#AND complain about how one-dimensional and shallow the show made him

[cookie-de-baunilha]

it’s funny seeing people imply that john is an emotionally mature and overall mentally healthy person because that man never processed anything ever. his coping mechanism consists in trying not to think about all of the grief and trauma he’s ever experienced in his life (except for that one time when he was forced to very much think about it)

[subaroons]

I'm pretending Obey Me season 4 never happened. Heres why:

The brothers are acting cold and distant and nobody is even questioning why or what happened to them. Most of the brothers have been reduced to caricatures of themselves (more on this later). If anything, they've reverted back to how they were in season one. I've seen this happen often in events due to the fact that the devs want to avoid spoiling new players on future character progress or anything, and that's okay. I understand that. I usually don't play events for that reason. But season four? An actual part of the main story? I wonder if they changed the writers or something, because-

Their character progression? gone.

Their character depth? gone.

Mcs desire to help them? gone.

Their relationships with each other? in flames.

At one point Satan is having a whole ass mental breakdown, questioning the point of his existence and mc is given two options- Either leave or turn it into a joke first and then leave. And then we proceed with a band-aid solution "plan" from Asmo (why is he even here?) to trick Satan into coming home instead of just? Talking to him? Being there to support him? Affirming his right to exist? Telling him that he's more than how he was born? Ok, fine. I'm sure that when we get time alone...-

Oh never mind, we just summon Lucifer and everything is solved. Okay.

Satan deserves to be able to live without that 2-dimensional, shallow praise from Lucifer. Satan deserves the right to try to recover. Did the brothers just forget season 3 or something? Satan ran away and nobody even looked for him for two weeks. Yeah, this probably might have made sense back in season one, maybe in season two if we're being generous, but now? After everything that's happened, and nobody even wonders where he was for two weeks? Not even MC? That's just too sad.

Now the problem isn't just Lesson 70, which is what I've been complaining about for the past couple of paragraphs. That's just one example. The issue is the whole season. This issue? How the brothers act, and how everyone else, especially mc, reacts to them.

Lucifer is acting extremely cold and distant in comparison to how he acted in s2 or s3. This in itself isn't an issue, but the problem is that nobody is questioning why. What happened that caused Lucifer to start acting like he did in season one? Why is nobody concerned or worried about it? Why does nobody, including mc, confront him about it? Not even Mammon who has a track record for noticing changes in behavior from his brothers, not even Diavolo (more on him later) who he spends so much time with, nobody wonders why Lucifer went back into his shell. We can theorize reasons why, but we never actually confront him about it to confirm, and the issue is never resolved.

Mammon is back to calling us his servant. This can easily be rationalized. We can say that he is feeling insecure due to the lack of time MC has been spending with him. We can say that he feels threatened due to the arrival of new exchange students. But we are never given the chance to talk to him about it. Not even to ask if he's okay. It doesn't help that literally EVERY SINGLE interaction he has with LITERALLY EVERYONE-- this includes the dateables-- goes something like this:

Mammon: *says literally anything*

Character: *calls him an idiot, alludes to him being an idiot, alludes to him being useless/a burden, or insults him in some other way (scumbag, etc).*

Mammon: Hey!

OR...

Character 1: *Mentions Mammon*

Character 2: *Insults Mammon*

Yes, I understand Mammon is not, by any means, a GOOD person. I understand that prior to MC's arrival to Devildom, this was much more common. (this is especially shown in older devilgrams.) It's true that Mammon is addicted to gambling, prone to stealing, and overall an extremely greedy person. And Mammon's behavior, as well as the way people treat him, is not exclusively featured in season 4. This has been shown in every season of the game so far. Nobody shows Mammon that they expect anything better from him, so he just continues and it's not resolved. And that's fine. It's part of his character and that greedy part of him will probably never go away. But this isn't a Mammon breakdown, it's a season 4 breakdown. So I digress. The issue with season 4 is that this is all he is.

We know Mammon is a caring person who loves his brothers. We know Mammon has trouble being upfront with his emotions. We know Mammon is a bit of an airhead, but can be surprisingly observant when it comes to empathetic matters. But none of this is shown in season 4. Mammon is shown exclusively as greedy for money, idiotic to a comical extent, and an object to be made fun of and played off for jokes. As I stated before, this is old news. But the issue in season 4 is that he is depicted as nothing more than that.

None of his brothers question his somewhat off behavior and neither does mc. And he is stuck in the shitty comic relief role the entire time. We get a couple moments with him, and they consist of him showcasing his insecurity and we can do nothing to help. Nobody says a single thing about him before insulting him, including Beel, who used to be on his side. Mc is given no option to defend or help him, and in several instances, is forced to make fun of him as well. When Beel is asked to list 100 nice things about him, he lists about two before giving up. Oh, but we can't end a conversation about Mammon without insulting him, so Luke fulfills this duty before moving on.

Leviathan. Don't even get me started on Levi. Before I start, I want to make it clear that I love Levi with all of my heart. He is one of my favorite brothers, and the way they treat him is pretty sad to me. Now we know about Levi from the previous seasons. He struggles with self-confidence and has the tendency to constantly compare himself to others, making him spiral into loops of self-hatred. Anime and games are forms of escapism to him. This has been established. This deep-rooted self-loathing is not something magically cured when you get a friend or someone to support you. It's a long journey and it takes a lot of work, and even then, the self-doubt may never completely disappear. In seasons 2 and 3, however, we see signs that Levi is finally heading toward some path of recovery. He is able to assert himself a tiny bit more, he accepts that when MC says they love him, they're not lying. Despite this, Levi still is extremely unsure of himself and needs constant reassurance. Now the problem with Levi, across all seasons, is how the writers handle this. His self-loathing is often played off for jokes, and his love for anime becomes the definition of his character. The problem is that this becomes ESPECIALLY prevalent in season four.

Almost every time he speaks, it's one of two things:

A rant about anime/light novel/game.

A comment on how low he views himself.

This in itself isn't terrible. It could be worse. The problem is that nobody cares. I don't mean that in an insulting kind of way, I mean that his brothers don't care about how much he hates himself, nobody corrects him when he says he's a waste of space, and mc is not given any option to reassure him. The single time mc is given the option to correct him, it is immediately brushed off and we never go back to it.

And, similar to Mammon, Levi is reduced to only these traits. In contrast to Mammon, however, throughout the story, Mammon has been relatively consistent in character writing up until season four. Meanwhile, the devs obviously care less about Levi in comparison to Lucifer or Mammon. Levi has pretty much always been sidelined and reduced to a plot device. Whenever a problem arises, it's either A) Diavolo was bored or B) Levi's made a mistake involving a game and now we're all trapped in it until all of the brothers make out with MC or something.

Levi isn't used as a plot device in season 4, but whenever the plot calls for it, they just whip out the "limited edition Ruri-chan figure" to make Levi do whatever. Satan is having a mental breakdown because of feelings of inferiority. He questions why he even exists. Levi is right there watching. Levi has experienced feelings similar to those. Levi is constantly doubting his self-worth. Levi feels like he's a waste of space and he also wonders what the point of existence is. They both have severe feelings of inferiority. What does Levi do in this situation? Does he attempt to comfort Satan, to empathize with him, to make a connection or relate to his issue, to tell him that he's not alone, that he's a capable demon that Levi often feels jealous of due to Satan's intellect? Nope. He hears about the limited edition Ruri-chan figure and he just. He just leaves. ???? HUH??? What???????? Yep. Brother of the year, fellas. This is what I mean when I say that Levi's character in season 4 is defined by liking anime.

Asmodeus is acting the most normal out of the brothers, but that's only because his character never really had many chances to shine to begin with. Once again, let me make it clear that I love Asmo. I love all of the demon brothers. But honestly, Asmo, right alongside Levi, has been sidelined since the very beginning, so this isn't an issue exclusive to season 4. For most of season 4 he's actually the most normal acting demon brother, so I don't have too many complaints. I actually liked the way he was handled some of the time. We got a little insight into his insecurities when the shadow took over him, and his interaction with Levi then was pretty nice. As always though, I think the game focuses a bit too much on the narcissistic aspect of his character. He's the avatar of lust, not the avatar of finding yourself sexy. I'm not saying to make him stop being a narcissist since that's such a huge part of his character, I just wish that the game presented him as MORE than just a narcissist. He's more than someone who has an obsession with mirrors.

Also, what was the point of him and Levi being around for lesson 70? They literally did nothing. There was so much potential for the two of them being there, but that was all thrown out the window.

I've been writing for way longer than I thought I would, so I'm going to wrap up the character specific complaints here. To summarize, most of the characters, mainly the brothers, are reduced to 1-2 character traits that define them for the entirety of season 4, and nobody cares about the demons regressing. Mammon likes money and is stupid. That's it. Levi likes anime and doesn't like himself. That's it. Beel likes food. That's it. Belphie is tired. That's it. Satan has a raging inferiority complex and nobody cares. Lucifer is sealing himself off again and nobody cares. Levi hates himself and nobody cares. Mammon also apparently hates himself, and the brothers agree with him when this revelation is made. Also, they don't care.

Another general complaint I have is the plot itself. Obey Me has never been known for it's plot, obviously (ie. Lesson 16) but at least previous seasons had coherent character arcs and plots. This season felt like the devs were part of that one meme template with Moon Knight

I found it

Like we literally spent an entire lesson helping Raphael climb a wall. I doubt that was necessary. In short, the pacing is really bad. Issues with pacing and such never really bothered me, but to this extent? It's really noticeable.

Just remembered another thing. We promised Mammon that we would summon him first, and we ended up summoning Lucifer first? This is just a personal complaint but I was pretty disappointed. And the fact that we were able to summon him and, in true season 4 fashion, nobody really cared that much. Even though that's a pretty monumental event considering the fact that they've been building this up for almost two seasons.

If anyone actually read all this, everything here is just how I personally viewed it. If someone could convince me that I'm wrong, that this actually had a meaning, and that things get better, I would be overjoyed. I couldn't quite bring myself to get to lesson 80 because I was so turned off by everything else, so maybe I could be wrong- maybe things get resolved. Even so, severely doubt that they could fix everything just like that.

[distort-opia]

I see a lot of people say they don't want Joker to be important in The Batman sequels, that they're sick of Joker, etc. but is it just me or do people kind of overstate how ubiquitous Joker is in Batman adaptions? He appears in most of them yeah but that's to be expected when he's Batman's archnemesis. There are some where he doesn't show up, or if he does, isn't necessarily the main/only focus of the villains. The only time I can think of where it got egregious was in the Arkham games, but even then other villains still got a good deal of attention. Or do most of the people making these complaints just not like Joker in general?

Mm, no, I would agree Joker isn't as ubiquitous as he's made out to be in Batman media. However, I do agree with the complaints regarding him to an extent. I'd say it's less about how often he shows up and more about how he does it. Him showing up frequently should be a consequence of him being crucially important. Whether people like it or not, Joker is essential to Batman, that's impossible to dispute -- as you said, he's Batman's archnemesis. But there is a difference between writing a good Joker story and just... sticking Joker in one because he's a popular, titular character.

For instance, in the current Batman run they had Joker be the one who hired Deathstroke to kill Robin way back in the day, and I rolled my eyes so hard. They shove Joker in whenever they're in need of a Plot Twist (aha, it was Joker all along!) or when they have something horrible happen, because of course Joker would do that, he's deranged! Even if the act itself is not in character for Joker. He's come to be used as a plot device when writers don't know what villain to pull out of the hat, and it wouldn't annoy me as much if it were well-written. But instead of trying to fit the story within Joker's core characterization, his personality tends to get rewritten a lot, in order for the writer to tell the story they want. That's how you get... one-dimensional, shallow, typical serial killer and not-actually-funny Joker. So I get how this might make people feel Joker shows up too much, because a lot of the time he's not showing up in the right way, and it becomes grating. I love Joker, but even I am torn between watching his character get skewered vs. not reading about him at all.

Plus, something to keep in mind is the fact that a lot more people watch movies, and not nearly as much read comics. For many fans, the contact they've had with Joker has been through live-action films, and The Dark Knight (2008) especially. Ledger's iconic performance forever influenced what came after. Every attempt at playing Joker since then has had elements from it, and this after Joker got turned into a mascot for dudebros who watched TDK and thought "I'm an agent of chaos" is all there was to him. So many people associate Joker with this "We live in a society" kind of message now -- which Joker (2019) played into heavily, creating a completely different version of him -- when Joker in the comics is so much more than that. It's actually baffling to me how Joker, such a heavily queer-coded character (even within TDK) came to represent toxic masculinity for a lot of people. This, I would say, is another big reason why Joker has become so hated. People have heard of Joker inspiring a shooter to go into a theater and unload a gun into the audience, they've heard about Leto sending dead rats to his colleagues, they've seen all the toxic mysoginist 'alpha' males with Joker posters in their room, and they've landed on this horrid image of him. Which does annoy me to no end, because that's not who Joker is. Joker isn't about wanton destruction, the same way Batman isn't about mindless vengeance. But that's an essay for another day.

Also... it's become a bit of a trend in the last five years, especially on Tumblr and Twitter; to complain about Joker's every appearance, to wish for Batman to kill him or for Joker to disappear entirely, etc. Obviously not saying there aren't people who genuinely dislike Joker (and that's their prerogative), but there's a bit of a 'getting woke points' aspect to this more recent wave of hatred, which has become more prevalent right now for villains in general. Hating on Joker is an easy way to show your moral superiority -- after all, he did so many horrible things. And it's tough to even introduce nuance in a discussion about Joker with people like this, who only view the world in black and white, because they do not seek to understand. The goal, conscious or not, is more the performance a 'pure' moral stance so that they feel good about themselves, and so others flock to agree with them (which in turn makes the commentators feel good about themselves, and on it goes).

Sorry, anon, this got way longer than I expected :)) In the end, this Joker fatigue many DC fans are having right now is influenced by many factors, and it’s such a pity. When done right, Joker can be an absolute delight.

[ariays]

Thoughts on ‘Why Her’ so far...

For the korean netizens who are constantly complaining about Hwang Inyeop’s 'acting’ in Why Her, please watch Annarasumanara (Sound of Magic) after this. Because boy is actually a good actor if given something to work with. 

Here’s a rant:

The writing in Why Her for his character is a bit of a let down for me personally because they’re writing him to be quite one-dimensional. Because from ep 1 all the way to ep 8, we don’t really know much about him really except for the snippets of his traumatic past. We don’t really get to know him as a person, his personality, and how he came to be living his current life. This is the reason why some viewers felt disconnected about the romance because they couldn’t find reasons as to how Soojae felt compelled towards him. And because the viewers just ‘don’t know him’ as a person so far. We all understood why he likes Soojae. But where is the catalytic moment that made Soojae like him back? Aside from him being kind and supportive of her. While his feelings for her are deep and understandable because of the history between them that only he is aware of, her feelings for him, however, felt rather shallow, rushed and, in a way, random. I understand that she was emotionally vulnerable and was intrigued by him but it would’ve been lovely if the writer wrote it in a way that starts off with them spending more time together platonically, make them actually bond and get to know each other while working and interacting before having her actually fall for him romantically. Their interactions with each other in the initial episodes were so limited that I just find it such a shame. If the writer were to invest more time into writing a much more linear narrative for the moments of these two, there would be a whole lot more people rooting for the romance.

