#genocide cultivation beam | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

danae-c-y · 5 months

Text

Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Formalist Symbolism of Shot Composition

Link to Video Essay

The series, Avatar: the Last Airbender, remains one of the most critically acclaimed animated shows over a decade after its original debut in 2005. Intricate world-building, an immersive score, and themes of genocide, totalitarianism, Stockholm Syndrome, redemption, and spiritual balance are partially what cultivate and cement ATLA’s memorability to a degree that prompts recognition from outlets such as Vanity Fair, IndieWire, and general audiences years after its premier. It is a heroes’ journey about restoring balance, cross-cultural understanding, and peace after the Fire Nation waged war. However, it is also filled with striking visual storytelling, its awareness of semiotic significance and the delicacy through which it handles visual rhetoric.

While lighting, camera angles, and shot composition are used as formalist signifiers throughout the entire show, I will specifically be focusing on the scene where Zuko visits Iroh in the jail cell. For context, Zuko has been accepted back into the Fire Nation by conforming to their current ideals of ethnocentrism and helping their efforts in the war. Simultaneously, Iroh has been othered and imprisoned for treason because of his rejection of these same ideals. Thus, we know contextually that the two characters are performing and interpreting their racial identities differently. The composition of the scene through its lighting and camera angles, however, adds another layer of commentary to the duality of these two characters. It communicates that while Iroh is physically othered and imprisoned for his enlightened perspective on what it means to perform his racial identity, Zuko is embraced and accepted for his antithetically ignorant perspective on the Fire Nation.

Through its use of light and dark imagery as symbolic concepts within the scene, ATLA demonstrates what Sergei Eisenstein describes as “a cinema that seeks the maximum laconicism in the visual exposition of abstract concepts” in his article, “Beyond the Shot [The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram].”[1] The light streaming in from the small window in Iroh’s prison cell represents the concept of enlightenment and awareness while Zuko kneels helplessly in the shadows. This is a subversion of expectations, as Iroh is imprisoned, looked down on, and othered within his nation, yet the light implies he should be treated antithetically. The role reversal between the isolated yet enlightened prisoner and the idolized yet ignorant prince is further emphasized through the stark duality of light and shadow. Eisenstein describes the composition of shots and visual symbolism as a necessary type of collision, writing “What then characterizes montage and, consequently, its embryo, the shot? Collision. Conflict between two neighboring fragments. Conflict. Collision.”[2] Few visual elements mirrored across hundreds of years of symbolic imagery more aptly demonstrate conflict and collision within a shot than the light and the dark—the collision, conflict, and interplay between shadows and the sun that expels them.

Applying the argument for collision within a shot to lighting specifically, Eisenstein states, “The same applies to the theory of lighting. If we think of lighting as the collision between a beam of light and an obstacle, like a stream of water from a fire hose striking an object, or the wind buffeting a figure, this will give us a quite differently conceived use of light from the play of ‘haze’ or ‘spots.’”[3] Through this framing, there is not only the existence of light and shadow within a shot but a battle between them—an apt description considering the broader plot of war between ethnocentrism and cross-cultural unity that permeates Avatar’s world, as well as Zuko and Iroh’s representations of these ideologies respectively. Light and shadow can coexist, yet this coexistence is constantly implicated with the power struggle between the two. Avatar’s shots in the prison scene put light and dark imagery similarly in conflict, further explaining why one must be othered and the other accepted by their nation.

Eisenstein explains, however, that these abstract concepts necessitate an intertextual basis that grounds them in signified meaning. Speaking to how visual signifiers develop culturally understood meanings over time and in relation to the context clues around them, Eisenstein writes that within forms like the Haiku and Tanka, “The method, reduced to a stock combination of images, carves out a dry definition of the concept from the collision between them.”[4] Avatar’s visual rhetoric plays out similar to poetic communication, drawing on the idea that shadows and light, when placed together create meaning. Bolstering the significance of this collision with the shot is a history of cultural ideas and philosophical texts that perpetuate similar associations. Eisenstein recognizes how this type of intertextuality strengthens symbolism, writing, “The same method, expanded into a wealth of recognized semantic combinations, becomes a profusion of figurative effect.”[5] The integration of atramentous and brightened hues into common modern cultural perceptions is seen through how it manifests in language, with common expressions like being in the dark.

One may question how the depth of the scene's commentary about enlightenment and ignorance can go much further past this stark dichotomy, as the conceptualization of light and darkness arguably only allows for a black-and-white interpretation of Iroh and Zuko's characters. However the meaning behind the use of shadows is strengthened even further when considering what is perhaps the most famous use of dark and light symbolism across millenia—Plato’s acclaimed allegory of the cave. Plato paints a visual picture of prisoners who live in an underground cave and can only see a wall where the shadows of various objects are projected. Thus, they believe shadows to be reality. Once a prisoner escapes and sees not only the objects that were originally creating the shadows, but also the sun above, he is described as enlightened, having a fuller view of reality.

The shot plays on this symbolism by intentionally depicting Zuko staring down at the shadows of the prion bars while Iroh stares at Zuko directly. This indicates that, much like the prisoners in Plato’s allegory, Zuko is shrouded in ignorance, unable to see how his compliance with ethnocentrism is not inherently necessitated by him being the prince of the Fire Nation. Iroh, on the other hand, sees the real prison bars and from his perspective, Zuko is the one behind those bars, as is emphasized by the camera angles in the scene being shot from inside the cell looking out. Iroh sees a clearer version of reality, understanding a racial performance detached from the Fire Nation’s current culture, and realizing Zuko is mentally imprisoned.

The prison scene is a poignant example of the type of formalism that Eisenstein explores. ATLA’s montage demonstrates “precisely what we do in cinema, juxtaposing representational shots that have, as far as possible, the same meaning, that are neutral in terms of their meaning, in meaningful contexts and series.”[6] The series of shots that comprise this scene strengthens its visual storytelling, as each shot—its perspective and composition—further emphasizes the dichotomy between the two characters within it. Astoundingly, a 3 minute scene has the capacity to communicate the “collision” of othering versus acceptance; cultural enlightenment versus ignorance; and ethnocentrism versus global unity personified between two of the show’s protagonists.

