#and i get it's because they needed a conflict and classism is a big part of d1's storyline | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lurkingshan · 2 months ago

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Hi Shan

I've been watching your commentary on Peaceful Property with regard to its mishandling of its class conflict themes and I have to admit that I'm coming to agree with you on it.

I had to basically go "Welp, I can't see how they get out of the mess they've made now - I guess I just have to give them a pass on the grounds of found family?" in order to keep enjoying the show, which did let me do that but also left a bit of an icky taste in my mouth.

So I guess I wanted to ask - do you think there's a way they could have handled the wealth disparity and classism issues more gracefully within the show's narrative? And also whether there are any QLs you would recommend that do handle the topic to your satisfaction? I could use something good to watch!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I feel like you always make me consider topics more deeply and reflectively, even when I don't agree with you.

Hi, thanks for dropping in! I feel you on this, and I want to be clear that my criticism of the show is not criticism of people who still like it despite these failures. If you have still been able to connect to the friendship and family themes without this getting in the way, that's great and I'm glad for you. Just because the show is doing one thing very poorly doesn't mean there's nothing of value in it.

That said, you're right, they've passed the point of no return on their missteps with the class disparity themes. Early on in the show, after several episodes in a row of ghost stories involving poor or working class folks harmed by Home's wealthy real estate developer family on top of the class disparity between Home and Peach/Pang, I said I was confident that the show had something to say about this issue. And that was true! Unfortunately, what it had to say was garbage.

To your first question, I actually think it would have been very easy for the show to handle the wealth disparity and classism issues more gracefully, and that's a big part of my frustration. They had all the ingredients--a family history of exploitation, a ghost busting team including working class folks to shed light on the family's sins, and an ignorant grandson uncovering wrongdoing case by case and learning that there was always a price for his privilege. All the show needed to do was allow Home to come to some natural realizations about his family's treatment of others, via both the ghost case work and his relationship with Peach and Pang, and then use the power and resources he has to take accountability in the form of restitution and reparations to the people and communities they harmed. My ideal story line based on what they set up in the first half of the show would have had Home setting out to right his family's wrongs and take real steps to restore the communities they harmed. Even if a full on wealth redistribution narrative was too much to hope for, at the very least Home should have been made to reckon with what his family did and set out to do better in the future, both by Peach and Pang and by his family's countless victims (including Kan).

But that's not what we got. Instead, the narrative tried to sell us on the idea that none of this is anyone's fault, and that any harm that came to people at this family's hands was the result of a "curse" or one bad apple's wrongdoing. Instead of saying anything meaningful about systemic inequality and the responsibility of the wealthy and powerful to avoid extractive and exploitative practices, they painted Home's Gramps and family corporation as benevolent, concluding that they destroyed a bunch of people's lives by accident and without intent or even knowledge. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how utterly absurd and insulting that is. On top of all that, despite Home being the one with the most power in this little friend family and making some very serious mistakes that caused harm to the others, the show consistently centered him and his feelings in all conflicts, including Peach's near death and the death of Kan's father and destruction of her community. It also ignored the very real stakes it set up for Peach and Pang's dire financial situation whenever the plot demanded. The second half of the show became all about the poor people Home and his family have harmed forgiving him without any accountability because they felt guilty he was sad, and then those same people spending their time and energy fighting to save this rich family's reputation and livelihood. That's not me offering an interpretation, that is what literally happened on our screens!

So yeah, it was bad! It was clear weeks ago that it was not going in the right direction, but I understand holding out hope that they'd pull a rabbit out of a hat or look into the camera and say sike. But that ship has sailed at this point, and Peaceful Property becomes another in a pattern of GMMTV shows that try to incorporate class disparity in their narratives and get it very very wrong.

Which brings me to your second question: are there any QLs I recommend that do this better? Yes! Here is a short list for other Thai shows that have genuinely done this better:

Moonlight Chicken: not a class disparity narrative, but the only GMMTV show to date that has depicted working class people with full dignity and empathy

Dark Blue Kiss: the only GMMTV bl to tell a romance story that involves class conflict and not completely bungle it (snaps to TayNew for having another show that did better on this)

My Ride: a slow burn romance between a doctor and a motorcycle taxi driver that gets the way their class disparity would shape their relationship right

Love Sea: this one isn't perfect (I think the working class character in the pair gets too little narrative attention relative to his rich counterpart) but it does take the class disparity seriously and ensures it informs the relationship the whole way through

Laws of Attraction: don't laugh at me, I'm serious! This show is mostly absurd but the core narrative is all about class conflict, and it informs the romance quite thoroughly, too

The Loyal Pin: including this one on the word of @twig-tea because I haven't watched yet, but I understand it's dealing with class very directly in its core relationship (with the disclaimer that it still has two episodes to go so something could go sideways)

I'd also throw in some shows that aren't really about class disparity but do include it as part of the narrative background to inform characterization and plot like I Told Sunset About You, Love By Chance, Khun Chai, and 3 Will Be Free

Outside of Thailand, South Korea is always a safe bet for strong class disparity narratives, and in QL you'll find the best examples in Hwang Da Seul's works (Where Your Eyes Linger, Blueming, To My Star 2, and currently Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo). Japan and Taiwan actually don't do much of this, because most of their shows are about middle class and working people as a rule. Miseinen, a Japanese BL that just started airing, looks to be tackling a class disparity narrative, though, and doing it well so far (not a coincidence that the source material is from Korea). And We Best Love is a classic Taiwanese BL with a significant class disparity informing the romance conflict. Blue Canvas of Youthful Days is a currently airing Chinese BL that is doing a class disparity romance and has been killing it so far.

So there is my incredibly long answer to your questions! Thank you again for sending me this kind note; I'm so appreciative that we can chat about this stuff and still maintain our love for these shows. I hope you find some things you like on the rec list, as well. :)

#peaceful property #thai drama #shan recommends #class disparity narratives #shan answers #long post

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sobeksewerrat · 24 days ago

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Mastermind live watch thoughts part 1 (spoilers ahead)

Okay so they're really going all out on Andrealaphus's whole winter shtick. Wonder how it'll take for it to get old ngl

Oh so we're FINALLY figuring out the consequences of using the grimoire illegally? I feel like it's a little late and there was almost no set up at all this season?? At least we're learning more about Hell's laws and judicial system. I really wanted to know more about that, even if it feels out of nowhere. I am a little concerned considering the run time is only 22 minutes, and as an ace attorney fan I do not think that is enough for a compelling legal procedure, there's a reason the courtroom scenes were the least compelling part of the Ace Attorney anime (despite my love for it, and to be fair they were still great they just lacked a lot of the details and mystery)

Andy (yes I'm calling him andy) and Stella have such chaotic sibling energy I love it (I am so gonna regret this later, aren't I?)

Andy is so elsa coded/j

.….did he just…call her hot??? Huh??? Viv what the fuck is your obsession with incest I need to know

MORE POTENTIAL I.M.P EMPLOYEES?? OOOOOOO

…okay if Hell's got law enforcement like THAT how the FUCK were I.M.P not arrested a long time ago?? Also…grim reaper demons?? Huh???

Gee viv way to undercut the conflict with humourIs that…a police brutality joke?? Why do they keep babying Moxxie and treating him like a joke??

The tension is literally nonexistent there is no threat what the fuck way to kill the mood dude and I was so fucking hyped too

OH NO THE INTERNS NO I LIKED THEM

Oh the muzzle on Loona is so cruel I wish the show explored the cruelty against Hellhounds more like wow they are genuinely treated like rabid animals instead of people and that could've been such a cool way to explore Hell's classism and racism amongst hellborn

OMG SATAN BBG YOUR VOICE IS SO HOT I CAN TELL HELL BE MY NEWEST BLORBO BY THE END OF THE EPISODE

Back to the ranting! Ohhhhh boy, okay why are the Sins here again? I can understand Satan, since imps are his rings’ native citizens, but the others? I can understand them being here if this was some major crime in Hell, but I.M.P has been running for A WHILE, and Asmodeus is aware of it and they're literally under his jurisdiction ACCORDING TO STOLAS! So, by all accounts, he might be the only other Sin relevant to this case. Moreover, we know the Sins hold somewhat equal power (save for Lucifer, maybe), and we know Succubi and Incubi work under Asmodeus and are legally allowed to traverse the human realm, correct? Therefore the I.M.P crew technically count as Ozz's employees, no? And due to his influence and the fact that his rings’ natives are allowed to travel wherever, this case should've been thrown out as Blitzø technically isn't breaking demon law, from my understanding. You could argue that this for when he was using the Grimoire, which is fair, however calling I.M.P an illegal business is a stretch. Besides, Asmodeus was aware of the Grimoire thing and didn't do JACKSHIT! He didn't even have a reaction! That immediately undercuts any conflict regarding it as it implies that this is not that big of a deal, so the Sins being here genuinely just feels like conflict for the sake of conflict and to hype the episode as being the first appearance of all of them (minus Lucifer) together and showing off Leviathan and Belphegor.

Speaking of Levi and Belphie (look I used ro be an obey me fan alright? Lemme call them Belphie), I have…issues with their designs. I admit, they are a bit better than I initially judge them as but GOD what the fuck

Stealing??? STOLA GAVE IT TO HIM

Oh my god STOP WITH THE COMEDY AND THE INCEST FOR FUCKS SAKE WASNT ANDY A FUCKING GAY MAN ANYWAY??

No wait because the “forcing himself” allegation could hold some water (IN A COURTROOM I MEAN). Stolas is of much higher power, and in the eyes of a classist society like Hell's it wouldn't make sense for a Goetia to stoop down to such a level unless they were forced to or coerced in any way (this is using the logic the series presents us with! Remember that newspaper from Oops?). This could've been such a cool way to explore false allegations such as these and delve into the topic of Hell's classism and racism once more. Moreover, Blitzø is a somewhat typically masculine man, and he's known to be hypersexual, so it could highlight the bias when accusing him of such a thing. But, alas, this is Helluva Boss we're talking about here.

EXACTLY. WHERE THE FUCK IS STALE ASS. THANK YOU VASAGO

Also, not to bring up Ace Attorney again, but this is the shittiest fictional court proceeding ever, and I played Turnabout Big Top.

VASAGO BBG ILY

Also. Andy's point of not facing his aggressor could hold some water…IF HE WAS FILING THE CASE PRIVATELY. THIS IS A HIGHLY IMPORTANT AND PUBLIC COURT PROCEEDING. Even if you didn't want to traumatise poor baby Stalebitch by letting him face Blitzø, disclosing details of his assault, if it was real that is, without his consent is such a vile thing to do and would tank Andy's credibility within seconds.

Why are they not allowing Blitzø to testify in a fucking court case. Like. Bro. I get imps are oppressed but this is a bit much don't you think.

STRIKER!!! Wait why isn't Striker arrested he tried to kill a royal, no? Why is he conspiring with blue bloods?? Didn't he hate the upper class??? Huh???? Oh wait immunity that answers the first question BUT STILL

Wait aren't Bee and Ozz biased in this situation?? Shouldn't the jury or whatever be impartial?? WHY IS MAMMON HERE AS WELL HE SHOULD BE BIASED AGAINST BLITZØ TOO! I get that they're Sins, the highest authority in Hell, but WHAT THE FUCK.

Okay but saying an ace character is jealous no one is fucking them is weird, right?

…look Satan bestie I love you but FUCKKKKK WHYYYY. Why is viv so insistent on undercutting the most interesting plot line so far?? If ya hated court proceedings this much viv maybe you shouldn't have written this plot!

Don't get me wrong I love how stupid the Sins are and how they're just people, but I think the show forgets that they're thousands of years old and extremely fucking powerful sometimes.

Also I get that Lucifer isn't here for legal reasons, but couldn't ya have thrown in a line about his absence? Like I think if this was such an important case, and all of Hell's monarchs were involved, the King of Hell should AT LEAST have a reason for not being there (maybe I'm biased cos i hate Lucifer but still)

God I love Levi and Mammon's interaction. Ik it's prolly meant to be flirting, but my Greedyguitar and whatever Adam/Mammon/Eve is called loving ass cannot take it as anything but platonic. Wish Levi spoke tho

“Our power”?? But…you're a Sin? Not a Goetia? Maybe he means royalty in general but tbh this just feels like Viv trying and failing to tie in Hell politics

No seriously why don't the Sins get a say in this?? Why is it only Satan? ASMODEUS HES UNDER YOUR JURISDICTION DO SOMETHING

I am so confused about the world building in this show. The Sins have the ability to create life??

“Oh my Lucifer! What are they doing?” SO NOW TOU WANNA SHOW YOU YOU STINGY OWL BITCH?!?

Oh Vivziepop…how I hate your handling of oppression of the lower class and racism please learn a thing or two next time.

NO I GOT EXCITED WHY ISNT STOLAS DEAD

…okay fuck I'm not continuing this I'm finishing it later fuck you Stolas love ya Vasago

Imma try to put my thoughts into words more coherently later

#sobek's dumpster #Brainingsewer #Helluva Boss spoilers #Helluva Boss

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mooniety · 1 year ago

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sometimes when i see how a lot of people interpret susie being a girlboss & still a big bad, i worry that my own interpretations may be a bit too out of character, so here's my interpretation!

i want to make her conflicted, feel constantly ostracized, naive, overly defensive, anxiety ridden, lack an understanding of modern social cues, have a witty sort of awkwardness, & waste literal days doing heavy research on how to make friends only to later realize that said research was wildly incorrect & unnecessary to a humorous degree

she's definitely intelligent, but getting 100s on all of your exams doesn't exactly equate to being the most street smart, i'd say she's the equivalent of an overly sheltered stem kid, perhaps even a madonna of some sorts - work is the only thing & friend she knows

even if she's lived in a pseudo hell for what i imagine was a majority of her life, despite the largely popular idea that she fought back with the hopes to just live another day, what if she instead hid like a coward the entire time & ate whatever scraps she could find after the persecutors finally left? after all, she didn't come back home with many physical scars, if any at all

& despite being disgustingly rich, her wealth is just a shield - classism as a form of confidence she aggressively douses herself in like gasoline to hide all of the mental trauma she's obtained over the past years, shown through an immature mindset of how wealth is spent: ugly items she purchases because it has easily recognizable luxury branding displayed all across it, stupidly big gold diamond jewelry you'll never see her wear because it goes against work policy, & expensive food & drink that is specifically popular on social media platforms when it barely fills her nor really fit her tastes

yet, she manages to hide this all, gatekeeping her true emotions with a ridiculously arrogant, nefarious crackle she's been taught through multiple encounters with others will basically guarantee her a 100% chance of escaping her current situation, fancy yet crude teases & remarks built from words she doesn't understand the true impact of, & a simple venomous smile. she's on the verge of breaking, but you wouldn't even know it.

everything about her is running away. hiding. fearing. cowering. crying. begging. rinse & repeat.

she's a liar to herself & everyone around her-- & she knows it.

she's definitely still morally ambiguous, don't get me wrong - good, heartfelt, maybe even heroic intentions, disgustingly horrible & overly grandiose ways of carrying them out, but no matter what, she's still a coward at the end of the day

she's a young girl stuck in an adult woman's body - forever stuck in the past yet forced to live in the present

she's no black swan. she's the purest, most innocent, white swan you've ever laid your eyes on. & if you've seen the swan lake, you know how it ends - a tragedy.

maybe someday she'll gain the confidence she needs to get over her fears, but for now, she's nothing but a coward that desperately clings onto her wealth as if it were a white knight in shining armor. maybe that's why a lot of people like to headcanon that she has a massive crush on meta knight. but hey, i'm guilty of that too.

anyways she's still best girl of 2024-beyond because i have a thing for villainesses, please don't ask me further about that part... ^^;

tl;dr: my headcanon for susie is not very girlboss but instead a wimpy rich chick, & i REVEL in that.

