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growingstronglikeahighgardenrose · 4 years ago

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Sanditon Season 2: all the news & my thoughts

So, we're getting not one but two new seasons of Sanditon! After a year of tremendous effort on behalf of the Sanditon sisterhood who kept the fandom alive, we'll be looking at a new season. Although I think the biggest thank you probably goes out to Bridgerton, which showed that romance, regency, a diverse cast and butts are a perfect mix to lure audiences.

I want to take this moment to reflect on what I think we'll win, what we'll lose and what we can expect in the future.

1. No Sidlotte HEA

This is probably the most heartbreaking salty news we could get. But I know Theo James, he likes new projects. And after divergent's disaster, I can't blame the boy for not wanting to hang onto another franchise. As a fanfic writer, although mainly an Esther/Babington one, I broke my head for over a year on how to get Sidlotte together. I had to imagine the grandest schemes to get them together. Tom needed 10 000 pounds in less than a month. Even Babington was probably not worth that much. That's over 6 million in today's money if adjusted to inflation. Regency era's England's top 1-2% made that in a full a year, and most of that is probably in assets and investments. And they don't just get to keep that money, most used a good chunk of it to keep their estates running and to pay their staff. Anyone know someone who has a casual 6 million lying around?

There's only two realistic solutions: either have Eliza die: which would be cruel and take years (unless you kill her in childbirth 9 months in), or create a grand scheme that would take months and see Sidney, Crowe and Babington actively work hard on their 'business' while in the meantime Charlotte, Lady Denham and Lady Susan get everyone including the prince regent to come to Sanditon. I kind of accepted they would have a hard time getting out of that plot twist. It was likely that Sidlotte could not be endgame.

Personally, I never felt a strong connection to Sidlotte, and had hoped that Charlotte, like Jane Bennet, would go to London with Lady Susan to recover from her heartbreak, and I kind of hoped James Stringer would eventually go down there for his apprenticeship, where a sort of Captain Wentworth-like situation would come to exist where he is a young man trying to make something of himself. I know Charlotte didn't love him. But I also knew that Charlotte wanted adventure and perhaps needed to grow as a person. But in the new season she'll probably be a bit jaded, closed off, and depressed. And will probably need a softer more available man. Growing up goes with swinging to extremes. She was an open optimist at the beginning, and eventually turned to the opposite, not letting her emotions shine through and being very guarded (@miss-holly-goes-lightly did a wonderful post on this). Adulthood is finding a good balance again.

So while I am saddened, because this brings along a long set of questions like: "Does Sanditon still take place in Sanditon then?" "Where will Sidney live, will he then live in London with his wife?" "Why doesn't he come help his brother the next season or visit his family, as we know Tom will make a mess of things" The show will have to answer these questions in a believable manner.

2. No Beaufort twins

Mollie Holder said on her instagram that the Beauforts wouldn't be returning. This leads to quite a few questions like: where will Georgiana stay then? What will be happening to Mrs. Griffiths? Will Georgiana be her sole ward while the Beaufort's absence is explained as them having married or having become governesses?

3. Who remains aboard

Rose Williams is definitely on board. It's also pretty certain Tom will be there again. Lady Denham is also likely to return. The child actors and their parents were willing, but worried about their increasing age a few months back. Old Stringer said he'd have loved to be part of Sanditon again and to see it continue, but he's well... dead on the show so he won't return. So who will join Charlotte?

Leo Sutter might not return. He plays an important role in the next spin-off of vikings. Vikings has a new season each year. On top of that he's currently busy recording Gateway 6. We don't know how long that might take. And perhaps by the time filming ends he's required for the next season of the Walhalla series. Leo Sutter is a rising star, he might not even have the time to return. Especially for two seasons. At his age and point in his career, he needs to cement his name, or he'll remain b-list while he has a-list potential. So he might have to give up Sanditon for his career. It's sad, I'd love a Stringer/Charlotte future where they both grow to being suitable for each other while becoming people confident in their own abilities. But in the end, I would be alright with it, as Charlotte didn't express immediate interest in him. Writing him out would also be fairly easy, they could just write that despite thinking he had to stay home after his father's death, he went to London in the end under Charlotte's encouragement. Perhaps he could then come back for a guest appearance.

Crystal Clarke will reprise her role as Georgiana. Clarke has, since Sanditon, spoken out about the sometimes tone-deaf director and scriptwriters. She had to step in a few times to make sure Georgiana was done justice. She also said she hoped Georgiana, if the show was continued, would get the space to breathe and be independent, instead of playing a minor role as token black friend of Charlotte while under the control of Sidney. It will be complex to have her return without involving Sidney, as his character will have to be written out. I imagine this can be done with a timejump, but the timejump would have to be 4 years to make Georgiana 'of age' as she is 17 in the show. They'll probably place her under someone's care while saying Sidney is "still her guardian, but away". Georgiana is, in my opinion, an essential part of Sanditon. Bridgerton showed the world wanted to see diverse faces. Austen wrote a black character as a wealthy and desirable woman. They simply have to do more with her in the future. Clarke will reprise her role, this time with black writers to do justice to her character. I'm excited to see what will be done.

The actor who plays Arthur, Turlough Convery, is a good actor and mostly in period pieces. However he's never overly in demand, and usually stays with shows for multiple seasons. I think he's quite willing to come back and it means Georgiana would have a friend. I also hope they delve into his character, especially after his "I don't think i'll ever get married".

Matthew Needham and Mark Stanley, Crowe and Babington, are Sidney's best friends. It will be hard to have them come back without them explaining why Sidney is never with them. But I believe they would work well as a duo: the drunk and the one braincell are a fun dynamic. Both are not much in demand, despite that I quite like them as actors. So we might see them returning. Their return would also be vital for the return of a few other characters:

Their return would also be vital for the return of a few other characters:

Charlotte Spencer's Esther Denham is married to Babington. Without Babington returning, how can Esther? And vice versa. Their storyline was also the main romance for me and a big part of the last few episodes. They kinda need to return. Babington is also Sanditon's access point to high society. To cash in on Bridgerton's success they should search that royal connection. Babington is friends with the Prince Regent. On top of that he has the most money. If he hosts a party and Charlotte is invited, this is where they get those grand-bridgertonesque scenes.

Lily Sacofsky's Clara had a romantic subplot with Crowe. In their final unaired scene they went to London together. She could return. However, the chances are quite slim. Clara is in London, and Sanditon takes place in Sanditon. Unless Lady Susan takes Charlotte to London for a while and she meets Clara and Edward there, cooking up a plan to get back at Esther and Lady Denham.

4. Predictions

There's no words to describe the popularity of Bridgerton, so this WILL influence Sanditon. I predict: more sex, more scandal, and even more ahistorically modern ideas and characters, multiple female characters and multiple male characters that each get screentime and their separate storylines and developments like in bridgerton, instead of just Charlotte's pov we follow. Glamorous scenes. And more POC.

The season will start with a timejump in all likeliness (as it is easier so they don't have to focus too much on her grieving). Charlotte will catch us up with what has happened while perhaps narrating over some letters she's written to georgiana and lady susan. She'll return to Sanditon during a summer. Sanditon will have been partially rebuilt with Eliza's money, and many activities will be planned. Sanditon will be in some kind of trouble. Charlotte will still be a planner. Her being very actively involved in things and having a vision was one of the most alluring parts of her character. In the books there was a rival town Tom hated. That might be a bit tricky to adapt so they could introduce some local competition for attention around Sanditon. A local duke hosting parties could overshadow tom's events. Or the social season in London could lure everyone there instead of to Sanditon. Charlotte will try to help Tom with this while getting reacquainted with everyone still in Sanditon, and hearing about the reasons why Sidney/Esther/Stringer/The Beauforts (to be seen) aren't in the show anymore. She'll also rebuild her relationship with Georgiana.

Then one day for an event Charlotte will invite Lady Susan, who will invite her to the London season to get over her heartache à la Jane Bennet. Charlotte will join Lady Susan to lure a crowd to Sanditon. There, she'll be confronted with some of her demons of the past season. Perhaps a pregnant Eliza Campion makes an appearance to rub it in Charlotte's face. In Sense & Sensibility Margaret discovered Willoughby's relationship in a most shocking manner in an almost public setting. Sanditon likes to nod at all Austen books so this could be a nod at that book when Charlotte discovers unpleasant news in a public manner. Charlotte will congratulate her and wish them happiness, and afterwards either a girlpower moment could happen with Lady Susan or Georgiana supporting her, or a love moment. Mrs Campion has tried to talk Charlotte down in front of people in the past, if she did it again, a new love interest could step in at that time to compliment her and then take her off for a dance. That could be an emotional moment for her, as she realized her feelings for Sidney in London during a dance the last time around as well. And she could have her cinderella moment by excusing herself and running off after the dance, uncertain of her feelings. She'll have some grand balls, might be harrassed by a man and risk a scandal, or try and prevent Georgiana from ruin during a scandal.

At the last moment she'll succeed in her goal and lure a crowd to Sanditon's events that will put Sanditon on the map. Either the local competitive duke, or someone from London will be impressed with her, but she won't be ready to marry yet. I trust that by the end of the second season, she'll finally have a realisation that she's quite happy with how she's living her life and how good her work is, and that she has finally stopped feeling sad. So the second season will stop with her atop a cliff, letting go of the traumatic loss she suffered on that same cliff a season before. By the end of the season, one or two love interests will be set up for the last season.

So the nudity and big romance will have to come from elsewhere. Georgiana will get more agency and action in the next seasons. She could be trying to tempt Charlotte in joining her adventures as a single wealthy independent woman. She might even leave to find her place in the world via boat, returning to where she was last truly happy: Antigua. The second season could maybe end with Charlotte overlooking Georgiana's boat leaving from the previously mentioned clifftop. Another option is Georgiana falling in love with a local man and taken an interest in the town. Financially speaking, Georgiana could be the only one able to save Sanditon. But I don't think she owes the town anything. Another option is the writers focus on Georgiana navigating her relationship with Otis, who might be back home for a holiday after navy duty. We could also see some political debates à la Poldark S5 about freedom, servitude, independence and so on. The first plan for Georgiana doesn't even have to exclude the second, she could decide to sail away with Otis to find their place in the world. In any case: race shall not be brushed under the carpet and Georgiana will kick some shins on her way to her happy ending. In Jane Austen, we have rarely seen a woman who tried to elope, or escape her guardian, get a happy ending. Georgiana Darcy, Eliza Williams, Eliza's mother, ... they're all tragic tales of women falling for bad guys who try to steal their virtue or take their money. And in the end they always become dependent on men again. I hope in Sanditon Georgiana will learn and grow herself, instead of being coddled by men. A lot could be done.

Esther and Babington could be a very cool insert if the actors join. They can really connect the high society to Sanditon. They could host balls, invest in Sanditon or drive the London plot. But they can also be an emotional backbone to the show. Esther married Babington, but she wasn't in love yet. I'm not a fan of the edward/Esther angle. After all he did, I rather she hated him with burning passion and never spoke to him again. But he could try to blackmail her and ruin her reputation in London. Perhaps become some kind of Lord Whistledown. With Charlotte coming to Esther's aid. Esther's plotline could be about learning to trust people and open her heart again. Perhaps she could have a conflict with Babington about him wanting a family and she still being uneasy with marriage, let alone children. Maybe they could have a fight, with one of them going to London. In their separation they might realize they love each other. And then the other comes back home from London with Charlotte and they fix everything. Another route is them having a fight, Esther going to confront Edward or Clara about their blackmailing or maneouvring. Babington thinks it's because she doesn't love him, but actually it's because she loves Babington and wants to be rid of her past. But she gets into an accident and Babington only realizes the truth later on, leading to a happy ending.

Other things I'd love to see: Mary finally growing a backbone and telling Tom to either be open about his affairs and finances or be gone. Arthur and Diana growing a backbone and telling their brother he's a fuck up. Charlotte realizing Tom is stupid. Lady Denham appointing Charlotte or Arthur to head of Sanditon after showing their worth an entire season. Tom being repentant. Diana getting over her fears. Arthur getting a love interest. Crowe being in Sanditon, I just love him. Kisses. Healthy love interests that aren't broody and traumatized and in need of fixing by women. Jane Austen's men need to do their growing ON THEIR OWN. And then they earn their brides.

5. What we'll lose

- A Sidlotte ending: once the new season comes out, Sidlotte is no longer headcanon.

- A happy Esther/Babington ending: they married and looked happy, despite Esther's rushed turn around. If they're in the new season, their marriage won't be perfect. They'll have conflicts, just for plot. Whatever headcanons we had for them will probably be falsified. We might come to dislike them or their relationship. I've seen almost all my ships crumble to dust on the rocks of multiple seasons dragging out relationships and piling on conflict just to keep it interesting.

- A part of what made Sanditon Sanditon: we'll lose many faces we've come to love. And the dynamics and relationships will therefore change a lot.

