#but on the other hand there are still charactr I love and I want to kno ho this far unfolds ...

[wouriqueen]

Okay so I’ve been hyping up Kingdom (Yasuhisa Hara’s manga, not the netflix series) to anyone I know for around 7 years now but lately the quality of Hara’s writing has been dropping. Now I wasn’t too mad about the whole unrealistic wins for our hero because that’s just how a shounen is sometimes and I didn’t expect the writing to be perfect for the whole run of such a long story.

But this whole bullshit with Kyoukai ... this whole bullshit ...

HARA decided to write a female character so strong that anybody reading would know she’s actually stronger than the hero Shin. HARA made that choice, so he should have gone all the way with it and allowed her and her unit to break away from the Hi Shin Unit and become truly independent. She’s said already that she wants to become a  Great General of the Heavens too - she can’t do that if she remains Shin’s lieutenant. She knows that so why would she defy her hierarchy’s orders and continue merging her forces with Shin’s and answering to him ??

Obvious : Hara wants to write a slow burn love story AND he does not have a replacement character for her as lieutenant with strength and wits on the same level as her - if she’s replaced and the Hi Shin Unit remains just as strong everybody will call bullcrap. 

But I was like, okay. Guess we can’t expect too much for women in this story. I was quite happy with what I got still because her character, and Karyo Ten’s, were very well explored  and had some serious spotlight from time to time  (at least back then...).

But now. NOW this transparent writing ploy to WEAKEN her .... obviously because it’s time for Shin to be seen as ThE StroNGesT tO Be, even by the readers ! I was already so mad with this whole thing that’s been unfolding, about him dying and her doing some mystical technique to bring him back using her entire remaining  lifespan and sacrificing herself... But when their dead friends shoved her back to life too, after she managed to save Shin, I was really relieved...

And now they’re using this whole thing to explain to her that “ThE AmbERS oF YouR LiFe ArE WeaKer” aka not only will she have a shorter life (I expected that) BUT she ALSO won’t be able to use some techniques anymore, or not as well as before... aka the author weakened her.

He did not kill her because he still wants her to be Shin’s love interest. But he weakened her on purpose so Shin could shine more...

I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I hate I HATE IT !!!!!

#kingdom #yasuhisa hara #キングダム #I'm so fucking mad you guys have no idea like .... I'm BOILING INSIDe #and I know no one gives a damn about this story but me #but I needed to let it out somehow #I wonder if I can keep reading ... she's a major secondary character and I can't avoid her #but on the other hand there are still charactr I love and I want to kno ho this far unfolds ... #UGHHHHHHHHHHHH

[jeanjauthor]

This is a fairly short thread, but an important one, writers.

Don’t just deal with your characters’ physical traumas, whether it’s injury, abuse, illness, whatever.  They will also have mental and emotional trauma to accompany it...and in some cases, mental or emotional trauma will have physical trauma associated with it.  But they’ll still have a lot to process.  And the people around them will have a lot to process, too.

In the case of my #milSF main character, Ia (EE-yah), the Prophet of a Thousand Years...she “doesn’t have time” for grief, anger, etc, because she’s very busy trying to steer the future into a position where it can save itself from a disaster that’ll happen centuries later, long after everyone she knows will be dead and gone...

Except she still suffers from year after year after year of all that she precognitively & postcognitively Sees.  By the fifth book, Damnation, she is exhibiting signs of depression (”melancholy”), even if they’re subtle. The people who love her as well as work with her notice these things, and call her on it.  They’re concerned, they want to help, they confront her in an attempt to help her acknowledge & work through her trauma so that she can heal at least a little.  (if you want to know whether or not it works, you’ll have to read.)

But even if you don’t want to read my books, cast your minds back to the very first X-Men movie, with Patrick Steward as Charles Xavier and Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, etc.  Think of the moment when Rogue (played by Anna Paquin) asks Logan about his claws, and remember what and how he replies:

Rogue: “When they come out...does it hurt?” 

Logan:  “Every time.”

