#i know its cliche but ill forget otherwise

[dipshit-supreme]

the sky is falling

just found out im going to have to quit weed for a job

[lesetoilesfous]

i dunno if they're open, but can i request from the kiss prompts, 30) kiss in the full moon, with NB!Handers? basically a Hawke who uses they/them pronouns, only goes by Hawke, and no specific descriptors or mentions of their sex? =)

Hey anon! I had way too much fun with this, thank you so much for the request!!! I really hope you like it. I am also going to be adding NB!Handers to my preferred pairings list specifically because of you :D <3

(If you’d like me to write you a dragon age fic, send me a prompt from here!)

@dadrunkwriting Pairing: NB!Handers

Characters: NB!Hawke, Anders

Tags: modern AU, post All that Remains, reference to mental illness, reference to police violence, reference to abusive institutions (the Circle is really, really awful y'all), reference to gun violence, smoking, strong language, everyone's an adult here Anders is just broke (hence the bike)

Rating: Mature

“I knew I’d find you here.”

The Kirkwall marina is quiet and mostly empty - boatowners have retired below decks with the rise of the moon and stars, and the place is mostly closed to the public otherwise. Anders had seen Hawke’s jeep, first, when he’d padlocked his bike to the iron fence. Now, as the wind pulls ripples across the ink-black bay, he finds the person in question.

Hawke is wearing a heavy brown leather jacket covered in patches, their long brown hair wavy with the humidity and blown about in the wind. They’re sitting on a stone pillar near the pier, staring up at the wide full moon. It’s such a clear night that Anders can make out the craters on it, and it’s harder to see the stars in the immediate radius of the moon, which diffuses into silver rainbows in the dark. The ocean falls in soft sighs against the thin beach, and ahead of them the bay closes between two promontories, which are darker black against the deep blue night.

Hawke looks back at Anders at the same time as their mabari, Dog, lifts her great head, sandy ears pricking in his direction. Anders waves at them both, trying to rearrange his features into an expression that doesn’t show exactly how worried he is. Instead, he folds himself awkwardly to sit on a pillar beside Hawke. The stone is cold even through his jeans, and Anders can feel a hole working its way through his battered converse. He’ll worry about that tomorrow.

For a long moment, Hawke is quiet, and the two of them sit there in the dark, listening to the eerie rattle and creak of the boats in the Kirkwall marina. Then Hawke says, softly, “I didn’t think you’d come.”

Anders looks at them, but they’re still staring ahead at the bay, and the moonlight skidding silver over the water. Their nose is smooth and bumped a little with the scar of an old break. Their eyebrows are thick and dark, as are their eyelashes. Their brown eyes glitter in the starlight. They tuck a clump of wavy hair back behind their ear, which is braced by silver cuffs over the shell and a row of hoops along their earlobe. Anders breathes, and the air is so cold that it tastes sweet.

“You didn’t tell me you were going to be here.” He’s trying for a joke, but even Anders can hear the way it falls flat as he feels the smile plastered onto his lips slip a little.

Hawke looks at him, and their eyes are rich and dark and brown and beautiful. There are thumbnail bruises of purple sleeplessness beneath them, too. They speak again, hushed as if the pair of them were in a cathedral and not a car-park outside a half empty marina. “Still.”

Something in Anders’ chest lurches as the wind makes the trees and grass behind them hush a sighing chorus to the sea. He shrugs, and feels the awkwardness of it across his shoulders. He’d never eaten well, in the Circle, and his body as a result felt stretched out and distended: he wasn’t fat or muscular enough to pull off the broadness of his proportions, but ever since he’d hit puberty what food he could get just didn’t seem to stick. He pushes away the memories of old hunger and focuses on the present, instead. “Yeah, well, you’re an idiot.”

Hawke huffs a laugh then, one of their canines hooked a little in front of their other teeth. They look down at their hands, where their nails are chopped short and painted with haphazard, chipped black polish. “Maybe.” They bite the inside of their cheek, and swallow twice before they speak. “I just. Keep thinking that if I dream it hard enough I’ll be able to go back and save her. You know? Like I’ll figure it out, somehow. And this time I won’t be too late and -”

Hawke cuts themself off, blinking rapidly, their dark eyes brighter in the moonlight. Anders swallows the lump in his own throat, and the urge to lean across and squeeze their arm or something similarly saccharine. With a feeling like chewing on breaking glass, he forces himself to pull up his memories of the months following Karl. It’s difficult - most of that time is a blur spent flinching every time he saw a templar in kevlar. Too many nights spent waking up with the sound of a bullet in his head. Anders winds his fingers together, squeezing them tight enough to hurt to ground himself back in the present. He can feel Hawke’s dark eyes on him, their gaze questioning. Anders looks up instead at the moon, and calls himself a coward.

“After...After Karl I, couldn’t really think straight. For a while. I mean, not that I ever thought straight.” Anders tosses half a grin in Hawke’s direction, but they don’t smile back, just watch him, quietly. Listening. Anders always feels as if he doesn’t know what to do with all that attention. He isn’t really used to people respecting him when he speaks. He doesn’t want to waste it. He clenches his teeth, and the wind whispers over the back of his neck, pulling at the hair in his ponytail. “But, um. I didn’t really feel like I woke up until I... Let myself accept that this is just. What the world looks like now. Without him in it.” Anders’ eyes burn, and he blinks rapidly and hopes that Hawke doesn’t notice the way his breath hitches.

If they do, they don’t say anything, instead fishing a packet of cigarettes from their pocket, lighting one before offering him the pack. Anders takes it gratefully, slipping a cigarette between his lips and leaning forward for Hawke to light it. Their lighter has a bright, chipped progress flag on the casing, and Anders can’t help but find it reassuring, for all the cliche. The cigarette lights, and Anders breathes in deeply, savouring the warm ache of it and breathing out a long gust before he speaks again.

