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onewomancitadel · 2 years ago

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A post about self-justifying media

I'm trying not to write an annoyed post about it but it has never been more apparent to me than now that the belief problematic content = moral harm in real life is almost solely disguised shipping warfare.

What's even more annoying is that no I don't think art should be put to a censoring body (within reason: s/nuff is illegal, or should be illegal, for a reason, etc.) but I think that what effectively 'is' its own censoring body is the court of public opinion and response. (See previous post which is related).

If you want to stymie that by saying 'oh you can't criticise E/uphoria et al. because it uses its graphic content to communicate specific ideas' then you've defeated what I think to be is the thing that justifies problematic media: being subject to reasonable artistic interpretation. Does it succeed? Which at the end of the day really demonstrates the anxiety of anti/pro shipping, or in this case the thoughtless consumption of 'problematic' media, that is, it's centred in personal discomfort.

I can never get behind the idea that 'consumption' - and it is consumption - of art and media is a thoughtless activity or that it being a thoughtless activity is justifying. That is not to say I endorse self-flagellation - that is actually absurd - and nor do I think you need to write essays about the things you watch. I also still think, and have said many times, that the direct response of a work may not be necessarily directly confluent in the sense of, say, Kylo Ren killing his father is not going to make me consider committing literal patricide, but it does make me think about growing up and having a complicated relationship with family. It is completely reductive to argue otherwise, and elides the response to art to just be, again, morally didactic.

But the absence of moral didacticism is not the absence of moral idealism entirely. 'Fiction doesn't real' taken so far to mean that 'it doesn't reflect anything real in any way' is absurd.

Yes, there are going to be things that people take moral issue with that you personally don't; I think that if you enjoy something 'problematic' - yes I'm going to expand on this angle - it should be expected that some people might be uncomfortable with it; that is actually in part its purpose. It is not universally edifying.

When the idea of 'problematic' is broadened to mean 'anything I don't fucking like', then of course the conversation loses meaning. It's exactly why the natural defensive response is to say fiction doesn't mean anything. If you can levy your personal discomfort through an accepted political lense which can argue for the actual removal of stuff you don't like, then that is a very, very potent opportunity that I imagine people would take advantage of. As they have.

But then if you want to meaningfully criticise something (e.g. gratuitous and fetishised sexual violence against women in media, for the purposes of this post this is the easiest to demonstrate) there's that problem where neither binary approach really fits the analysis. Whilst yes, when it comes to film and TV there is actually a labour rights violation potentially at play, generally speaking it's not always a matter of 'Should this exist?' but, 'Is this self-justifying?' and this is why I think that the discussion surrounding artistic value is important to me. It's obviously an approach completely fucking ruined by both 'everything is valid' crowd and of course all of the nonsensical fash rhetoric. The 'Is this self-justifying?' approach leaves room for discussion, which itself can be illuminating; whether you think Sansa's rape scene in Season 5 of G/OT was justified or not is very telling of your own approach to sexual violence in media, especially contrasted against the source material's handling of the matter.

People who want to argue from the 'historical realism' refrain (well - let's be frank - it's not necessarily historically realistic, but the universal rule of oppression is to make you believe something like patriarchy is eternal, historical, immutable, and innate) are arguing from the legitimacy of depiction, that is to say, you want to censor historical realism. It's not a matter of censorship - it's a matter of artistic decisions that were made. It's not self-justifying, so you need to set your argument on those terms. It's much harder to justify the use of the rape scene in terms of the setting itself, even potentially read alone without the source material - because their treatment of Sansa's character indicates profound technical issues of writing, thematic motivation, and overall inability to handle female characters as time went on (though honestly they did that to everyone). That Sansa's rape scene ended up on p*rn sites should tell you everything you need to know. Let's be real. It was not a scene that was necessarily only meant to demonstrate brutality, or cruelty, or Sansa's loss of innocence (how many times did that need to happen? Must rape be used to always disillusion women? Is rape a reality women need to experience to 'grow up'?), it was - perhaps inadvertently - shot through the lense of being sexual. It doesn't help that film and television struggle to communicate sexual violence through a different lense from positive sexuality in general - they are selfsame. Someone else might choose to expand upon the idea of the perceived interchangeable nature of sex and rape, but that's moving beyond the scope of this post.

The point I'm trying to demonstrate here is that if you can critique it on the basis of being artistically self-justifying, it's a much more tenable argument, because the reality is that - all arguments about problematic media aside - censorship in art is a tool of fascism, and if you think the nice people who like you and are on the same side as you aren't going to eventually use it against you, you're being foolish. But from a philosophical perspective I think the much more powerful angle is that the artistic media is meant to make you think and consider, and sometimes that thinking and considering arrives at a negative opinion. It's no accident that something which is meant to make you think/feel is something that the wrong sort of people would want to take from you. Perhaps this is what is so frustrating about your average anti - they toy with such serious forces beyond their knowledge and AO3 sucks I guess.

So you can see my ongoing frustration with the anti/pro-shipping matter. From an absolute perspective, I agree with the latter in the sense of censorship, and that is the end of it for me. But I do think there is a purpose in personal interest or personal disgust. Obviously in fandom you engage with people with similar interests and you generally don't want to interact with people who don't like the things you do, and no I don't think anybody should be self-flagellating. But clearly there are people - like me - who are to some degree unhappy with the arrangement.

Antis have spoilt the well, and have decided 'moral badness' constitutes 'conflict in narrative and bad things happening', and proshipping has naturally flattened the matter as I've laid out in this post. 'Just let people enjoy things' is obviously a boring idea to me - and it's annoying - and the reality is that there is meaning in light entertainment or things you're 'meant to switch your brain off for' whether you like it or not. You don't need to feel bad about it; your capacity to engage with it (and no, again, not self-flagellate) is part of its self-justifying element. But, say, I watched a recent video of Extreme Cheapskates on YouTube - really the dregs of the dregs, reality TV - and I couldn't shake the feeling that it made me uncomfortable. That was good - I found out the woman featured in the video did follow-ups of her own where it was shown that she had been falsely depicted, and she was a lovely albeit sad person. Is that something I should just let myself enjoy? It did teach me something.

Of course, at the end of the day in fandom, people are going to like the things they like - that's what's at the heart of the matter - and this really does, in truth, go much further beyond fandom. There is clearly some moral crisis in media, but a film just made two billion dollars with possibly one of the most offensive depictions of Indigenous people allegory, and it went completely unproblematised by the text. So what does that really say?

Take note that nowhere in this post did I endorse public self-flagellation or the usual anti rhetoric. That, again, the well has been poisoned is frustrating for me. We can only talk about narrative in strict, confluent terms - something as basic as enemies-to-lovers is turned into an embarrassing strict allegory for domestic violence as opposed to being rooted in higher moral ideals, and higher narrative ideals, and fantastical, metaphorical violence. Of course there's an apparent deadening of media criticism - but that is exactly my point in this post.

You can't give into 'it doesn't mean anything!' if the problem with antis - and a lot of narrative cynicism online! - is exactly the problem they already have!

#stirring the pot

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animeomegas · 3 years ago

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Who are most likely to forgive their alpha for flirting with others and who would resent them for it? (Not seriously flirting, just always being charming and giving compliments to other omegas)

(Ooh, an interesting idea! Thanks for sending this is! <3)

Who is chill/happy with a flirty alpha:

1. Asmo – Of course he has no problems with it! Flirting with people is fun, after all, and he certainly didn’t stop flirting with random alphas after he got mated. Asmo would love a flirty alpha so much because it would make him feel less guilty for being himself and also, he really wants to try flirting with someone at the same time as his alpha. He wants to see how people react when faced with 2x the charm!

2. Simeon – He thinks that being charming and sweet to everyone is one of his alpha’s best qualities. Simeon views it as pure friendliness and he loves that his alpha takes the time to brighten other peoples’ days. Everyone knows that the best people to go to when you’re feeling down is Simeon and his alpha, who between them have a perfect balance of good advice, charming ego boosters and overwhelming charisma.

3. Sai – Being charming and nice to people is how one makes friends, so he thinks it’s perfectly normal. He tries similar strategies but somehow, they don’t have as high a success rate… Maybe he should take notes next time his alpha is making friends at a party or bar and try it like they do?

4. Zen – Hell yeah, his alpha has game! He is so attracted to the idea of being in a power couple, so an alpha who can more than hold their own socially is right up his alley. Together they can charm anyone and everyone! They can make anyone envious! Him and his alpha are truly an unstoppable couple, and he definitely takes this as a sign that you are soulmates.

5. Denki – Denki has so much love to give, so he assumes that his alpha is the same and that they choose to express love through charm and compliments. His alpha always makes people smile, and that makes Denki smile in turn. Bringing a little happiness wherever they go is something Denki admires about his alpha. And anyway, Denki is a sucker for joke flirting, so he can hardly criticise.

6. Hairo – He adores an alpha who gives lots of compliments to everyone because he does the same! There is nothing more rewarding than bringing out the best in someone by reminding them of their capabilities and good qualities in his opinion, so he’s thrilled that his alpha agrees with him on that. Going through a hard time? Go visit Hairo and his mate, they’ll fill you with motivation and confidence, free of charge.

7. Julian – He feels so proud whenever he watches his mate spit game whenever they go out. He watches from afar, arms crossed over his chest, a small smile on his face as you charm the bartender into giving you discounted drinks. Julian can be quite the flirt himself, so he is quite relieved that his alpha is the same and understands him in that way. He also finds it very hot when his alpha oozes charm. Julian is a flirt, but it all crumbles when someone calls his bluff, but you on the other hand? Always smooth and collected. It makes Julian more than a little hot around the collar.

Who despises a flirty alpha:

1. Levi – He is not the avatar of Envy for no reason. Levi is very insecure and very jealous. When his alpha gives compliments to other omegas, Levi takes it as a direct attack on his character and assumes that he doesn’t have whatever you’re praising and therefore you are inevitably going to leave him for this obviously superior person. He throws little tantrums whenever his alpha is too flirty with someone else and they always end in tears. Even an alpha who is just socially adept, not flirty, will make his jealously raise its head, because why would someone who can be so confident in public want to be with a shut-in, loser otaku like him?? He will eventually get over very innocent socialisation, but actual flirting is something he can never deal with.

2. Sasuke – He hates it. He always scoffs and rolls his eyes whenever his alpha is too friendly with someone else, making his displeasure known. He’s a jealous person by nature, most Uchiha are (they have stronger possessive instincts over mates in their clan), so this would make him surly and frustrated. If the flirting was too obvious and continuous, he would grow to doubt his partner’s fidelity, which is never a good sign for a relationship, so Sasuke’s alpha would need to tone it way down for him, or at least stick to flirting when Sasuke wasn’t there, but that might make him even more suspicious if he ever found out.

3. Neji – Neji feels humiliated if his alpha is flirting with others. How dare they make a show of flaunting themselves like they’re single?! He fumes with an angry and humiliated flush on his cheeks as his alpha flirts. He feels like everyone is judging him and his relationship when his alpha is too friendly with other omegas, after all, people must be thinking that he is doing a poor job of keeping his mate happy if they have to find other people to act like that with. He thinks it’s shameful to act that way when mated, and he will tell his alpha that. For the sake of their relationship, his alpha better cease that behaviour immediately.

4. Yoosung – He is another one who is very insecure. He gets pouty and upset when his alpha flirts and compliments other omegas because they should be complimenting him and giving him attention. He’s their mate, right? He doesn’t know how to manage these feelings and will either get drunk and cry, or follow his alpha everywhere and drape himself over them constantly to ward off other omegas. If it continues, he will take this flirting as a sign that he loves his alpha more than his alpha loves him. Yoosung is very in love with the idea of a fairy tale romance, and this definitely wasn’t part of the plan!

5. Bakugou – He gets angry to hide his conflicting feelings. On one hand, of course his alpha would be stupid to leave him, he’s the best! On the other hand, he’s a very non-traditional omega and while he loves who he is in many ways, that doesn’t mean that everyone else does, quite the contrary in fact. He confronts his alpha every time, shouting at them to just leave if they’re planning on cheating on him. Flirting with certain people (cough Midoryia cough) will make him very, very angry/upset. It’s best for his blood pressure if his alpha learns new ways of social interaction that don’t include flirting.

6. Kusuo – Kusuo is quite possessive, even if he won’t admit that to himself. He craves affection and attention from his alpha in a way he’s never felt before. He likes to spend time with his alpha alone, just the two of them, and that’s when he’s the happiest, so when other people appear to be getting in the way of that? Huh, the other person just remembered that they left the oven on and have to go home. What a coincidence. Whenever his alpha goes anywhere, Kusuo invites himself along, and this goes double if his alpha is flirty. They won’t be flirting with anyone, not of Kusuo’s watch.

7. Light – He’s too arrogant and possessive to deal with a flirty alpha. He’s the only one that should be receiving compliments and romantic attention from his alpha. They’re his, and only his. Light very much understands playing a perfect charismatic character in public, but his alpha always seems a little too genuine, a little too willing to flirt even when there’s nothing for them to gain from it. It makes him suspicious. It’s all or nothing. His alpha either commits fully to him, or he gets rid of them.

8. Jumin – That sort of behaviour is far too close to that of his father for him to be comfortable. He’s seen his father go through girlfriend after girlfriend, flirting with everyone and anyone, and it always ends badly. Jumin feels betrayed and shuts down before he can be hurt by a rejection. Cheating/flirting is too traumatic a topic for him to deal with on a daily basis. He appreciates an alpha that can be charming with his clients when it’s required, but any more than that will lead to serious trust issues. He promised himself that he would never turn into his father or allow someone to treat him like his father treats his conquests and he intends to keep that promise.

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blorbosexterminator · 3 years ago

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Do you think the plan was originally Palermo's idea? he said "yo te PROPUSÉ fundir oro untos", this makes me think he came up with it. But other times they just refer to it as Berlín's plan. (Raquel saying "it's your brother's plan" for example)

Oh yes, I'm nearly entirely sure it was Martin's idea. As you said, it's clear from the dialogue that he's the one who proposed it. He's refered to as the mastermind of it, Netflix refered to it directly as his poem, and, to me at least, I think it's also there in the subtext in the season 3 and 4 flashbacks when Andrés talks about the whole 'best minds in engineering, etc.'

And also, Martín has the ideological and heritage weight of it behind him, so I do imagine it makes a lot of sense that it was initially his idea and he's the one who proposed it to Andrés. Raquel and the others, I imagine, don't know that much about the plan's initial conception except that it was Berlin and Palermo's, not el Professor's, and I do think it evolved enough to be THEIR plan at the end. So I don't think it's weird that Raquel would refer to it as such.

But I do think this is an important point, not exactly who came up with it before the other, as much as that the connection between Martín and the plan doesn't end at the connection between Martín and Andrés. Of course that's a big part of it. I do think their mutual obsession with it is definitely something to consider. But it's also important to note that this is the work of his life. It's not an embodiment of Andrés nor does it begin and end only with Andrés.

