#its just boring 3/4 because i was really trying to focus on the reference aspect of it for myself

[enjoliquej]

Finished the whole broken little family! I hadn't finalized their designs up until now, but heres Sly's parents Dodger and Jade, eventually I should draw his two other older siblings!

[teruteruki]

MP100 Analysis: Teru’s Sexuality

(Honestly, “Teru’s Sexuality” isn’t what I really wanted to title this, but it was the simplest one I could think of. This analysis mostly focus on Teruki’s feelings for Kageyama and his gay coding. So I guess the extended title would be “MP100 Analysis: Teruki’s Romantic Orientation and His Feelings Towards Mob,” but that one doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.)

Okay, well, it took me a week to prepare for this, but here it is! I apologize for the long wait. Here are some ground rules:

1. I will only be using manga pictures. I am aware of the official art and the anime adding extra scenes. However, the canoncity (canonness?) of such material could be debated since it’s not the source material, but instead derived from it. I don’t want to face debates on me using faulty evidence.

2. Since I am using the manga, there will be HEAVY manga spoilers. Not slight such as “oh, Teru oogles Mob during this arc,” but MAJOR things such as screencaps of the last few arcs. If you’re okay with that, then good! But if you haven’t read the manga, I highly suggest you do that first. (AND that you read it from the beginning!)

3. While I am doing this because I personally believe Teru is gay, please do not take this post as fact/canon. I don’t want this to cause any drama in the fandom. It’s all for fun after all! And on that note, I don’t mind seeing everyone else’s takes on this.

4. As I was writing this I realized that I used “Kageyama” instead of “Mob.” So just to specify: “Kageyama” only refers to Shigeo. “Ritsu” is, well, Ritsu.

With that out of the way, the analysis is under the cut!

I’m planning to cover all aspects of why I believe Teru is gay. For that reason, I’ll be splitting things up into sections. (Otherwise, it’d just be one big jumble of words.) First section

Attachment.

After Teru’s first defeat, we can clearly see that he’s fixated on Kageyama. Which...in itself is peculiar. He loses a fight to some amazing psychic, has a fever for 3 days, and yet is immediately able to look past it? Hmm...

He has almost immediately adopted Kageyama’s ideals and is even trying to act on them. As soon as he sees Ritsu, he steps in and tries to change the other’s mindset. Just like Kageyama did for him.

There’s also the image of the shining light in the dark. I believe this is a metaphor for Kageyama. It’s clear that Teruki holds him to higher expectations than, really, anyone else, and would definitely see him as a “light,” so to say. This especially works considering Teruki’s speech about “being the light vs being in the light” from when we first met him.

This is a good display of Teruki is already fixated on Kageyama despite not seeing him again.

Then, there is the Ritsu kidnapping arc.

Teruki tries to come along when Kageyama is planning to save his brother. You could argue that it’s only because Kageyama didn’t have a plan ready, but that begs the question as to why Teru should care so much. He has met Ritsu once and said interaction wasn’t exactly under good intentions. This is simply Teru taking an interest in the things Kageyama cares about.

However, there is also his “explanation” for coming along.

But we all know that Teru doesn’t need Kageyama’s help to defeat a group of Claw members. He did it before when he was younger and less experienced. What would stop him from doing it now?

There is also the fact that after Dimple pointed out that Teruki’s help wasn’t much, Teru then went out of his way to refuse financial support among other things. He wanted to do this with Kageyama alone. That’s something that, easily, could be interpreted as an attempt to impress the other.

Teruki has also gone out of his way to track down/talk to Kageyama several times.

The first time there was a viable excuse - he needed to talk to Kageyama about the “fake White T Poison.” However, the other two times he simply wanted to be around Kageyama.

(During this scene, Kageyama was going out shopping. Nothing exactly was wrong, Teru just decided to talk to him.)

(At this time, Teru seemed to simply pick Kageyama out from a crowd again, and partly because the boy was upset. Which - if not due to Teru’s “need” to be close to Kageyama - is due to another point I have.)

Protectiveness

Teru is needlessly protective of Kageyama. Both physically and emotionally.

When Kageyama was panicking over Ritsu’s kidnapping, Teruki didn’t just let him go. But why? Kageyama is one of the strongest psychics he knows. He could most definitely just take down claw with the amount of power he has. Surely the “structure” doesn’t matter.

He also goes out of his way to stick to what Kageyama wants, and even Dimple says that it’s thoughtful. And as we all know, Teru is great at plans and strategy. If he wanted to, he could devise a plan on his own. The only reasons for him letting Kageyama takeover is to: make him happy, see more of his talent, and to make sure Teru sticks to his ideals. 

 It also speaks to how much Teruki has changed from the beginning. He used to insist that he was the main character, and now here he is, following behind instead of taking the lead. Amazing how just one guy could change him so much.

Teruki continues to take Kageyama’s feelings into account during the entire kidnapping arc. He does it to the point where it slightly inhibits their chances of escape.

Having three psychics to take on the Claw members would help tremendously, but immediately after seeing Kageyama’s worried expression, he backtracks and says they can fight without Ritsu.

And then, after seeing Kageyama unconscious, he starts to panic.

Part of this panic can be explained by Teruki’s shock. He sees Kageyama as some impossible opponent, so the assumption that a Claw member was able to defeat him is possibly earth-shattering. However, that doesn’t exactly explain the clear, genuine relief Teru shows when Kageyama wakes up.

Part of it must be his protectiveness.

Then, during the World Domination arc, Teru actually pleads for Kageyama to turn out alright.

And lastly, during the Final arc, he outright says that he can and will protect Kageyama. (Not to mention that this was after an attempt to comfort Kageyama, because Teru knew something was wrong.)

At the very least, it’s easy to see that Teru cares about Kageyama.

Reactions

A weird subtitle, I know, but I’m referring to how Teruki reacts differently to things concerning Kageyama than to anything else. A good example of this is when Ritsu started to cry. Teru didn’t react at all. He was uninterested, really.

But earlier, when Ritsu and Kageyama were reconciling, he looked blatantly happy.

Same for when Kageyama first woke up. (Posted earlier.)

There was a similar occurrence when they first infiltrated Claw, as well. Teruki was distracted with staring at Kageyama and didn’t notice an enemy until the guy was only a few feet behind him.

And then there’s the time Kageyama mentioned he was getting popular. Teruki’s reaction is vastly different from Ritsu’s.

Ritsu straight up cries tears of joy. He’s happy that his brother is finally getting the recognition he deserves.

But Teruki visibly stops. You could claim it’s because he knows Kageyama isn’t actually popular, but there’s no way to be sure. He hasn’t seen what Kageyama’s school life is like, so he wouldn’t know if girls are actually staring or not. If anything, he believes what Kageyama is saying and seems slighty disappointed.

(He then proceeds to say Kageyama is handsome. Do I even need to touch on that?)

And then we head into the Divine Tree arc. Ironically, I think Teruki’s true feelings shine the most while he’s under hypnosis.

Right off the bat, we know its Teruki’s true feelings because Dimple tells us so. And Dimple has no reason to lie. That’s what this arc is about - 100% truth.

The wording here is something that sticks out. Their relationship, not friendship, not rivalry. In Teru’s eyes, their relationship is either doesn’t fit those labels or is more complicated than that. This makes perfect sense under the premise that Teruki has romantic feelings for Kageyama.

And then, as the arc continues, Teruki keeps putting Kageyama before the Divine Tree.

The focus of the hypnosis is that everyone will put the Divine Tree first. The Tree is supposed to be important enough to them that, apparently, if Kageyama agreed to be the co-founder, it would instantly give him Tsubomi’s love. And yet here we can see that even though Teru is actively fighting over it, the Tree is still an afterthought when he’s talking.

And when Teru is blasted away, we once again see that Kageyama is his priority.

Not even hypnosis could stop his strong feelings.

(And at this time I’d like to say that yes, Dimple said Teru felt respect, but there’s no way to be certain about that. The only one that knows what he felt at that time is himself.)

And finally, the notorious panel set during the epilogue.

Everyone else is seen actively engaging and teasing Kageyama about his crush, but Teruki avoids the conversation. And there is, honestly, no other explanation that makes sense besides Teruki harboring some negative feelings towards the whole Kageyama-Tsubomi circumstance. (We all know it doesn’t take that long to sip some tea.)

Heteronormativity

This section won’t be as screenshot heavy as the other few. That’s partly because this was a section I thought of while writing this post and also because, well, the only screenshots I’d have would be of Teruki before his change in character. (I would also like to give credit to @terumobwiki. His post gave me a good idea of what to write for this section, and without it, I may have left this part out.)

Before meeting Kageyama, Teruki was living the stereotypical “dream life.” He had a girlfriend, was popular in school, great at sports, etc etc. But we clearly see in his flashback (at least, in the manga) that he isn’t actually happy with all this. When he’s being congratulated on his perfect scores, he looks bored or possibly even depressed. A perfect life isn’t what he actually wants. He was just forcing himself to enjoy it.

And then, after Kageyama comes into his life, Teruki isn’t mentioned to have a girlfriend ever again. Which is definitely interesting, considering we blatantly see that he still has fangirls and gets confessions often. It’s clear throughout the show that he still struggles with pride, too, and yet this other key factor of his past self isn’t there. And, unsurprisingly, he seems to be way happier without a girlfriend.

Conclusion: Teruki is gay and has romantic feelings for Kageyama. The evidence is in all the previously mentioned points. And yes, other characters close to Kageyama have some of these traits, but not all four. For example, Ritsu is protective of Kageyama, but he doesn’t go out of his way to stick by his brother, nor does he change his morals to fit the other’s. 

And if you don’t think this is what a crush is like, think back to the last one you had. Did you not wish to spend more time with that person? Did you not want to show off in front of them, or instead, wanted to watch them more closely? Did you not react differently around them than compared to others?

Case in point.

[alisemartinez91]

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[mrsq8geek]

Advice for an aspiring author hoping to write lgbt muslim characters?

Hi, thanks for your question!  This is quite the rabbit hole, so I can't cover everything, but I did my best.  Some general guidelines and then my own view:

1. Do not write this story unless it is from personal experience or with the direct express written permission from the person it’s based on, and I hesitate with that second one.  Like many other experiences, this story hasn’t been told all that often, so unless you’re one of the above, you don’t have many points of reference and will probably get it wrong and, I suspect, as ‘exotic’.

That said:

2.  Start by examining yourself. One of my favourite resources is @writingwithcolor​, which has many great references for this.  At this point, we're asking questions such as "Why do you not want to represent us?" and "Why do you need to tell this story right now?" among others.  Do check it out.

3.  Please, please don't write an apologetic acceptably assimilated model minority.  I don't know where you're from, or where you intend to set the story, but we're all influenced by American media, so I feel it's important to mention.  We generally don't have positive feelings towards those characters, let alone relating to them, at least not to the aspects where they're supposed to represent us.

(My personal pet peeve example is Abed Nadir from Community, a Muslim enamoured with Christmas and is an all-around Acceptable Arab... played by an Indian actor.  It's extra irking because the show was touted as being Better Than Big Bang Theory, and it seemed okay addressing many other nuances, but when it came to this? Think of it this way: why didn't they cast an Asian actress to play Britta or Annie and called her white? Or, indeed, an Indian actress to play Shirley and called her black? Because clearly they believe the audience can't tell the difference? Arabs are black or white but not brown, guys.  Not all Arabs are Muslims and vice versa.  Some Muslims are (gasp!) white.)

Anyway, the point is Abed, and others like him, are non-threatening.  They reject their own identity and are desperate to be Just Like Us Default White People.  While this is definitely the case for some people, 1. it's not the case for most people, 2. it's just a really tired trope especially in current times, and 3. the other side of this trope’s coin is that in order to be acceptable for The West, they have to rebel against their character’s original identity, which is just as tired.

But I digress.  You already know by asking this question that it’s controversial.  Why not play it straight instead?  Pun unintended.  Do your research, whatever way you choose to go. 

4.  Speaking of doing your research, do. your. research! Muslims are a diverse group of about 2 billion people*.  There are two major sects and many smaller ones.  In the major ones, homosexuality (etc) is a sin, haram, full stop, end of sentence.  Any level of presenting like the opposite gender is not only haram, it’s cursed.  Yes, there are many people coming up with exceptions and loopholes, or just doing what they want regardless, and if you want to write about them, that's your prerogative, but:

* so Kamala Khan, for example, is completely unrelatable to me. (See: 9)

5.  You know what else is considered haram in majority Islam? Extra-marital sex.  Pork.  Alcohol.  Drugs, yes including cannabis, in fact even nutmeg.  People do all that anyway! Especially in non-Muslim-majority countries where the laws don’t make it harder for them, or in poorer Muslim-majority countries where people don’t get educated in religious matters, or indeed all over everywhere because not all people of any religion actively practice that religion.  It's a non-issue by this point. 

5A. The only reason LGBT Muslims is An Issue, and it’s An Issue Now, is because America’s making it one.  It’s no different than, say, modern white feminism.  They stir the pot, we deal with the mess.

5B. Muslims are people, and people aren't perfect. We know this, and we've addressed it as nauseam… and that’s just it, we’re allowed* to talk about these things because we know ourselves and our experiences.  It’s more acceptable coming from us to us because we have a common ground to start discussing things.

* I wrote allowed, but it really depends on the situation. Sometimes you’re not allowed simply because you don’t want to make it an issue, and that’s okay too.

5C. Since you’re asking, I’m assuming you’re not a Muslim yourself, and that puts a layer on scrutiny on you.  We don’t know where to begin to talk to you, and it’s worse if you represent us in any controversial way or in any way less than perfect.  Less than perfect by whose standards? It depends. Nobody knows! (See: 3)

5D. Examine yourself, research the topic, and know just what you’re trying to say.

6.  That said, here’s my personal take on it that I’d love to see someone do, but haven’t so far.  I don’t know how people arrive at their sexuality, whether it’s by nature or nurture, but they do end up there one way or another.  When it comes to Islam, you’re highly encouraged to (heterosexually, to be clear) marry and reproduce.  You’re discouraged from sex outside that framework.  If you are unable to marry for whatever reason, you’re supposed to find a way to deal with it. Fasting is often recommended.

And the way I see it, finding yourself not being attracted to the opposite gender is just one reason to not marry.  “So I NEVER get to have sex?” Yes, just like your straight brothers and sisters who realize they can never marry for their own reasons. Maybe their health prevents them. Maybe they have family depending on them, especially financially, and they realize can’t add a husband or wife into the mix. Maybe they’re incompatible with the person they wanted.  

