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katierosefun · 3 years ago

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well, here we are! june basically flew by and it was a little rough, but we’re back with some long recs on cool things i’ve read/listened to/watched, and i’m about to force everyone to sit down and listen to my sleepover-esque ted talk in which i give unwarranted and unasked for rec lists. so here we go!

kdrama:

while you were sleeping

okay, so i tried to watch this kdrama when it came out in like...2017, i think? but for some reason, i wasn’t able to get past the first episode. i don’t really know why? because it’s so beautifully shot, and i super love the premise, which is basically this girl and this guy are somehow able to see things that are going to happen in the future...but only in their dreams. this whole kdrama really handled the plot super well--each episode honestly felt like a movie in itself, and the filming was just stunning, and i think this has to be one of the most visual kdramas i’ve ever seen. each character is also super interesting and complex on their own, and i really loved seeing such a strong cast of characters interact with each other in this world.

i think the only slight downside of this kdrama was that i couldn’t really get invested in the romance? i’m not quite sure why--i found both lead actors’ performances wonderful, and don’t get me wrong, i did think they were cute together as the drama went on, but i still couldn’t find myself buying into the romance until maybe relatively late in the drama (like...ep 11 or so? ep 16 was honestly when i realized that awww, wait, they’re actually super cute). but then again, i feel like the writers weren’t really prioritizing the romance either--i think they really wanted us to think about the beauty of dreams and redemption and how everyone can touch another person’s life in some significant way, so i can’t really be mad about it!

but anyways, overall i really enjoyed this kdrama and watched it all a lot faster than i thought i would! SOLID music, beautiful cinematography, good acting, mostly good writing, and some really memorable characters! def. a must-watch if you love suspense, aesthetics, and some wonderful characters.

the ghost detective

i’m someone who doesn’t like horror or scary things at all, but i was so intrigued by the plot and whatever material i saw on tumblr, and...of course, choi daniel, lee joo young, lee ji ah, and park eun bin. honestly, this is just a really wonderful and really underrated cast, and they really all brought out their a-game for this 32-episode supernatural / thriller / horror drama. basically, this kdrama follows the story of a young woman who’s trying to figure out who murdered her younger sister...and of course, there’s something supernatural going on.

honestly, this kdrama was such a ride. i loved the crime-solving aspect of it, and i was really in love with the interactions between all the characters, esp. that of eun bin and daniel’s characters. (guys...they’re so ride and die for each other. there’s also so much yearning. so much yearning in this kdrama, it just about killed me--)

the villain was absolutely, appropriately, elegantly creepy, and like...scary beyond belief. basically, the villain (lee ji ah’s character) feeds her victims these harmful thoughts and ultimately get them to kill themselves. it’s sad and haunting, especially when you see that the victims tell their victims “don’t listen to the bad things. try only to listen to the good things”. and...yeah. themes of how to handle all of these bad feelings inside of you really came through in this kdrama, and there were a lot of themes of suicide and the kind of rage and sadness that comes with that. (also! if you’re a fan of lots of angsty/whumpy situations....this kdrama definitely does not hold back with all of your fave whump/angst tropes! literally! every! episode! i! had! to! lie! down! because! too! powerful!)

school 2013

(aww, look at this precious cast…as though they didn’t all make me ugly cry at least five times—)

yeah, yeah, yeah, i’ve talked about this kdrama ad nauseum, and i know i watched it last month, but as i was studying for the lsat, i really, really, really needed some comfort. most notably comfort re: studying life, academics, how difficult it is to study but also be uncertain of your dreams…and if you are certain of your dreams, how that sometimes requires studying but that just makes life all the more overwhelming…can you tell i’ve been thinking about this a lot

i’m not going to ramble more about this kdrama considering i already have done so multiple times, but i enjoyed this rewatch and honestly,,,my love for this show has just grown even more. there’s a good reason why people consider this a comfort kdrama, because. i consider myself deeply comforted. also, i’ve been listening to the ost for the whole month. it’s become a problem. but sometimes. sometimes you need to listen to songs that feel like someone’s patting you on the head and telling you don’t give up, set down your burdens, don’t think you’re alone and dream whatever you want to dream, go wherever you want to go. i’ll stop talking now, but god. when i say that i think everyone who has ever felt incredibly tired by work or school and just wished for someone to give them a big hug either then or now...god. this is just one of those kdramas that i think honestly touched so many people’s lives, and i’m very grateful for the cast and crew and writers for ever bringing this story to life. :’) (god, okay, now i’ll stop talking before i make myself cry i’m fine this is fine)

your honor

so, i watched this kdrama thinking that it would be light and funny given that yoon shi yoon is the main male lead, but boy was i wrong--don’t be fooled by these happy little faces, this kdrama is heavy. this kdrama is about a young man (with a criminal record) who winds up impersonating his twin brother, who happens to be a judge. we also have a trainee who, after seeing the legal system fail her older sister, is on the rise to dispense justice through the courts the best she can.

honestly, the first few episodes were rough, mostly because of the content. big trigger warning for rape, violence, and sexual harassment at work. this kdrama really didn’t hold back when it came to addressing how the very people who use the law can also be the very same people who manipulate and abuse it. because of that, i found this kdrama incredibly powerful. that said, it certainly had its lighthearted moments too.

overall though, i liked this kdrama. the main characters were incredibly complex and genuinely the type to make me believe that for all the injustices in the world, there are still and always will be people fighting for the right thing. as someone who wants to enter the legal field, this kdrama was just uplifting. i was so blown away by the absolute rawness of the main two leads, esp. yoon shi yoon, who i’ve only ever seen in super lighthearted kdramas. so this was a really interesting change of pace, and i genuinely enjoyed watching this!

waiting for love

so this kdrama is just two episodes, and what’s better is that it’s available on youtube! it’s about two college students--a young woman who’s been hurt by falling in love with jerks now just wants to date, not really fall in love...and a young man who’s excellent at giving dating advice except he’s afraid that he’s never going to actually fall in love, so he just dates a girl for the sake of dating.

now, i kinda thought that this show was going to be kinda lighthearted, a little shallow--but it was weirdly...comforting? idk, i found myself liking it a lot more than i thought it would be. this is far from the perfect kdrama, and i kinda wished that we got more than 2 episodes because i think some of the plot points could have been better expanded, but...there were genuinely a lot of scenes that made me think a bit more about what it actually means to be in a loving relationship--like how it’s not enough to just put on a happy smile and eat meals together, but like...you know. there has to be trust and actual liking and also, yeah, maybe a bit of frustration in order to actually know whether a relationship is real or not. and given that the characters were all discussing the pressure on getting married and romance esp. when you’re in your twenties...idk. makes you think about are you dating someone for the sake of appearances? or do you genuinely...like them?

there was also quite a few tropes that i personally adore in this kdrama, which helped balance out the stuff i found more tiring. there was a lot of the “right person, wrong time” stuff going on (you really want the two main leads to get together after a certain point, and you just keep holding your breath whenever they walk past each other and beg please please please let it be this time...), and also that good old “two strangers fall in love with each other purely over writing to each other” (god. first the half of it, then me & au, then greenhouse podcast...something about this trope huh). that said, there were def. some parts that made me “:////” because some of the characters were kind of frustrating, but i’m gonna chalk that up to good writing since i think i was mostly mad about how i knew people like some of the characters lol. overall, i think this might be at least semi-enjoyable--it’s probably not something i’ll watch again, but it def. made me mull over what it means to actually be in a loving relationship, esp. if you’re in your twenties and everyone around you seems to be in happy romantic relationships/getting engaged and whatnot.

movie:

columbus

i’m a firm believer that there are some movies that are meant to cheer you up, some movies meant to make you cry, and then there’s some movies that are just meant to...sit with you. and this movie is definitely one of them. this story follows casey, a high school graduate, and jin, the son of a famous architect. the two of them are both so incredibly exhausted with their lives (casey with her constant worry about her mother, who’s a recovering drug addict; jin with his surface-level lack of concern for his comatose father). in their small town of columbus, indiana, the two of them bond over architecture and just. being quietly there for each other.

this movie’s been compared a few times to lost in translation in the sense that there’s this not quite romance between the two leads, who have a bit of an age gap (john cho and haley lu richardson have about 20 between them!). to be honest, i didn’t really get the sense that there was supposed to be a romance. if anything, it just felt like...two really lonely people finding each other. definitely not a simple friendship--definitely not a familial kind of relationship, definitely intimate.

idk. i think this movie might not be for everyone--i definitely agree with a lot of past reviewers that this movie is on the slower side. there’s some stuff here about complicated relationships with parents, a lot of cool architecture, really beautiful shots...and overall, it’s just...quiet. it’s lovely, and i can’t really stop thinking about it. it’s subtle, bittersweet, and oddly compelling. might not be the kind of thing you’d want to watch in the middle of the day, but if you’re a little sad and in the mood for something not to necessarily lift your spirits but...at least acknowledge them and sit with you, then...this is the movie to watch. idk. i felt kind of crummy the day i watched this movie, and i felt as though someone just sat next to me on a park bench until the sun went down. (mayhaps specific but hush, i’m writing this right after finishing this movie, so i’m...feeling a certain way.)

wish dragon

i watched this movie right after watching columbus because a) decided i was in the mood for something lighter, and b) i learned that john cho?? voiced?? the dragon?? (caroline your crush on john cho’s jumping out this month...)

