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wordswithkittywitch · 5 years ago

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Barbie: A Fairy Secret

Well, it’s finally happening. I’ve lowered my standards enough to start posting my thoughts on Barbie movies. Well, my in-depth analysis so I can give all 37 (I’m counting both Barbie and the Rockers half-hour shorts as one movie. It was a continuing plot.) Barbie movies a rank based on my own arbitrary standards. And because it’s arbitrary, they are being scored out of 110 and I starting more or less randomly with the one I watched earlier this afternoon.

Barbie A Fairy Secret: Overall Score: 54/110 Why is it a score out of 110 instead of 100? Because Barbie gives 110%. Also because there are twelve categories, and only one of them is negative. Why is this score so low? Simply put, I’ve seen all the Barbie films and this isn’t the best one. I still enjoy it, and let’s find out why that is...

High points: 6/10 This is a genuinely funny movie, even if sometimes the jokes are so stupid you’re a little ashamed of laughing at them. Even if you’re watching as an adult, you have to accept this is fundamentally a kids’ movie and it’s going to be silly. Now, of course there are some kids’ movies that don’t have this problem, and some of them are even in the Barbie series. But this is a film where Ken Matrix-dodges a puff of glitter.

The architecture of Gloss Angeles and in particular the palace really steals the show; even if a lot of the floating platforms look like gold chocolate kisses hovering upside down. Beyond the gleaming gold and jewel-bright colours, we see a streaked pastel sky extending forever in all directions. Really. All directions. Raquelle asks how far away the ground is, and is quickly informed there is no ground.

Low points: -4/-10 The animation style wasn’t as polished as some of the later Barbie movies, and usually I can just ignore that, but it also lacked the pastel charm of some of the earlier ones. It was kind of in an awkward middle ground. The faces are a little stiffer than other films, and a lot of the emoting needs to be done with the body language.

And on a far more petty note, I don’t think that the name “Zane” sounds as much like a fairy as “Graciellla”. Or “Graylen”. Or even “Crystal”. “Taylor” is on about the same level of sounding like a fairy as “Zane” though.

WLW appeal: 6/10

I’m not saying that two women admitting that they both wanted to be closer but thought that the other one didn’t like them, hugging and then a rainbow of light transforms into fairies, shattering the cage they were in is necessarily lesbian subtext, but it’s really easy to read it that way. Especially since right after it happens Taylor says love is more powerful than a Passion Fairy’s anger.

However, Barbie and Raquelle’s moment of understanding each other pales in comparison to Taylor and Carrie’s relationship. The two are unquestionably close, never out of the other’s sight. However, the thing that made them read as most romantically involved to me wasn’t anything they did on screen: it was Princess Gracellia’s past history with them. When three people are close friends and two of them become so close they cut the third person out without realising they’ve upset them at all, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re dating, but any time I personally can say that I really lost a friend, it was a variation on that story. I’ve seen it in other people, and much to my disgust almost any time someone brings up that this is a problem, the blame falls on the “third wheel” for not realising that romantic love is obviously more important than any of their previous friendships, and suggesting that if they were emotionally mature they would just go off and fine someone to snog themselves, thus becoming a fully realised romantic being.

Okay, none of the romantic part of the last paragraph was textual, and I am definitely projecting at least a little bit; but this is a recurring theme across media, and it sucks, and I enjoy the fact I can avoid it. Yet another reason I have watched all the Barbie movies.

Ace Appeal: 4/10 I suppose this needs to be said at least once, and since this one is getting posted first, it’s a natural choice to get this disclaimer out of the way. No, I don’t think that anyone in Mattel offices ever stops and says, “Hang on. Does the plot of this children’s movie appeal to the sensibilities of adult asexuals?” However, I’m pretty sure there is some variation on “Not all kids like romance, and most parents want to keep the romance their kids see in media to be on the tame side, so we’ll have to pay attention to how much romance we put in and how it’s handled.” However, as an adult asexual, it is always freaking refreshing to have characters interested in something besides The Sex™, and the best place I have found to seek that is in children’s media.

In a movie aimed at adults, one would usually establish the main romantic couple with kissing, steamy stares, and other things that make your friends not want your partner hang out with the rest of the group. Or, in the case of The Airzone Solution, goosing your partner while she’s having a conversation with someone else, making her voice go up so high I finally recognise Nicola Bryant without her fake American accent. (by the way, if you’re looking for movies with asexual appeal, The Airzone Solution is not one of them.)

This is the face of a man who cannot unwatch The Airzone Solution.

Also, in a movie aimed at adults, no one can end in the same romantic relationship that they started in, which Barbie can avoid because the character of Ken cannot exist in a vacuum: Ken is Barbie’s boyfriend (the Barbie Vlogs/Dreamhouse Adventures timeline notwithstanding; especially given that there really is no question that in that particular timeline “Karbie is endgame” as the kids say.), all personality traits are related to this. If Ken appears in a Barbie movie, we know he already is Barbie’s boyfriend because Barbie is a wish fulfilment fantasy for young girls: As many rewarding careers as they like, a steady relationship with someone who adores them, a large group of friends, pretty much any material goods they can think of at their fingertips, and of course, magical powers. This, quite frankly, is why Barbie works as a woman somewhere in her twenties or thirties and why she doesn’t make as much sense when people try to age her down into a teenager. Seriously. That’s what Skipper is for. How can Barbie have a sixteen-year-old little sister if she herself is sixteen? It doesn’t make sense. But I’m getting off-topic.

This is a kids’ movie, so we establish that Ken and Barbie are dating by having them being adorable duelling with spoons over ice cream sundaes. And that’s why I’ve watched every Barbie movie ever made.

As I mentioned before, the subplot with Gracellia feeling cut out of Taylor and Carrie’s relationship feels very familiar to anyone whose friends distanced themselves for their all-important romance. And while this could happen to anyone, being dropped out of your alloromantic/allosexual friends’ lives when they discover dating is one of the most recognisable and most terrible parts of the asexual/aromantic experience. Does this mean that any of the characters present as asexual or aromantic? As usual, not necessarily. Gracellia clearly isn’t aromantic. But, also as usual, “I’ve been there! It sucks!” is a common step in headcanoning a character as ace. And even if they aren’t, it’s still relatable. We also see a happily married middle-aged couple, Reena and Graylen. Narratively, they exist to show that a marriage between a fairy and a human can work, but I could have seen way more of them being cute. But I like cute old married couples. Which may be weird for someone desperately looking for characters in any form of media who actually like their love interests and stay with them through the entire story instead of breaking up to add more drama. Anyone who has had their friends start dating knows that couples do not need to be breaking up to cause drama.

Graylen’s character design is almost exactly like the advisor in the Fairytopia series. You might not expect “older black fairy with gray muttonchops and friendly advice” to be a stock character in Barbie films, but there he is. Often, Barbie movies do not have a full mouth kiss in them. If there is, that is often because there’s a wedding ceremony. This is an example of the latter. The couple who isn’t married at the end, however, express their love by trying not to be married against their will. Still, no matter how relatable all of this is to an asexual, it does end in a very Midsummer Night’s Dream everyone paired off sort of way.

Entourage: 6/10

Raquelle- Those familiar with Life in the Dreamhouse already know Raquelle as Barbie’s self-proclaimed rival and a twisty bitch who lives for drama, making her one of the most enjoyable characters to watch. She has a different voice actress here, which can throw you a little. Especially if you’re trying to remember which My Little Pony voice actress has replaced her Life in the Dreamhouse voice actress.

Taylor- Ginger shoe fairy with a pink dress and a posh accent. Mostly responsible for the “tell Barbie the truth, go to Gloss Angeles, and rescue Ken” plan.

Carrie- Brunette purse fairy with a purple dress. Probably the slower of the two. That said, even though she supplies much of the comic relief, it doesn’t stem from her being stupid, it stems from her never-emptying purse of visual gags. By the end, Carrie’s jokes have started to grate on Raquelle:

“I think this time I’ve got a home run!”

“Enough! It’s going to be a baseball bat, right?”

Art Style: 5/10 I’ll admit this isn’t my favourite era of Barbie movies as far as animation is concerned. The faces aren’t as emotive as some of the other styles of animation. Raquelle for one makes up for this with full-body sarcasm. The architecture in Gloss Angeles is really the highlight of the film’s visuals: with large amounts of sparkling crystal and gold curlicues putting one in mind of a jewellery box with it’s contents spilling out. Particularly in the fight scene between Ken and Zane, where they recreate the “Duel” bit from that 90s Gladiators show where the contenders sand on an elevated platform and hit each other with what appear to be large fancy cotton buds. The only difference is that the contenders have wings. The architecture is shown off nicely in the “welcome to Gloss Angeles” montage. Unlike films like a Mermaid Tale, they did not feel the need to put dozens of puns in this sequence, they just put wings on everything they could think of—dogs, cats, handbags, coffee cups, shopping bags…

Plot: 7/10 The plot takes place within the “Life in the Dreamhouse” continuity: Barbara Roberts is a highly successful celebrity who lives in Malibu with her three younger sisters, is dating her longtime boyfriend Kenneth Carson, and has a close group of friends, including Rochelle who openly hates all of them (barring Ken) but remains part of the social circle.

A jealous fairy named Crystal feeds Princess Graciella, ruler of the fairies, a love potion which makes he fall in love with Ken. Graciella kidnaps Ken and declares she will marry him that very day. Zane, Graciella’s previous boyfriend and also a fairy, challenges Ken to three successive duels as Ken tries to back out of this. Barbie and Rochelle, rival film stars, come to Ken’s rescue, aided by two fairies who have been living in the human world disguised as humans and working as Barbie’s personal stylists.

The whole thing feels a lot like Barbie does Comedia del Arte, which I love. A love square that is resolved with two couples at the end, a love potion, over the top comedic figures, a lovesick woman declaring she will marry someone she just met, the upper class characters being saved by the complex planning of their clever servants; if you accept personal stylists as the modern equivalent of a tiring maid.

Zane is probably the main reason I keep thinking Comedia del Arte when I’m watching this. And it’s not just that he has the same accent as el Captaino (a stock figure in Comedia del Arte. The foreign captain who is usually a comedic rival for the young lover). In his first scene, he challenges Ken to three successive duels: “So, you think I am not bold enough for two duels? For that, I challenge you to a third duel!” “Why not? I wasn’t doing anything after the second one anyway.”

I can’t help but think about how the plot would have been different if princess Graciella had drunk the love potion three seconds earlier and fallen in love with Rochelle instead of Ken. “I have to save my frienemy who has just graduated from pain in the ass to total bitch.” would have been a very different story to “I need to save my boyfriend.”

The whole thing is a mess of consent and lack thereof. Crystal puts a spell on Graciella so she becomes obsessed with Ken, Graciella puts a spell on Ken so that a marriage proposal comes out of his mouth, much to his horror. And, if the whole “Comedia del Arte” thing hadn’t been running through my head the entire time, the fact that it pretty much starts and ends like A Midsummer Night’s Dream would have done it: Someone gives the queen of the fairies a love potion. She falls in love with the worst possible option. Humans get involved. The two romantic couples are sorted back into their ideal combination, the fairies convince the humans it was all really a dream. Even Carrie and Taylor reminding the audience of the secret at the end puts me in mind of Puck’s final speech.

The plot would have gotten a higher score if it hadn’t been for one plothole that seems to grow and shrink the more I examine it: Crystal was in love with Zane, but he was in love with Graciella. So she gets her hands on a love potion and uses it on… not Zane. I guess thought if he wasn’t in a relationship he would pick her on his own. Perhaps she wanted “real love” and was prepared to give her princess a chemically assisted version. We will never know.

Character design: 6/10

It’s not unusual for the cast to be wearing their best costumes in the final act of a Barbie film, but in this case this was achieved by putting most of them in fairly ugly outfits for most of the action.

The costuming was quite up to standards in the last fifteen minutes, but that leaves us with fifty seven minutes of unnecessary peplum to account for.

Raquelle and Barbie appear in formal gowns for the red carpet premiere:

Raquelle wears a one-shoulder purple and blue gown with a lettuce edged wrap skirt with a high-low hem, simple blue teardrop earrings, and some excellent shoes.

As usual, Raquelle is quickly upstaged by Barbie, who wears a ruby pink bodice with a peplum hem over a bright violet mermaid skirt. These are accessorised with rhinestone rose jewellery and silver pumps, although the shoes are only revealed when Raquelle rips the back of her dress up to her thighs.

While these gowns only show up in the first scene, they are easily the best looks they wear in the film, which is understandable as they are the dresses worn by the dolls. The doll look sort of reappears at the start of the final act, where Barbie and Raquelle transform into their winged form from the dolls, which is the tops from their red carpet gowns on cocktail dresses.

Barbie’s rose peplum top melts much more pleasingly into the three flounces of her miniskirt, while Raquelle has a flounced A-line miniskirt with the slightest edge of silver and pink petticoats peeking out the bottom. A silver ruffle accents her neckline and compliments her wide silver belt. The looks are finished in both cases with those curling vine heels that Mattel was putting on all the fairy dolls in the early aughts. This is such a breath of good taste after their “normal” outfits from the main part of the film.

After the premiere, the human characters really get the short end of the stick as far as costumes are concerned, and while I can see how it was important to make the humans visually distinct from the fairies, even when everyone is wearing “clip on” wings.

Raquelle spends most the movie in cobalt blue knee-length trumpet dress and a pink polka dot mini sweatshirt; which frankly should never have happened. The effect is completed with strappy silver heels which barely do not reach the end of leatherette black leggings. Sadly, the effect is “I dressed Barbie first and these are all the doll clothes I have left over”.

Barbie’s main look seems to be doing everything it can to keep a knee-length jean trumpet skirt with pink stitching from ruining the rest of the outfit. This is done with a pink and white striped tee and a half-sleeve black jacket. I don’t want to be too hard on this look, I’ll admit, because I can see my sister wearing something like that, but hopefully a more flattering cut of skirt.

But then again, I’ve always hated trumpet miniskirts; I hated them when they were in style, I hate them now that they aren’t, and I hate the fact I owned two because that’s what was for sale at Walmart in the mid 2000s and I hadn’t taken to making most of my own clothing yet. I called them “crotch ruffle skirts”. I was a bitch in high school.

Miss Roxelle appears very briefly in a tasteful white and gold two piece pencil skirt suit. As a fashion designer and the older fairy who they come to for help, it makes sense that she has a classy, mature vibe.

For the wedding, Ken gets a fashion upgrade from “we put him in a plaid shirt to make him look more heterosexual” (which was kind of ruined by the teal and metallic gold palette) to “one of those really tacky heterosexual wedding toppers” for the wedding scene. The horror of someone tied up and being forced to marry someone they barely know is somewhat diminished by the image of groomsmen elbowing each other and chuckling, “As usual, am I right, men?” That said, matching the pattern on his lapels to the pattern on his wings was a nice touch.

Crystal takes the purple/green slightly alternative route in villain costume design: fingerless gloves, cropped vest, stripy skirt, asymmetrical bob, purple leggings and black ankle boots.

And interestingly, she is the only fairy who presents as a girl who has dragonfly wings. I’m not going to say that this means Crystal is transgender, but I am definitely going to be thinking about that for a while. Part of me thinks, “Sure, why not, that’s probably going to happen in fairy society as much as human”, and part of me thinks, “Usually it’s the heroes or sidekicks in Barbie movies that get queercoded.” So let’s just move past Crystal’s boyish wings.

I spend a lot of time Graciellla is on screen trying to figure out how her hair is accomplished. Like most Barbie characters, it looks physically possible so that it can be recreated on a doll. It looks as if two French braids were started on her head, then the loose hair was tucked under itself, a little bit like a rolled chingon.

It probably is related to the fact her standard outfit is pretty basic: a petal pink strapless cocktail dress with a rose pink sash. It’s accessorised with a mess of pink rhinestone jewellery to set off her tiara.

Zane starts off in a fantasy style purple vest and striped jeans in a desaturated purple palette: The gold trim and collar pushes it towards the high fantasy fairies were meant to be, but it appears that halfway down the design they realised that they wanted it to be reflective of modern fashion and gave him pinstriped jeans. Don’t get me wrong, I love purple pinstriped jeans, I own purple pinstripe jeans, but they don’t go with his top. High fantasy and mid-2000s fashion are hard looks to marry, and I’m objecting to this example. Now, I could have forgiven him for wearing knee-high boots and cuffing his trousers to show them off, if they weren’t striped jeans and black combat boots. He’s half pirate and a half “I just came from a Green Day concert”. And he tries so hard to make it work. Wearing the exact same outfit in white and gold to his wedding was a choice. Once of several stupid choices made by Zane over the course of this movie.

Zane goes full Star Trek Next Gen for his combat jumpsuit: And honestly, I kind of love it. The gold and cobalt blue set each other off beautifully, the wide gold stripes down Zane’s legs, the elegantly tooled golden breastplate, the spirals of gold coming up his boots to the wide gold edging.

We actually see the slits the back of Zane’s jacket when he gets on his knees to propose to Graciella, and all of the feminine fairies (except for Crystal, as mentioned before) are wearing tube tops and off-the shoulder dresses so that they can dress without damaging their wings. But it appears that his wings are emerging from narrow slits in the back of his vest. Which might account for why the masculine fairies have smaller, narrower wings; more like a dragonfly than a butterfly. And it might also account for why Crystal has dragonfly wings and a cropped vest.

Finally, we have Taylor and Carrie, who ride the line between fantasy fashion and human fashion by wearing some fairly simple, “this looks like a doll” dresses. They also look far more like a “set” than any other characters because while their outfits look different, they are comprised out of the same basic elements: A dress with a fitted satin bodice, capped sleeves, and a flounced circle skirt accessorised with a short bead necklace, simple earrings, a headband and a side ponytail. The only real difference between them is their magical focuses:

Carrie, being a purse fairy, has a glittery doctor-style handbag; so called because the frame opens out like an old doctor’s visiting bag, not because like the Tardis it is bigger on the inside. Though both are true. Taylor has magenta glitter peek-toe platforms with knee-high laces with wings on the heel and rosettes on the toe. Raquelle admits, “If I had to trust my life to one pair of shoes, it would be those.” as Taylor chirps: “The more fabulous my shoes, the stronger my magic!” Me too, buddy, me too.

Music: 3/10

There is really only the main theme, Can You Keep a Secret? which plays over the opening and closing credits. It’s peppy, it’s happy, it’s not so stupid you’re grating your teeth, but ultimately it’s pretty forgettable. It serves its purpose and allows the story to move on. It plays again during the “welcome to Gloss Angeles” montage.

Animal companion: 4/10 Halfway through the movie, Pegaponies show up and help the humans with their difficulty in flying with clip-on wings. The pegaponies show up, transport the main characters to the palace, and are never heard from again. They do not talk or exhibit greater than animal intelligence, but however they do greatly advance the Rochelle and Barbie friendship plot by allowing the two of them to discuss how their relationship, and their animosity, formed. All pegaponies are recolours of the same mesh: a stocky, small horse with a striped mane and sparkly lace-like wings. The heroes all ride sidesaddle, partially because they’re all in dresses and partially because they all have wings themselves. While I usually subscribe to the less-is-more approach to pets in Barbie movies, in this case more might have been more.

Antagonists: 7/10 Zane- Since Barbie has Raquelle, it only makes sense that Ken gets someone who declares himself his rival as Ken protests that they aren’t actually pursuing the same goal. And like Raquelle, Zane is over the top and hilarious. He’s probably my favourite part of the movie. Graciellla – Crown Princess of Gloss Angeles, because “queen” sounds evil unless you’ve got a kid. While she isn’t exactly a bad person, she spends most of the film trying to force someone who isn’t in love with her to marry her. Actually, that is in fact pretty bad, but it is slightly mitigated by the fact she’s under a love spell. Remember kids, love spells aren’t consent! She spreads the awful cycle of “fairies don’t need no consent” by magicing a proposal out of Ken’s mouth inbetween his protestations to let him go. So, even though she changes her plan as soon as she’s not under a spell, she still has the whole “I’m an immoral fairy who really doesn’t care how much I mess up human lives” thing going on, which I also enjoy. Kids have to learn to fear the fey sooner or later. Crystal- From her arm-warmers to her stripes, here’s the soft grunge girl here to punish the preps for existing. Well, to punish everyone around her for the sorry state of her love life. Unrequited love stinks. Of course, what makes her a villain instead a tragic hero is that she is perfect content to ruin as many lives as it takes to get what she wants. Again, fairies tend to be amoral. Raquelle- Only an antagonist in that she remains Barbie’s self-proclaimed rival, and pain in the rear, even as she joins her quest to save Ken. To be fair, at no point does Raquelle stop thinking of herself as Ken’s friend. Partnering with a rival to save a mutual friend is probably Raquelle’s most antihero moment across all media she appears in. So while there’s a lot of antagonists, ranging from rivals to villains to “manic force of nature” I would have a difficult time saying, “You know what movie has some great antagonists? A Fairy Secret.” Although it definitely gets points for variety.

Doll Tie-in: 4/10

Comparing the doll commercial to the movie, I get the feeling that the people making the commercial hadn’t been given the plot to the movie before writing the script for the advertisement.

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Personally, as someone who just genuinely likes dolls, I don’t like the moulded on bodices, since they limit the number of dresses you can put over them. I get the idea that the moulded on swimsuits are to give the dolls some vestige of dignity when the girls are leaving them undressed.

As for “transforming dresses”, the Fairy Secret dolls all have variations on the “skirt folds out into wings” gimmick.

