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kylo-renakin · 5 years

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Death in Star Wars, and How Ben Solo Was Shafted: A Mini Meta

Something has been bothering me about Ben’s death in The Rise of Skywalker. While I’m upset that he died, I echo the sentiments of other fans that just as offensive was the way that he died and how his death was treated in the context of the film. It bothered me because death has always been a part of Star Wars, but usually handled much better.

And so this meta was born.

I will be doing a brief analysis of significant character deaths from the Star Wars movies. I don’t want to touch on all of them because there are simply too many, so I’ll focus on the ones that were either major characters (i.e. trio billing or main villain) or narratively important (i.e. Shmi Skywalker).

This list will be approached chronologically within the Star Wars universe, beginning with:

Qui-Gon Jinn; portrayed by Liam Neeson

Personal feelings: I cried like a baby. Qui-gon holds a special place in my heart. His death was both epic and sombre. It hurt to watch other main cast celebrating their victory after defeating their respective challenges and then cut to Obi-wan cradling his master’s head in his lap, crying.

Mode of death: Killed by Darth Maul at the end of The Phantom Menace. His actual death takes a few minutes of screen time, an outburst/scream from another main character (Obi-wan). He has last words to say to the person he has the closest on screen relationship with.

Aftermath: Held by a visibly devastated Obi-wan while he died. Sombre funeral pyre. Death discussed on screen by the council and Obi-wan.

Narrative purpose: To enable Anakin’s training under Obi-wan, which is pivotal to the overall arc of this trilogy. To provide a tangible loss and character growth for Obi-wan, who failed to save his master from a Sith--later mirrored by Obi-wan’s inability to save Anakin from becoming a Sith in Episode III, thereby providing a narrative ‘tail-end’ to Obi-wan’s journey in the trilogy. To cement the master/apprentice relationship as loving, emotional, familial, which then adds narrative depth to the bond between Obi-wan and Anakin. To introduce a cohesive theme of death, failure, and loss at the hands of the dark side that would pervade this trilogy.

Overall response: This death is both emotional and narratively important. It’s given the weight and time it deserves to have an impact on the characters.

Shmi Skywalker; portrayed by Pernilla August

Personal feelings: Rough acting aside, watching a person die in their family member’s arms is always sad. It’s an extremely dark moment in a film that otherwise leans heavily into romance, action, and detective-mystery storytelling.

Mode of death: Tortured by Tusken Raiders. Died from her injuries. Again, her actual death takes a couple of minutes of screen time. She is able to say some last words to her son, the most important character relationship for this character.

Aftermath: Dies in the arms of her visibly devastated son. Anakin murders the Tuskens for revenge. On screen funeral where she is mourned and memorialized by her family/loved ones.

Narrative purpose: To drive Anakin further to the dark side by taking advantage of his love and compassion and turning this into anger and hate (revenge against the Tuskens). To plant the seeds of Anakin’s inability to save the ones he love. To emphasize his failure to keep his promise to return to his mother and free her. (Despite being freed off screen, she essentially died in captivity anyway, and Anakin was not the one to free her.) To further the cohesive themes of the trilogy: death, failure, loss, the power of the dark side.

Overall response: While not as moving for me personally as Qui-gon’s death, it has a very relevant thematic purpose and furthers the story. Shmi’s death is given adequate time on screen and we are able to observe the responses and aftermath of that loss.

Padme Amidala; portrayed by Natalie Portman

Personal feelings: We make jokes about how she lost the will to live, but her funeral was beautiful and Natalie’s delivery of the line “you’re going down a path I can’t follow” feels extremely important in this story.

Mode of death: Up for debate. She has lost the will to live after giving birth to Luke and Leia in the wake of Anakin’s fall to the dark side. Some have theorized that her life force was taken (or given?) to keep Anakin alive, but this is not made explicit in the movies. She dies beside Obi-wan Kenobi, and has the time to say last words--words of hope for Anakin’s eventual redemption. Her death itself takes several minutes and is followed up with screen time for a funeral where characters acknowledge her death.

Aftermath: The gorgeous and enormous funeral, mourned as a queen and a senator and a good woman. Anakin (as Darth Vader) mourns with a devastated and poorly acted “nooooo”.

Narrative purpose: To fulfill the themes of death, loss, and failure (Anakin’s failure to keep her alive) at the hands of the dark side. To provide a character loss that mimics the loss of democracy, freedom, and goodness that has fallen to Palpatine’s control. To provide a visual and narrative parallel between the death of Anakin (through the death of his love) and the birth of Darth Vader.

Overall response: While this death was definitely poorly handled it did have narrative significance and it was arguably necessitated by having to have this trilogy line up with the original trilogy. Her short funeral was one of my favorites in the series.

Obi-wan Kenobi; portrayed by Sir Alec Guinness/Ewan McGregor

Personal feelings: I feel weird having an opinion about this one because this movie was made well before I was born, and so I didn’t feel a real connection to/nostalgia from these characters the way I did with the prequels and sequels. Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan was a huge part of my childhood, so watching A New Hope in retrospect makes this death sad for me.

Mode of death: Killed by Darth Vader/becomes one with the Force. Essentially sacrifices himself so that Luke doesn’t try to come after him.

Aftermath: Luke shouts “no!”. In a later scene, Luke further acknowledges his death--”I only wish Ben were here”. Ben is later seen as a Force ghost in Episodes V and VI, continuing to acknowledge his character’s death and ongoing influence on, importance to, and relationship with Luke.

Narrative purpose: To provide growth for Luke’s character as he grapples with losing a mentor and surrogate father figure who was also the last person (he believed) who was a link to Luke’s (supposedly) dead hero father that Luke looked up to--and setting us up for this narrative complication in VI. To demonstrate that the Jedi/good guys of the film win through self-sacrifice and not through anger, hate, or fear, which is very thematically resonant in this trilogy.

Overall response: Narratively meaningful, and the character’s death is immediately recognized. We get to see the response of the characters who he has the closest relationships with.

Yoda; portrayed by Frank Oz

(I just love The Last Jedi, okay??)

Personal feelings: It was kind of sad, in the way any person dying of old age is. It did feel more overtly spiritual than Obi-wan’s death.

Mode of death: Dies of old age, in his own home, in his own bed, with Luke beside him. His death scene lasts a few minutes and he has some last words.

Aftermath: We see Yoda again as a force ghost, which we are expecting as an audience since his body fades like Obi-wan’s did. There is sufficient closure. Luke is present for Yoda’s death and, at this point in the films, is the only character relationship Yoda has left alive--therefore this is the most significant his death can be to someone. Luke doesn’t look overly upset but this is not painted to be a sad death, as death by old age is usually more a fact of life and a nice reprieve from untimely losses.

