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wheredemdokis · 3 years ago

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[tastebreaker review] Law School (no spoilers)

Sometimes, I wish I could have a shrine for all the cerebral media that I consumed, because it definitely is my favourite archetype. Death Note was a masterpiece that I hungrily binged in one day - similarly with Psycho Pass (though I haven't watched the second season due to most of the reviews I have read). This extend well into non-anime media for me - State of Play (with Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams) remains one of my favourite movies, Inception and, well, honestly anything by Christopher Nolan, and I have recently began watching The Matrix as well.

And so, the thirst for real mystery and brain games was quenched when I started watching Law School, with Kim Myung-min, Kim Beom and Ryu Hye-young, directed by Kim Suk-yoon. Needless to say, throughout the whole trip, I was hooked, counting down days until the next episode came... but towards the end - an unpopular opinion - I was actually quite disappointed.

And so, before you start your cross-examination, allow me to present my findings first.

- How did I start watching this?

My friend and I were looking around for something to binge on Netflix and forget about COVID-19. This series popped up, and the moment I read the title, my sapiosexual senses were tingled.

- And how was it?

Very good!... until the ending came. ;w;

- Genres & overarching themes?

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Psychological

Overarching themes: murder mystery, law vs justice, intelligence (as in, the characters are all really smart hahah)

- Plot: 4/5

It could have been a high four, near five if it wasn't for the ending, frankly. The first episode started out with Professor Seo Byung-ju of Hankuk Law School dead, and the spotlight shines on Professor Yang Jong-hoon (the man in the poster above), the first suspect. But was it really him? From then, the mystery unfolds as our favourite study group (who shall be very well elaborated on later in this review) launches itself into investigation for true justice.

The series started out extremely strong in my opinion, with its first few episodes filled with twists and sub-plots that were waiting to get wrapped up. Every episode just leaves you gripping on the sides of your seat in suspense. It really makes you doubt every single person that appeared on-screen and watch out for anything that happens - the show uses the Chekhov's Gun trope really well. As the knots become unravelled, we gain more depth into the characters. However, as we near the end - about two-three episodes for me - the show started to lose its thrust, falling into a comfortable stereotype that made things rather frustrating.

One of the major advantages of Law School, in my opinion, is its ability to twist and turn everything. It prompts the viewers to realize that when the case is really examined in a whole different angle, with more and more evidence coming to light, everything changes. The use of different suspects' stories being told in each episode is a pleasure to watch - the viewers feel like an omniscient judge, overseeing the motives and evidence to draw out a conclusion for themselves on who might be the murderer. The series prompts the viewers to think, which is a trend I really like. It's also interesting to question why characters do certain things they do. Professor Yang Jong-hoon (my favourite character!), for example, is a very... chaotic (haha) character, who keeps on surprising people with his actions - yet, his actions are all elaborate executions of his strategy, a whole plan that he has concocted which accounted for multiple steps ahead, thanks to his extremely sharp vision of what could happen. Thus, it is extremely satisfying when everything falls into place as Yangcrates (a nickname he earned due to his Socratic teaching) explains everything that led up to a particular tense moment where the truth was unveiled.

Yet... this very trope had its downfall near the end. The murderer was so heavily shadowed on in the beginning that the viewers would have expected the murderer to be someone else completely unexpected, a mastermind that pulled the strings behind all the proceedings. Yet, the murderer and the mastermind behind the murder were someone so... I dare say, unimpressive. I mean, this particular 'mastermind' behind the murder fell into so many traps! The murderer was definitely my major disappointment - the villain was a weak character, an unsatisfying antagonist that the intelligent heroes, once having figured who he/she is, didn't even break a sweat to bring to light. The last, final twist that was supposed to be the most glamorous of them all, completely knocking the viewers off their feet, fell completely flat.

Secondly, whilst having a lot of sub-plots still remains a favourite trope of mine as I'd expect everything to wrap up nicely near the end... well, it didn't. Whilst most sub-plots were hastily answered, there was one particular sub-plot which was just left completely unaddressed (for those who have watched it, it's about J****s), and unless they're hinting at a second season where this would be further elaborated on, this was a dead-end sub-plot, a plot with no elaboration or continuation whatsoever.

Overall, the plot was breathtaking in the beginning. It lost momentum very near the end, and wrapped everything up with an anticlimactic last episode.

- Characters: 4.7/5

Definitely the strongest set of characters I've seen in a Korean drama, frankly. All characters were so well utilised, each having their own quirks and flaws which were delightful to watch. Everyone was so, so intelligent, that they honestly were the main fuel to the series, our main stars.

Allow me to first start off with my favourite character, Professor Yang Jong-hoon. Stoic, yet with an extremely savage side that he does not hesitate to show to anyone of any ranks or social standings, Yangcrates carefully plots everything, always thinks, questions, and then thinks even more. Intelligence-wise, this man is most definitely the smartest on-screen persona I've seen in the Korean drama franchise - able to see miles ahead and figure out all the answers down to their root, he is someone that definitely earns all the respect he has, from both his students and viewers alike. Personality-wise, this man is equally interesting as he is smart. With a cold exterior, Yangcrates does not take any bullshit (cue a particularly funny water spitting scene), and does not hold back harsh words to point it out. Yet, underneath this cold exterior is a burning desire to find the absolute truth, which would in turn bring justice to ones who have been wronged (refer to a particular lecture-like speech he made in episode 10), and a passion for teaching his students. He secretly cares for his students a lot, and expresses it in his own way.

Next, our favourite study group - a group of capable, enticing individuals. Firstly, we have Han Joon-hwi, a complex character that always pursues justice and fairness. His intelligence shines through with the way he, firstly, is able to take advantage of his sharp understanding of law into the case, and his careful processing of the evidence he gathers during investigation. Whilst he always keeps a cold head when needed, he has an equally warm heart, genuinely caring for wronged and innocent people. His expressions were all extremely raw and did not feel fake at all - really, props to his actor. More on this later.

Then, we have the two girls - Kang Sol A and Kang Sol B. Don't be fooled by their names - they are very much polar opposites. Whilst Kang Sol A is excitable and wears her heart on her sleeve (sometimes a bit too much), Kang Sol B always keeps a cool head, sometimes taking it to the extreme. I do admit that if I had to pick out of the two, though I love both of them very, very much, I'd probably lean a bit more towards Kang Sol A - even though she definitely gets on my nerves sometimes because of her overload of emotions that could be disruptive, she has her frequent bouts of creativity and "a-ha!" moments that display her underrated intelligence (I'm always soft for underdogs that are underestimated by everyone, only to turn the table on them later). She is also an extremely loyal friend and a very generous individual that isn't afraid to place herself in danger just to help others - overall, a very warm person. Kang Sol B, on the other hand - perhaps due to her family environment - does not really taking other people's emotions into consideration, though I really, really admire her for her intelligence, her ability to always keep a calm head (making her the blue counterpart to Kang Sol A's red), as well as her straightforwardness which has proven many times to be necessary to push the case forward. She does have a soft spot, though - a very adorable one at that. These two make an extremely adorable pair of friends.

My favourite student of the study group must be Seo Ji-ho. I'd say he's a less intimidating version of Kang Sol B hahah - cool and composed, Ji-ho is a reliable member who always pursues logic and reason first. He is also driven to achieve his goal and, like Joon-hwi, utilizes his deep understanding about law very well to solve his own case, his sub-plot. Though his sub-plot eventually was wrapped up as an open ending, it was a nice sub-plot to watch. Not to mention his dynamic with Joon-hwi is very adorable as well - the two really balance each other out.

Other students also have their own quirks and flaws, but for the sake of this review's length, I won't elaborate them as much - but I will say they are all a delight to watch, adding their own personal elements to the overall study group. I will definitely miss this set of characters so, so much. ;-;

- Acting: 4.4/5

Frankly, perhaps because of some K-drama series I have watched, I had a problem with acting in some K-drama series - the actors and actresses did not feel genuine, and they either overacted, pushing their expressions to the extreme, or underacted, simply being way too... stiff (some of my personal favourite actors and actresses so far are Kim Seon-ho, whose theatrical experiences probably really helped with his very natural acting, Jo Jung-seok, and Kim Hye-yoon, an actress who impressed me with both of her most popular series - hope to see her versatility shine through with more diverse roles though). This series, however, is a definite favourite of mine in terms of acting. Firstly, Kim Myung-min is a veteran actor that deserves so much respect - he basically morphed into Yangcrates. I absolutely loved the way he delivered his dialogues - very long ones! - without even so much as taking a breath in between - it was smooth and the flow was excellent.

Kim Beom also became one of my favourite actors after this series - the way he handled his role was so good, his expressions, actions, everything. I noticed that he's very good with his eyes, if that's the right way to put it - he is very good at displaying emotions with them, all emotions ranging from sadness to adoration (towards a particular someone *wink*). It's a top-notch skill, really, and I'm glad to have seen him on-screen. Similarly, Ryu Hye-young impressed me so, so much that I shall add her to my list of favourite actresses as well - I can't spoil, but she is really able at... altering her vibes, yes. She seems to have studied her character really carefully too, being able to bring all Sol A's quirks to real life. Other actors and actresses were amazing, but for me, these three definitely shone.

- Doki moments?

Ah. Definitely some between Sol A and Joon-hwi, as a lot of other people have commented. From the way they tease each other to the way he cares about her every little thing, the way he stares at her, the way his whole demeanor just changes around her and the way she unknowingly influences him so much - they do balance each other out really well, Joonhwi being the cool to Sol A's warm. I do find myself thinking Sol B and Ji-ho would be rather compatible as well (also, them being study rivals in high school? My rivals-to-lovers side is ready).

- Enjoyment: 4/5

Again, could have been higher if it wasn't for the ending! But yes, overall, a whole trip worth embarking on.

- Overall: 4.2/5

Really, could have been higher... but yes, still an excellent show. I just hope they could have had more episodes to really wrap everything up nicely and maybe throw us one final, absolutely ground-breaking twist.

- Watch it or neh?

Yes, please do watch it! And let me know how it goes, too. ;3

#jtbc law school #law school kdrama #kdrama review #kdrama recommendations #kang sol a #han joon hwi #solhwi #kim beom #ryu hye young #yangcrates #kim myung min #kdrama #kdramanetwork #mystery thriller #crime thriller #psychological #mystery series #school life

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bemusedlybespectacled · 5 years ago

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my spoileriffic review of M:MOE now that i have Slept

below a cut for obvious reasons, keeping in mind that this is my first impression but I AM planning to watch it a second time

general thoughts:

“hey, kids, did you like our subtle rape metaphor from the first movie? how about an explicit genocide metaphor?”

incidentally disney needs to stop making racism allegories because they suck at them, HOWEVER this one at least didn’t pull the “violence is never the answer” trope and it kind of half-heartedly tried to pull the “both sides have problems” thing but I got the sense that we were meant to not believe ingrith when she gives us her Tragic Fairy-Hating Backstory

no, but seriously, Ed Skrein/Borra, the one who calls for war, lives all the way through to the end, while peace-loving Conall/Chiwetel Ejiofor dies protecting Maleficent, which is kind of a nice change from “how dare you use violence to solve your problems in a movie where violence has already been established as okay and clearly I just mean ‘don’t stand up for your rights in a way I don’t like’”

also Conall’s objection to war isn’t necessarily “war is bad” but “war is stupid given that we have vastly inferior numbers,” and he is proved right on this point when Borra gets a shitload of fairies killed in an assault on the castle

everyone gets something to do in this movie, which was exciting to watch, ngl. the drawback to this was that maleficent didn’t do much herself except absorb exposition for most of the movie.

i spent the whole movie looking at the cat being like “BITCH YOU WILL NOT” and BITCH, THEY DID NOT

things I was hyped by:

THERE IS NO FUCKING CAT GIRL, WHOOOOOOOO

Knowing what I know about how novelizations work (i.e. that they’re based on older versions of the script made pre-shooting), I am willing to bet that the following conversation happened:

script guy: here is your script, mr. riley

sam riley, reading the script: guys, I love it, but it says here that I get with a cat girl in the last ten seconds of the movie

script guy: yup!

sam riley: ................no.

maleficent and diaval are SO MARRIED

diaval Does Shit, has clearly picked up human social norms after sixteen years of listening to them talk, climbs a castle wall in a long black cloak, and has an impact on the plot wheeeee

phillip pulls a prince charming in cinderella 3 and it is just as cool. phillip in general got a personality this movie and I am HERE FOR IT

aurora also gets to Do Shit and actually has agency in this one, which NO previous movie gave her and I LOVE IT

shit, the genocide-y stuff was terrifying to watch and honestly at points I felt like I was watching The Devil’s Arithmetic, but tbh I liked the increased stakes in this movie and I enjoyed being scared

things I didn’t like:

a lot of the conflicts (except for the overarching “do maleficent and aurora still love each other or their respective species” one) resolved themselves waaaay too quickly to be interesting.

like there’s a scene where aurora is upset because ingrith is pushing her wedding dress (this fancy thing with sleeves and pearls and shit) over aurora’s chosen one, and then the next scene, aurora is all dressed up exactly like ingrith and miserable... and then the next scene, aurora complains about it to phillip, phillip says he loves her no matter what, and that’s it. whole conflict resolved in like two minutes.

diaval spends a good chunk of the movie offscreen and not present, which I thought was a huge waste of sam riley’s talents and also diaval’s part in the story

also the movie could have done with at least ONE moment of recognition for diaval’s role in raising aurora

i spent the first like 10 minutes with my fingers in my ears just because I hate secondhand embarrassment and that dinner scene just had SO MUCH

I’lll probably realize more as I think about it more and then watch it a second time but those are my initial thoughts wheeeeeeeeeeee

#personal #maleficent: mistress of evil #maleficent 2 spoilers #maleval #otp: let me be your wings

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razberryyum · 5 years ago

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 2 (spoilers for everything)

(covers MDZS chaps 6 - 10 and a bit of 13)

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

(a 🐰 is earned every time there is a WangXian scene or even when they’re just thinking of each other)

I always tell people when I’m trying to get them to watch The Untamed that when they get to this particular scene in the second episode, they’ll know if they will be into the show. To me, this is the game-changer moment: you’re either in or out after this. If this scene doesn’t emotionally move you enough to at least continue on with the drama, nothing else will. It is seriously one of the most romantic scenes I have ever seen captured on screen. This was the moment that made me realize not only was I now fully committed to CQL, but that I had also found a new obsession and was ready to devote myself to Mo Dao Zu Shi. After all, something that can lead to the creation of such a beautiful scene MUST hold other invaluable treasures. So into the MDZS rabbit hole I went, happily diving head first.

Even now I’m still amazed that this scene exists in the intact form that it does. I started The Untamed with little to no expectations, especially knowing the restrictions it was under AND having just finished Guardian and experiencing how poor creative decisions can arise due to censorship (or at least, using that as an excuse for their dumb story choices). As I mentioned previously, the first episode was a hard sell since they definitely did not put their best foot forward first, but I liked Xiao Zhan immediately and Wei Wuxian as a character was interesting enough that I wanted to learn more about his past that led to his death and rebirth. The small glimpses we saw of his relationship with Lan Zhan also fascinated me, but then with this second episode, the weak points of the pilot still remained: there was still bad CGI (the statue) and very amateurish technical mistakes (in the recognition scene, at one point, in a close-up shot they’re holding onto each other, but in the next far away backside shot they’re clearly standing apart from each other, only to return to holding each other once again once the camera cuts back to a close-up...whoever the editor is on CQL probably should dunk their head in the toilet every time these editing errors pop up) that made my initial viewing of this episode a frustrating one for most of its runtime. I think I spent most of my initial viewing just distracted, playing on my phone or something, until the big WangXian moment happened and then I was shocked and awed. I know I wasn’t paying close attention that first time because when I rewatched the episode later on, I realized I missed a lot of dialogue and details. I have since revisited this second episode numerous times more, and I do feel bad about how dismissive I was initially. It’s a pretty loaded episode: it has funny, poignant, creepy, mysterious, and cool moments while still feeding us bits of the overarching plot. I definitely have developed an affection for it since my first viewing and it’s become one of my favorite episodes in the series.

Of Pining & other Heart-achy Things

This simple line from Jiang Cheng is enough to make my eyes well up with tears: I can’t help but imagine Lan Zhan traveling around the world for sixteen years, most likely all alone, stopping at different places to play Inquiry, fervently hoping that maybe one day he’ll finally receive an answering chord from Wei Ying, only to be confronted by a deafening silence again and again and again. How utterly sad and disappointed he must have been every time, and yet still, he never gave up and just went to the next location to do the same thing and experience the same heavy disappointment all over again. If that doesn’t make your heart ache, I’m sorry to tell you, your heart is no longer functional.

It’s a detail I don’t remember if the novel covered, but I’m assuming that Lan Zhan was the one to bring Wei Ying’s inventions like the spirit attraction flag and the compass back to Gusu and incorporate them for use in his sect’s normal cultivation practices. I know other people have use his tools as well since that nameless cultivator at the start of the episode was also using the spirit compass, but I feel that with Lan Wangji, he probably purposefully acquired and adapted WWX’s techniques so that every time they’re used, they can serve as a reminder of Wei Ying for him. Though it does make me wonder how Lan Zhan managed to get those approved by his uncle; I can’t imagine Lan Qiren being ok with using anything that was created by the man whom he blames for the corruption of his beloved nephew and model student. Did LWJ just pretend he created them instead? That doesn’t even sound right. Maybe Uncle Lan decided to be merciful and just let Lan Zhan win this one since he was probably obviously miserable after Wei Ying’s death. Yeah, I can buy that scenario, especially since the flag and compass are pretty useful tools.

I wondered did LWJ already suspect “Mo Xuanyu” was Wei Ying before he started playing Wuji on his flute. It’s curious that he happened to be in that part of the forest at that time. I’m guessing his Wei Ying senses were tingled when he heard about Mo Xuanyu’s skills from Sizhui and the boys so that’s why he was hanging around the vicinity just in case MXY reveals his true identity. After waiting 16 years for this reunion, it’s no wonder Lan Zhan had no qualms about holding onto WWX’s wrist in public for much longer than socially appropriate.

I actually get a little emotional every time I rewatch this episode and watch Jin Ling display his mad archery skills because I would always think of how much he takes after his dad. His parents would’ve been so proud to see him all grown up like this; Shijie would’ve been so happy she probably would get teary-eyed as well every time she saw her boy in action. Sure, he’s a spoiled little princess, but he is also a pretty skilled princess with a heart of gold and I just wish they had more time together as a family.

They looked so happy, look at all those smiles. It really makes me so sad that Wei Ying will probably never be able to hug JC like that again, and of course he’ll never be able to hug Shijie period. Great now I want to cry again.

Lan Jingyi Appreciation Section

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this precious boy by name so far, so I wanted to take this opportunity to show him some much deserved love. Lan Jingyi with his resting bitch face and steady stream of snark was really the MVP of this episode. He actually made me laugh out loud a few times...in fact, he almost always makes me laugh as soon as he scrunches up his face like he’s smelling something bad. I recently saw someone mention that he’s really the most un-Lan of the Lans (sorry, I forgot who posted that so I apologies for not giving proper credit) and that is really the perfect description of him. I love this kid as much as I love Sizhui and Jin Ling, and I am also sincerely fascinated by him. I mean, who raised him in the Gusu Lan sect? Cuz I cannot imagine Lan Qiren being the one since Jingyi undoubtedly would’ve had all his snark driven out of him at an early age. Hell, the amount of disciplinary action he probably had to have gone through would’ve probably killed him at a young age. Did he join the sect when he was already fully formed so that’s why he’s still breaking Lan sect rules right and left? He threatened an old man and is like rude to everyone. I don’t know all 3000 rules but I’m pretty sure being mean to the elderly and insulting to supposedly mentally unstable people are probably not allowed. If anything, his disposition would make him more suitable for the Lanling Jin sect and yet he’s with the stuffy Lans. WHY? I could watch a whole spin-off series with just him and the other juniors as long as we get to learn about how he came to be with the Gusu Lan sect. He’s hilarious and adorable, and among the many the reasons why I wish we had more episodes for the present-day arc, one of them is because I wanted to spend more time with the juniors, especially Lan Jingyi, even if it meant the screenwriters would’ve had to go off book and create new scenes for them. It would’ve been well worth it to hear LJY throw more shade at people.

