#even their familes made it very apparent that they don't

[lucio-have-mercy]

nobody:

not a single soul:

me, to any poor soul I may wander upon:

so-

those billionairs are either dead,

or they cannibalize each other,

possibly both?

I mean, the chances at least one of them TRIED to eat the others within the first 9.5h is PRETTY high, ya know?

I mean, the guy they'd all blame for their situation was locked in there with them.

Now, I am not saying that it turned into a bloodbath, but-

[elegomez]

Alright, Muslim Women of the Fergana Valley by Vladimir and Maria Nalivkin, edited+translated by Mariana Markova and Marianne Kamp, was probably the most useful book I've read so far on the culture!

-at this point in time, most Sart women wear a headscarf no matter what; not as a particularly religious function, but to keep their heads warm. They got scolded into it by parents.

-the veils (full body wear, not really comparable to hijabs at this point) are extremely common and considered what any decent and respectable woman does in public, but several women from lower classes do not as regular practice. These were public wear; at the time the authors are writing, 1886 (around ten years after Russia began to occupy the land) it's primarily prostitutes who are starting to go without them, but some women are also starting to do so. The authors say this is Russian influence, but I'm not convinced.

-What I think is Russian influence is the age of marriage being so low among so many (the time it took to pay bride prices put the actual age of marriage off for poor familes; the richest would often wait to find the exact right amount) as conservative reaction colonization mounted

-At this point, "dancing boys" (young men who were dancers and most likely prostitutes for men) were "going out of fashion" for women who danced. Other sources (online, need to find it again, it annoyed me on some of its claims iirc)

-widows and divorcees had a lot more ability to move around unquestioned in society than young women, unmarried or recently married

-divorce, at this point, is really common and easily obtained, as well as regularly threatened

-at the point in time in question, family doesn't ask for food from other family directly, apparently, but guests are served a hell of a lot of food that family isn't supposed to touch

-holy shit does polygamy mostly suck

-plenty of women have children around 45

-women are traditionally kept in the house until the first child is born, gagh

-(first) marriages are essentially all monetary and political; the fathers don't often have strong connections to their own children

-that said, lovers outside of the marriage are frequent and essentially an open secret, lmao.

-traditionally unwanted or unable to be maintained children are given to other families who want them; infanticide is rare and the only case the authors reported was one out of abject desperation; while there's a gender preference for girls, it mostly comes out in trying to skirt around the husband's feelings and the size of the party they hold for the new baby.

-there's definitely a very different feel between Sarts and Kyrgyz people

-Kyrgyz women are really expensive to marry, given they're usually raised to perform most of the skills men are in this city among the Sarts; Kyrgyz women also ride horses on their own, where Sart women have to ride behind a male relative or on a cart. (Good to know that plot point stands!)

-Women are talked about as dancing here without repercussion, despite the fact that Islam forbids it; I do feel comfortable saying that in a made-up city, a particularly conservative family would castigate one of their girls for dancing, but it wouldn't necessarily be an "all of society" thing

-women are supposed to behave in a specific and demure way; hiding their faces from strange men, staying away from Russians, etc, and they will if other people are around to scold them; but according to the authors, when people weren't around to enforce the crappy rules, the women were immediately happy to take off their veils and peer at him or even talk to him.

-women aren't supposed to talk to men, even their own husbands, in public. this would result in a pair going out and facing different directions while mumbling to each other to communicate. Prostitutes often ignored this rule.

-in this society at this point in time, there's very little that isn't forgiven by most, as long as they return to the accepted way of life. (eg, someone who ran away to be a prostitute would be welcomed back if she marries someone her parents pick, etc.)

-in the rare(?) cases marriages are chosen/influenced by the couple marrying, the families still go through the accepted motions

Some decisions I need to make about Selene; -is she Kyrgyz or Sart? (or another semi-nomadic group) I wanted her to originally be Kyrgyz-ish, mostly to fit with the original intentions of the book; someone fleeing war and turning to (kinky!) sex work. It might be simplest if she is Sart herself, but I'd kind of miss the...sense of superiority I see her character with.

I do think that friend of mine is right, now, that the war aspect might feel like a dropped plot point...but I think I can go forward leaving that open-ended; she was from a semi-nomadic group whose parents died, and she and her sister and aunt went to the aunt's family (her children) in the city, where the three of them were treated poorly enough Selene ran away to become a ballerina (this usually involved sex, at this point in history, fwiw. I can explain more if asked). How her parents died doesn't need to be relevant, at least in the first book; if I feel a need to expand later, I can!

-was she running from an arranged marriage, or abusive family, or both? I was thinking abusive family, but the age of marriage brings that into question - also if her nine year old sister would be married as a result of her running away, which is an unfortunate possibility. I might say that the aunt interceded, or enough people were scandalized by the idea it didn't happen, but it depends. (I probably don't need to directly address this)

-how often should she go into the Sart part of the town? How blended should things be? If I go with the fantasy analogue to Tashkent, they've been under Russian control for a decade longer, but treated less violently than groups colonized later.

