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randomnumbers751650 · 2 years ago

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This is a follow-up to my previous post on One Piece Film: Red and Uta.

I feel what makes the tragedy so effective is how ultimately there was absolutely no malice in any of the characters that set off the events: Shanks just wanted the best or Uta and shield her from trauma, Gordon just loved music and Uta just wanted to sing.

I know that Shanks is the second biggest mystery of the series – the One Piece itself being the biggest – but even for someone who never saw the series, the movie does depict him as a force for good. So, when someone sees Uta’s flashback scene, they ought to realize there’s something wrong. Shanks was younger and, arguably, less mature when he did that decision.

From what I understood, he assumed that Uta would never sing again if she learned the truth, so, in order to make her dreams real, he took the blame and shame of being the responsible for destroying Elegia. Even if Uta hated him because what she thought he did, he just still loved her. This would qualify as “noble lie”, but…it didn’t work. Well, it kinda worked until she learned the truth.

Gordon also was such an interesting character. As a king and lover of music, he couldn’t destroy Tot Musica’s sheet. This is a unique type of error, an error so unique that nobody in the world, but him, could make. He admitted that, while sobbing, he couldn’t destroy it because he just loved music. So, when the Straw Hats, especially Usopp, told him he was still the best father figure he could to Uta, that scene really hits different.

But I wonder if destroying Tot Musica’s sheet would make any difference. Tot Musica itself isn’t really a character. Would it be difficult to have it sprout cheesy one-liners while declaring its world-destroying intentions? It is eerily silent, in spite of all the song it makes. Instead, Tot Musica is more of a force of nature than anything else. As much as you can’t bargain or converse with a hurricane or an earthquake, you can’t bargain with Tot Musica – it seems to be a demon born from music itself and all the sorrow and madness it brought along, along with all its joy and happiness. Tot Musica was attracted by Uta’s singing and the sheet just appeared to her, as if it was fate happening. So, if Gordon had enough fortitude to burn the sheet, what if an identical sheet would appear besides him just to mock him? As long there is music, Tot Musica will lurk in its shadow.

So, only a person who loved music a lot could be its vessel. As I said, Uta picking the cursed sheet was something almost inevitable. There was no devil tempting or goading her. It was her fault for something that wasn’t even wrong – memes of “did nothing wrong” abound, but this case earns it. And since she was possessed and destroyed Elegia out of her love of music and accident, not out of malice, the guilt would’ve break her. This explains Shanks’s decision – it was a wrong decision, but it wasn’t a 100% wrong decision.

And when she learned the truth, she broke. The weight of her guilt and shame just broke her. Without anyone to talk about her feelings, she saw nothing but despair in her future. And, as a performer, she had to combine her desire of making everyone happy with her music and her suicide into a spectacle. Even in her despair, she still wanted the best for the people, independent of anything that made them different (I think it’s kinda funny that the audience started to realize there was something wrong when she antagonized a terayubito).

But, even so, I felt she was never satisfied with her decision. Despair and sleep deprivation made her quite unhinged, but she still wanted someone to help her. Rewatching the scene where Shanks finally appears, she seemed to quickly smile out of relief, before resuming her character.

I talked to a friend of mine about it and she said that the plot seems to be following the “kisshotenketsu” type of story. In that, there’s not necessarily a “moral”, but the story is structured around a set-up and then overturning everything you knew with one big twist, and the consequences of that twist. In this case, the real story behind Elegia’s destruction, and how none of the three main characters involved had absolutely any malicious intentions. And the entire movie isn’t about redeeming Uta - as much as it is Luffy's objective -, but dealing with the consequences of that tragedy. Still, Uta was able to regain control of her destiny in the end and spare the world from the consequences of her actions, even if it cost her life.

It’s obvious the road to hell is paved in good intentions, but without good intentions there’s no way out of this road.

#one piece #one piece red #one piece film red #uta one piece #uta op #this movie makes me feel things

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oliveroctavius · 3 years ago

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A ramble about how the different internal world logic of different Spider-Man universes affects characterization/how much I enjoy the story (featuring ITSV, Raimi, TASM, and NWH)

superhero vs villain stuff is the most basic morality play. There are Good guys and Bad guys and when the Bad guy hits the Good guy, it's bad; but when the Good guy hits the Bad guy it's good. You just have to assign roles and start a fight, and every story is going to draw that line differently.

this doesn't HAVE to be realistic at all and I'd argue it's most fun when it's not trying to be. You don't have to tackle systemic issues in a story about a guy who can scale buldings unless you're certain you have something to say. They can be figurative challenges, I can understand metaphor.

Spider-Verse understood this SO well it makes it visual. Every character exists inside rules that are very real to them even if they're nonsense to someone else there. The physical rules of Spider-Ham's world are non literal (he can fit a hammer in his pocket) as are the moral rules (he can eat a hotdog as a joke). On the other end of the spectrum, Peter B. has back problems, financial issues, just went through a messy divorce... Real Person Problems. The ads in his dimension are also for real life products, while Miles' are all made up. Miles' Peter was "perfect", so we accept that in his dimension there are archetypical heroes—and archetypical villains. They can have simplistic motivations and speak in clichés; don't worry about it. But Miles' Peter died in a very real tragedy, so we know the world rules still take consequences seriously even if the conflict is stylized. The metaphor is made clear with "anyone can wear the mask": anyone, from any world, can draw inspiration from the archetypical hero.

I always have to put in a disclaimer when I'm rambling so I don't sound insufferable: I do get why people's enjoyment hinges on characters. I don't think caring about World Rules is the only like, moral way to enjoy fiction I'm just weird and love dissecting systems. That said, this perspective really wrecks the TASM movies compared to the Raimi movies for me.

Both these movies are (1) live action and (2) create a superhero into a world that doesn't have that archetype yet. So the world has to explain its reasoning for what makes a hero vs a villain before the punching starts. Not just "a villain is a villain because I caught them doing something bad" but "why did they decide to do something bad to start with?"

I really like the Raimi movies' premise, always drawing parallels between the hero and villain as outcasts who gain a large amount of power over others right after a major personal tragedy. This kinda ruins the "sanctity" of the characters but builds a really strong theme. The difference is: when they get a chance to make a choice, do they listen to the voice that wants to make the selfish one, or do they make the kind one? OBVIOUSLY if this was a literal political stance there's a lot wrong with "criminals are criminals bc they choose to be" but the world rules are very intentionally cheesy. The actual criminal justice system is barely a presence because this is a metaphor for you and your ability to help people despite your worst instincts.

The TASM movies on the other hand seem to want to be more serious in science, effects, personality, and dialogue. But then the through-line separating heroes and villains is bioengineered genetics. Booo. That's already weird, but the more seriously I'm told to take it the more I hate it.

Electro is my favorite TASM villain partially because he has more complex motivations. I love TASM Max Dillon but the world rules don't seem to! Garfield would be the superior Peter Parker in a universe that wasn't so dedicated to proving him wrong. Yes, he mouths off to a police officer in his own home. And then the movie has that officer nobly save his life at the climax. Sure, he's just an average guy doing his best. But then the movie explains that this is literally his genetic heritage. Yeah, he tries to talk Electro down. But when the police ruin the moment, it's like it's only for "realism" rather than commentary, and the tragedy of that failure is immediately forgotten. Max and Harry become villains in large part due to abuse by the powers that be, but Peter stops them once they fight back while Oscorp goes unpunished. Systemic injustice is written in as something that creates villains, but the hero is never allowed to meaningfully challenge that injustice, just deal with the mess it creates.

Plus, because Peter is written to be smart, he has to uncritically agree with the genes nonsense. He's probably right that his Parker blood would kill Harry if it got into his cursed Osborn bloodstream. That's just the way the world rules work, forcing him to play by their moral code and make the cruel choice even as a kind character. Hell world. Hell world.

I don't have much to say about the MCU's world rules; I figure they were built for characters who aren't Peter Parker and it shows. NWH is interesting though to compare to ITSV. ITSV didn't have to make its universes play by different rules, but they did. NWH was actually pulling characters from universes with established rules, but that only really comes up in jokes for Spideybros stuff, really.

All the villains are treated in Exactly the Same Way though which raises some major questions. It doesn't mess up the TASM villains too bad to offer them cures since plenty of their problems were medical or systemic, even if it feels totally evil to leave out Harry when his entire arc was around needing a cure he never got. But since the Raimi villains come from a 'verse where their villainy is tied to their choices they're being cured of... the ability to make a choice. Which feels. How do you say. Wack. I honestly don't understand what the MCU thinks the difference is between its heroes and villains. Brand recognition, maybe.

I think the strongest case for TASM's world rules being cruel is that Electro is finally given more respect as a human being when he's handled with the MCU's world rules, while the Raimi villains are given less. Sure Curt is given less respect but I'm going to be honest: I don't think he deserved the respect the TASM movies gave him. He was a eugenicist before the lizard thing and it's anyone's guess if he ever learned a lesson beyond "don't test lizard serums on yourself". Which isn't a terribly generalizable life lesson outside their universe.

There's no real moral to this one, I just have to talk to myself out loud sometimes to avoid going mad. I think world rules are under-discussed in fandom, maybe because imagining characters into different worlds is an ancient fandom pastime. People will get mad at you for being OOC but not OOU (out of universe). Funny, because I don't think you can really separate those things.

#olivertxt #meta #this one's long but I think universe rules are SO INTERESTING and so ignored

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proxis-shattered-expectations · 3 years ago

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Hehehe here's something Halloween related but, how would the horsemen do with horror movies and horror games?

Ooooooh, not much of a hack/slash/horror film gal, but I love suspense/mystery/horror, so I will try my best!

Death

. Don't think he's a big fan of cheesy slasher films, thinks they are tame in comparison to the shit he's seen in his lifetimes

. But if there is one thing that never ceases to surprise him, its mystery/suspense/and thriller films that humans make.

. He would especially take interest in the ones that deal in the human experience, like mind bending films that show the true horror of human conscience and capacity for evil.

. Likes to see the films that put people in scary but realistic scenarios that put their values and morale compass into question, and of the drastic measures they all take to preserve their life. (Silence of the lambs type of guy)

. Dunno if he's a video game kinda nephilim, but I think would enjoy games like Dead space, little nightmares, and a personal favorite, Death stranding.

War

. Despite it's cheesiness, he kinda does like slasher horror. I mean at first he thought the movies were real. It takes some explaining.

. He does like his share of thriller/mystery, but is not the type to deep think about a movie's meaning or wait around for the hidden answer

. Would also like sci-fi horror if that counts, even a love-craftian inspired one.

. Would be surprised with what kind of things human imagination can create even if they never saw are experienced the real thing. Our version of demons make him wonder about our sanity as a whole

. Definitely the guy who sees the slasher film stereotypes and says out loud what they should have done instead of dying a worthless death.

. Also kinda the guy who chuckles when the slasher kills someone in a horrible, yet obviously overdone way.

. Video game wise, gonna go with Bloodborne, and many hack-slash games.

Fury

. Is genuinely disturbed

. A buncha useless, hairless simians can come up with the stupidest, yet equally horrifying ideas when it comes to scary movies.

. Questions our sanities and capacity for a vivid imagination. "Humans as a whole are disturbing."

. I think likes both slasher and mystery when it comes to horror movies. Likes it when a movie has deep meaning, but wants some action at least. Not to cryptic, but not too Gorey either.

. Laughs at the stereotype misfortunes, thinks they are all stupid and should be smarter than that.

. Don't think she is a video game gal, just likes watching people play it. But if there is one, probably resident evil.

Strife

. Horror movie connesiuer. No questions

.The shining, IT, the conjuring, any classics. You name, he's probably seen it. Twice.

. Also a middle man when it comes to movies, but also likes cheesy scary films the most.

. When he first watched modern horror movies, he was scared. Just a little. Shocked at how advanced we were to make something digital look so terrifying.

. Also thinks it is fascinating how humans take the time to explore such a dark side of the human conundrum. Good vs evil, and where we draw the line.

. Loves love-craftian, monster, and even slasher films.

. Though I think he kind of draws the line at dolls.

. They creep him the fuck out.

. Also, loves any horror games.

Hope ya like, and don't be shy to send me more Darksiders asks

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dreamsister81 · 4 years ago

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"If you listen to the lyrics of Hallelujah closely, you notice it’s a song about sex, about love, about life on Earth. The hallelujah isn’t a tribute to a worshipped person, an idol or a god, but it’s the hallelujah of orgasm. It’s an ode to life and to love."-OOR, August, 1994

Why did you cover a Leonard Cohen song?

