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caustic-light · 4 years

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Body Positivity and Fatphobia in Disney’s Recess

So I am a huge fan of this show and have been sort of hyperfocusing on it for the last couple months. One of the reasons I love this show is how it does body positivity, however not all is perfect when it comes to that either. There is good examples of fat representation in this show and there is less good examples.

Lets start with the obvious:

Mikey is a very mixed bag, though I believe he’s not nearly as bad as he would seem at first glance. He is the closest this show has to a token fat character. He is associated strongly with food and he is the archetype of the fat bumbling idiot. That is not where the depth of his character ends. He is also the big softie archetype, he cares a lot about poetry and he’s basically a stereotypical hippie boiled down into a nine year old boy. There are some jabs made at his size throughout the show, but they are shown to be in bad faith against him, and not encouraged or normalized. Most other remarks about his size are more neutral and non judgemental (like him being called “big guy” occasionally by friends). So overall he is what I would call very not ideal, but mostly inoffensive. It helps that while he is definitely a fat strereotype he is balanced out by a lot of characters who are not stereotypes. It doesn’t make it less.... ugh... to see his defining character trait in the shows intro to be eating a lot, but it makes me forgoving if there is one super stereotypical character in a pool of a whole lot of characters.

Another character of the not ideal variety would be Gelman.

He’s a bully and he’s very big and intimidating. That about sums up most of his character. He has some depth beyond that but it’s not anything out of the ordinary. I also don’t have a lot to say here. I am actually not mad about the fact that he’s fat and a bully, because this show has a lot of fat characters and multiple bully characters. What I however am not very happy about is how he is drawn differently from more sympathetic fat characters. Where most fat characters in the show don’t have a defined chest outside of shirtless scenes, and instead just a horizontal line that is meant to imply that they have a chubby chest (if anything at all),

Gelman is drawn with moobs. This means that different looks of fatness are presented with different sympathies associated to them and is one thing I am not very amped about. Associating moobs with being bad is just not a good look. Another example of this would be Clyde Philmore, a minor characters minor character, but another bully who is drawn with a much more defined chest than any of the more likable characters.

There is also Kurst the Worst who... let’s not talk about her.

Lets move over to the positives, because this show does have a lot going for it in terms of body positivity.

Let’s start with the obvious again.

TJ is the main character of Recess and while he is one of the slimmer fat characters in the show visually, there is no mistaking that he is a fat boy. He is described as fat in the show at one point and he has a canonical weight given that puts him right at the edge between overweight and obese. The artstyle doesn’t always reflect his size on the same level (I assume the storyboarders all knew he was supposed to be fat, but weren’t very unified in how fat he’s supposed to be exactly) and so his size varies, but even at his slimmest (apart from a few instances where he looks almost off model) he is noticably thicker than the skinny characters on the show.

As you can see a lot of his pudge comes and goes, but he is always noticably bulky. Especially compared to how skinny characters look on this show.

TJ overall is an amzing character. He is complex, well rounded and extremely likable. And he is the leader and arguably the main character of the show. He is never reduced to his weight (even when it’s explicitely mentioned it’s a part of hyping him up in the style of a sports commentator). He is not very conventionally attractive in general, but he is so incredibly charismatic that it couldn’t matter less how he looks. He radiates coolness with everything he does. He is extremely popular. Everybody loves him. He fights for justice and he is extremely loyal to his friends. And he is fat. He is the kind of fat representation kids should see so much more of. He reminds me a lot of Steven Universe in that sense. Both are amazing characters, and role models who do amazing things and happen to be fat without it ever being an issue or presented as something negative. The only negative remark TJ gets over course of the whole of the series is one made out of jealousy towards him.

One detail about TJ that I noticed that may well be a coincidence, but that never the less intrigues me is his choice of clothes. He is wearing a very warm looking jacket when most characters are dressed for much warmer weather. This is something that might be familar to a lot of people who grew up fat, as clothing like that serves to conceal ones own shape and especially comes in handy for hiding a chest that is more pronounced than one would like. It’s certainly something I used to do and seeing that maybe TJ is struggling with some body image issues himself, despite how confident he is usually portrayed, is an interesting thought to me. I should also note that I noticed that he seems to be drawn slimmer in scenes with his jacket on and the line implying his chest tends to only appear when he is without his jacket, but that might be confirmation bias on my part.

At this point I could start listing characters and going over them like I have done up to this point, but I find that would get a little old. Most fat characters in the show are never adressed as fat, or have the fat become an important thing. It never defines them and there is no jabs at their expense, or stereotyping (aside from the characters I talked about earlier). And that is what overall makes this show amazing at fat representation for me. There is a lot of characters with a lot of different shapes and sizes.

There is fat main characters:

Side characters:

Unnamed extras:

Antagonists:

Characters who are somewhat chubby, but not really fat:

It’s beautiful to see so many non skinny characters, and so many different kinds of bodies exist in a show from the 90s of all things and Recess is not given the credit it deserves for it.

So to close it off with some miscelaneous thoughts I have two things I wanna mention.

There is one character who I have not mentioned yet. Tubby.

I do not like Tubby. He is thankfully not very present in the show, but he is a lot of stereotypes that just do not sit well with me. However I think I should talk about the one episode of recess that actually adresses the topic of weight and fatphobia and it’s about him and Mikey.

In the episode “The Kindergarten Derby” all the older kids get to choose a kindergartner and they compete in a race. Mikey never finished the race when he was a kindergartner because he tripped and fell and he refuses to participate now because he sees it as humiliating and exploitative. Untill he meets Tubby who is convinced he will win and wants him to mentor him. Tubby wants to show that a fat kid can win the race and Mikey wants him to focus on just finishing. In the end Tubby does win and uses his prize (a wish for basically anything that the playground monarchy can reasonably give to him) to wish for an end to the kindergarten derbies because they are humiliating and cruel. (To all the kids participating, not just fat ones) There is kind of a lot to maybe mention in that episode, but honestly this post is long enough as it it. Maybe I’ll rewatch and dissect that episode another time.

The other thing is that I am not sure of the representation for fat girls is as good as it is for fat boys. While rewatching the show I noticed a lot of boys of all sizes being in it, but I am biased in favor of noticing them because I am a fat man and seeing male fat representation simply does more for me on an emotional level than female representation. I should rewatch the show and specifically watch out to see if female representation is as plentiful as male representation. TL;DR: This show has some issues, but it also has an enourmous cast of characters and it has plenty of fat characters in pretty much every category of characters with their fatness being (almost) never brought up, or a factor to their character. (Even with the more problematic characters) People are sleeping on it and that is unfair. For a cartoon from the 90s this is fucking amazing and people should give it credit for all it does.

#recess #body posititivity #fat representation #fatphobia

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mindareadsoots · 6 years

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“Final” Thoughts on Homestuck

Now that’s a laugh.

You know how when you play an MMO, you reach the level cap AND THEN you start playing the game? That’s kind of what it feels like to be finishing Homestuck. It’s been about a week and a half since I first watched Collide and Act 7, and there are an endless number of topics to discuss (which ironically might be my biggest problem with the ending, but we’ll get to that later).

