#Michael Ole

[teradrama]

jentry chau characters + do they like horror movies?

jentry: oh dear God no. she hates them violently. is canonically squeamish so she especially hates gore.

ed: ALSO hates them violently but for extremely different reasons. hates the portrayal of demons. "THE DISRESPECT". doesn't get why jentry is sacred of them when IM SO MUCH SCARIER

michael: doesnt like them but doesnt really hate them either. wouldnt choose to watch one on his own but is appreciative of good ones

kit: could not before indifferent, they're nothing compared to what he's seen/done/been through. his friends make him watch all of the top scariest movies they can find and he just. doesn't even blink. has the disturbing habit of comparing them to stuff he's been through (*watching Jennifer's body with stella* "huh, this reminds me of that one time in milan." "What happened in- nvm I don't want to know")

stella: LOVES THEM. used to make michael watch them with her when they were dating. now she and kit have horror movie nights <3

[daiwild]

hi my one christmas wish is that u watch this show. pretty please.

fanart that contains major spoilers under the cut:

kit i miss u 💔💔💔

[arjengelly]

Sooo I watched Jentry Chau

I was hoping it could fill the void of The Owl House….

But there was a lot of similarities to other things

Also how dare they… the Neji reference was a dead giveaway

It almost felt like the old Sabrina cartoon mixed with American dragon and Juniper Lee.

[terrestrialtraveller]

I really wished there were more moments showing Michael, his powers, and his parents. Because why does it keep showing up in relation to water in some way? Why were his parents nervous about it? How do they know he has powers?

It’s not just his powers. The show illustrated that he was unsure of his future, should he follow want he wants? Or what’s his been destined with?

The moment he follows what he wants, life makes him doubt like his desire to follow his music and his feelings for Jentry. It was realistic in its portrayal of a kid in his 16, trying to go on his life but unsure what to do with it.

It’s fascinating he can see the future, and yet he is so unsure of his future. At the end, he had to rely on his powers to be assured of his future.

[supahstarrr]

i can't just emphasize how important stella is as a friend for both jentry and michael. she is the "earth" to jentry's "fire" and to michael's "water"—sharing both of their traits while also having distinct ones of her own that is able to balance out the both of them at once.

even her "powers" being the only one not revolving around supernatural abilities go along with her as the "earth" that they both need to be stable. she represents the "normalcy" that the both of are able to get & feel despite their connections to the supernatural. she's sympathetic enough to get to the both of them but also can act as the voice of reason and an organizer to keep them both grounded.

in a sense, her pushing michael to a future that many others defined for him contributes to her as a symbol for "normalcy" because of how that's reflective of the negativity that comes with social norms, and how in the context of michael's story that was what "normal" meant to him.

jentry & stella becoming friends while one of them has a crush on the other's former partner subvert social expectations about how you should go about and feel about those scenarios. jentry reaches out to stella for her to organize and process the thoughts she has, then for some moments they bond while jentry is able to forget about what being "normal" is like without powers for some time.

without her, the two of them (especially jentry) would have a harder time to define what being normal means to themselves due to the lack of having moments that don't involve the supernatural or constant self-doubt and mourning. she helps them break down social norms as an attempt to gain control over their lives through positive (jentry & stella) and negative (michael & stella) relations.

i'm sure the writers internalized stella's importance. although that plan for her importance was not fully delivered to the audience because stella definitely could use some more depth to her character and her importance is brushed aside at various points of the story, but the potential in the dynamic between jentry/stella/michael and what stella means for the both of them is soooo interesting to me. especially because the show definitely needed an "earth" character— someone who represents normalcy after michael as a symbol for jentry's story has a shift & someone who is able to keep them grounded after the supernatural becomes intertwined in the both of their stories

[hamliet]

Jentry Chau Vs Netflix

So, I watched Jentry Chau Vs. The Underworld.

If you like beautiful (and unique) animation, complex storytelling, themes of coming of age and grief, and references to my favorite band (shout out NCT127), this is a story you should definitely check out. I would recommend it highly, even though I'm going to critique later on in this review.

