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rachelbethhines · 4 years ago

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Tangled Salt Marathon - The Eye of Pincosta

So this is an episode that really didn’t need to exist, and I say that as a Styalan defender. The writers took a perfect opportunity have the characters actually learn and grown and bypass it all for a contrived performative fake out redemption.

Summary: The group arrive in the town of Pincosta, but Eugene is immediately thrown in jail for having previously stolen the town's largest diamond, the Eye of Pincosta. The sheriff declares Eugene to work in the deadly copper mines and soon the rest of the group are thrown in jail. Rapunzel negotiates with the sheriff, offering to find and retrieve the Eye of Pincosta in exchange for Eugene and the group's release. The sheriff agrees, but on the condition that Rapunzel returns in two days. Rapunzel confronts Eugene about the theft and reluctantly, Eugene reveals he previously worked together with Stalyan, forcing Rapunzel to seek out Stalyan and persuades her to help.

So Why Didn’t Eugene Just Stay Behind With the Caravan?

Like it doesn’t take all six of you to buy and carry food back to the caravan; which they don’t take into the town anyways. Especially when you have two horses you can use. So why bring Eugene along when you know he could be arrested?

Pointing Out the Flaw In Your Writing Doesn’t Make It Any Less of a Flaw

No seriously, why didn’t he stay with the caravan? You need someone to watch over your stuff anyways if your going to leave it behind and Eugene is the perfect candidate for that. And even if you did need everyone to stick together, which you don’t, then bring the camper with you and let Eugene ride inside of it unseen. It’s not like the towns roads are too small for it or anything and it’ll save you from having to carry your stuff.

If you have to turn your characters into sudden idiots for no discernible reason to make your plot happen then you haven’t a good plot. Start over and come up with something else. Like maybe have Eugene not realize that he is wanted here because it was so long ago or have the guards randomly check their caravan where he’s hiding out because Styalan’s back into town, or something. Anything so long as it doesn’t make the mains stupid.

You’re Literally The Princess of Powerful Kingdom; Use That!

Ok, from what background info we get here, Pincosta isn’t even a fully fledged kingdom. It’s a hamlet, which is smaller than even a village. We get no indication what ‘land’ it belongs to, but it shares a kingdom with the larger town of Zulberg, which is one of the running gags in the first half of the episode.

What all this means is that Rapunzel is still the most powerful person in the room. She’s the heir apparent to the throne of a prosperous kingdom that has ties with a large trading network with bunch of other power kingdoms. Locking up her boyfriend and the future prince consort of said kingdom can be perceived as an act of war.

The series is trying to lead into Rapunzel becoming queen, but that means she needs to take advantage of her position and perform queenly like tasks. Like negotiating international incidents like this one, and simply complying to the city’s laws as if she was some random traveler doesn’t cut it.

Oh, So Now You Care!

Rapunzel, where the fuck do you think that prison barge was heading to just two episodes back? The same prison barge that your friend Attila was being threatened with. The same prison barge that victims of Corona’s corrupt justice system, like say Varian, are threatened with on top of the inhumane conditions of those dungeon cells that you locked your two best friends in back in season one.

Do not tell me Rapunzel is some kind and caring person if she only gives a damn about unjust treatment when it only affects her or someone she already cares about.

This Is Stealing Agency Away From Eugene

Rapunzel is not the one responsible for Eugene’s mistakes. She can help to some degree, like using her political power to pull some strings, but she doesn’t need to be the one to make reparations for his actions; that’s on him.

Or rather it should be on him. This should be his episode. The one where he grows as a person as he makes up for past deeds. Because redemption isn’t just about never doing bad things again, it’s also about making amends for what you did wrong.

That’s where this series fails and why the whole ‘It’s Rapunzel’s Story’ mantra is hollow. For starters it’s not just Rapunzel’s story. The series isn’t structured to be that way because it’s based off of a movie with two protagonists. It’s Eugene’s story as well. It’s also Cassandra’s and Varian’s story because as the main antagonists they further the conflict.

But it also fails because Rapunzel is just thrown into other people’s stories instead of being given her own. Rapunzel never learns anything from this adventure. Stalyan does, and Stalyan is never seen again after this episode. Having Rapunzel teach other random people lessons is counterintuitive to what the series wants to be. If it’s meant to be a coming of age story where Rapunzel learns about the real world, then she can’t be automatically in the right every episode.

Well Ain’t That Convenient

So Stalyan is needed to find this diamond that she and Eugene stole in order to free Eugene. Yet it’s never stated how Rapunzel finds Stalyan, especially so quickly. Last we saw her she had just left Varados and that was months ago. She could have been anywhere by this time.

So why is she near the same town where she’d still be wanted for arrest at? Where’s a her dad, who was dying from poison when we last saw him? What has she been up to? How did Rapunzel even know she was here?

Like you need to establish crap like this, otherwise it’s just a major plot hole.

So Why Stalyan?

This episode could have gone to just about anybody. Eugene, Lance, Lady Caine, fucking Shorty... Like I’d even take Hookfoot over this. He’s at least there for more than two episodes.

So why Stalyan? Why does she get a focus episode when we’ll never see her again? How come she’s ‘redeemed’ but not any of the other criminals on the prison barge? Like the series wants to act as if Rapunzel is this really forgiving person who believes in second chances but only four villains out of twenty get redemptions. 4 out of 20! What makes Stalyan so special that she gets to be one of those few select four and not say Lady Caine, Dwayne, or Andrew and the Saporians?

This Should Have Been a Lance and Rapunzel Team Up Instead

Keep in mind when I say this episode could have focused on anybody, I do mean it. You get creative enough this initial setup could have featured any two characters you wanted interacting. Lance and Eugene, Eugene and Rapunzel, Eugene and Stalyan, Eugene and Cassandra, Lance and Cassandra or maybe even Caine and Rapunzel, and reveal how Eugene knew Caine back in the pilot episode. Like there’s a lot of possibilities here.

For my money though, this should have been a Lance and Rapunzel episode. Because we don’t get any Lance and Rapunzel episodes. We don't even get any Lance episodes after his introduction. All his development, what little there is, is shoved into the b-plot of other characters’ focus episodes. He also barely interacts with the series main character despite being her boyfriend’s BFF and living with her on the road for year. That’s ridiculous.

All you needed to do was make Lance Eugene’s partner and have Lance make up for his past deeds to try and free his friends. Boom!

Why Didn’t You Bring Anything With You Raps?

We see at the end that the caravan was parked outside of town this whole time. She still has the key to get out any money that she needed, the pick of two horses that can’t fit inside of a cell anyways, and oh yeah probably a canteen to use.

Furthermore, she’s a fucking princess!!! She’s has credit and clout and can just get whatever she damn near wants just by asking; because she’s not your average person on the street like us.

I’m not going to feel sorry for the main protagonist when the main protagonist is an idiot who does these things to herself and makes life harder for everyone needlessly.

Rapunzel Has a Stunted Grasp of Ethics

Stalyan’s not wrong here. Unless you have an alternative, like your own horse or money to buy horses, that you decided to leave behind as well for some undefined reason, then yeah, you needed horses. Your friends lives are at stake woman!

I touched on this back in my TAR review, but the show leans heavily into authoritarian beliefs because it provides childish lessons for adult situations.

‘Stealing is always wrong no matter what’ is the thought process of a child. It does not take into account how systems of governments can stack the deck against certain groups of people, nor how sometimes emergencies come up and you got to deal them in the moment and make amends later.

And you know what, I’m not taking ‘it’s a show for kids’ as an excuse here. Children shows very much can introduce comlex themes and grey morals and plenty already have. If you make classism a major theme of your story then you need to actually address it, and that starts by having your main character acknowledge it.

This could have been the perfect opportunity for Rapunzel to grow. Up till now she’s always had her physical needs provided for her. Since her escape from the tower she’s also been thoroughly spoiled. Have her come down off her high horse and see how the other half lives. See first hand what Eugene and the pub thugs had to do to survive before they met her.

Have her things actually be confiscated. Have her princess title mean nothing cause no one knows her or believes her. Have Corona not recognized in this part of the world. You want to be the underdog then make her an actual underdog and have her learn from it.

Because Rapunzel having the moral outlook of child makes sense given her backstory, but she can’t stay that way. We all have to grow up sometime, we all have to learn the harsher truths of this world, and this is suppose to be a coming of age story.

So How Does Stalyan Know Where the Eye Is But Not Eugene?

If Eugene is the one who lost it, then how come he didn’t know where it was at? Why couldn’t he just have told Rapunzel all of this and left Staylan out of the picture? Also how do you know if Goodberry even still has it if it’s been years ago? How do you know where Goodberry is? It’s awfully convenient that he never moved in all that time and that he’s so close to the town of Pincosta.

Once again, plot holes.

Stalyan is a Poor Man’s Sadira

So for those of you who aren’t 90s kids like myself, Sadira is a villian from the Aladdin tv series. She’s basically Stalyan but done better.

Things they have in common

their goals are to marry the main hero, who are ex-thieves

both are jealous of the main heroines who are princesses

both are thieves themselves and have lived their whole lives as such

both believe they belong with the hero because they come from a common background

both resort to dubious means to win the heart of the hero

both try to get rid of the heroines but never resort to killing them out right

both are redeemed and eventually befriends the princesses

You know what the difference between the two of them is?

Sadira is actions are actually worse than Staylan’s but she’s given enough screen time and focus to come across as sympathetic to the audience.

I’m serious. Stalyan is an ex who was left at the altar by her douchey boyfriend, but their relationship was so toxic that she can’t understand that she’s actually better off without him nor accept that he left her for someone else. So she tries manipulating him into coming back to her, while her dad does some messed up blackmail and poisoning that she didn’t agree to but went along with anyways.

Meanwhile Sadria is a straight up stalker. She doesn’t even meet Aladdin until after the events of the first film, and he makes it clear to her from the get go that he’s in a committed relationship with someone else and isn’t interested in her. But Sadria tries episode after episode to ‘win’ him resorting to mindwipes, kidnapping, and even alternating reality.

But we actually see things from Sadria’s perspective. It’s made clear that she has no one and nothing. Aladdin is the first person to show her kindness and so she latches onto him. Sure it’s unhealthy and the series calls it out as such, but by the time she has acknowledged this and befriends Jasmine the audience now understands her and feels sympathy for her.

We get no such focus for Stalyan. Not even in her redemption episode. We still don't know why she wants to be with Eugene after he’s treated her so badly. We still don't have any clue what their relationship was like before the breakup, or even when the breakup happened. (I still think it was during the events of the movie and that he left her for Rapunzel, but it’s left open) It’s hard to relate to or feel sorry for Stakyan when we know nothing about her and haven’t seen this ‘good side’ Rapunzel keeps talking about for ourselves.

Even though theoretically she should be very sympathetic because of the way Eugene treated her, and because her actions thus far are relatively tame compared to most of the villains in the show.

Just Because Other Places in the World Are As Bad as Corona, Doesn’t Mean That Frederic Is Excused For His Behavior

This show thinks it’s a okay to introduce horrible crap so long as it’s done in a comedic way and not focused on, but this isn’t The Office. You can’t use a corrupt legal system and authoritarians abusing their power as the crux of your main conflict in season one and then expect us to just laugh off jokes like this one. Or the one about tailor getting locked up for ripping Frederic’s robe. Or find young Lance trapped in a cell with Shorty being fed gruel as funny.

Like, even if you do laugh at these jokes at first in the moment, once you stop to think about them, it just shows how awful Frederic and Rapunzel are, how awful the system is, and that change needs to happen. But it can’t happen if Rapunzel and the show doesn’t acknowledge that such things are wrong. That they are more than jokes.

The serious story that the writers want to tell is undermined by the comedy, and the comedic moments are undermined by the existence of the more serious drama.

So is this a sitcom or a drama? It can’t be both, not when dealing with such high stakes.

Sitcoms work because they’re low stakes. Few characters are affected and most situations aren’t life and death. Even in dark comedies where death is often the joke, it’s because death is seen as unimportant, something to be casted aside, and it’s funny because it’s disrespectful. But the moment you call to attention just how messed up everything really is, and how awful death can be, then it’s suddenly no longer funny. Especially if it’s innocents who are getting hurt. Dark comedies also work because it’s often computuance for characters who are awful people.

That’s not what TTS is, so it’s attempts at being like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Rick and Morty just doesn’t work and comes across as tone deaf.

Also why are the dang horses in the cell with the humans? They’re horses!

So What Exactly Is Stalyan’s Plan Here?

No seriously, what is her thought processes here? The audience isn’t mind readers. We need know why the characters do the things they do.

Why is Stalyan still hung up on Eugene? Why does Stalyan think he’ll take her back if she shows up to free him without Rapunzel? What is she going to say when he asks about Raps and why would he even believe her to begin with?

What does ‘A thief belongs with a thief’ even mean!!? We have no context for this cause we have no context for their relationship!

This episode could have provided us with some context, some cule of why Stalyan and Eugene were together for so long, why they broke up, why she still wants to be with him, why she thinks he’ll return to her even now, but nope! We gotta have a stupid parody wrestling match.

Oh joy.

This Is a Guilt Trip, Not a Redemption

Rapunzel is full of shit.

If she honestly believed that there was ‘good in everybody’ then why did she send Caine off on the prison barge without even trying to relate to her? Why didn’t she try to befriend Weasel instead of fighting him off? Why is Varian currently sitting in a jail cell right now!!!

Here’s why Stalyan was ‘redeemed’ and not the others.

Rapunzel needed something from her.

Rapunzel guilt trips, manipulates, and coerces Stalyan into helping her. She doesn’t actually give a damn about whether or not Stalyan ‘does the right thing’ so long as she gets what she wants; Eugene’s freedom and his heart.

