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hellzabeth · 3 years

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i have opinions about The Prince of Egypt musical adaption and you’re going to listen to them: An Essay

So, quick disclaimer: The Prince of Egypt is one of my favourite movies of all time. The casting, the music, the animation, I think it’s one of the top-tier movies that have ever been made. I went into seeing the London West End production of PoE with a full expectation that nothing I saw on stage would ever live up to how much I love the movie. I was fully aware there are plenty of limitations to what can be shown live on a stage with human actors and props.

That being said, I was enormously disappointed with how the whole thing was handled.

The Good

Now before I launch into a whole tirade of what I didn’t like about the production, it does behoove me to say what I think they did do well.  

The casting of the role of Moses was done fantastically, as was Miriam, Tzipporah, and Yocheved. The swings and the ensemble were really engaged and well placed, going through lots of quick changes to go from Hebrews to Egyptians to Midianites and back. 

The two Egyptian queens, wifes of Seti and Ramses, are actually given names, lines, and character beyond being simply tacked onto their respective kings. We get to see how they feel about the events happening around them, and there’s even a scene where Ramses meets his wife and courts her, whereas in the movie, she stands in the background and says nothing. This is one of the areas I was hoping the musical, which would naturally have a longer run-time, would expand on, and I was pleased to see the opportunity was taken.

Light projections on enormous curtains were used to very good effect, taking us instantly inside the walls of the palace and then out to the desert.  

Over all, the work was really put in to be engaging and emotional, and the orchestra really worked to deliver the right musical beats. 

One of two stand out scenes as being done very well was the opening “Deliver Us”, which included a bone-chilling moment of Egyptians separating a mother and her baby, with her screams as she’s dragged off-stage, and the blood on the guard’s sword. It really brings home the fear as Yocheved tries to lead Aaron and Miriam to the river with her, not to mention Yocheved’s actress nailed the lullaby.  

The second was at the other end of the show, “When You Believe” was beautifully performed by the whole cast, though it was somewhat stunted by what came before...

The Bad

Oh boy.

So the main problem with this show is not the music, not the staging, not even that sometimes the ensemble was a little off-beat (the lai-lai-lai section in Though Heaven’s Eyes comes to mind). Any mistakes there can all be forgiven, since sometimes things just happen in live performance, someone’s a bit off or something’s just not possible to do on the budget allotted.  

The problem is in the script.

The Prince of Egypt movie is a story that stands not only on the shoulders of its fantastic music and visuals, but also on its emotive retelling and portrayal of the characters within - mainly Moses and Ramses. And while the stage musical does spend a lot of time with the two mains, it neglects two other, incredibly important characters.

Pharaoh Seti, and God.  

In the movie, Seti strikes an intimidating figure. He is old, hardened, and wise in the ways of ruling his kingdom - and is voiced by Patrick Stewart, who brings his A-game to the role. Both Moses and Ramses admire him and look up to him immensely as young men, and the relationship he has with both of them deeply informs their characters as the story progresses. It’s from Seti that Moses learns that taking responsibility for your actions is the respectable thing to do (and later, the true horror of having your idol turn out to be not what you think), and it’s from Seti that Ramses takes a huge inferiority complex.

There are two lines that Seti gets in the movie, one spoken to Moses, and one to Ramses. These two lines define Moses and Ramses’ actions later on in the story:

To Ramses - “One weak link can break the chain of a mighty dynasty!” To Moses - “Oh my son... they were only slaves.”

Guess which two lines are absent from the musical?

One Weak Link is turned into an upbeat song, rather than shouted at a terrified and cowed young Ramses. Instead of being openly a traumatic, internalised moment of negative character development for Ramses, it’s treated as a general philosophy that Seti passes down to his son. Instead of a judgement that is hung over Ramses’ head like a sword of Damocles, lingering in his mind through the whole story and coming up in a shouted argument with Moses later, it’s said and then moved on from.  

The “they were only slaves” comment, on the other hand, is absent entirely. This changes Moses’ relationship with Seti enormously, as well as his relationship with the Hebrew people. Upon finding the mural depicting the killing of the slave children, Moses is appropriately horrified, and Seti shows up to comfort him and defend his terrible actions. Moses leaves this interaction... and then sings about how this is indeed all he ever wanted! He has no moment of horrific realisation that his father thinks of the slaves as lesser, as lives that can be thrown away. This means that the scene where he kills the guard doesn’t lead into a discussion of morality with Ramses as he runs away, but rather Moses breaking down about his heritage as though it’s a negative, instead of something he’s realised is just as valuable as his life as an Egyptian. Instead of Moses being shown as having a strong moral core that protests against the idea of any life being lesser, he bemoans his Hebrew blood loudly, and makes little mention of the man he killed. His issue that causes him to run away is being adopted, rather than his guilt that he’s a murderer, and nothing Ramses can say will change it.

Later on, we don’t see Ramses express this opinion either (in the movie - M:”Seti’s hands bore the blood of thousands of children!” R:“Hah, slaves!” M:“My people!”) so it seems the core reasoning for the necessity of the extremes God had to go to in order to convince Ramses to let the Hebrews go is completely gone.

Which leads us into God Himself, as a character.  

God is a tricky topic in general. He is hard to talk about as a concept and as a character, and even harder to depict in a way that won’t offend someone. The Prince of Egypt movie always struck me as a very good depiction of the Old Testament God - vengeful and strong-willed, commanding and yet nurturing, capable of great mercy and great cruelty in one fell swoop. God is incredibly present in the story, a character in and of Himself, speaking with Moses rather than simply commanding him. The conversation at the Burning Bush is bone-chillingly beautiful. Moses is allowed to question, he’s allowed to enquire, he’s allowed to express how he feels about God’s choice, and God is given the chance to respond (and reprimand, and comfort).

In the musical, the Burning Bush scene lasts all of two minutes, during which God (the ensemble cast, acting as one moving flame, speaking in unison) monologues to Moses, and Moses is not given room to question, talk to, or build a relationship with God. Later on, once some of the plagues have gotten underway, Moses rails against God, flinches in his resolve, and tries to back out... and God says nothing. It’s Miriam and the spirit of Yocheved that convince Moses to keep going. As a character, God is nearly absent. Even when it comes to calling upon the Plagues, or parting the Red Sea, God’s voice is absent. Moses does not pray. He does not even use the staff that God encouraged him to pick up as a symbol of his becoming a shepherd of the Hebrews out of Egypt.  

It’s these little changes, these little absences of such vital lines and presences, that ends up changing the whole vibe of the show. Seti is more like a dad than an emotionally distant authority figure, and God is more like an emotionally distant authority figure than a character at all. Ultimately, the whole feeling that one is left with at the end…

The Ugly

… is that the script doesn’t like God, or religion in general.

A bold statement to make, considering the source material is one of the central biblical stories in EVERY Abrahamic religion. Moses as a figure is considered so important and close to god, that The Prince of Egypt, even with its sensitive portrayal, cannot be aired in a number of Islamic states, because it’s considered disrespectful to depict any of the prophets, especially an important one like Moses. Moses is arguably the MOST important prophet in the Jewish canon.

However, I haven’t highlighted one of the most noticeable script changes - the elevation of Hotep, the high priest, to main antagonist.

In the original movie, Hotep is a secondary villain, a crony to the Pharaohs, bumbling and snide and two-faced. He and his fellow priest Hoy are there primarily to juxtapose how charlatans can control power through flattery and slight of hand, reassuring Ramses that Moses’ miracles are merely magic the same as what they can do. They even get a whole villain song, “Playing With The Big Boys” which is a lovely deconstruction of lyrics vs visuals, where while the priests boast that their gods and magic are much more powerful, in the background the staff, transformed into a snake by god, devours and defeats the priests’ snake handily. The takeaway from the song is that God’s power is true, and doesn’t need theatrics.

It’s a good little nugget of wordless world building. And it is completely absent from the stage musical, with only a vague reference to the chant of all the gods names.

Hoy is gone, and Hotep is the only priest. He actively speaks out against the Pharaoh, boasts about having all the power, and is played as bombastic and proud. He’s a wildly different character, even threatening Ramses at one point. In the end, it’s shown that Ramses won’t let the Hebrews go not because he has inherited his father Seti’s cruel attitude towards the lives he considers beneath him, but because he is being actively bullied by the priest, and will lose his power and credibility if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Ramses is even given a whole song about how little power he really has. The script desperately wants us to feel sorry for Ramses’ position and hate the unrepentantly, cartoonishly evil priest.

That’s another matter as well - a LOT of time is dedicated to making the Egyptians more human and sympathetic, portraying them as largely ignorant of the suffering beneath them, rather than actively participating in slavery. Characters speak out of turn without regard for formality and class, even to the royal family. They are casual, chummy even. And this would be fine - in fact, it’s good to have that sort of third dimension to characters, even ones who are doing reprehensible things, to show the total normalcy and banality of evil - if it were not for the fact they still include a completely open-and-shut case of evil right next to them.

Hotep has no redeeming features. And on the other side, God is barely present, certainly not in a relatable context. Moses has several lines about how cruel and unnecessary God’s plagues are - and you know what, in this version, they are unnecessary! Ramses is not the stone-hearted ruler that his movie counterpart is, he has no baggage over being a potential failure, because it was never really given to him in the same way! By taking away Ramses’ threatening nature, numbers like the Plagues lose half their appeal, as the back-and-forth ‘you who I called brother’ lines between Moses and Ramses are completely absent. Moses is faithless, and is less torn between the horror of what he’s doing and the necessity of it for the freedom of his people, and more left scrabbling for meaning that he doesn’t find. And the only thing hanging over Ramses is Hotep nit-picking everything he does and threatening him, which is considerably less compelling than the script seems to think it is.

This is best exemplified at the end, when all the issues come to a head. The angel of Death comes and takes the Egyptian first borns (which was actually a well done scene), and the Hebrews leave to a rousing rendition of When You Believe. But then we cut to Ramses and Hotep, with Hotep openly threatening to revolt against the Pharaoh - whom was believed, especially by the priesthood, to be a living god! Hotep is so devoid of redeeming features he cannot even be trusted to stand by his beliefs! - unless Ramses agrees to chase after the Hebrews. Reluctantly, Ramses is badgered into the attempt.

Back with the Hebrews, Moses parts the Red Sea… not with his faith, not by praying to God for another miracle, not even by using his staff as in the most famous scene of the movie… but by holding out his hand and demanding the ‘magic’ work. Setting aside the disrespect of Abrahamic religions to call one of the most famous miracles “magic” (and my oh my, if there was a fundamentalist of any religion in the audience they might have gasped to hear it), it again belittles the work of God, and puts all the onus on Moses, not as a conduit for God’s work, but as the worker himself. Then, the Egyptians arrive in pursuit, lead by Hotep, not Ramses. Moses sends the Hebrews through first, lead by Miriam, and stays behind with Tzipporah… to offer his life in penance to Ramses! The script has completely stripped both Ramses and Moses of their convictions towards their causes, and Moses cannot even stand by his decision to lead his people.

Then, in a moment of jarring melodrama, Moses has a sudden vision that Ramses, his brother, will one day be called Ramses the Great (an actual historical Pharaoh who reigned 1279-1213 BCE). There is no historical evidence that this was the Ramses that ruled over the Hebrews (there are 11 Pharaohs called Ramses through the history of Ancient Egypt), and maybe if the scene was acted a little better, it wouldn’t have been so sudden or jarring. Even more jarring, is that then Hotep arrives with the rest of the army, and Ramses refuses to lead the charge into the parted sea. Hotep does so himself, and is the one to have the final dramatic moment, being crushed under the water.

The Takeaway

After watching the show, I’m afraid I could never recommend it as either a play, an adaption, or even as a faithful retelling of a bible story. Its character drama isn’t compelling enough to be good as a standalone play, with it two main characters declawed and their core motivations reduced to a squabble between brothers rather than a grand interplay between two cultures and ideas and trauma handed down from their father. As an adaption of the movie it’s upsettingly bad, with grand numbers like the Plagues rendered piecemeal and fan favourites like Playing With The Big Boys missing entirely. As a retelling of the bible story, it’s insulting, completely cutting God out of the equation, taking no opportunity to reintroduce Aaron as an important character (which he was, in the bible, as Moses was a notoriously bad public speaker, with a stutter, and Aaron often interpreted for him) and more importantly, completely erasing God’s influence from the narrative.

I don’t know who this show was… for, in that case. If it wasn’t for drama lovers, movie fans, or people of the faith, then who the hell was it for? Why change such a critically acclaimed and well-beloved story? Why take away all these defining moments? If you wanted to tell a story about how religion is the true evil, how God can command people to do terrible things, and how those who uphold organised religion like Hotep are unrepentant, one-dimensional monsters… why would you tell that through the Prince of Egypt?

Underwhelming at best, infuriating at worst… just watch the movie. Or read Exodus. At least the Bible’s free.

#the prince of egypt #the prince of egypt musical #PoE #review #essay

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nobodysuspectsthebutterfly · 3 years

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Hello! If you don't mind me asking, are you planning on watching House of the Dragon? I'm personally unsure about it. I was cautiously optimistic about it since D&D are not involved, but the recent casting news have been ugh disappointing imo. What do you think?

Hey anon! Sorry to say I kind of mind you asking because my inbox is still closed (to everyone except my secret Santas, which is why the ask page is accessible at all), but then I realized it’s possible if you’re on the mobile app only, you haven’t seen said note in my askbox, or my FAQ, or anything of the sort. And with older metas of mine being reblogged recently, it’s possible you may be confused. (I hope you’re on mobile only and not just ignoring my requests.) So I wanted to inform you of that... but also, y’know, I kind of wanted to make a post about the HotD cast anyway? And this ask is as good a prompt as any... so, you’re lucky, but please don’t push your luck. ;)

So, straight up: I currently have no plans to watch House of the Dragon. HBO is not getting any of my goddamn money, I don’t trust like that. And hunting down illegal livestreaming sites is a pain in the ass and I regret ever doing it for GoT, as well as regretting getting drunk every weekend enough to dampen my senses to ever tolerate that show. Yeah it’s different showrunners and writers, I know. It’s still (mostly) the same executives at HBO and even if the pervert producer is gone (or is he?), you know they still just want to sell sex and violence and dragons to an audience that thinks fantasy is for geeks.

Also, considering that Fire & Blood’s story of Dance of the Dragons has very little actual narrative or dialogue, and the historical record is deliberately untrustworthy, that gives them pretty much full rein to do whatever they like with the story and characterization and words without even being slightly obliged to GRRM at all. Furthermore, since the story is wholly political with virtually none of the magical side of ASOIAF (excepting dragons), and honestly does not have much in the way of themes or depth that main ASOIAF or even D&E has, I think it will be very hard for an adaptation to show even those brief sparks of quality that used to make me wistful GoT couldn’t be that good all the time and eventually just made me frustrated and depressed. Note I do like the history and characters of the Dance despite myself, despite its many many many textual issues, but I don’t need to see an adaptation, I have a very visual imagination. I don’t watch a lot of television to begin with, I don’t see why I should start again with this.

However, I’m not going to avoid spoilers or discussion, and I’ll probably follow the show the tumblr way, through gifsets and video clips and people bitching on their blogs etc. If, somehow, by some miracle of good screenwriting and acting, the show manages to transcend its source material, I’m sure I will be informed. And then, if and only if then, I may try watching. (Without, of course, giving HBO any of my goddamn money.) We shall see.

(Though I certainly don’t know why anyone in Targ standom would ever watch a Dance adaptation considering almost every Targaryen and everyone else in the story is terrible except Helaena and the kids, and considering how the story ends, unless y’all are gluttons for punishment? (I do not comprehend hatewatching, sorry.) It’ll probably be fun at first to see the adventures of those “precious silver douchebags” (to borrow a friend’s tag), but eventually rocks fall, everyone dies, including the girlboss you know you’ll hope the story will be changed enough that she succeeds. Just letting you know now, she won’t.)

That said. I’ve been following the casting news and I think the hate/fear/wild screaming is entirely overblown. Yeah, I know, but wait, just listen. On Friday I officially welcomed @naomimakesart to the “favorite character is now played by an actor who looks nothing like most fanart and is mostly known for wildly different roles” club. I still remember that day in September 2009 when my brother texted me “yarp”... and that right there is the thing. Yeah. Rory McCann looks very little like most pre-GoT Sandor fanart... but many fans grew to love him anyway. (There are some who never did, of course. And yeah the character went off the rails by the end, but truly, who didn’t. Having seen his audition, having spoken to him and heard him wistfully talk about book scenes he loved, I’m convinced if Rory had only been given Sandor’s actual scenes and such, he would’ve killed it. Sigh. Deep, deep sigh.)

And Rory isn’t the only one. Neither of the actors for Jaime and Cersei were considered “beautiful” enough at first. I recall very clearly people bitching about Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (about his nose particularly?) because they had wanted Tarzan-era Travis Fimmel to be Jaime. (Seeing people bitch because current-Fimmel isn’t playing Daemon made me laugh out loud for both BEYONCE?! meme -type “why would you ever cast him omg he doesn’t fit my headcanon Daemon at all”, and amazing amounts of fandom flashbacks.) Lena Headey was “too square-jawed”, “too mean-looking” (since at the beginning you should never be able to guess she’s evil), “too dark-complected”, “too mannish”, not at all attractive enough. (Tricia Helfer was the most common “but I wanted” for Cersei, btw.) And of course “they don’t remotely look like twins, ugh!” Note, there’s receipts for all of this, none of it is made up. (Unfortunately.) Those two actors are just the ones whose casting wank I recall most clearly, particularly because oh how the turn tables.