Complex People and Complex Love

Gugu was a very complex character whom you could both hate as someone who was clearly manipulating Jentry in an almost unforgivable way after doing the unforgivable to her family. And yet, the series opening literally had Gugu sacrificing her life for Jentry, so no matter what was revealed, you always had to handle the uncomfortable reality that Gugu really loved Jentry.

And therein the series explored complexities in love and life, an understanding that comes with growing up and brings on its own grief. The people who raise us, our heroes, turn out to have their own lives and worlds too, their own motivations, that are often not exactly altruistic. We are not at the center of their world as much as we, as children, thought we were.

Jentry's wrestling with her relationship with Gugu was complex and interesting. The handling of Gugu's character was consistently the best in the series, and I loved it even if I'm still not sure I like Gugu. That's a good character--someone you're left pondering the legacy of.

Grief

Jentry working through her grief was a major theme of the series--grief for her parents, and grief for Gugu, not just in terms of her actually dying (which does happen), but in terms of her understanding of who Gugu was and who her parents were.

Jentry's grief journey contrasts with Gugu's grief for Iris and of course Cheng's for Xiao Lan. Which is why Jentry reaching out and healing her inner child through saving Xiao Lan was ultimately a beautiful way of handling her arc. She saw a child who was scared and didn't know what was going on, and destructive in that pain, and saved her.

If you look at the series, Gugu was scared and didn't fully understand the consequences of her actions and destroyed Jentry's family as a result. Kit was scared and didn't understand how to be human and was destructive in that pain.J entry too grieves Kit and projects that fear onto the possibility of losing Michael, which leads to a rift in their relationship. And some of that fear is not understanding who they wanted to be. To quote C.S. Lewis after the death of his wife:

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. 

Grief and fear intertwine in many ways in Jentry Chau, including through Moonie allowing herself to be possessed by the Mogui to get her husband back. This also then leads to Gugu's second death.

Gugu's farewell at the end had me full-on sobbing. In a sense, Jentry's entire arc throughout the story is a symbolic way of working through her grief for Gugu, settling with her accepting via choosing to focus on Gugu's love for her, and carrying her memory on in a literal form (the necklace). After accepting Gugu loved her, Jentry loses her fear of the underworld and her powers, and her fear of losing the people closest to her as well.

A Soul Is What You Choose

Jentry's ultimate power isn't burning, but it's being able to see people for whom they want to be. Kit and being human. Ed and being scary. Michael and joining the band.

In a world where everyone, demon or human, is trying to be what they think they need to be, trying to please others, Jentry asks them to be who they want to be, to live how they want to live.

The Best Character and the Worst Writing: Kit

Kit is by far the most compelling character. He's continually sympathetic (while Gugu is somewhat not), conflicted, and torn between how desperately he wants to be human and the inhuman acts he believes he has to commit to be one. Plus, he doesn't understand what it means to be human, nor the complexities of human relationships.

The scene where he helps Jentry create a skinsuit is really a metaphorical sex scene--like fairly obviously. It isn't subtle.

It starts in a bedroom (and yes, animators know what they're doing when they choose setting and objects).

Then we have talking about looking under layers.

Then we have some yonic symbols and this.

Like. And he uses a knife (a traditionally phallic symbol), and the next thing we see is cloth falling... with literal the next frame being clothes (ie, clothes coming off).

Sticking a brush (another traditional phallic symbol) in a vat of wet paint (yonic).

Kit: I've never done this before. It's strange. Jentry: I stand by what I said in class. You do have a soul, and you're more human than you know.

Also note the hand clasped position.

It ends with them literally "becoming one" in Kit embodying a Jentry skin to help Jentry uncover the truth--in other words, they help each other be human.

Which is why what happens next really doesn't make storytelling sense, and is actually kinda offensive.

Love Triangle: What Not To Write

The love triangle pretty clearly was supposed to represent Jentry's links to the supernatural (via Kit) and her links to the human world (via Michael). Great potential for a love triangle, a trope I generally hate because it's almost never well done.

This was not well done. What makes it even more frustrating is that it had a ton of potential to be well done via the thematic and symbolic potential.

