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duckprintspress · 4 years ago

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What is a Story?

When Duck Prints Press put out our call for applicants, we asked everyone to submit “a sample of their work (between 1,000 and 2,000 words)… [that] must function as a short story.” When we reviewed the 100+ samples we received, we noticed many areas where writers commonly struggled. Based on what we learned, we’ve planned a number of blog posts to discuss these challenging areas, and we’ve decided to tackle one of the most frequent issues first. Many otherwise strong submissions lost points on our rubric line regarding “plot and events,” and specifically, they scored a 1 or a 2 because “the story has no plot (for example, is a vignette).”

So, this begs the question, what is a story, and, of course, what isn’t a story?

(note that throughout this post, I use the word “narrative” to refer to any amount of text that may or may not be a story, and I use story only in a more narrow, specific sense.)

What is a story?

The answer is deceptively simple: a story is any narrative that has a plot. But...what is a plot? There are many ways to define a plot, but at its most basic, a plot has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and by the ending, something has changed. If, at the end of the story, nothing has changed, then it’s not a story. However, even if something has changed, it’s still not necessarily a story, because characters and time-frame also influence the definition. A narrative without at least one character is not a story. Likewise, a narrative time-frame, if it’s discussing events at a meta-level (“this happened, then this happened, then this happened”) may show that changes occur, but it’s still not a story - it’s an overview or an outline. The lines, of course, can be blurry - and where any given author, reader, or DPP reviewer draws the line between “this is a story” and “this isn’t a story” will vary.

How is a story communicated to the reader?

To function as a story, the narrative must include characters. Now, character doesn’t necessarily have to mean person, or even require sentience, but there must be some point of view being explored, and if the character is an animal or an inanimate object, writing it as a character will require a degree of anthropomorphizing. The key aspect is that the character has some form of agency - some ability to interact with and influence their surroundings. This character will have a point of view and a perspective that affects how they perceive the story’s setting, and by the end of the story this character should have either changed themselves, or changed their surroundings, or changed their relationships. The circumstances around this character must be different by the end of the story than they were at the beginning - or else it’s not a story.

What is change?

As part of the narrative, one or more characters in the story must engage in some form of activity that results in the world around them changing. Writing advice most oftenly calls this “conflict,” but honestly? I hate that word. The classic couching of “person vs. self, person vs. person, person vs. nature, person vs. society, person vs. fate” as the available types of conflict is tired. Defining the only kind of change as conflict and specifically describing it as “x versus y” is to automatically get a potential writer thinking in terms of antagonism. While antagonism is one available type of change, it’s not the only, and while many pieces of writing advice point out that these “versus” constructions don’t mean enmity by nature...why not simply choose a less confusing construction, one that doesn’t require addenda to explain the existence of narratives that clearly are stories but are less “versus” and more “and” - “person and self,” “person and person,” “person and nature,” “person and society,” “person and fate.” I’ve opted to use the word change, because one of the clearest ways to tell if a narrative is a story or not is to look at the nature of the character(s) are at the beginning, and look at the nature of them at the end, and say - what’s different? Maybe they’ve built something. Maybe they’ve reached a new understanding. Maybe they’ve conquered a challenge. Maybe they’ve altered their perspective. Maybe they’ve learned something. Maybe, they’ve changed the world, or maybe, they’ve just changed a light bulb - but something has changed.

Before some writing snob comes at me and says, “okay, fine, we dare you to come up with a plot that doesn’t fit into the classic five conflict types” ...of course we can’t. That model functions because all stories can be shoehorned into it, as long as very loose definition of “conflict” and “versus” are used. But because it’s described in oppositional terms, a lot of writers get distracted by that terminology and think there has to be, well, a conflict, in the narrow definition of the word. And that’s clearly absurd - many of our favorite fanfiction tropes, for example, are fluffy and comforting and soft precisely because they’re not about conflict, they’re about harmony. Yes, “enemies to lovers” is wonderful, but so is “friends to lovers.” Two people going on a date that ends with a marriage proposal is a story: they started out as a couple and ended engaged. Something has changed - their relationship status. But to call that “person versus person,” while perhaps technically correct, is ludicrous. Now, to keep it interesting, there might be some “person versus self” - “I’m not worthy of this love, omg do they really care for me, oh will society give us problems if we say yes?” which is how it can be shoehorned into the “conflict” model. But be it ever so soft, and their love ever so accepted, and their faith in each other ever so steady - if there really is no conflict, just those two people meeting up and having a nice night and ending in a proposal...it’s still a story. To say it’s not a story because there was no conflict, only an advancement of their relationship...yes, a story like that is borderline to being a vignette or “slice of life” narrative. Certainly, if there’s zero sources of tension, it may not be a very interesting story, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a story.

What else does a story need?

Honestly - not much. Don’t get us wrong - a story is stronger if it has a setting so that it doesn’t just take place in endless blankness. A story with multiple characters but no form of dialog (verbal or non-verbal) may be a little flat. A story where something changes but some of the introduced plot elements aren’t resolved will feel incomplete to a reader. A story without any negativity could be boring. Stories lacking these elements may not be good stories...or they could be amazing, and innovative, showing how a tale can be told without elements we usually consider essential! As long as something or someone has changed, and the story is told in a narrative, descriptive format that includes a character - it’s a story.

What isn’t a story?

Things that aren’t stories fall into two broad categories:

Narratives that have description, characters, dialogue, setting, and other story elements, but nothing changes. Examples of this are “slice of life” narratives and what, in fandom-parlance, would be called an episode coda or canon insert - a chunk of narrative deliberately meant to make a bridge between two established events but in which nothing can change because the surrounding events remain established. (A coda or insert might be a story, it varies.)

Narratives that are either entirely “show” (for example, a vignette) or entirely “tell” (for example, a synopsis), These can also be seen as relating to time - either there’s little or no passage of time (usually the case in vignettes) or far too much passage of time (usually the case in synopses). Narratives like this may or may not include a character, but even if they do, they’re still not stories. Why not? Because any story that is entirely “show” and involves minimal passage of time is unlikely to result in change, and instead will be an extended description of a moment. And any story that is entirely “tell” and depicts a large swath are overviews - there’s no element to actually grab a reader and no reason the reader should care about this dry relationship of events. That’s not a story - it’s a history textbook.

Drawing the lines between these categories can be difficult, and to some extent will come down to taste. Anyone who says there’s a hard-and-fast rule in writing is a liar. Just because a synopsis or a “slice of life” narrative isn’t usually a story doesn’t mean they will never be one. But, in general, if you’re looking at a piece of work and you’re trying to determine if it’s a story or not, there are some signs that will strongly suggest it’s not a story:

There are no characters.

There is no setting.

Nothing has changed between the beginning and ending of the narrative.

The entire narrative is an extended description of a single person/object/setting.

The entire narrative could easily be reworded into a sequence of, “thing one happened, then thing two happened, then thing three happened, then thing four happened.”

The narrative feels like a “pause,” or a “bridge” that takes place between two events that aren’t depicted in the narrative.

A central conflict or issue is introduced or described in details, but nothing is done to try to solve the issue.

Now, for the most important part of this discussion of what isn’t a story: writing something that isn’t a story isn’t a bad thing! Especially in fanfiction communities, we live for self-indulgent narratives that make us happy. We love to see those “moments between.” We live for a thought-out thousand-year history for some setting that didn’t originally have that much background. These kinds of narratives are fun to write, and especially when they’re part of an existing franchise, can be a delight to read. We are not saying that there is literally anything wrong with writing a narrative that isn’t a story.

That said, Duck Prints Press’s applicant call specifically asked authors to submit a writing sample that was a story, with the eventual goal of selecting authors to write short stories for an anthology. Which is to say: there’s nothing wrong at all with writing “slice of life” stories, codas, canon inserts, vignettes, or synopses - it’s simply not what we asked people to submit in this specific case, and we’ve come to see that a lot of people submitted non-stories without an apparent understanding of the difference, and we wanted to explain that difference.

But, to everyone reading this: write whatever brings you joy, in as much detail or vagueness as makes you happy, and share it with whoever you want. Just also understand, that for many types of narratives, if you’re asked “is that a story?” it’s not. That’s not to create a hierarchy - they’re all equal as art forms, they’re just not the same.

Okay I kinda understand this in theory but what do these differences actually look like in practice?

In long-form works, it’s usually relatively easy to recognize what is a story and what isn’t. Almost every novel ever published has a plot, and has things change, and is therefore a story. (though there are exceptions - Wikipedia lists a few longer vignettes and, when done thoughtfully, it can be astonishingly effective.) However, in shorter works, it can be difficult to tell the difference - and, as previously mentioned, the lines can blur.

In the interest of giving an idea of what the differences are, here are a few examples I quickly cooked up to try to show you all, since I’ve done a lot of “telling” so far (this blog post: also not a story, ha!) and very little demonstration. These are each around 150 words, to show that even in a tiny word count, any of these narrative structures is a viable choice. (Sorry these aren’t high literature - I just threw them together for this post, so I’d have something that suited.)

(read more)

A story - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where something changes:

The door slammed open. Looking up from her embroidery, Victoria blinked as Margaret strode into the room.There was an air of expectancy that was inexplicable to Victoria; she grew more confused when Margaret approached and dropped to one knee.

“What are you doing?” Heart pounding, Victoria attempted self-restraint, but she couldn’t rein in her hope, because it almost looked like...it seemed like...but--

“Proposing,” announced Margaret, pulling a velvet-covered box from her pocket and opening to reveal an emerald set in a gold band.

“But you can’t!”

Margaret tilted her head to the side and frowned. “Why not?”

Objections occurred to Victoria, but examining them...she couldn’t think of a one that Margaret wouldn’t demolish with her usual brilliance. “You know what? You’re right. Who’s to stop us? And...I accept.”

And as Margaret slipped the ring onto Victoria’s finger, she knew: there could be no objection. Nothing had ever felt so right in her life.

“Slice of life” - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where nothing changes:

“What a day!” said James, dropping onto the couch with an exhausted sigh.

“I know what you mean,” Tom agreed. He fumbled a hand across the cushion separating them, and James delighted in the simple comfort of threading their fingers together.

A beep, beep, beep sounded in the kitchen, announcing that the microwave had finished nuking their leftovers.

“You getting that?” asked Tom.

“It’s your turn!” James countered.

“But I don’t want to let go of your hand.” Tom gave his hand a squeeze, and a pleased glow suffused James’s chest.

It was Tom’s turn to retrieve their dinner.

But Tom was right - holding hands was wonderful.

“Let’s get it together,” James suggested.

Hesitating, Tom remained still as James sit up and gave a tug on their joined arms, then he broke into a smile and rose at James’s side.

“I love the way you think.”

“I love you, too, darling”

And together - always together - they got their dinner.

“Bridge” scene, episode coda, or canon insert-style fic - a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, where nothing changes:

Arriving home after the battle, Sandy opened the rough-hewn door and shed her damaged armor. Her dented cuirass had left an aching bruise across her chest; she carried it to the smithy out back for repair in the morning. A gash on her thigh throbbed where an arrow had pierced the straps holding her greaves in places; she brought them to her leather-working station. Nicks and fissures marred her once-gleaming sword blade. All Sandy wanted was to collapse in bed, but resisted the pull of relaxation, because blood limned the damaged places red, and repair to the damaged weapon couldn’t wait. Taking a seat, placed her feet on the treadles that set her whet stone to spinning and set about polishing out every imperfection.

Yes, she was exhausted.

But her sword must be cleaned, and smoothed, and honed, and prepared.

Sandy must be prepared.

There would always be another battle to be fought.

Vignette, a narrative without a beginning, a middle, or an end, which may or may not have a character, and nothing changes and in which the emphasis is on showing, rather than telling (but, as in this example, a combination may be used):

The wind blew chill down the narrow mountain pass. All was silent, save for the rush of the breeze. All was still, save where gusts stirred the tall grasses and the branches of trees that reached, claw-like, toward the sky.

