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barblaz-arts · 7 months

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HELLOOO!! Im in LOVE with all your Chaggie (and Wenclair obv-) art!! I was wondering if youd be up to share your thoughts on the other hazbin characters? Simply cuz Im very curious and youve been a favourite content creator of mine for a while whose opinions and takes on different things i value A LOT! So id love to hear your thoughts on the rest of the main cast(and more if youre up to it hahha)!

@phantoswordsman15

The main cast huh

Hmmmmm I dont particularly hate them, but I have some opinions that people might not like and I'm aware there's a lot of uh sensitive people in this fandom, so I never said them unprompted

But since you asked!

Alastor

Let's start with the infamous Alastor. I think he's a very entertaining character! His horde of simps annoy tf outta me when they're being misogynistic and homophobic towards Chaggie and Vaggie, but I quite liked him when I make myself forget certain parts of the fandom. He's funny and conniving and intriguing. The fact that he apparently sold his soul is super interesting to me. I'm on board with the people theorizing that he sold his soul to Lilith. I bet he's cozying up with Charlie so that he can use it to break his contract somehow. Feel like he also used the deal with (presumably) Lilith so that he could be strong enough to be the overlord he became.

With that being said, I'm really surprised with the direction they took with him. You'd think that with him being a favorite of the showrunner and the fandom, he would probably be portrayed as the coolest mf in hell. But I really like that it isn't really the case within the show. Certain denizens dont even know him and older overlords like Zestial seems to scare him and Carmilla just dgaf about him. Hell, Alastor's loss to Adam was a lil embarrassing ngl. Like. I know he's one of the oldest human souls and that's why he's powerful but... It's Adam.

Something about him that I noticed is that he seems to be more bark than bite. In particular in his duet with Lucifer, initially Lucifer had the upper hand because he's objectively more powerful, humiliating Alastor with his angel magic, but what Alastor used to his advantage was his words and charisma, as can be expected of a radio host. He's always taunting his enemies, but does it actually make him stronger than them? He "won" that duet with Vox but Valentino said Alastor only"almost beat" him when they had an actual fight. He ruffled Lucifer's feathers but at the end of the day Lucifer is still leagues more powerful than him. He talked big when he was fighting Adam but he almost died and had a breakdown over it.

He's really a lot less "cool" than I expected the show would have him be portrayed as. Kinda pathetic honestly, how he's so insecure and angry whenever he isn't the strongest guy in the room. And i actually really like that! He reminds me a lot of Rumplestilstkin from Once Upon a Time.

Something I kinda hesitate to say tho is... I dont want him redeemed. I dont want him to actually care about the hotel crew and change his ways. I like him as the fucked up man he is and really want to see how fucked up he can be, just so that if he ends up being the huge antagonist, his downfall would be all the more satisfying. Like yunno that moment when Light/Kira was finally defeated? I wanna feel that again.

Angel Dust

I love him! We found his dialogue a lil annoying at first in ep 1 but the writers did a lot better in ep 2. He's a neat guy. His character gives interesting implications for me as to what makes a person a sinner in this show. While you have people like Alastor who obviously ended up where they did because a cannibal murderer, I get the feeling Angel ended up in hell because he was abusing his own body, which is a sad thing to think. If I remember right from my own catholic upbringing, abusing the body is considered a sin because your body is a temple. To think that Angel could be in hell for poisoning himself, not for harming others, is just sad man. I look forward to seeing more of his journey.

I'm not touching on how his SA was tackled btw. While I'm a victim of sexual assault myself, what i experienced was far from what Angel does on a REGULAR basis,so I don't feel like i have any personal or professional right to say anything about it. Not every victim's case is universal anyways. All I can say is, his line about purposefully damaging himself so he could be broken enough to no longer be Valentino's "favorite toy" hit me harder than I ever expected this show to.

Husk

Confession: I... I dont feel all that attached to Husk at all, I am so sorry Husk stans 😭

Okok that feels so mean to say I'm so sorry. I actually hesitated to say anything because I dont want to hurt people's feelings. But since you guys are asking and I dont like not being genuine, I'm telling the truth.

A lot of my feelings about Husk is heavily affected by the fandom anyways to be perfectly fair. Why? Because a lot of criticisms against Vaggie is easily applicable to Husk, maybe even more so, and yet I dont see even the same level of hate towards him that Vaggie received because his chemistry with Angel is so much better than Chaggie... Apparently...

I just dont see Husk as a character outside of being a plot device for Angel's development yunno? I get it, he isn't a main character like the main 4 are(Charlie, Vaggie, Alastor, and Angel), i just find it hard to well and truly like him because of the fandom's double standards. When we found out someone was gonna die in the finale, my brother and I actually thought it was gonna be him because he doesn't have a big enough role to play in the plot to be a HUGE loss, but has a significant enough connection to a main character to have an EFFECT. He very much just felt like the love interest for Angel and nothing else. Which isnt necessarily a bad thing, but is frustrating when i see sooo many people label Vaggie as such(when she isnt!) and hate her SO MUCH for it.

I wanna see more of him tho I really do. Like the man used to be an overlord. He said he wanted to find someone who could relate to "the gruesome ways in which he's damaged" but what does that even mean? Yes i know about the castration but aside from that what suffering is Alastor putting him thru when all he has to do is be a bartender rn? There must be more and I wanna see it and finally feel for him.

Nifty

I love her a lot. That's it. The character ever. Her gremlin energy reminded me so much of Peridot, it's great. Kimiko Glenn did a fantastic job as the comic relief character and I hope she gets her own song next season. Her basically being everyone's little sister was kinda adorable even tho she's probably the scariest person in that hotel next to Alastor. I hope she gets to stab Valentino next. Just kill that MOTHerfucker

#asks #hazbin hotel

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platonically-loving-alastor · 2 months

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Hazbin Hotel Season 2 Bingo

I've never made a fandom bingo card before, but I've just had so many ideas over the past few months about things I'd like to see, I decided to make my first one!

Context for a couple of them in case you're curious-

RadioApple rivalry chaos in the hotel - I just want it to be clear that no, I do not mean this in the shipping sense, I used the ship name purely for spacing reasons.

StaticMoth being a couple - It's confirmed they're in an on and off relationship, but all we've seen so far is sexual tension, a celebratory dance, and whatever happened in Episode 2. If they're gonna be a couple, I wanna see them being romantic. Idc if it's in current times or a flashback, just something to show they do care about each other in some way.

Charlie meets Vox - I've seen a bunch of content of them and even though (unless he at some point, probably not season 2, joins the hotel) their relationship won't be a friendship like I've seen, I think it would at least be very entertaining to have them in the same room together.

Vox/Alastor fight parallels - I've been thinking about how this season could come to a satisfying conclusion (Killing Vox, one of the most important Vees members, off already in Season 2 doesn't feel right, and him joining the hotel just as early definitely doesn't feel right) and I honestly would love if they had a parallel to how their fight went in the past. Do we actually know how it went back then? No, not explicitly. But I'm in the camp that based on Vox's reaction to Val's "when he almost beat you that time", it probably didn't mean Vox won, and I assume instead that either he ran off, and/or Alastor purposely let him get away (we don't know when their friendship ended or when the fight happened, he might've still cared about Vox enough to not want to kill him). I think it would be super cool to see that happen in flashback form, and then have a final battle between the two where it goes in the opposite direction. Vox really had gained the upper hand while Alastor was gone and he's about to win. But, whether it's from remembering how he was spared last time, or just generally remembering their past relationship (platonic or his romantic feelings), he can't bring himself to finish the job, and lets Alastor go... Can you tell how much I've been thinking about this-?

