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anthurak · 5 months

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Something I absolutely love about the alternate-timeline aspect of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is that it really feels like a logical extrapolation and ‘next-step’ to the genre/trope-subversion and exploration of the original comic.

Remember how the whole idea of Scott Pilgrim the comic is taking a very basic, generic and ‘tropey’ premise; ‘Boy likes girl, boy must defeat girl’s seven evil exes in order to date her’, and uses it as the backdrop and framework to explore, deconstruct and develop its characters.

Like how the biggest conflict at any given point of the comic is never the actual battles with any of the Seven Evil Exes, but rather Scott being forced to confront some major problem with himself or his relationship with Ramona (usually the former). How the true ultimate ‘antagonist’ for both Scott and Ramona isn’t any of the Evil Exes, but rather themselves. Their own long-festering hang-ups and insecurities that they’ve been refusing to confront or acknowledge that have in turn led to them being pretty shitty people over the course of their lives. For as bad as Gideon is, he’s still only a mirror showing all the bad that SCOTT could become.

So with that in mind, it really feels like the anime simply took this idea a step further: What if we took the basic, generic and tropey premise that nonetheless served as the framework for the story and held it together… and broke it.

When the narrative guide and scaffolding that held the original story on a certain course is shattered when the story is just getting started, where does the story go?

It’s actually one of the ways I think Scott Pilgrim Takes Off can be appreciated even if you haven’t read the comic or watched the movie. Even if you aren’t familiar with the story, the first episode makes it pretty easy to guess how this story should play out: Scott meets Ramona, they have their first date, they really hit it off and seem set to become a couple. We’re introduced to what clearly seems to be our ‘Big Bad’ in Gideon and our ‘Starter Villain’ in Matthew. Again, even if you don’t know one thing about Scott Pilgrim, by the time Matthew Patel crashes the party you probably have a pretty good idea how this whole story SHOULD go.

And then Matthew (seemingly) KILLS SCOTT in their first fight!

THEN the second episode ratchets things up even further when all signs point to Scott, our title character, being ACTUALLY DEAD for real. And then Matthew, again the guy who should be the starter villain, goes and beats Gideon Graves, the guy who clearly SHOULD have been the FINAL BOSS of this story!

And then the third episode sees Ramona, the girl previously set-up as the designated love-interest, firmly established as the new PROTAGONIST of the story. With Ramona given both an overarching goal in finding what really happened to Scott, and an ongoing character-arc of meeting and reconciling with each of her ‘evil exes’.

Basically, even if you aren’t familiar with the full specifics of the source material, I feel like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off can still be enjoyed as essentially a show that at first sets up what seems to be a fairly wrote and predictable story before flying COMPLETELY off the rails at the end of its first episode into something quite a bit more unique.

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim takes off #spto #scott pilgrim ramblings #ramona flowers #matthew patel #gideon graves #rambling about genre subversion

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hjemne · 6 months

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got back from the library at 11pm on a Friday night not because Ive got a pressing deadline but because I was writing academic literary analysis of the depiction of fascist rhetoric and aesthetic in attack on titan

#such a hip and cool student i am #any idea of where i can publish this type of stuff? any pseudo academic journals for this type of analysis of popular media?#god and i came up with such a good title for an analysis of reiner #sympathy for the devil: reiner braun and genre subversion #ahhshdhsh #i see why people go into academics #when you're passionate and knowledgeable about something you just want to analyse it more and more #can i post this kinda thing on ao3?#might start a new ao3 account if poss to put non fanfic pieces on for analysis #rambles

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the-resurrection-3d · 11 months

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Decided to post the essay I wrote a few days ago. Of course, this isn't meant to shit on anyone, but to work through my feelings on TOH's themes and how I see the fandom working through them.

TOH has a very – let’s say uneasy relationship with its fantasy elements—or at least, that’s how the fandom has received them. I just saw someone talking about how Luz shouldn’t have gotten a Palisman of her own because she “doesn’t need to look any more like Azura,” considering that Luz’s whole thing at the beginning of the series was needing to better “tell fantasy from reality.” But I feel like that’s only getting half the point—the issue with not being able to tell fantasy from reality rests, as the series argues, with expecting the world to cater to you and then lashing out when it doesn’t.

The series makes this most clear with Belos, who rejects the traditional high fantasy genre signifiers as spiritual pollutants and yet is living in as much of a fantasy world as Luz was. “[He needs] to be the hero of his own delusion” locates Belos’s major flaw—in a character way and in a thematic way—in his refusal to see himself as just another part of the world, rather than its center. All of this is spoken to us directly by the embodiment of the Boiling Isles and its magic. This character flaw is then reinforced by how Belos gets defeated and starts rambling on about how humans are innately “better than this” Because Reasons.

I think part of this disconnect might be happening because we’re used to anti-escapist stories rejecting the fantasy world in its entirety. For example, Ready Player One ends with the reveal that the creator of the VR world—it was called the OASIS, wasn’t it?—regretted not spending enough time in the “real world,” and the main character rectifies this by enforcing a weekly one-day service outage. Even though the book explores reasons why people would want to escape into the VR fantasy, including escaping the confines of marginalized identity categories like gender and race, it still asserts that you’re missing out by leaving the “real world” behind. I think also of modern fantasy stories with creatures like vampires and werewolves that bend over backwards to justify why being a human is still totally the best option— “Be glad of your human heart, Feyre,” and so on. Even in series where the human main character becomes inhuman, it’s often through force—characters like Feyre and Elena Gilbert are killed and then revived as monsters, but only Bella Swan actively wants to become one. (It really is the equal-but-opposite response to the question Robert McRuer says is asked of disabled people IRL in his article about compulsory able-bodiedness: “Yeah, but in the end, wouldn’t you rather be like me?” In both cases—whether disabled or super-abled—the normate, abled, “regular” human position has to be reinforced as the ideal.)

And let’s be real, it’s all cope. We can agree it’s just cope, right? But even besides that, I think we also need to keep in mind that, contrary to what internet discourse would have you believe, subverting tropes is not good writing in and of itself — subversion and deconstruction need to be ways of creating meaning within the work, rather than the meaning itself.

