#Tbh I think this show is for the most casual and the most invested viewers but not the middle ground | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

celluloidgrl · 6 months ago

Text

Ok so I have thoughts about the revisit.

I watched S1 as a casual viewer who’d never read the books. I’ll be honest and say wrt 1x05 I did not have the same visceral reaction that it seems majority of the fandom had re the drop – because TO ME, it’s fantastical/for shock value and I treated it as such. I did however have a strong reaction to what was shown and said inside the townhouse because that had strong elements of DV from a human perspective…and TBH I think those are the reactions they expected from the general audience. It’s why I think the inside portion specifically is what was revisited. What they did not expect was for fans of the books and people who’d become extremely invested in the show to not take the drop the way they intended – which was idiotic of them but what can we do?

That said, I’ve seen a lot of people have different takes about the revisit. For me, it accomplished three things. One to show that Louis is just as violent as Lestat, reconfirm Lestat’s fear of abandonment, and the most important thing: it drove home Claudia’s point – IT WAS NEVER ABOUT HER. She was literally just caught in their mess. That fight as Lestat said was just a buildup. It really had nothing to do with her. Louis didn’t really give a shit that Lestat put his hands on Claudia and even if he had, Louis himself did the exact same thing to her just two episodes later. So there's that.

Wrt to the drop, if they keep it in? okay. If in S3 they decide to show it didn’t happen? Fine. I really don’t care either way at this point. I’m just tired of rehashing it. TBH now that I’ve begun reading the books… If they do keep it as is, I won’t be upset that the drop happened because it’s OOC for Lestat (it is… even though they did their best this episode to convince us it’s not), I would be upset because they took a scene that was pivotal to Lestat and Armand’s dynamic and gave it to LOUSTAT of all couples. Make it make sense. It’s one of my favorite Armand scenes in TVL and now I’m wondering if we’ll even get it.

And to top it all off, watching the drop again shit still doesn’t add up. Yes, Lestat said it happened and it seems like people are willing to believe he’s telling the truth about that… but you mean to tell me, if the revisit is to be believed, Louis and Lestat were physically fighting causing injury to each other which we saw but yet when Lestat is dragging Louis it looks as if Lestat beat the ever-loving shit out of him while Lestat didn’t have a scratch on him. He says what he says to Claudia ("It was never you"…which exactly), bites Louis, brings him into the air, gives the speech that he stole from Armand in the future with blood from the bite on his face (but again no facial injuries), drops Louis from 70k ft, floats down and his hair is impeccably styled and he has no trace of blood on his face.? And we are not meant to question that still? Either they are shit at editing and cohesive story telling or there is a plan for this. I hope it’s the latter and I hope it pays off.

1 note · View note

extrathicccarlwheezer · 1 year ago

Text

very much this. i’ve been seeing everyone in the fandom going crazy over the sequence and just, not understanding. it felt so hollow to me.

i think this stuff is the reason this sequence, and so much of the show, has fallen flat to me. filoni’s whole life has been star wars for 20ish years now; he’s lived and breathed not just star wars but WRITING star wars for longer than many fans have been alive. and as a results of that, he has a very strong picture of these characters in his head. this is a good thing for writers to have! but an unforseen consequence is that while he has a very strong picture of these characters in his head, it seems that he's forgetting to *fully* put that version of the characters into the text. there are allusions to ahsoka's issues with anakin, and we see many instances when this drama comes to the forefront, but it's never explained in the text what specifically those issues are.

additionally, if you want to get even close to a full picture of these characters, you need to watch TWELVE SEASONS OF ANIMATED KIDS SHOWS. which i have! i have a lot of love for TCW and especially Rebels. but A) that is a HUGE barrier to entry for many casual fans, and B) twelve seasons of television leaves a LOT of room for varied interpretation. this results in a large chunk of the audience not really having a strong understanding of who these characters are and what their motivations and issues are, and a smaller (but much louder) chunk who all have very similar (but slightly different) interpretations of the characters. and unfortunately, many of the second category think the first category are fake fans or just idiots for not getting it (not all of them but a loud enough minority that it's noticeable). the mega fans all have their own similar but slightly distinct version of the ahsoka's motivation and issues, and this show and ESPECIALLY this sequence was vague enough that it worked as a resolution to each of their own interpretation of the story, and therefore you see a lot of the fandom going wild. the casual fans though? this is a payoff that didn't have clear setup, a resolution without being shown what problem is being resolved.

i find myself somewhere in the middle. i enjoyed TCW, and i loved rebels with all my heart. but because of how my brain works and how i interact with media, i always focused on what was in the text, not interpreting and extrapolating into what i THINK the text implies. so while i know all the canon backstory, i don't have all a solid image of what is supposed to be resloved here. i've seen varied interpretation of what this sequence and much of ahsoka's arc all could mean, from ahsoka's PTSD from being a child soldier, to parental issues from anakin failing her, or seeing anakin as a brother who SHE failed to save. and all of these could work in the text, but none of them are explicitly the characterization we see in the shows.

this has resulted in a resolution that just falls flat, unless you've spent years building up your own version of these characters in your mind. and i'd argue most people in this hundred million dollar show's intended audience probably haven't even seen all the relevant backstory, let alone spent all that time interpreting and delving into who the characters are/could be.

so it should have been included in the text.

tbh i'd argue this show shouldn't be made as it is. either A) make it a longer show with more time to delve into and explore the character's backstory and motivations, so casual viewers are caught up and the show has a specific interpretation of story it's working to resolve, or B) make it another animated show, so it doesn't necessarily appeal to that wider audience and can instead focus just on the fanbase that's already invested (and doesn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars, which people will probably see as a failure/waste of money when many audiences struggle to connect with the story). personally i'd go with the second option, although i still think they should clarify in the text what the relevant issues/motivations are.

anyways this reply is kinda rambling, but i've had a lot of mixed thoughts on the show and wanted to put it into words, and the original post really helped me conceptualize all of it. if you've read this far, thanks lol. i have more i could say but i've gone on long enough as it is. i love star wars very deeply and it just sucks when stuff in star wars just isn't as well planned as it could be.

I have a problem with the Ahsoka series...

As someone who didn't watch Rebels and just getting back to Star Wars after being out of the fandom, episode 5 left me kinda flat...

WARNING: SPOILERS TO JEDI FALLEN ORDER AND AHSOKA EPISODE 5

Anyone who plays Jedi Fallen Order will immediately realize that the scene is a mirror of Cal and Jaro's 2nd vision duel. In fact, there were major Fallen Order vibes all throughout this episode and other episodes including all that psychometry (which Ahsoka has never demonstrated before this series but hey... the power of retcon compelled Dave Filoni).

But why did Ahsoka vs Anakin feel so flat for me? What should have been an emotional scene didn't hit me with the same feels that Fallen Order did.

And I got to thinking...

In Fallen Order, we first meet Cal and from the get-go we understand that this is a kid who's had to live on his own for a long time. He doesn't really think that much of himself--as evident by his "Trash, just not approved trash" comment.

Fallen Order and Survivor have been brilliant, character-driven games that really delved into issues of trauma, survivor's guilt, PTSD, insecurity, and loss of self-worth.

We learn that Cal survived Order 66 when he was just 13.

youtube

And that his master sacrificed his life to save him. And we soon realize that Cal has remained trapped--emotionally and psychologically--that day he escaped clutching his fallen master's lightsaber in fear and helplessness. The fear became a means to survive--a coping mechanism.

When Cal first meets a vision of his master, Jaro Tapal, it's on Dathomir. The vault is booby trapped to test anyone who dare enter. He's faced with a vision of his fallen master and is overwhelmed with his own failures and breaks his lightsaber.

youtube

Through Cere's urging and guidance, Cal travels to Ilum to retrieve his crystal and rebuild his lightsaber.

youtube

There, he is tested and he faces his failures and shortcomings. He learns to forgive himself and face the past head on. He returns to Dathomir and back to face his master.

youtube

What was the lesson in Cal facing Jaro? The lesson was forgiving himself of what happened. Of learning to trust that 13-yr-old child within. Jaro's sacrifice will always be a part of him but he also needs to move forward with the lessons he's learned. As long as Cal is alive, he has a choice to keep fighting--"Hold the line, and trust only in the Force."

It's a classic heroes journey.

The Anakin vs Ahsoka scene is similar in a lot of ways. But I found myself not having the same reaction.

If I watch that Fallen Order scene, I'm always moved to tears because in the hours I spent playing as him, I lived all of his failures, his fears, his emotions--I was Cal Kestis. I was that 13-yr old boy who emotionally shut down to the point that he lost his connection to the Force.

Fallen Order took the time to establish that Cal had been dealing with the guilt of not doing enough to save his master for the last 5 years. It took the time to lay the groundwork so the emotional beats really hit you in the feels in moments when they should.

My problem with the Ahsoka series is it breaks a fundamental rule in storytelling--Don't assume anything about your audience. A good chunk of that audience never saw Rebels. So, a good chunk of us were asking ourselves, "huh, so what exactly was the lesson here?"

