#I don't even want to say anything about the film itself in case someone wants to watch it

[thesewordsareallihavetogive]

what the fuck did I just watch 😭😭😭

[livingformintyoongi]

Call It What You Want | Yoongi

I've been obsessing over this idea for like three days now and I NEED to share it just because. It's part of the activity for 300 followers, and since Yoongi is one of my ultimate biases I'm going to self-request to do this for my sake 🙃. So, reader here is bisexual, I don't consider it a warning, but if it's something that bothers you I'll leave it here just in case. taglist: @thunderg @minjianhyung @queenv1997 @yoongtism @lizzymizzy-blogg @superbbananananana @drpepperobsessed @themwordsblog @taekritimin123 @bluecloudss

Imagine being a third generation idol, you have had years of career, you are a woman full of talent, with good music, good vocals, good dancing skills and your stage presence is no slouch either. Despite that, the media and people on the internet simply downgrade you to a “too thin” or “too fat” body, only focusing on your physique and not on your talent. 

You feel totally frustrated by that, but you try to go on with your life, vent with your friends, have a drink or two and, at some point, you end up secretly dating a female idol with whom you had really good chemistry. Everything in your life seems to be going uphill until dispatch brings your relationship to light and a wave of hate comes your way, homophobes covered in so-called fans screaming at you every time you leave your house, saying how disgusting you are simply for not dating someone with a dick. The frustration gets bigger and bigger, and just when you thought you couldn't sink any deeper into your misery, your girlfriend breaks you overnight, coming out to the media to say that you were just friends and that she would never date a woman.

Yes, you felt your life sucked, but it was okay, you could get through this, you were a strong woman. 

It took you months to recover from that breakup, same months in which you were forced to take a career break because your company didn't want someone so “problematic” working with them. Still, you used that time to recover, to work on your next comeback, to do what you were most passionate about. It was then that you contacted a well-known rapper in the industry with the intention of doing a collaboration together, something he happily accepted, willing to hang out with you whenever he had free time. 

To your bad luck, you end up hooking up with this guy, something you obviously hadn't thought through clearly. You were only with him for one night, but again the news fed on your private life, making public each of your encounters, even though only one of them was “something more”.

Again the company, this time from the guy, totally denies the story that was made public, claiming that you have just work meetings and that both had been working on a collaboration, insisting that they would take legal action for defamation. And yes, again they dragged out your hiatus, and again you had to put up with hundreds of people outside your house, filming you, photographing you, shouting horrible things about you and how promiscuous you were. 

If you had been in misery before, at that moment you had been in hell itself. 

It was right then, at your worst moment, that Yoongi made his stellar appearance in your life. He went straight to your manager and asked (demanded) to do a collaboration with you. According to him, your voice was perfect for his new song and he needed you to make it happen, and who were you to deny Yoongi?

It took hundreds of sleepless nights where you both worked on the final touches to the lyrics of the song, Yoongi had asked you to help him also with the backing track, with the recording of the MV, basically he wanted there to be a part of you in absolutely the whole process, and so it was.

The two of you inevitably became close, to the point where he became your best friend, someone you talked to every night before going to sleep and every morning when you woke up. Little by little you began to fall more and more in love with him, and it wasn't at all like anything you had ever felt before. Yes, you loved your ex-girlfriend who practically ignored your existence as soon as she could, and you had also felt something for the rapper from almost half a year ago, but Yoongi? He was just different, he... he listened to you, and not only did he do that, he understood what you were telling him and took the time to prove it with his actions. 

He had taken the trouble to get to know you, he had given you his time. To explain it in a better way, your other two relationships were like a tornado, it happened fast, it was destructive and scandalous; with Yoongi it was more like a bonfire, he had to make it little by little, give it some wood, blow air on the small flame that little by little grew more eager, but he kept himself in check, he kept you warm even with the cold of the night, he illuminated your darkest moments with his orange light, that was Yoongi for you, and every day that passed you felt it even more real.

It was only a matter of time before you both fell for each other and ended up dating. Your hiatus was coming to an end and the song you released together with Yoongi was a hit, but the best part had nothing to do with that, but with your relationship with him. You had managed to see each other on the sly in such a successful way that neither of you could believe it. You spent most of the day at his house, waiting patiently for him to arrive only to greet him with a big hug that he would reciprocate with laughter as he carried you to the couch, where you would spend at least half an hour talking about each other's day. 

You even went so far as to buy some chains with each other's initial, it was a stupid impulse, you knew, but when you told him so he didn't hesitate for a second to put it on and leave it on every day since then, only taking it off to take a shower for fear that it would rust. 

He made you feel so safe that even when a fan posted a picture of the two of you together kissing at his house, you weren't afraid of the comments, neither you nor him, how could you focus on those lifeless people when you had Yoongi by your side, hugging you by the shoulders, whispering in your ear how he was going to stay with you even if his company demanded otherwise? 

This time you weren't abandoned by your partner, quite the opposite, he asked you to wear the kind of clothes you wore at home, baggy clothes in vibrant colors, something that represented you, he arranged his necklace with your initial so it was in plain sight for everyone to see, took your hand, and walked out of the house with you, intertwining his fingers with yours and giving you a gentle squeeze every time some idiot yelled shit at you. His gaze was almost always downward as he walked, trying to shield his eyes from the camera flashes. Still, he always had his attention on you, and despite the annoying light from the cameras he looked at your face to make sure you were okay before opening the car door for you. 

And it was only then that you thought you hadn't screwed up your life with your decision. For the first time in your almost thirty years you had managed to take the right path, and being there, sitting next to him as he caressed the bare skin of your leg, seeing his comforting smile and his gaze soften in your direction was enough to make you understand that no matter what happened from now on, he was with you, and he was willing to give up everything of himself in order to take care of you, even if it ruined his reputation. 

And just for that you were willing to go through all the shit you went through before, because if you needed that to have been able to meet Yoongi, you would go through it a thousand times more.

Masterlist.

300 followers event.

[bobbydagen24]

come to think of it how do you think Branch learnt everything he knows?

in TBT he says in the argument scene that after Grandma died there was no one left to take care of him confirming that he literally had no one after her death.

implying with everything else we know about his backstory that he Raised himself from a very young age likely 5 6 or 7 I'd assume based purely on his looks alone.

but thinking about it how could he have learnt how to do everything that he knows as an adult?

I mean I know some of it can simply be self taught but do you really think a little kid that age would be able to self learn everything that Branch knows as an adult?

like how to build an underground Bunker without it collapsing in on itself? and how to build a working lift in the Bunker?

and just basic stuff like cooking and maintaining a House by himself ( Hell I'm in my early 20s and I still struggle with a lot of that crap 😂😂😂😂 )

I mean do you think he literally is meant to have just been alone? or do you think its more a case where he didn't have a specific guardian per say.

but maybe he was still technically looked after by the village to an extent like he had people to teach him certain things and or bring him food and stuff that he needed to make sure he was still healthy.

but he still sorta just lived on his own and didn't interact with other people unless he absolutely had to due to how closed off he was.

some people like to HC Kismet as having visited him during all those years to check up on him occasionally and bring him stuff and make sure he was properly taking care of himself.

so maybe we could find out something like that was the case in a future film tho maybe not necessarily with Kismet as cute as that would be.

like maybe he did have certain people looking out for him over the years when he was a kid despite him closing himself off from everyone.

IDK it'd just be sorta cute I think he still has large gaps in his Backstory that DreamWorks could potentially work with in the future.

like maybe a future film does actually introduce a new character from his past during that period in his life who tried to look out for him or at least check up on him every now and then to make sure he wasn't literally dead.

as I like the idea of him maybe having a kinda surrogate parent figure in a future film who he didn't even really think of in that way.

but later on its pointed out to him just how much they tried to do for him as he was growing up even tho they had to somewhat do it from a distance given Branch's wishes of wanting to be alone.

like maybe they were someone who also lost loved ones to the Bergens and they were more understanding of Branch's grief and him not being able to move on like the rest of the village did.

plus they just had a basic human amount of empathy and could see it probably wasn't Right to leave a grieving traumatised little kid with nothing to take care of himself with.

and maybe over the course of the film he kinda slowly realises even during all those years he spent alone someone did actually care and at least tried to look out for him.

and Branch comes to appreciate them like family plus Bro zone would instantly like them given how they looked out for him when they weren't there.

so they don't judge the relationship at all and are just kinda happy for Branch. ( I mean they can't claim he's betraying their parents memory or anything he didn't even know them as far as we know )

but now I'm getting more into fanfic ideas territory than cannon based speculation territory lol.

I just want the next film to give my boy some Happiness and a cute little semi surrogate parent plot has been spinning around in my head for the past week now.

I just kinda love the idea even if it would sorta be a retcon to his backstory and more new characters for the future films to have to introduce and develop even tho the cast is already super full.

but like I said I just find the idea kinda sweet plus screw Brozone lol I'd love for my boy Branch to find a found family member in the future.

who actually did try and be there for him throughout the worst periods of his life even when the rest of the village may have saw him as a lost cause.

but like I said that's more fanfic idea territory anyway what do you think in regards to the main question of the post? 😂😂😂😂

[kustas]

I recently witnessed someone on twitter with the spicy but interesting position of: the only people vehemently bitching against 2D puppets are the animators who have to use them. So, what's the tea, why's this debate even a thing, and is one side wrong?

Rigged 2D animation, also known as puppet animation, and prolly other terms I'm not aware of. Most 2D animators I know treat it with disdain as something they're forced to work on to survive instead of "real" animation (=hand drawn in this case), and while I've encountered less negative sentiments towards the medium coming from fans, I have seen several people complain about it unknowingly, correctly nailing visual aspects they don't like without knowing their cause. Additionally, it can be really hard to tell apart what's rigged and what's hand drawn in 2D, with many series mixing both to their advantage.

The reason for rigged stuff being so prevalent is that it's cheaper and faster. Where hand drawn requires redrawing your entire character/thing frame by frame to make it move, puppet animation uses, well, puppets, ready-made articulated models you just need to pose. It's also possible to use interpolation - instead of deciding by hand every image between two poses, you let the computer calculate it and come later to tweak how each part moves to make it look good. There is little to no drawing involved in rigged 2D, asides of rare shots that need a little part drawn over when the puppet can't do something specific, or drawing the eyes/mouths/hands/etc when you're making the puppets themselves. Notice I said series and not films in my previous paragraph - this is because animations with longer runtimes and/or shorter production times benefit strongly from this medium. You will not need to clean, to inbetween, to color and whatever other steps can go in hand drawn 2D when you have puppets. You can use the interpolations to your advantage on some movements. It's near impossible to be off model. You don't even need to draw!

