#its so trans allegory its insane

[couldtransitionsaveher]

FAN from INANIMATE INSANITY

JUSTIFICATION:

"straight up has a season-long character arc surrounding an egg allegory and fear of changing/acknowledging there being More to the world and More to himself because he's afraid it'll be too different and complicated and he might regret opening up from his "shell." additionally he heavily projects onto this egg and calls it "he" up until it hatches and is revealed to be a different gender than what he'd been projecting, and he has to accept that and get to know the eggs true self. its so trans and blatantly obvious but completely accidental on the writers part and it makes me feel insane. he is also a weirdo fandom girly and has trouble viewing the people around him as People with more unpredictable depth than fictional characters but thats unrelated to the trans stuff" - Anonymous

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[cartoonkitten]

my thoughts on 200% wolf because i have a lot of jumbled thoughts after finally seeing it after waiting 2 years

SPOILERS ‼️‼️‼️

i’m gonna tell you all right fucking now, that this movie is seriously so perfect and mind-blowing i’m not joking. it might be just me, considering a lot of outsider’s thoughts on it, which are now completely illogical to me cause i genuinely thought this movie was so fucking perfect in practically every way. like i’m shocked this comes from the same franchise i’ve been watching for 4 years (not in a mean way just in an insanely grateful way!!!)

OK I MUST ADDRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. THE ANIMATION IS JUST AS FANTASTIC AS IT IS ADVERTISED. LIKE seriously!!! they weren’t lying when they said it was pixar-level, because IT IS. the production value for the entire film is incredible enough, but the visuals are seriously impressive. they are off the charts good!!! the animation is so beautifully, fluid, rhythmic and have such a good flow to them that make everything so eye catching. the character acting and attention to details in it every movement is so well thought out and contributed to each character well. the slapstick, bounciness, and toony nature of it too make it sooo fun!!! like the trailers and clips were one thing, but getting to watch the entirety of it, you just really get immersed with out visual stunning it is. such a thing to behold!

another thing i gotta point out is the score and pacing, which go hand in hand to me. the pacing in this movie is actually so refreshing and it all flows well together, with the score only amplifying every scene (seriously, the score in this movie is insane!). i honestly didn’t think any scenes dragged out too-too long or went by too overwhelmingly fast. of course, with the visuals and everything else (and me being autistic for this franchise) it’s easy to be distracted otherwise, but still. i actually found that very satisfying. it also makes the action and other really good scenes all the more fascinating to see.

even the beginning of the movie automatically set me up for a breathtaking experience. the pan over the moon’s surface, the moonspirits’ theme and role, along with moopoo’s introduction. the establishment already made me excited— AND FREDDY’S NARRATION AT THE BEGINNING IS STILL FUNNY TO ME. hardcore awesomeness. AND ALSO that whole blimp rescuing scene is genuinely so good and fun to watch, like the slapstick and action are so good and funny and such an exciting start. and freddy and batty’s dynamic is still my most favorite beloved thing ever.

"it’s easy for you to say, you’re 100% wolf!" and still, freddy is actually the realest one in the room. HES TRYING HIS FUCKING BEST. disabled trans allegory real.

AND WHEN HE BECOMES A WOLF HES LITERALLY SO SILLY. HIS MONTAGE OF SILLINESS. also moopoo tries to eat a crow for some reason after pissing off freddy and it’s even sillier. AND AGAIN, THE HUMOR IN THIS MOVIE IS ACTUALLY INCREDIBLY GOOD. LIKE it’s genuinely funny and works so well, especially with the slapstick.

THEN TO THE DOGS. though they’ve weirdly became irrelevant especially after being retconned from the series, seeing them again here is.. honestly awesome! like they’re actually really funny and entertaining in this movie!! TWITCHY GROWING A SOFT SPOT FOR MOOPOO AND ACTUNG LIKE HIS MOM IS VERY CUTE. also the traveling scene on the buses was actually so funny. AND BATTY BEING AFRAID OF BATS IS ACTUALLY IRONICALLY SILLY, especially with her friendship with gar-gar later on, which i love by the way, their scenes are so blessed (also gar-gar is so cute i love him, he’s so somft. his name reminds me of gor-gor from gwar).

ALSOOOO THE MOOPOO DREAMING SEQUENCE IS SO INCREDIBLE TO ME. LIKE ITS SO FUCKING SWEET AND IM OBSESSED WITH IT. I LOVE HIM AND HIS MOM AND THE LULLABY SHE SINGS HIM. EVERYONE HOWLING ALONG IS SOOOOO (PUNCHES THE FUCKING WALL).

also this is so silly to me but i love when max makes freddy do a trust exercise and he attempts to do a trust fall and plummets on the ground and she’s like "what are you doing? no, go fucking kill those dogs"

moopoo starts to become vaguely corrupted with the earth magic that lies within that area. and it’s leaving me to theorize that it probably only, or at least predominantly, effects anything that is or comes from some form of moon magic. that’s just my idea. cause moopoo didn’t use and spells he just started becoming evil for no reason so, yeah, that’s what leads me to believe that.

as for more extensive character thoughts. max is actually an incredibly good villain. she’s insanely badass, intimidating charming, funny and vicious, yet there’s a level of nuance with her— which is kind of why i genuinely would’ve preferred had they redeemed her if i’m being honest. i dug her almost character turn around, because it honestly wouldn’t be too far from realistic to push her in that direction. in character context, her betrayal /does/ kinda still make sense, but also with the fact that she’s humbled herself over the years serving her consequences, and even vaguely accepting her difference, she still admittedly does acknowledge that, despite not deserving the treatment she initially got, she still did bad things that hurt innocent people, fronting defensively out of hate or corruption (arguably both). it probably wouldn’t have been a very drastic change to the plot had they had her fight them after being "betrayed" first, show that freddy can use the magic and overcome the corruptions. then have freddy confront her on how "you can’t force respect, and you can’t earn respect either if you hurt other people that could have," still implying how him and moopoo are misfits like her, and respect her enough to search for her help. having her confront what she’s been too scared to admit all along, and be able to combat corruption herself. then she pushes the moon back into place. freddy goes to help moopoo, who is presumably still being corrupted by all the magic being thrown around, and thus, the rest can continue how it did. although, i’d prefer max not be given her wolf form back like freddy did. let her state accepting her consequence and that she’ll take her time re-earning her respect again. if this all makes sense. that’s really my main idea for max, i just thought it would’ve been cool, and also a subversion compared to all the other villains.

another thing i wanted to talk about it how i appreciate how they worked with freddy’s character. anyone that knows me knows how heavily critical i am of the first movie (which makes this incredible movie feel like a fever dream), and especially how i feel about the writing surrounding, weirdly enough, freddy himself. it was all kinds of disappointing and underbaked with the message totally mixed up. to be honest, this movie take that same message and redoes it more considerably i reckon. freddy doesn’t get inherently villainized for unrealistic reasons, and he honestly feels even more in character in this movie. like freddy is such a good protagonist and i feel like this movie molds him into the most fitting and well thought out way for him. i greatly appreciate it.

there is probably more i will be talking about later, but this is what my main thoughts are. this movie is fucking amazing and i can’t believe it’s real i’m gonna cry

[teeth-cable]

You everr realize that Vivziepop is completely bullshitting when it comes to ethnic casting because of Millie?

Like we are definitely getting imp human disguises for merch reasons so its definitely going to come up.

