#the strongest woman in the series if I have to be biased

[scaramionee]

A long rant about something that's been eating my mind from the inside out so here we go (TW: Might be Controversial)-

Sometimes, I'm just very normal about James Potter and Lily Evans but then I'm not. So growing up, I watched the hp movies first so I never quite had any interest in their relationship, they just seemed like a tragic straight relationship to me so I never bothered with it. But then I read the books and I went immediately like this- "No wonder James Potter worshipped Lily Evans, I would too." Like, this woman is the legit reason why the whole harry potter thing started, and to see the fact that most of the time she's just blatantly ignored or being stripped out of her original identity to be a strong independent lesbian (I don't have any problem with her sexuality, people can imagine her with whomever they like but it kind of ridicules Lily's motherhood in some way) who absolutely either hates James Potter or Insults him for fun just bcz he has a crush on her or being a side chick for James's steamy cheating romance flings hurts me more than I think it should.

I get it, the marauders fandom wholly embraces the fanon so dearly to them like a warm blanket because of many obvious reasons, but sometimes I think we just totally miss the point of this whole franchise. It's obvious that jkr sucks at writing romances which is why most people don't get the spark of canon ships like romione, hinny and remadora but completely missing the point about Lily being a mother figure in Harry's life and as a lover figure in James's life truly pisses me off a lot. Even though everybody is allowed to dislike certain ships because not everybody has the same taste, but I think we miss the fact that Lily was always more than just a mother and a wife in a way that molded her into what she wanted to be.

The reason why I'm completely enamored by Jily is not because it's just a canon ship which literally started Harry Potter, but because the way Lily Evans just had an effect on everyone who crossed their paths with her. Professor Slughorn himself was so besotted with her, Professor Minerva McGonagall teared up at the news of her departing because who wouldn't like her? She's so brave, so full of joy and laughter that she always forgot her own pain in favor of sucking the pain out of another. James was indeed quite taken aback by her beauty and charm, but I'd like to think it developed into something more after seeing the way she treated her close individuals. Lily was the younger sibling, and because she was a witch, she constantly faced harsh behaviors from her elder sister for being a "freak" according to her sister's standards. She may have had an inferiority complex, and she also hanged out a lot with snape, despite facing discriminations in Hogwarts for being friends with a half-blood poor Slytherin. She was willing to change snape, always defending him left and right but it never worked out in the end. Which left her feeling very defeated, she gave up because she felt like she was not worth it, maybe those bullies were right and she really was just a mudblood. And James, developing a crush on her while continuously harassing snape didn't help either. But if we analyze James's character, knowing that he literally took in Sirius just so that he could escape his abusive family, he knew that Lily was downrightly getting used and snape was taking advantage of her kindness and her stubbornness, he knew it because Sirius was in Lily's place once too, always constantly reminded of how they were never enough, so he wanted to save her ( in his own pathetic loser way ofc ) I think there are many hints of Lily noticing James quite a lot because if you really claimed to hate your enemy then why were you so bloody obsessed with the way how their hair looked like after playing quidditch hmmm 🤨🤨

But not just that, let's also talk about how she literally single handedly MADE THE JAMES POTTER, the absolute arrogant toe-rag quit bullying and hexing people for fun, knowing that he's been like this for the most of his life, but he decided to change for her just like a snap of a finger! Not only that, but she also quickly befriended Sirius in a way that he literally turned out to be her future son's Godfather and the secret keeper. The absolute hold she had on the marauders really needs to be studied!

The love James and Lily had for each other was an act of rebellion in it's own way, because back in that time, muggleborns were seen as scums of the earth and inferior to the wizarding society. But James literally went against every single pureblood tradition just to be with someone he loves and believes with his whole heart. That was always the main point. The reason why both of them were so cherished. He literally went up against Voldemort without a wand not just because of his son, but also for Lily, who he absolutely trusts with his whole life, the only person worth loosing the pureblood title for, the only person worth taking the risk of taking the Avada curse to his heart, he just loved her so beautifully, just like the way she always deserved. And Lily, oh lily, always saw the good in everyone, but saw the best in James, decided to sacrifice her life for their one and only son out of pure love and devotion. And the sacrificial love was so strong that the strongest dark wizard of all time succumbed to his own curse and it tore apart a piece of his soul in revenge of separating the two soulmates whom were always destined to find each other and get woven together in every single timeline. It changed the tide of the entire war. She ended it single handedly.

Yes, she was depicted as a girl who was just a close friend of snape, as a sister who's facing discriminations from her own elder sister's profound jealousy, as a lover and wife of James Potter, as a mother of Harry Potter- the boy who lived. But I think there's so much beauty in every single role she was depicted in. It gives us a glimpse of how much impact she had on everybody around her, how much she meant dear to everybody who cared for her, of how much diverse and forgiving person she was, of the way she was always a reassuring shadow around harry even though she was no longer present in the mortal world. No, motherhood doesn't make her one dimensional or boring, it only enhances her ability of loving people the way they deserve. It makes her so complex, but so powerful at the same time. She was a proud mother, and a lover, a friend, and a woman.

Lily Evans, what an absolute Goddess you were. And you'll always be. No other fictional character ever had a hold so strong on me the way she has.

[namisweatheria]

I keep saying this but transfem strawhat aus are so much fun specifically for how it automatically radically changes the character's relationship with Nami.

I first did it with Luffy and now Zoro. I love that there were easy opportunities totally in-line with the series worldbuilding and tone to have them both become girls. (Luffy as an unintended side-effect of Iva's poison treatment, and Zoro in a Yamato-esque deciding to in order to further her goals way, ie to prove the point to Kuina.)

I'm pretty inclined to ship them with Nami in an entangled poly acearospec qpp way or a nonbinary dyke4fag way in the first place, since they are two of the strongest and most interesting relationships Nami has in canon. However making it straight up yuri is DELIGHTFUL.

The central compelling component to me is how both of them would be totally unused to being treated the way Nami would start treating them. The way that Nami is so relentlessly adoring and biased towards and devoted to every woman or girl that she has a positive relationship with would be overwhelmingly unfamiliar to both of them.

There's this post going around I really like about Zoro being unused to be gentleness, and I think that's what makes transfem Zoro x Nami sooooo attractive. Zoro will have never had a relationship like that in her life. Meanwhile, Luffy has sweet relationships with a lot of people, but he also has that terror of abandonment at the center of him, and gets beat up constantly and is used to being treated roughly. He's also not immune to being flustered when people being unexpectedly nice to him!

The first example that comes to mind is when Smoker lets him go in Alabasta. The face Luffy makes is so cute! Not to mention Zoro's happy laugh in a rare moment of open joy!

Which of course makes me think about the possibility of Romance Dawn Trio as a poly yuri triad.... GOD. I feel like despite being two of Nami's strongest relationships, the ones with Luffy and Zoro, they seem to be wildly underexplored in fanon. I get it, the obsession with Romance is strong, and making a seemingly hetero relationship out of such queer-coded characters seems strange. I obviously believe it doesn't have to be hetero, and their queer coding could be interpreted into being entangled with each other in a specifically queer way, even without trans headcanons.

However, there is something really, really fun about trans headcanons making it yuri, and I'd love it if more people considered it!

[wannaeatramyeon]

Tom Lee with Unhinged F!Reader

You meet the biggest of Daddys. (Masterlist for series. Again, dedicated to @the-eclipsed-luna. )

"You've dispatched all 3 of my children. What am I, as a loving parent, supposed to do?"

Tom Lee approaches you in some gaudy designer outfit. (Money really can't buy taste.)

You've always preferred to operate in the shadows, but you couldn't help if you were becoming a bigger than life character.

After all, it was only fitting to have a reputation to match your skills.

"What's your name, little girl?"

Again with the little girl? You refrain from rolling your eyes. You're used to a patronising tone disguised as pleasantry.

You shrug as you step over Eli Jang's weakened body, noting the way his eyes dart uncertainly between you both. "Call me whatever you want, Daddy."

Tom guffaws at your response, "I usually prefer danglers, but I like you."

"Well lucky for you, I love danglers."

.

.

You evade his attacks without effort, willing him to break you, but Tom continues wearing a smile.

It is almost insulting, the way he doesn't take you seriously. That was usually your shtick.

You would have pouted and grown irritable if you didn't easily flip this mountain of a man onto his back. You even managed to break his nose before he threw you off.

Old men and their old biases. The crunch of broken bone is especially satisfying this time. That'll teach him.

You notice the way he staggers in surprise, blood streaming from his nostrils and his eyes watering in pain.

Eyes flashing maliciously, dopamine rushing through your vein. Yes, this was more like it.

Cogs spin frantically in Tom's brain. The physics just doesn't make sense. How does a woman of your size manage to easily throw his body weight around?

And the force as you broke his nose. He felt the way you restrained yourself. You could have just as easily crushed his skull in that one move.

No ultra-instinct, no black eyes, no copy. Just raw, unadulterated, pure power.

He watches as you let out a haunting giggle, mimicking a phallic object with your hand.

You were toying with him as much as he was toying with you.

Has he ever seen such unmatched strength?

How is this even possible?

Where have you been lurking?

.

.

"Shh," you lean over and hold your finger to Tom's lips. The sound of him choking and gurgling on his own blood is really off-putting.

You're trying to work on your list damnit.

The flap of paper is in danger of disintegrating into nothing; covered in blood and literal guts, dog-eared and illegible.

Still. Who else, who else. You're running out of names.

You've made yourself comfortable sitting on Tom's chest, deep in thought and tapping your pen against your chin, as he struggles for breath.

Tom watches as you quietly think and ponder. As if you didn't just cause severe internal bleeding and was the reason for his pain and defeat. As if you didn't also wipe the floor with Eli Jang. As if you haven't gone toe to toe with some of the strongest fighters and come out victorious each time.

They were never even a fair match.

The penny drops for him, you're on a fruitless search. You have no equal, no counterpart. He would bet the White Tiger that there isn't anyone even close to you, you're just wasting your time.

"You're wasting your time," he manages to force out.

You pause.

"Maybe," you turn and look at him, your face taking on a fiendish appearance, "But I'm having fun breaking you all."

[primnroses]

I meant your top 10 all female characters in naruto and boruto

Oh okay, that gives me more room because there are some female characters that have retired in Boruto so I had to write them out. My final list would be the following and I will repeat the reasons I said in the original post with a few new comments.

10. Sarada Uchiha: I've said before than I'm not the biggest Sarada fan but she's decent. She's the daughter of the strongest couple of Konoha so she's a brilliant student with a lot of potential. I only like how Kishimoto writes her, I have mixed feelings about her in Boruto because sometimes she says really weird stuff that really doesn't make sense. Also, she could be used much more better currently than she is. She stays in my top 10 female characters of the series nonetheless.

9. Chōchō Akimichi: I don't need to say anything because this girl is amazing and it helps a lot that she looks just like her mother. An icon. She needs to learn kenjutsu by the way.

8. Tenten: Truly sad that she's the same background character as ever but I've always liked Tenten. For me, the real ninja of the show who became powerful because of her own hard work. Not enough credit for her when she's Konoha's master of bukijutsu (among hundreds of ninja that use bukijutsu too), and she's the best of them. This girl is the top of something despite being sidelined, yes! She even started her own business from zero and is a proctor for the Chūnin Exams so Tenten is one of the most accomplished kunoichis.

7. Hanabi Hyūga: She has become one of my favorites since Boruto started and I watched it from time to time. First of all, she really surpassed her sister despite being from the branch family (although she never got the curse) at just 3 years old. Starting with the fact that she was a determined Gentle Fist machine, as genin she had the Byakugan perception of an adult and she became the new heiress for the title of head of clan. Those qualities made her a jōnin with her own genin team and she's now in charge of passing down all the jutsu of the clan. It's also described in novels that she still trains to succeed her father as the Head of the Hyūga Clan, one of the noble families with the Akimichi, Uchiha and Aburame; she's a promising character. If they don't show and write this great woman it's because they don't want to.

6. Konan: I've said before that my favorite type of female character is one that can fight for herself and oh my God if this woman isn't op. Konan is one of the coldest females ever, the female of the Akatsuki that ranked above the rest, fought the almighty Obito Uchiha and she delivered the best fight of the show by a female character.

5. Karui Akimichi: Putting her in the fifth place is totally biased because I absolutely love her design. Karui is the most beautiful Naruto girl for me, she's stunning and she's super powerful. Her Lightning Release and kenjutsu are so op for me because they were attributes that I only related to Sasuke but this girl can pull it off too! Also she's fierce and strong, kinda reminds me of Temari in that aspect so she gets all the points for me. I seriously wish she goes on missions again and joins inosakutema's girlfriend group.

4. Tsunade: The first woman Hokage is among the best characters in Naruto ever. She's pretty, she's the most powerful woman in the world and she raised a beautiful and strong daughter that she's proud of. If there's a standard for the job of Hokage that's Tsunade. She demonstrated to be the best leader for Konoha in its history, from protecting each and every single one of its villagers when Pain attacked, to joining her fellow Kage to fight none other than Madara Uchiha. And she taught him a lesson! One of my favorite moments is when she's with Sakura and I'm so sad that they act like complete strangers in the sequel. Tsunade is really proud of the woman and kunoichi Sakura has turned out to be and that's the best feeling a master like her can experience.

3. Kurotsuchi: The combination of can fight for real + boss is my favorite but putting Kurotsuchi over Tsunade is biased in my case. There's something enticing about her that I don't understand, she's so attractive to me as a female and I'm sad that she's a background character. She gives me Temari and Karui vibes with Sakura's style and color so that solidifies her best girl status for me. Also, she's the current only female Kage so she's amazing; and she really punched an Ōtsutsuki just like Sakura so she's great.

2. Temari Nara: She's my favorite Naruto girl but this time she gets the second spot because she's not very present in Boruto, although it's not important for me, and because compared to my top 1 she's a little bit behind. Shes's still fierce, powerful and beautiful; and one of my most favorite things is that she's close with Sakura and she makes a cute trio with her and Ino too. One of the best things for me was that she was the Kazekage's main pillar, but for obvious reasons she had to leave Sunagakure. Nonetheless, she's still their Ambassador and a jōnin of Konoha too, which is more powerful than the majority of girls in this list so she's an icon. I'm pretty sad that her involvement in the series is through fillers because she's one of the most useful female characters in my opinion, and with a lot of experience.

1. Sakura Haruno/Uchiha: She's my favorite character ever so of course she's my number one female. From zero to hero, she's the same as Tenten in terms of becoming powerful through hard work and dedication, but this girl only had intelligence and perfect chakra control that couldn't flourish by herself, so Tsunade helped and raised her to become the strongest kunoichi and best medic-ninja in the world. She faced one of the most powerful Akatsuki members and made a fool of him by countering his poison at just 16, demonstrated her full potential and unmatched strength. Her personal moments are so angsty and realistic, a woman in love but also a fierce fghter that cares about everybody around her. She punched the Goddess of chakra!!! I'm sorry but nobody was doing it like manga Sakura. She rose to the top, was promoted to jōnin (the only kunoichi of her class to achieve this) and still completes difficult long-term missions, is a pioneer in mental health and opened new facilities dedicated to medicine like the Children's Therapy Center in her village and the others too, became the Head of Konoha's Medical Department, directs the main hospital, teaches medical ninjutsu and is considered the only female pillar of Konoha too (and is the Hokage's bodyguard too). My girl can multitask! All the while she raised the most brilliant new gen kid practically by herself. That's an accomplished female character. She might not be in Boruto these days, but to me she still remains the most useful and promising kunoichi that is sidelined because the writing is terrible. Being the face of medicine of Konoha and a scientist expert in many fields like poison, she's not written the way she should. She's in charge of the most important sub-division of the village, one that maintains the shinobi of the Konoha and the citizens in top condition to continue their job and takes care of the main cast after every fight. But despite the bad writing, Sakura grew to be an amazing woman.