Also. You know, there’s a post with Matt Smith and Mark Simonetti’s TWOIAF Daemon going around with shrieks of horror... and I’m finding it maddening in a “am I crazy? am I the crazy one???” way, because Matt looks like the painting. Their features are not that dissimilar.

Same deepset eyes. Same cheekbones of doom. Same thin lips. Same protruding chin. Same high forehead. Same invsible eyebrows ffs. Matt has a squarer jaw, and a longer more rectangular face, and a wider nose, but considering that Daemon’s features are not described in the text, and this is the only official ASOIAF artwork that shows Daemon’s face straight on, I can for sure see why he was probably shortlisted to begin with. And that’s not even getting into to his role in The Crown, which I’ve heard is very well played with politics and palace intrigue... and if you doubt Smith can play seductive/roguish and/or evil (depending on how you LARP as a Westeros historian), or look good with long hair... well. I do not want to watch the movie, but this trailer is disturbingly enlightening.

And as for Rhaenyra... y’all know this show is starting at the beginning of the story, right? When she’s a teenager? Not a voluptuous MILF? Yeah, Emma D’Arcy doesn’t look like a Magali Villeneueve painting (though who does, good lord), but you know who she does look remarkably like? Harry Lloyd.

Same jawline. Same nose. Same thin lips. Same sharp cheekbones. Notably, same kind of sharp cheekbones and deep-set eyes as Matt Smith. HBO evidently has a concept of a “Targaryen look” that’s a little bit quirkier than supermodel-Greek statue-gods on earth, yeah, fine. But it’s consistent, and they look like family, and that-- that is good casting.

And yeah, in a few months to a year or so, you’ll see them in costume and wigs and makeup, you’ll see them in motion and speaking lines, and go Oh. That’s different. Never mind. And while people will make fanart of the show depictions of the characters and those will probalby get popular, they’ll also keep doing fanart of their pre-show headcanons, and those too will be popular. (God knows when I draw or visualize book!Sandor, Rory does not come to mind, lol.) Either way, there’s no reason to panic. We’ll live.

(Though will we live well? Got to wait on the writing and showrunning for that, alas.)

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ectonurites · 3 years

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One of my problems with the Young Justice show is that none of the characters I knew from the comics felt like themselves to me? Like, Kon is the most obvious, but Dick, Wally and Roy also felt just a little... off. A little to one-dimensional, maybe, idk how exactly to describe it. Then they killed off Wally as part of DC’s vendetta against the character, which has always ticked me off ever since it started. And then later when they brought in more characters I love, like Tim and Cassie and Bart, it was weird then too. I get why Bart was different, because they changed his backstory to him being from an apocalyptic future with a mission, rather than him just being from the future and raised in VR, so his personality is a little more serious, a little more calculating. But characters like Tim and Cassie we barely even got to know. Even in Season 3, they focused a lot more on characters like Brion and Violet, who aren’t big at all in the comics, if they’re even in the comics at all idr, and so were essentially blank slates for them to do as they pleased with, like Kaldur, Artemis and M’gann pretty much were in the first season. Idk, I love getting to see characters I love show up and be seen, but they don’t really feel like themselves

Oh yeah I completely agree. The thing about the Young Justice cartoon is it really was the creators just wanting to do their own entirely new version of things using the basic build of the DC universe, and by establishing a world like that with so many very drastic differences, it ripples out (not necessarily in ways they were even thinking about when writing it tbh!) and makes some things hardly recognizable in a lot of ways.

Some of those changes are actually good, their version of Artemis is a super interesting character and same with Kaldur, and I thought the Roy cloning thing was cool and honestly until they just started Infinite Frontier as a reboot in the comics I was pro the idea of using something like that as a way to let Pre-New 52 Roy and New 52 Roy coexist because they’re so wildly different and people wanted the original version back.

But... all those changes make things so different. Superhero cartoons based on existing comics... are adaptations. And with adaptations, people are always going to be comparing to the source material. There are always going to be changes made just because of medium constraints (time being a big one), but for something to be a good adaptation it needs to keep the heart of the original work, or in the case of criticizing how a character was adapted, having the same core values/features/traits. This is why I think Young Justice ultimately kinda falls flat as an adaptation of the DC universe, because out of their main cast the majority is pretty unrecognizable. That doesn’t mean it fails as a show or even is bad because of it, like that’s not what i’m saying, but overall as an adaptation it doesn’t... properly adapt things. it drastically alters them and expects us to just go along with it, which we can, but... you know what I mean. I hope that makes sense?

But so that, where we know even the characters we do get to know well are altered drastically, then that leaves us in this super weird position with the characters who show up, and are familiar characters from the comics, but we don’t get to learn about in this universe. Are we just to assume that they are approximately the same as in the comics? Or are they different in ways we just don’t know? Are we ever going to know? Because man, personally, knowing just how different the characters we do know well are, I don’t really feel safe making any assumptions abt others! Especially when the little bits we do see of them don’t have the same character relationships or even necessarily personalities. Bc man, your friends do shape you in a lot of ways, and so does your history/past. Versions of Tim, Cassie, Bart, and Kon who didn’t get to go through YJ -> Teen Titans together are going to be so unrecognizable because it was so formative for them?? A world without the Teen Titans in general just changes SO MUCH for SO MANY characters. So it’s just. A lot.

Sometimes I just imagine a world where they deadass made a cartoon in this style but with all original characters so that A) they wouldn’t have people comparing it to the comics thus they could do more things without people getting annoyed at how different things are, and B) they wouldn’t feel the need to include so many fucking cameos and characters that distract from what’s going on, rather having just... the characters that will actually be relevant and explored in the plot.

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darkpoisonouslove · 3 years

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I'm offering you an empty salt shaker - asks 2, 5, 6, 15 (go ahead, I know you have something XD), 16, 20, 25 (about Bloom searching for her parents storyline)

Starting this again because guess who accidentally hit the key combination for undo and lost half an answered ask! This bitch right here.

I answered 2 here.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

Not that I can think of. It’s usually the source material that ruins things and fandom is tasked with fixing them later.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?*

I didn’t hate it but Bloom x Icy was incomprehensible to me. Fics helped a lot and so did other posts from here and there and I can see it now. Also, I totally couldn’t see Griffin x Codatorta but that changed, too. Though, that was less fandom and more trashcankitty12 with an ask that made me think about it a little more in-depth so it was pretty much me roping up myself into yet another ship. But ooh, I also don’t think I had considered Palladium x Avalon before fandom but, yes, indeed, it is right there in canon. And I was so puzzled over the Riven x Nabu content I was seeing but after watching seasons 3 and 4, I can totally see where this is coming from. The people are right. That is a bromance right there.

15. Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

I have no idea what is popular and what isn’t (but you’re right that I have something aka A LOT) so I’ll just list my strong opinionsTM, okay? I will try not to dump on Bloom too much also because it is not a secret that I don’t like her so there is no need for me to go in too much detail.

4kids is the superior dub. That is probably the most controversial opinion I hold. But don’t worry, I’ll try to top it and up the ante. XD

I love Enchantix but it has so many flaws as a concept and even more as an execution and the thing that is really pissing me off is how obviously centered around Bloom’s arc it is. It was clearly created for the advancement of her character and the other girls’ stories came as an afterthought which is why Tecna’s Enchantix was total bullshit. And for having a transformation that is specifically created around Bloom, hers was bullshit as well. I think they should have let her reearn it in order for her to be able to use all of its functions like miniaturizing. Also also, at so many points it totally sounds like Bloom is not upset about the fact that Domino and all of its people were destroyed but about the fact that that means she won’t get her Enchantix. Which btw was a hasty conclusion because at the time Enchantix became a thing, she was still on a mission to find her parents which would have definitely been a way to earn her Enchantix and she had a sign that they were alive. So her angsting over not getting an Enchantix because of what happened on Domino was bad form on the writers’ part.

That spell for good decisions in 1x05 was one of the show’s lowest and most ridiculous moments. It was only included to flaunt in your face how naturally being a leader comes to Bloom because “See? See!!!!!! She can make a good decision without using magic to help her!” So can the majority of the population (note that we are talking about ONE good decision, not an unbreakable sequence of such). She ain’t all that special. Plus, Tecna was written wildly OOC there in order to boost Bloom’s stats so to speak. I’m sorry but Tecna would’ve known that three against four doesn’t give them advantage since they are freshmen and the Trix were seniors at the time. God, that scene was stupid.

Flora is the most boring character in seasons 1-3, fight me about it.

The writers totally had no idea what they were doing with the witches throughout most of season 1 which is why Griffin’s characterization in that season is so inconsistent. Also, wtf was that in 1x06? She straight up tried to kill a bunch of 15-year-old girls. Take a chill pill! I’m glad they figured out a much better balance with her later on.

Not using the fact that Cloud Tower is a living organism more was a fucking wasted opportunity. Especially in season 3 when Valtor took over it. That could have made everything so much better. Also, the witches should have been used more. They were interesting but deserved so much better in terms of development.

Sky should have just fucking died in 2x10. What were these resurrections and Bloom getting healing powers out of nowhere for a total of 5 seconds? You know, that could have been a good setup for a Bloom x Diaspro romance. It would have been so much better if they’d gotten together right after 1x17 and dumped Sky’s sorry ass. Also, Diaspro deserved better.

Riven is the best Specialist but he is especially better than Sky. Remember 1x22 when he was trying to escape CT? He was trapped deep in enemy territory with monsters everywhere and so high above the ground, yet he found his way out. Sky would’ve fucking died out in the open at Magix against one single monster if Bloom hadn’t shown up to rescue him. And the show has the gall to imply that Sky is a better Specialist than Riven is? Please!

The teachers should be fined and sued for emotional and physical damage they haven’t protected their students from. Especially the Alfea teachers who in 1x02 practically admitted that the witches might maim a fairy and they still won’t do shit about it. Nice one!

Griffin and Valtor is canonical subtext and I have nothing more to say about this. It is all there.

Valtor up until 3x18 and Valtor from 3x19 to 3x26 are two different people and the prior is superior in every way. The show ruined him in the last third of the season because there was no other way for Winx to defeat him.

Speaking about Valtor, his whole thing with the Trix is despicable and I hate it so much. It is extremely cringy on their part and extremely underhanded on his and I can’t stand it. Not to mention that it is wildly OOC for the Trix because they are obviously better than that.

I cannot understand saying that Bloom x Valtor is love-hate. I see only hate.

It is ridiculous how easily the Trix beat Griffin in season 6 and how they nearly take control over CT in season 2. And it is also ridiculous that she had to wait for Winx to unspell CT in season 3. She is a teacher, the headmistress of the most prestigious school for witches, a veteran and has been Valtor’s partner (and he himself admitted that together they were unstoppable which means that she has to be pretty powerful and even somewhere close to his level of power). Can the show stop acting like she is defenseless?

The teachers should have been used more. It would’ve been so much better if they were there to at least help Winx if not lead their battles. And it would have made much more sense. Also, how come Ediltrude and Zarathustra literally disappear when it’s convenient and then reappear again (like they did in season 1 when the witches went to Alfea)? That’s just bad writing.

Sky is adopted. He doesn’t resemble Erendor or Samara neither in appearance, nor in character and I hate them enough to headcanon that he was adopted but nobody knows because they don’t want to have claims that he is not an “official” heir of the throne because he isn’t part of the bloodline.

Mike and Vanessa are much more parents to Bloom than Marion and Oritel are, especially when the latter were first released from Obsidian, and the fact that Bloom starts calling them Mike and Vanessa instead of mom and dad after she learns she has other parents is abysmal. Also, they are literally the best parents ever and I love them to death. (I also like Marion and Oritel but Mike and Vanessa are definitely the superior pair of parents if we’re ranking them. I like the idea that the two couples are actually super close and love each other like relatives, in fact.)

What the fuck is up with the magic in this show? There is literally, like, NO FUCKING CONSISTENCY WHATSOEVER! You can’t blink without the rules of it changing in some way. But what am I saying? That would imply that there are any rules which is just not true. Also, there is no clear distinction of how powerful anyone is after season 1. The balance of powers especially between Winx and the Trix is pretty much whatever works for the episode. Same for Winx vs Valtor. The fuckery on that account is unreal. Plus, some of Bloom’s major power explosions happen due to her getting angry. According to the official Wiki - “While practicing or harnessing positive magic, one must keep a compassionate heart, primarily by keeping their thoughts and feelings clear of all negativity, making them capable of attracting positive energy more easily. Thus, if one is plagued with negative thoughts or feelings such as sadness, anger or fear, then their magic will grow weaker until they may even be left incapable of casting magic until said feelings pass.“ Read that and then read it again, let it sink in. According to the rules of the Winx universe, during some of Bloom’s most powerful moments she was actually using dark magic, not light such because it was fueled by rage. Way to keep it fucking consistent. And that is not just Bloom! FLORA out of all people attacks the Trix in rage in 3x12 when they hurt her sister aka she was also using dark magic at that situation (and then you have Wizgiz scolding Mirta for it in SotLK like it is a sin to use dark magic, smh). In some instances I would argue that it was more of determination to protect rather than anger which I would say would still result in light magic. But The Flora thing, Bloom vs Stormy in 1x09 (Bloom even says she got so angry so that was not a case of protectiveness), Bloom vs Icy in 1x26 and Bloom vs Valtor in 3x14 were definitely rage aka dark magic. And then Bloom is all “fairies don’t have any demons”. Guess again, bitch! Also, writers, you need a dictionary to start comprehending the words you are actually writing?

Now that I think of it, the whole arc in the Resort Realm was bullshit. If it is a magic-free realm, nobody should have any magic in it, period! What is this bullshit that you can use Charmix and Gloomix there because they have higher magical energy? That absolutely doesn’t matter! If there isn’t any magic in the entire realm, having a higher amount of magic in you will not matter because you still can’t use it... because there isn’t any in the realm!!!!!! What the hell! Honestly, the writers can’t comprehend what words mean and that is not the only instance in which it shows.

Someone told me that SotLK is better than Magical Adventure and I don’t mean to offend but that is simply not true. Magical Adventure is leagues above SotLK even if it has some structural problems. Like, literally everything is better. Bloom and Sky are even likable and communicate!!!!!!!! Literally when have you ever seen a better moment for their relationship than in Magical Adventure? If it had been all like that, I would have liked them as a couple.

I think I got everything that comes to mind rn out. Might think of more at some point. I was done and then came back to rage some more because I remembered I had more material.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

I would have them make smart decisions because 99% of the shit they pull is so stupid it is unreal. I literally cannot tell how they are still alive. Oh, no wait! Plot armor. Yep, that’s it.

But if I had to pick something specific? Bring Nabu back. I sure as hell wouldn’t have killed him. That was an asshole move and I have no idea what the hell the writers were thinking when they wrote that.

And my second choice is - implement a magical system into the series because there isn’t one. Magic always works the way the writers need it to work to pull off their bullshit plot even if it contradicts everything that we’ve seen before. Please, for the love of god! Consistency is already dead; stop stabbing its corpse!!!!

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

Purest ship? Lmao, asking me this question is underhanded. XD If you mean no drama, then Flora and Helia Mike and Vanessa. But I think my actual answer would be Griffin x Faragonda because they have been through so much that we know of or we can deduce and they still stuck together. Sure, they had their ups and downs but it is obviously a love for life that has lasted through so many obstacles and keeps lasting. The reason why I can’t say the same for Mike and Vanessa is because we don’t really know that much about their relationship with each other. But anyway I love both these ships so much.

If you’re talking about a canon ship, though, then Brandon and Stella (I do not recognize the stupid relationship drama in season 4 as canon). He did lie to her about his identity in season 1 but it was for his friendship with Sky (alternatively, for his job and duty as Sky’s squire). I just love how obviously in love Brandon is with Stella and how much Stella doesn’t care about anything but him. She didn’t care that he was a “commoner” and - one of my fave moments - in 1x08 she only cared about his well-being rather than the competition. It was adorable and they are adorable and I love them so much. Pure serotonin, right there!

25. How would you end the Bloom searching for her parents storyline/Would you change the ending?

I would certainly change the logistics of the whole thing because, boy, did it make no sense at all. As for the actual ending, I’d argue that physically finding them is not the end of that storyline and she needs to “find” them emotionally as well which would definitely take more time than SotLK cared to address. Like, she got them out of Obsidian and boom, everything’s fine! She literally doesn’t know them! Those are her parents and she doesn’t know anything about them! Their touch and their voices are unfamiliar to her even and they have missed on so much that they will never be able to get back and you’re saying that everything is fine? Yeah, right.

