#she's a lot more compelling when she's allowed to be a little unlikable

[canisalbus]

Have you ever watched the devil wears Prada? There's something about machete that really reminds me of Miranda, and it really does make me think that a top position at a magazine or museum, or even as an academic would make a lot of sense in the modern!au. (Would be funny if he was an early modernist cultural/art historian or specialising in religious iconography from the canon period?)

Machete has been compared to Miranda a handful of times over the years, but I had never seen the movie until a couple of months ago. And now I kind of get what they might've meant by that.

[pulsingvoid]

i'll literally never be convinced crystal/kristen was not a figment of misty's imagination, a friend she invented for herself that the others played along with because at least misty was occupied. i know she reads so fake to me just because she was poorly integrated into the rest of the wilderness plot (as in - not at all lol), she's a half-assed attempt at giving context to misty's anxious attachment style, which was almost immediately undermined anyway by her deciding to like walter. crystal/kristen never appears until misty is socially iced out for accidentally poisoning the soup and suddenly there's a second incredibly annoying theatre kid everyone wishes would go away? that dresses in misty's exact color palette? and they've been on the same team this whole time while misty was so ostracized and lonely? nobody even wanted to look for her when she "vanished"! the wilderness even magicked away her body so they'd have to hunt each other! crystal isn't even her name. i'm sorry, but she's about as real as akilah's mouse.

not being able to suspend my disbelief long enough to accept this subplot as real cheapened it a lot for me as it happened, but i have since decided her not being real could be plausibly-canon, and suddenly it's so compelling. misty invented herself the perfect friend that accepted everything about her and daydreamed little playdates and slumber parties, and even so, when she confessed to destroying the black box, her daydream turned on her. misty's own (quite vivid) imagination couldn't stretch enough to allow her a friend who accepted her wholly. she plays out what would happen if she told her closest friend this dark, fucked up secret, and it ends bloody. she convinces herself she'll never be fully accepted and loved, and ultimately it doesn't matter if crystal/kristen was real or not. i'm honestly fine with this theory never being confirmed (again, i don't think they intended it this way, crystal's place in the story was just criminally unearned and underwritten), but i'm much more compelled by a version of events where misty is so lonely and confused and guilt-ridden that her mind (or, if you'd like, the wilderness) gives her the kind of friend she was unlikely to find even under better conditions, and there's still betrayal and death at the end of it. misty's adolescent brain is already self-aware enough to know her hands will be bloodstained and unholdable for the rest of her life.

[wilcze-kudly]

honestly.... kuvira has irl parallels w putin.

I mean yeah I've compared her to Stalin and WOW IT'S ALMOST LIKE RUSSIA HAS BEEN DOING THE SAME DAMN THING FOR DECADES. Like seriously it's starting to feel like fucking groundhog day man.

And look, I don't want to be the asshole who shames people for liking Kuvira. I like a lot of aspects of Kuvira's character.

She's hot, she's charismaric (mainly due to Zelda Williams but yk) and she's a relatively compelling character. People are allowed to enjoy a villain character without endorsing the shitty stuff those villains do.

But there is a distinction between Kuvira the character and what Kuvira represents/the thinly veiled real life ideologies behind her.

Kuvira as a character is interesting, you know? Fun to talk about. Someone who was abandoned at a young age and proceeded to self sabotage her relationships and became a control freak who fears vulnerability due to that. Pretty standard villain shit. But fun, and there's a little more to her.

Kuvira as a representant of real world ideologies carries much more weight. People catch onto her Nazi imagery, but the Soviet stuff isn't as obvious. A lot of western europeans and Americans, the main demographic of Avatar won't immediately clock those influences behind Kuvira.

To those countries, Soviet occupation of Eastern Bloc countries was just the cold war, the red scare, a looming threat that could cause harm, but was at least not capable of influencing their lives too intimately.

While the countries that were under the power of the Soviet Union still have that memory fresh in their minds. Hell, my mom grew up in the PRL, my uncle was a part of Solidarność. People remember that shit it wasn't that long ago. Reading literature from not that long ago like A Minor Apocalypse or Madame feels surreal. When I read memoirs or just heard stories from my older relatives, I could taste the atmosphere of bleakness, distrust and confusion.

So maybe I'm just more primed to notice how Kuvira's actions play into patterns of Russian aggression. Maybe when Western European and American viewers are more willing to give Kuvira the benefit of the doubt, or see merit in her actions, I'm more willing to look at her through the lenses of the ideologies she represents.

Throughout most of the show, we don't actually see that much of Kuvira as a character. She's more a silent, looming villain in the background and due to her more calculated demeanour, we don't get a lot of insight into her personality until the last two episodes. So maybe it's easier to look at her more as a representant of dangerous ideologies than as a character.

Mind you, I don't think Bryke really thought through the implications of giving Kuvira the aesthetic and ideology they did. Nazis and to a lesser extent, Soviets, have become very much shorthand for "bad guy" in fiction. If they had thought this through, I wanna at least hope that they would have handled Kuvira more carefully.

Because by giving Kuvira a sense of moral ambiguity and the clumsy handling of her character, you have dumbasses ob reddit defending her. I'm genuinely shocked at the amount of Kuvira apologism in the tlok fandom.

But that goes back to the Western Bloc viewers and creators not really being familiar with the history Kuvira embodies. Not fully imagining the perspective of for example the people under her rule. Which is a perspective I am desperate to see, filling out the blanks with the history Kuvira draws from.

Most of B4 is seen through that 'outside perspective' of Korra and Republic City. Not unlike how a huge part of the narrative around the cold war and Ussr is the Cold War and how it affected Western Bloc countries.

Once again, the only characters who are actually part of the Earth Kingdom and have some experience with Kuvira's occupation are the Beifongs. But they are dismissed as biased, irrational, agressive or pushed aside when our heroic USA inserts get the spotilight. The fandom despises Suyin, derides Zaofu for not being the perfect victims. A story we see more and more of nowadays.

Suyin is depicted as "white woman liberalism" depsite being a leader of a community based, anti monarchist city which seems to allow it's citizens to flourish as artists and scientists and also refusing to seize power over a vulnerable country to hand it over to a monarchy she didn't support and then wanting to kill a fascist? But "ooooh Zaofu is culty and Suyin is a bit of a hypocrite" so I guess she's worse then the fucking Hitler Stalin lovechild that threatened to lay seige to her peaceful city.

The Kuvira apologism in the fandom does sometimes give me similar vibes to Putin dickriding from Conservative americans tbh. At least that explains it.

The reason I'm so unsettled by so many people being blind to the ideologies and history Kuvira represents is because that ideology is not dead. It seems like a lot of westerners don't really seem to care about it anymore, but Russia is still commiting a genocide in Ukraine. Hell, it seems like people from countries that aren't close to the conflict kinda forgot that was still a thing. People are fucking dying, homes are being destroyed. And you think Russia will stop at decimating Ukraine? They're already hiring arsonists to cause chaos in Poland, they're not gonna stop.

These ideologies still cause pain and death today. They're not for cheap villains who can be watered down and excused by a sad backstory. And they're certainly not to he excused and supported by edgy fans who somehow didn't realise that the previous show was violently anti fascist.

Love Kuvira as a character, enjoy her, her storylines, her personality. But for the love of God, acknowledge what she represents, who she represents and that it's bad.

Whew that kinda... got a little heavy. I apologise for the rant, I'm just very frustrated. By how Kuvira is woobified and exhonorated hy both fanon and canon, and by current events in the Ukraine and Poland and the rest of the ex-second world countries and the seeming apathy of the rest of the wider world.

Quick note: The terminology in this post may not be fully up to date, since a lot of terms have went out of usage and lost their meaning.

[coffee-counts-as-a-meal]

"my blood is medicine"

no but tell me why out of everything that happened in this episode THIS is what broke my heart the most

(TLOU 1x05 "Endure and Survive" spoilers below)

I've seen some people comment about how show!Ellie feels younger than game!Ellie, like an actual 14-year old, where game!Ellie could have honestly passed as somewhere around 16ish just based on the way she carries herself. and I think that's honestly something they lean into a lot in the show, which ultimately strengthens it (i could write a whole other essay on the choices they made in changing certain aspects of Joel's character and relationship with Ellie and how it becomes SO MUCH MORE COMPELLING AND STRONGER AND THE BETTER FOR IT but that's a whole other thing)

and like. The dynamic between her and Sam (also de-aged canonically, which is HEARTBREAKING HE WAS SO TINY) feels so innocent. They're children and they're allowed to be children.