#susie haltmann #kirby headcanons #these are the only tags i'm willing to put this in because i'm too embarrassed...#local cutting board talks about her favorite kirby character #i hope i didn't accidentally sound unhinged while writing this #i'm really sorry if i did ;;

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sofyflora98 · 5 months ago

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You dont have to answer if you dont want. But i stumbled upon an old post about Mu Qing up holding classism and that its Hua Cheng should be the face for it and i just felt conflicted? I tried to be open minded. And the big example they used is him kicking out of the army which imo kinda odd… to say.. But its combined with the fact Mu Qing called Hua Cheng a liar and he obviously didnt want Hua Cheng tagging along and he let Feng Xin with a broken arm carrying Hua Cheng . tbh, im fine with open intrepretation of that.

We all know Mu Qing doesnt have soft personality and hes prickly. I definitely do think in that liar scene, i saw it more as Mu Qing just being truthful than empathatic as he analyze the situation which i guess fine, MQ theres obviously time and place for that as hes scared and dirty. But even if his family condition was bad, based on how someone fixed up his clothes he could have thought he might at least have another person who does care which was why he even mentioned it in the first place. Anything is possible after all. Although, i did get confused whether did he know the info background on him because XL did overhear the mean things the kids yell at him about him being kicked our. Anyways, it wasnt as he was like no this kid cant stay. Unless theres a line that i missed. And he did try to carry Hong Er but hong er wouldnt let him which he did show hesitation to do it or not afterwards.

And how i view the army situation is even though it is indeed that youth dying rate is higher in war and Hua Cheng did die lol. But its also mixed with Mu Qing’s need to not want to be replaced. This man’s mind never rest lol. Which i get it. Hes very interesting for that. After all, his core character is all about being a survivor. But to say that he upholds classism is fucking deranged. Like Guoshi is right there for ruining his mortal life lol. Funny enough, they certainly dont mention about Feng xin (though hes in rage as Mq was frustrated and being rude with xl but still that was uncalled for) who reminded him to know his place. I brought FX up because in one of the comments of that post they were saying at least FX acted with good will. Lol okay. We definitely can see you not being genuine about the topic. At least be consistent.

And Hua Cheng beats classism by creating another system of his own? ive seen people say its different in ghost City as its really based on mutual beneficial agreement and all especially with Yin Yu. But my guy…. ..you mean him as the King? Bruh its not as simple as that 😭 The heaven is indeed full of classist Gods which is why they look down on LW and MQ and QYZ. But the system to get there isnt, as long as you have the abilities, hard work and luck. Idk like feel free to talk about Hua Cheng overcoming society classism and rise to the top and all. But i find that answer to be so simplisitic and not well thought out?

Also he isnt mentioned alot with that Topic because his narrative isnt strongly focused on that??? Its very clear hes about devotion to his God and the strength he does to be the best so he can take care of Xie Lian. And hes the main character too at that 😭 take it up with MXTX for making Mu Qing a side character, story to strongly ties around it. His insecurity is because of that too.

And the funniest part imo is to Hua Cheng, his insecurity is his appearance - i mean u can still make an argument that is rooted in him being born under a bad star and the classism that he faces over it. But still. Similar at its core but different hurt.

Anywyas, idk i feel the argument is just so???? I just need to rant lol

But how do you feel about the revision on him kicking out Hong’er because of guoshi words thaf hes a misfortune that will bring bad luck to XL? That i would like to know.

I think I know what post you're talking about, and I agree with you. The argument that Hua Cheng is the one who "fought" classism and that Mu Qing is upholding in it doesn't stand, in my opinion. First of all, because Hua Cheng's supposed victory over classism doesn't even take place in the world of the living, and Ghost City is everything but an egalitarian place. Which isn't his fault, of course, because a single person cannot change the world. Then, again, his plot in the novel doesn't mainly revolve around classism the same way Mu Qing's does. I'd say that his plot is more about marginalisation and abuse, even if social class was obviously a fundamental part of his condition.

Regarding Mu Qing, literally, unless he somehow became a revolutionary leader, what could he even do? He had one chance to get away from misery and he took it. Gods are not allowed to interfere with the mortal world more than what concerns their duties toward their worshippers. The heavens are a classist world, because they reflect the human world, since all gods used to be human, but I see no instance where Mu Qing even remotely upheld classism. A good part of his lines are specifically to complain about how others are classist, so it really doesn't make any sense. I think that the issue of Hong'er being kicked out of the army has an ambiguity, and the desire to keep a child (who by the way didn't have the age to be in the army) far from war, and his fear of being replaced and possible jealousy, coexist. Human emotions aren't a mono-dimensional thing.

I don't really have an opinion about the revised version, but having read the first version years ago, I'm more attached to it.

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bohemian-nights · 2 years ago

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So true! GRRM even mentioned recently that he would love to write a book about N so no way are they cutting her or replacing her with Rhaena.

I feel like because this show is focused on the Targ family it attracted the worst type of fans who think Targs are really gods and believe in the blood purity BS so I’m not surprised they’re into Daemyra who’re the poster child for that(no offends to those who just ship them and don’t buy into that crap but the amount of people I’ve seen on twitter making those arguments is ugh)but like exploring the relationship between D who’s a literal Targ supremacist and N a low born bastard girl and how things like class and race(I know ASOIAF doesn’t have the same construct of race as we do but N’s treatment as well as the Dornish shows pretty clearly there’s racism in their society even if the author didn’t intend did that to be the case)affect them,etc. I mean we see hints(maybe foreshadowing even?)of that conflict on the show when everyone’s scandalised over D saying he will marry Mysaria and that she’s pregnant. It also pushes her to break things off with D because she knows the consequences it would have on her while pointing out D’s privilege. Btw,I feel sorry for Matt Smith you can tell he wants D to be more dimensional and maybe the writers wanted that as well but they had no idea how to write a character like him(possibly because he doesn’t really start his character arc before he meets Nettles?)so they ended up cutting a bunch of scenes of him being more affectionate/emotional which led to Targ stans believing they have vendetta against him imo. But he was def one of the characters that suffered the most due to these time jumps the last time we see him before the first big one is him killing his wife and intending to reclaim her land but then later on he self exiles himself like why? If they wanted him to have a complicated relationship with his daughters fine we don’t really know what kind of a father he was in F&B but then make the effort of having him interact with them instead of tearing them like extras who just smile and stand around. And don’t get me started with how they treated Laena seriously WTH was that ?! You make her a black woman on the show and then proceed to have her be a second choice for her husband (with one of their daughters being ignored by him)and dying the most awful way possible away from her family while trying to make it look “empowering”.Sorry for the rant but the way the POC have been treated so far makes me very nervous about Nettles like FFS don’t treat her like a plot device and while we’re at it have her be friends with Baela and Rhaena this show needs more well developed female characters and friendships as well!

I would so love to read a book on Nettles. She(and Daemon) is/they are my favorite characters in the ASOIF universe. Her story does not end/begin with the Dance so I’d like to see more about her. Replacing her with Rhaena will not cut it.

Some Targ/Daemyra stans are willing to miss out on a fully fleshed out story in favor of Targ supremacy. There are parallels between our world racism and racism in ASOIF universe as well as classism. Writers can’t really escape their biases. I hope season 2 fleshes things out a bit because the story can be much more than it actually is.

I’m actually a Daemon stan so I think the HOTD writers do have a vendetta against Daemon. Daemon is described as less jerky to those he loves. In the show it seems like Daemon is really only there for Daemon. The only one he actually seems/seemed to love was King Dumb Dumb(Viserys), but now he’s dead so he’s got nothing.

Daemon leaves Rhaenyra alone to fend for herself multiple times. He even abandons her in a sex dungeon in the sketchy part of town. And yet she is supposed to be the love of his life? 🫠 Well I guess so since he literally murders his first wife and bangs his niece at his second wife’s funeral. At least Rhaenyra only got choked out by her man!

If I was Matt I’d be shaking my head cause the writing is just 🫠 Daemon has recieved essentially 0 character development since episode 3. Thank God Matt is charismatic because otherwise Daemon would be the least likable character on the show.

Rhaena and Baela do seem like extras/window dressing. It irked my soul when Rhaena kept calling Rhaenyra “my queen.” I understand she’s the queen, but she’s also her cousin/stepmom. It makes it look like Rhaena is the help. Some of Baela’s lines were cut which is also irritating considering the lack of screen time for both her and her sister.

The Laena situation is just 🙃 I could do a whole essay on that. The fact that you have delusional racist stans arguing that it’s somehow empowering to watch a Blackish woman light herself on fire is just🙃 I have no words. Like please go read a book on misogynoir then come back to me on it(it probably wouldn’t help, but can’t hurt to try).

That was one of the most traumatizing things I have ever watched. I am not joking when I say this. That hurt. Her book death was a 1000x more “empowering” than that crap.

What’s “empowering” for Black women is not the same for other women especially white women. Black women are rarely seen as soft, being taken care of, and loved in media.

Laena is supposed to be mixed(and the actress’s that played her were mixed as well), but the casting seemed deliberate. They picked a brown skinned mixed woman to light on fire(literally) and be someone’s unloved second choice(again not book canon, but people will gloss over this and try to claim that is somehow is). While the white woman is somehow the first choice and Daemon’s one and only love.

Having Daemon literally ignoring his Blackish kids(who by the way should look white/whiter than they do since they are at least 75% white, but the HOTD writers don’t know how genetics work🫠) is also a choice. Someone said that you could start watching HOTD at episode 7 and you wouldn’t know that Rhaena and Baela are Daemon’s daughter’s. Which isn’t far off from the truth.

You can’t make this ish up and yet people will deny it all the damn day long 🫠 They don’t have a problem with it cause if anything, it helps to solidify their wack ship. I’m going to leave it there cause I will literally start ranting all day long.

Bottom line is I hope season 2 is better and the HOTD writers see fans complaints and try to develop a more fleshed out story. I am kinda dreading what they might try with Nettles, but I’m cautiously optimistic(I love to disappoint myself). Limiting her characterization will limit Daemon’s as well since she’s his final arc, but as I stated, the writers seem like they hate him so 🤷🏽‍♀️

A friendship between Rhaena, Baela, and Nettles would be nice, but they are all supposed to be in different places during the war. Who knows what they will do.

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bigskydreaming · 3 years ago

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If you were editor of Nightwing's book ever since at least the start of Rebirth to today and you were given free reign, what would your story mandates?

Oh no, this is dangerous. LOL. Hmm, I have no idea what to shoot for here, so I'll try to keep it to ten. That's reasonable right? Ten is good. Yeah. Is fine.

Okay, so, in no particular order:

1) Let Dick be competent 101. None of this him having to play hype man for every other character to pop up in HIS title bullshit. Nope. That's not what they're there for. He's the lead man, LET HIM BE THE LEADING MAN. Like sure, everyone has their areas of expertise, he doesn't need or have to be the best at everything, blah blah blah.....but its about the nuance. All of that is kinda lip service because the thing is, you don't go into MOST comic books and NEED to be reminded of that because the lead characters of those books are all constantly getting saved or shown up or chastised by every guest star in their books, you know? This is a very weird, very niche phenomenon very specific to Dick's character, and I'm super over it. I'm here to read about the guy who has literally been doing this longer than most superheroes twice his age. The guy who's been doing this since before he hit double digits. The born acrobat. The destined ultimate warrior or whatever of Gotham's Ornithological Society Of Murder and Pretentiousness. Gimme that guy. And that guy doesn't need to be 'humbled' every other page, because the thing is, he's not some egomaniac to begin with so the everpresent need to humble him doesn't actually come off as humbling! It just comes off as pandering and not even to actual fans of the actual character, so its like.....wyd DC.

2) Let other people take responsibility for their own crap with Dick rather than always just expecting a mea culpa from him. I'm so unbelievably tired of the words I'm sorry from Dick. I love personal accountability, so I never thought I'd have to say this about a character, but enoooooough. They have made it completely in character for this dude to apologize to everyone ELSE for being brainwashed, getting amnesia, being KILLED, like.....the amount of things he's groveled for forgiveness for when he didn't actually do a damn thing wrong or worse yet, was the ACTUAL victim of is like....pretty damn staggering. And meanwhile, there's nary a peep of apology from the people who regularly insult or belittle him, get physically violent with him, take advantage of him or take him for granted, etc, etc, etc. Its entirely too one-sided and imbalanced, and the pendulum needs to swing the other direction, like YESTERDAY, and in a fairly big way, IMO.

3) None of this Baby's First Social Justice Awakening 101 crap. I'm sorry, but no. Especially not when you go out of your way to acknowledge that Dick is Romani, only to then turn around and act like he's only JUST had his eyes opened to an awareness of like, classism and poverty and the real struggles people face day to day? Sorry not sorry, but especially for other white writers out there, do not use people of color as self-inserts for dipping a toe into Learning To See Past Privilege. And especially when talking about a character who has a history of being actively abused and hurt by the system and institutions of power, or hell, even leaving out that particular origin story, who has still been out on the streets helping people since he was a literal child. You can not tell me that this is his first face to face experience with social issues, or the first time he's had the inclination to try and address those head on. (And its also particularly egregious that the people second-guessing Dick in his own title and giving him reality checks or acting like they have more of an awareness of all this than he does like, happen to all be white? OPTICS. LEARN ABOUT THEM. COMMON SENSE. GET SOME.)

