#it's also interesting thinking about the themes she dwells and elaborates on over the course of her work. the theme of (mis)communication;

[atissi]

ryoko kui never misses

[tunemyart]

come, let us open the ball.

So as promised, here I am to yell my emotions at you all about Olivia (1951). 

I’ve actually been holding off because I have so many of them, and was struggling to find a line through some of them that was cohesive and didn’t just make me want to start sobbing. But when I rewatched and heard - really heard! - the main musical theme for the film again during the opening titles, I found that cohesive line and got to work. (After, of course, I finished sobbing.)

Olivia (1951) is a film that is delightfully entirely about women and centered on queer women specifically. Much like Portrait of a Lady on Fire, when the men do arrive in the world of the film, everything’s wrong, the rules have changed, things are spiralling into chaos. Into this pre-tragic world is sent 16 year old naive, adolescent, and naturally self-centered Olivia to become our principal POV character. 

The story is not about her.

(saving your dashes from words, more below the cut.)

Of course, Olivia thinks it’s about her, in the way that a 16 year old girl is pretty much required to, and she does a good job convincing us of it for a while, too. Slowly though, more details start rounding out and completing her new world - for us the viewers, at least, if not for her. Olivia’s besotted focus is firmly on one headmistress - Mlle Julie. But Julie’s focus, through a thousand machinations and layers, is on the other headmistress - Mlle Cara. 

The film does us the favor of sprinkling in other POVs for added context through Olivia’s unreliable narration. These include our tragedian chorus in Mlle Dubois and Victoire, as well as our principal tragic heroines, Julie and Cara, who are playing a game that Olivia can’t see she’s gotten caught up in.

Narratively, it takes a while for us to get a sense of what’s going on here. Julie leaves in the evenings for parties in Paris while Cara broods loudly about how alone she is without her. Cara allows a third wheel to dictate the time she spends with Julie, while Julie’s face falls and she broods. Cara invites the girls to be her friends and to tend her in her self-made invalidhood while she lounges on her fainting couch. Julie effortlessly seduces those same girls away - and specifically, away from Cara - with her poetry readings, special attention, special outings to Paris, flirty promises and innuendo, etc. Cara, hysterical, accuses Julie of doing precisely what she’s doing. Julie calmly strokes her hair and tells her she loves her and that she has a wild imagination.

The game is “how do I make you jealous/worried enough to crack and come back to me,” and it’s a disastrous one - for themselves, and for everyone else around them. It’s also incredibly compelling in an train wreck kind of way.

But it wasn’t until I saw this:

that there was absolutely no coming back for me. I had boarded the train to Julie/Cara nonsense town. I’m love them. All of it.

Because for the first and only time in the film, they’re happy. They’re happy. 

The film isn’t subtle in its classing of Julie and Cara as the kind of romantic exes who don’t want to be exes, and you kind of assume that at one point they must have been happy while you’re busy watching the tragedy unfold. But seeing it for one startling moment, breaking through the clouds like a window into the not-too-distant past, is something else.

“So many revelations tonight!” Julie exclaims of the costume ball she and Cara are presiding over. “And here is what Gertrude dreams of being…” 

It’s interesting that the staff are not in costume like the girls are - but yet Julie and Cara inhabit some in-between space. They’re not wearing their everyday clothes the way the rest of the staff are, nor are they performing elaborate costume theater the way the girls are. That said, don’t discount that the way they have made themselves up is also a “revelation,” what they “dream of being.” 

“Do you see, Cara, how easy it is to be happy?” Julie asks Cara at the beginning of the scene, nodding to the couple dancing in front of them. “For the children, yes,” Cara replies. “For us, too,” says Julie - and three minutes later, as if she’s determined to prove it, she pulls Cara up to dance. Let’s be happy. See how easy it is?

Look at the way Julie leads Cara to the dance floor and tugs her into her arms, the way their arms naturally come around each other. Look at the way they effortlessly begin to move together as they start dancing. Look at their big smiles - even Cara’s, who doesn’t wear smiles as masks in the way Julie does! - lost in the moment and each other’s eyes. They’ve done this before. 

And here they are again: a window into their own past, a revelation, the thing they dream of being, happy and in love, moving easily with each other the way their bodies remember, inhabiting a life and a space they worked hard to create for themselves. 

Of course it can’t last, and it doesn’t. That’s the point.

The music is occurring diegetically, emanating from within the scene. Yet from here where it’s rooted, it permeates the rest of the film and becomes the musical theme which opens - yes, opens - and closes the film itself. 

The film itself which it must be said is also a memory, authored by an older Olivia, and which we’re drawn into - unknowingly at this point! - by the same waltz, echoing through time to bind up this story and dwell at its heart. Here, someone is forever playing a waltz at Julie’s command.  Here, Julie herself is forever turning to Cara with hand outstretched and saying tenderly: “Come, Cara. Let’s open the ball.”

[sokkastyles]

Thanks for asking! I realize I never elaborated on the Jet/Zuko parallels so here goes.

Season one Zuko/Jet are both extremists, though on opposite sides of the war. Zuko will stop at nothing to capture the Avatar. Jet will stop at nothing to rid the world of the Fire Nation. Zuko is the fallen prince, while Jet is the war orphan, both trying to restore what they’ve lost. And both have significant interactions with Katara.

Focusing on book one first, I’ve already written about how Jet manipulates Katara, which makes it worse not only because she did have romantic feelings for him, but because she was totally taken in by his whole freedom fighter thing. He also manipulates Aang and tries to manipulate Sokka, but Katara was the main one who felt betrayed by him. Katara has such a big heart and fighting spirit but at this point in the story she is fairly naive, and it shows here. She probably never considered before this episode that somebody fighting on the right side could be a bad person.