Actually, I think it goes the other way around. I think the plan, this mutual idea and goal that they were both individually obsessed with, is something that had a huge effect on the development of their relationship, and what brought them this close together. Not only something Martín ever thought of just to gift to Andrés and that's it. This is why it's ridiculous to imagine that even if Martín is moving on from Andrés between one hour and the other, he would move on from the plan too. The "plan" isn't something Martín needed to heal from, nor is it something that makes any sense for him to "move on" from if we're to take this character seriously. Again, Martín has a lot of ideological involvement in it. And interwined with the ideological involvement, is his romanticised involvement too; he considers himself an artist in his craft and the plan as his masterpiece. The work to end all other works in his life. The one idea and goal he has been obsessed with for years. I genuinely don't understand why Martín "healing" would cause a sudden indifference to something that has SO MUCH weight in his narrative. That's not character development, that's fucking up actual good, weighted writing that they had earlier with 'omg look at that gay vulnerable baby learning to love again uwu' are we watching cartoons? Those aren't middle school kids learning to navigate the cruel world of puberty and heartbreak. Those are grown men and women with ideas and goals that go beyond mere romance. Martín as a character was so complex and had so much weight because of this. Transforming him from this to basically an empty person with really no actual internal, deep interwoven desires, goals, obsessions, things that he was painted for two seasons that he would fight tooth and nail for, and replacing it with 'care for team-members <3' isn't the brilliant redemption arc people imagine it as lmfao.

The thing is, Martín didn't even disregard his team-mates lives. He never did. That wasn't him. I'll remind you again that in his second-ever scene in the show, the actual first glimpse we got of him as a person, was criticising Sergio for leaving members of his banda to die. He wasn't even just speaking about Andrés then. It wasn't just because he cared about Andrés. He clearly saw it as a shameful thing that a leader would leave behind three of his team to die 'and do nothing.' We did see very clearly how much value Martín put on his teammates lives in season 3. Before his 'development and redemption' Martín still, without a moment's hesitation, tried to direct Gandia' aim to him, to save Nairobi and Tokyo. He did defened Nairobi from Gandia when he insulted her. He did ran to Denver and Rio when they were attacked in the elevator. He was completely enraged when he heard of Raquel's death. He was terrified for Nairobi and was one of the only one clear-headed enough to actually focus on her when everyone was fighting for no reason. He was the one who understood that Nairobi was scared for Tokyo and wanted to go find her. Martín didn't 'learn to open up and care about them.' Martín cared about them from day one on the virtue that they were his team.

The difference is Martín was just not all nice and super respectable, moralistic about it. He did in a very him mannar. AND that this was balanced for his love and concern for the actual fucking plan that is the work of his life. And it made him complex and interesting. Gave him many sides and simultaneous things to care about.

Him being indifferent towards the plan, going all 'uwu revenge is bad, Bogota,' towards the man who humiliated, tortured, and killed an injured member of his team right in front of everyone, and 'I don't mind at all my plan getting changed behind my back by the person I trusted to give it its respect' allowing himself to be disrespected and ordered around to run errands, isn't a character development. It's a downgrade.

#asks #lcdp #Martín Berrote #Lcdp Palermo

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kirain · 5 years ago

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Hazbin Hotel and VivziePop Drama

I've been hearing/seeing a lot of drama concerning Hazbin Hotel and it's creator VivziePop, and while I don't know her personally or really care what people think, I do hate slander and the spread of misinformation. Truly nothing in this world upsets me more than when people believe rumours while making no effort to fact check, and that's exactly what's happening right now. That said, I wanted to try and clear up some of the rumours going around about Vivzie and the show, because I think some of them are absolutely outrageous and need to be addressed.

1. Vivzie hired an abuser onto the show.

Now, I’m not here to burn anyone at the stake, especially since I don’t know anything about Chris Niosi (the alleged abuser), who I believe openly admitted to the allegations? Regardless, this is a moot point. He’s not credited anywhere at the end of the episode. So either he was booted before production wrapped up or he had nothing to do with the show in the first place.

2. Vivzie supports bestiality.

Admittedly I thought this one might be true, since she draws so many anthropomorphic animals. In the very least, I figured she was probably a furry, but I haven't seen any evidence supporting this accusation either. Near as I can tell, this rumour started for two reasons. One, because of her famous Zoophobia comic, which revolves around a therapist named Cameron who gets assigned to work with human-like animals. Ironically, poor Cameron suffers from crippling zoophobia, which makes for some pretty decent comedy. I didn't read the whole comic because, quite frankly, it’s not my cup of tea and I just don’t have the time. But from what I saw there are no examples of bestiality anywhere in its contents.

Two, this message, which blew up all over social media:

To me, this just proves that people are more interested in virtue signalling than checking to see if their claims are actually true. Everything about this message is 100% false, which I’ll touch on in my next point.

3. Vivzie is a pedophile and she’s drawn child porn.

This is hands down the worst allegation and holy shit, I really wish people would stop using it to defame someone when they don't have any proof. This is a life-ruining accusation and you're disgusting if you believe it based solely on hearsay. This rumour began to spread when Vivzie allegedly shipped the two underage characters in the above photo and drew them NSFW-style. At the time, one character was 19 while the other was 14, and the relationship was a very illegal student-teacher relationship.

This is WRONG! The characters were not 14 and 19, they were actually 18 and 19, the legal age of consent! Additionally, the relationship wasn't student-teacher. One character is a student and the other is Alumni (a student teacher). This one pisses me off the most because it’s obvious the person who sent that message didn’t even bother to conduct any research. They said, “He’s a teacher, she’s a child.” Both characters are MALE!

Since then, Vivzie has apologised for any NSFW art she drew in the past and stated that it's not a reflection of her art today, and I'm inclined to believe her. Almost every artist has drawn NSFW content at some point in their career, and hers wasn't even distasteful. Other than this one example, there is no evidence anywhere that suggests she’s drawn “child porn”. In fact, she’s never even drawn explicit NSFW.

Please stop spreading this rumour. It’s dangerous and completely incorrect.

4. Vivzie said the "N" word!

No, she didn’t. It was a fabricated tweet. That is all.

5. Vivzie is copyright striking every video that criticises her!

No she isn't. YouTube’s DMCA is automatically striking people who are using full clips without permission. Vivzie has gone public several times, telling people exactly how to avoid getting a copy strike from the algorithm, which is something she absolutely does not have to do. At this point, she doesn't owe you anything. In my opinion, she should just sit back and watch these channels burn.

6. Vivzie copies and traces other artists’ work.

This is another one I’ve seen going around, but I looked into it as thoroughly as I could and failed to find any concrete evidence to support the allegations. As of right now, there are only two examples of Vivzie “copying” or “tracing” other artists’ work, and both of them can be explained. The first is a gif she made with a character from her Zoophobia comic, which looked a lot like the girl from ME!ME!ME!:

Damn, that’s pretty incriminating. She obviously stole-- oh, wait. This gif was part of a ME!ME!ME! MEP (multi editor’s project) and Vivzie didn’t take full credit, despite the fact that it’s not even a direct trace. It’s supposed to look like the original, which she fully cited. The second example comes from a short dance sequence from her Timber video, which seems to have been inspired by several Disney movies. As Vivzie herself stated, that was an homage to the original animations. Lots of artists and shows do this, including the beloved Stephen Universe series.

Regardless, this doesn’t count as stealing character designs or plagiarising someone’s work. It’s meant to be respectful, an admiration of other projects. Other than these two instances, however, there is no evidence of her tracing or stealing other people’s art. From what I’ve discovered, all other designs she’s been accused of “stealing” are characters she bought and paid for. They’re quite literally HER characters.

7. Vivzie supports problematic creators.

I’m getting really tired of guilt by association. Vivzie follows and enjoys some controversial figures, but who cares? We can argue all day about whether or not the accusations against them are true, but it ultimately has nothing to do with the show or Vivzie as a person. I do the exact same thing, to be honest-- follow and listen to people on all sides so I can learn, understand, and form my own opinions. The fact that some people think this is bad, to me, is absolutely mesmerising. Vivzie doesn’t control what the people she follows post, and if they do something overly questionable she publicly criticises and denounces it.

From Vivzie:

Now that that’s been dealt with, I’d like to address some complaints/claims about the actual show.

8. Vaggie is an angry Latina stereotype and a lesbian stereotype. Vivzie is appropriating Hispanic culture and misrepresenting the gay for profit.

First off, I see a lot of people passing around yet more misinformation regarding Vivzie's race. So many people seem to think she's white? Well, I'm here to tell you they're wrong. Very incorrect. Vivzie is in fact Latina, and Vaggie is meant to mirror some of her own personality traits.

Second, who is Vaggie mad at? Context matters, and if we take a look at the episode, we see that Vaggie is literally only mad at two specific people: Angel Dust and Alastor. Why? Well, for starters, it's her girlfriend's dream to run a rehab hotel for sinners, and Angel Dust nearly demolishes that dream single-handedly. Vaggie has every right to be over-the-top vitriolic. Then there's Alastor, a known sadist, narcissist, and murderer who loves trapping people in his nefarious schemes. He invites himself in, effectively takes over the hotel, and pushes both her and Charlie aside. At one point he even sexually assaults her by slapping her butt during his musical number. So yeah, I think her seething ire is totally justified. Keep in mind, however, that when she's around Charlie she's calm, collected, and happy. I wouldn't call that a stereotype.

Thirdly, the lesbian stereotypes. I keep hearing this argument but I really don't see it. Both Vaggie and Charlie have so much personality and trust for each other. Maybe I'm wrong, but the stereotype I know always totes a more butch, tomboyish woman with a ditsy, innocent, naive woman. Charlie is optimistic, but she isn't stupid. She refuses to shake Alastor’s hand because she knows he’s likely trying to screw her over. She’s also not entirely innocent herself and uses words like “fuck” and “shit”. I also wouldn’t call Vaggie butch or tomboyish. She has a cute, girly presentation, complete with a pink ribbon in her hair, lace stockings, and a dress. She's protective of her girlfriend, as I think we all are with our partners, and there's nothing wrong with that. They're flawed characters, as every character is meant to be. This isn't a problem.

9. The show is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, blah, blah, blah.

I’m amazed this is even an argument. The show is supposed to be a dark comedy that takes place in HELL. You know, the place the worst of the worst end up after they die? What were you expecting? Everyone gets a shot or two fired at them, but that doesn't make them bad characters nor does it make the show itself horrible. Take, for example, Katie Killjoy, the news reporter so many people are up in arms about. She says she doesn’t “touch the gays” because she has “standards”. Well, here’s a newsflash of my own: we’re not supposed to like her! She’s an antagonist. Not to mention ten seconds later Charlie insults her and isn’t the least bit slighted by her pretentious attitude. The characters are strong and don’t take shit from anyone, because to some degree they’re all terrible people who can throw down when it’s called for.

Obviously if you don’t like the show or think it’s offensive, I’m probably not going to change your mind. That’s perfectly fine. You’re entitled to your opinions and you don’t have to watch the show. Just stop lying and stop trying to take it away from everybody else. Stop attacking Vivzie and spreading misinformation without checking the facts. I realise a lot of people probably aren’t trying to be vindictive and only want to do something good, but just remember this: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

#hazbin hotel #vivziepop #vivzie #alastor #angel dust #vaggie #charlie #timber #stephen universe #drama #radio demon

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samnyangie · 4 years ago

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Personal reviews on RSL filmography

Rsl, iI thought it’d be a good idea to record my thought on each films rsl was in, it was something I always wanted to do...

Rsl in total, was starred in (excluding tv series etc) 27-ish films, to be honest, considering his years as an actor(approximately more than 30 years) he wasn’t starred in that many. We all know why lol

Just saying I’m not a film expert, therefore the list is very subjective.

The reviews with trigger warning (r*pe, g*re etc): Tape, Killer: Journal of Murder, A glimpse of hell. Tho in the writing I’ve censored them with * since I don’t feel comfortable saying them here

There isn’t particular spoilers except for dps, tape, and ground control

The favourites (literally my life time films)

Dead Poets Society

I assume many would agree, and as many would have, it was my first ever rsl film, like I was on the plane and it was one of the films they offered, and I was like, oh I think i heard of this, so I watched and instantly loved it. The message is very relevant to this day, the cinematography is very beautiful and somehow nostalgic. I was horrified with Neil’s death. Tbh now I’ve seen too many memes and all kind of things from the fandom (which I’m grateful for!) I thought the heartfelt I once had would deluded a bit, however when I watched it again last April with my family at the cinema and it still moved me very deeply.

The age of Innocence

Okay, unpopular opinion here, I love this so much. It’s my all time favourite rsl film. It even outruns dps tiny winy bit haha. Aside from how he had tiny winy screen time, appearing at the end but the fact that he played quite an important role and him being gorgeous in it just<33 I couldn’t help but smiling! It just the whole film was so much of my cup of tea? The melodrama and the hypocrisy hidden by elegance among the upper social classes in 19th century is just what I needed. The more I watch it, the more I understand the characters and their emotions, it’s one of those films you should keep visit to discover the things you weren’t aware of before. I watched it again this morning and i couldn’t stop thinking about it. However, I know some people find it boring and I understand why, my sister is one of them lol(except for a bit where rsl was in) but i think it’s more complex than what it appears to be at a first glance haha. In conclusion, it became one of my comfort film to watch time to time.

The ones I like<33

Swing kids

At first viewing, I didn’t expected much because it had underwhelming reviews but when I actually saw it, I thought it was quite decent and more and more I watched it, I felt like it was underrated. Yes, I think some directing choices were bit old fashioned and cheesy especially the ending, I’m not saying it was a perfect masterpiece but it deserves more recognition than it has now. Also in spite that there’re some parts being too simplified, it touched on something other films about ww2 normally don’t. It was interesting to see the German perspective on it than Jewish or the allies perspective like many of them does, but of course the latter perspectives matter, it could be argued that they more valid than the former, which partly was where sk criticised for, however, the portrayal of the varied reactions of the German people (in this one particular the teenagers) has its value in their on way. Anyway along side with it, the music and the dance scenes were great, without exaggeration, though Swing kids isn’t my fav, peter’s solo dance scene is my favourite scene in any movies I’ve ever watched. I mean that scene had both visuals and meaning as it demonstrated Peter’s determination as well as resentment with a hitch of unsureness. Rsl acting in that scene was just phenomenal, it’s not about showing off the dancing skills but he portrayed every mixed emotions peter has from his expression and the moves, I just can’t talk about this enough especially this scene was the reason I started fallen for him. lol

Much ado about nothing

Much ado is something I never seen anything like so it was a refreshing exprience. I barely watched Shakespeare on screen kind of thing. Though I felt there were some bits too cheesy for me but they are also the charms in the same time, and the cinematography was pretty also Claudio aka rsl, it was like an official announcement of declaring my worship on this man. Especially it was after SWING KIDSSSS so I couldn’t help it now everyone knows how I fallen for him but no one can blame meeeeee Anyway, it’s a really good film to watch when you want be relaxed with cup of tea maybe hehe

In the gloaming

I heard about it before I watched it, that it’s a heart wrenching, tearful piece, though I didn’t managed to cry, it’s just.... painful and in a way heartfelt. I liked that story telling was calm and collected rather than forcing you to join the sob party, just showing the characters to carry on. And thanks to the great acting from the cast, the characters could be emphasised and understood, personally the older sister was the most relatable character for me, well, eldest complex lol. In short I liked it but it’s not something I would watch it often.

