#and i love narrative-driven stories

[hazelrose3637]

A Semi-Rant About "Barbie"

My mom, sister, and cousin all really love Barbie (2023), and I wanted to love it, too. I was ready for a feminist movie that was really fun.

Well, it was fun. But it also felt meh. Like, they introduced lots of cool concepts, but then didn't go anywhere with them:

-breaking stereotypes

-equality is not "eye for an eye" or "you need to suffer, too" (in regards to patriarchy and "matriarchy")

-generational bonding, especially between mother and daughter

-capitalism

I was also bummed that they didn't include other characters in the Barbie-verse, like Stacey, Kelly, Teresa, or Nikki. (I'm glad there were WOC in the movie, but why couldn't any of them be Teresa or Nikki?)

And then hearing other critiques about it, like the indigenous people comment and how that was tasteless.... Yeah, it was. I'm not gonna defend the director on that. Especially when it was super easy to solve the Barbie/Ken patriarchy conflict and, you know, there's still genocide going on today.

And the "savior" comment from the daughter? Extra yikes.

But then other blogs are saying how the message is so good, but... idk I didn't get that from the movie. I know what it was trying to say, but again, it got lost in the execution. The daughter just embraces Barbie-ness without any character development. She just goes from "Barbie is a fascist" to "okay, this is cute."

And I get Ken is mistreated by Barbie, but the movie made him almost an incel. He tried to force a kiss on Barbie more than once, she makes it clear she's not in love with him but he still pursues her... If they wanted to explore how women and men treat each other, don't make Ken a creep that ignores the word "no."

And why were the corporate guys there? They provide two and a half minutes of conflict, and that's it. The rest of the time, they're a running joke, and a boring one at that.

It has good music ("I'm Just Ken" is a bop), and the visuals are good. But the movie fell flat, like it slowed to a stop right before the finish line. It acted like it was telling a deep and important story, but it was shallow.

Sorry to anyone who loves the film. I really wanted to give "Barbie" a chance. But the cool toy clothes and dances just can't save the half-hearted message.

More ranting in the tags.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what particularly annoys me with the "zelda was always gameplay before story" is that... it's not true? At least I don't think it's true in the way people mean it.

Zelda games were always kind of integrating story based on the standards of the time. When game stories were in game pamphlets, Zelda's stories was in the pamphlets. ALTTP tried to tell a pretty complicated stories with the limitations of the time. OoT was actively trying to tell an epic, cinematic tale packed with ambiance and expand what 3D could offer that 2D games struggled with. Majora's Mask is deeply character-driven in many, many ways. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are both pretty concerned about their stories, down to the point that some people were bored by TP's cutscenes in particular. Skyward Sword, from what little I have played it, is very very invested in its characters and their journey (and 2D Zeldas have Link's Awakening, Minish Cap... None of them are visual novels, but they are concerned with emotional journeys, character arcs, mysteries about their own world...)

What is true is that the narrative wraps around the mechanics, and not the other way around. The mechanics drive themes, aesthetics, emotional beats and character journeys; and that's great. The world is a puzzle, and the world is delightfully absurd when it needs to be, full of heart when it calls for it, dark and oppressive when it suits the player experience.

That does not mean the games aren't invested in their stories. Even BotW has a pretty complicated story to tell about an entire world rather than one specific tale or legend --all of it at the service of the gameplay, which is exploration and mastery of your environment.

So. Yes, none of the Zelda games are million-words long visual novels that care deeply about consistency and nuance; but stories don't need consistency or deep lore to be meaningful and serve an emotional journey. Again: gameplay is story. The two cannot be so easily parsed from each other.

And Zelda as a franchise obviously care deeply about story, characters and setting (and still does right now --otherwise there wouldn't be a movie), even if it doesn't try to imitate prestige narrative-driven games, which is great and part of why I love this series so much. Doesn't mean it couldn't have done better in the past, it obviously could have, but I feel like pretending that nobody ever cared about story or character is just... false? It's a huge disservice to the devs too. Some of them obviously cared immensely.

The "gameplay above story", at least in the extent to which it is paraded today to defend TotK, mostly, is a really recent development. And I think it's one that deserves to receive some pushback.

[eosofspades]

okay i meant to make this post forever ago but my personal opinion on why so many people were so dissatisfied with lightfalll (disclaimer: i am not one of these people, i love lightfall SO much), is that lightfall was kind of subjected to a really aggressive marketing campaign.

like, stick with me here, i feel like almost all the lightfall release content (the trailers especially) were so focused on battling the witness, how this battle has been centuries in the making and this is the Second Collapse Finally Finding Us, only for there to be,,, no real resolution. the end was left on such a severe cliffhanger, but not only that, there was NO battle with the witness. the witness didn't even seem to be having a hard time at all with what we WERE throwing at it.

and for narrative reasons *i* am obsessed with this ending; in terms of storytelling i adore practically every creative decision that was made in lightfall, but i think the reason that so many people were so upset about it is because lightfall had such intense marketing and was rooted in the implication that this was the End of Days, only for us to get almost no closure, and instead so many more questions.