Narrative purpose: Honestly, it’s been a long time since I watched the original trilogy so I’m kind of stretching here. I’m going to borrow from The Last Jedi and say that Yoda’s death allows Luke to grow beyond his master and stand on his own two feet as a fully autonomous agent of goodness. He no longer has the crutch of wise older men to lean on and must make his decisions on his own. Yoda’s death frees Luke to be the master of his own destiny, now knowing the truth of his parentage and no longer being guided by others to do what they think is best (kill Vader).

Overall response: One of the less impactful deaths in the series, but I do appreciate how it adds to Luke’s growth as a character and transition into Jedi Master.

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader; portrayed by James Earl Jones, Hayden Christensen, and Jake Lloyd

Personal feelings: This is the big one™ of the trilogy, and it shows. Watching Luke trying to literally drag his father to safety is raw and heartbreaking. Seeing him unmasked for his son is chilling. The funeral pyre is beautiful. This definitely made me feel the feelings.

Mode of death: Sacrificed himself to kill Palpatine. Death lasts several minutes. Dies in Luke’s arms and Luke cries as he dies.

Aftermath: Funeral pyre. Force ghost Anakin bringing peace to Luke and cementing his redemption.

Narrative purpose: Too much to list! Reinforcing that good guys sacrifice themselves to protect the people they love. Bringing balance to the Force by killing the Emperor (thanks JJ for messing that up by the way). Finding peace with Obi-wan as a force ghost. Showing that the belief that people can be saved from themselves is validated. I’m sure there’s plenty more besides but this one is so narratively rich that it would take forever to mine.

Overall response: Extreme narrative importance. Basically ties together six movies. Emotional, beautiful, resonant.

Han Solo; portrayed by Harrison Ford

Personal feelings: Ouch, ouch, ouch! This was... this was angsty. I love angsty. I cannot possibly find adequate words to describe how well done this scene and this death was. One of my top three moments of The Force Awakens.

Mode of death: Struck through the chest with a lightsaber by his son, Ben Solo (under the alias of Kylo Ren), after an attempt to save him from the dark side and bring him home. His body falls into the pit on Starkiller Base.

Aftermath: So. Much. Rey screams “no!” Finn is visibly upset, too. Chewie roars in agony and shoots Kylo Ren with his bowcaster. Leia can be seen feeling Han’s death and cannot find the strength to keep standing. Kylo/Ben looks immediately shaken by what he has done. Rey and Leia share a sad hug at the end of the film. In The Last Jedi, reactions continue. Luke is shaken by the revelation of Han’s death and spends a quiet moment in the Falcon mourning him. Kylo/Ben’s reaction continues to spiral. Snoke, in one of my favorite lines in the film, announces that “the deed split [his] spirit to the bone”. Rey grieves Han and accuses Ben of hating him. Luke warns Kylo that he will always be with him, “just like [his] father”. Han’s shadow is felt all over The Last Jedi without him being present. Even without the further reactions in The Rise of Skywalker (Rey saying Ben is haunted by him, the literal memory scene on the Death Star), the impacts of Han Solo’s death are the most significant in the entire franchise.

Narrative purpose: To advance both internal and external character conflicts. Kylo killing Han provides an external conflict between him and the heroes--particularly between him and Rey as Rey yearns for parents who love her and Ben (seemingly) rejects/kills his that do. It also provides a meaty internal conflict for Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, who is the most nuanced villain I have ever seen in film. While Han’s death doesn’t seem to serve a main theme in The Force Awakens (it is my perspective that JJ does not have cohesive overarching themes in his two entries in the saga), it does blend in pretty well with The Last Jedi’s preoccupation with killing the past. The thematic takeaway from The Last Jedi is that you can’t and shouldn’t kill the past, you should learn from it and move on--and Kylo killing Han neatly fits into this theme by showing that Kylo tried to kill his past by killing his father, and yet he was unable to move on because of it.

Overall response: Poignant. Purposeful. Well-crafted. The effects are long lasting and felt throughout the trilogy. This is not a meaningless death. Of the entire saga, this is the death that is given the most acknowledgement.

Supreme Leader Snoke; portrayed by Andy Serkis

Personal feelings: I was on the edge of my fucking seat. This is not emotionally resonant because we don’t care about Snoke but it was huge and shocking and had these enormous narrative implications moving forward.

Mode of death: Cut in half by Kylo Ren while he narrates his own death.

Aftermath: The Praetorian guards spring into action to avenge their master. In a later scene, we see Snoke’s severed legs topple to the floor. Hux is visibly shaken and angry. Kylo Ren acknowledges the death (by blaming it on Rey) and takes Snoke’s position as Supreme Leader (”the Supreme Leader is dead”, “long live the Supreme Leader”). I’m... going to ignore how The Rise of Skywalker handled Snoke. It was unnecessary to have Snoke clones from a storytelling perspective. It added nothing to the narrative, just used as a clumsy way to justify that Palpatine was really pulling the strings all along.

Narrative purpose: To deepen the perceived conflict within Kylo Ren and showing his unwillingness to kill Rey. This further complicates their relationship moving forward as we’ve established that the new head honcho powerful villain has no real desire to hurt the hero. The narrative implications of this moving forward were so rich. Pity JJ ignored them. Additionally: To show Kylo Ren symbolically surpassing Darth Vader. In Episode III Anakin claims he will overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy with Padme. He never achieves this. But Kylo Ren does (minus the Empress by his side). To deepen the theme of Kylo Ren trying to kill/bury the past in order to become stronger (and ultimately failing). To add Snoke to the list of characters in the movie who embody the theme of failure. To shake up an expected narrative trajectory and provide new pathways for future storytelling. (Again, JJ, looking at you.)

Overall response: Loved it. Loved it. Not as resonant as some of the other deaths but by far to me the most shocking.

Luke Skywalker; portrayed by Mark Hamill

Personal feelings: Okay, this is a big one. Here’s the thing. I did not grow up with the original trilogy. I never really cared for Luke (didn’t dislike him either, just ‘meh’). But this movie. This movie. I went on a journey with Luke. I saw him as fallible. As human. Making mistakes. Failing. Falling into depression. And overcoming it. I cried when Luke Skywalker died. I did not think that would happen. I did not think I would ever love Luke so much.

Mode of death: Force projects himself across the galaxy to face his nephew and save the Resistance; the effort kills him. Luke’s death takes a couple of minutes of screentime, and it is gorgeous. Hamill acts his ass off. The music, the visuals, everything combines to make this the most emotional death in Star Wars--a fitting end for its first hero.

Aftermath: Leia and Rey feel his death in the Force. They speak to each other quietly about it. They know it was peaceful. Luke, knowing he was going to die, came and saw his sister first and gave them beautiful closure and a message of hope. Just before Luke dies, he warns Kylo/Ben that he’ll always be with him. Just like his father. Luke fades into the Force and we know we will see him again as a force ghost (which we do, but JJ managed to trash even that). The boy on Canto Bight and his friends are inspired by the legend of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He ignites hope throughout the galaxy once more.