In Ahsoka, we're never shown what her attachments to Anakin are. Is she a Padawan feeling abandoned by her master? Does she feel betrayed? What exactly is that baggage that she needs to move on from?

We get none of that because the series doesn't do enough character work to make her struggles known to the audience beforehand. Unless you watched Rebels, you'd have no clue nor feel the significance of the scene. What we get is her looking forlorn at any mention of Anakin. They just expect us to understand that she has unfinished business with him. What that is... it's never clear in the dialogue. So when we have a vision of her facing her master, it doesn't have the same emotional punch in the feels that Fallen Order has (unless you saw the animated series).

So her lesson was to live? Did we see her struggling with her purpose before this scene? No. Did we see her doubt herself and her place in the Order (in or out of it)? No. Do we see her still yearn for the past and what would have been her place in the Order but struggle with their betrayal? No. The message is jumbled, the lesson is vague because the show didn't do the work it needed to to earn that emotional payoff.

The one thing I loved was the visuals. Cinematography in this episode was breathtaking but it sacrifices storytelling over fan service and nostalgia.

Collider put it bluntly, "Ahsoka’s “training” stands in the place of actual storytelling. By driving Ahsoka and Anakin straight into a duel, we’re robbed of dialogue and character moments that could heighten the story that Filoni is attempting to tell. Filoni mistakenly believes that what audiences have been longing for is another poorly lit lightsaber duel — only this time between Anakin and Ahsoka — but that isn’t what anyone has been pining for. Especially not casual fans who know who Anakin is, but have no concept of why this duel with Ahsoka should matter to them... Star Wars is more than just lightsaber duels and resurrecting the Skywalkers for drama. It’s about the connections forged between the characters who are thrown into situations, cast against the backdrop of a galaxy at war, both seen and unseen. Those connections feel hollow when left to molder in the shadow of nostalgia."

Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor work from a storytelling perspective because they made us care about these characters. They built connections to Cere, to Jaro, to BD-1 and the rest of the Mantis crew and how they play a significant part in Cal's growth as a person and Jedi. And likewise, how Cal plays a part in each character's journey to self-actualization.

The more I think about the episode 5 scene the more pointless it felt (for lack of a better word) because this happens 5 years after Return of the Jedi... the part where Anakin was saved by Luke. She's also met and spoken to Luke so would know that Anakin was saved in the end.

So unless this is just Ahsoka sorting out her own issues of abandonment or whatever inside her head... it doesn't make sense for Anakin or the overall story. He was already saved. He went back to the light side after defeating Palpatine. Luke was able to do what no one else did. Or did she resent that or hate herself that it wasn't her that brought him back to the light? The problem is the show doesn't make it clear what her attachments to Anakin are. If it had spared a few episodes looking back at her training, Anakin's betrayal and her feelings of abandonment, it would have felt like a more full circle moment. If the show had taken the time to portray her going about her life without reason or purpose, the lesson would have meant something. The dialogue doesn't do the visuals justice. It's purposely vague and cryptic because the show doesn't know what Ahsoka ought to be struggling with. She has baggage but what that is they don't even know. So the visuals try to cover for the lack of any compelling dialogue.

We didn't need a duel or callbacks to Vader or Rebels. What we needed was to see was the same Anakin at the end of Return of the Jedi-- the same Anakin that was saved and made whole. We needed a conversation, not cryptic lessons--a conversation about why he lost himself, Luke and Leia's place in his life and salvation, and a reassurance to Ahsoka that she couldn't have prevented his fall from grace because he made the choice to fall to the Dark Side. Anakin alone made the choice and paid for his sins. That conversation would have brought more closure than "I choose to live."

It felt like the writers went "This would be such a cool scene to have" and "What would happen to get there?" Rather than have everything matter and happen organically to the overall story. By doing that, Ahsoka suffers the same problems as the sequels.

Fan service should serve as a purpose to further enrich your story. And your story should be clear to everyone not just a niche of your audience. A good story, no matter how simple it is, should stand on its own merit. Good character work and set up matters.

Just my 2 cents.

#bookmark #star wars #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka series #selfposting #fave

52 notes · View notes

romancing-lady-whistledown · 5 years ago

Text

S6 overall thoughts

What I loved

- Lola. While no Skam-main will ever reach the levels of love and attachment I have to Lucas Lallemant, I think that especially concidering that Lola was literally introduced in the last scene of S5, her being my second favorite main of the show is quite an accomplishment and I think Flavie deserved alot of the honor for that. She needed to catch my attention right away, and she did.

- Eliott. Although I have a big complaint about how the later part of his storyline was concluded in this season which I’ll get back to, I still loved what I saw of him. With all his lovable traits and his flaws, to me he felt as well-rounded and lovable and interesting and relatable as I always found him. I loved seeing him get to direct, act in and eventually show his first ever movie, I loved that he got to talk about his illness again in the Luquette-clip, and I also loved how the video-store became a safe place for Lola to go when things weren’t going well with her family or with Maya.

- The Lecomte-sisters. Easily the best executed part of this season. Even as someone who hasn’t been the biggest fan of Daphne since S4 even I still felt their connection through the entire season and it was definitely my favorite love story in this show after Elu’s in S3, although an entirely different type of love.

- A lot of the clips. Although Skam France unfortunately struggle with solid narratives with satisfying endings, they are amazing at creating moments, and this season had a ton of clips and moments that I loved, still probably outweighing the number of clips I didn’t like so much.

- The acting. Skam France owes so much of their cast, they are really carrying the show.

- The cinematography. The blue and purple aesthetic was perfect for this season, and I also loved the red aesthetic of Eliott’s video store alot. I have never had a problem with Skam France’s cinamatic look, in fact that’s one part of their style that they really rock and that I really like even though it gives a totally different vibe from og Skam.

What I liked that could’ve been better

- Mayla’s storyline. The chemistry was there and I liked them, but I didn’t fall in love with them. I think it’s something in how their development was written. The romance was very much a side-plot in this season, which I’m not complaining about because I think it was fitting for Lola’s story, but a side-plot romance like that just didn’t need the Char-drama, especially after we already had Maya avoid Lola for a week. The development of the relationship just kinda lost me somewhere along the way so I unfortunately didn’t grow to love them the way I wish I did.

- Eliott’s arc. While I’m happy with what I saw from Eliott, his arc doesn’t feel fully completed. The sad thing is it would’ve been so easy. If they just gave Eliott and Lola a longer conversation about the club incident and one POV clip for Eliott and Lucas to talk about the insecurities that were brought up, that would’ve made a world of difference for me. And concidering how short episode 9 was there was time for that, so it’s not like I’m bitter or anything.

- Most of the storylines tbh. Like I really found most of the storylines in this season interesting, I really wanted to see them play out and get to a satisfying conclusion. But because of the way they chose to use their time, so many of those storylines never lived up to their potential, and it’s frustrating.

What I didn’t like

- The ending - This isn’t really so much about the last clip which was cute and all, although I have some complaints about it (Why did Charles have more lines that Lucas? Why did they drag S5 down with a love triangle just for Alexia and Arthur to suddenly get back together in the finale? Why miss the opportunity of a Lucas/Jo interaction when you’ve basically been setting up what could be a really funny scene all season? Shouldn’t Lucas and Lola at least exchange a look after the fight they had? Shoudn’t Eliott at least send a look in the direction of Mayla after he pushed so hard for Lola to bring Maya to the premiere?). But my main problem is about how significant storylines were left without a satisfying conclusion. Yes, there was alot of stuff going on in this season but also there was some poor use of the time they had, by either wasting time on unnecessairy and undeveloped side-characters or making the episodes short for no good reason. A lot could be done with that time. The angst kept going all the way into episode 10 and that shouldn’t be the case when you have this much to wrap up and you wrote this as if it was the last season of the show. In S3 there was angst in episode 9 and a tiny bit at the start of episode 10 when Eliott had his depressive episode, but since they already had wrapped up all the other conflicts in episode 7 they could focus almost entirely on giving that storyline a fullfilling and satisfying conclusion.

- The lack of communication - the truth is that alot of the issues brought up in this season would never be fully resolved in 10 weeks. Lola’s addiction-problems, Daphne’s eating disorder, Eliott’s insecurities. That won’t go away within the timespan of a season, all we can hope for is to leave them in a better spot where the future looks hopeful. But we can have conversations about these things, and while I’m glad we at least got confirmation that both Lola and Daphne are getting professional help, so many conversations about different issues and between different characters were missing for this season to wrap up in a truely satisfying way.

