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mindfairies · 3 years

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Episode 5′s Light Battalion Scene - Part 1

If someone asked me what my favorite scene in Fate was, there’s always one that comes to mind. I will never ever stop talking about this scene.

Specifically, Episode 5 (9:00-10:10). Or as I like to call it, “The Light Battalion Scene”

We don’t get enough backstory on the adults in this show and it’s a crime, but this one scene has personally fueled more headcanons, story ideas, and theories than any other scene. This is going to be a little long just because I couldn’t sleep without writing this all down.

To start off, their name isn’t canonically The Light Battalion, that’s a choice I made in a fic that just ended up sticking. But the friendship of Farah, Saul, Andreas, and Ben is its own interesting world, and one that this scene manages to portray incredibly well.

I don’t have any screencaps of the beginning (rip) but the scene starts with Andreas and Saul. Obviously these two are already known to have some history, because Saul is implied to have raised Sky after Andreas exited the picture (”aggro father figure”), and he mentions Sky’s dad more times than I can count. But this is the first time we see continuous lines of dialogue between them, and it already tells us so much.

Andreas teases Saul about being on the ground, and in my opinion that’s just best friends being best friends. It’s lighthearted, it’s funny. But then he hits him with the “let me know when you want to start pulling your weight, Saul.” And the air seems to shift a little at that. Andreas implies that he’s the one doing all the work, pulling all the weight in their fighting (it’s implied that they just took down a Burned One as a duo), and sort of passively aggressively jabs at him. Our beloved Saul obviously jabs back, and he brings up Andreas’s son. Ouch. Andreas’s entire mood shifts, and he looks Saul up and down before leaving. In those 30 seconds, we see more of both their characters than we have so far in the entire show.

They obviously were/are friends (very close friends, if Saul took over raising Sky), but their relationship is currently strained. Andreas sees himself as doing all the work, and Saul might be a little peeved that he’s not paying enough attention to his family. But they don’t talk about it, not really, walking away before they can actually get a conversation going. Saul has absolutely no other lines in this scene, and that’s mind blowing to me. But anyway, moving on.

Andreas and Saul rejoin Farah and Ben, and it’s implied that they just managed to take down a Burned One as a duo themselves. Andreas speaks first, and his line “is he dissecting again?” immediately reinforces the fact that there’s history there. Andreas knows Ben likes to dissect these things, and apparently Farah knows that he knows, since (being surprisingly sarcastic) she responds with “what do you think?”

This next part is literally my favorite part of any episode ever. And I hate that I don’t have a screencap of all of it.

Andreas spits on the Burned One’s corpse that Ben is kneeling next to (which... ew). Ben looks up at him, exasperated, going “Or we could contaminate it. Lovely!” And instead of immediately turning back to continue his work, he looks at Farah.

The camera then pans to Farah, who’s got the hottest look ever on her face.

She raises her eyebrow at Andreas. As a response, Andreas raises his eyebrows and shrugs at her innocently. The camera pans to Saul, whose eyes flicker from Andreas to Farah (and they look her up and down, cheeky man). Then Rosalind interrupts.

That’s the moment I love most about this entire scene. Those maybe 15 seconds of interaction between four characters we know little to nothing about. So let me break it down really quick.

First of all, Ben looks at Farah. He stands his ground (kinda), sarcastically says “lovely!” but his gaze still moves to Farah for a brief moment. I think he’s looking at her for support, for a friendly face, and maybe subtly for a “can you believe this guy?” type of moment. But Farah’s reaction is to make direct eye contact with Andreas and raise her eyebrows. That’s a challenging look if I’ve ever seen one! She’s looking at him like she wants to smack him, like she’s done with his shit. Her little head tilt (chin jut = pride) at him just reinforces that. Andreas responds. He seems to know what that look means, almost like he knows exactly what she wants to do. So his reaction is to raise his eyebrows and shrug at her-- he didn’t do anything, he’s clearly innocent, he was only having fun.

And that interaction says so much about both their characters. First, I think it shows that Farah might’ve been a little protective of Ben while they were soldiers, or while they were friends with Andreas. Ben is the one that Andreas chose to pick on in this scenario. Granted, he was the one leaning over the corpse and maybe the only one he could’ve picked on, but we just saw him passive aggressively commenting on Saul earlier. But he chose to go and spit over Ben, who looked towards Farah as if asking for help or support. And she’s clearly not afraid to challenge Andreas about it. And he’s clearly not afraid to respond with feigned innocence, although he knows what he did. It makes me wonder if they’ve had this dynamic their entire friendship (or their entire school years). Is it competitiveness?

And then comes Saul. Who, like I said, has no other lines in this scene. I find it odd because this feels like the perfect time for Saul to jump in. Maybe to say something about the Burned Ones, or to Andreas, or to Farah, or just to put his sword away? But he just stands there, looking at Andreas and then at Farah. It’s almost like he expects a fight, expects them to lunge at each other, to say something. It’s like he’s hesitating, or anticipating something. And it makes me wonder if situations like this (an Andreas and Farah stand-off) happened more often than we think.

It’s 15 seconds of body language that could, in the end, just be the actors’ spur-of-the-moment choices. But I want to believe there’s more than that, because we know that these characters have history, and this one tiny scene shows more of it than any other scene in the show. These adults that the fandom so collectively loves have the potential to be so complex and multi-dimensional, and a whole worldbuilding can be done with their backstory. These are real people, soldiers, with real relationships and friendships that I personally want to know more about! These years weren’t implied to be pretty, and if this was a sweeter story I think we could’ve ended up with a light-hearted scene of their training turning out great.

But then Rosalind showed up.

(Part 2 coming soon!)

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nettlestonenell · 3 years

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(above, an unpopular opinion?--if so, the first of many)

The King: Eternal Monarch Catches Plenty of Hate Online Why That Is, And Why You Should Ignore It Part I

(to be posted in several parts, spoilers possible, but will be limited)

Subjects of the Kingdom, Citizens of the Republic, and (as always) Gentle Readers:

If you’ve spent any amount of time searching The King: Eternal Monarch, Lee Min Ho, Kim Go Eun, or various other adjacent topics online since 2020, the fact that Kdrama The King: Eternal Monarch is more likely to be associated with negative coverage rather than positive, is far from news to you.

Just the other day, @dumbassdictionarysds popped into my DMs and asked if I might have a post in me to explain what I thought the roots of this heated rejection of the show might be.

“I was thinking of making a video on TKEM and its criticisms and why people didn't like it and why I liked it,” they wrote, “I would really appreciate if you could give some insight into what common criticisms you saw and what you thought of them.”

It should come as no surprise at this point that, as someone showed up wanting to talk about--and hear about--TKEM that my responding was an absolute no-brainer, and a welcome moment of elation.

As we dive in, let me give two (sorta three) shout-outs to places I’ve read meta for TKEM, whose thoughts on the matter and the show have no doubt helped shaped my own opinions and understanding of it: bitchesoverdramas.com and thefangirlverdict.com, with a nod to TKEM’s Wikipedia page as well. For the record (because it seems it might prove germane here) I am neither Korean nor have I/do I live in Korea (nor the Kingdom of Corea, for that matter).

Okay. Many people (perhaps most people?—at least online fan people) really, really have issues with TKEM. Writer Kim Eun Sook’s shows, while generally well received by fandom and critics, are no strangers to occasional controversy-- particularly of her two most recent dramas available through Netflix, Mr. Sunshine and The King: Eternal Monarch.

Research seems to show that KES tends toward being something of a polarizing figure in fandom. Those that love her don’t just love her a little, but will die on this hill, and those who dislike what she does can really, really, REALLY, not stand it (and are also ready to die on that hill).

That’s a lot of people camped out, ready to die on their respective hills. For every person that thinks Goblin is the greatest kdrama ever filmed, there is a person ready and waiting to dismember Heirs’ Kim Tan.

No one should be surprised that KES’ new show would prove polarizing.

So let’s get down to business. Why all the hate?

Expectations Deliberately and Consistently Subverted

Was this Lee Min Ho’s Regarding Henry-moment?

WRT TKEM, let’s start with the elephant/top star in the room: stratospheric Hallyu star Lee Min Ho’s return to viewers’ screens following his two year absence due to mandatory military service (and removal from public life).

There is a weight added, then, to fans’ expectations for the show. It’s not just LMH’s next project, it becomes his MOST IMPORTANT project, his ONLY new project. (Since 2016′s The Legend of the Blue Sea, I believe).

Don’t ask me to react to this photo. I’ve been processing its existence for months now, no conclusions to share yet in sight.

These are fans of Boys Over Flowers’ Goo Joon Pyo, of Heirs’ (also by KES) Kim Tan. These are die-hard viewers who know how they like to consume their LMH on-screen. But KES (and LMH, b/c he’s actually spoken directly to this) aren’t interested in handing out on-brand LMH anymore. Therefore, his Corean King/Emperor Lee Gon is much more in line with the mature, controlled, focused and kind Joseon magistrate Dam Ryeong (from The Legend of the Blue Sea) than the out-of-touch disaster boy chaebols like GJP and KT that rocketed him to global stardom and notoriety.

For instance, TKEM has its hero Lee Gon (LMH) experiencing an epiphany moment of actually understanding and feeling deep empathy for what the female lead is going through—an understanding and an emotion that that utterly evades both GJP and KT (and let’s face it, the majority of kdrama male leads) throughout their entire series.

Do people perhaps hate on LMH in TKEM just as they hated Harrison Ford’s attempt in Regarding Henry to choose projects that artistically interested and challenged him but were found NOT to interest movie goers that rather wanted to see (what they expected from) “a Harrison Ford film”? Is it that viewers wanted to watch (what they expected from) a LMH kdrama?

Had the character of Lee Gon been written and performed as more of a GJP-role would the show’s reception have been more robust and less controversial?

Thankfully, for this viewer, we’ll never have to know.

You cannot truly address LMH’s return to screens without bringing up TKEM episode one, and the way the writing chose to handle what surely had been incredibly hyped in Korean media (LMH’s return).

Does LMH storm the screen in the first moments, triumphant? Is his face the first thing we see? Not even close. The show begins in a muddle for viewers, not sure where we are or what’s going on. And then it…doesn’t do much to clear that up. [more on that in a later section]

Essentially, the show begins in a police interrogation room, during a scene that actually takes place in the penultimate episode of the show. It then proceeds to a seminal event that happened 25 years BEFORE the main timeframe the show operates in.

Neither of these things involve a visible LMH. IN FACT, it is more than 37 minutes into the first episode before he’s acting on-screen. [Yes, I know he’s shown in a 10 second lightning flash right before the show’s 4 minute mark—but that’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, and barely even counts as an amuse-bouche.]

When we do see LMH as the grown Lee Gon (a child actor having portrayed him for the prior 37 minutes), if a viewer is holding entitled golden boys GJP and KT in their mind, it changes their potential reading of Lee Gon’s entire introduction to us as king. The humorous sniping between him and Court Lady Noh over getting married and producing an heir might take on a (misinterpreted) nasty edge, if one is predisposed to expect LMH to portray an temper-tantrum-throwing male character of great wealth whose character arc is to redeem him from his bratty nature through finding the love of an average good woman [Hint: that’s not at all what’s going on here.]--if that’s what a viewer showed up for, they’re going to have those expectations disappointed. And if they can’t shed them, they are going to hate this show.

...to be continued in Part II “Subtitles? More like Sub-par-titles“

#the king eternal monarch #the king: eternal monarch #tkem #lee min ho #kdrama netflix #netflix kdrama #kim eun sook #dumbassdictionarysds #kdrama #more like okay: drama!#tkem meta

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jencsi · 3 years

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Let’s Talk- Finn and Russell;

From the very beginning, we get the hint, notion, presence of a deeper connection between Julie Finlay and DB Russell. In Seeing Red, when she hears him, not even having to look and know he’s there during the crime scene reconstruction, just his voice alone makes her roll her eyes, gets her fired up with some sort of passion, anger, emotional reaction. As evidenced from their conversation about the blood spatter case, her resistance to proceed further with him again shows she is not quite over what has happened to them in the past and it makes viewers want to know, what the heck happened? What could this seemingly unbothered hippie like guy have ever done to cross this already sullen yet spirited woman? Despite her futile attempts to deflect him, she cannot help but be drawn to the case, he sought her out after all, he must be desperate. When she retrieves the file he leaves behind and it piques her interest, she gives in, with probably a lot of hemming and hawing off screen, before venturing to CSI for the first time.

That single solitary scene cemented in my brain their dynamic from that day forward. There was no going back for me. Whatever they had in the past, whether that be something romantic, friendly or just work related, my soul ached to know more and even better, my heart yearned to watch them more, to listen, to observe the bantar, the sarcasm, the snark, the sheer and utter pure honesty that comes from their conversations. DB Russell is not trying to trick Finn, he’s not trying to make her figure out some silly puzzle or game, he just wants her expertise and guidance. Once she accepts his offer, her personality begins to shine via her work (Should I wrap it up and take it back to the lab? Took the words right out of my mouth smart ass” “You know me so well” “And you know blood, better than anyone I know”) her bonding with her colleagues, and even better, the little hints at what was between her and Russell back in Seattle.

