#but most anime fans see cute kid and throw all critical thinking out of the window 😔😔😔😔

[swallowtail-ageha]

Also re: my prev tags abt eri when i say to ppl i don't like her they're like "oh so you don't care that this six year old got abused" damn maybe i would care if she had a personality outside of being cute or sad

[wickwrites]

Wonder Egg Priority Episode 4: Boys’ and Girls’ Suicides Do Mean Different Things (But Not in the Way the Mannequins Want You to Think!)

So, let’s talk about this for a second. After I got over my initial knee-jerk reaction, I realized I wasn’t sure how to make sense of exactly what the mannequins were arguing for here. So let me rephrase their statements to make the argumentative structure more explicit: Because men are goal-oriented and women are not, because women are emotion-oriented and men are not, and because women are impulsive and easily influenced by others’ voices and men are not, boys’ and girls’ suicides mean different things – girls are more easily “tempted” by death, and therefore, more likely to require saving when they inevitably regret their suicide. While Wonder Egg Priority, so far, seems to agree with the vague version of the mannequins’ conclusion, namely that boys’ and girl’s suicides mean different things, it refutes the gender-essentialist logic through which that conclusion was derived.

The mannequins choose a decidedly gender essentialist approach in explaining the difference between girls’ and boy’s suicides; they argue that the suicides are different because of some immutable characteristic of their mental hard wiring (in this case, impulsivity, emotionality, and influenceability). Obviously, this is a load of bull, and Wonder Egg Priority knows it. The mannequins are not exactly characters we’re supposed to trust, seeing that they’re running a business that is literally based on letting these kids put themselves in mortal danger. As faceless adult men, they parrot and possibly represent the systems that force these girls to continue to be subjected to physical and emotional trauma (it’s probably more complicated than this, but four episodes in, it’s hard to say more). So, we’re probably supposed to take what they say with great skepticism. Also, the director, Shin Wakabayashi, has recently said that in response to these lines, Neiru was originally going to object, “When it comes to their brains, boys and girls are also the same,” (which unfortunately is not exactly true and is somewhat of an oversimplification, but the sentiment is there). While that line ultimately did not make it in, Neiru does reply with a confused and somewhat indignant, “What?!”, a reaction that gets the message across.  Neiru is not a fan of gender essentialism, and as a (more) sympathetic character, we’re supposed to agree with her.

That is, the differences between boys and girls is not something inherent to their biology or character, but something constructed by culture and experience. This rejection of gender-essentialism is apparent in Wonder Egg Priority’s narrative, which takes a more sociocultural perspective on the difference between boys’ and girls’ suicides. It says, well of course boys’ and and girl’s suicides don’t mean the same thing, that’s the whole reason why we’re delving into the experiences specific to being a girl (cis or trans) or AFAB in this world – to show you how girls’ suicides are influenced by systems of oppression perpetuated by those in power (ie. the adult, in this specific anime).

And all the suicides we’ve seen up until now tie into that somehow. For instance, Koito is bullied by her female classmates who think that Sawaki is giving her special treatment. This is a narrative that comes up over and over again, in real life as well: that if a young girl is being given attention from an older man, then it’s her fault – that she must want it, or at least enjoy it somehow, and that it signifies a virtue (eg. maturity or beauty) on her part. And if Koito is actually being given such treatment by Sawaki, an adult man in a position of power over her, that is incredibly predatory. 

And we all know that child sexual abuse is something that overwhelmingly affects girls, with one out of nine experiencing it before the age of 18, as opposed to one out of 53 boys (Finkelhor et al., 2014). Regardless of whether Sawaki was actually abusing Koito or if the students only thought that he was, Koito’s trauma is ultimately the result of this romanticized “love between a young girl and adult man, but not because the man is predatory, but because the girl has some enviable virtue that makes her desirable” narrative. Similarly, in episode 2, Minami’s suicide is driven by ideas related to discipline and body image in sports, which while not necessarily specific to female and AFAB athletes, is framed in an AFAB-specific way. For instance, take the pressure on Minami to “maintain her figure”. Certainly, male athletes also face a similar pressure, but we know that AFAB and (cis and trans) female bodies are subject to closer scrutiny and criticism. We know that young girls are more likely to suffer from eating disorders. And Wonder Egg Priority situates Minami’s experience as decidedly “about” AFAB experience when her coach accuses her change of figure due to her period as a character failing on her part.

 Likewise, episode 3 delves into suicides related to “stan” culture, this fervent dedication to celebrities that is overwhelmingly associated to teenage girls. And Miwa’s story, in episode 4, explicitly shows how society responds to sexual assault. When Miwa does have the courage to speak up about her assault, she’s instantly reprimanded by basically everyone around her. Her father is fired because her abuser was an executive of his company. Her mother asks her why she couldn’t just bear with it, telling her that her abuser chose her because she was cute, as if that’s supposed to make her feel better about it. Wonder Egg Priority shows that this sort of abuse is a systemic problem, a set of rules and norms deeply engrained in a society and upheld by all adults, regardless of gender, social status, or closeness (to the victim). Wonder Egg Priority says that, yes, girls’ and boys’ suicides have different meanings, but it’s not due to some inherent difference between the two, but the hostile environment in which these girls grow up. Girls are not more easily “tempted” by death, they just have more societal bullshit to deal with.

But Wonder Egg Priority goes further than just showcasing how girls’ (and AFAB) experiences are shaped by sociocultural factors. The story also disproves the supposedly dichotomous characteristics that the mannequins use to differentiate girls and boys (i.e. influenceability/independence, impulsivity/deliberation, emotion-orientation/goal-orientation). If the mannequins are indeed correct, and that girls are just influenceable, impulsive, and emotional, you’d expect the girls in the story to be to be like such too. Except, they aren’t. Rather, they’re a mix of both/all characteristics. This show says that, certainly, girls can be suggestible, but they’re also capable of thinking for themselves. For instance, when Momoe asserts her own identity as a girl at the end of episode four, she rejects the words of those around her who insisted that she isn’t a girl. If she were as suggestible as the mannequins believe her to be, that would never have happened – she would have just continued believing that she wasn’t girl “enough”. But, she doesn’t because she is equally capable of making her own judgements. Likewise, Wonder Egg Priority shows that girls can be impulsive, but they can also be deliberate and pre-mediating. When Miwa tricks her Wonder Killer into groping her to create an opening for Momoe to defeat it, she’s not doing it out of impulse – it’s a pre-mediated and deliberate choice unto a goal. And Wonder Egg Priority continues, girls can be equally emotion oriented and goal oriented. Sure, the main girls are fighting because they have the goal of bringing their loved ones back to life, but those goals are motivated by a large range of emotions, from guilt to anger, grief, compassion, and love. 

Being emotion-driven doesn’t mean you’re not goal-driven, and vice versa. In fact, in this case, being emotional drives these girls toward their goals. In other words, none of these traits that the mannequins listed are either “girl traits” or “boy traits”. Being one does not mean you can’t be the other, even if they seem dichotomous at first. Wonder Egg Priority’s diverse cast of multi-dimensional female characters allows it to undermine the mannequins’ conceptualization of gendered roles, refuting the idea that these (or any) character traits should be consider gendered at all.

As an underdeveloped side thought, I think Wonder Egg Priority’s blurring of gendered roles is also well-reflected in its style. There’s been a lot of talk about whether Wonder Egg Priority constitutes a magical girl series, and I think that’s an interesting question deserving of its own essay. Certainly, it does follow the basic formula of the magical girl story: a teenage heroine ensemble wielding magical weapons saves the day. But it also throws out a lot of the conventions you’d expect of a magical girl story – both aesthetically and narratively. Aesthetically, it’s probably missing the component that most would consider the thing that makes an anime a magical girl anime: the full body transformation sequence, complete with the sparkles and the costume and all that. Narratively, the girls are also not really magical girl protagonist material – they’ve got a fair share of flaws, have done some pretty awful things (looking at Kawai in particular; I still love you though), and aren’t exactly the endlessly self-sacrificing heroines you’d expect from a typical magical girl story. On the other hand, the anime also borrows a lot from shonen battle anime. We get these dynamic, well choreographed action sequences full of horror and gore, the focus on the importance of camaraderie between allies (or “nakama”, as shonen anime would call it) exemplified through all the bonding between the main girls during their downtime, and in the necessary co-operation to bring down the Wonder Killers. That said, this anime is not a shonen; the characters, types of conflicts, and themes are quite different from those that you’d find in a typical shonen. The bleeding together of the shonen genre and the magical girl genre, at the very least (and I say this because I think it does way more than just that), reflects Wonder Egg Priority’s interest in rebelling against conventional narratives about girlhood and gender.

[citrina-posts]

Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. This is pretty long, so if you want to keep reading, it’s under the cut.

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

[nexyra]

James Ironwood, for character ask? 👀

Aaaa thank you so much for the ask ♡ More rambling incoming !! Sorry for the wait btw, I've been both pretty busy and tired ;;

If you hate James Ironwood and don't wanna hear one good thing about him tap out now please ღ

My fav ship(s) for the character

I am not a super big shipper when it comes to James, but there are still some I like more than others soo here goes :

I think Ironwitch is a pretty good one. It's not necessarily a ship I'd search content for but I think these two would work well together ! Glynda is stern and honest and a no-nonsense kind of woman. She has the strenght to stand up to James when he slips or gets too stubborn when faced with the high stakes. At the same time, we've been shown that she cares for him and she knows he's only trying to do what's best for people. She has faith in him but also the ability to stand at his side as an equal. She seems to be the more steadfast of Ozpin's circle : loyal, you know you can trust her, and she will not crumble. This is the kind of personnality that I think James both admire and feel safe with. And the other way around, I think James is a good match for Glynda too. On a day to day basis, he's serious enough to not annoy here, but he's also a softie in some aspects and that's a nice combination to smooth out Glynda's edges.

Ironqrow is a completely different dynamic. The "we're annoying each other" dynamic is not one I'm particularly interested in usually xD But these two certainly had strong & interesting moments so it's a pretty valid ship !! Despite how they might butt heads because of the difference in their upbringing they (prior to V8) clearly trusted each other with their life. Even if Qrow jokes about shooting himself if he had to be one of James' man, when everything goes to shit there is no doubt in his mind that James wasn't responsible. Similarly, while James talks of shooting Qrow for his misbehaviour, when push comes to shove and we meet a tired Ironwood, run ragged by the pressure he's under... the only thing he does is hug him and reiterates how glad he is to see him. So again, they clearly have a lot of faith and trust in the other, and that's solid ground for a relationship.

My least favorite ship(s) for the character

Same spiel as always, shipping kids and adults is a big no from me; so any ships between Ironwood and RWBYJNOR can qualify here. That said, among the less uncomfortable ones, here are those I don't really like

This one is again because I love their relationship but platonically only, I'm talking of Winter Soldier. The reading I like best is not that Ironwood is Winter's Jacques 2.0, nor that he groomed her; but that he was an important father figure in her life. Protective and caring, who tried to help her escape with what he knew. I don't see James recruiting Winter as a way to gain a strong ally. But rather that Winter wanted to detach herself from her family name, and make something worthwhile of herself all on her own. And that the military is what Ironwood knows and understand, so naturally it's a career he'd see as a good path. Just like Winter then proposed it to Weiss. I like to think they care about each other a LOT and they're their own tight family in between the lines, even if professionalism might throw a wrench into it. For short I love them together but not romantically please =)

I don't know if there's a ship name for this, but Salem x James Ironwood would be a big nope from me too... In general, let's just assume I ship Salem with nobody because abuse.

My fav & least fav platonic relationship(s) for the character

Fav platonic relationship would be (have been because we dont talk about V8?) with Winter. Fooor the reasons I've explained above I suppose x) I (again) love the trust they had in one another and the quiet support.

There was also his relationship with Oscar that I really liked during V7, although it has been soured a bit by the (valid) reading from some people that Ironwood sought out Ozpin a lot through Oscar, and given his identity issues it is not ground for a greatly healthy relationship. Their interactions were still very intersting though ♡ I consider Oscar to be the kid who went at trying to appease James' fear or make him reconsider his decisions the best way. There was true understanding and hope for a working relationship here. I do feel that Oscar put in more work than James however (emotionally) and I wish there had been pay-back instead of a gunshot.