The West worships Romantic Love (also money, but that’s another thing), but it really isn’t everything in life*.  Just see any post here on tumblr dot com discussing the different kinds of love the Romans acknowledged and wrote about extensively.  Yes, it’s a powerful drive, but again, it’s not the only thing in life, and coming to that realization is its own journey.

* (Something something Harry Potter)

I am so, so sick and tired of characters who don’t practice their religion (“hi, I’m Muslim/Jewish/Christian/Hindu/Buddhist/whatever, but I will have that pork, that beef cheeseburger, whatever”*), and equally tired of characters who are the personification of their religion (“hi, I’m religious, hear me act out my stereotypes”). Don’t get me started on characters who exist just so the authors can bash that religion.  

* a recent disappointing example was the show Crazy Ex Girlfriend.  When Rebecca is first introduced, I was excited to learn the show was about a Jewish character, finally a religious character portrayed as practicing!  But it was quickly revealed they were focusing on the cultural aspects, and not only is she non-practicing, she doesn’t even believe any god exists.  Snore. In contrast, see: Shepherd Book from the show Firefly.  Not just a practicing Christian, an actually interesting character in his own right.  Not a perfect person by far, but someone who’s doing his utmost to live his life and still maintain his faith. 

I want a Muslim character who finds themselves attracted to whomever, someone from the same gender or whatever you want, or feeling like they want to present as not their birth gender, and then proceeds to do what so many of us real-life Muslims do: find ways to deal with it and come to terms with it.  Acknowledge it and make peace with it.  Make the choice, the conscious decision, to remain faithful to their beliefs and maybe not pursue a romantic relationship with the other person… and instead interact with them like a human being they care about.  Help them reach a goal or achieve a dream, keep them safe from harm, something.  Maybe focus on the traits of the other gender that are accessible, or fight the toxic effects of the patriarchy, something.  Writing like “a happy ending == they end up together”, and any and all other outcomes are Bad and Tragic and Void, is boring and unrealistic.

Just as a black woman being soft and feminine is a rebellion against the mainstream, a religious character sticking to their faith above all else is way more interesting than yet another character breaking the rules.

Addendums:

7. “But Islam is homophobic?” No, Islam has rules against intentionally engaging in specific behaviors.  You’re not faulted for having low alcohol tolerance, you’re faulted for the act of consumption. You’re not faulted for being addicted to drugs, you’re faulted for making the decision to try it the first time, or if you were tricked into it, for not trying to get clean once you’re there.  However!  People, all people, hashtag not just Muslims, often try to enforce rules by creating fear and hatred around them.  It’s a convenient societal shorthand, even if the consequences can be different than intended.  It’s the same mechanism that leads to “abstinence = zero sex ed” in the US.  Abstinence isn’t the issue, people trying to enforce it by making information around sex opaque are the ones causing problems.

So some Muslim people end up homophobic, and some Muslim people go all in the other direction, because the balance is delicate and difficult to find.  

8. “LGBT stories aren’t just about sex, what about asexuals, transsexuals, etc?” True, but most LGBT stories tend to go in that direction, and I’m keeping it as broad as I can here.

9. Even if your character is Muslim but not Arab, it’s probably going to come up, in your research if not in your story.  Although the most populous Muslim nation is Indonesia and the most famous “Muslim” terrorists are Afghani, the most prominent Muslim sites are in Saudi Arabia and Palestine.  The branding is there.  With that in mind, required reading is the film Reel Bad Arabs, and any primers you can find on Orientalism, Colonialism, and Imperialism.

***

Honourable mentions:

Check out the Saudi series Masameer by Myrkott on YouTube, many episodes have subtitles. They recently made a movie and it's on Netflix internationally!  You can't escape American Imperialism any more than you can escape British Colonialism*, but we're all way past being enamoured by them.  The Emirati series Freej is also in Youtube, sans subtitles, though the DVDs have them, and I’ll leave it at that.  Hashtag quarantine let us catch up on shows?  Stay safe, stay home.

* she said, in English.

[soul-music-is-life]

I'm kind of with you on the lackluster Pilot episode of "The Perfectionists". I don't know whether or not I'm into it either. And not because of Emison (I'm more of an Emaya fan myself). I just thought it was cheesy and boring. I don't know if I should keep watching. What about you?

I have actually gotten several asks about whether I plan tokeep watching and why/why not. So I’m going to answer it here and just referback to it if it keeps coming up.

I don’t mind the asks at all. I love conversing, but because of the volume of asks about thisparticular opinion this is another long driveling post, and I’m sorry. You can mute my ass if you’re sick of me. I get it.

First of all OP, thank you for not ripping into me about notliking it. Also, Emaya had my heart. I loved them, too. Maya deserved better.

Second, this is a full-scale look at the show from a critic’svantage point. I watched the first episode twice because I thought maybe I hadn’tgiven it a fair shake the first time because I was in a weird mood. But even onthe second viewing I found a lot more that I disliked than I liked. Lots ofpeople are going to disagree, and that’s fine. Just don’t @ me. I’m legit notlooking for that. I’m just a girl (cue NottingHill music) standing in front her ask inbox asking those askers to love her.

Will I keep watching? I doubt it. Given that it only got a10-episode order and The Pilot wasn’t that interesting to me, I don’t see myselfsitting through it for 9 more episodes. My reasoning is two-tiered. Part of itis disinterest and the other part is the creative aspect of it in the media. Saddleup for my “truths” (I can’t remember who said that. Marlene maybe). I gave it afew days and considered it, and what I ended up with was this:

1) I’m just not into it. For the same reasons you (OP) stated.But I’ll also add that for me…it was predictable. I called the twists longbefore they happened. If I’m already doing that in The Pilot I can guarantee I’dbe doing that as the show went on. I’m like 93% sure I know exactly how it’sgoing to end this season. I tend to do that to myself. Being a writer suckssometimes. Because you see the way things are going to go from the beginning. You just have to decide if you want to go on the journey anyway.

2) While the characters were likable (I was surprised by howmuch I liked Ava), they are a bit one-sided and kind of bland (except I foundNolan’s duality extremely intriguing). There is the argument that can be madehere that they will grow, and I do agree with that. But when I watch a show’sPilot I need to care about at least one character to see what’s going to happenand where they are going to go (In PLL it was Em/Aria for me). None of the characters in TP did that for me (noteven Mona and Alison, which surprised me, because I’ve been super-hype for thisshow not only for them, but for the newbies, too).  

3) The plot (so far) just feels like a rehash of everysingle YA mystery novel/TV show that is hot right now. And I am aware that thisis based loosely on exactly that (Sara’s series), but I think maybe I’ve justbecome desensitized to the same cheesy soap-opera-y murder mystery plots. Or perhaps I’m just desensitized to this particular kind of storytelling. It doesn’tfeel new and different to me and it was very strangely paced with too muchgoing on and not enough time to care about it. It just felt disjointed. Everythingabout the first episode just fell flat for me.

4) And lastly, yes, I’d say there is a tiny part of me…likemaybe…6% that doesn’t want to watch because I’m not about that off-screenEmison drama. I knew it was going to happen and I’m not mad about them beingsplit. I’m disappointed (hears “that’sjust ‘mom speak’ for mad!” echoing somewhere) that the marketing team isusing it for ratings. When you have decent writing you don’t need to play games like that to try andget viewers. It would be one thing to be decisive about what happened toEmily/Alison (Split them. Don’t split them. I don’t care. Just make a fuckingdecision because you’re creating a war between fans and you know it). It’sanother thing entirely to draw it out because you need people to watch and talkabout it.

I am also particularly bothered by hearing the excuse (several times by MK) that “Shay was busy”because Marlene literally planned the spin-off in season 6 (confirmed by bothher and Sasha). It. Was. Planned. I say this as a critic and not an Emison fan: Everything about the way they’ve tried to use Emison to generate buzz was underhanded. And saying shit like that opens the door for people to hate on Shay, and that’s really not cool.

Personally, I think it speaks volumes that the producers felt the need to addthe off-screen drama on top of the really decent plot they already had. Theycould have kept it unproblematic with simple writing choices and less inflammatorycommentary. They could have left the PLL drama in the PLL-verse and given thespotlight to the new drama. I don’tagree with creating old off-screen drama with zero chance of satisfactoryresolution all in the name of ratings. I hate marketing shit like that. It’s acheap amateur tactic and it turns me off.

I think the show could have been something special had theynot marketed it as PLL. But they did, so of course there was a certainexpectation. And of course there is some backlash. Because there are these twoworlds that have nothing to do with each other and so far I don’t feel likethey’ve blended it together well. For me, it was like watching PLL, but with less magic and less chemistry. If I had to describe it I’d say it feels alot like a recipe where you’re just throwing a bunch of ingredients into a bowlwith no idea what you’re making and you’re just hoping it’ll be edible by theend. Rather than focusing on the new universe the marketing team chose to focuson Ali/Mona’s new world and the drama that comes with them. And to me that almost says they don’t have faith that TPwould have been able to stand on its own without the PLL universe. Part of methinks I’d be more interested if this had been a completely fresh start. I wasactually more compelled by the newbies than I was Alison/Mona (though I adorethem, too).

That being said, I really wish the best for the cast/crew. I’llcontinue to watch the behind the scenes games/cast antics. I’ve been a fan ofSasha since I discovered PLL (everything about her seems very sweet and genuine andjust positive all around). And Janel as Mona was one of my favorite castingchoices of all time. In fact, I think my very first PLL post here was praisefor Janel. I’ve been following Sydney since she was a smol lil bean on theDisney Channel (and loved her in Tia’s Mowry’s show “Instant Mom”). Sofia seemslike a sweet girl, and I have enjoyed her other work. And Eli honestly justseems like he’d be a cool dude to kick back and have a drink with (is he evenold enough to drink? Jesus, they’re all babies). I love them all. In fact, I’veenjoyed the fun behind the scenes stuff more than I enjoyed the show. I’dwatch a reality show of them all day. That’s where I’ll get my fill. Watching them being goofy.

Final verdict: No, the show will not be getting my views. I’llprobably just watch the absurdity of Riverdale instead. Cheryl is fucking wild,y’all. And I’m kind of living for mean-dark-snarky Betty. And Sweet Pea is like…myfavorite character ever. My dumb asshole child.

As far as whether or not youshould watch it, I have no idea. I have a lot of people asking me my opinion onthat (which, I’m like the worstperson to ask, please don’t give me that responsibility. I don’t even likebeing responsible in the real world. I literally had a cookie and Cocoa Puffsfor dinner). I will say that if you’re only watching for Emison then I’d changethe channel. Because guaranteed it’s just going to make you rage. You’re not going to get anything out of it. Fill yourevenings with something more pleasant and positive for you.

And be nice to others on social media. At the end of the day, it’s only a show. You like it or you don’t.

[comicbookuniversity]

Ten Thoughts on Avengers: Infinity War

I’m writing this the day after my second viewing, but by the time you’re seeing this, I’m hoping the majority of you have seen this.

So if you haven’t seen it yet, SPOILERS.

1. This was easily one of Marvel’s better films. The scale of it all could have easily collapsed this into a mess, but McFeely, Markus, and the Russo Brothers kept this film moving along at an exciting and steady pace that built into an intense climax- insert sex pun. I loved this film and loved it more the second time around. I don’t think it was as good as Black Panther or Civil War, but neither of those films operate in the same way as this one. This film was a rollercoaster experience, and a fantastic one. I think this film has to be judged in a different manner, because even Black Panther and Civil War still operate by relatively conventional film standars. Infinity War is a different beast; one must be fluent in the language and conventions of the MCU to really understand it. There has never been another film quite like this; the closest examples don’t operate on the same scale. Never has it been more true to think of the MCU as the world’s biggest and most expensive TV show than it is when you’re watching Infinity War. I will need more time to think upon where it lands on my list of Best Marvel films.

2. Between this film and Ragnarok, Marvel has made an excellent case for Thor traveling around the stars in a similar to the Guardians of the Galaxy. I would love to see Thor and Valkyrie gather up a crew and bring the fight to whatever cosmic asshole is trying to threaten the innocents of the universe. They should be called the Thor Corps. I am surprised at how Thor had somehow become the protagonist after Thanos, if you don’t want to consider the bad guy the protagonist, even though he functionally is whether you like it or not. Until Ragnarok, Thor had been more muscle than heart, and when you consider how much more focus and success has been built out of the characters of and the relationship between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, its surprising to think that Thor would be given so much screentime. It makes sense that he is the Avenger with the best chance of actually beating Thanos in single combat, but you don’t build stories around military tactics- you build them around emotional journeys. Thor has lost nearly everything, whereas Steve and Tony still have more to lose. When that is considered, it makes sense to focus on the building rage of a god while you build towards the ultimate loss of the great leaders of men. And Thor with his new hammer was freaking great.

3. I’ve seen a few critics argue that there were few characters arcs and that humor was used as a substitue. Plenty of great comedies have used humor as character work, and I think Infinity War also substantively used humor to efficently establish and advance character development in between the dramatic moments of the film from wherever the last time we saw them. This film had so many moving pieces to balance and it did so artfully.

4. Dr. Strange might have jumped significantly higher up my list of favorites thanks to Cumberbatch’s effective performance and the incredible fight sequences the movie utilized him in. Holy crap, you guys, Dr. Strange was fucking awesome in this film. Speaking of the weilder of the Time Stone, I decided to rewatch the Dr. Strange film the next night, and something occurred to me. I’m still debating whether this is just a common factor or a deciding influence, but I looked up the run times to all the Marvel films and had my hypothesis mostly confirmed. Generally speaking, the longer over 2 hours (including credits) the film goes, the better it has been recieved both financially and critically. This makes sense, because Marvel has even more time to develop all the relationships between characters; and the greater we are invested in these relationships, the greater the payoff. I think the Dr. Strange film would have been better if it had an extra 10-15 minutes to develop all the relationships at Kamar-Taj and a little extra for Rachel McAdams. I say only a little for McAdams, because I don’t think the film really needed that much more time in that arc since it was about him leaving her and the world she represents. My larger point is that Marvel should embrace two hours as the new minimum for their films.

5. Thanos is definitely one of Marvel’s better villains and that’s largely thanks to the brillaint performance of Josh Brolin, who commits to seeing and bringing the vulnerbility under all of Thanos’ power and evil plan. He’s still not Marvel’s greatest villain as that honor belongs to Killmonger, who will likely hold the honor until the next Black Panther film. Despite Thanos’ plan, Brolin, the writers, and directors of the film really give him certain amount of sympathy in seeing his commitment to his cause and the fear that ultimately drives him to act as he does. And it is fear that ultimately drives Thanos to act, because he sees the injustice in Life’s capacity for growth at the expense of the living. Thanos is someone who cannot and will not accept that Life is unjust and rages against this existintial condition with all his strength, and by the end of the film, the strength of the universe itself. But despite the great work of Brolin, what really helps Thanos is the sheer amount of screentime that the studio was willing to give him. With so many characters, many of of whom anchor their own franchises, it makes sense center the film on the least well-known character and force others to react to them, because it’s not about them in this moment. It’s all about their lives being interupted and forced to react to this almost natural disaster like situation, where winning doesn’t feel like an option and losing less feels like the only prudent mindset to have. Against the threat of Thanos, the superheroes are reminded of their own vulnerablity and mortality, and they feel more human than ever in this dark moment.