Sure Stalyan probably should turn away from her life of crime. She should let go of her obsession with Eugene. She should return the eye that she stole and start making up for her past. But you know what?

None of those things have anything to do with Rapunzel!

Stalyan needs to come to those decisions herself in order for this to be a proper redemption. If Rapunzel is involved in any of that then it can’t be with the condition that she’s gaining something from it. It’s not true compassion if you have an ulterior motive for what you do.

This Confession Might Actually Have Meant Something If We Had Any Actual Context!

This doesn’t tell me anything.

Why would Stalyan only see ‘a thief’? She loved him enough to want to marry him and has known him for years. Sure she may have accepted that he was a thief, encouraged it even, but there’s got to be other reasons why she dated him. Other reasons for why she wanted him back.

Also why does this come back to Rapunzel specifically? Is she the reason why he left Staylan at the altar? And even so, why is that a reason to give Eugene a free pass? Is it just because she’s the protag and now they’re friends suddenly?

In fact if you are friends now, then Rapunzel deserves to know the truth of who she plans on marrying and come to the decision if he’s worth it. If he really has changed, not just in terms of being an ex-thief but also in how he handles relationships.

We the audience deserve to know too.

Redemption Shouldn’t be Tied to Friendship With Rapunzel

Eugene becoming inspired to be a better person because he fell in love with someone is one thing. Rapunzel only forgiving people because they’ll befriend her is entirely another. Especially when two of the main villains become villains after they stop being friends with her.

It sends out a really gross message of favoritism and not letting go of toxic relationships, while also placing Rapunzel too high upon a pedestal.

Rapunzel Can’t Forgive Stalyan In Eugene’s Place

I’d be pretty upset if my current spouse just said that my abusive ex ‘was not that bad’.

Like, fuck both of you.

And yes, I did defend Stalyan in Beyond the Corona Walls, and I did say that we didn’t have enough context to claim she was abusive when they were in a relationship. After the breakup tho? Yeah, yeah she was abusive then. You don't have to be in a relationship in order to bully someone; you just have to have power over them.

Stalyan hurt Eugene, not Rapunzel. That’s why any redemption with her needed to be with him. They both needed to make amends, forgive each other, and move on.

This isn’t Rapunzel’s show.

If the creator wanted it to be her show then he shouldn’t have introduced conflicts that don’t actually involve her, nor characters with higher stakes then her.

This Doesn’t Feel Earned, and So the Audience Feels Cheated

And so Stalyan rides off into the sunset rich to live happily ever after presumably as a thief still, and no one gave a shit.

No one was asking for this. No one cared about Stalyan. Worse the writer failed to make us care. Ergo this whole episode feels like a waste and it is.

Conclusion

Much like the rest of season two this is pure filler, and not even good fun filler; like with the mermaid episode or the pirate episode. Worse it’s very existence actually diminishes Rapunzel as a character rather than build her up. So it fails in its sole purpose as a story.

#tangled #anti-tangled #anti-rapunzel #stalyan #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure

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nzvalley · 3 years ago

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Rewatching some Star Trek: Enterprise (”E2” & “Zero Hour”)

The last section of the season becomes very procedural, very perfunctory. It’s well-crafted and well-executed, but it’s plot-heavy and militaristic. The scenes of MACOs preparing, of soldiers discussion tactics and training, feels like what some of the writers really wanted from the show. The one exception, which seems out of place, is E2

3x21 – E2

I usually like time travel episodes, but this episode is hard to get through for me. For the obvious shipping reasons, definitely, but also because this idea could have been great. As it stands, the writers attempt to pack too much into too short of time.

The scenes where Archer and T’Pol in the “past” are poignant. Very ambitious effect to distinguish it in the timeline.

T’Pol seems a little too aged for roughly 180 right? We’ve seen Vulcans well over 200 be spry and steady. T’Pol seems elderly and frail. Maybe it has something to do with her Pa’nar Syndrome or the effects of her addiction.

Elderly!T’Pol comes close to hugging Archer when they meet, but stops at grasping him by the upper arms/shoulders. Similar to the manner that he frequently does to her when he is trying to comfort or steady her.

Looking at the story through (heavy) shipper goggles, T’Pol stayed very dedicated to Archer’s mission. She met with Archer first, before anyone else. And eldery!T’Pol remains as loyal to Archer as ever, even going against Lorian’s wishes.

3x24 – Zero Hour (Finale)

Lots of plot, and more plot. This is a well-crafted finale, a well-crafted last act of the season, but very mechanical too.

Love the Archer/Hoshi scenes, even though she is distressed. Their connection seemed so strong in the pilot, and I always hated that their relationship receded into the background. Hoshi’s guilt about giving up the third code really comes through.

Archer is ruthless and selfless, always willing to sacrifice himself most of all.

Daniels spoils the finale for Archer! The bastard! Seriously, this last-ditch effort by Daniels is pretty epic. Daniels again seems like he’s a voice of some of the writers who don’t like the changes in S3. It almost sounds like the fate of the character of Archer is being argued about, whether or not he can really be killed off.

DANIELS: It's too great a risk. If you're killed, none of this will happen. At least, not the way it's supposed to happen. ARCHER: Then it'll happen some other way. Who's to say whether it'll be better or worse? DANIELS: It's essential you be a part of this. ARCHER: Where are we? What planet? DANIELS: Earth. ARCHER: Seems to me it's just as essential that Earth be around for this too. DANIELS: Lieutenant Reed can work with Sato. They are not crucial to the future of mankind. You are. ARCHER: My mission is to save Earth, not your Federation.

Interesting scene between T’Pol and Phlox about death. She acknowledges she finds death distracting, and tries to put it out of her mind. Putting her reaction to Archer’s believed death in Azati Prime in a new light.

T'POL: I have always found it distracting to think of death, especially when entering a dangerous situation. PHLOX: Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. I don't know about Vulcans, but Denobulans take great pleasure in bequeathing their belongings to far-flung relatives. T'POL: We're not dead yet.

Hoshi should save the day more often. It really is a tragedy they didn’t focus more on her. With humans venturing into the wider galaxy for the first time, encountering many new alien species, it would have made sense for the communications officer and linguist to be particularly highlighted.

T’Pol acquits herself well when in command of Enterprise. Hard to believe how out of control she was half-dozen episodes ago.

Shran! Bringing the Xindi arc back into the Federation arc, and eventually the Temporal Cold War arc is woven in as well. This episode does a fairly good job of reintegrating the show back into what they’d established in the first two seasons. Shran once again saves Archer and humanity, for little reason other than the trust and respect that has grown between the two.

SHRAN: And tell Archer we're not even any more. He owes me!

There’s a theme of cooperation in this finale and season. Humanity would not have been saved without alien allies. Shran and T’Pol, of course. But Phlox is also essential to the Entreprise crew’s survival. And the Xindi species that allied themselves with humans. This season often gets mischaracterized as being xenophobic and jingoistic, but it ultimately has a very kumbaya message.

T’Pol thinks Archer is dead again. She is visibly distraught. She doesn’t cry this time, but the camera focuses on her gutted reaction. It also cuts to her alone in the ready room, at the window of despair. This is where she came to cry for Archer when she thought he was dead last time. Archer has angsted about T’Pol there too, so there’s a lot of meaning.

T’Pol’s meeting with the Xindi representative continues the preview of T’Pol in command, showing what the ship (and show) might be like if Archer was killed off for real. In that scene, which immediately follows her learning about Archer’s “death,” she is still anguished. The way she holds her book defensively to her chest and to her mouth. She freezes and closes her eyes when the Xindi mentions Archer’s sacrifice.

T’Pol’s scene with Phlox is touching. Their interactions with Porthos especially, and their elision of the fact that they’re talking about T’Pol’s loss.

PHLOX: Only time. How's morale? T'POL: It isn't easy for a crew to lose it's Captain. PHLOX: I suppose we'll all need time to heal. T'POL: Will he be all right? PHLOX: After a while. He's lost his best friend, but it's just a matter of time. He'll be fine again. T'POL: Did you hear that? The Doctor say's you'll be fine. It's just a matter of time.

The way her voice breaks on that last sentence! T’Pol believes she has lost a close friend, a trusted partner, and perhaps more. And is this the first time T’Pol has touched Porthos willingly?

Timey wimey stuff! Returing to the notion, which as far as I know I made up, that some producer or network exec wanted Archer/Bakula off the show: imagine this episode without the capper scene revealing Archer is alive. Where the season ends with Mayweather, Trip, and the fighter planes. Seems pretty natural. Maybe that was an option that was discussed or set up. Just speculating. But thankfully that didn’t happen, because we get some awesome costuming, set design, and character beats in the premiere episodes of Season 4!

Final Thoughts on S3

A major flaw in this season is its weak villains. The Reptilians end up seeming misguided, too quick to believe their Guardians and too stubborn to change course. The Guardians/Sphere-builders literally aren’t there. They are a phantom villain. The biggest antagonists are the weapon and the spheres, technology.

Such a flawed season, but still with strong episodes and high points. The season-long narrative was mostly well-done, but the militaristic tone and content they were going for didn’t match the ethos of the show. The season is over plotted. The Xindi were awesome as new species, but not great as antagonists. And of course the Trip/T’Pol neuropressure blight!

I’ve said several times this season that certain episodes should have been expanded, and each one had to do with time travel. With as important as time travel ultimately turns out to be in this season, they should have played that up from the beginning. That would be the simplest way to fix the season. Cut out some of the extraneous plot and overbearing romance, and expand the time travel episodes.

The Xindi arc never should have presented as different from the Temporal Cold War, but as that war going hot and putting everything we know about Star Trek history in jeopardy. The time travel stories they had, like Twilight, Carpenter Street, and E2 should have been expanded and/or played up as essential arcs. The presence of Lorian and elderly!T’Pol should have been revealed early into the season, at least to the audience. Although his paternity could still be a reveal later on in the season.

With whatever time is left after expanding the time travel stuff, dedicate that to fleshing out T’Pol’s addiction arc and making her romantic experimentation more natural. The writers actually set up a good way for Trip and T’Pol’s romance to start, with them working on Trellium- they just never followed up on it. I would continue their work on Trellium (high stakes, high pressure, and often alone,) while also revealing to the audience that T’Pol’s experience in Impulse caused her to start ingesting Trellium as a drug.

The season wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be greatly improved by 1. improving the villains, 2. expanding the time travel stories and making them a central thematic arc, and 3. expanding T’Pol’s addiction arc by revealing her “drug use” early in the season to the audience.

Transcripts: http://www.chakoteya.net/Enterprise/episodes.htm

Screencaps: https://ent.trekcore.com/gallery/index.php?cat=4

#Star Trek: Enterprise #Star Trek #Captain Archer #T'Pol #S3 #E2 #Zero Hour

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sparda3g · 6 years ago

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The Seven Deadly Sins Chapter 309 and 310 Review

Chapter 309 Review

I want to apologize for the late review for this particular chapter. With the next chapter already released, I will run down as quickly as possible. The chapter covers the awkwardness of the Sins’ awareness of Meliodas, leaving from earth forever. Not only Meliodas had to endure the sadness from his friends, but Elizabeth had to endure to keep smiling while her friends cried for her. She did fight to prevent him from being the Demon King and stay in the realm for eternity. It was almost like she lost the battle, but it is what it is. It was a bit touching to say the least.

The one part that fans have been dying to know is the situation with Zeldris and Gelda, and thankfully, this chapter unveil it; however, it’s not all good news. The good news is Gelda is freed from the seal, just as Meliodas promised. The bad news is Zeldris is missing, assumed to be gone from Earth, whatever exactly that means. Just when she is back to roam freely, he gone missing. I do feel a bit sympathy for Meliodas since he feels guilty for the mess. I am glad that this series is acknowledging the faults or flaws of the characters; in fact, the next chapter even did it better, but let’s not jump ahead.

The most amusing moment is the big news at the castle. The King Bartra proposed Meliodas to not only marry Elizabeth, but inherit the throne as King; the easiest Game of Throne battle. It was the best time for Meliodas to break the bad news, but the awkward mood continues on. The real shock comes in when Elizabeth shares her thoughts. Not only she objects her father’s proposal but decides to join with Meliodas to the Demon Realm. Well, it’s not like she has any future at Earth, so it’s fine to chase after her man. I mean it could have been worse, like chasing after a man who tried to kill you and have nothing to offer back at your hometown. That sounds insane.

This was a good chapter that is slowly resolving everything there need to be addressed, though some will be missed; at least, that’s how it was progressing. “This is building up for a sad farewell to two beloved friends and I like it. I know the final battle wasn’t that great as well as anti-climactic in some regards, but the epilogue has been nice so far. Maybe a little too happy, but it is what it is. Now that Elizabeth and Meliodas are going away forever, the ending is going to be bittersweet, but heartwarming for the two who struggled for a very long time.”

Did you notice the quote? It’s there because in my early draft, I was going to address like that. The reason for keeping it there in quotes is to give you an idea where my mind was thinking at the time. The next chapter… shattered it into zillion of pieces.

Let’s begin…

Chapter 310 Review

The series is close to the end with the chapter’s title, “Farewell.” If that wasn’t convincing enough, the magazine also indicated that the series is at the climax; strongly suggesting the conclusion. It was a fun ride while it lasted. It’s the night before the day of departure. Elizabeth is getting ready to leave for tomorrow and Elaine wish her the best. It’s nice to see more of their friendship, which I thought it’s sweet. I remember the chapter where they talk like they have so much in common. It would have cool to see more teamwork from them, but their friendship is good. Elizabeth may not be cursed anymore, but her time on Earth is nearly over. It’s better than death, that’s for sure.