Once upon a time, a stream had carved this cut through the cliffs, forcing its way through soft chalk and hard shale, leaving jagged stones that emerged from the steep pass walls like teeth. The stream was long dry, now, only water-smoothed stones strewn across the ground to show where it had ever been.

Once upon a time, travellers had traversed the dried-up rill bed, pounding down the dirt, knocking the rocks aside, leaving scars where their fires burned. They’d lived, and laughed, and explored, and sought...and left, never to return.

Now, there was nothing: nothing but the storm.

And all was silent.

And all was still.

And the wind blew, chill, down the narrow mountain pass.

Synopsis, a narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end, which may or may not have characters, and where something changes, and in which the emphasis is on telling rather showing:

Emperor Xiang Zhen was born in 9884 to Dowager Empress Luo Zexi and the warlord Xiang Yijun. After his birth, there was a long period of strife. Those who supported Xiang Yijun’s claim to the throne battled those who still supported the Dowager Empress’s deceased husband Peng Zhenya. Eventually, the factions found common ground when Xiang Zhen came of age, and he was enthroned in 9902.

With his reign came peace and prosperity. The arts flourished. Scholarship advanced, and many great Dao masters arose, using cultivation to rid the land of evil’s left by the long war. Xiang Zhen longed to join a Night Hunt himself, but he was trapped by his political position. He didn’t dare risk the fragile stability in the Empire. If something happened to him, the results could be catastrophic. So he studied, and ruled, and adjudicated, and endowed, and endured.

Xiang Zhen did as he must.

But, oh...he wished he weren’t alone.

I know this is long, so we’ll leave this discussion at this point. Hopefully you found it helpful, and please do let me know if you have any questions! Duck Prints Press is always here to offer support to writers, and we love getting writing asks!

#duck prints press #writing advice #original content

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kpopfanfictrash · 5 years ago

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4 + 57

omg ur a dICK asldjfalskj

4. Current Bias?

jiminandjungkook

57. To all the members of BTS send a small letter(2-3 lines)starting with “Thank you….”

Namjoon, thank you for the beautiful way you perceive the world and make connections. I still remember seeing the BTS movie this past August and hearing you speak about your friend in a long distance relationship and raising the question of who has it the most difficult -- the person waiting, or the person who leaves? Your ultimate answer was neither; they both have it equally hard and are joined by the struggle. The comparison you then made to ARMY honestly blew me away. It takes someone truly special to convey complex thoughts in the manner you do, especially with a language barrier. Multiple things you’ve said have stuck by me and I cannot emphasize how thankful I am.

Seokjin, thank you for your endless energy and perseverance. When I think of your true character, there are two moments which come to mind. The first is during Bon Voyage Hawaii, when you spoke with Namjoon about how your stage persona has changed into what it is now. About how you were shy (and still are), but ARMY seem to like when you blow kisses and act exaggeratedly... so you do. The second was during Burn the Stage, during your fight with Taehyung when you were trying to lighten the mood and he perceived it as you not taking him seriously. So often, you put others before yourself. So often, you think of what will better the group, how you can contribute to the overall picture and I just want you to know how amazing you are. Thank you for being so humble and kind and true, despite all the insanity being thrown your way.

Yoongi, thank you for being so open and honest -- both with us and with yourself. First Love is still one of my favorite songs in the entire Bangtan discography and the only one which made me cry. You are able to summarize humans and emotions so eloquently; one quote which stands out to me is actually more recent. BTS was giving an interview and you said something along the lines of ‘it doesn’t matter if someone sees us as insincere, since everyone is two-faced.’ Not in a bad way, but in a way that points out humans are inconsistent. People are flawed and respond to the same situation in different ways, depending on different things. I hope you know you’ve given a lot of hope to us flawed humans and are a constant reminder that mistakes are the true normal.

Hoseok, thank you for being whatever Bangtan needs you to be. Thank you for tirelessly pouring yourself into a craft which oftentimes does not appreciate you the way it should. Whether on variety or in interviews, you are always the mood-maker. When reviewing performances, you are the choreographer and drill sergeant. When everyone moved out and got their own rooms, you stayed with Jimin because you know he gets lonely. When Bangtan needed another rapper, you learned how to rap and keep up with two of the best previous underground rappers in k-pop. You are truly the most selfless, talented and beautiful human being and we are beyond lucky to have you.

Jimin, thank you for persevering. Thank you for sharing your journey of self-love and acceptance. Honestly, it’s so easy for me to see myself in your darker sides of perfectionism and ambition. It makes me incredibly happy to see you supported and cared for, and even more to see you care for yourself. You are truly the kindest, most caring individual. The letter Taehyung wrote you on Bon Voyage Hawaii always sticks out in my mind -- about how you are always there, willing to listen, willing to support and how he felt he needed to be more vocal about his appreciation. I hope you feel how much we all love and appreciate you. Not for some halo-ed expectation we have for you, but for the man you are now.

Taehyung, thank you for being you. God, the transformation you have undergone is astounding. Even the other members said when they first met you, they didn’t understand you. You have such a unique way of perceiving the world; truly, an artist’s soul. It makes me so happy to see you coming into your own, embracing all the unique facets you have. It’s also so inspiring to me when you share your personal journeys with us. You want to learn the violin, you want to draw, you want to take photos. So often, what we’re taught is ‘you can’t do this after x age,’ but you continually pursue the things which bring you joy and this is so inspirational. Thank you.

Jungkook, thank you for being so sincere and honest and driven, day after day. I honestly do not think I know anyone (in either my personal life, or as a role model) with such earnest sincerity. You began your life in the spotlight at such a young age and yet, never complain but only remain thankful. You’ve grown from being cared for by the members to taking care of them in turn. You truly are one of the cornerstones of Bangtan. The energy you have onstage, the passion you pour into your work is all so tangible and real. Thank you for basically ruining all expectation for other men. LOL

uGH Tiffany, I hate you for making me do this. I’m emotional LOL

[ send me a BTS ask ]

#bts #namjoon #seokjin #hoseok #yoongi #the Angel #sidepiece 1 #sidepiece 2

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ruffiorocks · 5 years ago

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Supergirl Season 5 premiere review!

Ok!! So there's a lot to process here but first off WOW! Bravo! 👏👏 as season premieres go that was probably one of if not the best.

Ok... So opening scene, you could so tell that was a simulation from the way Kara talked. I should also like to give a big 🖕🖕 to all those that were dragging Lena saying she either:

1. Gave herself super powers

2. Used Kryptonite

3. Punched Kara in front of some school kids.

Is it just me, or does Hope the AI give off an "I'm going to become sentient and be a massive pain in the ass?" Vibe? 🤔🤔

My poor baby Lena, how awful must it be to believe that everyone you know has betrayed you, that you can't trust them and you have no one to talk to? So you create your own personal AI that won't (probably will ) betray you, oh and you bring someone (Andrea ) back into your life when clearly things haven't always been smooth sailing? Poor Lena!

Ugh..Must they throw out politics less that 3 minutes into the show? We have Kara talking about registering to vote?

Ok, so everyone is praising Kara, she's talking about having her work recognised, Baker and Lex being taken down, but yet again there is NO mention of the fact that it was Lena who figured out where Lex was, Lena who helped Kara/Supergirl etc. Oh that's right I forgot, the show doesn't like to acknowledge when things couldn't have been done without Lena 😤😤

Naww Alex and Kelly are so cute.

Kara suddenly has a dislike for technology?? Random and purely there for plot convenience.

Not going to lie but Jonn is kind of boring this episode.

Ok... So here we go again, Kara using stupid excuses to not tell Lena. Ugh.... this is getting so old and cliche to the point it isn't even funny anymore.

Yes!! They have Kara acknowledging that lying to Lena for so long while being all about 'truth' wasn't fair.

Yes Alex the voice of reason Danvers!! She can tell Kara off essentially while still praising her and letting her know she is good. I'm loving how it's ALEX who is saying Lena needs to know!

😂 Miranda Priestly, yes Brainy I quite agree! Id rather face Hannibal Lector than her. Oh bring back Cat Grant!!

😂😂 omg that handshake! I'm willing to bet that Alex's laugh was just Chyler not being able to keep a straight face and they kept it.

James is boring.

Strangely turned on by the way Andrea says her name 😅

James is boring.

Not going to lie, I know Lena wanted Andrea to keep the sale of Cat Co a secret, but I'm actually glad we got to see Kara's shock at not being kept in the loop. Humble pie much??

Ok the exhibit is funny.

Did they have a casting call for a creepy kid?

Dinosaur!!

Katie is so good at the whole pretending to be happy and friendly whilst plotting face 🤣. Morgana much?

Oh.... Kara is being indignant Lena did something without telling them all?? Another bite of pie Kara?

Hahahaha 🖕 to all those that said Lena didn't buy Cat Co for Kara. (I know she might be saying that to explain the sale away, but it's been said so it's canon!)

Oooh Lena is really making it obvious she knows 🤣🤣 awkward much lol

Dinosaur!!

Karas cape is more important than a bomb to Brainy 😂

Ooh here that's scene at Cat Co. I stand by my last post, James and Kara are incredibly rude to their new boss and have zero right to speak to her that way. James and Kara used all of the staff to gang up on Andrea and it's just not on! I love how Andrea roasted James though!!

Does anyone here ever read a contract before signing it?

Am I the only one thought Andrea was Lenas ex when she said "relationship"?? 😅😅 false alarm lol

Why is Kara still flying with a crap cape? She doesn't need one to fly.

trap!!

Midnight isn't all that exciting.

Oh so Jonn remembers Manchester Black, but i take it no one wants to acknowledge his blatant MURDER Of the disarmed non powered human? Ok writers you can forget it all you want, but I'm not going to!

😂 Brainy! It is great fun to watch Jonn shift into Kara!

Oh Alex you angel and voice of reason.

Yay Kelly!! Lovely advice, love how she's the one who convinced James to leave! Kelly just got a massive boost in my eyes!

William is hilariously obnoxious!!

Erm... Did Kara just FULL ON verbally attack her new boss? Threatening to fight her boss on everything? Dictating what Andrea can and can not do? Giving out demands? Jesus Christ, Andrea I know you said you're not going to fire her but man I would have on the spot!! Kara is waaaay out of order and getting way to big for her super boots!

I don't think William and Kara are going to be a couple, that's the exact same story as Mon El and Kara. No one wants to watch that again.

Ok so now Kara is bragging to Alex that she verbally attacked her new boss, telling her what SHE will and will not tolerate? Omg Kara get a grip!

Alex?? You're encouraging this? You were supposed to be the voice of reason!

Naww Alex and Kelly are cute!

Ooh Brainy is so funny! "To small to be perceived". He made her a new suit!

Holy s**t!! Kara just out right came out to Lena!! I really thought she would drag this out start rambling and not actually do it So Lena sees her change instead. But good for her, about bloody time!!

Lena genuinely looks shocked! She didn't expect Kara to come clean! Puts a spanner in Lena's revenge plot there lol

Jesus the acting of these two!! The facial expressions and the tears! Mel is really selling it! Bravo 👏👏

I'm loving how Kara is acknowledging all the things we've been saying, how her reasons for keeping the secret were dumb!

Oh I don't trust this Hope AI at all! She's encouraging Lena to hate on Kara.

Oh the speech, and Alex's awkward look!

No way was Lena going to immediately forgive Kara, I know we wanted to think it but Nooo! Far to soon lol

Omg!! It was Lena Kara activated her new suit infront of!! I'm living for that!

PANTS!!!

HOLY SH*T MUSE!!! Yesssss!!! What a sound track to use!!

Alex "how do you guys change so fast?!" 🤣🤣

Oh.. ... look...... Guardian is there.....Hopefully for his last appearance

Fight itself isn't all that exciting, and I feel like we didn't even get to know Midnight, that was way to quick.

James quit, good! Leave!! Seems a bit stupid he doesn't care about never being a journalist again though. But I won't dwell, because I genuinely don't care.

Alex and Kelly! Oh my heart!

Oh so Brainy has had A LOT of romantic experience then? 😏

Aww he loves her!!

I'm glad they had Brainy acknowledge his feeling at having been dark for that short time.