-I'm starting to have concern over how everything is going to come together in terms of the porn and the plots, but dammit, if Kushiel's Dart could do it, so can I.

At this point, I feel pretty comfortable with understanding Next up, I want to learn more about the Russian side of Central Asia; their customs, behaviors, really any similar account to this one. I would also love an account of every day life in a ballet company in the 19th century. unfortunately I also need an understanding of what russian gentry was like at this point. sigh. I know enough...

[autumn-foxfire]

Clash of Red and Black! This one could be looooong.

Heiji tried T-T Of course Shinichi caught him out by asking him what he would do which he answered truthfully, which is the opposite of what he wants Shinichi to do.

The opening ending image containing all he important characters to the BO plot and Ran is not there because Gosho never intends for her to be involved deeper in the plot T-T She's just the prize Shinichi gets at the end for succeeding.

Sonoko has no chill XD Telling someone their family ran away before you could kill them is not the joke you think it is XD

Gosho, you cannot make Ran giving blood to Shinichi romantic when comparing it to siblings doing the same to one another. If anything, it just tells us about their strong family bond.

Oh Ran gets to take out the criminal for a change.

And Shinichi is teaching us how to avoid being caught in scams!

Jodie is keeping an eye out for Shinichi T-T Someone needs too.

Awww and Shinichi is trying to keep Eisuke safe. Well, he's also just cautious about him being used by the BO as well.

I forgot that to infiltrate the org Akai let himself get hit by a car in order to meet Akemi XD Hardcore.

So Eisuke's father is called irresponsible for abandoning his son (he's dead). I wonder who else have abandoned their children and have even put them in harms way, cough, cough.

<.< Oh fuck off Shinichi, Eisuke is a much better fit to Ran than you will ever be. Not that either of you deserve her, with how you end up treating her like a prize.

Trust me, Eisuke, having two people look identical in this series is not as rare as you think it is.

Ran didn't scream and cling to the nearest body this time when a black out happened. How rare, Gosho never misses a chance to make Shinichi insufferable when that happens.

Kogoro would be a much better detective if he stopped assuming that every death he encounters is a suicide. And by that, I mean it's annoying it's the option he jumps to all the time, even though the victim has told him he feared his life being taken just previously.

Shinichi has connected the condensation dots.

I genuinely can't stand Kogoro at times. Thank you Shinichi, please knock his ass out.

...And of couse Shinichi assumes that they're bathing together and is jealous because Ran is his possession, don't forget that :p Nevermind that Ran has made it pretty apparent that she cares about him and only him! God I hate the canon romances so much. They're just so gross and disrespectful to the characters.

Ai calling Shinichi out for hiding things from her, as she should. It wouldn't hurt him to share his opinions with Ai, you know, the person who studied both chemistry and biology and could actually help him confirm his theory.

Time for the true plot of these episodes to start!

Akai, you too, will become best friends with this "boy".

LMAO Akai telling Shinichi to not even bother with Eisuke's survival, the man has no chill.

And Shinichi has connected the dots again!

I love the three adults and one child talking about a deadly org as it's so absurded. Shinichi you do not fit and yet you are essential to their success.

Shinichi is so bad at lying T-T My boy, your life depends on it, learn how to do it better. At least he's warning the FBI he believes she's not as unconscious as she is appearing.

Akai: You do know you're putting yourself in a lot of danger, right?

Shinichi: Then you better not fuck up, big boy!

I love extremely conspicious vans in a parking lot. Definitely not at all suspicious.

Shinichi recorded being a little shit for evidence. We love to see our gremlin at work.

...This is why you don't speak about your very dangerous hostage in an open hallway of the hospital.

Akai: And I thought you trusted us.

Shinichi: Hah, do you think I'm dumb?

They're bonding T-T

And Akai and Shinichi know that it's time for a showdown with the crows.

Awwww Akai is complimenting Shinichi's intelligence T-T They're becoming such good friends.

And Shinichi is learning the complicated family tree of the Miyano's and the Akai's XD I still can't believe that Gosho forgot he made the two girlfriend and boyfriend who developed real feelings for one another only to made them cousins. Well, dating cousins isn't really all that frowned upon in Japan by the looks of it, just a lot more uncommon that it used to be but we've had romantic cousins in the series before. It's still funny because I genuinely think he forgot about it, and when you consider how long this series has been going on (30 years) it wouldn't be surprising.

Shinichi are you taunting Akai with your identity? To bond.

I still love the little boy in the group of FBI agents. One does not seem like he belongs XD

Oooh, I love the flowers. A nice touch to a start of a battle!

And Akai has touched the phone! All part of his and Shinichi's plan.

Time for the mind games to begin!

Poor Jodie, left in the dark by the boys and knocked out by Camel.

And a man gives up his life to save his daughter, even if it means traumatizing said daughter by killing himself in front of her, with her hand on the trigger.

LOL poor Camel. Akai just admitting to him that he prepared for the scenario where he died.

