#i smashed the typical knight stereotype there

[shitkkwrites]

🔃 Rusame~ With America the knight in shining armor. And Ivan the damsel in distress :3

(admittedly, I had too much fun with this one.)

I’m not your Ordinary Knight!

When a Magus takes on the job of a Knight, what odd encounters await him?

“What was I thinking, saying that I could take thison?!”

Sandy-blonde hair stuck out from underneath a rustediron helmet that had been carelessly jammed onto the speaker’s head, visordrawn down to protect his exposed face. Slapping a gloved hand to the visor, hegroaned. Why didn’t he think this through?!

Here he was, Alfred, a knight errant down on hisluck. While his friends had already earned their reputation, so to speak, hewas one of the last few that had yet to make his name known—why did it have tobe so hard to look for a princess to save?! By the time he’d get there, eithera fellow knight had beaten him to the chase, or the creature guarding the towerhad eaten both damsel and hapless rescuer.

Maybe it’sbetter I’m late to the party— he thought to himself as he looked up, seeinganother one of his compatriots walking into view; but there was something off.How, and why was their armor coated in so much frost, yet it was the height ofsummer?!

“What happened?!” he asked, making his wayforward—never mind that his armor made such a loud clanking noise he wasprobably the laughingstock of all the ‘Knights’ that existed. “Where did allthis frost come from?!”

“Tower…far North… snowy path…” his fellow mutteredbefore crashing down with an equally loud noise on the dirt path. 

“Aw, come on, man,” he groaned, looking around andseeing that there was nobody else around. “Fine, fine…” he muttered, reachingdown and helping the fellow Knight off the center of the road and resting themagainst a nearby alleyway. “Looks like it’s time for my true skills to come inhandy,” he muttered, unable to banish this grin off his face. Surely it wouldbe easy to trace the other’s footsteps…

After what felt like an eternity, Alfred finally gotoff his mount, and securely tied the ropes to a nearby tree. Surely this was asfar North as he could go? The path he’d taken was eerily quiet, not to mentionthere was a growing accumulation of frost the further inward he went. He waspretty certain he was on the right track, until…

“Whoa!” he all but hollered as a sudden hail offrozen spikes landed at his feet. “What in the name of…?! Okay, that was notwhat I was expecting!” he continued, releasing one of his gloved hands; thebetter to free it up for the spell that he was already chanting. Another rainof chilling spikes came raining down from the sky, but he was quick to roll outof the way before sending a blast of flames at the incoming projectiles thatwere intent on skewering him and turning him into a popsicle.

“No way, I am not going to have any of that!” hecontinued, quickly getting up from his prone position and tossing off hissecond gauntlet down on the frozen ground. Now that both his hands were free, it would be easier toconcentrate on the arcane power that welled deep inside him. Taking a deepbreath, he felt the heat rise from within him, before quickly channeling itinto a blast of flames he’d thrown up not a second too soon as another hail offrozen projectiles made their way towards him.

“Looks like I have an uphill battle to climb,” hemuttered to himself, squaring his shoulders and squinting into the haze ofwhite—barely picking out the outline of what seemed to be a large, hulkingshadow lurking atop a seemingly abandoned tower. “Well, I hope I have enoughmana for this…” he trailed off, calling forth his blazing power as he chargedforward into the whiteness.

The battle itself had certainly taken a good longwhile, but he’d finally managed to drive off the guardian of the tower, even ifit had costed him a lot of his own energy. As he trudged up towards the towerproper, he then touched a hand to the cold brick, and then got to work slowly meltingthe frost that surrounded the door, before kicking it down; and eventuallymaking his way inside. 

“H-hello?” he called out, seeing a staircase thatclimbed into the misty ceiling. “Anyone… here?” he continued, setting oneuncertain foot on the steps that led up—before beginning the dizzying trekupwards. He didn’t know exactly how many steps there were; it felt like aneternity before the circular stairs came to a stop, and he’d entered a room.

“H-hello,” he began towards the figure that wasstaring out the window, taking his helmet off as he did so. “I-I defeated the guardian, s-so if y-you want to comewith me, I’m—” he trailed off; before meeting a gaze so intense he’d run out ofwords to say.

Both individuals were shocked—Alfred certainly wasn’texpecting to meet a young man, and neither was the ‘princess’ he’d saved.

