#shows and flims

[geekynichelle]

Flim Flam: And once inside, we'll visit the plush torture chambers.

This has been on my screenshots to redraw list for a while. I figured I shouldn't let my current Scooby Doo mood go to waste. The 13 Ghosts series is obviously dated in some areas, but I do like the overall premise and since I ship all the gang I definitely enjoy the Shaggy/Daphne time. I love how there's really no explanation given as to what the other two were up to since it doesn't even imply they were supposed to meet them in their initial plan of going to Hawaii. I also sometimes miss how random the physics of cartoons used to be and how they had gags like this one with no explanation. Also completely random, but Flim Flam's design reminds me of Carlos from the Magic School Bus

[arttsuka]

Alex Super [Scooby Doo]? He was only used in one episode, but I think he should've been used more. Maybe he and his group could've made the occasional appearance like some of the other recurring Scooby Doo characters?

He has such a neat character design, he looks adorable. Definitely should have been used more

[scoobypineapple]

Found this production art too late to put in the uncle Scooby ™ post but l o o k

[ravewing]

you know when i first started getting really into mlp like two months ago i was all like "omg this is so great im actually gonna be able to get merch of my favs !! thank celestia that for once i dont have a super obscure niche interest that has four existing pieces of merchandise each going for seven umbajillion dollaes." WRONG i got cursed with fixating on like the one character that only gets a crumb of merch

[rainestormroom]

A bunch of Doodles

[twinsoftheday]

today's twins of the day are:

flim and flam (aka "the flim flam brothers") from my little pony: friendship is magic

[absolutebl]

BL & Critical Analysis

Pop culture critique & a how to do it... or something

This meaty question came from the lovely @huachengeye Thank you!

Codicil: I do not get paid for pop culture critique (although I once wrote book reviews professionally, long story). So I’m entirely a dilettante. 

The Question!

Q1: Can you can shed some light on your process (of critical analysis)

This is a little like training your eye to edit a document (I bet you can tell that's not one my strong points). Or training your mind to look at data and data collection in terms of the results it may yield and what the initial survey says about the questioner's bias (or can bias results).

First, I have to ask... 

Do you really want to train your eye to critique?

Because it will become a lot harder to immerse yourself in a piece of media if you constantly feel obligated to step back mentally and think about it from various perspectives. 

In other words, you may enjoy BL, or all live action dramas, LESS if you try to think about them critically.

I have an intimate who is a pretty well known writer. She mostly writes humorous fiction. She's open about the fact that this means every time she laughs, she stops and thinks about why that happened and whether is could be used in her prose. She never gets to be fully absorbed by narrative ever anymore because her critical eye is always turned on, especially for the written word.

What you may sacrifice for critique, is a certain level of childish wonder. 

I’m not sure i would necessarily advise doing this. 

My Process 

My process is essentially now visible in this blog. As I watch a show I take a few notes on it (which show up in the weeklies) and then at the end I go through those notes, consolidate, try to be witty about it, and write up a review.

The review usually has something about:

characters, tropes, plot 

narrative & story structure & pace

how this BL fits in with the greater BL genre & history

any thoughts I have on the quality of the production, acting, and/or directing 

my own personal feelings about the show

Thus my reviews tend to take into account several criteria.

For #1-2 I have a background in lit crit as an undergrad (and, like I said, I did once review books for a living) so these are kinda ingrained in me. I’m working on seeing the influence of soap operas, fan fic, and non-western story structures as critically valid, so these are the things I’m actively learning more about the most these days. 

For #3: How does this fit into the history of BL? Since I’ve made it point to watch pretty much all BLs, I feel like I’m set up to think and talk about this. AKA the spreadsheet made me do it. But since I also have anthropology in my academic history, I’m very interested in how a BL represents for its country’s BL oeuvre. I try to judge KBLs against other KBLs (and Kdramas) and look for patterns and trends in how that country’s interpretation of what it “means to be BL” shift over time. 

For #4: my IRL job is tangential to the entertainment industry so that’s accidentally trained my eye for film. I don’t know that I like this part about myself, but it’s happened whether I like it or not. And I don’t have a proper background in film critique. 

Final #5: will discuss further in a bit.

Suggestion? Establish A Rating System 

Come up with your own personal 10 star (or 5 star) rating system.

Write it down. Don’t be afraid to modify or adjust it. It’s yours, your tastes change, nothing is set in stone. 

