#I did want to include another parallel but there's no direct quote for it otherwise it would be here too

[thevelaryons]

Addam/Ben + Renly/Loras

↳ parallels

[closet-is-tired]

(Uhhh, spoilers for csm156 I guess)

Everyone and their dog had been debating who it is that's gonna break denji out...

And the common consensus is that it's either Asa/Yoru or Reze.

But I bring you something better...

BOTH OF THEM!

So here's my very serious analysis on why asarezeden might actually be the future!

Arms & shaped fish

The starfish thing has been brought up time and time again. and honestly, I see this moment being an odd but interesting piece of foreshadowing.

Fujimoto loves his parallels, and as of 156, both Asa and Denji have lost a limb from their right side. This could represent their "scales" of morality tipping further in one direction and them having to physically pay the price for it.

I also see the starfish as a bit of a symbol of resilience for Asa. Because currently, she may be the only character that hasn't completely lost it. And this could be cause of her more grey sense of morality. Another animal Asa is heavily associated with is birds. They're shown to haunt her dreams, and Yoru even initially appeared to Asa as a bird. I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to say that birds are meant to represent freedom here. They are they devices that eventually lead to Asa having a further sense of self, freeing her from the societal constraints that kept her down in the past.

Foreshadowing?

I definitely see this as a defining moment for Yoru. Purely writing wise, it makes sense that this would be an important element to Yoru's character. When introducing new characters to an audience, a character's overall goals are pretty relevant to their place in the story. Yoru's biggest goal is to kill chainsaw man. Who's to say an element of this goal wouldn't include bringing back the nuclear weapons devil? After all, even at the current point of the story, there doesn't seem to be nearly enough fear around War to make Yoru feasibly strong enough to take down Pochita. (don't quote me on that, I'm not a powerscaler) So for her goal to include bringing back a past ally that had proven to be notable enough for Yoru to mention by name, wouldn't be particularly out of left field...

I also wouldn't put it past her to not know/realize the nuclear weapons and bomb devil are the same thing...

An additional point my friend brought up; Yoru may not actually be looking for Chainsaw man here, but the nuclear weapons(Bomb) devil. The likelihood of Reze still being alive but being imprisoned or otherwise under the control of public safety is relatively high. She's a hybrid after all, I don't think a single spear through the chest from Makima would be enough to kill her. So for Yoru to try and continue with her plans of killing Chainsaw man (in this case freeing her ally to help strengthen herself) while being in wider control of Asa's body could also be a possibility.

What's owed

Reze definitely has some guilt around Denji saving her. The cool act she tried to put on afterward was very shittly crafted. You can see the cracks in it as the scene moves forward, and Reze can't exactly keep a straight face. That guilt combined with her later realization that she genuinely did like Denji could make her more inclined to want to help him this time around.

I'd like to see their very opposite personalities clash. Especially now as Asa further learns to let down her emotional walls I think they could learn a lot from each other. I just feel that their dynamic could be so soo deeply interesting.

Also, Reze is seen to yearn for normalcy. She seems to genuinely enjoy the front of a slow-paced life she's put up pre meeting denji. And even in her last panels wishes she had gone to school and had a chance to live a normal life. Although I doubt her entrance into part 2 would be particularly "normal"... I can see her becoming attached to Asa because of her proximity to normality. Despite everything, Asa always seems to be somewhat grounded in reality, and I think that is at least partially because of her being "normal". Even as part two progressed, Asa has still held onto her humanity. And I think that's because her humanity is such a fundamental part of her character. Her "normal teen girl" problems are what lead her to die and become entagled in this in the first place. they’re what continues to bring her down to earth when she needs it.

So it feels natural for Reze to be attracted to Asa...

And her potentially helping Asa could also make a lot of sense...

The meaning of dreams

Denji very very clearly craves intimacy, which usually manifests itself in... not the best ways?

Especially now that Denji has actually experienced various forms of love, he is somewhat more capable of distinguishing the type of love he years for. And with Asa, Denji finally got the semblance of a "normal" romance no matter how awkward it actually was.

Something I find so interesting is the framing of these relationships. Fujimoto is known to constantly make references to movies, and although I haven't exactly gotten to the point of scoring through the pages for any crumb of a rom-com reference, I know a vibe when I sense one. It's so achingly clear that Denji's relationships with Asa and Reze are framed like rom-coms. (Also, his relationship with Makima is partially framed like this, but that's a can of worms I'm not quite ready to open... yet) They have all the elements for it, from meet-cutes to their dates to even their first kisses. The framing of it all is so so abundantly there!

Honestly, the fact that denji wants multiple girlfriends is made reference to on multiple occasions feels like a little much to avoid... it's brought up in some very non comedic moments, which makes me question if this may actually be foreshadowing. It could just be a manifestation of Denji's yearning for romantic love and affection? Or is it the foundations being laid for a future romantic resolution? Could Chainsaw Man be the first mainstream Shonen to end with thruple???

Will this all become invalid once the new chapter comes out?

Probably...

[monkey-network]

Why EVE is The Best

Heads up. I’m basically gonna sperg about this whole film, so spoilers for this twelve year old film. Enjoy!

Wall-E is one of my favorite films; I would gladly kill and extort to bring the sequel I had in mind to life in any way; animatics would pleased me if nothing else but anyways. I love this film and one of the biggest reasons for that is the character EVE, a character that stuck in my mind longer than most if you can believe. So, better time than any, Imma just ramble about why I love this character. And, before we begin, I’m gonna say EVE is a girl, Wall-E is a boy due to my brain believing they were respectively female- and male-coded for most of my life but do NOT let this stop you from envisioning them however you please. If they’re both girls or boys to you, all power to you. With that said, here we go...

The Design

Now I’m not saying she has the greatest robot design ever; I don’t look at eggs and remember better days when I got to watch that film for the first time in my old house. But Pixar certainly knew how to make simplicity work to perfection. Simple shape, simple mechanics, simple movements. All feeling right at home with her coming from the more advanced future, especially compared to Wall-E where he’s literally a more grounded looking robot. Thematically, this design is fucking genius. A scouter robot with the ability to fly with ease and yet carries a literal arm cannon with incredible fire power. Both expressing how she can have her head in the clouds, observational when necessary, and yet trigger happy amidst the slightest inconvenience or surprise. *MWAH* What the fuck? It’s a great duality where the hard, more logical exterior possesses a sweet and approachable core just waiting to be shown and it’s wonderful seeing Wall-E, this literal block head, fumble his way into having a simple conversation with her. Now I can’t really disassemble how the programming in Wall-E works where they can behave like humans but follow objectives like a machine... but, I can try. With this scene.

Now take this with a grain of salt, the inferencing is more to the imagination otherwise the fun of this movie is tarnished. But from this scene, it’s clear that in this universe robots can show feelings for one another but can’t be romantic with humans because they can recognize human emotions and reactions but do so in an automated sense. The film expresses their curiousity just enough to where their reactions to human things and functions are within reason and yet doesn’t toy with the viewer’s believability. EVE is capable of responding to Wall-E’s advances but doesn’t 100% reciprocate his feelings because Wall-E isn’t her directive (least not yet, that’s for later). Not to mention, she isn’t that adept at romance unlike Wall-E who, by being alone with Earth’s technology, was able to learn and process human romance through the Hello Dolly VHS and potentially other things over the years. So this conversation works with the two having their limited knowledge, we don’t know how much they know, and the film keeps focus on having a balance between somewhat logical reactions and minor impulsive humane reactions that makes them alive but only just enough so it doesn’t feel like them being robots is pointless... Phew. Speaking of which, you know what isn’t pointless? Her motherfucking buster cannon.

Her whole ass arm houses a gun capable of nuking an entire cargo ship in a matter of seconds and it makes sense that she’d have it cuz how can a scouter robot defend themselves but beyond that, it’s just so goddamn cool. Like yeah, I can express how this symbolizes about America and... how they want to fuck their guns or something but who cares. She has a FUCKING ARM CANNON and it’s badass, end of discussion.

The Hanger Moment

Much as I love the moment where the two are in space flying, I honestly say that this moment where the two are in Wall-E’s house during the darude sandstorm is incredibly important. EVE is reasonably taken to his home and naturally, when the lights come on, she looks through the stuff he gives to her. She gets to take it easy for once, things can be quiet after she blew up a whole ship, have a giggle or two at the trinkets he’s collected, with the cigarette lighter being a good tool that’ll be used for later.

She’s curious, bouncy, still a bit quick on the draw, but is nonetheless taking in a lot this robot on Earth has to offer. It’s this and the small 1v1 they had before that is a lovely seedling to not only their connection but EVE’s development on her own, where we hardly need dialogue to show how she’s feeling about it all. And yeah, I’m with plenty of people to say that if this movie was just about the two of them being on Earth it probably would’ve been the greatest Pixar film of all time for many. Fortunately the plot kicks in when Wall-E shows EVE the plant, forcing her to go dormant, thus pulling Wall-E into an adventure on the Axiom ship. And I say fortunately cuz this is where EVE goes from good to great as a character.

The Axiom

While it’s something where we all wish that this film wasn’t the densly plotted, society driven second half, I say the second half on the Axiom carries the film’s themes and character building for EVE to good heights. We enter EVE’s territory, the slick, iPhoney synthetic world where humans have become literal potatoes and everything’s more or less automated. For EVE, the first half of the film lets us see the more playful side of her and doesn’t mind being around Wall-E, but isn’t immediately won over with the concept of love. She’s still goal-oriented and trying to keep the two stuck on Earth would’ve made her arc as open-ended and ambiguous as The Good Dinosaur. Time on the axiom puts her original sense of thinking to the test when Wall-E tags along.

To share the bigger picture real quick, the human element of Wall-E is complimentary to Wall-E and EVE’s humane behavior. To quote RealJims’ honestly flawless analysis, “What better way to show the humanity in a robot than to be among humans that act like robots?” For Wall-E the robot, this works perfectly as a fish out of water story. His time on Earth affects not only a few humans, but other robots like MO and the secretary machine, as minor as it seems.

So when Wall-E seemingly fucks things up, EVE is rightfully peeved. His slip ups especially with the Diagnostics scene tests her goal-oriented nature and patience, to a tasteful comedic strength. Doesn’t mean they now turned Wall-E stupid, the film makes sure the monkey wrenches are only accidents from someone severely out of the loop of things. This leads them and us well into

The Depths of Space

The scene where Wall-E gets launched in the escape pod thrills me with joyfully painful suspense every time. EVE making a mad dash to him as Wall-E madly tries to get out of the soon exploding pod, leading to it exploding and we get this from EVE. The wide eyes of terror followed by the whispering “No”s gives me shivers every time I see it in full. 

Now one could argue her concern was more for the plant getting destroyed, but I say she was more frightened at the idea of both Wall-E and the plant getting nuked. While Wall-E did make her mad, she nonetheless cared about him and wasn’t expecting the tiny bot asshole to send him to death. So it’s like, “Oh no, both my purpose and the one that helped me are both gone.” 

Luckily, thanks to some foreshadowing, Wall-E made it out alive with the plant in safe keeping and EVE seeing Wall-E actually care about her goal makes her beam with joy, being that reasonable spark that brings the two closer together. I mean if your love interest cheated death to help you out, why wouldn’t it? Everything about this moment is what made EVE stick with me long after I watched the film; the emotional journey the director was able to convey with her is so well-built to this point, it’s still amazing how they were able to do it with little dialogue or facial expressions. I especially love the emptiness we get of the two of them in space, where it adds focus to the two of them especially. But my god, that’s only half of it...

The space dance sequence between the two is still one of Pixar’s most gorgeous scenes. The way Wall-E is able to keep up with the fire extinguisher after having trouble in the film’s beginning, the wide shots of space, the lovely glow of the engines, the music. I especially like to think of this scene as a parallel to EVE’s initial flight on Earth. For her, it was that rite of passage after the touchdown and now she gets to share that same moment with someone she’s grown to like or appreciate. Then again, this isn’t the moment where EVE loves Wall-E. We’re close, but we need that one inch to finally show her the truth. That’s when she sees

The Recordings

The moment where EVE gets to see the memories of her time on Earth, including her dormant stasis, is where shit finally clicks. She essentially gets to know how Wall-E felt not only about her, but about love. Even when she couldn’t be there, she sees now that Wall-E cared about her and is able to process what Wall-E processed when he looked at Hello Dolly at one point. Scene also works because getting her directive, or the plant, was generally done and done with, she finally gets time to focus on something else, on her feelings for someone else. This leads well into... the well that leads to...