#idk if anyones made one of these yet #hazbin hotel #alastor #angel dust #charlie morningstar #staticmoth #radiosilence #the vees

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deeply-unserious-fellow · 5 months

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I cannot stress this enough, when I say "I think Alastor should be in the wrong in his and Vox's friend divorce" I am NOT trying to minimize Vox's actions. Like I said in my dv is dv post, Vox is a terrible person on his own. He willingly works with Val despite knowing all the shit he does and literally spies on the entire pride ring for fun, and there is no universe where that is Alastor's fault. I hate how we, as a fandom, are at a point where people assume that saying something like "I think this character got a lil fucked over by this character" equates to out right apologism. Especially considering that people who say Vox is in the wrong don't get accused of excusing Alastor's actions? Because like. Alastor sucks to. Neither of them are good people. Vox may be an enabling piece of shit, but Alastor is literally a cannibalistic serial killer who's treatment of Husk has been equated to Val's treatment of Angel on multipile occasions and is actively manipulating Charlie. They both fucking suck-

Actually no you know what? There's just overall a really weird double standard between how the fandom treats Vox(and the rest of the Vees tbh) & Alastor's actions. Like, nobody ever talks about how shit Al is to Husk, we don't talk about how he's a LITERAL SERIAL KILLER, but with Vox it's always "remember all the Vees are terrible" this or "he can't be in an abusive situation because he's a bad person" that. It's really getting on my f u c k i n g nerves. Why is Alastor, who is JUST AS BAD AS VOX, allowed to be sympathetic, but Vox isn't? And no, I don't care if Alastor has a "moral code" or whatever the fuck, because LOOK AT THE WAY HE TREATS HUSK OH MY FUCKING GOD- if the Vees aren't allowed to be sympathetic, neither is Alastor. Simple as that.

Sorry for getting heated there but IT'S FUCKING TRUE!!!!!! Idk if it's cause Alastor is a main character and Vox is an antagonist, Idk if it's cause Alastor won the dis track, Idk if it's cause Vox gets woobified too much(which, fyi, Alastor does too, also going too hard in the opposite direction isn't a good solution to that problem anyway)but it still gets on my DAMN NERVES- bitches cannot handle a morally gray situation Istg. Liking a fictional character who is a bad person does not mean you excuse their actions, thinking a character who is a bad person got screwed over by another character who is just as bad as them does not mean you excuse their actions, and somehow people are more understanding of these concepts when it comes to Alastor then they are with Vox. It's really fucking annoying.

DISCLAIMER: I am not trying to attack people who think this way. My frustration in this post is ultimately meaningless because I am but a little guy on the internet talking about made up demons. I always get nervous that ppl will see my posts and think I'm attacking them because this is the internet and people have a tendancy to get mad over this kinda thing, but I just want to make it clear THIS IS JUST ME VENTING FRUSTRATIONS I AM NOT TRYING TO ATTACK YOU PERSONALLY

#almost every single character in this show is morally reprehensible yall have to get over yourselves smh #hazbin hotel #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel alastor #alastor hazbin hotel #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox #vox hazbin hotel #late night ramblings #gal overanalyzes random shit

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jaybarou · 6 months

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More rants about the hell hotel!

Particularly the Stayed gone song.

I know the fandom likes a superpowerful alastor, I mean, he's a Gary Sue, or at least that's what we are supposed to think.

But!

Failed Adam's fight apart,

"you still pissed he ALMOST beat you that time?"

So either they have only had one fight that Vox won, or they have had multiple and Alastor has not won any.

"welcome home"

We knew this was personal! But home sounds very personal! He could have sung welcome back. "Home"!

Status quo and new dawn

Despite Alastor almost losing, he was seen as above the tv media. What year is it? Because video killed the radio star long long before the seven year absence of Alastor. Velvette is at least a 2005 sinner, take 7 years from that

Clout (50s slang) buffering, podcasts, that's the tea.

What these words say is on the one hand, Alastor has been keeping up with the times, despite pretending not to. That 50s word implies that it has not been a recent thing, he's just evolving like the rest of hell. And on the other hand, that his power might come from knowing who he's talking to, who will get hurt more when his words cut closer and who to hide his recent language acquisitions from to look old-timey and more quirky and approachable.

"the demon is a coward" "while he hid in radio"

More fodder for my "actually Alastor is only hiding behind a veneer of power". (Lucifer doesn't even know his name). I'm not taking vox at face value, but this and Val's comment about the beating makes me think that somthing is not clicking. First the comment about hiding in radio. Both of them (and the Vs) are distance fighters. They are not made for close fights. Except Alastor can eat sinners like ants. When exactly did Alastor hide in radio? And why? What's the timeline here? Alastor started to pick overlords and add them to his power one by one. We are assuming the vox alastor fight happened just before the 7 year break. Which should have been at the peak of Alastor's power, but we know that he lost. Against vox whe he was an up and comming demon. Sure in 7 years with allies and no competition he's consolidated his power, but would he be impressive at all 7 years ago?

So I think that timeline doesn't work.

I think Alastor was comfortable with his power until tvboy started to steal his listeners. They fought and Alastor Almost won. But didn't.

And that made him nervous. His control was slipping through his fingers. And that's when he got power hungry.

Anything to go back to being the Radio Demon. First to get back what was his and then just out of power lust. By then Lilith was still in Hell, and she has affinity for music, she saw an asset that would be useful at some point and exacted a deal out of him. She would help him consume any overlord that was giving Lilith trouble to get more powerful, she could use his radio emissions to control her subdits.

That's when Vox got scared(and horny, let's be honest). Alastor was gaining power fast, so in order to remain in power he decided to recruit Alastor. And he got laughed out the door.

Well now Vox was fucked. Because Alastor was really stronger than the Vs together, and he clearly had someone powerful backing him up (maybe that's where the coward comment comes from).

So you know when Vox says Alastor is a nobody? What if he is right? He used to be a nobody until Lilith made him rise and Vox still sees him as that little nobody who he angered until he grew thorns.

Then something happened. It all stopped. Alastor disappeared, he never even challenged the Vs (again, maybe where the coward comment comes from). Something happened to Lilith, and Alastor's chain was yanked along with her. Leaving him powerless again.

7years to contact again Lilith and get his powers back. He didn't get into this deal thinking his powers could abandon him.

So my pet theory is that Alastor is not a huge demon powerhouse contained by Lilith, but some rando who would love to tap out of this royal drama and go on his merry way. (It's not working, now he's deeper in the drama)

Thank you for coming to my rambling.

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tameila · 3 years

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TLOVM Thoughts.

THE GOOD

PIKE-CENTRIC STORYLINE HYPE TRAIN!!! First of all, it’s what she deserved. Second of all, it was perfect. It captured that perfect juxtaposition between Pike’s love for revelry and knocking heads and her earnest and always-trying devotion to her faith. She loves them both equally, enough so that the thought that she may have to choose caused her magic to splinter. The moment between The Everlight and her was nothing short of, and I know I keep using this word but, perfect. The most quintessential lines being...“Any path can be a holy one. So long as one walks it with truth. You can be whoever you want to be in the light...” That’s exactly what Pike needed to hear and sums up her character to a T. The only thing I hope we get a little more of next season is exploring why The Everlight is so important to her. When I heard the “Pike Trickfoot” song, I was hoping for a little something, but then it got demoted to end credits, so...😔 but, otherwise? Wonderful! So happy for my girl!

Pike’s tenacity. I’m just so happy that we got Pike’s tenacity to the MAX.

Scanlan’s earnest, tender-hearted affection for Pike being given its moment in just about every episode. They fumbled a lot with Scanlan’s character, which I’ll get to, but his feelings for Pike? I thank them for letting him have his moments both of quiet, speechless awe and of ‘I-Don’t-Know-How-To-Feelings’, lovedumb fumbling. The intensity on his face when he turned away from her in ep 4? The doe-eyed awe on his face when she first arrived in ep 9? That same wide-eyed look coming back in ep 11 when she saved him? Just...those moments when you could see the full brunt of his feelings hitting him before, with the last two, he didn’t know what to do besides act the fool. because Scanlan genuinely loves Pike, and he hasn’t done love before. I still worry where they’re going with them, and I hate that I have to worry, but...for now, I’m happy with how they’re setting up Scanlan’s feelings. Now, if only they’d show the mutuality of the attraction from Pike.

as you might know, I have a love-hate relationship with Percy. He’s a classic case of ‘great character ruined by the stans’ for me. However, I knew I wasn’t gonna have any fun watching season one if I didn’t try and open my heart to him again. and, for me, the thing that won me over was his relationship with Cass. When I first watched CritRole, before I really got into the fandom and still loved Percy, his relationship with Cassandra was my favorite sibling dynamic on the show. The guilt he feels over unknowingly leaving her. The happiness at knowing she is alive. Everything, in the end, being about her. When he lost his will to fight because she turned on him, I felt that as an older sibling. I would become the same limp noodle in that situation to see my little sister turn from me. Percy doesn’t need his dramatic one-liners or to be oh-so-sad and sexy. His saving grace is his love for his sister.