Let’s start with the nuts and bolts: Collide and Act 7 are both gorgeous in beautifully contrasting ways. Collide is primarily animated with the classic sprite models, which sounds like it should be really lame, but it gives all of the fight scenes this interesting 2D beat ‘em up aesthetic.

And then Act 7 of course is a goddamn anime.

There are so many little moments to pause and dissect (not that you want to with the epic music playing in the background) that even after rewatching both of them a few times in the intervening days, I’m sure I’ll be catching new things to appreciate on every subsequent viewing.

However, despite the hidden potential within the finale, it still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Unanswered questions can be fun. They can leave certain things open to interpretation, but there’s a difference between intentional ambiguity and refusing to explain shit. One’s an interesting starting point for a conversation, and the other is just frustrating.

In my mind, the two biggest open questions are what happened to Vriska and what happened to the kids after Caliborn’s Masterpiece.

Let’s start with Vriska because you all know me by now so you all know that Vriska is one of if not my absolute favorite character in the comic, so it may surprise some of you to hear that I actually don’t mind the possibility that she died fighting Lord English. It’s a death that would be both Heroic and Just. Heroic because she died fighting the greatest monster across all of paradox space. Just because her arrogance and her need to be at the center of the action lead her to a battle with no escape.

(During the reaction stream, I mused that the absolute WORST case scenario is that somehow Vriska and Lord English both got sucked into the juju, meaning that next time Lord English comes back he has Vriska’s luck and ruthlessness in addition to Gamzee’s clown immortality and Arquius’ super intelligence)

The thing I get hung up on though is Terezi. The last we see of her, Terezi is out looking for Vriska near the final battle ground, so if Vriska just got sucked into the green black hole, what then? Does Terezi just fly around out there for the rest of her life hoping to find some sign of Vriska? Or does she give up and spend the rest of her life wondering? Both options sound rather depressing.

Honestly, I don’t even need to know Vriska’s f8 for myself, I just want to know that Terezi knows. Like, it would honestly make me so happy if there was an epilogue scene like this:

John: so did you ever find out what happened to vriska? Terezi: Y3S. John: ... John: WELL! Terezi: <3< John: >:O That’s it! That’s all I’d need!

The Alpha kids are left in a similar situation after Caliborn’s Masterpiece. What do they do after the Beta kids get sucked into the Plot Hole? For that matter, how do they even get home after the battle? They showed up to fight Caliborn using John’s retcon powers, but they don’t have John anymore. Are they just... stuck there?

A few people have already sent me asks or discussed on discord the possibility that there are some time shenanigans involved in that fight, and that it really wasn’t the Prime versions of the kids who leapt into battle. On the one hand, there is a certain logic to that. Caliborn is the Lord of Time. He is the master of the Alpha timeline, so it makes sense that only forces from outside the main timeline could pose a threat to him. Notably, the version of Calliope who directly confronts him is also from a doomed timeline.

On the other hand, that answer is... way more convoluted. Remember that John did not master his retcon powers until after everything had gone to hell in the Game Over timeline, which means that for all eight of the kids to gather together to fight Lord English, John would have had to have gone on an entirely different adventure than the one we saw in the comic. The much simpler explanation is the one implied by the credits scene: on or shortly after John’s 20th birthday (Four years of peace. That’s all the kids got after everything they fought for.) Caliborn goaded John into a fight, and the rest proceeded as Caliborn described in shitty claymation.

And again, it’s not necessarily the self-sacrifice that bothers me. Lord English is no pushover, so some sacrifices had to be made to defeat him, but it leaves all of the other characters in a lurch where even they don’t necessarily know if their friends and family are alive or dead. So now (much like the fandom) Jake, Jane, Dirk, Roxy, and Terezi are just left wondering.

The whole situation very much reminds me of the original ending to Mass Effect 3. As released, the ending cinematic left a lot of players with the impression that regardless of their decision, galactic civilization was doomed and all of your companions from across the trilogy were dead or dying. The extended ending had to clarify that no, that’s not what happened (only because they retconned a bunch of shit, but let’s stop complaining about THAT ending when I’m in the middle of complaining about THIS ending).

I can’t say for sure if I’m picking up the intended implications of the ending. Maybe Hussie did want me to walk away from the ending thinking about how Dirk will never see Dave again, and how Kanaya was only married to Rose for three years before she disappeared forever. Maybe I am picking up the intended narrative and the fabled Homestuck Epilogue will be the story of the Alpha kids and surviving trolls dealing with the Betas’ absence, or maybe there’s something I missed and some series of time shenanigans can alleviate my concerns. Either way the story feels incomplete with so many beloved characters in limbo like this.

That really is the operative word. Incomplete. That’s my strongest impression of the ending. I could certainly go on (and will in time, I’m sure) but we’re stretching the definition of “live reaction” to the limit here. We’ll be coming back to this soon. Until then, cya later!

#homestuck #minda reads homestuck #minda reads #hsday305

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chibichocopaws · 6 years

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Visions of a Dark Star

A theory by chibichocopaws!

(Note: This is stupid long. There are no actual facts backing my theory up, it is, after all a theory. I am open to friendly discussion or debate on the topic as well. Apologies for any grammatical errors. I may or may not have written parts while enjoying some prescribed pain relievers. And....

SEASON 6 VLD SPOILERS AHEAD!

K.thanks!)

Krolia: “Time collapses this close to dark stars. Going through the light triggers glimpses of the past and the future.” (Season 6, Episode 2: Razor’s Edge)

We are starting with Kieth's return to the Castle of Lions in Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony. He seems very accepting of what's happening with Shiro, and even slightly pulled back when he sees Shiro at first.

What I mean by this, is the first time Keith speaks to Shiro is over a com when he's on the Altean space pod. He seems slightly frantic, given the information about Lotor. He quickly identifies himself, saying "Shiro it's Keith." Then instantly asks where Lotor is. Granted, this isn't very unlike a Leader of Voltron to do. "It's me. Don't fire. Friend not foe. Now here's the important part."

But even when he lands the Altean pod, and steps out, there's little interaction between the two. Now, Sheith fans jump on the look Shiro gives Keith. It's a big "Holy shit, you look hotter." Look. As a Sheith fan, I'm not going to argue that look, but I am trying to be unbiased here. Soooo, how about we take that look as something different. Where is the hug? Where is the hand shake? Some sort of physical contact. We know Keith and Shiro share physical contact frequently. A hand on the shoulder, an arm around the shoulder, etc. It's uncommon for them to not be near each other, or exchanging a touch. We know Keith doesn't do this with many others. “He's not exactly handing out love hearts to anyone.” Whether that be as a friend or more. Again, different topic. So, we know Keith is reserved to begin with during this reunion, so perhaps that's really what the look is for. Keith barely acknowledges Shiro here. Sure, he's matured, but he's holding back. There's only one point he's smiling at Shiro when he's returned. Otherwise, he's rarely interacting with him. He's brushing off Shiro’s questions, and focusing on other people's questions. If you watch the episode closely, he rarely even looks at Shiro.