Nawwww a kiss!

That little girl is way creepy!

Oh so Jonn doesn't know he has a brother? 🤔 interesting.

Oh look Lena gets a super watch, ABOUT BLOODY TIME!! That could have prevented so many problems! Straight out of a fan fic lol

Oh yes, I don't trust this AI Hope!!

Lena no! You are NOT a Luthor!

Ok... so all in all a fab episode, nothing was dragged out thank RAO! I don't hate Lena for wanting to expose Kara, it makes sense from a comic point of view and from the pain she feels. The important thing is she didn't do it. People are allowed to feel like they are going to lash out when they are hurt.

I quite like Andrea, she's a breath of fresh air! Plus she isn't wrong in her ideas, just because it's something Kara, Nia and James don't like doesn't mean it's wrong. I think she was treated horribly and despicably by Kara and James though. Especially Kara! That was way to much and she should have been sacked. I'm really happy someone is at Cat Co now that is challenging her and not doing whatever she says, I think the days of Karaolsen magazine and Kara running out whatever she wants are done. But this is good!

Nia is adorable but didn't get to do much.

Jonn was pretty boring this ep considering the villain was out to get him.

James sucks!

Brainy is sooo cute and funny!

Alex and Kelly are the best!

Alex being the voice of reason is what I'm here for, now I want her to go see Lena.

Hahaha Kelly is the one to thank for ridding me of James.

The acting between Mel and Katie here was brilliant, the emotions the tears, the deception? Wonderfully done.

Lena didn't create any VR tech so take that haters!!

Kara's war on tech sounds like it's going to be for boring reasons.

I don't trust this Hope AI!

Lena isn't done for yet, "a fight for Lena's soul!" We can all find our way back to the light!

#supergirl #katie mcgrath #kara zor el #kara danvers #lena luthor #superfriends #supercorp #alex danvers #kelly olsen #anti james olsen #dansen #nia nal #brainy #jonn jonzz #andrea rojas

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la-knight · 6 years ago

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BOOKS I (RE)READ IN 2018: FURTHERMORE BY TAHEREH MAFI

"Alice Alexis Queensmeadow, 12, rates three things most important: Mother, who wouldn’t miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. Father disappeared from Ferenwood with only a ruler, almost three years ago. But she will have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. Her only companion is Oliver whose own magic is based in lies and deceit. Alice must first find herself—and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss." "Red was ruby, green was fluorescent, yellow was simply incandescent. Color was life. Color was everything. Color, you see, was the universal sign of magic." "Love, it turned out, could both hurt and heal." "Narrow-mindedness will only get you as far as Nowhere, and once you're there, you're lost forever.” "Alice was an odd girl, even for Ferenwood, where the sun occasionally rained and the colors were brighter than usual and magic was as common as a frowning parent." "Making magic is far more interesting than making sense." So I actually read this book a few months ago and then recently reread it via audio so I could remember all the details for this review. I was first introduced to Tahereh Mafi’s work through her book Shatter Me, her debut novel. Ironically, it wasn’t through any of the ways I normally hear about books - Booktube, Goodreads, my best friend, Booklr - but from my husband’s aunt. She runs - or used to run, not sure if she’s still doing it - a book review blog. And she posted a review of Shatter Me and I was like, “What a weird, interesting writing style, lemme check this out.” At this point the entire Shatter Me Trilogy plus novellas had been published and I devoured all of them (still need to review those, too). So when I heard Tahereh Mafi was writing a middle grade book, I got super excited! Especially because this was during a time when I was too stressed out to read any YA, since most of the YA I like involves having to save the world and all the stress that entails. I need to lay out some trigger warnings real quick: the main character, Alice? Her mom is incredibly abusive, both emotionally and physically. It’s treated as not such a big deal in the book, which is honestly the story’s only real flaw, but it’s bad. It took me seven tries and resorting to an audiobook (and even with a fantastic narrator, that short audiobook took me almost a month to get through) because the abuse was so bad. So:

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL ABUSE OF A CHILD BY THEIR PARENT

Let’s get started, yo! First of all, the setting. OMG. See, I love tthis thing called Victorian fairy tales, which is something you can find in books like Mary Poppins - these super fantastical bits of whimsy that just warm your heart and make you grin because they’re so creative and fun. In the Mary Poppins books, you can jump into chalk drawings and go to a circus amidst the stars and make friends with a woman who sells living candy-cane horses. In Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland series, there are shadow balls and talking phonographs. And in Furthermore, there’s light raining down from the sky in literal drops, sticks of magic you use like money, and forests full of invisible berries. The way the world is put together and described, so full of color and imagination, is awesome and beautiful and I could picture it perfectly. It reminded me in all the best ways of books like The Phantom Tollbooth (one of my favorites). But I wouldn’t want to live there, because Ferenwood is full of colorism and ick. Alice, the female lead, is an albino in a world where color is important and the darker you are, the more magical you’re considered to be. So Alice gets treated like garbage.

Also I think Alice may be autistic, but I don’t know if she’s deliberately coded autistic or if Tahereh Mafi did it by accident while trying to make Alice eccentric, but she comes across as autistic. I’ve actually begun to pay more attention to that sort of the thing in recent years, being autistic myself, and I see it a lot - authors giving their characters autistic characteristics, often without meaning to. I just touch on it here because Alice is already treated badly for being albino, but she’s also considered a freak because of the way she behaves - like an autistic preteen. And I wonder if Tahereh Mafi did that on purpose as a sort of commentary or not, because while Alice is treated badly by the people of Ferenwood for her behavior, the Narrator (who is an actual character in the story; love when that happens) always sides with Alice in this regard. The storyline is sweet and I love it. Alice tries to compete in the magical testing all the preteens do on their twelfth birthday, and so she dances. And her dancing is magical but it’s not Magical, you know? So she fails the test. Well, turns out a boy who passed the test the year before, Oliver (the brat), needs Alice’s help fulfilling a quest - rescuing Alice’s missing dad. So they go on a quest together, although Alice hates Oliver (and rightly so, he’s rude). They go to a dozen different and cool places, all of which are dangerous and all of which are different. I wish we could’ve spent more time in those places but I understand why we didn’t. The only annoying thing is there’s an origami fox on the cover but it only pops up in one of the worlds for like two pages and then it’s gone and I thought we could spend more time both in that world and with that creature since it ended up on the cover. But alas, not. I understand why - middle grade is often cursed to be short, especially if it’s the author’s first MG novel ever. Once you get big and bad like Rick Riordan you can start tossing out gihugic tomes like Son of Neptune or Blood of Olympus on the regular. Oliver’s reason for needing Alice was one I didn’t see coming, nor was her magical talent - a talent they hint at throughout the book but never explain until near the end, at the perfect moment. I thought it was an interesting commentary on how young girls perceive themselves, that Alice hates this marvelous, amazing talent she has of bringing color into the world from nothing...because she can’t use it to change how she looks. Society has trained her already, by the age of twelve, to discount something incredible about herself because she can’t use it to make herself into what society wants her to be. That’s pretty impressive for a book this short. I loved some of the more deliberate messages in the work - the thing I mentioned about society’s pressures on young girls, and also that it’s okay to tell boys to screw off if they’re mean to you, and to have hope and to look for second chances (Alice thinks she only has one chance to pass the test and believes her life is over when she fails, only to find out she can try again the next year). I love all of that, and the lyrical and whimsical quality of the prose, and the world building is so creative and also makes me a bit hungry (people eat magic in this book, among other things; I wonder what it tastes like). Now...let’s talk about the abuse. That’s my biggest issue with the book. Alice’s mother is a total bitch. And not in a cool, kickass way like the lady in the show Empire. She’s vicious, she’s cruel, and she’s abusive. Alice knows - and the Narrator confirms - that she turned bad when her husband went missing, and apparently the worry for him and the strain of raising four kids on her own is making her hard and sad, but I don’t give a shit. I was hoping Tahereh Mafi would’ve gone all Hansel and Gretel on this lady and when Alice comes home with her dad, the wife’s dead or something. She beats Alice (at one point she beat Alice for chasing a boy out of the place where she was sleeping, even though he kept staring at her in her sleeping clothes, because apparently the boy - Oliver - had the right to break into their barn at 3AM and ogle Alice???), she verbally abuses Alice, she sends her to bed regularly without dinner, is constantly criticizing, won’t hug her or kiss her, and - this one really got me, for some reason - forces her to do illegal things. Those invisible berries I mentioned? Alice can find them and bring back whole baskets because of her magical gift, and so her mom sends her out to pick them all the time. If she brings home enough, her mom smiles. If she doesn’t, her mom yells and calls her names and sometimes beats her. Guess what? Picking those berries is illegal. We don’t find this out until much later in the book, but it is. The thing I didn’t like about the berries is that Oliver, who’s thirteen, is less concerned about Alice’s mother beating her for not picking enough contraband berries and instead focuses on how her ability to find the berries in the first place means Alice has really impressive magic. NOBODY seems to care how much Alice is being abused, not even the Narrator. The Narrator sympathizes with Alice’s hurt feelings and despair over her missing Father, but it’s never objectively stated that her mom is abusing her AND SHE IS. Yeah, her mom is sooo glad to have her back after Alice almost dies on her trip with Oliver, but so what? My roommate’s mom is so abusive that my roommate’s clergy leaders, doctors, and psychological therapist all said my roommate needed to cut ties with said mom, even though my roommate’s mom has also exhibited the same kind of “oh baby I’m so sorry, I love you so much” bullshit. That’s what abusers do. So I hate Alice’s mom. She literally makes her daughter feel like if she doesn’t risk her life numerous times AND bring her father back, there is no chance her mother will ever love her. And if she pulls that stuff off (which she does), then MAYBE her mother will love her. Nuh-uh. Nope. Hate that bitch. Other than that, I really loved this book. The characters felt real (Alice is me, but without my anger), Even the ones I didn’t like were still REAL, and well-drawn. The world building and word choice is fantastic. Basically, if you can get past the evil mom, read this book. World Building: 1 star Realism: 1 star Word Choice: 1 star Plot: 1 star Characterization: 1 star - ¼ star because Oliver Newbanks is an obnoxious little creep - 1 star because the mom is AN ABUSIVE EVIL BITCH - ¼ star because NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT THAT +½ star because Alice is amazing and has a genius brain and I love her Total score: 4/5 stars Would I Buy It: Yes! I own it and loved it enough I got the sequel for Christmas (in...2017...I've been sitting on this review for months...)! Would I Recommend: yes, but with trigger warnings. Again, highly abusive evil bitch mom who somehow doesn’t die.

#books of 2018 #book review #aesthetic #Furthermore #Tahereh Mafi

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redlance · 6 years ago

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You hate being bothered over when you’re going to update Experimentation. It’s a form of art, it can’t be rushed and you have a duty to the characters, we all understand that. But you started it over three years ago and you take at the very least over a month an update. Usually more. Isn’t it a little rude to not give some sort of an answer to your fans when they ask about it? You involve us by posting online and by asking for donations. We’re owed a little more than you give us credit for?

I’ve never said I hate people asking about it. I never ask for donations. I have certain pages set up - like Patreon - to give people the option. No one is obligated. I’ve worked on this story for three years of my life and I’m grateful for every person who has been with me since the beginning and has joined me on the way.

But I’m not asking anyone (other than my beta) to read the story. That’s your choice and, really, it’s one I’m glad people make. I’ve met a lot of awesome people through writing this fic.

Do I OWE those people anything? No. No more than they owe me anything. That would be like me saying “well, you’ve been reading it for three years, where’s my 8000 word review?”

The thing that some people don’t understand, even though I’ve said this over and over again, is that I don’t HAVE answers. When people ask me when the next chapter will be up, i literally cannot tell them. I’d love to be able to sit down and just write and write and churn out chapter after chapter, and have everyone be happy. I can’t do that. So, suggesting that my not answering questions is rude is�� well, it’s not terribly nice, is it? Not that anyone has to be nice, I suppose. I don’t expect that.