Narrative purpose: Multiple. As above, inspiring hope throughout the galaxy once more. To serve the theme of self-sacrifice. Achieving victory without violence (pacifistic). Preventing Kylo Ren from killing more people he cares about (Rey, Leia, Luke) and thereby protecting him, at least a little, from himself. Also serves a similar purpose to Yoda’s death--with both Luke and Snoke dying, Rey and Kylo Ren are without masters, the arbiters of their own destiny (thanks again JJ for fucking that up too).

Overall response: I can’t decide if this or Han Solo’s death is more emotionally impactful to me. They are both so, so moving, and so essential to the narrative.

Leia Organa; portrayed by Carrie Fisher

Personal feelings: This is hard. I don’t think her scenes in The Rise of Skywalker worked. They were cut from The Force Awakens for a reason--and then cobbled together like some kind of Frankenstein’s Monster for this movie. As much as I love Leia and Carrie, I couldn’t feel emotion for her death because it was so wooden and artificial.

Mode of death: Uses the last of her energy to reach her son (it is unclear exactly how she is reaching him. Force projection? Did she create the Han memory? Who knows.) Even with so little to work with, they still managed to focus on her death with her lying down, her hand falling to the side--trying to give this some weight.

Aftermath: Chewie mourns. Ben and Rey both feel her death and are clearly devastated. The Resistance gather around her body in mourning. Her body fades at the same time as Ben’s (wtf, JJ) and then we see her as a force ghost with Luke (but not Ben because fuck him apparently).

Narrative purpose: To bring her son back to the light, something that has been a central struggle of this trilogy. Sacrificing yourself to save that which you love.

Overall response: It has a purpose, but I can’t help but think it wouldn’t have gone this way if Carrie hadn’t died. It doesn’t seem as organic as the deaths of Han and Luke.

NB: I’m skipping Palpatine because his death was literally nothing else than “defeat the big bad”. It wasn’t even fulfilling a prophecy, it had no significant narrative weight for Rey, it was a nothing burger.

Ben Solo/Kylo Ren; portrayed by Adam Driver

Personal feelings: Twofold. In the cinema, I felt nothing. Nothing. I actually laughed in surprise. Like, “what was that”? The next day, at home, I cried. I don’t think I cried because he died. I was open to that possibility. I cried because I was so, so angry at how poorly his arc and death was handled. Like he was a footnote in his own fucking story. I think him living was a much more interesting story, narratively and thematically, but I wasn’t necessarily opposed to his death if it was done well. And it wasn’t.

Mode of death: Uses the last of his life energy to resurrect Rey. Falls over. (Plop, there he goes.) Fades into the force.

Aftermath: Like, none? Rey looks kind of surprised and blinks for a couple of seconds. No words are exchanged. He just tips over and dies. Cool.

Narrative purpose (or failure thereof): I am fucking reaching here because all of the previously established trajectories and themes are dashed by this ending. We could argue that this is a self-sacrifice to save what you love theme point. Which is fine, but like, no one mourns. He doesn’t become a Force Ghost. No one acknowledges his death. Ben fading into the Force is a metaphor for him fading from people’s minds. It’s like he doesn’t even exist in the context of the story anymore. Which is insanely baffling because all three of the original trilogy heroes sacrificed their lives, at least in part, to save Ben Solo. So that he could in turn save Rey? So he’s just another cog in the machine? This was always about Rey and never about the love Han and Leia had for their son, or that Luke had for his nephew? If you think about it, the only other ‘main’ characters to die during the course of their trilogy were Qui-gon and Padme. And both of those characters had funerals, and people mourning, and huge narrative implications. The death of Ben Solo reads like the death of a minor character. It serves one very narrow and already over-represented theme. The death of all of the rest of the Skywalkers had huge emotional ramifications for the other characters in the films. With Ben Solo, the Skywalker legacy fades as well, as if JJ is telling us that this saga was not about this family at all, but their whole story existed only for the point of saving Palpatine’s granddaughter. How fucked up is that?

Overall response: Narratively, this just doesn’t make sense. It’s lazy and not impactful. When a character dies in films, you want the audience to feel something, so you show other characters reacting to it. Are they sad? Then we should feel sad too! Are they elated? We should be celebrating! No one reacts to Ben’s death, so we’re not sure how we’re supposed to feel, either. The people who are devastated by this death are the ones who love the character itself and are upset that he got treated this way--the death itself was hollow and emotionless.

So, there you have it. Ben Solo was shafted. Death is extremely prevalent in these movies, and yet, being the only new Skywalker of the sequels and half the protagonist (thank you Rian), Ben Solo has arguably the least emotional or narratively impactful death in the franchise.

Rian Johnson would never do this to Ben Solo.

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medinainternational · 3 years

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wrestlingisfake · 7 years

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G1 Special in USA Day 1 preview

This is airing live Saturday night on AXS TV and the Fight Network at 8pm EDT. It’ll also be streaming on NJPWworld.com, but the stream is region-locked for the US, to get Americans to watch it on TV. I’ve heard you can get a free trial of Sling TV and watch the AXS broadcast that way, but I need to look into it. The show will be available on demand at NJPWworld for everybody the next day.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody Rhodes - Okada holds the IWGP heavyweight championship, the premiere title in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Rhodes recently captured the ROH world champion, making him the top titleholder in Ring of Honor. Only Okada’s title is on the line in this match, so Cody has a chance to become a dual champion. It’s probably not as big a deal as when the NWA champion would wrestle the AWA or WWF champions, but the spirit is there.

If you’re new to New Japan Pro Wrestling, Okada is the top guy in the promotion, having held the top championship for most of the last five years. He’s tall, young, and a little bland, with no obvious personality beyond being cocky and rich. If JBL were on the New Japan announce team, he’d trot out that line about “building a WWE superstar from the ground up” for Okada. Like Roman Reigns, Okada catches some heat from fans who think he’s not the best guy in the company and is overpushed because of his perceived marketability. Unlike Reigns, Okada has racked up an impressive series of match of the year candidates (especially in the past year alone) that have largely silenced the naysayers.

Cody probably needs no introduction since he’s wrestled for WWE, New Japan, TNA/Impact/Global Force, Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, EVOLVE, and WhatCulture just in the past year. Cody’s story--a lackluster push in WWE, the death of his legendary father Dusty Rhodes, and his dramatic decision to become a free agent--has set the tone for his act as an underrated blue-chipper on the cusp of greatness. After working freelance for a while, Cody has settled into NJPW and ROH as a heel in Bullet Club, an NWO-style faction founded by Finn Balor and once led by AJ Styles.

This is a match that could have major ramifications on New Japan and ROH booking through the end of the year. If Cody wins the IWGP title, it will upset the balance of power in Bullet Club, where he nominally takes a back seat to Okada’s top rival, Kenny Omega. It would also play into Cody’s ROH storyline, where he’s supposedly a free agent that could walk away at any time with their world title. The angle will clearly be to find someone who can beat Rhodes, and that’ll sound like a taller order if he’s the champion of two promotions. Something else to consider is that Cody is not scheduled to participate in the G1 Climax this summer, which the IWGP champion traditionally does. Basically, if Cody wins, it’ll be big news.