Last days of Disco

As a person who looks at aesthetic in films, I simply enjoyed this for that tbh. I don’t know, I just liked the feeling. But I don’t think it’d be everyone’s cup of tea. I love the day time clothes the girls wore in the film. Tbh I love the music too, I think I love all the films of rsl with music in it. Speaking about rsl, oh rsl, he’s.... His character might be bit unlikable but he was just.... This is why I can’t unlove his characters even the debatable ones<33

They were decent! (I would recommend it)

Married to it

This is the first and last ever attempt of rsl of romcomssss The film itself is cliche to be frank it’s like love actually but it’s about marriage life + it’s not christmas but I like heartfelt cliche stories like this, if anyone also loves this type of story, it’s really worth watching, it’s one of my comfort films, also, rsl is so pretty I mean he always is but to see him being a office man with a baby face made me go awww my baby grew up heheh I wish he did another romcom like this or more preferably, melodramatic romance, I’d have made a shrine of it and worship it every morning lol

The boys next door

I kind of smiled while watching it throughout, if you want something that is heartfelt and touch on some serious topic about social workers and the people with mental disorder, Rsl plays a character who has (I think it was) Schizophrenia and troubled relationship with his father(Deja vu I know) but general atmosphere tend to be quite humourous. I don’t get me wrong, though it’s light hearted, it doesn’t mean they treat the topic in the same way. There’s a scene where the protagonist imagining the one of the characters with the disorder talking eloquently and honourably at the court on the rights and the dignity of the people with mental disorders deserve to/should have and they’re just the same people as the people without mental disorders. It was a powerful scene.

My two loves

Rsl’s first ever screen debut film! Hehe it’s about a woman who is discovering her sexual identity and the conflicts within I personally thought it was fairly sensible depiction but I can’t say for sure whether it was accurate or else, since I don’t think it’s my place to say it:) But if you’re interested, it’s on YouTube, you can just search for it or go to this post I made. Fun fact: since it was his debut film, it credits him as he’s real name, Robert L. Leonard, I just find it amusing haha

Tape

It’s another type of film I don’t encounter that often, I enjoyed it, especially with Neil and Todd’s reunion lol. Rsl mentioned how he enjoyed it because it felt like doing a play, my first impression was that the structure is like a play, though the camera work made me quite dizzy haha. But the dialogues, the acting, I think it was quite spot on. Especially the human contradictions and hypocrisy side of it. The most people assume the baddie in the film is Jon the character rsl played and has a distaste for him. I mean how can anyone love a character who is accused of r*pe but to be honest, Vincent for me seemed just as problematic, both of them are hypocrites for sure in their own different ways but in the end we can’t be sure what’s really the truth or not. It’s about the vagueness, and phychology and the uncertainty from the audience on who to believe(well, myself included, most would trust on Amy’s claims since she’s the victim in the accusation, but by her denying the claims, making everything way unclear,) so I don’t know. I don’t really have an opinion haha tho I don’t believe nothing happened because Amy denied so, even Umma Thurman who played her, said that her interpretation was that Amy lied. I felt it’s endless rabbit hole this film. Sorry I couldn’t worded it better.

My best friend is a Vampire

It’s cringey and weird but there’re odd charm to it. Vampire rsl’s so cute as well.... and I think it’s the only film, he acted kind of flirty ? So for that itself I’d like to appreciate itttt And it’s so 80s/90s, like it has general odd nostalgia like all films from that age has. I saw a Korean blog about rsl films and this was mentioned, that- they said- it’s a bible of rsl’s adorableness and I think that sum up the film perfectly.

Mr&Mrs Bridge

Before this was in ‘I mean it was fine” category, but I watched it again and now I want to retract my statement lol Still isn’t my fav but I noticed how delicately depicted each characters are, Mr and Mrs Bridge in particular. This film is alternatively about the changes in the young generation regarding liberty, feminism, free expression especially on sex. It’s in the perspective of the bridges, the mother and father who is old fashioned and conservative (as it was normal in their previous generation) and the children who are the young generation, and the misunderstanding and conflicts between them. After all it all happened not only because of the difference but also the lack of communication, which rsl emphasised in his interviews. I found it interesting that they made it seems like the Bridges truly existed with the video footage and (with the ending) describing what happened to each family member in text with photos. When I watched it at first I was really confused if it was based on a real life. I think what they wanted to suggest was that the Bridges every typical American family at the time. It was something everyone was going through. I said previously I didn’t get why Rsl’s character (the youngest in the Bridges) treated his mother so coldly. Honestly I do get why, but I guess I felt so bad so the mother haha

I mean it was fine

The safe passage

It was okay but to be honest it didn’t stood out to me. It was okay. The story, the characters weren’t that interesting. I wish they extended it longer to go depth with their family relationship or something.

A painted house

I find it likeable, it has a chill, old folk story vibe, but same as previous one. it didn’t really stand out except for shirtless rsl, do close ups you cowards

Bluffing it

I was really fond of the premise of this film and I think it has great intention. It was specifically made to promote the awareness of illiteracy and how to get support. However, I don’t get the reason of Jack the protagonist’s illiteracy. Unless, it was common occurrence in America at the time, I feel like it’d have been more convincing if he was in poor family hood, so there was no time to learn at school due to working at young age...? I mean, just finding it hard to believe he passed the high school just like that, I mean the teachers or anyone should have noticed it, maybe I’m missing something here but it seemed unlikely to me.

Ground control

Again, I liked the message, as it depicted how frightening and difficult job the ground controller is, by one mistake could take away the lives of hundreds, especially as someone who goes on planes a lot... But it was quite cliche throughout, I just couldn’t get engaged to it. But I do admit at the end when the protagonist runs off to the landing zone see the pilot who he had just saved, they acknowledged each other and have eye contacts was truly wholesome. Rsl as cocky, bad boy was such a icing on the cake, I loved it so much. Chewing gum in every scene lol I hope he plays these sort of characters more often. I saw someone criticising him saying he has narrow spectrum of just playing nice boy roles like Neil but I really wanted to debunk the narrative and this could be one of the examples!

Chelsea walls

I knew that this has split reviews but nonetheless I think worth to watch it, 1. Ethan and rsl re union, 2. Ethan is the directer of the film and rsl sing in it. But I have to say, it’s one of those hard to follow art indie film so I couldn’t finish it on one go. I feel like I have to devour it over and over again. Maybe later on I grow fond of it more lol But his character, I loved him so much. He’s just has everyone don’t touch me, I’m a cocky artist vibe, there’s a scene where his annoying friend annoying him and he looks up and says: ‘Fck off’. Absolute golddddd not to mention he sings and plays guitar so beautifully<333

Well... it’s not my cup of tea

The Manhattan project

I don’t think the film it self was that bad, it’s about high school boy who find out the existence of some nuclear energy research lab and stole the energy to make his own nuclear bomb. I just don’t get the thinking process of the protagonist. It really frustrated me. He seemed apathetic and unlikable I disliked him throughout and that’s why I didn’t really enjoyed it. I mean it has humour and ridiculous storyline might be humorous to some. But more importantly there was such little screen time for rsl!! LIKE WHY? WHY PEOPLE?? HE LOOKS LIKE A FRESH HUMAN MOCHI!!! It makes me soooo mad to think about it

Killer: Journal of Murder

Well, first of all, it had a lot of graphic things than I imagined, brutally murd*red bodies, execution, and r*pe scene, gosh I was strucken by it when I saw that, I had to skipped that scene. It’s based on a real event and a real criminal called Carl Panzram, so if you’re aware of it, it might be more intriguiging to see. But personally for me... meh, I don’t think directing was good as it failed to portray it enough for me to comprehend fully.

A Glimpse of Hell

This is also based on a true event of a tragic accident in the us battleship in Iowa in 1989. They shows tragedy lin a blunt, brutal way by showing horribly damaged bodies of the soldiers torn into pieces, all the horrid things directly so be warned about that. I was quite alarmed because i didn’t expect to see it haha there’s no much to say. The film quality was so so for me. I feel their approach wasn’t appropriate, they were clearly trying to make it dramatic which is fine but in a melodramatic emotional way. It didn’t work because first, there aren’t enough portrayal of the characters for me to get attached, secondly it added the unnecessary exaggeration it prevented me from being emotionally involved or even to think about it. In my opinion, I think it’d have been better if they made it more restrained, dry, focus on the accuracy. For example like 1987 or Zodiac, I mean both of them has dramatic elements since they’re not a documentary but they were not overdone, in a contrary added emphasis to their message/conclusion. I know it’s easier said than done but it was something I consistently felt during it.

Sir.... I’m sorry but-

Standoff

Haha... it’s very peculiar... the directing is off and it just weird. I knew it was bad already but I watched it because rsl as a cop with gunssssssss just... so rare and just.... something else. There’s no way of me missing that seriously. Tbh him doing an action stunt isn’t what I imagine when it comes to him and there’s really any actions scenes anyway but it really was something. Like the character he played here really became my soft spot Hehehehe he was pretty and plus, tbh it’s kind of film I’d make fun of while watching so everything was (alomst) forgivable. There is a recent thing I think about, since this is about a cult, I kind of hope he’d at some day play a role like Eli Sunday from There will be blood: a manipulative, deceitful and maddened priest with twisted faith. Though Paul Dano did a grand job, the idea was in my head the whole time. Well, it’s a shame he wasn’t any of those here lol

Driven

From what I seen, the majority of people seem to unanimously hate this film, and after watching it I became one of those ppl. At least Standoff could be make fun of and rsl held gunssss but this...... I want to say so many things... I feel like they should have chose either fancy, fast paced, thrilling racing film or detailed depiction of emotions/relationships with the racers and people involved in it, I know both can be done, but I think that was outside of their ability, but since they tried to do that at once, it became a mess that doesn’t go either way. And the characters, any of them, including rsl’s are narrow or impossible to understand. I mean rsl did great himself, it was not about acting, the problem lies on the script and editing in my opinion. Also there were so many unnecessary characters made me question of their existence. Luckily rsl’s character isn’t one of them, however because of them, he had to squeeze in and unable to elaborate, which is a shame as he was an interesting character and someone rsl rarely plays; a arrogant and opportunist agent/brother of the protagonist, who would do anything for success... ha.... whyyyyy

This is it. If I watch other stuff I might add to it in the future. Overall, I know I’m biased but I do like His filmography, I do have appreciations in every one of them in different way to the good ones to bad. He may have disagree, but I love his acting on screen, well, I barely seen him on stage (crying)

Edit: as some of you could see, I’ve edited this over and over again haha elaborating on thing or the contrary. I can say with a glimpse of hell I practically managed to watch every rsl films out there lol except for the i inside and the short film he did called a dog race in Alaska. But with the former I’m not interested and already know the storyline, and the latter is just impossible to find, trust me I did my best;;

So to sum up: I HAVE MASTERED THE RSL FILMOGRAPHY!

#robert sean leonard #rsl #films #filmography #personal #thoughts

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qqueenofhades · 5 years ago

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I want to hear about gay knights. Please.

Ahaha. So this is me finally getting, post-holiday, to the subject that was immediately clamoured for, when I volunteered to discuss the historical accuracy of gay knights if someone requested it. It reminds me somewhat of when my venerable colleague @oldshrewsburyian volunteered to discuss lesbian nuns, and was immediately deluged by requests to do just that. In my opinion, gay knights and lesbian nuns are the mlm/wlw solidarity of the Middle Ages, even if the tedious constructionists would like to remind us that we can’t exactly use those terms for them. It also forces us to consider the construction of modern heterosexuality, our erroneous notions of it as hegemonically transhistorical, and the fact that behaviour we would consider “queer” (and therefore implicitly outside mainstream society) was not just mainstream, but central, valorized, and crucial to constructions of medieval manhood, if not without existential anxieties of its own. Because medieval societies were often organized around the chivalric class, i.e. the king and his knights, his ability to make war, and the cultural prestige and homosocial bonds of his retinue, if you were a knight, you were (increasingly as the medieval era went on) probably a person of some status. You had a consequential role to play in this world, and your identity was the subject of legal, literary, cultural, social, religious, and other influences. And a lot of that was also, let’s face it, what the 21st century would consider Kinda Gay.

The central bond in society, the glue that made it work, was the relationships between soldiers, battlefield brotherhoods, and the intense, self-sacrifical love for the other that is familiar to anyone who has ever watched a war movie, and dates back (in explicitly gay form, at least) to the Sacred Band of Thebes. Medieval society had a careful and contested interaction with this ideal and this kind of relationship between men. Because they needed it for the successful prosecution of military ventures, they held it up as the best kind of love, to which the love of a woman could never entirely aspire, but that also ran the risk of the possibility of it turning (homo)sexual. Same-sex sexual activity was well-known in the Middle Ages, the end, full stop. The use of penitentials, or confessors’ handbooks, as sources for views or practices of queer sexual behaviour has been criticised (you will swiftly find that almost EVERYTHING used as a source for queer history is criticised, shockingly), but there remains the fact that Burchard of Worms’ 11th-century Decretum, a vast compilation of canon law, mentions same-sex behaviour among its list of sins, but assigns it a comparatively light penance. (I don’t have the actual passage handy, but it’s a certain amount of days of fasting on bread and water.) It assigns much heavier penalties for Burchard’s main concern, which was sorcery and the practice of un-Christian beliefs, rituals, or other persistent holdovers from paganism. This is not to say that homosexuality was accepted, per se, but it was known about, it must have happened enough for priests to list in their handbooks of sins, and it wasn’t The End of The World. Frankly, I am tired of having to argue that queer people existed and engaged in queer activity in the Middle Ages (not directed at you, but in general). Of course they did. Obviously they did. Moving on!

Anyway. Returning to gay knights specifically, the fact remained that if you encouraged two dudes to love each other beyond all other bonds, they might, you know, actually bang. This was worrisome, especially in the twelfth century, as explored by Matthew Kuefler, ‘Male Friendship and the Suspicion of Sodomy in Twelfth-Century France’ and Ruth Mazo Karras, ‘Knighthood, Compulsory Heterosexuality, and Sodomy’ in The Boswell Thesis: Essays on Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, ed. Matthew Kuefler (Chicago; University of Chicago Press, 2006), pp. 179-214 and 273-86. I have written a couple papers (in the ever-tedious process of one day being turned into journal articles) on the subject of the Extremely Queer Richard the Lionheart, some material of which can be found in my tag for him. Richard’s queerness has been argued over for a long time, we all throw rotten banana peels at John Gillingham who took it upon himself to deny, ignore, or minimize all the evidence, but anyway. Richard was a very masculine and powerful man and formidably talented soldier who could not be reduced to the stereotype of the effeminate, weak, or impotent sodomite, and the fact that he was a prince, a duke, and a king was probably why he was repeatedly able to get away with it. But he wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t the only one. He was very much part of his culture and time, even if he kept running into ecclesiastical reprisals for it. It happened. If you want a published discussion that covers some of my points (though not all of them), there is William E. Burgwinkle, ‘The Curious Case of Richard the Lionheart’, in Sodomy, Masculinity, and Law in Medieval Literature: France and England, 1050-1230 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 73–85. Also on the overall topic, Robert Mills, Seeing Sodomy in the Middle Ages (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015).