“It’s like. They were part of another chapter. And you’re already onto the next one. And you kind of, have to stop trying to go back to those pages, otherwise you’ll miss what’s happening in these ones.” Anders laughs, and scrubs at his cheeks, feeling the graze of his stubble and wishing he’d remembered to shave. “Sorry, that’s stupid.”

“No,” Hawke says, firmly, taking a drag of their own cigarette and breathing it out in a gust of smoke before they speak. “No, that makes sense.” They look at him sidelong, then, and when they blink a tear runs rapidly, silently down their tanned cheek. “I don’t know how to keep reading.”

Anders rests his hand against the stone he’s sitting on. It’s rough and cool. His eyes move from the great belly of the moon to the dusting of stars over the horizon, trying to trace the shapes of the constellations. “I think…” He says, slowly, sounding the words out as he says them, “It starts with this. With people you care about. Quiet places. Places where you feel like you can be everything you are and feel everything you’re feeling without holding it in. Places where you feel safe.”

Hawke shakes their head, and their hair falls over the shoulder of their jacket, catching on the ridges of their patches. “I don’t feel safe.”

Anders ignores the wrench in his chest at that, and takes another drag of his cigarette before he looks down to meet Hawke’s eyes. “You will.” Hawke holds his gaze for a long minute after he says it. Then they nod, once, and glance away, bringing the cigarette back up to their lips.

For a while they sit there in the quiet, smoking, peaceful. Dog has rested her head on her thick paws, and Hawke is careful to tap their ash far away from her. Eventually, the ever-present blur of memory and feeling at the back of Anders’ head threatens to overwhelm the silence, and he tugs his phone out of the pocket of his coat. It’s an old suede thing with feather detailing he’d got second hand. Isabela teases him about it, but it always makes him feel safer than anything else does. He figures that’s enough. Anders taps the cracked screen of his phone, blinking at the blue light. Hawke glances at him, their brown eyes almost black in the dark.

Anders tilts his phone screen at them. “Mind if I play some music?”

They blink, once, then nod, and take another drag on their cigarette. “Sure.”

Anders hits play with a sense of near physical relief, and the tinny, soft sound of some alt rock eases into the air between them. After three songs Anders has finished his cigarette. After four, Hawke has finished theirs. For a moment, they sit there, unmoving and terribly still. Anders sits forward, feeling the weight of his phone shift in his pocket as he does so. “How are you feeling now?”

They offer him a shadow of a smile, heavy coat and baggy jeans disguising long lines of wiry muscle that Anders couldn’t forget if he tried. “Better. Anders?”

“Yes?” Anders wishes he didn’t feel as much like a heroine in some silent film, but Hawke always seems to have that effect on him. They make him feel like some damsel in need of saving. They make him want to be a hero.

Hawke’s lips curl up into a crooked smile that creases the corners of their eyes. “Thanks. For coming out here.”

Anders shrugs and lies. “It’s nothing.” When Hawke snorts, he goes on, grinning, “No, really. What else was I going to be doing? Now my friend, on the other hand. This poor sap is opening his free clinic at 5am this morning which…” Anders gets out his phone, tapping the home button. “Is in about three hours. Now that idiot, him, yeah, I’d feel sorry for. But luckily neither of us know anyone so masochistic.”

Hawke huffs a laugh, their voice rough and climbing into a giggle as they squeeze their eyes shut, scrubbing at their cheeks. “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” They say it with a smile.

Anders tilts his head, and tries to ignore the warmth that flushes through his chest whenever Hawke looks at him like that. “You say that like it’s a good thing.”

Hawke shrugs, and pushes their hair back over their shoulders, moving so that they’re facing him, their legs spread wide and their jacket hanging loose over a white t-shirt. They look up at Anders boldly. “You’re my idiot.”

Anders’ flush pushes its way up into his cheeks and on into his ears, the cold of the early morning forgotten in the way that Hawke is staring at him. “Really? I must have missed the memo…”

“Anders,” Hawke’s voice is soft, and as they speak they rest their hand on Anders’ cheek. Their skin is soft and cold with the night air, and Anders leans into it as if he’s lost at sea and their touch is the only thing keeping him from drowning. It takes him too long to unstick his tongue from the roof of his dry mouth.

“Yes?”

Hawke smiles at him, warm and soft and indulgent, and their thumb strokes gently across his cheek as they lean forward. “Stop talking.” Their breath is warm as it blows across his lips, and smells faintly of cigarettes. And then they’re leaning even closer, and they’re kissing him. Their lips are soft and taste like cherry chapstick, and Anders doesn’t care as they tilt their head, the scar on their nose scratching softly against his skin, the warmth of their breath filling his lungs. Hawke licks into his mouth with a hunger that feels like burning, and Anders opens for them, lifting his hands to cradle their head and pull them closer, his fingers tangling in their thick, soft hair. Anders’ heart feels as if it’s going to beat its way out of his chest and that’s meaningless against the way the world is spinning, every inch of him lost except the point where his cheeks brush Hawke’s, where his chin bumps theirs, where their lips move to lock and loosen around his own as they move.

When they pull back, Anders isn’t sure he remembers how breathing works. But they grin at him, and their eyes are silver in the moonlight when they lean forward to bump their foreheads together, cradling the back of his head. Sighing, they shut their eyes. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

Anders breathes, and swallows, lips wet and sore with the force of their kiss, wrists resting loosely on Hawke’s strong shoulders. Above them, the moon is bright and full and beautiful. Anders tries to speak past the lump in his throat. “Do it again?”

Hawke looks up at him, and their eyes are almost black in the dark. Then they kiss him.

[you-can-write-this]

How to Construct a Villain

Make sure that your villain does what she does for a reason!! You can do more than “bad for the sake of being bad.” You can connect to that character!! I believe in you!!

Here’s a list of villainous motivations and how to write them!

Selfishness - In the real world, this is probably the most common motivator for so-called “villains.” The selfish villain feels threatened and acts in self-preservation; this may be preservation of her life, of her pride, of her belongings, etc.