When we finally do get to see that past revealed, ripped open like a fresh wound, via CSI on Fire, we see the headstrong and overheated Finn on a mission, prove that Tom Cooley is a killer and bring justice to the families of his victims. Of course that journey is not without complications and wild accusations, of course Finn would never kill anyone, that I firmly believe, unless of course it’s to save a friend or colleague (saving Greg from that supposed innocent victim of the Gig Harbor Killer in The Twin Paradox) but Cooley rattles her, gets under her skin in a way different from Russell. In fact it’s Russell warning her to be careful, to go with caution, but her typical rebellious nature of “I’m not listening” pushes her further to the truth and to danger at every turn.

Her tone when speaking to Russell about the discovery of Cooley’s body in his hotel shifts our thinking that maybe she isn’t the same person she was two years ago. If what we are observing right now is the casual cool collected Finn, just how reckless was she in Seattle? She feels the disappointment from Russell in his tone, the way he looks at her, and she hates that, she doesn’t want to disappoint anyone, especially him. His presence in her life since the Seattle days has created this combination of not wanting to let him down or disappoint him mixed with her fierce loyalty to the truth, to the victims and their families, clashing with her exuberant personality.

With CSI on Fire resolved, Finn melts back into a rhythm with her ex-husband, also a component of her former life in Seattle, all seems right between Russell and her, a trademark of their friendship, forgiveness and acceptance.

Looking at their dynamic from the perspective of the actors who portray them, Ted Danson has referred to them as the bickersons, like oil and water, but at the same time, Finn/Elisabeth and her characters intrusiveness helps him do his job better and see things clearly when it comes to cases as well as other aspects of his characters life. Elisabeth meanwhile seemed to enjoy the back and forth dialogue and the testiness of their relationship, she seemed invested in their past in Seattle and wondered where the writers would take that.

In Homecoming, the season 12 finale, we see corruption and problems arise amongst the police force and Russell apologies for seeming to drag Finn into this mess and bringing her there to work but she states that she makes her own decisions and doesn’t seem bothered by the issues until she is thrown into the chaos of it all when she trails Crenshaw and stumbles into the violence they have created around them with the assistance of McKeen and Kimball.

The Finn and Russell dynamic gets tested here when Katie, Russell’s grand daughter is kidnapped and Finn attempts to save her. In the chaos, she sends Katie out into the unknown alone while she does battle with Crenshaw (a violent but epic struggle, major kudos to the stunt work they did here, it felt so real and made me love Finn even more, seeing how far Elisabeth was willing to take this character) Russell is devastated to learn Finn let Katie escape alone but is also distraught knowing both were hurt and in danger. His anger at Finn boils over when she insists she’s fine, how he refers to her as “Finn” on the phone instead of the sweeter Jules we are used to hearing, and when she discusses the case with him in the bedroom where Katie was taken from and he punched the wall, leading to a missed clue. Despite the resentment towards her, they figure out Katie’s whereabouts and stop McKeen from carrying out his plans. We can see and feel Finn’s guilt deep down for her mistakes, even if everything works out, the way she stands holding the phone, the way she looks at Moreno who tries to assure her it will be okay.

At the end of Karma To Burn, Finn and Russell reconcile again, not so much with words but in the way she snaps him out of his fantasy of ever having to use his gun in a real life situation, of how far he was almost pushed to the brink when it comes to saving his work family, not just Katie. His use of the nickname Jules on several occasions, something she claims to hate but also doesn’t, comes back when Barbara inquires if she will stay for dinner. All is well again.

The final blow and perhaps the deepest cut of their relationship occurs with the reopening of the Gig Harbor Killer case. From the get go, we start off with a bang, literally and figuratively. It is Russell who is at the mercy of Winthrop who demands he admit they did not capture the correct killer in order to relinquish Finn from the confines of her bomb invested car. With much reluctance, he admits their mistake and Finn is spared. The hug they share in the parking lot after she is freed breaks me every time and just further adds to the complicated but always present nature of their relationship. The next go around, Maya, Russell’s daughter is targeted, but this time, she is used as bait to try and lure the copycat out to play and be captured. When that fails, Finn unwillingly becomes the next target and once again Russell is thrown for a loop. This time however, there is no mercy, no chance at redemption, Finn is ripped from him violently and with no regard. Worse still, we get to see a tiny bit of his life afterwards, via CSI Cyber, when he observes another coma patient in Hack ER. Avery Ryan takes notice of his demeanor and quietly brings up Finn. Russell’s memories play out in quick flashbacks and we see where his heart belonged the entire time. He speaks of reading to her, hoping she’d wake up, then darkness, never to see her eyes pierce him again, no more bantar, no more snark, no more intrusiveness. The fact that almost a whole year later we get a resolution for Finn and get to see Russell pine for her one last time gives us closure and really showcases how strong this bond was for three and a half years.

I will always wish for a better outcome for Finn, as originally scripted, but somewhere in the chaos of writing and producing, we lost her. I will always be sad we didn’t get to see more of Russell at her bedside waiting for her to wake up. That emotion would have been so raw and real coming from Ted. These characters deserved a proper ending and reunification because it just wasn’t justified to wreck their metaphorical ship that was so strong and sailing along fine before colliding with the iceberg of violence. Nevertheless, this dynamic holds strong in my heart to this day. There are plenty more examples to pull from the show, every time they chatted about cases and made progress just by talking it out, every time they fought about their thought processes and reckless behavior, every soft sweet utterance of “Jules” will forever gut me, weaken me, bring me to my knees, but somehow give me strength. That’s how powerful their relationship was and appeared to me on screen, they were a paradox, love, hate, push, pull, oil and water as Ted stated before, give and take, and boy did they give me so much more than any naysayer could ever attempt to take from me. No matter where anyone stands on the fandom line, so much heart and soul went into Russell and Finn, and when you really sit down and watch and listen with perspective and acceptance, you can see it and feel it. I think that type of power transcends just your typical acting alone, it truly feels real. Give me that dynamic everyday, sign me up. I don’t think I’ll ever be as lucky as I was to witness such greatness on the screen between these two. Good things don’t happen twice, as I have unfortunately learned the hard way over the years, once it’s gone, it’s gone.

But in the heart and soul of Russell and Finn is an incredible ability to keep a stronghold on viewers like me, or maybe not, maybe I’m just crazy, but here were are, years after things have ended and the screen has faded to black.

#julie finlay #db russell #ted danson #elisabeth shue #thank you for coming to this ted talk #literally #csi crime scene investigation #that novel I’ve been working on #here you go #let’s talk

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isitandwonder · 4 years

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Hi. Did you, at some point, believe in Charmie and A&T relationship? Because you have written so superb fics bout them (dont mentioning looot of sex between them in those fics 😊 ). And now it looks like you are quite disgusted by charmie fandom and also by Armie too.. So when did you change your mind (if there of course was any changing of mind)?

Hi nonnie!

I think I talked about this before but anyway...

Yes, at some point at the end of 2017/beginning of 2018 when the promo was in full swing, I did believe there was/had been something happening between these two.

What started to change my mind though was in February 2018 when they returned to Crema and Liz was there and said they made Ford there (I remember we discussed her being at almost every awards red carpet and promo event before, as some kind of no homo device)... I was so confused. This couldn’t be right! T & A had been hanging out all by themselves during the filming, they’d been the only two English speaking people in town (lol, sorry, but Crema is not a small Sicilian village in the 1950s, I’ve been there), they’d bonded deeply... they told us all about that!

I’m still grateful to the person pointing out that Liz and Harper had been there most of the filming... then gradually more and more ‘came to light’: that Will had been there before filming, that Tim had hung out with some locals (even a kind of gf was mentioned), stuff like that. That started to burst my bubble.

I confess, I had a shit day accepting that it had all been a fantasy because at that point they seemed so cute and right together. They sold that pretty well and I’m not mad at them - it was me who got in too deep, they just promoted their film. And wasn’t it easy to see all these bluring lines and believe in them?

Anyway, once you see the ‘cracks’ you start to question and see more. Things like Armie cancelling the Asia promo tour; saying he ‘sucked dick on film’, reducing cmbyn to THAT.

So I accepted it had been just a fantasy, but still shipped them as in ‘I like to imagine them together though I know it’s not real’. That’s were most of my fics come from, because these stories are pure fiction; I made it all up.

I think then came TIFF and those IG stories - they were clearly taking the piss at shippers, but in a kind way, saying ‘we know what’s going on and don’t mind’. What secret couple posts such stories, I ask you? So I felt validated in my shipping because they were okay with it.

When did I fall out of love with Armie though? I think it started right after the Oscars with above mentioned incidents. He was never my type anyway, I’m all here for the twinks :). He really only does things for me in the contrast he provides to Tim.

But then I learned more and more about him. His weird family. The way he was okay with how Liz pimped out their kids on her IG (because, come on, if a father doesn’t want that he can make it stop. Now it looks like he used Liz to sell the image of the perfect American family). His fights and ramblings on social media.

I still truly think there was a window for him that he could have used to stear his life and career in a different direction. I still believe cmbyn was a huge formative experience for him. For a while, something changed. Maybe it was all PR bla bla, but maybe not. He dared to accept a stage role after it. He made STBY, which I haven’t seen but people say he was very good in. But then he fell back into old patterns.

I became indifferent to Armie. But then he went to Saudi Arabia. And that was it. I can’t support someone who does what he did. Oliver would at least be whipped there, if not executed; Armie is a gay icon after portraying that beloved character. That’s a responsibility. All he had to do was not go to SA. I don’t expect big political statements - but why did he go there for a government event? Sorry, that was the final nail to the coffin.

But, you know, I still could ignore him. I followed Tim who is goofy and kind and weirdly smart and a great actor. I confess, I speculated about his sexuality (always traveling with male friends, no gf, taking his mum or sister to awards) - but then the Lily thing started - and I was happy for him. Someone his age, who knows about life in the limelight, with whom he could share his life.

And that’s when shit hit the fan. You know, I don’t know either Armie or Tim and what they do has no real influence on my life. But I knew a lot of people on here. I’d been with cmabn since 2017; I’ve written some well liked stories. But suddenly many people I used to have fun with, I thought were my friends, for which I wrote stories - they totally freaked out and behaved abysmal. They sent hate to Tim, to fellow fans. They bullied people really badly on here. Many deleted stories or blogs. And the worst was - these mutuals of mine thought that funny. They were proud of their shitty behavior. They started to scream at anyone doubting Tim was gay and in love with Armie. I got death threats for pointing out that maybe T&A played their friendship up a bit during cmbyn promo.

And almsot no one stopped these people destroying what had been a fun small fandom. Almost no one said to these people ‘Calm down, stop it’. Instead, these people, who used to be my mutuals, congratulated themselves on how efficiently they harrassed Tim on IG and fellow fans on here. I remember a person who told me to my face they loved me first ridiculing Tim and in the end sending vile hate to me.

That’s why I can’t support Charmie any longer. Because of these scumbags of fans. Hating on Tim is one thing, he has people working for him, sadly, these things happen to anyone in the industry. But hating on fellow fans just because some don’t follow a certain narrative BNFs made up? That, to me, is unforgivable.

Therefore, I now delight in how their King Armie is exposed as just another straight white man, cheating on his wife (and maybe doing worse). He debased himself going to SA, and I really don’t know how people who profess to love cmbyn and it’s message can still support him after that. Then he showed his privileged white ass during quarantine. And now those Biden tweets.

Seriously?

I know many on here just ignore these things. I can’t do that. I can’t forget what he did. I can’t support someone like that, who has no principles, either privately or politically (and maybe even sexually assaulted a woman).

And what really did it for me is that Armie can do all these despicable things and people still love and defend him him (a grown man and father of 33) - while Tim just has some gfs, or buys bagels, or carries his guitar - and people ridicule and hate and cancel him for it.

He did nothing wrong despite not living up to the narrative some very rude people who don’t know him wrote for him! But suddenly he’s the whipping boy for them. Because he’s into girls (like Armie, btw).

I just can’t with that. I can’t with the hate spread on here. I can’t with the motives showing behind this narrative, the sexism, the homophobia, the misogyny, the racism... I have to laugh when I read the eulogies some write here about the deep, true, pure, everlasting love between A&T that will win in the end (sorry, I’m not 13 anymore, and neither are the people who write this); I also can’t with the ideas of fucking someone so hard for real they can’t walk anymore (fic is different from reality, you know). It is either pathetic, embarrassing, or truly disturbing.

And I really, really hate these people breaking the fourth wall. You NEVER tweet to the actors about your conspiracy theories! You never harrass them on SM! You never insult their friends, business partners, SOs. And you don’t, never, ever bully some small local businesses during an economic crisis because they dared to burst your bubble.

If you support Charmie - you support this behavior. I don’t. And as being quiet has only led to the assholes taking over - I now try a different strategy. If people don’t like it they can unfollow.