“…you repelled him?” the taller figure began, his tremblingvoice a whisper.

“Y-yeah, I-I did,” Alfred replied, sheepish grin onhis face as he then looked down towards the floor, feeling insecure all of asudden. “Did… did I take too long?”

“Nyet, I was a bit surprised to see you throwingflames around. Are you… are you a knight?” his ‘damsel’ continued, leaningagainst the window ledge; the better to observe the knight that had come torescue him.

“Uhh… well, I had to take up the profession, but tobe honest, I’m a Magus, as you’d seen,” he began to explain, now scratching theback of his head in an equally sheepish manner. For some weird reason, therewas this blush dusting his cheeks the longer he looked at the captive ‘damsel’.“Apparently, being a Magus around here gets you some unsavory reputation, so I hadto hide my true ‘power’.”

“…nobody has managed to drive off Zima. Well, atleast until… you arrived,” the stranger continued, finally rising from where hestood and slowly, hesitatingly approaching the ‘knight’ in rusty, clanky armor.“What’s your name?” he asked, an inquiring tone in his voice while his owndeep-violet eyes twinkled with much curiosity.

“Err…” the sunny-blonde stammered, the lightcoloring on his cheeks suddenly erupting into full flower. “Y-you can call me…Alfred. Knight errant, erstwhile Magus of the Blazing Order,” he began, addinghis ‘true’ title after his fake one, looking down to the floor not too longafterwards—why was he getting so worked up, and he was just introducinghimself?!

“My name is Ivan. Prince of the Far North, High Summonerof the Frozen Wasteland,” the owner of the soft voice continued, drawinghimself up to full height, before observing his ‘savior’.

[spanishskulduggery]

Hi! I'm very curious about something regarding the Spanish language. I'm currently studying A2 Spanish but I had this question and my teacher did not seem too willing to discuss it. Here it goes:

I know that Spanish has, something my Spanish teacher says, linguistic gender. I was wondering how do the people who don't align themselves with the gender binary (masculine and feminine) speak/write in it? I have read this article about Spanish speaking people from US adding "x" Or "@" and people from Argentina using "e" to make the words gender neutral.

Thank you so much for responding, whenever you get to it. Also love your blog. ❤

Short answer, in general speaking terms people are tending towards the -e now because the other two are very hard to actually speak, and because Spanish-speakers feel the -e is more authentic

What you're most likely to see in Spanish is masculine plural as the default, or in written things you might see todos y todas or like un/una alumno/a "a student", or like se busca empleado/a "employees wanted" / "looking for an employee"

If it's something official or academic you typically include both [todas y todas] or you go masculine plural [todos] unless it's specifically feminine plural

-

Related, linguistic gender applies to all things, not just people. Why is la mesa "table" feminine, but el libro "book" masculine? Just linguistic gender. I can tell you that most loanwords (that aren't people) in Spanish are masculine, and that there are certain words that come from Greek are masculine, and that -ista words are unisex most of the time... And I can tell you there are some words like testigo or modelo that are unisex and don't change for gender. Aside from that, speaking about nouns and grammatical gender... those particular things are harder to parse for regular people, but if you go into the field of linguistics you can explore that more deeply. Some of it is source language (i.e. "it came from Latin this way") or things like that. And in general when talking about nouns it's unimportant and not considered sexist, that's just how it is.

There is such a thing where it gets a little too far the other way and people will say "history? what about herstory" which is a nice thought but the etymology has nothing to do with gender there

When it comes to people - and when it comes to gendered attitudes - that's where it gets more confusing and more complicated.

I believe there was an experiment where people had French and Spanish speakers [I believe it was Spanish] try to identify how a "fork" would sound. French people gave it a more feminine voice because "fork" is feminine in French, while Spanish speakers gave it a more masculine voice because it's masculine in Spanish.

Whether we like it or not, certain gendered things do influence our thoughts and feelings and reactions. A similar thing in English exists where the old joke was something like "There was a car accident; a boy is rushed to the ER and the surgeon but the father was killed. When they got to the ER the doctor said 'I can't operate on him, he's my son!'" and it's like "well who could the doctor be?" ...and the doctor is his mother. We associate "doctor" as masculine and "nurse" as feminine.

There's a gender bias in our language thought patterns, even though the language changes. And that does exist in Spanish too, to different extents.