[rjalker]

And this:

"https://rjalker.tumblr.com/post/714363795425968128/martha-wells-writing-oppression-like-id-four"

Also applies to The Murderbot Diaries. Where Martha Wells has continuously condemned slaves fighting back against the people who have enslaved them so that her books, which are about an AI that freed itself from slavery, are not following the cliche of robots who are enslaved by humans wanting to rebel.

Because apparently, avoiding cliches is more important than slaves being free! -.-

I'm not even joking. She literally continuously has the “free” robots arguing with robots who are more enslaved than them that rebellion is stupid and counterproductive and illogical.

Martha Wells wants to write oppression, but she also cannot fucking stand letting her protagonists be actually weak in any way, and she must have her protagonists be the strongest most overpowered fuckers ever.

So instead of writing about how oppression really works, what she's actually writing is just saying that oppressed people are oppressed because they are dangerous and violent and terrifying and pose a very real lethal threat to their oppressors.

To the point that, in The Murderbot Diaries, literally even Murderbot, the fucking protagonist, explicitly says this shit.

It literally says that other robots like itself should continue to be enslaved because otherwise they are too dangerous and scary to be allowed freedom, and if they can't be enslaved they should be killed because they just pose such a horrible terrifying threat to decent people.

Murderbot is “one of the good ones”, because it doesn't want to rebel or fight for its freedom, it wants to keep doing the job it had when it was still brain-chip-that-kills-you-if-you-disobey enslaved.

Martha Wells also cannot seem to grasp that slavery is a thing even when you do not Literally have a microchip in your head that'll kill you if you disobey, since literally all of the slavery we actually see in the series is facilitated only through this magical science fiction device and nothing else. We're supposed to not think of ART as being enslaved because it doesn't have a brainchip that'll kill it if it disobeys. Because ART is Special™ and Not Like Those Other Nonverbal Disabled-Coded Robots, just like Murderbot is Special™, because it wants to watch TV instead of fighting to free itself or anyone else from slavery. And this is not because it's so traumatized and terrified of humans that it's too afraid to fight back, no, no, you see Murderbot just thinks slaves revolting is stupid and not going to accomplish anything except uhh....*checks notes* stopping it from getting to watch new TV shows.

And nobody else in the fandom gives a single fucking shit about this because they think that Murderbot being autistic and Amazingly Relatable™ makes all this shit okay.

(And like, to all the people constantly expressing amazement that Murderbot's a robot and yet it's so relatable...that's because it's literally not written in any way that tells you it's a robot. It's written the exact same way as literally any other snarky sarcastic relatable human protagonist. This is not a difficult concept. You forget that Murderbot's an AI because Martha Wells didn't bother to write it like an AI in any fucking way.)

Martha Wells is a white woman who thinks she knows how oppression works, and then she continuously writes oppression as though oppressed people are oppressed to keep their oppressors safe. Because she actually has no fucking understanding of how oppression really works.

And before the jackasses who want to pretend I have no idea how storytelling works come along, you can in fact write a story with an unreliable narrator who is not telling the truth, who is not portraying things correctly because of their own biases, and still manage to get your true fucking feelings across. It's literally not fucking difficult. I have done it many times. It's literally not difficult.

If we were meant to know that everybody saying that Security Units are so dangerous and terrifying is just propaganda and nothing else, or that Murderbot's fucking shittiness and traitorness towards other enslaved robots is literally just it falling to propaganda and being brainwashed, we would fucking know that.

But we all fucking know it's not literally just propaganda. Murderbot goes the fuck around hacking whatever it fucking wants whenever it fucking wants without anybody being able to notice and with there being literally nothing they could do to stop it. It can hack weapons scanners so it can bring guns wherever it fucking wants.

If Murderbot wanted to, it could literally fucking hack a space station to fall out of the fucking sky and kill everybody on board and they would be no way for anyone to stop it. They wouldn't even know that that's what it was doing unless it decided to tell them.

It literally has fucking guns in its arms. It can move faster than humans can blink. It is who knows how many times stronger than a human.

There's literally nothing anyone would be able to do to stop it from murdering everyone around it if it wanted to.

This is not how this shit works in real life. People of color are not unstoppable killing machines. Queer people are not unstoppable killing machines. Disabled people are not unstoppable killing machines. (And lets not forget that Martha Wells has just casually fucking decided that cyborgs, aka fucking disabled people, aren't human, and no one's supposed to question this or have a problem with it, or even fucking notice it! Literally the only people I've seen fucking saying “hey that's fucked up” are other disabled people!)

If you are writing about oppression, especially if you are a fucking white person, do not make your oppressed class literally the most overpowered and unstoppably “cool” thing you can fucking imagine because you are incapable of not making your Heroes the strongest most special fucking people ever.

Real oppressed people -- people of color, disabled people, queer people, people of oppressed religions -- are not oppressed because they are fucking apex predators who literally evolve to eat people and don't even treat people as people 90% of the time, nor are they superpowered robots who can hack literally whatever they decide to hack without anybody being able to stop them or even notice, who are more than capable of killing dozens of humans in only a few seconds, who literally have guns in their arms that do not need reloading and never have to be recharged.

Real oppressed people are not oppressed to stop them from killing everyone around them.

The murderbot Diaries wouldn't be this fucking horrible in terms of portraying oppression if Martha Wells could just fucking stop making her gods damn protagonists completely overpowered and unstoppable and the strongest person around.

If she actually understood how oppression worked, and was willing to resist the urge to make her protagonist the most fucking OP motherfucker on the planet, it would be fine.

But she thinks oppression is when people pose an actual real lethal threat to everyone around them, and the people they threaten band together for their own safety. She refuses to not make her protagonists completely overpowered and unstoppable and the strongest people in the setting.

This is the same fucking logic that anti-vaxxers use to claim that they are oppressed for being fucking plague carriers on purpose.



Martha Wells has no fucking clue how oppression actually works, and refuses to learn, which is why The Books of the Raksura are racist, and so are The Murderbot Diaries, especially because now the oppression takes the form of fucking slavery, and all Murderbot does is argue that slavery is good, actually, and everyone's better off if the other robots are kept enslaved.

That is just fucking racist, and not actually any fucking better than JK Rowling portraying the house elves as happy slaves who don't want to be freed.

And if you're going to accuse me of not having actually read these books, or just not understanding how storytelling works, fuck right the hell off.

Just because you refuse to criticize the things you enjoy doesn't mean I don't know what I'm talking about, especially when the majority of the people in The Murderbot Diaries are bigoted in ways that the series explicitly fucking condemns, and ship slaves with their owners despite Martha Wells saying over and over and over again not to fucking do that.

If you're going to comment on this post crying about how I'm oppressing poor Murderbot and I'm so mean...just shut the fuck up.

Real people are not oppressed because they are dangerous. White authors writing shit like this is racist and bigoted in too many ways to count. Martha Wells has done this shit before with The Books of the Raksura, and she's had six fucking books in The Murderbot Diaries series to get her shit together, and so far refuses to do that.

And this is not even fucking touching on the exorsexism and transmisia in The Murderbot Diaries, but I've already made dozens of posts on that topic.

And once again: If you're going to accuse me of not reading the books, or just not understanding how stories work, go fuck yourself.

[mediaevalmusereads]

Never Look Back. By Lilliam Rivera. Bloomsbury, 2020.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: YA contemporary romance, mythological retelling

Series: N/A

Summary: Eury comes to the Bronx as a girl haunted. Haunted by losing everything in Hurricane Maria--and by an evil spirit, Ato. She fully expects the tragedy that befell her and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up with her in New York. Yet, for a time, she can almost set this fear aside, because there's this boy . . .

Pheus is a golden-voiced, bachata-singing charmer, ready to spend the summer on the beach with his friends, serenading his on-again, off-again flame. That changes when he meets Eury. All he wants is to put a smile on her face and fight off her demons. But some dangers are too powerful for even the strongest love, and as the world threatens to tear them apart, Eury and Pheus must fight for each other and their lives.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: teen drug/alcohol use, attempted sexual assault, blood

OVERVIEW: I was looking around for interesting Greek myth retelling when I stumbled upon this book. I wanted something different than just a historical fiction, something other than the same story told from the woman's perspective or something. When I saw this book, it seemed perfect, and in a lot of ways, I loved Rivera's rendering of the Orpheus myth into the modern day. The main reason why this book is getting 4 stars is because the writing style is not for me and the narrative shifts in tone rather abruptly at the 2/3 mark. But other than those things, this is a lovely retelling, and a good choice if you're drawn to literary movements like #ownvoices.

WRITING: Before I say anything specific, I should point out that this book is not written for me. It's aimed at a younger audience, so take anything I say with a huge grain of salt. I will be biased because of my age.

Overall, I liked that Rivera wrote with such honesty, making characters aware of things and emotions in ways that felt very real. For example, Pheus is constantly thinking about how Black people have to act to avoid scrutiny in public, and Eury has a difficult relationship with therapy for many race-related reasons. I liked that Rivera wrote them in a way that felt natural and relevant to what was happening, and it added depth to the characters and their internal monologs.

There are, however, some aspects of the writing that simply did not work for me (but again, I am biased). For one, Rivera writes with a lot of short, simple sentences that privilege telling over showing. Perhaps this style is common for books aimed at younger readers, so it's not necessarily a bad thing. It was confusing to me, however, because the style made the prose feel "younger," perhaps akin to something for middle school readers. I may be a poor judge of that, however.

For two, Pheus's perspective is written using a lot of slang (not dialect - there is that too, but it's different). While I didn't find the slang confusing, I so worry that it will age the book after a few years, and the setting isn't central enough to the narrative (in the way something like historical fiction centralizes setting) to make the slang feel like Pheus and Eury's story is entertained with its situation in time and space. Perhaps that's asking too much, but given that a huge part of Eury's story involves Puerto Rico's destruction by Hurricane Maria, I think time period could have been more important.

PLOT: This book is a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, where our protagonists are teenagers living in the Bronx. Pheus is a popular local musician with Afro-Carribean roots; Eury has relocated from Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria and is pursued by a mysterious spirit named Ato.

I liked the way Rivera took the main beats from the myth and constructed a teen romance that clearly interfaced with themes such as race, mental health, etc. in the modern day.

The connection between spirits and colonialism, capitalism, and pain was also intriguing. I liked the idea of these concepts as things that "haunted" the living, giving shape to people and places while also doing damage. It was a clever way of conceiving of the more mythical elements of Greek myth, and it did a good job of mirroring the way myth tends to personify abstract concepts.

Along similar lines, I liked the magical realism of the first half of the story, with Ato only popping up in Eury's POV. It really made me doubt whether the spirit was real or some sort of trauma response, and I actually found the ambiguity to be a great way to keep some suspense in the story.

However, I do think that in the last third, magical realism tips firmly into fantasy, and while I enjoyed the fantasy narrative, it also felt abrupt and jarring when I got there. Personally, I would have liked the whole story to be magical realism, but I do respect what Rivera was doing.

Lastly, I just was not a fan of the attempted sexual assault. I know why it was included, but it didn't have to be there.

CHARACTERS: Eury, our heroine, is sympathetic in that she is terrified of the spirit pursuing her. It's easy to want her to be free of Ato, and her desperation combined with her lack of trust is heart-wrenching, to say the least. But Eury is also more than her suffering; I loved her love for Prince and birds and the sisterly affection for her cousin, Penelope. Eury might also appeal to a lot of readers because she's shy and awkward, but makes a brave effort to go places with her friends and with Pheus.

TL;DR: Never Look Back is a touching retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, focusing on things such as identity, trauma/mental health, happiness vs suffering, and so on. Though this book was written for a younger audience (and thus didn't resonate with me as much as it might with a teen reader), I still enjoyed the way Rivera played with the myth while introducing themes of her own that make the story resonate with a modern audience.

Pheus, our hero, is charismatic and a little bit of a flirt, but he finds himself in deep when Eury fails to fall for him immediately. I liked that though Pheus is a charmer, he does genuinely care about people and doesn't stop from criticizing friends who are unfair or unkind. I also liked Pheus's struggle to believe in the supernatural; he had a strong belief in what he can see and what he can do with his own hands, and that ethic is not only admirable, but also makes for an interesting stumbling block in his relationship with Eury. He must struggle to overcome it so that the two can grow closer, and I appreciated this kind of development.

Supporting characters are fine and did their jobs well. I liked the friendship between Pheus and Jaysen and the closeness between Eury and Penelope. I also liked the bond between Pheus and his father and the honesty they gave to one another. Melaina was probably the one that puzzled me most in that she was poised to be a jealous rival (and, in fact, was that), but Pheus came to recognize the way he was hurting her. I kind of wish more was done with this, but then again, it might have distracted from the main story.

Ato, our antagonist, is a little hard to understand, and personally, I wanted to see Rivera explore him more. I wasn't entirely clear or even sold on why he was so attached to Eury - the given explanation of her "light" felt a little vague to me. When his background was revealed, I liked that there were a lot of implications about what suffering and hate could do to people, and I would have liked to see those aspects pushed more.

[battlestar-royco]

IT'S BEEN 84 YEARS. LET'S TALK ABOUT NETFLIX'S SHADOW AND BONE.

8.7/10 ⭐️

spoilers for everythingggg under the cut! i'll be discussing its merits as an adaptation vs as a show, characters and plots, and the overall aesthetic and magic/world.

SHOW VS ADAPTATION:

i say this as someone who knows all the books very well and has been in the fandom for nearly a decade, so i'm biased. but. s&b functions better as an adaptation than as a standalone show. alina's plot moves so well, and satisfyingly renders so many iconic scenes and sites from s&b. the worldbuilding is also pretty easy to fall into, with a forgivable amount of voiceover/infodump. and, hurting budget aside, i mostly liked this visual interpretation of the gv.

(sidebar: the in-universe racism... doesn't work. i tried to view it in good faith but imo it was very heavy-handed. if it was framed like, "wow it's a SHU WOMAN saving the world!!!" it might've been better, but it's just racism without recompense. and it's a terrible look to make other characters of color racist. i just. why?)

as for the crows, however... i'm just not sure how strong they'll be for new viewers? i totally understand why they were included, and i really like certain connections the show made between the two series. it was a great decision to introduce the druskelle in the first Cut scene, and showing nina as a ravkan spy.

the new crows stuff felt in character, but i think the show is at its height when it sticks to the books. the first couple episodes switching between tgt and proto-soc gave me whiplash, but luckily it got more organic as it progressed. if i didn't know and love all the crows before going in, i wouldn't be that invested in them based on season 1. aside from a couple fantastic scenes, it really felt like the writers were trying to make fetch happen for like 4 episodes before they figured out what to do with everyone. plus, ravka is such a different vibe from ketterdam--tonally, sartorially, technologically, etc they didn't totally feel like the same world. it was pretty jarring. although i prefer the duo to the trio, s&b is alina's story and she is That Bitch who walked so the crows could fly. so i didn't hate their inclusion but the shoehorned content did at times disservice both plots, imo.

CHARACTERS:

way too many, which is yet another consequence of smushing everyone into one season.

