as if I'm overly uptight.

It's like snickering at a person who asked there was deeper meaning behind a painting. While standing in an art gallery.

When streaming shows drop all in one day, it becomes about the Easter eggs and watching it as fast as possible as not to be spoiled.

Then at the end of it, you wash your hands of it and wait for the next big release.

People spend years, decades of their writing career trying to write realistic characters with layered motives. Or stories with complex themes.

Comic Book and Screenwriters included.

I myself try very very hard to do so - to provide foreshadowing, and emotional insight into the characters, their motives, their faults.

If I heard someone say that the piece is not worth looking that far into, all the work I've done as a writer gets overlooked.

Writers cannot grow if people are consuming their media without caring enough to look critically at it as the work of a storyteller.

So yes, I'm looking too far into it. Cause writers can write that far into it. And that deserves to be examined, acknowledged, and praised.

To assume less is too assume lesser of the writers who put everything into the media you enjoy.

This year of all years, we should be appreciating the work Screenwriters put in.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - I'm not being an asshole (well, not trying to be).

I'm looking at writers as vital parts of a movies production. Because they are.

We look deeply at the art style, or the animation, or the music. Writers are not shadow figures. They're people with careers. And them and their work deserve to be spoken about and acknowledged as a work of effort just the same as CGI artists or editors, or directors.

I implore you - Read more into it.

If you're a writer yourself, doubly so.

Read FAR into it. Build your analyzation skills, come to your own conclusions. Break the story down every which way and look at the characters from every angle.

It's fun, it's free, it makes the characters so much more real.

So many people on this website hope to one day become published writers. One thing they do to help you achieve that in college, is by racing things like scripts, and looking critically.

Meta analysis is good for you as much as it is the writers.

If you don't think you're cut out for it, or would have nothing to add, still try. Not for the brownie points, but to feel closer to the characters and the story.

If you've seen ATSV (or any Fandom media) and haven't ever really sat and thought about it - everyone's moral stances, why they want what they want, why they've made the mistakes they've had, where you stand on it all - I highly recommend it.

You might come away with some surprising conclusions about characters or even yourself.

Think about your favorite characters, and what might happen to them in the next movie.

There's really nothing wrong with reading that far into it.

Fifteen minutes of thinking, or an hour of writing is nothing compared to the months of work that went into this absolute masterpiece.

Trust me, the first time you catch some shit that makes you go

ITS LIKE A HIGH I TELL YOU.

Touch grass? Nah bro, touch your local library card. Go there right now. Take out this book.

There's gonna be a discussion tomorrow in class.

If you read this far heyhello I think you're rad as hell.

Here's a Hobie for the road because he's a great companion.

Bye.

#overthink. do it. you have my permission #spiderman #atsv #spider man #marvel #across the spiderverse #atsv analysis #writing #fic writing #fandom meta #meta analysis #fanfic writing

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cellarspider · 1 month

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25/?? Eschatology for Dummies

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⛬

Once again, we dive into that font of madness, Prometheus. I lied last time, we’re not talking about language today, I want to bash my head against the problem of “what in blazes is the intent of this movie”.

As the expedition enters the alien structure, suddenly Shaw remembers that germs can float.

“Wait. We still don’t know how Holloway got infected. If it’s in the air–”

This is one of those maddening little moments where the script tells me that no, the earlier removal of helmets was not just the oversight of someone who didn’t know better. The script chose violence.

“Smells fine to me.”

So does VX nerve gas. Truly, this is the mental acumen required to become rich.

The movie attempts to raise tension through a ZOOM AND ENHANCE, and cluing in those in the audience who may have been thinking “Ha! Foolish Engineers! How would they ever destroy life on Earth if they don’t have any spaceships?”

Well, turns out, there are these great big buildings called “hangars”, and you can put spaceships in them, sometimes even under the ground. I almost feel like if they hadn’t buried the ship, Holloway would’ve tried to see if he could do a burnout in it.

David, meanwhile, is having a great time. He’s giving a guided tour of the ship (that he explored more thoroughly than anyone else), pointing out their technology (that he learned how to use), explaining what they were doing (which he figured out before anyone else did), and assuring Weyland that yes, he can talk to the Engineer (which no one else can do), blithely skating by the reasons why he knows Holloway didn’t die from an airborne illness and how the Engineers were going to press the reset buttons on Earth. Simultaneously excelling at what he was supposed to do and also anticipating Weyland’s inevitable doom, possibly even that of humanity as a whole. It feels appropriately childish for a character that’s extremely young, extremely smart, and has had the worst socialization this side of Immortan Joe’s war boys.

Weyland doesn’t care about any of that, because he’s a horrible homunculus of an old Englishman formed out of a forty-five year old Aussie. This continues to vex me, even now. I keep trying to figure out why they did this. Did they originally intend for him to be depicted as young and change their mind? Was the mobility aid exoskeleton thing they put him in heavy and cumbersome? It’s hard to see in these screenshots, but he is wearing one.

Honestly, just have Lance Henriksen play another Weyland again. Lance can definitely play scumbags, and it would honestly be funny to have every single Weyland in every single time period played by him. Have him play Vickers too, for good measure. It would’ve taken me out of the film less than this.

At this point, I personally did not care about any characters besides David and the Engineer. Which is a very strange position to find oneself in, caring most about two characters who seem just fine with humanity going pft!

And I’d like to examine that. Because fiction can put you in all sorts of strange headspaces that can be thoroughly contradictory to personal morals and self-interest. What was the movie trying to do here, and where has it ended up?

I want to start with some assumptions that mass media tends to make. Fiction, in general culture, is often presented as a moral lesson. Your protagonists are virtuous, and anything that stands in their way is villainous evil. The protagonists are also expected to be likable, and the audience is expected to root for them. A moral tale of who is worthy and who is not.

This is only a small piece of what fiction is. No one of these things is required. Villains are not required, sometimes problems aren’t caused maliciously. Protagonists do not have to be moral. Moral characters don’t have to be likable. You don’t have to root for the protagonists. And none of these divisions are binary.

I am uncertain whether we are supposed to root for the protagonists in this movie. Ridley Scott isn’t a stranger to this idea–look at Blade Runner (1982). Is it good that Deckard hunts down fugitive replicants? No. Absolutely not. Is it a compelling story? Yes! It’s beautifully told and tragic! If you make me watch Roy Batty’s monologue I will cry.

So. It is entirely possible that we are supposed to find the human characters unsympathetic. The Engineers created humanity, and then decided to destroy it. This could have been planned from the start–many religions describe cyclical, world-ending death and rebirth, after all. But this movie is heavily influenced by christianity. Those sects that believe in a destructive apocalypse call it the Last Judgment of humanity, something that occurs when the world has fallen into a state of corruption.

Which then brings us to the question: Does humanity deserve that most fatal judgment?

I mean, in real life, I’d say no, absolutely fucking not. The problem of a suffering world is not sanely responded to with “I’ve got a solution: murder everything”.

This is fiction, though. We are being presented with a vision of humanity. This has the potential to be a counterpoint to the Engineers’ thinking, or their evidence, or a mix of both.

What is it, then? Most of the cast are morons, selfish, or featureless ciphers. They are a very pessimistic view of humanity. And remember, this is fiction. People don’t need to act like real people. When you think about redeeming qualities in yourself, in your friends, in your favorite so-and-so, this fictional realm does not necessarily contain them. In its barest form, it only contains the characters we see.

We’ve got Janek, who’s been charming and indicated he’s willing to stop the Engineers here, but that’s all we know about him. He’s also behaved in negligent ways that contributed to the deaths of Millburn, Fifield, and the nameless guys mutant Fifield wailed on. Christian morality is big on redemption as a path to unconditional absolution, so is he redeeming himself through a last-minute sobering up? Maybe. I’d note he’s missing the “confession” and “recanting past sins” parts that are usually bundled up with that.

We’ve also got Shaw. Shaw has all the makings of a Final Girl, somebody who is destined to survive the plot. They usually have some redeeming quality that makes you want to root for them. What does Shaw have?

Well, she’s got a never super-defined strain of christian faith. And she’s had a really shit time lately, so it would be cruel to watch her get kicked around more.

So, that’s two. Two could be enough in Abrahamic religions–Lot flees from Sodom to Zoar, and it’s spared from destruction because of its presence. Sure, he does some Weird Shit, but he qualified as righteous by whatever standards were at play there. But Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for want of ten righteous people.