Random Bits of Randomness

It’s kinda crazy how WWX just stood there with his back turned, oblivious to Jin Ling’s attack. If Lan Zhan’s blade hadn’t blocked JL’s sword, that would’ve been the end of our main protagonist. I just thought that was such an odd scene...I would’ve felt just a little better if Wei Ying had at least had a little more awareness that an attack was heading for him and made some attempt to get out of the way.

Ugh, that mask. First of all it’s ugly AF, and secondly it’s so freaking ill-fitting it was distracting. Would’ve been nice if the production team gave him a mask that actually fit his face. I mean, did it HAVE to be THAT damn big? I’m amazed they don’t have bts clips of Xiao Zhan tripping and hurting himself because the stupid mask blocked his vision.

Other than being a brilliant mastermind and Oscar-worthy actor, Nie Huaisang has got to be one of the greatest cultivators if not THE greatest cultivator of all time to be able to conjure up an illusion like that. That thing was doing real damage to people. If it was just a phantom, what the heck was holding up those two cultivators in midair like that? And what kicked Jin Ling around? I know Wei Ying was able to drive people crazy with his flute during his Yiling Patriarch phase, but his handiwork still felt more grounded and reasonable than this.

Questions I still have (please feel free to answer them):

- Who was that old man at the grave? Someone NHS paid to just hang around the graves until the juniors and WWX came by?

- So NHS basically fucked up Yan’s entire family and God knows how many other people just to get WWX to eventually play his flute to lure Wen Ning out from wherever he was hiding?

- How did JGY not know Wen Ning escaped? Or did he just leave those details to Xue Yang so he didn’t really care about what happened to Wen Ning? I’m trying if this was addressed in the book but my mind is coming up empty. I don’t think it was brought up in the show though, or I just completely missed it.

Overall Episode Rating: 9 Lil Apples out of 10

#The Untamed #陈情令 #spoilers #Untamed Rewatch #WangXian #Mo Dao Zu Shi #CQL #MDZS #魔道祖师 #Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #Lan Zhan Lan Wangji #Wei Ying Wei Wuxian #Lan Jingyi #Jin Ling #Nie Huaisang #Jiang Yanli #Jin Zixuan #Jin Guangyao

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c0rnelia-street · 4 years ago

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folklore feelings

i’ll start by saying that i'm having a much harder time connecting to this album than i have with any of taylor’s past albums. i appreciate the artistry and how talented she is and how sonically cohesive this album is...but there’s also an overarching feeling of heaviness in several songs (which makes sense for an album written in isolation, don’t get me wrong) that in my current headspace isn’t sitting well with me. i have no doubt that over time this will change and that the more i process these songs the more i’ll love them, but right now doesn’t feel like the first time i listened to lover or speak now, that’s for sure. and there’s certainly not a song that’s about to dethrone “all too well” as my favorite song.

anyways, that being said i think many of these songs will be perfect while sipping a PSL in a cool autumn breeze and even though none of the songs skyrocketed into my top 10 taylor songs, there are still some that i really love. as is tradition at this point, here are my favorite lyrics from folklore:

i'm doing good, i'm on some new shit. been saying yes instead of no.

you know the greatest films of all time were never made.

in my defense i have none for never leaving well enough alone.

persist and resist the temptation to ask you if one thing had been different, would everything be different today?

rosé flowing with your chosen family.

i knew you dancing in your levi’s, drunk under a streetlight.

i knew you, your heartbeat on the high line, once in twenty lifetimes

i knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs.

second, third, and hundredth chances. balancin’ on breaking branches.

you never gave a warning sign (i gave so many signs).

i didn’t have it in myself to go with grace.

i still talk to you when i'm screaming at the sky.

i was high in the sky with pennsylvania under me.

back when we were still changing for the better, wanting was enough.

and then canceled my plans just in case you’d call, back when I was living for the hope of it all.

i've been having a hard time adjusting. i had the shiniest wheels, now they’re rusting.

they told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential.

you’re a flashback on a film reel on the one screen in my town.

don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby, look at this godforsaken mess that you made me. you showed me colors you know i can’t see with anyone else.

and you know damn well for you i would ruin myself a million little times.

bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to L.A.

time, mystical time, cutting me open then healing me fine.

cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart. now I send their babies presents.

time, wondrous time, gave me the blues and then purple pink skies.

every time you call me crazy, i get more crazy. what about that?

slept next to her, but i dreamt of you all summer long.

will you have me? will you love me? will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?

standing in your cardigan, kissing in my car again.

don’t want no other shade of blue but you.

happy folklore era, y’all <3

#personal #2020 #folklore

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arkus-rhapsode · 5 years ago

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Rhapsode’s Top 10 Favorite Fire Emblem Antagonists

Hey guys, so I wanted to do something a bit special because of a few asks I’ve gotten from time to time. Namely, who are my favorite villains in FE. Thing is, I wanted to do something with this for a while outside of an ask, and hear I am.

Now before I even start, these are all MY OPINIONS. These are my favorite antagonists in FE, not some objective masterlist that means anyone who isn’t on here is a bad villain. If you agree with me on this list, great! If you think I got everything wrong, I respect that opinion.

So if I left out any of your personal favorite villains in FE, let me know in a reply or reblog.

Now a little bit of criteria on how I had made choices,

Uniqueness: What does a villain bring as a character. Because FE is nothing if not a bit archetypal.

Impact on the Narrative: Now I think a good villain should be an active participant in the narrative as well as have a level of relevance. They also should have relation to the lore of the world they’re in.

Personality: In my opinion even a poorly written character with a magnetic presence can be more tolerable than a poorly written character with no personality

Were they satisfying of a boss in game: While FE emphasizes narrative, it has some terrific gameplay. So I would hope the opposing units really give you a run for your money.

Oh and fair warning, this will have spoilers.

With all that out of the way, sit back and I’ll tell you all about my favorite FE villains!

10. Uhai (Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade)

Yeah, so, we’re starting with probably the most tertiar antagonist on this list. While Uhai might not seem that important in the grand scheme of things. Being a Black Fang member who’s scared of what Nergal is going to do and is out for Ninian.

So why did I pick him over other Black Fangs or Saceans?

Well in terms of Saceans, I really felt Uhai brought the most personality compared to someone like Glass, who was pretty basic. Especially for Lyn’s final villain. Uhai definitely felt the most… “Sacean,” if that makes sense. Having a code of honor and integrity. As well as acting on self preservation.

And while Uhai isn’t my favorite Black Fang, he shows something different as being one of the original fangs and having this sense of honor. Which was a really nice reminder about the humble origins of the Black Fang.

I also really like how he could’ve easily killed Lyn when he kidnapped her, but let her go to kill her as a warrior. Given Lyn’s underlying theme of fighting sexism, to have an opponent that didn’t factor in her gender and would fight her on equal terms, it was a really cool scene.

Sadly, he’s just a minor antagonist and if he got more time like being a part of the Four Fangs, I think he could’ve really added more.

9. Orson (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones)

Orson seems pretty simple all things considered. He loved his wife, Monica, and after losing her, he is willing to make a deal with the devil to bring her back. It’s not much, but I think what plays into the effectiveness is seeing him before his wife is revived and having him on your team, then watching what he has become after her revival.

Having a villain who starts off as a playable character and then later is an antagonist is always tricky. From a story perspective, you spent time with them that even you, the player, feel negatively affected by the heel turn. However, from a gameplay aspect, it's a tad annoying if you spent time grinding them.

Orson, is pretty obvious in that he’ll be turning against you, but we really see him as a somewhat charming and endearing guy at first. But then when he returns to Renais to be with his wife, it leads to one of the most unsettling narrative shifts I think FE has done.

We see him now in charge of Renais, but now more mentally disturbed, physically malnourished, and locking himself away from the rest of the kingdom to be with his wife. Seeming like magic has possessed him. But when you find that this is due to being reunited with his wife who is now just a corpse that can only say “Darling” you really feel this messed up mood permeating the chapter.

There's so much unsaid, and I think that it works to the advantage of the story. Comparing the Orson you meet when he’s your ally to the Orson you meet as an opponent, it really doesn’t need to be said how he fell so hard. That Orson has given up so much and now that he has his wife back he’s just convincing himself that she’s alive.

While another villain on this list did the heel turn far better than Orson, I still think that the sheer shock of Orson’s story really makes you feel for him, while just wanting to end him.

8. Bloom, Hilda, Ishtar and Ishtore (Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War)

So this one is definitely cheating.

While only two members of the Friege family could really stand on their own as definable villains, I actually think when all are together they offer something more unique for FE. Families of villains are a bit of a rarity in FE, especially ones whose family dynamic is well defined in the main story, and not supports.

But with Bloom, Ishtar, and Ishtore, you get to fight all of them in a chapter thanks to the set up of the Genealogy of the Holy War. It allows for a more unique encounter and this growing feeling of outrage if you end up killing a member of the family.

House Friege continuing on as secondary antagonists in the second generation was a great addition. Giving this sense of history repeating itself, with Bloom seemingly no better than Reptor from the first generation, but where as he is a power hungry politician, Bloom shows some shades of gray in his detestment of Child Hunts and actually being a somewhat decent father figure to Tine. Which actually leads to some interesting contrast to his wife, Hilda.

Hilda is easily the most monstrous of the family, and while I was considering her to be her own separate entry, as she is possibly the most wicked and cruel female villains in the entire franchise. Driving Tailtiu to death, and using Ishtar as a step towards more power. Her additional role a matriarch of the household who married for Bloom’s money and power, adds an extra layer to the band of villains.

Ishtar and Ishtore also offer a role as both not being Child Hunt supporters but act in different ways to them. With Ishtore not getting involved and instead spending more time on Liza and Ishtar actually working with Arvis to free the children rounded up.

As a family unit, it offers a lot of unique villain interaction that I’m sad the limited technology of the time couldn’t capture all of. I’m glad that games like Fates have tried making family units as opponents, but I’d like to see a dynamic similarly fleshed out as the Frieges.

7. Jedah (Fire Emblem Gaiden/Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia)

Okay, how the hell did this guy so high up on the list? No joke, Jedah started at the bottom when I first started this list. I mean, he’s just another Gharnef. What makes him all that different from Nergal or Manfroy?

Well, truth be told, what got Jedah so high up for me is presentation. A lot of Gharnefs are the big game manipulators, and sometimes that can be frustrating if you’re not really in the character. I think Manfroy is one of the most effective villains, but he’s not particularly stand out.

Nergal is a far more justifiable villain with his motivations, but he’s basically corrupted by “Darkness.”

Jadah, especially in FE15, oozes personality and charisma. I give a lot of points to his more inhuman design that went beyond just making his a wrinkly old man. As well as his expressions. When playing Three Houses, I was shocked at how stone-faced Thales was. But with Jedah, I feel like the artists took a lot of opportunity in giving him a face that could contort in such a way to to sell how much of a schemer and villain he was.

He has this look of a guy you love to hate.

Also, in terms of story, Jedah really does eclipse Rudolf as a villain (Yes I know, Rudolf is not really a villain) and is easily a more proactive villain than even Berkut. While Jedah serves Duma faithfully, the purple baddie still seems to have done more as an antagonist then the detriorting dragon.

He’s really the most satisfying overarching villain next to Berkut. And power, don’t get me started. While Gharnef’s Imhullu seemed relatively foreshadowed on how he wouldn’t be beaten by normal means, the first time I fought Jedah, I was surprised just how much of a gap in power there was between us. As well as the terrors he summons for the first time are more lovecraftian than the other terrors you fought before.

While Jedah is definitely a fun villain, his greatest weakness is that he is unquestionably in the morally black category. The man sacrificed his own daughters to prove his loyalty. Before then, there was a bit of an argument to be made that witches were just a sign of society and that offering up your soul for more power was just common in a power focused structure. But sacrificing your daughters is a tad on the unforgivable side.

As well as his end goal is really just war and conquest, while being Duma’s number one servant. So ultimately, he’s not very complex. But that lack of complexity still added a chaotic edge to Echoes that was really welcomed.

6. Reinhardt (Fire Emblem: Thracia 776)

Now speaking of complexity here we get, who I consider the best of the Camus archetype. First off, I really like how Reinhardt is built up as the second coming of Crusader Thurd. Especially if you’ve played FE4 and know just how much of an obstacle Ishtar, Bloom and Ishtore were.

Second is just how tragic his story is. I never really cared for the romance between Camus and Nyna, so at times I didn’t really care for his internal conflict. But the fact that Reinhardt has eyes for Ishtar to the point that Julius is feeling jealous and stripping him of his title. You also get the heartbreak of his sister, Olwen choosing to side against and how much denial he feels until Saias needs to point out how Olwen made this choice herself.

It’s just sad to see a guy who comes off as so imposing and level-headed have so much internal strife because his convictions of loyalty keep putting him on the wrong side of things. At times it feels like you can invest more into him than Lief, I really hope to see an expanse of him in a remake.

Reinhardt is not a character I enjoyed fighting because I wanted to see him be with the Liberation Army. He’s suffered from Julius’s pettiness. He knows how bad things have gotten with Grannvale’s expansion. Yet he just won’t because of his loyalty to his home.

(I like to think that if you release him, he goes onto serve Tine and Arthur.)

Now, as I said, he still fits that Camus archetype. But unlike Camus or someone like Xander, I wish I had more of an expansion of his loyalty to Friege. I know he loves Ishtar and he probably has some ego built up about “second coming.” But if you’re not a fan of, “he did this out of love.” You’re probably not gonna like him. As a lot of the Camus archetype have always suffered from a, “why are you so loyal.”

People like Dedue and Catherine had the benefit of being playable characters, so you could support them and peel back a lot of their reasonings. And even Camus got more of a reason when he became Zeke and was saved and given a new life in Rigel.

So while Reinhardt makes for a great adversary, I do find him leaving me wanting more that other rival characters could give me.

5. Grima (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

(Note: I’m using masculine descriptors for Grima because I’m personally more used to male Grima and male Robin)

Here’s another baddie I wasn’t too sure where I was gonna put on the list. I knew I wanted him on here, but again, I wasn’t expecting Grima to be so high. He’s built up all throughout Awakening, as well as turning out to be reincarnated in the main character, Robin. Already does push him up on the list. But if you were to dissect his personality, he’s really just your godly final villain, who condescends down on you.

But there’s actually a lot more to this monster than you’d expect.

At first, I see a lot of similarities between him and Duma: Cult worshipers, really powerful dragon, catalyst for a war etc. But Duma as a villain is due to the dragon deterioration. Sure, he’s got bad followers, but losing his sanity kinda enabled them. But Grima… This guy wants to wipe out all life because he can.

Grima is much more a force of nature as a villain. He doesn’t try to dress up his simplistic desire with fancy philosophy. No, he embraces just how above everyone he is and how he’ll enjoy wiping them out.

Not only that, but design-wise… Holy crap.

The sheer size and power of Grima, coupled with one of the most unique designs for a dragon, makes for a truly nightmarish foe. The boney, almost mechanical way Grima turns his head when ready to attack, just sends shivers down my spine. His size and pension for only wanting to destroy all life really gives off this sense of being an inevitability. A force that can not be stopped from washing over the world.

It really works with the overall theme of Awakening. Robin trying to forge his own identity and is not tied down to fate. But how exactly can you fight that fate when its just so intimidating? Why with friends, of course! The final moments of Robin and Chrom slaying Grima is one of the most tragic things I’ve watched. With Robin knowing he needs to die to prevent Grima, but the only way to kill Grima is with a Falchion in the hands of Chrom. So Robin must be slain by his best friend, the one he’s gone through hell with and gave him a chance at making this new life for himself. It’s a final battle that breaks my heart.

Speaking of final battles, Grima offers one of the most unique environments for a final battle. Using that monstrous size to serve as a stage for your final fight against the Grimleal on the back of their god. Not to mention the priest warping in to keep bogging you down as you try to get off that killing blow on the Fell Dragon.

The background added by Shadows of Valentia about a young Grima actually being an alchemic monstrosity made to find a way to cheat death not only elevates Grima thematic impact, but also make him more like a lovecraftian horror. Which is something rare in this series.

That said, the biggest fault in this character is hw sidelined he is. There’s nothing wrong with a simplistic villain, but even in Robin form, Grima really doesn’t take much part in the events. I would’ve liked more interactions with him and Chrom or Robin before the revival.

I also completely understand if someone doesn't care for the “kill all people in the world,” type of villain. What is the endgame after destroying everything? Guess make some zombies.

I do argue that Grima being a force of nature makes him unique to the whole point of “what happens next?” But again, as a finally boss, I can see if that’s not your style. And while I think the simplicity is kinda beautiful, I myself have a preference for more complex villains.

4. The Black Knight (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance/Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn)

Hoo boy, I’m not gonna make any friends with this one.

How do I even talk about this guy properly? Mainly due to some narrative… Disconnects... between Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. Well I’ll just try and keep with his outing in Path of Radiance.

Black Knight has easily some of the most thematic presence in the series. His anonymous name and sleek design make almost all of his cutscenes a treat. Just stepping onto the battlefield and killing Greil, with the only hint of who he is being that he was one of Greil’s former students already sets him up as an anomaly.

But something you notice quickly, Black Knight has chivalry. He offers to give Greil the legendary blade of Ragnell so they can have an even fight. Sure, Black Knight wants to kill his mentor to prove he has become better, but he’s not gonna do it unfairly. And he lets Ike keep Ragnell, so that he can truly grow as strong as Greil and then give him a true fight.

Speaking of Ragnell, I actually love how it and Black Knight’s Alondite blade are sister swords. Setting up for a rivalry that goes beyond just Ike getting revenge for his dad. It leads to a lot of interesting encounters over the course of the game, building up to a crescendo of when Ike will finally defeat the armored menace. It honestly makes for a more compelling final brawl than Ashnard.

Also with Ashnard, we come back to that whole chivalry thing. Because while Ashnard displays himself as a “Mad King,” Black Knight still honorably serves him. In fact, while I’ve seen many people debate the true identity of Black Knight, I actually like the idea that he was just a student of Greil. He needs no true identity except being an embodiment of knightly principles and power.

For all the good and bad that entails.

Leading to great parallels between him and Ike. Ike being a mercenary whose principles differ so much from the Black Knight make him an ideal opponent for the Black Knight.

Now all that said, we need to get to the big but. The actual identity of the Black Knight being Zelgius raises a lot of questions and messes with the consistency of the story. I genuinely feel like it would be more powerful if Zelgius was his own character. While the ambiguity of the Black Knight added to his.

The best moment in Radiant Dawn for me is honestly his end, where he’s at least proud to have helped perfected Ike’s swordplay. But after that, I can’t exactly say he’s the same character. And that unfortunately keeps him from being any higher on the list.

3. Berkut (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia)

Top 3, everyone! And we’re kicking it off with the Rigelean Prince, Berkut.

After coming off Fates, there was this really big cloud hanging over the FE fandom if they’d actually be able to recover from their dip in storytelling. And then Echoes came up with the game-exclusive addition of Berkut.

Berkut really was a return to for with understandable villains. Having grown up being a noble of Rigel and as nephew of Rudolf next in line for the throne. In a society that prides itself on power, Berkut was only ever asked to be strong enough to ascend to that title of king.