And most animators uh, they're here because they like to draw. You can say animating and drawing are two different things, that is true, I've even heard it from the mouth of an insanely talented hand drawn animator called Liane-Cho Han who described himself as a poor drawer despite an impressive 2D portfolio. Poor drawer, good animator, it blew my mind at the time but when I started animating I understood what he meant. But puppet animation is still animation, and much closer to how 3D animation works, with stop-motion being comparable to hand drawn in terms of difference between these mediums. Yet you don't see industry-spanning bitching about 3D vs stop motion! This leads to my next point: puppets are limiting.

One of the advantages of hand drawn animation compared with other animation techniques especially those using character rigs is that you're not limited to said rigs. You can just draw anything, regardless of digital puppet constraints, of art style, of physics. If you can put it on paper, you can animate it. Puppets, both 3D and 2D, have limitations - the art needs to be made (sculpt, drawings) and be placed on a complex invisible digital skeleton allowing you to correctly manipulate your character, which is a job in itself. The more stuff you want your character to be able to do, the more complex it gets. You can't automate all of it. This means productions with lower budget and/or ambitions will tend to have simpler rigs which allow less. An example is angles: when you're hand drawing a character and want to pose them, you can pick whatever angle you'd like for all body parts. Rigs might not give this as an option, especially subtler angles of the head and foreshortening. This might make some movements you had in mind impossible, with a need to stylize your poses and your breakdowns. Not being able to have these angles can make for animation that looks stiff or awkward and can be very annoying to work with depending on the animator.

That artificial stiffness is to me, one of the telling signs something is rigged, and part of the reasons I don't like it myself! That's right, I'm with the haters here. Except stiffness doesn't necessarily mean something used digital rigs, and stiffness isn't inherently a bad thing - as with all art styles, it can just be that, a stylistic choice. Enters a director who's work I'll use as a counter example to the dislike of 2D puppets, both from an animator's and a hater layman's point of view on the results: Michel Ocelot.

Famous in France and way less internationally, two staples of his work are his fixations on fairytales and Africa. Fittingly, his most famous movie is probably Kirikou, a feature film which mixes both. Ocelot's work is stylized in a way unique to him, which can make his work very repetitive, but also makes it instantly recognizable. Some of his staples include static shot compositions, actors that talk like they're reading their lines out of an old book, busy backgrounds and folk tale tropes. Stiffness is just a part of what his movies look like, as are art styles that take inspiration from traditional art and past periods. He started out working before digital puppets were a thing, and while he's embraced digital techniques, releasing a full CG feature film in the 00s before it was the norm, he has worked without, including on Kirikou which is animated the old way.

The earliest of his films I've seen is called Princes and Princesses, it's already got everything typical of his work, and one of the latest of his films I've seen (and among my personal favorites of everything he's done) is called Black Pharaoh, and while decades and different techniques separate these two, they're both based around, you guessed it, puppets. P&P is a blatant hommage/reference to animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, who used literal paper puppets to animate fantasy movies who's style is very reminiscent of the graceful, slightly simplified illustrations popular at the time. Black Pharaoh uses digital 2D puppets and is entirely animated using the (meticulously researched) style of ancient egyptian wall paintings. Both of these films tell a story, not like movies usually do, but like an orator retelling a tale does. And it works! The characters don't move in a 3D space, but it doesn't matter, they're from a fresco or are paper. The character's don't move realistically and it doesn't matter either, they're not trying to trick your eyes into looking real, they're characters of a story. Ocelot's films are a case where using puppets and their limitations works in favor of the film, not otherwise, and his stuff that's not made with puppets looks like it could be.

I'll briefly talk about a film I hate here to make the final point before my conclusion, netflix's Klaus. This is a film who's insanely impressive animation has floored people regardless of how much they know about animating. Unlike a lot of "this looks very cool" (actually p easy to make) animations you see going viral online, here everyone's right, it is indeed insanely hard to animate like that. Klaus was hailed because of it's uncanny ability to look like modern CG while being entirely hand drawn, which I think is stupid, because it's a lot of effort and talent wasted for a result that looks incredibly generic. Would this film have been bad if it had used CG? Why do people think hand drawn is better than CG in the first place? That I can't answer but the reason studios use it is money: either because it's trendy and will make more money because it's trendy, or because it's cheaper to make, which depends on what you're trying to achieve. In the end, they're techniques. Techniques have pros and cons and things they're better at than others. Time and money are essential to producing a film wether you like it or not.

So: are people wrong to hate on puppets? Nah, it's a question of taste. You can hate the look a technique gives and that's fine. But "ugly" is subjective and it's important to be aware of that if critiquing stuff is your job.

Was that tweet right? Yeah, pretty much, lol. For many if not most animators it's a technique they're forced to use, that removes a major reason they like their job from said job, and can be frustrating to work with. It's worth noting a lot of the work you'll get nowadays is on cheap productions, and the techniques they'll use most will be associated with the slop they are. Doesn't mean you'll inherently make slop. A technique is just that, a technique.

[otomes-world]

Trail

i. Small Key, Portal, Detective It's not full fic, really not, just another idea I thought but never write a post. Also... I forgot I have my own prompts as well...Something like a general prologue and lore for possible works for this AU. You can skip next bunch of text, it's just my thought. There are no triggers yet, except barelly edited text. I haven't decided yet whether this will be a yandere AU or a regular one. I tried to think about possible conflicts in the story and realized that it directly depends on the character. Therefore, here is only the general part, which telling the state of affairs. How the reader even got to such a life, haha. As for plans, I can say that for some reason I thought about Jade. Don't ask me why. As if he would fit into this au better than anyone. I dragged out the introduction a bit… enjoy reading! Let me know your ideas as well, I`ll read and answer them later.

What is the best profession? Probably, every child asked this question at least once. There were always many proposals, but there was one that everyone thought about. Detective. Do they even exist? Or have they always been an idea embodied in books and films?

Are there schools that produce qualified specialists? Is it possible to became one? What is the principle of selecting candidates?

Calm down, hands on the table. You also did not know the answers. It’s trivial, but the profession found you itself. Moreover, if someone found out about your “Detective” badge, they would think that it was a high-quality craft. Seriously, aren’t detectives just an invention of film directors?

In the company of friends and their acquaintances, over a cup of tea or another drink, you would also laugh at the joke, adding your own to the general vat of barbs. Nevertheless, the rushing carriage harnessed by black horses was as real as the mantle of a prestigious college on you. Luckily, the hood was long enough to hide part of your face, so you could look around the room with a bored expression and no sense of professionalism.

A huge mirror in the middle and flying coffins. Crowds of students and a director late for the ceremony.

Never in your life could you imagine that your job would take you to a haven for magicians. Yes, magic existed and was the envy of many, even you, but nothing more. If that's how a mouse felt when cats were swarming around its hole, then be it. However this mouse was very well prepared. It had a hidden artifact that allowed cast simple spells. Nothing more. After all, your task was to gather the material and leave unnoticed. In no case would you become the best student among the stream of first years, heaven forbid.

You only hoped that the bribed principal and the Mirror would not throw you to the predators. Exactly. The kind teacher knew about everything, and the inside pocket of his jacket sank under the weight of money. Naturally, after convincing him that you had no desire to harm the college's reputation. The struggle between schools was not in your competence, let them squabble over talented applicants as much as they wanted. Your task was the simplest.

Just make sure that the representatives of influential families were not planning anything… interesting. The version for the director was to collect information about the college, for further writing of the article on behalf of the "student".

You had already received half of your payment, and the customer signed a contract in which you received your other half in any outcome. Plus, you could always earn extra money by publishing an article to the delight of Crowley, but that's it. Possible options after completing the job.

Finally, the director appeared, and you would have sighed with relief if not for the student who appeared behind him. It seemed that no one knew who it was, however, this was only to your advantage. Any information was important to the customer.

"Any information was important to the customer." This thought was worthy of a hit to the head with any heavy object. They were just students, what could possibly go wrong? The contract details did not include feeding flamingos in pink and painting roses from white to red and back. Why, of all the dorms, the Mirror decided to send you to Heartslabyul… that question should have been asked to Crowley. Only for him magically disappear every time, "and do not to interfere with a professional's work."

A professional could not work in such conditions.

Luckily, a pair of first years significantly attracted the attention of the head. All you had to do was secure their friendship and the article "headache" of Rosehearts. The collar on your neck in most cases explained why you did not use magic regularly.

However, in other dorms it was hardly easier. Whether this thought was self-consolation or acceptance of the harsh truth, you didn't care. Or it could be a simple complaint from chewing his lunch Ace.

If you had come here at an earlier age, when you yourself were a scholar, you would have been overjoyed. Of course, what child would refuse to learn magic? To travel between colleges using portals? The one who was now in the body of an tired of everything adult obviously.

It was much harder to study seriously when you needed to be in several places at once, and for missing classes the head "cut off your head". In your time, being a hooligan sounded easier.

Bless the existence of Internet storage, otherwise attempts to hide the notes of real work would have finally driven you to the grave. The promised payment was not worth it.

Fortunately, or vice versa, there was plenty of information. Filtering rumors, looking for the truth - that's another task. At least the soil for this was fertile. News of growing tension in a dorm. A rumor about a student who grants any wish. Possible conflict between two celebrities.

How true were the rumors about the strained relationship between the second prince of the Sunset Savanna and the crown prince of Briar Valley?

Everything was carefully written and saved for later editing. When did you have time to do this? The answer was simple. You sacrificed your time for sleep. All paper records were burned and destroyed after being transferred to the cloud. You didn't need any extra problems.

It felt like you had a kind of key in your hands that could unlock a box to nowhere. Your readiness to face everything that awaited you at the bottom was unimportant. A minimum of feelings and a maximum of facts were required from you.