There are certain cultural and gendered stereotypes or connotations attached to certain words, many tend to be more despective or pejorative when it's women.

For example - and I know this has changed in many places or it isn't as prevalent - el jinete "horseman/rider", while the female form is la amazona "horsewoman/rider". Because la jinete or la jineta was sometimes "promiscuous woman".

There were also debates about things like la presidente vs. la presidenta or what the female version of juez should be, whether it should be la juez or la jueza

Most languages with gendered language have varying degrees of this, and all languages I'm aware of have gendered stereotypes related to professions or cultural attitudes in some way, and not just for women, and not all in the same way with some of them being very culturally based

-

The longer answer involves a bit of history, and I'll be honest, some of it is contested or considered a little controversial in Spanish-speaking countries particularly in the conservative parts (which honestly should come as no surprise)

The first symbol that I know of that came about was the X

First piece of contested history: As far as I know, it was the trans/queer and drag communities in Latin America who started the trend of X. When there were signs or bulletins that had the gendered endings - specifically masculine plural as the default plural - people would write a big X through the O. This was a way of being inclusive and also a very smash the patriarchy move.

Some people attribute this to women's rights activists which may also be true, but a good portion of the things I read from people say it was the trans/queer/drag communities in Latin America doing this.

I've also read it originated in Brazil with Portuguese; still Latin America, but not a Spanish-speaking country.

Where it's most contested is that some people will say that this trend started in the Hispanic communities of the United States. And - not without reason - people are upset that this is perceived as a very gringo movement.

That's why Latinx is considered a very American-Hispanic experience

-

The arroba (@) is relatively new. I remember seeing it in the 2000s. I don't know if it existed earlier for gender inclusivity.

People used it because it looks like a combination of O and A, so it was meant to be cut down on saying things like todos y todas or niños y niñas in informal written speech

I remember quite a few (informal) emails starting like hola tod@s or muy buenas a tod@s or things like that

I think of it more as convenience especially in the information age where you never knew who you were talking to and it's easier than including both words, especially when masculine plural might be clumsy or insensitive

Still, it's practically impossible to use the @ in spoken Spanish, so it's better for writing casually. You also likely won't be allowed to use the @ in anything academic, but in chatrooms, blogs, or forums it's an option

-

I love the E ending. And the gender neutral form in singular is elle... so it's él "he", ella "she", and elle "they (singular)"

The -e ending is I think became more common within the past 10 years though it might have existed longer than that. These sorts of changes tend to come from the queer or trans communities and tend to be more insular before becoming more of an outside thing that then the general population finds out about

It came about because there are some adjectives in Spanish that end in -e that are unisex. It's not an A, it's not an O, but it's something grammatically neutral for Spanish

It's not as awkward as X, and E exists very firmly in Spanish so it's not perceived as some outside (typically gringo) influence

The good news is, it's pretty widespread on the internet. Not so much in person (yet), but especially in Spain and Argentina at least from what I've seen, particularly in the queer communities and online culture.

The only issues with it are that for non-native speakers, you have to get used to any spelling changes. Like amigo and amiga, but to use the E ending you have to add a U... so it's amigue.

That's because there are certain words where you have to do spelling changes to preserve the sound; gue has a hard G sound like -go does [like guerra]... but ge has the equivalent of an English H sound [gelatina for example]. Another one is cómico/a "funny" which would go to cómique. Again, because co has a hard C/K sound, while ce is a soft sound more like an S or in some contexts TH/Z sound; like centro is a soft sound, while cola is a hard sound

Unless you make it to the preterite forms where you come across like pagué, alcancé, practiqué with those types of endings... or subjunctive forms, pague, alcance, practique ... Basically you'd have to be exposed to those spelling rules or you'd be really confused if you were a total beginner.

It all makes sense when you speak it, but spelling might be harder before you learn those rules

The other drawback is that the E endings are sometimes not applicable. Like in damas y caballeros "ladies and gentlemen" there's not really a gender neutral variation on that, it's all binary there. And while la caballero "female knight" does exist, you'd never see a male variation on dama; the closest I've ever seen is calling a guy a damisela en apuros "damsel in distress" in some contexts where the man needs rescuing, and it's feminine una/la damisela, and it's very tongue-in-cheek

There are also some contexts like jefe vs jefa where I guess you would say jefe for "boss" if you were going the neutral route, but it's a bit weird because it's also the masculine option.