I would have had her spend a year on Domino with them before season 4. The school year that started in SotLK? She spends that with them. Possibly even the one that starts in Magical Adventure as well. She learns everything she can about them and the family history. She also learns how to be a proper royal because she is the Crown Princess now and she has no idea what the fuck she is doing. I would have made seasons 4 and possibly 5 about that and added more politics in it. Layla and Stella are also princesses who will run their kingdoms one day so we could have had adventures in political relations with Winx Club. They are pretty famous so I am sure there would be rulers of other lands that see them as threats and don’t like them. There could have been tension about that and the whole thing with Domino being the planet of the Dragon Fire could have been addressed. Who would dare oppose them when they are the most powerful force? Are they the most powerful force after the 17 years the planet spent as an ice block? Are there old alliances to be reforged? What is the political climate in the Magic Dimension? All absolutely fascinating questions that would have helped the worldbuilding and made place for Marion and Oritel in Bloom’s life and in the show. We could’ve gone back to the feel of season 1 when they also had other things going on besides the big baddie of the season and it could have been a little more episodical with a loose theme to connect the season and the overarching story of Bloom finding her parents and her place in the world she was born in. That could have been positively epic... And a great way to retain the cast because the Company of Light were allegedly friends so we could have seen Marion and Oritel reconnecting with Griffin, Faragonda, Saladin and Hagen. There could have been resurfacing debates left over from the war. Kingdoms angry at Domino for something that happened back then in order to include flashbacks with the events. AND that would work out with the fact that the Ancestral Witches were still around and could have led to another epic battle that wouldn’t end with the destruction of a whole planet. Like I said, there were amazing possibilities... and they were all wasted.

Well, this was long... and just what I needed. I hope some (civilized) discussion will spark out of that because I am tired of screaming in a void and I want people to talk to me.

#winx club #anti bloom #anti sky #too many opinions to tag #meta #winx club meta #ask #her-majesty-wears-jeans #winx griffin

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bi-outta-cordonia · 4 years

Text

In Another World, Part II

The continuation of the Colt x MC piece I was hoping to finally put out for @rodappreciationweek. The week itself is over, so this is just me slamming chapters up hoping to finally do a thing I’ve been thinking about for a minute!

Part I --> here!

Ride or Die: A Bad Boy Romance. Colt Kaneko x f!MC(Deidre Wheeler). PG-13, with warnings going out to Brandon’s rancid vibes. ~4k words.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seventeen, eighteen—her keyboard clacks in steady strokes, each letter spelling out a larger plan that should take no more than three years and some change to complete if she works hard enough. Every orientation event is over. Every “meet and greet” has long since burned the flames of excitement out her bones. Extracurriculars, plus honors programs, plus a few personal hobbies will fill her free time in between classes. But the main question again…

Seventeen credits or eighteen credits?

Deidre’s hands hover over the keyboard and she chews her lip.

“I know it’s not my business…” Deidre tosses a look back at Ingrid, her pouty lips pursed and her brow drawn. Ingrid glances pointedly at the open document on the computer screen. “We’re definitely still doing the competition thing, right? Pushing each other or whatever?” Deidre nods slowly. “Which is cool! But like…I don’t want you to burn out before we really get into it!”

Deidre frowns. “You’re taking seventeen credits.”

“Yeah, but that’s because I’m doing my lab first!” Ingrid waltzes up and clicks to the next screen, displaying the course load Deidre painstakingly puts together months before the first day of classes. “Do your lab first, duh. You already have a bunch of high school credits for the 100 levels.”

“But I’d still have to drop a class,” Deidre says.

Ingrid rolls her eyes. “God, I respect you so much but you can really be irritating.”

Deidre balks. “Alright—”

“Here, take a bullshit class and you can keep your seventeen.” Ingrid clicks a few buttons and lands on a page describing a philosophy class. She squints at the screen. “Blah blah blah, classical and modern conceptions of love, blah blah. You just need to get an A and you’ll be solid, yeah?”

Deidre shakes her head and turns her attention back to the screen.

“A look at the ways in which classical and modern conceptions of love and romance have changed over the natural course of time. What the course aims to do is interrogate how love has been defined and shaped by society and cultures. Bring an open mind and an equally open heart to a two day a week lecture!”

Seems simple enough.

Day one doesn’t fully prepare her for the sheer amount of bodies filling every concrete path between her and the rest of Langston. The way she works out her schedule, serious classes take place Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. “Bullshit electives” (Ingrid’s words) occupy her Tuesdays and Thursdays for the time being. One class that focuses on life skills and the other is apparently a philosophy class about love.

A comfortable pair of jeans and even more comfortable sneakers gets her through the throngs of people jockeying for space on the sidewalks. Some souls are brave (or foolish?) enough to bike through the madness but she remembers her favorite self-defense trick from her father—throw them bows.

Deidre shoves her way to Terrence Hall and wanders around the building twice before she finds the lecture room. “Room” because it’s small like a classroom and filled from front to back with desks. The age of the building shows in some of the dusty corners and faded paint on the walls. A good number of her peers sit scattered throughout the room, some leaning on desks and carrying on with casual conversations. A few of them eye her as she walks in. Their gazes immediately catch her old shoes and even older jeans. It’s almost funny how the braids and brown skin are the last things they see—at Mar Vista, it was the first but she at least had four years to show them all the money their parents had still couldn’t afford them a brain like hers.

She takes a seat in the front and rummages through her bag when she sets it down. Notebook, lead pencil, laptop open and ready—a long ten minutes pass and the professor walks in holding a cup of coffee.

He’s a small man and most certainly older.

“Thirty of you this year! Much less than I usually get for the fall semester,” he exclaims. His eyes scan over the class and the collective mood drops in an instant. Most of the students are sophomores. A lot of them are just trying to bang out electives first and this was one of the easiest classes the university offers. “Well, anyway—introductions, yes? As many of you should know by now, I am Professor Pines.” Some of the students giggle. “Yes, yes, terrible name, isn’t it? Regardless, I’d rather not spend too much time reflecting on my family’s awful choices in naming conventions.”

He hands a stack of papers to a girl in the front who passes the papers back. A steady stream of motion fills the room as students pass around what she assumes is the syllabus. When she receives her copy, she purses her lips:

20% for quizzes—

15% participation—

15% mid semester report—

25% group project—

25% final exam—

She almost groans along with the rest of the class when they all see it—group project. Professor Pines seems a bit too gleeful despite knowing he’s just cast them all to their doom.

“The basics of the course first,” he starts. “As this is a philosophy class, most of the materials we’ll be working with are going to come from a variety of readings we’ll be doing, examining facets of love and romance across multiple sources to answer that big question that hangs over us all—what exactly is love? What does it entail and how do we define it?” The professor clasps his hands behind his back and looks out over each student. “There are about a thousand ways to describe love but I want to have you all truly engage the topic. How we see it, experience it, and demonstrate it varies wildly and I’m eager to see what the lot of you come up with. Now, if you could all—”

The door opens and the professor stops for a brief moment. He continues with his next topic but it’s hard not to notice him digging through the papers on the table near him as he searches for a spare syllabus for his newest student.

Deidre sits up and thinks the weird boy from the frat party might recognize her as he scans the room for a seat. His eyes find her for all of a second before he struts down the path and takes a seat at the back of the room. She sucks her teeth and turns her attention back to the professor.

He goes on for a long while covering the basics and answering questions as he goes. Most of the students are just using the class to fill up electives—her included. Engagement seems like it’ll be interesting compared to her other classes but at the very least, she’s going to put some effort in. She took top spot back home and she’s going to have to work hard for even the smallest chance at achieving that out here.

“Before I let you all go, I just want to ask…” Professor Pines steeples his fingers, eyes intently watching the class. “What is love?”

His gaze rakes across the length of the room, each student slinking down in their seat and holding a careful breath as they gauge whether he’s the sort that will call on people or let them speak on their own. The silence lasts for a few more minutes until Deidre raises her hand.

The professor beams and the classroom lets out a collective sigh.

“Love can defined in a number of ways but the most basic would point to it being a psychological effect between individuals with well-defined social bonds,” she answers. “It can be a series of emotions, complex affections, and highly specific in terms of behavioral patterns defined by the parameters of a person’s relationship with the object of said love.”

Professor Pines nods approvingly and looks up. “Yes? In the back?”

“It’s a collective of impulses disguised as particular receptors in the brain that dictate meanings behind specific actions.” Deidre turns around in her seat and catches the boy from the party bringing his coffee to his lips for a sip. “Doesn’t always have to be deeper than that—sometimes the brain just does weird shit and we run around trying to add meaning where there doesn’t need to be.”

The class buzzes and Professor Pines seems even more giddy.

“Ah, a realist!” he says and the boy shrugs. “I always get one! Perspective is going to be key here, both in your understandings of the material and of what you take away from this class.”

Deidre raises her hand. “But the whims themselves would become receptors based on the emotional bond between the individuals in question, wouldn’t they? People can act out of a sense of impulse but love requires those impulses be tailored to prior experience with an individual.”

The boy snorts. “Not necessarily. People can say or do something under the guise of love but that doesn’t necessarily make it so. It’s the brain assigning meaning to whims.”

She bristles. “The presence of whims would require a prior interaction that shapes it.”

“Does it? I mean, I don’t believe in that ‘love at first sight’ crap but the existence of such narratives makes a pretty strong case for love being just the brain trying to find ways to assign meanings—”

“Which still can be explained through a prior interaction because ‘love at first sight’ still requires some form of meaningful—”

“And there’s the idealist,” the professor says, nodding thoughtfully. Professor Pines continues, “I don’t really want to keep any of you any longer, so please make sure to read over the syllabus.” He pauses for a moment, glancing between the front and the back of the room. “I have a feeling this is going to be an interesting semester.”

Deidre glances around and sinks a little in her seat at the other students tossing looks between her and the boy from the party. When she looks back at him, he lifts a brow and takes a languid sip of his coffee.

“Don’t ask me about that,” Deidre snaps. “I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“That bad?” Riya snorts.

“He’s a douchebag! He actually tried to pull some bullshit devil’s advocate crap day one of the entire semester and he wouldn’t even tell me his fucking name at the party!” Deidre dodges a couple rushing out the dorm and ignores Riya’s cackling.

“I mean, he sounds pretty hot…”

“Riya!” Deidre yanks her phone away from her ear and glares daggers at it. Her teeth grind as Riya’s raucous laugh rings through the tinny speakers and she lets out a roar that has heads turning her way. “You’re being a bad friend!”

“You have a crush on him! Look—Deidre—”

“I’m hanging up on you. Hand to God, I will absolutely end this call right now—“

“Oh my god, stop being dramatic.”

“And of course he shows up ten minutes late to class with Starbucks in hand—didn’t even give a fuck about everyone staring at him or the fact that he chose to further disrupt everything by walking his—” She fumbles her keys at first but eventually jams the metal into the door, “—stupid—dumb!”

Ingrid sits up but Deidre only gives a small wave as she quite literally throws herself on her own bed. She puts Riya on speaker and tosses the phone on her nightstand.

“Dee?”

“Hey Riya!” Ingrid says. Her eyes dart between Deidre and the phone. “Everything okay?”

“Deidre’s got a crush.”

“Shut up.” Deidre rolls over and faces the wall. “There’s a douchebag in my class.”

Ingrid pauses for a long moment. “Like frat boy rich douchebag or just regular smegular rich douchebag?”

“She’s got budding sexual tension with a boy that’s probably as smart as she is.”

“Riya—” Deidre pinches the bridge of her nose.

“Oh, mood.” Ingrid readjusts her glasses. “If he’s as hot as the dude you saw at the frat party, I’ll be the first to say you should go for it.”

Deidre braces.

“Speaking of which—”

“Riya.”

“You wouldn’t believe it but it just so happens—”

“I’MHANGINGUPTHEPHONEGOODBYE.”

A profound silence hangs in the room like the most uncomfortable and bloated thing in the world. Ingrid keeps penning away on her notebook and occasionally peeks at the textbook lying open next to her. Deidre lets the silence fester as she gets up and digs through her bag, pulling out notebooks and textbooks to get started on her own work.

An hour passes before Ingrid speaks up. “Ohhhhh…it was the hot guy from the frat party, wasn’t it?”

Deidre pointedly ignores her.

Three hours and seventeen minutes. She times herself only because it’s necessary. Darius used to joke and say she was going “beast mode” when she got so into her work that time just stops existing as a concept.

Even if time stops existing, hunger doesn’t so it comes as no surprise that her tummy growls when she finally shuts her last textbook. Day one and she’s already diving deep—perfect. She stretches as she gets up and grabs her keychain.

The dining hall is something else entirely. A bevy of appetizing foods fill the buffet and even more is served by the dedicated cooking staff, of which are all chefs of significant renown if she remembers correctly from the online facilities tour.

Stepping through the doors almost feels like stepping into another dimension. Extensive wood finish fills in every panel of the floor, mahogany furniture with fine leather seats make up a sitting area, and ornate paintings hang on all the walls. Her stomach gurgles again when the smell of baked chicken wafts in her nose. Deidre makes a beeline towards wherever that smell leads her.

Rotisserie chicken, beans and rice, steamed vegetables perfectly seasoned, freshly prepared mango and passionfruit juice—

It isn’t even the most delectable thing from the kitchens: lobster bisque, the freshest produce, the most tender cuts of steak, oysters, and even more. Savory and sweet collide in a mesh of flavorful smells that sets her appetite from moderate to desperate. She swipes her card for her meal and carefully dodges students shuffling about the dining area.

“Oh, right…” she mumbles.

Seems like every person decided now was a fantastic time to get dinner. The dining hall is packed from top to bottom with students. Some sit in groups with textbooks and laptops out on the tables. Others sit off on their lonesome reading from books while absently shoveling spoonfuls in their mouths. There’s a group of extremely attractive girls that waltz past flanked by some fit boys all wearing identical shorts and boat shoes.

Deidre takes a few tentative steps forward and scans the room carefully.

There’s a butt in every seat. Some eyes dart towards her as she walks past but they don’t seem to mind her presence. Or maybe they just don’t care.

She finds an empty seat and moves to set her tray down when a girl clears her throat. The smile that spreads across the girl’s face is sickly sweet—she’s clearly not happy seeing a face trying to squeeze into such a big space and her eyes noting the simple style of Deidre’s fashion makes the smile spread a little wider.

“I’m waiting on some friends. Sorry,” the girl says, clearly not apologetic.

Deidre stares at her for a moment before shaking her head and turning back towards the packed dining hall. She starts her hunt anew when a hand touches her on the square of her back.

“Hey, Deidre, right?” She turns around and finds Brandon’s face. His gaze roams uncomfortably, where he looks she isn’t sure but she’s just as equally sure she doesn’t want him to do that. “Where’s Ingrid?”

“Uh, studying,” she says. “How’ve you been?”

He shrugs. “Day one, so nothing really exciting yet. How about you? First day of college going well?”

“Yeah, just—” She nods towards the full room, “—looking for a place to sit. I didn’t think so many people would be here.”

Brandon’s hand slides a little further up her back and there’s a pressure there that feels like he’s trying to guide her. Her feet lock in place even though her body sways and when she locks eyes with him, he’s staring at her like he’s trying to gauge his next move.

“You should come sit with me and my friends,” he suggests. He points out a table full of students with laptops sitting out. “We’re all STEM—engineering mostly. Ingrid said you were mechanical engineering, right?”

The whole reason she goes to that frat party is to try out new things as a young adult. Life here doesn’t have to be all about hitting the books, it’s about exploring and Ingrid attempts to give her that on the first night. Going back inside was for Ingrid’s sake then and for the remainder of the party, Brandon couldn’t seem to keep his eyes to himself. He wants to get to know her and she should try getting to know him but there’s just something so strange about this.

Her eyes dart around the room and a piercing gaze connects with hers.

The weird boy—the douchebag in the leather jacket.

He’s holding a book but he’s got it hovering over the table like he’s about to set it down. His gaze flits to Brandon behind her and he makes a subtle nod at the empty chair in front of him. He’s got his feet in it.

“Uh, actually…” Deidre steps away from Brandon and tries not to sigh in relief as his hand falls away from her back. She musters the best sheepish smile she can handle. “I just saw a friend! I’ll see you later!”

She wants to kick herself—she doesn’t want to see him again if she can’t help it. But it doesn’t matter now, getting away is all that’s important.

The weird boy moves his feet quickly and sits up in his chair. His gaze lingers on Brandon while she sits down and lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in.

“Is he gone?” she whispers.

He doesn’t answer her for a while. Eventually, he leans back again and opens up his book.

“You’re good.”

Silence fills the void between them as he occasionally flips through his book. Her confused stare morphs into an annoyed glare and she digs into her food once it becomes clear he’s done his one good deed of the day. Savory food fills her belly bite after bite and she swears to try the fried plantains next time. It won’t be anything like how her mom used to make, she’s sure, but the thought fills her with a sense of nostalgia.

She wonders what her dad’s doing right now.

He’ll be getting ready for work soon. The three hour time difference is still something she hasn’t gotten used to just yet but he doesn’t seem to mind getting “good morning” texts at six o’clock.

She sighs—he’ll have to find something to occupy his time now that she’s gone. He’s truly alone this time around.

Deidre looks up and the weird boy is staring straight at her. She hates his look almost as much as Brandon’s.

“What?” she says around a mouthful of food.

“You keep making weird noises and I’m debating on whether or not I want to ask what’s up with you,” he responds.

“You just—” She swallows her food. “I’m fine. Thank you for letting me sit down.”

He keeps looking at her and she tries her best to pointedly ignore him. Every so often her eyes dart to the book in his hand—Mount Washington by James Ashton.