I think, then, we can see TOH’s conversation with escapism from s1 to s3 as a way of asking, “What parts of our childhood should we keep?” In Luz’s case, like in many of our own childhoods, the fantasy elements are from the actual fantasy genre because Luz wants to imagine a bigger life for herself than Earth allows, one that is scary and dangerous but in the end still caters to her/us. (See also Freud’s concept of the family romance, wherein a child dreams that their parents aren’t their “real” parents and that their “real” parents are magic space fairy royalty who will one day reclaim their child and everything will be awesome forever.)

In episodes like “Witches Before Wizards,” these genre signifiers provide Luz with a set kind of “script” for how she believes interactions should go—the disappointment and restlessness she feels in the episode is from the fact that it’s not catered to her just because she’s there, in a similar way that Belos believes humans are better just Because They Are. Worth noting that even in that episode, the “reality” Luz needs to learn to accept is still based in a fantasy setting—signaling that the word “fantasy” in “differentiate fantasy from reality” should not be about the genre or the act of consuming fantasy in and of itself. Season three then literalizes this with The Collector turning people into puppets and acting out “The Owl House” as a game with suffering participants.

Conversely, season three adds more nuance by revealing that Luz’s hyperfixation stems from her relationship with her father. The season does a lot to explore the relationship-building potential of fiction, from Amity suggesting her and Luz dress as Hecate and Azura to the reveal that Camila is a secret Trekkie.

A fellow autistic person once described their special interest not just as something they’re obsessed with, but as part of how they processed the world. We can see this kinda play out in Camila’s conversation with Luz right before Stringbean hatches: she says she has forgotten the “Astral Oath” and responds to Luz’s question of her being a “secret nerd” with the admission that she shouldn’t have let her own fears of and experiences with being non-conforming compel her to try and change Luz. The Astral Oath and how it played out within Cosmic Frontier provided a framework for Camila that she admits she should have followed: “My biggest mistake was trying to protect you by changing this beautiful, good witch into something she wasn’t.” The best things about Luz are also the things that make her more drawn to the fantasy genre.

The rampant egoism of the genre should be left behind, the show says, but not the good lessons and the relationships you’ve built from it.

This anti-egoism does, of course, run up against the fact that Luz is still the main character. If Luz getting a Palisman makes her too much like Azura and therefore undermines the message, then honestly I don’t see how the final battle itself isn’t just a colossal fuck-up. Not even in the sense that Luz got Titan magic, which I have seen people say is now suddenly Luz being A Chosen One all along, but in the sense that Luz straight up shouldn’t have been in the final battle at all. (Honestly, if you want YA with a good anti-egoism message imparted through its structure, you’re looking for Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War—book, not movie.)

I said on Twitter while I was reading Charlie Ledbetter’s “The Dysphoric Body Politic” that TOH has an interesting relationship with its escapism messaging because Luz DOES leave the human world. Even though she had to finish high school in the human world, the finale makes it clear that she’s been putting all of her spare energy and labor into the literal rebuild of the Boiling Isles. She entirely gives up on making a life for herself on Earth.

This isn’t super surprising, (I was always sure it would happen) but I do think it’s where the uneasiness—the messiness—between TOH and its genre comes into play. Yes, Luz needed to dial back her daydreaming and yes, her being in the demon realm ultimately led to it almost being destroyed, but it still is the worst possible ending if she doesn’t get to stay there.

In the article, Ledbetter, a transmasc who discovered themselves through fandom, writes that “Escapism is not a departure from reality. Rather, escape decenters the hegemony of oppressive systems that announce themselves as real and creates space to imagine alternatives.” And yet within the show, it’s a closed circuit—the threat to diversity and self-expression comes from the human realm, and yet there is no attempt to save it. Ledbetter, writing of fandom’s political potential, suggests using fanfic to imagine alternatives specifically so we can give ourselves the drive to try and enact them in the real world.

TOH’s sister show, Amphibia, gives us a taste of this in its finale: in the ten years since the Calamity Trio has left, the once-evil king lives out his final days planting seeds, and the girls themselves are dedicated to either educating others or creating art. They honor the memories of their childhood fantasy—Sasha with two crossing swords as a patch on her jacket and a charm dangling from her rearview mirror, Anne with her entire career—but the portal is closed. It’s not coming back.

Given everything TOH does in season three to reaffirm the value of fantasy as a lifelong interest, though, I think what it wanted to avoid suggesting, like a lot of traditional portal stories do, that the fantasy world is the world of childhood and needs to be escaped. Aslan tells Peter and Susan, after all, that they’re getting too old for Narnia. Peter and his siblings return there only in death; Susan isn’t so lucky. If Luz shouldn’t have gotten a Palisman, something which symbolizes she’s discovered a fundamental truth about herself and has “earned” her place as a Witch, then honestly she shouldn’t have been able to come back to the Boiling Isles, either. How many of us would've been happy with that?

If we want to square this with the show’s politics, I think we can read this as the show saying that, yes, there are some things you have to do as a child, but once you’re free, you aren’t obligated to stay with the society and people who won’t ever see you for who you are. In a way, Luz going back and forth between the human and demon realms parallels the teenage fantasy fan, making space in their lives for fandom as a place of joy and connection after all the boring hard “adult” work is done for the day. You don’t have to leave it behind; building outside of the system and making your life centered around your joy is hard work, yes, but worth doing.

#toh #2d nonsense

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anulithots · 2 months

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Intro post

100 followers character interview extraordinaire

(I don't know how to do thisssss)

I have kidnapped all my characters (and JJK blorbos) and stuck them into this room. I've threatened asked them to be nice and answer any asks they receive with a gift. Here's how they responded. Have fun!

Ask Anuli for a story:

"OHHH is this one of those stories where the protagonists get suddenly transported to a fantasy realm? The cliches in that genre are so overdone. 'Protagonist was a normal person and blah blah blah the fire nation attacked.'