[1] Sergei Eisenstein,“Beyond the Shot,” Film Theory and Criticism, (2009): 15

[2] Eisenstein, “Beyond the Shot,” 19

[3] Eisenstein, “Beyond the Shot,” 21

[4] Eisenstein, “Beyond the Shot,” 15

[5] Eisenstein, “Beyond the Shot,” 15

[6] Eisenstein, “Beyond the Shot,” 15

@theuncannyprofessoro

#oxyspeculativetv #speculativetvanalysis

6 notes · View notes

bamfdaddio · 3 years

Text

X-Men Abridged: 1980 - The Dark Phoenix Saga

The X-Men, those enduring mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 132 - 140, X-Men Annual 4) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, John Romita Jr. and Bob McLeod

Go on. Name a more iconic X-Men panel. I’ll wait. (X-Men 134)

If you were born in 1980, you were born under the sign of the Phoenix. This means you will have great hair, but you’ll also be absolutely corrupted by power. Don’t worry, as long as you don’t consume any stars and/or galaxies, you should be fine.

This year hits the ground running, introducing Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde and Dazzler in one fell swoop. The White Queen is the first of the Hellfire Club to make her move, but Phoenix is quickly able to dispatch of her, as you can read here.

Cyclops, worried that the rest of the Inner Circle will soon come in for the kill, decides to abscond to Angel’s Aerie in New Mexico to throw their pursuers off their scent. Jean decides to make the most of it and has sex with Scott on top of mesa. (Kinky!) She also shuts off his uncontrollable destructo-beams, nbd. This somehow inspires Scott to go from reactive to proactive and lead an ill-advised charge straight into the Hellfire Club on the night of their big ball… soirée... thing. Call it a Hellfire Gala-avant-la-lettre.

Fine, he might have been inspired by the raw power of the Phoenix. She’s the biggest gun on their side and, if there's one thing you can be sure of, it´s that reliable powerhouse Jean won´t switch sides in the middle of battle.

Oh wait, that's exactly what she does.

As soon as they enter the Hellfire Club, Jason Wyngarde, who reveals he’s actually Mastermind, takes control of Jean, finally turning her into the Black Queen. With the power of the Phoenix and the patriarchy on their side, the Inner Circle makes short work of the X-Men. They consists of:

Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind.

Sebastian Shaw. Often shirtless. The Jeff Bezos of mutantkind. Has the ability to absorb kinetic energy, which means punching him only makes him stronger. (Colossus and Storm figure this out the hard way.)

Harry Leland. Ability of mass manipulation, which has got to be one of the dopest powers ever. Uses it to dunk Wolverine three floors down into the sewer.

Donald Pierce. 25% robot, 100% asshole, 100% useless in taking out X-Men, 225% the worst.

Wolverine is the only one who escapes, resulting in another iconic image:

Apparently, this picture is solely responsible for the fact that Wolverine became the face of the X-Men in the zeroes. It also lit my cigar from the other side of the room. (X-Men 132)

Needless to say, stabbing ensues.

Meanwhile, Shaw pontificates what he wants with the X-Men. He means to use them as guinea pigs to isolate the X-Gene, which he’ll then reverse engineer to give everyone (with money) super powers and all of a sudden, I want Shaw to do a team-up with John Sublime. Jean is not all there, however: she’s trapped in the astral plane, cultivating a cruel streak a mile high.

And suddenly, Jean-turning-evil is not all that funny anymore. (X-Men 133)

Cyclops traverses the mental link he shares with Jean to confront ‘Sir Jason’ and challenge him to a duel. Guy can’t catch a break: in Jean’s mindscape, he is stabbed and he promptly collapses in the real world. Ruh-roh!

Wolverine, meanwhile, has done a passable impression of the Bride against the Crazy 88 in Kill Bill, and he interrupts the Hellfire Club and their gloating. That’s when Jean resurfaces as well, snapping out of her voluptuous Victorian fantasy and, playing a dubious tango with everyone’s trust issues, switching sides once again. The Phoenix is like the golden snitch: as long as your team holds it, it’s enough to win.

Colossus snaps Pierce’s robo-arm, Shaw gets punted through a floor and Leland uses his powers to increase Wolverine’s mass - just when Logan is jumping on top of him. Oops! Should have made him lighter than a feather, Leland.

Jean, meanwhile, is doing her own passable impression of the Bride and goes on what the advertisements would refer to as a ‘Roaring Rampage of Revenge’. (Oh, she roars, and she rampages, and she gets bloody satisfaction.)

This is what happens when you fuck around and find out, Jason. (X-Men 134)

Phoenix makes Mastermind’s mind touch the infinite. His tiny human mind can’t cope. And, just like me when I’m at Pride and surrounded by a bevvy of shirtless gym bunnies, he becomes a dribbling mess. A shell with nothing inside. For those of you paying attention: this is where your Lit teacher would shout “dramatic irony” and underscore Emma Frost vs. Storm on the chalkboard.

This is also the moment where she officially Breaks Bad.

We see powerless people become heroes all the time. The reverse, where the angel falls? That happens far more rarely. I think that is the reason this story was so shockingly effective in the eighties. The reason why it’s still so effective? I think because, like the One Ring, you can read the rise and fall of the Phoenix in a myriad of ways. Is this a victim, reclaiming power? Is this a woman, trying to rise in a man’s world? Is this someone who was always buttoned up, daring to embrace her own power, her sexuality, her dangerous side -- only to get promptly beat down? The ambiguity of the narrative gives it strength, which is why I think it keeps resonating even now. This counts especially in the X-Universe, inherently designed to appeal to the underdog.

Anyway, the X-Men try to flee, but it’s too late. Jean can’t hold it in any more. She explodes in Phoenixesness and vaporizes the X-Men’s aircraft over Central Park. Relishing in her power, Jean easily defeats her friends, before flying off into the galaxy.

In the Avengers mansion, Beast gets the report that the X-Men are trashing the Hellfire Club. Ignoring his duties as an Avenger, Beast chooses his old family and hops off to investigate on his own.

The report, by the way, comes from Shaw, who knows when to turn tail and cut his losses. Among the confused, scared refugees of their party, he begins working a politician on the importance of a Sentinel program. That politician? Senator Kelly. Remember that name.