(there's also something to be said, i think, about the fact that the people who ARE most upset about this are like, the youtube gamer dudebros who's content is very very often rooted in the aggressive, violence-and-warfare, pvp-centric, no-interest-in-lore approach to destiny, and that the people i've seen primarily ENJOYING the narrative decisions (or at least being understanding about it) are the artists and writers and loremasters of the fandom, but i'm not quite sure,,, how to expand on that point.)

[w1tchybusiness]

i could write a 100 page essay about what a fucking masterpiece warframe is. i will write many words in the tags. please readem if you want my 'tism.

[myimaginationplain]

after getting back into AT as an adult, I've come to realize that it was also "guilty" of most of the same sins that people religiously hated SU for, and now I'm just mad lol

[genderqueer-karma]

Hello, hope you're having a good night! What songs would you recommend for someone that wants to get into Malice Mizer? I've known about them for years but never got around to listening to them. Album recs also work! Thanks in advance^^

okay honestly i’m really excited to answer this because i rarely get to give people recs!! so, i’m gonna do this by organizing based on my personal perception of the genre of each era. hopefully you enjoy what you hear/see!! (<- vibrating because they get to discuss their strongest hyperfixation of the past 2 years)

(under the cut)

if you tend to like goth/darkwave/posipunk/similar or related genres, or just generally more rock-focused music:

tetsu era is the way to go! their first album memoire/memoire dx has songs i’d argue fit very well into these genres! for more specific recs:

SADNESS~ I know the reason for her sadness~ - the most emblematic of the goth genre! (not technically from memoire, but the compilation it’s most commonly associated with, brain trash, was technically a multi-band project iirc)

miwaku no rouma - less “goth” and honestly a bit more “dance-y” but still a song i love and will love forever

kioku to sora - an incredible song that i love very deeply. also has a version with the band's third vocalist, klaha!

baroque - honestly, just iconic! baroque is THEE song of tetsu’s era as vocalist. the twin guitar version of für elise in the bridge?? magnificent 🤌

(i’d also look for the other, less known songs of the era, like 16 no solitude, portugal, and lafflesia!)

if you tend to like songs with a classical music influence but with more of a pop sound:

gackt era is 1000% the way to go! their second album (and gackt's first with them) voyage ~sans retour~ has many tracks of this variety:

madrigal - actually my favorite mm song, period. the bittersweet tone of the violin throughout makes me sick to my stomach its so good. i play viola and its the song by them i most want to learn to play!

premier amour - another lovely track from voyage that i actually used to have as my blog title! very poppy (in my opinion) but the classical influence is evident. like madrigal, it's quite violin heavy. as the title also suggests, it's quite romantic ^-^

uruwashiki kamen no shotaijou - i can't make a malice mizer rec list without mentioning this song. it's quite iconic and for good reason! this was the single that really gave them their first big commercial success, as far as i know. (also in the bg of a famous interview clip)

ma cherie - another song that i can't not talk about when discussing malice mizer. literally their most famous song, the one that their fan club was named for. if you ever look up clips of this song live, you'll mostly see the band having the most fun onstage. honestly just a very sweet song. this song is also the only one that's been performed by all three vocalists! (tetsu & klaha)

for songs that lean very heavily into a cathedral/classical sound:

the album bara no seidou, their last one and the only one with klaha as vocalist, has you covered!!

mayonaka ni kawashita yakusoku - first time i heard this song i nearly lost my mind. no exaggeration. the composition is genuinely beautiful, possibly even bordering on angelic. all my homies love mayonaka.

bara ni idorareta akui to higeki no makuake/seinaru toki eien no inori - goddamn what a long title, but fitting for a long song! as the opener for bara no seidou, it is a whopping 9 minutes long, but it had me hooked for all 9 minutes. (technically, bara ni... and seinaru are two separate tracks, but bara acts as an introduction for seinaru)

shiroi hada ni kuruu ai to kanashimi no rondo - to be towards the end of the album, it's quite the piece; and i don't use "piece" lightly. i have many feelings regarding shiroi, but to put it simply, you need to experience this song at least once.