But like if Millie is black then her family should be played by black VAs but all of them are white VAs. Like I don't think Millie is adopted since she looks like a younger version of her mother.

The best course would then be making Millie white and no we can't use Erica being the original VA as evidence because that was always meant to be a temp casting.

But then this creates an issue in Helluva Boss having no fucking diversity like Vivziepop doesn't have to answer to corporate demands to make the ENTIRE CAST white. She can choose to add diversity.

If she makes Millie black that's also showcasing a huge issue in Helluva's lack of diversity in its main group of characters and Millie could come off as a token. Then you have the fact Morgana and Ed would come under fire for taking POC roles as well as Spindle allowing it unless Vivziepop retcons Millie as adopted or half siblings with Sallie.

Like Into The Spiderverse had half its human cast be POC and it answered to corporate demands. Then Across The Spiderverse without spoiling anything has a MAJORITY of the cast be POC.

Now you can argue Spiderverse is based off existing material unlike Helluva but those existing materials had put effort into adding POC in the first place. And guess what Spiderverse had consulted actual minorities when it came to development of the project.

Vivziepop is latina but she's white passing so she needs to consult people who don't pass to get a better understanding overall on things. Like I'm disconnected from my own culture but just because I'm part of it doesn't mean I have a full picture of it.

Vivziepop also isn't black, asian or indigenous so if she's telling stories that features them she needs to do research and consult people.

She actually consulted Morgana about Sallie May being trans thankfully but... I never hear any talk about other people she talks to which shows poor ass attempts. Like Morgana's insight is valid but she does not speak for all trans people and yes you aren't going to please everybody with representation but just consulting a SINGLE PERSON is insane. We also know Viv according to leaked screenshots has or had some form of transphobia so she absolutely needs to consult more people if she's trying to change and do better especially if she's writing about a trans character.

Like Morgana being a white transwoman will not have the same experience as a black transwoman for example. Like I know that from actively trying to learn about trans people.

Like there's a youtuber UnicornofWar who made a video about how the show RWBY is terrible at handling its racism allegory. Now Unicorn is white but actively went out of their way to consult multiple POC for the video and did a shit ton of research. Now I will say Unicorn in the past has said ignorant things about stuff like white washing (thinking its ok because of art style color pallets back then) in earlier videos but currently denounces that viewpoint (note: Unicorn as far as Im aware has never said anything with vile. I have to clarify so I don't misrepresent their person and people don't assume Unicorn like said a slur) and actually apologizes for their ignorance.

Has Vivziepop ever denounced her old views or behavior? Has she apologized for being ignorant in certain things? Is making a serious effort to change? Has Vivziepop researched throughly and listened to POC insights or concerns?

As far as I'm aware she hasn't.

I have noticed Viv's weird choices for Millie as a black character. I hate to say this but Millie is supposed to be token rep which to me is weird because nobody was pressuring Viv to add rep to her shows. I will say this even in a universe where Viv hired black VAs to voice Millie's family and did do properly research and consulted black people, Millie would still be considered token rep because she is the only the only main character in the show to not have an self-centered EP and has the least amount of screentime.

It makes me wonder if the reason why the IMPs don't have a canon human form yet is because Viv doesn't want to draw POC characters. She has shown she knows the importance of these disguises and they sell well on merch but the only characters who have canon human forms are Stolas and Loona, two white characters who arguably don't even need them. Blitzo is voiced by Brandon Roger who is a mixed Filipino (It's also canon Blitzo looks like Brandon Roger and Blitzo and Brandon Roger are intertwined together so it doesn't make sense for Blitzo to be white), Millie being a black woman, and Moxxie, despite what you might believe is a mixed Latino.

The POC rep we already have isn't good either. In Spring Broken, Verosika and her gang, who the majority are POCs, gets arrested and Verosika makes a joke about sucking police dicks to get out of jail. Having a POC character make a rape joke about police corruption unironically is not funny. Moxxie's mom is obviously supposed to be Latina, falls into the trope of nice POC women who get brutally abused and killed by their white husbands. This actually could have work and wouldn't be as tokenizing if 1. we got to learn about Moxxie's mom as a person and 2. her death wasn't solely use to be angst bait for a male character.

The Spiderverse crew actively puts effort and consulted with POC about characters from their culture. During the early stage of writing for Pavitr Prabhakar, the writing team struggled writing his character and called his VA, Karan Soni to help them write and consult on the character. Thanks to Karan Soni's contribution for Pavitr Prabhakar, he is beloved by desi people alike. Viv doesn't do that and probably will never. She has shown time and time again, she doesn't respect religions, using their symbols as an aesthetic and for monetary gain. Viv's designs for black and other POC characters are terrible, them alway never having POC features and looking racial ambiguous as hell and she ignored the criticism from black and POC people for these POC characters.

[hostilemuppet]

people say "mom friend" as if a female character can't just be nice or worry for her friends. not the best example, but back when i first got into homestuck (didn't know much english, was fairly new to the internet) i was so confused at the THOUSANDS of fanart showing kanaya as karkat's mom. and every AU or fic i saw afterwards had rosemary as the "adoptive moms" of de-aged characters, like....homie i'm gonna need you to take a chill pill.

the thing with kanaya specifically is that she is, thematically, tied with motherhood. she is virgo, the virgin maryam. a big part of her arc is how she feels like a failure for being unable to continue her species the way a jadeblood is supposed to, and its largely why she resonated with so many lesbians and trans women. but people took it to such the wrong conclusion, its insane. the entire point of 10/12 of the alpha trolls was to make fun of fanon flanderisation of the characters, and one of the ways this is shown is porrim maryam babying kankri vantas. yeah, kanaya loves her friends, but i dont think theres a single point where she actually acts "motherly" towards any of them. shes just a decent person to them, because she is a decent person. but for act 5, shes not a mum. she is 13 years old. with other friends who are 13 years old. her desire for motherhood wasnt actually a desire for motherhood, it was so she wouldnt fail her purpose. which is a very obvious allegory to how women in real life are treated more like prized breeding horses and caretakers than actual people, especially with how jadebloods are almost exclusively female. once again, porrim brings this up, by pointing out how even if alternia has a matriarch, its still a misogynistic society ("fuschia down matriarchy, purple down patriarchy"). but people just saw kanaya, who was 13, and decided she just really wanted to be a mum, you guys. she wanted to be a housewife.

she was 13

[mod2amaryllis]

just gonna sliiide into your inbox to be like. got any complicated relationship with motherhood recs?? cause I'm👀

👁️👁️ b i s c i a.

the first rec is always for all time The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin

talk about books that changed my brain chemistry and boosted my writing, especially the fifth season, which pulls a narrative trick with its 3 main character perspectives that still has me reeling and makes me resent the fact that not every protagonist is an exhausted middle aged mother who's haunted by choices and horrors of her own making!!