And all that gets more complicated in New Testament stuff, after God’s pinky promised not to destroy everyone again, except for the aforementioned Last Judgment thing. Is this movie, as christian allegory, advocating for a god of forgiveness, or depicting a just god who punishes the wicked?

No idea. It doesn’t have to be clear, obviously, fiction doesn’t have to be clear, any more than it has to be moral. I didn’t personally want the Engineer to sail off and destroy Earth, but frankly, I could see it from that perspective, given what this poor bugger’s met with upon waking up.

Next time: our Engineer wakes up from a two thousand year trauma nap to find some little monkeys yelling at them. Surely, this will go well.

⛬

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

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Alt-text rambles:

https://extra-images.akamaized.net/image/8a/5by6/2021/04/17/8a6f54c4f0ca4bd397cc22aceb4cb30e_md.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torc

#Prometheus 2012 #Prometheus (2012)#This movie keeps trying to be biblical and I keep trying to meet it half-way on the analysis #only to be left hanging like the movie wandered off in the middle of offering up a high-five

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roshambo05 · 5 months

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(TW: Mentions of ableism)

A few months back, my little sister and I started watching ROTTMNT together. While we had many reasons for our sudden interest, it was mainly due to the high praises from fans for its stellar autism representation. I myself am autistic, and my sister, a sucker for a good cartoon and my biggest supporter in more ways than one, was just as enthusiastic as me if not more so to see if the show lived up to the hype.

For a little background, Rise's version of Donatello is canonically autistic. And honestly, it was incredible representation. Watching the show with my sister, I was shocked by how often I was able to relate to Donnie. His sensory moments, difficulties with conveying emotion, his touch aversion, even little things like his use of sign, it all hit so close to home that it was almost scary. But what really hit me the hardest was the movie (spoilers btw).

Near the end of the movie, there were two moments that really stuck with me. The first, of course, was the incredibly accurate and disgusting scene showcasing Donnie's texture sensitivity as he tried to link with the Kraang ship. And while I was still ruminating on how accurate it was and how disgusted and panicked I felt, I was hit by this line: Raph - "Don't worry, Donnie! This is not a hug! It's a rescue!"

Now, to many of you, this might seem like nothing special, but for me, this was the single most important moment in any piece of media I'd ever consumed. To me, this was Donnie's family understanding and accepting him as he is. This was his brother making an effort to accommodate his needs. Because Donnie hates touch that isn't on his terms, especially when he's already around anxiety and unfamiliarity. Raph's acceptance of this fact and active reassurance in an attempt to comfort his brother in a high-stress situation shows just how much he and the others cared about Donnie, not in spite of his autistic traits, but because of them. Believe me when I say I started tearing up. And at first, I was embarrassed. Here I was, eighteen years old, crying over a children's cartoon. But I came to realize that it was because I'd never felt seen in that way before.

When your only exposure to autism in media is Sheldon Cooper and Rain Man, when you're given movies like Sia's Music and told to be grateful, when the largest corporation claiming to speak for you is actively trying to eradicate you, when all you're ever told is that your very existence is wrong, it becomes hard not to believe those things. A lack of representation in my life not only led to a late diagnosis but an extreme self-consciousness and lack of understanding from my peers. I struggled to be treated as an equal because people saw me as stupid and reclusive. But for the first time in my life, I was given one movie, one character, that made me feel accepted. And it made everything feel that much lighter.

Representation always matters. Whether it be ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender identity, or whatever else it may be, it is incredibly important. Most marginalized groups grow up with no one to relate to, feeling like they are unimportant or wrong for existing. And that cannot stand. People deserve to feel seen, no matter who they are or their background.

#autism #autistic community #autistic representation #rottmnt #rottmnt donnie #autistic donnie #disability representation #representation matters

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tyrantisterror · 4 months

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I love your How’d I Ruin It series, it really speaks to me overall! I've been curious if you've ever thought about writing one about The Land Before Time series (as I've been on a dinosaur kick lately), or any other dino related media…I can understand if you see the original LBT as perfect as it is and if you wouldn't want to touch the sequels with a ten foot pole though!

Well, the big issue would be that I don't think I'd ruin the Land Before Time series if I were to adapt it.

I mean, I guess I'd ruin it the way all stories about dinosaurs are ruined in the eyes of certain dinosaur fans, i.e. by not making it perfectly align with every single scientific advance that was made the moment it comes out and also those that come after it comes out, in perpetuity, forever. After all, paleo media is debauched and immoral if it is not infinitely updating itself to correlate with every new theory and indeed even hypotheses that aren't yet taken as scientific fact but are popular in internet dinosaur fandom circles, in perpetuity, forever. The minute scientific knowledge of dinosaurs advances even the tiniest bit beyond a piece of paleo-media, that story is Ruined Forever for certain dinosaur fans.

But, if we discount those pedantic assholes (as we always should), I think I'd make a pretty good Land Before Time story. I wouldn't want to redo the original, granted - as you guessed, I am of the opinion that it's perfect as is. I'd want to take the same setup - a bunch of different child Mesozoic reptiles get separated from their family by a natural disaster during a famine and have to make a perilous journey to a safe place where, hopefully, they'll meet their families again, all while overcoming their differences between each other as members of different species, and trying to shake a very persistent predator - and make some new characters to undergo the journey.

I think the biggest change I'd make would be to have at least one o the dinosaur kids a carnivore (almost certainly a T.rex, because I am boring and T.rex is my favorite dinosaur)There's this whole theme in the original where the dinosaur kids have to overcome the species-based prejudices their parents instilled in them to survive, becoming family to each other in the process, and I think having one of them be a predator would really strengthen that. Here is not only a different species, but a natural enemy for the rest of the kids, and they end up needing each other anyway.

New setpieces would be needed to keep it from feeling like just a retread, and maybe I'd got a bit more explicit with the supernatural elements - the movie is loosely based on Pilgrim's Progress, after all, so there's no reason we can't make this hypothetical remake's Sharptooth stand-in even more of a Death/Satan figure. But I'd ultimately want it to be something that feels very much like The Land Before Time.

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art-of-firefly · 3 months

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Character ask game: all numbers for your favorite character!! 👀 Please elaborate as much as you want to! 🤍

Thank you for this opportunity ❤️ Be ready for a very long post because i have things to say about Akashi ! I already answered 2, 5 and 9 here and 23 and 25 here. So for these questions i'll do it with Nijimura instead.

Akashi

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

In short i like him for everything and i dislike nothing about him.

But i'll just take a second to talk about one random thing i like. Bokushi's goal being to protect Oreshi and to stand up for him when he can't do it himself is something I find really touching. Bokushi has helped Oreshi in more ways than one, and yes, he has made some mistakes too, but he is only a teenager and, contrary to what he desperately hopes and thinks he should be, he is not absolute.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

The scene where he attacked Kagami with scissors. It was just a shock scene for shock value and added nothing to the story. Like we know, Akashi is the final boss so he must be intimidating but it really wasn't necessary. Especially because now every anime-only thinks Akashi really intended to cut him when it was clear he knew and saw from the start that Kagami would dodge.

EDIT : My reason for hating this scene was perfectly summed up here so quick edit to add it

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Monkey D Luffy for One piece. For one they are my two favorite characters ever. But also i think Luffy would have an incredibly good influence on Akashi and on his mental health. In a way, meeting Luffy who is literally the center of the world and whose life and every decision actually has an incredible impact on the entire world would be therapeutic for Akashi. It would help him realize that his decision, and his mistakes aren't that important in the grand scheme of things.

They also have a lot in common, they are about the same age and height, their color is red,what's matter the most to them is their friends, they are both captains and have a lot of responsibilities.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

I sincerely believe that he is on the aroace spectrum, more specifically demiromantic and demisexual (and probably pan too).

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

The nicknames Bokushi and Oreshi, like that's absolutely adorable to give him a nickname depending on the pronoun he uses. And it makes discussions easier because saying 'you know that time when golden-eye-Akashi said to two-red-eyes Akashi-' would get tiring really fast

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

The demonization of mental illness, calling him a psycho, calling him crazy etc. This is both a big misinterpretation of his character and really insulting for real people with mental illness.

10. Could you be best friends with this character?

Maybe ? I don't really know, I don't remember my teenage years very well for reasons, so I don't know if our personalities would have been very compatible?

11. Would you date this character?

Big No. He is like 16, I'm almost ten year older. I'd rather adopt him. I don't want kids but i'll make an exception for him, give me the adoption papers. I'll probably be a terrible parent but i'll still do better than Masaomi.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

He gets headaches a lot, it's a consequence of using his emperor eye, plus the overwork. He's often shown only closing one eye in cannon and it's something I usually do when I have headaches, so it fuels my headcanon.