Reasonable variant: The reasonably selfish villain sees an actual, real threat and evades it, screwing everyone over in the process. This villain is sacrificing others in order to survive. She may appear impulsive and afraid, or thoughtful, patient, and furious. Whatever helps her sleep at night.

Unreasonable variant: The unreasonably selfish villain imagines a threat which is not there. She acts in self-preservation when she or her possessions are not in danger; maybe she thinks that innocent black kid in a hoodie is going to kill her. Greed also goes under this category; she sees anyone who takes potential money from her as a threat. She’s creating a narrative which is completely unreal, and responding to it accordingly.

Don’t make greedy characters into hateful people. Hatred does not drive greed. Self-preservation mixed with an inflated importance towards money is what creates greed. She wants more for herself, not less for others. Greedy people don’t kick puppies, spit on children, or for that matter, rub their hands together devilishly.

Don’t think of your villain as selfish in all ways, at all times. Your villain is committing a selfish act (or promoting a selfish idea), but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t take care of her family.

Don’t have her act “maniacally.” She believes she’s doing something perfectly normal in her selfish act: protecting herself. Otherwise, she’s guilty-- all the more reason to not be maniacal.

“Protecting her own” sub-variant: The very most selfish people have trouble promoting their values, because nobody gains anything from Mrs. “I come first, so fuck you.” Group selfishness is far more dangerous: people can become allies under selfishness. Consider fascism, as well as other forms of aggressive group hatred. Her selfishness extends to a group beyond herself, but not infinitely. Maybe she wants to protect her friends. A man “protecting his family” can do some weird shit.

Revenge/“giving them what they deserve” - Some villains are motivated by hatred, anger, or spite. Villains who want revenge see the hero (or victim) as the embodiment of a trauma. A villain who “gives them what they deserve” hates the hero (or victim) for some other reason; it could be personality, minority status, or anything else.

Don’t rely heavily upon monologues or flashbacks. A monologuing villain is a sign of an overcomplicated motivation. Like jokes, the best motivations need not be explained.

Reasonable variant: Some villains seek revenge for a genuinely atrocious act. This puts the hero (or victim) in a shade of moral gray, and your audience will be absolutely intrigued and elated.

Unreasonable variant: More often, villains want revenge because of some unintentional or insignificant slight committed by the hero; the hero accidentally slipped the villain’s secret, and all of a sudden the villain is out to kill. This puts the hero in the moral clear, while still allowing the villain some believability. But the reasonable variant is far easier to justify than the unreasonable variant.

Don’t make the slight too small. You won’t make the villain seem more intense; you’ll make the villain seem ridiculous.

Destruction out of sadness - Some destructive behavior comes from deep feelings of emptiness. Think of your villain’s foul action towards others as a sort of suicide; instead of destroying herself, she destroys whatever she can find. She may consider her feelings to be sadness, but she may also consider this boredom (either conclusion is valid from the observation “nothing makes me happy and I don’t feel anything”). She may have a very clear and concise excuse for why she’s targeting something/someone, but the true answer, as you the writer know, is destruction out of sadness.

Don’t just blame mental illness. Mental illness can be aggravate destructive thoughts or feelings, but mental illness on its own does not cause destruction. A person with a particular disposition may react to mental illness in an unhealthy fashion (e.g. depression causes empty feelings, but most people do not respond to these feelings by destroying things). It is the unhealthy reaction which causes destruction.

Don’t make these characters stoical as they act. These characters usually appear intensely emotional, and are filled with a great desire to feel something; anything.

“Giving up” variant: When plunged into a depressive state, your villain no longer finds joy in those things held dear. She has probably lost her previous motivation (e.g. the person she tried to save has died), and with all hope lost, and nothing good to do, she only has bad to do on her radar. She will probably have an excuse, a story in her head, about why her actions are suddenly destructive (e.g. “it’s your fault she’s dead”).

“Always empty” variant: Rather than giving up, maybe your villain never had hope in the first place. Maybe she has always been building up to this level of destruction.

Don’t rely on flashbacks to illustrate that she’s always been this way. You should have an idea of how long this destructive pattern has lasted, but the audience doesn’t need to know that. Other characters also don’t have to explain how long she’s always been this way.

Because she can get away with it - Some people want to see the world burn just because it’s not supposed to. They’re told not to do something, and when you look away, they will absolutely do it, just for the sake of it. This is actually far more common than you might think-- package thieves, shoplifters, and even serial killers usually feel powerful by existing above the law. This is often an extension of destruction out of sadness; characters who feel empty unconsciously seek a thrill through rule-breaking. To consider more believable thrill-seeking villains, I recommend this brief video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyszHongpf0

Don’t make thrill-seekers out of those comfortably in power. The “because she can get away with it” motivation relies upon a desire to break rules, not to make rules. I’m calling out Hunger Games (as fun as that series is). No thrill-seeker wants to see suffering unless it’s taboo and they’re curious. (Hint: Most Roman colosseum fights portrayed in fiction are historically inaccurate.) If your police officer villain is abusive on the job, unless she’s doing something that could threaten her employment, it’s probably not for the thrill. She has something else going on. She might be trying to demonstrate her power above others out of insecurity, so try "selfishness” (at the top of this post).

By accident - Villains who commit foul acts accidentally are potential heroes with bad luck; the most tragic villains. Your villain might have been on drugs, or maybe there was an element of miscommunication. Fantastical elements, like transformations, create most accidental villains. Regardless, your villain is probably not in the ethical clear. Why was she on such dangerous drugs? Why would she do something so extreme just because of a rumor?

Don’t assume that your villain deserves forgiveness. Many fantastical romance stories forgive villains too quickly. Be careful not to structure your story around the assumption that the accidental villain just needs help or love; on drugs or not, we cannot just pretend that she didn’t kill a man. The bigger the rule broken by your villain, the harder it will be to forgive your villain (e.g. any form of killing in a society like ours should be near-impossible to forgive). The logic of fault is irrelevant; it’s about the emotional trauma or shock, which your characters should not forget easily. If you frame your accidental villain as forgivable, your audience may stop suspending their disbelief.