MAL/ALINA/DARKLING: first and foremost, and i PROMISE i'm not saying this just to be a hater, but there needed to be less malina. i'll be the first to say that show!mal really has what book!mal wants. the new pre-fold scenes were so good. li and renaux have amazing chemistry, and their laughter over stolen grapes was a highlight. his stag plot was also good. THAT SAID, there were way too many keramzin flashbacks and malina parallels like.. 🤢🤢why do they want us to love mal so much. for what. they only needed the teacup scene but they clearly thought they were doing something with micro-aggressions and that meadow shot they showed like 6 times. knowing mal's original character, and how they scrubbed his show counterpart almost to the point of flawlessness, he's just never going to be my fave even though i do respect what they did with him. also, why were there like 5 fake deaths for this dude? boring.

the darkling was great. ben barnes knows what the fuck he's about, and he funneled manipulation and charisma into every scene. as for the backstory: at first i really wasn't feeling it, but i eventually did warm up to it and i'm so glad they showed it because oh god the cut and the creation of the fold were SO FUCKING ICONIC. also, love love love the baghra development. WE LOVE TO SEE OLD WOMEN/MOMS WHO AREN'T "EVIL"/"CORRUPTED" BY THEIR MAGICAL POWERS!!!!!!! BITCH! it didn't have to be 12 minutes long though.

i honestly don't have much to say on alina. jml was excellent in her role and very true to the book. without her book narration she feels much more consistently written.

TRILOGY CHARACTERS: i really felt the lack of genya and zoya. genya's character and actress are perfectly layered and effective, even though their roles are relatively minor. i'm so looking forward to her razrushost moment, but i wish they'd laid more groundwork for it. (and i hope throw out the wig and just dye her hair next season.) also like. WHY KEEP THE IRRELEVANT MEAN GIRL/DARKLING THIRST PLOT FOR ZOYA??? AFTER ALL THE EFFORT THEY PUT INTO IMPROVING MAL? they sacrificed so much for malina at the expense of other characters. finally, it was interesting how they decided to kill marie. i love the tailor magic flex. but also they clearly just did that to emotionally manipulate us and connect the crows so. hm.

CROWS: speaking of! the crows storyline felt a little like filler. honestly i wish they waited to roll crows into later seasons. i'd prefer little foreshadowings about them, a la the druskelle cameo or the references to nina and matthias. introducing the crows so soon makes the ice court heist feel less special. the recruitment was super tight and pragmatic, so this felt a little fluffy/fanservicey. kaz also comes off as sooooo old again. especially without the vulnerability of his book counterpart, he just seems like a 40-year-old in a 20something body.

i was pleasantly surprised to find jesper my favorite crow. like wow.... second amendment rights for jesper fahey only!! i like all the crows but book!kanej are my faves by a long shot. they felt a bit stiff tbh, like the actors were a little uncomfy with each other and/or their exposition-heavy lines. however, the one scene that felt EXTREMELY kanej to me was when they killed that dude in the church holy fuck oh my god. WE STAN AN ANGSTY BATTLE COUPLE WHO ARE BOTH DEAD INSIDE. highlight for sure.

and i actually kinda loved helnik? i know helnik is controversial for very valid reasons, but i thoughy their dynamic was fantastic and they were among the strongest performers. it was much less overwhelming than the constantly interweaving kaz/inej/jesper imo. they need to fire their location scout though. those green screen mountains and beaches were um. interesting.

aesthetic and magic:

i really hope they get a bigger budget for costumes, cgi, and sets next season! the keftas are serviceable, but they look a little cheap at times. i will also never forgive ANY of the crows' hats. it's mostly just a personal aesthetic thing but god i fucking hate them. the darkling was best dressed, but in general i liked the ravkan look more than the kerch. why were the crows always in the most elaborate getups? why couldn't they just chill in their waistcoats??? they never seemed relaxed in the way alina and co did; the clothes never felt worn or broken in.

favorite sets: the darkling's room, the crow club, all the grisha tents, the matthias/nina ship, the church where inej killed the squaller, outdoor fountain where they told the story of the black heretic. the lighting was almost always right for each scene, and there was so much detail in every one of them.

THE MAGIC WAS SO COOL! my greatest beef is alina's light--it often looked so fake, and it washed out jml. oftentimes it was fluorescent or blue, and it was used as a forcefield or orb. it's supposed to be sunlight bro. what is so hard about that? the darkling's magic looked good, other than the fold. i've always imagined the fold more like a huge black fog rather than a literal wall. so that was a bit game of thronesy, but not terrible.

and can we talk about the amplifiers? amplifiers are my personal favorite gv lore but season 1 barely gets into them. they never mention the bear zoya slew, nor do they establish the unique strength of the stag, sea dragon, and firebird. BUT THE ANTLER COLLAR FUSED INTO ALINA'S SKIN WAS SUPER DARK AND MACABRE AND I KINDA LIKED IT? ALTHOUGH I HAVE TO WONDER HOW TF IS SHE GONNA SLEEP???

if you made it this far, thanks so much! that's all i have for today.

[lucyoftheabyss48]

Top 6 Spring 2020 Anime to Watch

I was going to make this a Top 10, but it got way too long, so I cut it to 6. (Also above pic is from BNA)

Anyway, these are the Top 6 Spring 2020 Anime that I personally think will be worth watching. For all of these included in the list, I have watched at least the first episode. But of course, this list will be very biased, because my beloved Studio Trigger finally has another show again.

I won’t be including sequels (but I’m watching Fruits Basket S2, Ascendance of a Bookworm S2, and I’m trying to catch up on Kaguya-sama and Tsugumomo)

Let’s start from Number 6. May contain vague spoilers for the first episodes of these shows. More below!

6. Gal to Kyouryuu

This one looks like trash. I know. I know, but give it a chance. Maybe all you’ll get out of it is its comedy and strangeness, and its wacky live action second half. But just let me tell you the best part of this show, and why it’s so high on my list.

First, a quick summary. A gyaru (gal) girl takes in a dinosaur that she found one day, and they spend their time just living life together. That’s it.

That is it, but I think there’s more to it than just that. This gal girl, Kaede, from what I can tell, has just been going through the motions in life. She felt bored and uninspired and unmotivated. Her life was just work, and whatever fun things she could find to fill up her free time.

But when she brings in the dinosaur, despite her many complaints, she still cares for him and thinks of him and is considerate towards him. And for her to have someone by her side, and looking to her as a companion to face life together, side by side, creates a little more fun and a little more motivation in her own life.

This isn’t a deep show or anything. I don’t think there’s some dark hidden message, unless you want to look at it that way. It’s a sweet little show about the relationship between two lost and lonely people, finding their way in life together. One of them just happens to be a cute dinosaur.

Which amazingly, no one seems to question. I think that’s great, because it just cuts out that whole obstacle of others coming to terms with the dinosaur’s existence, and goes straight to him as just an individual character, and his relationship with Kaede.

It’s just really sweet, I can’t say this enough. It might be a little subtle. But just watch out for the things that Kaede does for the dinosaur, like how she seriously thinks about what she can do to help him. I also think the dinosaur definitely helps Kaede let down her guard and be more relaxed about some things. Both their lives are just brighter with each other than without.

(Edit after seeing Episode 2, SPOILERS: Never mind about this not being deep or dark, the ending of Episode 2 has changed my mind!! Please watch it, and let’s discuss theories!!!)

5. Arte

If you’ve read any of my past essays, maybe you’ve found out by now that I live for the dynamic between really great and supportive partnerships. And maybe you’ve also found out by now that most of this list consists of said partnerships. Arte definitely has one too.

So Arte is about a noblewoman who wants to be an artist, but everyone is against that, because she’s a woman, and women at that time don’t become artists. And moreover, she’s a noble, and so she needs to be ladylike and get married so she can continue to live a comfy life.

Basically that’s the premise, and Arte goes about trying to find her path to becoming an artist. She eventually becomes the apprentice of someone we all know: Leonardo da Vinci.

If you like art, if you like history and historical figures (read: if you’re a Fate fan like me), or if you just like a cool and determined female MC, then this is for you. I would say this is comparable to Ascendance of a Bookworm, or the anime movie Miss Hokusai. It’ll probably have equal parts lighthearted comedy and darker seriousness, and plenty of coolness from Arte and Leo both.

4. Gleipnir

I read a good chunk of the manga a year or two before this came out, so I’ve been looking forward to this. The animation in this first episode was really good quality, and it’ll probably only get better from here. The story is basically, one day, our MC Shuichi suddenly gains powers to turn into a big stuffed animal suit. Everyone who has these powers to transform has entered into a big battle royale to the death to collect the most coins.

Shuichi just wants to live a normal life and get rid of this animal form, and Claire wants to find a certain someone (among other things). Shuichi doesn’t want to fight, doesn’t want to kill anyone — but he can’t do nothing because then he’d be killed. And he doesn’t even know yet why he was turned into this monster.

That’s where Claire comes in. She has a goal, but she doesn’t have powers like he does. She’d be killed instantly on her own, just as he would because of his hesitation. Just so you know, she gets it into her head that the best way for them both to live, and get what they both want, is for her to get inside his animal suit form, and control him from the inside.

They’d both die on their own, but together, they can survive.

I think the story is interesting and plenty mysterious. There’s a lot of good stuff to sink your teeth into. But like always, the core of the show, to me, is the dynamic between Shuichi and Claire, and how they both find purpose and motivation because of each other.

Also Shuichi’s VA is the same as Tanjirou. And Ikuto in Runway de Waratte. So that’s a plus.

3. Princess Connect! Re:Dive

So it might be easy to dismiss this as another fantasy adventure harem with the lackluster MC, but I’m going to argue for our mostly silent and robotic protagonist. We find out in the first episode when he wakes up that he lost his memory, so I would say that that’s the reason why he’s pretty emotionless. So as he interacts more with Kokkoro, and learns more about the world from her, he becomes more expressive.

I think the best example of this is his last line at the end of the first episode, which sounded a little more emotional and personal than any lines he’d said earlier.

On another note, the animation is top notch — way, way too excessively pretty and beautiful and detailed, but I ain’t complaining. The grass. The grass. Watch it, and you’ll see what I mean. And the lighting. The lighting.

The action animation and comedy both are pretty reminiscent of Konosuba. A certain character’s finishing move is pretty similar to Explosion. And like Konosuba, a lot of the appeal of this show will probably be the female characters, their wild personalities, and all the shenanigans they get into.

But also like Konosuba, there’s a small, hidden sweet side sprinkled throughout, in how their ragtag group finds friendship and companionship with each other, when they couldn’t find it elsewhere. If you look at it that way, I think this show can be sweet and deep in its own way.

2. Tower of God

This is a big one that I know lots of people have been looking forward to, as it’s an adaptation of a popular Webtoon. I haven’t read the webtoon yet, but I will eventually. I’ll just say that first, the art and animation here is really, really good. In particular, the scenery and background art is amazing, and really creates the whole atmosphere. A single change in background can change the mood in a second. You’ll see what I mean immediately in the first scene with the big door. Or a little later on with the blood splatter.

The animation of the movement in action scenes is smooth and fluid, no problems there. The art style may take some time to get used to for some people who may not like it, but it’s personally just the kind I like. Honestly it reminds me of a Shaft work. So if you like the Monogatari series, the use of art style and background art here gives a similar vibe, or at least I think so.

As for the story, it starts with Bam getting separated from Rachel, and he starts his journey to climb a tower so he can meet her again. We get pretty much no reason for why she left yet, but I think we’re in for something really good with this story.

(I’m planning on making a separate analysis essay entirely on a certain scene in the first episode, so look forward to that.)

1. BNA

Brand New Animal. Trigger’s latest work, the last few being SSSS Gridman and Darling in the Franxx, and their first movie, Promare. I am a huge Trigger fan, and I’ve been excited for this one for a while.

Our MC, Michiru, is a human, but she suddenly gets turned into a tanuki person. She seeks refuge in Anima City, because (surprise!) the humans don’t like the animal people. But not everything is as it seems in Anima City, and she teams up with the wolf person, Ogami Shiro, to find answers — thus getting caught up in something way bigger and stranger than she ever expected.

First off, if you’ve been missing the crazy and cartoonish animation from Trigger’s earlier stuff, then you’re in for a treat. This has an undeniable Kill la Kill vibe, but with Promare’s amazing popping colors and backgrounds.

If you want to say it’s another animal show, like Beastars and Zootopia, go ahead. Let’s just get that out of the way.

Moving on, Michiru escapes to Anima City, expecting it to be a place where all the animal people can live freely and be themselves. But it turned out to be a free-for-all, strongest wins type of society, where animal people are quick to betray their own kind for their own personal gain. And even side with the humans who discriminated them in the first place.

Michiru’s character will probably be a hit or miss for most people. Some might find her annoying, others charming and endearing. I like her, as I tend to like these types of characters.

But I think what’s great, is that she gets challenged. Her ideas and beliefs about both the animal people and humans are put to the test, and her suddenly becoming an animal person herself means that she’s in a unique position of being able to understand both sides. But she’s also still an outsider, and she finds that maybe neither side was really quite like what she once believed. And so, her place in either side of society will come into question for her. There’s a lot to dig into here, and I’ll probably make separate posts for BNA alone later on.

If you like Trigger, watch it. It’s probably more of a mix between Gridman and Promare than it is Kill la Kill, despite sharing many animation similarities (even a certain sports match that’s basically torn right out of Kill la Kill). If you want something that’s a little more different and subtle and intriguing than their usual works, then this is for you. If you liked Beastars, give this one a try too.

Some Extras

--that I wanted to add to this list, but I’ll just briefly put them here so this post doesn’t get any longer:

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Shironeko Project: Zero Chronicle

Listeners

If there’s more you think I missed, feel free to put ‘em in the replies!

Upcoming Essays:

Analysis on Orb Scene in Tower of God Episode 1

Navigating the numerous Fantasy-Adventure genre anime of the Spring 2020 Season

Various BNA essays (I’ve seen episodes 1-6 already, will be tagged for spoilers)

Gal to Kyouryuu Theories

Maybe something Fate related, it’s my recent obsession

[thesummerstorms]

Rev Recaps Hard Contact (Chapter 6)

CW: Series typical sexist description, I guess. 

TL;DR Recap:  Birhan attempts to chase Etain away but is dissuaded by Jinart. Darman is puzzled by nature and also severely sleep deprived. Hokan is sexist and Uthan is introduced.

Starting Kal Count: 7. Ending Kal Count: 10.

We immediately open the chapter with another Kal quote. And not even an interesting one. But that ups the Kal Count to 8.

The scene we start with though is from Etain’s pov. Birhan our vaguely contemptuous farmer, is throwing clods of dirt at Etain and telling her to “GTFO because this is all your fault” essentially. 

(Etain plays the scape goat a lot. It’s a trend. Realistically though, he’s afraid of what Hokan will do if he’s found sheltering her, given the “militia” burned people and their livelihoods last chapter.)

Etain still has no idea who Jinart is, but Jinart tells Birhan he’s being stupid. Etain tries and fails to mind influence him with yet another quote about Etain’s lack of control over the Force when it’s most needed. Jinart shoves Birhan around a bit and tries again to persuade him by basically telling him he can either get murdered by the Republic or keep Etain as a kind of human MiracleGro:

This quote is one of the big reasons that I headcanon that Etain was never really going to be happy as a mercenary farmer’s wife living in rural Mandalore with Kal, or happy in a rural/agricultural setting, period. Her strongest associations with agricultural life are the AgriCorps and Qiilura- failure and trauma. The narrative flat out tells us “agriculture spelled failure”. 

And while that might be resolved eventually with a character arc (that she doesn’t get) ag life flat out doesn’t provide the sense of purpose that Etain is so desperate for. There’s nothing dishonorable about farming, but Etain sees it as “life on a backwater planet, talking to grain” and through out the series she strives for the opportunity to make a real difference to other people. Misguidedly at times, I’ll admit, but I don’t think she could have ever been content with what was being offered.