Also noticed how the moment from the game where Henry scolded Sam for merely picking up a toy was changed to Henry giving Sam crayons and ENCOURAGING HIM to draw and paint and have fun even when they're fighting to survive - it's not enough that Henry and Joel are fighting to protect their lives, but they're fighting to protect Ellie and Sam's childhood too. Letting them play soccer and steal comic books. Joel apologizing to Ellie and giving her space if she wanted it to talk about having to shoot Bryan. Henry saying "it'll be nice for Sam to have a friend," not just the practical cost-benefit analysis of what it'll mean to be traveling as a pack of four to Wyoming.

so Ellie telling Sam "my blood is medicine" hit me so hard not just because it's a last ditch-effort to save her friend. It's just so matter-of-fact in such a childish way. It's "it's okay, you skinned your knee, don't cry, I'll blow some magic fairy dust to make it feel better," it's an absolute belief in something that might not work but you kinda have to be a kid to even have that sort of faith in the first place.

when I was 13 my little sister had nightmares about that one chimpanzee that ate that lady's face (kids who grew up on dateline and late night news will know what I'm talking about) and couldn't sleep. she was around 8 at the time. I gave her a hair scrunchie and told her that if she spoke certain magic words, fairies would appear and fight whatever it was that came to harm her.

"My blood is medicine." "This scrunchie will protect you." These are the words of kids who truly believe that things will turn out okay - you wouldn't hear those words from adults, or at least they wouldn't be said in such a genuine way. Ellie genuinely believed her blood was medicine - she believed she could save her friend, magically, scientifically, whatever way you want to believe it could have worked. She's seen so much and been through so much, but she's still a kid whose first instinct is to go up to the other kid on the playground and comfort them - it's okay, my blood is medicine. You'll be okay. You're scared? I'm scared too. I'll stay up with you. Like a sleepover. We'll read comic books all night.

But her blood isn't medicine. And unlike Sam, eventually she'll have to grow up.

[horizon-verizon]

It's amazing how you talk about misogyny to mask your own misogyny towards a female character. You think you can end your ridiculous essay with "she's just empty and not compelling" then blame it to sexism and the writers. All you have to say is you hate that they gave Helaena a compelling ability that you wish your favs have. Have you actually seen the next seasons of this show to know they're not doing anything with her character and the dreamer ability itself? You know you're going to be so disappointed with your wishes. You're just seething they didn't give show Dany the dreamer ability and projecting your spite towards Helaena. So transparent.

Well this is awkward.

You're just seething they didn't give show Dany the dreamer ability and projecting your spite towards Helaena.

Let's say that them not giving show Dany her canon dragon dreams was part of my thoughts when I was writing the post you respond to.

Dany actually had dreams...while canon Helaena, you and no one can ever prove that she did, so the real question is why is there a discrepancy in your mind as to why Dany shouldn't/couldn't have her canonical dreams while a less important character like Helaena should/could? Makes no sense.

I don't really care or feel strong emotions for or about Helaena bc she doesn't do much. Not because she is on the green side and little to do with her own choice in the matter. GRRM clearly uses her to make other characters compare Helaena to Rhaenyra, the Shepherd, the coming Dragonpit disaster, the degredation of Rhaenyra's control over KL, etc.

Also, why do you think it' a good thing or acceptable that they removed Dany's dreams, which are critical to understanding her arc, the Targs, the climatic catastrophe that is the Others, AND as this is a fantasy series...we need magical elements?! So, back to the discrepancy, I rather think it is you who is showing a bit of sexism: bc unlike Helaena, Dany is not a girl-woman who succumbs to the patriarchal violence but fights back and is going to enact revolutionary violence. If you say "Dany is an incest child", you should know that so are a lot of Westerosi people AND Dany is still that revolutionary, anti-exploitation figure.

It doesn't sound like you care much about "truth" or bigotry, so much as you are entertained and validated in the bigotry you already carry.

Have you actually seen the next seasons of this show to know they're not doing anything with her character and the dreamer ability itself? You know you're going to be so disappointed with your wishes.

If it takes 2 seasons to properly distinguish a character (aside from establishing that they have an ability) as to what kind of person they are and that you had since the second half of the first, you've done something wrong. So, yes, HotD dropped the ball and it does have to do with sexism either on the writers or the execs, like how Legend of Korra wasn't given as much of a chance as it should have been. Whether bc of production stuff or imagination. Espec since there have been characters people actually made into real people in just s few scenes (the rest going off from that point) and that has not happened for Helaena yet...when it should have in the first season. And if you say "bc studios and execs are cutting down stuff for costs", then that just hammers in the point that this is not a good story bc it was not allowed to breathe and develop. It's just unearned spectacle after spectacle.

Right now, Helaena is still just a person who says stuff and people ignore or to characterize/reflect more on Aegon and Jacaerys (dance scene).

All you have to say is you hate that they gave Helaena a compelling ability that you wish your favs have.

If you only talk of Dany, no, already explained above. If you mean the blacks, no, bc i think that no one should be having dragon dreams amongst them. This is supposed to be an uncommon ability and none of the characters of the orig canon Dance story show signs of having these dreams. I'd rather we focus on story given. The anon who's ask I link first above reminded me of Duncan (Maekar's son) and Patchface and how this adaptation could have made their Helaena more interesting while keeping her dragon dreaming. I still prefer the canon a little more, but with their post, I'm much more amenable to vision-having!Helaena as long as she's the only dragon dreamer and she has actual dreams and not Raven-Symone visions where she's fully awake for them. You can go check that post out. Or don't, not my issue.

[arcticgraverobber]

I just finished: Resident Evil 4 Remake - Separate Ways DLC!

The original Separate Ways DLC didn't seem like much more than a throwaway excuse to add more content - the answer to what Ada was doing all that time during the main game being: exactly what you expected her to be doing. I'm happy to say the remake is anything but, and likely surpasses the remake in my mind.

The voice actor change was something that I largely didn't notice in the main game - the controversy is not something I particularly want to talk about but from what I have seen it does make seem to make sense to change to a more appropriate actor, even though that may not be the actual reasoning behind Capcom's decision. Playing the DLC I went back and forth on how I felt about the new VA, initially thinking that I just hadn't noticed how bad she was in the main game because Ada has fairly little screen time. However, while I would've preferred someone more in line with the previous pefromances, allowing consistency within the 'remake verse' as it were, as I played more of Separate Ways I softened up on the potrayal - I think some of the more throwaway lines may have been a little flatter, but that can possibly be put down to this being a DLC and thus having tighter time constraints. Contrasting the lines that are repeated from the main game she sounds a lot better, and some of the performances later in the game are particularly memorable - in fact, overall this game has made me much more interested in Ada Wong as a character.

This is also the first time Albert Wesker has been shown in any meaningful way, and whilst I enjoyed him well enough (though disappointed it's not DC Douglas) I feel like this may not be the best way to introduce him to players only familiar with the post 7 games. I do think it's important that these games stand on their own - and I really don't think this is enough of an introduction to go in to 5, as the end of the game seems to imply. My hope is that they at least put out a remake of the original, if not Code Veronica as well.

The DLC also introduces new abilities for Ada, unlike the original, where the main difference in game play was simply that you had slightly different weapons than Leon. Ada now can use here grappling hook both to move quickly to certain predetermined locations, and also to perform melee attacks on enemies from further away. While the change is fairly minimal, paired with new attack animations it's enough to make you feel more agile and fluid, suiting Ada's character.

Ada seems to have had quite a change in this - previously always the enigma, Separate Ways gives us just a little more of an insight into her background, and develops her as a character more than any of her other appearances. While a mysterious figure can be compelling for a while, it loses it's charm when it becomes clear that there are in fact no hidden answers to be found in the first place. Simple things, like Ada remarking that she thought she was 'done smelling burnt bodies' or her disobeying of Wesker's orders are enough to develop her beyond simply being a mysterious femme fatale.

This is certainly a good step if they are planning on also producing a remake of 6 after 5, though I still really hope they don't go straight to that. Separate Ways however, stands on it's own well, and again, maybe even surpasses the main game in my estimations.