Pick one ideal example BL for each category that you’re very familiar with for your reference point. Then you can ask yourself, after you’ve watched a new one, whether you liked it more, less, or about the same as that show. (relative rating, similar to grading on a curve) 

I change my examples regularly as my taste changes and as new BLs are added. The bar gets shifted, so to speak. 

My Rating System 

Your reasoning for rating a BL will be different from mine, but here’s mine as an example. 

(Also I never feel bound by this, sometimes I give a show a 8/10 just because it feels like that’s what it deserves.) 

10/10 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - my favorite precious squee!, faithful to tropes, happy ending, good chemistry, few flaws, high rewatch potential, makes me happy, examples: Semantic Error, Until We Meet Again 

9/10 ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED - loved it and good rewatch potential but probably a few pacing issues or one big flaw, still made me feel good/comforted, examples: Cherry Magic, Bad Buddy

8/10 - RECOMMENDED - some concerns around tropes (like dub con) or story structure/filming but still satisfies as BL, moved me emotionally, rewatchable in parts or not rewatchable but important, examples: Love By Chance, Between Us

7/10 - RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS - i.e. isn’t quite BL, convoluted, not strictly HEA, too short/long, and/or chemistry issues, may have impact on other BL fans but not me (or on me but not others) examples: Make it Right, KinnPorsche

6/10 - WORTH WATCHING BUT FLAWED - probably around the ending or in narrative structure/cohesion or censorship, disappointed expectations, unlikely to rewatch, examples: My Gear and Your Gown, Love Mechanics

5/10 - WATCH IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO - but don’t expect much, it’s a total hot mess interesting only because it's BL and I'm probubly pretty conflicted about it, examples: Advance Bravely, Even Sun

4/10 - FATALLY FLAWED - but still basically BL, however... do we want to support this kind of behaviour? examples: Precise Shot, Work from Heart

3/10 - I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM WATCHING AND NEITHER DOES IT, just seriously why did this get made? examples: Blue of Winter, Physical Therapy 

2/10 - IT'S DEPRESSING - they killed/tortured/etc the gay, save yourself, examples: The Effect, HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count

1/10 - IT'S AWFUL, I WATCHED IT SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO, has all the flaws of 4-3 plus something even more egregious, personally triggering, example: My Bromance series, Round Trip to Love

dnf - self explanatory, but usually I drop because I feel like the narrative is already a #3 and/or headed for a #2 or #1 and then I’m told later that is went there, example: My Tempo

I hand out the fewest 1s & 10s. The most 8s and 7s. Everything else is pretty much on the bell curve you’d expect. 

Q2: What resources do you use to build your reviews?

I listen to a lot of pop culture review critiques in podcast form, often about stuff I'd never watch. But I like the way professionals talk about these things, even if they aren't MY things or don't jive with my personal opinions.

Mark Kermode is my favorite film critic and we like the opposite stuff, but the way he talks about film is very interesting to me. His podcast mini series on the "business of film" is probably one of my must listens. For his main podcast (Kermode & May’s Take), I always skip over all the interviews, people talking about their own films bore me to death (especially if they are actors on the promo junket, save me please). His rants are some of my favorites of all time (try Pirates 3 or Iron Man 2). Someone else’s list. 

I also like Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR because it brings in multiple perspectives and varied cast of critics who often disagree and the "things making me happy" is a grab bag of fun.

The Bechdel Cast is a feminist critique podcast from Hollywood insiders and they do recaps as well as critique, and it's always fascinating to me to hear what people latch onto in a narrative. However, I only listen if I am already familiar with the film they are discussing.

My background is in anthropology and I've lived all over the world so that helps train me to think in terms on culture's impact on narrative as well as linguistics and so forth. As a personality I’m also quite reserved and deadpan, grumpy, stiff, strict, and kinda cold. I think I gravitate to being an observer and an outsider which helps if you want to analysis stuff. Which is not a claim to objectivity, I don't think there can be objective analysis of pop culture.

But it does make me pause to think, "that made me FEEEL something" why? What am I feeling? How did the actor do that? The script? The direction?

These shows are meant to entertain, whether they are successful or not, for me (and what "successful entertainment" means to me) and how they are doing it is the first question I always ask myself.

Q3: What are the things you look out for when watching a BL?

I ask myself a lot of things I would when looking at any piece of art. Or even when shopping for clothing or a new car or reading a book.

Did I like it? Why did I like it?

Did it move me? Why did it move me? 

Did I react? How did I react? To which bits? Why? 

What tropes and narrative beats was it using to manipulate me and my expectations? Did it meet those expectations? The promises it set up at the start? Did it fulfill the watcher-contract during the course of the narrative? 