Having Kit suddenly go aggressive ex who can't take "no" for an answer was lazy writing, nonsensical within the characters they'd set up, and offensive. Offensive, primarily, because you absolutely should never introduce a triggering element like, oh, harassment and controlling men if you don't plan on dealing with it in the story. And they didn't. At all.

The only reason that element was there was to resolve the love triangle in a clear way--oh, Jentry should be with Michael because Kit acted threatening, even though he never had before. That's just bad writing, because if there's a clear choice in a love triangle, you gotta actually write it. Make Michael the more compelling love interest. (More on how they didn't do this later.)

The entire sequence with Kit makes no sense. Jentry tells him he's actually "hundreds of years old," parroting Tumblr-esque anti arguments about Twilight and every other paranormal love story ever. Except, the story had always explicitly framed Kit as a child being abused by Cheng and "parented" by puppets. His journey to understand who he was, that he mattered, that he could be a human too, was clearly a coming-of-age story.

You don't tend to end coming-of-age stories with death, but they did, pretty much because after the threatening scene there was no coming back.

Plus, Jentry's treatment of Kit actually was pretty bad. Now, there's never an excuse for a threatening ex, but--Kit was right about her hypocrisy in terms of how she treated demons like Ed and himself, something that Jentry isn't really asked to reckon with.

If they wanted Jentry to end up with Michael, that's fair, but her decision was taken away from her because they just decided to stamp Kit with a lazy and offensive development and then kill him off in a redemptive death that emphasizes everything that can go wrong with that trope.

Michael Deserved Better

I feel like they didn't know entirely what to do with Michael. He started off with a cool arc, torn between his desire to be a band geek and his talent for football. His indecision leading to conflict with Stella and Jentry was also a great flaw, especially given that he also has visions of the future. An indecisive teenager with precognition has a ton of potential.

But, Michael's arc vanishes after the festival. Instead he's just... kinda there. Jentry chooses him because she wants to be a normal, human girl. But this isn't a good reason, because she's not (and arguably, he's not either!). Yet this isn't unpacked--the idea that everyone in this triangle is both human and supernatural, to varying degrees.

One interesting idea I spotted during the scene where Kit (as Jentry) gets asked out by Michael is that--well, it's a romantic-coded scene with two men, even if Kit turns him down for Jentry.

But it also coming on the heels of the metaphorical sex scene kinda seemed to almost hint at a throuple. Plus the scene after Kit's death where Jentry views them as merging, and where Michael expresses that Jentry views them the same. This would have actually been a very interesting turn for the story to take in future seasons, if they get those (especially since Stella x Tokki is apparently a thing?).

Because ultimately:

Netflix: The True Enemy

Honestly, almost all of the writing flaws I've talked about come down to the writers just not having enough time. If they had a guarantee of further seasons, they wouldn't have needed to rush to finish the love triangle. They wouldn't have needed to kill Kit. They wouldn't have needed to abort Michael's arc and conflict with Stella.

And really, Netflix continues to disappoint me in emphasizing just how much they focus on profits and money over art. They prefer fast food over an actual nutritious meal. They give shows like one season to get record ratings and if they don't, they get axed. Of course writers are going to rush to cram their story into a single season, because there's no guarantee of another season. Series aren't given any leeway to explore their interesting elements, or to find their footing. It's bad for art. However, Warner Bros exists so Netflix can't fully win the crown for worst example of capitalistic corporations killing art just yet.

I continue to be disappointed that series with no actual story that the writers want to tell (merely a concept of a plan) get renewed for seven seasons based on the writer's reputations (that they then tank with their terrible non-writing) while interesting stories with beautiful art and animation, complex ideas on grief and growing up, have to scramble to beg for another season.

[pageofheartdj]

Kit and Jentry know what it's like when their whole self revolves around their larger than life powers. Jentry and Michael know what it's like to have family hiding big ancestral secrets from them. Michael and Kit know what it's like to pretend and change who they are for others.

Excuse me how am I NOT supposed to ship all three of them together???

[random-dragon-exe]

You know with Michael having visions, I thought we'd have an episode where he would have constant terrible visions and tries to prevent them from happening.

You know, kinda like a more Final Destination style thing and really play it up.

