#sorry if this is underwhelming I don't really think about either character very much??

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

Remember that scene from episode 7, when Aemond tries to approach Jace on Driftmark, looking like he is about to offer his condolences but at the same time knows he shouldn't because even Jace can't acknowledge his real father? And Jace looks somewhat annoyed and Aemond leaves, then Jace glances at Aegon who is already in his cups and doesn't even notice him? There were no scenes like that in season 2. Short but meaningful, the scenes that reveal so much about the characters involved. We have Aemond who even after being mocked by his nephews still can sympathise with them in a way and the two (Aemond/Jace) can give us a 'what if' moment that creates the ultimate fallout more tragic. Then we have Jace who obviously is interested more in Aegon as a ringleader, an older boy he looks up to, and yet, it's Aemond, the boy he mocks for not having a dragon, the one who approaches him. These kind of scenes are important for the character building and also for making a stronger emotional impact on the audience when it comes to the fate of the mentioned characters. S2 had none of this and destroyed and undid whatever s1 built character and story-wise. Aemond's and Alicent's characters suffered the most, no doubt, but it was bad in general.

Also, in the balcony scene it's obvious how helaena and aemond have a great chemistry and it just made me even more mad because they had so little screentime together in both seasons. Same goes for Aegond. It's criminal they had zero good scenes , save for that one in e6 that is just used to not so subtly remind us that Aemond is a sadist. Also, why wouldn't Aemond just finish Aegon off because as long as he lives, Aemond is not safe? The answer: in the book he obviously didn't try to kill him at RR and therefore wouldn't want to kill him in the aftermath either, but these idiots just needed their shitty change to all of the sudden make Aemond a one dimensional villain, make Aegon as pitiful as possible and to show how terrible and dysfunctional the greens are as a family. However, they couldn't just kill Aegon off so early and that's why they attempted to fix their stupid plothole with that scene when Aemond threatens him. Like, what?? I'm supposed to believe that was enough for Aegon to shut up for weeks and then just leave? Nah. There were bunch of similar idiocies through the whole season and I'm sure that something seriously went wrong between s1 and 2 because the drop in quality is jarring. I'm not saying s1 was that great, but this one was abysmal. Probably Miguel leaving was one of the main reasons, but whatever it was, this season will remain a great example of what not to do when you make a TV show. I just feel sorry for the lost potential and also for the people who are planning to watch s3 because, unless you're a die hard tb stan with zero critical thinking skills, I can't see the appeal.

Ugh, I hope this rant makes sense 😅

Hello, and thank you for the ask!

You're making a very good point. Season 1 was by no means perfect; but there was at least some if not love then genuine investment in the story and the characters from the showrunners - one could feel that at least occasionally. I guess it really came from Sapochnik's end because Condal clearly couldn't care less. The show used to have a soul - and now it feels empty. And, as it has been proven time and time again through the entirety of cinematic history, it is virtually impossible to create a truly good film or TV show if you don't give a damn about its essence.

I saw some people calling season 2 "a trailer for season 3" - because of how underwhelming and lacking in substance it turned out to be, I assume. To me it feels like something in between a trailer for the things to come and a recap of an actual season that was filmed but not shown to us for some reason. Pretty much everything feels superficial - even the dragged out scenes supposedly added for symbolism purposes or whatnot. The relationships between the characters are underdeveloped at best, destroyed at most (for example, chemistry between Green siblings' actors is utterly wasted indeed); some plot points make no sense; quite a few characters seem to have got a personality transplant in between the seasons.

Actually, I can understand why people, even TG fans would still be willing to watch season 3 (some for Aegon and Larys storyline, some for Alysmond - whatever form it takes, some for other reasons which could be many). As for me though - at the risk of sounding too dramatic - I had too much heart poured into this show and got hurt too badly by what it has become to even think of continuing to watch it without feeling sick. At least, for now.

[skylarkva]

Day After Thoughts on the Vengeance Saga

I was super hyped for the Vengeance Saga, as I am with every saga release, but after sitting with it and digesting a bit, I think Epic act 2 overall is having a pacing issue. (This is going to be super long)

Like here's the thing: the Thunder Saga? Perfection, absolutely nailed it. And then we get into the wisdom Saga, which — although I thoroughly enjoyed it— had something about it that felt off. Now with the vengeance saga I'm realizing that act 2 just doesn't feel long enough.

I loved God Games, but it felt like Athena won the gods over too easily. Hearing the snippets got me hyped, and then in context of the song, I realized those snippets being the whole verse for each god felt too quick. Most of the wisdom saga is paced alright, at least for me, but that last song has been hyped up since the planning stages, and it's a really important moment! A little more back and forth with the gods would have shown just how much getting Ody free meant to Athena.

Now I'm not just saying this because Wangui's vocals are heavenly— we desperately needed more Calypso. It makes me sad because I know Jorge had another song with Odysseus and Calypso that he cut, and I think it would have added so much had it stayed in to the final album. Ody has been trapped with her for seven years, and we see him hit his limit in Love in Paradise, but for the audience that limit is hit immediately. We aren't given enough time to really see Odysseus get desperate, Calypso not understand his needs and wants, and her trying and failing to win over a faithful married man. Because the thing is, now we get to Not Sorry for Loving You, and Calypso is absolutely broken over losing Odysseus. Why? Did she fall in love with him at first sight, or did they talk and she fell deeper in love with him the longer he was there, all while he tried to push her away? That "let me speak" moment stands out to me because of this too. Without the context of seeing those seven years, I'd assumed all Odysseus did was let Calypso speak, because what else can he do with a goddess? So is that the case and she's just being controlling here, or did she truly feel like Odysseus hadn't listened to her during their time together. Idk. It doesn't feel earned and it does a disservice to her character. Plus more Wangui wouldn't hurt. Oh the Calypso saga we could've had...

Then we get Dangerous which, I don't have many notes that song hurt me and then was funky. I love Hermes, moving on.

Charybdis felt underwhelming to me, I feel like it ended too soon. Which could very well be the point, I had just gotten hyped off of the snippets and felt the final battle wasn't as impactful as I'd been expecting it to be. The ending destroyed me though, Jorge did an amazing job there, knew exactly how to stomp on my heart.

Get in the Water was the other song besides Scylla that I had been waiting the entire musical to get to, and I think it was executed almost perfectly, I really have no notes there either.

Six Hundred Strike....oh Six Hundred Strike. It was epic, it was chilling....but the first half just does not fit into the rest of the show musically. I'm mostly talking about once the six hundred men chant starts up. I love Aeolus' theme being used as an instrument, like I actually adore it so much, but those dang drums... For me it shoots straight past "this is a boss fight so this is a video game reference" into "this is Poseidon's boss theme for the Epic fighting game". That part of the song is the first time I've really said to myself "I can't see this on stage". Especially considering where Get in the Water ends musically, this just feels really jarring to me. I actually don't have any problem with Odysseus stabbing Poseidon. This isn't a mortal vs a god anymore, this is a monster vs a god, and a monster that god created at that. I think to make it feel less overpowered though, it could've been fixed with Poseidon saying "alright, fine" instead of "alright, please" to get Ody to stop. Then it would've been less that he was begging and more that he was annoyed and just wanted to be rid of him and never deal with him again. Same with his line delivery of "after everything you've done, how will you sleep at night?". I almost would've liked to hear him laughing there, like in disbelief, or in a mocking tone, only for Odysseus to shut him up with "next to my wife". The wing bag jetpack is also too funny for me to take seriously so I'm gonna ignore that for my own personal head canon.

I love epic and I hope the Ithaca Saga sticks the landing. I'm just dumping my thoughts after last night lmao

[yuseirra]

Hehe.. I'm okay, I mean.. Either way, it means I have one less thing to worry about.

If it is how it is, then I don't have to worry so much about what happens in this piece. If it somehow goes the way I want, I'll have something to keep on loving.

I honestly really still don't picture what point the plot would have and how the story would make sense if they decide if this is how the story would go in this direction,(it's a chapter, I still feel things should be seen in full and have some sort of good theme that wraps it all together) but I'm not saying that the author is wrong. They decide what to do with the story and their characters, I believe that for a creator, their characters can sometimes be like their child.. That's how it is for me when I write them, it depends on the creator, but I believe they will have a degree of affection for what they've brought into this world.

I wouldn't like it, it's underwhelming, and whatever this new chapter suggests could have made sense and fit better like 50 chapters ago and would have had better catharsis if it happened much earlier I feel, but that's my personal opinion I form after having read it with my own interpretations. I could say that I tried my best and put very careful attention to it in my own way.

You really don't need to try console me, it's getting really annoying.. I'm sorry, but being spoiled every single time for the past.. Month or two after having been very attached to a ship had been so rough for me, I think it was even worse than seeing how the chapters play out for myself and forming a clear opinion on it. Don't warn me or say you're sorry, I can handle it on my own. I'm really used to doing it for myself. why??; I'm just going to read or drop this series if I'm not satisfied with it, I want to keep giving it a chance and keep loving it if/while I can. It's fine. If I need it, I will organize my thoughts in a post, draw it out, or talk to my friends. I'll tell you if I NEED to talk! I'm having fun.

The really interesting thing about this work is, while I get really frustrated about how wacky and bizzare things turn out to be, I always find something about these chapters that.. Give me hope still? Idk if they are false hope though XD it's ridiculous, but I keep reading. I'll keep my hopes brightly lit if I can find them and I actually... Still kinda do. I wonder if it'll hit even more rock bottom than this lol. If you forget about Kamiki and Ai maybe this isn't the worst either, but honestly, I really, really am rooting for Ai in this one and her love. I like that about her and hey, if I'm the one who writes this story, I'd make her every choices worth it.

I feel the author really loves her character, she's well-crafted, so I want to believe that!

So there. Until next chapter drops!

[saltwaterandstars]

Long, grumbling negativity about a book I've just read - The Jane Austen Society - A Novel by Natalie Jenner - under the cut. I need to let off some steam!