BUT I do have to say that ep 9 & 10 has definitely gave me hope and won me over.

FINALLY, we’re able to see Gong Chan and glimpses of his personality. I felt like we were finally being introduced to him properly. He has always been in the sidelines and background so far being nothing but the standard supportive love interest but now we finally get to see him in action. & the scenes of Soojae and Gong Chan together were so cute! I grew to like them together a lot after episode 9 whereas before I just thought the romance between them was so-so. This makes me excited to see the 2nd half of this show and hopefully it lives up to my expectations. I’m expecting to see more action coming from Gong Chan as he tackles and solves the past injustice done towards him. & of course, work with Soojae on the case while strengthening the foundation of their bond with each other. Clashes beween them would be welcomed because what’s a relationship without any clashes? Bring me the angst. From the preview of ep 11, I think we can all expect some angst and Inyeop finally being able to showcase some of his acting skills that has been kept hidden by the writing lol.

As someone who has seen Hwang Inyeop in his previous works and wholly supports him, I can’t help but to feel slightly disappointed by the writing of his character here. Gong Chan is lovely and a walking green flag and I would honestly fall for this man in real life. But in a drama that is this dark and a titular character that is very complex, that is just not enough. His character needs to shine too if not he would be no different than the other supporting characters in here. It is not his skills that is to be questioned here but more of the writing. So before anyone try to take a dig on his acting, please know that writing plays a part in making or breaking a character. There’s only much an actor can do. They can act their butts off but if the writing sucks and goes against them, there’s really nothing much they can do about it. Even the most experienced actors out there would have a hard time and would only have natural chemistry and charisma to rely on. & for an actor who is just starting, they might not have developed those sets of skills yet because it is something that comes with years of experience. & it doesn’t help that he’s being paired with a veteran actress who not only has tons of experience but has a far meatier role in comparison. A bad actor would be someone who has been consistently bad throughout. If an actor has been consistently good and has been harvesting potential in his previous works only to be ‘not as good’ in one work, then I would say that it’s more because of the influence of a bad script. It actually reminds me a lot of the situation Park Bogum was in when he was doing the drama Encounter. The writing for his character in the show wasn’t the greatest and people think that the character wasn’t as complex but for some odd reason these people linked it to being ‘bad acting’ from him. 

Anyways, Hwang Inyeop is relatively new. He may not be the greatest but he has a lot of potential and have received positive feedbacks and compliments from his past roles. Even being a scene stealer in 18 again and True Beauty’s case. I hope that the negative feedback he received for this recent role won’t bring him down. I think that this role is a good experience and I’m sure he’s able to learn a lot from this experience and improve on his skills even further. This is why I’m excited and am looking forward to his future projects because I think he would do even better. In my opinion, I think he suits darker roles or even comedic roles. I have noticed that he’s quite good in comedic scenes and I feel like he would really suit super dark roles (antagonistic or anti-hero or just any type of characters that requires him to be angsty LOL). I hope that his next role would be far meatier and challenging so that he has something to work with.

But honestly, I really want him to be in a slice-of-life rom com where he can be an angsty boy with a clumsy side. Omg he would be so good. I can just imagine it. lol. & maybe this time, he can finally graduate from school and have a career instead of being a student? hahaha

[gayregis]

how do i ignore all the misogyny in the witcher books? they're much better than the netflix show storywise but there is so much gross stuff compared to what i usually read/watch

hi!! thank you for the ask, this is a very important topic to address, though i believe you are asking the wrong question. the matter is not how to ignore the misogyny in the witcher and other pieces of media, but rather how to confront it and face it head-on.

i don’t believe in making excuses for the media i consume when it has “problematic elements” to it. this isn’t meant to be taken as an excuse to “consume anything you like,” because i would not engage with something insidious in its nature (such as media that revolves around and is based upon harmful stereotypes or insensitive jokes and cannot exist without this, some examples of this are infamous things that i’ve seen discussed on this site like captive prince, cmbyn, and hazbin hotel). instead this is about when a piece of media is good overall in nature (the witcher has many anti-war, anti-violence, anti-imperialist themes and messages relating to family, childhood, friendship, and love) but has elements that are the results of the author’s personal biases.

i think before i address how to deal with the misogyny, i’ll actually define what misogyny exists within the witcher books, to be more specific about what we are talking about, and also to do the work of addressing the misogyny in the books:

how the women in the witcher are treated as characters and how they are depicted by the author.

there are a few good points in this subject. characters such as yennefer and ciri are very strong characters who receive a lot of development over the course of the series, and are main characters that are integral to the plot. they demonstrate both strengths and weaknesses, virtues and vices. they have depth and are not one-dimensional characters, especially as they become more and more complex over the course of the series.

blatant sexualization of women when it’s inappropriate or irrelevant, descriptions of female characters’ looks or bodies that male characters would not have received.

bizzare standards for what is beautiful for a woman, including body descriptions (“triss’s waist measured 22”) and extreme focus on youth and the age cusp of around 15 to 18 as being the most attractive for a woman (stated in-universe, even though this could be excused as being what is normal in the 1200s, keep in mind that this is the author’s decision to impliment this standard into their society). 

descriptions and scenarios of extreme violence towards woman that are gratuitous in nature and do not add to the story or have any relevance. (geralt being paralyzed with his knee during the stampede at the refugee camp in bof is NOT on the same level as yennefer being extremely tortured at stygga or ciri meeting “forest gramps” in lotl). some of this violence towards women is related to the male antagonists being misogynistic (such as leo bonhart) but a lot of it is just pure filler and is not necessary for the story.

majority of female characters do not get the depth they deserve, and some are pretty one-dimensional. the sorceresses are a good example of this, as the majority of them are shallow and manipulative. female characters are also just generally not given as much “page time” as male characters, for example compare how much depth and backstory regis and cahir receive to how much milva and angouleme receive. regis’ backstory is entirely irrelevant to the main plot but it’s extremely long, and angouleme’s backstory is more relevant to the main plot (she was born of cintrian nobility) yet it is extremely short. (one could make the argument that this is an effect of their characters because regis talks a lot and angouleme is still processing her trauma, but more could have been given to angouleme even if she is not extremely talkative).

the only canon lesbians in the witcher are not good people and are manipulative in nature, and the only canon f/f relationship (ciri/mistle) is representative of a turmultous, vicious time of violence, and is based upon sexual assault.

the gender non-conforming female characters who ARE good people,never have their gnc-ness treated with any depth, and it is insinuated that they are heterosexual.

male protagonists such as geralt and dandelion are both misogynistic at various times in the books, especially in the short stories. this is unlike when male antagonists are misogynistic, because it is represented as something wrong and is intended to characterize them as vile people. instead, geralt and dandelion say or do misogynistic things and it is treated like a joke or something normal, and not a flaw or something repulsive.

how to confront all of this?

the first step is to address it, just as the above list does, and discuss things that stood out to you and are definitively wrong, that the author should not have put in the story because it is useless and only serves to further misogyny in the real world. it would be a grave mistake to think of these things as “fine” and continue to view the witcher books as some kinds of perfect scripture. so many people feel that just because they enjoy something, they are not allowed to critique it and discuss parts of it that are uncomfortable or plain wrong. 

to continue with this point, i think it is important to put the witcher into context as a fantasy series written in the 1990s by a white man who did not (to my knowledge) intend this series for such a broad audience and franchise that it has become. this is not an excuse for sapkowski at all, but rather i think it’s important to understand the origins of the witcher and how it came to be in the first place. this wasn’t a series made to be inclusive and diverse, it wasn’t intended to be “for us” in the first place. 

i do not believe that there is MEANT to be any “positive representation” in the witcher because i don’t believe it is something that sapkowski was actively considering when he wrote the books. just because there isn’t good representation in the books does not mean they and everything related to them are not worth your time, but if you are someone desperately searching for good positive representation or someone who NEEDS to see representation of someone like them in every piece of media they consume, i don’t think the witcher books are necessarily a good place to start. this isn’t meant to deter you from reading or interacting with the books/book canon, but rather a fair warning about what the intentions of the books are. 

i don’t think the books are a groundshaking work of art that are meant to inspire concepts such as diversity, rather it is a very specific work that in its true nature is an argument of a critique of popular fantasy tropes with additional commentary on themes of violence and family. so this is basically meant to say ‘understand what you are getting into.’

how to move on?

the main question which i answer is “is the root of this thing (a piece of media/a character/etc) something that revolves around the bad part, or was the bad part just thrown in there and is incongruent with the rest of the thing?”

the biggest example i think of tackling the misogyny in the witcher and still managing to enjoy it is with dandelion (lol). i think it’s every day that i have to reconcile with the fact that i genuinely enjoy dandelion as a character and hold a conversation with myself about which parts from canon i enjoy and which parts i don’t. his character at its core is not a bad person, he is meant to be an inversion of the trope of the slovenly and lecherous comic relief, and sapkowski succeeds in turning the trope on its head. dandelion is very loyal and committed, he demonstrates his worth in the narrative and doesn’t act with pure selfishness and greed. he is an inversion of all of the negative traits of his trope, but sapkowski also wrote in, like, a literal rape joke for him to say in the bounds of reason. how do you get over that? personally, i just go back to “is this congruent with the rest of the character or not,” and my answer at least for dandelion is no. the rape joke in the bounds of reason seemed entirely out of place to me, it doesn’t fit in with the rest of his character.

similarly, why does geralt sleep with girls who are barely 18 within the events of the witcher? how do you get over that? well, i don’t believe that’s congruent to the rest of his character, the POINT of his character, which is to protect young girls. 

so i go back on my word of what i begun this answer with, and i tell you that i indeed DO ignore some parts about the witcher. but it is not a blind ignorance, an ignorance in which i do not consider the effects and i pretend like they do not exist at all. it’s a choice which i make and a process of logical steps that i follow, an understanding and an agreement i come to with myself and the media i interact with. i acknowledge the context surrounding the creation of the media, i acknowledge the effects that these elements had on their readers and how they relate to the real world, and how i know that these things are objectively wrong. i understand why they exist in the canon, and why i feel justified for choosing to take them out of what i regard as part of my experience.

it’s tempting to proclaim “canon is dead and we have killed the author,” but understand how the author’s personal experiences and biases have influenced the media that they created and which you now consume. you can’t take the personal biases completely out of the writing of the witcher and you have to acknowledge that they still exist in the text. even if you make up your own headcanons, it is still imperative to consider the issues that originate in canon.

what does this look like?

complaining to your friends who also like the witcher / on social media that you hate these parts of the books and explain why you hate them and why they are unnecessary

thinking about why these parts were written in and the context surrounding them

making your own rewrites / headcanons around these parts (ex: my idea for the rewrite of a little sacrifice)

making your own headcanons to establish what was not (ex: my headcanons for angouleme’s trauma and how it affects her in the present, headcanons about how the hansa becomes a family)

tldr: acknowledge why these elements exist in canon. choose to follow a process that will allow you to salvage the parts which speak to you while still understanding that these elements exist in canon and will never disappear. continue to like the canon without the parts that you understand are rotten.

edit: also the netflix show has some pretty misogynistic parts to it as well, yennefer and ciri have way less agency as characters than they do in the books. geralt literally coerces yennefer into sex in twn and treats her with absolutely no respect, and ran from fathering ciri solely because he was a dick. obviously this isn’t the point of the ask, but i think it’s important to acknowledge that twn has misogynistic elements as well and not pretend like just because twn was led in 2020 by a wealthy white woman that it’s progressive in any way.

[hemo--goblins]

hi. this is copy/pasted from a discord server but i wanted to talk more on my feelings on recent developments in rwby. i am well aware this is complaining, and i will say that right off the bat. but tyrian means a lot to me as a character, and i really, really enjoyed his dynamic with watts, so seeing things pan out the way they have been has been. disproportionately frustrating to me. and i think some people on here might feel the same. so.... rant under the cut.

i’ve been thinking about the possibility of watts dying in v8 and tyrian never seeing him again, and how the writers wouldn’t even address it, like he isn’t his fucking teammate who was p much the only person aside from salem that seemed to appreciate and respect him in any capacity.

i know the villains are not what the majority of the fndm cares about, but i wish at least the writers would give a shit about them

they’ve made it clear time and time again that they really do not give a shit about their villains, but sometimes theres just the accidental spark of something amazing, like what happened in v7, and i get my hopes up and i... shoulda known better, tbh. can’t even be assed to make merch that caters to fans of any character aside from team rwby, of course they wouldn’t even notice the fantastic possibility that was right in front of their faces. n+v jailbreak was literally....... everything to me. it woulda been so good, and i’m trying so hard to respect the writer’s decision and not be salty about it, but it makes so much more sense than what just happened. if your characters shine when they are together, why would you not only ignore the chance for them to have a really good scene with each other, but separate them from one another entirely?

i’m starting to feel like an idiot for liking these characters so much, bc jesus, fiction should not be making me feel bad like this. the whole point was for it to bring comfort, and now i’m just like, hurt that they’d do me dirty like this, as if they haven’t been doing me dirty for years. v7 was the exception, not the standard. i’d forgotten that bc it was fresh in my mind, i think. even at the peak of relevance, they still didn’t wanna give tyrian and watts jack shit outside the show, so idk why i’m surprised. it would be so much easier if i’d just stan a character that the writers actually want me to. one that’s marketable and widely liked by the fandom. sorry i’m just such a fucking mess that HE’S the one i resonated with!!! go ahead and kick me in the dick for it, like i don’t already feel like booboo the fool.

i mean, its a fuckign story, with more important characters to focus on, and half the fandom fuckin hates him anyways. the tag for him is full of people wishing he would die, and people literally. tag him as a tw. there’s no reason for the crwby to put any sort of focus or expend their effort into making him a dimensional person. he’s there to Be Evil. i’m sure his synergy with watts and the inherent queerness of it was completely accidental. they’d never want to humanize characters like them on purpose like that, i was just. seeing what i wanted to see. but so many other ppl were too, and it was a rly big source of comfort for them, and to have it all just. dropped all at once. dismissed entirely. feels bad man.

we never had it good, villain stannies rarely do. but we didn’t really realize how much worse we coulda had it until that kinda reality check that reminded everyone that the crwby does not care about these characters that we find so much comfort in. they exist as plot devices to lift the protagonists up, they can’t be their own people with complex feelings.

like... they kinda care about cinder. after 8 volumes. and hazel has relevance because he's on the fence about being a villain at all. but characters like tyrian and watts? roman? they exist to be people who do Bad Things for the heroes to oppose; their motivations are portrayed as shallow and mostly brushed over. which shouldn’t be as much of an issue for me as it is, because. sometimes u need a villain that is just a shitty dude. but idk. i thought there was something really compelling about how they were the only villains that actually got along with each other since roman and neo. i thought they might go somewhere with it. i thought it would be really compelling if they got attached. and you’re reminded that these awful people are still human, that every person is capable of terrible things when they are pushed, and that even the most despicable people can still have those they care about.

i thought light and dark existed within every person by design, rwby. where's that concept in practice.

i’ll stop complaining. it just... sucks to have such a deep emotional connection and attachment to something that the creators don’t think is worth their time.