At the very least, there should be some genre subversions. For example, I am a villain. I could destroy this entire plot line with my presence alone. BE VERY AFRAID! "

".... a gift? That's a mistake. I have nothing to give, nothing to offer. I'm honestly not worth your time. I'm sorry for rambling. All I have are broken stories."

~ A story (book/manga/anime/show/movie) recommendation based on your vibe!

Ask Kamari for a song:

"People? What are tho- never mind. Hello, if I give you a song, you promise to help me negotiate for my freedom, yes? I'd hate to resort to extreme measures."

~ A song recommendation based on your vibe!

Ask Ankh for flowers/plants:

"Poisonous flowers seem like proper retribution for kidnapping."

~ a random plant that I'd associate with your vibe!

Ask Cassiah for 'advice':

"You did well coming to me for advice. I don't know how you could've possibly done... whatever you were doing on your own. Not everyone can just know everything like I do. It's okay. Not your fault whatsoever <3 <3 <3"

~ A random biology fact coupled with a silly tip on productivity. (neurodivergent friendly)

Ask Teddo for the secrets to the universe:

(He's still a work in progress...)

"I am unsure of how easily feeble minds could comprehend such talks. After all, it is feeble minds that make up the lies society runs on, and it is feeble minds that continue to perpetuate the lies they use for their own sake. It's disgusting.

Truth is maddening. But it is the only thing I can strive for."

~ A random quantum physics fact or a random deep thought.

Ask for Noorie to go crazy over Jujutsu Kaisen:

youtube

This scene made me scream. It has taken over my blog. I've reread the Hidden Inventory Arc at least eight times. I've written essays about Itadori. Fanfic one shots about a slice of life version populate my brain. I rarely have a non-JJK thought.

~ Receive some character ramblings or a fanfic idea! And/or some of my screenshot collection. And/or some random headcannons. (Gojo being asexual and thinking being flirtatious is something people do for funsies is a nice headcannon to me <3)

Gently tagging: @mylee-sketches @holdmyteaplease @imslowlydisintegrating @27paperlilies @waitingforthesunrise @osbob-the-existent @awleeofficial @emabatis @forthesanityofstorytellers @gummybugg @noveldivergence @fire-but-ashes-too @full-on-sam @sm-writes-chaos @fenatics + anyone who wishes to participate can do so! It is much appreciated and I hope you all have fun <3

(thanks for listening to my rambles and my stories. It means the world to me.)

#character interview #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #original characters #take care of yourself #the land of the fallen fairies #kfc breakup #Kamari the dryad #Anuli the dryad #Ankh the dryad #ankh the dryad #anuli the dryad #kamari the dryad #Youtube

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antihell · 2 years

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　𖤐　belial’s writeblr intro (v3.0)　𖤐

hello, i’m belial ( he/him ) and this is my writeblr! you may have previously spotted me under the urls belialwrites or motelbf, but antihell will be my final resting writing place for a bit. i’m 33 and an academic editor but i love to write new adult fiction. i have too many universes in my head with a multitude of characters and usually little to no direction for the plot progression. i do an unhealthy amount of planning, aesthetics, and character development compared to getting words down, but i enjoy it. i’m an insomniac that is always online, so please ask for my discord if you ever need a springboard to bounce ideas off of or to listen to you work through details in your wips and ocs! also, please send me an ask or dm if you’d like to be added to my general taglist and i’ll keep you updated on important things about my wips and their progress.

what’s on my blog? general inspiration, writing tips and reminders, motivational posts, and maybe even a little bit of the work i create (my writing, edits, and developmental ramblings on my wips)!

what do i write? usually i stay in the horror, thriller, paranormal, or dark fantasy genres. maybe one day i’ll be brave and get poetic. i have a lot of recurring themes and subjects in my writing, including

religion/humanity vs. morality/divinity;

liminal spaces & unsettling atmospheres of unreality;

psychological horror, usually focusing on mental illness & memory loss;

death & all that entails;

body horror, dread, & being left in the dark (literally or figuratively);

symbolism & trope subversion; and finally,

biological families vs. found families (including nature vs. nurture) !

　𖤐　links　𖤐

BELIAL — about me tag, favorite posts, my rambles, my writing, my wip intros, pinterest, spotify, wip page (its own wip lol)

COMMUNITY — boosts, my taglists, new writeblrs, others’ work

INSPIRATION — general, character, setting, ship, story

ETC. — manifesting, motivation, positivity, prompts, reminders, resources, tropes

　𖤐　main wip　𖤐

꒰ ᝰ ꒱　twisted stitches　—　( writing )

NA psychological horror — A college student named Oliver is forced to withdraw from university because of his progressively deteriorating mental health. He moves back to his parents’ house only to find that his childhood imaginary friend, Stitches, is still there. After a troubling series of events around town, Oliver begins to suspect that Stitches may be to blame.

LINKS — intro, pinterest board, playlist, tag

#writeblr #writeblr intro #wtwcommunity #writers on tumblr #horror writeblr #thriller writeblr #dark fantasy writeblr #paranormal writeblr #what even are tags #pinned

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i-dont-even-know-by-this-point · 9 months

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I just finished reading ‘The Poppy War’, and… christ.

I was having fun in the first half the book. I was enjoying myself.

(Spoilers UTC and me just rambling incoherently about the book)

I can’t say I expected Rin to go ahead with genocide, because usually in this fantasy genre the protagonist is generally quite morally upright and even if they make mistakes and bad choices, they ultimately choose against them, but I really liked the subversion of expectations in that regard and how she started losing it slightly near the end; trying to justify it to herself and all that. It’s refreshing to see a protagonist who makes the wrong choices and refuses to admit they’re in the wrong, especially when it’s out of fear. It makes Rin seem very messed-up, and feel very human in that regard.

On the note of trying to justify it, Kitay is the best. I love how he’s not having any of it and pointing out Rin’s hypocrisy and hatefulness. I hope to god he doesn’t die in the other books.

Also… I stumbled across some spoilers in fanart and NEZHA LIVES. I called it. Because the last we saw of him was him getting dragged away by Federation soldiers, not lying dead on the floor, so I was holding out a string of hope that he was alive. I’m assuming that foreshadowing/ plot point being brought up earlier that he might be shaman because he healed his spine and whatnot so quickly has something to do with his survival: if he has some sort of healing ability/ connection to some god of healing or medicine, it would make sense that he survived the gas.

