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newsies-of-corona · 4 years

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Varian & Affirmation

Analysis:

And we’ve got another one, folks! This one hit hard for me for sure. Just the way that the show set it up...it’s incredible. So without any further adieu...

“Well, shall we get started?”

Motives

So I’m just going to come right out and say it: Varian is selfish in Season 1. The whole way through. (Now don’t leave yet! If you know me you know how much of a fan I am of this complex alchemist and this is not a hate post by all means!)

But yes. Throughout the whole of Season 1, Varian has a very self-centered mindset that’s hard to pick up on at first, but it’s there. Here’s some dialogue examples:

“I am sure that I, Varian, can unlock the mystery of your hair with the power of science!”

“Hey Flynn Rider? Wanna come with?”

“It doesn’t matter. The truth is all I really wanted to do was impress you, I thought that if I showed you what I was capable of you might see something in me.”

“Actually he’d probably be impressed. At least I hope he’d be impressed.”

Most of these quotes sound perfectly innocent, and they are! But it’s the motives behind them that make them more self-centered. Varian’s main goal, his life blood practically, is affirmation. He yearns to be adored and recognized for his achievements. It’s a perfectly normal and human want. I myself struggle with this all the time. But when it’s the only thing that you strive for? The only thing that makes you happy? It effects everything that you say and do. If you dig deep into these quotes, you can see what he’s really craving.

By discovering the mystery of Rapunzel’s hair, Varian gets credit and especially admiration. By showing his idol his inventions, he’s expecting Eugene to tell him what a genius he is or how amazed he is that this fourteen year old kid could build all this. The third one is just wanting Cassandra to recognize him since he looks up to her, and went to great lengths to impress her. Even when he helped her, it was still because he wanted to impress her and get her to help him in return. Throughout that episode he’s trying so hard to get her to compliment his work. In three of these examples, he gets the adoration he asked for. But that’s the problem: he asked for it. Eugene and Cass essentially tell him the same thing, “you’re a great, smart kid with good intentions.” And both times he responds more...despondently. For Cass it’s “thanks for saying that.” For Eugene it’s just looking at him sadly because this wasn’t what he wanted to hear. In essence: it isn’t enough.

And the last quote obviously represents the affirmation he craves the most, his father’s, and the one that he doesn’t get.

Even slight comments like “I build it myself,” “of my own design,” and “wanna see my new invention?” all have the underlying motive of craving affirmation from his peers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but since Varian often has tunnel-vision and can’t see the consequences of his actions, it quickly becomes an issue. Especially in the case of, of course, the black rocks.

Taking it Too Far

We find out that Varian discovered the rocks in Great Expotations. Rapunzel inadvertently tasked him with figuring out how to get rid of them, and in his mind he needed to. To impress her and possibly all of Corona. So he ran tests and got reprimanded by his dad probably more than once. But this is the biggest thing he could ever do: rescue his village and the kingdom and make his dad proud in the process. That’s why he wanted to come with him and hopefully talk to the king. Yes, in this case he actually wants to help his village, he’s not heartless and he cares a lot, but he’s predominantly focusing on the rewards that will come after he figured it out.

Of course we know his plans go awry again, but he never stops focusing on his goal of making his dad proud of him. Seriously...NEVER.

Taking it WAY Too Far

Enter: Villain Arc. Suddenly his need to be adored and affirmed flips upside down. He doesn’t want compliments anymore, he wants people to fear him, respect him, and listen to him.

Examples:

“I have asked for help and have been ignored, I will not be ignored any longer!”

“I tried asking for help in a civil manner but was denied by everyone in Corona. So, unfortunately, this is my only remaining recourse.”

“I’ll make them hear me...”

I touched on this in my Confidence analysis, but Varian never loses his drive. And his want to be revered, consumes him. Even when he goes to prison, he joins Andrew and takes over Corona to be feared. But he soon realizes, it’s still not enough. His want for revenge doesn’t satisfy him or make him happy, it just makes him feel worse as the weight of what he’s done gradually crashes down on him.

By the time Rapunzel comes back, it’s all an act. He’s not craving adoration anymore. He just wants a way out of this cycle of disappointment that isn’t getting him anywhere. You can tell from the lines, too.

“Me? No, not really.”

“So that no one will forget they turned their back on my father!”

“I took their queen prisoner! I threatened their princess! I helped these guys take over their kingdom!”

Now the first one is small, but it actually shows a lot of development (even if he says it in a rather dorky way) because he’s not taking credit for something or taking the “fear” that he wanted so badly. The second one just sounds like a threat but it’s not “they turned their backs on me,” like it was in season 1. It’s back to his father, and it’s, in a way, humbling Varian by taking himself out of the picture. And of course the last one is the most evident: he’s listing his faults and realizing he doesn’t deserve the adoration he used to crave so much.

Making it Right

During Varian’s redemption...we see these thoughts really come to light.

“All I ever wanted was for my father to be proud. But if he were free from the amber now, and saw everything I’ve done, well he’d be ashamed.”

This is his turning point. This is where he owns up to how warped and twisted his mindset was and makes an effort to fix it with Rapunzel. Not for himself; not for the glory, but because it’s the right thing to do. He knows he messed up with the Quirineon, and he’s literally willing to die to make up for his mistakes. This is a direct contrast to his previous statement: “I will make you proud of me, dad. If it’s the last thing I ever do.”

Because if he dies fixing his mistakes, he doesn’t expect any kind of praise. He’d leave a legacy of horrible deeds that would never make his dad proud; but he’d be saving Corona and that’s all that matters. Of course he doesn’t actually die, thank goodness, and Rapunzel saves Corona instead, but he’s learned something from this whole experience. And one thing he especially didn’t expect was for Rapunzel to keep her promise after everything. And even when his dad finally says those words...they were supposed to mean everything, but they don’t. It still isn’t enough. Especially not after everything that’s happened. I touched on this in another analysis as well, but he feels like he doesn’t deserve those words.

From this point, Varian has a whole new outlook on life, not dependent on gaining recognition. He’s still the cocky, confident alchemist we know and love, but he shows off his inventions because he’s proud of them, and that’s enough. He saves Corona from the red rocks because he genuinely wants to help his kingdom, he doesn’t have any underlying motives whatsoever. He helps with the Demanitus Scroll because he wants to help Rapunzel figure everything out. And at the end he helps defeat Zhan Tiri because he knows he can help, and he genuinely wants to. (And here’s where I get emotional.)

Varian doesn’t once ask for compliments or a “thank you” throughout season 3, yet that’s exactly what he gets. After all of those years of seeking and yearning for adoration, he finally gets it when he doesn’t need it anymore.

In every selfless thing he does for Corona, he gets a reward in some way. When he rescues the kingdom from black rocks, he didn’t ask for anything in return, yet his reputation was restored. When he agreed to help with the scroll, he actually got to work in Demanitus’ Lab, someone he’s admired forever. And when he helps with the portal, he gets to go see Demanitus’ tomb and I mean...

that’s the happiest we’ve ever seen him. And it isn’t just the big things either, it’s the little ones. The way that Rapunzel calls him “a genius,” when he doesn’t ask for it or allude to it in any way. The “good job, buddy,” that Eugene tells him after he fixes up the balloon. And every time he’s complimented, he stays humble. He even responds one time with “just doing my part.”

And at the very end of his arc, after all of that selfless work he did for Corona out of the goodness of his own heart, he’s given his very own title of “Royal Engineer.” An official position in the kingdom that people truly look up to and respect.

Conclusion

This is honestly one the most well-done character arcs I’ve ever seen, because it’s absolute poetic justice. At the beginning, Varian is so focused on his own need of affirmation that he forgets everything else, and jeopardizes himself on multiple occasions. Especially when his motives become warped. But when he finally sets his pride and his own ambitions aside and realizes he’s already enough, that’s when he gets the respect and adoration that he had always wanted. And that my friends...is CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

#just when i think i knew everything about this kid- SOMETHING ELSE SHOWS UP-#varian tts #varian #lissa analyzes varian....again #varian analysis #villain varian #tangled the series

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luxfurem · 3 years

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@treppenwitzz asked: i need all the deets about your bellatrix... ALSO ANJI i wanna know more about anji | MEME.

So... this ended up really long and therefore it’s under the cut! I sort of left out the “who they could get along with” part but I also feel like that really just depends on verses and such, so we can totally discuss that sometime 🥺🥺🥺

Bellatrix Lestrange

TW for mentions of alcohol, abuse, death and miscarriage

TROPES/ARCHETYPES: The Champion, Femme Fatale

Bellatrix is the very first muse that I officially wrote on indie, but also a muse that I’ve explored in the many group rps I’ve been in in the years before that. Because of that, she’s been through a lot of changing and tweaking over the years, but I like what I’ve got going for her now.

I’m absolutely a big fan of villain characters and I support the humanizing of them because in my mind, it is all the more terrifying that a villain could like the same things as you, could be like you, but be capable of such terrible things. I think it creates a frightening perspective that’s the quiet sort of terrifying, and it’s what I aim to do with Bella. I wanted to create a villainous woman who is powerful without being sorry for it.

I do want to stress that a villain doesn’t necessarily become worthy or deserving of pity or redemption because their story contains sad aspects. In the end, everyone encounters terrible and sad things in life, and it’s what you do with these experiences that matters. If you become bitter or vengeful, that is a decision, and the consequences of however you decide to treat the world after are not cancelled out because of the reason why you became this way.

On the one hand, she is this terrifyingly powerful witch who, despite her comparatively young age, climbed up the ranks of the death eaters to the position of lieutenant at Voldemort’s side, but on the other she is someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s wife. I wanted to explore how these two aspects of her story intertwine, or, in some cases, clash.

My Bella is a bit canon-divergent in that I absolutely refuse to write a woman who’s completely submissive to a man, especially one that doesn’t deserve it. Of course, I don’t want to stray too far from her original arc in that I still believe she’s absolutely starstruck by Voldemort, but she is more interested in his abilities, his mind and his cunning than she is in him as a partner. It’s a different kind of infatuation, where she isn’t all too sure if she wants him or wants to BE him. In time, she settles with neither, and becomes his champion, instead. She’s a knight under his banner, a soldier under his command.

Much of Bella’s arc comes down to a dominant woman living in a society that doesn’t like dominant women. Pureblood circles are catered to the pureblood man, whereas the woman’s job, much like in societies of previous eras, is to bear a husband's children to continue the pureblood line. It’s a crude and sexist thing, and Bella wants none of it. From a young age, she rebels against her father’s firm beliefs in the way things are supposed to be, and rebels against her mother’s attempts to “guide” her back to how she’s supposed to be. She’s the feral child with the holes in her dresses, the scrapes on her legs from climbing trees and running too fast. Her long hair always tangled and messy. She knows that as a girl in the Black family, the highest achievement would have been to become matriarch, but even that wasn’t ever going to be enough for Bella.

When her mother dies, about two years after the birth of Narcissa, the matriarch of the Black family, Walburga, takes over the role for a short amount of time while her father drinks his grief away. After Sirius is born, however, even this steadiness falls away, as their aunt spends her full time caring for him and the second son, Regulus, born a year after. This leaves Bella to assume responsibility for her sisters at the age of 8. Her fights with her father, their temperaments going head to head resulting in situations I don’t really care to divulge about.

