#but most of the cast is teenage girls cause demographics

[musicallad]

been writing a script for a d+la show that will never get made haha. but it’s definitely fun!

it’s musical, magical, chaotic and very queer with the core relationships being the friendship of the bandmates. 

there’s family drama, creative differences and a lot of magical issues but the love everyone has for each other is huge and that’s lovely to write

[zahut]

I can’t ignore the fact that there’s a strong presence of antisemitism in the Scandinavian countries today but before continuing I also need to familiarize you with the fact, all too often overlooked, that there are not only different degrees of antisemitism in different countries and historical epochs, but also that we can and ought to speak of and analyse different kinds of antisemitism. Antisemitism is always a matter of prejudices about and animosity towards Jews, however, antisemitism is still not a coherent and stable body of attitudes. Reviewing the history of antisemitism in Europe we find that antisemitism in some epochs was mainly based on religious ideas, with Jews being seen as traitors who did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah and who should be blamed for having killed him; in other epochs antisemitism was instead fed by political ideas, with Jews being seen as strangers who did not belong to the people with a birthright in their nation state; we also have epochs when the idea of Jews as controllers, abusers, and exploiters of the economy surfaced as the predominant form of antisemitism; the Shoah that destroyed European Jewry in the first part of the twentieth century was, however, mainly based on racist biological ideas of Jews as a degenerate people whose very existence constituted a disease within the human body. Accordingly, this racist idea commanded the Jew be extinguished—both individually and as a people.

Behind these diverse aspects of antisemitism there usually lies a mental construction of a Jewish conspiracy of some kind. Even if it may not be quite obvious to the antisemite what Jews are really up to, how we actually killed the xian Messiah, infiltrated the nations of the world, run the world economy, or are in fact a racially degenerate people, etc.—just this, the very fact that this is obscure, makes the antisemite even more convinced that somehow there must be some kind of a secret (world) conspiracy behind it all. Here are two background examples of what is the predominant image of a secret Jewish world conspiracy in the Scandinavian countries today:

Late at night on February 15, 2015, a Bat Mitzvah party took place in the Jewish cultural centre where the main synagogue is also located in Copenhagen. About eighty people, most of them teenage girls, were celebrating that one of their friends had passed the symbolic threshold to become a fully independent and responsible member of the Jewish community. As part of what are now considered necessary regular security measures whenever a Jewish event takes place, thirty-seven-year Dan Uzan was acting as a volunteer guard outside the buildings where the festivities took place. Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a twenty-two-year Danish citizen with Palestinian parents, suddenly appeared and tried to get into the Jewish cultural centre behind the synagogue. Dan Uzan, unarmed but responsible for security at the entrance, blocked his path. The attacker, armed with loaded guns, shot him in the head at close range. Dan Uzan died. A few hours later El-Hussein was shot dead by a Danish police tactical unit.

On the evening of December 9, 2017, in Gothenburg, a Jewish youth organization held a Chanukah party. About forty persons were in a building adjacent to the synagogue when twelve masked men threw Molotov cocktails into the synagogue courtyard and ran away. By chance, the fire was noticed and put out before anyone was injured. Some time later the police succeeded in arresting three men: a twenty-two-year Palestinian from Gaza; a twenty-four-year Palestinian, and a nineteen-year Syrian. They were asylum seekers in Sweden: the latter two had been granted permanent residency status as refugees, while the man from Gaza had had his application for asylum rejected. In court they were all subsequently convicted of comitting a hate crime.

Before continuing I need to clarify some demographic factors. One relevant figure in this context is the absolute and relative number of Jews in the populations in question: The number of Jews living in Finland, with a population of 5.5 million, and in Norway, with a population of 5.3 million, is today considerably lower than in Denmark and Sweden. There are slightly more than a thousand people in each of these countries who could be regarded as belonging to a core Jewish population. The proportion of Jews as part of the population of the Nordic countries is very small. In Denmark and Sweden it is about the same as in today’s Germany, lower than in France, Hungary, the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands, but higher than in Poland, Spain, Italy, and Austria. The Scandinavian countries, although similar in some significant respects, nonetheless followed very different trajectories through the Shoah. In Norway close to 40 per cent of the two thousand one hundred Jews living in the country at the time perished under the rule of the Nazi-collaborator Vidkun Quisling. At the end of September 1943, the Danish Jews learned that they too would be persecuted. In an unprecedented and unique rescue operation, almost all of them, slightly more than seven thousand, managed to escape to Sweden where they were then well received. In the 1930s until the outbreak of the Second World War, Sweden’s immigration policy was very restrictive—just under three thousand Jews out of the many hundreds of thousands trying to escape Nazi persecution in Europe were permitted entry, most of them as “political refugees.” After the war, about thirteen thousand Jews were brought to Sweden from concentration camps and other places in Europe. This lay the ground for the fact that Sweden is the only country in Europe that today harbours a considerably larger Jewish population than before the Shoah. At the beginning of the 1930s there were slightly more than six thousand Jews in Sweden—today there are more than three times as many Jews in Sweden compared to when the Nazis took power in Germany.

In a previous study, based on data collected in 2012 in several European countries, among them Sweden, scholars were able to distinguish between three different kinds of antisemitism: classic antisemitism, Aufklärungsantisemitismus, and Israel-derived antisemitism.

Classic antisemitism is based on classic antisemitic stereotypes such as “Jews have too much control over global affairs” and “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars.” The proportion of persons within the national populations who hold such attitudes to an extent that warrants labelling them “antisemites” is continually being measured in many countries around the world by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). We refer to this as Classic antisemitism. In Denmark since around the turn of the millennium there has been an active neo-Nazi group that runs a local radio station (Radio Oasen) and at times organizes public demonstrations flying the swastika. It has also formed a political party, Danmarks Nationalsocialistiske Bevægelse (DNSB, National Socialist Movement of Denmark), and has participated in local elections in Greve, a municipality south of Copenhagen. In the 2005 municipal elections it received 73 votes, corresponding to 0.3 per cent of votes cast, and in the elections to the regional council they received 611 votes, corresponding to 0.1 per cent of votes cast. It has been estimated that in the whole country there might be around 1,000 passive and 150 active members of the DNSB. The largest and most active neo-Nazi organization in Scandinavia at present is the so-called Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen (NMR, Nordic Resistance Movement). It attempts to be a pan-Nordic neo-Nazi movement and in Sweden is also a political party. It was established in Sweden and claims to be active in Norway, Finland, and Denmark, and also to have members in Iceland. The NMR has been described as a terrorist organization due to their aim of abolishing democracy along with their paramilitary activities and stockpiling of weapons. One of the NMR’s favourite activities is to organize public marches and other kinds of collective demonstrations wearing uniform-style outfits, flying Nazi-inspired flags, and so on in connection with various large public cultural and political events. These have included the annual bookfair in Gothenburg and the all-inclusive political summer-rally in Almedalen on Gotland, where members of the group assaulted two pro-Israel activists on 6 July 2018. On special occasions they manage to bring out a few hundred sympathizers, but generally they seem unable to muster more than a few dozen. At times they appear threatening and resort to violent forms of action. Some of them have participated in general and local elections, but normally without gaining enough support to be represented in any government body.

In the 2018 general elections in Sweden, NMR received a total of 20,106 votes, which corresponds to 0.03 per cent of the votes cast in the country. Even if the NMR and other similar groups are very small in terms of numbers, they are still quite visible in the public sphere. This fact in itself causes definite alarm.

Add to this the fact that since the 2018 general elections the third largest party in the Swedish parliament (based on slightly less than 18 per cent of the vote in the national elections) is the Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats). This party has actually grown from the same ideological roots that nourish the aforementioned Nazi-affiliated groups. However, since its creation in 1988, in parallel with its rapidly growing popular support—mainly due to its strong anti-immigration and by implication also anti-Muslim positions—it has moderated these positions and now prefers to present itself as a socially conservative and nationalist party. With its 2010 entry into the Swedish parliament, it has tried to distance itself from its white supremacist and Nazi-influenced background. As part of its attempt to pursue this transformation, several party officials have been excluded because of their either bluntly racist or antisemitic statements. Nonetheless, this did not stop one of their representatives and former second deputy speaker of the Swedish parliament, Björn Söder, from suggesting in a 2014 interview with the leading Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, that since Sámi and Jews (for example) have dual identities, they would have to adapt and be assimilated in order to be considered Swedish in the cultural sense. This was interpreted to mean that Jews cannot be Swedish—unless we abandon our Jewish identity.

In 2016, another leading representative of Sverigedemokraterna, its then parliamentary group leader and now economic-political spokesman, Oscar Sjöstedt, jokingly recounted how he and some colleagues, German slaughterhouse workers in Iceland, would kick sheep, pretending they were Jews, while shouting “die Juden!” The fact that the leadership of Sverigedemokraterna did not find this reason enough to sanction their representative might be an indication of the party’s tacit acceptance of antisemitism.

To sum up on this point: There appears today to be a smaller proportion of the population in the Scandinavian countries who have classic stereotypes and negative attitudes about Jews than among the general population in other comparable countries in the world. In Sweden the proportion of classic antisemites in the general population is lower than anywhere in the Western world. Still, there are neo-Nazi groups in the Scandinavian countries. This is particularly so in Sweden where, although small in terms of membership and very weak in attracting popular support, they have succeeded in attracting attention through their public demonstrations and actions.

Another kind of what actually might be perceived as antisemitism are attempts at prohibiting core Jewish practices such as Brit Milah (the circumcision of newborn male babies) and Shechitah (the slaughter of animals according to ritual prescriptions). The 2018 FRA survey asked respondents about the extent to which they had heard it suggested that circumcision and/or slaughter according to traditional religious rules should be banned in their country. Almost all respondents in Denmark (98 per cent) said they had heard non-Jewish persons suggesting that circumcision or slaughter according to Jewish tradition, or both, should be prohibited. In Sweden, 77 per cent of respondents were also aware of non Jewish people suggesting this for their country. Since slaughter according to Jewish tradition is already forbidden in Sweden since 1937 and Denmark since 2014—the suggestions heard in both of these secular-Lutheran countries primarily concern circumcision. In none of the other ten participating EU countries are Jews confronted by such suggestions to the same extent. Suggestions of this kind were more rarely heard in Catholic countries like Hungary, Spain, and Italy.

In 2012, no EU member state other than Sweden had a law in effect prohibiting Shechitah. Since 2012, however, legal prohibition of Shechitah has also been introduced in the Netherlands, in the province of Wallonia in Belgium, and in Denmark. At the time that Denmark ratified the law in February 2014, the minister of agriculture, Social Democrat Dan Jørgensen, proclaimed that “animal rights weigh heavier than respect for religious considerations.” In this context it should be mentioned that in recent years there has raged an intense and widespread public debate in Denmark on the circumcision of infant boys. A Danish medical doctor, Morten Frisch, launched a branch of the Intact America organization, called it Intact Denmark, and succeeded in making it into a popular movement. A journalistic internet survey indicated that slightly more than 80 per cent of the Danish population would like circumcision of infant boys to be prohibited in Denmark. A petition to the same end collected the fifty thousand signatures required to have the issue raised in the Danish Parliament. However, the government-appointed Ethics Council (Det Etiske Råd) had already been asked by parliament to examine the issue. On June 28, 2018, they recommended that religiously motivated ritual circumcision of boys in Denmark not be prohibited. On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the rescue of the Danish Jews from Nazi-occupied Denmark to Sweden, October 11, 2018, in the fully packed Copenhagen synagogue, Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen stood in front of the Torah ark and faced the assembled dignitaries and members of the Jewish community, promising not to allow any religious rights or traditions to be taken away from the Danish Jews. In spite of the strong popular movement to legally prohibit Brit Milah, this practice has not been banned in Denmark, nor has it been in Iceland, where a similarly popular initiative to do so had been raised at the same time. In Sweden, too, calls have recently been made to prohibit Brit Milah. For example, in 2011 the former chairman of the Liberal Party and minister of social affairs, Bengt Westerberg, headed a motion to legally prohibit the circumcision of infant boys. Still, in spite of strong popular opposition to the practice, neither in Denmark nor in Sweden is Brit Milah legally prohibited—yet. The reason for this is probably that a majority of parliamentary politicians in these countries recognize how, all things considered, it would tarnish their country’s image and risk having them labelled “anti-Jewish” for being the first country in the world today to prohibit this core Jewish practice.

It should be understood that behind the strong efforts in the Scandinavian countries today to ban Brit Milah and Shechitah are mainly humanitarian, liberal ideas about individual free choice, and ideas about what constitute “humane” animal rights. This corresponds to the priority given to rationalist reasoning and the parallel secularist disrespect for religiously-based convictions that characterize much of modern Scandinavia. In relation to what we are discussing here we use the term Aufklärungsantisemitismus—a notion coined by the French-Italian historian Diana Pinto—to refer to this.

However, the remarkable support for the Intact Denmark movement and many of the other rather aggressive efforts to stop the practices discussed here, cannot be attributed solely to a preference for rationalist attitudes and humanitarian concerns. Rather, much of the support for these attempts also—and this is particularly so in Denmark—stems from mainly blatant anti-Muslim but also (albeit not so outspokenly) anti-Jewish sentiments. Even if it is true that the campaigns against Brit Milah in Denmark and Sweden build upon strong Enlightenment-based convictions (however often mixed up with misunderstood and wildly exaggerated notions about how circumcision actually affects the baby boy), and even if it is also true that this form of antisemitism—to the extent that it should even be labelled antisemitism—is not life-threatening to individual Jews, several Jewish community leaders and members do regard it as threatening the future of Jewish life in the country.

A third form antisemitism consists in accusing and attacking Jews and Jewish institutions in the country, referring in one’s actions to what one thinks the State of Israel has or is supposed to have done. We label this kind of antisemitism Israel-derived antisemitism.

A measure of Israel-derived antisemitism might be the degree to which Jews in Europe feel safe or unsafe because they are Jewish, due to the impact of the Arab–Israeli conflict. To the question “To what extent does the Israeli-Arab conflict impact on how safe you feel as a Jewish person in your country?” the poll received the following answers: in Sweden: a great deal (40 per cent); a fair amount (27 per cent); a little (28 per cent); not at all (5 per cent), in Denmark: a great deal (35 per cent); a fair amount (35 per cent); a little (26 per cent); not at all (4 per cent).

This shows that approximately two thirds of the Jewish respondents in both Sweden and Denmark appear to perceive their security in their respective countries as being strongly affected by the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict. Among the twelve EU states investigated, the Jews in Belgium, France, Spain, and Germany—those countries hit most severely by terrorism—perceived the impact of the Arab–Israeli conflict on their sense of security as Jews even more strongly, whereas Jews in the former communist and currently immigrant-rejecting countries Poland and Hungary did so to a considerably lesser extent. Another indication of Israel-derived antisemitism might be found in the answers to the question “How often do you feel that people in your country accuse or blame you for anything done by the Israeli government because you are Jewish?” To this question the poll received the following answers: in Sweden: all the time (14 per cent); frequently (20 per cent); occasionally (42 per cent); never (26 per cent), in Denmark: all the time (9 per cent); frequently (28 per cent); occasionally (44 per cent); never (19 per cent).

Here too, Jews living in Poland and Hungary, where according to the ADL index there is a considerably higher proportion of antisemites in the population than in the other twelve countries included in the FRA survey, experience being blamed for what the Israeli government is doing to a considerably lesser extent than do Jews in Sweden, with its remarkably smaller number of classic antisemites in the general population.

Meanwhile, in 2018, Jews in all other participating countries except for the UK felt blamed as Jews for what the Israeli government was doing to a larger extent than Jews in the Scandinavian countries. To explore the animosity against Israel further and, if possible, also to get an idea of the extent to which such attitudes spill over onto Jews living in each of these countries, they also asked to what extent the Jewish respondents had heard non-Jewish persons in the country state, “The world would be a better place without Israel.” This is reported to have been heard within the last twelve months by about one third of the respondents in all countries involved; in Denmark, 34 per cent report having heard it, in Sweden the number is 26 per cent.

A comparison between the proportion of respondents who say they have experienced antisemitic harassment in 2012 and 2018 conveys that this has on the whole remained the same over the years. However, with respect to having experienced offensive or threatening comments in person, this is reported to have increased in two of the countries, Germany and Sweden.

Even if it is true that only a small proportion of the persons who participated in the survey report having been the victim of a violent physical attack because they are Jewish, and even if such attacks and threats do not occur frequently, the fact that they occur at all may cause a higher and more longlasting level of fear among Jews, for instance of being identified as such because of carrying or wearing something that might help people recognize us as being a Jew. This sense of fear may reach even beyond the localities where the violent antisemitic attacks have occurred, and then have a greater impact than even frequent occurrences of antisemitic comments and widespread antisemitic attitudes about Jews living in the country do. The fact that this kind of attack is today mostly attributed to Muslim extremists and the fact that the reasons the perpetrators give for carrying out these actions are related somehow to Israel, makes Israel-derived antisemitism a major factor in contemporary antisemitism—and this is especially so in Scandinavia.

Both the 2012 and the 2018 survey asked the respondents, “Do you ever avoid wearing, carrying or displaying things that might help people recognize you as a Jew in public, for example wearing a kippah/yarmulke, magen David/Star of David or specific clothing or displaying a mezuzah?” In 2012 they found the level of avoidance of carrying anything that might identify one as a Jew to be higher in Sweden than in the other participating EU counties. In the 2018 survey this question was put only to those respondents who in their answer to a preceding question had indicated that they at least sometimes wear, carry, or display such items. The result with that screening still shows avoidance in the Scandinavian countries to be higher than in most of the twelve participating EU countries. The country with the highest percentage to report avoiding displaying Jewish symbols “all the time” and “frequently,” among those who describe themselves as sometimes carrying such symbols, is Denmark (41 per cent). The corresponding figure in Sweden is 35 per cent. In France and Germany it is almost the same, 36 per cent, whereas the feeling of needing to hide one’s Jewish symbols is lower in all other countries.

Noteworthy in this context are the figures for Hungary. Hungary is the country with the highest proportion of antisemites in the general population, and yet it is the country where the fewest respondents who sometimes carry Jewish symbols feel the need to avoid doing so always or frequently (16 per cent). Is there a paradox in this? Sweden and Denmark are the countries with the lowest, and Hungary is the country with highest proportion of classic antisemites in the general population. Hungary is also the country with the lowest proportion of Jews who feel they always or frequently for security reasons need to avoid carrying anything that might make them recognizable as Jews, whereas Denmark and Sweden have the highest proportion of Jews who avoid carrying symbols that might make them recognizable as Jews.

The analysis concludes that this is not a paradox. The popular idea that it is always “the same old antisemitism” that again and again pops up and “shows its ugly face” does not find support in the study. Of course, there are persons who at the same time, for example, hold classic antisemitic stereotypes, are very hostile towards Israel, and favour prohibiting core Jewish customs such as the circumcision of baby boys and the manufacture of kosher meat products. The data, however, does not suggest that there should be a significant correlation between these—rather, it points to each form of antisemitism being inspired by different underlying “philosophies,” being carried by different social groups, and being manifested in different ways.

Above I have presented to what extent these distinct antisemitisms are manifested today in the Scandinavian welfare states, i.e. Denmark and Sweden. Let me summarize some main features of contemporary antisemitism in Scandinavia:

By European and international standards there are today outstandingly low levels of classic antisemitism in the population. Propositions like “Jews have too much power in the country,” “the interests of Jews in the country differ from the rest of the population,” “Jews are not capable of integrating into society,” and the like are less often heard in either Denmark or Sweden than in any of the other EU states.

By European and international standards there is an outstandingly high level of Aufklärungsantisemitismus, i.e. attacks on and attempts at prohibiting the practice of core Jewish customs. Virtually all Jews in Denmark and more than three quarters in Sweden have recently been confronted with such proposals, in particular about ritual circumcision (Brit Milah). In other EU member states such propositions are heard to a considerably lesser extent. Religious slaughter (shechitah) has already been prohibited in these two countries, unlike most of the other participating EU member states.