To touch on the “one time he is smiling” was when Haggar was looking through Shiro’s eyes. Of course she was. Why would she not be. The universe really hates Keith sometimes. Poor guy. Anyways, it's after the introduction of Krolia, when she thanks Shiro for raising him to be the man he is today. So, even if we dissect this, it can still stand to reason, that he's simply smiling because of his mother's words. If they had the visions, and Krolia too saw what was bound to happen, why would she do this? It's a funny thing, mothers. They do things that their kids don't always understand, but it's for the best. Krolia understands that Shiro has been and is a huge part of Keith’s life. She's had 2 years and countless past and future visions to discover this, nevermind if Keith opens up to her verbally (which is likely considering 2 years with only one other person, not including cosmic wolf because I'm left to assume it cannot communicate, is a long time to sit in complete silence, especially with all their dirty secrets being shown in visions to each other). So perhaps, Krolia does and says this more for Keith than Shiro. Krolia is difficult to read though, she's naturally obscure with her facial expressions, most likely due to her being Galra and a member of the Blade of Mamora.

So let me throw this out there. Based on what we know from Episode 2, every time that time collapses, Keith and Krolia fell victim to visions of the past and the future. Yet, Episode 2 only showed one vision from the future, then proceeded to only show visions of the past. Yet, this makes no sense, unless of course, the visions of the future were obscured by the creators to "not give anything away" (such as the small snippet of battle between Shiro/Kuron and Keith. As viewers we only knew it was going to happen, though we didn't know to what extent or why at the time of episode 2).

They were on that space whale for 2 years. I'm not sure what the frequency of time collapses was, but they occurred on the space whale as well. It seemed the trip to the space whale from the destruction of their ship, could not have lasted more than a couple of days to a maximum of a week. I say this based on Keith being human, because he mentions they won't survive much longer without food or water. Some humans can train their bodies to go longer periods without sustenance, and sadly, I imagine Keith has had to do just that based on his history as a child. Ok, so supposedly the average human can last without food for about three weeks. I, personally don't believe that. (Backstory: I went an entire week without any food as a cleansing exercise and by day 6 I was about ready to pass out, day 7 found me literally blacking out randomly. Keeping in mind, I only drank water, and continued to work at a grueling physically laboring job). So I’m assuming this 3 weeks statement is for those that can basically veg out without much, if any, physical labor. Now, water is a different story. The human body cannot survive very long without it (a matter of days really). Days under normal circumstances, not extreme labor, like pushing from space rock to space rock, sweating from exertion, etc. But, if we take into consideration that Keith is also half Galra, that may extend the amount of time he needs liquid. I am not familiar with how frequently Galra need sustenance to survive.

Back on topic though... In that time we were given three time collapses. So, let's say we go with the maximum of a week they were jumping from space rock to space rock before encountering the whale. (This time frame is important because we need to figure out how often the time collapses were occurring and we need a point of reference, which would be prior to the space whale) That's 3x52 (52 weeks in a year) which is 156 time collapses in a year. Now that's 156 times 2 for 2 years that they were gone, and that's 312.

Obviously that's not including any changes. So yes, there's a possibility that maybe the whale has blocked some of the collapses, or that the collapses happen less frequently the closer or farther away the whale gets to or from the star. Or even if the collapse is blocked from hitting them by something. But even if it were only 100 visions of the past and future, that's still A LOT!

So here's my theory. Keith knows. He knows the entire time what's going to happen. I'm basing this on a linear future, meaning it cannot be altered.

There is a time in episode 4 where Keith tries to reach out to Shiro (right after Shiro steals a pod and Lotor and flies off, Keith calls him through vocal com) desperately. He tried to keep his voice calm, telling Shiro it will be alright. Without my theory, it's something Keith would maybe do. I mean, if he doesn't know what's happening, why would he speak calmly to Shiro. Why wouldn't he yell and be like "Shiro what are you doing!?" Sure, he's matured in two years, but it seems like something more of a last hope reach out. I truly believe, at this point, he knows already. He knows that Shiro is a clone. He knows that they are going to battle, but that doesn't mean he can't try to stop it still.

But, 2 years is a long time to come to terms with the inevitable. It by no means makes it any easier, but it can be accepted. He's also had 2 years to discuss this with his mother. Now, looking at Krolia, she is very cool headed. She seems to know herself and her limits very well. She has seemed to since before having Keith. Krolia very well could have been the voice of reason he needed to accept that he may have to kill Shiro/Kuron, or at the very least, fight him.

Now, because it's not released, it's impossible to know how much was revealed in the future visions. The past visions seemed to be weird intervals, some long, some very short. So I'm not sure what was shown for future visions or the lengths of them. Though 2 years is a long time to get the entire fight and what brought Shiro to that place. So, I honestly have little doubt.

Ok, this finally wraps around to “The Battle”. Ugh. My heart hurts rewatching this episode, but I didn't feel I could full circle my theory without doing it.

Season 6, Episode 5: The Black Paladins.

The cracking sound you're hearing? Oh, just my heart shattering. I'll find some glue or something later.

Anyways. They rush out as Voltron to fight Haggar’s goonies. I really want to call them the switchers. It's hard to keep up who's side they're on. Point is, they do their battle, get flung into a rock and Haggar opens up a wormhole. So at this point he says “We have to make sure we get Shiro back.” (Well there's this little conversation prior to this line, but it doesn't pertain to my point.)

Hunk: “But Shiro isn't Shiro anymore.”

Keith says he knows, but it's almost exasperated. Like, sure he could have taken that tone because it was obvious, or he could have taken the tone because he knew well before they did. He says “But something is wrong with him, the Galra or Lotor have to be behind it.” Weird right? Because if he had visions for two years, he should have been able to piece things together, right? Maybe not because there's two bad guys right now. Lotor and Haggar (which would currently be classified under as Galra). So sure, he's had visions, but it's like being handed 5 different ingredients to a meal and telling someone “cook whatever with just this”. If you hand those same 5 ingredients to someone else, there's a good chance they won't come up with the same menu. So, maybe Keith was able to piece together most of it, but pinpointing which bad guy was responsible for which scene (ingredient) could be trickier for him.

So after their little chit chat, Keith goes on to say: “We all know he wouldn't give up on us, we can't give up on him.” Yet, he doesn't say this immediately. He stops, closes his eyes, takes a breath then says it. Why? We know the creators of VLD don't ever put anything in the show without meaning. So why have Keith pause? This action, the looking down, closing your eyes, breathing. It's a way to center our thoughts. He's trying to remain focused, but why? Is it because he feels himself slipping, becoming emotional? I mean, he doesn't look emotional. Or is it because he's trying to re-center himself within the timeline of the visions he remembers?

Why does he have to recenter himself within the timeline of visions? Maybe something is missing! Maybe he was unable to piece together why the other Paladins weren't by his side during his battle with Shiro. Maybe he thought they gave up on Shiro. Maybe this part of the timeline wasn't revealed to him (this part being the fact that only Keith gets through the wormhole), so he felt that he needed to reassure them that Shiro was worth saving.