I like the scene with Hawk singing to the sky; the same song that his late brother sang. I thought it was charming for what it was, though it does play a part later on. Diane is still upset that her two close friends are leaving forever. I do hate goodbyes. Merlin details the Demon Realm, which sounds like hellfire; nothing like Dragon Ball’s interpretation of hell. Luckily for Elizabeth, she can survive there for being so holy. Even so, I can’t imagine me thinking, “This is right,” while living in practically hell. The best of luck to her.

I thought the following scene from the last chapter was skipped entirely, but it turns out it was saved for a flashback, but it does help out the narrative flow. Elizabeth is pure solid on embarking the life in the Demon Realm for all eternity (not literally), and she has no regrets. Like I said in my last chapter review, she has nothing left on Earth, so this is fine. Granted, it reminded me how one character decided to hop in a different timeline for a guy forever, but you know, if you have a new path with a bright future (irony), take it.

What makes the scene heartwarming and oddly rewarding, at least to me, is Meliodas’ regrets. While Elizabeth is ready to go to her new life, a bit irony, Meliodas has tons of regrets to go over. It was amusing at first with Meliodas wishing his future child to meet with Ban’s, and Diane and King wonder what about theirs. Someone jumping ahead of Meliodas’ future. It then becomes pretty sentimental with Meliodas admitting that he doesn’t deserve the good treatment, rather belong in hell. He even admitted how he was incredibly selfish to focus on Elizabeth over everything. It resulted Zeldris’ death, which confused me, as well as Arthur’, which also confused me. It’s probably just from his thoughts. Best to wait for confirmation like a grave.

The reason why I said rewarding is because the writing acknowledged the flaw of Meliodas’ character. For a while, I was annoyed by the hard focus on the romance, despite having its moments. I don’t hate nor dislike it, but the plot could’ve have that in the background, not the foreground. It’s as if the world can’t move without them getting together. I understand it’s Romeo and Juliet influence, but it doesn’t have to brush everyone aside. That all said, the fact he acknowledged his flaw does ease up the bumpy journey. The last thing I want is everyone think this is perfectly fine. Yes, it doesn’t repair the flaw entirely, but it salvaged enough from being a fatal one.

It does help with Sins reflecting all the good deeds Meliodas has done, even when his main focus was Elizabeth. There’s ups and downs in life, so Meliodas should be thankful for not only doing some good deeds but making great friends along the way. The captain couldn’t be anymore prouder to be with them. The Seven Deadly Sins is disbanded and sadly, it’s for good. This was a pretty nice last moment with the team. The series is really ending and although it was flawed, like what series isn’t really, I am going to miss it.

The day of departure is here with the portal to the realm placed in the isolated snowy field, and already feel like it’s truly ending. I’m expecting an epilogue (to an epilogue) such as a huge time-skip to finish the story in the next chapter, so I’m prepared for the closure of current timeline. I like the fact Hawk decided to go on a journey to Purgatory to see the life his brother lived in. It’s no wonder why he was singing last night; it’s a way to say, “His next path is set.” This is a nice sendoff.

What’s also a nice sendoff is Elizabeth’s. She smiled in front of her loved ones, but deep down, she was sad to say goodbye. It’s why she quickly turn around to leave. I respect that and despite my problems with her character, she has a good end. The whole scene feels good yet sad because once Meliodas and Elizabeth leave, the good old day is over. Meliodas says farewell and well, the series is almost over. That page got me a bit touched. It was fun while it lasted…

Now…

Imagine yourself in my position after reading my review. It sounds very crystal clear that I absolutely believe the ending is here and nothing will go wrong. This is the best place to play the theme song. Go play Pokemon theme song where Ash said goodbye to Butterfree. It has the same setup. If anything, just play the first theme song. Roll credit, because it’s over. Hell, play Avengers Endgame credit scene with awesome roll call graphic cards, because that’s how perfect the ending is. It’s set to end the series for good. You got that? Fantastic! Now then, play the song that played in that infamous episode of Game of Thrones called, “Red Wedding.” Why? Because this happens!

In my experience, I have been trolled by writers many times; whether it’s from an anime, manga, television show, etc. This has to be the best one so far; at least in the realm of anime and manga. Everyone I know bought it. I bought it. Nakaba trolled us; simple as that. He played us like a damn fiddle! I thought Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul’s “ending” was messed up; this takes it. Kubo of Bleach, you better return with a new level of troll. Now that I have cool down, let’s go over the positive.

To begin with, it’s not over. This is great for those who wants not only a better final boss, but a better endgame path. Next, the curse being destroyed is no longer the case as Elizabeth has freaking died in front of our eyeballs. First of all, that takes kintama to do that, so kudos to Nakaba. More importantly, the idea of easily removing the curse is redeemed because it’s still on. Let’s face it, many of you have bought it and hated it. Well, we got trolled in “The Seven Deadly Trolls” episode. Lastly, I said this line after the chapter ended, “Did Nakaba redeem himself?” Depend on the path, I’ll say he has created a second chance. I’m legit amazed. That gif with that guy with his mouth wide open and then applauding is worth using it here.

So, that was the chapter; a shocking one at that. It goes to show you: go to Kodansha to pull the best level of troll. Right, Isayama and Nakaba? But seriously, I was fine with the way it was going. All the indications for it to end were there. A new anime season to end the series, Nakaba’s declaration to end under 40 volumes, and the amount of hype for the climax from magazine and the editor’s note. All the LIES! As for the chapter itself, it was heartwarming and swell until the ending. I can’t believe I fell for it. Well, many of us did. What’s next? I don’t know, but I am really looking forward to it. We’ll see soon enough. In the meantime, I could only imagine Meliodas’ mind saying this line…

youtube

Go to 00:58 - 01:18

Have a good day...

#The Seven Deadly Sins #nanatsu no taizai #chapter 309 #chapter 310 #review #spoilers

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aeon-wolf · 6 years ago

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I really don’t understand the logic behind this storyline the Supergirl writers are going with in regards to Lena, James and the Children of Liberty.

I’m writing this think piece as someone who doesn’t watch Supergirl much, watching specific scenes I want context to on YouTube. And usually reading a review or two on the episode.

This is really long. Ignore me. I just wanted to write a think piece. Under the cut I’m talking about Guardiancorp, Lena’s likely descent into villainhood and James’ frustrating storyline thus far (as of 4x06).

I’ve always been a relative defender of Guardiancorp, as in I’ve wanted desperately to give it a chance, unlike a lot of other Supercorp shippers or Katie/Lena fans in general. I always thought it could be a relationship that could have some intricacies and nuances that could be fascinating and lead to an awesomely written relationship. But instead, they’ve gone with, at the end of the day, it’s still Lex Luthor’s sister and Superman’s best friend, a doomed romance.

S3 Guardiancorp was not half bad really. It seemed a little abrupt for my liking, especially because James had long been critical of Lena in S2 and never really seemed to change his opinion until he saw her romantically (much a criticism I had of Mon-El and Kara’s relationship), but I’m not going to complain a ton about that since Avalance, my #1 favorite ship, was also pretty abrupt. But there were a number of good moments in S3. And now in S4, it seems like they’ve just binned all of that growth and relationship development in favor of driving a wedge between James and Lena because they’re (probably) going to make Lena “evil”. It’s just disappointing in my opinion.

I honestly understand why James felt betrayed by Lena when she told him that she got the DA to drop the inditement. Really I do. Thinking that something had gone your way because you, personally, handled it only to find out that your significant other, who you specifically told to not intervene was responsible for that thing and that they lied to you about it... That can cause some less than positive feelings. On the other hand, I think it was also way out of line that James berated Lena and reacted as strongly as he did, seemingly breaking up with her, especially after she told him she loved him and she did it to protect him because she was worried about him. And he basically just brushed her off. It shows that he has not really let go of the deep-seated distrust he has for her, as a Luthor most likely. I get him being disappointed and betrayed, but if they loved each other as much as they say they do, I would have expected him to at least acknowledge that she did that for him and that they could work it out. Instead of him storming off and then ignoring her later. I dislike the idea of using “I love you” in order to manipulate someone into staying (that’s a sign of a pretty fucking toxic relationship), but I didn’t get that vibe from Lena. It felt more that she was voicing her feelings, which we all know is difficult for her, because she wanted him to understand why she did what she did.

And I said this in S3 and I think it’s even more relevant in S4, it’s really hard to take this “Lena is evil” storyline seriously after everything. I long wrote in S2 that I thought Lena could become “evil” either because after everything she’s ever done to be a good person and redeem her family name, no one trusts her still. Or that she would have a difference of opinion with the Superfriends that would make her evil™ in the eyes of the audience, but in reality, it’s less evil and more so conflicting opinions. After S3, they really made the “she’ll be evil because no one trusts her” storyline less and less plausible because she’s always wanted to do the right thing, despite what people think of her. She was at one of her lowest points on-screen when she thought she had poisoned all those kids with lead and yet she was still trying to fix it and when she couldn’t, she wasn’t callous enough to say “Well, I tried, too bad.” Instead, she took it really hard and felt super guilty.

So it seems like they’re really going with the evil™ because she has an opinion that has been designed to be bad in the eyes of the audience. I honestly don’t really understand (and this may be because I don’t watch religiously) why the very idea that humans could have superhuman powers is such a negative. I obviously understand that kind of power in the wrong hands is super dangerous, especially with Agent Liberty and the Children of Liberty running around and if Lena creates that kind of technology, it will almost inevitably fall into their hands (because plot device). But it runs in the same vein of Lena being pro-gun (which anyone who thinks that’s out of character needs to get their brain checked). Yes, I think there is an inherent difference between having the opinion and doing something to invent a way for humans to have that kind of power, but even when Lena voiced the opinion to Kara, it was very much designed for the audience to be against that. I think, ultimately, what I would prefer if this had to be the storyline they’re going with, that Lena design/invent defensive abilities rather than offensive. Yes, you can still use defensive abilities for bad, offensive purposes, but it would make more sense with Lena’s thinking of using it for protection, not to actively fight aliens and I’d imagine that would go back to the idea of people abusing Lena’s inventions for purposes that she never intended, thus forcing her to work with Superfriends to overcome a mistake she made, and I’d imagine Lena would take responsibility for that mistake. (I do think this is one of her flaws though; shortsightedness, at least in regards to her inventions. She invents things to help people, but often doesn’t think about what would happen if the wrong person got ahold of her inventions and the damage they could cause)

They’ve created such an “us vs them” scenario, that people like Lena that want to try to bridge the gap get left behind and shoved into one side or the other, often the “wrong” side. Obviously, this “aliens vs humans” is parallel to “minorities vs whites” and likely has been very intentional in those similarities. I’ve always wanted Lena to be more of a morally gray character or anti-hero. And it seems like they’ve actually set that up, given her motives for doing what she’s doing. But they’ve also written the “us vs them” scenario so deep and hard that no one can be morally gray. If you’re morally gray, you’re evil. And that’s how its interpreted. And it’s probably just an inherent result of how culture (especially Tumblr black and white, “you do one bad thing, no matter the motive, you’re a bad person” culture) is. Given that Agent Liberty and (likely) Lex Luthor will be the true bad guys this season, Lena is perfectly set up to be in between the two sides. But often, if you’re in the middle, you’re on a side, usually the wrong™ side. Thus pushing her into the “villain” category instead of this middle ground character.

Is Lena misguided in what she’s doing? Perhaps. Again, her inventions, regardless of what kind of powers she is able to create with the harun el, can always be used for bad things. And I feel like that’s the storyline they’re going to go with. Lena has even said, she is creating this for protection purposes, protecting humans from aliens. There’s a conversation to be had about blanketing certain actions and behaviors on one “group” based on the behaviors of a few. And Lena is certainly one of those kinds of people who would wary of, say African Amercian people, because maybe that person could be a “thug,” even when the vast majority aren’t and white people are just as, if not more so, capable of doing bad things. But in the context of aliens vs humans instead. And what she’s doing is basically saying that everyone needs to carry a gun (or at least have access to one) to protect from those “thugs” because you never know when you’ll get jumped in an alley. But people use those guns to commit way more murders than use them for protection, and there are ample ways to protect themselves without using a gun. And whatever inventions she makes with the harun el will always have the potential to be used for ill, especially with the Children of Liberty and Lex coming into the picture. So the question is, should that kind of technology be created at all, knowing that it will likely be used for things Lena never intended, especially because Lena is creating it for a misguided reason in the first place? And that, I think, goes back to one of Lena’s flaws of shortsightedness, at least when it comes to her inventions. She creates things because she wants to help people, but seems to not really think about the harm her inventions could create. And doesn’t weigh the benefits to the costs, or at least, not in the same way as the audience will and thus often creates things that we, as an audience, are screaming at the screen “NO, DON’T DO THAT”)

Then there’s the whole James thing. I feel like his arc is him trying to convince himself that he’s doing this to find information, but he really is doing this to feel like he’s having an “active” role in helping the cause. Being a journalist doesn’t seem to be enough for him anymore. Ever since he became Guardian, he seems to have taken that to be his “real” self and James Olsen is the skin he wears in public and it’s become increasingly like that in S4. And it’s irritating. Especially because it’s almost the complete opposite of Kara’s arc of “She’s Kara first, Supergirl second.” And learning to bridge that gap and not let Supergirl rule her life. And that she can do just as much good (if not more) as Kara as she can as Supergirl. Perhaps this parallel is intentional, but it honestly just makes James annoying, not interesting. I want him to have more screentime and storyline. He got sorely neglected in S2 and some of S3. But its like they’re intentionally giving James, the black man they’ve largely forgotten about for a season and a half, a storyline where they’re casting him in a rather unflattering light, especially to (what I see as) the most vocal of the fanbase of Supergirl. This is far less than he deserves. He deserves a storyline that lets him really explore his role as a reporter whilst also grappling with not being able to be Guardian. Not running around with the domestic terrorist group in the name of “getting information,” because he wants to stroke his own ego. While also getting mad at his girlfriend because she wanted to help him and protect him and instead of working through conflict, getting overly emotional, kind of breaking up with her, and running off. Then ignoring the conflict and running headfirst into danger. She shouldn’t have lied to him, but he shouldn’t have flipped out as much as he did. Gotten angry, sure I could understand that. But “breaking up” with her? That seems a little extreme. And had roles been reversed, Lena would most certainly have been seen as this overreacting, hysterical woman who isn’t appreciative of her man trying to protect her, even if he has to go against her wishes. It’s such a common theme in the reverse and it’s always expected for the woman to forgive a “tiny white lie” because her loving boyfriend was just trying to protect her. And for the reverse scenario to be any different is dumb.