For my least fav relationship ? Probably Robyn or Watts ? Robyn was always very antagonistic toward Ironwood since their priorities are so different. And I overall just don't really like her after V7 so there are very few relationships with her I'm interested in (the exception is her ship with Fiona I think it's cute). Meanwhile, Watts is just a petty asshole hell bent on ruining Ironwood because he didn't pick his project. I'm not very interested in hate relationships, and since theirs wasn't deeply explored anyway, it's even more the case here. Their fight was great though, one of my favorite RWBY fights !

My favorite thing about the character

Well this was completely proven wrong by V8 buuut as of V7 I liked that he was a deconstruction of the military general (dictator) trope. Sooo you can guess how i feel about V8 X) In general among RWBY, several of my fav are fav BECAUSE they look like one trope but also have key differences that from the get go make the character stray away from said trope. For example I'm not a fan of the princess tsundere archetype at all, but I loooved Weiss in V1 BECAUSE she was extra-willing to listen and change her mind, and you could very easily tell that it was her upbringing speaking more than herself in most occasions.

Similarly, I wasn't a big fan of Ironwood before V7. I didn't hate him you know and he wasn't lower than most characters in my Tier list but I also didn't particularly care. But you know what ? I've aaaalways had a really soft spot for the "angsty angry traumatized teen". And RWBY made the mistake of extending that soft spot to "tired adults trying their best" (only to repeatedly beat them up/make them villains after making me care about them but what can you do uh)

Soo in general, I loved that Ironwood was trying so hard. I loved that he was tired and in over his head but learning and listening and trying to do good and be better despite his fears. I liked that he told his entourage about Salem and was loyal. I liked that he cared about helping the people above his own image and the way people perceived him. I liked that you could tell this was a terrible situation all around, and his decisions WERE questionnable but we could SEE that he meant WELL and was genuinely trying so hard despite how scared and tired he was.

My biggest criticism for the character

Well this won't be a surprise but in general I just wished he had stayed a morally grey character we were allowed to feel for instead of a cartoon black villain. I didn't need James to be THE Hero or anything like this despite some accusations levelled at those who like him. Him becoming one of RWBY's antagonist is honestly fine by me ! It is interesting. But I'd have preferred they kept him ambiguous and trying in his own way. (And smart because V8 Ironwood was dumb af)

I can be a tad overprotective of his character since he's just... so despised, so I think that I have inadvertently distanced myself from any of his flaws... somehow like "people are already yelling all of them so I don't need to add to this shit show" you know ? skjfkd But I KNOW he has them and it would still have been good to develop his flaws, just... not like that

But yea I'd have liked it if V8 Ironwood DID diverge from RWBYJNORQ and became an antagonist but not an iredeemable villain. LIKE,, we redeemed Hazel and Emerald and IRONWOOD is where the writers draw the line by saying "nope this one is rotten" ?? What ?

When was their writing at the peak according to me (ex : best season)

V7 definitely ! Ironwood carried V7 so hard haha. His character was fleshed out and given nuance and made to struggle and evolve and I loved him in that volume.

A song I think fits them & why

Hunger • Monsters & Men Human • Rag'n'Bone Man Way down we go • Kaleo Beekeeper • Keaton Henson Thistle and weeds • Mumford and Sons Castle of Glass • Linkin Park It's all so incredibly loud • Glass Animals

A headcanon to make up about them

His metal parts impact his metabolism so Ironwood is terrible at holding his alcohool and very little manages to knock him out. He's a workaholic. His low tolerence for alcohool is a great tool whn friends need to put him to sleep.

His joints crack and hurt in the cold, his metal parts as well and they are an hassle in the sand. James like to keep his room temperature warmer than the average atlasian because of this, otherwise he has to spend 30 min every morning simply unwiding muscles to move around efficiently.

He's not a good singer but has a nice low voice for telling stories. If he had kids, he'd probably avoid lullabies but compensate with bedtimes stories.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

As always, I'm kind of reflecting along the way as I write this, and one thing I'm thinking right now is... Doesn't it take away from the atlas arc message ITSELF to just pile up so many "standard bad guy" stuff on Ironwood ? Like, I wanna ask... why do we hate him ? Is he an antagonist because he lets fear get the best of him ? Because he's a classist who doesn't care about Mantle like some fans argue ? Because he's too stubborn and wants to be THE hero ? Because he doesn't listen to others ? Because he abandonned Mantle ? Because he kills peopke left and right ? Because he wanted to bomb a city ? I think you might see where I'm going with this : his status as villain is kind of messy. V8 just kept piling-up flaws and villainous actions onto Ironwood with no concern for whether this was a lenght he would go to (using the certainty that he would go to any lenghts to enact his plans), ,or whether these were one of the initial flaws/failings that led to his "fall" as an antagonist. What lesson is Ironwood supposed to learn ? Personally the very first time I yelled at my screen "No ! Why would the writers choose that ?" is when Ironwood shot Oscar. When answering criticism against medias, many people tend to look at it only through the lense of "well it makes sense in universe" or as if there were no other ways for the story to devolve. But at the end of the way, everything in a story is a choice from the writer even if it is influenced by the characters' personnalities. If I took the scene where Ironwood shoots Oscar, someone might tell me "he's crippled by his PTSD, he COULD do this." Maybe, that's a reading I can somewhat understand at least. But the writers have the power to NOT put his character in such a position. When I saw the wreck that was V7 finale, I ranted to my bestfriend about it and at no point did i say "why did Ironwood do that", I said "why did the writers make him shoot Oscar, the only point narratively would be to make irredeemable" Aaaand that's what they went for and I obviously didn't care for it. So if I had to rewrite it; I would have kept Ironwood's "mistakes" more focused. If he's wrong because he wants to abandon Mantle, because he's (understandably) scared and doesn't want to take risks; then stay focused on that. It's what makes RWBY leave, and out of all his V8 actions that's really the only thing RWBY needed to tell the whole world he wasn't an ally anymore apparently. - Don't make him shoot Oscar point blank, instead Oscar can simply fall because he flinches away from Ironwood's outburst; and a distraught/guilty Ironwood can decide that he doesn't have the time or capacity to help because of the tense situation. (Killing and not saving someone don't hold the same moral weight at all). - Don't make him kill people left and right or bomb cities, maintain the flaw of Ironwood struggling with his PTSD and his fear and not being able to take risks. - Don't paint him as a black villain, and eventually write V8 in such a way that RWBYJNORQ show taking risks might lead to a bigger victory, which was the volume's theme anyway. For example, following Oscar's destruction of the whale, a growth can occur that would bring back together the two anti-Salem factions : Oscar's risk put Atlas out of harm's way, which leads to Ironwood seeing that maybe there WAS a way to save Mantle as well as Atlas despite Salem's presence and he might have jumped the gun too quickly because of his fears. I'm not sure, I haven't thought about this extensively honestly but I hope you see what I mean. I think it would have been more focused & more in-character to focus Ironwood's failings on his fear; and the fact that he cares for the people and the greater good sometimes at the cost of the individuals. The idea that by sacrificing individuals too much you forget the people you're fighting for in the first place, could have been interesting to dig deeper into. Keep to the idea that Ironwood is somewhat disensitized to the individuals suffering for the sake of the greater good, instead of making him just

callous & uncaring.

My guess for their MBTI/Enneagram

I think pre-V8 Ironwood was an unconventionnal ENFJ. Aka, the type of character no one would type ENFJ because they go by stereotypes and Fe stereotypes are just enneagram 2 everywhere (aka nice, kind, helpful) whereas Ironwood has an enneagram tritype very common among xxTJs so that's what he looks/behaves like, but the way he thinks (what's best for the people, ethical values derived from an Atlasian upbringing) align more with Fe cognitively I think I'm going with ENFJ 6w5 1w2 3w4

Starting from V8 though, Ironwood veered clearly into ENTJ territory (types aren't supposed to change but I wouldn't say RWBY is the most consistent media when it comes to characters' personnalities)

One aspect that I think would be nice to delve deeper into ?

I understand why they didn't care to, but it'd have been interesting to get a few backstory hints for Ironwood. How did he lose half his body ? How did Oz recruit him ? Or some pieces about his upbringing ?

[chatasemcheat]

Urban Tribes Challenge

Hi, I created a new challenge, I don't know if there is something similar out there, please let me know if you like it!

Urban Tribes Generations Challenges Each person has a style, doesn't it? Some are more modern, others are more romantic, others more connected to technology and so on. I decided to create a challenge inspired by these types we see out there. General rules: Only heirs follow the style of the generation, spouses and other children can dress as they please. Start with the starting money of the game, 20000 simoleons, Hippie generation - you can start with a yes female or male, it's up to you. Families can live in the world they want, except if it is said in the rule of generation. Complete aspiration and career. Use normal lifetime.

1st Generation - Hippie/ Boho

You look like you're out of Woodstock, don't like fights, are kind, charitable, and love the outdoors. He loves to live surrounded by friends, preferably around the fire! The hippie style is very boho, indie... you know? Long hair, men with beards, clothes made of natural fibers, lots of bracelets, earrings, sandals.

Traits: Loves the outdoors, Kind and Vegetarian Aspiration: Lady of Knitting

Career: Gardener

Goals: Living in a hippie-style house, with a beautiful garden, having a vegetable garden. Have two children and adopt two more children. Always try to donate money and knitting items to charity. Help 5 sims from your city, if you're sad make them happy, if you're angry calm them down, etc.

2nd Generation - Punk

You lived surrounded by love, but all that love irritates you deeply. You're rebellious, you love rock and leather jackets. He likes to play Grim’s Ghoulish Guitar Veggie burger? Blarg! You really love it's a bloody beef burger!

Traits: Creative, music-loving and hot-headed

Aspiration: Musical Genius

Career: Musician

Goals: Get into a fight, your favorite holiday is fight day mastery of guitar skill Marry your high school sweetheart and have at least 1 child. The house should follow an industrial style, leather furniture, music posters. Have a barbecue. Go to a bar. Having musician friends and hanging out with them.

3rd Generation - Hip Hop or Street

Since your father or mother was a bit grumpy, you spent most of your time on the street playing with your neighborhood friends. When you become a young adult you move to the city and live in a nice apartment. You enjoy playing basketball, dancing and graffiti on the murals.

Traits: Cheerful, active and outgoing

Aspiration: City life

Career: Free - can choose any career

Goals: Living in the city and completing the aspiration play basketball weekly get married and have children Make a graffiti mural have at least 5 in dance.

4th Generation - Rastafari / Reggae

You grew up in the city, playing in the park in front of your building, but what you really enjoy is going to the beach, swimming there, collecting shells and getting a tan. His dream is to have a boat and a house on the beach.

Traits: Goofy, Daughter of the Island, Arrival

Aspiration: Life on the Beach

Career: Conservationist

Goals: Move to Sulani as soon as you become a young adult have a boat Make events on the beach. Meet your wife in Sulani and have kids

5th Generation - Geek Nerd

You grew up on the beach, but you, unlike your parents, enjoy a city, video games. Computers and everything electronic!

Traits: Genius, Geek, Cheerful

Aspiration: Computer Genius

Career: Technology Guru

Goals: Move to San Myshuno as soon as you become a young adult Participate in video game events and win. Marry a cosplay and have kids, have video games at home.

6th Generation - Hipster

You grew up surrounded by video games, computers, but you enjoy reading a good book, going to museums, art centers and those neighborhood fairs. Your parents listened to electronic music, but you prefer alternative music. You wear glasses because you think it's stylish, you dress well and your house is beautiful. You have refined taste and are super tuned!

Traits: Art lover, creative and book devourer

Aspiration: Extraordinary Painter

Career: Art Critic

Goals: you can live in any city Visit art centers, museums and salons weekly Attend fairs! All fairs! Your house must have many works of art and be beautiful! Get married or live together and have 1 child.

7th Generation - Gothic / Emo

You lived in a beautiful house, you were an only child, but for no reason, you are melancholy, you like to be isolated, from your parents you inherited a taste for reading and writing. But he doesn't like parties or having a lot of people around. Do you like the color black and purple, dark tones. He doesn't like the beach or the sun, he prefers rainy and cloudy days.

