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genericpuff · 7 months

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I’ve seen some people try and defend Lore Olympus by saying that movies like Hercules and such aren’t accurate to Greek myth, yet they’re still loved. And I somewhat get where they’re coming from, i really do.

BUT- I feel like part of the problem with LO is the fact that if you replace the names, you’d almost be right to assume it takes place in a completely different setting. Meanwhile, if you take away the names from the Hercules movie, you can still tell where it’s supposed to take place. (And who’s who, if you know your myths). Plus the writing of Hercules is 100% better than LO.

The difference between LO and Hercules is that Hercules clearly has respect for the source material put into it. It might not be accurate to the source material - because it's being retooled as a Disney movie for children - but you can tell there's still a lot of thought, love, and effort put into it. The team behind that movie did research on the art and culture of Greece, and adapted it into a movie that was entertaining and recognizable as a Greek myth adaption.

They put our home boy Heracles/Hercules in a tunic! Do you know how shocking that must have looked to American viewers who didn't know a shred of Greek myth and wondered why the big buff hero was being drawn in a skirt? Still accurate though!

LO, meanwhile, writes Greek myth as if it hates Greek myth for existing. It comes across more as a white woman using these stories purely for profit and colonizing it with American-esque culture. The outfits have become noticeably less Greek since the beginning, the characters never eat Greek food anymore, and the locations are left as vague as solid color backdrops to indicate "The Underworld" and "Olympus" without actually showing any set pieces or understanding of how these locations would look and feel in a modern setting.

All of these examples I gave are things we saw a decent amount of in S1. But since then it's just become talking heads on top of flat color backgrounds, eating Chinese food and dressing in American-style clothing. When was the last time we saw a mortal? There's just nothing Greek about the comic anymore because either Rachel has gotten so complacent that she just defaults to what she knows without any research (so what she watches on TV and in movies) or she only bothered with her research in the beginning to get people hooked and convinced that she's a "folklorist" so that they'd keep reading the series and giving her money on good will alone.

Using Hercules as an example of "well it's not accurate to Greek myth either!" completely misses the point of what people are getting at when they say that LO is a bad Greek myth retelling. Guess what else isn't completely accurate to Greek myth? Hadestown. Hades (the game). God of War. Stray Gods. They all take creative liberties with the source material in order to adjust it to the medium and audience they're creating it for, but none of those adaptions are quite as disrespectful as LO's. And God of War literally has little angry man going around and brutally murdering the gods. It still respects the setting of Greek myth more than LO, but unlike LO, it doesn't try to constantly sound smart with its inaccuracies, it knows fully well that it's a video game first and foremost.

And that's the beauty of myths. They can be adapted across generations and used to tell new versions of the same stories. So it begs the question, why bother writing a Greek myth retelling if you're going to make it so non-Greek that you could have just as well just written a normal soap drama and have it still be virtually the same?

Compared to all of the other examples, LO is the definition of confidently incorrect. It should have stuck to just being Greek myth inspired, not a retelling.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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foolishlovers · 1 month

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hi, i’m going through it with uni right now (finals season rip) and was wondering if you have any recs for some really soft, tender fics that will remind me of the good in the world 😭 maybe with some soft smut too, preferably over 20k if they’re out there and i’m happy with non au or au whatever. just need something comforting yknow. hope you’re doing well :)

oh hello love, i feel your struggle and am sending you lots of strength!!

here are some of my favourite softer good omens fics:

[You can request more fic recs here.]

Caramel Delight by AJ_Constantine (E, 16k) After years of enduring hellish neighbours, Crowley is delighted when they finally move out, and even more delighted when their replacement is easy going, friendly, doesn’t leave his bins on the kerb for weeks, and… attractive in a way that causes a fluttering in Crowley’s midsection like a battalion of butterflies attempting to form ranks. Crowley knows that hooking up with the person who lives next door to him is a Bad Idea. But a jar of his Nan’s famous caramel sauce as a ‘welcome to the neighbourhood’ gesture couldn’t hurt. And what’s he supposed to do when Aziraphale continues to show up at Crowley’s door with an irresistible smile, asking for more?

Liquid Gold by smolalienbee, Tarek_giverofcookies, Sodium_Azide, fashioncriminal (T, 36k) Goth beekeeper Crowley starts a new life in the countryside, in a suitably gothic house, with suitably goth furniture, tombstones, and bees. One day Crowley finds a surprise singing to the bees. And Crowley's suitably goth life changes. A gentle cottagecore human AU, featuring a bit of a bastard, a bit of a soft touch, and many many bees.

First Class (Hons) Christmas, University of Tadfield. by heloluv (M, 41k) Dr. A.Z. Fell is a renowned literature tutor at the prestigious University of Tadfield. December is upon the University, and Dr. Fell is leading the Christmas Charity Drive. He needs volunteers. Dr. A.J. Crowley is a skilled plant ecologist who recently began his tenure at UoT. He can't stand Christmas, and nothing at all could ever possibly convince him to partake in "festivities". Until a certain literary expert catches his eye. A Christmas and New Years fic, in which Aziraphale teaches Crowley how to enjoy the most wonderful time of the year. Lavender Apiary Of Your Honey Eyes by snek_of_eden (E, 62k) The first thing Aziraphale registered was fiery red hair matted with sweat. The second thing was the man’s face, sharp and intelligent and a little guarded, sunlight dappling a spray of freckles. Upon seeing this, two contradictory thoughts crossed his mind: ‘Gosh, he’s pretty’, and ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a man use that many expletives in the space of a minute’. “Oh,” he said, swallowing hard. “Hello, then.” When Aziraphale inherits a small, cosy cottage in the countryside, he finds unexpected company in a gardener he didn't even know he had. Crowley is sweet, and strange, and about as foul-mouthed as you can get. Before he knows it, he's falling pretty goddamn hard for a man whose friendship he's terrified of risking. Ah, the foils of love. (To the surprise of no one, they're both pining extraordinarily hard for each other)

and now all of my garden is grown in lavender by ilikeblue (E, 70k, WIP) Popular queer romance author, A.Z. Fell, has been lying about having a husband and a happy marriage for years. Longing to escape a string of failed relationships and looking for a fresh start, Aziraphale moves into the cottage left to him by his Great Aunt Agnes. When a TV adaptation of one of his books leads to sudden popularity and throws him into the limelight, his fans (and the press) are eager to catch a glimpse of Aziraphale's own mysterious leading man. Unfortunately, he still has to cast someone for that role. Enter the handsome gardener… Under Crowley's meticulous care the cottage's neglected garden slowly comes back to life, and Aziraphale finds himself writing the most important love story he'll ever write: his own

you know i'll never be lonely (you're my only one) by SylWritesStuff, ladydragona (E, 256k) Anthony Crowley has long since given up on love of the romantic sort. Besides, after the tragic passing of his cousin and her husband he now has a preteen pup to care for. If only the courts and social services would quit assuming a single, unclaimed omega isn't competent enough on his own to raise one, things would be going just fine. Warlock's problems at school aside. Aziraphale Fell is an accomplished author, bookshop owner, and does quite well, if he should say so himself. Love might have conveniently passed him by and the nights can be quite lonely, but he'd rather be alone than not be himself. And the thing they're both longing for might just be each other.

[you can find more fic rec masterposts here]

#i know u said preferably over 20k but caramel delight is just too sweet (ha) not to mention here 💜#i do have tons of more fluffy recs for fics under 20k :(#i feel like the longer fics get the higher the potential for angst gets u know #but i hope you'll maybe find some rest reading one of these 💜#good omens #good omens fic rec #good omens human au #good omens fanfic #aziracrow #aziracrow fanfic #gomens fic #aziraphale x crowley #anon #answered #foolishlovers #foolish recs #go fic masterpost

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heavenbelongstociaran · 19 days

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me and my wilmon playlist

i like to think of myself as the second coming of christ when it comes to making playlists right, and i have this completely reasonable in length young royals playlist and i feel like i nailed it, in terms of the general vibe of the show AND scene specific themes.

ANYWAY, the reason i'm bringing it up is because i think there are a few songs that are very season specific that are in there.

season 1: visions of gideon by sufjan stevens

I KNOW everyone and their mother would agree that this song is very tragically wilmon.

"I have loved you for the last time

Is it a video? Is it a video?