All the Pike and Grog moments! Best of siblings. Best of buddies. Like Scanlan, I think Grog got a short stick this season, but he shined in his moments with Pike. Crossing my fingers and hoping so hard for Westruun arc next season!

THE BAD

I know I have to accept it as a separate entity. I know I do, but...Everything moved so fast! The drawn out, lingering horror of the campaign fit the setting of Whitestone so well, but we didn’t get any time to sit with the corruption and decay with the animation.

Also, because of the rushed nature, they had to make “characterization cuts” to streamline things. For example, Vex became the main strategist, because you can’t animate 30 minutes of party planning, but it meant that Scanlan -- who was always at the forefront of strategy -- got pushed to the side.

I know other people have commented on this as well, but the overly polished dialogue of the show compared to the improvised but heartfelt dialogue of the table? So jarring.

In general, I think The Legend of Vox Machina, as beautifully animated and well voice acted as it is, is just proof that there’s no way to truly capture the magic of playing D&D around a table with your friends. Something was lost, and I missed it the whole time.

THE SCANLAN

ah, blue-eyed Scanlan...my beloathed...I do like his design otherwise. I really do, and I know I was given months to prepare my sensibilities but...[clenches fist] blue eyes? ??

if I have to hear Scanlan say “Scanlan’s Hand” one (1) more goddamn time, I WILL snap. I am begging you, TLOVM, to let Scanlan do literally ANY other spell. BEGGING.

Scanlan, in general, felt like a cardboard cutout of himself. like, a strong gust of wind could knock him over flat on his face. he was a plush toy with pre-set phrases that you pull the string on the back to hear.

Where was his cunning? His intellect? As I mentioned earlier, Scanlan was one of the biggest strategist of the party, but we got next to nothing of that in the show. There were small moments -- him translating the book and him bringing back that knowledge later at the ziggurat but they were so few and far between.

Scanlan’s is VM’s second most important healer and support after Pike. You wouldn’t know it from watching this show, however.

Please, for the love of Sarenrae, where are Scanlan’s spells and battle prowess? Where are the clutch moves that made him the MVP of VM? That made Vecna himself falter and scramble for purchase? In the beginning, I thought that they were just holding back to make Scanbo that more exciting to new viewers but...yeah. even that felt...Not Great. A lot of Scanbo was luck of the dice, but it was also so successful because Scanlan is resourceful and analytical in battle. He can make a quick plan. He will execute it with all the bravado of a man who doesn’t care what happens to him, as long as it’s a good story.

Which, to add to that point, why was Scanlan such a goddamn coward? In the campaign, a big part of Scanlan’s character was the fact that he had a cavalier attitude towards his own wellbeing. He was constantly dismissing the other’s concern for him. His nihilism is a big reason that Kaylie’s request that he stay alive hit him so hard. People keep saying “such-and-such is foreshadowing for Bard’s Lament” but I can honestly tell you that I have yet to see anything in the show that feels like they’re foreshadowing that storyline for Scanlan at all. Would love to be proven wrong.

Continuing the coward point, in the campaign, Scanlan was always fighting on the front lines. He wasn’t a melee fighter but, as a support, he was always in the fray. Which made it all the more upsetting when Scanlan spent so much of all these fights running around, screaming, and doing absolutely nothing. Love to see his Pikey jump in to protect him but would love it more if we got to see Scanlan look after her in return (which he did a lot, see: my Pike Health Watch supercut) while also holding his own in battle.

It actually felt mildly insulting that Vox Machina was constantly groaning and rolling their eyes when Scanlan would perform. Whereas, at the table, everyone would laugh and sing along. Scanlan’s inspiration and songs brought a sense of togetherness to the table.

idk man!! i just...i just felt like I was so excited to see my man and all I got was a shadow of him 😔

#tlovm blogging #tlovm spoilers #forewarning that this is mostly just me bemoaning the terrible treatment of Scanlan #i have...Many Thoughts...#now im gonna go spite write #if anything TLOVM made me more confident in my Scanlan POV #because it may not be the greatest but at least it's not TLOVM levels bad #also -- would love to hear other people's thoughts!#would love any reason not to despair at Scanlan's characterization!

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blind-rats · 5 years

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The ability of fans to shape and change the art they enjoy is nothing new. In 1893, the reaction to Arthur Conan Doyle killing off Sherlock Holmes was so intense that he eventually resurrected him ten years later. Historian Greg Jenner, the author of the forthcoming book Dead Famous (a study of the history of fame), has even tracked the characteristics of modern fandom back to the 1700s when rival supporters of English theatre actresses would compete for dominance like Team Aniston or Team Jolie.

And to the 1920s, where fan groups would write thousands of letters to movie studios demanding their favorite actor be given better roles. “It was the same thing,” he says, “as Sonic the Hedgehog having weird teeth and people going, ‘No, that’s not the game I played as a kid, you need to fix it or I am not giving you any money.’”

The last decade or so has witnessed huge changes in the awareness, perception, and tools of fandom. In terms of television and film, the enormous successes of Game of Thrones and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have introduced geek culture – and its brand of participatory fandom – to the mainstream. At the same time, the internet – and more specifically social media – has amplified fans’ voices, while also breaking down the boundaries between them and the artists they love/hate.

Yet the extent to which the internet has changed the very nature of fandom is debatable. According to leading media scholar Henry Jenkins, whose 1992 book Textual Poachers is considered the founding text of fan studies, it has merely “increased the scope and scale of the fan community, allowed for ongoing interactions amongst fans, and made the entertainment industry more aware of the kind of fan responses which have been occurring all along”.

Case in point: in 1968, Star Trek fans – a group who essentially invented the framework of modern fandom – orchestrated a huge and successful letter-writing campaign to save the show from cancellation. Then, in subsequent years, they also popularised fan fiction as we now know it, publishing stories for each other in zines, and pioneering the homoerotic literary sub-genre of slash fiction (the term ‘slash’ literally derives from the punctuation between Kirk / Spock).

Now fans weaponize hashtags and online petitions to revive shows like The Expanse and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or to take showrunners to task with criticisms of their blind spots and choices. One notable example is the teen show The 100, which sparked ire in 2016 after killing off one of the show’s prominent gay characters; an act that was seen by many to perpetuate the ‘bury your gays’ trope that has been prevalent in TV and film. And as for fan fiction? There is, most famously, E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey series, which was inspired by Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and originally posted on a fan website. But, beyond that, there is also the platform Archive of Our Own, which in 2019 won a Hugo award for its archive of more than 4.7 million fan-written stories.

“Fans engaging actively with the materials of their culture has improved our world in countless ways,” says Jenkins. “Television, as it exists today, is largely a response to modes of engagement that fans have modeled over the past several decades – [a form] where more attention is paid to backstories and secondary characters, where there is a greater degree of serialization and the core mythology is sustained across multiple media platforms, and which builds in space for exploration and speculation. And now, which seeks to be more diverse and inclusive in whose stories get told… Many of today’s critical darlings are following practices that were modeled first in fan fiction.”

Perhaps one of the most profound changes of the last 10 years is the extent to which the entertainment industry has begun to exploit the passion of fanbases for their own commercial ends. “The industry needs fans more than ever before,” explains academic Suzanne Scott, author of Fake Geek Girls, a study of the gender politics of fandom. “They need fans to ensure big opening weekends at the box office, they need them as promotional labor to create more ‘authentic’ excitement around a media object, or to distinguish one text from the glut of content that we are constantly choosing between as consumers.” Just take the techniques employed by Netflix, who have become masters of facilitating ‘organic’ conversation around their output.