Because I find myself in Hallelujah, not because of Cohen.-Knust interview, September 13, 1994

“Any of the covers on the album are there because they mean a certain thing in my life that I love and I miss. One day I was house-sitting for a friend and she left her whiskey out and I got into it and hit this horrible sorrowful jag. I went to the gig-Sin-É, in fact-weeping like a fucking animal. The whole time. I sang ‘Hallelujah’ that night and I got through the show just on the edge of tears. I don’t know why. It just wells up inside you."-Hot Press, October 5, 1994

And this version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", does he know the John Cale version? "Well, actually, I'm playing John Cale's version, that's where I got it from, from that record "I'm Your Fan" that I listened to at a friend's house. I also know Leonard's original, but he doesn't sing every verse, the way John interprets it is so...simple."-Rock & Folk, October, 1994

" 'Hallelujah' for example I learned in New York from John Cale after a year working at Sin-é on a day when I found myself crying like a baby and that song expressed exactly what I was feeling. A title like 'Hallelujah' makes one think of the church, of morality and instead there is a deep humanity inside, there is the idea of making love, losing love, being crucified. Leonard wrote ten verses for that song and I don't know why he didn't sing them all, I just chose the ones I felt were most mine. He has this extraordinary ability to grasp the fundamental element of a certain situation and to "steal" it, make it his own and build the text around it."-Rockerilla, October, 1994

The artists you've covered so far are Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Alex Chilton, they're connected on a certain line. It's kind of cult people or like that. Do you select those songs consciously?

It doesn't matter who's song it is. I did it because each moment in my life matched the song so well. For example, Leonard's "Hallelujah." One day, I was intoxicated with so much sadness, I was totally wasted after drinking whiskey and practicing this song. Right after that, I went into the gig as I was, and I was screaming like an animal. I'm singing that song with those experiences in mind. I have to be myself before the song exists.-Rockin'on October 1994

"Hallelujah, I was just housesitting for a friend, watching her cats while she was away and I got into her whiskey and got into her record collection and there was there was John Cale's version of Hallelujah on I'm Your Fan. And I'm not...there are Leonard Cohen enthusiasts...it's not because of Leonard that I did the song, it's simply because of the song and because of the verses. I'm just in there somewhere. I have no blood bound allegiance to Leonard, although i have an incredible admiration and real great love of his work you know? There's a difference between somebody who's a total Tom Waits freak and just somebody who just likes to listen to them, and you know, the Tom Waits freak will know everything: the demos, the back in the days when he used to sound like Billy Joel, blah, blah, blah...hear the European demos, well, he didn't used to, but back when he was a bit smoother. You know, just knows everything. And I don't know everything about Leonard Cohen, and I haven't read Beautiful Losers, and I haven't done that, but it was just a great song."-WBCN's "Nocturnal Emissions", October 23, 1994 in Boston, Massachusetts

" 'Hallelujah' I didn't do it because it's by Leonard Cohen, but because I like the song. Based on that it was done for all the songs, including mine. The version that inspired me is a John Cale version with all ten verses, unlike the way it appears on Various Positions. The night I first proposed it at Sin-é was a special night, I had also been a bit of a jerk. You see, the word Hallelujah has its own definite sign, you connect it to the church. Instead, for me it is a word that celebrates something very human, it speaks of a deep connection between pain and the human condition. That word has nothing to do with being nailed to a cross: there's when you're hurting, but there's also when you're making love, when you're losing it."-Buscadero, November, 1994

"The fact that I did Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah doesn't mean anything, Cohen is something you discover when you're discovering life, you don't get there when you're very young."-Rumore, November, 1994

"Finally, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah not for the meaning of religious purity that anyone can see, but for more earthly reasons: pain, sex, orgasm and the cruelty of everyday life. I believe in people, not in heaven. Without people God would not exist, he would not make sense."-Tutto, February, 1995

I wanted to ask you about your version of "Hallelujah". I guess its based more on John Cale's version than Leonard Cohen's original?

Yeah. But I heard the one on (Cohen's album) Various Positions first. Then I was stuck in a room with that I'm Your Fan CD (a Cohen tribute album) and I listened to (Cale's version) and it was, again, very simple. Then I heard that version one time again in Tower Records, and I was just struck. There and then, I thought, "This is wonderful ."

But am I right in thinking you don't really rate your version, compared with Cale's?

Well, he's a man. Mine's too fast. I know the difference between myself in a totally empty situation-which is best, where anything can happen-and in a situation where something's expected. And I don't feel very good about that day, and the time I chose that song to be included on the record, it was between that version and another version that I really despised. All in all, there must 22 versions floating out there. It's just never the right time. It seems that the only right time is when I'm telling it to people. And I guarantee, I have mashed that version into the ground nightly on tour, just creamed it. And there's also a version on the master reel for "So Real" that, because I was so wiped out and exhausted after that day-we'd recorded "So Real" and I recorded one last "Hallelujah", and that was my best one-I just forgot about that "So Real", I was so tired. So it's just hanging around out there. C'est la vie. Part of making records is letting stuff go.-February 28, 1995 interview, published in Uncut, September, 2004

I tell him that Bono loves Grace and says that Buckley's cover of Cohen's Hallelujah is better than his own. (Buckley plays John Cale's slightly altered version of the song from the I'm Your Fan tribute album to Cohen.) Buckley slumps back in his chair, as he does when on the defensive, and curls his lip in a manner that accentuates his resemblance to Matt Dillon. "I don't think I did that right," he sighs, passing over the compliment without comment. "I hope Leonard doesn't hear it. The way I do it live is better. I did it all live in the studio, there's no overdubs at all, but I pop it in unexpectedly in the show and it works better. The way I did it sounded more like a child and sometimes I've sung it more like a man."-Mojo, March, 1995

"It's a hymn to being alive. It's a hymn to love lost. To love. Even the pain of existence, which ties you to being human, should receive an amen-or a hallelujah."-Schwann Spectrum, Spring 1995

"I found myself in that song and I performed it many times in solo shows. But I'd be neglecting something if I didn't say that I learned it from John Cale. John Cale was the one that brought it to recording first, on the tribute album I'm Your Fan and he used these lyrics, these verses, for the song that didn't appear on Various Positions, which was the first album that Hallelujah appeared upon. I was house-sitting for my friend Susan and she had some whiskey...I don't know, I just hit a big, really bad sorrow jag and put on the song, and it was so simple the way John sang it that the words went through me, and I learned the words that night, played it that night at my gig at Sin-e...I don't know, it just stayed with me ever since. I wasn't gonna put it on the album at first 'cause I didn't write it and it would be kinda cheesy but I thought better after a couple suggestions from a friend of mine, and I did. Unfortunately, I think people will ask for it until the day I'm grey and old and fat, which I don't like, so I'll have to write something better, and I will."-Sony promo interview

"He has a unique talent for making everyday life poetic and surreal-the most difficult way to write. However, on Hallelujah, I much prefer the lyrics rewritten by John Cale for the I'm Your Fan compilation. It is this version that I have taken up, not Cohen's version."-Les Inrockuptibles, July, 1995

"That's not a hallelujah of chasteness and piety," Buckley explains. "It's more menstrual. It has more to do with the hallelujah of orgasam, of pain, of joy, of flesh, of being tied to the earth. Not of invisible angels in heaven who may or may not come down to tell you how good or bad you are, or Santa Claus."-Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 1995

#jeff buckley #hallelujah #mylove #supremebeing #favorite #music #behind the song #it's NOT a bloody Christmas song folks #or meant for a church or kids #please and thank you

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just-honey-dewd · 4 years ago

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What medium best expresses Sonic’s character?

Right, so this is a bit of a detour from the typical Hazbin Hotel posts I’ve been making, but I really did a heck-ton of work to come up with this. Then again, I type overly long paragraphs as a hobby, so jokes on anyone who thinks I don’t do this for fun... but then again... jokes on me for making the time to type Hamilton-esque essays on fictional characters ._.

Okay enough with tangents, this is an essay dedicated to answering what medium -- songs, scenes, cartoons, maybe even a comic issue -- best encompasses Sonic’s character. Take in mind, throughout the 29-almost-30 years of Sonic, there have been many iterations and takes on the character that either differentiate on a minor level, or to the point that some Sonics when compared seem to be starkly different characters altogether, so this is purely what I feel is the best take on Sonic’s character. For my sake, I’ve sworn off including material that require a long-winding read through some mediocre storylines -- nothing personal, Archie Comics. I won’t be covering Archie Comics because I’ve yet to finish reading all 200+ comic issues because that’s not humanly possible for me. If I ever manage to though, I might make a post about Archie Comics in some way. For now, here’s my personal essay on “What medium best expresses Sonic’s character”

Starting off with shows...

Sonic SatAM (1993) and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) are products of their time, and I never got to watch them when I was young, so I hold no sentimental nostalgia. Sonic SatAM seems in-line with Archie Comics, with the Freedom Fighters plotline and the infamous Sonic mohawk with lasted for a significant amount of issues. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was pretty comical and lighthearted in comparison. Both were voiced by Jaleel White, had the same artstyle, and established Sonic’s character in vastly different tones. It’s rather outdated as Sonic has lived past the 90s for 20 years, where he got revised and reinvented to suit the decades. So both characterizations are simply inapplicable to Sonic’s character.

2003′s Sonic X worked off of the newly reinvented Sonic and paved way for Sonic’s personality for the following years, but I do have critique over the show, and their execution of Sonic’s character. Though they did provide Sonic's "constant desire to run", he lacked soul and the over-the- top nature of his character. Sonic throughout this show displayed a rather hollow connection with his relationships, was as distant and aloof as Knuckles for seemingly no reason, lacked much depth and barely developed, and was overall, very poor with communicating his thoughts and actions -- which ultimately led to a number of plot lines where his friends and/or authorities saw his intentions as malicious or even evil. Sonic is hyperactive and free-spirited -- something this show doesn't fail to display -- but Sonic lacked his heart. Where was that desire to hang out with his friends? Where was the underlying love and compassion he'd constantly display in and out of battle? Where were his cheesy yet well-meaning impromptu speeches? These aspects of Sonic were sorely lacking and missed when I watched through this series which is why I believe this anime didn’t really express Sonic's character.

Sonic Boom...

...is a lighthearted, slapstick sitcom-based comedy. Very episodic, which is aight, but the the show’s execution as a whole was mediocre-borderline-bad. It doesn't have much elements inherently Sonic-esque -- it's a product of the Modern era, which at this point, doesn’t seem to have good connotations. No worthwhile soundtrack, stunted animation and movement, embarrassingly heavy reliance on overused archetypes/stereotypes at the expense of the characters, repetitive plots that get the THICC layer of frosted sarcasm and self-awareness. Sonic had attitude sure, there was a clear level of disinterest and cynicism to this portrayal -- it was as though protecting people felt like a burden and chore to him. It doesn’t help that this feeling is justified as Eggman’s been reduced to a pathetic Saturday Morning villain with lesser competency in being a world threat, and much rather a constant nuisance to Sonic’s town than anything else. Subjectively speaking, this show's clearly not for me -- even when I was in the supposed age range at the time. Objectively, this Saturday morning cartoon should've been branded as it is, rather than a Sonic cartoon because the identity of Sonic the Hedgehog definitely got skewed and misconstrued by the eyes of newcomers whose first exposure to Sonic the Hedgehog character was this. Ironically, due to this show, I subsequently furthered my distance from the franchise at that age, and got into it much, much later in life.

Now moving onto the songs...

Initially, I considered “Escape from the City”, “Live and Learn", "His World" and "Fist Bump" as good contenders in defining who Sonic is. But through some vigorous looping of those songs, I've pinpointed what they've to offer in showing Sonic's character, and due to my consistent nature of typing overly long arguments about anything I find interesting, I'll be putting each song into its own paragraph -- picking out any significant verses, and explaining why I think each song subconsciously contributed to my thought process that they would be the best take on his character. Afterwards, I’ll finish with my conclusion. (I personally suggest you go listen to each song as you read each paragraph)

"Escape from the City" is a timeless bop, and I will play it in the car whenever I'm actively escaping from authorities in my city. What this song does is use rhythmic beats and repetitive bass line to emulate the constant adrenaline and excitement Sonic feels when he's moving around, it embodies his carefree nature and spontaneity to a T. It succeeds in portraying the energetic, upbeat aspect of his personality as the song itself contrasts the very dangerous implication of being chased down by the government for a crime you didn't commit. Sonic doesn't get enough credit for the amount of cheerful optimism he has -- always moving with a spring in his step, or steps considering the speed part. He brushes off the most life-threatening dangers he has to face and takes it all in with that well known Sonic™ grin. It also shares a constant message of "Live and Learn" (which the song of the same title) -- this is a rather succinct version of Sonic's mantra. The song is very Sonic, but only manages to show his surface level personality. Kinda like Sonic X's theme song "Gotta Go Fast" but it's much less in your face about Sonic's whole shtick. Another thing to note is the element of "escape" is a constant in both "Escape from the City" and "Endless Possibility", which I'll get further into later. Given that this song was more focused on the primary objective of ‘City Escape’ the game level rather than exploring Sonic’s fundamental character, it's very cool how it just so happened to tie in well with him...