- The unnecessairy side-characters and the side-plots that came with them makes their own point on my list of things I don’t like because when I see them all I can think is how they took time away from giving the other stories better conclusions. I’m talking about Tiff and Char. I can see what their roles in the story were, I can see what purpose they were supposed to serve. Tiff and her squad served as a contrast to Lamifex at the start of the season, but then she was also dragged through the rest of the season with a cyberbullying plot that had very little impact and this whole thing was dragged out until the very last episode. As for Char, she sure pushed Lola to admit her feelings to Maya but I don’t think we needed her for that and I think having Maya and Lola making up after Maya avoided Lola for a week only for her to immediately start dating someone and kinda start avoiding her again was a poor use of time, both in the Mayla storyline and in the season as a whole.

- Making the episodes in the second half of the season super-short while the conflicts kept piling up was...a choice. And certainly not one I agree with looking at how everything concluded.

The short version is: I enjoyed alot of it, it was definitely the most I’ve enjoyed watching a season of Skam France since S3 because the parts I loved I really loved, so I would rewatch S6 over S1, S2, S5 and most definitely S4 any day. But the last portion of the season left me highly unsatisfied, both as an ending to Season 6 and as an ending for the original generation of characters. Yes, I know the last sequence of S5 was supposed to be the goodbye to the original generation, but that doesn’t make the situation any better to me because that scene, while there was a type of beauty to it, was just as underwhelming and unsatisfying as a goodbye to those characters as this clip was, and this was the last time we’ll see them. It’s of course bitter because there is so much lost potential to explore in alot of the og characters and even a 5 minute clip for each couple/single character could’ve made a huge difference there, which makes it harder to let go of the characters than it would be if the ending was at least somewhat satisfying. But on top of that it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth that it shows a certain lack of respect for the attachment the audience as a whole (not just the most passionate fans like us but even the more casual viewers) have to the original characters. I don’t think they can ever satisfy everyone but this kinda just feels like a “Get over it and move on” kinda attitude and it definitely doesn’t make me feel any more enthusiastic about investing in their new characters and seasons. Because for me the strength in this show is in the characters, they’re what keeps me interested when the storytelling is weak which happens...quite a bit.

#skamfr #skam france

88 notes · View notes

thetaoofbetty · 4 years ago

Note

I find the cheating debate so interesting, I wonder how young they are. Punishing a partner creates an unhealthy dynamic that nobody should want. There is many reasons for that can lead up to someone cheating, maybe they should give Esther Perel a listen to to get some insight! The writers do not care about female characters on the show, we speak a lot of B & V but Alice, Hermione, Ethel could all have been great and no idea what they are doing with Cheryl and Toni.

hello lovely!

i don’t find it to be a debate, tbh, there’s no real debate that it’s wrong or hurtful to your significant other.

i do find that there’s hypocrisy in the way fandom runs. how many people read and like fics where betty cheats on someone with jughead? how many people don’t care how much violence or drug usage there is but balk at anything to do with the relationships? they know it’s fiction when it’s violent and unlawful, but when something hurts us in a human way that makes us feel vulnerable, we lash out.

so people are lashing out. that’s fine. they’re hurting. i get it. they’re projecting or self-inserting or they’ve just been plain let down and it sucks. i don’t judge them for being upset. i really wish they wouldn’t lash out at me because i can’t fix it for them, though i would if i could. wanting someone to hurt because you’re hurt isn’t something i would call healthy but i understand the urge. the way people wanted betty to hurt was firmly in the sphere of internalized misogyny and it wasn’t fun to see. betty’s scarlet letter was pinned directly to her and for some, it’ll never come off.

i do think the echo chamber in which fandom exists isn’t always the healthiest dynamic and with most of us being stuck inside, people are online more than ever. i see people on here who think they know the actors personally, they know the characters better than anyone, they’re convinced they know anything and everything and their proof is...well, it’s not concrete is what i’m saying. so i think heightened emotions are probably playing into it as well.

maybe they’re younger, i really don’t know. i was an extremely casual viewer as a teenager so i just stopped watching something when it annoyed me (looking at you, large chunks of gilmore girls). if you couple investment with showrunners and writers who are actively looking for negative engagement, i’m not shocked people are angry. the writers make me angry with their carelessness so it’s not like i’m in a bubble. i have so much blacklisted my dash chokes half the time i try and refresh it, ha.

i think there’s a learning curve to be found when you start to think your headcanon is an objective fact and when you feel like you’re entitled to a story to be told the way you want it to be told. did the writers assassinate betty cooper’s character? unequivocally. do the writers write any of the females on that show with any sort of care? no. it’s embarrassing at this point how much they tell us over and over again that they don’t care and we just keep hoping that they will. the resiliency of women hanging onto their faves, am i right? media gives us very little so we’re very protective of what we do like.

it is what it is at this point. i’m not going to harp on betty’s character, i’m not going to tell anyone how jughead should or shouldn’t handle it. and truthfully, the more people come at me for not performing the way they want me to just makes me want to participate less and less. i’m just trying to write fic and enjoy the pretty gifs and have a good time, i’m not here to be lectured on how i’m doing fandom wrong.

if this is your first fandom, y’all, please know that at this point, after the last few years, i’m just glad betty and jughead are still alive.

thanks for the ask, doll!💜

#besos!#long post #rd negativity #cw: cheating #anonymous

18 notes · View notes

gra-sonas · 5 years ago

Note

Damn that ratings drop was brutal! NGL, after what they did in 2x2 I feel avenged but also I do love some of the cast so I feel bad too. Anyway, in your opinion, what do you think is a bigger factor in affecting ratings in an upcoming episode: the ep synopsis or the previous episode itself? Cuz I'm in the fandom and I don't even go searching for a sysnopsis. I highly doubt a casual viewer would. So thoughts?

Yeah, that drop was rather significant. :/

I think there’s more than one reason.

1/ The super long hiatus. Many casual viewers simply forgot the show even exists (there are still people on Twitter, who only now discover that the show wasn’t actually cancelled and is back for S2. I can’t even imagine how many casual viewers who’re not active on social media have no idea the show’s back).

2/ The total lack of promotion for the show between S1 & 2. The official social media accounts went radio silent after S1 ended, there was zero effort to attract new viewers by telling them the show’s on Netflix, or that there would be a S2.

3/ No new content for almost a year. The only new content we (as in 'the people already invested in the show’) got between S1 and 2 was random pics/vids and some spoilers the cast/Carina shared + the NYCC trailer. A trailer in super wonky, distorted quality, yet it still provided better and more exciting glimpses into S2 than the official S2 trailer did (which was only released about 2 weeks prior to the S2 premiere…) So for almost 11 months, there was basically nothing to get people excited unless they were actively looking for news.

4/ Lacklustre S2 promo. CW promo’s always kinda bad, but the one for RNM is pretty much non-existent. Leading up to S2, there was nothing but the occasional pre-scheduled promo post (with S1 promo pics and clips and the hint to download the CW app or sth like that). And they didn’t even start to promote S2 until about two weeks before to the premiere. They had to cancel a press day bc of COVID-19, instead they’ve organized the weekly IG takeovers now, which are really cool, but also mostly of interest to those who’re already following the show more closely. Any casual viewers are probably unaware.

Currently it seems like the CW PR team pretty much forgot about the show (we didn’t get any 2x03 promo pics prior to the episode, and they didn’t release a preview clip either). There’s basically no effort made to promote the show, and I’m not even talking about huge billboards or AOL Build talks (though stuff like that wouldn’t hurt), just… IDK, keeping things going and flowing between S1 & 2, and actively making more people catch up on S1 on Netflix could’ve gone a long way, y’know. :/

I think the lack of PR on every level is definitely playing a role in the dropping numbers. It shows, that not only didn’t they manage to attract new viewers, they even lost S1 viewers. Whether that’s entirely due to the lack of promo, or is in part to blame on the writing, is impossible to say.

5/ That being said, S1 didn’t exactly end in a good place, and 11 months is a looooong time to forget about characters you may have cared for (just a normal amount :P) a year ago. I don’t know how happy or unhappy casual viewers have been with the show’s writing, but you don’t have such a drop in ratings just from a lack of promo.

No idea whether this will change anything in regards to the writing of the show next season. Who knows how decisions by TV higher ups are made, where the ‘blame’ is put for stuff like that, and whether Carina would actually be ‘ordered’ to make changes? (I don’t really think that will be the case tbh)

For now, we don’t have to worry, S3′s a go, and once that’s wrapped, I doubt the show’ll get cancelled (broadcast syndication/international sales is where The CW makes most of their money, and the more episodes a show has, the more valuable it becomes for syndication and outside-of-the-US sales).

Another bonus: they’re filming in Santa Fe, which is cheaper than LA, Georgia or Vancouver (where many other shows are produced) and comes with additional tax incentives. The cast isn’t as expensive as the cast of most other CW shows either, neither does the show rely on expensive special effects (like all the Arrowverse shows) - all good reasons for the CW to keep the show in production, especially as a mid-season show.

Dropping viewership numbers still suck tho, and I feel sorry for the cast. :(

They’ve been working so hard for almost 8 months to make the show, the least The CW could do is properly promote it, and also look for more opportunities to get the cast out for interviews (like, why isn’t there a single RNM related interview with Tyler about Alex Manes in S2 - a gay amputee veteran character - or an interview with Trevino, he was at atVfest, and last year he did an interview or two, but apart from that, there’s nothing, and both Trevino and Tyler are two of the ‘bigger names’ on RNM, with people knowing them from their TVD/PLL days).