Now, look at Keith’s shift when he yells disband. All that coolness from earlier, the calm collectedness he had is gone, and he legitimately looks like something has clicked. He gets it. He understands why they aren't there during the battle, because the only one who can make it through the wormhole is him. He goes from calm to confident in a second. And although his facial features change when the speed is intense, he doesn't look scared or nervous. Just in pain. Like he legit knows he's going to make it, it's just taking a lot of exertion on his body to do so, but he has no doubt he will get through. Why? There should be a glimmer of doubt unless he knew otherwise.

Except of course when he comes out the other side of the wormhole and is met with a fleet of Galra battle cruisers. Oops. Guess that part wasn't in the vision. Oooor maybe it was. He literally effortlessly glides through that. The Black Lion isn't at full capacity with its broken thruster, and yet he GLIDES through the line of fire, almost as if he's done it before. So why the face of surprise? Let's be honest. Someone could tell you “oh, there's like a thousand bees over there. Look I took a picture even.” But then you go over there and seeing a thousand bees can be intimidating face to face. Or, maybe he's surprised because he recognizes it instantly. Like “Oh, right. Seen this part before.” This would also make sense, if he didn't know why the other Paladins weren't around for the fight. As in, he missed a vision from two seconds earlier, but now it's one of his visions again.

Even Ezor turns around and is like “Wow, I can't believe he made it through that.” Maybe she's talking about the wormhole, or maybe she's talking about the fleet of Galra battle cruisers.

His mini battle with Acxa kind of proves my point further. He has been Lion-less for over 2 years. Sure, it could be like riding a bike, but his moves are so precise, you know, almost like he knows what's going to happen!

Also, he flies right to the ship and to the area where Shiro, Lotor, Ezor and Zethrid are. How did he know where they went in the middle of a fleet of ships, while distracted by Acxa? (As a side note…. I love Ezor’s line of “Is it broken?” *poke* *poke*. She's so damn cute I can't take it.)

Now, I personally think Keith does not believe this is a linear timeline. I think he truly believes he can alter what he saw somehow. So at this point Acxa has grabbed his attention again. He says “Think. Think. How are we going to get in?” If he truly believes he can change this timeline, at this point he could really be trying to avoid the next part from happening.

Now things are going to get intense and I'm going to cry… again.

“Shiro…. Shiro come in! I don't know what's wrong, but I know we can fix this.” Listen to that desperation! Still stuck on him not knowing? Him just being more mature? Spent so much time with his mother he adapted her calmness in moments of crisis? I disagree. He's begging. Keith is legitimately begging. He knows where this is leading, and he's pulling a last call to try to stop it before it goes there. We know he saw a part of the fight in a vision. We know that much. He has to know where this is going. “Let me help you.”

But wait…. Acxa has locked his position. He knows she's on his tail. Why isn't he moving out of the way? He's given her a clear line on his position. Keith is an ace pilot. He can maneuver and have a conversation. Why isn't he? Because Shiro is more important? Sure we could go with that, or because he knows she won't fire. He saw she doesn't fire.

At this point he turns his attention towards Black. Look at his face. Listen to the sound of his tone. He's accepted this is going to happen. His facial expression is bitter acceptance. Bitter acceptance in the manner that he knows it's going to happen, but it doesn't mean he has to be happy about it. “I know you're hurting. We just need to keep it together a little longer.” He said we. We need to keep it together a little longer. He's hurting too. He knows what's about to happen. How could he not. He's not only telling Black, he's telling himself.

At this point we have a focus shift. The virus shuts down the Castle of Lions, it's panic, but let's focus on what little amount of Krolia we can see. When Pidge gets the systems fixed for all of like 3 seconds, Krolia remains rigid. As if she knows it's not going to last. This could be a stretch, sure. I mean, maybe she's just rigid from the panic, but when the systems fail again, you can see her face. It's detailed. She's worried, but distant. She's not worried about herself or the crew. Distant look implores us to believe she's worried about someone or something that's not present. Keith. Shiro. Their battle. If Keith saw Krolia’s past, it's safe to assume Krolia was able to see Keith’s future. At first, I wondered if this was only when they were touching, but it appears not. If we go back and look at Episode 2 again, there is a point, on the space whale, where Krolia sees a young Keith over his father’s gravestone. At this point Krolia is not touching Keith. She's across the way sitting next to the fire with Keith on the other side sleeping, or at least laying down. So it's easy to assume the memories and future visions are shared between the two of them every time the time collapses.

Ok, skipping over the Lotor/Honerva and switchers (Yup. Doing it. Zethrid, Acxa and Ezor shall now be known as the switchers) scene, it's unrelated (though… woah Lotor you sneaky bastard).

Next we see Keith has found an abandoned shuttle pod. He tracks the footsteps. And his face. It says it all. “This is it. It's time.” The pure definition of determination. He's ready. It's happening. There's nothing he can do or say at this point. The time has come.

He even walks with purpose. But here's another thought. When he no longer has footprints to follow, how does he know where to go? He takes a lift and goes exactly where Shiro is. How did he know unless he saw it?

There's a lot of facial expressions talk for the next few scenes. So first he enters the room with a surprised look on his face. This could be from a “where am I?” in a sense of visions showed him nothing, or with my theory this could be a “Wow, it's exactly as the vision showed me.”

The next facial expression is back to determination, which leads me to believe the surprised look was more of a “Wow, exactly as my vision.” If he were lost or unsure of himself he wouldn't have switched to determination so quickly and suddenly.

Now, the determination expression could also be confusion. If he's confused, it could really just be him thinking “Ok, I'm here, but where is Shiro? This is where I'm supposed to be, but I don't see him.”

Next he seems genuinely surprised. He places a hand on the clone pod, and one by one they all light up. This very well could have not been part of a vision based on his reaction. Sure, the pods were there during the battle, therefore there during his vision, but it could have been background, and he could have been far more focused on the battle with Shiro as opposed to what was around him.

But, “Hello Keith” is in his vision. If we go back to Episode 2, those words are in it. At this point Keith turns. He kind of looks surprised but I interpret the look more as a “Oh no.” So at this point, we know for a fact Keith has seen this. We don't know how much of this he has seen. The entire thing? Just parts? We don't know. We do know he's seen from this point and at least part of the battle based on what was shown to us from episode 2.

In the vision from episode 2 we hear the following words. “Hello Keith.” “Yes. I know.”

“It's going to be ok, we just have to get back to the castle.” “Shiro!!!!!”

and “....are not going anywhere.”

Which, if we're following it in sequence, means he saw the entire before-the-fight-sequence, but also more. The beginning of the fight Keith does not yell Shiro. The words were all spoken before Shiro goes in for attack.

Next scene, Pidge to the rescue in the worst way. Also not pertinent to this, but something I would like to touch base on some other time.

Battle ensues between Keith and Shiro, but Keith isn't fighting. At least not at first. Keith is strictly defending. At least until his helmet comes off. The punch hits him hard, maybe he whacks his head on the way down. His Galra is showing. (kek). It isn't until his Galra side comes out that he starts fighting back. This could be because he doesn't want to hurt Shiro, or because he's still holding out hope that the timeline isn't linear.

“That's the Keith I remember.” Seems to spark something in Keith and bring back his human side, and once again he starts avoiding attacks and defending. No longer on the offense.