but anyways! i loved this movie a lot. it was so satisfying? like, just narratively speaking? and the animation was wonderful and also weirdly smooth and satisfying, and there were a lot of funny and touching moments. this movie’s about this young man named din who stumbles upon a magical teapot that holds the wish dragon long--long has to grant din three wishes, and yes, i know, very aladdin, but that said, this movie has so many original twists that it feels weird to call it an aladdin retelling. it really did feel like a movie completely on its own, which i applaud the writer and director for!

i don’t want to spoil too much of this movie, but something i really enjoyed was that din’s main wish is just to see his old childhood friend again. idk, i think we all have that one friend from when we were really little that we miss--and this movie really dug into that, as well as themes about parents wanting to do the best they can to provide for their kids, and!!! and long the dragon gets his own storyline and amazing character development too!!! i was honestly just amazed at how this movie fleshed out the characters so well and had so many wonderful themes that just made me tear up. guys. this movie’s great. highly recommend for its wonderful characters and the power of friendship. just a grand old time in general. :’))

searching

yeah...yeah, i wasn’t kidding about my crush on john cho this month. yes, i watched three of his movies within 24 hours. this movie is about david kim who’s looking for his missing 16 year old daughter, margot. this film is honestly noteworthy for many reasons, one of them being that the entire movie is told through like...a laptop screen, as in we kind of follow david’s frantic search through facetime, facebook, tumblr...which i honestly didn’t think i’d be into, but whoo boy, i was wrong. it just added to the whole addictive quality of this movie, as it usually does when it comes to anything from the thriller genre.

but besides this just being a straight up addictive thriller with absolutely mouth-dropping twists (but like...good twists, and smart twists, good god--), this movie was just...touching? there’s so many themes related to what grief does to a family (because we learn within the first 10 minutes that the mom died due to cancer), and there’s just...something really fragile about relationships between surviving family members. i was absolutely blown away by john cho’s performance as a tentative and grieving widower whose world just absolutely falls apart in his search for his daughter. this movie was just so...real because of that. like, yes, this movie has all of the suspense that you would expect this kind of movie to have, but there was also just...so many beautiful themes about grief and how far parents would go for their kids and godddd yeah no i started sobbing when the movie ended. god.

also, my bias towards john cho aside, i...really loved his character. david kim is absolutely believable, and like? he’s not just the guy putting the pieces together--he’s also the guy who misses his wife and also the guy who wishes that he was there for his daughter. he’s also the guy who pauses and re-writes all his text messages because he’s trying to be a good dad. i feel like with a lot of these suspense / missing person movies, it’s really easy to have characters who are just the stoic alpha male types--and david kim definitely had his badass moments in this movie, but like...something i just loved was seeing the vulnerability that comes with...having a missing child. being a parent. god. this movie messed me up but in a good way. i can honestly say that this movie is now probably going to be one of my fave movies of all time. highly recommend, am literally obsessed with it.

book:

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid

ohohoho………where to begin with this book. this was one of those books where i was like “huh i kinda don’t understand why people are so obsessed with this book”, but then i hit like...page 20 or 30 and was like “oh god i Literally Cannot Put This Book Down Oh No” and wound up finishing it in like three days (mind you, i only read at like...midnight these days. i don’t understand why either).

i finished this book at like 2 am and promptly burst into tears because this was just one of those books. it follows the story of evelyn hugo, a famous hollywood actress from the 60s or so and onwards. known for her intense beauty and her seven husbands, she’s now giving an exclusive interview to the young reporter monique grant, where she’s about to tell all about her life. this book had me dropping my mouth multiple times, and i think tjr can spin one hell of a story, with so many good twists and turns and intensely memorable characters. by the end of the book, i was actually mad that evelyn hugo wasn’t a real person, because i, too, fell a little in love with her and thought, i want to actually watch her movies. i want to learn even more about this remarkable woman.

but alas! she’s not real, so i don’t get to see her accept an oscar or look up all the tabloids about her and her seven husbands or her speculated (and very, very, very real) relationship with celia st. john. basically...i just loved this book. the last line made me smile and laugh and cry a little bit (actually...cry a lot), and y’know...i’ll admit it’s not totally perfect, but i’m glad this book exists, and i’m glad that even though tjr isn’t bi herself, was very adamant in this book about bisexuality being real. just. like. god. once again. mad that evelyn hugo isn’t real. it’s fine, she’s real in my heart.

#caroline talks #caroline recs

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davidmann95 · 4 years ago

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Kingdom Hearts 3, two years on? Also general state of the franchise?

I maintain my position that for all its flaws it’s actually one of the better entries: gameplay’s great, the Disney worlds have more meat on the bone than any other game but the first, it touches on subtler emotional notes than a lot of the previous ones, and the final stretch is incredible. I believe it even conceivably could have surpassed II with relatively minimal restructuring if not for one insurmountable problem: Dream Drop Distance existing.

That is a game that I promise you only exists because Square Enix told Nomura he had to do something else if he was gonna take that long before kicking off III, and so all the subplots that were supposed to buoy it until the endgame were instead shoved into the final world of this. Riku’s (for now) final catharsis, Sora learning the basics of everyone he’s connected to, the unveiling of the master plan: all necessary for the finale to function coherently unto itself, all relegated elsewhere.

I’ve been mulling it over for awhile and there’s basically a cottage fandom industry around it at this point anyway, so here for your amusement and edification, my take on ‘how I would have fixed Kingdom Hearts III (a game I liked)’:

1. The opening tutorial segment is Sora and Riku taking their Mark of Mastery exam by journeying into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua. They fight Dark Aqua and succeed in getting her home, but Sora loses the mandatory chunk of his powers in the process of purifying her with the Power of Waking so we can keep that in play; Riku gets the Mark and feels insecure about it (Sora is acknowledged for his efforts but with all the strength he’s lost giving it to him would only be a token, so the player doesn’t feel actively cheated even if the disappointment’s there), and the Destiny trio get a scene together before going their separate ways because it’s wild they didn’t get a scene together.

2. Aqua is back but pretty messed up from her experience, so she goes to recuperate in the timeless realm Kairi and Axel are training in. These interactions give Kairi some more time, and having the other two around makes it easy to recap the basics of 358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep for players who just want to go I/II/III.

3. Since Aqua can’t do it right now (and maybe the intervening decade saw it hidden more thoroughly thanks to the Organization), Sora, Donald, and Goofy are charged with tracking down Castle Oblivion to free Ven. He’s still gotta save everybody and remaster the Power of Waking he used to free Aqua, so 80% of the game plays out the same, there’s just a more concrete goal to his journey.

4. Riku goes through his DDD character arc in the background, culminating in the midpoint of the game where in the equivalent to the 1000 Heartless Battle as a dividing point in II, here we get the first big run-in with Young Xehanort and the outline of the 13-nort gameplan.

5. Arendelle is swapped out with the Fantasia world because the former was the worst world in III and the Fantasia world obviously should have been realized on the PS4.

6. Kairi still dies because it’s a logical thematic climax (EVERYONE dies and has to be brought back, she’s last and most dramatic because she matters to Sora most) that propels everything afterwards forward, but before that she fights with Sora and Riku against the 3 Xehanorts instead of Mickey because Mickey has no emotional connection to anything that’s happening and this would bring the trilogy full-circle with the three of them working together, and this way she could die doing something heroic.

7. The Guardians of Light vs. the Xehanort Armor squad is part of the finale proper instead of a DLC segment.

Relatively minimal overhaul, I’m obviously not of the opinion that the mark was entirely missed; just snapping the basic pieces together a little more smoothly and putting a pinch of extra attention where it feels needed.

(Credit for this excellent mockup art, though my own heart will always belong to this barebones, strangely evocative take from way back in 2008.)

As for the future, my many theories aside, it’s hard to say. III was the best-selling of the franchise thus far, but who knows whether that means Nomura gets way less or way more control going forward. Even the role of the Disney worlds going forward relative to the metafictional war with Quadratum and the ongoing Master of Masters mystery depends on both Disney’s demands and the core messages of the next games, given the warring core aesthetics of the franchise are now actually part of the plot and theme going forward through Yozora. So are we getting GTA: Kingdom Hearts with Sora in an open-world Quadratum? A Riku and/or Kairi story? A spinoff about what Mickey was up to during I and II? Literally just Verum Rex? Some seem more likely than others but nothing feels off the table, though I do hope they adapt some of the latter parts of that mobile game into a movie like they did the early stuff so I can just watch that. But in any case IV proper is poised to recenter the sense of mysterious wonder and longing of separation that’s driven so much of the series, so in any case I think whatever comes next is still basically going to work in core ways that recent entries have missed for a lot of people.

(My own IV desire is that I want the main campaign divided between Kairi doing regular Kingdom Hearts stuff and Sora spending his half of the game exploring the gigantic and increasingly bizarre city, with Riku sections of him sorta bopping between the two worlds out of phase Flash-in-Crisis style, leading into a Destiny trio game for V. I think that’s the best way of selling the necessary contrasts of the new setup while having a lot of the game adhere to the formula.)

#Kingdom Hearts III #Kingdom Hearts IV #Kingdom Hearts #fanfic #Opinion

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duhragonball · 4 years ago

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Plot Holes

I really haven’t known what to write about on here lately. Part of the trouble with that is that if I go too long without writing out my thoughts, I start to get ansty, and mull over the same topic over and over. So I’d like to take this time to off-load some stray observations about Star Trek: The Next Generation, and why I shouldn’t be too hard on my own writing.