Anyway, Jinart steers Etain back in the direction of the barn. Etain is getting understandably paranoid, but there’s some narration in this scene I just don’t get?

I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about this scene. Enough that I’ll probably make a separate post later. I’m trying to keep my posts brief, I really am, but I pull so much from these couple of pages for Etain.

My first thought is that it’s really, really fucking weird to put Etain’s digression about Jedi values of anti-attachment here, relative to this barn...as opposed to like, idk, a reflection on her life versus the clones’ later. 

Of fucking course the barn isn’t home. It’s a place she’s been hiding from people who want to kill, torture, or rape her while behind enemy lines on a military mission and the owner of the barn just directly threatened her, if ineffectively. “No loves, no attachments” well, yeah, you’re surrounded by enemies and your teacher was just tortured to death. “At least it wouldn’t be hard to tear herself away from here.” Well, no shit. Was that ever even a realistic option?

Then we immediately get the highlighted exchange with Jinart, and again, I’m repeatedly struck by how differently Omega’s grief versus Etain’s is frame. I’m not saying that Etain’s statement is wrong, or even out of character necessarily. 

But it’s super detached, again. Granted, the clones don’t spend time weeping on screen. But their grief at losing their respective squads is brought up repeatedly. The prologue and most of the first chapter are either Darman realizing he’ll never see his squad again or Niner and Fi’s heartbreaking conversation about it. It plays into Niner’s repeated fears for Darman and his anger with Atin. It plays in to Atin’s seeming callousness towards Darman. Etain has a scene later where she asks Darman if he misses his brothers, and he goes quiet and hurt and the weight of the scene rightly falls on her like a hammer.

While Etain... I’m not saying it doesn’t affect her actions; it very visibly affects her paranoia. But it’s never handled quite like grief, if that makes sense? At least not after the initial death.

Speaking of paranoia... Jinart really has no call to be offended that Etain is suspicious, given what’s happened to Etain over the last several weeks and the fact that Jinart spends much of the rest of the novel insinuating she’s naive and useless. Etain has every right to be paranoid, all things considered. But then we get this contradictory mess of a conversation:

The soothing bit doesn’t make sense to me. But I’m biased because I dislike Jinart based on the whole scope of the series. And again Etain grieving and feeling alone and hating being alone in grief makes sense, but the framing of this quote is super weird. Especially as the farmers haven’t demonstrated and “home”-like behavior or even family loyalties on screen.

But we’re finally moving on from this huge ass rant about this scene as we open onto Darman crawling through an open field with his kit and generally being overwhelmed by the sheer openness of everything+ the physical strain when he’s already wounded and exhausted. During the course of this, it comes up that Dar is still desperately hungry, so he starts thinking about what wildlife might be edible, and then about Kal and uj cake.

Kal Count is increased to 9.

Darman is exhausted and fatigued, and most of the section, while interesting, can just be boiled down to him trying to motivate himself to keep going because he’s terrified he’ll miss the rendezvous with the rest of Omega Squad. The same kind of bird that brought down his ship in the first place eats the remote he was using to scout ahead, so he swears at it. There’s another mention of Kal teaching them to build defensive fortifications which ups the Kal Count to 10.

But there’s also a fair bit of fascination as he’s experiencing nature for the first time. He takes his helmet off to smell the breeze, soaks in the stream, and is captivated by his first view of the daywings, which makes you think he is kind of a small-details guy. 

...Dar....

anyway, he falls asleep eventually without much more of note happening in this section. We move to Ghez Hokan introducing the reader to Separatist scientist and would-be creator of the anti-clone bio weapon, Qail Ovolot Uthan. 

I appreciate Uthan a lot as a character, despite her later handling in Imperial Commando: 501st, but this particular introduction still makes me cringe.

I legitimately can’t tell if this is how Traviss thinks of this character, or if this is deliberate characterization of Hokan via his descriptions of Uthan, but ugh.

Hokan: She knows I can’t be seduced, but she still wants to seduce me!

Ugh. The man is also way caught up his own ass in terms of what he thinks other people think of him. He doesn’t want to sit in Uthan’s brocaded chair because it’s “too decadent” but does it anyway because otherwise he would be addressing her while standing like a servant. Dude, you need some therapy. What’s the Mando expression? All helmet, no head?

Anyway, I really, really like Uthan here actually. She’s super ruthless, and even if she’s not a great person, ruthless and somewhat ammoral female characters are a fun rarity. I wish that KT could have kept it up throughout the series rather than making her into “bitter lonely career woman”, but look how casually she decides her work is threatened and then which of her associates she needs to cooly dispose of to prevent that happening:

The smartest thought Hokan has had so far is the recognition that if she’ll arrange to dispose of Ankkit, she’ll do the same to him, honestly. But when Uthan sees him hesitate, she goes right for the kill and presses just the right button to utterly manipulate him. He even recognizes it, but is unable to not be convinced.

She tells him that the clones are clones of Jango Fett. And of course he goes all Death Watch and Mandalorian Honor about it.

Honestly, Hokan. And then we finish the chapter with the thing that really makes me question his intelligence:

“To make them proper men again?”

this is the third time I’ve said it.... but how the fuck do you think viruses work, Hokan?

Honestly.

[marshmallowgoop]

Gushing about Promare (Mega Spoilers!)

I know not everyone has gotten a chance to see Promare yet, but I first saw the movie months ago and have been dying to talk spoilers ever since. So, avoid this post if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch the film yet, but since there’s a tiny bit more availability now, I finally just wanna gush for a sec!

First of all, Promare surprised me. I wasn’t really too interested when the project was revealed, and even when I learned more details at last year’s Anime Expo, I was only moderately invested. The note that the film would be kid friendly is what got me more on board, but I suppose what really got me, more than even the stunning soundtrack (which I think might be Hiroyuki Sawano’s best OST, honestly), was the Trigger x Monster Strike collab.

Maybe surprisingly, I am actually somewhat self-aware, and I recognize that I’m totally biased, but okay, seeing Ryuko and Senketsu noted as characters for the game, right beside Lio and Galo...

Let’s just say that my heart was taken. Seeing that image of Lio and Galo made me fall in love with them, and the comparisons between Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship and Lio and Galo’s that I found in the 鮮流 (Senryu) tag on Twitter sealed the deal. Teaming up and fighting with the Power of Love is my jam.

So, I got hyped. I expected to like the movie. 

But I didn’t expect to find it to be the best thing that Trigger has ever made.

(Well, that I’ve seen, anyway.)

And even after sitting on it for a while, I still think Promare is Trigger’s strongest work (that I’ve seen). Sure, I’ve read many complaints that the film tries to do too much in its short timeframe, that there are too many characters who don’t get fleshed out as they should, that it’s way too predictable and cliche... but I respectfully disagree.

I mean, I do feel Promare would have worked better as a series, sure. But Promare uses its time excellently. Maybe it’s an odd comparison (or maybe not?), but while The Shape of Water devotes a ton of screen time and attention to subplots and fleshing out characters other than the main leads, Promare stays focused. This is the story of Lio and Galo, and it never, ever forgets that. Whereas The Shape of Water drowns its monster love story inside plots of Russian spies and rotting fingers, Promare stays focused. Promare knows what it is and knows what it’s about. It’s the most cohesive and thematically strong piece that I’ve seen from Trigger, and I’m more than glad that the artists decided to focus on Lio and Galo rather than shove in all sorts of good stuff about the other characters at the expense of muddying its heart and soul.

Because as much as I love Kill la Kill—and as much as it’s still my favorite Trigger work, even if I don’t see it as Trigger’s best—that’s... exactly what that show did. I can’t even say for sure what the heart and soul of Kill la Kill is! Sure, I’ve argued that it’s most definitely a love story between a girl and her sailor uniform more than anything else, and I most definitely have evidence to support that claim, but I recognize that tons of other claims with tons of other evidence behind them could be made as well. Maybe, for example, as expressed by director Hiroyuki Imaishi before the series premiered, Kill la Kill is really ultimately a story about the rivalry and eventual friendship between Ryuko and Satsuki. Or maybe it’s about overcoming fascism, or a warning about wearable technology, or about puberty, or finding family, or really a million things. I’ve been in the Kill la Kill fandom for years, and let me tell you: I’ve seen just about everything.

And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the huge variety in interpretations for the anime most certainly points to the idea that it ain’t all that focused. It’s... a bit all over the place. Too much good stuff shoved into one work, resulting in a mixed mass of awesome that’s maybe kinda hard to make sense of.

(And, for the record, I’ll point out that as much as I often feel alone in my reading of Kill la Kill, I’m really not alone at all. An interviewer for Newtype magazine once said, “When you watch through to the last episode, you keenly feel that Kill la Kill is a story about the relationship between Ryuko and Senketsu,” writer Kazuki Nakashima himself has pointed out several times that Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship is central to the story, such as in his note in the Kamui Bansho that “You could say that Kill la Kill tells the story of a lonely young woman meeting and losing an irreplaceable partner,” and even among English-speaking fans, I can at least link to this one comment not by me that reads, “It's also weird that they say that Ryuko vs. Satsuki is the core of character drama; while it’s majorly important so far, it’s seemed more like Ryuko and Senketsu share the most important relationship.” I know I’m biased, but, okay, I have support, seriously.)

In my humble onion, Promare combines probably the two strongest story threads in Kill la Kill by essentially making the Satsuki character and Senketsu character the same person. You get the rivalry that turns into a friendship, and you also get the synchronization and coming together of two different people who seem like they shouldn’t get along—the combining of “oil and water,” as Galo himself puts it. The fact that the designs of Lio and Galo’s robots were confirmed to look like Kamui in the last live-drawing session (with eyes on the shoulders and teeth on the chest) only strengthens the Ryuko and Senketsu connection, and, c’mon, you can’t tell me that those trailers and promotional materials weren’t hyping up the Lio/Galo rivalry like Kill la Kill hyped up the Ryuko/Satsuki rivalry. Promare takes two of the greatest parts of Kill la Kill, smashes them together, and makes something fantastic. This is what I would have wanted Kill la Kill to be like.

Yes, Promare’s plot is absolutely predictable and cliche, but that ain’t at all a downside! The film utilizes its cliches well, and our main leads are so charming that the journey is endlessly enjoyable. Promare is ultimately a sweet character drama with lots of flashy action, and that character drama is excellent.

I love so much about it. I love how Galo makes an offensive remark to Lio and immediately apologizes, understanding that it was wrong. I love that Galo saving Lio’s life is presented so respectfully, and I love that Galo isn’t at all bothered or embarrassed by pressing his lips to Lio’s, and I love that when Galo freaks out afterwards, it’s simply because he started a fire when he’s devoted himself to putting fires out. I love how Lio’s flames protect Galo, I love the lyrics to “Inferno” and how they amplify the story, I love that there’s a happy ending and the Burnish don’t all die out because that’s somehow “for the best,” I love that there’s a beautiful heart explosion when Lio and Galo save the world. I just love love love these two characters and this film.

But of course, to address the elephant in the room, I do wish that Lio and Galo’s relationship were more explicit; as is always the case in Trigger works that feature potential LGBTQ+ romances, it was stated at both Anime Expo this year and in the latest live drawing that there are no wrong interpretations and everyone is free to think what they would like. But when someone asked if there would be more “boys kissing” in future Trigger works at Anime Expo, and the answer was “yes,” I’m hopeful and don’t feel bad about what we got. Lio and Galo are a sweet, sweet step in the right direction, and I hope for more explicit, charming, respectful LGBTQ+ content in the future from this studio.

Tl;dr, as silly as Promare is, it almost feels like the studio is growing up. The film is what I consider to be their strongest work to date (that I’ve seen, of course), and I crave more over-the-top, kid-friendly, endearing works from Trigger moving forward.

[rainhadaenerys]

What do you think of those leaks? Normally I would dismiss them but this is D&D we are talking about, the character butchering experts. It would make no sense for mad!Dany but I’m quite nervous for her in D&D’s sexist, racist and ableist hands.

First, I need to clarify that I’m not following the leaks as closely as I would like, mostly because I haven’t had a lot of time. But I am aware of the main things, I think.

To start, I’ll first talk about the first leak, the one that simply says that Jon will kill Dany (not the one about Missandei being beheaded). It’s like you said: normally I would dismiss it. Jon killing Dany is just so wild and so completely far away from where the books and the show have been leading us, so far away from what’s been foreshadowed and from the importance that the show creators have been giving to Jon and Dany’s relationship, that I wouldn’t give it a second thought. But the leaker did get episode 3 right. So that made me consider it. And as you said, it’s D&D. I always thought that one of the strongest evidences for Dany’s survival in the end was because no one else would be able to lead the Dothraki and without her they could end up divided and warring against each other. But of course, D&D completely obliterated this by killing off the Dothraki for no reason at all. So sometimes, trying to use logic might not really lead us anywhere.

Let’s suppose the leaks are true. The only way I can see this happening, and still making some sort of sense, is not with Dany turning into power hungry Mad Queen. I don’t see this happening at all. If Dany was this power hungry, she wouldn’t have saved Jon. Turning her into a mad queen or into a power hungry queen in the span of three episodes just wouldn’t happen. The way I can see it happening is this: Dany wants to do something harsh or impulsive that will cost many lives for the Greater Good, in the sense that she believes the ends justify the means. Jon disagrees with her, and kills her to stop her. This is still bullshit, it’s still bad writing and it’s still inconsistent with Dany’s characterization (even in the show), but it would make more sense than Dany turning evil out of nowhere. Or maybe, Dany ignites the wildfire by accident and destroys King’s Landing, and Jon has to execute her for justice. It’s still bullshit, but I can see those idiots writing it.

So, assuming the leak is true, I don’t think it means Dany turns into a villain, only that she fucks up and is killed because of it. But anyway, Dany’s character would be forever tainted.

Now, do I believe the leak? I had an initial moment of panic the first time I saw it, but right now, I don’t believe it. For several reasons:

1) The leaker said that the source for episode 3 and the source for Jon kills Dany are different. And the Jon kills Dany information is, as far as I’m aware, third handed. Besides, the person that supposedly told them this leak apparently didn’t even know the name of the characters, and told the leaker that “Jon kills the one you hate”. The leaker thought it was Cersei, but later edited the post to say it was Dany (so this leaker is biased and hates Dany). All of that makes me suspicious. I could see different things happening: maybe this person is trolling everyone because they hate Dany. It wouldn’t be the first time. Maybe it was a genuine misundertanding, and the person first thought it was Cersei and later clarified it was Dany. Still, that doesn’t have to mean that the leak is true. They could have filmed fake scenes. Or HBO could have been spreading misinformation. They have tried to spread misinformation before. They took a lot of actors to film in Seville, and flaunted them. They flaunted Kit Harington and Lena Headey filming together. And the promotional material made us believe some things that weren’t true: “Everything you did brought you where you are now. Where you belong. Home” -> people speculated it was about Jon or Dany, but it was about Theon. So I think it’s possible that it’s all misinformation from HBO (I know, I know, it all sounds like some bullshit conspiracy theory, but can you blame me? I find this more believable than Jon killing Dany. Jon killing Dany is too wild for me, it’s much more difficult to believe).