When she asks this question, she first gives him and his hands a worried, concerned, yet understandably curious look.  (Paquin did an excellent job in this role, imho.)  As she speaks, the camera switches focus from her face to the hand now gripping the steering wheel, and by the time she finishes speaking, the camera has refocused on her. (Excellent visual cueing / reinforcement of the topic at hand.)

The view then switches to Logan’s face.  His eyelids are lowered, his expression stoic, but he blinks, and you can see that he is feeling those two words, reliving the memories, literally, of “Every time.”  And the tone he uses is the light, quick tone of someone who has accepted that it will hurt. Every. time.

(Video link for those who want to see it for themselves: https://youtu.be/hxQwTwcc0d8?t=22)

This was the single most emotionally impactful character-defining moment.  Logan cannot remember all of his memory at this point in his life, but he knows that every single time he flexes those claws in anger, regenerative powers or not, It Hurts. Every Time.

He has that constant mental & emotional trauma of knowing that he has to hurt himself in order to protect & defend himself in full. The character of Wolverine is in many ways a representation of life with chronic pain.  Not a perfect match by any means, but he lives with it, he deals with it, and (to mis-quote Girl Genius) one could even say he cultivates his pain.  Sliding out just one claw slowly is one example of him sculpting and shaping his pain-filled existence to his own purposes & uses.

But because he can regenerate himself physically, most people don’t think of him as a disabled or chronically ill person who is still dealing with an illness even after he’s back to being physically whole.

...I suspect because we still don’t view mental & emotional traumas as being equal to physical traumas...even though they very much are.

Long story short, writers...don’t erase your charactres’ trauma.  There are always consequences.  And while some people may find some experiences not nearly as traumatic as other people will find them...there will still be long-term consequences for most people.

If you want to write a believable, audience-friendly tale that doesn’t bump people out of the narrative by stretching the suspension of disbelief too far...make your characters believably human.

That means dealing with the aftermaths as well as the actions.

[songsforfelurian]

Buffy still means something to me, and it’s okay if you feel that way, too.

I need to add my two cents to the Joss Whedon discourse I see floating around. If you're not aware, I'm referring to the essay his ex-wife, Kai Cole, submitted to The Wrap, detailing his track record of infidelity, as well as other recent bad press, such as the leaked excerpts from his unused Wonder Woman script, which included dialogue and characterization that many found to be problematic beyond understanding. 

I, personally, found the script to be problematic, too. I'm hesitant to jump on the condemnation bandwagon on the issue of infidelity, because I think our culture fosters white, male empowerment and encourages dishonesty and shame when it comes to sexual expression, and the issue is far too big to be tackled in a blog post. I’m not excusing his alleged actions, by any means. Dishonesty and infidelity and abuse of power are terrible, and people deserve to be judged for them. I understand why so many people are rushing to condemn this man who branded himself a feminist and then revealed himself to be deeply flawed in so many ways.

I'm not writing to criticize anyone for thinking that way, but I am extending a hand to anyone else who feels conflicted while considering this information.

I was ten years old when Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired. I didn't even know the name of the man who created it, back then, and probably didn't for at least a couple of seasons. If intimate details were available online about the showrunners and the cast at that time, I didn't know to look for them. I didn't read press releases about it. I didn't spend hours sifting through blog posts dissecting every episode, critiquing every character arc and line of dialogue, if such blog posts even existed. I watched it, in the absence of all the noise and conflicting opinions that accompany the viewing experience today. And the show affected me deeply.

Buffy was the first fictional character I really saw as a hero. I understood that she was brave and selfless, despite being portrayed as terrified, and grief-stricken, and often deeply flawed herself. And she was a woman, who could beat the life out of pretty much anyone she met, if she so chose. She was powerful, all on her own, and she took that power seriously.