"Live and Learn" was more of a Sonic and Shadow song, so I already kinda figured it wouldn't manage to explore Sonic's character much. The first verse and chorus offers as much for Sonic's character as Shadow's oh-so few lines of verse 2 does. Again, the song only manages to provide Sonic's surface level personality. Reason it came up in my mind was because of the words 'Live and Learn'. It's a very motivational and inspiring line -- what got me thinking about Sonic’s character in the first place. It's an unspoken rule for him to take life headfirst and live in the moment, and legit the second issue of the IDW's comics reiterates this by Amy expressing that this free-spirited approach to life is what essentially makes her love him.

"Fist Bump" was like my first exposure to Sonic main theme songs -- and I'm still into listening to the song. I realize the lyrics are pretty generic, but it does reflect the general focus of Sonic character very well -- which may further explain why Modern Sonic is much less... developed, to say the least. What the lyrics essentially hone in on are Sonic's loyalty to his friends and his.... unyielding determination? Honestly, a very generic take for a main theme, and it reflects on the quality of the game if even the music lacked much personality compared to any heroic video game character theme song. Sonic had more personality to offer in his silent protagonist games, compared to this. This issue with Sonic's character barrels down to Modern Sonic retaining his previous counterpart's cheesy insistence to spout improvised speeches and embrace the power of friendship -- though it's definitely gotten out of hand in this case. We need balance.

Making Sonic more family-friendly ≠ Dumbing down what nuance or individuality there was to his character and making him every other generic hero protagonist who quips for 90% of his dialogues.

Finally, "His World", but I'll do Crush 40 and Zebrahead's separately, sort of. Crush 40 explicitly tells Sonic's character how it is -- his strict moral code, good intuition, confidence in himself, "seize the day" mentality, straightforward disposition, stubborn determination, love for his friends, and fearless risk-taking -- it's pretty lengthy but it does a good job as Sonic's theme and manages to state what it's like in his world. However, the song faces eerily similar issues to "Fist Bump" with it's lack of creative interpretation with its lyrics, and compared to "Escape from the City", it seems more formal and serious in tone which is reflective of their portrayal of Sonic.

I interpret Sonic as a multifaceted character, but when listing out all those traits in the verses and chorus in the song’s tone and format melody-and-lyric-wise, the song makes it appear as though Sonic is strictly a pillar of justice and represents the strong, untouchable hero persona -- which I find to be a detrimental writing aspect for his character. It writes off his personality as second priority to the reputation that would have receded him through the years of defeating Eggman and saving the world -- and subsequently, paints his character in a rather dulled and overly no-nonsense light. Not saying I don't want Sonic to be serious at certain points, but I think with this song, and this game as a whole, there was some truth to the issue of Sonic '06 being a little too serious. While these characters were well-written in this game e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t, I've had personal issues tied to em:

Shadow coming back was quite risky and foolhardy for his character journey and I believe if it weren't for the great execution for his storyline in '06, his appearance would've been viewed as fanservice -- which is what he's sadly been reduced to now

Silver's character concept as a whole was pretty dark and serious, which again isn’t a bad thing, but with the plot resulting in him seeing Sonic as the Iblis Trigger, it limited Sonic's ability to play up his easy-going, carefree nature since he couldn’t just brush off that accusation with offhanded remarks as that would’ve risked Sonic coming off as insensitive and unsympathetic at that moment. Which is not what the writers want their characters to go.

Elise. There, I said it.

On top of it all, "His World" is pretty slow-going for Sonic’s theme, which I could try justifying by saying it might’ve been a representation of significant growth to Sonic's character -- perhaps the journey managed to shape him into a man (hedgehog) who could spare a bit of time to contemplate his next course of action -- as this game definitely explored a major deviation from typical Sonic game story lines. But, even with that, I still really prefer Zebrahead's version.

Zebrahead's is vastly the same when telling Sonic's character how it is, but the instrumentals, pacing and speed is increased significantly that it definitely sounds more reminiscent of Sonic's musical style -- fast-paced rock and roll. But, I’ve yet to figure out the significance of the lyrics:

Especially when it follows right after "Never fear the fall" -- so you take the leap of faith, but also don't let yourself fall in the process? Pretty weird flow of words there, but maybe I’m just not getting it at all. Point is, what both songs hone in on is Sonic's intuitive sense of justice and a bit of his carefree nature -- since the lyrics from Zebrahead's specifically highlight on Sonic's "leap before looking" nature. What Zebrahead further hones in on is his adventurous and hyperactive qualities as verse 1 and the bridge show. It's a timeless song of anticipation and build-up with good execution, but it doesn't cover the main essentials in what makes Sonic Sonic.

Finally, reaching the song I've found best covers the basics and essentials to Sonic's character is...

Believe it or not, “Gotta go fast” encompasses the defining characteristics of a well-written Sonic -- the title itself is a testament to the his motto and is all things Sonic stands for.

While this refers directly to the plot of the show itself, it manages to familiarize us with the speed and urgency crucial to Sonic’s character and--

Okay, clown time’s over, here’s the real winner.

Unleashed's main theme: "Endless Possibility"

From the get-go, intro already separates itself from the other songs by being freeing and exciting, without being too carefree like "Escape from the City", too orchestral or urgent like "His World", and definitely more compelling lyric-wise compared to "Fist Bump". This tone is a constant throughout the song, and makes it seem like Sonic's the one directly singing -- the singer nailed it with the level of obnoxious and genuine tone to his voice.

This song, like the rest of the other main themes, reflect the game itself. Unleashed is a race against time for Sonic to fight Dark Gaia before the Earth gets torn apart. But similar to the gameplay and form of story, the music is very fast-paced yet unburdening, with hints of inner contemplation, and darkness (or how I like to put it, edge). The first verse already succeeds in getting into the bare bones of Sonic's character -- he runs, he can never stay still out because he knows that's not who he is, he's free-spirited and will run around the world out of his own volition, it's a form of escape and liberty to him -- and this is what ties into "Escape from the City”. This verse sums up the essential traits to Sonic better than any of the previous songs without letting one attribute overpower it. It refers to his three fundamental traits: that he's fast, adventurous and carefree.

The pre-chorus further expands from verse 1's establishments, by showing the deeper, inner turmoil that pass through Sonic's mind -- “How will I know when I get there? And how will I know when to leave?” -- these are the rare instances where Sonic is found in inner conflict with himself which came out of his simplistic philosophy rather than an external conflict or influence, and it's more of unspoken and nuanced as Sonic never usually calls himself into question for the way he lives. This showcases that he's capable of processing the long-term effects of living and moving around aimlessly -- constant adventure and freedom might eventually feel mundane, so he might eventually find the destination his heart feels is right for him, so what will he do when that period of his life unfolds, and will this period end the days of adventure and freedom? The possibilities are never-ending, so as always, he'll take everything in stride, and prepare for whatever hits him.

This is what the song's main theme is. Endless possibility. Potential and growth -- which reflects back to Sonic: mentally, physically and emotionally. Mentally, he's acknowledged that he's always growing and developing throughout his adventures -- as there's one thing that no one, not even Sonic can outrun, and that's change. "Endless Possibility" opens us up to the concept of ever-changing development for Sonic, and the possibility that he might eventually reach his unknown destination and end this long-running journey, while also implying that every journey that he goes through and ends -- whether it directly ties into the games or off-screen adventures -- will always lead with a new one. Unleashed encompasses this youthful feeling of change and vigor. Sonic is in his element and is going through a personal journey to save the world once again, but as always, he'll do it with enthusiasm and unbridled drive.

Interestingly, Unleashed feels reminiscent of Sonic X's Sonic but done right. Both have the character mostly isolated from his friends for the majority of their respective stories, but where Sonic X forces Sonic to clean up on Isle Eggbot each episode, Unleashed puts him through a singular adventure that requires he takes care of the major issue at stake while the others are doing their respective jobs or living their own lives. Unleashed's Sonic even has a temporary companion which he clearly warms up to and befriends throughout the whole journey, whereas Sonic X shows Sonic actively dismissing his previous friends to sleep, travel, and adventure for the heck of it -- while they spent a majority of the first season trying to find the chaos emeralds without him.

Sonic being isolated is usually due to situational happenstance rather than conscious preference. Sonic isn't inherently solitary or aloof, it's just due to his ability to move from place to place with ease that he subsequently has to leave his friends behind to confront the source of the problem. It's not a part of his character that he plays lone wolf like those archetypal "cool characters", the nature of what he does and excels at leads him to fight front and center, even if it means doing it alone. Despite this, he still is the sentimental, over-the-top dork that believes in the power of friendship and will go to the ends of the Earth to protect his friends. Which is exactly what he does in Unleashed.

The bridge provides the hints of edge where Eggman and Sonic exchange dialogue in the song, very much referring to the events of Unleashed's intro battle between the two. Eggman essentially tells Sonic to give up as he's actually beaten him -- which Sonic replies that it's not over, that this is just another start to another journey. The lyrics aren't very subtle about what they're saying, but it does a good job in encompassing two key traits when Sonic responds to any threats -- his cheerful optimism and unyielding determination. He doesn't respond to danger with simply quips, he responds to it with a campy but genuine declaration of strength and courage. The cheesiness in his words are very prominent, but he says them with a straight face like he's announcing his battle cry and promise to do what it takes to save the world and protect the ones he love.

In short, "Endless Possibilty" manages to fully encompass the best iteration of Sonic, and humanizes him to the point that I can only really see this as the current best sum up of his character without any needed dialogue, animation, or prior context. This song could just be tied directly to Sonic's overall character outside of the game's plot, and I'd be fine.

#my posts #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #sonic character essay #my character essays #small spoilers for idw #another session of overly long essays from yours truly

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dat-is-chill-ghafa · 5 years ago

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Holy shit I just watched Dark Phoenix and it was so much worse than I thought it was gonna be so here’s a big fat rant.

My entire thoughts about this movie can be summarised by this picture:

But since I need to get some agression out, ladies and gentlemen and whoever and whatever else, here we go:

- FIRST OF ALL, what the hell was the relationship between Scott and Jean in this movie? Was there any sort of chemistry that i missed in this movie because if there was I did not see a damn spark. While in the previous movies I actually liked the romance between them this movie tried to make the romance seem like it had progressed without actually making any progression to actual maturity. You have to choose one of the other

- the mystique “x women” like was probably a good example of one of the worst and crunchiest ways to include feminism into the film and took place after nightcrawler saved someone so retrospectively it just didn’t make sense

- how are you just going to completely ignore quicksilver character who is the fan favourite of the entire franchise basically. Quicksilver was there for approximately 2 seconds and him yeeting away was not thoroughly explained

- again THE REASON FOR quicksilver not being there is that he is injured... r you fucking kidding me, this is a prime example of quite possibly the laziest writing on earth to the most fan favourite character, how did you think you would get away with this?

- it is so clear to me that this movie is a giant and physical representation of everyone who has ever been part of this franchise remake being so over it

- didn’t jean already show ... that she had.. these powers... in x men apocalypse... u know what whatever let’s just move past this major plot hole it seems like we have been doing that so ok (PLEASE CORRECT ME IF IM WRONG I GENUINELY NEED TO KNOW)

- this entire movie passes on information to the audience by telling instead of showing which is the exact opposite of what a movie is supposed to do. Also this telling takes place over every cheesy and cliche dialogue with extensive narration and exposition.

- Jessica chastains character is supposed to be important and drive her and jean’s actions but like honestly super dull and non threatening and nothing was convincing

- the worst part of this film is the untapped potential it could have had with its amazing actors and the storyline of the Dark Phoenix. They could have delved furthers into more risky and morally grey areas such as jean being something other than like a countdown on a Grenade... some IDK CRaZy ThOuGht dOnT miNd mE buT deVeloPmeNt??

-there wasn’t that much that was actually “dark” to me like the title tries to imply. Yeah sure she caused a lot of property damage and killed like a few people but so what.