I can't speak for how people might feel about those if they're non-binary or agender because every so often you kind of get forced into the binary whether you like it or not

I totally support the E, I just recognize there are some limitations there and it's quirks of the Spanish language itself

Important Note: Just to reiterate, E endings are the ones most Spanish-speakers prefer because it's easiest to speak and doesn't have the American connotation that X does in some circles

-

Where it gets very "Facebook comment section" is that you'll see many Latin Americans traditionalists and conservatives claim that "this is just the gringos colonizing our language" and "grammatical gender doesn't matter in Spanish". They'll say that the "gender movement" is an American feminist movement and that it's a gringo thing and doesn't reflect actual Latin Americans or Spanish-speakers

Which on the one hand, yes, English does have a lot of undue influence on other languages because of colonization, and American influence and meddling in Latin American politics is a big important issue

But as far as I'm aware of the X (and especially the E) were created by Latin Americans

The other issue I personally have is that any time this conversation comes up, someone will say something like somos latinOs and claim that masculine plural is gender neutral

To that I say, first of all, "masculine plural" is inherently gendered. Additionally, there is a gender neutral in Spanish but it's lo or ello and it's only used with "it" so it sounds very unfriendly to use on an actual person... and in plural it looks like masculine plural and everything applies like masculine plural

Second, the reason masculine plural is default is because of machismo. It's more important that we don't possibly misgender a man, so it has to be masculine plural. It's changed in some places, but growing up when I was learning Spanish, if it was 99 women and 1 man you still had to put masculine plural

I'm not opposed to there being a default, and I understand why it's easier to use masculine plural, but some people get very upset at the idea of inclusive language

...

In general, my biggest issues with these comments come when people act like non-binary/queer/trans people don't exist in Spanish-speaking countries, like English invented them somehow. So it's nice to see linguistic self-determination and seeing native speakers using the E endings.

[thefictionalmultiverse]

Yuru Yuri Pokemon Teams: Himawari

Himawari Furutani is somewhat of an introverted girl who has some issues with herself. She has problems with her weight and body, making her go on diets that involve her not eating for days. She knows its wrong, but she’s somewhat desperate. Do not underestimate her though. She is a smart and kind girl, but she can have an attitude if annoyed enough. She is also very physically strong, being able to knock out anyone who pushes her to the limit. For some reason, she has a fascination with Ghost Type Pokemon. She figures it has something to do with a wild Sandygast saving her from a group of angry Weedle when she was younger. She doesn't question it. It makes her happy, so what’s there to complain about? Also, many of her Pokemon are strong so watch out:

Palossand: [Gender: Male] [Ability: Water Compaction] [Item: Assault Vest] [Moves: Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Giga Drain]

Palossand is Himawari’s very first Pokemon, and one of her strongest. Palossand is also the same Sandygast that saved Himawari from the angry group of Weedle when she was younger. Palossand was raised by Himawari to be polite and generous. In fact, it’s actually more polite and calm than Himawari most of the time. It also get’s along well with Sakurako’s Salazzle very well, helping it out with its anxiety. The two Pokemon are often seen having a conversation with one another while their owners are arguing in the background. Palossand really admires Himawari, almost seeing her as a mother figure.

Aegislash: [Gender: Male] [Ability: Stance Change] [Item: None] [Moves: King’s Shield, Shadow Sneak, Sacred Sword, Swords Dance]

Aegislash is a noble warrior on Himawari’s team. It goes out of its way to protect Himawari and her other Pokemon from danger, or Sakurako. It also unfortunately sees Sakurako’s sisters just as much of a threat Sakurako herself is, only because they’re related to her. Aegislash also loves to fight with Dragon Type Pokemon. Himawari figures its because of it being like a knight of sorts. Also, for some strange reason, Aegislash loves to bake.

Aggron: [Gender: Female] [Ability: Rock Head] [Item: Aggronite] [Moves: Heavy Slam, Head Smash, Surf, Shadow Claw]

Aggron is the muscle of the team. It’s a Pokemon that really represents Himawari’s physical strength. But unlike Himawari, Aggron is very patient even with the most annoying of people. Aggron also often takes Himawari away to calm down whenever she’s really angry. Aggron also encourages Himawari to eat whenever she goes back on her diet. It even often gives Himawari her favorite pastries (that Aegislash made) for her to eat. This strategy usually works, mostly because Aegislash is a good baker. Aggron also does its best to take care of Himawari’s other Pokemon.