Peter the Chanter, a Parisian cleric, also wrote De vitio sodomitico, a chapter of his Verbum abbreviatum, fulminating against “men with men, women with women [masculi cum masculis […] mulieres cum mulieribus]” which apparently happened far too often for his liking in twelfth-century Paris (along with cross-dressing and other genderqueer behaviour; the Latin version of this can be found in ‘Verbum Abbreviatum: De vitio sodomitico’ in Patrologia Latina, ed. Jacques-Paul Migne (Paris: 1855), vol. 205, pp. 333–35). Moving into the thirteenth and especially fourteenth centuries, this bond only grew in importance, and involved a new kind of anxiety. Richard Zeikowitz’s book, Homoeroticism and Chivalry: Discourses of Male Same-Sex Desire in the 14th Century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), explores this discourse in detail, and points out that the intensely homoerotic element of chivalry was deeply embedded in medieval culture – and that this was something that was not queer, i.e. unusual, to them. It is modern audiences who see this behaviour as somehow contravening our expected stereotypes of medieval knights as Ultra Manly No Homo Men. When we label this “medieval queerness,” we are also making a judgment about our own expectations, and the way in which we ourselves have normalized one narrow and rigid view of masculinity.

England then had two queer kings in the 14th century, Edward II and Richard II, both of whom ended up deposed. These were for other political reasons, but their queerness was not irrelevant to assessments of their character and the reactions of their contemporaries. Sylvia Federico (‘Queer Times: Richard II in the Poems and Chronicles of Late Fourteenth-Century England’, Medium Aevum 79 (2010), 25–46) has studied the corpus of queer-coded historical writing around Richard, and noted that while the Lancastrian propaganda postdating the usurpation of Henry IV in 1399 obviously had an intent to cast his predecessor in as unfit a light as possible, the accusations of queerness started during Richard’s reign, “well before any real practical design on the throne […] and well before the famous lapse into tyranny that characterized the reign’s last few years. In poems and chronicles produced from the mid-1380s to the early 1390s, and in language that is highly charged with homophobic references, Richard II is marked as unfit to rule”. E. Amanda McVitty (‘False Knights and True Men: Contesting Chivalric Masculinity in English Treason Trials, 1388–1415,’ Journal of Medieval History 40 (2014), 458–77) examined how the treason trials of high-status individuals centred on a symbolic deconstruction of his chivalric manhood, demoting and exiling him from the intricate homosocial networks that governed the creation and performance of medieval masculinity.

This appears to have been a fairly extensive phenomenon, and one not confined to the geopolitical space of England. Henric Bagerius and Christine Ekholst (‘Kings and Favourites: Politics and Sexuality in Late Medieval Europe’, Journal of Medieval History 43 (2017), 298–319) traced the use of ‘discursive sodomy’ as a rhetorical tool employed against five late medieval monarchs, including Richard II and his great-grandfather Edward II, John II and Henry IV of Castile, and Magnus Eriksson of Sweden. In all cases, the ruler in question was viewed as emotionally and possibly sexually dependent on another man, subject to his evil counsels and treacherous wiles, and this reflected a communal anxiety that the body of the king himself – and thus the body politic – had been unacceptably queered. Nonetheless, as a divinely anointed figure and the head of state, the accusations of gender displacement or suspected sodomy could not be placed directly on the king, and were instead deflected onto the favourites themselves, generally characterised as greedy, grasping men of ignoble birth, who subverted both social and sexual order by their domination of the supposedly passive king.

None of this polemic produced by hostile sources can be read as direct confirmation of the private and physical actions of the kings behind closed doors, but in a sense, this is immaterial. The intimate lives of presumably heterosexual individuals are constructed on the same standards of evidence and to much greater certainty. In other words, queerness and queer/gay favourites could not have functioned as a textual metaphor or charged accusation if there was not some understanding of it as a lived behaviour. After all, if the practice did not physically exist or was not considered as a potential reality, there could have been no anxieties around the possibility of its improper prosecution.

This leads us nicely into the deeply vexed question of adelphopoiesis, or the “brother-making” ceremony argued by some, including John Boswell, as a medieval form of gay marriage. (Boswell, who died of AIDS in 1994, published the landmark Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality in 1980, and among other things, controversially argued that the medieval Catholic church was a vehicle for social acceptance of gay people.) Boswell’s critics have fiercely attacked this stance, claiming that the ceremony was only intended to join two men together in a celibate sibling-like relationship. A Straight Historian who participated in a modern version of the ceremony in 1985 actually argued that since she had no sexual inclinations or motives in taking part, clearly it was never used for that purpose by medieval men either. (Pause for sighing.)

The problem is: we can’t argue intentions or private actions either way. We can understand what the idealized and legal designation for the ceremony was intended to be, but we cannot then outrageously claim that every historical individual who took part in it did so for the party line reason. Maybe medieval men who joined together in brother-making ceremonies did live a celibate and saintly life (this would not be surprising). It seems ludicrous to argue, however, that none of them were romantically in love with each other, or that they never ever ever had sex, because surprise, formulaic documents and institutional guidelines cannot tell us anything about the actions of real individuals making complex choices. Even if this was not always a homosexual institution (and once again with the dangerous practice of equivocating queerness with explicitly practiced and “provable” sexual behaviour), it was beyond all reasonable doubt a homoromantic one, and one sanctioned and organised according to well-known medieval conventions, desires (for two men to live together and love each other above all) and anxieties (that they might then have sex).

The medieval men who took a ‘brother’ would probably not have seen it as a marriage, or as the kind of household formation or social contract implied in a heterosexual union, but as we have also discussed, the definition of marriage in the Middle Ages was under constant contestation anyway. The church was constantly anxious about knights: their violence, their (oftentimes) lack of religiosity, their proclivity for tournaments, swearing, drinking, and other immoral behaviour, the possibility of them having sexual affairs with each other and/or with women (though Andreas Capellanus, in De amore, wrote an entire spectacularly misogynistic handbook about how to have the right kind of love affair with a woman and dismissed same-sex relationships in one sentence as gross and unworthy, so he was clearly the No Homo Bro Knight of his day). So, as this has gotten long: gay knights were basically one of the central social, religious, and cultural concerns of the entire Middle Ages, due to their position in society, their necessity in a warlike culture, the social influence of chivalry and their tendency to bad behaviour, their perceived influence over the king (who they may also have given their Gay Cooties), their disregard of the church’s teachings, and the ever-present possibility that their love wasn’t celibate. So yes. Gay knights: Hella Historically Accurate.

The end.

#history #medieval history #queer history #gay knights #long post #i have a lot more to say but yes #the old guard meta #for reference #though this post was originally written in december 2019 #anonymous #ask

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wakraya · 4 years ago

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don't know what was up with the art, my guess is a somewhat less experienced member of the art team did this update, but the fact that people are shitting on it so hard? like, the art has charm even if it might not have the same xamag level polish, and the fact that people are calling it a "punishment" by the HS^2 team? Thats shitty, because its not the clever jab at the team that they think it is, its only insulting the effort of a few, or even 1 artist who worked on the update.

Yeah! I honestly feel really bad for whoever did the art because, it’s not horrible like many are making it out to be! And particularly the people using it to scream like how the Team is bad or whatever, people are sooooo quick to jump at the throats of people, throw insults and laugh at their faces.

Also I am not even sure if Xamag is the artist for many of the prior updates! I know she’s not the Art Director since a long while ago, so I can’t quite tell whether she hasn’t contributed since, or she has and is just not directing, but like, there has been a variety of artists and styles, and while this was less refined, it wasn’t the worst thing ever by a LONG shot. @.@ That said, it’s kinda fun seeing the redraws of the panels pop up.

Honestly it’s kinda sad? Because like, this was probably the worst update. It wasn’t bad, I am not saying it was bad. It was funny, and fluffy, and silly, but it was just Roxy and Dave talking, the art was less refined than prior updates, there wasn’t much, it was just a mindless little respite after the Candy Stuff. So I do think it was the ‘worst’ in those terms. It was just silly fun. And as such, you can absolutely come up with constructive criticism! About pacing, about art stuff... But ignoring the larger context of Hiveswap coming out, and the large amount of people just being mean, overdramatic, going too far, make it hard to like, actually criticise, because you end up fearing you will sound like the people going too far, so it’s just. A mess that helps nobody.

I personally really liked the different artstyle of this update, if they made more panels like that i won't mind.

And of course across the people that seemingly ABHOR the update, bluh bluh huge entitled britches, there’s people like this other anon! I’ve seen people seriously cracking up at the interactions and calling Dave an icon! I’ve seen already three or four discord users with Jade or Dave from this update as icons. I’ve seen people skeptical of HS^2 do a heel-turn on this one and really just, enjoy the fun of this update. I’ve been enough out there in the sea of really liking an update a lot of people didn’t, and it’s not the best, to say the least.

It’s almost 6 AM, I wanted to wait for a video to render but, fuck it, I’m just going to leave my PC on and let it finish overnight. Hiveswap Act 2 was wonderful and I had a blast playing it and I’ve got a bunch of fun theories and ideas. This upd8 was a good, silly respite after a really tense and busy month between the Elections, the release, that I personally really appreciated. I’m just so tired, at this point, y’all. I’m tired of having a list of filtered names on XKit that I NEVER see pop-up when things are good and fun, but that always, without fail, pop in to throw shit in the tag the instant they get the chance. I’m tired of getting hate in my Inbox every day because I DARE like that Jade is horny in post-canon and just chillin’ in this last update. I’m tired of seeing people like me who are working in good will even if they fuck up at times, on the stuff I love, having what would be my dream job, get kicked down by the so-called fans to the point they’re afraid of putting their names out there.

I’m gonna go sleep now so see y’all tomorrow.

#Homestuck #Homestuck^2 #HS^2 #Upd8 #Upd8 SPoilers #Spoilers #WP #Discourse

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reachexceedinggrasp · 4 years ago

Note

Would love to hear about your beefs with Lucas because I have beefs with Lucas

(Sorry it took me three thousand years to answer this, anon.)

They mainly fall under a few headings, with the third being the most serious and the thing that I am genuinely irl furious about at least biannually (and feeling unable to adequately sum up The Problem with it after yelling about it so often is a huge part of why this post has been in my drafts for such a long time):

1. His self-mythologising and the subsequent uncritical repetition of his bullshit in the fandom. Obvious lies like that he had some master plan for 10 films when it’s clear he did not have anything like a plot outline at any point. We all know the thing was written at the seat of various people’s pants, it’s blatantly self-evident that’s the case. There’s also plenty of public record about how the OT was written. Even dumber, more obvious lies, like that Anakin was ‘always the protagonist’ and the entire 6 films were his story from the beginning. This is preposterous and every time someone brings it up (usually with palpable smugness) as fanboys ‘not understanding star wars’ because they don't get that ‘the OT is not Luke's story’... Yeah, I just... I cannot.

Vader wasn’t Anakin Skywalker until ESB, it’s a retcon. It’s a brilliant retcon and it works perfectly, it elevated SW into something timeless and special it otherwise would not have been, but you can tell it wasn’t the original plan and there’s proof it wasn’t the original plan. Let’s not pretend. And Luke is the protagonist. No amount of waffling about such esoteric flights of theory as ‘ring structure’ is going to get away from the rigidly orthodox narrative and the indisputable fact that it is Luke’s hero’s journey. Vader’s redemption isn’t about his character development (he has almost none) and has no basis in any kind of convincing psychological reality for his character, but it doesn’t need to be because it’s part of Luke’s arc, because Vader is entirely a foil in Luke’s story. It’s a coming-of-age myth about confronting and growing beyond the father.

All attempts to de-centre Luke in RotJ just break the OT’s narrative logic. It’s a character-driven story and the character driving is Luke. Trying to read it as Anakin’s victory, the moral culmination of his choices rather than Luke’s and putting all the agency into Anakin’s hands just destroys the trilogy’s coherence and ignores most of its content in favour of appropriating a handful of scenes into an arc existing only in the prequels. The dilemma of RotJ is how Luke will define ethical adulthood after learning and growing through two previous films worth of challenge, education, failure, and triumph; it’s his choice to love his father and throw down his sword which answers the question the entire story has been asking. Vader’s redemption and the restoration of the galaxy are the consequences of that choice which tell us what kind of world we’re in, but the major dramatic conflict was resolved by Luke’s decision not the response to it.

And, just all over, the idea of Lucas as an infallible auteur is inaccurate and annoying to me. Obviously he’s a tremendous creative force and we wouldn’t have sw without him, but he didn’t create it alone or out of whole cloth. The OT was a very collaborative effort and that’s why it’s what it is and the prequels are what they are. Speaking of which.

2. The hubris of the prequels in general and all the damage their many terrible, protected-from-editors choices do to the symbolic fabric of the sw universe. Midicholrians, Yoda fighting with a lightsabre, Obi-wan as Anakin's surrogate father instead of his peer, incoherent and unmotivated character arcs, the laundry list of serious and meaningful continuity errors, the bad storytelling, the bad direction, the bad characterisation, the shallowness of the parallels which undermine the OT’s imagery, the very clumsy and contradictory way the A/P romance was handled, the weird attitude to romance in general, it goeth on. I don’t want to re-litigate the entire PT here and I’m not going to, but they are both bad as films and bad as prequels. The main idea of them, to add Anakin’s pov and create an actual arc for him as well as to flesh out the themes of compassion and redemption, was totally appropriate. The concept works as a narrative unit, there are lots of powerful thematic elements they introduce, they have a lot of cool building blocks, it’s only in execution and detail that they do a bunch of irreparable harm.

But the constant refrain that only ageing fanboys don’t like them and they only don’t like them because of their themes or because they humanise Anakin... can we not. The shoddy film making in the prequels is an objective fact. If you want to overlook the bad parts for the good or prioritise ideas over technique, that’s fine, but don’t sit here and tell me they’re masterworks of cinema there can be no valid reason to criticise. I was the exact right age for them when I saw them, I am fully on board with the fairy tale nature of sw, I am fully on board with humanising Anakin- the prequels just have a lot of very big problems with a) their scripts and b) their direction, especially of dialogue scenes. If Lucas had acknowledged his limitations like he did back in the day instead of believing his own press, he could have again had the help he obviously needed instead of embarrassing himself.

3. Killing and suppressing the original original trilogy. I consider the fact that the actual original films are not currently available in any form, have never been available in an archival format, and have not been presented in acceptable quality since the VHS release a very troubling case study in the problems of corporate-owned art. LF seizing prints of the films whenever they are shown, destroying the in-camera negatives to make the special editions with no plans to restore them, and doing all in the company’s considerable power to suppress the original versions is something I consider an act of cultural vandalism. The OT defined a whole generation of Hollywood. It had a global impact on popular entertainment. ANH is considered so historically significant it was one of the first films added to the US Library of Congress (Lucas refused to provide even them with a print of the theatrical release, so they made their own viewable scan from the 70s copyright submission).

The fact that the films which made that impact cannot be legally accessed by the public is offensive to me. The fact that Lucas has seen fit to dub over or composite out entire performances (deleting certain actors from the films), to dramatically alter the composition of shots chosen by the original directors, to radically change the entire stylistic tone by completely reinventing the films’ colour timing in attempt to make them match the plasticy palate of the prequels, to shoot new scenes for movies he DID NOT DIRECT, add entire sequences or re-edit existing sequences to the point of being unrecognisable etc. etc. is NOT OKAY WITH ME when he insists that his versions be the ONLY ones available.