This was also the period where the doll designers decided that plastic moulded curlicue laces going all up a doll’s shins said “fairy fashion”, and that, I’ll admit, I like.

At least the faces have better moulds than the characters in the films.

#Kittywitch has watched every Barbie film #Barbie #reviews #meta #Barbie: a Fairy Secret

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sunlitroom · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on ‘The Beginning’

So - as with The Trial of Jim Gordon, I'm going to regard this episode as an extra, and do some meta as opposed to a full recap. My rationale is pretty much the same: this is an optional easter egg, and one that can easily be regarded as outside canon if desired.

Also - I found the deeper message, like that in The Trial of Jim Gordon, was so unpalatable it strained the show’s broader ideas and themes. So I’ve decided it’s not part of canon, for me.

Thoughts after the cut. Same disclaimer as with The Trial of Jim Gordon. I love the show. I tweeted like a maniac as episodes were airing, and got booted from Twitter. I want another network to pick it up.

However, my idea of meta is the old fandom one, which is critical analysis. If that’s not your thing, fine - but that’s what I’ll be doing here.

So, first things first.

I understand the rationale behind the time-jump, to an extent. The two extra episodes were just that - extra. One was spent on The Trial of Jim Gordon, which I have already been salty about in another post. This one was a sort of nod to the fans - offering Batman as a sort of reward. I’ve always been more interested in the story Gotham actually set out to tell, though, the story before Batman. The story of the city and its inhabitants. As such, I was always going to be less taken with an episode which was fundamentally mostly interested in giving us Batman.

But there were a couple of other issues that confused me. Gotham has always presented its own vision of the city, the characters. It’s shown it can be creative with canon, as well as adding its own ideas. Not only, for example, is their take on Oswald unique, but Fish Mooney – so pivotal in his development – only exists within Gotham’s universe. We got the Executioner and Cyrus Gold – yes, but we also got Nathaniel Barnes and Butch Gilzean, who had character and stories and lives all of their own.

I like that it thumbed its nose at Jim’s moustache. But go all the way with it. Yes, we know Batman’s coming. But if you want to continue to focus on Jim, and his wrestling with the notion of heroism – then just do that. Have the courage of your convictions. You can draw inspiration from the 60s series if you want, but you’re not shackled to it: Oswald doesn’t have to don a top hat and become 60s Penguin if you don’t want him to. The city doesn’t have to morph aesthetically into something we saw in the movies. You’ve told your own story. See it through.

That aside - the details.

The flash-forward was also a difficult ask because the story has been unnaturally cut short. Characters who were still wrestling with huge issues didn’t really get to address them in a truncated season and - as such - it’s sort of hard to accept where we find them now.

For example

We’ve seen Jim deal with several demons over the years. He has major issues with authority. His relationship with his father looms large. He wants to be a hero, but gets on better with the villains. He compartmentalises like crazy. He’s emotionally dishonest with others and himself. He enjoys playing dangerous games. He can’t resist a pissing match.

Am I to honestly believe that Jim has been entirely clean and pure in the interim? Why? Because the city was saved after near destruction? That’s happened before – he didn’t change. If anything, he’s more likely to have reverted to old habits once the crisis was over. Is he reformed because he’s a father now? Didn’t stop him killing Theo Galavan while Lee was pregnant.

Jim’s development was still very much in progress. As such, he feels unsatisfying here and - given what we know about him - you can’t help but feel he’s probably been up to his old tricks, but we’re just getting to see the sanitised surface of his life.

Lee likewise generally suffered quite a bit from the truncated season, and is good example of how the flash-forward doesn’t serve characters well.

In season 4, we saw her explore a darker side to her personality that the show has strongly and consistently hinted at since way back in season one, explicitly – when she says that Jerome’s confession of matricide thrilled her, and implicitly, when we wondered why the hell she was working in Arkham. We also saw her enjoy power in season 4. We saw her deeply committed to improving the lot of the residents in the Narrows, even if her way of going about it was short-sighted. We saw her shoot Sofia Falcone point-blank in the head in cold blood. We saw her, although many hated it, form an intense romantic relationship with Ed, where she seemed to find a fulfilment and recognition that she never found with Jim or Mario.

However, in season 5, the show clearly needed her to quickly step into the role of Mrs Jim and stepmother to Barbara. This meant becoming the angel at the hearth again, so it essentially erased those experiences, all that new characterisation.

As such, like Jim, she feels flat here – like we’re only getting to see a facade. She’s back in her old post of intermittently saying supportive things to Jim, and apparently quietly looking forward to him quitting his job. When she's bizarrely given the task of defusing the bomb, as Lucius the tech specialist stands by the side - it really only underlined that stripping her of all that history and characterisation meant that she doesn't really have a real role of her own in the wider workings of the city.

Now to the heart of my problem with this episode.

We’re told, without any explanation, that Oswald was sent to Blackgate shortly after reunification, and Ed to Arkham.

Now, to be honest, I find this fairly implausible. In all the rebuilding efforts, I doubt the authorities would have the will or energy to go back and rake over who committed what crime when the city had been abandoned by the government. And even if they did, both their actions – willingly manning the barricades (Oswald sustaining an injury when doing so), would have likely gone some way to mitigating everything else.

You could argue that it's for some nameless crime they committed later - but the show could easily have indicated that by throwing in a line about some heist or scheme they tried to pull off that ended up with them being put away.

Mayor James - ‘Oswald Cobblepot is getting released tomorrow’

Harvey - ‘Should have got 20 years for that stunt he pulled after reunification - not 10. So should Nygma.’

It didn't take the trouble to do that - so I'm left assuming they were sent away on the basis of crimes committed during the split.

However, this poses us with some problems both in terms of the plot, and more deeply in terms of narrative repercussions. Because if we are going to start to get persnickety about charging people with crimes they’ve committed, and then having them face actual consequences – well, we saw Barbara shoot loads of randoms in season 5. Going back not too far, Lee shot Sofia Falcone in the head. Going back further still, Jim murdered Ogden Barker and Theo Galavan, and was indirectly responsible for several deaths by inviting Sofia Falcone to town.

So – then – if we’ve decided that actually charging people and sending them to prison is now the done thing, why are we so selective with who’s punished? Gotham is a show with a million shades of grey. It gives its villains humanising back stories and motivations – but it ultimately still wants to punish a select few like it’s a black and white universe. You can’t do that when your good guys are equally tainted. Not unless you want to give off an unfortunate stench of hypocrisy, anyway.

Oswald flat-out asks Jim on the pier. I could have escaped this city. I chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and defend it. Why was I punished?

It’s telling that Jim never actually furnishes Oswald with any good answer to his question on the pier. Because - over the years - the show itself has never quite figured out how to answer this one. He can’t answer. What could he possibly say?

Why then, do some get away scot-free, while others are punished? Why, as Ed observes, do some get to make choices - while others never get the chance?

Jim and Lee are ‘heroes’ (arguably wandering into designated hero territory, at points). They're never going to face consequences for anything. Jim going on a self-pitying drinking binge doesn’t count - not compared to a ten-year stint in Blackgate or Arkham. Lee never expressed any remorse for Sofia.

As for Barbara, well Barbara is brought back into the heroic fold, too.

First and foremost, she’s offered moral redemption by bearing Jim’s child. Becoming a mother meant all previous sins were forgiven.

When we meet her here, we see now that she’s wealthy and powerful – playing a serious role in the city. It’s empowering in a way – but it’s also a means of re-affirming the established order and putting her back in her box. Remember that Barbara is from one of Gotham's elite families - and she's finally behaving like someone from an elite and wealthy family would do. To make her position clear - she’s explicitly placed in the same category as Bruce here in terms of her wealth and control of the city. I’m assuming that pregnancy also made magically clean whatever money she used to buy up the city when it was on its knees. She didn’t seem to have access to her parents’ cash before now - so she must have used her ill-gotten gains.

(I would argue that strategically buying up parts of the city post-reunification is screamingly Oswald, but like other chunks of his characterisation and storyline, it got sent Barbara’s way in season 5 in a bid to flesh out her character)

Last up, she’s not demanding a romantic relationship with Jim anymore, but they’re now forever safely tied in that context due to their daughter - there’s no mention of Tabitha, or casual mention of a new partner. Troublesome, restless Barbara, poor little rich girl – demanding of Jim’s time and attention, namelessly unhappy, and with a murky ‘past’ is now ‘fixed’ and neutralised.

Thinking about those brought into the fold necessarily asks you to think about those who were excluded.

Oswald might have roots in an elite family, like Barbara, but - crucially - he’s also one part poor immigrant (as well as all his many other markers of 'otherness'). He can’t escape this - we got his jangling east European music as soon as we saw him in this episode, and we were reminded of Gertrud when he said he would lay flowers on her grave as his first act after his release.

Ed’s background is unknown, but we can safely hazard a guess that there’s no moneyed upper-class upbringing there. He was also willing to step up when it counted, and was even used by those in power for their own ends during the break – but none of that counts for anything, apparently, and he finds himself in Arkham. You could argue that Ed is unwell, and needs to be in a hospital – but Arkham is not shown as a hospital in any meaningful sense in the show. It’s an oubliette, where you send those you just can’t be bothered dealing with. It doesn’t look any better here than we’ve seen it before. Why hasn’t anyone tried to improve it? Again, they don’t have to succeed - if you’re determined to stick to canon, but why not suggest that Jim or Lee or Lucius has at least tried to have conditions improved or an official review launched into treatment of inmates? It would go a long way to nodding to the long and complex histories these characters have. However things ended – Lee and Ed had a pretty intense relationship. They cared about each other. She can sleep at nights knowing he’s in Arkham?

Jeremiah might have been clever enough to win himself a scholarship and a way out of the circus – but it’s not enough to enable him to escape his past – either explicitly, when he was hunted down by his resentful brother, or implicitly – when he winds up in a similar situation to the other outsiders. Yes, Jeremiah might have been manipulating the situation – but he was still sent to Arkham and left vulnerable to casual abuse. Whether it’s intended or not, Jeremiah’s accusation of abandonment can be read more deeply. Bruce left town - but, just like Oswald and Ed, the city in general abandoned him.

Selina’s an example who, I would argue, reinforces that this moral order of the universe. She's always been depicted more ambiguously - capable of villainous acts, but tied to the heroes through her bond with Bruce. This is reflected in what we learn about her here. Like Jeremiah, she's been punished by Bruce's abandonment, but her grey heroic status means that she doesn't lose her freedom, despite living a life of crime.

So what picture are we painted of the city?

Aubrey James is back in charge - corrupt as Oswald ever was as mayor, but less competent. The city’s remains were picked clean by Barbara - it’s now seemingly largely owned and controlled by two scions of the city’s elite. The commissioner’s got more than one murder to his name. His wife has one attempted murder to hers - giving her the benefit of the doubt and assuming that Sofia’s still in her coma. Arkham’s still a hellhole.

What does all that say? Like I said before, you can argue that this was the inevitable endpoint – but you’ve changed the story already, so that doesn’t wash.

What you’re left with is the outsiders comprehensively punished. You can sacrifice your chance at escape and an easy life in favour of standing shoulder to shoulder to defend the city, you can be unwell, you can be a victim – doesn’t count. No matter what you do – you’ll always be an outsider anyway. You can’t win for losing. Some are chosen, some aren’t. And if you’re not, tough luck.

So in this universe, why the hell not don a showy suit and your best hat and commit yourself to villainy? Go for it, I say.

(Yes - I’m aware this is more analysis than it warranted, and it really just wanted to say ‘look Oswald has a monocle and Batman’s here now!’ - but I felt the need for venting meta)

#gotham commentary

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hirazuki · 6 years ago

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I’m going to try and summarize what bothers me about VLD from as objective a standpoint as possible. A lot of people, including myself, have already made posts pointing out specific issues, especially with regards to the messages it sends to abuse victims, so I’m not going to touch on that or any type of emotional issues here at all. I’m going to skip specifics except where needed as examples, and just talk about the nature of story telling itself. As someone who not only has used fiction for escapism, but who has studied story telling both in terms of literary analysis of novels and of religious texts, it’s a subject that I feel very strongly about.

Warning: long ass post.

Okay, a couple of disclaimers first.

One, I am a firm believer in the “don’t like, don’t read” mentality. If I don’t like something, I don’t talk about it, I just move on. Y’all have never seen a single discourse post about The Dragon Prince, right? Yup, that’s ‘cause I really didn’t like it. It goes for countless other things too. I don’t expend time and effort and energy on things I don’t like, that’s just wasteful. So, why am I harping on VLD? Because I really enjoyed it, despite a couple of what I felt were minor issues at the time, for most of its run. That’s why I -- and I imagine the same goes for many other fans -- am so bitter.

Two, I came late into the Voltron universe. I joined in a couple of days before s6 dropped, and only watched DotU as well as the other Western versions in the past couple of months. Haven’t had a chance to see the original Japanese anime yet.

Three, I’m not a shipper, in general. I don’t ship anything in VLD except Zarkon/Honerva. Romance/sexual stuff is just not my thing, I’ll take swords and explosions any day over that. So my saltiness regarding the series has nothing to do with ships.

Alright, so I think my major gripes with the series can be sorted into three categories:

1. Inconsistency of Story Type:

This is, of course, my own opinion, but through my time of consuming fiction, I think there are three types of stories:

Good vs. Evil: the most basic type of story. The good guys are good, the bad guys are bad, and everyone stays well in their lanes. Think Disney movies, typical Saturday morning cartoons -- the heroes are exemplary of good traits, the villains are one-dimensional and unrepentant, evil for the sake of being evil. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this story type imo, and there are several stories of this nature that I really do enjoy.

Grey Morality: a much more nuanced take on the concepts of good and evil, right and wrong. Due to the very nature of grey morality, there are varying degrees to which this can be implemented. Probably the most common one I’ve seen is where the heroes do some bad/questionable things, the villains/antagonists do some good things or have the right motives or are “noble” in some way; but overall, there is a sense that there are certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed, certainly by the heroes but also sometimes by the villains/antagonists too. An excellent example of this is Firefly. Another example, that puts a total twist on it by having the protagonist also be the “villain,” is Death Note -- even though the story resolves in a way that to the audience is, really, the only sustainable way possible, it still leaves neither the characters in-show nor the audience with any sense of victory. This concept is taken to the extreme by a series like Tenpou Ibun: Ayakashi Ayashi, where no one is right and no one is wrong, but at the same time everyone is right and wrong, and simply just human. There is no good and no evil, just context, circumstances, and choices.

Combination: this type of story starts with the Good vs. Evil dichotomy but, as the story progresses and the protagonist becomes more acquainted and involved with their environment, both the protagonist and the audience come to understand that the picture is actually much more complicated than that, and it evolves into Grey Morality. Bleach is a great example. We start with seeing the Hollow as evil, mindless monsters that need to be killed; we learn that they are actually human spirits that have transformed into “monsters” through pain and grief and, therefore, we pity them but also understand that it’s a mercy to put them down; we then find out that, actually, not all are mindless and they have a complicated society and culture of their own; and, eventually, come to accept them as (reluctant) allies against a bigger threat, understanding that they are creatures in their own right.

From the moment that Keith -- arguably the character within the main cast that had the most time/character development spent on him -- was revealed as being half-Galra (that is, half the “evil” race of the show), VLD promised to be that third type of story. Because there is no way that the writers would make one of their protagonists evil by default because of his blood in a kids’ show, duh, so by logical conclusion this means that that race is not all evil, after all. This was further emphasized by Lotor’s introduction to the plot -- a severe departure from his character in any previous incarnation -- and cemented by the episode, “The Legend Begins,” where we finally get to see the other side of things and the fact that not even Zarkon and Haggar were “born evil,” as well.

After the Keith reveal, we got shocked reactions from his teammates, notably and understandably Allura; got only an apology from her and not the rest for their treatment of him (which could have been better but, whatever, it was a step in the right direction, great!); and then... back to a weird strained relationship in working alongside Galra without another word on the subject.

Okay. Fine.

Then we get Lotor -- again, some of that initial resentment/treatment could be understandable to some extent, and eventually on the road towards, seemingly, genuine acceptance. Cool.

I won’t go into details about the colony episode, because that’s been done to death already, but, woah, major setback there. Back to the knee-jerk reaction of treating individuals of a race as complicit and responsible for the actions and perception of that race as perpetuated by a handful of individuals. And then -- flash forward to s8 -- we are welcoming Galra allies in our cause! Please join our Coalition! We want to help you!

Look. I’m not saying that you can’t retcon stuff; that you can’t go Good vs. Evil, develop into Grey Morality, and then reveal something and BOOM, jk, it was Good vs. Evil all along, gotcha! I’m sure that there is an author somewhere out there that has pulled that off effectively (I can’t think of any examples myself right now, but I’m sure it must exist somewhere).

I am saying that if you’re going to do that -- if you are going to pull the rug out from under everyone’s feet and sacrifice some crucial character development (and crucial characters themselves, let’s be honest) -- you better have a DAMN GOOD IN-UNIVERSE reason for doing so. And no, shock value or getting rid of a character because they were overshadowing the protags doesn’t count. Otherwise, your protagonists will look like giant jerks. Unless, of course, that’s what you’re going for, but I highly doubt that was the thinking here.

And then, we proceed to flip flop between “I knew it, the Galra are irredeemably evil, what’s wrong with these people?!” (I think Hunk -- HUNK, by far the most empathetic character -- said this at some point in s7?) and “Here, we can work together towards a brighter future” or some shit. You can’t do that. I mean you can, but you’re gonna get major backlash from your audience. Pick a fucking direction and stick with it.

For the past three seasons, it has really felt like the story line is being pulled into two different directions: 1) staying true to the original source material of Paladins = good, Galra/Drule = bad, and 2) providing the viewers with a groundbreaking, nuanced interpretation.

My dudes. You can’t have both. Trying to implement both of these approaches means having morally grey, nuanced characters operating within a narrative framework that is subject to an overarching principle of a strict Good/Evil dichotomy. Do you know how fucking hard that is to pull off effectively without diving headfirst into the pitfall of punishing your morally grey characters by default, simply because they happen to exist in a universe that cannot, by nature, support them???? I can think of only a handful of authors that have managed that and, I would argue, that the man at the top of the list only managed to be so effective and influential because what he wrote was, in essence, a mythology. Mythologies have a totally different set of concerns surrounding them. And even then, he went to great lengths, both in his works and outside of them in discussions/interviews, to note that the “evil” in his world could never have happened without it intentionally being part of the larger cosmological design, i.e. balance. I’m talking, of course, about Tolkien.

Why the fuck would you attempt to pull something like this off in a kids’ cartoon?! Avatar: The Last Airbender, since everyone loves that comparison, was defined by a black/white view that developed into a very simple grey morality, and it was this limited scope that allowed it to be presented so effectively. None of this sashaying back and forth.

Especially when this flip flopping is done for le dramatic effect/shock value, with seemingly no good in-story reason?? Of course it’s gonna fall flat.

2. Concept vs. Execution:

This is probably what drives me crazy the most about VLD.

As an idea, it was fucking brilliant -- anyone who has watched DotU, even with all the nostalgia, I imagine, can admit that it was very much a cut and dry 80s cartoon, with simple concerns; Vehicle Voltron attempted some nuances, but the Lion Voltron part of the show, which was by far the more popular part, was pretty stiff in that regard. VLD took that and introduced themes like: being biracial (Keith, Lotor, etc.), having to choose between duty and family (Krolia), having to choose between personal dreams and important relationships (Shiro), having to overcome deep-seated understandable prejudice and work with people you never thought you could come to stand for a greater cause and through that see that not everything is black and white and attain a greater understanding of the world (Allura), leaving home and learning to survive in a totally foreign environment in the worst circumstances possible (the paladins), dealing with disability, mental illness/ptsd while also dealing with issues of being in a position of leadership/power (Shiro), parental abuse (Lotor), substance abuse (Honerva and Zarkon), being a clone and coming to terms with that (Shiro/Kuron), learning to compromise and sacrifice personal integrity/morals for the betterment/survival of those you have made yourself responsible for (the paladins), and so much more than that. Lotor’s relationship with Honerva/Haggar had serious undertones of both Mother and Child symbolism, as well as Arthurian legend. The whole quintessence thing drew pointers from ancient and medieval concepts of alchemy.

The inclusion of any of these things, injected into a pretty straightforward and tame original source material like DotU, was inspired. What an absolutely fantastic take, with incredible potential.

... and it was the shoddiest, shittiest implementation and execution of any concepts that I have ever seen. Like... how? How did they manage to not be able to successfully see any of these themes to a close, and to actually offend the vast majority of their fanbase (regardless of background, age, race, sexuality, literally from all walks of life) by the way these themes were handled????

I’m sure time restraints, direction from above, etc., played a big part in it, but still. If you don’t have time to properly develop the interpersonal relationships between the core members of your main group of characters -- to the point that, say, Keith and Pidge? Hunk and Shiro? Did they ever properly, truly have any meaningful interactions? -- there’s no way you could properly handle all of this.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Also? As stories are being fleshed out, they and their characters tend to take on a life of their own. The Lotor/Keith parallels? I totally believe and understand how it’s possible that it was unintentional. But when that happens, you go back and rework the rest of your plot to make sense with what you now have before you. You adjust and adapt. You don’t barrel on ahead headless and not acknowledging it, and you don’t force your characters into straitjackets just because you want to doggedly follow this one idea.