I also looked up the mouth wheat thing because I’ve seen it a lot in anime for similar “tough guy” characters and as that other post I reblogged said, it is a stand-in for cigarettes. I also found out that it’s supposed to represent a banchou, which is a juvenile delinquent gang-leader. And Jet is the leader of a bunch of feral kids, although they are ostensibly revolutionaries. Longshot, Smellerbee, and the Duke do seem like they have good intentions, and they often call Jet out on his behavior.

I also think there’s a comparison/foil with Katara’s interactions with Zuko in book one, which revolve around the necklace and his attempted kidnapping of her. Zuko tries to manipulate Katara using her mother’s necklace but is not very good at it. Not necessarily because he has any moral compunctions but because he’s just not that socially adept. He is most often the victim of his father and sister’s manipulations and the few times he tries to copy them he fails ridiculously, because he is incredibly literal-minded. He’s blunt and often fails to understand things that aren’t directly spelled out. He is not a manipulator.

I’ve also seen people compare Jet flooding the Fire Nation village to Zuko burning down Kyoshi Island, in order to make Zuko look worse, but as I’ve said before, Zuko burning down Kyoshi Island was not intentional, it was something that happened as a result of reckless firebending. That doesn’t make it any less bad, but it seems like it’s been popular recently to add this to the list of things that make Zuko “problematic,” so much so that I actually forgot that scene and was surprised when I rewatched the scene recently and discovered it wasn’t the intentional razing of the village that some people on tumblr make it out to be. Zuko’s fault there was simply not caring about the collateral damage in his pursuit of Aang. He wasn’t intentionally trying to burn down the village. Plus, if we were being honest, all the gaang would cause destruction wherever they went given how much bending they do. That’s not something the show dwells on, though, the way that superhero movies don’t dwell on New York getting destroyed for the hundredth time (unless it’s a deconstruction of the genre).

What Jet does is much more deliberate. He’s aware that what he tricks Katara and Aang into doing will cause the deaths of innocents, and dismisses Smellerbee when she tells him so, and he’s aware that the gaang will not approve of his actions enough to hide it from them. There’s also an interesting elemental parallel/foil, Jet destroys a village with water and Zuko destroys one with fire - foreshadowing that water can also be destructive? Hama, anyone? Robert Frost said it. 

I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great, and would suffice.

Anyway.

Book two, the Jet/Zuko parallels/foils are much more explicit, and highlighted by the fact that they actually meet in book two. Zuko’s on redemption road, although he doesn’t know it yet. Jet explicitly states that he wants redemption, although he’s still doing the same things he was doing before. He enlists Zuko in helping him steal stuff because he thinks he’s entitled to it, and I guess you can argue about whether it was justified, since the captain was treating the refugees unfairly, but Jet mostly seems interested in stealing food for himself and his group. To be fair, Prince “ew, poor people” Zuko doesn’t exactly have egalitarian motives, either, which is why helping Jet steal food is a regression in his arc. It’s him donning the Blue Spirit identity (although without the mask) once more because he’s trying to get closer to the material life that he lost. It’s also hilarious that when Jet asks Zuko to do this, Zuko’s dumb ass is like “well, Uncle did tell me to make friends.” Sometimes I wonder who was more naive, book one Katara or book two Zuko. Iroh is like “god, I leave him alone for five minutes and he joins a gang.”

When Jet keeps pressing Zuko about joining the Freedom Fighters, Zuko says no. Again, not for any moral reasons, but because he knows that if Jet keeps pressing, he might find out who Zuko really is. Zuko is honest with Jet when he says “I don’t think you want me in your group.” Not for good reasons, again, but the claim that Zuko somehow manipulated Jet is absolutely wrong. Jet was the one who approached Zuko and made assumptions and got pushy when Zuko said no.

Jet does genuinely want and try to change, but his major temptation is finding out that Iroh is a firebender, which he finds out right after he gets pissed that Zuko rejected him so I do think that was part of his motivation for going after them, considering how pushy Jet acted with the gaang when they rebuffed him. Jet, of course, fails the test, although what happens to him certainly isn’t his fault, even if he did make mistakes. It’s a tragedy that in the end, the choice to turn his life around was taken from him, and he was betrayed by the people who he thought were the good guys. This also highlights the theme that sometimes people on the “good” side can be not nice people, which in turn paves the way for Zuko’s redemption and the wider theme that it is actions that matter the most, not which nation you are from. Separation is an illusion, folks.

Zuko’s test happens first when he attempts to steal Appa, the last time he dons the Blue Spirit mask, and then in “The Crossroads of Destiny.” Unlike Jet, Zuko doesn’t know he’s being tested, he doesn’t know he needs to change, although Iroh keeps telling him he does. The change happens in Zuko without him realizing it.

Katara tries to heal Jet, and Jet dies. Katara almost heals Zuko, and Zuko betrays her. And this time Aang is the one who almost dies, who Katara has to heal. This certainly contributes to Katara’s mistrust of Zuko later on, all three of these events tied together. And all three boys are people she has romantic tension with.

Which brings me to another reason I dislike Jet, or rather, what he is meant to be in Katara’s story. Many people have pointed out that Katara is romantically attracted to Jet, and his superficial resemblance both to the “bad boy” trope, and to Zuko. There’s a reason Zutara shippers make this comparison, although I believe its purpose in the narrative was actually to be anti Zutara and provide support for Kataang, but because the writers really didn’t know how to write Kataang properly, it ends up as the opposite.