I was also hoping he’d survive because it would be really interesting to see such a visually attractive character have his looks taken from him by the gas — something which will happen, judging by the fanart I saw. He hasn’t been established as particularly vain before in regards to physical appearance alone, but it’ll be interesting to see if he struggles with self-worth or acceptance somewhat because of his looks being taken from him. I don’t know if that will happen, but it would be interesting to see; and I also wonder how Rin will react, because her perspective hasn’t exactly been subtle about how attractive she finds him.

Also, Jiang is a legend. Love that guy. I suspected he might be the Gatekeeper, and honestly, I expect no less of him.

I like how dark the story got in the second half, even if it was disturbing. The narrator didn’t shy from making the war really feel like hell, especially during the discovery of the massacre in Golyn Niis and Venka’s experiences during the war. It was gut-wrenching, and I say that as somebody who isn’t squeamish or easily put off by graphic descriptions. Just… god, it made my skin crawl.

I wonder whether Rin will keep going down the dark path she’s kind of set herself on. I find it really interesting how there seems to be an established cycle of violence going on, and hypocrisy and dehumanisation on both sides, and again, the fact that the protagonist didn’t try to end the cycle of violence but rather perpetuated it further is a very interesting route to take the story. It would be interesting if Rin pulled an Eren and became the antagonist of the series, but I don’t know if it’ll go that far.

Anyway. Good book. I need the second one.

#the poppy war #i love jiang man #i hope he doesn’t die #i feel like he might die #kitay as well #please have mercy on my poor little morally decent fellows

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mirimangarecs · 3 months

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kill the villainess - haegi & wol-saeng sa

being suddenly reincarnated as a hated villainess, a normal woman is desperate to die in order to return to the real world, but the price of escaping might be more than anyone expected

the couple: it’s a slow development with a mature tone. he’s plain, loyal, and calm; she’s cruel, calculating, and extremely traumatized. he’s the only one who respects her boundaries and loves her for who she is

story & setting: the world itself is very detailed with a magic system that gives just enough information to intrigue you without overexplaining. the tone takes a sharp turn about halfway through to remind you that you are in fact reading a tragedy. even though it was emotionally awful, watching the pieces slowly come together was extremely satisfying

the art: gorgeous from start to finish

cw: attempted suicide, rape, misogyny

(spoilery rambling and analysis)

i finished reading like 10mins ago and raced over here this is Not gonna be organized or make sense

i think it’s ultimately another harem subversion story with a dark, even cynical bent, but i can’t say it’s wholly unearned. both within the genre and reality, the consequences of men hating and desiring you are oftentimes devastating, with little recourse to reclaim agency outside of drastic, self-injurious measures. on a meta level, there’s a huge emphasis on how much agency she or anyone can have as characters. eris turns down every attempt, goes through legal and social channels to separate herself from the various men that pursue her, tells everyone her feelings extremely bluntly, and begins seeing a different man, but they ignore these signals to the point of irrational self-delusion. they covet her even after her death, to the point where she orders her corpse to be burned to prevent them from getting their hands on her, and she’s correct to do it! it’s an extremely dark take on the “i’m the villainess, but suddenly all the male leads are in love with ME instead??” trope. everyone suffers because of this redirected attraction, and eris is to blame for exactly Zero of it, but it also serves to demonstrate how the supposed “happy ending” story where the rightful fl is adored and cared for by all also had the same capacity for obsessive cruelty under the veneer.

initially i had a little chuckle at her name literally being “eris misery” because it seemed a little edgy, and while that might be true, it turns out it is extremely apt. she sows discord over love with an almost supernatural quality, through no fault of her own because that’s just what eris was written to be, and now the person who became eris is being perpetually victim-blamed by the entire reality around her. it feels disempowering and incredibly frustrating for both her and for the reader.

i mentioned the tonal shift about halfway through and it really is dramatic, but it ultimately didn’t come out of nowhere. eris tells the reader who she hates, who she thinks will harm her, and that she wants to escape this world very early on, and it’s your fault if you don’t listen to her. the audience falls into the same traps as the men in assuming that she really will want to stay in that world after all, that it’s not so bad, that she’ll end up with one of the men who pursue her, and other isekai/fantasy romance conventions. the events halfway through are just a rude reminder that things really Are that bad.

the ending is brutal. the fact that like, almost everyone literally dies could come off as shock value but for me it felt more like a natural conclusion because dear god, this world is unloveable and no one can make it out alive. even original fl, though it was horribly sad, is better off dead having made her peace than being forced to be a plot object in the proximity of the men who are honestly incapable of respecting her as a person and have currently gone completely off the deep end. also, the political theatre surrounding these events is really masterfully done and brought a level of deep gravity to the situation. and technically the main couple is happy so like. it’s not all soul-destroyingly awful. thank god she got out and went to therapy

#isekai #historical romance #manhwa #josei #novel adaptation #manhwa recommendation #kill the villainess #manga post #fantasy romance #fantasy

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absolutely-not-my-main-blog · 1 year

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Omg what parallels did you come up with for Buffy and Sunny (serious ones or not so serious lol)

*You fool, you just activated my trap card.jpeg*

They both initiated the growth of strange fungus on my brain and were able to instill the elusive brainrot within me.

Town named Sunnydale, show named Always Sunny, never actually all that sunny metaphorically speaking for those involved, jk, jk.

But yeah, the parallels are less *concrete*/plot related or anything-- though I'm sure I could find something in that respect if I were to try--and more just in terms of the effects both shows were able to have on me in a way nothing else has, and how unexpected those effects were. Because for about 8 years now, while other interests have come and gone despite me thinking "oh this is gonna be the one" before they fizzled out again, Buffy has consistently been the only thing that's really stuck with me, and I thought I'd never feel that way about anything else again... until Sunny came along.