I have touched you for the last time

Is it a video? Is it a video?"

giving very much episode six, when simon and wille were saying goodbye just before wille left for the palace. even though simon was being reassuring, comforting and encouraging (calling him brave, saying the royal court couldn't force him to do something he didn't want to do), wille (imo) didn't seem to believe him. and i think the way they kissed just made it seem like wille had already made his mind up, even though he said that he wouldn't lie about the video. it felt like he knew he was going to do it, and that it would inevitably be the end of the relationship, hence the lyrics being "i have loved/touched you for the last time."

honourable mentions include:

i'm your man by mitski

on and on by djo

favourite crime by olivia rodrigo

love in the dark by adele

it almost worked by tv girl

hurts me too by faye webster

take me home by pinkpantheress

let light be light by lizzy mcalpine

season 2: crack baby by mitski

gonna start with the honourable mentions first because there are loads:

i loved you by sunday cruise

thursday girl by mitski

why didn't you stop me by mitski

capable of love by pinkpantheress

genuinely, there are so many more but these are the ones that popped into my head as i was scrolling through the playlist.

you know that one saying that's like, "you never know how good you had it until it's gone" or however it goes? that's how season 2 felt.

both simon and wille were trying to recreate what they had or could have had with other people (marcus and felice, respectively) and realised that that would be impossible.

"Crack baby, you don't know what you want But you know that you had it once And you know that you want it back Crack baby, you don't know what you want But you know that you're needing it And you know that you need it bad"

said realisation definitely hurt wille incredibly, considering he said he wished it hadn't happened. it made him realise what life could be like, but he threw that away because he thought he was doing the right thing by denying the video ("protecting" simon). i actually have no idea how to explain this but like, trust me bro.

season 3: too many to name.

heaven by mitski. these fuckers were so in love this season, it was quite sickening (/affection). thinking about season three wilmon makes me want to cry, ignoring their communication issues, and other things that had a negative impact on their relationship.

a part of that by anna kendrick. HERE ME OUT. so, the song is from the movie adaptation of the play "the last five years" and anna's character, kathy, is watching her husband succeed and do all these amazing things in his life and is wondering where she fits into all of it. in season three and maybe the whole series, there's the topic of where the big five fit into the society or positions they're placed in and their positions in each other's lives. wille's struggle w/the monarchy and wanting out, august wanting in (for example).

dark circles by ryan beatty. this has simon written all over it.

casino by ryan beatty.

capable of love by pinkpantheress. goes with what i yapped about regarding season two. whenever they break, or rather when simon breaks up with simon, they seem to feel like this is the be all, end all of everything and that they won't love anyone ever again. in capable of love, pinkpantheress is saying that people pretend that the bond that she has with her love interest doesn't exist, ie people ignoring the fact that simon and wille were together at one point and only acknowledging wille when he got with felice BUT she also says that that doesn't matter, considering everything they went through to get to where they are now. she goes on to say that she'll never be able to love anyone the same way if they were to ever break up and i think that, throughout the series, this has shone through.

ribbons by ryan beatty. https://genius.com/31122186/Ryan-beatty-ribbons/Whos-gonna-hold-you-while-you-sleep-well-its-brave-to-be-nothing-to-no-one-at-all

little faith by ryan beatty!!!!!! (quite frankly, the entire album, Calico.)

general

there are a lot of songs that could encompass the show. capable of love. literally any loyle carner song about struggling with your identity and familial relationships and breaking cycles (polyfilla). sufjan stevens (mystery of love, everything that rises). so on and so forth. but wilmon and the young royals are not one dimensional enough to be described by one or eighteen songs, they're a whole catalogue. that playlist on paper is the most random thing i have ever crafted because fo&o, boygenius and brockhampton have no right to be in the same playlist, but hurt like we did, cool about it and any way want me absolutely deserve to be together; in a cool way, i think that's literally what simon and wille are like: on paper, they don't make sense. the crown prince of sweden, white and privileged and a gay brown boy from a small town who just happens to be an antimonarchist, but if you take that all away, they're two boys trying to find their place in the world, making mistakes.

feel free to give feedback and song recs !!!

playlist links:

apple music: https://music.apple.com/za/playlist/young-royals-but-i-made-the-soundtrack/pl.u-6mo4ZzvSBedVApW

spotify: (i haven't updated it on there in at least six months): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/25Pf9bDFBl6vtXOH9cvJC5?si=0b8a0ff36bb5435e

#young royals #simon eriksson #prince wilhelm #wilmon #omar rudberg #if this flops i will cry

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twiststreet · 4 months

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Since I got an Amazon free trial for a month for Deadloch, I'm looking for other Amazon shows to watch-- I'm about halfway through the Peripheral, and just having a really frustrating time.

I've read the first seven William Gibson novels (and all the Burning Chrome era short stories). I'm a fan and would read more, if time/attention/focus permitted. But... I never read the Peripheral so I don't know if I'm wrong, but I just don't hear Gibson in this. (I'd say the situation is a lot like Fargo where I've been miserable the couple times I tried to watch the TV show, as a Coens fan, just yelling "not right! not right!!! unclean!!!").

One, none of the plot moves make sense. No one's acting rationally considering the tech in play. (Why shoot a girl into a Peripheral if you can call her on the phone??). But okay, fine, accepting that there's some wonkiness so that you have a story-- I'll accept that, I'm not a killjoy. But tonally, it's off. I think of Gibson as ... cooler (not in the Merce Cunningham sense, in the fridge sense). The characters are all intelligent and oftentimes talented, but they're not... running around shouting their emotions at each other. And then the other players on the board tend to be global, and they're not like... whimsical. The future has happened, and people are sometimes struck by it, but theyre not, like, good golly tell me what it feels like. (One of my favorite scenes is the one in... maybe Virtual Light or one from that trilogy, a guy just wandering into an art gallery and seeing some weird-ass shit and just kinda being like "uhhh I guess"... it's just a thing that happens in the book).

Everything feels lived-- I think of him trying to be a realist writer, but for an imaginary country; Dorothea Lange or somebody, but for near-future hypotheticals. At least in the books I read where he was trending more and more towards the "present" (the last one I read was his 9/11 novel, you know?). Again, I don't know where he's gone since, but...

In this show, there's a whimsical London cast, with like a dandy man saying he's a Klepto gangster or some shit. There's a slimy modern-day rural gangster who murders drug guys in the past in like some sub-sub-sub-Breaking Bad fashion. There's fucking little kids having post-apocalyptic hijinx. I feel like they gave a William Gibson novel to fucking Neal Gaiman fans. Those are not the same writer, even if they're both genre!

You get glimmers of Gibson in the brother, I think, the guy from Midsommar-- I think he's the best thing on the show. (Though I'm generally pro-Chloe Moretz). But he's doing these scenes of like, "I'm going to act all nice but you better play ball because I have a sniper who's got a gun pointed at you" ... Which could work if executed a certain way, but as it is, just feels like TV bullshit.

I think Gibson presents challenges in adaptation, because it's ... you know, there are book pleasures and there are TV pleasures. I don't think of him as a Stephen King, who is just an engine of Story, you know? Where...if you adapt King, you can do it well, you can do it badly, you can do some experimental thing like the Timekeepers of Eternity, etc., because he's going to give you a story to jump off of. Gibson for me is all tone, and trying to create a very purposeful effect, of trying to see the present with new eyes. I think he has utilized pulp, in neuromancer obviously, but I don't think he's a pulp writer. And they're trying to make pulp out of it and it just... it feels all wrong.

Amazon Prime's not worth the spend, as far as I can tell, generally, though. I looked if they had any Leos Carax movies and it was like "oh, you ever see Boy Meets Girl?" And I was like, no, that sounds awesome! "Oh we don't have it-- it's not available in your region." Why ... why is it telling me about it then???? Amazon Prime video is just being like "You heard of this movie, bro? I wonder what it's like... How does it feel to want things???" Deadloch and then nada, so far.

Anyways: television!!!!

#the peripheral

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zahri-melitor · 4 months

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I have to say, however bad it gets looking at a Holiday Special list of titles and characters, DC's almost always got SOMETHING there that makes me say "yeah boi!"

For DC's Very Merry Multiverse #1 (2020), it's the fact there's a PREZ RICKARD story.

I know. All things for all folks, people. Hopefully something else catches me as I go. I'm not actually across a lot of the most recent multiverse shenanigans but let's go.

It's a Horrible Life! - Harley Quinn. It's a Wonderful Life retelling for Harley, hopping between universes.

Christmas by Gaslight - Batman. Batman is chasing Eel O'Brien (who just stole a load of toys) and Mr Freeze (who is TRYING to steal the load of toys) and Eel accidentally blows up Victor, causing it to snow across Gotham (and drop toys in the street for all the children of the city).