3. The Female Lead:

Let me begin by saying that I really, really wanted to like Allura, and the way she was written was one of the biggest turn offs and disappointments for me. I won’t go into specifics regarding her, as there many posts that already address the problematic nature of how she treats people of her race vs. anyone Galra, but I will just look at her character development as a whole.

Perhaps the easiest way for me to voice my frustrations here would be with a comparison. Let’s look at my favorite female protagonist of all time, Nakajima Youko, from Juuni Kokuki (aka. The Twelve Kindgoms).

Youko starts off as a very meek high school girl, from a typical modern Japanese family. Class representative, top grades, is scared of conflict and wants to live up to everyone’s expectations of her, which makes her very submissive, a total coward emotionally, mentally, and physically. She seeks to please everyone and, as a result, harms her own development by never giving any thought to her own desires and ends up bullied by everyone around her. Magic happens, shit goes down, and she is whisked away to a different world that is parallel to our own, along with two friends from school; ripped from her home, her family, with absolutely no way back. This other world has a different language, people who end up in there from our world are treated like garbage and are slaves, has a medieval level of tech/advancement, and Youko with her friends has to figure out how to survive. She finds out she is actually queen of one of the realms in this world, which makes her a target of various groups. She is betrayed by literally everyone around her, everyone she places her trust in, including the two friends that got transported to this world with her.

She goes from meek and mild to bloodthirsty and brash; lashing out at everyone around her, plotting to kill those that offer her a helping hand, becoming unreasonably suspicious and racist and way out of line. Understandably so, but the narrative doesn’t, for one moment, present this as okay. Some more stuff happens and she finally snaps out of it, comes to a couple of realizations, and has major character development. She develops the attitude that, yes, people have betrayed and hurt her, but their actions towards her and their opinion of her is none of her business. It will not stop her from acting in ways that are in line with her own morals; if people choose to betray and use her, that’s on them. She will simply do what she must, and treat everyone as an individual according to their actions. This doesn’t mean that she adopts a pushover mentality -- it just means that she loses her knee-jerk reaction, and doesn’t rush to conclusions. She becomes a badass warrior and queen, strong and just, and, frankly, one of the most well-developed female characters I have ever seen.

Do I think this is the only way to write a strong female character? Of course not. But I’m convinced this is what the writers wanted to do with Allura, this kind of progression and path, from being angry, lost, and alone to being a confident, capable, magnificent ruler. And, imo, they totally missed the mark.

I think that the writers were so focused on giving us a “strong” modern female character, and getting as far away from her DotU damsel in distress depiction as possible, that they ended up writing her as, basically, a bully. Sure, they tell us -- both through other characters’ words in the show and through interviews -- about her diplomacy, peaceful nature, leadership quality, open-mindedness, etc., but they never show it to us. In almost every key moment in the series, she has been written to be combative and suffering from tunnel-vision.

And a huge part of this is that they simply didn’t give her any room to grow. Youko’s character started off at maybe... 5% of her potential? She was honestly so “weak,” I thought about dropping the series. But by the point the anime ended (because the story itself is unfinished and unlikely to continue, unfortunately), I’d say she’s at around 70%. That makes for an extremely dramatic, fulfilling, and believable character development. The VLD writers started Allura off much higher than that. Too high. From the get-go she’s a highly accomplished martial artist, has incredible physical strength due to her Altean heritage, a seemingly natural affinity for leadership and for appealing to people, she’s very attractive, well spoken, had a loving and supportive family, is a princess, had a brilliant alchemist for a father, has access to the universe’s greatest super weapon -- I mean, yes, she’s had to deal with immense loss and grief and come to terms with it in a very short period of time, and lost her father a second time so to speak with Alfor’s AI -- but overall, everything has been set up and handed to her in a nice package. Other than overcoming her hatred towards the Galra and idealization of Altea/Alteans, really, there’s nothing left for her to do that would be defining for her character.

That’s not to say that characters that are extremely accomplished from the start are a bad thing. But in their case, their emotional and mental development and maturity is that much more important, because that’s all that’s left to work with. The writers didn’t really give Allura any significant room to grow in terms of any of that. (And no, I don’t consider her new alchemical powers from Oriande as her growing; she expended no effort for that, it wasn’t really a trial at all for her; it was like me playing a video game on casual mode with the “killallenemies” console command enabled). Her overcoming her racism towards the Galra, beginning with Keith and BoM and continuing to do so with subsequent Galra allies, had a TON of potential and I had been so excited to see where it would go; but that fell flat, totally forgotten by the story.

In contrast, you have Lotor -- we see him struggling to claw his way out of the hand that fate has dealt him, to grow beyond his family’s influence and abuse. Both on and off screen, even described by his own enemies in great detail, we see just how much he has had to fight and to earn everything he has and he is, even things that shouldn’t have to be “earned” in the first place. He’s lost Daibazaal and Altea, both his father and his mother, he’s too Galra for anyone who’s not and not nearly enough Galra for anyone who is. Literally nothing has been handed to him. The juxtaposition between him and Allura, had Allura been given more breathing room by the writers, could have been fantastic and I would have shipped the hell out of it, like I do in DotU. She’s had everything he’s ever wanted (loving family, supportive father, Alfor himself, exploration, alchemy), etc.; envy would have been extremely appropriate on his part, and very interesting to work through, but that was never explored either.

So, I feel like what ended up happening was that a huge imbalance in how these two characters came across was created, made only more evident when their relationship with each other was what was front and center. And, at least for me, this is what makes me completely unable to see Allura’s side of things, and I freely admit it -- I simply don’t understand her or her actions, because I don’t feel like I’ve been shown enough of her inner workings as a character to be able to care about her in the slightest. I can definitely see where the writers were going with her, or where they thought they were going. But unless they actually meant for the character that is, for all intents and purposes, their female lead to be a racist, abusive, immature person playing at being an adult and at being the leader of a coalition spanning galaxies, who has no problem condemning millions of lives to death and devastation at a whim of her emotions because they are Valid™, and who wades dangerously close to “Mary Sue” territory many times due the way the narrative frames her... then all I see on screen is an unfinished character. Unfinished, because the writers didn’t take any opportunities in the narrative for the flaws and issues she does have to be addressed and overcome, opportunities of which there were plenty! I absolutely don’t mind that she has flaws -- flawed heroes are amazing. But, you gotta do something about them, i.e. address them and work through them. Otherwise your heroes remain static in a plot that is evolving and that’s not a good look.

And, you know, I honestly think DotU Allura is a much stronger female character. She works for everything she gets. She works her ass off. She has to fight to not only be allowed to be part of the team and fly a lion, but even just to do everyday common things like be out in the fields or swim or whatever; forget practicing martial arts. Coran literally ties her up at one point to prevent her from participating. Nanny is a constant battle for her. Over everything, from her clothes to her manner of speaking to where she’s going. But she doesn’t stop, she doesn’t give up. And she fucks up, BIG TIME, several times, she does TONS of stupid shit. But she learns, acknowledges it, gets called out on it, tries again, and keeps on trying. DotU Allura’s biggest battles, in my mind, aren’t with Lotor or the Drule forces or Zarkon, but with her own team and those she considers family, and her struggle for the others’ acceptance of herself and her skills within the group. And for that, she is a much stronger, more solid female character than VLD Allura, despite all superficial appearances and frilly pink dresses and 80s voice acting.

Again, like I said in a previous post, I don’t conform to the view that creators owe their fans anything. Write things however the fuck you want. You want to kill Allura off, fine. Do away with Lotor too? Cool. I completely understand people who want happy endings in fiction because, it’s true, reality fucking sucks; there are several fictional works I turn to whenever real life is too much. And I would be lying if I said that I don’t crave stories where characters like Lotor are given happy endings; of course I want my favorite characters to be okay. But overall, I’m the type of person who, as long as things make for an effective, compelling narrative, I’ll be content with it, regardless of whether the ending is tragic or happy or anything in between.

So you want to kill off your morally grey character and your female lead, who is also one of the only women on the team, who is also a princess figure, who has also been completely visually redesigned in such a way that you know women of color will relate to her? That’s fine by me, go right ahead. But do so in a way that is meaningful and makes sense within the larger narrative you created, and isn’t some empty, sensationalist gesture.

And also be aware of your fanbase. This is a reboot -- that comes with certain expectations attached, as a number of the viewers will very likely be fans of the old series, watching out of curiosity, nostalgia, etc. Expectations like, the princess lives, the heroes aren’t assholes, etc. (and I’m referring to expectations from DotU and other Western iterations, rather than the original Japanese series). You don’t have to conform to these expectations -- personally, I’m a big fan of tropes being subverted -- but you need to be aware of them. You need to know the rules before you break them, and if you break them, you better break them damn well.

Imo, VLD ultimately failed to deliver on these fronts, and pretty much fell prey to what a lot of series do -- it couldn’t handle the shift from being primarily episodic in nature (i.e., each episode is self-contained, with a clear beginning, middle, and end, while operating under a distant general goal, like defeating Zarkon; so, s1 and s2) to becoming a more complex narrative unraveling a hidden agenda (s3 onwards). Kind of like how the paladins made no provisions for how they would handle things after Zarkon’s defeat, it feels like the writers didn’t really have one solid plan for how to develop past that point as well.

tl;dr: Whoever is responsible for the way VLD turned out should write a book: how to offend your entire audience in eight seasons or less.

#okay i think this is my last personal post on the matter #i think i've vented about everything that's been bugging me for the past couple of seasons #i'll still reblog and comment on things i find interesting #but i'm gonna focus my energy on constructive stuff #like plucking the hairline of lotor's wig and writing fanfic :)#talk: v

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michael-radi-the-glamorous-life · 5 years ago

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There Must Be More

“…than this Provincial life!”

Sorry, I just needed to have my Belle moment. That’s totally not what this post is about. I just adore that score.

Onward!

Over the past week I saw 3 shows - 2 Broadway and 1 Off-Broadway.

These shows were (in the order I saw them):

Scotland, PA

The Inheritance Part 1

Tootsie

Now, regardless of how I felt about each of these shows, or how much I did or did not enjoy them individually, they all had something in common per my experience in watching them.

At one point (at least) in every one of these shows I had the thought: “…But must we? This again? Isn’t there more out there? There must be more.”

Allow me to explain.

Enjoyment vs Analysis

Just a quick side note before I dive in.

I think it’s important here to know that I do not think that enjoyment and criticism are mutually exclusive. In fact, I personally believe they go hand in hand.

When someone asks why you didn’t enjoy something, most people are ready with their criticisms handy to defend their positions. But when someone asks me why I did enjoy something, I feel the same way. I like to know why I enjoyed it and be able to explain that to people.

And nothing is perfect. Nor is it a requirement to explain your likes and dislikes. But for me, enjoying something - or even loving something - does not mean that I find it to be perfect or above criticism.

I adore Back To The Future. One of my favorites growing up. But the movie’s got issues, both artistically and socially issues (ie soooo, we’re saying a white man invented rock’n’roll???).

Anywho. Onward!

Blindingly White

Okay. I know. I’m aware.

Most of the writing spaces and head artistic positions for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are occupied by men. Generally white men. Generally cis, white men. Often even straight, cis, white men.

But in the world we are living in today, does that fact need to translate directly into the stories being told on the stage? At the very least, does it need to feature as prominently across the shows listed in the back of the Playbill as it currently does?

All three shows I just saw focused on cis, white men. And for two of them it was straight, cis, white men.

Now, is this necessarily a problem? No, not necessaaaaarily. But it says something. Actually, it says a lot of things.

Especially considering that the 2 shows featuring straight men were specifically about under-achieving straight, cis, white men who learned relatively shallow lessons and didn’t really end up changing - a genre that has filled our canons of literature, theatre, film, and TV for a very very long time.

Let’s be more specific.

Scotland, PA

A musical parody adapted from a movie parody of Macbeth.

Main character - Straight, cis, white man.

The guy is an under-achiever according to his wife, even though he’s happy with the life they have and it’s also clear he has aspirations for more, if the opportunity were to present itself.

The wife is played by a black woman and, similar to the Shakespeare play, she exists mostly to prop up the ambitions (or lack thereof) of her husband - even though she is the one who actually wants more and has the stomach to chase after it.

And then she’s scapegoated.

And goes insane. And regrets everything, but isn’t given the capacity to fulfill that character arc. So she must die instead. Of course.

“Classic women, am I right?!”

No. You are not.

So, as this man rises and takes more we are meant to root for him, even though we know he’s doing terrible things. But why? Why this story? Why this story again? Why this story again now without some sizable changes for more relevance? Is it really that interesting today?

It’s not a bad story - it wouldn’t endure otherwise - but there must be more.

The Inheritance Part 1

Full disclaimer: I loved it. I wept. I think it’s doing great work for this generation.

Main characters - All gay, cis, white men. And there are up to 6 main characters in this first part, depending on how you classify the term main character, and all of them fall into this category.

Now, this show is really about interpersonal struggles and relationships, and how that echoes across generations - particularly for the marginalized group that is gay men. It’s also a story about growth, change, hardship, and love. I really do think this play is doing beautiful work.

The remainder of the non-main character cast is mostly non-white, which is really awesome to see. However, so far in this play, the conversation amongst all of these people and characters is about the lives, stories, and struggles of the gay community as seen through white gay male eyes and experiences.

There are black and Latino characters on that stage, but we aren’t even touching their extra layers of struggle and experience. Meanwhile, the play is discussing the future of gay men and where they are potentially headed, as a group with its own vibrant culture. A culture that they even acknowledge to come from appropriations from the drag community, which appropriated from the ballroom community, which consists almost entirely of queer men of color.

This seems like a pretty sizable issue.

The play is focused on worries of continued and intensified marginalization, but it simultaneously has left out a gigantic piece of the conversation about marginalization by leaving out the additional layers of struggle for non-white gay men.

And this is not even to mention that - although other letter of the LGBTQ+ world are mentioned - the focus is entirely on gay men. What about the rest of the community? Isn’t it all the same history? The same inheritance?

Gay men can claim Stonewall all they want (and they do), but transwomen of color threw those bricks.

Gay men can claim the AIDS epidemic, but the affects of that disease were highly striated amongst sub-groups and especially men of color.

I loved this play. I cannot wait for Part 2. But I just kept thinking, “there’s more here.”

There must be more.

Tootsie

Okay, let’s do it. Let’s talk Tootsie.

I’m not going to go too in-depth here, mostly because there is a lot about this show that is well-crafted and plenty of people are enjoying it. And perhaps, for some people in these audiences, this show really does push the envelop in their minds. But we do have to say it…

This show probably should not exist. Not today, anyway.

Main character - Straight, cis, white man who pretends to be a straight, cis, white woman to book a job.

This man is apparently (objectively) talented too, which means he has many a leg-up in the world in comparison to the majority of people around him.

So, what’s keeping him from getting work?

He’s an angry and uncontrolled human who acts out and gets fired, which means he doesn’t retain contacts from his jobs since he burns bridges. And…

He’s getting older. (Like, 40? Is this one really a problem for men in the business? I remain unconvinced.)

Now, here are some merits about this story (stick with me):

A story of a straight, cis, white man who ruins his own chances at a steady and productive life because of his anger…this is relevant. This is extremely relevant. And if the show were about that particular person, their growth, and their personal journey to leave that toxicity behind, well, then we might have a good story here that is relevant to today.

His alter ego - for she does seem to be a character unto herself and completely disassociated from her male counterpart - Dorothy is actually quite a badass woman. She fights against sexism and ageism in a world rampant with it. And if this were a story about an actual woman fighting for these things in this world, this would be an excellent and relevant story.

But alas, this show is ultimately neither of these things.

Here’s what it actually contains:

The man learns lessons - but not enough.

He changes - but does he?

His alter ego is wonderful - but she doesn’t exist.

There’s a fight for and positive messages for women and feminism - but it’s led entirely by a man in a dress.

There’s a fight against ageism - but led by a man, and men don’t seem affected by this in the capacity that women are.

And not to mention the fact that there are some really cringy moments in this show that parade as feminism, ageism, and trans-positive moments, which really aren’t any of those things. Instead, they are part of a plot for this out-of-work man to get - and then retain - his job.

Is this show moving us backward? I don’t think it is. It could have become that, but it didn’t. And for that fact - adapting from a source material “of a different time” - I will tip my hat.

But is it moving us forward? Nope. Not at all. Not in the least.

So, I again ask: “Why this story? Why now? Is there really not more???”

There must be more.

There Is More

Okay, there is. So much more.

But it’s not being put out there into the commercial consciousness. And when it is, it’s not happening fast enough or as prevalently as it needs to.

And I don’t mean to rail against these particular shows - they had the bad luck of being the 3 newer shows that I happened to see within the same 4 days.

There are plenty of positives for them as well:

Scotland, PA had some awesome music.

The Inheritance Part 1 is beautiful and saying some very important things.

Tootsie made me laugh more than most musicals ever do.

But there is still more.

And we need to find it and put it out there. We need to continue moving forward and stop treading water. Let’s celebrate more people - other people.

There are countless good stories to tell, so let’s find them and tell them to the world with the prevalence that has been given to white men. We can, we should, and we will.

#glamorous life blog #glamorous life #theatre #theater #theatre artist #more #Broadway #Off-Broadway #Scotland PA #The Inheritance #Tootsie #cis white men #straight #gay #criticism

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austencello · 6 years ago

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Arrow Music Notes - Season Six Soundtrack Review

Each year the soundtrack for Arrow is released. This year was a bit unusual in that it is currently available only in cd form. Rumors have it that the Digital album will be released some point in January...but we shall see! I was going to do this review a month ago but life got a little busy.

Here is my rundown of the soundtrack: the good, the bad, and where it ranks with the other Arrow soundtracks.

A little disclaimer: usually during the weekly reviews, I generally try to interpret what we are given and focus less on what I liked or not. So this will be much more subjective than normal. Add to that the fact that I had a wrist accident last fall, making writing difficult (I wrote 3-4 reviews with one hand and voice dictation) so my memory and notes are not great regarding 6A.

A soundtrack usually covers a few criteria: the musical highlights that represent the big moments of a movie or show, Character themes or the setting of the place, as well as an overview of the movie or TV season. When looking at a TV show, there is more plot and music moments to cover. The tricky part is to pick music that encompasses the big moments, the feel of the season, and doesn’t seem monotonous. When I buy a soundtrack, it is because I want relive moments through the music and the feelings from that show or it is so good musically that it doesn’t matter (John Williams often falls in the later category).

Since Arrow relies less on sweeping melodies and timbre changes, the danger is that the soundtracks can be a bit monotonous in color. This has been true since Season 1 and why I like Seasons 3 and 4 the most. Those provided the most interesting variety and remind me musically of heart-break and joyful moments during those seasons. As the years progress, new variations of older melodies are used which is great in telling a long story over seasons and tying them to the previous seasons but having new melodies are important as well. At this point, I want Arrow to balance emotional melodies from the past, intense action music and new memorable melodies and motifs. While each track is nice as a whole (it has grown on me listening to it several times), I walk away with very few tracks that are memorable and new.

The Arrow soundtracks focus the most on the first and last episodes as musical bookends. Here, the first four tracks are from 6x01 which is a little more than usual but then covers music from almost every episode. Almost every track has at least two moments from an individual episode (which does happen pretty frequently) but happens chronologically instead of thematically. This means that the titles sometimes seem to apply better to one moment instead of both. “I killed my daughter” (6x01) has Quentin dealing with shooting Black Siren but also Oliver finding Samantha and promising to take care of William before she dies. While that has happened a bit in the past, it seemed a bit more extreme than normal in this soundtrack which gives it a less cohesive whole.

The bad:

Season 6 was probably the weakest musically and that is reflected in the soundtrack. Quite honestly, I think a lot had to do with story. The storyline was a bit weak in many areas, not providing new exciting music opportunities. The new themes were often used for characters or scenes that people did not resonate with or care about. The tricky part about music is that it should help you feel grief or joy or excitement but it should also feel earned and not forced. Unfortunately, the two most heart-wrenching new themes felt forced and regarding characters that the audience did not care about as much: Dinah and Vince’s love theme “Dinah Identifies Vincent” and Cayden James’ son dying: “The Devil’s Greatest Trick.” The second one was heart-wrenching, matching Season 3 level of angst and beauty but was used for the wrong characters, trying to make the audience sympathetic towards the villain as he lost his son. I want to hear a theme and remember the heart-breaking or joyful moments of the story for the heroes I care about: Oliver, Felicity, Thea, Diggle, William, Quentin, Team Arrow. I think Blake may have been overcompensating for the story, trying to give more emotion in moments that did not earn them story-wise or character-wise.

Along those lines, a lot of themes were repeated for better or worse. For interpretation, this makes things generally exciting for me to hear old themes and see what Blake is saying. However, if the season relies on that too heavily, then the soundtrack is a rehash of previous themes because there were not enough new ones to balance it out. As much as I love “Not Black or White” from Season 4 and how it were used in this season with Diggle becoming Green Arrow “You Could be Greater” and Felicity’s speech to William about Oliver being a hero “What Your Dad is” having it twice in the same soundtrack felt a bit much. Interestingly enough, there were not as many action tracks in the soundtrack compared to previous seasons (excepting Season 1 which was a little unbalanced with too many action moments) which also gives it a little more mellow feeling but then everything start to blend into together and sound the same if you can’t remember when the individual tracks happened throughout the season. Once I looked things up as to when and where they happened, that helped me to enjoy it much better but that shouldn’t have to be the case for the more casual listener.