[takaraphoenix]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 5

1. Favorite character of this season?

Anya, I love her arc this season. She's just kind of been... there, in season 4, running along. No one really acknowledged the demon thing, there was no real bonding between Anya and everyone, she was just there. This season, finding her place in the world? Working at the Magic Box, then her in The Body – I mean seriously, her confronting mortality like that, I love it. I love her growth.

2. Outstanding minor character (positive or negative)?

Dawn. Sure, technically you could argue she's a “main character”, however... she's barely even a character, she's a plot-device so that really qualifies her as a minor character for me.

I always disliked Dawn, even when I was a teen myself. With some things, perspective shifts when you grow older, but Dawn just... always sucked. As a teen, I found her to be a cringey parody of the teen girl experience and now as an adult I still think that this is the peak of what a middle-aged man thinks the teen girl experience is. She's a cheap, one-dimensional caricature of a teenager.

She is a whiny brat, she constantly acts like “no one sees the real me”, she becomes a kleptomaniac to try and gain attention, she acts like no one loves her even though everyone constantly fawn over her every chance they got, she is a spoiled little brat that is completely unappreciative of all the things she gets. It's like they crammed every single shallow teen stereotype into this one character, making her a very one-dimensional character. Which is a bafflement considering Willow, Xander and Buffy started out as teenagers but they were always fully fleshed out characters with actual personalities. Heck, Cordelia was the most stereotypical character in the teenage years but even she got more depth and individuality.

Though I'd like to point out that while, as a character, Dawn is incredibly obnoxious, I do like her as what she is – a plot device. The way she creates new dynamics among the Scoobies, how other characters play off her and grow on her existence, the villain-plot she triggers.

3. Favorite character dynamic?

Too many, honestly. I adore the way Tara-Buffy grow in this season. Generally the friction between Spike and the Scoobies. Spike and Dawn in particular. The Buffy-Dawn dynamic too – Dawn being such a blank slate of Teen AngstTM allows for the other characters to shine in comparison. They get a new dynamic here, through the New Kiddo that puts them in perspective. Caring, gentle. The sisters-angle is a new one for Buffy and I do love her as a big sister, even if I wished her retconned sister had like... an actual personality.

4. Favorite canon romantic ship?

Spike/Buffy. Sue me, I'm Spuffy trash. Always been. The way he cares for her, the things he's willing to do. The little things. The self-sacrificial side, how he drops everything to help her whenever she needs him. And, I know, I give other ships flag for things equal or less in comparison to some of the shit that's happened/happening between Spike/Buffy, but see that's where taste comes into play. Liking and disliking things is just... all about that taste and tastes differ. For me, Spike/Buffy hits all the right spots. I love them so much.

5. Least favorite canon romantic ship?

Riley/Buffy. Once again. Seriously, this is just such a bad relationship. From the get-go she constantly put herself down to lift him up. Holding back her powers – which, of course, because otherwise she'd snap him in half during sparring – but pretending that's the max. She is always going out of her way to make him feel special and useful.

And he goes and gets fed on by a vampire and has the audacity to blame it on Buffy, because Buffy doesn't make him feel wanted enough. Even though she continuously tries making him feel important. It's ridiculous. Complaining that she didn't think about calling him when her mom went to the hospital, like she didn't have something else in her mind there? Setting her an ultimatum that she has to give him a reason to stay. After he essentially cheats on her, by sneaking around with vampires and letting them feed on him for the rush.

Now to go and leave with his little military buddies once more. After everything the military has done to him...? Their relationship was so bad for Buffy.

6. Favorite episode?

The Body. This is the singularly best episode... ever. In all television I've ever seen. This episode is overwhelmingly good. Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting is overwhelming in this episode. The choice to exclude music entirely, not even sad ones. How silence is allowed to longer, how unnerving the background noises become due to this silence.

The writing too, of course. Anya's words about death and mortality are so intense, they'll always stick with me. And not just her. Xander, Willow, Dawn, how they all handle this in a different way.

The choice alone that Joyce dies from something so fundamentally human, something no one could have prevented, something Buffy couldn't have fought. And – yes, that reaches ahead some – but the fact that the next episode also serves to have this unfold. It's not just “death and move on”. It's being dealt with, it's being digested, it's being taken seriously.

Too many writers feel the need to fun things up when it's getting serious, because they are afraid to lose their audience if there isn't a joke every five minutes. There is not a single joke in that entire episode. This show is funny as hell, but they know when not to joke. There is nothing to be made light here, this is serious, they are truly suffering. They know how important that is.

I've seen this episode surely a dozen times now. I cry so much every single time. Not just once. There are so many well-written, well-acted and well-executed moments in this episode. It's brilliant TV-making. It encapsulates what's so brilliant about this show overall; the human element, suffering, pain, dealing with pain, the balance between seriousness and humor and knowing when not to use humor.

7. Least favorite episode?

Episode two Real Me. It's the Dawn introduction episode and I've made clear what I dislike about Dawn; this episode introduces it all in the most teen angst cliche possible – writing a diary entry about how no one sees you for who you are and like no one could ever actually understand you.

8. Favorite Monster Of The Week?

...Dracula. I still... I consider that episode a fever-dream. It's one of the ones I opt to forget about whenever enough time has passed since my last rewatch because it just... doesn't fit into this show at all, it feels like a whacky filler arc in an anime, or a one-shot comic spin-off. But it's fun.

9. Least favorite Monster Of The Week?

This season doesn't actually have much of those. There's 4 or 5, depending on how you'd count, out of those 22, because this season is very streamlined about the Big Bad, more so than previous seasons were, and it is also very focused on the human issue – on Joyce's sickness and then her death. Out of those few, I guess the “let's split Xander in half” demon from episode 3 was my least favorite. It was... boring and due to this season's streamlining the fact that this was the most fillery filler episode felt a bit out of place, really.

10. Rate the overarching villain!

SO FREAKING GOOD.

Glory is a truly glorious villain. She's a god. But she is so – so frantic, so manic. She is fun to watch as a villain. The sheer size of the threat too. Which, it figures. There's always an escalation of threat.

(We will get back to that in the season 6 review though.)

Glory may just be my favorite Big Bad on this show, which only adds to how much I love this season. It's one of my favorites. Granted, I have a lot of favorite seasons.

Bonus: Other thoughts?

I love this season so very, very much. The human element, the growth, the villain-plot, the relationship developments. It's an incredible season. I'll get back to this when I finish my rewatch and actually do my ranking of seasons, but I am rating each episode – 1 to 5 – and getting the point-average, to have a more factual look at how much I loved a season. This one is through the roof, it scored an entire 1,5 more in average than season 4 did. There's only one episode in this that I gave a 1 to, but there are so many 4s.

That ending, to truly kill off your main character like that. So many gut-punches – but deserved gut-punches, not the ones that come out of nowhere and only serve shock-value.

I greatly enjoy and love seasons 1 to 3, but this season – this season reminds me why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best damn TV show ever created.

[fyompi]

Remembering Final Fantasy X-2

It’s hard to assess whether to call X-2 “good,” but if I did, I wouldn’t mean “good” in the most traditional sense. The game is an unnecessary sequel to one of the best Japanese role-playing games ever made, and turns a somber, existential, occultist storyline into an upbeat comedy. 

What’s weird is that I don’t dislike this at all. Final Fantasy games have always been funny, and have arguably relied more on their world building than actual plot. They’re visually super interesting. Their character and monster designs are discussed more now than anything that actually happens in them. 

Maybe somebody from Enix realized this, for better or worse. There’s nothing about the structure and framework of the Final Fantasy series that limits them to being strictly dramas. Recognizing that fact made the existence of a comedy entry sort of an inevitability. 

Final Fantasy X-2 is effectively a magical girl anime. A genre of anime that is notably, and characteristically created for girls. Transformation sequences, in which a teenage female character changes outfits from regular surface-level Earthling attire, to a vibrant and glittery superhero popstar, is a mainstay in the genre. Usually, these shows were divided into two segments: one depicting the main character’s day-to-day “normal” life, like a regular sitcom, and then later changing into an action fantasy show for like five minutes. The bulk of the shows had little to do with the fighting, and more to do with the lives of the characters. Over many seasons, you see this character grow up, make friends, go on dates, have her heart broken, and sometimes even have kids. It makes the serious aspects of the show feel heavier, once you’ve gotten to know this person. 

I love these shows. Sailor Moon is one of the best looking animated television shows ever made. Every frame is a work of art, and every person I know who grew up enjoying it has amazing fashion sense today. 

Taking the already pretty flamboyant, and visually-unorthodox world of Final Fantasy, and turning into a magical girl anime makes a ton of sense, despite it being in the same world as something so drastically different. Tidus, the main character from Final Fantasy X, was already modeled after a real world Japanese pop star from the nineties, and Tetsuya Nomura’s fashion sense might be the most striking aspect of the series. It’s a series dripping in glitzy, futuristic visual design. The influence these games have had on my personal taste in art can’t be understated. 

I would even go as far as to say, watching my cousins play Final Fantasy X-2 is the most critical reason I have any interest in fashion today. Which might be hard to imagine for some, given how incredible gauche some of the outfits can be in this game. But to me, playing these games with other people felt like watching the Met Gala; you bicker with your friends at the sight of every new outfit, whether it’s beautiful or horrendous, and slowly the line dividing the two begins to fade into abstraction. That’s how I felt looking at all the different outfits in Final Fantasy X-2 as a child. I understood why fashion is fun, and realized that girls my age were smarter than I was giving them credit for. 

Like a year later, I went to my friend’s birthday party and met his older cousins who were also into Final Fantasy, and I told them that Final Fantasy X-2 was my favorite game in the series.  They all proceeded to yell at me for ten straight minutes about how awful it was. I didn’t tell them that I had never actually played the game, only looked at it, and decided that it was my favorite thing to look at. I remember very vividly, one of them was wearing smokey eyeliner, and I really liked looking at him too. Something about his eyeliner made me think he’d appreciate X-2 more than he did, and I was disappointed when he complained about the lack of plot, and how it “ruined” his favorite entry in the series. I didn’t tell them that I liked the game because of the outfits because I was too embarrassed to, so instead I told them the battle system was really good, which I had heard was the case, from people who’d actually played it. One nodded and said “yeah, that battle system is pretty freaking good. You ever played  F. F. 2 though?” 

“No.” “2’s got an even better battle system. If you like that kinda stuff you gotta play that game.”

He meant Final Fantasy 4, released in America as Final Fantasy 2. I was a senior in high school when I realized that’s what he meant. When he had told me though, I didn’t want to play either, because those games weren’t three-dimensional, and they didn’t have voice acting, and they didn’t have cute outfits like X-2 did. 

My appreciation for the series wasn’t as “deep” as theirs but the world captured me just the same. That same year, I had played Kingdom Hearts 2, and then Kingdom Hearts 1, and decided Kingdom Hearts 2 was the better game because you got to play as Roxas, who has objectively better hair than Sora. I played on Easy, and never equipped any items or abilities to my character because I didn’t like looking at the menus, and didn’t like reading tutorials. I just wanted to see the world, I didn’t really care about what was really going on in it. It was absolutely impossible, playing it this way. 

I couldn’t relate when the boys at the party were bragging about beating Kingdom Hearts 1 on level 1, or beating Riku first-try, or playing through the Japanese-exclusive Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix, because it had a “critical mode” which was harder than the hardest difficulty in the American release of the game. All of this was really strange to me, and I felt really stupid that I couldn’t ever imagine being that good at a videogame. That was also the first moment it occurred to me that calling a game I’ve never played “my favorite game” was sorta fraud-behavior. They lived in these games, and I was a tourist. I realized that most of the people who played, and enjoyed Final Fantasy X enough to both complete it, and buy it’s sequel, are people like them. The game did not cater to these people. They later took me to their computer desk and had me watch five back-to-back episodes of Red vs. Blue on youtube. I couldn’t follow any of what was going on in any episode. 

Eventually, I got around to playing Final Fantasy X-2, and the battle system was as good as everybody told me it would be. It’s too good. It’s sometimes so good, that I forget how shallow the rest of the game is. It’s so good that it makes me hate how little the game focuses on it. 

A simple RPG with a tight battle system, and little story, is fine by me. Dragon Quest games are incredibly straightforward, in the best way possible. The substance of the battles, and the quaintness of the adventure, makes every game incredibly charming. Final Fantasy X-2 unfortunately, tries to add substance where there is none, by forcing the player to complete very boring mini-games after every story advancement. This is the director’s way of constantly reminding the player of the upbeat, and non-serious tone of the game. But instead, these sequences are wastes of time, that feel like distractions, from the empty storyline. They’re also so difficult to watch in 2019.

I don’t need to be distracted though, because I don’t mind a jrpg that isn’t an epic. I just want a game that’s about something. If the gameplay was only traversing the world, and honing the battle system, that would be enough for me. But instead, it becomes clear to me early on that the team didn’t know who to cater to. The primary audience for magical girl anime might be turned off by the blatant objectification of the three main characters, and the primarily male audience of Final Fantasy don’t seem to want an electric popist sitcom to be their non-plot. 

On top of that, the voice acting is a lot worse than I remember, and the Playstation 2 doesn’t really have the hardware to adequately depict X-2’s nautical sci-fi fashion, except in fully CGI cutscenes, which are incredibly rare in this game. And in the few CGI cutscenes that do exist, the directors get to choose what outfits the characters are in, which aren’t the outfits I would ever choose, because they aren’t the Black Mage outfits. The outfits they wear in the box-art are the outfits they wear in every CGI cutscene. Every other outfit is limited to the blocky in-game models. I can’t even find high definition concept art of these outfits. It’s a shame, because some of them are amazing. 

On top of that, I don’t actually get to know these characters well. The character progression, which made X amazing, and made shows like Sailor Moon substantive, isn’t there. For all the bells and whistles they put in the game, nothing actually matters. Yuna is upbeat and cute, Rikku is young and adhd, and Paine is goth. That’s really it, for the whole game. The script is very rarely funny enough to get away with such shallow characters. It loses its charm incredibly quickly. 