On the more extreme end of the spectrum, they even rely on them as investors. A famous example being the 2014 big-screen revival of cult TV detective drama Veronica Mars, a sequel made possible only by the crowdfunding efforts of fans, and which subsequently led to a 2019 TV return on streaming service Hulu.

With the latter series, this equal partnership dynamic started to become complicated, however, with fans recoiling in horror when creator Rob Thomas killed off love interest Logan.

To quote journalist Constance Grady, writing for Vox: “Thomas, they said, had taken advantage of their desire to see Veronica and Logan together, using their investment as shippers to leverage not just their time and attention, but the literal dollars out of their pockets. In that case, didn’t he owe them something?”

Jenkins thinks it’s a fair question. “The sense of ownership reflects the way humans have always engaged with stories,” he says. “We use stories to make sense of who we are. We use stories to debate our values, fears, and aspirations. We display our attachment to stories in various ways and we define ourselves through which stories mean the most to us. There’s nothing odd about this. What is odd is the idea that corporations want to claim a monopoly over the storytelling process, resist input from their audience, and lockdown stories from further circulation and elaboration.”

CLICK THE LINK FOR THE FULL ARTICLE

#Veronica Mars #Fandom #Fanbase #Sonic The Hedgehog #Star Trek

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timalexanderdollery · 5 years

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The Frozen 2 soundtrack: a guide to the best songs

Disney

The best songs from Frozen 2 are the ones that didn’t make it into the movie. Sorry, “Into the Unknown.”

It’s not an exaggeration to say the release of the Frozen 2 soundtrack this past weekend — just ahead of Frozen 2’s November 22 release date — counts as an event. Not since the heyday of Disney’s ’90s animated musicals has a film soundtrack had such high expectations to live up to.

Sales of the original Frozen soundtrack blew away all other competitors when it was released in late November 2013 (just a few days before the film itself); it then went on to reign as the No. 1 album of 2014. At the 2014 Oscars, “Let It Go” won Best Original Song; the next year, at the 2015 Grammys, the album won Best Compilation Soundtrack, garnering Robert Lopez — who wrote all of Frozen’s songs with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez — the rare EGOT distinction. (The pair is credited with writing the entire Frozen 2 soundtrack as well.)

Oh, and if you had younger kids, your kids were probably obsessed with it. In 2014, Frozen was everywhere: The film itself grossed a staggering $1.27 billion worldwide, and the film’s fandom was so eager for more that it drove over $5 billion in retail sales of related Frozen merchandise — just in 2014 alone. Not only that, but five years after the film’s release, the soundtrack was still on the CD sales charts. That’s some heavy lifting.

So does the new Frozen 2 soundtrack hold up to all that hype? Yeah, pretty much.

The Frozen 2 soundtrack has just seven new songs — plus a reprise, several covers, and a few “outtakes.” But there’s a lot to explore.

The Frozen 2 soundtrack boasts the soundtrack versions of its seven totally new songs as well as covers of those songs by artists Kacey Musgraves, Panic! At the Disco, and Weezer. Both Kristen Bell, who voices Princess Anna, and Jonathan Groff, who plays her boyfriend Kristoff, get songs of their own. (There’s also a teensy reprise of the Groffsauce classic “Reindeer(s) are Better Than People.”) The soundtrack also comes with a few surprises — most pleasantly, the revelation that Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood, a new addition to Frozen cast, has a great singing voice. (Fun fact for Broadway buffs: Wood is in a band with guitarist Zane Carney, brother of Hadestown’s Reeve Carney.)

Wood plays Queen Iduna, Elsa and Anna’s late mother. Apparently, her spirit is still alive and kicking, and in the Frozen 2 soundtrack’s opening number, “All Is Found,” she gets a beautiful refrain — “where the north wind meets the sea / there’s a river full of memory” — that recurs throughout other songs and the film’s score. Musgraves covers this song, and it’s just lovely.

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If you already know you love Frozen, you’ll specifically want to seek out the “deluxe” version of the soundtrack, which contains a few more songs listed as “outtakes.” These songs — which were apparently all cut before they made it into the movie — include extra solos for Anna and Kristoff, and a gorgeous duet, “I Seek the Truth,” between songwriter Anderson-Lopez and Patti Murin, who originated the role of Anna in Frozen on Broadway.

The best of the outtakes is “Get This Right,” a fun, conversational duet between a self-doubting Kristoff and an ever-adventurous Anna, which doubles as a kind of spiritual sequel and answer to Frozen’s “Love Is an Open Door.”

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Oh, and here’s the best part if you like to sing along: The deluxe soundtrack contains with instrumental — a.k.a. karaoke — versions of all the songs.

Let go of the idea that there’s a new “Let It Go” on the Frozen 2 soundtrack

The centerpiece of the new soundtrack, however, is clearly meant to be “Into the Unknown.” It’s the showcase song for Broadway superstar Idina Menzel, who plays, Elsa. But is it the diva power number that fans of “Let It Go” have been wanting?

Eh. I’m leaning toward “no.”

Menzel earned her superstar rep for belting into the stratosphere on songs like Wicked’s “Defying Gravity” and Frozen’s “Let It Go,” and Frozen 2’s “Into the Unknown” seems to take off the musical gloves and let her fling high notes left and right as Elsa wrestles with restlessness and the call of a new adventure. She’s joined in the chorus by Norwegian pop artist Aurora, who voices an eerie incorporeal voice that’s been summoning Elsa out into the snowy wilderness.

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Audio ads for the Frozen 2 soundtrack all feature Menzel’s version of the song, but if that version itself isn’t far enough over the top, the album also sports a cover from Panic! At the Disco, with frontman Brendon Urie repeatedly shrieking the central motif at the very top of his — and humanity’s — vocal range.

It’s all very showy and attention-grabbing. But that doesn’t make it the album’s best song.

As a musical theater nerd, I personally get annoyed whenever lyrics feel repetitive or time-biding — that is, when they seem to exist just to fill out a line, or when they say something generically relatable but not character-specific. The Frozen songwriting team usually avoids those traps. (Robert Lopez co-created Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon, while he and Anderson-Lopez also did songs for Disney’s Coco and the Broadway version of Frozen.) But “Into the Unknown” has a few lyrics that fall flat, like “some look for trouble while others don’t” and “Ignore your whispers, which I wish would go away.” It’s fine, but compared to the tight, character-building lyrics of “Let It Go” — “a kingdom of isolation and it looks like I’m the queen” — it’s not nearly as satisfying.

The other detail that makes “Into the Unknown” less effective for me is that it’s overly packed with drama. If we assess how well the Frozen movies function within the constraints of the musical theater genre — where songs must drive plot and/or provide important character revelations — then “Into the Unknown,” like “Let It Go,” is a “want song.” It arrives early in the plot and reveals the heroine’s inner desire for something new, thus providing the motive that will propel the rest of the storyline. But “Into the Unknown” gives away too much, too early, both structurally and theatrically. High notes spell out drama, which is why “Let It Go” really only has one good one. Too many high notes too often, and the drama becomes less effective.

Think of “Into the Unknown” in terms of the function it serves in Frozen 2’s overall story. In fact, let’s consider in the context of a Broadway show that the first Frozen film has a lot in common with, Wicked.

In Wicked, the want song — the equivalent to Frozen 2’s “Into the Unknown” — is “The Wizard and I.” It’s followed by the big exciting number that closes the first act, “Defying Gravity.” And then later, there’s the “eleven o’clock number”: the late-in-the-second-act showstopper that marks as a crucial character turning point or climax. In Wicked, that’s “No Good Deed.” Each of these songs has one or two dramatic points, but they work because they aren’t all high-intensity all the time.

Perhaps because an animated movie like Frozen 2 doesn’t have as much room to steadily build drama through multiple songs, it seems to have overloaded on drama in one big early number with “Into the Unknown.” But that makes the song less exciting for me than it may be for others.