Significance: 1/3

Grade: A

[sansacherie]

Here’s the thing.   Dyana returning in season 2 doesn’t have to be terrible. 

I do think there is a high chance that the writers intend for her to play a role in Jaehaerys’ murder.   That doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll happen, but if it does-

I can’t speak for everyone, but I do think if the writers go this route, not only does it have a lot of nasty implications, but it has the potential to be little more than an awkward attempt by the writers to prevent you from feeling too sorry for the Greens or horrified by the murder of a child, because hey- said child’s father assaulted one of the people involved. 

There’s speculation that Jaehaerys’ death will actually be accidental which is just.... frustrating on so many levels, but this is where Dyana could come in.  

It would be way better for Dyana to have a totally different idea of what is meant to happen to what Blood and Cheese have been instructed to do.  

She could be operating under the assumption that their intention is to abduct Jaehaerys or Maelor.   If this comes across as Dyana being too naive, keep in mind that she’s traumatized, and because of that trauma, I don’t find it terribly outlandish for Mysaria to manipulate her.    She could convince Dyana that no actual harm will come to Jaehaerys or his siblings, but the Greens (that is Alicent and Helaena) will suffer the torment of their son/grandson being a hostage and Aegon will feel a similar helplessness.  I think Dyana wanting Aegon to feel helpless like she did could be a good motivation. 

Going back to Helaena, people are right when they say that she didn’t hurt Dyana.  But it is possible that thanks to her trauma, she ends up misplacing a lot of the blame and convinces herself that Aegon went after her because Helaena was refusing him her bed.  If it wasn’t for Helaena, this wouldn’t have happened to Dyana.  It doesn’t make sense because it's not meant to, she isn’t thinking rationally and Mysaria uses it to her advantage. 

So, you have Dyana who thinks this is an abduction plot.  It builds tension on two levels- for the part of the audience wondering whenever this works out and the audience who knows full well that she has no idea what she’s gotten herself involved in.   Only for Dyana to be completely blind-sided and like Alicent and Helaena, be forced to watch in horror as Cheese murders a little child.  Maybe Dyana wanted revenge and maybe she wanted to hurt the Greens, but she never wanted that, not that, not that-   

The girl they got to play Dyana was excellent, so I’d have faith she’d be able to capture that terrible realization, although for obvious reasons a lot of the scene is going to be devoted to Helaena and Alicent. 

Finally, I think writing this for Dyana and having her survive the events of Blood and Cheese (unlike the bed maid who is strangled in Fire and Blood) actually sets up for a pretty compelling contrast to the way Alicent potentially handles her.

In the first season, we saw Dyana begging Alicent to believe that she hadn’t invited/encouraged Aegon.  Alicent does believe her and tells her it wasn’t her fault and is gentle with her as much as their society allows her to be. She gives her moon tea and enough money so she can leave the Red Keep.  I don’t think Alicent deserves prizes for basic human decency, but I do think its interesting how she is talked about in comparison to say, Viserys or Daemon. 

In contrast, after Blood and Cheese, we can have Alicent confront Dyana (likely after some time in the black cells) Dyana begs Alicent to believe her,  to believe that she truly had no idea that they were going to kill the prince, she would never- 

And instead of Alicent believing her and showing her mercy like she did the first time- in a cold fury she condemns Dyana to death.  (Remember how in Fire and Blood Alicent wanted the families of the Blood and Cheese to be revealed so she could bathe in their blood....)  I showed you mercy once.   You went and got yourself involved in a plot that got my grandson murdered.  I don’t care what you thought.   Especially when this involves Alicent’s only daughter, who Alicent is shown to be protective of in a way she isn’t with her brothers. (”My only daughter, “My dearest love,” “My sweet girl”) 

[lumeha]

@eiriee (a beautiful new post for you)

My confusion did indeed come from the fact that the very simply titled Fire Emblem on the GBA is FE7, and more comonly referred to as Fire Emblem Blazing Blade now (thanks to FE Heroes, the mobile game). And, uh, Fire Emblem First Of Its Name (Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light) is (was ?) also available on Switch and somehow my brain went "yeah of course this is totally about FE1", having apparently forgotten that FE7 is. just. named. Fire Emblem. in the West

'cause it's the first game we ever got !

And it was also my first ever Fire Emblem !

With this out of the way...

Do you like strategy ? Do you like cool pixel art ? Do you like a story that is a lot more personal in scope than the usual fantasy story ? If yes, then Fire Emblem is the game for YOU !

... More seriously, Fire Emblem GBA was my first introduction to Fire Emblem as games, and despite some potential criticism of the changes to Lyn's Story, it makes for a great introduction to the game and how it works. In the Western version, the game forces you to go through Lyn's Story as an easy mode tutorial, to teach you the ropes through her personal quest after she finds you, tactician, just. yeah. you were out there. She had to help you. And you decide to help her when you get attacked by bandits.

And that tutorial does give you all the tools you will need to play the game, when, once you are done with Lyn's story, you get introduced to Eliwood, main Lord of the game. And once you've done that, you can go through the story from another point of view, with Hector's mode. Which is a huge plus for me - Hector's mode is harder than Eliwood's, but they didn't just decide to give you the same old, same old - there are a lot of scenes that reveal more of what happened in the story, things you didn't get to see during Eliwood's side of the game.

So you get one really well made tutorial, especially if you don't know how Fire Emblem works as a game (only downside is that it's not skippable for people who know how that all works), and then you get two versions of the same story, from different point of views, with a cool difficulty slide. I like that personally ! that really grabbed me !

An interesting thing about Fire Emblem Blazing Blade, to me, and something that absolutely grabbed me as a teen, is that while the story does end up having beats of saving the world... it is not as grandiose as most of these stories. It starts about a son searching for his father, and it always stays somewhat in the shadows, partly because FE7 is the prequel to FE6 and its much more open war. People just kind of. Don't know what happened. And I think that's compelling.

Another cool feature you can enjoy with FE7 : having so many little guys and gals to pick from and become obsessed with. While most characters don't get a lot of dialogue, you can and will find Your Special Boy Or Guy (mine's Kent he's a boring stick in the mud and yet I love him <3 but also shout out to Renault and Vaida). Fire Emblem is often known for its support system, that allows unit to build relations and let you get fun dialogue between those units, and it has always been one of my favourite feature ! and I really like the FE7 cast and the supports ! Having so many guys and gals to pick from is just a plus for me :D

And finally : ... a bit like the point I made about NES FE, I have to say, but... it's worth checking FE7 just for the pixel art. I find myself loving it, not only because it's really pretty, and I think there's a lot of reason why people make GBA FE Style pixel art, but also because it's a genuine asset for the game as a strategy game. I always find it really easy to read and a really solid asset for the gameplay : the maps can be large, but it's usually easy to spot ennemy units VS your own, and get a sense of what's going on where !

... and yes, the game makes the calculations before combat for you, unlike FE1, which definitely makes it easier to play and find your own favoured strategy :D

So... I hope I've sold you on it ?

[dg-outlaw]

Fan Theory on who the “Sith Master” is in Star Wars: The Acolyte

While this could all be blown to bits by episode 5 or 6, if my theory is correct I think it could make for a very compelling story that fits so well within the general themes and symbolism often found in Star Wars. 

Recently I’ve seen a lot of online commentary about Qimir being the Sith Master hiding in plain sight. There are references to his strong interest in helping Mae, being able to defend himself against Mae’s attack in episode 2, being too obvious as the unassuming friend character, knowing how to find Kelnacca, knowing a lot about the master, and not being present in the final scene in episode 4. All good clues, but I think they’re all red herrings. Do I think there’s more to him than what we’re seeing? Maybe and if so I think it’ll be him having force abilities and being the Master’s number two rather than the Sith Master himself. If anything he’ll be a Darth Maul or Count Dooku–a placeholder for the real prize, the twins (Mae and Osha). Also, there’s the issue of his motivation and Ki-Adi-Mundi’s prequel statement of the Sith not having been seen in over a millennia—something people have pointed out as a potential plot hole. 

So if it’s not Qimir, who is it and why?

I believe the “Sith Master” is… [spoilers ahead if I'm right]

A sad, broken, and vengeful Mother Aniseya.

Why?

