#but choose not to equally critique the story's male characters

[echodrops]

If the "straight women are much more likely to write a spicy and well-written m|m romance with complex male characters because they're naturally attracted to men" claim is correct, then why do straight male authors have acquired the stereotype of writing one-dimensional female characters and lame romances if they're naturally attracted to the opposite gender? Why do they prefer to focus so extensively on the male characters and their bromances then?

First, I think we need to clarify: Absolutely nowhere did I say the spicy mlm fanfics were uniformly "well-written." 😂 There are beautiful gems among fanfiction that have moved me to tears like nobody's business, but there's also just a whole lot of... not very... philosophically deep works out there. I don't want to sound mean, but just being brutally honest, I'd wager if we considered all fanfiction across all fanfic sites, a pretty solid majority of it wouldn't meet most people's definitions of truly "well-written." (Which is completely fine! Fanfic writers aren't getting paid! They're usually amateur authors who are writing for fun and often include younger writers just learning the ropes of grammar and character building for the first time! A fic doesn't have to be perfect to be enjoyable for readers!)

On top of that, let's also just be real--a lot of the explicit-content-for-explicit-content's-sake fics out there aren't really trying to write the most realistic and three dimensional male characters ever. They're trying to write sexy fics; realistically depicting men with life-accurate emotional depth and nuance is often... not the goal. 😂

Of course there are standout fanfics and incredible fanfiction authors. But, if we're being 100% transparent, I think a solid majority of fanfic authors don't actually write male characters that well. A lot of them have limited development, unrealistic or unclear motivations, out-of-character behavior, or a lack of interiority to their thoughts and feelings. A lot of times male characters in mlm fics are even reduced to caricatures of what women want men to do and feel. (I'm not judging here though--if a woman author is writing for women and her women readers want to see men who meet women's expectations, then hey, give the audience what they crave!) Just like Disney princes, a lot of men in fanfiction would seem very unrealistic and flat if you compared them to actual men from the real world!

I think we fanfic readers are just a bit biased, you know. If you're an average fanfic reader, I'm sure you've had the experience many times of being willing to give fic writers the benefit of the doubt even if their works aren't perfect--far more than you would give an actual published author or TV showrunner.

We don't scrutinize fanworks to the same extent that we scrutinize published media. Most people aren't grabbing someone else's fic and writing a ten page essay on how their male love interest wasn't properly fleshed out. Fanfic is full of poorly written men too, we're just not looking for the writing flaws when we read fanfics, at least not to the extent that meta analysts notice flaws in published media.

Side note that I also think is worth thinking about here: Because most fanfiction readers are female (and statistics suggest that a majority are even cisgender women), I think we're already at a slight disadvantage. Do female readers really have the most accurate perspectives on what realistic and three dimensional men would feel or act like? People are people, of course, but my perspective as a cisgender woman is never going to be as "100% genuine" as the perspective of someone who actually identifies as a man.

Second, and sorry, I know this is already long, but I think it's actually a mistake to buy into the stereotype that a majority of male authors can't write believable and interesting female characters. I think this illusion comes because fanfic fandoms congregate around very specific types of media, and often (though of course not always) that media is geared toward younger audiences. The bulk of the fandom claims that "male authors suck at writing women" come out of the shounen anime and young adult genres which are so prevalent in fandom spaces.

The target audiences for both these types of media are teenagers, who (I'm going to be completely honest) are usually not that picky about the development of the characters in the stories they read. I don't mean that no teenagers care about well-written stories (obviously there are many who do!), but that the typical standard for philosophical depth and nuance to which media for young adults is held is, for better or worse, lower than the standard we hold media for adults to.

We don't expect Twilight to be as deep as Moby-Dick. We don't expect My Hero Academia to be Maus.

This isn't an insult to young adult media; we have different genres of content for different reasons, and I definitely would not have wanted every single manga I read as a teenager to be as mentally or spiritually challenging as Moby-Dick. Content for teenagers should be designed to resonate with teenagers, both intellectually and emotionally. Many works for teens can have excellent writing and punch above their target audience demographic too. But the bulk majority of teenage readers are not (yet) going to be experts in literary criticism and sociocultural theories, capable of pounding out advanced meta analyses of the gender dynamics of characters in their favorite stories. Some will, but most won't.

Stories for young adults just don't have to hold up to that level of scrutiny, at least among their target audience.

At its core, however, the issue with the lower standards for depth of character building in young adult media is that it corresponds with lower standards for becoming popular as an author in fields such as YA lit and shounen manga. You don't have to be Leo Tolstoy or Emily Brontë to gain recognition among younger audiences. Sometimes, you don't even have to be good. Twilight was a roaring success, even while people lambasted it for being poorly written.

You don't have to be a literary giant whose books will be short-listed for addition to the canon of classical literature to develop a massive online fandom; Voltron was insanely popular despite being terribly written. 😂 You don't have to be god's gift to storytellers to become a popular shounen mangaka; Naruto is still one of the most popular manga in history and I hope no one genuinely thinks its characters were masterfully developed.

I'm not saying it doesn't take talent! It absolutely does! What I believe is that there's just not a guaranteed correspondence between "this author is popular and has a huge fandom" and "this author is actually good," especially in genres where the target audience is younger and therefore a little less likely to deeply critique the media they consume. Even if your characters--male or female--aren't that well-written, you can still get very, very popular in internet fandoms, especially with younger and more forgiving audiences, where only the rare few in the fandom will dedicate hours of their lives to performing meta analysis of your work, picking apart the writing quality and development of your characters.

So, long story longer: It's not that male writers overall are incapable of writing women. It's that a lot of fandoms spring up around kind-of-poorly written stories in the first place, and male authors who are not great at writing in general are equally unlikely to be great at writing women.

In fact, I'd suggest that male writers who are poor at writing women are probably also not great at writing men. Like, come on, don't tell me you think Bakugou and Midoriya's writing was good by the end of My Hero Academia.

Many popular authors with big fandoms are just being given more of a pass when it comes to writing poor male characters than they are with their female characters, and I'd argue that's likely because of the same reason I highlighted before: Their fandoms are dominated by women who like men and are willing to do more work to flesh out/fix the male characters they're interested in.

(It also helps that, with an overwhelming number of fic writers being female, they have less insight into truly depicting the male experience in authentic ways in the first place; if you are a woman, you're more likely to recognize a poorly written female character on the spot, while having at least slightly less ability to identify the unrealistic or inaccurate elements of male characters.)

Essentially, it's confirmation bias in action: We think men don't understand women, so we scrutinize male writers' depictions of women very closely, all while giving a pass to the fact that a lot of these writers just kind of suck at writing men too.

The "lame romances" in stories written by men aren't exclusively lame because of flat female characters--if the female character is flat, half the time the male character is flat too, and the romance is lame because the writer overall is... kind of lame... 😂

But why all the bromances? I wrote about this in my big long essay before, and I think there's plenty of very complicated reasons that men write so many male-male friendships and relationships into their story (re: coming from genuinely misogynist cultures, deliberately baiting fans with hints of BL, an actual internalized desire for greater emotional connection with fellow men due to perceived male loneliness, self-projection into their own characters, having been told they aren't good at writing women so they've given up, etc. etc.), but I honestly think one of the simplest reasons is genre. The majority of these "bromances" are coming from shounen manga, and shounen manga has some very common recurring tropes, chief among them being the whole "me and my ~RIVAL~" dynamic.

A lot of mainstream shounen stories have had such enormous success with this "young male protagonist and his best bro/rival/arch-enemy" dynamic that, frankly, I think many modern manga are just piggy-backing on the trope. "Dudes who beat each other up and become besties" has worked for so many series now that it's just become a staple of the entire genre.

I also think the market for Japanese manga in particular is very unique, with male manga artists recognizing--and capitalizing--on the power of the "fujoshi" reader early on. It's easy for shounen manga artists to see the benefits of over-stocking their stories with male characters and queerbait, because hinting at mlm ships they have no intention of ever paying out on 1) rarely reduces their male readership and 2) actually broadens their readership dramatically by deliberately bringing in female readers.

Basically, so long as the endgame is a het ship (or at least no ship), male readers will still read a story even if it has mlm shiptease, while more women will be drawn to the story for the mlm shiptease when they otherwise might not be that interested. There's no way to lose.

In essence, on the topic of queerbait, the shounen manga artists were just really savvy and realized faster that "having your cake and eating it too" is possible by incorporating a higher number of male-male relationships in their stories in order to broaden their readership and sales. Comparatively, western media was just much slower to cotton on to this technique, and I'd say it wasn't until relatively recently that western series have begun hyper-emphasizing male-male relationships specifically to appeal to women readers and viewers (see Supernatural, Good Omens, probably Teen Wolf [I don't actually go there so I can't confirm but I feel like this is true lol], etc.).

And, one final sidenote: I think it's difficult to compare published media to fanfic in terms of "featuring what you're sexually attracted to" because in published media, people are at least supposed to pretend their own sexual preferences aren't entirely warping the story, especially in young adult series (which have the biggest fanfic fandoms). Like... Compare: If you're a shounen manga artist you can get away with some panty shots but you can't be a flat out gooner--conversely, if you're a fanfic writer, you can write hardcore porn without hesitation. If we want to make an actual comparison in how much sex appeal sways character gender ratios in fanfic versus published media, I'd say the only comparable match would be comparing the ratio of female characters in harem anime and straight up hentai to the ratio of men in fanfics. We can't be out here comparing like... the original story content of Harry Potter (made for children, cannot be overly sexual) to its AO3 content (where nearly 40% of all HP fics are labeled explicit/mature). You gotta compare 18+ apples to apples.😂

Phew, sorry, that was a lot.

tl;dr: Tons of factors--yes, including misogyny--affect how men write women, but the issue of male writers being bad at writing women is likely being exaggerated in fandom spaces because 1) Fandoms are overwhelmingly female and women are better able to identify and critique poorly written female characters than anyone else, 2) Most of the biggest fandoms on the internet center around stories for younger audiences who haven't had enough time to develop strong media literacy and literary criticism skills, allowing writers to become popular without necessarily needing to be of highest quality, 3) Female fans are more willing to forgive poorly written male characters because they're more likely to be interested in and attracted to those male characters, and 3) A lot of writers just suck in general; it's not localized to just being shitty at writing women.

[tackletofset]

If I had to choose one word to describe "Dark Heir," it would be 'OTHERWORLDLY.'

[There will be NO SPOILERS in this Review, only vague hints]

“Critiquing the idea of a classic hero and a reclaiming of the queer villain”

These words are written under the blurb of the very ARC. Sadly, most people are still missing the point.

Dark Rise is my true love in the form of a book series. 

As a queer person who grew up sympathizing with villains (who are often queer-coded), this book series undoubtedly serves as a great form of escapism. I feel seen and understood. I found a home here.

Reading Dark Heir was a surreal experience, almost like a sudden storm hitting me all at once. It was like being pulled into a whirlwind. It is everything I could ever wish for!!!

I devoured this book in just TWO DAYS, which is unexpected given my typically SLOW reading pace. It's worth noting that Dark Heir is considerably longer than Dark Rise (with Dark Rise comprising 34 chapters and Dark Heir containing 51). It is also fueled by my eagerness to continue the story after a two-year wait, particularly following that cliffhanger!

Will has always been my favourite character since "Dark Rise," and this sequel only amplifies it. I perceive his struggles with the truth of his identity, as a metaphor for internalized queerphobia. Many queer youth, including myself, have been told that our queerness is evil and abhorrent, leading us to hide and deny our true selves in the pursuit of acceptance from others. Will's yearning for his friends' acceptance, especially from Violet, his best friend.

Many of us would be delighted to see that James has POV chapters in this book! It's great to see his perspective on not only his feelings about Will or Sarcean but also about his family history.

I'm equally excited about introducing the new character, Visander, and I'm thrilled that he can be interpreted as trans. Knowing that CS Pacat identifies as genderqueer/non-binary, I would like to see him writing more trans-coded characters. Visander is a character who fascinates me, as there are times when he can be both lovable and yet totally frustrates me.

Praise Pacat (again), who has been so generous to give us the “Surprise POVs” which made me scream and jump up and down at 2 a.m.

I seriously love the parts where we got to explore more of the Old World. The twists within them are both surprising and, in a way, expected. I've always held the belief that history was written by the victors, and as a result, the truth about the Dark King and the Betrayer was also lost in time. It was also very gratifying to see that the characters that were once hailed as the paragons of virtue were not so saint-like after all.

I hate classic heroes. I despise them and I won't even try to hide it.

Doubtlessly, the Old World chapters are my favourites. And I yearn to have even more of them in Book 3 because I want to know more details about how Sarcean came to power- and his downfall, and the full truth about his relationship with Anharion! I wouldn't mind the book stretching to 60+ chapters to accommodate it.

Pacat has indeed delivered on his promises to infuse this sequel with even more "on-page gay" content, so readers need not fret about the shortage of romance. They are plentiful, to say the least.

Now, returning to my initial point:

!!!Dark Rise is not a story about escaping an abusive male partner!!!

While numerous stories tackle this theme, and it is worth telling, this is not one of them.

This is a story about queer people reclaiming their identities. It speaks to those who have been vilified, demonized, alienated, and even disowned from a young age by the very individuals who should have shielded them—their parents and guardians.

They are continuously taught that their queerness is immoral, abhorrent, and despicable, leading them to believe they must conceal and deny their true selves, often feeling as though they are harbingers of evil and thus destined for condemnation. It sheds light on how queer youths grapple with internalized queerphobia due to an environment that refuses to accept them for who they are.

The accusations hurled at the "villainous figures" within this story mirror the stigma that the bigoted society frequently directs at queer individuals: that we’re lewd, vulgar degenerates, disease-spreaders and a danger to children. 

Dark Rise and Dark Heir underscores our society’s twisted morality that the only available paths for queer individuals are either to deny their queerness or face the gravest consequences. In other words: be converted or unalived.

For those of us who have been demonized and alienated by the people who were supposed to protect us—we are not evil. We do not deserve the abuse directed at us, and it is not our fault. There is nothing wrong with us. We deserve happiness, love, safety, and acceptance.

We should all be unapologetic and unafraid of our true selves, like James.

And oH MY GOD. THAT ENDING!!! You think the prologue was crazy??? You wouldn’t LIVE to see that ending.

I have fantasized about *that* final line before, but I thought it was cheesy and that it might be something more like Prince Gambit's "The King! Damianos! He lives!" but it was not like that at all 🤣🤣🤣

It's my dream cheesy line 💜💜💜

[louisianna]

I could write an entire essay (and perhaps one day I will) on how 'Furiosa' is Gothic fiction, a Gothic romance in particular, but I just need to talk about one key aspect of the relationship between Furiosa and Jack for a minute. A lot of discussion surrounding them has been about the nature of their relationship. Most people seem to love the ambiguity, myself included, and I think looking at it through a Gothic romance lens can help us understand why it works so well.

Most Gothic romances feature a heroine who is trapped inside a literal and/or figurative domestic space by a domineering man, typically a father or husband. Poor Furiosa gets both. Dementus imprisons her in the role of daughter. Immortan Joe imprisons her in the role of wife. These are restrictive domestic roles which have been forced upon her and which she cannot freely walk away from. Gothic romance is at its best when it is exposing and critiquing the cruelty of a patriarchal society and the unfair limitations it places upon women.

Furiosa evades attention by disguising herself as a boy. When Jack realises she is actually a woman, and that she is determined to leave the Wasteland, he immediately offers to help her get to wherever she needs to go. No questions asked. And what does Jack expect in return? Absolutely nothing. The trope of a good man, with experience, skill, and social standing, selflessly assisting the heroine, is quite common in Gothic romance.

Jack's words to Furiosa are never paternalistic. They speak to one another as equals. Dementus wanted to shape Furiosa in his own image, but Jack only wants to pass on what he knows. He doesn't want her to stay his protégé or sidekick. He wants her to be able to take care of herself. Until she asks him to come with her, he has every intention of letting her go her own way, leaving him behind.

Jack never comments on Furiosa's appearance. They dress as equals. Immortan Joe put Furiosa in delicate fabrics and planned to use her body for his own selfish desires, but Jack only ever touches Furiosa for her own sake. He doesn't want to possess her. He wants to protect her. He cleans and stitches up her wounds. He will place a comforting hand on her shoulder, only for as long as it takes for her to relax beneath his touch.

It's important to remember that this is a thematic tale being told to us by a History Man, a framing device which is extremely befitting of the Gothic genre. Within this legend, Jack and Furiosa's disregard for clearly defined domestic roles draws a stark contrast to the priorities of Dementus and Immortan Joe. It serves to highlight that their dynamic is free from patriarchal dominance. Whether their relationship is sexual or platonic, romantic or familial, is irrelevent. What matters is that their relationship is based upon genuine concern, deep respect, and unwavering trust. This is the lesson of their story, and it is a lesson for all to the hear. Jack does not merely represent a good father or a good husband or a good mentor. He represents it all. His character is fluid and multi-dimensional. His relationship with Furiosa is ever-shifting and all-encompassing. This allows him to be a role model to all men. But I digress from talking about Gothic fiction!

True domestic happiness for the Gothic romance heroine is only possible once she finds a companion who treats her as a peer; a social equal who gives her the freedom to choose and define the role she wishes to have in his life. It also requires finding or creating a refuge in which the heroine is safe from male power and violence. Furiosa found a more than worthy partner in Jack. Unfortunately, they didn't succeed in reaching freedom together.

Perhaps, in a less Gothic setting than the Wasteland, putting a name to what they were wouldn't have mattered so much. As it was, "my Jack" and "my Fury" was enough.

[princeescaluswords]

Though now I am wondering.... why *did* the "needed to be bullied by their Literature teachers" sect of fandom almost universally "side" with the Hale family? The Argent Family are just as rich, white and historied. Why choose the Hales as the "good" guys? Why not produce stories about Stiles joining up with the hunters and becoming second in command?

Well, it's Ronald Reagan's fault.

Beyond the obvious humor in that statement, I strongly feel there's more than a little truth. Literature has always been intertwined with the cultures and counter-cultures of the societies in which it exists, serving alternatively as critique, assault, or propaganda. This can be healthy, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, as long as the consumers of that literature and media recognize that they're not indolent and isolated observers in the culture but active participants. They're required to pay attention.

But back to the Eighties and 'Morning in America.' This decade was categorize by a powerful materialism in response to the impending demise of the American Dream. My generation (Generation X) and the generation before mine (Baby Boomers) had been raised in an America that was wealthy, powerful, and -- above all -- believed itself to be exceptional. And yet, we weren't happy. Things were supposed to be good, and yet, there had been the civil unrest of the Sixties, we had lost a war in Vietnam, and our economic power was fading into malaise. What had gone wrong and what was to be done about it?