At first, my pick for best song went to Kristoff’s solo number, “Lost in the Woods” — but upon reflection, I think I was just glad Jonathan Groff finally got a chance to really sing in a Frozen movie. (He’s probably best known now for Manhunter, but before that, he found fame originating Broadway roles in Spring Awakening and Hamilton.) After a few listens, “Lost in the Woods” starts to feel too generic. Any character could sing these lyrics at any time — which is great if you want a song to be a pop hit, but disappointing as a character-builder for Kristoff. It doesn’t help that the out-of-place ’80s rock instrumentation gives the song an REO Speedwagon-y, Peter Cetera ”Glory of Love”-era vibe. Nothing against the Speedwagon, but it doesn’t quite mesh with Kristoff’s 19th-century Norwegian ice-harvester aesthetic.

Basically, I want good musical scores to give me specific, interesting character development through interesting songs that propel the plot — high notes optional. That’s why “I Seek the Truth,” Anna and Elsa’s duet from the outtakes section of the deluxe edition, is probably the Frozen 2 song I’d take with me to a desert island. It’s a beautiful duet with insights into both characters, and it’s one of the more complex songs in the score. (In general, the “outtake” songs are collectively the score’s strongest group of songs, and I wish the movie had had room for them!)

But if the outtakes don’t count, then after many listens, I’ve decided that the best song from the Frozen 2 score is “Show Yourself,” which Elsa sings when she apparently reaches the end of her quest and locates the source of the “disembodied voice” she’s been following. Menzel and Wood get a gorgeous duet in this number, with Wood appearing to attach a definable spirit to the incorporeal voice performed by Aurora in the earlier “Into the Unknown.”

“Show Yourself” also has plenty of suspense and excitement, but at this point in the story, that intensity level feels more earned than it does on “Into the Unknown,” and the duet is thrilling.

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Of course, we don’t yet know which song works best in the movie itself. Perhaps, in context, Josh Gad’s songs as Olaf the Snowman will win the day! One thing is a given, however: This weekend, movie theaters will be full of Frozen fans wanting to experience these songs in their full glory. And I’ll be right there with them, heading into the mostly known experience of Frozen 2.

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shanedakotamuir · 5 years

Text

The Frozen 2 soundtrack: a guide to the best songs

Disney

The best songs from Frozen 2 are the ones that didn’t make it into the movie. Sorry, “Into the Unknown.”

So does the new Frozen 2 soundtrack hold up to all that hype? Yeah, pretty much.

The Frozen 2 soundtrack has just seven new songs — plus a reprise, several covers, and a few “outtakes.” But there’s a lot to explore.

youtube

Oh, and here’s the best part if you like to sing along: The deluxe soundtrack contains with instrumental — a.k.a. karaoke — versions of all the songs.

Let go of the idea that there’s a new “Let It Go” on the Frozen 2 soundtrack

Eh. I’m leaning toward “no.”

youtube

It’s all very showy and attention-grabbing. But that doesn’t make it the album’s best song.

youtube

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#Vox - All

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corneliusreignallen · 5 years

Text

The Frozen 2 soundtrack: a guide to the best songs

Disney

The best songs from Frozen 2 are the ones that didn’t make it into the movie. Sorry, “Into the Unknown.”

So does the new Frozen 2 soundtrack hold up to all that hype? Yeah, pretty much.

The Frozen 2 soundtrack has just seven new songs — plus a reprise, several covers, and a few “outtakes.” But there’s a lot to explore.

youtube

Oh, and here’s the best part if you like to sing along: The deluxe soundtrack contains with instrumental — a.k.a. karaoke — versions of all the songs.

Let go of the idea that there’s a new “Let It Go” on the Frozen 2 soundtrack

Eh. I’m leaning toward “no.”

youtube

It’s all very showy and attention-grabbing. But that doesn’t make it the album’s best song.

youtube

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2OwJXZI

#Vox - All

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gracieyvonnehunter · 5 years

Text

The Frozen 2 soundtrack: a guide to the best songs

Disney

The best songs from Frozen 2 are the ones that didn’t make it into the movie. Sorry, “Into the Unknown.”

So does the new Frozen 2 soundtrack hold up to all that hype? Yeah, pretty much.

The Frozen 2 soundtrack has just seven new songs — plus a reprise, several covers, and a few “outtakes.” But there’s a lot to explore.

youtube

Oh, and here’s the best part if you like to sing along: The deluxe soundtrack contains with instrumental — a.k.a. karaoke — versions of all the songs.

Let go of the idea that there’s a new “Let It Go” on the Frozen 2 soundtrack

Eh. I’m leaning toward “no.”

youtube

It’s all very showy and attention-grabbing. But that doesn’t make it the album’s best song.

youtube

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2OwJXZI

#Vox - All

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meganwontgotoheaven · 7 years

Text

Ch 9: When the Wonderland Ends & the Wrestling Begins

Fandom: Critical Role

Genre: High School AU

Rating: General

Word Count: 1027

The walk through Westrunn was quick and brisk despite Pike’s short legs. Both her and Grog were still running on the excitement of the day while Percy was content to follow them at his own pace.

Their first stop was to Eskil’s house where they found a note stuck to the door and addressed to Vox Machina. It read:

“To VM, thank you for warning me about the police. Unfortunately it looks like I’ll still be spending the night at the city jail. Will hopefully sort things out in the morning. Sincerely Eskil.”

After that it was off to the Trickfoot house.

“Welcome to our house,” said Pike as she unlatched the door. “Wilhand--my great-great-grandfather--is probably out at the bingo hall for the rest of the night.”

“Sleepover time,” yelled Grog as he lept into the room hitting the ceiling light with his head.

“Grog, first take Percy’s backpack into the living room and set up the couch for him,” said Pike. “And do you know if we have anything in the fridge?”

“We have mayonnaise and a chicken leg I started eating earlier,” he replied as he took Percy’s bag.

“I’ll figure something out,” said Pike as she headed into the kitchen.

Percy stood awkwardly in the small foyer for a second deciding who to follow. He decided Grog could use the supervision and walked into the livingroom where he found Grog struggling to cover the couch with an oversized bedsheet. He watched for several minutes before stepping into help.

“Okay guys, I found a box of pasta and pancake mix, so I made pancakes,” said Pike bringing in a tray of food.

“An excellent decision,” said Percy as he sat down at the coffee table.

“Thank you,” said Pike. “I don’t know how you do meals at your house, but we like to watch t.v. if that’s ok.”

“Of course. What do you--,” the first sentence was barely out of Percy’s mouth before Grog made a flying leap for the remote control.

“--TO SATURDAY NIGHT WRESTLE MADNESS WITH EARTH-BREAKER GRRRROOOOON,” came blasting out of the television at full volume. Two just as loud cheers came out of Pike and Grog at full volume too.

“Who's your pick to win tonight, Percy,” asked Grog.

“Umm, the big muscular guy in the ridiculous costume,” replied Percy.

“You don’t watch wrestling do you,” said Pike.

“Never in my life,” said Percy.

“Well you happen to be in the presence of a wrestling aficionado who would love to teach you,” said Pike. “Right Grog?”

“Thats right,” said Grog. “Okay so right now there's this plotline where there’s these guys calling themselves the ‘Monks of Kord’ who worship Kord. Kords the guy who like, owns wrestling. But some of the other wrestlers don’t like them because they’re super creepy so there's this rivalry going on. You following?”

“I think so,” said Percy. “And who’s this Groon guy they mentioned?”

“Only the greatest wrestler of all time,” said Grog excitedly. “He’s the undefeated champion of Wrestle Madness Shake Down, he holds the record for most belts won and most consecutive wins. He mostly hosts now that he’s retired.”

“He also trains wrestlers at the official Kord Wrestling Entertainment gym over in Vasselheim,” said Pike. “That’s where Siren trained. She’s our favorite of the female fighters.”

“Siren, Groon, Monks of Kord, got it” said Percy.