And please, for the love of humans and aliens alike, up your laaame social media game, CW pr team. The RNM Costume IG account is doing a much better job at promoting the show than you, and it’s NOT ACTUALLY THEIR JOB.

#nonnie asks #rnm ratings

75 notes · View notes

lonestarbabe · 5 years ago

Note

I am a similar case to anon. I enjoyed Chicago Fire, got into 911 by the end of its 1st season, but I am soooo in deep with 911 Lone Star and I can't quite put my finger on why I am so into it (the dog helps but I was way into the show before knowing anything about Buttercup) compared to those 2 other shows. This was literally the show I based my week around. When it was Tuesday morning, I'd go "6 more days until a new episode of Lone Star". ha And to think I wasn't going to watch the show.

Continued: My story of how I got into 911 LS: I saw the promos for 911 Lone Star but didn't take much note. I rarely pick up new shows anymore, and with Chicago Fire and the original 911 I figured I had enough of a dose of firefighter shows. But then I thought I should at least try it out. But then I forgot about it the week it aired & had to watch the first 2 episodes online the Sunday after. I think I watched episode 3 online too. Anyway, I wasn't done episode 1 before I was invested. Obsessed by epi 3.

I haven’t watched Chicago Fire, but I put it on my list a while back because a lot of Lone Star people seemed to enjoy it. I used to be a more casual 911 viewer s I wasn’t crazy into it like I am with this, but I love it (even more after Lone Star tbh), and it’s really cool that they use actual colors in it hahaha. The thing is I’m not even an action show person, but I got hooked because it deals a lot with characters and above all, I love interesting and flawed but loveable characters.

I’m the same way with Lone Star. I’m not sure what hooked me (maybe an instant connection to some characters who just called to me. Like episode three when T.K. talks about everything being gray... oof... that really took my breath away). It’s really fun to have it and be able to have your week around it. The worst part is the void when it is all over.

Also, I’m more of a cat person, but I would die for Buttercup. Buttercup stole my heart like most dogs can’t. What an icon.

It’s amazing how many people got captivated with the show so quickly, and also I think it’s amazing that there were some fics before the show had even aired.

I guess it shows there’s always room for more firefighters in your heart if they are good ones.

I loved hearing your story because it’s so interesting to hear how people got hooked and how they got brought into the show. I’m so happy you ended up watching it because you’re a great person to have in the fandom!!

#asks #lone star obsessed club #:)))))#911 lone star #long #bluestar22x #Asks

9 notes · View notes

themikewheelers · 5 years ago

Note

tbh i think the reason scoops troop is so much more popular than everything else last season is bc they’re the only group with no inner conflict. joyce and hopper had conflict. mike and el had conflict, which meant max and lucas had conflict. mike and will had conflict. nancy and jonathan had conflict. there was so much miscommunication and stuff going on but i think it was really supposed to show that these relationships will survive and thrive. this and fandom is obsessed with steve

i can agree with that but i think u also have to acknowledge that the scoops troop popularity isn’t rlly...... comparable to the other groupings tho just bc the popularity has such a range based on audiences. like there was sooo much hype around the scoops characters when s3 came out, but a lot of that was coming from casual fans and the general audience, whereas most of the fandom was preoccupied with other characters. and i think that’s simply just bc different types of characters will appeal differently to ppl based on how they view a show. So characters like Robin and Erica (and even Steve to a lesser but still existent extent) are very entertaining and fun characters to watch, so they’re easily popular to casual viewers, but they’re lacking a lot of the qualities they need to rlly be popular within the fandom. We don’t know as much about them or about their lives, and they haven’t been developed as much compared to other characters, and that kind of stuff is rlly important for a characters to have very closely dedicated fanbases or to be popular within a fandom. They’re great characters, and everyone loves them, but not as many people are invested in them. So while there’s so much hype surrounding the scoops troop, they’re not nearly as popular within the fandom. Whereas characters like El or Will or Hop as a few examples, are all way more popular within the fandom and have such intense fanbases of their own, and that’s bc they’re entirely different types of characters. The three of them are some of the most developed characters on the show and all of their storylines go SUPER in depth with stuff like trauma and mental health and grief and abuse and all very heavy stuff that a lot of ppl can relate to and connect with when these characters have been portrayed so well. And that is what leads to these characters being so popular within the fandom bc if someone is a part of the fandom then they don’t just love the show, but there’s als some emotional meaning there, and a lot of times that meaning can come from having characters u connect with

I’m rambling and not making sense and I apologize for that but yeah I agree with u that part of the reason why Scoops is so popular is that there wasn’t any conflict, but I do think another part of it too is just that there’s different kinds of popularity and what kinds of characters will appeal to different audiences. To casual viewers of the show, aka the vast majority of ppl? They’re gonna be more drawn to the characters who are entertaining, are fun & casual to watch, have some good lines, and all that kind of stuff. Characters like Steve and Robin are the perfect example of the kinds of characters that can easily appeal to the masses. But when ur looking at popularity within a fandom and within ppl who are more emotionally invested in a show, the most popular characters instead are often gonna be the characters who are the most developed and the most emotionally open and that the audience know the most about. So yeah. I completely agree with you but I also think there’s a lot of different kinds of popularity and it’s a very different story when ur talking about general popularity within the audience, or popularity within a fandom. Bc very rarely in a show with as many characters and storylines like ST will the same characters be popular to both types of viewers

12 notes · View notes

shiredwarf · 6 years ago

Text

aaaand it’s done - some parting thoughts that didn’t fit into the live blogging behind the cut, oh boy i’m mad :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

the writing is so bad. so freaking bad. like i wouldn’t have thought this level of bad writing was possible without consciously trying to be terrible. see what i’m angry about (and i’ve mentioned this earlier) is not where all of this is headed. i’m ok with mad queen dany. i’m ok with cersei and jaime dying together. both of that hurts but i’m ok with it because it could have made sense (and i believe it will in the books) but it makes no sense in the show. not the way it’s done. you can’t show us dany for 8 years with not a hint of madness and then expect us to believe she flips within one episode at the freaking sounds of bells. you have to build this up and they didn’t. they mentioned targaryen madness several times but nothing dany has ever done falls into that category and this is coming from someone who really is not a big dany fan. she fucked up plenty of times, she’s got nasty traits but nothing so far suggests she would spend 40 minutes roasting children. then there’s cersei and jaime. because believe it or not: i love cersei/jaime! it’s fucked up and toxic and horrible but they are my original got pairing. thing is though as the story goes on, especially in the books, they change and at some point they just don’t work together any more and THAT’S A GOOD THING! grrm as confirmed it for the books and the entire jaime arc in the past 8 years of the show has lead us to a point where the next logical conclusion would be being with brienne. that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love cersei anymore, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t try and rescue her. and honestly, jaime killing cersei would be fucked in the show, especially if she’s pregnant. BUT THE SHOW DID NOT EXPLAIN A THING HERE! NO MOTIVATION! jaime’s just suddenly back with cersei and she’s just suddenly back with him and you’re just supposed to fill in the gaps like with so much else this season and it DOES NOT WORK. it’s sloppy. they’ve really, really messed this up with the whole SUBVERTING EXPECTATIONS! and i don’t get how that can happen. these people are experienced professionals and yet they forgot the key elements of storytelling! you can’t show one storyline consistently for years and then just go GOTCHA at the last minute. that’s not a plot twist, that’s bad writing! you can have plot twists that still follow a logical narrative (e.g. red wedding) but that requires work, that requires time and well-written dialogue so that you can go back afterwards and go “ohhhhhhhh!”. but apparently, that was too much so they just did a “whoopsy, we just all forgot about our character arcs” and then rocks fall and everyone dies

speaking of dying: i cannot get over how little i care about jaime and cersei dying. i always thought that would completely wreck me. those two together are stellar and heartbreaking and if you took that scene out of context and showed it to a younger, less bitter me, i’d be heartbroken. but all the shit they’ve pulled to get to this point has made me so numb. and that’s what will stick with me. not necessarily the bad plot or the abandoned storylines but the fact that they managed to make me care so little, that i barely felt a thing when my faves died...