As literature and media is wont to do, it proposed a solution: there was nothing wrong with America. We had been attacked. Conflict and competition were the natural state of humanity, and the only reason we weren't getting the happiness we deserve was that we were permitting others to take it from us.

Of course, not every piece of media followed this archetype, but one of the most popular television shows for over a decade was about a ruthless Texan oil tycoon who schemed and manipulated to get what he wanted. Movies were dominated by white action male heroes who delivered witty one-liners and sanitized ultra-violence with equal aplomb. In my opinion, J. R. Ewing; every action role played by Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Norris; Wolverine, the Punisher, the transformation of Batman into the Dark Knight; the tidal proliferation of copaganda shows with heroic officers who knew when to throw the rules out in order to make the case were all planted seeds. We saw the rise of an antihero who discarded the rule of law and the requirements of compassion in order to deliver the promise that these two generations were raised to expect.

And note, while these antiheroes were ruthlessly manipulating everyone around them and callously butchering the 'bad guys,' they weren't doing it as revolutionaries. They were defenders of the status quo. The 'bad guys' weren't people who were being greedy or selfish, they were those who were threatening the happiness of those who were supposed to be the most powerful, richest, most special people in the world.

What has that to do with the Hales and parts of the fandom? Well, in my opinion, everything. Whether you see them as 'anti-hero defenders of the white male exceptionalism' or 'protectors of the promise', there are a lot of similarities between these types of character and Hales. I mean, Peter Hale could easily be the protagonist of the Death Wish-like film series or any number of revenge fantasies. Derek Hale could easily be the Lost Prince denied his proper place by the actions of others who must claim what is his by right and in so doing restore the world to its proper order. Both of them act to restore what was taken from them, what they deserved by the virtue of their very nature.

I also want to point out that one of the main criticisms of the action fiction of the 80s was how often the people taking were others -- and it tended to be people who weren't in the same class/race/creed of the antihero. It's not strange at all that they look at Scott, who is not of the same class as the Hales, not the same race as the Hales, and doesn't believe in the same things as the Hales, and not see him as the invader, the intruder, the enemy.

So, it was relatively easy for parts of the fandom to expect, to want, to need the same type of narrative that had become popular in the 80s and never really went away, but the problem remains that Teen Wolf wasn't that type of narrative. Its major theme was 'being hurt doesn't give you the right to hurt others' and that's the antithesis of the genre about which I've been talking. In fact, given the way the production tackled privileged people like the Hales, the Argents, and the Alpha Pack, I think that the production intended to criticize that line of thinking.

And that's why I agree with the bullying English teachers. Parts of the fandom came in, saw some surface similarities to previously consumed media, yet didn't pay close enough attention to what was actually happening on the show, so they feel frustrated by the fact that it didn't follow the expected genre. And it's not just Teen Wolf -- how many people went into the most recent Stars Wars trilogy and missed the entire critique of fascism in order to pursue yet another Lost Prince story?

They wouldn't have been as surprised that Scott McCall was the lead protagonist of the show if they had left their jealous materialism and white exceptionalism back in the 80s where it belonged.

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

The Importance of Antiheroes

By Brooksie C. Fontaine (me) and Sara R. McKearney 

Few tropes are as ubiquitous as that of the hero. He takes the form of Superman, ethically and non-lethally thwarting Lex Luthor. Of Luke Skywalker, gazing wistfully at twin suns and waiting for his adventure to begin. In pre-Eastwood era films, a white Stetson made the law-abiding hero easily distinguishable from his black-hatted antagonists. He is Harry Potter, Jon Snow, T’Challa, Simba. He is of many incarnations, he is virtually inescapable, and he serves a necessary function: he reminds us of what we can achieve, and that regardless of circumstance, we can choose to be good. We need our heroes, and always will.

But equally vital to the life-blood of any culture is his more nebulous and difficult to define counterpart: the antihero. Whereas the hero is defined, more or less, by his morality and exceptionalism, the antihero doesn’t cleanly meet these criteria. Where the hero tends to be confident and self-assured, the antihero may have justifiable insecurities. While the hero has faith in the goodness of humanity, the anthero knows from experience how vile humans can be. While the hero typically respects and adheres to authority figures and social norms, the antihero may rail against them for any number of reasons. While the hero always embraces good and rejects evil, the antihero may do either. And though the hero might always be buff, physically capable, and mentally astute, the antihero may be average or below.  The antihero scoffs at the obligation to be perfect, and our culture's demand for martyrdom. And somehow, he is at least as timeless and enduring as his sparklingly heroic peers. 

Which begs the question: where did the antihero come from, and why do we need him?

The Birth of the Anti-Hero:

It is worth noting that many of the oldest and most enduring heroes would now be considered antiheroes. The Greek Heracles was driven to madness, murdered his family, and upon recovering had to complete a series of tasks to atone for his actions. Theseus, son of Poseidon and slayer of the Minotaur, straight-up abandoned the woman who helped him do it. And we all know what happened to Oedipus, whose life was so messed up he got a complex named after him. 

And this isn’t just limited to Ancient Greece: before he became a god, the Mesoamerican Quetzalcoatl committed suicide after drunkenly sleeping with his sister. The Mesopotamian Gilgamesh – arguably the first hero in literature – began his journey as a slovenly, hedonistic tyrant. Shakespearian heroes were denoted with an equal number of gifts and flaws – the cunning but paranoid Hamlet, the honorable but gullible Othello, the humble but power-hungry MacBeth – which were just as likely to lead to their downfall as to their apotheosis.

There’s probably a definitive cause for our current definition of hero as someone who’s squeaky clean: censorship. With the birth of television and film as we know it, it was, for a time, illegal to depict criminals as protagonists, and law enforcement as antagonists. The perceived morality of mainstream cinema was also strictly monitored, limiting what could be portrayed. Bonnie and Clyde, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Scarface, The Godfather, Goodfellas, and countless other cinematic staples prove that such policies did not endure, but these censorship laws divorced us, culturally, from the moral complexity of our most resonant heroes. 

Perhaps because of the nature of the medium, literature arguably has never been as infatuated with moral purity as its early cinematic and T.V. counterparts. From the Byronic male love interests of the Bronte sisters, to “Doctor” Frankenstein (that little college dropout never got a PhD), to Dorian Grey, to Anna Karenina, to Scarlett O’Hara, to Holden Caulfield, literature seems to thrive on morally and emotionally complex individuals and situations. Superman punching a villain and saving Lois Lane is compelling television, but doesn’t make for a particularly thought-provoking read. 

It is also worth noting, however, that what we now consider to be universal moral standards were once met with controversy: Superman’s story and real name – Kal El – are distinctly Jewish, in which his doomed parents were forced to send him to an uncertain future in a foreign culture. Captain America punching Nazis now seems like a no-brainer, but at the time it was not a popular opinion, and earned his Jewish creators a great deal of controversy. So in a manner of speaking, some of the most morally upstanding heroes are also antiheroes, in that they defied society’s rules. 

This brings us to our concluding point: that anti-heroes can be morally good. The complex and sometimes tragic heroes of old, and today’s antiheroes, are not necessarily immoral, but must often make difficult choices, compromises, and sacrifices. They are flawed, fallible, and can sometimes lead to their own downfall. But sometimes, they triumph, and we can cheer them for it. This is what makes their stories so powerful, so relatable, and so necessary to the fabric of our culture. So without further ado, let’s have a look at some of pop-culture’s most interesting antiheroes, and what makes them so damn compelling. 

Note:  For the purposes of this essay, we will only be looking at male antiheroes. Because the hero’s journey is traditionally so male-oriented, different standards of subversiveness, morality, and heroism apply to female protagonists, and the antiheroine deserves an article all her own.

Antiheroes show us the negative effects of systematic inequalities (and what they can do to gifted people.) 

As demonstrated by: Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders.

Why he could be a hero: He’s incredibly charismatic, intelligent, and courageous. He deeply cares for his loved ones, has a strict code of honor, reacts violently to the mistreatment of innocents, and demonstrates surprisingly high levels of empathy. 

Why he’s an antihero: He also happens to be a ruthless, incredibly violent crime lord who regularly slashes out his enemies’ eyes. 

What he can teach us: From the moment Tommy Shelby makes his entrance, it becomes apparent that Peaky Blinders will not unfold like the archetypical crime drama. Evocative of the outlaw mythos of the Old West, Tommy rides across a smoky, industrialized landscape. He is immaculately dressed, bareback, on a magnificent black horse. A rogue element, his presence carries immediate power, causing pedestrians to hurriedly clear a path. You get the sense that he does not conform to this time or era, nor does he abide by the rules of society.

The ONLY acceptable way to introduce a protagonist.

Set in the decades between World War I and II, Peaky Blinders differentiates itself from its peers, not just because of its distinctive, almost Shakespearian style of storytelling, powerful visual style, and use of contemporary music, but also in the manner in which it shows that society provokes the very criminality it attempts to vanquish. Moreover, it dedicates time to demonstrating why this form of criminality is sometimes the only option for success in an unfair system. When the law wants to keep you relegated to the station in which you were born, success almost inevitably means breaking the rules. Tommy is considered one of the most influential characters of the decade because of the manner in which he embodies this phenomenon, and the reason why antiheroes pervade folklore across the decades.

Peaky Blinders engenders a unique level of empathy within its first episodes, in which we are not just immersed in the glamour of the gangster lifestyle, but we understand the background that provoked it. Tommy, who grew up impoverished and discriminated against due to his “didicoy” Romany background, volunteered to fight for his country, and went to war as a highly intelligent, empathetic young man. He returned with the knowledge that the country he had served had essentially used him and others like him as canon fodder, with no regard for their lives, well-being, or future. Such veterans were often looked down upon or disregarded by a society eager to forget the war. Having served as a tunneler – regarded to be the worst possible position in a war already beset by unprecedented brutality – Tommy’s constant proximity to death not only destroyed his faith in authority, but also his fear of mortality. This absence of fear and deference, coupled with his incredible intelligence, ambition, ruthlessness, and strategic abilities, makes him a dangerous weapon, now pointed at the very society that constructed him to begin with. 

It is also difficult to critique Tommy’s criminality, when we take into account that society would have completely stifled him if he had abided by its rules. As someone of Romany heritage, he was raised in abject poverty, and never would have been admitted into situations of higher social class. Even at his most powerful, we see the disdain his colleagues have at being obligated to treat him as an equal. In one particularly powerful scene, he begins shoveling horse manure, explaining that, “I’m reminding myself of what I’d be if I wasn’t who I am.” If he hadn’t left behind society’s rules, his brilliant mind would be occupied only with cleaning stables.

However, the necessity of criminality isn’t depicted as positive: it is one of the greatest tragedies of the narrative that society does not naturally reward the most intelligent or gifted, but instead rewards those born into positions of unjust privilege, and those who are willing to break the rules with intelligence and ruthlessness. Each year, the trauma of killing, nearly being killed, and losing loved ones makes Tommy’s PTSD increasingly worse, to the point at which he regularly contemplates suicide. Cillian Murphy has remarked that Tommy gets little enjoyment out of his wealth and power, doing what he does only for his family and “because he can.” Steven Knight cites the philosophy of Francis Bacon as a driving force behind Tommy’s psychology: “Since it’s all so meaningless, we might as well be extraordinary.” 

This is further complicated when it becomes apparent that the upper class he’s worked so arduously to join is not only ruthlessly exclusionary, but also more corrupt than he’s ever been. There are no easy answers, no easy to pinpoint sources of societal or personal issues, no easy divisibility of positive and negative. This duality is something embraced by the narrative, and embodied by its protagonist. An intriguingly androgynous figure, Tommy emulated the strength and tenacity of the women in his life, particularly his mother; however, he also internalized her application of violence, even laughing about how she used to beat him with a frying pan. His family is his greatest source of strength and his greatest weakness, often exploited by his enemies who realize they cannot fall back on his fear of mortality. He feels emotions more strongly than the other characters, and ironically must numb himself to the world around him in order to cope with it.

However, all hope is not lost. Creator Steven Knight has stated that his hope is ultimately to redeem Tommy, so by the show’s end he is “a good man doing good things.” There are already whispers of what this may look like: as an MP, Tommy cares for Birmingham and its citizens far more than any “legitimate” politicians, meeting with them personally to ensure their needs are met; as of last season, he attempted a Sinatra-style assassination of a rising fascist simply because it was the right thing to do. “Goodness” is an option in the world of Peaky Blinders; the only question is what form it will take on a landscape plagued by corruption at every turn. 

Regardless of what form his “redemption” might take, it’s negligible that Tommy will ever meet all the criteria of an archetypal hero as we understand it today. He is far more evocative of the heroes of Ancient Greece, of the Old West, of the Golden Age of Piracy, of Feudal Japan – ferocious, magnitudinous figures who move and make the earth turn with them, who navigate the ever-changing landscapes of society and refuse to abide by its rules, simultaneously destructive and life-affirming. And that’s what makes him so damn compelling.

Who needs traditional morality, when you look this damn good?

Other examples: 

Alfie Solomons from Peaky Blinders. Tommy’s friend and sometimes mortal enemy, the two develop an intriguing, almost romantic connection due to their shared experiences of oppression and powerful intellects. Steven Knight has referred to Alfie as “the only person Tommy can really talk to,” possibly because he is Tommy’s only intellectual equal, resulting in a strange form of spiritual matrimony between the two.

Omar Little from The Wire, an oftentimes tender and compassionate man who cares deeply for his loved ones, and does his best to promote morality and idealism in a society which offers him few viable methods of doing so. He may rob drug dealers at gunpoint, but he also refuses to harm innocents, dislikes swearing, and views his actions as a method of decreasing crime in the area. 

Chiron from Moonlight, a sensitive and empathetic young man who became a drug dealer because society had provided him with virtually no other options for self-sustenance. The same could be said for Chiron’s mentor and father figure, Juan, a kind and nurturing man who is also a drug dealer. 

To a lesser extent, Tony from The Sopranos, and other fictional Italian American gangsters. The Sopranos often negotiates the roots of mob culture as a response to  inequalities, while also holding its characters accountable for their actions by pointing out that Tony and his ilk are now rich and privileged and face little systematic discrimination.

Walter White from Breaking Bad – an underpaid, chronically disrespected teacher who has to work two jobs and still can’t afford to pay for medical treatment. More on him on the next page. 

Antiheroes show us how we can be the villains. 

As demonstrated by: Walter White from Breaking Bad. 

Why he could be a hero: He’s a brilliant, underappreciated chemist whose work contributed to the winning of a Nobel Prize. He’s also forging his own path in the face of incredible adversity, and attempting to provide for his family in the event of his death.

Why he’s an antihero: In his pre-meth days, Walt failed to meet the exceptionalism associated with heroes, as a moral but socially passive underachiever living an unremarkable life. At the end of his transformation, he is exceptional at what he does, but has completely lost his moral standards.

What he can teach us: G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Fairy tales do not tell children that the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Following this analogy, it is equally important that our stories show us we, ourselves, can be the dragon. Or the villain, to be more specific, because being a dragon sounds strangely awesome.

Walter White of Breaking Bad is a paragon of antiheroism for a reason: he subverts almost every traditional aspect of heroism. From the opening shots of Walt careening along in an RV, clad in tighty whities and a gas mask, we recognize that he is neither physically capable, nor competent in the manner we’ve come to expect from our heroes. He is not especially conventionally attractive, nor are women particularly drawn to him. He does not excel at his career or garner respect. As the series progresses, Walt does develop the competence, confidence, courage, and resilience we expect of heroes, but he is no longer the moral protagonist: he is self-motivated, vindictive, and callous. And somehow, he still remains identifiable, which is integral to his efficacy.

But let us return to the beginning of the series, and talk about how, exactly, Walt subverts our expectations from the get-go. Walt is the epitome of an everyman: he’s fifty years old, middle class, passive, and worried about identifiable problems – his health, his bills, his physically disabled son, and his unborn baby. Whereas Tommy Shelby’s angelic looks, courage, and intellect subvert our preconceptions about what a criminal can be, Walt’s initial unremarkability subverts our preconceptions about who can be a criminal. The hook of the series is the idea that a man so chronically average could make and distribute meth.

Just because an audience is hooked by a concept, however, does not mean that they’ll necessarily continue watching. Breaking Bad could have easily veered into ludicrosity, if it weren’t for another important factor: character. Walt is immediately and intensely relatable, and he somehow retains our empathy for the entirety of the series, even at his least forgivable.

When we first meet Walt, his talents are underappreciated, he’s overqualified for his menial jobs, chronically disrespected by everyone around him, underpaid, and trapped in a joyless, passionless life in which the highlight of his day is a halfhearted handjob from his distracted wife. And to top it all off? He has terminal lung cancer. Happy birthday, Walt.

We root for him for the same reason we root for Dumbo, Rudolph, Harry Potter: he’s an underdog. The odds are stacked against him, and we want to see him triumph. Which is why it’s cathartic, for us and for Walt, when he finally finds a profession in which he can excel – even if that profession is the ability to manufacture incredibly high-quality meth. His former student Jesse Pinkman – a character so interesting that there’s a genuine risk he’ll hijack this essay – appreciates his skill, and this early appreciation is what makes his relationship with Jesse feel so much more genuine than Walt’s relationship with his family, even as their dynamic becomes increasingly unhealthy and Walt uses Jesse to bolster his meth business and his ego. This deeply dysfunctional but heartfelt father-son connection is Walt’s tether to humanity as he becomes increasingly inhumane, while also demonstrating his descent from morality. It has been pointed out that one can gauge how far-gone Walt is from his moral ideals by how much Jesse is suffering.

But to return to the initial point, it is imperative that we first empathize with Walt in order to adequately understand his descent. Aside from the fact that almost all characters are more interesting if the audience can or wants to empathize with them, Walt’s relatability makes it easy to understand our own potential for toxic and destructive behaviors. We are the protagonist of our own story, but we aren’t necessarily its hero.

Similarly, we understand how easily we can justify destructive actions, and how quickly reasonable feelings of anger and injustice swerve into self-indulgent vindication and entitlement. Walt claims to be cooking meth to provide for his family, and this may be partially true; but he also denies financial help from his rich friends out of spite, and admits later to his wife Skylar that he primarily did it for himself because he was good at it and “it made (him) feel alive.”