6. As introduced by Jonathan Hickman, my favorite members of the Black Order were Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight; look they all had wonderful names, Black Dwarf, Supergiant, Ebony Maw, and then they had the other name for their group- The Cull Obsidian. Damn those are wonderful freaking names, so I’m a little disappointed that the members of the Black Order didn’t even get named, outside of Thanos’ passing reference to Ebony Maw simply as “The Maw.” Also, this Ebony Maw has a different power set than his comic counterpart, but damn was he great; easily the creepiest and best member of the Black Order. Black Dwarf did have a weapon that kept changing into different modes that I thought was awesome. I wasn’t ever expecting them to be big and I was never certain if they would last beyond this film, but would it have added that much time for the Black Order to have gotten called by their names?

7. I thought Vision would have recieved a more significant arc in this than he did; Peter Quill did and all he did was lose his girlfriend, whereas Vision litterally has an Infinity Stone in his head and is willing to sacrafice his life to destory it. Vision spent most of his time being stabbed instead of being a hero. He would have made a good point of contrast to Doctor Strange; they’re each the weilders of Infinity Stones, but have radically different ideas of how deal with the stones when presented with the threat of Thanos. I guess it makes a certain amount of sense, due to the fact that he he is a Thor class fighter and that he hasn’t had much of a chance to develop as a character. To me, Vision is a low-key Superman figure of the MCU (or more accurately Martian Manhunter in direct compairson, but he’s just a more stoic version of Superman), and he suffers from the projections of Superman as tedious and boring figure being placed upon him. I think Vision suffers from the same problem that Star Trek does when compared to Star Wars; instead of treating the intellectual and philosophical pursuits with respect and excitement, the filmmakers assume that the audience is going to find it boring and treat it as boring instead of finding away to actually make it exciting. I think the best examples of the superhero genre are essentailly philosophical and ethical works that present the issues in a dynamic, colorful, and charming story, but because of what can be best called an attitude of anti-intellectualism based from ignorance, rather than something worse, the philosophy is often overlooked in favor of the simpler steps that would tie the character arcs and themes to larger philosophical concerns. I know it is not the most well liked of the MCU, but Vision’s scenes in Age of Ultron are some of the most earnestly poignant on the fragile beauty and duty of and to life itself. And these scenes also speak pretty directly to the core of Avengers philosophy, which has now been summed into a single line thanks to this film: “We don’t trade lives.” I just think Marvel missed an oppurtunity to really sell Vision as being more than a secondary figure and someone who is a product of the moral core of the MCU.

8. Considering how thoroughly representative of nearly every tone and narrative aspect of the MCU this film is, it only serves to highlight how underrepresented women and people of color are in the MCU. None of the Avengers or other characters who would typically hold franchises of their own are given nearly the same amount of screentime or material to work with in this film, because of it’s epic scope and the relatively simple nature of the conflict; but that being said, the women of the MCU are still given very little to do overall. They are supporting players while the men are off leading the charge or creating strategy that determines the fates of hundreds of trillions. The first person to die on screen is a black man, and there’s only one black man who is in a real position of power. Marvel still has trouble of thinking beyond America’s history of slavery and a segregated citizenery with African-Americans to see America’s other troubled relationships with national, ethnic, and religous groups and also give them some kind of positive representation. The only woman or person of color given a significant role similar to the signifcane of say Iron Man or Dr. Strange fighting Thanos on Titan is Scarlet Witch. This is a film where Scarlet Witch really gets to unleash her full power, and it’s seen in a tragic moment of where she is forced to kill her lover for the sake of the universe while holding back a nearly omnipotent being who defeated the Sorcerer Supreme just moments ago. Before I go on with this analysis, HOLY CRAP that’s kinda crazy to think how powerful she must really be, so I 1000% agree with Okoye when she asked why Scarlet Witch was not on the field of battle the whole time in Wakanda. Like, damn, she must be so powerful, so can we please get a film where Elizabeth Olsen is given more to do than play rookie and wear a sexy corest? And while there admittedly is a certain value to seeing her power arise from her love to Vision in this tragic moment, the fact that we have seen so very little of Wanda compared to her many male peers and her moment of great power is defined in part by her romantic relationship is not the most progressive choice. Had we had more time with Wanda in previous films, I don’t think I would find this choice as anything other than a sad moment in a star-crossed relationship, but because she has had so little time by comparison (and even without comparison) to her male counterparts this moment loses a little bit of the power it could have had as a symbol of female power equaling male power.

9. I’ve seen a few people complain about how the drama and value of the deaths of half the universe is undercut by the knowledge that these characters will be back in their own films within the next year or two. But I call bullshit on this complaint because it is based in cynicism and ignorance. There are three parts to this complaint: the first two problems are tied together in that the characters don’t know they’re going to come back, so if the film had botched its execution of setting up the emotional beats in this film to continue and progress our attachment to the characters, then it would have all fallen apart. But the film didn’t botch it, every line and edit is proposeful and effective in engaging and reminding us of why we love these characters in the first place, so since the film was executed well, we can sympathize and empathize with the characters in their sadness and shock at all these deaths. Second, even if we didn’t know from announcements made by Marvel or somehow guess from Marvel’s previous works that these characters would be coming back, the film establishes that its not over. Dr. Strange clearly knows what is going to happen (or at least something extremely close to the victory he searched for in all the possible futures). And even if Dr. Strange didn’t know, do we really believe these characters who we just watched try so valiently to fight Thanos from achieving his goal would allow him to go unpunished for his crime? Let’s assume for a split secon that there is not some way to fix what Thanos did, do we really believe that the film would spend so much time on all these different characters for it to just end on the one guy sitting on a hill when all their emotional threads are just left unfinished? The answer to all of these scenarios is no. There was never a version of this film that was a single part or the final film; this is clearly the first half of a story, so the audience value of all the deaths comes from thinking about and then later finding out how it all be fixed to as much as the heroes can fix it. People who compalin about the deaths as having no value or drama are just being babies about having to wait.

10. After having seen this twice and considering how well Marvel has been doing since the release of Civil War, I really think Marvel has found it’s groove and I am so excited for the future. While I would understand if they want time to do other projects, I would hope that the Russo Brothers, Stephen McFeely, and Christopher Markus always have one hand on driving the MCU. Feige has been there since the begining, but I feel like working with these four has really helped him focus overall and loosen his grip to trust the filmmakers he hires to execute their visions within the MCU. Gunn, Watts, Waititi, and Coogler all breathed new life into Marvel with their style and emotional honesty, and it’s this trend Marvel should continue to follow if they want to keep their success going. Infinity War is representative of many of the best elements of Marvel, and everyone involed in it should be proud of the work they’ve accomplished with it. That being said, Marvel still has progress that needs to be made, and it looks like it is going to be able to effectively do this by closing one chapter of the MCU and starting the next. I am so very excited for the journey we’ve all got ahead of us.

[cecillewhite]

Software Demo Success: How to Present Your LMS In Its Best Light

If you’re a learning systems vendor, this scenario should sound familiar. Your sales team recently crafted a strong proposal in response to an LMS RFP, and the buyer has given your company a thumbs up. Congratulations! However, a full-scale celebration will have to wait. That’s because you’ve been asked to compete with other vendors in a software demo “bake-off.”

This is when the rubber really hits the road. It’s one thing to write a proposal that talks conceptually about use cases, requirements and functionality. But walking through a live product tour can make or break your solution in the minds of prospective buyers.

So, what happens when your solution steps into that white-hot spotlight? How exactly does your software demo make your product shine?

Of course, there’s no guarantee that even the most stellar presentation will seal the deal. But after years as a software sales consultant, and now as an LMS selection advisor, I’ve learned how you can significantly improve your chances. Here are some of are my best suggestions…

9 Ways to Make a Great Impression with Every Software Demo You Deliver

1) Sweat the logistical details

Some factors are complex and beyond your control. Others are easy to implement and entirely within your reach, including these basics:

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Watch the clock – It’s your responsibility to manage every minute from start to finish. Structure the agenda with top-down logic and prepare for questions that could derail the discussion.

Begin (and end) with a bang – Why save all the good stuff for last? If you don’t hook your audience within the first few minutes, you could lose them entirely. Besides, you may run out of time. So instead of building to a big finale, lead with a “wow” moment. Introduce a central business issue and illustrate how your solution adds value. Then shift less important details downstream. Also, plan to conclude with a bit of flair. Even if time is tight, those closing comments can be just as powerful as a strong opening.

Keep it moving (literally) – You want your audience to feel energized, right? Try getting out of your chair and slowly walking around. You can even tag-team with a colleague, so someone is always roaming. For online demos, you can simulate this by periodically shifting from screen sharing mode to facial display when answering questions.

Check yourself – What if your mother were in the audience? Would she want to hear keys or loose change jingling in your pocket? Would she remind you to stand up straight and smile? Always maintain a positive attitude, even when challenged. Pace yourself and “never let them see you sweat.”

Use a cheat sheet – Even after 20+ years of delivering demos, I always create a script. I might wander off-track, but that’s when a script is even more critical. This quick reference tool helps me stay focused and reminds me which keystrokes fit each scenario.

2) Do your research

I know a rep who generated excitement with prospects with “intro demos” but he refused to prep with a sales consultant. He thought a brief pre-demo huddle in the prospect’s lobby was sufficient. Trust me, you’ll get better results when you plan ahead. For example:

Update discovery findings – One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming that research from the RFP phase is still accurate in the demo phase. To avoid surprises, contact the prospect in advance to review and refresh use cases. You’ll also want to confirm demo audience information, logistics and other details.

Involve and educate your team – This story explains what’s at stake. Recently, I witnessed the leading vendor in an LMS selection project rely on a remote Professional Services resource to outline implementation plans. But because this resource had very little knowledge of the prospect or the project, the presentation was very generic. In a matter of minutes, that vendor lost the bid.

3) Wrap your demo in a “theme”

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My go-to theme was the “1-click” software demo. This is about giving participants multiple reasons to think, “Wow. That was easy!” You can do this by emphasizing 1-click functionality throughout the session. For example, say “…in only 1 click, you can launch the content.” Or, “…just 1 click updates all the course records.”

You can further reinforce the point by encouraging participants to join your 1-click chorus. Just set-up a sentence and wait for them to fill-in the blank. For example, “…this means you can assign content to any group of users with only ____.”

They may not remember everything they see, but I promise you, they will remember the “1-click” demo.

4) Invest in demo data

Of all the factors that can damage a demo, weak data ranks at or near the top. Countless times, I’ve seen how data brings a solution to life. That’s why I developed an extensive demo database and became deeply familiar with every aspect of it, including:

Completeness – Have you ever run a report that produced zero records? Have you searched a catalog, only to find mismatched results? That should never happen in a demo. Every field, every tab, every report should be populated with appropriate data. And it’s your job to fill all the gaps.

Relevance – When you’re presenting a software demo to a healthcare company, imagine how compelling it is to display industry-specific data. This is where relationships with content providers can give you an edge. They’re usually happy to share data with you in exchange for a shout-out during a demo. At the same time, prospects will view your product as more than just a learning platform. It’s a solution!

First-hand knowledge – Remember the demo “cheat sheet” I mentioned earlier? You can include dozens of key feature examples. If a prospect asks to see something specific, this helps you find it quickly and easily. Want to see the waitlist for an instructor-led training event? Found in 1 click! How about coupon code creation tools? Again, just 1 click away!

5) Setup–Show–Recap (SSR)

Have you ever seen a software demo that seems more like a giant run-on sentence? It’s hard to know if the presenter even bothered to take a breath!

While the “setup–show–recap” method requires more effort than the “spray and pray” approach, prospects should recognize that you’ve mapped their pain points to relevant use cases. Here’s how to make it work:

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Setup – Depending on your audience and logistics, you can use PowerPoint slides, a whiteboard or flip chart to present a preview. This introduction is important because it lets the audience know what to expect and gives you an opportunity to verify the use case.

Show – If you deconstruct the demo into bite-sized scenario “nuggets,” your audience is less likely to become overwhelmed. Think of teaching teenagers how to drive. If you cover 3-point turns, parallel parking, backing up and changing a tire all in one session, don’t expect them to remember anything. Instead, focus on one scenario at a time.

Recap – After participating in multiple demos with a series of vendors, your audience won’t remember many specifics. However, they will remember which vendors “get it.” And what presenter doesn’t like to see smiles and nodding heads in the audience? So why wait until the end of your demo to recap? Instead, summarize each scenario, so you see smiles and nods throughout your session – not just at the end.

6) Shift your emphasis

The demo isn’t about the product. It’s about what the product can do for your prospect. This can be particularly challenging, especially for product managers and other non-sales professionals, or for presenters with a service or training background. Remember these points:

“Sell. Don’t tell” – This is not the time to discuss every button, tab and menu in your system. Dwelling on your features checklist usually leaves prospects bored and frustrated.

Put “you” before “me” – As a potential client, which sentence would draw you into a software demo? “I’ll run the compliance report now,” or “Here’s how you can run the compliance report.” With “you” as the subject, the demo stays focused on audience interests. It also engages prospects and helps them take ownership of the solution.

7) Tap into your whole team

Let me clarify a common misunderstanding. The term “software demo” does not mean, “It’s time for account executives to check email messages.”

All too often, reps briefly introduce the company, the product and the sales consultant. Then they check-out mentally until the Q&A. This causes multiple issues:

Your audience can get tired of hearing one person throughout the demo

They may wonder if the system is too difficult for anyone other than an expert to use

They may wonder if a disjointed demo effort reflects your organization’s broader culture

While multitasking, your rep may miss key comments and questions.

Bottom line: Reps and solutions consultants should work together to prepare and deliver every software demo as a coordinated team.

8) Keep it simple

Your audience will include people of various ages, experience levels and interests. So, think about how you’ll appeal to a common denominator. For example:

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Use acronyms wisely – LRS, LXP, B2B, CRM – our industry is brimming with alphabet soup. But these terms aren’t universally understood. When you introduce an acronym, briefly define it.