There were a one or two times when the use of a specific theme didn’t match what was happening on the screen or felt like they should have left it in the past. Most particularly “Promise Kept” when Moira died in 2x20. For that to be used in Slade’s journey with his son and Oliver made me super mad (“Like Father, Like Son.”). I get that Deathstroke’s music is one of Blake Neely’s favorites to write and he got to use it a lot in 6x05 and 6x06 (”Deathstroke Extracts Revenge”) but that particular track should have been reserved for Moira’s death and the later effect it had on the Queen siblings. Not with Slade dealing with the relationship and trying to find his son while Oliver is there. It tried to raise sympathy and instead hardened my heart reminding me that Slade killed Moira and in that light, it made no sense for Oliver to be helping him to that degree. (I didn't write about those two episodes so I had to vent it out.)

The good:

On the flip side of bringing back themes, I love how certain tracks give an evolution and new instrumentation to older themes as the story and characters evolve like the goodbye scene for Thea “Take Good Care of Her” having a new version of “I forgot who I was” which was a beautiful use of this family theme for Oliver and Thea, as well as “What Your Dad Is” for the evolution of Oliver as a hero (first “Not Black or White” - 4x23).

There were several music moments that stood out to me during the season that were included: “I know you’re the Green Arrow” (6x02) with a scene between Oliver and Rene about being fathers and in the field, “Why do they all leave?”(6x18) when Oliver asks Quentin why everyone leaves while he was under Vertigo, “Team Divided” (6x10) terrible moment but memorable sad music, and the use of the Olicity oboe as Oliver is Overwatch helping Felicity in “Inside the Internet.” (6x04). That is the only version of the Olicity theme on this soundtrack but if you want more, then check out “Crisis for Earth-X” because that has a lot of Olicity music in it and the best of all the crossovers for music.

The most memorable track of the whole soundtrack is “Final Showdown with Diaz” (6x23) which was also used in the SDCC teaser trailer for Season 7. Personally I think it worked better for the trailer! (Thanks to @ah-maa-zing for reminding me that it was used in that capacity)

My favorite is the last track “At What Cost?” (6x23) combining “Scars” (1x01) and “The Essence of Heroism” (2x22) with a new theme in the harp for Felicity as Oliver and Felicity talk before Oliver goes to prison. It is the quintessential Arrow track: emotional use of old and new themes leading to the epic use of the main Arrow title motives for the end of the series.

Having the cd means lots of pretty pictures which is fun...especially two cute Olicity pictures and lots of Team Arrow pictures. I find the pictures don’t match what music is in the album but still encapsulates the season well.

Having listened to the cd 4 times, it is growing on me but it did not wow me. In fact, I would rank this with Season 1 as the weakest albums. I think part of that is due to the lack of connection with many of the story lines represented on the soundtrack. I also wanted more new exciting music to balance the new versions of ones that I love. I will say that Season 7 is already looking much more promising in that direction. However, I am aware that we are very lucky in the Arrowverse world to be getting soundtracks for every season as that is rare in the TV world. So, I am very grateful that we have this soundtrack despite my nit-pickings!

Brief overview of characters on specific tracks:

If you are interested in listening, the cd is available through LaLa Land Records and is also posted on YouTube.

Quentin/Laurel: I killed my daughter (6x01)

Thea and Oliver: Been Mad at You Before/Oliver is Back (Purest Heart theme), Take Good Care of Her

Dinah and Vince: Dinah Identifies Vincent, Right Before Her Eyes

Diggle and Oliver: You Could Be Greater, Been Mad at You Before, Brothers in Arms

Black Siren: Fallout, Siren Storms the Lair, Team Meets Cayden/Inside the Internet

Ricardo Diaz: The Dragon, Love is a King Killer, Final Showdown with Diaz

Team Disintegration: I Need Someone, Team Divided, Right Before Her Eyes

Oliver, William, and Felicity: I know you’re the Green Arrow, You Could be Greater, Inside the Internet (Olicity), What Your Dad is, Why do they all Leave?, Never a Normal Life, Love is a King Killer, At What Cost?

Happy Listening!

@academyofshipping @smoakmonster @ah-maa-zing @herskirtsarentthatshort @scu11y22 @mel-loves-all @pulpklatura @withgraceandlight99 @green-arrows-of-karamel @dmichellewrites @almondblossomme

Special thanks to @jorahandal who was my sounding board as I was processing my feelings and observations of this soundtrack.

#arrow season 6 #arrow music notes #arrow soundtrack #blake neely

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ariannjs · 5 years ago

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HAPPY | A SasuSaku Short FanFic (2/4)

For Day 4 (City Lights) of SasuSaku Month 2019 - @sasuxsakumonth

This fic was inspired by the Filipino celebrity pair/loveteam called “AlDub” (based from their screen names: Alden & Yaya Dub) or “MaiChard” (their real names: Maine Mendoza & Richard Faulkerson, Jr.). The plot and content have nothing to do with the said actors, but I based the idea for this fic from the themes of Maine’s two most controversial blog posts.

Rating: K+

Summary: The truth was loud and clear, that the combination of pink and green wasn’t meant to be with black and blue – both professionally and realistically.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and AlDub.

Warning: Get some tissues.

Enjoy reading!

…or not.

---

(Happy - PART 1)

---

Life seemed to go on like the usual after Sakura’s recent blogpost, despite the pang in his chest.

Thankfully, they didn’t cross paths in the studio, in the management’s office, nor anywhere else. And he wanted to keep it that way.

Besides, how else could he extinguish the fire in his heart if he’s exposed to the one that ignites it?

But then, in a few weeks time, he would have to see her again. Although he could opt to make up excuses in attending the upcoming Konoha Star Awards, he just couldn’t figure out anything to say and he knew he shouldn’t lie to his manager who knew him so well.

He didn’t know what to do. As the said event was fast approaching, his internal turmoil kept on increasing.

For he wasn’t sure if he was ready to see Sakura again, clinging into the arms of her official boyfriend, and smiling ever so genuinely at him with a chemistry that is beyond a mere onscreen dimension.

He wasn’t prepared to face the new normalcy, wherein another man would be standing on what used to be his place for the past four consecutive years.

And he wasn’t looking forward to the ambush interviews that would come his way for they would be in the same venue for the first time since her announcement that she now has a boyfriend, one that was not him. Despite the curiosity of his fans as to who he would bring to the event, he didn’t even bother finding a date. He didn’t want another talk of the town to arise once he appeared at the red carpet with another woman holding his hand, for he was sure that being there on his own was already something the fans would ramble about in itself.

After all, there’s only one woman whose hand fit in his like a puzzle piece.

If her open letter was merely a hoax, and the arrangements to cut the ties between SasuSaku didn’t happen, he would surely be in front of her doorstep an hour before the event just like the past years, waiting for her to open the door and reveal her dazzling self in a gown that emphasizes her natural curves and enhances her beautiful face.

But no, he had to face the truth that it was already the endgame for SasuSaku, so that wouldn’t happen anymore.

He stared at the mirror while he fixed his black bow tie. This year, he didn’t need to worry about matching the color of his suit or tie with her dress. But it was only in pretense that he wasn’t bothered about it, for without preamble, her face entered his head once again.

“I’m ready, Sasu—!” There was a long pause as widened green eyes stared back at him by the doorframe. Sakura swallowed thickly, looked away, and then pouted in that adorable way that Sasuke remembered. “That’s so unfair!”

He raised an eyebrow in question.

“You can’t just come here looking so damn good and make me look like a little rotten peanut beside a humanized angel!” She crossed her arms, causing the off-the-shoulder lace top of her gown to slightly rise in disarray.

“You don’t have to use a lot of words just to say I look handsome, Sakura.” Sasuke grinned in amusement, reaching out to straighten the said part of her top against her shoulders just a tad below her shoulder blades. “Also, you’re not a little rotten peanut. You’re a flower. And flowers are blooming.” He then turned his back and smirked, slightly catching a glimpse of her reddened cheeks and widened eyes before he walked towards his car.

“I...uh…h-hey! You don’t have to use a lot of words just to say I look beautiful, Sasuke!”

He tipped his head over his shoulder and snorted when he saw her smirk right back at him, but with her cheeks still pink from the compliment. “Hn. Let’s go.”

Grabbing his navy blue suit jacket from his bed, he quickly brushed off the thought that there was already someone else complimenting how beautiful she was right now.

Sasuke stared at the folded card in his hands. When he received the digital invitation a month before, he was already informed that he would be one of the announcers of the award-winner for a certain category. He had conflicted feelings, however, when he learned through the card that the name he would be calling onstage was the one that he was actually trying to forget.

He was, yet again, proud of her. But he knew that this wasn’t something they could celebrate together anymore, making it difficult for him to move on. To think that she never even became his to begin with.

“Sasuke, I really don’t think I could give justice to my role as Leah,” Sakura admitted after a concept meeting with their director. “It’s just my second year as an actress but this is such a huge production and I don—”

“Tch. Everyone here believes in you, except you.”

“Everyone? You mean...you really think I could do a KSA-deserving performance for this role?”

Sasuke smirked. “I wouldn’t allow myself to be paired with someone who isn’t capable of doing just that, Sakura.”

His leading lady slowly grinned, eyes becoming glassy. And then in an instant, Sasuke was being engulfed in a bone-crushing hug that unexpectedly warmed his heart. “Thank you, Sasuke. I...I really...appreciate you. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you as my leading man...without you always believing in me.”

He sighed but returned the hug as tightly as he could, smiling against her hair in the process. “You know what? You’re annoying.”

She only giggled. “This annoying girl would win something in KSA soon though!”

And that was what indeed happened – she was nominated for three awards and won as Best Supporting Actress on her first time at the KSA’s, a year after their pair was officially established. Other than that, SasuSaku was awarded as that year’s Best New Loveteam.

This year, there wasn’t even any doubt anymore that the Best Lead Actress Award belonged to her. After all, he was with her in that movie – their last project together – that showed every bit of her acting prowess.

She worked so damn hard just to be the actress and the woman that she is now. For Sakura Haruno, there was no easy way out. Even if she had to go through a hole in a needle, she would willingly and passionately do so until she improves and reaches her dreams.

That’s one of the things he loved about her. And that’s what made him so proud of her as he journeyed with her in the industry for the past years.

Yet of all the other artists who could possibly announce for the category she was in, why did it have to be him?

He heaved a sigh at the realization that there was no turning back. As much as it pained him, he still had to face it. He still had to face her. Even after successfully avoiding seeing her since the red carpet entrance hours ago.

Stepping on the stage after his cue, Sasuke scanned his card again and delivered the exact script written there with ease despite the galloping sensation in his chest, “As flowers bloom, artists excel in their craft as well and all of our nominees have exemplified such. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner for this year’s Best Lead Actress Award is...Miss Sakura Haruno.”

Thunderous applause filled the huge auditorium as a tinge of maroon caught his eye from the other end of the stage. His lips were on a thin line, but he was mindful enough to show a small smile before turning to glance at the awardee in front of everyone in the room, the result of years of acting manifesting for all to see.

And then there she was, approaching him ever so gracefully, clad in a maroon gown with a halter top and long train studded with tiny diamonds that made everything else in the venue nothing but dull. Her face was more blooming since the last time he had seen her. And it was accentuated by her now long pink tresses tied on the side with its ends loosely curled.

He was at a loss for words. For the first thing he wanted to do after meeting her gaze was to kiss her right then and there.

She was so, so beautiful. But, she wasn’t his.

“Congratulations,” was the only thing that came out of his lips once she reached him with a huge beam on her face and leaned for a usual announcer-awardee onstage hug.

He wondered if she felt how awkward that was too. But when she murmured “Thanks, Sasuke. I miss you…,” he knew he had to hand her plaque as quickly as he could and exit the stage without meeting her eyes again.

When he reached the backstage, his chest was heavily rising and falling as he tried to calm himself. It’s been three months, Sasuke! Three months since she announced that she’s now happy with someone else!

If only she knew how much he has missed her too. If only she knew how much he wanted to tighten that casual hug while twirling her around and whispering in her hear that he was so proud of her.

If only...if only she was his.

It wasn’t too long until Sakura appeared at the backstage too, happy tears glistening on her cheeks before her gaze landed on Sasuke who was casually leaning against a wall with an unreadable expression on his face and clenched fists hidden in his pockets.

The leading man didn’t even hear anything from her acceptance speech, but he was sure that it reflected her happiness not only about her award but also about pretty much everything else in her life right now.

That fact made his heart constrict again.

He tensed when he looked up and met her eyes, mentally scolding himself for not returning to his seat immediately after his announcement. But it was too late now.

While smiling with that dashing smile of hers, Sakura walked up to him, not even having the slightest idea that he was trying so hard to forget about his feelings for her in the past few months. “Hello, Sas—”

“Sasuke! Sakura!”

Their heads instantly turned towards the direction of the voice, making Sasuke thank the Heavens for having such perfect timing. For heading their way was the organizer of this year’s Konoha Star Awards. Saved by the bell.

“Hi, Shizune-san.” Sakura was quick to greet the running woman.

“I’m sorry this is all too sudden. But we’ve just been notified that Naruto and Hinata wouldn’t be able to come in time for their part in the program.” Shizune panted in front of them while grasping the clipboard in her arm. “Their flight from Kiri after their movie premiere was delayed. So we realized, who else could announce the winner for this year’s Best New Loveteam other than the ones who bagged the same award a few years back?” She smiled, albeit apologetically. Besides, she had no other choice. “Here’s their script. There’s just a few more categories left before this one. It’s really short and I know you’re so used to this so I really hope it’s okay.”

So much for being saved by the bell. There was a short pause as Sasuke processed the situation. He knew it was just a part of their job. But he was also aware of how awkward it would be to stand with the woman he’s in love with onstage while doing something that they used to do so well together, before things had changed.

Sasuke observed how Sakura’s smile seemed to falter a bit at the sight of the script. There was that slow movement in her hand as she reached for the small card but before she even accomplished it, he cleared his throat and spoke, “Wouldn’t this cause an unnecessary issue?”

Sakura whipped her head towards him, hand retreating in surprise.

“Oh.” Shizune continued to smile. “I get what you mean. I don’t think it would.”

“Us being on the same stage again after a long time already stirred a reaction from the crowd moments ago.”

“Don’t worry, Sasuke, it’s just a short announcement. I believe a small SasuSaku reunion wouldn’t go against the new arrangements you both have.”

“But Sakura’s boyfriend is in the audie—”

“Sasuke, it’s okay.”

While his eyes travelled to the person who uttered those words, he felt a sudden warm sensation due to a mere touch on his forearm. It was as if his skin has been frozen for such a long time that the unexpected contact caused it to have a meltdown, only to be left freezing again once she retracted her hand and grabbed the script in front of them.

Was she really agreeing to this?

“It’ll be fine.” His former leading lady smiled at him, and he almost internally screamed about how he wanted so bad to be the reason behind her smiles all the damn time. She chortled then. “Besides, I’m your best partner in crime, Sasuke. Don’t you want to be with me for another time?”

No. He wanted to answer. I want you to be with me for a lifetime, Sakura. Not as my partner in crime but as my partner in life. He looked away, and then his gaze fell on the other script still extended right in front of him.

Soon enough, he curtly nodded in resignation, reminding himself that this was merely a part of his job. “If there would be no complications then.”

“Thank you so much, you two! I know you’ll both do well! I’ll prompt you once you’re up next.”

Sakura beamed yet again as Sasuke finally accepted the other small card. He wasn’t sure if she was really into this or it’s just her innate always-ready-to-help self manifesting.

“Wow. The last time we did this was–I think...what?–more than a year ago? Makes me excited to host with you again, Sasuke! Do you want to have a quick runthrough of the script?”

“I need to go to the restroom. Excuse me.”

Sasuke heard her giggle as he began to walk away. “Alright. I see you still prefer rehearsing your script alone.”

He wished it was just as easy as that to walk away from his feelings too.

The restroom was fortunately empty when he entered. Heaving a loud exhale, he firmly placed both hands on the countertop and faced his own reflection in the mirror. Looking at it closely, there were dark circles under his eyes that he didn’t notice before. It only proved the fact that he has been denying to himself: he had been dreading the arrival of this day way too much. And now that everything that he wanted to avoid has happened in a span of a few minutes, he didn’t know what else to do.

He wanted to be as professional as he could be, but as much as he wanted to focus, all that dominated his brain after seeing Sakura in that damn maroon gown was her. Just her. But his thoughts about her weren’t ones that were filled with wonderful memories and favorable possibilities.

Every time he met her gaze, it reminded him that those eyes were now looking fondly at someone else not because of a script, but because of a real deal love.

Every time he saw her smile, his heart constricted knowing that another man was already the main cause of that.

And every time he focused on her lips, he couldn’t stop himself from imagining how those same soft lips he used to kiss could lock with someone else’s not because she had to, but because she wants to.

He shook his head and snorted at his reflection, unconscious of the fact that his hands were now clenched into fists, leaving creases on the card he barely remembered he was holding.

How did I end up like this? We are just actors, right? Nothing more than that.

His brain pointed out the fact that whatever they did together was just a part of their job, oftentimes coming from a script and instructed by a director.

No one told him to feel something deeper than a professional connection for his leading lady.

But he was the loser who fell for the woman he was paired with onscreen. The loser who didn’t know how to stand on the thin line dividing work and personal life. The loser that Sakura didn’t choose for whatever reason that only she knows.

This time though, he had to be solely professional in dealing with her despite his hurting heart. For no matter how dragging the night was, it would still eventually end.

And she still wouldn’t be his.

Sasuke absently scanned the small card given to him as he returned to the backstage. The glam team was giving Sakura a touch up so he thankfully didn’t have to communicate with her. But the moment she glanced his way, he mentally repeated the words “Be professional. Short announcement. Quick exit.” as if a mantra that would let him survive the rest of the night.

She was staring, he realized. But it wasn’t the kind of stare that made his heart skip a beat. It felt like a stare of someone that you only used to know. “You still look like a humanized angel.”

There was a momentary widening of his eyes at the realization that she remembered that scenario which also resurfaced in his mind before tonight’s event. He had to avert his gaze.

And you still look like a blooming flower, he wanted to say. One that isn’t mine. But he settled with merely nodding in thanks, until they heard Shizune’s cue to standby.

The hardest part came, wherein as a natural gentleman – and a “professional”, he reminded himself (though the other part of himself noted that it was simply out of habit specifically with her) – he had to offer his arm for Sakura’s hand to curl around it. There was that feeling of being melted in place again, but he only heaved a sigh and nonchalantly led them to the stage.

As expected, the responses of the audience were more intense than those they’ve given to any other artist who have stepped onstage throughout the entire program. It was the first time that Sakura and Sasuke would be doing something together – as SasuSaku – after nine long months. And even just a short hosting segment was already enough to somehow quench the thirst of their longtime fans.

Flashing cameras and raised phones were visible here and there. Sasuke was aware enough that even their slightest movement could be watched and interpreted in the wrong way, which could eventually cause another unnecessary worldwide trend on social media. If this happened months ago, he would’ve said that he was already used to such commotion; in fact, he would’ve thought that it was good for their marketing. But not anymore. Not now that SasuSaku was merely a chain from a failed past.

Still, as prim as he usually was, he flashed a rehearsed smile to the audience. Be professional. Short announcement. Quick exit.

Sakura, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear, her grip on Sasuke’s arm slightly tightening. Sasuke knew it was the sentimental part of her taking over. But again SasuSaku was over now and he couldn’t expect her to suddenly approach their manager and breach the contract they’ve signed a few months back, just so she could be with him again.

He cleared his throat and leaned closer to the mic in front of him, relaying the exact script Naruto was supposed to deliver. “Good evening. It is our privilege to announce tonight the best pick among the newest pairs that captured your hearts since their appearance on national television this past year.”

Then Sakura’s melodic voice filled the venue. “A few years back, we were overjoyed to be heralded with the same title. And personally, being on that journey with Sasuke was one of the best things that ever happened in my life. I couldn’t wait to see how this next loveteam will not only touch the fans’ hearts but also each other’s! Right, Sasuke?”

That wasn’t even a part of Hinata’s original script. Each other’s, huh? If he was able to touch her heart, then why did she allow someone else to claim it fully?

He refrained from clenching his jaw as he saw how his partner was now glancing at him. “Aa.”

But then, he forgot how Sakura was so good at improvising spiels live that he almost felt like snapping right in front of the hundreds of fans and celebrities in the venue.

“Now to add a little suspense, before we reveal to them the winner for this year’s Best New Loveteam, why don’t we share a few stuff about our time as SasuSaku? Do you want that, guys?” Sakura giggled as the audience cheered with such exuberant voices. “Alright! So Sasuke, what is the best thing about being in SasuSaku? For me, it’s getting to meet lots of people who believe in me and what I can do. How about you?”

A pregnant silence consumed them as Sasuke found himself staring at Sakura’s green orbs. He didn’t know how long it took him before he finally answered, but when he did, there was a slight widening of Sakura’s eyes for he said, “Meeting you.”

It was too late when he realized what he had uttered over the mic for another uproar was given by the crowd. Then he felt the absence of the hand that was clutching his arm moments ago. Damn it, Sasuke! Be professional! Short announcement! Quick exit!

“Now off to the big reveal,” he quickly called the people’s attention without waiting for any reaction from his partner. “Everyone, we present to you, this year’s Best New Loveteam is…”

They both leaned closer to the mic and declared, “NejiTen!”

Everything else happened quickly as they congratulated the awardees and then returned backstage. Again, out of habit, he offered his hand to Sakura to assist her down the stairs, but instantly let go of her hand once she reached the last step.