The short answer: Because Star Wars… and because of themes and symbolism often in Star Wars which include duality/opposites, balance, family, anger, fear, and love.

Aniseya’s death was not shown or confirmed in episode 3, and while there’s another strong suspect, her partner Koril, I think she’s another red herring like Qimir. Just like it’s often not the angry or unlikeable suspect or the suspect with a criminal record in mystery stories, Koril is just too obvious. Plus, we know that Leslye Headland consulted with Dave Filoni, is a big SW fan, and is friends with Rian Johnson who likes mysteries as well (‘Knives Out’), and The Acolyte has played like a mystery so far. Also, what little we saw of Koril was that she was stern, untrusting, and quick tempered, especially after the Jedi showed up. Again, too on the nose. Aniseya on the other hand was the opposite; not wanting to discipline or be firm with the twins, but instead was soft, allowed them to eat treats, and act up during her coven TED Talk about the Thread… until she eventually got annoyed. 

But why Aniseya if she’s the “nice” parent? 

To paraphrase the Joker from Batman comics, “one bad day”, and that day was the temple destruction and chaos of episode 3.

Episode 5 promises to give us different accounts of what happened that night, but we’re also expected to question the truth of those different accounts. Without speculating too much about what could be in episode 5, I think the general situation is that an array of things happened. Mae started a fire, a stand-off between the coven and Jedi occurred where tensions were high because maybe Koril didn’t want them take Osha, and someone flinched—most likely Torbin as a result of whatever Aniseya did to him earlier when his eyes went black. Again, another clue that she’s not all peace, love, sunshine, and roses 24/7 and is willing to go dark to protect her own. I don’t think Torbin’s “flinch” will be a direct action from her (or another witch), but him being on edge because of what happened earlier, but I could be wrong. This would explain his constant meditation though in episode 2, not fighting Mae, and eventually drinking the poison to kill himself—he feels responsible for what happened and likely vowed to never go on offense again or even go out into the world. 

In the chaos of the fire and Torbin’s actions (?), a random “bar fight” type scenario between the coven and Jedi likely kicks off, Kelnacca possibly gets bewitched (given the Kelnacca is seen attacking Torbin in the show’s trailer or Torbin is taken over again), and that generator thing in the temple blows up. This would explain the destruction of what we saw at the end of episode 3 because that wasn’t all due to Mae’s fire. 

With her coven and temple destroyed, her daughters presumably dead (or at least one of them if she only finds Mae later), her partner dead, and all of it seemingly because the Jedi stuck their noses into her business, I can see this as the Thread that unravels Aniseya because she is now all alone, but maybe too angry or afraid to face Mae because maybe time has passed. She wanted peace and community, she wanted her daughters to be the next generation (even though she was willing to let Osha go), and she led with kindness. What did that get her? Pain and Loss. To her, maybe Koril was right. Maybe her softness was her downfall. I then think her learning that Osha is alive is what sets things in motion for her to train Mae and set up her revenge against the four and the Jedi Order, but she has to keep her identity secret for it to work.

“That’s great and all, but how does that make her a Sith?”

She’s not. I think the red lightsaber and the assumption that she’s a Sith is all to create fear and panic among the Jedi. (This also keeps Ki-Adi-Mundi from being a liar in the prequels.) She knows the Sith are the Jedi’s main boogeyman so why not use that to destroy who they are just as they came and “unraveled” what she had built. I also think the helmet is a nice inverse of how she feels. While sinister looking, the grin of the mask hides her anger and sorrow. 

“Fine, but what other clues or symbols point to Aniseya?”

Why the four Jedi targets? On the surface they are a test for Mae, but also on Aniseya’s hit list for obvious reasons (see above). Unless we get some random episode showing those four pissing off someone else or Aniseya having fled some unknown Sith Master, it has to be more than just Mae’s revenge. If Qimir, what's his motivation? Had the Jedi not shown up and disturbed her peaceful coven none of Aniseya’s pain would exist. Not only that, but Mae’s initial assassination of Indara sets things off in the series and brings Osha back into the fold when she’s accused of being the assassin. With Osha back in the mix, Aniseya can get her daughters back and possibly restart her coven and destroy the Jedi who think so highly of themselves. Again, she’s not in her right mind and I don’t think this show is trying to paint the Jedi in a negative light, but I do think there's commentary here on religion as the Force and the Jedi are the dominant “religion” in the SW universe. 

Many SW stories speak of the Force and its presence throughout the galaxy and in all living things, and how the Jedi don’t have exclusive rights on the Force–it’s just what we’ve predominantly seen in the films and what they call that energy (much like Christianity in America). But different stories; prequels, sequels, and in-between media have challenged the Jedi and whether or not they are always right, so to the haters who think Disney/Leslye Headland is just trying to water down/ruin Star Wars or the Jedi… you’re just not paying attention. The Nightsisters existed in Legends and George Luca incorporated them into the Clone Wars. It's not just Jedi v. Sith. Sorry, not sorry. 

Back to Aniseya.

In her peaceful mindset she was willing to let Osha go (which was a great and sad scene in episode 3), but with darkness, sadness, anger, and revenge having consumed her she wants Osha and Mae together as originally planned, no matter what. That said, I think it will be Osha and Mae who will have to come together to stop her/save her, which harkens back to the original trilogy and Luke’s choice in RotJ. Kill his father or save him? This is also neat in that instead of that conflict coming from one person it’ll be two people wrestling with that choice. 

Duality, Opposites, Love, and Family.

In the beginning of the series we see Mae as the cold-hearted and determined killer (and we see hints of her early aggression/Dark Side-ness in episode 3), but by episode 4 she has softened and just wants to be with her sister again. She's even shown slightly wary of her mission in episode 2. By the end of episode 4 she wants to turn herself in, stop all the killing, and is willing to face the consequences of her actions. Inversely, Osha is becoming slightly darker, having asked Yord to stop Mae if it came down to it as Sol wants to save Mae. She is by no means going to the Dark Side, but she’s struggling and if more Jedi die (especially Sol) she might feel that desire to kill her mother rather than save her. Osha’s inner conflict is also seen with the umbramoth and how she blames herself for its death. She says to Jecki that she disturbed it and now it’s dead. I think this harkens back to her choice in episode 3. She “disturbed” the balance of her world by coming forward, telling the truth, and wanting to be a Jedi, and then she lost everything. While the events of episode 3 were not her fault, she feels like that was the thread she pulled to set things in motion and likely still blames herself. 

In the end, I think Mae and Osha will have to work together, but there will be conflict before they get there. This is also foreshadowed in the coven temple scene when Aniseya is talking about the Thread and the power of one, the power of two, and the power of many. She easily fends off one opponent, but struggles against two. Mae and Osha are not paying attention in the background and Aniseya gets annoyed and force pushes them down, but I think in the end it will be the two of them versus Aniseya as a callback to this scene.

Other clues and symbols.

The title logo has two rings/moons/Os forming a light and dark, just as there are the twins and Star Wars has always been a story of Light versus Dark, Good versus Evil, Love and Hate, etc. Even in the Clone Wars there’s an episode about the Son and Daughter representing the Light and Dark sides of the force and I think that is played up heavily in this series. While I don’t think the main theme is that Aniseya and her coven are/were the bad guys and that witches = Bad and Jedi = Good, but rather the symbolism of opposites, duality, and balance, and how unity is better than division, which is part of Aniseya’s initial belief system.

Aniseya is also a woman, a mother, a witch, and the Ascension takes place at night under two moons that align. Her and her kind have been exiled and must hide in the shadows. They are the outsiders. The unwelcomed. In lots of mythology and creation stories the moon and night are seen as feminine or are often associated with a female deity/goddess. But what is the opposite of the night, the moon, and the mother/feminine?

The masculine/father, daylight, and the sun… or should I say Sol, which is another word for sun. 

No, I don’t think Sol is the father of the twins, but he is Osha’s pseudo-father and represents sunshine in his mannerisms and even his appearance. While appropriate for the canon depiction of the Jedi Order of this time, I think Leslye Headland took this visual aesthetic and ran with it. The Jedi robes of this era are yellow with cream, much like sunlight, whereas Aniseya and her coven are clothed in purples, dark blues, and earth tones representing night, darkness, earth/ground, and magic. The Jedi are the ruling order out in the sun, high above all, and Aniseya’s coven are exiles who must hide in the shadows, but they are both connected to and by the Force/Thread. Thus, neither is the villain, but each a side of a coin in the balance of things.