Once accepted into Hogwarts is where things start to divert. From one day to the next, her previously always messy hair is neatly combed back into a braid. Her clothes are pristine, not a spot in sight, and her sharp commentary is kept to a minimum. To all those around her, it seemed she had finally heeded her mother’s wishes, and embraced her place in society. But to those who knew her well enough, to her sisters and to her cousins, there was a stubborn fire burning behind those crow-black eyes, burning higher and brighter the more time passed. It was only a matter of time until the fire either consumed her, or consumed those around her.

It was at the age of 17, during her last year at Hogwarts, that Bellatrix was introduced to the Dark Lord. She’d seen him before, of course, but the Black family had stoically kept their stance on the matter of his campaign neutral, although this wouldn’t last. Her fiance-to-be, Rodolphus, who was a few years her senior, had already joined the ranks, and Voldemort’s actions could no longer be brushed off as a mere whim by the family. And Bella, who desired more than the life of a housewife, saw this as an opportunity to lift herself up.

I want to stress that I, as both a Tom Riddle and Bellatrix writer, don’t think their dynamic was of a romantic or lustful nature at all at this point in time, if ever. Voldemort saw the fire and the potential, and decided that he wanted both of these things for himself, for his ranks. She exceeded expectations and he decided that, if anyone was worthy to be his student, it was her. Over the course of the next two years, he trained her in the dark arts, eventually revealing her, at the age of nineteen, to be his new lieutenant. This was met with some resistance, of course. but Bella was quick to silence that. After all, she had risen above her station, and it had taken effort. She was not about to lose that to a bunch of butthurt men.

It’s also around this time that she marries Rodolphus, whom she puts through the ringer for months before and even post-marriage. She hated the idea of being passed from one man (her father) to another (her husband), as if she is nothing more than a possession. The marriage was arranged, and this bothered her, too, considering her lack of choice in the matter. And because she couldn’t exactly fight her father on it, she fought Rodolphus instead. On every turn, hoping he would be turned off and cancel it. After all, a man’s voice, even if he was only an heir, and not patriarch, still sounded louder than a woman’s voice ever would. But it only seemed to invigorate him, pulling closer the more she pushed. As if he were attracted to the fire, wanted to scorch himself just to stand in the light. He never forced her and he never would, even as she refused to let him into their marriage bed for months, even as she taunted him and ridiculed him. The marriage, in time, seemed to grant her a certain freedom that she never had as a daughter of house Black. She could go where she pleased, do as she pleased, pursue her position among the death eaters as she wanted to. She lost her wariness towards him, her anger. And eventually, she learned to love him.

Bellatrix used to be closest to her sister Andromeda. The two of them were, for a long time, practically inseparable, two halves of a whole. It was as if they should have been twins, and what one lacked, the other would possess. Where one went, you could soon expect the other to be. That was, of course, until Andromeda defected. When she did, Bella’s whole world collapsed. Her castle was captured from the inside, by sadness, by grief and by anger at the deceit. Because Andromeda hadn’t chosen her. Had chosen a “filthy mudblood” instead of her own sister, who had always cared for her, always been there for her. If Bella had had a mean streak, before, it was now full blown, a riptide that would destroy everything and everyone that didn’t get out of her way. She was devastated by the loss, and would never quite recover from it. This event had a huge impact on her view on muggleborns. Whereas before she allowed herself a certain tolerance, where she still viewed herself as holier than but limited her disdain to snooty looks and haughty comments, she now was actively hostile, threatening and garnering a reputation among the ranks of the death eaters for her ruthless, cruel actions.

During her marriage, Bella was pregnant exactly 4 times, but all 4 pregnancies ended up miscarriages fairly early on. It’s my belief that her problems stem from the inbreeding within the family and the English pureblood society in general. Contrary to her other beliefs on the woman in pureblood society, she was interested in being a mother and had the motherly instinct to go with it. Her not being capable of bearing children left her feeling devastated and hardened her heart. In AUs where she does have children, whether of her own or adopted, she develops a sort of caution, a knowledge that she isn’t just responsible for herself, but for this child as well. In these AUs, it keeps her out of Azkaban.

Speaking of Azkaban, I usually don’t write about her time there or really post-Azkaban, and this is mostly because I hate the narrative that she’s “crazy”, and I think it’s harmful towards people who have mental health problems. I believe, due to how Azkaban’s dementors suck the happiness out of people and how Azkaban looks like hell on earth, she suffers from a form of PTSD, but she is not “crazy”.

A few loose facts about her:

is bisexual but leans towards men

loves to write poetry, but she never shows it to anyone.

has a very low tolerance for alcohol and barely drinks.

loves coffee and can’t function without drinking it every morning

is obsessed with taking care of her hair. It’s long and dark and very well-maintained

loves to wear red lipstick

forced herself to learn to use her wand with both her left and her right hand

Anji Terryll

TROPES/ARCHETYPES: The Antihero, The Living Legend, The Reluctant Hero

Anji is actually one of my older muses, who doesn’t see the light of day often because I suppose the Skyrim fandom is sort of dead. On top of that, she’s a female oc. i don’t think i’ll need to explain this. Regardless of that and the lack of information I’ve put online about her ( which I actually seek to remedy by writing this ), she’s a quiet favorite who will never disappear from my roster.

I wanted to create a person who fate had been thrusted upon unwillingly. I wanted to create a woman who had never planned to do anything that didn’t benefit herself in life. Anji’s early life consisted of what was barely a life at the orphanage in Riften, where she watched the Thieves Guild lift jewelry from a man’s pocket with the man none the wiser. She never entertained the idea of being an honest worker, because she’d seen how the jarl treated honest workers. Of course, she knew that if she were to be caught thieving, the storm she’d call over herself would be worse, but that was only if she was going to be caught.

So she got herself into the Thieves’ Guild, worked her way up the ranks to Guild Master, before, near the border, she was caught stealing a horse and shipped off to Helgen, where the main story begins.

Anji is, from the start, reluctant about her supposed fate. She never believed in prophecies and rarely in Gods and now, everything was real, everything was true. And she was the main character of a legend. Thrust into a role she doesn’t think fit her. She isn’t who these people deserve, a thieving woman who serves only her own benefit. The people deserved a selfless knight, advocating for the survival of mankind, believing so wholly in oneself that they could overcome a legendary monster like Alduin the World-Eater. Someone who isn’t her. So she rejects her abilities, rejects her destiny, and pretends for months that she isn’t the one the Greybeards are calling from the Throat of the World.

And for a time, it works. For a time she can focus on the physical gain, the money she earns, the reputation. But in the back of her mind, the knowledge scratches at the door she keeps it behind. She sees the destruction the dragons are causing all over Skyrim, the terror of the people. The loss of morale. She tells herself that she decides to see what these Greybeards have to say, if only to tell them they’ll need to find someone else.

But she comes to learn that there is no one else. There is only her and her bow, and her lack of morale, against an ancient dragon.

Anji is the Reluctant Hero, the Unlikely Hero, not the woman you’d expect when one mentions the Dovahkiin. She’s slight and flighty, quick as a whip with her twin blades, relying on speed above strength. She prefers sneaking through the shadows instead of fighting her way through boldly and openly, and she never starts fights she can’t win. This doesn’t mean she won’t kill, and doesn’t mean she won’t use her powers, even for personal gain. She enjoys the power of the Voice and, as lore suggests, overtime grows more and more powerful (think: her voice can at some point burn the ice off a mountain), but she hates the responsibility that comes with it and will never fully accept it. She’s practical and quick-witted, more on the serious side of the spectrum, although she possesses a funny streak that only shows up in intimate settings ( think: close friends/guild/lovers ) or when she’s completely drunk. She observes each angle of a job or mission before proceeding, wanting to be ahead of each trap she might run into.

A few loose facts about her:

is bisexual but leans towards women

has absolutely no interest in bearing children, adopting is fine though

favors her bow over her twin blades

carries two daggers in each boot

In some verses she can be a werewolf for absolutely no other reason other than that i can

in modern verses she owns a martial arts school

Play smart not hard

#*✧･ﾟ OUT OF CHARACTER.#*✧･ﾟBELLATRIX LESTRANGE.#*✧･ﾟ ANJI TERRYLL.#treppenwitzz

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pass-the-bechdel · 4 years

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Alias s01e10 ‘Spirit’

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Four (23.53%)

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Thirteen (76.47%)

Positive Content Rating:

Three

General Episode Quality:

A disappointing resolution to the last episode.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Sydney and Jenny greet each other at Will’s.

Female Characters:

Sydney Bristow

Francie Calfo

Amy Tippin

Jenny

Male Characters:

Arvin Sloane

Anthony Russek

Jack Bristow

Douglas

Steven Gordon

Marshall Flinkman

Michael Vaughn

Will Tippin

Nevil

Ineni Hassan

Severin Driscoll

Robert Stoller

McNeill

Other Notes:

Boy, it sure would have been nice for Sydney to have had such a developed ability to detect lying during the seven years she previously worked for SD-6.

Jenny is back, and she and Will are now definitely sexing. The only thing I enjoy about this is how amused Sydney and Francie are by it.

Also back is Amy Tippin, who is by far my favorite minor character—less because of Amy herself, but largely because she, and her relationship with Will and his friends, feels incredibly real.

Sloane’s monologue this episode is great.

Sloane sending Jack to assassinate Hassan is another piece of evidence suggesting that yeah, he simply never sent Sydney and Dixon on any missions which might compromise their morals. Why, exactly, he’d do this has yet to be explained.

Vaughn getting to work as Jack’s handler for no reason that is explained is one something that annoys me far more than it should.

God, it’s so good to see SpyDaddy be a badass.

As mentioned in the post for “Truth Be Told” I’m a huge fan of Nikita; I was one of the people to recommend that it be reviewed for this site. Before that, I was a big fan of Alias, which meant I didn’t get far into the former series before I realized that Nikita Mears’ story was a lot like Sydney Bristow’s. Like, by a fucking lot. Like, “dead-fianc��-named-Daniel-and-love-interest-called-Michael” a lot. This means that there is hardly a moment where I can think of one series without thinking of the other, something I’ve tried to avoid here. Still, I cannot do so here.

So last episode Sydney was taken captive after evidence arose pointing at her being the mole. That, as people say, is the ball game. Barring some huge development, the series would no longer be able to continue under its original premise, either because Sydney would be dead, or because she would no longer be a double agent. For the series to return to the status quo in a satisfying way, a sacrifice would have to be made—otherwise the stakes would no longer be effective.

I’ll give this to the series: the first few scenes, with Sydney captive by SD-6, are very effective…and then SpyDaddy frames Russek as the mole, solving everything, which means that midway through the episode, Sydney is back doing missions as if nothing had happened. Worse still, the series then does a whole bunch of somersaults to assure us that hey, we shouldn’t feel bad that SpyDaddy killed Russek for Sydney, assuring us that yea, he was one of the five people who knew SD-6 was bad and was completely on board with everything.

This episode, then, disappoints me, because it lays bare just how committed the series is to being sanitized and unchallenging.

When Nikita did the same story—having the double agent escape suspicion by having a sacrificial lamb framed and made to die in their stead—it did so by having Alex shoot and kill Thom—a series regular and from most perspectives a good guy, or at least a victim—and then framing him—it was her first kill, the thing Nikita had spent most of the episode trying to avoid. It maintained the status quo, but at a cost.