I’m okay with the Special Editions existing, though I think they’re mostly... not good... but I’m not okay with them replacing the original films. And all people can say is ‘well, they’re his movies’.

Lucas may have clear legal ownership in the capitalistic sense, but in no way does he have clear artistic ownership. Forget the fans, I’m not one of those people who argue the fans are owed something: A film is always a collaborative exercise and almost never can it be said that the end product is the ultimate responsibility and possession of one person. Even the auteur directors aren't the sole creative vision, even a triple threat like Orson Welles still had cinematographers and production designers, etc. Hundreds of artists work on films. Neither a writer nor a director (nor one person who is both) is The Artist behind a film the way a novelist is The Artist behind a novel. And Lucas did NOT write the screenplays for or direct ESB or RotJ. So in what sense does he have a moral right to alter those films from what the people primarily involved in making them deemed the final product? In what sense would he have the right to make a years-later revision the ONLY version even if he WERE the director?

Then you get into the issue of the immeasurable cultural impact those films had in their original form and the imperative to preserve something that is defining to the history of film and the state of the zeitgeist. I don't think there is any ‘fan entitlement’ involved in saying the originals belonged to the world after being part of its consciousness for decades and it is doing violence to the artistic record to try to erase the films which actually occupied that space. It's exactly like trying to replace every copy of It's a Wonderful Life with a colourised version (well, it's worse but still), and that was something Lucas himself railed against. It’s like if Michaelangelo were miraculously resuscitated and he decided to repaint the Sistine Ceiling to add a gunfight and change his style to something contemporary.

I get genuinely very upset at the cold reality that generations of people are watching sw for the first time and it’s the fucking SE-except-worse they’re seeing. And as fewer people keep physical media and the US corporate oligarchy continues to perform censorship and rewrite history on its streaming services unchecked by any kind of public welfare concerns, you’ll see more and more ‘real Mandela effect’ type shit where the cultural record has suddenly ‘always’ been in line with whatever they want it to be just now. And US media continues to infect us all with its insidious ubiquity. I think misrepresenting and censoring the past is an objectively bad thing and we can’t learn from things we pretend never happened, but apparently not many people are worried about handing the keys to our collective experience to Disney and Amazon.

4. The ‘Jedi don’t marry’ thing and how he wanted this to continue with Luke post-RotJ, so it’s obviously not meant to be part of what was wrong with the order in the prequels. I find this... incoherent on a storytelling level. The moral of the anidala story then indeed becomes just plain ‘romantic love is bad and will make you crazy’, rather than the charitable reading of the prequels which I ascribe to, which is that the problem isn’t Anakin’s love for Padmé, it’s that he ceased to love her and began to covet her. And I can’t help but feel this attitude is maybe an expression of GL’s issues with women following his divorce. I don’t remember if there’s evidence to contradict that take, since it’s been some time since I read about this but yeah. ANH absolutely does sow seeds for possible Luke/Leia development and GL was still married while working on that film. Subsequently he was dead set against Luke ever having a relationship and decided Jedi could not marry. Coincidence?

There’s a lot of blinking red ‘issues with women’ warning signs all over Lucas’s work, but the prequels are really... egregious.

#sw #salt #more unhinged rambling #anyway dowload the despecialised editions #unsubscribe from Disney+#be free #usually we'd be having a big family thing for Boxing Day but you know #so God bless us all at home separately #I hope everyone had as happy a Christmas as possible in keeping with the situation #I should see if I can drag my brother outside to build a snowman

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thechekhov · 5 years ago

Photo

You guys have been asking for it so HERE it IS! An advice thread about comic-making for people who wanted to know my process.

Answering it every time with something like “JUST START!” and “do whatever!” is probably pretty discouraging to people who are legitimately lost, so I wanted to make something a bit more cohesive. This series of posts will be done over time, on different topics, and I will link each part when I make it.

1) Thinking of a story (this part) 2) Making characters 3) Drafting pages (coming soon) 4) Presentation (coming eventually, we hope)

So, without further ado, let’s get STARTED!

*Disclaimer: I am NOT professionally trained. I have no creative writing degree, nor a comic-making or art degree. I am literally just sharing my own process and my own thoughts to help others, because they wanted to know. If you have beef with how I do things, that’s fine. Criticise away!

Q: I want to write a story. But I don’t know where to start.

Good! Start with that. Not knowing.

No, I’m serious. Not knowing is what gets us places. Not knowing gets us thinking. And we have a LOT of thinking ahead of us.

Many storytellers admit that most of their writing starts in their head. Most of us go through our day in a sort of half-conscious haze, doing everyday things on autopilot, running errands while barely conscious of what the hell is going on. Inside our heads, we are writing. Well, not really writing. Imagining.

I personally am a painfully visual person. When I have an idea, it’s like a goddamn AMV in my brain. I imagine the scenario like a movie, and most of it moves along on its own. I’m not really writing it as much as I’m just directing it - changing the camera angle, asking for a re-take when something feels a bit off. Then, I go home and try to write it down on paper, or draw it, and then I tear at my hair and go “THIS ISN’T LIKE WHAT I IMAGINED AT ALL, i’M A FAILURE” and then I go have some tea, calm down, try again, rinse, repeat...

So, what if you’re having trouble imagining? Well, you need practice. (You DON’T need visual memory, or the ability to visualize. You can think in words, conversations, concepts - whatever. It’s all a part of the imagination.)

I would start with a scene from a book or movie you really like. Just start with what you already have. Maybe it’s a calm moment. Maybe it’s the middle of a battle. Or the middle of an argument. Go there, immerse yourself into that moment, and then think “...but what if...?”

The “what if...?” is important. Keep that in your toolbelt. It’ll help us many times throughout this journey.

Stop thinking “I’m gonna write a story”. Start thinking ABOUT the story. Just start imagining, as hard as you can.

Q: I have a general idea of what happens, but I can’t seem to get it together into a plot.

Sometimes, it helps to write things down. It doesn’t need to be prose - just make it loose and to the point. Not even full sentences. Just “____ happens” and “___is sad” and “_____ dies”. Put them all over the page. Then, go through and connect them with a line.

When I write plot, some of my brainstorming looks like this:

I think maybe if you spend enough time and channel this guy

...you will know what the hell I was trying to do here. But the point is, it’s not for the audience. It’s for ME. So it’s allowed to be messy. You can see how I labeled some concepts and connected them with string. The numbers are actually for chronological exposition. I was trying to keep track of which things I wanted to reveal first, and which would come later.

Q: I know I should plan, but I can’t do it. I just wanna write!

Good! I was also like this at one point. Actually, I hate planning on paper. I lose interest. (I still do it sometimes, but only for the most complex stuff.)

So, if you don’t want to do it - don’t!! Who cares.

Start writing. Start drawing.

But leave yourself room to re-arrange. Learn tetris. Play tetris. (it’s a good game)

When I write/draw I often go in for the meaty parts first. I like this one quote:

which is basically - BASICALLY - the most succinct description of writing I’ve ever seen.

The thing is-- The thing IS!! the REASON we read is JUST FOR THOSE EMOTIONALLY HORNY MOMENTS!!! Literally the only reason anyone is THERE, in the story, is to experience that peak of emotion, whatever it might be. It could be the excitement of a chance meeting between two characters. It could be the thrill of battle. It could be the pain of loss or misunderstanding.

The rest of it? I’m sorry to say, but the rest of these things are just bridges. And yes, bridges can be LOVELY. They are absolutely important to have. But we can’t pretend that we don’t read some long drawn-out stories all the while thinking “but I really don’t care, can we please get on with it?”.

So, don’t be afraid to focus on the stuff you just want to write. Because most likely, it’s the stuff other people want to read. Just get the meat and potatoes of it out there - fill in the salads later.

Q: I’m not getting any new ideas. Help!

Drop it.

No, I don’t mean the story - although I suppose that’s also an option - I mean the idea.

I hear you - you dOn’t hAVE ANy!! But the thing is, ideas are all connected. If you have one idea, the rest cascade from it. If you get to a dead end in your story, you’re not on an island - you’re at the end of the road. You DO have somewhere to go - you can go backwards.

And yes, like dogs, authors sometimes have trouble with the concept of walking backwards because it’s uncomfortable and we get tangled up in the leash of the plot we’re on. But that doesn’t make it impossible to teach you a new trick. (Don’t give me those puppy eyes.)

If you have no new ideas, then you need to walk back to your last idea and ask yourself “how is this leading to a dead end?”. Or the last idea before that.

“My character is stuck in an abandoned building but I have no idea what should happen now. I’m lost. :( ”

No you’re not. Your character is - why the fuck was she in the abandoned building in the first place? Why did she go there? Who sent her? Who is she? What are her motivations? Take the time dial and wind it backwards until you are at a fork in the road and try the other road.

Rince, repeat.

Q: How do I get people to like my story?

You don’t.

I’m sorry, but no amount of ‘please read this!’ or ‘CREATORS NEED REBLOGS, NOT LIKES’ will get people to engage with your story any more than they already are, aside from, well, their own volition.

Some people just straight up won’t click with your story. Some will. Some will click HARD but will miss the point entirely. Some people will love it dearly but never, ever, EVER say a word to you.

That’s just how people are. You can’t blame them for not being your Dream Audience. That ain’t their damn job. And as a content creator, unless you’re being commissioned to do something very specific, it also ain’t YOUR damned job to be a crowd-pleaser!

Write what you love. Connect where you can. The rest will follow.

That’s about all I have for writing - more will be added later!

Cheers.

#chekhov gives advice #chekhov writes a text post #how to comic part 1

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lifeofkaze · 4 years ago

Text

An Art of Balance #8

Orion Amari x MC

A/N: I did it, under 2.000 words, hooray! And not because that’s actually HALF of a chapter that I had to split due to way too many words. Sigh. As always, Katriona Cassiopeia belongs to my amazing friend @kc-needs-coffee, I love borrowing her so much <3

Warning: mild swearing

Word Count: ~ 1.700

______________________________________________________________

Chapter 8: Rain & Thunder

Much to her dismay, Lizzie had been right.

Skye had decided to cope with her emotions by converting them into anger, most of it directed at her. Although completely unwarranted, they hadn’t exchanged any words above the bare minimum since the incident at the Quidditch stands. Lizzie had tried to talk sense into her at first, but after a few attempts she had given up.

If Skye was intent on making Lizzie her emotional punching bag, good riddance to her.

As the usual mediator between the girls, McNully had suggested to get Penny to reason with her, but the blond girl had downright refused.

“She is embarrassed because of me, I’m the last person she wants to see right now.”

So they had had no choice but to accept Skye’s stubbornness and leave her alone. It pained Lizzie to be shut out by her friend once again, but there was nothing she could do to set things right. She only hoped they would work things out in time for the match against Ravenclaw.

Lizzie shivered as she fastened the buckles of her Quidditch gloves tighter. The air in the Hufflepuff changing room was freezing, the icy winds howling outside making her wish the match was already over and done with.

The cold had hit them earlier than usual this year. It had been raining ceaselessly for the last week and today was not an exception. Even over the sharp gusts of wind Lizzie could hear the rumble of the excited crowd that had gathered on the stands to watch the match Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw despite the horrific conditions.

It was almost time for the teams to enter the pitch. Lizzie could feel the familiar flutter in her stomach settling in. Even after all these years, she had to fight hard to keep her cool before every single match. Pacing up and down, brimming with anticipation, she glanced over to Orion. He was fastening his captain’s armband above his jersey, looking as deeply relaxed as ever; nothing seemed to be able to shake him out of his balanced state of mind.

Trying to distract herself, Lizzie’s mind wandered back to their last tutoring session in the greenhouse a few days earlier. They had talked about her strained relationship with Skye and discussed tactical options for the match ahead. Developing strategies for possible scenarios while trimming leaves or repotting plants had become somewhat of a habit for them.

Unfortunately, Rowan got left out of the conversation when she and Orion started discussing team matters; and while Lizzie did feel guilty about not exactly furthering her friend’s ambitions, somehow, she just couldn’t help herself. She had always found Orion easy to open up to, but since they had started sharing something besides Quidditch, Lizzie had discovered he was much more faceted than she had thought before.

Sensing her nerves, Orion casually strolled over to her and put his hand reassuringly upon her shoulder.

“Relax, we’ll be doing fine. Just remember our strategy. If the universe does not interfere, we will come out on top.”

A derisive snort behind them had them turn their heads. Skye, who was leaning against one of the poles supporting the huge tent, was shaking her head in disbelief.

“Our strategy is bollocks if you ask me. Ravenclaw’s Beaters are far too skilled for this nonsense you came up with. Cassiopeia almost never misses a target and I know personally what it does to you to take a Bludger from Rath.”

“This is not the time, Skye. We have agreed on a plan and we are sticking to it. Changing everything now will severely unbalance our team. More so than it is already,” Orion replied calmly, but Lizzie could make out an edge of tension to his voice.

“We wouldn’t have to change anything if the plan was decent. I could have come up with something better suited in a heartbeat,” Skye huffed.

Lizzie’s had heard enough. She was already on edge as it was, and Skye criticising Orion mere minutes before the beginning of the match was enough to make her snap. She abruptly turned around fully to face the other girl.

“Tell you what, Skye I’m so fucking great Parkin. Orion’s strategy is sound, Orion’s strategy is valid and Orion’s strategy will help us win this thing. If you have a problem with this, I suggest next time you don’t run off practise as soon as your feet hit the ground, just because you have a problem with your overinflated ego!”

Skye’s face turned red, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Who do you even think you are, you- “

“That is enough, I believe.” Orion firmly stepped between them, keeping them apart with his hands, their eyes shooting daggers at each other. For a moment, his calm eyes caught Lizzie’s, begging her wordlessly to back down before things got even worse.

Lizzie was not nearly done with Skye; all the times she had been the target of her unwarranted anger were bubbling to the surface with force. But the steady look in Orion’s dark eyes cooled her fury enough to let her draw a deep, steadying breath. Without a word she spun around and stalked to the other end of the changing room.

As Orion called their team towards the huge blackboard at the far end of the changing room soon after, she tried to put her racing mind back to order. This was not the time for fights.

She sat down between Everett and Lucy, watching Orion prepare for their obligatory moment of vivification. Now he was all captain, entirely focused on the task ahead of them.

Listening to his enthusiastic speech, Lizzie felt herself relax. Her boiling rage subsided as her mind focused solely on what was to come. The tingling sensation in her stomach turned to burning excitement to finally get going. Even Skye seemed to be listening attentively.

“This match will set the tone for the rest of the season. Together, my friends, we will vanquish the challenge ahead of us. We will fight for one another as we will fight for the Quidditch Cup. We will fight and we will win, as one team,” Orion concluded his speech.

“One team!” they echoed, firing themselves up. Everybody grabbed their broomsticks and headed towards the exit of the tent when Orion called Lizzie and Skye back. Both girls eyed each other warily, neither saying a word. Orion sighed, his frustration palpable.