“And some day Grog Strongjaw, future champion of the KWE,” said Pike.

Grog laughed and began flexing. “Thats right! Hype me up Pike!”

“Ok,” said Pike enthusiastically. “Stepping into the ring, a goliath of a man, the Barbarian of Westruun, the strongest of Vox Machina, Groooog Strongjawwww!”

As Pike yelled out that last part, Grog jumped to his feet and began jumping around the room pretending like he was in a real wrestling ring.

“But wait,” gasped Pike. “Who's that stepping into the ring? It’s...the MONSTA!”

With all her might Pike leapt at Grog and wrapped her arms around his neck in a headlock. Grog gasped and fell to his knees. He then broke free from Pike and lifted her up in the air and held her aloft.

“What are you going to do now Monsta,” asked Grog in his most dramatic voice.

“I’m going to do this,” yelled Pike as she kicked out at Grog’s face causing him to drop her. She then grabbed Percy and pushed him towards Grog. “I’m tagging in Percy the, um, The De Roller. I’ll workshop that later.”

“No. No, no,” stuttered Percy as he fell firmly into Grog’s chest.

“Well hello Mr. De Roller, let me introduce you to Mr. Couch,” said Grog his voice raising as he grabbed Percy and threw him onto the couch a little harder than necessary. The couch flipped over as Percy hit it causing him to roll across the floor.

“Oh no! I’ll avenge you Percy,” cried Pike as she leapt back at Grog.

Percy gave a weak thumbs up. He then crawled over to where his bag lay as Pike and Grog continued to wrestle. He pulled out his phone to find a notification that read “you have been added to the chat ‘magic earing.’” He assumed that was the Vox Machina chat that was mentioned earlier. He opened that to find pictures from Scanlan’s flash attack on the woman earlier. Underneath it read:

Scanlan: ha these r so weird look

Vax: whats that on her arm

Tiberius: Looks like a tattoo of some sort

Vax: hang on

Vax: holy shit guys thats a gang tattoo

Keyleth: gang tattoo??? omg guys are we in danger???

Vax: idk its from the clasp in emon

Vex: idk? You worked w/ them you dick what do u mean u don’t know

Vax: that was like 2 years ago idk what ther doing now

Vex: of course this is our luck

Scanlan: we’ll b fine guys

Percy closed the chat as the conversation shifted. He then pulled his pajamas and toothbrush out of his bag and headed towards the bathroom. He could hear the wrestling begin to die down and he was ready for the rest of the night to be a little quieter.

#critical role fanfic #critical role high school #critical role #fan fiction #my writing #percy de rolo #pike trickfoot #grog strongjaw

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pearwaldorf · 8 years

Note

CLIO!

which fandom do you know the most about?

Probably Star Wars. I have spent many years perusing reference material and extended universe content. I can tell you who Max Rebo is but not what instrument he plays, that there are differences between the X-wings in the OT and TFA but I can’t tell you what they are, and that Han Solo won the planet of Dathomir in a sabacc game in The Courtship of Princess Leia. Also Threepio wrote a song for Han Solo in the book too because he was under the impression Han was a secret prince of Corellia.

a quote from one of your fandoms which you absolutely adore

"I will tell you a great secret, Captain. Perhaps the greatest of all time. The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are starstuff. We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out. And as we have both learned, sometimes the universe requires a change of perspective." (Babylon 5)

a book you can read over and over

The Immortals quartet by Tamora Pierce

tell us about your favourite AU for one of your ships

I’m still pretty fond of the Vox Machina high school AU where Percy and Keyleth are weird goth besties who make things together. This is the one where teenaged Vax meets young entepreneur Gilmore at some dumb STEM event his dad makes him go to and he thinks maybe technology has its appeal.

#servantofclio #replies

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mastcomm · 5 years

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Kobe Bryant’s ‘Mamba Army’ Fans Were as Relentless as He Was

The mention of Kobe Bryant could instantly start a fight, whether in a bar with friends or a in far-flung corner of the internet.

In the 2000s, fans angrily discussed whether Bryant, the Lakers superstar guard, was as good as the man he had modeled his game after, Michael Jordan, or even Tim Duncan, the San Antonio big man who would lead the Spurs to three of his five championships that decade.

LeBron James entered the conversation in the 2010s, and Bryant’s ardent defenders shrugged off the talented James as, indeed, no Kobe — look at the rings! By then Bryant had won five titles, including in 2010, and James had not won any. There was still much else to debate: Was Kobe a ball hog? Did he shoot too much? (No, of course not! You trust Smush Parker with those shots?)

The peak of such debates came in 2014, when a man in Southern California apparently drove almost an hour to try to fight a Celtics fan who had dared say on Twitter that Bryant wasn’t an elite player. Thus the phrase “Meet me in Temecula!” entered the cultural lexicon.

Fans of Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday at the age of 41, were as relentless in his defense as he was on the basketball court. They felt like they had to be. Theirs was a different fandom than what had existed for past N.B.A. greats like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. It was severe tribalism as a counter to an aversion to Bryant outside of Los Angeles, a reaction to those constantly underrating Bryant’s exceptional skill — at least in their eyes.

“To the degree that they are more aggressive and protective of his legacy or his game, I think that’s owed to reflecting his personality,” said Harrison Faigen, the editor of Silver Screen and Roll, a Lakers fan site under Vox Media’s SB Nation. “He was someone who really was out there in championing himself and talking about how great he was.”

For each time a sports fan declared that Bryant was an all-time good player instead of an all-time great, there was an equal and opposite reaction from Kobe’s fan base — known as the Mamba Army — feverishly pointing to his five championships.

“They’re fanatical in a way where they’re unwavering in their devotion to Kobe,” said Tyler, the popular Twitter personality @DragonflyJonez who has more than 172,000 followers and hosts the Jenkins & Jonez podcast. (He only goes by his first name in public.) “They don’t care what you say. They don’t care what the numbers say. It always comes down to five rings. At the end of the day, that’s what it always comes down to: Were you a winner or were you not?”

That was the era Bryant played in. He was one of the few superstars whose career spanned the explosion of both the internet and social media. N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver, during an interview on Monday, noted that Bryant had entered the league shortly after the league’s website launched. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube emerged in between his championship runs. When he retired in 2016, two decades after he was drafted, he did so with a poem that quickly went viral on social media.

All of this meant that as Bryant’s career progressed, published opinions weren’t limited to cranky newspaper columnists. Instead, fans got louder. And louder. Suddenly, there were N.B.A. message boards and Reddit posts where fans could have at it. Twitter amplified those discussions and democratized the assessment of player legacies. It wasn’t just up to shows like ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” and “Pardon The Interruption.”

“We had to spend so much time defending him,” said Anthony Irwin, who hosts a podcast called “Locked On Lakers.” (Until recently, Faigen was his co-host.)

“It became such a habit,” Irwin said. “You saw it even after his career. Any time some player did something incredible on the basketball court, there was always somebody out there who referenced it back to, ‘Wait, is Russell Westbrook better than Kobe now?’”

Bryant deftly used the digital age to enhance his own brand, targeting international audiences and rapidly expanding his fan base. Part of the reason Bryant devotees seemed to loom large in discussions is that there were so many of them all over the world, especially in China. But that relationship with his enthusiasts was compromised after he was charged with raping a 19-year-old woman in 2003. The case was dropped before it went to trial, and a separate lawsuit the woman filed was settled out of court. Even then, many of Bryant’s fans stuck by him.

“For better or for worse, you get an ‘us against the world’ mentality,” Irwin said. He added: “Over the course of Kobe’s career, especially the latter half, if you brought it up, it was, ‘Well, he didn’t actually get convicted of a crime.’ That was the starting point of that conversation. It got kind of gross.”

For his aficionados, Irwin said, what Bryant “did on the court now carried over to off the court. I’m not saying Lakers fans or Kobe fans handled that well, but where it came from was just, ‘He’s our guy.’”