“What’s really up with you?” Deidre looks up at him. He shuts the book and sets it next to his already empty tray. He crosses his arms and leans on the table, subtly glancing over her shoulder. “You were way too chipper for an eight o’ clock in the morning elective so I’m assuming you’re either new to campus or...”

His lips quirk when she narrows her eyes.

“Or?” she asks, already aware of the answer. “I’m a ‘nerd?’ God forbid someone takes their education seriously around here…”

He shrugs. “You still haven’t said what’s wrong with you.”

She chews on a bit of chicken slowly before swallowing, eyes finally connecting with his again. His are black as the night and striking. There’s nothing wrong with admitting he’s handsome in a boyish way. He tilts his head and her face grows a little warm.

“I was thinking about my dad,” she finally says. “It’s been the two of us for a while and I’m wondering what he’s going to do now that I’m not home.”

A small silence hangs between them.

“Where you from?” he asks.

“LA.”

The boy snorts. “Bullshit.” She fixes him with a questioning look and he shakes his head. “I’m from LA. I knew Mar Vista sounded familiar—you went to that prep school. State of the art or some shit.”

“It wasn’t all that, I promise you. Where’d you go?”

“Just a little further north—H.H. Huntington. Public school though, so nowhere near as fancy as what you got.” His face softens a bit though not nearly by much. “I left my mom back home but she’s had a year to figure out the benefits of having a house to herself by now. Your old man will get there soon.”

There’s a part of her that can’t help but think it’s a little sweet that his hard gaze softens further at the mention of his mother. Babies all grown up and flying out the nest is how their parents will see them. She wonders if her dad will even recognize her when she comes back—wonders if the boy’s mother has already accepted the young man that now walks through the doors when he comes home.

“You seemed pissed about earlier today.” His voice brings her back and she stabs at a piece of broccoli.

“In class, you mean,” she clarifies.

“Studious types—you can’t stand being wrong.”

“I wasn’t wrong—”

“And neither was I,” he interrupts. His eyes dart over her shoulder once more and she turns a bit just to follow his gaze. Brandon sits over with his friends and turns the minute her body starts shifting. The boy drums his fingers on his arm. “You done yet?”

“You were valedictorian, weren’t you?”

Her brows draw. “Why?”

“Chipper for an eight o’clock and you’re scared about the semester already…” He glances back over his shoulder. “And I told you Langston doesn’t take average kids.”

The boy is so weird. Not weird like Brandon is, which is the kind of weird that makes a person want to double bolt their doors. He’s weird in the sense that there’s a constant game of hot and cold that seems to fuel his every word. He’s perceptive—he remembers her mentioning Mar Vista despite only speaking to her for a total of two minutes. The last time she speaks with him (prior to dinner), he prods at her like an asshole kid poking at a hornet’s nest. His ability to pick things apart is apparent and—

Her brain literally stops.

Langston is filled with money. Langston is money. Average students means average in status only and it’s an extremely competitive school to get into.

Deidre’s eyes rake over the boy—his face, the leather jacket, the backpack slung over his back, and the white motorcycle helmet he holds in the other hand…

“You were…” It’s like the wheels are turning and his gaze immediately meets hers.

“Go on,” he quietly urges.

“You were the valedictorian of your school,” she manages.

He cracks a smile that she can only describe as vicious—she’s not sure why. “Yeah, this semester is about to be hilarious.”

She bristles. “You’re a dick.”

He smirks like he’s proud of it. “I’m walking you home, aren’t I?”

Deidre scoffs and turns away. Day one and she’s regretting some of her decisions already.

“I don’t even know your name,” she says.

“I don’t know yours either.”

“I tried to ask you at the frat party and you just blew me off,” she counters.

The boy shrugs. “My roommate wrapped up her date and I didn’t want to waste any more time. I guess I could tell you now but it’s way funnier thinking your name is...” A wicked smirk spreads across his face.

She looks at him. “Is what?”

“Stacy,” he says and laughs at the indignation on her face.

“It’s Deidre.”

“Or Becky,” he keeps prodding. “But ‘Deidre’ is nice. I bet people say it right.”

She sighs. “The first time, sure. But then they see the face that goes with the name and it’s impossible to get them to do it again.”

He goes quiet for a second. “Colt. And, no, it’s not short for anything. My last name’s the one that gets butchered though, but I’m not telling you that.”

Colt. His name is “Colt.”

“I prefer thinking of you as ‘the weirdo’,” she teases.

“Most girls save that kind of talk until after the first date.”

Deidre sucks her teeth.

“You think you can get away with things because you’re a smartass,” she bites.

“No, I get away with it because I’m cute. But if you want to go head to head over this, I won’t stop you.” Colt stops—they’ve reached the halfway point across campus. She looks up at him and feels one side of her brain wrestling with the other in the form of an oncoming headache. They stand there awkwardly (mostly on her part) until he nods down the path leading to her dorm. “Be careful, alright?”

So strange—one minute he’s a smartass and the next he’s being a white knight. Deidre wraps her arms around herself and nods.

“See you on Thursday…” She says, turning down the path. A quick glance over her shoulder and he stays rooted there until she gets a safe enough distance across the quad.

#playchoices #choices #colt kaneko #colt x mc #rod choices #choices rod #ride or die #ride or die: a bad boy romance

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wotwotleigh-prime · 4 years

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Jeeves and Wooster vs. Plum, Part 3

The Purity of the Turf

The third episode of Season 1 is a departure from what came before in a couple of ways. First of all, it’s primarily based on two short stories instead of three: “Indian Summer of an Uncle” and “The Purity of the Turf.” It also takes greater liberties with the source material than either of the previous episodes.

“Indian Summer of an Uncle” was published in 1930, while “The Purity of the Turf” goes back to 1922. I feel like this episode makes a pretty clumsy attempt to link the two stories together—they don’t fit nearly as seamlessly as the previous mashups we’ve seen. Still, there’s a lot of good stuff here.

The first segment of the show is actually a very faithful adaptation of “Indian Summer of an Uncle.” The differences are subtle, but some of them make a significant difference in the tone of the story. For the most part, it’s little things, like changes in the settings of various scenes. At the beginning of the short story, for example, Uncle George is visiting Bertie at his apartment, but in the show he asks Bertie to come to his club. They also have some more extended business at the Drones with Bertie’s pool game, and we get to meet a couple more of the Drones (most notably Oofy Prosser). Plus, there’s little scene where Bertie finds Jeeves chilling at the pub on his night off, which is kind of neat!

By far the biggest difference is in the Bertie-Jeeves-Aunt Agatha dynamic, and I think it’s a shame they left some of this stuff out. In the TV version, Bertie tells Aunt Agatha about his failure to bribe Uncle George’s fiancée. Then he meets Jeeves in a subsequent scene, where they come up with the inviting-Aunt-Maudie-over scheme. Originally, these events happened in the same scene.

In the short story version, while Bertie is talking to Aunt Agatha, Jeeves tactfully inserts himself into the conversation by pretending that he thought he’d heard Bertie calling him from the next room. This gives Bertie an opening to ask for Jeeves’s advice—right in front of Aunt Agatha! She’s horrified at the notion of Bertie discussing family business with his servant, but Bertie boldly defies her, bolstered by Jeeves’s calming presence. Aunt Agatha dismisses Jeeves’s scheme and lectures Bertie at length about it after he leaves the room, but Bertie goes ahead with Jeeves’s plan.

(Later, there’s a cute moment when Bertie comments that Jeeves knows “all the family history” when he’s reminding Jeeves about Uncle George’s past fling with the Criterion barmaid. I love these little hints at how familiar they’ve become with each other over the course of the stories.)

The TV episode also tones down the class friction between Bertie and Jeeves just a little bit, although it’s a fairly subtle difference. In the story, Jeeves seems just a tad sterner in his reproach when Bertie comments on the class differences between Uncle George and Maudie. He also gives a lengthier explanation of why he thinks they’ll be good for each other—it’s actually kind of sweet, and it shows a side of Jeeves we don’t usually see. He seems genuinely to be rooting for George and Maudie, and is not concerned about trying to pretend that this particular scheme was to Bertie’s advantage in some way.

Both the short story and this segment of the episode end with Jeeves suggesting that they pack their bags and get out of town until things blow over with Aunt Agatha, thus providing a convenient segue into the next story.

(As an interesting side note, “Indian Summer of an Uncle” was the last story in which Aunt Agatha actually appeared “on-screen,” so to speak. For the remainder of the books and stories, she was often mentioned, but her role transitioned to that of a shadowy, always-looming threat that never actually manifested on the page. Of course, we’ll see her many more times throughout the show, since it doesn’t follow the same chronology.)

The next part of the episode veers hard away from the source material. “The Purity of the Turf” was originally a direct sequel to “The Great Sermon Handicap,” aka the other story where Bertie and his friends bet on weird shit. This duo of stories took place shortly after the events of “Comrade Bingo,” which would be adapted for an episode in Season 3 of Jeeves and Wooster. It’s quite a leap back in time from “Indian Summer of an Uncle,” which takes place after Bingo has already settled down and married Rosie M. Banks.

Anyway, the only element that the TV adaptation takes from “The Great Sermon Handicap” is the presence of Cynthia Wickhammersley, who was Bingo Little’s love interest du jour in that story. Otherwise, the plot is based almost entirely on “The Purity of the Turf,” in which Cynthia is mentioned but does not appear. The other differences are numerous, so I think I’m just going to do a bulleted list:

That whole business with Lady Wickhammersley banning gambling? Not in the original story at all. As far as I can remember, she doesn’t make an appearance in either “The Great Sermon Handicap” or “The Purity of the Turf.”

Myrtle and Beryl, Bingo’s two love interests in the TV episode, were made up for the show. Amazingly, he actually does not have a love interest in the short story version of “Purity,” having struck out with Cynthia in “Handicap.”

Steggles is younger in the short stories. In fact, he’s a classmate of Claude and Eustace who is at Twing studying for his Oxford exams under the tutelage of the local vicar. He’s also in the choir with Harold the Pageboy, and he’s the one who commits the dirty work of slipping the beetle into his robe.

In the short story, Bingo describes the animal and potato game that’s briefly summarized by Cynthia and one of her sisters in the TV show. He casts Jeeves and Bertie as players in order to aid his explanation, and TBH it sounds like some wildly kinky shit:

“The competitors enter in couples, each couple being assigned an animal cry and a potato. For instance, let’s suppose that you and Jeeves entered. Jeeves would stand at a fixed point holding a potato. You would have your head in a sack, and you would grope about trying to find Jeeves and making a noise like a cat; Jeeves also making a noise like a cat. Other competitors would be making noises like cows and pigs and dogs, and so on, and groping about for their potato-holders, who would also be making noises like cows and pigs and dogs and so on——”

In the short story, Bingo is the one playing golf when Steggles witnesses Harold’s sprinting abilities. He doesn’t see anything wrong with it at all, and Bertie has to point out to him why this is a Bad Thing. In the TV show, Bertie’s the one at the golf game, and Bingo is the one who points out that Steggles might nobble Harold.

The games they bet on are different. In fact, as far as I can recall, the only ones that are the same are the Mothers’ Sack Race and the Choir Boys’ Handicap. There’s no three-legged couples’ race in the short story, no Mature Gentlemen’s Dash, and no tough gal named Hildy who breaks the strongman game. (I do wonder if Hildy was based on Madeline’s butch friend Hilda from The Mating Season, though.) Bingo doesn’t compete in any games.

Instead, the pivotal game in the original “Purity” is the Girls’ Egg and Spoon Race. Jeeves fixes the race by bribing all of the girls to finish except for little Prudence Baxter, a “long-priced outsider” on whom he encourages Bertie to place a bet (“They tell me in the village that she carries a beautiful egg, sir.”). He then ‘fesses up to the village vicar, who disqualifies all the kids except for Prudence. There’s an adorable scene in the short story where Prudence befriends Bertie and hangs out with him for a while before the race, which is sadly 100% absent from the TV adaptation.

Towards the end of the episode, there’s a rather awkward attempt to reconnect with the events of “Indian Summer.” Uncle George and Maudie show up at the village treat, on the run from Aunt Agatha, and ask if Bertie can direct them to the local vicar so that they can quickly get married on the sly. Of course, this is not in the original story, which wasn’t really connected to “Purity” at all.

Whew! Okay, that was a lot. I’m sure I’m probably missing some things, but that’s the gist of it. Feel free to add any major details I’ve overlooked! @cuddyclothes

#jeeves and wooster #P.G. Wodehouse #book canon #tv canon #Indian Summer of an Uncle #Purity of the Turf #The Great Sermon Handicap #Reginald Jeeves #Bertie Wooster #Lord Yaxley #Maudie the Criterion Barmaid #Bingo Little #Steggles #Cynthia Wickhammersley #Aunt Agatha

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rosetintmyworld84 · 4 years

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Disappointing Adaptations

I’m rereading The Rook by Daniel O’Malley. It, along with the sequel Stiletto, are 2 of my favorite recent books, particularly in urban fantasy. They are an interesting use of some tried and true tropes, fit into a dynamic world with some really fantastically superpowered characters. It is heavily influenced by noir detective stories, but with a fantastic amount of dry wit weaved throughout.

It was made into a TV series, sort of. Best I can tell from the episode recaps is that it is just barely not an “in name only” adaptation. Instead of being an adaptation of the book The Rook, it seems to be the creators personal Myfawny/Gestalt fanfiction.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not what I was promised on the tin. I was hoping for a mostly faithful adaptation, particularly since it was a TV series and not a feature film. I wanted to see this book brought to life, not some pale imitation with an unnecessary romantic arc thrown in. And clearly they only skimmed the book, because Gestalt is far too egotistic to engage in a relationship with anyone that isn’t Gestalt.

The intrigue of the Chequey traitor, the threat of the grafters, a woman who was so beaten down by her life and her fear of her own power being born again without all of her past holding her back from reaching her full potential almost completely on her own. So many wasted opportunities, to instead have some crap B movie plot about selling powered people.

Which leads me to the other recent adaptation that has left me wanting, Lovecraft Country.

Now I will say that the casting was perfect, and I even and totally cool with the genderbending they did (though I kind of prefer having a Caleb over a Christina as the main villain). Also the book was written by a white guy, well meaning and respectful as he is, will not be as authentic to the African American experience as a team of African American creators. Though I am pretty sure that if it had been made post George Floyd/Breonna Taylor they might have made some different narrative choices.

But again, I REALLY wanted to see the book brought to life. This was a collection of interconnected short stories that actively fought against cliché characters and harmful tropes. That showcased complex, intelligent, heroic black main characters, in a world actively at war with them, with the blessing of their entire society. With complex family dynamics. Who (SPOILER ALERT) overcome their racist oppressors, mostly unscathed. I only just read it this year, but it was refreshing to read about black characters who, with everything working against them, out smart and defeat the (super racist) bad guys.

(SPOILER ALERTS BIG TIME)

That is not the case for the show. By the end of the second episode they fully leave cannon for everything but the broadest strokes of the main plot. Uncle George is killed. Lettie is a perpetual victim, instead of an aggressive active agent in her own life. I mean, this is a woman who won a battle of whits against a racist ghost haunting her house, and got it to so fully submit to her will that it gives them the magic spell they need to stop the villain for good. In the show we get an entirely different racist ghost haunting her house, who performed Mengele like experiments on black people (who also haunt her house) and then exercises him out.

It’s just not the show I was hoping for, and I can’t help but feel like it’s a cheap imitation, making changes for shock value and little else. It lacks a lot of the substance of it’s source material, and I’m not even going to touch on the wildly inaccurate portrayal of a native American two spirit person, who is quickly murdered in what could generously be called Bury Your Gays (and intersex, and Native Americans).

Like, the whole point of the book is that the everyday horrors of being Black in America is way scarier than anything HP Lovecraft could write. It’s not the magical secret society and their goals that endanger the main characters, it’s knowing that every institution in the country you live in is working to actually harm you and your family. It is about how they persevere, though every path to success is closed to them. And it is about how generations of trauma cause more harm than monsters could ever dream to.

On top of this, there is the “adaptation” of the Discworld Watch books that I won’t even waste my time on. To say nothing of Aretmis Fowl. More and more I am cautious to be at all optimistic about any future film or TV adaptations of media I love. For the time being though, I’ll always have the book.

#lovecraft country spoilers

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staylovehearts · 5 years

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Check Yes, Juliet

Seo Changbin x Reader

Word Count ~ 4.8k

Summary: In which you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a romance that hopefully won’t end in tragedy.

Tags: college setting, friends to lovers, y/n majors in costume and set design, changbin does sound and set design, so we doing theatrics, mentions of Romeo and Juliet, and bad SoundCould rapping

"So you see, the task here is not to design perfect costumes or draw up a pretty stage plan. What I want you to do here is just plan, organise and most importantly budget a show. You will have to consider everything. From the material you are going to need, to the time that will be required to make the costumes or any custom made props you'll be needing for the backdrop. If you want to make a couple of sketches of the costumes or how you imagine the stage design that's fine but remember that your focus should be on the production. You'll be working in pairs or groups of three, you may pick your own partners and each team is going to work with a Shakespeare play. You have two weeks to work on this task and then every group is going to have to present their work in a ten to fifteen presentation. Are there any questions?"