“My friends, I hope both of you take our motto to heart. We are one team. We need to be a union to succeed. Especially the three of us; we need to work together in harmony, or we will have a hard time against our formidable opponents.”

Lizzie said nothing, waiting for Skye’s response. She already felt sorry for having had a go at her, and just before the match at that. But she was adamant not yield to her this time. If Skye felt the need to fight, she could very well have that.

Skye’s expression was motionless, however. “I think we need to go. Madam Hooch blew her whistle twice already, won’t wait for us much longer.”

Without so much as another look at them, she turned around and jogged out of the tent, leaving Orion and Lizzie behind.

Lizzie was breathing hard. They were one hour into the match and it was exactly as Orion had feared.

Ravenclaw was destroying them.

The other team was in the lead, the score standing at 70 to 30. Lizzie grit her teeth every time McNully announced another shot had made it past their Keeper.

The Hufflepuff offence was utterly teethless. Most of their passes got intercepted and Andre, playing as Keeper for Ravenclaw, managed to block most attempts at his goal posts. Where Lizzie usually felt connected to Orion and Skye, she could have been alone on the pitch for what it was worth today.

Their defence was in shambles as well, the gushing wind making it almost impossible for the Hufflepuff Beaters to accurately aim a Bludger at the attacking Chasers. In fact, one of Everett’s Bludgers had almost knocked Orion out earlier.

This was not a problem Ravenclaw’s Beaters seemed to have though. Rath had been tailing Skye for the whole match, while KC had been keeping a sharp eye on Lizzie. They were effectively cancelling them out of the action, the Ravenclaw Chasers taking care of stopping Orion.

Frustrated, Lizzie wiped the stinging rain out of her eyes and gripped the Quaffle harder when a flash of blue robes and fiery red hair shot past her.

“Cassiopeia is overtaking Jameson, what is she up to? We are about to find out!” McNully’s magically enhanced voice echoed over the pitch, drowning out the roar of the crowd and the thunder rolling in the distance.

“A Bludger has set its path into Cassiopeia’s direction, there is only one way she can stop Jameson from a shot at the Ravenclaw goal posts, a good old-fashioned Bludger Back-Beat!”

Lizzie had seen it as well. The Bludger was racing towards KC who, with a quick glance over her shoulder, swung her bat expertly behind her, redirecting the Bludger towards Lizzie with full force.

She quickly leaned to the side, as the iron sphere shot towards her, but the distance between her and KC had just been too short. The Bludger grazed her shoulder, knocking her off course, a dull pain spreading in waves from where it had hit her. Gripping at the handle of her broomstick, she had to let the Quaffle go. It was immediately retrieved by a Chaser in a blue robe.

Meanwhile, McNully was practically losing his mind up in the commentary box. “And she did it! Cassiopeia pulls the Bludger Back-Beat off like a true professional! Only 12,9 % of all Beaters are able to hit their target with this technique! Ladies and gentlemen, this girl truly is Ravenclaw’s Rising Star!”

Lizzie grunted in pain and tried to catch sight of the Chaser with the Quaffle through the curtains of sleet. She would need to have a word with McNully later on.

Listening to him almost gave the impression he wasn’t as partially impartial as he set himself up to be.

#art of balance #hphm #hogwarts mystery #orion x mc #orion amari #orion amari x mc #lizzie jameson #skye parkin #murphy mcnully #quidditch #quidditch squad #the quidditch squad #why is tumblr making blank lines disappear #I hate putting * in there they're meant to be for POV change only -.-

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mehrauli · 4 years ago

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The shortcomings of secular leftism become obvious every single time Charlie Hebdo published another fucking piece of hate speech and they refuse to acknowledge it as hate speech even though it’s basically just a nazi-era antisemitic caricature with “PROPHET MUHAMMAD” written underneath it.

And maybe some “anti-racists” or something will pipe in to “defend” us with “oh, it iz against zeir religion to draw ze mahomet” which also makes us look ridiculous because 1. that’s only kind of true, there is a wider discussion of that and 2. people are basically not wrong to say that enforcing that is a police state measure that shouldn’t be acceptable. So all they’re doing is making a straw-man to represent the weakest, most hyperconservative possible take that could come out of a Muslim and is actually genuinely irreconcilable with a lot of the left’s values, values which I, and most Muslims, and most leftists, honestly hold. What’s more is that the position they present is genuinely violent and bad; the reason they shouldn’t draw the Prophet isn’t because it’s “against my religion” but because in the political climate we live in it’s inherently an act of hate speech to do so..

Westerners don’t consider it offensive to make fun of their respected political and religious figures, and this is a genuine cultural difference between them and a lot of Muslims particularly from south asia. I don’t think they should, I think the westerners should be free to “practice their culture” or whatever when they’re not killing my family about it. So when the liberals make this purely an issue of “oh ze iZlAm SaYs zat it iz, ‘ow you say, ‘ArAaAaAaM to draw zeir prophet!” they’re making us look like people who want to violently enforce something based solely on our (real or alleged) cultural values, which still agrees that we’re trying to ~eNfOrCe sHaRiA LaW~ in europe. If all they want to do is draw him, whatever. We can talk about that but it’s a different conversation.

Because when they draw Jesus they’re not drawing him as a hook-nosed banker jew with a suicide vest and a child bride, they’re drawing him in a way that is basically respectful and possibly with maybe a thumbs up if they want to be edgy, like it’s fucking different and if you can’t see that you’re just not engaging in good faith.

Aside from the cartoon itself, which nobody will even see by comparison, the publication of it in the first place, surrounded by a bunch of media fanfare and liberal anticipation, is, itself, a massive piece of performance art with the message that it’s good to #trigger all the angry barbarian peoples from out yonder in order to civilise us to French sophistication and defend freeze peach in contrast to the eastern despotism from which we all eagerly await western liberalism to free us, when we’re not busy migrating to the west in hordes to impose it on them from our positions of extreme political and social influence as refugees of ongoing global conflicts and genocides.

This recent publication comes weeks after Macron outlined new repressive police measures which had the explicit, stated purpose of stopping Muslims in France from developing an independent culture from the mainstream in a country where there’s literally a fucking burka ban that “even” liberals defend as “french culture”.

The basic message is secular fascist newspapers can do whatever it is they want and any voiced objection will be met immediately with a harsh punitive action from both the state and polite society. Again the secular left refuses to acknowledge that this is the situation and that this is a measure meant to humiliate a thoroughly subjugated people. They consider that they should be “respectful” of “our beliefs” but they do not actually criticise the power play against us and even participate in it by proclaiming themselves mediator instead of deferring to Muslims on this issue.

These basic normal foundational cornerstones of French culture, and global liberalism more broadly, tangibly and obviously lead to unthinkable violence against us on a global scale, and it’s good to be radicalised against that. The issue isn’t that it “leads to extremism” as if each of us has an inner terrorist just waiting for us to hulk out when we experience one too many microaggressions, but that Charlie Hebdo is actually a fascist publication and a huge part of the justifying apparatus for the past 20 years of western re-colonisation of the middle east, and, again, everyone should be radicalised against that because it is bad, if we’re radicalised against it and you’re not that’s a you problem and reflects a shortcoming in your analysis or organisation or both.

But even the liberals who think (for whatever reason) that they’re radicals will talk about “preventing radicalisation” among Muslim youth as if radicalism is some brand that belongs to them and them exclusively and we can’t be allowed to get our little terrorist mitts on it. They’re allowed to be radical and we’re not. And that right there is how you can tell they aren’t serious about the whole revolution thing, because revolution as they understand it demands a broad-based coalition of people willing to take direct action and who have a common analysis (that it’s their job to at least inform with their theoretical knowledge) about which actions should be taken and against what. They make no effort whatsoever to reach out to our obviously highly motivated and marginalised community with any of their talk of class solidarity because they’re a part of the same apparatus which keeps us marginalised and cooperate fully with it as far as we are concerned.

And the secular left agrees that the cartoons are racist and agrees that that’s bad and agrees that french liberalism sucks ass and is violent, racist, and nakedly imperialistic, but there has never been an instance of a left organisation to my knowledge that’s gone so far as to actually stand in solidarity with Muslims protesting against liberal Islamophobia. While the secular left may condemn islamophobia on its own terms, it never stands with Muslims and accepts Muslim leadership even when we’re protesting obvious violence and hate speech directed at us. Secular leftism and secular antifa agree that it’s good to be radical against a violent society in which hate speech is a normal accepted and even expected value and in which global leaders openly call for repressive police state measures against Muslims specifically on a good day, they even agree that it’s good and proper to use violence in such situations to prevent authoritarian overreach against persecuted minorities, but the moment we do it, it’s an act of terrorism that all radicals liberals have to Condemn Condemn Condemn or else.

And if we defend ourselves as Muslims, as Hannah Arendt called for when she said that if one is attacked as a Jew one must defend oneself as a Jew, not as a world-citizen or a defender of the rights of man, or some shit, global radliberal leftism will never have a word in support of us.

It claims to be better, and it might actually even be genuinely preferable, but it still lacks any interaction or understanding of Muslim analyses of the violence against us and don’t even think to try to theorise it themselves outside of some shallow acknowledgement of a purely economic “imperialism” or racism, which is only a part of it. And so as a result the global left inevitably ends up with a far-right analysis of one kind or the other on this; either censorship is good if it hurts people (”of colour”)s feelings or it’s bad to protest hate speech by unapproved means.

#charlie hebdo #islam #muslims #france #liberalism

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jadelotusflower · 3 years ago

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June 2021 Roundup

It's been a month of highs and lows. Every year my city holds a cabaret festival, and I've seen some truly amazing acts over the years - including Lea Salonga, Kristin Chenoweth, and Indina Menzel. This year's Artistic Director was the great Alan Cumming, and although due to covid he didn't quite get to curate the program he wanted to, the opening night Gala was still a highlight, as was Alan's DJ set at the pop-up Club Cumming afterwards, where there was much singing at the top of my lungs and dancing to pop anthems and theatre tunes. At one point Alan, dressed in a onesie and perched on the shoulders of a man wearing only sparkly short shorts, was carried around the dance floor while Circle of Life blared. Reader, I was delighted.

I was also able to see his solo show Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, which was hilarious and damn, he can sing!

As for the low, I was meant to fly to Sydney for the weekend to see Hamilton, a trip I have been looking forward to for almost a year, but had to be cancelled because of a covid outbreak and border closures. The tickets have been rescheduled, but I'm still kind of bummed about it (while completely appreciating the need for covid safety, especially when our vaccine rollout has been completely botched by our incompetent, corrupt federal government)

Anyway.

Reading

The Hundred and One Dalmations (Dodie Smith) - With all the bewilderment over Disney's Cruella, I decided to revisit the original novel which I first read as a kid. It's funny, I had very vivid memories of this book, or rather thought I did, particularly the scene where Roger and Anita have dinner at Cruella's house that fixed in my young mind as utterly disturbing with all this devil imagery and the implication Cruella was literally some kind of demon, which must have been either a) my overactive imagination or b) an illustration, because it's not as clear as I thought it was. The strangeness is there (food with too much pepper, Cruella's inability to keep warm, the walls painted blood red) but not the explicit demon imagery I had remembered. There is a part later in the book recounting the history of Hell Hall and the rumors of Cruella's ancestor streaking out of the place conjuring blue lightening, but clearly child me was reading far more into the book than was on the page.

But I still wish they'd gone with this version of Cruella's backstory, because to me an aristocratic, ink-drinking, heat-obsessed, possibly-demon spawn, high camp villain is more interesting and rings far more true than plucky punk against the establishment.

Smith clearly had Facts About Dalmations to share, and she does really craft a wonderful animal-based story that the Disney animated film is largely faithful to. Key differences include: Roger's occupation (he doesn't have to pay tax because he wiped out government debt somehow?!?), Pongo's mate and the puppy's mother is called Missis, Perdita is another dalmation who acts as a kind of doggie wet nurse, Roger and Anita both have Nannies who come to live with them (Nanny Butler and Nanny Cook), Cruella is married to a furrier (who changed his last name to de Vil). Also odd, on her first description Cruella is described as having "dark skin" but later in the novel her "white face" is mentioned, so I'm chalking it up to 50's descriptors not having the same meanings they do today.

The Duke and I (Julia Quinn) - After being just whelmed by the tv series, I wasn't really planning on reading the books, but I saw this on the top picks shelf at the library and damn, the top picks shelf is irresistible. This is very much Daphne's book (and I had known each in the series dealt with the different sibling) so many of the characters and much of the plot of the show is absent, as are some of the more baffling elements of the show like the Diamond of the First Water nonsense, which I always thought was a strange character choice in that it stacks the deck for Daphne when her character arc is better served as somewhat of an underdog (in her third season, the kind of girl who is liked but not adored), and the Prince subplot which was always far too OTT even for soapy regency romance.

It's a breezy, fun read (that scene excepted), even if the misunderstandings are contrived and I'm never going to take "I'll never have kids because I hate my dad" as a credible romantic obstacle deserving of so much angst.

Faeries (Brian Froud and Alan Lee) - A lovingly detailed and illustrated compendium of Faerie and its inhabitants, drawing from a range of European (but primarily Celtic) folklore and mythology. Froud was a conceptual designer on The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and the link is clear in the art as well as the focus on faeries as mysterious but oftimes sinister beings, where human encounters with them rarely end well. Lee has illustrated several publications of Tolkien's novels, and was a lead concept artists for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, and there is a touch of Middle Earth here as well, or rather the common inspiration of the old world. A useful resource for my novel!

Watching

The Handmaid's Tale (season 4, episodes 4-8) SPOILERS - So when I last wrote about this show in the Roundup, I was complaining it wasn't going anywhere. Well, I'm happy to be wrong because they finally changed things up with June finally escaping to Canada. That part of the plot following the survivors and their trauma has always been far more compelling than Gilead, and so it was a welcome development even if I side-eye some of the choices (none of these characters is seeing an actual licensed therapist why?).

This show has always been difficult to watch given the subject matter, and that has not changed after the shift in power dynamics. I will give the show credit for showing a broad range of trauma responses, from Moira wanting to move on and not let it consume her, to June, a ball of rage and revenge on a downward spiral, to Emily, trying to follow Moira's path but being drawn to June's, to Luke, trying his best but utterly unequipped to deal with what is happening.

But it is very hard to watch June go down this path - raping her husband (I concede the show perhaps didn't intend for it to be rape, but that's what is on screen and framing it as just "taking away Luke's agency" doesn't change that), wishing death on Serena's unborn child, and orchestrating Fred's brutal murder by particulation, then holding her own daughter still covered in his blood and it getting smeared on Nicole's face (an unsubtle metaphor in a series full of unsubtle metaphors).

There are interesting questions being asked of the viewer, and the show (perhaps rightly) not giving any answers. I can certainly appreciate the catharsis of Fred getting what he deserves even if I personally find the manner of it horrifying, but where is the line between justice and revenge, is revenge the only option when justice is denied, when does a trauma release become cyclical violence/abuse - the show is, for now, letting the viewer decide.