That depleting likability is a big issue when the game’s substance comes in its side quests. This game is a nightmare to 100% complete, and since the primary collectibles are the outfits, the game really makes you feel like a loser when you miss anything. The most interesting part of the game is hidden behind the worst parts, and made me realize how privileged I was to have my cousin do all that for me, and let me see the good parts. 

So, I begrudgingly understand, and agree with the criticism, of a game so tailor-made to my specific taste. I wish I could recommend it to people, but I don’t know anybody with the attention span required to make this game worthwhile. What’s especially sad is the fact that, if this game were a lot better, it might have successfully opened the creative gates of Final Fantasy games to their audience. To this day, Americans still seem to think that a jrpg’s quality is defined by the plot alone. There’s so much more going on with the genre, that can be attributed to many different types of experiences, and unfortunately, Final Fantasy X-2 is far from an adequate example of this. 

[sabbathism]

People don’t like season 2, and here’s what they have to say :

tl;dr: I answer the web’s most vehement complaints about season 2 of American Gods. If you happen to recognize yourself in one of those, then I suggest thinking about it really really hard and, perhaps, giving the show another chance. If you recognize yourself in several of those, please drop the show. It’s not worth wasting your time and especially not ours. (I put a list of helpful cast and production related facts at the end.)

Hi, Nelle here, I’m but a humble fan who wishes to have fun seeing gods bicker and argue among mortals, complete with the craziest of situations, stellar cast and great visuals. And yet I can’t help but hear things when I start browsing this hellsite in quest of juicy fanworks.

Although I’m no Joan Of Arc, I hear voices from above and here’s what I have to shout back (lest I get burned at the stake)  :

“The pacing is all over the place ! It’s too slow !”

Is it tho ? Pacing has been “all over the place” (really meaning: different from what we avid show-viewers are accustomed to) since season 1, we’ve never gotten straight answers out of anything unless we started listening and paying attention to details. 

The book (you know, the source material) has four parts, the fourth serving as an epilogue to the whole story, season 2 is most definitely meant to close part 1 which, allegedly, had the slowest of pace to begin with. And it doesn’t even have half the new narratives the show has been creating. So no, it’s not slow. I promise you things are happening.

“It needs to follow the actual book more !!”

What’s a good adaptation ? Is it something that is 100% truthful to the source, down to every word ? Is it something that should offer something for people who don’t know the source ? Or, on the contrary, be something inseparable from it ?

American Gods as a TV show offers new things for people who have read the book and for those who haven’t, while keeping the beloved moments and aspects from the original material.

Why add or change stuff ? Well because, if you’re a book reader, you get welcomed into the state of existential dread that comes with not knowing what happen next, I promise it’s part of the fun. But also because author Neil Gaiman believes that he can do more, do better, with something that was written 20 years ago and needed the changes in a lot of places. He’s aware that he has, in fact, a show to make, and not a carbon copy of the book, as well as a fanbase that deserves to be challenged and entertained.

“Why taking the focus off Shadow ? He’s barely the protagonist anymore !”

Because there are..... characters ? who are also part of the story ? Like, actual stories need characters ? But alright, I know it can get confusing when you have a lot of those, here’s how you can still tell Shadow is the protagonist : months of advertising and the entirety of season 1 which was spent following Shadow with only minor breaks allowing other characters to breathe. Trust me they need the development too, or then we’ll really have reasons to complain.

You want a narrative focusing solely on staying in Shadow’s head ? Alright. Try the book. But here’s my take on its narrating choice, as a graduate in english literature : it’s boring. To the point where Neil Gaiman himself got sad that he couldn’t follow other characters.

“They’re not giving the POCs enough space ! Where are the coming to america segments ? At least they gave actual insights.”

Out of every piece of fiction, I truly don’t think you want to get angry at American Gods for how much room it’s giving POCs... (a 20% white cast ensemble, POCs and especially WOCs writers and directors on production, ethnically accurate casting and writing, diversity positive messages, etc) Really I’m sure there are many other places in the fictional industry were the question of diversity is more than legitimate. American Gods has yet to be one of them, by far.

As for the Coming To America stuff, well, there’s not that many in the book to begin with. There are a whole bunch for sure, but we’ve got over quite a few of them in season 1. If there’s more believers you want, we’re served with the latest episode 4, with humans worshiping both Old and New, and interacting with gods. I’m sure we can review that point again once the season is over.

“Those white directors don’t even know how to read or write POC characters !”

*cough*

here’s a list of the POC directors and writers on episodes 2 to 5 of season 2 only :

Deborah Chow (director)

Aditi Kapil (writer)

Salli Richardson (director)

Rodney Barnes (writer)

Orlando Jones (writer)

That’s half the entire director-writer team for these episodes, with Neil Gaiman being involved. You’ll have to point out to me exactly what you mean by “not writing right”.

“New Media ? 1. she’s a bitch, 2. her actress is just plain bad, 3. she’s a hurtful stereotype.” 

And here comes perhaps the trickiest one of all... I’m gonna have to bear with you, as much as you’re gonna have to bear with me :

1. Yes. 2. No. 3. Yes, and it’s a problem, but not for the reasons you think.

First of all, and let’s get it out of the way : actor =/= character nor writing. You think the writing is bad and/or that the character is annoying ? Well, it’s certainly not on the actor. You wanna know the actual level of Kahyun Kim’s acting ? Starring in an Alan Cummings play alongside him. We’ve got a lot to discuss but please keep her out of this.

Second, New Media is an absolute bitch of a character. She’s mocking, manipulative, and too ambitious for anyone’s good. A lot of people seem to love her tho and to that I say good ??? I mean, great if you like her, because she’s got as much potential as the rest of these crazy characters, I’m not here to tell you who you should hate and who you should love.

But there’s a problem you shouldn’t ignore, and that its so far she’s not well written. It’s a terrible thing to say in such a show but she’s really not : because we barely see her talking, because we barely got any scene with her (remember what I said about letting character breathe ?), and because what we’ve seen of her so far is the stereotype of the hypersexualized naive asian girl. Complete with tentacle porn scene. (Whether you felt weirded out, amused or utterly disgusted by this is your own valid opinion.)

The character has been officially described as “the goddess of global content”, “a cyberspace chameleon” and “a master of manipulation.” In recent addition to that, actor Bruce Langley (Technical Boy) has said : “New Media’s willing to be perceived as naive because if she’s being underestimated, when she does make her move, you’d never see it coming, but she knows way more than she lets on.” He then goes on to compare her to Gillian Anderson’s Media.

This proves that the way New Media comes off isn’t a problem of intent (the naive part is calculated and they want the character to be duplicitous, falsely seductive), but of handling, and it’s just as bad. Sure, Gillian’s Media also knew more than she let on for about as much screen time -I’m sure New Media will get to her four scenes in one season-, but she had been grounded in the narrative as her own character, she’s had her exposition speech and time. (See her meeting with Shadow in S01E02) We’ve yet to see that much of Kahyun’s New Media.

Because they do not give her what she needs to be more than a two dimensional character, we find ourselves with a shallow character who doesn’t give too many signs of the thought process everyone seemed to have put into crafting her beforehand, including Kahyun’s acting. This is a serious issue that needs to be handled before the season ends, or she will just stand out like a nasty spot in an overall incredible piece of fiction. Hell even Laura (another very unlikable character) manages to be a great addition to the narrative. Come on people.

You can of course argue that they could have gone for another type or personality for her, other than naive and sex-oriented, for a korean actress to play. You’re right, there’s a lot of aspect of social media that could have been put to work, but not only are we gonna need more than two scenes (at least the tentacles aren’t a regular occurrence so far), but it’s just like they could have not made the Technical Boy hang Shadow. 

The New Gods appear as the ‘general bad idea’ we promote through and associate with their element. Mr. World is gonna be the creepy looking government dude, Tech is gonna be the lanky rude geek, they’re gonna be cold, insensitive and selfish. They’re gonna be the things we don’t like. Throughout season 1, Tech Boy was in the same place we find ourselves in with New Media : he was the loud white racist teenager hating on anon on the net, he was unlikable from start to finish, and it’s only once we got inputs from his actor, the writers, and then now that they’re showing more of his story and personality well after season 1 that we see him as the fully complex and interesting character he is.

Let’s all keep our wits about us, not engulf ourselves in blind hate or love, and encourage the writers to prove us all that this character is worth the while like her actress says.

(I still won’t forgive the bitch, but at least she won’t stick out like a sore thumb.)

(if you want Kahyun’s input on her character and experience, here’s a lengthy interview)

"They don't even know how to write their own character, period !"

By all means, tell me your basis of characterization to declare that characters who didn’t even have enough screentime to have much substance in season 1 (except Shadow, but strangely no one complains about him) aren’t written right when their creator is literally hovering over the writers and actors shoulders, because he wants them to be developed and written right.

It’s not Harry Potter, Neil isn’t making up facts about them to make himself look better, maybe accept that the vision you had in your mind wasn’t entirely accurate to the truth of the characters and that’s okay ? You can still write them yourself however you want, tell the stories you want to tell, Neil has made it very clear that he doesn’t consider fan ideas less valuable than his.

“Bryan has such as specific, unique vision ! They’re just trying to copy it and they’re failing.”

Definitely. No really, you’re right, I’m a big fan of Bryan’s work, I lost my mind like everyone else when he said he wasn’t giving up on Hannibal season 4.

But you know who else has a unique vision ? The seven directors who took over (four of those are women) and the show-runner who had already worked with him beforehand. They’re not trying to copy his style, they’re trying to make a smooth transition so fans like you don’t have a hard time mourning the terrible loss of Bryan and Michael. And for every person who noticed the changes, there were just as many who haven’t even paid attention to it.

Concept : some people may watch shows/movies for the story and the characters, not just for who’s behind the camera. (As far as I’m concerned, I actually like the image better. Everything was killer in season 1, and I think it’s even nicer in season 2.)

“Bryan gave us Salim and the Jinn, and now they’re just gonna be cast aside because those directors lack the LGBT+ sensibility Bryan has !”

Alright, yup, sure. As a member of the community myself, I totally recognize that someone who’s also part of it will know firsthand of the subtleties and details to give the best representation possible on screen. The example of Salim and the Jinn is perfectly fine, since the entire segment was indeed beautifully made. But if we cannot allow people from outside to ponder and think about our lives through writing (which is probably the best way for them to start understanding and broadening their mindset), how can we expect wide representation to improve in any meaningful way ? Especially considering that the show has been casting LGBT+ actors, in an environment where the cast is listened to and solicited on their opinions. 

And especially when Bryan was not the one who gave you Salim and the Jinn. (Because I’ve seen people genuinely believe it.) Neil Gaiman did. He wrote a gay muslim couple in his book 20 years ago, way before it was considered a political statement. He’s also the one who gave strict and specific directions as to how these very characters should be handled. Because if he expanded Salim and his fire boyfriend Jinn’s story from a one-shot to a full story integrated into his entire narration, then it’s certainly not to pull a “bury your gays” or make them miserable. No need to be LGBT+ to be a decent writer and human being.

“Production was a mess anyway, I knew it’d turn out like this. It sucks without Bryan.” 

Define “mess”. Because all the incendiary reports we got throughout early production had been utter bullshit.

Showrunners being “fired” ? Bullshit. “Disastrous” organization ? Bullshit. “Screaming matches” between directors and actors ? Bullshit. Actors “refusing” to come back ? Bullshit.

Every report that wasn’t made through direct input of the cast or production team was not only wildly exaggerated, but also fake ? But please, hear it from Neil himself :

It was weirder for me to read some of the stuff online that said, “Oh, my god, American Gods, behind the scenes, is all falling apart.” I was going, “But they just shot four episodes, and everything is fine. They’re doing some re-shoots, but they’re doing less re-shoots than they did in Season 1.” [...]

I was reading Steven Bochco’s biography on the tube, going into work on Good Omens, every morning, and learning about what went down on Hill Street Blues, and then on NYPD Blue. That was worse, by a factor of thousands, than anything that happened on American Gods. A showrunner came, and a showrunner left. That’s not even an unusual thing. [...] The weirdest thing for me was putting out a thing on Twitter on Season 2, and having a bunch of people go, “We thought this was canceled.” No, it’s not canceled. In its own mad way, it’s on schedule.  

(Source)

The show was never in any danger, much less in jeopardy. It's overreactions to false rumors and dramatic assumptions that can kill a show faster than a showrunner leaving. You want to be critical of a production ? Go ahead, and check your sources and facts. Please. I promise most of the time it’s not worth the worry, much less losing all hope.

“Bryan cared, they’re just ruining what he’s built.”

I dare you to watch any cast interview and tell me these people don’t care about the show, and that they do not value the work everyone else (from hair department to makeup artists, producers, writers, directors and costume team) puts into it as well.

I’ve watched my fair share of shows, I’m curious about production and behind-the-scenes material in general, and I’ve never seen a group of people being so genuinely happy and passionate about what they do and create together.

Neil took time out of preparing Good Omens (which he was showrunning himself) to be more active because he knew things would be different between season 1 and 2. Ricky Whittle (Shadow) had his contract reviewed to better accommodate shooting and planning. Orlando Jones (Nancy) contributed to writing episodes (especially regarding Black history and representation) and brought inputs on characterization. Ian Mcshane (Mr. Wednesday) participated in directing when he explicitly said during season 1 that he wasn’t interested in working as a director on this kind of show.

And that’s for the well-known names only. Go on the American Gods hashtag on instagram, you’ll find all the various artists who participated in crafting all the details found in new episodes. They’re out there talking about how excited they were to work on it all, how they did it, the love they have for the show and crew. They’re active and positive in every way you can be, please tell me how much they don’t care.

Production made the choice of taking its time making this season rather than rushing it when it’s been very clear that delaying can cause massive loss of viewers, because they care more about how the show comes out than what people actually think. They took in stride whatever problem a show of this magnitude could naturally encounter (again guys, no disaster happened) and worked to solve it the best way they could because they were perfectly aware that we fans care. And somehow that’s what made some of yall disappointed ??

If you seriously think Bryan (and Michael, some people forget about him smh) cared more about American Gods than these people -when he, in fact, cared just as much-, then by all means, leave right with him.

(Also uhm, idk if you noticed, but they’re both still credited in the fucking opening. Because, you know, they’re going by the bases they’ve settled.)

Some (hopefully) helpful facts :

+ Bryan and Michael weren’t fired, they walked out of the show after mutual understanding with the rest of the production that they weren’t agreeing on budget and realization. They concluded that pushing it would just be harmful to the show.

+ Likewise, Jesse Alexander (second showrunner) wasn’t evicted but stepped out once disagreements rose as to how to handle the end of the season. Again, they found a solution fairly quickly.

+ Gillian Anderson had only signed for season 1. Whether her character will ever be seen again (probably in flashbacks) is entirely up in the air. No promises, no impossibilities.