Traits: Grim, lonely and book eater

Aspiration: Bestselling Author

Career: writer Goals: you can live in any city write many books If you're a woman, get pregnant by a boyfriend and don't get married. If you are a man, get a woman pregnant, she will leave the child in your care and disappear from the map. have 1 cat Make friends with some ghost sims Have a headstone at home.

8th Generation Clubber

Your father or mother lived in a melancholy alone, but you love a stir, you love dancing and you want to attend and throw all the parties! You love colors, you like to wear sneakers and lots of neon in your house. You prefer the night to the day, but if the party is during the day, you will be happy! Your hair is also bold and colorful! And you stand for LGBTQ+! By the way you are LGBTQ+

Traits: Dancing machine, outgoing and engaged

Aspiration: Great partygoer

Career: Mixologist Goals: master the dance skill Have at least 8 in DJ Have at least 6 in Mixology Going to nightclubs and throwing parties Marrying someone of the same sex and adopting the children. Have a club or join a club.

9th Generation Preppy

Your parents were very modern and lively, you also like a buzz, but you like glamour, spotlight and a lot of luxury.

Traits: Snobbish, materialistic and egocentric

Aspiration: World Famous Celebrity

Career: Stylist or Actor, Actress

Goals: master charisma have fans have a small puppy Living in a very luxurious house be famous get married and have two children

10th Generation E-girls/E-boys

The look is inspired by anime, a little grunge cute look, the girls wear those different and colorful hairstyles, with pink cheeks and hearts, in addition to that well-defined black eyeliner. Lots of stripes, fishnets and plaid. The boys wear rosy cheeks with freckles, straight and parted hair. Billie Eilish is an example of this type. Here our last sim, was born in a luxurious house with a lot of glamor and loves to show off, he loves to take a selfie, record lots of videos, is always connected to computers, there are drones recording everything for them. He is a natural blogger! His or her most secret dream is to find his or her soul mate and besides, he is very clumsy!

Traits: Self-centered, goofy and clumsy

Aspiration: soul mate

Career: Social Media

Goals: can live in any world complete aspiration and career Have at least one drone Record videos Take lots of selfies.

[nofliight]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by: stole it from @sternenteile​ and honestly others tbh tagging: TAKE

my muse is:  canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. [ for better or for worse, he’s THE face of kid icarus, after all. he’s a dork and funny and likeable and even if the fandom tends to get him WRONG (thanks smash bros) there’s no denying his popularity ]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [ i don’t??? think so??? most people are too busy talking about how they think he’s like 5 ]

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [ EVEN THE FANDOM AIN’T GONNA MESS THIS UP. MAN FIGHTS GODS. CALL THAT WEAK. ]

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. [ make no mistake - pit’s got fans and plenty of them but he’s so MISTREATED by the fandom. his character is a lot more complex than he gets credit for and smash bros in particular is a big reason people think he’s just Big Dumb Baby Man ]

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO. [ HE’S THE MAIN CHARACTER, THE CENTRAL FIGURE UPON WHOM THE NARRATIVE IS STRUCTURED AROUND, YEAH HE’S PRETTY RELEVANT. Uprising is literally made to tell the story of a war exclusively through the perspective of a single side and Pit (and Palutena) are the EMBODIMENT of that whole side. ]

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [ and a perfect one at that. he’s literally a perfect protagonist don’t tell me i’m wrong cause i’m not ]

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. [ pit is beloved by humans... and mocked by the Gods. seen by most as a spineless extension of palutena’s will, most “respect” of any variety goes to palutena while he gets treated as a joke 99% of the time... and it’s not like Palutena gets too much respect either ]

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. (????) [ Uhhhhhh... it’s an odd one. Short answer is that Pit’s a good samaritan who’s done a lot of good BUT most of the gods think protecting humanity is a Folly and a Joke and that Pit’s just a pawn of Palutena’s and while the humans do hold a lot of respect for him, uh............. let’s just say, some humans on the surface have reasons not to be too happy with him. ]

How strictly do you follow canon?  —  about as much as I need to to respect one of my favorite video games of all time. while kid icarus uprising is a comedic game most of the way through it has a lot more nuance and depth to itself, its world, and its characters than one can see at first glance, even after a full playthrough. if you let yourself get invested in the characters, take a closer look at the dialogue it provides, and acknowledge the central, core storytelling message of the game for what it is, there’s a lot more to pull out than one would think. that being said, it’s still a comedic video game and one that I think could use some more expansion. though the game is inconsistent there seems to be the consensus that pit is like a child and I’m not into that, mine’s a bit more showing in his cynical and snarky side after all he’s been through and overall there’s a lot of expansion on the base while building it into something unique.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  imagine your typical bootstrapped anime protagonist. someone who, when younger, was a runt who couldn’t meet the expectations of others, was looked down on, and found himself crushed and hurt and near-killed by a great tragedy that he was forced to claw his way out of to make himself stronger. Now imagine all of that with a character who comes out still able to have a very real smile and ultimately comes out of it a self-assured, chipper goofball with a good heart. now put that together with all of the darkness and depth you would have expected to be there, but scattered realistically throughout the attitude of someone who does genuinely want to keep a positive attitude. someone who is sincerely an optimist who’s grown past his weaker days, but isn’t quite so simple as he’d like to believe. all of that combined with someone who can’t read, is willing to eat ice cream off the floor in times of duress, is extremely easy to fluster and can channel his goddess’ power to slay GODS? you got one strong man.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  his positive attitude is what most people will see when speaking to him, because for what it’s worth, he’s not actively lying about his depth. he’s a cheerful, jovial man with a big smile and a love of the world around him - which is all well and good, but his depth is something you have to find, even if it is reasonably clear if you’re willing to look. he’s also portrayed as a bit unreasonably dumb at times, and though I personally justify the worst of it with proper explanations, I can understand reducing some of the value of the character in favor of seeing all of his Jokes

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  i made my original pit blog, flightlesswarrior, on a total whim after playing kid icarus uprising. cute character, fun premise, why not? but over time, and with numerous plots I was able to take part in exploring the serious, not so serious, shipping, tragedy, and going back through the game to keep my muse rolling, it occurred to me more and more with time just how nuanced and interesting pit and co. really are. pit embodies many of the things i really, truly love in a protag, falling firmly on the side of good, having a heart of genuine gold, and having nuances and parts of his personality that are less than savory without making him seem like a contradiction. he’s got depth, he’s got story, there’s a lot to explore and flesh out... and he’s also just a nice, friendly guy who gets along well with others. plus, i’m drawn to dorks.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  a) love for Kid Icarus: Uprising. a game that helped me gain a deeper and more insightful understanding of character development, subtle storytelling, optimism still tinged with legitimate and healthy cynicism, and overall something that changed my understanding of character development and storytelling forever. and b) spite. the fandom treats him like an idiot baby and smash DOES NOT help matters so i have to remind others that he is a veteran of a war, a socially inept loser with few real friends, and someone who’s kindness and optimism was shaped and molded by its hardships in a way that doesn’t require a near-breaking point or a reminder that “this guy could be evil you know” to show how someone can still keep a positive attitude in spite of all the shit life throws at him.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO [ i’d like to think i have?? but i also acknowledge that he’s become something of his Own in some ways that do intentionally diverge from sakurai’s intentions. ultimately though, even though i may not play him completely true to text, i try to be as loyal as i can be to the spirit of the character. ]

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO / SORT OF? [ when i can!! but??? the problem is my mind really, really likes to reiterate the Same Damn Points i have to make with characters that draws me to them - and you know, writing the same hcs over and over is generally considered poor form?? ngl i also prefer to let the writing do the talking unless it’s something that’s not gonna show so 90% of the time pit’s open enough that all but the darker sides of his mind are lain out before you. ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO [ maybe??? once or tWICE???? but i need to write more ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO [ I REALLY DO, HOO MAMA. i have a lot of thoughts about him, his depth, potential relationships, goofy thoughts, more serious fanfic ideas im never gonna write and don’t get me started on how many SHIPS i have to think about for him ]

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO [ my portrayal is made out of spite for portrayals in the fandom and some supplementary material that gets him wrong - it’s kinda hard to do that without the confidence ]

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO / ??? [ it’s uhh........ complicated??? i don’t think writing is my expertise, tbh. but it is the best way i have to show the passion i have for characters, by putting their nuances into actions, by allowing them to shine from who they are their core, by exploring relationships and scenarios and struggles and hope and everything that can flesh a character out. whether or not i’m a good writer is something i’m still sorting out - but i’m proud of my ability to develop a character, and to that end i feel like i’m doing fine ]

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. / SORTA. [ on one hand......... very. i have a tendency to overthink everything i do and look back at moments i made an ass of myself that keep haunting me throughout my day - they haunt me. i only have two fears: what my immediate friend group thinks of me and the crushing existential weight of worrying one day i’m gonna ruin everything i am SOFT. that being said, i’m also hardheaded and stubborn and i’m not afraid to go off on someone i don’t have much respect for if it comes down to it. i’m easy to anger when it comes down to it you know i guess that proves the point huh i’m not stonefaced at all ]

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  i try to? it’s a bit touchy for me I admit just because I do take portrayals and try to make them my own, but i am willing to listen if someone has any points they’d like to make that i haven’t acknowledged properly. if criticism IS had, lemme know, i do wanna hear it!

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —   Y  E  S

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  not that everyone who disagrees with my opinions has to explain themselves of course, but i do sincerely like the chance to learn if something i’m doing doesn’t quite feel right. even if it’s one-sided and i’ll come to disagree, i’m happy to listen! even if i don’t agree with the disagreement head-on, i like to keep them in mind and see what i can shift around to acknowledge them if necessary

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  — neutral?? i mean don’t be mean about it, but if you just think my pit doesn’t seem right or it doesn’t click right with your muse i’m not gonna throw a fit about it. everyone’s allowed to view a character in their own way - and even if i may get salty about those who oversimplify him, it IS anyone’s right to view him how they will.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  — agree to disagree tbh. i can’t pretend it wouldn’t disappoint me, but it’s not like, worth ending a friendship over or anything. everyone’s got their own viewpoints to run on

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  sure, within reason! i take pride in my grammar but i know that with my fast typing and often running on only a few hours of sleep some problems do slip in through the cracks. while i generally either catch them or just Die with them i’m all ears if i mess up

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  uhhhhhhhhhh well i’m?? kind of a socially anxious mess honestly which DOES make being easy going a bit difficult BUT i do try and be friendly and sociable as i....... can. i’m too scared to talk to people and CAN say some dumb things but i’m not a hardass or anything!! i like to talk and Yell and shitpost and pretty much do anything but write tbh DHFLKSJDF

[allmightyneed]

Villain!All Might (Smite)x reader. part 2/20

link to part 1  

You pass weeks in a distracted, miserable state. Two, three, a month. Longer. At first, you chalk it up to the huge secret you now have to keep. A secret that feels as big as All Might himself. By a complete accident of time and place, you’ve come into possession of valuable intel on the most wanted criminal in Japan, possibly the world. Every day, you consider spilling the details to your best friend, who you also happen to work with. But how would you possibly bring it up?

“Oh, hey Kiko, guess what, I met a guy! Yeah… he’s super hot, tall, bit of a dark side. His name? I’m not sure, but professionally he goes by All Might.”

You can only imagine the confusion and disgust that would elicit. Even from Kiko, who usually tries to support your decisions, no matter how bad. The knowledge itself needles at you too, day after day. This information about his quirk could be the key to capturing him or bringing him down— forget using it to advance your own career. You could go to the police with this, you could go to Endeavor’s hero agency. You could change things. You could save lives. To your shame, that guilt isn’t strong enough to betray All Might’s confidence. He had trusted you. The number one villain trusted you with his secret identity, and apparently still does, because he hasn’t hunted you down and executed you. (Yet.)

Maybe he can’t. Your analytical mind spins theories in the absence of more definitive information. Maybe that muscle form takes a lot out of him, energy-wise. Maybe it’s too hard to maintain for long, and that’s why he sometimes disappears for days and weeks on end. And what about that whole coughing up blood thing?