Sorry, these last few days have shown just how unhinged some Charmies are. I know some had planned actions against Tim at The King red carpet in London (and thankfully didn’t realize them). I really don’t put it past some of them to now truly become violent against Tim at some event, in the name of the greater good of Charmie. They are completely bonkers.

I’ve seen threats against me and others in different forums as well. People want to make us pay for what we did (like, what did we do?). People call for their followers to take action against us. I have no idea what they will or can do, as I’ve lost so much within this fandom already (fics, followers, friends) but as they are truly mental I expect the worst. It’s not that I’m afraid but it’s still a weird feeling to see people talk about you like this... because you don’t like an actor. Or don’t think he’s gay...

Yeah, so, that was surely more than you bargained for.

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blodreina-noumou · 4 years

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Hi! I hope you can help me understand ^^ what's all the drama with Bob Morley and the showrunner? I saw rumors and stuff but I'm not really sure I get the situation. Thanks!!

Oh goodness, okay. I’ll do my best to recap, but finding sources is gonna be impossible because it’s pretty much all rumors.

If anyone wants to jump in and fill in the gaps, please feel free!

Sometime last year, Bob Morley left a convention early. I don’t know why - I know he’s had some personal health issues (a knee injury, mental health struggles, etc,) and I think the con became overwhelming for him. Richard Harmon stepped in to fill the remainder of his slots.

Rumors started up that JRoth and Bob feuded over his early departure from the convention - that JRoth found it unprofessional and ripped Bob a new one. Bob lashed back. That’s allegedly where the bad blood starts. It has supposedly continued up ‘til now.

Before all of this happened, Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor got married. It was a big deal within the fandom, because many people made the connection that Bob and Eliza fell in love while portraying Bellamy and Clarke. For many, it was affirmation that there is a romantic connection between the two characters, that perhaps, it might even indicate that Bellamy and Clarke are endgame and will become canon.

Then, Bob tweeted this:

Many in the fandom suspected that this (very vague) tweet was in reference to the Bellamy/Clarke dynamic in The 100. It fits the timeline (the show had been in development for about six years at this point,) and JRoth has often poked at B/C shippers by saying they “misinterpret” the Bellarke dynamic as romantic.

From this point forward, Bob’s twitter becomes, almost exclusively, about his struggles with depression, and about connecting others in the same boat with resources. He mostly uses the platform to raise awareness about this, and other issues important to him, like the Australian bushfires from last December.

The next time we get anything like a subtweet about the show, it’s this:

Many fans saw this as Bob (1) asserting that he is, in fact, the lead of the show, despite potential pushback from JRoth and (2) he’s a unique lead on The CW, making him even more valuable. Fans begin to speculate that JRoth is no longer treating Bob as the lead, and has sidelined his storyline. (This is also around the time that the scripts for s7 were being written, hence people making the connection to BTS drama.)

The next big hint we get is in the promos. Bellamy is featured in the trailer even less than characters like Echo and Murphy, who were normally considered supporting characters, at least compared to him. Bellamy doesn’t even get a line in the trailer. Bellamy is missing from the poster. Bellamy isn’t featured in ANY of the countdown shots (maybe they’re reserving him for the Show Day picture, that remains to be seen.)

Edit: There was a huge cast and crew shot for the Show Day picture, and Bob was not in it.

Actors do get residuals from their likenesses being used in promo materials. So cutting Bob out of the promo material would be an effective and easy: “fuck you, you get less money” from JRoth.

Furthermore, both Bob and Eliza have been very, very quiet on social media about the end of the series. Given that this is the end of a seven-season show where they were both the leads, this is suspicious. Their silence indicates that they do not agree with the end of the show, they no longer feel an attachment to it, and they don’t care to do promotion for free. It implies that they’ve gone sour on the whole experience, and want to put it behind them. There are rumors that Eliza had a miscarriage (she might have said as much, Idk) sometime last year, and that Bob’s depression got a lot worse because of it. That alone could be enough to warrant some silence on social media, which is notoriously negative.

This is all heavy speculation. Maybe absolutely none of this is happening - maybe JRoth was super understanding to Bob when he left the con; maybe Bob’s tweets had nothing to do with Bellarke, or with his dissatisfaction behind-the-scenes; maybe the lack of Bellamy in the promo is a super intentional way to build buzz around the final season. After all, if he’d been in the promo, people would just see it and move on, like we usually do. Not including him has gotten a lot more people to talk about what might be going on with Bellamy. And maybe the only reason Bob and Eliza have been quiet about the show is because they’ve got some serious stuff going on in their personal lives, and can’t spare the energy to do the promo for free.

But... if you add it all up, and it starts to look quite a lot like Bob pissed off his showrunner, and JRoth severely cut his role down in the final season because of it.

I might be missing some things, but that’s the gist, as I remember it. It’s been going on for so long now, I almost forgot that there was a time when Bob and JRoth didn’t appear to hate each other, lmao. If anyone reading this has anything to add, feel free!

I hope this made things a lil clearer, sorry it’s so long!

#gossip #the 100 speculation #asks #nomattertheoceans #the 100 s7 #bob morley #jason rothenberg

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newsiepedia · 4 years

Text

Mod Strings has Opinions: How to Make Jack and Katherine’s Love more Believable

To be honest, I think Jatherine gets a bad rep in the fandom. Sure, it’s far from a healthy relationship, but people shouldn’t feel scared to ship or even feel neutral about a canon pairing. I believe a few minor changes to the direction and organization of the show could turn Jatherine from a forced heterosexual romance to something people can look at and say “Yeah, that’s cute!”

For this experiment, I will be following a few rules. The first is I’m not allowed to add or remove any lines unless they were added or removed in professional productions of Newsies. I also can’t shuffle individual words or phrases to change their meaning- that’s just cheating. However, larger scenes or conversations can be moved to a different part of the play, and of course direction, actor’s choices, staging, and makeup will play the biggest role. Now, without further ado: how to make Jack and Katherine’s romance more believable.

Act 1, Scene 2:

No changes are necessary. Jack and Katherine don’t know each other, so it doesn’t weaken their relationship for Jack to try to sell her a paper by flirting with her or Katherine to turn him down.

Act 1, Scene 3:

Here’s where we have to make some small changes. During Don’t Come A Knockin’/ I Never Planned On in the productions most people are familiar with, Jack’s first real dialogue with Katherine is him flirting with her even after she says she isn’t comfortable with it. However, the dialogue could also be played as Jack being genuinely curious about her work and Katherine being annoyed at the distraction.

Additionally, in a Newsies production where Helen Anker played Medda, the songs Don’t Come A Knockin’ and I Never Planned On were separated, with Medda and her showgirls singing the first and Jack and Katherine singing the second. (Newsies Cut Songs) The same could be done in our theoretical performance, with I Never Planned On moved to a scene where Jack knows Katherine a little better.

Act 1, Scene 5:

This scene could be one of the hardest ones to fix. Jack and Katherine have an argument during which they poke fun at things the other can’t help. However, again, this dialogue could be interpreted as closer to a playful banter. As they aren’t supposed to be in love yet, it’s less important to make changes here.

This could also shift their relationship’s arc: instead of being a classic “people who hate each other at first fall in love” story, their romance could be more portrayed as two very different people learning about the others.

Act 1, Scene 6:

The scene after Katherine first meets the newsies is one of the most important for her and Jack’s relationship- it’s where they first show mutual attraction. This could be amplified during their first dialogue by playing Katherine as more flattered and less annoyed at Jack’s flirtation, and by playing Jack as at least a little more concerned with the strike than a regular beat with the star reporter.

Between Katherine agreeing to cover the strike and Watch What Happens would be a good place to insert I Never Planned On. If the song is placed here, it sounds more sincere. After all, Jack now actually knows a little about Katherine’s personality now.

Watch What Happens doesn’t need to be changed a lot- it already furthers Katherine’s arc of learning about the newsies, and she shows attraction to Jack. My only suggested change might be to soften her sharp tone during the line “Plain- spoken, know nothing, skirt-chasing, cocky little son of a-” (Newsies Live script, page 38) to make it seem more like she’s trying to concentrate than that she actually thinks that about Jack.

Act 2, Scene 3:

Not much to change here. Make Katherine’s tone a little more concerned rather than sarcastic in a faux strong-independent-woman style. Jack doesn’t really talk to her until Watch What Happens (Reprise), so his tone can be kept the same.

Act 2, Scene 4:

My main fix would be to Katherine’s costume and makeup. During the rest of the show, she could wear relatively simple clothes, with few if any costume changes. During this scene, however, she could wear more expensive clothes (due to manipulation from her father). This would make Jack’s later accusation that she sold the newsies out seem less like a wild jump to conclusions.

As for Jack, his tone when he finds out that Katherine is Pulitzer’s daughter should be a little more concerned than betrayed or angry.

Act 2, Scene 6:

During this scene, both Jack and Katherine are working under the assumption that the other betrayed them. Counterintuitively, the fix is to play this part up. If their delivery starts out as angry at each other but slowly changes to them being upset that the other doesn’t trust them, it could show that they aren’t the kind of people who would usually pick these sorts of fights- they’re just very stressed. Katherine kissing Jack could then be seen as a way to end the fight, rather than an impulsive decision.

After the kiss, the lines become much calmer, and so should the actors’ delivery. Katherine can still obviously be touchy- she just experienced emotional abuse by her father for being a girl, so she would be defensive. However, her assuming that Jack has bad intentions can be toned down, and Jack’s responses can be delivered as compassionate rather than embarrassed.

Something To Believe In is... not my favorite. In my opinion, portraying Jack and Katherine as each others’ “something to believe in” downplays both their connection to their friends and their own value as people. The cut song Then I See You Again is much more detailed about why they love each other, instead of stating that they do. It puts more emphasis on their relationship as a source of mutual comfort and joy, even without the strife of the strike. (Then I See You Again Lyrics) Besides, I just think the tune is nicer. I think the song should be substituted here.

If the dialogue in Something To Believe In wasn’t cut with the song, it could be portrayed as much more joking.

Act 2, Scene 7:

By this time, Jack and Katherine are a unit. A team. Make their direction smooth and the pace of their lines together fast, like they know how to work together. I also quite like the idea of Jack and Katherine holding hands or hugging during Once and For All, as it would be a very emotionally charged time for them and they’d need each others’ comfort.

Act 2, Scene 8:

During the last scene, I think it might be better to downplay Jack and Katherine’s love. After all, they’ve only known each other for the duration of the strike. Therefore, Jack should be more swayed to stay in New York by his fellow newsies than Katherine. That isn’t to say that Katherine doesn’t sway him- if all the steps outlined are taken, Jack and Katherine’s relationship will be significantly cuter and more sincere. Their kiss when Jack decides to stay should not be cut out (although it could be supplemented by a newsie group hug to show both Jack and Katherine’s inclusion in the larger family).

Jack and Katherine got, in my opinion, a raw deal from the show writers. When they could have had a dynamic relationship, they instead got a typical Disney-style enemies to lovers arc that didn’t do justice to either of their characters. However, that doesn’t mean that fans can’t enjoy their relationship.

#newsies #jatherine #jackkath #Jack Kelly #katherine pulitzer #katherine plumber #katherine plumber Pulitzer #jackkatherine #mod strings has opinions

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sharada-n · 5 years

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Could you elabirate about why Papyrus reminds Flowey of Chara? I'm really curious.

Sure, but I want to preface this by saying its been ages since I’ve written Undertale Meta so excuse me for being a bit rusty. Also, there’s a lot of personal conjecture and interpretation here so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt…

This is pretty much a counter argument to people claiming that Papyrus resembling Asriel is the reason why he’s Floweys favorite. I’ll get into why I think that isn’t true in a second (and why I think he actually is more like Chara) but first I’d like to point out that this theory doesn’t even make sense.

Flowey’s relationship with Asriel is complicated. On a technical level they’re the same person, yes, but in reality, they’re more like separate entities. While I do believe there is some Asriel left in Flowey, Asriel himself states at the end of the pacifist route that Flowey and he are not the same. More importantly though, Flowey talks about Asriel with clear resentment. He says Asriel was weak and blames the failure of the plan to free monsterkind on himself.

Keeping this in mind, it doesn’t make sense that Papyrus reminding Flowey of Asriel would be a positive thing to him. Especially considering the way Flowey speaks about his first encounters with Asgore and Toriel. Flowey doesn’t seem to want a constant reminder of his old life around, let alone a constant reminder of his old self. If Papyrus was like Asriel, I can only imagine Flowey would resent him too and not have him as a best friend.

“But Shara,” I hear you cry “Flowey is hardly a good friend. In fact, he's kind of a jerk and he manipulated Papyrus in the pacifist ending!”. Which, yes, that’s a fair point. I’m not saying he deserves a “friend of the year” award, but I’ve definitely been over why I feel their friendship is not just a charade on Flowey’s part. It might have started as such, but it's not anymore I think.

For example, the plan to use Papyrus to lure everybody into his trap at the end of the pacifist route wasn’t concocted until after Frisk fell, and they were friends long before that, so it can’t be the reason why Flowey befriended him in the first place.