At the end of her small speech, the professor looks over the rim of her round glasses and sort of gives everyone in the small lecture hall her special you dumbasses better not ask me any stupid questions or I'm going to throw my shoe look. Honestly speaking she's probably a bit of a diva. But then again, who in this department isn't? You knew exactly what you were signing up for when you decided to pursue a major in theatre studies with a focus on costume and set design. Theatre is a world of eccentrics. Of loud personalities and flashy costumes. Everyone is constantly being a little over the top. It's a huge performance and the curtain is never fully drawn. Even though you belong to the people that prefer to stay behind that curtain. You like to admire the colourful spectacle from the distance and let those with a calling to perform do their job while you do yours. Which is to support. You are the one that makes the magic work. The one that designs epic costumes and turns any boring room into a scene straight out of a fairytale dreamland.

"Shh, we're working together on this, aren't we?", Changbin is sort of leaning over to whisper into your ear, he's so close that his shoulder is brushing against yours and you can almost feel the soft tickle of his exhale against your skin. If he were anyone else you'd probably push him away for just invading your space like this with no warning, but since Changbin is Changbin you don't mind it at all. He's one of the first friends you made here in the theatrics department. He's focusing on sound and stage design so you do have a couple of courses together every once in a while and your schedules usually overlap allowing you to take lunch breaks together every other day. Changbin fits right in with the artsy kids that walk this campus. He has a dark red beanie on his head covering most of his undercut hairstyle. One of his eyebrows is gracefully slit and there are small tunnels in his earlobes. And when he is pushing up the sleeves of his shirt like he does now a bit of the tattoo on his right upper arm pokes out. He has the look of a tumblr e-boy with the personality of the cute childhood friend guy that lives next door.

"Of course we are, do you have a play in mind already? We might be able to snatch a good one if we act quick", you whisper back. Most of the other students in the class are still whispering under their breath and trying to find a partner to work with while the professor is watching the mess in mild annoyance, tapping her pointy nails against the chalkboard every once in a while. She's written down the selection of plays in advance and it's pretty much every major Shakespeare work you'd imagine to find on a list like this.

"Your pick", Changbin replies. You nod quickly before you raise your hand to attract the professor's attention. She looks up and gives you the go-ahead to talk with a small wave of her hand.

"Changbin and I would like to work on Romeo and Juliet please", you announce. You can hear sounds of protest from around you from the other student's that probably had their eyes set on the same play. But it's first come, first serve. The professor looks at you for a moment before she shrugs and puts your names down next to Romeo and Juliet on the chalkboard. You silently fistbump Changbin under the table. It's not like you are picking this play for the romance or the story or whatever. You honestly don't even see it as that romantic. It's more of a tragedy actually. After all – spoiler alert – almost everyone dies. Especially the couple that the whole thing is about. If you were going for romance you would probably pick something like A Midsummer Night's Dream. That one at least has something like a happy ending. At the very least no one dies and the couples all end up marrying in the end. But that play also has a bunch of fairies that'll need fancy costumes and a goddamn magical forest as a background that would be hell to plan out on your own. Romeo and Juliet has a rather small cast, it might require some costume designing but the play is so goddamn overdone that there are plenty of resources that can be used as an inspiration. There have been millions of stage productions of this play, research for this one is going to be a piece of cake. Also, you're working together with your best friend. So it's going to be great no matter what.

Things are not really going as great as you hoped they would. You are sitting on Changbin's bed in his dorm room, cross-legged and with your laptop balancing on one thigh. The hot air blowing out from the fans has made your leg feel uncomfortably warm but you also don't really want to put the laptop down in front of you because that would make you hump your back to type. Well, it's not like you're really typing right now either way. Your sketchbook is lying abandoned on your other leg, the pencil somewhere near the pillow and you wish so much to just lie down next to it and close your eyes for a moment. Changbin is sitting at his desk. Spinning around in his chair and not really doing anything productive either. You figured Romeo and Juliet would be easier because there are so many sources and other productions that you can use as inspiration. Not this exact thing is biting you in the ass. There are just too many different adaptions. Too many wildly different interpretations. The day before Changbin and you sat through a movie marathon of every Romeo and Juliet adaption you could get your hands on and there's just... so many of them. There is Romeo + Juliet which has guns and more modern fashion but still sticks to the original dialogue. It also has Leonardo DiCaprio, but that's an entirely different thing. Then there is stuff like Shakespeare in Love which actually somewhat deals with the production of a play. And at least three other adaptions that all use somewhat different approaches. So basically you are getting kind of frustrated already.

"Ugh, I hate this", you complain while dramatically letting yourself fall back onto Changbin's bed. He barely looks up but out of the corner of your eyes, you can see him slightly grinning at the view of you trying to hold onto your laptop with one hand while letting yourself fall back into his messy bed. He didn't bother with folding his blanket so it's kind of bunched up and shoved towards the wall. That way it makes for a perfect headrest. It even smells nice. Like that cologne, you got him for his birthday last year because you’re a grown ass man now it's time you start smelling like one mixed in with the smell of hairspray, black tea that he must have spilt and then not bothered changing the sheets after and the cheap laundry detergent from the washing room. It's comfortable and if you could you would just curl up in Changbin's bed and forget about that stupid project for a while.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad", Changbin says with a hint of amusement in his voice. You raise your head just enough to glare at him before you flip him off with the hand you don't need to stabilise your laptop. He bursts out with laughter for a moment before he switches back into serious work mode. "Okay, so maybe we should just do some brainstorming. You know, collect some ideas, come up with a theme for this. I think once we decided how we want to go about that everything else will just come naturally. Like, do you want to stick to the original more or should we also opt for a more modern interpretation? I think we're pretty much free to do whatever as long as we come up with a proper plan and budget for the production."

"I don't even knoooow", you complain stressing out the last word into a whiny groan. Changbin stretches out a leg to slightly kick against the bed.

"Yah", he chuckles. "Don't be so mopey. Okay, so how do you feel about a more modern version? I think that would also be a lot easier on the costumes. And then we can put more work into the stage set up and stuff like that."

"Like that movie with DiCaprio? What do we do about the dialogue and stuff then?", you ask. You like the idea of not having to design elaborate costumes and then calculate the costs for materials and the time it would take to actually realise these costumes and just put all actors into thrifted clothes. Juliet in a flowy summer dress and Romeo with a dress shirt that has a weird yet oddly endearing print on it. But you also feel like there might be a hitch somewhere.

"We don't have to hand in a script, just a budget and production plan, so it's probably enough if we mention in a side note that what we are going for is a modern adaption", Changbin reminds you. His words sound reasonable, but he still hasn't fully convinced you. He can probably sense that you are still hesitating so he continues with his sales pitch. "Just imagine it. Juliet is some rich chick from a fancy high society private school. Maybe even the daughter of the principal or whatever. And Romeo is also some rich brat but he's kinda the black sheep of the family. They meet when he and some guys from his school crash the prom night of Juliet's school and boom, they fall in love, the parents don't approve and shit goes down."

You laugh at his dramatic description of his version of Romeo and Juliet but at the same time, you can actually kind of picture the version he is going for. It's a fresh take on an old story. Love, disapproving parents, a strict environment and two horny teens that rebel against the system because even though they only met yesterday their love is already better than anything that happened to them in their entire life so far. Also putting everyone into school uniforms would definitely make costume planning and designing a lot easier.

"Okay, let's go for it", you decide. You are still kind of lying down on Changbin's bed put out of the corner of your eye you can see him do a small victory dance in his chair. It's kind of cute.

"Man, I actually really wish we could write a whole script for it instead. That would be so much more fun. Just imagine that dramatic balcony scene but instead Romeo is just sneaking onto their property at night to throw rocks at Juliet's window and then rap his whole love confession."

Changbin starts doing a freestyle version of what Romeo and Juliet could have possible sounded like if it was written by a SoundCloud rapper in the 21st century and you can barely contain your laughter.

Yo yo yo, what's that light that I see

It's Juliet!

She is shining brightly, like the sun

but I'm just a lonely moon boy you see, baby please shine your light on me

You grab your pencil and toss it in his general direction. It flies right past him and lands on the side of the room that Changbin's roommate – who is luckily out with friends right now – occupies. Changbin laughs at your pathetic attempt to get him to stop rapping which at the same time ultimately leads to him stopping.

"No, but honestly, how do you feel about it?", he asks after a moment of silence. You sit up again to look at him.

"It's good", you say. You mean it. You know that working with Changbin would be nice. Not just because he is your friend but also because he's an amazing person to work with. He always comes up with the weirdest but also incredibly creative ideas and whenever you are at the point where you want to just give up and curl up into a ball he is the one to take a step back and look at the problem a bit more rationally and find some sort of solution.

"So, now that we have that figured out how about you spend the next few days trying to come up with a plan for the costumes and I think about the set design and we can go over it together next Tuesday before class so that we kinda already have something to show in case she asks for progress?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

You shut your laptop down and close it, finally taking it off your leg again and the warm spot on your pants feels really awkward. Your skin underneath feels burnt even though you know very well that it's just a little warmed up at most.

"Are we done for today then?"

Changbin shrugs. "I guess so." He pauses to kind of look around the room for a moment before he looks back at you. "Wanna grab some dinner with me though? I'm kinda starving and I think the cafeteria already closed down and all I have left here is some cereal and protein bars."

"Sure, the usual place? I've been craving burgers either way."

"Let's go then."

When Changbin and you meet up on Tuesday before class you have a couple of rough sketches for costumes that you only really made to get an idea what and how much fabric you would need. In the meantime Changbin has come up with how to realise that backdrops and the stage set up and made a list of props you would need for that. So overall some really good progress. When your professor peeks over your shoulder later that day you proudly show her your work. She's a little surprised by your take on the task at first but in the end, sees no problem with you going for a different interpretation as long as you do the budget plan and everything properly. So Changbin and you spend the rest of that session crunching numbers and writing up potential shopping lists and stuff like that. By the end, you have something like an overview of all the costs that would crop up for the costumes and the stage design. Now you just need to kind of organise it all and put it in a more presentable way. Maybe sort by category or necessity of items. Like what needs to be taken off first and what can maybe be replaced in case there is no way of getting the exact thing. You agree to meet up again that weekend to finish up everything and put together a power point for the presentation in class.

Of course you also kind of meet up with Changbin before that. On Wednesday you have lunch together with him. Thursday you run into him in the small coffee shop on campus and you end up talking to him for so long that you almost come too late for your next class. And Friday you have another afternoon lecture together and after that, he kind of tags along with you while you buy some groceries and stuff for the weekend and he even helps you carry them back to your dorm building.

By the time Saturday rolls around you have pretty much finalised planning the production of the costumes for your fictional Romeo and Juliet performance. You are once again sitting on Changbin's bed with all of your sketches and notes spread out around you. He is sitting at his desk while trying to type all the information into a power point and make it look okay.

"Do you think we should add your costume sketches?", he asks without even really looking up from his work. You shrug, even though he clearly can't see it right now.

"If you want to? Do you think it's enough if I just take a picture of them with my phone real quick or should we actually scan them?", you ask back. Changbin makes some kind of half grunting half contemplating humming noise while briefly glancing up from his laptop.

"Probably better if we scan them, hand them over and I'll do it right now."

You pass him your sketches and he gets up with his laptop and walks over to the shelf where he and his roommate keep their old printer. While Changbin puts your sketches in page by page your eyes wander through the room. They get stuck on Changbin's desk. Or rather, an open notebook that is lying on display on top of said desk. You briefly glance over at Changbin but he still seems to be occupied with the printer, cursing under his breath because somehow the scanning and saving as a file option isn't working properly. You silently get up from his bed and walk over to the desk to take a peek into his notebook. You've seen him carry that thing around with him pretty much everywhere but he always made a huge secret out of the contents. You flip through a couple of pages. Terrible scribbles, a few messy lecture notes, shopping lists, reminders. Dentist appointment at 3 pm, next Friday is written on the top of a page, underneath it is a terrible drawing of a cat. Or maybe a dog. Could also be a horse now that you are really looking at it. But every now and again there are words that look like they were written down with more care. The letters are neat. A lot neater than what you are used from Changbin's handwriting. The words are picked carefully. Changbin is writing poems. This is probably not meant for your eyes at all but you can't help feeling curious about this. Changbin rarely talks about his inner thoughts and feelings. He's not really one to let his more sentimental side show. Maybe out of fear of appearing vulnerable and maybe out of a weird sense of pride. So maybe this is the once in a lifetime insight into his mind that you always wanted. You flip through the pages until you have found the latest entry and you stop. Everything stops for a moment. It's the Juliet rap he did last time. He actually worked Romeo's whole first part of the balcony scene into a rap. But what really strikes you is the fact that he has crossed out Juliet's name. And scribbled yours over it. You quickly close the notebook and turn around. Your hands feel sweaty. Your heart is racing. Changbin is standing right in front of you. The look on his face can only be described as heartbroken.

"You saw it, didn't you?", he asks. His voice sounds strained. A faint whisper. A string that is about to snap. You nod your head, unable to even say anything. You bite down on your bottom lip that is suddenly trembling. Changbin lets out a deep sigh.

"You weren't meant to find out. Not like this. Not at all. But I... listen, I know I probably shouldn't say this but I really like you. Like, I'm fucking in love with you and I... ugh, I'm so sorry I wasn't ever going to tell you now that you've already seen this there is no going back, huh. I'm in love with you, y/n."

"I- I don't know what to say." Your heart is racing, your chest is aching, your hands are sweating, your knees are trembling. "I... should probably leave."

You weasel out from between Changbin and his desk and make a dash for the door. You look over your shoulder briefly when you pull the door close behind you. He doesn't come after you.

You manage to avoid Changbin until Tuesday. He texted you right after you left and you left him on read. He hasn't tried to contact you again since. Honestly, the last few days have been terrible. You've only been avoiding Changbin for a whole two days but you already miss him a lot. You're just so used to him constantly being around you and being part of your life that you didn't even know that the empty space he would leave behind would be so big. Now you suddenly find yourself sitting alone during lunch break and walking the halls between classes with your earphones plugged in because there is no one to talk to. For the past years, Changbin has just always been around you even in small ways that you didn't even notice. It's not just that he would go to class with you or that you would have lunch at the cafeteria together. Suddenly there are also no more weird texts to wake up to every morning because Changbin insists that his best ideas happen late at night and he always texts you right away when he comes up with something even though he knows that it will take hours for you to actually reply to that. And then there are also all the small things that are just you and Changbin things. You have certain places you go to that are just your usual place to eat out. There are spots in the university library where you like to sit down when you study together, songs you both like and listen together when you are hanging out, the snacks you know you have to buy when he asks you to come over and bring some. Because you don't even have to ask what he likes anymore. When you're ordering delivery together late into the night during study session he doesn't ask what you want because he just knows. Changbin and you have seen each other pretty much every day for the last years, have worked on every project together, he's cheered you on for every exam and comforted you through every heartbreak. He's been there the whole time and now he suddenly isn't. Because you freaked out and pushed him away because you don't know how to react to his feelings. Or your own feelings for that matter. You have never thought about Changbin as more than a friend. At least while he was around being just that. But now that you've been ignoring him for a whole two days you are starting to realise that you miss so much more than just having someone to eat lunch and do group projects with. You miss having your best friend around. But even more than that you just really miss Changbin.

When you see him Tuesday before class you go straight for a hug without warning.

"I'm so sorry, can we please talk after class", you mumble with your face pressed into his chest. Changbin quickly squeezes you back.

"I'm sorry too, let's get this presentation over with and then we can talk."

The presentation goes fairly well considering you have never actually seen the finished power point. Changbin must have completed the thing on his own while you were busy ignoring him and pitying yourself and now you're just feeling even more guilty about the whole situation. Since you kind of split up the whole thing into parts from the beginning on you can more or less go through your part even though you haven't seen the actual presentation but Changbin jumps in and covers for you every time you kind of lose your flow because a slide is not where you expected it would be or because he added some additional sources. But your professor seems satisfied with the result. She marks both of you down as passed before she moves on to the next group.

You were the one who asked to talk to Changbin and yet here with him sitting right across from you at one of the small rounded tables of your favourite campus coffee shop you have no idea what to say. But as Changbin always does he jumps in to comfort you and help out when you get stuck.

"I'm really sorry about all of this. I really didn't mean for you to find out like this. I didn't mean to tell you at all. And I just hope that it doesn't make things awkward between us now. Believe me when I say that I don't expect anything from you. If you want to we can just pretend that nothing ever happened and move on. Just having you as my best friend already means a lot more to me and I don't want to ruin what we have."

He's so serious. So sincere. And most importantly he is sounding so vulnerable. In all the time that you have been friends with Changbin, you don't think you have ever heard him speak so straight from the heart. He's usually not one to share too much about what he is thinking or feeling. But now that you quite literally took a glance into his journal and uncovered some of his deepest secrets he is an open book in front of you. Sure, you regret that you peaked into his journal and found out about his feelings this way. But somehow you also don't. Now that you have seen this glimpse into Changbin's mind you don't want to turn the page and close the book again. Now that you know you can't imagine losing him again.

"I'm so sorry too, I shouldn't have left like that. I shouldn't have ignored you it's just that I... I just didn't know what to do", you mumble. You can't quite manage to really look up at Changbin's eyes and face him so instead, you are staring on his hands. He's got them lying on the table, fingers nervously fiddling with the handle of his mug. You take a deep breath and reach out a hand to grab his.