Anyways, as someone who doesn’t watch the show religiously, there’s probably a lot I don’t fully grasp but this is how I see it from someone who watched S2, got really into character analysis for Lena specifically and identified strongly with Lena. The storyline just seems somewhat poorly thought out and neglects a lot of the past content in previous seasons and is treating their characters as they are plot vehicles, not actual characters. They seem intent on fitting these characters into specific archetypes and roles, rather than taking their characters and letting them (to some degree) organically grow. There’s nothing wrong with having a vision for a character, but to go directly against the established canon of behaviors and personality traits to fit characters to speak to the desired plotline (they did this to Kara a lot in S2 and S3 and seem to have figured it out for S4) makes the story feel disjointed and somewhat empty.

#anti supergirl #lena luthor #idk ignore me #think piece #don't @ me

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dalishious · 7 years ago

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(Replying to this post)

@gangsterofoz I’m... not really sure... where to begin... I suppose by just saying I’m kind of stunned you wrote all this in response to me point out Cassandra was wrong about something and the writers’ reasons are ridiculously transparent?

Well it makes sense that Cass would try really hard to convince herself of the Chantry’s justified actions - it’s not that she’s purposely trying to condemn the elves, she just does not want to see the evils and mistakes of an institution she has pretty much built her adult life on. A life that allowed her to follow a path she felt was befitting of her skills and soul. And like many people with religion, they cannot seperate the institutional failures and serious misconducts from the faith.

I absolutely agree it is in character for Cassandra to be ignorant about this, given other things she has said expressing refusal to acknowledge elven point of views. But it’s not a good quality for her to have. And as @faerunner already said, the big problem isn’t that Cassandra has this point of view, it’s that this is the only point of view we hear. Dorian shares it too. But here is no argument. We’re just supposed to accept this comment, despite as I pointed out in that post, it is inaccurate.

Religions by their nature need to be deontological - meaning it can’t have flaws and inconsistencies. It needs to be by its nature always ‘true’ to its core messages and therefore exists philosophically in the realm of black in white. When in reality, it’s in the moral grey area as much as everything else. The people within it can be flawed, as Cass we know really prefers focusing on, but she manages to largely not see (at least historical actions not really the more recent ones) as the failures of people - individuals - not her faith, not the group. Which is fundamentally just inaccurate as no one can commit genocide or invasion without the willing consent and support of the group as a majority. Im so glad you pointed this out - it’s just more credit to brilliant character construction and intimate understanding of how people justify religious evils.

Hey maybe don’t paint every single belief system with the same Christian/Catholic brush because that’s not true?

I would argue that Cassandra is almost equally bad at recognizing the failures of people in recent times as well.

It’s really like they researched the morality, psychology of Crusaders or Renaissance religious figures who maintained justification of the Crusades. I love Cass but she like everyone in the games (and like all brilliant series that study the flaws of politics and religions like Game of Thrones) is seriously flawed. Cass is not evil, she’s just reacting to an inherited childhood situation, she’s doing what she needs to to feel safe and valid.

LOL I think you are giving BioWare way to much credit, but yes, a comparison between Exalted Marches and the Crusades can definitely be made. It’s just a shame that, as the whole point of that post, they didn’t spend just as much time on how the victims felt.

Like Dorian and Varric opposing consistently undermine the traditionalism and omnipotence of institutions in an attempt to be independent from them and therefore safe because hierarchies and institutions have so consistently not only failed but seriously harmed them on such an intimate level (the Dwarven caste system/way of life and Tevinter as a society). Varric and Dorian still find admiration or use for aspects of their childhood societies but it’s their flaws that have made them view those institutions the way they do in the time of Inquisition.

You are comparing Dorian opposing tyranny to Cassandra defending it?

It’s so clever - because we don’t judge these figures as historical persons through a lens of fact but we get to know them so intimately. They become real persons for whom we see our actions make consequences directly. It puts us in the position of leaders of Catholicism during the Crusades - it perhaps says, “It is more difficult to condemn people you’ve come to know because they are real and thus it makes taking moral action much more difficult.”

HOLY FUCK.

No. No, I absolutely judge through facts, and you know, general morality. No, it absolutely does not make it more difficult to condemn a character saying something wrong when they are in fact, 100% wrong.

It’s like when Tyrion kills Tywin - he basically plunges the entire political system of a really powerful nation/continent into chaos - like fuck you now everything’s going to go to shit and the White Walkers are going to so easily come and kill everybody ! But man who didn’t want Tyrion to kill to Tywin? We were all on his side when that happened. But through a historical lens, the boy did some serious damage to the citizens of the country. Not that Tywin was a brilliant moral leader but one could argue at least the country wasn’t plunged into political factionalism and thus unable to successfully defend itself against the ice boys.

I have no idea what you’re talking about because I stopped watching Game of Thrones after dragging myself through the second season; I found the story interesting enough, but the copious amount of gratuitous sex and also general shitty treatment of the few characters of colour and female characters was too much to continue. But I’m gonna go on a limb and guess this has nothing to do with anything in the post I made.

So yes Cass is super wrong but it also is 100% how she would manipulate herself to see that slice of history. I mean - how scary is that that a leader has that view sitting on the Sunburst Throne (if you pop her there)? You say, “well she’s got all these great qualities etc.” but then what are the ramifications of putting someone with some form of internalised racism in a position of power?

Oh gee, what a high-fantasy thought-provoking question that is. A person who gives zero shits about the people who’s land they settled on and now rule over. I wonder what the ramifications would be. It is so hard to wonder. I just don’t know. //Sarcasm

What if she in some years starts another Exalted March? Historically, we’d look at the Inquisitor and go, “What were you thinking!?”

Yeah I sure fucking would especially because my Inquisitor would never do that to her people.

But history doesn’t happen historically. People are biased and function through personal relationships, moving through the world within the framework of those dynamics. The moral of this section of the games is, you’re going to need to make decisions that will shape the world but you will struggle to make them unbiasedly. And the consequences of that can be cataclysmic. Anyway lol unintentional essay

This might be news to you, but sometimes making decisions using bias can be a good thing. It’s called having a moral conscious. So yes, as I have said a few times now, I will absolutely judge Cassandra for lacking one in this scene. And general history knowledge.

Anyway, this whole unintentional essay was almost entirely irrelevant to the point of my post, but whatever. Glad we could clear up that what Cassandra said here is a bad thing and bad things should be recognized as bad things, not unquestioned qualities.

#gangsterofoz #anti cassandra #anti chantry #fandom bs

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bluephoenixdruidicprincess · 7 years ago

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Shadowhunters Season 2 Review and Thoughts for Season 3

Alright, it’s that time again. It’s time for me to give you all the low-down on Shadowhunters Season 2 as a whole. My thoughts, my feelings, and improvements I would like to see made in Season 3. Season 2 was definitely an improvement over Season 1 but trust me, it still has its issues.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this show. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that’s on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that’s the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling you how to think and feel. I’m telling you what I think and feel. So please, let’s discuss with dignity and respect. If I’m critical about the show, it’s only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters; I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It’s great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t acknowledge the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do love the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my love of the books. I don’t really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as it’s good and it makes sense. My problems with this show are problems that I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world-building and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movies.

I want to preface this with I am neither PRO nor ANTI Shadowhunters. I see it as neither a good or horrible show. It’s serviceable. That’s really what this show is. Ultimately, as far as tv shows goes on their own, it’s nothing all that special. It could be -- it certainly tries -- but at the end of the day, it falls flat. It’s a show where it’s interesting to watch and see what’s going to happen, but I also don’t find myself all that excited to watch the newest episode. This show has never gotten me to the point where I was counting down the days until the next episode airs. Usually, I’ll watch an episode and then I’ll be like, “Ok. That was alright. I’m ready to go watch something else now.” There’s no, “OMG! That episode was insane. When is the next one coming out?” That has never happened to me with this show. This is going to be spread into two different sections. The show’s storytelling and the characters and their relationships. So let’s get on with this.

The Storytelling

If there is one good thing I have to say about Shadowhunters in its sophomore season, is that compared to Season 1, vast improvements were made to the writing. Granted, the bar wasn’t set all that high considering how nonsensical and ridiculous Season 1 was but hey, it was an improvement. It was an improvement in the sense that at least now, the episodes are arcing properly. I may not have been a big fan of how a lot of the actual story was being told, but at least it was arcing. But, I do have to say that overall, Season 2 had a very clunky feel to it. There were a lot of different plot points going around and most of them were dropped without having any real resolution. Izzy’s drug addiction was completely dropped, her insecurities toward Alec were dropped, Aldertree served absolutely no purpose in the overarching plot in season 2, Jocelyn’s death did absolutely nothing for the story. It didn’t drive Clary in any way which was actually the idea behind it. While under a spell, Alec attempts to commit suicide because of the guilt he has for the part he played in Jocelyn’s death and then that’s completely dropped. The demon-shadowhunter baby plot point never shows up again. Trust me, I could go on and on. I haven’t even hit 2B yet. But I don’t want this post to end up being 15 pages long so I’m going to stop here. Let’s not get me started on the dumbness and pointlessness that is Azazel. I’m sure you guys get the point. I do feel like Season 3 is probably going to be written a little better than Season 2. For Season 2, we had new showrunners and I think ultimately, they were using Season 2 to filter out a lot of the weird plot writing that Season 1 had going on. With a lot of those weird plot points closed out now, Season 3 is probably going to arc much better. Or at least one can hope. I am definitely going to use Season 3 as a factor in deciding whether or not I’m even going to stick with the show.

I’ve talked about the show’s issues with arcing, dropped storylines, now let’s talk about elements of writing that drive a show. Let’s begin with pacing. Pacing was a HUGE problem with Season 1. Now, Season 2 episodes were a little bit better paced but there were still points when characters jumped to conclusions about something and you’re just like, “Wait, how did we get from Point A to Point B?” If I have one critique to make regarding this show’s pacing, they need to stop having 3 or 4 plot points going on in a single episode. This show has so much potential to be really awesome if they could focus on the characters and their interactions with each other. The characters, their actions, their motivations is what should be moving the plot forward but it’s the other way around in this show. And that also adds to the clunkiness of the storytelling. An episode should have an A plot and a B plot and that’s it. But sometimes we’re getting C, D, and even E plots at times in a single episode. All of these are characters are super interesting. Let’s spend less time with the plot and more with the characters.

Another issue this show has is payoffs. This kind of goes along with pacing. The show isn’t always evenly paced in its plot which is why we sometimes have moments within the story that kind of come out of left field. If you have an idea of where you want your character to be at a certain point in the season, you need to pace that character development out. So when that character has that really epic moment, it completely “wows” your audience. This is what’s known as a pay-off. If you don’t pace it well, the pay-off is very bland and uninteresting. A good example of this is in the Season 2 finale. That moment when Clary was about to be executed and Jace manages to break free and save her. The pay-off could’ve been amazing but I found myself asking, “Why didn’t he just do this in the tent?” All throughout 2B, Jace has never been depicted of having problems using his angelic superpower and yet now, he’s only willing to use it to break free of the chains when Clary’s about to be killed? This would’ve worked fine if throughout 2B, we’d seen Jace having issues using this power and then in this moment, when he sees Clary about to be killed, that’s when he’s able to turn it on. That is what’s known as a pay-off. And it could’ve added something to the Clace dynamic. Then, of course, the other big thing I’ve talked about is Clary’s fighting skills. This is something I wish they had paced out a little more evenly so when she killed Valentine in the finale, it would’ve been far more impactful. Everyone likes to talk about how Clary was so bad-ass in that moment but for me, it was a “whatever” moment. I’ve lost count of how many Circle members Clary actually killed without pause through the duration of Season 2. And I’m supposed to be impressed that she killed Valentine? What would’ve been far more impressive is if throughout the series, we see her learning how to fight, stumbling through at times (because that is far more realistic), her mother’s death driving her to be better and then finally in this moment after watching Valentine kill Jace, knowing Valentine’s actions led to her mother’s death and the destruction of her brother’s soul, she’s able to call forth everything she’s learned to exact her revenge. To finally destroy the man who took everything from her. Once again, that’s a payoff. But instead, it just falls flat. Yes, it’s great to see a girl be a bad-ass but at the same time, it’s nothing I haven’t seen her do before. Why should I care? Because it’s Valentine this time? In Season 3, I would definitely like to see a greater emphasis placed on character motivations and payoffs.