Again, this is more likely a commentary on religion as many religions and subdivisions/denominations believe in similar things, but they love to fight over the details and who’s supreme... even to the point of war.

This also makes sense as to why Sol is the last on the list (outside of his connection to Osha and plot reasons). He is the “father” who took Osha away (atleast in Aniseya’s broken mind, even though Osha wanted to be a Jedi before meeting Sol). While I don’t think this is an anti-male/man-hating commentary, I think it’s a further reinforcement of the duality/opposites theme (because SW is never subtle), but also another example of the same but different.

In episode 3 Indara is the one who comes off as firm, unfeeling, and “masculine” when the Jedi arrive, citing Republic law, but it’s Sol who is gentle, kind, and soft-spoken (more “feminine”); thus very much Aniseya’s “masculine”/opposite equal. When he meets Osha he kneels down in front of her rather than tower over her as one might expect of a male authority/power figure. He hands her his lightsaber (showing vulnerability), and since it’s a Jedi’s sacred weapon (if you’ll recall Obi-Wan getting onto Anakin for being so careless with his in Episode II), he presents it as a symbol of peace. Aniseya interacts with Osha in many of the same ways, but also uses her powers to possess Torbin. Same, but opposite.

Had things played out differently, Aniseya and Sol could bridge their two worlds given how similar they are, but threads pulled in the wrong direction set them on a path to become enemies. And while I don’t think this show is meant to show the Jedi as the bad guys or be some grand commentary on the persecution of witches and “othered” people, I think it’ll ultimately come back to the concepts of love, hope, fear, anger, family, and balance—themes Star Wars often explores and has in this series so far. 

We've also seen this with Luke regarding Anakin, Anakin with Padme, Obi-Wan with Anakin, Ahsoka with the Jedi Order and Anakin, Han and Ben, Fin and Rey, and Rey and Ben/Kylo, as well as many other examples in SW canon. Some of these characters succeeded and others failed, but I think in the end, if it is Aniseya, Osha and Mae will have to work together to save her or at least try. 

Lastly, looking at the titles of each episode, I think they further support my theory and the symbolism and themes in this series. 

The first two episodes have two word titles of opposites. Lost/Found and Revenge/Justice. Episode 3 we find out how the twins were split and thus episode 3 and 4 become one word titles to reflect that split, Destiny and Day. I think 5 and 6 will likely be Choice and Night or something like that. Episodes 7 and 8 will return to the two world titles as Mae and Osha come together again to stop/save Aniseya. What those titles will be, I don’t know, but I think the full list of titles will create a symmetrical/mirrored/balanced list because why not.

Also, I think Sol’s statement that Mae started the fire and destroyed everything is a simplistic explanation/quasi-lie similar to Obi-Wan’s Episode IV "lie" to Luke about Darth Vader having betrayed and killed Anakin. A truth, “from a certain point of view” rather than a convoluted, “So… some crazy shit went down and everything went south. It wasn’t fully our fault, but we’re not blameless either. Sorry everyone you’ve ever known or loved is dead.” Again, more ties to Star Wars rather than "woke" stuff ruining the SW-verse.

Who knows. Maybe I’m wrong about all this and I’m looking too deep into it, but I woke up the other day and all of this just made sense. 

But if all of this is true, this show is so very Star Wars and it sucks that toxic “fans” are hating on it because a white guy isn’t saving the day with a hot girl in a gold bikini.

[theladyofbloodshed]

I read Shadow and Bone recently after watching the show and there are so many things that I don't like about both the show and the books but one thing I like is how Leigh built a world that's so much more interesting and while the theme of oppression isn't handled very well imo, she still at least tries to make the story have a damn plot unlike ACOTAR that's literally just smut smut and more smut. And I feel like Cassian in SF and Mal have some similarities in the way they're douches to their gfs and keep holding then back but Cassian is a lot more worst coz he's literally 500 years old and Mal is a young teenage orphan kid with lots of issues and trauma. Also, I like how Leigh made Darkling actually evil. It is what makes him such a compelling character and gives him a lot more nuance unlike Sara Mess who makes Rhysand do shit in book 1 that not even the darkling did and still absolve him of all of it because of some dumb fucking reason. Imagine how interesting ACOTAR would be if like The Darkling, Rhys was actually an evil little shit. He's gotten soooo boring and sappy now because Maas keeps trying to make him the ✨perfect✨ man- sorry male who neverrr did anythingggg wrong! It ruined him completely and made Feysand boring after ACOMAF. Darklina are so much more interesting because there's a conflict between them and none of them just give up their everything to adopt the other one's world views. Feysand on the other hand is just Feyre getting all of her personality murdered and her role reduced to just ✨painting✨ while her insufferable husband gives orders to present her sister to their rival. Like it still fucking infuriates me that he did that without telling Feyre. Book 1 Feyre would've beaten him up she was grumpy and grouchy and talked back to Tamlin all the time. Even acowar feyre snapped at Rhys when he made fun of nesta's temper so that scene in SF pissed me off. To conclude Leigh Bardugo >>> SJM

I agree, anon. I always think I'd like Rhys more if he was actually evil and allowed to do evil things rather than the whole narrative bending over backwards to absolve him of any guilt and explaining how actually those people are worse so Rhys is just an angel doing his best. I didn't like Feyre at all from the start and wanted to put the books down because of her - funnily, I actually perked up when Rhys arrived because I thought ooo evil villain guy. However, book 1 Feyre didn't have her brain turned to scrambled egg by him so actually would have stood up for herself and not let him tread all over her. The few times Feyre shows resistance to Rhys, it's ignored or swept away with seduction. It's so gross!!!

[zalrb]

https://slate.com/culture/2024/06/the-bear-season-3-fx-hulu-bad.html

Basically this, although I found this article to be wrong and unnecessarily vitriolic

And this

https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jun/27/the-bear-season-three-review-unbelievably-frustrating

OK! So, that first article ... the moment I saw the name Kissinger, I was like, oh, I am taking this article with SUCH a grain of salt.

I think embedded in the vitriol, there are maybe, one or two valid points, i.e. this article speaks specifically of the music but despite the supporting cast, I do find The Bear as a whole to be extremely white -- but it also reads as though this person completely missed the point of the show and simply wants it to be something that it isn't. I don't ever feel as though the show is trying to pretend to be something that it isn't; at its core, it's a character exploration and therefore the emotional stakes run the show with the plot being secondary and accusing the literal style of the show to emphasize the chaos and the pressure that the characters and dynamics illustrate wonderfully the on their own as gimmicky is just ridiculous.

The Guardian article, is more balanced in its criticism and I understand it more because I think the third season actually suffers from the same fate of The Bear itself -- season 2 was such an excellent season and created expectations for the third season (much like the demolition of The Beef and turning it into The Bear) that the third season, while still being good television on its own, did not live up to and the characters were stagnant this season, which means there wasn't a lot of emotional movement particularly for Carmy.

Unlike the first article, I think that seeing Carmy pre-Beef/Bear and how he had this wonderful optimism when it came to cooking and came to working with particular chefs was something that we needed to see to see a different side of him but the idea that what stuck the most was his tormented tenure under David Fields isn't new, we've seen that for two seasons so seeing it again, did leave me with a feeling of OK, now what? If we're watching the psychological descent of Carmy, if season 2 ended with him leaning into the toxicity because he wants to be great and he thinks that peace and therefore Claire is distracting from his greatness then we need to see a radical shift in his character rather than more of the same.

And then even the dynamic with Syd was a little confusing because I kept wondering why Syd wasn't speaking up. Like she did her "I'm not your babysitter" and did a few suggestions that he promptly ignored but she still fell in line and that didn't make any sense to me, it's just these everyone allowing Carmy to be a tyrant and that felt false after everything they went through in seasons 1 and 2 so this season felt oddly stagnant and aimless because what are we doing, where are we going?

That being said, I do agree that this show is still one of the most compelling shows on, if not the most compelling.

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

If you are still doing the ask character thing but if you are maybe ren or Oscar?

Anon why are you making me pick when I love them both? So I’m gonna talk about both lolz XD.