Recently I saw a post by a popular blog that was anti Zutara that cited Jet as an example of Katara having “low standards.” And like, I can’t entirely blame the post for its misogyny (Katara is FOURTEEN) because this is what the writers want us to think. Katara’s attraction to Jet is very much playing on the “girl develops a crush on the jerk who doesn’t care about her” stereotype. This is, subtly, one of the ways that the show punishes Katara for not returning Aang’s crush. Interestingly, in this episode Aang doesn’t get jealous of Jet at all, and doesn’t even notice Katara’s attraction, but that’s because Aang in this episode is also still naive and in his early stages of his attraction to Katara, and also thinks Jet is super cool. Sokka instantly hates Jet, though. And Sokka is right, but he also has flavors of the over-protective big brother. I do remember that this episode left a sour taste in my mouth because of the (thankfully downplayed) implications that Katara is a silly girl who falls for the “wrong” types of guys because women don’t know what they want and need a man to help them “discover” their feelings. I also think this is meant to be subtextual in Katara making the hat for Jet which Aang ends up wearing, because Aang is the “good guy” who really does care about Katara, you see? Thanks show, I hate it. To be fair, I blame the writers for this, not Aang. Aang is just having fun hanging out in a treehouse and gets to wear a cool homemade hat. It’s the writers who put this weird misogynistic pressure on Katara.

It’s funny though when people compare Zuko to Jet in order to prove Zutara wrong, because when you compare the two, Zuko is the one who ends up looking better, the one who works hard to repair his damaged relationship with Katara, who genuinely did change. The one whose life she could save after he had done the work to save himself.

[draw-you-coward]

Hi! How is everyone? I wanted to talk about the Scions. Specifically, the Archons. Major spoilers for Shadowbringers!

I think what really helped me come to these conclusions was seeing all of them actively work together. specifically, seeing urianger in a context where he’s an actual character and not a deus ex machina! (side note: he’s honestly amazing in this expansion and i. love him??) I hope they keep this dynamic whenever it’s realistically possible!

So mostly, I want to talk about how the scions individually react to possibly groundbreaking events that have the possibility of changing their worldview. im speaking mostly about emet-selch’s “hydaelyn and zodiark were the first beings akin to primals” revelation. or more specifically, their separate reactions to that revelation. i think it’s very telling on how they each individually digest information. we, the players, may arrive to our own conclusions at our own pace, but we have to remember that for these characters, this is their world. their world view, being shattered. they all, to some degree, react negatively. they just show it differently, even if it’s not all that obvious.

i think that shadowbringers overall did a very good job of establishing their individual character dynamics, or more importantly, the idea that their major strength is also their major weakness.

let’s start with thancred. right away, his major flaw is apparent. in fact, a lot of people have gotten (rightfully) mad at him for it, although i think when he gets over himself and turns it around, it’s a lot more subtle. but i digress. with thancred, what he does with information he doesnt like is look at it, says “okay, i dont like that,” shoves it to the back of his mind to not think about, and tries to focus on whatever he wants to focus on in the immediate present. of course, it manages to bleed through regardless, and that’s where his doubts come from. and because he refuses to confront them head-on to deal with them, he has a very difficult time letting them go.

the actual first time when this comes to mind for me isn’t with ryne, it’s with the word of the mother in 3.X. (yes, it’s there with lahabrea too, but executed in a less clean manner, and people have already talked about that to death.) what he first sees is minfilia, the girl he’s attempted to look after primarily because of a sense of guilt, the girl who means the world to him, and whom he feels like, we know now, that he has never been sufficient enough for. (that theme of him feeling like he isn’t good enough is repeated multiple times with him, and it makes me wonder if it’s because of his manner of thinking.) but minfilia’s different now, in a strange and new and maybe not altogether comfortable way, and she’s drifting away from him now, and he can’t catch up to her to make up for all his regrets. he realizes this, realizes what’s going on, very, very quickly. in fact, i’d say that out of all of them, thancred is the one who is the quickest on the uptake. but he shoves his logical side away, and reacts emotionally, because he doesn’t want to acknowledge what he knows is true. in shadowbringers he does the same thing; he acknowledges minfilia’s words, and it is clear that he dwells on them despite himself, but he wants to react emotionally, in the moment. he is a very, despite his apparent distance, emotional person.

when he finally begins to get over himself accept the situation, it is in the tone of someone who is moving on from the loss of a loved one. he talks about how they met, how she grew up, what she liked. this is because he’s finally coming to terms with what he knew this entire time: that the real minfilia, his minfilia, died in that tunnel. the version of her that he is clinging onto in heavensward, in shadowbringers, is not her and all she used to be. it is not the “word of the mother” or the “oracle of light” or whatever she has turned into. it is but “minfilia,” but a memory, and he’s finally let it go enough to see it as such.

woo! okay. so moving on to how this works out for him in the best. honestly i dont think people acknowledge this enough, but he displays it time and time again? thancred is the one that is best equipped to deal with the present. to confront problems head-on without worrying about what may or may not happen, and without getting lost in the possibility of failure. he is by far the scion with the best ability to keep a level head. this is most apparent, to me, in aumarot. everyone one else is confused and lowkey freaking out or what have you, and thancred is the only one who has decided that no, what they really need at the moment is not to panic. what they need is calm, and confidence. and he is that. and you know what? he was right. and i think for me at least, he’s the biggest reason why I calmed down some at that point in the story.