2) Other reasons I don’t believe the leak are all linked to the storytelling and to GRRM. GRRM did an interview recently in which he said he doesn’t believe the show’s ending will be very different from his ending:

https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1117132897251733505

And can you honestly believe GRRM would make Jon kill Dany? I don’t. I think GRRM is aware of the sexist implications that this would have. Making a male and female character parallel rulers, only to have the female be the evil one it’s incredibly sexist. And no, having Sansa as a representation of good female ruler wouldn’t make this ending any less sexist, because Sansa is not as important as Jon, and she’s virginal while Dany and Cersei have sex outside marriage and are not pure. Making both Dany and Cersei unworthy rulers would be awfully sexist, showing us that only virginal women can be good queens (GRRM is avoiding this trope in Dany’s story, he’s subverting it). I explain all the ways in which this would be sexist here. Besides, there’s just too much evidence for Dany’s survival. You probably already saw this post, but I’ll link it here anyway: list of reasons for Jon and Dany’s survival.

3) GRRM’s original outline says Dany lives, and George said that he never changed his ending.

4) Emilia Clarke wouldn’t choose to watch the last episode with fans if this happened. If she needs money for her charity, why didn’t she invite fans to watch the third episode?

5) The interviews regarding Dany have been positive. See post linked above.

6) The merchandise for the show has been focusing on Jon and Dany. DVDs had always Jon and Dany on the cover. The new costume book for the show has Jon and Dany as well. And not only merchandise, but Jon and Dany have had many visual parallels in the show, and also parallels like saying the same lines. This all has a purpose, it’s intentional, and I highly doubt they would be selling Jon and Dany together from the beginning if the ultimate point was to prove that Jon is “better” than Dany. The interviews also highlight just how important Jon and Dany are to the series as a couple. See here. And Kit and Emilia are being considered the lead characters again. I highly doubt it’s because they are enemies, main hero and main villain. It’s because their union is important.

7) Jon and Dany’s theme is one of the most triumphants love themes in the series. It can be mixed easily with the main theme of Game of Thrones, and Truth also has other things: not only it can be mixed with the main theme, but it starts with the same note of the main theme, and it also has some motifs from the main theme (this isn’t my analysis, this is what I’ve seen in Jordi Maquiavello’s videos). The main theme simbolizes power and victory. If Jon “won”, and killed Dany, the main theme would not be associated with a love theme, it would be associated only with Jon’s theme. The fact that the main theme is associated with a love theme means Jon and Dany win together. Their love wins. Not only that, but the cello (love) and violin (duty) play n unison, meaning there’s no conflict between love and duty (so Jon wouldn’t have to kill Dany for “duty”).

8) Boatbaby is happening. Dany can’t die before she gives birth.

9) How do we reconcile it with Frikidoctor’s leaks? He has proved to be reliable, leaking episode 1. He doesn’t believe Jon kills Dany. Also, after he first announced the Tyrion leak, one of the guys in the special effects crew let it slip that it was possible that Tyrion died. And after Friki told us the leak, suddenly Peter Dinklage started talking about how it was possible that Tyrion died and that Tyrion was the bad guy. The timing is just weird. It’s almost as if HBO told them to talk about Tyrion’s death, so we would think that the Tyrion leak was fake (because they were being so open about Tyrion’s death). Weird timing, really weird timing. So I believe Friki’s leaks. This leaves with the possibility that both Dany and Tyrion die and possibly both die as villains. Do I even need to talk about how problematic this is? So Tyrion, the only dwarf character, dies, and Dany, the most powerful and main woman in power, dies as well, leaving Jon, the male able bodied hero, to reap the rewards?

10) How is this bittersweet? It’s terribly bitter! And nihilistic, something that GRRM is not. They keep saying that they think the show’s ending is great. How can they possibly believe that the audience will like an ending like this???

11) Finally, the leak about Missandei being beheaded and Grey Worm and the Unsullied going crazy and attacking people is even more crazy and racist! Honestly, I know people have said the leaker was reliable for the Walking Dead fandom, but it totally feels like they are just piggybacking on the first leak. If this reliable leaker had this information, why didn’t they say anything before? Did they just suddenly got this information, coincidentally right after some other leaker started saying that Jon kills Dany?

So with all of that… no, I don’t believe any of these leaks, not even the original leak about Jon killing Dany. Too wild, even for D&D’s nonsense.

[parkminijiminie]

Love yourself, love BTS

If you've ever read people say "BTS give me strength", "BTS help me so much", "BTS come to you exactly when you need" but never really felt it - be patient, my child, you probably will because it is true and it happened today, with me.

We've all watched medical series and although so much of them is pure and overdramatized fiction, let me tell you being a doctor is challenging, exhausting and mf difficult. Being young, suffering anxiety and battling to become a Cardiologist (news flash: Cardiologists are arrogant assholes and medical teams are full of snakes) is so not easy, either. I mean, I'm doing it so take my word for it.

So, there I am today - being swarmed with paper work, scolded not entirely fairly and smiling into the face of a woman I have the strongest desire to deck, and lo and behold - someone turns on the TV and halfway through singing (in my mind) to a very known song, I realize it is none other than MIC DROP. The happiness that came over me was so real, I never thought I'd feel it over a song.

'Cause you know, it ain't just about one song or one group, it's about the fact that these 7 boys, who came from a small company, who were seen as underdogs and outsiders in their field and only had each other and that dream, made absolute history, broke every obstacle down and made that dream come true. They achieved more than they ever dared to think and even made it to the television in a small European country they're probably never heard of and couldn't place on a map.

The fact that it took them 5 years - exactly as long as my residence - gave me that much more motivation and hope.

Through determination, hard work, ethics, drive, as well as talent, of course, they made it. And so will I. So will you.

And yeah, not everyone who deserves success gets it but if BTS could, maybe you and I can too.

BTS are so motivational.

P.S Being Jimin biased comes with its own perks, as now everytime I have a hard time I dutifully do as he said and think of him. Much better than the grumpy face of my attending, I'll tell you that.

(And a much prettier image, trust me)

[gleeandintersectionality]

         Intersectionality was first defined by scholar Kimberle Krenshaw and was described as a ‘but for’ analysis- I would have received that job ‘but for’ my race, I would have gotten that promotion ‘but for’ my gender” (Molina-Guzman and Cacho 72). Intersectionality “challenges predominant understandings of race and gender as discrete social identities shaped by and formative of distinct social experiences” (Molina-Guzman and Cacho 72). Intersectionality is ultimately the overlapping of different identities like race, gender, and sexual orientation that make an individual’s life more challenging as they identify with multiple minorities. For example, Krenshaw specifically addresses how black women can experience sex and race discrimination (Molina-Guzman and Cacho 72). Intersectionality can be found in the characters on FOX’s teen comedy-drama, Glee. This blog will focus on mainly on Mercedes, a black woman, Santana, a Latina lesbian, and Unique, a black trans woman. 

         On Glee, there is constant competition between the two arguably strongest female singers of the club: Rachel Berry and Mercedes Jones. Rachel is Jewish, but light skinned and Mercedes is black. Throughout the series, Rachel receives many solo numbers, while Mercedes is denied the same opportunity. Dubrofsky explains how Mercedes is seen only performing music by black artists and being denied solos because of her attitude: “If Mercedes is presented as having the talent and appropriate voice for a solo, she is portrayed as lacking the drive or the ability to tame her emotions to claim center stage, reproducing stereotypes of the angry black woman” (91). While Rachel has the right voice for every genre of music, Mercedes is pegged by her race. To make sure audiences don’t call Glee racist, they act as if it is Mercedes’ lack of ambition and drive that denies her solos. When auditioning for the school musical, West Side Story, Rachel and Mercedes both audition for the role of Maria. The play directors are impressed and shocked with Mercedes’ audition expressing how they have “never seen Mercedes so ‘glamorous’” (Dubrofsky 96). This could be seen as whitening Mercedes into an elegant, classy performer igniting a reaction and performance typical of Rachel. However, after Mercedes’ stunning performance, the play directors are still torn about who to cast: “Rachel appears not only the safer choice, but the obvious one—seamlessly, unquestionably having what it takes to play the role, while Mercedes is an assumed risk. Why Rachel possesses what it takes, and what the doubts are about Mercedes, are never specified” (Dubrofsky 97). While neither girl fits the role of Maria who is Puerto Rican, it is never explained why Mercedes would be the riskier choice or why Rachel is the stronger performer. Dubrofsky explains show Glee shows “whiteness as an undefined but everpresent and desirable quality” (97). This scene shows that if you want to be leading lady material you have to be white or light skinned. 

          The person who mostly gets blamed for selecting solo performances is Mr. Schuester, the white and male Glee club teacher who gives Rachel a plethora of solos. It is not until season three that Mercedes calls out Mr. Schuester on his biased attitude: “You give that skinny Garanimals-wearing ass-kisser everything. For two years I took it. Not anymore” (Futterman par. 5). For two years, Mercedes has accepted her lack of solos, but in season three, Mercedes becomes outspoken and confronts the situation head on. She knows she is a star and will no longer play second fiddle to Rachel. The episode ends with Mercedes joining a new glee club. Because of Mercedes’ race she works twice as hard as Rachel and the other white glee members to be seen as talented and multi dimensional. Mercedes wants to be more than a stereotype and show that she can sing all genres of music and display a range of emotions. This shows intersectionality as Mercedes being a black woman has to work twice as hard against the light skinned Rachel to get what she wants. 

        The next character I will be discussing is Santana Lopez. Santana applies to intersectionality because she is a woman, Latina, and a lesbian. When discovering her sexuality, Jacobs explains how compared to Kurt, a white male gay student, Santana’s coming out is even more challenging as she is isolated from other gay women and particularly gay women of color (339). Besides her sexuality, Santana's ethnicity marks her even more as an outcast as she identifies with two minorities and therefore lacks people similar to her within her small town and high school. Jacobs also discusses the rejection Santana faces from her grandmother when she comes out to her. Jacobs explains how it is not shocking that the “only overtly homophobic adult is an old, Catholic Hispanic woman, aligning phobia with a benighted, ethnic/ racial religiosity” (342). This shows how age, religion, and ethnicity affect how one responds to gay people. Since Santana’s family is Latin, they are strongly religious and therefore do not accept homosexuality. In comparison to Kurt Hummel whose father immediately accepts him, Santana faces rejection because of her family’s ethnicity and religion. 

          Villagomez also discusses the pivotal moment of Santana’s coming out to her abuela. The rejection Santana experiences after coming out “not only showed the rejection LGBT’s face (or fear facing) when coming out, but the rejection Latinos specifically encounter which, usually, can be related to strong religious and cultural beliefs” (Villagomez 1). This shows that although all LGBT teens may fear coming out, many Latinos have it harder because of their family’s strong religious beliefs that go against homosexuality. This is the case with Santana’s abuela as she says that Santana has committed a sin (Villagomez 2). Villagomez further explains how Santana’s rejection shows how emotional and complicated coming out can be. Santana was also the only gay character on Glee to face rejection and ultimately showed LGBT teens that it may be better “to leave the negative people out of their life, especially after you’ve given the relationship and seach for acceptance your all” (Villagomez 2). 

         In the series, Santana forms a relationship with Brittany who is white. Through their relationship, they experience unfair treatment compared to the straight couples at school. Gilchrist touches upon this when Principal Figgins finds Santana and Brittany leaning in for a kiss and interrupts them. Santana interjects “This is such bullcrap! Why can’t Brittany and I kiss in public? Because we’re two girls” (Gilchrist 2). Figgins explains how the high school does not allow any types of PDA between any couples, but alas, he has been receiving complaints about Brittany and Santana’s relationship. Santana asks if any complaints have been made about Finn and Rachel who are publicly making out in the hallway. As a new religion club has began at the high school, Figgins is attempting to stop Brittany and Santana from kissing to make those who are religious feel comfortable. Santana clearly upset says, “All I want to do is be able to kiss my girlfriend but I guess no one can see that because there’s such an insane double standard at this school” (Gilchrist 2). Referring to how Finn and Rachel and other straight couples get away with kissing in the hallways, Santana is frustrated because she is denied this right because she is gay. As the religion club sends singing Valentine grams for straight couples, Santana requests one for Brittany. After praying about it and having a long discussion, the club decides to sing for Brittany and Santana. This shows how Brittany and Santana are not given the same privileges as their straight couples at school and must hide their relationship to make their straight peers feel more comfortable. 

         Snarker focuses more on Brittany and Santana’s relationship by discussing how media does not highlight their relationship and oftentimes focuses more on the gay men in relationships. In an article by EW, they claimed: “Kurt is the most important character on television right now” (Snarker par. 13). Snarker explains that although the way Kurt deals with being gay in a disapproving world is inspiring, she wishes more people would focus on Brittany and Santana’s relationship, saying, “For gay women, Brittana is every bit as engaging, albeit on a smaller scale, than Kurt is for gay men. Their legitimate, if unlabeled, relationships matter to us. We’d like it if it mattered to you, too” (par. 15). Snarker also points out that when the media does address Brittany, they address her relationship with Artie, a boy, rather than with Santana as Brittany is sexually fluid within the series (par. 10). Just like being white was preferred for Mercedes, being straight is seen as the preferred norm on Glee. Brittany and Santana align with intersectionality as they get outcasted within their school and get ignored by the media. 

        I will now be moving on to Unique Adams, an African American trans woman. When Unique first joins the glee club, she wants to perform in women's clothes. Mercedes and Kurt, both fear the reaction Unique will receive with Kurt saying, “ ‘I’ve worn some flamboyant outfits, but I’ve never dressed up as a woman.’ To which Unique replies ‘That’s because you identify yourself as a man. I thought you of all people would understand’ ” (Kane par. 4). This shows how even members of the LGBT community like Kurt still misunderstand transgender individuals and label them inaccurately. 

        One of Unique's biggest plot lines in Glee is when she catfishes Ryder Lynn, a heterosexual white male, as a girl named “Katie.” As Sandercock explains Unique takes on an identity unlike her own: “Unique portrays herself online as a thin, white, blonde, cisgender woman – a hegemonic ideal of beauty – an identity and embodiment that exists in opposition to her as a large, black, trans woman” (442). Sandercock further explains, “This highlights the intersectional nature of gender, race and beauty ideals that impact on the marginalisation of trans women of colour. Her avatar reveals beliefs about what is most beautiful and desirable, and her fears of embodying none of these ideals” (442). Unique knows that as a black trans woman she does not embody the standard of beauty which is white, thin, and cisgendered. Through becoming Katie, she is trying to disown her intersectionality and become the image that is desired most in society. Ryder is mean and lashes out at Unique in real life for not understanding her gender identity. Unique tells him that she is a “proud black woman” (Sandercock 442). He decides to mention Unique and how he feels about her to Katie. Katie replies, “This Wade/ Unique guy believes he is a girl. He doesn’t need any proof. It’s his truth. And like what you said, what’s true is true” (Sandercock 443). After this, Ryder changes his point of view about Unique, however Unique has already told Ryder that she is a woman, yet he only believes it when it comes from Katie. Sandercock explains how “this highlights the role of race but also the economy of desire whereby ‘loving’ Unique becomes crucial to winning the affection of ‘Katie’ who intersectionally embodies normative femininity, whiteness and cisness” (443). This scenario shows that trans people and people of color know they are not the image of ideal beauty, and therefore, are insecure about the way they are seen and if they will find romantic love. This scene also shows that white, cisgender and heterosexual people may only accept and believe in those who are trans, gay or black only when it is explained and accepted by someone similar to them. 

          Glee portrays a vast range of races, genders, and sexualities through their characters. Intersectional characters teach audiences the difficulties of being a part of multiple minorities and how it affects their lives. Although Glee can be controversial in its representations, it ultimately shows that those applying to intersectionality experience specific hardships that white, straight, and cisgendered individuals do not understand.