That could be trouble for New Japan, in that an Okada win would preserve the status quo and might be disappointing for a lot of fans, especially fans attending this event. An American promotion would probably sense that and hot-shot a title change, but I don’t get the feeling New Japan is so capricious. If they didn’t plan for Rhodes to win six weeks ago, they probably won’t change those plans now.

Ordinarily I’d be skeptical that Cody has a prayer of winning the title. But the underlying angle for Okada all year is that he’s survived some brutal wars, and it’s starting to wear him down. It would be deliciously tragic for him to fight his greatest opponent to a stalemate, and then have nothing left in the tank to stop his greatest opponent’s flunky from stealing the win. That alone gives Cody a chance. Now that he’s ROH champion, I’d say he’s got a bigger chance. But I’m not ready to count out Okada just yet.

Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin - This is part of the first round in the tournament to introduce the new IWGP United States championship. The winner will face either Jay Lethal or Hangman Page in the semifinals on Day 2.

Omega is the rising star of New Japan, and definitely the man who benefited the most from the departure of AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura last year. He took over Bullet Club from Styles, elevating the meta-heel style that he’s cultivated alongside guys like the Young Bucks, Adam Cole, and Kevin Owens. Kenny and the Bucks are “The Elite,” a stable-within-a-stable that frankly may be getting too big for Bullet Club. A schism could be coming, based on what we’re seeing with Cody Rhodes lately.

Elgin has the look and background of a journeyman wrestler, but he’s only 30 and has made impressive gains in the past few years, winning the ROH world title and getting a pretty good push in New Japan. In WWE his size and strength probably wouldn’t get a second look, but in NJPW it’s enough to get some big reactions from the Japanese audience, which loves power spots.

We’ve seen these two fight throughout 2016, most notably in New Japan’s first-and-only ladder match. Either would be a strong choice to hold the US championship, even though both are Canadian. Omega is more pivotal to the company’s plans, but we don’t yet know how exactly. If he’s going to win the world title to be a non-Japanese face for the entire brand, he can lose here to set up Elgin as a future contender. If he’s just going to be the face of the non-Japanese arm of the brand, then it makes perfect sense for him to steamroll through this tournament. I’m just not sure which is more likely, so I’ll pick Omega to advance and save the intrigue about his future for the semifinals.

Tetusya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii - Another first round match in the US title tournament. On Day 2 the winner of this match will go on to face the winner of Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Juice Robinson.

Naito is most easily explained as the anti-Roman Reigns of pro wrestling. Imagine, if you will, Roman being pushed hard and made to look strong, winning the Royal Rumble and being set up as the inevitable challenger for the world title at Wrestlemania, getting a tepid response the whole way. Now imagine WWE actually runs a poll asking if the intercontinental title match should headline Wrestlemania instead, and then actually doing it. Now imagine Roman actually getting angry about this, forming the coolest heel faction in the company, and becoming a hundred times more over than he ever was as a babyface. This is pretty much what Naito went through from 2013 to 2015.

Ishii is a rugged fireplug of a man, hard as fuck and dour as hell. He will have no time for any of Naito’s bullshit. It’s tough to think of anybody to compare to Ishii, but I guess you could say he’s sort of like Tazz or Samoa Joe, at least in terms of persona.

On paper Naito is a top act and Ishii’s role is to put guys like that over. But New Japan likes its upset tournament wins, and Ishii would make sense advancing in the tournament as a threat to the eventual winner. Naito is coming off a big loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi last month, so another loss here would be pretty significant. On the other hand, if he wins I don’t see any particularly interesting tournament opponents for him, except perhaps Kenny Omega, and I doubt they’re giving that one away again for a while yet.

Bottom line, Naito doesn’t need to win here unless he’s getting the US championship, and there isn’t much point in that since it would be a retread of his recent run as intercontinental champion. And if anyone’s going to knock him out early, it’s bound to be Ishii.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa vs. Raymond Rowe & Hanson - The Guerillas of Destiny used chairs to beat Rowe and Hanson for the IWGP heavyweight tag team title at Dominion, so this is the rematch.

Hanson and Rowe have been wrestling as War Machine for a few years now, and they’ve got a good thing going as two big dudes doing flashy moves. They’d be a great fit in WWE, and I’d be very surprised if WWE isn’t keeping an eye on them. Tanga Roa is best known to American fans as Camacho from WWE a few years back, and for being the biological son of Haku. Tama Tonga, one of Haku’s adopted sons, is best known as the bad guy from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, as well as your darkest sexy fears.

These are two good teams but I’m not sold on the idea of seeing them wrestle again so soon. It might be that New Japan moved the title onto GOD for the sole purpose of putting it back on War Machine in their native country. I’d like to think that, since War Machine has a good thing going and there’s no reason to interrupt their momentum.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA & David Finlay & Jay White vs. Billy Gunn & YOSHITATSU & Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka - Tanahashi is the IWGP intercontinental champion and, no bones about it, NJPW’s equivalent to John Cena--the franchise player who carried the company for years, now reducing his workload as he enters his forties. Kushida is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion (and ROH television champion), and plays a similar role of a white-meat babyface in the New Japan lightweight division. Finlay and White were both rookies until recently, working opening matches in their generic black trunks, but White was sent to Ring of Honor to develop a gimmick while Finlay managed to break out of the pack without leaving Japan.

Gunn, a noted ass man who loves to pick ‘em and kick ‘em, needs no introduction. In New Japan, he’s been an occasional ally to Yoshitatsu, who had a forgettable 2007-2014 run with WWE. Tanaka and Komatsu have been on excursion in Mexico wrestling as Raijin and Fujin, the Tempura Boyz, for CMLL.

This looks to be a filler match to get Tanahashi, Kushida, and Gunn on the show without actually having them work very hard. We know Gunn is challenging Tana for the IC title on Day 2, and I gather Kushida will defend the junior title as well, so they’ll be saving the best stuff for then. (I realize Gunn is 53 and doesn’t have that much “best stuff” to save, but you get the idea.) If it was up to me I’d book Billy to score the fall to build to the title match, maybe on Finlay.

Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Juice Robinson - One of the first round matches in the US title tournament. Whoever wins gets Naito or Ishii in the semifinals on Day 2. Sabre is the current RPW British heavyweight champion, but that title is not at stake.

Sabre may be best known to most American fans for his run in last year’s WWE Crusierweight Classic, where he was a heavy favorite to win assuming he signed with WWE, but he didn’t. He’s held the Rev Pro title twice, beating AJ Styles and Katsuyori Shibata--I didn’t see those matches but that sounds pretty fucking impressive. I’ve been particularly intrigued by his style of wrestling his way out of holds instead of powering out. Of all the guys who have never held an IWGP singles championship in this tournament, I think he’s the strongest choice to go all the way.