And Gin, the smart man he is, is still very suspicious. It's a shame for him his opponents are just as smart.

Shinichi, just tell her the truth XD WHY DID AI ASKING IF AKAI WAS A LOLICON T-T

And Shinichi can't go anywhere without a murder happening...

Megure: Why are these people suspicious?

Takagi with no shame: Because a child told me they were!

Wait, Mitsuhiko isn't completely wrong here. What are the FBI but government sanctioned murderers? (Lol I remember an argument I got into with another person because I called a character this from another fandom).

And the cover Jodie goes for is Camel is her lover XD

I almost wish I was watching this blind, so all the twists would shock me like intended. It's a shame you can't erase your memory.

And Shinichi gave Jodie the phone with Akai's fingerprints to not only complete his and Akai's plan but also help Jodie get the hint about who the culprit is!

Why are we having this random flashback with Ran? Is it so we can feel like she's somewhat important to the plot even though we all know she isn't. Also Akemi looks nothing like Ran, I really don't know why they keep making this compariosn. They really want to force Ran into this plot while giving her nothing significant to do in it, it's such an insult to her character. Just fucking give her a proper role. Show me that she is more than just his love interest.

Akai, taking a page out of Shinichi's book and deciding to go the fake death route and gaslight his allies about his death. This was how they bonded.

Oh so when the police takes Shinichi's belongs for evidence, they buy him another, but when they took my laptop for evidence, the fuckers made me have to buy a new one by myself <.<

[mercurygray]

Please could you do sweaters + fireplace with Harry Welsh? 👀

@easy-company-tradition  and you think alike, Nonnie:  Hello I am back to request sweaters with Harry bc he is under appreciated 💙 thanks Merc, have a lovely day!

Apparently Harry and Sweaters are the new OTP, you heard it here first. (Harry actually is wearing a sweater very much like this in 1.10 during their poker game.)

---

Harry and the sweater were now inseparable.

It had arrived on Tuesday with the rest of the mail, a homemade knitted vest in that particular pea-green that every woman's organization in the greater United States had now taken special possession of, and Harry had taken one look and fallen in love.

Of course it had been Kitty that had knitted the thing, and not altogether perfectly, either, but no one could deny that it had been made with love, which was nice, and it was warm, which in the rising English damp was even better.

"I'm going to marry this woman," Harry proclaimed, sitting in front of the fire in the Frobisher's front room while Joan sat in front of the fire with a toasting fork and a stack of bread and Dick and Captain Frobisher put a chess board through its paces. There was very little room at the Barneses, where the two of them were staying, and there was something nice about staying in en famille on a Friday instead of going down to the pub - especially since it was still raining. "First chance I get, we're putting a ring on it." He glanced down at the edge of the sweater, rubbing at a spot in the hem where she'd slipped a stitch, smiling like a fool. "What about it, Joanie?"

"What, you marry me?" Joan asked with a grin. "Not sure what Kitty would do to me if we tried."

"No, you goof, getting married in general."

Joan shrugged and passed him a piece of toast. "Hadn't ever given it much thought."

Harry snorted. "Oh, sure, pull the other one," he said, looking over at Dick and the Captain with a grin. "Good looking girl like you has a whole trail of boyfriends and broken hearts somewhere in Baltimore."

Joan fiddled with the next piece of toast, rearranging herself on the hearth rug. "Boyfreinds I'll admit to, and one or two of 'em came real close, but nothing ever really clicked. Most men are looking for something different in a wife. Sweaters, for instance."

"So what was Joan Warren's five year plan?" Harry asked, sitting back in his chair enjoying his snack.

"Before all this?" She sat back on her heels a little. "I was thinking about...applying to be a congressional aide or something, run papers and help dictate policy and be indispensable. Now...I don't know. I wasn't ever looking for a traditional life, house and kids and all that. But you can't just tell a guy that on the first date."

"What can't you tell a guy on our first date?" Nixon had helped himself inside, closing the door quickly so all the warmth of the fire didn’t escape. He was a surprise addition to the party - and from the looks of things, there might have been a bottle hidden in his overcoat pocket. "Captain - Dick, Harry."

"Lieutenant Nixon." Captain Frobisher rose from his chair and shook hands. "I'll let you young people get on. Spell me, will you?" he asked, gesturing to his vacated chair. "Lieutenant Winters is reminding me why I don't play. Night, chaps - Joan can lock up when you've all gone."

"Night, Captain." "Good night."

"We were talking about life plans," Joan explained, after Captain Frobisher had taken his leave. "Toast?"

"Thanks, you're a darling," Nixon said, sitting down and studying the chess board. "I thought that was all we talked about on our first date."

"Ha ha. Very funny." Joan rolled her eyes. "No, I've kind of boxed myself in on the marriage front," she said, staring into the fire. "In my family one...tends to assume the worst about people - that they're only being nice to you because they want something. And when I go back stateside, I've kind of got a target on my back. Every desk jockey and wanna-be politician in Washington is going to want a piece of the Pershing Princess." She pronounced the title with disdain. "Good press coverage for his next campaign. Just like my mother always wanted."