Granted this is veering a little into headcanon territory, but there also is canon evidence to support this, such as the anniversary event where Flowey was the only one who knew what Papyrus’ favorite food was, and was seemingly annoyed at the fact that nobody else knew.

And also the dialogue you get if you keep doing neutral runs without ever attempting a genocide or pacifist run.

Here Flowey accuses the player of continually resetting and visiting him out of curiosity and boredom rather than a genuine desire to befriend him. This mirrors the part where he talks about his friendship with Papyrus being a result of his own curiosity and Papyrus (for some reason not actually properly explained in canon) being “fun to mess with” and a character that took a long time for Flowey to get bored off. Then we get this tidbit:

Not only is this line very interesting but the facial expression is important too. You can read it as discomfort, clearly, but it is also very much a guilty expression. This is the same expression Flowey has at the end of the pacifist route when addressing the player and compelling them not to reset anymore because it would take away everybody’s happy ending. It also happens to be the same expression he has when talking about the Flowey Fan Club as well as at the exact line I mentioned above, where he admits Papyrus was his “favorite”.

Seems to me like Flowey is expressing guilt or embarrassment about his original intentions behind befriending Papyrus…

Now to get into the main thing: Why do people think Papyrus and Asriel are similar? The hard part is that we don’t know that much about Asriel when you think about it. He’s been long dead before the events of the game. We get some bits and pieces here and there but most info comes from Flowey himself, who is hardly an unbiased source. However, it's fair to say Asriel was very kind, innocent even, and pretty naive. A crybaby, in his own words. And if you take the most shallow, basic interpretation of Papyrus (the kind of fanon that makes me want to pull my hair out) what do you get? That Papyrus is kind, innocent and naive.

The only word in that list I do not take offense to is kind. Papyrus is undeniably a very kind person. But he is not innocent or naive. I could go into why I say this but honestly, it has been argued to death not just by me but by the entire fandom at this point, you’ve all heard it before. Papyrus is an actor. He’s good at showing people the parts of himself he wants them to see. It's unlikely that he’s completely faking it, I do believe Papyrus is genuinely a positive and quirky person. But he’s also playing up those parts to the extreme. Which leaves us with a lot of subtle clues as to his real feelings. Meanwhile, Asriel wears his heart on his sleeve. Crybaby, remember? And what about Asriel being a coward? Papyrus is anything but a coward.

So let's talk about Chara then. Once again we face the same problem we did earlier. Chara is long gone and we don’t know a lot about them besides what Flowey tells us, unless you subscribe to the “Chara is the narrator” theory, which I personally do, but since I know some people are still on the fence regarding this I’ll keep to strictly canon dialogue first.

Asriel says Chara wasn’t the nicest person. True enough, their plan to destroy the barrier by means of killing themselves and then a bunch of humans wasn’t exactly a solid idea. However, it was made with good intentions. Chara was willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of freeing their newfound family. Chara wanted to help fix something they saw as undeniably wrong: the way humans treat others.

But this was also about revenge. Chara was bitter. They didn’t climb the mountain for a happy reason, according to Asriel. Asgore tells us something different too. He says he can see “the same hope in Frisk’s eyes that he saw in [Chara]”. So here we find what is both the big similarity and the big difference between Chara and Papyrus. Both of them are genuinely filled with hope, with belief, and with the motivation to make things better. They just manifested it differently.

Where Papyrus seems to maintain this disposition even in the face of adversary and unkindness, believing in you all the way until his death in the genocide route, Chara has already faced the kind of behavior that has made them resentful of things they consider unfair or unjust.

Both of them are willing to act upon these feelings of righteousness at least, however ill-advised, in contrast with Asriel (or ironically: Sans), who seems to be a more static, laid back person that didn’t like shaking up the status quo and just went along with what others did. Even Flowey himself only engages when he’s sure he has an ace up his sleeve and is unwilling to act thoughtlessly or impulsively.

As the tape in the True Lab betrays, Chara was also a hard person to read, and both an excellent liar as well as an actor. They were hard to figure out, at the very least, and Asriel expressed joy at seeing a glimpse of their unguarded emotions when they smiled genuinely. Once again though, Chara seems to do this because they want to come across as colder and more emotionless than they really are, giving the impression that they don’t care about anyone or anything. While Papyrus is always trying to come across more happy and untroubled than he really is, and rather keeps his more negative feelings to himself.

The result for both of them is the same though: they are distanced from their friends and family, I’d almost go as far as to say that even those closest to them barely know them, and they are misunderstood in the most fundamental way. Their motivations are harder to figure out than those of most other characters, for sure. It would definitely go some way into explaining why Flowey was so fascinated by Papyrus from the start…

If you do believe in the Narra!Chara theory, there are some small details that match too. Chara is a rather goofy person actually and often makes jokes, but expresses disgust at puns and Sans’ rather lazy sense of humor where he goes for the most obvious wordplays. Just like Papyrus, who the fandom often portrays as hating puns when in reality he loves them, just not the kind Sans makes because they’re easy. Chara is also implied to be quite fond of books/reading and cooking, as is Papyrus. They both come across as inquisitive to me. The narrator's retorts can be unexpectedly sarcastic, or even dark, not unlike some of Papyrus’ dialogue. There’s some other minor things but honestly this post is way too long as is so I’ll just leave it there

Conclusion: Flowey made the same mistake the fandom made in assuming Papyrus was a one-dimensional person who is easy to fool, only be confronted with his new best friend being strangely similar to his old one and now he has no soul and a weird attachment to this strange skeleton who everybody underestimates. He even admits that Chara is the only person he would still care about now. Kind of a weird statement, except if you consider he has found somebody like Chara that sparked some kind of actual emotion in him (whether that be friendship, compassion, guilt, or something else)

What do you guys think? I’d love to hear your thoughts, or if you want to tell me this post was a horrible read from start to finish you can do that too

#Undertale #Papyrus #Chara #Flowey #undertale meta #my writing #answer #an amazing anon #this became so long what the fuck #I tried bolding a bit so it'd be easier to read i'm so sorry #anyway excuse me while I write a fic based on this now

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positivelyamazonian · 4 years

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are you watching the witcher on netflix? what did you think of it?

Hi! This is not Tomb Raider related but I don’t mind answering it. I’ve been a fan of The Witcher universe since 2015 when the third videogame by CD Projekt Red (The Witcher III: Wild Hunt) fell into my hands. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of the existence of the books despite being a long term high fantasy reader because these were never at the public library of my town, neither in the bookshops I used to frequent.

The videogame was fantastic and I enjoyed it like not so many videogames before. The story was excellent to my tastes and then it was when I did my research, bought all the book series and read all of them. Then played the second, previous game (The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings) and if I didn’t manage to play the very first one it was because of incompatibilities with my PC. Since then, I consider myself a Witcher fan.

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Now, going to the Netflix series. As everyone, I guess, I was very skeptical about the upcoming show; but it’s something that always happens to me when a beloved story and saga gets a TV/movie adaptation. I wasn’t familiar with Netflix at all - never had a subscription before - and neither with the casting, including Henry Cavill. But after watching the show I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it a lot and I think that in general a nice, good work has been done with the Witcher universe here.

I am aware that right now the fandom is divided between those who think the show was fantastic and the book purists that are disappointed and outraged because everything wasn’t like they expected. You ask some and they say they love it and you ask some others and they say they butchered it. Personally I’ve loved the show. I think the casting was a pleasant surprise, specially with Henry Cavill (Geralt) and Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) who have exceeded all my expectations.

For miracles, I must admit I could have never seen Joey Batey (Jaskier) coming. I mean, Jaskier was never one of my favs, in the books he’s relatively OK (but nothing more) and in the videogames I find him (Dandelion) outright annoying. But for the first time the Netflix show has presented me a version of the character that I can love and admire. Thank you, Joey.

Apart from the casting, I thought that the three timelines arranging was brilliant. Some people have felt uncomfortable or even lost with them but despite being confused at them myself at the beginning, I soon got used to the pace and I loved it. Maybe because having read the books and played the games helps, of course. But my husband that is only familiar with the videogames and has never touched the books got used to it immediately, too. So really it’s a matter of will, in this case.

What else: the music was delightful. I was expecting it to be trash because the videogames’ soundtrack is such a masterpiece that I was sure it could be not beaten. Well, it wasn’t anyway, but the show’s soundtrack was decent enough and even amazing at some tracks. I’m very happy they are releasing it tomorrow, because I’m sure as hell I am getting a playlist for my long hours of correcting projects and exams. Also, Joey Batey, again! What a lovely voice!

The show has done really a good work with the female characters. They were already outstanding, empowered and self-aware in the books, even standing for their agency more than in the videogames, sometimes, so I’m happy the show presented this legion of amazing heroines for the newcomers to love and enjoy. Now, I’m biased because Yennefer has been always my personal favourite, but each one of them are fantastically portrayed: the sorceresses, the queen, the princesses, the swordswomen... Kudos to another unexpected miracle: Jodhi May as Calanthe.

Has the show some flaws or things I didn’t like? Of course. Everything can’t be perfect. Personally I didn’t like all the Brokilon arc, it was depicted awfully in the show. I think the last scene, the reunion between Geralt and Ciri, would have worked much better if being loyal - dialogue wise - to the book instead of that awkward silence with just two random lines. In general, Ciri’s arch is a bit dull and boring, but honestly not much more could’ve been done with the changes they took. And yes, the golden dragon episode and the Blaviken episode feel, somehow, rushed and unclear. On the contrary, the rest of episode 1 and 3 were almost canonically perfect. Finally, the physical removal of the uterus and ovaries as a way to sterilize the Aretuza adepts was a bit shocking and gory for my taste, this detail was never clearly specified in the books and it seems added for shock value. I’ve always assumed this sterilization was magical/chemical, not surgical.

But these are sins of the adapting I can pass. I am grateful for Yennefer’s arch, which is barely explored in the books and deserved some focus, and I’m also glad for the portrayed diversity of the show. I know so many people has hated the diverse cast, but I love it and I think it didn’t feel forced; in fact, it was needed for awareness of the main point of the story: exploration about hatred among races. If an actress or actor delivers a good portrayal, caring about the color of the skin is just utter and plain racism.

I also like the sensuality and mature content in the series because it’s a remarkable aspect of the books and it was handled with tasteful delicacy. Not even the nudity felt forced or out of place, Witcher universe has been always mature and sensual.

Another trait both present in the books and games is the dark humor and the goofy situations. What I loved the most about the Witcher universe was this kind of humor, nonexistent in the classics of high fantasy and scarce in the modern ones, but always generous in The Witcher. This is faithfully depicted in the show and has given us plenty of funny and goofy scenes and dialogues. It’s a shame so many people has understood this as a lack of quality or a Netflix input. It isn’t. It’s true to the source. After all, the whole Witcher universe is a self-parody of fantasy genre itself. Taking too much seriously what you see would be the first mistake. Sapko - the author - was the first one to laugh at his own stories.

I think this is getting too long, I’m sorry. All in all I’ve enjoyed the show and I’m looking forward Season 2. I think they did fantastic things and I hope they will keep delivering, expecting them to correct some minor flaws and move on with better world building and character development. Thanks for asking.

#the witcher #netflix #TV show #geralt of rivia #yennefer of vengerberg #cirilla fiona elen riannon #not tr related #my answers #guess this comes because i am liking every witcher gifset in tumblr #what can i do #i loved it :)

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mimzy-writing-online · 4 years

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What annoys you about the way LGBTQA+ is portrayed in books, films, and other media? Is there a stereotype people generally have that really upsets you? Please forgive me if I'm asking a sensitive topic. You do not have to answer this if it hurts your feelings or makes you uncomfortable.

Hi anon! Thank you for asking :)

This is definitely not a sensitive subject, but it might come across as a little ranting. I think talking about sensitivity issues is a brilliant thing and benefits everyone.

Bi-phobia, I hate bi-phobia.

I like when bisexual characters have a healthy relationship with sex and date whoever catches their fancy. Perf.

I hate when media takes a bisexual female character and either objectifies her for it or slut shames her as a joke or includes some line about “but aren’t you worried about her wanting to date girls again?”

Or a character shows interest in men and women, or is coded as bisexual, and they’re either straight-washed or gay-washed. This can happen from both writers/producers and from fandom.

Epithets in writing same sex couples:

This happens so much in fanfiction (because good book editors edit them out of books before they’re published) and I hate it.

In same sex couples, pronouns can get a little tricky because is she being used for girl 1 or girl 2? So writers start doing this:

The brunet/the blond or the brunette/the blonde (there are different spellings for gender, I found this out the not fun way of grammar editing an entire book)

Character A looked at the brunette with longing and said, “I love you.” Character B kissed the blonde.

And both the writer and the reader totally know the names of these characters they’ve seen for seven chapters so far but we’re still using epithets.

The younger man/the older man or woman, and suddenly you get gross sentences like.

Character A pushed the younger man into the kitchen. Character B offered the younger man a cup of tea and some biscuits.