Jean can’t talk, she’s doing hot girl things. Nomnomnom that star system, sis. (X-Men 135)

Originally, Jean wasn’t meant to die. This one panel, the one showing the inhabited planet, is the reason why she eventually does: Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief, felt Jean shouldn’t be able to get away with a literal genocide. Claremont and Byrne, who had planned to strip Jean of her powers at the end of this, had to change the end of their story within days before it went to print. Additionally, this stoked the adversarial fire between the two: Claremont claims that he hadn’t originally intended there to be an inhabited planet, but felt his hands were tied when Byrne drew one. I wonder how true this is, considering how embedded it is in the narrative, but that’s neither here nor there.

The Phoenix’s genocide alerts the Shi’Ar - and therefore Lilandra - to her presence. Lily says that Galactus is nothing compared to the Phoenix: he merely eats planets, she will consume all that exists.

A hungry Jean, meanwhile returns to Earth, not sure what she’s looking for. She pays a visit to the home of her parents, but when they warily come to greet her, she can’t help but read all the innermost thoughts of her family. Nothing is secret, nothing is sacred. (Imagine knowing all those little thoughts your parents had about you, all those little terrible human things they did in their life. Imagine knowing all their sexual fantasies. Brrr.) It sours the Phoenix against them and she is about to start familicide to her list of sins, when the X-Men attack!

Nightcrawler slaps a psionic scrambler designed by Beast on her, but she’s still too strong. Wolverine tries to end her, but he isn’t ruthless enough to do the deed. When the scrambler overloads, Scott tries reasoning with her, appealing to her love. This causes the Phoenix to waver and Charles Xavier (airdropped in by Warren), bolts Jean telepathically.

Drinking game rule for the Phoenix saga no 6: shout “ca-caw” and take a sip every time the raptor appears. (X-Men 136)

Xavier feels Jean helping him out from within the Phoenix and together, they slowly trap Phoenix in the same sort of energy-matrix as Jean did with the M’Kraan-crystal. The Phoenix finally lays dormant, the X-Men have Jean back and Scott, overwhelmed by emotion, sort of awkwardly proposes to her. Happy Ending! And then, pulling the rug out from under our feet, the X-Men (including Beast and Angel) are whisked away.

They appear in front of Lilandra. The Shi’Ar hold Jean accountable for her planet-killing ways and Lilandra orders her Imperial Guard to take her away! But Charles invokes an ancient law with the same relish of someone who invokes an obscure board game rule against the person who is about to win: he demands a trial by combat.

The rules are easy:

X-Men win: Jean lives

Shi’Ar win: Jean dies.

The trial will be on the dark side of the moon. The Shi’ar are way too strong and, one by one, the X-Men fall, until only Jean and Scott are left. In their last stand, Jean loses control and becomes the Phoenix again, wiping the floor with the Imperial Guard. Technically, they win, but she knows now.

Suicide by abandoned-machine-of-a-long-forgotten-civilization-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon. (X-Men 137)

She dies. Phoenix dies. The X-Men lose. Scott, bereft, leaves the X-Men.

One detail I love is the holempathic crystal that Lilandra bestows on Jean’s parents.

Without becoming too maudlin, the idea of this is beautiful. A condensed image of a person you love, one you can touch when you feel memories slipping away so you can remember who they were. (X-Men 138)

And with that, season 2 of the X-Men ends. Without Cyclops and Phoenix, the X-Men have to readjust. While Beast returns to the Avengers, Angel takes up residence in the mansion again. He confesses to liking most of the new X-Men, except Wolverine. (To be fair, Wolverine is an acquired taste.) Kitty Pryde also formally starts attending the school and slowly, the Jean-and-Scott-shaped void is filled.

Patriarchal Charles is thrilled to finally have a new teenager in the house who will hang on to his every word. It’ll be like the sixties all over again! (X-Men 139)

There are so many beautiful touches in the few panels:

Wolverine calling Charles ‘Chuck’

Nightcrawler getting drinks (and a beer)

Most amazingly of all, Storm becoming the leader. (I give Chuck a lot of flak, but this decision is Right.) Not just because Storm is the best X-Man for the job, but also because she was a black woman leading one of premier Marvel superhero teams for, what? The better half of a decade? The eighties had barely started, so this was a big fucking deal.

Storm also takes up a motherly role for Kitty, who takes up her suggestion for a codename: Sprite. (This after Kitty rejects Charles’ suggestion of Ariel, which is only fortunate, considering that name would soon be associated with redhaired mermaids.)

The rest of the year is dedicated to two adventures, both of them starring Kurt. The first is depicted in the annual: on Kurt’s birthday, he receives a mysterious package with a mysterious figurine that mysteriously explodes in his face. Professor X calls guest star Dr. Strange for aid, who deduces that his soul has been stolen. What follows is a quest to regain Kurt’s soul in an adventure that feels a little too I just read Dante’s Inferno, check how smart I am.

Hell is a little too pedestrian and boring, though we do get a King Minos hitting on Kurt and Ororo. A man of wealth and taste indeed. Anyway, at the end of this side quest, it turns out all of this was a convoluted revenge scheme concocted by one Margali of the Winding Road. She turns out to be Kurt’s (adoptive) mother, who’s getting revenge for Kurt killing her son.

Kurt, racked with guilt, reveals he had no choice. Stefan had always feared the darkness in his soul and he’d made Kurt pledge to stop him if he should ever succumb to it. After Stefan killed a child or two, Kurt had no choice but to end him. Stefan perished and Kurt was blamed for all of the murders, having to flee an angry mob.

Margali forgives him, with some help from Jimaine, Kurt’s foster sister. In a twist that is a little too soap opera for my tastes (and I watch Riverdale), Jimaine turns out to be Kurt’s squeeze, Amanda Sefton. I’ve always disliked this twist, and not just because of the incesteous vibes: I like the idea of Kurt dating a regular lady who is into him despite his appearance and his being a mutant. Making Amanda Sefton his sorcerous half-sister dilutes that message a lot.

The tail end of 1980 involves Wolverine going to Canada so Wolverine can make amends with Alpha Flight. Kurt joins him, ostensibly to flirt with Aurora, but in fact this shows that Kurt and Wolverine are establishing a rapport. A deeper friendship.