Know what would actually be a better way to approach this? Flashbacks. Show us Dick running into situations that make him think back to a case when he was still Robin, when he and Batman had started fighting over their approaches to things, actually SHOW us those conflicts and how their viewpoints had started diverging, and how much of that was due to Dick not having the same experiences as Bruce, or the same standing in society, no matter what house he lived in. THEN you can jump BACK to the present, with the reminder/awareness that this is something that isn't NEWS to Dick, but that he in the past felt he was forced to make his peace with as something he wasn't in a position to do that much about....only NOW, he's in a very DIFFERENT position, and suddenly it just hits him how he's still acting like he did when he was limited in resources or in having to be part of a chain in command or having to factor other responsibilities into things....now he ACTUALLY has the power and the resources to make meaningful change in the ways he ALWAYS wanted to, but maybe just needed time to figure out HOW.

Like you know what would have made Shawn Tsang's story arc so much better? If Dick didn't just remember her as the Pigeon's one time teenage sidekick he'd briefly fought as a kid, but like.....if he remembered her as someone he and Bruce had FOUGHT about. Because he didn't agree with sending someone to juvie for defacing public property as a form of political protest, when it was someone's LIFE who was going to be irrevocably damaged by that while the damage to the city could be fixed with a check, and what made Dick any more deserving of Bruce's leniency and faith in his potential or underlying goodness than Shawn?

But he was still a kid himself back then, and when Bruce responded with his usual conviction, talking about the importance about rule of law and etc etc, Dick just didn't have the words to get through to him then, to get him to understand that this wasn't just Dick not getting it because he was too young, it was BRUCE not getting it, that Dick was literally just saying well he wasn't too young to have been in juvie himself, and of the two of them, he's the one who has experience there so why was Bruce's opinion on whether this was the punishment that fit the crime the one that got to hold more weight here? When Dick's the one who knows what that punishment actually LOOKS like beyond the abstract, for whom it was a reality that still haunts him in ways that even defacing a few statues of some rich old fucks doesn't deserve?

Or hell, go back FURTHER than when he was Robin. Idk where any of those posts are, but I've always wanted to see something where Dick maybe runs into someone he remembers from his time in juvie, maybe a guard who is like, the source of the reasons Dick mistrusts figures of authority and is so hung up on independence and not being under anyone's thumb, or maybe someone who was in there with him, another kid who looked out for him when he didn't have to, etc. Gimme Dick tackling head-on his firsthand awareness that there's no rehabilitation to be found in a jail for kids, when most of those kids don't even need rehabilitation in the first place and only did what they did in order to survive or escape from worse situations or like, were there purely because of racist cops, etc. Let him go after THAT system, driven by personal experiences and memories that maybe only hit him in full after recovering his memories from the Ric Grayson arc, like they're things that he put in a box in his mind a long, long time ago because he didn't have the spoons or reserves to deal with them when he was a kid still so traumatized in so many ways, like, something had to give and so he put all those memories away for another day and just....never got back to them because life kept hitting him with new and fresh trauma every week.

But now something has him thinking back to those early days in Gotham, and reminding him that not everyone had a Bruce Wayne willing and able to give them an out from that place or acrobatic skills to escape it on their own, and like. You want to do something about the cycles of violence in Gotham and Bludhaven? Why not start with the places that literally MANUFACTURE cruelty on an institutional level, that teach kids that no matter what they did to get put there, even if that was nothing at all, they're all going to be treated the same way and given no reason NOT to do whatever it took to be top dog in a dog eat dog world by the time they got out.

There's SO many better approaches to social awareness in the Batbooks than what we're seeing, and like. Sheesh. The bar is way too low.

4) On a related note, if I'm editor of the Nightwing book, the FIRST thing I'm doing is making it a priority to find a writer of color for that book, ideally someone of Rom descent. Its waaaaay past time to let a Romani writer take the reins on Dick, Wanda, Pietro or Doom, aka some of the only prominent Romani characters out there? You can't tell me that there aren't talented writers who identify as Roma who would be more than willing to add their perspective to Dick's archive of narratives, and if an editor's gotta go looking for them? Go fucking look. DC and its fans have milked a lot of mileage out of the idea of Dick being Romani with very little in the way of nuanced storytelling to show for it in the past twenty years, and if DC wants to trot out little reminders that Dick is Romani every couple years, like in the form of a freaking line that has no follow up or expansion to any degree and is offset by an internal monologue that otherwise reads as incredibly privileged, the least they can do is TRY to expand on that with the narrative perspective of someone they claim to be representing via that character.

And no, this isn't gatekeeping, this is prioritizing. Its not about preventing other writers from writing this character, like just for the hell of it, its about being proactive about finding a writer who can write specific aspects of this character that have long gone unaddressed or poorly represented. And like. Okay. Its not easy breaking into the comics industry for anyone, but its particularly not easy for marginalized writers. Most every major comic book company just recites 'make your own stuff first and then show us that' but when you're a writer specifically, finding a compatible artist to partner with on creator-owned indie stuff first, when those artists are in the same position as you are and apologetically and understandably tend to have to take paying work over yours if you can't pay except on the back end, like....there are a lot of hurdles to getting your start in comic books, and while there are more and more marginalized writers in comics these days, DC and Marvel kinda fucked up, because you know what?

After being told 'make your own first, then we'll talk,' writers DID do just that....but then found out that well, due to the ease of online distribution and access these days, for any writers who CAN find an artist to partner with, its a hell of a lot easier to get their content out there these days WITHOUT a major publisher behind them.....and for a lot of marginalized writers in particular, its worth it to keep full creative control in exchange for smaller circulation. Especially when they don't have to deal with editors 'softening' their work to make it more palatable for audiences that quite frankly aren't necessarily their primary target. So yeah, marginalized voices are becoming more and more present in comics, but Marvel and DC for the most part are keeping the same voices centered they always have, and what these voices have to say is becoming less and less relevant and outdated. Because much like this arc from Taylor, even when they DO dip their toes into story matter that's of interest to wider audiences, they're doing so to a degree that still puts them years behind the conversations everyone else is having.

5) The same holds true of disability representation. I stopped reading Taylor's run for a lot of reasons but his way of responding to people unhappy with his depiction of Babs was a key one. If I'm editor on a book, and someone tweets at one of my writers that their depiction of a disabled character was hurtful because it feels like they're doubling back on everything Babs has ever said about not being defined by or ashamed of her disability and now its being treated like a dirty little secret, and that writer's response is essentially to just laugh at them and say there's nothing wrong or ableist about their writing of a disabled person, TO a concerned disabled person? That writer's ass is getting fired. Full stop.

Either you give a shit about this stuff or you don't. Don't pay your readers lip service about how important social issues are to you and how much you care about using superhero narratives to inspire people on these matters if you're gonna turn around and show your ass the second you don't feel comfortable and prioritized by the conversation, like it wouldn't exist without your oh so valuable contributions. ESPECIALLY if you don't identify as sharing the same identity of the marginalized character you're writing. You are a guest in someone else's lived experiences at that point, and you think you've got the right to belittle and talk down to the people who LIVE THERE? Fuck off, my dude.

6) Re-center Dick as someone who the superhero community RESPECTS. I love seeing Dick depicted as someone who has an awareness of his own limitations and an appreciation for what others bring to the table, and so I'm not opposed to him calling on others when he needs to.....but I also would like to see more of the opposite. But not in the way we usually see it these days, where he's asked to come help with a crisis and then usually second-guessed the whole way, and then sent back home without so much as a thank you when its done. Yawn. Sorry. I've read that story by now.

You know what story arc I freaking LOVED as a kid, back in the 90s? In Green Lantern, when Kyle Rayner first became the sole GL, one of his very early arcs, before he ever joined the JLA or anything....was him realizing how little he knew about being a superhero. He was like, my predecessors all had a full fledged CORPS to teach them everything they needed to know, but I had a few lines of exposition from a funny little blue guy in a red pillowcase and then I was off to the races. That's not good enough. There's so much I don't know about being a hero, I don't even KNOW what I still need to know.

So he went on kinda a superhero training roadtrip. He went to Metropolis to ask Superman for advice, he went to Batman to learn from Batman and Robin (Tim at the time). He went to Wonder Woman, Sentinel (Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern), etc, etc. And in the end, Kyle very much became his own kind of hero who wasn't just a pastiche of all those other heroes and the advice they gave him, but like....this put him on the road to that.

And I'd love to see something like that happen in Dick's solo title. We've seen him train in a team setting, we've seen him train the other Robins.....I'd love to see like, young superheroes from OTHER books, not ones created by the title, but like names people actually recognize from other franchises, like, guest star in Nightwing's book to learn from HIM, specifically. I wanna see something where Wally looks at the latest speedster and is like, you know what, if you really wanna be the best hero you can possibly be, then Nightwing's who you gotta go to, because there's no one I trust to make a better hero out of someone than him. I want the newest kid on the JLA block to worry that people aren't taking him seriously because of his age or experience, and he's always hearing them talk about Nightwing and how young he was when he started and so if anyone knows something about how to gain the respect of your older superhero peers, that's the guy to talk to.

Gimme Dick's couch being crashed on at various times by a half dozen new or upcoming young superheroes who all heard or figured out that if they really want to up their superhero game, Nightwing's the guy to see.

7) Bring back Bea. There's no long paragraph expansion on this, its really simply. Bring back Bea. She was one of the freshest breaths of air in Dick's supporting cast in ages, most of the current run is based off her character direction in the first place, she's literally the best suited TO help Dick in this venture, and the reasons they gave for writing her out of Dick's life were all bullshit and they just wanted to focus on his previous relationships, which would be fine if they didn't fall into the same two endless cycles of bring back up, go nowhere with, awkwardly avoid each other for years, rinse and repeat. Like. Bring back Bea, please and thank you, the end.

8) Focus on new villains. Heartless is meh, but the idea of new villains is still better IMO than rehashing Blockbuster, Zucco, etc. Like, nostaglia ain't it. If I want to read Blockbuster fucking up Dick's life, I can do that. They're called back issues. The thing is, love it or hate it, the Blockbuster arc WAS iconic. It left its mark. And anything that doesn't leave just as much of a mark, if they're going to bring him up again, is just gonna be a waste of time, you know? It'll just dilute his overall presence when like, what he was - worked fine as is. We don't need Round Two.

The trick to good villains, IMO, is they have to speak to a fight that needs fighting.

What I mean by that is....the best villains are those who resonate on a more instinctive level because they embody something that already exists in a reader's mind as a conflict that needs fighting. Like, if superheroes exist, if the embodiment of larger than life presences and forces devoted to protecting the world from various things are real....then their villains need to embody the kinds of fights or conflicts that NEED larger than life figures to combat them, at least on a one to one level.

Look at Superman and Lex Luthor. Superman at his core embodies the strength of community. He's the ultimate hero of the people, his essence is that he was the last survivor of a doomed race who was raised by two honest, hard working people to see the beauty in just being ONE of them, in using what he had on behalf of all of them and not just himself. In contrast, Lex Luthor is basically the embodiment of capitalist greed, of excess, of the entitlement of being able to have anything with a snap of your fingers and thus assuming that gives you divine mandate to make the kinds of choices that he sees as only his right to make.

He hates Superman, ultimately, because Superman is the WRONG savior of the people. He wants their only savior to be HIM, half the time he honestly believes he's saving the world FROM Superman, but just as often he's perfectly content to be the villain and not shy about it....because Lex Luthor's ultimate motivation is he wants everyone to know when he's dead and gone that LEX LUTHOR WAS HERE. He genuinely doesn't care WHAT his impact or legacy is at the end of the day, just that it exists and it overshadows most everything else...because all that really matters to him is the irrefutable proof that HE mattered. And thus at their cores, Superman and Lex are perfectly opposed. Ideally situated to eternally be in conflict, their own forever war, because their core natures are incompatible. They CAN'T compromise, without compromising themselves and essentially ending up as someone totally other than who and what they are already.

And you can go down the list. The Joker is the chaos to Batman's order, while Mr. Freeze is the stagnancy of that order taken too far, he's what you get when you freeze everything in your grief and refuse to let anything go on, anything new grow, because that would mean having to admit once and for all that what you're mourning is really gone. Two-Face is the ultimate embodiment of Man vs Self, a once good man at war with his own worse nature, and reminding everyone who looks at him how easily they could fall to the same fate.

And so on and so on. What Dick needs, is more of the same. Like, as much as I'm not a huge fan of Talon stories, I maintain that the Court of Owls were a great foil for him - just they tend to be poorly used in canon as well. But I also think how poorly they come off in canon has a lot to do with canon not really touching on WHY they're such a perfect foil for Dick....and that's Dick's history with being outside the system, mistreated and even exploited by the system. Because the Court, their core concept, is they ARE the system. They are entrenched, enfranchised, institutional power, passed down through generations, dynastic control that is a perfect counterpart to the dynastic power of the Wayne family, embodied in its youngest generation in the form of Bruce's FOUND family, the children he adopted regardless of whether or not his peers found them deserving of that honor. The Court, and their entire....thing...about the Gray Son, is the entitled fury of those denied something they deem theirs simply because they WANT it, and who will burn the whole world down rather than admit defeat or let someone else have it instead.

And that resonates. It could resonate a lot MORE if DC would actually lean into those concepts and allow Dick to explore how the Court are nothing he's not used to, they're literally made up of the same people who have looked down on him ever since he came to Gotham, but now they're actually a face and a name put to all those attitudes, something he can literally FIGHT BACK AGAINST. The Court are literally human-sized embodiments of everything and everyone who's tried to confine Dick since his parents' deaths, tried to define him without his permission, tried to make him other or lesser than who and what he is.....and who thus now exist in a form that Dick can literally BATTLE. So that he doesn't HAVE to just take this stuff lying down.

Thanks to the Court, he doesn't HAVE to just passively accept it, that this is just how life is, that some people are going to view him this way and think this about him and there's nothing he can do about it. He CAN do something about it, in superhero stories. He can kick its ASS, in the form of the Court of Owls and everything its members think about him and intend for him. He can refuse to bow down to them, to accept their mark on him. He can say lol, no, and then blow their shit sky high, ideally with a little help from his family. He can BEAT them, in this incarnated form, and in doing so, even though he can't beat everything they stand for and represent, that victory still matters, still means something symbolic to readers it resonates with.

And that's what we need more of. Villains created specifically to embody concepts that are diametrically opposed to Dick and what he represents. The system, yes, but also villains who embody the kind of tyranny and control he fights back against in his constant battles for autonomy and self control. Villains who embody the 'new hopes' of a second generation just like Dick himself is the focal point of the hopes embodied by the second generation of heroes. I'm actually not the hugest fan of multiversal constant Dick Grayson, but I might like it more if he had an opposite number there, someone he was specifically contrasted with. Idk.