I’ve been getting recommendations on YouTube for clips from the episode “Chain of Command Part I.” Part II is the one where Picard gets tortured by David Warner while they argue about interior lighting, and it’s probably one of the best episodes of the whole series. Part I sets up how Picard got captured in the first place, and one of those dominoes is a new captain, Ed Jellico, who fills in for him while he goes on a secret mission. Jellico always interested me, because his whole arc is about how he doesn’t get along well with the other characters. You’re supposed to think he’s a real dick, mostly because he’s not too hot about Commander Riker as a first officer, but the episode doesn’t really succeed in getting that across. He orders all these big changes to the ship and crew, and expects everything to get done within two days, but he’s got good reasons for all of it, and... he’s the captain now. Riker accuses him of wanting to “control everything and everyone”, but that’s literally the captain’s job? Besides, by the end of Part II, all of Jellico’s decisions seem to pay off. He foils an invasion and saves Captain Picard. I don’t know why he needed a four-shift crew rotation to pull that off, but he made Troi wear science blue so it’s worth it. Jellico’s a good dude in my book.

So I rewatched the whole two-parter this week, because the thing I couldn’t remember was why the Cardassians captured Picard in the first place. His mission led him into a trap, and it’s all part of this byzantine plot to interrogate him about the Federations defenses of a planet that they want to conquer. Jellico realizes this when he tries to figure out why they went to so much trouble to capture one specific guy, and he recalls that the Enterprise would be the lead ship in the sector if there was ever an invasion. So the Cardassians assumed that Picard would have knowledge of how the sector would be defended, and if they could force him to reveal that information, they could win easily.

Except Picard doesn’t know those supposed defense plans. At least, he says he doesn’t know, and Part II seems to suggest that the guy torturing him doesn’t even care. He just wants to break Picard for the sake of it, and things look bad for Picard because he can’t betray the Federation even if he wanted to.

I’m left with two possible interpreations here. �� One is that Picard genuinely had no idea what the defense plans would be, and the Cardassians just pulled a boner by going to all that trouble based on a reasonable guess. If that’s true, then how would that have worked? Would Picard only get those defense plans until the moment an invasion ocurred? Or is the “plan” just to let him figure it out as he goes? That’s basically what Jellico does in his stead. He figures out the enemy fleet is hiding in a nebula, so he fills it with mines and forces them to leave.

The alternative is that Picard really did know those defense plans, and he just denied it so convincingly that it’s taken me 28 years to consider the possibility. That adds a new layer to the ending, where he admits to Troi that he very nearly did break, and it just so happened that he was released in the nick of time. So maybe he might have actually given up some important secrets if his ordeal had gone on any longer. But how did he resist their truth serum, then?

The other thing that struck me about “Chain of Command” is how much it resembles “Best of Both Worlds”, in the sense that an invading enemy does terrible things to Captain Picard in order to get an edge against the Federation. There’s some important differences, but I think I’d feel a little self-conscious if I had written both stories, like the second one is redundant. I don’t think anyone has ever levelled this critique against the show, though. Maybe if they aired back-to-back instead of two seasons apart. As it is, it’s just One Of Those Things.

I see plot holes in other episodes a lot. For example, in “The Pegasus”, Admiral Pressman is trying to salvage a secret and illegal cloaking device, and so he won’t tell the Enterprise crew what he’s after, and the only other person who knows is Riker, so he orders him to keep it under wraps. Pressman’s plan is to use the cloaking technology to get an edge against the Romulans, even though the Federation agreed to never use or develop cloaking devices in a treaty. So yeah, he really doesn’t want Captain Picard to find out, except that he would have to tell Picard about this eventually, right? Sooner or later, his plan would involve putting cloaking devices on every ship in the fleet, so everyone in Starfleet would have to be told about it. Maybe he figured he could sell his superiors on the idea later on, but it still seems fishy to me. Then again, it suits Pressman’s character that he’s too obsessed with his plan to consider all the contingencies.

I just watched “The Next Phase” today, because that one’s always bugged me, because Geordi and Ro spend most of the episode in an invisible, intangible state. They can see and hear and touch each other, but no one else, thanks to a transporter accident involving another experimental cloaking device. Except they can’t fall through the decks of whatever ship they’re on, and they can still breathe. So shouldn’t Geordi be able to get someone’s attention by stomping on the deck until someone hears the noise? Wouldn’t the ship’s life support system notice that more people are breathing than there are on board? But the episode is just too damn good for me to care for very long. Ro thinks they’re ghosts, and Geordi might agree with her except he’s a cyborg and he’s pretty sure you don’t take your prosthetics with you when you die. It’s this neat interplay involving faith. Ro never believed in the afterlife until now, and Geordi is convinced that he and the crew can still save each other.

The main moral I run into here is that it doesn’t have to be this airtight thing. I’ll write things and feel like they don’t work because they feel like retreads of things I’ve done before, but sometimes that’s okay. Sometimes it’s a theme, or a motif, or a refrain or whatever. It doesn’t always have to be a matter of not being creative enough or original enough. Sometimes things need to be repeated for emphasis. And sometimes things are de-emphasized, to the point where inconsistencies may not get addressed. A lot of times, the villain’s plan may seem extremely short-sighted or half-baked, precisely because it’s doomed to fail early on, so it really doesn’t matter how it would have held up in the long term. That kind of thing.

And if it’s okay for TNG to do it, then it shouldn’t be a big deal when I do it, so that’s what I need to remind myself of here.

#/#//#///#////#/////#writing

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winterune · 5 years ago

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A Long and Late Review on Tenki no Ko

Seeing clips of Tenki no Ko or listening to Radwimps' OSTs for both Tenki no Ko and Kimi no Na wa, I'm always struck with this lacking feeling...this sense that something is incomplete. It's not that I don't like the movie. I do. The visuals were great. The songs and music were awesome. Just that...there's something that's not there and I'm not quite sure what (there's a tl;dr at the very bottom btw)

I remember that the first thing that came to mind after I got out of the cinema after watching it was: "it's not rounded" (if that's even the correct term haha). Remembering Tenki no Ko now doesn't give me that feeling of contentment like other Shinkai movies. My friends liked it. One of them even cried. They said that it was better than Kimi no Na wa, that they liked it better. One of them, who doesn't like Kimi no Na wa, said that Kimi no Na wa was too mushy, too melodramatic, too unrealistic, whereas she thought that Tenki no Ko felt like a lot better. And I don't really know why I can't feel, or even understand, the way she feels, because I don't think the movie has any obvious flaws. It's a good movie. I just...feel slightly disconnected with it.

OK, maybe I came into the movie still with Kimi no Na wa expectations in mind, but I don't think it was that bad. I mean, I've liked Shinkai for a long while now. I love 5 cm per second and Garden of Words before that. I'm not going to compare all of his works to Kimi no Na wa. Maybe with Radwimps doing the music and having the same character designer made it easier to fall into that trap, but I tried not to.

What felt disconnected to me were the characters. Taki and Mitsuha felt much more rounded and grounded. Even the side characters were given distinctive personalities that the world feels alive. Yes, the story can be seen as too mushy and wishy-washy and melodramatic, but well that's Shinkai. His movies are almost always tear-jerkers that plays with our emotions. But, that's ok, because I feel with the characters. I understand where they're coming from. I know their stakes. So when we reach the climax, the tears just started coming out of their own accord.

In Tenki no Ko, for one, we never know about Hodaka's background, and I think that the way you receive the movie will depend on your interpretation of Hodaka's character. At the start of the story, we're immediately dumped on a ship in the middle of the sea with a huge storm going on. Hodaka's a runaway, whose reasons he didn't want to disclose throughout the entire movie. We gathered that he ran away from home, his parents were looking for him, and the only thing he would tell us is that hr was chasing after the light.

Now, what is this light? Is it a metaphor? Is it a real light? From the way he looked as he was riding his bike chading after the light until he stopped at the cliff, it can be assumed that he may not havr a great time at school, at home, or both. He might have been bullied. His family didn't understand him. So he wanted to run toward the light. OR, the dirt and exhaustion on his face could just be due to him riding his bike through the hill and maybe fall down the dirt once or twice. In that case, "the light" he's chasing could just stem from an adventurous side of him, and that's also why he ran away with not much of a preparation. But we don't really know, do we? It's all up to our imagination and interpretation. They tease us with a possible back story, only to back track and say "it's hard to say."

However, because we were never shown his back story, we don't know what his goal is. What does he want? What does he hope to happen or find by going to Tokyo? It's all cryptic, but I don't really have any problems with cryptic, implicit messages--if they'd given us at least some signs on whay they want to tell. Because of this, I still don't understand the significancies of some plot points except them only being plot devices with no other purpose whatsoever (I'm looking at you, gun and detectives).

Hodaka had the most lack of back story and that hinders me from being sympathetic toward his cause. All I know from him is that he's just some kid who runs away from home with no intentions of going back, trying to make a decent living under some journalist kind enough to take him under his wing, and by some random chance, he falls for a girl meant to be a "sacrifice to save the world." *palmface* Yeah, it's good and all, but it's only plot plot plot and more plot. Even that ending felt somehow cheap and ended in a cliffhanger. It's just--uuunghhhh!!!! I can't symphatize with Hodaka at all.