Lopunny: [Gender: Female] [Ability: Cute Charm] [Item: Lopunnite] [Moves: Facade, Low Kick, Thunder Punch, Protect]

Lopunny is a pretty generic shy girl. Not much to say about it, other than it and Sakurako’s Salazzle get along very well. They also tend to hide/scream together whenever they’re scared.

Chandelure:  [Gender: Female] [Ability: Flash Fire] [Item: None] [Moves: Flamethrower, Shadow Ball, Will-O-Wisp, Dark Pulse]

Chandelure is the prankster of the team. It really is like the typical stereotype of ghost being prankster jerks. No matter how many times Himawari scolds it, it never learns its lesson. It often uses Will-O-Wisp in dark areas to scare people and making them think the place is haunted. Another trick of it is phasing through walls and surprising people. It has other tricks, but those two are its favorite. It loves to scare Lopunny, but Aegislash and Aggron are usually there to stop it.

Ribombee: [Gender: Female] [Ability: Shield Dust] [Items: None] [Moves: Pollen Puff, Moonblast, Quiver Dance, Aromatherapy]

Ribombee is the sweetest and kindest Pokemon on Himawari’s team. It often helps Aegislash and Aggron bake pastries for Himawari and the rest of her team. While it doesn't have the ability Honey Gather, its still finds the best honey rather well. Although, Himawari does wish that Ribombee’s pollen and wing dust didn't get everywhere. Himawari doesn't use it much in battle, but she still values it as a member of her Pokemon team.

I made this for Himawari’s birthday, I hope you all enjoy. Next time, I’m working on Ayano’s team.

[yougotcrit]

Re-Crit: Transformers (2007) - 10 Years Later

On June 23rd, the fifth (and unfortunately, not the last) Transformers movie will be released in theaters. It’s baffling to think that only ten years ago the first film in the franchise, Transformers (2007), hit the silver screen, and despite negative criticism for the film and every film after, Michael Bay is still allowed to churn these out. So let’s take a trip down memory lane and dissect the film that started it all, and perhaps figure out why we’ll never get away from these films.

The Transformers franchise is based off the popular animated TV show and line of toys from the 80′s,  The kids who grew up during that time had become adults by the time Transformers came out in July of 2007. It’s common practice in Hollywood to produce films that cater to specific audiences and demographics, so it’s only appropriate they would target this age group with something that would arouse nostaliga. It’s the only reason why G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) and Power Rangers (2017) were made, and it’ll be the only reason why they would ever make a live action Hey Arnold! movie. Not sure how I’d feel about that one.

With a rich and expansive history and a great collection of characters and stories to fall back on, Transformers had an advantageous start to its production period that some movies can only dream of. And with the use of CG, audiences were going to see some of their favorite heroes and villains come to life for the first time. If only we knew then what we know now. Perhaps then we could have prevented everything that happened afterwards. But I’m coming to grips that nothing can prepare a film for Michael Bay.

The biggest issue with Transformers is its director, Michael Bay. From his orbiting camera pans, to his quick cuts during action sequences, and from his nonsensical plots, to his underdeveloped, stereotyped and cliched characters, Michael Bay is a creature of untalented habit. And don’t forget his objectification of Megan Fox, who’s only in the movie to be hot. Nothing is safe or sacred in his unskilled hands. What’s worse is that he carries these issues over into all the subsequent films, never improving and often doing more damage than before.

It’s a major issue with most of his films, but it’s most apparent in Transformers, as the audience attempts to understand the action but simply can’t because as it turns out, it’s incomprehensible. The cuts and the CG are too chaotic and non-sensical; it’s all explosions and noise. Admittedly, the nonsense in this first iteration of Transformers is tame compared to its successors, but that’s not saying much. And if I’m completely honest, considering the times, the CG used for these Robots in Disguise isn’t half bad, but its execution is poor. The Autobots and Decepticons are all indistinguishable from each other, making it impossible to tell who’s fighting who. If more time had been spent developing the robots, they might have been easier to tell apart. Nah, just kidding. You would’ve needed a totally different director to recognize any of them.