"We've just got to find the Princess a knight in shining armor, then," Harry said with a smile. "We're going to Normandy. How hard could that be?"

"Harry, please don't. Say that joke loud enough where a correspondent can hear and they will be combing 7th Armoured for a guy with the last name Knight."

Lewis looked personally affronted. "God, no, never! If I must lose you, it's to a paratrooper or no one at all, Joanie. The honor of the regiment demands it."

Joan only rolled her eyes and went back to her toast, Harry to his contemplation of domestic bliss, and Lewis and Dick returned to the chess game, Lewis taking a minute to familiarize himself with the progress of the game and then diving straight in.

"You doing something with that queen besides feel her up, Dick?" Lewis asked pointedly, and Dick hastily put the piece he'd been absentmindedly handling down. Lewis smirked. "She's an honest woman and her husband's right there."

[naoko-world]

OK I don't know you but I read your post about Encanto and I absolutely need to answer.

"First of all, it was written by 6 persons and it shows. It was like they were given a part and they tried to put it together with the songs. Maybe I didn’t paid enough attention, but the worldbuilding seems weak to me."

First, most movies are written by many people. Coco, you apparently love, was too written by 6 people. It's not new and it's not an argument.

Then, you actually probably didn't pay attention.

"For example, why does the candle exists in first place? Is some colombian thing? I doubt it, but there’s no logic explanation. They could’ve found the candle in some place, get it with magical words, something. But there’s nothing. The candle exists just because the script says so."

Are you complaining about the candle Pedro was carrying when he and Alma flew their home? The one who was, apparently, the same candle from their marriage day? What do you mean it appears from nowhere? Pedro had it to see in the dark, the gave it to Alma. Then the miracle (which doesn't need any explanation, it's why it's called a miracle) appeared on the candle and protected Alma and the others townspeople to-be.

"I don’t like Maribel, she tries to be likeable to her family so hard, I just can’t like it, she’s just the ugly duckling."

Mirabel. Her name is Mirabel. Not Maribel. Well, what can I say? Too bad you can't like her, I found her endearing.

"“She tries to prove she’s worth just as any other member of her famil—” Shut up. And why does she uses glasses? Doesn’t her mom cures every disease with food? Really, if she can cure everything why does she uses glasses?"

But she's cute with her glasses? Why should she be "healed"? Especially since it doesn't seem to bother her that much? Maybe she likes wearing glasses (I know I do). Also do you mean you can't like a character with glasses? That's rough for you buddy!

Oh and maybe Julieta can't heal birth diseases? We are not really sure how her powers work.

"Her travel is underwhelming, they HAD the chance to make a great thing if they were bragging about the film’s story being placed in Colombia but no, they chose to tell the story mostly inside the house in their rooms. They could’ve avoid using Colombia as a pretext to target latinos again, they could’ve made rooms about, literally, everything, excusing Casita’s powers or whatever the house does. I guess they wanted to play safe, just like they played safe with the music. I have to ve honest with you and a lot of folks know I don’t like musicals, the songs in Encanto are all Broadway, they didn’t took the risk unlike Coco (for example). They made the main song, why not make the rest of the songs (the big ones, not background music) in colombian rythms?"

Huh? Would you have preferred Mirabel to go to every room for no reason? They had a story to tell so she went to the rooms she needed to go to. Like Bruno's, where she went because she had to fetch his vision.

Are you complaining about the music there? Funny because first thing I thought when watching was to notice the latino music pace which was pretty fast comparing to previous movies. Which is confirmed by this behind the scenes.

It also needed not to be too fast because we needed to understand what it was saying.

"Now, their powers, OK. Maribel’s mom’s power seems vital to me (even if it can’t prevent a birth defect I guess), Luisa’s strength is actually very helpul for the town, but the rest of the powers are just there to remark Maribel is the only one that doesn’t have one, even if theirs are useless."

Ah! Nice! You're saying there it could be Julieta simply can't heal birth defects!

"Where do I start? Pepa control the weather, specially, she controls a cloud over her head, why? To make her fun because she’s emotionally unstable I guess. If the storm in her wedding was caused by her, good, I guess? I don’t think it can be called strenght when it’s tied to her emotional state."

Well no. She can control the entire weather. This is even why she was so mad at Bruno for making her stress out so much she made rain come on her wedding day. I guessed it comes into a cloud on her head first, then influence the sky? Again we're not sure how it works.

Also about it being influenced by her emotional state...Well, it's indeed something bothering especially for her but I guess it could have been she actually never learned to control it another way? It's still very powerful and a strenght since she can zap you if you gets her angry.

"(And, Pepa? Really? Did you know that, in some places of latinoamerica, the vagina is called pepa? Pepita was already picked, ok, pick another name, there are plenty of names)"

Oh? Really? If it's true then it's pretty funny XD Probably a coincidence though. Or it can means something else entirely like seems like in Colombia it means "Spot" or "Dot". It only means Vagina in Mexico.