The Dumpster Moment

The scene with the recordings is where things finally click, but the moment with EVE and Wall-E in the ship’s dump is where it comes together. After getting betrayed yet again by AUTO, EVE’s concerns are now less with the plant and more for Wall-E and thanks to the moment previous, I can totally buy this. It’s teeth gritting seeing her try to rescue a now broken Wall-E from getting ejected into space and losing his energy thanks to a destroyed chip. So when we see her finally toss the plant aside and says Wall-E is her directive now, I tear up. It feels like a genuine, built up declaration on her part; the moment where EVE can rationally return his feelings ten-fold and truly be there for him. But that isn’t all to it, because Wall-E reasonably struggles his way to the plant to show that to save him, they need to get to Earth which means getting the plant back to the core of the ship.

This gives EVE newfound resolve and puts that to the test, where she has to basically defect against AUTO who’s become the physical antagonist of the film. The escape sequence is a bit of a step down since putting humans in danger doesn’t really affect the film’s themes all that well, but I can’t argue that pitting the captain against AUTO is a bad climax. 

The Death to Wall-E

Thinking about this film after so long, it is still pretty fucking shocking to realize how punishing they treat Wall-E in the final act. It’s even more shocking when you realize how the roles have reversed, where Wall-E focuses more on EVE’s goal with the plant instead of EVE herself and vice versa. Then again, I say it’s fair that they did this, to show how much Wall-E was willing to sacrifice for the one he loves which makes the painful wails we hear from EVE feel all the more impactful. Like you’re serious with her as she struggles to accept his death before they reach Earth. And speaking of Earth...

The Finale

Now, I can’t help but argue it’s an unfortunate plothole that EVE is somehow able to fully repair Wall-E in spite of never fixing anything else in the film. Then again, it’s fucking pumping seeing her move quick to put him back together and it’s that final stomp on the heart when, even when he’s fully restored, Wall-E bares no memories of her or anything. You see her desperately try to get him to remember anything only to be met with an emotionless, reset shell. In finally understanding Wall-E’s feelings of love, she can’t really be with him. Until...

True Love’s Kiss Saves the day

I can get scientific with how getting his memories back was possible, but I won’t because the scene just works. It’s quiet, takes it time, and that last eureka moment with the two truly get to hold hands makes up for any scattered logistics. I’d say this is where Wall-E finally gets the love, but the same can be said for EVE, after everything she went through. I’ve admittedly seen a few talk about how the female lead is only valid through the love of another, typically male, but I believe what works 120% here is that the two characters basically have themselves figured out, Wall-E more than EVE, and EVE’s journey is never hindered for a sudden realization to love. She still succeeds in her mission, but the stakes for her have risen once she comes to terms with her newfound feelings and these feelings aren’t out of pocket. Wall-E has his feelings for EVE from the getgo, but dedicates to helping EVE with the goal, even if it means death. The connection they get to have is earned and is what drives the plot. EVE earns what she realizes she wants and that makes her a great female protagonist in my eye.

The Conclusion

Wall-E is a pretty warm movie; a film how the love of two brings humanity to salvation and vice versa. How EVE and Wall-E’s love is synonymous to the intertwining of modern and older technology to shape the world. But honestly, that probably wouldn’t have worked as well without how great they made EVE as a character. Wall-E is great too, but it’s astonishing to see EVE’s journey with Wall-E and show her natural growth of understanding something as warm as romance. Her journey is pretty synonymous to how I feel with the movie overall. The time we get of them on Earth is symbiotic to the time we get in space; we get an intimate journey that expands to a film about society but remains personal and intimate nonetheless. And with EVE, we get this superbly fleshed out character that’s emotive, understanding, and above all gets a resolves that’s awesome to see every time I catch or just think about this film. What else is there to say?

They’re the Best.

[squeezeofthehand]

A (late) Review of Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning

I saw Moby-Dick: A Musical Reckoning by Dave Malloy last month, and I can basically divide it into “The Good, The Bad, and the Racist/Queerphobic/Ableist etc”

Some background: As most people who’ve ever spoken to me will know, I have a special interest in Moby-Dick AND Dave Malloy/Rachel Chavkin musicals (I truly believe that Great Comet is one of the best works of all time) and I consider Malloy and Chavkin both to be my biggest heroes and inspirations, at least when it comes to their respective style of writing and directing. That being said, they’re not perfect. I waited for this musical for about two years, and music/set/etc wise it exceeded my expectations, but it also majorly let me down in a lot of ways.

The Good: The cast! The crew! The set! (It was literally The Pequod - like, they got rid of the stage.) The lighting design in particular was really good - thank you, Bradley King. Manik Choksi, Andrew Cristi, and Starr Busby are gods. I do not have a singular bad thing to say about the cast or the design team! Even the stuff that was tacky/campy (i.e. some of the puppets) was tacky/campy in an enjoyable way. And the “fun” parts of the show were REALLY fun - the fact that they invited the audience on stage, the fact that they TRIED to make Moby-Dick more accessible even if they didn’t do it perfectly at times….the music, when not problematic, was BEAUTIFUL. Listen, I’d be lying if I said Dave Malloy wasn’t one of the best composers when it comes to skill. Everyone in that show sure can act, and sing…the band too, was marvelous, I heard no errors from anyone. This is, what, a three hour long show? And the cast/band was just like, “oh, no big deal.” Which makes “the bad” and “the racist” even worse because these people deserve better. This show deserves better, it deserves to be better.

The Bad: Well, as a book fan, I disagreed with a lot of characterization…most of which can fall into The Racist etc, so I’ll just focus on the “bad but not inherently problematic” here. I really didn’t agree with a lot of things about Ahab’s characterization, i.e. I did not read him as just a bad white guy who’s the epitome of privilege. Stubb, on the other hand is, a canon white supremacist in the book and that barely gets acknowledged in the ways that it should. I do get what Dave was trying to go for, especially in re: Ahab & climate change, but this wasn’t the show for it - or at least, Ahab wasn’t the character for it. Which brings me to my next point: Most of the time, I’m a fan of the quirky Malloyian anachronisms and parallels to modern day issues, but I feel like he was trying too hard here and stepping out of line. Loose adaptations can be fun, anachronistic adaptations can be fun, even INACCURATE adaptations can be fun…but this just wasn’t. It didn’t feel like Moby-Dick, but more like a story vaguely inspired by it. If that had been what he was going for, it would’ve been fine, but he really acted like this would be an accurate adaptation of the book, so I felt let down. The only anachronism/breaking of the fourth wall that I somewhat liked were the talks of Melville and Hawthorne, honestly, and even those I’d sacrifice in favor for accuracy to the source.

And now…The racist/etc.

So. 

Where to begin? I suppose chronologically. Queequeg. Who, according to Dave Malloy, is a stereotypical flamboyant queer person of color! and also a quirky cannibal! He’s trans in the musical, apparently, but there’s not much indication of that in the show beyond from him wearing a binder and a skirt. Now, I am all for trans Queequeg of course, but he was a caricature in this particular adaptation. I do not blame Andrew Cristi. I blame Dave (and mayyyybe the costume designers to some extent). I felt baited. Also, early production rumors and quotes said that there would be a song in which Queequeg saved someone from drowning. That never happened. It pains me to say it, but he didn’t feel that much like an important character (due to the bad writing -- again, it has nothing to do with the actor). 

Additionally, Dave Malloy said that Queequeg and Ishmael would be a clear gay relationship…but the musical left so much room for them to just be interpreted as friends. It somehow became less gay than it is in the original Melville novel. The marriage was excluded, as were the quotes about them being a cozy and loving pair and about Queequeg holding Ishmael like a wife. They were replaced with the “I don’t wanna sleep with a cannibal” song, which was fun to watch at first but way too grossly stereotypical for me to genuinely enjoy it. Queequeg deserves a fun and light-hearted song, but he does not deserve a racist/homophobic one. My advice? Replace it with the actual chapters from the book, please. I do like the fact that The Pacific was a romantic duet and that they sing directly at each other during Squeeze Of The Hand, but those two songs are mere scraps especially compared to, for example, the Bosom Friend chapter of the book. It looked like they were going to kiss during The Pacific and I was very disappointed that they did not. Perhaps the team should keep the songs the way that they are for future productions, but add more romantic staging.

Pip-not-Pip/Elijah/??? (Ashkon Davaran’s character) and Fedallah were also major, major, issues. Not the actors, I love them. Not the book characters, I love them. But the musical characters.

Basically, Fedallah gets this 20 minute long monologue that can be summed up as “religion is bad” and a lot of other things including but not limited to egotistical fake-woke praise on color conscious casting and how badly America is fucked. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that Fedallah is Parsi and Zoroastranian in the book (and it is NOT good rep in the book by any means, trust me, I’ve been calling Malloy out on his racism but I can’t act as if book!Fedallah was anything less than an ~exotic caricature~ either). However, that’s beside the point, at least in this review. Musical!Fedallah is not Parsi nor Zoroastranian. Don’t read this the wrong way, I’m all for Black Muslim rep! But with a character who is already canonically something else? Take a white character and make them a Black Muslim, I encourage that, but when a character is already something else, no.

If the monologue was influenced/written by the actor, that’s one thing and I’d have less issue with it, but I think Dave wrote the vast majority of it, which…yikes…

My constructive criticism: Cut the Fedallah monologue. If the creative team still wants the actor/character to have the same amount of stage-time as he does now, replace it with a different monologue, maybe something from the book? Something about whaling history?

Another thing that needs to be cut or at least completely rewritten: Tambourine. The song starts off with an ableist verse that can be summed up as “you think you’re crazy because you get nervous on the subway? No! I’m more crazy than you!” Don’t take this as me saying that Pip’s trauma/PTSD shouldn’t be addressed at all, but this is the absolute worst way to address it. The song also has a lot of performative lines such as “is god cisgender?” Which, considering this is the same musical that also has trans bait, I truly hate it. Not that I think God should ever be viewed as a cis white man, but much like the “America is awful” stuff in the Fedallah Monologue, this is an offensive and fake-woke way to address such a topic. 

Part IV was really heart-wrenchingly beautiful. No criticism there.

To summarize by part-

Part I: Cut/replace the campy Queeqeug song, but otherwise keep it as it is.

Part II: Cut/replace the racist and xenophobic Fedallah monologue.

Part III: Cut/replace Tambourine. The rest of the Ballad Of Pip (starting with Kim Blanck’s beautiful song) is alright. Good, even.

Part IV: Great! No editing needed besides from the typical tweaking that writers may choose to do after their first draft.

In general: Make Ishmael/Queequeg more obvious, make Queequeg less of a caricature, do some major editing to Fedallah and Pip-Not-Pip/Elijah/???. Tambourine and Fedallah’s Monologue need to be completely rewritten, but I get that the creative team may not want to take scenes away from the actors, which is why I encourage them to remove all of the racist bs and create something completely new/different for the actors to perform. 

I understand that Moby-Dick is clearly a work-in-progress on all levels. I do not dislike for the show for being a scrappy rough draft. I judge it for its racist, homophobic, ableist, etc messages. Dave has acknowledged that this first copy is far from perfect, and I sincerely hope that the racism/etc. is the first and main thing that he fixes. 

[nerdsideofthemedia]

BB & Renora

I usually don’t tend to spend so much time on shipping, but this one, it feels like the reason is so questioned and even denied is in no small part due to homophobia and heteronormativity. Honestly, if you keep denying it’s basically almost certain now, I’d call it homophobia, unless you don’t think Renora became canon in V4 either. The parallels are as on the nose as they can be and BB had much more romantic buildup and this is part of what I intend to show here.

Just to make things clear, I am not doing this to attack Renora. I think that romance was handled well enough, it’s just too bad that it’s demanded a whole lot more from LGBTQ+ couples. I just want to show that if we want to be pedantic nitpickers who find justifications to see Renora as just a friendship, we can do that, so how come only BB is subjected to such scrutiny?

 What was the evidence for Renora before V4?