Look, I know there’s only a two year age difference between these characters, but now I feel like one of them is at least a decade older and age gaps are hard for me to stomach as it is. And then, I see it with characters who are like, 18 and 20 and I just... why???

The (title/occupation/species) epithets. You know, if your wizard is dating a knight, and suddenly you have sentences like-

Character A led the wizard (who he has been dating for six months and totally knows the name of) towards the river. Character B touched the knight’s cheek and smiled at him.

Character A smiled at the young teacher and kissed her cheek. Character B blushed under the singer’s lips.

No. Thank. You.

You could find a good editor to fix those problems, ooooor, you could do the smart thing and learn to not do them.

Binding with ace bandages. Dangerous, terrible.

Years ago I watched a short film about a teenager realizing he’s trans and in the film he binds with ace bandages. I watched this before I knew I was gender fluid, and I’m very lucky that I read enough about binding from posts passing down my tumblr dashboard that I learned to never ever do that. I got myself a proper binder and then when I saw a different short film with a clip of the character binding with ace bandages, I almost lost my shit.

The person bullying the queer character was queer as well and possibly hiding their crush for them? Hate it. So. Much.

Would not date a single one of my school bullies, no matter what. I don’t care why they made fun of me. Not. Ever.

On the note of bullying, the thing I hated most about Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda was Martin. Martin never got punished and Simon was outed in a horrible and humiliating way and didn’t get to deal with the emotional aspect of that.

(Note, I love the book and consider it one of my favorites, but oh boy will I shred it when it comes to this topic)

Martin should have been punished for outing Simon. There should have been consequences. Martin was the obvious villain from the beginning and should have been treated as such. But he is repeatedly minimized in Simon’s narrative as so goofy you can’t hate him too much, and mostly harmless, and could almost be friends with if the blackmailing wasn’t happening. Simon tries to pretend he’s not that bad while Martin is blackmailing Simon to set him up with Simon’s friend Abby.

And I read Leah on the Off-Beat, which takes place a little over a year after the events of SvTHSA, and Leah says that she and Abby and Bram all hate and despise Martin, but Leah doesn’t get why Simon tries to be friendly with him when he was the one getting blackmailed for two months.

Love, Simon did it even worse, somehow??

In the book at least Simon had his friends by his side when he got outed. And when Abby found out why Martin was blackmailing Simon, and that Simon had helped set up hang-out time between her and Martin, she was upset. Rightfully so. She thought it was a terrible thing to do, but she recognized that Simon was a victim and she accepts his apology. She still takes time to acknowledge how that made her feel and she knows that Simon regrets what he did.

In the movie tho? Simon’s friends abandon him. I only watched the movie once for this reason, so I’m a little shaky on the details, but... Leah had a crush on Simon, which Simon misinterpreted as being a crush on Nick. He wanted Leah to be happy and suggested Nick ask Leah to the homecoming dance. He also set up Wafflehouse hangouts with Martin and Abby. And after Simon got outed, they talked and realized what had been happening. Sort of.

Because they got angry about what happened to them, but completely ignored that Simon had been blackmailed for two months. And stood there doing nothing, NOTHING, when he was being bullied and humiliated in front of the entire school. They just sat and watched it happen.

(So for that reason, I struggle to watch the movie, even if I adore Nick Robinson and Keiynan Lonsdale’s performances in the movie. The other actors were great. It’s just a writing issue with the script)

Wait, how did I forget how awful the outing post was??! The language in the post Martin made to out Simon was awful, cruel, and humiliating. What Martin said “as Simon” in the post that outed Simon as gay was horrible. And the book never let Simon acknowledge how awful the language felt. On top of being outed, it’s done in the most humiliating way possible, with horrible language and on the site where Simon first met Blue.

The book and the movie should have given Simon the chance to process all the horrible things Martin had done, how it made him feel, and let him heal from that.

I’m gonna end my rant there. I get heated every time I talk about this book.

Deadnaming a character, ever, for any reason

“My name wasn’t always Emma, it used to be [deadname].”

I can’t take credit for that example, because that example gets brought up A LOT in the community. It’s extremely disrespectful to call someone by their dead name, especially when you know better. Calling a character by their dead name is just as disrespectful.

Examples I’ve seen that work far better are, “My name wasn’t always Emma.” End sentence. No dead name given.

“I got [redacted] a present.” If this is someone who regularly deadnames the character, than hiding the name is best.

[redacted] is still kind of uncomfortable, because it just reminds me that there are still people in my life who dead name me as well.

For every trans or non-binary character I’ve ever written, I never give them a dead name. By this, I mean, I never take the time to figure out what their dead name would have been. I met my characters after they realized they were trans and settled on a name and pronouns. I never met them before that, so I have no business asking what it was before.

This is not exhaustive and I probably could go on for hours longer, but I’ll leave it here for now. Thank you for asking!

#lgbtq+#queer #writeblr #Anonymous

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fatechica · 5 years

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You don't need to post this on your blog or anything, I just hope you don't feel pressured to change how you write because of recent drama. I say ignore those people. If they don't like it, if they jump to ridiculous conclusions, that's their problem. Your writing is good, and the people who read it will know it's good, and the people who know you know you are good.

Anon, first of all, thank you for the kind words about my writing and thank you for giving me an out with regards to answering this publicly. I appreciate both so much and thank you so much for your kindness and consideration.

That said, I’m going to do the ill-advised thing and wade into this. Not because I desperately want to, but because there are things I need to say that I think should be part of this discussion.

A NOTE BEFORE I BEGIN:

While I welcome honest debate about the nuances of this general topic, I will not engage in dishonest, hostile attacks. I am not afraid to turn off all anons and continue on Tumblr mostly as I have been: as someone who primarily reblogs gifsets and graphics and occasionally posts links to my fanfic. I cannot be bullied off this platform - in fact, I will not. I have been around for too long to let people hiding behind the safety of anonymity dictate to me what is and is not allowed.

It is not up to anyone here but me what my level of involvement is in this fandom and in this space and no one has the right to decide for me. Go ahead and block me from seeing your content directly if that’s what you want (if that’s even possible - I never know with Tumblr sometimes). But I exist on Tumblr for reasons other than Stranger Things (weird, I know, considering that’s all I reblog) and my self-worth isn’t tied up in this platform. So, with that said….

To start, to say that I am disappointed in what I saw today in the Stranger Things fandom is a massive understatement. Regardless of what caused this - regardless of your opinion on what is, essentially, a gray area (as in an area that not everyone agrees about the definitions of) - ganging up on and bullying people is completely unacceptable. If you can’t see why that’s wrong, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Fandom should be a space where everyone feels like they have a place. Not the same place that you have or I have. But if they want to participate in their own corner, there should be somewhere they can look at and go “yes, that is where I can be”. And this is regardless of what that might look like.

For example, I hate the Harringrove ship. Like with a passion. I think it’s incredibly disrespectful to Steve’s character and I cannot understand the leaps of logic required to turn Billy’s storyline into something worth redeeming. I think it’s also incredibly exploitative of gay relationships and it squicks me out to no end.

Does that mean, however, that I don’t want people who do ship them to have somewhere to go? Of course not! People have a right to engage in a piece of fiction however they choose (because, at the end of the day, it’s fiction and the characters on the page literally aren’t physically harmed). And it’s not up to me to say what isn’t allowed.

But, conversely, I don’t have to see it if I don’t want to. No one can force me to read Harringrove fic or engage in Harringrove posts on tumblr. But, here’s the thing: I’m responsible for curating my own fandom experience. Which is why I filter out the Harringrove tag on AO3 and block the Harringrove tag on Tumblr.

I would never, however, go the Harringrove tag or find a popular Harringrove blog and harass them. Even if I think it’s wrong. Even if I think their ship is exploitative. I would never try to drive people out of a fandom because their experience doesn’t mirror mine, because they get enjoyment out of something differently than I do.

But, that’s about a ship portrayed by actors who are of age. Which is where the very gray area in what happened today comes into play.

I think we can all reasonably agree (even though I know there’s some people who won’t) that explicit material about characters portrayed by underage actors is wrong. And, when I say explicit, I mean play-by-play, detailed descriptions of sexual acts.

Some people will disagree with me. That’s fine. I literally cannot stop anyone from having their own opinion about fictional characters.

(I know some people will argue that it’s different when they’re aged up and they’re imagining different people as older versions of the characters, but that’s between you and your conscience. And, like with Harringrove, I just don’t wanna read it at all. Nor do I want to write it.)

But there is a massive difference between writing about exploring healthy, emotional intimacy (which often includes suggestions of physical intimacy since a lot of, though not all, relationships are made up of both) and writing smut meant to titillate.

The first is character-driven, diving in and showing how people form healthy relationships. The second is just exploitative.

The first is about coming-of-age when you’re in love and you don’t know how to handle everything and you’re figuring it out as you go. The second is about shock and arousal.

The first is about balancing the emotional and the physical, about trust and respect and love, about how it feels to be head-over-heels in love with someone; it’s about how we grow and mature and set healthy boundaries. The second is about pornography and that’s it.

The first sometimes includes hints of sensuality and suggestions of more. The second is only about the physical and nothing else.

(And, yes, I’m aware there is a whole sub-genre of “Porn with Feelings”, but this fandom has not really embraced that as a sub-genre so it’s not worth mentioning.)

Now, like I said, we can all pretty much agree that the second one is wrong.

But the first one? That’s up to your comfort level. It’s up to you to decide where that line is.

You don’t want to read fiction about older teenagers navigating relationships, which often includes dealing with their own sexuality? Well, then, the back button is your friend.

You think anyone who suggests that something physical happens between teenagers means that the author is imagining those very teenagers having sex? Well, then, that’s you projecting onto that author. You don’t know what went through that author’s head when they wrote it.

If you think that everyone who writes anything or suggests anything intimate about characters who are played by underage actors are immediately imagining those characters played by those actors having sex, then you are no better than the people you’re accusing of imagining that very thing. Because guess what?

Now you’re imagining it, too.

I have to say, it takes a lot of nerve to go into someone’s writing and tell that author what they were thinking when they wrote it. I know once a piece of fiction is released into the world, the author loses the ability to control how it’s interpreted, but authorial intent IS A REAL FUCKING THING and NO ONE is allowed to dictate to an author what he or she was thinking when they wrote it.

Because unless you’re a mind reader, you have no goddamn clue what that author was thinking. And if you get offended by what you’re reading then, like I said, the back button is your friend.

Which brings me to the final thing I want to say at the end of this very long essay: we have got to stop gatekeeping in this fandom.

Believe me when I say that gatekeeping and purity trolling in all forms has led to the downfall of many fandoms and fandom communities (see: ALL OF LIVEJOURNAL). I’ve been there - I’ve watched it happen. There is literally no better way to stifle creativity and fandom growth by dictating what is and is not allowed in harsh, black and white terms.

So, if we want to have a healthy fandom where open discourse is allowed, where people can share their interpretations of the characters and explore what must be going through their heads as real people growing up might be experiencing, if we want to make this a place where people feel included for years to come, if we want to have a space where people can create and post and share, WE NEED TO STOP DOING THIS.

Learn to agree to disagree. Learn that some people have different boundaries of acceptable and appropriate than you. Learn that most people do not approach sensitive topics from a place of exploitation and titillation.

I’ve long been concerned that we aren’t mature enough as a fandom to handle nuanced discussions like the one that didn’t happen today.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t have a lot of hope for this fandom if things continue on the way they are. And, though I’m not going anywhere for the time being, I hope that I’m proven wrong. I hope we can learn the difference between inappropriate and uncomfortable; I hope we can learn how to have nuanced, respectful discussions where we disagree and separate to our own corners to experience fandom how we want to experience fandom.

I hope that we can figure out how to grow up as a community.

But absolutely nothing I saw today tells me we’ll be able to do that.

#stranger things #discourse #agree to disagree #i welcome your opinions #as long as you respect mine #i will turn off anons if this turns ugly #i will force you to come after me with your names attached #hiding behind anonymity for stuff like this is cowardly #have the courage of your convictions if you're going to attack someone #Anonymous

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whenimgoodandready · 5 years

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Can we appreciate how awesome Thomas Astruc is? Thanks to his promo of the Ladybug PV back in 2012, we were all hyped to see a nicely anime-seque superhero show that’s edgy enough for children and then he gave us the revamped, Miraculous Ladybug, and we grew to love that! A CGI cutesy and yet dark growing magical girl/superhero show for children that teaches valuable life lessons from the new and successful company of Zagtoon. I’m glad I discovered this new show and fandom and cuz of that, I never would’ve met some nice people, collect the action dolls for my photos and write my reviews. Merci Hawkdaddy!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

*Animaestro-The “what-could’ve-been” of Miraculous Ladybug is living now as a show-within-a-show as an animated movie made by Thomas Astruc! He’s in animated form! So cool! Also, we saw a DVD of the movie in Alyas home from “Sapotis” and that could be after this episode? Depending on how long a DVD release is.