Israel-derived antisemitism, i.e. attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in the country which refer to what the State of Israel is doing, appears to be a major source of unease among Jews in Denmark and Sweden. Two thirds of respondents in these countries report that the Arab–Israeli conflict impacts “a great deal” or “a fair amount” on their feeling of safety in the country. This is the case even though the extent to which they are blamed for what Israel is doing, or confronted with statements such as “the world would be a better place without Israel,” is not any greater than in the other EU member states—rather the opposite in fact. Is there another paradox in this? No, an explanation is to be found in the clear discrepancy that exists in Denmark and Sweden between the general population on the one hand and pockets of individuals on the other. The population on the whole is “politically correct” and quite capable of distinguishing their occasionally very harsh criticism of Israel from their behaviour towards Jews in general and from rejecting Israel’s right to exist, but in the same two countries there are individuals and small groups who share an impression of Jews in general being accomplices to whatever the State of Israel does. Moreover, they are also not adverse to viewing Jews as party to an imagined evil Israel/US plot to exploit, oppress, and destroy the world.

About twice as large a proportion of respondents in Sweden than in Denmark perceive antisemitism to be “a very big problem.” Historical national self-images probably play a role here. In Denmark one proudly recalls the rescue of the country’s Jews in October 1943. Denmark in the eyes of the Danes, and also in the eyes of the Jews living in Denmark, was never an antisemitic country—quite the opposite! In Sweden, on the contrary, there is a certain self-blame for having endorsed a “J” being stamped in the passports of Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany, whereby they could more easily be refused entry into Sweden. This self-blame also results from the fact that Sweden, although neutral during the Second World War, allowed the German Wehrmacht to use its territory for troop transports.

Besides historical facts, more contemporary factors also distinguish the countries. In Sweden, clearly neo-Nazi movements have in recent years been very active and visible on the public scene. This is not the case in Denmark. In Sweden a populist political party with obvious neo-Nazi roots, Sverigedemokraterna, is strongly represented in the Parliament. Members of this party have repeatedly been caught making antisemitic remarks and gestures. In Denmark, a xenophobic populist party, Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People’s Party), has a similarly very strong standing in the parliament, however it is not stained by similar Nazi tendencies. Add to this huge differences between the countries with respect to immigration and immigration policies. Whereas in recent years Denmark, largely under the influence of Dansk Folkeparti, has pursued a very restrictive line regarding immigrants and refugees from the Middle East being able to settle in the country, Sweden has been much more open and generous in this respect. The number of immigrants and refugees from the Arab and the Muslim world in general received in Sweden is much higher than in Denmark. Even if this in itself is not related to acts of antisemitism, the presence in the country of members of these groups may, rightly or wrongly, be perceived as a latent threat to Jews in the country. The magnitude of such a perception may very well be related to the relative size of the groups in question, in particular of young marginalized Arabs and Muslims, living in one’s neighbourhood or the country in general. The infamous events that have taken place in the city of Malmö in recent decades may serve as a case in point illustrating this.

[mutatismutandisx]

Shadow and Bone (Netflix Series Review)

No Spoilers!!!

"Be careful of powerful men" - Genya Safin

Welcome to the Grishaverse!

Shadow and Bone is Netflix's big gamble for young adult fiction mega-success, the kind we haven't seen since Jennifer Lawrence volunteered as tribute almost a decade ago, adapting Leigh Bardugo's popular Grishaverse novels (her debut trilogy Shadow and Bone and serving as a prequel for the Six of Crows duology), anchored by an incredibly diverse cast (mostly newcomers) and a huge production budget, showrunner Eric Heisserer, alongside Bardugo who serves as an executive producer, aim for Hunger Games and Harry Potter level phenomenon with their own fantasy epic.

To Heisserer's credit, he manages a great adaptation of Bardugo's novels, even if he falls prey to the same story tropes that made Bardugo's debut novels seem so derivative, Heisserer brings the Grishaverse to life in a (mostly) successful run of 8 episodes, and even if his grand tour of Ravka isn't the most organized or well planned, most viewers will still fall in love with this world.

Heisserer's boldest creative choice, and biggest deviation from the novels, is the introduction of Kaz Brekker and his Crows, Jesper and Inej, in this opening chapter to the story, characters that did not appear in Bardugo's original Shadow and Bone trilogy. Creatively and business-wise, his decision is an obvious one, Bardugo's Shadow and Bone novels, while a solid debut, are the typical young adult fodder that is bombarded to consumers every year, a largely derivative yet charming "chosen one" story that teens and tweens eat up every year and then mostly forget about when the next one comes around (less Percy Jacson and more Divergent if you will), truth be told Bardugo's Grishaverse only became a phenomenon after the release of her superb Six of Crows duology, featuring Bardugo's very own Suicide Squad, a ragtag group of crimials performing incredible, mind-bending heists in the tough streets of a fictional Amsterdam (and beyond!), all anchored by what is (to this day) Bardugo's best creation: Kaz Brekker, a Batman-meets-The Riddler machiavelic genius with a flair for theatrics, Six of Crows and it's follow-up Crooked Kingdom are surely the main reason Netflix even greenlit this series to begin with. And just like in the books, Brekker and his Crows provide a much needed bolt of manic energy to an otherwise very by-the-numbers storyline. Not to discredit Bardugo's talent as a writer, but her skills had simply not been honed at the time of her 2012 debut, a shortcoming that Bardugo would fix later on, in her follow up novels, through ambition and sheer force of will.

And yet, Heisserer stays extremely faithful to the books, whether it's to Bardugo's best ideas or her least creative ones, he adapts it all, while attempting to add his own flair into the mix (with varying results), take our main protagonist for example, Alina Starkov, to those unfamiliar with the novels, Alina is the Katniss Everdeen of this story, a mostly ordinary young woman who, by a struck of destiny, finds herself thrust into the spotlight in the hero/savior-of-her-people role (a most unflattering one might I add), and thus becomes an unwilling symbol to a cause she hardly understands, saddled with all the responsabilities and power that comes with the job, and with the inevitable political players and adversaries that may take advantage of her power for their own gain ("Be careful of powerful men" one of Alina's confidants warns her in episode 5). And did I mention she happens to find herself in the middle of a love triangle? Indeed Bardugo's original novel isn't the most creative, and yet Heisserer doesn't have much to offer as a way to reinvent the character, the best he can come up with is changing Alina's ethnicity (originally caucasian) to that of the fictional Shu Han people (read: China), and yet, nothing is really done with the change, it just sits there, (similarly to Alina everytime a background character hurls xenophobic abuse at her), it's not explored and hardly touched upon, which begs the question why introduce the change in the first place? While I commend the showrunners for casting a female lead of asian descent on a blockbuster property such as this, I would remind them that true diversity is more than simply ethnic tokenism. Perhaps there will be a bigger payoff for the creative change in future seasons (if we get them, season 2 has not been greenlit), doubtfull but I'll remain optimistic.

Tokenism aside, the diversity of the cast truly is commendable, and as expected with a young adult property, it's a very young and very attractive cast, on the one hand it's understandable, they need to appeal to their core demographic, on the other hand they commit themselves to one of the most glaring faults in Bardugo's Grishaverse series, Ravka doesn't seem to have soldiers, politicians or grisha over the age of 25, it seems like a huge oversight on part of a country (and Leigh Bardugo) to have the entire power of the government and the military reside upon a group of teenagers, but be that as it may, most of the cast, while young, is very talented, even if their characters aren't fully developed, they do their best with what they are given, some of the standouts are Jessie Mei Li as Alina, Mei Li is saddled with a character and plot that's as derivative as they come, and yet she finds nuances in her perfomance that are lovely to watch, she brings a sense of joy and determination to Alina that lesser actors couldn't even imagine much less portray, all that helps her stand out from most, if not all, the crowd of chosen one characters that have come before her, and even tho Mei Li doesn't reach Jennifer Lawrence levels with her performance, she certainly surpasses the Kristen Stewarts and Shailene Woodleys that have come before.

Ben Barnes is a surprise as General Kirigan, at first glance you might think him miscast (too young, too pretty to be believed as a stone cold, battle hardened general) and yet he still manages to make the character his own, a possessive, demanding, controlling, master manipulator who always seems to have the upper hand, Barnes is blessed with a tight script and he never misses a beat giving a subtle and nuanced performance. And then there is Kit Young as Jesper Fahey, sharpshooter, playboy, criminal with a heart of gold, Young is a revelation, he is as good in his role as Robert Downey Jr. is as Tony Stark, and that's all you need to know, Young was simply born to play Jesper, anchored by a strong script, he steals every scene he is in and far overshadows his fellow Crows. And as for the other Crows, Freddy Carter acts his heart out as Kaz Brekker, committing to a very physical performance, from scowl to limp, he embodies Brekker visually, but after the first 2 episodes you get the feeling the writers simply don't know what to do with his character, losing the spotlight to other actors blessed with better material, never did I think Kaz Brekker would be overshadowed by one of his fellow Crows, yet here we are. Carter's talent still shines through and his perpetual, omnipresent scowl as Brekker is a beauty to behold, even if his limping is somewhat inconsistent, which makes me hopeful he will improve when given more to do, still it's a shame to have the master strategist/evil genius Bruce Wayne replaced by a lowly con artist and not a very successful one at that. As for Amita Suman, while perfectly cast as Inej Ghafa, her character is severely underwritten, from her past work in The Menagerie, to her faith, to her interactions with Brekker, it's all done in the broadest of strokes, Suman isn't given much to do and therefore doesn't have the opportunity to excel as The Wraith.

You can feel the writers straining for time between developing this world and the large cast of characters they have to work with, inevitably some characters fall of the wayside, through none of the actors' fault. Daisy Head as Genya Safin is all untapped potential, even more underwritten here than she is in the books, which make later revelations about her character (the color of her kefta and shifting allegiances) barely register, hopefully they correct that going forward. Sujaya Dasgupta is another victim of a weak script and little screen time, Dasgupta is simply miscast as the powerful, acerbic, steely-eyed Zoya Nazyalensky, long gone is the regal, no nonsense, silver-tongued Grisha general, in Dasgupta's hands Zoya is just a watered down Grisha version of a Mean Girl, faltering every scene with the exception of one moment, as she makes her way through party goers at the Little Palace and she corrects Inej's ethnicity to a bystander, (her one good line reading in the entire show) "She's Suli", she declares, with all the strenght and defiance that's sorely missing from the rest of her performance, moving forward let's hope a stronger script can lift her performace off the ground, because right now all the wind is gone from this Squaller's wings. And as for Malyen Oretsev played by Archie Renaux, he is the Gale Hawthorne of this story, the undignified love interest, and Renaux is as boring in his role as Liam Hemsworth was in his.

Lastly, Danielle Galligan as Nina Zenik and Calahan Skogman as Matthias Helvar, are equally terrible in their performances, from their accents to their interactions, none of it rings true, and it's particularly jarring when juxtaposed with the talent portrayed by the rest of the cast, we spent way too much time with Nina and Matthias, for absolutely no payoff to their story (yet! Fans will recognize them as 2 future members of Brekker's murder of Crows), but their little side adventure is so disconnected with the events of the main plot that I can't help but feel their story was better reserved for another time, hopefully with some better actors playing the roles. A lovely moment of playfulness between Nina and Matthias while they tread along in a barren, snowy hill, is the only glimpse of hope for Galligan's and Skogman's performances, maybe there is talent to be tapped but it certainly wasn't in display this time around.

The Grishaverse is simply too large and complex, so understandably Heisserer and his writers room have a lot on their plate, but while the character work is largely uneven, his world building is quite solid, based on the impressive foundation Bardugo set out for them, the showrunners are able to bring the world of Ravka to life, the costume design is stunning, from soldiers to Grishas, to royals and diplomats, the costume department does a fabulous job with every piece and every character, one of the high points in the series.

The VFX team also does a lot of the heavy lifting for Heisserer's world building efforts, realizing the different power sets of all the Grisha in a fantastical manner while still maintaining a realistic quality to them, ("you'll believe a man can fly"), but even with a huge production budget, Heisserer strains with this world-spanning adventure, so even though the set and production design is mostly impressive, some sets simply fall out of range for the show's budget, case in point, both Ravka's Royal Palace and the Little Palace are not fully realized, viewers are given a single outside shot of the Royal Palace (and from very far away at that) and the throne room is only visited once, and as for the Little Palace, it's stripped from many of the books most sprawling details, the training grounds, the Grisha school, the fabrikators workshop, the dining room, the palace's towers, all falling victim to obvious budget restrains. Not to mention both palaces are devoid of the classic Russian influences that permeate Ravka's world.

But Heisserer's skills for world building show the most limitations on the lore of the Grishaverse, the three Orders of the Grisha are never properly explained, with Fabrikators getting next to none screen time, Heisserer is never capable to establish a clear view of the world these characters inhabit, most viewers will be very confused about Ravka's shifting borders, the civil war tensions between East and West, and the adversary foreign nations (an inclusion of a map in the opening credits of every episode would have gone a long way), the sociopolitical elements that Bardugo has infused in her books are decidedly complex and the show doesn't do them justice, unfortunately. Perhaps most glaring is the very clear disagreements on what a Ravkan's diction and accent should be, since every actor has their own interpretation of it, an oversight that I hope is fixed in future seasons.

As the few completely negative points of the show, alongside Galligan and Skogman, the sound mixing is terrible (you will need subtitles to watch this show) and the cutaway flahbacks are quite sloppy.

To conclude, Shadow and Bone is a lovingly crafted, beautifully realized, world building adventure, it has a couple of missteps along the way (like all adventures do), but the final product is strong enough to overcome some of its creative faux pas, with a solid script and anchored by a (mostly) talented cast, Shadow and Bone doesn't reach Catching Fire levels of greatness but it far outpaces the rest of the young adult fantasy competition.

[miraculouscontent]

Askplosion #12 3/4:

.:Asks Referring to Previous non-Miraculous Posts:.

Anonymous said:

Hi! I saw you mention that you have Asperger’s syndrome in an earlier post. I’m just wondering, how did you find out? I’ve always thought I was neurodivergent (adhd and maybe asperger’s), but I’m not quite sure how to go about finding out, and my parents never had me screened as a kid. Feel free to ignore if this is too personal!

(the post this anon is referring to)

It’s not too personal, don’t worry!

Though, I would really say that it’s something to look up more than for someone to tell you. I know that’s not a satisfying answer but I think it’s different depending on where you live and what specialists you have near you.

Anonymous said:

Remarried Empress Anon Again, a whole post? What an honor! I burnt my food and this made me so happy.

(the post this anon is referring to)

You deserve it! Thanks a bunch!

Anonymous said:

Remarried Empress Anon Again, thank you for answering my asks and for reading Remarried Empress! I honestly didn’t expect much to come of it but the fact you read the comic and saw what I was talking and came to your own conclusions was amazing! I’m sorry if I’m bothering you by bombarding you with asks, and will try to stop doing so. Heck, this doesn’t have to be answered! Just know you are a fun creator and thank you for making my day a little better with your amazing responses!

You weren’t bothering me at all! I’m glad I brightened your day!

asexual-individual said:

I don't know how big the trend of "Magical Girls are made to suffer" is, but after watching Madoka Magica I did notice a few Magical Girl shows where the creators obviously went "Hey, this anime where the Magical Girls suffer and it's all angsty made Shaft a lot of money, let's do our own", and "subversive=money". (Even though many have pointed out that MM isn't actually subversive, since older MG shows have dealt with dark themes plenty of times.)

Yeah, it’s probably one of those inevitable things. People immediately jump on wherever the money’s going.

Madoka Magica probably got so much attention specifically because of the episode three shock value.and all the twisted imagery, plus things like Kyubey with bullet holes all over him made it seem like, “WHOA, DARK.”

Anonymous said:

Remember when I told you about the teenage-bashing in the Star Vs. Fandom? Well, rewatching the show, I'm beginning to think that most of the time, when people in a certain fandom have these opinions, more often than not, the show backs it up for whatever reason. Like, there's one scene where Eclipsa is put on trial and is asked if she's ever eaten any babies(which is just a rumor), and she says no but that she has eaten a few teenagers but, psychologically, they always deserved it.

And in another episode, Star says that teenagers are great at causing problems, which I at first laughed off as a joke, but then in another, Tom and Star were talking about how they broke up, and Star said "Of course we broke up! That's what people do! That's what teenagers do! Teenagers are dumb!" And Tom was just like "Yeah, I know, I know"; there are a lot more examples but I don't care to revisit them. I'm just saying that the teen-hating in the fandom would have to have come from somewhere.

omg I don’t remember that stuff at all; I guess it just blew right past me when I was initially watching it.

I don’t understand the trend of being like, “teenagers are dumb and that’s what they do,” and then either over-punishing or not punishing at all. Are we supposed to believe that all teenagers are just going to “be teenagers” and so we shouldn’t do anything, or that they’re all idiots who don’t understand their own feelings but we should also punish them for it?

I don’t get it.

Anonymous said:

I'm the "tomboys in anime" anon, and yes, I totally agree! It especially irks me(as a girly girl who has a lot to say) when the shortcut to making a girl tomboyish is simply by making her loud/tough/like gaming or machinery, or when a female character is told she isn't enough of a girl because she's like that, but otherwise doesn't look or even act all that "boyish". Even TV Tropes does it, as if the second a girl shows any proactivity or is tough she's a "tomboy".

It really annoys me and almost makes me want to erase the term "tomboy" altogether since it leads to an idea of "I'm not like other girls, I'm better 'cause I do boy stuff"(which I know not every tomboy thinks, but some do). The only reason I don't is because I very proudly embrace the term "girly girl" and terms are meaningless without an opposite(not that you can't like both girly and tomboyish things). So I think the key to fixing this problem is that we shouldn't label people unless they want to be labeled that way.

And I know fictional characters can't speak for themselves, so just to figure out if a female character is a tomboy, I just say that if her only "tomboyish" traits are "proactive" qualities or liking something that's for guys, just don't call them a tomboy because it looks ridiculous and acts like women are inherently passive and weak, so for a girl not to be like that is acting like a man.

I would love to see a tomboy character who likes those things but is actually shy/a wallflower. That avoids the stereotype of "aggressive, hard-hitting tomboy, weak-willed, shallow girly girl" and challenges audiences expectations that "but but but she's a tomboy so she should be loud and strong because strength is for MEN". I also hate when tomboy characters are given no curves because the writers know they're doing something wrong, tomboys can have natural curves too. It's like they think tomboys just don't want to be girls. So, yeah. So over the "tomboy in-name-only" stereotype.

"it makes me feel weird saying that when I’m all for girl power shows with an all female cast, but in this show’s logic, it’s a different ball game". Oh, phew! That's good. Because, like I said before, I'm working on my own magical girl show in which most of the female characters are(black) girls and only girls can use magic in this world, and someone I know keeps telling me that it's not fair that the guys don't get to have magic, so it's good to know that there's someone out there who doesn't think it's "sexist" that magical girls tend to only let girls have powers(unless it's for fanservice or like in Madoka Magica because ick). Because guys get to be in the forefront all too often, so why is it so bad when girls get to be in the spotlight? I know I can't change everyone's opinions but it's good to know someone gets it.

(the post this anon is referring to)

Honestly, I feel like the fact that there’s a label at all is the issue, like you suggested? It might just be a “we have to get ride of the label ‘tomboy’ and ‘girly girl’ altogether” thing, because it’s not like we do the same thing with guys?

Oh wait, we do; guys who do “girly” things are called “sissies.”

I hate this planet. :P

Point being, having to say “tomboy” inherently implies something, which might be a problem all on its own, y’know?

(the below ask is incomplete but the asker clarified after I asked them, so clarification is below:)

Anonymous said:

I just thought back to our little "tomboys in anime" argument and about how you can't really think of any tomboys. So I looked up "tomboys in anime" on Google and clicked on the first link, and literally the first character on the list was a girl with...a flower in her hair and a bikini. The reason she was a "tomboy" according to the list? Was because she is "aggressive" and "competitive". In fact, most of the examples on the list were "she's tough/a good fighter/challenges male supremacy".