I've just finished listening to the audiobook of The Jane Austen Society and was underwhelmed by it, to say the least. Actually, I was repeatedly irritated by it. To be fair, before I started it I was pretty confident it wouldn't be fantastic, but I was looking for something relatively unchallenging, and I'm interested in Jane Austen's books but also the obsession that's grown up around her and her life, and the book is narrated by Richard Armitage and that man has a delicious voice. So I would have been quite content with a pleasant but nothing special kind of novel set in a world I find interesting - but it was much worse than that in ways that have really annoyed me.

Two things particularly stand out. The first is that this is an international best seller with recommendations by a range of American newspapers and magazines that I, as a Brit, have actually heard of, but it's really badly written. The author over-explains so much - she doesn't trust the reader to understand or imagine or remember anything. Also, the characters engage in terrible conversations and self-analysis, full of wise and inspirational emotional insights of the sort that few people actually experience, especially not mid-century rural Brits! They sound like they've done a 2005 introduction to counselling course and they're keen to try out their newly acquired psychological insights on their village neighbours.

The second thing is that the book is full of Americanisms, which is very disconcerting given that it's set in Hampshire, a county in the UK, in the mid 1940s. Characters repeatedly talk about going to the movies, middle-aged British men in 1945 use the phrase "they reached out to me," there are references to escrow etc. etc. etc. Dozens of times I found myself shouting they would not say that! at poor Richard Armitage - I'm sure he was thinking it, too. What I don't know is whether all of this is down to poor writing/editing or whether all the Americanisms were left in or even put in on purpose, to make the book more understandable to American audiences. Either way, they did not enhance my reading pleasure!

In the end I'm left once again thinking how astonishing it is that some books get published and sell successfully, and are just, well, piss poor. If you write fanfic or original work and you ever doubt the quality or legitimacy of your writing, I would really go easy on yourself, and I certainly wouldn't put published authors on a pedestal!

Right, I feel better having got all that off my chest! I'm really sorry if this is one of your favourite books! And I'm purposely not tagging it with the book or author.

[emily-prentits]

thoughts on the greys s19 finales? s19 kinda underwhelmed me (marina is cute but the baby thing bores me to no end which in turns makes them as a ship dull to me sacrilege i know lol but it’s the truth) and i never got super into yasuda/helm but im kinda loving the possibility of yasuda/jules? idk what’s going on there but the chemistry>>>

ohh boy. so i have a lot of thoughts on the finales LOL. it got really really long and it only aired yesterday so spoilers are under the cut for those that haven't seen!

grey's:

sooo. i hated it. as a writer, as a viewer, i fucking hated it. honestly, i should have come into the fandom earlier because this season being my first to watch live sucked ASS and was more losing than winning. narratively speaking, the vast majority of the writing choices made ZERO sense. not winston/monica (AFTER ALL THE MONMELIA BUILD UP??), not julesmika (sorry, i love them, but they make no narrative sense. unless they're trying for a mertina type relationship which im not sure i entirely like either), and not whatever bullshit was going on with catherine. i know she has played big bad boss lady in the past but honestly this season the writing for her was very... flat? one dimensional? it was almost like she could ONLY be the antagonist and she wasn't allowed to have any other role in this season. i don't think we saw her outside of the hospital at all in the whole 10 episodes. while i DO understand they had to make some necessary cuts because of the shortened length of the season... was it really worth keeping catherine fox in this season if they were going to ruin her?? because i do NOT think so. and what was UP with her firing half the hospital in one episode??? fuck that??

to be completely honest lol, i'm tired of this show and the way they hate their gays. helmika breakup, no monmelia ANYTHING -- making monica hook up with winston after zero build up?? if you want to write a bisexual character this is NOT the way to do it -- schmitt leaving next season, trying to build up the julesmika relationship when midori is leaving in the next season?? i admit they're cute, but there's no way the relationship is sustainable. and it makes me so sad.

and... oh my god don't get me started on mernick. to preface everything i say about them: i think they're cute! genuinely i do! i don't hate them at all, which makes it so much harder when i have to say that they make no sense together long term. meredith is very clearly not as in love with him as he is with her (he said he wanted to marry her, walked out, and she had. zero reaction. to any of it. if anything she kind of treats him like a child?😭) and she only really fights for him when it looks like he's going to leave. she'll only fight for her stability if there's a real threat of losing it. in a way, i suppose it's not surprising. they mirror merder but only in all the bad ways, the way that merder was starry eyed intern x dreamy neurosurgeon turns into the way that mernick is essentially idol x fan. there's no way either of those relationships could have lasted in the long run -- BECAUSE of their foundations. and it makes me so sad bc why is meredith doing the same fucking things after 20 SEASONS. she of ALL the characters deserves to have some character development after all this time.

station 19:

loved it. cried so many times. the episode ended and i walked around feeling so empty. i will admit i have only seen marina spoilers and have not watched any of the seasons until season 7, so my view might be a bit skewed. cried with the marina family (maya's development from season 1 to season 7? 🥹), cried when travis went with vic (someone finally choosing to put first the Put Everyone Else First Person??? hello tears). the flashes forward and back were so interesting, definitely kept me engaged. i was so scared tho when they kept showing the burning gear when andy was missing 😭 i was like they BETTER NOT have killed her. and then all was well <3 more or less.

overall for station 19, i think they really did the best they possibly could have with how many episodes they were given to wrap up the series if it doesn't end up getting picked up. i liked it a lot more than grey's, for sure :)

[billerak]

RWTC

As in rewatch get it because it's like team names and this fandom is obsessed with four letter acronyms and-*gets shot*

...

So… I once fixed hyperfixation by rewatching a show and taking notes about it, so imma try the same with RWBY as it's currently taking over a lot of brainpower just existing in my consciousness. I reckon if the rewatch itself doesn't remind me of how much of a mess this show is, taking notes might. Also I really wanna examine the 'Bumblebee was set up from the beginning' allegations. I'm 99.99% it wasn't but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Just to make it clear for any bumblebee fan who may be reading this expecting me to be converted into loving the ship: Even if there are hints this early on, their development later would still be a goddamn mess. And just for the record: I will only be taking as 'hints' things that are undeniable. The show is very explicit with its hetshit, I won't take less than that for queerness. (Don't expect this to be an essay I'll just write down whatever I wanna say at any given moment and it will be awful to read, it's basically a diary for myself).

V1: Trailers: Honestly, they're bangers. Music's great. They set up characters. If I had to rank them I'd say R-Y-W-B but I only put Black below the others because I simply like the other fights better. I know why Adam is there with Blake but it kinda feels like he steals a bit of hte spotlight. (And the Dempsey Roll reference in Yellow cannot be beaten, sorry. Well except by Ruby's sheer fucking awesomeness but ykwim). Though tbh ADAM STANDING THERE AWKWARDLY INSTEAD OF JUST JUMPING IS INSANE. YOU CAN CLEAR THAT GAP MY GUY. Also the moon is, well, inconsistent across the trailers. Like you'd think maybe there was something going on with it breaking a bit more each trailer but, no, it jumps from barely broken to even more broken than in the show in Black, then stays the same in Yellow. Which. You know. It's the little inconsistencies that make RWBY, aren't they.

On the Bees: Someone pointed out to me that 'Red like Roses' implies Blake/Yang as the beauty and the beast. I… will grant it the benefit of the doubt in this case. I mean, Monty didn't even fucking know Ruby was standing by her mother's gravestone when he did this I seriously doubt he'd thought that much ahead. But RWBY is inspired by fairy tales, so the use of beast and beauty isn't likely to be coincidental either. This is the only instance where I will grant a 'benefit of the doubt'. I'm more inclined to believe it's actually a coincidence that neatly fit into it later. Blake/Yang have absolutely nothing of the beauty and the beast in their dynamic.

Ep 1: The dust speech at the start feels a bit odd in retrospect. Dust ends up being kind of underwhelming if we look at what it actually does for the plot, it doesn't feel more important than Aura and Semblances. I'd reckon all three could have been mentioned. Is… is that moon transition at the start meant to imply the moon's been breaking off over time? Honestly the creation myth of RWBY is one of the few things I do believe was at least mildly planned from the start so I find it mildly surprising. Maybe they planned for it to break more over time but forgot about it by volume 6 and just had the gods break it all in one go? The rest of the episode is ok. I won't be commenting on the voice acting too much—this was a bit of an indie production, after all. If any particular lines are too awful maybe I'll point them out. That being said, Glenda's semblance is awfully the fucking same as magic. Cinder is using literal magic so that's ok. It really never is quite explained how or even why dust interacts with semblances, is it?

On the Bees: Nothing this ep.

Ep 2: Should I mention the fact that the show never stops to breathe, especially this early on? I guess I'll do it because then when I can be positive about a scene it'll stick out. So… yeah, the whole introduction of Team RWBY is kind of all over the place in terms of pacing. Could ahve used an extra minute or two to make the conversation a bit, well, better paced. Also do Yang's friends ever show up again? I don't think so. And I know it's meant to be comedic but Weiss just swinging about a bottle of dust feels kind of… strange. She should know how stupid that is. That aside, there's a lot of expository dialogue that probably could have been shoved into the classroom scenes. The dust, weapons, etc. Leave room for the characters to actually speak instead of explaining things everyone present should know.

On the Bees: Nothing this ep.

Ep 3: Comedy is VERY hit or miss in general, so I'll just state I… don't really find most RWBY humor funny. I see the intent and I won't criticize it, it's just not for me. On another note: White Rose is my go-to ship in the early volumes. The writers clearly got scared of how much chemistry Ruby and Weiss had so they sort of… barely interact one on one again in the future. Did you know I like Diakko? Because I like Diakko. A lot. Check my AO3. Iykyk. Anyways I don't think the sleepover scene thing is too bad. Could have made Weiss interact with Blake a bit but eh whatever.

