#ngl the severe lack of women characters like this is a big part of why I spend so much time with my ocs

[hamaonoverdrive]

Me talking about my faves: Awwww look at him, he's so happy! :3 It's enrichment, like giving a cat its playtime..... The faves in question:

[persepholline]

I've read that article about the romanticization of the Darkling and while I absolutely understand people who are pissed off/sad and I agree that it's shitty, I find LB's attitude towards Darkles stans very funny in a "girl what are you doing" sort of way because it's so petty like I've never heard of a bestselling author writing a portion of their fans into their books as a crazy cult before, it clearly hit a nerve

I'm new to the fandom but the feeling I get is she wrote something problematic ten years ago and became very embarrassed about it afterwards so she turned on the fans that liked it as a way to absolve herself. Especially since fandoms in general have become a lot more focused on discussion of what constitutes healthy/acceptable relationships to write about. And in a way I get it I had a huge Twilight phase in high school and afterwards I was super embarassed about it because of how problematic and cringe it was. But now with distance and more maturity I'm able to both still see why it was problematic and also why I was drawn to it (mostly the very unhinged representation of female desire) and like...it's really not the end of the world and no it never made me believe that breaking into somebody's room at night to watch them sleep was actually ok in real life lmao. This feels so obvious to me but apparently it needs to be said.

(More under the break this is turning into an essay, I've been thinking of this a lot recently)

And of course it's good to have these discussions about how historically romance tropes have echoed social dynamics of men's shitty behavior being romanticized and excused. But these days they often are so simplistic and focused on chasing clout that they become this weird new puritanism and moral panic about oh now women are reading novels it's going to make them hysterical or something

So you have these weird assumptions that you can't like a character and also be critical of their actions, or enjoy certain parts of a character and not others, or wish they were written differently and like them more for their potential (which I'm sure stings a bit for an author lol) - it assumes that if you like a character it means you would approve of their actions in real life, or that people just stupidly reproduce whatever they see on TV. That tendency to treat fictional characters like real people is the thing that actually worries me, to be honest, because it indicates a lack of distance and critical capacities regarding how stories are used and received. But people - fans and authors - are so scared of being called out as problematic and harassed for it that they're going to shy away from any nuance.

And yeah I think that it's good that standards of what constitutes an ideal relationship are evolving and becoming more feminist and communicative and all that and we definitely need more of that. But not all fiction has to be aspirational! Sometimes you just want to read about fucked up shit, because it's cathartic or fascinating, even healing at times because with fiction you are absolutely in control and can choose when to close the book. Toxic relationships in fiction can have an appeal specifically because they go to extremes of feeling that we don't want to go to in reality, in exactly the same way as horror movies or very violent action movies - which I don't see a lot of people besides fundamentalist Christians argue that they turn you into violent psychopaths (and that feels very obviously sexist). And for women, who are often taught growing up that love is the purpose of life, the "saving someone with your ability to love" can be a power fantasy in the same way that being a buff superhero who saves the day with their capacity for incredible violence can be a power fantasy for men. Still doesn't mean those women are going to fall in love with actual murderers or that those men are going to start beating up people at night. And love is scary, and weird, and weirdly close to horror at times, with all the potential for loss of self and being vulnerable and overwhelming feelings and potential for being horribly hurt and it should be possible for stories to explore that without anybody screaming about how this is going to Corrupt the Youth or something

And I mean I get it LB wanted to write a cautionary tale for teenagers, but it just did not work for reasons a lot of people have already written about - the fact that the Darkling is the leader of an oppressed minority and is the only one with a real political agenda to end that oppression in the first trilogy, the fact that he helps Alina come into her own power while her endgame LI is someone she keeps herself small for, that she's shamed for wanting power after growing up without any, a generally very wonky conception of privilege, and a lot of other stuff with yucky regressive implications to the point where stanning the villain actually feels liberating and empowering which is a surefire sign that the narrative is broken (unless it's a villain focused story lmao). But of course that Fanside article makes almost no mention of the political dynamics, it's all about interpersonal stuff which is an annoying trend in YA, there are those massive events happening in the background but it's made all about the feelings of the hero(ine) ; war as a self-development quest (which is kind of gross). Helnik is kind of an example of this too - I like them, I think they're fun ! But Matthias spends a big part of the story wanting to brutally murder Nina and her kind, and he mostly changes his mind because he finds her hot. Like you don't feel there is some sort of big revelation that his entire moral system and political framework is completely rotten ; it's all better because of feelings now.