next: y’shtola! I have less to say about the other scions, mostly because i wasn’t following their character arcs as closely or at all, but I do love them still!

y’shtola is the one who most visibly is struggling to handle emet-selch’s revelation. (you can talk to her now, at the time of the quest, or check your quest journal for confirmation of this). where thancred realizes things in a far more round-about manner--that is to say, figures them out, shoves them to the back of his mind, and tries not to think about them--she takes them by the horns and tries to confront them head-on. this gives her, in a way, tunnel vision. she is the loudest about her opinion, and the most direct. when emet-selch makes them by association question hydaelyn, she is the one who speaks up to defend her and their belief system. she is stubborn. it takes her a while to eat through something enough to 100% accept it.

but because of this, her conviction and belief in anything is strong. when she truly believes in something, she believes in it the most. she is the strength when the storm is finally over and she’s had time to build herself up. she isn’t afraid to force other characters to see the flaws in the way they are viewing things, or confront them when she knows she is in the right. yes, she can be harsh sometimes, but she is sorely needed. someone has to be sure of something here! in this way, she too is comforting. when thancred is calm, you know something is bad. when yshtola is calm, you know that whatever you have to worry about is surmountable.

urianger! my poor often-shafted elf giraffe man. he’s the one i had the most trouble puzzling out, so i may be completely wrong! but i’ll try my best :>

urianger is the one who has had this constant theme of showing up at the last moment to present something that he has thoroughly and completely thought about so he can be entirely certain of it. urianger’s way of dealing with things is to listen, listen some more, maybe go digging, and finally, only come to a conclusion when he knows every bit of information he can. he’s willing to work with ascians, he’s willing to go double-dipping in terms of sides, he’s willing to risk his friends’ trust. he is willing to take a long, long time to achieve a goal and know things only in full, and he has the patience to do so. he has the patience to deal with thancred in shadowbringers, to listen to what the exarch tells him to do, to bear with the whole plan, even as he sees things objectively keep getting worse. he’s not easy to rile up, he sees things as a whole instead of in parts... all of this really makes him a good teacher! it makes him a kind man. but.

he waits a little too long. what happens when you finally kill vauthry and emet-selch ruins everything? urianger’s carefully-laid plans go awry. suddenly, everything has gone wrong and he has no backup, because he never thought to make one. he has such conviction that his passivity is for the best that he stands by, barely intervenes, and decides to let things run their course even when warning signs are flashing in front of him. when things go wrong he fumbles, and doesn’t know what to do, because he isn’t used to that happening. up until shb, he’s taught himself that the path of inaction and support is the best one to take, and i am glad that he is finally being confronted with the realities of that. even with thancred and ryne; he can clearly see that their initial dynamic isn’t healthy, but he does absolutely nothing active about it. in the end, it is his very opposite force--entropy, chance--that fixes things with them. it’s interesting he became an astrologian, i think, because divination is something so abstract and vague that it allows him to stay in his comfort zone of not doing much to change things. fate is a fickle mistress, yes, but he leans a little too heavily on how things should be that he fails to see that everything in the present is in flux; that it is, in fact, dependent on the uncertain.

okay, that’s it! i think the three of them complement each other nicely with their respective strengths and weaknesses, and that’s why i hope they’ll keep that dynamic in the future! of course, if you disagree or want to correct me, please feel free; this is purely my own opinion, and i am very much putting myself in a position to be (respectfully) disagreed with by posting this. on the other hand, if you want to elaborate on something or add something, please also feel free! i’d love to hear your thoughts.

<3

nae

[mymurderbooks]

Prince Lestat, and a review of Heliophobia perfume from Sixteen92

Title: Prince Lestat Author: Anne Rice Rating: ★★☆☆☆   Series: The Vampire Chronicles

Perfume: Heliophobia House: Sixteen92 Collection: Friday the 13th Limited Edition Rating:  ★★★★★

---

First, I have to confess that the two stars I’ve allotted Prince Lestat are almost entirely sentimental: Prince Lestat is terrible, but I love Anne Rice. Two stars for my love, and for me at least it holds a peculiar kind of nostalgic charm, though the book is so bad I dragged myself through it,

When I was little (about ten) I had a truly awful fansite on Geocities, dripping blood horizontal rules and all. I haven’t read Interview with the Vampire in a while but I will list it as one of my favourite books ever, and actually I think Feast of All Saints is an amazing non-vampire book of hers that’s largely overlooked. There’s a break in continuity in my Vampire Chronicles fandom, the last book I read was Vittorio when it came out, it was so bad that I lapsed for years, until recently I started following Anne Rice on social media and saw that she had a new book out called Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis. I rolled my eyes a little at the title but it did make me want to revisit the vampire world.

It seems the books between Vittorio and Prince Lestat were Mayfair Witches crossovers. I’m not a big Mayfair Witches fan, and Anne Rice proclaimed Prince Lestat the ‘true sequel to Queen of the Damned’, so I think it’s safe to skip over them straight to this. If it’s been so long you’ve forgotten the special terms Anne Rice uses throughout her vampire world, don’t worry, there’s a glossary in the front (the section is called ‘Blood Argot’).

As I mentioned it’s been over a decade since I last touched Interview with the Vampire and I can’t quite remember if it was this self-important and ponderous and overwritten, but in my memory, it was not.

I think Interview with the Vampire had such appeal because of the underlying desire for immortality that drove it and, in particular, the wish for an immortal child, while knowing that immortality was a cursed existence, that made it so powerful. This is absent in Prince Lestat, and the vampires are sort of beautiful, superhuman, mostly super-rich, and they feel comfortably detached from the kind of soul searching in her earlier vampire novels.