[whetstonefires]

The thing about the Shazam! (Captain Marvel but they don't have the rights to call him that) movie is that overall it's pretty good? Even if I question the pacing choices made in terms of screentime breakdown for '14yo boys making mortifying life choices and humorously failing judgment calls' vs. 'character development wrt to literally anything else about this fairly large cast.'

It's hokey; it should be. It's got some decent themes and fun character bits and set up good solid hero/villain parallels to subvert.

But.

But it massively clotheslined itself with a major storytelling fuckup connected to the opening hook mystery, whose resolution is meant to be the emotional inflection point of the whole film.

Because the thing is, this movie chose to be slightly interesting in how it approached its 'family' themes. In a variation on 'family of choice' (since your foster family are in fact assigned by the government and Billy not having a choice about living with them only about trusting them is a major story element) it went for the more nuanced and kind of interestingly grimy take that the people who are actually in your life giving a shit about you matter, if you let them, and that you need to stop giving the people who failed to love you power over your happiness.

Which is not a bad premise at all! As messages for a movie about a kid being sent to a group home go, that's the most upbeat you could possibly get and still be tied to reality.

The Vasquez couple are written and played well in these terms too because they really, genuinely care, and are making so much effort, but as system graduates themselves they never had competent parenting modeled for them and god does it show.

And the mental health problems of the kids who got enough characterization to have them were similarly...realistic in a best-case-scenario sort of way.

But! Still with the but! Even though they pulled off a lot of this fairly touchy premise rather well, there's a crack in the foundation that makes the whole movie kind of collapse on a thematic level.

Because the movie (following the prologue introducing the villain's backstory) opens with a juicy emotional hook where small Billy is separated from his mother at a Christmas fair and never sees her again.

Cut to some years later, establishing status quo scene, he's a Troubled Youth rebelling against the system in an endless quest to find his mother and go home. He is committing minor felonies to get access to police information about women surnamed Batson so he can go to their houses because eventually one of them has to be his mom.

His case worker after he's picked up again refers to his mother as 'someone who clearly didn't want you,' which Billy rejects as bullshit, and he's valid! Because that is not what you say when you have actual information. That's a surmise. That's a sentence that says Child Protective Services and the police couldn't find her either.

Especially because you don't immediately chuck a kid into foster care because he's found unattended. Maybe you do that later, after a lengthy period of oversight, depending on his mom's reaction to having him returned and her race and socioeconomic status and apparent mental health and so forth. But you don't just not contact her, and you definitely don't refuse to tell the kid about the result once you have.

The only normal situation where an accessible record exists of a kid's original parentage but it's denied to the kid is in sealed adoptions, which are a formal procedure that clearly didn't happen here. There is every indication in this opening sequence that his mom was never found.

Which means she's a missing person. Either because they located the correct Billy Batson and his adult never came back to their house (which would suggest foul play or some other drama) or because despite being old enough to be in school and knowing his own name, no one could find evidence that Billy existed prior to turning up at that street carnival.

Which would constitute a very mysterious situation! What is he, from a cult? Another dimension? Did someone (in the social worker's proposed scenario, Billy's mom) erase all record of her kid somehow? Was magic involved?

So: the way we're introduced to this scenario, there's a legitimate weird mystery here that none of the adults in Billy's life care enough about to do anything but tell him to write it off, the way they have. That his missing person clearly did it on purpose.

Billy's being ridiculous because if what he's trying would work then he wouldn't need to do it; his social worker could have arranged a meeting years ago. So it's a useless self-destructive behavior he needs to let go. But he's valid, in that he's being very obviously failed by the system and is doing the only thing he can think of to try to address his situation for himself.

And then! The Big Reveal is that his mom has been living under her maiden name in the same city as him this whole time.

Which the Gamer Kid Who Turns Out In This Scene To Be A Hacker (he's about 10) learned by. Breaking into a federal database.

So he goes to her house and it turns out. She'd been a teen mother and her babydaddy walked out after marrying her, and her parents cut her off, and she was depressed and felt like a bad mother so. When she saw the cops had her kid, she just walked away. And she wants to believe he's been happy and better off without her.

And the emotional arc of the film rests on how Billy comes to terms with this. With the fact that his past will never take him back and he has to learn to find joy in himself and his present situation and his future.

Having let go of that idea, he's able to emotionally commit to his gaggle of foster siblings and realize that unlike the villain, who was obsessed with punishing the people who never loved or accepted him, or the wizard who was focused on finding The Perfectly Worthy Champion, what you needed to be good and not lost was to be part of a mutually supportive group, like the wizard Shazam was before he and his siblings were betrayed. And then they can be a superhero team, woo!

And that part is actually depicted fairly well, all things considered!

But the problem is that the audience, to vibe with this properly, has to roll with the revelation that Billy was wrong to cling to the mystery of his vanished, beloved mother and the fantasy of going home again.

We have to be willing to participate in the idea that the Resistant Child Subjected To Foster Care was in the wrong.

And he wasn't! He wasn't wrong! His understanding of the situation was flawed but it should not have been flawed in this manner.

Because this scenario as it's depicted doesn't make any sense. The cops do not just keep your kid without following up if you fail to collect him from the baggage claim. CPS does not fail to provide a kid with the readily available evidence that he's been voluntarily surrendered to them, when he keeps running off trying to go home.

Why would they do that, after all? Billy's misbehavior was a huge hassle for them. They gained nothing by denying him access to his mother and the information about her that was, you recall, sitting totally available in a government database that could be hacked by a random 10 year old asian-american orphan. They just...made their own lives harder for no reason, while extending the suffering of a child in their care.

If the cops tried to return him back when and she said 'no i left him with you on purpose please keep him' maybe she gets prosecuted for child abandonment and maybe not, but either way, billy would know about it.

But if the screenwriters had made it clear early on that this information had been offered to him and he'd chosen not to believe it, they couldn't get a proper Reveal at the end because it would just be Billy being unable to continue pretending something the audience had known not to believe all along.

And they couldn't cram a good reason for the scenario they'd set up into the space they'd accorded it.

So they were just like, it's fine, if we cram enough cliches into this space people will react to the familiarity and go 'ah yes i know this one' and go along with it, and not notice that this isn't an actual coherent reply to the question that was set up an hour ago and therefore is emotionally unsatisfying somehow.

Anyway this is an important storytelling guideline: if you put in a mystery to control either the actual plot or, even worse, the emotional storyline, that mystery and its resolution have to make internal sense.

If you pull the Real Situation out of your ass, and it's not a matter of red herrings or That One Fact you didn't have that makes all the rest fit together differently, but in fact no one involved could have figured this out and especially if the people who did say this in the first place had no good basis for it, but still get narratively awarded the Correct trophy in a way that contributes to the thematic climax so the audience has to care. Then that will not get good results. It will make it hard to deliver on your intended themes.

Some people will not notice or care! This is true! But a lot of people will, and you'll get enough of a better punch even with the other folks, if the setup and denouement fit together properly and don't require reaching, to matter.

And when people do notice at all, rather than their naturally flowing along with the climax you're steering toward and experiencing A Story, there will be a tendency to notice you standing there placing roadsigns toward the Intended Emotional Response, and call you a hack.

People call out plotholes way too vigorously sometimes, so I want to be clear: it's not the lack of supporting logic I mind. It's that the active presence of illogic, of what's presented as a chain but is broken along its length, means the central character arc intersects with the core theme in a noticeably forced way. Which is bad craftsmanship on a meaningful level.

There is a loss of cohesion where you cannot satisfactorily resolve how the scenario we were initially shown came to be superimposed over the revealed truth, because that relationship between elements is very important to making a 'revelation' storyline land, you know?

In this case it's particularly vexing to me because the last-minute asspull and its thematic weight reaches back around and at the last minute moves the whole movie thematically to the other side of the line wrt whether it's approaching Billy, our protagonist, as a subject with whom we're supposed to identify or an object whom we're supposed to observe.

It makes all the high-school-freshman-posing-as-adult gags retroactively less funny because we were now more explicitly laughing at him, and takes a lot of the depth out of the emotionally sincere moments.

Up to that point I had really appreciated how, despite wavering that way, Shazam! hadn't actually fallen to the MCU Spiderman temptation to dehumanize its protagonist. Which seems to arise out of this weird tendency I've noticed to assume the natural sentiment of adults toward adolescents is bemused contempt, and that therefore if they ask their audience of paying grownups to empathize too closely with a teen hero instead of setting him and his Immaturity up as a clown for our amusement, they'll get themselves banished to the Children's Fiction ghetto.

And, of course, if they'd been fully committed to one side or the other of 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to closely' or 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to distantly,' they wouldn't have gotten snarled up about how much information to hand over when.

Committing to either option (giving us only as much information as Billy had and constructing a story that was solid from a being-Billy angle or giving us more information than Billy and operating confidently in the realm of dramatic irony) could have worked quite well. But because of the mixed signals and unstable narrative distance, they wound up with a distinctly weakened finale.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

You’ve mentioned how boring the Avatar movies are despite how visually stunning they can be (I can’t help but agree.) How would you rewrite it to be a more interesting?

Can't be done and not for the reasons you're probably thinking.

The Thing about James Cameron

To get into this, we have to talk about James Cameron as a director.

Now, I say this being a large fan of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, as well as generally liking Aliens and Abyss.

But generally, the focus of James Cameron's films is not the story or the writing: it's a new cutting-edge technology he wants to develop and try out and or a particular setting. The story is presented as an excuse to do these things and is paper thin at best.

The focus of Titanic was the ship itself, the exact timing of its sinking, seeing all of the ship (both upstairs and downstairs) both before and after the sinking, and to aid that along we get this story of Jack and Rose where they run around the ship like lunatics so we can see everything.

Abyss, similarly, is exploring the concept of a setting at depth and the technology needed to produce such a film.

Now, what also ties into this, is that Cameron has a few tropes he really really really likes in films that aren't that... deep I guess I'd call them. Generally, in any Cameron film, you can count at least one (usually more) of the following:

US Marines (Good or Bad or Both)

Evil Corporations/Evil Rich People

A Surprisingly (!) Good Scientist/Science/Robot People

An Uncomplicated Action Hero/Heroine

An Uncomplicated Love Story

In the case of the Avatar series, Cameron had thought up this fictitious world Pandora, the native people there the Nav'i, and wanted to push both CGI as well as 3D to the limit (notable is that Cameron did 3D for these films in a way films generally don't, in that he did actual 3D where most '3D' films just have two cameras for stereo. This is why Cameron's 3D looks so fucking good and is actually worth seeing in theaters versus other 3D films which are eeeeeeh watch it at home). And, as usual, what we see is a story written in such a way to show off the setting, the made-up culture of the Nav'i, and the technology used to produce the film rather than the story in and of itself.