To Stop the Star-Conqueress! - Teen Justice. I...don't really care about this genderswapped universe, but the concept of Klarienne the Witch Girl keeps making me giggle. Klarienne. KLARIENNE. Anyway the Teen Justice team defeat Starrla doing the space starfish thing. (Also this is VERY mixed up in terms of timeline. How are 'Donald Troy' and 'Laurel Kent' reasonably on the same team? They're based on characters 3 hero generations apart!)

Bizarro Love Holiday - President Superman. This is about the made up holiday "Day of Giving/Day of Receiving", which Bizarro hates as nobody has ever given him a present before. A cute small child decides his characteristic speech patterns are sarcasm and gives him his first present.

Holidays Beyond - Batman Beyond. Terry gets zapped/hallucinates with the bends and does a *sigh* Christmas Carol three ghosts of past, present and future. Dustin Nguyen's baby Bruce is the most adorable thing ever.

Night of the Magi - The League of Shadows. So the League of Shadows is basically a Justice League Dark/Shadowpact lineup? They're out to defend Saturnalia from the Lord of Misrule. Also there's a Ragman origin story in here.

Have Yourself a Bizarro Little Christmas - The Unjustice League of Unamerica. It's SANTA TIME!

Bizarro is trying out Christmas gift giving in Bizarro World but it's not working too well. Then Zanta of the Intergalactic Santa Corps arrives! Zanta is charged with spreading the joy of Christmas...whether people like it or not.

(BTW these elves really need the Elves Union, time to unionise little buddies)

Only, it being Bizarro World, he fails. Sorry, Zanta.

'Twas the Night - Booster Gold. Booster fights Maxwell Lord at his Planet Krypton restaurant (we find out that this was a staged fight to entertain the diners).

Prez Rickard's Magical Sci-Fi Desolate Souls Club Holiday Special - Prez. I'm quietly devastated Beth Ross doesn't appear in this.

Hmmm. I'm...not thrilled at the way Prez is used here in Earth 47? Now being an aficionado of Prez lore, I am able to say that Prez out there selling things on a TV show via performing acts doesn't gel with the original Prez run (where he was all too earnest about solving problems), what I'm going to call the Vertigo Prez universe (where he left the White House and disappeared and became sort of a totem to people), or to the New 52 Prez run (where after being President he became a senator for years/hung around lobbying Congress).

It feels like it's trying to be 70s zany without engaging with ANY of the existing Prez lore. Disappointing.

A Very Lobo Hanukkah - Lobo. Been a while since we had a Lobo story. Lobo's saving the dolphins!

Having now read several decades of 'DC does a Hanukkah story' in the last week, they've definitely evolved over time from 'look at this very base level explanation where we acknowledge not everyone is Christian' to this, which from my understanding is both engaging with traditional texts AND also running around gleefully with an attitude of 'we are allowed to adapt things and tell more complex narratives'. (However I am unsure of whether anyone stopped to think before using the KJV translation of Maccabees here)

#DC Santa read along

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olderthannetfic · 1 year

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Completely putting aside the queer rep thing, I'm curious: Do people who are not book fans generally like the Good Omens TV show? In the book fandom we've been hoping for a live adaptation for decades but myself and a lot of other book fandom olds were very disappointed by the show. I was hopeful and optimistic about it until the trailer with the wall-slamming scene came out, which was the first clue that the characters were going to have a different dynamic in the show. (Book! Azi and Crowley would never. No, I mean it.) And then as soon as I got to the dove scene - which the show messed up completely - I had a really bad feeling that they weren't taking the book's themes very seriously.

(In the book, Aziraphale suffocates the dove through negligence and immediately forgets about it because he's too busy fretting about the Apocalypse and the hellhound not showing up; Crowley notices it and takes the time to resurrect the dove. The seeming role reversal there of the angel carelessly killing an innocent creature and the demon taking the time to care about the sanctity of life even while scared out of his mind that the Apocalypse is coming (which would mean all humans and doves everywhere were going to die) is a wonderful little early symbolism of the characters being more than their official Evil/Good labels, of their flaws and virtues, and of the overarching theme of the book. But in the show, Aziraphale kills the dove and is then the one to revive it, which makes the point of the scene ?????)

There's a lot of little things like that where I wonder if the creators missed the point of those scenes or just didn't care, and the end result is that the characters become a little flatter, a little less like the stereotype subversions they're supposed to be. (I've long been irritated with the show fandom because it felt like many of them just projected their longstanding bad boy/puttering intellectual favorite ship dynamic onto the two and didn't look too closely.) In addition, the angel and demon are very nearly B-list cast in the book. They're scene-stealers but in terms of plot they actually achieve very little, their arcs are about how they accept that they've grown as people, not about how they contribute to the Apocalypse. Because that's the point. The whole point of the book is that humans don't need angels and demons to be good or evil. Humans stop the Apocalypse and arguably start it. When the show puts human characters in the background and both elevates Azi and Crowley and spends additional screentime on new characters like Gabriel, the overall message is retained but makes for far weaker tea.

So like... it is very hard for me to like the show as an adaptation (some manage to enjoy both book and show as separate things, and I'm happy for them). At the same time it feels silly saying that it's a bad adaptation, because things like Eragon and Artemis Fowl and basically most book-to-screen things are out there. But I can't help but look at Neil Gaiman's background and the things he usually writes about and feel like TV GO has been made too much into his work, rather than his and Pterry's, and is ultimately weaker for it.

So for me it's really hard to judge its actual technical value as a standalone thing, but I'm curious what other people think of it. If the above elements of "huh, that scene seemed kinda random, why was it even here?" and general diluted sense of theme was something people picked up on.

I tried to read the book a few times in the 90s because it was ubiquitous. I loathed it and never finished.

I thought the show was well acted and had delightful chemistry between the leads. The cinematography and editing were nice. The costume design was excellent.

It isn't a particularly deep show or all that memorable to me, but it looks pretty, and Michael Sheen is hot.

Honestly, I'm not really the audience for the original themes. They've been done a million times by now (and even by the 90s), and they just remind me how much people think I should care about a Christian world view and how much I profoundly don't. It's like when people want me to care about Watchmen because something something deconstruction of 80s comics I didn't read.

The biggest change between the 90s and now is probably that this particular flavor of Cold War spies who are buddies when their bosses aren't watching has faded into obscurity instead of being absolutely everywhere.

Oh, and Queen is cool again.

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abruisedmuse · 1 year

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ACOTAR TV NEWS

I encourage yall to take this with a grain of salt. According to Deuxmoi, which is a celebrity gossip podcast, they heard some ACOTAR news. I don't listen to this podcast apparently theyre know for not just gossip but having it accurate. This news could be correct.

Deuxmoi heard from someone who has a friend at Hulu that said up to episode 4 has been written. There is no cast yet. They are expected to start filming late this year/early next year. Budget has reportedly been cut in half. Someone else said the show runner is being a nightmare to work with. That they won't let the show writers to write or turn in drafts for the script.

They go on to criticize sjm of this behavior because these people know what they're doing and even though they understand her being defensive she's working with a group of writers and it's now a team sport.

And no??

This is her world. Her characters that mean the world to her. Look at how many adaptations have sucked because either the writer wasn't involved at all or was but the writing team took over and the original writer was there for creative control. Henry left the Witcher cause they're not sticking to the story. Game of Thrones ended in such a disaster people refuse to acknowledge the final season. PJO, Shadow Hunters, Divergent, Breaking Dawn, etc. Hell even Bridgerton is on the line with Julia basically only there for making sure things are period accurate.