On the Bees: So, Yang makes a very pointed comment about being into boys! Very explicit and with no interpretation required! Let's see if we can see similar hints of her bisexuality at any point prior to V6. And on the off chance a bumblebee shipper is reading this: I don't really care how much these minor instances 'don't matter'. If they're such small things, why not have them go both ways? Like, say, the perfect chance that comes up right after with fucking Blake. Which isn't taken. "noo but she says she likes her bow' it's all literal pleasantries to try to get her to talk to Ruby and the second she isn't responsive Yang's like "Nah fuck her." There's more of a romantic interaction here between Ruby and Blake than between bumblebee ffs. Also Yang so far has only shown interest in boys, as evidenced by her trailer. 'nooo she was just pretending' she wasn't pretending here now was she. Anyways if it really was planned this early on what stopped the team from just showing a bit of her bisexuality. Because she also didn't have much of a 'gay awakening' thing moment. Which you'd think they'd give her. Or Blake for that matter.

Ep 4: Nora and Ren are introduced and it's clear Nora's in love with Ren from second 1. Even if it's unclear whether Ren reciprocates or not (And I'm gonna say unclear because dude's kind of very non-emotive in general). I think it's a fine enough introduction to the characters. Weiss is VERY gay towards Pyrrha you cannot convince me otherwise. (just for clarification's sake: I mean it in a shippy way, I know it's not intentionally queer, I'm a yurifag it's what I do). Oh hey look another character getting to be very explicitly heterosexual I'm sure queer folk will get the same treatment in this incredibly inclusive show! Idk if I like Pyrrha's introduction. I guess it's efficient but… well, like everything in this scene, really it coudl use some time to breathe. I could get nitpicky and complain about a lot of things with the 'team selection process' like, uh, the fact that some students have to have died or how there has to have been some terrible teams because of the random nature of it all. And I guess I just did. But I'll also say I'm gonna let it pass because, in the end, it's funny. Also Blake didn't speak a single word this episode. Or get like. Any focus. Like idk a shot of her reacting to other people's shenanigans at least. One of the 4 mcs guys.

On the Bees: Nothing this ep… Like with Blake.

Ep 5: AU where Pyrrha misses her shot because Ruby dodged that bird, and Pyrrha's weapon struck the bird instead of Jaune and Jaune fucking dies. (<- when I say these notes are for me I mean it this is the sort of shit I think about when watching episodes of anything) Like u get what I mean? Ruby and Weiss just have so much chemistry man. I don't get what Pyrrha saw in Jaune acting like a prick back there but idk straight people are weird. And… pretty much that's all I have to say about the episode. There wasn't much of a pacing issue here because it was like, 3 scenes altogether.

Ep 6: So, Yang's supposed to absorb damage to use her semblance. At least in the later volumes. Here she just… Uses it. The trailer version had been fighting and took a few hits so it made sense there but here? And don't tell me it had no effect because she used it to obliterate that bear Grimm. Anyways I think it changes a few times through the volumes I'll be on watch for that. Yang and Blake's meeting is… fucking nothing. More at the end. The, uh, 'fight' with Ruby and Weiss wasn't animated the best. That's all imma say about it. Ok so, Aura is a manifestation of the soul and it can coat yourself and your tools for protection and presumably also enhances attacks and provides healing. Simple enough. But… the thing about understanding light and dark or whatever? Shit never comes up again. Also I seem to remember this is retconned but we'll get there when/if we get there. I don't hate the concept of Aura. Hell, it's almost exactly how I handle at least 2 magic systems I'm currently working on (sans details). I just think it's poorly utilized, being almost always just used as a magical coating and little else. The whole 'manifestation of the soul' thing rings hollow. Also does anyone else ever do the shield-aura thing Ren did here? Leaving aside my problems with Aura in general, Pyrrha's whole thing about helping Jaune manifest Aura: W H A T. T H E. F U C K. Like, did anyone on the team pause to think of the implications of this? Probably not. Definitely not. Just think about it for a second. This implies that it's possible for people with aura to help people without it manifest it. Whether the speech is important or not is irrelevant, let's say it's just something to help someone focus. That's not the freaking point. WHY woudln't they do this to everyone? If Pyrrha could do it with Jaune, who is pretty much a normal ass dude, why not do this for every citizen? It literally takes like a minute. Sure it tires the person who does it but like, what's stopping that person from turning around and doing it to someone else? Let's say it requires training to do it: Why not train people for the explicit job of unlocking other people's auras? And yes, they very explicitly state everyone has an aura, whether it's unlocked or not. Listen to me. LISTEN TO ME. You live in a society where a negative emotion will attract the monsters trying to kill you. Do you know how much safer people would feel if they knew they'd survive at least one or two hits from a Grimm? The panic you could help avoid? Grimm have this thing where they retrofeed themselves, causing panic which attracts more of them which causes more panic etc. By unlocking everyone's Aura you could help avoid or at least severely delay that problem. I don't think this is ever done again. But even if it is, the point would only get stronger, because it's clearly not something only Pyrrha can do. Anwyays back to our regular content, fight scenes with Monty are pretty good most of the time. Ren never uses his bare fists to attack again I don't think.

On the Bees: Every other pairing formed in these episodes had like. A proper exchange when they met. To show what chemistry they had together. Whether it be Weiss ignoring then coming back to Ruby, Pyrrha making a wisecrack at Jaune or Nora's and Ren's whole thing. Yang and Blake? Blake doesn't say anything, she just smirks (I think it's meant to be a smirk anyways). Yang just boasts. I understand Blake's not a very talkative individual but this tells me nothing of what their dynamic's gonna be.

Ep 7: Weiss and Ruby having really fun interactions here and then Yang and Blake have a nothingburger of an interaction. Actually, make that 2 nothingburger interactions. Jaune and Pyrrha get to be comedic here. And that's basically the episode really.

On the Bees: I don't care if bumblebee shippers read a million layers of meaning into Blake not saying shit when they first interact this episde. Fine. But Yang doesn't even have a reaction to it! She doesn't act annoyed or intrigued she literally does fucking nothing about it. Then the pony thing is like… ok. What's their dynamic here? Weiss and Ruby have a really strong dynamic already in place. Jaune and Pyrrha are building one that's at least starting to make sense. Nora and Ren had one from their first seconds together. Seriously. You wanna argue they were planned from the beginning? Well they sure seem like people who ended on the same team and shrugged and said 'whatever' and kept moving without further interaction, unlike fucking EVERYONE else. It pisses me off because you can 100% play Yang's hotheadedness against Blake's more calculating nature, but they don't fucking do that. 'Planned from the beginning' my ass, mfs couldn't even figure out how to squeeze some characterization out of their interactions.

Ep 8: The start of this episode is another case of RWBY humor not really hitting home for me. Another case of Yang just using her semblance for a tantrum. Seriosuly White Rose gets a fucking moment every episode. Yang and Blake barely fucking interact. I'm going insane. The rest of the episode is basically one big action scene, and well, it's RWBY at its best, so no real complains here. Roman is kind of awfully underutilized, isn't he.

On the Bees: I'd love to go on a rant like last episode but honestly shit still applies. The only actual interaction Yang and Blake have here is when Yang is feeling proud of Ruby, and it speaks nothing about their dynamic.

Ep 9: Last episode Blake wasn't saying shit and now she's suddenly a huge part of the redecorating efforts. The problem isn't that I think she should be a loner or aloof, the problem is that it doesnt' feel too consistent. She starts being like "leave me alone I wanna read", she barely exchanges a word with Yang later, and now she joins in on the fun? idk, maybe she could've joined in a less overt way. Other than that it's a fine scene, though it goes too fast for my liking. The classroom scene is amazing because it teaches us basically nothing, other than the mention of the 4 kingdoms. Like it says a lot of shit about 'true huntsmen' which ends up proving mostly untrue through the rest of the show. Which would be fine if it was like, a point made, but it's not really.

On the Bees: N o t h i n g.

Ep 10: More White Rose people really trying to tell me not to ship them because the bees are canon but fuck you THEIR DYNAMIC IS THE BEST PART OF EARLY RWBY. Always with the caveat of 'pacing could be better' ofc. Anyways what the fuck was up with professor moustache flirting with Yang what were they thinking. I think the Weiss/Ruby conflict could have been stretched a bit. Rather than a day, make it a week or something. Still, this is one of the better episodes of the season, iirc.

On the Bees: Nada. Zero. Nanai. But we keep getting fuel for White Rose DO YOU UNDERSTAND MY FRUSTRATION HERE. LIKE SERIOUSLY I WOUDLN'T EVEN MIND THE ABSOLUTE LACK OF ANY EXPLICIT QUEERNESS IN THESE EARLY VOLUMES IF THEY AT LEAST BOTHERED TO MAKE THE SUPPOSED 'PLANNED FROM THE BEGINNING' COUPLE INTERACT PROPERLY. NOBODY WOULD BE CASTING DOBUT TO THE CLAIM IF WHITEROSE HAD ENDED UP BEING CANON.

Ep 11: Ok, here's the thing. Aura is a manifestation of the soul. I can accept it can be measured somehow. The question here is, what exactly happens when it breaks? Like, what happens to your fucking soul? Really, I would just make it vital energy the same way ki or chakra works, because tying it to the soul like that just leads to questions. Anyways this episode is just the setup for the "jaune gets bullied arc". I'll actually not say too much about it because my own thoughts towards bullies are rather… extreme (as in, I would kill them all without hesitation were I given the chance sort of extreme). So instead of commenting on how absolutely terribly I think this arc is handled, I'll… not do that. That being said, none of team JNPR or RWBY standing up for Bunnygirl is kind of bullshit. Also, we know there's cameras everywhere on beacon, so why don't the teachers do shit? Though to be fair, teachers not doing shit about bullying is the most realistic part of this whole thing.

On the Bees: Still nothing.