While I do love them both they both once again are just not used to their full potential. They both have so much potential as characters that get squandered largely due to the insanely large cast of characters that need to be kept up with.

Ren really leaning in and trusting and relying on Ironwood while the others didn’t think they could trust him was such an interesting setup and showed a situation where everyone is not United and on the same page on something. We could have had the group being torn apart over their different opinions on what they should do about Ironwood and if they could trust him or not. It would have allowed the characters to feel like unique individuals with their own histories and ways of processing everything they’ve been through.

I think allowing the characters to have different thoughts and opinions on things without having to immediately back down from them would be such interesting writing. Let Nora and Ren fight about trusting Ironwood or not or hell let him actually be angry Nora kissed him without asking and call her out for that because no one, no matter their gender, has the right to forcibly kiss someone without their consent and Ren has every right to be upset and uncomfortable with her doing that.

Overall though as I said I like Rens character. I just feel like he isn’t being used to his full potential as a character which is a shame.

For Oscar I do think he’s a much better utilization of the mouthpiece for the audience so to speak. Unlike Jaune it makes sense for him not to understand what Aura or Semblances are or how they work. Unfortunately though he also comes into the story too late for that to be properly utilized.

Compare that to another video game I adore Horizon Zero Dawn. While Alloy is a talented warrior she doesn’t know a lot of her people’s history or the history of the world because she grew up as an outcast shunned by her tribe for her entire life. She’s confident and skilled in fighting and weaponry because of this but she is ignorant to the conflicts between tribes and the growing aggression of the machines. This works to introduce the player to the world because we learn things as Alloy does and it doesn’t break immersion of the story doing so because the story set up a good reason for it and we have her at the very beginning of the story.

Compared to Jaune and Oscar, with Jaune it makes no sense him wanting to be a hunter and not knowing these things and Oscar being brought in way to late for it to work either and you have a very sloppy attempt at making a character the audience leans about the world through and with.

Though Oscar isn’t supposed to be the main character he sure feels more like one then the mains. He is being thrust into a war he knows nothing about because someone’s soul got shoved into his body without his knowledge or consent and is now being hunted by an immortal witches minions who want him dead because of aforementioned soul and is forced to go on a dangerous journey not only to protect himself but the world. He’s tasked with protecting a powerful artifact that should he lose it would spell the end of the world and suffers what he believes to be the people he’s looked up to for a large chunk of his journeys deaths.

That is a compelling and interesting main character…too bad the show is called RW//BY and not JN//RO or something like that.

Like I said I really like his character. He’s sweet and timid and a little introverted but genuinely cares and wants to do good and help people but he gets overwhelmed and needs encouragement. He’s a well rounded interesting character. But over and over again we see this good writing given to the male characters and the same care can’t be bothered to be given to the female characters which painfully boils down to CRWBY’s sexism.

[livums]

Okay I got a weird idea i have to ask writeblrs I like: What would your ocs be an alternative universe? Any type you want, but I would love to hear in like completly different setting they are in real life. You have quite many wips so your choice!

omggg hiiii this is such a fun ask! I wanted to give it a lot of thought.... it was a little difficult because both of my main WIPs are set in like ... old fantasy settings which is typically the AU itself lol and I'm not terribly creative so that's what I would ordinarily go with... but that doesn't work here!

SO I decided to take The Marking Blood and The Romance of the Demigods and... swap their settings! Just to think about what would happen!

So without further ado... I would like to introduce The Mark of the Demigods and The Romancing Blood!

KESH is a vampire who has cheerily stalked the Mont Estival nighttime for years upon years, with no one to look out for but her own damn self. It’s a carefree undeath, save for dodging her ████████████████████ as well as the ever-diligent Hunters. Well, and the unshakable envy. So maybe she misses being a human. So maybe letting herself be turned was not her best decision. So maybe she feels corrupted and irredeemable. She takes it out, in her way, on the steadfast hunter Eve, whom she’s constantly teasing and toying with. It’s dangerous—the day Eve finally catches her is the day her undeath comes to an end. But it’s a thrill like nothing else. Despite proudly declaring herself the “biggest thorn the Guild’s side has ever known”, Kesh is shocked to attract attention for it. She’s thusly accosted by Nysa, a nobleman’s daughter and brand new vampire. Kesh has never reckoned herself the mentoring type, but there’s something that strikes her unbeating heart about Nysa’s determination to walk in the worlds of both the living and the dead. It would be nice, Kesh thinks, to feel a little closer to humanity.

Continued below the cut because this um. is gonna be a while.

EVE is an esteemed hunter of vampires, marching in the steps of her valorous forefathers. It’s among the holiest of callings. Yet she finds herself afflicted of late with the strangest dreams—dreams that more and more compel her to allow the vampire Kesh slip between her fingers. There’s something alluring in Kesh’s taunting. A deep and hidden longing is stoked in her. The more she lets the vampire toy with her, the more she finds herself daring to acknowledge her doubt, her craving. It’s a terrifying thing. Whether slaying Kesh will quell her confusion or amplify it, Eve is uncertain. But on and on she pursues the vampire, knowing not if this will be the night on which she finally refuses to stay her hand.

NYSA is the scion of a powerful nobleman… and, as of recently, a fledgling vampire. She’s done fighting her new nature tooth and nail. Human, vampire, whatever, there must be a way to thrive in both worlds, and Nysa is determined to find it. Or, if necessary, to force it into existence. It’s no simple thing—not when her father is a devout patron of the Hunters Guild, nor when her betrothed is of a Hunter family himself. Naturally, she seeks expert assistance—in the form of Kesh, the self-styled “greatest to ever do it”. Learning to survive as a vampire is hard enough, but maintaining her role as an upstanding noblewoman at the same time? Nigh on impossible. But she can’t afford mistakes when mistakes mean her head. Nysa will find a way to live both lives, or lose both trying.

IRIAL is known by many as the greatest Hunter of his generation. Yet one vampire has managed to elude his grasp—the devious Kesh. Unlike his fellow Hunter, Eve, he is patient in his pursuit of the vampire. There is an art to the hunt. This, he knows above all else. If he lays his trap well, he is certain Kesh will waltz her way right into the point of his stake. He is not at all prepared, however, for how taken he is with her. Oops!

THE MARK OF THE DEMIGODS is a way-too-complicated AU that took me three+ hours to type out. Kill me! It’s about vampires and vampire hunters screwing each other, what more do you want,

Sorry for the bait I actually took one look at the cast and was like oops! there are too many of you and I’m too lazy </3 so um if anyone’s interested. maybe I’ll make a part 2 with this . lmao .

[mediaevalmusereads]

The Children of Men. By PD James. Vintage Books, 1992.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Genre: science fiction, dystopia

Series: N/A

Summary: Told with P. D. James's trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storytelling, The Children of Men is a story of a world with no children and no future. The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold the key to survival for the human race.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: suicide, blood, pus, child death, prison abuse

OVERVIEW: This book has been on my TBR list for ages. I've seen the film adaptation and I have a friend who occasionally teaches it in college literature courses, so I figured I'd pick it up and see how it went. Overall, I liked this book way more than I thought I would. It played with a lot of interesting ideas and meditated on things like nationalism, justice, futurity, etc. in ways I found deeply compelling. Though the style might not be to every reader's taste, I feel like I could talk about this book for ages, so for that reason, it gets 4.5 stars from me.

WRITING: James's prose is fairly descriptive, feeling more what you'd expect out of literary fiction or older sci fi than out of 21st century dystopia. I really liked the descriptiveness, however, as it allowed James to dig deeply into the themes holding this story together.

And what themes they are! There is so much going on in this book and the ideas are deployed in such interesting ways. I loved discussions of power and how people are willing to look the other way on atrocity so long as they are comfortable. I loved the subtle commentary on immigration and the prison system/crime. I loved the way James thought about the generational differences between most British people and the Omegas as well as their relationship to the world. Even if a reader sees some of these themes as problematic, you have to agree that this book provokes some intense discussion, which makes it a masterpiece, in my opinion.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Theo Faron, a fifty-something year old man who finds himself entangled with the activities of a small resistance group twenty-five years after humanity has become infertile. This book is divided into two parts: part one gets the reader familiar with the dystopic landscape of Britain. Theo's cousin, Xan, has become the Warden of England, and a resistance group made up of 5 individuals decides to use Theo to attempt to get Xan to enact some reform. Part two primarily follows Theo as he becomes more entangled with the 5, and the stakes are raised when it is revealed that one of them, a woman named Julian, is pregnant.