What was the fucking point of Cersei’s baby???? Like it didn’t stop Jaime from leaving? It did nothing for Euron (he would have just kept trying anyway?). And it didn’t even matter to Jaime when he came back. WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS DUMB SUBPLOT AND WHY DIDN’T THE BABY EVEN SHOW A TINY BIT AFTER WHAT? 4 MONTHS???

i am utterly terrified because lena’s body double did some work for season 8 and we haven’t seen it yet. i hope it was for a cut sex scene with euron but if they start episode 6 with dany dragging dead and naked cersei and jaime through the street i will riot

What was the fucking point of Brienne/Jaime. Like I’m so angry about this. So fucking angry. I’ve mentioned that both show and book were always pointing towards brienne/jaime being endgame even if one or both end up dying but you know what’s even worse than not getting that in the show? What they did to Brienne. She’s basically just his little sexual adventure now and I swear to god if they show her pregnant next week I will lose it!!!!! (and let’s also remember that brienne never once said his name without the titles. not once. i’m so mad) But even if they don’t, they’ve damaged her beyond repair! Not only did she start her journey crying over a man she loved now she also ends it that way? And this time it’s worse because Jaime actually loved her back and she got to experience what mutual affection can be like? Not to mention she’s now “tarnished” in the eyes of her peers because she’s no longer a virgin (expected of a high born lady like her) and the guy she slept with is the freaking Kingslayer! How will she ever live that down? That will follow her for the rest of her life and she won’t even have the secret knowledge that he loved her?! Like the show won’t address this because I guess by next week she will have simply forgotten that Jaime ever existed but realistically she’s now LITERALLY the Kingslayer’s whore from the early books. I cannot believe this.

Where’s Yara? I guess she was busy and she probably forgot about her brother. Reek who?

It honestly boggles my mind how this could happen. The show has been shitty for years now and everyone with book knowledge or some investment in the asoiaf world knows that BUT casual viewers still enjoyed it! I would have still been able to enjoy it if it went on like season 7. Sure it had massive flaws but it was watchable. All they had to do was not destroy the world they’d built for 8 years. i didn’t expect an in-depth answer to the mythical aspects (though tbh they could have just freaking asked GRRM! maybe it wouldn’t have made it into the show but at least they would have known the context and it would have made more sense then. it’s so obvious that they literally don’t have a clue about what to do with the supernatural elements) so all they had to do is bring it to the finish line. Instead, they all but bulldozed every single character arc into the ground to (pre-) season 1 state?????????? and while i do get a certain satisfaction from seeing it all crash and burn and seeing reviews and casual viewers finally realize what a shitshow got is, it still breaks my heart because i care about these characters and that’s probably the only adaptation i’ll ever see. so i wanted them to succeed despite everything, i wanted something that was watchable. instead i got this. something that has ruined years of character growth within two episodes. how can you fuck up this badly?!

WHAT. IS. THE. FUCKING. POINT. OF. BRAN? What did he do? Why is he still here? Why should I care? What did he tell us that Sam couldn’t have found in a freaking book? What was all that “you need to help us in the war Jaime you’re important” bs about?! Jaime did fuck all?!

For all their “this is not a fairytale” and “SUBVERT EXPECTATION!” bullcrap you know what? This ending is utterly predictable. With the exception of Dany now (who will die next week) who’s still alive, that isn’t either a Stark or hasn’t been morally righteous and good from their very first appearance onwards?! No one. Every bad or morally grey character is dead? Even SANDOR HAD TO FREAKING DIE FOR HIS FREAKING REDEMPTION ARC. For a show that’s been trying to tell us for years that the world is full of complex people it sure looks like they only ones getting out of this fight are the original sympathetic heroes.

House Lannister deserved better. SO MUCH BETTER. I know, I know I’m biased here but come ON! Cersei is a fantastic character and what did they do to her? Not only did they hand her back to some creepy dude who forced his way into her bed no she didn’t even get proper screen time this season. Lena is absolutely stunning and this is what they give her???? jaime’s arc had to potential to be absolutely groundbreaking. he went from the most hated guy in episode one to a fan favourite. his arc is tragic and beautiful and represents the conflicts at the very heart of got and YET HERE WE ARE. i honestly dread to think what they will do to tyrion next week. but great job turning him into the character with the best lines into a clueless idiot and killing the one person he loved :))))))))))

#text posts by thea #thea watches got #got spoilers #god i'm angry

25 notes · View notes

brittanybutler · 6 years ago

Note

I'm curious, because you're one of the most amazing Carl fans that I know of, and I'm honestly interested in your opinion. Do you feel like Carl's been replaced? I want to be happy about the Richonne baby and Judith, but it feels like they're just trying to erase everything that made Carl special by handing it over to other characters, and I can't handle that. Maybe I'm still just too bitter about it, but idk... :(

First of all, thank you lol. I take pride in being one of the biggest Carl fans tbh.

Now, for my novel of an answer…

I do feel like Carl is being replaced. I called this as soon as his bite was revealed. I definitely figured they’d do a significant time jump to get Judith into the picture and age up Henry, but I wasn’t sure if they’d ever give us a Richonne child. I want to be happy about RJ as well (especially since I’m biracial so lol I love to see that represented) but… Idk, man.

People have called me a ~fake fan~ or whatever for not caring as much about the show since Carl died, but they really don’t understand how much one character can mean to you, and how the death of that character can extinguish your passion for the overall thing. There’s nothing wrong with that. Especially over the course of a YEAR with not much in-between. Season 8b was a depressing chore, followed by a 6 month hiatus, and now Season 9 is still brand new. I’ve been emotionally drained over Carl since December 10th, 2017. So, even though the show might be making positive changes this season as far as the writing goes, it’s sorta too little too late for me to get all reenergized and invested like I once was. I’ve been put through too much lol I’m just exhausted and… can’t find it in me to care that much anymore. I consider myself a casual viewer now.

I didn’t even realize exactly HOW emotionally invested I was in Carl’s character until recently. I can’t even think about the fact that Carl is dead for more than 2 minutes without genuinely crying and getting upset lol. The one thing that bothered me the most about Carl’s death was the idea that everyone else would be moving on and thriving without him. Now that we’re actually seeing Alexandria rebuilt, Judith being a little leader, etc.. It really really hurts to know that Carl’s been dead for 7 FREAKING YEARS and didn’t get to see any of it – when he was an OG character, son of the main protagonist, who we spent 8 years developing and kinda deserved to be safe more than anyone else. But instead, he had to shoot himself in the head when he was riiight on the verge of coming into his own as an ~adult~ character and possibly FINALLY getting good storylines. There was so much potential there and they completely squandered it.

The BIG thing that upsets me is the fact that it wasn’t Chandler’s decision. I’m not upset about Rick “dying” and Andy leaving because it was his choice. You can’t really argue with that. Chandler, however, didn’t want to leave and was blindsided by the decision to kill Carl. There was obviously behind the scenes drama that lead to that ridiculous outcome, and it’s super frustrating. It’s not right. Also, I’m pretty sure the backlash to Carl’s death and fan outcry against Scott Gimple is what caused them to promote Angela Kang to showrunner, who’s doing a pretty good job so far. Ugh.

So, yeah. I think they’re trying really hard to overcompensate for the lack of Carl. We have Judith looking like Season 1-3 Carl with The Hat (+ plaid shirts) and everything. We have Teen Henry who’s probably gonna get Carl’s ~forbidden love~ storyline with Lydia. Carl and Negan’s relationship/dynamic was being built up well and was so interesting -- but now we have Michonne and Judith talking to him in the cell instead (I’m sure it’ll be a revolving door of characters talking to Negan instead of Carl...) And now they’re giving us a new blood-related Grimes… as if that will make Carl’s death okay or something. “Look guys! They just made another one! The legacy lives on!” – It’s not that simple imo.

For a long time, Carl’s character was relegated to being Judith’s babysitter/caretaker. He spent so much time with her. Since Rick is gone, it would at least be nice to see Judith standing alongside her big brother. And it’d be nice for Carl to see what Judith has become. But apparently that’s too much to ask. *sigh*

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

#carl grimes #THE INJUSTICE!!!!!!#twd #the walking dead #spoilers #twd spoilers

32 notes · View notes

bigskydreaming · 6 years ago

Text

All over the place thoughts about both Voltron (Yes, That Thing That Happened) and Bobby/Pyro in the comics:

I am curious to see what they do with comicbook Pyro and Bobby, even though it wouldn’t be my first choice of pairing for him (Bobby/Johnny Storm) or even my second, third, fourth or fifth choices, but it’s better than nothing and there’s just enough of a push to make this new Pyro catch on that like, a pairing with him has a decent chance of going somewhere. Which is the real issue these days with LGBTQ+ comic book representation.

Like, this is something I’ve been thinking about since VLD’s new season came out yesterday. I do still watch that show casually, even though I’ve stayed far away from the fandom and the discourse from the start, because, like...survival and self-preservation, yo. But tbh, I haven’t been invested in it for several seasons now, ever since the utter shitshow which was the season of ‘let’s make our only black character the perpetrator of vile slavery metaphors because racism allegories with zero self awareness FTW amirite Dreamworks’? So, the latest evidence of its shitshow-ness didn’t hit me as hard as it did others, because I am Cynicism, hear me roar, but it still sparked some thoughts, which tie into my thoughts on representation in other media.

Basically....I’m super not impressed by content creators who think saying oh he’s gay and then like....NEVER FUCKING DOING ANYTHING WITH THAT is in any way, shape or form representation.