(Advanced apologies for you here, this will not be concise or coherent)

And no one was more surprised than me at the outcome of both of these things, because I remember when I first started Buffy, the opening episodes aren't the strongest, and I kind of turned to my sister with a skeptical look like *bitch, you live like this.jpeg* "You watched all 7 seasons of this?" I mean, the mantis alone, hello? But now, this show is imprinted on my very being. You'd be hard pressed to have a conversation with me and not hear about Buffy at least once. And Sunny... my God, Sunny, I came into it expecting the worst of the worst, I told myself I was just gonna watch one (1) episode just to see how bad it is, and at first it really almost is a "so bad you can't look away" situation in a way, but then suddenly, suddenly it clicks and you go, no, no, this is... incredibly well made, and just as suddenly, it was infiltrating my conversations, my rambles, my every thought, just as strongly as Buffy ever had, and soon Buffy was sharing the override codes to rewiring my brain with a new contender, the one no one bet on.

And I think a lot of this effect crucially comes down to the innate way each show is able to balance the humour and the ridiculousness of their situations with the reality and distinct humanity of their characters, especially in the incorporation of little, at times almost mundane, details as well as the subversion of tropes you wouldn't usually expect within their respective genres that make everything else hit 1000x harder than their contemporaries. Blanking on all specific examples, but you know!

I mean, Buffy has a reputation as this cheesy, bad cgi, kind of silly supernatural monster of the week 90s teen show, and it is! It very much is! That's part of its appeal. It's fun, it's bizarre, but it's also razor sharp, layered in metaphors about growing up, about grief, about love and fear and life and death and sacrifice, both big and small, and it doesn't compromise one aspect for the other, they play off of and elevate each other to maximum effect. But even amidst all that, most importantly, at the heart of the show is the Scooby Gang themselves, (hey, they're both called the gang, I've connected the dots, am I right, fellas?), and how all these things have come to shape them and how they have come to shape each other, while also kind of being stuck in their own bubble where no one else can understand what they've been through. And the thing that really sets it apart is we get to see the potential of everything that was and could have been, we get to see the glimpses of their normal lives, or what their lives once were. We get to see what they lost, we get to see them lose, or at least feel it in the narrative, and we get to see bits of ourselves in them and how that informs their choices. We get to see a scared young girl who still keeps a little stuffed animal in her room, goes to the mall and just wants to be a cheerleader and go to prom, have a date with a nice boy, laugh with her friends and survive highschool in a non-supernatural sense, but whose predestined assigned role was always going to thrust her against her will into a horror show where she is forced to become something else. We get to see these little points of familiarity, and only then... do we get to see them all torn down.

I know there's some quote from Whedon floating around out there that goes something like, "If you don't have the small, the big doesn't matter." And he's right. It's these silly seeming little moments of reality amongst the chaos that make us care.

Because, yes, Whedon may be horrendous as a person and at times horrendous at continuity and follow through and whatever, but I think one thing he did understand was psychology and how to hit the audience where it hurts, especially utilizing humour in such a way it could either make you bust a gut, or it could gut you, and this is all in a way that doesn't necessarily translate as well to other projects he's been involved with like say, the MCU, where they had the big events, made the quips, but they didn't do the work of character development or the little moments before the events to make them anything more than hollow.

And I think RCG really understand this, too. Though, while Buffy is primarily a tragedy with elements of comedy, Sunny is obviously more a comedy with elements of tragedy. So Buffy gives us the moments of light in the darkness that have the ability to destroy you, and Sunny often gives us these moments of darkness in the light that have that very same ability if you start to think too much. The lines are very blurred genre wise in both cases actually.

Because Sunny, in its corner, meanwhile has a reputation as the haha funny terrible person meme who pooped the bed show, you know. And it is, too! There's nothing wrong with that! It's silly, it's out there, it's meant to be fun. But it's also biting satire with a knack for sitcom trope subversion like no other, and it's also genuinely the most intense and psychologically fascinating character study I have ever seen. They put so much thought into why these people are the way they are, why they do what they do, they throw in all these little details that seem innocuous or random but almost always turn out to mean so much more to the characters and their decisions as a whole. Unlike Buffy, we don't necessarily see on screen most of the events that have changed them in their formative years, but we see the lingering/haunting effect they carry into the present, trapping them in that same kind of bubble of their own, and it works just the same, if not better because being older and have more background behind them to build off of. Anyway, we see these terrible, egotistical, ridiculous people messing up the lives of others and themselves, but then they pull out the rug and we see a glimpse of these damaged kids who just wanted love from their parents, who grew up in circumstances that meant they almost never could have turned out any other way... could they? This whole thing of fate and circumstance and the traumas that shape us, and metaphors in monsters and in cats in walls and--

Uh where was I?

Shows that are funny, that are comforting, but on some level profoundly sad and more than meets the eye!

I think the main parallel between them is just how innocuous they seem to the casual outside observer. How none of this means anything if not seen firsthand, or how this looks like Charlie with the Pepe Silvia board, especially when I'm trying to tell the group chat that the Preying Mantis Sex Dungeon and the Magnum Condom for Danny Devito's monster dong shows are unrivaled feats of television writing and psychological prowess. Also how they're able to toe the line/bend their perceived genres in unexpected ways.

Also, Buffy is the show for growing up a loser and Sunny is the show for being grown up and still a loser (me-core).

And uuh, let's see *scrambling* people who associate with the Scooby Gang or the gang, both cases, they're probably gotta get their lives ruined/or end up dying. That's not my real parallel though.

I would be so interested in trying to find real, legit parallels in both shows though, because I'm 100% sure they exist. I saw someone say how Mac was Spike coded and yeah, I could totally see it. Dennis could be in a way, too, but Mac and Spike did both make sex dolls of the objects of their affection and let me tell you Mac + the lyrics to Spike's Rest in Peace, yeah. Anyway, been wanting to do a Buffy rewatch for ages, and Sunny is still at a good heightened stage of fixation for a rewatch as well. I know when I was initially drawing all my parallels, though, I had something better than this incoherent ramble because I was reading this mediocre book of Buffy essays at the time but there was one describing something about it where I was just like, whoa, that's just like Sunny 100% that's what's making me tick in both shows, and now I can't for the life of me find what it was, but a good disclaimer for that line of inquiry is I think this was the week I also had covid, can't recall.