Hina, however, was better. She was given a short but suffice back story enough to get me invested in her. In a bid to have a walk under one sunny day with her sick mother, she became what was later turned to be a "human sacrifice to save the world." Now, this is where it gets interesting. On my first watch, I had no idea what thr movie was trying to tell. On my second watch, however, I at least understand that this is more or less Hina's story than Hodaka's. With Hina getting caught up in the events of the universe. Something that has happened from time to time. And there was always a sacrifice to be given "to set the world right again" and it just so happens to be Hina in this present time. Only, Hodaka doesn't want to let Hina go and he goes to great length to get her back.

This, in return, reflects another prominent plot point regarding the journalist helping Hodaka out (I forgot his name), especially on his grief and mourning toward his late wife. A wish to meet someone--a loved one--again, one more time. I think this is the central theme, what's with this being the main conflict and the climax and all. Heck, I think Radwimps' main theme (Ai ni dekiru koto wa mada aru kai) is about that.

Several other side characters also receives good writing, especially the journalist's niece. Even Nagi didn't have that much personality in my opinion (I still hate the detectives and I have no idea why they are there. Heck, why is the whole gun subplot there in the first place, except for being a plot device to have Hodaka run for his life? Oh! And having a gun that one time he thought he was protecting Hina 😂)

Having said that, I'm not saying that the story was bad. No. Far from it. The story was actually really cool. I love the whole Japanese lore thing with the rain god and all. And how the current events are only something happening in a chain of events that have happened for centuries. Hina isn't the first sacrifice the people had to offer to stop the rain. That is something I love. However, I think the world building could have been explained more. I wanted more info on the fish things and the huge spheres of water that were just floating in midair before bursting and drenching everything beneath it.

Even though I said the movie was only plot plot plot, it's not that I didn't enjoy it. The first half was all fun and good while the second half got really intense and I found my eyes glued to the screen. Hina's disappearance and the climax were two of my favorite scenes. The Grand Escape scene was also really well-done. Also, the songs felt really in tune with all the scenes :)

There's one more thing I need to mention: the movie had 2 upbeat songs, and in each song, Shinkai used too much of a sudden upward camera angles showing the clouds (OK sorry I don't know how to describe that 😅). Like, "the song's playing! Here're some clouds :D" 😂 It got really annoying.

*sigh* I think that's about it. A late review on Tenki no Ko. TL;DR the movie's good. The visuals were great. The songs were so in tune with the movie that it was really nice :D The story was cool, though it could have been tweaked a little bit more to make it more cohesive. My main complaint is with the characters, mostly Hodaka. His lack of back story hinders me from understanding his goals, from understanding him, hence I simply can't symphatize with him. At all. Also, that ending. Sure I get that they're trying to say "things are bad, but there's no point in mulling over it. There's no room for regret. What's done is done. All we have to do now is move forward. So, as long as we have each other, we/everything will be fine." And then Radwimps' Daijoubu starts. Yeah, I understand what they're trying to say, but it just feels weird and off and out of place and feels like a cliffhanger. Still, overall, I enjoyed the movie, albeit slightly confused at the overall theme they're trying to convey, and frustrated at the incompleteness of it (lol sorry don't know if that's a proper term).

#tenki no ko #weathering with you #makoto shinkai #shinkai makoto #tenki no ko musings #anime #musings #anime musings #reviews #anime reviews

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hannahhostofheaven · 5 years ago

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Updated rules

I updated my rules, here’s the link: https://hannahhostofheaven.tumblr.com/rules

They are mostly the same with just a few updates. You need to have read my rules before we RP:

* I will follow you as my MUN blog with is @Hannah-deserved-better

* My OTP is always Hannah/Castiel so keep that in mind. My Hannah will always have a thing for Castiel. I am opened to RPing with other blogs but there probably won’t be any romance.

* I am open to poly pairings so if you want to do something with Castiel, Hannah, and someone else, I’m okay with that as long as it’s not Destiel or Wincest. I don’t ship either of those. I am open to Sastiel plus Hannah, Megstiel plus Hannah, OCs, whatever. But it needs to have chemistry.

* Note that I am a demisexual and bisexual person and as such, so is Hannah. Demisexual means I don’t just jump into sexual relationships without there being an emotional and mental relationship first.

* not interested in RPing with anyone who views angels as brothers and sisters cuz as I said, I ship Castiel/Hannah so our views will not be compatible.

* I play Hannah using Erica Carroll as a face claim.

* Caroline Johnson is available to RP with upon request.

* No god modding or making my character act without me. Don’t anticipate or assume what my character is going to do, I retain complete control of her. Also, no time jumps without discussing it first.

* Don’t nag me for a reply. I am very busy and real life comes first, I will try to reply when I can, and if I need another long break I’ll let you know.

* discuss plot with me. I am a plot driven writer and I like to plan things out. I am open to pretty much everything but I like mulling things over.

* It’s my belief that Hannah would be on the autism spectrum if she were human so any Human Hannah AUs will be like that.

* MUN is autistic.

* female vessel Castiel blogs are welcome.

* I play Hannah in character as I see her in the show. How she reacts to things doesn’t necessarily reflect the MUN’s personal views. Hannah is passionate for an angel but she is very stuck on her idea of angel code, law, and justice. The internal conflict can sometimes make her doubt herself and often makes her a bit of a contradiction. When her angel code says one thing and her feelings say another, she can have conflict. She is also impulsive and quick to anger. I am always trying to better my performance of her, but she certainly has a lot of strengths and a lot of flaws and you can expect me to play her that way. If she gets mad at your character don’t take it to mean it has anything to do with the MUN, I am just channeling Hannah.

* I don’t like just jumping into a relationship. I like to establish things first. It can’t be forced. Sometimes our muses get together very fast, sometimes there is angry hate sex first before there is love, sometimes it’s a slow burn, but we definitely have to go at the same speed. I never want to just start writing a situation where our muses are just automatically in a relationship from the beginning.

** ** I’ve eased up on my stance regarding smut lately, but I still tend to be kind of fickle about it, I have to be in the mood for it, so please check first. I am always okay with mild sex scenes and abstract sex scenes where we keep to metaphors and such, and I am not really into hardcore stuff. I reserve the right to fade to black if I’m not feeling it. Also, I do not write porn. My roleplays are plot centered adventures that can INCLUDE sex but nor REVOLVE AROUND sex.

* Also, on that note, if we are writing and I sense that a sex scene might be coming up, I’ll probably PM you (or you PM me) so we can be sure we are both on the same page.

* no child OCs.

* I like angsty, dark themes, hurt/comfort type plots. I really don’t have any known triggers, but check with me first. I am okay with torture and with plots involving rape, though not with children. Also note on rape: I will not RP graphic scenes of rape, I will always fade to black, no exceptions. Also Hannah will not be in any kind of relationship with your character if they are the ones doing the abuse.

* I don’t do the whole ABO alpha omega thing. I don’t understand how it works at all and it’s really just not my thing.

* My stories tend to be heavy on Supernatural lore so if you aren’t familiar with the show, I suggest checking out the Supernatural Wiki. I utilize it quite a bit myself: http://supernatural.wikia.com/wiki/Supernatural

* I’m not really into working outside the Supernatural verse, though sometimes I might be okay with crossing over with related verses such as Buffy the Vampire slayer, but I won't want to work in a verse that I personally don’t know about (and I don’t watch a lot of TV so I am not part of many fandoms) so when in doubt, stick with Supernatural.

* We need to establish which season we are working with. If we don’t, I will assume that we are working with the most current season, in which case, I will default to the idea that Hannah has been dead since season 11, when she was killed by the angel Efram, when she was in her male vessel, and she died trying to defend Castiel, and was somehow brought back to life.

* Please try to play in character and with canon in mind. We will definitely be breaking with canon, but it needs to always be a guideline.

* Mun is over 30. Mun is also married and has a job so the demands on my time can be formidable. Mun is in California so we are dealing with Pacific Standard Time.

* Supernatural deals with angels and demons and a lot of religious lore. I tend to stick closely to canon when it comes to lore and things like that, so if you are religious its probably best not to get offended by things like Lucifer and such because it’s just a show. I personally don’t come from a religious background, though my husband, who is very well versed in Judeo-Christian mystics, helps me in those areas of the show. I also happen to hold a degree in history and am pretty knowledgeable in anthropology, mythology, and world religions. That being said, I suggest we keep to the guidelines and criteria dictated by the show, not the bible.

* I am relatively new to Tumblr roleplays so I am not completely fluent in the lingo and such. I don’t know how to do icon threads and I don’t know what discord or anything like that is so we should stick with thread style format. Although I do like to insert pictures and gifs into my posts once in a while.

Headcanons:

* Hannah is an angel’s angel, she lives by her rules, but she finds inner conflict with her feelings. She believes in law, justice, and order.

* She is a unique angel in that she has emotions. This makes her more intuitive than other angels. She is quite passionate and although she doesn’t always understand emotions, she just knows she has them. She has a temper, especially when someone taunts her or Castiel.

* Hannah has a fascination with Humanity, although she holds and maintains a distance with these creatures she doesn’t quite understand. She tends to find ‘human things’ like eating unsettling and disgusting, at first, but she is open-minded and when given enough encouragement, she will try new things.