And when you first see him dancing with Rinea, he really does seem invincible. Dancing in the conquered halls of Zofia Castle with his one true love as he does not need to take to the battlefield to assist in fighting the Deliverance. Only bothering to fight Alm as “sport.”

At first, he really just comes off as an arrogant Blue Blood that you wanna knock off his horse. But after he loses once and sees Alm’s brand, it just starts this downward spiral. Begging is uncle for one more chance, rejecting the help of Nuibaba’s mirror, only to use it out of fear that he might actually not be able to win against Alm.

Also, massive props to Ian Sinclair as Berkut’s english voice. As FE had started going fully dubbed, Sinclair brings such a performance as the deteriorating prince.

I like he even makes more dynamics with the Duma Faithful, believing that they’re supposed to serve his house and respect him, but Jedah counters that their real allegiance is to Duma. Tempting Berkut with his power. But Berkut himself even finds Duma’s strength disgusting.

When he finally falls after Rudolf naming Alm his true heir, so see just how low he’s fallen as he sacrifices Rinea to make his pact with Duma and use his new mystical enhancements to take out the Deliverance golden boy Alm, once and for all.

Berkut’s story is easily an ideal tragic character. Very powerful and smart, but flawed. His own fears motivating his actions as well as the constraints of his society and family pressure. Add on how he’s made that he will not marry Rinea until he becomes Emperor, as he feels that is only when he’s worthy enough, and this guy’s basically telegraphing the grave he’s about to dig himself.

No way can I undersell how much Berkut seemingly revived faith in writing for future FE antagonists as the series was still suffering from the… mixed reaction to Fates.

2. Edelgard von Hresvelg (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

God what have I not said about Edelgard? Well if you want to read more comprehensive stuff I’ve written about her, you can find it here.

But in short, Edelgard was a phenomenal twist character. Built up slowly over the course of the game and the fact someone as high as a lord would secretly be planning to destroy the church was a shock.

Her role as the most intellectual of the three house leaders, motivated by logic and pragmatism offered a unique opposition to the over emotional Dimitri. Her being the product of crest experimentation and the second wielder of the crest of flames makes for a pretty powerful backstory. Not to mention being one of the few lords whose political system we fully get to see realize. With the multiple ministers having robbed power from her family.

Her relationship with Dimitri is also one of the sweetest villain backstories. You see the two actually sit down and try to end this and you know it’s probably only because of their shared past. The oath of the dagger of how they both have made their own paths that veer off in different directions is the first signs of turmoil that El has felt ever since her declaration of war.

And then there’s her final fight. I don’t think I have felt a more satisfying final battle than with Hagemon Husk Edelgard. The long throne room crawl as guards and monsters poured in to try and stand in your way. All whlie Edelgard tries to snipe at you from a distance with her new fireball technique.

Also if were giving points to acting, Tara Platt brings a great performance as both Edelgard and the Flame Emperor.

Now like Black Knight, the biggest flaw is a lot of minute nitpicks that really add up over the multiple routes. The Black Eagle route even seems to do away with a lot of Edelgards ambiguity. But if you stick to BL and GD Edelgard, you have one of the best antagonists in the series. Leaving me excited what FE17 has in store.

1. Arvis (Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War)

Yeah, you all knew this one was coming. The OG Flame Emperor himself, Arvis.

So for those who don’t know, Arvis was basically Edelgard before Edelgard. Having watched corrupt nobles run Grannvale for a time as well as grown up under the self destructive Duke Victor, Arvis had intended to make Grannvale a more fair world. Free of prejudice and pain.

Use the feuding lords to his advantage to claim land and renown, Arvis also stayed by the current King of Grannvale, Azmur. Earning him some brownie points. Arvis’s alliance with Manfroy and the Lopto Sect ultimately leads to him getting his chance at the throne. With Manfroy finding the long lost granddaughter (and wife of Sigurd) Deirdre, wiping her memory clean and “conveniently” leaving her for Arvis to find and fall in love with.

By marrying and impregnating the newly found prince, Arvis was named Emperor Regent by Azmur till their child came of age. However, to unilaterally have Grannvale under his control, he had to take out Sigurd in one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the history of FE, The Belhalla Massacre.

At first Arvis seems like this manipulative puppet master with delusions of conquest, but the more you learn about him and the environment he came from. Arvis truly wants to make a better and more fair world. And unlike someone like Zephiel, he doesn’t think that means wipe out all humans. You see that he doesn’t even hold contempt for Sigurd, more indifference as he regrets that Sigurd would not be able to see Arvis’s new world.

But with his ultimate tragedy being that faustian deal he cut with Manfroy ultimately led to the birth of Julius. Who, with the Major Loptous blood, would go on to not only be Loptous’ vessel, but also wrestle away power from Arvis. The tragic irony of what secured his hold on the throne being what ultimately makes him lose it. Add on some more angst as he realizes that Deirdre is actually his half sister and that Manfroy’s intention was for them to bear a child like Julius, you have easily one of the most tragic tales in FE.

We also see more of the dynamics of Arvis in the Seliph book of FE4. Actually trying to save all the children taken by Julius with Ishtar. As well as his love for his own children, Julius and Julia, going out of his way to save Julius and finally face his reckoning against Seliph.

His battle is brutal, as after what he did to Sigurd, you want to beat down Arvis with Seliph. You want nothing more but to his rule. But as you’ve gone on, you see just how much of person Arvis is. And while you want Seliph to get his vengeance, it doesn’t make the fight any easier as you are left to wonder what things would be like if Arvis was Emperor without Manfroy using Julius.

His final words to Seliph just echo in your head, making you wish there was a better way this could’ve turned out.

If there is one negative I could say about Arvis, its the fact he basically monopolizes the story for his own. His actions basically pushing so much of the narrative he eclipses Sigurd. But honestly, if we got a remake with more time devoted to character interaction in Sigurd’s army, I think it would balance out nicely.

Welp, that’s my Top 10 FE antagonists. Let me know if you agree or disagree. And if this gets enough hits, I might do similar posts in the future. Till next time, take care!

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howtotrainyouragents · 5 years ago

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Agent H’s ML Rewatch

Evillustrator (1x02)

Overall Thoughts:

-Okay, was anyone gonna tell me that this was the second episode or was I supposed to just find that out for myself?

-Ooh, the opening scene’s so much fun! But like it has Lady Wifi in it, so...thanks ML production team for already imploding my “watch the show in production order” scheme LOL

-Ah, here the animation settles into the first season trend where it’s simultaneously good and not good. But they absolutely make up for it by making their character emote a lot

-What is on their science class’s blackboard?? They’re learning particles physics??

-Haha, I love when Marinette tackles Alya. Also, in the background of the next shot, Nino is talking to Rose, how cute!

-At Chat Noir’s last pun in the library scene, there’s like a really tiny exasperated groan from Ladybug haha

-The minute Chloe makes a cat pun, you can just see Chat Noir consider for a hot sec retiring cat puns forever.

-There’s a great “Chat Blanc” post discussing how Chat Noir’s bell is a symbol of possession, and in re I must point out that Chloe here angrily flicks his bell to get his attention

-”So you get to be my Ladybug tonight :)” The irony. *Marinette being totally sarcastic*: “Chat Noir and I fighting crime together? Amazing!” THE IRONY. I effin love this show

-I love the moment when they’re trapped and Tikki peaks out but Marinette closes the bag and figure out a solution because ya’ll know I’m dying for the situation when they’re truly trapped and have to transform in front of each other :D

-Ah, Adrien. Tries way too hard to impress Marinette and then immediately the next day finds her so he can see if she liked it (his big eyes and smile kill me). Also, totally bypassing the part where she says he (Adrien) is the most awesome of awesome to focus on the part where she says he (Chat Noir) is awesome. What a precious idiot

Villain (reason, design, power, difficulty, etc):

-Okay, like 80% of akumatizations come from Chloe so I’m just gonna make Chloe-being-a-bully a benchmark of 6/10, and then add in additional factors. Here, it’s Chloe+getting into trouble+having his crush exposed+it’s his birthday, so I vote 6.5/10

-Sleek, got a “French artist” inspiration, surprising color gradients, Evillustrator’s got a great costume (So we all know this is Nathaniel’s design and Gabriel “Bubbler costume” Agreste couldn’t be responsible, right? XD) 7/10

-His power is AWESOME, man! He can basically create anything?? 8/10

-I mean, he doesn’t seem that intimidating, but he leaves them trapped on a sinking boat and that’s terrifying

-Yeah, he’s a tough cookie to beat because he can create anything and his only weakness is lighting. 8/10

Powers/Miraculous (skill/usage, plan, design, etc.):

-Good idea to cataclysm the light, but Evillustrator is too fast for them!

-Her plan is to superball bounce and destroy the lights? Hahaha, typical convoluted plan, Ladybug. A+ and you shoulda gotten an A+ on your physics project just for this. 7/10

Character Moments:

-Ah, introducing more of their classmates and their school life, particularly Chloe (and Sabrina) as a bully and a spoiled brat! Also, totally forgot it was this episode, but we learn about Chloe being a huge fan of Ladybug (and Ladybug totally not having it)

-Marinette being sweet and standing up for justice and not being afraid of Chloe. Way to go, Marinette!! She totally flakes on Sabrina, but to be fair, she’s got that double life thing going on. Then Ladybug getting attitude and leaving after Chloe fangirls around her, smh girl. I appreciate how efficiently they make Marinette multidimensional, allowing her to be right and wrong even within the same episode. Like how many shows do such a good job at creating complex (particularly female) characters 1.5 episodes in?

-The first episode focused on Marinette and others, so its nice to see a focus on Adrien’s personality here. We see a snippet of him and Nino, indicating BFFs. We see him wanting to protect Chloe and do what’s right, but also (rightly so) getting annoyed with her. We see him showing off in front of Marinette as Chat Noir, flirting with her, and then eagerly seeking her approval at the end. Put in the context of the Origins episode, it makes a ton of sense that he’d want a second chance at a first impression with her

-Ooh, we see people referring to Chloe and Marinette as similar twice this episode! This isn’t the last time we’ll see this parallel between them

-Tikki being adorable and later reminding Marinette to get a better control of her emotions (in vain, Tikki, in vain.)

Lovesquare Moments (who and how much I fangirled):

-There’s a lot of Ladynoir development here! We see them working well together, but they’re not perfectly in sync yet, ie, Chat Noir standing around making puns while Ladybug rides the hair dryer (which made me laugh; what a great visual). This is also the first time we see Ladybug and Chat Noir having a disagreement and making up. And one of the few times, in which they don’t work together on the plan (well, at least, that’s what Chat Noir believes) 10/10

-The Marichat here KILLS me, it’s so great and so hilarious. Char Noir going way overboard trying to act cool and impress her, being pleased that she knew he’s a hero, being absolutely impressed and flirting with her when she saves them. And then on the other hand, Marinette completely rolling her eyes and mocking him behind his back and complaining that she’s the one telling him how to save the day. (All indications on how, as Ladynoir, they’re still at the beginning of the relationship: he’s trying too hard and she’s not taking him seriously.) It really does crack me up that Marichat is the sin ship when their canon relationship is that of a 1950s comedic married couple 12/10

-The Adrienette locker scene is so unbelievably cute (and can you believe that this used to be THE locker scene and now we have the even cuter troublemaker locker scene?) Adrien does the shoulder touch, and Marinette can kinda speak to him. Also, Adrien just appearing out of nowhere and her scream is comedy gold. 12/10

Developments in Overarching story:

-Hi, Hawkmoth can control/hurt his akuma victims, WHAT THE HECK??

-If the production order was the release order, it’d be confusing because the first episode, Hawmoth just says bring the Miraculous and shows the respective jewels; this episode doesn’t even show that part. We’d have no idea whether or not he needs those two specifically and why does he need them.

-Hawkmoth says he wants all the Miraculous so he can rule the world. I....am just gonna leave that there

-First time Bugphone and Catphone

-Chat Noir says he doesn’t have nine lives, but that more specifically refers to the fact that he’ll destransform/can’t do anything if his ring is taken

Lesson for Kids:

-I swear the first season has lessons for kids, but I don’t really know if there is one here? I kinda think it’s about how you shouldn’t act bratty or selfish like Chloe (including when Ladybug loses her cool and leaves and how she’s compared to Chloe when she lies to people), but like ehhhh

Endcard:

-Not a traditional end card, but a snapshot of his comic book! I think the comic cover he designed must be a reference to the inspiration and early versions of the show. And I love how the exclamation point is Nathaniel’s signature; appropriate for a quiet kid!

#i love doing this even if no one else cares #as usual my ratings mean shit so take them with a grain of salt #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ml #ml rewatch #evillustrator #ml season 1 #miraculous season 1 #marinette #chat noir #marichat #ladynoir #chloe #agent h #agent ml rewatch

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kihocrystal · 7 years ago

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Summer 2017 - Final Impressions

I may have skipped writing opinions up for Spring season (due to computer issues...), but I’m back for Summer season! I even fell behind this season because of school (hence why this is half a month late), but nonetheless, here are my thoughts on the animes I finished this past season!

The list of shows is in the tags, and are ordered alphabetically under the cut!

Boku no Hero Academia S2 - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ )

This was another really fun season of Boku no Hero Academia! This season was twice as long as season 1, which meant double the action! Most of the action this season was actually more on the light-hearted side, as two of the main story arcs of this season were the School Tournament, and the Final Exams. These arcs got to see the cast work together and face off against one another, which helped us learn more about their characters in the process! Almost everyone had their time to shine (which was great!), but the one who had the most prominent character arc was Todoroki; we learned about his troubled past with his family, and how he changes his mindset and attitude throughout the tournament, which was great to see! Character development was definitely a big aspect of this season (as seen through both of those arcs), but there was also a good amount of overarching story set-up as well! The main arc showing this off was the Hero Killer Stain arc (which included the Internships), which was definitely my favorite part of this season! Seeing Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida face off against him was super fun and interesting, and also kicked off some plot progression that should go towards future arcs! Midoriya has improved his super power usage over the course of this season, and we also learned about All For One, which will surely be the Big Bad of this series as a whole. The finale also teases more things about upcoming conflicts, which included Midoriya having an interesting interaction with villain Tomura (and a ship might be sailing with Ochako and Midoriya)! It’s a good thing a season 3 has already been confirmed, because an open ending like this would’ve been bad otherwise! As it stands though, it’s a really good lead-in to the next season! Season 2 was great set-up for things to come (and good fun action on its own, of course!); I probably would’ve enjoyed this season even more if there was more interactions with the villains, but that will surely come in the upcoming season 3!

Isekai Shokudou - 7.5 - 8.0 / 10 ( B- )

This was a cute little show that was a good pick for “comfy show of the season”! I enjoyed meeting the wide range of characters and seeing them try out different types of food. I also appreciated how the food reactions were very downplayed, in comparison to more over-the-top fares like Shokugeki no Souma. That being said, they go into just as much detail describing why the food is so good (at least in the earlier episodes). I also liked seeing the patrons interact with each other, including getting into fights about who’s favorite dish is better. Each character’s story about how they discovered the diner (and the occasional backstory) was enjoyable to watch; we didn’t learn much about them outside of that, but we learned more about their interests and relationships via how they interacted with others both inside and outside the restaurant. It was also nice seeing how the restaurant has been a recurring thing for years, going back to the chef’s grandparents! The story is episodic, but each individual story was a nice, occasionally heartwarming, and “comfy” thing to watch once a week. The art-style complemented the easy-going pace as well; it was warm-toned and drew the food quite nicely (even if the animation itself was standard fare). This may not be a super in-depth slice-of-life show, but it’s a good watch if you just want to relax and see some good food!

Kakegurui - 7.5 - 8.0 / 10 ( B- )

This was the most popular show of the season on MAL (in terms of amount of people who watched it), and it’s easy to see why: high stakes (and over-the-top) gambling, the extreme reaction faces, and VERY sexual characters who get off on gambling (with yuri overtones to boot!). The more sexual scenes kind of got old for me over time, but I enjoyed all those other aspects! The crazy gambling games and characters were fun to watch (as someone who enjoys YuGiOh so much, that’s right up my alley!), and the crazy reactions added to the over-the-top appeal. Yumeko was an enjoyable lead, since she’s got just the right amount of insanity behind her also-enjoyable sweet facade (plus her seiyuu, Saori Hayami, did a great job performing her!). Many of the other main girls got some time in the spotlight too, both student council members and eventual Yumeko allies (though some student council members got more time than others, for sure). The main male lead, Suzui Ryouta, was definitely just there as an audience surrogate though, since he’s pretty bland (though he had some involvement in some gambles too!). When you get down to it, the appeal of this show is the characters and the gambling events themselves; all the story in-between just feels kind of lacking in comparison. Even the finale, which to be fair was anime original, kinda felt like a non-ending; the outcome kind of made that final gamble pointless and didn’t leave me with a good sense of conclusion (but hey, at least it’s better than a full-on cliffhanger or abrupt stopping point!). This show was far from my favorites of this season, but it was still an fun time during the gambling parts (which thankfully there’s a lot of here!). If you enjoy over-the-top gaming action and don’t mind the more sexual aspects (which can get somewhat explicit at times), you might like this one!

Made in Abyss - 9 / 10 ( A )

This is easily my pick for AOTS, no contest! It’s just a great adventure show from top to bottom, with a great sense of adventure and mystery! It also helps that the setting is one of the most unique and mysterious we’ve seen in anime for a long time! The Abyss is full of many different elements that not even the in-universe cast know of, which lends itself well to majestic scenes, along with terrifying secrets (it’s a lawless place, after all). Not to mention that the background art captures it extremely well; the huge amount of detail is a good contrast with the more square and cartoony character art-style! The soundtrack is used wonderfully, as it really gets a grand sense of ambience, mystery, and scale all at once! (Especially that one insert song they use a couple times, but first in the premiere!) The Abyss has been a cool place to learn and see more about over the course of the show, but it can definitely rear its ugly dangerous head from time to time, too. Meaning, this show can be VERY gruesome at times; there’s quite a few scenes involving large amounts of blood, and even body mutilation. It’s definitely not for the squeamish. If you can handle it, these scenes just add to the raw emotion this show has, and will have you on the edge of your seat! As for characters, Riko and Reg were a really good duo to follow in their journey! Their personalities (plus abilities and awareness of danger) balance each other well, and I enjoyed seeing them grow closer over time! Riko’s definitely an odd case since she has no fear of the Abyss despite never being able to return home, though (^^;). My other favorite was Nanachi; she was (unfortunately) only in the *last four* episodes, but her character and story really makes up for it! I enjoyed the rest of the cast too, including the cynical and crazy Ozen and her maid assistant Maruruk (she was so sad when Riko & Reg had to leave ;~;). The only real gripe I have about this show is its… inappropriate jokes at times. Lets just say there’s quite a few penis mentions (and yes, they say that word outright). However, the (double-length!) finale was crazy good; incredibly intense, fucked up, emotional, and with a hope cherry on top (including the balloon scene! I just wish I knew what was written inside!) Just learning the full details of Nanachi (& Mitty)’s backstory was REALLY fucked up… and the whole buildup and execution (I’m sorry…) of Mitty’s death brought a few tears to my eye (and I don’t cry easily when watching stuff!). The story definitely isn’t done yet (which impacts its score as a standalone season a little bit), but it had as good of a conclusion as it could’ve had. It sets up an easy-to-hate antagonist really well too, all within the span of one (double-length) episode! This show is definitely the best of this summer season (and one of my top picks for this year!), so this is a very easy recommendation! (Unless you don’t do well with gore, of course).