-the timeline and lack of actual continuity within these movies shows that the people who worked on this film just did not give a crap about this. I’ve tried to ignore the timeline in the past x men films and just enjoy them for what they are but it’s kind of gotten past the point of subtle. This makes the film infuriating.

-the ending train sequence was to me probably the most exciting and well done scenes in that movie but honestly at that point I just didn’t care. Like I loved magneto just killing people but then was like oh never mind you have just completely destroyed his character yet again

-Charles Xavier was endlessly frustrating and literally not a single ounce of the character I actually loved was in this film

-we don’t need every single thing spelt out to us in pure narration and exposition Jesus Christ it was exhausting

-if you are going to completely destroy any characterisation of the actual mystique that comic fans know then you sure as hell better make it work (it hasn’t) and when the character dies you better make sure it has some impact. Oh never mind, the death had no eotiomal weight to it... whatsoever

-magneto has the same arc in every film and it felt super tired despite the supreme acting that we know that fassbender can actually do and the entire film resulted in him not actually having an arc and making sure to destroy every chance of that

- so beast.. the new headmaster is the school who’s entire plot and decision of going against Xavier was driven by mystique’s death and then when it comes to renaming the school, names it after jean instead of mystique who has been portrayed as a symbol in the movies and apparently some sort of moral compass. Again, a pattern is coming through... none of this movie being necessary or making sense

-cyclops (Scott) has no actual personality to him in this entire movie, in fact the directors seem to have done a movie ginny Weasley on him and essentially made him a poster card declaring his undying love for jean grey (which btw again was a really flat Romance) with nothing else and no character development in this film and I mean seeing that Jean is “dead” wtf is this supposed to mean for him

- SO MANY PLOTHOLES

-quicksilver would have been able to resolve this entire plot 2 minutes into this film.. why didn’t he teleport back into the shuttle with jean and Kurt... therefore having time to get the last astronaut

- the scene with nightcrawler where he literally just massacres a bunch of people while ngl kinda cool to see destroys the entire pacifier nature of Kurt that is essential to him and I really don’t get why they felt the need to do this. You killed azazel off screen like they r different characters stop mixing them

- I’m so sorry to the actors and actresses in this film, almost all of whom have shown (Sophie turner, Nicholas Hoult, James Mcavoy and Michael fassbender in particular) that they are some of the most talented people in cinema and you can see that they tried but like how much can you actually do

- and not a single fuck was given about this movie

-what was the ending scene

-surprised that the movie broke even ngl

-you could have done so much better

#rant #dark pheonix #marvel #marvel comics #x men #magneto #charles xavier #mystique #jennifer lawrence #sophie turner #X-MEN #disappointment

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jessiewre · 5 years ago

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Day 17

Tues 21st Jan

I woke up to see a head torch blaring at me, as giddy Phil was getting up extra early to go and stare at the volcano for another hour or so.

As I said don’t get me wrong, the volcano was insane, amazing, incredible - but Phil was like Bang into it and I personally think I preferred sitting in the warm kitchen getting free snacks off Jean-Louie.

I was also working hard on pretending that there wasn’t actually an active volcano going off about 2 metres away from my head, but thankfully Phil was available to remind me every 7 seconds. Thanks again for that Phil.

I eventually got up after telling an excited Phil for the third time that I’d be ‘out soon’ and managed to warm up my trousers and put them on while remaining in my sleeping bag which I was pleased about.

When you’re about to fall into a lava lake of a live volcano, these little wins really mean a lot.

Luckily Phil had kindly left the door of our cabin wide open, I think to make sure the room had a lovely cool freezing morning breeze and also so that I was absolutely sure how to exit the cabin sufficiently. God knows what I would have done without that door being open, I may still be in that cabin right now. Thanks Phil.

I headed out to watch over the volcano which had now developed a sort of lava river flowing into it (fine I’ll admit that was kinda cool) and then Jean-Louie told us breakfast was ready. NOW YOU’RE TALKING MY LANGUAGE.

I seemed to be the only person who’d heard and suddenly I was sat alone in the kitchen getting served my food first, again. OOPS how on earth had this happened. Spanish omelette, two large slices of cheese and toast - all cooked again on the mini charcoal fire pit (the frying pan used had no handle btw).

I took a few bites but felt like I should do a little shout out just in case people really hadn’t realised. Then as people arrived, me and Phil set up a little hot drinks thing for everyone. Took the limelight off me a little, being sat in there with my food like a volcano VIP.

We sorted our cabins and I gathered up the rubbish, which included our genius cabin bottle-toilet. However, in his haste to help, the porter waiting outside our cabin took the bottle toilet from me and started stuffing the funnel bit into the bottle and there were some bits of TISSUE there still and I swear it was so obviously a pissing device, so I did what any moral, dignified person would do.

I looked away and pretended everything was completely fine and normal.

The trek down was 3 hours without breaks, super tough on the knees too. But definitely better than going up if you ask me.

We also had a DRC DDR at the first stop which was very romantic and not weird at all.

The volcanic rocks ensured that there were plenty of Scooby moments (when someone slips up or falls). Phil always shouts ‘Scoooobyy!’ if he or someone else slips and there were many Scoobies on that descent. Fleur had Jean-Louie holding her hand the most of it as she seemed to turn into a very old woman with piles while she tried to climb down.

We finally finished the trek, the last section feeling never-ending, and both the mums were waiting for the group - Fleur & Simon’s mum, and Toma’s mum. They looked so clean and fresh compared to us total mingers.

We got a lift through Goma in an even weirder vehicle - it was like a carnival float - and went to Grande Barrier the border crossing. The weight of our bags on our backs was so intense along with the jelly legs, it was an effort to walk to be honest. Getting new East Africa Tourist Visas was $100 each, and they insisted on dollars, so Phil had a minor flip out. It is well annoying when you have the local currency ready to go and they just say no. Such a faff withdrawing money then going to the exchange place, then back to pay, then take the receipt over to the counter and blah blah blah. Ok is this just like a proper 1st world problem isn’t it and I should shut up.

Anyway while Phil was getting annoyed, I was busy sitting on my arse, sorry I was busy MINDING THE BAGS, and Phil had to then go from the payment desk over to the exchange desk, and everyone avoiding looking at him in the eye as he huffed and puffed his way there. Then a nice man who was assisting us behind the visa counter looked at me and was like ‘What is happening, what is problem?’

And looked at Phil.

And back to the man.

Then back at Phil.

I made sure Phil was out of earshot and I just said

‘...He’s hungry’

The guy gave me a knowing nod. He knew.

I waited till we’d left the border with our new visas in hand before telling Phil that I’d said that, to which he was slightly horrified - so I asked him if he was hungry and he was like Yeah so what mate.

We got a couple of bodas to Inzu lodge in the hope they would have something available (despite the phone working for internet the whole time being in DRC, the phone wouldn’t let us make calls ffs). We’d had Inzu recommended to us by two different couples so figured why not give it a try. Loving that they give us helmets in Rwanda on the boda bodas, but mine had a crack in the visor so the wind going it through it sounded like someone was playing a kazoo loudly (and badly) the whole time I was on it.

Phil asked the boda boys how much each and then when they said 2000 each he was like Nah its 1000. He explained that he had run this way previously and that there was a shorter route available they should have taken. Woah I think I’m rubbing off on him.

They just laughed, I think a bit like Well why did you ask mate.

To be fair, we’d over paid on soo many bodas and someone from Inzu confirmed this was the right price - so SHOUT OUT TO PHIL FOR BEING A MAD BUSINESS MAN NEGOTIATOR. Philly Tours Atol Proected.

Inzu Lodge was instantly the relaxed chilled environment of our dreams and we checked in immediately and ordered much need lunch - vege tacos, chips and vegetable soup. It only took 7 and a half hours to arrive.

A delicious hot shower later - eco shower with a view - and a Philly nap was on the cards. There was also a great eco toilet there and I know many people who would turn their noses up at it, but when its done properly there is literally NO smell at all and its super environmental - so big up Inzu for having that.

The view from our safari tent was so nice that I just chilled out there for a bit. There was no one else really around and it was so nice and relaxed. I couldn’t spot a lava lake anywhere. It was at this point my legs started to tense up a bit and it dawned on me that our sudden intense burst of treks-ercise (see what I did there) may completely screw my legs over.

Dinner was relaxing, the only people in the restaurant - vegetation quesadillas (back to being a vege yeah) and a cheesy gratin thing. Tasty and filling and totally sleep inducing.

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leilas-digital-scrapbook-blog · 6 years ago

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Giving Love a Bad Name – Confessions of a Fanfiction Writer

I know we’re supposed to blog about our major projects this week and I promise I will get to that soon, but I’d like to go off book for a moment to address something that’s been bugging me since last Thursday’s class. As someone who’s always tried to engage with fandom in as creative a way as possible, I hoped a class on user generated content would offer a fresher perspective than the usual amount of prejudice and self-righteous superiority that sadly seem to accompany the subject of fanfiction even amongst people that make stories and their passion for it their bread and butter.

Guess I should have known better.

In the world of professional writers, fanfiction is still a filthy word. It sums up everything that’s wrong with the people you’re sharing your stories with: the obsessiveness, the entitlement, the disregard for boundaries, the penchant for making everything about sex. Worse, gay sex, as unspeakably dirty as it’s hilarious. Be warned, writers: if you make it big, your stories will inevitably become a free-for-all at the mercy of those people. A worse fate than even George R. R. Martin could wish on his own characters.

I’m used to seeing the world of fanfiction belittled and disparaged, of course, and I’m the first to admit that the community is often its own worst enemy. But for some reason it still hurt a little to sit in class and listen to people I’ve come to like and respect during these past few months buy into every bad stereotype associated with the form. Not because I felt called out (though yes, I do write fanfiction from time to time, and I happen to quite enjoy reading it too), but because of the underlying assumptions that 1. something that’s not 100% original cannot be art, it’s a violence in fact, especially if it twists someone else’s creation into something it was never meant to be (in this case, queer representation); and 2. there’s something wrong with creating exclusively out of love, without ever expecting to be paid for it. And I have Strong Opinions on that.

So let’s talk about fanfiction.

Actually, scratch that, let’s talk about my favorite subject – yours truly. As you may have gathered by now, I love fanfiction. A whole fangirly lot. My gateway drug into it was my obsession with Lost about 10 years ago and its pesky habit of offing every character I was foolish enough to get attached to. But lo! Someone was keeping them alive through their stories! I felt blessed. I got to spend more time in a world I loved, and I stopped flirting with the idea of giving up on the show every time another character I liked bit the dust. Everybody won.

Even more than as a fan, though, I appreciated the world of possibilities that fanfiction opened up to me as a non-native speaker. I come from a small town in the north of Italy; the access I had to foreign books in their original language was limited, and if I wanted to read something in English I’d have to spend quite a lot of money on one of the very few novels (usually chunky airport bookshop thrillers or housewife romances – not exactly my preferred genres) that shared a single shelf in the bookstore with German, French, Spanish titles. But fanfiction was free, accessible, and there was so much of it. If I didn’t like a story, all I needed to do was move on to the next. Suddenly there was an infinite library of engaging stories to help me make my English better. True, they didn’t all read like a published novel would – there’s a lot of unpolished, error-plagued, stream-of-consciousness-y material out there. But there are also so, so many beautifully written works, and believe me, even for a non-native speaker it’s very easy to spot the difference.

Fanfiction also gave me the chance and motivation to practice my English writing in a way school never could have done. I’ve been writing my own stories since I could hold a pen, but I didn’t dare write in English until I was a fanfiction-loving teenager. It was a marketing decision, really – my first foray into writing fanfiction was for a fandom so small that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I’m the only Italian representative, so if I wanted any kind of feedback on my work I’d have to suck it up and try my hand at writing in a language that didn’t come natural to me. I would never argue that the feedback I got on my works made me a better writer – contrary to popular opinion, the fanfiction community is made up of the nicest, most supportive people, and alas, you’ll never get a comment on everything you did wrong with your structure or even just pointing out common grammar mistakes from them (though I was lucky enough to have someone explain to me how dialogue punctuation works differently in English than in Italian, so I guess something can be learned even from the Internet). It did motivate me to keep writing, though, and that made me a better writer. If you think I’m being too dramatic, dishing out this monster of a post nobody asked for just to declare my eternal devotion to fanfiction, it’s because it’s personal to me. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been told that I write in English as well as native speakers, and fanfiction is a big part of why that’s true. I doubt I would even be in this course if it wasn’t for it.