So, in the first film, we get a story that hits all the usual marks for Cameron. Through Jake's adventure, we get to explore Pandora and see all the things Cameron really wants to show off to us, we also get all the tropes Cameron usually loves: an uncomplicated love story, evil corporations, US Marines, surprisingly good scientists who seem bad at first but then are misguided, and a dumb uncomplicated hero.

In this case, it's just the plot of Dances with Wolves (almost to a tee) but uh... more blue.

(The second film is even worse in this respect, as well as just as a film, as Cameron now wants to show a new part of Pandora, the ocean but uh... has no reason for the characters to be there so has to make something up that doesn't make much sense or give the characters much to do.)

The trouble is where this works for Cameron in other films (Terminator and Terminator 2 were great in that they didn't need to be complicated, the setting and special effects provided what we needed for great films), in Avatar we're hampered by a plotline that has both aged and that we've seen before, and by a script that's... just not good.

But the point I was trying to make is that Avatar would not exist without Cameron. This isn't a case where you hire a new director, new screenwriter, new anything, this is Cameron's vision and there's really not much wiggle room in that without dumping out everything Cameron wanted.

The best someone could do is rewrite the script to make the lines more catchy/memorable/quotable without changing the plot.

(Caveat, again, I think Cameron is great when he's great. What he does well he does very well, and he has made some fantastic as well as very entertaining movies. However, sometimes, it just doesn't work out.)

Back to the Question

So, to 'fix' Avatar you have to have a script Cameron would like, one that shows of Pandora in the way he wants, and with the uncomplicated characters he generally likes.

Trouble is, that is Avatar. I can think of no way to produce what Cameron would have wanted beyond what Cameron himself did. He was involved in every step of that movie and it shows.

And again, to make it better or different is to make something that never would have happened as, well, it's not Cameron.

Long story short, you can't have Avatar without Blue Pocahontas in Space.

[systenowy-blog]

media about DID/OSDD

Most people asked how much they know about DID will respond with title like Split and Billy Milligan case. That are two of the worst examples of a dissociative disorder there are. Can systems be bad people? Sure. Like any other people on this globe actually as we're only people. Do we crawl on walls and eat people? We don't. Are we murderers? It's possible for a system to be a serial killer or a rapist or anything else evil but... it's not because of the disorder itself. Sure - alters can introject from abusers and continue that abuse on themselves and others - there are persecutors and perpetrators of many kinds - more or less dangerous to the body and the environment. Still it is not ok to demonise the whole community just because some will use their diagnosis as an excuse for their bad behavior. Understanding is one thing but not working on yourself is another. We're aware leaving bad habits behind and becoming a better/healthier person is a long and a hard way but not impossible. We should take responsibility for all alters not just blame them as we said in yet another post before.

Coming back to the main subject. There are more media that portray DID better. We already posted a documentary youtube video on the matter before but besides that and plenty of tiktok and yt accounts created by systems there are few good things you can watch for a better understanding what that disease is about:

few Sybil movies - from what I know Sybil herself probably was not a system after all but it doesn't mean movie is done wrong, it was one of the first cases of diagnosis at the time so it helped patients in the future anyway

United states of Tara - sure there's an alter in the second series from what I recall that is an introject of an abuser but it's also not that badly portrayed overall on WHY and HOW that happens as well as it shows Tara is still a good person after all - just has to heal

The crowded room - I know I will get hate for that but honestly... everything is explained there - why the alters decided to attack their abuser as well as how systems work from the outside and inside, not every system is the same but it was the only thing that helped our father understand, if someone after watching that decided systems are evil it only means they watched it wrong way I think

Venom - funny but a lot of systems will say it helped them show somebody how systems work so why not add it on top of that? XD

other movies that don't cover the subject but are good to watch if one wants to understand better some aspects of DID would be - The beauty inside - there are two shows and two films with the same title (asian and american) - we've watched only one (the original) so far but, besides a main character not changing personality but look, it shows some struggles on fitting in in society/every day life and finding a partner when one goes through such severe changes - including that partner's struggles; Nimona - animated movie about a person who turns into animals and is seen as a monster but is traumatised; Inside out - animated movie about... characters in a girls head that are emotions

One more thing about Split. If somebody would watch it as a sci fi movie and there was more about psychological aspect of why the main character is this way (as there was a reason behind that) maybe it wouldn't be so bad even if he was a cruel person. A lot depends on who watches something and their capability of understanding a bigger picture but not everyone is able to do so especially with little to no knowledge so it creates stereotypes and fear around it. Just a few will decide to do their research and usually that kind of curiosity after watching a horror is not exactly led by educative reasoning. In a movie that was a trauma response shown in a very extreme way. I am not trying to defend Split but I know most of the movies are like this if they're about a certain subject - it's blown out of proportions to show the most ill persons among diagnosed ones which is scary and unfair towards those who truly suffer and try their best to work on their symptoms. I get it and I'm sorry that it's happening to the point people are either afraid of us or decide to fetishise us - rarely something in between.

In other hand though there are shitload of movies about villains having a reason to be evil now and that also not always is good as more understanding sometimes sadly can force victims to endlessly forgive and stay in toxic relationships (been there, done that)...

Another show that I know is Kill me heal me that even shows final fusion in the end but... honestly? It's so full of cringey stereotypes we do not recommend that even if parts of it are ok...

Pink

PS if you have any other recommendations - give them in the comments below!

[terrence-silver]

Random Concept: Terry Silver with a TikTok-obsessed Beloved

It would be cute if beloved wanted to film cute couple moments with Terry.

Spicier with Terry during the Halloween season because of all the Ghostface masks trending.

I can imagine Gen Z beloved doing something like the Gothic Baby account if they have a kids with Terry.

Like, I do think Terry Silver, in his old age majorly keeps up with trends.

He always has.

He always had his finger on the pulse of the 'brand new thing'.

More so than young people, undoubtedly --- he's a businessman, after all.

He's too clever not to keep up. That's how he can blend in so perfectly and adapt if need be, being chameleonic in nature, changing and transforming with the times. It's how he can manipulate perceptions and cultural norms --- by being in touch with things around him, sure, like the advent of social media. The Online sphere. Being Vegan for a while, because that's a la mode and acceptable in a more Liberal, upper crust crowd in Los Angeles --- it's admirable, even. A societal badge that says one's a conscientious, good person (And Terry Silver's just that? Right?) when that wouldn't have been the case in the past. Thirty years ago it was perhaps the discourse between nuclear and fossil fuels or green new energy that mattered, and today, it's all about Tik Tok. It's Twitter. Or X, rather. And what's trending on there --- the type of stuff that can make or break one's reputation because someone said something stupid or cancel-worthy two decades ago. Heck, even the branding of social media itself changes, having one name and taking on another practically overnight! The world moves fast and Terry Silver moves with it. But, in spite of him been keenly aware what's what and what it means, I envision his Online presence is incredibly scarce and unbelievably curated on purpose and what information can be found on him on the Internet has been fine combed and is continuously fine combed so really, not only can you not find anything too controversial about him on there (maybe just the right amount of controversial, tactically speaking; acceptable controversies, as to not make him seem too inhumanly saintly and by extension, unrealistic, too suspicious and fake) --- you can't even really find anything much of anything in general except what Terry deliberately and specifically wants on there. Man's incredibly private all while putting up a facade that he's an open book --- which, don't be fooled, he's anything but.

What I mean to say with this is that Terry Silver undoubtedly wouldn't be on Twitter, for example, posting his actual, real opinions about...anything. He's smart like that.

So, any beloved of his? Gen Z or otherwise?

Chances are, they wouldn't be chronically Online either.

They wouldn't be on Tik Tok, plastering videos of themselves, their family or Terry Silver himself for the world to see consistently, because the thought of thousands of people (Voyeurs, the way an already voyeuristic Terry would see it) tuning in to see and watch his beloved --- random punks commenting on them, expressing their opinions willy-nilly, judge, complementing them, leering, passing, bookmarking, downloading and sharing said clips around unstoppably, without any monitoring as to how they could use and abuse such material...legitimately forever --- well, it presses the button of someone fiercely territorial, jealous, possessive, protective and control oriented like Terry. He doesn't like it. He doesn't allow it. He thinks it's bullshit. He would take advantage of someone's else's uploads Online for sure, if push ever came to shove, so maybe it is a bit of projection on his behalf, that somehow, someone, somewhere, would do the same to him and someone who belongs to him to weaken him or retaliate against him, so to take precaution against it, beloved's presence Online becomes, possibly, even scarcer than his, because they're the most precious thing he has and when something or someone's precious or valuable, they're tucked away. Hidden, in ways. Plus side to this, though --- I can envision Terry Silver, like a man who was young in the 70's and 80's being big on home videos instead. Private collections for his private viewing pleasure and usage only. Cute couple moments galore are permissible --- everything is permissible, in fact --- but these recordings, lets call them, belong and remain explicitly in Terry Silver's private care, because he's a man who doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve and tends to strategically tuck away everything that ever mattered to him. Everything that makes him vulnerable. Everything that can compromise or damage him. Most of everything he really is from the public. Includes beloved. Whatever children he might or might not have with them.

If someone was somehow skillful enough to discover their names and Google them, chances are, nothing specific comes up in their search results. Not anywhere.

That's deliberate.

[mllemaenad]

The Magnus Protocol: Getting Off

Much like Gwen, I would very much like to know what the point of this is.

The first time I listened to this, I had a horrible fever, and honestly I think my only takeaway was that dying to the sound of that irritating Mr Bonzo song sounds tremendously unfair. That's a gross insult added to fatal injury situation right there.

Now, listening with a clearer head, I just keep thinking – this feels like a ridiculously convoluted way to achieve anything. So what are they aiming for, with all this rigamarole?