Juice is familiar to WWE fans as CJ Parker, the guy Kevin Owens beat in his first NXT match. He’s had a good run in New Japan working his way up the ladder, and if you’ve been watching this guy for a few years you start to feel a little pride when gets little pushes here and there. Juice has a score to settle with Sabre from the Dominion show, where Taguchi Japan eliminated Suzuki-gun in a trios gauntlet match, but then Sabre jumped back in the ring and twisted Juice like a pretzel, leaving him easy pickings for Los Ingobernables de Japon.

The only thing going against Sabre here is that I don’t see him being matched with Naito in the semifinals or Omega in the finals. (New Japan seems to limit interaction between their big three heel factions.) If those two get eliminated early on, the tournament is Zack’s to lose, but that’s a tall order. Juice makes more sense if you need somebody expendable to do a job later in the tournament, against literally anyone in the field. It’s tough to call, so I’m going with Sabre for now.

Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page - Yet another first round US championship tournament match. The winner of Omega/Elgin will meet the winner of this match on Day 2 in the semifinals.

Lethal’s big claims to fame are his run in TNA as “the guy who does the Macho Man impression” and his run in ROH as “the guy who demands to be taken more seriously.” Lethal was laid out in an angle at the ROH Best in the World show last week, and ROH has already taped a month of TV where he’s supposedly MIA, so it’s very possible that he will be either scratched from the tournament or show up with bandaged ribs and get obliterated.

Adam Page is a midcarder in ROH and a prelim guy in New Japan. He’s in Bullet Club and carries a noose around to hang his opponents, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen him win a match. I consider him the least likely to win this tournament, and that’s knowing his first round opponent may not even make it to the show.

Assuming Lethal is swapped out for a last-minute replacement, Page is the perfect guy to get blindsided and squashed by a big surprise. I really don’t see any outcome where he advances to the next round unless they want to do Omega vs. Page to set up some Bullet Club shenanigans.

Hiromu Takahashi & EVIL & BUSHI & SANADA vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Dragon Lee & Volador, Jr. & Titan - Takahashi and his teammates are members of Naito’s faction Los Ingobernables de Japon, the Japanese spinoff of CMLL’s Los Ingobernables stable in Mexico. Evil, Bushi, and Sanada are the current NEVER six-man tag team champions, but this is an eight-man tag so the title won’t be at stake here.

Jushin Liger is a 30+-year veteran and a legend among light heavyweights, who’s wrestled at the first WCW Monday Nitro and the first NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. Dragon Lee, Volador, and Titan are all CMLL guys, and Lee in particular has a long-running rivalry with Takahashi.

I’m guessing this is going to be a throwaway match to get all these guys on the card for Day 1, and then maybe on Day 2 the LIJ guys will be doing more important stuff. New Japan and ROH love to show off their partnerships with promotions around the world, but in practice the CMLL guys tend to just be treated like interchangeable nobodies in the undercard. So I’m pretty sure LIJ will win, and I just hope the finish involves Bushi using the poison mist.

Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson & Marty Scurrl & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta & Will Ospreay & Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe - This is another multi-man match with little purpose except to set up the IWGP junior heavyweight tag title match on Day 2, with the Young Bucks (Nick & Matt) defending against Roppongi Vice (Romero & Beretta).

The Bucks are the 500-lb gorillas of the non-WWE wrestling world, and they can basically do whatever they want, wherever they want. Marty Scurrl is the guy who dresses like a plague doctor and carries umbrellas around like he’s auditioning to be the next Batman villain. Fale is big and fat and wears sunglasses. Yujiro thinks he’s a pimp and is friends with this nice lady, but I don’t know if she’s coming to this show. This is pretty much everybody else from Bullet Club that isn’t higher on the card (except Chase Owens, but I’m not even sure Bullet Club remembers Chase Owens is in Bullet Club).

Beretta and Romero are a part of Okada’s stable Chaos, as is Ospreay, but I guess there weren’t enough Chaos guys left to team with so they got the Briscoes. Rocky is a cool dude who knows the best places to party in Japan. Trent used to be a WWE jobber and is friends with Rocky. Ospreay is one of the hottest names in light heavyweight/flippy-floppy style wrestling, and seems to make Old Man Wrestling Twitter blow up at least once a year. The Briscoes are toothless hillbillies from rural Delaware.

This is probably gonna be a clusterfuck of a ten-man tag, and I think that favors the Bullet Club. The Bucks always seem to win unless there’s a good reason not to, and I don’t see a good reason here.

#njpw #g1 special in usa #kazuchika okada #cody rhodes

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smartgists · 5 years

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Migrants arrive in Europe with big hopes, many questions

As the fatigued travelers on board a salvage ship moved toward Sicily toward the finish of a horrifying adventure from North Africa, 30-year-old Seke Awa got back to a companion in Libya the minute she got cellphone gathering.

“I revealed to her we are on the huge pontoon and sent her boldness, that she needs to have trust. One day her…

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#many questions #Migrants arrive in Europe with big hopes

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retegenova · 5 years

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SABATO 14 SETTEMBRE BEACH PARTY SULLA SPIAGGIA DI MULTEDO PER FESTEGGIARNE LA RINASCITA

A seguito dell’inaugurazione della nuova spiaggia gestita dalla Levante C Pegliese, gli storici organizzatori della Festa del Sole dopo 14 anni riportano a Multedo una grande festa di musica reggae

Sabato 14 settembre 2019, a partire dalle ore 18, al nuovo Beach Club sulla Spiaggia Multedo di Pegli, si tiene l’evento Multedo Beach Party, organizzato dalla Levante C Pegliese in collaborazione con Alessandro Galbusera, storico organizzatore della Festa del Sole, format che per anni ha animato diverse location della Liguria a ritmo reggae.

Dj-set, lezioni di dancehall, bancarelle di artigianato, punto ristoro e tanto altro, in una festa che ha un doppio significato simbolico: festeggiare la rinascita di uno spazio interamente dedicato ai cittadini e ai giovani con attività sportive e ludiche di ogni genere, e riportare in vita la tradizione della Festa del Sole, il format che per 4 edizioni ha animato il ponente e l’entroterra ligure e che dopo 14 lunghi anni torna nella spiaggia della prima edizione.

«Tornare sulla spiaggia di Multedo ha un significato particolare perché è stata la location della prima edizione della Festa del Sole – racconta il direttore artistico della serata Alessandro Galbusera, storico organizzatore del party reggae più famoso della Liguria – Per noi è un bellissimo ritorno alle origini. La Festa del Sole è nata a Multedo per poi arrivare fino a Forte Sperone e Prato Rondanino; dopo 4 intense edizioni siamo stati costretti a stopparla per motivi economici e organizzativi. Ringrazio la Levante C Pegliese per l’ottimo lavoro di riqualificazione della zona e per averci dato la possibilità di riportare in Liguria un format che mancava da tanti anni».