And then, of course, there’s the gay thing. I’m not going to argue about how heteronormativity sucks and representation matters because I’m sure everyone’s as sick of talking about it as I am, but please try to understand how it felt for a gay person like me, used to be depicted in media as a plot device or token secondary-character representation if at all, to be able to step into a world where queerness was the default for once. Where queer protagonists had meaningful queer love stories and queer friends and got to save the world from the Apocalypse too. Or to fight the Empire or go to Hogwarts or everything else fictional straight people have had a right to do since the dawn of storytelling in addition to romancing the hottie of their choice. I’m not asking you to feel as passionately about it, of course, but (especially if you’re straight) you might try and empathize the next time you think a fanart of two boys kissing is something deserving of your amused contempt.

I hope I’m not coming across as the person that screams “homophobe” at everyone who disagrees with her because I guarantee that’s not what I’m trying to do here, but I think the general distaste for slash says a lot about the way our society sees heterosexual relationships as love and homosexual relationships as sex. Yes, there’s a lot of gay porn in the world of fanfiction. But you know what you’re most likely to find? Romance. Not in the saucy literary sense of the word, but in its simpler, most literal acceptation. Fanfiction is just one more way for humans to express themselves, after all, and love has always been front and center in our art. Love, not sex – even if it’s gay. In fact, explicit material doesn’t even make up the majority of what you’ll find on a fanfiction website. Don’t worry, I don’t want anyone to taint their souls by visiting one of those dens of iniquity so I pulled some stats myself. Here’s the number of works for each rating in three of the most popular fandoms on Archive Of Our Own, the current go-to website for the fanfiction community (sorry Fanfiction.net) – Harry Potter, Supernatural and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as of 9/3/2019:

Even counting both Mature and Explicit works as straight-up porn (which I don’t think is quite fair, but that’s a discussion for another day), they only make up less than 1/3 of the material. Kinda disappointing, for a medium that’s supposed to be all about filthy graphic gay sex. Imagine if only one in three musicals actually featured singing and dancing, or superheroes weren’t in the majority of superhero movies. They’re lucky fanfiction is shared for free, or I’d be screaming for my money back.

Maybe I’ve just been brainwashed by SJWs, though, and this has nothing to do with my being an immigrant or a lesbian. Maybe my inability to see what’s so bad about appropriating someone else’s intellectual property for your own amusement is a cultural thing. I apologize – as mentioned, I’m Italian, and we all know Ancient Roman culture was basically just a ripoff of everything those inventive Greeks came up with. It’s in our blood. Hell, our 2€ coin, the biggest, has the face of Dante Alighieri on it, a writer most famous for having written 14.000+ verses of self-insert real-person-fic in which the girl he fancied as a teenager, his favorite author, and God himself all fall over themselves to tell him how awesome he is and he gets to prophesy an eternity in Hell for his political enemies. Talk about wish-fulfilling entitlement. Not to mention all those creatively arid Renaissance “artists” celebrated for stealing characters from the Bible and Greek mythology (seriously, the fact that Greece hasn’t unleashed an army of lawyers on us yet is nothing short of a miracle) and putting them in their cheesy paintings. Other countries can rely on a much stronger moral backbone and endless imagination – I’m sure Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, those creative geniuses at Disney and countless others never had to resort to something as cheap and despicable as borrowing other people’s characters to tell the stories they wanted to tell.

Either way, I can’t help it – I see the prospect of creating something that will resonate with people so strongly that they’ll make it a part of themselves, that it’ll compel them to make more art, to reach out and connect with other fans, as something incredibly beautiful rather than scary. Maybe this is my usual naiveté speaking, and I will come to eat my words. It’s certainly disturbing that a bunch of entitled fans bullied the Mass Effect developers into changing the series’ ending, and sending actors explicit fanart of themselves is straight-up harassment, but is fanfiction really the problem here? Or is it social network culture, with its power to destroy all barriers and foster hive mind? To give resentment a platform to spread and be heard? I promise that the average fanfiction writer wouldn’t campaign to get an ending changed. They’d just roll up their sleeves and write a better one themselves.

#my thoughts #aka leila goes off about her life story #user generated content #fanfiction #fandom #tmi alert

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 7 years ago

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Sakuga: The Episode

Okay, so there was a lot to take in in episode 130 of Super. The vast majority of the episode was a smooth as fuck fight between Goku and Jiren, primarily involving Jiren getting his shit kicked in. That’s all well and good, classic Dragon Ball action, but that wasn’t all.

See, Jiren sucks. We know this. He’s a bland and boring character that kind of embodies everything wrong with Dragon Ball all at once. He was given a boring backstory a few episodes back that was supposed to explain everything about him, but it explained almost nothing, especially not his ridiculous strength. In this episode though, Jiren’s backstory was like, actually important and came into play in the current narrative, which was nice, even if his character still sucks.

We also got one of those main character things where the side characters talk about how there’s something about Goku that just draws people in and friendship and fighting for others etc. I know that that’s cheesy and all that, but I liked it here, especially with Jiren directly challenging that philosophy by outright attempting to destroy the audience viewing stand, killing Goku’s friends. I’m of the mindset that Goku isn’t exactly a hero of justice like his “I am the hope of the universe” speech would make you believe, but he’s also not a completely self-centred dick like some people would have you believe. I like my Goku as a friendly fellow who just enjoys fighting a lot, and while he may not have the best morals in the world, he still values his friends and family. This episode plays into that Goku that I like a lot, and I’m glad.

Anyway, just as Goku’s about to deal the finishing blow to Jiren, MUI takes its toll on him, and he just kinda gets fucked. Jiren seizes the opportunity to eliminate Goku by destroying his footing, a decision that he doesn’t seem too content with, but Goku is saved out of nowhere by a beam of energy from none other than that delicious golden bastard, Frieza.

And also Android 17 who didn’t actually die.

So, I’m glad to see Frieza. He’s been hiding like a little bitch for so long and to see him make his grand return like this, it’s fitting. And doing it to save Goku nonetheless, kinda shows how hopeless he feels against Jiren, I like it.

As for 17 though, I kinda liked his sacrifice a lot. Seeing him return seems kind of like an asspull, and I don’t think it’s all that great. Plus, I can tolerate Frieza lasting longer than Vegeta, sure, but having 17 last longer than Vegeta too kinda just feels like more Vegeta shafting. Which sucks.

Still a pretty phenomenal episode though.

There really isn’t much to infer from the preview. 17 and Frieza will be fighting Jiren a lot, Frieza apparently switching between Final Form and Golden every so often, Goku’ll be back and ready to brawl in his base form, Jiren’ll power up extremely and be super pissed, and the two Zenos descend in a golden light, presumably to congratulate the winner. Next episode of Super is where it all ends, and I’m excited to see what we’ll get in this last episode.

#dragon ball #dbs shit #18.3.18

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elle-in-hell · 7 years ago

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when the day met the night

chapter two!!

**warning** this chapter get’s a bit dark at the end for backstory purposes, so if you are in any way triggered by mentions of abusive relationships, homophobia, etc, i recommend you either read with caution or do not read at all. stay safe everybody:)

florist!eddie & tattooartist!richie

find it on ao3 here and chapter 1 here

chapter 2 - peonies (bashfulness & compassion)

“Bev! Beverly!” Richie pounded on his best friend Beverly Marsh’s door, practically jumping out of his skin with excitement. Usually he would just use his spare key, but he had left it in his bag at work in his haste to find her. Also, he would probably not scream at her to get to the door when she was sick at any other time, but still, this was an emergency in Richie’s eyes.

Beverly, however, was rudely interrupted from her sulking over being sick and contemplated pretending to be dead and just not letting her friend inside. Still, she did because she knew what would probably happen if she didn't and she didn't want to replace any more doors.

The faded green door swung open just as Richie was about to knock again and he stumbled slightly inside, to which Bev just let him fall. He scrambled to his feet, still shaking with energy and his ginger-haired friend just sighed and closed the door behind him.

“Okay, asshole, explain yourself,” she mused, flopping down onto the sofa and swinging her feet up onto the coffee table as Richie practically jumped into a nearby armchair.

“I just met the most beautiful boy in the world,” he blurted, something that would probably make Eddie Kaspbrak cry if he’d heard it. “He’s perfect Bevvie, and he works across the street and he’s just so tiny and his hair looks so soft and his eyes are really sparkly and fuck!” He pulled his hair out of its bun in frustration and let the loose strands hang wherever they pleased.

Beverly chuckled, watching the clearly lovesick boy lose his mind over some kid he’d just met.

“I need to ask him out. I need to Bev, but I don’t even know if he likes guys, for fucks sake! He probably doesn’t, knowing my luck, but he works at a goddamn florist shop so I think I just need to go for it. Wha’d’ya say?”

She quickly looked up, having lost interest and just smiled, completely unsure of anything the wild boy had said.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, hoping that made at least a little bit of sense.

And with that, Richie practically leapt out of his seat and raced for the door.

“Oh yeah! One more thing,” he called, pulling the small bouquet of flowers from his bag and handing them to the sickly girl. “He helped me pick these out. Apparently they mean like health and strength or some cheesy shit like that, but I thought you’d like them so here.”

Bev sighed, remembering why she had willingly stayed with this kid for so many years as she pulled her tall friend into a hug and kissed his cheek, sending him out the door.

“Go get ‘em, loverboy!” She called down the hallway as she retreated to her kitchen and began to fill a vase.

By the time Richie made it into his car, he had already started to freak out. Nope, Eddie wasn’t the kind of boy that dates Richie Tozier. Boys that date Richie Tozier are two of a kind. The boys that date Richie Tozier are the boys that threaten him not to tell anyone by beating him up so bad that he can’t talk. They’re boys that kick the crap out of him immediately after making out to get themselves a clean alibi with their friends. They’re older boys that stick their hands down his pants in the gym showers when no one else is around.

No, the boys that want to date Richie Tozier are the boys who know he won’t tell their petty little secret, and the boys that don’t give enough of a shit about his feelings to treat him like a real person.

He tells himself it was stupid. That he can't believe he let himself get so worked up over some kid he just met. That there's no way he could waltz back into that store and ask out this boy because he'd run away screaming the minute Richie walked in the door. He still remembered what happened that last date he went on.

Junior year, one week before the last day of school, Richie Tozier had a boyfriend. Jeffery Carroll, senior, varsity basketball captain, and grade-A asshole. At least, to everyone else Richie knew. Jeffery Carroll was the first one to claim he hooked up with Bev. He was the first one who started the chain of egging the temple Stan's family attended. He was the one leading the vandalisms of Mike's grandfather's deli. He was the one who drove to Henry Bowers' house to alert him that the Hanscom family had moved in on his street and that there was "fresh meat" for their escapades.

He was the one who would threaten to bash his boyfriend's skull in if he told anyone about their relationship. He was the one who refused to go on dates with Richie but always told him it was because he had better things to do and better people to do. Jefferey Carroll was the boy who taught Richie Tozier what real relationships were and what he should expect from a partner. He was the boy who told Richie he was his first love before his friends found them together and Jeffery shoved him into a wall, kicking the shit out of him and lying to his friends that the smaller boy had come onto him without consent.

Richie Tozier became the "homo slut" that underclassmen would run from in the halls and upperclassmen would lock him in janitors' closets for hours. His grades went from on the road to valedictorian to barely eligible to graduate simply because he could hardly go to class.

He hasn't dated anyone since.

So that’s why Beverly doesn’t lock her door after Richie leaves because she knows that whether it’s five minutes or five hours from then, he’s going to come back and she’s going to be there.

Because Beverly Marsh knows about all the guys that date Richie Tozier and none of them will let him do this. All of them have ruined him beyond the ability to be the boy that dates Eddie Kaspbrak because he doesn’t feel like he has a say anymore.

Richie hauled his ass back up to Beverly’s apartment, trying the doorknob, and opening it slowly when he discovered that it was still unlocked. He walked over to the couch where his best friend in the entire world sat wrapped up in a blanket and sat down right beside her.

“I can’t, Bevvie,” he spoke, practically whimpering. Richie felt his shoulders slouch forward as his hair covered his watering eyes. It was all one fluid movement when he began to lean into the waiting girl beside him. She guided his head onto her shoulder as she ran her thin fingers through his tangled hair.

“I know, hun. I get it, believe me, but you can’t let them ruin this one for ya’, Rich,” she mumbled, continuing to move her hands soothingly. “With everything you’ve dealt with, I’m so proud of you for even wanting to go after this kid, which must mean he’s pretty special, huh?”

Richie couldn’t help but smile.

“Eh, don’t worry about me, Bev, I’ll figure it out, but maybe a little moral support would help,” he suggested, turning his head so he was staring up at the red-headed girl.