+ Both Kristin Chenoweth (Ostara) and Chris Obi (Anubis) have not been able to contribute to season 2 due to conflicts in their schedules.

+ Neil Gaiman has been much more involved in the production of season 2 as he had finished shooting Good Omens, something which took up most of his time when season 1 was produced.

+ Taking time producing a show =/= production being a disaster.

+ Always go for the reports/articles involving interviews and/or inputs of the persons actually working on the project (cast members, producers, writers, directors). Those are the most reliable sources you can fight. (Just remember that there’s always a possibility for fake news/drama online !)

[kob131]

RWBY Vs. GAIM: The Shame Battles Part 2

Part 1

Welcome to part 2, where MangaKamen proceeds to do his best MatPat impression.

That is to say, ignores all information that contradicts him and plows on ahead in intellectual dishonesty because fuck research.

So the next point consists of MangaKamen’s video consists of him talking about characters basically.

Firsts he tries talking about Ruby. ‘Tries’ being the keyword, seeing as he says Ruby is unaffected by the deaths of Pyrrha, Penny and Torchwick when we clearly see her broken up by the events of Volume 3 at the ending where she’s nearly crying to her dad, multiple points in Volume 4 where she is openly solemn and sad (like say, the clip of her watching Jaune that he shows on screen), the ending of Volume 4 where he viewpoint clearly changes from ignoring the fact that bad things just happen to accepting that and moving beyond that, in Volume 5 where she openly talks about and is acting OOC about Pyrrha and Penny. 

He also tries to say that Ruby was being hypocritical because they stole an Atlas airship because the group chewed Ozpin out over the same reasoning they use (that they have to) when in  actuality Ozpin’s reasoning was ‘I’ve been betrayed too many times’ and the group was mad at him hiding information from them. And then we have the fact that Ruby NEVER shows an issue with Ozpin over that but rather with how he was holding them to a double standard. This continues as he tries to portray Torchwick as in the right for what he said to Ruby, ignoring how Torchwick fighting for himself got him killed and Ruby has proven him wrong by surviving numerous encounters without succumbing to the same nihilistic thought process. 

Considering what he said earlier and his previous inconsistencies with the show, I can only take this to mean one of two things. He’s purposefully lying to be a troll or he’s purposefully lying to make the show look bad. Considering the fact that he complains regularly about people not doing research and has done  extensive research himself, I cannot accept the idea that he didn’t look this stuff. And if he did refuse to research then I can only say: “Too bad.”

Not to mention how he judges these two characters (Kouta and Ruby) based off how well they fit the Shounen Protagonist template which is absurd in many ways: from how Kouta was made with being a Shounen Protagonist in mind while Ruby is not, to not defining what makes a Shounen protagonist, to this not connecting with Ruby being a main character and many more (like calling Jaune a self insert of Miles Luna which has been THROUGHLY debunked.)

There’s also inconsistency in how he treats Kouta and Ruby. He praises Kouta for getting a power up to defy the idea that he has to sacrifice people while never mentioning Ruby’s Silver Eyes, which allow her to defy the idea that she has to bend to the world and accept bad things happening. He praises Kouta for his development in power as he shrugs off gunfire while ignoring how Ruby oneshot a Nevermore in her Volume 4 character short, a Grimm that needed ALL of Team RWBY to handle. He praises Kouta for his supposed depth while denying Ruby her depth, making it seems like Kamen is denying facts just to support his agenda.

Then we have how little information he gives on Kouta. I don’t care that he can shrug off bullets because I have no idea how much they affected him before. Idon’t care about Kouta and sacrifice since I don’t know why this means so much to him other than ‘because nice guy.’ I don’t care that his worldview was questioned because I don’t know how sure of it he is. I don’t care about Kouta because MangaKamen never told me the very basics of his character or tehe relevant information for me to care about him.

Next we talk about the supporting cast.

He talks about how the Kamen Riders have differing viewpoints and clash with each other but they can set aside each others differences to fight....something. No examples given mind you and MangaKamen did admit previously that he had a bias. Combine this with his convenient forgetfulness regarding RWBY and I have to suspect that this might not be the case or that this is an extremely shallow case. See this is why you don’t make potshots at a show or openly admit that you’re trying to piss people off when making a comparison video: you shoot your credibility in the foot and it only gets worse from there. 

Next we have him talking about the chemistry. He brings up an example with Kouta and Orin? where Orin is a threat to the Beat Riders. And when he gets a Driver and because a Kamen Rider, he becomes antagonistic-Weren’t we talking about the supporting cast?

Yeah...Suddenly we start talking about antagonists despite having talked about supporting cast beforehand, supported by how he goes into the antagonists of RWBY. He doesn't talk ONE bit about the actual supporting cast of RWBY right AFTER saying GAIM’s was more complex. I dunno part of the video was edited out or something but this is unacceptable Not only does he not explain himself but he completely IGNORES half the conversation.

What a disgrace

So if MangaKamen being biased as fuck wasn’t evident before, it basically waterboards you now here.

He says that Roman and Neo aren’t bad villians while saying the others are just ‘evil for the sake of evil’ aside from Hazel, whose stupid.

… Mind you, we know Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Hazel, partially Tyrian AND Salem’s motivations while Roman’s about as fleshed out as Tyrian’s and Neo has no explanation and is quite literally evil for the sake of evil, opposing Emerald whose dependent on Cinder for validation, Mercury whose a result of his upbringing, Hazel due to his inability to get over his sister’s death, Cinder whose lusting for power and Salem whose taking out her anger on the world of Remnant. 

Even the character description he gives Roman reeks of bias. A gambling man? How is Torchwick a gambling man? We never see him take risks. If anything he’s a guy who only acts when he’s sure he can win and retreats when he can’t. Competent in battle? He lost straight to Ruby, lost to Blake TWICE and only managed to hold his own against his rematch with Ruby because he had Neo. Charismatic? How so? He doesn’t give an example and considering his crap beforehand: I have no trust for him. 

He then goes onto Cinder and says that she was portrayed as a Chessmaster in Volumes 1-3 and a schemer while in Volume 5 she has an ego and is one-dimensional ‘evil for the sake of evil.’ Not only does this ignore the fact that we DO have a motivation for Cinder in that she has a lust for power but that she also had the ego in Volumes 2 and 3, where she treated everyone else as beneath her and as pawns to discard for her own benefit. Could this have been done better? Yes, but MangaKamen never makes that point. he just strawmans Cinder and moves on because...I dunno, GAIM is shit or he has a bias against RWBY. Same with everything else he’s done up to this point.

Also note that he uses DIO as an example of a good villain. DIO, the crazy man with a massive ego and a god complex. This is gonna blow up in his face later...

So he tries to say Cinder’s plan sucks because people can spot Mercury and Emerald at the tournament in the Penny vs. Pyrrha match and thus they should be taken in for questioning. You know, ignoring how only Team RWBY knows this and Emerald could just hide herself and Mercury from any guards to get into the arena. Basic knowledge of the abilities of the antagonists would solve this issue and would advance the conversation but apparently that’s too much to ask for a man who regularly complains about this very same thing.

Then he mentions the other villains being stereotypes (doesn't even identify WHAT stereotypes they are. because shut up) while Hazel is stupid for wanting to get revenge on Ozpin for his sister’s death...because his groups wants to harm the world. … This is like saying I shouldn’t be angry someone ran over my dog because I drive a Hummer and thus cause a lot of pollution. Those two things DO NOT correlate. At the very fucking least when people strawman Hazel they mention Salem controlling the Grimm whereas he just makes a passing mention to it. Nevermind how people can become blinded by grief and suffering and how Hazel is CLEARLY portrayed as in the wrong.

Then we end things with him calling Salem a crazy lady with a massive ego and a complex. … So basically DIO, good to see those standards are so fair and totally not biased!

Also I skipped the GAIM stuff because MangaKamen does such a horrid job explaining the series in his video I can’t make a single judgment nor can I trust his words since he could very well be lying.

I would talk about his points on the fight scenes...except he uses FLOOFARTIST as a source for the RWBY part.

FloofArtist, the guy caught lying about RWBY and RT numerous times.

I don't care what the point is, you may as well be citing a news story about Donald Trump using CNN at this point. Not helping is that he makes the valid point about how the characters just stand around...using Ruby and Weiss SPECTATING a fight in Volume 3 between Qrow and Winter and tries to say that the teams don’t work together, citing the Volume 5 finale...ignoring Volume 1 Episode 8, Volume 2 Episode 1, Volume 2 Episode 4, Volume 2 Episode 11, Volume 3 Episode 1, Volume 3 Episode 2, Volume 4 Episode 1, Volume 4 Episode 6, Volume 4 Finale, Volume 6 Episode 1, Volume 6 Episode 10-13. So even if he didn’t use a bullshit source, he still fails to be at all fair.

RWBY is not perfect. Never has been, never will be. Nor is it the best thing ever. Gurren Lagann, Kill La Kill, My Hero Academia, JoJo-there’s a lot of shows I would recommend over RWBY. In fact I use comparisons to Volume 1 as an insult, that’s how lowly I regard some parts of RWBY.

So imagine my surprise when a supposedly intelligent YouTuber can’t even make a single valid compliant against the show, let alone one I haven’t heard before, let alone one I haven’t thought of before. All while comparing it to a completely different show through vague similarities just to make RWBY look bad.

Little does he know by lying about RWBY repeatedly he actually makes the show look better. It’s like using violence on a political enemy: you only end up validating the enemy because you sent the message that you couldn’t beat them fairly. Same here: MangaKamen basically said ‘Kamen Rider GAIM isn't actually better than RWBY so I’m going to say a bunch of misinformation and blatant lying in order to make it appear so.’ If you can’t beat someone or something fairly, you never could beat them in the first place.

And guess what? He’s basically destroyed his credibility here by acting like the people he mocks. He mocked MatPat for ignoring basic to research information while making basic mistakes in his video, he mocks Quinton Reviews for his biases and ego while looking biased and egotistical himself. He mocked others for using fallacies while making a video about nothing but fallacies. So why should anyone listen to him except the people who want to hear their own thoughts and opinions? He’s not trustworthy anymore, nor does he have any grounds to talk down to people anymore.

Congratulations MangaKamen, you are what you hate. All while making a show you like worse while making just a general shit video. I once trusted and respected you as a content creator. Now, I won’t make that mistake again.

And this, my dear readers, is why self reflection and self awareness is so important. Because you may just lose everything you worked for by your own hand. And what you should take away from MK’s failure is that you should always double check your own words.

I’m Knight Of Balance...

Have a nice day.

[chocolatequeennk]

A Visit From St. Nicholas, 2/2

On one very special Christmas Eve, the Christmas wishes of three people will be answered in a way they never imagined.

Ten x Rose, reunion fic with Tony Tyler and Martha Jones. For @doctorroseprompts 31 Days of Ficmas, presents.

I had this almost ready to go on Christmas Day, and then my cat got seriously ill. I spent 36 hours focused solely on nursing her back to health. She's doing much better, so I was able to finish it today. I'll hopefully be updating my other holiday story today or tomorrow as well.

AO3 | FF.NET | Ch 1

Rose watched the Christmas snow fall for a few minutes, then pulled on a warm coat and snuck downstairs. This was a moment she wanted all for herself, without her little brother’s company or her mum’s commentary.

Outside, the first dusting of snow just covered the walk. Her boot melted through it instantly, leaving a dark footprint behind.

She held out her hand, and a snowflake melted into her black leather glove. On an impulse, she tilted her head back and caught one on her tongue, just like she’d done when she was younger.

She hummed happily. “Still tastes like icing sugar.”

Then she pulled her scarf up to keep out the cold and stepped off the walkway. The whispering sound of her boots stepping through the fresh snow only highlighted the peace that had settled over the estate.

Like everything, snow brought back memories of the Doctor. Those were some of those non-trouble parts she loved so much about her life with him. Days spent traipsing through quaint villages with snow-covered streets. Snowball fights in a park, when she’d enlisted an army of children to ambush him. Ice skating on a frozen pond.

Rose burrowed her cold nose in a fold of her scarf, then laughed when that brought up the memory of the ridiculously long scarf she’d found in the wardrobe room. The Doctor had rolled his eyes and muttered something about his old fashion sense when she walked into the console room with it looped around her neck three times. But he hadn’t complained when she used it to pull him into a kiss.

Lost in her memories, Rose didn’t notice the warmth spreading over her chest until it was almost uncomfortably hot. “What…?” She fumbled with her zipper and reached under her jumper to pull out her TARDIS key.

Her heart started racing when she saw the way the key was glowing. She’d seen a TARDIS key glow like that once before, and the Doctor had said it was because it was trying to tell him it was still connected to the ship.

“Oh my God.” She clutched the key tight and turned in a slow circle. “Please, please, please…”

She hadn’t felt a thing from the key in years. If it was connected to the TARDIS now, then maybe that meant the Doctor was in this universe.

The wind picked up around her, but Rose refused to believe it was anything other than the snowstorm until she could see the outline of the TARDIS forming. Her hands started shaking when she could see the light on top of the ship flashing at her and feel the warm hum in her mind.

The door flew open as soon as the ship landed, and Rose watched in shock as the Doctor rushed out. They stared at each other for a long moment, then somehow, they were in each other’s arms.

The Doctor cradled Rose’s face between his hands, thumbs brushing over her cheekbones. Rose! He reached out for her, and there she was, her mind just as beautiful and vibrant as it had been that night so long ago when they’d bonded.

Rose gasped, then her hands curled around his lapels and tugged him down for a kiss. Thought I’d never see you again, she said as she carded her fingers through his hair. I missed you so much.

I know, love. I know. The Doctor snagged her bottom lip between his teeth and nipped gently, then swept his tongue into her mouth when she parted her lips in surprise. But I’m here now and I’m never letting you go again.

She sighed, then melted into his kiss. The Doctor pulled her close, not wanting there to be even an inch separating them after so long spent apart.

The wind blew snow around them. Even through the passion and joy of their reunion, the Doctor could feel Rose shiver. “You’re freezing,” he mumbled between kisses. “Let’s go inside.”

Rose hummed her approval and slowly pulled out of the kiss. But when the Doctor tried to turn towards the TARDIS, she shook her head. “Come with me,” she whispered, walking towards the house with his hand in hers.

The Doctor dragged his feet a bit. “But our room is in the TARDIS,” he protested.

The impish humour he could feel over the bond intrigued him, and he waited for Rose’s response. “Indulge me,” she said, and the Doctor’s resistance melted away.

“Lead the way.”

She rewarded him with a brilliant smile, and they raced across the lawn hand-in-hand. When they reached the back door, Rose held her finger to her lips. “I think everyone is asleep,” she whispered. “They should be, anyway. But just in case…”

The Doctor leaned down so he could whisper in her ear. “Rose Tyler, are you trying to sneak me into your mum’s home?”