By the third week, you’re using what little spare time you can find at work cobbling together a timeline of every documented All Might incident, closing in on a thousand entries in a hidden spreadsheet on your computer, and you’re only up to what most subject matter experts would consider the midway point of his active period. You haven’t found any patterns yet, nothing definitive, though as a foreigner yourself, his mysterious stint in America raises so many questions. 

“Hey!” A chipper voice and a knock-knock on your cubicle divider make you close the spreadsheet. You turn and see Kiko there, smiling and curious. 

“Hey!” 

“Whatcha working on?” 

“Oh, you know.” You wave your hand airily. “Nothing, really, just some busywork for Mr. Shimada.”

“Well, come on! It’s team lunch today.”

“Aw, really?”

“Yes. And you can’t skip. You’re looking too skinny.” That couldn’t be true, but the accusation reminds you of All Might, how he looked like he never got enough to eat. At least, one version of him. Kiko is sweet to be worried about you. She’s always so kind and considerate, always making sure you don’t bury yourself in your work, inviting you to lunch and for midday walks to get some sunlight. 

“Okay, okay. I’m not trying to get out of it.” You lock your computer screen and collect your jacket from the back of your chair. It will be nice to get a break outside of the office for sure. Given the sensitive nature of your work, your building is a secure one, with no windows and checkpoints to get in and out. Other than a few cultural holdouts, the workplace bears little resemblance to a traditional Japanese office, having adopted some more western practices, like cubicles and excessive use of PowerPoint. “Have you heard back from the Licensing Bureau?”

Kiko heaves a big sigh, which tells you that she hasn’t. “I thought I would last week at the latest, but nothing.”

You follow her into the elevator. “That’s weird. Don’t they usually send confirmation or denial pretty promptly?”

“Most petitioners receive the news right after their test.” She shrugs, throwing you a little smile as she precedes you into the lobby. “Guess I’m special.”

“Of course you are,” you laugh, rolling your eyes a little, but you mean it. She has pure hearted intentions about becoming a part-time volunteer hero. Discussion about the intricacies of Licensing Bureau policies and mailing schedules continues all the way to the barbecue restaurant where together you conclude, that her unusual quirk must be holding up their decision. It makes sense. Reanimation, her ability to create a zombie from a dead body, is dangerous and powerful, and is rightfully quite closely controlled. It’s also very much at odds with her sunny, happy personality. She rarely brings it up, but you know she regrets not having a more standard type of quirk. She’s also one of the few people who know about your quirk and has been a steadfast guardian of the secret.

Nothing much happens at the team lunch. Office gossip, rehashing the latest news, etc. Though, you do find out from Mr. Kawada, your supervisor, that you are one of two analysts who have been selected to support and consult on a new account the firm is taking on. So exclusive that you aren’t even allowed to know who the client is yet. You act grateful, mustering as much enthusiasm as you can— it’s a great opportunity— but inwardly, you’re daydreaming about All Might. That’s been happening more and more. 

When you get back to the office after lunch, you’re roped into a meeting with Mr. Kawada, and Mr. Shimada and the rest of the team leads. You know you should be paying attention but you zone out through most of it, replaying that fateful night in your head. 

A couple days later, the obsession reaches a critical level. You have to find him. Not as an analyst, not to bring him to justice. You just have to see him, and you don’t quite understand why, but it’s a need, a hunger that grows sharper and more potent each day. 

Riding the train to work, you start searching in your web browser. ‘All Might’. Too much noise. News articles from twenty different sources all about the same recent attacks clog the entire first page of results. When you get into the office, you go through the motions, sitting down at your workstation, logging in, all on autopilot. 

The only thing you can think about is All Might. As time has passed, you try harder and harder to keep fresh that image in your mind of how he looked in his other form. The skinny one, with hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. He hadn’t been any less intense like that. 

You refine your searches, hitting wall after wall of no results or way too many. A passing coworker’s idol-themed lanyard catches your eye; you finally hit on an idea: ‘All Might fan club’. That gets you something. You navigate to the first result, an outdated page with a garish background and little animated pixel version of All Might in the corner of the screen. Dancing. you have to admit it’s kind of cute. Suddenly, loud sound plays through your computer’s speakers. 

“I am on a website! I am on a website!” It’s All Might’s voice— his villain voice, which has people in other cubicles peeking over the dividers at you to find the source of the noise. Panicking, you close the tab. Then, after making sure your computer’s volume is muted, you find your way back to that same page. Sure enough, there’s a link at the top titled I LOVE TO MEET MY FANS. Following it brings you to a listing of a mailing address and… yes. A phone number. 

Heart racing, you copy it down on a sticky note, tuck it in your purse and, before it can register in your mind as a bad idea, slip out of the office. 

The train back to your home stop is nearly empty in the middle of the day. A few tourists, old people, some kids playing hooky. 

You turn your phone over and over. It said he loves to meet his fans… what fans? Doesn’t everyone hate him? Maybe that’s how you should open the conversation. Hey Mr. All Might, I know you’re universally reviled but I thought I’d hit you up anyway. The idea makes you snort-laugh. No. Just keep it simple.

You: hi.

A few seconds later, during which you stare at your phone, the three ‘typing’ dots appear. Then go away, with no message coming through. Could this really be him? Or is it just some weirdo’s phone number? Some otaku impersonating All Might on the internet. Not like you are in any position to be accusing someone of obsession.

You: this is the girl you met in the alley. You pause for a second, thinking of how you could signal to him who you are. He might meet a lot of girls in alleys. 

You: I saw you shrink.

A moment later, he replies with your name. Shock hits you; you click the screen off, black then click it on again. Your name is still there.

Him: I tHOUT I told =you to standstill and bee silent. 

It’s him. With lots of typos, but it’s him.

Oh, god. What are you doing? 

You don’t reply again until you get inside your apartment. Standing just inside the front door, with your shoes still on, you write out three versions of a witty retort, and erase each one. Stupid. What are you even trying to get out of this? 

You: I think people deserve to know who you really are. 

Nothing. Nothing for an unbearable minute that feels like another week gone by.

You: I’m going to the media. 

You’re not. You don’t know why you just told him that.

The three dots appear and disappear, again, with no new text. You watch the screen for what seems like an eternity, still standing in your entryway with your purse on your shoulder. 

And then there’s a thundering knock on the door.

Link to part 3

[arkus-rhapsode]

That caramel ask was really neat and now I’m wondering what 1-B’s would be like. Feel free to take your time with this one until the next round in the manga starts and we see the remaining student’s personalities more thoroughly.

Okay so sorry I haven’t gotten to this one yet, but after the recent chapter I think I can manage to but this together. For those coming in blind, this is a follow up to my previous caramel ask with Class 1-A. This ask is based on the Kids Next Door episode CARAMEL, where a ritual is used to remove a person’s most treasured quality and turned it into caramel. However with that quality removed, the person it was removed has a radical shift in personality, who change to fit their now lost quality. So for example in the show, numbuh 2, who was once smart is made dumb and neanderthal like, and their caramel was noted as tasting sharp and complex.

Anyway here’s that for class 1-b~

Monoma: Quality removed is his egocentrism. This results in Monoma becoming a much more saintly generous person, very mindful of the feelings of all those around him. He wants to make sure everyone is doing their best and actually gets along surprisingly well with class 1-A. If he does have any problems with them, he’ll write a factual document citing umbridges he has, but suggestions on how to improve constructively. His caramel taste very overpowering. Bold and filling.

Tetsutetsu: Unlike Kirishima, his quality removed is his vigor. Without it, Tetsutetsu is much more less inclined to rise to a challenge. He’ll only fight those he know he can win, and if they turn out to be too powerful for him, he’ll pull a Joseph Joestar and run away. His caramel is smooth, but oddly tender. You really get a workout eat it.

Kendou: Quality removed is her thoughtfulness. Gone is Kendou, the big sister of class 1-b, now all she is now is apathetic and unresponsive. She doesn’t care what’s going on with others, she just lets stupid people act however they want or let others fail because they weren’t good enough, it’s not her problem. She’s the type of person who’d throw peanuts at zoo animals, just cause she can. Her caramel is warm and tastes very made from scratch, as if it was made just for you in mind.

Shiozaki: Her quality removed is her faith. Without it, Shiozaki is now an atheist, however without her faith placed in the divine she has no more of her grace or vindictiveness. Instead she now spends the days indulging in all things wrong to pass the time, happily enjoying gluttony, wrath, greed, envy, lust, pride and sloth, seeing nothing wrong with it. Basically she is so hedonistic, she could pass as Nero Claudius. Her caramel taste like communion wafers.

Honenuki: His quality removed is his flexibility, now he’s incredibly stiff. He always seems uneasy around others, or anxious in new situations. He still wants to have friends and care about them, but he’s now so socially stiff and awkward it never works. He’s still smart, but everytime he gets a test in his hands he almost is crumbling even though he knows everything. His caramel is chewy and stretchy like gum.

Awase: Quality removed is his handiness. Like Satou, he’s a total butterfingers. When he gets something in his hand, he’s so nervous and shaky it falls out of his hands. His caramel is rough and hard like the calluses of a welders hands.

Kaibara: He has lost the quality of focus. Kaibara would be usually focused on a single thing and keep it between him and who he’s with, but now he’s all about butting into other people’s business. When people are discussing something, Kaibara will immediately interject himself into the conversation with his opinions. He can never keep to himself. His caramel is hard, almost like you have to put in in your mouth and focus on sucking it till it melted to get any flavor.

Kamakiri: The quality removed from him is his aggression. Kamakiri is now very calm, reserved, and humble. He chooses to never resolve issues with violence. He thinks all conflict can be solved with diplomacy and consideration for others. His caramel tastes strong at first, but the more bites you take, the less flavor you find it has.

Kuroiro: He has lost his edginess just like Tokoyami, however, instead of becoming a hippie, he’s now incredibly paranoid and appalled by the dark. He is very much like Ichabod Crane, seeing everything dark in relation to the devil or witchcraft. His caramel taste like dark chocolate.

Komori: Her quality lost is her cuteness, Without, Komori is more of a slob, she does keep up with personal hygiene, and all in all, very unappealing. But frankly she doesn’t care what people think of her. Many describe her as a total, dirty gremlin. She’ll do name puns, but now more cause she likes to bother people with them instead of trying to seem cute. Her caramel tastes light and fluffy.

Shishida: The quality removed from him is his intellect. This results in him being a witless dullard similar to Rhino from Spider-man. And that’s just in human form, in beast form, he’s almost completely unintelligible, aside from the shrieks of rage. His caramel is rich, but filling.

Manga: His quality removed is his expressionism. Manga struggles now to even convey himself, constantly stuttering and finding it hard to speak. His caramel is tangy with a lot of pop to it.

Pony: Her quality removed is her innocence. This results in her becoming much more prejudiced and cold hearted. She also will act a bit more like a stereotypical disrespectful American, and will often ask people to speak in English to make it easier on her. Her caramel is sweet, but almost feels like it’s lacking something from it.

Kosei: His quality removed is his simple enthusiasm. He is now more judgmental and cynical, it’s not as if he is without feeling like the now apathetic Kendou, more he still preserves his openness and ability to project, but most the time that projection is negative and judgemental. Basically if you went to an action movie, he’d start nitpicking the plot rather than just shutting up and having fun. He criticizes everything people do, whether it’s those on his team or on his opposing team. His caramel taste very nostalgic taste to that childhood, cavity creating food.

Tokage: Her quality removed is cooperativeness. This makes Tokage a lot more… Shindou-ish. She puts on almost the same face as if nothing changed, but in reality, she’s much more devious and mean-spirited, doing everything for her own sake. She tends to manipulate others into doing her dirty work or sacrifices them for her own self interest. Her chattiness is now more about what lies and doubts she can sow in to benefit her, if people get hurt physically or emotionally, well better them than her. She also doesn’t make plans, she just says what priority is and that people will need to protect her. Her caramel is savory and smooth.