"Antonio can talk to animals, OK, I guess he can talk to the donkeys now and ask them to go their… donkey place (barnyard, IDK) instead of carrying them around the town. Hope everyone in town is vegan, otherwise they’ll need a psychologist for the poor kid."

Well, he got his power at the start of the movie, then Abuela was starting to think about how his powers could be put in good use. But then the cracks got the family busy.

Also it's worrying you want to put a 5-years old kid to work.

"Isabel can make flowers grow and just that, not crops or some other plant, just flowers. Why? Because she’s perfect, perfectly useless. (I hope she can make grow something more useful after that traumatizing hug she gave to the ugly duckling)."

Isabela. Not Isabel. Isabela.

I don't know where you got she could only grow flowers? Is it because it was said in the movie and we only see her grow flowers in the first half of the movie? But then in her song, What else can I do, she found out she can actually grow every kind of plants. I say this is useful! But well she probably started by growing flowers and then everyone assumed she could only do that because, as you said "she's perfect so she can only make perfect plants like flowers." It's part of her arc.

Also many cacti are edibles, and it's the first thing she grows when she discovers herself.

"The other guy, the shape-shifting one. I guess he’s funny and that’s pretty much the only remarkable thing about him??"

You mean Camilo? What about him?

Actually no, it's the the only remarkable thing about him. He's funny, a prankster, but you can also see he takes good care of his mother. He's funny, and a very good boy!

Oh and at the end of the movie you can see him turning pessimistic and, when Bruno comes back, he seems pretty shocked. I can mean he was using his gift to make people laugh and keep being optimistic but now that he can't hide behind it anymore he's turning more honest. Or it can mean something else, I saw many possibilities. That boy hides something deep!

"Some other things I find plain dumb is how the rest of the characters are just fillers, for example, Antonio’s character development ends when he get’s his power, after that we can forget about him , fuck Maribel, now he’s… cool, I guess?"

Again, her name is Mirabel. Not Maribel. Mirabel.

Well, Antonio is the closest member of the family from Mirabel: He was worried about having or not a gift, Mirabel helped him get to his door, then he's having fun with his animal friends. Then he comes back to repay her and lend his room to Mirabel and Bruno. Eventually at the end of the movie he leads her to Casita's door, her door! That's so cute and makes him actually useful!

So...No, we don't forget about him.

"We never see any interaction between Maluma (idk his name, Isabel’s fiancé) and Dolores, why should we care for them and their relationship? I guess he just accepts her because, after all, he’ll fuck either way and be part of the most respected family of the town just because."

For that point see my analysis on Mariano.

And, again, it's Isabela. Not Isabel.

"Dolores can’t keep a secret. Fine, she’s a gossipy girl. Why she didn’t said anything about Bruno never actually leaving the house?"

But she actually say he's there in We don't talk about Bruno. Nobody listens to her though and we can imagine it's the case since he went to hide in the walls 10 years ago.

"AND BRUNO, Oh boy, why do you like him so much? He’s pathetic! And if the family doesn’t cares for him, why should we? I know I use that as argument a lot but, really, Why should we? When I was watching the movie my first tought (After seeing the useless powers of theirs) was “Man, if SOMEONE could see the future, that would be so cool and actually useful”. But when you’re presented with that character they kick him out of the house? And he never actually leves?? AND he spies on his family? Is not sweet, what a creep. (The only thing that I liked about him if how he touches wood, throws salt over his shoulder and that stuff, nice detail)."

Well as you can see in my bio, on my posts, and on my profile picture I'm a big fan of that rat man. However I feel getting into my feelings for him won't probably works with you so I'll stay with facts.

First "kicked out of the house"? Wow! It confirms you actually didn't pay attention to the movie. Because it is pretty often said he disappeared. He wasn't kicked out of the house, he left by his own decision. Nobody told him to leave, he was expected to come back with a vision and preferred disappearing instead of showing it to protect Mirabel.

Also where did you see his family didn't care about him? If they didn't care do you really think they'll have a rule "We don't talk about Bruno"? They care about him, we can see that at the end when he's being hugged by his mother and his sisters.

Eh! Mirabel cares about him, she's interested in knowing him because of the cracks appearing and, when she finally meets him, they bond and Mirabel even promises him to get him back into the family. Bruno's arc is about how we discover him at the same time as Mirabel, I don't know the problem it's a very usual narrative thing? I mean, same as in, for example, Coco where we discover Héctor at same time as Miguel.

Also are you reproaching him to be attached to his family and not having the heart to actually leave? It was the only solution between staying with his family and protecting Mirabel from his vision. From him. "I'm Bruno so everyone always assume the worst.", after all.

About his gift...Well that's called "shooting the messenger". It's unfortunate but it's a natural human behavior when something happen to reproach it to the one who brought the bad news. Like when someone dear dies in the hospital, some people blame the healing staff.

