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drshojo · 4 years

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The World, My Childhood And My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Hello friends!

Its Dr. Shojo coming at you with a post that will be divided into three parts!

Part One: The world as we know it!

The world has changed a lot since we last connected. For starters, TOILET BOUND HANAKO KUN HAS NOT ONLY A PHYSICAL RELEASE BUT A GORGEOUS ANIME! And not only that, but MY NEXT LIFE AS A VILLAINESS: ALL ROUTES LEAD TO DOOM! IS GETTING AN ANIME AS WELL! The last time I wrote about Katerina there wasn’t even an official English translation of that long-ass light-novel-title. And now?

A WHOLE ANIME. A BISEXUAL HAREM AWAITS! I am JAZZED!

Do you think it’s my fault? No matter, I’ll take all the credit. All the manga I talk about are getting anime adaptations. I’LL DO MY DUTY AND TALK ABOUT SOME MORE!

But first. Let us address the Covid-19 shaped elephant in the room

I deeply regret that it took a whole-ass pandemic to get me back to writing. In my defense, I bought an iPad and started drawing like 900 kokichi oumas. I was really busy with that. And then I started reading fanfiction. Then that got me thinking about how fanfiction such an interesting look into how people interpret fandom, use it for wish fulfillment and escapism, and good god is everyone OK cause that bulimia fan fic was super detailed....and I am officially on a tangent. Off track. Ahem.

We are all staying inside a whole lot more which means y’all probably need some reading material and Dr. Shojo has your back! Go read “Horimiya”! It’s amazing! Ahhhh, my work here is done! I'm serious, if you’re here for a Shojo rec, that’s it! There's also like 8 million more Otome Isekais to check out now. It’s like they’re multiplying like rabbits..............

As a Doctor, I must advise you to stay inside and read some manga and practice social distancing. Embrace your inner hikikomori.

Allright? All good? Okay now one final disclaimer:

This post is going to be talking about something a little different than usual and I want to start by giving you some context about who Dr. Shojo is in real life.

Part Two: Dr. Shojo Exposed

You see, when I was little I was obsessed with Japanese media. This doesn't surprise you at all I can tell. Probably because I walk around calling myself Dr. Shojo and shout about manga that you should read.

Anyways, the reason why I was obsessed wasn’t because of the big eyes or the spikey hair or the interesting new culture. It was because it tended to have more character development and overarching plotlines than the media I was used to in Canada. Dexter’s Lab, Magic School Bus, pretty much everything I saw on TV was episodic in nature, so imagine how much my mind was blown when I saw Naruto and Card Captor Sakura, heck, even Pokémon had the Indigo Plateau! Here were kids that were learning more and more each day and got to see enemies become friends and vice versa. They lived and grew older just like me. Except they were cooler than me. And had more interesting lives than me. I gotta tell you, I was so sad when I was 12 and Kero didn’t tell me I had latent magical powers. But there was magic in my life and it was the magic of a complex narrative story. And not only that, it had a sense of movement and had cool costumes. I was hooked immediately.

Also, fun fact, at that age I happened to be a complete and utter tomboy! I loved pretending to fight my friends in the playground and was really worried that puberty would ruin my life because being a girl sounded so CUMBERSOME.

Which leads me up to my confession. Before I became Dr. Shojo, I was in fact......Dr. Shonen.

Bleach? Naruto? One Piece? I've read every single chapter there is.

Hundreds of hours of watching fight sequences. Another fun fact, I only got into shojo because my aunt bought me volume 7 and 8 of Fruits Basket thinking “all mangas like the same right? Kids love comics?” It’s a tribute to how episodic western media was back then that she thought buying volume SEVEN and EIGHT was a REASONABLE PLACE TO START READING.

Now you might also say, Hey! Dr Shojo! Cardcaptors was a shojo! And you are right! but back then the anime was marketed to boys over here in the west and they actualy like, edited out episodes that they thought wouldn't interest boys?! Second fun fact, Once when I was in Grade 3 I was told I was not allowed to join a club under the stairs cause I was a girl and it was BOYS ONLY. The point of the club? To talk about how great Cardcaptors was! I Kid you not!

So anyways, your pall Dr. Shojo loves Shonen manga to this day!

The only reason I made this Dr. Shojo blog specifically about shojo is because, being a tomboy with no female friends, reading shojo manga was the first time I really thought about what it meant to be a girl and fall in love. And y i k e s. Shojo manga, like most media, fails miserably most of the time in displaying real world relationships. Or at least, it doesn't prepare you for how disappointing everything can be. When I had my first kiss, I was thinking about how it didn’t feel at all like how I felt reading Zen and Shirayukis kiss in Akagame No Shirayuki Hime. Those were formative years, and shojo was one of the only places I saw romance being talked about for younger audiences. I liked reading romances where no one had any sexual experiences and were figuring out what love meant to them. But let’s shelve this topic for now.

The point is that gender roles are dumb and if you have an open mind there's a world of stories out there for you. Take this time inside to read something you wouldn’t normally. Critically think about the ways that the worlds you see in stories and how you experience the world differ. What are the messages a story is trying to tell you? And why do you like the stories you do? Reflect on how the stories you tell yourself color your view of the world. Even mindless entertainment leaves an impression on us. Anyways.

Whilst you're doing that, I'm going to absolutely lose my hecking mind over the Shonen Jump series MY HERO ACADEMIA: Vigilantes!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Part Three: I downloaded the one month free trial of the Shonen Jump app and made you read all that, so I can tell you that today Dr. Shojo is going to rant about a spin-off of a shonen manga

THAT’S RIGHT, OF COURSE I READ HERO ACA AND YES I DID PICK UP THE SPIN OFF SERIES. SHONEN JUMP LETS YOU READ ALL THE NEW CHAPTERS FOR FREE ON THEIR APP. KIDS, IF YOU LIKE SHONEN AND YOU’RE PIRATING ON A SCANLATION SITE STILL GET OUT BECAUSE YOU DON’T NEED TO SEE THOSE WEIRD PLASTIC SURGERY AND DENTISTRY ADDS ANY MORE.

SHONEN IS HERE AND ITS LEGAL AND ITS FREE FOR YOU. GET OFF MANGA FOX OR MANGA ROCK OR WHATEVER THE KIDS ARE USING THESE DAYS.

OK, so by this point in the article you have learned two very important things about me: 1) I love Shonen manga and 2) I read a lot of fanfiction.

Specifically, I read an absolutely biblical amount of My Hero Academia fan fiction and let me tell you, A solid chunk of it is vigilante/ Deadpool / criminal with a heart of gold themed.

So when I saw Hero Aca had a spin off, and it was about vigilantes, I was NOT SURPRISED IN THE SLIGHTEST. Ao3 sure is powerful.

Now, if you will permit me a tangent in a post full of tangents—HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE TOO MANY VIGILANTE AUS. I CAN'T KEEP TRACK OF EM. IT’S THE ISEKAI PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. I GET AN EMAIL A FIC HAS UPDATED AND I’M LIKE IS THIS THE FIC WHERE DEKU HAS AN ABUSIVE MOM OR THE ONE WHERE HE HAS SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER OR THE ONE WHERE HE’S VIGILANTES WITH HITOSHI. OH WAIT, nvm, it’s the one where deku has a healing quirk.

OH WAIT WHICH OF THE 6 DEKU WITH HEALING QUIRK VIGILATE AU FICS IS THIS ONE?! ARGH WHY DIDN’T I WRITE A DESCRIPTION IN THE BOOKMARK FOR THIS!

My gripes aside, there's a reason why there's such an abundance of vigilante story telling—

Deadpool made like an absolute buttload of money and people love sass and memes.

People have a desire for a story in which they see themselves. Or, how they think of themselves.They like a story about someone who maybe came from nothing. Someone who has less money, maybe someone who is unlucky and had some bad breaks. Someone who never learned they had magic, never got their Hogwarts letter, never saw Kero, someone who never got that God-level quirk from All Might. And if your on Ao3 They want someone who also has seen a lot of memes and kind of wants taco bell and is also questioning their sexuality a bit?

Enter our new hero VIGILANTE DEKU.

But the cannon can't do this, cause hey, Deku is the chosen one. Albeit, chosen by All Might, He’s got his own thing to do. But how can we still cash in on a vigilante story?

And thus enter our New-New hero KOICHI HAIMAWARI—code name Nice Guy and then later The Crawler. True to his relatable roots. He’s just a dude in an hoodie who can go about as fast as a bike.

First off, I love Koichi. He wants to be a hero and fight crime, but most of the time he has to run away because at the end of the day he's just a dude.

He’s cute but not wildly good-looking, A bit of a nerd but not like an extreme okaku. He’s got a part time job and hates violence.

And this is where Koichi really shines—in every day stuff. He helps out wherever he can. Often, that just means listening to people complain and maybe helping his friends out with whatever they’re going through. He’s the kind of guy who smiles, not because he's especially brave, but because he just takes things one at a time and doesn't sweat the past. I think it’s really telling that he missed getting into hero high-school because he skipped the entrance exam to help someone. He’s the kind of person who lets us experience the superpower of human decency and empathy. And you know what? That’s something the world need desperately.

This theme of human decency is really the driving force of Vigilantes—it’s a manga about how the laws are there for a reason but sometimes they unfairly impact the poor and vulnerable. It's about how a lot of criminals are just people who fell into bad social circles or on bad times. People have the capacity for cruelty and violence but that’s never all they are.

Now, speaking of crime, the entirety of Hero Aca falls into some murky water when it comes to its evil doers. Much of the fandom has a huuuuuge problem with how much the franchise is willing to sweep under the rug in the name of redeeming their baddies. RE: people getting mad about forgiving Endeavor’s child abuse, or Bakugo’s suicide baiting. Or Mineta’s blatant sexual harassment.

But this theme is in Vigilantes even more than it ever was in the main series. To start off with, there’s this guy who tries to rape Pop Step early on, and the later he later winds up befriending everybody. It becomes a running gag that each new villain winds up befriending the other villain guys and then they all open a cat café together.

Using jobs as a way to lift people out of lives of crime is great and all but in the story there is no nuance or consequences for past wrong and well.....it feels very weird. It's like Vigilantes plays at having an opinion about moral ambiguity and the complexity of human existence and then just.......lets everyone get along because who has time to get into all that. Make of that what you will but it sits weird for me personally.

Anyway, let's move on and talk about POP STEP our main girl!

I love pop stars and I love vigilantes and a guerrilla performer is defiantly a character I could get behind. And I think they do a good job with Pop. She is actually kind of shy, but has this secret edgy persona she puts on when she performs. She is every girl on tumbler in the early 2000s. I also looooove that they make her not that great a singer. SHE’S GOT PASSION AND CHARISMA and maybe not born talent but like why should that stop you! Talent can be earned through practice and this is a great lesson to show people.

Unfortunately, Pop is also a great example of everything wrong with romance in Shonen.

It’s established early on that Pop loves Koichi because she is the girl he rescued all those years ago and yada yada yikes we’ve heard this one before. Many times before.

Sure, it's fine that they’ve met before, but gosh am I sick of damsels in distress. It's like she can't love him just because she respects what a great guy he is in her life and in the community at large, no no, she just needs to be rescued on top of that. And LOLOLOL isn't it funny he never noticed she was a girl because she was a child with short hair?! Once he realizes she has boobs now they will for sure fall in love! That’s how love works!

She's just with him all the time—nothing romantic ever happens she just gets a little tsundere.

I am never ever going to believe Koichi likes Pop because he spends like sooooo much time with her and they never have like, a moment. The first time he considers her is when Makoto is like, ‘hey I would love to get together with you, but have you thought about if you are crushing on Pop’. (Also this entire plot point is suspect—she's arbitrarily falling for Koichi cause he.......is the protagonist?)

Say what you will about shojo, they give you the emotional conversations, the moments where you think.....ahhh I can see why she is falling for him. They give you context! Shonen likes to just say HERE’S A GIRL YOUR AGE. YOU CAN DATE LATER WHEN THE ADVENTURE IS DONE.

Just when they might get together, Pop suddenly turns evilllllll. The evilllll beeeees made her eeeevilllll (and more sexy).

*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

Because why on earth would they get together if Koichi didn’t get to rescue Pop one more time?

I’m tired. These troupes are tired. I’m sure you are too. HOWEVER! If your still with me, Let’s move into why I'm really writing this post. Let’s get to the part that got me screaming to my friends, who by the way, don’t even care bout Hero Aca….but listened anyways. May you all find nakama like these my friends.

Anyways,

HOLY FUCK ERASERHEAD’S ENTIRE BACK STORY IS IN THIS AROUND CHAPTER 60 AND IT IS WONDERFUL AND ABSOLUTLY HEARTBREAKING AND IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTER BACKSTORIES I HAVE EVER SEEN AND IS THE REASON WHY THIS SERIES IS A MUST-READ FOR MAIN SERIES FANS.

AND BY ALMIGHT.

WHY. IS. IT HERE.

I present to you my late night text messages to my friends

ALSO, AIZAWAS TEACHER IS PRINCE?!?!?!

AHEM, so as you can see, I kinda lost my shit.

And now, I would like to formally defend my claim that DESPITE HOW AMAZING IT WAS, ERASERHEAD’S BACKSTORY HAD NO BUISSNESS BEING IN THE VIGILANTES SPIN-OFF MANGA.

Eraserhead, aka Aizawa Shouta, is a side character who is working with the police on some crime stuff. He is not a main cast member in this spin off. He’s a guest character that fans of the main series will be like OH COOL. GRUMPY CAT MAN LIKES CATS ON HIS OFF HOURS TOO. LOVE THAT FOR HIM.

So, my imagine my absolute surprise when Aizawa runs into Koichi and the following happens:

It starts to rain, so, like in any good manga, this means some great FORCED BONDING TIME

Except no. It doesn't because rather than start talking, Aizawa JUST STARTS REMEMBERING—ABSOLUTLY SILENTLY TO HIS OWN PRIVETE SELF—HIS ENTIRE TRAGIC BACKSTORY.

AND THIS GOES ON FOR CHAPTERS.

THIS GOES ON LONGER THEN ARC ONE IT FEELS LIKE.

I LOVE IT, BUT KOICHI IS ABOUT TO JOIN ATSUSHI NAKAJIMA IN THE DUBIOUS CATEGORY OF “PROTAGONISTS THE SERIES FORGOT ABOUT IN LIEU OF COOLER SIDE CHARACTERS”.

AND LO IT HAS NO BEARING ON THE REST OF THE PLOT, CHARACTERS, OR STORY

What the ever-loving-just WHY?

WHY?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

SURE, IT’S A COOL TIE-IN.

YES, OF COURSE I LOVED IT. I SHIP ERASER MIC, I DREW THIS FOR HECK’S SAKE:

AND YET I AM ANGRY.

I AM ANGRY BECAUSE MY FRIDAY WAS RUINED BECAUSE VIGILATES SUCKER PUNCHED ME WITH AN AMAZING STORY THAT REALLY WASN’T PLOT RELEVANT AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE.

IS THIS WHY THEY TOOK LIKE NEXT-TO-NO CARE WITH POPS ARC?!?

I mean its ongoing, so it’s too early to say but—

In conclusion—

Excuse me one more,

AIZAWA WAS TAUGHT BY PRINCE!?!??!?!?!?!? PURPLE RAIN PRINCE!?!??!?!?!? WHAT!??!?!?!

It’s so ABSURD that I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAD TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS TO JUSTIFY YELLING ABOUT THIS ONE THING. WHAT THE ABSOLUTE—

Ahem,

Anyways, I hope you liked this weird rant/personal-story/random-diatribe in three parts.

If you’re reading this, thank you, stay safe, and I’ll be back with more shojo manga next time.

Ciao!

Dr. Shojo

(aka Dr. Shonen)

#my hero academia vigilantes #koichi haimawari #pop step #my hero academia #erasermic #Cardcaptors #Shojo manga #Shonen Manga #Dr Shojo #read Horimiya

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realityhelixcreates · 4 years

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Lasabrjotr Chapter 68: The Huldra Stone

Chapters: 68/?

Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: Mature Warnings:

Relationships: Loki x Reader (There We Go)

Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel)

Additional Tags: Post-Endgame: Best Possible Ending (Canon-Divergent), Loki Has A Bad Time,

Summary: Dancing, anxiety, compassion, mercy, the Huldra Stone

It wasn't that you were trying to avoid Loki, it was just that circumstances kept pulling you apart. He'd been called upon early in the morning, just after you had woken up, and so breakfast and bathing had been separate. Saldis had come by to see if you needed help dressing; you hadn't for a while now, but with your arm still so tender, you had welcomed the help.

She had acted almost in awe, and you quickly found out that the story of you, standing up to a Frost Giant in defense of Asgardian children had flown from one end of the city to the other with the speed of a sonic boom.

People in the halls inclined their heads to you, moved out of your path. Loki was somewhere in the palace complex, dealing with royal duties, and you walked the halls alone now. All the way back to the library, cleaned up now, and with a makeshift door, until a new one could be obtained.

The broken table was gone, and the shelves righted, though there were far fewer people here than usual. You headed to one of the smaller side rooms, where Saga and Lofn were waiting.

“The heroine arrives.” Lofn said without looking up from the harp she was tuning.

“So she has.” Saga said. “And still on time too. How is your arm?”

“Sensitive.” You said. “But it's not getting any worse. The medicine worked really well.”

“Good, because we're going over traditional Buridag music and dances today.”

Lofn strummed her strings.

And you danced.

*****

Loki was moping again. He wasn't even trying to hide it, and though the human ambassadors of Iceland and the human encampments didn't seem to notice, Thor certainly did. He had seen this before, more often after the transplant of Asgard, but also all throughout their lives. The encounter with the Frost Giant was clearly taking an emotional toll on him. Like Thor, he probably thought that he would never cross paths with another Frost Giant again, but the Norns liked to tease sometimes.

With their Icelandic representatives, they had to discuss the disposal of a Frost Giant corpse. The humans were understandably upset at the discovery of unknown alien invaders, left over from a thousand year old war, hidden beneath their feet.

Thor did what he could to reassure them; that evidence gathered from the giants resting site indicated that there were no armies hidden away in the ice. In fact. Heimdall's keen gaze had detected only two more in the ice tunnels, in the entire world, actually.

This did not have the calming effect he had hoped.

“Two! Two hrimthurs still here?” One exclaimed. “One was enough to cause havoc in your city! What chance do we have, if they get out?”

“It was only because we were unprepared. Who would have expected such a thing to happen? However, the two still trapped in the ice are unlikely to cause us problems.” Thor explained. “They are both female, and one seems to be a child.”

He didn't mention the ferocious queen Skadi, who ruled Jotunheim before Laufey took the throne, nor the fact that Loki was child-sized, for a Frost Giant. Heimdall had only given sparse details: Women, no armor, a child. He'd seemed somewhat perturbed by it, and the way he'd looked at Loki had Thor curious. Loki hadn't seemed to notice.

Eventually they agreed to inter the unnamed Frost Giant in a stone barrow on Ok, the site of the destroyed Okjokull glacier. It would be another trip across the country, but Thor was insistent that the giant have a proper place. He hadn't known about the glacier, but the humans seemed to think it would be fitting, and to Thor's surprise, Loki pulled himself into the moment enough to agree.