When Shiro knocks down a tower, and Keith starts talking to him by saying “Shiro.” Is this the Shiro from Episode 2? It's hard to tell. This Shiro call sounds more raw vocally, than the vision. So, let's move on, pretty sure this is not it.

Now, I know this was touched upon by someone else, but here’s another take, Keith’s lack of reaction to Shiro’s hurtful words. “And I should have abandoned you, just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should have seen it too.” If Keith had been able to hear these words in any of the visions, he could have already dealt with the pain they caused. He could have already spoken with Krolia about it. She has already told him he was the most important thing to her. So I believe he's already dealt with that pain, and been reassured of its falseness by Krolia herself.

Ooh, another time Keith yells Shiro. At this point Shiro is… well I'm not really sure what's happening. His hand is connecting with the Galra tech and turning into a giant laser? Well, whatever the case may be, this sounds more like the Shiro yelled in ep 2. So, this implies Keith’s first and only on screen vision was from before the battle to this point. Keep in mind, the creators would not include an in depth vision in episode 2, but leave hints. They didn't want to give away the fight entirely.

Now, the next set of scenes depicts Shiro destroying the base. There are times where Keith seems surprised, but ironically, he knows when to jump out of the way of a falling piece without looking up to see it. How would he know to jump out of the way? He's already seen this all happen. He's pretty banged up, sure, but just because he knows what's happening before it happens, doesn't mean it's less painful either physically or mentally. Remember, we are basing this on a linear timeline. So regardless, certain things are going to occur.

He lands on a ledge, catches his breath for a moment and immediately looks in the direction of his blade, like he already knew where it had landed. He's determined. He knows he has to get to it. He knows it's the only way to end the battle, but his body is exhausted. Far too much exertion.

He doesn't make it till the last second, but does manage to grab it before Shiro’s killing blow. Next we fans all die a little. We all know the line. “Shiro, please. You're my brother. I love you.” That's a whole different subject for a different time. (Can't even describe how difficult it is to not touch on this right now, but it's not pertinent to my point.) So Shiro proceeds to tell Keith that the castle and Paladins are gone. Why doesn't Keith react? Sure he's using all his strength to hold off Shiro from cutting his head clean off, but he should have had some sort of reaction unless he knew it wasn't true! He saw it wasn't true.

Now, there's a chance that he does react. That the news is what wakes up his Galra side, but I don't really think so. It's several moments after Shiro’s words that Keith reacts. If we look at just moments before when Keith was punched, we can use this as a safe assumption of what causes his Galra side to wake up. Pain. He's being burned by Shiro’s blade. Boom. Galra side is awake.

So, with the Galra power awakening, Keith gains strength and cuts off Shiro’s arm. The camera pans to his face. Oh gosh. The feels are too strong. Keith is the definition of regret right now, but is it just regret that he's hurt Shiro, or is it regret for more. Regret he couldn't stop this before it got to this point. It's a horrible thing.

They fall, but his face. Oh that agonizing face. What's this tell us? He didn't want it to be like this, but he's not giving up. He could be not giving up because it was a promise Shiro made that he needs to reciprocate, or maybe he already knows Shiro will come back to him.

Flashbacks. End episode 5. Aaaah.

Nope. Not done yet. Hah. You thought that was it?

Season 6, Episode 6: All Good Things

This episode starts off strong. And confusing for my theory, but things still work, I promise. The visions from Episode 2 are never inclusive of thoughts that we can see. They tend to be themselves during the visions/memories. So why does Keith look surprised and sound surprised by Shiro’s words in the black lion? Because, technically, that never actually happens. It's in Keith’s mind (well actually Black’s mind). So because it doesn't occur on a physical plane, it is not shown in his visions, thus he is surprised by Shiro.

This also relates back to my theory of Keith having known. He seems unsure now. Out of nowhere. He's reacting how we would expect Keith to react when Shiro stole Lotor. He's angry, scared, nervous, anxious. What happened to our calm, collected and determined Keith? Where'd he go? Could it be because Keith never had a vision of this. He wasn't prepared for this? I really believe so.

But what about when he says “The others. You said… you…” And then glowy Shiro appears behind him and Keith turns, interrupting himself. This leads us to believe that Keith didn't know the others were going to be ok after all, right? I disagree. So far, Keith has been very aware of every moment. Things have been very linear, but he's done everything he can to try to change it. This was never in his visions, and now he's doubting them. Now he's wondering if he did change things, and that fear that maybe things aren't linear anymore is taking hold, and Keith is Keith once more. Sporadic. Moody. Easily angered Keith.

“I died Keith.” Surprise! Keith didn't know this either, even with my theory. Because again, he was only being shown things that happened on a physical plane. So if we take this scene out entirely, and pretend it didn't happen, it would still be difficult for Keith to piece that information together unless specifically told so on the physical realm.

Back to calm and collected Keith now. Things are back to normal, visions are back in sync? Notice how he doesn't tell any of the crew that Shiro died. He just says that the other Shiro is a clone. So if he had a vision of this part, he still wouldn't have known Shiro was really dead, thus the shock when he found out.

Almost half an episode not pertaining to this post later, and we have Krolia asking Coran if setting a bomb off in the main turbine is a good idea. Keep in mind, if Krolia and Keith had experienced future visions, she could be nervous at this point that this is where the Castle of Lions gets destroyed. If the visions were not shown to them in a linear fashion, but random fragments, there's the possibility that she doesn't really know exactly when or how the Castle of Lions is destroyed. But if you also notice, she doesn't seem too surprised that his theory worked, just relieved.

Back to Keith. After unlocking the Black Lion’s thruster wings and making it back to the team. Keith says “Now hurry, we don't have much time. Form Voltron.” I mean, this could be an educated guess. Maybe he just assumes that Lotor will be up and moving quickly, but look at his face. Again. Self assurance. Self confidence. He knows.

Season 6, Episode 7: Defender of All Universes

The battle with Lotor. Ok, trying to make this a quick synapses as opposed to going attack per attack, otherwise this will result in another Episode 5 length segment lol. So, Keith is making some great calls during this battle, quick on defense, quick on the offense calls, but what really struck me was when he yells “move”. Is that Shiro telling him? Or is that him remembering? Or is his reaction time (after two years of peaceful waiting) that good?

Ok, what about when Lotor teleports (for the first time)? Well, if we look at Kieth’s face here, he's the only one that isn't showing an expression. He's blank. Completely blank. Almost like he's trying to recall what happens next. He looks over right before the portal appears though, why before if he didn't know?

Next scene shows Krolia staring at the pod that Shiro is being put in by Coran. Her face. It's of betrayal, pain and yet relief. She knows too.

Voltron and quintessence scene was next, yanno, after Voltron got the snot kicked out of him. I mean, there's only so much they could have done, even with Keith knowing what was going to happen. Voltron was infinitely slower than Lotor’s suit. But anyways, on topic here. Keith says it's the only way, they have to try to enter the quintessence field to win. Everyone else has trepidation or nerves, but not Keith. He knows.