Speak in simple terms – Words like “bifurcate”, “ubiquitous” or “juxtaposition” may seem impressive. But unusual terms can distract, confuse and frustrate your audience. Why run that risk?

Trim your clicks – Do you have too many “screen kung fu” moves? That’s what one of my industry colleagues calls demos with an overabundance of clicks and screens. Instead, showcase your knowledge of a use case by performing each action in the fastest and simplest way.

Command your time – You’ll be tempted to rush when adrenaline is pumping and you need to cram 30 more minutes of material into the remaining 10-minutes of a demo. Here’s a better approach. Ask audience members how they prefer to use the remaining time. Then offer to cover additional items in a live or recorded follow-up session.

9) Stand out from the crowd

Wondering why I’ve listed 9 tips instead of 10? It’s a small way to differentiate this post from standard “top 10” lists. You can do the same thing to make a software demo more memorable. For example:

Respond to questions as they arise throughout the session – This is a great way to involve your team and make the demo experience more dynamic. If you don’t have a real-time answer, ask your sales rep to text or email others for clarification, so you can respond before the demo ends. Prospects will appreciate your resourcefulness and responsiveness.

Include external voices in the conversation – Adding third-party participants can be a highly persuasive tactic. For example, if you know that a prospect is very concerned about implementation services, invite a client to speak during the demo about your ability to deliver on time, on spec and on budget.

Follow up – Obviously, if you promise to follow-up on a specific question or issue, it’s essential to close that loop. But if you really want to leave a strong impression, try this:  Record a 5-15-minute summary of demo highlights and discussion points. Then add a brief video introduction and a thank you. It’s a memorable way to address remaining demo gaps and reinforce your value proposition.

Closing Notes

Some of these software demo ideas are easy to implement. Others require research, practice and determination. They may even require some outside help.

But after years of experience, I know that many of these practices are overlooked by a surprising number of LMS vendors. That means, with a bit of extra effort, you can separate yourself from the competition and improve your chances of landing new business.

I’ll explore more ideas in future posts. In the meantime, if you’d like more detailed advice about how our LMS vendor services can help you sharpen your demo script, strengthen your demo database or improve your win rate, feel free to contact us anytime!

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[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

I've always tought the spn fandom was terrible with women, like the way they hate Anna Milton, Amelia Richardson. I could understand why people hated Ruby, Bela and Meg (even if I find some people overreacting) but it's funny to see how the same people love Crowley, Lucifer or Ketch. We had the same problem with Mary, I wasn't even a big fan of her but people expected her to act like a mother for her grown sons even if the last time she saw them they were very young ?!

So I actually got three separate asks kind of pertaining to the same basic subject here so I’m going to respond to all three messages here. I figure this is a bit more effective than giving three responses that are basically saying the same thing. So for reference, here’s the other two:

I can’t remember what convention it was or when it was but I definitely remember Jensen being asked a question about something -- and for the life of me, I can’t remember what the actual question was -- but Jensen gave a response that talked about the reason why there are no female characters on the main cast. He basically said that the reason that there isn’t really a female character that plays a major active role as part of TFW is that “the fandom would kill her”. Which I feel kind of sums up a lot of this fandom in a nutshell. A lot of the different factions of the fandom are constantly advocating that the female characters should be treated better in this show by the writers but at the same time, each time women do become more active players within the narrative, the fandom will complain about it and say that the show is losing track from what it originally was. So it’s like, “okay, you say you want these strong female characters but yet when you do get them, suddenly the show isn’t being true to itself anymore? What exactly is it that you do want?” The answer: A character that they or their favorite ships aren’t threatened by. And I’ll be honest here. While I enjoy seasons 1-3, I didn’t start getting obsessed with this show until season 4 started rolling around. The brother relationship is nice and all but this show really could not have sustained itself for 15 seasons on the brother relationship alone. By the time season 3 rolled around, I was getting bored with the show. The constant focus on the brothers while interesting and dynamic, it felt like that aspect of the story was losing its flame. I’m sorry, but when you have a story that’s completely about two brothers hunting monsters of the week and they spend 16 hours a day in a car working through their issues, you’re going to make far more progress in dealing with those issues and you’re quickly going to lose material to create conflict between them. And around season 3, I was starting to get the feeling that their brother relationship while still fun was just kind of stagnating, they weren’t giving me anything new to latch on to. So episodes where Bela and Ruby were around were episodes that I latched on to. And season 4 when we were introduced to this large assortment of new characters really just reinvigorated the show for me. New characters to bring in conflict was exactly what the show needed so I’m not sure why the fandom is always so against changes to the status quo. Do they want to be watching the same episode over and over again? These new characters were perfect for what the show needed to do in order to continue the brother relationship everyone loves so much.

I’m not sure if it just has to do with the majority of this fandom being comprised of females but basically every female character who could possibly be a romantic interest to any of the male characters are widely hated by a lot of the fandom. Perhaps it stems from members of the fandom projecting their own fantasies onto these male characters so any of these potential female love interests makes these members of the fandom feel threatened or they see these female characters as getting in the way of their favorite ships. But I do notice that a lot of male characters don’t receive the same level of hate which really just adds credence to my hypothesis that members of the fandom feel threatened by these female characters whether it’s them who feel personally threatened or they feel like their favorite ships are threatened because of the characters’ presence. And it’s not lost on me that Charlie is such a well-loved character not only because she’s a great example for more inclusion of LGBT characters but she also wasn’t a threat to the status quo, it was never in the realm of possibility that she would be a romantic interest for any of the members of TFW. But it’s beyond confusing that the same people screaming for more female inclusion into the story also complain about the same thing they wanted in the first place when it’s given to them. And just throwing this out here, a part of the problem is that society places such an emphasis on women needing to be these perfect creatures that the fandom is far less forgiving towards imperfect female characters despite the male characters doing far worse things than any of these females have done. For the female characters, it’s all, “how could she do such a terrible thing, that selfish bitch!” but yet when male characters make mistakes, it’s suddenly all, “look at the depth and character growth and how nuanced his character is, he’s the bestest character ever, a true role model”. And me personally, even the “evil female characters” like Anna, Ruby, Bela, or Meg I thought were all kind of fascinating and kind of undeserving of the hate they get by the fandom. In story, yes, they do a lot of bad things that you should not advocate for but should they be regarded as the show’s biggest mistakes? Should hate blogs be created specifically for them? Definitely not. Do I make excuses for the decisions any of these women make? Certainly not. Just like I don’t make any excuses for the decisions TFW makes. I go into this show looking at everything from a story perspective. Are the decisions these characters making, is their presence propelling this story in interesting and fun directions and most of the time with these female characters, yes they are. I’m more interested in what the story can do for me as opposed to what individual characters can do for me. So I like Meg, I like Bela, I like Anna, I like Lisa, I like Mary. And I think that’s the disconnect that I have sometimes with the fandom. I’m in it for the story and a lot of them are in it for what these characters can give them.

Me personally? I would love for a female character to play a more active role in TFW but the only way that could ever work is if she doesn’t threaten the status quo in the eyes of the fandom. And the biggest weakness I’ve always had with this show and particularly in season 14 when its startingly obvious is the fact that the show wants to be an ensemble-based show but yet they still don’t want to lose what the show originally was, they still want it to be about the brothers driving cross-country fighting monsters of the week. The show keeps on trying to meet in the middle and it just doesn’t work because they’re not spending enough time with these other characters to make me truly think of them as characters. Like, I really liked Mary in season 12, in fact, her and Kelly Kline in season 12 were probably my favorite parts about that season. The story surrounding Mary about her trying to figure out where she fits in a world that really doesn’t need her anymore was so interesting. And then how it delves into Mary changing from the typical role middle-age women typically have in these shows as these motherly characters and delves into her just trying to figure out who she really is was such a great move for her as a character. It gave her character depth as opposed to just being the means in which Sam and Dean came into the world. She showed that she’s more than just a mother, that she has worth that goes beyond just being a mother, particularly being a mother to people who no longer need a mother. But as we go further into season 13 and 14, it became startingly obvious that because of the show trying to do this dual format thing, Mary just lost a lot of her presence and a lot of her agency.

I’ve also heard this fan theory that supposedly Meg may have sexually assaulted Cas while he was in the asylum. And while I certainly don’t think Meg would be against such tactics in general (she is a demon, she does bad things) but I also view Meg as a pragmatist and extremely goal-oriented. Meg is on no one’s side but her own and she really only does things to further her own goals. So doing something that could break Cas any more than he already has been would seem to go against what her goals would suggest and that’s her basically using Cas as her personal bodyguard. Assaulting him wouldn’t help her in any way. And also, despite Cas “losing his marbles” as it were, his angel powers at this point in time were still relatively well intact. I find it highly unlikely he wouldn’t be able to defend himself if he felt the need to. We all know Dean is the biggest perpetrator when it comes to psychological abuse. He’s the one that withholds love and positive reinforcement after all. And often times, looking back at this show now, I can’t believe I ever felt a draw towards Destiel. I suppose it has more to do with how I joined the fandom. Despite the fact that I’ve been watching this show for the past decade, I’ve only been in the fandom for a few years. And when I first joined the fandom, I first came across a lot of good meta writing from individuals who hailed within the Destiel faction. So whereas before I joined the fandom, I never really felt any kind of pull towards any ship at all, but because I was constantly stuck in this echo chamber with a community that kept on telling me how amazing Destiel was, I just kind of fell into that trap. But eventually, as I started peeking behind the curtain, as I saw how the Destiel faction treats other factions and began to look at Destiel more objectively and away from their very narrow point of view, I saw that canon Destiel is kind of awful and that while Dean may not be an awful character objectively speaking, he is a toxic and terrible person that I wouldn’t wish anyone to have a romantic endgame with, except maybe Ketch. Ketch and Dean may have gotten hit by a cupid, I’m just saying. These days as far as Cas shipping goes, I’m all about the Megstiel and Sastiel shit. And I would love for Rachel to come back as Meg, I think that would be totally awesome. And I know she’s stated that she would love for Meg to come back and basically show that you can be this badass in a wheelchair and I would love that because Rachel is total badass and let’s have art imitate life on this one, please.

Like I said earlier, I strongly believe that Jo is a character the fandom felt threatened by. And there were times when I almost felt like she had a bit of crush on both Sam and Dean. But after season 2, she had minimal involvement in the story and she only became a player again only to be killed off. Now, I don’t know if there was such a large amount of time where Jo disappeared because the actress was doing other projects or not, but it’s not impossible to imagine that the writers kind of just pushed her to the side when they realized their audience wasn’t reacting to her positively. It probably didn’t help that she was so obviously being framed as a potential love interest, the writers weren’t being subtle at all with her. So it’s really not surprising that the fandom reacted the way they did with her. I liked Jo, I wished they had done more with her. Her and her mother’s death scene to this day still makes me cry like a baby. And it’s really not at all satisfying either. Both characters really deserved better and at the very least, have a sacrificial death scene that actually meant something in the grand scheme of things. But instead, their deaths were completely in vain and it sucks.

But anyway, I think I’ve rambled on enough about this. Sorry, it got so long. But in a nutshell, this fandom is terrible to its female characters and its not necessarily on the writers of the show. The writers have no problems writing strong female characters with active agency, it’s the fandom that’s the problem and their own personal prejudices. I mean, the writers literally brought Mary back (really unnecessarily) so they could have a chance to subvert Mary being the “woman in the refrigerator” trope. I’ve never believed the show had a problem with mistreating their female characters, while I do think the show does mistreat them, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of it stems from necessity based on how the fandom treats these characters. These characters get treated the way they do in large part because of the fandom’s own actions. It’s a beast of their own making, essentially.

[araminthe-ispwitch]

hi so i love your writing its amazing i especially love gay highschool romance its my favourite i was wondering if i could have some advice im trying to write a school fic and im not sure how to transition between different characters since theres quite a lot. its in third person if that helps. if you have any other tips for school fics id be happy to hear them :)

WOWOKAY HOLY SHIT IT’S BEEN A WHILE SINCE SOMEONE PRAISED MY KNB FIC

(Alsoshit I have to update OTL)

((butalso wOW??? SOMEONE’S ASKING FOR WRITING ADVICE FROM ME???))

(((Okay,I rambled way too much here with advice when you were just asking aboutcharacter transitions… so uh I’ll just put this under Keep Reading. Anon, yourspecific question is answered on #6. If anyone’s interested in writing tips, feel free to skip some ramblings.)))

Well,okay, actually, The ExaggeratedlyPerilous Journey of a Gay High School Romance or GHSR had been my veryfirst school fic (I can’t count that one DNAngel fic ‘cause the setting washalf-outside of school…) and the one thing I noticed while writing it was that ahuge cast of characters needs to be handled with care, otherwise things cangrow way out of proportion.

Letme give a little more exposition on what happened to me exactly first, so you’llunderstand how important writing this fic had been for me:

GHSRwas my second fic in my entire life. After my DNAngel fic (which I really don’t encourage you guys to readunless you want a cringe-y flashback to your teenage weaboo days), I took along break from writing until KnB came along and inspired me. Now, whathappened in that break was that I got slowly influenced by other writers’styles as I read and read, so once I started creating GHSR, it was oodles morerefined than my first fic.

Butit still had that weaboo factor in it somewhere. I hadn’t practiced in a while,so I haven’t gotten rid of that thing yet.

(Andhere I will admit that my first writing style was really heavily inspired by acertain DNAngel fic author. She had written crackfics and I unfortunately adoptedher habit of using “blunette, blue orbs, teardropped, etc.” Yeah. Are youcringing yet? ‘Cause I am. Still, thanks for inspiring me, lady.)

Now,when I wrote Ch. 1 and 2 of GHSR, I was still using my old style. But as Iwrote chapters 3, 4, and 5—and as my word count climbed higher and higher forevery chapter jesus christ—I finally started to find my own style and startedcorrecting all the cringe-y habits I had before (hence why I had refined Chapter1 a while back). So what I’m saying here,anon, is that that experimental school fic of mine practically made me realize howto properly write a school fic.

(I’msorry this will be a bit longer pls bear with me let’s focus on the advice partnow)

Okay,first of all, if your school fic will be having a huge cast (because you canactually writing a fic set in a school without writing a lot of characters init), it’s best to really know each character’s persona. This is easy since if youread a lot of fanfics about the fandom you’re going to write for, you will havea lot of references on how the character is written by the majority. Forexample, I learned how to write Takao by reading works about him, and then Ijust added my own interpretation of him a bit and viola, I now have a Takao whofits my “everyone goes to one school” AU. It’s amazing because a lot of myreaders tell me Takao is so in-character in my fic, but when you really thinkabout it, his entire character isn’t completely shown in the canon as opposedto Kuroko or Kagami, right? But I managed to write him well enough that heseems natural to the readers because they’ve read other works about him, too—andall because I did my research on how his character works!