" And I don’t even want to talk about Manuel Mirada because gringos use it to every thing they need when they think of making something with latinos. And I don’t want to talk either a lot about the colombian things in the film, but my appreciation is, they didn’t wanted to risk anything so they just put little references, (A Coffe joke here, a lot of capibaras there, an arepitas con queso joke over there (OH GOD I HATE THE AREPAS PART SO MUCH, IT DOESN’T FEEL ORGANIC AT ALL)) nothing very relevant, just enough to show “we did indeed put some colombian things” (I’m not colombian, so that’s on colombians to decide)"

What's the problem with Lin Manuel Miranda? He's not colombian but he's latino (portorican), he's successful in broadway, he's skilled in writing songs, they decided to hire him.

Also are you not complaining about the Colombian references? I thought you said earlier it wasn't focused enough on Colombia.

Oh well, I'll let Colombians talked about it, starting by @carlaerosie blog (Rest in peace...I miss you a lot), that review by a Colombian man, and part 1 & part 2 of a young colombian girl reaction to Encanto.

"A very personal take is, in the Spanish, the songs are… Hard to understand. The diction is bad, they sing very rushed in some parts. It’s a very bad thing when your songs have to explain half of the movie. And I also have a problem with the dub and their choice of voices. Disney (I Guess) picked star talents and it also show in how strong their accents are, and not colombian accent, but like rich kids (is most noticeable in the women). But again, that’s a very personal take."

Well, it's a problem with the spanish version then, as you said.

"Maybe I’m biased because I don’t like musicals and I’m not a Disney kid like a lot of you, but I just find it plain and dumb. And again, liking something doesn’t automatically makes it good. Disliking it neither. And I never said my opinion were more important than other’s opinions. If I say Bruno is pathetic, ok, that’s my opinion, some people find him endearing, but the writing is lazy and that’s a fact that most people don’t want to see because they’re blinded by their love for the film."

Oh! Yes, maybe you're biased because you're not a fan of Disney and dislike musicals. So this is why you didn't like it. Maybe you should give it another chance.

Also there you didn't explain why the writing was lazy, during your entire post you only nitpicked about the characters and their gifts, which I answered to, and you talked about the Colombian references you first said there wasn't enough, then complained there was too much of them.

I clearly think you just didn't pay enough attention to the movie.

@hectic-hector​ I’ll make it as a post because I would have to write like one hundred replies. (Bad english ahead, pictures don’t add a thing)

First of all, it was written by 6 persons and it shows. It was like they were given a part and they tried to put it together with the songs. Maybe I didn’t paid enough attention, but the worldbuilding seems weak to me. For example, why does the candle exists in first place? Is some colombian thing? I doubt it, but there’s no logic explanation. They could’ve found the candle in some place, get it with magical words, something. But there’s nothing. The candle exists just because the script says so. “Oh, the candle is a miracle given to save themselves—” Why didn’t appeared before? Because the grandpa had to die to give some dumb reason to get the story going, but I couldn’t care less for the grandpa. Kill him one hundred times, he doesn’t matter.

I don’t like Maribel, she tries to be likeable to her family so hard, I just can’t like it, she’s just the ugly duckling. “She tries to prove she’s worth just as any other member of her famil—” Shut up. And why does she uses glasses? Doesn’t her mom cures every disease with food? Really, if she can cure everything why does she uses glasses?

Her travel is underwhelming, they HAD the chance to make a great thing if they were bragging about the film’s story being placed in Colombia but no, they chose to tell the story mostly inside the house in their rooms. They could’ve avoid using Colombia as a pretext to target latinos again, they could’ve made rooms about, literally, everything, excusing Casita’s powers or whatever the house does. I guess they wanted to play safe, just like they played safe with the music. I have to ve honest with you and a lot of folks know I don’t like musicals, the songs in Encanto are all Broadway, they didn’t took the risk unlike Coco (for example). They made the main song, why not make the rest of the songs (the big ones, not background music) in colombian rythms?

Now, their powers, OK.  Maribel’s mom’s power seems vital to me (even if it can’t prevent a birth defect I guess), Luisa’s strength is actually very helpul for the town, but the rest of the powers are just there to remark Maribel is the only one that doesn’t have one, even if theirs are useless.

Where do I start? Pepa control the weather, specially, she controls a cloud over her head, why? To make her fun because she’s emotionally unstable I guess. If the storm in her wedding was caused by her, good, I guess? I don’t think it can be called strenght when it’s tied to her emotional state. (And, Pepa? Really? Did you know that, in some places of latinoamerica, the vagina is called pepa? Pepita was already picked, ok, pick another name, there are plenty of names)

Antonio can talk to animals, OK, I guess he can talk to the donkeys now and ask them to go their… donkey place (barnyard, IDK) instead of carrying them around the town. Hope everyone in town is vegan, otherwise they’ll need a psychologist for the poor kid. Isabel can make flowers grow and just that, not crops or some other plant, just flowers. Why? Because she’s perfect, perfectly useless. (I hope she can make grow something more useful after that traumatizing hug she gave to the ugly duckling). The other guy, the shape-shifting one. I guess he’s funny and that’s pretty much the only remarkable thing about him??