Ep 12: Ok so the discussion of "making up new races to be racist towards" has been ongoing for as long as the internet has existed, probably earlier than that too. I am white, and I'm not from the US. In my country I'd say we have far more xenophobia than we do racism, and we didn't have a civil war over the the concept of freeing slaves. We just sort of did it. All of this to say: I'm not really in a position to give too pointed an opinion on the whole 'racist towards faunus' thing. With that and my refusal to speak on hte bullying topic, that kind of leaves me with little to say in general about the rest of the volume, huh. That being said, while I don't mind the Jaune/Pyrrha thing, and I do like the idea of Jaune somehow faking his way into beacon… how? How exactly does he do that? Like, think about all the security shit we've seen over the years. How does anyone create fake transcripts? Woudln't Ozpin or Glynda call the schools of their students to make sure their records are correct? idk. Maybe Ozpin just found the idea funny.

On the Bees: Knees.

Ep 13: I like the conversation between Jaune and Ruby, though it feels a bit… random for Ruby to be saying this? I guess the idea is she matured a bit after the conversation with Ozpin but it doesn't really feel like she's at the point where she should be saying stuff like this yet. I think she and Jaune should've played off each other, instead of Ruby acting like she's experienced about this.

On the Knees: Bees. Or, actually, I think it was wasps in that box.

Ep 14: Pyrrha's semblance is later treated as though it were secret (iirc) but she certainly doesn't seem to care too much about it right now. Wouldn't it be a matter of public reacord, anyways? Like, if you go to a fighting school, I'd reckon they want to know what their fighters' semblances are. Wouldn't want to have Gorey McBloodhands walk into the next sparring session and make someone explode from the inside, know what I mean? I suppose the existence of Salem could work to explain the masking of this but… They put up public tournaments where the best fighters are literally shown to the whole world anyways, and most semblances aren't as subtle as Pyrrha's so, you know. Anyways, that moment when Jaune's aura glows… Is… that supposed to be his semblance? I think it was more just that thing Pyrrha said about Jaune having a lot of aura, but if Jaune can use his semblance on himself, well… Fuck, the implications. Jaune could be the most broken character of this cast. Should be, even. Only semblances like Tyrian's should be able to counter him.

On the Bumbles: What happened to the box of wasps anyways.

Ep 15: Ok, so the only thing I will say about the racism arc: It makes sense Weiss would be racist, I just think it comes out of nowhere, when they had at least 2 other chances to show it in the past to build up to all of this. First thing Sun does when he shows up: Flirt! With Blake! More at the bottom Anwyays previous to final episode of the volume and… we introduce 2 random ass characters out of nowhere. And no, this wasn't planned from the beginning, this was done in haste because Monty thought it'd be cool to have them in a fight scene, and it shows. Monty was a genius animator but the guy could have done a little consulting with his team, really. THAT BEING SAID. I kinda think like they did the best they could. For all my complaints, using Sun as the trigger for Wiess's rampant racism (even though it could've been built up to) is effective enough. And… Ok Penny is a bit superfluous and she… doesn't really add anything to the scene other than being a literal obstacle, but, uh, could be worse really. I didn't much care for penny back in the day, but I do love Penny after V7-8, much as her revival bothers me (I remember when they claimed that no, Penny couldn't be brought back to life despite being a machine. You really want me to believe their claims about other stuff when they pull shit like that? You know the whole racism argument could have been a moment for Yang and Ruby to actually partake in the conversation. Especially yang since, you know, they were totally planned as a couple from the beginning.

On the Bees: Nothing! But Sun had a moment with Blake! Two, actually! And Sun's gonna be the one getting the infodump first. Like, dude's really gonna connect more and more deeply with Blake over a cup of fucking coffee than Yang has in literal months- "But no guys you don't understand there was never anything going on there clearly it was nothing it had no narrative impact it was meaningless fr fr" I'll say more about this over the volumes because holy fuck the level of cope is amazing here. I know I'm gonna sound like a goddamn hetfag complaining about this but you seriously need to understand I'm a yuri connoisseur I fucking hate heterosexuality (in media. real heterosexuals are ok sometimes) (this is a joke but only if the previous comment offended you if not it's real)

Ep 16: Well I already said my piece about Blake telling her backstory to Sun rather than her teammates. Way to go Yang, sticking up for Blake in the face of Weiss's continued racism. How effective is it to hold someone at gun/knifepoint, given the existence of Aura? If Blake tried to slit Roman's throat, even with a shot, its unlikely she'd be able to pierce through the aura, right? Cool fights are cool. Ok, racism arc aside, I do think it's kind of a problem that Weiss just… solves her racism because she 'thought about it'. Like, bitch wasn't even confronted about it, you get me? I like the idea of the 'reunion', the problem is… it doesn't feel earned. Pacing issues, like usual, but especially awful here.

On the Bees: N O T H I N G BLAKE WAS MISSING FOR HALF A DAY AND WEISS HAD MORE OF A REUNION WITH HER AND RUBY HAD MORE OF A REACTION.

Anyways, V1 finished. Veredict? It's a mess. It's RWBY. Despite all the criticisms I've thrown its way, I believe I enjoyed it more this second time than the first, to be quite honest.

And no, this volume did absolutely nothing to convince me that Bumblebee was planned from the start. In fact it kind of pushed me in the opposite direction. Like, the VA's really shipped this from the start? Fucking why? They barely interact, when they do it's fucking dry, and Blake has deeper moments of connection with the other two members of RWBY than with Yang. I am genuinely astounded anyone would believe the claims the bee's were always meant as endgame. Fucking hell.

On a completely separate note: Pyrrha doesn't pass the Bechdel Test for volume 1. Yes I kept track of this.

RWTC 2

[vohtaro]

to the anon who sent me an ask recommending i read the da vinci code: sorry tumblr ate your ask. i do hope you see this.

so here it is. my da vinci code book review.

well, that was... a book.

context: while i have seen the movie 'angels & demons' like seventeen billion times bc it was on tv all the time, i have only seen the da vinci code once, probably around when it came out. i feel it safe to say that i was fairly fresh on the material. i listened to it on audiobook over the course of 3 weeks bc that's what was available soonest from my library.

i can start by saying... i get why this book was popular. you have conspiracy, "the church is hiding a truth!" drama, little puzzles that chock themselves up far beyond their merit... selling the idea that every symbol, every story, is somehow this secret tapestry that all cultures across the world are metaphorically shaking hands on... yeah. it's the kind of book that someone reads and gets the chat about at dinner parties and end on, "well, you never know, it could be true!". the chapters are short, too, which is amazing given the amount of entirely unnecessary detail stuffed into them.

brown's writing style is at times deeply insufferable. most times it's mundane, but his descriptors are damn painful at times. the detail he provides are either entirely unnecessary and add nothing, or are so far beyond what anyone cares about. but i think the worst offense of his writing is the air of smugness that it carries. the obnoxious quips about hollywood, the students he was lecturing at whatever school, his general internal monologue; there were these little remarks that i could just feel that when dan brown wrote them, he paused from his typing to give himself a cheeky little pat on the back. "I showed them," he chortled to himself, wiggling in his chair. "gave them a good smarting, I did!". it feels like brown has a Big Thought about some utterly minuscule thing that absolutely does not matter, but if he doesn't say it, he'll fckin explode.

as someone who has no serious religious background/education, i found the entire "secret"... rather underwhelming. i struggle to imagine that the entire world would be torn asunder because jesus fucked that one time. and not to mention, the idea of a direct bloodline from jesus being so vital for ??? some reason that i don't even recall was explained, felt so... bizarre?? just entirely strange. like, i don't know why the existence of a direct descendant of jesus christ would be so fundamental in the destruction of a multi-thousand year long faith, but sure. pop off, dan brown. and no, i really don't want anyone to explain it to me.

robert as a character is very. idk. he's inoffensive, ig. his character suffers by being a product of brown's desire to mic drop once in a while. i'm sure robert said some dumb shit that i forgot about, but he's really just some guy talking out of his ass with a bit too much confidence. he's not intentionally rude or anything. it's hard to describe him bc he's just A Guy who knows shit about pictures. he's a picture guy. Professor Picture. idk if he's a professor.

sophie meanwhile is a character whose purpose is being by-association rather than being a person with her own agency. she is important because she knew jacques and solved his riddles and puzzles as a child; not because of her own professional merits. she solves like three things at the beginning, all of them being word puzzles and then the fibonacci sequence password at the bank. otherwise, she is someone who gets upset about her late grandfather for a plethora of different reasons. not unreasonable of her, given just how much she uncovers in the span of 36 hours, but that's really where her character ends. at times, she is forward, perhaps even brazen with her determination, which i did appreciate. at the start of the story, she's actually moving the plot along quite a bit: she gives robert the clue via the phone message; she breaks the window in the bathroom and throws the tracker too iirc; she's driving during the car chase, helping robert escape (in her hashtag not sponsored Smart Car). but after that..... it feels like she's just along for the ride. i feel like she could have been more instrumental as time went on.

and speaking of sophie.... i could entirely feel the way that stupid romantic subplot was being shoved in between robert and sophie because some editor demanded it. it was so fucking brutal. their little """moment""" outside the house before robert left for paris the next morning had my fingers leaving impressions in the steering wheel.

the worst puzzle had to be the isaac newton one bc as soon as newton was mentioned i was like "apple. it's apple." and it took an UNGODLY amount of pages for anyone to piece it together. literally how did it take THAT FUCKING LONG. i was yelling in my vehicle and incurring road rage over it. APPLE!!! JUST GUESS IT!!! IT'S NOT LIKE THE CRYPTEX WILL LOCK IF YOU GUESS TOO MANY TIMES!!!! COME AWNNNN!!!

so anyways, thanks for recommending it. it sure was a trip. though given that you suggested this on anon, perhaps i should say 'how could you' since you knew what this book could do to a man. /lh

if you have any specific questions for me about impressions or thoughts regarding something i did not mention, feel free to ask; it's very possible that i just forgot to mention it.