And man, I love when people ask me questions about the fic! When they’re not just about when the next update will be, but actual conversationally-driven questions.

I guess I just expect… Idk, people to take one second to think about what they’re saying/asking and how that might be perceived. How it might make the person on the other end feel.

Because in the last week alone I’ve had about five different people come to me with variations of “omg when are you going to update, it’s been forever.” And I love that people enjoy the fic enough to want more! I do. But man… I KNOW it’s been forever. I get that waaaaay more than anyone who reads the fic ever will. That hangs over my head every single day and I try to write whenever I can. But I also want to write and still enjoy writing, you know? And when people just remind me of how long it’s been since I updated, it’s a little bit disheartening.

It’s taken me a really long time to realise that I don’t, actually, owe anyone anything in this life. I hope you’ll continue reading the fic whenever I’m able to post a new chapter. But I can’t tell anyone when that’ll be.

And just, as a related sidenote, if anyone out there is enjoying a story and it hasn’t been updated in a while, and you actually want to somehow inspire the writer to be encouraged… Don’t just ask when they’re going to update. Tell them one, just one thing you enjoy about the story and then tell them that you’re looking forward to the next chapter. Don’t ask for it. Don’t remind them how long it’s been.

A little consideration and a dash of encouragement goes a really long way, friends.

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destressjournal · 4 years ago

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DCOM Rankings #89: Radio Rebel

the reason this review took so long is that I’m engaged now!! Im a fiancé!! So that happened.

Anywayyyyy time to talk about this cringe fest! Now there was a brief tik tok trend like a year ago about this movie and I think it distorted my views on the movie just a little bit but honestly I think it deserved it. There are rumors that Disney plus doesn’t have this movie because it’s ashamed of it. But really it’s just copyright laws, cuz it was made in conjunction with a Canadian company.

BUT I was able to watch the whole thing on YouTube for free so if any of you want to watch it for whatever messed up reason, someone recorded it on their tv in its entirety in 39 parts. Not good quality at all but they put the subtitles on and there’s no background noise so it was an easy watch (in that aspect...).

So where do I even start with this movie? I honestly thought frienemies was the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen...oh boy. I was way wrong. Well actually, let me correct myself, this movie is both cringey AND sends bad messaging!

I’m trying to think if there’s anything good about this movie I can say before I completely obiterate it...hmmmmm. I will say this! It was way more entertaining than Frienemies. And some of the other C and below movies on my list. It kept my attention and now it’s kind of iconic (in a not so good way but still).

But like the attention wasn’t always good attention. So let’s just dive in to the review and if I find something good I’ll talk about it but this is basically a roast. And I’m here for it!

So...again it’s hard to know where to start but let’s go with the overall story. I LIKE the concept of an alter ego radio host who is actually super shy in real life. I really do think that’s interesting! But the execution of this was really not easy to watch....It’s like a really cringey insane version of hatching Pete. I would prefer hatching Pete over this any day of my life. Even if that movie still wasn’t the best either. If they were less over the top with it and actually got real, with real problems, then maybe I would have liked it.

Okay, the characters. I don’t really like any of them maybe except for Gavin. He was the only sane character in the entire movie. And I think the only person that got the message of the movie (the good message anyway) while his band mates are literally in another world, like shut up you’re in high school!!! It was the most annoying scene when Gavin was like “hey have you seen Tara? She’s supposed to be here for our school assignment” “omg stop thinking about Tara, only think about Stacy, she’s higher class and good for our image”

....

“Ummm yeah I literally just asked you if you’ve seen her because we were partnered up on a school project and we literally present next . School?? Do you remember school?? The place we’re at right now? Where we have homework and books and normal things going on? Do you even care that you’re not in class right now??”

I get that like Gavin calls him out on his bullshit a little bit but I wish he took an extra punch like what I said above. Anyway...

I think I would have liked Tara a lot more if it wasn’t Debbie Ryan playing her. And I do feel bad because she was great in suite life, but she literaly cannot play a shy character, because she’s not a shy person, at least that’s how I perceive her to be based on interviews and such. But besides the acting piece. She goes out and gives all this great advice to folks but never takes it herself. That and, I watched one review that made a really good point, Tara’s messaging is really mixed. Some of it is good, like telling folks to wear red tomorrow as a solidarity thing, that was good! But telling folks to disrupt class and stick it to the man, and get people in trouble, including the school, yikes. Like she was under the threat of expulsion the entire time and it was seen as an unfair thing in the movie, ummm no that was pretty justified if you hired an entire radio station to have a unauthorized dance party in the school parking lot during the day time. I would understand if they threatened expulsion after the “wear red” thing or if something happened off school property, like far off, not just a foot. But yeah I wish her messaging was more consistent with “be who you are” and “get rid of the classist high school system” rather than “stick it to the teachers and principal, they suck and take away your ipods!”

As for the other characters, they’re just kind of annoying, they try to be funny but they’re just cringey and the writers/director are clearly out of touch with how high school kids really act. (I hate the best friend character so much) And the PARENTS! Let’s talk about the parents for a second! Not only does Tara condone disrespecting your teachers in the name of...freedom? but her parents are all for it! Even when Tara was actually worried about getting expelled. Her mom was literally “I don’t careee you’re giving people a voice at the cost of your high school permanent record and college acceptances!” When her dad walks into the studio one day and was like “hey not cool to use the slam name to throw an unauthorized party at your school” “but I’m giving them a voice” “oh okay then carry on!”.

Ok, I GET what the message of the movie was trying to be. Well actually I don’t now that I think about it. But obviously it was all good intentions. Like all the stuff about being your true authentic self but also not being different from your classmates....? Like I really think they needed to stick with one message and stay in that lane, because it gets too confusing that way. But anyway, I GET what they were trying to go for, it just failed miserably. That was the movie’s main problem. It wanted to connect with high school teens on a deeper level and 1. It didn’t know what avenue to take so it took all of them, and 2. It ended up being the least relatable thing on television.

Basically, it’s like everyone is in another dimension where normal people don’t exist. It’s all these crazy wacky over the top characters in a place where no one cares about school. Only social status and fame. Even the parents agree. But oh noooo that mean ol’ principal, who yes was also a mustache twisty villain, took my iPod and now it’s revenge time. Like okay Stacy was the true villain here, she manipulated everybody, including the principal, into doing what she wanted. But no it’s all the principal’s fault because she’s the authority! And you’re made to hate her because she says evil stuff. This movie was just all over the place and didn’t know what to do with itself. So this review is also all over the place because of it.

Maybe it’s because I’ve officially grown out of the new movies. Maybe if I was younger I would have liked this movie a lot more. Maybe I’m biased because I watched a few other reviews before posting this one. I don’t know. But I think this movie has a lot more wrong with it that just being cringey. I now expect most of not all the future DCOMS to be at least a little cringey just because they are being made for a new generation. It’s sad, but at least it will be over soon!

Okay grade time! I honestly don’t know if I want to give this a minus or not. Like I said, this was bad but kind of a hilarious bad. Like it’s still somewhat entertaining but in a bad way. It kept my attention at least. So maybe I’ll stick with a regular C on this one. I feel like I should give it a D but I don’t know....I feel weird because the movie obviously had a big ish budget for a DCOM I feel like, so the movie LOOKS fine. Agghhhh. But yeah if I’m struggling to find one or two good things about this movie, maybe I should put it at a D level. Hmmm would I rather watch this or den brother....? Definitely this! So wherever it goes, it’s going above that for sure.

Sighhh ranking these is going to be harder than I thought...but it is what it is! I have no idea what the next movie is, I didn’t check the list, so it will be a surprise! See ya then! Hope I post this review in a somewhat timely manner...

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the-desolated-quill · 7 years ago

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The Vulcan Hello - Star Trek: Discovery blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Well here I go. Boldly going where I’ve never gone before. My first ever Star Trek experience.

I can’t honestly say why Star Trek never really appealed to me before. I guess it’s because I’ve always associated it with being cheap and tacky. Some of its more hardcore fans might have put me off as well. There are some that love the show so much that they’ve actually learnt how to speak Klingon and stuff, which is what perpetuated the nerd stereotype and the perception that liking Star Trek is synonymous with being a loser. Or at least that was my understanding of it growing up. It wasn’t cool to like Star Trek in my neighbourhood.

Of course nowadays sci-fi and other areas of geekdom have become more mainstream, and when I heard about a new Star Trek TV series boasting both gender and ethnic diversity, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give Star Trek: Discovery a go just to see what all the fuss is about.

One episode in… and I’m hooked! OMG! Bryan Fuller, Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman, I could bloody kiss you! I love it! I LOVE IT!

I must confess I didn’t think this was going to be very good during the first minute where we see these weird troll looking people with ridiculously large foreheads speaking OTT gibberish. I was getting ready to mock and snigger until the episode suddenly shifts to Sonequa Martin-Green and Michelle Yeoh walking across a desert planet, at which point my jaw hit the floor in amazement. It looks gorgeous. In fact the entire episode is visually breathtaking. The Federation spaceship, the binary star system, the Vulcan VR bubble thingies, the Klingon spaceship, they all look fucking incredible. I couldn’t believe this was a TV show. It looks like something out of a big budget movie.

It also helps that the writing is extremely good too. They waste no time in introducing newcomers like myself to this universe and absorbing us completely into the story, to the point where upon returning to the large foreheaded Klingons and their gibberish language, I was actually starting to take them seriously and becoming fascinated by their culture and history. But more on that later.

By far my favourite thing about The Vulcan Hello are the three main leads and their interactions with each other. First there’s Captain Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh. I really like her playfulness and witty behaviour, but at the same time she commands absolute authority. Yeoh is extremely impressive, being able to switch from light to dark effortlessly. The look on her face when she points that gun at Michael was incredibly intimidating. You have no trouble buying why she’s the leader.

Then there’s Saru, played by Doug Jones. The overly cautious and at times sarcastic Science Officer. At first glance he seems to be the no nonsense, voice of reason on the ship, but there’s a lot more to it than that. He’s at times prone to cowardice, but never to the point where he becomes annoying or counter-productive, and I love his little spats with Michael as they both subtly try to one up each other. He’s a very charming character that I can’t wait to learn more about.

And of course there’s Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, who is by far the most intriguing and is clearly going to be the main focus of the show. What I find most refreshing about her as a protagonist is how demilitarised she is, if that makes sense. When we normally see quote/unquote ‘strong female characters,’ they’re normally these gun wielding badasses with no empathy whatsoever. Michael, however, is allowed to be compassionate. She’s clearly fascinated by the lives and cultures of other aliens and derives great pleasure and excitement from exploring space and visiting different worlds. Her empathy is established early on as her most defining character trait, made even stronger when we learn that her family were killed by the Klingons. She doesn’t let her history cloud her judgement when she interacts with other aliens or when she spots the UO, chastising Saru for making hasty assumptions about the potential threat. What makes this even more interesting is that she was adopted and raised by Vulcans (who as far as I can tell are these sort of emotionless space elves). Her adopted dad appears somewhat disappointed in her and her empathetic side due to him perceiving empathy as a weakness, but she’s very quick to rebuke this, saying that her emotions inform her logic. She’s a caring and compassionate individual, and is clearly proud of that fact, seeing her empathy as a strength that helps her to do her job. Clearly the dichotomy between Vulcan logic and human empathy is something that will continue to be explored over the course of this series, and I look forward to it immensely.

The relationships between the three are extremely well written and well performed. They feel like real people and I became invested in them almost instantly. I really wanted to spend time with them and get to know them, and its this emotional connection with the characters that helps to fuel the tension in The Vulcan Hello. Which brings us to the Klingons.

Once you get past the silly gibberish and foreheads, they’re really interesting too. The show really goes out of its way to make them as alien as possible. Whereas the Vulcans and Saru are relatable to varying degrees, the Klingons are utterly divorced from anything we could identify with, which is part of their intrigue. The language, the culture, the designs of their spaceships and their armour are all distinctly alien, effectively creating a ‘them and us’ scenario. Even the funeral for their torchbearer plays into this. A spaceship covered in coffins is an incredibly striking image that’s both morbidly dark and distinctly odd. (I presume if Vulcans are like space elves, then the Klingons are the space orcs). It’s not clear why the Klingons hate the Federation, but the writers do a really good job showing us the divide between the two sides and how the differences in their respective development and evolution have perhaps fuelled this underlying animosity between them.