Some other things I find plain dumb is how the rest of the characters are just fillers, for example, Antonio’s character development ends when he get’s his power, after that we can forget about him , fuck Maribel, now he’s… cool, I guess? We never see any interaction between Maluma (idk his name, Isabel’s fiancé) and Dolores, why should we care for them and their relationship? I guess he just accepts her because, after all, he’ll fuck either way and be part of the most respected family of the town just because. Dolores can’t keep a secret. Fine, she’s a gossipy girl. Why she didn’t said anything about Bruno never actually leaving the house?

AND BRUNO, Oh boy, why do you like him so much? He’s pathetic! And if the family doesn’t cares for him, why should we? I know I use that as argument a lot but, really, Why should we? When I was watching the movie my first tought (After seeing the useless powers of theirs) was “Man, if SOMEONE could see the future, that would be so cool and actually useful”. But when you’re presented with that character they kick him out of the house? And he never actually leves?? AND he spies on his family? Is not sweet, what a creep. (The only thing that I liked about him if how he touches wood, throws salt over his shoulder and that stuff, nice detail).

And I don’t even want to talk about Manuel Mirada because gringos use it to every thing they need when they think of making something with latinos. And I don’t want to talk either a lot about the colombian things in the film, but my appreciation is, they didn’t wanted to risk anything so they just put little references, (A Coffe joke here, a lot of capibaras there, an arepitas con queso joke over there (OH GOD I HATE THE AREPAS PART SO MUCH, IT DOESN’T FEEL ORGANIC AT ALL)) nothing very relevant, just enough to show “we did indeed put some colombian things” (I’m not colombian, so that’s on colombians to decide)

A very personal take is, in the Spanish, the songs are… Hard to understand. The diction is bad, they sing very rushed in some parts. It’s a very bad thing when your songs have to explain half of the movie. And I also have a problem with the dub and their choice of voices. Disney (I Guess) picked star talents and it also show in how strong their accents are, and not colombian accent, but like rich kids (is most noticeable in the women). But again, that’s a very personal take.

Maybe I’m biased because I don’t like musicals and I’m not a Disney kid like a lot of you, but I just find it plain and dumb. And again, liking something doesn’t automatically makes it good. Disliking it neither. And I never said my opinion were more important than other’s opinions. If I say Bruno is pathetic, ok, that’s my opinion, some people find him endearing, but the writing is lazy and that’s a fact that most people don’t want to see because they’re blinded by their love for the film.

Same energy

[scummy-writes]

(1/2) I don't know if you've been asked this before, but what are your thoughts on the story and script quality of MM? Personally I thought it was fine, a good balance between drama and comedy, until the secret endings. The secret endings felt awfully like an effort to "rail-road" the story, to the point of reducing MC's role to less than a bit character, and the resolution itself was kinda rushed. I do agree with your opinion on V that, ultimately, it was necessary for him to die in the story

(2/2) But his character suffers because of the terrible handling of ANOTHER character: Rika. It's obvious that she was meant to be a tragic, sympathetic character but falls short of the "show, don't tell" trope because the game never shows us why, only spelling it to us via the other characters that she used to be a sweet person (and even that is dubious). Compare Saeran, who comes off as crazier but garners sympathy by *actually* showing us how he used to be and why he's like that now

(3/3, got longer than expected) The complete lack of consequence was more of a pet peeve, as I find it unlikely that after the meltdown at Mint Eye hq there wasn't any police investigation or testimony sheding light over what happened. That could have been easily handled by showing Seven or Jumin intervening (they would). So yeah, sorry for barreling you with this lol, I just love discussing narrative tropes and found your thoughts on V and Rika very interesting

It’s okay! I like trying to discuss this kinda stuff! It’sfun! I think they’re called Metas?

This might be a little long! As a side note, this is just mypersonal onion about the whole thing. In no way do you have to agree, nor do Iexpect anyone to. 

In terms of storytelling and scripts, I think that for anotome phone game it does a good job. Maybe arguably great, but nothing ‘superduper amazing!!’. Don’t mistake my words though, even though it might not bethe best, doesn’t mean I don’t love it to death. I have just seen freebiegames, even with hardly any dialogue, show a more concise and followingstoryline than MM does.

Granted, I think some obvious faults come from translationerrors, or maybe forgotten notes on characters. A small example that I’ve knowngo around a bunch is Yoosung complaining that he can’t type well on histouchscreen, when in CGs and the RFA handbook we know Yoosung has a flip-phone.So, excluding those kinds of mistakes, which I believe can happen when you havemultiple people working on one game, the main storytelling is a little messy attimes. I think a lot of that has to deal with the fact that they tried to makeeach route vastly different.