News media mentions of the case since Bryant’s death have angered some of his supporters. The Washington Post reporter Felicia Sonmez tweeted a link to an article about the rape accusation in the hours after Bryant’s death and was immediately deluged with criticism and, she said, death threats. Sonmez said later that she had checked into a hotel out of fear for her safety. Other news media that mentioned the accusation in their coverage also have been met with backlash.

The intensity of the supporters is likely in part because Bryant hit his prime just when the N.B.A. was desperate for a new torch bearer. Jordan had retired for the third time in 2003. Fans wanted someone to step into an impossible-to-fill abyss. The problem for Bryant was that several players also vied for that role. Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson were all guards with flashes of Jordan’s flair. Even on the court, Bryant was a divisive figure. Some opposing fans thought his game lacked aesthetic beauty, even though his brutal competitiveness was universally acknowledged.

The gap between Bryant and those players at their best wasn’t as large as the canyon that existed between Jordan and the rest of the league in the 1990s. There is even an argument to be made that Bryant wasn’t the best player on his Lakers teams during his first three championships. This created more dispute among league observers as to whether Bryant was, as some said, truly the heir apparent to Jordan.

There were also simple, more traditional reasons for the loyalty of Bryant’s fans. He played for the same team his whole career, allowing him to spend 20 years cultivating a relationship with them. He won more than most other stars in that time frame. And playing for the Lakers, a historic franchise in a large Los Angeles media market, put him right in the middle of Hollywood, filled with celebrities he could hobnob with.

Bryant, like many of those celebrities, was also in living rooms every night as a constant presence on national television. A generation of West Coast dwellers grew up with him. As the rapper Snoop Dogg said on the Fox Sports show “Undisputed” on Wednesday: “When he first got to L.A., he wasn’t great. He was a kid. He was learning, and he was making mistakes. I was a kid at the same time. So it was a beautiful story watching his story and watching mine.”

Bryant certainly was not the first superstar to have a dedicated fan base. Bird probably doesn’t have to buy a meal in Boston ever again. Ditto for Iverson in Philadelphia. Jordan has his own committed legacy-protectors. But Bryant’s résumé in a rapidly expanding digital world created a new class of N.B.A. fan: millennials with multiple platforms on which to yell and defend their guy. Perhaps this is the point of fandom — to defend your rooting interest with gusto any way you can.

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

Link

Our staff of cultural critics picked their favorite highbrow gifts — and some guilty pleasures.

I am one of those people whose headphones always require at least 10 minutes of untangling. Wireless earbuds, while not perfect, were a relief for a tangly person like myself — but the sound quality and fit of many versions leave a lot to be desired.

The best ones I’ve been able to try are Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless earbuds. They work almost like noise-canceling headphones, crystallizing whatever you’re listening to and pulling it front and center for your eardrums. Listening to Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” through them makes her vocals sound truly special. And the bass, while not spectacular, is still solid; it might be as good as you’ll find in wireless earbuds.

But it’s Sennheiser’s comfortable fit — and a nifty feature called “transparent hearing,” which allows you to hear ambient noise while commuting or jogging — that pushes them over the edge. If there’s one problem, it’s that they’re very expensive, so there’s a constant anxiety that you might lose a bud. (Sennheiser, $300)

—Alex Abad-Santos, senior correspondent

One of my favorite gifts I received last year was an illustrated triptych of Dorinda Medley’s most iconic moments. Medley is the true star of the television show The Real Housewives of New York, best known for getting completely obliterated and yelling things in various fancy kitchens (she’s incredible). Kat Archibald is an illustrator in England who does these hilarious prints of reality stars and their most famous quotes, but there are plenty of other artists on Etsy who cater to whatever fandom your loved one stans. (Etsy, from $7)

—Rebecca Jennings, reporter

Holiday greeting cards are pretty boring, but they don’t have to be. For pop culture mavens who want to give (or receive) a nice card — maybe with, say, a gift card tucked inside — there are plenty of options on Etsy, most starting at under $5. For instance, the horror fan might fancy a terrifying look at Pennywise, the killer from It, or a reminder of how frightening The Shining is. Or an exhortation to be Rock-in around the Christmas tree.

For your family member who adored Bohemian Rhapsody, try Freddie Mercury. For a classic touch, send some cheer via an Elf card. Your friend who’s been bingeing The Office on repeat (not that I’d know anything about that) can enjoy a Christmas card worthy of Dwight Schrute himself, or maybe Belsnickel. There are options for fans of everything from Post Malone to Hallmark movies. And for the loved one who celebrates it all, there’s even a visit from the Holiday Armadillo.

—Alissa Wilkinson, film critic

Publisher Penguin is officially calling these adorable little books “Penguin minis,” but it’s way more fun to make like they do in the Netherlands and call them “dwarsliggers.” When shut, a dwarsligger is about the size of a deck of bridge cards, so you can hold it in one hand, which is both convenient for reading on the train or bus and surprisingly cute. When you flip one open, you see that the text is oriented horizontally rather than vertically, and you turn the pages by flipping them up, more or less the way you scroll up through a smartphone. The format won me over entirely when I put one next to my giant stack of to-be-read books, realized that it made them look as though they belonged to a hulking giant, and cackled gleefully.

Currently dwarsliggers are only available to John Green fans, but if the format takes off, expect to see commuters clutching dwarsliggers on trains around the country. In the meantime, there’s nothing wrong with a good John Green read. ($28)

—Constance Grady, book critic

So, yes, this absolutely seems like a parody of a gift you might get for one of the Real Housewives. I received one in a swag bag at a film festival this year and laughed at first. Then I brought it home. Then I put wine in it. Then I realized that it was the ideal accompaniment to a long stretch of hours spent watching movie screeners or, more likely, binging an upcoming season of Big Little Lies or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I’m not great at wine glasses, and I live in perpetual fear of spilling some cabernet on my couch. The sturdy construction of this tumbler, which is about the same size and shape as a travel mug with a lid, means I don’t have to worry anymore. I am a convert. ($7)

—Alissa Wilkinson

If you have friends who love reality television — any kind, from RuPaul’s Drag Race to the Real Housewives franchise — please consider getting them a Cameo. Cameo is basically the singing telegram for the modern era. For a fee, you can get celebrities (usually minor ones) and athletes to make a downloadable video message; you give the celebs an outline of what you want the message to say, and they record something custom for your friend(s). (Cameo, from $17)

—Alex Abad-Santos

There are a fair number of book subscription boxes out there, and a lot of them will throw in some form of beverage — coffee beans, tea bags, hot chocolate mix — with the books. What’s fun about Blue Spider’s Attic is that the books they mail out with their beverages are secondhand — which means that a) a monthly subscription is cheaper than a lot of the other book subscription boxes out there, and b) you’re more likely to come across an old book you haven’t heard of before. Since all the books are chosen by real people, based on a questionnaire you fill out explaining your tastes, you’re basically getting a guided tour through a really well-stocked used bookstore every month, without ever having to leave your house. (Blue Spider Attic, $20)

—Constance Grady

Book lovers will adore artist Jane Mount’s “Ideal Bookshelf” project, where she paints various celebrities, authors’ and influencers’ ideal bookshelves — a collection of up to 15 of their favorite books. You can buy one that showcases the picks of someone you admire, or, better yet, you can have Jane make a custom print, which makes for an unforgettable gift tailored to your recipient’s personal tastes. When my husband and I first moved in together, we ordered a custom print from Jane that combined 10 of our favorite books. Years later, it’s still my favorite piece of art that we own. (Ideal Bookshelf, $34)

—Nisha Chittal, engagement editor

I‘ve seen Come From Away three times with both friends and family since it opened in 2017, and I’ve loved it more each time. The true story of 7,000 airline passengers stranded in remote Newfoundland after 9/11, it’s a simple, well-acted, and well-designed musical that manages to feel lively, engaging, and genuine, all while avoiding schmaltz. I’ve been struck each time I’ve seen it by how necessary it continues to feel in the current political climate — how hope-giving and hopeful. It’s currently playing on Broadway and touring throughout the US, but if you can’t find a performance near you, the original Broadway cast recording is also worth your time. ($12 for the mp4 album)

—Aja Romano, internet culture reporter

Original Source -> Vox’s gift guide for culture aficionados

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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starwarsdc · 7 years

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A Fandom Divided: a fractured fandom in the wake of The Last Jedi

This week in class, we discussed fandoms as a cultural group in general. We read and discussed the ways in which society’s views and attitudes towards fans have changed (or not) over the 20th and into the 21st century. We were asked to think about what it might mean for people create the distinction of “real fans” versus “casual fans” or “fake fans.” We were also prompted to think more deeply about the relationship(s) a creator has with the created work and the people who experience that work. To what degree does a creator “own” their creation, and to what degree does a work belong to the fans? These are all questions I will be considering as we prepare to watch The People Versus George Lucas (There will probably be one or two blog posts on this film alone). On this blog, I am not going to offer my own thoughts as to what or who constitutes a “real fan” of Star Wars. Instead, I’ll look at the SW fandom’s various responses to TLJ.