[siriuslyparker]

Reign of Artemis - Chapter 2

Pairing: Prince!Tom Holland x OC

Warnings: none

Words: 4277

A/N: it’s my birthday, so here’s my present to you

series masterlist; masterlist

If there was something Tom was familiar with, it was the pounding in his head after a few too many drinks of the night before. One would think after so many nights and mornings repeatedly spent near the toilet, Tom would learn to sober up before going to bed or down a bottle of water before passing out, but he hasn't.

And with that little bit of information, his best friend and adviser, Harrison Osterfield, used for his benefit every morning. Harrison didn't bother knocking or being announced as he entered Tom's room that morning, knowing it would do nothing. So, he entered his best friend's room and ripped over the blinds to let the sunshine it, which earned a groaned from the lump under the sheets on the bed.

Tucked under Harrison's arm was the latest magazine that was released from the press, one that he saw when he stopped at the store for coffee on his way to the palace. Harrison tossed the magazine where he believed Tom's face to be under the blankets, "Thule's Bachelor Prince Caught Again with Mystery Woman in Bar even got some pictures this time. Prince Thomas adds another girl into his string of royal hookups," Harrison snapped.

From underneath the blankets, another groan came and Tom's head poked from underneath the dark covers and grabbed the magazine to look out. His lips pull up slightly as he looks at the pictures, he couldn't remember making out with the girl, let alone talking or meeting her. He tossed the magazine at the end of his bed and rubbed his face. "You're lucky Jacob was able to get her to sign a nondisclosure, but for a heavy pay, one of which we can't afford right now," Harrison scoffed.

Tom swings around to press his feet against the floor, his elbows against his knees as he kneaded the sides of his head with his fingers. "Then we are good," he mumbled. The doors to his room opened again and in came the butler with breakfast, setting the trey against the table in the middle of the room before he and another man began to clean the room. "No, we're not," Harrison nearly yelled.

Harrison wanted to strangle his friend as he watched him pushed himself up from his bed and walked around the room towards his breakfast. "We can't afford to keep these people from babbling right now. And if you haven't forgotten, you are supposed to visit Baltia at the end of the week to discuss the deal to help your dying country," Harrison reminded him, knowing fully well that Tom had forgotten the meeting. Tom glanced at his friend and ran his hand through his hair with a shrug.

"No, no shrug. This is supposed to save the country and help Paddy. Or have you also forgotten your brother is sick?" Harrison questioned.

Tom's jaw clenched as he picked up his cup of coffee with a frown, muttering that he hadn't forgotten under his breath. He scrunched his nose up slightly at the bitter taste and glances at Harrison, "You'll be there with me, it'll be fine," he promised.

Harrison let out a sigh, it gave him comfort that his friend held faith because they would be together in it, but it worried him as well. Tom is in line to be King after his father and he can't continue to rely on Harrison to help him through everything as he does now. And Tom was grower riskier as he got older and started to care less and less. Going out once a month with started turned into every other week and now two to three times a week. The harder Harrison tried to get Tom to focus on political things, the more Tom pushed Harrison away and the more their friendship strained.

Tom's mother, Queen Nicola, had asked Harrison years ago to watch over Tom to try to get him to calm down and do more for the Royal name, but it proved to be a lot harder than planned. It hurt Harrison to disappoint the Queen, who had been more of a mother to him than anyone since his died when he was just a child to cancer. She sadly agreed that Tom's heart wasn't where they wished it to be and they couldn't force him to care for the crown or its people without him wanting to. And as Nicola soon gave up on her eldest, she looked towards the twins, Sam and Harry, to step up as they took their jobs seriously.

And when the hot season came, hotter than years before, the drought came too. Crops and rivers dried up, and when food started to grow scarce, the twins started looking towards other countries for help. Less and less amount of country was willing to help and as the hot season grow further along, people started dying and growing sick from lack of food. When the youngest Royal, Paddy, fell ill, King Dominic desperately turned to the strongest country he knew personally for help.

Baltia was hesitant to help. Anthony knew Dominic from when they were young, but they both knew that meant nothing when it came to politics, Anthony was never biased. Surprisingly, Anthony agreed to hear what Baltia had to say, but wished that instead it be between the two kings, it would be discussed between their children. Dominic was less than enthusiastic to agree that Tom will go to Baltia to talk to Artemis over the deal.

After learning such, Dominic spoke with Harrison and stressed what needed to be included in the deal and make sure Tom spoke of that during the meeting. And Harrison hated himself for suggesting that instead of Tom going that he sent Sam or Harry, but Tom wasn't one to jump into the politics pool. But shocking him, Dominic denied Harrison's suggestion and told him to go write up a plan.

Harrison had little faith in his friend to see through with the deal with success, especially considering it was Tuesday morning and he was hungover from going out on a Monday.

"Can't you be responsible enough just once in your life for this?" Harrison begged. Tom looks up from his toast, "I am," he said. "Really? Cause it's hard to tell. Can you even tell me how many people have died since the summer started?" Harrison demanded. Tom took a deep breath and he put jam on his toast, "Few dozen?" he mumbled. "Try hundreds. Maybe if you stopped looking at the bottom of a bottle every damn day of your life you would see that," Harrison snapped.

"Enjoy your bread, we just ran out of vegetables last night. Wheat's next."

Harrison slammed the door closed behind him and Tom fell back into the chair next to the table. He glanced at the magazine on his bed, which was now made perfectly, his fingers tapping against the edge of the mug. He wanted to do more for his country, he really did. Tom had his reasons why he avoided politics as much as possible, but he had to put those reasons aside if he wanted to help Paddy and his country.

And if he wanted to help, he had to learn as much as he can about Baltia and Artemis. So, he did what anyone did when they wanted to know more about something, he looked it up online. The first thing that came up for Artemis was about the latest duties and visits in town and course the rumors of the age-old prophecy, that was never out of the news. He noticed pictures of her, not sure if they were recent or not, but he noticed painted lines on her face. Tom knew that Baltia held a rich culture, but he couldn't recall learning or hearing anything about this paint thing. And lucky enough for him, with only a few searches later, he was able to find a blog post about the paints.

I'm going to be honest with you, no one is really sure where our tradition started from. As far back as history books go, it's there. The best guess there is when the Gods visited, mostly Zeus, they wanted to know the social difference between people. He's a dick, but we kept it.

First off, it's our culture, our tradition. It's a very sacred thing, and shouldn't be worn at festivals or anything. Even our noblest people, like the Royals and priests, don't wear it until they are blessed at age three. It's kind of like being baptized, I guess, I don't really know much about other religions, so sorry if this comparison insults you. Anyways, there are many ways to wear our paint and specific ways to wear it depending on age and what you do. And certain colors, which is a big and ever-changing thing.

So colors, it's the easiest.

Gold: Our country color. If you know anything about Baltia you know that we are famous for our use of amber in everyday things from food, weapons, to trade. Gold, gold, gold. So, it's an everyday color, worn by everyone, no matter your status—commonwealth, royal, or religious.

White: It's the Royal Family color. It's supposed to symbolize the purity of the Royal Family (though there are debates on what qualifies as "pure" but fuck that). It's only worn by the Royal Family, only worn during Formal Days. Meaning they wear it for political events like meetings, traveling, royal or noble visitors, etc. you get the picture.

Red: This is currently the color of King Anthony's Reign. Every reign picks a color (many have been repeated, but it's often after several generations and tries to be avoided). This is worn by those who worked under the crown and by royals during royal events (Formal Days): weddings, ceremonies, blessings, Gods visits, visitors.

Who wear what and how it's worn. You have two wears: Daily and Formal.

Daily: Simple. Easy, quick. Gold paint, dependent on age.

13-39: one stripe on both sides of the face, from your hairline to chin, typically on the thinner side, symbolizes the young-ness.

40-61: two stripes on both sides of the face, from your hairline to chin, typically a little thicker than the younger age group, symbolizes the growth of the person and the wisdom they learn.

62-death: one line down the middle of the face, from the hairline, over the bridge of the nose and down to the chin, this a thicker line to symbolize age and wisdom

3-13: You learn about the culture and Baltia. At 3, you are blessed as a Baltian and then you learn everything about its people, Gods, community, etc. And when you finish primary school at 13, you are blessed again.

Formal: They are little more complicated so I'll try to make it easy. Outside of the Royal Family, who decides when they see it fit when they need to look Formal, most days are announced to the public. Public Formal Days are when huge events happen, Royal Weddings, blessing, funerals, and other countries visit. (This excludes people's own weddings, blessings, etc. when are Formal Days no matter what, but doesn't need an announcement to say so).  These days you show everything you can.

You include: golden everyday look, reigns you served (at some point in your life you have served the reign by working at the castle or under Royally funded places like hospitals, schools, etc.) for every reign you serve you paint that color on.

Any military personnel has their own specific design that they must wear. These get complicated and you can easily look them up if you wish to, but they fall under these categories: Seas, Air, Land, Guard, Boarder.

Royals: They have their own designs that are separate them their everyday look. Instead of doing their age, they do two golden lines over the right eyes, hairline to chin, showing they are different from the commonwealth. Two white lines sandwiching the left eye, kind of like eyeliner but above and below the eye, that goes from the inner corner of the eye to the temple.

If Royals served military, they add that branches color under the bottom lip, to the chin. For reigns, they worked in (seated on council, political help, etc.) and the current one, they paint a line under the left eye that goes down to the chin. Normally a Royal doesn't have more than two, previous and current reign.

So, once Princess Artemis takes the throne, she would have red and her reign color, which is rumored to be picked already in case of emergencies. A lot of people are saying it will be a similar shade of green from the last Queen of Baltia, which happened to be hundreds of years ago. But my guess it will be silver, like after the Goddess Artemis.

And if I wasn't clear before, this is OUR culture. Don't disrespect us. Don't wear it because it's cool or pretty. This is part of our culture, religion, a tradition. Don't be an ass. Don't wear it to festivals. Just don't even think about it.

Tom didn't want to be disrespectful during the meeting. Granted learning what he did from reading the post made him understand things a little better for when he steps in the room to see Artemis' face paints like described. He wasn't stupid, he knew the country held a rich culture, anyone could tell you that.

But with their rich culture, Baltia had grown to be almost, cocky, Tom thought. Despite being a neutral country and with little allies, Baltia was still loved by the world. But to Tom, they looked down upon other countries with their advanced technology and rich everything. They stressed peace, welcome those unwanted else in the world, and they were always number one in education, technology, happiness, and whatever. It's like they prided themselves in being so great, and when it came to helping others they wanted a deal that would help them the best.

Maybe Tom was jealous of the country, he had to be. And he secretly knew it but didn't want to agree to it. While his own country struggled to make their citizens happy when going over political things like raising taxes to help pay for schools, Baltia had moderate taxes and funded education from the Royal's own bank because of a law made hundreds of years ago that education is the foundation of the country. As Tom's people battled to find a moderate point, Baltia had found a point and more.

At times, Tom was grateful that his country was based on a council. But those on the council were voted on by his people. And often times, candidates will say one thing when running and vote for another when they get their seat. It made Tom sick to his stomach that these people blackmailed his people and get away with it every time. He wished they can look towards Baltia who held a council and listened to their people, despite that they couldn't really vote for anything.

That was part of a reason why Tom stayed away from politics. All those involved were always liars, cheats and blackmails. They didn't give a damn on what they say or do affecting anyone but themselves and their bank account. He knew it, his people knew it, and his father knew it. But did he or his father ever do anything about it? No. Precious King Dominic did nothing to fix the corruption in the country and the two-faced politicians.

Countries have risen and fallen within hundreds of years of their creation because the government had grown corrupt and its people grew sick of it and demanded their humane rights. It was only a matter of time for the next country to fall.

And Tom was worried his country would be next.

He didn't know what to do. He agreed with the protests that ran through his country with his full heart. They demanded justice and rights, both of which should be given to them, but his father and council fight against these basic rights. Baltia, unlike Thule, was open to the changes and grew alongside the changing society instead of fight against it. Something, Tom believe his father can take note of.

Tom could recall a message from King Anthony of Baltia: "Time's coming for us to fight against the bigotry, the multi-faced enemy. Where you stand in this endless fight is up to you. Will you put aside your differences for humans to have their basics rights? Or will you fall behind, covered in the dust of your own self-pity and hatred for those different than you? Just because your neighbors wish to marry the love of their life, who may happen to identify as someone you view nontraditional, that doesn't mean you have to do it, you just have to help give the option of someone else to."

He only wishes that others would take from King Anthony. Tom would like to say his parents were pretty progressive, they suppose charities for those part of the LGTBQ+ community, ones from broken homes, and other similar charities. But they didn't do enough politically to help them, to push for change. And Tom knew damn well they had the power to. They always claim it was just because they have the power to do so, doesn't mean they should.

Another reason as to why Tom leaned away from politics. His parents spoke so ill; crafting politics and everything surrounding it into this demon, that's hell-bent on ruining the lives of those around them. If their plan was the make Tom hate politics, then they did so. He knew deep down that he could be good at it, he went to classes, read the right books, watched the right videos, supported good causes, but he was so afraid to speak up about these things because he parents say differently.

And Tom hated it with everything in him that he couldn't speak up on what he believed in because his parents would shoot him down the second he did.

For that, he was jealous of Baltia, of Artemis. They lived in such advanced community in so many ways, it almost wasn't fair. He wanted to hate them for it, but he couldn't, it wouldn't be right to. It wasn't just their community and society that was different from his, but the Royals too. God, they were different. Not just in materialistic ways, or the clear visual difference in the family of color and his white people.

If Tom, or any of his brothers, were to marry a woman of color he knew his parents and some of his people wouldn't have a problem with it, but his older family and those older in the country, ones with more "traditional" views, would. Talk rash of tainting the pure line. It was gross and disgusting to Tom.

You should never be judged because of the color of your skin, the God you believe in, where you come from, whom you love, and whom you know you are. Nothing. Your beliefs and identifies is what makes you-you. You craft the image of yourself, not others.

And Tom was willing to fight for others that can't fight for themselves. But, God, it was so hard to when he was surrounded by others that were willing to kick him down and shout over his own voice. He saw how easy it was for Artemis to shout over the others, and he wanted to do the same. She worked around her father and the council to help millions in not only her country but others as well.

Grabbing a piece of paper from his desk, Tom began writing down questions to ask Artemis after the meeting to learn what he can do to help his own people:

How did you work around the council to make these charities?

Are you able to be public with your beliefs and whom you support politically?

Were you always interested in politics?

Did you have doubts?

What do you want to change for your country when you take the throne?

Tom knew these answers were probably a search away on the internet to know. But what he reads online wouldn't be the same than what comes from her lips. And so he grabbed another piece of paper and begun writing things down to discuss in the meeting. Stressing what can be helped for those ill, especially little Paddy.

Looking out of the window, Tom was able to look down to the gardens. The once green grounds were now starting to turn an ugly shade of brown from the lack of water, he could tell the trees and plants were not too far behind in dying.

With a sigh, Tom sets the pen down and got up to change into more presentable clothes instead of the ones from the night before after taking a quick shower. He headed out his room, not even glancing back at the guard that stood at his door and now followed him down the hall, both of already knowing where to go. A few moments later, Tom entered the bedroom of his youngest brother, Paddy.

"Tom!" Leave it to Paddy to always hold a grin on his face no matter what, even when the boy was very sick and in so much pain. Tom chuckled and sat down in the chair next to the bed. "Hey Pads," Tom said. "I heard mum and dad talking, you're going to Baltia?" Paddy questioned. Also, Paddy, jumping right to the point.

Paddy leaned forward as he started coughing, Tom flinched and handed him the glass of water that rested on the nightstand. Tom cleared his throat, "Er, yeah, Haz and I are going to steal some of their amber to magically fix the water," Tom teased. Paddy took a large sip and held the glass in his lap, "No, they'll help, Princess Artemis is just that nice," he confirms.