Was it Nora touching Ren’s nose and saying “Boop”? They’re childhood friends, it’s normal for them to be very close and have gestures specific to them. OK, I don’t really have to guess, because a BSer decided to start a conversation with me, complaining how me saying stuff like BB is canon or close to that made LGBTQ+ raise expectations and the writers would have to deal with queerbaiting accusations when BS becomes canon, which: yes, if BS happens, there will be queerbaiting accusations, which would be more than fair and would have nothing to do with me. (Not that I don’t appreciate it, I just don’t really think I wield that much power within the RWBY community). Fortunately, they did direct to a post about the Renora romantic hints:

        - Boop, but if we’re looking at songs, BB isn’t lacking those, including the very first one Red Like Roses. All that Matters and Armed and Ready have lines with romantic connotation and I’ll always argue that though Bmblb isn’t canon, it would have been extremely stupid to create such a song with no intention on delivering. Queerbaiting is not seen as a good thing. Also I’d like to remind you that RT has been supportive of LGBTQ+ with 2 of the main RWBY VAs being bi. 

        - Jaune, the oblivious guy, picked it up when he asked Ren how he and Nora had gotten together, to which I say: Jaune, the oblivious guy, could have easily misinterpreted a close friendship as a romantic relationship.

        - Ren stammers when correcting Jaune and he is usually cool and collected. Still, I’d say it’s normal for teenagers to act that way when there’s crush accusation. That’s exactly how I was as a teenager, even if I didn’t have a crush on the guy. 

        - Nora’s words: “What are the odds we’d still be together?” followed by “Well, not ‘together-together’… Not that I’m not saying that you’re not handsome; you are handsome, but that’d just be weird, right?”, which the person argued “After that she’s just fumbling for words, and reveals more about how she feels about Ren. She didn’t have to say anythinggg. But she did, and now we know that she thinks Ren is handsome (well, duh). If her feelings for him were completely platonic, she wouldn’t have said anything like that. There’d be no reason for her to. Like seriously if I was writing two characters that were only meant to be platonic, I would never write a scene like that. The implication of those words are too strong.”

When I was a teenager, I literally fumbled over words in a pretty similar way to Nora, including the handsome part, I was not interested in the guy I said that to.

Yes, this isn’t real life, it’s a show, so words like those maybe should have a better reason to be there then verisimilitude of teenage awkwardness, I guess – it’s debatable. Here’s the thing, how can you argue romance as not only one possible interpretation, but THE correct interpretation because of the implication of such words, yet deny the romance as a possible interpretation of Yang and Blake’s scenes despite the implication of a girl flirting with another while phrasing it “coming out tomorrow”, or associating those 2 girls with the word “love”, or having one of the girls stroking a photo of the other one or traveling on a ship named “Pride” or having the ex-boyfriend asking “what does she even see in you?” – all of which are far far more coded as romantic than any of the Renora moments. I think the “Like seriously if I was writing two characters that were only meant to be platonic, I would never write a scene like that. The implication of those words are too strong.” applies to all the cases described.

 Renora became undeniable at the end of V4 though, as Ren put his hand over Nora’s. They look at each other, both of them know what that means.

Wait, no, sorry, wrong pictures.

As I was saying they look at each other: they both know what that means. That’s right, they’re really good friends. Wait… no. They’re in love. That’s it. They’re in love.

Did you get my joke and what was being called out or do I have to be even more obvious?

I’m going to flat out say it: if you consider Renora became canon in that moment in V4, BB should be considered canon now. They parallel each other, and the whole excuse that Blake and Yang only held hands to show support after facing their demon can also be used for Renora.

 Just a few bonus anti-BB arguments:

Yang can’t represent Yang in Yin-Yang because she’s not a man

Sun doesn’t embody all the concepts of Yang either, so it’s weird to draw an exclusion criteria for Yang but not for Sun (or Blake for that matter). If only Yang hadn’t used a yellow dress, it could have driven the point of Yin-Yang. Wait…

It didn’t actually click for me as to why Yang used a white dress until I watched Passion of the Nerd’s video on Primeval (Buffy). While watching it, I was like:

(Apparently, Yang’s dress was supposed to be yellow, but there was an animation problem. Still, it was a cool thought)

“We can’t trust Adam, he’s delusional even Blake said so herself”

Adam clearly had his reasons to believe those were their feelings, because he didn’t show jealousy immediately. Also why would the writers write those lines with no intention on delivering? Adam didn’t need to be jealous to attack Yang – he wanted to hurt Blake, so attacking her to hurt the latter would be good enough reason, not to mention she was standing in the way of his mission.

Again, I quote the person who tried to defend Renora, yet attack BB: “Like seriously if I was writing two characters that were only meant to be platonic, I would never write a scene like that. The implication of those words are too strong.“

 Ruin the team dynamics

I find it funny that the people who criticize Yang for not making her life revolve around Ruby are also the ones who complain about how Bumblebee ruins team dynamics because two characters now prioritize each other. I’m sure this isn’t motivated by homophobia, especially considering the same logic is never used for Renora and even Arkos (don’t even bother with team JNPR aren’t main characters: they’ve appeared almost as much as the main ones), and misogyny, because how dare Yang not be completely about putting Ruby first at all times?

If having 2 sisters on the same team doesn’t ruin the dynamics, then a romantic relationship doesn’t either. It’s not like sisters don’t put each other first too.

I just address the assertion she treated Summer poorly which is based on absolutely nothing other than crapping on a female character just for the sake of it. Yang probably loved Summer and thought she was her mother until told otherwise which happened after Summer’s death.

 They ruined Adam because of BB

They didn’t. Adam was never intended to be an anti-hero with a chance for redemption. If you had that idea, it’s on you. His death didn’t happen just because either – it did because it ended both Yang and Blake’s arcs, it marked the end of a chapter in their lives as well as the beginning of their relationship which is only possible precisely because they confronted their demons. It’s the ultimate obstacle that confirms that Blake will no longer run and instead faces her demon and Yang confronted her abandonment issues in V5 when she talked to Raven, yet she still had to deal with the pain caused by Blake leaving and trust her. Their fight with Adam and her reassuring Blake she knows she won’t leave shows Yang knows Blake isn’t Raven: one ran out of selfishness, while the other ran out of selflessness, however misguided. Adam going down is tied to their closure.

And for the love of all that is good and pure, stop saying a relationship isn’t healthy because someone was hurt. Yes, it’s true we should avoid hurting each other, but to think we’ll never hurt someone and call a relationship abusive as soon as someone is hurt is ridiculous. There are no healthy relationships by that standard.

More RWBY posts:

Filmmaking and Bumbleby

Bumblebee was Always the Plan

Bumblebee was Always the Plan part 2

Faunus and the White Fang: The Portrayal of Racism

BB & Renora

Weird Post on Weiss’s Clothes

Foils: Adam and Yang (this one is in wordpress; it was my first one and I didn’t have Tumblr then)

Let’s talk about Adam Taurus (I didn’t post this one on Tumblr because the title and tags could lead Adam fans thinking this was about “his wasted potential” when really it defends the decision of killing him off and explains why it happened)

[twdmusicboxmystery]

FTWD 5x06: Analysis

Good morning! How did everyone like last night’s FTWD episode? I didn’t see quite as many huge parallels in this episode as I did in the previous two, but there were still some interesting things to be noticed, and let's just say I have some forecasting to do. But first things first.

***As always, spoilers abound for FTWD 5x06 in this post. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Plot:

In terms of plot, we basically saw Morgan's group trying to fix the plane, John helping Dwight search for Sherry, and Strand attempting still to find a way to reach the rest of the group. Annie and her brothers want to leave the group and Alicia tries to convince them otherwise. Plus, we saw Grace again.

First off, this episode was called The Little Prince. I honestly didn't know that's what it would be called when I wrote my meta on The Little Prince last week. Had I known, I might have waited to post that. But I honestly didn't see tons I would've added to the post anyway. We saw Dylan reading the book again at the beginning of the episode, and he quoted a line from it to Luciana. The one that said you can only see important things with your heart, not your eyes. That became something of a theme for the episode, but I’ll come back to that.

Annie:

Probably the biggest parallel I noticed in this episode was when Annie started talking about her previous home. The way she described it could have been a description of the prison in S4. She lived near the nuclear plant with her parents and the other children. She described it as the perfect place to stay, but eventually it was overrun by walkers. The walls slowly gave in under the weight of walkers, just as the prison fences did. Everyone ran to the woods. And then the sickness came. The walkers who overran their home were sick from radiation poisoning and that made everyone else at their camp, including their parents, sick.

It happened in opposite order from the prison, but the events were the same. In S4, they had the virus first from some sort of contaminated walkers. Then the Governor came, the fences gave, and the prison was overrun with walkers.

This is simply another way in which Annie is a Beth proxy. She ran into the woods when her home went down, cried a lot, and lost a parent.

I’m also wondering if this could be something of a parallel to Beth after Coda. Maybe she refused to leave the Atlanta area because that’s where her family had been and she couldn’t bring herself to leave not knowing where they were. Just conjecture on my part, but given Legs and The Red Machete, I think it’s possible.

There’s also the small detail of her cleaning herself up at the beginning. She basically just washed her face and combed her hair and made herself more presentable. She did it with water in the bathroom, which felt like a Beth thing. We also saw her using pink soap. (Pink Theory).

Dwight and John:

I saw a lot of parallels in this story too. John helped Dwight look for Sherry and they found a note from her, saying she was leaving the main roads and taking the smaller country roads. Dwight realized he’d been looking in the wrong place. It just feels like it could be symbolic for what happened with Beth. We always said she would take a different route to TF, and they probably took the most direct route on the roads. Meanwhile, looking in the wrong place is definitely a Beth theme. Remember the scriptures in Father Gabriel's church? One of them was Luke 24:5, 

which says, “Why seeking the living among the dead? He is not here. For he is risen.” This reminded me of that.

There was also a super-great part near the end of the episode where Dwight talks to John about Daryl. I loved that conversation! He didn’t mention Daryl’s name, and John wouldn’t have known him anyway, but he said the man who let him go knew about all the messed up things Dwight had done, but still let him go and told him to find Sherry and make it right. So, it’s one of those things that means little to John but the audience can connect it to Daryl. Kind of a fun way to bring Daryl into Fear. And maybe that’s all it is. MAYBE.

I can’t help but think that if what’s happening in Fear leads to Beth in some way, this will have been a huge hint. A way to remind us that Dwight is only here because of Daryl and that’s important.

John finds a second letter from Sherry in the car she’d been driving. The same one Dwight was looking for when he first met John and June (they matched the VIN number here). The note told Dwight to stop searching for her. John didn't give Dwight the note because he didn't want him to get discouraged. I'm not sure what this will lead to yet, but given all the ties between both John and June and Dwight and Sherry, I feel like it could be a tie to Beth. I'm just not sure how yet.

The car sat outside a house where Sherry had stayed at some point. Dwight said Sherry wasn't inside but he found food and supplies and so he knew she'd been there. And of course, there was the note. It reminded me of the funeral home. Anyone who returned to the funeral home after Beth and Daryl left we found food and supplies that had been eaten, evidence of them having been there, and Beth’s thank you note.

Morgan and Grace:

I saw some interesting things here, too. Grace radioed Morgan and told him she needed their generator. Apparently, a second reactor in the area is about to melt down. She said she’d switched it to offline, but the fuel still produced heat and needed cooling. The generator that kept the cooling system on had just died, so she needed theirs. She also said taking their generator wouldn’t fix the problem. It will only buy them time. That generator will die at some point too, and then the reactor will still melt down. She’s basically trying to give them time to fix their plane and get out of their before the meltdown happens. More radiation will probably kill them all.

But think about this. @frangipanilove has done lots of metas about coolants and cooling systems. It’s a theme we’ve seen heavily around Beth, including through fridges, blue coolers, and Frosty Cola. Now, the cooling system is failing and needs to be fixed. Not sure exactly how this will play out, or what it will lead to, but it’s a continuation of a theme we’ve seen around Beth symbolism a LOT.

Then there’s Morgan’s staff. This is a smaller detail, but it made me super happy. Remember the last time he ran into Grace, she took his staff because it had radioactive walker guts on it. In this episode, he tries to find a new one. He starts practicing his Aikido with a weird pipe, but obviously the weight and balance aren’t quite right for what he needs. He goes into a closet and finds—guess what? A mop! He takes the handle off a mop and that will become his new staff.

Guys, that’s huge! Remember this? 

This mop staff ties Morgan directly to both Beth and Daryl’s story lines. Woot, woot!

