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nanaosaki3940 · 3 years ago

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Enji Todoroki/Endeavor - The Social Disaster

MHA’s one of the main subplots is the Todoroki family story which we all know it as ‘Keeping Up With The Todorokis’. This subplot is deliciously complicated and the root of these complications is none other than Endeavor or Enji Todoroki himself.

And I’m going to explain why I call him ‘The Social Disaster’.

After failing to surpass All Might, Endeavor started his stupid breeding experiment where he’ll create a child to use it as a weapon to surpass All Might and become the No. 1 hero and the first weapon he created was called Touya Todoroki. At the very beginning of the training sessions with his son, Endeavor filled Touya’s head with dreams of becoming No.1 hero, be greater than All Might, that he was the destined one to carry out his father’s legacy etc. And then one day Endeavor stopped everything and just gave up on Touya, saying – “No, you can’t. You’re worthless, you can’t do this one thing I told you that you’re gonna be able to do your whole life and so you need to just get the fuck out of my face. Stop doing it. Go be an accountant and just give up.”

From birth Touya was told –“You’re gonna be this great thing. You’re gonna be this Hero Hokage.” and then Endeavor’s like – “Oh sorry, you’re not going to be that Hero Hokage.” and we see that Endeavor’s spending the whole time telling his son like - “Go hang out with your friends and go be normal.” And Touya says – “Well, everyone at school wants to be a hero too.” To me, it’s kinda looping back into Deku’s situation in reverse, like where Deku wanted to become a hero but he was quirkless and Touya also wanted to be a hero, but he can’t tolerate his own flames.

And then Endeavor came up with this shitty idea like – “Oh, you know what will make him stop, if you get him a fucking replacement.” which is maybe the worst idea I’ve heard in my whole life of how to resolve a problem like this.

To me, Endeavor has seemingly no understanding of how people work beyond just – “Oh, this is how I solve criminal cases.”

During his engagement with Rei, he looks and talks like such an awkward idiot and I feel like the way he treats Touya and the way he tries to handle his situation, just proves that how bad he is in understanding what he is doing and how his intentions affects reality.

Even though he is a grown-ass adult and he should know, it's interesting to see that there is this sort of consistency because I believe the implication is that it is his social idiocy that also caused him the No. 1 spot that he could never really become the people's man like All Might because he just doesn't know how to be a man of the people like All Might. And this is how it infects all parts of his life.

He's telling Touya to stop out of concern for him like – “You need to stop this because it's just not good for you.”, which is a very sweet sentiment. But at the same time, we get the panel of where he says – “We got to have another kid to make him stop doing it because then he will give up.” And Rei says –“No, we're not going to do that.” And his response is –“No, we gotta do it because he is never gonna be the one to surpass All Might.”

Then they have Natsuo and we see Touya’s reaction to it and it’s obviously that he’s not taking it very well and then we just see Endeavor getting more and more angry and Rei is getting more and more sad and defeated by the whole situation and when they have baby Shoto, the faces of Endeavor, Rei and Touya physically upsets me. We get to see Endeavor looks really excited, Rei's just like –“I’m done, just stop.” And Touya is so devastated because he realizes that this is the one that's gonna be better than him.

Shoto got what they wanted out of him and we see Touya saying like –“I can still do it.” and the end result is just the dad saying like; it's not even like –“Let's do things together other than being heroes.”; it's more like –“You got to give up on being hero, go play with other kids, go to school and get the fuck out of my face. I gotta train this other hero child. I don’t have time for this shit.”

Endeavor has a line of logic within his brain where he's like –“I can’t fix Touya for what I have done to him cannot be undone because I don’t have the capabilities, so I will just move forward and hope that he copes up.”, which is a terrible and stupid idea, but it is nonetheless align of logic within him.

There’s a certain set of values, ideas and goals in him and he follows them through and they were all terrible and reprehensible. But it still shows that there was an internal logic to him that it makes him even more monstrous without taking that terrifying humanity away from him.

Endeavor is just a person who has done terrible things, with an actual logical line of thought behind it even if it is logic that only makes sense to him.

There’re a lot of obvious parallels we can make between Touya and Deku (they’re not subtle about it and it’s kind of in our faces). Well it's just interesting to me that like Endeavor his whole obsession is like –“I gotta be better than All Might.” And then even in situations like this where he has this protégé that he gives all this hopes and dreams to like –“You're gonna be great, you're gonna be a hero, you’re gonna be the greatest.” And then the child has this power that his body cannot handle and he can't do what the dad told him to do, Endeavor is just like –“Well then, you suck kid. Get a new job, idiot.”

On the other hand, even though All Might is far from perfect in a lot of ways of course when it comes to this but it’s the exact same thing but he understands that like having these aspirations and these dreams even in someone so young is so real. And we know that All Might feels bad about what happens to Deku, but at no point does he tell him like –“Okay, give it up kid. You still can’t do it more than 5% without breaking your arm. Give it up idiot. I’m gonna give it to somebody else.” Like at no point does that even cross his mind. Rather All Might tells Deku –“Look, you gotta work to do. You’re not up to that level yet but I’ll help you and I’ll do it with you.”

And that’s true that Touya wanted to be better than All Might which wasn’t realistic but he was also a child and rationality and setting realistic goals comes much later than being a fucking child. But Endeavor was so obsessed with his own shit that it was hard for him to get over his own hang ups and look through Touya’s problems. Touya could easily still be a hero if he accidentally singes his skin a little bit sometimes that’s not even close to the kind of damage that Deku does himself every time he fights anything. So, it’s not unrealistic to be like –“Okay, yeah I’ll help you and we’ll take it slow. We’ll help you get over your power and then when you get to school or whatever, you can get help from the tech department and make you a heat shield or whatever.”

There were many ways that he obviously could’ve worked around it but Endeavor didn’t give a shit about that because that wasn’t his goal. He’s goal wasn’t to nurture Touya rather his goal was to find a way to get past All Might. He didn’t give a shit about trying to take it slow or trying to help Touya to accomplish anything other than what he wanted and once Touya couldn’t do that, he’s like –“Get the fuck out of my face while I train this replacement child.”

Endeavor is a kind of a person who makes every single mistake it could have made, like starting right from the point where he buys a wife to the point where he tortures Shoto during training sessions. Like you all can tell that he almost like wanted to be a parent when he was like –“Oh, I need to protect Touya from his own power.” He vocalizes a sweet sentiment but also he’s the reason Touya is like this and he can’t just run away and that’s why I like what Rei says as well it’s like –“You just keep running away. You keep creating these problems and you just keep running forward to All Might but also you keep running away from what you have done.” And I am so happy with how Rei is characterized like she is so much more spunky and so much more like assertive than I thought. Like she actually talks back to Endeavor and even in the hospital scene, she has like a presence and says –“You know we will do this. You need to get yourself together and we need to atone together, but most of all you because you were a piece of shit.”

And I also like the little thing at the end where Shoto was like –“I talked with Mom before we came here and I told her that I was going to be the one to stop Touya, but no, we’ll stop him altogether.” To me it sounded like it was Rei’s idea where she was like –“No, you can’t let this piece of shit make this your problem.” I mean Endeavor was always running away. He ran away from Touya and all this stuff happened. He was ready to do it again in the hospital, saying that –“I can’t fight him, he’s my son and I can’t do it.” But Rei was like –“No, get up and take some fucking responsibility for your problems.”

And I love that it was Rei the one who came to that conclusion, because even Shoto was ready to be like –“Dad can’t do it. I’m destined to stop my brother.” And she was like –“No, it’s this asshole’s problem. He did this and yeah all of us could have done more but you can’t let him sit in a bed and wallow about being so pathetic. He needs to get up and he needs to solve this.” And there's no better character it could have been to have been the one that came to that conclusion.

And this is what I love about MHA that how sincere it is and what I mean by that is moments like these where it doesn’t really go out of its way to play into any specific tropes when it comes to this abuse storyline and instead just gives you hurt people moving past and making decisions that sounds reasonable. Like the fact that Shoto didn’t just go on the avenger mode but instead talked it over with his mother which usually doesn't happen in shounen manga/anime. When you decide on making a revenge plot in shounen, you just do it. You don’t go and talk to someone important in your life and seek emotional counsel in shounen. So yeah, I love that Horikoshi sensei is giving us mature and realistic contents like these.

Then in chapter 302 we see Rei asks Touya like –“It almost seems like you don’t want to really be a hero, like you don’t seem like you actually care about becoming a hero. It just seems like you’re obsessed and stuck because Endeavor is your dad and you feel like you have a legacy to live up to but he is abandoned you.” And of course Touya’s responses were like –“Fuck you, mom. I fucking hate you.” But she was right. If Endeavor just hadn’t been such a pig headed shit in dealing with the problem, Touya either would have grown up to the point where he realized it was not worth it or if he really wanted to be a hero, Endeavor could have actually helped foster him into one if his entire end goal wasn't dependent on Touya being the best one.

Did Touya need to be the greatest hero ever created?

No.

Because in their last real conversation, before Touya ran off to the mountain and got burned up, he said and acknowledged the fact that he wasn’t as good as Shoto right now, but he said –“One day, I might become great and you’ll be proud of me.” Touya wasn’t even there saying like –“Oh, I’m the greatest thing ever born. Look at my awesome fire. Oops I burned the mountain down.” It was just him being like –“Look, I’m still trying. Look at this cool thing I did. Acknowledge this one thing that I did.” And Endeavor’s only reaction is – “Shut the fuck up, kid. You fucking idiot. How many times I tell you not to do this?”

But when Touya does get burned up, it shows us Endeavor’s face in horror running to the mountain which again is so bizarre. Honestly I’m starting to wonder if we will get an Endeavor back story ‘cause his set of morals and values is so fucked up.

The issue is Endeavor does care, but he just doesn't understand how to care. Like on a base level, he has the positive emotion of caring about Touya’s well-being and that is about where it ends. Endeavor has no comprehension of what that means or how to do that in a good way.

Every idea he thinks of how to fix it is stupid and he's even obsessed with the notion of like –“When Touya uses too much of his fire, he burns himself. So, I guess he has to never ever use his power ever forever from now.” I mean this goes beyond ‘I'm socially awkward around ladies’.

I almost think Endeavor’s previous family was just nothing prior to him and he fucking hated that. This is probably edge dark turn for what they might end up doing but I’m going almost like the Hawks route like –“Dad was a drunk, mom didn’t give a shit and they fought all the time. I was the scared repressed kid, but then at school or whatever it turned out I was actually pretty awesome and I became popular to some extent by both like athletic and corporate events. I was cool for that aspect so I’m used to being around people but I have no understanding of how they work at all.” That’s my assumption.

Even when he keeps trying to apologize to his family it always comes off like –“Yeah, I’m a bad guy and you hate me, so I’m gonna buy you a house that I won’t live in.” I mean, you’re still not really trying are you? You’re just moving the problem ‘cause you just like –“Oh, they’ll just be happy without me. I just suck. I’m just going to go away.” But like, you’re not helping them heal up or whatever. You’re just like ‘I’m going to be nice now’ but that doesn’t make all the horrible shits you did go away.

Endeavor doesn’t have an understanding of how humans work just because of how he is, but now I’m really curious to see if there might be more behind that. I just want to see why he’s so obsessed with All Might, like where that came from.

The character he’s obviously a parallel to is Bakugo and with Bakugo, we do get to see that since his youth Bakugo equated being a hero and the triumph of being a hero with being as good as All Might. That is very light as far as his motivation goes but it’s a motivation nonetheless.

With Endeavor, we’ve only ever gotten as far as like –“He is strong and I’m weaker and that pisses me off.”

It's almost idolization in a different way where we’re like with Bakugo, it’s like –“That’s my goal. I want to be just like All Might.” Whereas with Endeavor, it's like –“That's my goal 'cause I’m pissed off that I’m not the best of the best.”

They both idolized him in similar ways and Bakugo obviously feels more socially adjusted than Endeavor. Even though Bakugo’s a dick, he’s aware of things and is surprisingly emotionally literate. Like the scene where him and Deku get in trouble after they fight in end of season 3, they're like cleaning the house or whatever and Bakugo makes that little reach out of like –“Hey, the fighting style you’re using is messed up for these reasons, so you should try doing this.”

Like that alone is way beyond anything I would ever expect that of Endeavor. Endeavor’s response when they were cleaning the house would have been like –“Don’t worry, I’ll move my room to a different floor, so we won’t have to talk anymore.”

Endeavor’s a fucking weirdo, I swear.

And also Endeavor’s like actual motivations of becoming No.1 hero are almost intentionally omitted from the whole Todoroki family subplot and it’s so uncanny. I’m really hoping that Horikoshi sensei actually does something with that cause I think it feels so shallow compared to how much time we've spent on it now exactly and I feel it’s intentional and we are going to get something more about Endeavor. It feels like one of those gaps that an author leaves specifically so you can question it until it fills you in.

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #enji todoroki #bnha endeavour #mha endeavor #shoto todoroki #touya todoroki #toya todoroki #natsuo todoroki #fuyumi todoroki #rei todoroki #mha shouto #dabi #mha dabi

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carryonmywaywardcaptain · 4 years ago

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Supernaturally Marvelous Fic Challenge- Masterlist

THANK YOU so much to everyone who participated! These lovely writers whipped up some amazing works, so I hope you’ll take time to read each of these Supernatural and Marvel fics (Also, please check out the authors’ masterlists--you may find other treasures you didn’t know you needed in your life!)

Here’s a link to the original challenge post for context, or just in case you’re looking for some writing inspiration for yourself in the future!

In no particular order, but clumped by character:

Drunk Confessions by @waywardbaby (Dean x reader)

Author’s Summary: She really needs someone who will be honest and true and who better than him.

Secrets and Lights by @amanda-teaches (Dean x reader)

Author’s Summary: Hiding your relationship with Dean has gotten harder the deeper you fall for him. The coming Christmas seems to be your hardest test yet, but will it turn into something so much more than you were expecting?

I’ll Be Home, If Only in Your Dreams by @janicho88

Author’s Summary: Your fiancé is a soldier currently stationed overseas on a deployment that just won’t end. As time keeps going by and an important date is getting closer you begin to wonder if he will make it home in time. Leading to a fight that just might be your last, which will haunt you both.

The Symbol of My Soul by @waywardnerd67 (Dean x reader/ Steve x reader)

Author’s Summary: Everyone has a mark on their soul chosen according to their destiny and imprinted upon their soulmate to reveal who they are. In a world of superheroes and villains, (Y/N) wore the one man’s symbol she has ever loved proudly across her chest paying no mind to the symbol over her heart. Until her world collides with one of unsung heroes and monsters. Will she stand by the side of America’s greatest superhero or walk the path of destiny to the world’s bravest hero?

Express Yourself by @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad (Steve x reader)

Author’s Summary: Steve is worried about you because you never say what you think or what is going on with you. He wants to be with you for when you let all that out.

Sam. At Christmas. by @thinkinghardhardlythinking (6-part Sam Winchester x reader series)

Author’s Summary: Sam and Y/N must pose as newlyweds on a very festive case. Very fluffy Christmassy story that includes, Fake Relationship for a case, There was onlly one bed, a Ball....and lots and lots of Christmassy fluffy tropes.

#supernaturally marvelous fic challenge #supernatural fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #spn fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #dean x reader #steve rogers x reader #steve x reader #sam winchester x reader #sam x reader #supernatural #spn #supernatural fics #spn fic #dean winchester fic #sam winchester fic #marvel fic #steve rogers fic

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komoryriku · 4 years ago

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Queering KH Part 4: Hearts in Tune

Actually KH Finally lol

Pictured: Riku humming Sora’s name in a soft, adoring, wistful voice the way a swooning straight person sighs the name of their beloved of the opposite gender.

Kingdom Hearts gives off so many subtextual signals of queer coding that it genuinely BAFFLES me how people can really believe it is straight. You may be wondering what makes me so confident in that when there has not been anything in the games to explicitly prove any of the characters are not straight, and I will be happy to tell you. It is because in order to believe Kingdom Hearts is straight, you have to ignore WAY too much subtext. To truly believe that Sora is in love with Kairi and only coded to be interested in Kairi, you have to ignore his questioning of what love is. You have to ignore the combined keyblade he shares with Riku. You have to ignore how much the narrative is driving him to understand that Riku is his most important, cherished person. This all goes doubly for Riku who has a coming out story not unlike Elsa’s metaphorical one, in which his love for Sora is his greatest source of strength. You have to pretend the necklace gifting plot point is entirely straight and cannot possibly mean anything homoromantic. You have to ignore the way Sora cries while clutching Riku’s hand compared to his subdued and non-emotional reunion with Kairi- that’s just too much “accidental subtext” for me to confidently ignore lol. Intentional or not, KH is Gay~

Here’s how we’re gonna do this.

So where the hell do I even begin with coding KH? Well- I can’t possibly queer the whole of KH text in 1 summer, so what I plan to do is this:

Give you the tools to understand KH’s coding so that you can code it yourself~

Queer a few major KH scenes so that everyone can see that the proof is in the pudding.

I’m gonna try to break down various scenes to decode them and queer them so you can see what’s at play in KH. Originally when this meta was a single doc, I was only gonna cover 4 scenes. But since I’m breaking it into parts to update at my leisure, I’m gonna just add scenes and meta as I go~

Now without further ado:

How the Hearts in Tune scene is Gay Coded

This shouldn’t be too hard at all.~

This scene is almost too easy.