(part of this ask is missing and clarified below)

girly girls, while the girly girls always have to be the weak and shy ones(not that shy=weak but you get the idea). But while I may not know most of the characters on the list, and some of them DID look pretty tomboyish, I'm very bothered by the idea that it's their strength and ambition and excellent fighting skills that are branded as masculine. And you know what? I'd actually be offended if someone called me a tomboy, especially if it was based of these reasonings. Because it sounds like they think being a tomboy is the only way to be strong and vice versa. Like I should take it as a compliment that I need to be separated from my femininity in order to be respected. Like, if you're a tomboy, cool! But it shouldn't be used for just any girl who isn't a weak-willed crybaby doormat. I actually don't know why people seem to think being a tomboy or "masculine" for a girl is some sort of badge of honor to wear with pride for rejecting your femininity and being "cooler" than other girls.

the clarification:

Anonymous said:

The missing part was talking about the various tropes having to do with contrasting masculinity/femininity, either in two different characters, with one being masculine and one being feminine(ex. Tomboy and Girly Girl, Sensitive Guy and Manly Man, Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy, Masculine-Feminine Gay Couple), or one character who has traits of both(ex. Girly Girl With a Tomboy Streak, Tomboy With a Girly Streak, Real Men Wear Pink), and how TV Tropes always talks about them as if the "girly" character(or girly side of the character) is weaker or inferior(like how for Tomboy and Girly Girl they might say that the former is tough, competitive, and can fight, while the latter is vain, a priss, and a Damsel in Distress.

Or for Tomboy With a Girly Streak, they might say that the tomboy dresses in a masculine way with their "girly" streak being that they're a doormat or dream of being a housewife. Not that it's wrong to be a housewife.).

To be fair, they don't always do this: For the pages on Magical Girl they talk about how those shows can appeal to multiple demographics, and almost all the quotes on them, they talk about how they're empowered through their femininity and are just as much legitimate threats to their opponents as other heroes. Still, they fall in this trap even then, as on the LoliRock Awesome page, they say "You gotta admit, for a Magical Girl show, LoliRock does have its awesome moments", which ignores that Magical Girl is SUPPOSED to have awesome moments, it's literally an action subgenre! Just because it's frilly and pink and girly doesn't mean it doesn't--or shouldn't--still have badass fight scenes. Just look at PreCure. Shonen should take notes from those shows. But no, whoever wrote that clearly dismissed it as just frivolous and was SURPRISED that the fight scenes were good, just because it's girly!

It’s 2021 and people are still struggling with this concept that girliness isn’t bad and it’s not embarrassing to watch such a show.because GIRLS.

It’s so tiring. I watched Dragonball Z, Inuyasha, and played Pokemon; got a few looks about it at times but people ultimately were like, “okay I guess” (I did get bullied for the Pokemon one but that was more for the “it’s for babies” kind of deal, not a “you can’t like that because you’re a girl,” thing). I can’t really relate to the world of girls who get looked down upon for being “girly” but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand that it must be awful for them.

Don’t even get me started on “Tomboy Lesbian,” I will scream about it and it won’t be happy screaming.

[girlsbtrs]

Me, Taylor, and The Search for Musical Legitimacy

Written by Lila Danielsen-Wong. Graphic by James Nida Grey.

As a child, whenever I took art classes, they were full of girls. I took group piano lessons with four other girls from my neighborhood. Any theatre I was involved in casted regardless of gender because there were never enough boys to fit a show. My middle school orchestra was about three quarters girls. 

It came as a shock that when I started getting involved in any songwriting I could do, I was suddenly in the minority. The few all-ages open mics I could go to were set up by dad-types and primarily populated by their friends of the same demographic. Teenage rock band-type boys dominated the non-classical learning spaces. 

However, this isn’t about them, this is about me, Lila Danielsen-Wong, a girl you’ve probably never heard of, and a girl you probably have heard of. Her name is Taylor Swift.

In 2010, I was a sixth-grade latchkey kid who spent a whole lot of time watching music videos on YouTube. Taylor Swift had just released her third studio album, Speak Now. Although many girls my age had been enchanted by Fearless, I was a pretentious and precocious preteen who was resistant to popular things, and was much more interested in niche Boston folk singer-songwriters like Antje Duvekot and Lori McKenna. 

However, niche Boston folk singer-songwriters don’t really make lots of YouTube content geared at middle schoolers, so the YouTube recommendations led me from my folk corner, to The Band Perry, to a song called White Horse. 

This snowballed into me listening to every Taylor Swift song on Youtube, to learning to play the piano chords to each of them, to writing complete songs of my own. Although I’d been writing simple piano melodies for years, songwriting now occupied every corner of my brain in nearly every free moment. When I learned Dear John, I decided it didn’t sound as good on piano, so I decided I needed to play it on guitar. I snuck into my mother’s room and learned to play an E chord. Soon, all I did was practice guitar and write songs. I wanted to write like she did, to articulate my feelings as well as she did, so precisely that everyone who listened understood not only me, but themselves better. However, I was not ready to publicly be someone who listened to Taylor Swift. Occasionally a YouTube comment would remove me from Taylor world and remind me “All of her fans are teenage girls.” At eleven I didn’t have the words or the context to understand why that so briskly discredited her. I knew it was an insult, and I knew it was an insult that worked. 

Flash forward two years, I was one of the youngest writers at a summer songwriter lab geared toward teens that one of the local theatres held yearly. Remember the rock boys I was talking about? This is when we became acquainted. We had just come back from writing songs in our randomly assigned groups. I had a hard time contributing, being a not-quite-high-schooler who’d never tried co-writing. One of the older girls was talking to the rock boys and I remember the conversation word for word. One of the rock boys asked her how the session went. She responded “eh, it was all girls,” to which the boy said “mine too, a lot of just-singer girls, you know cause of like, Taylor Swift.” They laughed and went on to complain about the younger songwriter girls who “don’t even know what they were doing.”

The conversation they were having, “Taylor Swift, a frivolous girly artist, is encouraging frivolous girls to come into our serious artist spaces and making them frivolous,” stuck with me through my teen years, and it wasn’t until recently that I started to understand. Taylor Swift found success because she could connect with girls like me, and I found my absolute favorite thing, my life calling, because of Taylor Swift; but Taylor Swift was being discredited because of me, and I was being discredited because of Taylor Swift. 

In older interviews, Taylor talks about how after the first time she went to Nashville to pitch herself to labels, she heard nothing. So she decided she needed to be different, and that’s when she started writing songs. At that moment, I realized that I was going to have to be (crucify me) “not like other girls” if I wanted to be taken seriously or have my ideas heard. The next day I came back to the young songwriters lab with my viola instead of my guitar, and managed to finesse my way into playing on nearly half the songs in the showcase. 

I don’t need a list of MLA cited sources to explain that art geared to girls and young women is dismissed. It is not a hot take to say that art created by young women is often instantly devalued. Taylor Swift wrote music about girls and young women for girls and young women, and she didn’t have much interest in being a sex symbol. Not that there’s anything wrong with female artists who use their sexuality, but Taylor Swift gave the men who gate-keep musical legitimacy nothing they wanted from her. Still, she wrote Speak Now with no co-writers before she was old enough to legally drink. She followed it up with Red, a diverse transition album that showed off her songwriting range. 1989 broke records, started an 80’s pop revival and seamlessly transitioned her into pop. Taylor Swift was everywhere, and yet I heard the same things echo. 

“She isn’t a real artist because she only writes about relationships.” 

“Her audience is just rabid fans who don’t know anything about real music.”

“She’s just a pop star who won’t stand the test of time.”

I spent the tail end of 2015 writing songs that emulated the rhythmic lyrics of 1989, but if anyone asked who my musical influences were, I’d often omit her and stick with niche Boston folk singer-songwriters. Me and my music were not going to get pegged as a naive and shallow fangirl.

It was my freshman year of college. I was at my local state school because I couldn’t really afford to go to any of the music programs I wanted to go to, when I ran into a friend who I knew from the songwriting labs. She invited me to the guitar club that she ran, and of course I went. Although the rock boys weren’t the majority numbers wise, they dominated the room. They asked about my beat up Guild guitar. Impressed with how I inherited it from a rocker guy my dad works with, they encouraged me to play a song. I pulled out my most meticulously crafted coming-of-age ballad, and let them hear my line, “we’re all cynics and romantics, it’s semiotics and semantics,” to which they responded “cute song.” 

With the release of Folklore and Evermore, there’s been a shift. After teaming up with Aaron Desner of the National and Bon Iver, Taylor got a bit of that male approval that she never really needed. Pitchfork commented, with surprise, that Folklore showed “some real signs of maturity.” Each album that an artist releases should probably be more mature than the last. Surprise at lyrical maturity from a 30-year-old songwriter who penned lines like “you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you” as a teen, comes across a little underhanded. 

Much of the next generation of musicians have been influenced by Taylor. Conan Grey’s TikTok hit Heather was based on Last Kiss. Rising it-girl Olivia Rodrigo is a hardcore fan. Even Phoebe Bridgers, who has been memed as “Taylor Swift for girls with crumbs in their beds” or “Taylor Swift for people whose parents still love each other” lists Taylor Swift as an influence. Although this new shift is one for Taylor Swift and not a change in the ingrained biases against women and their art, I wonder if it’s going to trickle down to the artists she influenced. 

My favorite line in Evermore, Swift’s latest studio album ft. sad dad rock, comes in the second verse of Coney Island. In this song, Matt Berninger of The National slides in and out, singing lines in less predictable blocks than in other Swift collaborations. Together, Swift and Berninger coo “do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there/will you forgive my soul when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care.” It’s funny to hear one of the world’s biggest superstars share a line so monumental to the album. I wonder if it’s because she knows how much louder it will be when a man is holding up the low ends. 

[arianne-daniels]

Some Dear Evan Hansen Thoughts

Hi guys. So I figured I might as well talk about this show and the movie, since the movie is such a hot topic right now. This is definitely going to have some constructive criticism about the show, but my goal isn’t to just bash the show or anything. They’re just my thoughts. This is going to be kind of a long post. Honestly, I just wanted to enumerate my thoughts somewhere.

TL;DR: The musical is mildly problematic and the movie is going to drudge up some interesting issues.

So I completely missed the first craze of the show because it came out in the 2017 season, and the only show I cared about at the time was Anastasia. After I watched the Tony’s that year, I looked up Dear Evan Hansen, and found the plot synopsis to be pretty uninteresting and never bothered trying to watch it. At some point, I watched the performance of You Will Be Found on the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and thought the song was the finale of the show.

I finally got around to watching it because I found a bootleg of Jordan FIsher as Evan, and I love Jordan Fisher. So I watched it. For one thing, it took three sittings for me to watch because I kept turning it off when I felt like it was awkward.

I definitely see why it got as popular as it did, especially amongst the demographic it did (which seems to be mostly teens and twenty-somethings). All of the teen characters kind of...lack personality, and therefore it’s really easy to project yourself on to them. The music is catchy—Pasek and Paul have written a lot of super catchy, borderline pop music (see La La Land and The Greatest Showman)—which makes it easy to listen to the cast album. Dear Evan Hansen also seems to have a pretty big social media presence, which makes it seem more accessible than a lot of shows.

But the biggest issue I have with the show is that all of the characters are shitty people. At one point in the show, Jared tells even that Connor dying was the best thing that could’ve happened to Evan, and really that’s...so true?? But the way the show frames it is that Jared saying that is so off the mark. Evan lies constantly and compulsively, tells his mom that she’s not good enough despite the fact she really seems to be trying her hardest, and basically joins this grieving family by manipulating them. It’s kind of fucked up.

And, like I said, the teenaged characters are all kind of blank slates. Even Evan, the main character, doesn’t seem to have many traits besides having anxiety and depression, liking trees (and nature, I guess, by extension), and having a crush on Zoe Murphy. That’s...not a lot to go off of? Like I’m sorry, but if any character should be fleshed out, it should be the main character. What do we really know about Evan, from the show?

Then there are Alana and Jared, who are both basically stereotypes. Alana is the overly ambitious, involved in everything type that shows up in all media about high school. Jared is an asshole nerd. They’re both wildly insecure, but in a very shallow way. They also just completely disappear after Good For You and get absolutely no resolve in the show, which is kind of ridiculous. Like, they’ve been in a lot of the show. I get that the show is about Evan, but he fucked them both over and they should have shown up at least one more time.

Most of what we hear about Zoe Murphy is from I Should Tell Her (which is SO creepy, by the way), but they’re basically just about how she’s a teenage girl. We know she play guitar in jazz band and was abused by her brother. I guess you get a decent look into her mind in Requiem and Only Us, and really I would argue that you know the most about her of all the teen characters.

Connor has the least characterization, which makes sense because he dies like fifteen minutes into the show. His entire character breaks down to “problematic asshole stoner”. And then he shows up as a hallucination of Evan’s for a couple of scenes. Connor is basically just a plot device.

Cynthia and Larry don’t fare all that much better than the teenagers, because Cynthia is basically just a Rich, White Housewife, and Larry is an emotionally distant father. I mean, it works, I guess. And it’s immediately easy to see why they buy into Evan’s stories so quickly, so they’re used effectively, at least.

Heidi Hansen is the character I would say is the most fleshed out, and the only one I found myself empathizing with, even a little bit. Lady is clearly just trying her hardest. Evan kind of treats her like shit, and he says some pretty fucked up stuff to her.

The DEH fandom seems to have projected specific character traits on to a lot of the characters. Which, like, is fair. it happens in all fandoms, fanon ideas becoming so well-known people often begin treating them as canon. I’ve seen it so much in Harry Potter and Percy Jackson I don’t really think it’s weird anymore. But with DEH, like I said, the characters are all pretty blank.

I think it’s going to make the movie really...interesting. I’m very curious to see if any of these fanon things are going to make their way into the movie, given I don’t think the creators live in a bubble. They’re writing new songs (at least the one), which normally I would be skeptical of but there’s a very minimal amount of music in the show.

I also think that this movie actually mainstream is going to cause a lot of internet screaming, in the vein of what happened when 13 Reasons Why was at the height of its popularity. 13RW had a lot of debate about the portrayal of suicide. There’s been some minor discussion about how the aftermath of Connor’s suicide mildly glorifies suicide, but it doesn’t haunt Dear Evan Hansen  in the same way it follows 13RW. I really think that the movie is going to spark that same discussion once again, but on a bigger scale.

I want to end this out by saying it’s a mistake to cast adults as teenagers (which I know is not a hot take), especially with this story. After I watched the Jordan Fisher bootleg, I went and skimmed through one of the OBC (because I do always like to see the original cast) and a boot of Andrew Barth Feldman (because I’m a fan of Mallory Bechtel, I realize that’s a weird reason), and the show really, really benefits from having an actual teenager as Evan Hansen. Watching a genuine teenager fuck with people’s lives by being a moron is a lot easier to stomach than watching Ben Platt do it, because Ben Platt looks like he’s thirty, and it feels so much more deliberate when it’s someone that old. Teenagers make mistakes, and while I know the story is telling us that Evan is 17, looking at a grown ass man completely breaks that illusion.

If you stayed this long, thanks for listening to my incoherent ramblings.

[dlamp-dictator]

A Bittersweet Prequel (Akame ga Kill Zero)

Akame ga Kill! Zero is the prequel to Akame ga Kill!, a shounen manga based around a corrupt medieval empire and the group of revolutionary assassins attempting to take the kingdom down from the inside known as Night Raid. This specific spinoff manga focuses on the female lead Akame and her past as an assassin for the Empire. You get to see her interact with her old team, the Elite 7, her earlier missions and life as an Empire Assassin, and how she ended up getting her iconic Murasame blade before betraying the Empire. Overall, I liked this manga a lot, and unlike most things I like I have very few asterisks to put in front of that statement. This is an honest-to-God good manga from start to finish. 

But I still have a few asterisks to lay out. Nothing that usually scares people away from things I like. This isn’t Senran Kagura, Rumble Rose, Wanna be the Strongest in the World, or... honestly, half the manga in my collection. No, just a few gripes and annoyances you might have when reading the manga I think knowing in advance would ease the pain a little. 

Ultimately, this manga has three big issues for me. 

Oh, and I’m using a “read more” for once to see how that goes.

Anyway, like I said, three main issues:

It’s a Seinen

This isn’t the criticism you might be thinking. My issue with this manga is that it’s pushing for a Seinen rating rather than the fact that it simply is one. The original Akame ga Kill was a darker shounen aimed at an older teenage crowd. It had its fair share of dark moments, gore, and violence, and while a lot of it felt like it was done for edge or shock value after about volume 9 or 10, it wasn’t going too far with it in terms of content, at least for my taste. This was a manga about killers, murderers, and assassins at the end of the day, so killings, murders, and assassinations happened. A lot.

But Zero… went further.

Let me put it this way, if I had to give the original Akame ga Kill manga a rating I’d say it’d be rated T, maybe even a 16+ as it had some rather gruesome depictions of blood, gore, general violence, and some light sexual themes. Zero has all of that plus a lot more T&A, and namely uncensored T&A. 

Now I’m no prude, seeing anime titties isn’t exactly going to make me go up in arms about the manga. However, this has more to do with demographics and author intent. Like I said, the original Akame ga Kill had a lot of dark moments, but most sexual aspects of it was typical shounen wackiness. Sneaking into the girl’s bath, boob gags, the occasion girl in skimpy clothing, things like that. Zero has all that more, and in much darker showing. At least three characters nearly getting sexually assault, there are several sex scenes both implied and nearly shown, a lot of naked girls walking about at points, and general Seinen wackiness happening. 

I wouldn’t say these are bad things, but... they make me raise my eyebrows somewhat. Again, the original had its dark moments, and losing your chastity unwilling was definitely one of them. Hell, one mission of Tatsumi’s was in a brothel. However… that was originally a manga aimed at an older teenage crowd, around 15-18 if I had to take a guess, and the prequel, which was ran alongside the original for a time, was a Seinen aimed at a young adult crowd of 18-20+. This is a somewhat concerning jump in ratings and target audience. I understand the original demographic that’d be curious would have aged to this point, but... it feels like more of a forced decision to add it rather than trying to keep up with the demographic of longtime fans. Again, nothing bad, but curious. 

I’ll also add that there’s a different artist tackling this spinoff, a Kei Toru instead of the original’s Tetsuya Tashiro, so this might be a matter of artist preference than the writer’s intent. Still, you take out all the T&A and you’d get a decent manga all the same, so I can’t help but feel the Seinen elements were tacked on to fanservice rather than to show darker elements. It’s not Tsugumomo levels of forced Seinen elements, thank Christ, but it feels tacked on regardless.

But anyway, the second major issue.

The Shingu

The Shingu are basically Teigu that exist to give Akame and the Elite 7 cool weapons without completely retconning the world-building of the original Akame ga Kill. Lore-wise the Shingu are basically knockoff Teigu, an attempt to recreate the great weapons of old but were ultimately inferior compared to the the genuine products. They were still handy and powerful all the same, and are used by trusted and capable fighters within the Empire all the same. However, their existence showed the flaws in trying to do specific world-building, at least if you’re familiar with writing. 

To go a little off-topic for a bit, something I often say on my RP blog and when discussing general writing is to never get too specific with your world-building. The more you add, the more you have to adhere to as you write, lest you’re called out on it when retcons happen. And when Akame ga Kill already stated only 48 Teigu exist, but only half of them are even around it destroys any potential to have addition cool weapons in a sequel or prequel without some maneuvering around the lore. It can be done, but it does more to hamstring you in the end, and savvier audience members will notice it.

The Shingu do this to a certain degree. They don’t break the world-building, as the backstory of the Teigu are still intact, but for a savvier reader its pretty clear the Shingu were... unintended. By the logic of Zero, there should be several soldiers, officers, and generals with the weaker,but more numerous Shingu to compensate for the lack of Teigu and still having an edge in battle during the coming revolution. The Shingu honestly are just slightly weaker than a Teigu according to the lore, so it’s no big comparison really unless we’re talking Esdeath-levels of powerful. To shoehorn them in just to give Akame and her friends interesting weapons just... feels annoying to me.

But again, that’s ultimately a small nitpick. They don’t break anything, just lead to a lot of unintended consequences if you think on it too hard like I do.

But onto my last big issue, and it’s not really an issue, but an inevitability that caused the first too issues, which is...