I was extremely weary about an Acotar show. But if SJM is being this much of a terror to make sure the fandom. The book fandom who have loved it for years gets the show of dreams (pun intended). Then, I am fully excited. Go off Queen! Stand your ground, channel your Aelin/Nesta energy and don't let those show writers win. I wonder if this is what happened to TOG show all those years ago

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, or Apple podcasts. The bit about SJM being a nightmare can be found on this tiktok

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transmutationisms · 11 months

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just read through your yellowjackets takes and i really resonated with your thoughts about it + why it feels so conceptually hollow (i think it’s an perfect 2023 tv show in that it’s a hollow exploration of girlhood with no substance to it) but i was wondering if you’ve seen bones and all + if you have any thoughts on it? the book was solidly bad but i the adaptation to be an incredibly beautiful movie visually, and while i think its understanding of what it actually has to say about cannibalism is shaky at best (i really think the movie did the best it could with the source material) i felt like its translation of cannibalism into a language of desire and violence thus linking them together was incredible. sorry this is so long winded but i feel like you’d have interesting things to say about it if you’d seen it!

i agree that 'bones and all' has a central problem of not knowing what it's trying to say with its cannibalism. there are a handful of different things going on, where it's alternately a metaphor for love, appetitive desire, hereditary 'mental illness,' addiction, and poverty. that's a lot. although you could theoretically do something interesting with virtually any of these—for example, there's an established literary tradition of using explicit cannibalism as a stand-in for implicit homosexuality or incest, both angles the film gestures at—if you actually tracked the metaphor as used in 'bones and all,' you would immediately run into the issue that its cannibalistic hunger is inborn, inescapable, and inherited. i don't really see a way to use this premise without just producing essentialist discourses about whatever theme you choose to lean into, which is at best boring and at worst reactionary.

there's definitely some attempt to explore the idea of violence-as-love, or vice versa, which is not uninteresting to me (<- guy who just read the locked tomb series) but i think is at its best in the flashes we get of parental violence, esp with lee's father. there's also an essay you could pull together here about 'bones and all' and cormac mccarthy's 'the road' as interpolations of the american travelogue that ultimately fail to transcend the epistemic parameters of the genre in any way. ultimately this is largely because they invoke cannibalism as signifying a loss, breakdown, or absence of civilisation, but they seem to have limited and varying degrees of awareness a) that this is what they're doing, and b) that this means grappling with a whole set of colonialist discourses that consequently pretty much go unremarked on.

i did like some of the cinematography, although it must be said that the dialogue struggled (like, how many times did a character say "i don't want to talk about [x]," only to be asked one follow-up question and then launch into an expository monologue about [x] lmao), which didn't do the actors any favours. i don't know the source material so maybe this is just inherent to it, but to be honest, i kind of think the whole lee/maren romance was the least interesting part of the film and the focus on it just ended up getting in the way of any more substantial thematic development in the script.

#bones and all

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imaginechb · 1 year

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I hate twitter so much. The people saying "you can't draw Annabeth white anymore because she's canonically black now and if you draw her like the books say you're racist and hate Leah" like no??

I love when black Annabeth art comes up on my feed but I still also love seeing white Annabeth art. Like I just love art of my fav fictional character no matter how she's interpreted, and some of my fav pieces have both versions of her together. I got called a "dumb fucking fence rider" because of this, but I truly believe that book Annabeth and TV show Annabeth can exist simultaneously because they already do!

We have both adaptations where they're interpreted different ways, and I think that's wonderful. That isn't me hating Leah, I think she's going to make a wonderful Annabeth and I can't wait to see it! And I genuinely don't hate black Annabeth, I think both versions of her can coexist and it's a shitty thing to do to bash someone's art and call them a racist just because they didn't completely abandon her book description in favor of the show.

It's not like white Annabeth fanart prevents black Annabeth fanart from existing. I hope people continue to make fanart of her in many different ways!! I hope someone draws her as a cactus! And I really hope this doesn't turn into something where people are like "you're white, you can't cosplay Annabeth because she's black", but I can see it happening.

The bottom line? Let art exist, someone isn't racist because they draw white Annabeth. That is not what that means, and it creates problems where there aren't any rather than fixing real problems that do exist.

#hoo #pjo #toa #trials of apollo #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #chb #percy jackson #pjo hoo toa #camp half blood #camp jupiter #pjo/hoo #annabeth chase #rae rambles

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boxingcleverrr · 28 days

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So Kate and her (righteous, correct) annoyance at puritanical people unable to engage with Poor Things normally reminded me today of one of my faaaavorite Christian Romance Novels (tm) from back in the day. And I realized it's a perfect example of "why you sometimes NEED sex scenes, no hyperbole or moralizing required."

Jeanette Oke is a famous Christian author, I'm sure plenty of people have heard of the Love Comes Softly series, or When Calls The Heart series, cause they've both been made into tv shows - terrible ones, with terrible production values, lol.

If that's all you know her by, you might be surprised to learn that the source material doesn't suck! She tells a very good story, builds all kinds of relationships well, and definitely does way more historical research than the producers of any films/shows based on her work. They're very PG to PG13 as far as violence goes, no smut obv, usually with a religious message buried or shoehorned in there.

It's kinda like how Louis L'amour is an objectively solid writer of westerns, while adaptations are usually middling, cause his fanbase tends to be within uh, certain other (white) demographics who wish to push certain other (white) agendas via their traditional-looking settings.

But I digress.

Basically the writing = good and engaging. She coulda just been a wildly successful historical fiction writer, but yanno, gotta get something Jesus-y into EVERY tome.

Which brings us to my favorite, A Bride For Donegan.

This was a mail order bride story set in the 1880s I believe, based on the very real practice of skeezy agencies realizing they could make big money off frontiersmen looking for wives, via poor UK & European women and girls looking to escape poverty and blights. It follows one girl from Ireland stuck in a terrible home situation in England, who LEAPS at the chance to gtfo.

And the dynamic set up is very good, and a heart-wrenching portrait of her trauma! She'd endured sexist and racist abuse from her English stepmother, who drilled into her that no man would ever want her plain, overly-chatty, Irish self for a wife (gee I wonder why this appealed to 13 year old annoying, undiagnosed me). Donegan is a quiet, successful young rancher who has less character development, of course, he's just So Nice, Kinda Funny, and Tall. But the book does make it clear that he was looking for a friend first and foremost, to share this life he made with, and to draw him out of his shell.

So, quiet guy orders a wife, gets girl whose been told no man wants a chatty partner, much silent hilarity and misunderstanding ensues. These characters go on through a very good slow burn to break down that wall, they're cute and funny together, eventually have like, 5 kids? And of course in the last chapter Jesus gets found, yaaaaay (why is The Lord ALWAYS getting lost, does he not have maps). I always skipped the last chapter.

But even as a 13 year old virgin who was mostly still Jesus-pilled, I remember getting to points early on in the novel and being like, "wait. They've had sex?!"

There's ONE scene in the second act, where they're still barely talking to each other yet, when he worries that she might get pregnant while they're still relative strangers.

That's IT.

So this establishes that, in the say, 3-4 months they're first married, they're having sex like good married people should, but barely talking.

And though I had no experience at that point whatsoever, I just squinted at the page all, "So...what IS that sex life like? I am engaged in this slow burn that's happening, and yet I have no idea what's going through either of your heads when you KISS, let alone be more intimate. Are either of you worrying about how much the other person is engaged? Consenting?! This is the late 19th century, how much sex-ed do either of you have? Do you get any inkling of each others' softer sides when you undress before bed? Hell, do you snuggle in your sleep and wake up just...not addressing it?!"

Their bedroom is, otherwise, just a place we know all those kids get made, eventually, somehow.

Am I to infer that this guy, with a wry sense of humor to his internal monologue, is cool with this situation of just...begetting with a girl who I guess I should also infer is just lying back and thinking of Ireland?!

The story ends with them both delighted by each other, she chatty, he listening, riding horses and enthusiastically having babies. So obviously consent was there. But it was just so glaring and educational to me, what was missing, and that it was a huge, important aspect of their interaction and growth.

Not all stories are about or need sex, obviously. But any time I see people saying they're NEVER needed, like. Even as a good little church girl, I knew important lessons about how people in love interacted within intimacy were being left out of what I was consuming, and it was leaving a big gap in my understanding of how love and intimacy could look, good bad or somewhere unfinished in-between.

And no, as far as I know there's no fanfiction of this anywhere, haha of course there isn't (though I have years later found this LOTR fic about Eomer/Lothiriel that scratched that itch very well).

Humans have sex. Not all humans, but most, that's just a fact. Every part of messy human interaction has a place in storytelling, and when it doesn't, uh, well. A lot of people I know personally grew up assuming those blanks in their knowledge would just magically be filled in by....someone. Someday.

It didn't go great for a lot of them.