- Fanfics become dated: I know it is the problem of every fandom, but it's one I regret all the same. Part of why I love Austen fandoms is the fact that the books are written. The characters and relationships won't change. With 2 new seasons coming, all fanfics out there will become dated. The millions of hours authors put into Sidlotte fics will perhaps become barely read when Charlotte gets new love interests. All the headcanons I and many others wrote down for Sidlotte, Esther/Babington, Charlotte/Stringer, will officially become silly fantheories. I've been there a couple of times before that shows changed the entire course and personality of certain characters and then you can't help but feel exhausted and sometimes annoyed because these are your babies and you had dreams for them, and the writers took them in directions that sometimes don't do them justice. But it's canon so you gotta accept it. Sometimes fantasy is nicer than a writer toying around with storylines and characters just to create drama. And I'll have to write my characters in a new way that fits the characters based on the info from the new seasons. I might fall out of love with them. Ah, the burden of being a shipper weighs heavy.

- Perhaps we still lose a HEA: Season one ended with a happy babington/Esther and an unhappy Charlotte who learned a lot, and a Sanditon that was saved. Although Sanditon has been extended for two seasons it's possible that if the ratings for S2 aren't good they may still cancel the third season. If they don't learn from their mistakes and end season 2 on another cliffhanger even Esther's relationship and sanditon may be at stake. If they're getting 2 seasons they will also not marry or engage charlotte in the second, meaning Charlotte will still be single by the end of the series if they cancel season 3. The whole reason we wanted more seasons was for charlotte to have a HEA. So I'm really fearful that she'll be put in another hard spot. They at least need to get her happy by the end of S2.

6. What we'll gain

- More sanditon content

- More regency era content and images and music which is always lovely

- Seeing our favourites again

- Hopefully we get to see new challenges and romance and humor and tense moments and scandal and drama that will be fun to watch

- A Georgiana story arc: a black woman in a realistic historical setting living her life, being wealthy, and England just having to Deal With It. And as cherry on top she'll be written by black writers.

- Happy endings (hopefully)

- New hot men! This is a guarantee

- Perhaps LGBTQ+ representation with Arthur

- Frustration at Tom's antics (guaranteed)

- Maybe some interactions with Charlotte's siblings

- Esther Babington content

- New material to write fanfics and metas about

- Over 8 hours of viewing pleasure

#sanditon #sanditon season 2 #sanditon season 3 #sceptical fanalyses #sanditon predictions #charlotte heywood #esther denham

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fandomshatelgbtqpeople · 5 years ago

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mod a’s lgbt musicals

Hi there! I’m a big theatre kid so I thought for pride month I’d put together a list of LGBTQ musicals. Despite its association with queer people, musical theatre is not known for its amazing representation. I’ve put together a list here of musicals I know of with queer characters. I’ve tried to avoid those where the queer characters are incredibly minor roles or those where the representation is just not good enough to be salvageable (*side eyes Legally Blonde*) I know there are many musicals I will have missed out but these are the ones I am most aware of. Feel free to add more! So without further ado, here it is.

Fun Home

The big Tony winner of 2015! Based on Alison Bechdel, a butch lesbian cartoonist. At the age of 43, she looks for new material by trying to explore her past and her relationship with her closeted gay dad. Looks back at a version of herself when she was 10 and a “tomboy” and at 19 when she came out and got her first girlfriend. Has very cute lighthearted moments as well as very sad moments. Has a beautiful song where small Alison sees a butch deliverywoman. Problems in that since the original broadway cast, Alison’s costume has got less butch. Content warning for suicide.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAuesRJm1E

The Color Purple

Based on Alice Walker’s novel about black women in the 1930s. Follows Celie who has been abused by men her whole life who discovers she is a lesbian but also makes a journey of self discovery and learns to love herself. Her love interest is a bisexual woman. Won best revival at the Tonys in 2016. Content warning for discussion/implied sexual abuse.

Here’s their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k2xzQyT2bk

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

A teenage gay boy in Sheffield wants to be a drag queen and go to prom in a dress.Also a nice touch that is does not focus on him having a relationship (since he is sixteen) and him having to come out as he is already out. Focuses on his close relationship with his supportive mother. Has a diverse cast. Jamie is currently played by a black actor and his best friend wears a hijab and has a very diverse ensemble as well. Unfortunately has a part where Jamie responds to a homophobic bully by calling him a bunch of ableist and classist slurs.

Here’s a clip of the most popular song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7C3FuFWDdw

The Prom

Emma is a lesbian teenager in Indiana whose prom is cancelled by the PTA after she requests to bring her girlfriend to it. A group of Broadway actors come down to help her campaign to be allowed to attend prom, as well as styling her, helping her work on her confidence and educating the town’s people. What ensues is basically a two hour musical episode of Queer Eye. Cheesy and fun with so many musical theatre references crammed in. My one issue is that the show is rather harsh on people who are closeted since Emma has conflicted with her girlfriend Alyssa because she is not ready to come out.

Here’s a clip of their Tony performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGcG_r5xv3E

Rent

Probably the most well known on this list. Artists in New York during the AIDS crisis. Two of the main couples featured are queer: Maureen is bisexual and in a relationship with Joanne who is a lesbian, and Angel is a transgender woman of color in a relationship with Collins, a presumably bisexual man. However, she tends to be played bi cis men and there are instances of her being misgendered by the main characters uncritically. In Rent Live (2019), all instances of her being misgendered were removed and her gender identity was confirmed. She was played in this by Valentina, an nb drag queen and has also been played by Pose’s MJ Rodriguez, a trans woman. Very diverse with Jewish characters and people of colour and in the live show, only 1 of the 8 main characters was white. Has been criticised over the years, mainly for its biphobic portrayal of Maureen who is promiscuous and implied to cheat, but in the 90s did a lot for the LGBTQ community and is more progressive than a lot of media even now.

Here’s a clip of Maureen and Joanne from Rent Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06oCfKYYPTY

And here’s some Angel and Collins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hl-M94o_x8

Falsettos

Marvin comes out as gay in the late 70s but decides to move his ex wife and son in with his boyfriend. Addresses AIDS crisis in Act 2. Has “lesbians from next door” in act 2. F Revived on Broadway in 2016. All of the characters are Jewish. Unfortunately, in revival casts, very few actors tend to be Jewish.

Here’s the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjnAHOdMQVk

Come From Away

In the aftermath of 9/11, 38 planes are diverted to a small town in Canada called Gander. Shows people of different races and nationalities bonding in a scary time. Addresses Islamophobia. Has one song called Prayer where prayers from different religions overlap. Has an interracial gay couple called Kevin and Kevin. They break up in the end but are very important characters. Won best direction of a musical in 2017. The Broadway production starred Jenn Colella who has referred to herself as ‘mostly gay’.

Here’s a clip of Jenn Colella singing a song from the musical: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8ukgH6U-d0

Head Over Heels

Honestly I don’t quite know what this musical is about, even by reading the plot summary and listening to the soundtrack. I know it’s set in a Tudor fantasy world and that there are wlw couples as well as an explicitly non binary character, played by Peppermint, a trans woman, and that there are interracial couples and plus sized actors. It is a jukebox musical using songs by the Go-Gos and yes the wlw anthem that is Heaven is a Place on Earth is one of them. The soundtrack is fantastic even if you can’t follow what is going on.

Here are some show clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx2qQ7QAPm0

Spring Awakening

German school kids in the 19th century discovering their sexuality. Two of the schoolboy supporting characters, Ernst and Hänschen, have a romance when they have a reprise of an earlier song in Act 2. A BIG content warning as it has graphic discussions of rape and songs about it and a sex scene with very dubious consent. However there was a very wonderful 2016 revival using deaf actors and sign language.

This is another one you can very easily find the full show of on YouTube which I won’t link. However here’s the Tony performance for the revival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSagsMcak4Q

If/Then

A woman named Elizabeth (originally played by Idina Menzel) moves to New York after a divorce and contemplated how different her life would be if she took two different paths. Four supporting queer characters. Her ex-boyfriend is bisexual and played by Anthony Rapp (who is bisexual in real life) and he gets a boyfriend in one timeline. Another of her friends is a lesbian called Kate who marries her girlfriend in the musical. Problems occur as in both timelines, cheating goes on in the lesbian relationship although they stay together in one. Elizabeth also says she doesn’t believe in bisexuals, a view no one ever challenges her on, however Lucas is very clearly bisexual which is some proof for the audience that she is wrong.

I’m not going to link it here but there are many very high quality bootlegs on it on YouTube if you want to watch,

Ghost Quartet

A bit of a weird one. This is more of a concept album. There are four performers who each play instruments and they tell the stories of many interconnected timelines. It is very hard to explain but there are souls travelling through time who keep being reincarnated as different people with different relationships to each other which usually end with one woman killing the other. In the song Soldier & Rose, the ghosts Rose and Pearl are lovers as Rose seduces the soldier for her honey. In the song Four Friends, for one chorus the men sing “I like to put my hand on a pretty girls’s knee” and the women sing “pretty boy��s knee” and then they switch for the next chorus so they’re all bisexual. In general, a lot of fun if you like weird musicals and I mean really weird.

The full show is online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJSaEJm8pCE

Mean Girls

Yes there’s a musical of it. I was not looking forward to it when it was announced but have actually grown to quite like it. It’s hardly lyrical genius but the songs are fun and a lot of the problematic aspects of the film have been fixed. Damian is more explicitly gay in the musical and sings about an ex boyfriend in one song. Janis is heavily implied to be a lesbian (confirmed by actress offstage) and she doesn’t end up with Kevin Gnapoor. She is played by a queer actress in the tour cast. Both queer characters are much bigger roles than in the movie and get several songs each. I’d consider the musical to be quite white feminist but it does address issues such as the sexualisation of teenage girls and the notion that to be ‘sexy’ is ‘empowering’.

Here’s a clip of one of Damian’s songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zM6QKkxEQ

& Juliet

An English jukebox musical about what might have happened to Juliet in Romeo and Juliet if she had not died at the end. I haven’t seen it but I’ve listened to the soundtrack and it is mainly comprised of 21st century songs by women. One of Juliet’s best friends is non binary although is played by a cis man as far as we know. Also I went to the same school as one of the actors which is a bonus for me. Very diverse cast.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm2k9nS3o20

In Transit

A capella musical about several people’s adventures on New York public transport. Two of the main characters in this ensemble cast are an interracial gay couple where both are pocs. They are engaged but one of them is having trouble coming out to his mother. I found it refreshing in that his fiance for the most part was not upset with him at his struggles in coming out and they were both able to live fulfilling lives despite this. I am always astonished by the talent of a cappella singers.

Here’s a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhvik6qoass Another one where the bootleg can be found very easily on YouTube

Firebringer

Remember A Very Potter Musical? Well, the company that did that are still putting out new pieces of theatre on their YouTube channel. In 2016, they put out their ridiculous comedy musical Firebringer, about a group of bisexual cavewomen. I won’t spoil the ending but trust me, it’s great. You may know it from the viral clip of one of the main characters singing ‘I don’t really wanna do the work today.’

You can watch the full musical here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVuNlu0LCk

Special Mentions

Company

Musical by Stephen Sondheim about a man unable to commit to a relationship, surrounded by his friends who are all in couples. However, the award-winning 2018 West End revival chose to change the genders of some of the characters. The main character Robert became ‘Bobbie’ (although all of her love interests were gender-swapped as well). One of the originally M/F couples became an M/M couple. It opened on Broadway for about a week before the Covid outbreak so that will be one to look out for.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtDK03y4gT0

In the Heights

A musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda about the Latin American community living in Washington Heights in New York. The original theatre production has no explicitly queer characters. However, in the upcoming movie version (that was meant to be released this summer but has been pushed back to next summer) it has been confirmed that the characters of Daniela and Carla (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Stephanie Beatriz) will be explicitly a couple.

I absolutely love this musical and the trailer for the movie looks beautiful check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CL-ZSuCrQ

#mod a #musicals #theatre #lgbtq rep

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jad110 · 4 years ago

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LGBTQ and BIPOC in Media Blog #3

In this unit, we watched five films that involve LGBTQ and BIOPIC themes. I believe that these films can be considered “Queer” style films. In my opinion, a film can be considered “queer” when it shows the challenges and hardships of the LGBTQ community. The representation of characters in the community through a stylistic or aesthetic approach. Each of these films shows different LGBTQ stories that present differently. Queer films involve unique editing and other visual details to show the characters. These different elements help show the audience the message and represent the LGBTQ community. I believe that in “queer” style films there is a lot of emphasis on nature and natural beauty. In “Brokeback Mountain” the setting for the majority of the film is in the beautiful mountains surrounded by wildlife and greens. “Call Me By Your Name” takes place in the beautiful countryside of Italy with natural lakes and lots of trees with colorful flowers and fruits. The environment in “Moonlight” shows how rough life can be but also how beauty can be revealed. “Mysterious Skin” and “Boy’s Don’t Cry” show the beauty in a small town with secrets. Truthfully, I have never seen any of these films and probably would never pick out these films to watch, but I enjoyed all of them in different ways.

Queer-style stories show challenges and breakthroughs of who you really are. The film “Moonlight” is an excellent movie and I think that it represents the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) very well. This movie had a full cast of POC. This movie shows the struggle that Chiron, a quiet black kid who had a very troubling life. Throughout Chiron’s life, he had been bullied and neglected by his parents. Chiron ran away from his bullies right into Juan’s life. ( 3:50-5:40). Juan is a local honest man who also happens to be a drug dealer. This film showed the emotional trauma that many black men go through. Black men are expected to be tough and not very sensitive. Because Chiron was smaller than the other kids and quiet he made for a target for other kids in his town. I believe that Chiron’s race had a big impact on his coming out and how he found his identity. “Moonlight” included many images that are cinematography beautiful and have a queer style to them. Including when Kevin and Chiron find each other together at the beach at night (49:15-56:20). In this scene under the moonlight on the beach, Chiron and Kevin share an intimate experience and were able to show each other their identities. The editing during this scene gives the watcher a mix of nature and touch. Many people who are LGBTQ have trouble finding their identity growing up. I feel that his story is like many others especially for people of color. I feel that these people are less accepted by the public and family.