Here, however, there is no real equivalent. Russek was a known quantity, but he didn’t have a character to speak of, so there’s no emotional attachment to him as an individual. Jack being perfectly happy to kill for Sydney is, I guess, technically new information, but it doesn’t feel that way; we already had an idea how far he was willing to go, so it’s not significant development from his side of things. Something could have been made of Russek being an innocent, just another person who thought he was doing good, but then the episode goes ahead and steps on that potential, because it’s afraid of having the series actually grapple with morality.

And I’m sorry, what is the SD-6 premise for, if it’s not to grapple about the moral implications of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, espionage work, and war? Yes, it’s gives us a fun premise with often enjoyable developments, but that can’t be all it is; that’s just propaganda. What is a redemption arc for, if there’s nothing a person needs to atone for? Nikita got this. Heck, La Femme Nikita, a work far more flawed than either its remake or Alias, got it at least part of the time. For a series as clever as Alias not to get it…it’s crushing.

#Alias #Alias Season One #spirit #Female Representation #Bechdel Test

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him-e · 5 years

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(Spero suoni decente e non irritante quindi in caso perdonami! E se ti crea wank ignora pure) I never made a mystery of my deep dislike for Dany since s1/agot exactly because of the idea of righteous violence. It was hard to talk about it because then people think you defend slavery or such when my problems had always been about her methods, not her ideas. BUT even I in this season, I feel very bad for Dany fans because she deserved her arc to be written better. I think that putting it as 1/2

2/2 making her arc about how she’s loved seemed super… OH SHES A WOMAN SHE WANTS A LOVE when I would have found it more compelling if she had to see her methods and her ideals clash She IS sweet she craves justice and she just had to see her methods were not working but THEN AGAIN that was too complex writing. I feel like dany fans were deprived not only because they made her a villain but because they took away her complexity first and foremost (also I hate DND using MAD in an ableist way)

I actually don’t think THIS Dany has lost her complexity? I mean compared to book!Dany, yes, for sure, but compared to what she’s been in the show, not so much.

(tw for abuse; depression; mental illness)

I’ve personally felt kind of meh about her arc for the last 2-3 seasons because her writing was so bland, always circling back to stoic catchphrases and moments of empty assertiveness with very little room left for introspection and self doubt (that she has in spades in the books).

In this season on the other hand I related very hard to her sense of isolation, her implicit, growing fear of never being accepted in what she had always thought was going to be her home, the place where she belonged. She fulfilled her destiny as a savior, but not quite—Arya killed the NK, not her—and not enough to win people’s hearts. She was SO close to her lifetime goal, only for it to turn into a crushing disappointment. She had an identity crisis (failing embody a savior image + finding out she had never been the rightful heir) and suffered huge losses among her closest friends and advisors that completely undermined her support system.

What I mean is, it’s not just about not being loved (though even book!Dany, what she’s always wanted deep down was a home, a family, a sense of belonging); It’s about engineering your entire life, identity and sense of worth around a particular purpose and then having it ripped from your chest and being left with ashes as everyone who ever believed in you vanishes or walks away. And what’s really tragic is that there are no more miracles to perform. She can’t walk into a pire and hatch more dragons. She can’t bring the Others back so she can destroy them all over again. There are no actual slaves waiting for her to liberate them. All the magic she imbued her savior narrative with is gone or isn’t working anymore. I found it relatable in a strange way because it reminded me of coping mechanisms suddenly stopping working.

In this episode she’s like, “Cersei thinks mercy is a weakness, but she’s wrong! We’re doing this because we’re merciful, we care about the future generations!” and it’s like, so obvious that she desperately needs to tell herself that lie—she’s trying to perform a miracle once again, because that’s always how she coped with being cornered, by doubling down on her fire and blood mantra and believe in her destiny so hard that others would too. Except this time she gets into the city and it quickly surrenders but it’s all wrong—these people aren’t happy to be liberated, they’re ringing the bells because they’re scared shitless and they’re yielding to a tyrant, not welcoming their rightful queen. And it turns an already sour situation into something even more bitter, and it sends her into a blind panic that quickly turns into a white hot rage, that she unleashes on the city because it’s the symbol and epitome of everything she’s worked and dreamed and tried to be. Much like an artist working on a painting for years but the final picture is so ugly that he rips it to shreds and sets it on fire. (lol, I couldn’t think of a better metaphor, but this one I’m all too familiar with)

so her arc made sense to me in a sort of “darkest timeline” way. The seeds of being a violent conqueror were always in her, but so far she kept them in check because circumstances allowed her to be a champion for the downtrodden. It wasn’t an excuse so much as it was a sincere goal that reminded her always of what she was trying to achieve. Losing that foundation completely shattered her sense of identity and her moral compass, and suddenly the means to the end became the end itself.

anyway! I’ve rambled enough but this is what I’m getting from this episode about her. The issue I’m having isn’t with the way she acts in this episode per se, but with the overall context—the way she’s portrayed, on top of the way Cersei is portrayed, on top of the way (white) men are portrayed (as the rational, sensible, compassionate ones, unlike those dark mad queens who need to be told how to behave but won’t listen anyway!)

BUT the biggest offense is that there’s no chance for redemption after this, because all the big battles for humanity have already been fought. This makes it utterly depressing and nihilistic and I need time to process it, lol. Maybe the point the showrunners were trying to make is that there’s no coming back, no possible redemption after you commit such heinous war crimes. But you know how I feel about redemption, so I find it disheartening.

#robb greyjoy #got asks for ts #asks #dark dany for ts #got spoilers #got wank #got for ts #dany**

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rosetintedbeanie · 5 years

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My Review on TWDG: The Final Season

Buckle up folks because it’s going to be a bumpy ride with some unpopular opinions added. This is a little overdue.

So before I start, I want to say that I didn’t want to put this into the tags because we all know how this fandom can be.

I’ll start off with the good. The season started off really, really strong, and it was a good way to introduce all the new characters. I didn’t necessarily like Marlon at first, but after looking back, he’s grown on me a little bit. His voice actor did an incredible job. I’ll admit, after two seasons of disappointment and annoyance, I had low expectations for the first episode and the season as a whole, but I was pleasantly surprised. The ending to episode one, atmosphere and all, was one of the best final scenes in the game’s history, and it genuinely gave me chills all the way up until the last minute. THAT was some good shit, and it felt like the writers were finally realizing what they were doing.

The season had likable enough characters, and although there are a few that I’m indifferent with, there wasn’t anyone that I totally didn’t like. The bisexual representation made me incredibly happy, and partially helped me a bit more with my own sexuality. Before anyone asks, I personally went with Louisentine, but Violentine is pretty damn adorable and both ships are totally valid. And I know it wasn’t a shipping option, but in my opinion, Clem would have been cute with Ruby, too.

Minerva’s downfall was really well done. I didn’t necessarily like her, but I did feel sorry for her. She was a victim of brainwashing and bad leadership and she and Sophie didn’t deserve that. You could even see her trying to come out of it at times in the third episode, when she mentions Tenn to one of the guards (Dorian I think her name is?). The scene on the bridge was probably one of the best, if not the best scene of the last episode in my opinion. There was a lot of tension, and Minnie singing to draw walkers to her brother really added to that. If anything I actually forgot about her up until that point and thought she’d just died. Also, can we get a cover of her VA singing the entire song? I have a new need.

Now before I dive into what I didn’t like and my unpopular opinions, a disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions. I tend to be nitpicky at these things, and I didn’t hate the season at all whatsoever.

I...couldn’t get attached to AJ in any episode. I tried to, I really did. I didn’t hate him by any means, and I even defended him when people were wishing death and hating him for killing Marlon. But there were times that I felt that he was just too much, even for a hardened survivor. I get that he was born into an apocalyptic world, but I didn’t exactly like how he turned into the same temperamental, edgy kid no matter what Clem taught him. I wasn’t a huge fan of the many parallels, either. Some were fine, but after a while they started to get a bit old.

Alright, here’s the biggie that y’all probably expected: the way they handled Lilly this season. If you’ve been following me for a while then you’re probably aware that I love Lilly and have defended her for years now. So naturally I was extremely excited to see that she was returning after years of being right about her fate (because come on, there’s no way she just died). And I just want to say that as much as I wanted a redemption arc for her, I wouldn’t have minded her being a villain so much had she gotten more screen time, a better explanation, and a more meaningful way to go out on both parts. I really didn’t like how she still appeared to have humanity in her first appearance, totally hesitating to kill Clementine and damn near CRYING if she’s told that you were family once, and then pretty much tossing all that out the window when she (determinately) orders a kid’s tongue cut out. Then in the finale she gets two minutes tops of screen time and can suddenly feel remorseful again? Ooookay. We also got pretty much no explanation on why she’s this way except for “my dad melted my ice cream so I kidnap kids now lol.” I just feel like we were robbed of something more involving Lilly, and no matter how you feel about her, she deserved better than to become what she did, better than to be handled the way she was. I’ll always stand by my word that she was not bad from day one, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Something else that felt weird to me was that there was no mention of Kenny outside of a determinant choice in the first episode??? Like no matter how you felt about him, he was important in Clem’s life and it’s especially strange how he wasn’t even talked about during Clem and Lilly’s chat. You’d think Lilly would bring up the guy who killed her dad.

The way that the deaths were handled in the finale bothered me. Like, really bothered me. There’s maybe a couple minutes of grief (which I get that in the moment you had to get away, but there was time for that later), and basically no other mention. Louis was the one who died in my game, but I’ve seen playthroughs and I couldn’t stand how Violet can pretty much justify Tenn’s death if it happens. The way she said, “He was always getting into trouble and messing up,” brought me back to Season 2 and the way Sarah was treated, and it was even worse because Tenn reminded me a little of her and to hear that again made me feel ill. Like girl...did Jane possess you there for a minute???

I uhhh might be in quite the minority here, but I was unsatisfied with the overall ending. The big thing was Clem getting bit and her leg amputated; okay, yeah, sure. But let’s look at what happened before: her foot was cut pretty badly, and I’ll even give that the infection could have taken the spread of the bite out of her. But people really seem to ignore that she still lost a lot of blood on the way to the barn??? Like, I’m not a doctor or anything, but losing blood even after a short period of time can still be very dangerous. Even with the explanation given by one of the writers, there’s no realistic way that Clem would have survived that amputation with the amount of blood already gone. I’m sorry, but it really felt like plot armor. I would have been happy with her being determinant, with the ending we got being the “alive” ending. But I feel like there should have been multiple endings, considering the last two seasons were known for that. I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling it like most everyone else was. There was a lot I just wasn’t feeling.

One last quick thing about the ending: we never did see the Delta. The Delta’s leader, who is NOT Lilly as confirmed by Kent Mudle, would wonder why their people didn’t come back. They’d probably send out to find whoever was responsible, especially if they knew about the school beforehand. You’d think the school would prepare itself for future attacks, because it’s kind of a new potential threat. It’s something I figured out kind of recently, and it’s weird that no one would question it.

My overall opinion of the season was that it was good, but not great. In terms of writing, it blows A New Frontier and the last half of Season 2 out of the water. The story itself is an interesting idea, but there are a few directions that I wish had been taken differently. The season, as I said, started out strong, and there were moments in every episode that I genuinely liked. I just wish there had been multiple ways to conclude Clementine’s story. The ending we got just felt...a bit off. To conclude this essay-length review, I in no way disliked this season and I have to give credit to the writers for putting more of an effort since A House Divided. If you’ve read this far down, thanks! This was fun to write.