In a pretty paint-by-numbers adventure, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and the worse half of Alpha Flight take down a Wendigo. We don’t get Northstar or Aurora, but we do get more Snowbird, who can change herself into Canadian animals, with the danger of being consumed by her animal side.

We get this delightful panel out of it:

Scared Nightcrawler almost makes me forget how full of shit Jimmy MacDonald is, considering last time Kurt saw them, they tried to kidnap the fuzzy elf. (X-Men 139)

This whole arc is meant to show the softening of Wolverine. Not only does he share his name with Kurt (well, sort of: “Logan, is that your name?” ��Yup.” “You never told us.” “You never asked.”), but when they fight the Wendigo and Snowbird turns into a white wolverine to deal the final blow, he talks her out of being consumed by her vicious animal nature.

The year ends with two details worth mentioning:

The Canadian government dissolves Alpha Flight, which I can only find a prescient move that highlights their good taste. A realistic note I like is the minister referring to the mutant problem as ‘an American problem’ even though they employ the Beaubier twins. Wankers.

Fred Dukes escapes prison to join the New Brotherhood of Mutants!

We’re now entering a run of the X-Men which I haven’t read much of yet, but Freddy mentions he was helped by some lady lawyer. That’s gotta be Mystique, right?

I can barely contain my glee.

Ugliest Costume: Despite that godawful hooded thing Kitty wears, I have to give this to Dazzler. There’s no salvaging that costume: I’m sorry, but she’s wearing a disco ball around her neck. It's a boot from me.

Best new character: Emma Frost. Fight me by the bike rack near the parking lot if you disagree.

Turns evil: Jean Grey, famously so.

What to read: X-Men 129 to 137, the Dark Phoenix run.

69 notes · View notes

vampiremansionpoolboy-moved · 2 years

Text

“genocide cultivation beam” that’s literally such a fucked up and evil name dude

#toad talks #promare day posting !!#promare lb

2 notes · View notes

mikmaqs · 3 years

Text

so i took the plunge and watched promare (2019)

this morning i set out on something i have intended to for some time now, ever since seeing the very mixed opinions on the film. here's my take as an indigenous person, viewing indigenous/minority representation in this movie.

i will add that i am not jewish, which seems to be what most parallels get drawn to. this is just my view as an indigenous person w a long history of myself and my people dealing with oppression, so if jewish people have anything to add, absolutely feel free to do so, because i could have very well missed some things. that being said, let me compile my thoughts.

so, to begin with, i'll state my positive feelings on the movie to get out of the way the things that i did find enjoyable. then, i'll touch what i thought was...eh. less good, or downright bad.

first of all, the animation and color scheme of this movie really was beautiful, and a pleasure to look at (i.e. lio's volcano rage sequence, the promare itself, etc). interesting stylistic choices and enjoyable animation are, i hear, relatively intrinsic to the studio trigger brand. i can't verify, because i haven't ever viewed a studio trigger film before this to my knowledge, but that's what i get through the grapevine. the use of vibrant colors is very pleasing to look at, though it could probably be used as a murder weapon for anyone with color sensitivity or epilepsy, which is...less good, but the appeal was there. just know that it's very bright and a little flashy before viewing.

secondly, i enjoyed the character design more or less...except for, uh, a few things i'll mention later. generally, it was nice, and not an eyesore.

thirdly, the soundtrack was pretty good. i did find a few songs got reused a lot, but that's not exactly a this specific movie problem anyway, and generally not even much of an issue. it didn't unground me or anything, just was noticable enough to make me note it during viewing.

basically, as a whole, the aesthetic value of this movie is very good! credit is given where credit is due, so, yeah, i can say i did enjoy that part.

now, there's...a fair plethora of issues with this movie.

what i gather from this is i can, like...kind of see what they were prooobably trying to do here. like, i doubt they FULLY intended to make such a horrible approach at issues of social justice and racial equality, but, uh. yeah. it wasn't good. and i hear they've done similarly distasteful things, so who knows what the inner workings were with this. at best, it reads as insensitive and uneducated, which is not really what you want in a movie. the aesthetic value is not much if the storyline is sort of trash.

first thing i notice is that the minority group (the burnish, for those who have not viewed) is given a destructive ability and, apparently, an innate urge to........burn things down.......because........the promare......speak to them. like maybe that was just poor thinking, but the first thing you should not do is make the minority group inherently violent and destructive with the whole "the flames talk to us and tell us to burn shit so that's what we do" thing. personally, it reads to me as "oh these poor people inherently violent and horrible" and it's. um. unsettling. of course, the burnish hold pride in never killing for no reason, which makes this a bit more salvageable, but not good.

especially when part of the next scenes of the movie include lio (the leader of the burnish) losing his shit and having to be stopped by the white savior trope. like. well. this is unfortunate now isn't it. of course, i can't be positive galo is white, but i'm referring more to the "majority saves minority from...being a minority" thing that plays out here. like. imagine john smith stopping pocahontas from going into a rage and spearing people or whatever white people think we do. yeah that's basically what happens here and it's................yeah!

the only truly enjoyable characters were the burnish honestly. like. my dear fellow indigenous/minority i'm so sorry you have been subjected to this badly written movie. lio fotia i'm so sorry. you were the only character i liked.

and theeeen the parallels to the holocaust come in, and this is where it gets, uh, uncomfortable. more than before.

so this guy named kray foresight (what a name, huh) has an insane little superiority complex and thinks he's jesus or something. come to find out, he's a burnish — way to villainize the minority but without the "but they're people too" redeeming part, studio trigger — who is...doing experiments, human experiments, on the burnish to power his spaceship.

it's as weird as it sounds.

but the point right now isn't mr foresight's silly little spaceship adventure, it's the parallels to the human experiments conducted at concentration camps (promare has those too, by the way, but they're more of jail cells here) by doctors working under the nazi regime. most know by now about the horrific experiments conducted on people during the holocaust, majorly jewish people among other smaller percentages of other groups (poles, yugoslavs, actually mostly any minority the nazis could find and didn't like). the parallels to jewish oppression are staggering and impossible to ignore or not notice, for me anyway, and this is from someone who isn't even jewish. i'm sure watchers who are notice it even more starkly.

did i mention the whole symbol surrounding the burnish is a pink triangle?

gee. i wonder where we've seen triangles to identify a minority group before.

oh yeah. the identification tags used to separate jewish people from non-jewish people the nazis created.