Also think about it, The GoM greatness weakness is that their body can't keep up with their abilities. We've seen what it does to others but we've never seen AKashi get hurt. If the consequence for Akashi is headaches, then it all fits together perfectly.

Look at him and tell me this kid isn't trying really hard to fight a headache while is friends argue right beside him.

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

🥰

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

What the kids call "Dark Academia" nowadays

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

NijiAka, in a way Nijimura remind Akashi of his humanity, and allows him to be a normal teenager even if only for a little while. He is the first person to treat Akashi like a normal teenager, the first person Akashi can rely on and look up to. And in return Nijimura believes so much in him.

Nijimura and Midorima were the first characters to notice there was two Akashi. Which shows that he truly paid attention to him and also that Akashi was comfortable enough with him to let his other personality slips sometimes when they were alone together.

The scene in the CD drama where Nijimura decided to treat Akashi to his very first after school snack lives rent free in my head.

I could talk at length about Nijika but I don't want to hijack this post with an essay on Nijika's perfection. I'll talk about it in another post another time.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

AkaKuro, listen Akashi and Kuroko's friendship is so incredibly beautiful and important. I love their bond and it's very precious to me. But i don't like them as a ship at all, because in a way it simplifies and justifies all the trust, care and affection they have for each other with "it's because they are in love".

They don't need to be in love to be so important to each other,, on the contrary the fact that all their love comes from friendship makes it even better.

Being in a relationship, romantic, queer platonic or literally anything else, couldn't top what they have now, it wouldn't improve it, it wouldn't bring anything better to their lives.

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

None, there are two Akashi ships I don't like, AkaKuro and AkaFuri (yes, the two most popular Akashi ships, don't send hate) But I like all his other ships.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

Once again Nijimura. But for diversity sake i'll go with Murasakibara instead because i don't talk about them enough. I think their friendship is very underrated and adorable.

Akashi spoils Murasakiabara all the time. He won many competitions at the Teiko school festival and the summer festival, each time he gave all his prizes to Murasakibara. Both times, Murasakibara knew in advance and had no doubt that Akashi would win it all. In official art, Akashi even gave him his Valentine's Day chocolates.

In every situation Murasakibara listen to Akashi and hold his opinion above all else, even his own team and coach.

And remember when Murasakibara was studying with his team in the CD Drama, he started talking about Akashi, his perfect grades, how he taught him his study method and how he created the most delicious snack he ever eat ? (Snack Akashi created because he overheard Murasakibara complaining that a special snack he liked was no longer available so he decided he had to create a new recipe from scratch and prepare it for him.)

Murasakibara opinion of Akashi is extremely important for the latter, Murasakibara's tantrum was what causes Oreshi to switch with Bokushi. After the Winter Cup Murasakibara had an argument with his team and the person he called was Akashi. And when Murasakibara got angry at him, Akashi start to panic and he asked the Uncrowned Kings for help because Murasakibara being upset at him was too much to handle.

In short Akashi clearly has a very big weak spot for Murasakibara and while it seems he has him wrapped around his finger, when you look closely it's obvious the reverse is also true. Murasakibara's loyalty and friendship is a very strong pillar in Akashi's life, they support and complete each other very well.

19. How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

His relationship with his father. For very obvious reasons.

But I also think that Masaomi Akashi truly believes that the way he raises Seijuro is what's best for him. If Shiori was still alive, they would have had a chance to be a happy family. He's an emotionally abusive and neglectful father, but I think he really cares about Seijuro and thinks he's raising him in the best way possible.

This, of course, does not excuse any of his actions, he does not deserve to have and raise a child and Seijuro would have every right to cut all ties with him. But just saying Masaomi is just evil is too easy.

I think with time their relationship will improve. They will never truly be father and children, but they could achieve a stable relationship of equals once Akashi is an adult.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

I think Akashi needs more than one best friends, but the GoM and Rakuzan as a whole is perfect for him.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to the character? Something you don't like?

Sorry, this is going to sound really vague, but what I like and don't like depends on how the author characterizes him. But I'll be honest with you, since a lot of what I've seen demonizes him and I don't like his two most popular ships, I don't usually read fanfiction about him unless someone recommended it to me.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Shisui Uchiha from Naruto. Two burned out child genius with incredible eyes abilities. Akashi even threatened to gouge out his eyes at some point and Shisui actually did it. They both were very talented and smart from a young age and more and more responsibilities were pushed unto them until it was too much. Also they are the same age (at the end of KnB and when Shisui dies)

26. FREEBIE QUESTION!!

I'm just going to use this to write another headcanon. And while all the other things I've written are heavily canon-based, this one is a bit more of an extrapolation, but since I'm interpreting him that way I might as well share it too.

Akashi has some dissociation issues with his own body. What brings it up you might ask. This screenshot is what started this whole train of thoughts for me and it escalate from there.

Notice how he still has long bangs in his head? Of course, he only cut them a few days ago, so maybe he's not used to it yet, but his dissociation from his own body may also play a role here.

I think his relationship with his body is very complicated, the way he act, overwork himself and such, it's like he doesn't sees it as himself but as a toll he has at his disposal, a puppet he can move a will.

Remember how unfazed he was about gouging out his eyes if they lost. Like “if my body is no longer useful, why keep it intact? »

And since I'm talking about how he views his body, he would also avoid mirrors as much as he can, but not for the same reason. I think he looks a lot like his mother and if he ever let his hair grow he could pass off as her, and he probably spends an unhealthy amount of time wondering if his father wouldn't be so distant if looking at him didn't immediately reminded him of his late wife.

Nijimura

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

How dedicated and caring he is,

In his Kuro fes interview he even said the things he is most proud of is his ability to take care of other, and his favorite memory from Teiko was "The second year you guys entered, when we won at the Nationals that would be my last. I was mostly on the bench, but I felt like I passed the baton on, and somehow I was happier than the previous year" He is such a sweetheart, i melt everytime i think about it.

What he like to do in his free time is visiting his father at the hospital, please send help my heart can't handle so much adorableness.

And he was such a great senpai for all the GoM. His smile in Extra game when Kiyoshi showed him the picture of them after their victory, he was so happy to see them friends and close again.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

It's hard to pick one, i have multiple songs i associate with him but none stands out as The First One among them.

Maybe because of the duality of his personality and temper. Like he is caring, devoted and hardworking but he also has an explosive temper and go into fights all the time which is one of the things he want to change about himself.

So i'll go with Anger by Sleeping at Last because it illustrate very well his temper and the way he feels about it.

youtube

Also it's one of my favorite song and the one i listened to the most in 2023 and 2024

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

Obligatory 'i can't imagine myself with a roommates as i am right now but for the sake of answering let's pretend i can'.

Yes, he is an older sibling and he has great self-discipline so he probably handles household chores very well. And I also like his personality. But he better not come home covered in blood after a fight every week because that would get annoying real quick.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

Once again i restricted myself at pictures drawn by Fujimaki-sensei.

Look at him with his rainbow wristband, i bet the GoM gifted it to him

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

It was so long ago that I don't remember it well. But I know I liked him and I vividly remember cheering when he beat Haizaki up for skipping a match and dragged him onto the court to play the second match.

Now he's one of my favorite characters, and he definitely ranks high among my favorites.

#i'm always ready to talk about them so thank you so much for this ask #i tried not to make it too long but it's still pretty long #sorry #akashi seijuro #nijimura shuzo #kuroko's basketball #knb #akashi seijuurou #nijimura shuuzou #kuroko no basuke #ask game #nijiaka #muraaka #kuroko no basket

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mostmagical · 14 days

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nicole my love will you rank your top three or top five or top ten video games… whichever number you wish to gush about… i love you…

hi sunny..... oughh I have a tough time picking favorites.... I looked at this question like a homework assignment.. I did a top 10 and I put reasoning even though you did not ask for that but I'm putting it under this read more in case you want it... you don't have to read more though... but you can... i love you...

Top 10

Kingdom Hearts - Obviously of course. I don’t always even rank KH1 as my favorite KH game but basically this was my “oh games can be like that?” game. Until I played this, I mostly played simulator games and movie tie-ins and Barbie games, and I loved those but this one had a STORY I could bury myself in. I forced the friend I played this game with to sit and wait while I read through every journal entry and character file looking for MORE, because I was so immediately hooked on everything.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories - This one always ranks high not just because of the story, which I love, but because this was the first game I ever beat entirely by myself. A lot of people skip or can’t stand this game so I’m extra proud of myself tbh. But this is the game where one of my favorite characters became one of my favorite characters, so it’ll always have a special place.