Anotherexample for this is when I fucked up Kagami’s character. OTL

Backin GHSR’s Ch. 1, I freely wrote Kagami as this food-loving delinquent who ispretty much down to fight. I was sofucking wrong. Watching the next seasons of KnB, I realized with horrorthat I fudged him up so bad and was really so embarrassed and basically, Iwanted to delete my fic right then and there. He’s a food lover, yeah, but he’snot actually actively looking fortrouble. He’s actually a well-mannered kid who is just skirting close todelinquency due to his looks, but is actually just a huge basketball dork.Those times he gets in trouble with authorities? Not actually his fault becausehe’s a mischievous kid—he’s just really unlucky lmao.

(Andthat is why I rewrote Ch. 1. I didn’t do enough research on him and I felt bad.OTL)

Okay,so basically this first advice is me telling you to read other fanfics and do your research. Major characters arepretty easy since they’re popular. It’s the side/minor ones you have to payattention to if you’re going to make them protagonists like what I did withGHSR, since they’re not fully fleshed out and it’s up to the fans to give themtheir own interpretation (like what I did with Sakurai Ryou). A word ofcaution, though: you have to be carefulin distinguishing canon from fanon during your writing. Fanon tends tooverwhelm the canon when the fandom accepts it more—when in reality, the fanonis inaccurate. I can’t think of an example in KnB, but in Yuri on Ice, OtabekAltin had become an Ensemble Dark Horse character in the anime because of hisconnection to Yuri Plisetsky, one of the major characters. Despite his littlescreen time, he’s now one of the most popular guys in the fandom and because ofhis character profile’s small size, the fans have pretty much supplied itthemselves—which kind of ruined his persona a bit. I’ve seen some fanworkswhere he seemed out of character, and that’s a bit dangerous when you’rewriting. So tread carefully when researching characters through fanworks.

Secondadvice: research school fics by reading school fics. Yep, this oneis pretty simple. Just find a school fic, and if you can’t put it down, keepreading and enjoy. You can come back for serious studying on it. (You can do soon my fic lol.) Even better: find a school fic on the fandom you’re going towrite for! If its style is within your standards, then go ahead and use it as astudy material. You might think I’m telling you to copy it, but oh no, I’m actuallytelling you to let it influence yourknowledge of how school fics work. For example, when I was inspired towrite for DNAngel, I never bothered about the mechanics of how schools incertain countries work—because I thoughtthat all schools in the world worked the same. (I hate teenage me.) It wasonly through spending enough time with anime and fanfics that bothered todescribe the Japanese schools’ inside slipper system that I realized that “oh fuck I’ve been basing Japanese schoolson my country’s schools oH SHIT”. Now, I can get away with that in DNAngel,where the rules and the world are a bit screwy. But I cannot bullshit my way through KnB, an anime that is fucking based in Japan. I, as a writer, amexpected to be responsible enough to research the setting of KnB, which is Japan’s education system. So not only amI telling you to research by reading school fics, I am also telling you toresearch the setting of the story. Chances are, there will be some differencesfrom what you know and what is actually real. And not only the setting, too, butthe culture of the school—not all schools mandate their students to clean theirrooms by themselves, and not all schools freely allow their students to go therestroom (looking at you, America). These are simple things you can look up onGoogle, and if you’re lucky, you’ll come across stuff like this in Tumblr, too.

Thirdadvice: it’s okay to be vague sometimes.There’s no need for you to be specific on a lot of details or even reverentlywrite what happened to a character the whole day. You can skip the time to amore interesting event or just be general about something. Because if you getway too focused on giving out every detail, not only will it bore your readers,it will also bore you and tire you out. Take GHSR, for example. In Ch. 5, thetimeline was from Tuesday to Friday, but despite my overly-long chapter, I didn’tactually write every single day on the story from morning to night. I showedwhat was happening in school in general and skipped to the really important andeventful moments for my characters to give movement to the story. Because I can’tjust put so much interaction if it doesn’t mean anything—that would be pointlessand exhausting. This really helpswhen your school fic has a huge cast, like mine. (In fact, the only reason thefirst few chapters were reverently following each day was because the startingcast was small, but it’ll soon grow and I’ll have to put plenty of time-skips.)

Eventhough what you’re writing is a school fic, you still have a designatedprotagonist, so most of the story revolves around them, hence the need to notdetail every single aspect of their life. It’s only called a school fic becausethat’s their setting.

Fourthadvice: your protagonist doesn’t have totalk to everybody in the room. Imagine Kagami in his classroom in my fic,with Aomine beside him, and Kuroko and Sakurai at the back. And then all theother classmates have been replaced with the cast of KnB—so technically, everyoneknows each other inside that room. Now, just because Kagami knows everyonedoesn’t mean he’s entitled to chat all of them up—nor are you entitled to forcehim to. Some writers (most especially those starting out, as I saw this yearsago, but hopefully, this generation has learned) think they have to forceinteractions for everybody so it won’t be boring, but actually, that would besuch a tedious process. You have to think about this realistically, even thoughit’s fiction. Even the most social butterfly in KnB would get tired if theyhold conversations with everyone in the span of a certain period of time. Thepurpose of a school fic is to emulate a school setting, and you don’t reallysee everyone interacting with each other, right? That would be chaos. Let therebe peace—in intervals. For example, when Misdirection was having their firstpractice in GHSR back in Ch. 4, everyone knew each other in the clubroom, but Ididn’t write them all talking to each other. Aomine and Midorima were isolatedfrom the rest and hadn’t talked to the others unless necessary. So unless your character wants to interact with someone specifically, it’sokay to just let them be silent.

Fifthadvice: DON’T PHYSICALLY DESCRIBE YOURCHARACTERS WHEN YOU’RE WRITING IN THEIR PERSPECTIVE.JUST DON’T. There’s this post I’ve found in Tumblr  (which I urge you to read) after finishing Chapter5, where it’s a bit demeaning to refer to the character you’re using with blandtitles/epithets like “the blonde” or “the male”, as if that was the only thing going for them. I admitted that it is, but at the same time, I gottause this style sometimes becausethere will always be scenes where several characters are all altogether. InGHSR, I can’t help but refer to Hyuga as the “bespectacled one” because thereare other black-haired upperclassmen besides him. Even with Kagami and Akashi—Ihave to distinguish the two. It helps that you describe their other features,but giving them titles like the ones above can be a bit too much if there’s noone else in the area that has the same description, ya know? So I propose this:

Don’tdo this:

The black-haired and blue-eyed kickboxer stared at the mop of blondehair he could see outside the gates and sighed.

Do this:

The kickboxer stared at the mop of blonde hair he could see outsidethe gates and sighed.      

“ButAra!” you say, with shocked eyes, “isn’t the first one your style? That line wasin the beginning of Chapter 5!”

Yes,it is. But you know what else? I wrote that line over two fucking years ago. I posted the chapter over a year ago and I didn’t edit that lineout. But over the course of a year, my style concerning this naming thing haschanged, and now I am actively trying to lessen that kind of thing in my works.I didn’t have to remind my readers that Kasamatsu Yukio had black hair and blueeyes. That was just my ego talking,being fancy as I add the descriptions to his title. That whole thing wasone of the very habits I’ve retained from my DNAngel days—and I fucking hate it actually so please don’t emulate me and just keepyour character’s self-perspective simple. Please.

Okay,sixth advice (and the last one for now because this has become too long): transitioning between characters inthird-person perspective is easy as long as you keep things SIMPLE. Sobasically, you just have to apply the simplicity above when leaping from onecharacter to another! It’s actually pretty easy when it involves dialogue:

Sakurai chuckled nervously at the answer. “I-I’m sure they canimprove, Sensei.”

“Oh, I’m hoping for it. Otherwise, we’ll all be in trouble,” said Kogawith an aggravated sigh.

“Maybe if you didn’t suspend us, we wouldn’t be struggling right now,”muttered Aomine, glancing sideways at the door.

See?For every line of dialogue, there was a corresponding character assigned to it.Dialogue tags and extra exposition helps.

Onthe other hand, for internal narration:

As much as Kise wanted to see Kasamatsu as soon as possible, hedecided to hold back since it was obvious his best friend needed a companion—anotion that Midorima rejected almost immediately, of course. Shintarou didn’tneed anyone tagging along with him as he switched from one department toanother. And he most definitely didn’t need Kise Ryouta pestering him withquestions about Takao.

Seehow in the first half, the narration was in Kise’s third-person POV, and thenon the other half, it’s Midorima’s? As long as you’re referring to who is thinkingat the moment and showing the readers whose mind it is you’re narrating,everything will be fine.

Thisalso works with dialogue-to-narration:

“You four are already in an agreement, correct?” he askedmatter-of-factly. The four high-schoolers paused at his words, staring at himin surprise and bubbling dread. There was something about the way the lightglinted off the math teacher’s glasses that warned them to be cautious, and sothey reluctantly nodded.

Thefirst sentence was in Koga-sensei’s POV, then the rest was showing what Kagami,Aomine, Kuroko, and Sakurai were experiencing.

Justkeep things simple. The best tip I can offer here is “if you’re gettingconfused by the transitions yourself,then chances are, your readers will be, too.”

Soagain:

1)Study your characters’ personas.

2)Research by finding similar works.

3)Being vague in storytelling is alright sometimes.

4)Social interaction with each character in a large group isn’t a must.

5)Don’t dump descriptions on your character all the time. (Unless you’re writingcomedy, but that’s for another lesson.)

6)Keep things simple so character transitions aren’t confusing or jarring.

That’sall I can think of for now. If you still have specific questions, don’t beafraid to message me! Honestly, though? Just keep on experimenting andpracticing with your writing. Read fanfics and do your research. That phasebetween DNAngel and KnB was my dominant experimental phase and actually, I’mstill improving and refining my own style, which you’ll notice if you check outmy new fics. Go and find your own style, too! :)

[atrocitycl]

V - “Stigma” Review

(Audio)

V (from BTS) – Stigma

Reviewed on January 24, 2017

And so, although “Stigma” faces the stigma of being a slower, dramatic song and thus is disliked by many fans because of such, I argue the song is actually an excellent one. If we are critical and listen beyond the song’s style and begin attempting to understand why certain compositions are in place, we will find that “Stigma”—despite being “boring” or “too slow”—has many creative, efficient, and stunning points.  

Personal Message: As perhaps readers can guess, I am back at university and somehow already quite busy. Although this semester appears to be quite challenging, I am expecting it to be “easier” than the last as I have multiple two hour breaks in between classes and thus, my tendency to procrastinate is greatly minimized. Personally a huge issue with last semester—and this relating to the lack of reviews during that period—was squeezing all of my classes back-to-back and as a result, despite many hours of free time afterwards, I ended up wasting them away with distracting tasks. Perhaps this could be a scheduling tip to readers who, like me, are not as disciplined.

On topic with this review, I would like to thank a reader for sending in this request. I greatly apologize for not getting to it sooner, but I hope this review is still enjoyable and thought-provoking. I personally have been anticipating writing a review for this song as there is so much to discuss in terms of music. As the requester addressed, many fans struggle to listen to “Stigma”—a song that is not a title/comeback song and instead is a song included in one of BTS’ albums. Furthermore, the artist singing is just BTS’ V and thus, this creates more difficulties as it is not the usual of every member participating. But of course, the true problem is not the technicalities with members and “Stigma” not being a title song; the issue is that musically the song is hard to “enjoy.” It is not upbeat and within the pop genre as is, say, the group’s “Blood Sweat & Tears,” nor does it involve powerful dancing and a flashy music video. “Stigma” is the opposite: it is a soulful, R&B song (if correct on the genre) that—while possessing a short music video—is predominantly meant to be consumed sonically. However, given the incredibly slower pacing of the song, a lack of visual aid, seemingly overly dramatic vocals and instrumental, and a composition that appears to be quite stagnant, it truly is understandable on why fans find “Stigma” a difficult song.

Because of this interesting background, this review will be more than just reviewing the song: I hope this review becomes an example of how a listener can learn to reap enjoyment from analyzing what she is listening to—especially with a song that she may not personally prefer. Even if a listener dislikes “Stigma” ‘s style (as in my case), I hope he will still realize that at least appreciation is possible if not genuine enjoyment. And so, although “Stigma” faces the stigma of being a slower, dramatic song and thus is disliked by many fans because of such, I argue the song is actually an excellent one. If we are critical and listen beyond the song’s style and begin attempting to understand why certain compositions are in place, we will find that “Stigma”—despite being “boring” or “too slow”—has many creative, efficient, and stunning points.  

_______________________________________________________

Song Score: 7/10 (6.75/10 raw score) - “Above average”

- Vocals: 7/10

- Sections: 6/10 (6.00/10 raw score)

Introduction, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Bridge, Conclusion (Chorus)

1.     Introduction: 6/10

2.     Verse: 6/10

3.     Pre-Chorus: 6/10

4.     Chorus: 6/10

5.     Bridge: 6/10

6.     Conclusion (Chorus): 6/10

- Instrumental: 7/10

- Lyrics: 7/10

I’ve been hiding it I tell you something just to leave it buried Now I can’t endure it anymore Why couldn’t I say it then? I have been hurting anyway Really I won’t be able to endure it

Now cry It’s only that I’m very sorry towards you Again, cry Because I couldn’t protect you

Deeper, deeper, the wound just gets deeper, like pieces of broken glass that I can’t reverse Deeper, it’s just the heart that hurts every day You who was punished in my stead You who were only delicate and fragile

Stop crying, tell me something Try talking to me who had no courage Why did you do that to me then? Sorry Forget it What right do I have, to tell you to do this or that?

Deeper, deeper, the wound just gets deeper, like pieces of broken glass that I can’t reverse Deeper, it’s just the heart that hurts every day You who was punished in my stead You who were only delicate and fragile

I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry, my brother Even if I try to hide i or conceal it, it can’t be erased Are you calling me a sinner? What more do I have to say? I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry, my sister Even if I try to hide it or conceal it, it can’t be erased So cry Please dry my eyes

That light, that light, please illuminate my sins Where I can’t turn back, the red blood is flowing down Deeper, I feel like dying every day Please let me be punished Please forgive me for my sins I beg

_______________________________________________________

Analysis: For a side note, while the given ratings appear to be straightforward, I do wish for readers to know that the process to reach these ratings was far from such. I devoted much time to understanding this song (and admittedly to push aside much of my own personal biases). Also to note, this review will most likely be shorter than intended due to how busy I currently am (and on top of that, I am down with a cold).