Yui: Her quality removed is her reserved attitude. With that gone, Yui is almost always angry, screaming, and shouting. Unlike Bakugou, Yui’s outburst are tied down to any little thing that has ever annoyed her that she is screaming about. Talking with her is like a minefield because she’d just let loose on all her problems with you or her situation. Her caramel is like a stale marshmallow, It has flavor, but it’s chewy and hard.

Shoda: His quality lost is his humbleness. Without it, he’s all about how awesome he is. Wearing gaudy clothing that has his name bedazzled on it just to show how he wants people to know who he is. If he’s on a team, he will constantly mention how he’s the one carrying it. His caramel tastes like any ordinary caramel, nothing too special.

Yanagi: Her quality lost is her emotionlessness, Yanagi is all about expression now. She’ll encourage all her class to go out and have fun, trading in her internet surfing for some real surfing. People think she’s basically sparkling, with smile that could light up a town. But if she gets down, she’ll take it to extremes, bawling like a child. Her caramel is sour.

Bondo: His quality lost is his fragility. Now Bondo’s glass heart had been traded in for an iron heart. He still doesn’t talk much, but mainly because he views it as weakness. He refuses to be scene as weak, he even stabbed his hand with a needle and didn’t even flinch. His caramel is crunchy, yet surprisingly warm.

Hiryu: He loses the quality of his ethnicity. He no longer cares that he is foreigner, he now views Japan as his only home in the world, somewhat of a reserve of Pony who became more xenophobic, Hiryu became xenocentric. Unfortunately his way of embracing it is rather extreme. He’s never not seen wearing a kimono, he fans out over shires and acts like it’s the first time he’s ever seen one, and he will get into arguments with native Japanese that they don’t understand their own history. His caramel tastes like Lo Mai Chi or Noumici.

I did have fun doing these, and this being my second one, I think I dived a bit deeper into them than I had when I first did this for 1-a.

[thevoicesimyheadarejerks]

Movie Review Monday- Christmas Movie Edition!

We’ve got two Christmas flicks up for review today: The Grinch (2018) and Christmas Wedding Planner.

-The Grinch: generous 7/10 salty green grumps

-Christmas Wedding Planner: 3/10 bride-to-be Christmas trees

Un-spoilered score summary: Although The Grinch wasn’t a particularly exceptional movie, it was exactly as advertised. It was the perfect feel-good family movie to take your kids to, with great visuals (it was a very pretty movie) and cute characters. It’s not a bad movie but it doesn’t hold a candle to either of the original Grinches.  As far as “Christmas Wedding Planner” I was thoroughly disappointed the entire movie. It looked poorly done, as if it was written and edited by an amateur. There were too many long pauses and forced comedy, it didn't flow right. It wasn't funny. It was predictable in a bad way. It seriously made me question why I was still watching it. I wouldn’t watch it again.

ALRIGHTY NOW FOR THE RAW, HONEST TRUTH STRAIGHT FROM MY CRITICAL MIND WELCOME TO CYNICAL CINEMA FOLKS

-Let's start with The Grinch: This movie wasn’t bad. I gave it a, in my mind generous, rating of 7 out of 10 simply because it was straightforward. It was exactly what it was advertised to be, and it was pretty well done. There were funny moments, sad moments, and some really pretty graphics. It would easily lose in a competition with either of the earlier Grinch movies, but standing alone it wasn't bad. The plot was predictable, of course, since most of us have seen one or both versions of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas or heard the tale in some form, but they changed up the characters a little bit. They drastically humanized The Grinch so that instead of being an evil creature with a heart three sizes too small (although the movie says that’s still true, we don’t really see it all that much), he’s really just a grumpy introvert with a distaste for commercial holidays. Relatable. It was hard to see him as the bad guy most the time, and much easier to get behind his whole “steal Christmas” plan. Cindy Lou Who was your everyday overly-energetic kid who wears lots of pink, and her mom was a single mom of three kids, which was conducive to the plot but also detracted from the fantastical aspect of the movie. It made her seem more human and less of a who. When writers make changes like that, it becomes harder to see them as anything other than human, and the movie loses its whimsy. It was very much a modern take on the Grinch. It still had some of the charms the original story had, just with an ultra-modern twist. The best part of the movie was easily Max. The greatest thing about it being a modern-day animated movie was that the creators could give so much personality to the dog. Max had distinct facial expressions, personality traits, and mannerisms that the earlier versions didn’t. He was by far the cutest character in the film and easily my favorite. All in all, it was a decent movie by itself, very pretty and perfect to take the kids to, but if you are a hardcore fan of the earlier Grinch then you might be disappointed. I’d watch it again, but only with friends. 7/10 would recommend for some low-key festivity.

-Christmas Wedding Planner: This movie was almost as big of a disappointment as my life is. I swear that over half the time I was watching this, my only comments were “Why?” “No” and “Please stop”. It might have left me with a semi-permanent angry face. It was like the writers took every stereotypical cheesy Christmas movie and said “ok, we’ll throw that in,” without actually developing the ideas. The characters were stale and stereotypical, like cheap-grade archetypes, and the plot was pathetic. You could go through with a checklist and tick off the boxes one by one. “Relateable” main character with tragic backstory? Check. Mysterious love interest? Check. Unneccesary drama that was solved way too easily for it being ‘such a big deal’? Check. Sickly sweet happily-ever-after? Check.  The majority of the conflict could have been solved by the characters just talking to each other and actually thinking things through before acting. It was cheap, shallow, and poorly developed. Now don’t get me wrong, I love cheesy romance movies, especially at Christmas, but I have some sort of standards. This just felt like the writers went “Oh, we need some comedic relief? Here,” And threw something in that wasn’t actually funny just to say they could check off the box. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for the movie to begin with but it dashed even those expectations. 1.5 of the stars I gave it were entirely because Kelly Rutherford was in it. I wouldn’t suggest watching this movie unless you like white noise and need something vaguely christmas-y to play in the background while you do more worthwhile things.

I will most definitely be watching more Christmas movies since the season of commercialized festivity is upon us (Kidding- I love Christmas), and if any of y’all have any suggestion for some good ones, let me know! I’d love to check them out. As always, if you agree or disagree with anything you’ve said or wanna talkk about movies or anything, shoot me a message. I’d love to hear from you! I hope y’all have a very merry Monday and a happy rest of the week!

Until next time, happy adventuring fellow nerds! :)

[vincent-marie]

A Look Back on TREASURE PLANET

So recently I rewatched TREASURE PLANET for the first time in about fifteen years and… I'm not gonna lie, it's still my personal favorite of the 2D Disney animated features from the early to mid-2000s.

Let's be real. Of the 2D features Disney released around that time period, TREASURE PLANET is one of the more solid films. ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE had some interesting ideas and some really nice design work and animation, but it really needed to be at least two hours long if it wanted to flesh out the characters and the world-building without requiring supplementary material (like a special edition of Disney Adventure magazine). Hardly anybody remembers BROTHER BEAR was even a thing, and the less said about HOME ON THE RANGE, the better. (Seriously, that movie wasn't even worth the Steve Buscemi cameo.)

The only other film of that era that has really held up was LILO AND STITCH, and I'll admit it's probably a better film than TREASURE PLANET. It took more risks in terms of character, setting and originality, and emotionally it leaves more of an impact. (That scene when Nani sings to Lilo makes me cry like a baby every time.) My only problem with it is it always felt like two entirely different movies collided with each other and it never felt like they really meshed well. Otherwise, I agree with most fans that it’s a good film.

Also, of course, there was the excellent THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE, which was just such a huge departure from Disney’s normal schtick and trying something more Tex Avery-esque, only for it to be a perfect storm instead of a total crash and burn. That is much to be proud of.

Going back to TREASURE PLANET, I can understand that most folks walk away saying it’s an "okay" film. I, however, am not one of those people. I've had a real soft spot for this movie ever since I saw it, but now I appreciate this film for additional reasons.

Namely, the animation and effects work. Holy crap, is this movie gorgeous! It's like watching Don Bluth's ANASTASIA, except I don't have to feel guilty about historical inaccuracies. (Now it’s just scientific inaccuracies, but STAR WARS gets away with that all the time.)

Directors John Musker and Ron Clements had apparently wanted to do a sci-fi retelling of "Treasure Island" since before they started working on THE LITTLE MERMAID. With that in mind I do feel like this movie would have fared better with critics back in the early 90s during the Disney Renaissance. However at that time they would not have had such elaborate and detailed CG effects within arm's reach. There's something I really enjoy about the use of 3D backdrops so that they may do sweeping camera movements, and that's not even getting into the lighting effects to establish atmosphere.

What's more, there are a lot of subtleties to the character animation that I never appreciated until now. You could just pick one character and focus on him or her during the whole movie and find a lot of fun little quirks in their dialogue or walk cycles.

Admittedly, much of this film’s appeal probably depends on how much of an animation fan you are. In my case I was watching John Silver’s animation and I suspected that Glen Keane was probably in charge of animating him (as there are moments when Silver looks so much like Ratigan). Those suspicions were confirmed during the end credits and I was delightfully geeking out about it.

It’s also easy to see where this film might not have had a lot of mass appeal. Most of the focus on the story is on Jim Hawkins and his daddy issues, which by the early 2000s was already a cliche of a character arc. And it’s not helped by the fact that Jim himself is... well, kind of on the bland side as a protagonist. There’s not a lot about him that makes him any more or less interesting than any other teenage male lead. But for what it is I think the movie did fine at establishing and building the relationship between Jim and Silver, which does have its warm and comforting moments. For both of them.

And at least the film is straightforward with its plot and characters and it’s not a structural mess like HERCULES, a previous venture by Musker and Clements.

Something I’ve noticed over the years is that TREASURE PLANET has a little bit of a cult following. I distinctly remember this one time when I was taking a storyboard class in college; we were assigned to do a “Master Study” assignment by recreating the key story frames in our favorite scene in a favorite animated movie. One of my classmates picked the scene when Jim is brought home to the inn by the police and embarrasses his mother. I recall being so impressed, and even a little envious, that she got the character design style down to a T. (If you’re wondering what movie/scene I picked for my Master Study, I picked the Big Ben scene from THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE.)

Then, of course, some friends and I suspect that TREASURE PLANET might have fared better if it had been released a bit later, more towards the height of the Steampunk craze. It’s not quite what I would call “Steampunk”, as it takes place in a sort of alternate universe version of the 18th century and not the Gothic era, and most of their transport is solar-powered and not steam-based. Nevertheless it’s easy to see how fans of Steampunk could find it appealing, with its mostly earth-tone color pallet to evoke the painted illustrations of the classic novel it was based on. Also that combination of a pre-20th century aesthetic with out-of-this-world science fiction elements is pretty much, in my opinion, what makes Steampunk so much fun to play around with. Also, a robot made out of copper. End of story.

In terms of why this film didn’t do so well when it was released, I suspect what stunted its success was the marketing. I could be wrong, as I was actually living in Honduras at the time of the film’s release, but we got some TV stations from Denver, Colorado. I remember a lot of the TV spots spent most of their time highlighting the goofy comic relief moments with Morph, and there was a real emphasis on the presence of B.E.N., even though he's in less than one-third of the movie. In other words, the film's success might have been partially sabotaged by a marketing team that seemed to think if you don’t take your film seriously at all that will somehow draw in the crowd.

Although speaking of the comic relief characters, I actually don’t mind them that much. I always thought Morph had a lot of cute, funny moments that weren’t too obnoxious. As for B.E.N., I kind of have mixed feelings for him. On one hand, the directing team made better use of Martin Short’s improvisational skills than PEBBLE AND THE PENGUIN or WE’RE BACK! ever did. But on the other hand, does B.E.N. have to be so loud and shouty? However, while B.E.N. is a real screw-up, he’s not so much to the point where I want to see him get smashed with a sledgehammer. He’s generally likable, not at all loathsome, and just annoying enough, but not TOO annoying.

However while we’re still on the subject of B.E.N., I’d just like to add that the CG animation on him is really nice. Making him 3D gives him a sort of sense of solidity compared to his hand-drawn humanoid compadres, and to top it off his animation isn’t at all stiff or feels like the CG is holding him back. There is some really expressive squashing and stretching going on with his dialogue. It’s so subtle in places that you’d probably miss it if you’re not looking for it. A lot of CG animation studios at the time like Pixar and Dreamworks had not quite mastered squashing and stretching themselves, so kudos to Disney for pulling it off so well.