But you get it.

9) Dick having a social life. Gimme the Titans and his siblings showing up JUST to show up. We have room enough for at least a couple pages every other issue where we just get to see these characters having some breathing room, taking a beat to stop and be something other than just a superhero, to be human as well. There's more to life than 24/7 fighting, even for them, and that's largely been lost in modern superhero comics, which kinda sucks, because that was what made most of the more iconic and lasting dynamics between various characters like, STAND the test of time. The larger than life battles between good and evil might be what many of us come to superhero comics FOR, but the relatable back-and-forths and ups and downs of their private lives spent with friends and family tends to be what keeps most of us coming BACK. And lately its all just mission, mission, mission, and I'm like blah, blah, blah and its like, meh, meh, meh. Y'know? Give the guy some down time, and let his friends come spend it with him.

10) Boone. This is purely self-indulgent, but if you know anything about me, you know my obsession with Robin: Year One, Dick's brief time at Vengeance Academy, and the hate/hate relationship he has with his brief frenemy from that period, Boone aka Shrike. This character has SOOOOO much potential to be Dick's true archnemesis and rival, and like. *Sobs* I can't get into it all again. Its too much. I can't do it.

Okay, I absolutely can. And will, probably. But like. Later.

BONUS ROUND:

Other thing I would absolutely insist upon if I were Nightwing editor....

GET THAT FUCKING MEME SHIRT ABOUT BRUCE SLAPPING DICK THE FUCK OUTTA HERE.

Like. Seriously. WHAT THE HELL. Why would you double down on THAT? Why is Babs STILL wearing it? (Last I checked, like I think I saw it in a scan from last issue? I'm pretty sure its still there? If not, forget this entire rant, and I am very embarrassed. Okay not that embarrassed. I don't really care if I'm wrong here but like, in case I'm not)...

WHY. Who thought that was funny? No, seriously, on behalf of any other abuse survivors who like me are SERIOUSLY not amused, who the FUCK thinks its FUNNY to have one of Dick's best friends sporting a shirt that no matter what it represents IN universe, to readers OUT of universe, is always going to call to mind the fact that this meme only freaking EXISTS because of all the times DC has obliviously and without acknowledgment written Bruce abusing his children, including the BFF that Babs is literally wearing that right in front of.

Like omg do you hate her, DC? What other possible reason could you have for thinking that would be a cute, funny thing for her to wear around the guy getting SLAPPED, by his DAD, in your shirt's iconography.

Okay I'm done.

LOL.

Sorry, that last one was brewing for awhile. Deep breaths. Woo.

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rosemary-is-in-pesterquest · 3 years ago

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I always thought that "beyond quadrants" could've been an indication that, in a meta sense, Hussie might've thought up the quadrant system as a joke. not like a "ha ha" joke, but just like... there is something ironic about how troll and human society compares. when you think about what hangups humans have vs. what trolls have, both have certain restrictive standards placed on relationships that can be potentially unhealthy, such as humans with the concept of sexuality, and discrimination based on that. the quadrants are Alternia's own totally arbitrary and completely alien way of divvying up and classifying relationships, and they have their own standards about what it means to do these relationships right or wrong.

but specifically, the trolls really love to talk up how much more advanced their romance is compared to humans, but one could argue that human romance covers the same spectrum of emotions... or rather, we don't lack anything compared to trolls. we just didn't compartmentalize our feelings the way trolls did, and we don't glorify negative emotions the way they do. they could be advanced... or, perhaps, their romantic system is needlessly complicated. it's totally possible that, in reality, trolls have just subdivided what human romance is, and all these roles combined would actually cover the whole span of what a normal pair of dating people should do for each other.

but if that sounds a little incomplete, it's because the truth could be even more complicated than that. I think that separating some of these roles actually necessitated other roles to be established, specifically to address common problems created by that separation. for example... auspistism is basically taking the role of mediator and artificially separating it from every other kind of relationship. if a troll is too good at mediating or problem solving, they start getting put in the auspistice zone. so basically, if you're in a red or black relationship with someone, you can't be too good at problem solving, or the whole thing starts to feel too ashen. instead, you have to delegate your problem solving to a third party... no wonder quadrant vacillation is a thing. if neither person is allowed to be too good at solving anything, then eventually problems will inevitably plague red pairs to the point of flipping black. and on the same token, I bet mediators become pretty hard to find when they aren't getting much of anything out of the situation. being an auspistice is a very emotionally taxing role, while also being devoid of positive attention. auspistices get none of the affectionate intimacy that would define the good parts of a normal romance... you know, the part of the relationship where there aren't problems to tackle? there's no need for an aspistice outside of a crisis.

and because problem solving is such an undervalued, underdeveloped, and underutilized skill for many trolls, (and is even incidentally discouraged outside of a specifically ashen arrangement), this leads to the violent, aggressive, volatile behavior that makes moiraillegiance and kismesitude relationships what they are. kismesitude is just what happens when all this unresolved frustration is encouraged to thrive in the absence of good conflict resolution skills. if you have no way of handling even small conflicts moment-to-moment, it almost starts to make sense why a culture would categorize a whole type of relationship based on that sustained anger. and on top of that, a big element of moiraillegiance is that one troll is able to calm the other down when their temper flares, and their partner is able to protect them in return, usually due to their elevated status. so like, nobody can mess with Nepeta because she has Equius's high blood status for protection, and Nepeta is also there to keep Equius from murdering anyone if he gets pissed. it's got elements of classism embedded in the relationship's traditional structure, because a lot of the dynamic rests on this assumption that high bloods can't control their violent rage without a specific person that is allowed to intervene, because the high blood cares about that person enough not to hurt them. it's weird to assume that they're out of control, but can also recognize their moirail as an exception and become calm for them specifically. it seems so... deliberate. like a type of decorum.

so really, a relationship that is "beyond quadrants" might just be a red romance that is allowed to incorporate elements from other quadrants, such as giving advice and supporting each other emotionally, even in matters that don't pertain directly to the romance, or helping each other calm down and resolve conflicts... and that tempers the negative emotions that would otherwise flare up to become the defining qualities of certain other quadrants. the pair can disagree on things, and butt heads, without anyone becoming violently enraged... so there's no need for the more extreme stuff, like requiring someone specific to stop them from going on a murderous rampage. and the role of auspistice is further dissolved if the concept of "blackrom infidelity" isn't really a thing that needs a solution. you can just casually hate people with no expectation that you should create a relationship centered around that feeling, and cultivate more hatred from it. the lack of expected exclusivity takes away the jealousy angle, and the whole thing doesn't even matter anymore.

when you take a step back and look at how the useful parts of all four quadrants would work as pieces of a whole relationship between just two people... it almost starts to look like what people want from a healthy human romantic relationship. and that might be the joke.

Yeah, the pale and redrom quadrants in particular always felt like a fragmented version of romantic relationships humans are used to

#I’m pretty sure this was the ask the quadrant anon was talking abt #I’M SO SORRY FOR NOT POSTING TUIS YET………

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bullworthdrabbles · 3 years ago

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Women of Bullworth: Part 3 Pinky Gauthier

As you can probably tell, I’ve decided to throw chronological order out the window as frankly, I know everyone who is following me and reading this has likely played the game or has watched a playthrough with enough diligence to know what goes on so I don’t think Miss Gauthier needs any introductions. I don’t think I need to continue the trend of telling you how minor and plot irrelevant most of the women in Bullworth are and the fact that when they do become plot-relevant it isn’t in a way that gives them any real agency. When they get even a few cutscenes and fun missions, the only reason they’re involved in the plot at all normally has something to do with a male character (I’ll talk more about that in Lola’s part). Pinky is a kissable character, a quest-giver, and you can get a collectible photo of her. You also get a whole date mission with her which was both fun and awful at the same time, I’m sure all of you remember her blowing out your eardrums with her, “THANKS JIMMY.”

Anyway, Pinky is a stereotypical rich girl, with the way that she talks, how she treats people, and even down to how she dresses. She views herself as a princess and wants to be treated as such and she looks down on all the people who can’t afford the royal lifestyle, including Jimmy. The only reason Pinky’s opinions change on Jimmy is that he proves useful and does more for her than Derby. There’s a bunch of subtle backhanded jabs she just casually throws at Jimmy about his poverty and status, but we don’t get to address that because we have to beat the preppies. Where we learn that by getting into the tenuous relationship with Pinky we’ve soured our relationship with the preps. Just this alone screams that the writers were lazy. Rather than find a way for Gary to manipulate the preppies into thinking Jimmy is an enemy which wouldn’t be very hard with their classist beliefs. No, Rockstar has to keep using women as the conflict starters in the story.

Our relationship with Pinky doesn’t even last past the second chapter. This means we don’t get to know much more about her. Jimmy doesn’t get to address her subtle classism and back-handed compliments. There’s no further development of this relationship. She was just a collectible, a walking health pack, and free conflict for the writers to use when they can’t find a creative way to use their own antagonist.

Recently, I had thought of an interesting idea that could have been better. Chad has a fencing scar suggesting that the preps used to be involved in Fencing. What if they continued to fence and Pinky was also involved in the sport as there is a female fencing league. Jimmy would likely know nothing about fencing as it is a high-class sport with expensive equipment. Jimmy would be challenged to a fencing match and have to face off against opponents much more capable than him. Jimmy has a very limited time to prepare and he has no idea where to even start; he just knows he wants to beat the Preppies at their own pompous game. Pinky, someone who would likely also want to beat the other preppies at their own game due to their obvious sexism and misogyny, could help Jimmy in his goal to bring them down a peg. Teaching him the skills he needs to take them down and encouraging him during the big showdown.

How the hell did I write a better story that gave Pinky more agency and a more interesting story in one paragraph than a whole team with billions of dollars and a whole game? Because I actually gave a shit about making Pinky a person with her own motivations and goals. If you want to make a woman a part of the conflict you can, but I’m tired of the same Helen of troy plot over and over. If you want her to be the reason Jimmy and the Preppies are at odds give us a better reason other than, Jimmy accidentally home wrecked an already falling apart relationship. This brings me to the girl I’ve been wanting to write about this whole time.

#bully anniversary edition #bully brain rot time #bully canis canem edit #bullworth academy #bully cce #bully game #bully scholarship edition #cce bully #canis canem edit #cas speaks

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miraculouscontent · 4 years ago

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Ask Explo--

...you know what, you’re right. Name change effective immediately.

Askplosion #10:

(unrelated to everything by the way but I DEMAND THE ANON WHO MENTIONED “REMARRIED EMPRESS” A WHILE BACK COME FORTH AND ANSWER FOR THEIR CRIMES. IT’S SO GOOD BUT IT’S UNFINISHED AND I’M HOOKED, HOW DARE YOU)

Asks responding to previous posts:

It’s okay! I figured that was what it was but it’s been so loooong.

Ah, wow.

Um, that’s definitely not a part 2; I think that’s more like a four-parter/five-parter or something.

Sorry! No can do!

That’s totally fair!

I think the reason I so quickly agreed with it is like--

I’ve been watching the Inuyasha sequel and it’s not like I don’t think the narrative’s apparent punching bag Moroha (who is fourteen years old) shouldn’t be punished when she does something wrong/sneaky/manipulative, but they punish her as if she’s Miroku (who was eighteen years old).

Basically, I want the punishment to take the age into account, or at least only affect Marinette on a more personal level and not be “Heart Hunter” where they take totally understandable feelings of heartache (remember, it wouldn’t have mattered which miraculous she took because Hawk Moth got the Miracle Box and Fu regardless; even beyond her emotions, I feel like she chose the best option available to her considering which temps she knew the location of) and then punish her for them by memory wiping Fu and taking away all of her temps and giving Hawk Moth the grimoire translation.

Yes!! I really wanted to respond to this one, thank you! (It’s this one and then there was another one talking about Luka and Adrien, then talked to me about how I refer to Luka as “soft” but not in a bad way; I unfortunately don’t remember the whole thing.)

Ahaha, and yeah, I feel you. Anti-salters are a very strange conundrum I still haven’t figured out; like, I get not liking salt, but...

I mean, when I don’t like certain content, I just blacklist it. If I end up seeing it anyway due to cross-tagging or a lack of tagging, then I just blacklist the person themself. You won’t see me going after people for that very reason; I only see what people send/ask me if it’s content I don’t like.

I’m glad you’ve found some peace in this blog! Hopefully it continues to be that way for you in the future!

(and yay, a fellow INTJ!!)

New Asks:

There are female writers? ;P I just assumed they were all locked in a closet until the male ones were like, “okay, pretend to help us here, we need one female writer to claim girl power.”

As for Ladybug all like, “Cute, isn’t she?” I think it was rhetorical (she could also be messing with him but “Glaciator” tells us that she didn’t know he crushed on her so who knows). The writers do this thing where Marinette is all panic-y and occasionally self-conscious as herself, but then as Ladybug, she suddenly gets a bit of an ego. I think it’s meant to be there in order to make Chat Noir look less... idk, “obnoxious” when he starts boosting his own ego; trying to balance the two by giving them both big heads, so to speak.

Honestly, I feel like Adrien needs less screen time. :|

Even when he’s not on-screen, characters are usually talking about him, or you see his face in Marinette’s room/somewhere in Paris. I’m become so jaded by the guy that I don’t even think it’d matter if they remade the series and gave it a “totally good and interesting Adrien.” That’s how badly the show has made him out for me; “Adrien Agreste” the character is just... sigh, I’m so done with him.

And yeah, this whole idea about, “Marinette is [x], we need more AAAAAADRIEN!” comes off really bad, lol, especially when Adrien has very little going for him.

(this ask ends off like there should be a part 2 but there isn’t one in my inbox, so sorry if there’s meant to be something else!)

The exact lyrics according to the wiki:

My wish for a cat who's in love, with our own Ladybug. Is that he'll get what he's always wanted! She doesn't know she loves him, only sees Adrien, But Christmas miracles always happen!

Yeah, especially nowadays, those lines bothers me. Not only does it imply “true selves,” but that it’s Chat who should be getting what he always wanted and Ladybug is the one with a problem.

Like, excuse me?

Probably Stormy Weather, even in the first episode. Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t even touch her until they arrived on top of the TV station.

+ With all those effects and shots, it made it feel more action-y than typical episodes.

Marinette, Aurore, Luka, Anarka, Jagged...

basically any name that I haven’t really heard before (”Luka” makes me think of Vocaloid but the Luka there was female), or a name that relates a lot to the character (like “Aurore” for “aurora” since she loves weather things).

dfjbghfkdgfdgnjfdg this anon really like, “I NEED ANSWERS!!!”