Another plan to make for an already busy future. It was a good thing that Thor hated to be bored.

With the Trolerkaerhalla representatives he discussed the rules of the upcoming Buridag festivities; what was allowed, what was not, with emphatic warnings not to accept any Asgardian drinks whatsoever.

“Please. Burying so many people before the holiday is already an ill omen, do not fill our time of creation with more funerals.”

They agreed, but Thor decided to have all medics at the ready anyway. Human curiosity was notorious, and it was too likely someone might filch a drink, or that an Asgardian might think it funny to offer one.

After the meeting, he pulled Loki aside.

“You're not here.” He said. “We're going to need you in these next few weeks. You need to be here.”

“I know, I know.” Loki said, but his eyes held that wild and mournful quality Thor had grown to recognize.

“Do you need a few days?”

“It's just..._____ hasn't spoken to me all day, and Buridag is rushing up, and now there's funerals we have to see to. And Frost Giants. There's Frost Giants now, and we're going to dig them out, aren't we? There's a child. Thor, what are we going to do with a Frost giant child?”

“I...I don't know. Raise her?”

Loki grabbed him by the cross straps of his tunic, all mournfulness gone from his features, leaving only the wild.

Thor froze for a second, then grasped Loki's bracers and carefully pried him off.

“Ah.” He said. “Not like that. The woman that's with her must be her mother, or her caretaker. We aren't going to separate them, but we will have to accommodate them somehow. An extra tall apartment, perhaps? Mittens?”

“You cannot joke about this!” Loki exclaimed.

“I'm not. Obviously, we cannot just set them loose on this world. The humans are still coming to terms with us, and we look so similar to them. These Jotnar would seem so different, that there would be no safe place for them to go. Loki...”

His brother had stepped away and was pacing in short bursts.

“Loki. Loki.” Thor reached out to stop his pacing, and drew him into an embrace. “Find your center. You are beginning to spiral. I know. I understand, I do. But this is a good opportunity, isn't it? We can do something to help. I know you must be thinking about it.”

“But what if I mess it up?” Loki whimpered. Thor was glad they were alone here; Loki would have likely killed anyone who heard him like this. “What if I do it all wrong, and she ends up like me?”

“The child?” Thor asked. “Well...she's not an infant, so she probably has some idea of who she is. The circumstances are different here, Loki. And who said it had to be you, alone?”

“No one. But I know it would end up that way. Who of Asgard would want to care for Frost Giants?”

“Even among the giant's most implacable enemies were those who recognized the innocence of a child.”

Loki threw off Thor's arms. “Don't you try to defend him now-!”

“I was talking about Mother.”

“Oh.” Loki grew calm again. “There will never be another like her. I'm the only choice. I'm the only one who's...like them.”

“They're people, Loki, just like the humans. You've discovered a fondness for at least a few of them!”

“Humans aren't ten feet tall and deadly to the touch.” Loki griped. “The woman will try to kill us. She will be too frightened and desperate not to. I do not wish to be involved with that.”

“Then use that silver tongue, and prevent a tragedy.”

Loki breathed in deeply; a familiar sound of annoyance. “Thor...”

“Oh! That reminds me, there is something you should look at.” Thor said, before Loki could unleash his tirade. “Come with me. We probably shouldn't discuss this here.”

He led Loki back to his quarters, half-finished murals showing the barest hints of movement.

He retrieved the soldier's ancient diary, and handed it over. “I haven't read it all the way through. I realized it wasn't for me. Not before you.”

Loki took the book with cautious curiosity and opened it at Thor's huge desk.

*****

I have been scouting this world for some years now. Midgard is vast, that much is very true, but other notes from our records are either wrong, or outdated. The ice that was said to cover great stretches of the globe is simply not there. Perhaps it was once; there is evidence for it. But now, the snows are seasonal, the years short, compared to ours. Permanent ice is found in only a few places. The huge beasts written of in the records are gone. And worse; a small beast has spread far and wide, changing the landscape and hunting the few large animals that are left.

The have not proven hard to kill, but they are very tenacious, and can organize quickly in large numbers.

Perhaps our king would be amenable to a change in plans?

*****

Oh, plans were changed, certainly, but I cannot wholeheartedly agree with their new course. Great Laufey has chosen the route of total eradication. There are so many of these Midgardians that I think it impossible to totally wipe them out.

But Great Laufey has completely committed. He has brought every warrior. He has brought the Queen, even though she is with child. He has even brought the Casket! To bring the very spirit of our world to an entirely different realm seems very dangerous. Though, if it works it will change this world into one like our own, only with more space and resources. We are desperately low on both. Even though I am apprehensive of Great Laufey's decisions, I understand.

*****

The Princess-In-Waiting is here, along with her caretaker. They remain with the Queen, and attend to her needs. I too, am with the Queen. It seems Great Laufey has caught wind of my thoughts on this invasion, and is displeased with me. He has removed me from battle, and tied me to the women. Other civilians will be coming soon. But the Midgardians still remain.

*****

Asgard has come. We should have known. Odin abandoned this place long ago, but the Midgardians still pray, and they have finally decided to answer.

This bodes very ill.

*****

All omens point to failure. All tragedy has occurred. The Queen's child is wrong. He will not survive. The Queen is beside herself with grief; Great Laufey is mad with it. The Princess-In-Waiting mourns her lost husband, lost before his first breath. The armies are routed; Great Laufey cannot lead them. Not like this.

The Queen had withdrawn to Jotunheim, to perform the most tragic of duties. She will offer the infant back to the stars, that he might return someday, in a form that will be able to live and grow tall and strong. But child the size of a Midgardian spawn would never live through a Jotunheim winter, and the Queen is far too kind a soul to put him through the heinous suffering of trying.

*****

Stars receive our lost prince, and treat him kindly. Send him back to save us, for Great Laufey has doomed us all. The armies are gone. Laufey is gone. Asgard has chased everyone back home. The Casket is gone; I can no longer feel its song in the ice.

We received word that the Queen has passed to the stars. May she return to us in safer times. The Princess-In-Waiting and her caretaker are here with me. We are abandoned. We are trapped here, on this warming world.

May the stars receive us.

*****

Tears streamed down Loki's face, as he read on and on. Thor had both his meaty hands on his shoulders, a powerful support that was the only thing keeping Loki from crumpling into a little heap on the floor.

“They wanted me.” It came out as a strangled sob. “They planned for me. None of them ever knew what I was; they all died without knowing. Laufey lost that war because of me. They thought I would return to save them! I returned, all right, but...Norns, what have I done? Will I always leave people in mourning?”

Wherever you go, there is war, ruin, and death!

They wanted him. They had staked hopes on him, on what should have been the joyous occasion of his birth. They mourned him, he could see it in the raised lines of thick ink, how they wavered. A soldier who couldn't protect his people. A mother who hadn't named him. A little girl he was supposed to love.

He had betrayed them all.

“What if that's what the Norns have decreed for me? My very birth brought death. I was supposed to die.”

“No, no. Loki, a child is at fault for nothing. Laufey chose to wage his war like that, and he chose to fight Asgard when he didn't have to. If he hadn't started slaughtering humans, he might even have succeeded in colonizing this world. But he didn't chose peace. That is not your fault. Odin taking the Casket was not your fault. The lies they told us were not your fault. What can a baby do?”

Thor squeezed his shoulders.

“You should take some time. Go see if _____ is ready for lunch.”

Loki closed the book. “I'm not sure she wants to see me. She didn't talk to me at all this morning.”

“Well, you did yell at her.”

His shoulders sagged. “I know. I wanted to apologize.”

“Then go apologize!” Thor shoved him towards the door.

*****

You didn't know what you had really expected from traditional Asgardian court dances, but that amount of leaping hadn't been it. Big, graceful ballroom dancing, sure, and there was some of that: so close to a waltz, but not quite. Line dances that were like something you imagined your medieval ancestors might have done. And just so much leaping. Even at leisure, it seemed Asgardians had to show off their athleticism. You didn't know if you would have the energy to keep up.

Especially after all of the elaborate ceremonies you would have to perform in.

Normal Burigag celebrations did consist of a lot of dancing, and co-ordinated chants of ancient decrees all the way from Allfather Buri's time. They were in a form of the Asgardian language that was archaic even to them, and you didn't understand a word of it. Saga had finally just written the words out phonetically for you to pronounce, even though you didn't really know what they meant. You would just have to memorize the sounds they made.

As a royal Seidkona, you would have a special drum to play, and you were learning how to do that too. You would never be a professional drummer, but you could hold the beats they gave you. There were songs you had to sing, along with the other Seidkonas of Asgard, and a dance you would have to perform with them, and your drum.

And then there were the other things; the things that seemed very old, and very magical, and more than a little worrisome to you.

There was a Buridag sacrifice, of a live ox, and you were not excited about that. You wouldn't be allowed to leave while this was happening; it was Thor and Loki's responsibility to make this sacrifice, and you would have to attend Loki. People would be looking at you, watching your actions and reactions.

They would sacrifice that ox, and you would have to endure, and then it would be cooked for the gathered crowd, along with all the other dishes. There would be toasts, and you would have to drink them all, but you had been promised that special wine, instead of Asgardian drinks, so you would survive.

Then there was the thing you were most uncomfortable with. As part of your Seidkona initiation, you would have to 'mix blood' with the person you were sworn to, and in this case, due to the station you would be stepping into, that included both Thor and Loki. All three of you would be cut, bleed into a bowl, that bowl would be spilled onto the ground...and that would mean something. Something profound. It would make you something different than what you were now. It would make you somehow more real.

There was something frightening about it, deep down. It felt like something cavemen might have done, something primal. If there was magic in it, it was beyond ancient.

There was so much to keep track of, and you were just hurtling towards it. You had to count on Loki to keep you steady and help you navigate.

“Well, I think that's enough for now.” Saga said, and you sagged in exhaustion. “It looks like it must be lunchtime, and a greater force than I has come to collect you.”

You turned to see Loki peeking in the doorway. You couldn't help but notice that though he was dressed in official finery, and held a picnic basket on one arm, he looked distressed.

“Lunch?” He asked, raising the basket.

“Go get.” Lofn whispered.

You trotted out the door, proud of the things you had learned so far that day, but wondering what the troubles might be.

“You seem worried.” You said, out in the hall.

“Yes, I suppose I am.” He said. “These new developments have got me...”

“Stressed?” You suggested. He sighed.

“Courtyard?”

“Actually, I was thinking the Huldra Stone.”

“Sounds good.”

The huldra's stone was a landmark now, set in front of what was going to become the Asgardian House of Justice, the building that was going to be communally constructed during the Buridag festivities. It was meant as a reminder that justice required mercy, thoughtfulness, and compassion. It wasn't enough to merely punish transgressors; sometimes you needed to put in the effort of fixing what had been broken.

There was a little patch of green surrounding the stone, and Loki set out your lunch on it, as you placed your hand on the stone and asked permission. The flowers here had faded much earlier than they would have back home, and you knew Autumn was in full swing, but this bit of green persisted.

“So.” You said, sitting next to him. The air was a little brisk, so you pulled his cape around yourself, and he made no move to stop you. “Still shook up over the giant?”

“Naturally.” He said wearily. “This is a terrible thing to happen so close to such an important holiday. It's the symbolism of the whole thing. Our new beginning, stained with tragedy from a generation ago. It's as if the past reached out to stab in spite at our future. I do not want my past coming back here.”

That last part was said so quietly, you weren't sure you'd caught it, but he continued on.

“Seven funerals to conduct. One almost all the way across the island. I'm afraid I have to drag you out onto the road again.”

“I can handle that.” You said.

“It's almost winter.” He countered. “You weathered summer travel fairly well, but this will be a much longer trip, and over rougher terrain. We will not always be on a road. There will be camping.”

“Yeah, but didn't we want to do that anyway?”

“Not until spring! And certainly not with an entire entourage, and most certainly not for a Frost Giant's funeral!”

“Well, we've got to bury the poor guy. I mean, we can't just...leave him.”

“No. But I do worry for your safety in all this.”

You patted his knee. “I'll be okay. People live here year round, after all. We've figured out how to survive.”

He sighed again. “About the giant...”

“Yeah. I know. I mean, I understand. But you get that I couldn't really have done anything different, right?”

“Yes. As much as I might wish otherwise, you were put into a situation where you had no good options.” He grabbed a cookie and a pot of thick cream. Scooping some up, he handed it to you. “I should not have berated you so. I became too overbearing in my panic.”

You graciously accepted the creamed cookie for the peace offering that it was.

“And I get it. I know you weren't really mad at me, just freaked out by the whole situation. Don't make a habit of it though. I'm not really into getting chewed out like I was still a little kid.”

“No, of course not. However...” He took a bite of his own cookie. “There has been another development that has left me very stressed. We discovered this morning that there are two more.”

“Giants?” You asked. “Still in the ice?”

Loki nodded. “I'm afraid so.”

“Damn. Well. Are we just gonna leave them there?”

“You are not the first person to suggest that. But no. My brother has decided to dig them out.” Loki sighed again, a little dramatically, like Thor's decisions were mere antics that he had to clean up after. “Their bodies may be what's generating the ice down there, but Thor is convinced that this 'Climate Change' thing is putting their slumber at risk.”

“Oh.” You said. “Yeah, that's a thing. Geez, we never had to think about that before. Normally, the only things that thaw out of glaciers are like, woolly mammoths and stuff like that. Now we gotta wonder if we're gonna be thawing out ancient battalions of giant mega-soldiers.”

“Indeed. What's a 'woolly mammoth'? Nevermind, I shall look it up another time. It seems that these two are not likely to be soldiers, however. Both are female, and though that doesn't exactly count them out as warriors, the fact that one is a child makes it unlikely.”

“A child?” You asked in surprise. “Why would anyone bring a child to a war zone?”

“The war was merely the front of a colonizing effort. They intended to put down roots here. We know now how poorly that attempt went, but they were optimistic at the time. Or obstinate. There's evidence for both.”

This must be what had him so shaken up. Loki was very unambiguous in his dislike for Frost Giants, specifically. To have Asgard attacked by one, just when they were getting back on their feet must have been terrifying. To have two more waiting, two that he definitely could not attack out of hand without becoming a total monster, must be nerve wracking.

“What are we going to do?” You asked.

He leaned back against the Huldra Stone, perhaps contemplating justice or mercy.

“What else can we do? We are going to adopt them.”

#lasabrjotr #loki (marvel)#loki x reader #thor (marvel)

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masterskywalkers · 4 years

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So here’s the thing.

Greedfall is full of hidden meanings and symbolism, and it’s overarching message is colonialism is bad. That it doesn’t matter how well your intentions are, you are still destroying and dismantling a whole other culture and way of life. Those good intentions are still disguised by acts and desires of selfishness and a lack of wanting to embrace and understand that which is different. You see it all over the place in the game, and the game is literally slapping you in the face and telling you ‘this is bad’. The merging of villages, the act of ignoring the truth of a religions origins because it doesn’t fit the narrative your land built on that, the experimentations, the killing.

You go through this entire game as De Sardet seeing and witnessing these injustices, all of which are committed by the other factions you’re trying to ally with. I’d honestly say the best of the factions for not trying to take and interfere with the natives are the nauts, but even they’re not exempt due to their history of the first visit to the island (and later in the history, the taking of natives to the continent which is basically human trafficking by today’s standings).

While this is happening De Sardet is still searching for a cure and also learning about the true roots of his heritage. You start to see more of the injustice the more they discover who they are, and unless you’re playing in a way that is indifferent to what’s going on you see even further how the tremors of the underlying tone and message of the game.

Just because something is new and unexplored for one party, doesn’t mean it isn’t already home and a way of life to another. It deserves to be as undisturbed as any other way of life does, and just because one does not understand does not mean that they are suddenly better than what they see as inferior. The natives have a society, a religion, a system that they live by, and it is just as valid as anything else.

Now, on to how Constantin fits into this.

Constantin is - at least before his madness - the least threatening to this way of life. Is he still a disturbance to it? Absolutely, all the new factions on the island are an invading force. But as far as we know, he is the most caring in his governance. There is no zealous religion burning the natives gods and people, there is no hidden experimentation carried out by doctors unlike that of the Bridge Alliance. I say as far as we know because both Thélème and the Bridge Alliance had these actions happening in the background of their governments for the most part, and in the case of things happening in the shadows beneath Constantin’s governance we only really know of the Coin Guard’s rebellion.

The game is a tragedy however, no matter what ending you take. The kindest governor becomes sick with the very illness his cousin is searching desperately for a cure for - and it is a sickness born from the experimentation of those in the Bridge Alliance and their desire to know ‘what will happen if...’. Constantin, as young and as full of live as he is fears his inevitable death, and he begs his cousin help him ‘before the madness takes him’.

The madness is key here - because although Constantin does eventually ‘get better’, he isn’t really himself anymore. My interpretation always was that he fell into that madness anyway through various reasons; the inevitably of his supposed fate, the illness itself, and also the power he feels from the ritual used to save him.

Constantin was fated to die, and die he did. Because the Constantin that was born from his madness, fear and taste of power is not the Constantin that we’ve known up until now. Constantin even says at one point ‘I’ve never hurt anybody, never taken anybody,’ and he hasn’t - until he has a taste for power and yearns for more.

He becomes a threat due to his circumstances, and the madness and yearning for more twists him to the point he does become a threat ... and there is where he becomes the embodiment of the game’s main theme. That colonialism is bad, and wrong, and that even those with the best hearts can grow to yearn for more in a dangerous way.

Constantin is not a bad person. And that’s the tragedy. De Sardet and those who have travelled with the two cousins know this, which is why it’s such a shock and such a difficult thing to face him at the end. Because they know he has to be stopped before that order and balance is disturbed forever, plunging the world into disarray.

But the way I always played it for Caleb at least, is that Caleb also saw that Constantin is a pawn as much as everyone else is. None of what happened to him would have happened had it not been for a desire to prove himself to the people who thought he was a waste of space, or worthless - and again, the game is a tragedy, because Constantin ultimately fails in this too.

Greedfall to me had another theme running through it too, and that was how far would you go for someone you loved? A member of your family - by blood or found - that you have known your whole life and who has always been a constant. When you see them fall down a dark path, what do you do? The good ending is called a good ending because you’re killing what Constantin stands for metaphorically, whereas the bad ending you’re embracing those bad themes. But the game is absolutely brilliant in its writing because it makes you question that decision. You know killing Constantin is the best thing, the right thing to do, but you’ve had enough time to know and understand this character as well as the bonds he has built with people, and you’ve seen the downfall for yourself. There is no option to save him from his fate, but because you’ve grown to know and hurt for this character you’re suddenly thinking if you will kill him. He’s as much a victim of his circumstances, despite now being the main ‘evil’ you face.