This also forces us to examine our preconceptions, and essentially do Walt’s introspections for him: whereas Peaky Blinders emphasize the fact that Tommy and his family would never have been able to achieve prosperity by obeying society’s laws, Walt feels jilted out of success he was promised by a meritocratic system that doesn’t currently exist. He has essentially achieved our current understanding of the American dream – a house with a pool, a beautiful wife and family, an honest job – but it left him unable to provide for his wife and children or even pay for his cancer treatment. He’s also unhappy and alienated from his passions and fellow human beings. With this in mind, it’s understandable – if absurd – that the only way he can attain genuine happiness and excel is through becoming a meth cook. In this way, Breaking Bad is both a scathing critique of our current society, and a haunting reminder that there’s not as much standing between ourselves and villainy as we might like to believe.  

So are we all slaves to this system of entitlement and resentment, of shattered and unfulfilling dreams? No, because Breaking Bad provides us with an intriguing and vital counterpoint: Jesse Pinkman. Whereas Walt was bolstered with promises that he was gifted and had a bright future ahead of him, Jesse was assured by every authority figure in his life that he would never amount to anything. However, Jesse proves himself skilled at what he’s passionate about: art, carpentry, and of course, cooking meth. Whereas Walt perpetually rationalizes and shirks responsibility, Jesse compulsively takes responsibility, even for things that weren’t his fault. Whereas Walt found it increasingly acceptable to endanger or harm bystanders, Jesse continuously worked to protect innocents – especially children – from getting hurt. Though Jesse suffered immensely throughout the course of the show – and the subsequent movie, El Camino – the creators say that he successfully made it to Alaska and started a carpentry business. Some theorists have supposed that Jesse might be a Jesus allegory – a carpenter who suffers for the sins of others. Regardless of whether this is true, it is interesting, and amusing to imagine Jesus using the word “bitch” so often. Though he didn’t get the instant gratification of immediate success that Walt got, he was able to carve (no pun intended – carpentry, you know) a place for himself in the world. 

Jesse isn’t a perfect person, but he reminds us that improving ourselves and creating a better life is an option, even if Walt’s rise to power was more initially thrilling. So take heart: there’s a bit of Heisenberg in all of us, but there’s also a bit of Jesse Pinkman. 

The savior we all need, but don’t deserve.

Other examples:

Bojack from Bojack Horseman. Like Walt, the audience can’t help but empathize with Bojack, understand his decision-making, and even see ourselves in him. However, the narrative ruthlessly demonstrates the consequences of his actions, and shows us how negatively his selfishness and self-destructive qualities impact others.   

Again, Tony Soprano. Tony, even at his very worst, is easy to like and empathize with. Despite his position as a mafia Godfather, he’s unfailingly human. Which makes the destruction caused by his actions all the more resonant.

Antiheroes emphasize the absurdity of contemporary culture (and how we must operate in it.)

As demonstrated by: Marty Byrde from Ozark.

Why he could be a hero: He’s a loving father who ultimately just wants to provide for and ensure the safety of his family. He’s also fiercely intelligent, with excellent negotiative, interpersonal, and strategic skills that allows him to talk his way out of almost any situation without the use of violence.

Why he’s an antihero: He launders money for a ruthless drug cartel, and has no issue dipping his toes into various illegal activities.

Why he’s compelling: Marty is an antihero of the modern era. He has a remarkable ability to talk his way into or out of any situation, and he’s also a master of using a pre-constructed system of rules and privileges to his benefit.

In the very first episode, he goes from literally selling the American Dream, to avoiding murder at the hands of a ruthless drug cartel by planning to launder money for them in the titular Ozarks. Despite his long history of dabbling in illegality, Marty has no firearms – a questionable choice for someone on the run from violent drug kingpins, but a testament to his ability to rely on his oratory skills and nothing else. He doesn’t hesitate to engage an apparently violent group of hillbillies to request the return of his stolen cash, because he knows he can talk them into giving it back to him. The only time he engages other characters in physical violence, he immediately gets pummeled, because physical altercation has never been his form of currency. Not that he’s subjected to physical violence particularly often, either: Marty is a master of the corporate landscape, which makes him a master of the criminal landscape. He is brilliant at avoiding the consequences of his actions. 

It’s easy to like and admire Marty for his cleverness, for being able to escape from apparently impermeable situations with words as his only weapon. He’s got a reassuring, dad-ly sort of charisma that immediately endears the viewer, and offers respite from the seemingly endless threats coming from every direction. He unquestionably loves his family, including his adulterous wife. As such, it’s easy to forget that Marty is being exploited by the same system that exploits all of us: crony capitalism. The polar opposite of meritocratic capitalism – in which success is based on hard work, ingenuity, and, hence the name, merit – crony capitalism benefits only the conglomerates that plague the global landscape like cancerous warts, siphoning money off of workers and natural capital, keeping them indentured with basic necessities and the idle promise of success.

Marty isn’t benefiting from his hard work in the Ozarks. Everything he makes goes right back to the drug cartel who continuously threatens the life of him and his family. He is rewarded for his efforts with a picturesque house, a boat, and the appearance of success, but he is not allowed to keep the fruits of his labor. Marty may be an expert at navigating the corporate and criminal landscape, but it still exploits him. In this manner, Marty embodies both the American business, the American worker, and a sort of inversion of the American dream.

In this same manner, Marty, the other characters, and even the Ozarks themselves embody the modern dissonance between appearance and reality. Marty’s family looks like something you’d respect to see on a Christmas card from your DILF-y, successful coworker, but it’s bubbling with dysfunctionality. His wife is cheating on him with a much-older man, and instead of confronting her about it, he first hired a private investigator and then spent weeks rewatching the footage, paralyzed with options and debating what to do. The problem somewhat solves itself when his wife’s lover is unceremoniously murdered by the cartel, and Wendy and Marty are driven into a sort of matrimonial business partnership motivated by the shared interest of protecting their children, but this also further demonstrates how corporate even their family dealings have become. His children, though precocious, are forced to contend with age-inappropriate levels of responsibility and the trauma of sudden relocation, juxtaposed with a childhood of complete privilege up until this point.

Conversely, the shadow of the Byrde family is arguably the Langmores. Precocious teenagers Ruth and Wyatt can initially be shrugged off as local hillbillies and budding con-artists, but much like the Shelby family of the Peaky Blinders, they prove to be extremely intelligent individuals suffering beneath a society that doesn’t care about their stifled potential. Systemic poverty is a bushfire that spreads from one generation to the next, stoked by the prejudices of authority figures and abusive parental figures who refuse to embrace change out of a misguided sense of class-loyalty. 

Almost every other character we meet eventually inverts our expectations of them: from the folksy, salt-of-the-earth farmers who grow poppies for opium and murder more remorselessly than the cartel itself, to the cookie-cutter FBI agent whose behavior becomes increasingly volatile and chaotic, to the heroin-filled Bibles handed out by an unknowing preacher, to the secrets hidden by the lake itself, every detail conveys corruption hidden behind a postcard-pretty picture of tranquility and success.

Marty’s awareness of this illusion, and what lurks behind it, is perhaps the greatest subversion of all. Marty knows that the world of appearance and the world of reality coexist, and he was blessed with a natural talent for navigating within the two. Like Walter White, Marty makes us question our assumptions about who a criminal can be – despite the fact that many successful, attractive, middle-aged family men launder money and juggle criminal activities, it’s still jarring to witness, which tells us something about how image informs our understanding of reality. Socially privileged, white-collar criminals simply have more control over how they’re portrayed than an inner-city gang, or impoverished teenagers. However, unlike Walt, Marty’s criminal activities are not any kind of middle-aged catharsis: they’re a way of life, firmly ingrained in the corporate landscape. They were present long before he arrived on the scene, and he knows it. He just has to navigate them. 

Just like our shining, messianic heroes can teach us about truth, justice, and the American way, so too does each antihero have something to teach us: they teach us that society doesn’t reward those who follow its instructions, nor does it often provide an avenue of morality. Even if you live a life devoid of apparent sin, every privilege is paid for by someone else’s sacrifice. But the best antiheroes are not beacons of nihilism – they show us the beauty that can emerge from even the ugliest of situations. Peaky Blinders is, at its core, a love story between Tommy Shelby and the family he crawled out of his grave for, just as Breaking Bad is ultimately a deeply dysfunctional tale of a father figure and son. Ozark, like its predecessors, is about family – the only authenticity in a society that operates on deception, illusion, and corruption. They teach us that even in the worst times and situations, love can compel us, redeem us, bind us closer together. Only then can we face the dragons of life, and feel just a bit more heroic.

Other examples:

Don Draper from Mad Men. A similarly Shakespearian figure for the modern era, Don is a man who appears to have everything – perfect looks, a beautiful wife and children, a prestigious job. He could have stepped out of an ad for the American Dream. And yet, he feels disconnected from his life, isolated from others by the very societal rules he, as a member of the ad agency, helps to propagate. It helps that he’s literally leading a borrowed life, inherited from the stolen identity of his deceased fellow soldier, and was actually an impoverished, illegitimate farmboy whose childhood abuse permanently damaged his ability to form relationships. The Hopper-esque alienation evoked by the world of Mad Men really deserves an essay all it’s own, and his wife Betty – whose Stepford-level mask of cheerful subservience hides seething unhappiness and unfulfilled potential – is a particularly intriguing figure to explore. Maybe in my next essay, on the importance of the antiheroine.

[hb-pickle]

Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets Review Essay

Why Sensitivity Readers Are Always Necessary

Before I start, I would like to make it very clear that this review only critiques the aspects of colonialism and representation in Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets. I will not be discussing the romance, side characters or anything else like that. Also, I would like to make it very clear that none of this review is meant to personally attack or berate the author @marimancusi . I firmly believe that none of the cultural insensitivities in her book were intentional, but were simply the result of a non-indigenous, white author writing about experiences she could not personally relate to. My only goals for writing this review is to show the author how her book unintentionally perpetuated many harmful and outdated ideas about racism and colonialism, and to convince her and Disney to contact and hire sensitivity readers before they create content about vulnerable racial/ethnic groups. 

I would also like to state that I am an African American woman and not indigienous, so I have personal experiences with racism and colonialism towards black people, but not towards indigenous communities. So if any indigenous people see problems or inaccuracies with my review, I would be happy to listen and put your voice first.

- - -

To summarize quickly (with full context), Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets is about Iduna, a young indigenous Northuldra girl (oppressed racial/ethnic minority) who was suddenly and violently separated from her home and family when her people were betrayed and attacked by the Arendellians (colonizing class). As a result of the massacre battle between the two groups, Iduna is permanently separated from her home (caused by a magical and impenetrable mist) and forced to spend the rest of her days in the kingdom of Arendelle, where she lives in almost constant fear of being exposed as a Northuldran (for the townsfolk are violently bigoted against them). Naturally, this book contains many many depictions of racial hatred and bigotry along with exploring the mindset and fears of a young girl dealing with the brunt of colonialism. Unfortunately, it tends to fumble the seriousness of these situations (out of ignorance or out of a desire to keep the book lighthearted/to center the romance plotline), which results in an overall detrimental message to the audience. The missteps I specifically want to unpack are as follows.

- (1/5) Severs Iduna’s connection to her culture before the story even begins (making us feel less empathetic for the Northuldra’s plight) 

I’m not 100% certain, but my understanding is that the purpose of making Iduna a double orphan was to make her more sympathetic and to give her a reason to save Agnarr’s life (to have compassion for a stranger, the same way her adoptive family did for her). In theory this is perfectly fine, quickly establishing that the audience should like Iduna is smart and so is rationalizing her most important, life changing decision. But in practice this only functions to distance Iduna from her culture and family and make the reader care less about the Northuldra. This is because it takes away Iduna’s chance to have a strong, palpable relationship with a specific Northuldra character, which would humanize their entire group (even if only in memory). The only Northuldra characters that Iduna mentions more than once is her mother and Yelena. Both of these characters are mentioned rarely, neither have a close relationship with Iduna (her mother dying 7 years before the events of the story), nor do either of them have any specific personality traits or lines of dialogue (Yelena has exactly one line and it is about knitting). The goal of a story about a child unjustly stolen from her home should be to explore why those acts of violence were so horrific. The very first step of exploring that is to humanize the victims. After all, why would a reader care about the injustices done to a group of people who barely exist? How are we, the readers, supposed to feel bad for Iduna and mourn her family like she does, if we barely know them?

We needed more of Iduna’s memories. We needed to learn about her friends, her family, her mother and Yelena. What were they really like? How did they love Iduna? What were their last words to her before she never saw them again? Didn’t Iduna care for them? Did she worry about their well being and miss their comforts? We need to hear about how she bonded with them, how they made her feel, how they made her laugh or cry. How they taught her to hunt, forage, and knit so that when we hear how the Arendellians speak of them, with such ignorance and contempt, we are as truly disgusted and offended as we should be. 

- (2/5) Equates Iduna and Agnarr’s suffering, aggressively downplaying the brutality of colonialism (even to the point of prioritizing Agnarr’s needs)

First things first, I understand that Dangerous Secrets is a modern day romance novel for older children/teens so an equal power balance between Agnarr and Iduna is preferred (which I agree with). But, this balance extends past the romance and personalities and into attempting to portray Agnarr and Iduna’s suffering as equal. This is best exemplified in these lines of internal dialogue by Iduna:

I did not deserve to be locked away from everyone I loved. But Agnarr did not deserve to die alone on the forest floor because he’d had a fight with his father. Whatever happened that day to anger the spirits and cause all of this, it was not his fault. Nor was it mine. And while we might be on different sides of this fight, we had both lost so much. Our friends. Our family. Our place in the world. In an odd way we were more alike than different. (Page 67)

All of this is technically true, up until the very last line about them being “more alike than different”. Agnarr and Iduna’s lives are nothing alike. Iduna is a poor, indigenous girl who had everyone she ever knew or loved either killed or permanently taken away from her, stolen from her home and forced to spend the rest of her life living in a foreign kingdom rife with people who actively, consistently threaten her safety. While Agnarr, on the other hand, is a white male member of the royal family, heir to the throne, and extremely wealthy. The novel doesn’t shy away from this (at least on Agnarr’s part), and doesn’t hesitate to show us that Agnarr is royalty and will never experience what Iduna has to endure. But it behaves like Agnarr’s relatively petty, temporary, and incomparable ills are just as heartbreaking as Iduna’s and focuses significantly more time and energy building up empathy for him and his woes. This extends from small things like the book asserting that the few times Agnarr needed to stay in his castle, to avoid political assasination was comparable to Iduna’s family being trapped in the mist (against their will for 30+ years); to more concerning issues like claiming Agnarr’s separation from his parent’s is just as distressing as Iduna’s separation from her entire people. Now fleshing out Agnarr and his relation to parents is a good thing, since it can provide crucial character motivation and make him more of a well rounded character. But when Agnarr’s suffering is presented as more relevant and worthwhile discussing than Iduna’s it, by extension, implies that the frustrations of an affluent life and being separated from parents that did not value you in the first place (Runeard and Rita) is somehow more or just as pressing as facing the brunt of the most violent and terrifying forms of colonialism. Agnarr’s story may be tragic, but it is nowhere near as horrific as Iduna’s and the book should acknowledge and reflect that.

- (3/5) Has a rudimentary understanding of racism and how if affects the people who perpetuate it

Dangerous Secrets’ understanding of racism (and how to deal with it) is summed up very concisely in a conversation between Lord Peterssen and young Prince Agnarr. Agnarr asks his senior why the Arendellian towns people are so obsessed with blaming magic and the spirits (magic and spirits being an allegory for real world characteristics that are unique to one culture or people) for all their problems, and the following exchange insues: 

“People will always need something to blame for their troubles”, he explained. “And magical spirits are an easy target-since they can’t exactly defend themselves… “So what do we do?” I asked. “We can’t very well fight against an imaginary force!” “No. But we can make the people feel safe. That’s our primary job.” (Page 132-133)

Though Lord Peterssen is supposed to be a flawed character, who puts undue pressure onto Iduna and Agnarr to uphold the status quo of Arendelle, this line is (intentional or not) how the book actually views racism and how it expects the characters (and reader by extension) to deal with/understand it. Bigotry is portrayed as something that is inevitable and something that should not be quelled or disproven, but accommodated for. Agnarr, as king next in line, should not worry about ending the unjust hatred in his kingdom, or killing the root of the problem (the rumors). Instead he should tell his people their suspicions are correct, and put actual resources and time into abetting their dangerous beliefs. Even later on, at the very end of the novel, Agnarr treats the prolific bigotry and magic hatred of his people as an unfortunate circumstance he has found himself in, and not something that he, as king, has the power or civic responsibility to change. 

This could have been an excellent line of flawed logic, representing how privileged people tend to avoid/project the blame of racism, and prioritize order and peace over justice. Which would work especially well for Peterssen and Agnarr since they are both high class nobles with the power to actually make a difference, instead choosing to foist responsibility onto Iduna (in the case of Peterssen) who was only a child, relatively impoverished, and the one with the most to lose if she spoke out. Or, in the case of Agnarr, they do disagree with the fear mongering, but only for personal reasons (Agnarr because his father used it as an excuse for his lies); refusing still to actually work to improve his society. But the key detail is that this needs to be portrayed as wrong, which this book fails to do. Agnarr nor Peterssen are ever expected to disprove the townsfolk’s bigotry in any meaningful, long lasting sense, Peterssen is never confronted seriously for his cowardice and victim blaming, and Agnarr is never criticized for his anti-bigotry being based entirely on his own personal parental issues and not in the fact that he knows with 100% certainty that the Northuldra are innocent.

This flawed understanding of bigotry also applies to how the book depicts the Arendellian townsfolk, who are awarded no accountability whatsoever for their actions. The townspeople spend the entire book threatening to kill any Northuldra they find and Peterssen, Agnarr, and Iduna are constantly afraid that they would immediately destabilize the government if they found out their king was close to one. But somehow this does not translate into any contempt or distrust in our protagonist or the reader. In this novel, we meet only four openly bigoted individuals: the two orphan children playing “kill the Northuldra”, the purple/pink sheep guy (Askel), and the allergy woman (Mrs. Olsen). The orphans are dismissed wholesale because they are literal children who also lost both of their parents in the battle of the dam (so they were killed by Northuldra; somewhat justifying their anger). And the other two townsfolk are joke characters, whose claims are so unbelievable that they aren’t supposed to be seen as a serious threat. Not only that but Askel is rewarded for his bigotry when Iduna offers he sell his pink sheep’ wool (which he thought was an attack from the Northuldra) as beautiful pink shawls. These are the only specific characters that show any type of active bigotry in the entire kingdom besides Runeard, whomst is dead. Every other character is either an innocent and friendly bystander (the woman at the chocolate shop, the new orphans Iduna buys cookies for, the farmers Iduna sells windmills too, the people at Agnarr and Iduna’s wedding), has no opinion at all (Greda, Kai, Johan), or is portrayed as someone who is just innocently scared and doesn’t know any better (the rest of the townsfolk, especially those who fear the Northuldra are the sun mask attackers). Even the King of Vassar, the most violent and dangerous living character of the story, doesn’t even hold any prejudice against the Northuldra, and simply uses their imagery to scare Arendelle into accepting his military rule. 