The Devourers by Indra Das

a take on werewolves that's at times genuinely sickening to read, esp for my body-horror-scawy ass. lot of upsetting themes fyi, like. all the themes. are upsetting. but i was left feeling like I'd just gotten the world's most dire hug. also trans allegory out the wazoo.

i feel like this one is really obligatory like yeah no shit Beloved by Toni Morrison but still: Beloved by Toni Morrison

I've never felt smart enough for this book but i think about it constantly, not just because the contents are so traumatic but the way it's written..... even now i feel like such a dunce trying to say anything about it but it's like. it broke rules in my brain about how books are supposed to be structured and understood. there's a chapter that ends in a stream of thought that's borderline incomprehensible and it's in my head forever.

ok little different now and largely positive mushy gushy mom stuff, but a lot of Brandi Carlile's songs, especially The Mother:

and her whole In These Silent Days album. particularly it's celebrating lesbian motherhood. Mama Werewolf is awesome and introduces that complication that makes me ravenous, but my favorite is her love song to her wife, You And Me On The Rock

there's a song exploder podcast episode about it. she talks about how it's an homage to her good friend Joni Mitchell, how it's about this very feminine love she shares with her wife and daughter (and now also her son) and how she spent some of her youth grappling with that femininity.

speaking of song exploder!!!!!! the episode for Song For Our Daughter by Laura Marling

Laura Marling and her partner don't have children. this song is a hypothetical about the trauma of being a girl and having your boundaries crossed when you're young. but what absolutely destroys me is that there's a string section, which was written by a violinist to whom she gave creative liberty, and in his strings he says, "i wrote this to be the character of The Daughter, so she's here in the song soaring over everything" and it just. hearing the context and then listening to the song........i show this episode to anyone who's stuck in a car with me 25 minutes.

on the subject of music, of course there's Florence + The Machine's 2022 album Dance Fever, particularly King

like hell yeah let's get primal with it

and ok this is gonna clock my grew up as a theatre kid ass but still, to this day, Next To Normal.

listening to this show as a teenager who was just starting to hate my (wonderful awesome love her) mom was like......hoooooo. it blew open the my-parents-are-human empathy. idc about like whether or not this musical lives up to the insane hype it got in the late 2000s it just meant a lot to me personally.

also there's movies i guess! but if you're not already on the Everything Everywhere All At Once train idk what we're doing

then my oldest mom-centric media of all, so old that I'm not even sure how well it holds up to my current person sensibilities, Fruits Basket

the way her death is the inciting incident for everything that happens after, and how she's a ghost that haunts the rest of the story, at times a protective spirit and at other times a traumatic poltergeist, is like. i thought i was a 13yo reading a magical high school romance what's happening to me.

then of course the current rec, Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

Lockwood is a poet and this is her memoir about growing up with a Catholic priest for a dad, something that in itself seems contradictory. it's phenomenal. i can't believe someone exists who's this good at writing. her relationship with her mother is hilariously, tenderly depicted and it's questioning and resentful and loving and there's a chapter about them called the cum queens of the hyatt palace and it's the funniest thing I've ever read

oops too many words

motherhood in media borders on fixation for me lol i don't always seek it out but when it's there I'm like AAAAAAAAH, AAAAAAAH AAAAAAAAAAAAH AAAAAH IS ANYONE ELSE SEEING THIS GRAAAAAHHHH!!!!

........oh and undertale. how could i forget Undertale.

[jrwi-transgender-swag]

if jay doesn’t AT LEAST make it to the semi finals i will be soooo insane . her entire story is an allegory for being trans ITS SO INSANELY CLEAR <333 i need my babygirl to sweep this

theres so far 4 jay submissions and 3 of them are entire paragraphs of character study explaining how shes a trans allegory, i believe in her o7

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Review Blurbs: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

General Thoughts:

-From what I've seen the animation had like "how are the animators not in a psych ward" insane levels of attention to detail so go look into that cause there's always some new amazing tidbit of info circulating about the movie-making process

-Music score was fantastic, it always did well setting the atmosphere of the scenes and bringing you into the moment (my favorite sequences was Gwen's intro and the Mumbattan segments)

-I'm obsessed with how they choreographed the fight styles, especially for Gwen and Pavitr who had very stylized movements (Gwen's is based off ballet and Pavitr fights using Kalaripayattu)

-I liked how Miles' theme song (What's Up Danger) felt a bit more fitting. In ITSV, Miles was very new to everything and questioning if the hero lifestyle was what he wanted. Now, not only was he so committed to doing things his way that he derailed the entire Spider Society with success, but we also meet Earth-42 Miles who is seemingly very fearsome. To the Spider Society, potentially to the entire multiverse even, they face a danger in the form of Miles Morales.

-This movie was Gwen's movie, full stop. Her and Miles shared the spotlight, she wasn't just a side character this time. I haven't seen people talk about this as much and they should cause Gwen's story was so beautifully crafted and that intro/final scene were some of the best parallel sequences I've ever seen in a movie. Her story and even the storytelling in the music and her "starting a band" were so well done, people have been doing analyses on the music change in the intro vs the final scene and how the music correlates to Gwen's personal growth and just ugh. More Gwen appreciation please (this isn't even getting into the trans allegory literally there was so much to her story so pay tf attention please and thank you)

-Adding on, part of the reason I loved the above point was also cause not only is ITSV's main female character given a big spotlight to shine in, but it served an important narrative purpose of giving the movie a hopeful and satisfying ending, because right now Miles' story is in its sort of Rising/Climax stage. The final act of Miles Morales' story has only just begun, and the movie set it up so damn well cause I know me and everyone alive are dying to know what's gonna happen next with him and Earth-42 Miles. Gwen's arc wrapped up and gave us hope as Miles' story was taking a dark turn, and that hope is what's gonna lead us forward until its his turn to shine in the light once again.

-Loved the new characters, I enjoyed Miguel having layers to his methodology and morals (some people pointed out possible reasons for him acting as aggressive as he did and it makes a lot of sense, but at the time it was just like "why tf is Miguel slamming Miles into a train and screaming at him for not wanting his dad to die papi chill💀")

-Jessica is underrated and I love how they did her character. She's very responsible and definitely has a tough love approach, but she's very human. I laughed out loud when she said she wasn't bothered by being pregnant in this line of work cause the guy she screwed was hot like she is so fucking real omg. Jessica also had a similar attitude to Miguel, but she has a personal connection with Gwen that I think grounds her more. I wish we had more of her mentorship towards Gwen and I hope to see it in the next movie (maybe even a baby reveal👀)

-I don't think anyone mentioned it but Spider-Byte always looked a bit different/off in all her frames and I'm like 99% sure that's cause they used a different animation style to give her that glitched/cyber punk effect which is just so damn cool

-Honestly all the female characters deserve more recognition, fandom still has a huge male bias and it shows cause Gwen, Jessica, Spider-Byte and Lila deserve way more love

-Hobie was without a doubt my favorite character this movie. He's a real punk and I cannot be grateful enough cause I am fucking done with people who ain't actually punk using it as an aesthetic, he's here to show how its done (others have made plenty of observations on him so go check those out cause they're very good)

-Not much to say about Pavitr personally but I adore his character design, definitely my favorite next to Gwen's (he also taught me that chai tea does not exist and is in fact just "tea tea" I'M SORRY I DIDN'T KNOW I'M SOUTH AMERICAN NOT SOUTH ASIAN😭)

-I'm surprised by how engaging Spider-Verse continues to make their villains. Doc Ock was fantastic, and this time around The Spot was a great subversion of expectations. He's silly and from the trailer release to the beginning of the movie, you think he's a joke character to set the mood. Then he starts to become actually sinister and you're sitting there thinking "the movie literally called me out for this and I still managed to fall into expectations". Very good job making a villain character not only feel like a threat, but by doing so in an unexpected way that really rips the rug out from under you. I want to study the story writers' minds like I'm being tested on it

-The return of the OGs was so nice, I wasn't as invested in Into the Spider-Verse admittedly but I felt it when Peni made a reappearance to tell Miles his dad had to die. Shit hit me in the soul (I'm also obsessed with Noir so very happy to see them both back)

-I saw people saying that Spider-Verse was copaganda and I'd like to withhold any definitive stances until Beyond comes out, but it definitely felt like they were holding back when it came to criticisms of Gwen's dad. Remember, it could very well be that the writer's behind Hobie "hate the AM and PM"/wears blue fucking laces Brown were told by higher-ups to cool it or the movie wouldn't get released so don't immediately go after them, learn from the writer's strike to use critical thinking and wait for more info. Hopefully they can address that more after audience reviews come in so we'll see.