It’s as if these characters hit 18 or something and just grow overnight, I swear. I’m hypothetically fine with some more variety in character height (it’s not like the show tries to be realistic, after all), but maybe don’t give us official heights if they’re gonna be this weird/inaccurate.

Especially when they change it just for the sake of a shot anyway. If you watch “Simon Says” when Ladybug and Adrien stand next to each other while looking at the picture of Adrien’s mother, the very next close-up has an obvious difference in their heights from what you just saw.

They’re 3D models!!! This shouldn’t happen!

I... honestly never thought of the “less threatening” thing! Dang!

And yeah, Marinette isn’t helpless or incompetent, but because of the Adrien crush, it makes her that way at times since she’s always falling on him and--

...ugh, actually, yeah, don’t wanna think about those implications. Hard pass.

Gross.

I’m not familiar with that one, though Astruc deletes his tweets all the time (there was one tweet where he confirmed that Luka was poor and it only exists in screenshots now because it didn’t get archived and he deleted it almost like he realized that he was pointing out the blatant classism in the show, oops).

Yeah though, I haven’t seen anything like what you’re describing. Sorry!

It’s okay! Sorry for having you clarify but him choosing and Marinette deciding to never give it back are very different things.

I don’t recall Chat Noir having much purpose in the final fight (in terms of both contributing and actual fighting; I know Cataclysm broke the object to release the akuma but was it needed?) so Marinette might either go cat-less or get a temp. Plagg could also be helpful in his own right because he’s small and blends in with the night, so he could hypothetically sneak up on the bad guy.

Afterwards, there’d need to be a new cat, but Adrien would also have to reconsider his actions and really think about what happened. I could also see Plagg going to Adrien’s house, half to apologize for giving the idea to Adrien that Adrien leave without telling Ladybug, but also half to call him out for giving up without consulting anyone. Adrien is a lot of conflicting things (see Adrien’s passivity compared to Chat Noir’s recklessness) so he’d have to find a middle ground within himself.

Marinette might carry Plagg around in her purse for a while and let Plagg have a say in who he goes to. Plagg might grieve for a bit over not having Adrien around (even if Adrien was flawed, Plagg didn’t ask for any of this so Marinette is doing her best here).

O-oh.

That’s always the rough patch with “endgame ships.” Once it’s obvious to the audience that they’re endgame, no more effort needs to be put into them.

The other thing too is how Kagami, for example, is friends with Marinette. Even once Adrimi sinks, she’ll presumably stay friends with her. Luka, meanwhile, is Juleka’s brother.

They have lives outside of their love interests. Adrien is so into Ladybug that he doesn’t have that; I mean, Nino is Adrien’s best friend like once in a blue moon.

The entire class is just watching an episode and then calling on raised hands to answer what was wrong with what they just watched.

“Everything?”

“I mean, yes, but I’m sorry, you have to be more specific to get credit.”

I think Aeon herself is fine. It’s mostly just her transformed and that transformed name that I have a problem with (she doesn’t even look uncanny so I don’t get it). I heard there was something wrong with the name “Aeon” but searching the name doesn’t give me anything I would qualify as such so I have no idea. I just wish she was given a little less “I’m programmed to--” (makes her seem less sentient) and more “[anything that doesn’t have to do with pushing the love square]” because I feel like they might’ve done the latter to make her more “likable”? I think fans of anything usually like the “matchmaker” character provided it’s for a ship they like. Also strange that they make her a robot but Max and Markov don’t extensively interact with her, but that’s a nitpick and not a criticism of her character.

...I’m rambling, my bad lol.

(Ohhh, she was supposed to be a mummy? Like, foreshadowing her “dying”?? That went right over my head but I guess that’d be where the name Uncanny Valley came from? No clue.)

Best case scenario is probably the middle or the end of Season 4.

And yeah, it really doesn’t matter to me what they do with the love square. Marinette had gone through too much suffering and the show goes out of its way to show how much stress Marinette is being put under (and also keeping Luka away during episodes like “Gamer 2.0″ even when it makes sense for them to be there, as if trying to make sure Marinette doesn’t have enough moments with him to forget Adrien).

Like, ah, yes, I totally believe that Marinette is in a position where she can make reasonable decisions about her love life while all circles of her life are on fire.

If the Sonic movie of all things can have an interracial couple, there’s no reason why this show can’t, just saying.

And, even with Marinette, she’s white-passing (according to what basically everyone says, I’m really awful about recognizing race so this isn’t my field; I wasn’t aware that Ondine was Asian, for example).

Does Nadja count? Manon’s dark-skinned (I’m still not over the fact that all the kids in this show are dark-skinned; it’s not like it’s a problem from a representation standpoint - though all the kids are also all generically bratty/whiny so there’s that - but the percentages in this show are weird) while Nadja is really light-skinned, meaning either a dark-skinned husband or Manon is adopted.

Though I guess the problem then is that we don’t know, so there’s no established couple there.

Non-Miraculous Asks:

w-who gave you the right to say such things????

Uhhhh, that might be too broad of a question, I’m sorry!

I know this isn’t satisfactory, but I will say that my favorite genre is Fantasy/Romance (it’s why I adore Red Shoes so much; by the way, an anon asked for my opinion on that a while back and I will get to it! I’d need to watch it again to get screenshots) and my least favorite is probably Tragedy/Horror.

I don’t think I’ve watched enough to really be able to say? I’ve kind of been all over but I’ve never fully gone through any of them outside of Miraculous. I’ve seen bits of Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Star VS the Forces of Evil (don’t know if that counts), and I meant to watch Yuki Yuna is a Hero but never got around to it. I saw the entirety of Puella Magi Madoka Magica but you guys know how I feel about that one.

Maybe Cardcaptor Sakura by default then? It was definitely not perfect but I liked some of the character dynamics (I also have a clipcut of it - basically where I go through a series/movie and cut out parts I don’t like so it’s only good stuff - so I’m cheating a little) and the male love interest was a tsundere type that I actually ended up liking, which is really rare.

!!! That sounds sweet~ I know Sailor Moon is popular so I’ll definitely take your word for it on that one.

I would also accept a “reincarnated”/”destined lovers” trope if maybe the ship themselves are the one who set it up in the first place. I have a Lukanette AU, for example, where they basically got together and then prayed to the shrine of the renewal god that they’d “always be together,” which ended up allowing them to reincarnate over and over (as if they set up their own soulmate AU ;P) and continuously find each other.

Though I guess that’s not technically a “meant to be trope,” but still, it’s a form of it but where it was totally consensual on both sides.

Also, I finally thought of a show that ended with the ship I wanted: Gargoyles. I didn’t see the entire series, mind you, but I saw most of it and Goliath and Elisa were just... quality, I adored them.

+ With Beauty and the Beast being my favorite Disney movie, they fit right in with my tastes.

I forget that AangToph (I think the “official” name for the ship is Taang, but don’t quote me on that) exists sometimes, maybe because I’ve never shipped Aang with anyone; I’ve got no problems with the ship though.

Ugh, and this is what I mean when I talk about people who set up these reasons behind people shipping something based on what they saw a few people do. It’s like, “you only ship Adrimi/Lukanette to spite Adrienette!!”

Meanwhile, me having shipped all three at one point and then dropped off the love square.

Also, me shipping Zutara has nothing to do with it being dark/edgy because I’ve never seen it that way (intriguing, sure but dark and edgy? lol) and also avoid dark/edgy ships like the plague.

I still laugh at people who are like, “you can’t ship it because it’s not endgaaaaame!” as if shows can dictate how and why I enjoy something. Like sure, if you want to let a show/movie spoonfeed you how you’re supposed to feel, then by all means, go ahead.

I suppose people may be theoretically happier that way, but it doesn’t make for an analytic mind.

I legitimately thought that “AssClass” must’ve been the actual name for something until it registered with me what it actually meant.

And eh, I guess it depends on the comparison and how accurate the comparison actually is? Like, comparing Puella Magic Madoka Magica to Miraculous... they’re not really close at all, but comparing... idk, Bunnyx to Homura or the concept behind “backfiring wishes”... maybe?

(note that the rest of this post is more Puella Magi Madoka Magica salt so you can stop reading here if you’re not interested in that; I’m not sure if this is all the same anon but I don’t mind letting people vent so I let them go off~)

why can’t we just have nice things

I agree, and I give a little eyeroll every time it’s like, “oh, this person had [miraculous]”

+ even just in general, I feel weird about any show that mentions/implies that real world famous people are [x] or [y] in their show. It breaks my immersion; real world locations are one thing but when it’s specific people (unless they’re made up characters like Santa Claus) or games just--break me.

I also don’t know what to think when there aren’t magical boys but you have these magical girls in this frilly outfits/skirts. The demographic is girls so I presume the reason must be like, “you can look pretty and still beat people up” (;P) but having so many magical girl shows without a hint of a magical boy makes me suspicious that it’s for fanservice. Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask but I also don’t know what that guy did outside of the meme of him doing nothing so I’ve got no clue.

(edit: I should correct myself that I’m not talking about Sailor Moon specifically; I don’t know magical girls that well, though I do know there are ones clearly intended for fanservice (you could say that for anything, to be fair, but still). It’s just that I see things like super short skirts or very “questionable” shots and I’m just like, “hm”)

Hmmm, good question. I feel like there has to be a lot but I’m also the type who doesn’t watch a lot of TV lol. I’m just familiar with cliches and tropes and such.

The reason I try not to use “ism”s of any kind is mostly because it’s too broad. Like, you know how the English language only has one way of saying, “I love you,” but other languages like Spanish have multiple?

It’s like that, and sometimes I think it’s too easy to throw those words out there. A “small” (possibly completely unintentional/misunderstood) offense is sexism, and then a “large” offense is called the exact same thing. I’d rather go into why something is sexist than just call it that, y’know? The only exception I make is “classism” because I feel like that’s not as... I dunno, divisive?

Anyway, for that same reason, I can’t answer firmly that, “Madoka Magica is sexist.” I will however say that it makes me uncomfortable with how the show makes out the girls being emotional because they’re young and female and then proceeds to make their life a living hell before they’re old enough to properly answer to it (I know that’s the point but that kind of makes it worse?). It doesn’t help with how all the girls have different personalities, so it’s not like you have only “crybaby girls” who are being taken advantage of; it’s basically like... all girls.

Not helped is the fact that their soul gem not only deteriorates naturally, but it can also do so faster if the girl falls into despair, which then turns them into a monster (and I know it’s kind of like an akuma thing, but the fact that it’s only girls is... I dunno, it comes off wrong?). It seems cheap that the soul gem deteriorates no matter what so it constantly needs fed even if the girl is consistently happy.

I would probably opt for the show being centered more around Kyubey being new to this or something - like, magical girls are a new thing - and then have Kyubey being surprised because they presumed that the soul gem would deteriorate naturally since “emotions are powerful but destructive to the person having them,” but then all the girls team up and help each other work out their problems. Maybe the reason magical girls are usually alone isn’t even because of the grief seed (I think that’s what it’s called?) thing not being able to be shared, but because Kyubey intentionally separates magical girls so they can’t do what the main group is doing, but Madoka is so into the idea that, “We shouldn’t have to be alone,” and so she’s constantly pulling all the girls together, which keeps them healthy.

Maybe Homura’s backstory could be that Madoka originally was more sheepish and more afraid to put herself out there, especially since she was a magical girl (who are encouraged to go it alone), which is why their soul gems were both deteriorating; they were friends but kept more of a distance, or maybe they were a team but that’s all they were. Then Madoka gives Homura the last grief seed to save her and that’s what inspires Homura and makes her see Madoka as something more than a teammate, which is why Homura actively tries to save Madoka specifically (which then encourages Madoka to want to keep everyone together as friends).

In the case that Kyubey doesn’t separate them out of concern of fRiEnDsHiP, but for another reason altogether, and then it’s ultimately their own downfall when they allow the girls to hang out and realize that it’s doing a lot of good for them.

“cute and innocent”

That was exactly it. It’s on Kyubey’s trivia section on the Puella Magi Madoka Magica Wiki.

Before the anime's first dark plot twist aired, head writer Gen Urobuchi said on his Twitter account that the "Kyu" in Kyubey's name comes from the English word "cute". This was a lie meant to further mislead fans into thinking that Madoka Magica is an innocent happy show. In a later episode, it was revealed that "Kyubey" is, in fact, short for "incubator".

In my personal opinion, a spoiled plot can’t be “ruined” if it’s a good plot. If you told me that Kagome was trapped in the Modern era for three years and then decided to stay with Inuyasha at the end of Inuyasha, it wouldn’t/shouldn’t decrease the value when I finally see it for myself because it’s good. That’s not to say that everything should just be spoiled right out of the gate, but it’s saying that maybe your plot isn’t good if you have to rely on shock value to make it work??

I FEEL THAT “ASSIGNING IT TO THE WHOLE GENDER” THING SO BAD. It just adds to my “the girls all have varying personalities so it’s not like Kyubey’s only after emotional crybabies or anything” salt.

I have no idea about any of the stuff about the writers so I can’t confirm or deny them. I will very much agree on the target audience thing though, especially with the whole “keeping the dark plot a secret” because really? Who is this for then? Like, the first two and a half episodes are for one demographic and then the others are--???

I dunno. Me personally, I just like feel good stories. I do like some good conflict and drama (for context, Remarried Empress is basically a webtoon that gives you things to feel salty about and then makes its own salt fic as its plot, allowing for endless streams of feels and catharsis, so I’m definitely not against drama), but there are other times where I just want to feel good watching something.

I feel like the show expects the characters to be selfless/perfect and then punishes them even though it’s their writing that’s causing them to act out. I can’t really talking about “out-of-character” but sometimes it’s just obvious where “we did this because we needed a plot/conflict.”

Like, hello? We don’t need the main characters screwing up; why can’t we just have some feel good thing where they take the day for themselves (seriously, imagine a Miraculous episode where Chat Noir actually tells Ladybug to take a couple days for herself, like maybe someone else gets the earrings for a few days as a temp while Marinette gets to breathe; IMAGINE IT). Not everything needs to be high-stakes to be interesting and you need those calmer moments so that the action-packed ones feel more intense.

SAYAKA DESERVES BETTER.

I feel like the magical girl genre as a whole can be way more complex than it’s made out to be. I think people hear the word “magical girl” and think “cute girls in short skirts talk about girl problems and fight evil with the power of friendship and accessories.”

Ugh, just the mention of Rebellion makes me sigh internally.

Congrats on working on your own magical girl story! I hope it goes well for you!

I know it’s not technically a magical girl show, but there was also Totally Spies that Astruc worked on to some degree (I think there was some characters who were based on/a loose reference to the mains from that show but I don’t remember exactly).