funny how that works out.

there's also the way the star of david appears throughout the movie. or the several other parallels that exist within the film.

and the "genocide cultivation beam", whatever the fuck that means.

and the way the movie ends with the burnish just...not being burnish. identity: gone, white: savior, hotel: trivago.

yeah. the whole conflict of "the burnish keep setting shit on fire" gets solved by "well, we'll get rid of what makes them burnish as if we couldn't just settle it in another way anyone with a brain could think of". but, you know, plot is apparently more important than respect..

and all that aside? there's still more issues.

like the incredibly racist caricatures of Black people, y'know? the whole "big bulky deep voiced animalistic" racist rhetoric? yeah. yeah, they got that too. it takes about half a brain cell to notice it, and it's so hard to stomach, as a bipoc. i'm a poc, and even when it's not my race, it's so difficult to watch these poor, distasteful portrayals of real life oppression and real life people.

tl;dr, promare is a very well animated movie with a nice soundtrack, but that does nothing to wipe away the VERY large issues within it. if you are going to be interested in the characters and media, i IMPLORE you to remain VERY critical of every flaw and never excuse it. be sensible about your interests. i enjoyed lio as a character, but do i condone the issues in this film? fuck no, and i feel bad the poor guy had to be part of it. fork over the rights to lio fotia to me i'll treat him better than studio trigger ever did.

as always, be critical of your interests and listen to people affected when they bring something to your awareness. you can like characters without excusing the grossly evident issues of a piece of media. none of it is okay or excusable, regardless of what the intent may have been.

like i said, if anyone has anything to add, please do feel free to do so, and let me know — i'm always ready to listen and look at different viewpoints, especially of those affected by this media. ❤️

#fin.txt #long post #fandom critical #tw antisemitism #tw antiblackness #tw nazi #tw racism

2 notes · View notes

xoshepard · 3 years

Text

I’m mad bc the boy was rly like “wear this shirt that says ‘genocide cultivation beam’” in response to me telling him that promare is back in theaters this weekend and I’m going to see it, so I KNOW we have the exact same shit sense of humor, but he REFUSES to speak English fluently so I can’t give him all the good good jokes and things smdh

#boy if you don’t fucking study-#tirah talks #bad business

0 notes

thesoapfactory-art · 7 years

Text

Rethinking Public Spaces Throughout Minnesota

The Soap Factory’s public space program invites artists to submit proposals for projects outside of The Soap Factory that re-think public spaces, and/or utilize spaces that are often neglected or overlooked.

The following artists and collaboratives have been chosen to present their projects as part of Rethinking Public Spaces Throughout Minnesota:

JESS HIRSCH

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to accurately identify an emotion and react appropriately through awareness. This may seem simple, however, emotions convolute our behavior, making us react quickly without recognizing our motivations. Emotional Platings is a series of picnic kits made from trees that heal specific emotions. Two people will check out a kit and have a series of prompts to explore the emotion together. Emotional Platings will take place throughout rural Minnesota.

Jess Hirsch is a conceptual artist investigating the healing world through installation and sculpture. She received her MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2013 and is the recipient of the Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, MN State Arts Board Grant, and the Jerome Emerging Artist Project Grant. Her art practice focuses on educating the public on alternative health practices through everyday experiences such as bathing, eating, and sleeping.

AARON DYSART

Produced for specific purposes, data sets’ accuracy tends to limit their audience, as long lists of numbers need to be interpreted for non-specialists. Dysart’s project will turn over the aesthetics of a large colorful public spectacle in the Twin Cities to data in order to tell the story of place, highlighting the role interpretation and orientation plays in our understanding of different environments and how we process knowledge. The quantifiable will become qualitative as aesthetics mingles with interpretation allowing people to see place in a new light.

Aaron Dysart is a sculptor whose objects and environmental interventions push ideas of propriety, gift giving, and reciprocity, while showcasing his love of material’s ability to carry content. He has received awards from Franconia Sculpture Park, Forecast Public Art, The Knight Foundation, and The Minnesota State Arts Board and his work has been in Art in America, Hyperallergic, Berlin Art Link along with other publications He has shown nationally and is currently a City Artist through Public Art Saint Paul, embedded in the city of St. Paul.

Juxtaposition Arts

Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA) will build on the momentum they’ve created over the last 3 years around the celebration of Black August by combining the respective placemaking and art-based engagement skill sets of JXTA’s Public Arts, Tactical, and Environmental Design studios to bring 2017 Black August programming outdoors and onto the intersection of Emerson and West Broadway Avenues in North Minneapolis. This will include the creation and execution of Black August programming, the design and construction of a flatpak parklet, and the extension of Public Art’s 2016 mural, ‘Who We Are.’ The extension will use the aesthetic style of Chicago’s 1967 mural, ‘The Wall of Respect.’

Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA) is a youth development organization and a social enterprise located in North Minneapolis. JXTA envisions the youth of North Minneapolis entering the creative workforce as dynamic innovators and problem solvers with the confidence, skills and connections they need to accomplish their educational and professional goals, and to contribute to the revitalization of the communities where they live and work.

MARIA CAMERON

“Is Your Rebellion Sitting Still?” is a project by Maria Cameron that will transform public spaces in Rochester, MN into spaces of contemplation, self-reflection, and conversation. By installing a series of large-scale thought bubbles on buildings and in community spaces that are considered works in progress, this project highlights the present flux this city is currently in as it grows and expands. The questions aim to create dialogues about renovation and renewal inviting conversation about the meditative and often healing act of finding art in the every day. The viewer is given the opportunity to focus on some of the complicated questions that come with living, thriving, hurting, and healing.

Maria Cameron’s work examines the relationship between traditional techniques and modern methods by dissecting contemporary social behaviors and activities and reconstructing them into visual experiences. Her work is an extension and expansion of her experiences in Alzheimer’s research and memory care which she uses to reevaluate memory and personal experience. She has most recently been featured in Moon Magazine, at Coe College (Cedar Rapids, IA), and in collaborations for Northern Spark (Twin Cities).