At the premiere of the movie, every celebrity we’ve seen is gonna be there, such as Clara Nightingale using her songs from “Frightningale” for the movie! Ladybug turned down attending the premiere as being a superhero is about responsibility and not publicity like she learned from “Prime Queen”. However, she regrets it when she sees Adrien is gonna be there. He voiced himself! Funny, he was worried about being Cat Noir in a music video, but not in an animated movie? Guess there’s a difference (shrugs). Luckily, her parents are catering there, so she serves as a waitress from the unfinished pic we saw in the classic French maid outfit. By the by, it was cute seeing Marinette in a new hair style (a bun), but we already saw that from a flashback in “Reflekta”. She tries to give a special macaroon she makes (every Sunday) to Adrien thinking it’ll win him over, but all goes wrong, when she sees he’s there with Kagami. She’s not the only one upset, Chloe is there too. Gabe and Kagamies mother are in some sort of “business” together from what he was planning in “Stormy Weather 2” and it may have something to do with them going to Japan from what Chloe assumed.

In a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” sceanario, they team up to put an end to Adrigami. So here’s the relationship between the three girls, Marinette, as we all know, hates Chloe and she also doesn’t like Kagami calling her an “ice queen” from “Frozer”. Chloe hates Kagami and she was the first girl to make Chloe sh*t herself when she told her to f**k off when Chloe tried to get her away from Adrien at one point. Both girls are obsessed with Adrien and hate seeing any girl he’s with. I also can’t believe it was this episode that Chloe discovered Marinettes crush on Adrien! Are you f**king me!? Seriously!? I thought she was already aware from the Season 2 finale!? Or even before that! Is she really that clueless!? Wow! Kagami doesn’t like Chloe from the incident I just mentioned and she seems neutral with Marinette. Keep in mind folks, Kagami supports Adrienette thinking Marinettes the girl Adrien keeps talking about and unlike the two girls, shes👏🏻O.👏🏻K👏🏻with👏🏻letting👏🏻him👏🏻go👏🏻for👏🏻another👏🏻girl!👏🏻 just as long as they don’t try any underhanded schemes. Sure Kagami has an indifferent attitude, but at least she plays fair.

The plans to drive Kagami away fail and it instead affects Thomas Astruc making his day worse after people don’t give him the recognition he deserves for directing the movie. Everyone’s so stupid to not know what a director is especially when the movie was his idea in the first place! He’s mistaken for the animator, the screenwriter, etc and he keeps trying to explain his role with the movie! Do you guys know what a director does? Let me give you the deets (ahem). You see, a friend of mine, who’s a screenwriter, @vulpineveritas , explained it to me when I was a little confused myself:

Director: The person who tells the group (actors, animators (for animated movies), composers, etc) how to run things. They instruct the actors how to portray their emotions, movement, facial expressions in order to do the scene, same goes for telling animators how to draw it out in that form, and telling the voice actors how to convey said emotions through their voice to the characters, they tell the composers which music to put in to set the mood and when and frame each scene on what comes first. Basically, it’s like they’re the almighty creating their vision to life with the group as they’re archangels making it happen.

✨The More You Know!🌈

I’m sure the real Thomas Astruc gets the opposite attention from his people than his animated self cuz poor animated Hawkdaddy gets so ignored, he gets akumatized! No, Hawkdaddy! Nooooooooooooooooooooo! He becomes Animaestro (and I was confused by the akuma name since we all thought it was an anime or conductor type of villain before the plot was released. The former was the closest), a moving swiggly line filled pencil outline drawing version of himself that can transform into any type of tradional animated being keeping the Ladybug mask on. It was such a nostalgic feeling seeing those childhood like character esque transformations from Mickey Mouse to Sailor Moon! So how do our 3D heroes defeat a 2D villain? Ignore it! It’s cruel, especially since it’s a harsh reminder that we’ll never see another traditionally animated movie again due to the shut down of the company, but it worked for our heroes in this case. Keep in mind, you can still do 2D animation for tv shows, TV movies and web series as it still has the same value as CGI animation. So if any hand drawn animator in the fandom is reading this, don’t stop! It’s just as beacutiful as computer animation.

It was such a delight seeing Astruc in CGI animation, but it would’ve been better if he voiced himself in the American version than just having Jason Marnocha do it, but I respect his decision. His home country would be more meaningful. The Ladybug PV for the show was cute and I’m glad he didn’t forget what started this fandom from the beginning. Soon, we’ll have our own Ladybug movie in the future and enjoy it ourselves. I liked how the episode used both styles of animation together to compare and contrast how they are with each other through art (also if you haven’t noticed, Cat Noir broke the fourth wall when he said, “How do you defeat a 2D character!?” Lol! Does this mean, he knows they’re 3D characters!? cuz that would be funnier than that guy saying, “Who would want to watch Ladybug and Cat Noir as cartoon characters!?”). The last time I saw something like that was The Amazing World of Gumball. I’m pretty disappointed in Marinette for doing something as low as sabatoging a close relationship between Adrien and Kagami with Chloe, Kagami is the “nicer” one of her rivals between mean girl Chloe and compulsive liar Lila for Adriens affections. She should learn about letting go from Kagami on what makes Adrien happy. However, the sweetest thing she did in that episode was hug Astruc himself, her Hawkdaddy! ღ (happily sobs).

#miraculous ladybug #animaestro #miraculous ladybug animaestro

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sawthefaeriequeen · 6 years

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Various thoughts on “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral“

1.I wasn’t expecting Goyo’s PTSD arc at all, but it makes so much sense for a 20-something who’s way too young to have led a fuckton of battles. “They were schoolboys/Never held a gun” and all that. Anyhow, it made for a great character study and emotional spine.

1.1 Goyo being haunted by the elder Bernal and other victims of war. Oof. I was holding my breath through every single attack. I only really know Paulo Avelino from heartthrob type roles (but of course, this was one of those rare times that casting a kilig-type actor as a historical figure was exactly right!) so I didn’t know what to expect, but he did a really good job portraying someone in the constant grip of war flashbacks.

1.2 I’d read about the skinny dipping incident in…was it Joaquin or Kalaw’s book? I forget. There I was, thinking it’d be used as a comedic moment; boys just having fun before they head off to war, yay!…and then BOOM, a wild death foreshadowing appears! Oookay.

1.3 Really, it was all so very: I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory/When’s it gonna get me? I wouldn’t be surprised if Tarrog was inspired by Hamilton, which rose up (heh) in the time between Goyo and Luna’s releases.

2. Alejandrino was awesome in general. Alvin Anson makes some truly excellent I Am So Done With Everybody’s Shit But Especially White Colonizers And A Certain Up-His-Own-Ass President faces.

3. Oh, Joven. The embodiment of “stale cinnamon roll, been in this world too long, too cynical.” He looked SO weary and jaded at the start of the film, so different from his bright-eyed and bushy-tailed self in Heneral Luna that I actually whipped out my phone midway to check if it was still Arron playing him. (It was.)

3.1 One of my favorite scenes was Goyo doing his peacock dance for Remedios contrasted with Joven going through all the love letters from all of Goyo’s exes. My friend and I were like “duuuude. That’s…that’s a lot of heartbroken girls.”

3.2 Other favorite scene was when they’re all exhausted and camped out in the mountain, and Joven looks on at the hopelessness but then catches Goyo’s journal-words about his love for his country and smiles. <3

4. Gwen Zamora was really good at being steely and firm and saying hell no to Goyo’s honeyed words, haha. I wish we’d gotten to know Remedios more. Also…am I missing something? Wasn’t her sister, Dolores, historically his actual sweetheart? Which they tried to account for by having her give him the sister’s handkerchief, but still*. Anyway, I sort of feel like she was speaking for the audience/Pinoys when she was saying that she wanted to love a Human Being and not someone who was a Hero and A Symbol.

4.1 *of course the likely historical explanation is that Goyo fooled around with both sisters. Snerk.

5. I also liked Felicidad and her classy shade-throwing a lot! I wanted way more of her. Clearly, Tarrog or someone else needs to shed the spotlight on women of the revolution. I’d kill for an introspective Gregoria de Jesus flick set in the early days of the Katipunan, let me tell you.

6. I thought I’d hate Julian, and then I really liked Julian? Idk. Loved the whole repeating exchange of “Sino ka?”/”Agila.” between the del Pilar brothers. Also, where the heck did he go there at the end? It just doesn’t make sense, storywise, to have a big brother mentor figure, only to have him just disappear. He should’ve been beside Vicente there, at the grave. Or heck, at least show a shot of him receiving the news that his beloved baby brother died holding down the line in a distant mountain.

6.1 I’m SO glad the actual “agila” symbol belonged to Goyo himself. For some reason, I thought it’d be (stupidass) Aguinaldo, lmfao.

7. Vicente was my favorite. Look, it’s not my fault Carlo Aquino is flipping great in everything he acts in, okay?! Anyway I love how he was the group’s conscience, and that he looks after Joven**, and that it takes only one look from him for Goyo to lower his fists…but that he is also a hardass who will absolutely cuss out and raise his gun at any comrade who tries to escape battle.

7.1 **which, um. Joven/Vicente is a ship, right? IT IS, RIGHT? I know a lot of folks came away from Heneral Luna with shippy feels for certain people, fictional or historical, and while I supported fandom having fun, I never really got similar ~feels…until now. The last straw was when Vicente told a dude that he was screwed if anything happened to Joven during battle, like. Ka Enteng. Dude. Calm down. Quell your heart eyes. And “Brigada Joven,” seriously? Anyway, please tell me there’s fic!

7.2 (Shippy thoughts aside, I also kind of felt it was hinted that Joven wasn’t straight. Yeah, he could just be a flop at flirting with women, but then there’s that scene where he just sits back and dazedly watches all his guy friends skinny-dipping, and, uhhh. I dunno, is it just me?)

8. Speaking of ships, someone needs to make a We Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together crack fanvid starring Aguinaldo and Mabini.

9. The iconic Battle of Tirad Pass was both exactly what I thought it’d be and really not what I thought it’d be. I…hmmm. I’m gonna have to rewatch to form a more concrete opinion. I’m just gonna say that I’m totally satisfied with how the death scene was done, and the crushing defeat after.

10. When Garcia tells Goyo that leaders may come and go but this land is forever… well, pardon my French, but: fuck me. My heart. My friend was crying through a lot of the film because, in her words “oh God, our country got so screwed and is still so screwed, and nothing has changed and is it ever going to change?” Yeah, big mood.

Much of this movie was about deconstruction and asking the question: what makes a hero? Was Gregorio del Pilar a hero? My answer to that is: well he certainly loved this country more than *I* do most of these days, and he died for it too.

#it was quiet building up to a crescendo and i actually think i like it more than HL #and HL is very good #goyo ang batang heneral #goyo: ang batang heneral #text post #local cinema

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travllingbunny · 5 years

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The 100 rewatch: 4x02 Heavy Lies the Crown

The season 4 premiere wasn’t that great, but this is much better and much more typical of the overall quality of season 4.

The Polis storyline is, for a change, actually quite good. I’ve always thought that season 4 did a much better job with most Grounder characters than season 3 or even season 2. And the storyline in and in relation to Arkadia is great, with Bellamy, Clarke and Raven having to do make difficult choices. In particular, Bellamy finds himself in the position to make a really tough choice, and the choice he makes really encapsulates his leadership style and worldview.

The title is another literary reference – after Dante and Poe, now it’s Shakespeare – although it is a misquote of the line “Heavy lies the head that wears the crown” from Shakespeare’s Henry IV. They supposedly chose to name it that way because they thought it sounded better – or maybe they just thought that would make it more obvious to the viewers that the theme of the episode was the difficulty of being a leader.

The flashback that opens the episode would have fit better as the opener of 4x01, which was much more about the fallout of the City of Light and people who died because of ALIE. (No surprise, since it was originally meant to be in 4x01.) It’s the introduction of another interesting new Grounder character, Ilian, whose family suffered a really tragic fate – ALIE made Ilian kill them or torture them in order to force his mother to take the chip. Seeing it all happen helps build sympathy for Ilian and makes it easier to understand his later actions. It’s also one of the few times we see Grounder farmers. I like the fact that the show isn’t focusing just on Grounder warriors anymore and that we get to see more and more of Grounders of different professions and worldviews.

In Polis, the leader who has to make decisions is Roan, who is preparing to meet the challenge of an ambassador of one of the other clans, Rafel, who is trying to use the fact that Roan is still recuperating from his injury and isn’t full strength, Roan is a good character to watch because he’s smart and capable, and morally grey – he isn’t one of the bad guys, but he can be ruthless and sneaky if he has to. The fact that he’s a very different leader from his mother certainly helps. This is emphasized when Echo, who is sparring with him, goes on about how awesome Queen Nia was, in her mind, for being so ruthless and murderous and not giving a damn about anyone other than Azgeda; After being questioned why he decided to accept the Sky people as the 13th clan, Roan finally tells Echo the truth about Praimfaya and that they need Sky people to survive it.

Talking about Roan’s chances in single combat, Octavia says Lexa kicked his ass when he wasn’t wounded, but she doesn’t know that the Nightblood basically gives you superpowers, which is only revealed later during S4

Kane is again the Chancellor – but we don’t learn if another election was held or not. He is mostly acting as a diplomat, however – he’s more of an ambassador, while Clarke pretty much acts like acting Chancellor in Arkadia.