"I'm still confused", you admit. And it's true. Your mind is in turmoil. Between trying to comprehend feelings you didn't know Changbin had and coming to realise feelings you didn't know you had everything has been a huge mess and suddenly the whole world is upside down. But with Changbin right here it feels a little less chaotic. You’ve stumbled right into your own dramatic romance story but it’s up to you whether or not this one ends in tragedy. And maybe there is no way of knowing the end without at least trying. So you take a deep breath and try. "But I don't think we can just go back. I don't want to just go back. Listen, I never really thought of you as more than a friend but we've been separated for a whole two days and I'm already more than willing to do something dramatic like fake my own death or whatever just to be with you again. What I'm trying to say is that I really can't imagine being without you and maybe we can just... try this?"

"Do you mean we could try... being more than friends?", Changbin asks hesitantly. You finally manage to raise your head and look at him. There is so much hope in his eyes and you know just why you were hesitant to look up earlier. Changbin has such pretty eyes. You were always afraid to look straight at him. Afraid to fall. But maybe it's okay.

"I'm asking you to go on a date with me, what about it?", you reply by firing a question back at him. Changbin looks a little surprised for a moment. Then he breaks out into the widest smile.

"Well, you're leaving me no choice I guess."

#stray kids #stray kids fluff #stray kids scenarios #stray kids x reader #seo changbin #changbin #changbin x reader #requested #scenario #woop woop went wild once again

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sullivansgilbert · 5 years

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Reaching out across Tumblr to all my G&S fans, @carpe-mamilia and I just got back from Harrogate from this year’s G&S Festival, and I have some thoughts about the shows which I think I just needed to get down.

Also, bonus shoutout to @carlodivarga-s for being an all-round charming presence and delightful surprise in Harrogate this year!

OK. Here goes.

Princess Ida (Savoynet)

As Stephen Turnbull (he of Harrogate ramblings on Facebook) mentioned, this is a production that could have only worked at the festival. With the two kings portrayed as Gilbert and Sullivan themselves, and the rest of the company (with the exception of Ida herself) costumed as choruses from the rest of the G&S universe.

I know that Ida is written in 3 acts, but to have two 15 minute intervals is a strange experience. Especially as the curtain came down on the Act I at 8:15, it felt as though we were only about getting started and we were all back out our seats and into the bar. When I saw Ida done in Southampton earlier this year, they split Act II in half and placed a single interval more squarely in the middle, and I didn’t think that the pacing or structure suffered as much as it perhaps could have done then.

My greatest issue with Ida is that.. it’s not a very interesting story? And certainly not a very good ending. It feels as though Sullivan far outshines Gilbert. Some of the plot points, too, feel very, well, seen-before? Most noticeably, the male trio dressing up in silly costumes and singing witty songs about it? Done in Patience (and much better, I should add!). That said, Ida definitely has some standout solos, in particular Gama’s two patter songs (’I’m such a disagreeable man’ and ‘Nothing whatever to grumble at’), and Death to the Invaders! is such a TUNE at the top of Act III, though I actually preferred it in Southampton, just as there was more drama and sense of impending peril.

The ending of the whole thing is pretty crap though. Here’s Ida, a feminist ICON who shuns men and rules a chorus of strong academic ambitious women who look down on men, and yet she sort of just limps across the finish line like, oh yeah, I guess I’ll just love you and marry a man and I was wrong about all my studies and thoughts of independence. Ugh.

Y’know what I want to happen to Ida? I want her to shun all the men and grow old, independent, and married to a woman. Princess Ida: a queer legend.

Trial by Jury & The Zoo (LOpSoc)

I can’t say too much about the productions because it was my old university group and I’m sure I can’t write without any bias, so I’ll focus on the shows.

Trial by Jury was my first real show as Musical Director so it’ll always have a spot in my heart, especially having studied law at university. Musically, it’s so well accomplished, at barely 30 minutes, Sullivan manages to cram in so much content, including the brilliant ‘A Nice Dilemma’ sextet (or septet if you count the chorus as one, too), as well as some beautiful patter songs and some great parts for the chorus. You can really see how the rest of the Savoy Operas took inspiration, and to a certain extent, structure, from this first piece.

That said, there are a few familiar elements missing from the piece that become G&S standards later on in the canon, including the contralto exposition song, the romantic leads’ duet, and, well, a second act. Still though, one of my favourites.

The Zoo on the other hand? I’ve now seen it three times, and whilst I enjoy the music, some of it really is quite good, I have no idea what actually happens. I think there are at least 3 plots intertwined with one another, but with no libretto to explore or explain those plots, it’s essentially three totally different stories happening at the same time, just... coincidentally at a zoo. Libretto is pretty naff, but there are some charming songs, such as the ‘Four Tarts and a Couple of Pairs’ jaunt, and the duel of the male and female chorus once the Duke has eaten and faints (??) (’Prop him up upon a chair, lay him flat upon his back’).

Good news though, that LOpSoc were nominated for best director and best chorus for this production which I thought was well deserved.

Ruddigore (Charles Court Opera)

Oh my word. I confess I’ve never been Ruddigore’s biggest fan, but boy oh boy am I a fan of Charles Court Opera, so the chance to get to see this production was high up the list, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With a cast of 9 (and totally omitting the male chorus), this production was lively, sharp-witted, and for the first time in any production of Ruddigore that I’ve seen, or indeed been involved with, I followed every detail of the plot perfectly.

Only two bridesmaids made up the female chorus, and they also lent their voices to a mixed chorus for the ‘Painted Emblems of a Race’ and subsequent male-chorus numbers (though ‘Welcome Gentry’ was cut) which worked beautifully. Also, a nice little change to Mounted emblems of a race, as the three ancestors were portrayed as severed, mounted heads on the wall of the set. Sir Roderic did have an additional stage presence as he was also portrayed by the accompanying headless corpse come to life.

One of the absolute highlights of this production, too, was lovely, wonderful Simon Butteriss, who is always an absolute joy. With John Reed-esque lightness, but with a voice on form as ever, it was a joy to see him on stage. As it was the whole cast, really. Having seen CCO’s HMS Pinafore at the King’s Head in London in a tiny 100-odd seat fringe theatre with just a pianist, to see them on stage at the Royal Hall in Harrogate with a complete orchestra was really special.

Yeomen of the Guard (National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company)

Oh boy. I was so excited for this performance. And I was so disappointed. The victim perhaps of a festival matinee crowd, as I said to dear friends over dinner after the show, there are a certain number of ‘minimum requirements’ I expect of the NGSOC:

The cast remember their lines. Having a certain member of the principal cast prompted from the wings was... well. Awkward to say the least. And garnered the intake of breath you can imagine from the audience.

I expect the principal cast to be able to stick to time with the orchestra. Several times, the cast fell wildly out of time with the orchestra, making for highly awkward listening.

I expect the principal cast to be able to hit all the notes they’re expected to. Naming no names, but, with a certain soprano aria in Yeomen, there’s a rather important note towards the end that you cannot get wrong. And yet.

I expect the show to be lit well. If actors are stood singing in darkness, either the actor needs to find their light, or the lighting director needs to do a better job.

That all said, the chorus were fantastic, to the point I actually longed for them to come back on to stage whenever they were gone, but I must say of Andrew Nicklin’s direction... I found it lacking. The staging was particularly dull and unimaginative, with barely any choreography, or even any movement come to that. My first time actually seeing Yeomen on stage and... ugh. Y’know? That said, there were reports from a friend having seen it earlier in the week at the festival and it being remarkable, so.. maybe just an off-performance.

The Mikado (National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company)

Now, THIS is how you do G&S. The company were almost unrecognisable from the afternoon, and the show was packed to the rafters with joy, energy, and sheer brilliance. Genuine laugh out loud moments from a full auditorium who are, I’m sure, more than familiar with the source material! Andrew Nicklin who was conducting, made sure that the pace was kept up, and my word, just, my heart was pounding with, well, a combination of relief and amazement. I loved it.

In particular, Mae Heydorn as Katisha. Fuckkkkkk. This wasn’t your usual Katisha, this was a dazzling, glamorous Katisha, and although you’d think that might not work, it did. And what a voice. On the final note of Act I, Mae managed to outsing the full assembled company and orchestra with a note that travelled and reverberated into our very bones.

My only criticism would probably be that Richard Gauntlett, who also directed the show, delivered some of Ko Ko’s lines so fast, if you weren’t familiar with the show, you wouldn’t have a clue what he’d just said. That and Nanki-Poo, in a typical tenor manner, did tend to rush some of the songs, even when singing as part of a trio - perhaps a little indicative of not listening to his cast-mates. But alas.

____

OK, I think that’s all. A brilliant, lovely few days away. So much G&S. I loved it. So much so, I think I’m going to start a bit of an artistic project to create some more G&S content, so keep an eye if you’re interested!

-- Thomas

#Gilbert and Sullivan #G&S #The Mikado #Yeomen of the Guard #Ruddigore #Trial by Jury #The Zoo #Harrrogate

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darkspellmaster · 5 years

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So About The Nutcracker...

It’s an interesting thing that I’ve come across recently. Since the release of the Nutcracker and the four realms there’s been talk about how you can’t change the story, or that the story that get’s changed doesn’t feel like the nutcracker.

And oddly I think I’ve found something that could blow that idea out of the water.

See in Chicago the Joffrey Ballet puts on a version of the Nutcracker every year, and, since it’s inception back in the 1950s it has put on a version of the classic piece by the original creator of the Ballet company Robert Joffrey. However back in 2016 the story was over hauled by writer Brian Selznick (”The Inventions of Hugo Cabert -aka the book that became the movie that became Hugo) and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.

This is important because I’ve read reviews saying that if the story of the Nutcracker doesn’t tell exactly as the original then it’s not the Nutcracker. But I beg to differ.

In this case the story follows Marie, no rich girl living in Victorian England, rather she’s a immigrant in 1892 who’s mother is the sculptor of the Golden Lady Columbia, that premiered at the World’s Columbia Exhibition of 1893. Our lead Marie is dealing with a younger brother Franz who has taken to run around with the street ragamuffins of Chicago of the 1880s, who are busy pilfering tools from the construction site.

Marie isn’t your innocent little girl who is dealing with her younger brother the same way that Clara is in the normal ballet, rather she’s trying to help her mother make ends meet. See her mother is a widow, who seems to be in love with the Impresario, the man in charge of everything that is going on at the fair. He’s the one paying all the workers who are living in, what is essentially, Chicago’s tenement area as they work on the construction of the buildings that will later house some of the wonders of the modern world.

Marie has to struggle to get food for her family and is dealing with trying to control her brother so that he doesn’t end up being turned into the sort of boy that get’s arrested by the cops. She and her family, and the local families come together on Christmas eve night to celebrate, as their house is the largest, and we see the Impresario come in with his assistant Peter who brings the wonder of the fair to the people by putting on a shadow puppet show.

No rich fancy tree, no expensive gifts per-say, just the wonder of his imagination, as he goes about selling the idea of how amazing the fair will be once their hard work is done.

What’s interesting too is that rather than have the villain Rat King just be there, this Rat King actually stems from a friend of the family. The Rat catcher is a slightly sinister man in look, a tall hunched over older man with ratty hair and a limp. However, while he can come off as mean and gives scowls to the boys for screwing around with his bag of dead rats, he comes to the party and shows that he actually is a caring person that seems to be worried about the kids getting into trouble in the work area, and shows a slight interest in Marie’s Mom who respects him as a friend. And the mice, save for Marie’s dream, are all rats that scurry about the stage as puppets or little control car rats.

The Nutcracker while showing up as a nutcracker,

also is Peter in Marie’s dream and the two go on a tour of the Colombian Exhibition.

Instead of the land of sweets, we get the Worlds fair where we see people from all over (and a highly diverse cast as well) coming to see the attractions. Spain is the Conquistadors representing the historical building that was set out in the world pavilion area.

Arabia is the Moroccan Palace in this case and two excellent dancers by the way. China is not tea, but rather the China pavilion that covered it’s history and show cased dancing and festivals at the Fair,

while Marzipan is replaced with Venetian Carnival costumes and regalia for Italy.

The biggest change though is the Russian dance which becomes the Wild Bill Hickok Wild West Show. Having the performer do tricks with a Lasso along with ballet, and three saloon girls that get in on the act. Not to mention the implication that Mother Ginger in this case probably was intended to be the Cracker Jack boy, which premiered at the Worlds Fair in 1893.

The waltz of the flowers becomes the riders of the Ferris wheel, and the biggest departure is that you no longer have the Sugar Plum Fairy, but Marie’s mother’s statue of Lady Columbia come to life as her mother dressed in Gold.

The story focuses on Marie trying to not only deal with her own feelings for Peter, but also wanting her mother and the Impresario to get together, and by the end it leaves an interesting open ending where you can only guess what happens during Christmas breakfast.

The thing is that while the music is there, the interpretation is wildly different. The basic ideas are in place, Nutcracker, the mouse King, going on a dream trip, but everything about it has been flipped on hit’s head. Godfather isn’t involved it’s the guy building the Fair, her dad is dead, she’s poor, her family is dealing with a lot of different issues and you don’t have the fancy things you traditionally see in the telling of this story.

Same can be said for the movie. While there are differences, the underlying story is there and shows the growth of the character of Clara as she deals with her own issues related to losing her mother and being different. Her over all journey is the same, she travels through the world with the Nutcracker and sees amazing sights and deals with the Rat King and everything. The pieces are there but the assembly is a bit different.

This is why I’m curious as to why people dislike this film so much. Deviations from the source material have been going on for decades. From Dumas rewriting the story for the French, to the ballet being a fanfic of the original story, to movies that have long been made of the story. It’s perplexing to me how this one get’s attacked, while others don’t.

Which brings me to another small point, I don’t think Ballet works well on the Big Screen, or at least the way movies are made. Ballet and plays if they’re filmed as such need to be before an audience and, straight up, if you’re going to film a ballet, you may as well do it during the staging of one, as they do with Operas. It only works when you can see the performers reaction to the audience’s reaction.

If you take old Hollywood musicals you’ll notice that a good portion of them are dancing, but typically most of these tend to be set up in a way that would only work with the camera, and also you can do multiple takes as it’s a song and dance number. Ballet is a very different beast that it’s hard to replicate on film without having sections that, like musicals, are talking and just the drama of the story.

So hearing people in reviews say that the Nutcracker should have been more like the Ballet makes me think that a lot of people haven’t really watched a big screen musical in a while. The filming of it would be so very different than what they’re used to in regard to a ballet, that even if they did do the whole thing as a Ballet, you still would have people complaining about it.

#the nutcracker and the four realms #the nutcracker #joffrey ballet #joffrey ballet's the nutcracker #chicago worlds fair #worlds fair of 1893

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kayfabewannabe · 6 years

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I don’t think the Avatar fandom understands...

That you can acknowledge the mass of contributions made to the show by Aaron Ehasz without throwing Bryke under the bus.

It’s a pattern that’s repeated OVER and OVER with fans of many things throughout history. Someone makes something that is wildly popular. Popular thing is successful and receives praise. Creators move on to create more things which aren’t as popular and get criticized. Suddenly, the creators are hacks and there’s a rush to disprove that they were ever good in the first place. George Lucas and the prequels, Peter Jackson and the hobbit, hell, basically the entire career of Shamalyan. It’s not enough to say “they didn’t write this thing well”. You HAVE to prove “Nothing that they ever wrote was good in the first place”. It’s a retroactive reframing of the narrative surrounding the media’s creation that conveniently scapegoats the creators to maintain the illusion that “Good writers don’t write bad stories”.

Like, Korra wasn’t stellar. There were many missteps, often at critical junctions of the plot. Bryke were definitely responsible for how the show turned out as well. But the backlash to Korra had to extend backwards to their previous work. And Avatar isn’t perfect either! Bryke were responsible for a lot of the flaws of the original as well. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t responsible for some of the good parts as well. There’s this persistent fandom myth that “Aaron Ehasz saved Avatar”, and to some degree its true. Without the changes he made to the original pitch (basically some major change to all of the character’s characterization in one way or another), the show probably wouldn’t have been as good as it ended up being. But to say he “saved” it? That he was the true “genius” behind the show? That downplays the collaborative nature of television. EVERYONE who worked on the show contributed to it in some way, from the artists to the musicians to the voice actors to the showrunners and yes, even to the head writers. There’s no singular genius behind the shows inception, rather a whole pool of talent, none of which would have been able to make it without the others.

The real problem here is the reductionist nature of the Genius/Hack dichotomy. They’re boxes we put these creators in. You’re either “A Good Writer”, which means everything you write is genius, or you’re “A Bad Writer” which means everything you touch is cursed. And yes, there is some degree of talent involved in writing. But you can be a “Good Writer” and still make utter shit. Writing isn’t a Yes/No binary of good or bad, its far more qualitative. Writers can be ‘Good” at worldbuilding but “Bad” at dialog. Writers can make great choices one chapter then fuck it up completely the next. Every writer is like this. Every writer has some good and some bad. Whether or not the work ends up good mostly matters if they play to their strengths or not.