* Hannah likes plants and plant life. She has an aversion to things like fences, borders, and barriers. Some things she retained from Caroline was being a bit of a daydreamer, animal lover, and an adventurous world traveler. In RPGs were Caroline was able to have a career, she always pursued something in travel and tourism, or in anthropology.

* In this headcanon, Hannah has given up her vessel’s soul who has gone to heaven, leaving Hannah her body. But she still recalls certain events from Caroline’s life, like living in Montana. Her favorite animals are horses, dogs, and tigers.

* In this headcanon, Caroline and her husband were not on the best of terms. Depending on RPG, Joe can be seen as neglectful at best, abusive at worst, and there was a reason why Caroline said Yes to Hannah in the first place. This may or may not contradict canon, depending on your interpretations of it.

* I think Hannah has cream colored wings with golden yellow tips, see blog banner picture.

* Hannah is considered a relatively young angel. She is perhaps 5-10 million years old which when compared to the archangels which are perhaps billions of years old,is very young. She is older than humanity but wasn’t around to see dinosaurs.

* Caroline Johnson was born February 25th, 1980 in Great Falls, Montana. She is a Pisces.

* Hannah has had limited dealings with humans but she does have a certain bond with Caroline Johnson.

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friendlyneighborhoodborg · 6 years ago

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Marc Appreciation Week 2019| Day 1: Writing| “The First Session”

So this is literally the first fanfiction I’ve ever published, done for @wearemiraculous / @seasonofthegeek ‘s Miraculous Ladybug event, celebrating everyone’s adopted son, Marc Anciel. I planned this overarching story back when it was first announced, so before the actual prompts were given, so I don’t know if the days will actually match up very well. Disclaimers (PLEASE READ) and chapter are under the cut.

(~c. 1500 words, for those of you who care about that kind of thing.)

Chapters:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Disclaimers before the actual content: I am not affiliated with anyone involved with creating Miraculous Ladybug. I’m just a fan, this is just fanfiction. This is a seven-part fic, one chapter for each day (if I can finish them on time), and it features heavy LGBTQ+ themes and mentions gender dysphoria (Not in this chapter but in later chapters). I am not dysphoric, nor have I ever been, and I identify as a straight male. As such, I may get something wrong. Please, tell me if I do get something wrong so I can fix it. The last thing I want is to hurt anyone with this.

Also, mild language warning.

Okay, I think that’s everything.

Sunday… by the blue, purple, yellow, red water… on the green, purple, yellow, red grass…

Well, no, actually. He was in a public library, not a park, and the closest thing to a river was a drinking fountain a few shelves to his left. Still, it was Sunday, and this was the song that was piping in through Nathaniel’s earbuds.

‘You’ll love it,’ Rose had said. ‘It’s inspired by that painting, the famous one with all the dots.’

‘Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte,’ he had guessed. ‘By Georges Seurat?’

‘Yeah, that one. It’s about all the people in the painting, and all their troubles getting masked by the artist creating one fictional, perfect afternoon. And then Act II is his grandson having to deal with creating the same things over and over. And it’s just…’ There, Rose wiped a few tears from her still-red eyes. ‘It’s some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. The same composer wrote Into the Woods.’

‘And Sweeney Todd,’ Juleka had mumbled from close by.

Well, he couldn’t argue with Rose. There were some incredible melodies, and watching the filmed version (at Rose’s insistence) had brought some tears to his eyes.

It was about art.

It was about himself, too, in a way.

In the play, Georges invests himself so far into the fictional world in his painting that he neglects his lover, his family, and even his own life in the end.

In real life, Nathaniel had gotten so wrapped up in his art that he had started to see everyone else as an obstacle to the creative spirit.

“Hey,” a voice mumbled. “Sorry I’m late.”

Which is how he found himself here, in this mess.

“It’s no problem.” Nathaniel glanced at his phone. “You’re actually early.”

“I know,” Marc said tensely, quietly slipping into a chair across from him. “But I still got here after you, so…”

“Like I said, no problem. I wasn’t bored.”

“Oh?” Marc looked at Nathan’s sketchbook, which was open on the table. “What are you drawing?”

Nathaniel regarded his creation. It wasn’t anything too special: a tree, a river, a bench, all in a park scene done in swooping, curved lines. The shading was done with a bunch of little tick marks instead of the smooth gradient style he sometimes did.

“Just a scene,” he answered. “From this musical I’ve been listening to.”

“Sunday in the Park with George?”

Nathaniel nodded. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Uh, Rose – that’s her name, right? – she told me about it. She said her friend and her dad were in it together.”

“Yeah, Mylène?”

“That was it.”

“Yeah. She’s been forcing everyone in the art club to listen to the soundtrack for weeks.” Nath flipped to a different page in the sketchbook. “You’re the newest member, so naturally you’re her latest victim.”

Marc gave a weak laugh, but his expression stayed sober. “So how is it?”

“Hm?��

“The play. Is it any good?”

“Oh.” He mulled over this. “I like it,” he decided, even if he felt that didn’t answer the question. “It’s a… perspective on the art piece. Definitely unconventional.”

“Yeah.” Marc fingered the hem of his hoodie and bit his lip. “It is a bit weird, isn’t it? Writing something that big inspired by one piece of visual art.”

“Yep. And I’m now drawing something inspired by that. Comes back around, doesn’t it?” Nathaniel cringed, like he always did when he tried to be profound. Profundity didn’t suit his verbal abilities.

To his surprise, Marc nodded in agreement. “The cyclical, cannibalistic nature of art.”

“Cannibalistic,” Nathan repeated, amused. “That’s good. I like that word. It’s very… blunt.”

“It’s a strong choice,” Marc agreed. “Connoting something brutish or barbaric.”

“Works perfectly for art, then.”

Marc smiled this time. “Guess it does,” he said. His voice, to Nathaniel’s perception, seemed to take on some quality, giving it a lighter… texture?

‘No that isn’t right. What’s that called?’ he pondered. Whatever it was, it was a welcome change from Marc’s usual moody demeanor. The small smile on his face was uniquely refreshing, emotionally speaking.

“Kinda like this, huh?” he noted. “I mean, I was doodling, you wrote stuff for it, and now I’m drawing based off what you wrote. I’m cannibalizing myself via you.”

Marc lost his smile. Nathan suddenly felt bad, like all the weight in the air had fallen in around him.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “Forget I… I was trying to be clever, never mind.”

The heaviness in the room was making it difficult for him to breathe.

“So…” Marc tried to break the silence. Nathan winced inwardly at the shift in social dynamic. Apparently, he also winced outwardly, because Marc suddenly started to backtrack. “I mean, you, um…” His voice dropped to a timid whisper. “Oh, shit.”

Marc made to get up, grabbing the bag that was hung on his chair. “Wait, no, I’m sorry,” Nath pleaded.

“This isn’t going to work.” The writer shook his head. “I’m sorry for taking up your time.”

“Look, it’s my fault.” Marc stopped moving. “I’m sorry, I’m just not used to… working with people.” At the deflated look this received, Nath amended himself. “I want to, though. Let’s just give this a chance, okay?”

“Oh.” Marc set down his bag and withdrew his journal. “Uh… okay.”

“Yeah. I don’t exactly know how to… do…” He stopped talking, not knowing what word he could finish with.

“Collaborations?”

“Yeah. I’m not sure… What’s the, um, protocol here?”

Marc shifted in his seat, playing with the cover of his book. “I don’t really think there is a set protocol.”

“Oh. Sorry, my bad, I just—”

“No, you’re fine, I’m the one who should—”

They both stopped talking over each other. Once again, they merely looked down at their own papers in silence.

After a minute of this, Nathaniel decided, against his better judgement, to address the elephant at the table.

“So… Yesterday, huh?”

Marc continued to hunch over.

“You got akumatized.” Not like the superfan was going to judge. “You really wanted in on this project, huh?”

Marc shut his eyes tight. He whispered, “It wasn’t that.”

Nath was surprised. “Oh? Then…”

“I just wanted to…” For the first time in the meeting, Marc momentarily lost his tongue. “I don’t know how it got to that. I just wanted to say that you were… and then Marinette just made it about us working together…” He shrugged, defeated. “It just sort of escalated.”

“Oh,” Nathaniel nodded. “Then we agree.”

“Huh?”

“Marinette is terrible at mediating people.”

“Oh.” Another smile, much smaller than the first, graced his lips, which his collaborator was grateful for. “Heh. She really is, huh?”

‘Levity,’ Nathan realized, looking at Marc’s smile. ‘That’s the word I was looking for earlier.’

He wanted to keep the conversation going. “So… what were going to say about me? So you can get that out of the way.”

It took a while for him to answer. “It’s just… I really like… your art. There’s just something in it.” He looked away, blushing with what Nathaniel assumed was embarrassment. “You seem to really care about it. Not really in any way I’ve ever seen before. I-It’s so well-constructed, too, plot-wise.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.” The scriptwriter rubbed his arm. “I mean… I’m not an expert, but I like stories that… you know.”

The cartoonist didn’t know, but he kept that to himself.

“Why do you, um…” Marc gulped. “What led you to… drawing? And doing stories like this?”

“Why do I do this?” Nath thought about this for a moment. “I can’t really say.”

“Okay.” Marc didn’t push further.

They continued to sit silently, until Nath once again spoke up.