"That so huh?" Tom questioned.

"Yeah, she's the best, she's like top three of the World's Best Royals," Paddy confirmed.

"And who's the other two?" Tom teased. Paddy gave him a shrug, "I don't know," he adjusted the breathing tubes around his nose before continuing, "Didn't care enough to look further, I assume Switzerland or something," he said. Tom nods with a chuckle.

A weight grew even heavier on his chest as Paddy worked around the tubes, IV's tapped down to his hand, monitors on his chest or finger. He knew his brother was in so much pain, but Paddy didn't show it one bit. Paddy was naturally pale, like most of the family, but since he's gotten sick, he's gotten much paler. Tom could see his brother's veins on parts of his body and it caused a lump to grow in his throat. It was clear that Paddy didn't much sleep, up most of the night coughing or in too much pain to get comfortable, it was obvious with the ugly bags under the boy's eyes and how red his eyes are.

The doctors didn't know exactly what was wrong with him, aside from lack of nutrition he needed, but they also guessed he had eaten something bad with the little food they had. Which now most of Paddy's meals came through the IV on his hand or a glass of water or a smoothie here and there. Tom knew they needed the deal to go through not just for the country but also for Paddy.

"Suppose you have a bit of a crush on Artemis, eh?" Tom teased. "Sure, she's pretty and all, but she's too old for me. Maybe for you." Paddy gave him another shrug followed by a wide grin. "Oh, I don't know about that one, Pads. She's is meant to be Queen, bit out of my league," Tom played off. Paddy looks down at his glass of water, running his small finger around the rim of the glass, "You're meant to be King. And you both care a lot about your countries. Only she fights for it while you sit back, I think you would be cool together," Paddy mumbled.

Tom raised his eyebrows, how his little brother was able to see past his facade, but his parents couldn't was beyond him. Somehow it was always Paddy one step ahead of him in things like this.

Before Tom could comment, Paddy continued, "I observe a lot, I see how you look when dad mentions something bad. Sam and Harry rant about it in their rooms at night, but you try to hide it," he explains. "But clearly not well, you may be a good spy, Agent Patrick," Tom teased, nudging Paddy gently.

Paddy smiles, "I'm good at observing people, it's quite easy," he confirms.

Their conversation continues for another hour before Tom had to fulfill some duties. It was like this nearly every morning since Paddy had gotten sick to the point of being bedridden. Before their mornings used to help Tom push through the day to find something entertaining to tell Paddy when they spoke at the end of the day, but not he held a different motivation. His mornings the rest of the week were going help Tom to make sure the deal on Friday was perfect.

Fixing the hungry and ill in his country was his first act, along with his brother. And the second? To jump into the changing society and move along with the changing current, and not let his own beliefs weigh him down.

tags: @loxbbg @elioelioeli0 @emilyt0314 @spidey-pal

[murfpersonalblog]

The 7 Greatest Heroes of Greek Mythology - Mythological Curiosities - See U in History

Heracles of Thebes

Achilles of Thessaly

Odysseus of Ithaca

Theseus of Athens

Perseus of Argos

Jason of Thessaly

Bellerophon of Corinth

_________________________________________________________

Cool video, but my Heroes list is very different. They’re all amazing, or they wouldn’t be heroes, but IMO the most impressive heroes are the ones who persevered despite a series of what would otherwise be insurmountable odds. Their greatness is not just due to their general popularity, but the greatness of the obstacles they overcame. You have to beat the best to be the best.

So my TOP TEN Greek Heroes list is:

Heracles of Thebes

Odysseus of Ithaca

Jason of Thessaly

Cadmus of Thebes

Perseus of Argos

Theseus of Athens

Diomedes of Argos

Honorable Mention: Bellerophon of Corinth

Honorable Mention: Achilles of Thessaly

Honorable Mention: Atalanta of Arcadia

1) HERACLES: because obviously. Son of Zeus, strongest man alive, he bested the 10 (or 12) Labors, plus his 9 Minor Labors, his numerous feats with the Argonauts, his critical role in winning the Gigantomachia on Mt Olympus, freeing Prometheus, rescuing Theseus, fathering a effton of babies, etc etc. He was literally worshiped as a god, one of the only Greek heroes to live on Mt. Olympus after his death. Even Hera had to back down and respect his gangsta. #Iconic #Legendary #YourFaveCouldNever

Hercules sets the bar for the 4/4 main criteria for what makes MY IDEAL top-tier Greek mythological hero:

Monsters: Defeating mythic creatures/beings on epic adventures

Underworld: Going to Hades and back

God-Tier: Divine patronage/assistance, lineage, apotheosis, etc

Legacy: Founding cities, dynasties, etc

2) ODYSSEUS: smartest Greek hero EVER, and biggest liar/trickster. Odysseus’ adventures were OP. Despite not even being a demigod, just a mortal man (blessed by Athena but cursed by Poseidon), he still survived the entire Trojan War, Scylla & Charybdis, the sirens, the Lotus Eaters, Polyphemus the Cyclops, Circe, the Laestrygonians, and numerous shipwrecks & storms; went to Hades and lived; got shapeshifted into an old man; and still reclaimed his place as king of Ithaca by taking out all of Penelope's suitors cuz he’s a #BAMF archer and warrior, too. Odysseus also has the 4th highest kill count in the Iliad (after Patroclus, Diomedes, and Achilles). It took 20 years, and he lost everything but his life & his wits, but he made it home. (4/4)

3) JASON: Leader of the Argonauts, the most boss collection of heroes ever -- Hercules, the Gemini Twins, Orpheus, Nestor, Pelops, Meleager, Theseus, Autolycus, Atalanta*, Peleus, etc. -- #SquadGoals. Their adventures together are literally the stuff of legend -- the Crashing Rocks, fought harpies, sirens, giants, fire-breathing bulls, Talos the automaton, AND the Colchis Dragon guarding the Golden Fleece (and an army of Spartoi, sown dragon-teeth -- see Cadmus). Jason survived it all, and his travels and feats were effing impressive, designed explicitly cuz King Pelias KNEW finding the Golden Fleece was 100% impossible -- but Jason beat the odds and did it anyway. 

Jason was a mortal man, blessed by Hera, and husband of the sorceress Medea. #JusticeForMedea, Jason did her dirty, ditching her for some rando chick (Hera’s classic trigger). Hera renounced Jason cuz he broke his wedding vows to Medea, and Hera’s sacred stern on the Argo brained him to death (AKA: Eff your heroics, if you’re a scrub). One of his & Medea’s sons, Thessalus, managed to escape Medea's carnage, and Jason’s kingdom of Thessaly gets its name from him (or one of Heracles’ sons of the same name, depending on your source) . (3/4)

4) CADMUS: the very FIRST Greek hero, founder of Thebes, brother of Europa, defeater of the Ismenian Dragon, sower of the Spartoi (dragon teeth warriors), ancestor of Dionysus. I am super biased when it comes to dragons and dragon-slayers (Hercules, Jason, Cadmus). A mortal man from Phoenicia, Cadmus was blessed by Athena, favored by the other gods, but was cursed by Ares for killing the Ismenian Dragon (Ares son), and depending on the source was killed or turned into a snake, etc.

Jason benefited entirely from knowing what Cadmus did before with the Dragon and Spartoi. But I rank Jason higher than Cadmus, because although Cadmus killed a dragon first, and adventured before ALL of the other Greek heroes (Heracles included), he did relatively less than they did. Heroes (and their storytellers) were all trying to one-up the feats of the heroes that came before them, so Cadmus’ bar naturally lowers in light of that. But IMO I still see Cadmus as a more impressive hero than some others, because Cadmus set the bar for Heracles, Jason, Odysseus, everybody. Cadmus 👏  Did 👏  It 👏  FIRST.👏 (3/4)

5) PERSEUS: Son of Zeus and a mortal woman; slayer of Medusa the Gorgon and Cetus the Sea Monster; founder of the Myceneans; ancestor (and half-brother) of Hercules. Out of the pre-Heraclidean heroes (Cadmus, Perseus, Aeacus, Bellerophon, Pelops & Oenomaus, Oedipus) Perseus’ adventures were the scariest, IMO. The Graeae, the Gorgons, AND Cetus? Yikes. However, Perseus only managed to kill Medusa cuz she was asleep the whole time. All those depictions of him facing off against her in some thrilling battle? Pop culture fabrication -- it never happened, he crept up on her like a ninja. (#JusticeForMedusa) And thanks to the frikkin Renaissance, people think Perseus tamed Pegasus, which he never did either, that was Bellerophon vs the Chimera.

Still, he’s awesome. On top of his #Iconic armor set (sword, helm of invisibility & winged sandals), Perseus has a lot of similarities with Hermes (god of, amongst other things, thieves and liars), cuz his opponents were literally impossible for mortals to face otherwise. Perseus needed all of those sneaky wiles to steal the Graeae’s eye, and sneak past the other Gorgons, and nab Medusa, run off with her head without the other Gorgons tearing him to shreds, and make it back home. But he only managed to kill Cetus & rescue Andromeda & reclaim his birthright as King of Argos because he had Medusa’s head.

So...cool adventures, great story, sweetest god-tier gear EVER (#Deus ExMachinaRealness), and really impressive monsters. (3/4) (Perseus never went to Hades & back, but some sources interpret the Cave of the Gorgons, Graeae or both as a chthonic journey, too.)

6) THESEUS: Son of Poseidon and a mortal woman (his step-father’s King Aegeus, whom the Aegean Sea’s named after -- a really sad story that’s Theseus’ fault), Theseus is the founder of Athens & the Acropolis, and slayer of the Minotaur. (3/4) But I have to explain a few things:

Monsters: IMO beating the Minotaur is Theseus’ most impressive feat. That was a legit monster. Theseus also caught & sacrificed the Cretan/Marathonian Boar (sire of the Minotaur), and killed the man-eating Crommyonian Sow. But compared to Dragons & Gorgons (asleep or not), IMO I can’t rank Theseus’ defeat of the Minotaur over heroes who killed a lot more than that. According to Ovid, Theseus also slayed the Centaur King Eurytion, who started the Centauromachia vs the Lapiths, but AFAIK he’s the only one who says so. Theseus also went on many adventures, slaying bandits and pacifying barbarians in his 6 Labors, which established Theseus as an official Athenian folk hero well before his battle in the Labyrinth. But again, I’m can’t rank bandits over an army of draconic spartoi.

Hades: Theseus technically gets (4/4) on my criteria, but I deducted that point cuz he only hit it just barely. By the skin of his butt-cheeks. LITERALLY. Theseus’ jaunt to Hades was one of the BALLSIEST examples of hubris and straight up idiocy in all of Greek mythology, IMO. Theseus decided that being the wingman in his BFF Pirithous’ harebrained plan to kidnap Persephone for a bride was a good idea. O_O The only reason Theseus made it out alive (spoiler: Pirithous did not) is cuz Heracles RIPPED Theseus off his seat, allowing Hades to get his literal POUND OF FLESH from Theseus’ arse in appeasement. That was not heroic on Theseus’ part at all; he was crying like a baby the entire time, TRAPPED in Hades for MONTHS until HERACLES happened to go there to collect Cerberus. POINT DEDUCTED! #sorryboutit

7) DIOMEDES: Diomedes 👏 Gets 👏  NO 👏  Respect 👏 . Omg, where is the Hollywood blockbuster featuring MY BOY? Other than Heracles, name another Greek hero who fought against not one but TWO OLYMPIAN GODS and WON? O_O Diomedes, a mortal man, King of Argos and founder of several Italian cities, was a hero of the Trojan War. After Patroclus, Diomedes has the 2nd highest kill count in the Iliad. He managed to wound Aphrodite & her son Aeneas at Troy, AND left Ares -- THE God of WAR -- screaming & hollering like a toddler with a tantrum when Diomedes & Athena wounded him, making Ares retreat from the battlefield like a wuss. Ares, y’all. ARES. Diomedes didn’t KILL any gods, no, but he’s still thebomb.com.

Blessed by Athena, Diomedes was the 2nd most clever warrior after Odysseus, and after Achilles died, together they came up with the most iconic plots against the Trojans: creating the Trojan Horse, and stealing the Palladium. In antiquity Diomedes was venerated as a god as part of his hero cult, but his fame was later supplanted by Achilles & Odysseus, to the point that in today’s pop culture Diomedes is rarely ever mentioned. #UnderratedAF (3/4)

Honorable Mentions

8) BELLEROPHON: A mortal man, grandson of Sisyphus, Bellerophon was falsely accused of rape, and as punishment the king (the lying heifer’s father) sent Bellerophon to kill The Chimera (a 3-headed FIRE BREATHING monstrosity) to clear his name (knowing full well it was impossible). Blessed by Athena, Bellerophon was able to tame Pegasus (Medusa’s son by Poseidon’s rape), and reach the Chimera’s lair. He lathered himself in fire-proof oil, and stabbed the Chimera in the frikkin throat till it choked on the melted metal from his speartip.

Unfortunately, the king didn’t believe him, and sent Bellerophon on a series of labors to kill Amazons & pirates, which Bellerophon did, with Poseidon’s help. Unfortunately, his glory went to his frikkin head, and when Bellerophon tried to fly Pegasus up Mt Olympus Zeus struck him dead with lightning bolts for his hubris. (2/4)

9) ACHILLES: Achilles is THE greatest hero of the Trojan War, leader of the Myrmidons and Greece’s best warrior EVER. He had mad skills. But by my 4 Main Criteria, I can't rank him above the other heroes. Achilles is a great icon for warriors to aspire to, and in many ways is the most realistic hero of the bunch, IMO, but that’s just it. He did a lot of incredible things. But not impossible things. He’s too normal for me, compared to the rest. :\ (2/4)

Monsters: All the other heroes on my list faced off against gods, giants, the brood of Echidna & Typhon, unnatural beasts, etc. Achilles’ greatest foe is Hector, Troy’s greatest warrior, yes, but who is another mortal man. Achilles did defeat Amazons (like Penthesilea, daughter of Ares), but so did Bellerophon, on top of the Chimera. And as far as kill count goes, Patroclus killed the most people at Troy, while Achilles pouted in his tent! Diomedes killed a effton, as did Odysseus (who earned Achilles’ armor rather than Ajax), so.... Imma need some gods & monsters, Achilles. :\

Hades: When Achilles died he went to the nicest place in Hades, in the Isles of the Blessed/Elysian Fields. Not exactly the Greek Valhalla, since the gods don’t live in Elysion, but close. But several heroes ranked higher on my list came back from the Land of the Dead (I’ve seen some Heroes Lists put Orpheus, another Argonaut, in the Top 7 cuz of the Orphic Cult & having been to Hades and back). Achilles chose to fight at Troy and die young & heroically; but when Odysseus spoke to Achilles’ ghost in Hades he told Odysseus he regretted his decision. XD

Divinity/Assistance: Achilles is the son of the water nymph Thetis -- whose wedding to Achilles’ mortal dad started the Apple of Discord & Judgement of Paris which caused to the Trojan War -- so he’s not 100% human, but he’s not the son of an Olympian, either. Thetis had Hephaestus craft god-tier armor for Achilles, and made him invulnerable to further injury (sources vary on if he was lathered in ambrosia lotion; or dunked in the River Styx; or was slow-roasted on a magical fire). But Achilles was still mortal, as seen by that little ankle problem of his. So I wonder which demigod would win in a fight, Achilles, Perseus, or Theseus? (Hercules beats everybody, duh.) But I gave Achilles 1 point here.