Durante la serata a ingresso gratuito, si altereranno alla console sulla spiaggia dj e artisti molto noti nel panorama reggae e hip hopcome dj True.S, dj Lock, Effe El Nari e Mr Angioni per donare alla serata una perfetta atmosfera di allegria e divertimento. Colonna sonora della serata la musica reggae, il genere musicale che maggiormente si presta per le feste sulla spiaggia. Alle 21 il pubblico potrà prendere parte alla lezione gratuita di dancehall tenuta dalla ballerina Alice Giaccone. Non mancheranno stand di artigianato con produzioni realizzate a mano e un punto ristoro, dove si potrà cenare e ordinare cocktail. Nel pomeriggio ci sarà la possibilità di prenotare i campi da beach volley. Il party continua fino alle 2 di notte, dopodiché si andrà avanti con il volume abbassato per non disturbare gli abitanti della zona. L’ingresso al party è gratuito; è vietato accedere alla spiaggia con bottiglie di vetro.

L’evento Multedo Beach Party fa parte del calendario di appuntamenti del nuovo spazio Levante Beach Club, gestito dalla Levante C Pegliese. Un lungo lavoro costato sacrifici e fatica, che a inizio agosto ha dato vita a un nuovissimo centro polisportivo e stabilimento balneare che ha la funzione di luogo di ritrovo per cittadini e giovani del Ponente genovese e non solo. «Da molto tempo avevamo l’obiettivo di riportare in vita una spiaggia che per anni è stata abbandonata e lasciata in condizioni di manutenzione precarie – spiega Marco Doragrossa presidente della Levante C Pegliese – Grazie a una riqualificazione totale della zona, abbiamo creato un centro polisportivo dove i cittadini possono svolgere le più svariate attività, dal beach volley al beach soccer fino alla canoa e pesca sportiva, ma anche semplicemente rilassarsi su una spiaggia perfettamente attrezzata e gustarsi un aperitivo al tramonto».

La nuova struttura, inaugurata a inizio agosto, presenta due campi da beach volley e beach soccer, un punto ristoro e un dehor che si affaccia su una spiaggia attrezzata con ombrelloni, sdraio, lettini, docce e 50 cabine spogliatoio capienti, perfette anche per le famiglie. Uno spazio che è già diventato un punto di riferimento per gli sportivi, ma anche per chi ama il relax, la musica, la comicità e l’intrattenimento di ogni genere. Quasi ogni sera, infatti, vengono proposti spettacoli e serate musicali, dal cabaret alla danza caraibica, dai concerti rock ai live acustici. «La nostra volontà era quella di creare uno spazio di aggregazione su misura per ogni cittadino – continua Doragrossa – Tra gli appuntamenti serali fissi abbiamo il mercoledì sera serata di cabaret con comici provenienti da Colorado e Zelig, il venerdì sera serata di balli caraibici, il martedì sera concerti e il sabato cene con musica acustica chitarra e voce. Le serate sono a ingresso libero e stiamo ottenendo un buon riscontro da parte dei cittadini». Tutte le attività del Beach Club sono completamente aperte alle persone disabili e con difficoltà motorie, grazie alla presenza di tappeti sintetici anche lungo la spiaggia.

BIOGRAFIA DEGLI OSPITI

Dj True.S

Stefania Sensi aka DJ True.S è una dj/producer di Genova. Il suo è un background black, che affonda le sue radici prima nell’Hip Hop della scena genovese, e dopo nei Sound System Giamaicani di quella bolognese. Nel 2010 inizia col progetto SensiStar, di cui lei è tuttora MC e DJ, sound system che propone una selezione dal rap alla Dancehall. Nel 2018 un altro progetto di cui fa parte come DJ e Producer, è Doyenne, crew al femminile di Genova, con cui ha già suonato in clubs ed importanti venues. Grazie all’amicizia con Jaws, dj/producer di Jamil Baida, affina sempre di più la sua tecnica nel djing e inizia a produrre. Propone selezioni che spaziano dalla new Dancehall allʼhiphop/trap, ispirandosi soprattutto alla realtà dei Major Lazer. Il claim dei suoi dj set, come quello della sua crew Doyenne, è “Move your peach”.

Dj Lock

Daniele zunino in arte Dj Lock inizia a mixare all’età di 15 anni sui dischi di musica underground. Inizia ad appoggiarsi a club e piano piano collabora in live con lo staff metempsicosi e apertura al tenax. Per anni si ritira dalla scena per motivi familiari, ma non perde la voglia e la passione per mixare. Inizia a mixare nuovi stili musicali arrivando al reggae dancehall e hip hop, quando all’inizio del 2016 incontra il duo Bomboletta e Gonzo, già noti sulla scena reggae hip hop, finendo come dj della Riviera massive. Collabora in serate con Raphael , Lion d aka David Lion, Raina Villa Ada posse, Sista awa, Natty Roots, Sound System di Alessandria, Inoki Ness, ESA aka El pres, Bresh, Vaz Te, Leli k Lidas, Rankin Fabio. Partecipa a vari festival come Revolution festival, Hanami, Sound splash nord ovest, Goa Boa nella serata con Bizzarri Sound Luciano e Kymani Marley. Attualmente gira la regione mixando reggae dancehall e hip hop.

Effe El Nari e Mr Angioni

Alessandro Frola in arte Effe el Nari è nato a Genova. Inizia il suo percorso artistico nel 2009 formando con noti volti della scena Ligure il collettivo BlazersCrue, nel quale collabora per 8 anni facendo uscire 2 dischi One Shot Ep One Kill mixtape. Attualmente fa parte del collettivo 149 Gang con Angioni, dj e producer. Il nuovo progetto intitolato 149 presenterà 8 tracce con 3 featuring. Da 8 anni è resident Host presso l’Aqa Café, dove insieme ad Angioni e ad altri componenti forma l’Aqa Friday, il movimento creato da dj Kamo sino a oggi presente. La sua associazione culturale e il collettivo sono molto presenti sul territorio, tanto da aver creato un progetto per il doposcuola che aiuta i ragazzi togliendoli da una piazza poco confortevole e insegnando loro la cultura dell’hip hop!