I mean, I can headcanon any damn character I want as gay myself. I don’t need you all in order to do that. If you’re going to make a character gay in order to call it LGBTQ+ representation, then fucking REPRESENT me. DO something with that. And no, that doesn’t mean every single facet of that character’s being needs to be about them being gay. It means that character needs to be treated like any other character, in every facet of their being. Or else you’re not actually representing anything other than how little this is a priority for you.

'Gay people exist in this universe’ with an arrow pointing at the single gay character you’ve established as such, with no other evidence outside of a single scene to indicate that they are in fact gay outside of audience headcanons - that is not representation. No viewer needs to see that the content creator acknowledges that yes, people like them do in fact exist, to feel validated on like....an existential level. We all KNOW we fucking exist. We don’t need you to fucking confirm that, thanks. We get annoyed as hell when you go out of your way NOT to acknowledge we exist, but like....just acknowledging we exist isn’t representing us, its literally DOING THE BARE MINIMUM TO DEMONSTRATE YOU ARE AWARE YOU LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE PEOPLE OTHER THAN YOURSELF EXIST.

So, despite what my online persona might suggest, in my real life outside the internet, I’m what most gay and bi guys would call ‘masc’. I frequently get told I don’t ‘come across as into guys’ by both gay and straight people, as though this is some kind of compliment. It actually just depresses me, because for myself, I’m painfully aware of how much my adult personality and mannerisms are a result of repressing anything that might ‘give me away’ as gay or bi when I was a closeted teenager. I WORKED at that. I cultivated this adult persona I have now, back when I thought it was a matter of survival and that being who I really was wasn’t either a good thing or something I wanted. And now, as a grown adult who’s been out for over a decade, I do regret never getting a chance to know who or what I might have become, what I might have looked like, acted like, if I’d never had to teach myself to conform to external ideas of what it meant to be masculine.

My point is, I, like many other gay and bi men, each with their own reasons and circumstances, do not visibly come across as gay or bi in casual encounters. Most people meeting me once, outside of me directly referencing my orientation, would not walk away thinking ‘oh he’s bi’. So I’m very aware that yes, characters can be gay or bi without otherwise ‘seeming any different’ from any straight characters. They don’t need to ‘be obviously gay’ in order to actually be gay.

But we’re talking casual, one time encounters here. Anyone who’s known me for longer than that, knows that I’m bisexual. Whether friends, coworkers, even casual but regular acquaintances.....it comes up. Because its not some minute, tiny part of me. It’s as big a part of me as any straight person’s heterosexuality, and you need to THINK about how often that comes up. Because it does.

Our orientations are not just evident in who we take out on dates or go home with at the end of the night. People who know me well know of my orientation because of the jokes I tell, and reflect this back in the kinds of jokes they tell to me. People who know me know of my orientation because of the way I reference past relationships and the way I talk about what I look for in future relationships, and they reflect this back in how and when and in what ways they share details with me about their own relationships or what they look for and value in them. People who know me know of my orientation because I am the result of all my experiences, and those experiences include my romantic ones. They shaped who I am. To know me, to know who I am, means to know where my life has taken me, and that includes the various times a romantic or sexual encounter has played a large role in shaping who I became.

On Voltron, Shiro has been one of the main protagonists for seven seasons. The audience has interacted with his story, shadowed his story as this main protagonist, for seven seasons. That is not a casual, one time encounter on the street. It does not work to claim ‘oh you wouldn’t know he was gay if you met him casually, people aren’t always obviously gay’ as though audiences haven’t been exposed to Shiro in his most private, vulnerable moments, the same as all the other main characters. It does not WORK that in seven seasons, there was ZERO opportunity for Shiro’s orientation, the role being gay has played in his life and how it’s shaped him, the fact that he had a freaking fiancee at one point, one that Keith at least KNEW, given that he was spying on them at one point.....it does not WORK that no matter how ‘not gay seeming’ Shiro normally comes across as, in this seven season long story about these six individuals who come together as a family, who know each other better than they know their own families, this story where according to the creators, they planned on Shiro being gay from the start, or at least from season two.....it does not work that there are NO places where Shiro’s orientation should have organically come up before now, been a matter of reference for him or other characters, anything like that......if he were ACTUALLY being treated as representation, rather than tokenism.

We didn’t know Shiro was gay before now, not because some peoples’ gayness is just so inherently invisible and damn hard to see, but because his creators didn’t WANT us to see it before now. Because it wasn’t a priority. Because people want to include marginalized groups in their media and call it representation, to appease those viewers who are DESPERATE for representation, to see lives like theirs played out in these larger than life tales, to see themselves in the heroes who get to save the day....but without actually DOING anything with this so-called representation.

Because how do you see yourself in a character whose creators have gone out of their way to KEEP you from seeing him fully, until now? When the only way they decide to show it to you now is by giving him a fairly watered down scene with an ex who we’re told but not shown mattered a great deal to him, and then killing off that same ex five episodes later, thus ensuring we’ll never actually SEE not just how this character matters to Shiro, but what Shiro’s like when you’re NOT hiding or obscuring that part of him that’s literally the part that represents us?

The problem with Adam’s death on Voltron wasn’t even his actual death. It was the end of the final episode. When all of Team Voltron gets to tearfully reunite with their loved ones after everything they’ve been through, in celebration of their victory and acknowledgment of all they’ve lost. We see Hunk with his parents, Lance with his family, Pidge with hers. Allura and Coren and Romelle. Even Keith has his mom and his surrogate father figure. And perhaps we didn’t see Shiro have a scene like that because he isn’t an actual Paladin like those other five anymore. But also....Shiro COULDN’T have a scene like that, even if they wanted to give him one. Because Shiro, unlike all those other characters, has no one outside of them. And this is by design. Because his creators CHOSE to have him have no one. Oh, I know what the writers are saying online. That Adam was killed off to show the stakes of Earth’s invasion. LOL bullshit. In a show that prides itself on creating realistic stakes around a team who pilots flying robot lions to form a giant robot that fights evil aliens, you can not possibly believe that killing ONE tertiary character we’ve only seen ONCE and who we only know even matters to one of our protagonists because of that one mention....is what makes or breaks the ‘stakes’ of this storyline.

Adam died, because the show wanted to demonstrate that yes, look, see, we have a gay character.....without having to actually SHOW it. Or do anything with it. Without having to show us Shiro and Adam tearfully reuniting just like all his teammates got to do with those most important to them, to show them being a couple, to show them, to show Shiro not just being gay, but being VISIBLY gay, in an actionable way that REPRESENTS gay viewers, that says, hey, this is what a gay man looks like when he’s reuniting with someone he loves or at least once loved. Without having to move forward into the next season, where the other characters will no doubt be shown at least once interacting more with their own loved ones, without having to show Shiro work out what his return to Earth and Adam’s presence in his life again means for him, and whether they’re back together or interacting as exes, either way necessitating Shiro’s orientation, this facet of his life as a gay man, being front and center ON SCREEN just like everyone else’s relationships....all without once ‘requiring’ Shiro be in any way romantically or sexually explicit with another man, like kissing or being shirtless in bed together are the only ways to visibly show a gay man’s orientation in the story you’re telling.

All of which brings me back to Bobby/Pyro in the comics, and how even though it wouldn’t be my first choice of pairing, now that they’ve established a basis for it in their one night stand, I want them to actually do something more with it.

Because Bobby is gay whether or not he’s in a relationship, same as Shiro is gay whether or not Adam lived or died. You don’t need to be in a relationship to be gay, obviously. But like I said earlier.....we don’t need gay characters to EXIST in order to feel represented. Our existence has never been in question or up for debate. Representation, what that means....is if you give us these gay characters, we need to feel they MATTER. That WE matter. That they and their stories are a priority. That they get happy endings as much as they get to suffer. That their being gay is not a footnote to them saving the world, but their being gay and all the struggles they’ve had to overcome because of it is part of what gives them the STRENGTH to save the world.

I love that Bobby, one of my favorite characters, is an out gay man in the comics now. I love that Sina Grace’s solo series wrote him unapologetically as a gay man, where his orientation was clear and visible through every issue of his series even though only three or four of those eleven issues had him actually in romantic encounters. I love that he is very clearly, very definitively demonstrated as having the same characterization, being the same character, being the same BOBBY that I’ve followed since I was a kid, because as an out gay man now and a closeted and repressed man before that, he’s still the same character. Now we just get to see different angles, see him in different lights, get new contexts for old behaviors.

But I need to see him in an actual relationship, because Bobby has always, always, ALWAYS been characterized as someone who WANTS to be in a relationship. Who hates being alone, who fears being alone. And because I’m not represented by a character that Marvel finally makes an out and proud gay man, saying in the process that the reason his prior relationships never worked out was because they weren’t true to who he is.....but then going on to refuse to give him a relationship that’s even just slightly more functional than his previous ones.