“Boy’s Don’t Cry” and “Moonlight” share the struggles of finding your masculinity and self-expression. Although Brandon did not have to worry about race expression he did have to worry about gender expression like Chiron. Brandon Teena identified as a male but did not want to tell his new group of friends who treated him as one of their own. Brandon tries to conform to the social norms of how men are supposed to act and look. Specifically, Brandon changed how his body looked in order for it to look more masculine. He taped up his breasts and adds socks to his underwear (31:45-32:21). Unfortunately, things are not allowed as we plan them. Brandon and Lana fall of each other and begin a romantic relationship. When Tom and John find out that Brandon is not biologically male they turn to extreme violence and torture. They exposed his female part to Lana and everyone as a form of torture then they brought him to an abandoned parking lot where they beat and raped him. This action was to disintegrate Brandon’s gender as a male and his identity (1:22:10-1:30:18). The way the visual elements were displayed the watcher really feels for Brandon and allows the watcher to think twice about how we treat people in the LGBTQ community.

“Brokeback Mountain” shared a powerful movie about lovers who did not take their chance for one another. This film showed the way nature will show someone’s true nature. Ennis and Jack worked together for the summer and formed an unexpected relationship. Neither man identified as LGBTQ when they both say that they are not “queer” but formed a love for the other man. They had a bond that they could not explain and that they have never felt before. Even four-plus years later they shared the same feel like the beginning of their relationship. In the end, Jack had died and when Ennis finds out he is completely heartbroken. They had talked about living together and starting a farm but never did because of the time and how the LGBTQ people were treated. Ennis recalls a story to Jack about his dad showing him what happened to a gay man who was beaten and mutilated (1:11:22-1:12:25). Ennis was shown by his father the consequences of being gay and what would happen if he were to be gay. Later when Jack had died his wife says that there was an accident when Jack was changing a tire. Although we see that Jack was a victim of a hate crime just like the man Ennis’s father showed him. Beaten and mutilated to death (1:53:02-1:55:13). I believe that the treatment that Jack went through is similar to Brandon in “Boy’s Don’t Cry.” Both men were killed by people who discriminated against people of the LGBTQ community and the people in it. They were killed as a hate crime to show a message. This way of presenting films shows the gruesome truth of how some LGBTQ are treated.

“Call Me By Your Name” shows a beautiful relationship between two men that blossoms over the summer in Italy. Elio and Oliver both have trouble speaking up about their feelings. Elio is a young teenager and has not experienced love like how he feels for Oliver. Oliver is not sure that Elio likes him at all. Once they both knew about their feelings for one another they only had a number of days left (2:06:33-2:07:00). They had a very special relationship where they were they were closer than regular friends, more intimate than loves, and have a bond that will change their lives forever. These men were also not characterized as gay in the film. This movie is what I would think about when talking about a “queer” style. The way the characters are represented and the scenery made them seem “perfect”. This movie shows the perfect scenario even though they do not end up together. Their lives were pretty perfect and unattainable. I enjoyed the movie because of the story but in terms of realism, it does not feel like it. In the film, they shared a lot of passion. On their first night together the camera shows the bed they share and then moves outside onto the trees swaying in the summer night. All their passion is surrounded by nature.

“Mysterious Skin” shows how sexual abuse at a young age can change a person drastically. The coach of a little league took advantage of at least two of his young players, Brian and Neil. Because the boys were so young and not able to really understand the extent of what had happened to them. Neil was abused for a whole summer and believed that his coach actually loved him and thought he was special. He says ”No one ever made me feel that way before or since. I was special.”... “Yeah, but he really loved me. I mean, there were other kids sometimes, but I was his prize.”(1:11:24-1:11:49) He believed that Coach loved him and what he felt during the abuse was the peak of love. I think his willingness to subject himself to abuse in his adult years shows how the abuse followed him. His coach was a father figure in his life and because of this, he grew the compulsion of pleasing older men. He had been “groomed” by his abuser. While Brian was abused by his coach twice but he “blacked out” both times and configures the story of being abducted by aliens. I believe that he came up with this story in order to protect his own mind. Unfortunately, his mind caught up with him and started showing him a different story. He needed answers but only could get them from Neil. I think that this story does not relate to the other films because of the molestation and different consequences.

I feel that many people learn about sexuality and gender from media and films. Films give people different perspectives and learn more about what people are feeling. Although it is good for the representation of the LGBTQ community in films, it is also important for the representation to be correct and accurate. Watching films in Hollywood can influence the minds of young people. More and more shows and movies include someone of the LGBTQ community. The inclusion of them allows more people to be educated.

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butterflypeaflowertea · 6 years ago

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Let’s presume Greta (for example) has written this script. Wonderful, entertaining, full of vibrant female characters. Likely they’re all white (even if not specified, the default perspective will be white). What are your thoughts on a role like this being filled with a woc? (What I’m trying to get at is: is the representation important just visually. Like we see more woc, but they don’t necessarily act like it? As in they have white lives. This is a mess but I hope u get what I’m getting at)

(Casting anon #2) God sorry if I sounded like a dick in that last one but it just reminded me of a convo I had with a mate - a chinese filmmaker. She essentially said “it’s up to us to create our stories, we can’t wait for or trust anyone else to do so”. She was so much more eloquent than me. But I think what I meant to say is that Greta is probably never gonna do poc justice, at least not rn. It’s not like we shouldn’t hold her to the standard of decency but we gotta be careful what we wish for

ah no i totally agree! me clowning greta today for not having more people of color in her films was mostly just me having fun & i most certainly do not expect her to create films with beautiful & realistic narratives of color considering she is, ultimately, a white woman who comes from a place of relative privilege. it’s mostly wishful thinking on my part that it would be nice to see at least a few characters of color in her work. not necessarily main characters, considering i really don’t think she’s the right person to write and direct their stories, but like. maybe a few decently-written side characters here and there, u know? the bare minimum. besides that though, i agree with your friend wholeheartedly! it’s up to people of color to create the content and work with the sensitivity and care and realism we wish to see! and it’s up to us to support each other until the rest of the western world decides to catch up! and i’m very excited to see what we make in the future! 💓

#asks

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hannahlovestheatre · 6 years ago

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A RANT ABOUT RENT LIVE AND HOW GOOD IT WAS

Okay so I need to stand on a soap box real quick to make a point. Please read the whole thing. I feel like Rent Live not only needs to be reviewed but is the perfect example for what I am about to say. If you have a problem with this, thank u next.

Let me ask you a question. How many people do you know named or are probably named Sarah? How about Taylor? Maybe Alex? Okay, now that you have a number in your head think about this: are they all exactly the same? Same hair color? Eye color? Body type? Do they all play soccer? Do they all love the same kind of music? Are they all the same race? Same sexual orientation? Is your answer no? It should be. They are all different yet special in their way.

Now let's look at Rent. We have Rent, the Broadway musical (which is actually a reincarnation La Boheme, an opera with a lot of other versions as well!!! It all comes full circle) ; Rent, the movie; and Rent Live. All share a name but none of them are the same. They are all special in their own way.

Rent, the Broadway musical, is one of if not the most revolutionary musical to hit the Great White Way. Without it, Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen and The Prom and The Band's Visit and Fun Home probably wouldn't exist. It inspired artists to cross the borderlines and expressed the true meaning if love and being a part of a community, a family. It inspired composers like Lin Manuel-Miranda do even make musicals. It swept the Tonys, it won the Pulitzer prize, it ran for a very long time. It was so important that they filmed a pro shot of the final performance. However, that proshot was not a one take deal. They pre filmed some stuff to get those epic close ups, like the beginning of Out Tonight. Again, it was crucial to the world of theatre.

Next we have Rent, the movie. It was filmed as an independent film, kinda like how The Last Five Years was. They got most of the original cast to reprise their roles. Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson swept in to save the day. They are honestly the best Joanne and Mimi that I've seen. Tracie has played Joanne literally everywhere: in the movie, on Broadway, and at the Hollywood Bowl. And it was also a good thing for Rosario to put on her resume. The actual movie itself cut and rearranged the order of songs from the musical and doesn't focus much on being in the 90s but the present day. There's nothing wrong with that, but the creative team wanted this Rent to be it's individual being. People that see the movie might have only seem the movie and not the Broadway musical. When they see it's mostly the same cast, they got excited and were looking forward to seeing the other Rent. It's not the same Rent, but it's called Rent and is similar to that other Rent, but it's not that Rent. It's like Rent the II.

And as of yesterday we have Rent III, Rent Live. Now I get it. Technically this wasn't live as in broadcast live and everything you saw was happening in real time and that sucks but also thank God they filmed that final dress or it probably wouldn't have happened at all or at least not in the way they planned. The whole concert version they released clips of would have been what we saw for those 3 hours instead of the full out production that we deserved to see. People would have stopped watching right away if they only got to see poor Brennin in a wheelchair and the cast just sitting there in the same spot watching with the live audience they have in front of them. But ya know what? It was still live. They did'nt lip sync or animate themselves to be CGI dancers. They sang live, they moved live, they had a live audience. That's why it's called LIVE THEATRE. It is happening in front of a group of people. This was also the first live musical that had an issue that prevented them from putting on the production as is. Grease Live had some weather and audio issues but guess what? They added pre filmed video and audio to fix that!!!! Tbh, I would not be surprised if they stop broadcasting it live and make it live meaning LIVE theatre in front of a LIVE audience that you prerecorded and show the world on whatever night.

The cast was unlike the other two in the sense that it was part Broadway performers, part music artists, part actors and dancers that can sing, and one phenomenal drag queen. If you want my opinion, Valentina is tied with Wilson Jermaine-Heredia as the best Angel. For someone who has never done anything like this, she did a hell of a job and was literally perfect in the role. Vanessa Hudgens, again in my opinion is probably the best Maureen. Her Over the Moon soars over any other one I have seen from the costume to her comedic timing to her commitment to the whole damn thing. She killed it. We also got see Jordan Fisher live his lifelong dream of being the first POC Mark and he did the role justice. The way they wrote Mark's monologues and made him feel as isolated from his group as friends as we've seen him was BRILLIANT. Especially at the top of Act 2 where they incorporated Seasons of Love into the plot, something that was not done in the other Rents which was literally genius. It was where I shed my first tear. Then we have Brandon Victor Dixon who did the best I'll Cover You Reprise EVER. I thought Michael McElroy was the best before last night. I was a wreck when Brandon did it. He is definitely one of the knots that binds these things together. And then we have Tinashe, Mario, and Kiersey Clemons. These three did their roles justice as well. I think Tinashe was up to par with Rosario's Mimi but her Mimi was definitely the most believable because she played it so young, she is supposed to be 19 but also a little coy and super sexy, which she did. Mario's vocals popped off and he definitely showed how much of a jerk Benny is. And Kiersey had a rocky start in my opinion but still played a great Joanne that had the perfect amount of spunk, sass, poise, and intelligence. Oh and don't get me started on Keala Settle. That woman took me to theatre church to bless the lord of blessing us with her talent. They rewrote Paul to be a woman named Cy which to me felt so raw.

And now the censorship thing. Idk what everyone else saw but I saw the same risque and edgy components of Rent that the Rent I and Rent II. The lyric changes were obvious ONLY TO THOSE THAT KNOW OF THE OTHER RENTS IN THE FIRST PLACE. And the changes they did make were seamless. On these main broadcasting networks, you cannot say shit, fuck, dildos, expose bare asses, be overtly sexual, etc. etc. unless that creative team anticipates a lofty fee and a potential lawsuit. They were only able to cross a certain amount of lines before it got out of control. The final line was clearly mucho masturbation. They had things taken away from them and saw it as the perfect opportunity to really make this Rent the 2019 Rent that is different from the other 2 but doesn't try to be the most superior of the three we know of.

Do you see what I mean though? All of these things are called Rent but none of them are the same or trying to replace the other creations. Sarah A isn't trying be better than Sarah B who isn't trying to beat Sara, the one without an H at the end of her name and the same applies to any new adaptation of a book or movie or musical. Every time this happens, that same story is trying to be expressed to an audience that needs to hear it. This messed up world we live in now needs to see a place where people are loved and accepted and are a part of a tight knit community. Rent does exactly that.