So according to this book, bigotry and racism come not from the individual, but from society and the system you live in, but also not really because the people in charge of that system (Peterssen, Agnarr, and eventually Iduna) are also virtually guiltless. This, of course, is not true at all. Racism is a moral failing which exists on all levels of society, from individuals who chose to be bigoted, to others who tolerate bigotry as long as it doesn’t inconveniance them. It's not just an inevitable fear of what you don’t understand, but an insidious choice to be ignorant, fearful, and unjust to the most vulnerable members of society. It is malicious and irrational, and the more you tolerate it, the more dangerous it becomes.

- (4/5) Presents Iduna’s assimilation to the dominant culture as a positive

As the romance plotline of Dangerous Secrets really starts to get underway, Iduna’s life seems perfect. Her romance with Agnarr blossoms, she has her own business, and is becoming accustomed to her new surroundings (in order to make the coming drama more exciting). This is her internal dialogue as she returns to town one day:

I couldn't imagine, at the time, living in a place like this. But now it felt like home. It would never replace the forest I grew up in… But it had been so long now, that life had begun to feel almost like a dream. A beautiful dream of an enchanted forest… There was a time I truly believed I would die if I could never enter the forest again. If the mist was never to part. But that time, I realized, was long gone. And I had so much more to live for now… And my dreams were less about returning to the past and more about striking out into the future- (Page 128-129)

Again, I understand that the point of Iduna being content with her life like this is to be the “calm before the storm” of the romance arc, but the fact that Iduna is almost forgetting her old life, and that it is presented as a good thing, is extremely distressing. At only 12 years old Iduna lost everything she ever had besides the literal clothes on her back; she would never forget that. Not only that, but the real world implication that a minority should cope with their societal trauma by spending the rest of their life working for said society that unapologetically wants to kill them (and get a boyfriend) is horribly off putting. It strikes a nerve with many people of color and indigenous readers because telling minorities to “get a job” or “get a life” (especially when said jobs ignore/are separate from their own cultures) is commonly used by privileged folk to blame them for their own dissatisfaction/unhappiness with the society they live in. The idea is that minorities should continue to suffer, but busy themselves, so they stop criticizing dominant culture and defending/uplifting their own. This is part of cultural erasure, and the book plays into it, by commending Iduna for “having more to live for” than cherishing/wanting to return to her original home, for prioritizing Arendelle over herself, and for forgetting her heritage/playing it off as nothing but a dream. Devaluing indigenous culture like this, especially through an indigenous character, is extremely disrespectful.

Not only that, but it’s completely antithetical to Iduna’s character, since she claims to be proud and unashamed of who she is, but happily assists the townsfolk who hate her, and rarely mentions her heritage besides when she’s caught in a lie or actively being persecuted. This is another failing brought on by the lack of understanding of how racism affects its victims. Being a minority plays into all the decisions you make and all the interactions you have; it’s not something that you can just turn off unless directly provoked. Iduna’s would be constantly fretting about who she talks to, and who she is with because if she gets too close to the wrong person, she could have put herself in serious danger. 

Nowhere is this lack of realism more obvious than the scene directly after Iduna rejects Johan’s proposal. Iduna spends a long time thinking about whether marrying Johan or Agnarr would be better for her, and not even once does being a Northuldra play into her decision making. This should’ve been front and center because your husband can be your strongest ally or your greatest enemy. If Iduna was outed, what could she do to defend herself against or alongside her partner? If she was ever going to consider marrying for anything other than true love, her chances of survival should have been her first priority. 

What I’m not saying is that there needs to be a complete overhaul of Iduna’s personality, or that she needs to be frightened and suspicious at all times. Iduna can project strength and caution. She can be kind to the townspeople, but reserved in order to keep a safe distance. She should cling to the few pieces of her culture she has left, despite what society tells her to do. Or, on the exact opposite side of the coin, Iduna’s personality could be kept relatively the same, but the book needs to acknowledge that this is a terrible thing. Iduna is being assimilated against her will to a society that doesn’t value her and that is a tragedy. In a futile attempt at survival, Iduna buries her culture away and lives her life as a perfect, contributing, model Arendellian citizen, but they terrorize her regardless. 

- (5/5) Negatively depicts the indigenous Northuldra as murderous invaders

In Chapter 34 of Dangerous Secrets it is revealed, during a flashback, that Iduna lost her parents and her entire family group in an attack by a separate group of Northuldra invaders. This scene is completely unacceptable regardless whatever narrative/story purpose it was supposed to achieve for several reasons. Firstly, because this book is about colonialism, which we as a society already know the consequences of and how colonizers, in an attempt to rid themselves of blame, react to it. One of the very first things a colonizer/privileged class will do to make themselves feel less guilty for the atrocities they perpetuate is bring up acts of violence/wrongdoing on behalf of the oppressed. The sole purpose of this is always to make the victims look less sympathetic and less deserving of justice, equality, or attention because “they’re not so innocent, they did wrong things too, so maybe we shouldn't feel that  bad for them/maybe they got what they deserved”. And of course this mindset is absolutely horrific and unforgivable when you’re talking about a group of white colonizers actively trying to destroy and indiscriminately slaughter a large group of indigenous people, including their children. 

The second reason is because the author is a non-indigenous white person, and therefore benefits directly from the downplaying of indiginous pain. I’m sure this wasn’t intentionally malicious on her part, but that’s what she wrote; these are the consequences.  

((Also the fact that one of the Northuldra groups are murderous invaders means that Iduna was actively lying the entire book about the Northuldra being peaceful.)) 

- - -

In conclusion, any book that incorporates the culture and experiences of a group the author is not a part of, should absolutely hire a sensitivity reader to ensure accuracy and respect. As a Frozen superfan myself, I actually enjoyed this book a lot and I was delighted to see the lore, worldbuilding and romance. I loved Agnarr, Lord Peterssen, and Princess Runa and certain pieces of dialogue and imagery were beautiful. This novel just desperately needed someone to check it. All this book needed was a bit more of a critical gaze on some of the character decisions and motivations (I truly believe Agnarr and Peterssen would have been even more intriguing and likeable characters if they were actually called out, and given time to reflect on their hypocrisies) and it would’ve been much stronger and more palatable to diverse audiences. Some elements did need to be cut out completely, but a sensitivity reader would’ve easily been able to point this out and offer alternatives that preserved the spirit of the novel, without including any offensive and distasteful implications.

[22degreehalo]

Holy fucking SHIT, y’all. I am having the absolute most BUCK WILD fandom experience tonight and I really do not know if ANYONE will be able to understand just how much.

So. Over ten years ago, when I was still a tiny weeb, one of my favourite manga was Mahou Sensei Negima. It was a super unique thing popular on TV Tropes, famous for being written by Love Hina author Ken Akamatsu after he was asked to do another romantic comedy, but he actually really wanted to do a fighting shounen manga, so he like... did a romantic comedy that very gradually devolved into a super powered shounen story. It was ridiculous and FILLED to the brim with tropes and fanservice alike but super, super fun.

In it, one of the characters was Setsuna. A cool and serious swordswoman, she initially seemed like a villain but soon turned out to be the long-lost childhood friend of playful ojousama Konoka - her old bodyguard, who protected her from the shadows after failing to rescue her one day when they were kids. Setsuna was an honorable and diligent samurai, but she was also absolutely fucking head over heels for Konoka, and once convinced to join the main team, could easily be reduced to a blushing flustered queer mess at the slightest touch from her beloved ojousama. She was an incredibly popular character - maybe even number 1 in some popularity polls, out of like 40+ characters? - and still to this day I continue to fall for characters just like her, lmao. In the end, it is heavily implied that she and Konoka get married, but never quite stated outright.

After Negima ended (rather hastily due to rights issues), Akamatsu started a new series called UQ Holder. And the first really major secondary character is none other than Kuroumaru, who is literally almost a perfect carbon copy of Setsuna - aside from being male. Which was already kinda funny, and immediately made him a great and really interesting character. Setsuna was already just so cool and androgynous and extremely queer while still being the best-written and most beloved character, that seeing a male version of her, that was still so androgynous and important to the plot, was so much FUN and so promising!! But soon some reallllly interesting stuff started coming up with him.

Specifically, a Big Deal is made about Kuroumaru not wanting to be seen naked. The protagonist thinks he’s a girl at first, but Kuroumaru strenuously insists he’s a guy. So he’s like Naoto from P4, a girl pretending to be a boy, right? That seemed to be the case - especially once it starts being pretty clear that Kuroumaru is developing a huuuuge crush on the protagonist. (Who is, hilariously, a descendent of Konoka. Truly, Setsuna expies and their love for Konoes...)

BUT THEN. The truth is revealed: Kuroumaru isn’t a boy. But he isn’t a girl, either. Specifically, his species is actually intersex while they’re growing up, and at sixteen, they choose what gender to be. Kuroumaru has always known he wants to be a boy, so that’s how he presents.

But. This big ol’ crush on Touta is throwing a wrench in his plans. Is this proof that he’s actually a girl at heart? And, is there any chance Touta would ever feel the same way if he becomes a boy? He wants so desperately to be able to be Touta’s equal and fight alongside him, but he just can’t match up to Touta’s OP protagonist powers. Is this proof that he should just give up and become Touta’s sweet housewife?

It’s like!!! A really compelling story!!! And SURE the whole ‘having feelings for a boy means you’re a girl’ idea is pretty heteronormative and I wish the story had sorta critiqued that more but internally it makes sense for Kuroumaru to have those worries! It really ate him up inside! And I felt so strongly for him!

And like... this was all MANY YEARS AGO. Unfortunately I never got into the actual story of the manga and dropped it pretty early on. ButI never forgot about Kuroumaru. Every now and then I’d think about him and wonder what happened with him - did he ever choose? Was he ever able to find peace with himself and his body and his feelings for Touta?

So. Tonight. I somehow couldn’t stop thinking about him again, so I decided to actually look it up and see if there’s an answer. Funnily one of the first thigns I found on google was a reddit post from 4 years ago asking if he ever made his choice, lol. But I checked the main subreddit and holy fucking shit you guys I must have had some psychic powers to have looked this up NOW out of all the time between then and today.

Literally one of the first things I read in the subreddit: Touta and Kuroumaru have had sex. On-page. Like three chapters ago. And Kuroumaru (along with several other characters???) is most likely going to be actual genuine romantic endgame for Touta, which will happen in just a few chapters too.

KONOKA AND SETSUNA DIDN’T EVEN KISS AND TOUTA AND KUROUMARU HAD ACTUAL GODDAMN SEX *ON-PAGE.*

 And like!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay I’m desperate for answers and according to TV Tropes Kuroumaru is a girl full-time now - there was a big timeskip and Kuroumaru must’ve chosen to be a girl. But I went through and read all the chapters around this whole timeskip and Kuroumaru does seem to have a pretty feminine figure now but in the chapter where they fuck, Kuroumaru says their hair goes blonde ‘when I’m fully female’ and ‘it depends on my mood’ so????? Nonbinary Kuroumaru?????? I seriously read as far back as I could trying to find some elaboration on these comments but I found NONE and tbh I don’t trust the general readerbase to rly get the difference lol but.

See my one concern when I found out about all of this was that it was a kind of ‘person changes gender solely to be with someone they love’ and digging into those heteronormative ideas I mentioned above, even if it’s still very much a trans narrative altogether, (not to mention that I always felt like Kuroumaru desperately WANTED to be seen as a strong man and I wouldn’t want to think he’d felt pressured to give that up) but a) nonbinary Kuroumaru???? b) you guysssss the way it happens in the chapters is as perfect as I could ask for even if Kuroumaru IS to be considered a girl now...

Kuroumaru always worried so so much about not being able to match up to Touta and I always worried he’d never be loved by Touta the same way because he had to be a boy in an ecchi manga but after the timeskip they break down in tears because they’re so relieved to see Touta again and Touta cries too because he thought Kuroumaru was dead and he’s so so happy they’re alive and it’s so beautiful!! And the scene starts with the other guys and Kuroumaru all saving Touta together, putting Kuroumaru into the same category as them (also through all this Kuroumaru still dressed every bit as masc as they always did before), and they’re all like ‘heh 40 years is nothing to us *smirks*’ but then they push forward Kuroumaru saying ‘well... not all of us. Hey, stop hiding - Touta’s here now, Kuroumaru. Go ahead :)’ singling them out as someone who loves Touta differently to them though... And then it turns out that in the 40 years Kuroumaru’s become SUPER STRONG to the point that Touta gets kinda overwhelmed and insecure because he thinks Kuroumaru’s more powerful than him, while Kuroumaru’s just rly confident in themself and easily protects Touta... Like Touta is just straight-up jaw dropped in AWE at how beautifully powerful as a fighter Kuroumaru is now, a true master of the sword they had been training their wholy life at!!

And then and then when Touta first finally relaxes in a hot springs Kuroumaru gets to be with him first before all the other love interests and when Touta sees their body he’s initially like ‘??????????’ but then just like. Accepts it immediately without asking. And tries to go along with it as normal bc Kuroumaru’s still his best bro. But then Kuroumaru breaks down and admits how so, so hard it was to go 40 years without him and hugs Touta while crying and Touta’s still just trying to comfort them and even when he feels Kuroumaru’s boobs he’s like ‘wh-why am I getting dirty thoughts? Kuroumaru’s my best bro...’ But the Kuroumaru still keeps opening up about their emotions like they never ever could before and even says ‘after all this time, I think I deserve a reward...’ really forwardly!!!! Like year Kuroumaru!!!!! you do!!!!!! And then they get super flustered and embarrassed and try to leave but Touta captures them and Kuroumaru’s like ‘no I’m being so shameless, I’m so embarrassed to be so weak’ but Touta says ‘that’s true, this isn’t like the normal you, but it’s okay to be weak in front of me. I love you.’ And Kuroumaru says they love him too!!! And they kiss!!!! And then Touta gets hard lmfao and Kuroumaru’s all like ‘n-no.... I’m happy about that actually....... *blush*’ and they agree to do it, that it’s okay ‘because we’re partners :’)’ and they both look so so happy and they’re such good FRIENDS and they’re PARTNERS!!!

And I’m just!!!! CRYING!!!!! because holy SHIT I always said ‘I really hope Kuroumaru gets to be a boy but stil be with the guy he loves’ but I knew it was impossible because the protagonist of an ecchi manga could never end up with a man lmfao but it really feels like I got the absolute possible closest it would be possible to get to that???? Kuroumaru doesn’t have to give up on those dreams of being strong and masculine and Touta’s equal at his side - they have a body they seem rly confident in now but didn’t have to change anything else and their body itself might even change based on mood whatever the FUCK that means lmfaooo and Touta still loves them not as the sweet housewife Kuroumaru worried they’d have to be but as Touta’s partner who can be strong at his side but can also be weak because Touta can rely on him too and THEY STRAIGHT UP FUCKED holy shit ;_________;

I’m just losing my mind so much right now. Maybe I’m giving this ending more credit than I should lmfao because I can’t say that it’s NOT Kuroumaru choosing to be a girl (and TV tropes at least does seem to just treat them as a straight girl) but just this narrative is still so goddamn trans and queer and all I EVER wanted was for Kuroumaru to get to be happy in a way that didn’t mean changing everything about them and so for them to get this ending where they seem so fucking happy and confident and powerful and in mutual goddamn love with Touta is. fucking INCREDIBLEEEEEE (and I don’t even mind that it’ll probably end up in a polymary type situation because if Kuroumaru was the sole love interest I canNOT believe their relationship with Touta would have been so queer. Kuroumaru definitely would have had to end up more like a typical Girl as a love interest - they would have had to be Touta’s Girlfriend like they always feared instead of standing beside him as his partner!!!!! While still getting to kiss and be intimate with him!!!!!)

I just!!! am CRYING because IDEC if this is the ~most woke possible ending~ or not lmfao, it’s just that all these years I’ve worried about this kid because I didn’t think there was any way he’d be able to get what he wanted, but it truly feels like they did. They are strong and powerful and cool and masc and also deeply, head over heels tearfully in love with Touta, and Touta sees them equally as his best bro and also as someone he loves and is attracted to as well, and even if this isn’t the body Kuroumaru always pictured having that isn’t necessarily the POINT and even if it was Kuroumaru might just have SOME KIND OF MAGICAL BODY THAT CHANGES BASED ON HOW THEY FEEL THEIR GENDER which is the most mind-blowing fucking ending I never could have ever hoped for what the FUCKKK

I’m just!!!! so so so happy for him!!!!!!!! and SO CONFUSED and surprised it ended this way but I don’t even care - to me, Kuroumaru is nonbinary and masc and loves and is loved by Touta and I’m just so fucking HAPPY everything could end this way!!!!!