I had Caleb save Constantin not because I didn’t like the other ending, or because I saw a ‘cute, blond character and he became a child that must be protected’ because he absolutely does need to answer for his actions! He was wrong. I had Caleb save Constantin because, at the end of the day, I had been playing and building Caleb’s story up until that point as a man who deeply loved his cousin, who was as dependant on him as Constantin was to him. Who couldn’t imagine living in a world without the one constant he’s always had, because Caleb was terribly frightened he would never survive in a world without Constantin. That the weight of essentially murdering one of the people he loved the most would be enough to kill him too. I was playing with the intent of thinking both these cousins had a fatal flaw, and in the end it cost greatly.

The themes are there, and that is so very obvious. And I really hope that people understand that a choice to save Constantin is not a big ‘I see your colonialism themes, but fuck that’ because it isn’t. I fell in love with Greedfall as a game and a piece of writing because of the levels it has in it in terms of meaning and choice. And while I know there are those out there who did save Constantin simply because he was ‘fav boi, best boi’, there are also those who, like me, saved him in a playthrough for numerous other reasons, including that of being a complex character, the way they roleplayed or saw the connection he and his cousin share, or for other reasons and interpretations people saw.

#i’m not putting this in the tag because i don’t want to rustle any feathers #i don’t make it a secret that i had caleb save constantin in the end #but although i often talk about a ‘what if’ scenario after the bad ending #i really hope people know and understand that it’s not because i don’t see nor ignore the underlying important themes of this game #i would love to explore caleb’s au where he works as governor to flush out those abusive influences that bring harm to the island #but i also like exploring the implications of how two people’s choice for one another can have a tremor effect on everything else #idk i just saw some things this morning and felt a bit ‘... oh’ and down since i know i talk and share a lot about caleb’s end game

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queermediastudies · 4 years

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The Heteronormative Queer Film Brokeback Mountain

youtube

The movie that I decided to review was Brokeback Mountain with the director Ang Lee. I decided on this movie because of the impact it made on American society. Never in my life was queer media brought to my attention until this movie was released. The movie featured and followed the lives of two main characters; Jack Twist, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Ennis Del Mar, played by Heath Ledger. The plot of this story was complex with the turns it took and the dissatisfaction the viewer gets after watching the end of the movie. Both characters are in Wyoming looking for a job. The two of them get paired on a job that herds sheep around broke back mountain protecting them from getting killed and eaten by coyotes. Over time on the mountain, Jack Twist ends up making a romantic move on Ennis Del Mar resulting in the two having sex. Their feelings start to develop into true love for one another. After the herding season is over, they go separate ways, leaving their love on the side. Over a period of about twenty years, the two continually get together to meet up at broke back mountain to have sexual relations and fulfill their inner love for one another. As time passes, the two aren’t able to meet up any longer since their lives have gotten more serious. Jack Twist ultimately leaves the United States to go to Mexico, ending with him being killed. To critically analyze this movie was difficult considering the movie has always been seen as very progressive. Throughout my analysis I was able to identify that while Brokeback Mountain did make queer media more visible, I argue that the movie still widely reinforces the theme of heteronormativity.

Within this movie there were many themes the movie had that stood out as important pieces to point out during my analysis. The first theme I was able to identify was masculinity. I noticed this theme throughout because the two men didn’t feel comfortable doing certain things that made them possibly seem feminist. In the movie, Ennis Del Mar doesn’t talk much especially things that bring up emotions in him. I noticed this when he talks about his parents dying and him having to be raised by his two older siblings. This connected to masculinity because it is often seen in American society that crying is not a masculine attribute or action.

The other major theme that I noticed was the idea of binary oppositions. The two men felt like they had no option to come out as gay to the people they loved. They felt like they had two options of sexuality; gay or straight. The men felt like they couldn’t ever come out as gay based on what could possibly happen to them if people found out. They never felt like there was more than two options, like being bisexual.

Another major theme that I identified was the theme of suppressed love. The whole movie is about the idea that the two men are deeply in love, but they cannot seek this love and accept it as normal. They have wives to hide that fact to themselves and others that they really are in love with one another. The two men are never able to fully pursue their love for one another and live a life without suppression. This suppression helped enforce the idea of heteronormativity because gay love is suppressed in favor of heterosexual relationships.

Throughout watching this movie, I was able to identify many different themes or ideas that connected to what we have talked about and learned in class. To start, I want to first address the idea of heteronormativity. Heteronormativity is essentially the idea that heterosexual relationships are the norm. As scholars Benshoff and Griffin stated, “Heterosexuality came to mean the “normal” orientation of male-female attraction and desire, while homosexuality remained its “abnormal shadow”.”(Benshoff and Griffin, 2004, p.3). This mean exactly what it says, heterosexuality is seen as the normal and homosexuality is seen as abnormal. This theme of heteronormativity is why I believe this movie is still problematic. While they are having gay relations, it is still seen as wrong and “abnormal” to the general public. The characters know this and is why the two never fully pursue their love for one another.

The other course concept that I felt related to this movie and the problem of it reinforcing heteronormativity is binary oppositions. As described by scholar Andersson, “oppositions that is gendered and involve relations of power because one of the poles in the dichotomy is always inferior to the other.” (Andersson, 2002, p.5). This connects to the movie because of the binary opposition of heterosexual and homosexual. The idea that heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality is very apparent in the film through the idea that they can not be openly gay because of what others might think of them/do to them. Binary opposition of homosexuality and heterosexuality ultimately help reinforce the idea that since homosexuality is seen as “abnormal”, heterosexuality is the normal.

The last idea that the movie brought up that helped enforce the idea of heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexual people may watch the movie and experience queer ideas. This helps enforce heteronormativity because it makes it seem like everyone should experience the same things as people within the queer community. I argue that this is problematic because it pushes the idea that we are all the same. Yet, this is not the case. We as humans are so different and diverse and we aren’t supposed to be the same. I realize that it is helpful for people to experience queer elements, but I think some things are only understood by the community that is portrayed. In the case of this movie, I think the director tries to make the viewer feel like they can feel what the characters are going through. This is not the case. People can not truly understand what others are going through unless they’ve experienced it themselves. For the movie, I believe it is important for the viewer to feel empathy for the characters but what is problematic is the idea that we can see what they are going through and can experience that too. A quote from the Doty readings hit on this idea and states, “Basically heterocentrist texts can contain queer elements and basically heterosexual, straight identifying people can experience queer moments.” (Doty,1993, p.3). This quote points out how even queer media is made for heteronormative societies in which that is the normal. This overall helps reinforce heteronormativity by trying to create a movie that can feed heterosexual viewers information on what it is like to be queer when heterosexual viewers might not truly understand the ideas the movie is getting at. I know in my own personal case, without taking this queer media studies class, I would’ve thought that I truly know what it feels to be a gay man whose love is suppressed. Yet, I know now that I will never really know what that situation feels like unless I experience it myself.

One thing about the movie that I felt was problematic in addition to heteronormative views, is the representation of queer love. Although I realize this movie is meant to take place in a much different time then now, the movie portrays gay love as forbidden love. The characters are never able to embrace their sexuality and rather hide it by having wives and kids for the two main characters. I do not identify as a person who is in the LGBTQ community but to me this reinforced the idea that queer love is forbidden love that must ultimately be hidden or not pursued at all. The idea that love that has to be hidden if it is queer, forces many to follow to heteronormative model and not pursue gay love even if that is their sexuality.

All in all, although I am very critical of the movie, Brokeback Mountain, I overall liked the movie a lot. The impact it made on society ultimately had greater positive impact on society than negative. Even though the movie is portraying heteronormative values, it does a great job at providing queer media visibility. Understanding my own subject positionality also has had a major impact on my analysis. Like I mentioned, I am not homosexual, nor a member of the LGBTQ community. This itself skews my views. I am a white cisgender male who does not experience the same hardships that person within the LGBTQ community does. I’m in a country of privilege and I experience many privileges that others do not. At the end of day, I am very lucky to be in the position I am in where I can go to school and learn more about queer media and lifestyle while also writing about it. In conclusion, although my views are skewed from my own subject positionality, I was able to determine that while the movie Brokeback Mountain did make queer media more visible, I argue that the movie still represents heteronormative ideas and values.

References

Andersson, Y. (2002). Queer Media? Or; What has queer theory to do with media studies? Stockholm: University of Stockholm.

Benshoff, H., & Griffin, S. (2010). Queer cinema the film reader (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Routledge. Taylor & Francis Group.

Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis u.a.: Univ. of Minnesota Press.

#QueerMedia #BrokebackMountain #heteronormativity #homosexuality #Masculinity #LoveIsLove

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628updates · 4 years

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《 HELLO DRACULA 》

JTBC Drama Festa | 2 episodes

🗓 Feb 17-18 | ⏰ 9:30pm KST

ENGLISH SUBS

EPISODE 1

EPISODE 2

VIDEOS (Teasers, Behind-the-scenes, etc)

📺 NAVER TV

📺 YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

🔗 GOOGLE DRIVE

PLOT (from ASIANWIKI)

Three neighbors face problems that they want to avoid, but they grow by facing their dilemmas.

Story 1 Anna (Seohyun) lives with her mother Miyoung (Lee Jihyun). Anna lives her life according to her mother's wishes, but she has a secret that she can't tell anyone.

Story 2 Redevelopment project of the area where Yoora (Go Nahee) and her family live is carried out. Yoora and her family have to leave the neighborhood.

Story 3 Seoyeon (Lee Joobin) is the vocalist of an indie band. She is obsessed with superstitions. Seoyeon can't get over her ex-boyfriend, who left her 1 year ago.

CAST

Anna - Seohyun

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION (From JTBC Official Website | Rough Translation by @628Updates)

#GoodDaughter #ElementarySchoolTeacher #Turning30Soon

"I'll never be the person mom wants me to be.”

She didn't have much chance to live life her own way. She has always been careful so as not to disappoint her mom Miyoung. It was when she was in middle school that she found out that she liked women. Anna expected her mother to be on her side, but Miyoung turned coldly away. She can’t be accepted as ‘who she is’ by her mom. Such frustration dominated Anna's life. After receiving a goodbye call after 8 years from Sojung, who she has loved the most, Anna's world, which she has managed to sustain, is crumbling. Anna wants to run to Miyoung and, without reserve, be accepted for everything, but on the other hand, she wants to hide it to her until the very end.

Miyoung - Lee Jihyun

Seoyeon - Lee Joobin

Yoora - Go Nahee

Jihyung - Seo Eunyul

Jongsu - Oh Manseok

Sangwoo - Ji Iljoo

Sojung - Lee Chungah

PROGRAM INFORMATION (From JTBC Official Website | Rough Translation by @628Updates)

When my mind becomes infinitely weak,

Deep down, the problems that lie reveal it's teeth sharply,

A night that bites and shakes me.

So we're going to have to deal with this deep-seated problem.

Let's compare it to a Dracula.

Long night, how do we avoid this powerful Dracula?

You pretend you didn't see Dracula and pretend you're still sleeping.

Even if you're tired of the attack, if you hang in there, it's morning.

But unless you get rid of Dracula, the night will continue to be scary.

If we want to get rid of Dracula, we have to face it after all.

Even if that's the problem that we want to ignore the most in our lives.

STILL CUTS + POSTERS + ADDITIONAL INFO (From News Articles | Rough Translation by @628Updates)

"Hello Dracula," which is scheduled to air on February 17 and 18, unveiled the still cuts of Seohyun, who turned into "Anna", an elementary school teacher with a secret. From her warm gaze towards the children to her deeply troubled eyes, it amplifies expectations, teasing a delicate emotional acting.

Seohyun's transformation, who returned with a more mature look, stimulates expectations. Anna, an elementary school teacher, has a milder and warmer atmosphere than anyone else when she is around children. You can feel the warmth of Anna's heart by treating students with a friendly smile and deeply sympathizing with a troubled child. But Anna’s face, carrying a cell phone, in another photo, catches attention with an opposite atmosphere. Eventhough she looks calm, her worried eyes add to the curiosity about the story of Anna, who keeps a secret she could not tell.

To her mother, Miyoung, Anna is a good daughter that she can be proud of anytime, anywhere. But as Anna wants to be recognized/accepted as who she is and reveals the story she has been putting off to Miyoung, the mother and daughter face each other's true feelings. The honest story of a realistic mom and daughter is expected to create a sense of poignant emotion and empathy. Expectations and attention are focused on the synergy between Seohyun and Lee Jihyun, who will portray the inner story of a mother and daughter.

'Hello Dracula' raised expectations by releasing a teaser poster that stimulates emotions. The lonely mood of Seohyun, who is lost in thought with her head down, adds curiosity to her story and secret.

'Hello Dracula', which teases a warm-hearted "healing" drama, got the viewers excited. In particular, the story of Anna and Miyoung, received hot attention from the teaser video, with their sincere story about a mother and daughter. Meanwhile, the teaser poster revealed Anna's lonely and sorrowful feelings. Standing alone in the school hallway, Anna is bowing her head in thought. You can feel complex emotions that are hard to describe in her deep gaze. The phrase "Will this kind of 'me' be okay?" next to Anna, stimulates curiosity about her deep-seated wound.

Anna is a good daughter who has never rebelled against her mother, and a warm-hearted person who embraces wounded children. After leaving her lover, who she has loved the most in her 20s, Anna decides not to be a good daughter anymore, as her burdensome daily life collapsed. As Anna reveals her innermost thoughts to be recognized as "the way she is", the mother and daughter face each other’s true feelings. Looking forward to Seohyun's transformation, which will present a heart-rending impression with her delicate emotional performance and give empathy with a realistic story.

'Hello Dracula' released its main poster. The three stories of different colors stimulate expectations of what kind of sympathy and consolation they will convey.

The first thing that attracts attention is the phrase "The moment to face the 'us' we put off" in the main poster that was released. Here, it adds to the curiosity of the different views and feelings that come between a lover, a friend, a mother and a daughter. Anna and Miyoung's mixed gaze suggest the relationship between the two, who are unable to get close to each other and only go against each other. The familiar distance raises questions about the inner thoughts that a mother and daughter could not easily bring up.

'Hello Dracula' which will provide warm sympathy and consolation with realistic stories that may be around us, is adding to expectations as the veil is removed.

Actress Lee Chungah, who plays any character charmingly, plays the role of 'Sojung', Anna's lover who she has loved the most and left at the end of her 20s. It is expected to add weight to the story with a deep emotional performance that reflects the heart of a long-time lover. Meanwhile, the rookie actress Lee Jaein, who has been noted for her changeable appearance and solid acting skills, plays 'Anna' during middle school. It is expected to capture viewers' hearts by portraying an incident that is key to the narrative of Anna and her mother Miyoung.

INTERVIEWS (From News Articles)

"Anna is a character who bears the weight of the world on her shoulders while fiercely making the effort to show her mother, the only family she has in the world, that she is living her life confidently. To me ‘Hello Dracula’ is a drama that I want to share with many people, something I’m excited about waiting for. It’s a warm and touching human drama, and I hope that it becomes that sort of gift to the viewers, as well.

- SEOHYUN

"Seohyun perfectly portrayed the character Anna who has a scar on her inner self. Even the detailed changes in emotions were expressed deeply. If you follow Anna's everyday life, before you know it, you will be moved to tears and then make you smile again. Please look forward a lot to the heart-warming drama 'Hello Dracula'."

- PRODUCTION TEAM

" 'Hello Dracula' is a drama that can warmly caress the worries of the youth... While filming, the weather was cold, but the atmosphere at the scene was so warm that I was greatly comforted. It was an honor to participate in such a great project."

- LEE JOOBIN

"It is going to be a time to face and heal wounds, just as the characters in the drama have shown their hidden feelings. I hope you get some warmth through 'Hello Dracula.'

- PRODUCTION TEAM

"Trustworthy Actors & Actresses Oh Manseok, Ji Iljoo, Lee Chungah and Lee Jaein will be featured as special appearances, adding strength to the three growth stories. The performance of the cameo roles will be another point of observation."

- PRODUCTION TEAM

"A lot of effort was put into casting actors/actresses who will be able to capture each character’s delicate emotional lines. Everyone's deep acting showed a different side that they have not shown in the past. I think you can look forward to it. I am also grateful to the actors/actesses with special appearances for their excellent performance playing important roles. Please look forward to their impactful acting as well."

- DIRECTOR KIM DAYE

"It seems ordinary, but when we look back, realistic moments & tough stories of everyday life are contained in 'HELLO DRACULA'. Please watch the stories of the characters that seems like our own stories till the end. Anticipate the ending that will create a small ripple in our hearts."

MORE INTERVIEWS FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE

https://www.soompi.com/article/1382999wpp/girls-generations-seohyun-talks-about-her-character-in-hello-dracula-working-with-lee-ji-hyun-and-more

#seohyun #seo juhyun #snsd seohyun #snsd #girls' generation #소녀시대 #서현 #서주현 #hellodracula #안녕드라큘라 #jtbc #jtbcdrama #koreandrama

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howlandreads · 5 years

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The Tragedy of Daenerys Targaryen

I really expected to hate this episode. Even though I was sure it was going to confirm the majority of my predictions, I thought it was going to be a misogynistic and racially ignorant mess along the way. But despite D&D's past failures, this was a tragic and heartbreaking episode, and if everyone is honest with themselves, it's an episode that's been destined to happen for a long time. I still belive there are legitimate and significant criticisms of this episode, but I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. Though I think GRRM's inevitably better, and real version of this story is going to be very different than this, I think this episode is still loosely based on the ending GRRM has in mind, and it shows.

I have a thousand thoughts about this episode and what it means for the past and future of both GoT and ASOIAF, but I'm mostly going to talk about D*ny in this post.

After reading D*ny's POV I came to the conclusion, like many readers, that her's is not a hero's arc, but rather a slow decent into darkness. There's many reasons why I never saw her as a True Hero: a typical protagonist spends their arc acheiving a higher morality than the rest while the majority of D*ny's story is spent coming to an antislavery conclusion that Westeros has already reached, she frequently indulges her cruelest traits, despite feeling guilt afterwards she never seems to learn from her mistakes, apparent foreshadowing that she will burn King's Landing and the innocent smallfolk along with it, etc. But despite these things I never saw Book!Dany as a True Villain figure (Show!Dany on the other hand is definitely going to become a True Villain). I see her more as a slow motion tragedy.

She starts ASOIAF as a young girl that's had her innocence violently stolen from her by the brutal murder of her family, the abuse from her brother, and life on the run. Then she's sold to a war lord, and forced to endure significant abuse and trauma at his hands. And to cope, she chooses to believe she's in love with him, if only to live through the trauma. Then she has the floor ripped out from under her when, after she's chosen to adapt and survive this life, she loses both her husband and her child. And in this moment of extreme hurt and confusion, she fully embraces Viserys' dream - to be a dragon and to claim the Iron Throne.

Throughout her journey for the Iron Throne, she reminds herself that the path of bodies she's leaving behind is just a price that has to be paid. Of course I think she has redeeming moments along the way, like freeing the slaves, trying to outlaw slavery, and feeling genuine horror over what she's done to Meereen. But, overall, she remains a selfish and self-contained character. She views what's best for her as what's best for the world, and will stop at nothing to acheive it.