New Game!! S2 - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ )

I really enjoyed this second season of New Game! It definitely took a slightly different approach, as there was a bit more emotional and dramatic moments (which personally, I think is a good thing!) I also can relate to this show quite a bit, as I’m now a game design student at a community college; so as a result, seeing the girls work on a game in a variety of ways (along with the working process in general) is very interesting to me! Of course, that’s not to say this show is the most realistic portrayal of the industry, per se, but it’s still cool to see more of this slice-of-life comedy about working in a game company! This season shows the team work on a new IP from start to finish, and all the trials that happen along the way. The girls are challenged a lot more as well, especially Aoba as she gets her first go at being the main character designer (with help from Yagami-san)! The concept art contest was definitely the biggest moment for her character arc; seeing her do her best on an art piece, despite knowing she’s going to lose by default due to a sales decision, was bittersweet to see for sure (but she came out much stronger in the end)! That even tied into Yagami’s character arc as well, since she realizes she’s holding back the growth of her younger employees (;~;). Aside from that, the programming aspect got a bit more spotlight this season! Watching Nene make a game by herself, then see her as a programming intern was great to see! Speaking of interns, we got two new girls this season: Momiji and Narumi! Both of them served as good “rivals” for Aoba and Nene, even if there wasn’t fierce competition between them; I just liked seeing their different (more cynical) viewpoints and how they interacted with the other girls (and learned from them + vise versa!). This season ended on a strong note as well; seeing Yagami leave for France and all the girls going to see her off (plus Aoba’s tearful goodbye to her!) was a great emotional end to the season (and heck, it could be a good end to the series in its own right!). I definitely liked this season even more than season one, as the increased emotional depth added a lot to this cute and fun series! If you like slice-of-life comedy shows, this is a really good one to check out!

Princess Principal - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ )

This show is my runner-up for AOTS, so you know this show is a fun time! It’s always fun to see a new spy anime, and this one really delivers on the spy action! The action scenes are really well done, with fluid motions and well-choreographed fight scenes! Add in the steampunk / early 20th century-style, and you’ve got a really cool spy show! The characters’ art style (for the girls) are definitely more on the moe-side, but they were fun to watch the whole way through! The main girls’ personalities were a good mix, and really interesting to see play out (especially Ange’s deadpan shtick). They all have their own skills to contribute too; even Beatrice, with no spy training, can use her mechanical neckpiece to perfectly imitate other people’s voices! The story is mostly episodic; while there is an overarching premise of an England-esque country being torn apart by war and regimes, each episode focuses on one specific spy case. I liked this approach, as each case told a nice little story than could range from action-packed & tense, to somber & heartbreaking. Each of the main girls get some spotlight time too in at least one story, meaning we get more insight into their personal histories and personalities, which is great! The main character focus though is definitely on Ange and Princess, as they swapped places when they were kids and reunite in the spy team during the present timeline. This story is kept vague (which added a good sense of mystery to these two!) until slightly past the halfway mark; it was great finally seeing their backstory when it came time! Their relationship had a big part in the final two episodes as well; speaking of that finale, it was yet another action-packed good time! But it also was very open-ended; The main villain hasn’t been defeated, and the anti-hero spy (Zelda) in the final two episodes got away as well. At least the main group is back together, and hopefully we’ll see them in a season 2, because the ending makes this season suffer a little bit as a stand-alone show. That being said, this was one of my favorite shows of the season for sure, and you should check it out if you like steampunk-style or spy stories!

Re:Creators - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ / A- )

What a solid show! It’s not every day we see a modern anime have a definitive and satisfying conclusion, but here we are! The first episode might not have won me over initially, but it definitely grew on me over time. Exposition was a bit more heavy-handed in earlier episodes as well (which is the most common complaint I’ve seen), but it’s not as bad later on. Re:Creators had lots of themes and messages about the act of creating things and what can come from it, which was really cool to see, especially since I’m an aspiring artist myself. This show may have had a lot of action, but the characters (both creations & creators) and how they interacted with each other was one of the most enjoyable parts for me. I definitely related to the main character (Souta) quite a lot, as he had a hard time creating things (& enjoying it) due to negative circumstances (albeit his reasoning was guilt-related, via mine being self-confidence). Not to mention he admitted to having negative bitter feelings towards his friend Setsuna due to her success (which I admit I also relate too…). Seeing this kind of character reflected in an anime, in addition to seeing a variety of different creators, was definitely great to see, since I could relate to it so much! The creative process is a big part of plot progression & magic-power-logic as well, which is super unique! Seeing a bunch of different genres being represented was cool as well, including a magical girl! (though I wish Mamika was the first to die & last only 8 episodes… at least she was a great character in that short time!) Magane was probably the other standout character for me, as she had a fun personality and was a real wild card in terms of what she could do (though she took a liking towards Souta, in the end). The villain, Altair, was also a great concept for a villain, since she was a Hatsune Miku-type who could use endless material from fan-works as her powers! Each character got at least a decent amount of development/screentime, and like I mentioned before, the conclusion to Altair’s story was really well done, and even left room for an epilogue episode at the end… I love when they do that! The ride that was Re:Creators was full of action, funny moments, heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. In the end… it’s a really good original action series that’s actually complete!

Sakura Quest - 8.5 / 10 ( B+ / A- )

P.A. Works does it again with another really good “working women” series! Like Hanasaku Iroha and Shirobako before it, this show follows a group of young adult girls working to try and revitalize a small rural town. As I’m getting older, I love seeing anime with characters closer to my age range, as they try to find their place in a working adult world, just like I am! The “revitalizing a rural town” aspect was also interesting to see play out, as there’s a lot that goes into that, like trying to get your name out there (either through the web or through TV) or organizing and planning events! The story plays out over the course of the year, but there’s lots of 1-2 episode-long stories that show off all these aspects, along with highlighting certain characters (which I always love to see!). It’s definitely a slice-of-life show that has a lot of character growth, and seeing the team accomplish things and the town slowly-but-surely come together was great to watch! The cast of characters was also really nice, both main and supporting! Most of the supporting cast were elderly or adults, so seeing them bounce off the young adult main group (& seeing their ideologies clash and work together) was cool to see too! Each of the main girls had their own realizations and journeys to make while working for the Tourism Board, whether it was learning the value of small towns (Yoshino) or finding your own way to do what you want to do, even if you fall short of your dreams (Maki). By the end, all five of them definitely show off some good insight towards adult life! The finale was nice as well, showing their classic festival finally coming together and the Dragon Song showing up again (which was one of my favorite mini-arcs back during the first half). While it’s left unclear whether Manoyama gets absorbed or not, it definitely ends on a happy, conclusive ending for our characters, and the town is definitely better off than at the show’s beginning. This was an enjoyable, down-to-earth show to watch, and you should give it a try too if you like slice-of-life shows (or if you enjoyed Hanasaku Iroha or Shirobako)!

Senki Zesshou Symphogear - 7.0 - 7.5 / 10 ( C+ )

This fourth(!) season of Symphogear was a big, fun action fest, just like the other seasons! The strong points of this series have always been the bombastic fight scenes, the insert songs, and the characters, which continues to be true here too. This was the first season that I stopped trying to focus on the story, and I think my enjoyment actually improved because of it! This series’ story has always been silly and tries to top itself with every iteration, which happens again in this season; it likes to pull explanations out of thin air, and have situations work out for our heroes at *just* the right time so the show can have a cool “badass” moment. I will give AXZ credit though for at least trying to pull elements from past seasons into this season’s weapon upgrades and logic reasoning, even though it still kinda feels like an ass-pull to me (then again, other people disagree with me on this, so YMMV!). The story is definitely this series’ biggest weakpoint for me (which is why I tend to rate these seasons relatively low), but its strongest aspects are in top form and a lot of fun to watch! The fight scenes and power-ups keep finding new ways to one-up themselves, and the main Symphogear girls continue to have an enjoyable dynamic together! The new antagonist group was mostly just okay, but the core three alchemist girls (Saint-Germain, Cagliostro, and Prelati) grew on me after they turn on their master (even though I liked Cagliostro the entire time, really~). The final episodes were a fun time, as always (including Hibiki being an evil god-monster at one point!); it’s notable though that they set up some things here for the already-confirmed season 5! Symphogear definitely grew on me this season, as I realized it’s the epitome of a popcorn-action show; just shut your brain off, and enjoy the spectacle!

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul - 8.0 / 10 ( B )

This was another fun and action-packed season of Shingeki no Bahamut! While I’m not sure whether I liked season 1 more than this one, it was still a very enjoyable watch throughout! One of the main reasons for this was the main new addition to the cast: Nina! She’s such a fun character to watch, as she’s strong, goofy, and jumps into action right away! I wasn’t the most fond of how “horny” she was for other guys, but that settled down a bit once she finds the guy of her dreams…. Which by the way, is also the main antagonist of the show, King Charioce. She falls in love with him when he’s in disguise, but even after his reveal, she still doesn’t give up her love for him (while simultaneously trying to stop his evil crimes). It’s definitely a unique approach to this type of romance for sure, but it was still a bit odd to me that she still stayed in love with him despite all the tyrannical things he did… At the very least, the execution of this subplot was pretty good, as were all the other story beats! This show has strong execution throughout (the prison escape arc was a highlight), with high quality animation (especially those dance scenes!), swelling music, and the right emotional notes. The problem for most people then will be some story beats themselves, mostly at the show’s end. A couple notable characters seem to get killed for no good reason, Charioce’s motivations try to spin him as “a good guy all along”, and his punishment at the end seems too light (as he merely just loses his eyesight); plus it feels like the people being oppressed by his rule turn right around and he gets praised as a hero for defeating Bahamut (which btw he himself summoned)! And oh yeah, Bahamut isn’t actually dead for good (leaving things open for a possible continuation). Oh well, at least the bittersweet aspect of a voiceless Nina and a sight-less Charioce being together is a nice touch. (I may sound mad here, but I didn’t hate these episodes at all ^^; ) In any case, the whole journey was fun to watch, and was full of engaging action the whole way through. I enjoyed seeing all the returning cast come back, and seeing them interact in both the upbeat and darker moments. Even though the ending won’t win over everyone, if you enjoyed the first season, you should have a good time here too!

#boku no hero academia #isekai shokudou #restaurant to another world #kakegurui #made in abyss #new game!#princess principal #re:creators #re creators #sakura quest #senki zesshou symphogear #symphogear #shingeki no bahamut #rage of bahamut #Final Impressions

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fandomsandfeminism · 8 years ago

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Weeping Angels and everything that sucks about Steven Moffat: The Full Text Transcript

Video Part 1

Video Part 2

Full text transcript below:

Hi. So, I normally talk about things I like on this channel, topics I have a positive opinion about. But today we are going to talk about Steven Moffat. So. Woops. All aboard the “pissed off” train I guess. I will do my best to stay calm as much as I can, but no promises. This was a really hard script to write and stay coherent. So If I seem rambly and ranty, well, I tried.

Let me begin by saying that I am not caught up on Doctor Who. I left the show right around the time that Clara started traveling with the Doctor, convinced that a new companion was not going to save the series in my heart. I have heard whisper and rumor of things that have happened since then, both good and bad, and I did watch the 50th special, but I am a Whovian on hiatus from Doctor Who. I blame Steven Moffat for this. (I also only made it 2 seasons into Sherlock before bailing and for a lot of the same reasons.)

You see, here’s the thing about Moffat, setting aside for now that he can’t write women or minority characters to save his life: Moffat, like many other writers, like George Lucas or Brannon Braga, with single episodes or heavy producer oversight, he can write some fantastic stories. The stories that Moffat wrote while Davies was showrunner are some of the show’s best. The Empty Child, Blink, Girl in the Fireplace, Silence in the Library are all very strong, very interesting episodes. Flawed in their own ways, sure, but strong enough on their own to be fan favorites.

when put in charge of a whole show, when producer and editorial oversight begin to dwindle….all the flaws in the writing balloon out of control. We saw it in the Star Wars prequels, we saw it in Star Trek Enterprise, and we certainly see it in Moffat’s Doctor Who run. At least the seasons I watched of it. -

And look, before we go further, I’m not saying that Davies was a perfect show runner, or that his run was without fault. His run was very different in tone and execution than Moffats. Davies had a very episodic run, with his overarching plots (like Bad Wolf) hinted at very subtly and slowly building to finales. It was campy SciFi. And...well, Moffat likes BIG stories where the whole universe is at stake ALL the time. His stories in that first season with Amy and 11 felt more like a fairy tale than SciFi. His big plots were “MYSTERY” is big neon lights all the time. And which you prefer is a matter of opinion. And, well, my opinions will soon be very clear to you.

Spoiler warning for...all of Doctor Who basically. At least the new stuff. And some of Sherlock.

There’s...a lot here to dig through, and I could rant about Moffat for days. But let’s stay focused, for now, on The Weeping Angels. I think they are an easy place to start.

The Weeping Angels are fan favorite monsters, and this makes sense if you look at their first episode: Blink. But as time went on, as Moffat took over the show, the Weeping Angels got...sucky. And sucky in a way that I think really demonstrates some of the biggest flaws in Moffat as a writer. The Weeping Angels have 3 major appearances in Doctor Who, along with a smattering of smaller cameos. Blink, Time of the Angels/Flesh and Stone, and the Angels Take Manhattan. So Let’s dig in.

Blink is Series 3, Episode 10. This is Still in 10s run, with Martha as the companion. It’s fun to watch. the Doctor and Martha only make small cameo appearances. Instead our focus is on Sally Sparrow, our heroine for the story, and the mystery of monsters themselves. The Doctor has gotten separated from his Tardis and he and Martha are stuck in 1969. Sally Sparrow must figure out what monsters are in this house and find a way to help the doctor, using clues, all while not getting grabbed herself.

This is a REALLY fun episode. The mystery is good, time travel is used to enhance the story in really interesting ways, and the Weeping Angels are legitimately scary and cool. Now, there are some weird race and gender things going on. The whole scene with Kathy getting dropped in the past and then having her future husband basically badger her is a cringey way to portray the beginning of a relationship.And the stuff with Billy, the only black guy in the episode, getting murdered for the drama is not ideal. BUT if you are just watching this episode in isolation, these are easy to overlook. They only get really uncomfortable if you start noticing trends. We’ll come back to that.

But what makes this episode work is that the Angels make SENSE. The Angels are ALIENS. They turn into stone when they are observed as a defense mechanism. They can only move when unobserved (The Doctor describes this as a Quantum Lock). They pull people back in time to feed off the potential of the lives they left behind. This is all established and stays consistent through this episode.

Now, let’s look at the next appearance of the Angels: The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone. We’re into Moffat’s run now, but back when it was still setting up plot points and was, well...watchable. The Doctor and Amy get recruited by River Song to help deal with a group of Weeping Angels that are starving and holed up in a maze near the wreckage of a space ship.

This was River Song’s second appearance, back when we knew almost nothing about her, when she still seemed pretty badass and mysterious and interesting. Sadly, these are all traits that would....diminish the longer Moffat wrote her. We’ll...yeah, we’ll come back to that later. This episode is before all that. River is still cool and smart and it’s fine. River is still a promising character in this episode.

And Amy does get put in mortal peril, again, because Moffat loved putting Any in mortal peril for some reason. Sigh. Poor Amy.

But ok, we’re talking about the Angels. This is where the Angels start to get screwed up. The Angels here are starving, which apparently allows them to override their Quantum Lock thing? And Move even when observed? Because hunting overrides defence in their starving state. Sure. And they are killing people now instead of dragging them back in time. Why? And when they move, they are still made of stone? I thought they were only stone when they quantum locked?

Like, they give a reason for why they are breaking the rules here, but this is only the second time we’ve seen the Angels! So this doesn’t feel like we’re spicing things up and changing a well known rule. It feels like Moffat only had one idea about the Angels and after he used that up, he had to change how the Angels worked to get another story out of them. It just doesn’t work as well. -

What REALLY messes things up is this bit though: The Doctor is reading a book about the Angels and notices it has no pictures. He reads "Whatever takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel." Again, The Doctor reads this in a book about the Angels. So this is not just a “starving angel” thing. This is apparently something that is true for all of them forever. Put a pin in that. We’ll come back to that.

[Break between videos]

Hello! Welcome back to my Moffat rant. We are going to pick up where we left off and start talking about the Angels Take Manhattan. Sigh. Ok, at this point, I was starting to burn out on Doctor Who. The Asylum of the Daleks was a really bad episode and really left a sour taste in my mouth about how Amy’s infertility was handled. We’d gotten a whole bunch of River Song episodes that revealed a lot of information about her, and really fumbled her all around. So I was, ya know, not being as forgiving any more. But let’s go on.

We find ourselves in New York. Rory gets grabbed by Angels and is dragged back to the 1930s where he finds River. The Doctor and Amy have to find him. There’s a guy keeping an injured Angel captive. The Doctor and River flirt a lot. There’s this whole thing about the adventure being recorded in a book and they have to not get spoilers because that makes paradoxes.

This is the Pond’s farewell episode. And it’s...awful. Like, it makes no sense if you stop to think about it at all. Let’s start with the Angels.

First of all, The Weeping Angels now look like or...can...infect preexisting statutes? Since when? They always looked the same before. And they aren’t REALLY statues. They are aliens that LOOK like statues when they quantum lock. Except now they also look like cherubs? And other statues? And the Angels are sending people back in time and imprisoning them? To send them back over and over? But...why? Why does that work? The Angels feed on the lost potential of that person’s original life by pulling them back in time. Do they get more time potential or whatever after they have been dropped somewhere? Why don’t ALL Angels do this then?

And the Statue of Liberty. We have to talk about the Statue of Liberty. Because this is just Moffat thinking something looked cool and not thinking about it at all after that. Because 1. The Statue of Liberty isn’t made of STONE. So even if the Angels can now...infect normal stone statues? Why can they infect a COPPER statue? And the Statue of Liberty is HUGE. The angels are still quantum locking in this episode. So how did the STATUE OF LIBERTY stroll through Manhattan without anyone noticing!? And hey, remember "Whatever takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel."? Yeah, unpin that one. Because there are now millions? Billions? Of movies, postcards, posters, and tourist photos that are DEADLY ANGEL BOMBS. This is like the Ring, except with 5 billion tourist selfies.

Look, it’s fine to introduce new information about recurring monsters. But this makes no goddamn sense!

And, ok, so at the end. They paradox-jump off a building which does a big ole reset on the adventure, but Rory gets grabbed by an angel anyway (Why? How? I thought the paradox would poison all the angels and they die?) and they see his tombstone so the doctor and amy can’t go save him (Why? You just did a whole paradox thing? Why cant you do another) so Amy lets herself get pulled back too and the Doctor can’t go get them because doing so would screw New York up forever. Because of paradoxes?

So, question. 1. Why can’t you go back in time, grab Rory, and then just….buy a tombstone to put in the cemetery? Then it’s not a paradox. Or just grab Rory and then when he dies, bring him back to be buried there? That makes at least as much sense as the shit with the Robot Doctor getting “killed” in The Impossible Astronaut and The Wedding of River Song. Also, ok, how far does this “no more Paradox bubble” extend? Like geographically and in time? Can the Doctor NEVER go back to New York? What about New Jersey? Why can’t Amy and Rory take a vacation, then in 5 years hop on the train to Phili and get picked up? Buy a tombstone to be placed in that graveyard while you're there!

Like god dammit. I know it sucks having to leave companions, but it needs to make sense when you do it.

So, this all highlights a few of the major problems Moffat has with his writing. He’s really bad about continuity and following rules, he doesn’t actually like killing characters off but he likes to threaten to, and he really struggles to write women.

Like, Moffat doesn’t know if a paradox is something that will kill all the weeping angels (except 1 very plot convenient one) and save everyone, or blow up New York, or do….nothing? Like, how is saving Gallifrey in the 50th special not the universe’s biggest paradox?