[blimbo-buddy]

Cats in the City of Plague: Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this book quite a bit! It's nice to break away from Warrior Cats to read other xenofiction books, seeing as this is A.L Marlow's first fiction book, I'd say it's a great start! So let's go over what I think the pros and cons of the book are: Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution

Some quick content/trigger warnings:

Self mutilation and harm (Via the group of Flagellants, who scourge themselves with whips that have sharp metal spikes to lash their own backs with. It goes into detail about their wounds)

Religious manipulation

Animal death/harm (One of the cats killed is a child as well)

If there's any other warning that I may have missed, let me know and I'll add it

Pros:

Short and sweet. It's only around 130 pages long, it's not an incredibly intimidating read so it's good for those who want to read a good beginner book that isn't Warrior Cats

Neat setting, it takes place in 14th century France

Simple but effective descriptions of locations. Marlow's descriptions for some of the settings within chapters is well executed, the strongest ones in my opinion is when the cats are going to see the Flagellates and when the cats are in the graveyard

The deaths actually have some sort of impact on the characters

Innocent. Read the book to read about Innocent.

The characters have pretty good, fleshed out personalities, well, as much as Marlow could fit into a short 16 chapter book

The world building is simple and very casual, nothing is really that complicated. It's very down-to-earth, as down-to-earth as a xenofiction book can get

The characters have small details that give them so much to work with, such as one of the servants having scars on her face from previously dealing with cow pox, it makes you wonder what she went through and adds just even a little bit of layer to her

The book actually focuses on the humans too, it's not just focused on the cats 24/7

The scenes of cats running around while everybody is trying to catch them is greatly written, Marlow can capture chaos in the text well

The book doesn't act like the forest is where every cat must belong to, it actually details how harsh the environment is

The ending epilogue was so fucking sweet, genuinely great

Cons:

It sort of rushes towards the end

Way too many fake out deaths. I think some of them should have either died right there or have their fates unknown

This is just super common in xenofiction: More male characters compared to female characters

The chapters get. Way too short towards the end. So it's bad that there's a chapter that's only about Leander, Innocent, and Jean about to fight each other because there was a female cat nearby in heat, so Juno had to go find her and kick her ass. This goes nowhere.

Leander should have gotten humbled more I'm sorry, Lavinia should have kicked his ass

While the character deaths do impact the others, I wish it impacted them more. Leander kind of forgets about Argent two chapters after he dies

I do think the book could have been a bit longer

The story of Le Chat was a bit underwhelming as much as I enjoyed it a bit

Would I recommend the book? Yeah! If you want a short read and something different, I'd recommend it. For his first fiction novel, A.L Marlow did pretty well. It obviously has its flaws, and I advise that you don't go into this book expecting something grand with lots of world building, it's a quaint world and a simple plot with neatly packed world building both based on fiction and reality (what with the plague and all).

If you want other cat xenofiction books to read, here's a Tumblr post compiling some of them, it's how I found this book to begin with!

[skrunksthatwunk]

your thoughts on goromi and kazumi? :3c

ok sorry it took me a day to respond it's because when i saw this (and periodically afterwards when i remembered this ask) i legitimately just (out loud, late at night) went

GOD. FUCK. GOD I LOVE WOMEN!!!!!!!!! I LOVE WOMEN I LOVE WOMEN I LOVE WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!! AND I LOVE MY GENDERQUEERS AND I LOVE MY TRANSVESTITES AND MY TRANS PEOPLE AND MY DRAG ARTISTS I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!!!

because i didn't know how to verbalize this image that appeared immediately in my mind but which i also had to make myself

literally any of those interpretations of goromi and/or kazumi are incredible gorgeous scrumptious. i was gonna end it there but i gotta reiterate some things actually oh my god i love them so so much

i figured out i was genderfluid right before i first played kiwami so goromi literally changed my brain chemistry

like i don't think i CAN put it into words how much goromi means to me. she's incredible. what the fans have done with her is incredible. i never finished it but i was planning on making a massive post on my relationship with gender and goromi and what she means to me but i can sum it up. im gonna (numbered) list some needs and then talk about how goromi hits each one. (so like 1-4 (general) then 1-4 (goromi))

i have never encountered nor heard of a genderfluid character within canon media. not even a character that uses multiple pronouns. the closest situation to it are shapeshifters, and even then their other genders are more like disguises than "openly same person just different gender/expression", so it doesn't scratch that itch for me and i never really related to them much, nor to even the occasional fictional nonbinary person. i didn't really relate much to transmasc people and their experiences either. honestly, the stuff that grabbed me most were transfem stories, which i didn't understand because im afab (turns out im transfem AND transmasc. i know that's unconventional but you're just gonna have to trust me on it bc im not elaborating rn <3). it's not as if i don't have transmasc-typical experiences or feelings, but it's like. it's different. hell my genderfluidity doesn't even present very much like what I've seen from other ppl. what the fuck. so basically no man is an island except for me okay.

when i go into media expecting queer rep, i tend to be underwhelmed by it. im not sure why exactly, but i tend to enjoy non-canon stuff more for whatever reason, even as i yearn for actual representation. the result of this is that the rep i tend to be most affected by is stuff i stumble into on accident, canon or not, so my expectations/feelings develop more naturally. it's not an exact science, but it's there.

(i think some of the aforementioned issue also comes from the ways rep is done. like maybe they're sapphic, but they're usually both cis and gender conforming (not even gay-looking femme either, like. cishet normie style. hallmark type gay, for lack of a better term) and neurotypical, so their experiences are vastly different from mine. i just tend to latch onto them less than I'd like (i imagine this goes even more for poc because oh my god is (western) sapphic . media like. very very white). basically, i lack investment in them because they lack the texture i need to get a foothold in it)

one of the main problems i have faced as a genderfluid person is a lack of direction in regards to transition. I've never seen it talked about but there's no way for me to ever get a body i am going to be consistently satisfied with, given current technology. the best i can do is try to straddle several common gender demands and compromise between them. if i want to cut my hair, i have to live with it tomorrow, when it might give me dysphoria. if i take hormones, it'll be slow to take and slow to stop. surgery is permanent. it's not that there's no solutions, but i just. can't be the person i want to be at all given moments, or even most of them, because doing anything at all takes from something else. and so when the closest thing we have to genderfluid rep is shapeshifters, it doesn't feel like rep to me because it's a completely unattainable fantasy, and one that disregards one of the primary issues i face given my identity, one I've never seen represented

I've never seen a character that a significant amount of people headcanon as any kind of genderfluid or multigender. i don't really know that many people with such identities either. so even within fandom spaces, where queerness can be more evident/daring, it's a rare thing to see, and never reoccurs within the same character much

im not gonna lie i just really like majima in general okay. and kiwami hyped me up so hard on its queercoding so any little thing got me howling and crying and pointing vigorously.

speaking of which i FUCKING LOVED YAKUZA back then (still do <3) but i literally knew no one who played it and didn't engage with it online other than scrounging pinterest (which was rough but also shoutout to that comment on a majima post that was like "so there's this he/she 😳" you literally actually changed my life and also made me soo so much more transgender. lime it was already there but it got multiplied. thank you i would actually kiss you in real life mwah) so like any queer rep that's good or close enough is gonna rock my world. I'd already talked to rina (that sapphic hostess) and kiryu saying gay rights and her talking about her actual issues was fucking. i cried actual tears over that man it meant a lot to me. not the point rn though

okay i think that's enough. here's how goromi engages with these points

look idk what it is but goromi FUCKS gender wise. big scary gruff nasty yakuza man in the streets, absolute BABE in the sheets. she's gender nonconforming as fuck and she's. god i love her. she's so interesting, the way she's both a disguise and fully just majima for real in a way the other disguises aren't. like she puts so much more design and thought and personality into goromi's clothes when she coulda just gone to party city and grabbed Hostess #1 y'know? she's the same person, but her mannerisms change in ways i relate to. it's intentional and it's not intentional and i love her she's complicated and again gnc femininity is actually super my jam apparently so that's it that's the itch scratched. more in point 4

full disclosure i technically knew about goromi beforehand and was very prepared to fall in love with her, like heart racing clearing my schedule kinda prepared, and i wasn't disappointed. i wasn't expecting it to be like... so good, y'know? like i got my hopes up, i just was kinda also bracing for something queerphobic to happen (which can happen, but it didn't for me), and instead the encounter was really affirming and tender and wonderful and romantic and i really fucking liked it ok. maybe she wasn't supposed to be more than a gag character, i don't know. but there's a lot of genuineness in what she says and how she acts. she feels real, she makes sense like this, and im not alone in seeing that significance. and people took it and ran with it beautifully, because they found something meaningful in that (see 5)

it helps that i was already really invested in majima as a character. he has a LOT of texture and frankly this series can't write or treat its women well so like. we'll make one i guess (transes your fave). a lot of female characters (and a lot of mainstream queer ones as well) tend to be kinda sanitized in certain ways, or just don't have a lot of room for personality elements that could be divisive or non-marketable, if that makes sense. they can't be "ugly" or "annoying" or "cruel" or "gross" or "bitchy" or anything else. my favorite female characters are ones that are allowed to be weird and unpalatable!!! they're wonderful!!!! let women be shnarsty 2k23. and goromi is anything but bland <3

this one's big. goromi has to wake up tomorrow and be a patriarch. she has to keep her men in line. for all the confidence and glamor of the butterfly of the night, she's gotta take it all off tomorrow. maybe when she's not ready for it. maybe she can't do all the stuff she want to with her presentation because of her job, or because she's predominantly guypilled, or whatever. a lot of it for me comes down to her goatee. it's not just that she's gender nonconforming (though that reading is in and of itself deeply refreshing), it's also that she may face some of the limitations in expression that i do, in a way I've never seen expressed before. she has to pick and choose. is she gonna want that goatee tomorrow? is it worth it to shave it off only to feel weird without it? is it worth the time it takes to grow it back? she's no shapeshifter, and it can very well cause her problems. but she still radiates beauty and confidence, y'know? i love her :)

