#do i think zeke and mylene were perfect for each other? no

[nerdangels]

This bit be mm a bit controversiál but the "why does everything have to be gay" discourse that people had about encanto is how i feel about shaozeke

[akria23]

TGD Articles #1

The reason I love The Get Down is not just because its about a part of my own people’s history in this genre of music…but because it’s a metaphorical speak in the image of many artist that’s lived that life coming from a colored, poor, and seemingly broken land. The cultures that represented in this show – they’ve always been at the pinnacle of all the big art forms. Often times that history was erased replaced with the face of someone else, the credit is given to those it didn’t belong to and even when correct credit is given the tale is spun to make it negative – our form of dance was something violent, dangerous or not a real form / our music was/is degrading at best and tasteless at worst / our art was never art just unnecessary incoherent scribbles used only to mark ownership and ruin what was once perfect. Time and time we’re shown that the lighter the flesh the easier the content is to swallow but TGD isn’t about that harsh reality. In fact, these young men and women are to focus on their own moment trying to breathe some life into their own dreams that there's no room for that story. So what happens is we get this ultimate focus on this representation, on this reality that I think isn’t shined on enough for people like these. You have real artist who’ve lived through similar events as these, whose history match. These too are our stories, and TGD remembers that, they remind of that, they teach that to those who hadn’t known.

I’ve been doing this thing lately where I’ve been feeling this need to describe everything by one word and one word only. The only rule was that the word had to not only speak for the entirety of the piece but that it must also trickle down to having more than the one meaning. Sometimes this is difficult…this time it was simple.

Freedom.  

The word has found its place within the story. Its grown so much its become an entity of its own, it’s presence refusing to be ignored, it has weaved its way through characters and threaded itself to the spine of the storyline. Its more than the star gazing and the bird metaphors, it’s the hard lyric dropped on the backbeat and the spray from the can that paints every one of Dizzee’s mottos. Each character’s struggle is one marked by a quest of the word.

Mylene seeks absolution from her Father and his church. Like many of the characters, she desires to use her talent to transcend her from the gutters of rags to riches and class. To be raw, Mylene sole drive is for control, of both her own form and mind and through that her own message in her art. She is the one most driven by this need for the boys have total autonomy over what they perform and how it's performed, and while the girls may do back lib for her and therefore have not much say they are still free in form of body and decisions. We watch her transition from her father’s control, trying to fit her dream inside his reality, to trying to fit that same dream inside someone else’s who wanted her for her sex appeal.  In both cases, she was told what to think, feel and how to act. Her only purpose was to achieve theirs. It's only when the first chains are truly broken (with her father’s death) do we see her take a stand and start of this different path. We know this path is one of fruition because, in the scene where she finds herself at the party (this scene also mirrors with another character’s awakening), she's lost in herself, singing her way – carefree and just for the art. It is this moment that gets her the deal of a lifetime. Through Mylene we see many other characters in search for some form of freedom – including her mother whose wants to escape the marriage she's bound herself to, her ‘uncle’ who's made a life of trying to free others from poverty, and a broken city – and Jackie a drug addicted musician who finds himself lost in the biggest musical block until she frees him with creativity and inspiration.

Unlike Mylene, Zeke doesn’t know he's in need of being free. To be fair his prison is, in part, one of his own making.   Yes, his family and teacher put pressure on his to succeed their way…but he doubled that by trying to add Shaolin and the Kipling brothers to his track. There's nothing wrong with trying to succeed but you can’t walk to paths at once and that’s what Zeke finds himself trying to do and often finds himself taking steps backward instead of forward. He stretched himself thin instead of giving his all to one route. Maybe that’s why his story is heavy with guilt and sorrow because his goal was to make too many people happy – someone was destined to be let down – and if part 2 was any marker, that person is shown to be Shao, the brother who he's never really put his full trust in. Through Zeke we are shown sometimes we have too many options and refusing to make a choice can cause us just as much as making no choice, but also that our decision that can come with a duality. Zeke was free to choose…although I don’t know if his choice was all it was cut out to be. Zeke was inspiring though and with that came those who wanted that to shade them, such as Ra-Ra who latched onto this group because he saw the potential and hoped that his brain would be enough to lead them down the right path to creating a kingdom of their own.