He mentally prayed he’d be able to let go of her that quickly too.

Then just when he thought that he’s already okay now knowing that the only thing left for him to do was to have a quick exit back to his chair, his eyes suddenly caught sight of Sasori mouthing congratulations as Sakura reached their designated seats, before kissing him right then and there on her soft lips.

Sasuke shifted his direction and went straight to his car.

From: Naruto Uzumaki

Oi, Teme! We’re finally in the area! Don’t you dare ditch the Konoha Star Awards After-party! I have an announcement to make and I need a boost so my best friend should be there! See ya! ;)

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(Happy - PART 3)

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Here’s the second part of “Happy”! Any thoughts and feelings about this part? :D

Check out my other works here! It you like what I do, kindly consider supporting me on ko-fi or patreon. I’m also saving up for a special post-birthday trip this November so your support would mean a lot to me!♥️

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June 2019 | AriannJS

#SasuSaku #SSM19 #SSM19D4 #SasuSaku Angst #Happy Part 2 #ariannjfics

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oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch · 6 years ago

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“Mary Poppins Returns” Movie Review

Mary Poppins Returns is the long-awaited sequel to the beloved 1964 Disney classic, Mary Poppins, which originally starred Julie Andrews as the titular nanny who helped the Banks family to become closer in their time of need. Now, the Banks children are all grown up, and Michael Banks (Ben Wishaw) has fallen on some tricky financial hardship after the passing of his wife, and may be about to lose their home, which he lives in with the three children they had together. Jane (Emily Mortimer), his sister, is helping out as best she can, but it seems to no avail…until, that is, Mary Poppins (this time around played by Emily Blunt) comes back to Cherry Tree Lane. Her first order of business? That she may look after the Banks children once more, but is she can, she’ll help Michael’s children embrace their own worlds of imagination, and remind him what it’s like to be a child again.

As a disclaimer first, let me say this: many reviews are pointing out that this film seems to follow all the same plot beats as the original without adding all that much to the overall story. Given the fact that (although I’m sure I saw it many times) I do not remember the original Mary Poppins all that well, I cannot faithfully or in good conscience say the same. What I can say is what I did honestly think of the film itself, without such a note being implemented into my review. So, how does the sequel stack up now that it’s been 54 years since the original classic? It holds up just fine, albeit with a few noticeable (if ultimately inconsequential) flaws.

Mary Poppins Returns (from what I can tell) does serviceable justice to the original, while still trying to remain its own thing. Musical films are hard enough to do, especially as sequels to beloved classics, but director Rob Marshall and company have chosen perhaps the singular most beloved classic Disney musical (at least in non-animated form) of all time to test their sails out on, and for the most part, they pull it off. From the very opening frame, one can tell that we’re in for something that may not take off, but could still be quite a bit of fun while we’re on the ground, and fun, we do have. Even all these years later, if a sequel isn’t done correctly, one will fail to care about these characters between the showy moments and the blockbuster spectacle of it all, and while occasionally the movie takes some missteps in that department, for the most part we still continue to care for Michael’s plight. The scenes in which he and Jane are reflecting on their childhood, and in particular one where Michael is taken briefly into a song of sadness remembering the passing of his wife, are genuinely moving and do conjure emotional resonance in that very special Disney way they know how to do.

The magic, too, is not lost on anyone. The opening sequence/musical number may not be one of Disney’s stronger sequel introductions, but once Mary Poppins does show up, things begin to brighten almost immediately (quite literally as the clouds around her depart). This magic is nowhere more prominent than in the upbeat musical numbers director Rob Marshall and lyricist Scott Wittman have written, paired with a fun and soaring score from composer Marc Shaiman, the two strongest of which by far are “Can You Imagine That?” and “Trip a Little Light Fantastic,” on or the other of which I’m sure is locked in for a Best Original Song nomination at this year’s Academy Awards. But these aren’t the only Oscar nominations this film is sure to muster.

The visual effects of the film are also brilliant and astounding, reminiscent of the 2D-mixed-with-live-action style for which the film’s predecessor was known. Seeing the art pop into brilliant color on screen is a real treat, and if anything, this aspect of the film will charm you into utter bliss, if but for a small set of moments. The color is not just reserved for the visual effects either. The costume and production design in the film is simply brilliant, everything brought to life in such brilliant color you’d think you were watching The Wizard of Oz in 1939. One can safely expect a slew of below-the-line nominations at this year’s Oscars for things like Sound, Visual Effects, Production/Costume Design, and Original Song, but don’t be surprised if we also see one top-category nomination as well – that nomination being Emily Blunt as the title character.

Most of the performances in the film are anywhere from serviceable (in the case of Lin-Manuel Miranda, still a bit more comfortable of a stage actor than a screen one) to genuinely good (Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Colin Firth, Julie Walters), and the returning cameo by Dick Van Dyke is full of boundless joy, but absolutely no one outsteps the ever-lovely Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. It’s a perfect recasting, and if it’s not, it’s certainly the closest we could hope for given Julie Andrews’ absence. Blunt embodies the charm, care, and comedy of the character of Mary Poppins so perfectly she’s well-deserving of a Best Actress nomination for her work here, should one come along. In every frame, with every line, she never misses a single emotional beat or drops the vocal cadence of the character and it truly is an astounding thing to see her move across the screen with the same confidence with which Julie Andrews did all those years ago. She is truly magnificent. It’s a marvelous, and (dare I say) flawless resurrection of the character, and marks a second banner performance in Blunt’s career this year alone (paired with her brilliant work in A Quiet Place), displaying her range as an actress like never before.

Then again, I did mention earlier that this film was not without some noticeable flaws. For one thing, it’s simply too long. That’s not to say that I was ever bored or that what I was seeing on screen didn’t add to the story at all, but there are sequences, even in the musical numbers, that could have been cut down for time; as long as they are, the movie feels like it’s taking its sweet time getting to wherever it’s trying to go and on occasion loses the sense of magic or urgency because whatever scene one is watching keeps going on…and on…and on…and on and on forever until finally you think you’re getting back to one of the quiet moments of the film…and the bombastic score takes over again instead of letting you rest. In fact, there’s an entire musical number placed between the second and third acts of the film that seems only to exist so that Meryl Streep can do one of the film’s less catchy musical numbers and never show up in the narrative again. It’s a fine performance, but it just seems so unnecessary by film’s end, one wonders why Disney would just stop the narrative cold in order to give some cinematic fan service that doesn’t add to it really at all (then again, this is the company that made Solo, so I guess it follows.)

Another thing the film suffers from, besides an over-emphasis on nostalgia instead of narrative, is a slight (if only barely so) lack of focus between its two conjoined storylines. Mary Poppins is off with the children having adventures while Michael struggles to save their home, and while all the magic and visuals of the Mary Poppins storylines are genuinely fun, I just wish we had gotten to spend a little more time with Michael as a character, to see the nuance of how he got to be where he is and how he’s responding to all of what’s going on. For long stretches of the narrative, he seems to have been forgotten almost entirely, only for the film to put him back on screen and say “oh, yes, the reason this is all happening, we can’t forget to let you know that’s still here,” as if an afterthought.

And speaking of afterthoughts, there are a few more of those scattered in the film, one of which has to do with a decision that was made about Colin Firth’s character that reminded me of Zemo from Captain America: Civil War. No, Colin Firth doesn’t have a master plan to drive Mary Poppins and the Banks’ apart and make them fight each other (though that would be an interesting thing to see), but without spoilers, the writers of Mary Poppins Returns do something with his character that seemed unnecessary given that Michael already has time to struggle against. In addition to this, while I certainly enjoyed the charm of Emily Mortimer’s performance, the movie just doesn’t give her much of anything to do other than be there, and seems not at all interested in exploring her life outside of her relationship to Michael. We never see where she lives or get to follow her to any of her pro-worker rallies or anything, she’s just kind of there, and feels like less like a character in her own right because we never see that she has a life of her own. That’s a real bummer considering how well Mortimer plays the character for what screen time she has.

Still, it’s not a bad film or even just okay by any stretch of the imagination (something this film relishes in stretching, by the way). Mary Poppins Returns is, simply put, safe. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t also fun. Emily Blunt is marvelous as the titular character, and despite some overlong pacing and unnecessary character/story beats, it mostly holds together as an enjoyable family film one can see over the holiday season. The visuals are fantastic, the music is good apart from two numbers that do reach that level of great, and on a costume/production design level alone, this film should show up at this year’s Oscars. It may not be practically perfect in every way, but it gets most of it right.

I’m giving “Mary Poppins Returns” an 7.8/10.

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parachutingkitten · 7 years ago

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Season 1 Analysis

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I am going to be applying the concept of criticism to a TV show you presumably love and adore as much as I do. If you do not want your idea that the show is immaculate to be challanged, I would not advise reading past this point.

Mood for this season: Logic? Nahh...

I'm taking three film classes right now, I only rip it apart because I love it! (Sry, if I seem a little overly critical at times)

So, let's start with some background (you get to learn about me, yay! This is what you came here for. Right?). When the original series (seasons 1 and 2) came out in 2012, my little brother, at the age of six, was THE target audience for lego ninjas that you could battle and spin really really fast. I... am five years older than him. He collected sets, and he even bought me a spinner pack with the "girl character", the "blue one", and one of the skeletons so that I could play with him. To this day they are the only legos I own, but they sit in an altoids tin in my night stand. It was right before our family moved to Germany (we're a military family btw) that our parents purchased the disk episodes of seasons one and two. When you live in Europe, you tend to want to do a LOT of traveling. Every weekend, I kid you not, we went to another country. Which means road trips. And road trips mean movies. I would always let my brother choose what we watched, because he was the one who would get fussy and upset, so we watched a lot of Kung Fu Panda, and Madagascar, and a LOT of Cars (as in plural movies. I quote Cars 2, regularly), but the thing we watched most often was those niniago DVDs. Because you could just auto play those episodes one after another for a seemingly endless movie that would last until you arrived. So, I've seen these episodes a few times. Like, A LOT of times. Drilling these episodes into my mind over and over is what made me obsessed with it later (but we'll talk about that when we get to season 3).

Upon rewatching... they are exactly as I remember. There were no real surprises, so I don't feel like I have too much to say shock value wise, but that doesn't mean I don't have anything to say.

Plot

I've made a joke post about this before, but season one does fall into the treasure hunt formula. Find a fang blade. Lose it. Look for next one. Repeat for the next few episodes. Same thing can be said for the true potential. Find what holds them back emotionally, overcome it by the end of the episode to save the person/people you needed to fix your relationship with, glowing orb/pillar to make you certifiably awesome. For four. Episodes. Straight. Even if you space out the episodes where the ninja get their true potential, or when they find the fang blades, it would keep you on your toes a bit more. This being said... it does greatly help to give every episode a PLOT purpose. Every one of those "previously on ninjago" recaps was shoving a bunch of stuff in there. Most ninjago episodes do serve a purpose (except of course the atrocity that is the first half of season two - we WILL get to that next time) at least character development wise, but it is nice to have meaningful plot development too and keep a consistent pace throughout the season. This season certainly keeps up the pace. There is not an episode you can just miss. Even with the recap, you would still probably be confused. One thing that NO OTHER SEASON has over this one, hands down (aside from season 9 maybe, idk yet) is flow from season to season. Planning benefits this season GREATLY. It carries over things from the pilot, and sets up more to come in the next season. Watch them all together and it flows more naturally than any other season bookends. (Although I will say all the ninjago season transitions are smoother than any of Chima's [I will not touch that rabbit hole EVER again])

Characters

Character interaction is AMAZING this season. You really get to know the characters and feel all their growth equally. Every. One. Of. Them.

Think about it, Wu has an arc with his brother, Lloyd has an arc with the green ninja, Nya has an arc as samurai x, and it goes without saying that all of our regulars have an arc. And... that's about it. Those are all the characters. And I think that's why this season works so well.

You have four main characters, a handful of side characters, and they all get time and focus. Everyone has something to do during this season. As the season's go on and we accumulate more and more characters there's less screentime to go around, and the characters can suffer for it. There's a reason by season 6 they were literally REMOVING characters from the show. They don't have time to get distracted by Kai and his petty problems and drama this season, cuz Jay needs some focus for once, and we'd like to give him a little development gosh darn it! But I'm getting ahead of myself. This season works really well. Just because I feel like I should, I'm going to give you a breakdown on my feelings on new characters as they pop up or change dramatically, and because this is the first season, that means we get to do it for... all the characters! So here we go.

Nya

She's good this season. She's the most responsible in the group. The samurai x reveal was handled really well. Making all the ninja jealous of her really worked to give her credibility. She's just the right amount of strong and independent while still retaining her femininity. It goes WAY down hill when season 3 hits, but as for season 1 Nya I actually really enjoy her.

I mean... what are you going to say? He's Wu? Anyone have a problem with Wu? No? Good, moving on.

Kai

So... this is where my bias comes out. Quick piece of info, my elemental personality is water... so like the opposite of fire. I see a little bit of myself in each of the ninja... except Kai. And I think that's why he's my least favorite. Don't get me wrong! I don't hate Kai or anything! He's got some good lines (episode 5 comes to mind) he's adorkable enough. It's not hard to play or to write a hot head, but it's hard to play or write a hot head that I personally enjoy. I think what Kai is missing for me personally is the tripping over himself because of his attitude, and sarcasm. Sarcasm and sass. It's there, it's just not as prevalent as I personally would like it. He has a lot of opportunities and theoretical development, I'm not sure too many of them were taken advantage of fully, or maybe they just didn't read the way I personally can grasp it, but none of it felt very completed or meaningful. Like I said, I'm a water gal, so maybe I just can't relate and that's why it's not as powerful. I'd be interested to see your rankings of the ninja and how they line up with your own elemental personality. There's got to be a correlation there, right?

Conclusion, just not for me

Cole

Cole and Jay are tied for second favorite in general. It fluctuates from season to season depending on what's going on, but for season 1 Jay has Cole beat. I think the only reason just being screen time. Goodness knows Cole has been a bit neglected in that category, but hey. He's still really good for what he's got. I think in real life I probably act the most like Cole. I try to be serious, responsible and a leader and then I just get goofy sometimes. I love his true potential episode! It's funny, and heartwarming, and the only episode actually about him, so it's fun to see!

Conclusion, just needs more love

Jay

Jay is then, my second favorite for the season. He's funny. What else can I say? Personal opinion; Jay freakouts are the best this season. Especially at the climax. He just has that pure goofball-ness to him this season that makes his humor not annoying and actually relatable and funny. I also love his family to death! He loves them, he knows it, we know it, and the interactions between them are precious! It really is the way he plays off of other people that makes him enjoyable. He has a lot more dry humor here than other season, which I am partial to. I've got some kinks to work out with this one in later seasons but for now, he's good.

Conclusion, No, I'm the real Jay!

Zane

...My baby! Especially this season he is so innocent, loving, caring, and mysterious that I can't help but love the heck out of this guy! I am a sucker for a good mystery! He has this whole other world he's a part of with his "sixth sense" and falcon and running away at night. It's unique and special to him and it's really cool! Plus, there is SO much ATMOPHERE that comes with this guy and MAN I LOVE it! It's all just so beautiful. I love interactions between him and Jay, I love his mutual respect with Cole, I love EVERYTHING. This season and the next have the most growth for him, and it shows.

Conclusion, there's a reason we call him the pure one

Romance

Kinda adding this one last minute, but I think it needs to be here. All we got this season is Jay and Nya but BOY has their relationship changed! This is the single one thing that caught me off guard. I forgot what their relationship, especially before Jay's true potential, is like. Honestly, I love it! They're so awkward and clumsy around each other at first, and then grow into this understanding couple of one another. There's not too much emphasis on it, but it's sprinkled in everywhere. I like it! Maya approved!

Villians

The devourer arc is one of my favorites. Maybe it's the nostalgia tingles at work again, but the snakes are ninjago's quintessential villains. Nothing can ever hope to replace them. It feels natural in the plot, they have their own culture and beliefs, and their motivation makes sense. You have your legitimately scary villains and bumbling comic villians in perfect balance. Scales starting as second in command was an amazing call. It proves he has power he's earned, is not easily put down and sets up his lust for power to be explored later. Pythor. Oh man oh man Pythor. I am a sucker for ATMOSPHERE and his introduction is BEAUTIFUL. Utilizes the rule of 3s and completely subverts your expectations with that eerie empty tomb. I love it! So manipulative! So sly! They aren't my all time favorite villians, but they're certainly among the best the show has to offer.

Garmadon is also there. He's half good half bad... sorta. Idk. He's not especially interesting, at least compared to the snakes and what they're up to. Let's be honest, he's just waiting around to get awesome in season 2 ;) I do like when he comes in with all the skeletons like, "yeah, no one likes you. Screw snakes!" Only to walk that COMPLETELY back next season, but you know. Whatever.

Lloyd... should I put him here? He's enjoyably annoying for a little bit... and then just annoyingly annoying. It's not too bad. He has some redeeming moments. Once he's the green ninja and has some responsibility on his shoulders, he gets a lot better.

Climax

... I love it. I don't know what else to say. It's tense, it has proper build up, the threat is real, they get desperate, they come up with a creative solution, they work together, there are stakes, there's good action, good drama, good humor. I don't have any complaints. I can't touch this one. There are minor things, but I don't think they're worth bringing up. Go watch it. It's freaking awesome. Enough said.

Humor

Pretty good this season. There are a few eye roll lines, but that's in all the seasons. Things can get kinda stupid, but for the most part, especially some of the more subtle humor really works.

Favorite line of the season, Cole's "I don't like metaphors" episode 11 - All of Nothing. You're welcome.

Drama

Not overly saturated this season, which is kinda nice. I mean, there's always "drama" but as far as heavy stuff, we have Zane's whole crisis thing, and then the Garmadon family reunion. I'll get to how I feel about the Zane stuff down below. As for the Garmadon stuff... it's fine. Gets a lot better next season, but for now... fine.

Spotlight Episode

So for every season I'll choose one episode that stood out to me to either praise or criticize in detail. There are a lot of episodes that come to mind for season 1 for one reason or another. The one about the power of rumors (also known as the pink ninja episode), lloyd rescuing the team, Cole's true potential is a classic episode with a good mix of heart and comedy, and of course THE FINALE, but because I am biased, and because I am a sucker for personal drama, season one's spotlight episode is episode 7, Tick tock, Zane's true potential. This was by far the episode me and my brother watched together the most. Aside from the movie Cars, it's probably the one piece of media we have scene the most times together. The episode begins by establishing Wu leaving, the ninja are at a loss of what to do and then... THE FALCON. Best character this season! XD seriously, the falcon theme is one of, if not my favorite piece of music in the show. Certainly the most memorable. And most importantly it kicks in the ATMOSPHERE! Have I mentioned ATMOSPHERE?

ATMOSPHERE

I am a sucker for some good ATMOSPHERE (no, I will not stop spelling it in all caps), and BOY the falcon chase scene! Zane is slowly taken away from his team members in order to reflect upon himself, and as he runs through the snow by himself to follow this bird you can see his determination, curiosity, desperation, and just that Zane factor that makes you go "awww, my child! He must be protected!" (Even though, you know, he was built to protect and all that) but just AGHH! I can't put into words for beautiful this whole sequences is! Go watch it right now! Look at that beautiful Zane! Listen to that music! That FREAKING MUSIC AGGHHHHHH! I LOVE IT SO AGGRESSIVELY! LISTEN TO IT! LIKE SERIOUSLY, LISTEN, HERE'S THE LINK!

https://youtu.be/2p07cgwwYws

It makes my heart SO happy! Idk if I'm the only one who feels that way about this scene but oh... oh how it gets me. Every. Time. Michael Kramer and Jay Vincent are freAKING GODS!

Okay. I'm done with the falcon chase. Now onto, like... the part of the episode people care about. The tree house, again, an amazing location. Unique, and mysterious, and as soon as he walks in, you just get this sense of memory. The flash back is ADORABLE and the others finding him... I think this was handled pretty well. Their reactions seem genuine (I mean, I would want to get out of there as soon as humanly possible too XD) and you can feel the genuine concern from all of the ninja, trying to help their buddy out in their own ways.

Zane's true potential feels really earned, and his thing that holds him back was established as soon as the series began. He was different and weird and he didn't know where he came from. Coming to accept what he is, accepting his past and finding an identity of his own is what gives him the power to unlock it.

Now, just for fun and because I know I'm going to hear it in the comments like "why is Zane's discovery of identity more valid than anyone else's? What about Kai! His true potential is entirely based on finding his purpose!" And yes. Theoretical commentor you make a valid point, but I think the key difference is in the identity they find when they unlock it.

Zane accepts his personality, his past, and his robotic nature as himself and can be proud of who he is as his own person. The thing that held him back was vague and sort of indefinable, and what he became afterwards was concrete, solid, and dependable. That's why you feel like the character has gotten stronger.

Kai goes in the opposite direction. The thing that holds him back is that he wants to be the green ninja. That's solid and concrete. The problem then becomes that you know exactly how the potential will play out. He's going to face something, discover he's not the green ninja, and come to terms with it. And his ending identity is much more vague. His purpose is to protect the green ninja... okay, what does that mean? What kind of a person does that make you? He didn't change as a person, his views about a certain topic where changed. Those are two very different levels of progress.

And I know you can argue that it wasn't the green ninja thing he needed to get past, he needed to get past his pride and all that, but even if you make that argument that conclusion is harder to reach and less apparent than Zane's progress as a character. Zane's progress is entirely centered on him. Kai's progress will never be separated from Lloyd. Just watch the episode. It feels like a Lloyd episode. I remember thinking the first time I watched it when he came out of the volcano "wait... what was his true potential? Why is this happening?"