I don't say that she's destined to go dark because I want to discount her trauma, I say it because of her trauma. She was continuously forced into situations that no one should have to experience, much less a child. But despite her often good intentions, she almost always ended up doing more harm than good, despite her intelligence, she often chose to act childishly (which is mostly justified since, after all, she is a child), and despite her hope to live up to her idealized imagination of Rhaegar, she's consistantly drifted closer and closer to the madness of her father. Because of all this, I believe she's meant to be one of GRRM's most painful and nuanced reminders that, outside of fantasies, the majority of traumatized people are not heroically resilient, they tragically conform to the darkness surrounding them. Does this mean they're even half as bad as their abusers? No, but it also doesn't excuse the harm they pour onto others. D*ny's past abuse justifies her anger and her resentment, but not her actions.

Though I will always find Book!Dany to be a devastating and fascinating character, I've rarely felt anything positive towards Show!Dany, outside of season one. D&D's incompetant writing and misunderstanding of her character, combined with Emilia's inability to convincincly convey complex emotions, led to an unnuanced and uninteresting character who quickly became boring and easy for me to dislike. The fact that I'm so disenchanted with the show's adaptation of D*ny, had me assuming that I'd be pleased that my Dark!Dany predictions were true, but also raging at their misogynistic portrayal of an overly emotional woman who really ought to just surrender her crown to a man. And while I'll forever be incredibly bitter towards D&D and GoT for what they've done to ASOIAF, I think this episode was a surprisingly good depiction of how D*ny will embrace her darkness.

I like that we see her acknowledge the pain Sansa must live with daily, and how she's shown sympathizing with her instead of maligning her, during her conversation with Jon. I like that she still treats Sansa coldly and arrogantly after Jon says the North will honor their promise, despite this sympathy. And for the first time I actually really did enjoy Emilia's acting. The slow burn of her mourning of Rhaegal turning to rage over Missandei is heartbreakingly convincing. I also enjoyed the anger and sadness we see from her when she realizes that her life's work may amount to nothing. Even though I'm thoroughly against D*ny's all consuming desire for the throne, it's still painful to see her strive so hard for something only to watch it slip through her fingers. In this episode, she is deeply human and deeply flawed. She is deserving of sympathy and deserving of contempt. Overall, this episode did a shockingly good job of portraying her as morally conflicted and morally grey character, who's quickly embracing the darkness her trauma has left her with, and as such is embracing a morally black worldview. The tragedy and madness of D*enerys Targaryen has been a long time coming, and now it's finally here.

#game of thrones #anti daenerys #dark!dany #Sansa Stark #ASoIaF #asoiaf meta

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Den of Geek's Best Books of 2019

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Here were the 20 books that meant the most to our Den of Geek contributors in 2019.

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To cover and consume popular culture in this era of #PeakContent is to constantly be making choices. This means it is more important now than ever to reflect on the ways in which "best of" lists, just like pop culture itself, are subjective—shaped by a group of people with specific identities, interests, and storytelling sensibilities.

Therefore, in presenting our list of the Best Books of 2019 to you, we note that these stories are not just what may have felt Important in a year when we are more desperate than ever to understand the seemingly increasingly destructive forces at work in the world, but also what meant the most to us personally.

Here are 20 books, in no particular order, that broke through the #PeakContent cacophony to mean something to our Den of Geek contributors this year...

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

A time travel novel that soundly rejects the Great Man Theory of history, The Future of Another Timeline is uninterested in telling the same old story about a singular white dude traveling through time to heroically and simply save the day. In Annalee Newitz's second novel, making positive change in the timeline is mostly conducted by women and people of color, must be done collectively, and is a heck of a lot of work.

Told in alternating perspectives, The Future of Another Timeline follows middle-aged, time-traveling academic Tess and 17-year-old Beth, a high school student exploring the punk scene in 1992 California. Both characters are deeply informed by their interpersonal contexts. For Tess, that means the support of the Daughters of Harriet, a group of women and non-binary folks fighting to stop a group of time-traveling misogynists known as the Comstockers from securing a timeline in which women have no rights over their own bodies. For Beth, this means her high school friend-group, which represents an escape from her abusive home until they start seeking violent "solutions" to the abusive men in their communities.

read more: Autuonomous by Annalee Newitz — Robots, Love, and Identity Under Capitalism

Wonderfully nerdy and refreshingly radical, The Future of Another Timeline is the angry feminist time travel novel 2019 both needs and deserves, a speculative fiction experience that feels all too real in its depiction of how fragile women's rights can be while also representing the kind of collective action organizing that stands the best chance at saving us all.

"We deeply need hope right now because we're in a very precarious, self-destructive historical moment," Newitz told Den of Geek this year regarding the hopepunk movement. "I think of hopepunk as narrative therapy for historical trauma—it's a way to ease pain, to tell stories about the healing process as well as what has hurt us." The Future of Another Timeline is a story about what has hurt us and what can heal us.

- Kayti Burt

Read The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

An assassin and a dragon-rider need to save the world from a dragon horde in this doorstopper. The Priory of the Orange Tree’s scenes more remarkably quick compared to the intimidating length of the book, with the author demonstrating a keen understanding of cliffhangers, dramatic timing, and creating characters who care about each other and their world.

Ead Duryan has been assigned to protect Queen Sabran of Inys, but also has to wrestle with the way Inys twisted a true story into an oppressive religion while hiding her true mission and her attraction to the queen. On the other side of the world, the dragon-rider Tané finds that her path to becoming a great warrior isn’t as straightforward as she had hoped, and that her choices will have global ramifications. Side characters, especially the grieving and miserable alchemist Niclays Roos, stuck with me long after I finished reading the book.

High fantasy is a hard sell for me lately. Monarchy, destined heroes, elves and dwarves—It doesn’t feel comfortable, it just feels old. I picked up Priory on the promise of dragons, though, hoping for something new to be done with the quintessential fantasy creature. Samantha Shannon delivered with fantasy that both embraces and improves on tropes. The world is a loosely changed version of our own, with fantasy cultures drawn from and paralleling real ones. It offers beautiful imagery and lush characterization. Explanations for how the magic of the world works and how it’s connected to that world’s history are smoothly threaded into the plot. The book also doesn’t lose sight of wonder, with enough cinematic fight scenes and detailed description of clothing for any HBO adaptation.

- Megan Crouse

Read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

If you don't regularly read middle grade fiction, you may recognize Carlos Hernandez's name from his beautiful and well-received short story collection The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria, which came out a few years ago (or from his entertaining Twitter account). If you do read middle grade fiction, especially if you've been following the really excellent middle grade fantasy from the Read Riordan imprint, you've probably already met two of my very favorite characters of 2019... Sal and Gabi were breakaway leads in my fiction reading, and they're welcome to break my universe any time (especially since they're promising to fix it in May 2020).

Here's the conceit: middle school magician Sal has this uncanny ability to accidentally breach the multiverse. Sometimes this means he can do some pretty nifty tricks (which he passes off as illusions), like putting a dead chicken in a bully's locker. But it becomes a big problem when he keeps accidentally bringing back his Mami, who died several years ago. His father has remarried, and Sal loves his American Stepmom, but he misses his mother.

Sal is also a Type 1 diabetic, and when his ability to breach the multiverse makes him forget to regulate his blood sugar, he ends up in the hospital—something he's unfortunately used to. Initially, Gabi doesn't know about any of this, but she's the student council president, future journalist type who's not about to let any mystery lie without figuring it out. Because her baby brother is also in the hospital, fighting for his life, her story and Sal's become intertwined, and while multiverse hopping hijinks ensue, so does a story with so much heart that it's hard to put down.

I can't wait to spend more time with these characters as their adventures continue.

- Alana Joli-Abbott

Read Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

At first glance, Leckie’s newest book could not be more different than her Ancillary Justice series, not least of all because she’s smoothly stepped from science fiction to fantasy. The Raven Tower is a standalone fantasy novel, and a slim one at that; instead of a whole universe, its action encompasses two cities across a strait, and one family within them. But it’s how the story is told that cements this as Leckie’s brand of unique invention: A sentient rock god narrates in second-person to a trans protagonist.

Like with Breq, the spaceship AI constrained to one body, Leckie has once again pulled off a cunning experiment in giving voices to the most unusual of genre characters. The passages in which the stone god details its centuries of existence, and evolving relationships with human petitioners and priests, are some of this year’s most daring fantasy writing: slow and unhurried, filled with complex discussions of the power of language to change the very molecules of the world. Despite its brevity, The Raven Tower is wonderfully dense and thought-provoking.

What’s more, the human side of things is so authentically lived-in, a fantasy retelling of Hamlet that nonetheless is full of twists. In the city of Vastai, the Raven’s Lease, a human whose lifespan is entwined with that of the Raven god’s Instrument (an actual bird), has disappeared without paying up. As soldier-turned-heir’s-attendant Eolo investigates the truth, he and his master Mawat confront divine debt, issues of personhood, and the troubling disillusionment that the old ways and religions might be no more than cold comforts in an inexplicable world.

- Natalie Zutter

Read The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Normal People by Sally Rooney

From the jump, it's easy to understand why Sally Rooney's second novel, Normal People, has taken the literary world (and much of Book Twitter) by storm. It's a story of two teenagers, Connell and Marianne, growing up in vastly different circumstances West of Ireland. The book follows their magnetic pull on (or perhaps dire fascination with) one another as they grow up and make their way in the world.

At only 28, Rooney writes through her two protagonists to get at incisive commentary on that strange, fleeting feeling of obsessive youthful love, as well as class, family, what it means to "get out," and the many small ways people are awful to one another, while also loving one another rather tenderly. Considering how often love stories and the (young) women who tell them are diminished, it's also lovely to see Rooney discussed (mostly) with terms like "intellectual rigor."

Hulu is adapting Normal People as a limited series in 2020, so there's still time to read the book before the show starts. Reviewers talk of page turners, but Normal People is one that forces readers to cancel their plans and stay up until first light, ruining their ability to function for the next day, just to squeeze in a few more chapters, a few more lines of Rooney's entrancing prose. Much like the plot summary, the text might seem simple or even commonplace at first glance, but that is Rooney's great deception: she's working overtime to make sure you don't ever see her sweat. Normal People envelopes readers quietly, completely, and so steadily that you might not realize anything has happened until you come up for air hours later, or see the drip of a tear on the page.

- Delia Harrington

Read Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen

Elaborate YA fantasies are all the rage right now, and 2019 had several great ones. But Margaret Owen’s debut novel The Merciful Crow is far and away the best of the lot, combining immersive storytelling, a diverse cast of characters, rich worldbuilding and a truly unique magical system into something that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. In short: Everyone in Sabor is divided into castes named after various birds and based on their particular Birthrights, or magical ability. The Crows, the lowest caste of undertakers and mercy-killers, perform magic using the teeth of the dead. It’s…very grim and very cool.

The story is fast-paced and exciting, and for all that it deals with typical fantasy themes (a girl coming into her power, a kingdom on the brink of revolution), The Merciful Crow fearlessly tackles issues of racism, persecution and the difficulties that face any marginalized group that’s mocked and looked down upon for being Other. Even better we see characters openly grapple with their own beliefs and question the things they’ve been taught to believe about others in a way that feels both compelling and natural. The book’s sequel, The Faithless Hawk, is due out this summer, and if it’s not already at the top of your most anticipated books for next year, it should be.

- Lacy Baugher

Read The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

Kameron Hurley’s The Stars Are Legion was one of my favorite books in 2017, so when I heard her next endeavor was a space marine time travel story, I could hardly wait. The Light Brigade delivered. It’s an exploration of the military industrial complex, the psychology of a soldier named Dietz, and a meticulously organized time travel story. The action scenes are vivid and grim, the dialogue energetic, the stakes clear. Hurley has a lot to say about the nature of war, of trauma, of the psychology of being thrown into unexpected battles every day. (The “light” of the title is a teleportation system that Dietz is experiencing as time jumps.)

This is a writer’s book, with an impressive structure: scenes end at what could have been abrupt moments but instead become a tool to increase suspense throughout the novel. The author has posted images of the chart she used to keep the time jumps in order, and you can tell the process of outlining the book was a feat of not just writing but also a kind of engineering, resulting in a convoluted but utterly understandable sequence of out-of-order events. It’s hard science fiction rooted in classics but utterly suitable for today.

- Megan Crouse

Read The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

In a future generations after humanity has fled an uninhabitable Earth, humans live on January, a tidally-locked planet with two declining cities living in the twilight in-between the two extreme climates of the world...

Bordering the blistering side of the planet, we have Xiosphant, an authoritarian city with a constructed diurnal cycle where "timefulness" is sacred. Bordering the frozen side of the planet, we have Argelo, a libertarian society ruled by nine family-affiliated gangs who keep the city locked in a cycle of violence. As the generation ship technology brought with humanity decades before begins to fail, decline feels inevitable for both examples of human society.

We follow two main characters through the story: Sophie, a working class student studying at Xiosphant's university who is exiled into the night after taking the fall for the upper-class object of her affections Bianca. Rather than dying a lonely death, Sophie is saved by the crocodile-like telepathic aliens native to January. Elsewhere, we follow Mouth, a jaded smuggler from an otherwise extinct nomadic people known as the Citizens.

An exploration of working towards radical change in the face of climate catastrophe, personal and collective trauma, and interpersonal complications, The City in the Middle of the Night is a classically science fiction novel tapping into the most anxiety-inducing of contemporary struggles, and somehow finding a measure of hope there. "I can't do this thing anymore, where we live in a tiny space and pretend it's the whole world," Sophie tells Bianca in the novel. "People always have brand new reasons for doing the same thing over and over. I need to see something new."

- Kayti Burt

Read The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

If you know the names Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly it is likely only due to the reason for their deaths. These five women are the canonical victims of the infamous Jack the Ripper, and are generally only considered remarkable because of the fact that they died violently at the hands of a serial killer no one ever managed to catch.

Author Hallie Rubenhold’s book changes all of that. In the world of Ripper lore, The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper feels revelatory, in that it focuses on life, rather than death. It tells the real story of each of The Five, who they were, where they came from, and the tragic reasons that led them to a life on the streets of Victorian London. And it gives them their voices back, possibly for the first time since their deaths.

Meticulously researched, this book brings to life a group of women who have too long been silenced, or worse, reimagined in a way that suits history best. The majority of these women weren’t prostitutes, as the contemporary papers positioned them and history likes to remember them. They were women who struggled and scraped, who suffered repeated hardships and abandonments, who struggled with poverty and alcohol addiction, and who deserved better than deaths that left them forever in the shadow of a monster. Read this, and remember them.

- Lacy Baugher

Read The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

The Grace Year by Kelly Liggett

In a year where Margaret Atwood herself wrote a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s probably not that much of a shock that some of 2019’s most affecting stories have to do with female rage and empowerment. The Grace Year is a technically a YA novel, but it packs an outsize punch, reckoning with a dystopian future that nowadays feels far too much like it could in some way become reality.

read more: Feminist Science Fiction Novels to Read after The Handmaid's Tale

In the world of Garner County, young women are banished on their sixteenth birthday, condemned to spend their “grace year” on an isolated island to purge themselves of the dangerous and manipulative magic men believe they possess. The bones of Kim Liggett’s story are familiar ones, particularly the harmful culture these girls are born into and the cruel things they’re willing to do to one another in the name of maintaining it, but its story is ultimately one that points a way toward a future where change is possible. It’s not often you finish a story like this and genuinely feel hopeful, and yet, The Grace Year accomplishes this feat – all without giving anyone what you might call a happy ending.

- Lacy Baugher

Read The Grace Year by Kelly Liggett

Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles

The Beatles' film Let It Be appears to be a documentary on the breakup of a band. The album they recorded after it, Abbey Road, has always been touted as the album they made to go out on a high note. Kenneth Womack's Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and The End of the Beatles, says that's not the case. They were recording what they thought was just their next album when they happened to break up. The band was especially excited about playing with new musical toys.

As should be evident by the name, the book starts with the sound board. The only eight track recording console at EMI. It was bright and shiny and new, and only a privileged few engineers were allowed to tinker with it, and they had to wear lab coats. The band was far away from the caper-chasing characters they played in A Hard Day’s Night and Help! but they were still fab enough to abscond with the apparatus and produce their flawless farewell to studio albums.

Almost the entire book is set in the studio. We learn about a car crash John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and their respective children survive from how it impacts the sessions. Paul McCartney's marriage happens barely out of reach of the soundproof panels and the Bed-In for Peace is placed far away from the mics. Even the breakup itself is captured as the same kind of ambient noise McCartney recorded on George Harrison's Moog synthesizer for the segues between songs. Like the surround sound created for Ringo Starr's only credited drum solo, the music is front and center.

Womack is a thorough researcher and interviewer who casts new light on old Beatles mythology. Several stories which are well-known to fans are challenged and a few more obscure bits are uncovered. The read itself is fun.

- Tony Sokol

Read Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles

Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

Modern Irish literary greatness is alive and well, and anyone who reads Last Ones Left Alive can see why. Sarah Davis-Goff's spare post-apocalyptic tale follows Orpen on a largely solitary journey from her home on a remote island, away from the vicious, otherworldly creatures called the Skrake. The novel flashes back to Orpen's childhood alone on the island, with her Ma and Ma's wife, Maeve, as Orpen trained to survive against the unseen enemy while trying to decode what happened to the world, and fending off her own loneliness. In Orpen's present tense, she makes the difficult decision to search the mainland for help, accompanied by her dog, some chickens, and pulling a wheel barrow.

To say more would spoil it, and certainly part of the book's power is in the way it slowly reveals the truths of the Skrake, Orpen's upbringing, and what led her to go on the road. Beyond that, it's a story of self-reliance with feminism baked in, rather than discussed or layered on top. Orpen's instincts keep her safe and she is largely a solitary creature, so the novel has a desolate, almost animalistic quality to it that captures the Wild Atlantic Way and the feral nature of civilization gone to hell. Davis-Goff evokes the setting - both physical and emotional - so intensely that it feels like Orpen walks around with you even when you put the book down. It's a book that knows exactly what it set out to do, creates that world, and then cuts the reader off from it once the task at hand is finished, with the kind of efficiency Maeve taught Orpen to keep her alive.

- Delia Harrington

Read Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Set in an alternate universe where the United States elected a female divorcee Democrat from Texas to the presidency in 2016, Red, White, and Royal Blue follows the secret, enemies-to-lovers romance between first son Alex Claremont-Diaz and Prince of England Henry. In the process, author Casey McQuiston invites us to spend time in a world that is, as described in her author's note, "still believably fucked up, just a little better, a little more optimistic."

The result is an intensely cathartic reading experience that prioritizes comfort over grit, hope over pessimism, and empathy over bitterness, while also depicting tough subjects such as mental illness and civic exhaustation. In a year when to stay actively engaged in the news cycle often felt like a neverending battle, Red, White, and Royal Blue offered a brand of escapism that is all too rare in the mainstream: queer, filled with male characters who do their own emotional labor, and unapologetically millennial. The world needs more stories like this one, as well as the cultural space for more people to find guiltless pleasure in their enjoyment.

- Kayti Burt

Read Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

Confession #1: I picked up this book on NetGalley because it has a gorgeous cover. Confession #2: My NetGalley copy expired when I was 80 pages from the end. Confession #3: I went out and purchased the book the same day my NetGalley copy expired, because I had to finish it.