I don’t expect him to get married and live happily ever after because yes, it is superhero comics, and drama is part of the package. ALL the X-Men have severely dysfunctional relationships. But they still HAVE them. For all the drama and dysfunction that comes with iconic X-couples, that doesn’t change the fact that Rogue and Gambit ARE iconic. Scott and Jean and even Scott and Emma ARE iconic. These pairings are established. They are long-lasting. They MATTER.

And that’s what it comes down to. If you make a character to represent marginalized readers or viewers.....it can’t stop there. These characters simply existing will never be enough, because that isn’t the point. The point is....they have to MATTER. Every bit as much as their straight or white counterparts. Their stories have to matter, be as much of a priority, be just as impactful.

Or you will always, ALWAYS be sending the message to your marginalized audiences: you are still second class citizens in our eyes. You may exist, but you matter less than these other characters who have ALWAYS mattered.

I do not have to scream my orientation from rooftops in order to be an out and proud bisexual man. I do not need characters to scream their orientation from rooftops in order to be out and proud gay or bisexual characters.

But my orientation matters. My experiences derived from that orientation matter. And if you can’t make the orientation of your characters, the experiences that shape them, matter just as much in how you choose to tell your stories, how you choose to prioritize these characters and their experiences and their stories?

Then do not try and tell me these characters represent me.

Because they most certainly do not.

#long post

10 notes · View notes

steviesays · 7 years ago

Text

In depth analysis of Solo: a Star Wars Story

wow that title makes it look like this wasn’t just me rambling for 4 whole ass pages on word, but I wanted to give you guys all of my thoughts and reactions on the movie. All of the spoilers are going to be under the cut and I’ll continue to tag spoilers for solo for the next two weeks, so until JUNE 8TH so none of you are allowed to yell at me for spoiling the movie.

alright yall here we go im going to start with the plot and move into the characters the same way I did for tlj.

After coming out of this movie, it took me the entire ride home to process and think about whether I even liked it or not. When I got home, I had a two hour long conversation with my brother on the purpose of all of these movies rather than on what the movie is about because hes a fake fan and didn’t go see it last night. But anyway, after giving a brief synopsis with as little spoilers as possible, we kind of came to the consensus that this movie didn’t really matter, plot wise. It was kind of just made to sell tickets (even though they didn’t even sell tickets because there was no promo). Literally the whole movie was just an adventure that Han Solo went on, there was no real character arc, Han was the same person he was at the end as he was at the beginning, the only real development was him meeting chewie and lando and getting the millennium falcon. Did we really HAVE to see the kessel run, like yeah it was cool, but having the whole movie based around that? I feel like we were all kind of expecting more of a backstory, which is what it was kind of advertised as, and I think it would have been more effective, at least from a fan perspective, to have seen what Han’s life was when he was a child on Correlia. We still have no information on his parents, except for his dad was apparently a mechanic that wanted to be a pilot. We don’t know how he became orphaned or how he ended up with that fucking lizard monster thing, how he met Qi’ra, or how any of this affected him. I think they just started the movie at a bad spot, but that decision was made to maximize profit. I guess no casual movie goer would want to see han solo roughing it through some angst, but for people that are fully invested in star wars? It was just kind of a pointless action movie.

Other than that, it was a decent movie overall. I didn’t walk out of it pissed like I did with tlj, it kind of just made me feel nothing. Like I knew all this shit before, I didn’t need to see it in a two hour film. Him meeting chewie and lando, getting the falcon and doing the kessel run in 12 parsecs were things that were already established. There was nothing really spectacular about this movie it kind of just exists as a plot extender, rather than something that moves the plot forward or gives us major insights. I guess they can get away with it being useful to plot by the scene at the end that establishes to everyone that Darth Maul is still alive and fucking up the galaxy, but they could have just made their own damn darth maul movie, which is probably coming anyway based on that scene.

But now that I’ve dragged the movie enough, lets get into the characters because I have a lot to say. There were characters that I really liked, characters that had a lot of potential, and characters that I hated.

Lets start with han. I really liked him in this movie and I like the actor they got for him, I think he did a really great job showing han’s snark and egoism while also keeping his inner goodness and making sure the audience was sympathetic. As I said before, he didn’t really develop much as a character, he was born a scoundrel and stayed that way. His quest to do whatever he could to get home so he could save Qi’ra was something we all would have expected out of him. I did like that we were able to see his street smarts and ability to strategize more than we have in other movies. I guess we have a bit of development, in that he learns to be even less trusting than he already was at the beginning through all of the betrayals in the movie, but like …. He was already distrustful in the beginning from the life he had already lived. Also, this has nothing to do with what I was just saying but I just remembered, this is during the time of the empire. Didn’t the empire use cloned Stormtroopers as their infantry and navy with humans only being officers …………………… like correct me if im wrong, but im like 90% sure that’s right. Because the first order were the ones that used human Stormtroopers. And even so like, what are these infantry men even doing. Aren’t Stormtroopers the ones that have always invaded planets for the empire, these people weren’t wearing any type of armor or cohesive uniforms and I just remember being confused as fuck during this whole sequence. In a ‘this is a major plot hole’ kind of way. Were they running out of clones ?????? like just make more ???????????? like the whole reason they used clones was because using actual humans to do grunt work was barbaric and clones aren’t really seen as people. Also now that I’m thinking about it what happened to all of the clones once the war ended. I haven’t watched or read many of the side stories or books, so I don’t know if it’s just me that’s missing something, but idk having han join the empire as an infantryman just didn’t make sense to me. Also having an imperial officer be the one to give him his last name was just kind of yikes. Like they couldn’t have just had him come up with one himself in that moment. Whatever.

Now lets talk about Qi’ra aka fake bitch. I fucking hated her so much through this entire movie and not just because I called her fake leia in the lead up to it coming out (tell me han doesn’t have a type). Like what the hell honestly. She was the WORST. And its kind of sad because she really had the potential to be a better character, but it just did not happen. Like she was gone for three years and just happened to appear back at some sketch party? And the only explanation for it was “yeah ive been through some shit don’t ask.” And what killed me is that she just never fucking explained!!! Like han asked her multiple times to tell him what happened in the in-between time and they have this whole ass history, he was doing all this shit FOR YOU, and he doesn’t even get an explanation ???? at the very least give the viewers an explanation. Like I guess it was implied that she did some dark shit, slept her way to the top, killed a few people on the way there, but HOW ??? WHY ??? WHEN ???? how long has she been involved in this shit to be at the position she has and to be so changed by it? Her character was the one that changed the most, from being careful of people other than the one she trusted (han), but still having hope for a better life, to just being like fuck everyone, I’m here for me and I don’t care how many people I have to kill or betray to survive. But we never got that character development in the film so she just came off as a terrible human being. We never got the chance to be sympathetic for her, and tbh im about to get even more angry because this whole film was centered around M E N yes I said it im being that bitch right now because the women in this movie were paid DUST.

And on that note lets talk about fucking Val. Another character with so much potential that was just …………………. hnjdklsbckdsbcbsdlv. She was the literal embodiment of the angry black woman trope and it pissed me the fuck off. She was the one that refused to bend on bringing han into the group and continued to antagonize him the whole mission, which the audience obviously took as a damn joke because duh its han fucking solo. We all know that she’s wrong, but when everyone else jumped on board with han she stayed adamant in her position, making her the odd one out of the group. Every time she opened her damn mouth I got mad because she just kept putting han and chewie down and it was just so cringey because I knew that this would make her either a hated or a forgotten character. AND THEN SHE JUST FUCKING DIED. I was like oh ok, 20 minutes in and the whole squad is dead already god damn. Which brings me into my analysis of tobias.

I love woody harrelson and he did a great job but there were a few scenes that just annoyed me, one of them being after his squad dies. Like hes sad for like 5 seconds, punches han which is an understandable reaction considering the fact that it was his fault everyone died for no reason, and then hes just fine again? Like it was never brought up again that two people he was obviously very close to, especially Val, just died pointless deaths. Even the night before the mission he was like ‘yeah you got to get someone you can trust I got my girl val’ and then they kiss and im like oh ok theyre in love that’s cute we love representation of interracial couples, but then she dies and he never mentions her name again. He doesn’t even grieve for longer than 2 minutes ??? he gives han another chance even though this was 100000% his fault and everyone knows it ??? it was kind of like oh, ok why the fuck did we even do that, why did I have to watch all of this happen if there are no consequences. His character didn’t change at all throughout the movie either. He’s just as distrustful and self-centered as he was, he just has less friends now and he’s dead. He was a good fatherly/mentor-y figure for han throughout the movie, but that’s about it.

I don’t really have much to say about Lando other than the fact that Donald glover did a great job, but I really didn’t expect much else. B U T last week I reblogged a post about him confirming that lando was pan and in the tags I was like lol watch him still be in a het relationship and GUESS FUCKING WHAT. Like its as if they thought making him be in love with a robot that has a female voice, a female build, and people that address her with she/her pronouns would be enough for people to be like come on it’s a fucking robot they don’t have gender …. hsdakbckdsla and while we’re on this subject lets talk about L3 because her (it? I don’t even know) character probably made me the most angry while watching the movie.