Shaolin had the story of no choice. Shao lived in a mindset of survival and in that mindset all your decisions are fronted with that goal. His body was even more out of his control than Mylene’s, Fat Annie made sure of that from a young age. Even though he’s a jack of all trades (art, music, dance), even though deep down he's always hoped and has finessed his talents in wait of an opportunity, Shao never believed he would actually find a path to escape the world Annie had built for him. Leaving always meant ending back there. This is why he was enamored of Zeke – he was an opportunity, he was a promise of things Shao never had (a family, a partner, a bond) he was the road to freedom. He not only made him see, but he made him believe (this is also why I don’t like Zeke – Shao was always all the way in, damaging himself further, but Zeke always held a part of himself out knowing he had more than one route). When he gripped onto this idea, he couldn’t let it go, even if it meant getting his hands dirty. He was willing to steal, beg, borrow, and in one case assault for this thing. Because if he could do all those things to survive in a world he didn’t want to be in, what was stopping him from doing them when the destination was something he actually wanted? The sad thing about Shao’s story is it presented the reality of placing your trust in someone and having them drop your ass. Hope – it was so close and he knew it was gonna work. Growth-excusing the world he lived in and the things he had to do, to standing up and saying no. Devastation-having the foundation pulled from under his feet with the realization that having something and losing it may just be worse than never having had it at all. Reversion- of all the things he’d once known, the life he once lived, the thoughts he once had. Freedom is an illusion when life keeps proving that you deserve no such thing. And that ties in with Boo, he thinks he has no real tools to leave that place. The city has its claws in him, feeding off his anger and hardheadedness that keeps him in the belief that those like him and Shao were meant to be left behind and hardened for that life. Those who think they don’t deserve to be free succumb to their prisons.

Let me be frank – Dizzee’s story is my favorite in every way possible…including this one. If Shao’s storyline thus far has been about the manifestation of freedom letting you down, then Diz’s is about that manifestation being the best thing that allows you to soar high. Free/freedom is a theme we see surrounding Dizz a lot. This is in part to his sexuality and in part to his rebellious artistry. He himself has atoned himself more freedom in one than in the other. Dizz is fearless and driven in the face of art. His train quotes usually as such ‘Forget safety, be notorious’. He goes all the way into a dangerous neighborhood just to see Shao’s new work. He added his own work to one of Shao’s trains and even went to a gang territory for another one of his own creations. His art presents not only his thoughts and beliefs but allows him to freely hide in plain sight though his write line and alter ego Rumi. He’s the only character whose freedom is always at the stake of being stolen (though his art being a crime) while also seeking a different form of freedom (both his sexuality and the legacy of his art). Dizzee’s story is like a caterpillar going through metamorphosis – when the audience first meets him we don’t realize his sexuality is on the table. It isn’t until we’re introduced to Thor that even becomes clear. Thor is interested upon first meeting when he hears exactly who Dizzee is and his explanation of Rumi. Thor immediately understands the representation of Rumi. He’s the first character to see the genius in Diz instead of weird because he’s the first to actually see him fully for what he is and understand his metaphors. Thor is actually the element that’s pushing Diz’s transition. We get a lot of signs of Freedom when Thor is around – when they exchange books Thor tells him to make it the craziest, nastiest, freest, most revolutionary piece he’s ever made – Thor has a train quote that goes ‘You have wings, Learn to fly’ – before Thor ask him to go to the club he ask Dizz ‘Doesn’t Rumi wanna rise from some Alien ashes, be a phoenix, find a new form? Set the alien in the top hat free bro, introduce him to the world’. This is forthcoming to Thor’s own form (the phoenix – one reborn) already settled and free in his own sexuality, the bird standing for both freedom and rebirth (which is a point diz is at during his last scene). I do think that Thor feels because he’s able to see Diz/Rumi so translucently that others will/can too. You see this when he invites him to the club and tells him not to worry they’ll let him in. – In the club scene, it's as though Dizz is actually leaving one world entering a new world, all the while with Thor leading Dizz forward with a guiding hand. This sense is deepened by the fact that the audio is cut and what we hear as they are in this new place is Thor’s joy (laughter) at sharing this new world with Dizz. He tells Dizz that “this is where free people come to be free, just birds singing in bird voices and doing bird things (basically free people doing free people shit)’”. When Dizz gives Thor the Set Me Free album and tells him that it made him think of him it makes sense because that’s the route Dizz has been on since meeting Thor. It is easy to see that Thor is his first male romantic action given his hesitant nature when Thor was first flirting with him on the train – he remained stoic until he did the turn with a La revolution before exiting. But Dizz is also a full steam ahead kind of guy once he decides to do something. We get another one of those scenes in the club. Because everything was so new Dizz is contained and awestruck but after the kiss and the first note of Come Set Me Free, all those walls fall and we see Dizzee in his most pure form.