Did the filming successfully telegraphy the journey I was meant to take? Did the actors? 

But also... would I rewatch it? Am I tempted to do so the moment it ends? For which bits?

The statistician in me wants to point out that these questions say a lot more about me and my relationship to art than it does about the art itself.

For example

Did I like it? Means... I'm motivated by pure taste and personal preference and complete subjectivity. This is in part formed by a person's background, life state, whole experience with culture and pop culture and society, family, friends. Taste is also just "that" bit. You know, that bit? Likes lemon deserts over chocolate ones, gravities to spicy food, favorite color is green, decorates with potted plants. Just my taste is my taste. I like what I like. 

Yes I have some criteria that subconsciously come into play: I look for clever story structure, subversion or manipulation of tropes, parody, not hitting any of my dislikes (like dub con). But also I have other biases impacting whether I like it (like physical appearance) which I can try to check but usually can't fix. (For example GMMTV's Gawin/Fluke looks so much like an ex of mine I really struggle with his screen presence.)

Did I like it?

The fact that this is the first question I ask myself also should tell you I'm motivated by the emotion these narratives engender. I want them to transport me and move me. I my case I want to feel comforted and satisfied and happy. The ones the make me feel discomfort, especially for too long in the narrative, I am simply going to like less. Sometimes less than I feel like I should (see my struggles with masterworks like ITSAY, YNEH, or The 8th Sense). The very BLs that most professional critics would tout as the best examples of the genre for a wider audience often turn out to be the ones I struggle with the most. (They are also, fortunately for me, the least representative of the bulk of the genre.)

In other words there is ALSO a part of me that genuinely likes and enjoys the trashy stuff. Even the trash I trash watch.

So I would advise you to come up with your own questions. Ask yourself what you want from these shows when you watch them. 

What motivates you? 

Why are you watching them at all? 

What brings you joy from an art or entertainment experience? 

What do you want them to do for you? To you?

You are going to experience them (and therefore analyze them) from this perspective whether you like it or not. So understand yourself is paramount. It's about your relationship to the art, not the art itself.

If I were to give you an assignment I would say start with one BL you really enjoyed, perhaps not your favorite but one level down. And then do one you really did not enjoy. And think about why... 

Happy analyzing! 

(source)

[brettesims]

“These vast sky’s, the mountains, and the seas have witnessed great love and great betrayal. Either mankind will consume the world with rage, destroying anything in their path rampaging - in order to feed their insatiable hunger or they will finally learn how to love and surrender. To flow as one with the world.” ~ Shahmaran (a Turkish show, Netflix)

[smilerandsunny1]

My first comic!!

SM is my first oc and made me the happiest. This is for warning angst

Idea — the speeches and background scenes came from the possession horror film of 1981

Background — SM couldn't handle seeing one of his own creators other than his main creator, Walter, driving him crazy. They tried hugging him just for him to push them away in a frenzy.

Rushed art, I had to make it under 4 hours and that's why it looks bad

His design came from originally:

[cpyclopse]

Last week I started drawing my old mlp ocs

Ive still got 2 more to do from this set! So back in like 2022 I think? Everyone was making pony fusions and I joined in the fun but this time around I wanted them to be their own characters instead of just fusions.

I added more, changed their colors, and altered their names a bit and they look sooo much better! plus I've got a better grasp of how their bodies should work!

[My art]

[natestars-corner-of-curiosities]

My refusal to watch the episodes out of order vs. my desire to just skip to the episodes with Flim and Flam

[disgruntleddemon]

I think I'm gonna watch the 13th ghost of scooby doo today. I'm not like the biggest fan of the original series, but the retcons of the movie are annoying. Def curious to see how they handle em. I don't think I'll consider this movie cannon to the show, which is a shame w it supposed to tie up the loose ends. Also rip Scrappy, you didn't deserve that buddy 😔✊

But ye, i suspect the movie will be interesting regardless lol

[barbzdomain]

Nicki Minaj is set to executive produce and star in ‘Lady Danger,’ a new animated series from Amazon Freevee based on the Dark Horse comic book series.