#blathering #Stop Emulating Puritans 2024 #Love Comes Softly was genuinely good #The When Calls books however were her most rife with white saviorism sooooo of course they got adapted

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gffa · 1 year

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I'm really glad you're enjoying the lockwood and co books and series so far!! they're very special books to me and my friends, i remember reading them when i was 16 and absolutely adoring them, they;re just SO GOOD.

one thing i've really enjoyed about the series is the very clear depictions of issues of class and worker's rights, and its one reason i want to reread the books again, because those just went completely over my head as a kid and i want to see how the series and books depictions differ. jonathan stroud had a very close hand in the production of the series so im curious to see how his now 10 year old books and attitudes in them hold up. Anyway, i was curious if that was something that was also as obvious to you as it was to me? my mum's English and i grew up with a kind of baseline understanding of english class struggles (despite the fact that she's from the south and grew up relatively rich) and the attitudes in England surrounding worker's rights and unions and so on, so its always interesting me to see how other people see these issues and how they're presented in media.

for example i absolutely love the casting choices of all the main characters, i think they really perfectly exemplify the struggles portrayed in the books that something as big as The Problem would affect on all working levels, including the class of children which honestly i find is a class of people that goes overlooked a Lot in stories, or at least in the way jonathan stroud does it. Lucy and lockwood are both excellently portrayed i think, and their intrinsic struggles to connect and attitudes are products of their upbringings and backgrounds and i think the series does an excellent job of portraying that (as much as I can say this without revealing spoilers hgjkfdls), with lucy being a northern working class girl from a poor family and lockwood, despite not having a close family, being raised objectively middle class and having relatives who go hunting.

anyway its!!! very good!!! i think the series is a fantastically faithful adaptation of the themes and ideas of the books so far, and also almost every setting looks EXACTLY how i pictured it which makes me absolutely feral hjgfkdsl

but yes idk if this makes much sense but aaahh I'm glad you're enjoying it all!! i really can't wait to see what you think of the second book and the rest of the series!!

also cos im curious: did you read the book before watching the series? and if not, do you think the series holds up as a story in its own right without needing the background of the books to watch it? cos while i think it's a brilliant adaptation I'm wondering how well it plays out as a story on its own without having to read the books first

I'm delighted at how many Lockwood & Co. fans there are, I’d never heard of the books before the Netflix adaptation, but it seems like there’s a bunch of you! It’s lovely to be able to discuss things already even if I’m not sure I’ll have a lot to add just yet, since I’m only on episode 5 of the adaptation and halfway through the first book. (I didn’t want to burn through the episodes too quickly because it’s such a charming series, so I decided to switch back and forth between them and the books, which helps keep my memory fresh of the show when I read the books, so I can take note of the differences. There are some differences, but ones that generally seem like really good ideas for a TV series adaptation, like I already like the tweaking of George’s character and I really loved the Norrie backstory.) I don’t know that I would have clocked the class theme on my own--but I’m not that far into any of it yet, though, I know how the first book turns out, of course--I can’t say that I felt it was necessarily a strong theme in the adaptation in the sense that it was driving the plot, but it is very much there, Lucy’s character is very much that of a working class type of character. And, when you mentioned it, I can pick up on it in the book as well, especially as I’m just getting to the introduction of John Fairfax commissioning the team for a case. I’m also not sure where I’m going to land on the aspect of having children with so much more autonomy given to them, like the scene where Barnes comes by and they’re just totally blase about how he’s trying to tell them to be careful, openly laughing about how worked up he seems after he leaves, just struck me as very “this is a series aimed at young readers so it’s going to have young kids as protagonists, it’s not meant to be taken super seriously as commentary on 15 year olds being allowed to run their own agencies”, but other times the consistency (and Barnes’ comments from the adaptation) of how characters who have faded talent are treated make me think that, once you get a bit outside Lucy’s perspective, that maybe there is something to the idea that there’s commentary on these kids having this tremendous burden placed on them. Right now, the concept of adult supervision seems to be set up as an obstacle to be overcome, that Lockwood & Co. are freedom because they refuse to work with adults, but how much of that is because of course they would think that? Lucy’s whole backstory is that she never had parents who took care of her or were involved in her life, just punished her and used her for her talent, so of course she’d view them that way. Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting further in so that I’m not just half-baking my thoughts on the themes and might actually have stronger views on things! And as long as people avoid spoilers, I would love to hear commentary on what kind of themes to be watching for!

#lumi.txt #lockwood & co.

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acacia-may · 1 year

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Heyo! I saw that you love A Series Of Unfortunate Events and that's so cool, I love it too but sometime I have the feeling it's not well-known. Question, what do you think about the adaptations, the film with Jim Carrey and the Netflix series? Personally, I like them too, but I also understand why they're not for everyone's taste, which is fair. I'm just someone who loves books, film and show of this series, so I always wonder how it's for others.

Hello there! Thank you so much for the ask! I so rarely get ASOUE asks so this is really special and very exciting to me! 🥰

I do love A Series of Unfortunate Events (I also enjoyed All The Wrong Questions). ASOUE was such a big part of my childhood and something I've gone back and reread several times in my life, and I've always gotten something new out of it which I think is the mark of an incredible story. It was also something I got to share with my two sisters, so it's special to me in that way as well. I'm much older than both of my sisters, and my youngest sister and I are nearly 10 years apart in age, so it was kind of difficult to find things that we all could enjoy together, especially when they were young. However, we read ASOUE aloud when my youngest sister was old enough to understand/enjoy the series and also in preparation for the Netflix series which was scheduled to be released, and she just loved it and we had so much fun reading it together. I tried my best to do all the voices... (I remember I could never quite get Book Olivia/Madame Lulu's and kind of butchered my way through Book 9 😅). When they were very young, my sisters wanted to have these imaginary "VFD meetings," and it was a very silly game but always so much fun to get to play at that with them. [And to this day, my one sister's nickname in my phone is actually still "Jackalope" as a very meme-like reference to her always being the "Jacques"]. Anyway, I have so much love for that series and a lot of good memories related to it. 💕

Long story short: I have an appreciation for the ASOUE adaptations since I think it's a very difficult story to adapt due to the fact there is barely any, actual "canon" information, and I especially liked a lot of Netflix's interpretation of the series. However, they are all very separate things in my head (so it's almost like I've got a "Book Lemony," "Netflix Lemony" and "Movie Lemony" in my mind, just for an example). My ramblings about the adaptations got so long and are riddled with spoilers so I am putting them under the cut!

(Warnings: Spoilers for all iterations of ASOUE and mentions of death, murder, & trauma)

As far as the adaptations go, I think that the nature of ASOUE makes incredibly difficult to adapt in any medium. Lemony is an incredibly unreliable and biased narrator, and the canon is often (purposefully) ambiguous, contradictory, and riddled with plot holes, which makes for a great story in which the reader really gets to take the reigns and, in a way, "make the canon" whatever they want it to be. It's such a different experience because we/the readers, honestly just don't know so many things about the story, the world, and the characters so it's up to everyone to kind of "play detective" and essentially create a canon of their own--but, at the end of the day, that "canon," as each individual reader perceives, is probably 20% actual canon and 80% headcanon (and that's being generous). So for me it's difficult to judge the quality of an adaptation of this story because I really view a lot of my personal perceptions and understanding of the series as my headcanons rather than the actual canon so my perception of the tv show and the movie is really just me comparing Netflix's headcanons or Nickelodeon's headcanons to my personal headcanons, if that makes sense? And in that way, like you said, I can completely understand why one or both of them would not be to someone's taste.

I personally see both adaptations as separate things from the book series and will often talk about certain characters as like "Netflix Kit" or "Book Kit" and things like that. They really are that separate in my mind. Overall though, I really enjoyed the Netflix series and was really happy with a lot of what Netflix did. I did not go into it expecting a lot because I just figured that my interpretations were going to be different than theirs, but I was extremely surprised by how similar the portrayals of a lot of the characters were to what I was imagining in my mind. Esme especially was just phenomenal--everything I had ever imagined her to be like! The children (both the Baudelaires and the Quagmires) were great! I loved a lot of the guardians/supporting cast: Monty, Josephine, Georgina, Vice Principal Nero, Hal, Justice Strauss, Carmelita Spats...I can't even list all the people. It was just so well-casted across the board!

And even characters who were different than what I imagined in my mind were really wonderful! I really liked the portrayal of Netflix Fernald for instance--he was much more likeable, and I loved that friendship he had with Sunny (and how that hinted at his own relationship with his (long-lost) younger sister). Netflix Count Olaf is another example of a character who I feel much more positively about in the Netflix series than in the books. Overall, I think Neil Patrick Harris's Count Olaf was a much closer interpretation to how I personally imagine Count Olaf than Jim Carrey's Count Olaf. Netflix Olaf was definitely, ultimately much softer and more sympathetic than I how I imagine Book Olaf, but I think overall Harris did a good job of treading that fine line of being a very melodramatic villain but also being actually threatening and menacing. I can really appreciate how difficult that must have been because Olaf is such a very complex character and I can see why he wouldn't be an easy one to portray. And of course, Netflix Olivia is basically an entirely different person but a very amazing person!