Now if I may indulge a little on why I remember this film fondly, my favorite characters were always Dr. Doppler and Captain Amelia. They are both fun and engaging on their own, but together they are weirdly adorable. Granted, I've always thought them getting together at the end was a bit rushed, but I still totally buy it.

(What I don't buy is that they'd be so eager to have kids after Doppler showed such annoyance and revulsion towards that toddler alien girl at the beginning. I get that the creators wanted some visual shorthand to indicate that they're an official couple, but they could have just been wearing wedding rings or throw in a little more of them dancing together.)

Part of the reason I love these characters on their own is the casting. I was already familiar with Emma Thompson from Ang Lee's adaptation of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, and her character of Eleanor Dashwood was very quiet and reserved. You can imagine my disbelief and delight hearing her play an assertive, witty badass as Amelia. (As if I didn't already think Amelia’s design was cool.)

As for David Hyde Pierce, I had only occasionally watched FRASIER growing up, but when I saw this movie I was familiar with him through some other memorable voice acting roles, particularly that excellent Season 8 episode of THE SIMPSONS, “Brother From Another Series.” In other words, I already knew him to be funny, snarky and charismatic.

While I'm on about the casting, I feel like there's a totally wasted opportunity to have these two characters in a room together, say, before the black hole scene, exchanging witty banter to show how compatible they are in a casual setting. It’s a shame that Emma and David didn’t record their dialogue together, because with her being an accomplished writer and with his skills at improvisation, there could have been some good verbal combat by way of “Much Ado About Nothing-Meets-Frasier.”

But looking back, I remember I immediately loved Captain Amelia just on principal. As a kid I never really gravitated that much to any of the Disney princesses. I can’t really describe why, but it was mostly how they were marketed as just looking pretty and (arguably) kind of passive in their own stories. Not to mention how when Disney Princess became a brand, they really amped up the girly cutesy-ness to their preexisting images. Not to say there’s anything inherently wrong with cute or feminine things, but it really made me feel like a weirdo who somehow wasn’t fit to be called a girl.

Captain Amelia, on the other hand, had her own style of femininity by wearing a classy, more masculine captain’s uniform along with thigh-high high-heeled boots (that she has no problem running in). She had a no-nonsense attitude, she was focused and cool-headed in a stressful situation, she was downright snarky and took crap from no one. In other words, she was the type of woman I wanted to be when I grew up, and to this day she is my favorite Disney Lady, bar none.

And while I’m at it, I’m just going to add that I’ve always found Dr. Doppler more attractive than your standard Disney prince. Besides his character design looking like a canine version of Roger from 101 DALMATIONS, he just always seemed like he’d be fun to get a coffee with.

Well, that’s about all I really want to talk about regarding TREASURE PLANET. It’s a shame it’s not remembered by more people as it does have some really good elements to it, but in some regards I can kind of see why it wasn’t a huge critical success. If you haven’t seen it already I recommend checking it out as it’s a pretty solid standalone film that doesn’t need supplementary material and covers all the bases with the plot and some fun character moments here and there. If you’re an animation fan I cannot stress enough how you really need to watch it, or even rewatch it, because, again, the animation and effects work is just a real feast for the eyes.

[tigerlover16-uk]

What do you think of the argument from Super's detractors going around lately that Dragon Ball should have gone the route of Yu Yu Hakusho, and not have had any continuation series or other new stories made of it after Z (or at least GT) ended?

I can understand why they would think that. But I would hate it if that were the case

I get why people would think that, the Dragon Ball manga is a classic and a great work of fiction. I can understand people wanting to keep it “Sacred” or whatever. Some series really do need to end at a certain point, and some franchises can go on forever, and it can be a problem when a company tries to take a series from the former category and make it into the latter, only to drive it into the ground. I’ve seen that happen with shows I’ve loved, so I get the concern people have.

I also don’t care in this particular case.

It’s not a case like Naruto, where the story devolved into garbage long before it could reach a satisfying conclusion. Dragon Ball has what is essentially a complete story from the start of the manga to Goku going off to train Uub at the end.

No matter what the franchise does afterwards, we’ll always have this great, classic story. I believe the only real way for it to be tarnished is for fans to let Dragon Ball be ruined FOR them. It’s the same reason I’m not so worked up over how SpongeBob’s quality went down after the first movie, because the first 3 seasons and the movie will always be great no matter what and fans are free to ignore what came after if they don’t enjoy it.

And the fact is… I WANT more content. I want more Dragon Ball shows. I want to see a series set after EoZ starring Uub and Pan. I want spin-offs. I want more movies and specials, side manga, video games, I want lots and lots of new stories!

I want to see more stories featuring all of Dragon Balls great characters. I want to see Android 17′s family, and some interaction between them and Krillin’s family. I want to see Tien being a martial arts instructor at his dojo. Toriyama said he’d like to do a gag manga starring Mr Satan and Majin Buu, and I’d like to see that. I want to see Marron fleshed out into a more interesting character, maybe have her become an accomplished fighter.

I want to see the new characters introduced in Super better fleshed out and given more stories to feature in. Give me a Pride Troopers anime. Give Jaco an ongoing series following on from his own short manga. Give us an OVA about the Kamikaze Fireballs or Katopesla or the Trio De Dangers. Give us a story where Vegeta and Goku get to visit plant Sadala in universe 6 already. Give Kale a backstory and flesh out her character better, fix some of the issues her writing had in the current saga. Give us a movie about Hit.

I want Dragon Ball to go on forever. I want to explore every character, every corner of the multiverse, every last bit of interesting story potential there is to offer. I want more lore, more development for a lot of characters, more slice of life stories and cute shippy moments like we’ve been getting in Super. I want more epic fights that make me throw my fist up into the air and go “WHOO!”

I want… I just want more.

Call me selfish. Call me greedy and inconsiderate or that I don’t have the series best interests in mind. (I do, for the record, I want this content to be GOOD and I am capable of being critical of stuff). But I don’t care.

I love Dragon Ball. It means more to me than any other series. The kind of joy and fulfillment it filled me with as a kid was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced from any other series I’ve watched or read since. And it’s always felt like a part of my soul has been missing in the time since i finished watching all three of the old anime as a kid, and it only came back when Battle of Gods and then Super itself became a thing.

I know Super is flawed, that it’s screwed some things up. but it’s also been the biggest source of comfort in my life for the last two years I’ve been keeping up with it.

Because i never really thought Dragon Ball would come back. Sure, before Battle of Gods we did get the occasional new content. The Yo! Son Goku and his Friends Return special for example (Which i always found underwhelming anyway), and some less than stellar ovas like Episode of Bardock and Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans. Dragon Ball SD was fun, I could never find most of the video games that came out last decade, especially since i didn’t have the means to buy things online until about Christmas 2013. And Kai was a thing, but that was just Dragon Ball Z minus the filler and with a much better dub. And for some stupid reason the Dragon Ball Heroes content still hasn’t made it’s way Westward.

But none of this stuff really satisfied me. I was still desperate for more. When i heard Battle of Gods was a thing it felt like a Godsend, even if it was frustrating to wait for the dvd to come out. But even then I didn’t expect we’d get an actual new series, with Resurrection F on the horizon I thought the occasional movie and special would be the best it was going to get. I can’t even tell you how happy I was when Super was announced.

So, I can’t relate to people who want Dragon ball to have just ended completely with Z. Because as much as I love the series and revisiting it, I’ve never been satisfied with the relative drought of content since i finished watching it. I don’t want Dragon ball to end, to go away, or be relegated to the occasional side media. I want to be drowned in new Dragon Ball content every year of my life.

I love other shows, games, movies, comics and manga, etc. There’s a lot of franchises that fill me with joy and make my troublesome mess of a life feel bearable and worthwhile. But none of them compare to Dragon Ball. My life would be a lot worse off if Super wasn’t a thing, if Dragon ball had just largely been left alone after Z or GT ended. heck, the main reason i hated GT so much is BECAUSE it tried to be a definitive end for the series while not telling any really worthwhile stories to me. And I don’t ever want to go back to waiting years at a time for scraps of content.

And luckily it doesn’t look like I’ll have to. We’ve been getting a lot more video games that I’ve really loved, like the Xenoverse Series, Fusions and FighterZ. We have a new movie to look forward to this year, and even with Super supposedly ending, that recent interview that Herms translated all but confirms that there WILL be a new Dragon Ball series coming up relatively soon, and that Toriyama has more plans for where he wants to take the story.

And the Dragon Ball Room is a thing now, showing that Toei is committed to producing as much new fun Dragon Ball content as possible into the foreseeable future, they’ve already given us Dragon Ball Fusions and that Reborn as Yamcha manga, both of which were enjoyable.

So, I’m very happy with how things are looking. Yeah, there are problems, but that’s to be expected. EVERY major franchise is going to have bad content from time to time, that’s to be expected. but it’s not the end of the world as long as we do continue to get good stuff, and honestly I’m actually pretty hopeful that Toei is going to take this brief hiatus with Super and learn from the mistakes they‘ve made to give the next Dragon Ball series a longer, better planned out production schedule so that the next series turns out as good as it can.

And if some people don’t like the recent content? They still have Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Those series and the manga are never going anywhere, they’re still as great as they’ve ever been. Sorry if those people can’t enjoy the recent stuff, i feel for them, but that some people inevitably won’t be satisfied is not going to stop me from being optimistic and looking forward to future content, because I’ve waited half my life for Dragon Ball to officially be back and I am going to make the most of it.

Argue all you want that I’m self-centred or that I’m wrong, but I don’t care. This is how I feel, I want Toei to make as much new Dragon Ball content as possible. So far I’m mostly happy with how things are going, and I don’t want things to slow down anytime soon. 

[lichamonae]

TokyoGhoul Live Action Movie : Alize thoughts

ALERT: A LOT OF SPOILERS ‘CAUSE I'M GONNA BE VERY SPECIFIC

Ok guys, so I´m gonna chat with you about this movie, first I´m going to say I was very happy with the final product in general, more becuase I saw Death Note movie of Netflix and it was horrible, so beside that movie TG live action looks awesome. But I´mgonna be very critic with the movie.

FIRST : SOUNTRACK

For my taste of sountrack it was ok. Some times the scenes were left withut sountrack to emphazice the moment, and it as pleacent to follow, but it wasn´t like the greatest sountrack ever. Like I was imagining something like the anime (sountrack in the anime is great, the only thing great), but it was just me hoping for some unravel in some scenes. but like I said it was ok.

CHARACTERS:

In general, the actors played very good their characters, you can see how all of they took a time to understand the motives, flaws and personality in their own acting.

Irimi: was just there to decorate anteiku (did nothing but she was beautiful)

Koma: that guy was so good in that one scene

Mado: Great af, very into the character, replulsion of ghouls, treating them like less than rats, calling them rats. love him <3

Amon: That guy was a little bit strange for me. His face was with no espression at all. His acting was ok but I think he could do it better. He was very handsome and there was a scene about him training that was really good 100% Amon there.

Yoshimura: Really good !!! he was just there, giving life lessons to Kaneki, giving key information and not force wisdom at all. tumps up for this beautifull old man.

Mr. Feuguchi: This woman was so sweet and cute, just like the manga, she looked so pure. And her last scene (you know what scene) was soooooooo intense, right in my feels </3.

Nikishi: The only thing I gonna say is 100% Nikishi I wish we could get more of him, but his story in the movie is just as the manga give us in the first 3 volumes.

Kimi: Just there hooking up with nikishi. did nothing else.

Rize: that was the most beautiful Rize, really it was amaizing, playing around with her meal it was cruel af. I miss Rize.

Hide: What can I say??? cute af, Hide af, his scenes where great. His face is what I always imagine about Hide.

Yomo: He was just standing here and there been Yomo. That scene of him praying to food was great (Kaneki was like wtf). He didn´t had a more big impact like I would like to, but it was fine.

Uta: I hope he had more lines, cause some parts where missing and like a fan I would love that but looked like they bring Uta to the real world so great job!.