[angiestown]

so back when FiM started airing, all the toys that were available were (very understandably) not created with fans of the show in mind, so I decided to look up what has come out since I stopped watching and

the blind bag ponies. for some reason the initial run didn't have a unique mould for fluttershy and she instead was just a recolour of rainbow dash. this was always so confusing to me because all the blind bag ponies were recolours of one of five moulds (twilight, rarity, applejack, pinkie and rainbow dash) but for SOME REASON they decided to NOT make a unique mould of the pony with LONG FLOWING HAIR??? fluttershy would make such a great base for recolours. honestly out of the six, I would think she'd be the BEST base for recolours

anyway in the time since I dropped off the show it looks like they have made a unique fluttershy mould, but not until AFTER making unique moulds for side and background characters. and even then once she got her own unique mould, as best as I can tell it was only recoloured into ONE different pony, but it is STILL YELLOW just with blue hair and raindrops. a lot of the other side and background pony moulds got more recolours than that

I'm not even like mad or anything I don't care about the recolours, I'm just so confused as to why out of all of them they would skimp on the long flowing hair pony. little girl logic when I was growing up was the longer and flowier your hair is, the better

[mbat]

finally i finished the 13 ghosts of scooby doo + the movie made decades later finishing it. didnt expect that id like an 80s cartoon more than a 2010s one lol, the modern ending was... it was good but idk, something about some of the recent scooby doo movies made to be sequels of sorts is like... ehhh.

its almost entirely the whole 'velma is a mega hardcore skeptic hellbent on disproving everything and she ends up likely being right but also horribly wrong and learning nothing in the end about it' like.. it was like that in the return to zombie island movie as well and that movie was just ruined entirely by it. idk its just annoying.

also i didnt like that in the end they made it yet another unmasking :l like i get it, its scooby doo, its The Classic Thing about the franchise, but man it literally was the ending of a series that was undeniably paranormal and so fun about it.

everything else was pretty good though lol. the 80s series was just as weird and fun as i thought itd be, plus i just never watch stuff older than maybe the 90s so it was a nice walk out of my zone :p also i definitely see why people like vincent van ghoul so much, he was such a delight! so was flim flam and the older iterations of shaggy and scooby!

yeah i mean, i was honestly pleasantly surprised by the show, i went in with very low expectations cause ive watched other 80s scooby doo stuff and was bored out of my mind, but it was genuinely so fun! not to mention the differences and similarities between 80s cartoons and 2010s/2020s cartoons that im used to!

7/10 overall experience, would consider watching again some day

[greenb0i]

Feb 2023

So here its is. For awhile i wanted to do a serise of blog post just about the differnert things ive watched/read/played over each month. I wanted to start in janunary, but wasnt able to due to college aswell as other things going on in my life. Most of my reviews will be wouldn't have spoilers, but if you want to hear my full thoughts on something, then just sent me an ask. Also I didn't watch much this month lol.On to it

'*•.¸♡ Flims♡¸.•*'

Plup Fiction (1994) Dir. Quentin Tarantino

I watch this movie with my dad, since it one of his favourites. And ya I liked it, I can see why this movie is considered a classic. It is good with its music choices and the cinematography. Tho as of writing this it's not a movie that sticks with me like I've seen some people describe it. It's fine, but it's more of a movie I watched both because my dad liked it and to say I've seen a classic, it rather than one I genuinely would watch if it wasn't (if any of that makes sense) 6/10, Not really my thing, but I can see why it rated so highly

Young Frankenstein (1974) Dir. Mel Brooks

I had to watch this for college. And ya it grand. I don't think I'm too into old movies, but I still want to try more. I think what I really like about this movie is Gene wilder, like even when I was younger watch Charlie and the chocolate factor and was amazed by him. Idk I just like him as a actor, I think I want to watch more of his movies. But ya, 5/10 I can very much see why it good, just didn't hit me

Love, Pamela (2023) Dir Ryan White

I am a Pamela Anderson Stan, hater dni. But ya I really like this flim, how really she feels. And like shitty people treated her and it. Idk just make me think about women in the entertainment industry and how they are treated today. But ya not much to say with rehashing the flim. 9/10 go watch

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ Shows ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

Love is Blind (2020-) S3

I debated putting reality shows on this, but why not, it is something I somewhat enjoy. But ya this season, I think there was only one couple who I don't think is going have a messy divorce within a few years. Also, after the end of the 3 extra ep made me so mad HOW COULD HE!!!

Vampires in the garden (2022)

I like this. I though the anmation was really well done, and i really enjoyed the monster desgin. I also really like the relatuonship between the two main charaters and how it effected the rest of the plot. The only real down fall for the seriosu is how short it is. I feel like if they had about 3( maybe even just 2) more epoides, I feel like they could explore Momo charater more as well as some of the side charters. Thought besides the serious feeling a little rushed at points, i still really enjoyed it for what its was, just wished there was little bit more there. 7/10