The scene opens with Sora bringing Mickey the sound idea he found but as it turns out, one sound idea is not enough. Sora tells us not to worry because he has a friend who is always picking up the slack for him. Likewise, on Riku’s end, he brings his sound idea to Mickey and is surprised to see that Sora’s sound idea is necessary to complete the song.

Once the sound ideas meet, this beautiful visual plays out in which the 2 sound ideas swirl around each other and the soundtrack title “Dearly Beloved” plays.

Now, there are several things I want to note about this sequence- heck this visual alone before we move on.

Recall earlier when I discussed Shiki’s point that blue and pink (likewise blue and red) “go together”, romantically.

I will let the visual of Sora’s sheet music being pink while Riku’s is blue speak for itself. But I will also add how this ties into the yin and yang themes I’m about to discuss:

Yin and Yang

This concept gets its own section because it’s such an influential concept in so many aspects of various cultures around the globe.

Yin and Yang is an eastern philosophy which illustrates the concept of dualism. In short, it is the concept that 2 opposite halves are complements to a whole. The original term in fact translates to dark-bright.

I am neither a philosophy professor or student so I will keep this as brief as I can and simply encourage you to study up on Yin and Yang at your own leisure. I will however paste this section from wikipedia because I think it is extremely helpful information to have for studying eastern media in general.

Yin and Yang: husbanded opposing forces. Dark-Light, Moon-Sun, Chaos-Order, Winter-Summer, Negative-Positive.

Female (Yin)-Male (Yang): Yes this is often used in a heteronormative heterosexual context because people are homophobic and believe in gender binaries, unfortunately, but I implore you to consider the concept in more figurative, spiritual, aesthetic themes, especially since Yin and Yang is a much grander philosophy than mere sexuality discourse; it’s about complementary forces creating a whole.

For shipping purposes, think opposites attract. Think concepts that are traditionally associated with femininity meshing with concepts that are traditionally associated with masculinity. Queer media has a wonderful way of subverting heteronormative Yin and Yang tropes by showing that cis-hetero standards can be hypocritically non-compliant with the complementary concept.

Rather than thinking of this, 2 heteros in love based on being just- the same person with opposite genders:

Think of this, same gendered couples with complementary personalities:

Think about how an aloof scrappy butchy vampire queen attracts an uptight calculating femme princess.

Think about how this goody-goody dumb jock with a martyring hero complex attracts this naughty cunning jock with a self-loathing villaness complex.

And now think about how badly we need more canonical mlm couples in children’s media lol. Oops my finger slipped. But I’m getting ahead of myself lol.

The concepts of interconnected opposite forces are so important and prominent in literature throughout the world, but yin and yang is ESPECIALLY important in Kingdom Hearts because it is a story that explicitly explores Light and Dark forces. It explores how they both oppose one another in catastrophic ways,

and how they complement each other in harmonious ways.

Getting ahead of myself again… But hey speaking of harmony, back to the matter at hand.

Hearts in Tune.

This scene shows a number of romantic symbols. As I was saying before the yin and yang tangent, pink and blue (nee red and blue) are already symbols of romantic suggestion. And in the case of them representing 2 parts of a whole song, these song pieces act as complementary halves, adding another layer of dualism to the scene. Furthermore, the music sheets swirl around each other in a yin and yang fashion. Harmony has been achieved. This lets us know these forces belong together. These forces representing Sora and Riku. They are husbanded together. These 2 hearts in question are part of each other. In fact, Mickey even says so:

Perhaps most damning, however, is that the song in question is “Dearly Beloved”, arguably the theme song for Kingdom Hearts as far as the score goes. I’m sure it goes without say that “Dearly Beloved” is not only in itself a romantic sounding phrase but it is also the phrase specifically said by officiators of weddings to the congregation before the wedding vows are exchanged. “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…”

I will also mention that Riku’s dream eater symbol visible in the shot is specifically designed based on a bleeding heart flower, a symbol of passionate love. Credit to Steam for pointing this out here, please follow them and read their posts they are magically delicious:

So almost everything about this scene is aesthetically romantically coded, and I didn’t even mention the fact that Dream Drop Distance’s whole color palette is themed with rainbows, which as I said earlier is absolutely still a gay symbol in Japan. Note the rainbow of colors animating from the sheet music.

So in terms of the atmosphere of the scene, its already incredibly homoromantic in every way I can think of. But what about the dialogue?

Well lets talk about the dialogue. Dialogue should always been read with care when you’re trying to queer a text. Often a lot of queer messaging in a text is subtextual. This means the text itself may actually say something gay, but you have to read further into it. This is an old method of queer writing designed to protect the writer from getting in trouble for their gay crimes.

Historical aside on this: If you’ve ever read Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, you may have note that Lord Henry can never just simply say that he is gay, lest Oscar Wilde be charged for homosexuality in 19th century England. Instead, Lord Henry simply tells us he is married to a woman, but makes it clear throughout the text that this marriage is mostly performative and he is not emotionally invested in it whatsoever, going against the puritanical, heternormative ideals of Victorian prudery. Lord Henry is by contrast MUCH more invested in following the life and times of his very close friend Dorian Gray, with whom he shares a hedonistic philosophy in the name of Fin de siècle. Not to be a downer but for the sake of understanding how real this subject of oppressed gay censorship is, despite keeping the homosexual themes as purely subtext, Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted of homosexuality and this book was used against him in court.

What we are privileged to have today with KH is a cutscene and not just a script. Meaning we have visuals, animation, voice acting, musical cues, etc etc to follow along with to enhance our subtext.

On Sora’s end of the conversation, Mickey points out that the song is incomplete with just his sound idea alone, and Sora tells him not to worry, as Riku is his dependable friend who will fill in where he fails. The text in the official English translation is:

Mickey: That's strange... Is one Sound Idea not enough?

Sora: Don't worry. I've got a friend out there who will help. He's always

picking up the slack for me.

This on its own sounds platonic. But note just how affectionate Sora’s voice acting is when he says it. Not only that, he clutches his heart to let us know how close he is to Riku and how much his connection with Riku matters to him. How much confidence he has in this friend he cares so much about. He then closes his eyes after saying it, smiling up in the air blissfully while he waits for their hearts to make their connection and finish the song.

Once it is finished, Mickey remarks that their sounds joined together to make something more powerful. Sora then says looking thoughtful, “Yeah. Two forces are better than one. Right, Riku?”

Following this, Sora leaves to fight the boss.

On Riku’s side, Mickey questions what happened, and Riku looks up thoughtfully, and says tenderly, “Sora.”

Mickey comments “Sora? Funny... Just hearing that name kinda makes me wanna smile.” and Riku tells him warmly, “Yeah. That's how he is.”

Mickey then goes on to say some really shippy stuff:

“Whaddaya know... Riku and Sora. The Sound Ideas you two set free joined together. And when they did, they made a great and powerful harmony.”

Riku then nods and tells Mickey brightly that “Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him.”

And I would like to pause to look at that line. “It’s pretty hard not to smile around him.” Although Mickey says the same thing, that just hearing Sora’s name invokes a smile, we sense a somewhat deeper meaning in Riku saying it. Why is that? Well, for one thing this game is entirely about Riku protecting Sora and exploring how much Sora actually means to him. This game is continuing Riku’s redemption arc from KH2, but it is also doing something perhaps even more important: it is providing him a journey of self discovery. This test resets Sora and Riku to level 1 so to speak, not just in their powers but even their models revert to variations of their KH1 selves. This helps to underscore Riku re-examining himself and his feelings.

And then guess what? Mickey makes some even SHIPPIER commentary. He exclaims “Wow! No wonder the music sounded like so much fun. But I bet he's got you to thank for that. Having such a good friend means he could really enjoy it.”

Riku is taken aback by this comment. “Huh?”

Mickey continues, expressing some extremely yin and yang themed sentiments,

“It's like each of you is holding on to a little part of the other. Your hearts are always in tune, so they're free to sing. Gosh, I hope I can be part of the team someday.”

Mickey did us a wonderful favor and expressed to us explicitly, for those who didn’t understand the romantic coding of the scene already, that Sora and Riku are a good match. Mickey tells Riku that the music sounded like fun in English, that it was a happy, pleasurable time, and tells him that Sora has Riku for a friend which is what must have made it so enjoyable.

So from this dialogue we get assurance that Sora and Riku are two very close friends, whose hearts are connected, and they are 2 powerful forces that merge into an even greater one. Their hearts are in tune.

Now if this were a scene about a boy and a girl, I doubt anyone would question whether it was romantic. Why should we be asked to look at it platonically just because it is 2 boys? The romantic imagery is clear.

And let me ask you this while we’re still on the subject of Dream Drop Distance:

According to Riku’s character files, he had previously thought of Sora as a little brother, and tried to be a cool older brother to him.

He then tells us that this has changed. What did it change to?

The surface level, heteronormative answer would say it changed to them being merely friends.

But isn’t that an odd regression? After all, found family is a thing, and that’s a bit weird for him to question since there is no reason for those feelings to change on that notion. If Sora loved him like a brother, that clearly hasn’t changed. Riku clearly loves Sora as deeply, so that didn’t change. The other problem with this phenomenon Riku is dealing with is that there is no reason for him to feel this strange sense of repression we keep seeing over this change. He is constantly holding back on some feelings for Sora but platonic and brotherly feelings are entirely acceptable. What is it that he is hiding? What sort of feelings for Sora would be hidden?

From the Kh2 Novel:

He really did want to see Sora and talk. But that was impossible with this appearance. The things that mattered the most were what he couldn’t tell Sora. It had always been that way.

What sort of feelings might be systemically oppressed?

This scene is pretty much EXACTLY what I would do to say as explicitly as possible that Riku is gay without being able to say it outright due to censorship.

#soriku #sora kh #riku kh #kingdom hearts #dream drop distance

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mrs-i-have-too-many-biases · 5 years ago

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Lee Minho// How to win over the Ice Prince

Stray Kids Christmas Series

Scenario: Every year, a big Christmas party was hosted at the palace of the Lee Family. But this year, a special guest seemed to attracted the cold-hearted prince’s eye. Genre: Fluff/ slight angst Tropes: Strangers to lovers | Royal!AU Pairing: Prince!Lee Minho X Lady!Reader (Knight’s daughter) Word count: 10,3K Warning: This little guide will be divided in 10 steps and a fanfic story.

“Y/n, c’mon. We’re invited to that party! Besides, I thought you and prince Jisung were friends?” Your father sighed as he tried to hand over your ball gown. “He is, but we’re always attending these posh parties. They are getting old.” You whined. “And so am I, you should find yourself a nice young man and get settled.” “Dad, we’ve talked about this. I’m not looking for a relationship.” You sighed whilst looking at your father sadly.

It’s been almost five years, since your mother had passed away. It was on the twenty-third of December, which made Christmas time quite hard for you. She had caught a terrible illness that made her skin lose all of its pigment, her eyes would visibly be unfocused and her throat eventually got so swollen that it made her suffocate in her sleep. Your father and you were devastated, especially since your father’s work finally had worked out for the family and he had became a knight. He had saved a village from a rival kingdom. He had saved many lives and sadly your mother wasn’t there to enjoy the wealth that your father had earned.

You didn’t live a luxurious life before your father became a knight. You lived in a small hut in the middle of the woods. You were home-schooled by your mother who was a teacher before she had you. They gave you everything, since you were their only child and they cherished your dearly.

You felt bad for your father at times. He was lonely and getting older and you obviously weren’t always going to be there for him and be able to care for him. That would be one of the reasons why you weren’t with anyone and besides that, guys weren’t that attracted to you since you were very fierce and independent. Many guys you knew wanted a girl who played damsel in distress and you know that wasn’t you.

Your father had always taught you how to survive on your own, even when you are terrible low on supplies.

And now here you were, because your dad’s a hero, you had to attend these stupid, meaningless parties. The elite had nothing better to do with their live, other than spending their money on things, was something you’ve noticed through time as you had gone to multiple of these parties.

Hours later you had arrived at the palace of the Han family. When you met Jisung for the first time your dad had just saved the village and you were still very knew to the fact that you were living in the spotlight. Jisung was kind enough to welcome you into this new world. He showed you around the palace, he wanted a new friend and that’s what you became eventually. The Han family were the one’s who made your father a knight and he was happy to serve them since they were very good to you. They gave you a big piece of land with a great house where you two could live comfortably.

You were very thankful for him and you repaid him with your friendship. He told you that he was well quite lonely, yes, he did have a brother and his animals. But his brother was always off to do crown prince duties and his animals weren’t always having Jisung’s shit. Jisung found it a little challenging at the beginning of your friendship, but it quickly turned out to be a great one when the two of you got out of your shells.

Jisung also had this friend Minho, he was the crown prince of the Lee family’s kingdom. They were one of the most powerful kingdoms besides the Bang family’s and the Kim’s family. Minho was an only child, just like you and it kind of showed. He was antisocial, didn’t know how to share or how to interact to other people. Jisung didn’t know how he got Minho to open up to him, but he did. Minho was known as a coldheartedly prince who rejected almost everyone who tried to get close to him. His past girlfriends tried to loosen him up and melt his heart, but it didn’t seem to work. They told everyone that he was a problematic know-it-all, who didn’t seemed like he cared about anything.

You met Minho a couple of times and you gladly believed his past girlfriends. When you were introduced to him, you hoped that he would open up eventually like Jisung did, but when it came to Minho, he didn’t. He didn’t even bother to look you in the eye when you politely bowed to him. You saw him roll his eyes before passing you. “Trust me, he’s kinder that he seems.” Jisung tried to convince you at first, you wanted to see it for yourself, but Minho didn’t seem to be any different from how his ex-girlfriends made him look like.

Step one: Don’t let him walk over you

You were talking with Jisung when the guards had announced that the Lee family had arrived. Minho had his head held up high as he made his way through the room. Your father quickly went to your side as you were introduced as usual to the family. His parents nodded kindly after you bowed, Minho on the other hand just scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Don’t think that you’re special.” He muttered under his breath, but you heard him “I don’t care what you think of me, but my father is a hard-working man if you aren’t able to see that or acknowledge that, you must be blind or simply not very bright.” Your harsh tone and words horrified your father who quickly apologises to the Lee family. You in the mean time had walked off, leaving Jisung chuckling and Minho speechless, as well as his parents. You left an impression and he didn’t know what to do with it. He had seen you around, he had seen you talk and laugh with Jisung at parties, but that would be it. He wasn’t going to lie when he thought that you seemed like a gold digger, someone who wanted to live higher up. But you standing up for your father like that against a royal family without hesitation gave of a powerful vibe that you held.

Minho had his eyes on you for the rest of the night. You thought he did so he could plan his revenge on you for humiliating him in public, so you decided to avoid him at all costs and stay close to Jisung. Since they were friends too and he could protect you from Minho, who fortunately for you had a soft spot for the squirrel-like boy.

You were laughing and messing around with Jisung as you judged people’s outfits. “That woman looks like a walking bird.” You whispered to your friend as a woman with a feathered dress walked pass. “Shut up she’ll hear you!” Jisung laughed. “The swans are quaking.” You laughed. “More like quacking.” Jisung whispered, making you wheeze. “Jisung stop-“ “’Where the frick is that bitch who got my clothes- there she is what’s up ducker!’” Jisung and you were now laughing your asses off, receiving a weird look form the swan lady, making the two of you laugh even harder.

All of the sudden Minho was stood in front of the two of you. You sighed at the fact that your fun moment with Jisung was now ruined and you excused yourself from the two before walking off. “What’s up with her?” Minho asked his good friend as he gave him a drink. “Nothing much, why?” “Well, she doesn’t seem to really like me.” “That doesn’t really surprise me, you aren’t the nicest to her.” Jisung tried to explain. “What do you mean?” Minho says in confusion. “Oh my God you don’t even see it.” Jisung laughed feeling dumbfounded.

Minho laughed along, but still feeling confused. “What is it?” He asked Jisung. “You’re just a dick to her, she also doesn’t know why. We’ve known each other now for years. She thought that you would open up after a while.” “You know how I am with new people.” “I know, but c’mon Minho. Five years, you’ve known her for five years. Also, what makes you so interested in her all of the sudden?” Jisung smirked whilst wiggling his eyebrows.

“Nothing special, she just left an impression?” “What? Her putting you in your place did?” Jisung laughed, receiving a punch in his arm from his friend. “Shut up. I was planning on inviting her to our annual Christmas party.” Minho admitted. “Oh, I don’t think that would be the greatest idea.” Jisung said. “Why so.” “You really need to listen when she’s talking bro.” Jisung sighed before explaining to Minho that you had lost someone dear around Christmas time and that celebrating it was very difficult for you. “I could be good for them? I don’t know, you will be there.” “Why are you so interested in her? Are you starting to crush on her or something?” “What no, I don’t- my mom’s calling me. See you later.” Minho stuttered before walking off.

You were at home, a few days after the party, your father was decorating the Christmas tree whilst you were working in the garden to get some fresh vegetables for supper. You suddenly heard your father call for you and when you got back inside you heard someone ride away on a horse and your father was holding an envelope. It looked like an invite, but you didn’t recognise the wax stamp.