For replay value, and to make each route special, they didhave to have them different. And I think a good way to see it is that all ofthe characters routes are AU’s against the True Route, which is Seven’s.Because of this, we sometimes run into the characters acting vastly differentat times, and we’re left to scrape up all these ‘facts’ and try to use those tobuild-on to these characters. At times this is difficult, because they cancounter each other. Usually its small things, but I think there’s a bit ofinformation that gets missed about Rika because of this. Like with the factthat she was adopted by Yoosung’s aunt and uncle, apparently. I think that’sonly mentioned on one route, and referenced in the VIP book where her sectionof family is literally scribbled out, but if we didn’t run into that, we wouldbe left to assume that Rika is Yoosung’s cousin by blood.

Which…Is weird because I think he may say that he’s relatedto Rika by blood during a moment where he’s angry at V.

(Don’t even get me started on how Rika isn’t even her name?Apparently??)

In a way, the storytelling is a bit creative on a wholebecause of that. They change it up so you’re not bored replaying new routes,and so you get to possibly see other sides of characters, but it does fuck someinformation up about the characters themselves at times. There’s probably moreexamples than what I gave.

Though they did manage to make each character soundrespectfully different through the dialogue alone. Not the voice actors, butthe written dialogue. I know there have been many times where I’ve seen ascreenshot of a phone call with no context on the caller, and it’s been very easyfor me to figure out who it was in just a few seconds. That takes some skill!

But to tackle the True Route after ends. Unfortunately tosome, Seven is the true route, since Saeran is the main ‘antagonist’ for awhile, next to Rika. In order to give context for Saeran existing, his motives,and to explain Rika’s absence, they made Seven the True Route. (I’m assumingso, anyway). Now, it is true they could have found a way to include each of theroutes to display the information that Seven’s does, but I think it would havebeen a huuuuge fucking mess. It’s much easier to follow and make if they have a‘True Route’. How the game is needed to be played if you want the ‘full’ story.The other routes are just AU’s that can possibly fill in some gaps ifyou know what those gaps are first.

Annd this is where Rika falls in with your ask (that took mesome time ahbfhs). If we don’t play the True Route, we’re left to assume Rikawas a sweet and helpful person who had an aching heart of suffering shewitnessed, and also suffered from what seemed to be depression since shecommitted suicide.

Now, I don’t know about any of you, but because I’m afiction whore, I called that bs out when V always dodged questions about herdeath. Am I always doubting fictional characters since I play detective gamesmainly? ….Probably, but in all honesty I figured there was more to it thanthat.

Then we get to the True Route and the mess that happens inthe After Ends- V revealing she’s not dead, she’s alive, she’s a cult leader,etc etc. We all know what happens in that mess, though with some randomprevious information, we can infer a few things about her that we weren’tdirectly told.

She was most likely very manipulative from the start. Idon’t know if this would be a learned behavior from Rika’s true family, or thereasons she would be adopted later on, but it is briefly mentioned (I think)that her adopted parents regretted taking her in.

She was possibly using V the whole time, and didn’t actuallylove him.

She used the RFA as a front to get Political Leader’s infoto officially jumpstart her ‘perfect’ world one day. (KINDA obvious but Ididn’t realize how serious it was until a bit after I had played the AfterEnds).

Buut, we never know what led to these thoughts and behaviors.We’re just left to assume that it’s either A) Her MIs, or B) A combo of thatand her real family.

There is a high chance they didn’t write a full fledgedbackstory like we get with the others, about their childhoods at least, becauseof the chance of portraying MIs very very very very verypoorly/stereotypically. It could be argued that it was handled poorly as theyhave it now, but it’s still not nearly as bad as other cases I’ve seen.Instead, like you said, we get second hand info from Yoosung and V mainly, abit from Jumin as well.

As for the dramatic throwdown that happened at the HQ, Ithink that went well. It’s true that it could be possible that Seven or Jumincould have had better timing, stopped Saeran from shooting, stopped a lot ofstuff from happening, but I always assumed that they were unable to reach V dueto all of the members blocking their path, and any general hubbub that couldhave been happening due to Jumin’s security slamming in. And, as we’ve noted,that I still think for the story V couldn’t have survived.

However, with the police investigation, I think it’smentioned they purposely avoided that because of the Choi Boys existence. Theywere never supposed to be alive, and were doomed to hide who they were fortheir life. A police investigation would have brought forth that, and for Rikato be arrested and tried, and if that also happened, Choi Boys (again) are atrisk.

I can see how it’s all “There def should have been one”, butunfortunately to some, money can stop that from happening, especially if itskept under wraps. It seems like Jumin, Seven, and the cult members familes tookcare of the others that were affected…I think that’s what happened.

And in terms of MC being kinda pushed to the side during the After End of his route, I think they had to happen in order to tell the whole story. Because the stuff that happened to Seven was never about us to begin with- We just managed to stumble in and make the Choi’s reunion actually take place, but from that point on it’s all about Seven’s past and Saeran’s past, explaining the whole plot of MM. 

I mean, granted, it might have taken years if for them to reunite again, if they ever did, without us. But at the same time, at that point, it’s still not about us or our choices. 

Does any of this make sense? It’s a lot longer than I meantit to be...;;;