Kane tries to reason with Rafel, and makes the good point that, if they are going to blame Sky people for the City of Light, they should also credit them for destroying it. But don’t expect Rafel to listen to reason. So Octavia eventually solves Roan’s and everyone’s problem by murdering Rafel, which is later portrayed as a heart attack. I should be generally against assassinations and Octavia using violence and murder to solve problems, but, you know what, I liked this solution.

Major development forward for the Kabby relationship: After the kiss last season, there’s a rather steamy, by CW-standards, sex scene and, while there is no “I love you” in so many words, the relationship between Abby and Kane is strongly affirmed. Initially, after their sex scene, we see that Abby used to wear her wedding ring on a necklace. She’s unsure or uncomfortable with putting it on again, as Kane sees it, but Kane tells her Jake is a part of her, But later Kane realizes that she is not wearing it – and they kiss, as Abby has just shown him that she has really moved on from Jake and committed to him.

Abby decides to go back to Arkadia to help Clarke and the rest find a solution for Praimfaya

In Arkadia, Clarke, Raven and Bellamy arguing over what to do; Raven is concerned thatthere are not enough volunteers to repair the ship. She also has insecurities and feel she shouldn’t be main engineer - Sinclair should be, but he is dead, Clarke replies that she’s in a similar position since she’s no Chancellor. However, they’re all basically back to their own season 1 roles, when they were the only ones on the ground and leaders of their people.

One of the most pleasant surprises about season 4 is that it found a purpose for Jaha and started using his character in a much better way, and even managed to make me finally interested and enjoying his character, even though he hasn’t actually changed his personality. This is probably because 1) he is not in position of power now, 2) he wants to and manages to be useful – as an engineer, which is his original profession, and 3) most importantly, he has a number of interesting interactions with the main characters that he didn’t get to interact much before, like Clarke, Bellamy and Raven. In the season when they are faced with particularly difficult leadership choices, which are similar to the situation on the Ark – having to make choices who will live and who will die because it’s impossible to save everyone; having lie to people in order not to cause panic – Jaha is both there to offer his perspective and advice (which may be good or bad), and as a cautionary tale: he is what they all used to hate and what they really don’t want to become, but now they are afraid they may be becoming like him.

The crux of the episode is Bellamy’s mission (with Monty, Harper, Bryan and Miller) to go into the Azgeda territory, to the remains of the Farm Station that Azgeda occupied, and retrieve a hydro generator that would help produce water for the people in Arkadia during the five years of radiation. They start off hoping to get it peacefully, by showing Roan’s seal. They get a hostile reception instead, but eventually the head Azgeda guy agrees to it. However, things change when they learn that the people working at the station are slaves…

…Let’s take a moment to emphasize the fact (for the benefit of all of those who like to portray Sky people/Arkers as the Bad Guys and Grounders as Good Guys, that, in addition to everything else we know Azgeda did under Queen Nia’s rule, like killing Arkers indiscriminately, including children, from the moment they landed, and blowing up a bunch of Arker civilians as a part of a political power play that wasn’t even about them, they also practice slavery, enslaving both Arkers and other Grounders.

…This is a big moment where the group has to decide whether to prioritize getting the hydro generator, or blowing it up to free the slaves. Bryan argues in favor of the latter, especially since he recognized one of the slaves as a friend of his, called Riley. (Now, I know that the fandom likes to make fun of Riley because of the way that this character was made important in spite of never being heard about before, but this is more of a problem in 4x05. I don’t see any problem here – we never saw any of the Farm Station before season 3, either, and we knew very few of the people on the Ark in season 1, and many we knew are dead. And the actor does a good job playing someone who has been traumatized and beaten down by slavery and abuse.) The group split votes – Bryan and Harper for freeing the slaves (Harper compares their fate to her experience of being put in a cage in Mount Weather), Monty and Miller for getting the hydro generator, so Bellamy makes the decision and chooses to free the slaves.

This decision is something I need to talk about a bit more. I love the way season 4 in particular has so many situations where there is no obvious right or wrong choice - neither choice is great and wrong in some way while good in another way, and you can make good arguments for either alternative. This is one such case. Personally, while I understand and respect the position that the hydro generator should have been the priority and slaves ignored, I was happy with Bellamy's decision, was rooting for him to make that choice, and it's what I would probably do. Regardless of how things turn out in the end, I think this is the better principle to live by: "We save who we can save today". (Which also reminds me of the decision Bellamy made in 2x04 – save the person who is in the most immediate danger and need.) There are many leaders in this show, maybe too many, who advocate the Big Picture thinking, which is a legitimate position if moderate, but taken too far, it can lead to (in the name of some hypothetical better future) present oppression, killing the people you're supposed to protect, executions for all sorts of silly reasons as on the Ark, letting innocent people die from enemy bombs, or cold blooded murder of an innocent person for "pragmatic" reasons - as Jaha did in season 2, using the motto "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". I don't trust anyone who uses that motto to justify killing other people rather than sacrificing themselves (which was how that character we all know and love used it in that well known movie that the quote comes from). And I don't fully trust anyone who does things in the name of an abstract notion of "people" or "my people" while not caring enough about individuals that make up that abstract collective

I liked Bellamy’s decision before I knew how things would turn out, and would like it regardless of the eventual consequences. But as it turns, out, if they had saved the hydro generator, it would have been for nothing, since Ilian will blow up Arkadia in a few episodes. This way, those people who had been slaves a couple of months of nice life back with their families.

Another minor in-character moment: when they are about to take the Grounder ex-slaves to their villages, Bellamy is again taking care of a little girl in the group.

Raven is angry over Bellamy’s decision, and Clarke at first seems to disagree, but eventually accepts it, and Bellamy he sticks to it and takes full responsibility. Clarke finally decides to tell people a half-truth: she tells them about Praimfaya, but claims they will be able to save everyone, even though, without the hydro generator, they can only save 100 people there. Raven gets to display my least favorite character trait of hers, getting all judgmental and b1tchy and sarcastically telling Clarke: “Your father would be so proud!” I dunno, Raven, if you think the people should be told the truth, why don’t you simply tell them? No one is stopping you.

Both Raven and Jasper compared Clarke’s decisions to that of Jaha and the rest of the Ark leadership. Except they forgot the minor detail that she hasn’t executed anyone, imprisoned anyone, or sent anyone to die.

Jasper is now in a very different, but still similar mindset from the one from season 3: he has embraced the “Seize the day” approach, and seems very cheerful, having a shower, singing, asking Monty to bring weed, and telling Clarke he doesn’t want them to survive, he wants them to live. But he is like that only because he knows it will all be over in a few months.

The song Jasper plays is “I Don’t like Mondays” by Boomtown Rats, which includes the line “Silicon chip inside her head”…

This is the last episode where Bryan appears, which is a shame, because he was an interesting character, and his and Miller’s relationship actually got some focus and development, unlike Miller’s mostly off-screen later relationship with Jackson. The actor got a role in another show, but instead of getting killed off, he was just written out quietly – he simply never appears after this episode, and we never learn of his fate. The first time I watched this, I didn’t even realize that the argument between him and Nate at the end of this episode was the end of their relationship, so I was later wondering “so where is Bryan?” when Nate and Jackson became a couple out of the blue. Rewatching this, I can see how this was the end of the relationship. I like the fact that Bryan (who, we have it confirmed now, is now the only survivor, aside from Riley, from the initial number of around 160 people who were on the Farm Station when it fell to Earth) refuses to condemn Pike and still feels loyalty to him – because it would be really unrealistic if everyone now had the same opinion about him. Bryan confirms that he basically never stopped supporting Pike, who he felt loyalty to because he saved his life and they spent several months fighting together, and simply chose his boyfriend over him. But I think the main reason why the relationship broke was not just political differences, but because, after Miller didn’t support or understand Bryan’s decision to prioritize freeing the slaves, Bryan felt that Miller doesn’t understand what he went through with the rest of the Farm Station people in those 4 months and the trauma and effect it had on him.

Timeline: It has been 9 days since the season 3 finale, which means it’s about 8-9 days since 4x01.

Body count:

In the flashback (which is technically in the timeline right at the end of season 3 or the beginning of 4x01), Ilian’s father, brother and mother got killed by ALIE-controlled Ilian. Add them to the list of people who died because of ALIE, We don’t see how the father died, but Ilian killed his brother and almost killed himself, and tortured his mother, and she eventually died of injuries.

Rafel, Trishanakru ambassador, killed by Octavia. (Good riddance- he was really annoying. We’ve seen way too many irritating whiny Grounders who rant about how Sky people are to blame for everything. That’s so last two seasons.)

Several Azgeda slavers got killed in the explosion of the hydro generator.

Tybe the head slaver, beaten to death by the freed slaves. Bryan revealed that he was the one who killed Monty’s father, saying he was therefore Monty’s kill, but Monty chose to do justice in a different way, letting the ex-slaves decide Tybe’s fate.

There are some pointers about the number of surviving people – from a list that Clarke made of the number of people that need to be saved. It’s a partial list: we learn that there are about 500 people Arkadia, 4000 in Polis (out of which 400 children), 300 in Tondc, and we see several smaller places with just a few people. Just counting the numbers we see, we get 4877 Grounders in addition to 500 Arkers (obviously, neither are exact numbers, since the numbers for Polis, Tondc and Arkadia were rounded), but it’s clearly not a full list, as we don’t see the numbers for, e.g. Boat people, Shallow Valley people, and many other villages and towns, so I don’t know if the numbers of Grounders in this part of Northern American territory is around 5000-6000 or more like 10.000.

Rating: 8.5/10

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moviestorian · 5 years

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Les Mis BBC final thoughts

Alright, on monday I finished the 6th and last episode of the most recent, mini-series adaptation of Les Misérables. I was slightly hesitant about posting my thoughts (mostly because of the tag being largely dominated by negativity; any effort to post anything else seemed kind of pointless to me), but I eventually decided to go for it. I still wanted the entire show to sit in for a while (I also want to do a rewatch, because I can't guarantee that my feelings remain the same; I might just as well change my opinions completely). But let's begin!

Tldr; Also, unpopular opinion alert: I actually enjoyed it. A lot. I genuinely liked the miniseries. Yes, there were some choices and things I wasn't exactly fond of, but I have the same thing about literally every single adaptation I have seen so far (mostly thinking of the stage musical and 2012 film). Cause you know, you can like something and still see its flaws, and the other way round - you can dislike it and yet admit it is not inherently bad.

Now, the longer "review" comes in. It's gonna be reaaaally long. Also: spoilers.

The negatives/things I'm indifferent about/what could have been better:

- I'm following the popular trend of disliking that font. I care a lot about cinematography and visual parts of films and shows, so I wasn't satisfied with this particular choice. They could do better, honestly.

- For most of the time, the music was a bit meh. Nothing really striking or to hate, but compared to the War&Peace 2016 soundtrack (which was amazing!), this one was very undermining. There were some individual songs I liked a lot, though.

- The overall cinematography was ok. Again, nothing super special, but there were some pretty nice shots, too. I had some minor objections about cgi in a few scenes, but let's that the 2012 film wasn't exactly flawless in this aspect, too... If not worse.

- Ok, confession time & another unpopular opinion alert: I genuinely think the script is not half as bad as some people on this site try to tell everyone and the majority of their issues is either exaggerated to an enormous extent or comes from a huge prejudice. Or a general but pretty clear misinterpretation of certain scenes. Having said that, I had issues with the script, too. Davies did a waaay better job with his W&P, really. Although I actually like some of his changes or narrative choices, there is one thing I can't exactly ignore: how certain scenes were pure exposition. I think it got better in the later episodes, but I spotted at least two(!) examples just in episode one alone. Davies, being the experienced author as he is, should really know that it's not a good way to write scenes, especially in the first episode (which is supposed to encourage the viewers to keep watching). There's nothing more annoying to me than being treated, as a viewer, as a person who needs a straight-in-your-face explaination of what’s happening on screen.

- Another fairly popular trend: the brothel & the wet dream sequences. Even though I expected both of these to be A LOT worse, given what the fandom was saying (exaggerating again), and I don't think they are "out of character" or unrealistic in terms of the setting, I tried to cut these out from the episode (in my head ofc). And I think we could do without them; the brothel scene could remain in the final cut, but I would make it way shorter.

- What I REALLY disliked: a minor thing, but it bugged me a lot. I mean the main dialogue being in English, and the background dialogue in French. Christ, how I hate when they do such stuff in the movies...(thankfully the main characters didn't try to pull off their fake French accent, that would be even worse) Either you do it in French, or in English. One has to be consistent.

- The pissing scene in ep1 was...weird.

- Valjean being mean to Gavroche.

- The timeline was sometimes a bit odd, if not crazy, but could’ve been way worse (nothing can surpass P0ldark and its weirdly ageing children and even more weirdly, or not at all ageing adults)

- Valjean firing Fantine left me with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think it makes sense narratively, in this particular adaptation, it’s also not the first one who makes Valjean responsible for Fantine’s misery (to a smaller or bigger extent). On the other one, it’s not a choice I’m super happy about so...