This theme, of course, follows into part 2 as Thor is literally locked up and Dizz has shut down in his own way. This season also focuses on Dizz standing up for his place and himself. He’s no longer letting comments slide by, choosing instead to confront them head on. When Thor gets out we get this intricate scene that while drug induced, allows us free entree into Dizz’s mind where Thor is concerned. Love, art, protection and of course free as we’re reminded of Rumi’s destination. Some fans take the Boo-Dizz conversation to mean that Boo secretly knows about Dizz’s sexuality…I didn’t take it that way at all. When Boo says – remember when I used to know all your friends it was a reminder that Dizz like the rest of the characters was still locked in a box. There's a reason Ra says..yo that’s my brother in the face of Thor whose trying to help. None of Dizz’s family knows Thor. It’s the same reason he tells Boo no when he ask if he could come along to see Thor. So even while he's at the point of not apologizing for being an alien he’s not yet a phoenix. When we see Dizz again, he's at his happiest. He and Thor are shacked up in what I refer to as Paint Palace, isolating themselves from the outside world like they’re on a honeymoon and drawing their truth on every surface they can. As I’ve said in my other post, this is one of my favorite scenes – because everyone should be allowed to experience that kind of freedom. Dizzee is in a safe space, doing something he loves, surrounded by positivity and with someone who inspires this safe feeling. He doesn’t have to hide, doesn’t have to speak in half-truths nor outright lie. Thor doesn’t judge him, and although he’s his guide he doesn’t push or force him to move faster than his own pace will allow. The reason Thor is presented smiling and happy when Dizzee is lost in his art is because he is both enamored and in full support of Dizz during these moments because they’re when Dizz is at his most real. Thizzee does not overtly mention their feelings because the real message loses its meaning that way. You see all the other relationships/friendships in the show and they all tell each other their every feeling but when it comes time to put up…someone is often left hurt, disappointed and jaded.  Dizz is aware of all those feelings – love, protection, freedom – not because Thor says them, but because he shows through action. Thor is Dizzee’s manifestation of freedom and through he found himself on the path to accepting himself and freeing the sides of himself that others didn’t understand. Dizz is learning to fight for himself as much as he’s willing to fight for his art. Thor teaches him that Viva la revolution has space in other portions of his life. And that’s where we leave Dizz, transforming himself into something new…

Sometimes freedom is the fight for control, sometimes it’s the need to make a decision, sometimes it’s a manifestation, and other times it’s learning to accept yourself. The show made sure to sprinkle it in every character (even those I didn’t mention). As I said at the start, it was the floor the genre of music and art was built upon. Neither got much respect but still, artist used it as their route to escape whatever struggles they needed to overcome and the greatly exhibits that. These characters want to be kings and queens, they want to make their own mark on the world, leave behind their own legacy. They fight, love, and sometimes lose. They learn to learn to understand one aspect of one another they probably thought they would never see. That's what's so freeing about TGD, what makes it so damn good.

Video belongs to Anna on YT! This post was in part inspired by said video. The gifs are as credited.

[nodamageafterall]