Moffat is also awful about killing characters. Like, when the Doctor declares “Today nobody dies” in the Empty Child, it was a beautiful moment because so often the Doctor can’t save everyone. That Doctor, fresh from losing Gallifrey, celebrating not losing a single person, is lovely. But then it just...keeps happening. River Song? Nah, she gets uploaded into the Library. The Ponds? They got to live out the rest of their lives in the past. He brought back GALLIFREY. Which….ugh. And The Master, apparently? Mistress? Missy? Whatever. Also apparently he really dragged out killing Clara? I had stopped watching long before then, but, you hear things. Even look at Sherlock: couldn't let go of Moriarty for seasons. Faked us out about Irene. Faked you out about Watson. Ultimately, if everyone is always in mortal peril, but characters he likes never really die, it kills all of the dramatic tension. You can show me Watson getting shot all you want, Moffat. I don’t believe you.

And women. Moffat and women. We could talk for a long time about all the weird, shitty stuff he’s SAID about women. But for the sake of time, let's just focus on his female characters today. I mentioned briefly that Blink has some “harassment as romance” stuff. And we need to talk about River Song Her character just got more convoluted until her first appearance in Silence in the Library is nearly unrecognizable. Eventually she falls into this whole “Women fling themselves at Moffat!Protagonist and revolve their whole lives around them” thing. She goes from this cool time traveler, equal to the Doctor if not better, to just...a mess of tired, weird tropes. She goes from “Super mysterious time traveling badass” to “LITERALLY A BABY that Doctor failed to save, whose entire life revolves around the Doctor, and she became an archeologist so she could find him and they get married” which….yuck.

Like, The Doctor also met Amy as a little girl and they make out eventually? Also Oh and Clara kissed the Doctor too (Which...the Doctor did meet Clara as a little kid too?). And let’s not even start on “Irene “I’m Gay but I’m gonna fall in love with this dude” Adler” in Sherlock and all the gross there.

Plus this whole thing that Moffat has about girls whose whole lives revolve around his protagonists? Like, Amy’s whole life is warped from childhood by the Doctor and the cracks in her wall. River is literally kidnapped and brainwashed to be obsessed with the Doctor. That’s not healthy

Speaking of issues with women, we need to talk about The Girl in the Fireplace. Another Moffat episode where a CHILD who meets the Doctor, grows up and ends up romantically into the Doctor (what the hell, Moffat. Like, for most of these “Doctor kisses a girl he met when she was a child” scenarios, they can be explained as less creepy with context, but Moffat keeps writing it. What is his deal with kissing ladies the Doctor meets as children? Weird?) And Madame de Pompadour definitely counts as “entire life gets wrapped up in the Doctor” thing

And, I’m sorry, I know this is a little off topic, but This episode also has the most infuriating use of time travel. Like, Doc, you know that fireplace jumps DECADES when you use it. So WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE HER AND GO BACK THROUGH the fireplace if you just want her to pack for a few minutes? JUST WAIT. Just wait for her to pack and go through the fireplace TOGETHER. (Or I dunno, write a female character who isn’t willing to throw away her entire life to get some Doctor action. That could work.) Is it Because the ManPain is more important than making sense? Moffat? Is it?

And, ok, let’s jump back to the race thing. We need to talk about the really shitty joke the Doctor makes in that episode, right? When Rose tells him that he can’t keep the horse and the Doctor replies “But I let you keep Mickey.” Like, bro, Rose’s black boyfriend hanging out is not the same as you wanting to keep a literal farm animal on a spaceship. what The hell. And just...Moffat doesn’t write non-white people. Think about it. At least in what I saw of his work, people of color maybe show up for one episode, and it’s a miracle if they don’t get killed. In the RTD episodes Moffat wrote, the black companions tended to get ignored or sidelined. Martha and Mickey barely show up in Moffat’s scripts from that era. Sherlock has its own set of race issues, mostly the use of stereotypes in the minor characters. Like, the entire Blind Banker episode was a dumpster fire. Lots of stereotypes running around there.

And we haven’t even touched Moffat and LGBT+ stuff. Like Irene Adler, identifying as gay but falling in love with Sherlock that I mentioned before. And Oswin dating a girl being described as a “phase.” And I believe Moffat dismissed the idea that Sherlock could be asexual in an interview by saying it would be “boring”? Vastra and Jenny are cool, but then there’s the bit where the Doctor kisses Jenny against her will in The Crimson Horror. Which is supposed to be funny, but is actually gross for several reasons.

Sigh. Look, I haven't seen anything with the 12th Doctor. And I know the Moffat’s run on Doctor Who is coming to a close. So my complaints, based mostly on Moffat writing the 11th Doctor’s run, are both outdated and soon to be doubly so. I’m beating a dead horse here.

But, there. I deeply hope that the 12th Doctor was written better than 11 was. Because all the Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey nonsensical bullshit was exhausting for me. And I hope the next writer does better. I hope the new companion, who I believe is going to be a black lesbian woman, will be amazing, and well written, and respected by the narrative. I want to come back. I want to love this show again. But I don’t trust Moffat to write it.

And whatever Moffat moves onto next, can we please make him stop writing little children as potential romantic partners. It’s creepy.

#steven moffat #moffat #doctor who #sherlock #the weeping angels

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azrielsiphons · 7 years ago

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Prequel: Azriel-Centric Stories Set Before ACOTAR (ch.3)

This is a collection of interconnected short stories about Azriel’s life before any of the events of ACOTAR through ACOWAR.

Make sure to read Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 4, Chapter 4.5, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10

Read the follow up fic, Shadows and Darkness: One and the Same

CHAPTER 3: DOREA

Time frame: 40 years after the War.

Summary: The Prince of Adriata has been found dead in his sleep lying next to his wife, the newly crowned Princess of Adriata, Dorea. Knowing that the Night Court has a skilled spymaster, High Lord Narayan calls in a favor from Rhys. Azriel and Cassian offer to help investigate the death. Cassian may or may not accidentally destroy a building.

(Note: This is the longest chapter yet and holds several clues to an overarching fic I’m working on. Remember that though these stories are spaced out and not posted chronologically, they are all interconnected. Enjoy!)

“All I’m saying is, we shouldn’t rule out the wife.”

“Cassian.” Azriel sighed, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. “Princess Dorea did not kill her husband.”

“You don’t know that!” Cassian shot back, buckling the last of his leathers.

“Yes, we do.” Both Cassian and Azriel snapped their heads up as Rhys strode into the room, running his fingers through his hair. He flopped down on the chaise dramatically and took a deep breath. “I’ve met Dorea. She’s not exactly the husband-murdering type.”

“See,” Azriel said under his breath, lacing his boots and ignoring Cassian’s look of incredulity.

“The husband-murdering types never seem like the husband-murdering types until they murder their husbands, brother.”

“Dorea adored Solomon, and vice-versa. When I first met them, I thought they were mates,” Rhys said wistfully.

“But they weren’t mates,” Cassian pointed out haughtily. “Which means she very likely could have killed him.”

“Lack of a mating bond isn’t evidence for a murder, Cassian,” Rhys said. “I can certainly assume that should you find a mate, he or she will want to kill you right away.”

“And your mate won’t?” Cassian snapped.

“Can we focus please?” Azriel sighed, forcing himself not to think of her. “We’ve been personally invited by the Summer Court to investigate the death of one of their princes. Perhaps we should at least pretend to be worthy of such an invitation instead of acting like children.”

Cassian scoffed, pulling the strap of leather off of his wrist in one smooth motion. “Don’t go saying ‘we,’ brother. You were invited. High Lord Narayan asked Rhys for his Spymaster specifically. He wants your investigative brains, I’m just the brawn that has to tag along.”

The smirk on Cassian’s face as he pulled back his hair with the strap of leather showed he didn’t mind being the brawn in the slightest.

“Azriel is right,” Rhys interjected with a smile he rarely showed around anyone except his brothers. “Adriata is heartbroken over the loss of its prince, and Narayan is desperate to give his people and Dorea an explanation. And Dorea too, for that matter.”

“I hope this doesn’t become a regular occurrence,” Azriel said monotonously, standing to his feet and giving Rhys a wry smile. “You loaning me out to other Courts, that is.”

“Feeling like a cheap whore, Az?”

“Please Cassian, we both know you’re the cheap one.”

~~~~~

“Welcome to the Summer Court!”

Azriel felt severely uncomfortable. As High Lord Narayan welcomed he and Cassian, all he wanted to do was disappear into his shadows. This wasn’t what he did, Rhys and Mor were the ones who worked politics and charmed officials and made nice with other Courts.

This was as far from his normal as he could get.

She was always good at this, his shadows whispered cruelly. If she were here she would know exactly what to do. If you’d protected her, if you had—

“Your Court is quite nice,” Cassian said quickly, covering for Azriel as he zoned out. “I mean nothing can quite compare to the Night Court—”

“Now Commander,” Narayan interrupted with an amused grin, looking over his shoulder as they strolled through the palace in Adriata. “Let’s not bring any tension into this new relationship this early.”

Cassian and Narayan laughed heartily, and Azriel forced himself to focus, to not think of her, of the loss in his chest and in his soul.

“Where is Princess Dorea?”

The laughter stopped immediately and Narayan took a deep breath. “Dorea is here. She’s had some… difficulties leaving her room since we lost Solomon. Our city is still in mourning, and none more so than Dorea.”

“Of course,” Azriel nodded respectfully. “With your permission, I would like to meet with her first before any other… investigating.”

Narayan nodded, leading the males to a balcony overlooking the city and the sea. His dark skin seemed to glow in the harsh, yet beautiful sunlight. He lifted his gaze to the sky, breathing in the sea air.

“Dorea is aware that I called you here,” he finally spoke, his low tenor reverberating in Azriel’s bones. “She is also aware that, given the circumstances of Solomon’s death, an outsider may believe that she is complicit.”

“Do you believe—”

“No.” Narayan shook his head fervently, looking Azriel directly in the eyes. “Not for one second do I believe Dorea harmed Solomon in any way.”

“Then who?” Cassian asked, his tone serious.

“I wish I could tell you. I’ve spoken to every guard in this palace personally. There was no ill will between anyone in the direct vicinity and Solomon. Quite frankly his death makes no sense.”

“How was he found?”

“Dead in his bed. The guards came running when Dorea started screaming. I was on the other side of the Court at the time, but they said the sight of her holding him was… horrible.” Narayan shook his head as if to rid himself of the mental image. “I will be honest, it is a blow to my pride to have to call you in, Azriel. I remember Rhysand’s father mentioning you once, years ago. You were here with his daughter, if I recall correctly.”

White noise began to creep into Azriel’s mind.

“A terrible loss,” Narayan continued, oblivious to the Shadowsinger’s inner conflict. Cassian had tensed as well, watching Azriel carefully out of the corner of his eye. “She was so charming, just like her mother. Regardless, Rhysand’s father had said you were the best Spymaster a High Lord could hope for.”

He sure had a damn funny way of showing his appreciation.

“So when this tragedy happened and my own people couldn’t get to the bottom of it, I remembered you.” Narayan smiled genuinely, and Azriel felt briefly guilty that he was hardly invested in the conversation anymore.

He remembered that visit. She had worn blue as a sign of respect to the Summer Court, her father had been livid over it, but she’d insisted that pride would divide the Courts and division was the last thing they needed in the middle of the war. She had smiled at Azriel, given him a sly wink when her father had turned and—

“I will accept the blow to my pride if that’s what it takes to get answers.”

Azriel came back to the present almost violently, but he showed nothing beyond a small flare of his shadows.

“We’ll find out who killed your prince, High Lord.” Azriel’s voice had gone so low it seemed to carry an undertone of threatening. Cassian looked at him curiously. “I swear it.”

“Thank you.” Narayan’s gratefulness was honest. “I will send for Dorea, see if she is ready to see you.”

Azriel and Cassian offered small bows to Narayan as he exited the room, leaving the pair with a couple of Summer Court guards.

“Hey.” Cassian grabbed Azriel’s arm the second the High Lord was out of earshot. “Are you with me?”

Azriel nodded, shaking the image of her violet eyes, twin to Rhys’s, from his mind.

“Always,” he said. “Always, brother.”

~~~~~

A little while later Narayan finally emerged, and with him was easily one of the most stunning females Azriel and Cassian had ever seen.

Her skin was flawless, dark and glowing and beautiful. The yellow silk dress she wore was loose and billowing in the light wind coming through the open balcony. Her eyes were fiercely trained on the Illyrians standing in her palace, but not with any hostility. Only pure grief. And pure strength.

Azriel knew the look well.

“Hello,” she spoke, her voice cool and even. “My name is Dorea. It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Welcome to Adriata.”

Azriel and Cassian bowed respectfully.

“The pleasure is ours,” Cassian offered with a smile. Azriel was more grateful for Cassian’s presence than he originally expected to be. One of them should be charming.

“You have no idea how charming you can be, do you?” She had asked, her bright smile cutting Azriel to his core. Rhys would have killed him if he’d seen the way he was looking at his sister in that moment. “Brooding is your specialty Az, and I love your brooding, I really do. But manners, charm, charisma? You could excel at that too. If you just believed in yourself enough to—”

Focus! The shadows shouted in Azriel’s ear, yanking him back out of the past once more.

Azriel came back to the present with the smallest twitch, but every eye in the room turned to him all the same. He cleared his throat.

“Princess Dorea,” he began.

“Please,” she held up a hand, effectively cutting him off. “Just Dorea. I am still getting used to this new title.”

“You’re doing wonderfully,” Narayan said kindly, catching her eye. “Given these circumstances, your strength is exactly what Adriata needs.”

Azriel gave a small smile. “A woman’s strength is like no other.”

Dorea’s head snapped towards the Shadowsinger. She cocked her head to the side with an inquisitive look.

“I take it you have known some strong women in your day,” she said coolly.

“Known and loved and admired.”

Cassian stared at Azriel.

It took a moment, but Dorea offered Azriel the smallest of smiles.

~~~~~

Azriel questioned Dorea for half an hour before moving on to the guards in the palace. Then, to Narayan’s surprise, he insisted on speaking to the other servants in the palace as well, even the ones that were nowhere near the incident. But Azriel knew that one’s true character could be better understood by the way they treated those who provided services for them.

You learned that from her, his shadows whispered.

It had been a while since the memories had been this painful for him. He shook the thoughts away for what felt like the hundredth time.

Fortunately, every description of both the incident and Solomon’s character had been consistent.

Solomon was a kind prince, who loved his people and held the utmost respect for his High Lord and his role in Adriata. He adored his wife, whom he had only been married to for six years. Dorea loved him equally, and never expected to take on the role of princess. She was content being the wife of a prince, and never expected to one day take on her husband’s responsibilities when she had married him.

All the guards verified that Dorea had woken up next to her husband’s body. They had come running inside when they heard her scream.

There were no external injuries, and the healers that examined the body said there were no evident traces of organ damage or poisons. Not that Azriel was surprised by that though, considering there were plenty of poisons in Prythian that left the body without a trace after an hour or two. He felt confident that’s what happened with Solomon.

While Narayan assured Azriel and Cassian that Solomon had no enemies within the city, Dorea seemed to be in less agreement.

Which was why Azriel wasn’t surprised when Dorea slipped him a note to meet her in her chambers after dark when they all retired to their rooms.

“I asked you to come alone,” Dorea huffed when Azriel and Cassian stepped out of the shadows behind her bedroom door. They may not have been able to winnow within the palace, but there were always plenty of shadows.

“Sorry princess, where he goes I go,” Cassian said with a smirk.

“That’s not always true, ignore him. No one is listening to us.” A blue shield settled around the room as Azriel’s siphons flared and then dimmed slightly. “You’re hiding something from Narayan. What is it?”

Dorea’s eyes flashed, surprised that Azriel was so blunt. The surprise quickly disappeared though, giving way to a deep sadness and exhaustion as she sat down on the edge of her bed.

“I don’t want to keep things from my High Lord,” she said softly. “I truly don’t. Secrets are a poison.”

“Like the one that killed your husband?” Cassian asked.

“Exactly like the one that killed my husband,” she snapped. “I know what you must be thinking. That I killed my husband and must have excellent acting skills to scream so convincingly when I found his body.”

“Well,” Cassian shrugged. “You said it, not me.”

Dorea raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t really believe that though, do you? You’re smarter than that, I can see it. Playing the dumb brute so that I might slip up doesn’t become you, Commander.”

Cassian grinned.

“Solomon must have had enemies,” Azriel said softly. “Even the most beloved leaders have enemies. Who was his?”

“I want to tell you, but you must understand something first.” Dorea inhaled, her breath shaking. “I was never supposed to be the princess of Adriata. This was never the role I asked for or wanted. I simply loved Solomon with my entire being, prince or not.”

“That’s sweet,” Cassian said. “What does that have to do with anything though?”

“When Solomon died, Narayan himself decided that I would become the princess. I was not originally in line for the position.”

Cassian and Azriel stood a little taller, beginning to connect the dots.

“He broke tradition,” Azriel whispered, his shadows flaring. “Who was supposed to take his place?”

“No one,” Dorea said. “We just expected that our future child would one day…”

Azriel and Cassian looked away as Dorea began to choke up. A few seconds passed and she took a deep breath, composing herself like a true queen.

“We never thought we needed to worry about someone taking over,” she said evenly.

“Who wanted the position?” Azriel asked, not wanting to waste any more time.

Dorea looked up at him from under her lashes, her dark brown eyes boring into his own.

“Someone we didn’t even know existed,” she whispered. “His half-brother.”

“I’m sorry.” Cassian stepped forward, a look of incredulity on his sharp features. “Half-brother? You didn’t feel like mentioning this to us earlier? With Narayan?”

“We only learned about him a couple weeks ago,” Dorea explained quickly. “He showed up out of nowhere, cornering us outside of our favorite restaurant. He said his name was Moesen, and he was Solomon’s half-brother on his father’s side. He was kind, he seemed genuine. And the resemblance between he and Solomon was undeniable. He knew all about Solomon’s father, and said his only intention was to know his brother, nothing more.”

“He was lying.” Azriel didn’t phrase it like a question.

Dorea nodded. “He continued to show up, asking Solomon all sorts of questions about what being the prince was like, the protocols, the responsibilities. Then one day he blatantly asked if Solomon would bring him into the Court ranks. He said he was ‘family’ after all.” Dorea laughed bitterly. “Solomon told him no as kindly as he could, explained that Moesen simply didn’t have the experience necessary to work for the Court.”

“He got angry,” Cassian said with a sigh, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms.

“It was horrifying,” Dorea whispered. “Moesen lost it. Said Solomon would pay for not being loyal to his blood.”

“And you never told Narayan any of this?” Azriel asked.

“Solomon didn’t want to bother the High Lord with his petty family drama,” Dorea replied. “It is one of my deepest regrets that I did not contact Narayan on my own.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Isn’t it though?”

“No. It’s not.” Azriel’s tone left no room for arguing.

“So to clarify,” Cassian said, “Moesen wanted to be an official Court representative. Solomon said no, with good reason. Moesen loses it, poisons Solomon likely thinking there would be an investigation into Solomon’s family line to name the next prince but instead Narayan appoints you to the position. So now Moesen is probably coming after you, and Narayan has no idea about any of this.”

A beat passed.

“Yes, I believe that’s it,” Dorea finally said.

“Well.” Azriel took a deep breath, looking over at Cassian. “It looks like we have our work cut out for us, brother.”

~~~~~

Dorea called in four extra guards to watch her room at Azriel’s request while he and Cassian returned to their chambers. They decided to wait until morning to search out Moesen and deal with him, thinking it unwise to go traipsing through Adriata in the middle of the night on a hunt without Narayan’s knowledge.

Azriel tossed and turned throughout the night, haunted by images of violet eyes, melting snow under a river of red, slender fingers gripping his leathers and begging him to stay.

You should have stayed.