The Good Luck Girls is Davis' debut novel, and it packs an incredible punch. Set in an alternate world—possibly a future dystopia on a different planet, but there are fantasy elements that make it hard to place entirely—where people with shadows have more rights than those who don't, the book centers on five young women fleeing life in a brothel.

Dustblood, or shadowless, girls are frequently sold by poor families into "welcome houses," given the promise of a better life: regular meals, fancy clothes, luxury. The condition, of course, is that they have no rights over their own bodies, and they are never allowed to leave, branded with a magical tattoo that reveals their identities, and glows and burns if they try to cover it.

When Clementine accidentally kills a violent brag, she, her sister, and their friends make a daring escape, turning to a life of banditry in an effort to reach the legendary Lady Ghost, who can offer them a different future—if she's real. The result is a twisted Weird Western that feels like the Wild West, while twisting its tropes and delivering a story about victims taking back their own destinies and carving a new path toward a better future.

- Alana Joli-Abbott

Read The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

There are two phrases from this year that my friends and I shout at one another whenever we’re in the same room. One flesh, one end (from Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth) is a fun little rallying cry, but it is this piece of poetry from Martine’s debut novel that makes me tear up every time I utter it: "Released, I am a spear in the hands of the sun."

While I have always enjoyed space opera well enough, considering how many stories fit within the subgenre, this is the first book where I found myself delighting in all of the trappings. Martine dives deep into this byzantine far-future universe, clearly so excited about every detail that you cannot help but be equally enthusiastic… even when you rationally know that you should not be so captivated by colonialism.

But that’s the point. Teixcalaanli civilization, with its alien-yet-logical naming conventions and obsession with its own epic poetry, is so addictively interesting that readers are automatically as emotionally invested as diplomat Mahit Dzmare. After an upbringing on the empire’s fringes in independent Lsel Station, Mahit finally gets to visit Teixcalaan’s famed city-planet capital, only to be thrust into a political thriller full of mysterious deaths, sex-as-diplomacy, and an emperor with an unusual agenda. Not to mention, Mahit has her own cultural capital that she must keep from getting assimilated into the empire like everything else in the universe.

Read A Memory Called Empire knowing as little as possible, aside from the fact that you will meet a bevy of damn competent women and find yourself murmuring about spears released in no time. The fact that Teixcalaan is a culture obsessed with repeating the patterns of its epic stories in contemporary life is so endearingly geeky and very relatable to our present moment.

- Natalie Zutter

Read A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

You Look Like A Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works

Janelle Shane became internet-famous through her blog AI Weirdness and its social media offshoots. Her wacky computer-generated lists have been making me laugh for years, so I was quick to jump on her first paper book of artificial intelligence and humor. Half of the appeal are the lists of computer-generated things: the title comes from a list of comically nonsensical and occasionally sweet pickup lines. There are plenty of lists like these in the book, providing a break in the science for some high-quality random humor. The networks she trains don’t know what words they should be putting together, so they surprise in a way that a human could never quite do.

The other half of the appeal is the science. Shane outlines what in our daily lives counts as artificial intelligence and what doesn’t, why asking “what the program was thinking” is a nonsensical question, and how artificial intelligence (specifically, certain kinds of machine learning) actually works. Ideas are explained with precision, clarity, and ease. The science is also funny without being twee. This was both one of the most informative and most fun books I read all year. To be one would be nice; to be both is astonishing.

- Megan Crouse

Read You Look Like A Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works

Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

I had never read any of Winterson’s work, but her modern, queer retelling—not just of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but of the entire process around writing the first science fiction novel—makes clear just how lacking all other Frankenstein adaptations are in innovation and relatability. Most concern the doctor and his creature locked in a cat-and-mouse game of wits and horror, yet still so predictable that they all blur together whether period piece or futuristic cyborg story or police procedural. Yet Winterson’s take is so radically different from its forebears that you find yourself not guessing how the story will turn out, despite the fact that she lays out the narrative beats in the beginning and follows them—with the occasional detour to a sex robot convention or London’s waterlogged underground tunnels.

read more: 16 Best Fall Reads

Because Winterson knows that the heart of the story is in Mary’s life, pockmarked by so much loss, and in her frankly incredible writing process. Instead of the two Frankensteins, the interweaving duo in this book is writer Mary Shelley and Ry Shelley, a trans doctor who finds himself falling for the charismatic, otherworldly transhumanist Victor Stein. Winterson lays out the blueprints for the story by first visiting Mary, her husband Percy, the insufferable Lord Byron, her bimbo stepsister Claire, and the awkward Doctor Polidari at that life-changing rainy weekend writing retreat on Lake Geneva—which, honestly, has all the makings of a Mary Shelley biopic right there. Then, once you know enough about the characters, Winterson leaps ahead 200 years to the familiar strangers of Ry, Victor, and sex robot designer Ron Lord and his perky creation Claire.

Frankissstein is a creepy, sexy, soggy, surprisingly hilarious demonstration of how time is just a circle and history repeats itself. Except this time with cryogenically frozen millionaires and filthy-mouthed pleasure bots.

- Natalie Zutter

Read Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

Protect the Prince by Jennifer Estep

I may have raved a little bit last year about Jennifer Estep's series launcher Kill the Queen. Estep has written in a number of genres over her career, but Kill the Queen showed me that epic fantasy is her true home; it went delightfully above my expectations, creating Evie, a compelling protagonist who's both a reluctant hero and a natural one: she takes risks for others without thought and only truly fears her own destiny, because for years she's been convinced that she's not worth claiming a loftier mantle. There's also a gladiator troupe, shapeshifting magic that creates a whole new mold for what those powers can look like, and some excellent romantic tension and humor.

Estep's sequel, Protect the Prince, raises the stakes, thrusting Evie deeper into the intrigue between kingdoms as she hopes to forge a lasting peace, while also driving a wedge between her and her love interest, a bastard prince who—like Evie—has been told his whole life he'll never amount to much. Evie must manage the nobles of her own kingdom, prevent war with other nations, and fight against the constant sabotage of power-hungry Mortan king, whose spies have been plaguing Evie's life even longer than she realized, and who are continuing to try to kill her.

Even as Evie sets her own plans into action, playing the long game against her enemies, the story leaves room for romance and friendship, and for Evie to find a way to become the Winter Queen everyone expects her to be. The trilogy wraps in March, 2020, with Crush the King, and you can bet I've already got that on preorder.

- Alana Joli-Abbott

Read Protect the Prince by Jennifer Estep

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

The book lays it out for you right away: Evvie (her name rhymes with Chevy) was leaving her husband when she got the call that he had died. That emotional quagmire is where NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, plants her witty and warm romantic comedy of a novel. Evvie rents out a room in her house in Maine to Dean, a former Major League Baseball pitcher hiding out from the world after he left the game when he woke up one day with a bad case of the yips and simply couldn't throw anymore.

Grounded in the complicated reality of grief, the book has so much to say about platonic mixed-gender best friends, single parenting, re-learning how to relate to parents as an adult, and life in a small town. There's so much room in the world for smartly written adult romance, and Holmes knows how to bring the heat when she wants to. Yes, it's a romance, but there are no short cuts, easy answers, or guarantees of a perfect happy ending. Evvie and Dean test one another emotionally in ways that feel organic to their characters, rather than plot-driven, and their victories are earned on the page. Charming, hopeful, and with great emotional depth, reading Evvie Drake Starts Over means getting all the joy of a romcom without having to sacrifice on quality or consent.

- Delia Harrington

Read Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Giraffes on Horseback Salad by Josh Frank & Tim Heidecker

The Marx Brothers were at the peak of their popularity when Salvador Dalí presented then with a screenplay called "The Surrealist Woman." It was only a few pages and they turned it down for not being funny enough, but it still carries mythical significance in both the art world and cinema history. Josh Frank's graphic novel Giraffes on Horseback Salad fleshes out the sparse notes to present the how the film would have looked on the screen.

Giraffes on Horseback Salad is a love story. But the world hangs in the loss of balance. The book includes a preface which tells the story of the artists relationships with each other and placing the film them in a historic context. It would have been made after A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races, which were produced by Irving Thalberg, who died before this would have been up for consideration and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer declared it too expensive and too surreal. There are quite a few surprises.

The biggest is Harpo speaks. Not only does he speak but people hang on to his every word. Gone are the curly locks and tattered overcoat. Here Harpo’s Jimmy is an important man who wears impressive suits and has an A-list significant other who ultimately pales in significance to the lady of surrealism. The illustrations by Spanish surrealistic artist Manuela Pertega, capture what could have been possible to put on the screens. The surrealistic jokes added by comedian Tim Heidecker may explain why Groucho passed on the work, but you can see the magic such a film may have conjured. Even the name of the book's publisher, Quirk, feeds into the skewered reality.

- Tony Sokol

Read Giraffes on Horseback Salad by Josh Frank and Tim Heidecker

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost In Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature Kayti Burt Alana Joli Abbott Delia Harrington Megan Crouse Tony Sokol Lacy Baugher Natalie Zutter

Dec 30, 2019

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#aion-rsa #Books

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icameheretowinry · 6 years

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Ed for character ask, if you want! Have a nice day ❤️

If I want? If I want??? If I want?!?!?! OF COURSE I WANT TO. Ed ruined my life in the best possible way and I will ramble about him forever. LET’S. DO. THIS.

How I feel about this character:

Obviously, you guys know that Edward Elric is not only my favorite character in the fma universe, but probably my favorite character in general. He’s excellently written, deeply representative of the nature of humanity, and endures beautifully subtle development over the course of his story. I’ve done several character analyses of Ed, but I tend to ramble. Here, I really want to take my time, and talk about specific aspects of his character I think are the most worthy of note. This might get l o n g, so grab some snacks and settle in. Let’s talk about the Fullmetal Alchemist!

One of most defining and well-written characteristics of Ed is his tragic backstory. The consequences of attempting to revive their mother follow Ed and Al years after it occurs, and forms one the main backbone of their story. While the immediate aftermath tends to define a large part of Ed’s personality in the beginning, what makes him so fascinating is that he eventually learns that using his personal tragedies as an excuse for his shortcomings with get him nowhere. Instead, he learns to use his suffering as a springboard to make sure no one else ever has to feel the way he and his brother did. The awful things that happen to Nina are a major setback, but instead of collapsing further in on himself, Ed, mostly thanks to Al, realizes that not only is it ok to start by trying to save himself, but with that effort, he can become stronger, and by extension, do more to help others. So, instead of using tragedy as an excuse for his weaknesses, Ed faces them to make himself stronger, and throughout his journey, use them as markers of his progress, or as checks to his humility.

Ed is also incredibly well-written to reflect his age. Sure, your average twelve-year-old is not an alchemic prodigy serving in the military, but I’m talking about how Ed reacts to his circumstances as a boy who’s just trying to piece he and his brother’s lives back together. Ed can play up the adult facade as much as he wants, but Arakawa also wrote him to be what he is; a kid. In the early stages of his story, Ed reacts to many inconveniences with fits of frustration, triumphs with unabashed cockiness, and authority or criticism with an upturned nose. Most of these immature reactions lessen or die out as his story progresses, as it does when someone starts to grow up. I can say that after living with a younger brother at ages 12, 13, 14, etc., Arakawa did a spectacular job of not only capturing those years with deadly accuracy, but applying them to an extraordinary individual like Ed in a way that felt effortless. While on a quest that eventually would determine the fate of the world as they knew it, he also gets nervous over a crush, and deals with the ups and downs of teenage friendships. (I mean, 99.9% of people’s best friends in high school don’t give up control of their body to an immortal being but there’s a metaphor I’m getting at here.)

Another super interesting aspect of Ed’s character is his guilt complex. For someone who so acts his age, he still takes on blame for many things that legitimately weren’t his fault. He blames himself for the loss of Al’s body, though there was no way he could’ve know what Truth would’ve taken from him, or that Truth would’ve intervened at all. He chastises himself for not being useful in dire situations when Winry stepped up to deliver Dominic’s grandchild in Rush Valley. It wasn’t his area of expertise, while Winry, he acknowledges, grew up with doctors for parents and reading medical textbooks. He feels helpless, but how could he know he would find himself in such a situation? He even holds himself responsible as a culprit in Hughes’ death for getting him involved in their research of philosophers’ stones. What Hughes discovered about the nationwide transmutation circle was, ultimately, his own doing. In addition, besides blaming himself for the loss of Al’s body, a guilt that Ed carries to the end of his story was his inability to save Nina. Just because he was the first person to put all the pieces together, he thought that if he realized Shou Tucker’s true intentions that much sooner, she would still be alive. Yet, realistically, no one else had figured it out either. He was just in the wrong place at the right(?) time. Yet, all of this being said, the moments during which Ed overcomes some of his guilt are some of the most powerful in the entire story. (Learning that Al didn’t blame him for the loss of his body is a prime example.)

As I’ve mentioned in other recent character analyses, a complex personality is key to a strong and likable character, and my god, does Ed have one. Ed has many traits that make him just fascinating to watch. While his early cynicism of humanity fades away, he remains cocky, stubborn, abrasive, short-tempered, sarcastic, occasionally hostile to figures of authority, and not one above stroking his own ego. Yet, a lot of those aspects of his personality veer towards superficial. He views every human life (in all forms) as sacred, and something he is painfully reluctantly to use to further his own goals. To those who earn his respect, he is endlessly loyal, selfless, and fights for those who can’t fight for themselves. His personality also takes on a different tint (like a real person) when he interacts with different people. He fights to see the Ling within Greed, but ultimately respects Greed as a member of his team. He’s in awe, yet honest with Riza. He’s sarcastic with Roy, but when in danger, is his greatest ally. He’s level-headed, firm, and forgiving with Al. He’s uniquely gentle and compassionate to Winry. In short, he’s beautifully and painfully human.

Finally, Ed is an excellent foil to the character of Father. While the latter tried to make himself a perfect being by ridding himself of humanity’s seven deadly sins (an idea I remember someone, though I can’t remember who, likening his goal to the idea of Nietzsche’s “Übermensch,” which is basically a form of superior man who could rise above traditional Christian values to impose his own. That sounds pretty accurate to me, but I’m no expert in this corner of philosophy.), Ed actively embraced all of his flaws, guilt, and well, sins, to ultimately become a more compassionate individual who is able to ultimately triumph over evil. (As a side note, Greed’s aid in this final battle really adds extra emphasis to his earlier explanation to Ed that “everyone wants something they cannot have.” The fact that Greed sacrifices himself in this moment to assure Father’s defeat proves that point several times over, which just makes those final sequences of the battle that much cooler [and heartbreaking]). The fact that Ed, who is riddled with what Father considers the ultimate faults of humanity, still overcomes him, proves that the rejection of own’s own humanity is a greater evil than the sum of it’s parts. As a huge characterization nerd, that’s pretty freaking cool.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Edwin is easily one of my top five OTPs, and I honestly don’t see shipping Ed with anyone else. Like Roy and Riza, Ed and Winry’s relationship is built on years of trust, respect, friendship, and tragedy. While they sometimes struggle with communicating their feelings, whether its about each other or the circumstances they’re facing, they always manage to get their feelings across when the moment demands it. It seems that their respective obsessions confuse or annoy each other, yet, they each possess huge admiration for the other’s accomplishments and passions. They understand the harsh burden of losing their parents, and Winry never judges Ed for attempting to revive his mother, likely because she had the same kind of longing. In addition, each of them are deeply concerned for the safety of the other, with Ed especially going to great lengths to ensure Winry is unaffected with his involvement in the military. Sadness of one pains the other, and they’re both hellbent on making sure the other is, in the end, happy. Talk about the makings of a great relationship! Also, at the most basic level, they’re SO DAMN ADORABLE.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I have to go with Al here. (Also apparently this got too long to add more gifs so rip to that idea…) These two have been through so much together, balance the weight of their varying personalities, and as a result, are the ultimate allies. Besides the deep care these brothers share, the most interesting aspect about them is how their personalities contrast and support one another. Ed is typically hot-headed and impulsive. Al is calmer and leans more towards logic. Ed has a big ego and is sarcastic. While Al has his moments, he’s unflinchingly kindhearted. However, their mutual passion for alchemy, humanity, and completing their quest are unmatched. The story is about brotherhood, and these two are the ultimate protagonists. Al’s superior battle sense, levelheadedness, and gentle personality are the perfect balance to Ed. He brings him back down to earth, yet encourages him to race to the ends of it. They joke and argue, but you know they would sacrifice everything for the other.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

*sigh* The Ed being really short joke did eventually get old…

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

As is the case with many fma characters in my book, I want to see more! Knowing Ed, there’s no way this kid would peak at 18. I want to see his adventures after the promised day. I want to see him with Winry and his kids, being a great father, but I also want to see him traveling, discovering, and maybe getting himself into a bit of trouble here and there! At the end of years of struggling and hardship, I want to see the next crazy step in his journey. There’s no way he’d sit still for long. The sky’s barely the limit for Ed, and i want to see how far he flies.

Send me a character, if you dare.

#edward elric #fma #fma brotherhood #character analysis #nikki speaks #good lord was this fun!!#lmao i wrote an essay;;;;;;

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mythicamagic · 6 years

Text

DL boys and shared themes with Disney Characters;

This explanation is not supposed to represent the diaboys BEING these characters, I’m not saying Shuu is Simba lol We’re talking shared themes here. If you step back from the characters as they are and look solely at their themes and not their appearance or quirks, then you can see some parallels even in their characterisation. But this is just for fun, please don’t take it seriously:

Shuu - Simba - Pain from the past, expectations to take on the crown, loss/grief:

Because of grief, he suffers subsequent procrastination/loss of motivation. He wants to change the past even as he submerges himself mentally in ‘comfort’ to escape his thoughts (Simba in the valley which literally looks like paradise, Shuu with sleep and music). Needs to stop running from loss, blaming himself, and to face it, learn from it. Eventual growth happens to both characters once they do this and also embrace the embodiment of a possible future. (Nala, Yui)

Reiji - Scar - Envy, intelligence, inferiority complex towards older brother:

Wants to be respected more so than his other family members, will commit murder if pushed to it. Is prideful but has an inferiority complex towards elder sibling. His intelligence shines through even under his curt and condescending manner. Appears to be searching for acknowledgement of his talents and of himself, even with his certainty of the skills he possesses. Subtly manipulative.

Ayato - Kuzco/Maui- Selfish, insecure underneath bravado and narcissistic:

Kuzco side - Unsympathetic to the plights of others, self-centered, cocky, and has a sense of flair and style. Very used to holding everyone emotionally at arms length, and therefore doesn’t understand the value of kindness. Learns this trait through another, though has trouble practising it. Despite their flaws, it is generally difficult to dislike him due to their comical conceitedness bordering on ignorance for how 'wrong’ his rude attitude is.

Maui side - Thrown into a body of water when he was younger and generally unloved by his mother. Believes that his skills equates his self worth. Is generally a very good fighter and skilled, though they obviously know it. Is underneath it all, insecure because of his mothers treatment, but hides it with bravado.