Ōkami - I love this game so much… It’s so visually stunning, I love the unique game play, and Amaterasu is such an amazing protagonist despite the fact that she does talk outside of barking and howling and also she is literally a dog. But she’s so good. There’s a dedicated bark button, which is important. AND THERE’S FISHING!

Final Fantasy X - I’ve literally never sobbed more over a piece of media in my entire life. The game wasn’t even over yet. I had to fight a boss with tears in my eyes. This was my first FF game and oh my god. Oh my god. I can say no more.

Horizon Zero Dawn - I got so sucked into this game. It was all I could think about for months. I love the environmental storytelling and the world-building and Aloy is a female protagonist WITHOUT a love interest in this game and it’s so huge to me and ugh. UGH.,

Hades - This game is so fun… I usually don’t like games that make me feel like I’m struggling but they somehow made it such a joy to die over and over again and see what’s up in the house. The sheer amount of unique dialogue makes it impossible to get annoyed. And it’s just FUN. Full of complicated family dynamics and Greek mythology… Collectibles… WOO (also has fishing)

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - This is a really sentimental add, but it’s genuinely one of my favorites. I have so many memories of me and my childhood best friend staying up until the wee hours of the morning playing this game, only to go to bed and set an alarm to get up and play it again. AWL has some of the best NPCs of all HM/SOS games, and also the cutest cows. Ever.

Final Fantasy XV - FISHING. And also stories about bonds we build… friendship… ough.. I love sitting in the back of the car and letting Ignis drive and feeling like we’re all on a friendship road trip together. Random stops for pictures and bathroom breaks included. Luna deserved better but the hours I spent fishing made up for that.

Persona 5 Strikers - It probably seems silly to put this here and not Persona 5, but I really loved Strikers so much. It had such satisfying gameplay, completely different from the source material, yet still somehow felt like such an homage to the classic movesets. It was a really good adaptation to a new genre. I loved the story and the new characters, who MADE ME CRY! and I think it’s such a shame, because a lot of Persona players skipped this one!!! Ryuji gets to say fuck. Come on, people.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles - I love the characters in this game so much… I miss them… I love the original AA trilogy, but this one was so much fun for me. I love Herlock Sholmes… I love him so much I forgot that his real name is not Herlock Sholmes. All the characters are so dynamic and the cases are so fun… That was a game I wished never had to end.

Special mention to Animal Crossing: Wild World, Barbie Horse Adventures Mystery Ride, Secret Agent Barbie, Ni No Kuni, God of War (2018), Gris... I love video games. Damn.

#ask #noctie #ouughhhhh video games.......

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elatedandexasperated · 8 months

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So there's been some discussion on RWRB actually being a "gay movie"

Most posts I've seen have more or less summarized that the movie is effectively a "straight romance" featuring a mlm coupling, which annoys me a bit. I can't say that this take is entirely wrong per say - I mean, I've called it basically a Hallmark movie, which I still think is true - but it's not devoid of queer experience like a lot of people seem to think it is...

and that "Hallmark" comparison, which I still stand behind, I feel comes more from structure than content.

You can take the film at face value or read deeper into it and still find a case for this argument. Most of this pertains to the movie alone, I'm personally in the camp that if you're going to analyze a piece of media, it should stand on its own. So while the book may have different expressions and levels of inclusion, remember, it's a book, not a 2-hour time boxed movie

Production

Right off the bat we have the movie's production. I'm not going into speculation on TZP or NG's sexuality out of respect, neither have confirmed or denied being part of the community and that's frankly their business and privacy. In a bit I will go into the text of the film regarding the characters, but I don't want to drag the actors into this any further than saying they did an excellent job portraying the characters.

Lopez, though, who is publicly out as gay, as well as McQuistion who is NB, have both put their messaging and perspectives on queer experience into the book and by extension the film and that much is very clear through things like the inclusion of Intimacy Coordinator Robbie Taylor Hunt (another Gay man) as a way of trying to keep the intimate scenes grounded and realistic. So in the production alone there were clear attempts to visually represent authentic queer experiences. I think this is honestly the main reason why the main relationship is so compelling: the actors vibed well with each other (to the point that it was the initial feud that seemed contrived and unrealistic, which is just hilarious to me) and the coordinator worked with everyone collaboratively to keep things grounded, realistic, and to prevent it from going too far into the realm of fetishization from a visual standpoint.

As for the writing, we obviously are going to see most of the relatable queer experiences pop up in the lead roles:

Henry

Henry's character is arguably where the representation of queer experience is most explicit - at least from a level that regular (read straight) viewers would get without a lot of hand holding. At a surface level there's the classic "what will my family think?" questioning and general anxiety of being outed. Most of us in the community can relate to that, but in all honesty this is pretty standard fare and not the meat and potatoes of why I wanted to write this, what I am now realizing, unreasonably long rant breakdown *inhales*

ANYWAY.

At a deeper level though, Henry's struggle isn't so much internal as it is external. Yes there's internal angst still about being able to love openly, but in the film it's pretty clear that a good chunk of his family is aware of his sexuality (the statement that the king had a conversation with him when he was 18, him being open with Bea, etc.); He's also pretty confident in his sexuality already (he fairly easily explains his sexuality to Alex, and has confidence in his sexual experience). I'll go into this when we talk about Alex more, but I think this stems from the characters being aged up, but what this also does is shifts the narrative from simply "coming out" to dealing with abusive relatives and power systems after you've come to terms with who you are as a person, and then finding the strength to actually fight them once you've built up your support network.

And progress isn't linear for anyone on this - we relapse, mourn old relationships with people and family we thought would support us, and sometimes silence ourselves because "it's easier"; we see this happen with Henry pretty explicitly when he runs from the lake house. The reconciliation with Alex isn't flawless either: Henry requests time and patience with things so he can slowly begin his process of actually tackling the issue of how his sexuality and relationship with Alex relates to and impacts his professional duties. Alex, in true found-family style, gives him the support that he both wants and needs at that point in the story.

Alex

Alex's portrayal in the film I think has been the more controversial of the two (Not in terms of actor choice, TZP is a fantastic actor... Also fine as hell but that's beside the point). Most people who read the book criticize his relatively short "Bi-panic" period and how they felt it was more fleshed out in the book. Again, we're dealing with a time boxed movie here, so obviously the book will have more details. That being said, I don't think it was as unrealistic as people make it out to be if you dig a bit. This part gets a bit speculative, but stick with me here.

While I can't relate to a Bi coming out being a gay man and all, I think people should look at some context regarding the character's background: Alex is an incredibly flirtatious, personable, and media-savvy character who is also steeped in left-leaning politics. He knows what bisexuality is and given that he had a few same-sex experiences, has probably come to terms with that before his conversation with Nora in her office. In that scene he even stated that being into guys was something he understood for himself, his main source of "panic" was more the realization that he was specifically into Henry, someone he was actually angry and antagonistic with for several years.

As for why he seemed trepid first telling Henry he was Bi, and this is speaking from experience, there's a huge difference between coming to terms with who you're attracted to and putting a label on it for the first time, even to yourself. I think TZP acted that awkwardness well, especially in the Paris scene where, to shift gears a bit, the driving queer experience is Alex's inexperience with going that far with other guys, something most of us go through at some point. And again, in good, supportive fashion, Henry guides Alex through the process without judgement.

Alex and Henry

Both Alex and Henry are older in the movie than they are in the book, a fact that Lopez confirmed via interview. Even though it's only a few years, there's a huge difference in understanding your identity between your late-teens/early 20s and your mid 20s (generally speaking, people can come out at any age and that's completely fine. Everyone deserves to come out at their own pace and in their own way). With this, I think they did a good Job shifting the narrative from the more internal conflict of "who am I", which is very common in teen-centered dramas, to the more nuanced experience of figuring out how "Who I am" is going to impact your relationships and professional life, which I think is more befitting older characters. With Alex, it's how it will look to voters/impact on his mother's reelection AND how it impacts Henry's professional responsibilities; with Henry, it's his duties to the royal family and appearances.

*PHEW*

There's a lot more too when you dig. A personal... Um, well "favorite" isn't a great word, but you get my point - is how some members of the community will actively sabotage others for personal gain: Miguel outing them for the sake of professional ambitions (and maybe some light petty retribution for Alex dumping him, wherein Alex was justified) is unfortunately a pretty common experience.