The plot itself isn’t terrible, and the book holds some interesting ideas.

Spoilers under the cut:

The plot of Prince Lestat is that there’s a Voice (referred to In Capitals), and the Voice has been telling vampires to destroy each other and sowing discord in the vampire world. Surprise, the Voice is actually Amel, the ‘spirit’ that entered Akasha the QotD, except now Amel is actually an alien being. Another of these alien beings had named himself Gremt Stryker Knollys and started the Talamasca.

So this Voice has thrown the vampire world into discord. Our little Chronicles family of vampires (Louis, Marius, etc. etc.) had moved out of Paris and New Orleans because, and I paraphrase, the riff raff had moved into those cities, which sounds a lot like some vampire version of white flight, and now cocoon themselves in, of course, brownstones on the Upper East Side. Benji (if you don’t remember who he is, he’s from The Vampire Armand, which also isn’t a great book) now runs a podcast, which conveniently broadcasts at a pitch too low for human ears, in which he lists the recent troubled news of the vampire world, entreats all of vampiredom to coalesce into a sort of vampire brotherhood, and calls for the ‘elders’ but especially Lestat to step up as leaders and come save them all.

All the vampires in this book are obsessed with Lestat.

Before I get more into that, now for a quick overview of the structure of this book: 

Part I is a sort of overview of the world, including I think the most interesting part of the book, we’re introduced to a vampire scientist, Fareed, who’s doing scientific research into what exactly a vampire is. He inducts other scientists into vampiredom, they all have a research lab, and here Anne Rice glosses over the specifics of how the biology of vampires apparently works, maybe through a lack of desire to do background research, I don’t know, but I kind of prefer that to an elaboration of the strange pseudoscience.

In Part II, various supporting characters/vampires/vampire groups get their own chapter each, except that the chapters are very similar to each other and this gets repetitive and obnoxious. I got through it, but honestly if you skim quickly through the bulk of it I don’t think it would make a huge difference. In truth I don’t remember many of the vampires from the previous books, or maybe they were in the books I skipped, there’s a mortal girl called Rose who’s like Lestat’s godchild or something, I’m not sure if she’s been in the series before but it doesn’t really matter because her entire life is summarised, and by the way Lestat has a kid called Viktor. You’ll see.

So each vampire chapter pretty much goes like this: vampire is beautiful, reminisces about the past. They live mostly alone, in posh dwellings with scented candles and tapestries and fluffy rugs and expensive artisanal carved wooden furniture and Ipads and Bose speakers (Anne Rice should have product placement) and all the trappings of the wealthy. They all sound the same despite being different people born in different eras. The voice speaks to them, they resist, and they contemplate how wonderful and amazing Lestat is, and how they wish to see him, and/or how they wish he would be their glorious leader.

If you made it through Part II, Part III does actually end with him becoming their glorious leader. Hence the title.

Lestat’s egotism is more palatable when reading in Lestat’s own voice, but an entire vampire world so enamoured with Lestat, I don’t know how I feel about it.

There are things I like about this book that I wish Anne Rice would have touched more on: the vampire science, the plight of the skulking-in-the-shadows vampire in the modern age of Google Maps and Insta, the workings of the Talamasca, aliens. The ideas are definitely interesting. I do think it would have been a much better book if a good chunk in the middle had been ripped out and the (frankly somewhat embarrassing) florid language had been edited out - though this might be Anne Rice’s doing rather than Knopf’s, and I suppose it could be considered to have its own rococo charm.

Will I, like a chump, read Atlantis, despite being disappointed by several of the Chronicles books? Yes, like a chump, I will. I also look forward to the possible Vampire Chronicles series that will apparently be made at some point soon (or maybe never), although I fear in my heart it’ll suck (pun inevitable). I guess you could call me a fan who’s returned to the Church of Lestat.

---

Heliophobia

My Anne Rice/Vampire Chronicles fandom is why I bought Heliophobia. The description goes: ‘the fear of sunlight – once believed to be a telltale sign of vampirism. Its scent is shadowy and reclusive; the crumbling and overgrown garden path of a long-forgotten estate, drenched in moonlight and delicate wisps of fog, pierced with a subtle tinge of the scent of untamed fear lurking in the shadows’, which is very vampire, and the notes of ‘climbing ivy, faded magnolia blooms, moonlit vines, cracked solarium glass, splintered wood, peeling wallpaper, humid air, fog & shadow, feral musk’, which makes it not just not any vampires, but specifically Anne Rice, moonlight and magnolias, giant dusty mansion type vampiric scent.

As you can guess it doesn’t actually smell like cracked solarium glass or shadows. I’m not exactly sure what those smell like. It smells largely of magnolia, magnolias and dust, a muted magnolia, like magnolias in an old house. It’s redolent of Interview with the Vampire, very beautiful. I’m so pleased with it and I recommend it if you like indie perfumes and early Vampire Chronicles. Put this perfume on, sit in your brocade armchair or whatever with your glass of red wine or dark grape juice or otherwise blood-reminiscent liquids, and reread your favourite vampire books.

Sixteen92 does excellent atmospheric scents and I like many of her perfumes, several are book themed and she had a whole Southern Lit series if you’re into that. You can order this from the Sixteen92 website but it’s only available on Friday the 13ths. The next one is March 2020.

[miraculouscontent]

Have you written anything about what specifically you dislike about Gigantitan? I tried searching for it on my own, but Tumblr Is Not A Functioning Website

I haven’t talked about it much at the time of posting, so don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything.