(I want sooooo badly to write fanfic but there’s no WAY I could do that given I barely have the slightest idea what’s going on plotwise or even if some of my conclusions are fully canon lmfao and even though Kuroumaru absolutely deserves me trudging through 180 chapters of a manga I never really enjoyed that much just to make somethig nice for them, I know in my heart I will not be able to do that :’) )

[jackie-talks-about-starkid]

Firebringer (Rewatch #10, 11/15/2020)

YouTube publish date: December 31, 2016

Number of views on date of rewatch: 4,317,045 

Original Performance Run: July 6 - August 7, 2016 at Stage 773 in Chicago, Illinois

     Ticket price: General-$35, VIP-$60

Director: Julia Albain and Nick Lang

Music and Lyrics: Meredith Stepien and Mark Swiderski

Book: Brian Holden, Matt Lang, and Nick Lang

Cast album price and availability: $9.99 on iTunes      Release date: November 22, 2016

Parody or original: original content

Funding: $154, 670 from 3, 722 backers on Kickstarter (x)

     Original Goal: $88,000

Main cast and characters

Jemilla - Meredith Stepien

Zazzalil - Lauren Lopez

Molag - Lauren Walker

Keeri - Denise Donovan

Emberly - Rachael Soglin

Grunt - Joey Richter

Tiblyn - Tiffany Williams

Ducker - Joe Walker

Schwoopsie - Jamie Lyn Beatty

Chorn - Jamie Burns

Smelly-Balls - Brian Holden

Clark Baxtresser - Clark Baxtresser

Musical numbers

     Act I

“Fire” Characters: Company

“We Are People Now” Characters: Company

“We Got Work To Do” Characters: Zazzalil, Jemilla, and Ensemble

“What If?” Characters: Zazzalil

“Welcome to the Stone Age” Characters: Ensemble

“Just a Taste” Characters: Emberly and Grunt

“The Night Belongs to Snarl” Characters: Smelly-Balls, Schwoopsie, Ducker, Tiblyn, and Ensemble

“Into the Night” Characters: Zazzalil and Ensemble

“The Night Belongs to Us” Characters: Zazzalil, Jemilla, and Ensemble

     Act II

“Jemilla’s Lament” Characters: Jemilla

“Paint Me” Characters: Grunt and Emberly

“Ouch My Butt” Characters: Ensemble

“Backfire” Characters: Zazzalil and Ensemble

“Together” Characters: Jemilla and Zazzalil

“Chorn” Characters: Chorn and Ensemble

“Finale (Make the Most of It)” Characters: Company

Notable Notes:

“I Don’t Really Wanna Do The Work Today” became a meme that was so popular the Broadway cast of The Book of Mormon and that year’s touring cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella made their own videos performing the song

Cultural Context: 2016

Beyoncé releases her visual album, “Lemonade”

Leonardo DiCaprio finally wins an Oscar for his performance in The Revenant

Hamilton won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama and that year’s Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in theaters

Content Analysis:

Firebringer has one of StarKid’s most inventive storylines in their collective works and has the added bonus of being an inherently feminist, woman-led piece. The story of a woman who invented fire and another woman who led the ancestors of the human race into creating a just and equal society sounds more like a provocative, experimental play rather than a comedy musical yet StarKid once again seems to be the only group of people that can pull off such a unique concept, successfully critiquing our current society while also presenting the storyline and characters in a way that makes the audience relax with each bit of commentary rather than tense up and ignore the performance. It’s refreshing to be an audience member of Firebringer. The musical numbers and character performances are entertaining in a way that feels comforting and almost happy-go-lucky despite the fact that the production takes place at an imagined pivotal point in the history of the human race. The dialogue and small comedic moments between the characters make fun of how dumb humanity can be at times, resorting to crude body humor and questionable social skills, but pull an about-face in the next scene by displaying the strength and ingenuity of the human race and our desire to succeed and prosper in an environment that seems dead-set on ensuring our demise.

As well as just generally being an enjoyable work of musical comedy, the dynamic of the piece is feminist in a way that is not explicitly stated but simply accepted by the characters within the universe and, by extension, the audience itself. Jemilla is a woman who is a well-respected and undisputed leader of an entire tribe, whose female mentor and former leader is just as highly regarded, and Zazzalil is a provocative thinker who kickstarts the tribe into advancing as a society by introducing fire and hunting into their daily survival skills, yet no where in the story do any of these strong female leads gets questioned for being women in positions of power. It is an indisputable fact accepted by all characters regardless of gender that these women are the leaders of their society and the fact that this isn’t brought up in any negative or positive connotation within the confines of the story’s universe is such a genius way to address feminism in a theatrical work. If they were to make a point of putting the women in a negative situation where gender discourse is the main cause of the threat to the characters only for the woman to bounce back in order to prove that she is just as strong or worthy as any potential male leader, it would have reinforced the idea that women need to prove that they are just as good as men rather than the society around them accepting the fact that all genders are equal regardless of identity. On the other hand, if they were to pat themselves on the back and make it a point of being progressive in choosing women to lead their tribe, it would have turned the choice into one of pandering rather than genuine belief on the writers’ part and on the characters. By not mentioning the feminist core of the musical within the story itself, Firebringer naturally shows the audience through fictional storytelling the gender equality that our society can achieve for itself without making the situation too unrealistic to be considered unattainable (not than unrealistic situations cannot be written and performed successfully otherwise, it’s comforting to see).

As for the actual book content of the show, it is not StarKid’s strongest in terms of consistency. The humor, the heart, and the quality of performance are always aspects of StarKid shows that the audience can depend on being as good as ever with each new production, but there are moments in certain scenes, such as Keeri’s initial confrontation with Zazzalil and Jemilla and Zazzalil’s reunion, that the dialogue between characters switches in and out of a natural flow of conversation, making it easy to lose interest in a dialogue heavy scene until another joke happens. Similarly, there are moments where lyrics in songs, such as “Into the Night” and “Paint Me,” are not musically or verbally compatible with the verses in which they are sung. The majority of lyrics are clever and match the tone and character of the performance perfectly, but there is an occasional clunky line or oddly-placed word that I found to be distracting enough to take note of during the song.

Overall, Firebringer is a lighthearted musical with great performances and cleverly intertwined social commentary that adds to the comedic tone of the piece rather than distracts from it. I wish that more musicals were written in the tone of Firebringer, in both the sense of overall quality, gender representation, and sexuality representation, which, like the gender placement of the main characters, is written so naturally that it’s almost hard to believe real life isn’t like the one represented onstage in which gender ruled without the patriarchy and sexuality lived in without heteronormativity is so commonplace it’s a nonissue.

[charliejrogers]

First Cow (2020)

It’s impossible for me to write about First Cow without thinking that this movie is some sort of sublime cross-over between Joaquin Phoenix’s worst nightmare and joyous fantasy. Running at odds with his oddly emotional anti-milk Oscars acceptance speech back in February 2020, First Cow is a love letter to the power of milk in the realm of baking. The sweet, sweet udder juice provides the very backbone of a community’s happiness and two men’s livelihoods. But, where Phoenix’s nightmare turns to fantasy, the universe gets justice. No milk theft shall ever go unpunished! Move over, Herman’s Hermits; it’s not just “No Milk Today,” it’s no milk ever!

My kidding aside, I was pleasantly surprised by First Cow, though truthfully I’m not sure exactly what I expected besides knowing it was a movie set in nineteenth-century America. Acknowledging my own biases and knowing ahead of time that the director was a woman, I was surprised by how decidedly male this film was. There are really only three female characters of note throughout the whole film, and none of them have prominent speaking roles… in fact the only one who does speak English merely serves as a translator for men.

I wonder in what way the director, Kelly Reichardt, sees herself as fulfilling that role in making this film. That is, in choosing to deliberately make a movie about the nineteenth-century fur trappers in the harsh, male-dominated world of Oregon Territories, Reichardt wanted to highlight an aspect of the dominant “alpha” male society that is most certainly experienced by males but is rarely commented on, largely because it is considered female. I’m talking, of course, about love. I doubt there are viewers of this film who would disagree with my assessment that the two male protagonists shared a love for one another, but I’m sure many would categorize that love as merely representative of “deep friendship” or “platonic” (in the layman’s sense) at the most. While I’m not going to sit here and necessarily argue that the two characters shared an erotic love and I do not think that is the intent, I really do believe characterizing their relationship as merely “two great friends” would be received by the pair as a great insult. The two share the type of relationship seen among men that is rarely seen in the media save for war movies where “brotherhood” is a dominant theme. Outside of war, it’s a relationship that is largely reminiscent of the beautiful love seen between Midnight Cowboy’s Joe Buck and “Ratso” Rizzo. It’s the sort of sacrificial love that dominates the thoughts of Christian scholars. Still, it can be easily misinterpreted as erotic love. What I think Reichardt does beautifully is develop the love between the two carefully so you see it organically develop such that by the time we get to the final scene, we are unsurprised by one of the two character’s sacrificial acts of love.

The key scene, as I mentioned, comes at the end, but it’s noteworthy to mention that the pair’s ultimate fate is made plainly clear in the first few minutes of the movie. The movie starts (almost paradoxically) with an epilogue of sorts. We’re in the modern day, and a woman is exploring the forests of Oregon when her dog stumbles upon some bones that (with a little more digging) reveals two skeletons lying next to one another, like two lovers lying in bed. The best reason I can think of as to why Reichardt includes this epilogue before the rest of the film is because as soon as we the audience realize that two males are the most dominant couple in the film, we more readily anticipate and are more open to seeing love develop before our eyes.

So accordingly, after this brief pre-movie epilogue, the film jumps backwards in time to the nineteenth-century where we meet Otis “Cookie” Figowitz (John Magaro), the cook for a trapping company who is runs a little out-of-step with the rest of his crew. It is embodied in a visual motif that is repeated often throughout the film. We will have a shot of either of the two main characters, Cookie or his eventual companion King Lu (Orion Lee), doing something quiet in the foreground while characters perform some other more exciting activity in the background which in any other movie would take center stage due to the inherent spectacle. But it’s clear that Cookie is a more sensitive soul, he enjoys his time in the woods collecting mushrooms, and he does not have any interest in violence whatsoever. But that does not mean he isn’t without courage.

Early in the film, he comes across King Lu, a Chinese immigrant who is on the run after killing someone to avenge the killing of one of his good friends. Notably, when they first meet, King Lu is completely alone, hungry, and naked. While it isn’t addressed specifically, it is implicit in King’s and Cookie’s first meeting (and during other character’s subsequent interactions with King later in the film) but racially hostile undertones almost threaten to undermine King’s and Cookie’s initial friendship. Yet, like the story of the Good Samaritan, Cookie puts away his initial feelings of racial bias, and goes out of his way to clothe King with a blanket before allowing him to speak any further. Cookie grants King with a great deal of dignity, and goes one step further, offering to smuggle him among the various bags and supplies on his travels, knowing full well that if the rest of his crew find out that Cookie was hiding a “Chinaman murderer,” that he’d be in deep shit.

Cookie and King separate after this initial meeting, but upon reuniting later in the film, they never separate from one another until the very end. In what is the most puzzling choice in the film to me is Cookie’s initial decision to join King for a drink at King’s home. The two reunite in a trapping fort bar after a fight breaks out and the two are the only customers not drawn outside to enjoy the spectacle (the outsider/outcast motif returns). However, just before the start of the fight, one of the primary instigators of that fight requests for Cookie to watch over his infant whom he had brought to the bar. Therefore, when King asks Cookie to join in at his home, he is also asking him to abandon this helpless infant. The image of the baby swaddled in a basket recalls the previous imagery of King swaddled in the bags and supplies within which Cookie was smuggling him. And ultimately Cookie does abandon the baby for King, and in joining King for a drink at his home, never actually leaves. The two begin living together. So I’m not sure of the significance of the baby. Is it that Cookie had the choice between two “new lives,” one a literal new life of someone else and the other, in King, a chance at a new life for himself? Or is it simply just to serve as foreshadowing that in following King, Cookie is opening himself up to a life of indulgence where the concerns of others are less important than his own happiness?

As for the latter question and the plotline that develops around it, it really serves as a bitter critique of American capitalism and the American dream. While we love to tout the “by the bootstraps” myth, this movie serves as a simple morality play about how no matter what, pursuing the American dream means ripping somebody off for your own benefit. In this instance, it means Cookie and King nightly sneaking onto the property of the leader of the trapping fort and stealing milk from the only cow in the area in order to essentially have a monopoly on baked goods and make a pretty penny. Now, we can sit and debate about the morality of “owning” a cow, and whether Cookie and King are even doing anything immoral since it is preposterous to own an animal! Or I’m sure there are those (Joaquin Phoenix) who think Cookie and King are just as immoral for taking ANY milk from a cow as the man who owns the cow in the first place. This is not the time to discuss animal rights. But it is notable what the cow, too, has had to suffer in order allow for Cookie and Lee’s successes. She was initially transported to the trapping fort along with a mate and her calf, but both died en route. She spends her time tied to a tree and by the film’s end locked up within a small cage.

In sum, the love that Cookie so beautifully shared with King at film’s beginning does not seem so equally shared by the pair in regards to their relationship with others. And in their pursuit to become successful capitalists in a system rigged against them, they ultimately hurt some of those around them, most notably titular cow with whom Cookie has almost romantic relationship with, which in some ways makes his treating her as little more than a literal cash cow so egregious, even if he cares deeply for her.

Hence the morality play. I don’t have to spell it out for you what might happen if two people repeatedly rob the same person in the same way again and again and again. But even if we as the audience agree that the cards are stacked against Cookie and King from the start in their attempt to become independent, to achieve the American dream, the film never pretends that they are acting as virtuous agents. In the end, though, they get their redemption even as they receive punishment. King is given a chance to abandon Cookie outright who in an attempt to flee their pursuers has become badly injured. King realizes he can just take his riches and run. But he doesn’t. He decides to lie next to his dearly beloved companion. While he could not have predicted what would be the fatal consequences of this decision, he knows that sticking with Cookie in his current state will only cause him trouble. But that’s where the beautiful sacrificial love that defines this pair comes in. Whereas many will view this film and remember it as a cautionary tale about the American dream, I will forever remember the realistic love of brothers shared between these two wayward men.

***(1/4) (Three and one fourth stars out of four)

[diepower]

THE MEGA RP PLOTTING SHEET / MEME.

First and foremost, recall that no one is perfect, we all had witnessed some plotting once which did not went too well, be it because of us or our partner. So here have this, which may help for future plotting. It’s a lot! Yes, but perhaps give your partners some insight? Anyway BOLD what fully applies, italicize if only somewhat.

MUN NAME: Kaiman     AGE: 27       CONTACT: IM, ask, discord

CHARACTER(S): Meninas McAllon, Orihime Inoue, Retsu Unohana, Mashiro Kuna, Tier Harribel, Charlotte Chuuhlhourne

CURRENT FANDOM(S): That I write in? It’s gonna be Bleach, OVW (super selectively im just here for one person), ASOIAF (barely- literally when the mood strikes and that one is private also). I have a lot of current interests in general though.

BLEACH FANDOM(S) YOU HAVE AN AU FOR: While I don’t have anything fully established... I’ve been working with an ASOIAF au (for Harribel & Unohana specifically, though I’m considering it with other characters too), A Dorohedoro AU (for Unohana and Orihime), as well as a Persona AU (more specifically 2&3) for Orihime. I’ve also got a number of post-canon AUs or continuities for all my characters as well!

MY LANGUAGE(S): English, super basic Spanish, barest ASL, fairly good French

THEMES I’M INTERESTED IN FOR RP: FANTASY / SCIENCE FICTION / HORROR / WESTERN / ROMANCE / THRILLER / MYSTERY / DYSTOPIA / ADVENTURE / MODERN / EROTIC / CRIME / MYTHOLOGY / CLASSIC / HISTORY / RENAISSANCE / MEDIEVAL / ANCIENT / WAR / FAMILY / POLITICS / RELIGION / SCHOOL / ADULTHOOD / CHILDHOOD / APOCALYPTIC / GODS / SPORT / MUSIC / SCIENCE / FIGHTS / ANGST / SMUT / DRAMA

PREFERRED THREAD LENGTH: ONE-LINER / 1 PARA / 2 PARA / 3+ / NOVELLA (2para is a sweet spot but it really doesn’t matter to me)

ASKS CAN BE SEND BY: MUTUALS / NON-MUTUALS / PERSONALS / ANONS.

CAN ASKS BE CONTINUED?:   YES / NO    ONLY BY MUTUALS?:  YES / NO

PREFERRED THREAD TYPE: CRACK / CASUAL NOTHING TOO DEEP / SERIOUS / DEEP AS HECK.

IS REALISM / RESEARCH IMPORTANT FOR YOU IN CERTAIN THEMES?:   YES / NO.

ARE YOU ATM OPEN FOR NEW PLOTS?:  YES / NO / DEPENDS.

DO YOU HANDLE YOUR DRAFT / ASK - COUNT WELL?:  YES / NO / SOMEWHAT. (i let them build up too often but some of yall are too quick to reply jkglfjdgsd)

HOW LONG DO YOU USUALLY TAKE TO REPLY?: 24H / 1 WEEK / 2 WEEKS / 3+ / MONTHS / YEARS / DEPENDS ON MOOD AND INSPIRATION, AND IF I’M BUSY

I’M OKAY WITH INTERACTING: ORIGINAL CHARACTERS / A RELATIVE OF MY CHARACTER (AN OC) / DUPLICATES / MY FANDOM / CROSSOVERS / MULTI-MUSES / SELF-INSERTS / PEOPLE WITH NO AU VERSE FOR MY FANDOM / CANON-DIVERGENT PORTRAYALS / AU-VERSIONS (italicized are okay, but under really specific circumstances)

DO YOU POST MORE IC OR OOC?: IC / OOC.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WITH FOLLOWING OTHERS?: YES / NO / DEPENDS  

BEST WAYS TO APPROACH YOU FOR RP/PLOTTING:  I’m pretty anal about plotting in that I often refuse to RP unless it’s been plotted or I liked a starter call. And in the case of the latter, I’ll still hop into DMs to plot further depending on where the thread takes us. That said, the best way to reach me is through IMs or Discord (available on request). The only time I turn down plots is if I feel like it would put my character in an OOC situation, and I especially dislike my character being one-sidedly used as a tool to further another character’s development without anything being reciprocated (this happens often especially wrt my healer characters)

WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO YOU HOLD TOWARDS YOUR PLOTTING PARTNER: Communication is really important to me, especially with regards to comfort regarding certain plot elements, and approaching other in-character situations that might have multiple different solutions. I think it’s important that both characters involved get the same amount of development out of writing a thread, and I really hate the idea of being imbalanced as far as that goes (more on that below). That said, I’m always perfectly down to spitball plot ideas and tweak/refine other concepts because I really do enjoy plotting, it’s just super important to me that things are communicated clearly. I get extremely distressed and frustrated IRL if people just kinda throw stuff at me, and it often kills my muse.

WHEN YOU NOTICE THE PLOTTING IS RATHER ONE-SIDED, WHAT DO YOU DO?: I make an active effort to come up with plots that are engaging and beneficial fairly equally to both parties. I mentioned this above, but especially in the case of writing my healer characters, I have a huge disdain for characters being used as tools to further development while getting nothing substantial in return. That said, I try to be very aware of this in terms of a potential writing partner being on the receiving end. IMO it feels like shit, but I definitely don’t want to make someone else feel that way either. That said, so long as stuff is plotted out clearly and me and the writer are both okay with it, then it’s fine. COMMUNICATION IS KEY, BASICALLY.

HOW DO YOU USUALLY PLOT WITH OTHERS, DO YOU GIVE INPUT OR LEAVE MOST WORK TOWARDS YOUR PARTNER?:  I kinda just like to throw spaghetti at the wall and whatever sticks, I’m down to fly with. I have a lot of ideas, but again, I like to give my partners the option of doing whatever they’re comfortable with, and h aving equal contribution opportunities.

WHEN A PARTNER DROPS THE THREAD, DO YOU WISH TO KNOW?:   YES / NO / DEPENDS.