I'm not saying the show wasn't flawed. It was. Deeply, at times. (Hopefully you're starting to pick up on the trend here.) But it spoke to me. It taught me things. It stuck with me for years - the pain of it; the bittersweet victories; the early lgbtq+ representation; the images of Buffy killing the person she loved most in the world to save everyone else, or digging her way out of her own grave with her bare hands because her friends couldn't face the notion of living without her. These ideas took hold in my heart before I cared about who created the show, or what that person might be like. And because of that, I've come to this conclusion.

Media can be both problematic and valuable.

Given what I've learned about Joss Whedon since I was an impressionable ten-year-old, I do believe it's my responsibility to bring a more critical eye to the content he's created. Shows I once loved might look and feel different to me, now, and they should. And I know I should be hesitant to endorse future creative projects by Joss Whedon, and to think more critically about his casting choices, his character arcs, and his dialogue, if I encounter media he creates in the future.

But I don’t believe it's my responsibility to condemn every piece of content he's ever created, just because he's proven himself to be flawed as a human being. I can love Buffy, and what the show once meant to me, and still be critical of it. I can enjoy the ideas and the characters from Angel, and Firefly, and Dollhouse, and understand that they might be as flawed as their creator.

Media can be both problematic and valuable.

So if you're like me - trying to reconcile your love and appreciation of this content with what you've learned about this man - please know that you're not alone. You're not bad because you were once inspired by these works. You're not evil if you still find comfort and enjoyment in spending time with these characters. You don't have to erase your connection to them in order to believe in equality, or to support feminism, or to encourage fairness and integrity in media. Joss Whedon didn't turn out to be the hero we wanted him to be, and it's okay to be disappointed in him, and critical of him. If you've followed his content, you've probably spent plenty of time being critical of his charactrs, too. Buffy certainly wasn't a perfect hero. Neither was Willow, or Angel, or Wesley, or Mal. And their villain counterparts were equally multifaceted - Spike, and Faith, and DeWitt - flawed, seemingly beyond redemption, until they revealed themselves to be perfectly, disturbingly, human. 

Problematic characters are at the heart of good media. They force us to think critically, to adjust our views and expectations of ourselves, and of each other. And characters with this depth are often created by people who understand what it means to be flawed and conflicted - to be the hero sometimes, and to sometimes be the villain.

And this story isn't a new one. "White Man Working in a Flawed System Possessing Immense Power Abuses It" - this should not be a surprising headline, anymore. I can't possibly know all of the intimate details of his abuses, or his marriage, or his affairs, and neither can you, but yes, we should be critical. If you feel like your personal solution is to blacklist Joss Whedon and every piece of media he's ever created, you're entitled to do so.

But it's not okay for you to tell me I have to do the same. I can condemn infidelity and misogyny and abuse of power, and still love the characters this man created. 

I can condemn the man, and still love the hero Buffy was to me.

#joss whedon #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #whedonverse #whedonesque #dollhouse #firefly #angel #originalpost

[rambling-entity]