She groaned, sarcastically lifting his head off of her and dragging herself off the couch.

“Fine. C’mon, let’s go,” she started, sticking out her hand as Richie stared at it, his eyes wide.

“O-oh you meant right now? No, I definitely wasn’t implying we go right now, that ship has kinda sailed already, girly,” Richie joked, the holes in his comedic mask revealing his still nervous tremble.

But that didn’t work at all and within five minutes Bev was behind the wheel of the tall boy’s truck and on the way to the shop. Apparently she had an idea.

In their lives together, either of the two having an idea was almost never a good thing. Richie would soon discover that he really did have someone who loved him, just maybe not the way he wanted. But still, one person was a start.

message me to be tagged!! :

@im-not-psychotic

#reddie #stenbrough #it #it 2017 #it movie #it movie 2017 #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #beverly marsh #stan uris #stanley uris #bill denbrough #mike hanlon #ben hanscom

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neth-dugan · 7 years ago

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Nine Worlds 2017

This is a slightly lengthy report but meh. Tumblr has a ‘skip to next post’ function so what the heck.

I managed to get a pre-con cold rather than the traditional post-con one, which I’ve managed to give to @knittedace as well, oops. I did have hand gel on me and tissues to minimise the spread. If I gave anybody else my cold I’m sorry!

I met up with @knittedace on the Thursday. We were meant to go to the Natural History Museum but I’d been off work sick the previous day and just couldn’t do it. No energy. Instead we met up at the hotel itself and as soon as we could get into the room we unpacked and I took a nice and much needed nap.

We went to the ‘Cheese and Cheese’ evening event, one of two events to welcome people to the convention. There was cheese of both the literal and literary variety to be enjoyed. I read out a riveting and very cheesy Power Rangers VHS tape description, but the best was a very cracky, rather explicit Doctor Who one that had the entire room in hysterics. I was laughing so much I was coughing up a lung.

FRIDAY

I was initiated into the Order of the Dalek! Learnt how to put on @knittedace‘s knitted Dalek costume - something I got better at as the weekend went on. I also came across some great cosplays, and @knittedace got to pose with a Missy and Thirteenth Doctor. She’ll post the pic if she wants to.

In the morning I decided to go for something different from what I usually go to. We’d met the woman running some of the kids panels and she invited us along. So I went. It was pretty cute, gave the parents some adults to be around too and just played some simple games. Don’t really get to do that ever. And then there was a fun story that was like some kind of Dinosaur version of Planet of the Apes but about environmental issues and written a few decades back.

Then I went to a crafty thing in which we all made hair bands! Met some great teens, two of whom had made their own cosplays. For one it was her fourteenth birthday and she ended up having to help me out because I’m rubbish at this stuff. We had some good talks fandom but also human orientations and labels and just being happy with who you are. Oddly we all also ended up in the next thing which was basically free tea and cake with tables to chat at.

I came across this same group of teens at this con, all through the weekend. They’re all smart and for all that they’re still growing up and maturing they’re great people already.

I was given the green tea left ofter after. Yay free tea!

Toxicity in Fandom was my next stop. Nothing particularly surprising but still a good talk that had someone who had once been a part of those hostile groups though they’ve grown up and are better now. It also touched on how the toxicity doesn’t just come from the traditional bigots and gamergate type folk, but also people from those who use the language of social justice to bully rather than for good. The folk who live up to all the bad things people throw at the ‘sjw’ name.

Nine at Nine Worlds: Nine Tropes which was about, well, tropes in fan fic. Nine of us presenting five minutes on our favourite trope. It had the return of Nina - Lady of the Puppets - and then I did mine on ‘Time Travel Fix It Fics’. Went well. People laughed. Someone the next day pulled me aside to have a chat about it. Apparently I accidentally made them read loads of fic with the trope. Oooops. There was also a dramatic 007/Q power point fic reading that I helped out with, to lots of laughter.

There was also a late night game of Slash, with my home made deck, with other members of that panel including Tanya who had lead it. Tanya, for those who don’t know, was co-head of the Fan Fiction track back when tracks were organised differently and there was a specific Fan Fiction track. She’s still a big part of the fan works type stuff and is pretty damn awesome. She’s been there to help me out when I needed it and is pretty brilliant. There were also others who just came and joined in and that’s the beauty of these things. But then it was time for bed.

SATURDAY

Before any panels started, me and @knittedace met up with the person who’d be our third in Sunday’s Redemption round table to have a real world chat over breakfast which was fun. I’ve no idea if he has a tumblr ID to tag him in however. I’d wanted to have someone who knew about anime on there because neither me or @knittedace know anything about it. I know about Yuri on Ice but not much else. And though it’s mostly a workshop it is a bit panel so yeah. We had a great talk. And food.

We found the infamous ‘TARDIS full of Bras’ cosplayer. For those who don’t know there was a comment on a British newspaper site that is our version of Fox saying that the new Doctor couldn’t be a woman because then the TARDIS would be full of bras. So some brilliant soul went and turned this into a cosplay and just…. love. Again the pic I have is of Helen too so it’s up to her to post it. But seriously, OMG LOVE.

Time Travel and Film was our first panel of the day. We both got there in time for the hall to be mostly empty. I had on my TNG uniform hoodie thing with my comms badge pin so we get this photo:

The talk itself was also fun. Presented by an actual university lecturer on Philosophy, and turns out she was also the woman on a panel I’d be running later in the day. I looked at her name on the power point, down at the names I had for the panel and up again and went ‘huh’. Seriously though, good lecture about time travel from the perspective of philosophy rather than physics and its different possible models.

I was talking to some folk and the lecturer after, @knittedace having already left when I got a text from her saying there was a Londo cosplayer outside. I sped out there as fast as I could to find this fantastic person:

I have no idea their name or anything other than they were determined to remain in character and had a wife who sounded a bit bemused and long suffering of it all. Kinda reminded me of my mom trying to deal with my dad actually. He was really fun though. (ETA: I am told that he is @TheWarLlama on twitter) (ETA2: Apparently the woman wasn’t his wife. I just assumed because the dynamic going on reminded me of my mom lol. Oops. )

Queer Coding in Disney was my next stop. The person doing it did a good job. Made sure they explained what queer coding was in the first place for those who didn’t know and then went through Disney. Talked about films I didn’t know much about, and there was some talk about how some of this also intersected with other minorities and representation of various people.

After that I went upstairs for a nap. I was tired, still had that damnable cold, and wanted to be my best for my panel. I missed a panel slot with content but self care is important so up I went.

But then I was back! With my Hufflepuff scarf and wand! And still in my Starfleet uniform hoodie!

I think on the way into the panel hall someone said something like ‘hello Commander’ and I was a bit confused. Mostly because I didn’t have any pips so couldn’t be an officer but that’s a small thing and I think I smiled back?

In any case, next up was my panel. Which upon arriving at the convention I discovered was to be held in the largest room at the convention. Eeeep!

Dumbledore: Good or Evil? Went pretty well. At least one member of my panel was surprised it was ever even a debate, but she none the less stood up and argued for good. She was the above mentioned philosophy lecturer so debating is kind of her thing. She comes at it very much from a philosophical theory perspective though which I think caught out one or two people in the audience going from twitter. A person took a picture and stuck it on their twitter. You can find that here. I’m in the middle.

There was a lot of talk about how Dumbles does or doesn’t use his power for people, abandoning Harry, the things that go on in his school under his responsibility, and at one point he was compared to Boris Johnson. How he seems to be about consequences more than the actions themselves. Is it intent or your actions that make you good or evil? Does the era that the man grew up in excuse things? Does the fact that there was a war coming/going on excuse things or not?

There was a question at the end about him being a slave owner due to house elves. That…. I had red sirens screaming in my head there. Thankfully it was with hardly any time to go. It’s a very good question. Something worth looking at. But nobody on the panel had any real place speaking on it. The philosopher took it, but she took it from literally a philosophical perspective rather than a moral one which probably came off wrong to some. Because yeah, that wasn’t a moral stance. I didn’t really know what to do there other than internally panic a bit and try to move on as fast as I could with a ‘this could be a whole other panel and should be’ thing.

I was so worried about not being neutral that I didn’t step in to point things out or ask things when looking back I wish I had. There are things about that I’d have liked to improve but largely the response seemed to be good. I learnt from it. We had a vote at the end on of the audience thought Dumbledore was ‘good, ‘evil or bad leaning’ or ‘it’s complicated guys leave us alone’. The result was a mixed bag with lots of complicated so I guess that wins. People did come up to chat to us when we were still on stage after it ended to thank us for this or that. I’d warded off a comment from team Evil that was about cheating but could also have come across as anti-poly and so someone thanked me for that.

Druids, Deities and Daemons: Archeological Horrors in ‘Doctor Who’ was my next thing. It wasn’t particularly exciting but it was an interesting look at how the show portrays archeology from an Egyptologist who had a delightful manner of presentation. You can tell he’s upper middle or upper class but he isn’t snooty and he’s just really cheerful and into his thing. Which is always a joy to see. He wasn’t fond of Ten saying that as a time traveller he laughed at archaeologists. Fair.

Ageism in fanworks/fandom was a panel Tanya had asked me to be on last minute when playing Slash the night before. So I had no prep time and possibly a few people were confused as to why an extra person was sat up there. I was probably the youngest person on there, no worries. But interestingly also the only person who had actually grown up in fandom rather than finding it as an adult. It was interesting, throwing up different experiences with fandom and how it sees age, how it changes. But also how media sees us. How it expects women to age out of fandom but for male fans to be the sad lonely people in the basement forever.

Space Opera! SF&F in Musicals was a unique panel, for me anyway. Held in the lower levels with half the room covered by bean bags. By this point I could barely walk. I don’t know why, something happened to my legs and I found it increasingly hard to walk through the day. @knittedace said I should grab a priority access sticker but I’d have felt like a fraud even as I slowly limped my way around the place so i didn’t. But I managed to get a chair anyway so yay!

The person presenting it was drunk. I thought they were just mellow. It had originally been designed as an academic thing but given when it was scheduled it became a kind of guided tour of musical SF/F complete with YouTube clips, sarcastic comments from the audience and much fun. Also singing along sometimes. I lost the key to my room. It later turned out I’d left it there when I awoke from my nap but I couldn’t find @knittedace so I got reception to invalidate the old ones and issue new ones. With slightly disturbing ease come to think of it. And that was that.

SUNDAY

Marvel v DC Fanworks was the first panel of the morning. Chaired by a very very very tired Tanya who was having a hard time of it I think. It was a good conversation but you could tell she didn’t have the energy to chair it as she might want to. I was sat next to the birthday girl from Friday who is smart and knows her stuff and was very very excited. So excited she frequently interrupted and spoke over others. I don’t blame her. She was excited and we’ve all been there. I’ve been there. And ideally it is the chair’s job to gently deal with that but as I said, tired. In the end a person left the room when they got talked over once too often. I don’t blame either. It sucks to be talked over, especially for some people who find that really hard. And though I’m sad she left I understand it.

But I’ve been a very excited teenager, in fandom at that, before. It’s also hard to pull that in when you don’t have the experience and you’re having so much fun and you have so so so many things you want to say and nobody is telling you no. I’ve been her as I said. The things she wanted to say were all good things. Just a convergence of multiple things that didn’t mix well is all. I think she noticed too as she got a sad look with the woman left the room. Felt bad for both of them really. All three of them.

Queer Dax was my next panel, and one I was running. I’d decided that there was no way joined Trill weren’t queer, and wanted to talk about that, so here we are. I’d made sure that the panel had people on it who were queer in various ways and though one person couldn’t make it due to passport issues we held on.

The room started to fill up well before the start time. So we were chatting at everything from pets in the different series with someone insisting that Neelix was the pet on Voyager. Gasp! To how Mourn maybe talks a lot in ways we don’t get to Garak/Bashir slash to anything. The place was pretty full by the time we started.

It was a good discussion. I later found out that the person who’d manned the convention’s front desk really wanted to go but couldn’t and so was following a person’s live tweet of it as it went on.

We talked about the identity of the symbionts themselves, what it may be like to suddenly be flooded with all these humanoid identities. How maybe they’re like drag (at the start anyway). How we never hear them talk for themselves, as themselves, just the hosts. We’ve even had former hosts separated from the whole and able to talk in the singular. But never a symbiont. We asked how memory worked, to what degree were the hosts individuals or now and how that may work. How there were ‘very special episode’ moments but how they kinda also played out like every other Dax romance and was pretty good for the era. How Trek at least had a framework where this discussion was possible.