The thing about the female characters suffering is that they could make for good lessons on positively directing one’s emotions (like Usagi from Sailor Moon, for example, maybe having a problem with taking her anger out on her friends, but learns that she can save that rage for the bad guys; “Gamer 2.0″ from Miraculous could’ve done that, honestly, by having Ladybug absolutely WRECK all of her gaming opponents in “violent” (cartoon violence obviously) fashion). It’s just a shame that it’s not taken advantage of.

Sayaka??? Selfish???????

*does not compute*

(Also, I wasn’t tired of them, don’t worry! It was a little overwhelming in my inbox but it’s me who’s allowing all the asks to flow in so the blame isn’t on you lol.)

I’m not sure where this obsession came from with, “you have to be selfless and you’re not allowed to use your powers for yourself.” It’s like the world’s going to end if a character leaves to go Self-Care or something. I think what happened is that shows got this idea that promoting only the giving of others is great and it’s not important to take time for yourself (even with “Gamer 2.0,” it was still Marinette playing games with everyone else, and they treated her dedication and seriousness like a bad thing when she literally did not have time to waste and they didn’t give a reason why it was good for her to take a break, only that she should).

This usually leads to the “demonization” of characters who sport a lot of self-confidence or any sort of ego. It works on both sides; Marinette is a punching bag because of her anxiety and occasional lack of confidence, but if she had an ego as Ladybug, there are parts of the fandom who deem her “obnoxious” (i.e: “Reflekdoll”). There’s a delicate balance between “be confident” and “be humble” and it’s a tightrope act.

#((Yes! This strategy works for not losing asks.))#((In other news--))#((I gotta test out this new microphone so I wanna do a ''Voiced Askplosion'' where I record my answers instead of writing them))#((Anyone who sends me a 🎤 alongside their asks will get a voiced response next time!))#((I probably can't answer everything but you know how it is~))#(((i swear that someone is going to do it just to see if they can get me to swear when I read out their asks)))#((or... like--))#((''ok i don't actually have a question''))#((''but plz say the words 'adrien and marinette are meant to be' because i want to hear how much u struggle to say it''))#category: salt #other: non ml talk #category: ramble #character: Marinette Dupain Cheng #category: fandom #episode: Evillustrator #character: Chat Noir #character: Ladybug #character: Adrien Agreste #character: Stormy Weather #category: me myself and i #category: staff #relationship: Adrien Agreste & Marinette Dupain Cheng #character: Aeon #character: Uncanny Valley #relationship: love square #MC's Renders #render: persona

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marysfoxmask · 4 years ago

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the secret garden (1949) - why it’s my favorite adaptation

hello @renee-mariposa! thank you so much for the ask! while i believe i have answered a question like this before, i don’t think i’ve elaborated as much as i’d like to. so allow me to wax poetic on my favorite adaptation, the secret garden (1949)!

intro

this adaptation really stands out, i think, because of the the era it was made in; i don’t think you could get an adaptation aimed towards kids that is such a sentimental, gothic-lite melodrama with these days, at least without aggressively telegraphing its more emotional moments a la pixar/disney; it’s amusingly blunt and straightforward in that regard, much like the children at its center. there’s not much syrupiness at all. the child actors (margaret o’brien as mary and dean stockwell as colin) are fast-talking as any actor of that era, but in my opinion, the film’s clearly scripted dialogue just makes all the kids seem amusingly precocious.

actors

margaret o’brien as mary is great. i love her stridency, her snobbishness. unlike other adaptations, which downplay mary’s contrariness to the point where her character arc comes across as too subtle by half, the movie upgrades it. not only is 1949 mary contrary, her sullenness has been replaced by a shrillness, snobbery, and the tendency to run to emotional extremes (not to mention a healthy helping of classism). she alienates herself from the other children on the ship to england purposefully, finding them inferior to herself, then attempts to physically fight another passenger when the child calls archibald a hunchback. while this characterization isn’t book-accurate (book mary is a mix of fiery and sullen that none of the films capture accurately imo), i prefer this characterization of her to the closed-off sullenness of the 1993 version or the palatably traumatized 2020 version. 1949 mary isn’t given an obvious freudian excuse for her issues; her parents are just as neglectful, but the film puts the onus on mary for being contrary, which is weirdly refreshing and more attuned to the novel’s perspective. (that isn’t to say that mary’s traumatic early childhood didn’t inform her character in any meaningful way, or that the adults around mary aren’t responsible for how she turned out--but imo the films tend to take an un-nuanced view of the situation in order to make her a more palatable, sympathetic character, which is vastly less interesting than a complicated, flawed one no matter if the character is a child or not). when mary’s character develops and she becomes sweeter, it’s much more impactful as a result of this earlier narrative choice.

brian roper, who was 20 at the time (crazy, right?), plays dickon, and he plays him with a sweet affability that’s hard not to enjoy. he’s a little mischievous, laughing at mary when she accidentally speaks yorkshire (i’ll talk about that in a bit), and has, in a nice touch that i’ve strangely only seen in in the 1994 straight-to-dvd animated film, just as much of a passionate interest in the secret garden as mary does. dickon isn’t treated as mystically as other adaptations, save for the tendency to disappear strangely quickly just when mary happens to turn around (which is a nice nod to his quasi-magical aspects without being distracting, and also adds to mary’s sense of displacement/confusion on the mysterious misselthwaite grounds). he also gets a surprising amount to do in this adaptation, which i love, as someone who strongly believes his character has been under-served in all the film adaptations thus far. in this film, he gets to even enter misselthwaite manor by climbing up ivy into colin’s room in the middle of a storm (albeit offscreen), which is just the kind of adventurous, dramatic touch i enjoy. he also gets probably more dialogue than any of the other dickons (whoo!), as he makes a couple minor declarations--nothing super ham-fisted and melodramatic, as i said the screenplay is rather straightforward and devoid of a lot of corniness you might expect from a children’s film made in the ‘40s, especially with this kind of source material--that are heartfelt without being cloying (one of the benefits of having an older actor playing this kind of role).

colin, played by dean stockwell, is a weaker element to me. he does a good job alternating between screaming (and this movie contains a lot of screaming) and being sweet when the movie calls for it, but i don’t think he was the best choice for colin. while i think it’s awful to criticize a teen actor (stockwell was 13 at the time) for being baby-faced, the fact that he looks significantly younger than o’brien (who was 12) means that his tantrums come off as less a result of arrested development than they should. while he speaks as stiltedly as 2020 colin (who i personally think was one of the best elements of that film), it’s unclear whether that’s the result of the ‘40s fashion of expressing dialogue or a characteristic choice (i’m guessing the former). he can’t help but pale compared to o’brien’s mary, though he is perfectly adequate. he just didn’t stand out for me.

i summed up my feelings of elsa lanchester as martha in my previous, brief review of the movie back in june: “the one major flaw, i think, is actually martha, played by elsa lanchester; her portrayal is odd, feels definitely tone-deaf. her constant shrieking laughter feels very forced and unconvincing. in her few scenes, she jars everything to a halt in terms of believability.” she was significantly older than brian roper, being in her ‘40s playing a character heavily implied to be in her mid-teens to early twenties, and as a result feels out of her depth. her establishing scene is probably the worst, although i’ve warmed to her other scenes as time’s gone by.

tone/atmosphere

in general, i think the ‘49 film does a wonderful job expressing the gothic implications of the original book, even emphasizing them by casting misselthwaite manor largely in shadow and having mary and mrs. medlock first arrive in a carriage pulled by black horses on a dark, stormy night. it makes the bright outdoor scenery seem that much more inviting in comparison. burnett’s robin is also replaced by a raven, who also takes on aspects of dickon’s crow soot, as he is friends with dickon and hops on his shoulder occasionally. while it divulges from burnett’s book, i think a raven makes a little more sense in this adaptation, which amps up the eeriness of the original story; it gives mary’s journey a little more of a fairytale aspect, i think, and is overall an understandable and palatable change.

plot

the big plot development that divulges from the novel is the presence of a subplot where, due to a misunderstanding of an axe and a tree in the titular garden, mary and dickon fall under the impression that archibald killed lilias. now, this is a pretty bizarre plot, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t take up much of the film; it’s charming in its strangeness, and fits well with the idea of innocent children struggling to understand the complicated adult world—which is itself a theme original to the story that i’m kind of a sucker for, in general. it also serves as a bonding point for dickon and mary, whose friendship largely feels passed over in film adaptations.

and, of course, there’s the big plot-breaking point near the end, where archibald goes to tell colin that he’s selling misselthwaite and going to move to europe with him. an obvious plot point that conflicts with this scene is that colin, in the book, has no relationship with his father. again, it’s an odd adaptational choice meant to amp up the stakes, but it doesn’t impede my enjoyment of the film as a whole. the presence of two doctors—one, a hapless neville craven figure named dr. griddlestone, and the other is obviously inspired from the book’s “doctor from london,” who insisted all colin needed was fresh air, food, and exercise—gives the film some psychological weight. despite the disappointing element of all of colin’s neuroses being blatantly the result of his father’s emotional ailments, which i think is a lazy way of reading the original novel’s portrayal of colin’s illness, i think the way this development was executed in the film was tolerable—and i’m a sucker for children’s films that don’t think anything of including long conversations between adults about psychological issues. like, you can’t help but respect a film like that!

the garden

something i also love about this adaptation is that the garden isn’t a huge part of it; it represents more of a place where mary and dickon and colin can foster ideas and grow rather than a place of orgasmic beauty. there’s not a surplus of lavish panning shots, really, like in the ‘93 film, and it lacks the magical realism of the 2020 film. the garden itself is more transparently a plot device, which i actually like—it gives more room for the children to center themselves.

individual scenes

and the pacing of the film is actually really nice, i think—probably the best out of all the films. i love the ‘93 film with all my heart, and it’s definitely gorgeous in its own right, but i think it gets a little sluggish; this film is paced beautifully. there’s no fat, really.

there’s a scene i really love that shows the passage of time from winter to spring in a super succinct, stupidly obvious way that nonetheless works because of the innocent sweetness of o’brien’s delivery. like, it’s very old-fashioned and sentimental, but gah, it gets me every time.

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it’s time to talk about the scream scene!

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this film stole my heart the minute mary screamed wholeheartedly at colin that she hopes he dies. there’s a dark comedy to this whole scene; these two maladjusted, spoiled children trying to out-scream one another while tearing down curtains and knocking down tables full of food higgledy-piggledy?? you just can’t get better than that!

if you’re adapting the secret garden, i strongly feel you can’t soften the children’s meanness, their sharpness and ugliness. their tantrums must be harsh and grating and horrible! they have to really let loose! the rawness of the children’s emotional dysfunction contrasted against the buttoned-up stiffness of edwardian england is one of the fascinating aspects of the novel i love to think about, and you just can’t get that contrast if you don’t have the children be genuine terrors! i think this scene puts that nicely, more nicely than any of the other films, which pussyfoot around colin’s intense tantrum too much to be nearly as effective. i get giddy whenever this scene comes on; it’s brilliant.

there are so many little details from the book that i love: that the children speak yorkshire to one another, mary singing her ayah’s song to colin,

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dickon’s “i will cum bak” note (here written as “i will kum back”), the mention of dickon’s mother sending them bread to eat to make them strong. it’s all so nicely implemented, and reminds me of the joy of reading the book for the first time.

but the scene i love most is one entirely made up for the film. in it, mary tells colin about the garden, but wraps it up in fiction wherein it’s a sort of child’s eden, only accessible for children like themselves. that gets to the heart of why i love the book moreso than any other adaptation i can think of. it’s a children’s paradise where the innocent, inherent goodness of children reigns. it makes me tear up almost every time, despite the scene’s brevity.

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miscellaneous

there are some little details that i love about this film: the fact that mrs. sowerby is spotted in one scene where we see dickon at his home, feeding a lamb (and the implication that mary was so darn excited about finding the key to the garden that she ran all the way to the sowerbys’ cottage, five miles away from misselthwaite, to show dickon), mary’s clearly false story to colin about being surrounded by tigers and elephants in india, mary threatening to tear people’s gizzards out, mary telling dickon she hates him because he (gasp) dared to know about colin so she couldn’t reveal his existence to him...there’s a lot to enjoy about this film. it definitely isn’t the most accurate to the book, but it’s one of those films that i could watch over and over again.

aside from some superfluous subplots, it’s a lean adaptation that still captures all the essential elements of the book to at least to a degree. i can easily imagine some very indignant little girls in 1949 insisting that no, the raven was a robin in the book, and there was no implications of murder, either, but i love it in all its simplicity. i think you need a little old-fashioned sentiment to make a film adaptation of the secret garden successful.

#the secret garden #frances hodgson burnett #the secret garden 1949 #mary lennox #dickon sowerby #colin craven #margaret o'brien #dean stockwell #brian roper #elsa lanchester

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mediaevalmusereads · 4 years ago

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True Pretenses. By Rose Lerner. Self-published (?), 2015.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Part of a Series? Yes, Lively St. Lemeston #2

Summary: Through wit and sheer force of will, Ash Cohen raised himself and his younger brother Rafe out of the London slums and made them (in his unbiased opinion) the best confidence men in England. Ash is heartbroken when Rafe decides he wants an honest life, but he vows to give his beloved brother what he wants. When Ash hears of a small-town heiress scrambling to get her hands on the dowry held in trust for when she marries, he plans one last desperate scheme: con her and his brother into falling in love. After all, Rafe deserves the best, and Ash can see at once that captivating, lonely Lydia Reeve is the best. Lydia doesn’t know why she instinctively trusts the humble stranger who talks his way through her front door and into her life. She just knows she’s disappointed when he tries to set her up with his brother. When a terrible family secret comes to light and Rafe disappears, Lydia takes a big risk: she asks Ash to marry her instead. Did Ash choose the perfect wife for his brother…or for himself?

***Full review under the cut.***

Content Warnings: graphic sexual content, references to anti-Semitism, prison and workhouse conditions, poverty

Overview: I think it’s safe to say that Lerner is becoming a favorite author of mine with respect to the romance genre. I was fairly surprised by how much I enjoyed Sweet Disorder, and while I didn’t like True Pretenses quite as much, I still think Lerner deserves credit for the way she handles social commentary in romance. True Pretenses is interesting in that regard for its focus on class issues, as well as for its inclusion of an explicitly Jewish hero. For me, these elements made the character interactions fascinating, and even though I personally found the overall plot a little dull, I think Lerner handled social issues deftly.

Writing: Lerner is very good at crafting prose that flows, building up ideas and conflicts without losing her reader in the process. I liked that topics such as classism and anti-Semitism were portrayed in ways that made them feel like parts of everyday life, so when characters talked about them, nothing felt overly academic or stilted.