Don’t just blame mental illness. Mental illness is not like mind control. It does not take over a person’s being to have her commit a certain act. A person with a particular disposition may react to mental illness in an unhealthy fashion (e.g. depression causes empty feelings, but most people do not respond to these feelings by destroying things). It is the unhealthy reaction which causes destruction. Although mental illness can coincide with many motivations, the accidental villain cannot be caused by mental illness. 

Differing morals - If used alone, this is probably the easiest motivation to justify. Your villain believes herself to be acting ethically, and she has a genuine argument against the actions and beliefs of your protagonist. Your story may argue against the villain’s beliefs, or it may play around with her philosophy. This motivation can also be layered onto any of the above motivations.

Don’t make her dialogue smug in regards to her philosophy (e.g. “Oh, but don’t you know? So-and-so-a-moral was the true meaning all along.”) This is a cliche, and will also put her in constant danger of info-dumping her relevant ideas and character traits via monologue. If she wants to convince the protagonist of her beliefs, have them argue back and forth. Don’t let her dominate the conversation.

Don’t assign her a moral which is too obviously immoral. If your villain represents the ethical implications of white supremacy, readers may feel patronized or bored by constant arguments of “racism is bad.” Just about everyone theoretically agrees that racism is bad. If you argue against a popular moral stance, or debate something morally non-obvious, readers will feel a lot more respected.

She “had to do it” - Many villains do not consider themselves powerful agents of their own making, but rather, slaves to a cause. Sometimes the most dangerous person around is an underling or a follower. She may be loyal to a specific person, alive or dead, or maybe she works to put the words of a god/s in motion. She may understand this person/cause as intended, or she may be misunderstanding it completely.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Supergirl season two full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

100% (twenty-two of twenty-two).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

49.93%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Nineteen. 

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

Zero.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twenty-five. Thirteen who appear in more than one episode, five who appear in at least half the episodes, and two who appear in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Thirty-six. Thirteen who appear in more than one episode, four who appear in at least half the episodes, and one who appears in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Though the numbers turned out higher than last season by virtue of some stellar narratives in the early part of the season, in reality this was a disappointing return to the show, by-and-large shallower and overly dependent on life-defining concepts of unhealthy romance (average rating of 3.09).

General Season Quality:

Starts out fantastically well, but loses steam around mid season, and turns pretty damn sour by season’s end. A shocking waste of the potential promised by the first season; I’ve practically got whiplash from how severely this turned.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

Well, this was a clusterfuck. Let’s see if we can break it down into three manageable categories: world building, politics, and relationships.

The primary victim of this season’s bad storytelling is the alien world of Daxom, and the shoddy world-building there leaks out all over the rest of the narrative. We’re told initially that Daxom is some horrible party planet whose politics were at odds with truth, justice, and the Kryptonian way - we’re told this within a clear framework of confronting ingrained prejudices (something I applauded at the time, you may recall), a context which implies that there is complexity and nuance to Daxom that is going unrecognised, and which we might reasonably expect to explore as the season progresses. It doesn’t happen. We’re told that the people of Daxom are kept drunk so that they won’t question their oppression; we’re told that they were all too drugged up to ‘feel anything’; we’re told that they maintained a sex-drenched hedonistic society headed by an evil, war-mongering, slave-owning royal family (the slavery thing really makes it seem like Kara buried the lede by complaining about a ‘party planet’, too: honestly who cares if they’re partying? They have slavery. SLAVERY). Our hero Supergirl even tells us that the Daxomite prince was ‘the worst of the lot’, though she conveniently neglects to detail how he was the worst, which becomes conspicuous once it is revealed that her new boyfriend Mon-El is that prince. Everything we ever learn about Daxom is cartoonishly negative; it’s also somewhat at odds with itself. Were the Daxomites viciously oppressed and constantly partying? While it is technically possible to have both be true, the entire planet is treated as such a homogenous whole it’s hard to know who was suffering, who was livin’ it up, and who was doing both. Are the rich people being kept drunk and drugged so that they won’t object to their own superiority? Are the poor people provided the freedom and resources to party hard on a constant basis to prevent them from rioting over their non-specified hardships? The details are so vague we can’t even draw clear conclusions about who is responsible for this situation, because if everyone is drunk, drugged, or otherwise unable to gain perspective on their circumstances, then can they really be blamed for them? Daxom’s entire population is tarred with the same broad brush, a collection of cliches masquerading as world-building but really only serving to form a blurry image of a dysfunctional and inherently bad society. And with Daxom’s bevy of stereotypes standing unquestioned and therefore unclear, we segue easily into...

Politics. Early on when I applauded the show’s transparency about stating its political convictions, I had no idea how far they intended to take it, and how blisteringly uncool it would be. Where, at that early stage, the politics the show was declaring was all about equal rights and therefore undeniably positive, as the Daxom issue grew the political mess became far less inclusive. Despite being confronted by the reality of Krypton’s flaws back in the first season as well as in this one, the positioning of Daxom as an uncomplicated evil serves to backtrack on Supergirl’s personal growth in recognising that she is not immune from bigotry herself, instead validating her hatred. Ironically, they get the opportunity to examine the same confrontation for Mon-El later in the season when meeting with his parents forces him to acknowledge how far his personal beliefs have strayed from his upbringing, and yet they waste that chance as well, because duh, Daxom is bad. Exploring what was wrong with Daxom wasn’t about furthering that statement on equal rights, not least because exploration of Daxom’s flaws didn’t really happen at all, we were just handed the party line and told to go with the idea that this whole planet was garbage. And then on top of that, the show went and made the political division of Krypton and Daxom into a stand-in for real life American Democrats vs Republicans, with Rhea echoing Republican catchphrases while the much-championed equality-advocate and literal alien President of the United States is explicitly identified as a Democrat! Supergirl’s writers thus make a statement not about political policy or basic rights, but about political affiliation in the real world, and there’s nothing positive about using the cartoonish villainy of Daxom as a vehicle for attacking Republicans. This sends the message that Supergirl is not a show for Republican audience members, and that divisiveness is just not useful. Instead of using their show as a platform to promote positive and healthy ideas, it is used as a weapon to shame and (again with the irony) alienate a potential half of its viewership, and in the current political climate, that’s irresponsible story telling, not to mention anathema to Supergirl’s first-season theme of unity across barriers. 