Your father did and opened the letter excitedly. ‘… you are invited to the annual Christmas ball at the palace of the royal Lee family.” You looked at your dad in shock. “Why would they invite us?” You ask your dad in shock and confusion. “I don’t know, especially since you insulted the young prince.” “He was the one who insulted you dad, you didn’t deserve to be disrespected like that. You’ve worked too hard for that. Which is why I’m not going.” “Don’t be crazy. You are supposed to come with me. It literally says our names.” He laughed, making you smile slightly. “It’s a Christmas party though dad.” You muttered. He sighed softly before walking closer to you.

He hugged you tightly as he spoke. “I know this time of the year is hard for you. It is for the both of us. But your mother loved Christmas and I think that she would want us to still celebrate it with her still living in our hearts.” “I get it dad, but it’s hard and I miss her. It will take me some time.” “I know sweety.” “But if you really want to go, then I will come with you.” You said, making your dad smile brightly. “Will you hold yourself back at the Christmas party for me?” “If Minho will act normal than maybe.” “We can work with that.”

In the meantime was Jisung at Minho’s place. He came over because he was bored and because he wanted to hang out, instead he was stuck with Minho and his little fashion show “I thought we were going for a ride.” “Sorry Sung, I have to fit my Christmas outfit. You know how my parents can be when they aren’t in control of every little thing, I do in my fucking life.” “Sir-“ “I’m not even sorry.” He said bluntly to the maid. “C’mon we usually ditch out for stuff like this.” Jisung groans as he laid back on Minho’s bed. “I know, I just feel different about all of this now.” “Why, because Y/n is coming?”

Minho didn’t respond to Jisung’s remark, making him gasp loudly. “Ladies can you come back later, I have to talk to Jisung.” Minho ordered sternly, making them bow politely before rushing out of the room. “It is about Y/n, isn’t it?” Jisung gasped once again. “Listen, I don’t know why I’m being like this, okay?” “Oh my God, you’re in love with her. This is so sad!” Jisung cried dramatically. “W-why- how- wait.” “This is a one-sided love-“ “Will you quit it already you doofus! I’m not in love with her!” Minho groans. “Then why are you making this such a big deal then?” “You’re the one who’s literally making a big deal out of this!” Minho scoffed. “Just tell me are you in love-“ “Let’s go for a ride!” Minho cut off his friend before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him outside.

The two went on a ride with their horses and went to the beach, which was covered in snow since it was the middle of winter. Minho had brought some food and drinks along with them as the two of them sat on a stump.

“Do you think she would like the party?” Minho asked his friend carefully. “You really are worried, aren’t you?” Jisung chuckled. “I honestly am. I don’t know why, after all I don’t know her that well. I mean you do, but she already hates me.” “You want her to not hate you?” Jisung questioned. “I mean, I guess it would be nice to know a girl who doesn’t talk shit about you.” Minho spat bitterly. “Just try to be nicer to her, she’s really great.” “If she’s so great then why won’t you date her?” Minho said in a mocking tone. “Are you jealous now? I would never steal your crush from you.” Jisung joked, before ending up in the snow because Minho pushed him off the stump.

“Just help me please.” Minho groans. “Alright, I will then. Just begin with being nice to her. Like at the party, begin from then on.” “I’ll try.”

Step two: talk back

It was a few weeks before the Christmas party, but there was a gathering where you father needed to be. There was a meeting about the security of the kingdom and about the new strategies they had come up with for the army.

That left Minho, Jisung and you alone in the living room of his place. The air was tense and the looks that exchanged between the three of you were awkward. You had a book in your hands whilst Minho and Jisung were chatting away. “Y/n, why don’t you join us, you’re so boring.” Minho teased. You looked up from your book and raised your eyebrow, unamused obviously. Whilst rolling your eyes you focussed your attention back on your book. “C’mon Y/n, don’t be such a stuck up.” Minho added with a smirk. “You literally have all year to be a jerk, why don’t you take today off?” “Pardon?” “What? Got a trouble with someone telling you the truth.” “Listen up vile woman, you know nothing. Why don’t you take your average looks outside and leave us alone.” “Look, your face might be good-looking, but we really should put a bag over your personality, because let me tell you something. It isn’t pretty.” You sneered, throwing the book on the side table and standing up.

“Did your mother teach you to speak with such a foul mouth.” You shot back around and stormed your way back to Minho. He had realised what he just said, he forgot that he couldn’t make such jokes with you and he knew he was going to pay for it. “Listen up you bastard. I don’t care who you are or who the fuck you think you are. You do not talk about my mother in any way. You have no right, understood? Never mention her again. So you better Shut your mouth or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you.” You threatened as you gripped Minho by the collar and pulled him up to your level as you stared deadly into his eyes. The guards saw the whole scene happen and finally realised that they should help the crown prince. “Lady Y/n, I think it’s time to go.” One of the guards say as he was about to escort you out. “I think so too.” You shot a glare at Jisung who kept quite the entire time, not even trying to defend you or whatever. You thought he was better than that, but you guessed you thought wrong. Minho was his best friend after all so you didn’t blame him.

Jisung sighed after you had left the room and groaned. Minho felt guilty already. “I thought you liked her?” Jisung whisper yelled as Minho ran his hand through his hair. “I-I don’t know why I am like this.” “You really need some help man.” Jisung sighed. “That’s why you need to help me.” “She literally hates me right now. I should’ve stood up for her, but I was too shocked by your dumb action. This won’t make her like you, you know?” “I am well aware of that, thank you very much.” Minho sighed as he dropped himself back on the sofa.

“The reason why she snapped this badly at you and why she doesn’t like Christmas anymore, is because her mother passed away on the twenty-third of December, this year it would be five years ago.” Minho hid his face in his hands and groaned at how stupid he had been. He felt like absolute shit and he wanted nothing more than to step into a hole and be buried into the ground. “You didn’t know-“ “I should’ve! You did! I need to stop joking around like this.” He sighed.

Minho started to grow a soft spot for you, something he hadn’t done in a long time. Not because he pitied you, but because you were so strong and stood up for the people who you loved when they couldn’t do it for themselves. He could admire that and he wanted to make it up to you. He also doesn’t know how deep he was when it came to falling for you, but he felt like he was already in deep.

After that mortifying day, he couldn’t stop thinking about you. He had people gathering information, in a non-creepy way, about the things that you liked and what your hobbies were. He would try to inform himself about the hobbies and make sure that your favourite things were at the party. He wanted nothing more than to make it up to you. He felt like he wanted to begin a relationship with you. He didn’t care if you would end up being just his friend, you were different and he liked that. You stood up for what you believed and he could respect that. He just felt like an idiot for realising that too late.

Step three: Show him your worth

Days had gone by rather quickly and you hadn’t bothered to speak to Jisung. You really were upset with him. It was the day of the Christmas party and your father had convinced you once again to join him to the party. “Are you really going to leave your old man alone at a party, with way too many people?” You hated it when he played this card with you, he knew that you cared way too much for him. You always wanted to make sure that he was alright, so you went with him.

You wore a beautiful ball gown that your father had bought for you with the money he had saved up in a month of hard working. He did some extra jobs to get extra money to buy you a brand-new dress in such a short time. You didn’t wanted him to spend this much money on you and insisted on paying at least half of the gown.

The colour of your dress matched the Christmas spirit, the rich Bordeaux colour popped lovely on your skin tone and the glitter that was processed into the dress was glistering beautifully in the lights that the chandeliers provided. You had never been at the palace of the Lee family. You were quite nervous and you wished Jisung was here to guide you through it. Even though some time had passed, you just wanted Jisung to make the first step to apologise.

You head your head high that night. You looked absolutely stunning and you knew it. And so did the guests at the party. When you walked were announced with your dad on your side, looking almost as handsome as he did on his wedding day with your mother, you walked down with a pokerfaced. You felt proud when the guard listed off the great things your father had accomplished whilst rescuing the village and the rest of his servings to the royal family. Not bothering to look at Jisung or Minho when bowed for his parents. His eyes wouldn’t leave your figure as you walked by with glory. His heart was beating fast and his mind was blurry, he felt like the only thing he could see and think about was you.

He looked at Jisung, he could read off Minho’s face the panic and nervousness. Jisung felt nervous as well, you were a great friend of his and he didn’t wanted this to end, because Minho had fucked up. He sighed and tried to calm himself down, the party literally just begun and he hadn’t even spoken to you yet. The music had started and your father had left you for a second to catch up with some people. You were in the mean time looking around at the people as they were dancing, chatting and having a good time.

Jisung was gathering his courage to talk to you, he knew you wouldn’t hesitate to cut him off and pretend you had never known him. You didn’t care who he was or what kind of a status he had and you proved that with dissing Minho in public. You could’ve gotten thrown into jail and it surprised you that you weren’t yet.

Jisung had found his way through the crowd to you. You sipped on your drink as you ignored him when he said hi. After a while he noticed that his plan wasn’t working so he just dragged you outside. “You look pretty.” He complimented. “I know.” You responded. Jisung started to rant about how much of a bad friend he was for not standing up for you as you just stared and listened to him. It was a little vile to let him feel bad when you were pretty much over this whole thing already.

You told him that it was fine and gave the poor distressed boy a hug. He was relieved that you forgave him, but he questioned how you felt about Minho after all. “Well, he fucked up. He could’ve had me around, his loss not mine.” You shrugged before going back inside, because well it was freezing.

At the rest of that moment Minho started to try and get your attention, by sending you drinks that his guard would deliver. He would try and get people to talk to you who would then try to bring you to himself. You wouldn’t fall for it, making Minho groan a little in frustration as he sat on his throne beside his parents. “Minho, why aren’t you looking for a partner at this lovely party. You’re twenty and you still single. You know you will be taking over the crown soon.” His mother states, making Minho roll his eyes as he was still focussed on you. He didn’t notice his mother standing up and walking up to greet some people. His dad tried to have the same conversation with his son, but Minho decided to stand up and make his way to Jisung. “They’re starting again huh?” Jisung chuckles as he offered Minho a drink. Minho hummed in responds whilst taking the drink gladly. “So, how is Y/n doing?” Minho asked carefully. “Well, she’s doing great. She forgave me.” Jisung said. “She didn’t forgave me, did she?” “Nope.”

Minho got it though. He looked at you once again and saw how beautiful you looked. You were laughing and talking to different people and it made him a little envious of them. He just wished that he hadn’t been such a dick to you, things could’ve been different. Maybe you would’ve liked him and the two of you would be together.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the king and queen would like to announce something.” The announcer called through the room as the music stopped abruptly. Minho looked at his parents in confusion, which quickly turned into shock when they announced that they had found a possible bride for him. He didn’t sign up for this. “…we think that miss Gwynn Hayden would be the best candidate for this. Therefore, we invite her to live with us to get to know our son better and begin a relationship that will unite our kingdoms together in the end.” Minho almost spit out his drink and handed his glass to Jisung who looked at his friend in shock. Minho made his way to his parents, when he tried to talk his father stopped him from doing so.

“Don’t stop this Minho, there’s nothing you can do.” He said to his son. “Yes I can. This is about my life.” “This is about our kingdom, stop being selfish.” Minho felt distressed and like he couldn’t breathe. He looked at the people who were staring at him, you made eye contact with him and you saw the overwhelming of emotions washing over him and you felt bad. As Minho looked you into the eye, he had an idea. He stepped in front of his mother and started to speak, even though he was told to be quite by both of his parents. “I will go through with the idea of princess Hayden staying and living with us, but I want lady Y/n to be there as well.” Minho said, shocking the whole room. This time making you almost spit out your drink.

“Excuse me, what for?” “I heard that miss Y/n has great life teachings and I would love to learn more about them.” You knew what he was doing and so was Minho of course.

‘Little shit.’ You thought to yourself before walking outside. Fresh air was something you needed right now to clear your mind.

Step 4: talk to him

You had been living in the Lee family’s palace for a day now and you tried your hardest to avoid Minho. “Please just let me talk to you.” Minho almost begged as he followed you around. You kept silent as you made your way to the garden where you just wanted to enjoy your tea in quite and peace whilst enjoying the snow. “Y/n.” He repeated your name like a little child who wanted attention from his parent. You put your tea down and sighed as you looked at him. “What do you want Minho?” “I want to apologise.” His words caught you of guard, but not really. You thought that he was going to make a stupid comment like he did the other day, you wanted to see where this was going. “I genuinely wanted to apologise for acting like a fool the other day. Jisung had told me about you and your family, he didn’t say anything bad I promise, I wanted to get to know you better and I know I should’ve talked to you when it’s about you, but I was dumb. I can’t reason why I am so dumb, but I really want to change- why are you laughing.” “I enjoy you calling yourself dumb.” You grinned in amusement. “I am very dumb, I’m glad you’re laughing, but I feel like shit.” Minho pouted. You smiled at him and turned to him. “You indeed are dumb and it really hurt what you said to me the other day. I forgive you though, since I’ve heard that you usually never apologise to people, so I kind of feel special.” You grinned.

‘Am I going soft for him?’ You asked yourself.

‘Maybe.’

Did you mind?

Apparently not.

“Does that mean we’re friends now?” “Hold your horses icy, I didn’t even know you at first. Let’s just say that we’re good right now.” “Good.” “May I ask you something?” You said in a serious matter. “Yes?” “Why did you really ask me to stay at the palace with you?” “Well, honestly. I wanted to talk to you and this seemed like a good and right now the only way, so I took the chance and seized it.” He laughed, making you wheeze slightly.

“Well you’ve talked to me, so now what?” “My parents want me to get cute and close to this girl who I don’t even know and expect me to marry her. I wasn’t even thinking about marriage yet. I didn’t even know they were going to announce that shit at the party as well. And tonight we’re supposed to have a dinner date and I’m not looking forward to it. I just want to sneak out and I don’t know do anything else.” “Have your parents always been like this?” You asked him. “As long as I can remember.” He sighed.

Step 5: Show him a different aspect of things

“Maybe they just want the best for you?” “If they really want that, shouldn’t they let me decide my own life choices.” “They should, but I bet they have great intentions-“ “I really don’t want to talk about this right now.” He sighs. “I’m sorry.” You whispered as you saw how uncomfortable he suddenly got.

“No, no. It’s not you. It’s just a sensitive subject for me to talk about. Let’s go do something. I want my mind to focus on different stuff. Got anything in mind?” “Well, there is this winter market in the Highbreach village-“ “Let’s go there, I have horses. Let’s go right now!” “But you’re buffet-“ “I have to get changed first, c’mon!”

“Wait what-“ You were cut off once again by Minho dragging you with him to his room, you were panicked because you didn’t know what he was up to. When the both of you entered his room you were greeted by three little cats. You started to coo at them immediately as they came up to check you, the stranger, out. Minho looked at you shocked, making you look at him back in confusion. “What?” You asked. “They like you?” “Yeah, I guess?” You laughed as you continued to pet the cats who purred in delight. “They don’t like anybody, except me I guess.” “Wow, I feel honoured.” You cooed to the cats as you scratched them behind their ears, making Minho laugh. He quickly remembered that he needed to change. When he came back you looked at him funny, he wore a blouse with a thick jacket over it, making him look like a regular person. He looked handsome as usual and you were happy that you got to see a different side of him. It was quite unusual to see a prince in regular, everyday clothes.

“Shall we go?” “Yes.”

At the winter market, that was about forty minutes away, well ten minutes away from your house, but Minho’s palace was in a whole different kingdom, so the ride was a little longer that you thought. “We didn’t had to come here you know? You’re going to miss-“ “I don’t mind. It’s boring anyway, besides I would have to sit there with a princess who I don’t even know, being expected to fall in love with her just like that.” Minho sighed. “I don’t even like Christmas dinners, they are usually filled with people who are bragging about their lives and achievements. Telling others how much wealth they had and well you get it, rich people talk basically. There always had to be someone better than the other, I’m not into that you know.” He added.

You looked at him and simply took his hand as you led him to the market. He was quite as he enjoyed the moment of affection. When you stopped walking, he looked at around in awe. There were tables spread out on the streets. Lanterns and fires were made for warmth. The people of the village sat together, sharing food and stories. You looked up to him and smiled.

“What is this?” He whispered, still adoring the view in front of him. “This is my Christmas.” You responded, receiving a surprised look from Minho. “Years ago, when my mother was still alive, I was a little girl at the time, since our family was small and she loved having people over, she came up with this idea of spending Christmas with the entire village. Ever since, it has been a kind of tradition. There aren’t really presents involved, but there is good food and live music. We would all dance together and sing along with one another, it’s one of the reasons why my mother loved Christmas so much. And it was one of the reasons why my father loves my mother so much, she wanted to spread joy and kindness with others and well it worked out. See it for yourself.” Minho had a small smile resting on his face as he looked at you. You were talking about your family with so much love, it was really heart-warming to him.

Suddenly he was standing alone and looked around where you had headed to, he saw you running towards an adult man, who happened to be your father. “Y/n! My child! What are you doing here?” He sang cheerfully at the sight of you. “Minho wanted to sneak out, so we went here.” You explained, before looking to Minho and signing to him to walk over to where they were. “Good day sir.” Minho said politely. “Your Majesty-“ “Please call me Minho. I’m a little undercover.” Minho quickly explained in a soft voice. Your dad understood and bowed slightly as a form of respect. “Sit down, there’s enough for everyone.” You father offered, which you and Minho gladly accepted.