This is a Prequel

I don’t know if there’s an actual term for this, so I’m going to call this the Fate/Zero Effect, in which the prequel of a series is far more superior to the original in terms of writing and is only neutered by the on-rails conclusion that leads to the beginning of the original series. I only call this an issue because there’s so much I like about this manga that the original kind of... feels weaker by comparison. But to talk about how that is I’ll have to talk about all the good things about this manga first. To start with:

Akame’s Characterization was Great

Akame was a very believable character in this series, someone working for her father-figure teacher as an assassin that honestly believes she’s improving her messed up country from within instead of advancing the agendas of the wealthy and powerful. However, she’s sharp enough to realize that people aren’t getting better no matter how many revolutionaries her team kills. She questions it, and her father’s dodgy, almost threatening nature about her doubts only pushes her further to leaving. Her slowly questioning the horrors and cruelty of the world and being the only one in her team to really question her father’s goal is a nice touch. 

Another nice touch is that you really do buy that she’s the weakest of the Elite 7. She’s strong, of course, but compared to the rest of her team she’s lacking in some department. She doesn’t have the commanding presence of Najasho, the strategic mind of Green, the absurd strength of Guy, the Levelheadedness and charisma of Cornelia, the instincts and quick-thinking of Pony, or the loyalty and cleverness of Tsukushi. She’s just… Akame, the assassin that’s a decent swordsman and likes meat.

I’ll admit the only thing that felt forced was Merraid pushing her further to see the Empire’s cruelty while captured by her, as Akame was already questioning it to begin with, but that’s just a minor nitpick. All in all, I did enjoy seeing this form of Akame, especially seeing her relationship with Kurome while it was still on good terms. Seeing the sisters actually bond and care for each other really helped show how much Akame cares for her, and how she thought killing her was the best choice in the end if Kurome was too stubborn or brainwashed to leave the Empire. And that’s just the main character, I have to give my respects to the side cast as well. That being said...

The Side Cast

The Elite Seven was a nice addition. They’re about as kooky as Night Raid but keeping them all around the same age was probably for the best. Not to say Night Raid was bad, but having everyone being teenagers following one main adult boss just creates better cohesion. Night Raid was mostly teens too, but the Elite 7 just feel a lot more like friends. I can’t really describe it. Maybe because they were already a unit by the time the series started, maybe because the writer got a lot better at writing banter, I really couldn’t say. They’re all likeable in their own way, and all great fighters when the chips are down. Next to Akame, Pony was my favorite of the group. Both design and personality wise they’re all unique. The writer has a good track record of writing good banter and synergy with a ragtag group. Between Night Raid, the Jaegers, the Elite Seven, and even Hinowa’s regiment in Hinowa ga Crush, they’re very good at making likable characters… right before killing them off. 

And that’s the issue with this being a prequel, we know most of the Elite Seven were slated to die. With the two exceptions of Pony and Najasho, which was an honest surprise for me, I think it was fair to say most everyone in the cast were slated for the chopping block due to the nature of the prequel to Akame ga Kill. They can only be characterized so much before the inevitable happens. Fate/Zero had this effect too, as we knew Kotomine and Kiritsugu would at least survive the war, but everyone else was... well, fodder, no matter how charismatic they were. I know this is done to create tension and a bit of bittersweet longing for the what-if, but... I don’t know, I can’t help but be a little annoyed by it.

There’s on more thing I want to talk about before ending this essay, so I’ll talk about...

Art and Story

Now, Fate/Zero had a new writer do its story and a new studio do the animation, but in Akame ga Kill Zero’s case we’ve got the same writer and a different artist. As far as the writing goes it’s a lot better in Zero. It’s still got a tinge of silliness mixed in with the serious, but it’s a lot better paced in more delivery and frequency. Merraid being a useless lesbian at times didn’t completely take over her character or detract from it. The general silly moments with the Elite Seven were almost always during a slow period that could afford a gag here or there to punch out the slow pace. Everything felt a lot more cohesive… which makes the chronological series feel a little weak by comparison. Again, much like Fate/Zero, going back and comparing the original Fate/Stay Night anime to the more mature Fate/Zero really feels like night and day in terms of the writing. I’m actually rewatching the original Stay Night this month and next and while I’ll give a full piece on my opinion next month I’ll at least say while it holds up surprisingly well for a mid-2000s anime, it definitely is dated in a lot of ways. 

In the same way, the original Akame ga Kill feels a bit dated as well, a lot the jokes feel more distracting than funny, a lot of the characters feel a little less realized and the plot itself feels a lot more rushed, especially at the climax. The powerscaling is also an issue, but that’s a whole other Rambling. Zero on the other, being a prequel, can only go so far in terms of plot escalation and powerscaling. With a permanent lock on those two things you can afford to tell a much smaller scale story without the worry of having to increase the action to a large degree because you, by design, can’t extend the powerscaling past around the beginning of the first story. Granted there are exceptions. To go back to Fate, Stay Night was a war fought by a majority of high school students and people not too attune to magic with only 3-ish people of actual competence out of the case of 10+, but Akame ga Kill Zero, realistically, can’t do anything bigger than using Muramase in a flashy way, making a lot of the fights more tactical. My favorite part of this series was that Akame had Kiriichimonji, a Shingu whose wounds would never heal. This made Akame’s fights a lot more tactically, strategically wounding enemies to whittle them down or give Akame an opening in the future rather than just a pure one-cut kill.

Art-wise… I’m not much for art critique, but I did prefer the original artist to the one for Akame ga Kill Zero. I couldn’t explain why, but something about the lines just feels… too light. Not bad, but I myself have a preference for dark, thick, and even sketchy lines, and something about this new artist feels a little too clean at times for something as potential dark as Akame ga Kill. Again, not bad, but not my preference either. I do like a lot of the designs like Poney and Merraid, but that’s really it.

Conclusion

Overall, my nitpicks aside, I enjoyed reading this manga a lot. I think I’ll pick it up again next time in the mood for a decent action manga. I’m slowly catching up to Hinowa ga Crush and I’ve got mostly positive feelings about it, so I know the writer still has some gas in the tank in terms of their writer juices and I can’t wait to see more of the world he’s creating.

[bakudomaster]

Charmed (1998 - Part 2)

[continued from Part 1]

STRUCTURE, WRITING & DEVELOPMENT

Charmed, like most of its supernatural contemporaries, mostly followed a villain of the week plot, with the sisters using their powers, spells or potions to overcome a demon or warlock. At the time, it was a very trendy theme to follow: thanks to media like The Craft, audiences were starting to shake of the moralistic panic that boomed in the 80s and explored the occult through familiar lenses, such as that of high school girls or modern working women.

The showrunners at the time (Constance M. Burge, who was the one had developed the idea and Brad Kern, who would head up the show over its 8 year run) were very aware that the supernatural theme was trendy at the time. Both Buffy and Sabrina had their premieres in 1996 and had developed a loyal following by then. The vampire slayer aimed for very dark and mature themes, whilst the teenage witch went for a lighter and airier approach. The Halliwell sisters struck it straight down the middle between the two - though the show would incorporate themes of death and frequent danger, it would also make use of heartwarming family moments and a dry sense of humor.

The writers used a very clear motto when coming up with scripts - these were sisters that happened to be witches, not the other way around, something mentioned in season 8′s bonus featurette. As important as magic was, it was not allowed to completely overshadow the various hurdles the Halliwells faced away from the cauldron - careers, boyfriends and family issues all had a significant hand in developing their characters.

Seasons 1 & 2 had a very simplistic formula, though it was a bit shaky. It can be forgiven when you consider that the show was doing trial and error in its own way, seeing what worked and what didn’t. Many of the memorable episodes come from these seasons as the writers laid down the history and mythology of the Halliwells.

Season 3 is where the real action began. Swinging in a much darker direction and taking the risk of an overarching plot, viewers were introduced to Cole Turner and his plot to kill the sisters whilst falling in love with Phoebe, Leo and Piper getting married and Prue continuing to power through life like the badass she was; all of which culminated in the season finale where the eldest witch was killed off. Many of the episodes stand out for their consistently solid writing, the outstanding acting and the dead on sarcastic humor.

After this, it was understandable that many fans and even the network was worried that the show would lose its momentum. Shannen Doherty was arguably the most famous person on the show - would the role of Prue be recast or would Phoebe and Piper carry on as a twosome? Would the show even come back?

All fears were allayed when the fourth season aired. Paige was no Prue, but her presence sent Charmed in a new, more offbeat direction. The same presence from the previous season continued, with the sisters battling the Source of All Evil for their very lives whilst having to deal with a new family members and burgeoning loves. Rose McGowan was refreshing and her being on the show caused the dynamic to change before it got too stale.

Charmed officially jumped the shark in season 5. The season long plot was eschewed in favor of episodic plots again, though they weren’t on the same level as the early seasons. The show also started to steer away from the traditional Wiccan feel. I feel the word ‘stereotype’ is inadequate here but I’m not sure of what else to use - leprechauns, genies, wood nymphs, mermaids; you name it, it was made into an episode. In essence, it became sillier and a parody of what the show had initially wanted to be.

The last three seasons were relatively mediocre. Though there are some good episodes here and there, it did not live up to the pinnacle of seasons 3 and 4. Overarching stories were back, but they didn’t mesh well with the lighter approach the show was going for. Character decay set in and ratings soon started to drop. Upon the renewal of the show for an eighth season, the lead actresses made it clear that this would be their last and did not want to continue further as the Power of Three. It was a decision that I imagine was hard, but fair. Charmed was no longer magical and in an age of rising reality TV (The Hills) and fascination with the obscenely rich (The O.C.), no spell in the Book could help.

Here are a list of episodes I recommend watching for various reasons:

The Witch Is Back - Melinda Warren, the witch who started it all, makes her first and last appearance on the show

Which Prue Is It Anyways? - watch for a different take on the Power of Three

Chick Flick - hilariously funny

Coyote Piper - a filler episode done right

Bride & Gloom - watch what happens when good girls go bad

Sin City - another filler done right

All Hell Breaks Loose - arguably, the best episode of the series & Shannen’s best performance

Hell Hath No Fury - Holly’s best performance

Charmed & Dangerous - the second best episode

Long Live The Queen - Alyssa’s best performance

Sympathy For The Demon - Rose’s best performance

The Power of Three Blondes - a very funny filler

Forever Charmed - the series finale

BULLSEYES & IMPROVEMENTS

What it got right:

The sense that no matter what you did or who you wanted to be, your family would always have your back

Darryl and his passive-aggressive snark at being dragged into the magical world time and again

The original spin on Wiccan principles & mythology in the first four seasons

The Book of Shadows & its artwork

Penny Halliwell - the grandma you always wanted

The awkward but fast connection Paige made with her sisters

Prue & Jack - proof that opposites attract

Cole’s arc during seasons 3 & 4

What it got wrong:

Wyatt - overpowered and seemingly out of nowhere, he was a bit unnecessary. Apparently, the writers made him this way to justify a baby being in the house with demons about to the network, but there are much better ways to get around this without giving him every single power

Future Chris - whiny, snotty and way too controlling. Also, Drew Perry is a very poor actor compared to the rest of the cast

Phoebe’s love life - apart from Cole, take any two of Phoebe’s love interests and tell me how they differ, I dare you

I’ve already mentioned the general silliness, but Seasons 5 & 6 takes the cake in this

Zankou - what could have been the smartest villain on the show was wasted due to too many storylines running about in season 7

Leo’s arc in season 7 - he doesn’t do brooding as well as Cole and it doesn’t make sense for his character

Darryl eventually turning against the sisters - it made no sense and it undid so many years of trust and friendship

Magic School - had this come in earlier seasons or just for an episode or two, it would have been a fun setting. The fact that it was  a very focal point post season 6 made it seem like a Hogwarts knockoff

Piper & Leo post season 4 - a very strong & loving relationship was marred by unnecessary trials. Really, he was made into an Elder in season 5 and had to leave home, but in season 6, he basically stuck around anyways, so what was the point? Just leave them together FFS!

CULTURAL IMPACT

Like many shows on the WB in the 90s, Charmed was very popular with the younger demographic even though its characters were about five years older than they were. Many resonated with the messages of family and female empowerment to the point of making a show a cult classic, even though it wasn’t as critically acclaimed as Buffy or Angel. Up until

Unfortunately, the environment on set was not ideal. Rumors of feuds between Shannen and Alyssa were plenty abound, causing the gossip machine to speculate that the latter’s rise in popularity was the result of the former leaving. Recently, Brad Kern was also exposed for being responsible for a very toxic & misogynistic work atmosphere. It’s a cruel irony, given the feminist tones the show cultivated.

Up until Desperate Housewives, Charmed had the honor of being the longest running TV show with all female leads. It was a truly imaginative show that made its own identity known. I haven’t watched the remake nor do I plan to - I have nothing against the new show and I’m sure it has it’s own highlights, but there’s only one Power of Three for me...

[... and that’s why we’ve truly been Charmed]

WHERE TO WATCH IT

Charmed is available for streaming on Netflix

[mesaylormoon]

Film and Fluff Blogging: A Review of Riverdale Season 1

My. Goodness. Where do I begin to describe my mixed feelings about Riverdale? I have never been particularly interested in shows predominantly marketed toward teenagers, and this show has reminded me why. Riverdale not only has a tonally-dissonant premise, it combines such elements as one-dimensional characters, countless cliches, poorly-written dialogue, plot holes, and clumsy plot twists--so many of them that I would normally consider this a terrible show. Strangely enough, though, every element of Riverdale that makes it irritating... also makes it uniquely charming.

A friend of mine, who loves Riverdale, recently recommended this show to me.  I was quite hesitant at first to watch it, but I thought following along with it would give me something new to enjoy, as well as give me a chance to grow closer to her by sharing some of her interests. While I don’t dislike the show (in fact, Riverdale is a guilty pleasure of mine), I understand that it is hugely flawed. 

Riverdale, a once-peaceful town, is suddenly shaken by the mysterious death of Jason Blossom. No one knows knows what caused his untimely death, but Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones, and the rest of their friends, are determined to find out. In the midst of all this, our main characters also navigate a world of drama, romance, school, and scandal, as they struggle to make it through another year.

The synopsis of Riverdale alone is enough to confuse the average viewer, and anyone can see that these stories, when combined, make the show seem confused and inconsistent. Ideally, if one decides to feature two major stories within a television show or movie, they should relate with one another. Obviously, crime/mysteries and teen drama are premises independent of one another. I understand that shows like Riverdale are meant to appeal to a relatively young audience, but not every teenager is interested in the artificial, manufactured drama involved in high school-centered media. Had the writers and directors not pandered to their stereotypical demographic, their latest outing would’ve been stronger. In my opinion, Riverdale would have benefitted from keeping focus on one of its stories--the mystery or the lives of Betty, Archie, and company--and including a subplot involving either the emotional effects of Jason’s death on his family and friends, or the maturation of the characters as they learn to grow past the petty problems of their social lives. Because of the choices made when writing Riverdale, viewers are left with a story that feels lacking, and fails to deliver what could’ve been a more entertaining, consistent, powerful piece. But with that said, I also think that the addition of the show’s high school side plot can be quite entertaining. It allows for humorous exchanges between Riverdale’s protagonists and antagonists, and provides a charmingly awkward “sort-of” satire of teen films. At times, these humorous moments are welcome in a show that takes itself abnormally seriously.

The characters of Riverdale are all flat, and do not distance themselves from the teen show/film cliches they so love to mock. Jughead Jones, arguably the show’s most popular character, is a perfect example. He is a typical distant, withdrawn social outcast who loves sardonic humor and believes himself to be different because of this. As I’m sure most of you are aware, this character trope is as old and tired as they come, and Cole Sprouse’s dry, monotone performance makes Jughead an even less memorable character.

Archie Andrews, in my opinion, is the worst of the cast. At first, he seems to be a sweet boy who cares deeply for his childhood friend, Betty. As the show progresses, however, he becomes more of a selfish player, forgetting about a friend who very much loved him in favor of practically every female character in Riverdale. Ultimately, he is self-sacrificing and loves his family and friends, but these qualities are somehow not enough to make up for his flaws.

Betty Cooper, while a friendly, timid girl, is easily the most uninteresting of her friends. The show does elude to a psychotic side that lies dormant within her, but given the first season’s lack of focus on this element, it’s hardly worth mentioning.

Oddly enough, I think Veronica Lodge is a fairly interesting character. She is established early on to be a supercilious person, but she balances out her more negative qualities and actions with a good amount of positive development. It becomes more obvious by the end of the season that she desires to be a supportive and selfless person, and the air of snobbiness that’s left within her actually gives her a bit of a fun edge. Veronica is a decent spin on the “rich girl” archetype, and Camila Mendes very clearly enjoys being able to bring to life the traits associated with her role.

Cheryl Blossom is obviously the most unlikable character in the cast. In the first episode, she appears to be a tender, grief-stricken girl who is deeply mourning her brother’s death. While the latter is true, she quickly sheds this disguise, showing the audience that she is a cruel, sadistic, taunting, manipulative, attention-hungry individual. I’m honestly unsure whether or not Cheryl or Jughead is the more cliche of the two, but both characters are terribly written all the same. What saves this trite girl, however, is Madelaine Petsch’s performance. Petsch is aware that Cheryl is comprised of every obnoxious cliche you would use to describe characters like her, but her delivery and gestures are indicative of immersion in the role. She smiles and speaks insincerely, her voice rings with an occasional annoying sweetness, she walks and postures with sass and self-righteousness, the works. Petsch, like Mendes, has probably wanted to play someone like Cheryl for years, and she has her fun moments.

The pacing and haphazard placement of plot points also detract from Riverdale’s entertainment value. Almost every time a character’s new story arc is being established, it seems to be interrupted by the story arc/appearance of an unrelated character. This certainly makes the storytelling sloppy; it would’ve been more coherent had the show somehow been written in such a way that the characters’ arcs could’ve had their own time devoted to them.

The plot twists of Riverdale do allow for more plot investment, but they often open a whole set of plot holes. Perfect examples of such plot holes can be found later in the season, and they all revolve, of course, around the death of Jason Blossom. The characters believe that he drowned, but as the story progresses, the narrative leading up to his death changes inconsistently. Cheryl later describes the story as hearing a gunshot while walking through the forest, but it is later revealed to have been a ------ --------- -- --- ------. Although the mystery still lingers up to this point, it raises questions such as: why would Cheryl have pretended to know anything about her brother’s death; why would have the other characters seemed to be genuine in their beliefs of hearing a gunshot at Sweetwater River; and wouldn’t Jason’s mother have been suspicious about her son’s behavior and followed him before -- --- ------? There are other plot holes to be addressed in the show, but these were the most prominent. Again, the mystery involved is intriguing, but plot holes such as these prove to be little more than distracting.

Riverdale is, without question, an extremely flawed show. Many of its characters are unlikable and/or forgettable, the drama can be forced and manufactured, the story often fumbles, and most of the performances by the actors are terrible. But in some respects, the characters seem to be aware of how stupid the show they’re in is, and their interactions with one another are entertaining because of the archetypes they embody. I suppose Riverdale is a serviceable “parody” of teen dramas and mysteries (although that is not what it intends to be) and all of the show’s negative qualities allow for audiences to enjoy it as a fun romp. It’s an ideal show to watch if you’d like to have a good laugh with family and friends, and it’s interesting enough that’d you’d like to know how the story will continue. Despite its flaws, I’d love to see the second season of Riverdale, and I hope I have the chance to see what I’ve missed in the last few months.

[huntertales]

Part One: It’s Bad Writing, But the Kids Love it. (Live Free or Twihard S06E05)

Episode Summary: Sam, Dean and the reader investigate a rash of disappearances involving teenage girls, which they soon discover the girls are being lured by a nest of vampires. During the hunt, Dean is turned into a vampire and is faced with deathly consequences if he can’t resist his temptation to feed his thirst for human blood. In his final hours, fiction becomes reality when Dean and the reader share a moment that feels straight of a vampire paperback. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader Word Count: 4,842.