Laito - Clopin - Has a neutrality towards both good and evil:

Is often philosophical and a wry observer of everyone’s lives. Has a macabre sense of humour and plays the role of a harmless jester type when his intelligence inevitably shines through. Playful yet capable of cruelty. “We find you totally innocent, which is the worst crime of all~ So you’re going to hang!”

Kanato - Peter pan - Childish, 'innocent’ and cruel:

He represents a fear of change so stays in a childlike stasis even as he mercilessly kills others in the name of fun. (Peter kills the pirates) Selfish yet lonely and strangely isolated even when they’re in a group ethic. (Lost Boys, or the Sakamakis)

Subaru - Beast - Lonely, angry and distrustful:

Isolates himself because he believes himself ugly. Is deeply emotionally vulnerable under it all, and therefore becomes volatile if someone gets too close, lashing out. Only truly finds himself when he realises his bratty coping methods of destruction solve nothing and starts to see the humanity in himself and his captive, who becomes his love interest.

Mukamis under cut~

Ruki - Shere Khan/Prince Hans - Manipulative, goal orientated, educated:

Dammit I’m putting Sher Khan instead of Frollo despite some theme similarities with Ruki, because I’m sorry, I just can’t associate Frollo with Ruki’s character. Not with the boy who’s pride was wrestled with on the streets and whom became a leader of other boys (one of whom is speculated to be a gypsy and Ruki never oppressed any of them for their race) His temptation themes are very similar but I don’t want to explore it because dammit Frollo is the evilest Disney character ever. I’ll just narrow it down to - Ruki is only similar to Frollo in that in his More Blood Manservant End, he loses the fight with his inner turmoil that kept him sane and literally decided - If I can’t have her, no one can. Very..Hellfireish. But that’s it! Ahem. Sher Khan side - Wants revenge on mankind after he’s been wronged in the past. Was wounded in some way by fire. Is protective and possessive of what he consider his (the jungle, the Mukamis, Yui) An A class manipulator. Gathers information in the shadows and listens before striking, very good with words, charming but cold and commanding. Prince Hans side - Uses the guise of a gentleman to get what he wants before revealing his true self. Sticks to his end goal (obtaining the kingdom, becoming Adam) no matter the cost. The ends justify the means. Has an air of arrogance and pride, but is considered an outcast from his station as a Prince/aristocrat.

Kou - Aladdin - Dishonest, street urchin, identity problems:

Is a compulsive liar because of his past making him fear telling the truth or believing completely in others. Believes he can be discarded without a second thought, and therefore constructs a persona that will make others trust and like him (Prince Ali, Idol Kou) This however, creates a divide between them and their true selves. They consider their true selves (the street urchins) to be less valuable and resent this. Aladdin however, sympathises with others in his situation (the orphans/Princess Jasmine, before he knew she was a princess). Kou doesn’t like to do this with Yui, and instead recreates situations of his abuse to humiliate and torment her. In doing so, he finds himself disturbed by his feelings of connection with her. He distrusts her feelings for him and ‘tests’ her.

Yuma- Shang/Eugene - Orphan, has group ethics, arrogance, certainty of skills:

Shang side - Good in group dynamics, very psychically able, wants to make someone he considers important proud of them. (Shang with his father, Yuma with Lucks) After his role model dies, he soldiers on in their memory. Both are very respectful of their dead role model (Shang with the sword, and Yuma with the roses) Talented fighter. Eugene Fitzherbert - Was an orphan and again, looks up to his role model. (Eugene with Flynn Rider) Has a very loose moral compass, which makes him a little brash and arrogant with a rougeish charm. Both can be teasing, and generally fall in love with smol optimistic/headstrong blonde girls.

Azusa - Quasimodo - Socially Awkward, lonely, touch starved:

Latches onto unhealthy coping mechanisms (Azusa - Cutting. Quasi - Frollo and the gargoyles. If they were not real) and is deep down desperate for acceptance and love. Latches onto the first person with who shows him positive attention (Yui, because her attention is different from his relationship with his brothers vs Esmeralda) and becomes fixated on them. The way they differ however, is that Quasi eventually lets Esmeralda go, because he values her happiness above his own needs. Azusa can’t. He can’t psychically or mentally let go of Yui in any ending.

#diabolik lovers #character analysis #sakamaki brothers #mukami brothers #this is probably one of the silliest things i've made #ah well

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old-long-john · 7 years

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looks like you are someone in the black sails fandom who agrees that every character is pretty damn flawed (except for, like, madi, and we didn't see enough of thomas hamilton to see his flaws but i am certain he had them) but I have to say some of fandom and their determination to make silver THE VILLAIN of the show just reminds me, over and over, of the quotation "civilization needs its monsters". like you can write john off as an evil white "het" man, even though he is clearly bi, but

in my opinion people like john silver are only made because society makes them. i think silver was probably wounded young, and then just wounded over and over for a period of years that almost certainly felt like forever, as prolonged trauma does, and it is so frustrating to me that fandom doesn’t want to embrace how complicated and tormenting and heartbreaking and infuriating that john silver is. but then i look at state of world and my country (usa) and need for scapegoat in all things, well.

Thank you for this ask. This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately and it’s been frustrating me too, so it was nice to be given a reason to actually say something about it. I hope you don’t mind me answering it publicly (let me know if you do and I’ll delete it). I’ve spent about four days trying to work out an answer to this that I’m happy with though, because it feels like some of my thoughts might be skating on thin ice and asking for trouble if they’re not carefully expressed, and that’s not at all what I want. I’ll stick this under a read more so I don’t clog people’s dashes.

Honestly, at this point I’ve pretty much stopped interacting with any ‘discourse’. I’m so tired of it. I’m reconciled to the fact that everyone in the fandom is mostly set on their opinions by now, and that’s totally fine, when people stay polite about it. Everyone brings their own shit into the viewing of a show (and I mean that in the nicest way). It’s not just unavoidable, it’s incredibly apt and a powerful thing when it comes to understanding stories like this, which attempt to show us such a broad range of human experiences and conditions and complexities. With a show like Black Sails especially, that doesn’t allow you to be a passive viewer, that demands engagement to be able to understand it, it’s no wonder people feel so strongly about so many aspects of it, and often find themselves feeling helplessly understanding of or very personally wounded by certain characters’ choices. And being part of a fandom which is filled with a beautifully diverse group of people, with opinions informed by their beautifully diverse life experiences and personal baggage, can be such an amazing way to broaden one’s own horizons and see things from different points of view.

That being said, the other side of it is exactly what you described: being exposed to mind blowing bullheadedness. At this point I pretty much just share the same irritation as you. I understand the reasons why some people can’t forgive the things Silver did, and I understand why some people just plain don’t like him (hell, I hated him too when I first watched S1). That’s for them to decide, if it even is truly a decision and not one of those things that exists somewhere beyond choice. I know I couldn’t choose to hate him now or to not understand to a really quite painful extent the fears and emotions that motivated him to do what he did. Quite honestly, I’ve only watched that 4x10 forest scene twice and the second time I was so angry with him too, but I still understand, and it hurts all the more for it. As with so many of the most powerful moments in this story, they’re at their most moving when you can see all the ways in which both parties are right, and choosing a side is almost impossible.

Like you said though, what’s really beginning to grate on my nerves is this idea that Silver is the villain of the piece; irredeemable, two-dimensional, bland, or simply the ‘abusive cishet white man’ (a tag I’ve seen too, and one that made me roll my eyes so fucking hard I almost sprained something. Tumblr’s a truly magical land of over-simplistic juvenile twattery sometimes). It’s utter bullshit, and it feels like my annoyance has taken a step up out of the complexities of canon and into the difficulties of tumblr and fandoms. Sometimes I really think some people could benefit from stepping away from the bubble of tumblr and going outside once in awhile. (Do you hear that? It’s the sound of my fragile glass house shattering around me.)

Black Sails is not perfect. I am fully aware of that. But the one thing the writers managed incredibly consistently (mostly) was creating complicated, flawed, and human characters. There are only a handful of characters who approach being two-dimensional, villainous, or flawless, and they tend to be the ones who had the least screen time to be developed, or served more as plot devices than characters. John Silver was certainly not one of those. People are free to despise him, people can be horrified or outraged or disgusted by his choices, people can even just not personally find him that interesting, but reducing him to just The Villain? That’s choosing to be ignorant and refusing to engage with the text, simply because it doesn’t suit their own narrative. Good people can do appalling things, and bad people can do good things, and most people (and so most characters in this story) are neither of those two extremes, but horribly messy shades of grey, just trying to do the best they can for themselves and their loved ones with what resources they have. Some people are better, some are worse, but most traverse that middle ground, rarely remaining static or uncomplicated in their ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’, and Silver is most certainly among us complicated good-bad people. Refusing to acknowledge the depth of those nuances pisses me off because it feels like such a disservice to the hard work of everyone involved in creating this show and the astonishing things they accomplished with these characters and their relationships. Beautiful art deserves fair and thoughtful analysis. Anything less than that feels like a waste of everyone’s time. Why bother consuming a story like this and investing so much time and energy in discussing it if you’re not going to engage with it in an honest way? It’s possible to hate a character but still appreciate their complexity.

What you said is so true. It’s abundantly clear (from very early on, if you actually take the time to look for it) that Silver is a very damaged person, good at reading people but dead set on avoiding becoming attached to them (and the things that suggests are not pleasant), and someone who had nothing in the world but the clothes on his back and his wits. He was never going to be an idealist, because the world had made him a realist. Even if people think his choices in the end were abhorrent, surely they must see why he made them? To be in a position to end a war, which he saw as only an unwinnable nightmare, to save the people he loved from death (and every other innocent bystander whose lives would have been weighed against the cause, without their consent, and sacrificed in its pursuit). How is that difficult to understand? Even if it seems unutterably selfish or short-sighted, it’s the easiest thing in the world to empathise with on a human level. And his love for both Flint and Madi just isn’t up for debate. It’s right there in every scene, and confirmed in every interview with the writers. Even if he loved them poorly, he still loved them. That’s a very human thing too. Perhaps people would’ve felt differently about him if they’d definitively told us what those ‘unending horrors’ he’d suffered in his past were, but they didn’t and so we have to read between the lines. It just doesn’t take that much effort to see those lines flashing like neon signs throughout his arc, if you aren’t actively trying to ignore them for the sake of stuffing him into that box labelled ‘Long John Silver – Moustache Twirling Villain’.

It was also a pretty damn significant element of his story line that his becoming disabled slammed a whole lot of doors in his face, gave people a reason to judge him as less than other men, and left him desperately clinging on to the one vaguely happy life and future he had left within his reach. Are people conveniently ignoring that aspect of his character arc because it doesn’t fit in with that tumblr attitude of ‘boo, fuck white cis men. They’re all disgusting and none of them can know true suffering or injustice in this society that favours them’? Of course those privileges exist, and of course white male characters so often get free passes for things they really shouldn’t, and those are things that desperately need addressing and I wouldn’t try to minimise, but I don’t see how going balls to the wall in the opposite direction and refusing to see nuance makes any more sense. Especially when it comes to a story set during that historical time period and a character who we all saw have one privilege (being able-bodied) violently ripped away from him. Anybody who can dismiss as irrelevant the impact of his disability and the profound suffering and limitations that came with it is being wilfully blind. (I’ve written absurdly excessive meta about the significance of that.)

There are infinite different ways to suffer and end up irreparably damaged, and just because he doesn’t know some types doesn’t mean he hasn’t experienced others and hasn’t been truly and deeply scarred by them. It’s not a goddamn competition. This isn’t a world where only the most widespread and systemic suffering ‘counts’. Half of the point of this story was showing us the myriad fucked up and inventive ways in which the structure of ‘civilised’ society shat (and still shits) on anybody who wasn’t sat comfortably at the top. Or simply the ways in which ‘civilised’ society didn’t give a fuck about anyone else shitting on the little people either. Of course he hasn’t suffered the specific and enormous cruelties that say the people Madi was fighting for suffered, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to live whatever hellish past it was that he couldn’t even speak of either, and which sits within the context of this whole narrative of fucked up pasts as the single one too awful to be named. I also definitely wouldn’t want to live the present that saw him mutilated and handed a lifetime of suffering that no ideological war could in any way redress. And I’m really not trying to weigh his suffering against other people’s, or trying to build it into any kind of justification or excuse, because that way lies ignorant fuckery and it isn’t my point. The only point I’m trying to make is that some people’s determined lack of acknowledgement of the ways in which he was a beautifully complicated, damaged, suffering, good-bad person too is aggravating to me as someone who is in awe of the intricately complex things the writers and actors accomplished throughout this story. More than anything I just don’t see how anyone can have watched his whole character arc and honestly come to the conclusion that he’s bland and two-dimensional, or that his relationship with Flint was insincere or insignificant (to either of them), or that his ultimate choices can be explained simply by labelling him Evil™. He isn’t even as simple as that in bloody Treasure Island.

It doesn’t even seem to be about whether or not people see Silver’s actions as defensible at this point. It does seem to have devolved into a division between people who have very different opinions on that, but ultimately see why he did those things, and people who refuse to engage with the more sympathetic aspects of his character at all, for whatever reasons. Maybe because it makes the whole thing more difficult and uncomfortable when you have to accept that The Villain was an ultimately shifting and amorphous thing that was someone or something different for every character, and that in some ways Silver was as much a victim as anyone else in that story, and it was partly the result of the ways in which he was victimised (before and after we met him) that bound him to a course where he ended up horribly hurting the people he was trying to help. Nothing is ever black and white, in real life or on this show, and trying to reduce it to that is being either intellectually lazy, disingenuous or obtuse, and missing so much of the beautiful subtlety of the writing.

This answer got way out of hand…but yeah. John Silver isn’t a hero or a villain, because he is not a two-dimensional character, and he sure as fuck isn’t bland or boring. Few people on this show are. We’re all of us in love with a bunch of thieves and murderers and master manipulators. But that’s the point. They’re all just people, beautifully multifaceted and forced to extremes at the very edge of the world and clinging on to life by the skin of their teeth. They’re complex and fucked up and every single one of them running away from something or running towards something else. With barely thirty seconds of thought I could find sympathetic things to say about almost every single character in this show, even if those things wouldn’t be enough to tip the balance of judgement in their favour or make me like them. I’m completely aware that Silver is far less in need of defending than some unfairly maligned characters on this show, but I think perhaps to a certain few it’s the complexity of the writing and therefore the necessity of complex interpretations that needs defending. Nobody is obliged to forgive Silver or to like him, but if they’re happy to forgive and like other characters who have done equally fucked up things or worse ones then that’s a double standard they really ought to take the time to consider. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose, but a story like this deserves better.

#I'm not sure why I've felt so nervous about posting this #but I've written and deleted at least four times as much as I actually ended up happy with #I suppose it's the idea of coming across as saying 'don't be mean to the white boy!1!!' that's worrying #but hopefully it's clear that that's not the point I'm trying to make??#I hope #because it's really not #I'm just so tired of people being obtuse about this when so much care and effort went into the writing and performance #of this character #it's lazy and irritating #poodle snake's as complicated and fucked up as any of them #and that means he's also as capable of genuinely good intentions as any of them #just #respect the fucking art people

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bublp0pr · 7 years

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Roletale Sans & Paps

Now the struggle of who to swap first…. the pressure is crazy. Hmmmm. HMMMMmMmmm. Let’s start with the obvious characters you think of in UnderSwap: Sans and Papyrus.

(I don’t know how I’m formatting these or whatever so don’t expect structure that makes complete sense haha. Also i got too lazy to capitalise their names or spell out Papyrus’s full name all the time so i’ll just call him paps)

Main differences to UnderSwap

Normal US

In normal underswap, papyrus becomes the chill laid back one and sans becomes the obsessive one that wants to be a member of the royal guard. Sans chases down papyrus a lot for slacking off but it’s papyrus who’s actually more observant and ends up looking after him. Paps drinks mustard where sans drank ketchup. And for some reason they made sans like tacos. I’m guessing it’s the AU equivalent of pasta for pap? Sans is considered one of the most adorable versions of himself within the multiverse: hyperactive and demonstrating beliefs and understanding similar to a child in some cases, though has been shown to be capable of being more serious in other instances like Errortale.

(askError!Sans, my one true love… will your hiatus ever end??? Error’s ORIGINAL universe-destroying emotionally complex character (not that fan art inkxerror fluff and smut) has imprinted on me for life ;_; Atleast i have Fatal!Error plot to sustain me)

From what I understand of the webcomics, papyrus becomes the one to watch out for in a genocide run, having their own megalovania sequence in the judgement hall. Papyrus is also considered to be the one with a science background. Whether or not he is aware of the timelines isn’t something the webcomics I’ve seen dwell into. Judgement hall would usually imply that he is the character with some awareness of the implications of determination. On the other hand though, it’s swap sans that ends up in multiverse shenanigans more frequently than paps.

Because of how these characters were swapped, it’s like inserting a papyrus straight into sans body and a sans straight into papyrus. Which is pretty impressive. But not the goal of my AU. I want sans to still be sans an paps to still be paps in their own way.

Take puns as a simple example, sans will still love puns and paps will still hate them… you know what? Sentence form of this will take ages. How about I just make this a list of things I’m keeping from UT?

Sans:

likes puns

likes science (this is canon to undertale. Papyrus says so in one of his calls)

cares for his brother deeply

has an awareness of at least the scientific implications and likeliness of resets

won’t fight you unless you give them no other choice because they realise the futility of trying

one day stopped being a scientist probably due to either losing WD or learning about resets

knows an old lady from the other side of a door who shares puns

Paps:

likes making spaghetti

hates puns

will always respond to your calls

fights you in Snowdin

will believe in you when no one else will. Has a a lot of faith in people and trusts that you can do better. To a fault… = )

is capable of being a royal guard but doesn’t have the value set for it (because of previous point)

How, you may ask, can I make this a swap universe when so many things are the not swapped? Well that’s the fun part.

Backstories etc.

Sans

It wouldn’t be swap if sans didn’t aspire to be in the royal guard… and be slightly pathetic at it despite all of his highly motivated efforts. But i have a solution.

What if before the CORE, sans was a scientist who loved puns but didn’t really have any friends and was always focussed on his work? (Remember papyrus didn’t have friends before in UT either so it’s reasonable to impose this scenario on him. Puns aren’t always popular with crowds afterall) He worked with Gaster and then after the… incident, sans had vague recollections of WD and studied determination in an effort to figure out why he can’t remember him properly. With a certain someone playing around with time, this study leads to the reports that show timelines starting and stopping until suddenly, everything just ends.

This comes as a huge blow to him. But not in the way it does in UT, where he finds it harder and harder to care about things because of how powerless he is. Quite the opposite, he starts to realise that if his life doesn’t matter he wants to spend it doing what he wants to do rather than what he’s good at, because there’s no point anyway. He wants friends. He knows paps used to be a royal guard and he’s popular so sans makes it his lifelong dream to become a member of the royal guard and receive a little love and recognition, to bathe in a shower of kisses every morning etc. etc.

Kinda tragic really considering how good he was at science and how terrible he is at his duties. I mean, he only has 1 HP and 1 AT. This is the main reason they haven’t let him in the guard yet, because if he entered a fight he’d just die.

With motivations like that, you can sorta see how a normal sans might show papyrus behaviour, right? No need to just swap the personality entirely.