So the next time you see that ______ Live is happening or _______ the Musical is happening or a certain musical is getting a film adaptation, don't compare the two as one entity. Call it _____ II or the Sara without an H at the end.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#rent #rent live #musical #musical theatre #broadway #jordan fisher #tinashe #mario #brandon victor dixon #valentina #kiersey clemons #theatre

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asagimeta · 6 years ago

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References in The Deadfast Club/Devil’s Night

Forgive the 1 A.M. theory brain, I have some other things to do so this was, admittedly, only breifly researched, but there are two pop culture references that stood out to me in these two episodes the most- This Mortal Coil and The Breakfast Club

Wile most of Scream's references are, obviously, to horror movies- from Tony Todd, AKA Candyman being the Hook Killer, to the discussions of "Get Out" and Jordan Peele (hilariously, this season was filmed over two years ago and Jordan Peele just announced that he's doing a Candyman movie a couple of months back), these two were very prominent but not at all horror related

This Mortal Coil is the name of the book Beth is reading, wich is prominently displayed to the camera, but the only results I found with that name are to a musical group that ran in the 80s/90s, and a dystopian YA novel, neither of wich looked like the kind of book Beth was reading, wich looked like a classic- hard leather bound with no cover art, as opposed to the YA novel that's far more modern looking

The musical group is described as having "gothic, dream pop sound", with the first and last albums they produced sounding like they could relate to Scream as a franchise- "It'll End In Tears" and "Blood" could both easily relate to the series, but aside from that and having gothic leanings, I'm not sure what this reference could provide, especially in book format

The YA novel however is far more interesting

The YA novel is all about DNA- specifically, recoding DNA, allowing people to "change their bodies in any way they want", the book's primary theme also seems to be about trust- who you can trust, you can't, and if you can even trust yourself

If Deion's brother really IS alive and the killer, this could be a great easter egg for that

My trouble believing it is that Scream has always surprised us with the killer reveals, for the killer to be the most obvious suspect who was guessed in episode two seems shoddy, but far more than that, Scream is about defying tropes and expectations, as they did in the opening scene with little!Ghostface being the first victim rather than the pretty teenager, even exiting the "kill the girl" trope by killing a child- and a boy at that- for the first victim

Maybe this really is the era of changing Scream's narrative

Kym said herself that the this was a different genre of horror than what had been established before, where "we make our own rules", "we" referring to POC- specifically black, wich is a good distinction for her to have made, actually

Wile Jordan Peele and "Get Out" were the only ones directly referenced, horror starring black charectors is SIGNIFICANTLY different than horror starring white charectors, and often defies the typical white tropes- yes, Jordan Peele is an example, but also "The Intruder", "No Good Deed", "When The Bough Breaks", among other newer ones, but even older, classic horror has this distinction, specifically, Night Of The Living Dead breaks alot of horror tropes- especially for the era- and turns what could have been a basic zombie movie into a really social-political-laden message with a truly tragic ending

It's worth noting that of "The Deadfast Club" (a reference I'm about to go into later) only Manny and Beth are white, a great and stark contrast to most of these kinds of groups in movies

This iteration of Scream could be breaking some of the rules, and though Scream is known for breaking horror movie rules in general, it could be that, as this iteration is the first not to star a white protagonist, there's an effort being made to break even MORE rules- even some of the ones Scream it's self usually held dear, and one of those could be the very format, instead of spending the entire show wondering who the killer is, we find out in episode three or four who it is and spend the rest of the series just trying to defeat him- or even resolving the loose ends of his backstory somehow

I could go on about this more but it's now 2:15 so I'd better move on

The Breakfast Club is the other major reference that doesn't fit in with the typical horror movie jargon

In fact, it's so prominent that episode one is named "The Deadfast Club", the only title I know of to make a clear movie reference, and yet it isn't to a horror movie

It isn't like that's new, all of the second season episodes were named after horror films, but that's just it- HORROR films

Scream has only ever been about analyzing and breaking down the horror genre, I don't remember ever seeing a reference quite this big to anything non-horror in Scream before

That said, I'd like to pick at the meaning for this

Firstly, Manny is right, The Breakfast Club only had five roles and five stereotypes (although six charectors, I can't see yet how Manny could fit Vernon's role)

But here comes another interesting problem- wile it's true that Manny doesn't fit any of the five stereotypes... neither does Kym

The stereotypes fit the other four seamlessly

"The Princess"- Liv, Deion himself calls her an "It girl" "The Athlete"- Deion "The Brain"- Amir "The Criminal"- Beth

But that just leaves "The Basket-Case" and I don't think that can apply to Kym, unless the term is meant more affectionately in the movie (I wouldn't know, having not seen it) but I have a feeling that isn't the case, and even if it was, it still wouldn't fit, Kym is passionate sure, but I haven't seen anything that could make her suit a term like "crazy"- not to mention "basket case", only and simply "rebellious", but "criminal" certainly doesn't fit her either as, to my knowledge, she's never committed a crime

This leaves a pretty interesting opening- well, two interesting openings:

1. If Kym and Manny don't have roles to fill, will they be the two lone survivors? The writers had to put some thought into making these charectors fit to the stereotypes in order for The Deadfast Club to really work as a reference but purposely created Manny and Kym to oppose ALL of them, they could have just as easily created the two of them to simply "share" roles with the others, making Manny fit more of the "brain" role for example, but choosing not to means they want these two to stand out

And how convenient that they just so happen to be the only long-standing freinds in The Deadfast Club, the only ones not getting to know eachother for the first time

Ofcourse by the same factor this could mean they'll be the only two to die but that would suck on alot of levels

2. Far more importantly though, not only did the writers specifically care to create two charectors that didn't fit any roles... they also chose to have one role that didn't fit any of the charectors, unless you double up and label Beth as "the basket case" too, wich I don't personally buy- why would they bother doing that? Why not make a charector just for that role? Or atleast make it alluded to that Beth was both- then there's one role that doesn't have anyone in it

That's awfully strange, that's not just one, but two flaws for The Deadfast Club as a theme

Beth even tries labeling them all herself but when she gets to Kym, who she was obviously going to label "The Basket Case", Kym stops her, both refusing that label and refusing to be labeled at all- very significant

Heading back to our previous point on different types of horror, Beth herself claims that most of the group being black is an "instant kill", and wile LGBTQ+ people are scarce in horror, they're usually just as quickly murdered, the "Burry Your Gays" trope certainly didn't emerge from sitcoms after all

If Kym and Manny are the only survivors, that would be breaking a handfull of "horror rules" right there, and bring us full circle to Kym saying that "we make up our own rules"- plus, Deion is being given to us as the hero, and Liv was, as Beth said, "final girl material", we expect both of them to make it out alive because horror as a genre dictates that we should, but what if episode five gets here and it's Kym who becomes the hero?

I went off topic there but there's something more important about there not being a "basket case" role in the Deadfast Club, namely: What if there IS one and we don't know it yet? Namely, the killer?

There are two options with that:

1. The killer is an outsider who becomes involved with the Deadfast Club in some way down the line, sort of like how Shane was- who I was going to nominate for this before he was killed off- or is perhaps already connected to them (like Deion's brother) or...

2. The reason we don't have a clear basket case is because one of the Deadfast Club is the killer

In this case, it could be anyone

As Manny and Kym don't have labels, it could be one of them (thus filling the roles and leaving wichever one ISN'T the killer to be the Final Girl) or it could be one of the other four doubling up on labels like I suggested earlier on

If this is the case, my money is on Liv- as The Princess, she would be the least likely to be suspected, it would be a unique twist, and no one in the group would think to suspect her (except maybe Beth but she'll probably be killed right after coming to this conclusion)

Regardless of who it is, they'll have to do a new list in the last episode referencing the dead members, and the new discovery of their basket-case....

Believe me, I want to go into this SO much more, but it's 3 AM now and I still have other things to do, trust me though, tommorrow brings more Scream, and with luck, more theories as well!

#scream #scream spoilers #scream: resurrection #scream tv series #horror

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thegreatmercutio · 6 years ago

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...huh...ScarJo sounding like Straight...White Privilege...huh?

She isn’t a struggling actress...she is one of the highest paying actress out there, she is literally in every Marvel films....and is getting her own Black Widow film (which is a Marvel that I will not support...not sorry, there’s plenty of amazing Female Marvel characters that deserves their own movie than ScarJo’ Black Widow)...and now, she still believes she has the RIGHT TO PLAY ANY CHARACTERS THAT SHE IS GIVEN...she has learned fucking nothing...look, this isn’t like the Little Mermaid casting...NOOOOO...because for decades Disney lacked diversity and is known for their racist and whitewashing past...they had a character named Jim Crow and casted Steve from Full House to play Aladdin!!...and the Little Mermaid is open for interpretations (it’s a Mermaid!!)...but when it comes to ScarJo...she isn’t a starving actress that physically appearance and heritage background hasn’t been represented...in the media...SHE NOT UNDERREPRESENTED...SHE FUCKING PRIVILEGED!!

I don’t understand why people keep defending her...DO YOU REALLY NEED HER MOVIES TO SURVIVE?? I have been spacing her out in every Marvel films...and found her character...to me...not important...yeah, I said it! She is a hypocrite and problematic...and gets away with it every time...she openly and proudly defends Woody Allen...the director who is under investigation for raping his own daughter when she was a child at the time! ScarJo is one of the strongest defender of Allen. Oh yeah, just to remind people...Woody Allen is also married to his own adopted daughter...who he raised as a child...and then he left his wife and married her...his own daughter...and yet when his own biological daughter told people...he raped her...she is a liar!! Yes, blaming the victim. Yet ScarJo defends him, then goes all #MeToo when it’s trending, telling James Franco to give back his pin...then she goes stealing opportunities from WOC in films...then she defended her rights to plan a Tran character...then...she finally withdraw from the very role...because of she getting BLACKLASH...SHE NEVER GAVE A FUCK UNTIL PEOPLE STARTED TO BOYCOTT THE FILM AND SHAMING HER FOR HER INSENSITIVITY...AND NOW SHE TAKING IT ALL BACK SAYING SHE HAS THE RIGHT TO PLAY ANY ROLE...I read this interview once related to Ghost in Shell (which fucking flopped in theaters)...of her stating how she will never steal roles from POC...then right in the interview she changes the subject and talks about how important to play a female lead...it’s like WHAT THE FUCK?? YOU...KNOW WHAT...GO PLAY A FUCKING TREE!!

Yeah...I am not a fan. I apologize to my followers...I really hate using my blog to rant this kind energy...but I am BIG in representations...I believe that stories...need to open and honest, because it reflects humanity...both fictional and non-fictional...and just to remind you...that POC and LGBTQA are poorly underrepresented in films and shows for centuries. Often, used as tokens and overly stereotyped...for example Asians in Western films...is only 1%...and Tran roles played by Tran Actors is really really rare! Look, I believe Art in all its forms...reflects and teaches generations of people about each other and self identity...if you have no idea how important Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians was for the underrepresented audience...then you are living in rose colored privilege world...I am sorry for you...that the industry has conditioned you in believing that actresses and actors like ScarJo has the right to play any roles. Don’t come at me...saying there’s isn’t any big names of POC and LGBTQA out there to be casted...bullshit...there’s plenty of actresses and actors out there...Tom Hanks was an unknown once too...you got to give the right people...the right chances. It is so important to allow people to be represented in stories that embraces their world. There’s is so many wonderful and beautiful stories out there that will never get to see its truths...because of the way we are conditioned.

Link: https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/9/14559866/ghost-in-the-shell-scarlett-johansson-whitewashing

Update: according to new...news...she stated that article was taking her words out of contents...here is updated information...if anyone cares... link: https://ew.com/movies/2019/07/14/scarlett-johansson-trans-rub-and-tug-statement/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

However, she still signed up the role in Ghost in the Shell...and “Rub & Tug” and only withdraw from ”Rub & Tug” because of backlash. She say it now that she is self aware of underrepresented of POC and LGBTQA...but still it’s the 21st centuries...and yet in past years...we have seen Whitewashing of Asian, Africans, Latinos, Black...etc (Ghost in the Shell, Exodus, Aloha, Dragon Ball Z, Argo, Stonewall, Wanted, 21,...almost Hellboy and Rub & Tug...)...and she and many others are grown adults who are acting like they just learned the word...and I don’t just blame her...or other actors...I blame everyone involved...casting directors, directors, producers, studio...and even the audience...but sometimes it takes individuals to make a change...and she...like many others...are so late to the change...but hey at least they’re trying now...you know after they get hate for it...honestly, I just don’t care...it’s really hard to trust this industry...she...like many...is a part of it...after all the backlash...it wouldn’t matter in a few days...she will still be wealthy and famous...and she will continue to get roles...at the end of the day...these people don’t care. They say things just to save their image and career...even though...it was taken out of content...that quote...she still said it.

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airagorncharda · 7 years ago

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Surprising no one, I have some Fucking Thoughts about Infinity War:

(I don’t know if it actually is, but this FEELS like the longest post I’ve ever written. And that is impressive because I am a long winded motherfucker on a good day and because it’s literally ALL negative)

So first off, I Did Not Enjoy this movie. For my complete list of things I DID like, read this very short post instead. If you enjoyed the movie and don’t want to read somebody absolutely slamming it, you should probably leave now.

Secondly, if you don’t want spoilers I’m not sure why you clicked the readmore, but you’ve now been warned:

SPOILERS past this point!!!!!!!

I disliked this movie so much that I need to break down the varying ways I disliked it into fucking sections. So starting right off:

I find shock value character death to be cheap and lazy.

And boy did they go hard on the shock value character death. Boy, oh boy. BOY oh boy, did they ever. That was pretty much the entire movie.

If you can’t make the stakes feel high without death, you’re a bad writer. If death is the only card you know how to play, you’re a bad writer.