-All the scenes where Miles would almost reveal he's Spider-Man to his parents/did reveal it had me stressed lmao, they did a great job making the audience feel the weight and tension of the moment

-The ending was the hypest shit like it was so good I couldn't even be mad about the cliffhanger I was just in awe

-I actually thought towards the end that they might do a two-parter but then I was like "nahhhhh they wouldn't" and then they did that. We very much entered a "final stage" towards the end so I'm wondering how the creators will space it out and what they'll do for the next movie. Either way I am "beyond" hyped

Criticisms:

I only have like two criticisms cause this movie was pretty fucking good, but its never bad to look at what even a masterpiece like Spider-Verse could do better so future projects can take note. Having said that:

-I understand it was for authenticity's sake, but the live-action segments were a bit jarring after being in animation for so long. I would've animated those segments as well or done some form of 3D so it blended in. Every other character was animated so it felt weird when suddenly Andrew Garfield and Donald Glover were on screen (even Tom Holland's spidey was animated). A minor nitpick, but I can respect the boldness in really committing to the meta-mindfuckery of the multiverse

-Gwiles as a ship was never really my thing, so you can understand my surprise when I felt like they actually kinda improved on it since the first movie ("boy has crush on girl because she's pretty and a girl and we're supposed to root for it" is my least favorite trope [*cough cough* cause its what straight dudes like *cough cough*] so its no surprise when Gwiles in ITSV did absolutely nothing for me). Having said that, the movie pushed a tad too hard for it imo. Pavitr was the classic "shipper" character made to push the ship forward and make it super obvious to the audience that its what the movie wants you to root for, and I and many people are not about that. If you need to tell your audience to support a romance then you're not doing it right.

-As sort of an add-on to the above, I think Hobie and Gwen were hinted as having dated during Gwen's time working under Miguel? Which like... why? Literally why. It made no sense and did nothing for the characters or their relationship, they could easily just be friends and nothing would change. This plot point was also never mentioned again after its initial reveal (from Pavitr to cause "drama" for Miles I think) and quite literally nothing came of it. No drama (thank fuck cause that was not what I or anyone went to this movie for), no development, nothing. It was just thrown in and never used. So uh... yeah, don't do that. Thanks.

Final Thoughts:

Across the Spider-Verse was definitely a step-up from the first movie, I was far more engaged and I found very little to criticize from it. Animation, music score, characters, all 10/10, and above all, its action sequences kicked ass and restored the good name of the superhero genre. Watch this movie, and I highly recommend doing so in theaters because it is a perfect example of how movies are not just entertainment, but an experience to remember.

[sea-salted-wolverine]

P, Q, T 👀

*insert grumble mumble while I hunt down which questions those are*

P- invent random AU for a fandom.

Uhhh... Klondike gold rush era Alaska. 1890s and there's money coming out of the ground at the ends of the earth. The corners of the map have all been filled in but there is one last frontier to explore. The mounties are making your characters carry 3 years worth of supplies up the chilkoot pass. They have more money than God in a place where there is nothing to buy. Wump opportunities galore. The only people actually turning a profit are the outfitters and the whores. The closest version of western civilization is a tent city in a swamp run by gangs stealing luggage. (Anchorage mention) Robert Service is writing poetry about a frozen zombie mailman. Jack London is writing about murder dogs.

Yeah.

I am not optimistic about the quality of a gold rush AU written for fan fic purposes because its a super niche thing that would require assloads of research, but its an incredibly rich setting and frankly a fucking insane period of history. Go read the Cremation of Sam Mcgee and slot in whoever you feel would fit. Tag it as #wouldn't it be fucked up if

Q- i don't so much abandon ships as I put them in drydock and forget about them. I have a habit of latching onto underdeveloped characters in mediocre media that are never going to get any more fleshed out than "cute naive love interest" or "comic relief character #2" and then I'm vaguely dissapointed when the mediocre media wraps up and is content to leave them as accessories of the plot. I have a handful of fics that started as ships, and I did so much work extrapolating personalities and fleshing out the characters that it just became original fiction. The worst offenders are usually Shonen Manga and action movies because while there is a solid chunk of my media taste that is a 9 year old boy who wants to see explosions and superpowers and giant rock-em sock-em robots, those are generally not the kinds of stories that have much in the way of character depth.

Though, sometimes I am surprised and a ship I had thought was moldering away in the back, ready to be scuttled for artificial reef building, comes charging up to the forefront guns blazing and colors flying. Usually when someone has an opinion about Christopher Eccleston. NineRose doesn't so much live in my head rent free as it chewed a hole in the wall and pops out at random moments.

T- do I have any headcannons i will die defending?

I have a bit of a unique approach to head cannons. If it makes the story work better If it makes the story work better then everything is fair even if its contradictory. Senshi is the equivalent of a 20-year-old with a full beard and a 1000 yd stare is supported by canon and contradicted by the supplemental material, but thats not the thing that makes or breaks the headcannon. Its hilarious and fits the themes, despite the fact its not the authors intent.

I do get protective over intentional allegory especially unstated intentional allegory. Just because there isn't a great big banner stating that Pacific Rim, the movie about giant monsters from the ocean, rated on a 1 to 5 category system, showing up specifically because of rising CO2 levels and a warming atmosphere, that the goverment decides to fight for a little bit and then ignore and slap an in effective seawall on it and just let everyone on the coast get fucked, is about hurricanes, doesn't mean that I'm making things up when I say it's about hurricanes. The same with reading the Matrix as a trans allegory. The Wachowski Brothers were the Wachowski Sisters by the time they finished making a trilogy about taking a pill to remain comfortable in the status quo or taking a different pill to make some difficult changes and see the world as it is. So denying any queer interpretation of those movies is somewhere between willful ignorance and illiteracy, especially when the pills are color coded to zanax and oral estrogen.

[multapohja966]

some fav things this year

Read

Detransition, baby - Torrey Peters' book. just adding a one more assurance that it is just as good as everyone says.

Shopping Star as a semiotechnical code modulating Greek femininity in pharmacopornographic capitalism - fun opulence of hard words discussing interesting things. (article utilising Preciado's analysis tools to discuss (post)recession Greece)

Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw - Rei Mikamoto's insane gory gross, hard to explain, manga about a girl with a chainsaw trying to kill the person responsible for turning her classmates into grotesque minions.

One Piece - caught up finally. yes, it is worth it.

67,292 Things Car Guys Can Teach Transsexuals by Adrian Glenn - part of the 2 Trans 2 Furious zine. as a car guy associate and transsexual i deeply loved this one.