L3 being like an advocate for droids was an obvious parallel to other civil rights movements like womens rights or even African American rights and the way it was handled made me so fucking angry. Everything the droid said was used as comic relief or made to be received as a joke because obviously shes talking about fucking robots. But honestly, let me get deep for a moment here, droids in the star wars universe ARE sentient. They have minds of their own and are put into the story like characters, but theyre treated as lesser because theyre not made of flesh and blood. I understand and identify with the things L3 was saying because she’s right, but through the whole movie it was made to be a joke, because you know droids don’t need rights theyre droids. But that was the same thing people in the fucking 60s were saying about black people we’re ‘just n******’ (im sorry I cant even type the word it makes me uncomfortable). And her revolutionary spirit mirrors that of women’s rights revolutionaries today. Being a black woman that’s involved in social justice in America, the characterization of L3 just made me upset because everyone was treating everything she said as a joke, and there was no rectification of it. After L3 died, there was no ‘hmmm maybe she was right maybe we should start thinking of droids more as people’ she was another wasted character whose only use was her navigation system when they could have taken a completely different route and addressed something that was actually wrong with the star wars universe rather than just enforcing it. And when she started to give the droids a mind of their own in the control room I knew it was going to dissolve into chaos and make a horrible situation because it was such a predictable moment that completely undermined social justice actions and it pissed me off.

I guess the plot twist that effys nest (is that how you spell her name? probably not it doesn’t really matter) and her squad were working with the revolution was cute. I deadass thought for a second she was gonna be like ‘what up tobias or should I call you DAD’ cause that would have been a 100% star wars thing to do. The bad guy was a generic bad guy so I really don’t have much to say about him. I loved the scenes between han and chewie which showed why they became so close.

This is really all I have to say about solo for know, nothing huge is coming to mind. Overall, it was a good movie if you’re not a fan, but kind of a wasted opportunity for everyone else. This movie had a lot of potential to deliver and im pretty disappointed that it didn’t. If you don't agree on anything I’ve said or you just want to talk about the movie with me PLEASE dont hesitate to slide into my dms I love discourse

#solo #solo spoilers #solo analysis #sorry you had to read my word vomit I needed it to be out in the world #this was 2300 WORDS #and I got a b in my film class this semester lmfaooo #If we were talking about Star Wars it would have been lit

15 notes · View notes

dastardlydandelion · 3 years ago

Text

mmm...can't tell if my gripes abt snake karate are valid or if i'm at fault for expecting *too* much from a karate soap opera written by dudebros. i've noticed a big difference between the fandom responses and the responses of casual viewers.

i'm solidly in the fandom now even tho ck started as my 'get stoned and grab a snack' show (tbh i'd prolly still just be a casual viewer if it weren't for tory, tory has my fucking heart) and i didn't dislike s4 the way most of the fandom seems to, despite my gripes

but maybe that's bc caos managed to set my expectations as low as low gets. caos s4 was the worst s4 of any show i've ever witnessed, ck s4 looks like genuine gold in comparison.

on that note i heard the caos + riverdale crossover fans of both shows waited like, 3 yrs for, finally happened BUT sabrina was only there for 10 mins and there was no explanation as to how she was alive after that shitshow finale. jfc, what a disservice to ur audience. considered watching it to see sabrina (was a caos fan, haven't seen riverdale beyond youtube and memes) but i think it'd just get me all stabby crabby. 🦀🔪

anyway, idk. maybe i would've been more cranky at snake karate if caos didn't set the bar so low, but maybe i would've enjoyed it more if i'd stayed a casual fan instead of becoming invested in it. might go ahead and do a full review since i'm still thinking abt it tho...

#ck #caos #riverdale #me rambling #ck s4

0 notes

cheryls-blossomed · 4 years ago

Note

I don’t think the Flash uses flashbacks that often to where this needs to be pointed out as an issue. Yes they’ve used them in the past couple episodes but would most people honestly remember that specific thing Barry said to Abra in season 3 and tied it back to what Abra said in ep 4? I thought it was cute to go down memory lane and see the callback to the season 1 sparks to the one we saw in ep 3. I guess it’s different strokes for different folks. I didn’t see it as the show insulting our intelligence but bringing back a fond memory but that’s just me. I think they show flashbacks as a way of showing what the character is thinking instead of just seeing them awkwardly staring into space, shows do that kind of thing quite often

I honestly think The Flash doesn’t use flashbacks too often either. A lot of times the flashback is to something in the same episode or a few episodes before. Occasionally, it’s a flashback to a past season. The Abra Kadabra flashback was maybe unnecessary, but it didn’t really take me out of the plot at all, and it also served as more of a show don’t tell of what Barry was thinking, which I appreciated. I loved the season 1 flashbacks of the spark in 7x03, and tbh those were necessary, because while we remember everything, casual viewers don’t. We’re invested in fandom, and so we analyze the show to a degree that most of the general audience do not. So those flashbacks were necessary in cultivating that callback fully.

I think the show has never pretended to be something it’s not. Like I said in a previous ask, a lot of times when we’re watching a show for this long, a lethargy sets in that sometimes also affects how we watch the show now. That happens to me at times, for sure.

#anonymous #replies

0 notes

tinkdw · 8 years ago

Note

"hope for the best but don’t get so worked up about it that it will ruin the experience of the show if it doesn’t happen" --Too late... (different anon) Also, I get characters might not be together till the "end" for tension reasons and to keep us tuning in, but what about Bi!Dean being indisputably canon or the romantic attraction between Dean and Cas being shown without a doubt ffs? It's 2017! (sorry this is wankish I know you don't have all the answers but I want all the answers.)

In reference to this post.

Oh hon… I’m sorry you feel that way. I mean yeah, Bi!Dean could be a thing, but so far it isn’t textual and, well, I don’t want to be wanky towards *anyone* so, well, we shall see what happens with that. To be honest I think it’s more likely we will get indisputable romance between Cas and Dean before we get Bi!Dean, because that is the story we are being led down this season.

I mean…. don’t panic, you know? The season hasn’t ended yet, there is a huge build up going on with whatever is happening between Cas and Dean.

It’s been building and added to every episode since 11x23 but most heavily in : 12x01, 12x03, 12x04, 12x07, 12x09, 12x10, 12x12, 12x15, 12x17, 12x18… So, actually, well I do mean ALL SEASON.

If you follow me you know my thoughts about 12x19 and season end, but if this doesn’t happen I’m not going to let it ruin my summer you know? It’s a TV show, one that I LOVE and am hugely invested in, but its not real.

Dont panic until the bad thing happens OK? Just enjoy it for now, it’s great!

They’re mad, but they’re not mad, they’re worried, they care enough to try to save each other again and again and…..again…and not just saving each other from life and death situations but also just being there.

I mean…. they decided to write this stuff, it doesn’t just happen, knowing full well that Destiel is a huge deal to a lot of people, that people are invested in it, that it is a controversial topic and is a large part of their negative PR with queerbaiting in the past:

- Cas literally ignored God and only cared about Dean in 11x23, even offering to die with him so he wouldn’t be alone. He has never looked so wrecked as when he saw Dean was alive in 12x01.

- HUNTER HUSBANDS in 12x01-02. Need I say more.

- Dean is pissed that Cas just isn’t with him in 12x03-09.

- Cas is clearly having thoughts about where he belongs and wants to be.

- There’s been whole story lines about Dean being more honest and accepting himself and about Angels being in love with Humans on top of the old Dean representing Humanity while Cas is said to be in LOVE with Humanity etc etc. I mean, this isn’t coincidence. If they didn’t want to bait us they wouldn’t have whole storylines based around Angels and Humans being in love.

- Saileen was so heavily paralleled with Dean and Cas, so much so it was like an anvil to the freaking face.

- Sam and Mary are so awkward around the both of them these days, it’s made clear in CANON that this is the case, with her little questioning face and Sam’s acting like the 3rd wheel, because something is happening there, clearly.

I mean, it’s pretty darn canon and the season hasn’t even finished yet. Do I think we’ll get a fantastic, OMG you’re not dead kiss at the end? Well, I’d love it but no, not really, but I do think we will get stronger and stronger subtext until it’s not even really subtext anymore. I mean, what else are they doing all this for? Shits and giggles and to piss off the shippers and the antis? Because it’s not just us noticing it now, casual viewers are too, antis are getting threatened, everyone knows so what would be the point in making it so obvious if not to do something about it?

So, indesputable romantic attraction? I think pretty much check already tbh, but, personally, I think we will get a big fat tick in that box by the end of the season.

I recommend just chill, have a glass of wine or a beer or whatever and enjoy the fabulousness that is the Destiel narrative so far this season :)

And, well, because apparently at 29 I’m a tumblr granny…

#asks #bi!dean #dean is bi #destiel #supernatural speculation #Anonymous

45 notes · View notes