Plot: Aside from the romance, the main plot of this book involves Ash and Lydia trying to convince the people around them that they’ve made a love match so as not to cause a scandal. There were parts of this plot I enjoyed; I liked that Ash was able to use his strengths as a swindler to achieve more positive goals, such as currying favor with the townsfolk. I liked that Lydia had to confront a lot of her personal biases and shortcomings in order to live a fulfilling life. And I liked that there was a lot of discussion about class and sibling relationships.

But personally, I would have liked the stakes to be a little higher. Sweet Disorder was a tad more captivating for me because it was set against a tight political race, an unplanned pregnancy, and family drama. While True Pretenses has some family drama, there wasn’t much else to put pressure on the main characters’ relationship. I would have liked to see them face some external challenge together, or perhaps having the plot with Jamie trying to find out more about Ash’s past be a little more prominent throughout the book. Something to keep the suspense going, as opposed to a long struggle with their personal feelings.

Characters: Lydia, our heroine, is a Tory heiress who finds herself without funds following the death of her father. I liked that she was open about her grief and struggled with the impact of her father’s legacy on her life, as well as the way her actions have mainly been in service to others. Her arc can basically be summarized as a woman finding out what she wants for herself, and I enjoyed seeing her grow into a person who wants to do charity not just for political reasons or because it’s expected, but because she wants to use her privilege for good. Her arc was also a nice exploration of how rich people don’t always know what’s right for poor people, and it was satisfying to watch Lydia confront her biases and assumptions throughout the book.

Ash, our hero, is the first explicitly Jewish character I’ve read in a romance novel. I liked that he was Jewish in more than just name - Lerner made Jewishness part of the way Ash navigates the world, and she does a good job balancing the real anti-Semitism of 19th century England with a more optimistic plot (by that I mean she doesn’t wallow in Ash’s misery or try to be edgy). I also liked that Ash’s motivations were understandable without his actions being wholly excused, and part of his arc involved Ash becoming comfortable with letting people in and being comfortable with honesty.

Rafe, Ash’s brother, is also an interesting character in that he’s completely devoted to Ash but wants an honest life. I loved the dynamics between the brothers, including how they disagreed with one another and reacted differently to the same situations, and I loved that Ash had to learn to let Rafe dictate his own life. Jamie, Lydia’s brother, is similarly complex in that he struggles with the expectations of his family legacy. Jamie and Lydia butt heads often, but it’s obvious they care deeply for one another, and I liked the way their sibling relationship paralleled the one between Ash and Rafe.

Other characters were fine, but didn’t serve much purpose other than to flesh out the world. I liked them for the most part, and I think Lerner does a good job of making True Pretenses feel like it takes place in the same town as Sweet Disorder. But other than that, I don’t have too much to say about them. They served their purpose.

Romance: While I really liked the way Ash and Lydia’s relationship allowed for Lerner to explore class dynamics, there was something about it that didn’t quite click for me. Maybe it’s because it felt like Lydia was too comfortable with Ash’s history as a swindler, or maybe I didn’t feel like they were legitimately falling in love with one another (because there was always the possibility that Ash was lying). Whatever the case, the relationship didn’t seem to build or evolve for me.

I also felt like most of the obstacles to the two being a couple came from internal conflict, rather than external. Personally, I don’t really like it when authors use internal conflict because it seems like all that needs to happen is a good sit-down-and-talk for problems to get resolved. It kind of felt like that was the case here; Ash didn’t want to get too attached to Lydia because he’d have to leave her, but he only wanted to leave her to protect her from scandal or something. It was all stuff that involved getting over one’s own hang-ups, and while that can be interesting from a psychological standpoint, I’d much rather see a couple overcome external obstacles together.

TL;DR: Despite me not being a fan of the overall plot and some elements of the romance, True Pretenses is skillfully written and deviates from the norm with an atypical hero and an honest look at class dynamics.

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omalleymenagerie · 5 years ago

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Alright, so, I was at the #PittsburghProtest yesterday and these are my experiences and takeaways.

CW: violence, police, looting, war crimes, vomiting, social injustice, racism, classism, long as fuck

It was chaos. The original protest leaders left at their designated time and when white supremacists showed up. That was fair on their part, but there were still people there trying to be heard by the police.

There were also people there for the wrong reasons. There was looting. You wanna know where those people were? Not standing directly in front of the cops where they were firing teargas.

Just a reminder, folx, the Geneva Convention states that chemical warfare is a war crime punishable on an international level. Not that the police will ever be held accountable even on a local level. Not the big tough good guys firing caustic gas at civilians. Who's a super brave fascist tool? Is it you, cops? I think it is.

My two housemates and I got there after the official protest was over because we heard the situation was escalating. We weren't going because it was exciting or trending. We went as support. We brought medical supplies, food, water, and several ways to neutralize the CHEMICAL WEAPONS the police were firing. At unarmed civilians. Because they're the good guys. People were already vomiting and running from the teargas when we were dropped off. We went toward it to see what we could do.

People were looting The Exchange, but these weren't protesters. These were opportunists. No one in Pittsburgh wants to fuck up our area. You wanna break shit? Break shit that hurts the community, not helps it. The 7/11s in the area didn't close and were good to us. Then someone broke the front doors of one of them and robbed the place wearing literal rubber masks. Like from a B-heist movie.

Those people weren't there to help the cause. Those people were not there to support the black community. Those people are not the allies that any community needs. Those people saw an opportunity and took it because clearly the cops were more concerned about a bunch of people standing in a line holding signs and chanting to stop police brutality against people of color. Yeah, because we were the threat.

Some of the teargas canisters were thrown back at the officers. Most of them were booted over while still going to stop them from harming protestors. The cops can act the victim on that if they want, but they're the ones with body armor and a full head breathing helmet. So, I'm pretty sure they were more equipped to handle the CHEMICAL WARFARE they were using on us.

My group quickly realized there was no one was in charge. We, three white people, have no place leading a movement like this. We were there to raise up the voices from the black community, not speak over or for them. So, we tried to find anyone who could help us go where we needed to go. We found a pair who seemed to at least have a direction to point us in. An older black gentleman who was mad about the looting and people wrecking up the city, and a younger black woman who was vehement that the looters were not part of this. They actually began their conversation as a heated argument across an intersection, but he went to her and they talked out their differences. By the time we approached them, they had found common ground. It was a beautiful display of conflict resolution. Take notes, cops.

We attempted to get barricades moved so people could actually get in and out of the city, but the cops were surrounding us, literally using city blocks to block us in and it was hard to encourage people to take away the wall between them and the people firing caustic gas at us.

Have I mentioned the teargas enough yet? Have I mentioned how horrific it smells and how it burns your flesh even by secondhand contact? Have I mentioned the people vomiting in the streets after having CHEMICAL WEAPONS used on them? Have I mentioned the screaming? Have I mentioned the terror of being separated from your loved ones when one or both of you were trapped inside the caustic gas?

I witnessed it first hand. The cops fired the canisters. The crowd screamed to run. Several people weren't fast enough to escape in time. One of my group had a full face gas mask, so he ran into the gas and physically aided an individual out who was vomiting uncontrollably. We neutralized the chemicals in their eyes and skin, called for medics who were almost nonexistent, and helped reunite them and their fiancee.

(I am using they/them pronouns as I am not sure of their pronouns and don't wish to misgender them. If you are this person or know this person, please know there was deep bravery in their actions and no shame in having a meltdown. I hope they and their fiancee who was also gassed are doing as well as they can.)

It was starting to get into the evening and my group tried to figure out where the police were set up in case anything bad did happen. We were pretty much loosely surrounded. When we got back to the main group, a line of fully geared cops had formed a block or so away from where most of us were. The police chief had put an 8:30 curfew out and we were told the cops would be taking action if we did not disperse.

That's when a small group of us formed our own line in front of the officers. We were a small, but diverse group. Gonna be honest, not everyone in that line had the same agenda. I don't like cops. I've called them insulting things in private conversations with not cops. Insulting them while trying to preach peace was not the correct way to handle this. Will it elicit a laugh if you outright state that officer over there has never made a woman orgasm in his life? Probably, but they were just making the cops mad. Not gonna lie, most of the people ACTIVELY insulting the cops were white faces.

My group did not follow suit. We listened to the people of color we stood with. We chanted the names of those murdered, I can't breath, no justice/no peace, and black lives matter. We stuck to the peaceful message the protest was meant to send. The officers were asked why they needed shields and armor against unarmed civilians? Why 20 unarmed civilians calling for an end to police brutality required no less than 40 fully geared officers? We weren't the threat. The looters who several blocks away? They were the criminals. The vandals? They were the criminals. We had our arms up or out, universal signs to show we were not a threat.

At one point, a man rode up behind us on a bike, hiding behind us completely and holding a phone out with the picture of a black man on it. The man on the bike was screaming about how they had murdered his brother, but something didn't sit right about the guy. I'm a lifelong theater kid. I know bad acting when I hear it. He wasn't sobbing. He had his head covered with a shirt so no one could get a clear look at him and then rode off just as quickly as he'd ridden in. I won't say this man was there to incite further anger, but I have deep suspicions.

I have never been at the front of a protest line facing the cops before. I have never seen nearly 50 faceless, armored, and armed officers who have permission to potentially permanently harm. I couldn't call them individuals in that moment. They were like a swarm, buzzing with tension. Some of them seemed ready to go as soon as the order was given. Some of them stood as though emotionless automatons. They switched out groups of officers, where they were standing, who had what weapon or shield. There were some that stayed exactly where they were the entire time I stood there.

I made a choice to try to look several of them in the eyes which was difficult through the visors but we were close enough that I could see their eyes. I wasn't being intimidating. I was trying to be one human looking at another human and trying to understand how we ended up here. I didn't lock eyes with any of them purposefully, but one of the officers and I did lock eyes. I'd like to say I was being brave by keeping eye contact. I'll be honest, I had a freeze response to fear. There was so much anger and coldness that I couldn't move for a few seconds. I don't know if the officer took my actions as a threat, but they weren't intended that way. Threatening cops doesn't make them want to hurt you or those around you less.

Several of us had to leave the line before the deadline. I am not ashamed to state I was one of them. Frankly, I'm a trans man, and the idea of being put in jail and misgendered for potentially several days is frightening enough without even thinking about abuses I could face. My housemate looked at me and said, "If they catch you, they will take you." So, he handed me his backpack, and I left.

There were officers everywhere while I walked through the city. Some were "undercover" but they knew they were in the homestretch and weren't even pretending to not be cops. None of which were wearing masks, as a side note. We ain't in the green yet, boys. Masks up.

I also passed several groups of fully geared cops. I just had to keep walking.

I heard sirens blaring from the direction I'd left my companions. I just had to keep walking.

I saw looters laughing about how everything was "on sale" or "so cheap" today. I just had to keep walking.

I walked probably about 5 miles to the place we had agreed to meet and waited. Hoping they would show up. I waited an hour. Nothing. I walked back down the road, hoping I would meet them along the way. Nothing. I went back to the meeting place, hoping they were there wondering where I was. Nothing. I'll note here that I made the choice to leave my phone at home. So, I had no means of communication. I finally decided that waiting 2 hours was probably longer than I should have waited, and borrowed the phone from a pizza place. Many thanks again, my dude, I'd shout you out if I could remember the name of your shop, but I'm definitely hitting you up for pizza later.

While I waited, I watched as cop cars drove by dozens of times. I don't know if they were the same cars or different ones. There were just a lot of them. I listened to sirens blare all around me. I listened to helicopters zoom around the sky. I watched as people from the protest walked by. I watched as people with looted goods walked by. I watched as people went about their lives as though the world were not rioting. I watched as eight horse mounted officers clopped by grinning like cowboys keeping order in the wild west.

I got picked up and was home safe after nightlight. It turned out my housemates were arrested and we're getting those logistics figured out. I'm worried about my partner because we haven't heard from her today.

I'm physically unharmed from my experience beyond some blisters from walking probably 10-15 miles collectively with intermittent running when, you know, chemical weapons were fired in my direction by law enforcement officers.

I am not okay, though.

I'll be honest, I grew up privileged. I grew up not thinking the cops were going to shoot me or my loved ones. I didn't have to be afraid because of the color of my skin. I was never one of those, "racism is over," people because I grew up in the south where racism is alive, well, and thriving. I grew up always afraid cops were going to arrest my father because he pretty much told me if we were ever pulled over the cops were taking him away from me. (Thanks for the long-term trauma, dad. Gotta pay for my therapist's kid's braces somehow, right?)

But that's why I went. Because, statistically and factually, I am less likely to be murdered by the police than any of the POC there just because of the color of my skin. So, I went because I was physically capable of being on my feet outside for that long, which is my physical privilege. I stood with the black community yesterday because I am trying to be the best ally I know how to be.

I may not be able to go to another protest soon, but I will when I'm able. I'm very shaken. My already crumbling worldview is shattered beyond repair and I'm just trying to figure out what to do with all these broken shards of hope.

If you made it this far into my rambling, thanks for taking the time to read. These are my experiences. These are my opinions. I stand with the black community. Your value is not determined by the color of your skin.

(Edited because leaving my phone at home was not a mistake, just frightening. Remember, phones are tracking devices.)

#black lives matter #say their names #Pittsburgh protest #nojusticenopeace #I cant breath #ally

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starsailorstories · 5 years ago

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So! Given, uh, everything, any chance you could talk about how various Astraea cultures deal with sicknesses and quarantine? Especially since some (especially Bell Town) are extremely or entirely genetically identical, and so more at risk?

Also, how would the cast members react to self isolation and social distancing?

FIRST OFF, sorry this took 10 years to answer, I was super busy and there’s kind of A Lot Of Spec Bio to discuss here

Also, this question made me feel very Seen lol…why yes i DO use worldbuilding as a coping mechanism for the stress of watching the wet tissue paper my country calls a social safety net dissolve

Most sickness that astraeas deal with day to day isn’t actually contagious*, but more a result of individual reaction to the environment (in terms of public health response, think seasonal allergies, although physiologically speaking it’s nothing like that). Communicable, infectious disease tends to be a less frequent problem but purely for that reason is more feared, especially as the most common source for novel diseases is interplanetary shipping (like, astraeas on one planet who have immunity to something unknowingly ship contaminated goods to another planet where people don’t). All that is nowhere near as devastating as it could be in a human context–for one thing astraeas’ bodies are hella dry compared to ours, so if a microbe isn’t airborne it’s almost a non-issue (on the other hand, infection is almost a guarantee if you have an open wound)–but most planets, stations and orbiters have a list of OTHER planets, stations and orbiters categorized by how long it’s been since first contact and how long shipments need to be in quarantine based on that, and that kind of thing runs the same gamut from “rigorously evidence-based” to “completely political and petty” that it does on earth.