As a teenager that kind of sanctimonious bullshit would have annoyed the hell out of me ; I read those books in my early twenties and I found the ending so stupid I wouldn't have trusted any message or life lessons coming from them. And I liked reading/watching dark stuff as a teenager, as a way to deal with the very intense inner turmoil I was dealing with - and I turned out fine ! Meanwhile I've seen several times women in very shitty relationships being obsessed with positive energies and stories ; they were so terrified of their life not being perfectly wholesome they ended up being delusional about their own situations.

Like personally I think the Darkling is a compelling, interesting, alluring character and also a manipulative, murderous piece of shit and that Alina should get to punish him (like in a sexy way) - but he's also the end result of centuries of war, oppression and trauma and reducing that to "toxic wounded boy" feels kind of offensive ngl ESPECIALLY since the books don't offer any kind of systemic analysis or response to oppression beyond "the bad guy should die" and "now the king/queen is a good guy our problems are solved!!!!"

In Lives of the Saints, we see how Yuri is abused extremely badly and almost killed by his father, and so when his father dies when the Fold swallows Novokribirsk, he thinks the Starless Saint has saved him. Later in KoS/RoW he's turned into this fanatic who explains away all the Darkling's crimes. The other followers talk about how the Starless Saint will bring equality for all men. Then the Darkling comes back and actually thinks his followers are pathetic, which feels again like a very pointed message to his IRL stans. Which is absolutely hilarious to me. Like oh no, if he was real he would not like you and think you're pathetic ! Yeah ...but he's not. Real. Damn right he would not like the fics where Alina puts him on a leash. I'm still going to read them. What is he going to do about it, jump out of the page ? Jfjfjjdhfgfjfj

Anyway I think the intended message is "assholes will use noble political causes for their own gain and to manipulate people" and "being abused/oppressed is not an excuse to behave badly." Which. Sure. But that's kind of like...a tired take, honestly ? A big number of villains nowadays are like this ; either they've been bullied as kids, or they're part of an oppressed group, or they have "good ideals but too extreme". This is not surprising because a lot of mainstream heroic narratives present clinging to the status quo as Good and change as chaotic and dangerous. And like sure in real life people often do bad shit because they're wounded and in danger. But if you want to do a story like that, you have to do it with nuance, talk about cycles of violence, about how society creates vulnerable people to be exploited, about how privilege gives you more choices and the luxury of morals, etc. The Grishaverse does not have this level of nuance (maybe in SoC a little bit but definitely not in TGT). So it kind of comes off as "trauma makes you evil" and "egalitarianism is dangerous" and "if you're abused/oppressed you're not allowed to fight back". And ignores the fact that historically, evil generally comes from unchecked privilege.

I guess my point is that there are many things I like about LB's writing, she knows how to create these really exciting character dynamics, and the world she has created is fascinating. But these stories are not a great starting point for imparting moral lessons. And her best characters tend to be, at least in canon, the morally grey ones. I hope one day she'll be at peace with the fact that she wrote the Darkling the way she did and leave his fans alone but in the meantime I'm just not going to take this whole thing seriously I'm sorry

[theincorrigiblemagpie]

Kasautii Zindagii Kay (2018) E01- Yo Momma So Bengali

25-9-2018

Long time no liveblog-first-few-episodes-of-a-new-show-before-giving-up-in-disgust, no?

It’s a big one this time, folks. I am here to watch the first episode of the KZK reboot with you all!

For those who have not spent a dissipated life watching Hindi TV and/or lack context: KZK was one of Balaji's 3 original 'K-soaps', that aired between 2001 and 2008 on Star Plus. It was the story of star-crossed lovers Prerna and Anurag (who was very unnecessarily Bengali). They had 30 million impediments to their relationship and literally never got together. No jokes. Spoiler alert but they tragically died at the end of those 8 years. One main impediment was the other dude in Prerna's life, Mr Bajaj (first name: Rishabh but always 'Mr Bajaj' to the world), whom she was married to for the most part. Another major impediment was the vampiest vamp that ever vamped-- Komolika. Between the 3 main protagonists, other partners of the 2 men, and from sundry side characters, we had eleventy five children who complicated matters further through several classic 'time leaps.' The only ones I cared about were Prem and Mukti but they also had a tragic end.