Anyway, that's my little soap box rant. I hope I didn't offend too many Kai fans. Again, it's probably just my water bias coming into play. I know there's a frame work in place for development of all these characters, and every single one of them gets an arc and theoretically everything should work out and make sense and work beautifully and perfectly, but sometimes when you step back and look at it, it's just a matter of "but does it work?" And maybe it's a matter of opinion, but Kai's potential didn't work for me.

I've been on this way to long. I'm stopping now.

Misc

I really like the suits this season. They're all unique and the masks... compliment the Lego head shape nicely? Does that make sense? It makes them look a bit cuter. Anyone else see that? Idk, maybe I'm just going crazy.

Watch this season thinking about how the snakes become good in season 3...

I want more of the Pink ninja.

I love scales and his slight incompetence. Not total, just slight.

This exchange:

Pythor: I hardly have any friends

Lloyd: Woah! I hardly have any friends too!

Pythor: You don't say!

All together I really like this season. Light hearted, funny, good action and characters. Not super compelling or anything, but it doesn't need to be. Second best season for nostalgia tingles in general, third best for me personally. Most of this is a matter of opinion, so don't fret too much over anything I say. I'd love to see your thoughts/rankings/comments/disagreements in the notes! That's the point of this thing!

If there are any aspects of the season I skipped, let me know, I'm not perfect.

Thanks for reading! And if you got this far... I don't know. Work the word saxophone into your comment. Bonus points if it makes sense!

-Maya (a.k.a. parachutingkitten)

#ninjago #ninjago season one #rise of the snakes #analysis #parachuterants

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mortythesp00k · 7 years ago

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Review: Tokyo Ghoul Movie

I had mixed feelings when I first heard that Tokyo Ghoul was getting a live-action adaptation. I find most cinematic recreations of both books and manga usually fall short of their source material (I’m looking at you Death Note). However, I was pleasantly surprised by Tokyo Ghoul. I do not think it was a flawless film, but it did not leave me feeling disappointed like many adaptations of stories I greatly enjoy. I will be splitting my discussion of this movie into four parts that are labeled below. Before I begin, I would like to state a quick disclaimer: I have not seen many live-action adaptations of anime/manga. As a result, I will not be able to make too many comparisons between Tokyo Ghoul and its fellow adaptations. I am also from the west, so my idea for what makes a movie good is probably out of touch with the standards of cinema in Japan. All of that being said, I am happy to be discussing and sharing my opinions on the 2017 film adaptation of our beloved Tokyo Ghoul.

Plot:

In this section I am going to giving some general thoughts about the story of the movie and how much its deviations from the story presented in the manga affected its quality. First, there is something important that I need to get out of the way early in this review: the manga is always better. I am going to do my best to judge this movie on its own merits, but I cannot ignore the superiority of the source material.

Speaking of source material, I want to begin by talking about how much of the original Tokyo Ghoul manga that this movie actually covered. Basically, it adapted the beginning of the story and the Dove arc. I think this was the right choice. Trying to jam the Gourmet arc in would have made the movie feel bloated, sped the pacing of the movie up way too much, and created an odd sense of anticlimax after Mado’s death. I cannot even imagine what kind of disaster this movie would have been if they tried to adapt as far as the Aogiri arc. My only criticism of the choice of material to adapt is that Nishiki’s role in the story feels a bit more random (although it is far from irrelevant). We also do not get to see any of his redemption arc.

Even with such a small amount of the Tokyo Ghoul narrative to work with, the movie still had to condense or remove some scenes to keep the runtime reasonable. Some of this I thought was well thought out and did not harm the story at all. Some examples include this scene:

Having Ryoko and Hinami already in Anteiku when Kaneki arrives seemed like a good way to introduce their characters earlier on without badly disrupting their or Kaneki’s story. Another example was the second appearance of Nishiki:

This scene fit with the narrative well and gives us the background information to Kaneki’s and Hide’s relationship. This method prevented the exposition from being completely forced in a much more awkward way or just completely absent. Having Hide attempt to answer for Kaneki was also a clever way to show more of the relationship between them.

Unfortunately, some scenes seemed to be stretched out for unclear reasons. The best example of this is Kaneki’s alleyway encounter with Nishiki and Touka. Instead of ending like this:

Kaneki runs away from Touka only to encounter her shortly afterwards taking the trash out at Anteiku:

This is where they have a tamer version of the infamous cake conversation before Yoshimura arrives and invties Kaneki inside. I am not sure why one of the most iconic scences from the early parts of Tokyo Ghoul was split like that, but I do not think it adds much to the film.

Overall, I think that the Tokyo Ghoul movie picked a good amount of the manga story to adapt and did not, for the most part, reduce its quality in adapting it.

Characters/Casting:

First up is our boy. Masataka Kubota nailed Kaneki’s personality and effectively used mannerisms and behavior to convey ideas that were expressed using internal monologue in the manga. I think he also succeeded in making Kaneki’s revulsion to human food (something I was worried would be super cringe-worthy if poorly acted) seem genuine and disturbing. His portrayals of Kaneki’s turbulent emotions were also spot on.

Maybe I am just used to the more serious Hide we have been seeing in recent chapters of re, but Kai Ogasawara’s performance felt a bit too goofy. I did not get the feeling of a caring and intelligent mind that lurks beneath the jovial exterior, and I think that is a quintessential part of Hide’s character. However, Hide played a fairly small part in this film. I can’t fairly expect a ton of characterization given how little screen time he has.

Fumika Shimizu did a good job bringing Touka to the big screen. I do not have too much to say about her performance and the character played a fairly similar role to what she did in the manga. I think some facets of her personality (like eating Yoriko’s food) are not fleshed out enough in the film to make her as compelling a character as she is in the manga, but like I said for Hide, that was hard to do in a movie format.

Mado was probably the second best portrayed character (next to Kaneki). Yô Ôizumi did a great job with Mado’s focused, but unhinged, personality. Additionally, his dialogue did a great job of characterizing his dehumanizing view of ghouls. I also really appreciate the fact that they made an effort to give him a cockeyed appearance similar to his manga counterpart.

This was probably my least favorite of all the major characters. Maybe my memory of early Tokyo Ghoul is clouded, but it seems like Amon came across as much more of a general jerk in this film. His treatment of his subordinate and his incredible willingness to commit terrible acts seemed different from his manga counterpart. He just seemed too angry and one-sided. I did not get the feeling that he would be a character who would end up questioning much of what the CCG stood for later on.

Honorable Mentions:

Despite his incredibly minor role, I thought Kenta Hamano did a great portraying Enji. The Devil Ape’s unique sense of humor definitely came through. I would also like to give a shoutout to Shôko Aida. I think she did a good job bringing Ryoko’s character to life and not letting her admittedly odd role affect her performance.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Yomo was looking a little bit too fresh. I do not know how canonically old Yomo is, but Shuntarô Yanagi felt way too young. It was hard to see him as the serious character that he was in the manga and, to a lesser extent, this film as well. Also, where are the flowing silver locks? I’d also like to mention Hinami. I might just not like child actors, but I thought her performance was not compelling even with the emotionally loaded scenes she featured in.

Cinematic Elements:

I know that special effects are usually the most obvious point of criticism for anime/manga live-action adaptations, but I feel the need to mention it. Generally, the movies effects are not noticeably bad, but the kagune really stand out. I will admit that Kaneki’s kagune looks okay (although its motion is often jerky and awkward), but the other ones really suffer. I’m especially looking at Nishiki and Touka:

I missed Nishiki’s elegant dolphin tail and Touka’s gorgeous, kinetic wing. On a somewhat related note, I did not care for the CCG coats. This might be minor, but they looked too much like a costume instead of the relatively simple garment they are in the manga.

While the cinematography was generally quite good, there were some moments were more reliance on the manga might have helped. A good example is this scene:

Working in some of the most famous visuals from the manga might have made shots likes this a little more dramatic and would have been a nice way to pay homage to the source material (not that I can really fault the movie for not doing this).

I’d also like to draw some attention to some setting changes that bothered me. I think the change in location for both the Kaneki v. Nishiki fight and the Kaneki v. Amon somewhat detracted from those scenes. This problem was especially evident for me in Ryoko’s death scene:

I never realized how much I liked this scene being in a long, narrow alley until it wasn’t. I understand the limitation of shooting on location, but I thought this particular choice took away from the quality of a key dramatic moment in Tokyo Ghoul.

Unjustified Nitpicking:

I know you are probably thinking that my whole review belongs under this category, but I aim to prove you wrong. For these next few points I am throwing any attempt at objectivity to the wind and just listing some personal gripes that, while not objective flaws, still stuck in my craw while I was watching this movie.

First, the mask:

This is a prime example of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” I really liked the mask design from the manga and am not sure why they chose this new look. I thought the flat human teeth were better visual imagery than the series of sharp, metallic teeth on the film version of the mask.

Next, I would like to point out some odd examples of foreshadowing (I guess these are more of references since they have no payoff in the film). In no particular order:

Eye-lick scene:

Centipede in the shadows:

Hajime is here:

I guess these were nothing more than references for the hardcore fans, but it seemed odd to include them for only that purpose.

Finally, I would like to register a formal complaint that the song BANKA by illion was only used as an end credit song. It is a great track that reminded me a bit of Kisetsu wa Tsugitsugi Shindeiku (the Root A ending theme, a track that might even rival Unravel in quality).

That will be all from me. I know I spent a lot of time harping on this movie (I tend to do that), but it was really not that bad. I think that long time fans will have a fun time watching this take on the opening to TG. This movie is also a nice gateway into the series for people who have never experienced any part of TG. I think it’s worth checking out either way.

I plan to be writing about a new chapter tomorrow (fingers crossed). I am also happy to wish you all a productive and enjoyable week. Hope it’s a good one!

#tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul movie #ken kaneki #tg #kaneki ken #touka kirishima #nishiki nishio #movie review #rize kamishiro #hinami fueguchi #amon koutarou #kureo mado #kagune #hajime

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spiftynifty · 7 years ago

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LGBT representation in Voltron

UPDATED: I realized I wasn’t coming off as neutrally as I’d like and there were hints of shipping peeking through. I also didn’t feel I had expanded properly on certain aspects. I’d like this particular post to be as neutral as possible so that it’s accessible to people from all ships and headcanons.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately about LGBT representation in Voltron. From shipping wars to insistent demands that headcanons be fulfilled, it’s all getting a little bonkers. I wanted to step back, encourage everyone to take a breather, and discuss the potential of any LGBT on the show, including and excluding popular expectations. So here we go, a post on LGBT representation in Voltron and in cartoons, and why it's not as simple as we'd like it to be. It’s a little long but don’t worry, there are pictures! AND A COMIC!

DISCLAIMER: I do not work on Voltron, nor do I work for Dreamworks or any of its properties. I'm just an animator who's worked on dozens of cartoons for a number of studios and the following is based on my experience in this industry. This post is NOT meant to indict any of the parties involved in the creation of Voltron or other cartoons. Making cartoons is a complicated, collaborative process and no one is a villain.

Here we go:

Before we can talk about LGBT rep & Voltron, we should probably talk about LGBT representation in cartoons in general. In case it isn't clear, I'm speaking specifically about Western cartoons that primarily air in Canada/US. Anime is a whole other category and one that Voltron does not fall under. I'm also removing cartoons that were made explicitly for adults.

LGBT in cartoons is a really recent development. If we include adult cartoons it can date back as far as 20 years (South Park showcasing some SUPER GREAT gay stereotypes :|) but if we're including cartoons geared towards kids (age 5-17)... we're talking this being a thing in the last FOUR years. And the number of times it's been done is so minimal, it can be summed up in these few images:

(left to right, top to bottom) 6Teen, 2010 CANADA ONLY - An incidental female character revealed she liked women. I don’t think this show ever aired in the States but it ran on Teletoon for years. The show also had an episode with an incidental gay character in 2008. Gravity Falls, 2013 - The sheriff and deputy are repeatedly hinted at being in a relationship. I believe in the series finale their relationship is more clearly identified. It was later confirmed by the show’s creator.

Legend of Korra, 2014 - The two female leads, after having previously dated the same male character, are strongly implied to now be dating each other as they hold hands and walk into the Spirit World together. This was as explicit as they were allowed to get with their relationship. The comics continue their relationship romantically and also highlight other characters from both series who are (or were) LGBT). Steven Universe, 2013 - The show doesn’t shy away from its LGBT romances, in particular Ruby and Sapphire and Pearl and Rose. Star vs The Forces of Evil, 2017 - in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it panning shot, two background male characters are seen kissing. Clarence, 2013 - The main character has two moms. In one episode, a handsome male background character is shown greeting another man for a date by kissing him on the cheek. Initially they were supposed to peck on the lips until other countries’ censors demanded the change. Loud House, 2016 - The main character’s best friend, Clyde, has two dads.

I’m also going to toss out an Honourable Mention to Adventure Time for Princess Bubblegum & Marceline, whose past romantic relationship was sort of hinted at in the show but only confirmed outside of it.

If we take that list and cut it down to just (broadcast TV) primary or recurring characters, we're left with this: Korra, Steven Universe, Clarence

I should also mention that while I repeatedly use the term LGBT, what I’m really referring to is more LGB. I would love to see a trans character in a broadcast cartoon. I’ve heard Amazon’s Danger & Eggs has a trans character, which is AMAZING and a solid start. However progressively speaking, broadcast cartoons tend to lag a little behind live action TV and movies aimed at older teens and adults, and those genres are still struggling to feature trans characters.

So why is this?

Firstly, and more importantly, a lot of these shows air in countries that aren't nearly as open about LGBT as USA/Canada are. To say "screw those guys! They should keep up with the times!!" is to cut out a major consumer base and most companies are unwilling or unable to take that financial hit. This doesn't make them evil. Animation, just like filmmaking, may be an artform but it is first and foremost a BUSINESS. Major companies like Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network won’t lose money, but the production studios they hire to do their shows will suffer the brunt of it and could lose the business of these powerful corporations. It’s happened time and time again that a show initially animated in the US or Canada has been taken away from that studio in favor of a cheaper, overseas option. In some cases they’ve closed.

Second, even in 2018 there is still a lot of pushback from homophobic or “family-oriented” groups with decent clout and numbers. Also, there is a strange pervasive idea that LGBT is something that is Not For Children, likely because too many foolish people still associate heteronormativity with love and everything outside of that with sex.

Additionally, you may have noticed that on the list of the three shows showcasing LGBT relationships in a primary or recurring character way... ALL of them feature women. The social discussion about why that is honestly merits an entire other post (or 5) so to put it plainly, broadly speaking, people tend to be more comfortable with female queerness over male queerness. We have yet to see a m/m relationship that has any iota of history or character development behind it, or a recurring queer male character.

With this in mind, Voltron, which features a primarily male cast, and thus has more chances of featuring a male LGBT character, has its work cut out for it.

___________________________________________________

Fresh off the heels of Korra, a series that in the 11th hour featured the two female leads ending up with each other, it's no surprise that showrunners Lauren Montgomery and Joaquin Dos Santos( along with other cast and crew) have fielded a barrage of questions about their intention to depict LGBT on the show. At NYCC when asked about it, this was JDS & LM's response: "It's very important to us... we’re fighting to create as open and as broad a spectrum of characters as we can."

Which is a pretty interesting way of putting it, and a pretty understandably CAREFUL way of putting it. Again, I want to reiterate, I don’t work for any studio involved in the production of Voltron so this is largely conjecture.

So here's how the hierarchy works, as far as I can tell.

I'm not sure who approached who to get a new Voltron made, but primary creative decisions would fall to JDS and LM, who are in charge of things like major plot points, characters, and arcs. When they've figured this stuff out, they pitch it in a multitude of sessions with Dreamworks People... and that's when the battle begins. Pitching a show is always a tug-of-war. Let's be clear: No creator has ever gone in with a show and walked away with every single aspect that they wanted. Compromises and concessions are made because while the Creatives are focused on their story and character, their client is concerning themselves with budget, timelines, audience targets and $$marketing$$. Before they even got to the matter of LGBT, JDS/LM had lost and won battles over some plot and character decisions. You can actually feel it sometimes when you watch the show; key emotional moments that never happen, or character stuff that gets shaved in favor of action or the reuse animation of the lions forming Voltron.

This show is still aimed at a young, male, market Dreamworks wants to believe is going to buy their incredibly limited line of related toys, and that is a market that is difficult for executives to see as being interested in romance, let alone a queer one.

The point is, as much as JDS/LM seem to want LGBT in their show, it is a negotiation that I'm sure has been on the table since Day 1 and probably one that is ongoing. Here's a vague idea of what MAY have gone down:

Dreamworks: We will consider the idea of two of them in a relationship, but the third has got to go. JDS/LM: .....we appreciate you considering the relationship aspect. Dreamworks: In addition, we feel that to balance the scales so to speak, at least one character needs to be overtly heterosexual. You know, hit on a lot of female characters, maybe even fall for one of them.

(sorry would have finished the comic but I sprained my wrist and I’m not supposed to draw rn but I cheated a little, also can you tell I love Saga)

This is very probably not what happened, but it is an example of what could have. I know there is a lot of support for a certain character in Voltron being bi, not least of all because of something LM drew.

I think the placement of the characters holding the signs were less about associating the character with the header and more about making sure neither of the two warring ships were represented; it would have incited a new level on the shipping wars and the message and intent behind this art would have been lost.

There is a weird association with relationships and how they define a show if they aren’t hetero. Have only one relationship on a show about space battles and if it’s LGBT, people will start associating Voltron with being “the gay space battle show”. I don’t want to get into Discourse about This Thing because debate gets lost quickly in favor of toxic insults, but I think it’s important to touch on Bi!Lance. To be entirely neutral about it, it is possible that Lance was originally intended to be bi. But if there was the potential for other characters to be LGBT, the showrunners might have been asked to “strike a balance” so to speak, so that Voltron wouldn’t just be “the gay space battle” show since its hetero relationships would outnumber the queer ones. I don’t think Lance’s character has changed at all since his inception; the show needs a funnyman for levity and ridiculousness, and he is absolutely the charmer of the Paladins. He may have been intended to hit on just about any attractive being in his orbit (there are shades of what one might call a “man-crush” in regards to his Shiro hero-worship). While it would have been awesome to have a bi male character in a cartoon, changing his attraction dial from “all” to “female” doesn’t really affect his storyline, especially since it’s hard to contest that the show has been angling in potential for endgame Allurance in seasons 3&4. I realize that sounds dismissive of the bi experience, that’s really not what I’m trying to get at. I’m saying that in the grand scheme of things, it may have been easier to sacrifice an LGBT Lance in order to win another LGBT representation battle. Like I said, making cartoons that maintain the creative, storyline, and character goals you walk in with is a tug-of-war, and you’re going to lose something along the way.

But it’s not all about Lance, and again, that’s all theoretical. It’s also possible that Pidge was at one point NB or even trans. There are hints of Coran having a close friendship with Alfor. The original blue paladin is hinted at flirting with a fellow male character in a “did he just--” moment that most people missed. Lotor surrounds himself with female generals but never seems particularly attracted to them. Keith’s undying devotion to Shiro could be interpreted as romantic. There are a dozen main characters whose orientations are nebulous at best and thus have potential to be queer.

So what does this mean for the future of LGBT on Voltron?

The short version is: I'm actually, really, really hopeful. For a number of reasons.

1) JDS/LM as they've said, are fighting really hard for this to be a thing. Jeremy Shada has said "You'll be really happy" when asked about LGBT on the show. People may feel he’s referring to his character Lance, but I think he’s just hoping that people will be happy with any character who could be explicitly stated to be LGBT.

2) Netflix isn't a TV broadcaster, which means they can operate under somewhat different rules. Sort of. They certainly don't shy away from LGBT content but they may be regulated under rules of "what is appropriate for children in certain age groups" which frustratingly, for kids 12 and under, does not often include LGBT content. Netflix notoriously doesn't release their viewership data so this is just speculation; but I wonder if the biggest audience taking in this show is actually people, primarily women, aged 14+. Taking this into account won't influence the plot, but the bumped up age could show an increased likelihood of LGBT rep as it pushes the show outside of the "content too sensitive for young children" zone.

3) It would be really nice to see explicit, unambiguous affection between two same-sex characters. However there can still be canonical queer romance without it, shades enough of “just friendship” that they can get past the censors and bigots while those who are more aware of what’s going on can recognize the relationship for what it is. Remember, some people still refuse to believe that Victor and Yuuri kissed in Yuuri on Ice, all thanks to the clever placement of an arm. Furthermore, LGBT doesn’t have to be portrayed through relationships but just the character itself. A character could make a passing comment that alludes to their sexuality. It’s not quite as satisfying as having it out in the open, but DW’s hands may be tied by the stipulations of the contract outlined by Netflix.

4) Despite what certain world events would have you believe, people are becoming more progressive and supportive of LGBT rights and content. We've seen it happen in movies and live-action television. More and more cartoons are going to be including LGBT content, in broader and more overt ways. There will be other cartoons who feature main characters who identify as LGBT, recurring characters in LGBT relationships who are allowed to be affectionate and cutesy with their partners, who are represented no differently or reverently than hetero cartoon romances. Voltron will likely end within the next two years, and within those next two years more and more cartoons will be taking "risks" and more and more broadcasters will feel emboldened to allow them to do so. If Dreamworks keeps its content steadfastly heterosexual while fellow producers embrace LGBT, it's going to reflect badly on them.