But let’s not forget some of the film’s strengths. Like Shia LaBeouf’s hilarious performance. I’m sure you’re aware his performance wasn’t meant to be entirely comical, but what else could it be as he runs from scene to scene stuttering “No no no no no no no no no”. And who could forget Megan Fox’s stunning performance, which demonstrated that any actor is capable of a porn star level of acting. Oh, and the racist caricature that is the character Jazz, who proved that Michael Bay has the social tact of a 5th grade hillbilly. Sarcasm aside, choosing Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime was a good call, albeit the only good call. Can’t deny good fan service when I see it.

Despite the film’s mediocrity, Transformers leaves two legacies that simply can’t be denied. For one, I don’t think any film had been so unabashedly filled with product placement than Transformers when it was released. It’s typical in Hollywood to receive funding for your film in return for some subtle (or not so subtle) advertisements, but Transformers raised the bar to a whole new level, shamelessly slapping the audience in the face with images of Chevrolet, Mountain Dew, and Burger King. Don’t forget the Transformers themselves, which only exist to sell toys. Since Transformers, so many blockbuster films have tried to compete with that level of product placement, filling scenes with brands rather than significant substance.

The film’s greatest legacy, however, is its impact on the international box office. That’s the reason they continue to churn out these pictures. While domestic sales for the films may dwindle, the profits soar overseas. Knowing this, the filmmakers have been intentionally shifting their focus on those audiences, incorporating plots that bring the characters to exotic locales, like China, for example. Who cares if your film tanks in the US so long as it grosses nearly a billion dollars in Asia? And this strategy would never have been possible if Transformers hadn’t proven the method. When The Last Knight (2017) makes its debut, it will be the foreign markets that make or break its success.

The Transformers franchise is a money printing machine, regardless of its lazy plots, crude humor, and agonizingly confusing action. No doubt about it. It’s a constant reminder that people will see anything if it has enough explosions and sex appeal. It’s proof that our nostalgia is also our kryptonite, and that we’ll continue seeing these films even if we know better. We’re willing to put up with a director who’s idea of a conversation is several junkyards worth of car parts smashing into each other and exploding. Why? I think I know the answer. When the Transformers aren’t being robots, they disguise themselves and pretend to be cars. Very similarly, Transformers disguises itself and pretends to be a movie.

Transformers,

You Got Re-Crit

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[justyouraverageteenagefilmh-blog]

LA LA LAND REVIEW

January 6, 2017

OVERALL THOUGHTS (NO SPOILERS)

So I started off my year in film with the Summit Entertainment film La La Land. First off I will say that I was so skeptical of this film before going into the theatre, since it had a lot of potential to be terribly cheesy. The trailers did not do the film justice, because in my opinion they really up played the songs and showed nothing of the story line. I was pleasantly surprised that La La Land surpassed all of my expectations. What truly shined was the amazing singing and acting performances by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Even if you don’t particularly like musicals, anyone can enjoy La La Land, or at least appreciate the message that the film tries to get across. If you do enjoy musicals, then you are in for a treat. La La Land is basically the Moulin Rouge of the 2010’s. You will know the songs and be singing them on your way out of the theatre (warning: “City of Stars” might induce crying fits if you listen to it too much). Without giving anything away I will say that the message of the film is not what you expect going into the movie. You will leave the movie with very different emotions and thoughts than when you entered. La La Land is so typically an Oscar film—a musical, Oscar nominated actors in lead roles, an original score, visually pleasing, and dramatic—but contains a very a-typical ending that is bound to shock the Academy. I can’t wait to see how well La La Land does at this year’s Oscars, since I know it will be a smashing hit. Prepare for your mind to be messed with and for plenty of tears while watching La La Land.