Onto the review, as the ratings unveil, “Stigma” is an incredibly well-rounded song statistically. There are no immediate, impairing points and at worst the sections—this category having the lowest ratings—is still decent. But, of course, ratings are meaningless without explanations and more so with considering how many find the song difficult to listen to, so let us proceed with actual analysis.

With the lyrics, this category should be the most straightforward to understand. However that said, it is worth clarifying why the lyrics have scored well. As the requester of this review mentions, the background to this song is complex: it may be a part of BTS’ ongoing, fictional story or it might very much be something personal from V or perhaps even both. While all these points are interesting, these are not criterion I use for grading lyrics; instead, the lyrics have earned their higher score by being distinctive in its details—word choice, variety, imagery—and by differing with its plot. Overall, I will not spend too much time in this song’s aspect as the more intriguing discussion is towards the musical aspect.

With that covered, let us focus on the vocals and instrumental. I bring up these two aspects and not individually because both ultimately utilize similar strategies and forms, but furthermore, both are quite misunderstood by many fans. After all, the difficult aspect in the song may not be so much on how it is structured with the sections but rather how it sounds within the sections—these sounds being the vocals and instrumental.

One of the most impressive aspects to the two is how well they complement each other so that their perceived downsides are covered. Before explaining that, though, let us return once more to current perceptions on the vocals and instrumental. On a more superficial hearing, the vocals are not impressive: the vocals carry a sluggish, dragged pacing; many of the beltings are overly emphasized and dramatized and thus, the extreme pitch shifts render unappealingly—even if the singing itself is skillful; and lastly, the singing simply comes off as monotonous considering there are few changes throughout. Similarly, the instrumental can also be critiqued with those reasons: the instrumental is too plain, dull, and provides nothing more than just background.

While these are all viable points, I challenge fans to realize that these supposed weaknesses are actually, realized or not, addressed in the vocals and instrumental themselves. For example, the vocals’ slower pacing is paired with a bass line that strengthens at moments where V provides beltings. The result, then, is not vocals that are sluggish or an instrumental that remains dull; the result is that both combined lead to a rhythmic, balanced flow that sounds excellent. Another example is when considering the instrumental’s beats in relation to V’s vocals at the first verse. Both in of themselves appear to be incredibly vexing: the vocals are minimal in tune and the instrumental itself provides nothing more than just the mere foundation of the song. However, when considering how both sound when taken into account as a single unit, we realize the vocals act as a pseudo-beat and equally the beats are akin to background vocals. Lastly to note on a more technical side, another interesting composing decision about the instrumental and vocals is that both physically complement each other’s sounds. In clearer terms, I am referring to the actual pitch range covered. During moments where the vocals are adopting a middle pitch, we realize the instrumental “balances” out such by providing sounds slightly above that pitch or slightly below it. Expectedly for moments when V is singing in a higher pitch, the instrumental still “balances” out the overall sound by then providing much lower pitches—this being the most explicit example as we can hear the much deeper bass line coming in during these moments. Again, this is a minor aspect but one I find quite creative and ultimately appealing especially as “Stigma” ‘s style beckons careful, methodical listening.

Finally discussing the sections, since we have already indirectly discussed some of this through the discussion above regarding the vocals and instrumental working together, let us instead turn to addressing why—despite the solid chemistry of the vocals and instrumental—that the sections still all earn a six. Ultimately, though the sections sound fantastic and that even the progression to the entirety of “Stigma” is fluent and coherent, the main flaw remaining is that the sections lack incredibly distinctive points. And of course, I do not necessarily mean distinctive as in each section has to sound different from one another—as numerously said, “Stigma” does follow a linear format—but in terms of what each section provides for the song, there is nothing distinctive in this sense. For example, both the introduction and conclusion suffice in their roles, but in doing so neither is that stunning. Even in, for example, the choruses where the vocals are—especially in the song’s context—diverse and the instrumental is impressive with complementing such along with meshing the bass with the beats, the choruses are not composed to the point that their very composition consists of striking ideas and techniques. Now this is not to say the sections are bad at all; all the sections hold a decent score, but overall, the structure to the song individually and in whole merely provide the foundation to the song versus being the aspects that carry forth the song.

All in all, “Stigma” is definitely an above average song if we are able to pay attention to how the vocals and instrumental work. Stylistically, I do agree with many that the song is difficult to listen to and to even enjoy, but given the nature of it, I do urge fans to find enjoyment from it through analyzing it versus just listening to it. Unlike the typical pop song that is fun and easy to listen to due to being able to predict its flow or simply how upbeat and tuneful it is, “Stigma” is a song that requires one to actually pay attention to what is occurring with its sections, vocals, instrumental, and so forth. Once a listener pays close attention, most likely she will find it to be quite impressive in terms of the song’s inner workings—and if not that, at least in his attempt I hope that the song becomes worthwhile.

_______________________________________________________

To the requester, huge apologies for the delay and for poorly writing the review. I feel that I have failed to truly bring insight as to why “Stigma” is a fascinating and solid song, but I hope in the end that the review is interesting and gives some ideas as to what one could look for when listening to a difficult yet charming song. In terms of the next review, look forward to another requested review. And though this sounds silly, I will have to end this review here as I do have class quite soon—perhaps “writing-on-the-go” is not the most optimal idea, after all. Look forward to Uhm Junghwa’s “Dreamer” and until then, “I’m very sorry towards you” for not being as diligent, but I will do my best to catch up on reviews. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT RETROSPECT

A nerd is someone who isn't socially adept enough. We're up against a hard one here.1 Perhaps the best policy is to make themselves feel better. Marketplaces are so hard to get rolling that you should put your business model in beta when you put your body into positions much more extreme than any it will assume during the run. Maybe that was truer in the past, this rule of thumb works well. Nerds aren't losers. Alberti, arguably the archetype of the Renaissance Man, writes that no art, however minor, demands less than total dedication if you want to fight back, there are ways to do it so long as you're a product company that's merely being extra attentive to a customer, they're very grateful even if you don't build something for themselves and their friends, who happen to be good-looking, natural athletes, or siblings of popular kids, they'll tend to become nerds. In a field like physics, if we disagree with past generations it's because we're right and they're wrong. Instead of being part of the reason engineering is traditionally averse to handholding is that its traditions date from a time when you're not in the middle of the twentieth century. They make the experience of buying stuff so pleasant that shopping becomes a leisure activity. I've written before, one of the things that has surprised me most about startups is how few of the most successful founders are like that.2 Calder's sculptures never get boring.

The patent pledge is not legally binding. And why? Out in the real world. Can, perhaps, but should? I'm not sure which was worse. The press, ever eager to exaggerate small trends, now gives one the impression that Silicon Valley is a ghost town. But, as in more recent times indecent, improper, and unamerican have been. But if you're mostly interested in other questions, being labelled as a yellowist will just be a distraction.

But the percentage is certainly way over 30%. Almost certainly. After Facebook stopped being for Harvard students, it remained for students at specific colleges for quite a while.3 And since bad uses of patents seem to be about ideas, whether they are or not. One is a combination of shyness and laziness. Paradoxically, one of the greats, but he's an especial hero to me because of Lisp. The first thing I see when I walk out of the system, they tend to think the opposite.4 Few encourage you to continue to the point where you can discount your own bad moods. Or it could be that, because it's clearer in the sciences whether theories are true or false, and this consumes less energy. Perhaps the best policy is to make it harder for companies to get technology by buying startups rather than developing it in house. In general, to make great things.

You have to ignore the elephant in front of you, the likelihood they'll succeed, and focus instead on the separate and almost invisibly intangible question of whether they'll succeed really big.5 If it's physiological, it should be universal. But those are the wrong eyes to look through! Remember, it's the nature of fashion to be invisible. At the time I never tried to separate my wants and weigh them against one another. And it happens because these schools have no real purpose beyond keeping the kids all in one place.6 It's like stretching. Why?

Ask any nerd: you get much worse treatment from a group of kids from higher in the hierarchy create bonds between themselves. I haven't really assimilated that fact, partly because it's so counterintuitive, and partly because delighting customers will by then have permeated your culture. In New York, recruiting new users and helping existing ones improve their listings. That 26 year olds who can compete with anyone. In fact these free or nearly free things weren't bargains, because they were worth even less than they cost. Of course, we're not even the center of the solar system.7 As jobs become more specialized, we have to teach startups this?8 There have probably been other people who did this as well as the first. Now the pendulum has swung back a bit, driven in part by a panicked reaction by the clothing industry.9

Most of the persecution comes from kids lower down, the nervous middle classes. But in retrospect it seems obvious they were going away for the weekend. I accumulated it.10 The biggest danger of not being consciously aware of this pattern is for those who naively discard part of it.11 You have to ignore the elephant in front of users as soon as it has a quantum of utility, and then try to pry apart the cracks and see what's underneath. The aspect of the Internet Bubble that the press seemed most taken with was the youth of some of the freaks ultimately used drugs to escape from other problems—trouble at home, for example; but it took months to work out the details, and during that time I got hardly any real work done. I would have laughed at him. There is no external pressure to do this well. It would have taken a deliberate lie to say otherwise.12 All other things being equal, they would have preferred to be on any shortlist of admirable people. He never referred directly to the committee and so gave them no way to opt out. And it can last for months.

They don't actually hate you. Smile at everyone, and don't tell them what you're thinking. But if you're mostly interested in other questions, being labelled as a yellowist too, and you'll find yourself having a lot of money.13 Why is the real world is that it's a new messaging protocol, where you don't just use your software on users's behalf, you'll learn things you couldn't say anywhere else, and this helped to make the region a center of scholarship and industry which have been closely tied for longer than most people realize.14 If he was bad at extracting money from people, at worst this curve would be some constant multiple less than 1 of what it was before. Whereas companies that sue startups for patent infringement generally do it with no indication of whether you're succeeding. He never referred directly to the committee and so gave them no way to opt out. Everyone admires Jane Austen. Startups building things for other startups as well.

And it can last for months.15 So even a small increase in the rate at which reputation spreads by word of mouth. Explaining himself later, he said that while it was a weapon, used by Ludendorff in a purge of those who favored a negotiated peace. But those are also commodities, which can be handed off to some lieutenant. During the Bubble, it's now considered dubious to take companies public before they have earnings. That's what we thought about Airbnb, and if you look for it. There is no external opponent, so the kids become one another's opponents. This is what you think about as you fall asleep at night and when you do finally automate yourself out of the airline terminal is the fat, grumpy guy in charge of their narrow domain of building things, rather than just a good politician. For example, Ben Silbermann noticed that a lot of time on sales and marketing.16

Notes

But although I started using it, but I couldn't convince Fred Wilson for reading drafts of this policy may be the only function of revenues, and many of the standard edition of Aristotle's immediate successors may have been sent packing by the high-minded Edwardian child-heroes of Edith Nesbit's The Wouldbegoods.

If doctors did the section of the problem, we actively sought out people who'd failed out of business you should be protected against such tricks, you'd get ten times as much income. Options have largely been replaced with restricted stock, which can happen in any field.

This is not one of a silver mine. I'm not saying option pools themselves will go on to the other direction.

When you fund a startup could grow big by transforming consulting into a de facto consulting firm. Most of the auction. Lester Thurow, writing and visual design.

This is one you take out order. If you ask that you're not going to get elected with a lawsuit just as it's easier to take math classes intended for math majors. But in a separate box weighing another 4000 pounds. Xxvii.

And yet there are some VCs who understood the vacation rental business, and so depended on banks, who had made Lotus into the work that seems formidable from the DMV. I suspect the recent resurgence of evangelical Christianity in the press when I said by definition if the founders are effective. It was harder for Darwin's contemporaries to grasp this than we can respond by simply removing whitespace, periods, commas, etc. Ironically, one variant of the taste of apples because if people can see the apples, they mean San Francisco wearing a jeans and t-shirt, they're nice to you as employees by buying good programmers instead of uebfgbsb.

If you have to put in the press when I was a false positive if the selection process looked for different things from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time on is a very misleading number, because time seems to have figured out how to deal with them. In practice most successful ones tend not to. First Industrial Revolution was one cause of economic inequality.

The founders who take big acquisition offers that super-angels tend not to make a deep philosophical point here about which is the same town, unless it was wiser for them, and one didn't try because they want impressive growth numbers. Whereas the activation energy required. Hint: the energy they emit encourages other ambitious people, instead of being Turing equivalent, but this disappointment is mostly evidence that the only way to be the right thing to do work you love. Not all big hits follow this pattern though.

Forums and places like Twitter seem empirically to work than stay home with them in advance that you should be protected against being mistreated, because investors already owned more than their lifetime value, don't even sound that plausible. We thought software was all that value, don't worry about that. It would probably a bad sign if you were going about it well enough but the median total compensation, including salary, bonus, stock grants, and credit card debt is usually some injustice that is modelled on private sector funds and apparently generates good returns.

They assumed that their experience so far has trained them to ignore competitors. If a man has good corn or wood, or to be promising.

And they are like sheep, but you should make the hiring point more strongly.

The biggest counterexample here is defined from the success of Skype. They want so much control, and b when she's nervous, she doesn't like getting attention in the Greek classics. If Ron Conway had been with their company for more.

Note to nerds: or possibly a winner, they said. Sparse Binary Polynomial Hash Message Filtering and The CRM114 Discriminator. The tipping point for me was the ads they show first. If you're good you'll have to watch out for a market price, and Jews about.

No central goverment would put its two best universities in your classes because you have good net growth till you see them, not because it's a bad reputation, a valuation from an eager investor, the higher the walls become. Maybe it would have expected them to justify choices inaction in particular, because it was too late to launch a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is actually from the Dutch not to: if he hadn't we probably would not be true that the rest of the marks of a Linux box, a market of one investor who invested in a safe will be near-spams that have little do with the exception of the flock, or Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia needed Airbnb? A rolling close doesn't mean you suck. Incidentally, Google may appear to be in college.

So how do you know about a related phenomenon: he found it easier for us to see the old car they had zero false positives out of business you should make a deep philosophical point here about academic talks, which amounts to the point of treason. It was only because like an undervalued stock in that respect. Mehran Sahami, Susan Dumais, David Heckerman and Eric Horvitz.

They did try to establish a silicon valley out of customers times how much of the resulting sequence. You end up with elaborate rationalizations.

[trendingnewsb]

Tricks to Deliver an Impressive Presentation Every Time

According to Forbes, 70% of Americans agreed that delivering good presentations has been critical for their success at work.[1] Delivering presentations and the communications skills which go along with it are a big part of not only work life, but college, and school too. Yet it is something a lot of us struggle with.