Which reminds me, I know that Jacques gets thrown out a lot as a character whose Netflix interpretation didn't quite match up to what people were imagining, but for me (and this was probably the most shocking because I always felt like the odd one out when it came to my personal interpretations of Book Jacques), Netflix Jacques was very, very similar to what I imagined his book counterpart to be like so I was feeling very excited and very vindicated that I wasn't the only one who imagined in that way. I think the most radically different (besides Olivia of course) was probably Ernest, but we know basically nothing about him so I don't have a problem with Netflix Ernest. For all we know, Book Ernest could secretly be an evil cowboy and lasso someone and boil them alive in curry--but my personal interpretation of Book Ernest is that he would not have done that. But I recognize that's all headcanons so I don't really have a criticism there.

Besides with Ernest (who was much more of a coldblooded killer than I what I was imagining), I think most of the changes in the Netflix universe painted the characters in a much more positive and sympathetic way than what I was imagining in my mind. Netflix made them less broken, less traumatized, less morally dubious, and ultimately much more well-adjusted than what I had been imagining based on the books. I think Netflix Lemony and Netflix Kit are both good examples of this. Neither one of them are nearly as jaded in Netflix as they are in my interpretation of their book counterparts. I love them as characters--have always loved them so I want these good, happier things for them. I want a universe for Kit where she gets to hold Little Bea before she dies. I want a universe for Lemony where he gets to reconnect with his sister one last time. And yes, though I realize that most interpretations (including my own) of Book Kit Snicket would have never, ever, ever in a million years been on board with jumping ship on VFD when she got pregnant and running away to island to the raise the baby away from all that, I still want that universe. I still want that universe where things are a little less bleak and a little more hopeful, so I feel I am very biased in that way because in a certain sense, I was grateful that Netflix gave us a happier, more hopeful world for these characters that I loved.

Overall though, despite the differences, I think Netflix ASOUE was made with care. I got this feeling while watching it and squealing over the little details and references to all parts of the Snicket-verse that the people who made it and were involved in bringing this story to life really, genuinely cared about the source material. They were forced to pick an interpretation and though that interpretation might not be exactly like mine, I can respect that they picked theirs with thought, effort, and care because they loved this series. And it was really such a delight to get to experience an adaptation that was made by people who clearly have as much love and passion for this series as me, if not more.

I'm not as fond of the movie. I feel like it missed the mark in terms of the macabre sense of humor of the series and was more tonally uneven than what Netlflix made. I did love the portrayals of the children in the movie--especially Klaus. Movie Klaus's sass was just top-tier. I loved watching his faces in the background! They're hilarious! But they didn't give him glasses (at least not ones he wears all the time), and the movie is just kind of full of little things like that that just kind of miss the mark for me. I wasn't a big fan of Movie Olaf either--I felt that he was too goofy and not threatening enough as a villain, but I did love Movie Monty. He's such a sweetheart, but Netflix Monty was just as good. The same with Movie Lemony versus Netflix Lemony. Jude Law and Patrick Warburton kind of played into different aspects of Lemony's character so they're very different portrayals but both still good.

My favorite thing about the movie by far, however, is the soundtrack. I have owned it for years, and I still listen to it all the time. I was just listening to "The Letter That Never Came" last week, actually, when I was working on my piece for the Wicked Way Exchange. I just love the music! It's gorgeous and fits better with the tone of my interpretation of the series than probably anything else in the movie. I grew up with this movie, so I think there is some nostalgia there, but if I wanted to watch or recommend an adaptation of ASOUE, I'd definitely choose Netflix.

Thanks again for the ask and for indulging my ramblings! Feel free to drop by to talk about the Snicket-verse anytime! 🥰

#asoue #a series of unfortunate events #snicketverse #asoue books #asoue netflix #asoue asks #thanks for the ask anon!#acacia's ramblings #answered anons

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wonderlandleighleigh · 2 years

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Midge and Lenny go on a double date with Noah and Astrid

"So then the rabbi asks for one more person for a minion," Noah says as he takes a bite out of a dumpling. "And Midge, here, she grabs the hair of the girl next to her, fashions it into a beard and goes 'me, Rabbi, pick me!'"

The table laughs and Midge covers her face.

"I cannot believe you even remember that story," she laments. "I was eight."

"You were always funny," Noah grins.

"Remember when we went to see Joel at the Gaslight that one time?" Astrid asks. "I swear I had heard his entire performance on TV somewhere, and then it turned out it was Bob Newhart! And it wasn't even a very good joke. Or it was a good joke but Joel didn't tell it well. Or both, it could have been both."

"We don't have to talk about Joel," Noah says kindly, taking his wife's hand. "Lenny - how are things going?"

Lenny considers for a moment as he pokes at his chow fun. "Not bad actually. I haven't been arrested in...a while. Which is weird, because I haven't changed my act."

Noah smiles. "That's great."

"And I'm booked up through the next few months," he says, looking a little stunned.

"Wonderful!" Astrid chirps. "Noah, we should come down and see one of Lenny's shows like we've done for Midge."

"I like date night," Noah grins.

"You don't have to," Lenny cuts in. "My act isn't exactly..."

"What do you say cock, shit and balls a lot?" Astrid asks cheerily. "Midge does, too. I was shocked at first, but it's actually funny, once you get used to the words."

Lenny blinks and looks at Midge, who is trying not to laugh into her teacup.

"Astrid is very adaptable," Noah says. "I'm headed out of town next week, but when I get back, we'll figure out a night that works. Maybe we can do one of these dinners again after your show, Lenny."

"Oh, a late night," Astrid beams. "Fun. We could get a nice hotel and make a weekend out of it. Leave Chaim with your parents."

"Ma would love that," Noah says. "She's been dying for more time with him."

"How are Ethan and Esther, Midge?" Astrid asks, turning to her.

"They're great," Midge smiles. "They're with Moishe and Shirley tonight."

"Well, give them big kisses from us," Astrid says. "Lenny, you're so lucky. Midge's kids are so cute and so fun."

"Well, they take after their mother," Lenny grins.

"And how," Noah agrees.

*****

"Can I ask you something?"

Astrid is talking Lenny's ear off behind them as they walk down the street, trying to find a good place for coffee and desert, and Midge turns to her brother curiously.

Noah shrugs as he offers her a cigarette from his carton. "Sure."

"Lenny's arrest rate going down," Midge says. "And his bookings recently being up..."

"He's a great comic," Noah grins.

"Whose act hasn't changed," Midge points out. "The cops should be all over him. But they're not."

"That is very interesting," Noah comments.

"Noah."

Noah shrugs and grins. "Maybe...maybe I...talked. To some people."

"Noah," Midge says, shocked.

Noah huffs. "I didn't do it for you. I mean I did. You're my sister, and you love this guy, and the situation was starting to look a little...dire. But I also did it because it's wrong, and we have bigger problems, as a country, to worry about than one Jew's commentary on religion and race relations. So...I very kindly reminded some of our esteemed officials that I can have them...you know. Removed from office very easily, if they keep harassing funny people just to get their kicks."

"Removed from office with a gun?" Midge asks, looking a little stunned.

"wha- No!" Noah cries. "I don't do that!"

"But you have a gun."

"I'm an analyst," Noah pleads. "It's for protection. Not ganking people."

"Ganking?" Midge asks. "Is that a thing you say now, ganking?"

"I'm never doing you a favor again," Noah tells her.

Midge sighs and wraps both arms around one of his, hugging it. "Thank you."

"Keep it to yourself," Noah mutters. "I could get into very big trouble for telling you."

"I promise."

"Do not put it in your act."

"I will not."

"And don't tell Lenny."

"Locking my lips and throwing away the key."

"It's a gross misuse of the information I've been trusted with, and my superiors okay'd it, but that doesn't mean I can do it all the time, so don't like - become a communist or anything."

"Too late."

"Dammit."

#fic #au #tmmm #Midge/Lenny #Midge x Lenny #Noah/Astrid

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oodlyenough · 1 year

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re: hbo tlou, do you think that the softening up of Joel is going to give eventual show Abby a harder time when it comes to audience perception? it was already bad enough with the game version for a bunch of very loud players, and show Joel is so much nicer and more sympathetic of a person than game Joel, lol.

Yeah, I've wondered about this too. I think it's always going to be a hard sell, so it will be a hard sell even if they adjust Abby's plotline somehow to match. I'm not sure the reaction can be WORSE, partly because the reaction to the game was sooooo ludicrously OTT... I don't really know how it could be topped lol. Especially w the game leaks and the trans Abby nonsense.