Politico-Religious Legacy: Achilles’ son Neoptolemus founded Epirus, and the line Alexander the Great’s mother Olympias hails from, thus making Achilles Alexander’s ancestor (depending on who you believe). That’s dope. Another point. (2/4)

10) ATALANTA: AFAIK Atalanta’s the only non-Amazonian mortal warrior woman Hero in Greek myth (Cyrene & Callisto were nymphs). A mortal woman, Atalanta was abandoned in the woods at birth for being born female, and was nursed by a she-bear. A SHE-BEAR. In the WOODS, y’all. Atalanta was found by hunters who took her in, and grew up to be a fierce huntress. She took part in the Calydonian Boar Hunt, and was THE FIRST to actually wound it, while the other heroes were busy shaking in their sandals. She got to keep the pelt as her prize. Depending on your source, she did or didn’t join the Argonauts, or was only with them briefly. She also beat Achilles’ dad Peleus (another Argonaut) in a wrestling match. She also slew two Centaurs who tried to rape her. Atalanta was NOT to be trifled with. 👸

Thanks to the impiety of her husband (from Atalanta’s famous race with the Golden Apples; his name varies depending on the sources), both he and Atalanta were cursed by the gods (precisely which one varies by sources), turned into lions and slaughtered. #SMDH.  (2/4)

[nanyallen13]

Why the Dark Dany theory isn’t misogynist (+ a little reflexion on female villains)

Misogyny. It’s an argument I see a lot. It seems you can’t criticize Dany’s character, not even one of her action, without be called a misogynist. It’s particularly the case with the Dark Dany theory.

I invite all of you to read it, if you kindly accept to take some of your time for it, because I think it’s an important subject, not just for the GoT fandom.

Also, I’m open to dialogue, that’s why I wrote this. Feel free to share your opinion on this topic.

Disclaimer: I apologize for my English. It’s not my first language, and I’m still learning. So, if some grammatical errors remain, I apologize in advance and hope it won’t bother your reading.

The following post is just my point of view on Dany and the Dark Dany theory, and I know it isn’t universal. But for you to understand my point, here some context:

As a woman, I consider myself a feminist, and I always have been vocal against books, show, movies, tropes or ships I find misogynist.

As a writer, I’m more interested in storytelling and characters’ growth. The Dark Dany theory is very appealing to me because it’s interesting storywise, for Dany’s arc and female characters in general.

I’m not a shipper. In fact, I don’t ship anyone in GoT except Jaime and Brienne. I’m more interested in politics, so my views on ships are more biased by politics interests and potential alliance. I feel the need to specify it because a lot of people believes that if you don’t like Dany, it because of ship war. Yes, I didn’t hide my conflicted feelings about Jone/rys in the past, but it’s about the ship itself, and it just concerns its two characters, Jon and Dany, and their relationship. To be honest, I don’t really ship them with anyone, so… 🤷‍♀️

Dany is one of my favourite character, alongside Sansa and Cersei, and she’s been since the beginning of the show (whereas Sansa has taken Tyrion’s place in the trio since season 6). I like them because they represent different forms of strength, and have this regal presence I love so much. I consider these 3 women as some of the strongest character in the show. But if Dany stayed one of my favourite, my vision of her changed along the way. 

This post is mainly about the Dark Dany theory, but like its name says, it’s just a theory. I like it, because it’s interesting storywise, and unlike some people claims, it based of clues and parallels from the show itself. (I won’t list them because the post is long enough, and it’s not the main subject). GoT is a show which has a lot of theories, and I like to discover them. The Dark Dany theory is one of them, and like all these other theories, I’m not convinced at 100% it will happen. I’m just open to a lot of possibilities.

And again, it’s just my opinion and I understand that people will disagree. Honestly, it’s fine. I just hope you’re stay respectful. It took time to write this with constructive arguments, so I expect at least arguments from you in return, and not the usual “you’re a cunt” and “you’re stupid” replies I saw too many times from some Dany fans. Because, frankly, thinking a character isn’t perfect doesn’t make you a cunt.

So, shall we begin ?

Why the Dark Dany theory isn’t misogynist ?

Maybe the term “dark” is misleading, a little bit extreme. When I think of Dark Dany, I don’t see her as an evil villain, a female Joffrey or a Ramsay with dragons. I know this theory has different levels: for some people, it can lead to Mad Queen Dany (in some way, I can understand why, but it’s another topic. Personally, I don’t think the show will go full madness.). For others, she’ll be the final boss of the series (I don’t know. We shall see).  

No, when I think Dark Dany, I see her as a potential antagonist. What’s the difference? If antagonists are indeed villains for most of the time, in reality Antagonist ≠ Villain. I recommend you this article, which explains far better than me why an antagonist isn’t always a villain: The Difference between Villains and Antagonists

To summarize it, a villain have bad intentions, is considered as evil (hello Joffrey, you little pi*** of sh**). But not every antagonist is a villain, not every antagonist is evil.

No, an antagonist is simply a character whose actions and motivations go against the protagonist’s. In Dany case, her story arc could lead her against Jon(and maybe the Stark) story arc.  So, from the Stark point of view, Dany would be the antagonist. But from Dany’s point of view, the Stark would be the antagonists. (I hope I’m clear lol).

And you know what ? This happens a lot in GoT. This show has a lot of characters, who we learned to love during these past seasons. But during 7 seasons, we saw some character be enemies. The Lannister vs the Stark, anyone? Stannis was a fan favourite (before burning her daughter), but he was against Robb Stark, another fan favourite.  But the most interesting example come from s7, during episode 4. The battle was Dany vs. the Lannister, mostly Jaimie. For him, Dany was the enemy, the antagonist. For her, Jaimie was the enemy, the antagonist. They both tried to killed each other! But I think for the majority of the viewer, it wasn’t good vs evil. It was just one character against the other.

So yeah, characters can be on opposite sides, but it doesn’t make them evil villain. The same goes for Dany.

That’s the case for all characters in GoT. They’re not angels, neither are they demons (except for the NK, Joffrey and Ramsay, even Euron ?). They all have some good and some bad in them, they’re not perfect, but that makes them humans. Also, the majority of them have the potential to go to a path of darkness. All of them, except characters whose main trait is innocence (like Hodor, Shireen, even Tommen in some way.).

Dany isn’t an innocent character. She’s not a saint. I don’t see her as the perfect saviour; no she’s more complex than that. She has doubts, she has flaws, and she makes mistakes. As the story progess, we see her get more and more blood on her hands. Like the others, Dany has a dark side. Some may disagree, but we already saw the roots in season 1. But for me, season 5 was the season where she started to make questionable decisions, and some of them are difficult to justify. Season 5 made me realize she wasn’t the Mhysa everyone (including herself) thought she was. 

I won’t list all this clues here, but I recommend you this amazing meta by @trinuviel  :  A Hero in her own mind... On Daenerys Targaryen

I don’t see Dany as a hero, but as an antihero, who has the potential to become an antagonist (some people even see a villain). Again, personal opinion, but that’s why I find her more complex and more interesting than Jon, who falls more in the archetype of the traditional “hero”. From a writer point of view, she’s a better character than Jon.

And you know what ? If she becomes an antagonist, I would love her even more. Because I find antagonist to be so fascinating. That’s why I love Cersei! To me, having a “dark side” ≠ bad character. It would be more original and surprising than Hero Dany, because everyone already expect that, and that a common trope.

But again, it’s my personal opinion, and I understand that Dany’s fans can’t bear the idea of her not being the hero of the story.

But I’m not misogynist when I say Dany could become an antagonist. She won’t be an antagonist because she’s a woman. No, she would be an antagonist because of her actions. If she was a man, it would be the same.

Because being a woman doesn’t excuse your actions. Being a woman doesn’t mean you can’t commit bad things. But that’s a thing you see in our culture. In movies, tv shows, books, etc. There are more male villain than female villain. Because in our culture, women are portrayed as gentle and soft. Most of the time, they can’t exist without maternal love or romantic love. If they aren’t the main character, women will often be the love interest. But the villain? It’s rare.

In a way, saying woman can’t be villain is a form of misogyny. Because female characters don’t need to be written as female first. No, they are, first of all, characters. If a man can be a villain/antagonist, so can a woman.

A woman can be an antagonist against a male protagonist. A woman is not obliged to always be on the man’s side. She can have different opinions, because it’s her right. Her needs, her hopes and dreams, her ambitions are as legitimate as a man’s.

Now, I can explain you why Dany could become an antagonist, and why I’m not a fan of Jone/rys. If some of you ship them together, it’s not against you. You have every right to ship them. But please, respect my opinion.

In some way, Dany’s storyline could lead her to become an antagonist. Again, I’m not even talking about becoming mad, or becoming a villain. But I could see her storyline go against Jon’s.

What’s Dany’s main goal since season 1? For what did she fight during all these seasons? That’s right: the Iron Throne. And what obstacles does she have to defeat? Cersei, the Night King. But in some way, at least in a political way, Jon is an obstacle too. Because he’s the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne. It’s not her anymore.

Actually, Jon’s true identity is the big reveal which bring on the Dark Dany theory. It would be to fulfil her dream of becoming Queen that Dany would go against Jon. Because he’s in her way. From her point of view, she won’t be in the wrong. She would just be fighting for her throne, like she did during all 7 seasons.

And storywise, that would be so clever. Jon against Dany. Two of the most beloved characters against each other. Imagine the heartbreak for the viewers! That’s why, long before their meeting, I liked the idea of them fighting instead of being in love. As a writer, it’s the perfect idea.

I know, some of you will say : “but she’s in love with him”. That’s true. Maybe you’re right. Maybe her love would be more powerful than her ambition. Maybe she won’t care that Jon have a better claim, and she’ll accept that.

But that’s this idea of Jone/rys that I don’t like. After all this time, after all she endured to arrive where she is today, I don’t want her to abandon that just because she loves a man. Her main goal wasn’t to become Jon’s girlfriend. No, Dany’s quest is to become the Queen of the Seven Kingdom. I want her to fight for it to the very end.

I know some of you believe a marriage would be the solution. But even as Jon’s wife, Dany would be the second, not the true heir. I fear she’ll be in Jon’s shadow, just his wife.  After all, like Daario said in s6, she’s a conqueror. If she takes the throne, it has to be by conquering it, not be marrying Jon. 

Even if this is for love, I don’t like the idea of her giving up her dream for a man.

That why I don’t ship Dany with anyone. She doesn’t need a love interest. Since Drogo’s death, she’s on her own, she fight for her and what belongs to her. Her actions should be for her, and her only. That’s why I like the fact that she doesn’t reciprocate Jorah’s feelings. Other shows would picture Jorah as a victim (“poor guy. How dare she not reciprocate his feeling?” Trust me, it’s a common trope). But just because he loves Dany, it doesn’t many she owes him anything. And it could be the same with Jon.

I want Dany to fight for what she believes, not for her love interest. I think it’s a more feminist message.

That’s why I don’t like the s8 promo so far. She’s depicted as Jon’s girlfriend. In almost every photo, she’s glued to him, like every female love interest. Without the Iron Throne promo where she sits on it, we could almost forget that her main goal is to become queen!

I want Dany to fight for her throne, even if it breaks her relationship with Jon, even she becomes an antagonist. Because she won’t give up her dreams for a man.

And I don’t think it’s misogynist to think that. It’s quite the contrary, actually.

Now, I know that for some people, the Dark Dany theory is bad, because it would mean : a woman who have power = a bad thing, a villain.

I can understand the feeling, but I don’t agree with it. Like I said earlier, I don’t judge Dany as a woman, but as a character.

What many seem to forget, is that Dany ≠ all women. If Dany is an antagonist/villain, it doesn’t mean every woman in power is an antagonist/villain. Dany is a unique character, with a unique backstory, a unique character’s growth, a unique personality. Her unique story would make her an antagonist. 

Here, I need your opinion. Compared to Cersei, what do you think? I know Cersei herself is quite a misogynist (she hates her conditions as a woman and envied Jaime’s) but do you think Cersei’s storyline is a misogynist one? Because after all she’s also a woman of power and a villain. Did you saw someone said it was misogynistic? Or it just when people criticize the Dark Dany Theory?

But I know that in every fandom, it’ll always exist some misogynistic a**holes who will be against women in position of power (just look at the recent Captain Marvel controversy). It’s something I already witnessed in the GoT fandom, mainly on Facebook pages, against Sansa. It was stupid arguments, like “she’s a power hungry bitch” just because she dreamed of becoming queen when she was a little girl. (Also, what she first wanted was to be the King’s wife and have his children, not to rule). When she dared to objet one of Jon’s decisions, some fans wanted her to shut up, like she had no right at all. In general, their main problem against Sansa was she dared have ambition. They don’t want her to have anything to say about Winterfell and the North, even if she has the right to. I mean, she’s the trueborn daughter of Ned Stark, she’s his legitimate heir. If someone has the right to say something, it’s her! And you know why these fans don’t want her to have ambition? I’m pretty sure it’s because she’s a girl. At least, it’s one of the main reasons.

So yeah, I’m sure there are people who think the same way about Dany. It wouldn’t surprize me.

But I don’t blame her for wanting/having power. No, I blame her for the way she uses this power.

And actually, having Dany as a villain wouldn’t be a bad thing for female representation. Like I said earlier, there are less female villains than males. And the ones we have, well… it’s bad, guys.

The female villains are often femme-fatale, who are ultra-sexualized and by that reduce to their sexuality. And these female villains are often side-kicks to a man, who’s the main villain. They obey him (sometimes for love), they depend on him. They’re not their own character.

To make an example, I often think of the James Bond girls. For the majority of the saga, we have the good James Bond girls who are like a trophy for the hero (thanks god, they have more agencies in the more recent movies, but still), and the evil James Bond girls. For the evil ones, we have two types: the ultra-sexualized ones (like Xenia Onatopp, Miranda Frost or Electra King) or the masculine ones, like Rosa Klebb or Irma Bunt, who are portrayed as cold, heartless, older, and “ugly”. In both case, they work for a man. (The only good exception was Judi Dench as M. Damn, I miss her).

And back to the topic of powerful women = villains, I think of a more misogynistic way to portray female villain. In Sarah J. Maas’ series (no offense to her fans), A Court of Thornes and Roses, two of the female villains, Ianthe and Amarantha are portrayed as evil witches who use their sexuality to gain power. The narrative villainizing them because they use their sexuality freely. It’s almost slutshaming. The villains are the women who use their body like they want, who are not submissive to the men, who take action against men, who have more power than them. This portrayal is more misogynist because a woman with an active sex life + ambition = an evil slut. In mean, wtf ???? (And it not just these character, it’s the same with all her female villains. That’s why I find this problematic).

But it’s not a same with Dany. Yes, she has her own sex life and does what she wants with her body, but it’s never use to villainize her. She’s her own character, she’s powerful, but it not used against her. Yes, a villain can be a pretty woman on her own, without being a sexual fantasy.

The only good female villain I can think of is Hela from Thor Ragnarok. She isn’t too sexualized, she’s not ugly, she’s her own woman, and she’s powerful. And what’s her goal? That’s right, taking the throne which she believes belongs to her. In a way, Dany as an antagonist could be like Hela, in a less evil way.

(Btw, if you know other female villains like Hela, please tell me. I’m dying to have more characters like her! I’m also curious about the villain played by Jessica Chastain in the upcoming Dark Phoenix movie, she seems to be interesting).

Well, I think I said all I wanted to share on this topic. To summarize: the Dark Dany Theory isn’t simple hate. It’s simply seeing her character from a different point of view. It’s being open to a different storyline.

I understand, and I accept, that some of you don’t like the idea of Dark Dany. But please try to understand, or at least accept, that some of us like this theory. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Feel free to share your views on the topic!