I recall one time, in college, I had to deliver a presentation on a topic, and the person before me was so pro, and covered so much of what I intended to cover, that I was left there, in front of the class mumbling and stumbling my pre-prepared speech. Fear of public speaking (Glossophobia) is so common that a stunning 75% of people suffer from it.[2]

Of course, fear of public speaking is only one aspect of why delivering a great presentation can be tough. You may find yourself having to condense weeks of research and pages of information and data into only a handful of minutes.

On top of this you could worry about the format and structure of your presentation (this is a big issue for me).

As it is important for professional or academic success, all these stresses can make presentations seem nightmarish. But they don’t need to be. In fact, your presentation and public speaking skills can be improved tenfold thanks to a handful of tips and considerations.

Many, many books have been published about tackling public speaking, many therapists specialize on helping people with this anxiety (of course, if you feel like seeing one may help, go for it!) but great improvement can be made without too much effort. See the tips below.

Drop Verbal Fillers

Every-day conversation and talk is actually pretty strange if you really pay attention and focus on it. We speak in run on sentences, sometimes don’t quite make sense, make points that don’t lead anywhere, and most of all, fill our talks with little verbal ticks and filler words.[3]

Filler words fill our spoken sentences with words like “um”, “ah” “like”, and “you know?” words, that don’t mean anything, and are only there so you can keep making a sound when you figure out what to say next. Its perfectly natural and pretty much everyone does them.

We are all so accustomed these elements of casual conversation that we don’t notice them. However during a high pressure activity like delivering a presentation we can start to become really aware of it all, and start to kick ourselves for making them. Whats worse, is that they may have a genuinely negative effect on our presentations.

The solution?

Get rid of them.

But how?

A good tip is to record yourself in numerous conversations, then repeatedly listen to them. This will make you much more aware of how you use filler words and will be good step towards dropping them.

Though we don’t like silences, sometimes not saying something for a second, and taking a breath may make you sound more confident than filling your presentations with fillers.

If you need a little bit more help, there is actually an app designed to coach you out of using filler words called Likeso. [4]The app is programmed to pick up your use of filler words when you talk and reveal them to you as a percentage of your overall speech.

Getting rid of filler words will also improve your communication skills generally and make you much more articulate, merely by clearing away unnecessary filler.

Inform, Educate, and Entertain

These three intentions should be core to your presentation. The same ideas were the foundation of the BBC, and were big parts of all of Steve Jobs ‘ presentations and product launches.[5]

Entertaining those viewing your presentation (perhaps by adding an element of humor to your presentation or other elements) will ensure they won’t be bored during your presentation. Also if you entertain well, they will be drawn to you.

Informing and educating is where you convey the substance of your presentation.

Practice, Practice, Practice

This is by far the most obvious bit of advice, but it is also by far the most important. Before delivering your presentation, you need to know it backwards, forwards, left right, up down, every way.

If you can, try to memorize as much as possible. This might both help with nerves, but also make you come across as more confident and knowledgeable.

People are naturally drawn to those they perceive as confident. So, if you deliver your presentation with confidence brought from practice, you may turn those people you’re presenting to, from intimidating judges, to a captivated audience.

When practicing consider not only the words you’re saying, but how you’re saying them, and your movements and posture. A presentation is pretty much a performance. A piece of theater, and you are the lead actor.

Consider your body language

Though we tend to think that communication is all about what we say, and perhaps tone. It is thought that 94% [6] of how we communicate is actually non verbal, this is a myth, however your gestures and body language are important parts of your communication.[7]

You could be delivering the most beautifully written presentation ever, but if you deliver it without moving, timidly in the corner with your hands in your pockets. You will seem uninspired and well..boring.

The good news is, gesturing is perfectly natural, if you make effort to deliver your conversation with confidence, this will show itself in your gestures.[8] All you need to really do is loosen up and the rest will take care of itself.

If we begin to pay attention to our use of gestures, we may initially begin to feel a bit self conscious and may fight the natural urge to gesture. Don’t pay attention to these feelings, and your presentation will be all the better for it.

Don’t be afraid to bring in sources and ideas that aren’t directly relevant

This really only works in presentations when you have a decent amount of time in a presentation. But if a part of your presentation reminds you of something in history, science, or literature and it seems relevant. Don’t be afraid to work it into the presentation. Mark Levy, president of the branding firm Levy Innovation,[9] and the writer of Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content[10] says the following :

““If you’re talking about, say, workplace productivity, it’s fine to talk about Pickett’s Charge [in the Battle of Gettysburg] or black holes or an idea from an Elizabeth Gilbert book that, in some way, relates to workplace productivity. Bringing in ideas from other domains keeps people awake and interested, and it’s actually how paradigm shifts are born”[11]

This makes sense, after all, why are books like Machiavelli’s The Prince or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War still so popular?

I don’t believe its because Renaissance era Florentine politics and ancient Chinese warfare are common interests. But instead the lessons contained within (though I’d be wary of those who pay too much attention to Machiavelli) have been used and adapted successfully by those in business.

Whether to read out loud?

The advantages of reading your presentation from a pre-written script are at first, pretty clear.

Focusing on the script will ensure everything you say is valid and appropriate, will help eliminate filler words as you no longer need to think about what to say, and means you don’t need to spend the whole time looking at everyone’s faces and wonder what they’re thinking.

The advantages are obvious…however they are deceptive.

It is always a good idea to have something on hand like a script or sheet of notes. However, relying on notes or a script completely will suck out all life from your presentation.

Also if you are just standing there and reading, you will seem as if you haven’t practiced, and by extension have little interest or knowledge in what you are presenting. This can kill off your presentation entirely. As such, if you don’t think you can memorize the whole thing, you should work hard to find a good mid point.

Featured photo credit: Judson University via flickr.com

Reference

[1]^Forbes: New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills Are Critical For Career Success[2]^Statistic Brain: Fear of Public Speaking Statistics[3]^New York Times: So, Um, How Do You, Like, Stop Using Filler Words?[4]^Likeso: LikeSo Launches to Improve America’s Verbal Habits, Like, Ya Know…[5]^Entrepreneur: Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success[6]^Persuasive Litigator: Go Ahead and Talk with Your Hands, But Know What You’re Saying[7]^Persuasive Litigator: Go Ahead and Talk with Your Hands, But Know What You’re Saying[8]^Speaking About Presenting: The three benefits of gesturing – it’s not what you think[9]^Levy Innovation[10]^Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content[11]^Fast Company: Six Habits of The Best Conversationalists

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[kglam206-blog]

Draft: The Symbolism in Anime Tropes

Anime or Japanese animation, is an immensely popular form of media in today’s world; reaching up to 87.2 percent of the world’s population says Nagata (2010), citing the Association of Japanese Animations. The global presence of anime came into view with the debut of Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy” in 1963 according to Nagata (2010). Another factor of anime’s success is due to Japanese anime targeting primarily an adult audience, in contrast to foreign animation usually being catered towards a younger audience. This allowed anime to have “more elaborate storylines and character evolvement” (Nagata, 2010).  Aggressive marketing along with the Internet has allowed for the widespread of anime globally, as the ancient dilemma of a language barrier is eliminated with the help of subtitles in many different languages.

Over several decades, anime has developed many tropes and clichés. Some common clichés include the harem genre or the more recent isekai genre. According to Anime Amino (2015), the origin of harem anime dates back to 1981; with the genre gaining popularity in the last two decades. The isekai genre or “other world” is a genre that has gained traction in recent years. Notable examples of this genre in 2016 include series like “Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!” and “Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu,” with both being very popular. The vast popularity of these genres have resulted in them being heavily overused in both manga and anime.

In this essay, I will be taking a look at tropes and clichés in anime from many angles and analysing them using the methodology semiotics. Clichés in anime are often overused tropes; as such I shall be referring to them all simply as tropes in this paper. I will be examining the meanings, the roles and the aesthetics of tropes with a focus on a few tropes; namely the “ahoge” and the “tsundere.” I will also study the iconography used in anime and provide contextualization for these tropes. I believe that these tropes add to anime by giving things a deeper meaning along with a more artistic approach by using symbolism. The use of these tropes allow for more a unique and creative freedom of expression; letting creators convey what normally may be expressed using more conventional methods such as facial expressions.

The meaning of the tropes I am looking at hold a great deal in understanding and analysing them. Focusing on the ahoge and the tsundere, first “ahoge” is translated from Japanese as foolish hair or idiot hair. It is a visual aspect of a character’s design found fairly commonly in Japanese anime and manga. According to the Animanga wiki, an ahoge is usually a large single lock of hair sticking out from a character’s head varying in size, shape and thickness. Earlier on the term was used by hairdressers to describe the hair’s inability to be combed flat like regular hair despite being unaided by hairsprays or hair gels, hence them being “idiot” hairs. However, this term also began to be used later on to identify stupid, naïve or carefree characters representing “a literal reflection of a person's intelligence” (TV Tropes wiki, n.d.). In semiotics, you could say that the presence of an ahoge on a character often signifies their traits and intelligence. This is not always the case though, as there have been many exceptions to this with an intelligent serious character having an ahoge; one such example being Douma Taihei from the anime series “Himouto! Umaru-chan” where he does not possess any of the mentioned traits. Ahoge tend to appear more often on female characters, however there are also many male characters with them.

Tsundere is a Japanese term derived from combining the terms “tsun tsun” and “dere dere”. Tsun tsun means to turn away in disgust or to be high and mighty while dere dere means to become lovey dovey according to Galbraith (2009, p. 226). Originally, this term was used to describe a character who started off with a harsh outer personality, but gradually showed warmer side to it. Over time, this character archetype has changed to be associated with characters who switch between the two emotional states of being tsun tsun or dere dere when they are provoked cites the TV Tropes wiki (n.d.). Galbraith (2009, p. 227) states the term of tsundere was made popular by a visual novel released in 2001 called “Kimi ga Nozomu Eien”.

Tsunderes are a popular character archetype found in Japanese works of fiction. Aannestad (2015, p. 7) describes a tsundere to be a character who can not properly express their affection. Rather, the character will use their harsh nature to put up a front and hide their emotions. The role of the tsundere is most often found in a female character trying to hide romantic feelings. However, this term can also be used for males and non-romantic relationships according to Aannestad (2015, p. 7). Eisenbeis (2013) explain that the reasoning behind many characters acting this way is due to a struggle between their pride and love as shown in the quote “Often, tsunderes are embarrassed by or don't know what to do with their romantic feelings and become even more belligerent and egotistical than normal—especially in proximity to the objects of their affections.” (Eisenbeis, 2013). Some stereotypical speech characteristics of female tsunderes as cited by Togashi (2009, p. 4) are that they hesitate or stutter in their speech, as well as frequently saying things like “because”, “only”, or “don’t get the wrong idea”.

Aside from just representing the intelligence of a character, the ahoge itself can play a big role in how a viewer perceives the character. The ahoge of a character may often be animated to move as if it had a life of its own. The movement and changing shape of an ahoge are often synchronized to represent the feelings and mood of the character. An example of a character exhibiting this behaviour is Araragi Koyomi from the Monogatari series. Rather than always showing his feelings through his voice, body language or face, his ahoge acts as an extension of his body. When surprised his ahoge would straighten, or when happy it could move side to side. According to Hirota, Yamazaki, and Dong (2012, p. 6), the motion of the ahoge is inspired by the tails of animals. A dog for example expresses its emotion through the motion of its tail, with it moving side to side when the dog is happy. Humans cannot express emotions through this method, but the movements of ahoge in anime are easily recognized intuitively (Hirota et al., 2012).

In semiotics, the ahoge would be a signifier that signifies the emotions of the character it is on. Ahoge are an artistic way for animators to use something as simple as a character’s hair to symbolize their feelings and their mood.

The Animanga wiki cites that the appearance of ahoge dates back decades as far as 1953 with characters created by Osamu Tezuka. However, Animanga wiki states that the first series to popularize the use of the term is called “Pani Poni Dash!” The show had a character named Himeko Katagiri with the first episode being dedicated to a story about the ahoge. This series aired between July 3 and December 25 2005.

While the ahoge can be used as a versatile tool for animators to both suggest a character’s traits as well has portray their emotion in a unique way, that is not the only reason for character designs to include an ahoge. The addition of an ahoge can also be a way to improve on the aesthetics of the character’s design. The ahoge has some pretty useful applications, but many people consider it as being cute or that it plays an important role in improving the appearance of an otherwise boring design. Ahoges come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. This video clip from “Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!” features Rikka Takanashi and Yuuta Togashi, both with pretty normal ahoges. Rikka has a longer thin ahoge, while Yuuta sports a much shorter ahoge.

An ahoge can be incredibly short like in the case of Mirai Kuriyama from “Kyoukai no Kanata”. Her ahoge is barely noticeable at first glance.

It can also be really long like Nyaruko’s from “Haiyore! Nyaruko-san”. She can move hers and form a heart shape as shown in this image.

More extreme is Araragi Koyomi from the Monogatari Series. Shaft, the animation studio for this series makes great use of his ahoge, animating it in bizarre ways for a unique way to convey messages to the audience.

The personification of the ahoge allows for a deep connection of it to the character. Referring to Hirota et al. (2012) again, the viewer is able to closely relate to and understand the ahoge due to similarities to something like a dog’s tail. The unique shapes and nimble animations give it a very pleasing aesthetic look. Ahoge is a trope appearing very commonly in anime, but unfortunately it is often overlooked; many people are not aware of its existence or know what the term means according to HoneyFeed (2016).

In tsunderes, the trope does not change the physical appearance of a character’s design much. A big part of a tsundere’s aesthetics though, comes from their facial expressions and reactions. Characters with the tsundere personality show a wide range of expressions with their 2 sides being polar opposites. Tsunderes will treat someone harshly in the beginning, often getting angry and blushing a lot. After warming up to someone, their dere dere side can be like a complete transformation. Carter (2012) in his article cites a study done by Gerald Clore, of the University of Illinois in his explanation of the appeal of tsunderes. In Clore’s experiment, participants were shown four different videos of two people interacting with each other. The results found that the majority of participants chose an interaction where one person acts unpleasantly at first before warming up; similar to the nature of characters with the tsundere personality. It is explained that, “The process which causes this is called the gain-loss, effect. Essentially, when someone is consistently unpleasant towards you, it establishes a behavioral baseline that colors your expectations.” (Carter, 2012).  A small improvement in the personality is interpreted as progress, thus it is stimulating psychologically according to Carter (2012).

An example of a tsundere is Chitoge Kirisaki from “Nisekoi”. She is originally portrayed as a harsh tomboy, but later on reveals more girly sides to her personality.