The Shape of Premodern Nonbinarity: A Conversation with Leah DeVun - I'll never stop talking about this article.

Watched

Bronson - Tom Hardy movie, biography of "Britain's most violent prisoner " Charles Bronson. It doesn't completely highlight everything essential about his story (having a less than nuanced view on untreated mental illness and its relationship with incarceration) but it's such a good fucking movie!! And at least artistically very loyal to who it's depicting (insane and absurdist).

this video of jack harlow at a chiropractic appointment - we live such weird fucking times. like it isn't heartfelt but it isn't disgusting either it's just, w-what? eh?

Little chinese everywhere - vlogger Yan who travels though less tourist heavy provinces in China, really respectful look to everyday life in more rural communities. these have given me a lot of peace and joy. a lot of extremely intresting architecture as well.

Inflatables and the adults who love collecting them - by furry youtuber Ash Coyote. Truly a gem of respectful by fandom, of fandom documentaries. Touching and lovely!!

MerPeople - don't touch netflix anymore but this documentary of the mermaid community and industry is incredibly good.

this rose ramdin x html jones vid - the well read terminally online gen z musical artists who get their estrogen money from twitter shitposting are the modern greek philosphers. in the sense that i'd sit on a stone public square step and listen to a convo like this for the whole day.

A normal creepypasta retrospective - there's hope for youtube actually

Cat soup / Nekojiru-sou movie

Earth Maiden Arjuna - early 2000s environmentalist anime series lovers make some noicee. this one is sooo lovely and gorgeous. real hidden gem.

Gigs

Sabaton - as expected, bit of a weird vibe in the crowd demographic :--------D but show itself is an insane fucking spectacle I'm happy I saw. You can really sense these men are swedish, the "my country hasn't been in an active war for two centuries" theater kid energy is wild. Tank on stage.

Death Grips - I'm pretty sure this rebooted my whole brain. Went with close friend, pretty sure my biggest bruise came form her hands.

Antti Tuisku - Farewell gig of the best pop performer in finland. I do not understand how he doesn't pass out on stage with everything he's doing. The jesus allegory album is forever my favorite, it's so genious in how it discusses fame so well while staying funny and self-avare. Neck hurt for the next week due to headbanging.

Suistamon sähkö - small gig yet one of the absolute best this year. (i cried) You need to see these guys live, the vocal ability of the main singers is absurd, it doesn't come through fully in recordings. And they create a very special atmosphere and community within their gigs, literally joined hands and danced in a circle.

[foxtriestobiteandmaimandkilland]

If i was god. I would make it so. I had all the time in the world. And so i could talk for like 800 hours without my mouth hurting or getting dry or my mind losing focus or smth else that stops u from speaking for 800 hours straight. And i would gather round anyone who would listen to me talk for 800 hours straight. And infodump so much abt jrwi. Actually probably more than 800 hours. Bc. I would watch each campaign in its entirety twice with these people, and then all the extra content on the patreon like the just rolleds and the what ifs and whatnot. And during the second watch of each campaign. I would pause it like every 10 seconds. To overnaalyse everythjng and go insane about it all. Iw ould also make lists of everything. Id redo my gillion title list to actually include ever title (bc i forgot warrior of rock and roll, and another i think 2 do with wheat?) And also to not juwt include the episodes they were first said, but to include timestamps, amd every episode theyre said in and the timestamps for those. I will also timestanp every moment jay ferin has a moment where im like. So she. Is a trans allegory. And everyone will be so shocked because im definitely the only person to think that ever and im unique and awesome. And i will timestamp every moment like that. And i will count every single roll but especially the nat20s and nat1s and i will ckmvine every roll ever made and categorize them all into a graph showing the number rolled naturally, the final number rolled w any modifiers, any numbers rolled that arent used bc of disadvantage or advantage, what skill the roll is for, who made the roll, what the roll would do, if the roll succeeded or failed EVERYTHING. And i would compile it all. And see who rolls best. Not just of the players, but i would do them as a whole. But also individual characters. Like grizzly might roll better than bizly 4 example, but maybe lizzie on average rolls worse than chip but earl on average rolls better. Or smth. On the natural rolls id say id mainly focus on bc of the pure luck of them but also. All modifiers included. And maybe id make a line graph to show how chips persuasion rolls have a massive increase from the moment he drew that card. And also i might show if gillions -2 on dex actually fucks him over as much as they say or if its an exaggeration. And id also. Document every time anyone goes down. To see the sheer fucking amt of times gillion fucking dies for his crew. And also. Every time anyone makes an attack n lands a hit n whatever. To see just how much of a carry jay is in battle bc she actually does shit. And id also count. Number of jokes and silly gags. In character and out. And. Amt of damage taken. For who wins human(orfish)meat shield award of the year. Or ig. Like. 2 yesrs ?? How longs riptide been going for. I got distracted. I got too autistic over the thought of bejng abke to track all those stats. Id probably never be able to bc im awful at making ACCURATE lists. Anyways. Goodnight.

[onemorecupofcoffee]

Real things that actually happen in the cate blanchett (jude quinn) scenes of im not there

-TRANS ALLEGORY. there is an ACTUAL TRANS ALLEGORY IN THIS STORYLINE I CANNOT MAKE THIS UP. the trans allegory is essentially a reporter finding out jude had a different birth name, and they're not who they say they are. jude had been hiding their past for the rest of the movie but the name thing is so specific and unmistakable for someone finding out a persons deadname.

-bisexual jude quinn. jude flirts with both men and women and feels flustered and clearly in love with allen ginsberg after meeting him, a bit starstruck too but like. yeah. and it seems that they make it a point they feel the same way when talking to coco rivington, a famous model and jude is like superrr desperate to get with her. yeah.

-COCO, JUDES EX GIRLFRIEND CALLING JUDE "JUDY". yeah no there is 0 cishet explanation for that. NONE.

-whatever those hotel scenes are bro is just hanging out with this one girl and this other guy and idk it's all just like Ok so you all had relations at some point right. like they're very casual with each other it's a bit...

-THE NAKED MAN .

-the way jude looks at this reporter is INSANE. like this scene is INSANE. DUDE ITS LIKE TEMPTING HIM AND THEYRE SINGING BALLAD OF A THIN MAN AND THERE IS SO MUCH GAY SHIT IN THAT SCENE ??? PUTTING THE REPORTER IN A CAGE, THE CIRCUS IMAGERY , CIRCUSES ARE OFTEN SHOWN TO HAVE QUEER PEOPLE . like yeah no heterosexual explanation for that. it's literally jude wanting the reporter to let go of cishet norms like that is the only way i can describe it it's actually insane and it's like jude saying hey ik you're gay

-ADMITTING TO BEING A "COCKSUCKER" THEN SAYING THAT ITS NOT WHAT A MAN PUTS IN HIS MOUTH THAT MAKES THE MAN. REAL SCENE I DID NOT MAKE UP. this is SO gay it's not even funny and their EX GF calls them this and they take it literally so like??? why are they literally admitting to having relations with men for no reason. OTHER THAN LGBTQ

-jude quinn is played by a woman ... yeah

-The black panther party listening to ballad of a thin man and being inspired by the song and also they were giving some men massages so it was lgbtq. and also the reporter comes in and gives Albert Grossman (who is getting a massage) cash and i'm like what was the context behind that... but also it's probably gay

-the scenes with allen ginsberg are so gay too like later on they're just hanging out but it's like ok so you're LGBTQ together that's cool and allen ginsberg is clearly gay i mean he was literally riding a motorcycle with a man and it was clearly his bf and they're kindnof just high and yelling at a statue of jesus so it's like yeah.