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There was nothing like a bunch of missing teenage girls to keep you and the Winchester brothers busy. It'd been a bit of a slow spell for all things evil and wicked since wrapping up your last hunt. It started off with three officers dropping dead of mysterious causes, only to uncover an angel, Balthazar, was selling parts of his Father's toys to minors so a child could seek vengeance on his brother. It was also the last time you saw Cas in almost over a year. He left without saying goodbye. And you were just fine with that. If he wanted to spend time with his siblings and fight like a bunch of brats, so be it. You had a world full of monsters that needed to be hunted down and a half dozen missing girls to be found before the worst could happen.

You walked with Sam down the quiet town street with all the missing people flyers you had gotten from the local police station. You looked up away from the smiling face of the most recent teenager to see the Impala come into view and Dean sitting on the hood, finishing his call that he said was important. If you had to take a wild guess, from the smile on his face, he was probably talking to Lisa. Normally the mention of the woman's name would make an ache slowly start to sit in your chest. But, after some time, you were starting to feel happy for Dean. He was getting everything he wanted. From the normal life to a supportive girlfriend, along with Ben, who he had viewed like a son. It was everything you could never give him. 

If anything good came out of Dean going to Lisa, you gotten your best friend back. You got to ride in Baby again with the older Winchester behind the wheel and his brother sitting in the passenger's seat, you hogging up all of the backseat as your own. That's what you'd been missing for the past year since coming back from the cage. Your real family and the Impala. What else did you need to be happy? Right now it was to hit the road and hunt some monsters. You shuffled all the papers together in a neat pile and approached Dean, a smile on your own stretched across your lips when he noticed that you and his brother were back. He quickly ended the call and shut the phone, you raised your brow in curiously to see what he was trying what was making his calm demeanor break from the smile that wanted to light up his face. "What are you so stoked about?" You teased the older Winchester as you gave him a wink from what you proposed. Dean pretended to be confused, mumbling something about how it was nothing. "You look like an unsupervised kid in a candy store. Got a hot date with Lisa? If so, Sam and I can take this. We'll meet up afterwards." "No, no. We got a case. I wanna work." Dean answered you a little too quickly, making you let out a chuckle. "What do you got?" You handed over the pile of flyers to Dean's awaiting hands so he could skim through the missing faces that all had the exact type of looks. Pretty, petite and young. "Six girls in seven days," You explained the pattern that caught your attention as he examined everything with a close eye. "Which is more disappearances than this city has seen in over a year—all about the same age." "And cute." Dean added. You scoffed and rolled your eyes, knowing he was going to say something like that. "Hey, ice cream comes in lots of flavors, sweetheart." "Yeah. And you've had about every single one on this planet. We've got half dozen girls who look almost exactly the same, late teens. Sounds like we got a pattern going here." You suspected. "Sam and I couldn't find anything they have in common. But I'm sure there is." "Well, six directions to go." Dean said, going through the papers to find all of the girls had been picked in different spots. "Hey, Sammy. Pick a number between one and six." "How about number seven." Sam suggested. "Another call came in today." Lucky number seven, you thought to yourself. You and the boys decided to start with the most recent missing girl to see if you could figure who was causing all these suspicious disappearances. And put a stop to it before someone else became a victim. + + + You and the boys made it into town a few hours later and decided to first stop at the house of Kristen, the most recent girl to have vanished. Her father was the one who greeted and welcomed the three of you inside after flashing your fake badges and saying you were FBI. You could see his daughter's disappearance was taking a personal toll on him from the lack of answers or leads the police could give him. She wasn't the type to runaway. A good girl who just vanished into thin air, no explanation to ease her father's anxiety-ridden mind. "Kristen's a good kid. A little naive, sure..." He trailed off for a second when he tried painting a picture of his daughter for the three of you to understand. You gave him a warm smile when you noticed his gaze went to your direction. "You try to be a good parent. Girls are hard." "That, they are." You agreed as you let out a quiet chuckle, showing him a bit of empathy for being a single dad. "We want to find your daughter much as you do. And in order to do that, would you mind if we took a look around her room? Just to get to know her a bit better. See if there's something the police might not have thought of to look at." Kristen's father fell silent for a moment. He looked over his shoulder and to the staircase that laid behind him. He let out a quiet sigh and turned his gaze back to the three of you to answer your request. "Last door on the left." You gave him another smile as you mumbled a thank you underneath your breath before you passed by him, following behind the brothers when they began making their way to the staircase after being granted permission. You made it halfway up before the three of you stopped, a little bit baffled at what Kristen's father had said. "What do you think he was talking about?" Dean wondered, you shrugged your shoulders. Kids were different with every generation that came by. Who knows what they did to get in trouble these days. "Drugs?" Sam guessed. All of you exchanged a glance before heading up to the top of the staircase and down the hall to the last door on the left, like Kristen's father said. Dean opened up the door and flicked on the light, half expecting to be blinded by shades of pink and all sorts of frilly things that teenage girls liked. But he stumbled upon a bedroom decor that made him feel taken aback. And even a little bit offended.   You let out a whistle when you stumbled upon the holy grail of everything goth and supernatural a girl Kristian’s age would have. The walls were painted a blood red and covered in posters—not of the latest bands and Hollywood heartthrobs—but the cast of those God awful vampire and werewolves movies you kept seeing everywhere. The entire place was covered in gothic and what might appear in a creature of the night’s bedroom. You looked over to the bed to see there was the same black and crimson red color scheme. Along with a few throw pillows that were of the character’s faces. You expected to see a copy of Dracula or Anner Rice around, but there was nothing but the modern telling of vampires that sparkled in the sun and was a complete dick to the female protagonist you were supposed to root for. It was complete and utter trash. But you’d be lying if you said you had picked up a copy out of pure curiosity.

Your eyes wandered to a poster across the room that was pinned in place. A young woman was standing between two men, who looked like they were attempting to appear frightened, stood between two men that were attempting to be broody and mysterious. To you, they looked like a bunch of actors failing miserably at their job to portray a certain emotion. But they must have been raking in millions by targeting a demographic that was the most dedicated of all them all, teenage girls. And it seemed It seemed Kristen was a mighty big fan of "My Summer Blood." You looked away from the poster and to Dean, who looked horrified at what he was surrounded with and couldn’t look away. “Oh, it is so much worse.” The older Winchester muttered, knowing he’d stumbled upon something that made him uncomfortable. Sam let out a scoff, taking a guess that Kristen wasn’t addicted to drugs, but vampires. “No, these aren’t vampires, man. These…” You shut the door behind you to give the three of you some privacy. Only you were greeted by the sight of a cardboard cutout of a pretty boy vampire. “These are douchebags.”

Lately the biggest trends among the younger crowd was supernatural monsters. But they weren't depicted in ways you remembered growing up where vampires were bloodsucking monsters and werewolves would rip your heart out. Nowadays they were being written as the love interest for pale, awkward girls and werewolves were your best friend that was secretly in love with you. You rolled your eyes from how very real and dangerous these creatures were. It's crappy writing, but the kids loved it. And the author was sure ranking in the money.

Sam looked around the room to find out where Kristen’s laptop would be hiding. He took a wild guess and headed for the unmade bed, throwing around her sheets to discover it was exactly where he suspected. You looked over your shoulder to see the girl’s laptop was red, big shocker, with stickers of bats and anything spooky. Sam headed for the desk and decided to see what he could discover about your missing girl. He hit the power on button, expecting to see the lock screen. The three of you were taken back from the female screams that came out of nowhere when Sam pulled up the home screen. Kristen’s background was of a vampire trying to make an intense face. You found yourself rolling your eyes in annoyance.

“That’s just,” Sam flinched at the face staring back at him. "Uncomfortable."

“What’s he so bummed about?” Dean muttered.

Sam decided to get started sneaking around the laptop and decided to go for the internet. Right away he found himself locked out, the computer demanded a password. What would a teenage girl use as her password? You crossed your arms over your chest and tried to think of a few possible theories. Dean averted his gaze away from the screen when he noticed a paperback sitting at the edge of the desk. He took a quick glance without much thought, but when he saw “My Summer Blood”, he immediately picked up the copy to take a look at it for himself. The man scoffed at seeing a teenage girl sleeping peacefully in bed, not realizing there was a boy lurking in the corner of her bedroom, watching her in her most vulnerable state.

"Look at this." Dean picked up the book off the bed and showed you, making you break your concentration away from the screen to see what was getting him so riled up. You looked up and saw his expression, causing you to let out a quiet laugh from how he was taking all of this in.  "He's watching her sleep. How is that not rapey?”

“I gotta concentrate, guys.” Sam said, hoping the both of you would stay quiet. Sam decided to see if Kristen was into the classic as he typed in Dracula. The computer rejected the try and let out a scream, making him think of another password.

“You can't believe there's a copy of 'Dracula' or '‘Salem's Lot' just lying around." You said, trying to be a little bit helpful to the younger Winchester. Sam looked up at you and gave you a look to keep quiet. "What? Try something a teenage girl would use."

Dean decided to see what this was all about by cracking open the book where Kristen had marked it, she made it halfway through before stopping. He skimmed the pages before he stumbled upon the scene the girl had stopped at. He scoffed at what kind of garbage he was reading. "'He could hear the blood rushing inside her, almost tasting it. He tried desperately to control himself. Romero knew their love was impossible.' Romero? Really?”

“Dean,” Sam looked over his shoulder from the lack of silence he was getting. “Shut up.”

"Come on, it's not that bad." You defended the author as you plucked the book out of Dean’s grip to skim the pages yourself before flipping through a few pages. "It's a national bestseller for a reason."

“Oh, God. Don’t tell me you read it.” Dean said. You shrugged your shoulders and held onto the book for safekeeping, curiosity making you steal the copy to read it in your freetime. "And here I thought you looked down at this kind of garbage.”

"Oh, please. I'll read anything I can get my hands on. I may have read a few pages while I was killing some time in a bookstore. Wanted to see what all the hype was about." You said. "Oh, Sammy. Try 'Lautner.' That may work."

Sam took your advice and typed in the password. Before he hit enter, he wondered how you had come up with the name off the top of your head. “Wait, he’s a werewolf.” Sam said. “How do you even know who that is?”

“Are you kidding me? That kid’s everywhere. It’s a freaking nightmare. And it’s gotta be him. Or the other one.” You mumbled. You looked over to see that Dean grabbed one of the pillows from the bed and grimaced at the sight of the familiar broody vampire staring back at him. A scream came from the laptop when it rejected your suggestion. “Try. Pattinson. That’s got to be it.”

Sam took your final suggestion and put it into the computer, expecting the laptop to give him that obnoxious scream again. Instead his hands jumped from the keyboard as a smile grew on the ends of his lips when he was finally granted access.

“That’s it. We’re in. Ha.” Sam clicked a few different links around what appeared to be a social media website and pulled up her inbox to see she had been active with a boy named Robert. You and Dean headed over to see what he found. “Well, her inbox is full from some guy claiming to be a vampire.”

“A real vampire?” You asked, all thought you doubt it was nothing more than a peophile trying to get creative in lurking out his victims.

“Well, ‘I can only meet you at night. I don’t trust myself with you. The call of your blood is too strong.’” Sam read off a few of the messages the boy had left for Kristen. You let out a scoff from how terrible it sounded, like it came straight out of the book. “Vampire fishing for victims?”

“Probably just a human mouth-breather, right?” Dean presumed.

“On the other hand—talk about easy prey.” Sam said, finding himself becoming a bit cynical when he began thinking about the platform monsters had nowadays to lurk out their victims. And there was a special group of impressionable teens that thought having someone suck their blood was what romance was all about. “I mean, these chicks are just throwing themselves at you. All you gotta do is...I dunno. Write bad poetry.”

"And they say chivalry is dead." You mumbled. You let out a quiet sigh from how an innocent girl might have put herself in trouble because she was so obsessed with a piece of literature and its fictional world, she couldn’t differentiate between reality and fiction. Sam pulled up one of the most recent messages and skimmed it, seeming to have discovered your next possible lead.

“Wow. This guy wanted to meet her at a place called The Black Rose.” Sam said. Dean rolled his eyes from how stupid the club had sounded. “Just reporting the news.”

“It’s probably just your standard-issue perv, right?” Dean wondered, all clues seeming to have pointed in that direction. You shrugged your shoulders as Sam shut the laptop. Whoever was in charge of kidnapping these girls, you knew for sure they were going to end up with their head chopped right off. It’d be one less monster on the street you had to deal with.

+ + +

It seemed you standard pervert might not have been the reason for all the missing girls. The next night during your second stay in town a van carrying blood donations was jumped. As if that wasn’t suspicious enough, the driver was attacked, his throat ripped out and drained of all his blood. If these vampires were luring out females, why did they need extra blood? You and the boys waited until late at night to scope out the Black Rose to see if you could find a vampire trying to lurk out its next prey. Most vampires acted like normal people, but this bar scene was one you weren't quite used to. Everyone in here was dressed in black and leather. You missed the dress code on this one, for sure.

“Well, you wanted emo chicks. I think we hit ground zero.” Dean said. The ambiance sure was the perfect spot for an underage girl to find her broody vampire that couldn’t control himself around her. You tapped your fingers against the bartop and waited patiently for the drinks you ordered a few minutes ago to arrive. The sounds of squeaky leather made you look up to see the waitress, who was wearing a little black dress, made entirely out of glossy leather, put down your drinks and ignored Dean when he said thank you to tend to her other customers. “Hey, Y/N. You think she wears all that rubber to the beach?”

"Oh God," You let out a quiet laugh from the thought as you brought the beer bottle to your lips to take a drink. "Imagine trying to get the sand out of that dress. And the tan lines.”

Dean looked down at his own drink for a moment before realizing how long it’d been since the three of you had done something like this. Sitting back, even if you were on a hunt, enjoying something so simple as a drink. “When was the last time we had a beer together, anyway?”

“There.” Sam changed the conversation when he found the couple that he’d been staring at start to act a little suspicious. You looked across the bar to see a young, brunette girl who looked quite similar to the rest talking to a boy who was getting awfully closer to her. You narrowed your eyes ever so slightly, watching the both of them ever so closely. “What do you think? He’s hitting on her hard enough. Real?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to tell.” Dean admitted. His gaze was distracted when he saw yet another girl just a few feet from the couple. The other girl was laughing and talking to two men, making you wonder who was the predator here. “And we got multiple choices.”

“Okay. We take one. Shouldn’t be too hard.” You said, shrugging your shoulders. But you could soon cross one off the list when the boy talking to the girl turned away when another boy approached the bar and lightly tapped him on the shoulder to grab his attention. Your brow raised in a bit of surprise to see both of the men share a kiss, making you realize he sure wasn't the one you were looking for.  “Make that two of them. Better for us, anyway.”  

Sam looked to the first couple when he noticed the boy was making his move on the girl. He gave her a sly smirk and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the back. “One’s on the move.”

“All right. You and Y/N go with Efron.” Dean said, noticing the other guy you’d been observing was starting to make his way for the other side of the bar. “I got Bieber.”

You warned the Older Winchester to be safe as you slipped off the stool, parting ways with him as you followed behind the guy when you noticed he was going to the lower level of the bar. You looked over your shoulder in the crowd of people expecting Sam to be not that far behind, but you were alone. You looked back in front of you and quickly caught the guy making a turn to a room that wasn't the bathroom. You kept on trailing him until you found yourself in a more secluded part of the bar. Swallowing slightly, you pressed a hand against your jacket, feeling the machete close to you. Just in case things went south side. Inhaling a deep breath, you quietly pushed open the door and stepped inside, wondering if there was someone hiding around here. You noticed right away of the hanging light and how it was rocking back and forth, like someone turned it on and run for cover. Just the feeling of this place made you feel off. But you weren’t going to let some goth vampire scare you. Without any sort of backup, you stepped into the room, wondering if you could find the guy hiding anywhere. You didn’t hear the door slowly shut behind you as a dark shadow loomed in the corner, watching as you tried looking for him.

The vampire retracted his set of fangs as he started to approached closer to you, getting ready to take you by surprise. You felt someone’s fingers touch your shoulder, and before you could read for your weapon, he managed to catch you by surprise and push your backside to the metal shelves. You winced in slight pain, but before the vampire could make you his next victim, your hand slipped in your jacket in a final attempt to grab your machete. Someone beat you to it before you could save yourself. Suddenly you felt a splatter of blood cover your face and your upper body, catching you off guard.

Slowly, you opened your eyes to see that Sam was standing in front of you, the vampire’s dead body lying at your feet and his machete just a few inches from your face. If you had been any closer, if his aim had been off, you would have been his next victim.

"What the hell, Sam?" You hissed at him, quickly wiping away the blood off your face as he pulled his weapon away. You expected some sort of apology from him from the close call, or even vanishing, but he stood there with a calm look on his face. You could feel an uneasy feeling settled in you from the way he was acting. "Where'd you go?"

“I was around.” Sam said, shrugging his shoulders. You didn’t feel any better from his answer, and he could tell from how you furrowed your brow at him. “I’m here. Aren’t I?”

Yeah. Right when the vampire was getting ready to kill you. When he was so focused on you, he would have never suspected Sam to come out of nowhere. It was almost like Sam was using you as bait, luring the victim until he got exactly where he wanted and went in for the kill. Sam wouldn’t have done something like that to put you in danger. But lately, the old Sam was gone. You should have gotten used to his almost hollow personality. Yet, it only made you feel more on edge around him whenever you were hunting with him.

You looked down at your clothes to see that you were covered in the vampire’s blood from your head to your waist. You let out a frustrated sigh, knowing well enough you couldn’t walk out the front door without causing a few awkward stares. And you were surrounded by people who wore skin tight leather for an outfit and had piercings in all the wrong places. They knew something would be up once they caught sight of the blood splatter.

“Ugh, this is disgusting.” You muttered underneath your breath. Suddenly you were thankful that the motel the boys were staying at was all booked up, except for a double they shared. There was no way you were sharing a bed or crashing in the Impala. You had found another across town, just a few minutes from the bar. There was enough alleys to keep yourself hidden and make it back without causing suspicion. “Find Dean. See if he’s okay. I’m gonna head back to my room to take a shower.”

“Sure you don’t want some help with that?” Sam’s question made you stop dead in your tracks. You looked over your shoulder to give him a glare from the remark that was now paired with a smirk, knowing you set yourself up for that one. You weren’t the least bit amused from his sly comment. He didn’t seem bothered by your looks. “Make sure you don’t get caught.”

You mocked his warning as you waved your arm at him, throwing his concern as nothing more than sarcasm for him to have the last word. Sam watched as you headed out the back door and disappeared from sight. He knew if one vampire was around, another had to be here for sure.

The younger Winchester tucked the machete away for safekeeping and headed back upstairs to the bar area to see if his brother around. But all he saw was a sea of freaks. He decided to head to the back alley where Dean had saw the couple going. Sam found his way to the quiet alley and began observing the sight, making sure there weren’t any monsters that would take him by surprise. As he pulled out his machete, Sam stumbled upon a sight that would have made him panic any other day. When he had the ability to feel emotions.

Sam found himself stopping dead in his tracks and loosed his grip around the machete when he spotted his big brother pinned against a dumpster. He didn’t flinch, he didn’t try to stop it. Sam watched as the vampire holding his brother by the throat bite into his wrist to break the skin and get some blood. To change his brother into something they killed. Dean was rendered helpless. It was like watching someone taking a magnifying glass and putting it over an ant hill a sunny afternoon. Sam was fascinated at seeing his brother in such a fragile state. He had the power to save the man, but he chose not to.

Sam continued on watching. The vampire smeared the blood over Dean’s lips, just enough for the man to involuntary swallow ingest the slightest amount to turn him. Sam could feel his mouth twitch into just a little smirk. When he knew for sure his brother had got some of the blood in him, that’s when he took action.

He knew he could have easily taken down the vampire with a few simple swings, but Sam had a feeling the monster would come in handy later on. Sam had spent an entire year perfecting his mask of emotion. He charged forward and caught the vampire's attention, making Dean fall to the ground, leaving the two of them to fight. Sam made a few slashes with the machete, but the vampire easily blocked them, making him believe that the younger Winchester was a hunter with little skill. The vampire backed away, laughing to himself at his victory as he sarcastically waved before making his great escape by running away and climbing up the wall, disappearing from sight. .