Then at the end when he's had enough, he'd confront his parents about it again, and get some real answers. Only for it to be revealed that the longer he doesn't get control of them, the more they'll act up and try to play twisted mind games with him.

And of course, he'd learn about why he has the visions too.

Idk, I just think leaning into it would be a really cool idea. Plus who doesn't want to see some final destination style visions and stuff in the show? (He could also get some angst as a treat and development to match)

[astrocomiical]

made fanart of the hollow boy fic by thosefivechicks on ao3 URGEHRHFHG actuallt made me ill i hate everything

[joisropa]

Yep, like these lovebirds

[mars-rnr]

This was made for humorous purposes & as a joke, but also which is also the goofiest

This was made so more people know about the JCVTU Tumblr Community! Check it out if you want to ^^

[scrabbleknight]

Just finished binge watching Jentry Chau Vs The Underworld and my consensus is that I love every character but every character has "something" that makes me mad at them (except Michael Ole, baby boy).

Great show though.

[chillinglikeashilling]

Michael and Kit: Making New Choices

This is a continuation of this post where I was talking about my thoughts about Kit and Jentry's dynamic in the show. (I finally finished the season) I need to re-watch the series again sometime soon because I'm so fascinated by the Episode 5.

The show sets up Michael and Kit as parallels from the start of the episode which is such a fun choice because they ended the episode before with this legitimately creepy scene of Kit pulling his skin back on. There was a chance for the tone of the show to really change there but the show immediately contextualizes how it wants us to view Kit by showing him in parallel with Michael.

Both of them are teenagers (or young at the very least) waking up to go to school, getting closer to Jentry but also trying to establish some sense of self identity and sufficiency. Michael is trying to balance meeting his parents expectations, against a desire to try something new and possibly divert from a path that he's been on for a long time. There's a sort of conservatism (not politically necessarily but in the way parents will often uphold traditional values and institutions) that we can see in some of the adult characters in the show like Michael's parents and Gugu, and it really pushes back on the teenage characters when they try to change.

Kit is somewhat different in that his deal with Mr. Cheng seems much more recent and his "parents" are just puppets for Mr. Cheng, but what is Mr. Cheng if not the oldest, most controlling adult on this show. A man so caught up in what he believes is good for his child that he attempted to kill a teenage girl several times just to drag his daughter kicking and screaming out of an afterlife she was at peace with.

It's so interesting to me that both Kit and Michael are struggling with asserting themselves and taking control of their decisions and basically all of the people in their lives except for Jentry are advising them to basically stick to what is easiest (i.e. the path that has been decided for them). It's a big part of Jentry's personal journey as well after all.

I mean, a lunch lady basically talks to both Kit and Michael about the importance of making their own choices and how other people will keep making choices for them if they don't. However that scene starts with the lunch lady explicitly refusing Michael's attempt to make a new choice.

There's a consistent pressure that we see pushing back on Michael when he attempts to change- his parents, Stella, the lunch lady. Everyone around him is so used to him following the script that it's genuinely baffling to them when he doesn't. Jentry, who is a person Michael has known a long time but who has been away long enough that they're still getting used to each other again, is the one relationship pushing him to change. In the episode its Jentry's text that tells us Michael was even considering trying out for band! Meanwhile for Kit there's a pressure there from Mr. Cheng but its actually easier for him to make the specific choice not to hurt Jentry. Mr. Cheng (or more specifically the Mogui) don't give up on having Kit do what they want but they only step back because they have enough knowledge about the systems in place to know that things will work out badly for Kit. Mr. Cheng knows that Kit and Jentry won't work because Kit has been lying to Jentry the entire time, and because Kit is making a decision not to hurt Jentry specifically (instead of say a choice to not hand over the powers) eventually Kit finds himself in a situation where giving the powers to Mr. Cheng feels like the easiest choice, the only choice.