Later, when he’s with Grace, he tells her the staff Eastman gave him helped him when he thought death was the only way. So I feel like him getting a new staff shows a subtle shift in Morgan’s arc. Symbolically, it shows Morgan is able to pivot and change when he needs to. When the staff became dangerous (i.e. the contaminated walker guts) he was able to put it aside, with little to no sentimentality, and find a new one that suited him better (i.e. wasn’t dangerous/contaminated). This is one of the things people have to do in order to survive.

But maybe this shows that his new arc with this new (mop) staff will intersect with Beth’s in some way, or become like hers. That made me super-happy to see.

Finally, check out this screen shot. 

This didn’t end up being super-important in the plot of tonight’s episode. Morgan simply helped Grace move the road block so she could get the generator to the plant. But it reminded me a LOT of the cars we saw in 5x10, Them. The ones where Maggie found the Beth walker in the trunk. So if this thing with Grace leads to Beth in any way, this will make lots of sense.

Oh, and we heard the whole “you're not stuck” theme in this episode. We’ve heard it before, especially here in FTWD. I may have said this before, but it reminds me a lot of a theme we saw at Grady. Even the inflection Morgan used when he said it to Grace sounded like Beth saying to Noah, “We’re not trapped."

 Strand:

So, Al got the plane engines working, but they broke one of the propellers. Obviously, the plane won’t work without propellers. Meanwhile, Strand’s group had propellers, but no engines. He needed to find a way to get the propellers to Morgan’s group. In the end, he used a hot air balloon from Jim’s (the brewer who died last season) belongings to take the propellers to Morgan’s group.

And what was the shape of the hot air balloon? It was a beer bottle. First of all, that's hysterical. Second, we can tie it to Beth in two ways. 1) It's a beer bottle. Moonshine. Obvious. 2) It’s yellow. Yellow polo. Escape. And Strand was specifically coming to give them propellers, which would save everyone.

Remember, Grace said the reactor will melt down so they’re against a clock for getting this plane in the air and escaping.

Also, while in the balloon, on his way to save people, Strand called Luciana Songbird. Just another little tie-in to Beth.

Strand and Charlie (also in the hot air balloon) crash land a little too early and end up in the contamination zone. That’s about all we saw of them in this episode. They’re in a contaminated area, and Morgan is on his way to get them.

Alicia:

Remember Annie wanted to leave with her brothers because she doesn’t think Morgan’s group can truly protect them. Alicia has a heart to heart with her and tries to convince her to stay. When she sees the balloon coming with Strand in it, she runs to tell the kids, wanting them to see that there’s hope on the horizon. They’ve already taken off. Given all ties between Annie and Beth, I want to read into this too, but I’m not entirely sure how yet. It will probably depend on how this all plays out. Whether Alicia brings them back and what happens. For now, Alicia is looking for Annie/Beth and she’s gone. She’s disappeared. So we’re going to have another search now.

Smaller, Miscellaneous Symbols:

Morgan and Al's head wounds were shown several times and both of them have head wounds in the same place that Beth got shot.

There was also an eye theme going on in this episode. Dylan quoted the line from little prince says you can only see things with your heart and not your eyes. He took off his glasses and says that he got rid of his eyes (i.e. so he could see with his heart). But getting rid of one’s eyes feels like a blindness theme or something.

Later, John tells Dwight that another set of eyes might help him find Sherry. And he’s right. It’s him, rather than Dwight, who found both of Sherry’s notes. So yeah. Definite eye theme going on.

They also mentioned luck several times in this episode. (Luck Theory).

That's pretty all I saw in the episode. But, I said and I have some predictions.

I was thinking the chances are good that Grace won't accomplish her aims and the second reactor will probably melt down. With Strand and Charlie in the hot zone, I'm thinking one of them could become contaminated. I hope neither of them die, but if they become contaminated, they might need a cure. It might be a matter of curing a deadly virus again. And that’s interesting.

We’re also already seeing hints that Al will tell June about Isabelle and the helicopter people. She didn’t in this episode, but June can tell she’s hiding something, and already we’re heading in that direction.

So yeah. Nothing humongous for me this episode. It felt like a bridge episode of sorts, getting from one storyline to the next, but I enjoyed a lot of the setups and am excited to see where they go. How about everyone else?

[happy-bellamy]

My Unapologetic Review of A Court of Frost and Starlight (1.5 Stars out of 5)

Okay, to begin, I liked ACOTAR, I absolutely LOVED ACOMAF, and ACOWAR…it was okay.  Now to clarify, I’m not a fan of Sarah and I hate most of her books. But, that being said, I like some of them. I still haven’t finished Empire of Storms.  A little over halfway through I got bored and the chapters I was reading were so disgusting and unnecessary (Yes, I’m talking about Rowan, BARF) that I stopped, and have not expressed interest in continuing. The ACOTAR series, however, has always been okay for me.  Like I said, I’m not a fan of Sarah and I have this blog where I sometimes talk about it, but they aren’t the same that they used to be.  The reason I loved ACOMAF so much is because it had the most character and conflict development than any other book she has written, and almost every chapter was very well thought out and planned to compliment the endgame of the book (King of Hybern, Feysand, etc.).  

Now…ACOFAS.

Out of 5 stars I give this book….1 and a half..?

I’ll go through my problems with each character to start:

Feyre: Y’know, this series gets a lot of praise for being a feminist book, but what did Feyre do for the entire story?  Sat around the house…walked…cleaned…went shopping (like 5 times!)…painted…and had sex with Rhys.  Now Rhys is NOT Tamlin, and Feyre is in a much better place and mental state than she was at the beginning of ACOMAF, but I saw direct parallels to the beginning of both stories.  I was extremely bored during all of her chapters, and felt these chapters were mostly useless.  And OH MY GOD, LEAVE YOUR SISTERS ALONE!  Elain CLEARLY does not want anything to do with Lucien.  “He’s a good male.”  ELAIN DOESN’T CARE, STOP PRESSURING HER AND TREATING HER LIKE A CHILD!  Everyone in this book, minus Azriel, treats Elain like a fragile 2 year old.  Just let her cope and heal on her own time.  And Nesta, she was 1 of 3 characters that I didn’t want to kick in the throat.  Feyre, she has been traumatized!  Stop blackmailing her into coming to your dinner parties, stop telling her that she needs to be around the Inner Circle, she clearly wants space, give it to her! Feyre literally almost destroyed Tamlin’s house after he spent weeks of having guards follow her around and wouldn’t let her do anything.  She of all people should understand that Nesta just wants to be left alone and heal on her own terms.

Rhys: Oh my god, I hate, HATE Rhys in this book.  I still like Rhys overall, but he was annoying, disgusting, and overall regressed as a character in this book.  But, good lord, how is this sex-crazed, sleazy douchebag supposed to be the same character (who was loving, supportive, and understanding) from ACOMAF? He couldn’t go five minutes without talking about how much he wanted to fuck Feyre, or making gross innuendos, or saying he can’t bare to be standing next to her without wanting to be inside her?? Stop, good god.  Like I said, his character development REGRESSED in this book.  In ACOMAF, he said that Feyre is his equal in every way, and that she will never be sidelined or be forced to bare his children. You know what he did in this book? Constantly sidelined her and left her to do boring shit and shopping all day and consider having children.  He left Feyre at home while he dealt with border control, diplomat issues, and checking in on his armies.  AN ACTUAL QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK:  (Rhys walks in to see Feyre’s in bed) “Right where I left you”... “Isn’t it all I’m good for?”

Seriously?  You leave your HIGH LADY at home to cook and clean and shop while you handle all the serious responsibilities?  What a feminist!  Moving on…

 Cassian: OMG, LEAVE NESTA ALONE! Respect her privacy!  Side glancing at her from the other side of the room and chasing her in the street even though she asked you to leave MULTIPLE TIMES isn’t romantic, it’s douchey, arrogant, and disrespectful.  She doesn’t want to be around you, accept that and leave her alone to deal with her trauma.

 Azriel: One of the only pure characters left in this book.  He treats Elain with the respect she deserves, and actually listens to what people say to him!  Good job, Az!  You deserve better, and I hope you get some sort of character development and central arc by the time this series ends.  

 Mor:  I was thrilled to find out that Mor preferred women.  But why is she still keeping it a secret?  It’s not as if homophobia is a problem in this world, and Azriel is turning his eye toward Elain, so why doesn’t she stop stringing him along and let him and herself be happy?  The Inner Circle will obviously accept her for who she is, but she is still keeping her true self a secret for… no apparent reason.  I was hoping that this novella would be finally be her time to progress, but no.  Instead she buys bad gifts and continues to worry about her family.  This novella was supposed to bridge the gap from one focus to another, but this entire novella read like a poorly edited fanfiction and was otherwise completely useless and could have been included at the beginning of a longer novel.  I was angry that I paid so much money to read this story with no plot, character regression, and overall bland and overhyped fluff.  

Nesta and Elain:  I am absolutely disgusted with how these two are treated in this book.  They are the only characters that have any sort of sustenance at this point, yet they are ridiculed, belittled, and overall treated like children throughout the entire book.  Nesta doesn’t want to be around me?  Oh, let’s blackmail her into coming to my party by giving her the money she needs if she shows up!  Elain doesn’t want to see Lucien?  Well, he’s a good male, you just aren’t thinking clearly yet.  Come on Feyre, she may be more naïve than you, but she’s not dumb.

 Amren:  Did nothing in this book but obsess over jewelry, have sex with Varian, and build puzzles. I’m so glad that you gave up your other body and life to be stuck in Velaris doing nothing.  

 Overall opinion of this book: It was completely useless, disgusting and hard to read at times, and I feel like I wasted my money.  Will I still read the next book? Probably, because I am invested in the characters and I might finally get a decent plot from one of the few good characters left, aka Azriel, Lucien, and Nesta.

Do I hate Feysand? No, not at all.  Am I tired of their disgusting, overhyped, and unnecessary sex scenes? Yes.  I don’t have a problem with sex in books, but this book has too much of it for the 0% plot that happened in this book.  I would rather read 100 pages of ‘A Day in the Life of Nesta Archeron’ than read one more cringy Feysand sex scene.  

I doubt anyone read all of this, and I’m definitely going to lose followers over this, but this is my opinion.  Do not comment how much you disagree or think I’m wrong, it doesn’t help.  But if you agree, I’d love to hear your opinions and know I’m not alone.  Have a great day everyone! 😊

[sieben9]

“quite a common fairy” impressions

Confession time: I have an irrational weakness for disneyfied-nice Tinkerbell. I know, neither accurate to the book, nor the movie, but that's how it is. So, ever since I realised this show was going to Neverland, I've been quietly going "please don't let her be evil, please don't let her be evil..."  and look! Not evil!

Bitter and very pissed off, but not evil.

Also, in what seems to have become the background chorus every time the character shows up: What the hell, Blue.

I have to say, though: at least in this case, Blue was obviously _meant_ to be the antagonist of Tinkerbell's story. At least she's just a tyrant, not a hypocrite.

...yeah, that's still not all that great, is it?

And yes, I know, broken record, but Regina, do you really think this is the right person to advise you on managing your inner darkness?

I'm just saying.

Anyway, what I "loved" most about this entire subplot was Blue's rationale for not helping Regina. Namely "her mother was bad and her teacher is worse". I mean... it's not like she picked the first one? And if you'd been more useful than a chocolate teapot, she wouldn't have had to pick the latter. That quote about how all evil needs to succeed is for good people to stand aside and do nothing? Congratulations, Blue, you're flying, talking proof of that.

Not only that, you actually punished the one person willing to help a scared and miserable young woman.

She was trying to HELP!

All in all, the flashback mostly felt like setup to the cave scene, leaving aside the weirdness of soulmate-seeking pixie dust missiles. I'm assuming that they'll meet at some point in the not-too-far, and I'll mark myself down as "cautiously optimistic". (Though I'll freely admit, if it were down to a choice between that and "I'm talking about our magic, Emma, the magic we make together ::nudge-nudge, wink-wink::", then... yeah, sorry, Robin.)

Why do you do this to me, show?

Special mention to this moment here, where Regina goes through all the stages of grief, including some that haven't been named yet, only to jump alllll the way back to denial and run like hell.

That was some good acting there...

Henry's plot in Neverland was short, but nerve-wracking. Though I was weirdly proud of Henry for just straight-up trying to shoot Pan. He didn't even telegraph it. Just "uh-hu, interesting argument, have a bolt to the face". Yes, it didn't work, but it's the princinple of the thing.