The first rule of fight club, even before you begin watching this reboot, is: NEVER ship anybody. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Anyhoo, it’s time to begin.

Lots of establishing shots of Howrah Bridge, Hooghly river, Victoria Memorial and sundry Kolkata monuments so that everyone knows we’re in Kolkata.

Extreme family-function-after-a-long-time feelz as we're introduced to a dizzying cast of people (the Basu and Sharma clans) who are all...praying. Separately in their own homes, I mean. The Sharmas are a modest 'middle-class' family while the Basus are mansion-owning-wealthy. I sat and screencapped all of them for you.

Meet the Sharma parents and siblings.

Now, meet the Basu parents and siblings.

And finally, Anurag and Prerna.

Please note how the Basus get a little Durga next to their names and the Sharmas get a little Ganesh. This attention to detail is what I expect from the production house that will at some point vanish several characters with no explanation.

On a side note, I am generally pleased with Erica Fernandes as Prerna. And think Parth Samthaan as Anurag is fitting in that I always thought Cezanne Khan was also terribly lame and not hero material at all. 

It's been 23 minutes and we're still in the exposition stage. We have learned through tedious and boring conversations that Anurag is a little goody-two-shoes who is obsessively punctual and determined to carve a name for himself independent of his father's publishing empire.

He is also the college heartthrob (obv everyone goes to the same college) but he does not talk to any women (except Prerna) leading to speculation about whether he's gay. And he only talks to Prerna about the weather despite having known her for 10 years on account of their dads being friends/employer-employee/both.

Prerna shows dangerous Manic Pixie Dream Girl signs and her explanation for all nosey questions about why she doesn't try to hook Anurag is "I'm romantic and he's practical-- we're incompatible."

If I had a rupee for every romance I've read/watched where the heroine disses the hero for his lack of romantic spirit and then discovers that he is secretly not as unfeeling as she'd thought, I'd freelance without worry forever.

The writers couldn't wait for Durga Puja because it's already Durga Puja in this show's timeline. I must warn you, it's likely to be Durga Puja up until November, when it will suddenly be Diwali. 

Prerna's mom puts up a gift item stall at the big Basu puja pandal every year while her dad oversees a lot of the general admin. Mohini Basu, who is a Calcutta socialite, pretends not to recognise Prerna because she's too much of a peasant, apparently. I’m censoring several uncharitable and gross comments about the background socialites who cannot act to save their lives, and esp the girl who was supposedly Miss Calcutta the previous year.

My mom, watching over my shoulder, asked why random people were doing Durga's aarti (including Prerna and Anurag) instead of just the priests. If any of you also have this confusion, it's so that this can be a source of foreshadowing, premonition, drama and whatnot. In that vein, Anurag and Prerna accidentally ended up doing the aarti together for a bit, which only married couples do on TV.

Mohini is absolutely a let-them-eat-cake bitch but Moloy makes WhatsApp jokes about matrimony and his wife constantly so I'm feeling far more sympathetic toward her than I should.

I’m wondering how much longer they'll keep up the red and white sarees worn the SLB-Devdas way, the dhunuchi naach, and the Hindi-fied Bengali to establish Bengali-ness. Can't wait for them to forget and only revive on special occasions.

Prerna's feather-brained friend forces her to ask Anurag if he's into boys or girls which she haltingly does. Boring Anurag proves to have a strange sense of humour wherein he tells her he likes boys and pretends as though a friend is his boyfriend. LGBTQ ally Prerna says 'that's great, so glad it's legal now' and also apologizes for asking such a personal question. Ngl, Prerna has exhibited the MOST sense on this show so far (despite her occasional lapses into MPDG territory). I refer to a scene where several girls were peeking through the shutters into a locker room to ogle Anurag in a football jersey messily drinking Gatorade (yes, we had a brief Kukkad Kamaal Da moment). Prerna rolled her eyes, said "this is so embarrassing" and walked away.