Let’s take Peter Jackson for an example. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is arguably one of the most popular film series of all time, and among the best received in the fantasy genre. The Lord of the Rings succeeded at capturing it’s audience due to the strength of its adaptation, to make an otherwise inaccessible book into something with widespread appeal. LOTR is a phenomenon and one of my favorite film series of all time. The cast is wonderful, the music breathtaking, but most importantly, the thematic basis of the story stayed (mostly) true to it’s roots. But LOTR as a book wouldn’t work as a movie. Characters had to be rewritten, events reorganized. The action was emphasized as was the comedy to give it more mainstream appeal. And it succeeded.

Then came the Hobbit, a series of films that as an adaption, are almost unrecognizable from the source material. There are many problems, but at the same time those problems were both strengths and weaknesses in LOTR. The action was even more emphasized with newer cg technology, now to the point of absurdity. The “comedy” was even more present with characters like Bombur and Alfrid, but without the dramatic backup to support them, they fell flat. Everything that was bad about the Hobbit was already in LOTR. Legolas skateboarding with a shield on Helm’s Deep was already in LOTR. Jackson brought the same style, the same touches, the same values of storytelling to the Hobbit as he did to LOTR. One time he dropped the ball, another time he didn’t. They don’t cancel each other out. In one he controlled his tendencies, in another they got out of control. Peter Jackson isn’t a “Bad Writer”. He isn’t a “Good Writer” either. He’s both.

And that brings us back to Avatar. With Korra fresh in our minds and the new live action coming soon, helmed by Bryke, it’s easy to scapegoat them. We can say they ruined Korra, but much of what people didn’t like about Korra was already present in Avatar, just turned up (stilted romance, deus ex machina conclusions, MY COUPLE DIDN’T GET TOGETHER AND I RIOT). they leaned away from the strengths of Avatar to try something new and experimental with Korra and thats commendable. They tried to make a character who was functionally Aang’s opposite, but brought the same style of writing to what was fundamentally a different concept.

But without Bryke, there wouldn’t be Avatar. There wouldn’t be any of the good, there wouldn’t have been the chance to try something different. I respect Aaron Ehasz very much, and i have high hopes for his new series. But we can commend a creator without them being a genius, we can criticize a creator without decrying everything they made. We can acknowledge one creator without throwing another under the bus.

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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10 Live Action Adaptations of Anime You Might Not Know About

Anime is no stranger to the formula of live-action adaptations. Filmmakers and showrunners in both Hollywood and Japan have been bringing classic and popular anime stories to life for years. Whether you love them or hate them, they’ve been around for longer than you might think, and will continue to make their way to the big and small screens.

But outside of the recent hit Detective Pikachu movie, a Ghost in the Shell adaptation that received tepid critical and fan response, and the upcoming continuation of the Rurouni Kenshin films, there are plenty of adaptations of anime that you might not know about. These include plenty of Japan-only TV series, movie franchises, and even some dramas that you can view on Crunchyroll right now! Without further ado, here's a list of live-action anime adaptations that you may be surprised actually exist!

Mob Psycho 100 (2018 Netflix series)

The wildly-popular psychic action anime has a 12-episode series on Netflix. It tells the same story of Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama, a young boy trying to live a normal life and learning to understand his emotions while keeping his immense psychic powers at bay.

Though the show takes a few narrative liberties with some characters, including involving Ritsu in Mob’s fights with Dimple and Teru, the drama remains largely faithful to the entire first season of the anime. It even features some flashy effects-driven fights that benefited from impressive stunt coordination rather than traditional animation.

One of the more notable aspects of this adaptation is its cast, which is comprised largely of alumni actors in tokusatsu franchises such as Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Ultraman. The eponymous Mob is played by Tatsuomi Hamada, who played the titular main protagonist in 2017’s Ultraman Geed, which you can watch on Crunchyroll now! His self-proclaimed master and conman Reigen Arataka is played by Kazuki Namioka, who portrayed a villain in Kamen Rider Gaim in 2013. Kasumi Yamaya, who played president of the school Telepathy Club Tome Kurata, had a major role as Kasumi Momochi/MomoNinger, the pink ranger in 2015’s Shuriken Sentai Ninninger. Anyone who dabbles in tokusatsu may want to take a second look at most anyone else in the cast, because chances are you’ve seen them using fancy toys to transform into superheroes before!

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable (2017 film)

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Right as part 4 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure was airing, Warner Bros. and Toho announced a live-action adaptation of Josuke Higashikata’s adventures. The first movie was released in August in Japan and was planned to kick off a series of films that would adapt the whole story. The film told a largely abridged version of the original story, either splicing together various plot points or removing them altogether for the sake of brevity. These included placing Koichi’s Stand awakening during one of the original arc’s earliest fights with Keicho Nijimura, and Sheer Heart Attack replacing Red Hot Chili Pepper’s debut. The film was highly anticipated, but mixed reception left the future of the series in question.

The film stars award-winning Japanese actor Kento Yamazaki as Josuke, who coincidentally stars in several live-action adaptations. But more on him later. The true hero of the film might be Yusuke Iseya, who portrayed Jotaro Kujo in the film. A short-lived meme that emerged during the film's promotion revolved around just how Iseya achieved Jotaro’s signature hat-hair blend. The meme, which showed actor Asano Tadenobu with a large shaven bald spot in the middle of his head, suggested that Iseya might have had to do the same for his own hair in order for the hat to form around it. If true, that would make him one dedicated actor!

Death Note (2015 drama series)

You might have heard of the series of live-action movies in Japan from 2006 that adapted the Death Note story. Perhaps you also caught wind the Netflix adaptation, a movie that sparked casting controversy and received some negative critical response. But did you also know about the 11-episode drama in 2015 that you can stream on Crunchyroll right now! This show tells a shortened version of Light Yagami’s story, but still adheres to his goal of using a magic death-dealing notebook to save the world.

In trying to condense a 37-episode story into 11 hour-long segments, the drama trimmed the narrative and made several interesting changes. This included introducing Near as a detective and L’s protege in the very first episode, making Mello into Near’s violent alternate personality, and a drastically different ending for L. A few changes were made with other pre-existing characters as well, such as making Misa Amane a pop idol instead of a model.

Already a noteworthy actor in his own right, the aforementioned Kento Yamazaki received praise for his role as fan favorite L. In 2016, Kento Yamazaki won the 39th Japan Academy Prize for Newcomer of the Year for his role in Orange, a film adaptation of a slice-of-life romance manga. Shortly after his work on Death Note, he coincidentally found roles in other live-action adaptations. Aside from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Death Note, these include a lead role in Saiki K., a starring role in a 2020 adaptation in Wotakoi, and a certain piano-playing high school student who we’ll talk about in just a bit.

His co-star and lead actor Masataka Kubota, who played Light Yagami, has also seen work in live-action versions of Rurouni Kenshin, Tokyo Ghoul, and Gintama to name a few. He also won Best Actor in the 86th The Television Drama Academy Awards for his role as Light.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (2003 series)

As a worldwide cultural phenomenon, Sailor Moon has seen three movies, an anime remake in Sailor Moon Crystal, re-releases, stage musicals, and yes, a tokusatsu series in 2003. While it remains faithful to the overall plot of Usagi Tsukino and her friends transforming into Sailor Soldiers to fight evil, this 49+ episode show featured several plot points that are distinct from both the manga and the original anime, becoming its own unique story in the long run.

While originally, Minako Aino is a regular girl who dreams of fame, the live-action Minako balances an idol life, a school life, and being a Sailor Soldier. As Sailor Venus and a veteran Soldier, she’s notably harsher on her fellow Soldiers as she tries to make them understand their duties. Sailor Moon also has an exclusive super form called “Princess Sailor Moon,” a powerful yet dangerous form that combines Usagi and her past self.

The show also introduced two completely new characters in the form of Dark Mercury and Sailor Luna. A short arc in the show saw Ami Mizuno being brainwashed by the Dark Kingdom and turning against her friends. This caused her to take on a new, more evil Sailor Soldier form. Sailor Luna, on the other hand, came about after Luna gained the ability to become a young human girl (albeit with her feline nature still intact). Designed by Naoko Takeuchi herself, Luna replaces Chibusa/Sailor Chibi Moon in the story, as she starts living with Usagi as a human and transforms into a childish Sailor Soldier. Her design takes cues from both Sailor Chibi Moon and Luna's original human form as depicted in the manga and the Sailor Moon S film.

An amusing footnote of the series was Luna and Artemis often being portrayed with cute plushies during various scenes!

Your Lie in April (2016 film)

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Kento Yamazaki continued his trend of working on live-action adaptations by portraying Kosei Arima in an adaptation of everyone’s favorite tear-inducing piano drama. This rendition came hot off the heels of the successful anime that ended in March of 2015.

Though certain characters were omitted from the adaptation, the movie was able to tell the same dramatic and emotional story in its entirety. The film placed at number 3 in the Japanese box office during its initial release, trailing after the Japanese release of Warner Bros. Suicide Squad and the infamous Makoto Shinkai film, Your Name, which maintained its number 1 spot in its third week in theaters. The theme song for the film, “Last Scene,” was performed by Ikimono-gakari, who are known for their work on Bleach and Naruto: Shippuden theme songs.

Tonari no Seki-kun (2015 mini-series)

A hilarious short form anime in its own right, Tonari no Seki-kun saw an eight-episode mini-series. It stayed true to its original story of a schoolgirl sitting next to a classmate who does all manner of ridiculous activities on his desk except pay attention in class. The series stars the actress formerly known as Fumika Shimizu, who previously appeared in 2011's Kamen Rider Fourze and in the first Tokyo Ghoul live action film.

The short segments aired alongside another comedy called Rumi-chan no Jishou. Coincidentally enough, both shows starred girls named “Rumi” as main protagonists.

Ouran High School Host Club (2011 drama)

The popular romantic comedy about an androgynous young girl who gets caught up with the handsome and flamboyant boys who run her school’s host club was adapted into a live action series in 2011. The adaptation's popularity earned it a feature length movie in 2012 that took place after its broadcast, as well as a spin-off miniseries.

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This 11-episode drama adapts a number of the anime episodes faithfully, with each character remaining true to the source material. But the show actually goes a step further to include plotlines from the original manga. Characters like Ayame Jounouchi are featured more prominently than they were in the anime, and the show’s final episode more closely adheres to the manga than the anime did. The 2012 film also uses a manga-only arc as its plot, while also taking creative liberties with its characters. If you wanted to check out the show for yourself, you'd be in for a fresh Ouran experience!

Much like the live-action Mob Psycho 100, this adaptation also included a considerable number of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai alumni actors in its main cast, as well as one who would move on to Sentai. Tamaki Suou was portrayed by Yusuke Yamamoto, who was previously known for his role in 2006’s Kamen Rider Kabuto as Tsurugi Kamishiro/Kamen Rider Sasword. Yamamoto also had a role in a 2012 live-action version of Great Teacher Onizuka.

The Hitachiin siblings were played by twin brothers Shinpei and Manpei Takagi, the latter of whom played Retsu Fukami/GekiBlue in 2007’s Juken Sentai Gekiranger. Shinpei Takagi had brief roles in Super Sentai history as well! The bunny-hugging Mitsukuni “Honey” Haninozuka and the gothic, photophobic Umehito Nekozawa were played by Yudai Chiba and Ryo Ryusei respectively, each of whom portrayed red Sentai rangers in their careers.

Future Diary: Another World (2012 drama series)

This version of the violent survival game anime is a vastly different take on the source material. While it borrows a few details from the original story, there are notable alterations throughout. Seven people (as opposed to 12) are given cellphones that predict the future and are thrust into a dangerous game where the last person standing can create a new future.

The protagonists of the original series have counterparts in the live-action characters, but with different names and personalities. A major example includes Yuno Furusaki, the counterpart to yandere mascot Yuno Gasai. Furusaki retains her stalker-like affection for protagonist Arata Hoshino and immediately resolves to defeat anyone who would do him harm, but she does not initially display any of the hyper-violent tendencies that her anime portrayal is infamous for. As its own original narrative, it's certainly worth checking out to see how unique it is from its predecessor.

Gegege no Kitaro (2007-2008 film series)

Gegege no Kitaro has seen several anime revivals and films over more than 50 years, including its most recent weekly-airing adaptation. It should come as no surprise that two live-action films came about in 2007 and 2008 (not to mention a live action drama in 1985). Portrayed as a young man rather than a boy as he is traditionally shown, Kitaro works with his yokai friends to defend the human world from evil yokai that would do them harm. Using this “monster-of-the-week” format, the live action movies were able to tell noticeably original stories, albeit borrowing from some of the franchise’s classic arcs. The first film reportedly earned more than 23.4 billion yen throughout its theatrical run.

Kitaro was portayed by Eiji Wentz, an American Japanese singer who also performed the theme song for the first film. Kitaro's father, Daddy Eyeball, was voiced by Isamu Tanonaka, who had voiced the character since 1968. He is known for voicing the character in almost every Gegege no Kitaro adaptation throughout his lifetime!

Black Butler (2014 film)

The demonic butler, Sebastian Michaelis, made a silver screen debut in 2014 with a live-action cast. He was portrayed Hiro Mizushima, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film. He is best known for his starring role in 2006’s Kamen Rider Kabuto. He also starred in the live action adaptations of Gokusen and Beck.

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The overall plot remains the same, wherein a young child’s soul is bound to a demon in exchange for its eternal servitude, but it diverges from the source material in multiple respects. The film is set in a modern nation in the year 2020, a far cry from the anime’s original setting in Victorian-era London. Main protagonist Ciel Phantomhive became Shiori Genpou, a female descendant of the Phantomhives who disguises herself as a male descendant to retain her stake in the Phantomhive legacy. Characters like Angelina Dalles and Mey-Rin see Japanese name changes in their live-action counterparts. The film debuted at number 3 in the Japanese box office during its weekend premiere.

Live action adaptations are something of an institution in the anime world. The adaptations listed here are far from the only ones out there, and they'll likely be around for years to come. With adaptations Cowboy Bebop and Your Name on the horizon, it'll be interesting to see how they'll stack up to the original works!

Have you checked out any of the live action anime adaptations listed here? What anime would you want to see receive the live-action treatment? Let us know in the comments!

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Carlos is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. Their favorite genres range from magical girls to over-the-top robot action, yet their favorite characters are always the obscure ones. Check out some of their satirical work on The Hard Times.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features

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ginmo · 5 years

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I’ve been sure since I read AFFC/ADWD that Jaime’s getting one of the better endings because House Lannister isn’t gonna be wiped out and both Cersei and Tyrion are now Too Dark To Live. But I’ve seen a lot of people rewatching bring up that awful sept fuck up and consensus is that it renders him irredeemable. The show is gonna have to WORK to avoid a million thinkpieces when he gets both power and a family. I’m not convinced they’ll pull it off.

That scene was gross af, but we’ve since learned that the intent of the scene was not for it to be rape. We also know that canon Jaime is not a rapist. So if the narrative intent was for it to NOT be rape (and ended up being just a really bad fuck up from writers, director, post production) then we can’t blame the non-rapist character for the shitty product. What’s gross is they didn’t realize they filmed a rape scene, so people need to shift their blame from Jaime to the filmmakers. If people are really stuck on Jaime being a rapist even though in canon he isn’t and wasn’t even meant to be on the show, then they’re going to really hate the outcome of this story, because there won’t be anything to revisit Jaime being a rapist in the narrative (such as redemption for that) because he isn’t supposed to be. This is why most of fandom acknowledges that scene was an oops from the production and don’t use it to judge the character.

In other words, since the show was doing a direct adaptation of a consensual canon sex scene from the books, thinking their adaption was also a consensual sex scene, then the narrative itself doesn’t need to, and will not, do anything to have Jaime redeem himself for something he didn’t do, but that the filmmakers stupidly did.

My friend Koops went off on this topic a while back, so I’m going to add a read more where I quote her posts. It’s way more than you asked about, and I already answered the question, but I just really love her rant over the sex scene lol. So for those who want cast, crew, and GRRM quotes, discussion of that D&D video people love to refer to, and a total take down of basically why using that scene against Jaime is completely moronic then here it is:

In response to this D&D video:

I don’t think this video disproves anything. The girl is calling it “rape” but they are not once owning up to it. They’re calling it “this” and insisting that’s something Jaime would do in that moment, but it feels to me like what they were trying to do is avoid getting into a debate about whether it’s rape or not, because they know that can get them into all kinds of trouble. ETA: Also, notice how David rolls his eyes towards the end and the person who captioned the video interpreted it as him rolling his eyes at the girl who asked the question. I don’t think he is at all, that was 5 minutes earlier, talk about a delayed reaction. I think he’s rolling his eyes at KIT stepping in just as David had finished answering with that stupid comment calling it rape and saying how great it is that the show has rape scenes, when David had been so careful in avoiding using that word all along in order not to get into an argument. And they’re emphasizing how hard this was for Lena and so on (despite, IIRC, her always saying it wasn’t intended as rape), just to earn feminist points of “we know how tough this is for women, look at how distraught we all were filming it”.If that had been their intention, they would have followed up on it in subsequent scenes/interactions, which is something the show does with rape scenes (see Sansa). Yet it was never mentioned again and it’s like it never happened. I think D&D sometimes have a bit of a rape-style fetish when it comes to sex scenes because it makes them come across as “edgy”. See the way they wrote the broken tower sex scene in the original pilot script or the way they changed Dany and Drogo’s wedding night. But they refuse to admit it and hide behind nonsense like “this is something the character would do”. They want to see how far they can push it, basically.Even if we want to say they’re admitting to have it intended as rape, saying this is something Jaime would do is absolutely ridiculous since not only he saved Brienne from rape but in the books he even has one of his men executed for TRYING to rape Pia. It’s nothing to do about having a linear redemption arc or not, it’s about WHAT kind of “bad things” the character does and whether it’s consistent with its characterization or not. Rape, for Jaime, is absolutely NOT. Equating that scene to Jaime pushing Bran out of a window is completely insane since the two things are dramatically different in motivation and intention and while Jaime is a complex guy that can do horrible things for his family and for Cersei, he doesn’t do them out of his own selfishness, especially when it comes to sex when he even refuses women throwing himself at him. Not to mention the entire point of Jaime’s “bad deed(s)” is that he has to own up to them and deal with them and their consequences. If you just ignore that sept scene ever happened and never deal with it again then you either think it isn’t a big deal, or it wasn’t a bad deed in the first place. Otherwise it adds absolutely nothing to the character’s arc. It’s like they think that a “complex/not good guy” engages into all sorts of “bad behaviour” just by virtue of being complex/not good, which actually does precisely what they’re claiming they don’t want to do; i.e. making a clear cut distinction between good and bad guys, since they’re equating all possible bad actions as being equal and the same and stemming from the same psychological motivations, which is ridiculous. The bottom line to me always comes to the fact that, unlike most stuff post S5, we have the scene in the books, in written format, and we KNOW it’s not meant to be rape. It’s meant to be the kind of gross, rough, angry sex those two have. To change the intention of the scene just because you feel “that’s something the character would do”, to me is not really caring about really understanding the character’s intentions in the first place, since you have source material and an author you can check with. They simply didn’t care in order to get HBO points.