I was expecting the characters who’s actor’s contracts are up to get killed off as a cheap and lazy way of explaining why they’re leaving. I was instead handed a movie in which literally everyone ELSE died for even cheaper and lazier shock value reasons that are almost certainly going to get undone (and thus be made pointless) in the next film. I was not impressed.

The writers are painfully white, and refused to stop reminding us.

When the setting of the movie shifted to Wakanda, I wanted to be happy to see Wakanda. But I wasn’t, because the whole reason we went to Wakanda seemed to be so that the racist ass writers could jerk off while watching Wakanda (and Wakandans) get wrecked (and killed in horrific numbers), all so Wanda (who the MCU super duper whitewashed) didn’t have to kill her white robot boyfriend.

“If Wakanda falls, it will have been for a noble cause” said the racist white writer puppeting T’Challa.

Prioritizing the feelings of a white girl and the life of her white boyfriend over not just the hypothetical “half of the universe” Thanos thing, but also the very immediate and literal danger to the lives of ALL OF WAKANDA AND ALL OF THEIR FRIENDS was absolutely bewildering levels of antiblack racism and I was just sitting there shaking my head through it all. It was horrible. It is horrible. I cannot believe that line from T’Challa even made it into the movie. “A noble cause” my ass, that’s so violent, what the fuck.

The writers are painfully heterosexual, and refused to stop reminding us.

Again I scream at Wanda and Vision. Wanda and Vision, who I was hyped about being brought into the MCU because I liked them in the comics, but who have been a constant frustration and disappointment (whitewashed and underutilized as they have been) since their introductions.

Also Quill and Gamora.

Like, the writers couldn’t figure out a way to make the story interesting or have stakes without threatening hetero’s heterosexual feelings and heterosexual partners. They just.... couldn’t....................... do it............

Like, lets be real. If the lives of literally half the universe was at stake, everybody I know would be like “sure, I’ll die for that cause”. The conflict felt fake as fuck. People who are that selfish aren’t interesting, and half the characters they made that selfish didn’t used to BE that selfish.

Also, like, Gamora demanding Peter promise to kill her was weird on multiple levels.

She definitely could have been like “I know the location of an infinity stone, and I know he’ll be able to get it out of me if he gets me alone, so I need you to kill me if that happens” but instead she was just like “I can’t give you a single explanation or detail, just promise me you’ll murder me because you love me so much.” Bad writing.

And I feel like for Peter specifically, asking him to do that was really cruel. His whole issue with his parents was that his dad murdered his mom, like... asking him to kill her seems extra cruel? And she would know that. Doesn’t she have other friends? Couldn’t she have asked Peter to, like, not get mad at Rocket if Rocket kills her for the same reason? Or Drax? Why did it have to be Peter?? Why ask the person who’d be most emotionally traumatized by having to kill you to be the one to kill you if necessary? And why have her remind him of the death of his mom as a way to convince him to kill her? Bad writing.

Also Bruce and Nat were never interesting to begin with.

Also also Tony talking about wanting kids to a very obviously frustrated and uninterested Pepper was weird and uncomfortable. I feel like we’re supposed to be getting some sort of “they should have kids!” vibe but all I got was a “she doesn’t want to have kids and he’s not getting the memo” vibe. I also am very tired of “my partner wants me to stop being a superhero, guess I’ll feel conflicted but do it anyway but also not break up with them” narratives. Bad.

Thanos’ “random” selection of half of earth didn’t seem that random to me. Like, at all.

The shot of Wakandans dying wasn’t half of them dying, it was like 90% of them dying. And if you pay attention to who disintegrated, it’s....

T’Challa (black king of a powerful beautiful African nation, the most technologically advanced nation in the world)

Bucky (disabled and neuroatypical)

Sam (a black man)

I forgot to watch the end credits scene because I was so mad but apparently NICK FURY disintegrates in it, my blood is boiling with rage.

Apparently Maria Hill also disintegrates in it, so there goes a strong female character too.

Again I point to the, like, 90% of Wakanda who survived the combat turning to ash anyway.

Mantis (a woman, played by a Korean actress)

Wanda (a woman. Also whitewashed, but Jewish and Romani in the comics)

Groot (played by a man of color)

Peter Quill (played by one of the three white Chris’ in the movie, but dating a character played by a black woman, so of all the white men to die I find this suspect as fuck)

Drax (played by a Filipino actor).

And that’s not to mention Heimdall (a powerful black man), Loki (who is queercoded, and actually queer in the comics) and Gamora (played by a black woman) who Thanos also killed.

“Random.”

Right.

Except the movie was written by people who clearly have a bias and think it’s quality entertainment to watch PoC and marginalized people in general die. And/or they wanted most of those characters out of the way so Infinity War 2 could focus on the white dudes. Which brings me to my next hated point:

Infinity War 2.

Just.

Fuck that.

Fuck that cash grab bullshit of splitting major motion picture movies into multiple movies for no good reason. Fuck letting people go into a movie with a cliffhanger not knowing it’s going to have a cliffhanger. Fuck forcing people to commit to a years wait for closure on a plot without agreeing to.

People don’t go to superhero movies to watch the villain win, motherfuckers, we want to see HEROES win! It’s supposed to be a movie that feels GOOD to watch because you can pretend for 2 hours that good people triumph over bad people, and we fucking NEEDED that 2 hours of escapism right now! We did not need a movie about a megolomaniac who wins the election and ruins the lives of everyone we love! We didn’t pay for that shit!!!!

I mean, I didn’t pay for anything, I watched a bootleg version while curled up in bed, but if your movie hadn’t been a sack of cash grabbing propaganda horse shit I WOULD have paid to see it.

Also.

People are “SPECULATING” a bunch of stuff like “Dr. Strange did what he did to ensure the eventual defeat of Thanos!!” and “everybody who got disintegrated is going to be resurrected in the next movie!!” but like... it’s not speculation if it’s obvious as fuck, guys. Don’t give the writers more credit than they deserve (they deserve zero credit). Don’t act like it’s not obvious and predictable when it is.

1) Dr. Strange was not being subtle. “I’ve looked at all the potential outcomes and foreseen one in which we win” “We’re in the endgame now.” “It was the only way”. That’s blatant. That borders on heavy-handed.

2) Most of the characters who died have movies scheduled. They’re coming back. This is not unclear.

As a result... their deaths don’t even feel real, they just feel like racist shock value fodder deaths. I’m not sad about it, I’m furious at the writers. They just killed them off so they could watch them die, and/or so they could avoid utilizing them. And that’s... so gross.

Ending a movie with the genocidal villain winning is not edgy or whatever. It’s just dissatisfying and, especially in the current climate of the world, it feels violent.

Like, I’m mad that they split the movie, because it’s a cash grab, and then ending it on that note was just violent.

I guess the writers just really hated Ragnarok (and Black Panther).

Cuz like... they just completely wrote Ragnarok out of the MCU, made the whole movie pointless, and backpedaled on everything it accomplished.

Ragnarok: “Asgard is destroyed, but it’s okay because the people of Asgard survived, and can rebuild somewhere else. Thor lost his eye and his hammer, became a leader to his people, learned that he didn’t need a weapon to harness his powers, and Thor and Loki finally managed to be a team again. Heimdal is given the credit he deserves as a hugely important part of Thor’s life. Also here, have an AMAZING black female character! The story ends with hope for a ship full of refugees.”

Infinity War: “Thor immediately gets a new eye, all (or maybe half??? it was really unclear) of the other Asgardian refugees are slaughtered off screen (big middle finger to refugees and also hope) and then Thor goes off on his own so he’s not really a leader anymore, Loki and Heimdal are dead within 5 minutes of screentime, Valkyrie doesn’t exist, and Thor’s entire plot in the movie is about how he needs a new weapon because he can’t be useful without one :)”

Me, who enjoyed Ragnarok: “wow, fuck you”

Similarly, after watching all the characters from Wakanda in Black Panther be written as their own people, whose stories and lives didn’t revolved around white people... their white-prioritizing characterization in Infinity War, as well as the IMMEDIATE choice to fucking wreck Wakanda at the first available opportunity, was a real fucking let down and kind of a slap in the face.

Peter Dinklage played a literal (though giant?) dwarf??????????

I FEEL LIKE THIS IS FUCKING OFFENSIVE??? Honestly I’m just so so tired of this poor guy getting hired only for roles where his dwarfism is a character trait. He’s a really good actor and I wish he got hired to play characters other than “the dwarf” every fucking once in a while, like jfc.

(Side note apparently he’s been cast as “the dwarf” in a movie adaptation of the awful book “the dwarf” so that’s... happening........ i guess...................)

I FEEL like this role was particularly weird and maybe particularly offensive, but maybe I’m wrong, idk.

Also his actual visual design was bad. I looked up the character (Eitri) from the comics, and he looked pretty cool in the comics and animated show. He did not look cool in this movie.

Bendick Camdsfgbitch has too big of a role.

Literally I’ve never met anybody who cares about the Dr. Strange movie or MCU character. The only people who care seem to be Sherlock stans who cannot let go and still think Bean Cummerbund playing [an intolerable asshole who we’re told (but not shown) is smarter than us, who never lets the audience in on his genius] is compelling.

He’s boring, he’s an asshole, he’s playing an arguably whitewashed role (which is a pattern for him) and he’s not even playing it in an interesting way. Stop trying to make Dr. Strange or his actor happen. We don’t care.

And if the whole two movie plot is going to be about how he really did outsmart Thanos, the supposedly super smart supervillain, then I’m extra super bored as fuck. And so far that’s... super predictably what’s going to have happened.

It was just really poorly written??

Idk, like it wasn’t even... funny... or good. All the lines were either predictable or they didn’t make sense. And everybody felt slightly (or severely, depending on the character) out of character.

The plot is fucking garbage, AND THANOS IS TOO

The concept of the world being overpopulated (and that that’s why resources aren’t available for everyone) is an irl lie, my guys. It’s not true. It’s a lie perpetuated by racists and xenophobes and rich assholes who want to excuse letting people die of starvation rather than give up literally any of their giant Scrooge McDuck style piles of money to allow even the most minimally necessary distribution of resources.

We HAVE enough resources to feed and clothe and house and care for everyone on this planet, we just DON’T DO IT because of the bigotry and selfishness of the 1%.

Also, “Genocide will fix all the suffering in the world” is literally nazism.

AND LIKE!! If the POINT was that Thanos was a space nazi and needed to be killed as a result, because his views are fucked up and have no basis in reality, and nazism must be stopped at all costs-- that could have been okay??? EXCEPT THAT’S NOT HOW THEY HANDLED IT!! Instead of going “Oh, yeah, Thanos is super fucked up and no one should agree with him or his actions or his ideology” they showed him in this weird and uncomfortably reverent light, and gave him this weird and uncomfortable side arc about how much he wuvs Gamora (that’s why he abused her, you guys-- it was because he LOVES her so much). So we’re supposed to like, feel sad for him or something? Oh no, nobody understands him and his logic, he HAS to do this to SAVE everyone. Oh nooooooo.

But really, he’s a genocidal scrotum-faced piece of shit abuser, and his entire narrative felt like a nazi who abuses his kids just sucking his own dick on screen, and it was NOT enjoyable to watch, or compelling, or edgy. It was just gross, and violent.

ALSO there was NO REASON to give him that backstory. There was no reason to explain his desire to kill everybody. We already knew he wanted to kill everybody. That was already known, and we did not need an explanation about why. Like, they built toward this movie for ten years and they STILL dropped the ball by ignoring 90% of their own goddamn source material that built up to it in the first place.

Plus, Thanos’ plan was to kill half of everybody in order to save the other half, out of a warped sense of... mercy.... Except literally nobody wants him to do that, including (he said) himself. He doesn’t enjoy it. Neither does anybody else. Everybody is trying to stop him constantly. WHY CONTINUE IF LITERALLY NO ONE WANTS YOU TO, INCLUDING YOURSELF?? It just doesn’t hold up or make any sense as a plot once you think about it for ten fucking seconds...??? How did this ever get past the editing stage???

Additionally, Thanos’s visual design was way better in the end credits cameo he had like 10 years ago. This guy was not visually threatening to me, and did not read as powerful or ancient or anything. He didn’t even read like he was an alien, he was just an asshole, and it didn’t impress me like it was meant to.

If the only way to make your villain seem competent is to make your heroes suddenly incompetent, you’re a bad writer.

How did Loki, god of mischief, fight Thanos? KNIFE TO THE FACE!! FRONTAL ASSAULT!! Of... of course that failed? And furthermore, why did they make it a point to remind the audience repeatedly that Loki is a god, right before Thanos killed him by just, like, choking him/snapping his neck? Apparently that’s how you kill a god? Seems like it should be harder than that.

Why didn’t Dr. Strange do his “check all the different realities” thing when they first heard about Thanos? Why didn’t Dr. Strange chop off Thanos’ arm with a portal like his buddy did with one of Thanos’ underlings?

Why didn’t anybody just shoot Quill when he was obviously about to become a problem?

Why did Quill, who had been willing to kill Gamora himself earlier in the movie, suddenly go off the handle at the worst possible moment upon finding out she was already dead? And why was his response so minimal? Like I get that he’s grieving and stuff, but you need to be able to compartmentalize that shit at least a LITTLE bit, buddy-- and if you can’t, then you need to do something bigger than just like punching the guy. At least shoot out his eyes or something.