In the quintessence field Keith seems surprised once more, but only after his “we did it look.” This could be because maybe, the quintessence field isn't exactly a physical plane of existence. I mean it is the plane between existences, so perhaps it falls into the same category as Black’s consciousness. Or maybe it is considered a physical plane, and he's just caught up by its intensity. I mean, a infinite space full of power? Who wouldn't get caught up in the moment?

So after the battle, and the Castle of Lions is destroyed Keith says “We need to find somewhere to land to see if we can help Shiro.” He seems calm, but not necessarily knowing. It's hard to tell with this scene. I feel it would be easier if they showed his facial expression, but they simply showed Shiro.

Now Keith admits that Shiro’s soul is in Black, but heard out of context there's a good possibility that, if Keith had seen this as a vision on the space whale, that it was misinterpreted. Maybe he thought that somehow they transferred his spirit there to save him because the clone body was barely alive. We have to think about those ingredients again. They've been handed to Keith randomly, and he can't be entirely certain what he's required to make. What order he's supposed to put them in.

I must point out here, that this scene focuses a lot on Lance’s grief, panning away from Keith, so it's difficult to really tell what Keith is thinking or what he looks like at the point Allura walked up to the Black Lion to rescue Shiro’s soul.

At some point the scene pans to the Paladins watching Allura. Everyone has their eyes wide and their mouth hung… except for Keith. His mouth is open, but his eyes are not wide. We know wide eyes is an expression Keith takes often. So it's not like a shocked expression would be out of place on his face either. So why aren't his eyes wide in shock. He knows what's happening. His eyes are squinted slightly, as if expressing a relieved “finally”.

Keith does look surprised and hopeful when it works, but if we look at Krolia, she's smiling and doesn't even flinch a single bit (unlike Romelle) when the Green Lion roars behind her.

And to testify for my cause more, Keith looking surprised and hopeful, keep in mind what Keith has experienced in life. Things can being going perfectly for him and suddenly everything is in pieces. It's a mindset he's used to expecting, why would this be any different. Sure, based on my theory, he's seen the outcome, and thus far everything has been true, but Keith is the universe’s punching bag. He's privy to this, he always expects the worst, and I'm not surprised he would wait with bated breath for the validity of this part of his visions.

While we've spoken about his facial expression. The ending. (Wait... is that my heart glue!?) Look at Keith's face now. Totally different. Relief. Happiness. He's back to looking at Shiro how he used to. How he hasn't since before the space whale. He knew. He had to have known.

Aaaand end! Well of my points from the episodes.

In summary, I truly believe Keith and Krolia have seen every moment on the physical plane of both their pasts and their futures up until this point. I can't quite tell how much farther past the end of Season 6 they have seen, but with the grin on Kieth’s face at the end of the episode, he definitely knows something we don't know. I can't wait to see if this theory is true, and I would love to hear what others think of my theory. If you totally disagree please share with me! I would love to hear other people's theories, or even examples on why my theory is bogus. Bring it on!

And, if you've made it this far. OMG I love you. I love you. I love you. Special kudos and Web cookies for you.

Thanks for reading! :D

#vld #vld thesis #vld spoilers #vld keith #vld shiro #vld krolia

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fiercereadsya · 7 years

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What I Learned from My Year of Romantic Comedies

The following is a guest post written by Kerry Winfrey, author of Love and Other Alien Experiences.

I’ve always been a romantic comedy fan. Give me meet-cutes, missed connections, falling-in-love montages, and dramatic dashes through the airport. Give me Heath Ledger singing to Julia Stiles, Adam Sandler playing a song for Drew Barrymore on a plane, and Tom Hanks saying, “Don’t cry, Shopgirl.” Some people get their cinematic thrills by watching superheroes fight villains, but not me. I find fight scenes boring, but a rain-soaked kiss or a clumsy fall into open arms? I’m on the edge of my seat.

So in February of 2015, I decided to embark on a new project: A Year of Romantic Comedies. I would watch a romantic comedy every week, then write a Tumblr post about it. Part of my motivation for this was simple: I just like romcoms. But also, I was in the midst of writing my first book, Love and Other Alien Experiences, which features many romcom elements. I wanted to dissect 52 romcoms and find out what makes the great ones work . . . and what makes the not-so-great ones flop.

And after 52 weeks and 52 first kisses, I learned a lot of things that I could apply to my own writing.

Just because it’s predictable doesn’t mean it should be boring. I used to roll my eyes at reviews of romance novels that complained about “predictability.” I mean, it’s a romance . . . of course it’s predictable! Character A is going to end up kissing Character B! But now I get what those reviews were saying. Yeah, you know your lead characters are going to end up kissing by the end of the book/movie, but that doesn’t mean you can phone it in. Like, you know Amy Schumer and Bill Hader are going to end up together because they’re both on the Trainwreck poster, but we still need some surprisingly fun LeBron James scenes along the way.

The same principle applies to books. Give your characters some interesting obstacles! Create an unexpected grand gesture! We already know the destination, but it’s the author’s job to make the journey fun. You might know what guy Mallory is going to end up with in Love and Other Alien Experiences, but hopefully you’ll still enjoy reading the specific way that he and Mallory get together.

Chemistry matters. You might think that an original premise is the most important part of a romcom, but I don’t think that’s the case. Sometimes there are brand-new plots, like 50 First Dates. But the truth is, there aren’t a lot of new ways to do a romantic comedy. You’ve got your love triangles, your enemies-to-lovers, your best-friends-fall-in-love, etc.

But the chemistry between the lead actors can turn even the most tired or implausible premise into a charming and rewatchable film. Take What If, for example. The premise is basically nonexistent: two friends fall in love. But there’s so much chemistry between Zoe Kazan and Daniel Radcliffe that it ended up being one of my favorite films of the year.

Or take a look at What’s Your Number, which is based on a truly ridiculous premise but stars Anna Faris and Chris Evans, who are so fun together that they make the movie charming and sweet.

What I learned from this is to include witty banter, make the lead characters easy to root for even when they’re flawed, and maybe cast Chris Evans in everything? Okay, that last one isn’t writing advice per se, but it still stands. People keep reading or watching a romance because they love the characters, no matter what situation they’re in.

It can’t be all fun and games. With a romantic comedy, you know there’s going to be a happily ever after . . . but that doesn’t mean that the story should always be light. In fact, most of the best romantic comedies I watched featured characters who were dealing with real, inescapable sadness.

In You’ve Got Mail, for example, Meg Ryan’s character mourns the loss of her mother and her beloved business. Yes, she falls in love at the end, but that doesn’t make everything better! In Sleepless in Seattle, Tom Hanks lost his first wife. He finds love again, but that doesn’t erase his grief. In Love and Other Alien Experiences, Mallory misses her dad and deals with anxiety that threatens to swallow her whole. A cute boy doesn’t solve those problems for her (even though he is really cute, I promise).

If your characters don’t almost kiss before being interrupted at least once, then what are you even doing? Just about every romcom I watched includes a scene where one character falls into the other’s arms, they stare at each other a beat too long, and their lips are just . . . about . . . to . . . touch . . . until they’re interrupted by a rude elderly woman or a small child. Honestly, every book and movie needs a scene like this.