“I hope the food tastes good, it’s probably not as great as the food you have at home, isn’t it Minho?” Your father chuckled nervously as Minho ate a bite from the beef and the mashed potatoes that were brought in front of him. “It’s delicious.” Minho assured him with a smile.

The evening went on and Minho enjoyed every second of being in your home village. After eating you went to the market part of the village, where you could buy almost everything. The two of you came across costumes for pets and you decided to buy some for his cats, since you didn’t had a pet of your own. “You don’t have to do that right?” “I know, but I want to. They would look adorable on them.” You giggled after you had paid for them.

Minho couldn’t take his eyes of you that night. He saw how much you had lighten up around these people, compared to how you were at royal parties where he often saw you. But he understood why, the same reason why he didn’t wanted to go to his family Christmas buffet. People at those kinds of parties were always up to something else. Minho had learned that in this village, things go different. There wasn’t a competition in between people, they weren’t striving for being better than the other. Here they were there for each other and Minho admired that.

It was getting late and the two of you were about to head home to the palace. Before that, you went to your father to say goodbye to him. You hugged him tightly and exchanged some sweet words as you said your goodbyes. “Your mother would be so proud of you.” He whispered, before kissing the top of your head and waving you goodbye as you started your journey back with Minho by your side.

After the two of you had arrived back at the palace, you sneaked through a secret passage, Minho had found, back to his room without anybody noticing. You would dress the cats in the little costumes and coo at their cuteness.

The night ended quickly and you were tired, so you said goodnight to Minho. “Thank you by the way. If it wasn’t for you, I couldn’t have spend Christmas with my dad.” You admitted softly before heading out. “It was my pleasure.” Minho muttered back as he watched you leave.

When you had left, he fell back on his bed and sighed deeply. The day was great and he couldn’t be happier, but he still felt sad somehow. A scene popped into his mind as he had closed his eyes for a second, where you were smiling brightly to him as the two of you were having dinner at your village. He smiled at the scene that now was a memory. He felt sad that that moment now was a memory, he wished he could be in that moment forever. He had never felt such joy. It made him wish that he never was born a prince, but born as a regular boy, who wasn’t expected to live up to certain expectations.

He almost jumped out of his skin when his door was slammed open, scaring the cats as well, making them run around in stress. “Where have you been.” His father’s voice boomed through the room whilst he stomped through it. “Somewhere-“ “You know we had a family buffet, right?” “Yes-“ “And that we had been looking all over the place for you?” “Probably-“ “Don’t get fucking smart with me young man.” “You’re the one who’s asking the dumb questions.” Minho whispered under his breath. “Excuse me?” His father snapped. “Nothing-“ “Where were you?” His father asked again.

Minho sighed and sat up to face his dad who looked absolutely stressed out. “If you will stop cutting me off, I’ll tell you where I was.” His father sighed and crossed his arms whilst looking at his son with a rather irritated look on his face. “I was outside.” Minho simply said. He wasn’t lying though. “Listen here. I know you sneaked out. The horses were gone smart ass. Were you with miss Y/n perhaps? She was gone as well all day, just like you. Must be a coincident, right?” His father said sarcastically. Minho gulped loudly, he was dragging you into his mess and that wasn’t supposed to happen.

His father could ruin everything for you and Minho knew how hard you and your father had worked to live a decent life. Before he could speak up again, he was cut off by his father’s ranting for the umpteenth time that night. “… and the princess had been waiting for you all night! She had dressed up and made herself look beautiful for you…” ‘Y/n, would never do that.’ Minho thought to himself. And you wouldn’t. You weren’t looking for people to like you by you acting pretty. Yes, you were looking for a reaction the other day at the Christmas party yesterday, but that was because Minho had been an arse and you wanted to show him what he was missing. And well he took the hint and went for it to make it up to you.

“…she looked bored out of her mind and you weren’t there to entertain her-“ “Hold up, I’m not someone’s babysitter. She’s a grown woman, right? Can’t she entertain herself and talk to other people?” Minho scoffed at the ridiculous statement his father had dropped into the conversation. “You need to know what to focus on, this isn’t a game Minho. You need to focus all of your attention, well what’s left of it on the princess, who you are going to marry. Get to know her and build a relationship so you two can become a good pair to rule the kingdom-“ “I don’t want to marry her. I never did! You and mother didn’t even ask me about my opinion about this-“ “Because you don’t have a say into this! And that’s period!” The king was furious at this point and left the room with the door crashing against its frame, scaring yet again Minho and his cats. The prince sighed and laid himself down again, he closed his eyes and wanted to remember the happier moments of that day.

And those moments were you.

In the meantime you were in your guest room, getting changed with the help of a maid who helped you setting up a bath. “How was your day lady Y/n?” She asked. “It was fun! Call me Y/n by the way, I’m nothing more than a regular girl with a blessed life.” You smiled kindly. “I get why the prince is very fond of you.” The maid chuckled as she helped you cleaning up your clothes. “How come?” You asked her curiously. “Well, you may have heard that our prince is usually known for being cold hearted, to be a heartbreaker or even very icy. Ever since you have been in the picture he seems to have changed.” She explains. “Please tell me more.” You asked again, making her laugh slightly. “At parties, he seemed livelier and more excited when he knows that you will be there, he always asks for the guest list to every party his family attends. He never liked parties, but suddenly he cared about his appearances for these parties, that’s when we started to notice that little changes about him.” “We?” You asked her, whilst she helped you with your nightdress. “The other maids and I, even the guards-“ She was cut off by a loud knocking, that was more like pounding, on the door.

“Miss Y/n, you are expected at the king’s office immediately.” The guard calls from the other side of the door. You and the maid shared a confused look, before you grabbed a robe and made your way to the office with the guard walking in front of you.

“You were expecting me?” You say quietly with a bow as you stood in front of the king. “I don’t know it you know what you’re doing, but you need to stop this little game immediately.” The king almost hissed harshly. “Excuse me?” You frowned in confusion. “Don’t play your little mind games with me, miss Y/n. I know what you’ve done with my son and I won’t risk you having playing those tricks on other members of the palace.” He scoffed, not even looking to you. “Sire, I really don’t know what you’re talking about-“ “You know Minho is about to be engaged to princess Hayden, right?” “Yes, but-“ “Then you know enough. You should not interfere into royal businesses miss Y/n, you could get yourself in trouble and I bet that you and your father wouldn’t want that.”

You wanted to talk back to him, but right now the king was the one with the power and you knew better than to let your mouth run at this moment. “No, we would not sire.” “Good, then I expect you to leave, first thing in the morning and to not return to this palace. Am I understood?” “Yes sire.” You said before bowing and leaving the room immediately, leaving the king smiling in satisfaction because once again he got his way, at least he thought.

When you had arrived back at your room Minho was waiting in front of it and it looked like he was about to walk away so you quietly called out for him. He turned around in shock and smiled when he saw you. “What are you doing out here? I thought you were asleep?” He chirps. “I-I was getting a drink from the kitchen.” You lied. “Why wouldn’t you call the maids, they could’ve brought it for you.” “No, I wouldn’t bother them with such a small thing, besides I’m capable of walking myself, aren’t I?” You joked, playing the whole situation off.

“What are you doing out here anyway? It’s late.” You asked him. “I was bored and you’re the least boring person here, so seems pretty logical to me to come to you for entertainment.” He wiggles his eyebrows as he said that. “Don’t try anything pretty boy, nothing is going to happen in there.” You chuckled before giving him a friendly push as you two entered your bedroom.

After some time together, once again, you noticed Minho being a little gloomier than earlier today. He seemed a little like his old self and you didn’t like seeing him off and uncomfortable. You were definitely not going to tell him about the kings words towards you.

In the mean time Minho thought the same thing. He wasn’t going to tell you the harsh things his father had said about you behind your back. He just wanted to spend some time with you and feel happy, even if it was just a moment.

Step 6: Use playful words

You teased him later that night for being kind of like a cat mom, which he laughed loudly at. “I would rather be a cat mom and adopt twenty cats than marry someone I barely know.” He joked, but it has a sense of truth and the both of you knew it. Minho had been resting his head on your thighs as he laid down. You didn’t mind, you enjoyed the moment as much as he did and you didn’t wanted it to end.

He was doing something to you, but you couldn’t describe what it was, but after spending hours together you for sure knew that you wanted more. And before the two of you knew it, it was already five in the morning. The sun would be rising at six and Minho offered to go and wait for the sunrise. You contemplated his request, but eventually agreed to it and walked with Minho to a place where the two of you could watch it together.

Step 7: show him the good in people

Even though the two of you had stayed up all night, you didn’t felt tired. At least not around him. You came across an old man who lived in a cabin in the woods, he had trouble with carrying the wood back inside, making him fall onto his knees. You rushed to his side and helped him up without hesitation, especially since Minho was around as well.

“Are you okay sir?” You asked as the man tried to get back on his feet. “I am, but I need to get this wood back inside, my wife is sick and the fire is about to go out.” He sighs tiredly. “Let us help you sir, we can relight the fire quicker if we help.” Minho also rushed your way to help carrying the wood inside.

After quickly helping the couple, they offered you a piece of cake, which was everything they had. You couldn’t accept it and told them that it was no problem. The man insisted to and you couldn’t refuse the second time, you accepted the gift and said goodbye to them before the pair of you kept walking again to the place that Minho wanted to show you.

You were just in time when you arrived at a cliff that viewed out onto the kingdom. The sun peaked out from the mountain tops as it rose. As you watched the sunrise, the two of you sat on a tree stomp together, his arm subtly behind you as you two enjoyed the moment together. Little did Minho know that this would be one of the last moments together. You had planned in your head, as soon as Minho was back in his room, you would quickly pack your stuff and go home.

“Thank you for showing a different side of humanity that I didn’t believe actually existed.” He told you with a smile.

After the sky turned from pink to blue the two of you decided that it was time to go back home. Minho looked at you as you stood up first to stretch, but you tripped and stumbled almost towards the edge clumsily. Minho’s reflexes quickly kicked in and grabbed your wrist and pulled you harshly towards him, causing the two of you to collide and fall onto the ground. He held you tightly as you laid in the snow, the both of you breathing unsteadily and quickly as your heart raced. You thanked him as you held him even tighter, making Minho gulp loudly and hoping that you couldn’t feel his heart pounding for you.

When you two arrived back at the palace, Minho said his goodbye to you, not knowing that you would be leaving before you rushed to you guestroom. You dumped everything into your bag and hurried out the door. You hesitated at a moment, you wanted to see Minho for one last time, but you couldn’t risk the king ruining your dad’s and your life.

Step 8: Accept fate

So, you left just like that.

Minho woke up hours later, caused by the maid who was the one who woke him up. She told him that he needed to get ready for his date with the princess. He groaned and got up to wash up. He was still tired from staying up all night, but it was all worth it to him.

When he got back, dressed up and clean, he asked the maid if you were awake yet. She looked at him in shock.” “Majesty, don’t you know? She’s gone?” She says carefully. “What do you mean she’s gone?” Minho blurt out. “She left the palace this morning majesty, didn’t you know?”

Minho’s head was spinning. How could you leave without saying goodbye? He thought you two were having a great time. It all felt surreal and he didn’t really know what to do. He felt like he was malfunctioning and it was all because you weren’t present around him. The prince stormed out of his bedroom and went on the search for his father. When he finally found him after storming through the palace for a good twenty minutes he lashed out on his father. “What have you told Y/n!” Minho yelled. The king simply sighed and went on with whatever he was doing. Minho shoved the papers off his father’s desk and placed his hands harshly onto it. “Tell me!” He yelled once again. “You don’t have to worry about her, you should focus on the princess remember.”

“I don’t care about that stupid girl, I want to know what you told Y/n and where she is!”

*Hours before*

The king followed you outside and stopped your tracks for a moment. “Remember, you don’t belong in this life. Minho is and will never be yours. You’re simply not good enough to be royalty material. I’m glad that you listened to my words and leave miss Y/n, I had expected something different. My guards will make sure you arrive home safely and not return, like we agreed, right?”

You had simply nodded and bowed, trying to hold back your tears as you were escorted out. “Can you take me to the palace of the Han family?” You asked the guard sadly. “Miss, I’m sorry I was ordered to bring you home.” “I live in their kingdom and I really want to see my friend.” Your voice cracked whilst talking. “Miss-“ “Please?” You cried softly, he looked at you with pity and sighing before agreeing.

*Present time*

Minho and his father had continued to argue. Minho voiced once again that it was unfair how his life had been decided for him without him having a say in it, causing it to end up in a screaming match and Minho barging out of the room. He slammed the door shut of his bedroom and locked it. He childishly put his dresser in front of the door, so no one could come in.

He sighed and started to cry. The only time he felt actual happiness, caused by a person, it was taken away from him. He felt like it was just unfair.

Minho went on his date later that night with princes Hayden. Not because he felt like it had to be done, but because he was actually forced to do it. The date was boring and the poor girl wasn’t very talkative. Minho understood why, she also was forced into this. Maybe she wanted this, or not, but Minho surely didn’t.

Step nine: Fight back

The next thing happened so fast, Minho had little time to process it, but before he knew it, he was on his way to you. He remembered the way vaguely. He had hurried his way to you as fast as he could. He was looked frantically around in hopes to spot you. Minho wasn’t going to give up on you so fast. You weren’t like the other girls he had dated, or well was or wasn’t forced to date in hope for his parents that their son would finally marry.

He wanted you, that was for sure now. He had fallen for you hard and you needed to fix him. He wanted to be around you and be loved by you. He didn’t even know if you loved him back, but he was sure that you cared about him. The connection the two of you had was prove for it.

Minho finally spotted your house that you had shown him on Christmas day. He hurried his way to the door and knocked on it frantically. Your dad had opened the door and was surprised to see the young man in front of him again. He noticed that the young prince was still in his royal clothes and that he was panting heavily. “Where is Y/n?” Minho manages to say in between breaths. “She’s not here, she went outside to get some vegetables in our garden on the other side of our land-“ Your father couldn’t even finish his sentence before Minho had sprinted off again. He saw you kneeling down from the distance, digging something out from the ground in the middle of the snow. There weren’t many vegetables left and it seemed like you were gathering up the last ones from your old harvest.

You heard footsteps hurry your way and you looked up to your surprise to see Minho. You were panicked and got quickly onto your own feet. Before you knew it, you were swept off your feet and twirled around as Minho held you tightly. “Why did you leave? Why did you go without saying goodbye?” Minho cried. You wiped away his tears and just rested your head against his as his tears fell down. “It was my father, wasn’t it?” “Minho-“ “No! I will not stand this! I will not let him win this toxic game! I love you and only you! I want to be with you! I’m not letting them take away my only source of happiness!” Minho exclaimed in distress. You were shocked by his words and now just started at him, speechless. “I love you, I love how good you are to people. I love how you showed me the best of people when I had no fate left in them. I loved how you warmed my heart with your acts of kindness and bright smiles. You changed me, even though we don’t know each other for that long. I already know that I love you. I’m not letting you go. I will go against my parents if I have to-“ “You shouldn’t. They are your parents.” You whispered.

“See! Even when they are the most unfair people in the world you still see a reason of goodness in them.” Minho whispered. “We’ll get through this.” You assured him. “Are we?” “Yes.” You assured him. “How do you know that?” “Because I love you too.” You admitted softly. Minho looked at you in shock, which quickly turned into a bright smile before he leaned down to connect his lips onto yours. His lips were cold and soft against your warm ones.

Minho had taken you on the back of his horse to his palace. You were nervous to say at least. The king had told you importunately that you should not return to the palace. So you stopped Minho when you were about to enter the gates. Minho simply held you hand, he looked back at you and squeezed your hand in assurance. He had no idea how much it helped, but it caused you to straighten your posture and gain back your confidence you were known for.

You were greeted by the guards as soon as you stepped of Minho’s horse and you were already told that you weren’t allowed on the palace grounds. “She’s not a prisoner! Nor did she do something wrong!” Minho defended. “Majesty, we-“ “I don’t care who ordered you! I order you as the prince to let us go through! We have a meeting to attend.” Minho sneered as he held you closely whilst leading you through the crowd of guards who quickly made room for you two to pass.

You and Minho took a deep breath before walking into the dining room where Minho already had expected his parents to be. “Y/n! You’re still here! I though you had left!” His mother said cheerfully, obviously uninformed about the situation. “Mother father I have to confess something-“ “How dare you to come back here! I thought we had an agreement!” The king suddenly shouted, shocking his wife. “Dear, why are you-“ “Minho, you have a princess as your future fiancé, waiting for you. I don’t understand why you’re still hanging around with this girl.” The king says with loathing laid on his tone. “Because I love her!” Minho stated loud and clearly, causing the room to gasp.

His father was speechless but his mother squealed happily. “That’s great my love!” She chirped, taking you and Minho by surprise. “Wait what?” He exclaimed. “Honey, I thought that Minho was supposed to marry Gwynn?” His father said to his wife. “He was, if he wasn’t able to find love by himself.” “Wait hold up, I don’t get it.” Minho says confused, letting go of your hand to run his hands through his hair.