[arjengelly]

Really thought they were going to ditch Mako, I mean Michael, at the dance and go Korrasami on us….😜

And then there was Tokki at the end…

Hopefully we get season 2 and they expand on the characters some more 🤞🏼

[cheesecakeluvrs]

Michael was very much giving 2nd ml in the first bit of jcvtu and I’m very happy that they actually ended up together. The whole thing with him having a girlfriend at first is not something I really liked them adding but he’s much better than the other option. Now I’m sorry! I can’t help it okay but when I see a supernatural demon man I want them to kiss! So yeah I don’t want her to be with Kit ‘right now’ but maybe if Kit gets some sort of redemption… Okay ignoring that, despite my complaining I actually do appreciate them giving Michael some flaws (flaws that aren’t manipulation and murder). It makes him feel much more realistic and it adds more depth to their relationship. I also felt they did a good job handing the romance in that it didn’t feel like she chose Michael just because he’s the better choice but she actually liked him.

[supahstarrr]

rambling about the love triangle, what michael & kit represents for jentry

a good handful of the criticisms about the love triangle and the romance in general in the show are completely valid and i agree with a lot of them... like i truly do get it when people say they rather not have romance in this show. but honestly i found the love triangle in beginning to be quite interesting since it showed potential in the dynamics. i feel the writers did not *fully* utilize the meaning within the dynamics that was already there and instead mostly used the triangle for entertainment. it would've been way more better for the writers to take advantage of the meaning to explore it for the audience to study it, which they partially did but its clear at some points they prioritized showing romance for the sake of entertainment reasons

in the beginning, Michael being representative of the "normal" and Kit being representative of the "unusual" that the main character is struggling with is such a compelling introduction of a love triangle, considering that we're introduced to our main character struggles with normalcy, the past, her powers, and the underworld being set up to be the main thing for this season. Micheal is teenage boy who is quite normal to the point of almost being the ideal of it—he's a football player with good influence whose able to socialize with people. but also he is a childhood friend who is still disturbed by the past fire, so he is not even just being representative of the "normal" but also the past that Jentry constantly struggles with.

Kit fits the norm so much to the point he leans towards being a deviant. he is very conventionally attractive, he says and does the right things, he's so polite and composed, yet also remains detached. he's so close to perfection to the point he's "unusual" or "out of bounds" (like the underworld). but also he is the "new kid" of the school, being the potential of something new or a different kind of future that Jentry can't get with Michael.

Noticeably, Jentry also struggles with being unusual in social and physical terms (underground world & possession of powers), and she pushes herself to the future for the sake of normalcy so much to the point of not addressing the past. this is reflected by the way the romance in the dynamic between Jentry and Kit is quite fast despite her feelings still remaining with Michael (the past), the attraction from Jentry's end being so strong because she's enticed by the image of him (the future or moving away from her past), plus how unusual they are & feel fueling the connection. the speed of their romance is also reminiscent of how fast Jentry became connected to the underworld.

Then what these guys represent for Jentry gets explored more. Michael as a representative of the "normal" is somewhat broken down. he is quite unsure his future & himself despite being perceived as being secure in his identity and how much he's seen as a good teenager mostly relies on how much he pleases others (especially authorities but also his peers) even if he doesn't want to do those things. though in a sense these traits are normal in teenagers (thus being a representation of the "normal"), those traits also deconstruct norms which are typically social expectations that are thinly-veiled unattainable ideals for most teenagers to achieve. thus Michael shifts to being representative of the deconstruction of "normal"—which absolutely goes well with Jentry breaking down the lies, truth and secrets behind what is normal for her (ex: her grandmother as a guardian, the lack of her parents)

but on top of that, it turns out he has quirky powers of his own. his powers are interesting considering he is the "normal" (then "deconstruction of normal") and "past", considering they are outside of normalcy and are related to the future. despite having these visions, he remains unsure about them and the future in general. its hinted that his parents know about the powers, yet never told him about it. which is interesting noting that these parents pushed him to be normal. through the relationship with his visions, his parents knowing about his powers while pushing him away from the knowledge of them—but also pushing him towards what made him normal (football), and also his desire for doing something new, it shows that being "normal" held him back on his potential unrelated to norms & expectations, thus contributing to him as a symbol for deconstruction of norms.