ANDY STURDEVANT AND SERGIO VUCCI

Common Room is a series of artist-led tours of Twin Cities sites, with each tour themed around a specific concept that the group uses as a lens to explore facets of the urban geography — in the past, these themes have included cats, alleys, skyways, fishing, freeway construction, weather, community kitchens, personal memory, and many more. Common Room is the work by Sergio Vucci and Andy Sturdevant, along with a rotating lineup of contributors. Now in its eighth year, is using the occasion of the Rethinking Public Spaces project to expand the scope of its programming for this summer to travel beyond The Soap Factory, and various neighborhoods of the Twin Cities by foot, bicycle and bus. Common Room’s themes in 2017 will include silence, sacredness, islands, neighborhood music, and more.

Sergio Vucci is a Minneapolis-based artist. He is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his work focuses primarily on engaging his surroundings outside of gallery spaces and on relational interactions, co-authoring ephemeral creative experiences with participants in response to place.

Andy Sturdevant is an artist and writer living in Minneapolis. He is the author of two books of nonfiction, and his artistic projects have been exhibited at venues in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and elsewhere.

LAMIA ABUKHADRA AND LEILA AWADALLAH

In the wake of an election that has left us facing such xenophobic rhetoric as “Build the Wall” and establishing a “Muslim Ban,” many activists have said we must build bridges in order to make human connections and provide people with sanctuary, not walls. As Palestinian Americans witnessing the destruction of communities and diverse ethnic and ecological landscapes both in the U.S. and internationally, Lamia Abukhadra and Leila Awadallah are interested in breaking down walls that should never have existed. With the support of The Soap Factory, they will build a physical wall in an outdoor or easily accessible indoor space, where it can be easily discovered and interacted with.The installation piece will culminate in a final interactive performance in which the lead artists will invite the community to break down “The Wall.” Lamia and Leila hope to ultimately convey that a concrete or metal facade is just that: a facade. A wall can divide and negatively define communities, landscapes, ecologies and livelihoods, but it can and will be dismantled by the subversive acts of our community.

Lamia Abukhadra is a Palestinian American artist based in Minneapolis. She is interested in the idea of art as a vessel of expression, communication, identity, and culture for and between the disenfranchised communities. Her art aims to dismantle harmful dominant narratives that cultivate and celebrate acts of colonialism, occupation, and genocide in Palestine and the Arab world through personal stories and historical events. Her work has been featured by Altered Aesthetics, the University of Minnesota T.R. Anderson Gallery, and the Quarter Gallery.

Leila Awadallah is a Palestinian-American dance artist and creator located in the Twin Cities. She explores movement by imaging where sensations moving from deep within the body begin and then how they move through the body in order to release energy. She crafts work built with the intention of nuancing, complicating and working to subvert narratives about Palestine. Her work has been presented at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. (2016) and in the Moultaqa Leymoun international dance festival in Beirut, Lebanon (2017). Her movement film reflections on ice received a SAGE Award (2016). She is in her fourth year as a company member of Ananya Dance Theatre.

PETE DRIESSEN

Pete Driessen will be orchestrating a large scale, abstract trestle sculpture and installation reflecting contemporary culture in the Blacksmith Shop building at the Northern Pacific Railway Yard, Brainerd, MN for The Soap Factory ReThinking Public Space in Minnesota program during June-October of 2017. A trestle is often defined as a complex of braced framework serving as a vertical support structure, created with wooden timbers, rock piles, and iron or steelwork for carrying a horizontal traversed beam, such as a table-like road or railroad over a lower geographic depression. Trestle language, semiotics and symbolism are synonymous with current self-help trends of scaffolding, bootstrapping, sustainability and empowerment.

The Northern Pacific Railroad yard is a large historic grouping of 12 brick and wood beam buildings that sit on a massive 47-acre plot of land in Brainerd, MN. The massive industrial site contains the aesthetic atmosphere and former physical workings of the past turn-of-the-century railroad era. The old railroad Blacksmith Shop building is 50,000 square feet, with 20-foot high sidewalls, an 80-foot wide cross span, and concrete floors. Listed on National Register of Historic Places, the NP site is centrally located near the geographic center of the state. Both the industrial rawness and the monumental scale of the Northern Pacific site and its Blacksmith Shop space are reflective of The Soap Factory’s artistic history and its current ReThinking Public Space in MN programming goals.

Driessen envisions an interior, site-specific abstract trestle installation based in found object sculpture and its connection to the physicality of train tracks, rail ties and site detritus. The main trestle sculpture will be a conceptual fallen train track “spur” that reflects a trestle bridge. The NP Blacksmith Shop trestle installation will physically explore the typical rail transportation form, the trestle as figural representation, and expand sculptural and public art vocabulary and personal spatial vernacular.

Pete Driessen is a Minneapolis based multipractice visual artist, curator and cultural producer who creates abstract and sociopolitical paintings, mixed media ship fleets, found object installations, conceptual art statements, interdisciplinary public art, and performative participatory projects.

Driessen received his MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT, and BA from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul. Pete was recently named Minneapolis City Pages 2015 Artist of the Year, and has been awarded numerous regional grants and awards, including a 2015 Jerome/FSP Fellowship at Franconia Sculpture Park for his Franconia Boat Tower project, a 2014 MRAC Next Step grant for his Silverwood Park sculpture project, and two MSAB Artist Initiative grants (2017, 2013). Pete’s exhibition record includes national and regional solo and group exhibitions at a wide range of venues. He currently directs and curates a hybridic, experimental garage-based gallery known as TuckUnder Projects that specializes in emerging and midcareer artists focusing on conceptual visual arts practice, curatorial projects, and institutional critique.

#The Soap Factory #Mpls arts #Mnartists #public art #public spaces #Minnesota #Only in Mn

2 notes · View notes

queercapwriting · 7 years

Note

I'm so sorry if this is inappropriate, but I've been hella depressed for a few months and trying really hard not to do anything to myself. I was wondering if you could write something with Kara dealing with that and Alex/Maggie helping her? You totally don't have to and I'm so sorry if this is uncomfortable you can totally just ignore it. Your writing has been very comforting to me so thank you for that either way :) I hope you have a great day!!!

Oh sweetie, there’s nothing inappropriate about this at all! I’m so sorry you’ve been struggling, but I am extremely proud of you for reaching out and asking for something you want: that’s wonderful!!! I’m humbled that you asked me, and I hope I do justice to your vision. Sending you all my love

She tries not to think about it. She tries really hard.