Sam turned his gaze away from the top of the building and to his brother, who was lying on the ground. Blood was smeared all over his mouth as he panted, the beating he took earlier took a toll on him. And it’d only be a matter of time until he would start turning. Sam tried his hardest to look shocked and concerned at what happened to his brother. All while knowing he could have done something to stop it, but didn’t. And he didn’t feel an ounce of guilt for what he’d done.

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[mst3kproject]

Hod Rod Girl

Hot Rod Girl was directed by Leslie H. Martinson, who never did anything that ended up on MST3K but did direct the 1966 Batman movie (the one that gave us the immortal line some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!)  Rather more relevantly, it stars Caroline Kearney from The Thing that Couldn't Die and Lori Nelson from Revenge of the Creature and Untamed Youth, and the title, poster, and advertising all have very little to do with the film itself.  It's the sort of movie that feels MST3K-ish even if it doesn't have much specific MST3K cred, kind of like T-Bird Gang or The Galaxy Invader.

After his little brother Steve is killed in an automobile accident, chunky Jeff Northrup swears off racing and buries himself in his job at the garage.  His friends try to bring him out of his funk, to no avail – until certified asshole Bronc Talbot swaggers smugly to town and starts trying to ruin everybody's good time.  Bronc dares a guy called 'Flat Top' (played by Frank Gorshin, whom director Martinson would be seeing again ten years later in that more famous movie of his) into a game of chicken, repeatedly hits on Jeff's girlfriend Lisa, and runs over a mime on a bicycle.  Finally Jeff can't take it anymore.  It's time for him and Bronc to settle their differences like men, by pretending to beat the tar out of each other in time to foleyed-in punch noises!

This movie has the standard misleading poster, which promises us teenage terrorists tearing up the streets.  In fact, most of the young people in this movie are decidedly non-rebellious, happy to use the police-designated drag strip and stay out of trouble.  It's also got the standard misleading title.  There is a 'hot rod girl' in the film, in the form of Lisa, but she doesn't do much.  All that is pretty par for the course of 50's exploitation movies – but Hot Rod Girl also scores significant bullshit points on its back-of-box blurb.  Check this out.

I don't know what movie that's describing, but it's not the one I watched.  The first sentence is accurate enough – Steve's death makes Jeff quit racing.  The second starts to wander.  Bronc doesn't seem to have much of a goal in the story.  He's just a bully, making himself feel important by causing trouble for the people around him. He never tries to win any sort of title at the racetrack.  In fact, he's not remotely interested in the racetrack, which is all too civilized and well-regulated for him.  And the third sentence is a complete lie.  Bronc never steals Jeff's girl, though it's not for lack of trying.  Lisa despises him at first sight and that never changes.  The words hot rod against hot rod suggest that the movie will end in a climactic race, but it doesn't.  It ends with Jeff and Bronc having a fistfight, and then Bronc is dragged away by the cops.

I usually find things like hyperbolic titles and inappropriate posters fairly amusing, but for some reason this particular instance was just frustrating.  Maybe because I expected a little more honesty out of a modern re-release of the film.  Maybe because the blurb never even mentions the conflicts on which the movie actually turns: Bronc's bullying of Jeff's friends, and the death of the cyclist.  Or maybe it's just because the film the box describes sounds way more entertaining than the one on the disc inside.  Without that summary Hot Rod Girl would still be a lousy movie, but I probably wouldn't have found my first viewing nearly so disappointing if the blurb hadn't set up specific expectations that were destined to go unfulfilled.

Maybe that's the difference.  Titles and posters only set up vague expectations to dash.

Either way, you'd probaly assume that a film about car races would be fast-paced and action-packed, but Hot Rod Girl is slow and talky.  We open on a drag race montage in which we have very little idea what's going on because we haven't met any of the characters yet, but after that most of the movie consists of people standing or sitting around and talking, in scenes that have almost no blocking in them.  Jeff is in a funk and Bronc is a jerk, and everybody else crowds themselves around half a table in a soda shopso that the camera can see them all.  Imagine The Giant Gila Monster without the lizard or the reasonably well-developed character of Chase and you'd get something like Hot Rod Girl.  Even when there are racing or chase scenes, they're remarkably low on tension or excitement, largely because there are so many terrible back-projection shots.  I can imagine Joel and the bots making repeated jokes about how all the 'hot rodders' are really just riding one of those little cars outside the grocery store.

The movie has lots of cars in it and the sets look all right, but in order to afford those it had to skimp in a couple of places.  These are fairly well-chosen, but still noticeable.  The movie makes excuses for why its soda shop, run by a guy nicknamed 'Yo-Yo', is almost empty in any given scene, but they probably just didn't want to pay for any more extras than they had to.  Although public opinion about drag racing and its possibly lethal consequences is supposed to be running high, we only learn about this through the cops talking about it and a couple of cheesy newspaper headlines.  Even Ed Wood knew that a Concerned Citizen complaining to the chief of police is far more effective!  We never see the accident that killed Steve, only a pile of parts that kind of looks like a rolled car in the foreground of a shot.

So yeah, it's a cheap, boring movie that was advertised with lies because the people who distributed it were worried nobody would want to see it.  That's perfectly normal for things that can be considered MST3K fodder.  For all that, though, Hot Rod Girl is not entirely a hollow cash-grab of a film.  It does seem to have something to say about teenagers and racing, and I do think the writers were doing it on purpose.  What's more, the movie's theme almost makes the deceptive advertising work for it – this is a film about how the vast majority of teenagers are nowhere near as rebellious or self-destructive as the adults worry they are.

Among the main characters is detective Ben Merill, who acts as an advocate for the teenage racers.  He's the one who got a special bit of road set aside for them, and makes sure that the rules about racing are followed.  In some ways he's kind of a father figure to the whole group: we never actually see anybody's parents in the movie, and the part of  Merill seems to have been deliberately cast with an actor several inches taller than any of the 'teens'.  He is supportive but strict, wanting to make sure that everybody has fun while not getting hurt or breaking the law, and the local kids are perfectly happy with this arrangement.  They don't want to die or go to jail – why would they?  Detective Merill has arranged for them a safe, legal way to enjoy their hobby, and they're grateful to him.  We wouldn't have a movie at all if it weren't for the arrival of Bronc.

Bronc is the only character who comes anywhere near the idea of teenage terrorists tearing up the streets.  We never find out much about who he is or where he comes from, although it seems he's already on the run from the law.  He's not meant to be comprehensible or sympathetic, because people like him are not comprehensible or sympathetic when they occur in our real lives.  Where are those people?  They're not hard to find – they draw attention to themselves at every opportunity.  Bronc Talbot is that loud extremist who gives everybody else a bad name by proxy.  Pick any group you like, be it a sport, a fandom, or a major religion.  There's always some asshole who has to go and ruin it for everybody.

Almost nobody would have gotten in any trouble in this movie if it hadn't been for Bronc.  We still would have had the accident that killed Steve and resulted in Jeff losing his license and promising never to race again, but none of the fights, accidents, or deaths that follow.  There would never have been any threats of closing down the racing strip or Jeff being charged with manslaughter.  A lot of bad things happen in Hot Rod Girl and almost all of them are because Bronc felt the need to be a dick.  The other racers didn't like him even before he put their good time in danger, but people outside the group think of him as typical and therefore want the racetrack closed down.

Why do I think this was the purposeful 'message' of the movie? Well, consider who the audience is supposed to be.  The fifties were when 'teenagers' first became a recognized demographic, and films with teenage heroes doing things like racing cars were made for them. Teenagers don't want to see themselves portrayed as violent and stupid – they get enough of that from their parents and teachers. Most of them hate the Bronc in their group and wish he'd stop getting them all in trouble.  They don't identify with him.  They identify with sensible Lisa or with Flat-Top, goaded by peer pressure into doing something he didn't want to do.  That's the movie they want to see, so that's the movie somebody made – and then the idiots in the  marketing department got a hold of it.

With this as a theme, the title, poster, and description almost become a form of satire.  They're what you see if you take a brief glance at the movie rather than actually watching it – just as the teenagers appear to be a crowd of Broncs if you don't take the time to get to know them.  If that were intentional, it would be kind of brilliant.

The movie still sucks, though.

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Teen Titans Go! REVIEW: (Part 1)

 Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and God damn it! I said I wanted something better next time!

  So it's come to this. Talking about Teen Titans Go! is kinda like talking about politics. In so far as it's rarely pleasant, it brings out the worst in people, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get hate regardless of what your opinion is. But like politics, I think it is something that it is worth taking about. Because Teen Titans Go! is a very interesting specimen of a series.  Teen Titans Go! is, by far, one of the most talked about series in the cartoon community. Almost EVERY reviewer has talked about the series at one point or another, to the point to where talking about the series almost feels like a semi-rite of passage for any wannabe cartoon critic. If I were writing this review a few months ago I would say that the series was almost universally despised on the internet. However, in the past few months I have noticed this very vocal population of Teen Titans Go! defenders out there. And to those people I have to say...where were you for the last five years?  Love it, hate it, or love to hate it, one thing is clear. This show is a show that many people feel passionately about. Not only that, but the show is successful! The series has been running for over five years, accumulating over two hundred episodes including two mini-series. It's almost always the most heavily aired and promoted series on Cartoon Network getting marathons for almost every holiday. INCLUDING AN EIGHT DAY ONE OVER CHRISTMAS 2017 THAT I'M STILL BITTER ABOUT! It's been promoted as "You're new favorite show." It's gotten it's own blocks. And when Cartoon Network didn't have enough new episodes to air, they created there own "Musical Cliptastic Countdown" style clip-show and advertised those as new episodes. But all of that pales to the shows biggest feat. A theatrical movie, TEEN TITANS GO TO THE MOVIES! Which is coming out in just a few weeks as of the posting of this review.  I have seen nearly every episode of this show, at least once. Most episodes, more than once. (Cause hey, that's what happens when you watch the Cartoon Network live broadcasts.) I've been wanting to cover this series since I started reviewing two years ago. But I knew I only had one chance at it, and I wanted to make sure I did it right. I wasn't ready then. But with a movie on the way, it seems like now is as good of a time as any to finally tackle Teen Titans Go!  But the question remained, how do I go about doing this? Teen Titans Go! has been talked about so much. What could I possibly add to the conversation? I admit this was something I worried about, but I think I have found a solution.

 I want to do this right. I want to tackle nook and cranny of the show in a deep analysis, like I did all the way back in my Powerpuff Girls 2016 retrospect. I wanna cover the show honestly, the good and the bad. But for this review I also wanna do something a little different. Normally when I review something I try to cover just the series itself, and my reaction/experience with it. However, for a show like this, I wanna do something I normal avoid doing and talk about the more "meta" elements of the series. Because honestly, I think that stuff is just as if not more interesting than the show itself. And if I ignored these elements completely it would feel like I would be denying a lot of context in the Teen Titans Go! discussion. But since these are more "meta." elements and not AS connected to series itself it made more sense to me to relegate that all to a different review.  So that's what I'm going to do. This part will be me analyzing the series on it's own merits. And then part two will be analyzing the series wider influence and the fan reactions to the show. I think separating the these two elements is important, as I believe it would be unfair to judge a series for things outside of the creators control, and I want to be as fair as I possibly can.  This is going to be a deep dive. And it'll probably be a long one, but there's a lot to cover. If your okay with that, than let's jump right in and talk about Teen Titans Go! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    I think it's important that before we discuss Teen Titans Go! I talk about my thoughts leading up to the show. Just for the sake of transparency. As a young kid, I watched the original Teen Titans cartoon and remembered liking it quite a bit. But by circa 2013 I didn't really have much memories of the show of the original series beyond "remember liking it" and a few stand out moments. I never went back and re-watched the series in the six years since it had ended. Since then I have re-watched some of the original Teen Titans, and while having it's own issues, on the whole it's really fantastic. If you haven't seen it you should really give it a watch. It has a great combination of comedy, action, and drama. And it's one of the best examples I have ever seen of teenage aged characters who actually FEEL like real teenagers I've ever seen on television.  Prior to Teen Titans Go! release a series of Chibi Teen Titans shorts were released on the DC Nation action block. This was a sorta in-between phase between the original and Go! and these shorts were...fine? I guess? They had the problem all DC nation shorts had, being only ONE MINUTE LONG, they didn't have much time to set up jokes. But for what it what they were they were...passable.  I bring all this up because I think it's important to note that I was both KINDA a new fan, entering the series with no prior knowledge of the original. And also KINDA an old fan seeing a series I loved get rebooted. So I could kinda experience both sides of the spectrum. However, there was something else that effected my view of the show. It was Young Justice.

 I was a BIG fan of Young Justice, and if you watched that show than you will know that it was not treated the best. The show aired at a crummy time slot on Saturday mornings, was never advertised, went on random month long hiatus's BEFORE that was the norm for cartoons. And to see this show being treated so bad, only to be replaced a month later with ANOTHER comedy during a time where action shows were dying out. And airing in a much better prime time time slot to boot? It was hard to not feel a little bit cheated. And I think this (in addition to Teen Titans season fives infamous cliffhanger.) was a major factor in why so many people were so against the idea of Teen Titans Go! right out the gate.  However, Young Justice ended in February 2013, and Teen Titans Go! didn't come out until April. And during that month in between I began to think a little more positively. I went into the show with low expectations, but hoping I would be proven wrong. It wasn't Teen Titans Go's! fault that Young Justice had ended. Plus Teen Titans had comedy in it, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad.  Oh, poor, young, stupid JoyofCrimeArt. Um-I mean, let's look at the results, shall we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9ep34ULG3w

 First just to get it out of the way, I'm briefly going to talk about how this show compares to the original. And I say briefly because, honestly, there isn't much point to it. When you think about it, Teen Titans Go! is a really odd and probably risky move for Warner Bros to make. Taking an action show that was several years old and turning it into an eleven minute comedy with a whole new demographic in mind? Now of days that's super common with examples ranging from Ben 10 to the upcoming Thundercats Roar! but in 2013 this was not a common occurrence. Super hero comedies were pretty rare, and even the ones that did exist still were usually at least action/comedies. So right from the get go it was going to take some time for audiences to adjust.  There are some people who say that you shouldn't make any comparison to the old show cause, hey, it's a reboot. This is something I disagree with. Obviously they wouldn't attach the Teen Titans brand to the show if they weren't hoping to attract fans of the old show. Especially given that most kids in this shows target demo probably weren't even aware of the original Teen Titans. And given the fact that there using the same characters from the 2003 series, brought the voice cast back, and frequently imply that certain events from the old show had happened in this continuity, it becomes confusing on how to judge this show. Is it a sequel?.....Reboot?.....Cash grab?  The point is, to do this show justice, I'm going to talk about the show both as a reboot and as it's own thing. Cause the faithfulness or a reboot doesn't always equate to the series overall quality. However, I honestly feel that if they had gone full reboot, with new voice cast, character designs, and maybe even different characters on the team the show might have been able to stand on it's own more and people might have been less harsh to it. I'm not saying it doing that necessarily improve the final product, but I do feel like it would of helped the show be received better by older fans. But I get why, from a marketing standpoint, they didn't do that.  But regardless, let's talk about the characters. Well when the show started, they seemed mostly like they were in the old series. Just a bit exaggerated, which wasn't to big of a deal because yes, when doing a full comedy, your bound to exaggerate some things. Robin was the strict know it all leader. Starfire was the naive innocent. Beast Boy and Cyborg were fairly interchangeable idiot comic relief characters. And Raven was the sarcastic cynic. Traits were played up, like Robin's egotism, or Beast Boy and Cyborg's idiocy, but the basic structure of the characters from the old show was still visible.   

 But as the show progressed, the cast became progressively and progressively flanderized into characters that are not only completely unrecognizable from there 2003 counterparts, but completely unrecognizable from season one counterparts as well. And the big problem is that as the show goes on, they all become basically the same character, with a few caveats. By season two or three all the Titans pretty much act identical. They all yell all the time, they're all lazy and selfish, and they're all idiots. All the characters are pretty much interchangeable except for one or two small differences.  Online anime reviewer SuperEyepatcheWolf once said something in a video that always stuck with me. [link] He was quoting a line from Tina Fays book "Bossypants" and it was something along the lines of "The key to good characters, is to have it to where if they're all in a situation each character would have a different response to the situation." That was a quote that I always remembers, and is something I keep in mind when coming up with characters myself. I bring this up because Teen Titans Go! does not follow the principle at all. And by having all the characters act the same it not only becomes less accurate to the thing that the series is suppose to be adapting, but more importantly it limits the potential for character driven comedy. And when your series is all comedy limiting the kind of comedy you can do is never a good thing.  The only character who is okay is Robin. He's the only character who (mostly) acts consistently. He's also the only character who acts as a foil to the rest of the Titans, and is the only character who has a reason for his behavior. He has an inferiority complex due to being the only Titan who was a sidekick. So he uses narcissism to mask his insecurity. He's also obsessive because he was raised by BATMAN. As odd as this sounds, Robin actually is a full realized and fleshed out character. And I know, saying Teen Titans Go! has a fleshed out character is really weird to say. (Also, as ashamed as I am to admit it, I kinda relate to Robin in some aspects.)    However, just because he's fully realized doesn't mean he's necessarily likeable. Nobody in this show is likeable. They are all jerks with no sympathy for others. While in the original series the Titans really had this feeling of a family unit. Here, they all seem to just hate each others company. This element, in my opinion, hurts the series. I think this could of worked if they just toned it down just a bit. it seems like almost every other kids cartoon right now more or less follows the same "nice, optimistic, adventurous but naive" young hero archetype. So it's nice to see a show that is a little bit more cynical just for the sake of seeing something different. But I believe they go to far the other way with it makes it hard to root for our "heroes" when they literally are just jerks, and don't really even have reasons for being jerks or ever learn to be better. And without likeable or distinct characters it's really hard to become invested.  As for the side characters, they all feel very underutilized. Especially in the case of the villains. Like, I know this show isn't about the crime fighting, but that doesn't mean you can't incorporate the villains in a comedic way. I mean if you look at other superhero comedies like Powerpuff Girls, the villains are usually the best part. Now, I wanna give credit where credit is due. Some villains like Trigon, Control Freak, and especially Brother Blood are great in this show. Other villains like the H.I.V.E and the Brain are nothing fantastic, but are serviceable. But what I wanna know, is that if this show is a comedy why don't they use any of the villains that are actually GEARED towards comedy. Mumbo was only used in a meaningful way in ONE episode. Mad Mod has yet to have any actually lines in the series. And Larry hasn't shown up at ALL. And the thing is that there are a lot of episodes where having more minor villains from the old show would make sense but they don't do it. Like in the episode "Puppets, Whaaaaat?" where the Titans get turned into puppets. Why not include Puppet King. Or in the episode "Hot Salad Water." where the Titans are mind controlled by the Queen of England? Why not use Mad Mod instead? It feels like such a wasted opportunity.  But y'know the show isn't about the characters! It's about the comedy! Is the show at least funny?  For the most part...not really? While obviously comedy is subjective I just am not to much of a fan of the humor of this show. Like I said, since the characters are more or less identical there's no chance for character driven comedy to shine. So all the humor of the show is pretty much just loud goofy random humor. It's all just kinda...obnoxious. The humor just lacks any form of nuance, and after two hundred episodes jokes have become very predicable.  Honestly, Teen Titans Go! is at it's best when it does just go for it. When you throw a billion jokes at the wall, somethings bound to stick. The funniest part of the show is just watching to see what the hell it'll do next, And I wanna give the show credit, that's not in any way an insult. The show is honestly most enjoyable if you look at it from the perspective of a giant shit-post. And while that sounds harsh, I think on some level that's what the creators of the show were KINDA going for? I have no proof of this, but that is just the vibe I get from both the show and the creators during interviews. So...props to you I guess? The show also excels at meta humor, though we'll dive more in the next part.  Part of the issue that Teen Titans Go! has is that it puts comedy so FAR in the forefront, that it feels like everything else is just an afterthought. And granted, there are plenty of other shows like that. However, the downside to this strategy is that if you don't find the show funny, there isn't really anything there for you. Like take other CN show comedy's for example. If you don't think We Bare Bears is funny, you can still appreciate the shows charming atmosphere. If you don't think that The Amazing World of Gumball is funny, you can still appreciate the show's breathtaking visuals. But with Teen Titans Go!, what you see is what you get. And unfortunately, I don't see much here I haven't seen before.  Well okay, how about the writing? Is the writing good?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-7q8vmrXM

 Half the time character's just do whatever the writers want them to do just to make the plot work! And the other half the times the characters seem like there actively trying to avoid the plot like it's some kinda horrific virus! Take the episode "Booty Scooty" where the Titans Tower has been bought land developers, who want to tear the tower down to build a mini-mall. But none of the Titans sans Robin care. Cause hey, they like shopping. So the episode grinds to a halt as Robin has to explain to his team why losing there homes is a bad thing, and tries to convince his team to do the plot. It's like the show is purposefully trying to avoid anything interesting. I know it's a comedy, but comedies still need conflict. Everything's a joke in this show, so it's hard to get invested in anything. There are shows that can pull that type of thing off. But to do that the comedy HAS funny enough to excuse the lack of tension. And to me at least, Teen Titans Go! doesn't pass this threshold.