This show has a huge subtlety issue as well. Now this pops up in various forms throughout the writing. Sometimes, it’s through character actions or sometimes it’s over-explaining things through dialogue. Either way, it leaves the audience with the impression that the writers think their audience is stupid. Now, my most hated scene in the Season 2 finale is that moment when Alec was given the specific job to take care of the demons while Magnus closes the rift. And Alec takes one shot and misses and then decides he needs to abandon the mission and go to Magnus pleading for help. Alec would never do this. His job was to keep the demon off of Magnus and instead he leads it directly to Magnus? It makes no sense particularly since earlier in the episode, Alec took multiple shots to slay the demon that was flying around Manhattan and it never phased him when he missed. He was chillin like a melon. And it goes completely against what we know about Alec to begin with. He is not afraid to sacrifice himself to save the people he loves. He would not have retreated back to Magnus. He would’ve continued fighting until he killed the demon or the demon killed him. Because in Alec’s eyes, the life of Magnus and his sister is far more important. I get what this scene was going for. They wanted to showcase that Magnus still cared about Alec but there are hundreds of ways they could’ve done this. But I guess the writers were afraid that it wouldn’t have been clear that Magnus still cared about Alec if it wasn’t this big huge moment of Alec pleading Magnus to save him? If you don’t have subtlety in your story telling, you also lose a lot of the impact. The dialogue also needs some work in this as well. The show has the tendency to spoon-feed information that can be inferred by the audience. I feel like this show is trying to gain the early to mid-20s audience. If this is the case, how about treating us like we’re intelligent 20-year-old adults? Exactly how bad do they think the public school system is that we can’t infer what something called “a Kill Tree” does or that Edomi are demons that come from Edom? The dialogue at times gets a little clunky because of this need to over-state everything.

I also have a problem with how this show deals with conflicts. And this stems from the arcing as well as the pacing problem. This show resolves conflicts within the story alarmingly fast. There are conflicts that can’t be resolved easily and every time the show does, you lose the impact of these characters feeling like real people. It also hinders the plot because it makes the plot feel very disjointed.

Now let’s talk about the adaptation part of the story-telling. My problem with this show has never been them not following the books. My problem is them following the books, then not following the books, and then going back to following the books again without keeping with the changes they made. Let me better explain this, as I know it’s a little confusing. This show will make changes to a particular plot or character point that doesn’t exist in the books. And that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that. My problem is that they’ll make those changes and then take another scene 100 pages down the line out of the book and use it nearly verbatim. When you made that original change, the context has changed as well which means that scene isn’t going to work the same way. You have to change that scene to fit the new context. An example of this is the infamous Seelie Court kiss scene. Previously in Season 2, the writers had made the change that Clary was really enjoying this new-found romantic relationship with Simon. Or at least, there weren’t any hints that she was secretly coveting Jace in episodes prior. She had even told Simon that despite knowing Jace isn’t her brother, she had no plans to break it off with Simon. She wanted to be with him. And this change would’ve been alright but the show still tried to keep the Seelie Court kiss scene more or less verbatim as it is in the books. In the books, this scene and how it plays out makes sense because the reader could always tell that even though Clary didn’t overtly hate her romantic relationship with Simon, it didn’t make her feel the same way she felt when she was with Jace. None of that is applied in the show. The show goes on stating that Jace is the kiss that will set them free as it is the kiss Clary most desires but there was no set up to this revelation so the pay-off of the kiss scene doesn’t work. Because you were never really led to believe that while Clary was dating Simon she wanted to be with Jace. As I said, they made a change and as a result the context has changed so the future writing also needed to change…which they didn’t do. When authors write certain things at certain points in their books, it’s for a very calculated reason. Everything more or less has a purpose. When you adapt a book to any kind of film, it’s a given that changes are going to have to be made and that has never been my issue with the show. It’s always been them making a change and then not having the rest of the story change along with it to support that change. Ultimately, at the end of the day, I wish Shadowhunters had taken The Vampire Diaries or the The 100 approach to their writing. I wish they had taken the bones of the source material and then told their own story and created the characters and their personalities in their own way. When Shadowhunters was first announced, initially, that’s what I thought they were going to do. I can’t help but feel like maybe this show might’ve been better written and executed if it weren’t for them being so bogged down by the source material. As much as I love the books (and trust me, I do), this show could have really benefited from a Kevin Williamson level of adaptation. For those of you who don’t know, he was the one who developed The Vampire Diaries for tv adaptation and I was always really impressed with how it was adapted. And I will never apologize for liking Vampire Diaries. Yes, it got a little convoluted in later seasons but seasons 1-3 are fantastic. I am more or less excited for Shadowhunters Season 3 because we are starting to delve into the second half of The Mortal Instruments series and I feel like the second half is going to work much better for adapting. Shadowhunters made the decision to create the show with an ensemble cast in mind however, the first half of The Mortal Instruments isn’t very conducive for an ensemble cast. You pretty much follow Clary and Jace and that’s about it. But the second half starts focusing much more heavily on the other characters. And I feel like it’s definitely going to be easier to adapt. Season 1 and 2 were bogged down by the fact that in the source material, there isn’t a whole lot that characters like Alec, Magnus, Izzy, and Luke are actually doing. Clary and Jace are the ones that are driving the story. And it’s very clear with the storytelling in the show, that the writers didn’t really know what to do with them. This is definitely something I think is going to be improved in Season 3.

Season 3 also needs to work on their world-building. More specifically, their use of magic systems. I continues to grate my nerves that there are no rules to their magic system. As I’ve said before, rules are so important in a fantasy and most importantly in the magic system within that fantasy. If your magic system has no rules then you can do anything with magic. If you can do anything with magic, what makes it compelling? All it does is become a convenient plot device. And I love magic systems. I don’t want to see a magic system be used as a cheap plot device. I want magic to be its own character in a way.

So there are certain themes I’d like to see explored in Season 3. Well, really only one theme. And that is, “consequences”. This show has a huge problem with it’s characters never facing any true consequences for their actions. In the finale, it was laughable to me that when Jace mentions to Clary that she can’t just bring someone back from the dead without a consequence and she’s all, “not this time. This time there won’t be any consequences.” This line is funny to me because it actually implies that Clary has faced consequences for her actions before, which she has not. I really hope the show goes into this theme in Season 3. That they really bring to the fore front that Clary’s selfish nature is the root cause for these horrible things that are going to happen. I really hope the show has the guts to go this direction. They probably won’t considering how much they love to paint Clary as this Mary Sue who is beyond special and could never do anything wrong because she’s so selfless and wonderful (ugh, I just vomited a little in my mouth writing that). But as Season 3 hasn’t aired yet, I’m going to hope for the best. It’s not just Clary that has this issue either. It’s the show’s story-telling as a whole. Their inability to have any truly impactful consequences. The best example is how Max played out in Season 2B. Now, I’m not saying that Max should have died, as he does in the books. I’m saying something resonatingly impactful should’ve happened to him. My own dark theory was that Jonathon hurt him so bad that it put him in a coma that he would never wake up from and that was the driving force for Izzy to go after Jonathon. And it kind of sort of happened. Max does go into a coma but then he gets a miracle treatment from the Silent Brothers and he’s perfectly fine now. It has no lasting impact. Essentially there was no consequence for anyone letting Jonathon into their lives besides a couple of nameless dead shadowhunters. Max recovers and then they go after Jonathon. Yes, they’re mad about what Jonathon did to Max but ultimately, it’s not going to leave a lasting impression on their psyche. It definitely felt like the writers chickened out. There are a lot of different directions the theme of consequences could take Season 3 and I hope the writers are brave enough to take it because at this point, they really need it.

Characters and Their Relationships

Let’s talk about these characters and their relationships now. How these characters are depicted gets very uneven at times. And this show has an issue with slow-burn. They do not know how to do a slow-burn. It stems from their pacing and subtlety issues. They want people to like this show so badly that they’re forgetting why people cling to fandoms in the first place. It’s not that two people are in a wonderful relationship that leaves you in a pile of goo everytime you see them together on screen, it’s how they got there, how their relationship developed, how they as characters develop. That’s what leaves you in a pile of goo. And I haven’t had that experience with this show yet. Yes, I love Malec but there are so many problems with the writing that prevents me from having that gooey feeling. This show is by no means bad but i wouldn’t call it good either. The times it leans closer to the good spectrum are when the characters are driving the story. Let’s start talking about these characters.

First up is Clary. Oh boy. I’ve made no secret about my distaste for Clary. And it’s really difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is about her that grates on my nerves. There’s a lot of little things that bother me. Ultimately, it’s the Mary Sue-ness of her character. As I said earlier, it’s her doing really selfish things but everyone else ignoring it because they think she’s so selfless and wonderful. Now, I don’t have a problem with Clary being a selfish person. At her core, that’s what she is. She follows her heart and that leads her to doing selfish things. It’s perfectly human. Humans are selfish beings. Even when we go out of our way to help others, there’s still a selfish undertone – for a lot of us, it makes us feel good knowing we helped someone, it benefited us in some way. But the fact that no one calls Clary out on her crap any more is what I dislike. Clary does these selfish acts because it’s a way to push the plot forward but it’s never used to push her character forward and that’s the issue I have with her. If the show didn’t tote her around as this perfect being and just own up to the fact that she is selfish, I would have no issues with Clary. Dare I say it, I may even like her. Which is why I mentioned earlier when I talked about the consequences theme for Season 3, I would like to see her selfish nature be called to the fore front. For Clary to really be held accountable for her selfish decisions. For her to really look at herself and be like, “oh, no. I’m causing this. Everything bad that’s happening is all because of me.” Really, I just want the show to do something that will make this audience think, “Yeah. She’s not perfect. She makes mistakes.”

On to Jace. I fluctuate a lot on my feelings for Jace. Dom Sherwood does a fantastic job of portraying him. That’s never been my issue. He is fantastic at bringing this very angsty feel to Jace. Which is important because Jace is quite angsty. And I do love it when male characters show their vulnerable side. However, sometimes the writers take Jace’s angst to an absurd level. Just how easily this guy gets moved to tears, I find a little ridiculous. This guy is more emotional than I have been in my entire life. And I say that with the time period I went through puberty in mind where getting a B on a homework assignment was enough to drive me to tears. It’s really hard for me to believe that a 20-year-old, whether they be male, female, unspecified gender, whatever, would be crying over some of the things he cries over. My feelings might be hurt a little but I don’t think I’d cry over some of these things. But I’m also a really sarcastic person and sarcastic people usually don’t let too many things bother them. We believe in hiding our insecurities through jokes. It’s probably why I like Book Jace so much. A lot of the fandom thinks Book Jace is mean. I don’t know where they get that. I think he’s really funny and whenever the fandom says that he’s mean, I really have to question how they, as a person, functions in the real world. Trust me, there are some genuinely mean people in the real world. Some of them are located right here in this fandom. If you think Book Jace is mean, how do you deal with those people? But don’t take this to mean I hate Jace. I haven’t genuinely hated Jace since Season 1 Episode 6 when I changed his name (temporarily) to The Douche. I like him much more in Season 2. His motivations and his character development as a whole is super interesting. And I love it when he gets snarky. Doesn’t happen nearly as much as it should, though. I live for the moments when Jace gets sassy. I really like what Christine from polandbanannasbooks said about the kind of person Book Jace is. He’s a more sexy and angsty version of Chandler Bing. I’d like to see that guy pop up more in the show.

With Clary and Jace talked about now, let’s take a brief interlude and talk about Clace now. Clace is definitely an example of a couple they rushed when they didn’t need to. It’s not that Kat and Dom have bad chemistry, They have this fun, breezy chemistry about them that works super well when they’re just hanging out. However, when it gets to the point where they’re being forced into having a romantic, epic moment, it’s just that. It feels forced. The show also doesn’t do them any favors by making them so generically YA at the same time. They fall for each other simply because “they were meant for each other.” No work has actually been put forth into developing their relationship, what it is about each other that they like so much. It’s just bland, cheesy, YA tropes. And not the good kind of YA tropes. My hopes for Season 3 is that we’ll get moments where they’re start actively learning about each other on an intellectual level.

For Simon as a character, I’m not really super interested in him. He’s super funny. The show clearly gave all the Jace snark to him. But at the end of the day, even though it felt like he had a lot to do this season, it also feels like he didn’t really accomplish that much. For me, as a character leaving an impact on the season, he didn’t really factor all that much. I am very interested to see how his character is going to progress in Season 3 as it looks like they’re going completely off-book with him. Like I said, I almost prefer that the show would go off-book.

I guess we’ve got to talk about Izzy, now. Izzy has always been a character that routinely falls on the wayside for me. A lot of the fandom seems to really like her but I find her kind of dull at times. And she is a bad-ass but she never contributes a whole lot. The show never really knows what to do with her. They like to tell us she’s a bad-ass but she has very few character moments that actually lend to that. She seems to only serve as a support function for Alec and Clary. I was super excited when they started introducing this drug addiction for her character. A lot of people say this ruined her character. In my eyes, it’s hard to ruin a character who was on as shaky foundation as she was to begin with. She has no real consistent character foundations. I liked the drug addiction plot because something interesting was finally being done with her character. And no one comment saying, “Oh but Izzy is so great because she’s the best pathologist in NYC. That’s a contribution.” I hate the whole “Izzy is the best pathologist” angle. First of all, it is such a Mary Sue angle to make her the best. Second of all, what exactly makes her better than all of the other pathologists? Third of all, I find it insulting that this 19-year-old is the best pathologist in NYC when you have people who spend 10+ years receiving their medical training. At what age did she begin her training? When she was 6? Not to mention, there are so many plot holes with the pathologist angle that I don’t even want to get into right now. Basically, for Izzy, I hope that she gets written better in Season 3. They were going an interesting angle with the drug addiction but then she got a miracle cure and it’s never mentioned. There was absolutely no point to that plot at all.

I’m very much on the rocks about whether or not I want the show to go the Sizzy route. The Sizzy that I love is from the books. And Izzy’s personality has changed so much that we’re not going to get Sizzy from the books. Now what the show is currently doing with Simon and Izzy could lead to some really interesting foundations in their romantic relationship IF they keep it a slow-burn. But this show also sucks at slow burns so I don’t know how optimistic I should be.