And for some quotes

I find the idea that we are meant to read into Cersei’s actions after the sept encounter in the books as indicative of a woman who experienced rape, or that George did not come out to straight up say the words “I did not write it as rape” (he would never throw D&D under the bus that way, come on) as evidence that it was indeed intended to be rape all along in the books, even more of twisting oneself into a pretzel than trying to explain away the scene in the show as not rape. Neither D&D nor George have ever shied away from calling rape out for what it is in the show or the books. Why would they suddenly tiptoe around this one particular scene? I think it’s because the issue here is much more nuanced than just filming a rape scene; it’s about the grey lines of consent and it’s about changing something from the books to make it look much worse than it originally was intended to be, for a character they know it will be regarded as very controversial/OOC, which raises all sorts of uncomfortable questions about how far D&D are willing to go for shock value. This is what GRRM has to say on the issue (bolded and underlined for emphasis):

“I think the “butterfly effect” that I have spoken of so often was at work here. In the novels, Jaime is not present at Joffrey’s death, and indeed, Cersei has been fearful that he is dead himself, that she has lost both the son and the father/ lover/ brother. And then suddenly Jaime is there before her. Maimed and changed, but Jaime nonetheless. Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her.The whole dynamic is different in the show, where Jaime has been back for weeks at the least, maybe longer, and he and Cersei have been in each other’s company on numerous occasions, often quarreling.The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently. But that’s just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection.Also, I was writing the scene from Jaime’s POV, so the reader is inside his head, hearing his thoughts. On the TV show, the camera is necessarily external. You don’t know what anyone is thinking or feeling, just what they are saying and doing. If the show had retained some of Cersei’s dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression — but that dialogue was very much shaped by the circumstances of the books, delivered by a woman who is seeing her lover again for the first time after a long while apart during which she feared he was dead. I am not sure it would have worked with the new timeline.”

Nothing whatsoever of what GRRM is saying above in explaining how he wrote their sept encounter even remotely hints at the fact that he intended consent to be even a question in his original work. He is not pointing out that he is writing from Jaime’s POV to build a contrast with Cersei’s, he is pointing out that he is writing from Jaime’s POV to build a contrast between the books medium and the camera medium and what each does or does not allow. And he goes further by saying that Cersei’s dialogue from the books might have helped giving a different impression of the scene: i.e. that it was NOT rape. What is happening is George trying to distance himself from D&D’s choice while at the same time being a professional and not bashing their botched adaptation of his work, by explaining why perhaps they might have decided to approach it differently from the way HE wrote the original scene and how maybe some of his material might not have fit because of the timeline.We actually have Cersei’s own POV later in the books, where she reminisces about tons of events from her close and distant past, and not once does she ever think back upon that incident in the sept in a way so as to indicate it was in any way a “traumatic” experience for her, while she does plenty of reflecting back upon her unpleasant sexual experiences with Robert, for example. Meanwhile, Cersei being disgusted with Jaime’s loss of his hand, or the way his looks are changing and his personality is changing, is very much a plot point that she comes back to over and over. “How could I have ever loved such a wretched creature?”, or getting up naked from a bathtub in front of Jaime thinking he still wants her and even taunting him with “Pining what you lost?” and then getting annoyed that Jaime pretty much tells her she’s a fool for thinking that? Hardly dynamics one has with their rapist. And also GRRM also says:

The scene was always intended to be disturbing, but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons.

“It has disturbed people FOR THE WRONG REASONS”, means that he wanted that scene to cause controversy because of how damn gross it all is, them having sex next to the corpse of their incestuous son, not because there was an issue of consent. So, no. The book scene was not intended to have consent be a central point, let alone rape. Yes, something happened in the adaptation to make it come across as significantly more forced, in a way that can very rightfully be interpreted as rape, while at the same time not being intended to be rape for plot point’s sake. But, when it comes to the filming of that scene, this is what the director had to say:

Of course Lena and Nikolaj laughed every time I would say, “You grab her by the hair, and Jack is right there,” or “You come around this way and Jack is right there.“

Yeah. Lena was SO distraught and it was so difficult for her to film that “rape” scene. They was totally totally totally directed to play it as such, and were so serious and affected by it. Give me a break, David. And also:

The consensual part of it was that she wraps her legs around him, and she’s holding on to the table, clearly not to escape but to get some grounding in what’s going on. And also, the other thing that I think is clear before they hit the ground is she starts to make out with him. The big things to us that were so important, and that hopefully were not missed, is that before he rips her undergarment, she’s way into kissing him back. She’s kissing him aplenty.

So there’s two possibilities here: either D&D intended it as rape from the start, but didn’t give clear instructions to the director, and, in turn, Nik and Lena, so that they didn’t set out to shoot it the way D&D intended, or nobody intended it as rape but something was messed up in the editing process (apparently after this scene, they made some changes to the editing process? Not sure how reliable this info is, but maybe someone can dig it out, if they remember). Regardless, what they ended up with is a scene that has some serious, serious issues of consent, and the comments afterwards, trying to downplay the consent in favour of highlighting the context or the way Cersei did give non-verbal consent, only ended up stirring more criticism of the director and actors being rape apologists. So, it doesn’t surprise me if they’ve just given up trying to defend their original intentions, since it only made things worse (and rightfully so), in favour of trying to explain it away the way GRRM did; by trying to make up explanations that the narrative required it and it made sense to be filmed that way.So, to conclude and link everything back to the reason why we are debating this (i.e. “NCW is a misogynist for disliking Dany when Jaime is a rapist and he excuses him”), while I can totally sympathize with a show-only person who watches that scene and sees it as rape, I also think this particular scene is not something we can use in the discourse about Jaime’s character and arc, given that not only there are huge question marks about what was intended with that scene in the first place, not only it is forgotten like it never happened to the point that you could skip it and nothing would change, but we know for a fact that it was NOT what was intended in the original source material by the original author. The one who decides where the characters’ arcs are supposed to go. You cannot say “it doesn’t make sense that Jaime does X and Y in his endgame because he’s a rapist” when that endgame is being decided by someone who never wrote Jaime as a rapist in the first place. All you can say is that D&D messed up big time with that scene because it literally does not line up or fit with anything else that is going on at the time or in the past or in the future when it comes to Jaime.

- Koops (jaimetheexplorer)

#.#..#...#....#.....#sept sex #rape

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thesffcorner · 5 years

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Robin Hood

Robin Hood is directed by Otto Bathurst and it’s a reimagining of the Robin Hood stories. I say reimagining, because this film has barely anything to do with the time period or the actual historical tales, and yet somehow it’s still one of the better adaptations out there.

This film positions itself as an origin of sorts; we start with Robin of Loxley played by Taron Egerton being called into the Saxon army to join the Crusades, except here the army seems to be English(?) and lead not by King Richard Lionheart, but the actual sheriff of Nottingham played by Ben Mendelsohn. After four years of fighting Robin tries to intervene in the execution of a Saracen soldier, the son of John (I know he has a full name, but he’s not credited as such and I don’t remember how to spell it, played by Jamie Foxx), and failing that, he is returned to England. There he finds his property seized by the Sheriff, Maid Marion gone (who in this version is neither a Lady nor a wood smith's daughter, but a thief played by Eve Hewson), and the Sheriff proclaiming him dead. At the behest of John, Robin starts training to become a master thief, the Hood, who will take down the Sheriff from the inside.

I love Robin Hood. I grew up on the stories, and I had an illustrated version that collected all the most famous tales and as such I am familiar with the source material. I have hated every single Robin Hood adaptation Hollywood has shat out, with the exception of the Disney version which is fine, if a bit simplistic and Men in Tights, which is both the closest in tone and execution. This version is at once excellent and batshit insane; I had a lot of fun watching it, and I do recommend it, but it’s not a good film. It has some major problems, and how much you will enjoy this depends solely on how forgiving you are of them for the sake of action and style.

Stylization (Automatic Ballistas? In my movie?):

The stylization of this film is intense and very ridiculous. What I feel like it was going for was Moulin Rouge/Great Gatsby, but what it actually ended up as, is the Matthew MacFadyen Three Musketeers.

Nothing in this film is of the time period; the clothing, the scenery, the castes, the weapons, the way people act and speak. We are introduced to Maid Marian in the first scene of the film, wearing a headscarf while she has on a dress with a cleavage so deep and so pronounced it would be considered raunchy by today’s standards, nevermind the 1300’s! And this is her ‘thieving outfit’.... Right. The moment where Robin tells her she’s stunning I was like… well, her boobs sure are. Robin himself wears regular modern day shirts, leather jackets, and let's not even touch on what everyone is wearing at the party for the cardinal.

The scene where they show the Crusades is so insane I genuinely thought we started watching a different film. It’s shot like a war movie, with lots of tight, worm’s eye perspective shots, and everyone is wearing armor that looks like modern day kevlar vests. There is a ballista which fires arrows like a machine gun and the way people are shooting arrows and crossbows in narrow corridors is like something out of a video game. In fact this whole sequence feels like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed had a child and it was a good indicator as to the rest of the film. I didn’t mind the stylization as much, but there were times, mostly with Robin and Marian’s outfits which made me go “what am I watching??”

Tone (Zero Dark Loxley):

Let me go through just a few scenes as an example of just how wildly inconsistent and fluctuating it really is. The first scene is the meeting between Marian and Robin; it’s supposed to be romantic, something akin (ahem, a copy) to The Princess Bride. But it’s shot so weirdly, and the blocking is stiff and unnatural and the dialogue is just so full of quippy one liners that I felt like I was watching a porno!

Then, Robin gets drafted and the next scene is literary The Hurt Locker, but with arrows and catapults instead of bombs. There is even a fellow soldier Robin is trying to rescue, and like I said, it’s shot exactly like a war film. It was by far the best and tensest part of the whole film, and the action was creative and well shot and edited for the most part, especially the fight between John and Robin.

The scene after that is absolutely brutal and honestly almost too dark for this film. It shows the English torturing the captured Arabian soldiers and has two executions which are brutal. But then, we cut right back to Robin Hood shenanigans with Tuck, and I swear I got whiplash. This happens throughout the film; we have a scene of funny, quippy dialogue between Robin and Tuck or Robin and John, and then bam, the next scene is torture, or a riot.

Plot (Nobody Expects the English Inquisition):

The tone isn’t helped by the fact that the plot of this film is completely ludicrous. It is essentially several heists that culminate in a massive riot/heist, but the plan of the villains makes everything that much more crazy. Warning SPOILERS, but trust me, you want to know the plan.

The Sheriff of Nottingham is working with a Cardinal to finance the Arabian army during the Crusades, so they can beat the English, and presumably win the war, so then I guess the Cardinal can say whoever is King in this (neither Richard nor John are mentioned once) is unworthy of the crown and install The Sheriff as the new King… what? Do the Arabian soldiers know they are being paid by the English? Does the Sheriff’s death squad? Because they seemed all too happy to execute Arabian soldiers and lost a lot of their men in the skirmish. Also, do the cardinal and the Arabs have a deal that after they win they won’t just invade England? Cause that sure seems like something they’d want to do. Also England wasn’t the only country (well it wasn’t even England, but we’ll ignore that for now) fighting in the Crusades. There was Normandy, Lombardy, the Holy Roman Empire…. Are they also in on this plan?

Another thing; the whole bit with the Sheriff wanting to imprison or kill all his subjects who had no money to pay in the mines; who are you going to rule over if your populace is dead? No. Sense.

Characters (Ben Mendelsohn Makes Everything 300 Times Better):

Speaking of the Sheriff let’s talk about his backstory.

Ben Mendelsohn is an excellent actor, and he elevates material that is usually far beneath him to good, even great standards. And he is clearly having the time here; he has several monologues, many scenes of shouting or overacting, and he has really good chemistry with both Egerton and Fox. The scene where he is threatening John is probably the best acting in the film, and I wish the two had more time to spar.

However, this character’s backstory and the way he delivers it is insane. I have to put a SPOILER warning, but trust me, you want me to tell you what it is. The Sheriff apparently was an orphan, raised in a church orphanage, where every night the Lords and Cardinals would come to beat and possibly, heavily implied, sexually assault the children, including him. He has a long monologue about this, where he goes in graphic detail, of which I will spare you here, and he tells all of this to Robin of Loxley who he has, at this point known for a few days at most. Honestly the pure confusion and terror on Egerton’s face during this scene was what I was feeling the whole time. The film makes you remember this backstory, brings it up in both every scene Egerton and Mendelsohn have after this and even have Robin callback to it at the very end in a pretty callous manner, unbefitting of the film’s protagonist. And I have to ask, why? Was the Sheriff being a greedy, immoral man not enough, now he has to be the victim of child abuse and sexual assault too?

Speaking of bad idea characters, Will Scarlet is in this and boy did I hate him. Jamie Dornan is finally allowed to be Irish in this which is refreshing, but by God, he has nothing to work with. His whole character is just set up for a sequel and in this film he just exists so Marian has a reason not to immediately reconcile with Robin. Why filmmakers always feel the need to have Will’s character be some kind of a twist, instead of just playing him straight is beyond me.

Marion, if we ignore the ridiculous outfits she’s forced to wear is fine as a character, but she just doesn’t fit with the fabric of this world. First off, how was she living with Robin (and everyone knew this) without being married to him? And how is she living with Will now without being married to him? Also, how is she allowed to question and attack the Sherrif without being 50 kinds of executed after the first time she dared to speak? She was also a lot more proactive in the whole going against the Sheriff business than Robin, so why he was leader at the end and not her is also beyond me, but what do I know. At least she wasn’t a damsel in distress.

Tuck and John were both fine. I liked them both equally, though John gets a lot more screen time. Jamie Foxx kills every scene he’s in, and I liked that he had his own mini storyline with the Sheriff and his son’s death. I don’t understand why they felt the need to combine the role of Little John and the Saracen character (who in my version of the stories was called Salim), but he was still a great character. Tuck was comic relief, but he was a welcome change from the rest of the film, and he resembled his story counterpart the closest.

Robin Hood himself was a mixed bag. Like Foxx, Taron Egerton is a trooper and he give Robin a lot of charm and life, which this version of the character desperately needs. There are several scenes where he is absolutely frightened, emotional or suffering from PTSD, end Egerton sells it. He is great at the action scenes, has the physique for the part, and brings a charm and a sexiness to the role that really works for the scene where he’s the Lord Loxley.

What doesn’t work (at least not always) is the actual character. Bless his heart, but he has no chemistry with Eve Hewson, no matter how much he tries. He has much more chemistry with both Foxx and Mendelsohn, but the issue is that Marian is his entire motivation. The film resorts to numerous cheezy flashbacks of their romance, scenes of them kissing or longingly looking at each other and it just comes off as ridiculous and forced. If they were going for a Princess Bride vibe, that film worked because a) Cary Elwes and Robin Wright had chemistry b) the film established their love and didn’t rely on flashbacks to convince us they were in love, we just knew it.

I did like that Robin was a bit selfish, and seemed to be doing things just to win Marian back, even though technically that’s not faithful to the stories; it was was a good starting point for the character to grow from. I’m just not sure he grew much at all; at the end of the film he’s still a bit selfish and a bit petty. Things like his PTSD are also never really addressed and explored and though again, it makes sense that Robin being in the wars would suffer from it, I’m not sure Robin Hood is the place to tell it.

Conclusion?

All in all this film was very fun. It doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, and as such it tried to be everything and excels at nothing. However the good acting, fun action scenes and truly bizarre style of the film more than make up for it, and I implore you to go see it, both so you can experience the madness yourself, and so it makes enough money for a sequel.

#robin hood #moni talks #film review #robin hood review

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