“Do you ever feel like there’s something that’s just…”

His accomplice tried guessing. “Wrong?”

“Exactly.” Nathaniel crossed his arms. “Something that’s just wrong with you.”

“Yeah,” Marc nodded. “I think that’s normal.”

“It really isn’t. Or it shouldn’t be.”

“I’ll agree on that.”

“It’s part of why I do this.” Nath shrugged pensively. “It just feels right.”

Marc smiled. “That’s how I feel about writing.” He tried to clarify. “You know, like, constructing words, into sentences and paragraphs and stories. And then you come up with that great sentence, that play on ideas, and it’s just…” Seeing that his point didn’t really get across, he elaborated. “I am to words as you are to… let’s say, colors.”

“I can tell.” Nath motioned to Marc’s journal. “From what I’ve read, you’re really an artist with them.”

Marc blushed again, though Nath couldn’t tell from what. “You really think so?”

“Yeah. Even just talking to you is… well, kind of exhilarating.” Wondering if that was the right word to use, he backtracked. “Something like that, I guess. Anyway…” He closed his sketchbook. “What do you say we finally start working?”

Marc’s expression shifted to surprise. “W-working?”

“Yeah.” He got out of his seat and walked around to Marc’s side. “Show me what you’ve been writing.”

“O-okay.” He reluctantly opened his journal. “Well, it’s not really, um, much, but there’s this thing you did after Copycat that I sort of expanded on…”

So, yeah, that was Day 1. Sorry if it sucked, I’m really new to this and I’ve never posted anything before. That’s my excuse. Please don’t send hate, but I will take constructive criticism. Therefore, if you do send hate, pretend it’s that instead.

The whole thing is actually not fully finished, but I’ll try to get everything up here eventually regardless of whether or not I can do it all in time.

#miraculous ladybug #marc anciel #nathaniel kurtzberg #Marc Appreciation Week #fanfic

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exalted-rebel · 3 years ago

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About this translation:

1.) Free to use. Free to translate/retranslate. Free to copy/repost. Free to alter. Free to save. Free to print. Free to adapt to any medium. No need to notify me. No need to ask my permission. Only two stipulations: Please DO NOT sell it in any way, shape, or form. By doing so under the conditions of international copyright law, you risk dooming us all. And second: I like to be given credit for what portion of the work I have done. Please link back to this site.

2.) This is a “transformative MTL.” I initially use machine translation (plus consultation with some friends who study Mandarin when I don’t understand a portion of the text), then I essentially regurgitate all the semantic knowledge I’ve acquired for each paragraph into English sentences concocted by my brain. I also utilize beta readers, who are credited for their labor alongside my translation consultants in my acknowledgements at the end of every chapter. This is in many ways a collaborative effort.

3.) To put to rest any accusations of plagiarism: I DO read other translations of this series and openly use the ExiledRebels translation as a reference- Not for plagiarism, but rather, to avoid it. I consult the ExiledRebels translation regularly to try to make sure what I’m providing is substantially different from the past translator, K’s, attempt. However, sometimes my MTL or other translators have simply already struck upon the best English phrasing for a sentence, in which case I typically opt to keep it as is. No need to reinvent the wheel, in my opinion. I also consider other translators’ work a means of fact-checking my own interpretations of lines to seek an accurate consensus. I highly value the work of those who went before me and would like to give credit where credit is due.

4.) My intent is to write a translation that reads as fun and effortlessly as any popular English language fantasy novel that one would consume at a Barnes n Noble coffee shop. To this end: I fundamentally do not care if MXTX has been “problematic” in some sense with her word choices or anything of the sort in the original work. I don’t sit down and argue with myself during the translation process about what MXTX really meant or intended with certain words because my first priority is not pinpoint accuracy, but rather creating something that will be enjoyable to my audience. I don’t intend to translate in a way that professes to be wholly accurate to MXTX’s vision. This would be impossible. I don’t know her mind. Translation is inherently a transformative act- and I choose to lean into this. Instead of mulling over MXTX’s intent, I will always choose the path that reads most favorably to me and my beta readers.

5.) I am not an expert in Chinese culture. This is an obvious detriment with regards to my own comprehension of the original text and means I spend additional time not only translating chapters line by line but painstakingly researching the cultural context of certain phrases, references, and concepts. In some ways however, this can be a benefit to my goals as a translator rather than a detriment. I believe my own baseline ignorance can be beneficial in the sense that I can use myself as a good gauge of what an average Western audience member does or does not know and what doesn’t translate across culture- and I can therefore provide additional explanation in-text after research and consult to help fill in the gaps and make a more seamless reading experience. I aim to make something that is approachable to Western audiences by letting my audience learn with me rather than erasing culture to substitute a more easily understood Western equivalent in the place of foreign concepts.

6.) I am a bisexual man. I filter the contents of the novel through my own experience as a queer man, and I write with an English-speaking LGBTQ+ (especially mlm) audience explicitly in mind. There’s an argument to be made that danmei as a genre exists for heterosexual women, but part of what draws me to MDZS is its international relevance to the queer community (because hey! This is breaking through a lot of societal barriers regarding censorship of mlm relationships! And the representation is overwhelmingly positive! The main couple actually gets married and raises a child; that’s great!) and because I genuinely, genuinely enjoy the source material as a queer person. When I was first exposed to MDZS, I saw Wei Wuxian as a morally ambiguous figure with glowing red eyes, billowing robes, a haunting flute, and a horde of zombies at his command- he was powerful and cool- …AND ALSO bisexual. In Western culture, a lot of “representation” written by cishet people unintentionally marginalizes us by casting us as either villains, sassy friends of the protagonists, or victims of tragedy- and a lot of popular queer media, in retaliation, attempts to humanize us by making us “strong” but nonthreatening and seeks to create stories that are as “unproblematic” as possible. In my opinion, both approaches have their problems and essentially deny us the full spectrum of our own humanity by imposing limitations on what roles we are allowed to play. Upon seeing Wei Wuxian, in my mind, I thought, “Yeah, this is the kind of representation I want! Just a straight-forwardly cool character, who also isn’t straight! A queer character who is fully allowed to have moral ambiguity, imperfections, sins, and depth.”

There’s also, as a queer reader, a certain wish fulfillment and schadenfreude in watching WWX on the loose. After his reincarnation, he’s in the body of an already openly queer man who is perceived by his peers to be a “lunatic.” WWX has no propriety or status to lose, and thus he gets to just do and say whatever he wants. For anyone who has had to be closeted out of necessity, this can make watching WWX troll homophobic characters with his open sexual proclivity and knowledge of what will offend their sensibilities really enjoyable. Some of the past translation work by ExiledRebels however does not exactly live up to this euphoric experience that I project onto the novel and can be interpreted as homophobic. As a translator, the devil’s in the details to construct a translation wherein rhetorical decisions allow queer readers to be in on the joke rather than the butt of the joke. And for the most part- I do feel uniquely positioned to make a stronger attempt at achieving this than my predecessors.

7.) I’m invested in MDZS because I think the source material is genuinely strong. The main character is interesting and fun to watch. The main couple is extremely compelling and appeals to a lot of popular romantic tropes. The plot is startling and dramatic. The underlying themes of the novel itself with the duality of “light” and “dark” and how the concepts of “good” and “evil” are socially constructed are great. I’m struck by how much potential there is for this novel to be a sensation among Western audiences, and I feel one of the things preventing that has simply been the absence of an open-access, compelling, professional translation.

- Mod Achilles.

#exalted-rebel #about

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greatconjunction · 7 years ago

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Kira: What are those funny marks? Jen: This is all writing. Kira: What’s writing? Jen: Words that stay.

If you’ve never seen the 1982 movie The Dark Crystal, then don’t just stand there, go find it! My family saw it in theaters when I was around 12 years old. It wasn’t what you’d call a really big blockbuster when it first came out; we were the only family in the whole theater for that showing. But I remember staring at the screen, simply enrapt by the spectacle of it all.

It’s a timeless tale along the lines of a basic Hero’s Journey. Jen, an affable elflike fella called a Gelfling, is an orphan raised by the Heffalump-looking Mystics; his parents and indeed almost his entire race have been murdered by the rulers of that land, the vulture-like Skeksis, who send horrible crablike monsters out to find them. The wisest of the Mystics took the young Gelfling under his wing after rescuing him from those monsters and taught him to read and write, as well as to at least understand the basics of magic (though Jen doesn’t really do anything strictly-speaking magical in the movie).

But Jen’s gentle master is dying. He barely has time to relate a prophecy to Jen that the Gelfling must complete, or else the world as they know it will end. So, still mourning his now-deceased master, Jen sets off and has many adventures doing that. Along the way he meets a cute female Gelfling named Kira and a weird astronomer-hermit called Aughra, explores ruins from his race’s past, and encounters a huge variety of critters in that alien world.

As it turns out, the prophecy says that a Gelfling will fix the broken Crystal and basically destroy the Skeksis in the process, so obviously they’re very interested in finding and killing all Gelflings. This crystal-healing has to happen before the Great Conjunction, which is basically a triple eclipse where all three of that planet’s suns align perfectly in the sky. Jen has to fulfill the prophecy before that alignment happens.