#ask #long post #anmmbposts #btvs #iasip

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variousqueerthings · 1 year

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[the last of us game spoilers]

rambles:

so excited to see how (potentially) bill and frank’s storyline interacts with ellie’s and dina’s on the farm, when dina asks ellie to stay and she doesn’t because she cannot let go of all the grief and trauma this world has heaped upon her, because they did build a similar kind of safe, good life, but ellie wasn’t able to stay in it, to savour it like bill and frank did --

them being introduced like this in episode 3 creates so much added potential for narrative dialogue, the way the two of them were born in a world before the virus (but presumably the same world as ours until 2003, so the AIDS crisis + no equal recognition of same-sex relationships), so they have these contexts to understand just how lucky they are to have this chance and grab it with both hands like a miracle in the middle of the end of the world

but to ellie, who was born after 2003, that’s just life, so she cannot see the same opportunity to stay in that home with dina and their son, she’s so so horribly traumatised by that point, she cannot build safety, she can only drive herself on and on

and both of these stories are grounded in queer narrative subversion of a genre too often populated by rugged single presumed heterosexual men (and the way joel -- like mad max in fury road -- is introduced as the central figure before giving way/supporting/existing as a ghost to the people who drive the story)

what does horror mean when you’re queer? what does queer mean in a world in which that word has no real history? what does violence mean and who creates the violence? what does home mean?

bill and frank are not just a one-off story that “happens” to be gay (and they wouldn’t really even be that anyway, but they would be somewhat siloed into their separate story), because the main protagonist is gay, and the ongoing story will centre around majority queer main characters and storylines, bill and frank are going to be echoing through that story, because they made it -- they were happy, they built a life, they came out of one apocalypse and entered another and survived and thrived and died happy

and the other characters are the first generations of the last of us apocalypse, and they’re making us ask questions about if there are enough pieces left of the lives before that to rebuild and really live, or if they can create whole new structures that contain little echoes of the past (after all, lev doesn’t have access to the word “trans,” never mind any queer elders, but he figures it out in his own way regardless, and gosh this wasn’t about lev so much, but he’s central to so many of these questions, because he offers so much hope!)

bill invited frank to dinner and he ended up staying there his whole life, but ellie will not stay at the farm. she can’t.

#tlou #the last of us #the last of us spoilers #tlou spoilers #the more im writing this the more im like *we owe so much to mad max fury road for pputting those questions front and centre*#*and decentering the protagonist (and complicating him beyond simple straightness and ruggedness)*#ellie williams #bill/frank

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risingshards · 1 year

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Hello! This is your friendly inquiry to answer this ask with whatever you'd like to talk about right now! Whether that be a story you're working on, something you're excited or worried about, or just something random you happen to know.

All the love,

~ toribookworm ❤️

I got some stuff I wanna talk about so thank you very much for this!! 💖 IN PARTICULAR I HAVE THOUGHTS following up this post I have things to say about my like...Philosophy of Fluff™ writing. This may contain spoilers kinda for overall tone and goals for Rising Shards but I don't think I'll get anything too detailed there. (ramble incoming)

For Rising Shards, I spent a lot of time studying my favorite stories going in, and while I have a lot for fantasy/action/etc., for this I will focus on the romance side. For me I don't see RS as too subversive to the genre, just more in tribute/heavily inspired by the yuri romances I like rather than tradpub stuff.

If I'm subverting tradpub or the tradpub romance genres, it's pretty much all unintended because I hit a wall with Rising Shards and tradpub (there were a lot of things I didn't vibe with for the tradpub system, but the invasive personal "tell us all your personal LGBT secrets so we may market you through them before we even consider your work" made me real uncomfy). Also influential: working for a publisher, seeing what in the publishing system would not mix with what I wanted from Rising Shards, and then layoff from said publisher really made me like "is struggling for an 80k manuscript with forced drama and straining to get lit agents' attention right for Rising Shards?" Fortunately realized RS would be perfect for a web novel and have been rolling that way since.

So for like fluff philosophy! Following up me being more inspired by yuri manga and light novels than western tradpub romance, I also am like. Immensely sensitive and get way too empathetic in stories. So I write stuff to make me feel better. The concept of the iyashikei genre I vibe with so strongly, and I wish I had learned more about it wayyy before I did. TVTropes definition of iyashikei:

Iyashikei (癒し系) is Japanese for "healing", a term used for anime and manga created with the specific purpose of having a healing or soothing effect on the audience. Works of this kind often involve alternative realities with little to no conflict, emphasizing nature, the mundane and the little delights in life.

In my work there's definite iyashikei inspiration in addition to the yuri. Rising Shards isn't fully iyashikei, I still have action-y arcs in there, but I think my absolute best stuff in there is the healing slice of life stuff. So for me I feel like it's less subverting and showing what for to tradpub romances and the like and more just putting my heart and soul out there, the writing of which lines up with different subset of genres than what (from I found) traditional publishers are looking for. Also with a webnovel I can get really gay with it and no one can stop me muahahahha 🏳️‍⚧️

FLUFF WISE for Rising Shards I really like stuff that's healing. I like when characters have had a bad time in the past that they recover from with supportive partners, where the parties involve heal from their past traumas together. I'm less into the "ups and downs of a couple that breaks up and gets back together", like in a sitcom when that main ship breaks up I care significantly less about them even when they get back together. And I'm very empathetic and get very emotionally invested in stories, so calming stories that are hopeful and happy and peaceful help me maintain mental peace.

One of my thoughts for Rising Shards is to have some real stable couples that the story is less about like "ARE THEY REALLY RIGHT FOR EACH OTHER WILL THEY CHEAT SPLIT UP AND EVENTUALLY GET BACK TOGETHER" but rather couples dealing with all the stuff above, growing together and being peaceful and helping with that aforementioned me stability, and I hope I can help readers with that too.