Hinami: A great actress btw, she was shy, and then she was asking for onnichan <3. The Mado's dead scene, her speech just as the manga, it was beautiful.

Touka (my love). I really thought I was not going to like me, but daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. That voice of her, like really harsh when she was talking, and cute with Hinami and Yoriko. My god, the cake scene it was perfect. Something I notice is that Touka movie was not so angry like Touka manga. She wasn´t so rude with him like I was expecting to be, but still it was 100% Touka, believe me.

Yoriko: One important scene, she cute, she awesome she made Touka throw up :D

Kaneki: OMG Kubota wtf XD. Let me tell you something this kid screams like a girl so much that made me laugh a lot ( I laughed hard almost the whole movie). he was extremely awkward, extremely clumsy, and when he was in a battle with Amon he became extremely insane. Like he really push himself to act as crazy and broken as posible. It was scary and unpleasent... and I liked it.

Also beautiful scene of kaneki “tasting Hide´s face like a lollipop

STORY:

Ok, I´m going a bit harsh on this one ´cause I´m 100% manga fan and I wanted to be every single panel on that movie, but that can´t be done so I will say that is 100% manga faithfull.

Like every movie they have to cut some thing, but some things that was important ( at least for me) like the scene of Kaneki screaming “I´m a human not a moster”, “Uta delivering at bad time the mask”, Yamori? where is yamori?, Touka in her school life, the important “shine shine shine shine” scene, and some others that didn´t make the movie really make me a little sad, but..

In the other hand we had:

-Some Little Kaneki

-Oishi!!!!!

-If you die, I will be sad

-This world is wrong (beautiful parallel with Kaneki and Amon)

-this taste like horse´s shit

-Touka beats the hell out of his bestie aka Nikishi

-Beautiful Himani eating, and Kaneki been a little girl

-Those scenes of touka and yomo training <3

Also they didn´t make Touka and Kaneki a “thing” like most live action movies like to do to the main charactes, that (even they are canon now) I love it. It was 0 love interest between them.

finally I woudl like to that in some scenes character had more lines to express what they where feeling or thinking. I knew everything because I know everything about them, but some new watchers could be like “huh?, wtf?, what happening?” in some points.

But in general it was easy to follow, not boring at all, and the finale gives a perfect end to the story (surprisingly a happy one) but withhe chance for a continuation, so I could give them a slowly clap for that

SPECIAL EFFECTS

uhhhh, well: live action anime movie, low budget....I could tell you that the kagunes in some scenes looked great and for a moment they look awesome and scary af. but in every scene they were a lot of flaws with the effects, they look vry funny actually. even tho it look that they worked with what the have, and if is there a continuation and sony gives them more money it could improve a lot.

DIRECTION:

Another flaw in this movie. In some scenes the camera was moving a lot, sometime the scenes where cut in a very strange way to go to another situation and you didn´t knew whatwas happening becuase it wasn´t explained, so you had to have your own conclusions. The direction could improve a lot, so work in that directors!!!

SCENES:

The places where they film where beautifull and they really worked to find them. Anteiku and Uta´s crib were on point. The Mado´s dead scene was like they built the place just like the manga. the lighting it was ok.

FINAL THOUGHS:

For me, I could give this movie an 85%. It really surpassed my expectations a lot, but it could be better. The movie as a whole can be enjoyed by fans like me and like people who like anime but is not TG fan ( my boyfriend said so). So if you have the oportunity t watch it, do it.

´Cause after all, and most important they DIDN´T FUCKING RUIN TOKYO GHOUL !!!!!!!

[monkey-network]

Good Stuff - THE TROOF ABOUT STEVEN UNIVERSE - Part 4

WARNING: When you cartwheel, the weight is mostly from your legs. And if you want to know more, here’s part 3 for a better understanding. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

Steven Universe is a charming, popular show with a quad-polar fandom, and I’m only here to point out what I say is legitimately wrong with this cartoon. Simple enough? Fair enough. Point number 4:

THE REPRESENTATION:

Representation in media can be easy when the right writers are at the helm to present (not push) a message of acceptance and acknowledgement towards an audience that may or may not feel the same way. It takes different strokes to rule the world, after all. However, when it comes to character in general, there are two factors in characterization that when used correctly can appeal their message of acceptance for their audience. One, visual acknowledgement of the representing characters (POC, LGBT, belief, etc.) in question and two, giving the subjects good quality participation to show that they are just as adept to the world as any other without phoning in the fact that they are this or that. Long story short, make ‘em good characters and the representation can earn the audience’s respect for itself. Steven U lacks this too, and this comes from them often showing us stuff and expecting us to just go with it, with themes that are enough just to get by fans. Hell, they show us as much as a drive by...

Not even a cool one at that, fresh

I’ll say this to start off: Lars Barriga (my neega) was a stagnant and frustrating character to deal with, nobody in Beach City moved him in any way (not even his own supporting parents), and the writers just shotgunned him growth (more than once) after he basically had to cheat death (more than once) to gain a better conscience. It’s like they wanted to call him a lost cause but had to hook him back in some way for the audience to not deem him a lost cause. So with all due respect, does it matter that he’s Filipino or a trans boy when nothing valuable or thoughtful has come from him especially? Those trivial tidbits can mostly come off as add ons or secondary nods, when they should’ve been welcomed knowledge about his character. Want an good example? Look to the comic series Lumberjanes, especially issues 14-17 and 28. SPOILERS, though...

They did this right for characters Jo and Barney (Jo’s the one in the 2nd panel, Barney’s in the first). They already established these two as well defined characters that make mistakes but are willing to get shit done for their friends by any means. The dialogue above is when Barney is thinking about joining the girl oriented scouts even when he’s considered a boy scout, wondering where does he want to belong. Jo gives him reassurance that she herself felt the same and just wants Barney to assert himself with what he wants to be like she did. And when he does later on, he’s accepted without any forced gratification and the writers gracefully accommodate this to not only make him (now “them”) a good addition to the story’s world, but a welcoming new perspective. 

The representation is therefore earned, not just shown off

Now I’d talk further on other characters like Lars, but that would be singing the same beats as my previous piece on world building and would spoil notes on the final 2 parts I’m working on now. Instead, the gems are another reason why the rep-pres-sen-tation in SU is nothing but small fractured penny in the gold mine that is anything else going on, with fusion diminishing the relationship representation of Steven U; however you may see it. Now excuse me... this is the hardest part of my job.

Criticizing love

Garnet is not a good embodiment of Ruby and Sapphire’s love; Ruby and Sapphire is. I would love to see Ruby and Sapphire being together and showing me why they decided to elope, but I can’t because Garnet is a curtain that metaphorically and literally covers said love from having anything more to say than “HELL YEAH WE LOVE EACH OTHER!”. You could say ‘Keystone Motel’ offered some adversity for the two, but knowing Steven U, it didn’t feel like much beyond me knowing they’re getting back together in the end because they love each other and they just go back to being Garnet because she’s the personification of their love and such. 

Status Quo Ante. Ante up, you see?

Fusion is something I have a disdain for now because they’re exchanging two characters’ development of united growth for basically an entirely new/different character, that don’t have much screen time or development anyways (vice versa in Flourite’s case). You could say ‘Know your Fusion’ presented an evolution for Smokey Quartz, among the other known fusions, to being more than a versatile fighter, but not really no. We were already aware that Steven and Amethyst were acknowledged sad sacks before they fused, so what else does this fusion offer differently than in their ability? As for Sardonyx, she hasn’t changed from her first cameo awhile back and her vanity was the only thing that made her stand out in said episode. All in all, fusion doesn’t reflect a relationship, no matter how hard Rebecca Suge Knight is saying otherwise, it reflects an aftermath; one that’s in and out as a firework. This and up ‘til now, the real couples we see are pretty general or under the rug. To show how the most mentioned and presented couple in the series, RubyXSapphire, has continuously got the shaft, I present the one dynamic you’d least expect: A boy and his stuffed toy.

My personally favorite example so far.

Calvin and Hobbes is a series about boy Calvin and his stuffed tiger Hobbes that comes to life through Calvin’s imagination. Reality is like Garnet in this case, where it’s just Calvin having his stuffed animal around to get into zany hijinks like any other kid his age. Then again, the imagination or the living Hobbes is whom is given more of a focus, allowing their dynamic to bloom in a way that wouldn’t be understood if we just saw Calvin just talking to his toy the whole time. It makes their bond feel real and that’s what RubyxSapphire should be, giving them the floor in a way that adds up to Garnet’s eventual debut. “But Monkey Network, what about ‘The Answer'?” The Answer is an episode that, while sweet and good looking, literally danced over much necessary development in favor of only showing us how they eventually stuck to being Garnet forever. Not saying Garnet doesn’t have any character herself, but her integral backstory was/is one of the most beloved and talked about in terms of relationships, yet little has actually been given to us beyond face value and basic understanding and the writers have generally avoid pressing this any further. In a way, that episode diminishes the representation of real queer relationships, bogging it down to early Disney romances like Snow White’s, and practically blindfolds us about what we want to see vs what we should be seeing.

And I already got cute girls not kissing last year. It’s the current flippin’ year

I would talk about all the other canonning “ships” but nothing comes to mind other than the gems are getting along better than before, Mystery Girl is still fine as fuck, Steven and Connie are bound to elope since it’s been presented since the beginning, Lapis and Peridot get along as college roommates, Lapis might still have issues after Malachite happened, Jasper regrets nothing, Topaz sounds cool from the little we got of them, and everything has amounts to having a sob story and/or a recollection of thoughts just to say “Hey, we’re good together”. They implicitly share infatuation and good vibes to each other, but nothing to say their themes of LGBT, relationships, and characterization are groundbreaking. The latter I’ll get to next time. I mean anybody can put effort into writing a genuine romance novel, though it takes more effort to push the romance to challenging means without leaving skeptics at the door, something Sugar has been very casual about and is starting to openly show in the show. That and tears. Because you know what they say, open emotions are better than emotional maturity. Isn’t that right, TV?

Though, a good cry like that never hurts once in a while

Don’t get me wrong. Rebecca Sugarbark is out here doing her darndest as...

CARTOON. NETWORK’S. FIRST. FEMALE. ANIMATED. SERIES. CREATOR!

and when she does themes right, the show provides some good things to think about. But when she muddles them up or casually throws them in, especially when these themes come from the different aspects of what makes a person different yet real, it is unforgivable. And when people of all ages are watching this, thinking with their living ideologies about what could be used to think differently? This makes for a very risky tightrope that can lead to either people taking it appropriately or blindly, good and bad alike. I can only hope that as the show goes on, there are less assumptions and implications from both the show and the audience alike and more assertions and certainty that elements like representation of any kind are brought to a more applied approach than a glanced approach. Something that earns that appeal to a world so open and free.

Yet. As nothing but a simple critic... I can only be so hopeful

[citrina-posts]

Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. 

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

[elizas-writing]

Steven Bomb 6: What Went Right, and What Went Wrong?

Another Steven Bomb has come and gone and it was... something.

To be honest, since the last Steven Bomb, I’ve fallen into the SU Critical part of the fandom. This isn’t a bad thing for me as I do see a lot of the valid criticisms, and the show just hasn’t had the same kick as the earlier seasons. But I’m still that kind of person that likes to give the benefit of the doubt... constantly. I like Steven Universe even with its problems, but there needs to be something really impressive to get the show back on track.

So, here’s a quick run down on what I thought did and didn’t work with the new Steven Bomb in each episode. Lots of ranting, swearing, and spoilers ahead.

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

A lot of build up for a cop-out, crap lousy ending. Was it really a burning question for us to figure out what Steven would have been named if he was designated female at birth? Do we really have to keep hammering in his purpose when previous episodes already discussed this? What was the point?!

I wouldn’t be so furious about this if it didn’t make the effort to build up a potential secret about Rose being revealed, but it did. And we still know so little about Rose with the fifth season about to begin. This would have been a great opportunity to explore her past and why she did what she did, but they just wasted it.

Doug Out

This was actually a nice little filler which also had some foreshadowing for the later episodes. I’m mostly just a sucker for Connie’s dad and how much he tries to act cool for his daughter and her friend and make his job more exciting than it really is. It’s a cute father-daughter bonding episode, and I like finally getting an episode focusing on him and his relationship with Connie.