He let the nightmares lull him to sleep.

~~~~~

“Come again?” Narayan asked incredulously, looking at the Illyrians like they had told him the sky was green. Bright morning light shone into the meeting room. “Solomon had a… half-brother. Who murdered him. And now wants to murder Dorea.”

“Yes,” Azriel said bluntly. If it were up to him he would have already tracked down Moesen, killed him or perhaps delivered him alive to Dorea so she could land the killing blow, and been back at Velaris by now. But politics prevented that.

“And no one thought to tell me this before now? Where is Dorea?”

“The princess was feeling ill this morning,” replied one of the guards in response to Narayan’s glare.

“Perfect,” he muttered. “Where is this Moesen then?”

“We are not sure yet,” Azriel said, the words tasting bitter on his tongue. He could have handled this by now if he had free reign.

Narayan took a deep breath, standing to his full height. He cracked his neck on one side, then the other, then rolled his shoulders before meeting Cassian and Azriel’s eyes.

“Thank you for your help, gentlemen. I am truly grateful. However, I believe my Court can handle this from here.”

“You want us to leave?” Cassian asked incredulously.

“Cass—”

“No, Dorea trusted us enough to tell us the truth,” Cassian snapped. His temper was getting the best of him. “She told us about Moesen and didn’t tell her High Lord. What does that say to you, Narayan?”

“Remember where you are, boy.” Narayan’s voice promised a slow death. The kindness had left his dark eyes. “This is my Court and you are a guest here at my request. I am grateful for your help, but do not overstep your bounds.”

Cassian moved to step forward and Azriel grabbed his arm faster than anyone could see. The Summer Court guards stepped forward, only to freeze as Narayan held up his hand.

Just as Cassian was about to mouth off again and get them into deeper trouble, there was a scream.

“Dorea,” Narayan whispered.

The three males and all the guards took off as fast as they could for Dorea’s chambers. The guards outside her door all lay on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Narayan was the first to burst through the chamber doors.

The trio froze. Inside Dorea’s room stood a tall, handsome male with rage in his eyes and a knife in his hand held up to Dorea’s throat. Dorea had one hand clutched onto the male’s forearm and the other against her stomach.

“Don’t move,” the male said darkly. He was wearing a guard’s uniform.

That’s how he got into the palace.

“Moesen,” Narayan said calmly, holding up his hands. “Step away from Dorea. We can talk.”

“Oh you know my name?” Moesen snapped. “Interesting, considering my late brother thought I wouldn’t be good enough to consult with the High Lord.”

“Don’t you speak of him,” Dorea hissed, thrashing in his hold.

“Shut your mouth!”

Azriel risked a step forward as the knife dug deeper into Dorea’s skin. Discreetly, he created a small shield of blue between her neck and the blade. At the release of pressure, her eyes widened but she remained silent. Her eyes continued to to dart down to her stomach.

“I would be an asset to your Court,” Moesen said, seemingly pleading with Narayan. “I could help you so much, really connect you to your people. The same blood that ran in Solomon’s veins runs in mine!”

“You killed Solomon.”

“Only to get what is rightfully mine! And then you gave it to her!”

Moesen went to dig the knife deeper into Dorea only to meet the resistance of Azriel’s shield. He looked down with wide eyes at the blue barrier, giving Dorea ample time to rear her head back and slam it into his nose.

Moesen cried out in pain, but lurched forward, thrusting his knife out at the same time Cassian rushed forward and was grabbing him by the shoulders in the blink of an eye.

Narayan and Azriel both shouted for Cassian to stop, but he didn’t listen. Wings snapping out, Cassian lifted himself and Moesen into the sky.

Just as Azriel was about to go bring Cassian back, Dorea let out a whimper and fell to the ground.

“Dorea!” Narayan rushed to her side, catching her as she fell. He pulled his hand away and it was red, stained with blood where Moesen’s blade had sunk into her back. “You’re going to be okay, your fine.” He looked over at Azriel, who crouched next to the pair. “Help me.”

Azriel was already working on a patch of blue over the wound, keeping any more blood from escaping while Narayan repaired the actual damage.

“The baby,” Dorea gasped out. “Get a healer, I’m pregnant.”

Narayan froze for a brief second before calling out for a healer. Two of the guards rushed out.

In the distance within the city, a crash resounded followed by screaming. Narayan’s eyes flashed with anger, but he quickly looked back down at Dorea.

If Narayan doesn’t kill you then I will, Cassian, Azriel thought to himself.

“You’re going to be just fine,” Narayan repeated. “You and your baby. The knife barely went in, you’re okay.”

“I need him to be okay,” Dorea whispered painfully. Silence descended over the room. “He’s all I have left of Solomon. Please, Narayan.”

The High Lord nodded fervently, holding Dorea tight. “I promise. For Solomon. And for you.”

A few seconds later Cassian landed on the balcony of Dorea’s room, covered in dust and dirt as he hauled a haggard looking Moesen behind him. He tossed the terrified male onto the floor in front of him and a group of guards ran forward and hauled him to his feet.

“He’ll go quietly now,” Cassian said gruffly, shaking his head so that dust went flying. “Though I may have broken a building while scaring him.”

Narayan glared, but it was Dorea who spoke. “You’re never coming back to the Summer Court.”

~~~~~

“So let me get this straight,” Mor said in between laughter. “You flew the poor male from the sky all the way down into a building, effectively destroying that building, and then you were surprised when you were reprimanded for it?”

“In my defense,” Cassian snapped, grabbing a bottle of whiskey out of Rhys’s hands. “He was no ‘poor male.’ He was a murderer, and he deserved it. Right, Azriel?”

“He deserved much worse, and in a different setting,” Azriel drawled. “But your methods were certainly creative.”

“Creative?” Rhys asked incredulously, snatching the bottle back. “I had to write the most kiss ass letter imaginable to Narayan so that he wouldn’t go further than simply banning Cassian. Be glad you didn’t get a blood ruby on your doorstep.”

Cassian shuddered. “Cauldron help us if we ever get one of those.”

“Honestly I’m just surprised Narayan didn’t drown you where you stood,” Mor said. “You wrecked a building, Cassian.”

“Just one,” he muttered.

“How is the princess?” Amren asked monotonously, not nearly as amused as the rest of the Circle.

“She’s good,” Azriel answered, briefly meeting her silver eyes. “She and the baby are both fine. Moesen is being held in their prison, he will go on trial soon.”

“Do you think they will let him live?”

Azriel shrugged. “I believe that Narayan and Dorea are kinder than most in Prythian. Kinder than any of us, certainly. But Moesen killed someone they loved.” He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “No matter how kind one is… revenge is sometimes necessary in order to go on living.”

A somber silence descended over the group. They all knew the sentiment well. The rage against injustice. Against innocent life lost.

“Death is inevitable, Azriel. But that doesn’t mean we can’t hate it with every fiber of our being.”

She would never know just how much he hated death. But he would continue to wield it. For her. For revenge. For justice. For the family he had left.

“To living,” Cassian said suddenly, grabbing his own glass for once and raising it high. “To living for the sake of those we’ve lost.”

Everyone murmured their agreement except Azriel, who clinked his glass but wanted to choke on his own shadows. Living was a gift. But when he’d had her, it had been a prize.

But he would keep on surviving all the same. If only to spite death for what it had taken from him.

#acotar fanfiction #acomaf fanfiction #acowar fanfiction #acowar #azriel #my writing #prequel project by moe

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deltaengineering · 7 years ago

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Spring Anime 2017: I did it for teh awkwardz

We’re already a month deep into the new season, but I’ve had this draft sitting around and I might as well finish it. It’s not much anyway, because a lot of shows just kept going this time. Oh, and just for the record, I also watched episode 1 of The Reflection and that was just a boring, sketchy looking mess without any sort of narrative hook besides “superheroes, right?” Thanks, Stan Lee.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia was a really cool short movie about little witches doing witch things, followed by another rehash short movie which raised concerns that the LWA concept doesn’t have any legs besides good production values. Now we got 25 more short movies, and guess what: What worked once for half an hour of random entertainment can’t sustain 10 hours without major writing effort. And “writing effort” is clearly not where Trigger’s core competency is. LWA isn’t badly written in the ways that anime usually is: it doesn’t have terrible ideas, or schizophrenic tone, or a lack of concern for pacing. It just doesn’t really try and seems barely “written” at all. The script always has an air of “first draft” about it, in that it thinks that just winging it until the animators can make a cool action scene or a goofy face is good enough.

This is especially apparent during the first half, where Trigger are taking inspiration from episodic Western animation and just have Akko be bad at magic in various circumstances – but something like Dexter’s Lab actually has very skillful writing, even in absence of an overarching plot. In the second half, a plot rather haphazardly gets bolted on to this, but it’s not a good plot and the one good crisis it raises (an explanation of why Akko is so bad at magic that still fails to explain how she managed to get into a magic school) is so quickly resolved by everyone not actually caring about it much that I wonder if they even realized what they had there. In the end it’s just about the regular “believe in yourself, trust your friends, and ffs don’t try to harness the power of hate and suffering for your own ends” message I’ve seen a million times before, and usually done better.

And there’s more, like the cast: lots of half-assed scripts get by with just parading funny characters around, but LWA is almost always about the exceedingly one-note Akko. Apart from the ending, when Akko suddenly doesn’t matter much and it’s all about Ursula and Croix. Lotte and Sucy, ostensibly major characters, get one focus episode, then just sort of hang around later, and that goes for all the other students too. Diana gets a bit more focus, but that just points out that there isn’t a lot to her either (still more than to Akko, admittedly). There’s bizarre subplots about football. Croix gets introduced late and even then only sits around menacingly until the end. The universe is a Harry Potter knockoff without the depth (yeah, I know), and is decidedly un-whimsical for something that is supposed to run on the boundless power of imagination – just replacing mundane utilities with magic, like “crystal ball facebook”, loses its charm very quickly. And the rest is usual parade of references to things that caught the animator’s fancy that day – yes, there is a mecha episode. Of course there is. It looks good. Of course it does.

So if the writing is only a means to an end, is at least that end (animation) worth it? Well, that mostly depends on how important you consider the writing. On its own, the look of the show is premium tier, it’s always colorful, expressive, and definitely notable on a technical level for quite a few cuts. But it’s not a notable artistical achievement in its own right, and of course a TV show still can’t afford to be awesome all the time. The animation is just where all the effort went and it should make for some very nice demo reels. And even the action scenes lack engagement, because they’re set to a whimsical wannabe Danny Elfman score with no rhythm or punch.

Overall, I’d consider Little Witch Academia barely mediocre. After all my complaints about the writing, that may sound like letting it off easy. Still, the writing, while beset with endless flaws I could easily spend as much time again on, is just one aspect. All other aspects are at the very least okay, it has a few nice moments, and the visuals are consistently good – the good parts are just nothing you can spend a lot of praise on, but they do exist. Compared to the originals it’s just “more of the same”, but it’s a stark reminder that “more” in itself often makes something not “the same”. Especially 25 times more.

Kabukibu!

After angrily ripping into an superficially easy-to-like, well-made anime, it’s time to be a hypocrite and give Kabukibu, a cheap, forgettable show that nobody cared about, a pass. I just have a soft spot for these little shows that try, and if nothing else, Kabukibu doesn’t feature strange self-owns like when Cheer Danshi introduced a dozen supporting characters between episodes. Kabukibu is just a show about some school kids that really like Kabuki, and that’s okay. It doesn’t excel at anything, but it doesn’t fail hard at anything either. Even the animation knows its limits, it’s obviously cheap but it never outright falls apart. The characters are a cut above the bland nothings they could be. There’s a semi-meaningful conflict about doing something for fun vs doing something as a job, and another interesting conflict of modernization vs tradition – The way that the kabuki club approaches non-traditional kabuki is actually thoughtful. And hey, even some of the jokes land.

I feel like these small stories about niche topics have one big benefit over the designated heavy hitters: They know they’re not pandering to the mainstream, and this means they can afford to be earnest (unless they’re pandering to a niche crowd, but I assume the lobby for amateur kabuki is very small). No, Kabukibu is not even close to a Rakugo Shinjuu, but earnestness is quite refreshing in anime – even if it’s just another fucking school club again.

The King's Avatar

There’s a very simple elevator pitch for The King’s Avatar: “Sword Art Online, but Chinese”, and you’ll hear that pretty much every time TKA is mentioned. Like just now. But from what I can tell, it’s only surface level. Yes, TKA is about a cool dude who pwns fools in an online game, but that’s pretty much where it ends. What’s actually very true about the comparison, however, is that TKA is Chinese. Very Chinese. Much more Chinese than all the Haoliners anime made for the Japanese market. It’s still basically a very slow, idealized sports show about a bunch of quirky people that climb the ranks in an MMO that also is a hugely popular e-sport, led by a guy who is suspiciously good at it, but playing a game for a decade will do that I suppose.

I don’t know much about MMOs, much less Chinese ones, but the details of the game don’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me (especially the focus on APM in a game like this seems questionable), but hey, I’ll accept it. It’s not like it’s very important either, since thankfully there isn’t a lot of backseat game design happening here. It’s just people having fights with the occasional random powerup, and that works well enough. The Chinese like their sudden comedic tone shifts even more than the Japanese do, so there’s a bunch of that too. But I like the characters and their schemes, and I like how the fights look – at least up to the standards of a mid-tier Japanese production. It’s pretty cool. To be honest, the culture clash my main draw here: TKA isn’t exactly great, but it feels odd in a way that reminds me of the time when I didn’t know every anime trope and a huge amount of Japanese cultural details. That makes it feel more like “anime” than actual anime does nowadays.

Uchouten Kazoku S2

Uchouten Kazoku didn’t have to do much to be a winner, and sure enough, a winner it was. If you liked the first season, you’ll like this too, since it’s more of the same. And that’s in fact the one major thing I would hold against it, and which makes me like season 2 less than the first one: The surprise factor is gone, but everything else is just... the same. Down to the plotline, which eventually turns out to be almost a replay of season 1. Only this time with an even less conclusive ending because there will be a season 3 eventually – but the book that will be the source material for that one hasn’t even been written, so it’ll be a long wait.

But stagnating at a level as high as Uchouten Kazoku is operating on is still far from bad. And the few things they did add are top notch: The Nidaime finally gives Benten a counterpart that is able to stand up to her, with glorious results. Gyokuran, Yoichirou’s fiancee, makes for a nice romantic foil for his previously a little bland character. And Tenmaya is just a bastard you love to hate. Add to this some delightfully weirdo happenings like Benten taking a trip to hell to recreationally wrestle ogres, and you’re never lacking for entertainment with this show. It didn’t blow me away the same way the first season did, but it’s still an extremely solid show. Just come up with a few more new things next time, okay.

Tsuki ga Kirei

And finally, we have the hardest sell for a show in quite a while. What is Tsuki ga Kirei about? Well, it’s an understated romance between normal (i.e., awkward) teens. No magical realism gimmicks (like One Week Friends), no intense drama (like every shoujo romance ever), no odd couple dynamics (like Ore Monogatari), nothing. And it’s shamefully heterosexual on top of everything, who is supposed to watch this!? Well, there’s only one actual reason to watch it, and that reason is that it’s pretty damn good. There isn’t much to it, but it just does everything right: The characters are fully formed humans with relatable, relatively minor weaknesses that anyone could have. There are no designated villains; even the romantic rivals just turn out to be good people whose danger comes mostly from being a bit more outgoing that our introverted protagonists. The meddling adults really do have everyone’s best interests at heart, they just have a more cynical outlook on life. The characters develop in a relatable way, without leaving their original setup behind. It’s really good stuff that I would hesitate to call fully “realistic” (it’s a bit too sappy and positive for that), but has a verisimilitude that is almost unmatched in anime of this genre. And that is more important here than brutal realism.

It looks good too; the production falters a bit in the middle, and it has a curious reliance on stiff CG models for crowd scenes, but it’s nothing unusual and nothing that would amount to a major trouble spot since the character design, animation detail, background and and color work is consistently very good. I’m not going to lie, I love Tsuki ga Kirei and it’s the best show of the season, and that is no mean feat considering that said season had a very solid sequel to Uchouten Kazoku in it. Just a nice, small scale story about a bunch of lovable dorks that fully pays off and leaves no questions open.

#spring2017 #anime #review #little witch academia #kabukibu #the king's avatar #uchouten kazoku #tsuki ga kirei

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rahulkpofficial · 8 years ago

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12 Essential Tips to Picking a Website Color Scheme