Why didn’t Thor aim for Thanos’ head? (and for that matter in all the bazillion timelines Dr. Strange looked at, why were there NONE where Thor aimed for Thanos’ head???)

Why did Wanda decide her boyfriend was more important than literally everybody else ever, especially when Thanos winning would mean Vision dying anyway, so like... I get that killing your bf would be traumatic, but suck it up? Why didn’t they consider breaking the stone and THEN reviving Vision? He’s not a human, he’s synthetic, so why would they assume he wouldn’t be able to be rebooted later with a different power source? And why did they gamble half the universe and actively throw away Wakandan lives for him?? I JUST???

The Hulk got his ass kicked by Thanos (a weird scene; why does Thanos know WWE wrestling moves??) so he just... stopped helping. Like, that could have been interesting, if it wasn’t a general theme throughout the movie that most of the characters conveniently stopped being good at what they’re good at so that the plot could progress with adequate Drama.

Basically I just wanted to scream “get it together!” at most of the cast of this movie throughout the whole film. Don’t nerf your cast to make your villain seem stronger than he is. If you can’t make him stronger on his own merits, you’re a bad writer.

I don’t understand the reality stone (or how Thanos used it).

It seemed to change whatever he wanted, but... only while he was focusing on it? Or only while he was nearby? As soon as he left, Drax and Mantis reverted back to their normal forms, so does he need to be in the vicinity for it to work? Or was it like an illusion? If so, that’s not changing reality.

And either way, the ways in which he DID change reality were bizarrely whimsical and made no sense for his character. Like, he kept turning everything to bubbles. If somebody bought him a bubble wand, would he have stopped murdering everyone? Is that his aesthetic? Bubbles and spiralized people?

Or was that the aesthetic of the stone itself? Because that’s weird too.

That scene where the ladies fought the lady villain.

On the one hand, I’m glad there was a lady villain and her design was cool, and I’m glad whenever there are scenes where there are no men and only ladies.

ON THE OTHER HAND I’m fucking tired of the trope where male heroes fight the male villains and female heroes fight the female villains because.... ??? Because they’re fighting someone in their own league? Or because men can’t hit women? Or something?? I find it very weird and suspect whenever a combat situation gets evenly split up between the genders.

Wanda's powers >:(

Wanda is more powerful (by a LOT) in the comics than she is in the MCU, which is sort of understandable because she’s pretty universe-breaking levels of OP in the comics (like, one time she literally broke the universe), but it’s also pretty frustrating as a fan of comic!Wanda just how MUCH they nerfed her for the MCU. HOWEVER! In this movie they implied that she IS more powerful than she’s seemed up until now.

And then they barely used her at all.

I, a fool, thought maybe they were going to do something interesting about her magic. With the repetition that her power mirrors that of the stone, I thought maybe she was going to kill Vision, and then Thanos would use HER instead of the stone because she’s got it’s power inside of her.

But no.

They couldn’t have done something interesting where a woman has a role beyond “she’s precious to a Man and therefore important”. Nope.

Every Single Scene was a foregone conclusion.

Honest to god, I don’t remember a single scene where I was like “gosh, what’s going to happen next??” Every single scene was just me thinking “I know exactly what is about to happen, and I don’t want it to” and then I was right, and disappointed.

Every part of this movie was predictable with certainty, except I suppose for the scenes where I thought “surely they wouldn’t do something so weird and/or boring as what it seems like they’re setting up here” but then they did anyway.

Why did Tony think Steve would know where Vision was when Tony didn’t? And why was he right?

They just never explained this and I found it utterly perplexing.

Tony was like “Probably Steve Rogers would know where Vision is” and my friends and I had to pause the movie to compare notes and be like “wait, why? Why would HE know?” and none of us could figure it out, and then the movie never explained it either.

Nebula was underutilized.

I was just really frustrated at how few scenes she was actually in and how little she was allowed to DO in a movie completely centered on trying to fight the guy who tortured and experimented on her for her whole life. Like, she was in it and she was relevant, but mostly only as a set piece, not a person. But I guess they couldn’t figure out how to make her Precious To A Man, so she didn’t really matter to the writers.

My only hope is that she’s vitally central to the next one, but like... I expect literally nothing good out of the next movie, so it’s not exactly a thriving hope.

The female characters were all underutilized.

The writers are misogynists and you could tell by how few lines any of the women had when they weren’t being shown as Precious To A Man. Which female characters got to be involved in whole entire conversations (rather than just one-off lines)?

Wanda (while being Precious to Vision)

Gamora (while being Precious to Quill, then to Thanos)

Pepper (while being Precious to Tony)

Honorable mentions for Mantis, Nebula, Shuri, Okoye, and Nat for having a handful of lines each in the entire movie that was HIGH KEY centered on white men.

The Thanos Fandom

I’ll leave off on people who actually LIKE Thanos right now, because I assume they’re mostly eugenicist nazis and aren’t worth my time.

No, I’m talking about people who like him AS A VILLAIN and think that the movie did a GOOD JOB of making him clearly and wholly and unequivocally a villain who the audience should clearly and wholly and unequivocally feel antagonistic towards.

It didn’t.

The movie portrayed him as someone trying to do “the right thing” who has to “make hard choices” because of his “tragic past” which is NOT an acceptable portrayal of a genocidal megalomaniac-- ESPECIALLY not in the current climate of the world.

If the audience is not explicitly told how to feel about a villain (by point-by-point countering and condemning them), the lowest common denominator of the audience (which is not a small percent of said audience) is going to interpret the villain’s tragic backstory as justification, their “hard choices” as being worthy of empathy, and their worldview as something worth considering. Especially if you write them as such, and ESPECIALLY if they WIN.

And yet all I keep seeing is people who want to justify enjoying the movie (unnecessary: you can enjoy it and admit it’s content is bad at the same time) by yelling “Of course Thanos’ is CRAZY-- that’s the point!! People complaining about it aren’t giving the audience enough credit!!”

Please read this relevant post talking about Fight Club (and Mad Max).

“Media designed to teach morals often backfires [because] just exposing [people] to bad behavior is enough to make them internalize that the behavior is [...] acceptable for people to do, [especially when a] movie only really devotes 5% of its screen time to explicitly denouncing [said bad] behavior, and that [...] only arrives at the very end of the film.”

--a summarized quote from the above, much longer, post.

This is extra EXTRA relevant if you have to WAIT A YEAR before you even GET to the “consequences” part of the morality story. “The typical adult audience member does not think critically enough about film media to process this moral” is a true statement even when the moral is in the last 10 minutes of a 90 minute film-- it’s WAY more true if the moral doesn’t come until A FUCKING YEAR LATER. Another relevant quote from that post is “The director has the responsibility to clearly spell out to the audience the difference between supporting a behavior by depicting it, and criticizing it by depicting it.” This movie half assed that at best.

Another relevant quote: “Every villain is the hero of their own story. And when the villain is the narrator, the audience is hearing the version of the story in which the villain is the hero, and the audience is moved by that perspective.”

Thanos was in charge of the narrative of the entire movie. He was functionally the central and thus main character on which the story turned, made clearest by the end screen “Thanos will return”, which up until now has been reserved for PROTAGONISTS. That’s what I’m talking about here.

He was the villain, but he was also functionally the main character, and the narrative did not put in the work to properly condemn him or his actions. They spent all their time and energy making him fake deep, and then threw a couple “You’re insane!!!” lines in there from heroes to cover their asses that really didn’t have any effect on Thanos whatsoever.

Also please consider that “He’s just CRAZY!! That’s why he’s violent and evil!!” is a tired and ableist trope used primarily to villainize real mentally ill people and to let white men (who are not mentally ill) off the hook for violent toxic masculinity. Mentally ill people in reality are disproportionately likely to be the VICTIMS of violence, not the perpetrators, no matter what media would have us believe.

Thanos isn’t crazy, he’s a self absorbed, entitled, genocidal megalomaniac, and calling him crazy is a cop out.

Assuming everyone understood that he’s purely and simply wrong is giving the audience WAY too much credit, especially when his motivation is based on a fabrication that the writers seemed to actually believe.

No one in the movie said “Thanos, our world isn’t overpopulated-- people in power are just greedy. If you’re going to kill anybody, kill those people. Don’t ‘randomly’ kill half the populous when some people are actually at fault." No one in the movie said “Your logic is based on fallacy” they just said “I don’t care about your logic because murder is always wrong (except when I do it).” Most or all of the protagonists in this series have killed people. I’m not saying they were wrong to, necessarily, but saying “You can’t just kill people” rings hollow from these characters in particular, especially when they’re actively trying to kill Thanos as they say it. Again, they’re right to do that, but IF they’re doing that, they need to be written to have a better argument than “Murder is wrong!”

Basically the writing of this movie, where the heroes clashed with the villain, was just countering a fallacy that major parts of the audience may actually believe with some fallacies that fall apart at 10 seconds of critical thinking. Therefore, plenty of people will walk away with the wrong message.

ESPECIALLY when you depict Thanos in a reverent light, and have an entire subplot about how much he Loves the daughter he abused and continues abusing and then murders on screen. ESPECIALLY when he faces no genuine threat throughout the entire movie and then wins at the end, and the consequences for his actions have to wait a YEAR to be seen.

Thor "needed a weapon" to survive after taking the full force of a star??? I dont?? Get that.

That’s it, I just don’t understand it.

Eitri the dwarf was like “BUT YOU’LL DIE!!!” and Thor did the thing anyway (predictably) and didn’t die (predictably) but was sort of dying for The Drama (predictably) and then Eitri was like “He needs the weapon!! to live!!!!!” and I still don’t understand what that meant or why.

Relatedly, I don’t understand why Groot’s arm is an adequate substance for Thor’s anti-infinity-stone-weapon, when Groot #1 was obliterated by an infinity stone. Am I remembering that right? I don’t understand this. It feels like somebody thought “Hey you know what would be cool?” and that was literally the only thought process behind it. Nobody thought very hard about this before writing it into the movie. Though to be fair, that tracks with pretty much everything else in this movie, so why not, I guess.

Also stars are way bigger than that, that was not a star. Just saying.

The Red Skull cameo made no sense.

I understand that the tesseract spat him out somewhere else in space, and I’m fine with that (like, that could have been interesting actually), but I don’t understand why he ended up as, like, a ghost doing the bidding of the soul stone or whatever??? Do the stones interact? Did the tesseract tell the soul stone to fuck that guy up cuz he’s an asshole? Was that just the effect of being transported too close to the soul stone? I don’t... understand that at all.

And, in line with the rest of the movie, he was very out of character.

“Thanos is sad because he LOVED Gamora”

Then he shouldn’t have fucking killed her.

Even the smallest violin in the universe playing “my heart bleeds for you” would be too much. Fuck that guy and his fake depth.

Look I’ve touched on this multiple times already, but I keep coming back to it because it’s absolutely one of the worst things about the movie.

If they wanted to make a point about Thanos' abuse not being mutually exclusive to the emotional experience of love on his part, they really should have hit it home instead of letting it just flounder. Abuse and love are not mutually exclusive, and we DO need more media that acknowledges that, but this is not how to portray that.

Gamora (or literally anyone) needed to actually SAY “I don’t care if you love/d me, you HURT me. You ruined my life. Your love is worthless and changes NOTHING.”

Gamora suffered under his abuse pretty much her WHOLE LIFE and then he KILLED her. And he did it BECAUSE he “loved” her? And it was done to give him some sort of fucked up complexity/depth? That’s fucking violent.

They didn't go hard enough on any of their character arcs/points

like... Steve was clearly shut down and depressed but that was never addressed.

What was that about Tony wanting to stop being a hero and settle down and have kids??? They spent like 5 whole entire minutes (which is a long time in a movie actually) setting that up as a plot point and then never addressed it again.

Bucky looked so tired when he saw the arm, like you could see on his face when he realized he was being sent back into war. Another assignment. Gotta kill more people. He looked so TIRED but then the next time we see him he’s smiling at Steve, and it never got addressed (AND THEN HE DIED SO???)

Bruce and Nat shared like one line, and then never spoke again (and while I’m not interested in them as a couple, that still felt weird).

Rhodey went against that hologram asshole’s instructions and then it never came up again.

Rocket talking to Thor, asking if he’s okay, and Thor saying basically “I have nothing left to lose so I’ll be very useful” never became relevant. Rocket saying “Well, I mean, I’ve got a lot to lose actually” also never became relevant.

Dr. Strange’s whole “duty” to protect the stone was supposed to be more important than anything, and yet it was not in practice more important than... like... anything, tbh. Nor did he have to deal with the consequences of failing his duty, even a little bit.

Vision was having headaches and then it turned out to be the stone, like, warning him about Thanos or something?? Never became important.

Bruce couldn’t get the Hulk to help out. That’s... that’s it, that’s the whole character arc, he just couldn’t get the Hulk to help out.

Peter Quill was asked by Gamora to kill her. When the time came, he was actually willing to, but was stopped by an outside force. This was never addressed again, and then they both died. Cool.

I understand that they might be trying to introduce all these plot points so they can address them in the second half, but.... like........... half these characters died already, and also that’s not a good way to write a two-movie story. Series’ need to have satisfying arcs within each independent installment. This movie did not.