Most of the victims seem to be ... well, moderately important, let's say? They're throwing a bachelor party in a private room in what sounds like an upmarket strip club, so they have some money to throw around.

And this:

Norris/Jordan Bennett This lot weren’t the worst. Just a bunch of heavyset, middle-aged lads with names like Ozzer, or Rozzer or whatever. My guess was they used to be a school rugby team or something. The groom was fine, acted embarrassed even though he was obviously keen and they were easily pleased. – The Magnus Protocol: Getting Off

... very much gives off private school old boys vibes. Er. I mean public school, since it's British. But regardless.

They're probably somebodies, up to a point. Successful in business or politics. Drive Audis or Lamborghinis, or whatever is fashionable these days (my entire understanding of what car people like may be derived from a couple of Top Gear episodes I saw over a decade ago). Vote Tory. Have wine collections. Send their sons to the same school they attended. That sort of thing.

But only up to a point. Jordan, the bartender doing the narration, pointedly doesn't recognise any of them. They're just more of the same sort she served every night. The Prime Minister didn't die in that strip club that day, nor did any famous film star, nor any CEO big enough to have been on the news defending his company's dubious business practices. Just some guys, presumably with a bit of money.

It took a bit to set up, too. All the business with the name and address in the envelope, which required a hand delivery to the monster. Then, of course, someone had to plant the lunch box – or I suppose it could supernaturally manifest itself, but that does not sound like less work. And it seems to have only worked because "Baz" the groom was genuinely a Mr Bonzo fan.

Norris/Jordan Bennett They started giving the groom gifts. Same old tat as always, cufflinks, poo gags, all the standard stuff. Then the groom spotted the last one on the table, this cheap yellow and purple kids lunch box. It looked old and shoddy and no one admitted to bringing it but the groom just squealed with glee and carefully opened it before pulling out a bunch old souvenir merch. Pencils, postcards, keyrings, all sorts of crap, all the same yellow and purple and last of all a cracked CD case. When they saw it the whole bunch gave this big laughing cheer. – The Magnus Protocol: Getting Off

He had to like Mr Bonzo to trigger the trap. Had that lunch box been delivered to Jordan she would have tossed it.

It required research and setup, and access to exactly the kind of monster to which Baz would be vulnerable.

For an assassination, it's obviously absurd; there have to be thugs who'll do that job with less associated nonsense. It's entirely possible that somebody wants these guys dead, but that can't be why the OIAR did it. It's also a lot for the purposes of generating a scary story. I mean – the OIAR is drowning in scary stories. And if I'm honest, this one wasn't especially scary. I mean, don't get me wrong – it's deeply unpleasant and awful, but I've never been much moved by "monster on a rampage" tales.

But on the other side of it, it's much too small scale for a The Magnus Archives-style ritual.

There is Jordan, though. The thing about Jordan is that she is very much the sister of Dianne Margolis from Give and Take. If you subtract the specifics of the monsters, the stories are basically identical:

A place of business

A monster that is in some sense invited in

A massacre

A single, surviving staff member, traumatised and seeking compensation

Jordan and Dianne themselves are both professionals who find themselves wildly out of their depths when confronted with a supernatural interloper. And, crucially, both were abandoned by their superiors, and that isolation made them vulnerable. Dianne has a boss who goes on "personal development sabbaticals" and doesn't answer her emails. Jordan has a doorman who goes on unscheduled smoke breaks. Now, in fairness to poor Joey the doorman, it does seem as though Mr Bonzo took him out first. But there's a lot of plausible deniability to be found in that history – sometimes, Jordan is left on her own, and if something were to go wrong ...

Norris/Jordan Bennett All I actually want is my hand back so I can tend bar but that isn’t going to happen is it? So I’ll have to settle for the next best thing and sue you for everything I can get, because I don’t know what happened that night but it was in your venue and no one came to help. Not Derek, not another doorman, no one. So yeah, you’d better have one hell of a settlement waiting for me, or I'll see you in court. – The Magnus Protocol: Getting Off

A bachelor party is an odd choice of a place to kill someone. This isn't Baz's address. He wouldn't be here long, and in practice might be hard to pin down: he could arrive late or leave early; he could decide to go hang out in the public areas for a bit. Jordan, though. This is her workplace. You can just about guarantee she will be there.

Monsters in The Magnus Archives were not primarily interested in killing people. I mean – they did kill people, obviously. Sometimes quite a lot of people. But they killed people because dying people are often afraid, or because if you're, say, trying to make people afraid of falling, throwing one guy out of a cable car will make an impression on the other passengers.

Killing wasn't the point.

We have, here, another semi-public murder with a surviving witness. Jordan is unlikely to convince herself this never happened because she has her missing hand as evidence.

Geraldine The witness statements from three murders over the last five years – Nigel (speaking over her) I told your producer this wasn’t going to be discussed. Geraldine – that claim a person in a Mr. Bonzo costume was at the scene? Do you think there could be a copycat? – The Magnus Protocol: Saturday Night

On her own, Jordan might just be a spooky story. But that's a fourth witness statement for Geraldine. There have been at least four cases over the past five years of something almost exactly like this: grisly murders, and someone left alive to tell the tale.

Something is trying to get everyone's attention.

And I wonder if the name Gwen gave Mr Bonzo wasn't Jordan Bennett.

As for who benefits, I have no doubt Alice is quite correct.

Alice What are you getting at? Gwen You never wonder what the point is? Who benefits from all this awfulness? Alice I don’t wonder. I know. Gwen (sitting up) What? Really? Alice (portentous) Oh yeah. I’ve known for a while. What we’re doing here, it’s all part of a grand plan to satisfy one of the most unspeakable evils known to mankind… Gwen’s on the edge of her seat. Alice (almost a whisper) …the UK government. – The Magnus Protocol: Getting Off

Sure, that's one of those lines that sounds like a joke, but which actually speaks the truth. That's been the horror all along: the difference between The Magnus Institute, that had to coax people in, and the OIAR, which can just harvest the horrors, sometimes from very private sources.

And I have not forgotten this:

Alice Colin! There’s my guy! How's it hanging? Is it an app yet? Do we have a minimalist logo? I assume you’ve finished all the social features? Colin Don't you start. I swear I'm going to shove a cable down that prick's throat, pull it out his ministerial anus and floss him to death – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

There's a minister behind this mess, somewhere, and he is likely the one pulling the strings.

The question, mostly, is whether Alice knows she's right. She does talk a good game about indifference, of course, but it's becoming abundantly clear that the OIAR does not hire people who are not marked by the supernatural. And something is already following her.

What could she tell you, if she were ever willing to talk?

Celia and Sam are what remains, of course, but that's just more put-a-pin-in-it-for-later stuff. Whether Alice does or no, Celia has things going on, but she won't talk until the plot is right for it.

[youngestdaughtersyndrome]

tagged by @kommunarde to talk about 5 things im interested in!!! mwah <3

1.) sally hansen insta-dri nail laquer in shade beet-ing heart: its wretched. its horrific. its so bright that you can see it perfectly in in a dark room. my phone case is a similar color and it almost makes the iphone (least erotic machine ever) erotic. beet-ing heart comes to me in dreams as a weapon of god. if i ever found myself in twin peaks' black lodge, the curtains would be beet-ing heart instead of red. when my body gets cut open for an autopsy, i would want all my organs and blood to be beet-ing heart pink, if only to baffle and nauseate the pathologists. freakshow pink. i-killed-my-boyfriend-and-now-his-body-is-rotting-in-the-trunk pink. john waters double feature pink. 1980s special effects pink. it’s rocky horror’s speed freak cousin, unstable terror, and it just bit off someone’s dick while giving them a blowjob. bass-boosted nightcore remixes of hyperpop. any horror movie involving a pageant. its gleeful and disruptive and entirely horrific and i am so fucking obsessed with it that i could eat it. pictures cannot do this monstrosity justice.

2.) the iconography of coca cola: coca cola is effectively a superstar to me. pop stars want what coca cola has. the red and white can has become so culturally ingrained that to even mention coca cola is like invoking the presence of Big America into the conversation. its effectively the shein coquette section of drinks-- its trying to remain like 50s/60s-flirtatious-picnics-fourth of july-lana del rey-patriotism and its working, which is insane because its actually microplastics-child slavery-landfill fuel-destroying multiple environments-capitalism. i hate her. i can't live without her. i want to murder suicide us. she (the iconic can full of delicious beverage) is everything and he (coca cola corporation) is actually far more sinister than ken could ever dream being. the can and the corporation are entirely separate in the societal mind like some sort of beverage dr. jekyll and mr. hyde, purely because shes our beautiful girlfriend whose faults we must ignore if we want to keep dating her. absolutely fascinating to me.

3.) red as a fetish: i'm not talking about how sexy things are red-- or at least red adjacent (think: genitalia, an open throat, a lot of lingerie, sex scene lighting in some films, etc), i'm talking about how red has transcended the cultural association of sex and being "naughty" to become something that brands things as adult or sexual by its mere presence. i know dozens of girls who got told by their parents to never wear red nail polish or lipstick or a red dress because it would make them come off as slutty or harlots or whatever word the parents felt like using to describe promiscuity. red is also one of the first colors to have a cultural gender binary inside of it, based off societal expectations for men vs. women-- on a man red says "aggression", but on a woman red says "sex". i don't think it would be like that if our general culture allowed women to be angry and was normal about angry women (as opposed to having the separate section of "female rage" consisting of crying or maybe a slap-- something that comes off to me as more of a purple or dark blue, in all honesty) but thats a separate post. red's nature is that its a primal and biological color, signaling blood and sex to the masses, and this means that anything thats red has the effect of biology which makes it fuckable, even if its something as paltry as a soda can or a shoe. because of this effect, red has transcended being used for fetishes and has become a fetish in itself, and i just think thats neat.