I will concede to say that in this universe sans has passion for making the puzzles (a normally papyrus trait that i really shouldn’t be adding but it just simplifies things). He tends to make them overly complicated and convoluted in reference to his science background but he always misses the obvious point in their design.

Papyrus

Did you notice I said pap used to be royal guard? Yep. This is one of those I’m-tweaking-with-the-plot-in-a-big-way things. So papyrus in US has a bit more of a level head than UT. Which is sorta hard to bring out in our normal loveable skeleton.

Let’s say that in this universe he somehow became a royal guard without the struggle he faces in UT. In fact, let’s say that he became a royal guard a long time ago. His vigour and commitment made him a good candidate and they hired him a thought. So, without having to be desperate about getting people’s approval like in UT, he found he didn’t need to try so hard to make friends which actually made him more popular and likeable.

He was a capable royal guard really. I mean, Undyne admits in UT itself that he’s actually pretty strong. But what stops him from fulfilling his duties is exactly what Undyne notices in him with UT, he’s too morally good for the job.

*queue the weird screen wobble of a backstory*

I’m not sure on the details but in my head, papyrus learns his fault in a serious way. Maybe facing one of the past humans or another monster (I might use this loose end to tie up some other plot point later..).

Anyway, at some point in the past he confronts an assailant one on one. He knows what he must do: kill them. He’s been in FIGHTs before of course, dealt damage and captured badguys, but he’s never actually turned a living thing into dust. Facing his enemy, he faces a moral conflict at the core of his being. Papyrus can’t kill. Because despite everything, no matter how heinous the crime or horrible the person, he can’t help himself from believing in the potential of others. From hoping that people can do a little better. And as long as he thinks like this he knows he will never be able to rob someone from an opportunity to improve themselves. To give them that chance at change. There, facing this villain just waiting for him to strike, he realises that he will never be able to be a true royal guard.

They stand for what feels like hours but may as well be just moments of real time in a standstill waiting for papyrus to FIGHT, or atleast even ACT. Finally, papyrus relents and shows mercy, giving into his true nature. It’s at this point that Alphys arrives and intervenes, fighting and capturing the assailant. But papyrus has already learnt a lesson about himself that cannot be forgotten.

Despondent, realising what this means for his job, papyrus begins to care less and less about his work. A stigma grows around him. The guard who won’t FIGHT. The laziest member of the force. It’s around this time he starts frequenting Grillby’s. He eventually quits the guard entirely and embraces what people assume he is. Laziness becomes his escape from the blame he places on himself for all the things he HAD done as a guard and the one thing he couldn’t that fateful day.

Years pass and his time in the guard is all but forgotten. Paps is popular, easy-going and doesn’t care to do much of anything. That is until the one thing he does care about intervenes.

Sans and papyrus always had a strong relationship while younger. Paps is one of the only ones who stuck by sans through his awkward scientist days. Before, sans hadn’t cared much for gossip or other people in general and didn’t really bother to learn about why pap left the guard. What he did know was that somehow being on the guard had left him popular all this time later (which motivated his need to be in the royal guard like I said). Because he was concerned about how lazy paps was getting, he encouraged paps to join him as a sentry.

It’s an offer papyrus couldn’t refuse, knowing how vulnerable sans truly was. Someone needed to keep an eye on him. And really, the dynamic works both ways with sans being there to stop paps from giving up on life entirely some days just by being his perky self.

Dynamic

There’s still that adorable by-play between the bros.

Sans gets frustrated at papyrus for being lazy.

Papyrus silently cringes at the puns sans makes (but he doesn’t react to it like he does in UT)

Despite being the laziest monster in the underground sans still considers him ‘the coolest’

Papyrus somehow always manages to have access to spaghetti 24/7 which drives sans crazy. Sans refuses to eat the spaghetti because of how ridiculous it is. This is supposed to replace the pun thing in UT. I keep thinking of a twist on something in the game: “Papyrus! You need to stop making spaghetti all the time! It’s getting out of hand!” “come on bro, your stomach is grumbling just looking at it.” “I know and i hate it!”

Instead of a hotdog stand, papyrus has a full-on spaghetti kitchen concealed in his sentry station.

Sans is the one that has all the extra sentry jobs around the underground though that he impossibly manages. Most people don’t question it because he’s always putting 110% into everything he does (but how can he possibly be in so many places at once i wonder... *audible wink* )

Papyrus will give Frisk their phone number and answer their calls whenever for each room but I’ll explain how and why that works in another post (I’ve let this one drag long enough)

To be continued i guess?

Ok... That’s not EVERYTHING. But that’s the basics. I still want to go into how frisk encountering the skelebros would work (like i mentioned with the phone calls), the whole lady behind the door thing (but i’ll probably cover that in the Asgore/Toriel swap), who you fight in the blizzard exiting snowdin, who you date in a true pacifist route and how the whole genocide drama would run down. Not to mention i still need to elaborate on the separate friendships they have with alphys, undyne, hapstablook etc. but i’ll them bring up with their own swaps rather than this one because the skeletons are too integrated with everything and everyone to explain it all here.

#roletale #essay #at this point do i even need to put essay tags on my posts???#i overanalyse everything #role!sans #role!paps #fun fact: i typed this listening to basically every boss soundtrack EXCPET sans and paps lol #undertale au #accidentally brought up my error!sans withdrawls

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xavierkat · 7 years

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On difference and (painful desire for) ownership It is strange how often, in thought, I go back to this film. Perhaps even too often; for, while it is exceptionally well-made, it is probably not AS GOOD of a film as I give it credit to be. But I find it to touch upon so many topics that are important to me, that with time it became almost like a dear, silent friend. I view it not as a critic or analyst, but a true fan. I thought of it twice in the last few days. Once, because it gave me a beautiful point of contrast to Enyedi’s ‘On Body and Soul’. In both films, there is an unproblematized, yet potentially problematic old-fashionedness to how love and romance are treated. In Enyedi’s film, the two potential lovers are asymmetrical in the levels of action they need to undertake (’suffer’) for a romance to be born, yet they both end up conforming themselves to simplistic, schematic ideas of what it means to fall for someone and act on it. Maria gets to basically re-invent herself, learning to touch and be touched, to embrace rather than dread sensory experiences. Yet she also learns to play a role: dress like this, converse like this, behave like this, even enjoy lovemaking like this. To an extent, Enyedi is onto something: we really do live in a world where there are schemes guiding our conversations (Maria’s replaying and practicing of them in the privacy of her own room and own head will be oh so familiar to anyone with social anxiety, but it goes beyond that: how our life is structured verbally is a thing we take for granted in everyday life, but sociology has long been onto it), our social interactions, our behaviour. But there is something terrifying about the film’s silent premise that, even between two kindred spirits, romance can never be anything else but schemata. And it becomes even more dreadful when one realises that the asymmetry is gender-based: the woman suffers and nearly dies; the man...does what exactly? The man makes love to a woman; the woman lies still. The man has breakfast, the woman wipes the breadcrumbs from the table. ‘On Body and Soul’ is also strange - old-fashioned, even slightly offensive - in how it treats ‘difference’. Among the first shots of the film is a closeup of Endre’s crippled arm. For Enyedi, no other hints seem to be needed to explain his ‘difference’: to be physically ‘damaged’ is enough. But is this not presumptive to the level of ofense? Why would a physical hardship immediately be so socially crippling, especially for a character who seems otherwise so skilled in social situations? Apparently, solely for the purpose of a plot. In Roskam’s film, there are also traces of old-fashionedness. For one, Jacky’s notions of love, relationships and the ‘opposite sex’ feel like they have themselves been derived from old-fashioned films. He hunts the woman like prey, fitting to the animal-like lens the director filters him through (something I disliked about the film, and have written about before). But there is a clear source of this: his own complete lack of experience, as well as the societal facade of “this is how it’s done” which is everywhere around him. Where Roskam shows to be much more intelligent than Enyedi is precisely in puncturing holes in the facade: the great machismo of the place is really slowly cracking. It is explicitly fake in Diederik’s open fancy for the young detective (and the latter’s willingness to play along for the sake of the investigation). But it is also fake in Lucia’s independent behaviour (she is not into being rescued), and in the care Diederik shows for Jacky as part of a deep male friendship (I do not, unlike some, think it is based on romance). Even Jacky’s own ‘disability’ seems to grow out more from the genre elements of Roskam’s script than from the surroundings, although his shame from the community (which will ultimately destroy him) speaks to the cultural level of gendered role-playing that is still very much alive. Interestingly, I think Roskam is more convinced of its relevance, and was not after making a progressive film - but that ‘Bullhead’ can still very much be read as one showing the slow, but inevitable progress in tearing down gender roles. Now, it would be unfair to say Enyedi doesn’t try to shake up the situation, mostly through episodic characters: the discrepancy between the words and deeds of Endre’s work colleague, the quick change in the perception of Sandor, the new ‘macho’ in the slaughterhouse. Yet she crams the two main characters into roles that, unlike in Roskam’s film, seem unmotivated and unnecessary. But there is also another reason why I thought of ‘Bullhead’ quite a lot this week: namely ownership. I have found myself recently obsessing over something from a medium that is not film, but is also in many ways about love, namely music. Strange music, of the kind I never thought I would embrace, yet in the process I became so deeply enamoured with it through and through, it almost feels by now like something I can touch, feel, immerse myself into (as I often do, missing tram stations as I forget myself in odd rhythms, or catching myself humming and dancing in crowded streets and packed classrooms). Music is, of course, often about love, lust, longing, desire, as is dance as its natural extension. Yet this became something on a whole new level for myself, as it had less to do with the songs themselves, and more with this passionate need to own the sounds and have them present all the time: an unlikely love for the unusual complexity of the accordion; the whirling tenderness of the violin feeling like it can literally take my breath away, kicking the air out of my lungs, stopping my heart. The dangerous feeling of wanting to hold on to every sound, to have it swirling around me all the time. A kind of obsessive madness. And then it dawned on me, thinking of Jacky’s one-sided besotedness with Lucia, how dangerous this can be. How self-consuming. But also how socially alienating: to live in your head, completely consumed by something that you simply cannot own, that doesn’t and cannot belong to you. As Jacky finally speaks, the world falls apart. As I finally spoke, the world did not do so much as tremble, yet my universe cracked. But it was for the better: the need to possess obsessively is always unhealthy, even if another human being is not the object of possession (except in an extended version, for it is always someone making the beautiful music). And it was only then that it dawned on me how excellently the film deals with such hard, entangled issue. The danger of trying to forget your own life by placing all your hopes on something ‘external’, living off of the beauty of someone/something else. The madness of hoping that the world, for once, plays along with your innermost thoughts. The severity of being overwhelmed by someone/something you glorify, and know you can never really reach. Roskam’s film nails this, even though it sometimes feels like it does so despite its director/writer: for him, such behaviour is animalistic. Yet it is, it seems to me, even more so deeply human, in the sense that we are all, somewhere inside, a bit mad. A bit possessive. A bit overwhelmed by at least something in the world. To its credit, ‘Bullhead’ jumps into dealing with this courageously, surpassing its genre constraints. And that makes it a truly remarkable film. Even if it is not, despite of what I make it seem, flawless (far from it) - but as a fictional friend and an encyclopaedia of feelings, it works flawlessly.

#bullhead #rundskop #michael roskam #ildiko enyedi #on body and soul

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filmista · 7 years

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Thelma & Louise

I should credit Thelma and Louise as the film that sparked my love of vintage American cars, not love in the sense that I’m obsessed but aesthetically speaking they are one of my favorite things.

So if anyone ever sent a 66 Thunderbird my way, I’d possibly be eternally grateful…

Thelma and Louise is I think with Easy Rider one of the first road movies I ever saw, at the time of my first watch I was deeply impressed it and I absolutely adored it.

I loved the vastness of the road and what looked to me like the exhilarating freedom of having a wide open space completely to yourself, that sensation of being alone in the middle of nowhere seemed wondrous to me.

Of course, now I see that driving for miles on end and having to sleep in some disgusting, hopefully not roach filled motel has to be exhausting.

And then there is, of course, the terrifying possibility of running out of drinkable liquids and many more unpleasant scenarios I imagine.

So perhaps that side of is a little less romantic to me now, though still the wide open road and what I like to call “car freedom” are still beautiful cinematographically speaking, there are just certain parts of the United States that lend themselves most excellently for beautiful imagery.

Deep brown and reds, intense orange and red from a sunset, a deep blue sky, dust rising from the ground as a car in a bright candy like color speeds past; and Thelma and Louise captures that almost natural poetical quality of the landscape brilliantly.

But what at the time really impressed me most is that it has at It’s center two women who are best friends, in a nonchick flick like environment, complete with an evolving character arc it was something that I hadn’t seen before and that I instantly loved when I was younger and more impressionable.

Now to say that I admired Thelma and Louise would go a bit far, I have absolutely no desire to go on a revenge mission, and what they did would not be something I’d endorse as a fun road trip.

In fact, I hate violence in pretty much all of its forms and I’m afraid of guns, and It’s not even at all that likely that as a European I’d ever come face to face with one, but still the mere thought is capable of inducing a light panic sensation in me.

But I loved the film because rather than two heroes it gave us two antiheroines: Two complicated women, who are allowed to embrace their dark and violent side, without being either seen as “dangerously sexy”, or a crazy, walking danger to society that must be locked up ASAP.

Yes Thelma and Louise more than push the line of what is morally correct, knowingly so in the end but It’s precisely that, that I found so exhilarating and still do when watching it, that they were allowed to push the lines of what is morally correct and be morally apprehensive in the way that until then only men were allowed to be in film.

Thelma and Louise flirts or rather makes love with the idea that women can be just as dubious and ruthless in nature as some male characters, and why shouldn’t they, after all, both are human and human nature can simply be scary and vicious to behold.

Although at the beginning of the film, both the ladies are quite sedated in their own way and stuck in their small town lives, of which they’re tired so they’re longing for a weekend of fun away together.

But this weekend of fun did not originally include murder and robbery, it was only after the ladies are pushed to their final straw that things got out of control, it still doesn’t justify some of their acts but it does make them more comprehensible.

Thelma and Louise were both trapped in the same routinary, boring small town life, their crimes start accidentally and as small ones but the longer they are on the road, finally free from any sort of obligation for pretty much the first time in their lives it exhilarates and intoxicates them; It’s their first real sip on freedom of the mind and body and they become drunk on it…

And it does makes sense if you deny someone something their whole lives or you finally allow them to do something they might overindulge, to the point where they damage themselves and they might even realize they’re doing it, but they’re at the point they can’t even stop themselves.

My best friend loves road movies but she had never seen Thelma and Louise which is in my eyes a serious offense as both a movie lover and a woman, after all, Thelma and Louise is perhaps the ultimate chick flick!

And with chick flick, I don’t mean some silly, largely female driven, completely forgettable romantic comedy but a film that celebrates female friendship and that has no conniving, bitchy backstabbing of the “you stole my boyfriend, now you're gonna pay you bitch!” sort.

But actually has two incredibly different women, that are fully accepting of the other and that support and stand up for each other.

I also told her that It’s perhaps the only female road/crime movie ever made and that makes it unique, legendary and pretty much immortal, but I didn’t want to sound like a lecturing university professor so I just put in the film.

My best friend’s first question in a long while was: “exactly at one point does too much denim on denim become a crime?” To which I said there’s no such thing as too much denim, except maybe if you start looking like you just came back from robbing the Levi’s store, after all, you only need one pair of 5O1’s do you?

But then my friend felt it necessary to pause the film and dissect the style of the two heroines. My friend thought it was brilliantly done how the change in their style reflects the change in their personality.

At the beginning of the film both dress conservatively so as to probably not stand out too much, but near the end as they embrace their I don’t give a damn mentality, they are both in full outlawishly cool glory.

That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about the film, how It’s so stylish yet at the same time so fun loving and relaxed, while still striking serious emotional chords.

You’ve got drinks, line dancing, amazing pairs of vintage jeans, DIY denim crop tops, vintage pin-up like hair scarfs and criminally cool sunglasses, seriously is it humanly possible to look cooler while breaking the law?

You’ve got the original selfie, singing along with the windows rolled down, sun-kissed skin, Sarandon’s and Davis’s red hair that reflects the sunlight and blows in the wind as they speed past in their Thunderbird, if this film doesn’t make you want to get into a vintage car and drive in an arid, eroded landscape nothing will.

I love that the film can be gorgeous and embrace the whole beauty of the landscape the two ladies are in, have fun and still have a serious and emotional backbone.

Thelma and Louise does illustrate coherently, sometimes terrifyingly so what being female in this world, unfortunately, entails sometimes.

Our two ladies had no criminal ambitions, their turning point was a rape, Louise lost her temper at a man who was in the process of raping her best friend, and she would've let him walk with a lecture, if it hadn’t been for the words that dug his own grave: “Bitch, I should’ve gone the ahead and fucked her”, to which Louise responds What did you say? To which he responds “ I said suck my cock”, at which point Louise lost it.

If he had simply apologized and kept shut it wouldn’t have ended in his demise, but his own ego and vanity dug his grave. Farther along the road, Thelma and Louise meet more unpleasant types of men and give all of them a lesson in respecting women, but the only man they actually killed is the rapist.

Still, Thelma and Louise was seen as a male hating and viciously male-bashing film. And yes it is true that pretty much all of the men respond to unpleasant male stereotypes and cliches.

They are but there not out of hate but to merely illustrate what sort of behaviour women have to deal with at times, yes in grossly stereotyped ways but still every woman has encountered at least one of the men in this once, the obscene gesture of the truck driver is one I can sincerely say I’ve had thrown my way once too.

But like I said the two ladies technically only kill one man, while there’s plenty of films in which a man blows away one or more women at a merciless flick of his gun, and nobody makes that loud a fuss.

Thelma and Louise merely lets women to put it a sophisticated way be vindictive, violence loving, authority-defying, foul mouthing bitches for once too, that’s only fair representation.

Human nature is complex, and I believe that plenty of women if pushed past a certain could possibly become Thelma or Louise. Still, Thelma and Louise has decent and kind men too.

Like Louise’s somewhat childish, Elvis Presley resembling boyfriend, Jimmy, but who does genuinely seem to love her and helps her without question when she asks him to, she is asking him to trust her and he does so.

It shows an obvious fact, you have all kinds of men, good, respectful, kind ones or hopeless romantics and just plain mean assholes.

Only Thelma and Louise ran into the latter one too many times, and I do believe that one many time can be a breaking point in how a woman perceives men.

One insult or one single obscene gesture could be one too many and wreak irreversible damage, and I believe that’s what happened with Thelma and Louise, they were just so tired and angry at all the men in their lives, that they to some degree lost their ability to perhaps see them as human beings, but the process that let them there was no fault of theirs.

I’ve personally always loved Thelma and Louise’s ending, but my friend was disappointed. She would have wanted them to turn round and turn themselves into the police officers with a defiant attitude.

I told her that, that way they would have given in to that which they fought against and it would have been the complete opposite of their personal beliefs at that moment.

For me, the ending is pardoned my French ultimate fuckin freedom! What after all is freer than choosing how you are to go out of this world, to chose how and when you die.