Anyway, the final bit is where Prerna's brother Mahesh (who has been living under a rock all his life in Kolkata, I believe), asks the priest who the buff dude with curly hair being killed by Durga is. Priest immediately extemporizes a flowery essay on Mahishasur and Durga for our benefit. This is cut with scenes of the silhouette of a drunk man in shiny red shoes exiting a big car and smashing a bottle of whiskey and setting it on fire. He is presumably the Mahishasur to Prerna's Durga. We've also had plenty of anvil-sized hints comparing Prerna to Durga but they were tedious and I won't go into them. (But with those shoes, he could also be the Wicked Witch of the East. Idk.)

I'm hoping this one is Bajaj and he'll appear on the scene soon enough (and not be rapey, please god) so that this story can move faster.

Ok so that alcohol-fire was in an alley on the outside of this very pandal and the whole place is on fire now. In tonight's episode, Prerna and her friend will get caught in this fire and Anurag will play a Rohit Shetty hero.

I’m starting a red-dupatta count for all the separate moments a red dupatta flutters across the scene and over one or both leads, because that is an original Kasauti Thing.

In today’s episode, it happened 3 times.

[themarvelousspaceorphan]

X-Men Review: Uncanny X-Men #2-4

The X-Men #2 - No One Can Hold The Vanisher Publication Date: Nov. 1963 Stan Lee - Writer Jack Kirby - Drawer Paul Reinman - Inker Sam Rosen - Letterer

The next few issues are, well, kind of generic.  The Silver Age isn’t known for it’s deep character insights - but the X-Men still remain slightly lacking any personality or development.  The first part of the issue is a reminder of everyone’s powers - then, much like in issue one, we get a villain who wants things and the X-Men stop him.  (Ngl - most of the Silver Age has a pretty standard formula to it.) 

The villain this time around is The Vanisher - who is completely a classic Kirby design - outlandish in a delightful way.  It’s funny to me that the villains somewhat end up being the most entertaining part of a lot of these early issues.  Anyway, The Vanisher is a lot like a pink wearing, much uglier Nightcrawler, who is using his powers of teleportation (oh sorry... vanishing...) to steal money, and demands 10 million dollars or else he’s going to steal all the US’s defense plans and... sell them? Idk - Vanisher hasn’t quite thought this all through. 

It’s the X-Men to the rescue, except not really because, uh, how do you stop a guy who can just blink out of existence?  You don’t, really.  So Professor X steps in and decides to rewire The Vanisher’s mind, which is hilariously unethical, but I mean the saved the defense plans, right?!?

Things to Note: 

During the reintroduction of the X-Men, Warren (Angel) is being bombarded by women - and Jean Grey uses her powers to make them all float away.  Hilariously the girls don't seem to notice too much.

Cyclops uses his powers to stop a wall from falling on some construction works.  I don't know why, maybe just the ridiculousness of the situation made it amusing to me.

Prof X gives Iceman a demerit for being overly enthusiastic.  

Prof X can use his brain like a projector, and show news footage on the wall.

Prof X also can talk to non-mutants by way of ridiculous head device.  

The Vanisher's scenery chewing is about on par with Magneto's.  I also love that he gets the entire mob on his side.  

///

The X-Men #3 -  Beware of ... the Blob! Publication Date: Jan. 1964 Stan Lee - Writer Jack Kirby - Drawer Paul Reinman - Inker Art Simek - Letterer 

This issue’s villain is THE BLOB! I give it a few points for discarding, slightly, the normal structure of : Reintroduction of the X-Men -- Bad Guy wants to take over the world -- Big Fight.  

 It starts out by Prof X discovering the The Blob and inviting him to become an X-man. When The Blob declines - he has to take on the X-Men to escape the mansion.  And then, because logic and 60s comics don't always go together - The Blob decides come back and take on the X-Men again with all his circus freak friends because...he can? Does he really need a reason?  The X-Men are once again taken out until Prof X explains to Jean Grey that she really is the most powerful one on the team and frees them and then Prof X once again erases everyone's mind.  Because that's what happens when your villain is too powerful for the X-Men's power set.

The first half of this book is kind of interesting.   I mean, they go out and find a new mutant and, sure, The Blob is definitely not by any means a nice or good guy, but c'mon Prof X, shouldn't you at least vet your people before sharing all of your secrets? And when The Blob says no to being an X-Man - the X-Men attack him! 