People are desperate for representation in this show and it’s not hard to see why. It is not only one of the few serial cartoons out there, but one that deals with surprisingly adult themes considering it’s aimed at elementary schoolers. I think it’s really neat that people have so many headcanons about the LGBT rep in this show, and I think it’s great that it’s an element that has sparked a lot of passion in people. However, everything is still conjecture, the series is but half over, and putting all your LGBT demands onto one character or one relationship is unhealthy. It’s also pretty insidious to attack or harass crew, cast, or fellow fans whose views on how the LGBT should happen don’t align with your own. The show’s arcs and plot points have been written, the characters decided, but the internal fight over LGBT rep could still be going on. The creators aren’t going to cave to pressure from people who really want their ship or their character to be the sacred cow. Ship what you want to ship but recognize that while LGBT on the show may not happen the way you’d like it to, it’s still important to support its existence no matter what form it comes in.

In the next part I’m going to cover one relationship in particular as neutrally as possible and whether or not it has potential to become canonically romantic.

#anim vld #meta #voltron #vld #voltron meta #voltron legendary defender #klance #sheith #sorta #lgbt

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scriptfeature · 7 years ago

Note

Hi, I was wondering if there was any blog that could answer questions about grief and loss in general? I searched for script grief/ script loss but nothing came up so maybe they have a different name(? Or if you know anyone who could answer questions related to that topic Thank you! ^^

Quick disclaimer that Script X blogs ONLY do Writing Advice, not life advice.Also, obviously, trigger warning for DEATH!! because…obvious reasons? ^^ But on that note…Apologies for this being long (lordy did it get long, wow); but oh, what a weighty subject you have picked! Hopefully this post helps people out, though, because this is one of those Universal Themes that gets very complicated to handle very fast.You’re right that there isn’t one ScriptX blog devoted specifically to “grief” or “loss” - but that’s partly because those are pretty broad subjects that could actually connect with several depending on context.Off the top of my head I’d probably suggest:@scripttraumasurvivors because death is a COMMON traumatic event or trigger, especially if it happens to someone they know, and is sudden or violent, or they witness it themselves, or it just reminds them of something that traumatized them previously. TS is sometimes a bit slow with asks but that’s because they get SO MANY, so please be patient with them, they’re very nice :) (Also, FYI they are totally fine with multi-part Asks too. So if you have a specific plot in mind, “Feel Free to Get Wordy” with them!)@scriptshrink - for how people might deal with it in therapy or how it might result in mental illness; though that blog is on Hiatus at the moment, as I write this, it could be a valuable source! If the death results in a trauma which results in PTSD, for instance, Shrink has a “Demystifying the DSM” post about the requirements for it, that could be helpful. (Also keep in mind that even if the resulting impact doesn’t rise to official PTSD diagnosis, it could still include symptoms of PTSD, such as nightmares or shifts in self-perception etc. PTSD is a diagnosis for getting to a certain critical mass of symptoms resulting from trauma of very specific kinds, but some of the symptoms can still happen independently of full diagnosis; for instance there’s an “Acute Stress” disorder that is more temporary, which Shrink has also done a “Demystifying” post on, and you can show just one or two symptoms from either disorder without “having the disorder”, and it could still be a realistic approach to how trauma and loss effect people psychologically. I’d lean towards looking at what TS has also written about PTSD though if you go this route, as they’ve got a great post going into what those same symptoms manifest as, or feel like, that is a great complement to the more clinical coverage over at ScriptShrink) @scriptstructure MAYBE could help too, in the sense of helping you plot out a good narrative arc with a death or grieving character in it; Mason gave me some GREAT advice (it’s in ScriptStructure’s archive if you poke around!) on writing an arc with a character whose child is killed off early in the story to drive the plot; though my question was more about how to humanize the kid character so she wasn’t flat as a character or her death emotionally meaningless outside the Plot, Mason’s thoughts on the matter went past that, and were VERY insightful and helpful in terms of how to write such an arc, and definitely have impacted how it’s going to be portrayed. :)Believe it or not, the mods at @scriptflorist might have some advice on this too come to think of it! Check their archives, at least, because there’s a post where they replied to one of my asks about how Mexican American families might send botanical condolences to each other that you might want to check out! That post was FANTASTIC for exploring things like how “out of it” fresh grief makes people, or how people who work in a profession where they regularly come into contact with grieving people, deal with that and how that grief looks and feels to other people than the character who is experiencing it directly.@scriptmedic could maybe answer questions on how say, doctors and paramedics handle grieving or upset friends and family. (Her Ask box is open at the very beginning of each month if you choose to include this element in your story and want to ask about it; please note that she empties the Ask box at the end of the month, so you may need to resend it if she doesn’t get to it in the first month you send it) I KNOW @scriptcriminaljustice has done at least one post explicitly addressing Death Notifications; search their archive as it’s quite a good post, the external links given there included some very helpful information, such as common immediate reactions to grief when a sudden violent loss happens, and how to handle it professionally from a police perspective when you have to inform someone they’ve lost a loved one. And finally, last but absolutely not least!: @scriptpastor could help you write a priest/pastor/minister giving comfort to a grieving person or family. It’s definitely in the category of “pastoral care”, so if the character is religious (especially if it’s in a branch of Christianity, which is closer to ScriptPastor’s own training), this one a great person to ask to advise you on writing the stuff related to that, as comforting people is a huge part of clergy’s duties. :) Could probably also give you ideas both on how clergy and other would-be comforters would approach grieving people, and how grieving people tend to act in the aftermath of a loss, especially when they’re say, at a funeral or wake, or when they first start to reach out to others? Worth a shot!(So tldr maybe ask ScriptPastor first XD)To kick off your research though - I’ll also chime in with some advice and thoughts based on what I’ve learned over time (simply by being lucky with what I was exposed to). This consists of two Big Things To Consider:1.) Different cultures, religions, and even subcultures approach death and loss differently. Things like a character’s religious beliefs and cultural background impact reaction to a death significantly. For instance, some religions and cultures believe the dead never really leave us, many are relatively “accepting” of death, while others…aren’t. Someone who doesn’t believe in any kind of afterlife or continuance of existence (e.g. a hardcore atheist) might have a very different approach to a sudden untimely death than someone who believes their loved one is going to Heaven or will hang around in some way. This might seem like a pretty obvious thing to point out but it’s important to keep in mind: beliefs about death, and how they’ve been raised around or away from the concept of death, factor in a lot to how they ultimately could react.Some people keep a careful, clinical distance from death; they live a safe, quiet, healthy life with modern medicine keeping everything tidy and sterile, so does everyone else they know, and their exposure to “death” or “violence” is just like, movies maybe……making it a much more shocking, devastating experience to brush against; death of a loved one is usually worse, the more unprepared you are for it. The more distant a possibility it seems from you, the more horrifying it is for it to finally come knocking In contrast, to those who live under the shadow of violence or disease, or who are in professions like “surgeon” or “mortician” - people who stare human mortality in the face almost daily, and sometimes have a morbid sense of humor to cope with it - it’s less shocking. Less unexpected. Still awful, but less of a suckerpunch.And that’s not even considering how different cultures approach the emotional turmoil that can come with loss. For example, several Latinx cultures accept as commonplace and normal, intense displays of grief (think like, tossing yourself weeping and wailing over the casket type displays); several Asian cultures (e.g. Japanese, Filipinx) more generally favor emotional restraint, so “intense emotional displays” wouldn’t likely be encouraged - grief would be more likely to be internalized, or bottled up, so as not to ruffle feathers or cause a bother. Which doesn’t mean it won’t hurt; they’re just trying desperately to keep it to themselves. Or else they could keep it to themselves just fine but so and so who wasn’t expecting it is wailing on the coffin and oh lord, what do…In other words, grief/loss - and the aftermath of it all - will have different impacts on your characters depending on their culture, and their personality, and their profession, and their subculture, and of course, the circumstances… …and also all of those same elements of the characters surrounding them, which impacts how in turn how the surrounding characters interact with the grieving character (which in turn impacts the grieving character! And maybe even the plot, especially in character-driven or Mystery or Thriller works!). For this reason, if you’re writing characters in cultures other than your own?I advise you to please do research on that circumstance for that culture, such as reading up over at @writingwithcolor (NOT a ScriptX blog but I trust them about as well as one), or by finding and asking people from that culture about how their culture approaches death and grieving (…politely! And only if they’re willing to answer questions! Don’t harass people for this info, really really don’t); likewise with religions other than your own, or sometimes professions outside of your own; please do some research. It’s an important topic. You have more wiggle room than you might realize in terms of individual emotional arcs with grief, but you can’t afford to get something really wrong about cultural approaches to death and grieving. It will add richness and resonance if you get it right; it will take away from your work if you get it too wrong.Don’t be scared to do the work; your writing will benefit, and maybe, so will you! Just make sure you’re prepared for Upsetting Things to be heard, and pace yourself! :) 2.) You’ve heard of the Five Stages of Grief?Yeeeah. About that. This is a very modern-day-famous psychological model for “grieving” and how it (supposedly) happens, also known as the Kubler-Ross model, or DABDA (for the acronym Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance, which you might be most familiar with it from); but there’s some serious flaws with, if nothing else, how it’s usually understood or applied by laymen and especially in fiction. Here’s the problem with how it’s usually viewed, vs lived human experiences:-Not everybody goes through the “Stages” of grief in the listed order. Everybody quotes it as DABDA, and fiction ALL THE TIME depicts people going through the stages in specific DABDA order, and often in rapid progression to boot. This drives me (and I’m sure quite a few psychologists) nuts! Put simply: The human psyche is NOT that consistent!Yes, some people go through them in that listed order (there’s a reason, after all, that it got listed that way). Some people even go through them rapidly…but plenty of people take months or even years to grieve (or even never quite stop grieving their whole life, depending on how close they were to the person). And plenty of people can not only experience the “stages” out of order, but even bounce back and forth between several “stages”! (Including for example, hitting Acceptance after a few months, only to become Angry or Depressed when the anniversary of the death or some other reminder pops up)- NOT everybody who suffers a loss goes through ALL the “Stages” of grief, regardless of order. It’s entirely possible to skip one or more “Stages” entirely. Yes, really.Heck I’ve seen someone seemingly jump straight to Acceptance before! (The loss was I guess not sudden, and they apparently had a firm religious belief that their husband was in Heaven. They were seeing me about preparing something for a memorial service for him, so the death was really recent, and they seemed totally fine, even happy, which is extremely atypical, but, well…there they were, smiling at me and totally relaxed because “It’s okay; he’s with the Lord, now!” - see what I mean about religions impacting this?) That’s…rarer, mind. Usually you get SOME sort of emotional or cognitive disruption, even if they really do believe their loved one’s soul is intact and fine somewhere. But like… you can skip straight over Denial or Anger or even Bargaining pretty easily! It all depends on the character, and their circumstances, including the nature of the loss and their personality (e.g. people tend to hit Acceptance a lot sooner, sometimes even before a death happens, if it’s not an unexpected loss; when I lost my grandmother a few months ago, for instance, it was after a long period of having to worry about and care for her as she declined mentally and physically, so I was prepared for it a lot better than say, my mother, who was still firmly in Denial right up until her mother died).So to recap:Yeah, they can have them out of order and may skip some entirely; some never achieve full “Acceptance” of a loss; some never Deny it; some bounce back and forth purely between Anger and Depression, some never get Angry, only Denial/Bargain/Depressed states etc…this is because:- The “Five Stages” are better described as “States” of Grieving.They are POSSIBLE reactions, but never the ONLY possible reaction, and certainly can’t only happen in that specific order; they are states you can go into and out of and heck, even have simultaneously (Anger and Depression aren’t actually mutually exclusive, for one!) - in short?It’s not an orderly, predictable chain of events. At all.Western culture in modern times (MODERN times, mind you, not like, 300 years ago) believes pretty widely that it does happen in a specific order, that it has to, and that it’s weird to say, not have a Denial or Anger or Bargaining step… but it doesn’t have to happen in that order, and it’s not weird if a person experiences it differently from the “listed” order. It’s perfectly “normal” to never experience some or even most of those states in response to a loss.It’s also perfectly “normal” to experience all of them…in that order or otherwise, or to fluctuate between them, sometimes more than once.It’s normal to backslide right out of Acceptance. It’s normal to experience SLIGHT versions of them; to experience for instance, a tiny flash of anger but no real capital-A ANGER! - - or to be “sad” but not outright Depressed (in fact, some skeptics have lobbed considerable criticism at Kubler-Ross proponents because they feel it’s led to a rise in people being misdiagnosed with “Depression” when it was really just understandable, temporary “sadness” that didn’t rise to the clinical level)tldr…People can experience a lot of things when they grieve. They can also not experience a lot of things when they grieve.Grief is complicated that way. Grief is awkward. And unpredictable; uncomfortable - messy, just like the thing that triggers it.And like the loss itself? It will always, ALWAYS be specific. Unique. Personal. No two people will grieve the same death the same way. Even the same person might grieve the same loss differently at age 16 than they would at age 60. And different losses will feel different to the same person, and the same loss will feel different to different people. Or even the same person, on different days or at different hours.They might feel mostly angry at their father for dying of lung cancer, but feel everything when their mom gets in an accident. They might feel relief when Grandma “finally” passes after a long illness, and then feel bad and guilty that they can’t connect with everyone else who’s bawling their eyes out at the funeral.They might resent their well-meaning Aunt or Mother or Born-Again Brother for saying “he’s in a better place now”… or they might be only able to keep it together at all because they keep telling themselves that.They might get PTSD. They might not. They might recover; they might never get over it. They might recover at all only after years of talking it out with people who shared similar experiences, or they might only be able to get over it when other people finally shut the hell up and stop reminding them of it.They might be fine - except…for once in a while, when they’re not.Story time.I was relieved when Grandma died, because it meant less suffering on her part. And because it was devastating to see her slowly lose her mind to Alzheimer’s, while her body also fell apart more than she ever wanted to admit it was. I don’t know if she’s “in a better place” or not, but she’s not suffering, which is better, and it’s…so much less. Because it was so much; too much to deal with for the three long years we did. She loved us; she kept worrying about us, telling us not to burden ourselves; she’d rather have gone quickly in the hospital like she did, than for us to keep running ourselves ragged, and I know this. I knew it then, and still know it now. I felt more pain at seeing my mom upset when she died, than at knowing she was dead, because she would have been okay with it if she’d had her mind still intact enough to know what was going on, and she wasn’t…going to get any better. She hadn’t been, and she wouldn’t. She was over 95 years old, and it was a miracle she lasted that long. It was a relief. It was a relief, mostly, when she died. Because I felt I’d already gone through the grieving, ahead of time. I was mostly just…awkwardly patting my mother’s back and then giving her distance to sort out her own grief. Because I didn’t know what to say. She was grieving; she still needed to. I was okay, though. Because we could finally move on. I had already hit Acceptance.I still cried at her funeral a week later. I cried, because the pastor made us talk about what she meant to us when she was alive. Nobody else spoke up first, because it was awkward, when he asked us “what do you think of when you think of Ruth?. There was no eulogy prepared; we sat under a tent in a light rain and it was up to us to do it, and the silence for that long moment became oppressive, claustrophobic. So I blurted out: “Love”.He made me elaborate. And when I talked about how ridiculously, frustratingly self-sacrificing she was, how I knew she wanted to give and give and give, how I used to take care of her and I worried for her and she was always trying to put others first, even then, to literally terrifying extents - I cried a little. I had been fine for a week, and then digging that salt in just hurt, and I cried.But I was fine after that. For months.And then…A teddy bear that she’d gotten from a volunteer at the rehab place less about four months before she died. She’d given it to me, for Christmas, because she was stuck in the rehab place and “couldn’t get out to shop”, and she didn’t really “need it” and she saw I liked it. (See how she always thought of others? Guh)I had been cuddling it sometimes, because it was really soft, and I’m one of those very tactile people. I had been cuddling it for months, since before Christmas, since she gave it to me. And then one day, sometime after the funeral, I looked at it again and…I didn’t cry. But I felt…sad.Sometimes I cuddle it and I feel better.Sometimes I can’t stand to look at it.It’s in a closet right now, because this week I had too much to worry about and didn’t want a freaking teddy bear to be a downer. I don’t think I could stand to donate it though. At least just yet.I felt relief when she died, but in the aftermath? I feel kinda sad. But not all the time. Just sometimes. Just randomly - except it’s never truly random. It just feels like it is, because I’m never prepared to feel sad looking at a cute, fluffy stuffed animal with a bowtie.Grief is…weird.Grief is all over the place.Grief can be anything and everything.Or it can be nothing. Up until it’s Something again.I’ve made myself sad, a little, thinking about that - but now, as I hit the end of the post I’m…suddenly smiling a little (because it might help someone, yeah? This post? Maybe!)I might cuddle that teddy bear in a few minutes. I just realized that, I might actually cuddle it, and not even feel sad. Huh.Grief is weird.And THAT’s the best advice I could ever give on How To Write About Grief and Loss. :)(….yeeeah that wasn’t very tldr. Sorry. XD)-Mod Vorpalgirl

#long post #grief and loss #grief #mention of death tw #death #loss #writing advice #psychology #this post is writing advice #this post is intended as writing advice #this is meant as writing advice for fictional writing #grieving #multi-blog rec #referrals

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villa-kulla · 7 years ago

Note

I was hoping you might find time for the commentary! I expect this may be a common request, but would you do the scene at the end of Chisolm's 7, from '6 months later' to 'gradually remembered how to be himself'?

I had a feeling you’d choose that one haha and I’m so glad you did! It was exTREMEly satisfying to write. Thanks for the ask!

(***copy-paste disclaimer that this is NOT under a readmore because my blog’s black background makes reading long things a chore, so SCROLL FAST IF YOU’RE NOT INTERESTED!***)

Before this section even starts, for the 6 months later heading I intentionally left such ridiculously huge paragraph gaps before and after, just because I knew people would be scrolling and I wanted to convey distance for the time jump. If this had been a book I’d have wanted an almost blank page that says ‘6 months later’, so I guess wide gaps in between scrolling is the online version of that haha)

Goodnight stretched back on the lounge chair contentedly, baking underneath the hot sun. Billy would give him hell for having taken off his thin linen shirt in the middle of the day, but Billy was out swimming as it happened, and what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

Goody and I are one where the sun is concerned, in that we KNOW we burn easily but the allure of sunbathing properly is too much to resist haha, much to the despair of the ones who are trying to save us from ourselves/UV rays. This is absoLUTEly a source of much bickering for them haha

He reached for his drink, moving the colourful umbrella to the side as he took a pull from the straw. He licked his lips, the sweet juice mingling with the salty taste from when he’d gone swimming earlier.

They did that every day. Swimming, that is. Swimming, sailing, and making their way around the islands, no plans for the day other than if they should up the sails and find a new port to explore, or stay anchored, bobbing in crystal blue and green waters next to white beaches, alternating between swimming or laying back on the deck while they enjoyed each other’s company. Whether that was by playing cards, reading, tanning, keeping the large yacht in ship-shape, or having frankly ridiculous amounts of sex, the bliss of living with Billy Rocks still hadn’t worn off. And at this rate, Goodnight didn’t think it ever would.

living the high liiiiife. Back in chapter 1, Sam asks Goody what his plans with the bank money are, and Goody says ‘I see a yacht in my future’, and then BOOM, just like that I had the ending for this fic completely in place haha. Like the second I typed him saying that it was like “oh okay, so this fic ends with Goody and Billy on a yacht together, k cool”, and the whole way through I couldn’t wait to actually write it. And as we talked about before, this Dorothy L. Sayers quote was in my head the entire time writing it: “Lord Peter’s large income… cost me nothing and at the time I was particularly hard up and it gave me pleasure to spend his fortune for him. When I was dissatisfied with my single unfurnished room I took a luxurious flat for him in Piccadilly. When my cheap rug got a hole in it, I ordered him an Aubusson carpet.” Spending fictional money is extremely satisfying haha, so yeah, I was very much looking forward to spoiling these two

Goodnight nudged down his sunglasses, keeping an eye on Billy out in the water, smiling when he saw his dark head bobbing out in the water like a seal’s. They were anchored by a coral reef and Billy was out snorkeling again. Never content to just float on the water though, Goodnight often saw his head dip under to go chase a fish or pick up a shell on the sandy bottom.

I had to include the seal comparison, because as always, Billy is such a water creature to me. I blame River Grit lol, but the seal bit is my little shoutout to my own damn obsession with him as a water spirit. Also protective!Goody nudging down his glasses

Goodnight smiled and took another sip of his drink, making a mental note to ask Billy if he wanted to have dinner on shore or fix something on the boat. They were anchored off one of the many islands in the area, and this one had an appealing night market they’d explored the night before before, walking through the bright lights with cold beers in their hands, listening to the sounds of drums from the street bands, the smell of fish, pineapples, and coconuts thick on the air.

I like the domesticity in the phrasing of ‘fix something’, and how it suggests the kind of dinner routines they might have built up at this point in their little floating home. Can’t you just picture them in the kitchen, hips bumping while they both make supper, and holding things out for each other to taste? My heart

They’d seen what felt like half of the Pacific islands this way: sailing to different areas and exploring the local cities, enjoying the colour of each one. But as fun as their travels had been, Goodnight also enjoyed the time he spent with Billy just staying in on the boat: days spent lounging on the deck while they soaked up the sun, the ocean rippling clear around them; warm evenings of throwing something together in the yacht’s kitchen and eating dinner out on the deck with their feet dangling in the water as they watched the sun set; rainy evenings curled up in the lounge watching old movies on their flat screen while the rain drummed on the roof overhead and made the ocean outside as rippled and dented as a golfball. And then there were the nights spent with the windows thrown open, the hot breeze coming in while they moved together on the sheets, feeling and tasting every inch of each other, the movement of their bodies as steady and uplifting as the roll of waves.