“Honey, your father and I made an agreement. If you weren’t able to find love by yourself, we would help you. If you would be twenty, the age of taking over the crown from us, we would arrange you a marriage, but you found someone you clearly love so I don’t think that would be necessary.” “So, you’re telling me that you were okay with me liking Y/n?” He asked his mother, still trying to process everything. “Of course I was. Why wouldn’t I be?” She asked. “Well, dad wasn’t so, I assumed-“ “You should talk to me more often, you know your father is quite hot headed. “Well, I wasn’t expecting this. I had this whole rant ready and now I don’t know what to do with the build up anger.” Minho chuckled awkwardly, making you laugh as well.

“I’m sorry son, the fact that you had to take over the throne soon, made me stressed and I guess I reacted it out on you.” “So you’re fine with me being with Y/n as well?” “I am, Y/n is such a sweet girl. I’m terribly sorry for what I’ve said to you. You’re a great girl. I heard from the maids that you made our son smile brightly again and trust us, we haven’t seen that kind of smile in a long time.” The king said whilst pointing to his son who smiled at you like an idiot. “I smile brightly, because I get to be with him. Thank you for accepting me.” You said politely as you bowed respectfully to them.

“No thank you dear for giving us our cheerful son back. We missed him.”

Days went by and it was now New Year’s Eve, only minutes away from it to be a brand-new year, which you got to spend with the one you loved dearly. Jisung was relieved that you and Minho ended up together after such an emotional rollercoaster. His heart was broken when you arrived at his palace with tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes.

You had cried your heart out of him as you spilled everything to him, but it turned out for the better. Right now you were talking with Jisung, until you heard people count down. You started to yell along with them until you were grabbed by your writs and turned around, causing to bump into someone’s chest. You were about to apologise, but your lips were sealed when a familiar pair of lips were connected to yours.

You heard people cheer and fireworks were being shot into the dark sky, lightening it up in process with bright colours as you and Minho pretended like you were the only two persons on the planet. “I love you.” He whispered against your lips. “I love you too.” You whispered back.

The two of you obviously didn’t get married right there and then, but people had a feeling that you would be celebrating next December for different reasons other than Christmas and New Year’s Eve. This gave you enough time to carry out the last step on ‘how to win over the ice prince’:

Step ten: Fall even harder for him

Gif isn’t mine.

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talesofthefrontier · 3 years ago

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INTERVIEW: Jamie Ryder Might Be Dead By Dusk

Getting your work out there isn't always easy as a writer, so it's always useful to be part of communities that can help to give signal boosts.

The horror community is extremely welcoming and it was through this connection I was interviewed by Ginger Nuts Of Horror, a UK-based horror website that promotes authors in the genre.

In this interview I discuss horror influences, writing AT THE DEAD OF DUSK and philosophy. You can also check out the interview here.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? I’m a fiction writer based in Manchester in the UK and grew up reading from a young age, which laid the groundwork for wanting to become a writer in as many different avenues as possible. When not writing horror and fantasy fiction, I enjoy indulging my inner pop culture geek with comics and other interests, which include Japanese culture, Stoicism and rum. I’ve mashed all these interests together in a portfolio of websites, which include The Comic Vault, Yamato Magazine and The Rum Ration. Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life? Good question. I’m going to say it’d be Agnus Cartwright, a powerful witch from The Tales Of The Frontier series. She’s terrifying and her ruthlessness would make me think twice about crossing her! Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? The fantasy genre has had a big influence on my writing style and reading habits, particularly authors such as Sebastien De Castell, Andrzej Sapokowski and Neil Gaiman. I’ve always been in awe of writers who have the ability to create a completely new world from nothing and make you believe in the mechanics, concepts and characters within the world. Comics are another major influence, in the sense that having larger than life characters can be grounded in a realistic setting such as the DC Universe and that there are shades of grey when it comes to anti-heroes like Red Hood, Punisher etc. A recent concept that’s also resonated with my writing style is the philosophy of Stoicism and how it can be applied to the practice of writing. It’s about understanding the things you can control e.g. how much you want to write per day, and the things you can’t e.g. how people are going to react to your work. The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations. What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions? For me, the greatest kind of horror is found in human action. The lengths someone will go to for carrying out a goal. The justifications we tell ourselves when we think we’re doing something ‘good’ that can be seen as ‘bad’ from someone else’s perspective. Everyone has the capacity to be a monster and it brings to mind that famous Nietzsche quote of “beware that when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.” It’s in these kinds of everyday, human drama kind of stories that I think there’s still plenty of room to break past what it seen as traditional horror. A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years? I think there will be an increase of horror being seen through the lens of more diverse groups such as the LGBT and BAME communities. There’s limitless potential in redefining tropes within these two categories and showcasing stories that are special, spooky and resonant. Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it? Coming from my own perspective, I enjoy watching and reading horror stories out of a subconscious desire for facing the unknown. The fear of the unknown is actually my biggest fear and if you think about anything outside of your comfort zone too much it can paralyse you worse than any monster, ghost or serial killer. I think that being exposed to horror has the potential to build up your resilience to real-life scenarios. What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? A couple of authors come to mind. V Castro has been doing some amazing work with redefining Latin horror through stories like Queen Of The Cicadas and Goddess Of Filth. There’s also Eric LaRocca and Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is a tremendous piece of transgressive horror. While Donald Robertson isn’t a new author, he’s new to the horror and comic genres and I’m looking

forward to seeing the release of the graphic novel Verissimus, which tells the life of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? The editing process is the most difficult by far. There’s the old writer cliché of having to kill your darlings and it’s true that they do feel like your darlings sometimes! But once you move past that initial feeling, you do come away with a much stronger manuscript. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? I’ve always said to myself that I’ll never write about any subject that I can’t capture realistically on the page, make it believable or do it justice. It’s only after I’m well-informed enough to know what I’m talking about that I’d even attempt to start writing something. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? By constantly writing. That’s the most effective way I’ve continued to develop. Short stories. Articles. Blogs. Poems. Scripts. Exposing myself to different mediums has forced me to think about writing differently and become more fluid in how I approach things. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Don’t worry about whether the first draft is good or bad. Just finish it and then start editing. Which of your characters is your favourite? My favourite character is Clay McNab, the protagonist of At The Dead Of Dusk. He’s an asshole who doesn’t pretend to be anything but what he is and there’s a refreshing amount of honesty when inhabiting the headspace of a character like that. Yet there’s a lot more beneath the surface and it’s so much fun to write an anti-heroic character who’s self-aware enough to see his own flaws and try to do what he thinks to be right from his own perspective. Which of your books best represents you? At The Dead Of Dusk is my first standalone novella, so I’d say that represents me the best (So far!) Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? There’s quite a few lines from At The Dead Of Dusk that I loved writing. While I’m not going to give away any spoilers, I will say there’s a scene with Clay delivering a monologue kind of speech in a highly charged emotional situation that got me right in the feels when I was writing it. Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? The next story I’m working on is a cyberpunk novel set in a futuristic version of my home city of Manchester. It’s about two brothers who come together to try and unlock the riddles of their father’s death and has a mixture of noir, crime, and sci-fi themes. If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? That jump scares are the only way to tell a good horror movie. What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? The last great book that resonated with me was How To Think Like A Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson. In terms of disappointing books, nothing comes to mind as I think there’s something good to be taken away from whatever you read if you’re in the mindset to look for it.

#horror #writing #tales of the frontier #weird western #philosophy #novellas #books #fantasy

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

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The Characters of Nisioisin (2)

Trickster - Ii (Boku)

This is a post in an ongoing series about the common character archetpyes used by Nisioisin. If you want more information check out the previous post, here. Consider this a part two of that same post. Today we’ll be looking at the nonsense user, and deceiptful protagonist from the aptly titled series “Zaregoto” or in english “Nonsense”. More underneath the cut.

I established the four criteria we are going to be dividing this post into in the previous post, as well as introducing what the idea of the trickster archetype is. Using Kumagawa as the UR-example we’re going to compare Ii-chan with those same tropes.

Introduced as a Villain

Subverts Expectations

Lying, Liar who Lies

Inherent themes of Nihilism

1. Introduced as a Villain

So, next Iichan. He's a special case out of these three because he's actually the series protagonist. But he still kind of fits the criteria because in his series the basic premise of every book is that iichan goes somewhere and a murder happens and then he tries to solve the murder for like the whole book and he sort of kind of solves it and then Jun Aikawa whose much more of a "hero" character than him, the coolest, sickest, strongest detective ever shows up out of nowhere and lectures him.

The sort of conflict set up between Ii-chan and Aikawa as two detectives of the story reminds me of a quote by Maiji Otaro, author of Jorge Joestar (among other things).

“Two detectives, one true. If both are detectives, then both must arrive at the same truth. But does that happen in the novels of this world?” “Most novels with two detectives have one solve it and the other discover the real solution hidden behind it.”

“At that point, are they both still detectives?”

“Hmm.. they’re treated like detectives but certainly, within that novel, the latter is the real detective. But they might switch places in the next novel.”

(Jorge Joestar).

Ii-chan is never introduced as an antagonist from the start of the series he is and always is the narrator. However, he’s still introduced as something he is not. Kumagawa is introduced as a villain and goes on to become a deuteragonist. Iichan is a main character but he doesn’t affect the story like a main character ought to, nor does the story really revolve around him.

So there’s still an inherent lie to his introduction. He is introduced as the center of the story but he is not the story’s real center. However, there’s another subversion implicit in Iichan’s character from the first novel to the second novel.

The first novel is the one where Iichan plays the role of the detective the most straightforwardly. He figures out the trick, solves the case, corners the murderer, but doesn’t solve it all the way and gets lecture by Aikawa at the end. However, there’s a strange way that all the characters react to Iichan despite the fact that he constantly makes himself out to be just a completely harmless, and incapable normal guy.

“Ther’s no meaning. Just like there’s no meaning in your actions. You know, you’re, wow, so you’re the kind of guy who’ll get angry for the sake of a complete stranger. That’s not a very good thing. It’s not bad per se, but it’s not good. [...] That’s because people who can expose their emotions for the sake of someone else are the same people who blame things on others when something goes wrong. I despise people like you.

It had to be the first time in quite a while that someone had spoken that harshly right to my face. Slowly, she brought her glaring gaze to meet my eyes.

“You just let yourself get carried along by other people. You’re the type wo ignores traffic lights just because everyone else is doing it. You’re an abomidable excuse for a human being. They often say ‘Harmonize without agreeing’ but in your case, young man, it’s like you’re agreeing without harmonizing. I won’t say that’s bad. I won’t say anything as to that. One’s identity and worth are not always connnected. A train that runs along a track is better than a train that doesn’t. So I won’t say anything as to that. But I hate people like you. I despise them. People like you always blame things on others, never acknowledging their own responsibility.”

Ii-chan as a character who is introduced as harmless, and passive, never making any choices until we are shown explicitly in the second book that he is not. It’s with his choices in the second book that his true character is revealed.

2. Subverts Expectations

Though for Ii-chan it should really be “avoids any and all expectations.” The Zaregoto is a series that continually asks if the actions of its protagonist are meaningless or not. If any action that Iichan takes effects the outcome of the story in any way.

In Strangulation Romanticist, Ii-chan gets involved with a group of friends who all end up dead or in prison by the end of the story. The central question is what role did Iichan play. Here are some things Ii-chan does in the book, meet with a serial killer and then lie to cover up a police investigation and a private investigator tracking him down giving him time to kill more people, destroys police evidence of another investigation, taunts one girl who murdered another girl into killing herself to atone, knew another murder that was going to take place and did nothing, and then taunts a second girl who wanted to kill herself into killing herself who only survived because the police talked her off a ledge.

“Charges? What charges?” “Falsifying information in regards to the Emoto case, encouraging Aoii’s suicide, not to mention concealment of evidence, plus withholding information and having that little rendezvous with Atemiya. Normally they’d have your ass for that, which I’m sure you’re well aware of, but I’ll take care of it for you. Althought, I suppose even if I didn’t Kunagisa probably would...” (Zaregoto Volume 2)

Therefore, Iichan is someone who acts but doesn’t really face any real consequences for his actions, and that’s because he’s a master of avoidance.

In psychology, avoidance/avoidant coping or escape coping is a maladaptive coping mechanism characterized by the effort to avoid dealing with a stressor. Coping refers to behaviors that attempt to protect oneself from psychological damage.

Iichan is subverting a lot of expectations. He is the protagonist, but the story is not about him. He goes through all of these stories, but he doesn’t ever seem to grow or change from them. He’s a detective, but he never really solves the case or even cares that much about reaching the real truth. He’s written to be a subversion of everything the main character of a detective novel should be.

However, Iichan is also very aware of how a detective should act and deliberately playing with and subverting those tropes. Not only does he subvert the expectations of the reader, but also of the characters around him. He is avoidant, in that way it means he avoids any kind of contfrontation.

I didn’t hate losing. I hated compettition. I was thoroughly put off by the idea of vying for others over something. I hated fighting as well and thus never made friends.

This is a line that gets reused for Kumagawa as well.

Which helps to illustrate the difference between them. Let’s say there is a problem, Kumagawa will charge head first at the problem and it will explode in his face, and Iichan will do everything in his capacity to never confront the problem or deal with it in any way possible.

Iichan is deliberately aware and sensitive to the expectations of the other people around him, and he feels like he will always be too inferior to fulfill them so he doesn’t even bother to try.

“I have been doing so.” I said. “But you know I have limits, too. It seems like everyone and anyone harbors some sort of expectations from me, and of course I would love to meet their expectations, too, but I cannot meet the expectations if I lack the capability. So to have someone say you failed my expectations is nothing but bothersome.”

Zaregoto Volume 4.

The way he avoids the expectations of others is rendering himself as ambiguous as possible, which is where we get to the next part.

3. Lying, Liar who Lies

Iichan is an unreliable narrator who never tells the truth in a straightforward manner, and even lies for half of the second volume. However, there’s more than that, there’s a deliberate trick to the lies he tells.

Iichan is someone who defines himself as ambiguously as possible. He acts like someone who others cannot possibly understand. Despite narrating from the first person, Iichan is only comfortable when he is not known by anyone. Iichan acts like someone who is barely present in his own story.

Answers have no real point. They’re vague and ambiguos and unsound, and things that are fine that way. In fact, they’re better. Causing real change is a role that should be left up to the true “chosen ones” outstanding individuals like that scarlet Mankind’s Greatest, and the Blue Savant, it was never my responsibility. It was no job for a common loser. For the comic sidekick.

Zaregoto volume 2.

Once again we see the contrast between Kumagawa and Iichan, if Kumagawa is a character who shows how strong and capable one loser can be, then Iichan often waxes poetically in his narrative about how weak and incapable he is. If Kumagawa is a good loser, than Iichan is a sore one.

Iichan defines himself as ambiguous on purpose to avoid responsibility for his actions. In less fancy words, if nobody can understand Iichan than nobody can call him on his shit. That’s his goal, essentially. He doesn’t want to work hard to change, or be confronted about any of his actions, because for him merely the act of living takes all of his effort to tread water without making any progress.

Avoidance is a trauma response, Iichan spends all of his time distancing himself from his own actions rather than confronting any of it. However, Iichan is more complicated than that because Iichan’s ambiguity has another side effect making him out to be something that he is not.

“Just by being there, you startle others, just by being there, you make people lose their grip on themselves.. ther’re a bunch of people like that. You can’t relax when you’re with them, it annoys you, things don’t go as planned, people like that, you know, they’re even scientifically explainable. In other words the missing part. Because the missing part for the observer ends up looking the same, it feels like the person is having their ineptitude pointed out at them, and it startles them [...] You’re just like everyone, and that picks at people’s subonscious, that’s why you’re aimless. And yet you still manage to come out on top. [...]”

Zaregoto Volume 3

All of these things Jun points out in this scene are Jungian ideas of the trickster. Iichan is an inferior person who seems to exist to point out the inferiorities in other people, and use it to play tricks on them. While viewing him as this role of the trickster, Aikawa is not really treating him like a person. (Aikawa’s very dramatic).

Which is where Iichan finally gets his trick. It’s a trick in two parts. He constantly underplays his own agency, while at the same time overplaying his suffering.

In other words, while insisting that he is the least improtant person on earth, Iichan at the same time hems and haws like the main character of a tragedy. IIichan wants people to empathize with his suffering, and he wants to be important, but he doesn’t want any of the responsibility of being important. He doesn’t want to take any degree of control of himself or others, so he tries to balance himself between these two conflicting ideas.

1) He is not a protagonist, and therefore the events in the story have nothing to do with him. 2) He is the main character of a tragedy. The world is centered around him, he is someone special and important, and that makes him suffer, but he takes no agency in the role.

Doing this he gets the best of both worlds. He gets to always be involved and important to others, while at the same time uninvolved and is never held accountable for his actions. He’s never challenged or forced to grow or change in any way.

These are the two lies that Iichan tells, and those lies form a narrative. Iichan is lying to give a narrative to his own trauma, and therefore try to extract some kind of meaning from it.

4. Inherent Themes of Nihilism

We once again return to the sacred image.

Iichan is a moral nihilist. He’s on the elft side of that image.

Moral nihilism (also known as ethical nihilism) is the meta-ethical view that nothing is morally right or wrong. It is built on three principles.

1. There are no moral features in this world; nothing is right or wrong. 2. Therefore, no moral judgments are true; however, 3. Our sincere moral judgments try, but always fail, to describe the moral features of things.

Iichan’s view is basically that of, if there is no meaning to this world then any attempt to define meaning is pointless. He (let’s say it again class) usually uses this as an attempt to evade any and all responsibility for his actions.