I'm sure that there will be more to add for this if there's a sequel, which I hope there is and that they bring McQuiston in for (talk about marketing: she writes the outline based on the movie and the novel based on the first book which releases at the same time as the second movie. People would go nuts I'm sure).

Asides

We as a community spent years reading into media to find scraps of representation because that's all we could get, but I think we're not great at reading into it with more explicit movies that, while maybe building themselves off of "traditional" genre frameworks, still have those queer experiences. I think we set our standards too high sometimes because we are so starved for representation. What we got in this movie is, at least in my opinion, decent representation and authentic experiences for many people in our community, it's just subtle and maybe requires a deeper read of a character or scene. I picked up on some of these points and I hope other people can see some of the arguments I'm making here.

As a complete aside, I think we've been brainwashed a bit to think that "queer experiences = struggle" automatically and we're too quick to disregard queer media as "not gay enough" if there's not a suitable amount of angst or a particular identity isn't represented (This is NOT me minimizing the struggles of the LGBT+ community, just making a statement that maybe we shouldn't hinge our identities and portrayals in media on such negative experiences). Gay stories don't have to be tragic or full of existential crisis as it pertains to our identity. And while maybe unrealistic, some good fluff is healthy to see alongside the angst. As we progress as a culture and we become more accepted, struggle hopefully becomes less and less a unifying aspect of queer identity and we'll be able to see that reflected in our media.

tl;dr

I think the movie has more going for it in terms of queer experience than people give it credit for, it's just not what's typically seen in visual media and is buried in there a bit deeper. Just because it's a "Hallmark movie" structurally and plays into tropes doesn't mean it's not gay.

#rwrb #rwrb movie #red white and royal blue #matthew lopez #robbie taylor hunt #alex claremont diaz #henry fox mountchristen windsor #long reads #ramblings

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mayo-advance · 5 months

Text

2 AM ramble about the Hunger Games and the fandom

*It should be noted before reading this that I am not an english major. No research went into this beforehand. I am just a girl whos read some books. Also this could be entirely wrong, I didnt have time to word it pretty*

The Hunger Games is a unique series. It is considered a young adult dystopian novel, but it stands apart from other notable books in the genre for one reason. It has real anger behind it. The thing that makes good dystopian literature good is usually held to how accurately it critiques the world around it. Dystopian - although this isn’t the exact translation - roughly means “no good bad place”, and the most popular books of the genre exemplify that.

Every year, over and over, people re-discover thar our world is very much like that of George Orwells 1984. Some claim Orwell must have been a “prophet” to write such a book. But the truth is that he wasn’t predicting the future at all. Orwell was simply writing a dark reflection of his own time. He identified certain traits in the world and he magnified them in his story until the reader could see why they were a problem, and why it would be strange to live in such circumstances. Similar patterns are present in Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. These patterns also exist in the Hunger Games.

Other books in the YA Dystopian genre lack this inspiration. Instead they are written for the sole purpose of telling a story, which is why they fail. The point of dystopian is to make critique. Without the critique, many of the books could be passed off as sci-fi, with the new developments in tech. The books need the bleak reflection of our present to really drive the worldbuilding.

So, with all that in mind, the Hunger Games is in a weird spot. Its a YA Dystopian, which serves a purpose of girlbosses with dubious love interest fighting a faceless government and other ripoffs of such (I do acknowledge there are other good YA Dystopians, ive only ever read Divergent). But at the same time the Hunger Games has the grit that many of the more classic dystopians have. You don’t see anybody thirsting over Winston from 1984, and you don’t ever see any true analysis of the meaning behind Divergent. But the Hunger Games gives us both.

This in and of itself isn’t that big of an issue, except fans often try to take the YA part and seperate it from the Dystopian part. This goes as far back as the “Team Peeta” vs “Team Gale” debate that sparked when the book released. Although there is no issue with enjoying petty little fandom dramas - I have also indulged in such things - these arguments became the focus, overlooking any genuine meaning behind the story.

I understand, this is fandom culture after all, not every piece of media can be put under the microscope all the time and many fans have put fantastic thought into the actual meaning behind the book. But with the release of the new movie - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - the fandom has become more open to the general public, and these issues have worsened.

To start, the obvious. All the tik tok girlies thirsting over Coriolanus Snow. I even saw one go as far as to call Lucy Grey the “villain” of the story, because she hurt poor baby Coryo. This is actually ironic. I remember when the book was announced many fans, including myself, were afraid that Collins was going to try to make Snow sympathetic. Instead, she gave us another amazing book and gave us more insight on the worldbuilding, and Snow as a character. Sure, his parents died, but the book shows again and again how he isn’t the victim. It shows how selfish he is and how all of his actions are geared towards improving his image and moving up in the world (I could go into heavy detail about his relationship with Lucy but thats for another time). And so here we were with a good book that didn’t make him a sob story villain.

And then the movie came out. And despite the fact that the movie did fantastic with showing how unsympathetic this man is, somehow, some way… are sympathizing with him.

The obvious reason is because they find him attractive. This is the same old tune as when the Dhamer show with Evan Peters came out on Netflix and they were thirsting over him too. However many of these girlies (gender neutral) are using their attraction to him to justify that hes not a bad person. And theres a lot of them. I don’t really have more notes on this topic its just baffling that the minute a tall white boy is on screen all comprehension of good and evil goes out the window.

The next problem with the people and the movie are all the people calling for more movies. “I want to see Finnick in the games!” or “I want to see Haymitch in the games!!!”. Congratulations, the capitol would love you. This also confuses me seeing as the original series does an amazing job at showing that the capitols complicity and enthusiasm for the games is part of the problem. And the new movie even goes further as to show if the people don’t watch, there are no games. And yet fans are calling for more movies, not with the purpose of adding more worldbuilding or adding more layers of meaning to the already existing story, but because they want to fulfill their fandom needs of wanting more content.

This is my biggest issue and the whole reason i’m writing this actually. The Hunger Games is being treated more for the YA side of things than the Dystopian side of things. Fans want to see more, not wanting any meaning, but just wanting content.

The third thing I’ve noticed is again from tik tok, all of the girlies (again gender neutral) doing “Hunger Games” themed makeup looks.

There two notable kinds. Theres the “x district” themed makeup, and theres a chronology type makeup where they show themselves at the reaping all the way through the victors parade. Both raise issues. The district makeup looks always, ALWAYS glamorize the district which is strange and ironic considering we never see the districts not starving and dying and suffering… I understand makeup is supposed to look good but, maybe don’t romanticize the districts..?

The chronology makeup is also bad for the sole reason that it ALWAYS shows the artist as the victor. It’s another way of romanticizing the games in a way, showing how gorgeous you’d look after you’ve won. Ignoring the kids you killed and the trauma you’ve endured. The whole makeup stuff is insensitive

Anyways yeah im tired theres my thoughts. It just is so weird and disheartening because this story has something to say. The reason we even got a new book is because Collins had more to say. And instead of focusing on all of the complex worldly issues that were masterfully written into the books, we are not just acting like a fandom, but we are acting like the damn capitol.

#the hunger games #tbosas #mayo rambles #tik tok #coriolanus snow #delete later

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chronicbitchsyndrome · 10 months

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I do agree with the general statement of your post (that is, products should include warnings). I also thank you for acknowledging that seizures can cause death. I'm in the epilepsy community (although I am not photosensitive myself) and I can not stress how much negative pushback we've gotten from some spiderverse fans just for pointing out that a seizure could lead to death.

I will argue though that with spiderverse in particular, I think it was negligent on the part of the creators and studio to release those films as it currently is. People can be diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy at any age but is especially common at the age between 7-19. The spiderverse films are a mainstream product primarily aimed at that age group. No matter what kind of warnings there are for the film, kids that age will probably not know if they are photosensitive until they are watching the film and have a seizure in a public place.