**MIC DROP**

#So yeaaaah I wanted to get this out #I know not everyone will agree with me but I hope it puts something into perspective #Ask to tag

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oldtvandcomics · 5 years

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MY OPINION ABOUT ENDGAME

I’ve written this nice long YouTube comment about Endgame, and it contains pretty much everything that I think about that movie, so I’m just going to copypaste it here. Because of the subject of the video, a lot is about Steve/Bucky not becoming canon and what happened instead.

Spoilers after the break.

Ok, I don't care, I have OPINIONS and need to share them somewhere.

1) Stucky was never going to be canon and I think most of us are adult enough to admit that. HOWEVER what the movie did in general felt as if it would ignore everything we know about Steve, Bucky and Peggy.

- Did they keep Steve and Bucky apart? Totally.

- Steve ending up with Peggy. Would have been nice, IF that was where they had been going since 2011. It is not. They had a movie together where they have some flirting going on (a lot less than other superhero love stories, if you ask me, but shipping googles, don't ask me). After that, Peggy got an entire season about mourning Steve and slowly accepting his death, and a second where she started dating again, and Steve two plus movies where his motivation was mostly "OMG, Bucky is alive" and "I need to protect Bucky". THEY BOTH MOVED ON. This felt like a last minute "let's do something that gets Steve out of the way and will count as a happy ending".

- Steve living in the past. Ok, ok, ok, this is a BIG one for me. As many others have pointed out, he is now in a time where he full well knows Bucky is being held prisoner and tortured, and it's either letting it happen or key points in history will change. He is also watching SHIELD being founded and recruiting former HYDRA agents, as consequence of which PEOPLE WILL DIE, and Steve knows that, because HE'S BEEN THERE. Is he just going to sit there and let it happen??

Also, if we are already at it: Imagine the following scenario. It is the early 50s and Steve Rogers has just returned from the future (2023, right?) to spend the rest of his days with the love of his life, Peggy. Segregation is still a thing. Residential schools are still a thing. Women don't have the same rights as men. Queer people don't have any rights, period. Disabled and mentally ill people are being constantly mistreated, part out of ableism and part out of genuine ignorance in the medical field. The US is in cold war with the Soviet Union, and both sides do stuff that are not ok, and also highly classified. Steve, having lived in the future knows about them because it's history. Should I continue?

We normal people would maybe play the well-behaved time traveller and sit around waiting for history to happen, BUT NOT STEVE ROGERS. He is famous, and very influential because of his status as Captain America, and he has got a significantly smaller tolerance for bullsh*t than the other people in his time, because he has seen a world that is more accepting. He is going to try to fight everything at once. This is going to be chaos.

- Finally, and I haven't seen this pointed out yet, but HOWARD. Steve just returned to a time when Howard Stark was still the Howard Stark we know from The First Avenger and Agent Carter. A little weird and egocentric and visibly ND, but all in all a nice guy. I don't even know where to start with how much chaos this is going to cause. The memory of Steve Rogers has been a driving force behind Howard's entire life. Having him actually BE there will 1) prevent him from idolising him, and 2) Steve will be able to say little things to him like "Howard, you really have got a nice son there, maybe you could spend some more time with him?". Will Tony without his abusive childhood still become Iron Man? I think so, yes. Will it still completely change who he is as a person? Also yes...? Don't even mention that Steve perfectly knows how Howard and his wife are going to die, namely assassinated by Bucky, because...

(Also, remember Agent Carter season 1 when Howard openly told Peggy tat he'd been in love with Steve? Yeah, that is going to be a fun discussion when they announce their engagement. Seriously, someone should write it.)

Conclusion: While I understand how the idea of Steve returning to Peggy might have sounded good on paper, the writers just didn't think it through and as a consequence, it feels rushed and as if they'd just butchered not only one, but at least three or four of our beloved characters and their story arcs.

2) My opinion about Endgame was that it was nice. But definitely not good or something I'd want to rewatch anytime soon.

- It bit off more than it can chew. One movie to close off six character arcs is not enough by far. They should have made at least three. One for Steve and Tony, one for Clint and Natasha, and one for Bruce and Thor.

-> Tony's character arc was the one I was almost completely happy with. Minus the Pepper wearing the suit bit, which I feel should have been a big emotional moment but instead was just kind of there and came a little out of nowhere. Steve, see above, would have needed either a different ending or a whole lot more thought in it.

-> Clint becoming a pretty terrible serial killer was just somehow never dealt with?? Because THAT? That would have needed a complete movie to make sense and to give him time to actually redeem himself. Natasha... Redemption equals death. I'm not a fan of that trope, especially because she already seemed to have redeemed herself at that point? She didn't need to die? Also, fine, I get why it could make sense, but killing off the one female protagonist these movies had for quite some time feels really, really... It makes me feel cheated. Given more time, they could have developed the whole arc better.

->Bruce making peace with the Hulk IS exactly what should have happened to him. HOWEVER, it all happened in that short moment when the screen was black and read "five years later". That is... Not what I'd call good character development. Again, this would have needed TIME. Give him a movie. Combine his story with that of Thor. Could have been great.

-> Thor. This is the one that makes me just ANGRY, so I'm giving it it's own bullet point. Look, what happened to him completely makes sense. It also feels as if the movie hadn't taken him and his pain seriously. Like that scene in his cabin, that was totally played for laughs, and after that, they just didn't give him enough time. And I get it, there WAS NO TIME. There was just too much going on.

But people, alcoholism and PTSD are SERIOUS subjects, and if you want them there, you need to commit to write them properly. Marvel can do that, as they have proven with their Demon In A Bottle storyline, Iron Man 3 or The Incredible Hulk episode Alice In Discoland. But these are all separate stories that revolve around these themes. There is no way someone could manage a nuanced and sensitive representation in an ensemble movie that also juggles at least eight other characters and aims to close off eleven years worth of movies. There is just not enough time.

So what they should have done instead: Either make Endgame three movies, and give Thor and Bruce one where they can support each other while dealing with his trauma and the Hulk, or just leave out the entire arc. Thor's arc was finished in Thor: Ragnarok. He became king, learned to accept that his father had done many bad things and made peace with Loki. They should have left it there and only used him to drive the action forward instead of trying to have him evolve in any direction.

(In this version, the massacre at the beginning of Infinity War shouldn't have happened. Give them some more time to arrive on Earth, and than call Thor and Bruce away to fight Thanos while Loki is benched because the Asgardians need an acting king. Thor behaves more or less the way he did in Ragnarok, goes on his quest to get the axe, and Endgame is just plain different.)

- While I do enjoy a good "everything is bad AU", Endgame didn't make it work. Probably because they messed up the characters part.

- Nice call backs, though. Especially the one when they redid the Star Lord dancing in the cave scene, and than cut to Rhodey and Nebula watching him looking like a complete idiot. :D I really liked that one.

- Good action scenes. The end fight when all the dusted heroes came out of the portal and they were these dark silhouettes with a bright light behind their backs! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Conclusion: Nice movie. Not a fan. Only half achieved what it set out to do.

#marvel #avengers endgame #avengers engame spoilers #avengers endgame review #stucky

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vanilla-blessing · 5 years

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qb anime of the year list 2018

Anime of the Year 2018 - the year of girls going to aquariums together

I’ve seen at least one person who claimed that 2018 was the best year for anime in recent memory and I’m inclined to agree. A large majority of my top ten list is shows that I would consider perfect and even shows that blew away what I thought was possible in the medium. It was a revolutionary year and makes a strong argument that anime wasn’t a mistake after all. - qb

Hugtto! Precure blew away my expectations every week for close to a year. I don’t exactly know what to say about it here, since this isn’t the last time I’ll talk about it for sure. It doesn’t even end in 2018, but it was such a huge part of my 2018 in anime that it would be inaccurate to not include it. The only way I can think to explain Hugtto! Precure is to talk about the Netflix She-ra reboot. She-ra’s a pretty basic modern Dreamworks cartoon, with some interesting ideas thrown in and likable characters, but mostly held back by what they could realistically allot for production. Because of this limitation, She-ra goes hard on a single perfect episode (if you’ve seen it, you know which one) that stands out in a big way and shows the full potential of what they set out to make. Usually, Precure is lucky to get a handful of these stand-out episodes in a season, and most of the time just gets by, due to being an annual series that can never, ever take a break. Normally, the first few episodes of a Precure season can be counted on to be strong, but the realities of anime production being hella tough inevitably catch up.

Hugtto! Precure started with an incredible opening arc, then never let off the gas pedal. Nearly every episode of Hugtto is a stand-out, never-before-seen, innovative tour-de-force. The combination of production miracles that resulted in Hugtto has been talked about by me on this blog before, (http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/176000267859/hana-is-getting-unstable-a-pink-precure) but the length of time that Hugtto stayed in the paint, going extremely hard every single week with few exceptions, was just absurd. Every season of Precure has one or two peaks, sometimes a good season gets lucky and has even more, the best seasons bat a solid average, but are still expected to be held back by reality. Coming out of the fifteenth season of Precure with a majority of the best episodes in the entire franchise isn’t something that I can wrap my head around, but it definitely happened, mostly in 2018. It’s simultaneously a love letter to the franchise’s past, present, and future made by the biggest Precure fans on the planet, and it’s unquestionably the best season. Hugtto threw what we all knew was true and had accepted about Precure clear out the window, retroactively made older seasons better, watered my crops, brought world peace, ect.

Oh yeah and boys can be cures now.

I’m definitely not done with Revue Starlight and this won’t be the last time I talk about it. Revue Starlight essentially carried the Summer 2018 anime season on its back. Starlight absolutely dominated my anime watching schedule; my week was seriously just waiting for and watching different translations and releases with every other show being almost incidental, far less important than waiting for the song lyrics to get translated for an episode I had seen three times already. I won’t get into everything here, since I’ve already talked about it on this blog after all (http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/179023723689/subtext-is-for-cowards-revue-starlight), but I need to reiterate that it was such a commanding, unique, stylized experience and didn’t drop a single episode in its entire absurdly high-level production. The only reasonable explanation for this is devil magic, and hell, it was worth it. Revue Starlight is probably in my top 5 anime of all time and I wouldn’t get this list out if I said everything I wanted to say about it. It’s great. Watch it twenty times.

Pop Teen Epic, or Hoshiiro Girldrop, was the most wildcard that has ever been in seasonal anime, and could have been absolutely anything. What none of us predicted was just how much of anything this show would be, encompassing an unprecedented range of artists, voice acting talent, and whatever AC-bu are, each giving their very individual takes on a self-described shitpost comic strip, sometimes covering the exact same material two or three times, with no regard for any sort of cohesion or structure.

Nothing about this idea should have been funded, nothing in Pop Team Epic has any reason to work, and as a straight adaptation probably wouldn’t have worked. PTE spun gold from trash through the raw effort of artists doing their own thing, which captures the original spirit that made the formerly-cancelled comic popular in a way that’s much too intelligent for haters to understand. Also it got a dub, which is the most ridiculously bad idea i’ve heard in my life, and it owns that it happened.