Did you know that 85 percent of shoppers base their product purchasing decisions on color? It’s true. At first, I found that stat to be amazing. But after considering just how visually-driven we are as humans, it made total sense. Visual stimuli guide nearly everything we do. So why would it be any different when it comes to buying? And just think about some of the world’s biggest brands. Most tend to have a distinct color scheme associated with their brand identity. For McDonald’s it’s red and yellow. For Dell it’s blue. And so on. Color and branding As we all know, establishing a solid brand identity is vitally important. It’s a key ingredient in building trust, making consumers feel comfortable, and creating long-term brand advocates. And what’s an integral part of a brand? Its logo. The color scheme that a company chooses for its logo is forever entwined with its brand identity. According to research, “Color increases brand recognition by 80 percent .” So I think it’s fair to say that color scheme is pretty important. There’s something else to keep in mind. Brand color has a correlation with brand value. Sure, there’s some cause/effect tradeoff, but take a look at these stats: Valuable brands care about their colors. A lot! If you were to go and mess with the colors of an existing brand, it would completely change how that brand is perceived. Take a look at these examples from TheLogoFactory.com You can instantly spot the artificial logos, and you feel something different surrounding that brand! Website color scheme Just like it’s crucial to choose the right color for your brand logo, it’s equally as crucial to choose the right color scheme for your website. You don’t want to pick your color scheme at random or base it on “whatever looks cool” to you. Of course, you want awesome aesthetics and to “make it pop,” but color scheme is something that you want to give plenty of thought. Why? “People make a subconscious judgment about an environment or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing. Between 62 and 90 percent of that assessment is based on color alone.” If you choose the right color scheme that’s naturally geared toward your demographic, you’ve already won half of the battle. I would now like to offer 12 essential tips on how to pick the perfect website color scheme based on research and my own personal experience. 1. Understand how color affects emotion The first thing I recommend is familiarizing yourself with how color affects humans on an emotional level. Here’s a breakdown of how various CTA button colors affect shoppers in North America. Note that the impact of color can vary depending on geographical location. For instance, a color that appeals to American shoppers may not necessarily appeal to Indian shoppers. I also came across the Color Emotion Guide that explains the emotions we associate with colors and provides some examples of brands that use each color. I suggest spending some time looking at these examples and thinking about the psychological implications of the various colors. 2. Consider your overall demographic Now I’d like you to think about your target demographic. Who is it you’re trying to reach and sell to? What types of emotions are you trying to arouse? These are extremely important questions to ask yourself. I recommend checking out this information from Fast Company that explains the emotions and psychology behind common colors. Consider the personality and emotions of your target audience. Then choose the best color to serve as the primary color for your website color scheme. For example, if you’re an organic food company, your best bet would probably be green because it’s associated with nature and health. 3. Consider gender Although this won’t apply to everyone, some companies mostly cater to a specific gender. If you’re one of these companies, you’ll want to know what are men’s and women’s favorite and least favorite colors. Research from Joe Hallock’s Colour Assignments found that on average each gender has definite color preferences. Here’s what I mean. As you can see, men really like blue and dislike brown and purple. Women like blue and purple and dislike brown and orange. This is just another factor to keep in mind. 4. Consider age group Here’s something to think about that may not be obvious — age group. Did you also know that a person’s color preferences can change with age? According to research from Joe Hallock, it’s true. Here are people’s favorite color by age group. Here are people’s least favorite color by age group. If a certain age group dominates your demographic, then this too will be a factor to consider. 5. Take “the color quiz” If you need a little help deciding on a primary color, you may want to take this quiz from Grasshopper. It will ask you things like “what best describes your customers” and “what type of product you offer.” It’s quick and easy (only seven questions) but can point you in the right direction if you’re a little confused about which direction to take. 6. Let go of your biases Here’s a mistake that I’ve seen many businesses make when choosing a color scheme. And that’s basing it on their personal preferences rather than psychology. If your favorite color is blue, it’s very tempting to make blue your primary color. But if you’re a cosmetics company targeting a female demographic, this would be a mistake, and you would usually be better off going with purple or pink. This is just something to keep in mind because you don’t want your own personal preferences to end up costing you sales and potentially diluting your brand over time. 7. Decide on how many colors to use So at this point, you should have a primary color in mind. Now it’s time to figure out how many colors you want to use in total. While there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for this, I would like to point out something that’s called the 60-30-10 rule. Long story short, this rule is used to come up with a color scheme in areas like interior design and fashion and involves dividing three colors into percentages to create a “perfect harmony.” Here’s how it all breaks down. 60 percent of a dominant color 30 percent of a secondary color 10 percent of an accent color This means that the primary color will account for roughly 60 percent of the space on your website, the secondary color will account for 30 percent and the accent color will account for 10 percent. If you want an example of the 60-30-10 rule, look no further than Quick Sprout. Notice how green is the primary color, white is the secondary color and black is the accent color. So when you boil it all down, this means that the ideal number of colors to use would be…drumroll please! Three. Now I’m not saying that you have to go with three colors, but it’s a good number to shoot for. Using any more than four colors can make things complicated and downright ugly. 8. Choose your set of colors What you want to do now is determine which set of colors you want to use. Now I’m not a design expert, but one thing you’ll definitely want to achieve is contrast. I personally prefer sites that have a light colored background with darker contrasts in the foreground. This should make it easier on your visitors’ eyes and creates at least a certain amount of aesthetic appeal. Here’s a good example. However, there are sites that can pull off a dark background quite well. Take Wonder Bread for example. 9. Consult the color wheel Remember back in art class when you learned about “the color wheel?” Well, it can be a huge help for choosing a website color scheme. What you want to do is choose either “analogous colors” that are similar and next to each other on the color wheel or “complementary colors” that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Here’s what I’m talking about. One choice for complementary colors would be yellow and purple. Another would be green and orange. One choice for analogous colors would be orange and red. Another would be green and blue. 10. Use tools for help Here’s a tip for streamlining the process. Use a tool like Colorspire . It gives you a quick and easy way to test out different color combinations to give you a better idea of how they would actually look on your website. This can save you a lot of time and should help you find the color combination that’s just right. Or if Colorspire doesn’t tickle your fancy, I recommend looking at this list of awesome tools for choosing a website color scheme. 11. Check out the competition You can also learn a lot from competitors in your industry. I recommend checking out at least three websites of direct competitors and looking for overarching patterns in their color scheme. This should give you a sense of what types of tones they’re using. From there you have one of two choices. Create a similar color scheme that fits the conventional mold Go the opposite direction in order to differentiate yourself from the pack I’m personally a proponent of the second choice if you’re looking to establish a distinctive brand. 12. Compare a few different color schemes Here’s the thing. You don’t need to commit to the first color scheme you come up with. In fact, that can be very limiting. What I suggest is coming up with three or four different color schemes and compare each one side-by-side. Have your colleagues or business partners do the same to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t. Then narrow it down until you find the color scheme that fits your brand to a T. Conclusion You don’t need to be a world renown artist to come up with a workable website color scheme. It’s just a matter of understanding the psychology behind color and the emotions that various colors conjure up. You’ll also want to have a basic understanding of the 60-30-10 rule and how the color wheel works. With a bit of experimentation and trial and error, you should be able to come up with the optimal website color scheme. In the long run, this will enable you to make an emotional connection with more visitors and can contribute to a lower bounce rate, more time spent on your site, and a higher conversion rate. All of which can have a tremendous impact on your business. What factors do you take into consideration when choosing a color scheme? The post 12 Essential Tips to Picking a Website Color Scheme appeared first on Neil Patel .

http://neilpatel.com/blog/website-color-scheme/

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xtruss · 3 years ago

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ARGUMENT

Wolf Warriors Killed China’s Grand Strategy, And We’ll All Come To Miss It.

— By Sulmaan Wasif Khan | May 28, 2021 | Foreign Policy

Chinese soldiers carry the flags of the Communist Party, the state, and the People’s Liberation Army during a military parade at the Zhurihe training base in the Inner Mongolia region on July 30, 2017. STR/AFP Via Getty Images

Sometime in 2020, China came unmoored from its grand strategy. Until then, Beijing’s diplomatic, military, and economic efforts were all directed toward national security. Learned observers could quibble about whether Beijing saw security as inseparable from hegemony; they could debate how productive China’s policies were. But the consistency of purpose underpinning China’s behavior was hard to miss.

Of late, however, China has lost that purposefulness—one of the hallmarks of grand strategy. The predominant feature of Chinese conduct today is not grand strategy but a belligerent, defensive nationalism that lashes out without heed of consequences. Just why that breakdown has occurred is uncertain, but it is clear that the change has put both China and the world in jeopardy. China risks undoing all it has gained—at considerable cost—since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power. And the rest of the world, particularly the United States, finds itself confronted not with the hard task of managing a rising, reasonably predictable power but the infinitely harder job of managing a flailing one.

A seller adjusts a portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping next to pictures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong at Dongfanghong Theater in Yan’an, China, on May 10, ahead of the 100th year of the Communist Party’s founding in July. Hector Retamal/AFP Via Getty Images

Grand strategy is the integration of different kinds of power to achieve an overarching objective. How a state defines its objective and how it weaves together diplomacy, military power, and economic policy to pursue it will vary, but certain features are usually clear. First, grand strategies are long-term. The idea is to be safe not just now or tomorrow but a decade or so down the line. Second, they are all-encompassing. Be it Iran or environmental change, the cost of potatoes or military modernization, grand strategies consider these items as they relate to an overarching objective, not in isolation. Third, they have flexibility. The grand strategist is capable of shifting tacks: This particular path isn’t getting me where I want to go; therefore, I must try another way.

In China’s case, a grand strategy has defined the Communist Party’s conduct for most of its time in power. From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, China has sought to secure the state by weaving together diplomatic, economic, and military power. Diplomatically, the country sought a balance of power that left it, inasmuch as possible, closer to other powers in the world than those powers were to one another. For an insecure country, having friends wherever possible made sense—and that meant continuing to talk even in the face of disagreements. China strove for a productive economy, which served multiple purposes: It allowed for aid to foreign countries that could be friends in times of need, it kept the citizenry on the CCP’s side, and it paid for military modernization.

There were, to be sure, times when the grand strategy led to incomparably foolish policies (the Great Leap Forward) and times when China seemed to forget its purpose (the first two years of the Cultural Revolution or Deng Xiaoping’s war in Vietnam). But for the most part, China did a reasonable job of sticking to a plan. The country’s vision remained forward-looking: A look at Chinese decision-making, whether on the Korean War or the latest military spending, suggested long-term security calculations. There was a sense of connectedness—how one did diplomacy with India affected how one did diplomacy with Pakistan and so on. And finally, there was room to reevaluate when things went awry. The foreign aid of the Mao years was pared back to put China on a more stable fiscal footing under Deng. Xi’s more recent diplomacy with Japan was marked by an extreme escalation of tensions, a realization that things had gone too far, and a subsequent move toward what is now almost cordiality.

A decades-long grand strategy doesn’t die suddenly. Its death is a process, with warning signs along the way. In China’s case, the Xi era has seen the accumulation of somewhat counterproductive policies that catalyzed a breakdown.

Xinjiang was probably the first. Jiang Zemin had championed a policy of living with the religious and ethnic differences that marked that distant territory; it would create the occasional problem, but it was part of what being an empire meant. Xi saw difference as something that could be eradicated, brought under complete control. This meant policies that eventually hardened into genocide. Xinjiang may be under tight control, but the long-term costs, in terms of China’s reputational damage among Muslims abroad and the resentment among China’s faithful at home, however, have yet to be added up.

Then came Hong Kong. Deng seems to have been perfectly sincere about “one country, two systems”; there was no need to bring Hong Kong into synchrony with the rest of China because Hong Kong worked. And Hong Kong working was good for China, a country big enough to contain multiple ways of doing business. For Xi, though, Hong Kong had to look like all of China—and that meant a flurry of attempts to undercut the autonomy that territory had enjoyed. The result was an eminently avoidable surge of anger and protest in Hong Kong, one that shows no sign of abating. It also killed any lingering possibility of convincing Taiwan that union with China was in its long-term interests.

These missteps could still be seen as bad grand strategy. It wasn’t that Xi didn’t want to make Xinjiang as secure as possible or Hong Kong as quiescent so as to keep China secure by weaving in the peripheries more tightly; it was just that he didn’t have the best grasp of how to do so. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to win Taiwan over peacefully; it was just that he thought throwing China’s weight around would terrify those benighted islanders into submission. And in dealing with other matters—relations with Australia or Japan, say, or winning hearts and minds in Africa—his government was doing reasonably well, if not perfectly. His was a more assertive brand of Chinese grand strategy, and the assertiveness had its successes and failures.

But “wolf warrior” diplomacy marks a significant change. The term, viral among those seeking to explain Chinese conduct, is often misused to encompass all forms of Chinese nationalism. But distinctions are important because different types of nationalism are symptoms of different issues in China’s conduct.

Two things set wolf warrior diplomacy apart.

First, there is no obvious point to it. The Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi’s strident performance in Alaska was arguably tin-eared and undeniably excruciating, but there was a purpose. He was trying to save Chinese face after being denounced (however justly); the idea, not exclusive to China, is that one has to demonstrate that one cannot be bullied before getting down to the hard business of resolving—or failing to resolve—differences. Yang was not engaged in wolf warrior diplomacy.

By contrast, it was completely pointless for Foreign Ministry spokespeople Zhao Lijian and Hua Chunying to tweet conspiracy theories about COVID-19 or for China to launch a trade war with Australia simply because the Australians had the gall to call for an investigation of China’s handling of the pandemic. These are knee-jerk reactions, bereft of the cool maneuvering that defines grand strategy.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian packs up his notes after speaking at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020. Greg Baker/AFP Via Getty Images

Second, there is no attempt to rein these fits of temper in. When Jiang encouraged protests against the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, there were careful directives about nationalism not being allowed to run too far. There is no evidence to suggest that such directives have been issued here. Worse, it seems likely that even if they were issued, they would be difficult to enforce, with purposeless nationalism now run amok.

To be sure, China has always had a nationalistic streak, and it (as in the case of many other countries) has sometimes been counterproductive. Some of China’s diplomatic moves have been clumsy: cutting tourism to South Korea when that country insisted on hosting the U.S.-made THAAD missile defense system or telling Indian diplomats that those from Arunachal Pradesh didn’t need a visa to visit China because Arunachal Pradesh was Chinese territory.

But seen as a whole, Beijing’s conduct still appeared, for the most part, that of a calculating, purposeful actor. What changed in 2020 was that nationalism for its own sake became the predominant motif of Chinese conduct. From that year on, what stands about China’s diplomacy is spreading wild rumors about COVID-19, getting in a shouting match with Australia, and threatening dire consequences for anyone who opts to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

China’s President Xi Jinping, left, and Premier Li Keqiang vote in favor of a resolution to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system during the closing session of the National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11. Kevin Frater/Getty Images

One hypothesis for China’s abandonment of grand strategy is that it is out to dominate the world, sees an America in decline, and figures that this is a good opportunity to amass more power.

But its behavior doesn’t seem geared toward exploiting U.S. decline; if anything, China has squandered all the advantages it could have won in 2020 as the United States went through utter chaos. Another suggestion is that China now feels it can get away with belligerence because it is stronger. This might be part of the explanation, but it does raise the question of why it would want to fritter away strength on folly.

The most persuasive explanation is that China has poisoned itself through its own rhetoric. In the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, nationalism was seen as a way to get citizens on the same page as the party. It was not really meant to inform practical foreign policy. But as the United States discovered in the Donald Trump years, one cannot stoke nationalistic fires without their eventually blazing beyond control. Over the years, rhetoric about how Taiwanese needed to be made grateful, about the protests in Hong Kong being a product of Western influence, about Western aggression, about Japan never apologizing for World War II, about the righteousness of the party and the infallibility of the Chinese government and the hurt feelings of the Chinese people—all this seeped in and took hold. And it made grand strategy hard to keep alive.

Two caveats are worth noting. First, highlighting the strategic questionability of China’s policies doesn’t mean that Beijing’s fears of the outside world are completely unjustified. The Trump administration aired a deep Sinophobia that has continued into the Biden era. The U.S. defense budget is still heavily focused on countering China; the Quad seems to have been reinvented for the same purpose. It would be irresponsible for Chinese leaders not to take these developments seriously. The problem is not China’s threat assessment. It is rather that the wolf warriors seem to be reacting not out of a dispassionate assessment of that threat and how best to address it but simply out of pique.

Second, buried as it may be, grand strategic thinking is not yet entirely snuffed out. There are still voices that hark back to China’s older style of conducting foreign affairs. Vigorous debate about cutting Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects suggests that there is a segment within China’s policymaking circles focused on assessing pros and cons. With Japan, China has managed to improve relations since 2015. Even the skirmishes with India were the product not of mindless nationalism but of a considered policy that is willing to risk force in securing vulnerable borderlands. All this suggests that there are still calculating heads in Beijing and they might yet prevail.

Chinese Communist leader Deng Xiaoping is pictured in Beijing on Sept. 1, 1981. AFP Via Getty Images

Both China and the rest of the world should hope they do. For China, the risks of its current drift are immense. It’s not just that the bombast has managed to generate resentment. It’s not even that alienating much of the rest of the world would turn China into a giant version of North Korea. The real danger is that once toxin has spread through the system, there is no knowing where it will end. In China’s own past, similar blindness led to the bloodletting of the Cultural Revolution. If Zhao or Hua can tweet nonsense about outsiders today, it is but a hop, skip, and jump to smearing any measured policymaker tomorrow. Ultimately, that spells death for sound policymaking.

China can step back, but it would take people within the policymaking apparatus deciding that wolf warrior diplomacy has gone too far. They will have to tamp down on blind nationalism in the name of national security. And they will have to commit to a grand strategy and policies that support it. Those could involve easing up in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, declaring that Taiwan is being granted independence, cutting back on BRI, and recognizing any missteps on COVID-19. A tall order, but it would put China on a more stable footing, cut costs, and win friends. Short of all this, even simply backing off the most strident rhetoric, ceasing disinformation campaigns, and easing up on activity in the Taiwan Strait would save money and make it harder for the rest of the world to sustain a hostile posture toward China.

Course corrections are hard, but there are two examples that Chinese leaders might turn to: the attempt to restore national strength in the mid-1800s that Qing statesmen like Li Hongzhang spearheaded and Deng’s attempt to quash the remains of the Cultural Revolution when he came to power. The Qing restoration—seeking to bring technology, modern armaments and military methods, and scientific learning from the West to China—ultimately didn’t go far enough, and the empire crumbled. Deng’s ruthlessness in weeding out those who sympathized with the Cultural Revolution’s worst excesses, however, managed to create an intellectual climate conducive to his “opening and reform.” (It is one of those cruel ironies of Chinese history that Tiananmen Square and the “patriotic education” that followed it also happened on Deng’s watch.)

For the rest of the world, China’s abandonment of grand strategy poses a problem. It is one thing to deal with a power that has a clear goal; one might be at cross-purposes, but at least one knows where matters stand. A power lashing out like a belligerent drunk, however, is more difficult to address. First, the United States will have to distinguish between vital interests where China has to be resisted and ones where letting China do as it pleases would do no harm. There is, for example, genuine reason to resist a Chinese attempt to seize Taiwan. There is less at stake for the United States if China gets bogged down in development projects in places like Pakistan or Kenya. Second, when China does something that is helpful—making vaccines available or doing something constructive on climate change—there is no harm in commending its conduct, instead of vowing to compete (as the United States has taken to doing with the Quad). Finally, when competing, it should be done quietly. Chest-thumping or forceful statements elicit similar responses in Beijing and rarely do much good.

A policy like this will not turn China into a peace-loving democracy. But it would deprive the wolf warriors of attention, which is what they seek in the first place. And it might maximize the chances of reaching a modus vivendi with China while it sorts out its own internal problems.

— Sulmaan Wasif Khan is the Denison chair of international history and diplomacy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. He is the author of Haunted by Chaos: China’s Grand Strategy From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping.

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meowsaidmayaanime · 7 years ago

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What I'm Watching June 2016

Here I will post the anime's that I am currently watching or re-watching, of course this does not include simulcasts as they are in a separate category all together. No, this is a list of the (some partially completed) anime that I binge watch. This post is constantly updated, as I tend to go through a single anime in its entirety within a couple of days, so keep your eye out!

6/25 Blood Blockade Battlefront

Let me get this down now. This anime is visually beautiful, sooooooo much time went into the art and details. Its movie quality beautiful, which is very unusual in a series. So onto the series itself it's about a boy who began living in a post apocalyptic New York after the gates between the human world and the 'monster' world opened. The characters are great, the premise was great, the episodes were great, everything was going wonderfully. Until the anime took an arrow to the knee... Metaphorically of course. So much was left unresolved, and in the last few episodes an obstacle was haphazardly thrown at us. I didn't check the episode count before watching the anime so I was shocked when I found out that there were only 13 (well 12 really) episodes. I get the impression that the studio was initially expecting to do a full 24 ep season considering the pacing of the anime up until episode 10. Evidently this is where the anime diverges quite a bit from the manga itself (my guess is that its unfinished. SOOOOO many anime are left in disappointment because the anime company decides to start a series before the manga has a chance to complete itself leaving the anime with a weird and out of place ending. sigh)

It really is a huge shame that Blood Blockade Battlefront ended the way it did. And its a shame that this recent trend of only creating 'half seasons' has once again resulted in a poor ending. I really liked this anime too, like I said earlier it was amazing. Seriously here's a quote from Toshi Nakamura who wrote a review of the anime itself.

"All in all, Blood Blockade Battlefront was a beautiful jewelry box filled with glittering stones that are individually beautiful, but when you put them on a string to make a necklace, on a whole, they lose a lot of their shine. Plus it feels like some of the most precious gems were left in the box."

My thoughts exactly. Those loose gems left in the box being the other 12 episodes this anime deserved in order to make one complete 24 ep season. I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Its so hard trying to recommend an anime when the end is a let down. I want people to see it because the first 9 episodes are fabulous, but I don't want to subject an unsatisfactory anime to anyone. Its not like the ending was bad, for how last minute it was, it was pretty well done, and it did make sense. It just wasn't the ending this anime deserved. If your willing to take this on I highly recommend it to anyone who loves the paranormal genre. Maybe it would just be best to read the manga. Its definitely on my list to read.

6/21 Sankarea Undying Love re-watch

Last time I watched this anime it was in high school after a friend recommended it to me. So I figured why not watch it again? Its a short 12 episode zombie love story. Haha, yup a zombie slice of life love story. In the world of American media, its a really unusual combination of genres, but in anime its no real surprise. I suppose the only real surprise about the anime is the fact that its relatively good, and not at all a harem like High School of the Dead. Its very cute and I think well done. The main female characters father is a total creep and wack-job but that is one of the reasons why he is the main antagonist. For being a zombie anime, its very laid back and you'll find out why as you watch it. Sankarea is an anime that I would recommend to people if I was aware of what kind of anime they liked. If you like the zombie scene but want to watch something not totally gruesome and hyped up, or if you like unusual/ supernatural/ paranormal/ ect. romances I think this is worth a shot.