this one's really important too. i have never seen so many people see my (often OUR) experiences in a character like this before. she's WIDELY headcanoned as bigender, genderfluid, etc, and people love her so much. i am not alone in loving her for very gender specific reasons, and the fan content I've seen really resonates so much with me. sometimes when im down I'll just... dig through goromi content. she's a great pick me up, even when her stories aren't completely happy. the myriad ways people interpret her and her identity and how/when it came to be, the self discovery, the confidence, the insecurity, the compromise, the vulnerability!!! the GENDER. (god the outfits they put her in. stop im already dead. im so endeared to her you have no idea. but you probably do and THATS the magic, baby) i have found solace and camaraderie and belonging in people's content of/for her, and im not alone. seeing that passion and excitement is so profound to me, even more so than it usually is with art and community and fan spaces (which is already a lot). when i mentioned i was making a "what goromi means to me as a genderfluid person" post (the one that got scrapped oops lol), someone responded saying they, as a bigender person, also really loved goromi for that. it meant a lot to me to see. genderqueer readings of goromi are obviously not universal and there's for sure transphobia within the rgg fandom, but I've never seen such a large force of people united in not just a trans interpretation, but a genderqueer AND genderweird interpretation. WE THE GENDERFUCKS LOVE HER IS THE POINT

not much to say here besides: this is why marginalized rep matters in all media (rather than just designated gay zones), because seeing it grow/appear in media that means a lot to you makes you feel like you're being seen as a fan. you matter and are a part of that world. i think it especially makes sense as part of a big/long running franchise as well, as a part of adapting to a changing society and an acknowledgement of past gaps and work to correct it. it's also good to get a wide variety of voices and experience portrayed, and that's easier when more people are doing it.

related to above but this one's short but it's one thing to have a side character in an rgg game be queer and accepted, and it's another for a main character to be so queercoded, and accepted within canon, at that. i think that's part of why people care so much about how mine's lines and story are translated and depicted, as well, though that's another tangent for another time

umm other goromi points speed round

number one i have SUCH a big lllllllesbian crush on her oh my god. i love womne. two the visual art these people make of her is insane. like they UNLEASH. three the fan writing surrounding her is also so good mwah thanks y'all four i watch the goromi all answers somewhat frequently fun fact about me five if any character is getting a shrine in my house it's her. kiryu's a second. i need to see this woman all the time im not fucking around six her voice is soooo pretty to me seven why did they put her in the worst lighting in her intro. not important she serves always but that was really strange like she's pretty don't be scared of it. embrace it seven 80s goromi content drives me insane I've posted about it before but it's so fuckinf good eight t4t kazumaji is always going to be incredible and flavors where goromi exist are impeccable. same for saemaji. equality nine i love how she screeches and cackles and wears "gaudy" clothing i love how instead of trying to be the "perfect woman" she's like fuck it im gonna be myself it's like that post about that trans guy who wants to be one of those men who's house has a bunch of disassembled cars in its yard just loving the mundane and the unconventional or unconsidered elements of gender because it feels so good to explore that even if others take it for granted ten HARUKA + AUNT GOROMI CONTENT >>>>>>>!!!!!!!! eleven i love women and i love queens and i love queers uhhh i think that's most of it for now

kazumi time

i also love women. i love kazumi. i love her so so much. much like goromi there's a handful of ways to interpret her identity-wise and they're all fantastic.

something I've noticed about the series while trying to scheme up sapphic/"genderbend" (i mean it's? not the most accurate term but it's as close as i can get. "sexbend but they're cis" is i guess also it but like. they don't have to be cis? anyway) content for these characters is that a lot of the ways they live their lives and express themselves are very tied to a particular kind of masculinity. so like, take kiryu. kiryu's pretty gender conforming, and his job is to be a big strong man who protects the weak. he's expressed feeling pressure due to gendered expectations before. how would one go about an "everyone knows she's a woman + transphobia is not relevant (i.e. a cis woman kiryu or i guess just. really early transition kiryu? idk)" version of her? because she would not have these same expectations living as and being seen by the world + the yakuza as a woman, right? is she gender conforming, or gnc? is she butch or nah, i guess. and i think majima's relationship to goromi has some overlap, with like,, how he is only able to do yakuza things as a man and fun girly stuff as a woman, how she's an outlet/persona (or everyone just thinks she is).

this is to say that people seeing goromi (as she's allowed some wiggle room by being both more mischievous/deceptive and queercoded in a more feminine way) and seeing her and kiryu's dynamic and going oh bitch. it's makeover time and pulling him in is GREAT because it's fun and hrngh women sexyhot but also fascinating in regards to like,, how kiryu as a character relates to gender. I've seen a few interpretations (namely @squishylemonbubbles ) that view kazumi as a sort of way to put the sword and shield down and just... be. be taken care of, even. to be softer in ways she can't be as a man due to her environment. and i LOVE that shit. and then some people are like idk she's a bad bitch though let her have some gender too and that's ALSO GREAT. i like it when people explore her with goromi as a guide/catalyst, though i think it'd be cool to have her do things a little more independently of goromi/majima/kazumaji stuff just for the sake of it. i love her. people should draw/write about her way way way more often and maybe just exclusively from now on and i think maybe I'll be satisfied. i should do that too

bonus thought: we should do this for way more yakuza characters. you're telling me NO ONE has done saejima yet. I've never seen her. no daigo no akiyama no ichiban etc (i was gonna say nishiki but i actually HAVE seen hostess nishiki..... once... <3). c'mon. t-boy swag/drag king haruka also has a lot of potential but i think ppl never do it partially because there's no women in this series so like. endangered species

anyway im not kidding i actually was derailed for a while just going OUHOUUUGHHH I LOVE WOMEN when i first got this and it was a delight getting to answer this, thank you x (also sorry it was so long? anyway im gonna edit this and link to some of my goromi and kazumi content, of which there is too little, because i love them so so so so much. ok bye)

(ok here's some of my goromi and/or kazumi posts. some of them are old and im not proud of them all anymore but that's okay. they may not much but they're honest work. in approximate most recent -> least recent order)

NEW and referenced in i think the tags of this post: 80s goromi kazumaji disco meet cute (meet ugly? tbd)

misc doodles ft 80s goromi AND girlboss nishitani

goromi pink truck dialogue

squishy's kazumi design 1 (ft goromi and haruka)

squishy's kazumi design 2 (but it's just kazumaji this time)

she was a boy and he ate. worms

screaming into the void about drawing kazumi

^^similar but for goromi (actually im redrawing this atm bc i never posted it)

80s goromi text post

another goromi wip i didn't finish oops lmao

wigless goromi wigless goromi

goromi kiryu post-fight printcircle

misc goromis

aunt goromi

unfinished wip teaser i was super confident about and then never finished oops lol anyway it's more goromi

[junpeijackflash]

Happy Pride Month, lovers and haters of Maximum Ride!

I promised I'd talk a bit more about my rewrite by revealing which members of the flock are LGBTQ+, and now that I've finally finished fixed Chapter 7, now's as good a time as any.

This will be spoilers for stuff I've planned further into the future (as in: most of this is only really relevant from book 2 onwards). This also isn't all the LGBTQ+ characters I have. There's a couple of OCs (and a handful of stolen James Patterson characters). Might talk about them later, might not. Who knows.

Characters are below the cut!

Alright, we're all clear on spoilers? (though I guess it doesn't matter in the case of a rewrite with no confirmed release date lol)

Then, in a semi-particular order, let's start with...

Nudge!

Using a new picrew for all of these. Link can be found here: https://picrew.me/ja/image_maker/626197

Nudge is pansexual, which tbh is the headcanon I've had for her for years now, so this doesn't feel like much of a change. I should note here that she - along with the other members of the flock, minus one exception - don't technically use the terms I'm using here to describe their sexuality, for one reason or another.

For Nudge, it's because she doesn't discover any words for describing her experience other than "gay" for a while, and she doesn't really like calling herself "gay" since she doesn't feel like the term fits her.

She doesn't have any romantic relationships, but she does have a crush, and gets incredibly shy and embarrassed about it.

Iggy!

Iggy is, by definition, gay. However, Iggy doesn't particularly like the term "gay". He usually either uses "queer" or just goes unlabeled.

Iggy is also the only character that I have a planned romantic relationship, and it's with a stolen James Patterson character! Place your bets everyone! It's not gonna be who you think it is!

Both Iggy and Nudge are already out by the time book 1 starts. These next two come out after a bit of self-discovery during book 2.

Max!

Maximum Ride is aromantic, realizing this after 14 years of living when she's finally confronted with other people her age and realizes that dating and romance are in fact real things people want to do and not something made up for television.

I haven't decided whether or not she's asexual as well. Feel free to headcanon that, or whatever you want. I'm leaving it up to interpretation.

Of course, Max isn't going to be having any romance, considering she is the last person in the flock who'd want that.

And finally, the last member of the flock, and the only trans member......

...oh come on, like you don't know who I'm talking about.

Fang!

So yeah, I've fallen victim to the nonbinary/trans Fang agenda, and I'm here to make all of you join as well.

To keep things simple, and not spoil all of my Fang Development Plans, here's a basic summary of Fang's pronouns book-by-book.

Book 1: he/him

Book 2: he/they

Book 3: they/he, but in the "Only people very close to me get to call me 'he', everyone else has to use 'they' or I'll kill them" sort of way

Should also note: the flock as a whole is not even aware of the concept of being trans or the fact that people can be something other than male or female until book 2. Finding out helps Fang start questioning their gender.