Pan, don't call Neal a "spawn". It's rude. And people in glass houses, etc.

And we see the beginnings of Pan winning Henry over. ::sigh:: Of course Henry will listen to "only you can save magic". The boy is so desperate to be a hero... By the way, I'm assuming that Pan is lying unless proven otherwise. I think I found his tell -- it's whenever his lips are moving.

Just... hang tight, Henry, will you? Pretty much your entire family is coming to get you.

Over in the "adult" plot in Neverland: David is getting worse and might die before the month is out, but won't tell anyone about it. Which may not be fair to his family, but is entirely too understandable. Just don't, y'know, actually die, buddy, OK?

As for the cave scene... Holy wow. That was some good television.

I think this may have been the most direct and honest Regina has been with anyone about the mistakes of her past, including Henry. Something about Tinkerbell's antagonism might have brought it out, because Regina doesn't share it any longer. (Mind you, she obviously didn't look forward to this talk, either, but that's understandable.) She's ready to admit what she denied back in the flashback: she was scared, and she was wrong. More than that, she had been clinging so tightly to her anger that she couldn't let go, and so she chose the "easy" way out. (Hint: it wasn't. Not in the long run.)

And I know her main motivation for helping Tinkerbell out of her own pit was to get her help in finding Henry, but I was still oddly proud of her. There goes my reforming villain, helping other people find their own way back to the light. ::wipes away a tear::

Though maybe giving her your own heart to crush was going a bit far.

I applaud your conviction, Regina, but not your survival instincts

I assume that she saw Tinkerbell's eyes when she had that arrow at her throat, and decided that no, this woman didn't actually want to kill her. She just needed Tinkerbell to realise that, too.

Also, this bit here?

  "With Henry, I finally did something right"

Rude.

Meanwhile, in the Enchanted Forest...

Best. Screenshot. Ever.

I have come to the conclusion that Mr Neal "I use emotional blackmail and also endanger a small child to get back to my family" Cassidy has a lot more in common with his dear old dad than he'd like anyone to know (including himself). I mean, it was a good plan and I don't think the little hobbit was actually in any danger, but... yeah, that whole thing was quite telling, wasn't it?

Far too adorable to be bait

And I may joke about the screenshot, but I do appreciate the parallel between the flashback with a struggling young Bae being dragged away from his new family by the Shadow and the adult Neal jumping after the glowing-eyed demon and holding on for dear life, because damnit, he's getting back to his family this time, and screw whoever tries to stop him.

Of course, this is what happens next, because Neal just attracts this kind of crap:

Illustration next to the dictionary entry for "FML"

OK, I know this looks bad, Neal, but on the other hand, please consider: he is just one single (very long) teenager and you are a fully grown man. I’m not saying “break his nose and run like hell”, buuuut...

As an aside... yes, I know there was another thing happening in the well-lit present day plot, but I'm genuinely upset about that and I won't go into it here. Screw you, show, that wasn't just rude, that was cruel.

[alixofagnia]

Space Jane Eyre in 10 Quotes (Or Why Charlotte Brontë Would Have Been a Reylo)

Basic Character Similarities

Rey/Jane Eyre

The most obvious similarity between the two is their origins. Rey and Jane are orphans and they both had hard, cruel childhoods because of it. Jane, poor and lonely, is raised by her cold relations, the Reeds, and later sent to suffer the harsh and starving conditions of the Lowood school, run by the autocratic hand of Mr. Brocklehurst. Rey, also poor and lonely, was abandoned by her parents, who are apparently dead. She grew up in the harsh conditions of Jakku, where hunger was a constant companion. Unkar Plutt is the Star Wars counterpart of both the Reeds and Brocklehurst.

Interestingly, neither heroine is embittered or cowed by these grim beginnings. Of necessity, they have a keen sense of self-reliance and self-loyalty, and cling to their own sense of merit. Rey and Jane come from nothing, but they make the better choices.

Ben Solo/Rochester

The most obvious similarity between the two is their turbulent family history and the direction they went because of that. Ben Solo is the sole inheritor of a galactic legacy with a family who expected great things of him. But, one by one, they lost faith in him and the betrayal fueled his descent to the Dark Side. Rochester comes from a wealthy family, but he is a younger son and his father, who refused to split his estate between two sons, arranged to have Rochester marry a rich woman. Both the father and older brother, Rowland, in their desire for wealth, withheld from Rochester the fact that hereditary mental illness ran in her family. The anger over the betrayal and subsequent burden of an insane, violent wife fueled Rochester’s descent into debauchery.

Both men can be said to have misspent their youth, live by a skewed moral compass, and give in far too often to primal instincts, such as fear, anger, and violence. Ben and Rochester come from everything, but they make the poorer choices. In a way, each has given up hope of being something different or changing course, until they meet their respective (or potential) partners.

10 Quotes

OK, here we go.

1) After Jane and Rochester meet:

R: And you came from-?

J: From Lowood school, in –shire.

R: How long were you there?

J: Eight years.

R: Eight years! You must be tenacious of life. I thought half the time in such a place would have done up any constitution! No wonder you have rather the look of another world. I marveled where you had got that sort of face.

Reylo parallel: This is essentially similar to Kylo’s reaction in TFA to finding out that Rey is from the harsh environs of Jakku and isn’t as, well, crusted up (physically and mentally) as she ought to be. It’s sort of where I feel some of his nascent fascination with her starts.

2) Jane speaking to Rochester’s housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax, about Rochester:

F: If he has peculiarities of temper, allowance should be made.

J: Why?

F: Partly because it is his nature – and we can none of us help our nature; and, partly, he has painful thoughts, no doubt, to harass him, and make his spirits unequal.

J: What about?

F: Family troubles, for one thing.

J: But he has no family.

F: Not now, but he has had – or, at least, relatives. […] Rowland combined to bring Mr. Edward into what he considered a painful position, for the sake of making his fortune: what the precise nature of that position was I never clearly knew, but his spirit could not brook what he had to suffer in it. He is not very forgiving: he broke with his family, and now for many years he has led an unsettled kind of life.

Reylo parallel: Mirrors Ben’s painful parting from his own family through a series of perceived personal betrayals. We can also draw comparisons between the imbalances of nature in both characters.

3) Rochester opening up to Jane about the person he was at her age:

R: Nature meant me to be, on the whole, a good man, one of the better end; and you see I am not so. Take my word for it – I am not a villain: you are not to suppose that – not to attribute to me any such bad eminence; but, owing, I verily believe, rather to circumstances than to my natural bent, I am a trite common-place sinner, hackneyed in all the poor petty dissipations with which the rich and worthless try to put on life. […] Remorse is the poison of life.

J: Repentance is said to be its cure, sir.

R: It is not its cure. Reformation may be its cure; and I could reform–I have strength yet for that–if–but where is the use of thinking of it, hampered, burdened, cursed as I am? Besides, since happiness is irrevocably denied me, I have a right to get pleasure out of life: and I will get it, cost what it may.

Reylo parallel: Rochester’s first quote reminds me of Adam Driver’s interpretation of Kylo Ren when he said that the most dangerous and the most complicated villain is the villain who believes they’re right. Ben, despite his upbringing which would suggest otherwise, was in some ways a victim of his circumstances. Intensely lonely, very much isolated as much by his Force inheritance as his bloodline, Ben was ripe for being preyed on by someone wanting to twist his insecurities for their own machinations. Rochester’s second quote, at Jane’s prompt, echoes the back and forth conflict we see in Kylo in TFA and in Ben in TLJ. He thinks he made his choice and continues to try to rationalize and resign himself to it the way Rochester does.

4) Jane’s response to this:

J: Only one thing I know: you said you were not as good as you should like to be, and that you regretted your own imperfection; one thing I can comprehend: you intimated that to have a sullied memory was a perpetual bane. It seems to me, that if you tried hard, you would in time find it possible to become what you yourself would approve; and that if from this day you began with resolution to correct your thoughts and actions, you would in a few years have laid up a new and stainless store of recollections, to which you might revert with pleasure.

Reylo parallel: Oh, Jesus, Jane/Rey. How pure you are. This touches a bit on the “kill your past” mantra that Ben hammers into Rey, who like Jane, has already dealt with her past in some ways. It colors who they’ve become and it’s painful to both, but the pain of it didn’t completely twist them, like it did in Ben and Rochester. Jane’s advice here sums up what Rey’s thought process regarding the turning of Ben Solo might have been like.

5) Jane reflecting to herself on Rochester:

J: And was Rochester now ugly in my eyes? No, reader. Yet I had not forgotten his faults: indeed, I could not, for he brought them frequently before me. He was proud, sardonic, harsh to inferiority of every description: in my secret soul I knew that his great kindness to me was balanced by unjust severity to many others. He was moody, too; unaccountably so. But I believed that his moodiness, his harshness, and his former faults of morality (I say former, for now he seemed corrected of them) had their source in some cruel cross of fate. I believed he was naturally a man of better tendencies, higher principles, and purer tastes than such as circumstances had developed, education instilled, or destiny encouraged. I thought there were excellent materials in him; though for the present they hung together somewhat spoiled and tangled. I cannot deny that I grieved for his grief, whatever that was, and would have given much to assuage it.

Reylo parallel: Holy shit. Well, aside from being a scarily accurate character study of Ben Solo as well as Rochester, this is basically summarizing the intimate notes that come out of Reylo’s Force connection, Rey’s gradual empathy for Ben, and her later rationalization for trying to bring him back: the belief that Ben can change his “faults of morality.” But, like Jane, this quote reflects Rey’s probable understanding that Ben still has some serious personality flaws to overcome before she could really love him. It also includes the definition of a Byronic hero and in it, you can see the clear parallels to Ben’s characterization as a Byronic hero.

6) Rochester disguises himself as a gypsy to try and obtain unguarded answers from Jane:

R: You are cold; you are sick; and you are silly.

J: Prove it.

R: I will; in few words. You are cold, because you are alone; no contact strikes the fire from you that is in you. You are sick; because the best of feelings, the highest and the sweetest given to man, keeps far away from you. You are silly; because, suffer as you may, you will not beckon it to approach; nor will you stir one step to meet it where it waits you.

Reylo parallel: This, to me, in both stories, is Ben/Rochester trying to lure Rey/Jane to him by forcing her to re-evaluate her truths. He’s trying to break her resolve. It doesn’t really work, in either case, because as I’ve said, though they may feel pain from time to time, Rey and Jane have not let these wounds fester, and it has made them basically untouchable from Ben/Rochester’s manipulations.

7) Just to nail that point home, Rochester (still in gypsy form) analyzes Jane:

R: [Jane’s] brow professes to say, - “I can live alone, if self-respect and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure, born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld; or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give. Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision. Strong wind, earthquake shock, and fire may pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience.”

Reylo parallel: Let me just say, I really love Charlotte Brontë. For me, this is a further character similarity between Jane and Rey that makes me love both characters so much. Rochester might be getting a little carried away here, but this is such an apt description of Rey, too, and again foreshadows her final resolve to leave Ben just as it foreshadows Jane’s decision to leave Rochester. His analysis hits Rochester pretty hard and he ends the gypsy charade by revealing himself to Jane, who basically knew all along that it was him. I like to think Ben comes to a similar understanding of Rey over the course of their Force connections and admires her for it.

8) Rochester is mad and desperate over Jane’s rejection:

R: Never was anything at once so frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels in my hand! I could bend her with my finger and thumb: and what good would it do if I bent, if I uptore, if I crushed her? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of it, defying me, with more than courage–with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it– the savage, beautiful creature! If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-place. And it is you, spirit–with will and energy, and virtue and purity–that I want: not alone your brittle frame.

Reylo parallel: Well, this is pretty much the inner thought process flooding Ben’s mind space after the throne room proposal and its rejection. It contains Rochester’s violent undertones, which are actualized by Ben’s actions on Crait and echoed in his claimed intention to destroy Rey. The insight Rochester gains, however, from this violent thinking is something Ben (likely) realizes too late on the floor of the abandoned base: his violence has given way to the hollowness of a false victory.

9) Jane’s tragic leave-taking and famous line:

J: I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.

R: And your will shall decide your destiny. I offer you my hand, my heart, and a share of all my possessions.

J: You play a farce, which I merely laugh at.