The negative backlash against The Last Jedi has been well documented. Many people are aware of the negative and complex response to this film, but do not understand why this backlash exists. I’ve heard fans say they like the film as a standalone movie, but not as a SW movie. I’ve heard them say they don’t like it, that they hate it, that they love it, that they didn’t understand it. Rather than link to a whole host of reviews and posts from individual tumblrs, I’m using this Vox article to summarize the different reasons for the negative response. (I’m only quoting portions of the article, not the entire thing, so if you’re interested in reading more about this topic, please follow the link to the full article)

1. Too much progressivism: In the early going of the backlash, this was the easy culprit to point to. The broad strokes of the Last Jedi response sure looked like the broad strokes of Gamergate or the backlash to the all-female Ghostbusters remake. And there are lots and lots of tweets and user reviews and responses that focus on the idea that the film’s strongest characters are almost all women, who usually know the right thing to do, while its most evil characters are white men with complexes about being given what they think they deserve. . . .

The Last Jedi is more or less a metaphorical depiction of the baby boomer generation (a generation that featured a lot of white dudes — good and bad — in positions of power) handing off leadership roles to younger generations, particularly millennials, who tend to be more racially diverse and to advocate having more women in positions of power. The series’ millennial good guys are a young white woman, a black man, a woman of Asian descent, and a Latino man, while its millennial bad guys are two white dudes.

But saying there’s a lot of cultural anxiety around this particular generational handoff is an understatement. And when you consider that Star Wars fandom has long been presided over by white guys, it’s natural this would lead to angry policing over what Star Wars is and isn’t. And that policing can be ugly and lead to toxic fandoms in which people who aren’t white men don’t feel comfortable.

2. The jokes are too jokey: Of the “nitpicky” complaints, this is the most nitpicky, in that plenty of fans don’t like The Last Jedi’s sense of humor. And to be sure, the film has its share of broad jokes, which seem to be written in comic idioms that are slightly more modern than the original trilogy’s more vaudevillian style. . . . A lot of people who found Last Jedi too jokey also made subsequent tweets where they compared something in Last Jedi unfavorably to something in the prequel trilogy.

3. The movie is uninterested in fan theories: And even if you can get with the new trilogy’s ideas about how things ended up after Jedi, then The Last Jedi spends a lot of its running time telling you that a lot of the things fans have obsessed about since The Force Awakens was released just didn’t matter.The 2015 film was directed by J.J. Abrams, who never met a mystery he couldn’t tease. But Johnson immediately quashed many of those mysteries in Last Jedi. Who was Snoke? Who were Rey’s parents? Who cares, The Last Jedi ultimately concludes.Rey is impressive because of who she is, and Snoke is just a distraction from the real villain, who turns out to be Kylo Ren, who’s all the more terrifying because of his ultimate choice to embrace evil. But these storytelling choices weight the characters’ choices more heavily than their destiny, and if you spent a lot of time over the past two years trying to prove that, say, Rey is a Kenobi, well, you might find yourself disappointed at the casual disposal of something that seemed so important to the last film.

[note: I personally think the response of this kind is more serious than “uninterested in fan theories” would imply. Many fans, including myself, find fault in the film because it fails to follow the natural progression and plot arc established by its predecessor, The Force Awakens. Many of the issues, conflicts, and character arcs are simply ignored, openly contradicted, or not resolved.]

4. Individual plot lines/moments don’t make sense: How does Benicio Del Toro’s character know a very important piece of information late in the film? You can hand-wave this away, but it takes a couple of logic leaps to do so*.) This is especially true of the film’s pacing, with Rey’s Jedi training seeming to take months, while everything else in the movie takes place over a matter of hours.The most common complaint in this regard is that Finn and Rose’s journey to the casino planet of Canto Bight is a slow, pointless distraction from the more immediately involving plots involving Rey and Poe, one that gums up the middle of the movie and doesn’t amount to anything in terms of the plot. And I can certainly see this, since the Finn/Rose plot nearly lost me the first time I watched the film. . . .

Ultimately, these sorts of plot holes and storytelling choices are of less interest to critics, who tend to focus more on a film’s craft and its themes, than fans, who like to pick apart the nitty-gritty details of a movie. And I’d argue that almost all of the so-called “plot holes” fans have brought up are ultimately explained away within the film, or justified by how they play into the movie’s overall storytelling structure. It’s rare in this film that a setup doesn’t have a payoff and vice versa. But they’re not always where you’re looking for them, and that can lead to confusion and consternation.

5. The characters’ journeys aren’t what was expected: This is probably the fan critique with the most meat to it. But it’s also, ultimately, the one that has the most personal spin on it. Do you think that Rey’s journey in the film shows the slow dawning of her realization that she has agency in and of herself and doesn’t need it to be given to her (as I do), or do you think it silos her off in the middle of a plot that takes her movie from her? Do you think that Luke Skywalker is an old man who learns a lesson about aging and wisdom, or a cranky cynic who never would have become what he is? Do you think the movie is optimistic about the future, or unable to compete with the wonders of the past?

What’s interesting about the critiques of The Last Jedi is how often, when you talk about them, many of the above criticisms fall away, and you’re left with a distinct philosophical difference between people who love the film’s insistence that the future can be better if we make it and those who don’t like the way it forces us to grapple with the sins of the past, with the way it argues the Rebellion might have won at the end of Return of the Jedi, but it largely upheld the status quo.

Or consider the way that the film seems as if it’s largely left behind the central Force Awakens trio of Poe, Finn, and Rey — who are split up into three separate plot lines in Last Jedi — in favor of more focus on Kylo Ren’s journey through his own indecision toward something darker and more foreboding, as well as Luke’s journey from cynicism back to hope. I don’t think this is a terribly accurate read of the film, where all three characters get full, complicated character arcs and are tested in interesting ways, but if you really keyed in on, say, Finn and Rey’s interplay in Force Awakens, I get the disappointment.

This philosophical difference of opinion extends to none other than Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself. While Hamill has turned into one of the film’s biggest boosters, he’s made no secret of the fact that he disagreed considerably with Johnson’s vision for the character. (For his part, Johnson took Hamill’s criticisms to heart and changed certain things about Luke’s arc — though we don’t know what.)

Van der Werff comes to the conclusion that “The Last Jedi is Act 2 of a story about letting go of the past and embracing the future. Maybe it was destined to be divisive.” He explains:

The Last Jedi is about this tension, about the ways that generations uneasily give way to other generations and the ways we all learn to accept that our parents (or parental figures) sometimes have the right answers and sometimes don’t. It’s a big, bold, complex film, full of contradictory notes, a little like Empire was. I suspect, in time, it will age just as satisfactorily, but it’s also possible I’m wrong. Loving it means letting go, just a little bit, of some rosy past and embracing a future that might lead to disappointment.The people we were aren’t always the people we become, and that’s both a necessary lesson and a bitter disappointment, but you can’t become yourself without learning to live alongside that discomfort. And now there’s a Star Wars movie about that very dilemma, right when we all might need it most.

#fandom activity #star wars: the last jedi #the last jedi

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