Now, let's move on to the positives!

- Excellent choice in casting. I think all of the actors did a solid job. Obviously they had some veteran, experienced or acclaimed actors like Bradley, Sumpter, Jacobi, Colman, West... You couldn't expect any less from them. BUT there were also some younger and fresh faces, who's interpretations of their characters I really loved - Lily Collins, Erin Kellyman, Reece Yates, Josh O'Connor. Liked Joseph Quinn and Ellie Bamber a lot, too, especially the former. Obviously, I cannot NOT mention David Oyelowo! He was particularly impressive in the last episode.

- You have no idea how grateful I am for the entire Pontmercy storyline, honestly. I have so many feelings about Georges Pontmercy it's not even funny. Also baby Marius!!! Huge props for the Marius/Guillenormand dynamics.

- Fantine's storyline. I love the focus on her in this adaptation, and instead of merely showing her "downfall", we got to see her entire background story and many faces of her character. From naivety and joyful innocent to her determination to survive, and, finally, her desperate attempts to feed her daughter. I love that we got to see a glimpse of her relationship with Cosette. I love that, heartbreaking as that scene was, we got to see the moment of her leaving her child with the Thénardiers. Loved that she was also outspoken at times. I really felt for her in this series. Naturally, I always do have tons of empathy for Fantine, she's one of my favourite characters in general, but I found Lily Collins' version to be particularly relatable.

- Btw: I disagree that Fantine and Cosette were overly "sexualized" or fetishized. And don't even get me started on the supposed "sexual undertones" between Cosette and Valjean, cause this is utter bullshit.

- I actually liked the relationship between Cosette and her Papa, especially when she was little!

- I loved Gavroche in this adaptation. I'm usually not a huge fan of his, but Reece was so charming and impossible to resist!

- All the side characters (good or bad) we finally got to see at least for a while! I already mentioned the Pontmercies, but I also mean: Petit Gervais, Tholomyès and his gang (+Favourite and Zephine), Azelma, Gavroche's little brothers, Mabeuf, even Victurnien. And Sister Simplice, I love that woman. And Rivette. 😁

- Huge thumbs up for portraying the Thénardiers as the evil/malicious people they were (but not one-dimensional, esp. Madame Th.) instead of as some comic relief only.

- Contrary to the popular opinion, I count Les Amis as the positives. I actually think that narrowing down the number of the students to focus on was a good choice (like, excuse me, but giving a few lines to a character in an ensemble song is not enough to give them personality. Even in the book some hardly had one). And guess what? I legit cared more about this Enjolras or this Courfeyrac than in other adaptations. I liked Quinn's version of Enjolras more than I like Hugo's original character. This is obviously a personal preference, but to me personally Quinn's slightly toned down version, sort of a hybrid of Enjolras and Combeferre was way more appealing (I also think Quinn had more innocence and wide-eyedness in his eyes and face than some most popular actors who have played the role. To me, the accurate hair colour is the least sygnificant thing, honestly. Especially that some of the fans' favourites hardly fit the book description in that aspect).

- The Enjolras/Grantaire execution scene.

- Small interactions between Enjolras and Courfeyrac. Especially the ones in the final moments of the resistance. Oh my...

- Overall, the barricade scenes were very good.

- I liked Marius a lot, which is quite a thing! I loved that we got the awkward, but still adorable side of his. I had seen Josh in The Riot Club and I remember him being good but not memorable; I was impressed with his performance in Les Mis, he was so different!

- Erin's Éponine broke my heart. Especially in episode 5, she was fantastic. So many expressions in her eyes; I loved her fidgety hand moves, too!

- I appreciate that they started the show with something other than the galleys/bishop Myriel. That was a nice and quite refreshing take.

What else do I like about this adaptation? That it revived my passion for Les Mis; that it made me want to reread the book (or certain chapters at least), rewatch the 2012 film, listen to songs from the musical, check out other adaptations. That it’s gonna bring new people to the fandom. And, whether you like it or not, it DOES offer new interpretations of the characters and actually does give a fresh take. Every adaptations gives us something new to discuss, this one included. I also don’t believe it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Les Mis or whatever; I happen to think it actually is a good adaptation overall. Is it flawless or 100% accurate in everything? No, because it’s impossible to turn such a huge and detailed book into a 100% faithful adaptation; also it’s really not what the adaptations are for. I too would have added/cut out some stuff from various versions of Les Mis, but this is because it’s my interpretation; the fact that we imagine some things differently does not mean that other people’s interpretations are bad.

Since films and tv shows belong to the visual media, I think that Les Mis BBC could have done better in that aspect - I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it, as I wasn’t exactly over the moon about some choices in the script. It’s not a masterpiece, but I never expected it to be one; neither it is a “piece of shit”. Despite its flaws, I still found the miniseries to be very enjoyable and I will gladly rewatch it in the near future. I feel that it might even become one of my favourite adaptations(I will decide once I’ve seen them all, or most of them!), save for the interpretation of JVJ, which could’ve been better tbh. For me, it’s a nice 7,5/10

#les miserables 2018 #long post #wera speaks #gotta prepare for the unfollows #les mis bbc

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creepygamerpasta · 5 years

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My Defense of Dear Evan Hansen

Okay, disclaimer: I wasn’t really into Dear Evan Hansen, so I don’t know the musical itself all too well (except of course, like everyone, “Sincerely, Me”). I recently read the novel of it (which was written by the creators, so I think the only difference is the fact that the prose doesn’t rhyme). I’m not a “day-one, die-hard fan,” and I do not have an obsession with it. That being said, I enjoyed the novel a lot. It’s not usually a genre I read, but it certainly piqued my interest for YA mental health novels.

Why, then, do people hate it?

I’ve looked online for this answer, and I’ve been able to find some recurring arguments, which are quite valid even if you don’t agree. (Not everyone has to like the same things, I know.) So, here are my responses and counter-arguments. (Note, contains spoilers, and I won’t necessarily outright disagree with everything.)

1. The fanbase is annoying, toxic, etc.

This is probably the easiest to get out of the way. Yes, there will always be people within a fanbase whose entire lives revolve around their fandom. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; who can fault you for being passionate about something? But it’s when that passion turns into hate or putting someone else’s tastes or general completely down because that person doesn’t like exactly what the fan likes when people get really angry. I’ll use an unrelated scenario to DEH as an example:

Person A: Do you like Taylor Swift?

Me: Eh, I’m not really into her music. I’m more into metal and stuff.

Person A: Oh, okay, cool. :)

Person B: OMG WTF stop being a HATER. Metal SUCKS. You’re just JEALOUS that she has TALENT.

...See? This is the same sort of reactions that people get, not just from DEH fans but from all sorts of fans. (I’ve gotten both of these exact reactions from various fans of different singers, actors, celebrities, movies, TV shows, etc.)

2. The musical is not that great, as in the scores and stuff.

I don’t see why this particularly angers people. I see this more as an evolution of the types of music in musicals. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here, but musicals exist for people to want to see them. And if the target audience is the younger generation, then it does not make sense to use music that most of them A) won’t like and B) won’t understand. I mean, Hamilton is known for its use of rap, (dare I say) “nontraditional” music in the theatre world. And people like it.

Which brings me to the next point...

3. Young people (who obviously cannot have appreciation for true theatre) will expect musicals like Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen to become the norm and for there to be a “big” musical every year.

...okay? So? Look, if people want to go to a musical, then they’ll go. If they want to go to another musical, then they’ll go to that one. It’s not rocket science. And as for this sometimes-unspoken assumption that young people can’t understand/appreciate theatre... Last time I checked, there were still theatre kids in schools across the country, so at least some people can.

And now, we go to the part of the defense where I rely more on the novel.

4. The main character (Evan) is neither compelling nor a good person, and thus, should not be the main character (and, by extension, the entire musical should not exist).

In the book, it is made very clear that Evan is not a perfect character. He’s a human being and has flaws just like everyone. His whole “pretending to be Connor’s friend thing” is less a manipulative move and more of “wrong place, wrong time, and I don’t know how to explain.” Though he’s supposed to be relatable, you are not expected to like him. Other characters question his motives for The Connor Project and his relationship to Connor, but with the first person, inner-thoughts, deepest-darkest-secrets style that the book has, it is very clear that Evan is (in his complex way) trying to help the Murphys with their loss. He does get a bit carried away, probably without realizing it, but even though he did not mean to hurt them, the guilt of his lies eats away at him the entire book.

Evan admits to lying, in person at the Murhpys. He knows that even though his longtime crush and now girlfriend (he even describes her as his soulmate and wants to marry her) will hate him, not to mention her parents, he cannot keep lying to them.

I think one of the problems with DEH specific to this problem is the hype about Evan himself. As the audience, we want to paint Evan as a hero. Descriptions put him in that light. He does overcome a lot through the novel and goes through quite a bit of change, but he is not the flawless hero (or the one-flaw antihero) people want him to be. He is a human being, and I think fans and haters forget this or overlook this, despite it being such an important part of the novel/musical.

5. DEH makes fun of mental illness and doesn’t take it seriously. It falsely portrays people with depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, etc.

This grinds a lot of my gears. Mental illnesses are different for everyone. Is there some assumption people have that I’m not aware of? The assumption that people actually think that everyone who has anxiety or is suicidal will act exactly like Evan and Connor? It might not match up with every individual’s experience/struggle with a mental illness, but that’s kind of one of the themes of DEH: that people have different lives, different struggles, different baggage, and different ways of coping, healthy or unhealthy. Everyone has a different story, and no one should be left to deal while feeling alone. Pay attention to those around you.

The lighter-hearted music seems to also make people perceive DEH to be making fun of/not taking mental health seriously. Which is ridiculous. There are some serious songs in that soundtrack, and the upbeat “Sincerely, Me” is supposed to be from fake personas. Connor’s persona in that song is supposed to be feeling better as days go by with the help of his “friend” Evan. So, yes, it makes sense that would be cheerful because it is not from the perspective of the real Connor. If it were, the song would probably be a lot darker.

6. The musical is homophobic and makes fun of the LGBT+ community.

If you were to walk into an elementary, middle, or high school right now and overhear every conversation, I gaurantee you, gaurantee you, that some students would be using “gay” as some sort of put-down or otherwise make fun of LGBT+ people. That doesn’t mean it’s right or acceptable, but having two high school guys (or really one, seeing as how Evan does not go along with the joke) make remarks about two (supposedly) close guys being gay is not something new. This complaint probably mainly comes from the line in “Sincerely, Me” in which Connor’s and Evan’s personas deny being close for anything other than friendship. And honestly? As a member of the LGBT+ community, this confusion comes up a lot. Whether you are out or not, closeness between friends is often interpreted as a romantic or sexual relationship, which of course is not the case.

Last time I checked, there wasn’t anything hateful toward the LGBT+ community. Jared’s jokes, while horribly sexual and inappropriate, were just immature. His jokes are essentially the high school equivalent of “That’s what she said.” I mean, who doesn’t know someone like that in their life? If I’m wrong, feel free to correct me.

Oh, and also? It is revealed in the novel that Connor did in fact have a relationship with a guy, Miguel.

7. People talk about the relatability of the musical without actually relating.

Okay, yes, annoying, but I don’t see why people should immediately fault this. You do not know the experiences or thoughts of people online and on social media, but this means that you can’t judge whether or not they do relate to something. The first thing that comes to mind with the word “relatable” when it comes to this musical would, of course, be mental health. Since the most notable characters both struggle with mental illnesses, it makes sense that you would expect the people who relate to this musical to also struggle with mental illness(es). But there is no law that everyone who relates to a character has to be exactly like that character.

I’ll use another example from a different work, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. (Quick little note: Frankenstein is the scientist, not the creature. The Creature is actually quite complex and a deep character that is not the mindless monster from movies.)

Frankenstein: wealthy, a genius, comes from a high(ish) class, (presumably) handsome

Creature: neglected, hated for his ugliness, abandoned by Frankenstein, feared, smart

I doubt anyone was stitched together from dead bodies and then somehow reanimated. But you might relate to the fact that the Creature was abandoned or that people fear and hate him because of his looks. I also doubt that anyone has figured out the secret to reanimating dead bodies after taking them apart and stitching them together. But you might also (or solely) relate to Frankenstein because he lost his mother or because he feels responsible for a family member’s death. Those are some examples.

And there are plenty of characters that you could relate to or aspects of characters that speak to you. Maybe you’ve built a tangle of lies like Evan without meaning to, or maybe you have gone through a hard divorce and try so hard to get through to your child without success like Heidi, or maybe you really care about making a difference and don’t feel like the people who are supposed to help you take that seriously like Alana.

That about wraps it up. If I’ve missed anything, feel free to tell me, and I’ll make a follow-up post.

Again, I’m not demanding that you agree with me, but hopefully, whether a fan or critic, you have now seen a different perspective.

#dear evan hansen #evan hansen #connor murphy #musicals #spoilers #please reply

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