Iichan doesn't want other people to look at him, he doesn't want to be at fault when things go wrong, but he also wants to be important. So he's continually on a tight rope walk with those two very conflicting desires.

So basically Iichan sees no value in his own actions. He sees no value in the world. He doesn't really have any set of morals, except that he thinks murder is bad. Except sometimes he doesn't really care if certain people are murderers. Zerozaki is a murderer and Iichan hates him but doesn’t actually make any sincere attempts to stop him. Kunagisa commits murder in volume 4/5 and Iichan goes out of his way to cover it up. He apparently doesn’t consider goading a girl into suicide to be a form of murder. But at the same time he's so desperately searching for meaning, because he wants to feel fulfilled.

Iichan thinks that talent and genius are perhaps one thing that could give the world meaning. His best friend is a super genius, and he kind of clings to her and is jealous of her because she's someone special. See he thinks there are people whose lives have meaning despite being a pretty blanket nihilist, but because he's not talented he's not one of those people. Talent is something that could possibly give life meaning but being outside of the talented people it makes no difference to him he can only gaze at it from afar

Iichan is someone who is constantly downplaying his own meaning, while at the same time trying to find some meaning vicariously through others, like Aikawa and Kunagisa who he considers to be the real heroes of the world. Despite Iichan insisting there’s no meaning, he also has an attraction to narrative view of the world. Which is something that you know... has meaning, because stories are written with intent and purpose by an author.

In the sixth volume there’s a concept called “The Story” which one character belives that everything is pre-destined, like it’s all some pre-written story. Therefore while you can make small changes in your own actions it never effects the big picture in any way.

This is once again a very convenient idea for Iichan, who avoids responsibility to believe in. He’s very attracted by this idea because it takes control out of his hands and means his own actions aren’t really his fault.

To be honest, this must be one of the most boring conversations to be listening in on. It had gone so far into the conceptual, that even for myself, participating in the conversation, the words of the man with the fox mask seemed as hazy and illusory as a dream. You could say I do not understand what he is saying. However, then why. Then why does what this person says strike so deep? Why does it resonate? [...] Then, no. I do not want any part of such importance. I do not want anything to do with the core of the story.

Here we go with Iichan’s double negative, he denies having any role or agency in the story and yet at the same time believes that such a thing as the story exists because it means to some extent his actions are out of his control because he can’t accept that they are.

Is Iichan’s role in the story ultimately meaningless? No. There are always clear and distinct consequences for his actions. In the same volume (6 - cannibal magical) where the concept of the story are first introduced that everything is predetermined and you can’t change the big picture, the events of the story disprove that assertion.

Iichan is given like, a million warnings not to go to a lab. Aikawa tells him not to go to a lab because she has a bad feeling about it. The literal assassin sent to that lab talks to Iichan and says “Yeah, I was sent here to kill people.” Another person who was in the same situation just walks away from the problem. Iichan sees the assassin going out to kill people in the middle of the night and just chooses to... go to sleep.

Then he wakes up to everyone dead in the morning. The point being Iichan had a million chances to avoid this situation, takes absolutely none of them, and then acts like this was a completely unavoidable fate. He hems and haws about having no choices, but he’s clearly given choices, he just doesn’t take them, or makes exclusively bad ones.

Iichan wants to avoid consequences by not choosing, however the choice to not choose is still a choice in itself. Everything is a choice. Even avoidance is a choice. Which is why Iichan’s actions do actually have meaning, just not in the way he wants them to. He’s not a special person, and he’s not anyone extraordinary, but he is someone who has to face the consequences of his actions no matter how many narrative tricks he pulls to avoid them.

The actual trick of Iichan’s story is that he really is the protagonist, he just doesn’t want to be.

#zaregoto #zaregoto meta #nisio meta #nisioisin #iichan #boku (ii)

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backupblogforjg · 5 years ago

Text

The racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and cruel tropes in Voltron

So, it’s the anniversary of the ending of Voltron. And I’m getting really, really tired of people saying that only shippers hated the ending. There were many issues with Voltron, and they were neither limited to shipping nor to S8.

So, I’ve decided to compile a list.

It gets LONG. Turns out there was a hell of a lot of racist, sexist, ableist and cruel tropes in VLD.

In fact, I had originally planned on writing a list of both the terrible tropes and the plot holes. But there just wasn’t enough room for both. The post is huge as it is, and with the plot holes, it would have been twice as long, so I had to focus on only one thing.

Salt, obviously. So, so, so much salt. I could turn a lake into a sea here. You’ve been warned.

RACISM:

1) The Alteans are genocide survivors. Out of all the Alteans, only the black Altean was used for a Reverse Racism story where she resents a teammate for belonging to the race that exterminated hers. The white Alteans are totally cool with him, and with his race in general, and only hate the bad people. But the black one had to be taught that hating people because of their race is wrong.

2) VLD Allura is also the only version of Allura who is black. In every other Voltron media (several different cartoons and comics), Allura is blond with blue eyes. All the white versions of the character get a happy ending, while only the black version ends up dying to save the world.

While "hero sacrifices their life to save the world" is not a bad trope in and of itself, it becomes bad when it kills off one of the extremely few black female characters in leading roles. You kill off a white male hero, there are 463278462387 more. You kill off the black female hero, you are kinda screwed. Making it worse, Allura had been portrayed as suffering from depression throughout the latest seasons, so that her death comes across less as heroic sacrifice and more as suicide.

3) The brown Cuban kid who dreamed of being a pilot, and never once in 78 episodes ever expressed anything but sheer love for an exciting life, in the final two minutes of the final episode ends up realizing that the place for him is a farm.

4) As told in interviews, Lotor was meant to be a bad example of mixed-race person, to contrast him with Keith as good example of mixed race person. Do I even have to point out how messed up this is?

5) Even before they became Space Nazis, back when they were still on the side of the angels, the Galra invaded and conquered planets. This is portrayed as totally cool when they happily name the prince after a "hero" who invaded and conquered a lot of worlds, and the peaceful Alteans think the guy is just as heroic as one of their greatest scientists. Apparently there is such a thing as ethically killing people to steal their land.

6) They whitewashed Keith, a character who is poc in every other iteration of Voltron.

I’m sure a lot of people are going to get angry here, claiming that I hate Keith. Let me assure you, I don’t. I love Keith, and I hate what was done to him. I hate that they took a traditionally poc character and went to frankly ridiculous lengths to erase that part of his character. Keith should be Asian, and it would be incredibly easy to make him so in VLD (seriously, all they’d have to do is update the freaking bios, an intern could do it right now in 5 minutes). But they refuse to do it.

A lot of people don’t realise that the surname “Kogane” in VLD is fanon.

I’m serious. Check his official bios page. Keith is not actually called Keith Kogane in VLD. Fans started calling him that in fanfiction, and it stuck, but it’s not canon.

In every other Voltron media, Keith is an Asian guy. But in VLD, they:

- went out of their way to always avoid giving him an Asian surname

- gave him a Texan father

- refused to confirm his race, even when every other character had a specific race. Again, check his official bios. All the other characters got a race, Keith gets “human.” It got so ridiculous it would be funny if it weren’t sad. It pretty much went like this:

Fans: Keith is half alien, but about his human half, what is his ethnicity? EPs: oh, we couldn't possibly say, because the story takes place in the future, and in the future, everybody is mixed up! So, Keith is HUMAN, we can't give him a specific race because there are no specific races in the future! Fans: ok. And what are the races of the other characters? EPs: Pidge is Italian, Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half-black half- Samoan, Shiro is Japanese. Fans: but Keith...? EPs: HUMAN! There is no such thing as race in the future!

Some people at least hoped that Keith's Texan father had Asian ancestry because he kinda looked like Shiro, who is Japanese. But the EPs confirmed that the resemblance was just a coincidence, they never meant for the dad to look Japanese.

At this point pretty much the only evidence that Keith is Asian is that he is voiced by an Asian person. But then, Josh Keaton is not Japanese, is he?

7) After whitewashing Keith, they claimed he is the best leader of Voltron, better than his poc predecessor, because he has Galra blood.

So, instead of bringing up any sort of legit reason to justify why Keith should be in charge (like his empathy or pilot skills), they go with "the half-white guy is also half space-nazi and that's why he should give the orders instead of the poc guy."

If you think I’m bashing Keith here, please ask yourself why you are getting angry at the person pointing out the whitewashing instead of getting angry at the whitewashing. Especially when, again, making VLD Keith canonically poc could be done anytime with zero cost and zero effort, and DW just doesn’t want to.

- Hunk, the half-black half-Samoan guy, was going to be killed and replaced as Paladin by a blue alien. The EPs were pissed when DW forbade them to, and complained in the interview about it.

SEXISM:

Every single woman who is ever put in charge ends up going insane, making terrible decisions that endanger her planet, or losing all of her authority.

Allura starts out as co-leader of Voltron and leader of the Coalition. Ends up as a foot soldier who takes orders from the new leader and his right-hand man, and is treated as a cadet by the Earth military.

HOMOPHOBIA:

1) Dreamworks, Netflix and the EPs very, very, very heavily promoted S7 as GLBT-friendly. The EPs gave whole interviews about the past relationship between Shiro and new character Adam, retweeted a ton of posts celebrating Shiro’s homosexuality, and enthusiastically sent tweets like "you are going to see more of Adam in S7! :D" from their personal accounts after they showed the episode that introduced him.

In S7:

- Shiro's homosexuality is so ambiguous that even the Brazilian voice actor didn't realize that he was supposed to be gay. Just by watching the show, without knowing the World Of God, you can’t tell he and the other guy were engaged.

- Adam gets about 30 seconds of screentime after that one episode they had already shown. Then he dies screaming in pain and terror in a fire.

A lot of people claimed that it was okay to kill Adam because Shiro was supposed to be our rep, not Adam, who was a brand new character we knew little about. And, out of context, that would be true. Adam was pretty much a NPC, why would his death matter?

But the problem here is the context:

- Shiro is closeted in S7, you need to read interviews to know he is gay. So, if only Shiro is meant to be the rep, they couldn’t even do that right.

- They very heavily marketed both Shiro and Adam as gay rep, and specifically talked at length about Adam in several interviews.

In THAT context, REGARDLESS of what you ship, killing off Adam revealed a complete willingness to manipulate the audience to the point of outright lying. Even if you hated Adam, even if Adashi is your NOTP, the clear evidence that the creators had absolutely no problem making empty promises was NOT a good sign.

2) The moment Shiro is revealed to be gay in interviews, he is practically quarantined from the Team.

3) Shiro is also given a Totally Not AIDS deadly disease.

Making it even worse, Shiro never actually gets cured in canon. We are told he is cured in interviews, but the show itself drops the topic entirely. Depending on where you lean in the Word Of God VS Death Of The Author debate, Shiro may be doomed to die.

4) A female villain is revealed to be a lesbian. 30 seconds later she gleefully tortures a little girl. Then she, too, dies in a fire.

(Fan outrage about pulling two Bury Your Gays in the Season that had been very heavily promoted as GLBT-friendly caused DW to retcon her death and bring her back in S8, but she was originally meant to die in the explosion)

5) Shiro ends up marrying a random character who doesn’t even get a name in the show.

ABLEISM:

1) Shiro's PTSD magically disappears offscreen. In interviews, the EPs claimed that he "got over it" between S6 and S7 because "he is a professional." Wow! Who knew being a professional magically cures mental illnesses!

2) Shiro is an amputee. The EPs admitted that they never put any thought into his status as disabled rep, they just wanted a character with a cool-looking arm. It literally didn't occur to them that making him lose his arm (TWICE! First up to the biceps, then up to the shoulder) meant anything. Also worth noting that Shiro’s new arm makes him look like the guy who tormented him.

3) Shiro is systematically robbed of his agency.

- He is the only Paladin who never gets to use his bayard.

- He loses his bond with Black for no given canon reason (and the reason they give in interviews makes no sense, they basically say that transferring his soul out of the Black Lion makes her stop loving him. But she still lets Zarkon fly her!).

I know that Keith is traditionally Black’s pilot in Voltron media (although that shouldn’t matter, because VLD made a lot of huge changes to the traditional status quo). But if they wanted Black Paladin Keith that badly, they could have given some non-insulting reason for it. For example, say “because Shiro has spent so much time within Black, their bond is now so strong that he will get absorbed again if he flies her again.” Or co-pilots in Black (if Pidge can co-pilot with Matt, why can’t Shiro co-pilot with Keith?).

- He is defeated not only by Sendak, but also by a bunch of random Alteans. He basically can’t win a fight anymore unless it’s played for laughs.

- His new robot Atlas is bigger than Voltron, but also much weaker, and can only buy a few minutes for Voltron to come save the day.

- Every single enemy he ever defeated comes back to be finished off by somebody else (even the friggin' Gladiator from S1 comes back in S8). In the epilogue, he retires in his twenties.

4) Narti, the disabled General, is fridged shortly after her introduction. For a while at least it seemed like her death had affected the remaining three Generals, but then it turns out that the "For Narti" line was a trick and they never actually planned on avenging her.

CRUEL TROPES:

1) They intentionally baited the fans by pushing the plot thread that Lotor would be redeemed. They named the episode where he defects "A New Defender," they kept saying in interviews that they come from Avatar and they are very familiar with Zuko *hint hint*, they showed his family as incredibly abusive and Lotor himself as desperate, they showed that Lotor was a victim of severe racism (he is mixed race, and as stated above, the Galra are Space Nazis and are pretty obsessed with blood purity).

Then, after revealing him to be a villain, they gave an interview where they practically dislocated their shoulders by patting themselves on the back as they gleefully bragged that "we made them think we would give them a Zuko, but we gave them an Azula!"

(Nevermind the fact that Azula herself was a 14-year-old child, not a monster, and that Aaron Ehasz himself confirmed that he always wanted her to be redeemed).

When fans who are survivors of child abuse told them that the bait-and-switch was really hurtful, they laughed it off, and claimed that Lotor was just beyond redemption. Then they proceeded to redeem Lotor's abusive parents, who were objectively much worse.

2) Shiro’s clone, who sincerely believed he was Shiro and always meant well, was dehumanised, demonised and discarded like his life meant nothing. His short existence was full of pain from literally the moment he first opened his eyes, as Haggar kept torturing him with migraines to manipulate him. In the end, she brutally violates him body and mind, and brainwashes him to force him to turn on the family he was so desperate to find in The Journey. He dies in incredibly questionable circumstances, without ever getting to learn that his family survived Haggar’s plans. He is victim-blamed for the things she forced him to do against his will with mind-control, and is never mourned because the only family he ever had writes him off as a “thing” and “evil.”

In fact, the horrific treatment of Kuron foreshadowed S8. The Medium article “It never stops at one - Why Voltron: Legendary Defender's tragic ending wasn't a surprise and why more DreamWorks' series will follow suit” explains how.

The tl;dr version is that, when a story posits that the circumstances of your birth determine the value of your life, so that good intentions and hard work mean nothing, and long-established bonds can be discarded with zero thought and care, and your very humanity can be revoked over something you have absolutely no control over, and the whole sociopathic disaster is celebrated as a happy ending... it really, really can’t end well. Not just for you, but for the entire cast.

#voltron critical #vld shiro #vld keith #vld lance #vld allura #vld lotor #voltron #voltron salt #takashi shirogane

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shih-coulda-had-it · 4 years ago

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Angst then comfort?

I, uh, decided to go heavy with the angst. This is sort of a “What if?” take on Closing the Loop, which features Toshinori breaking the universe to save Nana. I got a comment asserting that Toshinori definitely tried a loop on his own, and, well... anon, you provided me with a good excuse to write it!

When Toshinori throws everything into a punch to save himself and Gran Torino, he is thinking, ‘I want to save everyone! I want to go back to when we were happy, and safe, and—!’ One for All sparks through his veins, a fiery if muted resolve that lets Toshinori break space and time.

He guesses even One for All has its limits. Toshinori would have liked to have landed before All for One murdered Shimura Sakumo and made oshishou look sad and drained, dissatisfied with all her shortcomings when she encouraged him to review, accept, and move past his. But it’s better to land in the middle of dinner than, say, in media res on the boat to Ekusegoru.

This time-loop thing bites. The trope seems so cliche in media. The set of conditions to end it, simple.

Toshinori sees All for One shove his hand through Gran Torino’s chest, the viscera clinging to the neatly-pressed black sleeve of his blazer and his pointed fingers, and has the very distant thought that he’s responsible for it. If he’d been smarter, he could’ve remembered where the hostage was when asked, and then Gran Torino would not be dead, and oshishou would not be screaming her terror and loss and fury—

One for All resets. Gran Torino is whole again, and so is oshishou, who is running a loop behind.

Toshinori is trying to think logically, like how Gran Torino taught him to be. It makes sense to warn oshishou of their mistakes; it makes sense that somewhere in the universe, there is a way that leads Toshinori to saving both of his mentors.

Oshishou wrestles with Gran Torino. She is not taking the spar seriously, and Gran Torino is clearly indulging her need to expend the nervous energy. Toshinori watches from the sidelines and wonders how two people in love can be so blind; sometimes, he wonders if his existence as oshishou’s successor prevents them from voicing it.

The boat. Ekusegoru. A swift, almost surgical strike to the heart of the empty city.

He snatches the hostage and leaps to the roof of a nearby building. He should get her back to the boat, post-haste, and add his strength to the fight. Maybe that’s what’s missing.