Spider-man into the Spider-verse is legit the best comic book movie ever made. It’s a fun, expressive twist on the most tired superhero origin story of all time, and showcases some of the most sssssssssstyle and raw, real emotion I’ve ever seen in animation. Its particular selection of influences is brilliant and poignant, rising far above the simple fanservice you’ve come to expect from Spider-man. The unrelenting individualistic spirit of this movie will stick with you the longest in the soundtrack, bravely incorporating a side of pop music that you don’t usually get to see in big-budget productions, pulling soundcloud rappers out of their grody (i’m told) dens into the spotlight with equal importance alongside the heroic score. Spider-verse is all about establishing your own unique flavor, and it manages to overwrite every other entry in this cursed franchise with its bold taste.

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It doesn’t make sense to me how amazing Aggretsuko’s dub is. The impeccable timing of each line, the perfect integration with the comedy, and the optimal length of the episodes are all far beyond what I expected from a Netflix show. It not only converted the original series of shorts that I already had on my top 10 the first year into a godlike longer series I didn’t know I wanted, but went to the effort to bring real metal singers in for the karaoke. Honestly just repeat everything I said in my 2016 list and multiply it by five. I hope they make more. They’re making more.

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I was pretty slow to pick up anime in the Winter 2018 season, but I never missed Hakumei and Mikochi, maybe because it was like, the only simulcast on my favorite online anime streaming subscription service HiDiVE. The subs weren’t great, and it certainly wasn’t all that popular, but it was just the relaxing show I needed. Hakumei and Mikochi brought me back to my favorite non-racist parts of the Redwall series of books: friendly animals, delicious foods, alcohol, and rustic songs. I was ready to put it on my list for simply being a cute healing foodie anime, but to my surprise, it had much more in store within its tiny world: stark confrontations with mortality, a shy riverside necromancer, the inexplicable remake of The Raid: Redemption in miniature, fashion trends, frogs, carpenter weasels, carpenter skeletons, ghost celebrations, a country beetle with lofty dreams. The list of memorable people, places, and things contained in the gnomish roommates’ tiny world goes on and on.

Masaomi Ando’s directing went completely along with the storybook aesthetic, maybe even to an overall detriment, which is exactly the kind of reckless commitment to style I love to see. The distinctive paneling, constantly gorgeous backgrounds, and deliberate pacing perfectly captured the imaginative stories I loved to read as a kid, but with more alcohol, and more sophisticated themes under the surface. Even something anime rarely get right, endings, were perfectly capstoned every week with a short digest that explored more of the history, legends, and very personal lore of their small, unique world. At its core, Hakumei and Mikochi is the calming story of tiny roommates you think it is, but it’s also so much more. They have day jobs and get drunk and remodel their house after it explodes that one time. They gamble dangerously to escape a blizzard, help a photographer give herself a little credit, and rescue their neighbor from a fancy grave of her own making. By the end of the show Hakumei practically built half a town. The collective stories from their everyday adventures build into something tremendous, and it all wraps up on the most perfect ending sequence I could have hoped for, which calls back to every story thus far as a new verse of the show’s central duet is sung. In any reasonable AnimeOTY Hakumei and Mikochi would be my top anime of 2018, but this year, the competition was unreasonable. This show will just have to settle for being the best regular anime of the year.

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Bloom Into You is an incredible adaptation of an apparently yuri romance manga that raises the bar for anime adaptations in general. I don’t know when, but somewhere along the line I stopped expecting that serious capital R Romance anime would have a distinctive style, and gave up to the notion that there was no demand anymore and a stylized, seinen/josei romance would just never get made. Well that was 2016 and then Scum’s Wish happened which this blog has covered extensively.(http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/168842023559/how-lerche-adapted-an-average-trashy-romcom-into, http://vanilla-blessing.tumblr.com/post/168789506264/scums-wish-and-our-messy-uncomfortable) To me Bloom Into You feels similar in concept, as a difficult romantic situation with no easy answers or completely happy people. The main perspective character, Yuu, is among my favorite romantic leads in any series; she doesn’t get romantic feelings, although she wants to, and despite being easily motivated, is kind of dispassionate. Her relationship that she was pushed into with Touko might as well be out of mutual convenience, since Touko doesn’t want to fall in love with someone who would love her back, and Yuu doesn’t think she can.

Yuu filters the developments of the series as they grow closer through a very different perspective compared to more emotional leads of usual romance stories, methodically breaking down and considering where she’s at, observing where others are at, before taking an action that makes sense to her. Her growth through the series takes a very different direction than the common dramatic formula; instead of running headfirst into misunderstandings to overcome romantic challenges, she’s compelled to take a step back and position herself in a way that allows her to understand and confront her girlfriend’s issues. The changes that she experiences herself during this process are extremely gradual, but are no less significant to her. Although the dramatic weight of the series is obviously all about Touko, the central thesis of Bloom Into You is to explore Yuu’s complex feelings, and ask to what degree our actions are dictated by our emotions. It’s a heavy topic to be sure, but what makes this anime adaptation special in particular is how the directing and production pull it off, to maybe an even stronger degree than the original material.

Bloom Into You’s most striking and noticeable feature is the incredible conservation of small movements that connect expressions naturally. Minute changes in characters’ faces are vital to observe the almost imperceptible changes in Yuu over the course of the series, and every aspect of the direction is in service of highlighting these subtle moments. In addition, repeated cinematic themes are reinforced over the show’s run, such as the use of light to impart a blinding realization, flower language to inform deeper personalities, even using a literal (not literal) cinema. Symbols such as trains, masks, and mirrors are used constantly and consistently to reinforce the show’s themes, which should be immediately obvious from the opening animation. I’m still kind of stunned that Bloom Into You’s ending theme is such a banger and managed to use an oscillating sine curve in a metaphorical way. These details might be lost without the brilliant layouts, intentionally resembling a stage, which always push the minute differences front and center. As an anime adaptation, Bloom Into You adds so much value in such a subdued, conservative way that it puts uninspired adaptations to shame.

Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 rounded out the year with a good old new-fashioned Japanese-speaking Chinese-Wuxia Taiwanese puppet show. The novelty of this wild series, like, existing at all, is still incredible to me, but I was really wowed by the new characters and the direction the series went in after the already high standards of the first season. Following the outrageous action and fights of the previous season, I did not expect that season 2’s introductory goon would 1. Live past the first episode 2. So quickly become my favorite swordfighter and 3. Have inarguably the most complete character arc of the entire show thus far. The Princess of Cruelty’s struggle against her inner and outer demons in a unreasonably stacked, desperate situation developed her into easily the most compelling character of the season, and the rest of the cast including a corrupt police officer with extremely disconcerting and bad puppet teeth, a ventriloquist rock-lutist, and a nihilist monk each bring their own unique flavors to the table. The table that they throw the puppets in the air from to make the show. All of the new elements of Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 improved an already strong formula even more, and revealed an emotional depth to the series that I’m excited to see developed further. Some people might not call this anime, but those people haven’t seen Thunderbolt Fantasy for longer than 2 seconds. It’s so anime.

I blasted all available seasons of Star vs the Forces of Evil early in 2018, and it was basically my first foray into straight-up American cartoon magical girl, despite watching all the Japanese ones, which was probably an oversight on my part. That’s because Star Versus is really good, and provided a flavor of magical girl I had been missing out on. I could talk about the excellent sparkle witch aesthetic of the show, fluid animation, and hilarious comedy, but I’d rather spend this blogspace posting Star Butterfly faces.

#10

A Place Further Than the Universe, or YoriMoi, or my preferred moniker That Antartica Anime, wasn’t on my radar until well after it had finished airing, but it stuck with me for most of the year. Although it’s definitely melodramatic at times, it utilizes this tendency in exactly the right way to enhance the individual characters’ emotional arcs. Even though I was personally sort of taken out of it for many of the girls’ personal trials, :penguin emoji: is obviously thoughtfully written and carefully constructed, and especially knows how to orchestrate an immense emotional reaction with pitch-perfect timing. If there’s one particular aspect this anime has absolute mastery over, it’s hitting that perfect note and cue to create a memorable narrative climax. And for all my bellyaching about not fully relating to some of the characters, Miyake is definitively the #1 qb-relatable character of the year.

Here’s the rest of my list. Don’t @ me about it because if its not on my top ten then it doesnt really count anymore i dont make the rules thats just how it is

11. Yuru Camp

12. Hisone and Masotan

13. Asagao to Kase-san

14. Devilman Crybaby

15. After the Rain

16. Planet With

- friend of the show @queuebae on twitter

That’s why the 2018 anime of the year award goes to Kaiju Girls 2.

#top ten anime 2018 #top ten pop team epics #pop teen epic #pop team epic #hoshiiro girldrop #poppiteppikiu #popttippiku #bob team epic #bob epic team #PTE 2018 #Pop Team Epic Season 2

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gingertodgers · 5 years

Note

6 & 7 from the salt asks and 8 & 18 for the sweet asks?

hello lovely one ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

salt

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

Drarry? If fanon hadn’t already given Draco such a brill redemption arc I don’t think I ever would have got behind the pairing.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?

Remus/Tonks. I utterly adored that pairing in the books. Like heart eyes all the way. I thought they were amazing and loved the dynamic of Remus worrying about being too old for Tonks (because hey, trying to be responsible and thoughtful is a pretty big part of loving someone) and the way she could joke with him and was so protective of him. sigh.

Then I got a bit older and realised that fancying Remus and liking Tonks basically felt exactly the same… But it couldn’t be the same because he was a man and therefore feeling that way about him meant I liked him and Tonks was a woman and feeling that way about her meant I just wanted her to be my friend and… oh. Oh, I see.

So that was the point I was at when I joined fandom and started reading Wolfstar fics and meta posts about how they were bullied into being together and now I’m Not A Fan. Although Remus Lupin is still bi as fuck and I will fight the internet on that point. He’s just maybe not bi for Tonks and maybe she deserved a different story and you know, not to die.

sweet

8. Who’s your favorite character in fandom? Why?

Maybe Neville? Seeing how much everyone else loves him was such a great part of Chubby Neville Fest and I’m so excited about @growing-neville. Also writing him with Pansy was a fun moment because I basically begged the drarry discord for headcanons and they really delivered! The fact that even when we are writing him as a bit of a fuck boi Neville is still the fanon prince fills me with joy and appreciation for him.

18. Shout out to your betas, your cheer readers, your frequent commenters that give the best feedback!

I’ve been very lucky with betas, all of them are superstars and some of the best of best are @nerdherderette @drarrymylove @frnklymrshnkly and the incomparable @tdcatsblog ♥ ♥ ♥

I have so many cheer readers that I can’t start naming them because otherwise I’ll never stop and they will be vaguely creeped out that a comment from them 2+ years ago still makes me tearfully happy ♥ I do think that the drarry fandom in general is very blessed to have commenatrixes like td, frnkly, @candybarrnerd @nifflers-n-nargles @aibidil and @violetclarity

Speaking of which, roll call for alpha readers who are 100% responsible for me finishing specific fics: violet beasted my 8th year wlw speed-dating fic, your lovely self and @synonym-for-life rescued Team Slytherdor for me, frnkly saved my last millie/padma fic and oh gawd so many more!

#goldentruth813 #salt and sweet asks #asks #drarry #me #neville longbottom #remus lupin #tonks #fandom #hp #hp fandom #my writing

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itsmonkeypajamas · 7 years

Text

Roman

I’ve had a lot of opinions about Roman and I’ve never been quite sure what my true feelings are. Until the deleted scene was released yesterday. And then suddenly it all seemed to click. At least until October 27th when Martin Gero proves me all wrong (or technically, at least until Tuesday when we see even more deleted scenes that proves me all wrong.)