She tries not to dwell on it. She tries really hard.

She tries not to show it. She tries really hard.

She fails.

And she succeeds.

Until she doesn’t.

Until she can no longer stand under the weight of it, can no longer breathe in the fist of it, can no longer sleep in the midst of it.

It’s nothing in particular.

It’s nothing and it’s everything.

Her planet is gone. Her people. They’ve been gone for years, but still, they’re gone every day, and she’s tired.

They can’t find Jeremiah, they can’t take down Cadmus, and she’s stuck waiting, waiting, waiting.

And waiting is so much worse than fighting, because fighting is something. She can cope with the something.

She can’t cope with the nothing.

And lately, the nothing that is everything is all that she feels.

And it’s starting to chip into her smile, to wear into her laugh, to grate into her bones, to resonate in her voice, to deaden her reaction time to laser beams, to slow her response to punches, to dull her amusement at jokes that she thinks are probably funny, because everyone else is laughing.

Alex notices, and she notices that Alex notices, and that’s when she panics.

Panics because Alex notices, and Alex will try to help, and if Alex tries to help, she will have to talk about it. To deal with it. The nothing that is something, the nothing that is everything.

Kara panics.

And Kara turns to Cadmus for help.

The DEO can’t get a needle into her skin, but Cadmus can.

If she uses the DEO’s kryptonite-impregnated daggers, someone will notice.

But if she uses something scavenged from Cadmus – something that can carve her pain into her arm, something that can hope to reach into her heart, because the weight of everything and nothing is heavy and she can’t escape it, she can’t she can’t she can’t – they won’t notice.

But they do.

Because Kara doesn’t notice Maggie noticing – noticing the droop in her shoulders, the delays in her laughter, the exhaustion behind her eyes – but Maggie notices.

And she nudges Alex’s arm, and Alex nods, because Alex knows, and they watch her closer.

They watch her closer, and they follow her when she steals a Cadmus blade on her own. They follow her, and they find her with the blade in her hand and a tear in her eye, and all Alex says is her name.

Just her name, her name, her name, her name that her parents gave her before they let their entire planet burn, her name that her parents gave her before developing a weapon that could so easily commit genocide, her name that her parents gave her before they exploded and left her, left her, left her.

But that’s not all it is. If it were, she wouldn’t be cradling a blade designed to puncture Kryptonian skin above her arm. If it were, she would be used to the pain.

But this pain, this is something else. This pain is reasonless. This pain is meaningless. This pain will not leave, because it’s not pain, but it is.

And all Alex says is her name, because Alex knows, even though Alex long ago chose a bottle instead of a blade.

All Alex says is her name, and she runs to her, and she takes the blade and she gives it to Maggie, and she gathers Kara into her arms and she rocks her and kisses her hair and she rocks her and she kisses her hair and she breathes her name, her name, her name.

Kara doesn’t know how long they stay huddled on the cold, hard ground, wrapped in each other, wrapped in each other, but eventually Maggie settles down on her haunches next to them, the blade tucked safely into her combat boots, one hand on the small of Alex’s back, one on Kara’s knee.

“You’re never by yourself, Little Danvers. Never.” Kara sniffles and stares and Maggie takes a deep breath and sighs, because Alex is crying and Alex is helping but Alex can’t conjure the words, not yet, so Maggie does, because she lives for the Danvers girls, her Danvers girls.

“Look Kara, you cultivate this image. And a lot of the image is true: your kindness, your generosity, your enthusiasm. You’re sweet and you’re almost frighteningly bubbly and you’re absurdly genuine. You really are. But you don’t have to be all those things all the time. I know you feel like you do, because that’s how people see you, so that’s how you feel like you have to always be, right?”

Kara blinks and tears streak down her face, and Alex and Maggie’s fingers connect on Kara’s cheek as they both go to wipe them away.

“But you don’t always have to be on your game. You don’t always have to be that girl. You don’t have to hide and you don’t have to suffer alone. You don’t always have to wear the same face. I mean hell, Little Danvers, look at your sister. She goes around with this badass reputation to uphold, but we know what a softie she is on the inside.”

Kara chokes out a laugh and she strokes Alex’s hair and Alex shakes her head with a small smile at the two women she loves most in the multiverse.

“But there’s nothing wrong,” Kara objects, because she knows she has more traumas than she has fingers and toes, but that’s not all that this is. This… this.

“There doesn’t have to be something wrong for you to feel like the world is ending, Kara. But you don’t have to feel that way alone. Ever. You get me?”

Kara smiles wetly and Kara nods, and she lets Alex hold her while Maggie presses a kiss to Alex’s temple.

“Anyone ever tell you that you’d make a good superhero, Maggie?” Kara asks as Alex pulls her to her feet, brushes her off, and wraps her arm around her to head away from this place. To head home. Together.

Maggie smiles and bumps her shoulder into Alex’s side. “This one tells me every day, for some reason.”

“Well good,” Kara says, her voice still thick with tears, but lightening now, lightening because she’s not by herself. “She should. Because you are.”

Maggie kisses Kara’s hand and Alex beams.

“Potstickers and pizza?”

“And ice cream?”

“Of course and ice cream.”

“Yes please.”

“Alex? Maggie?”

“Yeah Sis?”

“Thank you.”

“Always, Little Danvers.”

“Always, Kara. Always.”

#sanvers #sanvers fan fic #maggie x kara #supergirl fic #tw: self-injury

137 notes · View notes

sobdasha · 4 years

Text

so we rented Promare and

wow that movie is a

fucking trip

it is not a movie it is an experience

(it was not at all like that the second time around and I’m not sure if that is better or worse...???)

a Highly Experimental Style of having idek how much conflict you can shove in one movie, which we kept pausing to guess plot twists about 5 seconds before they happened, which is why it took us like 4 hours to watch the movie, anyway here’s a recounting of our watch:

- less than 10 minutes in: “uhhh I know I should give it time to get good but this does get better, right??” “IDK literally no one on twitter said why they liked it, they just said they loved it go watch it and drew fanart of a person we haven’t seen yet, maybe it’ll get good when we find that protagonist?? Maybe they set this fire and we’ll meet them soon?”