Semiotics in anime and manga can be found largely in the iconography. The iconography of anime and manga is the visual language of the media. According to Kincaid (2011), anime as a medium has a unique visual language to convey character thoughts and feelings. He states that regular watchers of anime of anime are so familiar with the symbols that we do not think twice about it. Viewers new to anime however, may find some of these symbols confusing. Kincaid (2011) organizes some common symbols into three sections; separating them into iconography that is intuitive and ranging it up to symbols that could leave most new viewers lost. Something like speed lines to show movement and speed, or eye symbols like spirals to signify confusion is generally easily understood by everyone because such iconography is present in other forms of media outside of Japan. A little bit of confusion arises when we get to symbols like popping veins when a character is angry, or a nose bubble for a sleeping character. Rather than a nose bubble to represent sleeping characters, some places around the world use the letter “Z”. In this same category include things like a ghost coming out of a character’s mouth. Kincaid (2011) explains that this signifies being scared to death. This symbol can be used in comedies with the character being shocked to death and have scenes after with someone trying to get the ghost back into the body. Lastly we get to the more obscure iconography. Anime characters are often seen getting random nosebleeds then returning to normal as if nothing happened in the following scene. In Japanese media, nosebleeds are used to signify sexual arousal in characters. This symbol is extremely abstracted from what it signifies, so it is not a big surprise that new viewers will be left confused. Other items in Kincaid’s (2011) list of obscure symbols include characters falling flat onto their face, lines and colours dropping over or covering characters’ faces and chibi deformation. When characters fall flat, otherwise know as a face fault according to the TV Tropes wiki (n.d.), is when characters are depicted falling flat on their face to represent their reaction to a bad joke. Colouring and lines on a character’s face can mean a variety of different things. When a character’s face has red vertical lines, it can be showing anger or embarrassment. Blue lines signify “awkwardness, depression, or sadness” (Kincaid, 2011). Chibi or super deformed characters may be one of the most difficult for new viewers. When this happens, the art style is completely changed for an often more simplistic and less realistic style. Kincaid (2011) cites this as a comedy break in serious stories, or just a light hearted scene. Brenner (2007) on the other hand, describes super deformed characters as signifying an extreme emotional state of the characters. All these symbols are an important part of the story telling in anime. Using semiotics, complex feelings and emotions of characters are able to be conveyed to the viewer. If you are a new watcher of anime, you may find all this iconography to be strange at first, but over time they feel very natural to this form of media.

Anime is a global phenomenon reaching the lives of people all around the world. Since the release of “Astro Boy” by Osamu Tezuka in 1963 that sparked anime’s global presence, the medium has been spreading; creating large communities of fans across the globe. Together with Tezuka, the founder of Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki is also well known for having a hand in giving anime its global presence according to Nagata (2010). Citing “Power of Japanese Animation” written by Nobuyuki Tsugata in 2004, the film “Nausicaa of the Wind” by Miyazaki in 1984 made an impact in changing how anime was viewed. Japanese animation unlike western animation is created for an older adult oriented audience. It has allowed for more complex and interesting stories that bigger audiences can relate to and enjoy.

Through several decades, anime developed many tropes with many having a strong sense of symbolism. Using semiotics, I analyzed some common tropes found in anime today with a focus on the ahoge and the tsundere tropes. Ahoge is a term composed of the words “aho” meaning idiot and “ge” meaning hair to create the term idiot hair. It refers to the strand of hair sticking up from the middle of the character's head can appear in a variety of different shapes and sizes.. In anime it is a popular trope that can be used to signify a character’s traits and intelligence. Additionally, the animation of ahoge on characters can be used as a symbol for animators to express emotions without the conventional facial expressions. Ahoge make for a unique alternative as they are also intuitive and easily understood due to their resemblance to gestures of animals; more specifically a dog’s tail as stated by Hirota et al. (2012).

The tsundere on the other hand, is a character archetype commonly found in the recent decades of anime. The term derived from “tsun tsun” and “dere dere” signifies the personality of a character who on the surface has a harsh personality, but eventually warm up or switch between the two emotional states. In the case of tsunderes, their outer expressions may not accurately signify what they are truly feeling. Tsunderes are not to be confused with the other “dere” archetypes. Eisenbeis (2013) writes about the four dere archetypes commonly found in anime; the tsundere, kuudere, dandere and yandere. Eisenbeis (2013) cites the Japanese word dere dere to be an onomatopoeia for being lovestruck. This term combined with others is what brought forth the four archetypes being presented here. Firstly, tsunderes as we know are harsh on the outside, but loving in the inside. Kuuderes are calm and serious characters on the outside with the “kuu” in the term coming from the English word “cool” explains Eisenbeis (2013). However on the inside, they are emotional. Danderes are quiet anti social characters who want to be social but lack the courage to. The final of the deres, the yandere, is more extreme than the previous three according to Eisenbeis (2013). Yanderes appear to be normal on the outside, but are crazy on the inside. Their love for someone often causes them to commit violent deeds in fear of their loved in being stolen.

Hitagi Senjougahara from the Monogatari series is a self proclaimed tsundere. However in actuality, she resembles more a kuudere; with a few traits of tsundere and yandere.

Aside from the ahoge and the tsundere, anime has many tropes that contain symbolism. Iconography in anime is the visual language. They are the symbols that show up frequently in all anime to represent feelings and emotions in an artistic way. The iconography of anime includes something as simple as speed lines drawing to show speed or motion, to something as abstract as nosebleeds to signify arousal. I believe that these tropes allow creators to incorporate deeper and more creative ideas into anime. Animators make use of all these story telling tools to make anime the unique medium that has captured the hearts of people all around the world.

References

Aannestad, A. (2015). Hiding your emotions in plain sight. Retrieved March 4, 2017, from http://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/work-papers/_files/docs/2015-aannestad.pdf

Ahoge. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2017, from http://animanga.wikia.com/wiki/Ahoge

Amit, R. (2012). On the Structure of Contemporary Japanese Aesthetics. Philosophy East and West, 62(2), 174–185. https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2012.0016

Brenner, R. E. (2007). Understanding Manga and Anime. Greenwood Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uY8700WJy_gC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=anime+symbols&ots=4hGDc2TN72&sig=Gda0dZLjJ8EV8w9NkWRxrn2-uqs#v=onepage&q=anime%20symbols&f=false

Carter, G. (2012). Science Explains Tsundere Appeal. Retrieved March 5, 2017, from http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116164-Science-Explains-Tsundere-Appeal

Eisenbeis, R. (2013). How to Identify Popular Japanese Character Types. Retrieved March 5, 2017, from http://kotaku.com/how-to-identify-popular-japanese-character-types-1169085239

Galbraith, P. W. (2009). The Otaku Encyclopedia: An Insider’s Guide to the Subculture of Cool Japan. Kodansha International.

Hirota, K., Yamazaki, Y., & Dong, F. (2012). Mascot Robot System Based on Fuzzy Control Technology. In E. Trillas, P. P. Bonissone, L. Magdalena, & J. Kacprzyk (Eds.), Combining Experimentation and Theory (pp. 137–149). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24666-1_10

HoneyFeed. (2016, January 8). What is Ahoge? [Definition, Meaning]. Retrieved from http://blog.honeyfeed.fm/what-is-ahoge-definition-meaning/

Idiot Hair. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2017, from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotHair

Kincaid, C. (2011, February 13). Anime’s Visual Language. Retrieved from http://www.japanpowered.com/japan-culture/animes-visual-language

Nagata, K. (2010, September 7). “Anime” makes Japan superpower. The Japan Times Online. Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/09/07/reference/anime-makes-japan-superpower/

Origin and Evolution of the Harem Genre. (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2017, from http://aminoapps.com/page/anime/1315294/origin-and-evolution-of-the-harem-genre

Tanioka Yasuji 谷岡ヤスジ. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2017, from http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au1907.html

Togashi, J. ’ichi. (2009). ツンデレ屜幠♡灯猻と言語表現の関係 - togashi2009a.pdf. Retrieved March 5, 2017, from http://www.ic.daito.ac.jp/~jtogashi/articles/togashi2009a.pdf

Tsundere. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2017, from http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tsundere

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Tricks to Deliver an Impressive Presentation Every Time

According to Forbes, 70% of Americans agreed that delivering good presentations has been critical for their success at work.[1] Delivering presentations and the communications skills which go along with it are a big part of not only work life, but college, and school too. Yet it is something a lot of us struggle with.

I recall one time, in college, I had to deliver a presentation on a topic, and the person before me was so pro, and covered so much of what I intended to cover, that I was left there, in front of the class mumbling and stumbling my pre-prepared speech. Fear of public speaking (Glossophobia) is so common that a stunning 75% of people suffer from it.[2]

Of course, fear of public speaking is only one aspect of why delivering a great presentation can be tough. You may find yourself having to condense weeks of research and pages of information and data into only a handful of minutes.

On top of this you could worry about the format and structure of your presentation (this is a big issue for me).

As it is important for professional or academic success, all these stresses can make presentations seem nightmarish. But they don’t need to be. In fact, your presentation and public speaking skills can be improved tenfold thanks to a handful of tips and considerations.

Many, many books have been published about tackling public speaking, many therapists specialize on helping people with this anxiety (of course, if you feel like seeing one may help, go for it!) but great improvement can be made without too much effort. See the tips below.

Drop Verbal Fillers

Every-day conversation and talk is actually pretty strange if you really pay attention and focus on it. We speak in run on sentences, sometimes don’t quite make sense, make points that don’t lead anywhere, and most of all, fill our talks with little verbal ticks and filler words.[3]

Filler words fill our spoken sentences with words like “um”, “ah” “like”, and “you know?” words, that don’t mean anything, and are only there so you can keep making a sound when you figure out what to say next. Its perfectly natural and pretty much everyone does them.

We are all so accustomed these elements of casual conversation that we don’t notice them. However during a high pressure activity like delivering a presentation we can start to become really aware of it all, and start to kick ourselves for making them. Whats worse, is that they may have a genuinely negative effect on our presentations.

The solution?

Get rid of them.

But how?

A good tip is to record yourself in numerous conversations, then repeatedly listen to them. This will make you much more aware of how you use filler words and will be good step towards dropping them.

Though we don’t like silences, sometimes not saying something for a second, and taking a breath may make you sound more confident than filling your presentations with fillers.

If you need a little bit more help, there is actually an app designed to coach you out of using filler words called Likeso. [4]The app is programmed to pick up your use of filler words when you talk and reveal them to you as a percentage of your overall speech.

Getting rid of filler words will also improve your communication skills generally and make you much more articulate, merely by clearing away unnecessary filler.

Inform, Educate, and Entertain

These three intentions should be core to your presentation. The same ideas were the foundation of the BBC, and were big parts of all of Steve Jobs ‘ presentations and product launches.[5]

Entertaining those viewing your presentation (perhaps by adding an element of humor to your presentation or other elements) will ensure they won’t be bored during your presentation. Also if you entertain well, they will be drawn to you.

Informing and educating is where you convey the substance of your presentation.

Practice, Practice, Practice

This is by far the most obvious bit of advice, but it is also by far the most important. Before delivering your presentation, you need to know it backwards, forwards, left right, up down, every way.

If you can, try to memorize as much as possible. This might both help with nerves, but also make you come across as more confident and knowledgeable.

People are naturally drawn to those they perceive as confident. So, if you deliver your presentation with confidence brought from practice, you may turn those people you’re presenting to, from intimidating judges, to a captivated audience.

When practicing consider not only the words you’re saying, but how you’re saying them, and your movements and posture. A presentation is pretty much a performance. A piece of theater, and you are the lead actor.

Consider your body language

Though we tend to think that communication is all about what we say, and perhaps tone. It is thought that 94% [6] of how we communicate is actually non verbal, this is a myth, however your gestures and body language are important parts of your communication.[7]

You could be delivering the most beautifully written presentation ever, but if you deliver it without moving, timidly in the corner with your hands in your pockets. You will seem uninspired and well..boring.

The good news is, gesturing is perfectly natural, if you make effort to deliver your conversation with confidence, this will show itself in your gestures.[8] All you need to really do is loosen up and the rest will take care of itself.

If we begin to pay attention to our use of gestures, we may initially begin to feel a bit self conscious and may fight the natural urge to gesture. Don’t pay attention to these feelings, and your presentation will be all the better for it.

Don’t be afraid to bring in sources and ideas that aren’t directly relevant

This really only works in presentations when you have a decent amount of time in a presentation. But if a part of your presentation reminds you of something in history, science, or literature and it seems relevant. Don’t be afraid to work it into the presentation. Mark Levy, president of the branding firm Levy Innovation,[9] and the writer of Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content[10] says the following :

““If you’re talking about, say, workplace productivity, it’s fine to talk about Pickett’s Charge [in the Battle of Gettysburg] or black holes or an idea from an Elizabeth Gilbert book that, in some way, relates to workplace productivity. Bringing in ideas from other domains keeps people awake and interested, and it’s actually how paradigm shifts are born”[11]

This makes sense, after all, why are books like Machiavelli’s The Prince or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War still so popular?

I don’t believe its because Renaissance era Florentine politics and ancient Chinese warfare are common interests. But instead the lessons contained within (though I’d be wary of those who pay too much attention to Machiavelli) have been used and adapted successfully by those in business.

Whether to read out loud?

The advantages of reading your presentation from a pre-written script are at first, pretty clear.

Focusing on the script will ensure everything you say is valid and appropriate, will help eliminate filler words as you no longer need to think about what to say, and means you don’t need to spend the whole time looking at everyone’s faces and wonder what they’re thinking.

The advantages are obvious…however they are deceptive.

It is always a good idea to have something on hand like a script or sheet of notes. However, relying on notes or a script completely will suck out all life from your presentation.

Also if you are just standing there and reading, you will seem as if you haven’t practiced, and by extension have little interest or knowledge in what you are presenting. This can kill off your presentation entirely. As such, if you don’t think you can memorize the whole thing, you should work hard to find a good mid point.

Featured photo credit: Judson University via flickr.com

Reference

[1]^Forbes: New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills Are Critical For Career Success[2]^Statistic Brain: Fear of Public Speaking Statistics[3]^New York Times: So, Um, How Do You, Like, Stop Using Filler Words?[4]^Likeso: LikeSo Launches to Improve America’s Verbal Habits, Like, Ya Know…[5]^Entrepreneur: Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success[6]^Persuasive Litigator: Go Ahead and Talk with Your Hands, But Know What You’re Saying[7]^Persuasive Litigator: Go Ahead and Talk with Your Hands, But Know What You’re Saying[8]^Speaking About Presenting: The three benefits of gesturing – it’s not what you think[9]^Levy Innovation[10]^Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content[11]^Fast Company: Six Habits of The Best Conversationalists

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