Next up is Alec. My favorite character in both the books and show. He was already pretty good in the books but the show did a really great job with figuring him out as a character in the show. I just really enjoy him. He is a little inconsistent with his logic. And like with Izzy, I wish that he would do more in the fore front of the story. He fares much better than Izzy does in the story telling but his plot points always feel like they’re just kind of added on and then subsequently dropped. He has all of these great B plot ideas that never really seem to affect any of the main story and as a result, they’re usually dropped. And then of course, a lot of the fandom doesn’t perceive Alec as his own character. They see him as one half of Malec. And if he’s not doing something that’s going to forward the Malec plot than it’s automatically trash. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing Alec spend a bit more time away from the Malec plots and really give us a chance to see more of him as a person.

As I made in my previous point, we can’t talk about Alec without talking about Magnus. I am very off and on about Magnus as a character. Honestly, this guy’s motivations and his changes in motivations were starting to give me whiplash. I care about Magnus in the sense that he’s a really interesting character and when he’s allowed to be snarky, he’s great. But the way that he reacts to situations, it doesn’t feel real. And I’m not talking about the acting. I’m talking about the writing. He reacts to things in a very childish and vindictive way.

Which means I have to stop beating around the bush. I have to talk about Malec this season. Oh boy. This is going to be long. Malec in this season was great…when they have absolutely no conflict. When they’re hanging out and having fun, supporting each other, you love them as a couple. However, when they’re in a fight, Malec grates on my nerves. I had gotten to the point in 2B where I straight up didn’t care about what was going on in their relationship. I became apathetic to Malec. The world must truly be ending. Now, this is not me saying I don’t want Malec to ever fight. This is a dig at how poorly written the Malec fights are. Here’s the thing, the ideas behind the Malec fights are actually really good but the flaw is in their execution. There’s a very childish tint to it. I hate what happens in these Malec fights and I hate how they’re resolved. Here is the specific formula on Malec fights:

1) Alec does something that angers Magnus

2) Magnus tells Alec to get out (because that’s a totally healthy way of dealing with your problems)

3) Alec apologizes and Magnus forgives him but Magnus (in his eyes at least) has nothing to apologize for

Rinse and repeat. It happens this way every couple of episodes. And I hate how unequal this relationship is. And this is not me being mad that my favorite character is the one at fault in his relationship, this is me being mad that it’s being written like everything is always Alec’s fault and Magnus never does anything wrong. Even though it’s not true. He also adds to these fights but it’s never called to attention in the writing. This is not a very healthy way to approach a relationship. And with it always highlighting that Alec is at fault, this could very easily be interpreted as an abusive relationship. You have one party believing he’s at fault for a conflict, he apologizes, and the other party gets to continue thinking he’s the perfect one in the relationship and can proceed to blame his lover for anything that goes wrong. Because that’s the way it’s always been. Now I know that’s a little extreme. Granted, Malec isn’t quite there yet, but if this formula keeps up, it won’t be that big of a stretch to call this an abusive relationship. A relationship is all about equality. You cannot have a successful relationship if one person holds all of the power. I really hope Season 3 is going to address this. I really hope there’s a reason for why Malec conflicts were written this way and not just because the writers really like Magnus. I’m hoping Season 3 is going to explore Alec noticing these tell tale problems in his relationship with Magnus and starts questioning it. Maybe this will lead to them breaking up for a much longer space of time because he doesn’t truly believe that Magnus respects him or his position in this relationship. I really did not like how Malec got back together in the finale. I believe the exact words I said in response to Alec saying “I can’t live without you” was “oh, please. Come on.” Seriously, they had been broken up for barely 1 episode. At most, it was a couple of days. You need to be broken up a little longer than that before I’ll accept that sort of declaration.

Not only do I have a problem with Alec always being the bad guy in the relationship, I also have a problem with how Magnus deals with conflicts. Essentially, when a relationship conflict crops up, he responds with, “You’re making me mad. Get out. I don’t want to deal with you.” That is not a healthy way to deal with relationship woes. Why does a character who has 500 years worth of relationship experience behave like a 16-year-old yet his partner, a 20-year-old is far more willing to stick it out and compromise right off the bat. And I have to ask, is this how he’s always going to deal with these relationship conflicts? Is this how he’s always dealt with them? If that’s the case, no wonder he’s had 7,000 relationships. He’s probably never made it past the first fight. He probably tells each of his lovers when they have a fight to get out and leave him alone and they’re probably all, “You know what Magnus? You’re a cool guy and all but I need someone who who’s going to behave like an actual mature adult so I’m going to peace the fuck out.”

When this guy gets his feelings hurt, he becomes ultra vindictive and childish. I mean, just in the last 2 episodes of season 2, he was absolutely horrible. He was actually willing to let NYC be destroyed because he didn’t want to help Alec. As much as I do like Magnus – and I really do, don’t misunderstand me – but Alec deserves better. Like I said, I hope the writers are going for Magnus’ behavior to be called out in Season 3 but I also know better. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Well, I think I’ve ranted on Malec for long enough, let’s talk about Luke. Luke has the potential to be a really great character but he also suffers from much the same things that Izzy and Alec suffer from. The story not really knowing what to do with him as a character. I mean, there are long stretches of time where Luke just kind of disappears. Hopefully, this will change in Season 3 and he’ll become a much more active agent in the story. I also hope he quits his day job as a detective because he is the worst detective ever. I don’t even know how he still has a job. He never seems to be working.

And a little side note. I’m also low-key shipping Luke and Maryse. I think they could be really interesting as a couple.

Now we’ve got Maia. I actually really like Maia but for whatever reason, the show just cannot write her in a decent, consistent way during a finale episode. In the 2A finale, they had her automatically jump to killing Clary with no real development into her making a decision like that and in 2B she’s all damsel in distress in the Seelie realm. Never mind the fact that she’s been depicted as a bad-ass werewolf in earlier episodes, but in the finale she was just really quiet and meek. It was very strange. Definitely for Season 3, they need to make Maia more consistent with her character development and not just change her personality whenever it suits the plot.

Will Tudor was also amazing as Sebastian/Jonathon. I’m not a fan of the burnt blob he turns into. I find Jonathon a much more threatening villain when he’s Will Tudor being creepy as fuck as opposed to the burnt blob the show decided to add. I’m really hoping he returns as Will Tudor and not the burnt corpse.

Not a whole lot to say about Valentine. Ultimately, I’m very disappointed with where he went as a villain. I always found Valentine to be moderately interesting in the books and the show just took away everything that was interesting about him and left us with a Disney villain. Alan Van Sprang did the best he could trying to humanize Valentine but the script wasn’t doing him any favors. Hopefully the next super-villain this show has will write their villain in a less cheesy and cliché way.

In my Season 2 Finale review, I had also had this theory where I was hoping Maxim Roy will come back to play Lillith in the form of Jocelyn. I think that would be really interesting. And no, I don’t keep up on the Season 3 spoilers/behind-the-scene stuff. I want to be surprised when it airs. So no one tell me that Maxim Roy isn’t returning. I’d prefer to be disappointed on my own.

One more thing I want to mention is the Jalec parabatai bond. The show has taken a lot of steps to improve the parabatai bond and I love that they have. However, they seem to only highlight the angsty parts of it or to use it as a plot device. The parabatai bond is super interesting in both the positive and negative effects it leaves on those who have it. The show loves to talk about the negative effects of it. I would like to see the show start to show the benefits it has. They also need to make this bond more consistent and equal. A lot of times, it feels like Alec experiences the effects more than Jace. It was beyond weird to me in Season 2 Episode 3, that Jace finally makes it off the ship but yet can’t tell that there’s something wrong with Alec. And then Jace cuts his hand, and Alec has no problem feeling that? If there’s one thing I’d like from the parabatai bond in Season 3, it’s the consistency.

At the end of the day, this show tries really hard to be epic. It really wants to be on Vampire Diaries caliber but the writing just isn’t there. The acting is. That isn’t the issue. I love the actors, I love the way they portray their characters. Even the ideas the writers have are actually really good ideas. It’s just the execution that they have a problem with. Once the writing catches up to the actors’ talent, I think we’ll have a truly amazing show on our hands.

Well, that’s about all I have about Season 2. Again, I am neither PRO nor ANTI shadowhunters. In my eyes, it’s neither a good or bad show. It’s just bland. What I’m doing here is just looking at this show and telling you what it makes me think and feel. Do you have to agree with me? No. But you should still respect it. So, with that said, I would love to hear your thoughts and feelings about Season 2. Are there changes you think could be made that I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear how other people interpret this show. This is why fandoms are so much fun but they’re horrible places when can’t people can’t respect each other’s opinions. So please, respect make the dream work.

And with this blog post out of the way, I am now going to go see American Assassin and proceed to fall in love with Dylan O’Brien’s talent to create strong but vulnerable characters.

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters season 2 #shadowhunters 2a #shadowhunters 2b #shadowhunters review #shadowhunters season 3 #clace #malec #sizzy

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spryfilm · 7 years ago

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“Gerald’s Game” (2017)

Horror/Thriller

Running Time: 103 minutes

Written and Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Featuring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood. Henry Thomas

Gerald: “Isn’t this why we came up here? To spice things up and try and push the boundaries.”

Mike Flanagan the writer/director of “Gerald’s Game” (2017) the latest Stephen King adaptation to hit screens this year, in what feels like a year in which we have had an endless supply of Kings work onscreen, with the quality running from dire to excellent. I am happy to report that this new film is on the excellent end, with a refreshing take on a novel that had remained untouched until now. Its a film full of drama, tension and human truths that touch on the main characters life choices that have led her to her predicament.

Over the past four years Michael Flanagan has carved out a niche for himself in the world of the Horror genre, he has created and adapted as well as rebooted a nice variety within the genre. His movies all have the common theme of isolation as a backdrop to some pretty heavy character drama. He also is able to introduce his audience to characters in a quick efficient way, so that when there is jeopardy there is an instant identification with the fate of the films protagonist. This is one of the greatest let downs of current (and past) horror movies in that there is no time given to give characters depth, this is eschewed in favour of action and gore.

In “Gerald’s Game” we are introduced to Jessie and Gerald who are preparing for a weekend away to try and save their marriage and sex life. The pair arrive at the lake house where Gerald takes a Viagra pill. He walks out of the closest with handcuffs in hand, handcuffing Jessie up willingly to the bedposts. Both excited over the thought of what happens next, Gerald takes another Viagra pill. Gerald begins to be rough with Jessie, and whilst she plays along, she begins to become uncomfortable by Gerald’s behaviour. Gerald goes too far and causes Jessie to panic and demands that he stop and un-handcuff her. During some rough housing Jessie bites his lip, making him stop. He then grabs for his chest and suffers a heart attack. Jessie tries to break out of the handcuffs and calls out for Gerald to wake up, but, after a minute, she sees blood pouring out of Gerald’s head. Jessie calls out for help, however nobody can hear her.

That’s really is just the set up to a movie that will, for the most part stay within the confines of a bedroom in the middle of nowhere with little hope for rescue from any third party – well almost but that would be giving too much away.

Mike Flanagan has created a really unique movie that cracks along at a really good pace, it uses its location extremely well, making you feel, like the main character, helpless as you watch her realize the serious predicament she finds herself in. Flanagan has made this a movie not only about being helpless, handcuffed to a bed, but also what its like to be stuck in a marriage that is going nowhere fast. It is also about the past and how this can trap you into a trajectory you don’t even know you are on – it is a masterful way of creating an adaptation of a book that retains that books atmosphere, whilst changing and introducing elements that make the movie a very separate entity from the novel. There is a reason why genre movies are so popular, as well as so successful, that is because within their structure you can make them about anything, commenting on whatever you would like under the guise of scares, violence and thrills. The audience doesn’t even have to be consciously aware of the deeper meanings (even if they aren’t really that well disguised), which makes the analysis so much fun, which in turn can lead to great conversations about these films.I dare you not to talk about Gerald and Jessie’s relationship if you are married or have a long term partner.

One of the elements that makes “Gerald’s Game” so interesting is that once the main character, Jessie, realises she is alone she starts to acknowledge some truths not only about her marriage but also her past as well as her own self. These realizations all come through hallucinations of not only her dead husband, Gerald, but a version of herself as well as her Father, and one other seemingly otherworldly figure you might expect to see (at least some version of one) in any Stephen King based story. The version of Gerald that Jessie starts to see can only give information that Jessie either already knows, suspects or unconsciously realizes which leads to some pretty horrible personal reveals that only come to light in the most dire of situations. The advice Jessie gives herself are more from a personality type that she wishes she was in real life, so she is a go getter, a pragmatist and brave. Jessie ends up giving her the help he needs to get through her situation while the Gerald hallucination is always trying to tell her she is going to die.

For this movie to work you needed two actors that were going to be able to sell the myriad range of emotions that are needed to make this plot believable, as well as engaged with an audience that would find them both sympathetic as well as flawed to make the story something that could be interesting. So it is fantastic Flanagan was able to cast Carla Gugino and the great Bruce Greenwood. The strength of these two actors is that they have both been believable character actors for decades as well as having the skills to carry an entire movie – something they have to do here – true it is Gugino who has the main part but this would not work without the skilled Greenwood to act as her foil. Gugino is just different enough in the dual roles she plays, so that they are not just stylised performances but they end up being very different so we can tell them apart – put that down to a canny reading of the material from Gugino who has to be one the most talented actresses (and unsung) working today.