((You may have noticed, also, that most of the characters the movie TRIED to give actual character arcs to, even if they failed, are white men. I noticed that too.))

Characters who have barely if ever been allowed to know happiness or contentment or safety, and then just die, are not enjoyable character arcs, fuck off.

Especially Bucky, but also somewhat true for Gamora, Mantis, Wanda (plus I’m still mad about Pietro). Don’t kill characters who’ve never really gotten to live well. Don’t make characters who only get to suffer and then die. Character arcs like that are almost always written by white male writers about marginalized characters, and it just feels violent.

Steve’s new shield was weird.

I was actually hyped about T’Challa being the one to get him a new shield, because then it’d still be made of vibranium!! And everything from Wakanda so far looks rad as hell. But, uh... I wasn’t a fan of the design. It doesn’t look throwable, or big enough, or particularly useful. It didn’t do anything cool that I noticed. I thought maybe it was going to have a force field like the shield capes W’Kabi and the other male warriors used in Black Panther, or something else technological. Instead it just, like, gets 4 inches wider if you... put it on... or something??? Mediocre. Not worthy of having been made in Wakanda.

I just wasn’t a fan of pretty much any of the new designs they added to this movie (except the new spider suit, and that one lady villain; but that was really it).

“All the stones together can alter reality!! Obviously the only solution is murder.”

I know everybody has said this, but why... didn’t Thanos just... create more resources. If the problem was too few resources, why didn’t he snap his fingers and make more??? If you have the ability to alter reality and remake the universe with a snap of your fingers, and your intentions are to improve the quality of life of all people’s throughout the universe, why the fuck is your only solution “murder half of everybody”??

And why would you murder a RANDOM half of everybody? Why wouldn’t you murder, like “the half of everybody who is the shittiest to other people, on a planet by planet basis” or something? Like, if your intentions are truly benevolent but you also truly can only use murder to improve the universe (which, like, is a very VERY bullshit “if” but I digress), why would you think the best use of murder would be “random”? That just seems like a privileged person trying desperately not to sound bigoted (while sounding bigoted nonetheless).

So it doesn’t matter if they’re a mass murdering dictator, or a serial killer, or a sexual predator, or a corrupt politician lobbying for a skewed distribution of resources based on bigotry? They’d still only have a 50/50 shot at dying, even though you claim to be doing this for the betterment of the remaining people’s quality of life?

What about communities that have already suffered genocide? They have to suffer that again, because you can’t get your head out of your ass long enough to comprehend the nuance of this bullshit situation you’ve created?

What about people who are studying genetically modified food to make resources more plentiful? People who spend their whole lives making hugely positive differences in the distribution of resources? People who are just good, and care about others, and take steps to improve the lives of others, people who aren’t going to fuck up the paradise you want to create? They also have that same 50/50 shot?

And if your goal is only the deaths of 50% of the people in the universe, what about bus drivers who are actively driving buses? What about surgeons who are in the middle of surgery? What about people driving cars on the highway? Killing half the population instantaneously would result in way more death than just half the population.

This plan falls apart more and more the more you think about it.

"The biggest cast of all time” and NOBODY is queer.

Like, there are two characters in the entire MCU who could conceivably be considered canonically queer:

Valkyrie, because she was supposed to have a scene indicating her canon bisexuality. And even though they cut it, it was IN THE SCRIPT so it’s halfway canon.

Loki, but only because he’s queer (genderfluid and pansexual) in the comics. So like, he’s NOT canonically queer in the movies, but he’s also not specified as NOT queer, so...? The writers definitely didn’t intend it, despite queercoding him, but we can pretend.

And in infinity war, Loki dies 5 seconds in, and Valkyrie straight up doesn’t exist. So????? It was boring and sucked.

They attempted to address the MCU Villain Problem, and failed.

The MCU villain problem, AKA the villains in most MCU movies are forgettable and boring because they and their schemes always came as an afterthought.

Recently, to address this, the formula (as seen with Killmonger and the Vulture) seems to be "a villain that needs to be stopped, but who is understandable and maybe even relatable and likeable". In both the case of Killmonger and the Vulture, this worked (not perfectly, but it did). They made the villains PEOPLE outside of their villainy. They made them complex, and it was compelling and therefore memorable and interesting.

They tried to apply this formula to Thanos... in the worst possible way.

As I’ve already talked about. They tried to make him complex to avoid their usual villain problem, except in the process they MADE HIM THE PROTAGONIST. There wasn’t a hero protagonist. There was only Thanos and a lot of heroes trying to stop him, and posing no real threat to him or his plot at any point.

And the heroes OPPOSED him, but they did not properly condemn him or his logic, and then he won.

Fatphobia and emasculation aimed at Quill for the lulz

They wanted Peter Quill to be threatened by Thor for some reason, and the way they chose to do that was to make Quill’s friends call him “one sandwich away from fat” and thus “not a man”.

Then he started vowing to commit to a better exercise routine or something, and tried to lower his voice to sound more like Thor. Bless Thor for not understanding what was going on and thinking Quill was mocking him (aka, not thinking of Quill as having anything he’d need to compensate for), but Quill being threatened by Thor, as well as his jealousy of Gamora’s attention to a “more attractive” man, honestly just felt like the writers scrambling for a reason to give the characters conflict, and settling on a toxic and offensive trope.

Especially because Chris Pratt is In Shape. He has like a six pack. He’s objectively NOT fat. If he were, and they mocked him for it, that would be fatphobic and shitty, but the fact that he’s NOT just makes it baffling on top of being fatphobic and shitty. It’s like those makeover movies where they put glasses and baggy clothes on a conventionally attractive woman and then claim she looks terrible.

Bad.

There were better options for Thanos' reasoning and the writers... really should have taken them.

I have HEARD that the comic version of Thanos’ motivation was “He’s in love with the embodiment/god of death, and wanted to kill half of everybody to impress her” and to be honest that would have been a better option.

(Side Note: Maybe the use of Hela as the Goddess of Death in Ragnarok is why the writers of Infinity War hated Ragnarok. Maybe they were mad they couldn’t use her for this movie, and that’s why they murdered and buried everything Ragnarok accomplished with such thorough dedication.)

Other better Thanos motivations just off the top of my head:

He wanted to take over/colonize/enslave other planets to house his own people who DID use up the resources on their own planet.

There’s actually something ELSE he wants to use the Infinity Stones for, but he needs to kill tons of people to get it, or to get the Infinity Stones.

He was cursed to be immortal and will not be allowed to die until he kills enough other people.

He needs to trade like 10 million souls to the embodiment of death to bring someone he loves back from the dead.

He plans to harvest people from a bunch of different planets to produce a youth serum for alien elites-- (no wait that’s the plot of jupiter ascending)

He just hates people and thinks people should die.

He literally eats people, and he’s enormous so he needs to eat a lot of people.

Just saying, all of these are better motivations than “I’ve just gotta murder people cuz if I don’t then people will run out of food, and then they’ll die. I don’t WANT to, nobody else wants me to either, but I’m going to anyway. I’m sad about it.”

"We don't trade lives"

This was a line from Steve about killing vs not killing Vision, and in the subsequent context of the movie, it’s violent as hell.

“We don’t trade lives” he says, to discourage Vision from consenting to death to save everyone. Then he/they take Vision to Wakanda where Wakandan soldiers lay down their lives by the dozens to hundreds to protect Vision. Vision, who was willing to die.

Steve Rogers is a soldier. He KNOWS that trading some lives for other (hopefully more) lives is how this is going to go. He knows. This was like the “Language” line from Avengers; it doesn’t make sense for the character.

But even beyond that, as I’ve said, they are absolutely going to-- and for that matter they were PLANNING to trade black Wakandan lives for Vision’s safety. And even if that weren’t a plot point, they’d be planning to potentially trade their OWN lives for those Thanos would kill if (when) they fail.

“We don’t trade lives.” Yes, you do. Of course you do. And the audience knows it because the audience has seen all your other fucking movies.

Why couldn’t the writers take a breath and stop trying so hard and just let the characters say what they mean. “I don’t want you to die.” “Please let us try to save you.”

Why couldn’t they have just, like, made up an actual reason why they couldn’t afford to lose Vision? Maybe Vision’s headaches could have been actually utilized as a warning system? Maybe Vision could have communicated telepathically with Tony’s AI all the way through space, so Vision was their only was to know what was going on with Tony and Co.? Maybe destroying the stone while it was inside Vision was massively dangerous (like, could have gone off like a bomb or something....? I mean he CAN use the stone like a laser, maybe trying to destroy it would make it detonate.).

THERE WERE OPTIONS. Instead they went with the absolute fallacy of “We don’t trade lives,” delivered by a character who would never have said that, and followed by the traded lives of MANY black people for one white man.

Bad.

The Soul Stone has really low standards for supposedly having high standards

Why require somebody to go through with a whole test of “give up the thing or person you love most” to acquire the Soul Stone? Like, the explanation “A soul for a soul” was kind of cool, but what does that have to do with love? It’s not the Love Stone, it’s the Soul Stone. Love doesn’t have anything to do with that, and even if it DID, Thanos’ version of love should have made the stone go “Um, I think the fuck NOT, you abusive motherfucker,” instead of “Sure! I’ll hand phenomenal cosmic power over to you because you just seem super legit. Nothing could go wrong here.”

Was the love thing even real, or was the Red Skull just bein’ his racist self, and wanted to watch Gamora get tossed off a cliff because he’s a nazi and bored as hell?

Furthermore, why did only one of the stones require a test? Is the Soul Stone just really needy? What is the deal with these stones??? Nothing was ever explained at ALL and it made NO SENSE.

Gamora deserved better, and so did every audience member who’s ever been abused.

I’m just gonna circle back to this point and address it head on.

Here’s a great article on this subject from somebody better equipped to address it than me.

But basically just... fuck the writers for showing us her power, and then making it pointless. Making her stab Thanos in the throat and then allowing him to wave it off like it didn’t happen or didn’t matter or like he was just testing her. Fuck the writers for letting her be murdered at the hand of the man who ruined her life, to further HIS goals, and to give HIM ‘depth’.

If she doesn’t get resurrected in the next movie and deliver the killing blow, I will be even more furious than I already am, and that is honestly already an impressive level of fury.

God I’m so fucking glad I didn’t pay to see this garbage fire of a movie.

#infinity war #infinity war review #spoilers #my thoughts #readmore #movie review #my rants

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animepowermakeup · 8 years ago

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Hollywood “Ghost in the Shell” Film Review (with Spoilers)

After 7 months of stalling since its release, I finally watched the Hollywood rendition of Ghost in the Shell. I told my followers I would do a film review on it months ago but I could not bring myself to sit down and watch it right away. Keep in mind that I am a HUGE Ghost in the Shell fan of the original manga/anime and had very high expectations when watching this film. I watched it from the point of view as a fan but kept in mind the perspective of someone who was new to the series. This review will contain spoilers because a core problem of the film lies in its twist and- I think you know where I’m going with this. I will break this film down in different sections (no pun intended): Casting, the plot and character development, visuals, and what I liked and what could have been done better.

Casting

I will not focus too much on this portion since a lot of you may be tired of hearing about it but it is still important to include. No, I did not approve of Scarlett Johansson playing the role as the Major and no, the plot did not justify her presence in the film. In fact it worsens the case for her but I will discuss that in “The Plot” section. Batou’s actor is fine (as he is the only character that many fans have made speculations about his original character being caucasion based on different accounts) along with most of the other Section 9 members. Kuze is white yet I never liked Kuze as a character to begin with, even in the second season of Stand Alone Complex (that’s a topic saved for another day). However, I heard many people defend the casting by saying “It’s okay if the Major is white because there are so many POC characters”. You mean POC supporting and background characters? You can hire all those people for the background but not consider one of them for the foreground. Making Ishikawa a black Austrailian will not make up for the Major being white. To me it seemed like a cheap, baited shot at diversity and erasure of Japanese people and their role in the industry.

The Plot/Character Development

The plot is simple. Too simple. Major Mira Killian is a full-prosthetic cyborg who was "saved” by Hanka robotics and now works at a counter-terrorist organization called Section 9. She finds herself on the trail to hunt down a hacker by the name of Kuze only to discover that her past may not be what it seems. Some action stuff happen and frankly it gets a bit muddy from there but in the end she discovers she’s, in fact, not Mira but actually Motoko Kusanagi *gasp* who was a girl who ran away from home and was basically kidnapped for the 2571 experiment which is the action of placing a human brain in a robotic body. So Mira wants revenge but in the end she decides to stay where she is while embracing the fact that she is really Motoko.

Now the core problem with this film is the plot twist that Mira is Motoko. They went through all the effort to actually cast an actress to play the real Motoko and even her mother yet only cast Scarlett Johansson because she’s “well-known” and would “bring in more revenue” as well as appeal to a Chinese audience (for the Chinese market, not Japanese). Obviously their plan failed since this movie bombed in the box office.

Another big issue I had was that they stripped away any complexity from the original source material. The 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie was so thought provoking and unafraid to challenge its viewer. The true Motoko Kusanagi was a symbol of philosophy and “the next step” in our human evolution. She transcended herself and her peers in all aspects and was willing to learn more about the world despite what little she knew of her past self. Mira simply gets butthurt about being lied to and when given the chance to join Kuze, she turns it down because despite everything, she still thinks Section 9 is her home or something like that. Honestly, it was rather forgettable.