So, we have a world that is just broad-strokes Bad News, an ill-advised not-metaphor for real-world political divisions, and a bunch of missed opportunities to explore the nature of bigotry. That last one is a bigger problem than it may initially appear, too, as noted in the episode posts: if the writers were trying to tell this story in a serious way, they’d have really invested in deprogramming Mon-El. As eager as they were to make Daxom ‘evil’, they didn’t want to also make Mon-El ‘evil’ as Kara said he was when she spoke unknowingly of Daxom’s prince, and so Mon-El becomes a victim of the vague world-building of Daxom, and creates a feedback loop which in turn makes Daxom’s world-building more vague by virtue of its politics not being clearly reflected in the unfiltered behaviour of its favourite son. The show wants Mon-El to be blamed for being born the prince of Daxom, but it also doesn’t want that - it wants the cheap drama of Kara expressing her own bigotry, but it doesn’t want Mon-El to actually be that bad, but it doesn’t want to admit that Kara is prejudiced, but it doesn’t want her opinion to be wholly justified in this one instance, just every other one, etc, etc. The show is too afraid to demonstrate Supergirl having ugly beliefs of her own to question, nor does it really want to do its due diligence on having Mon-El process the complex reality of having everything he was raised to believe called into question and/or summarily rejected by his new society. In the process, the season forgets to have any kind of moral centre, losing itself in that all-encompassing disavowal of Republican politics but failing to be specific  even then, and a superhero story without a moral centre is...kinda pointless. The resulting mess of politics and lazy short-hand, again, cripples Mon-El’s functionality as a character as he ends up tacked together out of disparate pieces, never really Daxom enough for Daxom, his playboy issues mostly pared down into base-level comic relief, and a grotesque romantic entanglement thrown in over the top to make his convoluted non-personality worse.

Which brings us to: relationships. Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t actually think Mon-El himself is the worst part of this season - as noted above, I see him as a symptom of much bigger issues - but his relationship with Kara is a huge problem. It plays pretty much every toxic bullshit trope I would have expected this show - especially after the precedent of awareness set last season - to avoid. The fact that Mon-El’s fuckboy behaviour is the only real evidence of that Daxomite heritage the show is refusing to properly unpack means it comes off not as a learning curve for him so much as an uncharacteristic weak point for Kara, that she would tolerate being screwed around by the thoughtlessness of this guy. That the show repeats this lazy drama literally one episode after another, having Mon-El mistreat or disappoint Kara at the start but make it up to her by the end, is further damaging as it shows Kara suffering a cycle of poor behaviour without any indication of why she keeps coming back to it, which again makes her appear weak-willed in total contradiction of her usual Supergirl persona, feeding an image of her as so love-struck as to be victimised by it despite any such ‘love’ being entirely unearned by the arcs of the narrative. That this is not only a massive unhealthy cliche but also one which is being served up without commentary as though the writers legitimately think it’s unproblematic romance makes it all the more shocking. Kara’s personality is overridden by her romance with Mon-El, and the rest of her relationships - most notably with Alex - are sidelined in favour of it; as the season wears on Kara rarely manages stories of her own that don’t revolve around the spontaneous and awkwardly forced romance with Mon-El. Why does she love him? Because the script says so. She loves him despite him being a Daxomite, but we’re not gonna explore that because it’s in admitting-that-good-guys-have-flaws territory. Giving the romance nuance or believability or unpredictability would require better characterisation of Mon-El and therefore Daxom and therefore, Kara’s prejudices that we’re supposed to pretend aren’t really a problem because Daxom is Evil. If Kara could have spent the season navigating the pains of bigotry with Mon-El, that would have been interesting and thought-provoking storytelling, and if they really insisted on making a romance there at least they woulda been treading some less generic ground.

Then again, they were already treading less generic ground when Kara was oh-so-briefly with James Olsen, before some fuckwit decided that it was too racially subversive to tell that story, and James ended up shafted with a promising but under-developed personal story and little to no contact with the rest of the characters all season long, making it almost weird when he occasionally graced us with an appearance. Alex at least fared better in the relationship that drew her away from Kara the majority of the time, scoring one of the only good subplots of the season in the form of her coming-out process, though I must admit I dislike Maggie and find her a flat, poorly-drawn character, as if the writers went ‘she’s a tough lesbian cop! That’s three words! It’s plenty of personality!’ and just kinda left it at that, and that taints the ongoing story of Alex’s personal life. The only passable romance in this season of Unnecessary Romances For Everyone Not Called James was J’onn and M’gann, and that possibly only worked because it was understated and featured but briefly; Winn’s relationship with Lyra, on the other hand, was just another cliche mess as irritating as it was dull, and pointless to boot, like the writers couldn’t figure how to write Winn a personal plot without it being a romance. Nice work, guys. 

There is so much more that we could complain about this season - don’t even get me started on the total misfire which was the CADMUS plot - and so few things to appreciate - Lena Luthor deserves a nod, queer rep is always a win, Martian stuff is great, Clark Kent is delightful - but it’s probably time to let this bad batch go. If we’re lucky, the folks behind Supergirl learned about a trillion lessons about how to do storytelling and will get back to actually trying, come season three. If not, I guess y’all can look forward to me bitching about it. A lot. They burned my trust in this show worse this season than I would have thought possible, and I’m not convinced they can earn it back. We’ll see. 