6/17 Barakamon

WOW, this was really good. I initially started watching this because Funimation's YouTube channel posts trailers and promo videos for its anime. I watched the promo trailer for the English dub, recognized a lot of the voice actors in it and decided to give it a try. I'm gonna say this now, it's probably the best slice of life anime I have seen. and I mean full on slice of life, no paranormal or fantasy or anything else, it's pure slice of life. Its well written, the episodes flow, and its got a great story and great characters. The premise is that a young 20-something artist calligrapher Seishu punches a man who criticized his work as being unimaginative. As a result Seishu's father sends him to live on a rural island to 'cool his head'. The anime then follows the life of Seishu as he makes unexpected friendships and discovers who he is as an artist.

I just loved this anime, If you like slice of life, yes DEFINITELY watch this. Same if you like watching characters grow and their struggle to discover themselves, or if you like comedy, or if you like realism, or if you want a well made anime to calm down with after watching an emotionally draining one. Even if your not into the genre I recommend you give the first episode a try at least. I was immensely impressed with it.

Oh, and the full series won't be released in English until August 9, 2016, but Funimation is releasing the first two episodes in English on June 28th. I know I will definitely be re-watching this when the full English dub release comes out!!

6/16 Charlotte (re-watch)

I LOVED this anime when it came out last year. I remember getting to the last few episodes and going to the public library to finish watching it because the power went out in my house. I just finished re-watching it with one of my friends who had never seen it before. Haha, she was mad at me cause she got so invested in it. It is a doozy. But anyway, it follows high school boy Yuu Otosaka who recently became aware of a supernatural ability of his to be able to control a persons body for 5 seconds at a time. After abusing this power to cheat his way into a good high school, a girl named Tomoe catches him and makes him transfer to a school for people with other abilities. It goes on from there showing their lives, introducing characters and fortifying relationships until the REAL plot reveals itself~

If you like supernatural anime this is a really one, full story in only 13 episodes. It also touches up on quite a few 'heavy' topics, which it actually handles really well. I do recommend this to anyone actually, it was my third favourite 2015 anime of the one I watched that year.

(Bonus: I don't know who wrote this or how far into the anime hey were in, but I agree.)

6/14 50% Off (re-watch)

Oh man, I love this show. I just watched their two A-kon panels from a few weeks ago, and it's great. Just watch this show, make sure you watch it. Here's a link to my post on my favourite parody/abridge series where I talk about this show more. You don't have to know the original anime to enjoy it (I didn't watch Free until recently), so get on YouTube type it in and get going!

6/13 Princess Jellyfish (re-watch)

Alright, So now you guys are up to speed on the anime I watched during my vacation, I just started re-watching Princess Jellyfish. Oh man, I completely forgot about this little gem. I first watched it my freshman year of college (two years ago), and LOVED it. It's basically about a household of otaku young women, and one in particular who is in love with jellyfish, who make friends with their arch enemy, a stylish person! Haha, it is hilarious and a great commentary on stereotypes/social norms in Japanese culture (and really many other first world cultures for that matter.) I am having so much fun re-watching this series, it is slice of life so there is not much of an overarching plot so much as it is just following the exploits of the group after becoming friends with said stylish person I mentioned earlier. Each episode flows naturally into the next creating a constant story with each episode having to do with the next. So despite it being a slice of life, there are no filler episodes that forgotten or have nothing to do with anything. it also consistently references pop-culture and media not just from Japan, but from America too. Really, I can't express how great it is. Watch it, you won't regret it.

6/9 & 6/12

HEY! Sorry for the inactivity, I was on vacation out of state. While I was not able to do anything on this site for the past week, I was able to watch a few anime! AND hey are new ones!

So during my summer vay-cay (haha, thats such a terrible word) I watched:

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

and Amnesia

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia was good. It's about a high school boy who makes a friend out of a ghost, Yuuko, who doesn't remember anything from when she was alive. In terms of content, while they do try to figure out how she died and who she is, a good portion is about tellig the story of the two main characters. Doing high school activities, developing relationships, ect. While the anime does frequently talk about the mystery and paranormal throughout these episodes, its not until the end of the series that the mystery of Yuuko ACTUALLY begins being solved, and they find out REAL information of her past. In hindsight, her past and the climax of the series is thrust upon you towards the end. It would have been better in my opinion if the events and info were more evenly dispersed throughout each episode from the beginning. I still really liked this anime, though I'm not sure as to how good it is. If your into the sort of subdued paranormal scene, then you may want to give this a shot. Its short, its sweet, I really liked learning about Yuuko's past when it finally got around to it, and I personally really liked it. But again, if you like the paranormal, you may like this. If your not into paranormal stuff, then I wouldn't recommend it.

Now Amnesia was a whole different box of pillows. By that I mean body pillows, and by that I mean I am sure that there area tons available. Why? Because this short anime was adapted from a dating sim called Amnesia: Memories. I wish I had known that before I started watching it, but no matter. In terms of dating sim adaptations, it's pretty good. In terms of an anime, not so much. The premise for both the anime and the game is that you are a girl who just woke up and knows absolutely nothing about herself, where she is, or who anyone else is. She has, you guessed it, amnesia. Amnesia caused by a fairy 'bumping' into her? which doesn't make too much sense. (but hey at least it wasn't because she performed horrific acts of manslaughter, created a patchwork monster, and played a huge part in nearly destroying humanity all so Alexander could become godlike, am I right?) Anyway, she wakes up and begins jumping alternate worlds in which she is dating different guys, thus the dating sim part comes in. In therms of the anime itself, the plot is a little wobbly waiting until the last 2 or 3 episodes to actually explain her true past and give a substantial story line. Because in the game, the female character and her name/personality is you, the anime version of her is left 'blank' for self insertion. Making a poor main character being pushed to and fro. But I will tell you this the music was REALLY good, the opening, closing and background music were absolutely fantastic. SO, if you have played this game and enjoyed it then I would definitely recommend it. If you have not, and have absolutely no interest in self-insertion romance, then its not worth the watch for the plot. Although I did like it myself. It's a good addition to my, quote-unquote, "trash anime" (watch out for a post in the maybe near future). Basically a list of guilty pleasure anime which are terrible when it comes to plot and characters, but I just can't resist. Its like reading trashy romance novels, but better and worse at the same time.

6/5 Red Data Girl (re-watch)

Another re-watch, maybe June will be a month of oldies~ (at least for me). RDG is an adorable anime, its a short 12 ep, one season series based off the Japanese novels of the same title. 6 novels (no official translation, but this person on tumblr has been translating them in their spare time), 4 manga novel adaptations, and one anime as mentioned. I'm not familiar with the novels or manga, but I do know that the anime covers most but not all of the novels. One person said it covers the first 5 novels but that's it. Anyway, the anime is super cute, and I really like the premise. My only issue is that the end felt like the completion of a smaller story arch within a larger one. Leaving no REAL ending, you can't even argue that the end is open to interpretation because they didn't leave you wondering what happened, they leave you without ever continuing the main story arch. Without explaining the endless questions that rose with the intention of it being resolved later. Hopefully the manga will give me some solace but with 4 books, i'm not sure if it will... I really like it, and I really wish it would continue.

oh btw, as of right now it's available on netflix, the English voice acting is ok, its not bad, but its also not great. The voice actors are able to but the right voice out, but not give the voice the emotion that the words give. I greatly prefer the Japanese voice acting, but I'm able to live with the English if I'm multi-tasking. (random note: the ending theme is super pretty. Actually, a lot about this anime is pretty)

6/2 Blue Exorcist Movie TOP PICK FOR THIS MONTH (new)

The movie has nothing to do with the plot of the anime at all, and takes place after the events in the series. Atleast I'm fairly certain it does? There's an important (and spoiler-y) thing that happens at the end of the series, that is never addressed or acknowledged in the movie which I think is really weird..... Either way, the movie itself is simply a completely stand alone story from the series. And it was absolutely stunning! Sooooo much detail went into all of the backgrounds and items. On top of that its very well scripted, and the plot flowed incredibly well together without being convoluted, which is surprising since a number of movie sequels to tv series's tend to go overboard by stuffing too much information into an hour and a half.

It was amazing. Its possible that someone could watch the movie without watching the single season anime, just because of how it was written. However you would not know the relationships or the back story of the main character, which helps to explain a lot of the terminology and setting. Especially the part about demons ect ect.

Either way, I LOVED this movie. I didn't even know that there was a movie at all until just now. I'm going to re-watch it with a friend when she gets back into town and I am soooooo excited because I KNOW she will love it too. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. I RECOMMEND THIS SO HARD.

6/1 Blue Exorcist (re-watch)

Well I can't sleep, so what better opportunity than this to re-watch Ao no Exorcist in the English dub~ Ah, I love this anime. Its funny, has great main characters, a good story and writing, and I seem to have a week spot for exorcist anime's, haha. Man, I remember watching this when it first came out in high school, I have a distinct memory of watching one of the later episodes before going to one of my friends concerts. There was a movie made about a year later, AAAAAND a series of specials. Oh, man the movie was so amazing. It has nothing to do with the plot of the anime at all, in fact the anime wrapped up everything rather nicely. The Movie itself is simply another story in cinematic format. It was absolutely beautiful, well made, well scripted, and the plot flowed incredibly well together without being convoluted. Would 100% recommend.

Oh, right! The dub isn't that bad, I mean I wish they had a different voice actor for Rin, I just don't feel like this one really lives up to the character. The other voice actors are great though, really fit the characters. The dub is well done, but I think I preferred the Japanese voice actors (they have a better pick than we do.) I just think that someone with a slightly lower, more thug-ish voice would have been better. The English actors voice is a little too high for me, it's even higher than Yukio's voice ._.

6/1 Black Butler (re-watch)

I decided to re-watch the show (minus the second season) after writing up my post from yesterday about anime whose second season could just go and disappear from existence. I love Sebastian, he is a saint, well a saint among devils. Not only is he one hell of a butler, but one hell of a contractor too, he REALLY get into his jobs, and it is amazing. Even I would enter into a contract if I could have him as a butler~ It's a goon anime, not sure if its recommendation worthy though. I mean yes it's good but it's not something that you HAVE to see, or something you would be missing out on. It's surprisingly fun and while it can and does get intense in certain areas, its not so intense that its going to mess you up. As long as you never touch the second season, NEVER.

Bonus image, cause why not:

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fandomsandfeminism · 8 years ago

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Opinions? Here is the rough draft for my Anti-Moffat video. Is it easy to follow or does it get too ranty and rambly?

So, I normally talk about things I like on this channel. Up to now, I’ve tried to stay pretty positive and stick to topics I have a positive opinion about. But today we are going to talk about Steven Moffat. So. That’s not gonna happen. All aboard the “pissed off” train. I will do my best to stay calm as much as I can, but no promises.

Let me begin by saying that I am not caught up on Doctor Who. I left the show right around the time Clara started traveling with the Doctor, convinced that a new companion was not going to save the series in my heart. I have heard whisper and rumor of things that have happened since then, both good and bad, and I did watch the 50th special, but I am a Whovian on haitus from Doctor Who. I blame Steven Moffat for this.

You see, here’s the thing about Moffat, setting aside for now that he can’t write women or minority characters to save his life: like many other writers, like George Lucas or Brannon Braga, with single episodes or heavy producer oversight, he can write some fantastic stories. The stories that Moffat wrote while Davis was showrunner are some of the show’s best. The Empty Child, Blink, Girl in the Fireplace, Silence in the Library are all very strong, very interesting episodes. Flawed in their own ways, sure, but strong enough on their own to be fan favorites.

But when put in charge of a whole show, when producer and editorial oversight begin to dwindle….all the flaws in the writing balloon out of control. We saw it in Star Trek Enterprise, we saw it in the Star Wars prequels, and we certainly see it in Moffat’s Doctor Who run. At least the seasons I watched of it.

And look, before we go further, I’m not saying that Davis was a perfect show runner, or that his run was without fault. His run was very different in tone and execution than Moffats. Davis had a very episodic run, with his overarching plots (like Bad Wolf) hinted at very subtly and slowly building to finales. It was campy SciFi. And...well, Moffat likes BIG stories where the whole universe is at stake ALL the time. His stories in that first season with Amy and 11 felt more like a fairy tale than SciFi. His big plot were “MYSTERY” is big neon lights all the time. And which you prefer is a matter of opinion. And, well, my opinions will soon be very clear to you.

Spoiler warning for...all of Doctor Who basically. At least the new stuff.

There’s...a lot here to dig through, and I could rant about Moffat for days. But let’s stay focused, for now, on The Weeping Angels. I think they are an easy place to start.

Blink is Series 3, Episode 10. Still in 10s run. It’s fun to watch. the Doctor and Martha only make small cameo appearances. Instead we focus on Sally Sparrow, our heroine for the story, and the monsters themselves. The Doctor has gotten separated from his Tardis and he and Martha are stuck in 1969. Sally Sparrow must figure out what monsters are in this house and find a way to help the doctor, using clues and not getting grabbed herself.

This is a REALLY fun episode. The mystery is good, time travel is used to enhance the story in really fun ways, and the Weeping Angels are legitimately scary and cool. Now, there are some weird race and gender things going on. The whole scene with Kathy getting dropped in the past and then having her future husband basically badger her is a cringey way to portray the beginning of a relationship.And the stuff with Billy, the only black guy in the episode, getting murdered for the drama is not ideal. BUT if you are just watching this episode in isolation, these are easy to overlook. They only get really uncomfortable if you start noticing trends. We’ll come back to that.

Now, let’s look at the next appearance of the Angels: The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone. We’re into Moffat’s run now, but back when it was still setting up plot points and was...watchable. The Doctor and Amy get recruited by River Song to help deal with a group of Weeping Angels that are starving and holed up in a maze near the wreckage of a space ship.

This was River Song’s second appearance, back when we knew almost nothing about her, when she still seemed pretty badass and mysterious and interesting, traits that would...sadly...diminish the longer Moffat wrote her until her first appearance in Silence in the Library is nearly unrecognizable and it falls into this whole “Women fling themselves at Moffat - Protagonist and revolve their whole lives around them” thing.We’ll...yeah, come back to that. This is before all that. River is still cool and smart and it’s fine.

And Amy does get put in mortal peril, again, because Moffat loved putting Any in mortal peril for some reason. Sigh. Poor Amy.

But ok, we’re talking about the Angels. This is where the Angels start to get screwed up. The Angels here are starving, which apparently allows them to override their Quantum Lock thing? And Move even when being observed? Because hunting overrides defence in their starving state. Sure. And they are killing people now instead of just dragging them back in time. Why? And when they move, they are still made of stone? I thought they were only stone when they quantum locked?

Like, they give a reason for why they are breaking the rules, but this is only the second time we’ve seen the Angels! So this doesn’t feel like we’re spicing things up and changing a well known rule. It feels like Moffat only had one idea about the Angels and after he used that up, he had to change how the Angels worked to get another story out of them. It just doesn’t work as well.

What REALLY messes things up is this bit though: The Doctor is reading a book about the Angels and notices it has no pictures. He reads "Whatever takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel." Again, The Doctor reads in a book about the Angels. So this is not just a “starving angel” thing. This is apparently something that is true for all of them forever. Put a pin in that. We’ll come back to that.

Ok, so, fast forward to the Angels Take Manhattan. Sigh. Ok, at this point, I was starting to burn out on Doctor Who. The Asylum of the Daleks was a really bad episode and really left a sour taste in my mouth about how Amy’s infertility was handled. We’d gotten a whole bunch of River Song episodes that revealed a lot of information around her, and really fumbled her all around. So I was, ya know, not being as forgiving any more.

We find ourselves in New York. Rory gets grabbed by Angels and dragged back to the 1930s where he finds River. The Doctor and Amy have to find him. There’s a guy keeping an injured Angel captive. The Doctor and River flirt a lot. There’s this whole thing about the adventure being recorded in a book and they have to not get spoilers because that makes paradoxes.

This is the Pond’s farewell episode. And it’s...awful. Like, it makes no sense if you stop to think about it at all. Let’s start with the Angels.

And the Statue of Liberty. We have to talk about the Statue of Liberty. Because this is just Moffat thinking something looked cool and not thinking about it. Because 1. The Statue of Liberty isn’t made of STONE. So even if the Angels can now...infect normal stone statues? Why can they infect a COPPER statue? And the Statue of Liberty is HUGE. The angels are still quantum locking in this episode. So how did the STATUE OF LIBERTY walk through Manhattan without anyone noticing!? And hey, remember "Whatever takes the image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel."? Yeah, unpin that one. Because there are now millions? Billions? Of movies, postcards, posters, and tourist photos that are DEADLY ANGEL BOMBS. This is like the Ring, except with 5 billion tourist selfies.

Look, it’s fine to introduce new information about recurring monsters. But this makes no fucking sense!

And, ok, so at the end. They paradox jump off a building which does a big ole reset on the adventure, but Rory gets grabbed by an angel anyway (Why? How? I thought the paradox would poison them all?) and they see his tombstone so they can’t go save him (Why? You just did a whole paradox thing?) so Amy lets herself get pulled back too and the Doctor can’t go get them because doing so would fuck up New York forever.

Like god dammit. I know it sucks having to leave companions, but it needs to make sense when you do it.

Moffat is also awful about killing characters. Like, when the Doctor declares “Today nobody dies” in the Empty Child, it was a beautiful moment because so often the Doctor can’t save everyone. That Doctor, fresh from losing Gallifrey, celebrating not losing a single person, is lovely. But then it just...keeps happening. River Song? Nah, she gets uploaded into the Library. The Ponds? They got to live out the rest of their lives in the past. He brought back GALLIFREY. Which….ugh. And The Master, apparently? I’ve been told? Also apparently he really dragged out killing Clara? I had stopped watching long before then, but, you hear things. Even look at Sherlock: couldnt let go of Moriarty for seasons. Faked us out about Irene. Faked you out about Watson. Ultimately, if everyone is always in mortal peril, but characters he likes never really die, it kills all of the dramatic tension. You can show me Watson getting shot all you want, Moffat. I don’t believe you.

And women. Moffat and women. Let’s not even talk about all the weird, shitty stuff he’s SAID about women today and just focus on his female characters. I mentioned briefly that Blink has some “harassment as romance” stuff, and that River Song goes from “Super mysterious time traveling badass” to “LITERALLY A BABY that Doctor failed to save, whose entire life revolves around the Doctor, and she became an archeologist so she could find him and they get married” which….yuck. Like, The Doctor also met Amy as a little girl and they make out? Oh and Clara kissed the Doctor too (Which...the Doctor did meet Clara as a little kid too?). And let’s not even start on “Irene “I’m Gay but I’m gonna fall in love with this dude” Adler” in Sherlock and all the gross there.

And let’s talk about The Girl in the Fireplace. Another CHILD who meets the Doctor, grows up and ends up romantically into the Doctor (what the fuck Moffat) This also has the most infuriating use of time travel. Like, Doc, you know that fireplace jumps DECADES when you use it. WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE HER AND GO BACK THROUGH IT? JUST WAIT. Just wait for her to pack and go through the fireplace TOGETHER. (Or write a female character who isn’t willing to throw away her entire life to get some Doctor action. That could work.) Because the ManPain is more important than making sense? And can we talk about the really shitty joke the Doctor makes? When Rose tells him he can’t keep the horse and he replies “But I let you keep Mickey.” Like, bro, Rose’s black boyfriend hanging out is not the same as you wanting to keep a literal farm animal. The fuck.

Look, I havent seen anything with the 12th Doctor. And I know the Moffat’s run on Doctor Who is coming to a close. So my complaints, based mostly on Moffat writing the 11th Doctor’s run, are both outdated and soon to be doubly so. I’m beating a dead horse.

Now whatever Moffat moves onto next, can we please make him stop writing little children as potential romantic partners. It’s creepy.

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