I also find that the inaccessibility of the films to photosensitive people completely undercuts the films inclusive nature. Like I have never before seen so many arguments that "art isn't supposed to be accessible for everyone" and that photosensitive people should just deal with being locked out of the conversation until these films. Not foing to lie, it's a little hurtful seeing it come from the wider disability community too.

i don't really have a response to the point re: it being mainstream and targeted towards a young audience; i think it's definitely a discussion to have, but overall i think that the phenomenon of targeting age demographics as marketing demographics is a bad one, which only evolved for monetary purposes, and the idea that age is a good predictor for taste in art and preferred complexity of topics is fundamentally flawed. essentially: yeah, i get you, but the angle i'm coming at this from is that we should really stop ~marketing media towards minors or adults~ to begin with and let the content of the art stand on its own.

re: inclusiveness: i also get you, but like. any art whose message is inclusiveness is going to intentionally exclude a significant portion of disabled people. there is no possible way for a piece of art to be accessible to all disabled people, because disability is such a broad category that every single access need directly conflicts with at least one other access need, possibly dozens.

i tend to prefer that artists openly reckon with which disabilities they're excluding from access to their art and why. i know it's an uncomfortable thing to reckon with, but like... the idea that all art has the chance to be equally accessible to all people and the only reason it isn't is lack of effort re: inclusion on the artist's part... is just a straight up lie. there isn't any way to reconcile two directly conflicting access needs, much less dozens of directly conflicting access needs, so rather than push that under the rug and act like some access needs are superior and as long as they're fulfilled the art is blanket "accessible" to all, i would much rather artists openly discuss what groups of disabled people they are prioritizing in accessibility and why.

(in the case of spiderverse movies in particular: back when the first one came out years ago, i engaged with some talk in some smaller low-vision spaces about the film's bright colors and overall eye-strain being actually more accessible to some individuals, because it made it easier for them to see the broad shapes and movements than most movies at the time. directly conflicting needs. while it's almost definitely unintentional on the spiderverse team's part, i would rather them know about it and grapple with the difficult decision of who to include vs. exclude publicly, rather than sweep the whole thing under the rug or act like one group's accessibility needs are obviously more important than the others.)

like... it's a difficult conversation to have, because i genuinely have a lot of empathy for being permanently locked out of engaging with a piece of art that i love a lot because of its inaccessible nature (i have a couple of different video game series that i love and Can Never Play, and i also can't mod them to make them easier to play, because the ways they're inaccessible to me are the fundamental point of the art). but i also at the same time have to balance that with my material experience of being a person whose access needs directly and 100% conflict with other disabled people's access needs, the material experience of understanding very firsthand that there is no possible way for some art to be accessible to me, ever, even in a world where everyone cared about accessibility, because other disabled people exist too. and like. idk! it's a weird fucking emotional space to be in! i at the very least would like for everyone involved to tackle it head-on, instead of playing the game we currently seem to be playing where 1) mainstream artists do not grapple with these concepts at all, nor do they clearly label which disability needs are included vs. excluded in any of their art, 2) we in disability spaces act like there is one universal measure of "accessibility in art" and if you are excluded by that measure then your needs are not from genuine disability or your disability simply is not included in disability activism.

#anonymous #ask

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moomingitz · 6 months

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Satam is overrated AF. Prime is far superior to it.

Not to mention the art in satam is ugly AF . Sonic's and Tails character model was pretty ugly too.

All I said is that it's kind of dumb to use comparisons from the franchise that came long after SatAm was cancelled, and a game the average fan back then didn't play because it was on an expensive console add-on, for why Western fans who grew up in the 90s shouldn't think the show as a dark take on Sonic.

And I'm gonna have to disagree on Sonic Prime being the better show in general. I gave it a fair chance and came into it with an open mind. I was actually intrigued by the whole "Shatterverse" concept when the details of the show first leaked. But I unfortunately have many problems with it that keep me from fully enjoying it. I'm just gonna say that the show, in my opinion, feels aggressively mediocre, if that's the best way for me to put it. I feel like the characters are either just there or unlikable(especially Nine and Thorn Rose). Yet this show claims to take place in the main game canon, despite there being so many inconsistencies with Sonic's characterization alone(and do I have problems with how he's portrayed). At least SatAm, and by extension Archie, never claimed to be canon to the games at all. Prime, the cartoon that is supposed to take within it's source material, feels more "fan fiction" like, than the dark and gritty early 90s cartoon adaption.

I don't disagree with how Sonic was drawn in the Dic cartoons hasn't aged the best, especially when nobody could seem to be on the same page on how to draw his quills, which was not exclusive to SatAm. But, SatAm's overall art direction is something I would hardly call "ugly AF". Not when Sonic Underground and Sonic the Comic existed in the same decade. It just looks like another typical 90s furry cartoon. Prime's animation looks off-putting a lot of times, and it's just another reason why I would rather have something be animated low budget 2D instead. The character designs and models looking so close to their game counterparts only makes things stick out even more when you see something that just doesn't seem right with them.

As much as I have nostalgia for SatAm and it's characters, I do get annoyed with how fans act like as if it's the only adaption that was during that decade, or them immediately going, "OMG ARE THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS GONNA RETURN?!?!" whenever a new game is announced or piece of Sonic media is announced. But at the same time, I can't stand the whole "Acktually SatAM was never good!" purist garbage, without even trying to at least understand why the Western side of the fandom liked it so much back then. I've long had my fill of that fandom elitism crap from seeing it since the early 2000s.

I'm the kind of person who has watched things like, Felix the Cat: The Movie, more times than what should be considered normal or acceptable. So you're wasting your time when I'm someone who has not only seen the most bottom of the barrel stuff, but still finds value in even "bad" media.

#asks #unpopular opinions #awaits possible backlash

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faerywhimsy · 7 months

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Vamptember Day 24 -FREE DAY

I am a huge fan of book to TV adaptations, so much so that a portion of my Honours thesis was actually dedicated to that particular portion of media.

The Hunger Games books and movies offer a perfect example of so much of what I love about it; a series of books that are from a limited 1st person perspective, then expanded out into a series of not just three but four movies to make room for perspectives that are hinted at within the books, yet given no explicit voice given the nature of the perspective choice.

But even a faithful adaptations can turn sour is when enough of the central themes of a story get overturned over the course of a longer running series. I’m thinking Game of Thrones here. That first season was almost a play by play of the first novel. Things like the Red- and Purple Weddings later occurred more or less as expected, though timelines of surrounding events were fudged. There were some really cool graphics made on this topic back in the day.

And then... well, we got the last 3 seasons, didn't we? What a disappointment (sorry Jacob, you're an actor capable of doing things that are very subtle, but that show let you down).

Reimaginings can likewise be good or bad, but they have built into them a bit more leeway. Where these usually turn sour is around the time they fully abandon the source material. This is mostly your ‘loosely inspired by’ stuff. It’s putting a name on the door that’s generated to sell tickets. I’m trying to think of a good example of this, but the stuff I haven’t liked doesn’t tend to stick in my head because I’ve usually moved on by then. At their strongest, reimaginings bring well thought out and updated content to a fandom.

BBC's reimagining in Sherlock was innovative when they brought Conan Doyal's characters into the modern day. They succeeded in doing that because what they kept sacred, at least to begin with, was the relationships between the characters and the overarching themes that came from that. By doing only those two things, they were able to reinvent satisfying ways to touch on the main plot points of the original stories.

That team also, sadly, offered a cautionary tale of what happens when such a project deviates too far from its source material.

The reimagining in AMC's Interview with the Vampire is far more ambitious and therefore complex in what it proposes, with an equal half of its story existing in a space that will be close to what was written in the books. I genuinely hope they end up succeeding with their ambition. Part of that is that it's not pretending to be any sort of directly faithful adaptation.

The first hint? The entire premise of S1: It’s 2022 and Louis invites Daniel for a second interview. That just didn't occur in the books.

This one change brings the story straight into the modern day, which is easily arguable as something needed for a series that released its first book in 1976. While I love a nostalgic- or period piece as much as the next person, I’m not disappointed by this.

This is the kind of change that’s a deal breaker. It stands to give new watchers the introduction they need into the world at the same time as giving something entirely unexpected to old fans. In other words, it’s narrative gold to someone like me.

The reasons I love it are completely different to what draws me to a straight like for like with added scenes adaptation as outlined above in Hunger Games. By changing the timeline and beginning straight out of the gate, it means that you can change everything.

And, god, they do.

Okay, obviously not everything. Character names, places, even dates on their own aren’t enough to hold the narrative cohesion of a reimagining if it doesn’t hold tight enough to the central themes of the source material to maintain that the original plot points still make sense to come to pass. WHICH S1 DOES.

I have so much interest in dissecting how they’ve so far kept hold of (most of) the themes and yet, in only 7 episodes, have already told a story with so many different details. And, if I’m gonna be totally honest, TVC is perfectly primed for exactly this kind of adaptation simply because, as a collection, these books have never been consistent (thank you, Anne for this dubious and ongoing gift).

There has been a single possible inconsistency with themes that did give me some cause for concern, but it’s also not the one that most people seem concerned by. So, let’s get into the analysis!