4.) smells and love: i know i have a bit of a sensitive nose, but everyone has a separate smell to them. its impacted by what the person consumed that day, what they were doing, if they were sweating or not, etc., but underneath it all there is a unique scent, like some sort of a biological thumbprint. a lot of it is because of the persons daily routines and whatnot, which really just makes it more interesting and more like character-defining, if that makes sense-- for an example, i know i smell powdery (cosmetics), sugary (daily soda), dirty (i like dirt and i touch it frequently), and a bit acrid (smoking mint to try and stave off nicotine cravings) on top of the unique and innate fleshiness that every living person has. my father smells spicy (tiger balm), rubbery (palo santo smudge stick), that distinct and unnameable fresh-woodsy-citrusy-whatever smell of mens hygiene products, gasoline-sweet (motor oil, wd-40), and the flesh smell, but his is slightly different than mine. there was a time in my life when i could literally close my eyes and walk by someone i spent a lot of time with, and i would be able to tell who it was. you know. its a matter of knowledge and memorization and time spent together. i just think its very sweet.

5.) making up incredibly elaborate and impossible stories as to how i got the mystery bruise of the day: i could be like 'i must have bumped my leg' or just not care at all, but where's the fun in that? the one on my knee is because i was on a tropical beach dancing in the moonlight with a soft-eyed lover, and when we tried the dirty dancing lift for shits and giggles, they dropped me and i fell right onto a lovely pearlescent seashell. of course i didn't mind, because i was having so much fun that i didn't notice any pain i might have been in, and besides-- i was laughing the whole way down. the one on my calf is because i was in a fight club and kicked someone in the hip so hard that my leg bruised. carry on in this manner until there are overly detailed stories about every single mystery bruise you have, and i swear you'll have a little bit more joy in your life.

tagging @hauntedwoman @alpacinolover @holemotif @capvlian @exitmusicfrafilm @exitwound and anyone else who wants to <3<3<3

[mk-wizard]

6 Things superhero films, games and TV shows do right that the comics should start doing

I love DC and Marvel, and I always will because they shaped my childhood, my standards in comics and more. They also played a huge role in how I learned to draw because I never went to art school. Sailor Moon taught me how to draw women, Dragon Ball taught me how to draw men, Looney Toons and Mickey Mouse taught me how to draw anthropomorphic characters, and DC and Marvel taught me how to do everything else and add to all of the above to make it my own.

However, unlike what the song says, love is not blindness. As ironic as it is, the DC and Marvel comics have fallen from grace to the point where the heroes, plots and relationships are not recognizable anymore. I know characters evolve, change and grow up, but there is a limit especially in good storytelling. I also don't want to be hard on the comics because like I said, I still love them. What I will do instead is mention the top six things the DC, Marvel and other superhero films, games and TV shows nail that the comics should start doing in order to get better and I think they still can.

PS: I am aware that some superhero media that is not in comic format don't have the following qualities, but for the most part, they are.

1- Starting the story over and tell it right (hopefully) this time. - Usually, I am against rebooting and retconning because as a writer myself, I see it as cheating, but in the case of the superhero genre, it goes by a different set of rules. Namely, just as it always ends in an open fashion, it also begins so. With that said, it is perfectly fine to start the main version over if it is taking a wrong turn. In fact, that is one thing I learned to appreciate about the various Spider-Man and Batman cartoons especially when you take into account that they make an effort to not repeat the same mistakes. You don't have to breakup Mary Jane and Peter. You don't have to have Bruce Wayne wind up alone. You don't have to fridge Green Lantern's sweetheart. Most importantly, you don't have to stick with a broken story nobody likes including you. It's fiction not a documentary. You're more than allowed to start over and do things differently. That is how we got Harley Quinn, the version of Mr. Freeze we know now and an Aunt May who can hold her own.

2- The heroes can find love and have families. - Moreover, getting married and having kids does not mean the story is over. I can confirm that it's a new journey and adventure within itself. Plus, why shouldn't you be able to do something your good at AND have a family to come home to? I really appreciate that in a lot of recent TV shows especially, heroes are finally allowed to have successful love lives and families, and still be heroes. If anything, the fact that it is fictional reinforces that they should be allowed to have it all. We all need someone to love and supers are not the exception. Besides, love is a beautiful thing to see and should be painted in a positive light. The same with family because who are we without a family to back us up?

3- Tell happy or fun stories. - This is something I have been saying for a while now. Fantasy is supposed to be an escape from real world problem not be a constant reminder of them. With that said, the fact that superhero cartoons, films and games (especially with the uplifting side quests that allow to just be nice) are moments of levity are really appreciated. Just to give you an idea, I'm going to dare to admit something; I LOVE the episode "I've got Batman in my basement" from Batman the Animated Series because it's fun, cute and I liked seeing average people saving Batman for a change. It is also why I loved the Christmas episode from Justice League. Plus, even when heavy topics are addressed, they usually get dealt with the right way with the hero finding peace. For example, did you know that in the original X-Men cartoon from the 90s, Wolverine moving on from Jean and finding a true love of his own was on the table?

4- The superhero genre can be a a hybrid of any genre not just drama. - It is not uncommon for superhero tales to also serve as a vehicle for other genres too, but lately, comics especially have become type casted as only working with drama and that's depressing. Even action has fallen to the side and that is one of the most exciting parts about superheroes. Why not have superhero media that also serves as a sitcom, comedy, mystery or even a love story (think Lois and Clark)? Plus, not everyone likes soap operas, so having options is very appreciated. Heck, even the superhero shows that are educational like Transformers Rescue Bots and ones that are aimed for kids like Spidey and his Amazing Friends are breaths of fresh air.

5- Have fun and inspire. - The number one thing that attracts us to superheroes is how cool they are not seeing life perpetually punish them for being superheroes. Seeing superheroes be resourceful, creative and even have fun with their powers is fun. Plus, did you know that superhero movies inspired a lot of technology as we know it now namely cellphones? Moreover, superhero anime like Dragon Ball (yes, it fits the superhero genre) and the Batman series inspired people to go to the gym. Supers don't just represent the best version of ourselves, but also encourage us to believe in ourselves and better ourselves with hard work. Watchmen was the exception not the new trend all superhero tales should follow.

6- Passing the mantle down for good and with grace. - I love Steve Rogers, Barry Allen, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Clark Kent and all the other heroes from my generation, but I accept that they are heroes of their time and not fit for the modern generation. Heck, I don't think they're fit for my son especially when he starts reading comics. And that is ok. Accepting that these heroes are old is the right thing to do and it's gracious to have them pass their mantles down with dignity. What is so bad about Steve Rogers being able to grow old with the love of his life while knowing there still is a badass Captain America? Or Peter Parker being able to happily marry Mary Jane and have a child with her while Miles becomes the only Spider-Man after long since proving he IS Spider-Man? That sounds like a good way to end a character's arc. Everyone's retirement should be happy and dignified especially the retirement of heroes. It is not a blaze of glory, but you know what? Blazes are overrated.

Anyway, this is all my opinion and things I would like to see in comics again. Do you agree or have some things you want to see more?

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

[tvmicroscope]

Hi! Thank you ever so much for sharing your metaphor analytics. I feel like I'm seeing YR in a completely few light after having read them.

I want to ask you (but feel no pressure to reply), if you have any thoughts on verbal foretelling based on sarcasm, fears or simply being hideous wrong. I don't even know what's it technically called. But what I mean is a lot of the stuff that August spew in at least the early episodes of S1 are foreshadowing stuff that will happen to him ("Don't use the school WiFi..., You could kill someone and...) and my personal favourite "Do we want the future king..). So my question is there are some pretty evident lines that foreshadowing events - have you seen some more subtle and systematic usage of this technique throughout S1 and S2?

Actually there is one particular line by Rosh in S1 that I think foreshadows something about Simon, that is "Where are you going?". I really love that line and the ensuing dialogue.

Hey, I really, really have to apologize for replying to your kind ask so very late. I have a huge backlog when it comes to messages and comments right now. Everyone is so lovely and kind, but I can barely keep up with it all. I have a feeling that I will have to take a bit of a tumblr break (and break from other social media platforms, as well) because I can’t do both: write my analysis posts on my blog AND keep interacting on other platforms. I'll have to choose one, and that's going to the writing itself.

Anyway, I know this is no excuse for being so embarrassingly late, but I hope you’ll forgive me for the delay because I do actually find it so very encouraging and motivating when people like you say nice things about my little blog project. It really helps me and keeps me focused, so thank you for letting me know you enjoy the close-reading analysis I’m doing on the show. I’m surprised and a bit exhilarated to find out how many people tell me they’re seeing the whole show in a new light. It’s all very, very much appreciated.

As for your question…

Yes, I totally agree with and I think you are absolutely right: Looking at throw-away lines is very important when analyzing a ‘text’ (be it a novel, play, TV show, film, etc.). When a writer sits down to write a screenplay, they obviously don’t just come up with funny lines (or sarcastic or angry lines, for that matter) to fill the page. Usually, they will try to make sure the line in question is connected to the deeper theme of their ‘text’. Everything in their ‘text’ has to fulfil a purpose, i.e. either drive the plot forward or be plugged in into the broader network of metaphorical subtext.

One of the things we have to keep in mind, though, is the fact that not every line in a ‘text’ is necessarily a metaphorical line. There are lines that are just plain text, so to speak.

In essence, you end up with two types of throw-away lines:

1) Lines on the literal level (the textual layer=plot) that have ONE meaning (even if, at that point in the story, that meaning is still obscure to us, i.e. if the line serves the purpose of foreshadowing future events).

2) Lines that operate on both the literal level (textual layer) AND a subtextual level (metaphorical layer underneath) and thus have TWO different (sometimes divergent) meanings; they can even have three different meanings, when the meta-level is involved.

Let me give you an example: August’s line in s1 during the initiation party that you mentioned in your ask about being able to ‘murder somebody here without it ever coming out’ (I’m paraphrasing). That line is most likely a case of type 1. from our list above, i.e. it operates on the literal level of the script even if we assume it foreshadows some future revelation that we don't yet know anything about. It’s not a line that’s plugged into a metaphor. It’s not metaphorical subtext; it’s text.

If August were to proceed to murder (or try to murder) someone later on. Or alternatively get killed himself. Or if we were find out that somebody else was murdered and it was covered it up, then that would give us a resolution, explain to us why the line was said in the first place and what surprising revelation exactly it was foreshadowing.

This line is however (most likely) not a metaphor. In a metaphor something else represents the concept you’re trying to allude to. Just to give you an example: When Wilhelm in episode two of season one tells Simon in the boat to ‘keep the strokes close to the surface of the water, so as not to expend too much energy’, this is clearly a metaphorical line (type 2. from our list above) because it clearly has two meanings: the literal one (rowing advice) and the metaphorical one (rather dumb and conservative relationship advice). And we instantly see that it’s a metaphor because one thing (rowing) represents another thing (feelings/relationships), one concept stands in for another one.