This is a horror film, it fits alongside the great “Misery” (1992) very easily in that it also has equal parts drama and thriller elements with little reliance on comedy – which is something some horror films rely on to get an audience through some possibly disturbing subject matter. To be fair none of Flanagan’s movies rely on any comedic elements, they all play like real world movies, with exceptionally strong characters that ground everything else. You care for his characters and don’t want to see them in peril or at least escape from the clutches of whatever situations they find themselves in. This is an excellent film and I recommend to all fans of Flanagan, King and of course horror fans.

“Gerald’s Game” is streaming on Netflix now.

Streaming review: “Gerald’s Game” (2017) “Gerald’s Game" (2017) Horror/Thriller Running Time: 103 minutes Written and Directed by: Mike Flanagan Featuring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood.

#bruce greenwood #carla gugino #geralds game #geralds game review #john spry #john spry review #mike flanagan #netflix streaming #spry film #spry film review #stephen king #stephen king adapation #streaming

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musicalmatrix · 8 years ago

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Flaws in Dear Evan Hansen

Requested by @youll-rise-again

Kind of also a response to @evanhcnsen @hellagaysaltsquad @havenous

And the anons

And anyone else who wants to fight (I can’t believe I’m wasting my data on y'all.)

First off, I want to get out of the way that I actually enjoy this musical. The music is great and the cast is phenomenal. But that doesn’t mean I’m not ready to call out the bullshit, so buckle up.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: Every time I say this musicals plot is problematic, everyone tells me it’s because “the written summary makes it sound worse than it is; the dialogue makes it way better.” To which I have two responses: The first is I have watched the bootleg so I know the dialogue. The second is if you plot sounds problematic, but the dialogue “makes it better”, that is the dialogue manipulating you to overlook the fact that the plot is STILL PROBLEMATIC.

So let’s get into why the plot is problematic, and we’ll start with basics. There is something that should rub everyone the wrong way about someone pretending to be friends with someone who committed suicide and profiting from it. I am not saying that Evan didn’t have good intentions or anything. I understand why he did it. I’m just saying. Inherently, it’s wrong. And it needs to be addressed.

I’m having a hard time deciding what order to put these in, but next I think I’m going to talk about Evan as a character. The first thing I’m gonna say is Ben Platt deserves Best Actor because of how well he portrays social anxiety. But that’s about where the good ends (at least for what I want to talk about). Evan Hansen is a flawed character. Extremely flawed, actually. Sure, he has good intentions and stuff, that’s great. But it doesn’t change the fact he lied to everyone and fucked them over. Big time. He fucked over Zoe by dating her after he lied about her brother. He fucked over the Murphy’s because let’s not forget all the hate they got from the world after Connor’s “suicide” note was released. He fucked over his friends by dragging them along into their lies and ignoring how they felt. And last but not least, he fucked over his mother by ditching her. Now you’re all pretty pissed now I’m sure. Here’s the thing: I don’t care. It’s one thing for Evan to fuck over everyone and then be held accountable. But give me one time in the show he is fucking held accountable. Just one time. He apologizes. And then it’s over. They just forgive him. Like he’s so precious and needed to be protected. No. Just no. A mental illness is not an excuse to fuck everyone over. Evan needs to be held accountable. They never release what he did to the public. They never do ANYTHING about what he did. And don’t give me this bullshit of “He learned his lesson and felt bad.” That’s not being accountable. That’s regretting making a pretty obvious mistake that backfired on him. Being accountable would be coming out to the world and saying he lied and taking whatever backlash comes from that because that’s what he put on the Murphy’s. Being accountable is fixing your mistake, no matter how much it will suck. It’ll be hard? Then you shouldn’t have profited from someone committing suicide. Having social anxiety is not an excuse to fuck everyone over and then not do a damn thing to fix it. Stop glorifying Evan. (And I know I’m going to get a lot of shit for this, so please just keep in mind that I would never let myself or any of my friends get away with this bullshit just because of our social anxiety. I sure as hell hope you wouldn’t either.)

So from there I’m going to go into Connor (with a touch on Zoe) and how not only the show but the fandom glorifies him as well. I’m saying this right now: Connor is trash, and I have no tolerance for glorifying him. I literally think I just heard people exploding as I wrote that. But y’all asked for problems, and I’m giving them to you. If you can’t acknowledge the problems with your own show, you are part of the problem. So let’s get into this. My main problem with Connor (and probably only one I’ll feel like touching on because it’s a big enough flaw) is that he is abusive. That’s right, he’s abusive. Not abused. A b u s i v e . Canonically: mentally and emotionally. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it was physically as well. The proof? After Connor dies, Zoe states “Just because Connor isn’t punching through my door screaming that he’s going to kill me for no reason? That doesn’t mean that all the sudden we’re the fucking Brady Bunch.” I need you to read this very carefully: Even if you have a mental disorder, I will never condone, defend, or even waste my time in entertaining the idea of excusing this behavior. It is abuse. And it is awful. I have heard over and over again in this fandom that “Connor just needed love and attention and he would have be fine.” You know what? I don’t give a fuck about Connor. What about Zoe? Would she have been fine? Even if Connor had gotten better, would she ever been able to fully get over her brother threatening her life? Would she ever be able to trust him again? Would she ever get to a point in her life she believed without a single doubt that Connor would NEVER do it again? Those are the questions you should be asking. Connor Murphy is abusive trash and you’re right: he could have been alright and he deserved to be remembered. But he doesn’t deserve to be lied about. He doesn’t deserve to be worried about more than the people he destroyed. And he sure as hell does not deserve to be glorified.

So I’ve veered off the path of plot flaws and did some character flaws. Now I’m bringing it back to plot flaws, which we will begin with Zoe. Zoe was abused by Connor. When Connor dies, Zoe actually specifically sings a song about how she refuses to be upset about it, because that’s how awful Connor was to her. That kind of harm takes–if it’s even possible–years upon years of carefully rebuilding trust to get over. It does not take some stranger you’ve talked to maybe once in your life waltzing in and saying “Oh yeah, your brother thought you were great” ten minutes after your brother dies. If you think that is in even the realm of possibility, I have to tell you that you’re really fucking dense. A more realistic response to this would be “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you were never on the other side of the door while he was screaming he was going to kill me. You never had to endure any of that. So I actually don’t appreciate you belittling my feelings and experiences by saying you knew him better than I did.”

Another huge flaw to this show (which has been pointed out time and time again) is everyone’s responses to finding out Evan lied. You’re seriously telling me that the Murphy’s don’t expose him? Or yell at him? Make him pay for the anguish he put them through? He literally further destroyed an already grieving family. And he’s not even going to get punished for it by them? That is completely unrealistic and honestly makes the story entirely less compelling. They literally coddle the person who has made their lives a living hell. And Evan’s mom? He’s been lying to her for like a year and making shitty life choices and using this poor grieving family to get away from her, and she just forgives him just like that? Listen, in my life, I have encountered too many toxic people to allow Evan to get away with this. Being suicidal is not an excuse and should not grant someone immediate forgiveness if they have hurt other people. It’s a hard lesson to learn in life that you honestly don’t want to learn. But for two years I had a friend that (I realize now) would emotionally and mentally abuse me, and any time I would get upset about it, she would tell me she was suicidal. And immediately, my feelings weren’t important anymore. And that probably did more damage to me mentally than almost anything else in my life: having to tell myself I was being selfish when somebody really hurt me. I realize that that is not exactly what Evan’s doing, but it’s the same concept. He made his mom feel like shit, and instead of taking responsibility for it and trying to make it up to her, she found out he was suicidal and suddenly she wasn’t allowed to be angry at him anymore. She had to forgive him immediately, even though he hurt her and she needed to express that.

My next point isn’t really with the plot, but just the show as whole. So the show has this whole “representing mental illness” thing going, but the more I think about it, the more that’s a hard sell for me. Ben Platt does an amazing job portraying it, but the show (as I’ve mentioned before) glorifies his character. I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but being mentally ill does not excuse horrible behaviors. And so what I want to touch on now is how the show doesn’t really represent mental illness as a whole, but rather glorifies one person with a mental illness. And to do that, I want to talk about Alana: my favorite character in this show. Now, I’ve already posted several things about Alana and her high-functioning anxiety. But her anxiety isn’t canonized, and that’s kind of what irks me. Alana portrays all the signs of every high-functioning person I know (and I lived in an Honors dorm and have all Honors friends in college, so I know a lot of high-functioning people and am one myself.) But never once in the show is it addressed or acknowledged. Hell, most people don’t know what the hell I’m talking about right now. But it’s there. It’s real. Alana is struggling as well. But we don’t focus on her, oh no. We only get to focus on her if it’s convenient to Evan. And sure, the writers may not have wanted to focus on her, or maybe they don’t even know they gave her high-functioning anxiety. But if that’s true, then Dear Evan Hansen is not a musical representing mental illness. It’s about a kid who happens to have anxiety. You don’t get to cherry pick what parts of mental illness you want to care about. If Dear Evan Hansen truly wanted to accurately portray mental illnesses, they wouldn’t glorify one and ignore the other.

Another thing about the show is that it’s whitewashed for absolutely no reason. I remember last year that this time, everyone was talking about how Hamilton revolutionized music theater. There would now be diversity. Crops would flourish. Everything would be amazing. And here we are a year later. Two POC nominated for Best Actor/Actress in Lead/Supporting Role, and they’re in the same category. Look at that. We’re worse than the Oscar’s. And the shitty thing is, it’s not because POC just weren’t nominated. It’s because POC simply weren’t in this season. Now, I’m not at all talking down all the people nominated. They’re all amazing at what they do and deserve to be nominated. I’m just saying. There is no reason for Dear Evan Hansen to be all white people (besides Alana, who is hated on almost constantly, so don’t even try to defend this show with her). And yet, here we are. It’s a little disappointing to think last year at this time, we were so excited for representation, but now we’re back to where we started. And I know I’m walking a fine line here because this probably sounds like I don’t appreciate this cast. But I do. I think the cast is fabulous. I just also think the show needs more representation. Because believe it or not, POC have mental illnesses and deserve to be represented as well. As a theater community, we can’t just say “Well, we have Hamilton, so now all of theater is diverse.” No. Most of theater is still very very white. And until we start acknowledging that, it will never change.

There’s literally so much more to touch on and maybe I’ll add onto this later, but I have one last thing I want to talk about right now. And that is the excuse that people are saying of “Dear Evan Hansen is supposed to be flawed.” In a way, you are correct. Dear Evan Hansen is supposed to be flawed in the way of “Is it morally okay to lie about someone who has committed suicide if everyone is better for it?” Which is why I didn’t talk about that much. Those types of flaws push your boundaries and make you really think. That’s supposed to be there. What’s not supposed to be there is everything else I’ve talked about. Evan never being held accountable is not an intentional flaw. Connor being glorified despite being abusive is not an intentional flaw. Zoe forgiving Connor because Evan tells her to is not an intentional flaw. Nobody being able to be upset with Evan because he’s coddled is not an intentional flaw. Ignoring an entire character with a mental illness is not an intentional flaw. Those are ignorant flaws. Those are things that should have been fixed. Those are unrealistic and potentially harmful things to put into your show.

In summary: You asked for an essay, you got a fucking essay. Like I said, I might add to this, but I’m tired and am going to bed now. You can love the show, go for it. I enjoy it too. But to suggest that the show is perfect and has absolutely no flaws? It’s ignorant and quite frankly, it’s annoying. This show is flawed. One would evan say “flawed as hell”. So with that, I’ll end with this. Dear Evan Hansen deserved to be nominated, no questions asked. Despite everything I talked about, it has some pretty strong qualities as well. It does not, however, deserve to win, because of all the flaws in the show that are clearly unaddressed. That might be harsh, but if you put a musical like this out into the world, you better make damn sure you did it right. That’s the responsibility you take when making something this important. And so I will not apologize for “being mean” or “nasty” to DEH. You can yell at me and call me a shitty person all you want. You can say I’m tearing the theater fandom apart. Fucking go for it. If that’s what I get for refusing to glorify something clearly problematic, then so be it. I’m not “hating” on the show because it’s not my “type”. The show has flaws. And a show with this many flaws should not win Best Musical. I’m sorry you can’t handle the reality of that.

P.S. I could write an entirely separate essay on how toxic y’all’s fandom is, but I’ll save that for another time.

P.P.S. Y’all can pretend not to see this. You can ignore everything I said here. You can stay in your little bubble and refuse to acknowledge the flaws. But all of us out here? We see it. We see the flaws. All of us. And we see you, ignoring them. Just a heads up.

#y'all asked for it #i delivered #this is in your fucking tags because you're supposed to see it and maybe educate yourself a little #fuck the hell off #deh #dear evan hansen #tonys 2017 #musicalmatrix

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shirohibiki · 8 years ago

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@where-fading-princesses-live

responses to your lovely comments!! thank you so much for being so sweet and writing such an in-depth response ;A; it’s really kind of you and it makes me very happy!!!! responses under the cut <3333

-FINALLY finished it, yay, sorry it took so long!

no apologies SHUSH UR FACE YOU DIDNT EVEN HAVE TO READ IT

-Once again your prose is amazing, the way you describe the Christmas party down to the very last detail is nothing short of astounding.