I really liked this story for the way it thought about justice. In Theo's world, the government is responsible for much brutality, but it is tolerated in part because it makes the lives of "lawful" citizens more comfortable. The first part of this book therefore asks what the value of justice is when there is no hope for the future, while also prompting consideration of things like nationalism, the preservation of culture, etc.

I also really liked the way James thought about what effects infertility would have on the world (especially England). The competing religious ideologies were fascinating as well as shifting attitudes towards sex and pleasure kept my attention rapt, and I was profoundly interested in how the world continued to be built up.

If I had any criticisms, I would say that there are parts of this book that drag a little bit. But because the novel is so short, it doesn't really hold the story back much.

CHARACTERS: Theo, our protagonist, is hard to like, but because he changes over the course of the novel, he's always fairly interesting. At the beginning, Theo is rather cynical and resists being responsible for anyone and anything. He's also fairly sexist and has some rather callous attitudes regarding his ex-wife and daughter. But his flaws are made interesting when he encounters Julian and the others, as they constantly challenge him and drag him into their affairs. By the end of the book, you can see Theo's evolution from someone who is cold and cut off from the world to someone who feels and cares. I also particularly liked James's use of Theo's love for history as a way for exploring the use and misuse of the past, and the digs at his backwards-looking attitudes were genius.

Xan, the antagonist and Warden of England, was also interesting in that he was a charismatic tyrant. He was presented as someone who will do whatever he must to hold onto power, but because we primarily see him through Theo's eyes, his image is distorted by Theo's affection. Theo has fond memories of their childhood together and has absolutely faith that Xan is a reasonable person; but the more we read, the more we realize that Xan is anything but benevolent.

Julian, one of the "rebels" and the woman who becomes pregnant, is fairly interesting on account of the way her optimism and religious views interact with Theo's cynicism and atheism. The only thing I didn't quite like was the way Theo felt something like romantic attraction to her - it didn't make much sense to me and both characters would have worked just fine without that element.

The rest of the resistance crew is just fine. Miriam, the midwife, is valuable for her skills and her compassion, though I do wish James had explored her experiences as a black woman more. Rolf, Julian's husband, is notable for the way he craves power, and his ambitions really make you think about the difference between his goals and Xan's. Luke, the priest, is the most underdeveloped, and given his significance in the plot, it might have been interesting to have him fleshed out a little more.

TL;DR: The Children of Men is perhaps less interesting for its story than it is for the ideas it beings up when telling it. The fascinating worldbuilding combined with a cynical protagonist who evolves into someone who cares is set against thoughtful prompts regarding tyranny, comfort, justice, etc. and even if you don't enjoy the plot, it's hard to deny that this book makes you think carefully about the nature of power.

[tokiro07]

Saw the live action Knights of the Zodiac (which I will be differentiating from the Netflix version by referring to it as The Beginning going forth), and while I had fun, it was bad in exactly the ways I expected

Which is to say, pretty much the same way that the source material is

While there was actual fight choreography, which was an immediate plus that almost made me forgive every other bad decision I knew was coming preemptively, the overall story was just as vapid and underdeveloped as every other adaptation of this story so far

I do think that for the sake of conveying the first arc in a two hour film, trimming everyone aside from Seiya, Ikki (Nero), Saori (Sienna), Mitsumasa (Alman) and Marin was the right play; dealing with Shiryu, Hyoga, Shun and whoever else on top of an already decently sized cast would have diluted an already watered down story. The problem, though, is that other characters were either added in (Vander Guraad, just like in the Netflix KotZ) or had a lot of extra attention given to them (Cassios, again just like in KotZ, and weirdly Tatsumi/Mylock, who was kind of the best character when he had no right to be), and in both cases used up screentime that should have been reserved for Seiya, Saori or Ikki

If they were going to put so much focus on Guraad, who this time is a woman despite being literally the same character as in KotZ, then I think it would have been prudent to use her as a device for developing Saori more. We’re told that when Saori was a baby, she was being cradled in Guraad’s arms and then randomly unleashed such a concentrated blast of Cosmo that it destroyed Guraad’s arms and necessitated Cosmo-life support to keep her alive. While I have no idea why such a thing was necessary even in context, it would have helped a lot to actually see this event happen, and see it early in the film. Seeing the transition from motherly figure to would-be executioner would have made for a much more compelling plot than seeing an evil businesswoman pursuing a young girl for nebulous reasons and only finding out later that the girl is her daughter who we’re told near mortally wounded her one time

It also would have built up Saori’s fears of losing herself to Athena much more effectively. When we’re formally introduced to Saori, Mitsumasa basically says “oh, by the way, Seiya, let me introduce you to my daughter, the reincarnation of Athena” and she’s just like “hi, I’m Athena or whatever” then flops down in a chair in the background as if she’s actively trying to leave the frame but knows she isn’t allowed to. It’s only in the next scene when she has a random Goddess Attack that Seiya even believes conceptually that magic is real, and then all at once accepts that Saori is Athena and that he’s a Saint, though he mopes about that for a little bit because he doesn’t like being tied down by destiny or whatever

Saori and Athena are usually pretty indistinguishable in most Saint Seiya media, unlike Julian or Shun who get outright possessed by Poseidon and Hades respectively, so seeing Saori worry about the possibility of having her personality subsumed by Athena is a pretty interesting angle. Even ignoring the possibility that she would be a threat to the world, which is kind of an odd decision for the writers to make anyway in my opinion but I’ll get to that later, analyzing that anxiety would do wonders for Saori as a character, as she usually comes off pretty flat. Seiya also tells her that she has the right to choose between being a goddess and a petty jerk in the climax of the film as she is losing herself to Athena, but the thing about that is that she’d never been a petty jerk to Seiya earlier in the movie. She was aloof in the very beginning, then tried to relate to Seiya and comfort him about destiny not being set in stone, packed him a lunch (that he lost before he got to eat it, which I think is devastating for whatever relationship the writers were going for) and then got kidnapped when he couldn’t use the Pegasus Cloth properly. That’s literally every interaction they had, and he never called her a petty jerk or made any value judgments on her whatsoever, at least not to my recollection. Seeing more of who Saori normally is and what she had to lose, and what she did lose because of her divine powers, would have done wonders for both her and the film, but alas the plot is more important than the people in it

Similarly, Seiya has very little personality, as usual, and even manages to have less than KotZ which at least showed him picking up litter after he misses a trash can to show that he’s carefree, but responsible and respectful. Here, he’s...determined, as shown by the fact that he never gives up during a fight, and he’s...skeptical of mysticism and fate. That’s...pretty much it. There is a little bit of overlap there I suppose when the only thing he gives up on in the film is breaking the rock during Marin’s training, thinking that it’s impossible, but honestly it came off as inconsistent with his usual blind determination than being a nuance in his two major character traits. I think I would have liked to see more casual interactions between Seiya and anyone else in the cast, whether it be with Seika/Patricia in the flashbacks or Saori or Marin in the present so that we can see again what kind of person he was vs. what kind of person he became, what he lost when Seika was taken and what he retained. They even try to play that angle too, with Marin asking Seiya who he’s trying to save and his vision cycling from Seika to Saori to ultimately his younger self cowering in the closet. The innocence of his youth or the powerlessness he felt as he watched Seika be ripped from him is potentially a strong motivator for him, but because we know effectively nothing about who he is as a person, we don’t feel the weight of the realization that he still feels like he’s that helpless kid, or how that motivates him to save Saori after he had been so badly beaten and even allowed Mitsumasa to die

Speaking of Mitsumasa, he had one scene where he comforted Saori after a nightmare vision of Athena killing Seiya, but that was the only real fatherly moment we got to see from him. The rest was just exposition, all tell and no show. We learn that he abducted countless children to feed their Cosmo to Guraad to keep her alive, which I guess is meant to be in place of him gathering orphans to become Saints, but again we don’t really feel a sense of betrayal or anything because he wasn’t established as being all that great of a guy in the first place. We didn’t have much reason to think he was bad or anything, aside from association with Guraad, but he went from neutral to dubious rather than endearing to nuanced. His argument with Guraad about how they should believe in their daughter was one thing, but again without seeing the threat she poses that made Guraad turn against the family, we don’t have a strong sense of what Mitsumasa is having his faith tested against. And then he kills himself pointlessly, failing to take out literally any of the opposition that hadn’t already been beaten by Iron Chef Tatsumi (who again, is usually supposed to be completely ineffectual, so while I had fun seeing him get to be cool for once, he really had no business being in the first place)