There’s a lot to like about The Vulcan Hello, but what elevates it from a good episode to a great one for me is how it takes what could have been a simple good vs evil plot and turns it into a nail biting confrontation with potentially devastating consequences.

When Michael kills the torchbearer, she effectively creates a diplomatic incident, culminating in a cold war scenario where the Klingons are poised to invade Federation space. Philippa knows full well she doesn’t stand a chance against them in a fight because they would just overwhelm her, but at the same time the Klingons are so aggressive and hostile that diplomacy is not really an option. Neither is retreat because it would just give the Klingons a clear path. This is about as tense as it’s possible to get, but then it gets even more tense when Michael suggests firing the first shot, citing an incident where a Vulcan ship was destroyed by the Klingons and since then the Vulcans always fired first in order to command respect from their adversaries. There’s a certain logic to it if you squint hard enough, but naturally Michael’s colleagues aren’t too keen on this idea. The other options aren’t exactly ideal, but firing the first shot in the hopes that they’ll tiptoe respectfully away seems practically suicidal. It’s a great scenario because there’s no clear solution presenting itself, and while you want to side with Michael because she’s so damn likeable, it’s hard to shake off the barminess of her idea. And then things spiral further into chaos when Michael commits mutiny, knocking Philippa unconscious, in a desperate bid to save everyone. It’s hard to tell what’s driving Michael at this stage. Her determination and insistence that she’s in the right or her own emotional baggage regarding the Klingons. It’s so gripping you would have needed a crowbar to prise me away from the screen. When the episode ended on a cliffhanger, I swore very loudly in response because I was desperate to know what happened next. That’s how engaged I was.

The Vulcan Hello is the perfect way to start a series. The production values are staggering, the characters are all interesting and likeable, the actors bring them to life effortlessly, and the writing is absolutely impeccable. I loved every single second of this and now I’m going to abruptly end this review so I can watch Episode 2. Bye :D

#the vulcan hello #star trek: discovery #star trek #cbs all access #netflix #review #spoilers

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jackintheponeyofdiamonds · 8 years ago

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✧ Apprentice asks ✧

So I’ve found this a m a z i n g Arcana Apprentice Ask Meme created by @gooddoctorjules and ofc i had to fill it because i like to talk about my OCs and omg this questions were so GOOD! Answers under cut cause some of them were pretty long

1. What is their full name? What does it mean? Do they go by any nicknames/aliases?

His name is Morpheus Rhiannon. “Morpheus” is the Greek God of Dreams and “Rhiannon” is one of the Celtic Goddesses of the Moon (I have a thing for naming characters after mythological figures). When he was younger people used to call him “stormy” due to his spitfire personality and impulsive behavior. He didn’t change his ways, but he lost touch with the people who nicknamed him that. During some years he ran his exoteric shop under a pseudonym, “Felis” (named after the cat constellation). But nowadays everyone just call him Morpheus.

2. Do they have a familiar? What is it?

Morpheus has a small Egyptian Fruit Bat called Boo. She is tiny and scared of everything and everyone. Boo likes to hide in Morpheus scarf sometimes. Also, not a familiar but Morpheus has a lot of cactuses. All named George. All. Of. Them. Don’t question it.

3. What type/s of magic do they specialize in?

I’m not really sure how magic works in The Arcana. Besides from fortune-telling (he used to read runes before Asra taught him his tarot skills) and a very strong sixth sense, I believe Morpheus would be an Oneiromancer (a mage who interprets dreams) and have a few lightning-related attack spells.

4. Which of the major arcana best represents them?

I guess all the apprentices are meant to be The Fool card, at least in the beginning of the story, since it means, among other things, “Set forth on a new journey, one that is completely unknown and will take you to uncharted territories”, pretty fitting. But I think Morpheus can also be represented by a Reversed Moon card: It means he’s living in a moment of unhappiness and discomfort but he doesn’t know what he can do about it. Past experiences made him doubt himself, doubt if he is able to move forward. The Reversed Moon also means he is in a more intuitive phase than a reasoned one, though his intuition feels confusing which leads to possible misinterpretation.

Also, if I had to pick a future card for Morpheus, it’d be The Judgement: “With its theme of awakening to new life, the Judgement card suggests that you have reviewed and evaluated your past experiences and have learned from them. All the pieces of the puzzle of your life are finally coming together to form one, integrated picture of your life story. This integration has healed any deep wounds and you are now in a position to put the past behind you.”

And since I’m super into runes, I’d like to add that Morpheus runes are Perthro (Secrets, mystery, occult abilities. Determining your path in the future.) and Algiz (Awakening, connection with higher powers. Follow your intuition. A desire to protect yourself or others.)

5. What animal best represents them?

Either a raccoon or a peacock. Raccoon because he is small (kinda, he is 5’7/171cm), has dark circles under his eyes, looks cute but will fight you and peacock because he’s super flamboyant. As for his spirit animal, I think the one that fits him best is the bat (maybe that’s why he has a pet bat). The bat represents people that are aware and sensitive of their surroundings, that can have high psychic levels, have high chances of have prophetic dreams and are not easily fooled by illusions.

6. Describe their grimoire profile.

The spitfire apprentice who’s trying to find meaning to his life. ♐

✧Favorite food: Plum Pie ✧Favorite drink: Iced Tea

✧Favorite flower: Night-blooming jasmine

7. What is their Myers-Briggs type?

INTP – (Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, Perceiving)

8. What is their natural alignment (lawful/neutral/chaotic good/neutral/evil)?

Chaotic Neutral leaning towards Chaotic Good.

9. Which Hogwarts house would they be in?

Probably Slytherin. Morpheus personality is loosely based on mine, and I’m a slytherin, so…

10. Of the nine intelligences (logical-mathematical, existential, interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic, spatial, naturalist, musical, linguistic), which is their greatest strength? Their greatest weakness?

In order of the greatest strength to the weakness: Linguistic, Spatial, Existential, Musical, Naturalist, Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Logical-Mathematical, Intrapersonal.

Basically he is great at writing, loves books and sucks at understanding his own feelings.

11. What did they think of Asra leaving? Of his gift?

Morpheus relationship with Asra is… complicated, as the baker said. Morpheus likes Asra, he really enjoys his company. But every time he feels they are getting closer, Asra leaves. In the beginning, he didn’t mind the secrecy around Asra’s travels but as the time passed, it started to bother Morpheus. A lot. He doesn’t understand why his master doesn’t trust him after all this time. So when Asra said he was leaving again, Morpheus got really pissed. About the gift, well… It’s not like Morpheus wasn’t marveled by the tarot deck but his sixth sense tells him that cards are trouble. He didn’t really want to accept the deck, he doesn’t need it, he can very well use his runes for guidance. Plus, the fact that it’s the first time Asra leaves that bloody cards behind is suspicious.

12. What do they think of Nadia’s request that they go to the palace?

First of all, Morpheus doesn’t like Countess Nadia at all. He thinks she is tyrant who doesn’t care about her people. So when she shows up in the middle of the night demanding that he goes to the palace his first thoughts are “Who does she think she is? I mean she is the Countess and all but still??”. He was planning in ignoring her request, but after the card telling him she has a plan in motion he got curious about it and decided to give it a chance. When he actually went to the palace and heard what Nadia had in mind he was like “Nope. I don’t want to be a part of it. Nonononono NO”. However, even though Morpheus made it very clear he wouldn’t cooperate with the Countess, she didn’t really care, so… yeah. Let’s just say “curiosity killed the cat” is a very fitting proverb.

13. What do they think of the various animals they encounter at the palace?

MUST. PET. THEM. ALL. Yes, even the vampire eels. Seriously now, Morpheus really like animals, but knows how to respect them. He has plenty conscience that some creatures are only to be admired from a distance, which seems to be the case with most of the animals he encountered in the palace, unfortunately.

14. What is their day-to-day outfit? What do they wear when the dress up (such as for the masquerade)?

In his day-to-day Morpheus likes to wear comfortable clothes, usually tapered harem pants and a tunic or a gypsy shirt, with flats on his shoes. His clothes are mostly in shades of purple and black, with some sea-green accessory. In a fancier meeting, he’ll go more flamboyant. The pants would be less baggy, the shirt would be more open with the classic Arcana Tiddy Window™ and he’d probably wear a shawl around his waist. He would wear lace-up boots with a short heel. The color palette would be the same but more sparkly. In his head he’ll use a silver circlet, and some bracelets with fake coins. As for the masquerade, I picture him with a very open dark red shirt, which pretty much just covers his shoulders and arms, matching colors with an asymmetrical sarong skirt, over the shirt and skirt he wears a purple corset with some jades decorating it. Bellow the shirt he wears a light brownish flare pants. As for shoes, he wears bright red ankle strap high heels. And last, but not least, he wears a bright red choker on his neck, to match the shoes.

15. What is their favorite type of weather/environment?

Morpheus likes cold and rainy weather. He hates when it gets too hot, it makes him grumpy and even lazier than he usually is. Also the earthy smell after the rain reminds him of home.

16. Do they have any prized possessions?

Even though Morpheus is not the type to get attached to things, he has two very prized possessions. One is a small and rusty green dream-catcher with a single agate stone stuck in the middle. When Morpheus was younger he had terrible nightmares every night, he’d wake up screaming and crying and had a really hard time going back to sleep. So his mother made that dream-catcher to help him out. He never find out if it was actually enchanted at that time or it just helped ease Morpheus mind. The second thing is his set of runes. His older brother made it to him out of red wood once they started noticing Morpheus had a gift for fortune telling. Morpheus used those runes to read the fortune to some people in his home-town, earning a few extra coins for his family. Nowadays he uses another set, made of tourmaline stones, but every time he needs guidance to himself, he runs back to his old redwood runes. 17. Do they collect anything?

Yes, he collects cactuses, heartbreaks, and untrustworthy friendships.

18. What sort of first impression do they make?

Looks wise most people mistake him for a woman. Not that he minds, he’s fine with it. Morpheus has a very androgynous face, wears quite feminine clothes and a lot of make-up, so it’s easy to get confused. Now, about his personality, people often think he is cocky, they think Morpheus thinks he is better than anyone else. This is totally not the case. Morpheus is quite shy, so sometimes his answers may sound a bit cocky due to being short. I mean, he can be sassy sometimes and talk without thinking but he usually tries to be nice with strangers and costumers.

19. How do they deal with conflict?

He throws bottles at them. Morpheus is extremely impulsive, he acts before he thinks, and it applies to conflict as well. When it’s a physical conflict, he’ll attack even if the odds of him winning the fight are very unlikely. I mean, he did throw a bottle at Julian even though the doctor is like 17cm/3inches taller than him. In verbal conflict, he says everything that comes to his mind without paying much attention to what he’s actually saying, which may ended up being more harmful than he intended or, sometimes, he may accidentally let information slip. 20. What are their principal goals?

Morpheus believes that everyone comes to the world for a reason; everyone has one meaning in life. He just doesn’t know what his reason and meaning are. He wants to figure out what is his role in the world.

#the arcana game #fan apprentice #gooddoctorjules #hel writes stuff

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i-want-my-iwtv · 8 years ago

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I've been trying to read the whole vc series, but school and work just keep preventing me from getting really far! Is it ok to ask you to write a little summary for each book so I can catch up with the fandom until I have the time to read them all thoroughly?

Yeah, I understand, time is limited :P

I don’t know that summarizing VC will allow you to “catch up” with the fandom, you really only need to read the first 3 books and the Vampire Armand to get most of the jokes on tumblr, bc most of the jokes seem to center around:

Louis being a pyromaniac,

Lestat being an obnoxious but somehow lovable glittery murder machine,

Lestat and Louis being awesome and shitty murder dads,

Claudia being an ungrateful spoiled brat,

Armand being a little brat, or a slut, or an evul coven master, or all of the above,

Daniel Molloy just wanting to vampire plz!!!11!,

Marius being a pedo, or too bossy, or both,

Gabrielle is a bad mom and an ice queen,

Nicolas is spelled NICOLAS and he is NOT DEAD!,

Secondary characters not getting enough love from anyone!!