It's kind of crazy when you think about it.  I mean, sure, The Blob turns around and fulfills his role as bad guy, but there's an interesting conversation here about who should become and X-Man and why.  Not to mention, while the Blob is still a jerk - he hasn’t done anything to the X-Men at first, and it really feels like Prof X is being the jerk for not letting him go.  

Things to Note:

This comic is so deeply misogynistic - Jean Grey is not only hounded by all of the guys, when she decides to finally hang with Cyclops, Angel swoops in and carries her off - literally.  Poor girl doesn't get a say in it at all.  Meanwhile, Jean can't seem to take on anyone until Prof X explains that she can.  God, it's frustrating to read.

Oh - and Prof X reveals he, too, is in love with Jean - which is about fifty times as creepy.  No, dude - your wheelchair is not the reason it's inappropriate to be harboring romantic feelings towards a teenage girl who is your student.  Stop.

Prof X doesn't need cerebro to find mutants - apparently his mind can just tell him where they are.  He does, however, need an intensifier gun - because 60s.  

Cyclops is beginning to be the brooding, woe-is-me Cyclops we all know and love.

Beast is also becoming Beast! - Reading calculus books with his feet and telling Angel that his colloquialisms aren't necessary.  All we need now is the blue fur and ‘oh my stars and garters’.  Ah, Beast welcome home.

Beast and Iceman's banter continues to be the best thing about the comic.

While searching for the new mutant - Beast sees someone standing in mid-air, oh wait, no, it's just a guy standing on completely clear glass putting a letter on the fourth story of a building.  What even comic logic?!?

I realize The Blob can handle it - but one of the carnival dudes straight up shoots The Blob multiple times.  Wtf dude?

///

The X-Men #4 - The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Publication Date: Mar. 1964 Stan Lee - Writer Jack Kirby - Drawer Paul Reinman - Inker Art Simek - Letterer 

This issue feels like the real beginning of the X-Men (or more so X-Men after being introduced in the first issue).  This issue's bad guys are the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (why brand themselves with the word Evil? Well - they are pretty aware that they are), led by MAGNETO.   The issue skips the longer introduction sequences of the first few comics and dives right in.  The Brotherhood, made up of Magneto, Toad, Mastermind, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver, want to take over a small nation as a precursor to taking over the world -- or at least wanting mutants to take control over regular humans.

Interestingly, it's the first time Prof X and Magneto's ideals really clash - Prof X wanting mutants and humans to coexist peacefully, while Magneto wants mutants to dominate.  It's very black and white here - but it sets the foundation for what X-Men is built upon.

While I miss some of the banter-y aspects the first few comics had, this is probably the strongest issue so far.  The addition of the philosophical differences between Prof X and Magneto, in addition to a tad more complex action sequence gives the series a slightly bit more amount of depth.  

Things to Note:

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's introductions I find interesting - they don't want to be a part of The Brotherhood, but are being blackmailed by Magneto.  It creates an interesting dynamic.

In a flashback, we see Magneto rescuing Scarlet Witch from what looks like an angry mob from the 19th century - pitchforks and all.  It's a bit silly. 

I have to wonder what Magneto was doing in Europe that he just happened to stumble upon the Scarlet Witch.

Also - there's no indication that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are Magneto's kids (it's been retconned several times - I'm not sure who the canonical parents of them are at the moment).  

Magneto and Prof X meet on the astral plane - I find it interesting that there seems to be a connection between the two of them, even though it's not presented right off the bat.  

Magneto can apparently sense Prof X through his magnetic field, lol.

Mastermind's illusions are very Nazi Germany-esque - something I think is a bit peculiar given Magento's later backstory.

Also - how is this illusion army interacting with people?

Cyclops's eye beams need to be recharged - do we ever see that idea again?

At the beginning, the kids are celebrating their one year anniversary at Xavier's - is that from when Jean started or in general? It's also the fastest time is ever going to go in these comics.

It's sort of the first cliffhanger - as Prof X is knocked out and the X-Men decide to take on The Brotherhood on their own!

Next Time - The thrilling conclusion of the Brotherhood two parter, the X-Men meet the Submarner, and the Blob makes a return.