She shivered when his breath hit her neck, and he couldn’t resist nuzzling into the sensitive spot. When she sighed his name, he nudged her scarf aside with his nose and kissed her neck.

Rose hummed her approval, then stepped away from him. “Come on, inside.”

With one last caress over their bond, the Doctor pulled back and gestured for Rose to open the door. He stifled a chuckle when she crept stealthily into the kitchen, looking around to make sure they were alone.

“Ooh, biscuits,” the Doctor said, spying the plate that must have been left out for Santa. He snagged one on the way by and munched on it as they started up the back staircase. Rose rolled her eyes at him, and her indulgent affection warmed him.

Just like a little kid, she told him as they reached the first floor landing.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, then let her see a few of his plans for their reunion. Rose’s breathing shallowed, and she pressed a hand to her heart.

Or not, she agreed shakily. Come on. We’re almost there, then you can show me what else you’ve been planning.

They crept up another two flights of stairs, then Rose took his hand again and backed up, leading him to one of the two doors. The Doctor put his hands on her hips as she leaned back against the door and twisted a strand of hair around her finger.

“Never brought a bloke up here before.” She bit her lip and looked down—if the Doctor didn’t know better, he would have thought she was genuinely nervous.

He huffed softly and stepped closer. “I’ll try to make it worth the risk,” he whispered against her lips.

He felt Rose’s lips curve up into a smile, then she turned the handle and they went inside.

oOoOo

Later, Rose relished the comforting weight of the Doctor’s arm around her waist as she lay curled against his side. After five years without, she didn’t think she would ever get enough of his touch.

The hand that had been running absently up and down her back paused. “It’s been five years for you?”

Rose nodded, and his guilt and heartbreak made her throat tight. She swallowed, then quickly redirected the conversation.

“That’s not important though,” she said. “How did you get here? I thought travel between parallel universes was impossible.”

The Doctor pressed a kiss to her temple before answering. “I might have had some help with that, actually,” he admitted. “It turns out, I’m not the only pan-dimensional being left in the universe.”

Rose propped herself up on her elbow and looked down at him, just able to see his face in the moonlight. “You aren’t?”

“Nope.” The Doctor mirrored her position, and the duvet slid down a few inches. “Martha and I were in the console room this morning when we heard a tapping on the roof.”

Rose frowned, trying to picture the story he was painting. “You heard… On the TARDIS roof?”

“Yep! The tiny hoofbeats of eight miniature reindeer, as it turns out.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Rose breathed.

The Doctor giggled and shook his head. “Even I couldn’t make up a story this unbelievable,” he assured her. “I opened the door, and Santa was there, in his sleigh, floating in the middle of the Vortex.”

“Santa Claus. Father Christmas. Bearded fellow dressed in red velvet.”

The Doctor nodded. “The very one. He’d come to get me to fulfil Tony’s Christmas wish.”

Rose blinked, trying to stop the sudden, unexpected tears. “Not just Tony’s,” she murmured.

The Doctor took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Anyway!” he said. “It turns out Santa is able to travel between dimensions. That’s how he gets all the toys delivered every year.”

“So Santa in this universe is the same as Santa in our universe, and he heard our Christmas wish and decided to make it possible?” Rose summarised.

“Yep! Pretty much.”

Rose took a moment to process that. It was mental, but didn’t that describe their whole life? Looking up at her husband, she decided there were better ways to spend the night than trying to understand trans-dimensional physics.

She rested her hand on the Doctor’s hip and licked her lips. “You know, Doctor, I hear that Santa won’t come if we don’t go to bed.”

The Doctor blinked. “I just told you. He already came.”

Rose shook her head and waited for him to catch on to her not-so-subtle innuendo. A moment later, amusement and approval sparked over their bond, and he slung a leg over hers and rolled them over.

He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers, then whispered, “Well in that case, Rose Tyler, let’s go to bed.”

oOoOo

It took Rose a moment when she woke up the next morning to realise what was different. Then she felt the lean body wrapped around hers, and more importantly, the Doctor holding her close over the bond.

He pressed a kiss to her neck. “Happy Christmas, love,” he murmured against her skin.

Rose tilted her head to give him more access. “Happy Christmas, Doctor.”

The words sparked a memory in Rose’s mind, and she sat up abruptly, elbowing the Doctor in the ribs in the process. “It’s Christmas!”

“Yes, I know,” he groaned, rubbing at his side. “And if that’s how you’re going to react every Christmas, we might never land on Christmas again.”

Rose shook her head impatiently. “It’s Christmas morning,” she emphasised. “Presents.”

He scratched at his sideburn. “Ah, I don’t have anything for you… though I’m sure I could find something in the TARDIS…”

Rose rolled her eyes. “No, you plum. You are the present.”

She felt the moment it clicked. “That’s right. Santa said Tony had been asking to meet me.”

Rose listened carefully. “I don’t think he’s up yet, which is a Christmas miracle all of its own.” Her mind whirled, trying to think of the best way to spring the Christmas surprise on her little brother. “Come on. I have an idea.”

They dressed hurriedly, Rose in flannel pyjamas and the Doctor in his suit.  

“You do an awful lot of sneaking,” the Doctor commented in a stage whisper as they went back downstairs.

Rose looked over her shoulder at him. “Part of living with a very curious younger sibling,” she explained. “Now, shush! We’re almost there.”

She led the Doctor into the lounge, which was still half in shadow as the winter sun hadn’t even risen yet. “And now we wait,” she said.

The Doctor sat down in the corner of the couch and pulled Rose into his lap. “I missed this,” he said as she settled into his arms. “Holding you, feeling you breathe, hearing your heartbeat.”

Rose massaged his temples, and the Doctor felt his tension melt away. “I did too,” she agreed. “But that’s all over now.”

Before the Doctor could voice his agreement, or kiss her, they heard a door bang against the wall upstairs, then what sounded like a herd of elephants thundering down the hallway. He could only assume Rose’s little brother was awake.

“Rose! Rose!” a young boy shouted. “It’s Christmas, and it snowed!”

The footsteps moved away from them, and Rose said, “He’s running up the stairs to my room.”

Another door opened, and a more familiar voice joined the cacophony. “Tony Tyler, what have I told you about running inside?”

The answer was faint, but chipper. “Happy Christmas, Mummy!”

Jackie’s sigh was audible even in the lounge, and the Doctor pressed his lips to Rose’s shoulder to suppress his laughter.

“Come on, Jacks, we might as well open presents.” A light flicked on. “After all, it is Christmas.”

“Mummy, Rose isn’t in her room.”

Rose slid out of the Doctor’s lap and reached over the arm of the couch for something on the end table. “I’m already downstairs, Tony. I was just making sure Santa brought all the presents you asked for.” Then she shot the Doctor a wicked smile and put a big red bow on his head.

The Doctor’s squawk of surprise was drowned out by Tony’s childish shout of delight. Footsteps echoed back down the stairs, and the Doctor felt the first glimmer of trepidation—how could he possibly live up to whatever image Tony had of him?

“Tony, stop running!”

A tiny red-headed boy skidded into the lounge on his stocking feet, heedless of his mother’s command. His gaze landed on the tree first, then when Rose cleared her throat, he looked around the room.

Tony’s eyes widened when he spotted the Doctor sitting on the couch. “Are you him?” he whispered, and the hope in his voice eased all the Doctor’s worries.

He swallowed, then nodded and opened his arms as the little boy hurtled across the room and leapt into his lap. “I knew it would work, I knew Santa could bring you!” he mumbled into the Doctor’s chest. “Rose said there wasn’t any way for you to get here, but Santa can do everything.”

Jackie and Pete appeared, then froze in the doorway. “How…?” Jackie said, for once unable to say anything else.

Rose nudged him when she picked up on that thought, and he smiled unrepentantly at her.

Tony squirmed until he was sitting properly in the Doctor’s lap. “Look, Mummy! I asked Santa to bring the Doctor for Christmas, and he did!”

“Yes, he did,” the Doctor agreed.

Jackie narrowed her eyes at him, and he knew she was about to tell him off for encouraging Tony’s belief that Santa could do something so magical.

He shook his head quickly. “Strange as it sounds, Jackie, that is exactly what happened. He flew right up to the TARDIS in his sleigh and gave me a button that would let us travel between universes.”

Jackie looked at him, then at Rose, and her shoulders slumped slightly. Pete wrapped an arm around her waist, and she smiled at them.

“This is the second Christmas party you’ve crashed, you know.”

The Doctor frowned at her for a moment, trying to understand why she seemed so sad. “Yesssss…” he said slowly. “But it won’t be the last.” He’d mentioned that, hadn’t he? “This was not just a one-time trip,” he continued. “The TARDIS will need time to recover between trips… say, about a year. So, unless you object, Jackie, I think Rose and I will visit every year for Christmas.”

Jackie stood stock-still for a moment, then she let out a shriek the Doctor hoped never to hear again. She ran across the room and pulled him and Rose both to their feet, wrapping her arms around them.

“I still don’t understand that life of yours,” she said as she pulled back after a few seconds. “But if it means we can still see Rose, I don’t care. Just try not to get in too much trouble.”

“It’s the best life!” Tony protested. “Trouble is just the bits in between.”

The Doctor looked over at Rose, his eyebrow arched. Rose smiled and put her arm around his waist. “I told him all of our stories. His favourite is the Sycorax, because you used a sword, but I think this is the one I’m going to love most of all.”

“Tony, why don’t you see what else Santa brought you,” Pete suggested. Tony darted around the Doctor and Rose and ran to the tree.

The Doctor ignored the gift unwrapping happening a few feet away. He had already been given the best gift possible. He turned and pulled Rose close, resting his hands on her hips. Her head tipped back slightly, and he couldn’t resist the invitation.

The best story of all, he agreed as they kissed. With the best possible ending.

Somewhere in the universes, he knew a jolly old man was chuckling as he flew over the snow-covered world. And even though he knew it was just his imagination, he thought he could hear the familiar words echoing in the air.

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

[ironbloodaika]

If there was a show you really wanted to reboot so you could go back and fix all the problems you had with it, which show would it be and what changes would you make?

Sorry for the delay in answering this Charlie. My memory’s been wonky lately. XD First off thanks for asking this, I love these sorta asks. I used to get these all the time from Jenn, but the less said about that the better.

I’ve thought about this and the one I REALLY think could use a reboot/fresh coat of paint is definitely Danny Phantom. It had a lot of strong points, but was also lacking quite a bit. Some I saw when it first aired and others only after re-watching and the gift of hindsight. So here’s a list of things I’d change/improve to the series if I could in no particular order.

*Have some solid continuity/character growth for the characters. A sad trend I’ve noticed with a lot of Butch shows is that they don’t tend to really have the characters under go arcs that span longer than an episode or even make reference or learn from past events. Occasionally they DO pop up, but they’re very rare and fleeting. It helps when you’re airing episodes without any regard to order, but it really hamstrings your ability to tell engaging stories or have the characters grow when there’s no guarantee that anything that happened is gonna carry over into future episodes.

*Give Danny a spine. Danny’s kinda stuck with one of the most annoying problems I see in a lot of cartoons, especially Butch shows I’ve noticed. The hero, despite having all these amazing gifts and powers, still doesn’t stick up for himself in even the most basic of circumstances. Look, I understand Danny can’t just go using his powers to push back against bullies or anyone who makes him mad. It’d be taking advantage of his powers and run the risk of abuse. But for the love of God, Danny, grow an f’ing spine! Despite facing Eldrich Abominations on a semi-daily basis, this guy still has to kowtow to the likes of Dash and the jocks for no real reason. For fuck’s sake kid, Peter Parker got bit by a radioactive spider and gained enough strength to bench-press a Buick. Yeah, he didn’t advertise he had powers and still acted meek around others, but he actually started standing up for himself. He didn’t fucking sitdown and take it. Instead the show seems to pain ANY attempts of him using his abilities for any sort of personal gain is wrong. And if we wanna play by that logic, fine, but have Danny at LEAST stand up to Dash. I’ve learned through my own experience that ignoring or running from a bully solves NOTHING. If Danny isn’t gonna tell a teacher or something of the blonde sociopath making his life hell, then fucking stand up for yourself. Teach kids to not take that shit.

*Okay that last one went on a bit. Sorry, that just really bothered me. Second thing I’d do is give Tucker some development. Of the main 3, he’s one who really never went through and arc and often times felt like a 3rd Wheel at best and an annoyance at worse. They keep playing up how his love of tech makes him unpopular, but it really comes off more he’s unpopular for just how grating he is. I’m not sure what school Butch went to, but in my days EVERYONE knew SOMETHING about technology. They weren’t fucking Luddites. Give Tucker SOMETHING to add to the story besides just being there and cracking wise.

*SAM. Sam needs a real overhaul. At first I didn’t mind her, but she’s really grated on me with the passage of time. I’ve shared my thoughts and feelings on her a LOT on this account, so I invite anyone who wants to check those pieces out to checked the Sam Manson tags for more on that. But to keep it short, give her SOME kind of depth. Sam really comes off as more shallow than the people she derides, constantly complaining about stuff by the mere fact it’s popular, propping herself and her interests up on a pedestal because they’re not “mainstream”, forces her friends and others to alter their life-styles to fit HER choices, and comes off as more of a contrarian lashing out at Mommy and Daddy than someone who legit BELIEVES any of the crap she’s spouting.

*Give the secondary characters some love. With how much we have episodes that focus on characters like Jazz, Valerie, Paulina, or Dash, they don’t really change all that much or have much going for them to begin with. Valerie has the strongest arc of the bunch, but it’s sadly dropped near the end of the series and doesn’t really get the resolution it deserved. Jazz played a roll as a secret keeper to Danny, but didn’t really do much before or after those episodes. It would have been cool to see the sort of relationship she had with her brother before knowing he had super powers and how their dynamic worked before then. Even get a glimpse to how she is at school. Maybe like how despite all the things Danny thinks about her being smart and perfect, it’s because of those things that’s she’s really not all that popular at school. We never DO see her really hang with anyone outside of Danny and his friends. And Dash and Paulina just serve to as foil to Danny or Sam respectively. Dash only serves to remind me how much the Casper High is dropping the ball on preventing very clear and public bullying and Paulina and Sam get into arguments that, let’s face it, are instigated 9/10 times by Sam for no other reason than she can. Have these characters GROW. There are a lot of parallels made between the cast of Danny Phantom and Spider-Man and here’s a bit some people tend to forget, the kids who bullied Peter Parker before he got his powers? They grew up. They stopped being bullies, made up for their short comings, and became actual adults. But everyone seems to wanna keep them as these static bullies who only serve to cause tension and nothing else. I’m not saying upgrade them to Sixth Ranger status, but if you’re gonna have them be in so many episodes and in such a chaotic series, have them add SOMETHING.