tbh this list is getting long as fuck so i'm gonna do a rapid fire round of songs i like/ones i think are iconic:

tsuioku no kakera, au revoir (and the bossa version), apres midi (and the english version that i honestly can't place genre-wise), brise, gardenia, garnet, le ciel, gensou rakuen, aegen, gekka no yasoukyoku (deserves a long explanation as the song that got me into malice but i'm actually running out of space), the whole merveilles album*, really. (*half of those aren't even merveilles... oops)

[thescreaminghat]

just finished watching pluto (and just finished crying my fucking eyes out at every scene featuring epsilon and his kids) and while i understand that the focus is the philosophical and emotional narratives being explored and the weight that is given to each character, human or not, and how they grapple with their pain, it would have been kinda funny if the show had ended like this

[cloudbends]

Ohhhh I just know friday's pokemon episode will be a life-changing event for me.

[vivanightcity]

I'm so fucking normal about this. Not at all thinking about how Ivan's fucked up little perspective of this moment is that this is the last thing from Dex, the final thing to let go.

Not at all chewing the walls about how important to me it is that it's Panam he's with, cause I already saw her as the person who first got through to him that 'he shot you in the fucking head, Vanya'.

[sickgraymeat]

It’s Friday morning “crying real tears about how Nina from Molly of Denali reacted to Molly surprise visiting her on her birthday” hours

[pickapea]

scrolling thru my own goddamn belgariad fan blog, going thru the character tags while looking like this

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I don't get why people hate the timeline so much, its not like you can't pretty much completely ignore it when you play the games. The only time it even approaches mattering to the story is when there is an explicit sequel like botw and totk or zelda and zelda 2

Hey sorry your ask got lost in the sauce of my broken tumblr, but: yeah!

I mean, I get why in some sense. It's been a heated point of debate and I think some people understandably resent the space it has taken not only in fandom discourse, but in how people began to understand the game and its narrative aesthetic choices. There is such a thing as over-rationalizing everything to hard logic, and sometimes it's just not the fandom for that --especially when you begin to forget it's all just fan theory and start to forget what the games are supposed to be like and evoke beyond just strict facts displayed in a linear way.

What I think bugs me with TotK in particular is that it both evokes and relies on continuity and the idea of a timeline, of archeology, of history itself, while being so loose and vacant with it that it both is doing Timeline Shit while also completely failing to understand why some parts of the fandom were invested in Timeline Shit to begin with.

But that's just my two cents of course!

[secondpersonpoetry]

hi! heard the released “Merry Christmas, Please Don’t Call” (which i’ve seen you’ve heard live, if i’m not mistaken!!) this morning and i don’t know if there’s really a particular vibe/dynamic/ship hrpf-wise (personally haven’t yet been able to put my finger on it) that quite relates but the lyrics have been rotating in my head all day and i was wondering if you had any thoughts? hope you have a good one! <3

OH ANON HAVE I EVER SEEN IT LIVE!!! and the second that song came out i zoomed it straight into my fic playlist and unfortunately there are so many guys this could be. right now the one that's resonating is, of course, the golden boy and his haunted ghost themselves: mcstrome.

i am thinking about connor, specifically, after the stanley cup final. that game seven. how angry he was, how loud the silence when they told him he won the conn smythe. how close he's come before and again and again lost. there's nobody else to blame but himself. he's in the empty room and he knows why (1)

at!! your best!!! you were magic!!! oh, golden boy. connor the anointed, of course. at the very beginning of his career we always knew he was something special and who wouldn't have fallen in love with him? weren't all of us a little bit dylan strome in awe of the generational talent? we were all bathed in radiant light just by being in the vicinity (2)

don't even tell 'em that you know me breaks my heart (3). in terms of building a narrative i think i've said before there is a universe where connor/dylan were together before the draft and to protect both of them, dylan breaks up with him. connor says i love you and dylan says i don't. because he doesn't, you know? he loved connor. he loved davo. he can't be in love with connor mcdavid, first overall pick of the edmonton oilers. i'd rather be hurt forever than have to watch us try to make this work and destroy us.

and after connor mcdavid left the otters, dylan strome captained them to a memorial cup win. what a haunted home, eh? to be captain of the team you and your best friend were on, only now he's left you? don't call me to tell me about your rookie season with the oilers--we both know about your broken collarbone. don't call me to tell about becoming the youngest captain in franchise history when i stepped into the shoes of your captaincy here. don't call me. (4)

narratively: dylan's the one who broke connor's heart and his own but by god it wasn't easy. we both know what happened, you went first overall. please don't make this harder on me. please don't call.

this verse can be about the weight of dylan having to live up to connor's standards and always being measured by him. i would just like to bring up the connor stepping stone chart for absolutely no reason as well (5)

we are, at long last, at the potential future of now: dylan strome, happy, smiling, thriving on the washington capitals. connor, on the oilers. i'm not yours, dylan can say. haven't been for a long time. it took some time but i made this. please don't call and ruin this for me, stay out of my life. i don't want you or need you (6)

[p.s. this took a while because when i received this ask i was a) immediately possessed to write this verse by verse breakdown i had never thought of before and then b) immediately plagued by the idea of making you a little graphic (above the read more) and finally got to do it after banging out all the actual lyric thoughts two (?) weeks ago. emerging two and a half hours later from the fugue state of GIMP with 37 layers in this bad boy hope you enjoy!!!]