I’ve often felt like this big chunky paragraph could have been more elegantly done, but I wasn’t sure how. But either way it was very satisfying to imagine and write these little scenarios for them. Personally I like the image of them eating on the side of the boat with their feet dangling in the water while the sun goes down best, but I also like the image of a rainy ocean being like a ‘golfball’. I was very keen to get the golfball comparison in there, but again, I feel like I could have done it more elegantly but just didn’t know how lol but ah well

Goodnight and Billy had each chipped in from their shares of the casino job so that they could buy the yacht. It was the closest thing either had had to a steady home in a long time, it had been worth every penny.

so they each made off with about 25 million if I remember correctly? I looked at a lot of yachts for sale while writing this (which was both fun and envy-inducing haha), and honestly a reeeeeally swanky mid-sized yacht could EASILY go for at least 50 million. But also I didn’t want them to spend their WHOLE cut of the take on a yacht, because they need to have millions left over to play around with! So idk, let’s say their yacht is certainly high end but not ostentatiously so, and they afforded it just fine with plenty left over for caviar. And btw, in all my yacht research, this one was probably closest to what I imagined for the exterior, although not exactly: https://www.burgessyachts.com/en/sale-purchase-category/yachts-for-sale/sailing-yachts/khaleesi-00006286.html (I couldn’t find an exACT match for what I had in my head but that one’s close-ish)

And speaking of a million dollar view…

coming up is my version of ‘Ursula Andress ascending from the sea in a white bikini in Dr. No’, only it’s Billy haha

Billy was climbing up the ladder, and god, this was just the best part of Goody’s day. He pulled himself up onto the deck, dripping wet, muscles glistening beneath the hot sun, black swimsuit clinging to his hips. He reached up to take off his snorkelling mask, the plastic strap tangling briefly in his hair which he then squeezed out. It was past his shoulders these days, either by preference or simply not being bothered enough to cut it.

would that not be a sight and a half……writing this paragraph was shameless voyeurism I tell you haha. Oh and also the ‘this was just the best part of Goody’s day’ was a reference to Matt Damon’s line in the movie when we see Julia Roberts coming down the stairs looking lovely and he says ‘This is just the best part of my day.’ Like it says in the fic notes, the plot itself is only LOOSELY based on Ocean’s 11 (in that it’s a team and they rob a casino haha), but there are a number of homages, lines, and references to the movie sprinkled throughout, because I love it so much

Billy bent down to take off his flippers, and Goodnight took the opportunity to quickly throw on his white shirt again, not bothering to button it. Billy would say he was burning up, although truthfully Goodnight had never been more brown in his life. He ran his fingers through his salty hair, mussing it up, knowing Billy found it fetching when his hair, sun-streaked with blonde these days, fell across his eyes.

while I do love canon-Goody’s gross, slicked-down hair as an endearing character trait, this was my chance to actually give him some nice, free hair, and I took it haha.

Billy straightened up and walked towards Goodnight on the lounge chair, clearly finding Goodnight as appealing a picture right now as Goodnight found him.

it’s fair to assume they don’t get a lot done, what with how much they just check each other out all the time

“Nice swim, cher?” Goodnight asked with a smile.

“Saw a lionfish,” Billy said with satisfaction as he picked up Goodnight’s drink and took a sip of it.

went back and forth for aaaages between ‘Billy said with satisfaction’ and ‘Billy said happily’. I really liked the ‘happily’ but felt it was coming off as too childish, especially for Billy’s first lines in this scene. I wasn’t trying to infantilize him with pure unfiltered pleasure at a lion fish, but that’s just how the ‘happily’ seemed to be coming off

“Bravo, darling. What’s that, only two thousand species left to go?” Goodnight asked, referring to the list Billy had taped to the fridge of all the different fish he wanted to see in the wild.

he WOULD have that though. oh I do love you, fishboy

“Something like that,” Billy agreed, handing Goodnight back his glass where he’d been batting at it. “Saw a leopard shark too.”

that ‘batting at it’ was completely meant to suggest lazy cat behaviour in Goody. ‘cause. I don’t know, man. They just make nice cats haha

Goodnight narrowed his eyes. “How big are those ones again?”

Billy warns Goody against messing with the sun, and Goody warns Billy against messing with sharks, it evens out in the end;) Protective bbs

Billy smiled. “They’re harmless, Goody.”

“Well maybe so, but you just remember what I said about chasing off after anything with bigger teeth than you,” Goodnight said warningly.

“You’ll be cross,” Billy said, smile still tugging at his lips.

“I’ll be cross,” Goodnight agreed.

“And you’ll scold me,” Billy murmured, bending down, his lips tickling Goodnight’s.

okay but writing Goody scolding people is just SO FUN FOR SOME REASON? I can see him getting all puffed up and ranting at people, and those who know him well know it’s best to just let him talk himself out. The scene earlier in this chapter of him floridly telling off Sam was extremely delightful to write lol. Goodnight definitely has a well developed sense of righteous indignation. Although any shark-related warnings Billy may have received would certainly have been given with love, they’d be given with fervour too, ‘cause I mean Goody didn’t go to all this trouble just to have Billy eaten by a SHARK

“Darn right,” Goodnight said with finality, leaning in to catch Billy’s lips, salty and cool against his own, and delicious every time.

He felt Billy’s lip turn up against his own, and suddenly Billy was pulling back and wiping a thick glob of cream against Goodnight’s nose.

“You were burning,” Billy said.

don’t know if anyone would have remembered the scene from chapter 6 at this point, but Billy was also warning Goody that he was getting a sunburn, and this is my little echo to that. Trapped or free, Billy is head of the ‘make Goody wear sunblock’ squad

Goodnight made a sound of protest but laughed and rubbed the sunscreen in. Billy kissed the tip of his nose when he was finished, and then hopped back onto the deck to go towel off.

I feel like Goody makes a lot of ‘sounds of protest’ in my fics lol, but sometimes it’s hard not to overuse the same mannerisms for characters. But on an unrelated note, BILLY. KISSING. GOODY’S. NOSE. I still can’t decide if that’s a very unBilly-like thing to do, or a VERY Billy-like thing to do, but either way, the image pleased me so in it stayed

Goodnight felt his heart swell to watch Billy move about the deck, limbs loose, posture relaxed, a world removed from the Billy Rocks he’d met in Vegas. That Billy had watched everything with wary eyes, posture tense, too skinny and his skin pale from so much time inside, suspicious of everyone and everything around him.

Goodnight had still found him the most beautiful man alive back then. But the Billy that had emerged these past six months was nothing short of a wonder. He was tanned and golden, muscles strong and healthy from hours spent swimming and doing work on the boat every day. His quietness from before had made him seem pent-up, almost like it was a defense. But any stretches of silence these days seemed borne of confidence instead, telling Goodnight what he thought of something with an eloquent lift of his eyebrows or a mere quirk to his lips. He was relaxed, cocky, so dry-as-dust funny he made Goodnight’s sides hurt, and so vibrantly self-possessed Goodnight felt he was seeing the real Billy Rocks come out more and more every day, leaving behind the buttoned-up Billy he’d met in Vegas as Billy gradually remembered how to be himself.

Hardest DVD commentary paragraph for last, but Billy was often a challenge to write in this one. I kept trying to write him as the Billy Rocks I’m used to - the one described in this paragraph - but he kept coming out as so wary, wound tight, and extremely vulnerable. But then again, why wouldn’t he be?? If you think about it, his situation is HORRIBLE. I think it’s realistic that he would feel extremely vulnerable and defensive, so that’s the Billy I ended up writing for much of the fic. And I told myself that the Billy we see on the yacht is when we finally see the REAL Billy Rocks….long hair and all:) Although if I can briefly mention the next paragraph, (‘Sometimes Billy would withdraw, and Goodnight knew he was retreating to years of repression and tension and wondering what he could have done differently to have changed his situation, or wondering if there was nothing he could have done at all. Sometimes it was hard to know which was worse.’) I felt it was really important to include that to show he’s not going to get over it just like that, or just because he has a nice house now. Billy would realistically have some ptsd for a long time after spending 10 years trapped and under extreme mental pressure. So it’ll definitely take Billy a while to cope with, but he has a much better footing to do it now, and I imagine given time, he’ll be even more like the Billy Rocks we’re all used to. And I like the last words of “Billy gradually remembered how to be himself”, because I’ve found in my own experience when it comes to getting over a traumatic period, those little flashes where you feel completely normal and like yourself again do feel like ‘remembering’ in a strange way. Like your whole body is remembering or something. So while it will still be a struggle sometimes, the more he remembers, the more like himself he’ll stay.

(P.S. Still not entirely sure if I’d do a sequel or if it’s just an idea to amuse myself with sometimes haha, but I’m sure the Billy Rocks in any ‘Chisolm’s 8′ would be more what we’re used to haha. And my image of the team meeting up again for the first time would contain a lot of whistles and ‘damn Billy’ and Billy’s just like ‘what??!’ and all alarmed by the attention, much like how he met them for the first time, and Sam’s just amused like “Nothing. You look good, Billy,” and Goody trails in after with him a dreamy smile all like “Doesn’t he though?”. Smitten, styling, criminals ‘till the last haha. And yes, Billy absolutely keeps the hair haha)

Thanks for the ask!:)

#fontainebleau22 #asks #writing #shares #long post

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script-a-world · 7 years ago

Text

Worldbuilding Advice

Hello hello! I’d love it if y'all could provide some feedback/advice on a world I’m working on.

So my world is an alternate universe that is effectively set up like a video game in the sense that every person has ‘skill points’. So for example, when someone is born, they all receive a base of 50 skill points which their parents can use to fill various attributes (IQ, EQ, Strength, Appearance, Endurance, etc.).

As people grow up, they receive additional points which they can use to 'flesh out’ their talents and traits. So on their birthday, people receive 10 additional points or when they graduate, they get X number of points. They also unlock new and more specific attributes as they go; Appearance might have subcategories of Height, Weight, or Eye Colour while IQ could splinter off into Mathematical skills vs Writing skills. Skill points effectively become a measurement/requirement tool in the world and each person’s skill points are visible to others. So for example, top-tier schools would give you 30 points upon graduation while lower-tier schools might only give their alumni 15. In order to be a teacher, you’d need at least 35 points attributed to Ethics/Morals while surgeons might need 58 points in Precision, etc.

People can choose to attempt to work on their skills/personality traits but the points indicate a cap on their potential. So if two people were studying Spanish, the person with 20 points in their Linguistics tree would never be able to master the language to the same degree as a person with 55 points. This provides an incentive for people to focus more on the acquisition of points rather than natural development of their abilities.

I’ve been brainstorming on how this might affect the way people interact in society. A few would be:

Class levels- The elite are able to afford schools that give out more skill points upon graduation, thus allowing them to get higher paying jobs. The rich are more likely to leave skill points as an inheritance to their children, giving the children a better start in life.

Trends- You’d have different fashion trends dictating which Appearance subcategories people should invest their points in. Different countries might prefer to spend their points on different categories.

Discrimination- Less focused on race/sex/orientation/etc. (although it still exists) and more on how many skill points a person has. People tend to date within their own point groups and it’s considered controversial if someone with a lot of skill points dates someone with considerably fewer points. Landlords might only rent out to people with certain attributes.

Jobs- Job requirements are a lot more quantifiable and you’d also have new types of jobs appearing while ones that exist in our world would disappear. For example,“plastic surgeons” in this world are not people who can change your appearance but people who allow you to re-organize the way you’ve currently allocated your skill points.

Values and Ethics- Subcultures and societies that don’t subscribe to the mainstream may choose to leave their points undelegated or allocate them to controversial categories. Families may pressure their children to use their points in certain ways in order to qualify for X job or Y school when they grow up.

What other issues do you think might crop up in a world setting like this? I’m struggling in particular with government-related changes as well as the subtle things that might affect people’s day-to-day routines. Any functional or logic-based suggestions to changes I could make? (Also, sorry for the length and rambliness of this ask).

Submitted by http://quriis.tumblr.com/

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Mirintala: Apologies that we’ve taken a while to reply back to this one. The team was taking some time to think about the ideas you’ve presented.

Werew: Honestly, this is so dystopian as a concept that if I read a book where this is how everything worked and the plot was NOT centered around the negative ramifications of such a society and people overcoming them somehow, I would probably throw the book across the room. I can see there being ENORMOUSLY massive differences in this society and if it looked like a slightly weird version of our own, I would also throw the book. This is not a criticism of the idea itself, I'm just saying that I think there are some things that would need to be present or it would feel strange and forced. If a book in this world didn't include heavy dystopian themes, I would go "what the hell is this society and why is it part of this book?"

I can see there being very heavy prejudice against people with lower skill points. Think of it like this: In today's world, some people see others as lesser based on a lot of things--race, origin, wealth--but pretty much every (decent) person knows that this is a bunch of bollocks. Some things grant greater opportunities to people and can impact what they are able to achieve in life, but it is entirely possible for a person of [inset disadvantaged group here] to completely outstrip someone of a more privileged group. But what are the impacts on society if there actually ARE people who are objectively "lesser" than others? Think about that. Now think about it again from a different angle. This will change so many things about the way that society is.

Obviously, there will be the changes that you described, but I think it will go so much deeper than you have described here. What if jobs don't even bother interviewing people anymore--they just view applicants' skill allocations and hire based on those. What if someone with a total number of skill points less than [number] is automatically disqualified, even if they meet every single other requirement because they were very careful with their limited number of skill points? Are innate aptitudes that don't have to do with skill points even a thing anymore? If two people from two different families grew up and applied no skill points to height, would they come out the same height or different ones? How deep does this go? Are races visually different because of genetics, or because they might choose to put skill points in certain areas?

I think that there will be entire subcultures based on skill point availability. People who are poor and have fewer opportunities to gain skill points will be entirely unable to move up in society. They will be restricted to low-income jobs, and will be completely stuck in the situation they were born in. They are likely to be seen as less than human by richer, more point-endowed people, who are likely to try to take their rights away. And they are likely to succeed. If the government is democratic--or at least "democratic"--nobody is going to vote for someone with low points to represent them. Even if the poorest people started out with the rights to vote, I could easily see them losing them--at least functionally--quickly.

Also, how does this affect mental illness, disability, chronic conditions, etc? Could a person with asthma overcome it by allocating enough points into certain places? Are there point categories for things like mental function? Do these things even still exist? Are the people in this world even still human as we define ourselves?

Synth: It sounds like an absolutely fascinating world. I'm mostly curious on what "form" these points take. Are they physical things (and can therefore be bartered/stolen), or something less corporeal?

On the whole I agree with what Werew said re: dystopia. Such a world, no matter how good the intentions of the folks in charge may be, is at risk of becoming intensely socially stratified very quickly.

The concept reminds me a little bit of the plot of the movie In Time, where, instead of the "skill points" of your story, people pay/get paid with literal minutes/hours of their lives. The poor live day to day in the most terrible sense of the phrase, while the rich are basically immortal.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/

Disclaimer: I have not actually seen this movie; just the trailers, and read a synopsis.

#pylons #submission #worldbuilding advice #feedback

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corvidprompts · 7 years ago

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Hello wise and mighty birb, I have a question. I have a character who is asexual, but I'm not 100% sure how to write this properly..

Hi!

Disclaimer:…

I’m asexual so??

EDIT: this has been edited for clarity of language, adding information in I either forgot or decided to cut initially for length or because i thought it was too technical for a how-to-write post, and all around been checked over for errors. I’ve also put in an effort to look for any internalized biases I may have had that gave this post a skewed feel, and the post has been edited in an attempt to make it more inclusive.

A big Thank You to the user who brought up these errors to my attention! I don’t claim to be perfect, and I know my posts aren’t the end-all-be-all of information. If you guys ever spot any errors in my posts, or have extra info, always feel free to reblog it with the information, or bring it to my attention. I feel like working together with your guys is one of the most important features of this blog to make sure everything is as accurate and detailed as possible, like the chain posts we’ve had on usa flag discourse and emetophobia. I really do want you guys to message me if you’ve feel I’ve messed up somewhere- I’m 18, I’m still learning, and I promise if you feel like there’s something you feel I need to learn, I will listen.

This is still written for the purposes of a how-to-write post

Asexuality is defined by a person having low or no sexual attraction to another person! This doesn’t mean that an ace person is blind to physical attractiveness, it just means the ace persons thought process might work a little differently

She was a shapely woman, with a slender waist and large, firm breasts. Her hips swayed as she walked, straight-backed and seductive

She had really large breasts and they looked fantastic, but man oh man, they must hurt when she walks down the stairs or something. I wonder if she uses some kind of corset to hold them up- it would explain her stiff posture.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that an ace person is entirely blind to sex appeal, though. An ace person will probably notice more revealing outfits or the stereotypical femme fatale red lipstick, but they’ll likely focus on describing the aesthetic of the person, rather than the sort of ~emotions~ evoked by it.

Say you have a succubus trying to seduce your ace person. Sure, most ace people (though not all) are capable of getting physically aroused. But it’ll be less like a seduction and more like

ace person: well.

ace person: time to go eat popcorn aggressively

succubus: don’t you wanna fuck?

ace person: lmao popcorn

i mean, sure. Some ace people have sex. Some don’t. It’s all a personal decision.

Asexual people tend to fall into one of three categories- sex repulsed, sex neutral, and sex-favourable.

Sex repulsed (or sex averse) asexuals find sex disgusting, upsetting, or otherwise associated with negative emotions. Sex repulsed aces might avoid places associated with sexual context, like bars, nightclubs, or comedy movies- not all of them, of course, but comedies that rely heavily on sexual humour might be out (Spy with Melissa Mccarthy for example!). Sex repulsed are the least likely group of aces to have sex at all, especially if they are also aces with low/ no libido or low/ no physical arousal.

Sex neutral aces have no strong feelings about sex, the same way one might have no strong feelings about unloading the dishwasher. It’s something one might do if their partner or friend is into sex, or if the person in question has a higher libido. Sex neutral aces might not be bothered by sexual content in low doses, but still might seek to avoid things containing a great deal of sexual content.

Sex favourable aces are usually fairly on board with sexual jokes and references- essentially, while a sex favourable ace doesn’t feel attraction, they’ll probably be just fine with engaging in sexual humour. Sex positive aces are the most likely aces to have sex, especially one night stands or those sort of things.

Another thing to note is that asexual=/= aromantic. With most sexualities, you can kinda assume that the romantic and sexual preferences line up, but not with aspec stuff!! that’s why you hear phrases like ‘ace lesbian’ ‘aromantic bisexual’ or ‘aroace’. This isn’t a post on aromantic people who aren’t ace, so I’m only including info on or applicable too aroace folks

A non aro ace person can still feel crushes and romantic love! Hence non-aro. There might be some stress on the ace character to feel sexual, or they might feel underdeveloped or not ready despite knowing they’re ace. There’s also a lot of pressure from the media and societal norms to have sex once in a relationship. Even if the relationship is healthy and loving and full of good communication, the ace person might still feel like they ~arent doing enough~ since there’s no sex.

An aromantic ace person won’t have crushes at all! No romantic tension, no sexual tension. Some aromantic people feel alterous attraction, which is often described as being like friendship, but more intense and deeper, with the added desire to touch (like holding hands or snuggling), but not as passionate as romance. Some aroace people might think that it is romance, and end up in a relationship that they’re uncomfortable in. Some aroace people can also be aplatonic, which means they don’t desire any kind of companionship. It depends on the person my man

a ~bad~ example of an aplatonic aromantic is voldemort. Often times villians are aromantic and that’s used as a~motivator~ of their ~evilness~. please don’t do this.

Aromantic people also fall on the romance repulsed/neutral/positive spectrum

A lot of ace and aroace people struggle with microaggressions like ‘You’re just a late bloomer’ ‘people just aren’t people without love and sex’ ‘unmarried people must be so unhappy’ and the fact that nearly all media involves a romance plot and the majority include some kind of sexual references if not a blatant sex scene.

You know how everyone is touting wonder woman as god tier? Yeah, I loved it, but man I’m so sick of that kind of moral lesson of ‘love taught me goodness’. A very aro-unfriendly movie. (see the voldemort comment above)

A lot of language is full of microaggressions that are tough to notice. These things can also be subjective- when i first wrote this post i used the phrase ‘non aro aces can feel crushes fine’ to mean than non aro ace people would still feel crushes, but the phrasing is confusing and subjective, and can be hurtful. The phrase ‘just friends’ irks me, and I know I still use it since it’s such a common phrase and view of platonic relationships. It’s extremely tough to cut such phrases from your vocabulary, especially if you aren’t in a place where you can be open about your id and have to perform heteronormativity in order to ensure your safety.

lastly: JOKES!!!! jokes r the cornerstone of an ace character. Cake jokes, food jokes, exaggerated flirting between friends ect ect. Jokes make a character!!!

I was given these links by the user who asked me to edit this post, and I definitely think they’re worth checking out. This is one on asexual people with no libido or arousal and this is one on the ace experience

Hope this is helpful!!

#advice #Anonymous #Noisy birb #technical prompts

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