Soul (dir. Pete Docter and Kemp Powers) - In a world full of remakes/reboots/sequels, Pixar is perhaps the lone segment under the Disney umbrella committed to original content. However, there does seem to be a Pixar formula at work directed to precision tugging the heart strings, and some of the film feels like well-trod ground. On the other hand, it's hard to criticise the risk of centering a kids film around the existential crisis of a middle aged man, even with the requisite cutesy elements (and of course, the uncomfortable pattern of yet another film where the black lead character spends a great deal of the runtime in non-human form - herein, an amorphous blob or a cat). But the animation is stunning, it successfully did tug my heart strings, and the design of the Great Before and the Jerrys is original and fun.

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under - Drag Race is somewhat of a guilty pleasure for me, since I generally don't watch reality shows, and this is something I really enjoy even if I'm not invested in the fandom (which like many fandoms can be very yikes). This year it was time for the Australian/New Zealand (Aotearoa) queens to show their stuff, although it's been met with mixed reactions. Covid restrictions didn't allow for guest judges, relegating them to mere cameos via video calls, and its clear that Ru and Michelle really don't quite get all the cultural nuances - Aussie judge Rhys Nicholson was however always delightful. But it wouldn't be Australia without a racism scandal, with the great disappointment of the two queens of colour eliminated first, and one queen having done blackface in the recent past yet making it all the way to the top four.

In the end, the only viable and deserving winner was last Kiwi standing Kita Mean, and it was pure joy to see her get crowned. I do hope they fix the bugs and indeed do another season to better showcase AU/NZ talent.

Writing

A far more productive month - to try and get out of my writing funk I had a goal to try and write every day, even if it was only 100 words. While I didn't quite achieve a consecutive month, I did get a pretty good average, at least got something posted and two others nearly there.

The Lady of the Lake - 2441 words, Chapter 4 posted.

Against the Dying of the Light - 2745 words

Turn Your Face to the Sun - 1752 words.

Here I Go Again - 1144 words

Total words this month: 8082

Total words this year: 35,551

#personal #long post #roundup #june roundup #reading watching writing #here's to the second half of the year #I really want to get to at least 100k written #so we'll see

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beyoncesdragon · 5 years ago

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Vogue (Harry styles x Reader)

Requested: No

Warnings: nope, just fluff and an exhausted reader and my English/grammar

My Masterlist

Fame had always been exhausting. But this week it just had reached an almost unbearable point where I just wanted to snuggle myself into a blanket, fall asleep and don't wake up again. The press, the expectations, the paparazzi, even the fans were just too much. Everyone expected that new music would be written soon, new songs recorded and tour dates for an eventual album fixed. It was just...a lot. And today there was another interview to do, one with Vogue. Not that this wasn't cool, it's just another thing to do, another thing stacked on top of my responsibilities. a few seconds ago my manager had informed me again that this would be a partner interview, but it didn't faze me much. The interview was from this new series of interviews they did with different celebrities: a room full of pillows and mattresses where you just laid and answered questions. The celebrity would dress comfy and cosy. The whole point was basically to archive a relaxed atmosphere so „we" as in celebrities would spill as much as possible. Just because we felt comfortable. They would always pair up two people, but neither of them was informed on who that partner would be. The thing with the comfy clothes by the way was a joke. No one dressed in his pjs or went without makeup. Neither did I. But I insisted on no makeup, because I wanted to be able to snuggle myself in those blankets. I also decided to wear a comfortable two piece, which looked fashionable enough without being tight and stiff in all the wrong parts...not gonna have that. Who my partner will be, would reveal time: I'll meet him or her at vogues. I pushed my hair from my face away and quickly skimmed over my Twitter. Again, thousands of tweets were tagging me at something, messages had been sent privately and people had retweeted, liked or commented one of my tweets. In the beginning of my career I had sometimes answered those private messages, on twitter and Instagram. But it had become nearly impossible to continue this habit. There were just too many. Sure I tried but it was mostly the lack of sleep that made me drop my phone during tipping and sent me away in deep, dreamless hours which weren't long enough. A maximum of five hours was common, there had been days I haven't slept a solid two hours. The downside of touring, definitely.

A door opened and a friendly young woman welcomed me. She immediately guided me from the room „backstage" to the actual set, a flat pool filled with stuffed pillow-chains, welcoming me to jump into them. She advised me to wait at the corner right next to the door, whilst they still set up cameras and microphones. Suddenly some walked right into my back, the hard push causing me to stumble forwards, almost falling down. Luckily, the person who collided with me, grabbed my arm and prevented me from it. „M'so sorry I haven't seen yeh...my thoughts were somewhere else. Yeh okay?" I smiled up into a slightly worried face. Green eyes, brown, curly hair, broad shoulders and a silky, very feminine shirt (or more like, blouse). Mr Harry Styles. „I am fine, don't worry. I guess...you are my interview partner?" he smiled shyly and nodded. „Looks like it. Very nice to meet you." he went in for a slightly awkward hug, both of us still very shy. „Likewise. Do you think they are ready for us?" he shrugged, peeking around the corner. "Yeah they are. Let's do this." A small flutter of excitement sparked in me and I nodded quickly, following him on set.

The interview started with Harry and me being introduced to the camera before we both spoke a quick intro for the format snuggling ourselves into the comfortable pillows. The interviewer, a kind looking guy in his thirties sat on a chair a bit higher than us and not visible for the camera. He then quickly welcomed us, just for the sake of the camera. "Now, have you two met before?" Harry and I both shook our heads. "I have never met him in a closer way, just spotted on the red carped maybe." I explained and Harry nodded. "Yes me too. But I am very glad that we actually meet now, I really like your music." I could feel a proud smile spreading on my lips at his words. "That really honours me, I am serious. Not to sound cliché, but I listen to you quite often. Meet me in the hallway is one of my favourites." Harry had a pleasantly surprised look on his face. "Oh really? What do you listen to the least?" he then asked cheekily and I grinned. "Sign of the times. Terrible song, absolutely not Pop-Award worthy." Harry now had an amused sparkle in his eyes. "Oh you think so?" I nodded eagerly. "Sure." He faked a disappointed expression before sighing deeply. "Guess I should end my career as musician and go back to baker." I giggled, nudging his arm playfully before turning back to the interviewer who watched us with mild amusement.

The interview went flawless, the questions were never boring or inappropriate. But since I had just little sleep per day due touring i , I felt myself growing tired. The pillows and the generally relaxed vibe in the studio were calming to no end and not helping with keeping me awake. I yawned tiredly, making Harry look over. "Tired?" I nodded sleepily, giving him an exhausted smile. "Want another pillow?" he asked patting on a pillow next to him. I wasn't quite sure if he was inviting me to come a bit closer or if I was just interpreting that because I could use a little cuddle right now. I nodded with a shrug, deciding to just scoot over. "Okay wait I can throw...or you could just do that." Harry said with an amused chuckle. I laughed quietly sitting up again in attempt to move away again. "I am just joking, I'll move over again..." but Harry just shrugged, suddenly seeming a bit nervy. "Oh I don't mind, you can stay here if you feel comfortable." I could see the hint of a blush spreading on his cheeks as he sucked his lip between his teeth, chewing almost apprehensively. I could feel my heart speed up when I carefully leaned back into his stretched arm. I gave him a quick smile, trying my best not to show how much of adoration I just felt for that curly haired man. "Thanks Harry, I really appreciate it. Oh and I am not trying to make a move on you, just for the record." I quickly said towards the camera. Harry gave me a slight nod, the corners of his lips twisting up. "All good love." The interviewer had watched us wordlessly before speaking up again "And you really don't know each other?" the interviewer asked again, surprise clearly displayed on his features. Harry and I nodded again and the interviewer nodded. "Okay, adorable. Ready for yet another question?" I nodded, leaning affectionately against Harry's chest. I could feel his arm tighten just a little bit, but it made me smile. "Hit us." Harry laughed softly. "Alright. You both are on tour at the moment right? How is it going so far?" I let Harry answer first this time and closed my eyes. To be honest, I haven't felt so relaxed in weeks. "It's going well...yeah it's great. I always liked this part of my job the most, even though I have now found the beauty in studios. Performing live is still my number one favourite thing to do. It just can get very exhausting sometimes. The traveling, jetlag, the rush and well, performing as well is very draining." I nodded approvingly. "Yeah the lack of sleep...I love touring as well, it's an incredible feeling to connect with fans like that. They definitely make it all worth it. It really is the lack of sleep that's sort of a killjoy." Harry hummed approvingly "Yea sleep's a problem." The interviewer nodded seriously. "So how much sleep do you get on a average day on tour?" Harry shrugged softly. "Around five to six hours on good days. Being solo and doing your own thing drastically extended my sleep." I looked up at him. "Same here, maybe five or six. Pardon me, but what exactly do you mean with the drastic extension of your sleep schedule since being solo?" The interviewer said nothing and just let us talk. "With One Direction we slept around four hours per day since we had very early morning and late nights. We always toured and similarly recorded a new album, especially the last one was hard because of that." I nodded slowly. "So it's literally Made in the A.M.?" Harry nodded. "Yeh." Was his quick response before we both looked back towards the interviewer. "How are you still able to perform on that lever with so little sleep?" he asked us. "I guess it's partly the adrenaline rush you get when you go on stage. But also you learn to live with it and fall asleep when and where ever. I wouldn't go so far and say that you get used to it, but you learn how to handle. But I guess its still very unhealthy for the longer run and it makes you pretty vulnerable and sensitive. Or so I experienced it." The interviewer nodded and looked at Harry. "I second that. I think you can't really consider it being as hard as suffering from insomnia for example, but it's definitely hard." I closed my eyes during the time Harry talked and just listened to the steady beat of his heart. It was incredibly calming and it caused my eyes to grow heavy and sink shut slowly making me drift off. "However I think...love? Ye're not falling asleep on me are you?" Harry suddenly asked and I snapped up, embarrassment making my cheeks grow hot. "I am really sorry oh god. I am just very, very tired...what was the question again?" people around us from the vogue team, including the interviewer and Harry laughed. "No problem. You mentioned something about being more sensitive and vulnerable with the lack of sleep. How do you mean that?" he asked kindly. "Well, when you live the life of a public figure, if you like it now or not, you are pretty much all day and all night watched. And judged and criticised for literally everything you do, or not do. Everyone seems to look at his opinion as especially important and significant and feels the urge to share it with the world. All that, protected by the anonymity of the internet. Suddenly everyone has balls." I quickly pressed my hand over my mouth. "Sorry I should not swear." The interviewer waved it off. "Don't worry about that, we can beep it out. Carry on." I nodded reassured, clearing my throat. The topic had me worked up quickly. "Okay great. Back to the internet; I think its pretty cool that everyone can share their thoughts for everyone to see, I really do. It gives everyone a certain degree of liberty, which is important don't get me wrong. I just feel like it gets a bit too much when people twice my age blindly degrade me for how I dress or how I look. Like, I haven't asked, can you get on with your life now, I am also not constantly judging you, or am I? It's really sickening, let me tell you." Harry had started to draw soothing circles on my back, grinning softly about my sudden outburst. "I don't struggle with criticism, I feel like its important or else you lose sight of what's really important in life. But with what I do struggle, is hate. I have never, do not and will never understand the concept of projecting all of your failed dreams, flaws and blemishes in form of jealously drenched hate on one person. She's too skinny, She dresses too revealing...can't you just stop and concentrate on becoming a supportive, nice person? Just let me live for god's sake!" I pushed out frustrated. Harry hummed softly, now carefully caressing my hip, circling softly over my hipbone. I took a deep breath, trying to fully collect myself again. "I am sorry I went off on that like this, but it really bothers me." I finished and the interviewer nodded understandingly. "I absolutely agree. Just speak freely, no one will be stopping you." I gave him a small smile but shook my head. "No I got to stop now. I really need media training, urgently." Harry's laugh vibrated through my body making me smile a bit. Almost as suddenly as my energy came back, it left again, leaving me even sleepier than before. I relaxed completely in Harry's arm, head leaned against his chest again. Harry just pulled me a bit closer, now resting his head on top of mine. I wasn't entirely sure if he was just doing it out of reflex but I felt a deep wave of comfort and relaxation wash over me. A state of raw happiness came over me and I thanked whatever powers made this meeting happen. There wasn't any sexual tension between Harry and I, no one tried to seduce the other one or flirt in any way. But we both responded excellently on each other, almost as if we would actually be friends for longer than maybe an hour. The interviewer seemed to catch on my state of mind and immediately asked me about it. "Are you feeling good? You look very relaxed." I nodded quickly, squinting up at Harry to give him a smug look. "I really am, I have never had such a relaxed interview in my life and I don't ever want it to end." Harry grinned and nodded. "Yeah me neither. I could definitively get used to it." The interviewer smiled happily, but then gave us a bit of a sad look. "That really honours me guys...the thing is only that our time is almost over. I am sorry." I pouted disappointed, leaning back at Harry's chest as if to protest. "That's too bad really." Harry said with a sigh, not making any effort of getting up or letting me go. Not that I wanted though, it was just nice to know that it was mutual. "Well I am afraid so. But anyways, thank you for tuning in and a big thank you to your two guests for joining today. Have a nice day, until next time." The interviewer spoke fluently, ending the interview skilled. Harry and I waved into the camera with both big, but sleepy smiles. I knew from watching previous episodes that they would now let the camera roll for about thirty seconds to blend this in as a little special in the end, after the outro. "We should record a song together soon." Harry suddenly said, wrapping the other hand around me no as well. I nodded softly, a smile spreading on my lips. "I would love that." I answered and could feel him taking a deep breath. "And maybe also go for tea together...if you like only, I mean I could understand if you couldn't I just heard about busy schedule and touring..." I chuckled softly, turning my face towards him. His eyes were fixed on the fabric of my pants and a soft blush had crept up his neck, softly colouring his cheeks. "I would love that too Harry. Very much actually." I then answered before pressing a quick peck on his reddened cheek. Harry's dimples only deepened as he threw me a smug look.

#Harry Styles #harry styles imagine #reader insert #harry styles x you #harry styles x reader #one direction imagine #imagines #tell me what you think #feedback is greatly appreciated #how did I do btw #harry edward styles

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nclkafilms · 4 years ago

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Home is much more than a word

(Review of ‘Nomadland’ by Chloé Zhao)

*Warning: Contains minor spoilers*

The 2008 financial crisis has lead to many films among which quite a few are actually very memorable for their portrayal of the absurdity of the crisis’ background and mechanisms (think ‘The Big Short’, ‘Margin Call’ and ‘Inside Job’.). But apart from a few, smaller scenes in ‘The Big Short’ the films have all focused on the “bad guys” and not the everyday American. Until now. Because we have never seen a portrayal of the flipside of the 2008 recession quite like Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’. Actually, we have never seen a film quite like ‘Nomadland’ if I dare say so. Picking up six Academy Award Nominations being favourite to take home at least half of these, ‘Nomadland’ is the talk of the town in the awards season right now for all the right reasons. But this is a film that deserves and demands a much broader perspective than simply picking up awards accolades.