*Dig deeper into the Ghost Mythos. One thing they REALLY need to take advantage of is the fact that ghosts EXIST in this universe. There IS an afterlife or at the very least an alternate dimension we SUDDENLY have access too. I feel that this should be a much bigger deal to their world than it is, but everyone seems to just accept it and move on. Unless Danny really DOES live in the Marvel universe, I don’t think the fact his parents literally created a portal to the afterlife should be treated as an after thought. You have so many chances to explore with this concept, especially with the ghosts Danny fights themselves. So many different types of spirits and apparitions in folklore to take inspiration from. Hell, the series flat out tells us that a lot of these ghosts WERE people at some point. They had lives. Families. But they never really touch upon this fact and just treat them like a Monster of the Week. You’d think Danny would get tired of fighting and try to do something a bit more long-term with some of the ghosts who’d like to just be left alone. Instead we get a really weak ‘retcon’ that ghosts are just extra-dimensional creatures who THINK they’re the spirits of the dead. That seems like stupidly complicating the matter. Why even call them ghosts if they’re not? 

*Speaking of ghosts, how about they finally explain why the fuck they can’t shut that damn portal down. Seriously. It’s the SOLE means the ghosts have of getting out as often as they do. Danny KNOWS this. But the fact he never ones tries to shut-down or disable the thing is astounding. If they just gave us a reason like it was too big to shut and the machine was there to keep it from getting BIGGER, that I’d buy. It’d at LEAST be an explanation. To me this is one of those elements that if you just removed, the series would literally end at that point.

*This is sorta looping back, but Danny seems to be very split in personality depending on the episode. He’s either cocky and brimming with confidence to the point of arrogance or a moppy sad-sack who is all to willing to quit and ditch his powers despite the levels of stupid such an act would bring. Look, I’m not saying a hero shouldn’t be confident or have low-points, but they feel very random and often time serve no other purpose than to force a scenario where he’s either humbled or turned into such a Butt Monkey by the narrative it starts getting sad. Even Spider-Man in the 90′s cartoon didn’t have it that bad. And he felt about quitting every other story arc.

*Give Sam and Danny better chemistry. IF you’re gonna have these two together, give us SOMETHING to work with. These two don’t have a lot of chemistry, all they do is blush and avert eyes. It’s really not that impressive. It’d be cute if they’re grade-schoolers and this was a story of young love, but they don’t really click in any kind of romantic sense with what we’re given. I know Valerie was given as a Romantic False Lead, but you wanna know something? They actually WORKED. There was some goddamed communication there. Some really adorable flirting, compliments, and sweet moments. They didn’t bicker every five minutes and made each other happy. Hell, if they had pulled an American Dragon and had Valerie find out about Danny and ultimately be okay with it after finding out she’d been played, I’d have completely been okay with it. Instead we have to accept him getting with a girl who can’t even bare the sight of him showing interest in another girl while STILL denying she has feelings for him. Look, I grew tired of that bullshit in Total Drama, Sam, don’t push me.

Well that’s all I’ve got to say on this end. Most of it springs down to character and story elements since I feel that’s where the show really frays out. Hopefully this answers your question, Charlie, and it was a good read. Thanks again for the question! :D

[bookminimalith]

Book Rant: Unbearable Main Characters

(repost from my Wordpress)

Fictional characters, like real people, are not perfect. Characters have their own flaws and weaknesses that play a vital role in developing their character in the story. Oftentimes a character's shortcomings are more exciting to read about than their successes as they not only make the character more relatable but also give the readers something to look forward to: that is, the character overcoming their flaws and learning from their mistakes. That, I believe, is a testament to what makes a good main character - their ability to grow as a person.

A protagonist can be unlikable yet still make an excellent character so long as their flaws are, in one way or another, addressed and eventually worked on. A protagonist who is unlikable and whose flaws are largely unacknowledged or denied (particularly by the character in question) leading to no character progression, are unbearable.

Unbearable main characters can ruin a story completely.

Readers, meet fifteen-year-old Lana Spiggs of Dyan Sheldon's And Baby Makes Two. Lana is the youngest daughter of single mother Hilary Spiggs. According to Lana, she is severely oppressed by her mother's tyrannical ways. Why, her mother doesn't allow her to wear adult clothes and make-up and nags her to do household chores. Her problem basically is that everyone around her treats her like a child despite the fact that she is already fifteen years old. Clearly, she is a victim of a great injustice. The only person in the world who understands her is her adult boyfriend Les who is the epitome of maturity and sophistication. When Lana accidentally gets pregnant with Les's child, she is ecstatic. Obviously the best way to prove to everyone - especially her mother - that she is an adult is to have a child. At fifteen. Ingenious!

(prepare for spoilers at this point)

All kidding aside, Lana truly is a terrible main character. Her personality is horrendous. Her goals and dreams are almost pitifully ridiculous. Lana is even extremely delusional, so much so that it made me wonder if she was suffering from an actual medical condition. The extent of which she believes her fantasies is quite disturbing. Her baby's name, for instance. She named the baby Shinola because she believed that it's an African word for beautiful or something. There was no basis for her claim and she legitimately just came up with the name on the spot yet she insists that Shinola meant beautiful in another language. The name turned out to be a brand of shoe polish.

Her only redeeming quality, and I'm using that term quite loosely here, is that she's quite witty and her internal monologues, although dripping with malice almost all the time, are sometimes entertaining to read.

What convinced me that Lana was an awful character, however, was her little, almost minuscule, character growth. I was quite shocked because, honestly, Lana had a lot to learn and I thought her youth and her situation were the perfect avenue for such growth. Case in point, in the first chapter, Lana tells us that she absolutely hates her mother. In the last chapter, after everything she's been through, after all her mother has done for her, she still hates her mother. You'd have thought that suddenly being a mother would make Lana more sympathetic or even more appreciative of her own mother but somehow that little obvious lesson whizzed right past Lana's ear. In fact, the last chapter still showed Lana as a petulant, immature child who should not be legally allowed to take care of a baby.

Lana is, for all intents and purposes, a brat. Now, I've met brats before, the best example being Amir from The Kite Runner. Considering how Amir was not only a brat but a rich and envious brat who literally betrayed his best friend who adored him, Lana should be a relatively better character than him, right? Wrong. See, the difference with Lana and Amir was that the latter was actually quite aware of his sudden bouts of cruelty and felt guilty about it. Amir was simply a misguided child who couldn't understand complex emotions and who made a stupid decision based on his ignorance and selfishness. Additionally, Amir paid for his mistakes and went through great lengths to be forgiven.

Lana, on the other hand, had no self-awareness whatsoever. Not once in the narrative does she express guilt or shame for her actions (like yelling at her mother for no good reason and failing to take proper care of her child). Even while she suffered the repercussions of her decision to keep the child, she still only had shallow thoughts and zero awareness. She vehemently refuses to listen to reason despite just how much her stupidity has made her suffer. In fact, she stubbornly maintained - to a group of experienced mothers, no less - that you could get what you want if you don't give up. A pretty solid message if only Lana had half a mind to understand that there's a difference between optimism and idealism (not to mention Lana seemed to be unable to tell fantasy from reality).

It was like Lana was in an inexplicable vacuum of immaturity and hate and no matter what anyone said, no matter what happened to her, logic just couldn't get through to her. Lana showed no depth of character at all. At the beginning, there was a brief mention that Lana's mother might have suggested (to someone else) that she didn't plan to have Lana (which could have been the reason for Lana's never ending vitriol against her mother?) but that was never expounded or even mentioned ever again. Somehow, that possible subplot was just thrown right out seconds after it was introduced. It's unnerving just how shallow Lana's character is and how easily that could have been remedied if the writer would have just expounded on them more rather than written about Lana's fantasies and criticisms ad nauseum.

I honestly couldn't root for Lana or even sympathize with her because she was just too unbearable to really care about. Towards the very end, she realizes (finally) that Les has been lying to her all along and that he isn't the perfect guy she had thought him to be but by then everything was too late. There was no point, really, because Les's true character was just too obvious. Besides that, Les was never really around much to make that much of an impact in the story.

At the final scene, Lana also realized the truth, that being an adult wasn't going to be a fairy-tale-come-true. You'd think her finally learning that would be the pay off that we, the readers, needed but honestly it came too late. It was also written too rushed, like the book knew that it only had three pages left to resolve everything, making Lana's spiel about 'never going back to the way things were (before the baby)' pretty uninspired. It came across as a petulant child just wallowing in her own misery. If she had learned the cold hard truth of being an adult a few chapters earlier, the book wouldn't have been so bad. Perhaps Lana would even show some character development instead of more whining and complaining.

(Also can I just say how terrible the ending was? Lana actually attempted to suffocate her own baby so she could return to her old life. If that attempted infanticide isn't testament enough of how terrible of a character Lana is, then I don't know what is. Sure, she stopped herself before the baby died but judging from Lana's descriptions of Shinola ('...purple and gasping.'), she came way too close to succeeding. And that's literally how the book ends, with Lana deciding not to kill her baby. Then, at least. Because the book ended so abruptly, I doubt Lana wouldn't attempt it again. There wasn't really anything in the book that could convince me that Lana wouldn't resort to such measures, especially considering how easy it is for her to get caught up in her fantasies.)

It's almost uncanny how one-dimensional Lana was, especially for someone who went through as many hardships as she did. A main character with a terrible personality and immature ideals is fine if their character is well written and explained properly. Lana was just shallow. Her rationalizations were weak and unconvincing. You never really understand why she was the way she was, making it impossible (at least for me) to sympathize with her even a little.

Teenage pregnancy is a real problem nowadays and I'm sure this book had good intentions. If it did anything, at least And Baby Makes Two portrayed the trials and tribulations of a teenage mother pretty realistically. It was Lana's lack of development that ruined it. It was like she couldn't understand the overlying lesson of her own story, which made her out to be astoundingly dull. Dull and unbearable.

[ecoorganic]

'Ted Lasso' and the Journey From Viral Promo to TV Series

Jason Sudeikis reprises his role as a befuddled coach in England, with his viral NBC promos evolving into a full-on TV show. He explains the story of how it happened.

There’s a scene in Ted Lasso, where the title character–Jason Sudeikis’s American football coach who abruptly turns into a Premier League manager–sprints to the assistant referee in the middle of a crucial match after raising his flag for an offside call.

“Come on, now! What do you mean? How’s that offside?” complains Lasso, with his characteristic Kansan drawl as the linesman looks at him with confusion.

“What?” asks the official.

Lasso gets closer. “No, I’m serious. How’s that offside...I don’t understand it yet.”

This lack of complete understanding and across-the-pond confusion is one way to describe the essence of Apple TV+’s latest sitcom, which originated from a 2013 NBC Sports promo. That's where Sudeikis introduced his character as part of the network’s acquisition of the Premier League broadcast rights. 

The idea was simple. Lasso, an intense, wide-eyed college football coach from Kansas City arrives in London and enters the alien world of the Premier League. In the promos, he takes over Tottenham (the following season,

he returns as head coach of youth girls' team St. Catherine Fighting Owls), questioning why players don’t wear more pads and teaching the art of flopping. He has no knowledge of the game or its cultural and historical significance. It was a satiric outlook at two different worlds seen through the eyes of a naïve American, and for NBC, it was a way to both attract a loyal, knowledgeable soccer fan as well as appeal to a new audience. 

In the end, it worked, as both promos (2013 and 2014) went viral and gained a tremendous amount of attention. Combined, the videos have generated more than 20 million views on YouTube and helped the network build a strong foundation for its Premier League audience.

It’s been six years since those promos aired, and soccer in the U.S.–without Ted Lasso–has grown tremendously in popularity. So how was the character revived? 

“I guess it’s a dozen little things that go right that you’re willing and ready to receive,” Sudeikis told Sports Illustrated. “After doing the second video (in 2014), it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through. So, one day in 2015, my partner Olivia (the actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde) came up to me one day and said, ‘You know, you should do Ted Lasso as a show,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but then after marinating on it, I thought maybe this could happen.”

In spring of the same year, Sudeikis got together with his creative partners and writers, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt–the three of them started together with Chicago’s well-known improv group The Second City and Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago; Hunt also plays Lasso’s assistant coach and confidante Coach Beard–and powered through for a week to see if they could create a show out of it. 

“When you have a germ of an idea, you don’t know if it’s something you say out loud or if it’s a tweet or a letter or a screenplay, who knows," Sudeikis said. "So, we sat down, and we were able to bang out a pilot pretty quick in that week. As well as outlining six to 10 episodes of the first season. And that let us know, ‘O.K., there’s something here.’”

Despite the excitement for the idea, that’s all it was at that moment–an idea without a home. So, life continued, and the three friends left Ted Lasso alone for a few years and diverted their focus to their respective careers. 

“But that allowed us to get a little space from it, and low and behold, the showbiz gods looked and smiled down on us and brought Bill to our doorstep,” Sudeikis said.

"Bill" is Bill Lawrence, the experienced television writer, producer and creative force behind award-winning shows such as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City. Lawrence entered the frame in 2017 when he and Sudeikis played pickup basketball a couple of nights a week and one night, the idea of Ted Lasso came up. After a few more chats, he read the script and the concept and was immediately interested. 

“I wanted to work with Jason Sudeikis, he just cracks me up. I thought he was awesome on SNL, whenever he shows up in a movie, I’m immediately into it and he seems like that dude you want to hang with,” Lawrence said. “I’d also seen those sketches, the promotional videos for the Premier League back when he did them and I thought they were so funny, and he said, 'What if we made that character three-dimensional and really rounded him out?' Ted Lasso can still be goofy and funny, but we could also have our version.”

And this was critical for Sudeikis. In the commercials, Lasso’s unawareness is funny and often endearing, but for a show, there had be more to him for the audience to not just laugh, but also root for him. 

“I think Scrubs is a fantastic show. You can put the 10 best episodes of it up against any show,” Sudeikis said. “Bill writes male characters and relationships so beautifully, his use of music and dealing with heavy duty issues of life and death. And now, two years later, here we are talking about it. It’s actually really gonna happen and I can’t kind of believe it.”

Not only is the show happening (it premieres this Friday), but it also succeeds in its mission. Ted Lasso is warm, it’s funny and–like the main character–it has heart. Unlike the commercials, where Ted’s biggest trait is his buffoonery, the show celebrates his relentless thirst for hope. He is a man with passion, dignity and someone you for whom you cheer. Lasso is the eternal optimist, whose naivety is both a strength and a weakness, and just like J.D from Scrubs, Lasso is vulnerable (in the show, he actually leaves the U.S. to escape from a troubled marriage) and aches for comfort. That’s what he offers his new team in return–an arrogant, underachieving Premier League side controlled by a scorned owner. It’s not Tottenham this time around, but the fictional AFC Richmond.

Lawrence sees Lasso as the perfect example of the inspiring teacher. A sports version of Robin Williams's John Keating from Dead Poets Society, where his personality is a weapon against cynical reporters and resentful fans who naturally express their disgust at the thought of an American with no knowledge of the game taking over their beloved club.