With my web novel I have like a gajillion characters, so at some point I do think some of the side romances will be more tumultuous, but my philosophy is the main stable couples have to stay stable, and that the hurt will always be equal to or less than the healing that follows. I don't wanna make people really stressed, like lure them in with soft fluff romance then pull the rug on them with intense heartrending drama. I want the drama sure but I want it bearable. I see that post going around about like "I need my romances to be toxic to enjoy them" and I'm the opposite. I've dealt with enough toxic romances in my life that I wanna heal from them, not remind myself of past pain unless it's in a way that helps me take steps forward.

Also a closing thought; a vitally important part of my fluffy romance writing relating to the above yuri inspiration: like 99% gay stuff gimme lemsbebians gorls pretety

SO TO SUMMARIZE:

-I feel like my fluffy romance is less intentionally subversive and more me taking inspiration from my favorite stories mixed with the kind of writing I like best

-I have heavy yuri and iyashikei influence on my fluff

-I really like fluffy romance that's healing, I like characters overcoming their pasts together, building new families and finding themselves and helping each other be the best they can be

-I like having stable couples in my stories as pillars even if there are other relationships in the stories that aren't as stable

-I'm very easily emotionally rattled and empathetic with characters and stories so I like the peace that calm stories bring

-woman kimses pretty woman good

#writeblr #fluffy romance writing #wlw writing #lgbt writing #soft writing #chiral writes #rising shards #long post #chiral rambles about writing

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mermaidsirennikita · 1 year

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Hi, just wanted to say that your post about Bridgerton influencing HR publishing was really eye opening to me. BR was what got me into the genre but after reading tons of HR- new and old- before s2 came out (and after watching it) really kind of showed me how Bridgerton wasn’t the best out there and that the world of HR was vast and so much more than what they were offering. I also hate the “meets Bridgerton” thing that is happening in HR is detrimental to the genre as an aspiring author who watches from afar. I feel bad for authors who are trying to break into the publishing world and are stuck in the trap and it’s definitely tiring seeing it in shelves at mainstream stores. Now I mostly read niche, older HR that I spend hours tracking down on Goodreads and instagram lol. Love your blog!! Sorry for the ramble

Thank you, it's not a ramble at all and I think you're making great points.

I imagine Bridgerton got a lot of people into historical romance (not nearly as many as I think the industry was expecting, though), and if people want that kind of HR, that's totally valid. But I don't think a lot of the subgenre's strongest, most boundary-pushing books historically (haha) really match with the "Bridgerton-type" HR. And that's not even really a comment about the books so much as it is about the show.

And like, it's not that there isn't a place for funny, more lighthearted historical romances... I love Tessa Dare, and I think she's amazing at that. Julie Anne Long, too. But one thing I think the show loses (and the books, for me, often don't really hit) is the core love story being super compelling, and the emotionality having stakes. To me, that's what sets HR apart. That's why you write HR over a contemporary romcom. You're infusing an extra level of stakes in the story that just doesn't exist in contemporary. In a lighthearted contemporary, the stakes can be inconveniencing but not life-altering. In even a lighthearted HR (if it's done WELL) you still have to deal with issues of class, the pressure to marry, the sexual politics, etc.

I read a lot of new releases, and I'll be honest; there haven't been *that many* new traditionally published HR authors lately, and some of those I have read have just felt very like... Tame. Toeing the line, feeling like they're being super careful to not ruffle any feathers. Basically, putting a *light* contemporary story in ball gowns. I don't refer to historical accuracy, I don't give a fuck about that, but like the genre conventions of HR that I've always loved--the opportunity for adventure, the edge of danger, the inability to just say what you're thinking due to cultural norms, the hero being a part of the patriarchy and being forced to submit emotionally to the heroine, is just... not really there. And that's just not for me. It's fine if it's for other people, but like... I don't know, if that's the future of HR then I kinda don't know where I fit as a writer there lmao. There are definitely active authors who are keeping up the great work, but not as many debuts that excite me, personally.

And I mean, I think that this is also a publishing issue that's affecting many subgenres as self publishing and trad work through some growing pains. Imo, trad is sort of going "well, we don't need to publish books that are perhaps more subversive and romance/sex-heavy because authors can always self pub" but a lot of authors do not know how to self pub successfully and even if they do... there's never a guarantee that it'll work. Trad is becoming more homogenous, and self is exciting but it's also very very intimidating and becoming more saturated, of course.

But imo, we're probably going to see more and more authors who want to publish more unconventional books--historical romances with kidnapping and lady bandits and good rep, paranormal romances with blood and guts--move into self publishing, which is where dark romance writers have been sitting for quite some time. It's just gonna take a while. And as an author, it's a bit confusing because I never really thought I'd try self publishing first... But I don't know. I'll try to traditionally publish what I'm working on, but it can't be marketed as "Bridgerton meets" fuck all lol. So I'm not sure where I'd belong as a debut.

#romance novel blogging

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rookie-critic · 1 year

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Missing (2023, dir. Nicholas D. Johnson & Will Merrick) - review by Rookie-Critic

Found footage horror is a genre of film that, though the market got a little over-saturated with it in the 2010s, has managed to turn out some of the most classic movies that modern horror has to offer. Movies like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, and Cloverfield are all mainstays nowadays, not just among horror fans, but in the world of film, in general. It even started to eke outside of the horror world with films like 2012's Chronicle, which acts as more of a sci-fi, subversive superhero film than a horror one. Then, moving past just the idea of "person free-handing a physical camera in story that acts as the footage that makes up the film," 2014's Unfriended sought to slightly evolve the genre, taking the footage from the camera lens to the computer screen by choosing to tell its story through a screen recording. That format, too, would break out of the horror genre in 2018 with the John Cho-led film Searching, which presents as more of a crime-thriller. I mention all of this to bring context to the subject of today's review, Missing.