I framed lots of things as ‘for Paramount in the 90s’ or similar because yeah. The studios. Boy. And the times.

There was also a good deal of talk about the parallels between the way joined Trill are treated, and how Trill are screened to trans gatekeeping and queer separatism. How Dax seems to get away with literally everything and does Jadzia Dax at least have privilege? Lots of stuff I haven’t mentioned.

Someone in the audience asked about things within Trek that called to us as queer people and I got to go on about my asexual headcanon for Seven of Nine.

A Study in Redemption: Character Arcs in our Fandoms aka ‘Redemption’. And oh boy this has a long history. Originally this was a proper panel but stuff happened behind the scenes, messages got mixed and instead of it being a panel full of fandomy meta people it was proper Named authors and I got anxious and didn’t know what the hell to do and internally screamed some. I reached out to Tanya for help, and she and a person above her in the Nine Worlds team really did help. I am so thankful to the both of them. We ended up splitting it into two with the authors keeping the proper panel thing and doing it from their perspective and I’d do a kind of panel/round table discussion thing. Mostly round table. I heard some not so great things about the ‘Redemption in Sci-FI’ panel aka the parent one. I couldn’t be there so I don’t know the details.

This one was awesome though. @knittedace was on it with me, as well as our third the anime guy. Who did have things to contribute even to western stuff that coming from another perspective and tradition was pretty cool.

Again it filled up fast. We were chatting about various stuff before the panel time started. And by the official start time arrived we had to put a sign on the door outside saying we were full except for a couple priority access seats. And it truly was only two priority access seats. One woman came in, and then left as she didn’t have a priority access sticker when there was still a ‘open to all’ seat left. Oh well.

In this one I brought all of my experience charing over the weekend. What I’d seen and liked, seen and didn’t like, as well as stuff I knew already. I knew this could be a tricky topic for some so I made sure rules were set out first.

Like, obviously we are talking about characters who have done bad things. And this will be mentioned. We can talk about Anakin Skywalker but not go into graphic detail over what he did. Use trigger warnings. If someone is talking about something you find hard raise both hands or otherwise make yourself known in a way other than ‘I want to talk next’ and we will stop. Let you get out. And send someone to let you in again. That people know the protocol for spoiler warnings in their own media types and fandoms and to use them. And again if you need to stop someone because you’re behind the bell curve in catching up, let us know and leave and we’ll bring you back in after. Someone did take advantage of this which was awesome.

I also made sure people knew talking over others wasn’t what I wanted, that they were to respect others and let them finish and that sometimes the three of us on the mini panel thing would pull things back to us to raise new points or add new questions etc.

It went really well. Orderly. One person had to leave for a minute and did so, no fuss was made, and came back in after, People respected others, good discussion was had, the topics moved forward rather than spiral deeper and deeper on things, nothing got graphic. Somehow there was humour even given the topic but not inappropriate humour.

Lots of good points including how some characters are seeking redemption even if probably they don’t need it. How for many people who had either been raised in a toxic/evil environment or who had been through crap otherwise, redemption was also often a story of gaining or regaining agency. How doing a good thing and then dying to save a person for selfish reasons wasn’t really redemption. Or how someone forcing you to be good by putting a soul in your body or other magic or something making you good is also not really redemption. Redemption, proper redemption, required choice and consequences and owning what you had did and overcoming. How sometimes there is an aspect of white saviour going on.

I loved that panel. I really really did.

What gets me most is that at the end of the night, someone who I really respect (not Tanya to be clear) came up and told me that my Dax and Redemption panels had been her two favourite of the entire convention. I was so so touched, and honoured and it meant a lot. I had a couple other people say they’d loved Dax but this one person was… it blew me away.

Geeky Cupcake Decorating was just pure fun. Me and @knittedace went to this just as a fun thing to do. Also being asexual we figured it was our duty. Speaking of, I made this lovely delight:

I had to mix the grey fondant myself. I think it’s fondant? Terms confuse me. @knittedace Made this brilliant set of Doctor Who cakes that she can show off later but where much admired. And the table near by made a truly adorable set of Yuri on Ice cakes. Some seriously talented folks. Also plenty of kids having a lot of fun. One little girl was running around showing off the cake she’d made and that her dad had made with real pride. So cute.

We went for dinner after that, sad that things were ending, and came back in time to go to the end of convention quiz.

End of the Con Quiz is hosed by Ash every year. And much to my delight we were once again visited by the infamous No Face. This isn’t a cosplay, this is like a visitation from the real thing. Last year they were slowly chasing Ash all over the place. This time they were menacing him from the corner whilst people gave it tribute (and it ate the dire wolf) to making Ash dance.

I knew almost none of the answers. I never do. But they did ask a question about my panel!

Our team decided to call ourselves ‘Quiz Master Ash/No Face OTP’. Not much of a reaction from Ash to that when he read it out. We came fourth. There was joint last which mean they had to battle it out to get (or not get if they so chose) the last place prize.

Never have you seen such a tense and dramatic game of Jenga. There was Star Trek fight music (Kirk edition) on repeat several times, there was the Benny Hill chase music, there was the Crystal Maze music, there was the Tetris theme. There were people at the back standing up to watch, everyone was tense. Even No Face got in on the action intimidating people/paying attention.

No Face got way closer than that. Scary.

I mean seriously. Though it has since been revealed, nobody knew who the person doing No Face was for two years. And they were fantastically in character. It was genius. And people treat them with the respect and caution as though they were actually a malevolent spirit. So this was fun for everyone up there lol.

Eventually that ended and we retreated to the mini bar in the games rom. Played more Slash for a bit until we all had to leave.

And then it was the end of the con. And all is sad.

Me and @knittedace had to share a bed as the room was one large bed rather than two singles. And I was joking that if we were inside a fan fic this would so be the ‘forced to share a bed’ trope. Followed by some joking about waking up to bumps in unexpected places. Like lower legs. Or something. But we got to sleep eventually.

I’m sad to be home. I have ideas for panels next year already. I miss it. @knittedace described getting home sick when she got home and I hadn’t framed it that way before but it is. We both grew up in fandom. Spending time here, talking here, learning here. Fandom is a culture we spent our formative years in and are still a part of. And conventions are like temporary pop up real world manifestations of that. So it kinda makes sense. But what makes them so special, in many ways, is that they are temporary. Even if it’s always sad to leave.

Also, and importantly, at the bottom of the back page of the program was this very touching easter egg that will make you feel the feels if you decode it:

–. -. ..- / - . .-. .-. -.– / .–. .-. .- - -.-. …. . - -

Nine Worlds Staff and Volunteers

They are brilliant. They work tirelessly before, during, and after the con to make things work. From the techies making sure all the equipment works to those running the front desk and twitter so people know what is going on to those making sure things go to plan or even have a plan, to everyone else who makes everything work. To those who do the nitty gritty stuff like finances and talking to hotels or sponsors to get stuff done to those who organise tracks and content to those who book entertainment to everyone who volunteers for a few hours.

They work so hard. And need so much thanks. None of this would work if not for them. It doesn’t matter how many of us are willing to sit at behind a mic and babble at you for an hour, if none of them are there nothing would happen at all.

So thanks to them for all they have done, and all they continue to do.

#nine worlds #nine worlds 2017 #star trek #harry potter #fandom

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0poole · 5 years ago

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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Good God.

I finally managed to watch the final episodes of the show, and even though it wasn’t the most pitch-perfect ending ever (and even though I skipped like all of the final season), I still gotta dish out my thoughts on the whole thing. It’s not my tippy-top most favorite show, but it’s definitely the one with the most lasting impact on me. I mean, considering it created one of the biggest fandoms of all time, I’m pretty sure I’m far from alone there.

Obviously have to start from the beginning. I think I got into MLP around the 2nd season, maybe in the middle of it but definitely before the 3rd. I don’t exactly remember, since it was so long ago, but the first two seasons might hold some of the most saccharine, mindless nostalgia of all. Every single episode holds some spot in my memory, even the filler episodes with the cheesy notes to Celestia at the end of them. Honestly those were adorable, even if they were the classic kid’s show trope of “Let’s explain the moral to the kids who don’t have half a brain” but it’s actually pretty charming. That’s nostalgia talking, by the way. Obviously. If I found a new show today that did that, I’d roll my eyes a little, and I probably did when I was first watching the show.

But, it’s an understatement that this was my life. Of course, I was at that time of my life where one thing could very easily become my entire world, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t matter to me. The pretty solid, unchanging artstyle gave me an opening to try and draw it, and for years I exclusively drew ponies, and even when I had a human character, I’d only be able to draw them in pony form, so I ended up meshing their stories into fanfiction on how they could become ponies. My “Icon” character at the time, Satyr, was probably the first original character I drew, and I can still remember the exact drawing I made of him. Obviously a pony, he was sort of larger and masculine, conveniently blinking eye so I didn’t have to deal with that, basic hair/tail styles, and for some reason a jagged zig-zag pattern going laterally across his body, like those “How would a horse wear pants?” memes. I thought it was really good, so I kept going, and here I am ages later still drawing stuff. I couldn’t even bare to fully ditch the shitty characters I made (and I’m going to explain them without context because I just feel like it): Satyr got split into his immortal and prince-ly side; Diane, a manic serial killer, shrunk down but kept her impossibly anxious personality; Gaseous is basically all the same, except he doesn’t meet the rest of the crew in what parts of his story I know about; Sistenagon (here we go with the weird names, they don’t mean anything) still kept his (her? Don’t actually remember which I called it) wasp-y nature, except in the form of an insect-based fairy tribe leader; Stelerachyt, who I drew as a Diamond Dog, is still a big, fluffy, dog, but turned into a more regal and kingly type of person; and Myriad Alloy (the only one with an actual pony name) got a complete makeover, and actually became my favorite end result after all is said and done.

Like, I love ranting about these guys. They were basically my own Mane Six. And yes, Satyr TOTALLY dated Twilight. Why wouldn’t he? Main character a Main character. Plus, he was supposed to be me, and I totally wanted to hit that. I’m not ashamed to admit it.

I mean, I guess a big part of why I actually went down that path was because of the large fanbase. I didn’t begin with the beginning of the show, but I guess I came in with the first large wave, so all of the stuff I made got just enough attention to make me think people wanted to see what I was making. If I started out with OCs, no one would’ve cared, and I very well could’ve stopped.

Even apart from that, this show definitely kick started my downward spiral into femininity. I mean, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Everyone “knew” MLP as being something super shallow, only to be enjoyed by shallow little girls, then they pumped out Friendship is Magic and everyone else loved it, so I gave it a shot, and I loved it too. Obviously every fandom has the people who openly, irrationally hate them, but the whole thing was welcoming enough to keep it solidified in my mind, and bish bash bosh, it kept going and will probably keep going into eternity. It’s funny, even then I drew Satyr with the more feminine pony design (not entirely because drawing the male pony type was harder), so I was setting myself up for the future.

I guess this kind of gives me a window to talk about My Life as a Teenage Robot, because for as long as I could remember before actually watching the show, I seriously despised any instance of XJ9 I could find. If an image of her popped up on screen, I would close it faster than if it was porn found while around my parents. I don’t know why she was so harshly ingrained in my mind. You could argue I just hated “girly” stuff before I realized I actually loved it, and didn’t want to face my emotions, but I wasn’t exaggerating at all about that porn thing. I actually couldn’t look at her for more than a second. But, one day I decided to cave in and see what was up, and soon enough she became one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time.

Back to ponies, some of the content produced by the fandom also had some extremely fond memories in my mind. I think I still have some songs by The Living Tombstone and WoodenToaster on my MP3 player (partially because it’s just good stuff) and for some reason playing on MLP-themed TF2 servers was actually really fun too. Some notable fandom people reacting to recent episodes was a spectacle I always looked forward to, and I still am subscribed to Saberspark and Ratchet on Youtube after all this time, probably as well as various other people who are still there but haven’t posted anything since the settling of the fandom. I just remembered, Hotdiggetydemon probably qualifies for all that too, since his .Mov series was the talk of the whole fandom. That, and Friendship is Witchcraft. I had to re-look up the name of that one though, but I still loved it.

I guess I should play favorites, huh? Favorites was the one game everyone in the fandom played.

Favorite episode: Can’t not be a tie between the 2-parters of Season 2. Discord is a riot, and Chrysalis is actually one of my favorite villain designs of all time. I’m a sucker for both shapeshifters and bugs, so you can’t expect me to not like her. Glad she rode the villain boat till the very end, although reformed Discord is definitely fine too. Plus, the rest of the Changelings turned anyway.