- AND WHY?: Everyone has their own circumstances, I really don’t mind. If it’s one I’ve been especially looking forward to, I might be bummed, but it’s no skin off my nose really.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY LEAD YOU TO DROP A THREAD?: I don’t typically drop threads or abandon them during their writing. The only thing that would make me do so is offensive content, or huge plot elements being introduced that makes my character ooc and wasn’t previously discussed during plotting.

WILL YOU TELL YOUR PARTNER?:   YES / NO / DEPENDS.

IS COMMUNICATION IN THE RPC IMPORTANT TO YOU? YES / NO.

-AND WHY?: I already feel like I need to take a lot of extra steps to understand others and be understood, and that isn’t something often reciprocated. In my experience, just honest communication is the quickest solution to issues that crop up during writing. For those who HAVE actually had me reach out to them in this way, I really do try to be polite and respectful while being straightforward so the situation can be resolved without any hurt feelings.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH ABSOLUTE HONESTY, EVEN IF IT MAY MEANS HEARING SOMETHING NEGATIVE ABOUT YOU AND/OR PORTRAYAL?: As long as it’s constructive, and not merely negativity, I welcome it. After all, I can’t fix a huge flaw in my writing without having an alternative solution. I’m open to accepting feedback and critique, especially wrt Meninas since my portrayal is quite a large departure from popular fanon perception (from those who choose to pay attention to her, lol), but I also thrive on suggested remedies and solutions to issues in my writing.

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE SUCH SITUATION IN A MATURE WAY? YES / NO.

WHY DO YOU RP AGAIN, IS THERE A GOAL?: I like to tell stories, and I like to tell narratives that take root in emotional expression and how those feelings can act as a vehicle to the storytelling. I want to move people through feeling, because it can be a powerful experience. I use a lot of inspiration from themes in my other favorite series, as well as inspiration from my own personal experiences as well. I tend to pick characters who have one or two traits in common with myself, whether those be negative or positive. I’m very excited to share all the things I have planned for Meninas, as she’s certainly my most ambitious project to date.

WISHLIST, BE IT PLOTS OR SCENARIOS:  For Meninas specifically, I want to interact with Squad 11 and Squad 9 during the CFYOW verse I have planned. Hisagi specifically would be interesting because of the clash of ideals, in addition to being the only other living person to be able to relate to the horror of being under Pepe’s thrall. I’d also like to steal Ikkaku’s bankai, and have more fight scenes. Lastly, Meninas doesn’t do much of anything in CFYOW, so more interactions with Mayuri and Squad 12 would be cool.

THEMES I WON’T EVER RP / EXPLORE: I don’t mind briefly referencing darker themes in my writing, especially wrt my own personal experiences, but I want to be very clear that I refuse to write at length or romanticize these themes. I refuse to write anything involving rape, homophobia, transphobia, racism, pedophilia, etc, with this in mind.

WHAT TYPE OF STARTERS DO YOU PREFER / DISLIKE, CAN’T WORK WITH?: Unless previously discussed, I struggle with starters that have a character pushing mine away. If the situation is super OOC for my character to be in, or frankly too mundane. In Meninas’ case, most domestic stuff is a snoozefest for me (but I LOVE this for other characters).

WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERS CATCH YOUR INTEREST THE MOST?:  *saoirse ronan voice* Women. UHHH but no, for real... I like fleshing out female characters quite a bit. Personality types are varied, but I like characters who have some level of nuance to their emotional expression whether it’s an internal or external struggle. I like powerful women too, and the exploration of “strength” as a theme (esp at the intersection of the theme of “femininity” and its expressions) whether this is external strength or internal fortitude. I think I play a wide variety of characters who have vastly different thoughts, beliefs, and forms of expression, but I try to find something in common with who I portray to act as a touch stone. I also like characters who have themes of “justice” and nuanced morality.

WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERS CATCH YOUR INTEREST THE LEAST?: 99% of male characters. And I also hate tsunderes gjklsdjfd

WHAT ARE YOUR STRONG ASPECTS AS RP PARTNER?: I really like my writing style especially wrt using emotion to set a cinematic scene and overall tone. I think I’m really strong with conveying emotion, especially with things that are often unspoken. I try to communicate with partners clearly and establish rapports. I love writing headcanons and have a TON of plot ideas as well.

WHAT ARE YOUR WEAK ASPECTS AS RP PARTNER?: Oh I’m the slowest replier on the planet and I’m apparently intimidating lol

DO YOU RP SMUT?:  YES / NO / DEPENDS.

DO YOU PREFER TO GO INTO DETAIL?: YES / NO / DEPENDS (i prefer to go into detail about sensations, rather than the actual acts as it comes off stifled and weirdly technical)

ARE YOU OKAY WITH BLACK CURTAIN?: YES / NO

- WHEN DO YOU RP SMUT? MORE OUT OF FUN OR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?: Honestly I just do what Meninas tells me.

- ANYTHING YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO RP THERE?: Kink stuff is weird territory for me, absolutely gotta be discussed in private and comfort levels clearly established.

ARE SHIPS IMPORTANT TO YOU?: YES / NO. Relationships in general rule, and while I do have a romantic ship that plays a large part in Meninas’ plot, the romance comes secondary to the plot itself. I really enjoy writing and developing romances, but more than that I like establishing connections. I love the relationships I’ve got planned with Giselle, Candice, Liltotto, and Bambietta because there are going to be a LOT of drastically different things that inform my portrayal of Meninas coming from these relationships (both positive and negative, but ultimately places of growth).

WOULD YOU SAY YOUR BLOG IS SHIP-FOCUSED?: YES / NO. Like I said, plot comes first. And especially in the case of Meninas, she has a lot of self exploration and reflection to do before she can engage in a healthy relationship or address any feelings of romance. I do place a large focus on the formation of her relationships and how they shape the way she relates to other people and grows as a person, but I am extremely sensitive to making sure I’m not writing a female character who’s entire development is dependent on a romance with a male character- perish the thought lol.

DO YOU USE READ MORE?:  YES / NO / SOMETIMES WHEN I WRITE LONG STUFF.

ARE YOU:  MULTI-SHIP / SINGLE-SHIP / DUAL-SHIP  —  MULTIVERSE / Singleverse.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO EXPLORE THE MOST IN YOUR SHIPS?: For Meninas, it’s a matter of her acknowledging, understanding, and accepting that she can be worth more than how useful she is to others. She had a series of traumatizing and character defining experiences regarding love, romance, and personal worth that strongly shaped the way she perceives her relationships to others and her emotional expression. Trust is another huge factor for me, Meninas needs to be around someone she believes in. Strength is another aspect. She likes someone who challenges her, keeps her on her toes, and is sturdy like physically. Because she’ll break you. THAT SAID- Meninas tends to be open wrt her body, but closed off when it comes to her heart. Hate to see it, love to write it.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PRE-ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS?: YES / NO. As long as the premise makes sense. I like relationships to have some matter of significance and planning, especially because of how I’ve written the way Meninas picks and chooses who to get close to in Silbern depending on what suits her interests. Genuine friendship is a weird thing for Meninas, as most of her relationships are formed out of convenience. If you aren’t useful to Meninas’ schemeing, then she has no interest in dealing with you beyond platitudes and keeping up appearances and will interact with you as such.

► SECTION ABOUT YOUR MUSE.

- WHAT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOUR MUSE INTERESTING TOWARDS OTHERS, WHY SHOULD THEY RP WITH THIS PARTICULAR CHARACTER OF YOURS NOW, WHAT POSSIBLE PLOTS DO THEY OFFER?: WE LOVE DUPLICITOUS WOMEN! No, but at the core of my Meninas characterization, the sentiment is “Everything is not as it appears” even down to the relationships she has with others. Meninas’ entire personality is constructed as a survival tactic from an early age (in addition to being a way to make herself more useful as a tool to others, and thus seen as having more worth in general), and as a result, she hasn’t really allowed herself to live life as a fully realized person. Her plots generally offer silent rebellion, playing a role in regards to her self presentation, chaotic mean girl level bullshit, and cool fights/training. Also you get to interact with a big buff lady. That said about her personality, it depends on the verse. CFYOW Meninas will be more unhinged, while post-CFYOW Meninas will be more honest and rowdy.

- WITH WHAT TYPE OF MUSES DO YOU USUALLY STRUGGLE TO RP WITH?:  Muses who are standoffish or disengage right at the start. Meninas doesn’t interact with people without a certain purpose, so if they aren’t interested, she’s not going to be either.

- WHAT DO THEY DESIRE, IS THEIR GOAL?: ��Revenge, strength, redefining what “power” means in terms of how the world works. She wants to see the Shinigami dead for their role in her parents deaths, and feels the same about Yhwach.

- WHAT CATCHES THEIR INTEREST FIRST WHEN MEETING SOMEONE NEW?:  Ability, potential threat, perceived strength, where loyalty lies; how potentially useful you can be to her.

- WHAT DO THEY VALUE IN A PERSON?:  Strength both in a physical sense, but also in belief and convictions. Honesty, and understanding the flaws of the world they live in.

- WHAT THEMES DO THEY LIKE TALKING ABOUT?:  Fighting, beauty, freedom, abolishing Quincy classism based on blood purity, music, fashion, blacksmithing.

- WHICH THEMES BORE THEM?: Blind loyalty to Yhwach, talking about the horrors of war as if it doesn’t concern them, Bambietta, Quincy supremacy,

- DID THEY EVER WENT THROUGH SOMETHING TRAUMATIC?:  Her parents were killed in the first Quincy war and she was left abandoned and grew up literally fighting for her life and living on the streets. She often likens fighting pits to the bowels of Hell (and I often play with the ironic theme of crawling out of hell to appear as an angel or something divine). She is consumed by a quest for revenge, and strongly believes her ends will justify the means taken to fulfill her ideal. As a direct result of these experiences, her emotional health and maturity is severely affected, and she doesn’t view herself as a person worthy or capable of feeling as much as a tool who, in the right hands, can be utilized to bring about the revenge she craves.

- WHAT COULD LEAD TO AN INSTANT KILL?:  (1) Men who feel non-consensually entitled to her body. That said, she’s done a fairly excellent job at maintaining control and an unassuming threatening nature despite the widely known understanding of her Schrift ability and how it augments. (2) Someone touching her Quincy cross, as it’s her most precious and private item. (3) Anyone who dares get in the way of her plans that can’t be manipulated in some other useful aspect.

- IS THERE SOMEONE /-THING THEY HATE?:  Meninas hates Yhwach, and the Shinigami most predominately, but she also harbors disgust for Hollows as an instinct. That said, her young life was spent detached from Quincy culture (in addition to being a Gemischt and the inherent isolation that comes with that status), so despite her early induction into the Wandenreich ranks, Meninas does not harbor the same Quincy nationalism and loyalty that others of her race do. They’re a means to an end, and just happen to help her become stronger.

IS YOUR MUSE EASY TO APPROACH?: YES / NO. - Best ways to approach them?: She comes off as easy to approach, but if you want genuine Meninas I’m sorry the number you’re trying to reach has been disconnected. Goodbye!

SOMETHING YOU MAY STILL WANT TO POINT OUT ABOUT YOUR MUSE?: Everything I’ve written about her is based in headcanon! I’ve got both a lengthy biography as well as headcanons gathered in the sidebar links on my blog.

CONGRATS!!! You managed it, now tag your mutuals! ♥

TAGGED BY: @bazzardburner​ TAGGING: i think this has made its rounds so steal it!

[errgative]

Japanese Literature Essentials

This is a list of five classic Japanese books and short stories that I feel are essential reads for anyone interested in Japan. I’ve chosen these books not only because they are excellent literature in their own right, but because they offer unique insight into Japanese culture and showcase the differences between Japanese and Western literature. Whether or not you are studying Japanese, I think you can gain something valuable by reading them. I know there are many great books I’ve left off this list, but Japanese literature is just too expansive to be summarized in one post - feel free to reblog with your own favorites if I didn’t include them!

Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji (源氏物語)

Recommended Translation: Royall Tyler

The Tale of Genji is one of the most iconic and foundational works in the history of Japanese literature. Written at the peak of the Heian period, it combined aspects of Chinese literature with traditional forms of Japanese storytelling, resulting in an 1100 page (written almost entirely in kana!!) epic that follows Genji through his adventures and romantic pursuits while giving insight into Heian court life. I feel that Tyler’s translation brings the beautiful Classical Japanese prose to life while preserving the original aesthetics of the tale.

The author, Murasaki Shikibu, was a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court. Although women were traditionally not taught Chinese, she was able to study it due to her immense talent. Her mastery of literature is shown in that Genji was greatly praised even at the time of its release, despite her being a woman. 

Soseki Natsume: Kokoro (こころ)

Recommended Translation: Edwin McClellan

Soseki is often regarded as the founder of modern Japanese literature. His works are informed by his life experiences, as well as issues salient to Meiji-era Japan, such as the westernization of Japan and conflicts between modern and traditional culture. 

Kokoro takes place during the transition out of the Meiji era. The central characters are a young student and the man he idolizes, called Sensei. Through the young man’s relationship with his parents and Sensei, Soseki explores the boundaries between urban and rural values, as well as what it means to receive an education. The third and final part is in the form of a letter from Sensei, and deals with themes of guilt, isolation, and the egoism of youth, as the reality behind the student’s idealization of him is revealed. 

In the interest of full disclosure, this is my favorite book on this list and definitely in my top five books of all time - it has only a spare, basic plot, but manages to convey the feeling of an entire nation in a time of transition, while not sacrificing beautiful language or complex, nuanced characters.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Hell Screen (地獄変)

Recommended Translation: I actually don’t know who translated the version I’ve read, since it’s a pdf that doesn’t include the title page. Contact me if you want it, or pick a translation that sounds good to you.

Akutagawa was one of the most influential Japanese writers of the twentieth century. Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He is probably best known outside of Japan for his story Rashomon, which inspired Kurosawa Akira’s film of the same name. Much of his work deals with what he perceives as the corruption and spiritual anxiety of modern life, as well as themes of obsession, isolation, and illusion. 

Hell Screen is a short story set in an ambiguously medieval Japan, potentially the late Heian period. It centers around the painter Yoshihide, who is the finest painter in the land, but hates everything except for his art and his daughter. He is commisioned by a lord to create a screen painted with the Buddhist hell. Through Yoshihide, Akutagawa explores the nature of artistic obsession and the conflict between art and moral behaviour, all while creating a sense of uncertainty around the truth by choosing an unnamed courtier who is devoted to the lord as a narrator. The end result is a wonderfully disturbing story that subtly critiques modern ways of thinking in the guise of a Buddhist parable.

Warning for implied rape.

Mishima Yukio: Forbidden Colors (禁色)

Recommended Translation: Alfred H. Marks

One of the most well-known postwar Japanese authors, Mishima wrote about themes such as beauty, gender, sexual desire, and patriotism, and his work has been equally praised and criticized for its long, flowing descriptions and decadent prose. Today, Mishima is known almost as much for his gruesome death by ritual suicide as for his literary accomplishments.

Some of you might wonder why I chose to include Forbidden Colors on this list rather than the better known and less disturbing Confessions of a Mask. While it’s true that both of them feature gay protagonists and involve similar themes, I feel that the viscerally disgusting nature of Forbidden Colors makes it a much more powerful read. It is by no means enjoyable, essentially being 400 pages of nothing but hatred and vitriol. Both the protagonist, Yuichi, and his ‘mentor,’ Shunsuke, are amoral, manipulative, and hopelessly misogynistic. The plot is based around Shunsuke’s quest to get revenge on the entire female population by using Yuichi’s good looks as his weapon. Yuichi starts out as somewhat naïve and afraid, thinking he’s the only man to ever be gay, but begins to become more and more like Shunsuke, adopting his misogynistic habits and using his experiences in Tokyo’s gay scene to learn how to weaponize his beauty. The horrifying story of what Yuichi does and experiences provides a harsh, angry critique of Japanese society without any moments of hope or levity.

While I do highly recommend this book, please know that it is highly disturbing and if you cannot read books that contain rape/dubious consent, graphic violence, extreme misogyny, or homophobia, it might be a good idea to skip it. 

Enchi Fumiko: Masks (女面)

Recommended Translation: Juliet Carpenter

Enchi is probably the most well-known female Japanese writer from the Showa period. She drew attention to the plight of women in an increasingly militaristic and patriarchal Japan, and achieved success after World War II despite the male-dominated Japanese literary establishment. Her works explore gender and the nature of power.

I had a hard time deciding whether to include Masks or The Waiting Years; both are powerful explorations of female forms of power, and both are quintessentially Japanese in nature. Ultimately Masks won out because of its direct ties to The Tale of Genji, which opened this list. Masks draws on countless layers of Japanese culture, from Genji to traditional shamanistic practices to Noh theatre and art. The story is told from the perspective of men, but as the novel goes on, it becomes clear that the men are being manipulated by the crafty Mieko, whose schemes quickly ensnare the narrators. Central to the story is an essay Mieko wrote on the role of the Rokujo Lady in Genji. Ultimately, Masks is about power, how it can be subverted, and the results of those subversions, while simultaneously exploring the nature of gender, revenge, and legacy. It’s hard to summarize the genius of this book - the way Enchi weaves together differing sources and plot threads into a cohesive, indictive whole - in one paragraph, but I hope you all will read it. 

Once again, I’m including warnings, this time for graphic sex, dubious consent (in that one party does not know who the other is), graphic descriptions of blood, and death.

More Recommendations:

Soseki Natsume: I am a Cat; Botchan

Akutagawa Ryunosuke: Spinning Gears; Kappa

Oe Kenzaburo: The Silent Cry; Hiroshima Notes

Enchi Fumiko: The Waiting Years

Tanizaki Junichiro: Naomi

Kawabata Yasunari: The Old Capital; Thousand Cranes

Mishima Yukio: Death in Midsummer - Onnagata, Patriotism

Murakami Ryu: Almost Transparent Blue

Abe Kobo: The Woman in the Dunes

Yoshimoto Banana: Kitchen

[hamliet]

Hey! Sorry if this sounds rude or offensive - I assure you that it is not my intention at all. So I saw a discussion about fetishization in yaoi, and I want to ask what does "fetishization" mean in this context? Some of my ships are male/male ship and I don't want to end up fetishizing them (if that makes sense). Forgive my ignorance but can you ask me what to do/not to do in this matter? ((Of course you can choose not to answer this if you don't want to))

Hey Anon! I don’t think you sound rude at all, and thank you for being so polite. I’m going to start by stating that asking a person who identifies as LGB T+might be better (and ppl feel free to chime in, correct me, give you opinion, etc), but here’s an answer that’s going to start by trying to discuss the appeal of yaoi from an empathetic context, and then point out why the fetish aspects can be really disrespectful and even harmful. 