That about wraps it up. Sorry if this is underwhelming, I never know what I do or don't want to say regarding spoilers. The only two flock members who aren't included on this list are Gazzy and Angel, but that's really just because they're very tiny children and I was thinking less about who they might have a crush on and more about the brand new childhood trauma they'll be getting and living with for a very long time.

[caelumsnuff]

After the last quinn video I'm definitely... underwhelmed. I guess it's supposed to be a power moment that darlin gets to beat up quinn but like he's literally going to be tied to a chair, where are the stakes?

It also seems that there's a hesitancy to give these characters different relationship dynamics? Like oh he's a vampire so the not wanting to bite is of course a barrier he needs to overcome, they're dating a vampire so of course they need to be seeking that out- one of the most intriguing things about sam to me was that he is still uncomfortable with his vampirism and he's still figuring out his own way of coming to terms with that, plus the two of them not incorporating biting into their relationship would be another way to explore the vampire/non vampire relationship! It just feels like they're being pushed onto the same narrative track as vincent and lovely with 1. Nonvampire unexpectedly runs into vampire on solaire territory, 2. They start dating, 3. They address the trauma surrounding biting, 4. Inevitable biting indicating growth, 5. Nonvampire becomes immortal so they can live happily ever after

Like I didn't really have a problem with that being vincent and lovely's story it just feels like we already HAD that arc? And i felt like this was supposed to be a different story

(Also this is smaller but it strikes me as weird that it mentions in the video how darlin would continue to ask sam to bite them after he already explained how traumatic that experience had been for him in the past given that the entire foundation of their relationship is built on understanding and respecting each other's boundaries and being willing to wait for the other to be ready?)

Anyway sorry for the ranting i have just been looking forward to this arc for so long and I'm just kind of disappointed that all the stakes are gone and that it seems like the whole point didn't even really NEED quinn to be part of it since darlin could have told people that stuff at any point in time

You, me, and about at least a dozen other people apparently anon! Im so upset over it for real.

After all of this, it doesn't feel like a power moment. It feels condescending, having the fucking magical cops catch the man you wanted to catch and then going "^-^ oh but we'll tie him down to a chair and you can maim him before he gets his head chopped off" LIKE?????? why? what would be the point???

I feel like their story does mirror Vincent's and Lovely's, but not even in a good way. It's not a foil, its just a fucking mirror. But one of those wacky fun house mirrors that distort how you look.

Redacted very much does hesitate to give characters different dynamics, i mean. Again, look at Vincent and Lovely. Having Lovely be turned by Vincent was SUCH a good opportunity to explore a drastic dynamic change, but instead he had William magic away his power to 1) invoke and 2) lie. But those choices themselves could have had some kind of backlash with Lovely struggling through their turning, but they literally glided right through it. It would have been nice to have some kind of scenario with Lovely doing something batshit insane and having Vincent either 1) have to invoke them (in a universe in which he didnt magic that ability away) or 2) not have the ability to invoke them, and have to struggle through that situation without that power to lean back on. But here we are!!!! Nothing changed!!!! Just like Sam and Darlin.

I think its slightly strange that they keep asking, but you can't really know when someone's boundaries have changed if you don't ask again yanno?? Its not something i necessarily have a big problem with its just...... its been so long, Sammy, have some development.

Thank you for the ask, and dont worry about the ranting! I was very disappointed as well. I was so looking forward to this, it could have been so good and yet.

Im gonna put my thoughts about how this could have gone below the cut :3

Darlin wanted to catch and kill him themself, and they should have gotten the chance. Like.... it was well established that they wouldn't have been able to take him on their own, but isn't it great that theres the Solaire clan and the Shaw pack to help them now? That would have been a better conclusion to come from all those "Love Conquers All ❤️" speeches that Darlin had to endure.

We could have had Sweetheart catch wind of him somewhere, and instead of reporting it to the department, they report it to David and word spreads to Sam and then to Darlin and so on and so forth. Maybe along the way he ends up catching and killing one of the human mates, or maybe even Sweetheart themself?, just a few minutes after they report him to the pack. That'd be interesting, or at least heavily injure one of them. Or both.

We get Sam running off just ahead of Darlin to go and try to catch him. Sam gets incapacitated by Quinn, at which point we get the (sexy slutty) little villain monologue from him about Darlin. Darlin shows up right behind Sam as Quinn is spillin tea to him, and they hear everything as he airs out their dirty laundry, about how he's been right behind them, he knows that Sam hasn't bitten them, yaddah yaddah. Darlin shifts, embarrassed and tears in their eyes, and attempts to kill him, failing miserably. Perhaps he breaks one of their legs, maybe even rips it off. Both Sam and Darlin are on the ground, bleeding, heavily injured and about to die at the hands of Quinn when slowly the whole Shaw pack and some members of the Solaire clan show up (including William!!!). They surround him and prevent him from escaping, they attack him and injure him enough that he doesn't have a chance to get away. Every body passes him off to Sam and Darlin, the former holding him (he's already heavily injured and pretty much immobilized), and Darlin rips his head clean the fuck off, crushing it in their maw and spitting it on the ground like trash.

Afterwards, when they're healed enough to not die, Darlin and Sam finally have an actual talk like similar to how they did in the third video, but this time it's like. Warranted. They have a talk about Darlin's blood and biting kink isn't actually bad, and they and Sam can work through getting up to a point where he can give that to them, because he wants to as well. They also deal with the consequences of being heavily injured, maybe they actually lose that leg i talked about (credit to one of my former anons about the losing a limb thing, they were also galaxy brain about the idea of magical prosthetics and medical tech :3). Darling deals with some emotional turmoil over finally reaching this goal that they've been chasing after for over a year now, feeling a little aimless without it. Sam feeling some type of way about not being able to do anything else for his progeny now that Quinn's dead. And then they work through that shit together!!!

[hy2ka]

im gonna rant a lil about genshin's "diversity" in the playable characters cause i realized the problem goes beyond there being very few characters with darker skin (though i honestly only consider xinyan and kaeya to ACTUALLY have dark skin -- xinyan's skin tone is actually very similar to mine)

all of the characters with darker skin (except kaeya) aren't really meta and their kits are either dysfunctional or someone does the job better. xinyan has the split scaling, cyno is considered underwhelming (tho again, i'm pretty sure quickbloom is his best team), candace's kit is a bit weird but still functional, but now dehya is a mess.

and tbh this feels more like a genshin problem, which is... weird. in honkai, i think i told you that there is one playable character who is black (though her skin tone is more like cyno/candace's. xinyan, who is not canonically black, has darker skin than the canon black girl 💀) she is a physical support who specializes in breaking shields. though she can be replaced, she is the best at what she does and, if you need a shield breaker, carole's most likely your gal.

it feels so weird how genshin is based off of real-life, yet it can't even represent all the characters somewhat equally in the meta/gameplay. this makes me worried for natlan tbh :/ i don't have much hope for that nation in terms of playable characters. it's kind of a stupid move on hoyo's part to mess up most of sumeru, when they decided which region it would be based on.

sorry for the rant. i just wanted to say it for someone KJGSEKJG

no cuz literally. ever since the sumeru leaks the question on my mind has always been 'are they TRYING to sabotage their OWN characters????' but i guess racism and colourism will make people act like idiots 👍🏽 even weirder considering the entire sumeru plot was about the oppression and discrimination of the desert folk who largely are shown to have darker skin than their forest counterparts. its like theres no communication between the character designers and story writers which... you know. makes sense actually.

kit functionality is another thing though. genshin has more underwhelming characters than xinyan and dehya and candace, and the concept of meta characters has always been iffy. cyno is absolutely good on his own and kaeya has story relevancy and hes also a good unit, people just like to complain. it does feel to me like, as the character roster grows, the less the devs know what to do with the playable ones lol

but absolutely keep ur expectations for natlan VERY low LMAO. they might take inspiration from latin american countries but ultimately theyre a chinese game dev studio who have to cater to chinese and white audiences first and foremost, considering those are always the biggest sources of revenue for everything that isnt contained within national borders. and unfortunately the husbandos and waifus who sell well are always the fair skinned characters lol

[wardenmop]

OKAY i've decided it is time for you all to learn who the hell is the fellow i keep drawing and posting about, the guy in my avatar, so this entire post will be about

✨ my Final Fantasy XIV catboy Trent Ongaro ✨

^thats an actual ingame picture of him. i take some creative liberties when i draw him, but the vibe stays the same i think.

in 2019 i started playing Final Fantasy XIV and got really obsessed with it. what i became most obsessed with though was Trent Ongaro, my player character, a man of my own making. he's grown and changed a lot along with me over the 4 years i've had him.

(my boy Trent 2020 and my boy Trent 2023)

i've always described him to my friends as "just a guy." thats what i wanted to create, noone complex, just a guy doing his best, someone you could imagine knowing. he's very inspired by the fictional heroes i've looked up to throughout my life, a lot of old manga and anime protagonists, a bit of my partner and a bit of myself. personality wise he's kind but not afraid to throw hands. he's rather quiet and a bit aloof. wouldnt call him stupid but he's not smart either. he loves nature and spending time in it. i also dont have a character sheet for him, i always draw him based on vibes so his appearance keeps shifting lol, but i dont mind it, i think its fun to see him evolve.

as for his lore — he used to work as a trapper and forager living in a small forest cottage together with his long term girlfriend, but realized this life wasnt fulfilling for him (and neither it was for her). they broke up on good terms and he decided to travel the world in search of adventure. thats my main motif with him i think, that he's as free as a bird and always moving. i'd like to be that way too but i've got too much anxiety lol. and thats pretty much it. there is no tragedy, his parents are alive, enjoying their retirement in a tropical resort, complaining that he doesnt visit them often enough. by this point in the story he's in his early 30s. he's utterly unexceptional, but that makes him exceptional to me.

and now you know! sorry if its underwhelming lol, i understand that he's not the most exciting OC but thats by design. i tag all my art of him with his name, so if you wanted to see more of him just look up the "#Trent Ongaro" tag on my blog! i'm grateful for every interaction on my posts with him. i don't think i'll ever be able to let him go, he's my muse and by this point he is so much bigger than Final Fantasy XIV itself to me, he's a whole separate entity.