There are often spoilers in summaries tho, do you really want to be spoiled? I LOVE being spoiled.

We have these unreliable narrators, there is a lot of disagreement as to what canon really is, and some fans choose to ignore parts of (or entire books) in the series. We bring our own experiences to the reading, and we choose what to connect with, so I think we can agree on some things about each book, but you will probably get a different summary from any given reader. Even AR has told us to disregard the hybrid Mayfair/VC books (Blood Canticle, possibly Merrick and Blackwood Farm) when moving onto the more recent VC additions (PL and PLROA). So, for example, I have a friend who has only read the first 3 books. She doesn’t even know what happens after that bc she prefers to think it ended after QOTD. So any new vampires made after QOTD do not exist to her. #Your headcanon may vary.

Anyway, you want summaries.

http://vampirechronicles.wikia.com has a pretty good write-up for each of the books (they don’t have PL and PLROA currently, maybe they will eventually). It contains spoilers.

@vraik has thorough VC analysis in their series called The Consulting Analyst over on vraikaiser.com. Spoilers there, too.

@hyperbeeb‘s capsule reviews are pretty gr9 [X]:

Lestat’s Adventures with a Progressive Family

Lestat’s Bisexual Adventures in 18th Century France

Lestat’s Adventures with the Queen of the Vampires

Lestat’s Adventures as a Human

Lestat’s Adventures with Satan

Lestat’s Adventures in a Coma

Lestat’s Adventures with Polyamory

Lestat’s Adventures in the Deep South

Lestat’s Adventures with Not Being There At All

Lestat’s Adventures with Witches and Other Weird Shit

Lestat’s adventures with Being the Vampire Head of State

Lestat’s Adventures with Literal Fucking Aliens

(Note, Pandora and Vittorio are technically stand-alone “New Tales of the Vampires” books, but Pandora would be No. 6 of the 13 book series).

You can check my #VC Synopsis tag, which has more capsule humorous summaries.

Gonna try to do a little summary for each VC under the cut as a personal challenge.

Spoilers ahead! I’ll try to do this with as few spoilers as possible, as factually as possible.

1. Interview with the Vampire - Louis tells the story of his life and unlife to Daniel Molloy. Louis starts at the point in his mortal life just before he meets Lestat, and how his life up until that meeting influenced the unlife that followed after he became a vampire. Lestat’s reasons for choosing Louis are unclear to Louis, but he wants Louis to choose to be a vampire. Louis is under so much duress (failing health, still in emotional distress over his guilt re: a close family member’s death) that the choice is not 100% legit, Lestat can’t wait for a more opportune time and proceeds to turn Louis anyway.

The whole story could be seen as Anne Rice’s exploration of the role of religion and the reasons why terrible things happen to innocent people, the concept of punishment.

For me, it was also eye-opening bc I was 11 when I read it and it introduced the possibility of love between a same-sex couple, even if that was in more of a read-between-the-lines way.

It also has a child vampire and I hadn’t seen any media even attempt to tell a story with a child vampire before. Few media that attempt it seem to have captured the beauty and tragedy of such a creature as in this story, and she reappears in a few of the other VC. Unreliable Narrator thing that continues throughout the series.

^ok that was too long, I’m going for shorter.

2. The Vampire Lestat - Lestat seeks to “correct the record” that Louis laid out in IWTV by giving us his own backstory, starting at his mortal youth and how that influenced the unlife that followed when he became a vampire, against his will (hence the “I’m going to give you the choice I never had,” line from movie!IWTV). There is more exploration in the role of religion and reasons why bad things happen to basically innocent people, and whether you really can make the best of a shitty situation or just give up. More about punishment. A very unique take on the origin of the vampires as a species is revealed. And the reasons why Lestat behaved the way he did (basically all secretive) in IWTV. Unreliable Narrator thing that continues throughout the series, who are we to believe? Lestat or Louis? And the author’s retconning which is perceived as “making excuses later in canon for behavior that’s already happened.” Some readers really despise this. Personally, I like having the options and trusting one version of events, or none of them.

3. The Queen of the Damned - Lestat’s modern-era rock career wakes the Queen of the Vampires and she has this awesome Radical Feminist idea for world peace. She’s already gotten started on it! She upgrades Lestat physically so that he can help her accomplish her goals, but he’s not really on board. They meet with the vampires she has allowed to survive her purge and it doesn’t go very well. Also in this book, we have different narrators, more about the vampire origin story, and the Armand/Daniel ship is sailing at its best here.

4. The Tale of the Body Thief - Having suffered so much through the past 3 books, Lestat is a suicidal hamburger-brained moron and makes some very bad choices. Despite everyone advising him NOT to, Lestat makes a terrible trade with a body thief and learns quickly that he had idealized being human. He does some horrendous stuff, and wants off the Being Human ride. He has one friend who helps him set things back to the way they should be, and then he betrays that friend in a spectacularly cruel way. More importantly, Lestat also gets a wonderful cuddly doggo.

5. Memnoch the Devil - Lestat Goes to Heaven and Hell, meets Jesus Christ, meets God, meets Satan (who prefers to go by “Memnoch”) it’s all a huge interview process to decide if Lestat might work for God or Satan and it’s basically fanfic of the Bible. Some people hated it for those reasons. I found it really intriguing, bc it presents a reason why God created the earth, and why there’s suffering, why God allows suffering to go on, and where religion comes from. Like Lestat, Memnoch says he’s not the antagonist, but really the good guy in all this. When Dorothy gets back to Kansas Lestat returns to earth, there is disagreement about whether he went on a real trip or he was just fooled by a really talented spirit. Lestat is so confused that he throws a huge tantrum and then gets solitary confinement, then slips into a coma.

6. The Vampire Armand - Armand gets his spotlight and gets to really tell his story, do we believe everything he tells us? Lots of good Italy times stuff. Armand visits Lestat in his coma-state, and talks about that, too.

7. Merrick - Merrick is a Mayfair witch in NOLA who bewitches Louis in pursuit of his request for closure with Claudia, and hilarity ensues. Louis gets the most screentime he’s had since IWTV, but the whole book is told from a 3rd wheel’s POV, it would have been so much better from Louis’ or Merrick’s POV. Major fatal thing happens but fortunately Lestat wakes up from his coma in time to save the day.

8. Blood and Gold - Marius tells his story, as does the vampire Thorne tell his own story. Marius talks about his artistic influences and his experience with the early Talamasca and Santino and the Children of Satan. We see Daniel (now living with Marius) under a kind of spell, which Marius says is temporary.

9. Blackwood Farm - Lestat goes to the Deep South and hears the story of vampire Quinn (his story defies summary) and, with Merrick’s help, saves the day.

10. Blood Canticle - More vampire and Mayfair mixing. And Taltos. It’s a very big WTF book. But it has some very funny scenes and lines in it. It ends with Lestat promising the Dark Gift to someone.

11. Prince Lestat - Vampire scientists. A clone. Someone gets kidnapped. Ultimate Vampire Coven Gathering. Lestat is cranky, saves the day anyway. Ghosts apparently can linger on earth after death and make bodies for themselves. Characters from past books reappear. New characters are introduced. Louis writes a chapter about how OK fine, he does love Lestat. FINE.

12. Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis - I haven’t finished this but basically… the REAL vampire origin story, and it involves bird-like aliens, who were sent to earth bc the aliens feed on the suffering of mortals. The bird-like aliens didnt want to create Atlantis. in fact they were pissed because this one creature of theirs, Amel, made Atlantis with the Luracastria (i dunno i think thats how it’s spelled) and their viewing tech couldn’t see through the material. Amel made Atlantis to spite the bird-like aliens omg i cant believe im typing this. Louis and Lestat finally have some legit canon cuddletimes.

- Pandora - the story of the vampire Pandora, and why Marius is bad at relationships. Lots of good Roman times stuff.

- Vittorio - is not a VC vampire, and wants nothing to do with that dysfunctional pile of fanged crazies. @monstersinthecosmos and @vittoriathevampire could give you a better summary of that one, since I didn’t absorb it too well :P

#Anonymous #anon #ask #vc synopsis #always reblog vc synopsis #vc #vampire chronicles #iwantmyiwtv headcanon #iwantmyiwtv has opinions #your headcanon may vary #hyperbeeb #vraik #monstersinthecosmos #vittoriathevampire #Unreliable Narrator #retcon #spoilers #princelestat #princelestatspoilers

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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Twilight Turns Ten: What the Response to a Hit Franchise Tells Us About Who’s Allowed to be a Tastemaker

Ten years ago, the world was deep in the grip of a new film obsession called “Twilight,” released on November 21, 2008.

While the four-book series by Stephenie Meyer about the romance between a human teenager and a vampire was already extremely popular with its audience of teenage girls (and at times older women who were affectionately called “Twimoms”), the film opened it up to as-yet-untapped fans. With the good looks of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart gazing out from posters, the “Twilight” universe multiplied its fanbase tenfold.

Which also, naturally, opened up the fandom to as-yet unprecedented levels of hate. The book series had attracted some ire but mostly flown under the radar, whereas the worldwide, mainstream obsession with “Twilight” that followed the film's release attracted more haters than anyone could expect. Of course, this isn’t unusual for hit franchises. The success of "Star Wars," the Marvel universe, and Harry Potter have all taken their fair share of derision for A) not being “real” cinema and B) being grotesquely successful. But the way that “Twilight” is despised is uniquely gendered, with detractors mostly not dismissing it for its poor writing or filmmaking, but because of the teenage, largely female fans who propelled it past mere hit and into obsession.

“Twilight” was mostly criticized for one of two things: not being scary enough and not being sexy enough. It was almost forgotten that this film was aimed at tween-to-teenage girls, and was about young, female desire; crushes, lust and the fear of unprotected sex. It didn’t have to be horrific. It did exactly what it intended to: give teen girls someone to swoon over, a female lead to see themselves in, and a fantasy to get lost in that ultimately is safer than actually talking to a boy in real life.

The very concept of “Twilight” seemed to offend some critics. Manohla Dargis' review in the New York Times barely managed to contain its disregard, even discussing Bella’s inner monologue like so: “oh-so-confusing feelings, like, OMG he’s SO HOT!! Does he like ME?? Will he KILL me??? I don’t CARE!!! :)” It’s a barely concealed, vaguely misogynistic jab at Bella’s teenage feminine desire and the way that girls allegedly speak.

Empire’s Will Lawrence was more fair, but did call it “a sometimes girlie swirl of obsession”; Rafer Guzman said in Newsday that "Twilight" “seems best left to its impressionable teenage fans”; Edward Douglas for ShockTillYouDrop.com said it was “catering to the gooey-eyed fans of Meyer's novels and their unrealistic romantic expectations”; and many of the other reviews collated on Rotten Tomatoes mention the teenage fans disparagingly, with many others peppering in a "LOL." Only Roger Ebert appeared to discuss the fans without derision in his review, saying “'Twilight' will mesmerize its target audience, 16-year-old girls” and closing with “I understand who 'Twilight' appeals to, and it sure will.” His review shows that he understands that “Twilight” is not for him, but that he respects the people it is for.

“Twilight” started one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time; the books and the film series have made Stephenie Meyer millions. It ushered in a new era for fandom, with fans battling it out between themselves as members of Team Edward or Team Jacob. “Twilight” was, by all accounts, an incredibly fruitful and beloved franchise—a success. But throughout the reviews, and throughout popular opinion, the vitriol directed at those fans indicates that its fans are not only wrong to love “Twilight,” but that their obsession is somehow dangerous. Their love, essentially, means nothing—because they are brainless consumers powered only by their hormones, not valued tastemakers.