“We all grew up with a favorite teacher or a favorite coach. They put us on a path. These people never force you into doing anything. It’s just good folks,” Lawrence said. “Me and Jason overlap cause we also like doing shows with heart and because it’s such a dumpster-fire time in the world, Jason really wanted to do a show that was hopeful and optimistic, and most sports movies have that. That’s what's at their core. It’s the underdog. We were trying to capture that optimism and hopefulness that comes with those iconic figures from your life, whether it’s a coach, a teacher or a parent.”

If there's a coach in the real Premier League that emits optimism and hopefulness, it's Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, and Sudeikis admits that Lasso's character in the show is partly inspired by him. 

“Man. When I heard about him taking his squad to go do karaoke, I was like, ‘hellooooo, story idea…’” said Sudeikis, who also admires Pep Guardiola. “I really love those coaches. I really like the way they handle themselves as leaders of an organization. They are guys who I would follow into a fist fight.”

Sudeikis loves the game but fully admits he still needs to do more before calling himself a hardcore, scholarly fan. 

"I love the sport. My joke has been that I have a deep appreciation for it but a shallow understanding. But that’s why I keep company with Brendan and Joe, who know their stuff,” Sudeikis said. “But it’s still all new to me. Every time I go to see a match, I buy a kit for me at the gift shop and a kit for my little boy. I’m ready to be a fair-weather fan for whoever needs it [laughs]. I know people hate for me that, but that’s the truth.”

The showrunners put together a cast with colorful characters who add depth to the multiple plots. There’s the tough-as-nails veteran midfielder Roy Kent (surely inspired by Roy Keane and played by Brett Goldstein), the narcissistic Man City loanee Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), the charismatic duo of Dani Rojas (Mexican star played by Cristo Fernandez) and Nigerian forward Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh). Nick Mohammed (who can be seen in Sky TV/Peacock’s Intelligence) also shines as the quiet kitman. It’s also refreshing to hear NBC’s Arlo White serving as the show’s commentator throughout AFC Richmond’s season.

But if there’s someone aside from Sudeikis's Lasso who steals the show, it’s Keeley Jones, the confident and no-nonsense TV celebrity/model/PR guru played by Juno Temple. She was the only actor who didn’t audition, as Sudeikis, who knew her work, wanted her in the show from the get-go. 

“I met Juno with Olivia when they were on Vinyl (Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese’s 2016 HBO show), so I’ve done karaoke with her. I’ve been in a room with her. I knew her,” Sudeikis said. “She’s so fun and dynamic and just pro-female. She’s just a kick-ass that lives with an excitement that’s fun to be around, and that’s a little bit of what the character had.”

In the end, Ted Lasso is exactly what an audience needs right now. It’s a story that makes you laugh and reminds you to smile at adversity. It’s a lesson that’s less about football management and more about unity, and the script works because it takes a hold of our differences and embraces them as one. And it echoes Lasso’s favorite Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

Lasso is heroic, not because he commands respect but because he earns it. He is kind, because he doesn’t know any other way. But like us, he is also vulnerable, and that’s why we can relate to his journey.

“He’s more white rabbit than white knight, but he’s actually becoming the change he wants to see in the world, without any agenda,” Sudeikis said. “And these days, that’s unusual, both in real life and on television.”

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2CirCh7

[milocrespi-blog]

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Review

Well after a whole decade of development hell, it's finally here: the long awaited sequel to the 1995 film Jumanji. So here's to hoping that after all of that time and planning, that you'd think that Sony's hard work will pay off in a similar manner as Mad Max: Fury Road...right?..........RIGHT?! (2 hrs later) Nope. For those who are unfamiliar, I have a deep and personal hatred for the original 1995 film Jumanji; so much so that I wrote an entire 9-page review detailing on all of the aspects that I hate about it. Nowadays I accept that while it's not the worst movie I've ever seen, it is certainly the film that I hate the most. So with the release of this film I was incredibly mixed about the idea of a straight up soft reboot of the franchise: meaning that it takes place in the same universe but with a completely different story and characters. As the months pass with teaser images and trailers I was somewhat excited because it looked so radically different, hoping that this film will finally learn it's lesson from the previous installment. But then Ghostbusters (2016) and The Emoji Movie happened, and that’s what made me lose faith. From that point on I had a feeling of what this movie was going to be like, even with the positive reviews that the film received. And... it didn’t disappoint; it gave me exactly what I thought I was going to get. It's going to throw in every tired and boring cliché as humanly possible. Right down to the characters themselves: The nerd is going to be weak and by the end will be brave, the jock is going to be lazy and then becomes responsible, the outcast is going to become social, and the ditz is going to learn how to be aware. All of this from the first trailers alone because I’ve seen these kinds of stories done a million times before. I like to see this film as some sort of unholy hybrid of the rebooted concept and reliability on the cast’s talent of Ghostbusters (2016) and the unoriginality, unfunny writing and complete laziness of The Emoji Movie. Granted it’s not as bad as the latter, but I can’t recall how many times that I wanted to walk out and call it a day. The writing is the biggest problem in all of this; it succumbs to nearly every single lazy and desperate jokes available. Pee jokes, dick jokes, sexy lady diversion jokes, black guy screaming jokes, this film has it all. In some instances the film will be so lost as to follow a scene that they’ll even repeat jokes that they’ve already used! Numerous sighs were made every time Jack Black’s character complained or screamed in agony about not having their phone.And if that weren’t bad enough, this film also attended the M Night Shyamalan school of unneeded exposition. More often than not characters will either bring the story to a screeching halt to either tell a bad joke, or to explain something to the audience that already know. There’s one part where the characters are trying to read a map but it shows nothing on it. Then Bethany (Jack Black) steps in and is able to read the map because those are his/her in game character traits. And I was like “cool, okay.” But then the characters then start to explain why Bethany can do that even though the film JUST SHOWED IT! The characters themselves are just hunks of wood and are reused stereotypes. You have your cowardly nerd, your ditzy blonde, your shy outcast and your tough but pathetic jock. There are points where the film thinks that its being clever by having each of the characters talk about how one-dimensional that they are, which does next to nothing other than to spotlight how shallow they are. There was one point where the characters are shown to have in-game stats showing their abilities and weaknesses, then two of the main characters are later arguing with each other talking about their personality traits, and I was seriously expecting one of the characters stats screens to pop up and list their personality traits! It was the one time in the movie where a bit of useless exposition can get a laugh out of me. If you say that the film is supposed to be a satire, in which case: 1. Usually the main characters aren’t supposed to be making jokes about clichéd everything is – the environment and even reactions from the characters are supposed to do that naturally. And 2. If they are supposed to be a satire, then why doesn’t the film go all the way and mock at how stereotypical they are, mock adventure films, do something if that's the case! Like Ghostbusters (2016) the film relies more on the actors talent to get a laugh rather than the combination of talent and clever writing to create comedy. Kevin Hart’s character is especially guilty of this: most of his jokes are just him screaming, which isn’t funny. Sure in the right instances a goofy and over-the-top reaction from somebody can be funny, but when it’s reused multiple times it starts to wear out - unless it's done in a way that makes it feel fresh (but I think that it's safe to say that this isn't the kind of film that's primarily focused on creating smart and well-timed humor now is it?). The film is visually more interesting than the film’s predecessor, but is stylistically uncreative. The film’s world doesn’t really look like it’s own, and looks more like stolen sets from an unused Indiana Jones movie. Which I guess is the whole point of the movie – a cross between the adventure style of Indiana Jones and the jungle themed aesthetics of Jumanji. But even then it’s nothing really spectacular. One of the best things about the Indiana Jones movies was the spectacle: it had real stunts and sets and had a lot of blood and sweat that went into some of the fistfights. But since all of the action sequences are in CG, some of the spectacle is lost. Some of the time it’s not, but most of the time it is. This film was a hard one to sit through, and it wasn’t because of my personal history with the franchise; honestly the previous film’s tie-ins to this one were completely incidental. I only counted two times that the film made any kind of call back to the original. And poor Robin Williams was only given just a brief name drop that has nothing to do with the rest of the plot. Oh no. This film was a pain thanks to all of the unneeded exposition, obnoxious writing and flat characters. As a whole, (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) this film is probably (keyword: probably) worse that the original. And while the original had a flat story, boring characters and an inconsistent tone, it at least wasn’t bogged down by painfully forced jokes and unneeded exposition. Does that mean I hate this film more? No. I still hate the original - mostly due to my personal history. But this is a film that feels like a video game stuck on the easy setting: not allowing the players the chance to be challenged by tests of skill and quick thinking.

2/10 Annoying and Tedious

[famoustv]

The Baptism of Melbourne Silent Victorian Silhouette Spiritual Culture

Living in reinforced concrete forest of the big cities, used to seeing the trend of fresh clothing anger, once set foot on Australia's land, the hustle and bustle of the metropolis will be gone. From the Melbourne Airport, the car Mercedes-Benz on the highway, at that moment, even the desolate farms on both sides to me is also a broad feeling, all the way to travel, a small house began to appear, I could not conceal the inner curiosity

Blue days, white clouds, green grass, very fresh air, all of which is the initial impression of every person who first arrived in Australia. Here the sky blue is not like in the country people can occasionally see the kind of shallow blue, but very three-dimensional, there are levels, pure blue, see these like gemstones color, often surprises you :Is this true? How the same as painting ah?

Because of the wind here, so the sky clouds move quickly, I think, it is these rapid flow of air to the land to bring high oxygen content of the air, oxygen, is necessary for people's lives, adequate Of the oxygen has made many of the disease dead and more. Can really make fun!

In Melbourne, walking is a great enjoyment. Breathing the sweet air, watching the roadside like a huge thick pile of carpets like grass, looked at the families of every family planted flowers and fruit trees in the yard - a clump of narcissus, swaying the roses, like open Of the palm of your hand so big camellia, bending the branches of the lemon tree, there are a variety of can not say the name of the flower. Just as I was listening to the flowers, I could see that the huge cat was looking at me carefully. It was close enough to me, and people here loved animals, so they were all Pet's brain full manure, and not afraid of people, one day I stood by the roadside, a noble pure white Persian cat came to me elegantly, in my trousers on the rubbing back and forth, feeling when I was a pillar friends .

The birds here are particularly large, seated at the seaside, seabirds will fly around you, they expect people to feed them bread, the family has some people who will be out of the bread to feed birds, groups The doves, pigeons, thrush, magpie will chirp quack flying over, as is played a symphony.

The people here are friendly and simple.

Here an average of less than 3 people per square kilometer. Because people are few, the country is rich, sick insurance, unemployment benefits, retirement pension, which people do not have a sense of urgency, wages are sent once a week, they are money to spend, anyway, this week's flowers finished , Again next week, neither near nor worry. The relationship between people are very cordial, there is no need as people in our country as the shoulders of heavy pressure, there is almost no competition and the like.

In this environment, people grow up, the mind is not simply hell. They do not harm the human heart, there is no anti-human heart.

Buy tickets on the bus is entirely by the conscious, no one is no one ticket and no one ticket, everyone to the ticket machine where the ticket. With the increase in immigration, there are often some fare evasion of people, said a year to escape the fare of hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars. Recently, the Government has stepped up check-in work, and uniformed ticket workers went to various vehicles for spot checks. They check people here are particularly humane, Yigai is on the train from the front door, slowly came to the car last, and then start from behind to check one by one. This is actually the first to inform the passengers, so as not to buy a ticket now quickly to buy, and this time the car will stop at least one or two stations, people really do not have the money to buy tickets have the opportunity to get off. According to regulations, was found not to buy a ticket to a fine of 100 Australian dollars. Check the staff's attitude is excellent, smiling, if you do not find a ticket, as long as you can tell them they will believe that, for example, I will not buy it, do not understand English Yeah, they will help you Buy, will not be fine.

See them not only reminds me of our law enforcement officers here, hiding behind the tree, suddenly appeared in front of the illegal people to fine to the greatest pleasure for the money, the psychological dark, is simply a world of difference!

I went out to the hotel for a walk, the enchantment of the beautiful environment, farther and farther, and later lost his way. How can not come back, had no choice but to break into a store inside, which sat a gentleman, I will only use a few English words and hotel card, to him I can not find a place to live, and that person to me Said, I drove you. Then put the door on the store put up a stop sign of business, opened his beautiful small sleeper car to me back to the hotel. This kind of thing I believe no matter what people will do so, they are like this. In our words, everyone here is Huolei Feng.

For me, language barrier is the biggest obstacle, but it is not as difficult as people think. Previously learned English words, to the English environment actually often suddenly jumped out from the depths of my mind, it makes me overjoyed. Again, Australia itself is an immigrant country, walking in the street, although English is the mainstream, but in the vicinity of Chinatown, Cantonese, Mandarin, or a lot of people talking about.

I found living here, as long as you dare to speak, probably meaning others will understand, because people have facial expressions and body language can be used to it! Just remember the word, a word jump out of a word, you can not speak the grammar, others can understand about, but they do not blindly embarrassed it wants. The other side will be very patient with a smile trying to get to know what you want to express the meaning, so that both sides of a child, understand!

Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, is Australia's most extraordinary city, set art, culture, entertainment, food, sports, shopping in one. In the Queen Victoria era has been the rapid development of Hull, the city still retains many Victorian-style buildings, the city's well-planned streets like a checkerboard-like clear; the city's tram is the only Australian fruit remaining a traffic tool.

More than a quarter of Melbourne's urban areas are covered with greenery. The main streets are lined with elms and plane trees, and many beautiful parks such as the Fitzroy Gardens, the Royal Botanic Gardens and other parks serve Melbourne's " "The name. When you are in a shade of grass, smell the smell of grass, looking at the blue sky, really kind of a feeling of aloofness. The amicable, old-haired couple in the park and the friendly Melbourneers often greeted with a sense of concern, which shows the tranquil, warm and friendly character of the Melbourne people.

Speaking of entertainment, the world's only comparable with Las Vegas Crown Happy is located on the left bank of the Yarra River, an area of ​​140,000 pings, in May 1997 grand opening, is definitely not to be missed. This new landmark in Melbourne is Australia's largest building and is a very large integrated entertainment complex. Located in the center of the five-star Crown Sadian has five hundred luxury suites, each suite is equipped with Jacuzzi and fax machine. There are more than 50 sprinklers and fine restaurants, fourteen 24-hour cinema. Crown Escape and the introduction of Australia's first All Stars Cafe and Melbourne's first Planet Hollywood theme restaurants. In addition, there are 34 brand-name boutiques, including well-known clothing accessories and merchandise stores. At this time no one can complain about Australia's night life is too quiet and simple, I 'm afraid you can not digest one by one. At night, from the Melbourne city center, across the Yarra River, into the hustle and bustle of the crown, this is another people bloodburn Melbourne.

A trip to the spiritual and cultural baptism, the most European-style city of Australia has left an indelible impression.