“Ma’am,” Toshinori says, distractedly, “you should brace yourself.”

“Wh—”

He’s not as fast as Gran Torino, and he lacks the ability to remove his considerable mass from the equation. So Toshinori jumps, kicks off the sides of buildings, ascends. He gains a vantage point that lets him see Gran Torino’s yellow cape streaming away from the center of the battle, and the concern blooms, malignant and malicious.

Toshinori changes directions to follow. Almost loses them for a bit, and then Toshinori wishes he had, because he’d rather have been ignorant than witness oshishou, sprawled broken against Gran Torino, the silvered head bowed with something like grief and resignation—

Toshinori screams. He doesn’t realize that the hostage has slipped her hand in his.

One for All resets. Oshishou is whole again, and Gran Torino looks so exhausted and fragile, hugging them both and breathing raggedly. Oshishou is just realizing the cause for their second loop, and Toshinori’s brain is whirling.

Logically, the loop is resetting after his mentors are dying. The solution is not their sacrifice.

One for All resets. The solution is not to eliminate All for One.

The solution is not to run away to oshishou’s place either, but Toshinori thinks the idea has merit. Gran Torino is burdening himself to solve this, and he needs time to recuperate. And if oshishou can connect to the spiritual nature of One for All, perhaps all she needs is time to really hash things out with the Quirk.

It provides him an opportunity to try another solution as well. He’s the consistent reason for their deaths, no matter that All for One wields the knife. Toshinori runs away, every single goddamn time, even though he’s the one who’s used One for All to break the world.

I want to save everyone, he had wished. A monumental effort that requires a monumental sacrifice.

Toshinori obediently moves from the couch to the spare bedroom oshishou had set aside for him. He hears her bedroom door click shut, and waits a breathless five minutes before getting to his feet. His bedroom window is just wide enough for him to wriggle out of, but first he needs his gear.

Gran Torino has tried to teach him how to sneak.

Sneaking is a lot easier with a fake excuse. Toshinori judges the distance from the kitchen to the front door, and hopes that oshishou is too distracted—ack, gross, gross, even if Gran Torino is unbelievably sweet and stupid—to think about his footsteps to the kitchen.

He roots around for a mug and switches on the kettle. Tensely, Toshinori waits for oshishou to peek out and double-check on him.

When that doesn’t happen, he darts for his gear. Boots and cape. His wrist bracers and belt are still on. Toshinori wraps his shoes in the fabric and lobs the package through his bedroom door onto his bed; it lands with a muffled thwmp.

Toshinori makes tea. He carries it carefully back, and sets it down on his desk. He listens for the soft murmuring of their conversation, and hears nothing. Not even a snore.

Time to go.

There aren’t any alternatives to reaching Ekusegoru. He’s only eighteen; he’s an intern to a nobody pair of pro-heroes; he doesn’t have money to hire some unsuspecting captain. So Toshinori puts on his brightest smile and charms the hell out of the crew.

“It’s only a recon,” he laughs. “Oshishou and Torino-sensei think I should get some experience with a solo patrol, y’know?”

The captain is visibly uncomfortable by the change. “All Might, are you absolutely sure that your teachers want you to do this alone? Maybe I should call the agency.”

“They’re preoccupied with something else,” Toshinori lies, smiling. “A really dangerous villain tried going for the archives and is trying to go underground, and they dispatched me to take care of this while they dealt with that.”

“Huh,” mutters the captain, tugging the brim of her cap. “They trust you a lot.”

“I’m top of my class.”

“Kids these days…”

And she takes him to Ekusegoru. Toshinori chafes his hands together and tries to think about a strategy. He can’t kill All for One. That resets the loop. At the same time, giving his oshishou’s greatest enemy—Japan’s greatest threat—One for All is definitely not on the table. Toshinori needs to die, and the best way to do that is to goad the bull.

If this doesn’t work, he tries to comfort himself, then the loop will simply reset, and his mentors will be none the wiser.

If this does work—well. Not like Toshinori will have to face the consequences anyway.

He enters the empty city, hyper-aware that he is walking into a trap without the certain possibility of a safety net. He sprints for the heart, channeling all his desperation and resolve, pulling on One for All in a way that burns.

The world looks sharper. It looks a little smaller. His suit stretches to the point of tearing a little. Toshinori doesn’t have time to gauge the differences; his body moves instinctively, and he slams into the warehouse shouting, “All for—!”

He freezes.

All for One looks at him coolly, with disinterest. The hostage is discarded on the floor, dead. Her wrists and ankles are untied; in the previous loops, she’d been forced to her knees, and the dread of disobeying her captor were all the restraints needed.

“The intern,” All for One names.

“All Might,” he corrects. Toshinori forces his feet into moving, forces himself to circle All for One instead of leaping directly to extract the body.

All for One doesn’t even turn to keep him in sight. “Shimura’s stray, ready for a fight that he shouldn’t even know about. Aren’t protocols for recon to check the perimeter and then investigate?”

Don’t freeze. Don’t stutter. Goad the bull and allow yourself to be gored by the horns.

“Even the blind could tell this was a trap,” Toshinori retorts. “Your reign of terror is over, All for One.”

“Oh? You know who I am?” All for One’s voice saddens, sweetens. “I knew the woman was a fool, but I hadn’t taken her to be cruel enough to force a child into this vendetta. You’re her successor, aren’t you? Number eight?”

Toshinori lunges at All for One’s back.

It’s a short fight. He gets curb-stomped, for lack of a better term, even though his body moves faster, endures better, hits harder. All for One is an opponent he hasn’t been prepared to face; oshishou prioritized running away and survival for him. For good fucking reason, apparently.

“You’re a hundred years too early to be challenging me,” the enemy chides. Toshinori can barely hear past the pain of being broken and bloodied and bruised.

“Asshole,” he curses.

“You know how this works. Give me One for All, and all this ends.” All for One’s grin is wide and manic with victory. His hand settles over Toshinori’s heart; Toshinori’s pulse is going rabbit-quick with fear. “I must thank Shimura before she dies. It’s always such a hassle, knowing the wielders’ luck in finding successors right before I can retrieve my Quirk.”

“It’s not yours,” Toshinori denies. It won’t be. I won’t. I won’t break.

“It was mine before you existed. Mine to give, and mine to take back.” All for One pulls out a pager. “Now, will you be a good hero and give me One for All, or shall I message Shimura that you’re my hostage? She’ll die for nothing, and I promise, I will make you watch her death.”

Goad the bull and allow yourself to be gored by its horns.

He wonders how much time has elapsed. Two hours total, for the boat to return to the mainland, get oshishou and Gran Torino, and come back. By then, the five hours allotted to them by the time-loop will have run out.

“Why are you such an asshole,” he says, wheezing.

“I’m righting the wrongs of the world. I need power to do it. Power, that comes from your stolen Quirk.” All for One presses the hand on Toshinori’s chest down, and something is creaking. Something is breaking. Unbidden, tears mix with sweat and grime and blood. “You understand. All Might. A man after my own philosophy.”

“No—”

“You want justice and equality. I’m going to provide that.”

“You monologue too much,” Toshinori spits, and All for One sighs.

“Well. We have time.” The pressure on his chest relents, and All for One backhands him—

One for All resets. Toshinori wakes to the scent of oden, savory and nauseating, and he understands now why Gran Torino is always moving violently after a loop. He should hide the trauma; he can’t unnecessarily burden them with the knowledge; he understands why Gran Torino didn’t want to tell oshishou.

He falls off the stool.

“All Might!” Oshishou immediately slips off her seat and kneels on the ground beside him, and the worry in her expression—Toshinori’s hyperventilating, burning with shame and terror, and he wants—

“Oshishou,” he sobs, gasping, and her cape falls over their heads, curtaining them off from the world. It’s the first time he’s been subject to the use, and he gets why oshishou wants to register the cape as a shock blanket. It’s very effective.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, you’re safe,” she says, soothing. “You’re okay, Toshinori.”

“Oshishou, I’m—I’m so sorry—I’m—”

He’s glad, in a way, that another loop has been triggered. It means that One for All is generous. It does not want anyone to die; it’s following his wish. One for All wants everyone to be saved, and is willing to reset time until they learn sacrifice is not the name of the game.

Toshinori hugs her, repeating his apologies. Her hug is firm, and gentle, and kind; she continues to reassure him, even though it must be increasingly awkward to break down in public like this.

Eventually, he collects himself. He can cry later. Probably in the office, as a defensive measure when Gran Torino inevitably wrangles the story out in the debrief.

Because Gran Torino will tell oshishou that they napped the last loop away. And no nap should result in Toshinori crying and having a panic attack. Therefore, he’s done something traumatic and he needs to tell them.

This needed to be tested though. Toshinori could never forgive himself for being too much of a coward not to try, and his mentors wouldn’t have given him permission.

(There’s an unspoken agreement, after, that the loop will be spent recovering. Five hours is not nearly enough time to gloss over the memory of All for One, but Toshinori is sandwiched between his mom and—and his dad—and even though Sorahiko seethed over Toshinori’s inherited ideals of martyrdom, Sorahiko was the one to call for a dogpile.

Of course, Sorahiko is a hypocrite who goes to confront All for One on his own. Oshishou is much smarter, if bitter, and she tells Toshinori, “I am going to talk to One for All, and I am going to figure out how to end this cycle.”

Toshinori feels hope rise, and he believes her.)

#bnha #yagi toshinori #all might #all for one #shimura nana #torino sorahiko #gran torino #shih.txt #asks #anon #closing the loophole!fic #tw violence #tw temp character death #man. i really let this guy survive the fic.

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earisridesagain · 4 years ago

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Earis Watches She-Ra, Season 1, Episode 8, ‘Princess Prom’

THE ONE WHERE THE TROPES ARE THE PLOT

Reactor’s Note: I usually take ~ 1 page of notes per episode. This episode, I took 4. Kudos to the writers for squeezing as much story and character as possible in a measly 24 minutes.

We’re gonna do this chronologically this time.

1. Princess Prom! I do love how ‘Prom’ is basically its own genre at this point. There will be miscommunication, makeovers, dramatic dancing, and someone will run away from the dance.

2. And would you look at that - we’ve got our first ‘miscommunication’ of the episode. Bow going to the Prom with Perfuma instead of Glimmer. (But, like, when did she ask him? What are they doing in that flashback?)

3. SCORPIA IS A PRINCESS????? Excellent. Wait, the rest of the princesses hate her and her family? Even before they joined the Horde? Princess can be such bitches. Also, 1) the Horde crash landed and 2) there is a black garnet runestone?

4. Look at Catra trying to step up her game. First she’s trying to strategize. Then she is building rapport with a new ally. Next, she is utilizing every resource available to her (except Force Captain Orientation). Looks like she’s going with the classic ‘get a new girl to make your old girl jealous’ strategy.

5. Where does Catra come from? Is she from the Horde? Was she stolen from somewhere? Abandoned? Are all the Horde soldiers taken from Etheria?

6. Catra: Shadow Weaver is so obsessed with Adora. Hordak is going to be mad. We need to stop focusing on Adora.

Also Catra: THEY STOLE MY BEST FRIEND AND TURNED HER INTO A GIANT SWORD LADY AND THEN SHE RAN AWAY WITH A BUNCH OF RANDOS.

7. Adora and Glimmer: *have huge, important exposition conversation*.

Me: What is going on with the map? Should I screenshot it? Is it important exposition? There is no other source of important exposition except for background shots.

8. MAKEOVER/CHANGING MONTAGE!!!!! While it is nice to see everybody looking their best - Scorpia wins for looking awesome in every outfit. Bow is runner up for his crop-top. Catra and Adora’s outfits match. Of course they do.

9. Oh Glimmer. Okay, baby, let me explain. Parties are fun to think about and get ready for, but in reality they are awkward and never live up to expectations. You are basically setting yourself up to be hurt. And I get it, I’m sorry. I wish I could say that it gets better - but it might not. You are going to feel hurt and alone, and you will probably get defensive and hurt someone you care about. And once your problems start hurting other people or bringing other people down, then you are not going to be welcome anymore. So, figure it out, or else you are going to spend your life performing happiness to feel accepted by your friends and shaking alone in your bed at night.

10. Review of all the princess we have met! Mermista is still the best (sorry Entrapta stans). And our greatest hero has returned in our our of need - SEAHAWK!!!!!! (aka ‘Mermista’s Ride’)

11. Is Swiftwind just, trolling Etheria?

12. Immaturity - an excellent theme. Social, emotional, political immaturity. And then immaturity leads to clouded judgment. Like when someone is trying to distract you with their gay.

13. Hi Adora!

14. DANCE SCENE. THIS IS WHAT I AM HERE FOR. GIVE IT TO ME. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS - CATRA/ADORA DANCE + DIP. (further critical element of prom episodes - everyone knows the dance)

15. Sigh, Adora. Catra is living rent free in your head. I get that she is your sexy, chaotic, evil soulmate/bestfriend/nemesis, but pull it together.

16. “It’s never been a game to me.”

17. CLIFFHANGER. Looks like everyone is running away from this prom.

#she ra #princess of power #1.08 #react #adora #catra #glimmer #bow #scorpia #mermista #seahawk #entrapta #princess prom

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letterboxd · 4 years ago

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How I Letterboxd #5: Will Slater.

Talking mullets and other manes with the man behind the internet’s definitive ‘exploding helicopters in movies’ catalog.

“Man cannot live on helicopter explosions alone. Even I need some occasional intellectual nourishment.”

A London-based PR man by day, by night Will Slater has a thing (and a podcast, blog and Twitter account) for movies that feature exploding helicopters. According to his Letterboxd bio, it’s “the world’s only podcast and blog dedicated to celebrating the art of exploding helicopters in films… as well as shaming those directors who dishonor the helicopter explosion genre”. As Will tells Jack Moulton, he also loves film noir, Wakaliwood, masala movies and much more. Just don’t get him started on the one action movie cliché that never fails to disappoint.

Sylvester Stallone takes aim in ‘Rambo III’ (1988).

First things first, have you ever had a ride in a helicopter? Will Slater: What, do you think I’m mad? Of course I’ve never flown in a helicopter! If I’ve learned anything from watching hundreds of films where helicopters spectacularly explode, it’s that they are a singularly dangerous form of transport. You never know when Sylvester Stallone is going to pop up with an explosive-tipped arrow and blow you out of the sky.

I’m going to say the words ‘the definitive action hero/heroine’. Who pops into your head first? No runners-up. Go. Snake Plissken, no question, for a number of good reasons. First, there’s the look: that eye-patch, the beaten-to-hell leather jacket and Kurt Russell’s lustrous mane of hair. Second, there’s the attitude: his contempt for authority, the drawled sarcasm and all-round bad-assery. And I also like that he doesn’t have any special abilities. Action heroes generally tend to be either musclebound slabs of beef—Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone—or martial arts specialists—Jean-Claude van Damme, Jackie Chan—Plissken is just a pissed-off, angry dude who’s trying to stay alive. He’s very relatable. Plus, I’d argue he pretty much invented the whole anti-hero formula that rules our screens today.

Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in John Carpenter’s ‘Escape from New York’ (1981).

When did you start your podcast and which film got you into looking deeper into the topic? It was while watching the cheesily bad Cyborg Cop that I first had an epiphany about the weird and wonderful ways in which helicopters seemed to continually explode in movies. But the film that convinced me to start documenting the phenomenon was Stone Cold. If you’re not familiar with the film, it was an attempt to turn former gridiron star and mullet-king Brian Bosworth into the next big action star. It goes without saying that Stone Cold did not transform ‘The Boz’ into the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the film wasn’t a total failure as it features a helicopter explosion that is as brilliant as it is gloriously stupid.

And that was the prompt to start the Exploding Helicopter. I launched the website in 2009, and the podcast followed 2015. Since we started, our aim has been a simple one: to celebrate the strange and inventive ways that helicopters explode in films.

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Motorcycle crashes into helicopter in mid-air, ‘Stone Cold’ (1991).

When did you join Letterboxd? What are your favorite features here? I’ve been around since 2013. As for the features, the stats are very cool. When you dig into your viewing history, you can learn some very revealing things about yourself. For example, I generally like to think I have a commendably broad taste in film, and watch only the most important and influential works from every decade, genre and country. But then you look at the data and find you’ve watched Thunderball nine times in the last five years, so maybe you’re not as cool as you thought.

We noticed that your profile faves are low-key and explosion-free, given your theme of choice. Why these four and not Die Hard four times? Man cannot live on helicopter explosions alone. Even I need some occasional intellectual nourishment, between watching whirlybird conflagrations. There’s a little bit of nostalgia tied up in The Ipcress File. I first saw it as a kid, and it made a big impression on me. It’s very stylishly directed, has a great John Barry score and a star-making turn from Michael Caine. I’m a big film noir fan and Sweet Smell Of Success is a beautifully sour tale of cynicism and manipulation. To borrow the words of Burt Lancaster in the film, it’s a “cookie full of arsenic”.

Jean-Pierre Melville is my favorite director and Le Samouraï was the first of his films that I saw. What Melville does so masterfully in this, and his other crime films, is distil the elements of film noir. Basically, he takes the genre’s iconography—the gun, the trenchcoat, the fedora—and familiar plot tropes—the betrayed assassin, the heist gone wrong, the criminal doing one last job—then elevates them above cliché into something almost mythic. And what do I really need to say about Taxi Driver, other than it’s a masterpiece?