GAH THANK YOU////// tbh i feel like my descriptions are really lackluster but thank you very much ;;;;;;;;

-Sandy in gold eye shadow and purple lipstick, hell yes <3

agree <3

-Plabs moment?

kinda!! i’m considering having them either together or like... sort of exploring their relationship in my AU. karen and plankton are finally divorced and she’s going to find someone so much better for her. so yeah i’m not completely sure what i’ll do yet

-I really love that you touch on Sandy’s daredevil side, it really is her character flaw. Often times she’s having so much fun taking huge risks in her reckless adventure seeking that she doesn’t always see the irrationality in it.

yes, and also blinded by her desire for her friend to be happy... she’s wanted to do some risky things XD she’s like “NOW KISS....” she’s a BAD GIRL

-I absolutely adore this passage: Squidward’s mind went completely blank, any and all thoughts evaporating instantly. His entire body went rigid and the wind was knocked from his lungs. He didn’t return the kiss – the world around him had disintegrated and he was lost in a sea of nothingness. Time ceased to exist. Was he dreaming? Had he himself gotten drunk and passed out? Where even was he? What was he doing? Who was with him? Who was… What was…

It perfectly sums up all the mixed emotions of someone’s first kiss, or at least someone’s first meaningful kiss. It’s usually more confusing than pleasing.

i can’t even remember my first kiss so i can’t say for certain, but definitely if it’s an unexpected kiss heh. thank you <3

-The kiss was very hot btw, oh Lordy Lord, I think I sweated a little. O///O

i’m so glad!!! i was hoping it was hot enough so i’m happy you think so :D

-You jump into Squidward’s mind fairly well. I love all the oxymorons, such as delight displeasure to really emphasize the apparent contradictions that are racing through his mind. And the pacing’s really nice.

!!!! THANK YOU!! i’m always nervous about writing him bc i feel like it’s not my forte, but it is getting a little easier as time goes on. it’s great to hear that my pacing is okay!! i worry a lot about everything so the reassurance is nice dkjghdfghfh

-Drunk SpongeBob flirting with lamps. I’m sorry, I’m dead. XD

Spongebob slings an arm around the lamp, a grin on his face. “You come here often, miss?” He slurs, swaying a little with with it. “You got a real pretty dress on...” As if it weren’t bad enough that he was flirting with a lamp, he dares to take a peek up the lampshade and giggles drunkenly. “Ooops~... ’M real sorry, miss, I accidentally saw yer... Heehee... Hope y’don’t mind~...” He seriously looks about ready to start making out with that lamp. Sandy watches the show, guffawing with each advance Spongebob makes. Patrick cheers him on, and Squidward looks on, dumbfounded. This wasn’t the first time, but it honestly shocks him each time. He could only wonder what that piece of furniture looked like to Drunk Spongebob.

-Love this part: Time to wash away the impurity and the sin! Because that’s why we all take showers, right?

not me! i could never wash it away so i don’t bother 8)

-His little breakdown is perfect. I hate to see Squidward suffer and yet at the same time it’s so fitting, and it’s really his emotional investment, it gets us, the readers, on his side, blim blam.

i love his tears. i mean they make me sad but i love them at the same time. Delicious. thank you ;v;

-I like how you touch on Squidward’s loneliness, and the idea of him being without physical love for such a long time that he’s literally deprived, and of course SpongeBob being virtually the only one in Bikini Bottom who loves him the most, it’s funny how he puts up those walls and pushes him away, and yet he could easily take SponbeBob’s love for granted. Deep down, I always regarded Squidward a hopeless romantic.

he is a hopeless romantic. absolutely. it’s displayed multiple times in the show -- it just takes him actually WANTING to date the person first. and i think he does take spongebob’s love for granted in some way even if he “Hates” it... without it, perhaps he’d feel even MORE lonely and he just doesn’t realize that. because something he was used to wouldn’t be there anymore. just a thought :V

-I love the little Mr. Krabs/SpongeBob father-son moment. When Mr. Krabs isn’t tunnel-visioned over money, he can be a great voice of reason. It was just really sweet and cute, and so organic rather than contrived.

i like krabs and bobby father-son moments c: i like to think of mr krabs as kinder and more in-tune with spongebob and more willing to give him advice and help him out.

- Ironically, Spongebob reminded Squidward of himself

Personally, I always felt that too. One of my headcanons is that SpongeBob is like Squidward’s former self, how he used to be before he lost his innocence and became disillusioned by how life didn’t turn out how he anticipated. Sometimes we don’t like people because they reflect certain qualities in ourselves that we disprove of. And then there’s the Looking Glass Self theory, how we think others perceive us compared to how we perceive ourselves, so I like that you have the same fan theory as me about why Squidward ‘’pretends’’ to abhor SpongeBob, mainly because he possesses the youth and happiness he once had. Also the backstory with Squilliam, I always imagined that too.

yes indeed! they’re far more alike than squidward likes to admit or realize -- even now, they do actually have some interests in common whether it’s books or art or whatever else. someday he’ll acknowledge that <3

-I hate seeing Squidward so tortured over this, and as I keep reading, knowing it’s going to have a cliffhanger and no absolute closure till your next fic, I want nothing more right now for them to just end up together and be happy. I love how you get us to root for them by playing this cat and mouse game. Writers should always leave the readers wanting more, and I must say you succeed in that department.

HHHGHGHG idk if there will even be closure in the next one haha (if i ever finish it)i have too much fun torturing him,,,,i do really want them happy and together but i also love the chasing. i’m glad i’m able to make it interesting enouhvh ;v; now god give me strength to finish the next...

-I like the scene in the music store. You write character interactions really well. And the Julien guy is quite a character.

thank you!!!! //// it’s so nice to hear these things kjdfgdf <33333 and i’m glad you like him haha. he cares about squiddy. <3

- Overall, you’re a very good writer and I love how this ended, and I seriously can’t wait for your next fic!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! IT MEANS A LOT TO ME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

-My only criticism for this piece was that there were minor grammar errors, and some occasions where you switch back and forth between active and passive voice, and if you ever need a proofreader in the future, I’d be more than happy to proofread for you. :)

-I just loved the emotional charge of this story, how it was more focused on the psychology of the characters. I always find stories like these more fascinating and deep.

feel free to let me know what i did wrong! i’m curious to know what areas need work!

-Otherwise, I enjoyed this piece very much, and apologies it took so long for me to finish!

YOU ARE THE SWEETEST STOP IT <33333 THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU YOUR WORDS MEAN THE WORLD TO ME!!!

#nikki yaps #my writing #where fading princesses live

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thebookbeard-blog · 8 years ago

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January was a weird month. I went through the first few days of 2017 feeling like I was coming down from a hangover of 2016, and I wish I meant that literally (I stayed in on New Year's Eve, partly because my mother spent the day at the hospital, partly because screw the idea of celebrating 2016). And then January just kept on going, and it just got weirder and weirder. You know what I'm talking about.

So I wanted to start out my reading year as gently as possible. I don't think I could have handled anything else. I wanted to pick out books that, to me at least, seemed warm and inviting.

Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel by Judith and Neil Morgan seemed like it fit the bill. I had already been inspired by kaptainkristian's superb video essay on Dr. Seuss and his rhyming techniques to finally pick this up (it had been sitting on my shelves for a while). Writer biographies are among my favorite things to read, anyway, so this seemed like a good place to start.

And it was. And it was indeed a gentle book, too -- although this didn’t always work to it’s advantage.

The Morgans were apparently good friends and neighbors of the Geisels, and so had access to a wealth of information and intimacies that would not have been available to many other would-be biographers. And this very much shows through in the book -- it reads very intimate. It’s an admiring and affectionate look at the life and labors of a well-beloved author.

A bit too admiring and affectionate at times, it turns out.

This is a mostly thorough book, covering Geisel's work from a very young age, up to college and adulthood and beyond. This life work is divided into chapters covering whatever big work Geisel was putting out that year (he really was a prolific man). A couple of these deal heavily with Geisel's political cartoons he created during the Second World War. The Morgans are quick to praise their artistry and ingenuity as well as the influence that they held, all the while glossing over the fact that a lot of them happened to also be extremely racist and anti-Japanese. This is a fact of Dr. Seuss that I had known for a while, and so I was on the look-out for discussion about it within the book. Alas. I wanted to make note of this in light of the fact that some of these cartoons have recently regained some prominence, given certain current events.

One other instance of the book being too gentle on its subject has to do with the chapter covering the death by suicide of Helen Palmer -- Geisel's first wife and a children’s author in her own right. It's a sad and somber account, and you feel like the the authors are writing about the death of an actual friend and person, and of a subject, which is commendable. I learned later, though, that one of the major reasons Helen decided to take her own life was the fact that Geisel was apparently having an affair with one of their close friends -- the same woman that later became his second wife. This is, given the Morgans relationship with the Geisels, an understandable enough omission, to be sure, but it is also a very glaring one in retrospect.

And I guess an argument could be made about the ethics and moralities of having such personal things in a book that, to be fair, largely focuses on the creative aspect of its subject. But I'm of the opinion that unpleasant details like this should be acknowledged and discussed. Especially so in biographies of well-known and well-loved. They are the things that show us that the people we admire are every bit as flawed and damaged as the rest of us, but are still capable of making the occasional magic.

Those are just two examples that I thought were interesting to think about. As I said, though, the bulk of the book deals with the creative work of an imminently fascinating and intensely prolific figure, and it does so wonderfully -- the chapters dealing the creation Seuss's "major" books being particularly illuminating.

Dr. Seuss was and still is an influential and inspiring figure, warts and all. He was an artist -- a proper artist -- who did a tremendous amount of good, not just for children’s literature, but for literature in general. And he was, much like the Cat in the Hat, a trickster figure, larger than life itself. Large enough to cast a deep shadow over an entire industry.

It’s just important to recognize the rest of it all, too.

Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley was the second book I read this year -- something that was completely unintentional but still greatly pleases me. Lost at Sea was the third. Both were re-reads.

Seconds is about Katie Clay, head chef of a relatively successful restaurant who dreams of one day opening up her own. After a series of setbacks that keeps delaying this dream she is visited by a house spirit who gives her the ability the change past mistakes by ingesting some mushrooms.

So, you know, hardcore realism.

O'Malley's books seem to come into my life at pivotal moments. Scott Pilgrim was a very formative book for me: I was an insufferable hipster kid with insufferable hipster friends, and was close enough to the age of the characters that I saw my life reflected on its cartoony pages -- which was an interesting and dissecting kind of experience, to say the least. It's a hell of a thing to see a reflection of yourself in the hero of a story only to realize that both the hero and yourself have actually been complete and utter gits all this time ha ha ha let me tell you.

Seconds also came out at an age-appropriate time, and again I saw myself reflected in the main character, Katie, with her dreams and her passions and her fear of failure and mundane complacency. I was in my second year of a projected three-year stint at an office job, but, much like Katie and her bigger and fancier restaurant, I had higher and loftier aspirations.

When I came to re-read it a couple of weeks ago, I was closer to the character not only in terms of age (we were both 29 now), but in situation as well. I was still at my office job (fifth year of the projected three year stint) and while being extremely good and efficient at it, and appreciating the job’s relative safety, I found myself, like Katie, being frustrated by the mundane realities and setbacks of life. Trying to keep up with dreams is a challenge, but I wish it didn't always have to feel that way. It's exhausting.

Seconds is a story about taking control of your narrative at the expense of other people, and the meaning and consequences of it. It's a story about do-overs and what-ifs and what-might-have-beens. The main character finds all this out via the use of magic mushrooms, and while I'm not exactly fitting to go out into the real world in search of some enchanted fungi, I'm not going to say I wouldn't do the same as Katie did were I to come across such a thing.

This was, I believe, my third time reading the book. I've taken away something new after each read, and my love for it keeps growing exponentially. It's definitely O'Malley's most mature work, both in terms of themes and story, as well as art -- combining his hyper-graphic, chibi style of cartooning with the semi-realistic backgrounds and props of Jason Fischer and the gorgeous expressionist coloring of Nathan Fairbairn.

They all compliment and enhance each other so well. Seconds has become my favorite of Bryan's books.

Lost at Sea is the only O'Malley book I've read at a time when I wasn't anywhere close to the age of the characters, since they are all teenagers. And this is very much a teenager story, all about trying to find yourself and the embarking on road trips in order to do so. It's a story about that deep and lonely aimlessness all moody and sensitive adolescents inevitably feel.

It’s a feeling that we never really manage to outgrow, the vestiges of which manage to remain etched onto our aging souls, surfacing mostly during terribly long and existential nights. I was very much feeling when I first picked it up last year, and I was still feeling that when I decided to read it again this year. It helped both times. One of those books you read as an adult and wish you could go back in time and make a younger version of you read it as well. Maybe with the help of some mushrooms....

I love Bryan Lee O'Malley's books a lot. I hope he keeps making them for ever.

Between these I was also reading the collection Jillian Tamaki's SuperMutant Magic Academy, her gorgeous and gorgeously weird webcomic. Ostensibly the story of a group of super powered/magical/gifted teenagers at a boarding school, it’s described as a mash-up between Harry Potter and the X-Men, but really it's nothing like these. It is its own strange little thing.

I love that you can tell it began as an excuse for Tamaki to just let loose on the page. Tamaki is known for her crisp and clean line art that she uses for her books, but the art in a lot of SuperMutant strips -- and especially in the early ones -- are rough, almost sloppy, as if they were done quickly and in the moment. It fits the throw-away nature of the humor. The art style starts to get tighter as the strip goes on, and the light gags begin give way to darker jokes and meditations. Tamaki never chooses to permanently stay in one form or the other, though, neither in terms of art or story -- they never stop fluctuating. This gives the comic a kind of fluidity that make the strips range from the relatively straightforward

to the surreal

to the somber

more or less on a strip-to-strip basis.

(My favorites of these are the ones featuring Everlasting Boy, her immortal, silent character, whose strips consist of what I can only call playful existentialism.)

The strips are mostly self-contained, one-shot things, although the last few dozen that end the collection feature a poignant take on the Chosen One story that is so wonderfully and beautifully done that it borders on frustrating (it is so short). It's so good that it could have been expanded to it's own graphic novel. Maybe one day. What do you think, E.B.?

#the reading list #book review #supermutant magic academy #jillian tamaki #lost at sea #seconds #bryan lee o'malley #dr. seuss and mr. geisel #judith morgan #neil morgan

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