This is most likely not the case with the ‘murder someone’ line: Here one thing (murdering someone) literally means that same thing (murdering someone). It’s (most likely) not a metaphor; it’s not metaphorical subtext; it’s just text – even if the meaning of the text is currently obscure to us because the show isn’t yet finished.

Why am I telling you all of this (you’re probably bored just reading it because you know all of this already :D)…

Because what I’m mainly concentrating on in my metaphor posts on my substack blog is the metaphorical subtext, i.e. the metaphorical lines, the type 2. lines, so to speak. I sometimes use plain textual lines (type 1 lines) as evidence when I think they are somehow connected to a broader point I’m trying to make or reinforce an argument I’m making, but I don’t really discuss them in and of themselves.

Mainly because, with a line that still hasn’t revealed its meaning to us because it’s obscure at this point in the story, I just don’t really know what to do with it. We can speculate what it means (which is always interesting, of course), but ultimately we don’t know. It’s fun. But if it’s not connected to the metaphorical subtext, I will probably not write about it in and of itself.

Now, as for the Rosh’s line that you mentioned (and thank you again for reminding me, my brain is like a sieve sometimes), that one arguably straddles the boundary between text and subtext, between type 1 line and type 2 line: Rosh, Ayub and Simon are pretty much talking figuratively already at that point, i.e. when Rosh says, “Where are you going?” she isn't asking whether Simon is literally leaving the room, this is meant figuratively (‘where are you going in life?’). It clearly foreshadows Simon’s path that’ll lead him away from Bjärstad not just as a place, but away from the narrow confines of his working class upbringing. So far the line is not a metaphor yet (there isn’t one concept that stands in for another one like, say, ‘water’ for feelings, or a ‘suitcase’ for a burdensome role, or ‘music’ for love, or the ‘ear’ for the heart, etc.). But it’s definitely meant to be understood figuratively. So far it has had only a tragic meaning (Simon only ‘went viral’ in the context of a crime that was committed against his privacy), but when it comes to leaving Bjärstad and the confines of his working class upbringing behind, I could very well see this at some point mean something along the lines of: going to university or study music at a conservatory - something often frowned upon in a milieu with a working-class background (the age-old, “What do you need that highfalutin' stuff for? Learn a trade like everyone else in the family!”). I still have a tiny hope that, “Where are you going?” might mean the famous Verbier Music Festival. If Simon gets at least an invitation in the mail and that’s the third time Verbier is mentioned (in a much more positive light than before), I would be over the moon.

Ultimately, it’s again a line that can foreshadow a lot of things, but it’s (probably) not meant to be understood entirely metaphorically, which is also why I most likely won’t discuss it on the blog itself where I’ll try to stick strictly to the metaphors.Does that make any sense?

I feel I’ve written too much, but I hope that makes up at least a little bit for the long delay.

Thank you again for your kind words, and you’re always welcome to read more on the blog. Even if I take a tumblr break, I will keep posting a new article every week (usually on the weekend).

All the best!

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

have you ever fallen in love?

how do i know whether i'm falling in love?

shouldn't it be beautiful? why is this so disorienting.. it's definitely not the right circumstance and quite a hopeless situation

i don't know what's happening to me and i don't know who can i talk to about this irl but it's affecting me a lot more than i expected

sorry this is random, have a nice day

oh, nonnie 🥺🖤 i have fallen in love.

i can't tell you whether or not you're in love (i was hardly able to admit it to myself that first time), that's something you have to figure out for yourself. i will say this, though: films and books and music love to romanticise it, but i can definitely identify with your feelings of disorientation.

the first time i fell in love, it felt like being pulled out to sea by a riptide. like i was caught in some great current. it was terrifying. certainly not beautiful.

i remember sobbing to my friend one night (after a few glasses) "why can't i think of anything else? why can't i get him out of my head?". it felt, helplessly, as if all thoughts led to him. every time i opened my mouth his name slipped out and, like a deluge, there was nothing i could do to stop it.

because i was frightened of the enormity of it all, the power these feelings had over me–and because i was a very insecure person at the time who felt as if there was no way someone could ever love her back, even though all my friends told me he did, and even though there were plenty of signs that he had feelings for me too –i lied to myself.

i told myself i wasn't in love. i told myself that i just wanted to be friends. that i was content to be in his life however he'd have me, which was certainly not as a love interest because there was no way he was into me like that.

but everyone knows you aren't supposed to swim against the rip-current. that's how you end up draining all your energy, by fighting something that is a force of nature. that's how you end up drowning.

and i did.

i don't mean to get all cautionary tale on you. i want you to know that you're not crazy for feeling this way, and if what you're experiencing is love, i don't want you to panic.

my advice to you is the same advice given about riptides. find the thin shoreline of hope and allow yourself to swim parallel to it. allow yourself to imagine what it would be like to give yourself to, not the feeling of love itself, but the person you love. and imagine yourself worthy of love in return, because you are.

i promise you, nothing is ever hopeless.

in any case, if you ever need a place for your feelings to go, my inbox is always open. sending you much love, nonnie 🖤

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Ramble#11

This month's episode we focus on Naoki Urasawa, a living manga legend, a true goat of the medium and my number 1 favourite mangaka. Ever since I started this podcast, at least one episode on him was inevitable and even if I don't stick the landing I hope this encourages someone to go check out and even support his brilliant pieces of art.

I'll be following the usual format of things read this month and then going over older reads, this time going from least to most favourite. Afterwards in what I'd call a part 2 I'll be doing a bit of off the cuff ranting.

So without further adieu, let's get into it!

Urasawa works read this month:

Asadora! (2018 - present with 37 english translated chapters):

A young girl named Asa has her home town destroyed by a Kaiju that only she saw. For those unfamiliar with the term Kaiju, it's basically the genre of film centered around giant monsters, think Godzilla. Anyways, years later, after training to be a pilot so she can track the monster down as she's its only living witness, she's approached by a certain organization that's been tracking the beast, so she can be trained to defend the country.

Not really a first time read but the first time I checked it out in 2020 there was only like 15/20 chapters out so with there being like twice that now I figured I could put it as new + bite me

Not much to say as again there's not that many chapters but it was my first time seeing a female lead from urasawa and I thought it was cool that the first page of the first chapter set the time frame for this world threatening disaster as 2020, which was when I picked it up and around the time COVID kicked off, even though that chapter itself came out in 2018.

Yawara! (1986 - 1993) 331 chapters total but only 92 in English:

Trained by her 8 time national judo champion grandad to get an Olympic gold, Yawara has been doing judo since she could walk. But as she enters the springtime of her youth, she just wants to be a regular, cute and fashionable girl.

Now I figure some of you may be wondering "What's the problem? Why can't she have both?". Well firstly, you know fiction, there's no story without conflict no matter how ridiculous. But as the mc would put it, judo just isn't cute!

She thinks she'll be unapproachable if she becomes known for grappling and throwing people around which tbh is fair but if you know anything about training to be an athlete, especially an Olympic level athlete, the time dedicated to training is no small thing. In the manga her grandad makes her train every day starting at 6am before she goes to school then after school they train again at 6pm.

Again not the very first time I read it, basically I started like a year ago but only read like 5 chapters then got upset that it wasn't fully translated. Cause I figured if it's been complete since 1993 and in 2022 there's only 92 chapters translated I'd be blue balling myself to hell with what I assumed would be another urasawa great (side note, more reason for learning Japanese so I can be a translator)

And I'm feeling bittersweet in being correct in my thinking because I really really dug it. Very neat aesthetic I've gotta say as urasawa plays up yawara trying to be cute and dressing up and so forth. It was also my first time seeing urasawa not doing mystery, as Yawara is a fun light-hearted slice of life but it still has a great cast of distinctive characters with brilliant dynamics just as I've come to expect from all of urasawa's works.

Master Keaton (1988 - 1994) 144ch:

I'm just gonna go with the final volume's description here as it's pretty spot on

When the wall that separated the East and West falls, the twentieth century comes to an end and brings radical changes to the world. During this turbulent time, Taichi Hiraga Keaton has difficulty finding a job in archaeology even though his long line of cases as an insurance investigator doesn't seem to end. As he navigates through dangerous adventures, Keaton encounters some bittersweet lives…

If you glazed over for a minute there, basically the mc loves archeology, wants to be a professor and have his own dig sites and such but because of skills he picked up in the army, he has much better luck being an investigator.

Great scenery, neat characters but pretty episodic to the point where I'd want to call it an anthology as characters don't really carry forward much. There's a lot of nitty gritty details about wars, factions and etc. around the world in that time period which can be a bit overbearing at times but that's what give the characters and situations the impact they would have gotten if they stuck around longer.

Also gotta say it's pretty educational, not just in the mc basically being macgyver and building self defense weapons out of whatever is on hand kinda way, but it takes a good look at Europe and how fucked it was during that cold war period as it indirectly and directly references many real world events. Maybe it's just my lack of exposure but I haven't seen that much media outside of documentaries really pinpoint Europe and the effects of war there and not on a large high level country scale, I mean like really looking at the lives of civilians and how they lived and died during that time.

Lots of variety, as I said it's very episodic as almost every chapter has a different subject ranging from finding a lost animal to settling spats between holocaust survivors or proving a statue is fake

I also have to mention something I've always appreciated about Urasawa's works that really stood out in Master Keaton for me and that's the diverse and well done racial representation. There's people from everywhere and it doesn't have that feel manga tends to have of like a Japanese person drawing what they think other people look like or something, it just looks like a person drawing other people, feel like I'm wording that weirdly but that's how I'm wording it.

Happy! (1993 - 1999) 254ch:

One day a high school girl, Miyuki Umino that takes care of her 3 younger siblings on her own, is approached by Yakuza who tell her that her older brother ran out on loans amounting to 250mill yen, approx. 1.8M USD) and now she needs to pay up or be sold into prostitution.

While wondering what to do she sees on the news a tennis player earned that amount in winnings so she decides that despite the difficulty she has to try.