R: I ask you to pass through life at my side – to be my second self and best earthly companion.

J: For that fate you have already made your choice, and must abide by it.

Reylo parallel: Essentially, this is the dialogue between Reylo in their final, closing Force interchange. You could subtitle their shots with these lines.

10) After Jane and Rochester are reunited she self-reflects:

J: I should not have left him thus, he said, without any means of making my way: I should have told him my intention. I should have confided in him: he would never have forced me to be his mistress. Violent as he had seemed in despair, he, in truth, loved me far too well and too tenderly to constitute himself my tyrant: he would have given me half his fortune, without demanding so much as a kiss in return, rather than I should have flung myself friendless on the wide world.

Reylo parallel: This is the retrospection that Reylo should get in IX. How many of us noted that, had Rey been less impulsive and just asked what Ben meant by creating a new order, maybe Reylo would have ended TLJ on the same side? Ben wasn’t obviously asking Rey to be his mistress, but it represents the moral miscommunication that happened between them. And, obviously, Rey isn’t friendless in a sense. But Ben knows how deep her loneliness and isolation run, and is protective of that the way Rochester is protective of Jane’s well-being. The angst!

Reylo is Space Jane Eyre. That is all.

Bonus Quote

R: I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you–especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I’ve a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly.

Reylo parallel: Force bond.

[greenpapayaartprojects]

NOT COUNTER BUT PARALLEL (Excerpts from Light Leaks 1 2018)

2018 was an extremely busy year for Green Papaya. Somehow, between preparation work with VIVA ExCon Capiz 2018, Papaya still managed a collaboration with Los Otros, “Light Leaks 1: Tracing histories of Philippine experiments with the moving image” which was hosted by Yael Buencamino at the Ateneo Areté on September 12, 2018. Light Leaks developed from the research that started with another Papaya-Los Otros collaboration, the Kalampag Tracking Agency, a screening program and accidental archive of Philippine artists’ moving image that started in 2014.

Among the discussants and panelists for Light Leaks 1 were curator Clarissa Chikiamco, artist Pandy Aviado, and then NCCA Commissioner Teddy Co. Screenings included the cult short film Tronong Puti (1983) by Ted Arago and Roxlee, Philippine indie cinema documentary Beyond the Mainstream (1986), and a surprise preview of Rod Paras Perez's Conversation in Space (1962) courtesy of Odel Perez.

Coinciding with the current edition of Light Leaks at MCAD Platforms this month  we are posting below the opening remarks made by artist and filmmaker Shireen Seno of Los Otros and an excerpt from the Q&A.

*****

Introduction:

Shireen Seno (SS): Philippine moving image practice has a history of pioneering experimentation, but because of this very experimental and uneasily classifiable nature, not much is known or published outside of its more popular iteration: cinema. 

Light Leaks is an attempt to piece together these disparate and mostly oral histories by convening a series of forums that consist of research presentations and focused discussions with key artists, curators, researchers, and cultural workers across generations. Along with key historical texts and newly commissioned essays, the proceedings from this symposia will lead towards publication that will hopefully inspire new  generations of scholars and practitioners. 

This first edition of Light Leaks focuses on a general overview of practices from the ‘60s to the ‘80s in Manila from the personal accounts of Pandy Aviado and Teddy Co and the ongoing research of curator Clarissa Chikiamco. 

In her essay “Otherwise Video: Development of Video Art in the Philippines in the 1970s,” Chikiamco states, “When we talk about the development of video art, I believe it is important not simply to consider artworks which use video, but artworks which anticipated video art works. By that, I mean art works which foreshadowed art works that actually used the medium of video. These artworks, forerunners to video, may not have used video but we can name certain qualities which have overlapping identities with the video medium. In particular, these qualities are movement and time.” These experiments paralleled movements in the US and the UK with expanded cinema, installation, and performance. Starting in the ‘60s, expanded cinema practices featured artists moving away from the screen and finding creative ways to project and intervene with moving images. The emergence of video, and later digital moving images, opened new possibilities concerning what artists could do and what moving images could be.

I quote from Kim Knowles’ book Experimental Film and Artists’ Moving Image: “Existing outside the boundaries of mainstream cinema, the parallel fields of experimental film and video art present a radical challenge, not only to the conventions of that cinema, but also to the social and cultural norms that it presents. In offering alternative ways of seeing and experiencing the world, they bring to the fore different visions and dissenting voices. In recent years, scholarship in this area has moved from a marginal to a more central position as it comes to bear upon critical topics such as medium specificity, ontology, the future of cinema, changes in cinematic exhibition, and the complex interrelationships between moving image technology, aesthetics, discourses, and institutions. This series takes on exciting new directions in the study of moving image practice, from the black box to the white cube, film to digital, crossing continents and disciplines, and developing fresh theoretical insights and various histories. Concerning the terms “experimental film” and “video art,” we see these as interconnected practices and seek to interrogate the crossovers and spaces between the different kinds of moving image-making. Finally, we acknowledge the emergence of a new term—artists' moving image—in which to situate the most recent generation of filmmakers and artists alike who work with the moving image.”

Q&A excerpts:

Merv Espina (ME): I’m gonna read a question, this is being live streamed so some people are watching us online. I think this question is for all of us: “Since the program is framed under the development of video art in the Philippines and while most works within the oral history presented focus on experimental, avant garde, performative, and materialist films all rooted under the notion of expanded cinema, how do the curators see them as a kind of anticipation to our present concept of ‘video art’ and what could be the basis for categorizing them as leading to video art or into this more expanded category of artists' moving image from the rest of other experimental films done during that time?”

Teddy Co (TC): That’s an interesting question.

ME: From Cocoy Lumbao.

TC: Okay, Cocoy. All art is evolving, nothing is static. Because if anything remains static, it will die and no one will want to practice. The language of art, of the moving image, is developing. There have been high points and low points but it moves forward and to categorize all these video images under video art, maybe that’s a bit too narrow because it’s really expanded. Some people have said that the better word to use is not “experimental” or “video art” but maybe something more like “expanded cinema” because we’re getting into all kinds of forms, content, and platforms. On the internet, on the big screen, in virtual reality.

We’re living in very exciting times because it’s so diverse now and technology has leapt forward. Before, it was all flat. Now we have 3D, there are a lot of participatory and interactive elements with the works now, and also, the disciplines are getting together. For example, there’s a lot of dance programs now incorporating video creatively. Tad [Ermitaño] has collaborated with Denisa Reyes to produce some works. The dancer-choreographer Rhosam Prudenciado has collaborated with Annie Pacaña who had all these videos of telephone poles and then she had two dancers do a ballet across the poles. You’d think they’re on the telephone lines but that’s a video. I hope that answers the question.

ME: Also, since Johnny Manahan was mentioned earlier, there were also some collaborations between him and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) dancers and Ballet Philippines, even using overhead and slide projectors around that time.

TC: I saw one performance but it’s by a foreign dance troupe in the CCP back in the ‘70s or ‘80s in which they did something—what we would now call “video mapping”—using slide projectors. They projected slides on the dancers’ bodies who were wearing skin-colored suits.

Clarissa Chikiamco (CC): Hi, Cocoy. I find the question very interesting. Even when I was writing my paper, I have to admit that I was also struggling because, if I were to expand simply on video art, you would be looking at all these other impulses. I was thinking, “where do you stop?” It just becomes this really large body of work. I’m sure when we continue to do research, even more will be uncovered. Even just the idea of categorizations, at that time, maybe artists were not really concerned with it. They were just doing these things. Artists alongside filmmakers maybe didn’t classify themselves and their works in a particular category. They were just making work. And somehow, decades later, we are trying to make sense of these things. We’re trying to fit these things into certain boxes or even break them apart. Where do you stop from here? This is also an ongoing question that I have.

ME: I’ll read the follow-up question. “In situating these diverse forms under the more encompassing category of artists' moving image, I just want to open the question on whether there might be a kind of “counterproductiveness” to research if these diverse forms are not explored under their own stream of either being under essentially cinema or film practice, or video being under the technology or tradition it was originally made like broadcast, VCR, video recorders, etc?” Do you want to react? Is it counterproductive?

TC: Well, I don’t think it’s counterproductive. I think we should discuss, talk, and exchange ideas. That’s why you have a forum like this, you have a panel. It’s very healthy to talk and discuss. It’s unhealthy to not talk and to shut up because that’s a different kind of atmosphere. Like I said, the whole thing, the whole movement or whatever, would have been much bigger if there had been a proper community of people who exchange ideas, people who read and would say, “Why don’t you read this book?” or, “Go to that screening” because a lot of these things were done in isolation unlike today.

Today, since you have social media, ideas spread so fast. Will we reach a saturation point? I don’t know. Things evolve, like I said. Not to put things into boxes like, “this one’s visual art, this one’s cinema” because things mix. They intermarry and there’s a lot of fusion going on, even and especially in food. If we just stick to our native food, we will be stuck with lechon. But there’s a lot of creativity in the food scene now, right? Because there’s a lot of fusion and intermarrying. Culture and art are like that.

I think that has been going on especially now because we’re a wild world. As [Marshall] McLuhan said, we’re in a global village. Of course in some territories, some people would say, “We have too many film festivals now, we have too many films.” But would you like to go back to 2004? We had nothing but the Metro Manila Film Festival. It used to be like that. Just that, every December. Your choices were limited to Vice Ganda or Vic Sotto.

Don’t take the market of ideas and the freedom that we have for granted. Last year, at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, I met this Chinese filmmaker who made a film about the last independent film festival in China that was closed down by the government. They don’t have a Cinemalaya or Cinema One. They have nothing like that. We have to learn to appreciate all of this, all of the institutions that are helping us put up all these programs even with a President like that. There’s a lot of open and free space.

ME: In response to Cocoy, I think—at least for this series of forums and discussions that we want to convene, focusing on Philippine experiments in moving image practice—we’re essentially looking at works that were hard to categorize. We should re-examine these materialist considerations of works in film or video and also look at works that have fallen in between the cracks—and there are many cracks. Some of the works mentioned today fall outside major art and film histories so what we’re trying to propose is that we need space for more narratives, histories, and maybe not look at particular materialist media, film, and cinema-specific narratives. This is not counter but parallel.

*****

These excerpts have been edited for length and clarity. Some parts were translated from Filipino.

Watch the archive of the 2018 livestream: https://facebook.com/events/s/light-leaks-1-tracing-historie/317775908984451/

*****

The current edition of Light Leaks is now live.

Watch early works by Lena Cobangbang: https://bit.ly/MCADPlatformsCobangbang

Register for the discussion: https://bit.ly/MCADPlatformsEE

Sep 9-15 Screening: Lena Cobangbang, works 1997-2002 Sep 12 Discussion: Lena Cobangbang with Eileen Legaspi Ramirez

Sep 16-22 Screening: Katya Guerrero, works 1990-1992 Sep 19 Discussion: Katya Guerrero with Cocoy Lumbao

Sep 23-30 Screening: Jean Marie Syjuco, works 1986-1992 Sep 26 Discussion: Jean Marie Syjuco with Clarissa Chikiamco

*****

1. The Salenga Experience (2002), Alice & Lucinda (Yasmin Sison and Lena Cobangbang), video still 2. Untitled (1990-1992) Katya Guerrero, video still from 16mm transfer 3. Signed, Sealed, Delivered (1989), Jean Marie Syjuco, video documentation, Performance Space (Sydney, Australia), photo courtesy of ART LAB: Atelier Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco

Images from Light Leaks 2018 at Ateneo Areté by Yuji de Torres: 4. Lisa Chikiamco 5. Pandy Aviado 6. Teddy Co

If you can: https://greenpapaya.art/donation

[rogeramir]

Kill The Buddha

I was in the metro (underground train) once in Milan, Italy. And I was in the first car, standing with my face towards the last car. As the metro was going through the streets towards downtown Milan, suddenly, for a second, all the cars lined up straight and I saw the people sitting and standing in the last car, which was probably the 7th or 8th car from me. I am sure it has happened to many people at many times, but it was the first and probably the last time for me. That's why it was so interesting. I said to myself, "Wow... tunnel vision".

At another level, I think that that is what happens to people branded as geniuses. Through hard work, perseverance and a bit of luck (in different proportions for different people), all the dots in their particular discipline suddenly line up for them and they see something maybe no one has seen before. They make sense of things which could have been non-sensical before.