Now you say you shame directors who dishonor the art of helicopter explosions? Which directors did you dirty? Well, one of the biggest names in our hall of shame is Tony Scott. For a man who specialized in hyper-stylized, pyrotechnic-filled action movies, he flunked every helicopter explosion he filmed. In our eyes, one of the most egregious offences you can commit is failing to show the helicopter explosion. And in both Spy Game and Domino, old Tony cheats the viewer by having the chopper fly out of sight before it explodes. Now, I can accept such visual chicanery in a low-budget film, where they presumably don’t have the money to stage the scene, but what’s Tony’s excuse? If you look at his filmography, at one time or another he’s wrecked trains, planes and automobiles in spectacular fashion. But for some reason, he repeatedly couldn’t be bothered to give us a satisfying chopper conflagration. At a certain point, it starts to feel like a personal slight. Tony, what did I ever do to you?

In your immortal words, “a film is always improved by a helicopter explosion.” When has this been especially true? When you see lists of worst-ever directors, Uwe Boll is a name that always seems to turn up. And, according to the internet, one of his worst-ever films is the video game adaptation, Far Cry. Now, I’m not going to try [to] convince you that the film is a neglected classic, but it does have a very imaginatively staged exploding helicopter scene. It’s too convoluted to explain here, but take my word that it wouldn’t be out of place in a Fast and Furious movie.

What about the unsung heroes; the stunt artists, the pilots, the pyrotechnicians, the VFX wizards who have worked on numerous iconic action moments, all of whom deserve a shoutout? Personally, I don’t understand why the Academy doesn’t have a stunts category. But if they did, I’d be lobbying hard for Spiro Razatos to get the first award. These days, he works as a stunt coordinator on the Fast and Furious and Marvel films, but I’d like to draw people’s attention to some of his early work. Back in the nineties, he did a lot of work with PM Entertainment films, an independent company that made low-budget action films for the home video market.

They might not have had much money, but they put every cent on the screen with glorious, raucously inventive set pieces that were often more spectacular than big-budget Hollywood offerings. And remember: this was in pre-CGI times, so every death-defying detail was absolutely ‘real’. Go back and watch films like The Sweeper or Rage, and you’ll can see why Super Spiro has now graduated to these more prestigious gigs.

Narrow this list down for us: which is the ultimate most spine-tingly epic “we got company” movie moment? As you may have gathered, I do like an action movie cliché. When you encounter one in a film, it’s like meeting an old friend. And one of my favorites is when someone uses this classic line of dialog to signal that a car chase or a gun battle is about to start. I’ve heard people deliver the line in all sorts of ways–funny, scared, angrily and often just badly. But if you want spine-tingly, then you can’t beat Harrison Ford in Star Wars. He drops the line during the detention-block scene after failing to bluff an imperial officer. As soon as he says it, John Williams’ iconic score kicks in. It gives you the ‘feels’ every time.

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“Boring conversation anyway.” Han Solo and Chewbacca in ‘Star Wars’ (1977).

And which action movie cliché can you simply not stand? Stop it: my hackles are raising just thinking about it. For me, the trope that never fails to disappoint is the ‘reluctant’ hero being convinced to take up arms and join the fight. You know the scene. Invariably, the hero has hung up their spurs and is living a bucolic existence ‘off the grid’, when a gruff buddy shows up asking them to risk almost certain death by taking on ‘one last job’. Now, dialog is rarely an action film’s greatest strength, and these beefcake actors generally are not cast for their dramatic chops. Which means we get subjected to the same perfunctory and uninteresting scene over and over again: “I told you, I’m out the game”, “Goddamnit, we need you”, “OK, I’ll do it”. These scenes just never work and are never less than painful to watch.

Which up-and-coming action director are you most excited about? In terms of up-and-coming action talent, I’d pick the director Stefano Sollima. I first noticed his work on a couple of TV series: the fantastic Italian crime dramas, Romanzo Criminale and Gomorrah. The way he composed shots really stood out, and it was clear he had a very cinematic eye. He rather reminds me of Michael Mann. He’s now on Hollywood’s radar and got to direct Sicario: Day of the Soldado the other year. And he’s lined up to make a Tom Clancy adaptation with Michael B. Jordan. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

Have you witnessed the glory that is Wakaliwood—Ugandan DIY action filmmaking—three of which make Letterboxd’s official top ten films by black directors? Which international films do you feel out-match Hollywood? I love the Wakaliwood films I’ve seen. It’s fascinating to watch action films from around the world and see their different styles and flavors. Recently, I’ve been trying to investigate Indian cinema and, in particular, what are known as ‘masala movies’. These mix action, comedy, drama, romance and dance numbers into one big, crazy, entertaining mess. They’re a unique experience. If you want to check one out, I’d suggest Dhoom 2. It’s bananas.

Can you believe there are only two female directors represented in your exploding helicopter list? Do you believe that’s due to systemic or thematic reasons? You have to say it’s systemic. Men have dominated filmmaking for more than a century. Until women have the same opportunities to direct and make films as men, it’s impossible to know what their interest may or may not be in blowing up helicopters. [Will has previously written about the search for “true gender equality in the world of exploding helicopters”.]

To address the elephant in the room, how has Kobe Bryant’s unfortunate death earlier this year changed the way you look at these scenes? Obviously, I appreciate that Kobe Bryant’s death was very shocking and a tragedy for his family and fans. But basketball really is not a thing on these grim shores, so it didn’t register with us unenlightened Brits other than [as] a sad headline about a US sports star.

What was your most anticipated movie event of 2020 before Covid-19 pushed every tentpole back? That’s easy: No Time To Die. I’m a huge Bond fan and as soon as tickets were available, I booked myself in to see it on opening day at an IMAX. But if the Daniel Craig era is synonymous with anything, it’s lengthy delays between films.

Freerunner Sébastien Foucan in the opening scene from ‘Casino Royale’ (2006).

What’s a fond memory you have in theaters related to the Bond franchise? I remember going to see Casino Royale. I was excited, but also nervous to see it. The Brosnan era had ended with the risible Die Another Day: invisible cars, kitesurfing and, worst of all, John Cleese’s awful Q. Since that had come out, we’d had Mission: Impossible, Bourne and the Triple X films, so it wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility that Bond might be finished. Then the first ten minutes of Casino Royale happened. And while that outstanding parkour-inspired chase was terrifically exciting, it also hit me like cinematic Valium. I suddenly realised I could sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that 007 was going to be just fine.

Are you planning on returning to theaters as soon as you can? When would you feel comfortable? I’m taking a wait-and-see approach. I’d love to see films back on the big screen again, but I want to know more about how cinemas are going to maintain social distancing inside.

Finally, what three Letterboxd accounts should we all be following? Why not give Todd Gaines, Jayson Kennedy or Fred Andersson a follow? If you’re interested in genre films that are a little off the beaten trail, they’ll likely all steer you towards some hidden gems.

#letterboxd #how i letterboxd #letterboxd member #letterboxd community #cine #film lover #exploding helicopter #chopper fireball #action films

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makeste · 5 years ago

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ITP: an incomplete but lovingly assembled list of people who have it out for my kid

hi anon, thank you!!

and omg. I... don’t know, lol. like, I’ve thought about it before, but I always just ended up going “???”. there just doesn’t seem to be anyone tailor-made for him, and it’s honestly weird. shounen tropes have taught me that these things are always foreshadowed in advance. so where is it? WHERE IS THE FORESHADOWING, WHERE ARE MY TROPES. he literally got kidnapped by a whole troupe of them and not a one made any real effort to click. that was like the villain equivalent of The Bachelor and it still didn’t get us anywhere omg.

anyways, since I’m undecided, I’ve taken the liberty of listing and rating all of the Possible Bakugou Antagonists I could think of on a scale of 1 to 10, and I’m not gonna pretend like I didn’t enjoy every second of it, either.

Spinner - 1/10

no offense Spinner. you’re a great guy. but we just didn’t connect. you have absolutely nothing in common. those sparks just aren’t flying. I’m sorry. you’ll find someone someday I know it just keep being true to yourself.

Stain - 1/10

gtfo.

Mr. Compress - 2.5/10

I have no idea who Mr. Compress will end up battling, but it won’t be Bakugou. how do I know this? I just know.

Dabi - 3/10

honestly, Dabi kind of has chemistry with everyone. so it’s a shame he’s already spoken for. by three other people, no less. between Endeavor, Shouto, and Hawks, he’s really got his hands full already. it really is a pity because he was the one who actually kidnapped Bakugou, like grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him through the portal and everything. but he has beef with too many other people to make room in his fridge for even more. sorry Bakugou.

someone from the Liberation Army - 3.5/10

they had better not! he deserves someone more interesting! but, the one thing they do have going for them is their fierce commitment to the whole QUIRKS ARE SUPERIOR!! ideology, because I do have to admit, there’s a part of me that does like the idea of Reformed Shithead Bakugou Katsuki taking a stand against some prejudiced dickbags. so yeah. but also, no.

Twice - 4/10

honestly this rating is too high. there’s no chemistry here either. but on the other hand, Twice is basically the Kirishima of villains, and I just really enjoy the concept of him antagonizing Bakugou lol. plus he does have the whole Satisfying Cannon Fodder thing going for him too on account of he can clone himself x infinity and just attack Baku in waves only to get repeatedly blown up. this does win him extra points, because I feel like one of the important criteria for a Bakugou Antagonist is the ability to actually put up not just a good fight, but an entertaining one, and that’s pretty difficult against a quirk like Kacchan’s. so yeah. this honestly won’t happen but if it did I would be down for it.

Gigantomachia - 4.5/10

on the one hand, Machia is insanely powerful and definitely a worthy antagonist. but on the other hand he has no personality whatsoever aside from LOYAL TO AFO!!! so yeah, he gets mad points for being a challenge, but I can’t see him having staying power.

okay so now we’re done with the ones who really have no chance, and on to the ones who genuinely could really pull it off. starting with...

Toga - 6/10

okay so Toga is pretty much a lockdown for being Ochako’s main villain honestly. but I’m gonna give her a decent score anyway, for three reasons:

(1) I love her.

(2) Bakugou is thus far the only male character in the series who’s actually had a real fight against a female character, and not pulled any punches. yeah boy!! he’s a feminist! so I would kind of love to see this even though Horikoshi probably won’t. boo.

and last but not least, (3) THE MIND GAMES. omg. who wouldn’t love to see Toga transform herself into Deku or Kirishima or BEST JEANIST NOOOO or Camie or whoever else you can think of that might fuck with Bakugou’s head. yesssss. god I love Toga so much.

anyways!

Hagakure the U.A. traitor - 7/10

see above re: mind games. you’ll notice that the top tier of this list consists solely of villains who (with the exception of Tomura) all have the whole Now It’s Personal thing going for them. this is especially important because there is no clear-cut candidate to be Bakugou’s antagonist yet. so if he’s going to get one, they’re gonna have to get cracking on that bad blood between them so he can get his vengeance on. anyways the traitor will probably wind up being someone else’s main villain in the end, but they still get a high score because they would do an excellent job if they did end up being Bakugou’s villain.

Hawks - 7.5/10

on the one hand, not an actual villain. but on the other hand, YOU KILLED MY MASTER angst for daaaaaaaays omg. holy shit. Hawks what kind of hole have you dug yourself into?? you probably think you’re so slick you can just fly out of any and all metaphorical holes. BUT NOT IF THE HOLES BLOW YOU UP, HAWKS. anyways yeah. I don’t think Hawks will be a final villain, but as things currently stand there is a very high likelihood of there being at least some temporary antagonism between them, and my verdict is: bring it.

Shigaraki Tomura - 8/10*

the * is there because this score is contingent on Deku and Bakugou facing off against Tomura together. as it is, Tomura’s been built up to be Deku’s antagonist, so he’s not going to go after Bakugou instead unless Gang Green is also there. even though Tomura did engineer Bakugou’s kidnapping and all but single-handedly launched his character development into orbit, so there is history there! but yeah, I just can’t see it happening unless they double team him. that being said, the odds of that are actually pretty good IMO, hence the high score.

All For One - 8.5/10*

same deal as Tomura! but he gets a higher score on account of him actually being the final villain. so if you, like me, believe that the series is building up to Deku and Bakugou working together to become The Greatest Heroes as a team, then you have to assume that this battle is inevitable. unless you’re all-in on Tomura being the final villain instead, in which case see the previous entry.

confession time: I’ve had this plot bunny?/headcanon?/?? thing in my head for the longest time in which the League launches a huge attack on U.A. near the end of the series, and either AFO or Tomura goes after All Might and almost finishes him off, but then Bakugou steps in before they can finish the job, and proceeds to take them on solo. and he puts up an insanely good fight, but loses in the end (because he’s still just a kid! HIS TRAINING IS NOT COMPLETE) and nearly dies and/or has his quirk stolen, but then Deku and/or the others show up, and the villains leave (for some reason. shh). it’s my self-indulgent hurt/comfort as-a-result-of-being-a-self-sacrificing-badass fantasy. anyways then he probably passes out in All Might’s arms or something because I love me some Dad Might angst also. the thing is, if Bakugou ever finds out about Nighteye’s prophecy, there’s a good chance he’ll react even worse than Deku, because it already almost came true, and it would have been his fault. All Might actually went into the Kamino battle thinking that was the end for him, even. willingly ready to give up his own life to save this kid. can you imagine if Kacchan ever learns that. anyways so yeah the idea of him taking a potentially fatal blow for All Might in order to stop the prophecy coming true is something that’s stuck with me for a while now. and it has just about nothing to do with Final Villains, but I just thought I’d throw that out there because that’s one way to establish some Now It’s Personal hella beef between two characters for sure. having one of them nearly kill the other while targeting his mentor lol. anyways I went off on a real tangent, my bad.

so now, drum roll please! last but not least, we have...

Ujiko - 9/10

you guys. like 3/4 of the way through this post I suddenly went “!!!!” and remembered, OH YEAH, WHAT ABOUT THAT GUY WHO FUCKING TORTURED AND KILLED BAKUGOU’S CHILDHOOD FRIEND, THOUGH. holy shit. I forgot all about him. and also, what the hell, what is this thing all of a sudden where people whom Bakugou is secretly fond of keep getting secretly murdered by villains and he doesn’t know about it omg. like, why is that an actual trend. between all that and the prophecy, it’s like Horikoshi is actually just hoarding this huge pile of Things That Bakugou Doesn’t Know About Yet That Will Absolutely Fuck Up His Day When He Finds Out. like, I picture him stacking up a bunch of heavy boxes just behind a doorway and then waiting for Bakugou to step into the room so he can push the boxes over and they all fall on him and probably kill him fuuuuuuck.

anyways, but yeah. Ujiko, though. I really do think he’s got the best chance of becoming the main villain for Bakugou now that I think about it. all of the criteria are there.

(1) Satisfying Cannon Fodder - you get a Noumu! EVERY! BODY! GETS! NOUMUUUUUUUS fff but yeah. if you want bad guys for Bakugou to fight that he can blow up without feeling guilty, Ujiko’s your guy. -- though on the other hand, maybe he will feel guilty if and when he learns what the Noumus actually are. oh my god. which brings me to point two!

(2) ANGST FOR DAYYYYYYYS - hey guys, so everyone knows about this fun little thing, right?

okay so the short version is this: in a volume 7 omake, Horikoshi strongly implied that the winged Noumu who kidnapped Deku and was subsequently killed by Stain during the Hero Killer arc is -- or was -- Katsuki and Deku’s childhood friend Tsubasa. so right away, that’s fucked up. and it gets worse! because Horikoshi went on to include yet another hint tucked away in a corner of the first databook, confirming that Tsubasa was actually the grandson of that doctor in chapter one who diagnosed Deku as quirkless. the same doctor who is 99.9% confirmed to actually be AFO’s personal physician and the architect of the Noumus.

so yeah. this man took his own grandson and turned him into a lab experiment who was later murdered by another villain. and oh yes, that murder just so happened to caught on tape and subsequently went viral. holy shit.

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this shoe to finally drop, guys, and I’ll continue to be patient. but holy shit, though. anyways, so yeah. if/when Kacchan and Deku learn about this, I can’t even imagine how they’ll react. but it’s safe to say that Ujiko has the Now It’s Personal factor more than covered. if Katsuki is going to go on a roaring rampage of revenge toward anyone, it’s this motherfucker right here.

and last but not least, (3) Ujiko is kind of at this perfect tier of almost-but-not-quite final villain level. like, he’s the guy behind the scenes. not on the same level as AFO, but there have definitely been hints that he’s pulling Tomura’s strings more than Tomura realizes. he seems to be AFO’s right hand man, honestly. so yeah, huge plot importance here, and definitely worthy of being a foil to the series’s deuteragonist. I can definitely see it happening.

so that’s it! I’m sure I’ve missed some people, but I think I got the big ones. anyways, this has been your friendly reminder that the Noumu are going to fuck everyone’s shit up, and there are tidal waves of angst on the horizon that we honestly might not survive. good thing we have a budding hero to root for who always wins no matter what. godspeed, kid.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bakugou katsuki #daruma ujiko #all for one #lots of other villains I give up I'm not gonna tag them all #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #bnha meta #asks #anon asks #bakugou meta

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