Alice Giaccone

Nasce a Genova il 9 ottobre 1995. Inizia a studiare danza classica e contemporanea all’etá di 7 anni, a 15 anni mi trasferisce a Lecce per proseguire gli studi di danza classica, a 18 anni viene ammessa all’Accademia Nazionale di Danza a Roma e nel 2014 entra a far parte della DiA Junior Company, ad Haarlem (Olanda), compagnia di danza contemporanea dove studierà e ballerà per un anno. A Rotterdam, comincia a seguire lezioni di dancehall presso la DTD-Dance Till Dawn Academy con Dawn Hook e si appassiona a questo stile e cultura. Negli anni a seguire, si specializza sempre di più in dancehall studiando in Italia e all’estero, nel gennaio 2017 inizia a lavorare come ballerina per i format Kawabonga, Big Mama e Juicy. A luglio 2017 parte un mese per Los Angeles dove studia diversi stili (heels, dancehall, dancehall funk, hip hop, jazz funk, groove, ballet, contemporary) con ballerini internazionali (JoJo Gomez, Brinn Nicole, Zaggazo, Tango Leadaz, Sisco Gomez, Cat Cogliandro, Diana Matos, Natalie Gilmore, Cameron Lee, Kayla Jenssen). Dal 2018 vive e insegna dancehall, heels e twerk a Genova.

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Cooperativa Battelieri del Porto di Genova

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SABATO 14 SETTEMBRE BEACH PARTY SULLA SPIAGGIA DI MULTEDO PER FESTEGGIARNE LA RINASCITA SABATO 14 SETTEMBRE BEACH PARTY SULLA SPIAGGIA DI MULTEDO PER FESTEGGIARNE LA RINASCITA A seguito dell’inaugurazione della nuova spiaggia gestita dalla Levante C Pegliese, gli storici organizzatori della Festa del Sole dopo 14 anni riportano a Multedo una grande festa di musica reggae…

#Artisti #Associazione Culturale #chitarra #Genova #Liguria #musica #pegli #Prato #Regione #staff #Volley

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jamesmurualiterary · 6 years

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Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2018 winners announced.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2018 winners were announced with a ceremony in Yantai, China on May 26. The biggest winners were South African Nompumelelo Mowebu and Motswana Ednah Rosen.

The Gourmand Awardsm started in 1995 for cookbooks and wine books at Frankfurt Book Fair, are the major Food Culture event in the world. They now include all Food Culture content. They are open to all, big or…

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sgt-mark-smith · 1 year

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I actually want to begin by rambling about Awa Kokiri, because I love her so much. Let’s get right into the spoilers!

I’m making an effort to actually start a fandom around this show, and the character I’m most protective of at the moment is Awa.

Wait, hang on, you need to feast your eyes on Awa in red for a sec.

Serve us that Gibson Girl realness, queen.

Beyond question the sharpest, toughest, and most capable character in the cast, Awa has decided to navigate the sexism and racism of her world by working men to her will, pitting them against each other when need be - the would-be financier, Alonso the director, Richard Smith, even her own baby brother.

She also has no problem using her body as currency.

For those reasons I’m afraid that if a fandom pops up, people will call her a ‘gold digging slut’ or something. You know, the same insult that both Alonso and Manaaki threw at her.

She genuinely enjoys sex, and the fame and glitz of acting, and the finer things in life. But what I hope people will also pick up about Awa is that her incredible resourcefulness was born out of necessity, as she reminds Manaaki: “You think I haven’t done worse to put food in our mouths?”

But her scheming has a concrete goal: her own ambition, yes, but also the provision for and protection of those she cares about. Primarily Manaaki, of course.

But she eventually extends that part of herself to Cissy Smith too.

And what she is at the core is the parentified older sister who had to step up when her father disappeared and her mother died, leaving her with a toddling brother to raise.

Now it’s here that I’m gonna get into some backstory speculation, based on what we know.

We know that the Kokiri siblings are from a Maori background somewhere under the Christendom umbrella. I assumed originally that they were Mormon, but as my friend @vintonharper pointed out to me, it’s not like the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries didn’t have all kinds of sects, and ‘missionary efforts’ to indigenous peoples were hardly standardized. We know there’s a charismatic leader, who clearly sees himself as entitled to as many women as he wants to bed, and she clearly wanted no part of wifehood. She left wherever the tribe was settled at some point to get away from the Prophet, and has clearly gone to some trouble to not be found; as vintonharper said, “if she’s going to put out for gross men, might as well be paid.”

So what I think happened is that the Prophet started perving on her young, and so at some point she basically ‘ran away to the circus,’ leaving Manaaki behind, to escape him. Now we don’t have concrete ages for either Awa or Manaaki, and we have no timeline, so I don’t know at what point in their lives she went from Manaaki’s caregiver to awol; I’m assuming that she provided for the two of them up until she ran away, but I don’t know if he was grown when she left - my guess is probably not, but I have no idea.

(There’s also the frankly very funny detail that she can’t cook ... so did Manaaki just suffer for years, or did he figure out food? She clearly provided the money, but how were the two of them actually, you know, fed?)

It’s also strongly implied that she’s done, not just film acting (a profession people associated with promiscuity at the time), but also sex work. The way she interacts with the would-be financier indicates that she has practice with wealthy clients, which implies that she is/was probably more call girl than streetworker.

(Which does raise the question: did she ever get pregnant, or catch an STI?? I know there were condoms at the time - thanks, Bea - but would she have been able to get her clients to use them? And would they have been that effective? Abortions were dangerous ... did she ever have one?)

(Or has she just been lucky this whole time?)

And anyway, that’s Awa! Pragmatic and competent, independent, proudly promiscuous, materialistic, protective, and nurturing.

#elvella rambles #wwgtw meta #wwgtw spoilers #when we go to war miniseries #when we go to war 2015 #awa kokiri #fully parentified #and generally adultified #the big awa meta #shavaughn ruakere

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yogc · 7 years

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Govt. to build 8.03 Lakh Homes under PMAY-HFA in TamilNadu

The state government is formulating the plan of constructing a big stack of affordable houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in Tamilnadu. As per the information, about 80.3 lakh affordable houses will be developed under PMAY and the information about the number of houses is revealed by officials after taking the estimates from the PMAY demand survey in the state.

Housing for all is an…

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sgt-mark-smith · 1 year

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And now I get to write about my devout baby, my strange fish, and the current love of my life. Big time spoilers under the cut!

So obviously the first thing we need is a little eye candy!

All right, meta time, here we go!

By far my favorite character, and tied with his sister for the most interesting, Manaaki Kokiri was made in a blender to be my kryptonite. He’s got the religious conviction, the layers of guilt, the war trauma, the sincerity, the dumbassery, the ‘oddness,’ the sad eyes, he’s got it all and I love him. I’m not the only one either; he seems to have a way of winning the hearts of the white people around him without even trying.

(Unless they’re clearly being framed by the text as Bad News like Miss Violet here, of course!)

Of course I have to talk about the religiosity first, because where else would I start, right? Characters with religious convictions, especially male characters with religious convictions, are irresistible to me, and here comes Bible-totin’, Scripture-quotin’ Manaaki, on an errand from his Prophet (I’ll talk a lot more about Manaaki vis-a-vis the Prophet when I get to the speculation at the end). Like I said, I don’t know exactly where under the Christendom umbrella his religious beliefs are, but he’s got them!