The writing was so dumbed down to the point of characters literally explaining every little thing that was going on in every scene. A good writer can convey ideas without always having to explain them. So I get it. The modern American audience can only handle so much but that is no excuse when you have astounding sci-fi films like Ex Machina or Interstellar which are extremely well-written films that make their audience actually think critically. Everything was laid out to you like a book for middle-school readers.

So character development for Mira goes like this. She’s unsure of herself in the beginning, she feels betrayed in the middle, and she has closure in the end (I guess). Now her character is so bland that it was hard to sympathize with her which is a key component in writing a character. We sympathize with Motoko in the original film because, despite how strong and powerful she may be, she expresses her human side and shows moments of vulnerability and questions her own existence right after encountering the Puppetmaster. But in the end, she was able to free herself and move beyond the physical world. Mira, on the otherhand, already begins showing doubts in herself since the beginning of the film. In fact, she doubts herself in every scene until she realizes that they were somewhat true. It’s not that dynamic for her character arc and there was only a “turning point” after meeting Kuze (and by watching him shoot at her coworkers? Like she literally stood there while he fired at them. I just thought that was weird. She like trudges away after that happened).

The most development Batou got was Aquafina bottle cap eyes.

All the other characters were simply props and the only other character who had any dynamicism was Dr. Owlet, I mean, Ouelet, who was the lady who basically brought Mira back to life and knew about Mira’s past. She sacrificed herself to save her from this bad dude called Cutter but frankly, it wasn’t that impactful.

To wrap up the characters, I felt nothing for them which is a shame because I LOVE their true characters from the original manga/anime.

The Visuals

3D technology is a wonderful invention but constant and heavy use of it is not always a good idea (unless you’re James Cameron’s Avatar). Every shot in this movie was riddled with 3D enviornments while attempted to blend it with real ones. Sure the geishas in that one scene were practical effects but that’s the only case of it in this film. I don’t know what it was but I did not get the Blade Runner feel that they tried to achieve and I even recently rewatched that movie the other day.

One of my main criticisms in regards to visuals was the constant bombardment of fanservice. Now I’m not talking about seeing Johansson in a nude body suit every couple of scenes, I’m talking about the scenes recreating exact shots from the 1995, 2004 film and Stand Alone Complex show. I could pinpoint and reference everything as they appeared to me yet it did not make it any better. To me, these sequences did not translate well to live-action. The moment I especially thought looked awkward and out of place was the recreation of the tank battle. Like from the actions to facial expressions, it was all ripped from the movie and it did not look right at all. I believe it’s the fact that there are things that should remain animated and not recreated in real life. The fanservice was more like “Hey if you’re a fan of the Ghost in the Shell series, our movie has those same scenes that you love!!” well if that’s the case, I’d much rather be watching the anime than something that was trying too hard to be memorable like it. The anime is memorable not only because of what took place in it but how it was made in terms of technology at the time and how it still stands to date.

There’s a distinct difference between taking creative liberties with original source material and simply ripping scenes and making them look too forced for the sake of “appealing to veteran fans”.

What I Liked

There are two things that I liked. The songs created by the original composer Kenji Kawai (which was just 2 songs) and the cameo of Gabriel/Gabu, Batou’s basset hound from Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. This movie simply made me want to go watch the original movies/read the original mangas/books.

So all in all, what could have saved this film?

Well after watching it, nothing really. Even if the Major was casted to be Japanese, that could not have saved this film. The writing was too bad to work with, the visuals were gaudy, and they tried too hard to be like its source material while failing in every aspect. It wasn’t memorable and if there’s any silver-lining, it was better for Johansson to take the fall for this film than say Rinko Kikuichi because at the end of the day, Johansson can still sit on a pile of cash despite how good or bad the film turned out.

I give this film a 3/10 and that’s me being nice. It was “better” than Hollywood Dragon Ball but no better than The Last Airbender or the Netflix Death Note.

#mine #textpost #hollywood ghost in the shell #ghost in the shell #Scarlett Johansson #movie review #review

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magdalenes · 8 years ago

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actually okay no i know i just made a post about how i love her but let’s talk about michelle, really talk about her, because she was incredible in spider-man: homecoming (bless you zendaya, you slayed and our cinema — four hundred people full — loved you and the whole film. we applauded at the end, i shit you not, with some even giving it a standing ovation)

okay so peter obviously has the main arc in this film and i love it, the kid was endearing and wonderful and lovable and hilarious and always tried to do the right thing and i love him, but he’s not the only one with an arc. michelle’s admittedly comes off as pretty minor when considered against some others, like peter’s, but it exists. it’s there. and that’s a pretty important thing to acknowledge, when you consider what her arc’s about: friends. more importantly, having them. let’s start with who she is. by the way, if you haven’t seen the film, i would stop reading now if you’re avoiding spoilers, because i can’t promise i’ll be avoiding them. also heads up for probably confusing parentheses bc i go off on tangents so!! michelle. michelle who we first see calling out peter and ned for “we should probably stop staring before it gets creepy” — “too late, you guys are losers”. that was in the first trailer and don’t get me wrong, it was the perfect timing for that comment, and definitely introduced us, in one line, to who michelle is. but it’s the next thing she says that i want to focus on. i feel like it may have made it’s way into promotional material for the film but i don’t remember; either way, it was the moment, for me, that highlighted an important trait about michelle (her honesty, though that’s not really all it is — it’s something that would be self-deprecating in almost anyone else’s mouth, but doesn’t quite hit that note here. it’s raw, i guess, like a punch in the face, because you don’t expect anyone to say something like “i don’t have any friends” without some emotion being attached, and while there are the barest hints of emotion there, it exists as something different entirely and i just really wanna applaud zendaya on a job really well done), as well as set up her arc’s key words. “i don’t have any friends.” whilst it’s subtly hinted as the film goes on that it’s not the only reason she’s sitting with them, it’s definitely the strongest contender. (also, bless ned; i don’t know anyone else who would consider someone sitting at the opposite end of your table ‘sitting with us’ and i love you for it. ned was a blessing) anyway! michelle is this wonderful, observant girl (“i’m not obsessed with him, i’m just very observant” was wonderfully-delivered as a line, and i love michelle for managing to inject dignity in that statement when everyone is staring at her after she reveals her observation of peter (and also how many of the same extra-curriculars she and peter have lol), even if it’s perhaps not entirely true; not that i’m positing that michelle is obsessed with peter, because definitely not, but there is definitely the subtle hints of a crush and this is tangential kinda but I REALLY LOVE HOW THEY DID THAT, like she’s not the love interest in this film and it’s subtle and definitely is not the defining aspect of her character and i just love her and i love this movie) who fits in protesting around the academic decathlon (after WINNING it, my GIRL) and seems to eat toast at parties hosted by the most-popular senior in the school (seriously i’m probably seeing this again next week but if anyone sees it before me or can remember: was she making toast at liz’s house lmao). she’s dry and clever and sits in detention when she doesn’t have it because she likes drawing people in their crisis points and shows them the pictures i cannot even express to you how much i love this girl also i don’t want to understate the washington monument moment. i never actually caught their teacher’s name but to me he will always be professor cligoris from community. anyway, when prof clig turns to her, because the rest of them are heading up to washington monument, and she realises what she’s getting at and informs him she doesn’t really want to celebrate or be involved with (i can’t remember exact phrasing so if anyone does please shout out) something slaves built, and then when prof clig is like “oh i’m sure slaves didn’t—” and then the guard in the background is just shaking his head a little in the background and michelle’s matching expression, i just. i think it’s a really good highlight of a particular way race dynamics can play out: prof clig doesn’t know slaves built the monument, doesn’t even think about it, because he’s never felt he’s needed to. even though he is the adult, the educator, he is coming from a place of historical (and modern day) privilege; it’s not something he’s thought about because it’s not his historical oppression, it’s not emblematic of historical atrocities that have ramifications on his culture today — or, it is, but those ramifications don’t actively work against him, so he doesn’t have to think about it. and liz goes up, and michelle stays down; both legitimate choices, both incredible girls. i’m just still buzzing that they showed us a character making that choice.

also, marvel’s never been the best with diversity amongst its cast, and i’m not going to suggest that this movie somehow makes up for it, because it doesn’t. i’m constantly frustrated as a biracial pasifika woman that i never see anyone who looks like me in these movies i love (i’ve long since given up on seeing someone pasifika in marvel films (though i am unbelievably excited for taika waititi’s thor), but just in general, it’s so important to see more poc in these movies) but this is the first marvel movie i’ve seen set in new york that is actually populated with enough diversity to look like it could actually be new york. also, the high schoolers actually look like teenagers! i’m in awe! i fucking love this cast anyway i’m getting really distracted. all right, so we have michelle in all her blunt, smart, politically active, toast-eating, cool outsider glory. and we have her arc words: “i don’t have any friends.”

and then we have the washington monument scene, a moment that only peter is privy to, though michelle doesn’t know it’s peter. michelle, on the ground — michelle who says “can’t believe you guys are at this lame party”, michelle who is involved in several extra-curricular groups but is usually alone outside of them, michelle who voluntarily attends detention, michelle who says “i don’t have any friends” — michelle points up at the monument that’s cracking and cries out, worriedly (it’s literally the most earnest emotion we’ve heard from her all film; generally she’s dry and fly af), “my friends are up there!”

honestly, it didn’t occur to me until after, because i was so swept away in the moment, but she says it. my friends. and peter — peter hears it. spider-man does this odd stumbling double-take at her words, and at the time i thought it might be his surprise at seeing her there, or his concern at what she said regarding the whereabouts of their team, or just his general panic. and honestly, i still think that. peter parker is smarter than me, but i think even he would be too caught up in everything to realise what she said. but she still said it. i don’t know if peter would click or remember later — honestly, he had a lot of stuff going on. but she still said it, and he does know that, even if she doesn’t know he does.

we see michelle with the gang other times, of course — with peter in detention, with ned and the others at the dance, etc. — but it’s her final scene i want to draw you to, the academic decathlon meeting after liz leaves. michelle is named captain, and they’re all clapping for her and it’s so pure and ned looks honestly excited for her and peter looks earnest and it’s just so pure — and then she says, “my friends call me mj”. (i’m gonna revisit that in a moment, but i need to finish the scene). ned turns to her, like, “i thought you don’t have any friends” and she pauses, then says, “i didn’t” and i fucking died.

we go from michelle at the beginning, on the very end of the table, alone and away from even losers peter and ned — because they may be losers, but they’re together. michelle is alone. we go from that michelle, saying “i don’t have any friends”, to michelle at the end, surrounded by her decathlon team, clapping for her, happy for her, acknowledging her deserved captaincy, saying “my friends call me mj”, saying “i didn’t [have any friends]” but now i do.

i just !!! i love michelle so much and maybe it’s not a hero arc, or learning about the importance of looking out for the little guy, or even learning to listen (which was probably happy’s), but it’s still important. it’s still meaningful. i went into that film being sure i’d love zendaya’s character. i came out of that film not only loving her, but rooting for michelle “mj” jones.

aaaaaand let’s talk real quick about the mj thing, because it’s not the point of this post but i still want to. personally, i love mary-jane in the comics, but her film presence has been pretty lacklustre, and michelle is quite different to her but i also really really love michelle, like holy shit, and i think she’s an incredible mj. i don’t know what role she’ll occupy going forward. they said she’s not mary-jane watson, that she’s a completely new character, and technically, that’s true. she’s mj, but she’s not mary-jane. they also said she wasn’t a love interest this movie; that’s also true. liz was. however. she’s not mary-jane, but she is mj. she wasn’t a love interest this movie, but she was nursing a well-hidden crush on peter. so maybe in spider-man 2, who knows? personally, i’m rooting for it, but more than that, i’m rooting for her. as a character. spider-man: homecoming gave me so many wonderful things, like a wonderful cast, the best use of donald glover since community (”i like bread”) which also snuck in a miles morales reference, a great ferris bueller’s day off homage, my favourite film incarnation of peter parker, the wonder that is liz allen, an a.i. named karen who is more supportive of peter than most adults are in general, high schoolers that looked like high schoolers, an updated version of a bully instead of a jock meathead and ned wearing an awesome cowboy hat because it gives him confidence (ned is such a fucking blessing) (also i hope he one day meets groot wearing that because groot’s reason for not liking hats gives me life), but michelle “mj” jones might be the gift i appreciate most.

#spider-man: homecoming #mj #michelle jones #spider-man homecoming #spiderman #mcu #marvel #spider-man #spider-man spoilers /#m #marvel meta #i guess #i love michelle so much oh my god #i also love her as mj like i love mj watson in the comics but her film presence has been p lacklustre #and i loVE MICHELLE JONES as a character and i think shes a fucking epic mj #this wouldnt post earlier so ive queued it in case tumblr's just being annoying lol

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magdalenes · 8 years ago

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#spider-man: homecoming #mj #michelle jones #mcu #marvel #marvel meta #i guess #spider-man homecoming #spiderman #spider-man #spider-man spoilers /#m #i love michelle so much oh my god #i also love her as mj like i love mj watson in the comics but her film presence has been p lacklustre #and i loVE MICHELLE JONES as a character and i think shes a fucking epic mj

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