Kit as the representative of the "unusual" is not just reinforced but strengthened when he's revealed to be a demon. this reveal really does reinforces him being the underworld that Jentry is connecting to, though the connection mostly revolves around her being taken advantaged of by the many demons in that world—just like what Kit has largely been doing throughout the show. yet there is more added to him as a symbol. he becomes the physical form of Jentry's insecurities, being the demon that she think she is. Jentry has avoided and taken advantaged of the "demon" (power) within her at various points of the series, which is similar to the way she does the same to Kit. despite being a demon, the show humanizes him as it shows he is a multifaceted being cable of emotion that he may not be able to describe. through the acknowledgment of the demon that is Kit having traits likened to humanity, Jentry is able to address the "demon" she sees in herself by humanizing herself. and so Kit's death can be seen as a the death of Jentry's perception of herself.

with the context of Jentry's story being to accept the powers and the connection to the underground world as something definite in her life, along with the themes around taking control and Michael slowly getting used to his own powers, him as a symbol is framed differently. Michael is the deconstruction of *society's* definition of normalcy to make your own version of what's normal for you! with the (possible but likely) establishment of the romance in the dynamic between them at the end of the show, it represents Jentry reconciling with and finally addressing the past that she has constantly mourned about. with Michael largely being associated water (that being a big theme in his visions) and Jentry being associated with fire, it shows a "balance" between the two of them as she's worked on herself and that work is ongoing. in a way he goes back to being a symbol of what is normal, but specifically according to Jentry's definition.

i just want to emphasis that there's so much potential even right from the start. i also believe that the outcomes of the triangle—the dynamic Jentry/Michael being endgame, and Jentry/Kit having hints of chemistry for a while but is doomed to perish makes sense for the narrative. the endgame relationship being off and on does make sense, although it is a concept not executed greatly since the show is so vague with them establishing their relationship and them breaking up to the point that was not the message given to many viewers. Kit's death (in the love triangle and literal terms) makes sense, and it is to me the most satisfying outcome of the triangle despite the execution of it being questionable among some of the audience. i'd say that these characters' existence & the emphasis on Jentry's dynamic with the both of them (romance or not) are needed for the story. it is also very interesting to see what the guys represent for Jentry having some shifts and recontextualization, which is reminiscent of the constant life & rebirth topic going on through out the show with the rules regarding to spirituality and the underworld

there's no question that the execution of the whole triangle wasn't that great. there can be so much meaning drawn from the love triangle and what it means for Jentry's story. yet many viewers are dissatisfied with it to the point of some wishing there wasn't any romance in general. it is understandable, though i fear that the love triangle was so lacking to the point the meaning & potential that's already there is missed by the audience and diminished by the writers.

i especially have more complaints towards Jentry/Michael, which fell short to me (and many others apparently) despite it supposing to be the endgame relationship that's meant to be rooted for. there is some hint of the "opposites attract" thing going on with the two that strengthen by the fire & water associations with Jentry & Michael. the both of them are set up to be the opposing elements that are needed together to balance the two of them out. though there is definitely stability that can be seen from especially Jentry but also Michael as he has constantly jumped to girl to girl despite his strong feelings for her, that "opposites attract" trope is hardly reinforced by Michael's personality traits.

Michael's character... needed some more work in this season. he's such a "safe" character that the traits that would translate to flaws and/or concerns in real life (emotionally cheating on all of your partners, cheating by kissing someone else despite having a current partner, and jumping to girlfriend to the next) are portrayed as traits not meant to show depth, and in fact are things to gloss over or be happy about for the sake of rooting for the endgame ship. the traits that could've acted as an extension of to already existing traits (his trouble with commitment could be an extension of his constant self doubt of himself) are not touched on, because those traits are meant to be glossed over. there could've been more opportunities to explore him more and yet there are hardly any, which makes some of the meaning between Jentry/Michael not shine as much as it had the potential to.

and it was very clear that people behind the show did not know what to do with Michael's character, which makes him and his relationship with Jentry lacking even more. which is quite unfortunately, because i'd argue the dynamic is one of the most important ones in the story... and yet the writers prioritized the drama that come with it instead of the potential depth of the ship. Sigh. Still like this show though! It's just... maybe there could have been more... to the romance...