-when someone shouts judas at jude they start riling up the audience and tempting people to "come down here and say that" and again it was a man who shouted that so ... yeah . gay

[xanfeursel]

heard you were bored so here are some questions :) (i realized halfway through that these are all durgetash because those little shits have taken over my mind) do you like leaning into the angst of durgetash or do you prefer the more lighthearted (aside from the atrocities) dynamic? if larian dropped a gortash romance, is there any icks that would absolutely ruin it for you?

or conversely, what would be the best thing they could add in a hypothetical gortash route?

what were your biggest inspirations for lophi and vyper? do you prefer one over the other or are they equal in your eyes?

(hopefully you won't have to answer these since you'll get out of work soon)

HELLO ANON. im sorry to tell you infact waited till i actually got home to answer these because i have!!! THOUGHTS and OPINIONS about the questions asked . thank you very much btw these are all really good questions ill have fun answering

FIRSTLY, it all depends on the kind of durge gortash is being paired w imo. with vyper i tend to lean more into These Two Are Fucking Insane while w/ lophi i lean more into the sort of melancholic 'angsty' side of durgetash that i think can be real yummy too. and it's all because of who vyper and lophi are as characters pre-tadpole, too. vyper liked being a loud insane freakus while lophi was a lot more reserved and kind of a miserable mess, and that informs their relationships w/ the characters around them. i think both are good and fun to explore and i definitely like exploring the more angsty side w vyper x gortash and vice versa w lophi x gortash, so. i guess both. really. LOL .

secondly, going to answer both of the gort romance related questions in one, but i think i'm probably in the unpopular opinion that gortash doesn't really neeeeeeeed a romance and i could go without it in game. i do think he deserves more content and screentime, but that's something i can say about orin also, and frankly a Lot of parts of act 3. me and act 3 have a toxic on/off again relationship. alright.

that being *said*, if i was mr larian and i was to implement a gortash romance, i'd have it be something exclusive to a durge/evil run. or at the very least, have it have consequences with your party (i.e karlach leaving or something. love gort but i do not think you should go off romancing him scott free).

i Do think having it be exclusive to a more evil-aligned run would help add more actual content to doing an evil run (and god knows we need some with how bg3 seems to like punishing people who just want to do the evil options They Gave You) and would make the most sense, but all in all i'd just hope it's handled better than the mizora sex scene cause god how that whole thing is handled still pisses me off. hopefully this all makes sense

tl;dr, its a fun idea but i can very easily go without it especially knowing how the game treated its one other antagonist romance option

now for the lophi and vyper question... i do obviously have my biases towards vyper /looks at my blog theme/, but i genuienlly cannot pick favourites with them besides that... i use them both to explore different aspects of the durge origin in different ways bc despite what some other people say i Do think you can be very flexible w durge as a concept despite the pre-established lore for them ^_^ and i think it's very fun to play around with.

as for specific inspirations, lophi takes a lot of insp from vintage pierrot art + has accidentally gotten a very 1920s makeup vibe in My Mind. i should also note her name comes from the scientific name for anglerfish, cuz thats what i had in mind when giving her those freaky sharp ass teeth i always draw her with

and while of course, both of my durges are trans, lophi specifically was birthed from my want to make a dark urge that leans in as heavily as she possibly could in the whole trans allegory thing. so theres that as well!

vyper's specific inspos are harder for me to pinpoint cause he's much more of a 'made up as i went' character than lophi, given he was my First dark urge and i didnt really fully know what i was going into all this yet while making him (and also i was maybe a little bit high while doing so...lol) THAT SAID THOUGH, i did initially make him with akira fudo from devilman in mind. he has the horn style he does because it reminded me of devilman ... although the akira insp is very lose and barely effects his character now.. ~_~ despite bg3 being my main fixation atm devilman is still a very very important piece of media to me so vyper being loosely akira-pilled is not too surprising if you know me well enough lololol

[maeve-is-annoying-about-books]

Light From Uncommon Stars, November

"aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" - unofficial plot summary by Maeve

The easiest way to separate an artist from their work is to bring up something insanely private in the most public place possible. Seeing a redux of Shizuka's tragedy of not being heard pass on to Katrina is equal parts prescient and heartbreaking. Tremon engineered the perfect scenario, the slimy little fucker.

While being transgender informs her life, her music, her performances, it is not the end-all be-all to who she is. But say it out loud and suddenly the comments on her videos have slipped away from people listening to and appreciating her music to being overwhelmingly concerned with her gender and presentation. Many of the people who chimed in with happy, thankful comments are probably the same ones berating her the most for the crime of being who she is.

It's a story that isn't only true in fiction.

Tremon Philippe has been the exact picture of the highest, wealthiest, most egocentric class on Earth for this entire story. He can't stand being out of control, he tolerates art so long as it serves his ends, he plays people into a corner to make them the only possible offer that would save them from ruin. A corporate bully, in so many words. It's part of the reason I'm so interested in how Shirley has recordings of Shizuka. Almost certainly, why wouldn't they? Light will travel forever in the vacuum of space, all the way into the hands of a refugee family who has no conception or care for any Hell but the one they're escaping. The larger, truer, interconnected world remains outside the reach of the consumptionist demon Tremon Philippe, missing the stars for the glitter of coins.

It's an allegory I like reading about, it's one that really cements the choice to have the Tran family be from outer space, fleeing from psychological entropy. What a playful little stroke of truth in emotion.

And Lan has listened to the music that Shizuka plays for the first time. Really play, and, in that moment finally understand what our favorite violin teacher has been saying all along. About how important music is, about how one song played in its entire complexity can inspire or enrage another into action to make their own. Like Katrina is now learning to do, following the flow of Shizuka.

It's the solution to the Endpla- Ah. It's a solution to the quiet. The quiet that comes from people beaten into an inoffensive, marketable shape that can go through the motions and tear themselves to shreds on the word of another. Because such things as self aren't worthwhile, don't produce.

But if that were true, would people really have subjected themselves to such hell just for a chance to be heard and seen? All of us hunched over our crafts until it hurt just because we have a song we wanna share?

It's why Katrina is practicing so hard with Bartok's Sonata. It's a strange piece, but it's what she wants to say. For Shizuka but also for herself.

This was a more condensed month, but I want to talk more about setups and payoffs in the finale of another February. The Golden Friendship Violin Competition is near.

I hope my words are enough to encapsulate everything I want to say.

[tomwaterbabies]

What would Pinocchio look like as a girl?

who gives a shit genderbends are lame

[the-seas-song]

Tolkien Gen Week Day 5

DAY FIVE: diversity How does diversity affect Tolkien’s characters and your interpretations of them? Does a disability or orientation affect relationships with other characters? Have you lost sleep thinking about hobbit race relations? This is the day to consider all the other factors that go into a character’s life.

Work has been insane lately, so unfortunately I wasn't able to write everything I wanted to for this amazing week, but I really wanted to make sure I got this one done.

This is mainly a thank you post. First, I want to give a big thank you to @starlightwalking for creating and running this week. A lot of time must have gone into it, and I've had a great time.