Being adapted from the non-fiction book (of the same name) by Jessica Bruder, ‘Nomadland’ tells the fictional story of widower Fern. Her late partner Bo worked in the mine at US Gypsum’s facility in Empire, Nevada. But when we meet her everything has been taken away from her; her husband has died and during the recession a decreasing demand for sheetrock ultimately resulted in US Gypsum not only closing their facility but also terminating all company housing before closing the entire zip code. Desperate to cling on to the life that once was (driven by her father’s saying, ‘What’s remembered lives’) Fern stays in Empire living in her van. This places her on the path of America’s modern day nomads, who live in their vans while moving across country during the year to pick up work of very varied kinds (working in an Amazon warehouse in the run up to Christmas, sorting rocks, flipping burgers and looking after camp sites to name a few). In the span of a year we follow the fictional character of Fern as she embarks on a journey through western US making friendships, spiritual connections and unique bonds with real-life nomads on the way.

And this is where ‘Nomadland’ becomes unlike anything I have seen. Because it is not a documentary but it also doesn’t fall into the docudrama genre; it’s somewhere in between mixed with a fictional narrative. Fern’s fictional story becomes a living, breathing part of the lives of the real nomads we meet and come to admire and care for. The boundaries between Fern’s fictional character and everything else are never clear and this makes for a deeply moving, thought-provoking and quite spiritual experience that at times felt almost meditative.

This setup only succeeds because of the visions and meticulous attention to detail from writer, director, producer and editor Chloé Zhao (nominated and hailed for all four aspects of her work). When she was led in the direction of Bruder’s book (by Frances McDormand who had bought the film rights), Zhao departed on her own journey on the road with partner and the film’s cinematographer, Joshua James Richards, to experience the lives of the nomads. This is where she initially met many of the nomads who end up playing pivotal parts in her narrative and heard the many stories of their lives and life philosophies. These stories are at the centre of a particularly touching scene around a fire as they share stories of lost jobs, mortgage loans, deaths of loved ones or terminal illness. This could point to the film being a depressive and somewhat sombre look at the many human fates in the shadows of the recession. That is, however, not the case. While the film obviously pinpoints the horrifying truth that many hard-working Americans still struggle to make enough money for a living, this is in no way the film’s main focus. Instead we get to see the joy, the community and the resilience that these people find in the midst of all the many struggles and challenges that life has thrown their way. As such ‘Nomadland’ becomes both an inspiring and beautiful tale.

As Fern, Frances McDormand is the film’s heart; she is as endearing as she is resilient as she adjusts to life on the road. McDormand is one of the finest actors around and it is difficult to imagine anyone else in this role. It says everything about her performance and commitment to the part, that Bob Wells (YouTube Star and nomad spiritual guide), who stars as himself, apparently didn’t realise she was an actor before after their scenes. This is a testament to McDormand’s humble way of engaging with the film’s non-actors. It feels real, it feels naturalistic and it feels sincere, and I actually think that it feels so, because it is so. And as such, McDormand’s acting is unlike anything I have seen before too. You get the feeling that she (as Fern) simply build relations with these people as equals; their dialogues feel real and, thus, their emotional connection becomes real too. David Strathairn is the film’s only other professional actor as the character, Dave, who plays a part in the second development in Fern’s character (apart from familiarising with nomad life): moving on from Bo without letting go of what was. Their chemistry is very natural and Strathairn could easily have come across as yet another “real character” if you were not paying attention. The way their relation develops is refreshing and very telling.

The film, however, belongs to the titular characters of the nomads of modern America. It would be wrong to say that they give good performances, because they do not perform; they simply are. Instead I will call them interesting and inspirational human beings. Among the many people we meet, I would like to highlight three: Linda May, Swankie and Derek. Each representing three different aspects of nomad lives, they each feature in three of the scenes that have really stayed with me. Linda May becomes Fern’s guide and confidant when introduced to the nomad life and you quickly come to care for her and as such her story of hitting rock bottom strikes really hard. Swankie is a powerhouse with whom Fern shares quite a few scenes that causes both laughs and pensiveness. When Swankie in a quiet moment with Fern tells an uplifting story of how good a life she has had despite all the hardship she has seen, it is one of the finest scenes of the year. In the scene, that Fern shares with Derek, a young man who she met briefly in an early scene, it is something completely different; Derek’s story inspires Fern to recite Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”.

A scene and recitation that is complemented by simply stunning magic-hour imagery by Richards, who throughout the film manages to not only capture the magic and tranquility of the western US but also the ‘endlessness’ that lies in these rocky, sandy surroundings. But his work in the human-centred scenes are not to be overlooked either. He manages to put us as viewers right in the middle of the relations, the conversations and the solitude of the vans. As such we get to explore this life by ourselves and I hope with all of my film-loving heart that I will get the opportunity to see this film on the big screen, because that’s really where it belongs. The sound work supports Richards’ mission and the exquisite music by Ludovico Einaudi heightens his panning compositions of the landscapes.

In the end we have to return to Chloé Zhao, though, because no Zhao, no ‘Nomadland’. She adapted Bruder’s story for the screen, she directed the two actors and allowed the real life people to simply be and she edited it all. It is Zhao who nurtured the grounds for ‘Nomadland’ to grow into what it has become: a living, breathing entity on its own. It might be criticised for not diving into the absurdity of the American financial system and the way it (mis)distributes the wealth, but that would be a narrow-minded stance in my opinion. ‘Nomadland’ exists in the shadows of this reality; just as the people whose story it tells. Instead of focusing on what got them there or what might have changed their opportunities it gives them a voice by showing the value, the joy and the power of their lifestyle. The borders between fact and fiction might be blurry or even invisible, but that is where the true beauty of Zhao’s film lies: it lives!

5/5

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evoedbd · 5 years ago

Text

Sleeping Dragons

Summery - After a very bad shift over University Break Runa is ready to kill someone... until she sees the most adorable sight the cafe has to offer.

Just a pure fluffy piece with some very minor cannon bending/alterations.

**************************************** She was done. Finished. Over it. Every other variation of “fed up” that could be imagined. If she had to deal with ONE more giant slug lecturing her on the finer points of cabbage preparation, she was going to be arrested again. For murder, this time, not a simple misdemeanour.

She announced this in the most nonverbal way possible whilst retaining her job. She attempted to drive her flats through the floor with every short, choppy stride she took. Every breath was punctuated with a loud huff, her best imitation of a dragon, one might conclude. A nymph blanched, raising the menu to hide her face as the Waitress passed. A centaur’s hooves clicked nervously against the floor. Emeril was intelligent enough to swerve the guests she was seating out of the Waitress’ way. Nobody was foolish enough to risk her wrath on the best of days, and this was far from a good day for one Runa Amberthorn.

The day had begun with accidentally waking an unusually moody Rong. That encounter started with outrage, ended with flame and singed pink hair. Then, there was the delay in pastries during the morning rush. Finally, it was that damned Slug. If his lecture wasn’t bad enough, he’d then tossed his soup AT her. Said soup was currently dripping from the tip of her nose. She was positive she’d be smelling the potent spices Roman had used for a week.

“Runa!” A female voice cut above the din of the cafe. Of course, there was always one person who didn’t get the hint. This time, that person was Nysa. An impossibly tall, lanky young woman who looked up (figuratively) to Runa as a big sister.

“Not now!” Runa barked, foot already resting on the first stair. All she needed to do was storm up them and she’d finally be away from the pesky customers. Away from talking Plants and walking Catfish. From prissy Lions with too much mane gel, and haughty Faeries.

“Its just that Amber didn’t want t-” Nysa’s voice faded off uncertainly. Runa’s glare had effectively silenced the other waitress. Without heed, the Charm Magician turned and continued up the stairs. Nysa’s hushed words and frantically waving hands were ignored. An irritation at the corner of Runa’s vision. Whatever it was could wait. Runa knew Amber, how the recently awoken Rong would take every opportunity to speak directly. The absence of a binding spell was staggering to them both. A rug pulled from beneath their feet. A missing sense. Despite the spell having been broken, their bodies refused to obey. They remained highly attuned to one another, enough that their hearts skipped a beat when entering one another’s presence. Consciously or not. Living side by side, it was a feeling Runa was familiar with. A skipped heartbeat stopped her dead in her tracks when she reached the top of the stairs. There was a thud. Nysa had bumped into Runa. She caught herself, letting her sentence trail off.

“-Be woken up...”

Strewn across the aged wooden coffee table were several books. The wings of a dragon spanned the sprawled open pages. Red stood out against the whites of paper clouds. Blue flames sparked between teeth. Two white mugs, rims covered with dried coco trails, sat beside the books, both emptied. These were only briefly noted by Runa. Her attention was stolen by the sight on the couch.

Amber was simply beautiful. All delicate curves and a notably feminine gentleness wherever Runa’s eyes wandered. A mass of golden brown spilled over the arm of the couch, golden brown waves cascading from above smooth, relaxed brows down to the middle of her back. A delicate nose perched on her face, with just enough hinting of a curve to give the finest touch of regality. It was a nose that was always active, with thin nostrils flaring at every new scent. Long lashes kissed the tops of Amber’s cherub cheeks, which invited the gentlest caress to trace along the curve to her refined jaw. Upon her petite lips lingered traces of a content smile; a smile so infectious it seemed to cause the air itself to pulse with a sense of peace with every breath.

One leg flopped off the couch, leaving her bare foot placed solidly on the ground. Amber’s lithe torso was sheltered by her uniform jacket, along with the slumbering form of a small Toddler. Amber had put her own arm through the wrong hole of the jacket, using it to form a net to protect the boy from falling off of her chest. Her other arm wrapped over the bundle, cradling the child close to her petite breasts. The Toddler, Cy, snored happily, burrowing his chubby face into the safety of Amber’s warm neck. Runa knew the appeal, after all, she had sought refuge there many times. Sought, and found. The scene almost reminded of a mother dragon, folding her wing over her egg in an effort to shield her babe from the harsh world.

“She really is amazing with him.” Nysa’s soft whisper wasn’t enough to tear Runa’s gaze away.

“Yeah. She is.” Runa agreed in a sweet whisper. It was enough to cause Nysa’s attention to snap to Charm Magician. A soft smile was birthed upon Runa’s lips as she watched the softly snoring woman and toddler. She couldn’t fight how her cheeks began to ache, nor the intense burning through her veins. Patches of heat lingered everywhere, warming her until she felt she may actually glow like an ember before it erupted into flame.

“She really is a fighter for the underdog.” Nysa noted with an awed tone. She stepped closer to Runa, watching the amusement flare across the Charm Magician’s face.

Runa remembered the scene when Cy had first arrived at Sweet Enchantments, and it was not a pretty one. An exhausted toddler had stumbled in wearing clothing several sizes too small, torn and cut to “fit”. His shirt not only restricted the movement of his arms but failed to cover his thin belly. Dirty wee toes poked out of holes in worn little shoes. His torn trousers dis nothing to conceal his bruised knees, which were crusty with dried blood. The poor boy dragged a bag used for disposal, which was entirely too large for him. In it were all his old belongings, no toys and clothes too small to be from even the same year. Nysa had broken. The young woman had sobbed violently, pleading for help from the adoption worker. The suited Lion had the decency to look apologetic, at least, but beyond that provided no help. No acceptable reason for Cy’s condition. All the Lion could state was that the family had chosen not to adopt him once his magic had shown. Dark magic. Exactly like his lowlife father. Amber had descended like a storm of holy wrath. In a few seconds, the child was in her reassuring arms, bag hanging from her hands and the darkest scowl anyone had ever seen plastered across her usually sweet face.

What followed was a tirade of outrage; words so cutting and criticising that the entire cafe had frozen in horror to listen. The Rong was utterly ruthless, decimating every procedure related to Cy with violent head bobs towards his condition when appropriate. She demanded explanations for why a blind eye was turned to the very evident neglect. She expressed how utterly inept the screening process of adopting families if such a discriminatory family could get their hands on a vulnerable child. How disgusting the utter lack of support was for the mother, who clearly had no better options for her baby. Next, she turned her focus on the Lion himself. How he could be so clueless as to the system that he couldn’t even offer her a direction to look. How he couldn’t even offer a moment of compassion to clean the dirty boy. It was believed that Lions rarely cowered, however Amber had the seven-foot creature shaking in his expensive shoes with the power of her rage. Amber had gone further, outright disapproving of the classist society that would punish an innocent boy for something beyond his control. Her conclusion: anybody who approved of this had better get the fuck out of the cafe before she lost it.

Nysa had stood there gaping. Emeril had actually taken shelter behind her hostess podium. Lucien and Roman had both watched from the entrance to the kitchens. Zane had walked into the room with the guests at the bar; his jaw dropped in utter awe. Liora herself had been halfway down the stairs, her calm demeanour concealing hesitation to intervene. Plates dropped from Runa’s hands, the smash the only sound in the cafe save the snarling breaths from Amber. Then, the break in tension everyone needed. Cy had begun to laugh.

There had never been a discussion over whether Cy was staying. Not with the Government, not with the Adoption Agency and certainly not with Liora. Silently, everyone involved had decided it best not to tempt fate when a maternal, hormonal human dragon was involved. Adapting to Cy had proven rather easy. He was Nysa’s son, but Amber was his protector, the dragon encircling the slumbering prince. He adored Emeril and her younger sisters, who came by frequently on the weekends. Liora and Lucien had earned the titles of Nana, much to Lucien’s abrasive disapproval. Apparently, his apron was a dress, and his objections entertained the toddler immensely. Roman was often called Braba, which the Chef took graciously. Zain, remarkably, had almost cried when Cy had timidly called him daddy for the first time. What perhaps had been the biggest shock, however, was how he addressed Runa. The Charm Magician was never given a family title, nor a role in the boy’s life that could be noted. Instead, she received something far more possessive than anyone had anticipated. Runa, to Cy, had become ine. It didn’t take a genius to figure out he intended the name to begin with an M. Runa had simply shrugged it off, assuming he had picked it up from Dante, or from Amber… honestly, the Charm Magican couldn’t quite tell.

“Trust me.” Runa began gently, her lips twitching into one of her rarest smiles as she watched the peaceful pair. Nysa had been privy to the later days. Days where Amber stepped up and helped the new staff learn whilst Runa was buried under legal documents. Nysa had watched Amber’s dedication to seeing Runa achieve college, to keep driving the Charm Magician forwards through everything. Yet, Nysa had never seen the early days. The days where, even timid as a mouse, Amber’s eyes blazed with determination. The girl who thrived off arguments with Runa, then burned the cafe with her redirected focus. That girl who would take no bullshit and give no excuse. The girl who had faced down giant wolves and driven herself to a magical blackout JUST for the slimmest of chances to save her friend. Nysa had seen that drive, but Runa would argue only she had experienced EVERY side of Amber’s stubbornness. Runa had started out as an obstacle, then a petulant child throwing a tantrum. She’d thrown her own will against Amber’s, locked horns, expected to win. When Amber flowed into another tactic, Runa had lost her footing. Even now, she continued to slip and slide deeper under the Rong’s spell. Runa wasn’t sure when she’d decided to enjoy the ride instead of fighting the force of nature, only that it had seemed like her idea. Thinking on it, that was probably Amber’s working. The gentle, disarming kindness getting under Runa’s plating. Rusting her defence from the inside out.

“You really have no idea.” She concluded. Well, she guessed she shouldn’t be so surprised. Afterall, she did have a knack for picking up dragons.

#voltage lovestruck #runa amberthorne #sweet enchantments #sweet enchantments runa #runa x mc

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