“Gigantitan” is my least favorite episode of Miraculous from a strict watchability standpoint, being the only episode that I wanted to quit watching outright (and would’ve had I not been watching with someone else). There are episodes that have worse writing from a plot/character view, but “Gigantitan” is the only episode that I firmly believe has no value whatsoever.

[Lolliplot]

I have no problem with filler in concept. Filler can actually be very important to a show’s runtime, letting shows rake in some more views for the more high-budget episodes by filling in story gaps with fun little snippets about nothing.

But this episode isn’t fun. It’s just nothing.

Let’s start with what this episode actually offers for future plot points. Firstly, it confirms JARM (Juleka, Alix, Rose, and Mylene) being already aware of the fact that Marinette has a crush on Adrien.

We didn’t need to know this. Everyone could’ve guessed that anyone in the class already knew. If I’d skipped this episode completely and seen “Frozer”, I wouldn’t have batted an eye at JARM already knowing and making suggestions about what Marinette should do about Adrien.

The other thing this episode does is show that an akuma can switch targets, which happens later in “Zombizou” anyway. Not only that, but I don’t know how genuine this moment even is, because it’s just a “comedic” ploy to get a reaction out of Hawk Moth. I can see the result in two ways: either this is relevant because this is going to happen later (actually making this episode pointless because it’s going to happen in a later episode) or this was a one-off and no one will ever know if it was a legitimate thing or a comedic detail.

It just leaves me confused.

Point being, I don’t want to hear brags from the writing staff about how this season has “no filler” because it’s a cheap way to generate hype when all they really did was sprinkle in crumbs of establishing plot into this particular episode. If one were to ask the question, “Why couldn’t it be established that they know about Marinette’s crush in a different episode?”, the only answer would’ve been, “Because this episode would’ve been filler otherwise.”

It’s lazy. Simple as that.

[Don’t Cry Me a River]

I don’t talk about myself often on my blog, but I’ll have to say a little bit to get my point across. See, some things I’ve never mentioned about myself before are that my ears are pretty sensitive, my eyes don’t like saturated colors, and I’m easily disgusted (not amused) by gross-out humor.

Already, my next problem with this episode is obvious.

I don’t like babies. I hate them, in fact. Don’t like looking at them, don’t like holding them, and every scream feels like sharp nails being jammed into my brain. They’re gross and loud and I have no maternal instincts whatsoever.

As a baby, August has no personality. He has no traits and his shtick is “he’s a baby.” That’s literally it. He cries, he screams, he’s easily distracted, and he’s completely unintelligent.

An akumatized person isn’t even supposed to be the same exact thing as the person they akumatize, but that’s exactly what Gigantitan is; August, but with powers.

And those colors blind me. The neon pink and green are hideous. One might say that it’s the idea because Hawk Moth akumatized a baby (and those akumatized might get to pick their looks), but that doesn’t change the facts that they didn’t have to akumatize a baby and that the design is still terrible to look at even if there’s a reason for it.

And the model is disgusting. I outright gagged at the scene with Adrien’s bodyguard and the saliva and just–EUGH, EW, GROSS!!

Once the timestamp hits the point where August turns into Gigantitan, it’s nothing by baby humor for eight straight minutes.

And Hawk Moth can’t just, y'know, release the akuma, because that would end the episode.

Hawk Moth’s even been shown to be able to torment his victims to some degree to get them to do what he wants but oh no we can’t have that because it’s a baby.

Personally, I would’ve drop kicked this obnoxious little menace into the Seine like a sack of rotten potatoes.

[Character Dos and Don'ts Except It’s Actually Just Don'ts]

No one has their head on straight in this episode. No one is safe from the “Gigantitan” go-with-what-the-script-says flu.

Alya setting up this huge elaborate plan instead of focusing on Marinette’s actual problems concerning Adrien.

Rose not understanding the flower naming theme despite being rarely shown as incompetent, which is also something no one does anything about because everyone’s so hooked on using codenames.

Adrien’s bodyguard calming down out of nowhere right when the akuma shows up.

Hawk Moth not just releasing the akuma and accepting that this was a bad idea.

Adrien brushing off all of Marinette’s stuttering despite this being a thing he should be concerned about by now and instead just being like “OKAY BYE YOU SEEM STABLE TODAY”

It’s all just set up so the episode goes exactly how the show wants it to and it drives me nuts.

Alya can’t be smart and realize that codenames aren’t a good idea (given Rose’s confusion) or the plan couldn’t mess up in “hilarious” ways.

Hawk Moth can’t do anything intelligent or the episode will just fall apart.

Even just the little things, like the fact that Alix brushes off Marinette’s fear that the boys know about her crush as “nah of course not because they’re boys.” That annoys me because I don’t like the suggestion that the boys are oblivious about love just because they’re boys. This escalates further in “Glaciator” with Ivan and I’m constantly frustrated about it because there’s already a logical, actually sensible reason for JARM to know and none of the boys to: them being closer friends with Marinette and thus seeing more of her than the boys do. I don’t mind specific characters gender-stereotyping, but not when it’s the show itself doing it and imprinting that on the characters themselves to make it true.

On another note, Adrien’s bodyguard is also extra infuriating because he has to get over his rage immediately or he’d be akumatized instead of the baby, which would’ve been actually fun. I’ve said it before, but one of the worst sins an episode can commit is presenting a more fun and/or interesting idea than what they actually go with.