They probably had an array of rather dismal possibilities, bullets or electrical chairs. The point is that all those endings would have been inflicted by someone else.

Thelma and Louise in an ultimate act of defiance didn’t even give someone else, in this case, it would have been a man, the possibility of touching them in their final hour much less of killing them.

So when it came to turning themselves in basically like saying I’m giving you permission to shoot me or the deep abyss they chose driving off into the cliff, welcoming the deep abyss like a friend.

And even if you don’t see any poetic justice in it, purely cinematography wise It’s the most aesthetically pleasing death, I don’t think you could argue that it isn’t.

I mean think about it, if wild horses, Mustangs had conscious thought and they could choose between giving into their captor and being tamed or running off a cliff, I think there’s a high chance they’d chose the latter. Anyway, before I delve into anything else, I will leave you guys with the storyline, even if I assume everyone knows it by now:

Whilst on a short weekend getaway, Louise shoots a man who had tried to rape Thelma. Due to the incriminating circumstances, they make a run for it but are soon followed closely by the authorities including a local policeman who is sympathetic to their plight.

The federal authorities, however, have less compassion and thus a cross country chase ensues for the two fugitives. Along the way, both women rediscover the strength of their friendship and surprising aspects of their personalities and self-strengths in the trying times.

Thelma and Louise despite being incredibly beautifully shot and pleasing to the eyes, and country music that isn’t unpleasant to the ears, but rather of the kind that I find that even when driving around in a car in Europe you could put on and fantasize you’re on a road trip through the US.

It’s still mostly dialogue based, Thelma and Louise spend most of the time joking, laughing talking heart to heart and emotionally confiding in one another.

So yes while you get panoramic views of astounding beauty, the real protagonist is the written word no doubt about it. The film could have still have failed without two capable actresses like Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis.

I generally love the acting of both, but for me, both were in the glory moment of their onscreen badassery and daringness, especially Davis.

I was shocked a while ago when I read that Thelma and Louise were initially not going to be made with Sarandon and Davis. I simply can’t imagine any other actresses in the roles.

Sarandon and Davis embody Louise and Thelma for me from the very first scenes they give you a clear picture of who both of these women are and what kind of lives they have.

And they conduct themselves accordingly and slowly and realistically evolve according to that, the woman may act out of character at first glance, but then as you consider their progression it is totally in character.

And these two women and are so fun and entertaining to watch because Sarandon and Davis capture them in a way that’s fully defined without a hint of doubt and hesitation whatsoever.

In a way that lets, you know that these women fully know and are passionate about the characters they’re portraying. It doesn’t feel like either Sarandon or Davis had to force themselves and pull great mental effort to get into the skin of these ladies (while that was probably required).

Both come across not as scripted but as real, precisely because Sarandon and Davis come across as so unforced, effortless, natural and confident in what they are doing, they simply seem to have been completely in their element. For me, they are two of the best written and best acted female characters in cinema ever!

Thelma and Louise were maybe not surprisingly written by a woman Callie Khourie, but directed by someone who you maybe wouldn’t immediately expect, British Ridley Scott, a mostly good director but not really one known for really emotional and highly sensitive films.

So you wouldn’t immediately expect him that when given the chance to direct a film about two female friends, he’d go: Pick me, me, I want to direct it! He probably to some degree was lured by the adrenaline in the film too.

And then there’s of course also the fact that he’s a Brit and that it doesn’t really get much more American than this, yet Thelma and Louise breathe with naturalness so I can only conclude he was, in fact, the right man for the job.

The film has the elements of the coolest action and road movies and big moments, but Scott knew when to slow down and how to handle his camera in the emotional scenes without making them seem unimportant.

But rather shedding more sensitivity on them, really bringing the emotion in them to the front and into the spotlight, and offering a humane insight into female troubles and psychology, you simply see that Scott had respect for his two leading ladies.

Although there’s perhaps a shot of Thelma in a bikini where you could question if it had to be that long, but in his defense, It’s a gorgeous bikini and Davis looked exceptionally lovely in it…

And for me Thelma and Louise is truly a film with impeccable timing and pacing, always sufficiently slow or just fast enough. Perhaps the for me only weak point is those photos after the big, grand finale.

When it comes to the cinematography, Thelma and Louise is one of my all-time favorite films. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, I’m still impressed and in awe each time.

It’s absolutely gorgeously shot and one of those films that you could freeze plenty of times at pretty much any given moment and you could get something worth putting up in a frame.

As I said already in some of my posts I love travel guides and traveling in general. I have three travel guides on the United States alone, why you might wonder since It’s essentially always the same country with the same landscape. Well, each travel guide has different photos of the same landscape and a different style in approaching and introducing you to the country.

I have to at least name Thelma and Louise as one of the films that made me want to go out and buy them, it simply does the landscape the utmost justice and brings it in all It’s natural beauty.

Usually as a European, well at least in my case when watching whatever American road movie, the remark so much space! Is bound to fall at least once.

And Thelma and Louise captures that wide open space, being completely alone on the road feeling to perfection; It’s palpable you feel as though you are in the car.

The film is an ode to the rich, intense colors of the desert and the harsh, blinding light of its sunny and gritty scapes.

But still there’s a perfect balance between the landscape and our two leading ladies neither is given more importance, throughout the ladies are shown on screen in a way that you feel close and connected to them, while at the same highlighting the grandness and drama of some moments.

The soundtrack is for me nothing that special or particularly memorable, sure it has some pleasant and nice to listen to songs. Although it does have some legendary musical moments, that do make it into a unique soundtrack. But when it comes to road movie soundtracks, my heart forever belongs to Easy Rider.

Thelma and Louise are not my favorite film, but it is one of my favorite films to revisit once in a while because I find that there’s always new stuff in there that I never remarked, that could possibly spark debate it is still socially relevant after all this time.

It’s a film I highly respect, It is simply unique in what it does, truly one of a kind, still one of the only really openly and unapologetically feminist films, that deals with “female issues” in a way that’s both sensitive and still an enjoyable ride for both genders.

Anyone can lose themselves in the thrill and the adrenaline of it. And It’s possibly one of the only films that can say it passes the Bechdel tests as it reaches soaring heights, literally whilst flying into an abyss, fucking legendary...

Louise: You robbed the store? You robbed the whole damn store? Thelma: Well, we needed the money. Louise: Oh, shoot! Thelma: It’s not like I killed anybody, for God’s sake! Louise: Thelma!

“I feel really awake. I don't recall ever feeling this awake. You know? Everything looks different now. You feel like that? You feel like you got something to live for now?”

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redscullyrevival · 7 years

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Dragon Keeper: Rain Wilds Chronicles Rundown

@sonnetscrewdriver

Plot/Narrative/Setting

Oh my god there are so many characters - MY TIME TO SHINE.

I love gigantic casts, I live for them

So this was exciting

Gonna be honest and admit I’m relieved to have returned to a third person narrative. I’m of the personal opinion that Hobb writes better as an outside narrator although I wouldn’t say she structures better.

Overall Dragon Keeper was a good set-up story and it moved a lot faster than other Elderling books!

Reading Liveship Traders you knew that the separate story threads would eventually meet and that was grade A thrilling - but it was also nice to have a large cast congeal within this first book. I’m boring and love interpersonal stuff (shout out to Golden Fool!) so all the slight overlap of scenes being reiterated from different character’s perspectives has been a blast for me.

I’m really digging the idea that this is an atypical Quest of sorts; it’s a group of misfits setting out into the unknown, yeah, but even more specifically it’s a group of socially and mentally battered souls leaving the constructs that made them how they are behind.

The BIG THEME in Fitz and the Fool stories is change and Liveship Traders’ BIG THEME was a subset of that, specifically about personal inner change manifesting in outward change and vice versa.

I mean, look at how the physicality of the characters in Liveship Traders directs and alters their inner change.

Liveship is a series about the connection between physical and emotional/cognitive change and I have no doubt that will continue in the Rain Wild Chronicles. We can already see it everywhere; most obviously with the malformed dragons and their heavily touched keepers and more subtly with the trek up river, changing what is and isn’t known about the narrative’s physical space.

Anyways

I am actively fighting envisioning a fantasy version of The African Queen with Dragons though. I don’t know why my brain does what it does.

Alise

Oh boy!

What a flake!

LOL

I love her, I love most everyone we know this by now, but what I really enjoy about Alise is her up and down nature.

She’s emotionally flighty, which is a hard gamble; sometimes reading her experiences is like getting whiplash but that’s what makes it, her, great in my opinion.

Alise is very smart and very perceptive and she wars with herself over her desires, her fears, and then being pragmatic.

Her situation isn’t as complex as Sedric’s but it’s pretty close and I hope the two can bond in an alliance against Hest.

Thymara

Whats with this sassy lost child?!

Thymara is a bit dull in all honesty, she’s very serious, but her attitude and guardedness is understandable.

I feel for her.

She doesn’t seem to be very in-tune with her own thoughts or understanding of herself; she very much views her life as filtered through how others see her.

Hopefully she can loosen up a bit and actually fully grasp the freedom laid before her, embrace the wild.

Captain Leftrin

Such a grand old soul.

I adore how he thinks of his ship and how deeply perceptive he is.

Because his chapter bits are mostly narration he comes off as seeming like a stoic quiet type of person - a kind of gruff Studio Ghibli persona lol.

He’s gotten himself into a pretty pickle though. Can’t wait to see how that turns out!

I’m in love with Tarman by the way; being the oldest liveship around and having those creepy painted on eyes and vibrating communication - oh ho ho I love it!

I LOVE IT.

*gurgle*

Sedric

Sedric is great.

Its kind of hard to explain but he walks the line between being selfish and then pitiful.

Like, his motivations are clear and true for him, but he also is selfaware enough to be honest with himself at times. He knows Hest is manipulative and can be cruel; but he can’t live in the open; he wants to prove himself and make his fortune; but he genuinely doesn’t want to hurt or have harm come to Alise.

Dude’s got a lot going on!

I’m desperate for Sedric and Alise to be open with each other, but I don’t know how soon that’d be possible...

Tats

A nice kid.

A good kid.

A nice good middle of the road kid.

Yeah, I need some more time with Tats I think but he’s pretty swell.

Sylve

Sylve has surprised me in only good ways.

She is the youngest but also possibly one of the smartest keepers.

I love the inversion of her and her dragon Mercor’s relationship; in a lot of ways he seems like her keeper.

Godbless Mercor by the way, I’m irrationally pleased Maulkin survived.

Rapskal

RAP-A-TATSKAL IS MY BOY!

Haha

God I hope he doesn’t do something stupid.

He probably will, but lets hope it isn’t deadly ya know?

A ray of sunshine with the best dragon who has the best dragon name.

Heeby is like an excited puppy! I want her to fly.

Greft

What a big creepy jerk.

He isn’t wrong about saying fuck the establishment, but he is still a manipulative turd.

Sintara

Reading Sintara is a bit of a challenge because like with Tintaglia her self understanding is eye roll inducing, which I know is the point; dragons are suppose to be a challenge to humanity on a social and biological level, dragons view humans like how humans view other animals. I get that.

BUT DAMN sometimes I want Sintara to shut up lol

I don’t know how dragons are suppose to change, will they become more like humans? Will they go in the opposite direction? Interesting!

Highlighted Passages

Or is it that you look at her and see that those rules were wrong, and wonder how many other babies could have grown up to be Rain Wilders?

Should a child ever have to thank a parent for being alive, thank her father that he hadn’t allowed her to be exposed?

As homes and businesses were rebuilt, as trade took on a new shape despite war and piracy, everyone else had tried desperately to make things go back as they were before. Everyone except Alise. Having glimpsed a possible future for herself, she had struggled wildly to escape from the suffocating destiny that sought to reclaim her.

The gem of her satisfaction was when Hest appeared, nattily attired, but hollow eyed and pale.

Thymara kept her mouth shut, horrified not by his wild dreams but how closely they paralleled her own yearnings.

“Don’t trust them. Don’t think of them as especially noble or of a higher morality than humans. They aren’t. They’re just like us, except they are larger and stronger, with potent memories of always having their own way. So, be careful. And whatever you learn of them, whether you find Kelsingra or not, you must record and bring back to us. Because sooner or later, humanity is going to have to coexist with a substantial population of dragons. We have forgotten all we ever knew about dealing with dragons. But they have forgotten nothing about humans.”

She wasn’t sorry, not at all, and yet she could not keep herself from apologizing. When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?

She didn’t like how he assumed he had the right to talk to her in such a tone, to keep her standing here when she wanted to leave.

#realm of the elderlings #year of book #fandom talks #Rain Wilds Chronicles

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daylighteclipsed · 7 years

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this is probably kinda messy but i just really need to get all my Trollhunters thoughts out before I burst. beware of spoilers, my dudes.

I love that I feel some, if even a small bit, of sympathy for each of the “villains” in the show. Draal begins as Jim’s first major adversary wanting to be the Trollhunter, but as he steadily becomes a close ally we learn all Draal wanted from the title, from beating Jim, was to make his father proud, something he learns to do by helping Jim instead of going against him. Strickler is a ruthless and cunning guy who literally admits to being power hungry and only having his own best interests in mind, but he has a soft spot for Barbara that brings out his more human side, that makes me feel bad for him despite everything. NotEnrique is a (quite literally) shifty, selfish brat that betrays Jim and co. before officially moving to their side, but his genuine care for Claire and her feelings, the budding sibling relationship they grow to have, makes me like him, makes me sad to think about him leaving after Claire gets Enrique back. Angor Rot is a cruel hunter who enjoys torturing and destroying souls, but the flashback where we learn he’s so bitter because his own soul is trapped in a ring and he wants to be free, made my heart clench when the ring shattered right before his eyes. Even the little gnomes who are shown to be selfish and mischievous, are shown another side by Chompski, another turned ally of Jim’s, who just wanted a home.

The characters are multi-dimensional, and because of this we see gray spaces among them. NotEnrique especially goes back and forth for awhile before settling his allegiance with Claire, but I appreciate the gradual change as opposed to a sudden one because it feels more realistic. You can feel that inner conflict going on. It becomes very clear that villains are people (creatures, whatever) too who see themselves as doing right but are capable of shifting their perspective into a new idea of right. Aaarrrgh is another great example of this. He used to fight with the GumGum long ago, but then realized he was wrong and dedicated his life to repenting for all the death he caused, choosing to do good and be a pacifist instead. The show doesn’t define by fixed black and white, but by the choices characters make. This extends to the “heroes” too.

The best example probably being when Jim faced the ethical dilemma of trusting Angor Rot to follow through on their deal or not. Both of his friends stood for these opposite choices; Toby wanted Jim to trust Angor Rot and hand the ring over, and Claire wanted Jim to keep the ring and control Angor Rot with it instead. It’s hard to say what the better choice is because both raise good points. Ultimately Jim seemed to lean more Claire’s way, going a step further and trying to steal the Killing Stone from right under Angor Rot’s nose, but that backfired horrendously resulting in the ring shattering and utterly destroying any chance of some sort of truce/alliance ever forming between them. Angor Rot was after blood from then on out, putting Jim, his friends, and all of Troll Market in serious danger. We don’t know if all of that could’ve been prevented had Jim acted differently, we don’t know if something worse would’ve happened had Jim acted differently, but it just goes to show the moral complexity behind ethical decisions like that, something I deeply appreciate the inclusion of. Its great writing.

Jim is faced with smaller decisions of this nature as well, such as when he lies to his mom once more after promising to tell her the truth when she recovers and doesn’t remember anything again, though we have yet to see the outcome of this decision, whether its the better course of action or not, as again each choice has its drawbacks and benefits.

That said, I find Jim’s character progression in a moral sense very interesting, particularly when it comes to “finishing the fight”. The story begins with Jim vehemently against this, choosing to spare lives like Draal’s (”House rules. Not mine.”), going so far as to start a speech in front of the disappointed trolls about how he doesn’t want to live by their rules until he’s yanked off stage by Blinky. This continues up until about the middle of the season when he has to kill Gunmar’s son out of self defense. My first thought watching that scene was ‘Oh no. The first kill’ He was trying to dance around it in the fight, trying to get out of doing it, but in the end he couldn’t get out of it. Kill or be killed. And as the stone body tumbles into the water, you see Jim’s conflicting emotions on his face. You see the resignation, the realization that this is something he’s gonna have to do sometimes whether he likes it or not, and your heart breaks a little for him. Then in the finale Jim doesn't hesitate, jamming Angor Rot’s sword right through his own chest without looking back.

And it hurts, watching this young, loving kid realizing you can’t spare everyone, having to adapt to this harsh warrior lifestyle so suddenly, but its realistic development. Too many times stories will try to argue that killing the villain makes you just as bad as them, but that’s just not how it works. That’s not how war works. It’d be nice in theory if everyone could be spared, but that’s not reality and Trollhunters does a great job of showing that, and the emotional burden that comes with it.

Switching gears a bit, there’s a decent amount of foreshadowing of Jim’s father having been a changeling, and consequently Jim having some of that troll/changeling blood in his veins as well; his father’s mysterious sudden disappearance, the fact that the amulet has only ever chosen those with troll blood before, the quip about Stickler being a changeling “If he’s one, I’m one” in which we find out later Stickler is one. I don’t know if the theory’s true or not (it would explain how the amulet could’ve chosen Jim), but I wanna play around with it for a sec, as well as the Daylight and Eclipse powers, in relation to the morally gray spaces in the show.

If Jim is part troll/changeling, it would symbolically represent the amulet really well; Daylight representing his humanity, Eclipse representing the changeling. On the surface, like a human compared to a changeling, Daylight seems more “good” than Eclipse. The suit’s blue and silver, there’s no ill intent behind wanting “the glory of Merlin”, and Blinky says Jim’s (as well as all humans’) greatest strength is their ability to love each other. Whereas Eclipse is black and red, is drawn from Gunmar’s eye, is to be used “for the doom of Gunmar”. But, like a human and a changeling, despite appearances, neither force is more inherently good or bad. Humans are capable of doing evil, and Daylight is capable of being used for evil, like when Angor Rot was using Daylight against Jim. Changelings/any creature from the GumGum are capable of doing good, like NotEnrique and Aaarrrgh, and Eclipse is capable of being used for good. Nothing is inherent, nothing is all good or all bad, all that matters is your choices, how you choose to wield those powers, what kind of person you choose to be.

And Jim himself would be the amulet that binds these two forces together. He is neither all human or all troll, all light or all darkness, all good or all bad. He is not one side of the coin or the other. He is the coin itself. He is the literal balance of these forces, bridging the gap between them as well as the gap between the “good” creatures and the “bad” creatures, and then all the creatures and the humans. He commands these forces. Regardless of appearance, regardless of blood, he gets to choose how they’re used and what kind of person he is, and that is what defines Jim. Not either or, but both. Both sides embraced together. That is of course if Jim really is not all human. It’s certainly something I’d like to see.

#trollhunters #anyway #can you tell this is all i've thought about since i finished the season #there's more i wanna say but this is the bulk of it #th meta #hopefully the void will show me ppl who are also passionate about it #cause I'm not about to shut up about this show soon #lurking lineage

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