S4 Voltron thoughts and spoilers

Just thoughts full of spoilers. Might not include only season 4 stuff either. How Shiro has been acting basically throughout the season kinda pissed me off. I mean it's one thing to pressure Keith into leading Voltron, it's another to not give him any training or advice in doing so. There's only so far natural leadership tendencies can get you. Plus there was the utter disregard for the advice given by Lance, who is now the right hand of Voltron. Them at least viewing the random pillars from a farther distance would have been an acceptable compromise. Hence why I love the theory Shiro is Kuron, a clone, because it fits this un-Shiro-like behaviour. Then there's Keith leaving Voltron. That hurt basically everyone, Keith most of all. I mean Voltron was his family when he never really had one before, and to feel so easily replaced cannot possibly have been easy. Plus (and yes I am a Klance shipper) but there was also so much bonding that happened between those two, and I'm sure that with how friendly and open Hunk is there had to have been some bonding there too. Allura may have noticed Keith leaving the most out of the group, and that brings another point of bonding. Keith is part Galra, so for Allura to have gotten past that and felt concern for Keith is a major point. She really grew this season, particularly when she is supported by Lance to basically fight Honerva (a 10 000 year old witch) and freaking WIN. As one of the last Alteans, she bears so much responsibility on her shoulders. Lance acknowledges that and by putting his faith in her during that deadly moment, he was such stable support. Fans, including me, want Lance character development, and I think it's slowly being revealed in moments like that. It's not about sacrificing himself, not totally at least, but Lance is growing into his role as a right-hand man, an advisor and a support. Season 3, where he really was supporting Keith? Yea, that's also showing up in s4. Someone mentioned the fact he didn't make a snarky comment at Shiro when he could have been all "I told you so" and that's really showing maturity. Sure, during the Coran brainwashing episode, he's definitely playing up his "player" status but really, that episode was about the creators. I mean all those stereotypes, they are the initial boxes into which the characters are placed. It just makes for easy relatedness, like yea, this character has these traits, etcetera. But for those characters to break out of those boxes will take time. Also, there was Hunk charactr development, and sort of reaffirmation too. I mean, he's lovable cuddly chef but he's also freaking smart (there is now a smart trio that are all nerds together and I love it). The fact he went and freaking elbowed that Galra in the face to save Pidge, oh man was that excellent. It shows the bravery Hunk now has, that he goes shooting into the fray instead of being scared. I mean I'm sure it is still scary to him but bravery is acting despite fear. Being given Pidge background was wonderful too, but seriously, freaking heart attack when she got to that grave. After (spoiler for How to Train Your Dragon 2) Hiccup's dad died, I am now vulnerable to believing in character deaths for kids shows. Matt is also just such a total nerd, it's so pure. (Also Kaltenacker interactions were pure fluff and sooooo cute, Coran and Allura being astonished at the act of milking a cow). Speaking of character deaths, NARTI. The total callousness of Lotor in killing her was just absolutely shocking and drove his generals away. I mean, especially for Axca to betray him when she believed in him the most. She will never get over that, because the more faith she had, the greater the betrayal will feel. You could see it in the other two as well, their silence and body postures in their ships after their escape. And it just adds to this utter confusion I have about Lotor. I mean honestly, what is he going to do with quintessence and a trans-reality comet? His duplicity and smarts are the foil for the headstrong Keith, and him saving Keith in the end was great and all but WHAT IS HIS MOTIVE. What drives his actions because I really, truly cannot fathom even much of a theory. AND KEITH SACRIFICING HIMSELF. Lemme talk about that, because that speaks volumes about his character. Part of me thinks that because he now has a firm foundation in Voltron, but also him realizing he isn't actually needed within that foundation of Voltron, it's like he's experienced happiness once and that was enough for him. Like, him reaching out for help by talking to Matt and captain Olia was just so awesome to see because he's not a lone wolf anymore. He can lead and he can ask for help, he won't go it alone, but he also won't put anyone else in danger more than he has to and is willling to give up his life to preserve others. This was to be an act that would save others, total self-sacrifice worthy of the BoM but also because he knows how precious other lives are through Voltron. Keith is a mix not just in terms of being human and Galra, but also creating beliefs and values and actions worthy of both Voltron and the Blade of Mormora. But being a mix also means not truly fitting into either place. Lance is his support, but Keith has always stood on his own two feet alone. Shiro has also been there (anyone else want to know how in the heck Keith and Shiro bonded) but with Shiro not only pressuring him into being a leader when Keith clearly doesn't know how, and then replacing him, that drove Keith away. And then there's Haggar who appears to be returning to being Honerva and that is just, oh heavens what will happen. There like a war going on within Haggar right now, Altean light versus the dark creatures of quintessence. And the cliffhanger ending. Oh how I look forward to next season, particularly interactions between Keith and Lotor, both who don't truly fit in.

#Voltron #Keith #Lance #Pidge #Hunk #Shiro #Allura #Coran #Lotor #Season 4 #what in the christ is going on #quintessence and Lotor and Haggar and Zarkon #this feels so abrupt #the writers did their best trying to fit Shiro in so early #the character development tho