This got long and there's misc spoilers for both games so I'm using a cut:

I think there's also the possibility gamers are especially bad about this kind of thing, whereas general tv audiences are maybe more used to this kind of "twist" (or at least more likely to uh turn off the tv and not spend the next three years trawling the internet to hurl slurs at anyone who liked it).

Ignoring the audience for a moment and speaking just from a narrative POV, I do think they're putting s2 in a harder position. In the game, there's that moment where Dina and Ellie are hypothesizing and Ellie is like "man who knows Joel has countless enemies" lmao. In the show so far that wouldn't really be true unless we're relying *really* heavily on his entirely off screen and scantly touched on past.

I love the second game but I think its story would need much more rejigging to suit television than it did as a game -- lots of what I thought made it work ARE it being a game. So maybe however they adapt the story will account for the changes they've already made. I wouldn't be surprised to see an Abby cameo in the s1 finale, for example.... I'll be more surprised if we *don't*.

My biggest worry by far about s1 is that it might lean into or encourage the "well Joel knew a cure was impossible and did the ONLY MORAL THING" bullshit that totally guts the end of any meaning... and of course if tehy do THAT then suddenly the Abby storyline is an even huger leap because then uwu armchair scientist Joel was doing an inarguably moral thing with no net loss to humanity. People have already used ep 1 + ep 2's cold opens to justify this, so the show will have to do some work if it wants the cure to be plausibly on the table. Which imo it needs to be.

#anon #you've got questions we've got answers #i dont really know how to tag this lol #the last of us 2 #tlou spoilers #tlou2 spoilers

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edgeofpanic · 1 year

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the obligatory 2022 anime roundup

2022 has been one of the strongest years for anime that I can remember. Nearly every season had its one Big Show with Fall slam-dunking its way into the history books with 4 or 5 hits airing at once. You couldn't ask for a better slate of shows to distract you from...everything.

I've watched a ton of anime this year, both new and old. There are 5 that left a big impression on me that I want to talk about, but here are some honorable mentions:

Birdie Wing: how can you say no to underground mafia golf tournaments with a heavy dollop of lesbianism

Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Ultra Romantic-: it should be illegal to be this consistently good after three seasons and I can't wait for the movie

The Executioner and Her Way of Life: this show is good, yall are just mean

Cyberpunk Edgerunners: what I wish the video game had been in every way

Do it Yourself!!: how can you say no to cute girls doing cute DIY projects with a heavy dollop of lesbianism

Urusei Yatsura All Stars: now I know why people have been in love with Lum for 40 years

Dirty Pair: Project Eden: the platonic ideal of Dirty Pair

I'm issuing a blanket spoiler warning for any of the anime covered in this. With that out of the way, let's get to it.

King of Braves GaoGaiGar + King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final

GaoGaiGar is the series that doesn't know how to end. There are 3 distinct endings between these two shows: one in episode 33 of GaoGaiGar, another with the finale of GaoGaiGar in episode 49, and yet another with the end of episode 8 of GaoGaiGar Final. The stakes get bigger and bigger with each subsequent ending until the fate of the universe itself is on the line. Remarkably, none of these endings ever feel cheap or unearned. Yes, there's some unexpected turns--episode 49's ending in nearly had me on my feet and yelling at my computer--yet they're firmly rooted in the larger than life personalities of our protagonists at the Gutsy Geoid Guard. There's a warmth to them even when yelling attack names at the top of their lungs. None of them could have possibly known GGG and GGG Final would be the last of the Brave series, but each heartfelt speech about heroism makes you wonder if they were giving their all because they felt it was coming. Particular credit goes to Nobuyuki Hiyama and Tomoe Hanba for getting me invested in Guy and Mikoto's relationship, stop and start as it is. Sometimes hets have rights.

Then again, it's got the room to end more than once. Capping out at 49 TV episodes and 8 OVA episodes, the GGG saga is a beast of a saga. We don't see see these kind of episode counts anymore unless you're a legacy show like the Urusei Yatsura All Stars or whatever that new adaptation of The Legend of Galactic Heroes is called. It's a shame, too, because certain genres really benefit from longer runs. GGG thrives on the ability to simultaneously elicit chest-thumping excitement and slow burn drama week-to-week. As you adjust to the world running on Rule of Cool, you come to expect that the heroes can overcome any odds with the power of Bravery and Friendship. It's always worked before.

Until it doesn't.

As the OVA approaches its end, after over 50 episodes with our heroes, Guy's dad dies. An actual, real death that can't be walked back with Guts and Heroism. Everyone overcomes their grief to defeat the antagonists threatening the fate of the universe, but encounter a greater source of despair: there's only enough time to send one or two people away from the collapsing pocket universe they're currently trapped in. The majority of them can't return to the Earth they fought so hard to save. They will never go home again.

I can't remember exactly what I said when this was revealed, but I'm sure it was something close to, "No! They can't do this now!" No one is supposed to die in GaoGaiGar. No one is supposed to realize they may not be able to reap the rewards of their hard work. No one is supposed to realize that the hardships of this world fall on the shoulders of the next generation despite their best efforts.

Yet that's what happens. In the end, the decision is made to send Mamoru and Kaidou back to Earth in the brief window of time the adults have. Only they are allowed to pick up where the GGG left off and continue on in to the future.

While the OP for both GaoGaiGar and GaoGaiGar Final is this big, bombastic affair on being a hero and shouting attack names--DIVIDING DRIVER! BROKEN PHANTOM! GOLDION HAAAAMMMMMMERRRRRRRR!--the ending is much more subdued song named "Someday, In the Sea of Stars". My friend and I usually skipped it because tone shift was too jarring. There's no time for this boring song! We gotta get to the next episode! When the third and final ending of the series uses a rendition sang by all the VAs...it hits. At the end of oaths of bravery, the people you love are waiting for you. And when they're gone, they aren't forgotten. You'll meet them again. Some day, some where.

Serial Experiments Lain

It's been a weird year.

Objectively, I'm doing well. I got a promotion at work, I'm seeing positive momentum in therapy, my friendships are strong. In return, less time and less motivation make engaging with my hobbies harder than ever. Stress and anxiety are at an all-time high. I've been having full-blown panic attacks that leave me figuratively and literally shaken. Most of my time has been spent wondering if I'm stuck coming to the same conclusion of choosing myself when I can't even define who "myself" is, never fully enjoying my life. For fuck's sake, there's a literal dip in my mattress from where I've been laying in place and feeling sad for the last three years. My therapist and friends keep telling me that I need to live in the now, but how are you supposed to stay in the present when it feels like a kaleidoscope of horror? Why would you ever want to?

And in the midst of a weird year in a series of weird years, nearly every episode of Serial Experiments Lain slapped me in the face with the opening dialogue of, "Present day! Present time!"

I've seen critics use terms like "prescient" and "visionary" for describing the show, and it is. Sort of. I feel that it's too steeped in conspiracy theory for those descriptors to be entirely accurate. It shouldn't surprise you to learn its writer would fall face first into QAnon and have the Digimon Tamers kids fight Cancel Culture so. You know. There's that. (For the record, Perfect Blue is my go-to for "on the cutting edge" anime. It does a far better job of describing the terrifying consequences of having your identity stripped away by the ever-grinding internet content machine without being weird about it.)

What the show does predict is the vibe of the Internet 24 years after its release. The bleak, conspiracy-laden conversations from every corner of the Wired feel like doomscrolling through Twitter or Reddit. It's an arresting experience that is obtuse to the point of being annoying and so painfully topical that I paused several times during some episodes to catch my breath. As Lain loses her sense of self to the constant noise of the Wired, she, and we the audience, are trapped between a nightmare of a present that never came to pass and a paranoid future that's all too real.

SEL wears its thesis statement on its sleeve: all people, no matter who they are and where they go, are connected. These unspoken connections are what make us human. The lyrics to the insert song for episode 13 put it plainly, "I try to be connected by something to someone, anyone/In the wandering night, you keep waiting; a signal of loneliness". All she needs is someone who sees her as more than a tool for their own ends or a god to be praised. At Lain's lowest point, her reality-bending powers aren't what rescue her from a liminal hell. Love is what pulls her up to her feet and so, so much more. I can only hope love saves me, too.

I took notes as I watched SEL. Yes, I know that's not best practice for engaging with a piece of media for the first time, but it felt essential to capture my thoughts as they happened. In total, there are around 10 pages (handwritten!) of them. Here's a selection for your enjoyment:

big emphasis on light and shadow. all shadows have this paint splats texture in them. Sometimes the textures move, but mostly they look like blood. Darkness feels so deep as if the characters will fall into them. in contrast, much of the real world is blank white.

that shit where Lain sees the faces of people (willingly?) trapped in the Wired that are constantly cycling through terror and ecstasy is kinda fucked up! is she seeing them? is she hallucinating them?