I love all forms of love, and one of my favorite things about Tolkien's works is that he highlights a large variety of emotionally intimate platonic relationships. Thank you Tolkien. And also thank you to everyone who worked on the films, for not only portraying those in the texts, but actually adding and expanding the amount of deep platonic relationships.

As someone who is gray aro/ace, another one of my favorite things about Tolkien's works is the diversity in racial sexualities.

Elves only fall in love once in their life (technically it is possible for them to fall in love a second time, but we are only given two cases in all of Tolkien’s works, and both times there was a greater power at work). The foundation of elven-kind is memory and emotion. Their souls control their bodies. Elvish memories remain crystal clear, no matter how many decades or centuries pass. They never fade, even the slightest bit. Connected to memory is emotion. Elves feel things in a clearer way. They are ruled by emotion. They can literally just lie down and kill themselves with their mind, if they wish. Also, because of this clarity, they know from the beginning if they are feeling romantic-love or friendship-love for someone. There is nothing more important to an elf than their relationships, of any kind. Their anti-possessiveness goes so far that they will not even say 'I have two children’.

Tolkien says in LACE that almost all elves marry, and marry young. However, the entire legendarium contradicts that. Over half the elves we meet very marry/are never said to be married, and almost all of those that do marry do so well into their centuries and millenniums. Feanor and Nerdanel are literally the only elven couple that we are told married young.

Also, who could ever forget the tragedy of Beleg's death? “Thus ended Beleg Strongbow, truest of friends, greatest in skill of all that harboured in the woods of Beleriand in the Elder Days, at the hand of him whom he most loved; and that grief was graven on the face of Túrin and never faded.” - The Silmarillion

We are also given a tantalizing hint of one deep female friendship: “Fingolfin’s wife Anaire refused to leave Aman, largely because of her friendship with Earwen wife of Arafinwe (though she was a Noldo and not one of the Teleri). But all her children went with their father.” - The Shibboleth of Feanor

Another thing I rarely see people mention is Tolkien explicitly separating sex and gender:

According to the Eldar, the only 'character' of any person that was not subject to change was the difference of sex. For this they held to belong not only to the body but also to the mind equally: that is, to the person as a whole. [cut] Those who returned from Mandos, therefore, after the death of their first body, returned always to the same name and to the same sex as formerly.

[cut]

For the [souls] of the Elves are of their nature male and female, and not their [bodies] only. - LACE

Because their souls control their bodies, there are no trans elves. However, the fact that Tolkien took pains to explicitly say this for elves, throws the door wide open for all of the other races!

We're also told that about two thirds of dwarves are naturally aromantic, and those who aren’t only fall in love once. So, another gray aro/ace race!

There are so many amazing fanworks out there that diversify Tolkien's works even more.

Throughout my years of being a fan I've met a fair amount of purists, and there's nothing wrong with being a purist. Most of them are lovely people. I am, however, a firm believer in Roland Barthes's The Death of the Author (found here) theory. The great thing is Tolkien was too:

The Lord of the Rings has been read by many people since it finally appeared in print; and I should like to say something here with reference to the many opinions or guesses that I have received or have read concerning the motives and meaning of the tale. The prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them. As a guide I had only my own feelings for what is appealing or moving, and for many the guide was inevitably often at fault. Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer. But even from the points of view of many who have enjoyed my story there is much that fails to please. It is perhaps not possible in a long tale to please everybody at all points, nor to displease everybody at the same points; for I find from the letters that I have received that the passages or chapters that are to some a blemish are all by others specially approved. The most critical reader of all, myself, now finds many defects, minor and major, but being fortunately under no obligation either to review the book or to write it again, he will pass over these in silence, except one that has been noted by others: the book is too short.

As for any inner meaning or 'message', it has in the intention of the author none. It is neither allegorical nor topical. As the story grew it put down roots (into the past) and threw out unexpected branches: but its main theme was settled from the outset by the inevitable choice of the Ring as the link between it and The Hobbit.

[cut]

Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

An author cannot of course remain wholly unaffected by his experience, but the ways in which a story-germ uses the soil of experience are extremely complex, and attempts to define the process are at best guesses from evidence that is inadequate and ambiguous. It is also false, though naturally attractive, when the lives of an author and critic have overlapped, to suppose that the movements of thought or the events of times common to both were necessarily the most powerful influences. One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead. Or to take a less grievous matter: it has been supposed by some that 'The Scouring of the Shire' reflects the situation in England at the time when I was finishing my tale. It does not. It is an essential part of the plot, foreseen from the outset, though in the event modified by the character of Saruman as developed in the story without, need I say, any allegorical significance or contemporary political reference whatsoever. It has indeed some basis in experience, though slender (for the economic situation was entirely different), and much further back. The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I was ten, in days when motor-cars were rare objects (I had never seen one) and men were still building suburban railways. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important. I never liked the looks of the Young miller, but his father, the Old miller, had a black beard, and he was not named Sandyman. - LotR Foreward

And:

The Lord of the Rings as a story was finished so long ago now that I can take a largely impersonal view of it, and find 'interpretations' quite amusing; even those that I might make myself, which are mostly post scriptum: I had very little particular, conscious, intellectual, intention in mind at any point.* Except for a few deliberately disparaging reviews – such as that of Vol. II in the New Statesman,3 in which you and I were both scourged with such terms as 'pubescent' and 'infantilism' – what appreciative readers have got out of the work or seen in it has seemed fair enough, even when I do not agree with it. Always excepting, of course, any 'interpretations' in the mode of simple allegory: that is, the particular and topical. In a larger sense, it is I suppose impossible to write any 'story' that is not allegorical in proportion as it 'comes to life'; since each of us is an allegory, embodying in a particular tale and clothed in the garments of time and place, universal truth and everlasting life. Anyway most people that have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings have been affected primarily by it as an exciting story; and that is how it was written. Though one does not, of course, escape from the question 'what is it about?' by that back door. That would be like answering an aesthetic question by talking of a point of technique. I suppose that if one makes a good choice in what is 'good narrative' (or 'good theatre') at a given point, it will also be found to be the case that the event described will be the most 'significant'.

* Take the Ents, for instance. I did not consciously invent them at all. The chapter called 'Treebeard', from Treebeard's first remark on p. 66, was written off more or less as it stands, with an effect on my self (except for labour pains) almost like reading some one else's work. And I like Ents now because they do not seem to have anything to do with me. I daresay something had been going on in the 'unconscious' for some time, and that accounts for my feeling throughout, especially when stuck, that I was not inventing but reporting (imperfectly) and had at times to wait till 'what really happened' came through. But looking back analytically I should say that Ents are composed of philology, literature, and life.