Heck. Adrien’s bodyguard in general is pretty inconsistent. He gets upset about everything going wrong for him, then calms down almost instantly. You’d think the latter is because he sees Adrien, but when Marinette’s talking to him, Adrien’s bodyguard starts honking rudely at them instead of letting Adrien finish a freaking conversation. This is why I hate this guy so much; he’s so inconsistent and constantly swaps between caring about Adrien’s desires and just being irritating.

And, oh boy, that ending scene. I already complained about it in “Treatment of Marinette (Season 2)”, but it drives me up a wall.

Marinette stuttering was not her fault. It was the writing’s. It’s so blatantly obvious, especially on Marinette’s second attempt where she rejects riding home with Adrien.

Yet, the episode still has her friends get annoyed with her. There just comes a point where things stop being Marinette’s fault and start being the writers tripping her up and tugging at her pigtails because “No, bad Marinette, you’re not allowed to make progress even if it’s completely in character for you at this point.”

Marinette goes through this whole plan (and I frankly don’t care if the intention was to get Adrien’s bodyguard in trouble because screw him, honestly), even stopping at one point and almost ruining everything because she wanted to help a baby, and for what?

Nothing. Marinette embarrassed herself in front of her friends, embarrassed herself in front of Adrien, and she gets teased.

I don’t have to wonder why Marinette is constantly fumbling and afraid of screwing up, because her friends and others are always teasing her for being clumsy/stuttering/etc. Alya teases her at the end and Marinette looks so embarrassed at what she’d said, but then the end card just pops up as if we’re supposed to forget about Marinette’s issues and anxiety. They go completely unaddressed and this episode is the worst example I can think of when imagining episodes that try to brush off Marinette’s problems as “you just gotta get it right this time.”

And of course, Alix makes a comment about how Marinette knowing Adrien’s schedule is “creepy.” Like, ‘k, cool, so if she does believe that, what is she gonna do about it? Confront her? Just accept it because she’s her friend and saying anything would’ve forced this episode to not happen?

The is one of the few times Marinette’s schedule (that she has only ever used for purposes of confessing/taking a confession back/tracking down Adrien for crucial reasons) has been brought up, but the show doesn’t want to dwell on it. The show doesn’t seem to want anyone its audience to think about, but it still wants to crack jokes at Marinette’s expense.

And instead of addressing Marinette’s core issues, all five of her friends just waffle around them. If this was actually fun, I probably wouldn’t mind, but with this being the unpleasant experience that it is, I feel like the glaring flaws are constantly being shoved in my face.

[Predictakillity]

This is probably the fourth-ish time I’ve said this in my blog’s lifespan, but one way to send my interest into a downward spiral is when I can predict an episode. There are exceptions, like when I see a scene or hear a particular line and go “Yes! This is probably leading up to [x]”, but most of the time, it’s negative.

And, from start to finish, I could predict this episode. After every scene that happened, I could predict what was going to happen next.

The second I saw this elaborate plan, I knew it wasn’t going to work. Even more insulting was when they threw the fantasy sequence in, because that made it even more obvious. After all, why would they show us what’s going to happen later in the episode instead of building suspense and then having us see the happy moment when it’s actually real?

Not only that, but the fantasy sequence is doubly terrible because it was some top-tier Adrienette and it’s fake. It just brings down the next Adrienette scene that follows it in whatever future episode because now they have to beat “having ice cream together” or it becomes underwhelming.

And that’s exactly what it did, because “Glaciator” was the next episode with Adrienette in it and it had the gall to set up the exact same premise without even letting them have ice cream together. It tore me up too because I knew that’s what they’d do; I knew they weren’t going to show the audience what they wanted to see because the fantasy sequence in “Gigantitan” already showed it. I wanted to be wrong and I wasn’t.

Back to “Gigantitan” itself, most of the jokes and dialog are so drawn out that it felt impossible to not know where things were going to go. They hold on jokes for way too long and everything is so in your face that things become obvious.

The second Rose started messing up the codenames, I knew she was going to be a weak link in the plan.

The moment Juleka got stuck, I knew most of them were going to have to swap jobs and be stuck doing something they weren’t good at.

The instant August appeared on screen (with spoken dialog from the mom, no less), I immediately pointed and said, “That’s who’s getting akumatized.” No amount of Adrien’s bodyguard getting annoyed fooled me because I knew it would be a red herring.

At the very first mention of August wanting a lollipop, I knew that it was going to be important to take him down when he was akumatized.

When the akuma went into August’s bracelet, I knew Hawk Moth would just run with it and wouldn’t give it up.

Even with the lucky charm, which is typically one of my favorite moments in episodes because Ladybug always gets stuck with the most random stuff, I knew what it was for before Ladybug’s Lucky Vision even went off.

And at the final moments of the episode, where Marinette wanted to just get straight to the point, I knew; I knew she wasn’t going to be able to do it. I knew this episode wasn’t going to let her have her moment. I knew her friends would get irritated with her. I knew the writing would just brush it off.

When Marinette’s friends kept asking, “Is she going to do it?”, I was pleading for them to just be quiet because it made the outcome so obvious. Everything’s obvious. When I realized that August was the next akuma victim, I knew that this episode would be nothing but baby humor and gross-out.

I hated that I knew. I didn’t want to know. With every passing minute, I kept begging–hoping–that the episode would throw me some sort of twist.

One wrench in the predictability. One instance where something wasn’t what I expected. One nanosecond where all the characters just looked at each other and went, “Hey, maybe everything that’s going on right now is actually really contrived?”

I got nothing. Once the episode was over, I got into a three hour conversation on why it was the worst thing I’d seen out of Miraculous from an enjoyability standpoint.