"we saw someone die and we can't take it seriously. i think there's something wrong with us." prescient.

it's striking how barren Lain's real life is. washed out, barely real. sterile. but the Wired is color, noise. cacophony. the madness and chaos of the human existence. constant connectedness. Instrumentality-esque.

Alice feels like the only person who knows what kind of show this is.

holy fuck Lain's room isn't even a room anymore. at least it isn't one where humans live. but it is one perfectly made for the new God of the Wired.

now THERE'S the anime bullshit!

oh god, everyone staring at you. primal fear unlocked.

"I'm the only me." said while under shifting lights in the dark

Lain is doing NORMAL and FINE

it's all men who say they love Lain. older men, too. 2. it's an abstract kind of love. love of the ideal of normalcy, love from a follower to a god, love from a god to a follower. it's all big concept "love." intangible. contractual in the case of the last two. but not "I called to see how you were" or "left you some food" or "saw this funny picture and thought of you" love. destructive vs transformative. one-sided.

…also score some of the more traumatic moments to this jazzy [music] piece.

Alice is real. and because Alice can remember Lain, Alice who is kind and good and is loved by Lain, this makes Lain real, too. FUCK.

ALL RESET. RETURN.

Gay people truly do it all!

Sonny Boy

Full disclosure, I haven't finished this anime yet and I'm not sure when I will. Binging it is an option, but that feels...wrong. This isn't a show you sit through and then dump from your brain.

Honestly, Sonny Boy is intimidating. It's the only anime I've ever seen that doesn't have an OP or ED sequence nor an eyecatch to break the ever mounting tension. What should be a run of the mill coming of age story becomes a supernatural thriller as the students leap from one confusing dimension to the next. The influence of the manga The Drifting Classroom is obvious in nearly every way.

If you're able to keep up with the emotional toll it demands, you're rewarded with one of the most beautiful shows you've ever seen. Bright colors and incredible layouts ease you into its complex visual allegories. I already know there'll be plenty of new visual clues I'll notice in future viewings. This includes watching how each character reacts to the weird situations their thrown into. The cast is an entire graduating class worth of students, yet every one of them feels like a distinct and unique person. The core cast especially stand out as they're all, and I say this lovingly, weirdos. Now that their school is hopping between realities, these ostracized, lonely kids must now choose between groups of classmates who now violently demand their loyalty. In these unprecedented, unforeseen, extraordinary times, who do you trust? Why?

I've got 6 episodes left of Sonny Boy. I can't wait to see where it goes.

Mobile Police Patlabor 2 the Movie

I'm a self-proclaimed oldhead when it comes to anime. Yes, there are many excellent current anime (more on that in a bit) and yes, I'm grateful new generations of animators willing to push the boundaries of the medium. However, the feeling that most anime created post-2010 are created by committee is impossible to shake. Look at how many isekai and light novel adaptations are pumped out every year. There aren't many shows that where directors' intents and philosophies are blatant anymore.

Mamoru Oshii has a reputation for using a well-established series to explore whatever topic is on his mind. Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer swaps out its usual zany humor for reflections on the march of time and nature of reality. Fans of the time were not pleased their hot alien wife was nearly non-existent in the movie. Regardless of how fan criticism then and now, it's an uncompromising Oshii production. You'd think the fan letters with razor blades he received after Beautiful Dreamer would deter him from experimenting with the formula of a well-loved franchise, but he would do it again with Patlabor. Originally an OVA and manga started in 1988, the show is generally a light-hearted affair following a police squadron of goofballs who shouldn't be trusted with giant robots armed with giant-robot sized magnums but they are anyway. Their cases run the gamut from defusing a bomb set by eco-terrorsists to solving a Scooby-Doo mystery to stopping a potential coup by the JGSDF. They'll always get the job done--even if a few buildings and roads get blown away in the process.

None of that fun atmosphere can be found in Patlabor the Movie. Instead of a fun romp, it's a quiet, moody reflection on how those in power abandon those who need the most help in the dogged pursuit of capital and the fluid nature of our reality. With the first signs of the fragility of the economy by the time of the movie's release in July 1989, it's a poignant look at a country on the edge.

Patlabor the Movie 2 is about what happens after the music stops.

You can practically feel Oshii shaking you by the shoulders with each new development, demanding that you ask yourself who must be subjugated by state violence to keep your streets safe and prosperous. Just watch this sequence and tell me you don't feel his righteous fury:

youtube

Or watch this sequence and say you don't notice Oshii's contempt for a nation and military willing to oppress their neighbors to ensure "safety":

youtube

Neither of these moments have left my head since I first watched it. I doubt they ever will.

This movie is so incredibly Oshii that it would not be the same without him. Hell, I doubt it would even exist. No one else has the skill to make a movie so staunchly anti-capitalist and anti-military while making its cop protagonists relatable.

It is a movie suited not just for 1993, but for every moment spent living under capitalism. This isn't one of my favorite anime movies, it's one of my favorite movies, period. Whether or not you have any prior knowledge of Patlabor, I cannot recommend it enough.

Bocchi the Rock!

Fall 2022 was a barn burner of an anime season. Chainsaw Man. Gundam: Witch from Mercury. Mob Psycho 100 season 3. Spy x Family cour 2. MOTHERFUCKIN' BLEACH. Any of these could easily be anime of the season or anime of the year. For me, the clear winner of both these accolades is….

An anime where a girl gets beat up by birds because she's so pathetic and is left in a Yamcha-style crater in the ground.

You've likely seen 6 videos and 4 essays by now on how BTR is an underappreciated gem. Seeing how it's set the anime world on fire, this status is distinctly untrue by now. Still, it's hard to understate how much of a surprise Bocchi is. My friend threw it on during a session of our longstanding anime nights for fun and both of us were blown away by its quality. Every joke is funny. Every shot is composed for maximum effectiveness. Every VA is giving it their all. Bocchi's VA is learning how to play guitar! Everyone on the animation staff sounds thrilled to be working on this. It is the epitome of a show firing on all cylinders with the creative energy to match.

What elevates a run of the mill "girls make a band" premise is our titular protagonist Hitori "Bocchi" "My Daughter With Every Disease" Gotoh. Her social anxiety isn't a small, cute part of her personality but a disability that constantly gets in the way of her life. Entering a public space becomes an all-consuming fear she'll be perceived as weird or unlikable by total strangers. Asking her friends if they want to hang out becomes a months-long ordeal that's only resolved when they realize what she's been too afraid to ask on the last day of summer vacation.

And yet, she allows herself to try even when at rock bottom. Yes, she plays the entirety of Kessoku Band's first show from inside a cardboard box, but she still gets on stage. The people in her life are happy to help her move forward in any way they can. Bocchi learns--slowly and with many setbacks--that her gloomy personality is accepted by those who care about her. She may not easily make friends, but for those who stick around, they'll be friends for life. She has no enemies.

Personally, that's a hard pill to swallow. As someone with social anxiety, depression, and general anxiety, I've had the same spiraling "god, what if everyone decides they hate me" thoughts before entering a restaurant or grocery store. It's a constant voice that makes it difficult to take walks, message my friends. My life can be a shitty place to be multiple months out of the year. I'd like to say I've made progress, but the Serial Experiments Lain section should tell you everything about how that's going. Each week spent with Bocchi as she strives toward her goals only reiterated what I already knew: the only way forward is through.

And Bocchi does, indeed, go through it. Hell, she literally climbs into a trashcan in the third to last episode. You've seen the tumblr post by now. However, she allows herself space to grow and be a comfort to others, if need be. Everyone in Kessoku Band benefits, as well: Ryo gains a place to belong although she's a loner by choice; Kita fully devotes herself to developing a skill rather than going after several half-heartedly; Nijika finds others she can share her dream of hitting the big time with. They make each other a better band and even better people. While the band finds some success after two successful public gigs, their anxieties don't disappear. Rather, it gets easier for each of them to bear. However long it may take and how many trash cans Bocchi may climb into, they'll be able to shoulder those burdens together.

"This show deserves a second season" is such a cliche at this point, but I mean it for this one. Bocchi the Rock deserves that and more. The anime world, and myself, is made better with Bocchi's uncompromising rock.

#hermy.txt #bocchi the rock #patlabor #gaogaigar #serial experiments lain #sonny boy

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