But it wasn’t just the reviewers who hated “Twilight.” Even star Kristen Stewart actively tried to separate herself from the series to become a more “serious” actress; Robert Pattinson often laughs about it in interviews, going as far as to say that were he not in “Twilight,” he would “mindlessly hate it.” At the time of the film’s release, there were entire communities dedicated to tearing apart “Twilight” as avidly, if not more so, than its perceived “obsessive” fans; anti-fans called it “Twatlight” and its fans “Twitards.” They read the books and watch the films, if only to go online and mock the series. They go as far as to produce their own fan fiction; such as New Moan: The First Book in the Twishite Saga, a parody rewrite of Twilight, and videos and memes online such as "Twilight" in 15 Minutes and Buffy vs Edward, putting obsessive effort into their hatred. Stephen King even called “Twilight” “tweenager porn,” further legitimizing the idea that teenage girls cannot be tastemakers. The public assumption that “Twilight is bad” served only to reinforce the idea that teenage girls are stupid and it’s OK to laugh at their interests. In the late 2000s, hatred of “Twilight” became a public performance of othering; you were either stupid for liking it, or smart for hating it. There was no in-between.

The fever surrounding “Twilight” was akin to the one surrounding Fifty Shades of Grey in 2012, as was the vitriolic hatred. The audience was slightly different; Grey, originally a Twilight fan fiction, appealed to an older audience. But both deal directly with the awakening of female desire and were feverishly adored by women. But instead of stepping away and saying, “this is not meant for me,” in both instances, detractors went public with their hatred.

This is not something seen in media for boys that is frivolous or full of plot holes or poorly written. Huge franchises like "Star Wars" or "The Avengers," which are also designed mostly for male teens, are perfectly acceptable media for adults to consume and pick apart critically. But when a new Marvel film is released, even when it is poorly reviewed, there is nothing near the level of public takedown that “Twilight” attracted. Mediocre, even bad, films for men and boys are allowed to be enjoyed as disposable entertainment or at least fade into obscurity.

That is not to say “Twilight” is perfect. Its lack of diversity, its absence of a sense of humor about itself, and its monochrome brooding make it both anachronistic and unwatchable for many. The film's treatment of female desire, its message being that abstinence is the only way to not get killed, is perhaps even dangerous for young women to watch. And Edward’s choice to attend high school as a man of over a hundred years old is nothing short of creepy, especially in a post-#MeToo era. But it offered something to a generation of teenage girls: an outlet for their burgeoning desires, a way of understanding the world, a heroine as plain and quiet as they felt. It seems strange that outlet is through a film that seems to be a rally cry for abstinence, but still. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” despite being critically acclaimed, tells women that bad things will happen if they have sex with vampires, too.

That isn’t to say, either, that we can’t say we don’t like films aimed at women and girls. But we need to think of a few things first: Why do we hate it? Because other people love it? Because its content is twee, or romantic, or campy, or anything else associated with young women? Were this a film aimed at men but similarly poorly written with campy acting, would we feel so much hate? It isn’t that people hated “Twilight”—it’s the gendered nature and language of that hatred.

“Twilight” is but a blip on the cultural map now, but a punchline still. It serves as a lesson for how we treat female fans, and ten years on, we seem to be making some headway in allowing teen girls to be tastemakers. Their raw, relentless passion doesn’t mean they somehow haven’t dissected their decision to love something: fans can be as smart in their love as any cynic can be in their hate. It’s just a shame nobody realized that when the Twihards were being eviscerated on forums just for purely loving something.

from All Content https://ift.tt/2QXI3BD

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trishgibsontx · 8 years ago

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there is no such thing as rejection — and how to deal with feelings of rejection

photo by Pia Oyarzun

never in my life has there been a person or thing that rejected me and I looked back on it and said “I missed out”. it was more like “omg I dodged a major bullet and now I see how rejection was my protection”. yes — rejection is protection.

let’s back up. my earliest and only memories in life are rejection. this is a blessing and curse. the curse is obvious. the blessing is, I was/am so used to it, that on a daily basis I not only feel but KNOW that I have nothing to lose. nothing. if you start at the bottom, where else is there to go that is worse? kids were pretty much nasty to me, mostly because I was carrying around this energy signature that was so loud that echoed abuse, criticism and rejection. this is how life works – we repeat what we have experienced over and over again before we can begin and then repeat what we ARE. two very different things. anyhow, there were some ok adolescent kid experiences sprinkled in between, but never once was I actually able to feel them. I was still stuck in a tangible system that told me the complete opposite every day. the ok adolescent kid experiences could have hit me in the face with acceptance and I wouldn’t have felt it anyway. I was pretty much fucked.

by the end of high school, I had been deemed attractive by society’s standards for like a few years. maybe starting at 15 or 16. I remember thinking, what a crock of shit that these people and boys are so nice to me because of how I am looking. but that’s human nature for you. on a superficial level, I obviously kind of fit in. but not fully. I hated that it took something so superficial to make people be nice (this, by the way, is why I hid my photo and full name from my healing practice for years! I was testing people perhaps! I wanted to be liked for ME — and the best way I knew to do that was through offering them my core/content ONLY, prior to meeting. then basically wearing nearly a burka and dumbing myself down as much as possible when meeting. at least in the earlier days of my healing work). by the time I got to college, however, I was away from all that was — and the doors of actual human acceptance seemed to open to me for the first time ever. I met a ton of people, mainly girls, who just accepted me for who I was. I will never forget my college roommate experience. there I was, in the middle of conservative Boston, and I looked like a bit of a wild child. I wore pink and blue wigs on random, I went clubbing a lot, and nearly all of my adventures included friends who were not from the US. my college roommates were all conservative, nice girls. mostly from the Boston area or places like upstate NY or upstate CT. but the biggest thing for me, that I had never experienced before, was their acceptance. these girls observed my individuality and perhaps many things about me that did not fit the norm in that city at that time, and they simply accepted me. they didn’t question me. they didn’t put me down. when I walked around with my wigs or nearly naked in our apartment or basically just was ME in a way that I know was foreign to them, they just…let me. perhaps my experiences were just SO opposite prior that I am overshooting the mark of gratitude to them. but I can’t help still reeling from the impact these young women had on me — by accepting me for me. that never faded during those years. I am forever grateful. those were formative and crucial years for me, because I got to see the way the world at large saw me: a nice, interesting person with something to offer others. in my mind, at that time, if these very “normal” people were not ostracizing me, maybe there was hope for me after all! I took that feeling, integrated it, and began to run with it…

now the above initial experience with acceptance in this lifetime did not immediately fix all of the inner deficits that I experienced. I am still working on the inner. whatever forms us is what we will work on for the rest of our lives. period. but the above initial experience with acceptance surely taught me about contrast and, generally, the fact that I could fit absolutely anywhere I went. even if all of the next places that I went gave me panic and anxiety at first. which they do, almost all of the time by the way. except my sessions…not even once have I felt that. I guess I know my home

as time went on, during my 20s, I did everything I could to reverse my brainwashing that had affected and crippled so much of my life. I moved to different cities alone, once again experimenting with how the world would see me. I was almost always greeted with open arms. such a different experience to my early life and the town that I had spent it in. there was also a very anchoring experience of bringing the past into each then-new situation so that I could work out the unconscious elements of it. that was and is always the worst. so, as the surface and conscious elements of me were really working themselves out, like I could visibly fit in, there was a lifetime of deeper and unconscious work that would always be the other side of the sword. fine. that’s the way it is for each of us, the particulars simply depending upon our particular luggage in life.

what I began to realize was, just how synchronistic each experience with rejection was for me in term of cleaning up ghosts of the past and the utter defunct programming of the unconscious mind. my unconscious mind was so over having to repeat things from a decade or two earlier, but it was surely working overtime to vomit out the trash. I began to see that nothing about these present unpleasant experiences was present! these present experiences were shades of the past, stuck in the wrong dimension, coming up for review and release. when people tell you “that’s in the past, get over it, move on”, they are full of shit. there is no such thing as just the past. everything is past with present-tense facades or masks. and, if things have not been released and processed from the past, they will stay present always. comments like “get over it, move on” always come from abusive people who want to once again erase your conscious awareness of what is/was. anyhow, I began to see that all I was dealing with in the present tense was not present at all in a tangible emotional sense; that the world did not still see me the way it did when I came into it. I was still looking through an old lens, because that lens was foggy and littered still with the debris from others. this understanding and awareness was a really nice thing for me, because each time the outer world “rejected” me, I was able to see specifically who and what from the past was leaving with that experience! it was not and will never be present tense at all. rather, the past masquerading through the present. so then, what really was this thing called rejection? this thing called rejection was a series of experiences of OTHERS that I had internalized and confused with my own. there was no such thing as rejection! what a novel concept…

I then began to find a system to this whole “rejection” thing. especially in romance. here was the system: anything that I had to make happen was bad for me. yes! anything I have to make happen for me is bad for me. if I am unwilling to see this, I will perceive it as rejection. but it is NOT that. it is the Universe working on my behalf to shuffle away ANYONE or ANYTHING that just does not serve me. it doesn’t make them the devil, it doesn’t even necessarily mean that they are toxic; it just means that there is something much greater for me greater good available and I am missing it because my ego is likely trying to work through yet another shard of the past.

I learned that I can still go after what I want, but that the moment it shows resistance or force versus power, I had better run. sometimes, those things that show resistance or force return as a new thing or person, but that has to be proven and proven hard. usually we are just dealing with an old cycle if we are allowing anything that has resisted us to be in our present life. for example: this one time, years ago, I had a HUGE crush on a guy. he seemed totally perfect for me. he also seemed totally interested. we hung out under mutual pretense and made out a few times. he had recently broken up with a girl he had been with for a long time. I figured perhaps he just needed time to acclimate to dating again so I wanted to give him space. but something was off. he wasn’t pursuing me the way that every other guy I dated pursued me. even if I had been the initial pursuer. I couldn’t put my finger on it, until one night we got super drunk. we had never slept together nor had he tried and I had attributed it to him needing time. lol, most men don’t need time for something like that. anyhow, in a mutually inebriated state, he confessed to me that he was gay. he told me that he was going to continue to date women though, while secretly sleeping with men (this happens a lot, by the way!). I immediately felt held by the Universe. I had stressed over what it was that I wasn’t enough of or xyz for months. none of that was the case. I am glad I didn’t force the issue or pull out a ton of tricks to make this thing work. sometimes, if we force things and don’t listen to the flow, we can end up getting seriously hurt.

another time, there was this job in TV that I really wanted. on paper, I “should have” gotten it. anyway, I was rejected. months later, the show became an utter disaster. other actors I knew on the show who were contracted were miserable beyond belief. the credits didn’t matter anymore. nothing mattered because it was a mess. I remember being at the east river and hearing the news and laughing out loud with thanks for not mixing me up with that “opportunity”. I had not been rejected, I had been protected.

all good things that come to us do so by way of attraction NOT PROMOTION. if we are in a state of force or promotion, we are going to be constantly confusing divine intervention with rejection. if we are in the flow of attraction, we are able to process feelings of rejection and acknowledge that the tangible experience is not actually that. if we are in the flow of attraction, we are able to identify the “current” feeling that is totally out of place with time and space, and tie it back to a VERY OLD experience. if we can even remember. some trauma is so repressed that we repeat the same pattern of perceived rejection over and over and over again. this happens a lot with rape and incest and molestation survivors. but no one is really able to thrive until they remember the incident. this is also known as people who consistently choose unavailable or abusive partners. they are battling unconscious amnesia no doubt.

with my business, it is 100% ATTRACTION versus promotion. like a 12 step program. I don’t need to promote ANYTHING. I live in my truth, I state that truth, and I state what I want. and it shows up. I don’t need to offer groupons or deals or specials. when I began, all I had was an ugly wordpress site in poop brown (not a tech savvy person) and people still called me. I don’t even know how they found me as it was before I had dabbled with ad words or yelp or anything at all. well, actually I do know how they found me — I was living in pure alignment with myself. that pure alignment is the loudest antenna we have to attract what we need/are. so many people don’t get this and they work so hard at surface endeavors to build their brand — when the content is totally missing. by the law of physics this just can never, ever work out.