Pretty dark premise and I'm telling you she goes through some dark shit but it's a great story, brilliant characters as usual, loveable idiots abound, antagonists that you can really really hate. You don't have to be a fan of tennis at all to appreciate the heartwarming n heart wrenching ups and downs. Teared up at least twice.

This was my favourite Naoki Urasawa work I read for the first time this month, this manga really showed me Urasawa really has THAT range fr.

Older Urasawa reads:

Monster (1994 - 2001) 162 chapters, this was my 3rd read:

A promising young doctor, Kenzo Tenma, ignores his superiors orders to operate on their mayor and instead operates on a young boy called Johan, that came in first, as he firmly believes all lives are equal. The mayor dies and the boy is saved but this leads to unfair treatment by his superiors and being left by his fiance. Soon after, not only does the young boy disappear but his superiors die from poisoning, leaving him, staff and ofc the police baffled.

10 years later during a string of serial killings, a key witness ends up being a patient of Tenma's but is killed for trying to reveal this by Johan, the real killer, now a young man who reappears in front of the doctor. Even more shockingly, he reveals himself as the one who killed Tenma's superiors all those years ago. Because of similarities in the murderers then and now, police pin it all on Tenma so he goes on the run across Europe to find the young man and clear his name.

Undeniably engaging from the jump, the ever building draw being who the fuck is this Johan dude? where'd he come from? why the fuck is he killing all these people? etc. etc.

Great side characters as usual with interactions that I can only call truly genuine whether they were sweet or sour.

There's a lot of nice interplay on the meanings of life and death, the notions of fear and hope, humanity and the inhumane, all weaved into every intricate thread of this story.

Not to be a hater but personally its relative popularity, as in relative to his other works, is a little upsetting. I get that it was his first critically acclaimed banger but he's done so much since then that isn't talked about enough for me. His later stuff not having anime adaptations doesn't help but if you've read and watched enough media adaptations in general you know that tends to mean diddly squat in terms of the quality of the source material . The industry unfortunately runs more and more on fan service every day.

Pluto (2003 - 2009) 65 chapters, read 3x:

The destruction of one of Earth's greatest robots and the murder of a leading figure in international robot rights seem unrelated at first, but both bodies were made into some bizarre collage with the central motif/pattern being a pair of horns placed by their heads, making them obviously related. The confusing thing is that the only thing that could destroy one of Earth's greatest robots is an even stronger robot, but could a robot really be related to the murder a human? Gesicht, a robot detective is put on the case and eventually comes to realize that all of Earth's greatest robots, himself included are being targeted.

As you can expect with any futuristic robot media there's an exploration of the concept of humanity vs the artificial but it's done so tenderly for lack of a better word and I'm not sure how often it's done that way in these noir type beats. Especially from the viewpoint of a robot mc.

I've probably said this for all his works so far but there's brilliant cast, great dialogue, great art that the context pretty much demanded and even though it's based on an arc in Osamu Tezuka's tetsuwan atom, better known as astro boy in the west, the greatest robot on earth arc to be specific, Urasawa really rose to and in my mind completely surpassed the challenge of adapting the work of he who is called the God of manga.

Also like man it's so crazy good for how short it is, please read this.

20th century boys (1999 - 2006) 249 chapters + 16 in the wrapup sequel 21st century boys, I've read both 2x:

The story follows a group of childhood friends, now adults who are trying to patch together their memories in an effort to uncover a conspiracy that seems to be based on games they used to play about saving the world from destruction.

It's pretty difficult to describe the events of the story further but it definitely stands out in my mind as the grandest scale of anything Naoki Urasawa has ever done though I wouldn't put it past him to go further.

As I said the story follows friends trying to patch together memories so the time period goes back and forth quite a bit. It can be pretty jarring trying to follow it strictly by year so I'd recommend just thinking about it in three tone periods, namely; childhood, present day and miscellaneous flashbacks. Separating childhood from miscellaneous flashbacks as their childhood remains within a constant range but as the story moves forward and present day changes so does the range of flashbacks they have.

That should hint a bit at the scale of this whole thing but outside of the breadth, there's a depth of characterization and dynamic that I haven't seen elsewhere.

Side note, if the length is frightening it's the type of read I'd recommend savouring anyways.

Billy Bat (2008 - 2016) 165chapters, this is my 4th time reading this:

A Japanese American mangaka/cartoonist, Kevin Yamagata, suddenly has his workspace taken over by police claiming they're investigating one of his neighbours for being a Soviet spy. In the middle of protesting this, one of the officers sees the comic he's working on, Billy Bat. He says he's seen it before in Japan, basically calling Kevin's work a copy. Kevin takes offence but admits he was stationed in Japan for some time and may have seen it and subconsciously copied it. As one of the lasting lessons his father taught him was that you can't steal people's stuff, he goes to Japan to seek out this potential original creator.

The story unfolds as he meets an artist that tells him the bat is actually something passed down throughout history, throwing him right into the middle of several conspiracies concerning real key incidents throughout modern history.

On top of everything, the bat starts talking to him, urging him to find a supposedly important and immensely powerful scroll.

My favourite piece from urasawa, brilliant in every respect, please please please please read this.

That's it for this first part, if you're still here, thanks for listening, please please read these, urasawa is a goat, a legend a phenomenon.

Just to share some resources before I go into the part 2 bit which may have spoilers irdk yet, there were two YouTube videos I really liked that I highly recommend.

The first was 'The greatest mangaka of all time' by the masked man and second was 'A guide to manga's greatest master' by the omnibus collector.

The first video is about 10 minutes long and uses the quality of Monster, 20th century boys, Pluto and Billy Bat as their rationale for why Naoki Urasawa is the greatest mangaka of all time.

The second is 20 minutes and pretty much covers Naoki's entire career and body of work, giving pretty rad descriptions of all his pieces, inspirations for them and a bunch of other really neat info. Bonus For those of you who are int that sort of thing, they also show the physicals they own off all the manga they talked about. really appreciated that. thank you omnibus collector.

Really appreciated these videos as most animanga fans and discussions focus on monster, sometimes 20th century boys and rarely anything past that unless they're ranking which I'm really not interested in.

There's also a third video I mention in part 2 of the episode I'll link here as well.

Anyways thanks again for listening, stay hydrated and listen in for some rambles if you're also into that kind of thing.

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Re: your last post about Taekookers hating jimin. It’s also because Jimin’s very existence and the existence of Jikook’s past itself pretty much invalidates Taekook and it ruins all their lovely Taekook long-term relationship narratives. I remember when that video came out last year of the filming of butter where jungkook is trying to touch jimin’s waist under his crop top while they were watching the footage back- taekookers lost their minds because again, it ruins the illusion that jk is a devoted obsessive jealous boyfriend who has never even looked at another man. That one hurt them because it was hard to spin as “staged”. Along with the other few behind the scenes footage where Jungkook’s hands are down jimin’s shirt or whatever lol. They will continue to harass Jimin even if another jikook moment never happens, because he is a giant reminder that Taekook cannot exist romantically.

I don't really agree... I don't think that's the reason, no. I'm also against believing they get angry and hate on him because "jikook is too real", and I think it's a really dangerous mindset. The brain starts treating it as positive reinforcement. So it starts being a case of "they're hating = that must mean jikook is real".

After Jimin hugged JK in the Hoseok's entrance video, I saw a jikooker qrt a hate tweet and they said "kookminers we're back in business" because they were hating on Jimin. This is why jikookers don't even REPORT taekook accounts, and why they don't care about Jimin getting hate; because they do not give a fuck anymore. They have drunk their own kool-aid that tells them hate = jikook real.

NO. They're hating precisely because they think jikook it's a lie.

In their minds taekook ALREADY exists romantically, they're not looking for confirmation, in their minds they already KNOW that jikook is not real. They get annoyed and frustrated and they hate and fight because they want to prove what they believe is real.

And lately they've had the ammo. Jungkook plays a song and says "Taehyung loves this song." Jikookers have to make slow motion videos and edit lyrics on the video and cut clips from it to say "this song was about Jimin." No😭 He literally just played that song and thought of Taehyung. So jikookers want to take something that it's about "taekook" and make it into jikook. They don't feel threatened, they're literally standing up for what they believe in. In the wrong ways, but essentially that's it. It's more than what jikookers ever did for Jimin, let me tell you that. They never stood up for Jimin. All they ever did was use his love and care for Jungkook on "ship wars".

Taekookers don't hate on Jungkook when he does something because by logic they can't go against JK, they're supposed to love and support him too. So the solution is believing him to be a victim, someone with no control over the situation. That allows them to still support him and still believe he's a dedicated committed lover (in private) who would never look at another man and is only acting friendly with Jimin because it's work. Their response to Jungkook's suchwita live? "The company made him do it to promote flopmin."

Whereas when Jimin does something he's the aggressor, the rapist, the groomer, the queerbaiter. They hate Jimin because they geniunely have convinced themselves that he's the one forcing Jungkook to do anything. There's not more to it.

Same thing is happening with jikookers now, who are turning to hate on Taehyung because what else are they going to do? Call out Jungkook for it? Hold him accountable for his own actions? Admit that he's not being strung along and he hangs out with people when he actually wants to see them? No, now for jikookers "it's not Jungkook's fault; Jungkook doesn't say anything, it's all Taehyung."

When Jimin said he comes to my room three times, Taekookers response was exactly the same: "Jungkook didn't mention going to his room, that was Jimin" "Jimin is the only one who talks about Jungkook, JK never initiates anything". Now jikookers are going "Jungkook didn't mention hanging out with wooga, that was Tae" "Jungkook didn't post the photos, Taehyung did".

Both jikookers and taekookers the same lmao.

One of the first things I said in this blog was that -pardon my french- but I really don't give a fuck about jikook vs. taekook fights. It's the most absurd thing I've ever seen. I honestly never cared because in the end they're both fighting about who's Jungkook happiest with, who is he closest to, who does he love more, who does he go to bed with. IF the answer was SOOOO obvious for any side, IF Jungkook was actually a devoted committed loving partner to Taehyung or Jimin, there would be no fighting. If Jungkook actually made his position obvious and clear and everything shippers love to believe about him, people wouldn't spend years (because this has been going on for YEARS) analyzing the way the hugs people, or how wide he smiled, or analyzing his every word and action trying to understand what he meant.