Armand:

I’m beginning with this character, because a supercut on YouTube I finally got around to watching made me realise we got a total of 15 minutes of Assad on screen in the 7 episodes of S1, and less than 5 of those are of him in the named character. So it’s an easy place to start.

Obviously, there is little difference that can be pointed to in those fewer than 5 minutes other than the differences in physical appearance than described (17 y/o, red hair, brown eyes) in the books, and that’s what I’ve seen a lot of discourse on thus far. That, and what on earth this Louis had on him to convince him it was a great play to pretend to be Rashid in front of Daniel. (He is a theatre kid, I guess…)

There is however a short detail in The Vampire Armand after Armand goes into the sun, however, that briefly describes his eyes as being orange (maybe amber?) as he starts to heal, and therefore the choice on making Assad’s eyes this colour in the series becomes an interesting detail to me.

Also, let’s be honest – if you’re gonna make the creative choice to have both Sam and Jacob in these luminescent contacts, but leave Assad’s natural throughout… well, I mean, what is being said on that side of the coin if that’s the choice being made?

On the side of details they kept AND CHANGED at the same time, my favourite for this character continues to be the below image that shows the physical resemblance between one Assad Zaman and, yes, a different Botticelli painting than any referenced in the books, but ultimately a Botticelli painting all the same. We're good to go!

Louis:

I don’t really want to focus too long on the obvious differences between Louis the slave owner (books) and Louis the pimp (series) except to say they are there. As are Louis’ signature green eyes.

However, that is where the resemblance ends. And I’m not just talking about physical.

In Louis’ case, the biggest difference I clocked and remarked in DMs up till now that—as a fanfic writer of both books and series fandom—Louis’ was the voice that consistently gave me most trouble to move between. I literally could not convincingly write him in any series fic at the same time as I was writing my mammoth long fic How They Get to Trinity Gate.

And it was not the fact that Louis was white in the books that tripped me up.

Another big thing is the change to when Louis and Lestat meet. This changes things for Lestat's character a bit as well, but I think it's more clear at this point the ways in which Lestat being set up as that much stronger and older than Louis on first meeting has had an impact on their story. Armand will be that much older than Louis as well, but what's a difference of a handful of decades when Armand already was that much older than Louis canonically?

As a linguist, I remain most fascinated by the dialogue changes that have been given to Louis’ character, particularly in historic New Orleans scenes. When reading Interview With the Vampire, there’s not a great deal of difference to the voice of Louis in the present vs the past that he gives to the boy interviewer. In the series, however? The difference in character from past to present is as unavoidable as it is riveting. To me, that alone offers so many details about who Louis is as a person, the disparity between Louis and a Lestat who obviously still gets to keep his book canon French accent.

In terms of how these changes effected the story as Louis relates it to Daniel, however? I mean, for the most part, the Louis I watched was equally convincing as he hit the main plot points his character needed to hit to stay true to the source material. That makes it a successful update to me!

Daniel:

Daniel is a laugh, both in the books and in the series. But, though the series has held on to the aspect of his sense of humour from the books, that humour is depicted in a completely different way.

Self deprecating, for the most part, or actually laugh out loud funny is what we see of Daniel in the books. Occasionally his anger gets the better of him, but for the most part he’s more docile—or possibly just as drunk—as many of us would be in similar circumstances. Apart from, say, when he’s calling Armand an immortal idiot.

The humour we get from Daniel in the series, though? That’s cutting. Yes, aimed to slice others up, especially when he’s deflecting from himself, but also the stuff that's made to cut through bullshit.

He’s had another 50 years to hone it, and none of them were lost to madness or absence from himself. No, this Daniel has been present every year of the 69 that have been given to him, and it shows. His wit has grown up with him, because he has grown up in a way he never got to in the books.

Something else to consider, however, is the fact that this Daniel is half David.

Actually, it's more than half. We got less of Daniel in S1 than we got of Armand. When I say this, I mean the only parts from the book canon we've got were in a couple of flashback scenes and the recording Eric listens to, then plays in Dubai in Episode 1. Only Luke Brandon Field has so far shown me anything close to a faithful version of Daniel, and I've no doubt this actor is destined to continue to follow that trajectory throughout future seasons.

That leaves me with wondering who we've got in the present from Eric? And that's David Talbot who, it turns out, is another canonical interviewer within The Vampire Chronicles. You may remember him as the guy who interviewed Armand, a version of which we're also set to see in S2.

David, when we first see him in Queen of the Damned, is someone interested in vampires not as puff portraiture but as a reality. He’s an older man coming to acceptance he’s near the end of his life and career. And he does not want to be made into a vampire.

Louis: A still hand, time to watch your daughters marry. Daniel: And divorce. And die.

Sound familiar?

Let me explain something of what I suspect went into this decision behind the scenes: The character of Daniel is underdeveloped in the books to say the least, something I’ve written about already during Vamptember. There was never going to be enough of the book character of Daniel in AMC's version to satisfy every book reader. Anne simply didn't give us enough of him, and fandom remains wildly divided in how to interpret him.

By contrast, David was a character readers got far too much of because of Anne's attempt to shoe horn us into a different romantic interest for Lestat. He's just not as popular. Imagine for a second the reception if the early promotional material had named Eric as playing 'David' instead of 'Daniel'? It's a marketing mislead, and one that's paid off.

When setting up the core "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"-esque central cast, the creative team over at AMC did something very clever, I think. They pulled over characteristics of another underdeveloped character from the same canon in order to flesh their version of Daniel out. We'll almost certainly see a body swap, and that's where the David, and Eric's, part of the story will end.

In conclusion, I will absolutely eat my hat if we see someone called David Talbot walking around in this series ever ever. And, when it comes to the eventual plot line of making Daniel a vampire, they've set up three good options in front of them (and another example where we old fans have no way to expect WHICH WAY IT WILL GO):

He'll be coerced into it (David, canonically by Lestat, but in this universe almost certainly Armand)

He'll change his mind and demand it again (Daniel in true Devil's Minion style)

He'll almost die and someone will have to turn him (Daniel, yes, but also Jesse)

Two of these methods of becoming a vampire from the early books canonically turn a Talamasca character, and I definitely have some on-a-tangent theories there, given the presence of Talamasca characters already in Mayfair Witches.

The only thing they’ll need to change from the books here is Armand being Daniel/David’s foil, instead of Lestat. And, look, they’ve already positioned Louis right there as the love of his life in the face of the love triangle that’s sure to follow in the series, as in the books.

Fareed (bonus):

This is further to my passing body swap comment in the last section, but I really wanted to add:

Why include this minor character front and centre as early as S1? Why then have him explicitly say he is not there not once but three separate times as part of his only dialogue?

Fareed: That is not my voice. And I'm not here. [...] I am not here. [...] I'm not here. [...] Pleasure never meeting you, Mr. Molloy.

Is this not explicitly designed to have the same effect as telling a person not to imagine a pink elephant? Not to mention, it's as meta as fuck. That's Schrödinger's Vampire right here.

So why do these things if not to bring to the front of people's minds not only that the entire of Anne Rice's canon is free game in this reimagining? But that Fareed in particular is a character who's the first of his kind in the Chronicles; a scientist who can and does invent a clone?

A clone that might just end up looking very much like Luke Brandon Field?

Why, also, spend so much time and promotional material on another actor we see for about the same short space of time within S1? Minute for minute, I reckon we get about the same amount of screen time here with Gopal Divan as we do with Luke.

That, and they both happen to appear for the first time in Episode 6. Just saying.

In terms of canon deviation, if there was a physical description of Fareed in the books, I honestly don't remember it. He was just one of Anne's many, many characters that were a) created to function as a plot point, and b) forgotten beyond the original purpose he was created for.

As long as they manage to keep Fareed interested in the vampiric sciences, I honestly don't see there being any problems.

Lestat:

Saving the best till last, am I right?

Lestat is Lestat is Lestat, isn’t he? The blond hair. The blue eyes. The arrogant swagger. Both the father’s anger matched with the uncontrollable laughter raging within him at all times. Completely out of control. Hedonistic, definitely to a fault. A Byronic hero in the package of an immoral vampire.

I hated Lestat and, when I read the books as a teenager, it was despite him.

I was ready to go into the series doing the same. The stories, the themes, the history, the characters (minus Lestat). There is so much richness to love in the world of the books, despite so much of it being told by Lestat. And there was no doubt we were gonna get less of The Lestat Show in a show that’s not told from his PoV and has three other main characters vying equally for that attention.