I think Gautam Buddh, if he existed, was one such genius. He was able to connect the most critical dots about the human psychological and spiritual condition thousands of years before others did. He especially came to understand the effects of attachment like very very few others have before and after him. His words astonish and enlighten us to this day.

His basic saying on attachment is: "Attachment is the source of all suffering."

Another one is, "You only lose what you cling to."

There are many others.

Twenty five hundred years or so after his death, we still don't get it. We still continue to be attached to innumerable things, people, ideas, concepts, thoughts, desires, goals, images, etc.

Gautum inspired thousands of others to start exploring themselves. When Buddhism reached China, one of these inspired ones was Zen Master Linji, who gave one of the most shocking yet illuminating pieces of advice to the disciples, also about attachment, i.e., spiritual attachment in this case. It goes like this:

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him immediately.

What? Kill the Buddha? Isn't he like the originator of the Buddhist tradition? How can a seeker / a disciple kill the Buddha?

Lets break up the sentence and go deeper into it.

The sentences has two parts:

- "If you meet the Buddha on the road"

Lets remember that Linji is advising the disciple. Not all disciples are going to have the same path or the same experiences on the path. Hence he used the word, "if".

What is the experience Linji is talking about? "Meet the Buddha". It can have many meanings. One meaning is that when you are on the path, you have to leave all images behind. 'Buddha' is also an image. (And I am not talking about the statues of Buddha, which Gautum Buddh would be shocked and disappointed to find, since he was so much against statues and worship.) When we read about Buddhism or we listen to Buddhist sermons or we see Buddhist quotes or we see the statues, we develop an image in our minds as something good or bad or useless or something to be pursued or something to be converted to. We develop goals, i.e., to be a 'buddhist', to attain enlightenment, etc.

Another meaning could be that, when you are on the path you might come to a point when you start feeling that you are progressing towards enlightenment and that you are becoming a buddha yourself. Again, that is an image you hold in your mind. And Linji is warning that if you start thinking in terms of what you are 'achieving' or 'gaining' on the path, then you have actually left the path. You have lost your way. Thus, he says, if you see the buddha on the road, kill him immediately.

The moment we have developed goals and images and the moment we start thinking of ourselves as 'special' or as a 'buddhist' or as coming close to enlightenment, we are finished. We are no longer going in the right direction. Then the real teachings of Buddha will remain out of our reach and we will be stuck to those goals and images and thoughts.

The moment we we start getting attached to or holding on to a 'scripture' or a 'book of God' or when we start worshipping a prophet or 'son of God' or 'the mother of the son of God' or the Buddha or a 'guru' or 'tirthankara', the spirituality in us dies.

The difference between a living spirituality and a dead spirituality is the difference between a beautiful living flower on a stem and a dead flower someone has saved in a book. If you like to save dead flowers in books, of course there's nothing 'wrong' with it. Its just that it will not have the fragrance and the colors of a living flower. But if you don't want the fragrance or the colors, then it's not a big deal.

Buddha and Linji were talking to people who like living flowers on stem rather than dead flowers. They wanted us to stay alive, not become spiritually dead.

So, as we saw above, the words, "meet the Buddha" can have different meanings. It could mean having images or thoughts of the Buddha in your mind. Or, it could also mean having images about your own buddhahood. Yes, you are a buddha. Its just that you have forgotten that you're a buddha. And you have started thinking of yourself as a much smaller 'I', i.e., the ego

And what is a buddha? Someone who is unattached, silent, observant and unshakeably present in the herenow.

What is the road?

There is only one  road, one path. On this path, one direction goes towards the inside, towards God. It is the direction of silence, stillness, quiet observation, simple and content living, a blissfulness without any goals. A world without time. Time is a utility which can be put aside and one can be timeless, without the attachment to the past or the future. Just being in the present. The forever flowing stillness of now. The pendulum stops. The polarities disappear. If someone throws a stone in the lake, it disappears in the lake without creating any ripples. No ripples at all. Someone hits me, I don't respond. Someone abuses me, I don't respond. Someone praises me or says they love me, I don't respond. Someone takes away all of my possessions, I don't respond. There is no response to the 'good' and no response to the 'bad'. There is just silence, stillness and observation. Images are flashing on the inner screen and passing away, then more images and more. And none of the images elicits a response.

The other direction is towards the outside, towards money, towards material possessions, images, goals, desires, discontentment, mental stress, anxiety and fear. 'Time is of the essence'. Goals need to be met. Net worth needs to keep growing. Images need to be maintained. The 'circle of control' needs to be expanded all the time and power needs to be exercised over as many people as possible. The past defines the present and the present must lead to a certain well thought out future. Everything must conform to our own plans. Otherwise, there is discontentment. Stillness is death. Silence is weakness. This direction also includes religious or spiritual goals, dreams and aspirations. Trying to be a good person to win the ticket to heaven, where there are all kinds of pleasures and comforts.

There is a beautiful Native Indian Cherokee story, in which a father teaches his son about good and evil through a parable involving two wolves. He tells his son that there is a terrible fight going on inside him between two wolves. One is good and the other is evil. The evil wolf has anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The good wolf has joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, kindness and compassion. This fight, he told the young boy, is going on inside every one, including the little boy.

The boy is listening attentively. He asks, "Which wolf is going to win?"

The father says, "The one you are going to feed."

(see firstpeople.us/CherokeeLegends/TwoWolves)

It is is a beautiful parable. The two wolves are the two directions on the path we are talking about. You can choose which wolf to feed, which direction to start walking in.

Attachment, including attachment to spiritual or religious goals and aspirations, lies on the path of the ego.

Again, there is absolutely nothing 'wrong' with the path of attachment and ego. If that is what you need right now, then that is what you will get.

Whether you know it or not, consciously or sub-consciously, there is one thing you are seeking in life (see my other Post titled, 'The Big Fish'). That is the thing you will give anything to get. That is what you are after. It could be money or power or prestige or spiritual status or any other thing. That one thing, the 'Big Fish' in your life, determines which wolf you are going to feed, which side of the path you are going to choose.

Next, what does it mean to kill the Buddha?

It means, be silent, watchful and still. When the seeker is on the path, he / she has to stay silent,watchful and still.

Linji is warning that on the path, the seeker has to be absolutely naked. There must not be any attachments or images when you start the journey and also during the journey. There will, of course, be moments when the seeker is weak or discouraged or harbouring doubts and tries to get encouragement from the image of the Buddha or the goal of attaining nirvana. And there will be moments when, for example, the seeker has mastered the art of meditation or has attained an insight into some sutra or saying of the Buddha or has achieved something else which he considers as a substantial step on the journey and is ecstatic over it. Linji is saying that all these will pull the seeker back on the path.

If we see the teachings of the great wisdom teachers in parallel, we will find many consistencies / similarities. Why? Because their paths were identical and their destination was the same. Jesus, in one of his parables, has also warned that the seeker can be set back on the path if he is not watchful. This is the parable of the woman with the jar full of wheat grains (Thomas 97). It goes like this: There was a woman who was carrying a jar of wheat grains. As she was walking along, the handle of the jar broke and the grains started dropping out. The woman, not being very mindful and perhaps busy with her thoughts, did not realize what had happened. By the time she reached home and looked inside the jar, it was empty. All the grain was gone.

This is probably what Linji is warning about. We have to be watchful on the path. Otherwise, we will lose whatever understanding we have gained, whatever progress we have made. If there are any images arising in our minds, these need to be discarded. The mind has to be like a mirror. Any dust on the mirror has to be removed, otherwise we will not be able to see ourselves in the mirror. Whatever thoughts, ideas, images, experiences arise, we observe them and let them go. There is no holding on to anything, any thought, any image. If there is a reaction to these thoughts, ideas, images, we observe that reaction too. The more we observe, the more these thoughts, ideas and images will become like clouds passing by in the unchanging sky. There will emerge a silence and a stillness. That silence and that stillness is the path and it is also the destination. In that silence and stillness is the divine / the eternal / the universal, i.e., our true self.

So, "kill the Buddha" means letting go. Osho used to say it brilliantly: spirituality is not about finding God, its about letting go of yourself. The 'I' is the only thing separating God and us. If we let go of the 'I', there is no separation. All is one.

The 'I' / the ego is like a robe we are wearing and this robe is made of images. If we are not watchful, the Buddha or the idea of nirvana or moksha or enlightenment also becomes one of the images that the ego is made up of.

Linji is telling us to remain utterly naked. To maintain the oneness by not letting anything come between ourselves and God, not even the Buddha.

The events in Jesus' life, especially towards the end of his life, are also relevant here. Just before his arrest and trial for blasphemy and sedition, he is at a place called Gethsemane. Judas Iscariot (his disciple who turned traitor) has already told his enemies where Jesus is, so that they could come and arrest him. Jesus knows that he is about to be arrested. He is saying his final prayers, asking to be saved: "---Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet, not as I will, but as You will"

Jesus knows that he will be tried and crucified. However, as the time is approaching, Jesus is feeling afraid of losing his life. He is fearful of death and is requesting God / Father to help him avoid death, if possible. At the same time, he is also submitting himself to God's will by saying, "not as I will, but as You will"

This is a moment of weakness which Jesus had just before the crucifixion. He has fallen prey to the fear of death. He is an enlightened being, he has felt oneness with God, he has transcended the boundaries ordinary individuals have and has experienced the eternal / universal self, he calls God his 'Father' and himself God's son, he has already become a great teacher, his vision is clear. And, yet, here he is, telling God that he does not want to die. He has lost his Buddha-nature. Or, to be more precise, he has lost his Christ-nature. Here he is just the man Jesus.

In the version given in the Book of Matthew, he says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

He is complaining. It is as if he had some image of God and some expectation of what God was going to do if he (Jesus) was about to be hanged and that expectation is not being fulfilled.

But, Jesus is no ordinary being. He does fall, but he bounces back very quickly. When he is being crucified, he says from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

For someone beaten mercilessly, hanging on the cross, with nails in his hands and feet, about to die, these are not the words of an ordinary man. No, he is back as the enlightened master and is setting yet another example of love by praying for people who are killing him.

This event from Jesus' life shows vividly what Master Linji was trying to teach. If you fall on the path, you've got to pick yourself up. You've got to kill the Buddha. Jesus killed his buddha, to speak metaphorically. He conquered his weaknesses and doubts. He regained his mindfulness. He let go of the final attachment, i.e., to his own life.

So, in a nutshell, meeting the Buddha on the road means falling down, falling prey to your own attachments... killing the Buddha means getting back up and letting go.

(Image by Charles Rondeau from Pixabay )

[idontevenwannaknow]

secondary glazing arched windows

If secondary glazing you know what you want: Buy Online under. If you're feeling completely confident in measuring and installing for yourself then please use our Estimate or Buy On-line pages to position your order. These use plastic sheet, glass or thermal film, with a variety of beauty finishes and alternative of colours. The two completely different pieces of glass act as impartial obstacles and prevent additional transmission of noise. Extraglaze is nearly completely unnoticeable once installed yet has glorious thermal and draught capabilities as well as soundproofing from exterior noise. It insulates heat and reduces noise pollution considerably, which makes it a well-liked various to double glazed windows. Secondary glazing allows the windows to have the ability to maintain for long time without repairs and reduces the heat loss or air leaks. It has been confirmed that 60% of heat loss from properties is through traditional home windows and doorways. Many homeowners living in heritage listed homes will know that you both cannot make changes to the prevailing facade or could be very complicated and costly. For the white French nation model kitchen, painted poplar will give you a similar look as maple at a lower cost, but it will not resist nicks.

If that seems like music to your ears, we’re talking the identical language. Shutters don’t have the same properties as double glazed units but they may assist retain heat inside the house within the winter months, and help to cut back exterior noise, especially when mixed with secondary glazing. You want the same quantity of each polarity A and B. We did 6 windows and ordered 25 metres of each. What are the totally different processes that it's essential undergo once you need to put in a brand new set of secondary glazing doorways and home windows. Evaluate quotes rapidly and easily to be sure you don’t pay greater than you want in your double glazed windows. Able to get accurate double glazed window costs in your space? Every was additionally modelled in Window 6 software, with the results found to be throughout the GHB measurement error. Colder weather usually results within the build-up of condensation. This way you will know things shall be performed to "code". An excellent window installer will be ready to put in 12-15 home windows per day, including setup and debris removal.