Considering that the movie was made well before CGI became a regular thing for moviemakers (and often an annoyance for moviegoers), it’s a masterpiece in every sense of the word. The story might be kinda overused, but the set designs, puppet designs, puppetry skills themselves, and the overarching themes of love, hope, perseverance, heroism, and compassion all hit a chord with the movie’s fans. The villains of the movie are, themselves, kinda puppy-kicking caricature villains who appear to be nasty for the joy of it, but by the end there’s a decent rationalization given for why they are that way–and as their Crystal is healed, so are they. There are a lot of interesting philosophical ideas here, ones that I’m still mulling over decades later.

As one might expect of a movie like this, it’s actually a considerably darker and more grown-up movie than kids get nowadays; really, I’d consider it more of an all-ages film. Many of its scenes are incredibly intense–evil monsters raid villages and enslave innocent people, who then are “drained of their essence” by one of the Skeksis in an arcane procedure and thus turned into near-zombie slaves, and the heroes find themselves in several life-and-death struggles. Also, in addition to the genocide of the Gelflings there are some vast betrayals and counter-betrayals going on, plus some politicking of the most earnest sort. (I don’t have kids, but if I had to name an age range for this thing, I’d probably go 10ish and up. I was way into comic books by age 12, and I didn’t have any trouble at all with it.)

But it’s really the worldbuilding that got my attention that day 35 years ago and has kept it ever since. I like older movies because I love seeing the ingenuity of moviemakers from a time before CGI. And there’s a lot of it here. It’s astonishing to watch any scene in the movie and think to oneself, Someone had to hand-create, sculpt, and arrange every single thing I’m seeing here. Every plant’s frond, every wrinkle in every face, every single home and temple and dining-hall, every creature from the squeaky mice to the breathtaking landstriders that Jen and Kira ride on the last leg of their trip, and every swamp and river and dribbling storm drain, all of it had to be done completely from scratch. And it was done properly and well.

Jim Henson’s crew did their usual spectacular job with the puppetry, of course; it seems like most viewers generally forget that they’re seeing puppets at all, as characters react to their surroundings and to each other. The moviemakers drew upon the artistic genius of the prolific English artist Brian Froud (who also did work for the 1986 movie Labyrinth and put out a number of art books, including a classic you might have heard of, Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book). He has a very distinctive style, one that the puppet- and set-designers took loving advantage of to create a world that looked nothing like anything we’d ever seen before back then.

There’s a real honesty in The Dark Crystal, both in spirit and in execution. Jim Henson himself called it “a work of art,” as well as the most difficult thing he’d ever done–and the work that made him feel the proudest.

AND GUESS WHAT?

Aughra: Who sent you? Jen: My master, wisest of the mystics. Aughra: Where is he? Jen: He’s dead. Aughra: Hmph. Could be anywhere then.

The Dark Crystal is returning!

Indeed, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is debuting soon on Netflix in a miniseries that takes place a few decades before the events of the movie.

From what I can see, both the Henson Creature Shop and Brian Froud are coming back too! They’ve already said that this new series will be mostly practical effects and real puppetry, with a little bit of CGI. Hopefully it won’t be a lot, though it may be simply an unavoidable evil at this point, I guess.

Me personally, I’m just waiting to see how 35 years of advances in animatronics and other technology are going to look with Jim Henson-style puppetry. The very little I’ve seen of it (like in trailers, like the one above here) indicate that it’s gonna be epic. It’ll concern three Gelflings who discover the dark secret of the Skeksis and try to organize a rebellion against them.

But it’s also gonna be a little while yet before it turns up on Netflix. Shooting begins soon, but you know how these things go.

Our Fascination With the Sky.

When single shines the triple sun, What was sundered and undone shall be whole: The two made one, by Gelfling hand or else by none.

–The central prophecy of The Dark Crystal

Astronomy has fascinated humans for many tens of thousands of years. La Wiki calls astronomy “the oldest of the natural sciences,” saying it tied directly into the very birth of our ideas about religion as well as the innovation of the calendar. One can certainly see why.

And humans’ first fumbling efforts to understand what they were seeing in the night sky now comprise many of the earliest artifacts we’ve discovered from their time: scratches on bones and stone, standing-stones built to surprisingly precise astronomical measurements, metal calendar discs set with moons and star-clusters, and even fascinating giant golden hats covered in astronomical symbols. When we rose up from all fours, we looked up at the sky, and it seems like we never stopped.

That’s perhaps why there are hundreds of fictional stories that hinge their plots on astronomical phenomena of various kinds. Pretty much as soon as we began making movies at all, too, we were putting astronomical events like eclipses into them (remember the one that broke the lovers’ curse in Ladyhawke?). So in that sense, The Dark Crystal is simply one of many movies that recognize our species’ tendency to see eclipses as bringers or portents of great change.

In the real world, though, a lot of us still see them that way. Since those earliest days of our history, eclipses alone have shown up in all kinds of ancient myths all around the world. Christianity is no exception to that observation, either; various astronomical events show up more than a few times in both the Old and New Testaments–and as this newest prophecy shows us, even today a great many Christians struggle with how to interpret these events.

#the dark crystal #dark crystal

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hannah-deserved-better · 5 years ago

Text

RPG starter call

Like this or reach out to me if you are a Castiel muse and would like to RPG with Hannah and would like me to send you a starter. Or reach out if you would like to collaborate on a poly pairing with Hannah, Castiel, and a muse of your choice (as long as it's not Destiel or Wincest). I’ll be reaching out via my Hannah muse side-blog @hannahhostofheaven but please read the rules below and some headcanons, I copied and pasted them from my Hannah muse;

They are mostly the same with just a few updates. You need to have read my rules before we RP:

* I will follow you as my MUN blog with is @Hannah-deserved-better

* My OTP is always Hannah/Castiel so keep that in mind. My Hannah will always have a thing for Castiel. I am opened to RPing with other blogs but there probably won’t be any romance.

* not interested in RPing with anyone who views angels as brothers and sisters cuz as I said, I ship Castiel/Hannah so our views will not be compatible.

* I play Hannah using Erica Carroll as a face claim.

* Caroline Johnson is available to RP with upon request.

* Don’t nag me for a reply. I am very busy and real life comes first, I will try to reply when I can, and if I need another long break I’ll let you know.

* discuss plot with me. I am a plot driven writer and I like to plan things out. I am open to pretty much everything but I like mulling things over.

* It’s my belief that Hannah would be on the autism spectrum if she were human so any Human Hannah AUs will be like that.

* MUN is autistic.

* female vessel Castiel blogs are welcome.

* Also, on that note, if we are writing and I sense that a sex scene might be coming up, I’ll probably PM you (or you PM me) so we can be sure we are both on the same page.

* no child OCs.

* I don’t do the whole ABO alpha omega thing. I don’t understand how it works at all and it’s really just not my thing.

* I’m not really into working outside the Supernatural verse, though sometimes I might be okay with crossing over with related verses such as Buffy the Vampire slayer, but I won’t want to work in a verse that I personally don’t know about (and I don’t watch a lot of TV so I am not part of many fandoms) so when in doubt, stick with Supernatural.

* Please try to play in character and with canon in mind. We will definitely be breaking with canon, but it needs to always be a guideline.

* Mun is over 30. Mun is also married and has a job so the demands on my time can be formidable. Mun is in California so we are dealing with Pacific Standard Time.

Headcanons:

* Hannah is an angel’s angel, she lives by her rules, but she finds inner conflict with her feelings. She believes in law, justice, and order.

* I think Hannah has cream colored wings with golden yellow tips, see blog banner picture.

* Caroline Johnson was born February 25th, 1980 in Great Falls, Montana. She is a Pisces.

* Hannah has had limited dealings with humans but she does have a certain bond with Caroline Johnson.

#starter call #spn hannah #castiel/hannah #castiel muse #poly ship #HannahGirl

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adhd-ahamilton · 8 years ago

Note

Joy To The World, 1, 4 and 5!

Hoo boy, so many questions!!! I hope you’re prepared for the deluge that’s gonna result...~ I’ll answer these tonight and finish the ones in the other messages tomorrow morning!

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?

So. Over the last five or so years I’ve been writing fic, in all but the second year, I’ve written a special Christmas-related fic for Christmas. (And I did two the first year, so.) Christmas is a really important holiday to me and I really love Christmas-related stuff (the cheesier and sillier the better), so it became kind of a tradition. But this year, I was at a little bit of a loss. I knew I wanted to write Lams, because that’s my big thing right now. But how would I write Christmas Lams? Did they even properly ‘celebrate’ Christmas during that time period?? Or should I just go for an AU?

I researched it, and thankfully it turns out that the 18th century is around when people did start to celebrate Christmas in the modern sense (and it’s also when carols really started to come about, which is great because per tradition all my Christmas fic are titled after a carol), but that was just the beginning of the issue. When exactly would it be set? Valley Forge? But, uh... I highly doubted they would be really doing all that much at that point. But I couldn’t really think of any time outside of Lams AU that they’d be together. (And then I found out afterwards that Ham wasn’t even there for Christmas 1777, so, welp.) And I really couldn’t think of any kind of actual plot. I could have done a kind of meditation on their relationships to religion, but I didn’t know that much about which specific form of Christianity they belonged to, and I thought it was something that could be and HAD been done much better by other people. (Plus that’s not really my fave kind of fic to write to begin with.)