IN DEPTH REVIEW (SPOILERS BEWARE)

Our principal characters in La La Land are Mia (Stone) and Sebastian or “Seb” (Gosling). Mia is an aspiring actor who works on the Warner Bros lot as a barista, and Sebastian is a jazz pianist who dreams of opening his own jazz club. While stories love to focus on the success of struggling artists, La La Land breaks the norm by actually exposing the hardships of making it big in Los Angeles. Mia is seen going to countless auditions and never getting the part, while Sebastian sits outside of the club that he was bought out of owning every night. These two characters run into each other constantly and eventually begin a relationship. This starts off when Sebastian invites Mia to see a film with him at the local theatre for acting research. Sebastian waits for Mia, who is actually on a date with her boyfriend at the same time. Mia decides to leave her boyfriend behind, in quite a dramatic fashion may I add, and meet Sebastian. After the movie, they enjoy a romantic night at the Planetarium and begin to live with each other quickly after they begin dating. Mia writes a one woman play and Sebastian starts to play in jazz band that is trying to reach a wider, more modern audience. While everything seems to be going well for a while, the problems really start to pile up. I like how the script wasn’t afraid to expose the many hardships in their relationship, whereas many other romance films have one huge problem that must be resolved. This is what makes La La Land more realistic than any other romance film out there right now. Mia attends one of Sebastian’s shows and can’t believe how far from classic jazz his new band sounds. While she insists that he cannot like playing that type of music, he retorts with the fact that he is actually thriving for once as opposed to her. Sebastian then doesn’t show up to the one night showing of Mia’s one woman play. While there is virtually no one in the audience, Mia is most upset that Sebastian didn’t show up to support her. He tries to stop her, but Mia ends up going back to her home town and gives up on acting. To return back to what the audience expects from their romance movie, Sebastian arrives at Mia’s house and convinces her to go to LA for a call back for a big movie role. They exchange is a brilliantly acted dialogue that highlights the love that the two characters have for each other. Stone gives an amazing singing performance in her audition with the song “The Fools Who Dream”. She ultimately gets the part and is required to relocate to Paris, making the hard decision to leave behind Sebastian and pursue her dreams…

THE ENDING

Before getting into my thoughts on the ending of the film, I really want to emphasize how the title of La La Land plays into the film. For one, it is a reference to Los Angeles. It is also a reference to the state of mind of being in La La Land, or out of touch with reality. Without really analyzing it, many would just assume that this is a reference to spontaneous dance numbers and other unrealistic sections of the film. I truly believe that it is much more than this. It is actually a reference the movie watchers who have already thought of this picture perfect ending in their head, who are then shocked by the harsh reality of what actually takes place.

I love a good movie that gives me what I am least expecting. While La La Land isn’t full of action or contains a plot twist that leaves the audience breathless, it does definitely deliver on giving us the opposite of what we expect. From the trailer and all through the movie the audience is rooting for Mia and Sebastian to be together forever. What we see after Mia gets the movie job in Paris is that Sebastian has successfully opened his own club and that Mia is married with a child, but not to Seb. If this film were to stick to the stereotypical mold, then Sebastian would have been waiting for Mia to return from Paris like a knight in shining armor. This isn’t even the most shocking part. Mia and her husband decide to check out an underground club playing jazz music. To Mia’s horror the sign on the door reads “Seb’s”. The two make awkward eye contact as Sebastian begins to play Mia and Sebastian’s theme. This will immediately make Mia, and literally the whole audience, become teary eyed. Then we see the film rewind to the moment where Mia first saw Sebastian. Instead of him rudely running into her, they passionately kiss and a montage of their life together begins to start. Mia returns from Paris to have Sebastian waiting for her, they have kids together, and live a happy life. As an audience member I was so confused as to whether the whole movie was a lie or if Mia was just imagining this sequence. We find out that it was just in Mia’s imagination and she leaves the club without saying a word to Sebastian.

While it is very sad, I think it is brilliant to have Mia not end up with Sebastian at the end of the film. It shows the harsh realities of love and relationships. I think this was intended as a trap to teach the dreamers a lesson. This movie was created for the hopeless romantics, who believe that anything is possible and that love trumps all opposition. They are essentially the ones who are in La La Land, not the characters in the film. These types of people are out of touch with reality, just like how the ending that Mia dreams up in her head is not realistic in this day and age. From the very beginning of the film we see that their dreams are the most important thing to them. And no, before you say it, having each other as a significant other was not part of the dream. It is crazy that people in the audience actually think that Mia and Sebastian are going to give up the one thing they are trying to get in the film just for a broken relationship. The hopeless romantics in the audience learn that love is hard and does not always work out, unlike what every other romantic film preaches to them. What makes La La Land so great is that it can mask a harsh message such as that under its enchanting songs and story.

RATING: 10/10