Thankfully both soundproof windows and secondary glazing models will give you a degree of thermal insulation. Double glazing items are made from a selection of different material but the most common are PVC, Wooden and Metallic. What's Argon Fuel, and why is it essential for Double Glazing? This materials also conducts heat poorly so it may work together with the double glazing to help keep the heat inside. In these situations we are able to offer secondary double glazing as a method to extend the energy efficiency of the glazing in your period property. Please notice that Magnafix (any magnetic tape system) for perspex acrylic secondary double glazing, has its limitations in panel dimension. The proper fit makes it inconceivable for people to note the secondary unit from outdoors. This style of secondary opens upwards sliding vertically and is perfect for mirroring traditional vertical sliding sash windows. There are a lot of trendy choices out there on uPVC sash windows that mirror the key options of these unique timber home windows. The place the two windows meet in the centre of the frame, there's a lock, to ensure security.

The panels are stored parallel, however there's a small gap of 0.5-0.Seventy five inches between the 2. There are various causes to choose them, here are listed some: - The service life and warranties of these windows can be extended to a lifespan of over 60 years. Because of the fragile idea of glass, you will have to ensure they're secondary glazing companies near me transported deliberately out and about. With these information in ideas, it may be that you simply now have one different possibility to contemplate. This is another motive to buy local, as a nationwide provider might merely guide you in the direction of probably the most expensive choice. Retrofitting previous frames - If in case you have new frames or they're in very good condition, your installer may be able to retrofit your new glazing into the outdated frames. The primary picture is the brand new version and the second is the old version. ECO Secondary Glazing Limited are a company which is happy with its wonderful reputation, constructed up by ensuring every effort is made to offer a tailor-made customer support which is second to none. If you're searching for 12 home windows for a 3 bedroom home, with a mixture of window sizes the cost is prone to be between £5,250-£7,500.

Our resolution was carefully tailored considering cost and practicality. Our merchandise supply an alternative to householders who do not wish to exchange their present character windows, and plenty of cannot as a consequence of listed constructing regulations. In addition, we offer choices for large areas of glass, together with door openings and feature windows. Welcome to Melbourne’s best soundproof home windows glazing company! We calculated that getting B-rated windows as an alternative of C-rated, or A-rated as an alternative of B-rated, would save you round an extra 6.5% on your vitality bills. How Much Energy Are you able to Preserve With Secondary Glazing? I'm positive you possibly can think about just how chilly the water is in the meanwhile and the poor man was in shock. It is not uncommon information that prolonged publicity to a chilly and damp setting leads to well being complications sooner or later, particularly for the very young and the elderly. When the local weather is extremely cold, wooden, fiberglass or vinyl is the best materials for framing. In addition to our Head Workplace operation we've got Amenities in London in addition to Regional Technical & Trade Representatives, Regional Surveyors and a National Network of Permitted Installers. Advantages of Slim Double Glazed Units The renovation of existing sash windows is becoming ever more popular, with increased people determining to stay with the classic sash design in lieu of investing in brand-new and expensive windows. Fixing the sliding mechanism and window frames is incredibly inexpensive in comparison with other window designs. A question that continues to be is whether or not you need to stick to your needs current glass panes or otherwise. Restoration specialists now give you a range of glazing options so it is worth noting what each option offers. 1. The first use with an orangery is definitely an outside library. Yep. Ever seriously considered in the outdoors reading comfortably minus the insects as a bother? The massive windows and garden views can transport your imagination and mind effectively, meaning it is possible to pull in in a very chair and immerse yourself in literature.

The main draw of casement windows is because they are equipped for opening much wider than any one of it's competitors. As long as your window has become fitted correctly which is inside the right place for secondary glazing, your window should be able to open out completely. Another advantage is security. The windows are locked having a hook which can be embedded into the window and completely tamper proof. For most criminals other windows are quite all to easy to get into by comparison. For those who have concerns about heat escaping, feel comfortable knowing that the windows create an airtight seal when shut.

Many homeowners nowadays wish to give their chosen product which bespoke feel so as to make it more unique and personalised. Installers must be open to any ideas or inspirations that you will find and either get them to becoming reality or counsel you which they simply aren't practical or sensible. Either way they should hear you. If your house is a Grade I or Grade II* listed property, there is little change chance that you will be able to install double glazed windows. The structures are deemed to become of exceptional interest and over special interest, and they are subject to many limitations involving both property interiors and exteriors.

[as-inevitable-as-morning]

Bellarke & ‘The Five Love Languages (Pt. 1)

I’ve wanted to make a meta about this forever but have never been able to find the correct words, but where Bellarke dynamic is currently has provided a great amount of inspiration.

The Five Love Languages is a 1995 novel written by Gary Chapman discussing the various ways that people show and feel love. The five ‘languages’ discussed in the novel are words of affirmation, acts of service, gift giving, quality time, and physical touch. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it. It can provide a great amount of insight regarding relationships in your life and what actions make you feel loved.

With that summary in the way, you’re probably asking, ‘Kels, what in the world does any of this have to do with Bellarke?’ Well, upon combining my analysis of the novel with the Bellarke dynamic that is currently present in the show, I discovered something very interesting. Something that says a lot about why we know Bellamy and Clarke love each other without either of them having to say it aloud. Yep, you heard me right! We’re not delusional—it’s basic psychological science—and here’s why!

Bellamy and Clarke show and feel love in ways that are directly compatible with one another. For a simple, brief analysis: Clarke feels love through touches, but shows it through words of affirmation. Bellamy feels love through words of affirmation, but shows it through touch (with a hint of acts of service dropped here and there). Obviously, these characters feel and show love in other ways as well, but I found that these particular love languages are deeply embedded within the characters and their relationship with one another.

The more in-depth analysis will be broken into two parts. The first revolves around Clarke and her love languages and is posted below, and the Bellamy counterpart to this meta will be posted in the near future. So, if the information above interests you in the slightest and you would like to hear more,

Clarke Griffin

There have been many a meta written about Clarke and her desire to be comforted physically. When something bad happens, when she’s sad or angry or scared, one of the first things she does is seek the physical presence of someone else. We have seen this in each of the romantic relationships Clarke has been in throughout the course of the show. She was distraught when she thought the people on the Ark weren’t coming down and she hooked up with F.inn. She was hurting and struggling with the horrible memory of Mount Weather and had sex with N.iylah. She was afraid to go back to Arkadia and face her people again, of taking back the responsibilities that she left behind three months prior, so she slept with L.exa as a sort of ‘goodbye.’ In the most current episode, we see that Clarke and N.iylah had sex again in response to the destruction of Arkadia. From these four examples, we can conclude that Clarke seeks out physical and sexual contact in order to make herself feel loved and valued, making touch one of her primary love languages.

I find Clarke’s second love language very interesting, because this significant part of her character really seems to come out when she’s around Bellamy. I don’t know why, and I find it rather fascinating that this characteristic hasn’t been more prevalent in her other relationships. It’s been there, of course, but it’s not nearly as much as when she is with him. Perhaps it is because she senses that her words have a great impact on him, perhaps it’s because compassion and empathy are natural parts of Clarke’s character. I’m not sure of the exact logistics, but I do know this—the words of encouragement and comfort that Clarke provides—is something that is meant to convey love. There is no one that will be able to convince me otherwise.

Want some examples? Okay, then—here’s a list:

·        “You’re not a murderer.”

·        “If you need forgiveness, fine, I’ll give it to you. You’re forgiven, okay?”

·        “I need you.”

·        “I do believe in second chances, though.”

·        “We can’t do this without you.”

·        “You did good.”

·        “I can’t lose you too, okay?”

·        “You came through, I knew you would.”

·        “I knew I could [leave], because they had you.”

·        “I know we can fix this.”

·        “You’ll be covering us the entire time, and I trust you.”

·        “She’ll come around and see how special you are.”

I’ve only included direct quotes that Clarke has said to Bellamy throughout the series. If I included the quotes where she’s talking about him to someone else, this list would be a lot longer. And if I included the quotes that Clarke has said to other love interests that directly parallel what she has said to Bellamy, this list would be infinitely longer.

The point of all of this is that there are infinitely many ways to say “I love you” without saying those three words. In good writing, it’s essential to have things conveyed to an audience without being completely direct. If you’re a writer, you should never need to write those exact words and, if you do, I would prompt you to reevaluate the relationship you’re focused on. Why? Because fans should already have an inkling about how two characters feel about one another and simply wait for validation. This is where we are in the Bellarke dynamic currently.

Taking the examples above into consideration, it’s evident that another of Clarke’s love languages- the one in which she conveys love- is words of affirmation.

I hope you all enjoyed the first portion of this meta! I hope to have the second part up by the end of next week, but it’s highly dependent on how much work I have. Much love, fam (I’m also a words of affirmation gal- can you tell?)!

[kaliiwashere]

secondary glazing aluminium windows

If secondary glazing you understand what you need: Buy Online under. If you're feeling completely assured in measuring and putting in for yourself then please use our Estimate or Purchase On-line pages to position your order. These use plastic sheet, glass or thermal film, with a variety of cosmetic finishes and selection of colours. The two completely different items of glass act as impartial boundaries and forestall additional transmission of noise. Extraglaze is sort of completely unnoticeable as soon as put in yet has wonderful thermal and draught capabilities in addition to soundproofing from outside noise. It insulates heat and reduces noise pollution significantly, which makes it a popular different to double glazed windows. Secondary glazing permits the windows to have the ability to maintain for very long time with out repairs and reduces the heat loss or air leaks. It has been proven that 60% of heat loss from homes is thru traditional windows and doorways. Many homeowners residing in heritage listed properties will know that you just either cannot make changes to the prevailing facade or may be very complicated and dear. For the white French country fashion kitchen, painted poplar will give you a similar look as maple at a lower price, nevertheless it will not resist nicks.

If that sounds like music to your ears, we’re talking the identical language. Shutters don’t have the identical properties as double glazed models however they will assist retain heat inside the home in the winter months, and help to scale back external noise, especially when mixed with secondary glazing. You want the identical quantity of each polarity A and B. We did 6 home windows and ordered 25 metres of every. What are the different processes that it's essential undergo once you need to install a new set of secondary glazing doors and windows. Compare quotes rapidly and easily to ensure you don’t pay more than you want for your double glazed home windows. Able to get accurate double glazed window costs in your area? Every was also modelled in Window 6 software program, with the outcomes found to be inside the GHB measurement error. Colder weather often outcomes in the construct-up of condensation. This way you will know issues shall be performed to "code". An excellent window installer will probably be in a position to install 12-15 windows per day, together with setup and debris elimination.

Thankfully both soundproof windows and secondary glazing items will offer you a degree of thermal insulation. Double glazing units are made from a variety of various materials but the most common are PVC, Wood and Steel. What is Argon Fuel, and why is it important for Double Glazing? This material additionally conducts heat poorly so it will probably work in conjunction with the double glazing to assist keep the heat inside. In these situations we will supply secondary double glazing as a way to extend the energy efficiency of the glazing in your interval property. Please note that Magnafix (any magnetic tape system) for perspex acrylic secondary double glazing, has its limitations in panel dimension. The right fit makes it impossible for people to note the secondary unit from exterior. This fashion of secondary opens upwards sliding vertically and is perfect for mirroring traditional vertical sliding sash home windows. There are many stylish choices available on uPVC sash home windows that mirror the key features of those original timber windows. Where the 2 windows meet in the centre of the body, there's a lock, to make sure safety.

The panels are stored parallel, however there is a small hole of 0.5-0.Seventy five inches between the 2. There are numerous reasons to decide on them, listed here are listed some: - The service life and warranties of these home windows will be prolonged to a lifespan of over 60 years. Due to the fragile thought of glass, you have to ensure they are transported deliberately out and about. With these information in thoughts, it may be that you simply now have one different choice to think about. This is one other motive to shop local, as a nationwide provider may merely guide you in the direction of probably the most expensive possibility. Retrofitting outdated frames - When you've got new frames or they're in very good situation, your installer might be able to retrofit your new glazing into the old frames. The first picture is the brand new version and the second is the previous version. ECO Secondary Glazing Restricted are an organization which is proud of its wonderful fame, built up by ensuring every effort is made to offer a tailored customer service which is second to none. In case you are looking for 12 home windows for a three bedroom house, with a mixture of window sizes the associated fee is more likely to be between £5,250-£7,500.

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