And every time Gigantitan shows up as an akuma again, I feel all that annoyance come right back. A full 26 episodes haven’t even passed yet since his episode and Gigantitan has shown up three times.

I hate this episode so much. I hate it because it’s a combination of nearly everything I could hate in an episode.

Character destruction.

Gross-out.

Babies.

Obviousness.

Predictability.

And worst of all, the promise–the set-up–of progress that the protagonist deserves but doesn’t get in the end despite all the garbage they’ve been through and WILL go through.

I think back to this episode and I just find myself unbelievably frustrated. In a way, I feel like I should be glad about how pointless it is. After all, its pointlessness means that I have no reason to ever go back to it.

But also, it didn’t need to exist, and those 22 minutes could’ve been spent doing literally anything else that this season desperately needed.

Instead, it’s 22 minutes of nothing.

[buffster]

Homecoming (BTVS 3.05)

This is part of my ongoing Buffy Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the show. You can find the full list here. Gifs are not mine.

Homecoming is when we finally meet the infamous Mayor.

Buffy remains isolated from her friends as they excitedly discuss plans for the homecoming dance. Willow and Xander both have someone to go with, but Scott hasn’t asked Buffy yet and she’s not that into it anyway. He breaks up with her before the dance (ouch) for this very distance and mentions the way she used to seem full of life. The trauma of Angelus has really changed her. I can’t really blame Scott for dumping her. He could have picked a better time, but her lack of interest in him was pretty clear. 

Speaking of, after pretending to be tired Buffy ditches Scott to visit Angel. She brings him blood and tries to update him on her life but he seems distant until she mentions having a boyfriend. It was honestly a weird conversation...Angel clearly isn’t ready for small talk yet. 

After missing out on picture day and being dumped before the dance Buffy is feeling pretty low. She decides to compete for Homecoming Queen to prove to Cordelia she’s not a loser (and to recapture her old life). Buffy brings out her old cattiness and is pretty mean to Cordelia and the other girls (the things she writes on the strengths/weaknesses board). Both Willow and Cordelia find it baffling she wants to run because she’s the slayer. To them she’s literally got the universe’s validation...why should she need more? But Buffy doesn’t see it that way. They compete fiercely. Cordelia makes a crack about Hank not being around and Buffy calls her a vapid whore. Yikes. It’s interesting to note that Cordelia buys classmates an elaborate gift basket (whoah money) to win their vote while Buffy later mentions she spent a year’s allowance on her dress. 

I loved Faith’s support of Buffy this episode. She offers to go with Buffy to the dance and then breaks up Scott and his new date. I can understand why she felt betrayed by Buffy’s secret. Buffy just had no idea how important her friendship was to Faith. 

Faith: Scott, there you are, Honey. Good news -- doctor says the itching and the swelling and the burning should clear up, but we gotta keep using the ointment.

This is the first episode in which Xander and Willow start messing around. I know there are many different interpretations of why this went down. Mine is that Willow (of course) idolized Xander for so long that when he finally looked at her she jumped at the chance. I don’t agree that Willow was over Xander when she began dating Oz: he knew she was trying to get back at Xander at one point and she began dating him mostly to force herself to move on. I feel like Xander didn’t think of Willow that way until someone else did, and I also think he was a bit possessive of her and saw her as someone who would always be there as an option for him. He might have had feelings but he thought he had forever to decide if he wanted to act on them. So when she began dating Oz he was like...wait a minute. 

Willow and Xander’s guilt over their betrayal causes them to take Cordelia’s side in the fight. They are also mopey at the dance as Oz plays a song he wrote for Willow. This was a tough situation, but I don’t agree with the way they carried on behind Cordelia and Oz’s backs. It would have been better to just tell them they had feelings and weren’t sure what to do.

Buffy: Do you really love Xander?

Cordelia: Well, he just...grows on you. Like a Chia pet.

One of the interesting things about Buffy is how many ideas the show throws at you. Many of the monster-of-the-week’s could be expanded into Big Bads. Slayerfest ‘98 could have been a big thing: many monsters attacking from all sides, etc. But it’s all summed up in this episode and for that I’m grateful. The villains weren’t that complex (although I believe the vampire was the one who ran off in Bad Eggs). Each year we get a different sort of Big Bad. Season one had the classic ground-dwelling monster, season two was a monster with the face of someone we loved, and season three is a monster that seems civilized and even has his good aspects--he’s dedicated to running the city). The Mayor is a perfectionist (with some OCD I think) who seems clean as a whistle but hides a black heart.

One of the best moments of the episode was Cordelia running off the vampire with just her words. I love badass Cordy moments. I also liked the moment when they announced a tie and you’re prepared for both Cordelia and Buffy to win, but instead the other two contestants do. Buffy is good at surprising you.

Character Notes:

Cordelia Chase: Cordy probably blamed her Homecoming Queen loss on being so involved with Xander and the Scoobies. It probably hurt all the more when he cheated because she gave up her popularity (something very important to her) for him. Her yearbook picture is perfect.

Xander Harris: His yearbook picture is a dorky smile. He mentions that his wealthy relatives shun him...”as they should”.

Willow Rosenberg: After the photographer takes a minute her winning smile becomes concerned.

Daniel Osbourne: His picture is a blank stare.

Mayor Wilkins: He mentions his mother saying cleanliness is next to godliness. His life story is intriguing. 

Buffy Summers: At Hemery she was Prom Princess. Fiesta Queen, and the yearbook was like a story of her.

Rupert Giles: Giles says he wants to be there when they announce who wins Homecoming Queen for Buffy. Aww.