Acting as more of a spiritual successor than a sequel to Searching, Missing is another story told from the point-of-view of device screens: mainly the screen of a Macbook used by the film's main character. I walked into the theater thinking I was about to be underwhelmed by this movie. I never watched Searching, even though I love John Cho, because it seemed gimmicky to me (I never watched Unfriended, either). I wasn't sold that a story told in that format could convey itself as well as actually being able to get up and follow the characters' motions through the world they are inhabiting. So, when the trailer for Missing dropped, I had two thoughts: 1) I can't believe they made another one of these, and 2) it looks like they gave the whole film away in the trailer anyway. Imagine my surprise to then walk out of the theater two hours later, very impressed by the story they were able to weave. I was enthralled. The story, they mystery, the influence that the constraint of this storytelling format has on your imagination and your patience. It's as close as a movie can come to telling the story from a first person perspective, as you are just as in the dark as the main character is. There is only one time in the entire film where you are given information that the protagonist doesn't have, and even that is done in a way that doesn't break the flow of the format. The writing is so tightly wound and Storm Reid, who plays the film's protagonist, is so captivating that together they draw you in. You buy into the story (or at least I did) to the point where you're barely even noticing the "gimmick" of the film telling its story through device screens unless the filmmakers want you to notice. Directors Nicholas D. Johnson & Will Merrick have cracked that crucial ingredient to making a successful "found footage" film: you write a story that is benefited by using this format. You can't just slap a found footage style on a movie that could have been filmed in a more traditional style, you make it to where the found footage method is the only style that film can work in. I truly believe that Missing benefited greatly from this fairly new evolution on found footage, and would not have been even half as interesting had it been presented in any other format than this.

All my raving and rambling aside, it's still not a perfect film. There are almost too many plot twists or revelatory moments, so many that I came very close to getting plot twist fatigue, and that would be a major detriment to the film if its big "oh shit" plot twist wasn't so wild. It really wipes a lot of those other moments away and brings you back down, allowing you to buy back into the drama of it. The other big problem with the film is that a good chunk of the dialogue is pretty corny. There is an element of humor in the film, a lot of which is visual-based, and a lot of which I did quite enjoy, but the corny dialogue did come off as more of a distraction than an endearment, and it is pretty persistent throughout the entire movie. It won't be topping any "best of" lists or winning any awards, but Missing was deceptively very good, despite a couple of tiring elements, and it just proves that as long as the writing is solid and the story is strong, gimmicks don't have to be or feel gimmicky. Any format works as long as the effort and care are put in.

Score: 8/10

Currently only in theaters.

#Missing #Missing 2023 #Nicholas D. Johnson #Will Merrick #Storm Reid #Nia Long #Ken Leung #Joaquim de Almeida #Daniel Henney #Amy Landecker #Megan Suri #Tim Griffin #film review #movie review #2023 films

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magpie-to-the-morning · 1 year

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hello, Emma dear! I hope your weekend is treating you well so far. here's a curious question for Sleepover Saturday: what is a piece of media (book, TV show, movie, podcast, album, truly whatever) that is really important to you, but you've never posted about on tumblr before?? (xoxo v)

Hello sweet V! 💕

Oh man, that''s a good question. I do tend to ramble about my beloved media here, so one I haven't posted about, hm...

Have I gone on about this one before? The basic premise is that a princess decides she's not about to sit around and be bartered off in political marriage, so she strikes a deal with a dragon. She, Princess Cimorene, will cook and clean for the dragon Kazul as long as she, the dragon, chases off Cimorene's unwanted suitors. It's a fun subversion of tropes with a clever, capable heroine, and the world expands in several excellent sequels. Highly recommended for fans of Tamora Pierce and other genre convention-defying middle grade fantasy.

What's one your favs you haven't shared much about?

#Lovely V #Sleepover Saturday

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fauxintellectual · 11 months

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For my English/Film Studies class we have to write a short essay referring vaguely to one of the prompts on film noir and detective novels as a genre. And i really want to do one arguing about the role of female characters, female sexuality, and female isolation in the genre but I know I'll need to narrow it down but im also filled with ideas.

Like the genre is has themes of subversive sexuality...But then female sexuality is portrayed the way it is and I really wanna just ramble about it

#rambles by ki

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dumbdomb · 11 months

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am the prev asker ty for answering!! not much to add really since I agree with all your points :,3 kinda related is that I'm nb but align with a "het" relationship w my bf and sometimes I'm quite submissive, also have a feet thing, but trying to find any maledom in that category is so,,,,violent?? its so difficult to find nongeneric gentle maledom. I actually hate maledom porn because of it (also a lot of maledom posts (generally het leaning) are pretty mean too :/) it's so violent and horrible and mean. even from someone who likes a bit of degradation its just too much. its too much. I'm not anti porn but :(( everyone just be nice to each other peace and love on planet earth <3

(sorry I rambled in your inbox)

lol that's okay and i hope more people can feel more comfortable exploring different aspects of things, even if only to create new content. it can feel really supportive, too, when you find niche interests being catered to and especially from authentic, genuinely allied sources.

i'm not sure if you're implying, whether intentionally or not, that i don't post violent, degrading, maledom type of posts but i wouldn't want people to think that i only post light, fluffy content... i've had people follow me bc they felt that way and then got really offended when i eventually post my usual sadistic and quite violent interests. personally, i think it's easier to describe the type of content (typical allocishet maledom) you seem to be referring to as what it is: patriarchal, misogynistic, ableist, ageist, colonialist, abusive, and hateful content. i agree, as i also don't like that sort of mainstream and derogatory genres or whatever. but i just want to be clear that i'm not a soft dom and my blog is not always rainbows and sunshine and peace and love... even though i am naturally a very positive type of person. (^_^; )

* btw: no disrespect to allocishet people, i'm talking specifically about mainstream issues and how those sorts of genres, or typical categories of interest, can be oppressive for everyone- including allocishet people of course! i think everyone can benefit from exploring and learning to express their interests in more honest and vulnerable ways, rather than always limiting ourselves to what has been prepackaged and propagandized to us. we are allowed to move beyond the confines of simple subversions and sexually weaponizing our self- expressions from other areas of life that aren't being mindfully tended to. rack is about bringing that awareness and knowledge into the safer practice of harder and more physically, mentally and emotionally demanding practice in scenes.

#sorry if i'm kind of rambling here as well lol but i get what you mean and i'm glad that some of my posts seem to be enjoyable for you too!#anon my beloved #answered

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