Favorite song: You expect me to not tie things up here? The Flim Flam brother’s Super Cider Squeezy 6000 is great, as are the brothers themselves, and I also love This Day Aria, since it’s the focal point where people realized this show seriously wasn’t just colorful, cute ponies. The Art of the Dress is also pretty catchy.

Actually, just remembered. Under Our Spell might be it. Took me a while to remember the EQG stuff, but that song is seriously good, and unironically better than the generic dribble that somehow magically beat it.

Favorite background pony(ies): Vinyl and Octavia are a pretty cute duo, and with the killer duet in the Slice of Life episode, ya gotta love em. Funny thing, though: There’s this background pony that looks almost identical to my current self-insert pony OC, with purple hair and a grey coat, with a seemingly writing-based cutie mark and green eyes. He’s even a unicorn too. It wasn’t intentional, I swear.

Favorite CMC: Sweetie Belle is too much. Her little squeaks are too pure. I can’t take it. Applebloom has nice colors, though.

Favorite Princess: If you don’t say Luna you’re a cop

Favorite non-pony species: Obviously Changelings, but after their reformation the honors actually switch to the Kirins, just because of how cool they look. The Yaks are pretty fun too. Speaking of…

Favorite nu-Mane Six (or are they called the School Six? Whatever, you know what I mean): All Yona. And yes, I had to look up her name was, who cares? She’s adorable.

Favorite of the Pillars of Equestria: I honestly love that they made Starswirl an actual character in the show. For the longest time, people just assumed he would stay in the form of Twilight’s Nightmare Night costume forever, but then they actually made him real! That’s really cool.

Favorite Equestria Girls design: Once again, Sweetie Belle steals both this spot and my heart.

And, of course… Favorite of the Mane Six:

Honestly, it just depends on the mood I’m in. Not even remotely lying there.

Fluttershy would’ve been my answer way back then, since I was into the shy types. There’s definitely something still there. You can’t deny that she’s the most cuddly of them all.

Twilight might’ve been a tie for the top around then too, since I was also the too-smart-for-humanity type. That leads into you liking the “smart” ones. Plus, in the latter half of the series, she did feel like she was put one step above the rest of the cast. That kinda makes her feel slightly off, I guess. Still like her, though.

Pinkie Pie’s one of those that I can imagine liking, but if I ever actually had to deal with that much energy I might actually melt. And, not in that I’m-totally-in-love kind of melting. Literal, actual melting.

Rarity, in terms of concept, is easily my favorite type of character for the show. On the surface, she’s the generic fashionista type that every girl’s show has, but instead of her being someone who “just makes clothes” she’s actually seriously hard working and goes through all the regular motions you’d expect from an artist. Turning such a cliche on its head and giving it a much more realistic image is perfect for this show. Also, she’s purple. I like purple.

Not much really needs to be said about Applejack. She really seems like the most logical one of the group, even at the very beginning. That’s great to have when everyone else is acting like spoiled/sheltered brats (at least, when she’s not acting that way either).

But, I really gotta be honest… I’m never really in the mood for Rainbow Dash. She’s like the opposite of AJ, where she’s always some degree of arrogant, and even though watching her achieve her dreams is nice, her big head gets a little annoying for side gags. Also, if you showed me a plain picture of the Mane Six, I would’ve told you she was the main character instead of Twilight, just because she stands out so much more. I mean, the show isn’t called “Twilight Sparkle: Friendship is Magic,” but still.

If you really want a straight answer, I’m in a Rarity mood right now, so I’ll go with that. It’s probably the safest bet, because, like I said, I do love purple. Not just purple, but purple AND white put together. One of my favorite color combinations. Just add a little gold, and you’re, well, you know...

But… Yeah. All good things had to come to an end. I feel like its time came. Plus, they ended the show with the little story book thing they did in the very first episode, so as far as I’m concerned the series is complete. It did its job, anyway.

#mlp #mlp fim #friendship is magic #my little pony #rant #rambling #opinions #nostalgia #poole #cute #mlp 10th anniversary

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zetalial · 6 years ago

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FMAB rewatch episode 30

Previous Episode

Episode 30: The Ishvalan war of Extermination

This episode is... kinda boring honestly? It’s important to the character’s backstory but it’s, I don’t know, full of really cheesy lines? So much talking about how terrible everything is that I’m wishing there was less talking and more just showing stuff without commentary. (And warning I feel like my overanalysing nature is worse than usual in this episode rewatch.)

It probably doesn’t help that I’ve seen 03 countless times and much of the Ishval backstory happens there so all this war stuff is just really familiar and so it’s not really shocking. Kimblee of all people is actually the highlight.

So the episode opens with Roy talking to his teacher, trying to convince him to pass on his alchemy research to him. Roy is wearing a uniform and has just become a soldier but believes that this is his chance to help people while his Master thinks him a fool and doesn’t wish his secret knowledge to be abused and used for evil. Oh he’s also dying.

Well my conclusion is that they’re both idiots. Flame alchemy is one of the most destructive kinds of alchemy there is. Useful for nothing except burning stuff and Roy will go on to use it to burn people alive. What did they think they would use it for? Maybe if you’re creative it’d be good for cooking or something but Roy has literally just joined the military and seems to believe he needs flame alchemy to succeed. How did he expect it to help!? Showing him as an idealistic soldier wanting to make a positive difference would make so much more sense if he used anything but flame alchemy. Or if he was presented as more ambitious and believes flame alchemy is power and so only gets a greater feeling for morality from the Ishval war, thanks to character development.

Oh well. So episode proper starts with Ed visiting Hawkeye to return her gun. He talks to her about how he feels he was too weak to use it and expresses his fears of how Winry might’ve shot Scar were it not for him and did he make the wrong choice? Riza’s nice to him, suggesting its just some variant of survivor’s guilt, and explains how she’s in no position to judge, having become the sort of person who’s stained by her past actions and can pull the trigger far too easily but that doesn’t make Ed’s choices wrong at all. Then Ed asks about Ishval and Riza tells him about it.

Elsewhere we’ve got Scar demanding Marcoh tell him about Ishval as well.

We see that the war is terrible, lasting seven years until the Fuhrer decided to create a policy, 3066, to exterminate the Ishvalans. And so State alchemists were sent in to exterminate the people. Riza expresses how war can be chaotic but as a sniper she could see exactly who she was aiming at and with every shot she would end a life.

Marcoh reveals that Ishvalans were being used as ingredients to create a Philosopher’s stone. He was part of the operation, in fact. This stone was given to Kimblee so he could be even more destructive, allowing him to wipe out the Ishvalans in mass numbers. Scar recognises the description as the one who killed his brother. Scar is absolutely disgusted by all he’s learning from Marcoh naturally.

We see Roy at his teacher Berthold Hawkeye’s grave with Riza. They’re not familiar with each other yet but seeing Roy’s noble ambitions about how he wants to do good, she agrees to share her father’s research on flame alchemy with him. And Riza also decides to become a soldier herself.

In Ishval, we get some Roy and Hughes interaction as Hughes explains how Gracia is the reason he can continue moving forward and Roy ponders his own reasons. They note that they have the eyes of a killer now and think everything they’re doing is terrible, that it wasn’t what they stood for.

Roy sees Riza and is saddened to see her here as well, that the lovely girl he knew now has the eyes of a killer as well.

Kimblee appears and he just blows to pieces their attempts at trying to be above their actions. They’re still here and they’re still killing, what does it matter that they hate it? With Riza, he suggests she must feel some sort of pride every time she makes a successful shot and as it flashes back to her unflinchingly making a kill, you know he has a point. He reminds them to not turn their eyes away from their actions but to look unflinchingly into the faces of their foes and to never forget them, because they will never forget them. These words are echoed by Riza later on to Ed, so it’s clear she’s taken these words to heart. It’s pretty powerful.

And it’s such a brief scene of them interacting with Kimblee but I love it. Kimblee’s just like them in this moment, following orders given by a higher officer, what does it matter if he enjoys his work and they don’t? The results still the same. And why are they here, anyway?

They became soldiers, surely they should have expected war. Is it because its a civil war, rather than defending the borders against Drachmans or Cretans? What did Roy expect to achieve with his fire alchemy? They can condemn the State all the like but they’re a part of it.

I love to hear Kimblee questioning them on this and you can respect his viewpoint because he doesn’t pretend, he’s very honest about the kind of person he is. (I do question them giving a Philosopher’s stone to someone as chaotic as Kimblee though.)

Anyway, so we jump to the Fuhrer and the part where he’s ordered the extermination policy to go ahead. Some interesting characterisation of him with how he rejects the Ishvalans idea of a god given how many have already been slaughtered by the military and says how you can only trust in your own power. When the Ishvalan leader offers himself as a sacrifice to end the war, Bradley rejects it, stating that one life is now worth thousands and insists on exterminating the ishvalans.

This is pretty remarkable as far as characterisation goes but I feel it’s heavyhanded for a leader. I’m biased but I sort of appreciated how Bradley in 03 constantly had this demeanor of being harmless and friendly, keeping all this ugliness to secret plotting and backrooms, he wouldn’t be so openly villainous. (I think BH!Bradley is a far more interesting Homunculus than 03!Bradley, but I do appreciate how effective 03!Bradley was as a seemingly good leader.)

Anyway, Riza concludes her story with explaining how the military is corrupt and the bad parts need to be removed and the whole system needs to be reformed, which is what Mustang intends to do by attaining power. She also states that all the so-called heroes of the Ishvalan war should be tried as war criminals for their actions. Quite a statement as that condemns likeable characters like Riza and Roy. Edward is upset by this even as Riza seems very calm about the whole thing.

We get one more flashback to after the war where Roy shares his ambitions with Riza and asks her to work with him and watch his back. He adds that it means she has the power to shoot him if she so chooses. Roy states that he trusts her with this power, that if he ever strays from his path, he expects her to shoot him rather than let him go down the dark path.

Hmm... it’s interesting. You know, I’ve seen Roy’s character in 03 criticised for showing him almost killing himself as it’s out of character for Roy. I sort of agree that’s it’s a little too melodramatic and angsty, and you need to accept that 03!Roy and BH!Roy are different characters. BH!Roy certainly doesn’t believe in throwing one’s life away. But this statement is interesting in how it shows that maybe they’re not so different? The moment 03!Roy contemplates suicide is after he’s done a terrible thing in killing a pair of innocent doctors and maybe he genuinely believes he’s fallen too far from the right path and it’d be better if he were dead. He eventually decides to continue living in the best attempt to make up for some of his evil actions. This statement in Brotherhood mostly foreshadows him becoming consumed with revenge in his torture of Envy and he believes Riza will be a better judge of his own morality than him. But still, he’s very clear that he expects Riza to kill him if she thinks he deserves it. I find the parallel interesting anyway.

Sorry... just musing. (Warning for further digressions in this paragraph) Speaking of 03, I think it generally did a better job at showing the devastation and the horror and the trauma as a result of the Ishval war. With more focus on the Ishvalans side, and more moments of extreme weakness from the ‘heroes’. I also find it sort of strange how noble Roy seems to be even before the Ishval war. In 03 we never see any flashbacks from before the war and I think I like that? We can imagine that Roy was perhaps a man like Archer but the war broke him and led to him becoming a person with some trauma but also with higher ideals,. Yes, I know there’s nothing to support this reading in canon but still I wish the Roy before the war seemed more different from the Roy after the war.

Sorry, I’m being too harsh on this poor episode, I know. I should be putting on some Royai shipping glasses or something but I sadly cannot. There’s just too much talking about what’s happening and insufficient explaining about the characters actual motives for me. I understand that they feel bad about it but I want to understand why they choose to participate. How far they’re going. I know they joined the military but why?

I’m probably forgetting some details or misunderstanding something. Maybe I’m just overreading or getting fixated on the wrong stuff. All things considered, this was a pretty alright episode and did explain the events well and I did like how we get much of it through Riza’s perspective and I love the bits where Riza explains being a sniper and the parts with Kimblee. Bradley’s stuff was decent as is the brief bits with Marcoh. Ed talking about his own worries as actually a little boring for me - weird when Ed should be my favourite.

I’ll just end this part here. You know, I think writing about it actually helped me to appreciate it more though. Using its the reverse where I like an episode okay but find plenty of issues when I start to think about it in depth.

#fma #fmab rewatch #the ED is growing on me #You know I don't recall liking kimblee so much after this episode #but I appreciate this introduction #there's a brief scene with Al and Mei I didn't mention #its the scene where Al insists he's better than his brother and she gets a crush on him #random comic relief basically #meta #myposts

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