My original plan was to be a tumblr message that I would organize my thoughts, but what happened was just an epically long conversation on Twitter, so I’m just trying to change those transcripts into something more manageable to read. I’m not promising eloquence or even coherence.

Also, @guadalajara92– enjoy.

Presentation of Roman and Story Arc and Editing

I think a lot of people didn’t know what to make of Roman, especially as the season continued. I certainly didn’t. I mean, I was afraid of him, and especially what he meant for Jane, Kurt, and the other people I loved. But there’s also the fact that Jane was attached to him, and you want to protect the people Jane cares about. He represented something very real for her.

And then when he had his memory wiped, it was almost like ‘oh this is perfect. He can turn good and fight Sandstorm with Jane.’ Except we know that it’s never that simple.

There were signs all along. Roman wasn’t as he seemed.

And I’m grateful that they didn’t show this scene because I think this is where editing is so important.

They did give us little tiny clues throughout the back half of the season about Roman. But this, this scene with the bird was not a tiny clue. It was a big, smack you in the face clue.

That’s where I really think the brilliance of editing comes through.

I’ve been watching a LOT of shows with WAY too many deleted scenes and it’s just like, well, they cut it for time, or because this or that. And not that I don’t doubt the importance of editing in those shows, but scenes like this help prove how it really can help shape storytelling.

If they had shown that in the show in 2.12 or 2.18 or whenever it was supposed to air… the entire perception around Roman would have shifted. Immediately.

The whole emotional component of that storyline, and really almost everything that happened in the last three episodes (minus Jeller developments) – was based upon the audience hoping, wanting, needing Roman to make the ‘right’ choice. We wanted him to forgive Jane. We wanted him to be good.

But if we had seen that scene, I really think that, at least for a portion of the audience, we would know he was already gone. That there was no hope left, and we would almost expect he would turn to Shepherd.

Connection With Jane

He always had a connection with her.

First half of the season, he used it to try and manipulate her, get her back to Sandstorm. Even though he knew from the beginning, he still thought Remi was in there and that he could get her back.

And then the back half, Jane forced the connection. She told him that she was the only one who could understand. Telling him about how great the FBI was, while ignoring how different their situations were, especially at the beginning. And then that connection was severed.

I think that was what the deleted scene with the coin proved. He has no connection left. To anyone.

What Ifs

I’m not a huge fan of what if’s in general, but just somethings that came up in our discussion.

1. What if Jane had been able to turn him (willingly or unwillingly) before 2.07 and when Roman found out that Jane really had betrayed Sandstorm?

2. What if they hadn’t gotten into the fight in the car and Jane could have taken him somewhere safe (the FBI or otherwise)?

3. What if Jane had told him the truth immediately? What if the CIA had taken him immediately?

4. What if he was released into Jane’s custody/safe house immediately?

I’m not really sure how this would have all played out. Because the thing is the way I’m analyzing Roman’s character – it’s his personality. And I actually feel that although the specifics would be different, in general, it would still be the same. Because Roman’s personality hasn’t changed.

1. He would have been hostile. I doubt he would have come willingly (especially now that we know they were suspicious of Jane all along), and I think he wouldn’t have said anything. Probably taken straight to the CIA or be awaiting trial.

2. I see a slightly better ending to this, but the thing is, he still woke up with no memories and having been shot. He would have been angry and scared, and it would have been a hard transition. If he didn’t escape and didn’t kill the people at the restaurant, maybe it would have been better, but I don’t see a major shift in personality or outcome, just a different way to get there.

3. There was no right answer about lying. If she had told him – he would have reacted just as angrily as he did when he found out. And I think he would have been sent to the CIA immediately. Pellington seemed pretty eager to hand him over (although he looked so confused when he learned what they’d done to Jane in 2.01), and basically only acquiesced because he was docile and had a connection with Jane, and really, because Kurt threatened to walk. And let’s not lie – if Roman had made ANY kind of threat or harm to Jane, Kurt wouldn’t had stood up for him. Kurt would have seen him as a threat and although he’d want to help Jane, he would stop at nothing to protect her. He maybe would have pushed for a trail instead of CIA, but, I have no doubt that it would just be immediately bye bye Roman.

3.1. And if he had stayed somehow in contact with Jane… I don’t see them having time to rebuild their relationship. First of all there was less than a month between 2.10 and 2.21. That’s a lot of anger to get over in a month. He would have stayed in a cell and not had any of the small things that helped humanize him (no outside time, no sparring, no books). I’m almost betting the anger would have increased, but even best case, it wouldn’t have decreased enough for him to choose Jane.

4. Maybe if he was offered the same deal as Jane this could have happened. Again, slightly better outcome, but same end result. Because in this scenario – when does Jane tell him. I don’t see him being released if he knew Jane was the result (back in December maybe I thought this was a possibility, but I don’t anymore – hindsight guys). And he still would have remembered. Maybe he would have had more good memories with Jane to help overpower some of the other, but, again, that initial anger and hatred is what I really think fueled his going with Shepherd in 2.21.

Treatment of Jane vs Roman when they first came to the FBI

Not going to spend so much time on this because I think it’s obvious to everyone involved it was different and why it was different.

Jane was (mostly) treated as a victim. Yes, at first they were a bit suspicious of her, but again, they thought she’d been tattooed without consent and her memory had been erased and she was a victim. But even still she had access and determination that no other victim would have. Even in episode 1, they basically allowed her out in the field with them just to keep her safe (she would have gone anyway, might as well allow it and protect her). She started breaking down Kurt’s walls in that initial interrogation room scene. Sandstorm knew this would happen and it worked perfectly. She was basically a member of the team in less than a week.

Roman, however, they knew exactly who he was. It was exactly the way he should have been treated and very similar to how Jane was treated once they learned the truth. You can logically say yes his memory was wiped, but the fact is, he’s still a criminal. In reality you don’t just get to say “Oh, but I’ve changed, I’m no longer the same person who murdered those people so I don’t need to go to jail.” Even if you’ve changed, you still need to stand trial and face up what you did.

In a way he got the same deal as Jane – you won’t face charges if you help bring down Sandstorm. But it was different just in simply the time and the case were different. Jane was only offered that deal when she became a double/triple agent. Roman had no such option.

It did take a longer time. He got released into Jane’s custody with a detail after 20 days. For comparison, Jane’s detail was dropped after approximately 13 days.

Basically, Roman could have never received the same treatment as Jane. It just wasn’t even an option for him.

Roman in general

He’s not a good person.

I said it.

Sociopath, psychopath, I don’t know. My major was biopsychology not abnormal psychology.

Roman’s brain acted neutrally to both happy and sad images. It is different than normal. It’s extreme anti-social or whatever Dr. Sun said.

Plus he is manipulative, which I had forgotten about until Lily mentioned it. He spent the first half of the season manipulating Jane. He’s able to read situations (think when he was out in the field in 2.15) He was able to provoke a situation to get the key fob or whatever.

He’s manipulative in the way that he’s able to read situations and find the way to get what he wants. This scenario is also seen in like CEOs, and also, Jane is too. In the exact same way. Except Jane uses it to form an emotional connection and is used for good.

And here’s the crux of my argument I think.

Roman would have turned out the same NO MATTER WHAT.

Jane’s life was changed in a good way from the ZIP. And Maybe if Roman had been given a full proper dose and same treatment, maybe he could have really erased all those tendencies. But with what he was presented with (incomplete ZIP treatment, worse transition, different therapy technique, etc), he never had a shot. Never. And he is now beyond redemption.

Yes they both grew up in the same environment. But you know what, sociopaths can also grow up in a loving WASPy home. Their upbringing did not HELP matters, but again, if Roman really does have these tendencies (which I think he does), he would still be bad even if his parents were never murdered (except maybe he would have landed more on the CEO manipulative side, hopefully).

Bunny Story

Because I’m really interested in this, and last night, I started it and then got confused about what point I was making. So mostly going to quote Lilly here.

The bunny story isn’t about killer instinct. It’s about doing what you need to do to survive and reading the situation (again, reading the situation is a start of manipulation).

Jane didn’t want to kill her bunny. Roman didn’t want to kill her bunny. But Jane knew what she needed to do to survive.

Roman, for whatever reason, couldn’t.

I’m not sure what this means for my character analysis since sociopaths usually murder pets and other animals when they are this young and Roman couldn’t.

Again, maybe it goes in line with the fact that if Roman had stayed Ian, maybe his tendencies would have been used for the ‘safe’ route. And maybe the experience in the orphanage and with Shepherd is what pushed him over the edge into the ‘bad’.

I don’t know.

Roman’s time with the FBI and the clues we saw

I’m definitely going to forget some of the clues (rewatching just a week ago doesn’t mean I remember anything).

The fight at the diner. I place it in some ways as the same as Jane’s fight with the landlord. With one major difference. Neither could stop on their own. Jane had to be pulled away, Roman’s ended when it was over. But Jane was immediately terrified of what she had done. Roman, no. When he forked that guy, he felt nothing.

When Kat died. He felt nothing. And I don’t mean he felt nothing as in the “he was in love with her and didn’t feel sad” …

There’s a difference between feeling ‘nothing’ like Jane and Patterson did after Oscar/Borden’s deaths because of the complicated emotional state to… having to kill people in self-defense and feeling nothing.

Humans are designed to feel sad at death. Even strangers’ deaths.

Even Borden felt it when he killed the person with the nail gun in 1.20.

And then this scene proves it. He thinks nothing of taking a creature’s life. Nothing. Yes, maybe that bird was beyond saving. It probably couldn’t live. But most people would feel some pain at a life ending, and not just squash it like a bug (which yes I know is also life, but let’s not get started).

And so these lines in 2.21 proved it.

“Deep down, you knew what he was and you were scared of what he’d do when he learned the truth.”

“I saw all the signs, I just kept pushing them away.”

They were there. Jane didn’t want them to be true because she loved her brother. Kurt didn’t want them to be true because he loved Jane.

Roman and the last three episodes

Again I’m sure most of this has been discussed by people wiser than me. So just a quick overview of my thoughts.

Roman didn’t choose Shepherd in 2.21. He chose not Jane.

Just like Shepherd asking him, why did he choose Jane – because Jane wasn’t asking him to choose. But then he learned Jane had really taken away all of his choices. And then he chose Shepherd because that was what his memories were telling him was the right choice, but also, it was anger at Jane that made him choose that. If the timeline had been different, the choice would have been different.

Granted, Lily did say, well, I’d have chosen Shepherd too just to escape alive. And to be fair, I probably would have also. Sorry Pellington, I’m a coward. That’s probably why I don’t work for the FBI. I don’t think he rationally was thinking that, but it is a fact to consider.

I do think he was shooting to kill in 2.21. There is not a bit of doubt in my mind about that. He was angry and he had the target of his anger right there. Just like with the knife fight, he wasn’t half assing it. He wanted to hurt her.

Future

I don’t care if he’s good or evil.

I want Luke to stick around. I love Luke, I love his friendship with Jaimie, I love his interactions with fans, and he seems genuinely awesome.

And so yes, I want Roman to be around because Luke being around means Roman’s around.

But in terms of the character, I don’t know. I think they could work it in either way.

It would be nice if he forgave Jane, even if he didn’t turn himself in, but he was shown watching her or something (and not in a creepy way). I’m not sure if he could (depending on character analysis I’m not sure if he’s actually capable of remorse).