[wanna1things]

Soulmate!Park Woojin

haha i lov him my first born son, my illness friend, my bab

Genre;; fluff + uhh college!au,, soulmate!au, musical...theatre!au??, graduation!au at the end?????? is that a thing really i don’t knoww

Warnings;; mentioning of like an alternative version of park woojin’s dark past,, that damn dark past…. I had to warn you

Pairing;; Park Woojin x reader

Requested;; no ho ho ho i’m writing this so this account doesn’t die ++ this is also kind of for the anon who asked me to make the soulmate thing into a series sorry i never replied lol but im in a park woojin mood so woojin comes next

Soulmate AU Type;; soulmates experience the same illnesses at the same time until they get in a relationship together (?? is that the right way to put it idk) + soulmates are confirmed by a flash of light when you touch for the first time after you start dating

Summary;; Your best friend Woojin is alway sick when you are sick. You brush it off as being because you spend pretty much every second of every day with him, but maybe it’s something more...

Style;; bullet point

Word Count;; 1796

Also in this series;; Daniel | Jihoon  | Jinyoung | Minhyun

don’t tell anyone the idea from this came from this amazingly fun fact;; woojin is 2 months and 27 days younger than me AND he got shingles EXACTLY the same time in his lifetime as me; so 2 months and 27 days after me; so he is my illness amigo

you and woojin basically grew up together

from the moment his family moved in next door to you you’ve been best friends

i mean the friendship started in a very… different way

you used to hear him singing and dancing in his backyard

and you sang back at the top of your lungs in a desperate attempt to start a conversation lol

when you were in middle school you two used to write your own little musicals and perform them for your families

they weren’t particularly uhh technical?? but they were adorable and your families loved it

there’s so many embarrassing videos of those musicals dfjshdf

when you and woojin both caught chickenpox at the exact same time and were confined to your homes

both of your parents winked at each other

they had the idea that y’all were soulmates because duh that’s how soulmates work

as middle school and high school went on you both always had colds at the same time, you got appendicitis within days of each other and you both had your tonsils out on consecutive days

you brushed it off as it just being a coincidence because ;; well;; you were together 24/7 of course you’d get sick at the exact same times you basically had the same germs

you both got closer and closer until you were pretty much inseparable, people either assumed you were dating or that you were brother and sister tbh you two always used to say you were twins to fool people lol

nobody ever really fell for it though

in your last year of high school, both you and woojin started to date people

most of your other friends had all found their soulmates and honestly

as much as you loved being with woojin you were pretty sure you both needed to start having a look for your soulmates

every time you saw woojin with his girlfriend, something ached in your heart that you couldn’t put your finger on

you just chalked it up to you being a bit jealous that you couldn’t be around your best friend as much, nothing more

little did you know woojin felt the same whenever he saw you with your boyfriends

he knew exactly what it was though, he’d had a crush on you since like;; lol middle school

maybe even since he heard that terrible singing response

but he thought you obviously didn’t reciprocate this since you wanted to look for your soulmate so he just;; did the same as you

and there was like a one in 7 billion chance that y’all would be soulmates anyway, so he looked for his own

but he’d never keep a girlfriend for too long, either because they noticed how he only had eyes for you or woojin just felt bad leading them on

you two still spent time together though

every week you made time for a movie night and sleepover

you’d just turn up in each other’s houses, basically addressing each other’s parents as mum and dad too

your parents could both see there were some unspoken feelings between you two but they just let you sort it out between yourselves

when you started to apply for colleges you made sure to apply to the same ones, or ones close to each other

both you and woojin wanted to major in music/dance and drama

which everyone thought was adorable because of y’know those musicals

but both of you still tried your hardest to forget that

SPOILER ALERT

you both got accepted on the same course at the same prestigious performing arts college

you stayed best friends the whole way through college, taking the same classes the whole way through

also since you went to college there was some sort of unwritten agreement not to date people?? like you couldn’t explain it but you didn’t really want to search for your soulmate anymore (you don’t NEED to search he right here!!!)

halfway through your course your college did a rendition of romeo and juliet

OF COURSE you and woojin went for romeo and juliet i mean (cliche) OF COURSE you both get it too

aaaaaaaaaaah you both conveniently forgot about the kissing scenes

but being actors who must rise above™ you both just agree to deal with the kiss

UMMMM sike you totally did not deal with the kiss

that night you literally fell over just thinking about kissing woojin

did i forget to mention that since the middle of the last year of high school you realised god

you have a bIG crush on mr park

big is an understatement actually gosh

just the thought of kissing your crush made your heart rush 9999 miles per hour but NO you have to be a mature actor

after your little heart attack session you get to learning the lines

you and woojin are doing not the traditional romeo and juliet but a kind of revamped version, a bit like west side story orrr the romeo and juliet film with leonardo di caprio

basically its modern day and with like gangs and stuff rather than families??

AND IT’S CALLED ROMEO AND JULES YES

and in this woojin is a mafia boss’ son lol

the first time you walk into the rehearsal you see woojin standing at the front of the stage in this fancy ass suit with a silk red shirt under and you almost like;; have a nosebleed

“y/n, are you okay??? you’ve been staring for like the past 3 minutes lol”

you realised you’ve been staring a BIT (a lot) too long and go and join him onstage to rehearse

SKIP to 2 weeks before the performance

it comes the time when you have to;; practice the kissing scene;;

you managed to negotiate with the director that there only be one kissing scene because otherwise your poor heart wouldn’t be able to handle it

as you run through the lines the;; kiss;; is getting;;; closer and closer;;; aaaa

woojin suddenly held your face in his hand like he was cradling something precious

OOOOOF here it comes

“Jules, I am more sure than anything that we were put on this earth to find each other.”