 Also, the show is really repetitive. Half the episodes follow this follow this basic formula

Titan A gains some new hobby/interest and converts the other titans into said hobby/interest

Titan go along with it. Except for one member (Usually Robin.) who warns them that getting into this hobby/interest will have "dangerous consequences."

Titans ignore the warning and become obsessed.

Some supernatural Regular Show style BS happens.

Raven reviles that the only way the fix this is to go on some kinda "quest."

Plot is resolved.

 And the other half of the series is just about food. Seriously, there are like...fifteenth billion episodes devoted to food.

 But hey, a show doesn't need characters, comedy, or writing to be good....maybe it can be saved by the animation? Like RWBY.

 I will say this. The animation itself isn't as bad as a lot of other flash shows. The characters are all distinctly shaped and colorful. And I love the thick outlines. You can tell it's flash, but it's not BAD flash. And when the show want to the animation can look downright incredible, and even have some outstanding action scenes believe it or not.

 But like I said. "When the show wants to." For the most part the show looks good, but there are some glaring animation shortcuts that are often used, and are very noticeable. The show is, for the most part, always set in the same five or six locations. And that gives the show an element of blandness to it. The show uses stock photos as backgrounds. Which is a trend I've noticed a lot in a lot of modern cartoons...and I think this trend sucks. Gumball, so far at least, is the only show I've seen do it in a unique and creative way. Every other time I've seen it just looks jarring. And the show reuses animation fairly frequently, and it's not subtle. However, the show has toned this down a bit recently, but still. The fact that a show as popular as this that ISN'T Dragonball Super would so blatantly reuse animation in such an obvious way seems like either a sign of just corner cutting, or a sever lack of time given to the crew. Because of these short cuts the animation just sorta levels out to...slightly above average-ish?  Also I have to comment on the character designs. Like this is more of an observation than a flaw, but why does everyone have such GIANT heads and such tiny necks and bodies? I mean, who would design characters like that?

... How dare you?  Let's talk about the voice acting. EVERYBODY says that the voice acting in the show is the one redeeming quality. And the voice acting...varies. And while I know just saying that will cause me to be struck down by the unholy wrath of Tara Strong herself, but just hear me out!    Almost all of the voice actors from the 2003 series are back to reprise there roles. But the issue is...they don't sound the same. Everyone's delivery is so much louder and more over the top compared to the original. Not to mention all the annoying verbal tics like Beast Boy's "White rapper-esq" slang or Starfire's "Saying all the the's." Both minor elements from the old show that have been escalated up to eleven in this series. Raven's voice in particular seems to vary scene to scene from "fairly close to the old show's Raven." to "Tara Strong just doing Twilight Sparkle." I have no problem with the cast going in a different direction with there delivery. I just don't understand what the point of getting the old cast back is if there not going to sound like the original. And this is coming from someone who honestly wouldn't of minded that much one way or another if they didn't get the original voice actors back.  What is more of an issue is that the five actors who play the Titans ALSO voice, like, almost every other minor or one shot character in the show. If they weren't in the original series, there's a good chance that one of the five main voice actors play them. Some of the voice actors, like Tara Strong and Khary Payton have a decent voice range, and so it isn't to noticeable. Others, like Scott Menville and ESPECIALLY Greg Cipes have no range whatsoever, and ever time I hear them trying to sound different I just wanna stab my ears out with a rusty spork. And even for the actors who ARE good at hiding the fact that it's them, after two hundred episodes you become able to spot them at a moments notice.  Basically, this show has completely ruined my ability to ever hear any of these voice actors as "not there voice actors."  However, before I'm lynched, I just wanna say that this probably isn't the voice actors fault. It probably is more an issue with casting and the voice directing crew. And to be fair I don't think that there are ANY voice actors who could come up with new voices for two hundred episodes without making it sound noticeable. And they do give it there best effort.  Yes, that is one positive I will give the voice acting. They go for it. There's a kinetic energy to the performances, and it sounds like the voice actors had a lot of fun. And with a lot of the voices you can tell the actors are trying there hardest, and sometimes these deliveries actually succeed in making an other wise unfunny line funny just through the levels of ham presented. So I have to commend them on that.    So hopefully that praise at the end will keep me safe from Tara Strong's unholy dark powers for a least a little while longer...

 The show also has songs! A lot! These songs vary in quality. And that is because, according to official interviews, some of the songs are written and some are given to the cast to ad-lib on the spot. And I don't really know how to respond to that. If you put a voice actors on the spot "put a song here." then yeah, it probably isn't going to sound good. Many of the "improved" songs tend to just have one A,A,A,A rhyme scheme, simple chorus, and generic lyrics.  I'm not blaming the voice actors though, I couldn't do better. I'm blaming the people who thought this was a good idea! Though I will admit that a lot of these "bad songs" are fairly catchy. Which I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  BUT some of the songs are great! "The Night Begins To Shine." is the obvious example, but there are other good ones too. "Fade Away" "BBRae" and "Take it Down Low." being some of my personal favorite. It's a bit of a mixed bag all things considered, but when the songs hit they really hit. So I can commend the show for that...  But the four "all musical" clipshow episodes are still stupid.  I don't think this show was doomed to fail. Other shows like Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and RWBY Chibi...season one, prove that you CAN make a completely comedic spin-off of a more serious property, and do it well. But what I think those two shows, and other series like those shows, have that TTG doesn't have is the heart. It really like the creators of this show, really don't care about or even like the original 2003 series. This may not be the case, but that's how it feels. As I said ALL THE WAY back in my What Makes a Good Reboot Cartoon Thought, one of the major keys to making a good reboot is respect, or at least an understanding, of the source material. And honestly, it sometimes feels like the creators of this show didn't even want to make a Teen Titans show. This show feels like another unrelated superhero comedy, with the Teen Titans put in last minute. And maybe that would of been better overall. Sure, the series wouldn't of gotten the initial "bump" it got if it wasn't connected to a well known i.p. But clearly the people who like this show don't really care about it being like the old show anyway, and the show would probably be hated a lot less if it wasn't connected to something that many people consider a modern classic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    So overall, that is my rundown on Teen Titans Go! as a series as a whole. But we're not done yet. Come back NEXT WEEK, as we are going to analysis the more "meta" elements of Teen Titans Go! I'm going to talk about the reactions to the show, and the reaction the show has towards it's critics. And the impact Teen Titans Go! has had on both Cartoon Network and television as a whole. I think that important to bring these things up because I think these elements in particular have the greatest impact on Teen Titans Go's! reception.  But what do you think of Teen Titans Go!? Love it or hate it I'd love to hear from you in the comments down bellow. If it's not obvious by now, I find this show fascinating and love hearing other peoples opinions on it, cause I think there is a lot to talk about. Leave a fav, follow, and comment and come back next week...as we get to the bottom of this case.

I'll be the round....about....  Have a great day.  WE INTERRUPT THIS JOURNAL FOR AN IMPORTANT SELLING YOU STUFF...  Hey there, I'm JoyofCrimeArt. Famous internet boi. Have you ever had a review that you wanted me to do? Or a review you want to happen, but don't want to do yourself. Well whatever you reasoning, you can now COMMISSION ME for reviews! It's just like any other art commission, you give me a show, movie, or whatever you want me to review. You give me a SMALL donation of money, somewhere between 5-8 dollars US, and I give you a "quality" review. If this at all sound interesting to you, there's more information here. REVIEWING COMMISSIONS OPEN (Will Review for Food) Have a great day, for real this time. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners. All credit for the Spongebob "3 am" meme template goes to https://www.deviantart.com/francisjeremyxavyer ) 

DA Link: https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Teen-Titans-Go-REVIEW-Part-1-754797330

[sawthingsiimagined]

#XD30 ELEVEN | DOUBLE TROUBLE

[ You Know Who - Jada]

It was the morning after our show in Washington D.C. It was another sold out show and an even better performance. I was at a restaurant downtown with my best friend and stylist, Adrienne, having breakfast when my phone rang. It was my mother. My mother and I had a different relationship than most mothers and daughters. We never talked about boys, make up or anything that I believed most girls talked about with their mothers. I relied on my older cousins and my grandmother to school me on guys. My mother called me and I picked up the phone wondering what this random call could possibly be about. She was more of a texter.

“Hey Mama.”, I said answering the phone.

“Baby where are you?”, she said with unusual concern in her voice.

“I’m with Adrienne downtown. What’s the matter?”, I asked.

“There was a shooting near one of the schools in D.C. It’s all over the news. I couldn’t reach Jace so I started to worry. Is security with you?”, she continued rambling until I cut her off.

“Hey mama, we are fine but to make you feel better we will go back to our hotel until we get word that things are safe for us to be out and about. And yes security is with me. Jace is at the barbershop.”, I assured her and then hang up the phone.

I proceeded to finish my breakfast and paid for our food. I called Mona to check on things back at the hotel. She was aware of the shooting but stated that the school was 11 miles away from our hotel room. Adrienne and I decide to stop by the outlet mall a few exits away from our hotel before returning to our rooms. I needed new gym shoes. We have to maintain our bodies on the road and it’s very challenging with all of the food and parties we are privy to on tour.

When we arrived at the outlet it was extremely packed. Mostly with teenagers walking around with friends. I wasn’t aware if this was unusual or not for this city but I knew where I was from the shopping centers had an older or a more family oriented demographic. We picked up some make up and accessories that we hadn’t seen back home. We then continued on to decide which gym shoes I should purchase. I opted for a hot pink pair of Puma runners. I had decided that morning that I would discipline myself to wake up everyday and run at least 2 miles before I did anything FLAME related. Running helped clear my mind and also helped me push through the day with ease. I ran track in high school so I knew it would be a good thing for me. We decided we should go back to the hotel after I purchased my shoes and before my mother called to check in with Mona and finding out that we hadn’t arrived.

We have a dinner to attend later with a foundation Mona is very fond of called EMBRACE. It’s a foundation that targets LGBTQ youth who have been kicked out or abandoned by their families. I was excited to meet the youth and the committee of the foundation. I wasn’t very familiar with many stories such as these. There were kids a part of this foundation that were as young as 8 and old as 18. Growing up in church people were either on the ‘down-low’ or weekly praying for deliverance but it was never a topic of discussion at our many church meetings unless it was in condemning way. I know my parents probably wouldn’t agree with this event so Mona didn’t it include it on our tour schedule. This was also going to be a semiformal event. Adrienne had picked an amazing piece for me to wear to the event and I couldn’t wait to strut my stuff.

As we were nearing the exit of the mall to meet our driver, we noticed a long line of girls that ranged from the ages of 15-24 in their appearance. A few guys, mostly black, were scattered throughout the line and were dressed in street attire. They were all holding CDs and posters but I couldn’t make out who they were standing in line to meet. We got closer to the front of the line and noticed they were waiting on the doors to open at a store called URBAN CAPSULE. It was a store that basically sole trendy apparel of Hip Hop culture. We stood around for a few minutes trying to peer through the crowd to see inside of the window of the store when all of a sudden I hear someone scream “FLAME”. A young girl runs towards me screaming and others begin to gather. I smile and they all started snapping pictures. It startled me but luckily Paul was a few feet away to manage the crowd. Now I see another reason as to why we have security. I took a few pictures with some of the fans and then the door opened. A tall light skinned guy wearing a vintage baseball jersey and fitted cap came out. He said he was the store owner and saw us through the window. He asked us to come inside. I almost declined because I wasn’t sure if he was trying to help us get out of the commotion or fuss at us for causing one. Paul pushed us inside. I could tell he was completely over the crowd. I’m sure the driver was waiting on us but when we walked in I came in direct eye contact with Q standing there looking as good as he did on tv. My heart started racing. I hadn’t spoken to him or seen him since I let him eat me out, like he was at a free Chinese buffet, at the afterparty.

He was having an intense conversation but when we locked eyes he stopped talking and smiled. He then walked up to me and pulled me in his arms. I could hear screams from the people crowded around the door outside and looking through the window. He quickly let me go and grabbed me by the hand pulling me into the store’s stock room.

“Hold the door.”, he told one of the guys a part of his crew. I’m sure Adrienne and Paul were baffled. I didn’t talk about Q much to anyone. I had yet to even discuss my interaction with him, in depth, with Jace. Once inside of the stock room he hugged me again.

“What’s up mama?”, he asked while hugging me as if he didn’t want to let me go. I could smell his cologne and I must admit I missed that fragrance.

“Nothing much. My friend and I stopped by the outlet to do a little shopping before I prepare for an event tonight.” I answered. “What are you guys up to?.”

“We’re having our cd signing out here today. Things got a little heated at the college we were supposed to do it at so we decided to come here instead.”, he said.

We looked at each other for a moment and without thinking I leaned in to kiss him. His lips were so smooth. I pulled his tongue in my mouth. It tasted like peppermint and Hennessy. I was immediately turned on. Just the mere sight of him excited me which had me confused. I wasn’t sure if I was reacting as a privileged fan or if I had began to catch actual feelings. This guy was what most black girls’ dreamed of. He was attractive, well groomed, fashionable and hood. He had an authentic street flare that made a good girl want to be bad.

I had on a nude lace bra, a white mesh tank and white stretch, skinny jeans with a pair of stilettos I found at all mall in Miami. I was looking extremely “Love and Hip Hop” but feeling like Rihanna and I had been turning heads all morning. Luckily I take pride in my appearance. It would be rare for Q or anyone to catch me looking thrown together at anytime. He took one of his hands and unbuttoned my pants. I almost stopped him but I was as turned on as he was, if not more. Hopefully he wouldn’t have me sprawled out on top of one of these boxes in this stock room. He reached inside of my matching lace thong and began to search for my center. Still kissing me when he found the entrance to my glory I gasped. That turned him on because he then pushed me back against one of the boxes and kissed me even deeper. He used two of his long fingers to massage my clitoris and I lost all thought of time and location. I felt myself getting wet but the only thing that mattered was him. I admit that haven’t had many sexual encounters with many different men but he was by far the best and I hadn’t even had the dick yet. It’s as if he was turned on by the idea of turning me on. It’s almost as if I had cast a spell on him. I broke away from his kisses. I felt myself about to orgasm but I stopped him just in time. That not how I wanted my first orgasm to be if I were to have one with him.

“Q…..stop.”, I said in his ear before taking his earlobe and sucking it for a few seconds. I could taste the metal of his ear ring.

He stopped and looked me in the eye. “You have a job to do and I have to go.”, I said with a smile.

“You’re right. Keep a nigga on task Ma. That shit is sexy as fuck.”, he said before planting kisses on my neck. “Can I see you later?”

“Q, I told you to text me. So when you text me we can work out all of the details about when we can see each other.,” I said and then I kissed him on his forehead.

“Bet.”, he said. “Call your girl and tell her that y'all should walk out of the back of the store. I saw some people snapping pictures when I hugged you. I’m sorry for not thinking. I was just glad to see you.”, he said licking his lips.

“And it was definitely good to see you and a surprise. Now go sign those girl’s CDs.”, I said.

I called Adrienne. The store manager escorted us out of the store, along with Paul, and the driver met us in the shipping area of the outlet mall.

When we got in the car Adrienne went off. She rarely curses but she let me have it.

“Bitch! What the fuck was that shit?”, she said not caring if the driver heard her. “Since when have you become the First Lady of Fake Gangster Rapper Records? Look at this suit”, she said with much attitude and shoving her phone into my hand. There was already a post on the Shaderoom’s Instagram of us hugging thanks to one of the fans posting a picture of us online. You could barely make out whether it was a friendly or intimate hug but the gossip blog was sure to caption the post with 'Looks like Q has a new FLAME.“

I giggled. "First of all I’m nobody’s lady. Second there is nothing fake about him. We are just cordial acquaintances trying to get to know each other without people making up rumors.”, I said rolling my eyes and then looking out of the window.

“You just be careful. We have a long road ahead and it’s too soon be getting derailed by any nigga, especially these industry niggas. I’ve heard too many stories and I..”, she tried to continue before I cut her off.

“Bestie, I got you. I know you’re looking out for me but this is all new and I’m learning as I go. I can’t take anyone else’s experiences on as my own. He’s a really nice guy. It was just a coincidence that we ran into each other and he was happy to see me. That’s all.” I said.

“I know girl. It just scares me. I don’t want you to get hurt and I don’t want to lose you. I’m sure he’s nice but I just catch an unfamiliar vibe about him and I want you to be careful. Can you promise me you’ll be careful?”, she asked.

“Yes Adrienne I’ll be careful.”, I said after I let out a loud sigh and rolled my eyes again.

“Thank you.”, she said grabbing my hand and holding it the rest of the ride back to the hotel.

Later that evening I was staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I felt so beautiful. It was the first time in a while that I was dressed up for a nice event. Also the first time I was making an appearance for FLAME in this type of attire.

Adrienne picked a gorgeous white body suit that resembled a pant suit. It was low cut at the top so she supplied me with extra padding to push my b-cup sized breast up. It was lined with gems along the top cut of the suit and along the lining where it cut off at my shoulders. My favorite part was that it had a cape that gently touched the floor. It was a good thing because my ass was sure bulging in this body suit and I knew it would be eating this it by the end of the night. Glad I was covered so the kids wouldn’t have to look at all of that. The cape was also white. My stilettos and accessories were all silver and my hair was pulled up into a classy bun with gems to finish off the look. My face was flawless. I had on light make up with a glittery glazed finish. I looked like a star. I was definitely wearing the FLAME brand well because I was on fire. I couldn’t wait to see Jace because he too was wearing something that complimented my outfit.

I stood in the mirror for at least 20 minutes having thoughts of how I’d introduce myself, what we should sing if we put on the spot to sing and thoughts about my future husband Q. I really hoped that he would call me soon. I also thought about what the comments under the Shaderoom’s post said about me.

My thoughts we interrupted when I heard a knock at my door. I was in my room alone so I answered it knowing security was at the door. I opened it and Ernest was standing there holding flowers. I hadn’t seen him since the night of the pool party. He still looked sexy with his hair pulled back into a slick ponytail. I almost forgot all about Q until he informed that some flowers had been delivered to me. He passed me the flowers and the card said 'just because you taste good’ and signed 'you know who’. I took the flowers and put them on the dresser in my room. I opened the door again and asked Ernest to come in.

I’m not going to lie. The thought of him wearing me out on this bed did cross my mind but I didn’t feel like taking off this body suit and having to paint it back on.

“I hope I didn’t cause your job to get harder. I hope there is no friction between us.”, I said.

“What do you mean Ms. Jade?”, he asked with no smile and confusion in his voice.

“The other ni…”, I began before he cut me off.

“I’m here to do whatever you ask me to. And If it gets hard I’ll be sure to let you know.” He said with a polite smile shutting me all the way up.

“I appreciate that.”, I said and he turned and walked away leaving me standing there.

Well damn. Ok.

[mazarinrouge]

Let’s Read The Promise: Part 1

Everyone hears that the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics are bad. And they super fucking are. I tried to give it a chance, and I found that The Promise is probably the worst of them that I’ve skimmed. The Search is eh. But OHHH MANNN The Promise. It’s perhaps one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read, and is in general a complete trainwreck. I’m not posting each page as an image because that’s tedious and you can go look them up on your own, but there will be some snippets here and there. Without further ado, a play by play of ATLA: The Promise.