The thing is though, the writers do know how to write that storyline with him being a big bad. We already have an emotional connection with the character which makes him a lot more dimensional than most of the big bads. Like with Shepherd last season, even if we didn’t like her or her methods, there was something that we could see in her, which made her an effective antagonist.

It’s the same thing with Roman. We connect to him. And boy do I want to see what’s next.

#Blindspot #Roman #Project Roman #talking too much for twitter #i'm probably totally wrong

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reactingtosomething · 7 years

Text

Solo Reaction to Orphan Black Episode 510: “To Right the Wrongs of Many”

Well Done, Show.

The Setup: This is it, Clone Club. The final ride has ended, and I for one loved the hell out of it. Check below for my final Orphan Black solo reaction. Spoilers for the last five years, basically.

SARAH: Art knows what they need and is not the one who is Helena’s twin, clearly she should go be with Helena and he should get the medical supplies. I mean I know it had to be Sarah vs. “PT” at the end, obviously. But in-universe I’m right about that logic. But yeah, Sarah killing him with very little ceremony and none of his acolytes to watch was pretty appropriate.

OH GOD they pulled no punches with that suffocation visual.

This is EVOLUTION. More on that later.

The Sarah/Mrs. S parallels during the births, though. Sarah (and all the clones) are moving out from under the control of their lives and destinies. They are not S’s to watch over or Neolution’s to control. They are the adults. They’re raising each other and their kids.

Sarah and Helena’s joyful laugh/cries after the birth(s) are just lovely.

Is Sarah getting her GED?? I’m so proud! She’s turning into such a grownup, but is also still herself. Well done, show.

Honestly I do think that Sarah should sell the house. She needs to become her own version of an adult, not just step into S’s shoes entirely. Like, don’t move away to wander the earth apart from the whole support system, but get an apartment instead maybe.

Sarah. Get your ass back in there and take the GED test!

“I don’t know how to be happy. There’s no one left to fight and I’m still a shit mum.” There is SO MUCH here. For one thing that language is super telling—Sarah may not always be good at being a mother, but she’s far from a shit one compared to Coady, the other person who’s been described as such. There’s no question about Sarah being wrong here. (Admittedly she has not always been a good mother but she has been improving and she does always have Kira’s best interests at heart.) For another thing, this is very important and realistic. Ending an all-consuming battle and returning to normal life is never simple. Sarah was good at guerrilla warfare, essentially. Those skills don’t immediately translate to healthy coping mechanisms or finding a day job. Sarah is still Sarah. They’re all still the people they were before and during this shitshow. Alison is still the woman who sold drugs and hot glue gunned her husband. They’re all still just people and they can’t go from living one life to living a totally different one with no bumps, even a normal/“easier” one. Just because Sarah can’t do it immediately doesn’t mean she can’t do it at all.

None of them are perfect and they’re all in it together and it’s the most mellow but effective multi-clone season ender ever. No one look at me.

HELENA: This is basically a nightmare birth situation and I am NOT a fan.

Helena is preparing for vengeance even while ACTIVELY CONTRACTING and all I can say is damn, woman. Props.

OH MY GOD Art and Helena are such a good team! That was highly effective tag team murder.

It’s a boy. Of course they’re boys. Kira was (nearly) exploited the way Kendall and the Ledas' birth mothers were. Kira and Charlotte are the intermediates, the ones who are part of the Leda story but won’t grow up entirely within it, but these boys are the true next generation. They’re not just repeating the script over again, they’re a departure from the Neo controlled past.

That is the cutest and creepiest mobile ever.

Orange and Purple!! Ok, but babies lose their socks ALL THE TIME. This is an imperfect method.

“Always when I eat, he poops.”

Super into her Hawaiian shirt over overalls look.

“Where does this sand come from?”

They’re still not going to explain the black part of Orphan Black, are they?

I’m touched by the significance of naming the boys after Donnie and Art, but doesn’t that get confusing? Sure, call the baby Arthur instead of Art, but there’s nothing that far away from “Donnie,” sound-wise. And at least for now they live on the same property. (The one bit of Judaism that has managed to enter my psyche the most is the custom of not naming kids after living relatives, so I’m a little weird about this kind of thing.)

RACHEL: Is Rachel coming? Is that the secret person Felix is expecting? Yesssss. Even if she can’t be a part of the happy family, she is still a part of this and the show/Felix acknowledges it.

So we’re just straight up discussing this in front of the uber driver?

She gave them the list of Ledas. Rachel’s final redemptive act saves the rest of the clones she helped to subjugate, and is a final screw you to the people who made her do it for so long.

General Rachel thought: Rachel needed redemption. She was cruel and a part of the structure that controlled and killed a lot of people. She was a product of a deeply abusive situation that made her that way, but she still was that way. She still stomped on the potential cure, she still ordered the deaths of clones and others. In a way she and Helena are a better “two sides to the same coin” comparison than Helena and Sarah are. Both were raised largely without love or proper socialization. Both were made “self aware” while fairly young. Both are taught that they are the special one, and can only continue to do they terrible things they do by believing that fact. Both self-harm. Both learn that their extremely black and white world views are limited primarily by being exposed to the family of their clones, primarily Kira. Helena made the change much more quickly, but they are both on that arc.

ALISON: “I was a drug dealer for Pete’s sake” is peak Alison Hendrix.

The Hendrixes have joy and laughter as a part of their sex lives and I am happy about this.

I know this is not from this episode, but it’s amazing

COSIMA: Cosima is curing the Ledas!! She is doing it! And of course she feels like it’s not enough because she’s Cosima, but she’s doing it!

Science monkey! I love this.

Cos, you don’t have to be good with kids if you don’t want to be. Although she actually is excellent with kids, just not babies. So I guess the point is you don’t have to be maternal if you don’t want to be. You can love the children in your life without wanting your own. And if you do want children, being scared doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

Cosima is coming so close to meeting all of these women, but not quite. That’s beautiful and sad in its own way. She’s always been the one to embrace sisterhood the quickest, so I imagine she loves each of these sisters a little bit. But she’s not destroying their lives by telling them about all of this when there’s no need to. There is an argument to be made about not making the decision for them by keeping the info from them, but telling them would also be making that decision for them. I’m going to choose to believe that they leave a semi-conspicuous web trail so that any Ledas who start to become self aware can find clone club if they’re looking.

Also, can we talk about how gorgeous this artwork is and how I’m now obsessed with it? Please illustrate all of their adventures around the world.

TONY!!!! Guys, Tony has at least been acknowledged again! He and Krystal are cured and that is good.

EVERYONE ELSE: Goddammit Coady why are you so resilient?

“PT” (AKA JOHN) losing his grip is both terrifying and delicious. I was honestly hoping he would die of a heart attack—none of his cruelty or his science could save him from a simple failure of the body. But again, it being Sarah’s action was probably necessary.

Honestly, this was an underuse of Enger after they set her up to be such an interesting character in such small moments earlier. Clearly the focus here is on the Ledas more than their subjugators, but come on. I wonder if she had anything that ended up being cut for time? I’m excited to follow the actor’s career.

I know I already used this one, and it wasn’t from this episode. But look at how compelling she is! And this ^ isn’t even as good as the toothbrush scene!

There really is a kill them in the throat theme this season.

Art calling people sestra is adorable!

274??? Living or total ever? That’s so many!

I’ve done a lot of discussing parenthood as a sign of adulthood, and I certainly don’t want to say it’s a 1:1 situation. I think it has come up a lot this season especially because the show is a discussion of both family and evolution. It’s hard to have evolution without future generations, so there is a lot of kid focus. I don’t think the show goes to far in the direction of accidentally suggesting that motherhood is essential for adult womanhood—that’s the beauty of having a lot of women in your show. You can tell multiple stories, and multiple versions of the same story without suggesting that it is The Story.

I have no idea how intentionally Fawcett and Manson created this discussion of feminism and bodily autonomy. I think the later was the main intent and the feminism came out of the realization/acceptance of what they were already in the midst of creating. By making the lead a woman, they made most of the leads women, who all had to be different from each other. They couldn’t fall into the tropes many writers do when it comes to female characters. And when they began discussing This may be wrong and ungenerous of me—they may have had exactly this intent from the beginning!—but two things: 1) I think if they had a huge focus on feminism from the beginning there would have been more than one director who was a woman in the entire run (Helen Shaver, 3 episodes) and 2) Honestly, them learning the lesson as they went and freaking going for it is kind of great. Without meaning to (from the beginning—I’m not suggesting they were totally unaware this whole time!) these guys made a show that is all about women reclaiming their bodily autonomy from a big-for-tv version of forces that are very real in our lives. Realizing that that was the story and leaning into it effectively and without becoming a morality play is impressive and it gave us the show we have known and loved.

Ok, “this is evolution.” So true, on the science side and the personal side. Sarah and Helena have always been the outliers. It was a quirk of biology that lead to twins. And then their birth mother was willing and able to keep them safely away from Neolution. And they are actually able to conceive. None of these facts were intended or planned for. Evolution comes from gene mutations. Sometimes mutations are harmful, but sometimes they’re beneficial or neutral, and they get passed on and help the species become something new. If that happens enough times, you get a whole new species. There’s nothing intentional or graceful about it. You can’t plan for it, and you can’t do much to control it. “PT” tried to, and it never worked out for him. There were always other changes, or not enough change, or the small detail of people being people and thus not entirely controllable. He was beaten by the results of the uncontrollable parts of evolution, an unexpected twin who unexpectedly became a mother. And Sarah has evolved as a person because of both of those things, as well as everything else. In killing “PT" she completes the final step of not just no longer running from her problems, but truly stepping out from underneath them.

Finally, let’s talk happy ending. Finishing this was hard—I’ve had trouble taking a long view of anything this weekend, in light of the events in Charlottesville, VA. This is the first time I’ve sat entirely still in at least a day. It’s made me even more glad that this show, which has always contained darkness and some shocking violence, let the “core four” of clones and most of their nearest and dearest survive. There were deaths along the way, and a shit ton of suffering, but they could have gone much darker about the ending for the sake of Realism and I’m damn glad they didn’t. The show was about finding the light and hope and family amidst all of this darkness. Sarah has been trying to be allowed/allow herself to be a part of her family since she got on that train. It doesn’t look like what she thought it would, but neither does she anymore. This is the version of family that works for this version of Sarah, and it works for the show too. Everything’s not perfect. S is dead, Rachel will never be a part of the family. They’ve all suffered massively. But they made it, and they have each other for support moving forward. Bad things can end. Good things can endure. That hasn’t always been an explicit message of the show, but it is the one they chose to build to.

That’s all, folks. For more weekly reactions, check out Kris’s GoT series. For more ass-kicking genre women, check out Wynonna Earp. For more of Miri have a lot of feeling, check out The Bold Type (and I guess this blog in general).

#Orphan Black #Clone Club #orphan black spoilers #OB Spoilers #ob finale #orphan black season five #Sarah Manning #Alison Hendrix #Rachel and Helena's semi-parallel arcs of becoming less murderous through their love of Kira #Helena #Helena Orphan Black #Rachel Duncan #Tony Sawicki #Krystal Goderitch #To Right the Wrongs of Many #Reaction #Miri #Guys seriously what do I do with myself now?#Rewatch?