Speaking of which, the issue of genetic similarity as a disease risk is as politicized as you’d expect in a society where people said “oh, with our genetic technology we can just design the working class to be however we want.” The Hyperians, being, you know, A Rigidly Hierarchal Interstellar Empire In A Space Opera as they are, tend to present the genetic homogeneity as sort of a good thing, what makes Us Us and Them Them, and the royal family themselves subscribe to the very historically royal (and also very eugenicist) idea that genetic “purity”–which for astraeas mostly just means having children in a very chemically controlled environment–helps keep em’ royal or something. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t it just makes hemophilia, and the more conservative Basileans minimize the environmental variance that keeps them from wiping each other out like some kind of aggressively graceful banana monocrop, the easier it is for epidemics to escalate in general because whole colonies become vectors together.

You won’t read about it in your galactic history book til after the revolution, but the dangers of genetic homogeneity were actually observed by lux units, who noticed that “variant” and “off-order” clones were a bit more likely to survive outbreaks of disease. Supervisors in clone factories have tried HARD to excise the superstition that variant units who remain un-decommissioned into adulthood are good luck to have on your cabin crew or manufacturing-plant shift, but it’s never completely gone away, and once Bell Town goes topside their medics and scientists immediately get to work testing, peer reviewing and proving the mechanics of diversity as a factor of public health because it’s a helpful argument for legitimizing their seizure of the means of their own reproduction and fighting the prejudice against “defective” lux that don’t fit the mold.

To really get into your question, Bell Town at least has the advantage of being small and having a busybody mom friend for a de facto head medic, so I don’t think they’ve ever had a quarantine situation get much bigger than four or five people just because Bolt is very up on how everyone’s doing and very very persuasive–the medics know that that’s just a matter of luck though, and I’m sure a factor in the push to go topside is the potential for tragedy involved in having a settlement of mostly/nearly genetically identical people in somewhat adverse and scarce conditions. That’s not to say there’s no plan–the shortages in Bell Town tend to be of immediately consumable raw materials, like air and fuel and very basic multi-use medicines, whereas raw materials for manufacturing specialized equipment are a lot easier to get because organized factories in DT’s network can have them smuggled out. And a majority of the town’s population, at least by vol. 2, are former manufacturing-plant labor with working radio receivers in their heads, so it’s fairly feasible to expect even a small portion of them, with an emergency push, to manufacture A Lot of vaccines, or intensive care equipment, or whatever was needed practically overnight with the direct guidance of the medics to ensure as much safety in the process as possible (they do just that with medical and defense supplies in vol. 2 for various spoilery things).

Up top, the aula’s responses to any and all large-scale social crises tend to be erratic but sweeping. There are some advantages–in terms of expertise, there are certainly things that well-paid doctors with fully equipped research hospitals can accomplish that a dedicated crack team of self-educated medics can’t, including proactive study of new strains of disease. There’s also feudal insanity–technically individual hospitals/institutions aren’t supposed to issue info without the aula’s permission, though legally local nobles can give it on the Hyperians’ behalf if they’re willing to risk Drama. The internal weirdness of the court both logistical and interpersonal (which I need to make a post about) can sometimes mean, in any emergency, that different parts of the empire receive conflicting information, or an edict followed after a day’s delay in the satellite network by a retraction. Public trust (among citizens of relative status at least) that the Hyperians know what they’re doing tends to decline exponentially as you move out from the inner Rings for this exact reason.

Derafior City on Caesura B dealt with a wave of multiple epidemics a couple hundred turns before the official rise of the empire that still affect how the city is laid out–leaders at the time issued quarantine orders in cooperation with individual colony matriarchs, and as those orders became enforced in physical “zones” neighborhood identities, reputations, and rivalries became increasingly defined (Crater culture being what it is, quarantine boundaries were often pretty literal battle lines as the situation became desperate). A lot of historians trace the factionalism of the Crater to this era, although outside imperialism was also a major instigator of both factional conflicts and disease exposure. Keep in mind too that while outsiders like to portray Derafior as violently fractured and there’s a grain of truth to that, there are just as many deep loyalties between neighborhood/colony factions as there are rivalries and as we see in vol. 3, Caesurans are certainly not allergic to closing ranks when shit really hits the fan.

I don’t have specific canon examples from other ante-dome cultures but another thing of possible interest that I’d like to talk about is that in places touched by Basilean culture, a lot of what we consider “social distancing” is just normal because cleanliness is highly ritualized and valued. Although platonic adult friendships tend to be very cuddly by American and British standards, at the same time, hand touches between strangers outside specific social rituals are seen as quite inappropriate, so things are more thoroughly designed to prevent them–for example, most trading of goods is done purely on paper at the point of sale and nothing actually passes from hand to hand, you go get it out of the crate or pick it out of the field yourself (which is also a practicality of the relative non-ubiquity of flexible currency–and actually, one of the complaints about the use of currency among more traditional astraeas is that it spreads germs). Basically everyone who can afford it wears gloves in public, which are changed and washed every time a person re-enters her home (disposable gloves are mostly limited to medical and laboratory settings, although it’s not unheard of to use them in a pinch if you don’t have a place to launder gloves at home. Side note, if you’re translating directly Altamaian actually refers to manual labor that makes it impractical to wear gloves as “barehanded” labor and the summary conceptualization of such as unhygienic represents a MAJOR vein of classism among Basilean citizens). The reason for the glove thing is that for a species with an exoskeleton regular hand washing can be kind of involved (You know how sometimes it takes a lot of scrubbing to get the dirt out from under your fingernails? Now imagine you have fingernails all over your hands).

Oh and to answer your second question: out of the main cast the one you’d think would suffer most with self-isolation is Bolt, but being a healthcare worker she’d still see people. Rugsy would complain the loudest but also paradoxically be secretly kind of relieved to not have to worry about People for a while. DT experiences virtually no change from her normal lifestyle lmao

*There’s two kinds of disease that can affect astraeas–what they call “miasmic”, and infectious. Miasmic disease (which as you might guess I named after the precursor to modern germ theory–it’s kind of true in this instance!) is basically when an individual’s body and light chemistry can’t maintain its normal balance in certain atmosphere conditions. A big reason for the kickoff of the artificial atmosphere industry after the settling of Altamai is that the cloud cover tends to trap a lot of carbon dioxide, and for i.e. Basillans and Sitherians (who have come to be based on G-type stars, like the sun, and K-type stars, slightly smaller and cooler than the sun) there’s just not enough hydrogen atoms in there to run their bodies optimally. This mostly affects very young children, the elderly, and those whose cores were formed in suboptimal conditions (comparable to a human who has a chronic health condition because of a birth defect) and if it can’t be remedied by a move to more hydrogen/helium rich air, it’s treated by sucking the pure hydrogen out of a water electrolysis device through a hose on the daily, which side note, is also a reliable hangover remedy for them.

#sweet chariot #worldbuilding #onwardmotley #ask me to tag

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mr-meekers · 5 years ago

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January Book Reviews

Hopefully, once a month, towards the end of the month, I’ll sit down to type out little reviews for all the books I’ve read this month. It’s my goal this year to read more, and, equally as important, finish more books (even if I don’t like them.)

So let’s get started!

1. Loveboat, Taipei by Wen

I initially started reading this book to participate in a book club coming up in February. I didn’t think I’d like it much as it lies pretty far out of my wheelhouse being not only contemporary fiction but also a teen romance. Now, I can definitely get into these things, but my problem with those genres is that they fall so so so easily into the usual tropes that are, honestly, just very annoying. Like, love triangles and love at first sight and “there was a misunderstanding that occurred that one small conversation could clear up but I’m gonna stew about it for the rest of the book” kinda tropes. I’m just tired of them and can’t stand them anymore and I know the genre can do better.

Loveboat does. It really does. I’m still surprised I liked it so much.

Basically, the story centers around Ever, who is the eldest daughter of Chinese immigrants. Typical story ensues- her parents want her to be a doctor, and basically guilt her into following their life plan for her while never really giving her a choice and making all her decisions for her. But Ever wants to dance and this is what sets up the main conflict in the story: what Ever wants vs. what her parents want for her, and all the hard choices and consequences that come from such a conflict. The majority of the story takes place at a summer school in Taipei where a bunch of fancy, high achieving Asian kids go to not only make connections, but make connections~~~ if you catch my drift. Ever is convinced she’ll hate it- her parents forced her to go, signed up for all her classes for her, and even snuck a bio textbook into her luggage with a not so subtle hint to study. So, our main conflict begins. Ever decided to break every ridiculous rule her parents ever set for her. And the plot unfold from there.

Yes, there are two love interests. I’ll hive ya that. But the relationships in this book aren’t based in convenience. They feel real and well thought out and genuine. A lot of great themes are explored, from the good ol’ “finding yourself” meme to the different kinds of burdens our families can put on us, and whether or not we decide to carry them forever. The characters felt deep and by the end, I was truly happy for them. Loveboat, Taipei gets a 4 out of 5 from. Definite recommendation.

2. The Guinevere Deception by White

A new take on the Arthurian legend has us following Guinevere instead of the Once and Future King. I’ m not a fan of Kiersten White’s other books and stopped reading them before I could finish them, I did thoroughly enjoy this one. I’m a sucker for a good fantasy with a strong female lead and this is just that. We all kinda know the legend of King Arthur already, and White does a good job of adding in elements from the original story but then twisting them to make them her own. Despite the lack of romance (something else I also thoroughly enjoy) for most of the book, I still found myself hooked on the plot and guessing and wondering what would happen next.

The plotline starts pretty simply, but with a major twist. We start with Guinevere being escorted to Camelot to wed Arthur. But, it is soon revealed that this is not the real Guinevere. The true princess is dead and buried (I forget the CoD) and this girl, the daughter of Merlin, has been disguised to take her place. No one can know who she is, for magic is banned in Camelot, and she is a witch herself. Merlin has sent her to Arthur’s side to protect him from a mysterious magical threat he sees coming. But that’s all he will tell her about it. Now, Guinevere must protect a king and his city and so much more. I can’t say much more without spoiling it, but even if it may seems a little bit dull at first, I did truly enjoy myself by the end. I’m excited for the second book.

Again, I give this a 4 out of 5. Certainly worth picking up.

3. The Rogue King by Owen

This is a fantasy romance I picked up for shits and giggles. I am of the opinion that most fantasy romances are cringey, tropey, and just downright awkward. I have a very, very difficult time finding ones with actual plots and characters that feel more like people that convenient transportable genitalia. But, I must say, Abigail Owen’s Rogue King was none of those things... for the most part.

The story centers around Kasia, a phoenix shape shifter, and Brand, a dragon shape shifter. Now, there’s a lot of shifter politics to unpack, but the basics are that dragons and phoenixes usually mate because they both revolve around fire. Phoenixes then bless their mate’s clan and make that dragon the king of all kings and clans. It’s, like, a big deal. So Brand is out for revenge against the reigning High King and if he delivers Kasia to the Blue Clan king, he can finally have his revenge. And we go from there.

The thing I liked about this book was that it did have an actual plot. There were things going on besides focusing on the two leads going at it and falling in love. I mean, they still do, but there’s stuff in between that matters this time. In fact, the love making was the thing I mostly had a problem with. Kasia and Brand’s relationship felt too forced. It’s played off as “they’re mates and it’s destiny” but it just feels rushed and awkward and at times, random.

The second book comes out later this year, but I’m not sure I’ll pick it up. Still, it gets a 3 from me. Not the worst thing I’ve ever read.

4. The Wallflower Wager by Dare

Too cute. It was too cute. Yes, it was your typical 1800s London high society “fall in love with this duke and pretend you know what the word “rake” means” kinda story but still! It was good!!

We follow Penny, a young woman who has taken to caring for stray animals that no one seems to want, including (but not limited to) a dog with no back legs, a goat that is definitely certainly entirely not pregnant she assures you, and a parrot from a whore house that says “Fancy a fuck, love?” all the time and is genuinely funny. Her new neighbor, the notorious Gabriel, is renovating his new house to sell for profit and having a menagerie next door is not helping his property value. The two must work together to find suitable homes for all of Penny’s beloved creatures before the month is up, or else she’ll be forced to move out.

Obviously, they fall madly in love in this month. And their romance does seem natural and heart warming and the sex is fantastic. The ending made me tear up it was too gosh darn sweet. I can’t spoil it for you, but know that it was wholesome AF. It gets a solid 4 from me. I desperately wish there was more.

5. The Merciful Crow by Owen

Just my cup of tea. A good fantasy story with a strong female lead and wonderful romantic interest. The not so subtle themes of classism, racism, and the way the privileged avoid holding themselves accountable are very topical for the day, but also timeless in their application. Other themes like the cost of selflessness, going after what you want, balancing your needs with those of others, and being the first to strike change are all heavily applied, as well, and beautiful done.

The story follows Fie, a Crow girl destined to be beaten down by her own countrymen for the simple act of existing. Crows are the only caste in the country of Sabor immune to the Sinner’s Plague and thus are the ones who deal with the bodies. For a price. When Fie and her clan collect two dead lordlings from the palace, she certainly didn’t expect them to still be alive. Turns out, the prince is on the run from a queen who wants him dead. If the Crows can deliver him to his allies, he swears a Covenant Oath to grant them protection from the Oldeanders, not-so-subtle references to the KKK in their white sheets and nightly raids on Crow camps, killing as many of them as they can before dawn. It’s a deal too good to pass up, so Fie’s Pa, their chief, agrees.

This story is just... so many things. Before I forget, though, I want to congratulate Margaret Owen for the fantastic LGBT representation. Within the first few chapters, we already have non-binary/gender non-conforming character in Madcap, who uses they/them pronouns. The prince is gay. Tavin, his bodyguard, is bisexual. The kingdom’s master general is not only pansexual but polygamous. Fie is the only character of importance who seems straight, but even then we don’t really know as there are no other women her age around (there are other women, but Crows mingle only with Crows, and their bands are small). The romance here, while some may say is too hasty, I say felt just right. It’d been building and building and building and then finally happened and it was like letting out a breath. But even more satisfying was Fie’s character arc, and the Prince’s too, maybe even more so. So much happens and there is so much growth that I really just need you all to read it for yourselves and see.

5 out of 5 for me.

Thanks for reading this far! Hopefully there will be more reviews up in another month!

#book reviews #ya fantasy #ya romance #romance #fantasy #loveboat taipei #the guinevere deception #the merciful crow #the rogue king #the wallflower wager #Tessa dare #Abigail owen #Margaret owen #books #teen books #meekers

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