he smiled one of those like really cute smiles he does you know where it shows off his ADORABLE snaggletooth

and then he leaned in and pressed his lips against yours

and you swear to god it was like your heart stopped

as it was going on your brain was basically scrEECHING ok yOU LOVE PARK WOOJIN OHHHH MY GOD

when the scene was over you both wandered back to your rooms with a permanent blush comPLETELY lovestruck

until you both woke up the next morning with throat infections

you stayed in bed until the afternoon when you went to pick up your phone to ring woojin and complain like god this guy got you ill AGAIN

when you see you have an incoming call from woojin

“y/n!!! why did you not tell me you had a throat infection omg you better hope this is gone in 2 weeks because i canNOT perform with my throat like this”

“woojin... i did not have a throat infection before this you dummy it’s your fault i bet its because you decided to stay up playing cooking mama or something until like 5 am yesterday”

“MAYBE I DID BUT THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS”

woojin hangs up almost immediately because it’s just hit him

you and him both got sick at the exact same time okay

your parents were right you really were soulmates

SO, he rises out of his bed and brainstorms a confession plan

and he decides that at the end of the performance of romeo and jules he’ll reveal his love lol

luckily you both recover in time to do the show but you don’t have time to rehearse the kissing scene

which you’re really thankful for because you don’t know how much more your heart can take

on the night of the play you both share a hug backstage before going on

and you convince each other not to be anxious

it’s just like one of your musicals from when you were younger

both of your parents are in the audience too

the performance starts and it goes like super well

the dance sections are amazing and woojin’s dancing is so like… beautiful you almost forget your lines lol

the kiss scene actually goes surprisingly well

but halfway through you hear your parents and woojin’s little sister go ‘oo’ and wolf whistle lmaoooo

which makes you both blush and fumble a little bit

in the ending scene where you and woojin die because of a hit put out by the mafia boss

there is a whole ass STANDING OVATION

you and woojin are really shocked but you hold hands and smile widely at each other because like this was your dream since you were kids??

and woojin is just staring at you because god you looked so happy in that moment it was like you were glowing shfdsj boys so lovestruck n WHIPPED

as you go backstage you and woojin are just talking and in total shock about the whole thing

“listen woojin i can’t believe it went down so well like did you hear those cheers?? oh my god!!!”

“haha yeah did you hear both of our parents and my sister when the kiss scene happened i was so embarrassed”

“oh my god woojin why did we even invite them honestly i wanted to go and hide in a whole-”

“y/n will you go out with me?”

“honestly when i heard them i felt like i was going to die - wait what? are you serious?”

you look at woojin and you realise he is like… deadly serious

“well duh i am”

“oh darn okay then yeah uhhhh yeah i’ll go out with you??”

he holds your hand tightly and there’s a sudden like flash of light

and woojin just whispers

“i knew it, i’ve known it for years”

and you smile and lean forward to kiss him because god

are you pleased that your best friend and the person you have loved for years is your soulmate

and of course your parents are pleased because damn that 6th sense was CORRECT

UHH BONUS

when y’all graduate obviously top of the class

you make a wonderful plan

to dig up your dark past together

and at graduation you recreate one of the first musicals you did as kids

it goes down so well and the whole class just cheers and screams and cringes along with the hilariously terrible and childish storyline

and basically it’s the damn cutest thing yes

i take that back YOU TWO are the damn cutest thing

ok im going to sleep now uh enjoy this and i’ll do the other members uhh SOON

[movieswithkevin27]

Ghost in the Shell

For a film about a brain that gets put into a terrorist fighting robot, Rupert Sanders' Ghost in the Shell sure is dull and conventional. Blowing the budget on special effects and a beautiful score, Ghost in the Shell apparently could not spare a dime for an overhauled script that was not so pale, cliche, and run-of-the-mill. A classic tale of a dedicated-to-the-law hero who slowly discovers that everything they thought was true is not true, the bad guy is actually good, and those helping them are actually the bad ones, Ghost in the Shell feels impeccably shallow, forgettable, and shockingly boring. While a visual splendor at every turn, Ghost in the Shell's success is skin deep with no beating heart to keep its blood pumping and no charm to be found whatsoever in this science fiction action film.

As I have never watched the anime or manga or whatever the film is based on, I came into this one without any pre-conceived notion as to what it should look and feel like. Yet, I nonetheless came away wholly underwhelmed. Horrifically edited, chopped up, and dumped at about 90 minutes long, Ghost in the Shell is a film that hints at many different topics, but is never actually given a chance to explore them. As she is a woman killed by a malevolent organization and then used by that organization to advance their cause in the body of a robot, the film could have a lot of things to say about identity, politics, and be used as a critique of governmental control of a country. Yet, none of these are given any measure of depth. Instead, the lazy and nonsensical writing of the plot leaves these items as backdrops to beautiful effects, forgetting to actually provide the film with any measure of depth in its story. Comfortable being a passable and forgettable shoot 'em up action flick with cliches throughout, Ghost in the Shell feels as though it is a studio product built to suppress the interesting ideas clearly envisioned in the source material in favor of making it more commercially viable. By the end, it is clear that this is not Ghost in the Shell, but rather something inspired by it that entirely misses the point of its source material. It is a live-action remake without heart or soul that feels as though it is nothing more than an ill-advised cash grab attempt.

The aforementioned issues with the editing are really what waylays this film. Much like 2016’s Suicide Squad, there a lot of interesting ideas and themes that get tossed at the wall in Ghost in the Shell. However, very little actually winds up sticking. Instead, it gets lost in a film that feels chopped up and wholly misguided. At a tight 90 minutes, Ghost in the Shell could have been a cohesive and smart action science fiction film. Unfortunately, at a loose 90 minutes, Ghost in the Shell is a longer film crammed into a shorter running time that still tries to accomplish all of the same goals and messaging as a longer film. Thus, Ghost in the Shell is one of those films that tries to do too much in a short timeframe, never giving any of it the proper depth. This is truly exemplified when the film finally jumps into the plotting in the second half. Speeding through without trying to remain a cohesive piece, Ghost in the Shell has to resort to having characters just come out and explain things that would be shown or revealed in a different fashion in other, better films. Instead, here, everybody seems willing to just spill the beans and say exactly what the mysterious project that created Major and others was really all about. After years of covering it all up, it is amazing what the realization that the film is about to end can do to a character’s motivation to explain what happened. In stark contrast, the first half takes its time and really tries to pace itself before everything just hits the fan in the second half with the film stumbling out of control, desperately trying to end in time while covering as much ground as possible. Ghost in the Shell is a film that, when it ends, you wonder where the rest of the movie went.