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flashbic · 7 years

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L, N, T, U, Z :)

L : Saysomething genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (wow, an ask where i can’t pick Death Machine because all the characters are myfaves)i guess i’ll go with Star Wars here? There aren’t any characters i flatout hate in TFA, but right now I’m pretty ambivalent about Kylo. I don’t hatehim; tbh I’d even say I like him, but whether or not he REALLY gets on mynerves will depend on how the movies will go with his character in the next installments.He’s a conflicted, overdramatic jerk, and i can appreciate that a lot! I reallylike the idea that was floating around for awhile, about him having basicallybeen brainwashed by Snokes ever since he was a tiny kid? I think the characterhas some good potential, and I’m a sucker for redemption arcs (let’s face it,that’s probably going to happen). But if they fucking decide to pair him withRey, I’m going to roll my eyes so hard.And I already hate how the probabilities of that thing happening are somewhathigh. Not because I ship Rey with someone else, (tbh, I don’t particularly shipher with anyone) I just don’t like the idea of that ship, and I feel like itwould cheapen both characters’ arcs.

N : Namethree things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom ofchoice).

In one of the magazines I bought that has promotional interviews about DeathMachine, Norrington mentions that he’s planning a sequel? I would’ve loved toknow what he had in mind here :D

I think it’s kind of hilarious that a whole bunch of reviews talk about howthe first half of the movie is a bit slow and boring compared to the secondone, ‘cause personally the first half is the one I like best? I like the quietmoments, with Hayden investigating and asking questions and trying to figurethings out :D It would’ve been cool to see her trying to get information fromJohn! We saw how Scott reacted when she asked him question, but she didn’t talkto John before everything went to shit, even though he might’ve seemed a bitmore inclined to talk.

iwould’ve liked to see a bit more of how things worked at CHAANK on a somewhatdaily basis, who did what and how they tried to keep all the bullshit that wasgoing on behind the scenes hidden. Also it would’ve been cool to know moreabout the Humanist Alliance and what Raimi, Weyland and Yutani have done forthem before (and just what they do ingeneral, when they’re not breaking into building and scaring people :D).

T : Do youhave any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? Other than the aroace Yutani headcanon Imentioned here, Raimi and Yutani as childhood friends! :D (they met whenthey were preteens or something?) Also it’s funny to think I used to crackshipHayden and Scott, because I kinda have a hard time imagining Scott not beinggay now? i mean, I wouldn’t die on that hill, but it’s funny to think of howthings changed, eh.

U: Threefavorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re yourfavorites.

John(Death Machine): it’s so hard picking a favorite here, because I love all thecharacters so much! But this idiot is my fave, so there you go. I think what I reallylove about John is how you can pick up on a lot of small details to try anfigure out how he would act on a daily basis (the movie makes it a bit hard tofigure out, since he’s in panic mode for most of it!). He’s snarky, petty,cowardly and just really fucking done with everything, and, like, those are thecharacter traits that speak to my soul because I have a never-ending love forcharacters who are godawful people but are somehow not terrible enough to countas main villains.Also William Hootkins is goddamn amazing, and I’m not going to rambleabout that because we’d be there for hours. Buthe is.(but seriously, all the Death Machine characters are my faves, and I loveall of them for different reasons and they’re all perfect)

MarvPushkin (HELP! A Bear is eating me!) : the entire book is still the mostmindblowing thing to me because it’s like Hansen looked inside my head, saweverything I find even remotely funny, and wrote a book about it. And Marv is100% part of that. I love how terrible he is from start to finish and I lovethat even though he’s got kind of a heartbreaking backstory, the book doesn’tlet any of it excuse anything he does. I love how fucking extra he is aboutabsolutely everything, and how ridiculously hard he works to pretend everything’sfine and he’s very happy with his situation, thank you very much, even though literally nothing is fine andeverything is terrible. He is the kind of person I would absolutely hate irl,but also exactly the type of character I love to read about because bad shithappens to him and his reactions to it are glorious. He is the most beautifultrainwreck and I love him.Long story short, I think thispost I wrote before I even bought the book or even read a single line fromit is a good summary of my feelings here. I looked at that super accurate characterdescription and my brain went “YES!!!! THIS IS THE KIND OF GUY I WANT TO READABOUT FOR 120 PAGES!!!!!!!!!”

Bigwig(Watership Down): it’s almost impossible for me to pick a favorite from thatbook, but Bigwig and Hazel are the ones I love the most? I love how gruffBigwig is, and he gets such a beautiful character arc. He starts out as thisstrong, but grumpy and a bit of a jerk, character, and ends up as this loyaland fierce and devoted second-in-command (sorta) and I just…. I’m so proud ofmy rabbit son. He goes through so much shit, and I love how the Effrafa missioncompletely puts him out of his zone of comfort, because by the time it happenshe’s already grown so much as a character that he’s able to take the rightdecisions in situations where early!Bigwig would’ve 100% fucked up. I love hisfriendship with Keeharr too! He looks at that big scary bird and his reactionis “WOW, COOL, I WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH HIM”, and I think that’s beautiful.

Z: Random rambling!

Everythingcan be a Death Machine crossover if you try hard enough

It’s been kindahard answering the multi-fandom questions because tbh I’ve been in the same 2-3fandoms for, like, forever by now? Especially thinking about Death Machinehere, haha. The hyperfocus is fucking real, and it’s been real for, like, over10 years now?? Not to say I don’t enjoy other content, it’s just that it’s rarefor me to lookup fan-content from new fandoms nowadays, and i have very littlepatience for fandom drama since I’ve pretty much only ever spent time if verysmall fandoms that had 4-5 people top. Moving from Deviantart to Tumblr’s beenthe best thing tbh, because with the tags it’s WAY easier to find people withsimilar interests. It’s nice! i love this blue hellsite and the friends i made on it!

(no butseriously, William Hootkins is great, and I’ll never stop being sad that I won’tever get the chance to meet him.)

also please look at this beautiful fanart of Scott, because it’s the most amazing thing. Special mention to the tiny comic, which is absolutely FLAWLESS.

#long post #Death Machine #Star Wars #HELP! A bear is eating me!#Watership Down

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callingallmarshmallows · 6 years

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The Last Jedi spoilers below the cut

Okay sooo this movie was just really weird to me?? Like was it a good movie? Definitely. Was it a good star wars movie? I really don't fucking know tbh. Gonna have to watch it again to form solid opinions. For now, I'm just gonna talk about the good and bad.

The Good:

It seems to me that put the reylo story to rest which is brill!!! Like I know that it seems like it was a pro reylo movie (and yeah, there were parts like the shirtless scene and the hand holding scene that were) but it seemed to me that by the end of the movie they were through with the kylo redemption arc. Rey shut the door on his stupid face, it looked final. And if after this they still try to redeem him I will literally fucking scream

I know a some people didn't like the way the Luke/kylo story was handled but I found it interesting. It's always been implied that the dark side can make you do things that you wouldn't think of otherwise, draws on more intense, darker feelings like pain and fear, and I think that's exactly what happened with Luke. He got scared and succumbed and for a split second was ready to kill the piece of shit kyle (should've done it tbh). This led to him being bitter, and I can understand that too. The guilt obviously weighed heavy on his conscience. I would have preferred a movie where Luke hadn’t turned into a bitter old man, but as it is I didn’t absolutely hate his arc I guess.

I mean, they already fucked up the perfectly happy expanded universe endings so I’ve been resigned to the bitter fates of the original trio.

I also quite liked Rey trying to figure out her past, and I especially loved that she turned out to be descended from "no-one." It's the theory I've been hoping was true (the other ones I wouldn't have minded was her being related to obi wan or qui-gon). It's a message I thought was cool: anyone can be force sensitive, anyone can be a Jedi. Ofc, kyle might have been lying and she might still be a skywalker and this whole reylo thing might be a gross ploy by rian to imitate the incest stuff from the original movies in which case i will personally find rian and stab him

Quite liked the theme of letting the past go. So many of the characters are stuck in their pasts, and the first order existing sort of hinges on the ideas of the original empire so the overarching theme of letting the past die resonated. It applies to fans too: purism gets you nowhere.

The fight sequences were all amazing. Luke fucking owning kyle's ass made my life!!!!

SPACE MOM USING THE FORCE TO GET BACK TO THE SHIP MY HEART ALMOST BURST

Yoda!!!!!!!!!!! Listen, I’m just a bitch for OT characters showing up

Holdo being a badass and just straight up flying her ship at lightspeed through the first order barrage like wow how fucking iconic??

Rose being the sweetest ever (Kelly Tran played her to perfection, working wonderfully with the material she was given). She was allowed to be soft, sweet, kind and capable, strong, badass all at the same time, which was so great. And her crush on Finn as well as their dynamic was adorable.

The Bad:

Ho my god- the reylo. The Force Skype thing was literally a fanfiction plot. The angsty longing gazes from Kyle's end made me gag. The hand holding thing?? The elevator scene?? Why would you make me look at that with my own two eyes whyyyy. Thank God it's (probably) over

WHY TF WAS FINN GIVEN SUCH A THROWAWAY PLOT

It just boggles my mind??? That whole sequence where he and rose go to that planet to get the hacker guy took my out of the movie completely. It almost felt like prequel levels of nonsense. Were both rose and finn as a pair entertaining to watch? Yes. Would they be good as a couple? Yeah sure. Is it super fucking great that they're an interracial couple? Yes!!! Doesnt fucking erase the fact that it felt like that whole plot and Rose (as much as I love her and as much as I'm happy she exists) too was created because they didn't know what to do with Finn.

And why tf was there so little interaction between Finn and Poe?????????? Look, I get that Disney can't make them a couple if they don't want the movie to be banned from some (bigoted) countries (including mine unfortunately). Movie making is a business, whatever I get it, but the interactions between these two were part of why I (and so many others) liked tfa so much. That whole hacker planet plot should either have been Finn and Poe's, or else Finn should have had a plot back on the ship. Ughhhhhh

And also, making Rose and Finn kiss/a couple basically just ensures that Finn is never going to end up with Rey and I'm fine with that only if she ends up single by the end of this series. Or like, just as long as she's not with fucking kyle ron. I'm just terrified that that's exactly what's gonna happen though. Let's hope j.j doesn't let us down.

Other stuff:

Did anyone else notice that Rey had taken the Jedi books from the temple. Is that why Yoda was chill with destroying the temple?

What was the Dark Side seaweed pit about? It was a pretty cool sequence but like??

Pretty disappointed with snoke tbh. Went into the movie looking for answers and came out with absolutely nothing. Where did he come from? Why is he the supreme leader? Why is he the supreme leader if he’s a little bitch who was beaten by actual child kylo ren? Why wasn’t he 15 ft tall smh

I’m really sad that Luke’s gone, but I’m pretty sure he’ll appear as force ghost in the next movie. He has to.

How are they gonna deal with Carrie Fisher’s death? They’ve apparently said that they don’t wanna bring her back through cgi so does that mean they’ll have to kill her off? She was supposed to have a pretty big part of ep9 but I don’t see what they can do besides killing her off. They could send her off elsewhere but it would be pretty odd if she was alive and she didn’t appear through the movie.

ANyway I cried every scene she was in

#that's all i can remember rn #i'm watching it again in two days so i'll probably have a lot more to rant about then #the last jedi #the last jedi spoilers #star wars tlj #star wars #star wars spoilers #tlj spoilers #i hope that's enough tags

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