In brief, this comic is about Aang and Zuko working together to remove the Fire Nation’s colonies and their culture from the Earth Kingdom shore. Surprisingly, it handles this sort of situation in a really dumb way. /s You would think Aang and Zuko together would be able to come to some reasonable conclusions, but you know. I’ll get to that later. It opens with the same intro from the shows narrated by Katara, except this time it’s different. Because it’s after the war and all.

But I believed Aang could save the world. And you know what? I was right. With the help of his friends, Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai and ended the hundred year war. Zuko, Ozai’s son and our ally, became the new Fire Lord. Together, with Earth King Kuei, Aang and Zuko promised to restore the four nations to harmony.

Except didn’t he run away to travel the world with his bear? If he did go back to Ba Sing Se after the war, we’d have to assume he didn’t die out in the wilderness or get captured at any point in time. We’d also have to assume that the people saw him and just LET him back into power, despite being the puppet for the Dai Li. And do the Dai Li still exist? They do in Korra, but I can’t see them here. Inconsistencies, oh well, who cares?

There are about eight fire nation colonies on the shore. Zuko decides to help Kuei “remove those colonies by doing whatever it takes”. This is very vague and already sounds like a bad idea. Cough cough. Sokka names the movement to remove them the Harmony Restoration Movement while Toph suddenly learns Invisibility Bending.

Then they go to Iroh’s shop cause why not. And we suddenly travel ~back in time~ to the Season 3 finale and see Katara and Aang smooching. Which apparently Sokka steps in on. It feels sort of like a sitcom. And Sokka’s like blehhh kissing! Katara and Sokka fight about it and you can really feel the tension in their dialogue. Gotta give mad credit to the writers here. /s/s/s/s

Then they’re on their way to a festival right after the war ended, and it’s going to be great it’s got fireworks and everything and

Oh my god. This is the angstiest thing I have ever seen. First off, why would Zuko be asking Aang this? Why not ask Katara? She clearly hated you (lol). Aang’s whole thing was how much he didn’t want to kill Ozai. Even IF Zuko started “becoming” his father, how would he expect Aang to be the one to murder him?

I also understand this is a natural emotion for people. Like, if you had an abusive father you probably wouldn’t want to turn out like him. But I imagine it’s somewhat different if your father and all his fathers before him committed mass genocide. If you’re raised to think that’s pretty wrong, hell, he even thought it intrinsically as a lil boy, then you probably won’t kill a lot of people. I don’t know just food for thought .And as an added fact, all the Fire Lords had their dads alive when they were conditioned to kill everyone. So I really don’t think Zuko would make any decisions as bad as his father’s. Maybe bad decisions, he’s hotheaded, but he’s not a murder. He wouldn’t even touch Zhao because it reminded him TOO MUCH of what Zuko’s dad did to him. It just seems out of character. But not as out of character as Aang KILLING Zuko.

Katara seems to be cool with it, though.

It timeskips to a year later and we see that Zuko is worried about rebel Fire Nation peoples to try to assassinate him. This I can agree with. There would have to be some people who oppose Ozai’s imprisonment. And it’s very sudden for a 16-17-ish year old boy to become your new ruler. He wakes up one night thinking someone will assassinate him, and guess what he was right. And would you guess who it is???

A teenage girl! Got to keep all the cast the same age. Wouldn’t want a hired hitman or anything. This teenage girl is so rebellious. She came all the way from the west coast of the Earth Kingdom to kill Zuko. She’s from the oldest Fire Nation colony and she’s here to take revenge, because apparently....the Restoration Movement is going to destroy all the colonies?

There was never any indication as to what this “movement” would consist of until now besides “remove them”. I didn’t imagine removing them would mean removing the culture or the people? You see, the rational thing to do would be to remove the government so the Earth Kingdom could control the land. There could be an intermingling of cultures and it may be interesting, but definitely not bothersome. That’s why some of France looks like Germany. They moved in and then the land went back to France and now they just all hang out there. There’s no concrete explanation to the reader of what this movement does. So really I still can’t say it would really destroy all the buildings and evac. all the people but Hell. It might.

Isn’t vague writing cool?

So Zuko sends this girl back to her home colony in cuffs. Her dad finds her and it turns out her dad is the mayor. Now I can understand their trouble. He may worry he might not have any position of power in the colony anymore, but hey, that might not happen. It’d be ridiculous to install an Earth Kingdom specific mayor, maybe even a little racist? It could happen though, so you understand your distress--

except NO! It’s not about that at all. Apparently the Restoration Movement is now Confirmed to Remove All Fire Nation People. Great. This went downhill fast.

Then this guy says hey your father wouldn’t be proud of your actions and Zuko attacks him.

Sheesh.

Then it cuts to Aang forcibly removing everyone from their homes and putting them into a new and confusing country. Cool. But suddenly when they get there a soldier tells them that they all need to leave! Because Zuko has stopped supporting the Restoration Movement! So that means that all Fire Nation Colonials are barred from entering the country??????

??????????????????????????????????????????

I don’t think i have to even explain why this is one of the worst ideas ever. Why forcibly remove or never allow in? Why not the middleground? The gray area? That whole part of the damn original show that was toted around so gloriously. How extremes are bad and not everything should be taken far this way or the other. But whatever. Fuck the show. Let’s do this instead.

It cuts to Toph’s metalbending academy and we learn that Zuko has holed himself up in Yu Dao. No one is allowed in or out. Toph says he’s becoming like Ozai. Aang is meditating and talking to Roku, who thinks Aang will be a good guy if he kills Zuko. This could just be a dumb rehash of the show where none of the other Avatars give Aang the answers he wants. Maybe the Lion Turtle will come back too and give Aang some Complacency Bending to fix Zuko.

I like this though. Aang is set on his own motivations and protecting Zuko as his friend. He’s not even looking Roku in the eye. Their worldviews are so different. Neat.

They arrive at Yu Dao to confront Zuko. The walls are barred and Aang and Katara decide to go in themselves, scaling up the wall to get past the gaurds. This comic site has custom annotations like old Youtube videos by the way, and I just thought I’d show you this.

Typically the rule with pet names is if your partner says one you don’t immediately say it back. But OK. I guess ‘babe’ was too adult for the demographic. I just can’t see these two really using pet names at all. Like Aang would respect his girlfriend so much he’d probably be happy enough just getting to say her real name so often.

We also learn here when he gets inside the walls that “Flameo, Hotman” is actually spelled “Flamio Hotmen”. I cannot accept this.

Aang enters and bows to the General and they start attacking him and Katara.

If they’re both trespassers why are they only attacking Aang and not Katara? How is Aang that close to the fire and he’s not got a Zuko burn yet? These important questions and more brought to you by me.

lol

Katara gets fed up with these people burning Aang and does a Dr. Crocker-esque panel by panel of her saying

“Stop. Trying. To. Set. My.

Reminds me of something else....something....even more awkward to say while attacking people....hm...

“Stay away from my dad’s ex-girlfriend!”

Oh well. I must have forgotten what it was. (coughKorraDoesntExistcough)

Then Zuko comes in and grabs Katara in a weird and compromising position. She says stop you’re hurting me oh no. And Zuko says not until you stop hurting my guards. Which she didn’t really hurt any of them. She demobilized them like Aang would, but they’re all still ok. She did throw ice shards, like pointy ones, Not sure what happened to that poor guy.

Aang gets mad at Zuko and they start fighting. Aang tries to talk to him while they are fighting and it’s kind of like a Naruto battle. And then....

God dammit.

But it’s ok because Katara does what she always does and just walks inside Aang’s killer air puncture ball no problem and touches his face to bring him out of the Avatar State. Which is sweet and I always like it when she did that. But how did she get inside the Aang ball?

Then Zuko says ok fine we can all calm down and talk. By the way, Zuko is growing incredibly weird cheekbones here. I think it’s a part of Bryke’s direction, because if you look at Korra almost every single male (except Bolin) has killer cheekbones. Like really really skinny face cheekbones. And now Zuko has them here.

Maybe they’re trying to represent Zuko becoming his father. Because Ozai had cheekbones too. But how does one get cheekbones like this in a year? Earlier in the comics, he didn’t have a face like this. He looks like a little skeleton man. Maybe it’s supposed to portray his aging due to stress like Lincoln or something. But man. It just doesn’t look like Zuko anymore. It looks like cheekbonko. That’s his new name.

Zuko had a change of heart after talking to the family in Yu Dao he met.

(gee maybe you should let the government be in control of the towns but let the people stay there because it is an old colony. Or let the colony stay so long as they don’t harass the Earth people. Or set up a joint government sort of thing with a council to rule these specific colony towns. Or anything but this dumb plot. ALSO LOOK AT ZUKO’S WEIRDASS HEXAGON FACE CHEEKBONES FUKC)

Also Katara doesn’t say anything she just stands there looking sad and confused. But just to make sure she does say something she says maybe Yu Dao should be the exception and only they can stay. Why is no one smart in this universe. But anyway, she decides to have another meeting with the Earth king.

It cuts to Zuko. The Kyoshi Warriors are his new bodygaurds. He gets up in the night to get water, but really he goes to see his father and DUN DUN DUN.

Well that was anticlimactic. Just seventy pages of UGH....THIS IS SO INFURIATING. But you know that’s fine.

This has been Part 1 of The Promise.

My predictions are Aang will not kill Zuko. (hes in the other comics) And they will remove everyone from their homes. Everyone will be happy despite that fact and Aang will get a kiss from his ‘sweetie’ the end.

But who knows?

[morganbelarus]

Somebody Please Explain the Morning-After Pill to Male TV Writers

One of lifes more enduring mysteries is how an astonishingly small percentage of television writers understand the female reproductive system.

Black Mirrors fourth season hit Netflix last week, entertaining audiences with mini-movie-length meditations on all of the ways the tech-driven future will kill our bodies and souls.

This season is special. All six episodes feature a female lead, since women seem to be a newly-discovered demographic in entertainment.

But despite the deliberate effort to produce a show that is less pale and less male than most, one episode in particular has some women and public-health advocates rankled. (If you care about spoilers, now would be a good time to stop reading.)

Episode 2, entitled Arkangel, features a mother named Marie, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, who has a chip installed in her young daughters head that allows her to track the little girls movements and vitals. Complications arise as Sara matures, and boil over when Sara becomes sexually active as a teenager. In the scene that serves as the linchpin to the episodes bloody climax, Marie discovers, through her app companion to her daughters tracking chip, that the girl is pregnant. She drives to a drug store in the middle of the night and obtains Emergency Contraception, which she grinds up and casually adds to her daughters smoothie the next morning. Sara becomes nauseous at school, and the nurse informs her that her illness is due to the emergency contraception she took to end her pregnancy.

Black Mirror is a fictional show set in an imagined future, but none of the details of Saras pregnancy or drugging make any biological sense.

Pregnancy doesn't happen right after you have sex, explains Elizabeth Clark, Planned Parenthood Federation of Americas Director of Health Media.

And emergency contraception doesnt cause a morning-after abortion. Sperm can actually live inside someone's body for up to six days after sex, waiting for an egg to show up to be fertilized, Clark adds. The morning-after pill works by temporarily stopping ovulation so the ovary doesn't release an egg.

Emergency contraception wont work if pregnancy has already occurred and cant interfere with a pregnancy that already exists.

Further, the drug is most effective the sooner it is taken after unprotected sex, thus its availability over the counter is helpful to women who dont want to waste precious hours for a doctors permission. It doesnt make any sense, even in the world of Black Mirror, for Marie to hold the pills overnight and casually drop them in her daughters smoothie the next morning; that diminishes the drugs effectiveness.

Does it matter if nobody in the team behind ArkangelBlack Mirror creator and writer Charlie Brooker, episode director Jodie Foster, star Rosemarie DeWitt, the rest of the cast and crew and production teamcould pass a detailed exam on how pregnancy works? Of course not. But whats unfortunate about this particular mass flub is that their misconception mirrors the misconception contraception opponents rely on to justify restricting womens access to reproductive options.

Contraception opponents like the Catholic Church, the March for Life, Susan B. Anthonys List (a group that aims to elect anti-abortion politicians, a sort of Bizarro World EMILYs List), and others use emergency contraception and the abortion pill interchangeably, and by design. Belief that life begins at the moment of conception and not the moment of implantation means that anything that might deliberately interfere with the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus is the same thing as murder.

Conflation of emergency contraception and the abortion pilltwo very different medicationsreinforces that belief. Im not sure thats what director Jodie Foster would have intended.

Black Mirror is far from the first show to get it wrong. Back in 2011, The Walking Dead flubbed a morning-after pill plotline in a nearly identical way. When audiences pointed out the flaw, the shows creator Glenn Mazzara issued a flippant dismissal of their concerns.

We exercised our artistic creative license to explore a storyline with one of our characters, not to make any pro-life or pro-choice political statement, he said. We sincerely hope that people are not turning to the fictional world of 'The Walking Dead' for accurate medical information.

Seven years later, TV writers are making the same mistake, Donald Trump is president, and the Department of Health and Human Services is stacked with people who believe that myth. But sure, its just television.

Film and television have a unique opportunity to portray sexual and reproductive health care in medically accurate and nonjudgmental ways for millions of viewers, PPFAs Elizabeth Clark adds. With access to health care and sex education under constant attack, its more important than ever for us to see accurate storylines when it comes to contraception, abortion, and other sexual health issuesas well as a whole range of peoples authentic experiences.

Netflix and Black Mirror have not returned a request for comment.

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Somebody Please Explain the Morning-After Pill to Male TV Writers was originally posted by 16 MP Just news

[rei-reviews]

Rei Reviews: Konosuba Season One

(aaand here is my review of the first season of Konosuba! I had a lot of fun writing this review and watching this anime! I’m hoping on posting more reviews on this account in parallel to my art because I’ve always wanted to write more of these I would also love to hear some feedback from you guys! what did you think of Konosuba if you watched it? did my review convince you to watch the anime? any tips that I can write better reviews? do comment them bellow~as for the next show I’m planning to review, it’ll either be Voltron: Legendary Defender or Michiko to Hatchin)

I don’t think it should surprise anyone when I say that one of, if not the most influential anime to come out this decade, is Sword Art Online. Whether you like it or hate it, there’s no denying that this show gathered a lot of attention and popularity. After all, its initial premise tells of a seemingly, average teenager who gets trapped in a videogame only to become the one of the strongest players and get all the ladies. The premise had a lot of appeal to its demographic and the anime industry realized this, which led to a significant increase of anime that shared a lot of elements that made SAO appealing both good and mostly bad.

And when a certain subgenre of a show starts becoming a trend, parodies of the subgenres will start appearing. And Konosuba just happens to be one of them. Konosuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World, was produced by Studio DEEN and aired in the winter season of 2016. It was adapted from a light novel of same name which was written by Natsume Akatsuki.

The Substance Konosuba’s main character is Kazuma Satou, a video-game loving hikikomori (the Japanese term for a shut in), who rarely leaves the house unless he’s buying a new game. In one of said shopping trips he ends up losing his life when he tried to save a girl from getting run over by a truck. In the after-life, he meets aqua, a powerful goddess and she gives him the chance to be reincarnated in an RPG -esque fantasy world and become its savior from the powerful demon king with an overpowered weapon she will bestow him.

Now, I bet that so far, The show’s premise sounds completely cliché BUT there are two aspects of this scene make it completely subvert from the norm:

1) It turns out that Kazuma didn’t die from getting run over. The “truck” he thought had seen, was in fact a tractor. His true cause of death was from shock over a situation that didn’t even happen in the first place.

2) The ‘overpowered weapon’ that he chooses to take from the goddess is the goddess herself because he was irritated with arrogant behavior. and Aqua is CERTAINLY not pleased with it

And both of these subversions are executed with such great timing and exaggeration, it’s hilarious.

And so, this unlikely team is sent into the fantasy world with Kazuma hoping to get the video game adventure he has always dreamed of and Aqua desiring to defeat the demon king so she could return to her realm. Their party soon expands to include an explosion obsessed wizard named Megumin and masochistic knight named darkness. And many, many hijinks ensue. Like I mentioned before, Konosuba is a parody of anime like SAO as well as JRPGs in general. it mercilessly pokes fun of the genre’s tropes and contrivances with an upbeat nature that keeps it from becoming too mean spirited.

But what I really like about the gags in Konosuba is that they’re not just there for the sake of making fun of videogames. They help to flesh out the RPG inspired setting by the excessive attention of detail to its ridiculous lore and each gag or a character’s action has an impact on the plot’s direction. Even the raunchier jokes (and trust me when I say there’s a fair amount of rauch in this show) aren’t just there for fanservice and they help to contribute to the narrative. this doesn’t just make the writing in konosuba hilarious, but also genuinely clever. The main cast of konosuba is also what makes this show work. At first glance they seem to be completely characterized in an archetypical manner but this far from the case with each and every one of them.

Aqua appears to be a high and mighty tsundere and while she is very prideful, she is also a complete idiot and making fun of her never gets old. Megumin could’ve easily been the stoic yet powerful loli but in truth she’s completely childish and immature. This is best shown in the fact that the only magic she knows is explosion magic, which is so powerful she can use it once per day. But it doesn’t matter to her because it’s the coolest. Darkness may seem as a loyal and selfless knight who wants to defend her people, but in truth she’s a masochist who dreams of being tortured by ferocious monsters and gets very turned on whenever she’s insulted. And finally, there’s kazuma who could’ve easily been yet another bland, self-insert protagonist who happens to be very powerful. Except he isn’t. Yes, he shares a lot of common traits of the hikikomori trope like his obsession with videogames and waifus, and his occasional perversion, but he’s not glorified for any of it and he constantly complains about how the life he desired as an adventurer completely suck.

All of these characters end up comedically suffering because of their decisions and none of them are glorified. They’re not good natured people at the slightest but what that makes them likable is how despite their flaws, they still try achieve their goals despite failing. The characters don’t really change when it comes to their behavior but throught the episodes, they do get closer to each other and some sort of bond is formed between them.

and I’m just going to praise this show for NOT going the easy route and making all the girls fall in love with kazuma and become his harem.  It’s a SHAME this is such a rare occurance.

The Presentation Studio DEEN has never been when It comes to animating and thus, konosuba isn’t the mostpolished. The colors of the fantasy world are vibrant and managed to make the setting pleasant, but the locations that the characters lived in weren’t that memorable. The animation itself isn’t very consistent and for the most part tends to look rather wonky But the aspects of the animation that are strong manage to shine through its flaws.

Takaomi Kanasaki, the anime’s director brilliantly managed to direct the show so that every joke hits. The pacing and timing is always tight and the wonkiness of the character animation actually helps to bring out the humor of the scenes to some extent. The action scenes that occur in the show are also well paced and have some brilliant sakuga moments sprinkled in.

The music in the show is also well made, not necessarily because of how memorable or epic it is, but because how its utilized in terms of comedy. sometimes the songs are used as a queue of a specific gag such as megumin’s casting an explosion, and sometimes they abrupltly end to highten the effect of a certain punchline. In addition, the OP to the show is a lot of fun to listen to. The song that accompanies is “fantastic dreamer” is relatively standard, but it’s filled with a lot of inside jokes and small gags that help to convey the chemistry between the main characters.

By far the strongest point of the overall presentation is the voice acting. Each and every actor from the main cast fit their characters to a T and the lines are delivered with a lot of energy and charisma. The best performance in the cast belongs to aqua’s voice actress, Sora Amamiya because she really gave that character her identity.

Final Verdict The first season of Konosuba is probably one of the best comedies I have seen in a while and not just in anime. Despite its short length, It’s an excellent parody of shows in the “trapped in the video game” subgenre but it manages to construct a fleshed out yet ridiculous fantasy world with very entertaining comedic leads. I recommend it for people who are tired of the oversaturation of anime like SAO as well as to people who just want to enjoy a good comedy. I can’t necessarily say that those who can’t stomach raunchiness will enjoy, but for the most part the tasteless fanservice is well… in good taste. And with that. That’s all I have to say about konosuba. Check it out if you’re interested because like its title says: it’s a blessing on this wonderful world