[cut]

That of course does not mean that the main idea of the story was a war-product. That was arrived at in one of the earliest chapters still surviving (Book I, 2). It is really given, and present in germ, from the beginning, though I had no conscious notion of what the Necromancer stood for (except ever-recurrent evil) in The Hobbit, nor of his connexion with the Ring. But if you wanted to go on from the end of The Hobbit I think the ring would be your inevitable choice as the link. If then you wanted a large tale, the Ring would at once acquire a capital letter; and the Dark Lord would immediately appear. As he did, unasked, on the hearth at Bag End as soon as I came to that point. So the essential Quest started at once. But I met a lot of things on the way that astonished me. Tom Bombadil I knew already; but I had never been to Bree. Strider sitting in the comer at the inn was a shock, and I had no more idea who he was than had Frodo. The Mines of Moria had been a mere name; and of Lothlórien no word had reached my mortal ears till I came there. Far away I knew there were the Horse-lords on the confines of an ancient Kingdom of Men, but Fangorn Forest was an unforeseen adventure. I had never heard of the House of Eorl nor of the Stewards of Gondor. Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as mystified as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear on September 22.1 knew nothing of the Palantíri, though the moment the Orthanc-stone was cast from the window, I recognized it, and knew the meaning of the 'rhyme of lore' that had been running in my mind: seven stars and seven stones and one white tree. These rhymes and names will crop up; but they do not always explain themselves. I have yet to discover anything about the cats of Queen Berúthiel.8 But I did know more or less all about Gollum and his pan, and Sam, and I knew that the way was guarded by a Spider. And if that has anything to do with my being stung by a tarantula when a small child,9 people are welcome to the notion (supposing the improbable, that any one is interested). I can only say that I remember nothing about it, should not know it if I had not been told; and I do not dislike spiders particularly, and have no urge to kill them. I usually rescue those whom I find in the bath! - Letter 163

Tolkien's loathing of allegory is well known. However, most don't talk about the fact that his fundamental reason for loathing it is because it enforces the domination of the author over the freedom of the reader - “I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

So, as we continue to love these works and create our own, let's never forget that Tolkien himself believed in our agency.

P.S. I have to share this quote from Letter 66. It's too funny!

A new character has come on the scene (I am sure I did not invent him, I did not even want him, though I like him, but there he came walking into the woods of Ithilien): Faramir, the brother of Boromir – and he is holding up the 'catastrophe' by a lot of stuff about the history of Gondor and Rohan (with some very sound reflections no doubt on martial glory and true glory): but if he goes on much more a lot of him will have to be removed to the appendices — where already some fascinating material on the hobbit Tobacco industry and the Languages of the West have gone.

[irysan]

The Dialectical Monism of Gundam 00

Or, why that one meme about the cool robot and war is bad going over your head is a false dichotomy

Form does not differ from emptiness,

Emptiness does not differ from form.

That which is form is emptiness,

That which is emptiness form.

Extract from The Heart Sutra

I dropped Gundam 00 back shortly after it began airing in late 2007, and have only recently revisited it. I dropped it for reasons very much like why you may have felt inclined to not even bother continuing to read this article after seeing the title and my opening gobbledegook; the unmistakable mark of pretentious posturing.

Indeed, before even 2 minutes of its runtime have elapsed, 00 has already leapt eagerly into the arms of religious symbolism, with all the subtlety of a hand grenade.

This isn't even a bad scene by any means, nor is it guilty of faux-symbolism. In fact, in many ways it's a great opening sequence, the kind of strong hook that longer shows benefit from. But this scene doesn't exist in a vacuum, and what follows begins to paint it in a different, souring light.

Once the opening credits have rolled, viewers are assaulted by a seemingly endless barrage of overwrought and empty theological allusions, punctuated by a soundtrack that so casually reaches for the liturgical that it becomes senseless. Combine this with textbook too-cool-for-school badass protagonists, complete with corny one liner catchphrases and a script where even the narrator never misses the chance to talk ominously about God's Judgement; the clumsy concoction of elements that make up 00's identity come together to create an atmosphere that feels so overly-inflated that it could burst at any second.

Graham's remarks in Episode 01 about the contradictory nature of Celestial Being, an organisation that seeks to use force to bring about the end of war, felt very much in line with my own thoughts about the contradictory nature of the show. How could something that relied on shallow posturing to try to elevate itself beyond stale cliches hope to really convey anything meaningful at all? How could a series that seemed content to merely invoke the sensation of depth instead of demonstrating depth actually have depth? How could a work defined by it's lack of substance produce anything of substance?

10 years and 1.5 rewatches later, a series of lines uttered once again by Graham near the end of the 00 Movie made everything click.

Setsuna : "I didn't come here to fight!"

Graham: "Why does your heart falter? You should be saying that you're fighting for the sake of living!"

Graham: "To continue that existence filled with contradictions!"

Graham: "That's what it means to live!"

***

Graham: "Young lad! I , Graham Aker, shall guarantee that you lead us to the future!"

Graham: "This isn't dying! This is ensuring that humanity will survive!"

In these brief moments, Graham captures the true essence of 00 as a series, a work that wholeheartedly embraces contradictions, two things seemingly opposed, as a ubiquitous, unified feature of existence.

You may be familiar with this concept, perhaps through the Yin and Yang of Taiji, or the teachings of particular forms of Buddhism, as embodied by the quote from the beginning. Contradictions, or opposites, are ultimately complementary, dualistic aspects of a unified whole, the ultimate reality. The unity of the universe can only be experienced through duality, and as such, nature embodies a contradiction, and this contradiction constantly produces complementary opposites that interact with each other, creating new syntheses.

With this in mind, many facets of 00 begin to fall into place. The two Lockons, the two personalities of the two Super Soldiers, every Innovader having a corresponding pairing, Setsuna's contradictory nature as a being who fights in order to stop fighting, the two distinctly different seasons that critique each other, the twin drive system and the infinity sign it leaves behind, the double O...indeed, the list goes on and on. 00's symbolism at large takes on a new dualistic form, where the superficial, Abrahamic facets are merely the other side of the coin of allegories, with the more subdued underpinnings of Eastern philosophy counterbalancing them.

So, what about the robot meme? Well if you haven't figured it out yourself already, to 00, the dichotomy between the cool flashy robots engaging in combat and the anti-war undercurrent is false because it doesn't perceive them as inherently being in opposition. They're just parts of the same whole. 00's ability to pull off insane moments like the Trans Am Raiser Sword, it's ability to turn Graham into Mr.Bushido, and ultimately create fun, engaging and inspiring moments whilst simultaneously addressing serious tragedies is because of its belief that none of these things really undermine each other as long as they’re presented in an earnest dualism. The thrill and spectacle of over exaggerated, slick action sequences should not, can not be rejected just because we know that fighting is undesirable. The tongue in cheek, self deprecating tone of the in-universe movie sequence is an open acknowledgement of this; Saji’s criticism of it is merely that it’s only half the story.

But 00 is not simply retreading ancient Taoist or Buddhist principles. The established, cyclical and repetitive outlook of traditional Eastern views (and for that matter, traditional Gundam views) is rejected, for 00's position is unapologetically optimistic and progressive. Setsuna, and consequently, mankind, changed for the better. They broke the cycle and reached a new level of understanding. This is in itself a dualism, for whilst the roots of the idea of a Universal Dialectic 00 puts forward are Eastern, the idea that this Dialectic is in fact a progressive "spiral" of evolutionary development is a Western invention.

Therefore, 00 is best described as a work that embodies what is commonly known as Dialectical Monism, a unification of Eastern and Western philosophy and quantum mechanics. Particularly fitting, given that the 00 Movie, an animated film made in Japan, ends with a quote from Albert Einstein, who was one of the main sources of inspiration for the enigmatic Aeolia Schenberg, the man who set the entire events of the story in motion.

Dialectical Monism is why I view 00's optimism as truly poignant, as more than mere wishful thinking. For there is no "being" or "non being", merely a process of "becoming". All existence, including our own may be contradictory, but those very contradictions are what cause us all to progress, to innovate, as we move ever onwards, blazing a trail to the future.