As I said earlier, Guraad also didn’t really feel like a mother to Saori, she just felt like a bad guy who had heard of her, whereas the Guraad of KotZ at least talked to her and Mitsumasa in a way that gave me the sense that they were at one point a family and that he regretted that their lives had come to this. Somehow Guraad is a much more believable gay man than straight woman, which I think is particularly funny since KotZ only hinted at Mitsumasa and Guraad having such a relationship whereas in this version he explicitly refers to her as his ex-wife. Again, seeing their happy life prior to the tragedy, the choices that they made and regretted afterwards, and their separation when compromise was no longer an option would have made their dynamic and Guraad’s presence as the villain (and ultimate decision to give up her plans because of her lingering affection for her daughter) much more believable and resonant as a story

Ikki, of course, also fails to resonate at all because we’re somehow told even less about him than anyone else. He uses the Phantom Demon Fist all of once, not even on Seiya, which would have been a good opportunity for analyzing his anxieties or even been a good way to reveal that Mitsumasa was involved in Seika’s disappearance, and we never learn his motivations for wanting the Sagittarius Cloth or killing Athena. He seems to believe that Athena is a threat to the world, but honestly the idea that Ikki is trying to save the world through unscrupulous means is extremely counter to the Ikki from any other iteration. Ikki is motivated by two things: vengeance and protecting those he cares about, and the interplay between those two ideas is probably the most interesting thing about early Saint Seiya (trying to get revenge on Mitsumasa by killing all of Mitsumasa’s children, including his own beloved brother Shun, who he believes he’s mercy killing because of their tainted blood at Mitsumasa’s hands). Without either of those motivations being clearly established here, he’s clearly trying to be a nuanced villain with noble goals, but he just comes off as a random mook who happens to be stronger than anyone else present. If we had either taken out Guraad’s failed parental storyline or Cassios’ desire for revenge against Seiya (for...leaving the ring during a fight?), then time could have been dedicated to developing Ikki’s personality and motivations, but instead we learn nothing of relevance about him aside from the fact that he is the Phoenix Saint

We also learn nothing helpful about the Saints, where the Cloths come from, what they do, how Sanctuary works, we just kind of vaguely learn about their existence and Cosmo, which is a personal point of umbrage for me. While the visual of Seiya and Ikki’s Cosmo spirits wearing the Cloths was really cool, the Cloths themselves clearly aren’t meant to be rearrangeable into statues, robbing them of a lot of their identity. The Phoenix Cloths feather trails were prehensile and able to shoot the feathers as projectiles, that was pretty inventive, but it only comes up when Ikki is attacking Guraad, not even during battle with Seiya, so it was also just kind of a waste. I wanted to see an interesting take on the Cloths and Cosmo or have the Saint Seiya world clearly established to show newcomers what’s cool about the franchise, but despite those things being my favorite part, they were sadly little more than footnotes and MacGuffins. I do think it was interesting that the Pegasus Cloth had two levels to it, covering just his chest and arm at first and then covering his full body, but man that was a drastic jump between two scenes without establishing that there was a way to...I don’t know, use the armor better?

I see why this movie isn’t performing super great, at least not stateside, but I can’t help but feel that part of it is because IT’S NOT PLAYING IN MOST THEATRES!!! AND THE ONES IT IS PLAYING AT IT ONLY HAS LIKE ONE SHOWING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE GOD DAMN DAY PER DAY!!! I had to drive half an hour to a theater at the tail end of the hours of operation because that was the only time I would be able to make and use my AMC account rather than paying 30 bucks for me and my wife at the ritzy local theatre, and honestly I’m glad we did it that way cus if I actually paid for the tickets I’d probably be even harsher

To sum up, the action was fun, and some of the visuals were surprisingly inventive, but like every other adaptation, The Beginning fails to capitalize on the original work’s potential and instead acts as if the premise alone can carry it without actually putting in the work to properly develop the characters or setting. I wasn’t bored, which is a win, I’m just disappointed that I got what I was expecting: the original but worse (again)

[udhyam]

VYAPAAR: WHY WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT NANO ENTREPRENEURS

To make ends meet, a lot of single moms worked as house cleaners. She put in a lot of overtime seven days a week for little pay. They've always wanted to have their own store, and now she has the means to open one. She was able to spend more time with her kids and earn more money as a self-employed person.

For many of them, the COVID-19 lockdown proved disastrous. The majority of these istriwallas lost every client since nobody was allowed to leave their houses. Thankfully, they have now discovered the means and fortitude to reconstruct her company with Udhyam.  

This belongs to a class of Indian businesspeople known as "nano entrepreneurs." With 79% of this tiny and vulnerable population falling into debt and poverty, COVID-19 has had a particularly severe impact on them. Many have been compelled to permanently close their doors since they are unable to employ better technology like gas iron box for their vyapaar or operate from home.

WHAT IS A NANO ENTREPRENEUR?

People who operate tiny retail or kirana businesses, work as micro wholesalers, or make a living as street sellers are known as nano entrepreneurs. Because they did not have the opportunity to attend college, they are unable to obtain official work. They make less than INR 25,000 ($330 USD) a month and live in leased dwellings. It is considerably more severe for people who have had a health or financial problem during the pandemic because many may have been in debt even prior to the outbreak. Compared to their peers in small and medium-sized businesses, nano entrepreneurs have distinct obstacles. However, small and medium-sized businesses usually lump nano entrepreneurs together.  It is unusual for nano entrepreneurs to distinguish between their personal and corporate revenue.

And unlike MSMEs, they:

possess no loan collateral and very little insurance.

lack the resources necessary to aid in their scaling.

lack any formal training or specialised skills.

possess less or no market access to aid in the expansion of their company.

Put simply, people are just a little push away from being forced into poverty. Focus on micro firms, which comprise the nano cohort, is unusual. This was made clear during the epidemic when small businesses found themselves in the midst and had no recourse to formal financing, government loans, or relief money.

Even while blue-collar gig workers and microfinance clients have access to credit facilities that nano entrepreneurs do not, nano entrepreneurs are frequently confused with these two groups of people. For example, in order to obtain loans, clients of microfinance rely on peer guarantors for vyapaar. Today's gig workers are technologically savvy, with formal records of their employment, transactions, and other information available on a mobile app, much like Uber drivers. They may now obtain official credit, insurance, and investment opportunities thanks to this formalisation, which also helps them become financially independent and well-off.  Nano companies are a special market with particular traits and difficulties of their own. It's time to put them back on track so they can reclaim their livelihoods and expand and sustain their enterprises. They require tailored solutions.

DIFFERENT CHALLENGES NEED DIFFERENTIATED SOLUTIONS

In order to provide more nano entrepreneurs the chance to create profitable enterprises, we have started collaborating with our partners. For instance, Gromor Finance, our partner, awarded istriwallas a returnable grant. They provide a returnable grant, which is a zero-interest financing programme with an ethical responsibility on the part of the buyer to repay the grant without facing interest charges. After the person has gotten back on their feet, repayment starts. Many are able to restart their iron business and keep providing for their families with a returnable award.    

In order to get nanos closer to financial inclusion, other partners have developed a number of models that enable loans without collateral. We have been able to establish guarantor arrangements with our partners in order to access substantial loan amounts. These guarantors offer a fast supply of financial liquidity and safeguard against any form of nonpayment risk. We will keep developing financing models that are specifically tailored to the needs of nanoentrepreneurs in the upcoming year.

BETTER OPPORTUNITIES FOR NANO ENTREPRENEURS

We owe it to individuals like Istriwallas and Udhyam to improve their access to financing so they may expand and grow their companies. We must make higher investments in this demographic segment by growing and creating specialised solutions.

Nano businesses have a big part to play in the expansion of our economy, both by creating jobs and making a sizable contribution to GDP. A thriving workforce is the greatest thing we can do for our economy. It is our collective responsibility to make sure no one is left behind.