While I’m still by no means an expert on romantic comedies, I do think I learned a lot over the course of those 52 weeks. The most important thing? Respect your audience. I could always tell when a filmmaker truly cared about and believed in their characters, and I hope that readers of Love and Other Alien Experiences will be able to tell just how much I care about Mallory, Lincoln, Jenni, Brad, and Jake. And also Chris Evans, although he does not appear in my book.

Love and Other Alien Experiences by Kerry Winfrey is on sale now, so get reading!

#bookish #booklr #author post #guest post #book lover #bibliophile #book nerd #young adult #i read ya #yalit #book photography #love and other alien experiences #kerry winfrey

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editedscratch · 7 years

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hey buddy give me all your opinions on oddsac?

ohhhh shit ok this a lot. this is gonna be a lot. PLEASE send in another ask and lmk your opinions, too. I am waiting with open arms. but here goes nothing.

First of all, I love it. I love the idea of anco doing a visual album because their music reallly lends itself to that, and I find it fascinating to be able to get a glimpse of all the crazy, complex, beautiful shit that goes on in these freaks’ heads when they’re putting these albums together. I would LOVE for them to do another visual album in the future. I think, regardless of whether or not certain aspects of the film might seem meaningless to you, it’s still very intriguing to watch all of it and take it in and think about it. and at certain points I was blown away with the whole experience, simply because I don’t often GET that visual when I’m listening to music. it adds a whole other layer of information to dissect and makes some of the music like ten times more intense because the sounds are suddenly in front of your eyes as well as vibrating in your ears. (honestly, I’m thinking especially of urban creme, which I realize is strange given that it’s essentially just static, like what meaning could you draw from that, but to me the meaning was all in the connection between the visuals and the music that felt so strong like I was totally drowning in it.) I don’t have synesthesia, but at times I felt like I did and it was really really cool.

All of that being said, though, I personally am of the opinion that the music CAN be separated from the visuals. like, I’d totally listen to the album without watching the movie, because the music itself is damn good, definitely some of their best work. I understand that the visuals influenced the music and vice versa, but in the same way that you can listen to movie soundtracks by themselves, I really don’t feel strongly about keeping the two parts together, and would actually love if an audio version of the album was released one day (I know, I know, blasphemy).

to acknowledge another thing: I’ve also heard of some people who are super underwhelmed by the visuals in general and think anco could have done better. I don’t really think that’s true of me. I don’t know if I could say any of the visuals were “genius” or at the same level as a lot of anco’s best work (if they did another visual album, something tells me it would be even better), but everything had its place in the movie, and I think there’s something for everyone to focus in on. I think ODDSAC is actually surprisingly accessible, like the emotions are conveyed extremely well regardless of how you interpret the actual material or pick up the plotline, or whatever. Personally, I’m like not really a film person (meaning I don’t watch a whole lot of films or enthuse a lot about them), so I’m sure a lot of it went over my head, but even I could still get a lot out of it and appreciate when the cinematography was beautiful, or the juxtaposition was interesting, etc etc. Of course there were many times when I was like, “wtf is going on,” and there was quite a bit of “I’m very scared right now,” but after sitting through the whole thing, you can’t help but be like, satisfied with all of it. like your questions and concerns might even be irrelevant. In that sense it fulfills its purpose, I suppose. (though I’m super interested in hearing your take on the meaning/plot! I actually hadn’t watched or thought about the movie in a long time and therefore had to rewatch before answering this ask, but it’s fresh in my mind now and I’m open to any and all interpretations.)

Fave scenes/fave tracks/more random thoughts: Ummm, “what happened” for sure is absolutely incredible. that’s one song that was INCREDIBLE with its visual. (when the dance beat kicked in? it’s cathartic and the absolute best way to end the movie.) same with “lady on the lake,” and ofc avey’s voice in that is phenomenal. “working” into “tantrum barb?” ohhhh man. you better believe I lost it. Deakin makes a really beautiful sad vampire and he deserved better, I know he’s probably like in the swamp now but I want a sequel, damnit! I wonder where noah’s scene on the rocks was filmed? I want to go there. “Screens” is wonderful and super personal to me. and SHIT I forgot to talk about “mr. fingers” but like, I guess we all agree about “mr. fingers”. I swear I’m listing every song by now, but “kindle song” with its visuals was another great few minutes. What are your favorite moments/songs, I’d love to know. I love the reflections on the water during “screens,” that was definitely one of my favorite cinematography moments, as well as the dancing at the end. Seriously, how cool is it that “what happened” managed to go from eerie/terrifying to like total freedom and bliss and love in like, a minute? because I’m still not over it. Random questions: Do you still eat marshmallows or did that part traumatize you? Did some parts feel overly playful or detract from the music, in your opinion? Do you also yearn to know more about Geologist’s mysterious knight character?

And I guess that’s all for now! I wrote so much and it still feels like there’s so much more to talk about (classic anco dilemma). you can ask me more specific questions in another ask, or not, but you totally should send in your opinions. Like, even if you disagree with everything I’ve said, I’d appreciate it.

Sorry for the delay in answering this, by the way, I just got back from vacation! Thanks so much for letting my ODDSAC thoughts break free and meander for a bit.

#opinions #animal collective #bless

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dialogue-with-varyu · 8 years

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SUPERNATURAL THE ANIMATION: A Dissection of Dean’s Failed Characterization & Design (PART 1 - The Technicals)

I have a lot on my chest about the anime that I couldn’t really get into in both of my last posts since the topic of what makes the anime series so cringe-worthy is a very intricate one, making the explanation of it all become a SERIES OF ESSAYS. So please read my previous installments before getting into this one because I will be referencing those a lot:

SUPERNATURAL THE ANIMATION: A THESIS OVERVIEW ON JAPANESE ANIME PRODUCTION & CHARACTER DESIGN

SUPERNATURAL THE ANIMATION: THE IMPORTANCE COLOR DESIGN BRINGS TO VISUAL TONE

But anyway, let’s talk about Dean. I’m gonna talk about Dean.

I will talk about Dean because Sam was portrayed pretty okay in the anime and it’s really Dean’s characterization that strikes a chord with a lot of fans of the original Supernatural series. (However I will consider a separate Sam essay to those in favor of it.)

But I haven’t really seen a lot of people put into words about makes them feel the way they do. So what’s the problem with Dean?

Refresher:

While I understand this distinction, I think that we can all agree that the overall interpretation of Dean suck balls and I’d like to argue that:

rather than misinterpreting Dean’s character, the writers were more focused on one of Dean’s major facades and ran with it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, I’d like to address the elephant in the room: Why an anime series?

Why did Supernatural garner enough attention to GET an anime series? What is so special about Supernatural AND anime that a large group of creatives and investors were willing to marry the two?

Honestly, that question is big enough for another essay on it’s own. But the bottom line is:

Anime is watched for the melodrama.

Nuance and subtitles are more akin to live action film since the culture around the different intricacies of a story have larger factors that contribute to it. (i.e, it doesn’t matter what’s written because an actor may just ad-lib it, Murphey’s Law, etc.)