Full disclosure: I don’t personally like most yaoi stories. I watched one season of one once and felt very uncomfortable with the ‘consent not being a thing’ issue, etc. I do however love stories with good representation. Banana Fish and Yuri!!! on Ice have good representation, but are often incorrectly categorized as yaoi–however, it’s not like they aren’t drawing from that appeal either. Mao Dao Zu Shi is technically boy’s love, but has great representation. I’ll discuss what I think makes these stories good representation and not fetishization later. 

Yaoi is–it’s… a genre written by straight women for straight women. Think of how lesbian scenes (or even just teases) tend to get sexualized in main stream media–it’s not done for representation, it’s done for the “omg this turns me on/gives me feelz” aspect. 

However, is that necessarily a bad thing for stories? Not all stories have to aim to tell the most profound, character-driven, thematic story imaginable. It’s interesting to me if you look at traditional “uke” and “seme” roles which are written by women–from a sociological standpoint, I would love to see an academic paper written on this and what it suggests about how women think society views them. The lack of consent and “no, don’t but no means yes here” aspects in yaoi are not unique to yaoi–open any romance novel in the western world. Women are often told they can’t be sexual, and have sexuality shamed, so that’s interesting. Women are told that if they do choose to express their sexuality, it will often define them (traditional literature tropes for women are very often defined by their sexuality–nefarious seductress, beautiful virgin, hooker with a heart of gold, etc.), so the fact that “seme” and “uke” seem to define yaoi characters is also interesting from this perspective. (you can also apply these ideas to omegaverse fics–look fanfic is really interesting sociologically because it’s written by traditionally marginalized communities like women and lgbt+ people.) Not to mention why would women want to fetishize/romanticize a lack of consent? Maybe because society tells us we should. 

But here’s where you run into a problem: writing about m/m relationships in such a way, even if you view it through such an empathetic lens, runs into the issue of yaoi often lacking any kind of empathy for lesbian/gay/bi people, and it seems especially cruelly ignorant because it is not written by nor for LGBT+ people, whereas western romance novels are often written by women for women.  

Fiction isn’t reality, but fiction does exist within reality. It’s a safe place to explore, but it is created within reality, consumed within reality, and yes, can and does affect reality. To say otherwise is ignorant. (To use this to condemn people who enjoy more scandalous fiction, however, is equally ignorant, but that’s for another day.) 

And in reality? LGBT+ people are horrifically treated. There’s progress, but it’s slow, and in many places they not only can’t marry, but it’s freaking illegal. Like, Saudi Arabia will execute you for it. Chechnya was rounding gay men up in concentration camps. Even in Japan where yaoi comes from, they can’t marry, and in China, everything is censored and people can be arrested for corrupting others if they promote certain content. 

To consume yaoi without being aware of the real-life conundrums and struggles for LGBT+ people is ignorant and harmful. Because yaoi does reinforce tropes that are dangerous–it forces certain roles and expectations, and there isn’t much good representation to counter it and convey that hey, this is a fetishization, not reality. Most of it doesn’t acknowledge the struggles of LGBT+ people to be accepted in the world, to not be condemned, and if it does it’s often in the context of sex, which can fetishize it. It often reduces the relationship to sex.

And there’s the issue. Yaoi is “omg penises having sex.” It (often) reduces people to just objects, and when in the real world LGBT+ people are struggling to be acknowledged as existing, that they aren’t going to hell, to survive, that’s just… it can be irresponsible. 

So let’s talk about Mao Dao Zu Shi, a Chinese boy’s love novel that I’m recently obsessed with lol. And let’s throw Banana Fish and Yuri!!! on Ice in here as well, because all these stories are often called “yaoi” when… while they do draw from certain tropes, it’s reductive to label them as such. Because all these stories are plot/theme/character driven. Even when the love stories between Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian, Ash and Eiji, Yuuri and Victor, are the beating hearts at the core of all these series, the story never reduces them to an object. Even if I have said before I think Victor needs better fleshing out, and I do, he’s not an object. The stories serve the characters, rather than characters existing to serve the audience via turning them on and/or giving feelz. Even though MDZS does have explicit sexual scenes towards the end, and YoI has a ton of fanservice, the focus is not the audience. The characters are not props even when they are weaker. In Banana Fish and MDZS, two of my favorite stories ever, the characters are particularly rich and compelling and real. 

That’s what good representation is, imo. Showing them as people, not as objects having sex. The opposite is fetishization–and while there is a place for fetishes and such, to enjoy a type of it while real life people are suffering is… immensely privileged. And it can be hurtful. 

My guess is from what you say, you’re not shipping m/m because it’s m/m, but because you like the dynamics/find their dynamic hot (which isn’t fetishization necessarily), not because you just want to see penises in action. And to be clear, a story like MDZS does draw attention to the fact that it is two men and deliberately critiques society for its homophobia, so it’s not like you can’t like an m/m ship for that reason–but I do think it’s just good to be self-aware, and allow for nuance. 

[thatishogwash]

Rules are Made to be Broken

KuroDai 2019

May 8th, Day 3: Voice Actors AU/Five Senses

AO3

To be honest Kuroo was excited for any type of work that came his way.  He treated each job with the utmost respect and dedication.  He believed that was a huge part of the reason why he had gotten to the point in his career where he didn’t have to bus tables or stack canned foods to help pay his rent.  Not that there was anything wrong with those jobs, but his one first love in this world was voice acting which wasn’t the easiest thing to make a living off of.

Now Kuroo was voicing the Japanese translation of the newest Disney movie.  He was playing the companion of the main character and he had been almost completely beside himself when he realized that companion was a slinky black panther with a plethora of fantastic one liners.  He was set to buy any and all merch that came out, to watch the movie on repeat when it was finally finished.  He had already gone over the lines dozens of times by now, practicing inflection and diction until his roommate threatened to throat punch him if he didn’t shut up.

Kozume was supportive like that.

Kuroo smiled as he was introduced to Michimiya Yui, the petite and perky woman who was going to be voicing the princess in the animated movie.  Kuroo didn’t think there was another person in the world who was more qualified for the job.  Michimiya was in a long standing animated series with magical girls, she ran the convention circuit quite often and was always in some kind of interview or game show.  She was adorable but could be a complete beast when it came to competitions, slapping her cheeks and decimating her opponents.  Kuroo looked forward to working with her.

They went around the room introducing themselves and the characters they were playing.  There was Oikawa Tooru who was more an on-screen actor than voice actor and was surprising his numerous fans with playing the villain.  Ushijima Wakatoshi was playing the deep voiced and disapproving father of the young princess.  Shirofuku Yukie had the role of the less than impressed side kick to Oikawa’s character.  Kuroo had been tempted by that character but they had strictly wanted a female voice actor and while Kuroo could force his voice to all sorts of tricks there was no way he could pull off a believable falsetto in those high notes she had to hit in the villains main song.

Then there was Sawamura Daichi.  Unlike the others, even Oikawa, Kuroo had never worked with Sawamura before who was mostly a video game voice actor.  Kuroo had done his research on his co-workers and realized that Sawamura had voiced several favorite characters in games he played with Kozume late at night when neither could sleep.  Hearing him speak was like meeting an old friend, as if he was walking onboard the SSV Normandy heading towards their next mission.

Kuroo could understand why he was chosen as the princesses love interest and the main male lead.  Oikawa might be the prettiest thing in the room but Sawamura looked like he was one nice tux away from embodying the role of a prince.

The chemistry between Sawamura and Michimiya was obvious, there was an obvious trust there that had to be built up between years of friendship.  They flirted well and when they read the lines from the climax of the story, when the two main characters fight, it was believable and made Kuroo lean a bit closer in his chair as they passionately yelled across the room at each other.

When a break was called Kuroo didn’t waste time before sliding up next to Sawamura, gleefully noticing the height difference that allowed him to loom over the rather broad shouldered man.  Sawamura looked up when Kuroo’s shadow fell over him, brows furrowed before his features smoothed out and a warm smile lit up his face.  Kuroo was thrown off his game, momentarily left speechless.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Sawamura had a firm handshake.  His voice was low with just a hint of husky undertones that Kuroo always assumed was him putting on a character voice for video game characters that were supposed to be gruff.  “I guess I’m supposed to say I really like your work in Tokyo Ghoul or One Punch Man, which I do but I’m pretty fond of Nozaki-kun.”  It was horrendously charming and completely unfair.

“My roommate makes fun of me for how often I choose your character as a companion in Mass Effect.”  Kuroo admitted, exchanging a bit of honesty for a truth of his own.  He didn’t mention that the real reason Kozume mocked him was because of the amount of times Kuroo attempted to woo Sawamura’s character.  “I didn’t know you could sing.”  Sawamura rubbed the back of his neck, looking off and away.

“Please don’t expect anything too grand, I imagine they will have a lot to fix post-production.”  Sawamura said modestly, hand wrapped around his neck as he looked up at Kuroo in half exasperation.  Did the man even realize how adorable he was?  “I am more than thrilled to be here though if they are willing to look past my shortcomings.”  If Kuroo had known Sawamura a little longer he might have made a height joke but he stopped himself.  He had a feeling Sawamura had a healthy sense of humor but he didn’t want the other man to think he was a jerk.  Only his closest friends were allowed to know that Kuroo was kind of an asshole.

Kuroo had a strict no-dating rule for himself when it came to his co-workers.  He never wanted to be that guy who took the friendliness someone offered him and misconstrued it as an advance of some kind.  Yet Sawamura truly tested that rule and Kuroo’s self control, which he had always thought was rather good but wavered heavily in the face of Sawamura’s honest praise, childish competitiveness, and smoothing baritone voice.

Then came the singing and Kuroo knew there was no going back.

It was clear Sawamura was untrained but years of voice acting game him a strong control of his voice which he used to implement all the critique and advice the vocal coach gave him as they recorded his main song.  The soft rasp of his natural tone conveyed quite nicely to singing.  He’d most likely never have a good range but the sheer emotion he put into his every word allowed leeway for his less than technical voice.

“He’s good, isn’t he?”  Michimiya asked after she had sidled up next to him in the sound studio.  She had clasped her hands together and placed them under her chin, her expressive eyes studying Sawamura as he nodded along to whatever the vocal coach was telling him in the soundbooth.

“I think his instagram is going to become a lot more popular after this movie comes out.”  Sawamura’s voice was amazing to listen to but once people realized that the voice definitely matched the looks he was going to amass quite the following.  He already had a dedicated fanbase but Kuroo had admittedly done some online research.  The gym pictures could have easily made him look like a meathead but were quickly offset by the amount of loving pictures he had of his dogs and how much he clearly cared for his family and friends.  Kuroo had tried to find something that would smother this ridiculous crush he was harboring but had only managed to fan the flames.

“He’s kind of the perfect person to play the role of a prince, right?” Michimiya asked after Sawamura had sung through another verse, easily using the advice the coach had given him.

“He is kind of dreamy.”  Oikawa agreed and Kuroo let out a small hum of agreement without thinking as Sawamura looked through the glass to wave at them with a goofy smile that pulled a little higher on one side due to an old injury that had left a faint scar on his cheek.

Kuroo finally registered Michimiya and Oikawa’s words and his agreement as they snickered together.  He turned to them in dawning horror.

“Why?”  Kuroo couldn’t help but ask.  Was he back in high school?  Being teased once again about a crush on the guy who everyone liked while he hid in the AV club.  Admittedly Kai and him forged an easy friendship and Kuroo got over his crush soon after but still.

“It’s ludicrous to watch two grown ass men pining over each other, like we’re living in our own Korean drama.”  Oikawa said, adjusting his fashionable glasses that Kuroo was almost positive he wore just because he thought he looked good in them.  He did but that was beside the point.

“He’s not wrong.”  Michimiya said apologetically, at least feeling a bit bad about their teasing.

Kuroo could have brushed off Oikawa’s words, he was a terrible gossip and enjoyed stirring the pot.  But Kuroo had learned that Michimiya and Sawamura had been friends since they were teenagers, they had even dated briefly at one point before realizing they were better off as friends.  Michimiya could be just as mischievous as her old friend Sawamura but she would never be cruel.

If Michimiya said there was some mutual pining going on then she must have realized something on Sawamura’s side was equal to what Kuroo was feeling.

Kuroo turned back to Sawamura, who was waiting for the crew to adjust a couple things.  He looked up when he realized he had Kuroo’s attention and smiled once again.  Kuroo felt a silly smile blooming on his own face as he came to the realization that maybe his old rule could be broken.  Just this once.

[clumsyprophet]

Cinderella Phenomenon as Tarots

Welcome, welcome!

So, as the title said, this is an analysis that attempts to link each Arcana to someone (or something) from Cinderella Phenomenon. Why? Well...I like tarots, I like Cinderella Phenomenon and I like rambling, in no particular order. It's not an original idea by any stretch of the word 'original': pretty much every fandom has done it, but it's still an interesting analysis to make! The Arcana are archetypes, something ancient and universal...and their message can be found basically everywhere, assuming you are willing to reflect a bit to notice the links.

I'm not an expert Tarot reader (or scholar) by all means, so I'm more than willing to hear critiques, suggestions and whatever you think might improve my analysis. Also, I would definitely not object if someone wanted to use this as a base to draw the deck/an Arcana: if you want to go ahead, this is not private property, it’s just something I made for fun and then decided to share.

With that being said, some final notes:

I am only considering the Major Arcana...it would be nice to have a full deck, but I'm afraid there's not enough material to fill 56 cards in addition to the 22 described below.

I tried to include all named characters without repeating them. Lucette is an exception, since she appears from 2 to 4 cards...but she's the protagonist, so that's kinda expected. Another exception is Rumpel's ex (which doesn’t appear), a bit because I forgot about her and a bit because when I remembered she still didn't fit anywhere. Village man #2, Child #1 and their faceless friends are also not included, for rather obvious reasons.

This will contain SPOILERS, no way around that. So, if you haven’t finished the VN what are you waiting for, go and finish it read at your own risk.

So, without further ado, let’s start!

THE FOOL

Lucette (riches to rags version) / Lucette (w/ Mr Broom)

Ah, the Fool, number 0 (or XXII) of the deck, the child, the wanderer, the...well, fool. This card is a card of beginnings, of a journey that is about to start with all the wonders and perils (often dictated by inexperience) that such an adventure brings by default. So, who else other than the Ice princess, who has just woken up having lost everything, can represent this card? While she lacks the enthusiasm the fool usually overflows with there's no denying that she has a long journey in front of her, one full with danger but promising a shining happy ending. Hopefully...have you seen how easy is to get bad ends?! *Ahem* Anyway...another option would be having the scene where Lucette is swept away by Mr Broom...same reasoning (journey just started) with an emphasis on the 'Fool' part of the Arcana.

THE MAGICIAN

Waltz

...I swear not all the cards I chose are this literal. Ahem...either way, the Magician is a card of potential applied, will shaping reality as the Magician desires, the male (or active) principle of creation, the Yang to the High Priestess Yin. Also, even if I'm rather reluctant to bind powerful cards such as the Major Arcana to rather mundane elements (but hey, someone does) the Magician can represent a young, willful man. So...well, Waltz. He's even a witch, what more can you wish for.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS

Delora

As I mentioned above, the High Priestess is the counterpart to the Magician: where the Magician is a willful, active force of reshaping reality the High Priestess is an intuitive caretaker of hidden secrets and intimate knowledge of the universe. So, why Delora, you ask? The High Priestess knows, but she will reveal only when the time is right, when you are ready to accept the truth she is offering. I considered Parfait for this card, but I believe Delora fits better (and we have the nice symmetry of two witches, one male and one female, holding the complementary positions of Magician and High Priestess).

THE EMPRESS

Ophelia

The Empress is a feminine card like the High Priestess but, unlike the third Arcana, the aspect she focuses on is not intimate, intuitive knowledge but rather 'motherhood': creation and nurturing. She is Mother Earth, offering to her children endless affection and sustenance, forgiving their slights when they hurt her because her love is just so deep. So, well, Ophelia might be a Queen and not an Empress, but she has all the other characteristics of this Arcana.

THE EMPEROR

King Genaro

...Okay, maybe quite a lot of cards are rather literal, but it's not my fault they fit so well. The Emperor is the Father to the Empress Mother, to no one's surprise: he loves his children no less than the Empress, but the gift he gives are rather different. The Emperor is a card of unbreakable will, like the Magician, but this time applied not through creation but through laws. He is strict and can appear, at times, rational and cold, but that's his way of protecting his children...and have no doubt, he will protect them. He wields power, but he will never be corrupted by it. So, well, here we are, our beloved King.

THE HIEROPHANT

Alcaster

The Hierophant, much like the Emperor, is an Arcana of law and order. Unlike the Emperor, however, his domain is far more focused on the society as a whole, his objective being upholding a system of belief and/or traditions. If that system is fair, just and peaceful then good, if it's not...well, you get Alcaster and his plans for a 'better' Angielle.

THE LOVERS

...Too many to count, TBH

Aight, this is one easy card to explain, since it's exactly what it says on the tin: an union (90% of the time a romantic one) between two persons, working harmoniously together towards a goal. Said goal can be living together, bettering themselves...you name it. Sometimes it's a reminder to choose between two persons, but the usual meaning it's the first one I explained. The problem with this card it's that there are simply too many couples that can fit even discarding my first idea, Garlan and Jurien, since they are already taken for another Arcana. Candidates are Viorica and her fiancee, or Lucette in her Evermore outfit framed in a way that makes ambiguous who the LI is. No shipping wars, thank you.

THE CHARIOT

Rod

The Chariot is an Arcana of emotional control. Much like the driver depicted in all decks is guiding the horses in front of them to lead them to their destination, a person blessed by the Chariot will (ideally) guide their emotions without suppressing them but instead using their tumultuous strength to reach their goals. Of course, this card could also means that you are controlling your emotions too much...don't look at me like that, I never said the Arcana have only a favourable meaning. So...well, Prince Rod, case closed.

STRENGTH

Fritz

Much like the Chariot, the Strength is a card dealing with controlling oneself. With quiet determination and unwavering patience most cards depicts a maiden taming a lion, animal representing the wildest, darkest side of her. If you aren't getting what I'm implying go back playing the game, because seriously, just replace the lion with a wolf and the symbolism becomes as subtle as a punch on the nose. Fritz, full stop.

THE HERMIT

Hans Grimm

I'll admit it, this was an hard Arcana to assign, but I believe I found a rather nice match. The Hermit represents, unsurprisingly, the need for a withdrawal from the world. Maybe it's because you need to reflect alone on your life...or maybe because you feel extremely guilty because your stories (unwillingly) caused a war and countless death, who can say!

THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE

You

Yes, you read that right: you (the player) are the Wheel of Fortune. Chances, situations shifting, choices with uncertain outcome: all are the domain of the Wheel. You are fate, you are the force that sways the path of the Fool, you are, in the end, the difference between a bad and a happy ending. Sadly, it's a bit hard to represent 'the player' in a tarot, so I'm proposing the closer thing that can be easily put down in visual terms: a stained glass wheel (or, well, circular window if you want) with all the routes' symbols (referencing the main menu), maybe with Lucette's slippers in the middle, to represent the biggest choice a player makes while playing (that is, which route will they follow).

JUSTICE

Jurien and Garlan

Remember when I said that I considered our favourite knight couple for the Lovers, but in the end I changed my mind? That's because they equally fit the Justice...and no one else does fit this Arcana like them. Justice is the herald of Judgment, a reminder that Karma (not, not him) exists and will reward you as you deserve. Alcaster, dear, thought you could get away with your coup? Bitch, please! Also, the Justice can represent a fair and just attitude, doing the right thing no matter what...well, I don't need to say anything else, right? That's our noble knights, right there.

THE HANGED MAN

Rumpel

The Hanged Man, like everybody who has some knowledge of Tarots symbolism will tell you, is Odin, hanging upside down from the branches of Yggrdrasil so he could gain the knowledge of Runes. Rumpel and his quest for knowledge (well, memory, but it's still some form of knowledge) fit nicely. The Hanged Man also warns us that in order to gain something it's often necessary to give up something else: in our case, give away his old habits that ruined him so he can gain a true happy ending.

DEATH

Parfait (end of Waltz' route)

Death is, probably, the most misunderstood card of the whole deck, though I have to admit lately its true meaning has become more and more known. Death is a card of endings and change (and, unlike the Hanged Man, this change is often forced instead of voluntary), but with the promise of a new beginning. Death is winter, with the implicit promise of a new spring. While Parfait dies at the end of Waltz' route, hope is still alive: her niece will uphold her legacy and a new era will be born, one hopefully devoid of the hate that destroyed the last one. It's sad, to see her go, but she has no more regrets, her story ended: now it's time for a new tale to be told.

TEMPERANCE

Annice

Temperance is, by definition, a card about balance and restraint. What does that mean, you ask? Well...other than the obvious meanings, it's a card that encourages solving conflicts with grace and diplomacy. Life will slap you hard in the face (life, and people), but it's (usually) not a good reason to fly off the handle. Keep your wits with you, stay calm, breathe: you will find a way to go on. Don't bend backwards, of course, but do try to let hatred flow away like water in a stream. I have to admit, I had a lot of trouble with this card...then I thought about Annice. True, she can't remember Lucette firing her for something she didn't do (thus she has no reasons to 'fly off the handle'), but she is still a composed, hard working girl. Also, I considered the Lucis and the Tenebrarum for this card (emphasizing the whole 'balance' aspect)...but, in the end, they got roped as candidates for another Arcana (more about that later!) and besides, I wanted Annice to be somewhere in the deck, too.

THE DEVIL

Varg

The Devil is, in short, a powerful reminder of our dark side. Our inner desires, our negative: the Devil appearing in a reading often means that, right now, your worst enemy is none other than yourself. With that being said, this is still part of you and you have to accept it: both stubbornly ignoring your dark side or being completely dominated by it are harmful; that's the message of the Devil. So...that's literally our wolf man, here.

THE TOWER

Hildyr

The Tower is known as the card of ruin and, to be honest, this reputation is often well deserved: like a lighting bolt striking a previously (apparently) intact tower, this Arcana warns about sudden, violent changes often revealing flawed bases. Death can be seen as the natural conclusion of a situation: maybe the ending itself was rather sudden, but there were very clear signals about the outcome...not the Tower. Mind you, this change can be a positive one (and since it tends to let everyone see how flawed the previous status quo was it's not entirely harmful), but it's sure shocking! Now, with that being said, if Hildyr and her resurrection is not a lightning bolt destroying the apparent peace in Angielle I don't know what that is!

THE STAR

Emelaigne

The Star is one timid Arcana, it's message one of quiet optimism but boy how much strength can the maiden of the Star bring! Thanks to her strong heart and her unwavering hope she can walk through the night unharmed: maybe she will stumble, from time to time, but she will never give up. She will face darkness both external and internal but she will still go forward, her heart unwilling to even just consider the idea of giving up. Even if Emelaigne's trust in herself is far lower than the Star would suggest her heart and faith in others make her an almost perfect fit for this Arcana.

THE MOON

Mythros

The Moon is a card of illusions. Things aren't like they appear, maybe because someone is pulling wool over your eyes or even because you are doing it, unwilling to see the truth. Still...never trust what you are seeing in the light of the Moon, because it's distorting reality. Of all the character, Mythros immediately comes to mind: he fooled the entire court for years and played Lucette like a fiddle in Fritz' route...with disastrous results (for Angielle. His plan was rather successful). He's not the only manipulative character, but he's surely the one who has 'deception' as his whole modus operandi.

THE SUN

Karma

You survived Death, the Devil, the Tower, you endured the deception of the Moon...but you have won. This is a card of victory, and surely not a quiet one! Forget the timid light of the Star...the Sun is full of life and confidence (someone may say full of himself...not entirely wrong, I'd respond), blazing in the sky for all to see. Even reversed this card promises that setbacks are only temporary, no matter how bad things look. After all the night seemed to be dark and full of terrors (cit.), but look at the sky now! So, Karma. Yep.

JUDGMENT

Lucette (breaking the curse)

The Justice warned you that a reckoning would not be postponed indefinitely (cit.)...and now the moment has come. You are about  to reap what you have sown, buddy. So, if you are a bad guy Karma is about to kick your ass (no, not that Karma. ...Maybe? I mean, Karma kicks a lot of ass)...but what if your efforts were put into, say, being a better person? Well, your reward is going to be great indeed! Lucette is no longer the Fool she was at the beginning of the journey: through sacrifice and pain she has earned an happy ending.

THE WORLD

The Lucis and the Tenebrarum, in harmony / Lucette (Queen)

The World is, like the Sun, a card of victory. The journey has ended and you have found whatever you were searching for: sure, you will probably depart again soon, but for now you are complete. This equilibrium is not the unstable one we saw being destroyed in the Tower: it's an hard fought victory that is destined to last. Bask in the joy of the World, accept its message of harmony: you deserve the prize, after all you did to obtain it. With that being said...I can't still decide which one of the two proposals I like more: both are the symbol of the end of Hildyr's reign of terror and generally a big fat 'CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE GREAT', but other than that...eh. I'm slightly leaning towards the Crystal, to represent in the deck that important part of the story, but I would not object to either choice.

[ucflibrary]

Pride Month has arrived! While every day is a time to be proud of your identity and orientation, June is that extra special time for boldly celebrating with and for the LGBTQIA community (yes, there are more than lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in the queer community). June was chosen to honor the Stonewall Riots which happened in 1969. Like other celebratory months, LGBT Pride Month started as a weeklong series of events and expanded into a full month of festivities.

In honor of Pride Month, UCF Library faculty and staff suggested books, movies and music from the UCF collection that represent a wide array of queer authors and characters. Additional events at UCF in June include “UCF Remembers” which is a week-long series of events to commemorate the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in 2016.

Click on the Keep Reading link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 20 titles by or about people in the LGBTQIA community suggested by UCF Library employees. These, and additional titles, are also on the Featured Bookshelf display on the second (main) floor next to the bank of two elevators.

A guide to LGBTQ+ inclusion on campus, post-Pulse edited by Virginia Stead The research in A Guide to LGBTQ+ Inclusion on Campus, Post-PULSE is premised on the notion that, because we cannot choose our sexual, racial, ethnic, cultural, political, geographic, economic, and chronological origins, with greater advantage comes greater responsibility to redistribute life's resources in favor of those whose human rights are compromised and who lack the fundamental necessities of life. Among these basic rights are access to higher education and to positive campus experiences. Queer folk and LGBTQ+ allies have collaborated on this new text in response to the June 16, 2016 targeted murder of 49 innocent victims at the PULSE nightclub, Orlando, Florida. Seasoned and novice members of the academy will find professional empowerment from these authors as they explicitly discuss multiple level theory, policy, and strategies to support LGBTQ+ campus inclusion. Their work illuminates how good, bad, and indeterminate public legislation impacts LGBTQ+ communities everywhere, and it animates multiple layers of campus life, ranging from lessons within a three-year-old day care center to policy-making among senior administration. Suggested by Tim Walker, Information Technology & Digital Initiatives

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she’s taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love. Woven into Darcy’s personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the “Afterworld” to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved—and terrifying—stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love…until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot--if she's willing to sow the seeds of civil war. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

And Then I Danced: traveling the road to LGBT equality: a memoir by Mark Segal On December 11, 1973, Mark Segal disrupted a live broadcast of the CBS Evening News when he sat on the desk directly between the camera and news anchor Walter Cronkite, yelling, "Gays protest CBS prejudice!" He was wrestled to the studio floor by the stagehands on live national television, thus ending LGBT invisibility. But this one victory left many more battles to fight, and creativity was required to find a way to challenge stereotypes surrounding the LGBT community. Mark Segal's job, as he saw it, was to show the nation who gay people are: our sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers. Because of activists like Mark Segal, whose life work is dramatically detailed in this poignant and important memoir, today there are openly LGBT people working in the White House and throughout corporate America. An entire community of gay world citizens is now finding the voice that they need to become visible. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

Basically Queer: an intergenerational introduction to LGBTQA2S+ lives by Claire Robson, Kelsey Blair, and Jen Marchbank Basically Queer offers an introduction to what it can look and feel like to live life as lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, two spirited and trans. Written by youth and elders who've lived these lives first hand, the book combines no-nonsense explanations, definitions, and information with engaging stories and poetry that bring them to life. Basically Queer answers those questions that many want to ask but fear will give offence--What is it really like to be queer? What's appropriate language? How can I be an ally? It also provides a succinct and readable account of queer history and legal rights worldwide, addresses intergenerational issues, and offers some tips and tricks for living queer. It does so in an easy and conversational style that will be accessible to most readers, including teens. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic -- and redemptive. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections, and Schuyler Kerby, Rosen Library

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado  In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella "Especially Heinous," Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes. Earthy and otherworldly, antic and sexy, queer and caustic, comic and deadly serious, Her Body and Other Parties swings from horrific violence to the most exquisite sentiment. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Inseparable: desire between women in literature by Emma Donoghue Emma Donoghue examines how desire between women in English literature has been portrayed, from schoolgirls and vampires to runaway wives, from cross-dressing knights to contemporary murder stories. She looks at the work of those writers who have addressed the "unspeakable subject," examining whether same-sex desire is freakish or omnipresent, holy or evil, as she excavates a long-obscured tradition of (inseparable) friendship between women, one that is surprisingly central to our cultural history. Inseparable is a revelation of a centuries-old literary tradition — brilliant, amusing, and until now, deliberately overlooked. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann Claire Kann’s debut novel Let’s Talk About Love, chosen by readers like you for Macmillan's young adult imprint Swoon Reads, gracefully explores the struggle with emerging adulthood and the complicated line between friendship and what it might mean to be something more. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront her own demons. Suggested by Emma Gisclair, Curriculum Materials Center

Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal Myra's personality is altered by her sex change operation and Myron is transported back through time to the year 1948. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers Set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, REFLECTIONS tells the story of Captain Penderton, a bisexual whose life is upset by the arrival of Major Langdon, a charming womanizer who has an affair with Penderton's tempestuous and flirtatious wife, Leonora. Upon the novel's publication in 1941, reviewers were unsure of what to make of its relatively scandalous subject matter. But a critic for Time Magazine wrote, "In almost any hands, such material would yield a rank fruitcake of mere arty melodrama. But Carson McCullers tells her tale with simplicity, insight, and a rare gift of phrase." Written during a time when McCullers's own marriage to Reeves was on the brink of collapse, her second novel deals with her trademark themes of alienation and unfulfilled loves. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala In the tradition of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Speak No Evil explores what it means to be different in a fundamentally conformist society and how that difference plays out in our inner and outer struggles. It is a novel about the power of words and self-identification, about who gets to speak and who has the power to speak for other people. As heart-wrenching and timely as his breakout debut, Beasts of No Nation, Uzodinma Iweala’s second novel cuts to the core of our humanity and leaves us reeling in its wake. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Tash hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee Fame and success come at a cost for Natasha "Tash" Zelenka when she creates the web series "Unhappy Families," a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina--written by Tash's eternal love Leo Tolstoy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Teaching & Engagement/Research & Information Services

The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley The Boys in the Band was the first commercially successful play to reveal gay life to mainstream America. This is a special fortieth anniversary edition of the play, which includes an original preface by acclaimed writer Tony Kushner (Angels in America), along with previously unpublished photographs of Mart Crowley and the cast of the play/film. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword, and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future -- and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

Very Recent History: an entirely factual account of a year (c. AD 2009) in a large city by Choire Sicha  What will the future make of us? In one of the greatest cities in the world, the richest man in town is the Mayor. Billionaires shed apartments like last season's fashion trends, even as the country's economy turns inside out and workers are expelled from the City's glass towers. The young and careless go on as they always have, getting laid and getting laid off, falling in and falling out of love, and trying to navigate the strange world they traffic in: the Internet, complex financial markets, credit cards, pop stars, microplane cheese graters, and sex apps. A true-life fable of money, sex, and politics, Very Recent History follows a man named John and his circle of friends, lovers, and enemies. It is a book that pieces together our every day, as if it were already forgotten. Suggested by Sara Duff, Acquisitions & Collections

Victim directed by Basil Dearden A highly respected, but closeted barrister, Melville Farr, risks his marriage and reputation to take on an elusive blackmail ring terrorizing gay men with the threat of public exposure and police action. Suggested by Richard Harrison, Subject Librarian

Why be happy when you could be normal? by Jeanette Winterson Traces the author's lifelong search for happiness as the adopted daughter of Pentecostal parents who raised her through practices of fierce control and paranoia, an experience that prompted her to search for her biological mother. Suggested by Lindsey Ritzert, Circulation

Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson The most beguilingly seductive novel to date from the author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman. Suggested by Rebecca Hawk, Circulation

[bardnuts]

I am so offended that no one involved with The Witcher realized that it had the potential of being the fantasy queer story of the century

this got very long so here’s a cut, click for the details

It’s been a while since I analyzed something academically so bear with me if I don’t phrase things well but Geralt’s intense and aggressive masculinity paired with his consciously hidden softer side, along with the way witchers are viewed by the society they exist in (with disgust and superstition, being ostracized and viewed as “mutants” or “abnormal” which is at the very least a poignant and unintentional metaphor). This is something I wouldn’t normally draw attention to if queer people in Geralt’s society weren’t viewed in the same medieval light as witchers and “nonhumans” i.e. dwarves, halflings, and elves (i could go into how my other major critique of the Witcher series is how overwhelmingly white it is, but that’s a whole other post). 

In other words, queer people exist already in The Witcher universe, and it is implied they are just as ostracized as witchers. 

my partner and I have agreed for a long time that The Witcher 3 (in particular) is very obviously the story of a closeted gay man attempting to bury his own identity, and that it was a failure on the part of the writers to notice the core strength of the narrative they were creating. The prevailing theme of The Witcher is the subjective definition of “monster,” and the narrative stresses over and over again that monsters can be people and are defined by their deeds rather than their identities. One of Geralt’s consistent conflicts is whether “monsters” (or post-conjunction creatures) should be slain simply because they are monsters, or if they should be judged by their deeds (his other struggle is whether he, a humble witcher, has the moral authority to judge other creatures). Usually, he chooses the latter: this is evidenced by his treatment of Rock Trolls in 3 and his dealings with monsters in the books -- his friendship with Regis (which I will come to very soon) and Borch Three Jackdaws, his refusal to take contracts on dragons, which he believes are unjustly targeted by monster slayers, and the entire premise of the short story A Grain of Truth. 

I don’t want this to be a full academic essay or w/e so if you have questions about anything just ask me and I’ll go into more detail/provide other sources.

Geralt himself is the overarching conflict of The Witcher in miniature: he is treated like a monster by society, and insists even to himself (more explicitly in the books than in the games) that the mutations stripped him of all emotion. He affects a hard-boiled, hypermasculine persona -- and I say affects because it becomes clear under any kind of scrutiny that Geralt is in fact soft-hearted, emotional, and compassionate. He also has weaknesses (i.e. covering his face as he steps into the portal to Tir na Lia because he’s afraid of portals). He has no stomach for the deception and coldness required in political matters, and is consistently emotion-driven even in the books. 

He is also (I’m sorry) overpowered socially by almost everyone. Dandelion and Yennefer in particular use him a bit like a doormat and have little regard for his feelings or needs. In Dandelion’s case this may have been a failed attempt at comedy by the writers, and in Yen’s case, a misplaced attempt at writing an “equal” relationship (I’m not sure the best way to phrase this and in any case I’ll probably make another post at some point about why I perceive Yennefer and Geralt’s relationship to be abusive. I’m not condemning Yennefer, I think she’s a wonderful character, but I do not think she and Geralt are healthy for each other). 

Geralt encounters a couple of queer people in The Witcher 3, and the interactions he has are almost always ones of enlightenment and surprise -- not because Geralt appears to believe queerness is unnatural, but because it had not occurred to him that it was something that was allowed. Elihal in Novigrad (not the best representation, but representation nonetheless) and Mislav in White Orchard, a gay man who was expelled from his hometown when his relationship with a nobleman was uncovered. He can have the following conversation with Geralt:

Mislav: I’m a freak.

Geralt: I’m a freak, too.

Mislav: Aye, but of a different kind. 

Geralt: [pausing] Is it lycanthropy? There are ways --

Mislav: No, it’s not that. [pause] The lord’s son, Florian, and I ... we loved each other. Dieter walked in on us in the stables.They drove me away ... Florian hanged himself. Lord started drinkin', and the estate fell into ruin. That's the long and short of it.

Geralt: I’m sorry. 

I guess I’ll write a part 2 for this because it’s starting to ramble a bit, and I still want to go into detail about Geralt’s various romantic and sexual relationships and how they compare to his long-standing friendships, and how this plays into a very common problem in media (particularly fantasy) where a character’s male relationships are given more genuine development than his female ones, and thus seem more meaningful. This is not the only reason I believe the narrative paints Geralt as a closeted gay man, but it is one of the reasons, and the overarching themes of The Witcher as a whole make it a largely wasted opportunity to showcase a truly great queer fantasy epic.