[buggachat]

honestly what I love about miraculous and what I think a lot of people seem to hate about it is that the show is completely character-driven. it absolutely follows the rule of "would" rather than "should". episodes and plot lines and everything make so much sense and are so easy and engaging to follow when you understand that everything happening is because that's what the characters would do. things like: marinette would lie to protect someone's feelings, chloe would need more than just being queen bee to change her, adrien would forgive someone and try to see the best in someone who has shown him nothing but red flags. these aren't things they should do, it's just what they would. they don't change their behavior to tie up every loose end, they aren't vessels to give the audience moral lessons, their interpersonal conflicts are sometimes never addressed head-on and instead remain as a constant noise in the background of their relationship, they are all so stubborn and complicated. the plot bends to them, not the other way around. i see all the time people complaining about how the show is so bad/a failure but in the same breath say that they love the characters, as if the show's primarily goal is not to create and facilitate those same compelling characters that you love and let you watch as the story unfurls around them.

i mean, it's completely fine if you hate it. it's fine if you'd prefer every loose end to be tied, if you prefer the plot and story to take center stage, if you don't like it when a plotline seems to be forming but the characters decide against it, etc. it's a narrative choice, and not a "good" or a "bad" choice, just a choice. we all have our preferences. but your hatred of it is not any more "objective" than someone else's love for it. sometimes being a character-driven-story lover is difficult when online media criticism seems to always see it as a bug and not a feature.

[onthecrescentofthehill]

i love this early chapter illustration. living armor was a turning point when i read the manga for how it shows laios and his solo analytical process but the contrast here…. this is the very first time he’s drawn without armor in the manga (this doesn’t fully happen in-story until chapter 28 when falin goes to check on him after she’s been resurrected, the heartbreaking hug scene)

before living armor he’s demonstrated wild feats of strength and bravery, his enthusiasm is deeply alienating, and then there’s this sparse illustration with him looking quite small and thoughtful.

he looks extremely Human. i feel like the contrast is a really forward thinking narratively.

something i find really interesting about laios’s characterization is how the dungeon is such a small window into his personality, and the few moments where he’s more aloof and cold, sometimes resentful are probably what he’s like most of the time (there have been posts showcasing those but i can’t find them rn.)

his default state is not trying to take up too much space, a little bit in his head. i think this chapter pic does a really good job bringing in that idea in really early, while also saying that he’s a lot more than an enthusiastic, leadership driven tank character. he’s vulnerable and analytical.

[absentlyabbie]

saw a reply on that post about a subway worker refusing to service to some dudes wearing hate speech shirts and claiming they were being religiously discriminated against that said "as a christian, i don't claim them."

okay but do claim them, actually.

inconvenient and embarrassing and even frustrating as it is, your religion, your faith, has become all but synonymous with hatred and vicious oppression. that didn't happen by accident. it wasn't unearned. it's not new and it's not a perversion of the good true pure christianity when it's the core and foundation, in fact.

are there good, kind, compassionate christians who refuse themselves to harbor this kind of hatred? denominations that are more progressive, welcoming, loving, and inclusive? absolutely, and that's great and all.

but they have not been the ones defining the story of christianity ever, at any point in its history. you don't get to retcon the narrative. you can't "no true scotsman" your way out of association wth the vast majority, the most vocal and politically driven majority of your shared faith.

your religion historically, traditionally, and most commonly shelters and cultivates bigots and oppressors, hateful, vicious people who want to strip others of their rights and their lives and legislate them into being officially lesser-than.

claim them. own that. it's necessary if you ever want christianity to be seen as better than the worst of your lot, because the worst are the loudest, the most powerful and wealthy, the ones who've been steering the fleet for centuries.

if you want christianity to actually be the faith you strive yourself to live and exemplify, you have to reckon first with what it is, what is has long been.

those christians would claim you're not real christians, but you both are. you can't change or take control of the story if you try to pretend you're on page one. you have to straighten your back and acknowledge it.

if you want to clean house or even rebuild, you have to admit the rot is there, first, and that it's still your house anyway.