That’s actually Crispin Freeman as Doug Maheswaran, and he delivers a wonderful exaggerated dad performance (for those who don’t know, he’s mostly well-known in anime voice work with roles like Itachi Uchiha from Naruto, Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Togusa from the Ghost in the Shell franchise). I just freaking love his voice, and he makes what would have been a mindless filler into something surprisingly enjoyable.

The Good Lars

Lars is insecure about showing off his baking skills to the Cool Kids...

Fucking, why?

What kind of teenagers you are around that are insecure about baking? Don’t you know that’s an awesome skill to have as a teen? How is this embarrassing to show off?

Also, I really don’t give a shit about Lars fitting in. He’s such an insufferable downer of a character who’s been nothing but mean to Steven since day one and is such a crappy boyfriend to Sadie that it’s hard to find anything redeemable about him. There’s insecure, and then there’s just being a dick for the sake of being a dick, and the fact this is still going on in season four is just obnoxious. Stop pushing this plot thread if you’re not going to give him a successful arc.

The only good part of the episode was at the potluck and, let’s be real, the Cool Kids seem to be the few characters exempt from bad writing. They’re always a delight to see. Sour Cream throwing glow sticks over paper plates is relatable and hilarious, and it’s sweet seeing them interact with Sadie and praise her singing. I’d love to see more of those interactions instead of Lars whining.

Are You My Dad?

So we finally see the new gems, Aquamarine and Topaz, and yes, their designs are pretty damn bad. Topaz has awkward proportions, but at least she looks in place with other gems we’ve seen so far. I don’t know what the fuck they were going for with this fairy, office worker, Darla Dimple rip off known as Aquamarine. Aren’t the gems of Blue Diamond kinda supposed to look regal and elegant with fancy dresses and capes? It just doesn’t fit. And I hate, HATE her high pitched British-y voice. It’s so grating to my ears and annoying, and I just want to strangle and stomp on her, repeatedly. I don’t care for a child-like gem; give me an actual threat.

I’ll admit it is freaky to see Homeworld Gems kidnap humans, especially in this fashion with the Topazes fusing together to keep them trapped, so it does get you thinking about what they’re planning. And that would be great except...

I Am My Mom

They’re kidnapping these particular humans from Beach City because of a report Peridot sent Yellow Diamond in season one. They even have to show a flashback for us to remember what the fuck they’re talking about.

Holy fucking shit, of all the things from season one we haven’t addressed, we have to think back to that obscure list of people Steven named when telling Peridot that yes, there are humans on Earth. I think if you have to show a flashback from season one of a moment none of your fans will likely remember, this is just pushing it. Lion’s origins? White Diamond’s reveal? Who Pearl originally served? Fuck that shit, am I right?

But it gets fucking worse when Steven starts blaming himself for his friends getting mixed up. Again with this shit?! How the hell was he supposed to know? You know that trope in some anime shows where a character (typically female) will constantly blame themselves for shit out of their control but instead of trying to become stronger they just keep crying on the sidelines and watch all their friends suffer (i.e Orihime from Bleach and Madoka from PMMM)? This is the exact same case with Steven, and I hate this trope! It doesn’t add tension or drama! It just stagnates your character growth because you think you need to pad the show as much as possible!

To top it off, the Crystal Gems are all absolutely useless against the Aquamarine gremlin. Seriously?! She has more or less the same powers as Peridot before becoming a Crystal Gem except she uses a wand instead of limb enhancers, and she defeated Alexandrite, one of the show’s most powerful fusions?! The same fusion who duked it out with Malachite in the last season?? And then they just sit there as Steven gives himself up? Did they really throw away their characters’ common sense and super strength because plot? I’m just...

Sigh... So yeah this is getting really hard to defend as the show is trying to push for Steven taking his mother’s place to atone for her actions despite countless episodes before that assured that he is his own person, but hey, who cares about trying to explain the moral complexity on how Rose was in the right to shatter a dictator to save Earth in the long run when we can just make the Crystal Gems completely useless for whatever crap plot we’ll get tomorrow when the one hour special premieres?

But again, I’m that sad sack who likes to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe something interesting will come out of Steven’s journey to Homeworld and the trial and trying to escape with Lars, but I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch. I still want the show to be good again like in previous seasons, but they really need something good to keep up our interests and maintain some consistency to character and plot. Here’s to hoping something will go right after a season of pure padding.

[meganhipwellwrites]

character chart: anna

Character Chart Character’s full name: Anna Elisabet Abrahamsen Reason or meaning of name: Anna means ‘grace’. Character’s nickname: ‘Squirt’ from Dimitri. ‘Anna Banana’ from Belle and Rae. ‘Feisty pants’ from Kris. ‘Trouble’ or ‘Troublemaker’ from Jim. Reason for nickname: Kinda self explanatory. Birth date: July 18th, 1998. Physical Appearance Age: Recently turned nineteen. How old does he/she appear: She looks her age. Body build: Slim and very tiny. Eye color: Green Glasses or contacts: Neither  Skin tone: Anna is white and pale. Distinguishing marks: Various scrapes and bruises from falling over, but nothing permanent. Predominant features: Her hair, her height. Hair color: Anna’s hair is red with a blonde streak running through it. Type of hair: Long. Hairstyle: Anna’s hair is most often worn in two plaits. Occasionally she’ll fasten them into milkmaid braids, and for special events she’ll wear it down and curly with various braids running through it. Voice: Anna is loud. Her accent is Norwegian. Overall attractiveness: Prettier than she thinks she is. Physical disabilities:  None. Usual fashion of dress: Anna is most often found in shorts or dungarees, paired with converse. Favorite outfit: ^ Jewelry or accessories: Anna has a charm bracelet from her Mum with a snowflake charm on it and nothing else, but she never wears it because she’s so clumsy and scared of losing it. Personality Good personality traits: Positive, enthusiastic, loyal, loving, adventurous.  Bad personality traits: Naive, impulsive, hot-tempered, clumsy, awkward. Mood character is most often in: Happy! Sense of humor: Anna loves to laugh. She’ll giggle at bad jokes, good jokes, her own jokes. Those ones make her laugh the hardest. Character’s greatest joy in life: Her friends Character’s greatest fear: Abandonment Why?: The death of her parents and her sister proceeding to shut her out afterward What single event would most throw this character’s life into complete turmoil?: Elsa leaving her.  Character is most at ease when: With her friends or with a big bowl of ice cream in front of her. Most ill at ease when: Sitting still. Anna gets antsy easily and always likes to be on the go. Enraged when: Pretty easily, actually. But mostly when she can see injustice happening or someone being treated badly.  Depressed or sad when: Thinking about her parents, being ignored by Elsa. Priorities: The happiness of herself and her friends. Life philosophy: To always stand back up again! If granted one wish, it would be: To have her Mum and Dad back. Why?: She thinks it would improve her relationship with Elsa tons, given that they were so close as kids. Also, she’d have her parents back and she wouldn’t have had to have grown up so fast. Character’s soft spot: Chocolate. Is this soft spot obvious to others?: YES  Greatest strength: Probably her ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Greatest vulnerability or weakness: She relies too much on what other people think of her. Biggest regret: She doesn’t have one yet. Minor regret: Saying that stupid thing she said the other day.  Biggest accomplishment:  Making friends in Cherry Grove. Minor accomplishment: Anna sees almost everything as a victory or a minor accomplishment. Past failures he/she would be embarrassed to have people know about: Any and all failures. Why? She embarrasses easily. Character’s darkest secret: She doesn’t? Really? Does anyone else know? N/A Goals Drives and motivations: The happiness of her friends. Immediate goals: Just to get through every day with a smile. Make it through school.  Long term goals: She’s too young and too indecisive to have any right now, but she wants to do something in the art world, she thinks. How the character plans to accomplish these goals: Working for Taylor! How other characters will be affected: They won’t be. Not negatively, at least. Past Hometown: Arendelle, Norway. Type of childhood: It was happy. She has really good, vague memories of Norway and she always remembered being happy there. Moving to America was hard, because she was teased about her accent and stuff. Everything went sideways when her parents died. Pets: She didn’t have any growing up. First memory: Looking out of the window and seeing the sky ‘awake’, all lit up with pretty colours. Most important childhood memory: Building snowmen with her parents and her sister. Why: Because she doesn’t feel like she’ll ever get to recreate it. Childhood hero: Elsa. Dream job: Princess, art curator. Education: Homeschooled Religion: Agnostic Finances: She’s pretty well off, but due to family money. Present Current location: Cherry Grove. Currently living with: Elsa and Rae. Pets: Her two dogs, Olaf and Marshmallow. Religion: Agnostic Occupation: Student, tour guide at Taylor’s Gallery Finances: She’s pretty well off, but due to family money. Family Mother: Iduna Abrahamsen Relationship with her: Positive. She was one of Anna’s best and only friends growing up. Father: Agnarr Abrahamsen Relationship with him: Also positive. He raised his little girls to make them believe they could do anything. Siblings: Elsa Abrahamsen Relationship with them: Strained. Spouse: N/A Relationship with him/her: N/A Children: Just her dogs. Relationship with them: She loves them! Other important family members: N/A Favorites Color: Rainbow. Least favorite color: Anything dark and dull and grey.  Music: Pop. Anything upbeat and cute and positive. Taylor Swift. Food: Anything sweet! Literature: Anna doesn’t really have the attention span to sit down and read. Sorry, Belle! Form of entertainment: Spending time with her friends, television. Expressions: “Oops!” Mode of transportation: Her bike, the bus.  Most prized possession: Probably the charm bracelet I mentioned before. Habits Hobbies: Riding her bike, walking around Taylor’s gallery, painting with Rae, watching Todd play baseball, building snowmen, hiking with Jim.  Plays a musical instrument? Her Mum tried to get her into the cello when she was younger but she wasn’t good at it. Plays a sport? No How he/she would spend a rainy day: Eating pizza with Todd or riding her bike inside Spending habits: Pretty reckless, but she doesn’t know any better. Smokes: No Drinks: No Other drugs: No What does he/she do too much of? Eating? :’) What does he/she do too little of? Focusing. Extremely skilled at: She’s not sure yet. Extremely unskilled at: Coordination Nervous tics: Touching the blonde streak in her hair, moving her hands a lot, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Usual body posture: She’s usually slouching. Mannerisms: She uses her hands to talk a lot. Peculiarities: Where to start? Traits Optimist or pessimist? Optimist Introvert or extrovert? Extrovert Daredevil or cautious? Daredevil Logical or emotional? Emotional Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Disorderly and messy Prefers working or relaxing? Working Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Somehow both Animal lover? Yes! Self-Perception How he/she feels about himself/herself: She’s both her biggest fan and worst critic. She tries really hard to remind herself she’s doing her best, that she’s more than just a spare part and she has tons of good qualities. But she also knows she’s too much, too loud, too clumsy, and thinks people are going to leave her as a byproduct. One word the character would use to describe self: “Go-getter!  Wait, is that two words?” What does the character consider his/her best personality trait? Her optimism What does the character consider his/her worst personality trait? Her lack of co-ordination What does the character consider his/her best physical characteristic? The streak in her hair! What does the character consider his/her worst physical characteristic? Her height How does the character think others perceive him/her: She thinks people are annoyed by her What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: She’d like to be a little less obnoxious Relationships With Others Opinion of other people in general: She loves people! Does the character hide his/her true opinions and emotions from others? Not really. She wouldn’t be able to. She’s a terrible liar. Person character most hates: Anna hasn’t been crossed by anyone too badly in Cherry Grove yet, but right now she most dislikes Gaston. Best friend(s): Rae, Belle, Todd! Love interest(s): Hans, Kris. She has a super harmless crush on Dimitri but she doesn’t consider him a ‘love interest’ Person character goes to for advice: Probably Jim! Person character feels responsible for or takes care of: Todd! Although she says they take care of each other. Person character feels shy or awkward around: Everyone. But Hans. Person character openly admires: Elsa. Person character secretly admires:  Dimitri. Most important person in character’s life before story starts: Elsa. After story starts: Elsa.