- prediction: “surprise, mystery protag is Big Boss”

- 1) nailed it

- “Not exactly a criticism but this is very 90s cartoon”

- prediction: “Galo’s going to have to break Lio out of jail”

- 2) Bad guy terrorists are actually victims of discrimination/genocide

- prediction: “Lio planned to get captured on purpose??”

- Teenage Mutant Pizza Turtles scene. Also I couldn’t remember anyone’s names because I hadn’t turned on subtitles to go with the English track yet so we have Old Time Cop Show Guy, Gonzo from Spirit Tracks, Ice-cold Megane guy, Feral Scientist Entrapta, Misty, okay I did learn Galo’s name. Also what’s that guy from Teen Titans, Cyborg?? We have Evil Cyborg and All Might as well.

- prediction: “Galo’s all like ‘I love my dad Gov!’ so Gov is def. gonna be evil, he’s secretly corrupt and actually supporting Burnish discrimination”

- prediction: “Pizza guy is Burnish”

- nailed it

- prediction: “Aina’s sister is very sad looking she’s secretly a Burnish, this is also why Aina is so pro-Burnish-rights”

- Discrimination/racism/immigration/marginalization commentary, “Maybe twitter liked the movie so much because it tackles current topics??”

- missed opportunity: “Wait wtf is under the ice? ....hm I guess that’s just how the art style is. It’s probably nothing after all.”

- Het ship kiss time

- Kiss of life, “Lio is too OP”

- “Oh okay my bad I guess it was funerary rites instead????”

- prediction: “now that his ideals are challenged Galo will have a big anguished ethical dilemma re: dad Gov and Lio’s accusations”

- 3) okay or he’ll not be conflicted at all and just confront dad Gov immediately I guess

- why does the volcano look like a demon, is that relevant

- 4) Volcanopocalypse now

- 5) Space travel, complete with Space Whales

- 6) Gov isn’t even pretending not to be evil

- prediction: “Wait is Gov actually Burnish??”

- prediction: Okay no Lio will rescue Galo instead then

- “We’re literally already sacrificing everyone on earth except 10,000 people I hand-selected as being worthy, are you seriously balking at the fact that we’re going to torture some Burnish sacrifices to do so.”

- 7) “We knew you got captured on purpose so we let you escape on purpose dumbass, we outplayed you”

- prediction: “Okay so they just shoot an Absolute Zero Bullet into the volcano to freeze the magma and end the apocalypse!!! ........................... actually that’s probably super bad for the Earth’s core and will cause another natural disaster apocalypse but that’s a battle for another day...??”

- prediction: “um okay Heris/Elis will break Galo out??”

- prediction: Aina won’t get on the ship, forcing Heris/Elis to sabotage the launch

- 8) Epic dragon final confrontation, complete with YGO psychotic faces. “....WAIT WE’RE LITERALLY ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH THE MOVIE WHAT. THE FUCK????”

- prediction: Galo will have to chill Lio out

- “What...is in Gov’s fist... NEVERMIND Galo SMASH”

- punching out your feelings YYH style

- prediction: They’re gonna evaporate that whole lake

- 9) “WHAT THE FUCK THERE WAS A SECRET COMPLEX IN THE ICE THE WHOLE TIME???? YOU CAN’T INTRODUCE THIS MANY MAJOR PLOTS TWISTS IN ONE MOVIE THIS IS NOT HOW DRAMATIC STRUCTURE WORKS”

- Welp Aina’s definitely missed the launch now

- 10) that one gif from the History Channel, because “It was aliens all along.”

11) DEUS X MACHINA, THEY REALLY JUST FUCKIN WENT THERE “I literally can’t tell if this movie is self-aware or not but either way this is the best scene in the entire movie”

- “You’re not chosen ones this is literally just a convenient deus ex machina shoved in here to help resolve the plot DEUS OUT”

- “Is he dead?” callback

- “Why...are you questioning if Gov killed Deus...he literally gave a speech about making hard decisions, is murdering the majority of the population of Earth, also the Burnish, etc, how is the death of this one man the moral tipping point.”

- prediction: “GENOCIDE. CULTIVATION. BEAM. Okay Gov is LYING about the other planet, he just needs it as an excuse so he can build the warp drive in the space ship, so he can kill the Burnish, so the whole world will be covered in lava, which turns to rock, which he will turn to farmland once he brings the ship back down and becomes CAPITALIST DICTATOR OF THE WORLD.”

- Blue Eyes White Dragon, x4

- 12) Heris sabotages the ship

- Did....did Gov just fire an Absolute Zero Bullet into the volcano as literally an afterthought that has zero effect on the plot????

- 13) Gov is Burnish

- prediction: “I just realized, we haven’t seen Aina in ages. Jump, Heris! Your sis will catch you on her hovercraft!”

- nailed it

- “Now he’s performing CPR....callback to the kiss of life...?”

- 14) “Callback to the kiss of life!! ..................this is.....a very long kiss.....”

- “no pyro!!!”

- “Wait did he....I swore Lio had his shirt on while they were making out...??”

- “Get in loser we’re going firefighting!”

- “So the cloud forms a heart before they start Drifting in their giant robot...”

- 15) “I don’t understand...did we apocalypse the earth? Did we avert it? Is the earth destroyed? is the earth fine? was the earth entirely renewed? what was the plot resolution here??????”

- “WHAT IS THE RESOLUTION WITH GOV????? WHAT????”

- “We thought this movie was addressing deep issues and then promptly waterskiing over them, but it turns out it was aliens all along and now they’re gone so uh what the hell kind of allegory is that.”

In summation, we have no idea if it was good or not. The first time around the sound was mixed extremely poorly with loud battle scenes, excessive shouting, and not being able to understand anyone (forcing me to turn on subtitles while watching in English), which weirdly wasn’t so bad the second time around.

Promare might have been good and deep if it had like 10 fewer plot twists and allowed the remaining 5 time to breath and reflect on their implications. Character stuff would have been interesting to see explored. TBH this probably would have been an amazing anime series and we might not have minded the aliens plot twist then.

On the other hand, it’s fun, watching it twice in a row was actually fun, and whatever reviewer the roomie found who said it was “not campy” was lying out their ass, we nearly died of all the gay innuendoes to be had. And the art is pretty cool.

#ehhhh i'll figure out tags for this in the future #doesn't need to go in the fandom tag right now

0 notes