The Get Down Watch Party

The Get Down Part 1 – Ep 1 Where There Is Ruin There Is Hope For Treasure

• Daveed Diggs • I used to find Zeke’s voice weird, but now I’m used to it • Still not sure how to feel about Leon • Sometimes I forget that Mylene has a sister • The Kipling Family • Ra Ra geeking about Star Wars #relatable • “That’s so stupid” “You’re stupid” #roasted • OMG Ra Ra and his suitcase • Regina is so sassy, hope we see more of that side of her • “Hey, You”, my favorite song because it makes me think of  Thizzee • Shaolin, everybody thinks he’s some type of badass legend, but soon they find out he is just a dorky • “Ciao for now”, why is Dizzee so extra? • I’m learning more about history while watching TGD that I learned in school • I’m so glad Francisco is one of the good guys • Boo Boo plaining the next move like the true mastermind he is, he is like Dizzee’s management • Savage Warlords, oh Napoleon • Francisco saves the day! • Ra Ra is so happy for Zeke • Ms Green is the true queen • Ra Ra and his references, he is like Tumblr in the 70’s • I assume all this burning buildings are CGI, I think most of the budget went on the background only • Zeke reciting the poem, what is that sound? Oh, right, it’s just my heart breaking • It looks like Regina and Yolanda are trying to seduce Mylene rather than give her boy’s advice • Ra Ra dancing, pls, no • Shaolin and Zeke’s meeting was just like it happen in romances • They focus on Napoleon, the foreshowing • “Wars on Mars” why you gotta do me like that Dizz? • That gay joke, Winston has no idea • Dizz and Boo aka partners in crime, everyone needs a little bro like Boo • Ra Ra’s advices are like really good and really bad at the same time • The girls looked so good • “Hey, You” • Can we delete Fat Annie existence? • It weird seeing how happy and pure they were until everything turns to shit • Poor Shaolin, I can’t handle that nasty woman using him like that • Cadillac, it’s really hard to hate on him when you are too busy laughing at his nonsense • Why aren’t we more weirded out with this grown men lusting after teen girls? • Zeke is too good, too pure for this world • Mylene knows her stuff, no man will play her • Is that Jesus Superstar playing on the club? • Shaolin and his karate shit, it’s like he is trying to scary Zeke off so they don’t have to fight, because he wouldn’t know how • Zeke bites Shaolin, that’s love • Zeke is so dramatic, willing to die for that record • Shaolin talking about the heat while wearing that leather jacket is quite ironic • “Which one?” “The beautiful one” classic • So upsetting that Malibu is dead, his lines were gold • Zeke’s fake accent, I’m offended and I don’t even speak spanish • Zeke needs to man up • Cadillac owns the dance floor • RIP Fat Annie’s Birthday Cake, gone too soon (I still would eat that tho) • I wish we could have more of Mylene and Cadillac dancing, just because their chemistry is really great, but I don’t ship them in anyway • Jack, I love him, but I’m afraid he will screw things over • Mylene broke Zeke’s heart and I feel for him, but he really needed that reality check • Never saw someone reading the bible so angrily • Ramon is the worst for beating Mylene like that, triggerwarning 1:10 to1:12 • Zeke, people died, you just got dumped • “I don’t understand all the crying over a female”, yeah, that’s ‘cause you are gay • Shaolin is so over the top, he and Zeke are perfect for each other • If it’s a secret underground how did him expect them to know about it? • I would expect people to be more traumatized after being in a shooting, but I guess  not • Shaolin is a fanboy, look at him fanboying over Grandmaster Flash • Zeke is wasted • Plot twist: Boo Boo is the true ladykiller romantic • I’m not saying Francisco is Mylene’s dad, but… he is • I cringed so hard the first time I saw that scene, it was clear that Zeke would fail the first try • Shaolin jumping in (literally) to save the day • Whenever older Zeke’s voiceover comes in I cry • Zeke and Shaolin are already bff and they literally just met • Shaolin isn’t just a dork, he is a nerd, he got his albums in alphabetic order • Ra Ra is a little jealous of Zeke’s friendship with Shaolin • Boo Boo is the king of comebacks • The name of the episode on the train it’s like when the character says the name of the show in the show • “You are a natural everything”, Zeke is flirting • Such a Moulin Rouge vibe of that Mylene bit, I hope nothing bad happens to her • Daveed Diggs!

The Get Down Part 1 – Ep 2 Seek Those Who Fan Your Flames

• I love that idea of starting the episode with a rap about the previously one • “Yo, how did he get in here?”, Ra asking the real questions • That fucking crayon • Dizzee’s “nice”, I wonder what is on his mind • “Protect her from herself” WTF Ramon • The Get Down Brothers? More like The Get High Brothers • Francisco rant about the white models #keepitreal • “My fucking crayon” LOL • The Kipling Bros left to go eat, priorities • Shaolin’s face while Zeke’s raps/ramble • Mylene and her mother bonding, more of those pls • Shaolin and his pigeons • I really hope the pigeons weren’t there when the place got burned • Shaolin is just 17 years old, he doesn’t deserve that shit • Zeke saw the light lol • “It takes two to make a thing go right”, is that what they call subtext? • Of course Shaolin gave him a nickname • Leon is so lazy smh • Ms Green and her red glasses • Francisco is the best • Senora Lopez is the gem of that episode • *Ignores Fat Annie for my mental health* • I really had no idea so much went into djaying, it made me appreciate it more • Grandmaster Flash is a showoff • Zeke and Shaolin fanboying together is my jam • Mylene’s voice is the closest to heaven I’ll ever get • Mylene, Regina and Yolanda are squad goals • I think it was low of Mylene to go ask help from Zeke after what happened, but I don’t think she really had much of a choice • Ra Ra and his Star Wars references • “Syrups got standars”, preach it Zeke • Shaolin is nosy • Ra Ra is the voice of the reason in this group • I hope someday I have Cadillac’s self-steem • Did he get all dress up to torture this kids? • I hate that scene • 38:45 to 39:46, skip it if you can #childabuse • The Kipling Bros dancing to Shaolin’s beat is everything • The tension in that bit is too much • 41:41 to 42:26 more child abuse and that time it’s worst, blood involved • They look so happy, why you have to ruin it? • Dizzee could’ve died • Shaolin just lost everything • Dizzee carrying that turntable, my heart aches • Shaolin trying to keep it together and lashing out on Zeke, he needs a hug • I’m glad that Zeke and Mylene sorted it out in the end • Ramon is always screwing things over • The church scene is uncanny • Jack is so hangover, when isn’t he? • Mylene preteding to get the holy spirit, so wrong, so funny • That DRESS • Shit is getting down • What? No, it can’t be over