I will amend this statement now to acknowledge he does get less obnoxious by the time we hit the final trilogy, which were obviously not out when I’d made the judgement call of despising him. (Hell, Tales of the Body Thief wasn’t yet out…)

In Lestat's case, the changes that have been made aren't so much of appearance or characterisation, so much as moments. And I understand why. Lestat is iconic and, in many ways, impossible to change in any meaningful way because of it. So the choice of changing moments here and there becomes the perfect way to cast a new spin on Lestat's character.

ESPECIALLY when you have Armand right there behind Louis the whole time, almost certainly controlling the narrative.

Obviously, there was That Scene in Episode 5. That particular scene is one that never happened in any of the books. But Lestat’s aggressions, micro and otherwise, are a well known particularly in early canon, and Louis is certainly not exempt from them.

Nor is Claudia. And who among us haven’t put up with less when it’s aimed towards a person we love than what we’ll put up with aimed to ourselves?

Despite it not following an actual canon event, it held intact location, characters and central themes all together – the summation of most important aspects when we have an adaptation and hope it will continue to hit the major canon plot points in its reimagining.

We saw Lestat, Louis and Claudia all moving towards an event we all knew was coming, and what ended up being the climax of S1.

What I don't see being talked about anywhere near so much is the beginning of Episode 3, as Louis begins to commit himself to becoming a nuisance to the feline life of New Orleans.

Lestat: Say we come upon a murderer planting a flowerbed, thinking only of flowers. How long do we wait before his bloody deeds reveal themselves? Louis: As long as it takes. Lestat: You haven’t thought this through, Louis.

The charitable view, of course, is that Lestat is just not wanting, in this moment, to encourage anything Louis wants to say. If so, it would hardly be the only time Lestat shuts Louis down. Louis says he doesn’t want to feed on humans anymore so Lestat’s immediate response is to push as hard in the opposite direction. I would be satisfied with that.

Equally, I would be satisfied if, come S3, Lestat is revealed to remember this conversation completely differently. It would make sense. Of COURSE Lestat wants to feed on the evil doer and only the evil doer. What else are monsters like them supposed do? This would speak perfectly to their being many things in The Vampire Lestat that are different once Lestat takes the reigns of the books and supposed pen name.

The more I think about it, the more I won't be terribly surprised if they decide on one of these—or even a secret third option (Armand, I'm looking at you)—being the way this moment washes out later. The repercussions of deviating from Lestat only feeding from the evil doer are far too detrimental to the canon they seem intent to create.

Basically, their Lestat holding fast to this opinion for any longer than this scene would leave them struggling to hit more than one major plot point in future seasons.

Anyone who's read the books knows Lestat has already come across Marius before he meets Louis. He's heard Marius’ treatise on only eating the evil doer, and understands why his mentor holds to that tenant. Likewise, Lestat has prior to that come across Armand—something that has all but been confirmed for the series, again in the S2 trailer—and, after meeting both fledgling and maker, Lestat is able to pull together for himself an ethical stance he will take into the rest of his immortal life.

Lestat doesn't have to figure out what his code is gonna be, or whether he's gonna have one, like he way that's depicted for Louis in Episodes 2-3. This ethical stance informs him and carries through from there to the time in the future where Lestat’s made Prince of all vampires.

We'd have a very different looking future seasons ahead of us if Lestat were to abandon that code. It would make Episode 5 look tame.

But Sam knows those books. Rolin knows those books.

I love these monsters. As unreliable as Anne was with her famous lack of editing, this was something even she never flipped back and forth on. And a bunch of monsters with a code is still what we are seeing in S1 just from the fact that Daniel has survived this far into the interview in 2022.

They were and continue to be monsters, her characters, but they aren't that monstrous. There's a line for these serial murders. Honour among the thieves of mortal life.

That’s what makes them so enduringly interesting in all the variations we see for them.

@vamptember

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sagebaileyspeaks · 11 months

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It’s been a hot minute since I’ve been so moved by a piece of media (good or bad) that I just had to write about it, but that’s where we are this evening with Across the Spider-verse.

There isn’t much I can say about this movie without delving into spoilers, so I’ll begin by saying that visually this movie is unmatched. There’s a reason that animation exists as a medium and that is because you can do things with it that you cannot achieve in real life. As much as I love No Way Home and that original Spiderman trilogy, the fact of the matter is, none of those films —no matter how spectacular—is doing what Into the Spider-verse and Across the Spider-verse have done.

And while I could gush about the art style all day, the second most impressive thing is how this sequel manages to build on almost everything that was established in the first. Rio and Jefferson (Miles’ parents) have so much more to do here, they’re active characters who aren’t simply there to provide Miles with obligation and tragedy; Gwen, whose background was waved by in the first movie, has almost the same amount of screentime as Miles; and speaking of Miles, this movie allows him the chance to stand as Spiderman without Peter Parker.

To be clear, I love Peter Parker as a character. In particular, I like what Into the Spider-verse does with Peter B. Parker because it’s really the only story that allows Peter to grow up. Much as I like Tom Holland’s take on the character, I’m very much tired of teenage Peter Parker and teenage Peter Parker problems. I want to grow with him, I want to see him advance to the next stage of life, which here: means divorce, reconciliation, even a child (who we’ll get to later). That is the Peter Parker I want to see.

After this, I’m going to go into spoiler territory, but honestly my overall take from the film is that we have a Spiderman, an Afro-Latino Spiderman, who is standing his ground and making it clear that he is not Peter Parker. That’s not his struggle, his destiny or his story. Across the Spider-verse is making the statement that Miles Morales is here and he is here to stay on his own terms. And skeptics, well, they just have to accept it or move along.

And now….

First of all, Hobie is the fucking best. I am not exaggerating. He’s one of the first (and only) Spiderman to not necessarily be on Miles’ side but also not be against him. He warns him upon entering Spider society that he shouldn’t become apart of something without realizing what it is, helps him break out by telling him how best to use his power and then gives Gwen the tool necessary to further assist him.

To that end, with the exception of Jessica Drew, Miles is assisted almost entirely by the Black Spiderpeople who have known him less than a few hours. . .as opposed to Gwen and Peter B. who knew him a couple of days. I’m not saying that I no longer like their characters or even that they’re somehow intentionally racist, but there is something to be said that Gwen and Peter joined this society made up of mostly white Spiderpeople and then decided to side with said establishment over Miles who they had known personally (and who saved their lives).

Migel O’ Hara, aka Spiderman 2099, is a terrifying Spiderman and honestly his canon logic is flawed. He’s essentially surrounded himself with Spidermen who prove him right, which feels like confirmation bias but also, if you even think too hard about the established “canon” of Spidermen, it falls apart. In No Way Home (which the movie establishes is canon) all of the Peter Parkers rehabilitate their villains and while we’ll likely never receive confirmation, I’m fairly certain that those universes didn’t fall apart after they did so. Gwen’s father in this very movie, quits being Captain which means that he has avoided this canon. Peter B. tells Miles that it’s because he met him that Mayday (an absolutely ADORABLE future Spidergirl) exists. Not to mention…the Spidermen from No Way Home would most certainly not agree with that, “let one die to save many,” considering their actions and I’m fairly certain there’s a number of other Spidermen who wouldn’t.

The villain in the movie, or the main villain I should say, is named The Spot and things escalate there in a hurry. He seems relatively harmless at first but it takes ONE time for Miles to write him off as insignificant and this man loses his mind. Decides to take it incredibly personally and show Miles that he is a worthy foe. Kodos to the team for making a joke villain legitimate.

The ending where Miles goes to Earth-42 and meets Miles Morales is EPIC. I honestly cannot tell which way Prowler Miles will go considering when our Miles told him that their dad would die, he said, “your dad.” Miles isn’t necessarily a threat to him at all and maybe he’ll want to see Miles’ universe, but I can’t say one way or another.

Which is, I suppose, the best part of the movie. While I was able to call that that wasn’t Miles’ room and that Miles was probably the Prowler, there is so much more that I didn’t see coming. I don’t know how Miles will get out of the situation he’s in (though it seemed like he was going to use his venom strike) and I don’t know if he’ll be able to save his dad, it’s such a good cliffhanger because the only given at this point in time is that Miles Morales will return.

All in all, I give the movie ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ out of 5 and I am counting the moments until Beyond the Spiderverse comes out next March.

#across the spiderverse #into the spiderverse #spiderman #peter parker #peter b. parker #miles morales #marvel #movies #gwen stacy #spiderman 2099 #beyond the spiderverse

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