So, it wasn’t really working out that well. But still, I really kept trying. Through November, my working plan became almost set in stone: I’d do a combined historical and modern AU fic, switching back and forth between scenes, comparing themes (supply lists in VF compared with finding money for food over Christmas break in modern AU), sorta casually looking at the differences. When I gave it up, it was partly out of lack of interest in the themes, but my conscious reason was ‘I just don’t really care about modern AU Lams.’

...which came to the crux of the problem all along: I’m not really an AU person. Or rather, I’m very not an AU person. I’ve written very few AUs in my time, and almost all of them were historical AUs - certainly not modern day ones, and definitely not school AUs. I don’t have any, like, moral opposition - I can fully appreciate the transformative potential of full-setting AUs and find very interesting the interdependent communities that develop around AU-heavy fandoms as they essentially create their own accepted canons - but I just...don’t tend to like them. I’m very analytical!! The idea of just...MAKING UP not just one character or setting but basically a whole story just always seemed simultaneously too easy and too hard to me!!! Plus, I like to write really interesting and unusual things and try new styles, and one of the most basic points of interests for me in writing is asking what makes these characters and relationships unique, based on their precise personalities and backstories and combinations of traits. None of that lends well to full-setting AUs.

But. As I was mulling this terrible problem over, as usual, I was also running over in my head all kinds of various different characterisation ideas. This time, I was thinking about how it was interesting that Hamilton always seemed to be written in opposition to Henry Laurens, when IRL it seems they had a pretty decent acquaintanceship. And I was thinking about it, and I really started to think that, actually, someone in Hamilton’s point of view - who was constantly abandoned by his father, and desperate for his attention, and incredibly ambitious despite the circumstances of his birth - would be one of the WORST people to understand that an overly-controlling, overly-interested father who expects extremely highly of his son could be a negative influence. Which also added to another thought I’d been having. I always liked one quote from Chernow, that Laurens must have seen in Hamilton what a man who makes himself can do, and it always made me think that Hamilton must have been the same way - that he must have seen in Laurens the man he had always aimed to be. So, Laurens grew up in a good family, acknowledged and promoted by said family, with plenty of money and a great deal of opportunity. To Hamilton... yeah, it’d definitely be hard for him to see the problems with that. (And, you know, there IS a lot of privilege there!! It’s just, y’know, that mental illness doesn’t always listen to that.) But, those thoughts were kinda moot, because I really couldn’t think of any way to contrast these different experiences with fathers in historical verse.

And that’s when it came to me. What if I did a modern AU where Hamilton came down to visit the Laurens family for Christmas?

I didn’t have the time (or, really, the interest) to develop a full-on world for everyone, and a uni AU just seemed to be the most appropriate for this one, anyway. And it also did have a bit of appeal: it always kinda bugged me that in the AUs I read, Hamilton and Laurens never seemed to be studying law, even though that’s historically what they did do. As a law grad, I figured I might as well be the one to write it. (Though law in Australia is p different from in the US - there’s no separate law school, we just study it straight out of high school like anything else - but whatever.) And once I was doing THAT, it was hard for me to escape the fact that, in the real world, studying law hadn’t...exactly always been the best experience for me. Given that Laurens didn’t really want to study it either, it seemed appropriate to lean on those experiences a bit.

Aaand that’s where we really get to the meat of the inspiration behind it, heh. Which is to say: this is possibly the most autobiographical thing I’ve ever written...? I’ll say outright that a lot of it WAS entirely invented - my relationship with my family is nothing like John’s was in this, at all. But my anxieties over studying, and my worries about the future and what a career in law would lead to... yeah, that came from me haha. Because, to get kind of personal about it... well, I graduated July 2015. And in the time since then, I have been employed for about 2.5? months, total. The job scene here, in general and especially for law grads, is just that bad. (And, uh, there was a fair bit of personal fault in my lack of preparation for after I’d graduate? But, seriously, I was really anxious already...) And ever since then - particularly 2016 to the present - I’ve also had a lot of anxiety and depression and stuff going on. At the time I wrote the fic, it was in a position of leaning worse rather than better. So...I honestly don’t know if there was ever, like, a dispassionate fic in there safely cordoned off from my own projections, but if there was, it didn’t last long.

So, I got the idea, and wrote it all up pretty quickly in early December, just kinda ridin’ that catharsis of getting all that stuff out. (And it turned out to be even more relevant than I thought, as ‘trying to enjoy Christmas like you usually do when you’re really not happy’ also ended up a very autobiographical theme.) And that’s how it happened!

As for one or two other things:

I really really didn’t wanna get too into politics in the fic lmao. I don’t feel comfortable with more than the broadest strokes of Hamilton’s beliefs (I’m gonna GET THERE but Im still well rev-verse in Chernow) and I always feel uncomfortable about portraying historical figure in any better light than they deserve when it comes to specific matters. But I also wanted to have Laurens and Hamilton at least as POC because I also think it’s important to increase racial diversity in fanfic in the rare cases that we really get a clear choice. So, I tried to kinda portray that without really getting detailed about any activist stuff or whatever. Which is why in Ham’s argument with Henry he’s really not siding with anyone, he’s just an economics wonk who gets mad when people on both sides of the political aisle don’t make sure their numbers add up, lol. That was my best compromise. (And Philly kinda nudged me when I still got too far off-course;; haha!)

Hamilton has ADHD because: again, I wanted to actually officially write up neurodivergent characters into fic when I had the option of being specific (my Ham is always neurodivergent but obv I can’t explicitly write that into the text of historical verse), and it’s ADHD because......well, I could write a really long thing about that alone lmfao. And I feel like I kind of should in some ways because I know that a lot of people aren’t rly familiar with how ADHD tends to actually, like, feel, for real-life people, and if you aren’t then I KNOW this must sound like a really arbitrary or misguided HC. And I’d really love to write it up and expand education and all, but. It’s also something that hits really close and personal for me and, as someone who can be anxious for days straight over opening entirely innocuous tumblr messages... I just DK I could do it, atm;;;;; Someday I will though, I hope!!! (Tho I will say that I’m totally for all neurodivergent Ham HCs and that honestly my Classic Ham is also influenced by BD and BPD things so I’m p flexible about it.) (Actually I guess I CAN say that my HCs for Ham all involve disorders with extreme moods and mood swings and stuff and ADHD in its lesser known symptoms can absolutely include that, esp with Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria, so yeah. That’s basically the large part of my reason for that headcanon right there lol.)

4. What's your favorite line of dialogue?

HM OH MAN, I’m not sure!!! Lemme skim it again real quick.

In terms of sheer characterisation efficiency, I always liked the idea of Henry Laurens’ introductory sentence being to complain about John not calling often enough. It’s just such a perfect combination of a) genuinely cares about his son and wants to hear from him, and b) is an asshole who has no idea whatsoever of the pressure he’s putting on his son without offering any concurrent praise or reassurance.

...so yeah I think I’ll leave it at that actually, since this thing is long enough already lol.

5. What part was hardest to write?

I was sitting here trying hard to remember if I really had trouble writing any part of the draft because there was one bit where I stalled briefly but it wasn’t really that bad and I couldn’t even really remember it and apart from that it was super smooth...until I remembered that editing counts as writing. And hoo fucking boy.

I was lucky enough to be able to have my fic beta-ed by Philly! Which I’m super grateful for and the fic is undoubtedly better for it! But it was a really difficult process for me because of my anxiety. And I needed to do it rather quickly, because of course I had to have it finished before Christmas, and my family actually was going away for Christmas where we wouldn’t have internet access.

So I get through almost all of the fic. It’s finally almost done. And then right at the end there’s a bit where Alex and John quickly exchange gifts on Christmas morning. Super short scene. And Philly pointed out that, actually, wouldn’t the rest of the family be taken-aback at them exchanging gifts without them?

And I kind of read that and sat back and. that was right. That was 100% correct. So like. What do I do??? Do I involve the other characters? But the original scene was like, three lines. and I don’t wanna have to write a whole new scene lmao. Do I take it out? But in a earlier scene, I’d had John express a worry that the present he’d gotten for Alex was awful and he really regretted it, and I kinda liked that in this final scene we see that actually he’d just forgotten WHY he’d bought it (he’d remembered Alex saying something about it), and I thought that was a nice thing about how anxiety can really fuck with even your memory and stuff bc in the end there genuinely was no reason to worry. It wasn’t necessary to the fic, but it only came about in the writing - I’m pretty sure the outline was just like ‘and then they exchange gifts or somethign??? IDK’ - and I didn’t want to get rid of it again. But then how do I justify them exchanging gifts alone???

And so that’s how I ended up just sitting there mournfully or pacing back and forth like p LEASE just SAVE ME, just GIVE ME AN OPTION, I have a HOLIDAY TO PACK FOR and THINGS TO DO and I just want this damn fic to be EDITED and DONE ALREADY. I came up with soo many possibilities, none of which satisfied me,lmao. and eventually after wayyyyyy too long of trying to figure it out I settled on something that seemed mostly plausible and then just. wrote it in and skimmed the rest of the fic and posted it lmao.

Which, honestly, is pretty typical proceedings. I tend to have the general ideas come pretty easily to me, and the actual writing is normally pretty smooth - it’s usually the editing where I start rocking back and forth and cursing myself for ever trying to write :’) (Luckily, at that point I’m close enough to the end that I can usually force it through...!!)

#elysianmars #long post #my fanfiction #I...think about things... a lot..............#I got a lot to say okay................................

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