The film’s storyline really does not do the film’s strengths any justice either whatsoever. Largely about a new program that puts human brains into robot bodies to make warriors, Ghost in the Shell ditches its heady ideas about augmentation and then blending of human with mechanical in favor of becoming just another film about cover-ups. On the surface, it could be interesting with the mysterious Kuze (Michael Pitt) infecting robots and using them to kill the scientists on some highly secretive project. A compelling character given a strong rendition by Pitt, Kuze winds up just being a character with a vengeance that is being hunted by the people who are actually evil, who use the unwitting Major to do their bidding. Revealing he is actually good and there to help Major, only to die seconds later, Ghost in the Shell is a lazily written and unimaginative film with a derivative and dull plot that just happens to be set in an extravagant and futuristic world. It refuses to take chances, instead opting for this safe cover-up angle with a cliché militaristic bad guy, a misunderstood opponent who is actually good, and a few hardcore yet goofy sidekicks along the for the ride with Major. For a film that hints at so many undercurrents that seems compelling on the surface, but winds up reverting to tired clichés for both plot and character development that renders the film as one that has nothing under the skin.

Shockingly, the film's action is equally ineffectual. The fight scenes are largely low-key, unimaginative, and not particularly great either. The final climactic battle scene with Major getting helped by Kuze does not really work either. The choreography is certainly a major issue with these fight scenes, as it never really seems to flow or actually look appealing. However, the fight scenes also feel exceedingly dull. There is no anticipation or climactic release found in these, instead suffering from the same crisis faced by Marvel superhero films: the fight scenes exist not to tell a story or be visually stunning, but just look cool. As Major rips a thing open and loses her arm in the process, it is hard to not see this as a hollow expression of the film's own shallow intentions. Though its visuals largely stun with intricate designs, the fight scenes themselves are not similarly inspired, instead just hollow re-creations of better action scenes in film that feel as though they know the beats and how it should look, but lack the punch, thrill, and excitement to actually work in their own right.

One area of this film that is largely a source of conflict for my own opinion is the acting. Led by Scarlett Johansson, Ghost in the Shell lacks a charismatic lead to really come off smoothly, but whether or not that is fair to criticize due to Johansson playing a robot is up for debate. Her emotions and movements are incredibly robotic, showing that she really did get that down well, but it is not particularly different than how she usually acts. For a woman cast as the action hero lead in many films, Johansson really lacks the charisma and charm to make these kinds of roles come off well, with Ghost in the Shell being a great example of this. That said, again, it may be intentional in this case. Thus, turning to her delivery, this is where Johansson really struggles. With a weak script that fails to develop the characters, the plot, or workable dialogue, it is hard to lay the blame entirely at her feet. However, Johansson is somebody who always acts like they are acting. She seems self-aware that she is an actress, which often greatly undermines her performance by it being stiff, rigid, and unconvincing. In this film, it kind of benefits her, but I have really yet to find a performance by her that I love.

Visually, the film is largely top-notch. The holograms floating around buildings are a weird touch that do not really work all that much, but otherwise, the film is incredibly gorgeous. Though perhaps not strictly necessary, Major splashing into a room through an all-glass window to kick some ass is a seriously stunning image. This neon-lit visual behemoth has been defended as a good film because of its visuals and it is hard to not see why that is the case. For those who value visuals above all else, Ghost in the Shell certainly delivers that in spades. Perhaps the highlight is a shot of a group of people on a boat in a pinkish blue light floating by on the water with the city skyline in the background. It is perhaps director Rupert Sanders' most inspired moment in the film. As a whole, much has been said about the film's visuals and it is hard to not praise them. There is a lot of neon in this film and, as always, it is a lot of different kinds of pretty. At some point, neon will not look so good, but that time is not yet. The incredible production design goes hand-in-hand with the great effects as the skyline and set pieces consistently deliver the goods with intricate designs that really turn into eye candy. The highlight there being the excellent sequence in which Major goes into the mind of one of the companion robots to see the infection it had. Dimly lit with winding tunnels, the design and visuals of the moment are more low-key than this film will be remembered for, but are nonetheless excellently put together.

That said, what really entices me to love this film is Clint Mansell. Perhaps one of the best composers working in Hollywood right now with The Fountain being his crowning achievement. His score in Ghost in the Shell sounds similar at times, especially with the awe-inspiring and hopeful beginning of this film as the robot form of Major rises out of a pool of liquid to be completed. The score hits some beautiful notes in that moment that both stand out on their own and greatly benefits that sequence, which is exactly what a score should do. Setting the tone and the scene perfectly throughout, Mansell's rapturous score meshes beautifully with the excellent visuals and effects that goes to solidify Ghost in the Shell as a technical masterpiece but a structural failure.

Beautiful visuals and an excellent Clint Mansell score notwithstanding, however, Rupert Sanders' Ghost in the Shell drops the ball. With horrifically paper-thin writing, disposable characters, bad and generic dialogue, shoddy editing that rushes through the rising action and climax, and iffy acting from Scarlett Johansson, there is not much to praise about this film beyond its visuals and score. Hinting at deeper ideas about identity and the dangers regarding artificial intelligence as it begins to mesh with humanity, Ghost in the Shell drops everything in the name of rushing through its finale with cliches abounding. Predictable, dull, and the very definition of shallow entertainment, Ghost in the Shell should have stayed in its shell.