[fromdusks]

Hiii there! Hope it's okay that I sent this in!!!! If you've played the gtao update, what did you think of it?! Anyways, have a nice afternoon!!!! Sorry to bother you!!!!

Hi anon! You're not bothering me at all! Thanks for the question ❤️

I played it the day it was updated (Tuesday) and finished it all in about an hour and a half.

My thoughts on the update under the cut:

So honestly, I was not a fan of this update -- which is part of the reason why I haven't really talked about it much on here.

It felt very underwhelming for a winter update. I understand that Rockstar is going to be releasing a ton of drip-feed content, but from what I've seen so far (from released content to upcoming content), I'm not that excited.

I'm just going to be very honest.

Characters: Dax is annoying as hell. I don't like him at all. I was mostly excited to see Ron but he was only in the introduction cutscene and that's it? We only got a mention of Wade which was disappointing, also.

But yeah, not a fan of Dax. He was (to me) as irritating and badly written as KDJ from the Tuners update. If making a character funny is talking about buttholes every 3 seconds then they need to fire some writers over at Rockstar HQ.

Not a fan of his crew/friends either. Like I said before, annoying.

Plot: Here's where I can go on for hours, and of course this is just my opinion, but here we go.

You have Protag, who is (at this point), EXTREMELY rich and experienced -- a LITERAL Kingpin of Crime. Has done countless heists, raids, etc. Has SAVED THE WORLD -- and you expect me to believe that in 2022 they're doing...THIS?

In what WORLD do you go from top-tier jobs such as Doomsday, The Casino Heist, Cayo, even working with Dre, and then you're suddenly like "yeah I'll just do THIS now"??/1/???? Helping an annoying-ass Seth Rogan wannabe start up an acid lab in LS???

ON TOP OF THAT, Protag LET'S Dax and his crew call them "Fresh meat"???

Listen, I know that GTAO is essentially a choose-your-own adventure. I also understand the concept of Protag being so high-up the ladder that their anonymity is the basis of their Kingpin identity -- and that Dax wouldn't know who they are. But this just doesn't seem like "it" to me.

Honestly, I feel like this was made for teen boys who have an unhealthy addiction to Breaking Bad. I get it, I do. But not for the WINTER FUCKING UPDATE.

Will I check out the drip feed content? Yeah. Am I happy with the update? No.

All in all, I'm disappointed.

But thank you anon for the question because I NEEDED to vent about this.

For the record, @death-in-tight-pants also agrees with all of the above, since we have been bitching about this to each other since Tuesday lmfao.

[misogyny]

I am coming here so I can more easily complain about the new Monster High generation since Twitter's limit is agitating.

So, for one, I love Draculaura's new body type. It fits her well, it's cute, and her doll itself is quite endearing. However, I hate her new look; She is painfully TikTok. I hate the split hair, it is not nearly as cute as her old hairstyle and color, and it just does not fit her. I do not like her clothing, either, it has none of the charm of the old clothing with no creative takes on.. anything (jewelry/shoes/etc). The charm of her old clothing is completely wiped. I also am not a fan at all of her new personality. She is a completely new character, and one that I am not a fan of. A true bastardization of her.

Lagoona is just disgusting, sorry. Nothing about her is redeeming. Her clothing is boring and ugly, her 3D and doll model is boring. Over all, none of the choices made really do anything to enhance her design. She looks messy and just generally unappealing. Every change they made to her was another blow to her and she just turned out a complete mess.

Clawdeen's changes are mostly just strange. I understand the reason why they wanted to change so much about her, but I just don't think the direction they went with her was the right choice. She is not the same character in the slightest, and it is disappointing to see. Her clothes are especially underwhelming since she was "the most fashionable" and they turned her into the average Californian art student. Minus Kanken backpack. Another character that stayed the same in name alone.

I think Cleo is okay and they made a few improvements in her design but only in makeup, Ghoulia is bad, Abbey is painfully boring/ugly from what I've seen, and Frankie is okay... but, again, boring.

Base line, I just hate the new fashion so much; it is unoriginal, boring TikTok "alt" fashion. Where with the original generation everything was very unique and inventive in most of the designs, this is just average clothing nowadays as opposed to how the original was all edgy Hot Topic inspired alt styled, and it is just embarrassing to see how generic even the alt monster girl doll line has become.

The shoes with the crazy heels, all of the jewelry with each of the girls' personal flair, the unique hair styles, all replaced... with what? I just don't think it is interesting at all anymore. Obviously, yes, I am an adult now with an interest in dolls, so these are not for me, but the quality of everything just seems to have gone downhill with this new generation and it has none of the same charm. It's Shein clothing with clunkily put together aesthetics. It isn't "bizarre" or "weird" anymore, it's boring, and drab, and generic.

I also think despite the fact that Frankie is nonbinary now, I feel that they have somewhat actually regressed in "progressiveness". Every single woman has long hair now, for some reason? Including Toralei. Most of the characters before did, of course, have long hair before, but Toralei in particular was one character that never did... and on top of that, they made her wear a skirt. This is just disgusting to me, personally. They could not leave the (relatively, with no competition in the slightest) butchest girl in MH alone, and instead had to make her super feminine as well. And look like a TikToker, too, of course. You could argue here that they did it so that the main characters weren't being bullied by the butchest girl in the series, but I honestly never GAF as a child because I thought she was super cute. I also think the removal of her facial markings is sickening.

On top of that, I do think they missed the fact that a lot... of the young girls who watched this show imagined these characters dating. Which is really odd after all they did with EAH and Darling Charming. A lot of this is to do with the fact that the school was mostly populated by women, and the fact that everyone's boyfriends were basically background characters that only ever showed up for an episode or two, just to cause drama for their girlfriends (which made me dislike them more and want the girls to be together more). The girl's friendship was always stronger than whatever guy they got together with for however many episodes. Clawdeen and Draculaura were perfect together in my mind... and they threw the aforementioned together with Deuce?! This is unforgivable. Obviously, the last problem is one I just find really weird personally based on what I thought was cute as a child, but I really don't think they/them Frankie is doing much when all of the girls are still straight.

Also, Deuce in the live action looks like Jughead from Riverdale, which agitates me further.

Another thing that is kind of just nitpicky is that I really hate the proportions on the legs and shoes in this new animation style? This is just so weird looking, I can not get over how tall and short her shoes are and how big her calves are compared to her thighs.

Anyways, I doubt anyone will really read this, or care too much for my Monster High opinions. But I needed to talk about it somewhere. If you do end up reading this and have anything to add, go ahead. I'm not happy with this generation no matter what, though, due to the fact that I feel like it has been stripped down to it's bare essentials with nothing good or new to offer, but I welcome opposing opinions.

[dasboligrafo]

The Hours -- Metropolitan Opera House May 21, 2024

Oh dear, not me reviewing a show a month a half later...argh....

So obviously these are my big impressions and what I can remember.

As background: The Hours is one of my favorite movies, a personally formative one. It's a star-studded, confident, visually striking, mature work of high-ish concept Hollywood storytelling with a fantastic score, the kind of movie they quote "just don't make anymore." (It's not a trilogy and doesn't have any superheroes.) It shaped certain ideas I long held about city life, artistic identity and about womanhood. Once, a bad French man seduced me by sharing an insight about the movie (good insight, mediocre seduction.) I also really loved the book, and really, really like Mrs Dalloway.

By coincidence we learned a friend was similarly a fan of the three precedent works and had tickets to the opera, we changed tickets and went in a group. The group was two semi-philistines who were new to Woolf/The Hours and two louche little decadents who loved the triad. Three investment bankers in the group. In preparation, we read both books and did a British-themed finger-foods-and-wine book discussion/movie viewing. (The DILDO life-style: double income little dog owners.) Our Woolf-naive friend hated Mrs Dalloway, didn't finish the Hours, and thought the movie was fine. I cried for about 20 minutes during the movie.

So like -- the hype going in was high.

By the end of the first act I was....nonplussed. Maybe our Woolf-naive friend was right and Mrs Dalloway kind of sucks? I am an inveterate opera cryer (I think I've said before that my theatre rating system is how many times I cried, over 5). The combination of the music and the emotions, when they strike the same chord, will move me to tears every time, even if the music or the emotions -- OR BOTH -- are of only debatable worth. At the end of the first act I was decidedly unmoved.

Never fear; by the end of the second act I was a teary mess, so it was a successful opera in the end, though it looked chancy for a while. I gave demerits to Rene Fleming (I know!!!!! The author of one of my favorite classical music albums of all time!!!! La Fleming, how could you...), whose performance seemed nothing so much as....underwhelming. Arguably the libretto didn't help her? Kelli O'Hara in the role of Laura, I thought, sang very well....but seemingly didn't understand the character! And the interpretative dancing was. Ugh. I'm sorry, I found it cheese, distracting at best.

But then...but then. Joy DiDonato. Ahhh....she got the character (Virginia Woolf), and she nailed the singing. She sounded fantastic. Grand, measured, tragic and wry. And Fleming/OHara DiDonato, when finally together, were occasionally breathtaking.

In the first act the music never seemed to come together for me. The second act starts with an emotional bang and never lets up until the end, the lush tragedy of it all verging on Wagnerian. The opera innovated enough over the movie (tall order), putting an interesting interpretation on some of the connections between Laura and Virginia for example (by extension, Septimus, though he isn't a character in either the Hours book/movie/opera). Kyle Ketelsen as Richard was devastating. It's not a perfect opera, yet I found it, through its second act, as ravishing and haunting as you want your opera to be.

Coda:

I found myself wondering if I have enough distance from these works to approach them in any way critically. Maybe they're just too close to my heart? Interestingly, later that summer, ABT gave me the chance to take up this exact question.