And even when his life upends and he clearly can’t go back to the home where his religious self was born and nurtured, he still holds onto that religiosity because I think it’s the closest thing to ‘home’ he has left - though the pitch of that religiosity shifts, has much more gravitas by the end.

(I can’t do gifs, screengrabs are the best you’re going to get.)

And I don’t know how much of this is actually in the script and how much of it is the acting, but he’s just. he’s so. I know I can’t keep just slapping the autism label on every character I come across, but look at him! He normally takes care to be polite (when he’s not furiously trying to shame his sister) but seems to need minor social nudges - Charlie has to tell him to take off his hat inside the hotel, and both Cissy and Will Chambers call him ‘odd.’ He also has a very sincere manner - whether as a result of writing, direction, acting choices, or all three - but I find it very sweet.

And he’s a dumbass! Awa told him in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to go back to the compound, that she didn’t want to be tied down as some man’s broodmare, and yet the moment she showed up all wide-eyed claiming that ‘oh I said I was leaving my director and he frightened me 🥺” he totally believed her!

Also, stereotypes about violent brown men are bad and harmful, but at the same time, brown men should get to be a little feral sometimes as a treat. Awa obviously knew Manaaki had it in him, what with the way she turned him loose against Alonso, even if it did end up majorly backfiring on her. And of course that feral side came allll the way out on the war front. Such are the things that happen when we go to war, you know.

(We’ll come back to No Man’s Land, don’t you worry.)

He’s as sexist as any other of the other dudes around him, of course, to the point that he has no problem being a judgy bitch to the sister who literally raised him. He obviously thinks the best treatment you can give a woman is to lock her down into marriage and see that she’s materially provided for. He clearly doesn’t get what Bea means when she says ‘women aren’t horses,’ and even refers to Cissy as a ‘pretty mare.’ (I’m gonna say more about Manaaki and Cissy in another meta, because boy do I have a lot to say about that pairing!)

We’ve gotta talk about Harry. Oh boy have we got to talk about Harry! I’ve already made this clear in the screengrab posts, but to me Manaaki and Harry are the show’s real gay soldier ship, so much so that one of them even dies - in combat, no less! (This in contrast to the canonically gay twinks that, to the show’s credit, do both make it out of the war alive and back into each other’s arms. Like, this show purposely avoided the bury-your-gays with its actual gays ... only for Harry’s death to feel like a bury-your-gays!)

Let me just give you a few screengrabs.

Please watch the show, you really do just have to see them together. The chemistry is. Wow.

And of course a major part of the appeal is that they’re so opposite, character-wise. Harry, a gamblin’ good-for-nothing shit-stirring contrarian scalawag, and church boy Manaaki (wink at @vintonharper). And even in the field, it’s Harry who’s running a little black market on his own while Manaaki’s out here Scripture-checking the chaplain and disobeying orders (technically) to avoid using a gun, at least the one time. And Harry gets Manaaki to drink, to accept black market ... onions, I guess, little things. You’ll never convince me they didn’t explore each other’s bodies at least once offscreen.

And I’m not going into detail about That Moment, or about what Manaaki did, because I have nothing to say. Nothing. It wrecked me, okay?

But the larger effects of the war on Manaaki are actually why I would argue that WWGTW is really his story. This is where the arc really takes shape. “Does the Bible not say it is a sin to kill?” he asks at the Smiths’ dinner table with all the certainty in the world. Then comes the death of Alonso, and the text really leaves it up to the viewer as to how much responsibility Manaaki actually bears for it, and it shakes him up; he initially goes to war desperately trying not to actively shoot anyone ... and then this moment.

There’s a breath, after the gun goes off for the first time, and then the switch happens, and he’s a sniper now. Later when the detective first comes by and he runs to Awa in distress, he calls himself a murderer - “I’ve killed many men!” - and tells Cissy that he feels like a corrupting influence. And when Detective Blaine asks him directly if he would kill again? He nods. And later he goes back to the war front.

(Now this is where the show is handicapped by how short it is, because there isn’t time for Manaaki’s church boy half and traumatized killer half to really integrate so that he can become a whole person. It feels a little rushed, watching Ghost-Harry vanish into the night during the evacuation; it doesn’t feel quite right, watching him read Cissy’s letter and smile while the framing implies that he’s going to go home and start co-parenting his son soon.)

And the way he essentially falls into the arms of the Smith family after Harry’s death can be read as slightly unhealthy, their glomming onto him as a repalcement son/brother when he’s at his most vulnerable, and yet.

That traditional greeting/farewell that Manaaki gives Bea especially, with the warm glow of the sun over their shoulders, absolutely wrecked me and I love it with all my heart. God, the feels it gave me! That ‘smith family loving manaaki for 1000 minutes’ tag exists on my blog for a reason, and I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Awa might prefer (or just have gotten accustomed to) a life of emotional reticence, but Manaaki doesn’t seem built for that.

(That there autism, see. Contrary to popular belief, we’re usually deeply social, we just need people in our lives who are kind to us when we’re not masking.)

Okay, time for some speculation!

I have a theory that the Prophet was a major father figure to Manaaki after the departure of the elder Mr. Kokiri. The bright-eyed reverence with which Manaaki refers to ‘my Prophet,’ the fact that the Prophet clearly knows he can deploy Manaaki to bring Awa back, the way Awa talks about how the Prophet intends to reward him - there’s a relationship there, and it didn’t happen overnight.

This relates to what I theorized about Awa and why she fled, because it sounds to me like the Prophet seized on the opportunity to groom two orphans, and Manaaki was young enough to be successfully molded where Awa wasn’t. Which also suggests that Manaaki’s growing closeness to the Prophet was a big wedge between them, and that the Prophet perhaps leveraged that closeness to get at Awa. Thus her (likely) cutting off direct contact with Manaaki after she left (“You found me, you clever bugger.”).

I don’t know how big a role the Prophet plays in Manaaki’s spirituality, though. He continues to be actively religious even after he’s lost the chance to go home. Clearly the Prophet gives himself leave to all the sex he wants, but Manaaki is pure as the driven snow when he meets Cissy, which is hardly the norm for young men who grow up with that kind of religious entitlement.

Because the Prophet clearly shaped how he views women and sexuality, Awa included; he reacts to the loss of his virginity with guilt, and yet he doesn’t seem to think less of Cissy for her clear desire for him. (Although I could be giving him too much credit, and the lack of conflict around Manaaki losing respect for Cissy could just be another result of the absurdly short runtime.)

Well, there’s more I could say and will say about Manaaki, but I think I’ve hit a lot of the highlights. He’s an amazingly layered and complex character, performed to perfection by Alex Tarrant.

#when we go to war 2015 #when we go to war miniseries #wwgtw spoilers #wwgtw meta #manaaki kokiri #the big manaaki meta #elvella rambles #alex tarrant #alex tarrant rules me #my devout baby #he's a strange fish that one #the smith family loving manaaki for 1000 minutes

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