I want to be clear in saying that I am a big believer in going after what we want in life. we can hunt down that guy or girl and express interest, we can color our business and put it live so that people know where to find it, we can be the loudest expressions of ourselves. but the moment that we feel the pushback — the resistance — the need to force, it’s a wrap. run. run from anything that even appears to run from you. THEN, the Universe will show you the proof of your protection. trust me. I’ve failed and succeeded at that concept hundreds of time.

there is no such thing as rejection.

The post there is no such thing as rejection — and how to deal with feelings of rejection appeared first on The Medical Intuitive Blog: Energy Medicine & Reiki Therapy By Elaine™.

from Trisha Gibson http://www.themedicalintuitiveblog.com/2017/07/29/no-thing-rejection-deal-feelings-rejection/

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thedramafilesblog-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Appearing before the Dramacourt: Man to Man Ep 03

***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***

Issues:

Whether the reason that Cha Do Ha is a crazy fan girl for Woon Gwang is reasonable

Whether a chicken and beer session helps develop a friendship

Whether Woon Gwang is a big baby

Whether hate and revenge really motivate someone to do work

Whether Park Hae Jin is the king of the Stank Face.

The Rule(s):

Not really. We still don’t really get how Woon Gwang really saved her.

Yes! Friendship blossoms over food!

Totally!

It depends.

Yes!

Analysis:

Jubiemon J: I didn’t think this episode was super exciting because it seemed to be more of a build-up to the mission in Russia. This episode was still cute in some ways like how Woon Gwang makes Sulwoo rehearse with him and then Sulwoo gets too invested in his role as the sobbing actress. Although I did like how the writers tried to make us understand why Do Ha would really become this fan girl of Woon Gwang, I wasn’t very convinced at all. So the two did meet at their worst, yet I don’t really see how Woon Gwang really saved her. She was the one that found him drinking at the rooftop, about to commit suicide. Woon Gwang didn’t help pay off her debt or do anything else, at least in her flashback, so I really wasn’t that convinced that he’d lead her to fall for him like an intense stalker.

Trying to get into character like…

When you end up taking your job a little too seriously

Jubiemon J: I’m still enjoying how Sulwoo doesn’t seem to have fallen for Do Ha yet. When he was listening to her story about how Woon Gwang saved her and how Woon Gwang was still fixated over Mieun, Sulwoo only cared about how Mieun could be used to motivate Woo Gwang to work again. I did find it weird how Sulwoo said that Do Ha only cared about compliments after Woon Gwang was acting all playful after seeing Do Ha in the long, white gown at the Russian party. Sulwoo’s expression seemed to be disgusted with how cheesy Woon Gwang was acting, yet he mentioned that line about Do Ha only caring about compliments. I thought that was out of character; perhaps that could be a mistranslation from the English subs, but I’m not sure as I’m not fluent in Korean. I’m hoping that Sulwoo just focuses on the spy mission. No cheesy romances please.

Smexy ;)

When your coworker starts rambling about their personal drama and you have no choice but to listen

RedRosette J: I agree with Jubiemon. I also found two thirds of this episode to be rather boring and uninteresting. But it was necessary to show both the build up to the Russia mission, but also for establishing the backstories of the characters. We were introduced to Woon Gwang’s painful story with Mi Eun, Do Ha’s family backstory, and Woon Gwang and Do Ha’s first meeting. I also appreciate the Sulwoo hasn’t fallen for Do Ha yet, but I think he’s starting to catch the feels. I think this is probably why he got all weird when Do Ha was in the dress and got annoyed by Do Ha and Woon Gwang were being all cringey. To me, Sulwoo saying that Do Ha only cared about compliments, seemed to be more of a slight tinge of jealousy at how she reacted to when Woon Gwang called her beautiful as opposed to her reaction when he said she looked pretty in the dress.

Obligatory makeover scene

RedRosette J: I am starting to find the political backstory a little bit more interesting because it seems to have to do more with secret ledgers hidden in wood carvings or something. It might also be because there was barely any of the political stuff in this episode. LOL! I am starting to also get interested in the Woon Gwang-Mi Eun-Seung Jae connection after we were told of their complicated backstory. From what I can tell, it seems like Mi Eun made a deal with the Intelligence dude that impacted her relationship with Woon Gwang. I kind of have a feeling that because Mi Eun was an actress, Seung Jae might have been obsessed with her and when he found out she was seeing Woon Gwang, he orchestrated this plot to have him killed in a stunt driving ‘accident’ and marry her instead. Maybe. I don’t know. My brain is jumping to all kinds of conclusions based on the little tidbits of information we were given in the flashbacks. The episode really picked up at the end with all the spy stuff coming on full force again with the Russia mission. Let’s be real, we are all here for Park Hae Jin basically playing James Bond, so give us more of that kthanksbye.

This is some cool shit

Girl, your crying isn’t going to solve anything

When things turn out worse than you expected

Trying to be concerned like…

When your demons haunt you at night

Apparently this happened

Having to sleep in a room full of pictures of your boss sounds like hell

This isn’t awkward at all…

This guy is not all stable

Issue 1: Whether the reason that Cha Do Ha is a crazy fan girl for Woon Gwang is reasonable

Jubiemon J: Nope. I really disliked how the drama used the overused scene where the lead girl gets drunk and then starts pouring all her feelings out to someone. Can we cut that out? Can we have different types of drunkards like the sort that just sleeps? I’m so sick of the type that spills out the beans in dramas. I feel like that’s a cheap way out for a character to share their feelings. Even when Do Ha explained how she met Woon Gwang and how she became so drawn to him, I just wasn’t persuaded. I’d get it if Woon Gwang ever explained how he saw her as an important friend because she was the one that persuaded him not to commit suicide. On the other hand, based on how she acted or how the scene was written, I really didn’t feel like there was much of a reason for her to turn into a massive fan girl of Woon Gwang. Perhaps the scene could have been extended more then I’d be more convinced that he was her saviour. At this point, he hasn’t done anything much than be a semi-respectful actor towards her.

RedRosette J: Oddly, I disagree with Jubiemon on this issue. To me, all of sudden Do Ha’s crazy fan girling made sense to me. It seems that Do Ha met Woon Gwang when she was at a desperate time in her life. From the morsels we were given about her past, it seems that she has spent her whole life picking up after her father and barely having a stable figure in her life to lean on. So to me, it seemed like Woon Gwang’s introduction to her life must be something she equates with stability and being able to rely on him (more so in a familial way rather than a romantic one). I think that she might be confusing those feelings for romantic love. She just seems to be someone who is very grateful for Woon Gwang coming into her life when she needed someone the most. From Woon Gwang’s perspective, it seems that he also needed Do Ha to be the person that he could rely on for a fresh start. He seems to care about her really like an older brother and dotes on her like any older brother would on a little sister. I don’t see any romantic intentions on his part either and when the two of them are together, it’s really about the familiarity that comes out. Albeit, this could have been done with far less cringe-inducing behaviour but I really think that comes about with the acting rather than the writing. I also appreciated that Do Ha met Woon Gwang before he became famous making her fan girling a little bit less weird. So, I think that the reasons why Do Ha is his fan girl are reasonable.

First impressions

Making friends like…

When friends become family

When dad calls

Serious brother-sister vibes yo

RedRosette J Aside: But I do agree with Jubiemon that the drunk talking trope really needs to be used less in dramas. There are a variety of interesting drunk behaviours that would serve as excellent comedy fodder!

Not everyone drunk talks

Issue 2: Whether a chicken and beer session helps develop a friendship

RedRosette J: Friendship = sharing food. I totally get how having a beer and eating fried chicken creates a lasting and a beautiful friendship. People talk and socialize over food and drink and this is really the epitome of “chilling with friends”. So, yes, it definitely helps develop friendships.

Jubiemon J: Yup. Anything over food is great for developing some sort of bond. It’s how a lot of businesses happen over the dinner table right? Haha. I did like how there was some bonding scene between them here.

The fast track to becoming bffls

Issue 3: Whether Woon Gwang is a big baby

RedRosette J: OMG this dude is such a freakin baby. Honestly, I don’t think I would last a day as his manager. I would literally lose my sanity over this type of childish behaviour. I think again, the drama is capitalizing on a trope where actors are perceived as difficult, highly emotive and dramatic people who need to be mollycoddled the entire time. It makes for excellent comedy but, I think in reality, this type of behaviour would not be tolerated!

Jubiemon J: Woo Gwang is a huge baby. I totally agree! He is always having some sort of fit. It’s hilarious how he barters with his crew and somehow gets his way. He totally acts irrationally whenever his ex gf is there. He’ll do anything for his pride and he’ll do anything to prove that he’s better than her. Somehow he can’t seem to forgive and forget; I get that she did hurt him but hating someone for all your life isn’t a healthy solution. You’ll probably just get more miserable over time.

Issue 4: Whether hate and revenge really motivate someone to do work

RedRosette J: While I do agree that hate and revenge are very strong motivators, I disagree that they are what entirely motivates people. Faith, hope and love are equally strong motivators. Hate and revenge have very specific motivations and although Sulwoo believes that Woon Gwang is motivated by his hate for Mi-Eun, I really think that he still loves and and that that is what really motivates him. It might be a warped version of love but its love regardless. I don’t think he hates her, I think he might be angry at her for leaving him and all that but hate might be a bit too strong of a word. I think that this also foreshadows how Sulwoo’s beliefs are going to change as the drama progresses. I think he’s going to go from someone who sees hate and revenge as strong motivators to seeing that faith, hope and love can be equally as relevant in getting people to do things.

Jubiemon J: I also agree that hate and revenge could motivate someone to work, but there is also what RedRosette mentioned: faith, hope, and love. I think Woon Gwang doesn’t want to admit that he still loves her, so he disguises his love as “hate”. There’s a thin line between love and hate sometimes and in this case, Woon Gwang still cares about her. For him to show so much disdain towards Mi-Eun proves how much she hurt him. I actually think Sulwoo knows that love can motivate someone too because we’ve seen him manipulate romance in his favour. It’s just at this time, Sulwoo is using Woo Gwang’s anger towards Mi-Eun to get him to attend the Russian party.

There has to be more to this backstory

Issue 5: Whether Park Hae Jin is the king of the Stank Face.

RedRosette J: OH MY GOD. I ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY LOVE PARK HAE JIN’S STANK FACE! People need to make memes of this asap! Internet trolls, I’m talking to you guys! (I would, but I seriously lack the tech skills to do it). At this point, no one in the dramaverse does the Stank Face better than Park Hae Jin. I hope he keeps doing this! He’s absolutely hilarious!

Jubiemon J: I didn’t notice his Stank Face until episode 4 actually! I won’t reveal spoilers of ep 4 here, but from the photos that RedRosette have provided here, I agree that his Stank Face is great. I remember cringing when he also cringed! Hehehe! Great job, Park Hae Jin! He’s totally living up to his role in Bad Guys!

When you don’t believe any of the shit your coworker is saying

When you have to deal with lame work jokes

When they suddenly mention you at a meeting

When you realize that you just got roped into doing something majorly boring

When you just can’t take your coworkers anymore

When your boss starts giving you compliments

When you try to object to your boss’s compliments

When you end up having to take your boss’s compliments

RedRosette J Aside: Also, I’ve decided to do a running count on how many costumes and disguises Jeong Man Shik’s character has in every episode going forward. In this episode, I counted a nurse, deliveryman, pilot and cable guy. This guy is comedy gold!

Conclusion: Appeal Allowed.

Rating: 4 = I’ll Give You A Cookie (Because Park Hae Jin’s Stank Face deserves a cookie. Or three)

Jubiemon dissent: I’d rate this a 3. Though I adore Park Hae Jin’s Stank Face, this episode was not as amazing as the previous two. The Cha Do Ha scenes were still a bore for me. Sorry.

File No: Man-to-Man-Ep-03 Appearing before the Dramacourt: Man to Man Ep 03 ***If this is your first time browsing The Drama Files, please read The Rules section first for our reviewing and rating system***

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