So basically, when you have an animated show what you see is what you get by convention. There really is no use arguing over what is canon and what is not because, unlike an actor, decisions and change of mind can’t be attributed in the moment when it comes to character performance. People are more likely to question the mindset of a decision behind a scene when it’s animated more often than leaving it to the death of the author.

But it’s because of this that anime often has namely traits of exaggeration: screaming characters crying about their passion in the heat of battle, long ass internal monologues, “-dere” archetypes, the works.

Which means that anime characters are usually walking talking hyperbolic symbols. (Whether or not you enjoy this is usually the deciding factor between anime fans and those who are not.)

And this ties directly into Dean.

Because Dean in the anime series is an exaggeration of himself from the original show.

Rather, an exaggeration of one specific facade:

The facade Dean pulls up in season one episode 1. The fake Dean that tends to overcompensate his insecurities with bravado.

WHY this scene in particular is one that actually makes sense.

Mostly because this scene IS a if not THE root scene that cemented Dean Winchester’s starting point launching endless possibilities of character traits to be explored for seasons to come. It’s a highly impacted scene that’s very memorable, both in it’s first impressions and as a point of reference for his development.

I infer that the writers of the anime series saw this and built upon their own impressions of it. Namely, they saw this facade and thought this was the True Dean Winchester. (Which, to those who have watched past season 2, know is very far from the truth.)

So how did they write Dean Winchester?

Dean Winchester is perceived to be like a generic anime bad boy

(I say “perceived” since by all means the Supernatural anime is a reinterpretation with very deliberate changes.)

What I’m talking about are those “thug” type bullies in every school centered anime show.

And while I make the claim that the writers may have built off of the scene from the pilot in painting a picture of Dean’s character in their heads, I’m also led to believe that this decision to have Dean come off as a “thug” is less of a conscious choice...

...and more of a conventional one.

Because nothing fits Fake Bravado Dean like Generic Anime Thug Dude when it comes to a script laden with anime-like tropes.

(To make a more compelling dissection of the writer’s true interpretation of Dean SPECIFICALLY would require me to rewatch and analyze ALL of the anime’s original standalone episodes.

...for the sake of brevity and the fact that I don’t want to rewatch any of the anime’s episodes in it’s entirety because I can’t stand even 5 seconds of this animated drivel I Am Not Going to Do That unless a lot of people ask about it or if people just wanna see me suffer.)

But okay, it’s sort of weird to gauge the errors of Dean’s characterization when this anime series nearly follows the original show’s 1st and 2nd season’s storylines verbatim.

Now that I think about it, it’s even weirder to be so allergic to an interpretation of a character when the source material is being 99.9% faithfully adapted--especially with the same lines and set up. So what gives?

What makes anime Dean’s characterization so off from the original to a drastic degree?

The “mischaracterization” is greatly tied into Dean’s character design and the way he emotes--which affects him greatly on the narrative of the anime series as a whole.

I already criticized the character designs in the lack of coherence in color design as well as execution narratively, but the latter still stands to be a huge major problem since it does just that.

Affect the narrative.

Which means it also affects the characters and the themes.

Which ties back again to Dean being perceived as an anime thug.

And I know this because Dean makes the same goddamn faces as an anime thug.

(In this case I’ll be referencing Space Dandy since I can’t find generic anime examples of side characters that embody this profile despite this stereotype and it’s mannerisms invading vast amounts of shows. However anyone who has seen enough anime will know what I’m talking about. And again, the “look” given by the artistic nuances/techniques of the character design of the anime series is not very original.)

You know what, as an aside I’m just going to throw in the fact that Space Dandy’s “look” is very similar to to the spn anime down to the BL shadows in which Dandy is compared with Redline

And that Jessica is totally generically designed

Anyway, this extends further than Dean’s facial expressions alone.

It extends to his wardrobe which totally starts to unhinge Dean’s persona. oddly enough.

So here’s a round of nit-picking

Why in god’s name is Dean wearing sunglasses indoors? He already went through an entire spiel about ineffectiveness at night

and it’s not like having it indoors makes it any less ridiculous. And yes, he does wear them again in later seasons both unironically and ironically

But these cues of character insight (that people have written far better meta for) is in the context of later seasons and I highly doubt the anime production team could’ve predicted any of this so I’m just going to have a giant ????? over this.

Back to this awful screenshot again.

But seriously, anyone shirtless in the snow deserves to die of hypothermia.

Dean is the last person to feel comfortable with minimal clothing due to years of sexual harassment/assault from CREATURES more often than not

Even more so whenever Dean is naked, it’s used more for vulnerability over titillation:

I hate this stupid screenshot.

It is awful, why? Because anime characters rarely stray from their trope mannerisms unless the story calls for it, or the animators dedicate some time to create impressive sakuga for novelty’s sake. If Dean has body language like this now, that mean’s he’s likely going to exhibit it again no matter what the context is in terms of story or character.

Leading to this abomination.

I know what you are doing. I get it. I KNOW.

I KNOW YOU’RE DRAWING DEAN THIS WAY BECAUSE APPARENTLY TO YOU DEAN IS AN ANIME THUG WHICH MEANS ANIME THUGS EXHIBIT THIS KIND OF UNCARING BODY LANGUAGE BUT NEED WE FORGET THAT DEAN LOVES HIS CAR MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF

HAVING HIS SHOES AGAINST THE SEAT OR ANYWHERE NEAR THE LEATHER IS THE SAME AS DEFECATING ON IT. ARE YOU SERIOUS RN??? THAT’S LIKE THE ONE THING DEAN WINCHESTER IS ALL ABOUT AND IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN ESPECIALLY WHEN IT CAME TO DEVELOPMENTS OF DEMON!DEAN

This...this shit I can’t forgive. This is so absent-minded it physically hurts me. I can’t be the only one bothered by this.

Addendum: I don’t even really care if that’s NOT the impala (in this episode of the anime Sam and Dean were thrown into the backseat of a police car.) I still don’t think Dean would EVER exhibit this sort of body language in any car.

It also still doesn’t excuse the lack of variety in Dean’s emoting and body language as a whole. You could do so much storytelling in his body language (since Jensen Ackles is a master at that) but they instead chose to stick with a template of a character and never strayed from it.

But...I digress.

Incidentally of all places Yuri!! On Ice has closer character designs of Sam and Dean that for some virulent reason exists (Also incidentally, if you so much as breathe the title of YOI you will be immediately blocked I am not joking around. Don’t test me.)

As does Yami Shibai

So it’s not like a competent/more modern design tailored to anime is impossible.

It is very possible. So if you have your defense that the character designs of the spn anime are inherently horrible BECAUSE it’s supposed to “look anime” you’re probably just suffering from media illiteracy.

However, again, I made claim that the “style” of the Supernatural anime character designs are not what make it fail.

It’s the execution of nuances that killed it--both visually and narratively. And I still stand by that.

To form examples, that means more design redraws!!!

However, the redraws this time around will have it’s own separate post since the inner working of what can make or break a design will be discussed and demonstrated there.

SEE YOU IN PART 2!!!

#whelvenwings #supernatural the animation #supernatural #spn meta #spn anime

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