#to have guys dressing up as sexualized caricatures of ultra feminity

[ofwhimsicaldreams]

some thoughts on the opening ceremony now that i slept on it:

it was slightly too long, and there were moments that were really meant as fillers. not good.

i hope none of the athletes will catch a cold, with all the rain that poured down on paris yesterday...

gojira was the best musical segment <3 it was so cool!! and i am so happy to see the french metal scene being represented like that, considering how thriving it is.

the drag queens were the worst part by far. terribly vulgar (but that's part of the requirements), sexual, and "dancing" (if it can be called like that) nearby children. i don't know who at the cojo thought it would be a good idea to have them onboard but they were terribly wrong. so bad.

the masked flamme-bearer was terribly cool though. the parkour through paris! that was so nice.

most of the musical segments left me pretty cold tbh, but there is a reason why i don't like to french music (which is that i don't like what's offered, apart from the punk/metal scene).

the french cancan was ridiculous, and, worst, out of rhythm. cringe.

you know what else was cringe? the throuple. boring, too.

it was nice to see the focus on notre-dame and the artisans of haute couture (even though it did feel a bit like an ad for lvmh, but as they're sponsoring...)

i didn't care for most of the (break)dancing either, but w/e

the minions were a choice, but then again, w/e

very nice to have opera singers!!! especially the one who sang la marseillaise wrapped in the national flag. that was utterly cool. loved it. (came second in my personal ranking, after gojira)

the ride on the metal horse on la seine was so metal (ahah) cool too. with the archives images of the previous olympics, it was really nice. it was as if a ride through time, as the personification of the olympic games. very cool. i've seen people on twitter saying it was the four horsemen of the apocalypse, which is one way of seeing things, but with the commentary on the france tv direct, i didn't see it at all. nevermind.

tony estanguet gave a very nice speech.

the final relay of the flamme between all the french athletes was so cool!!! i was a bit emotional by then, especially when they light up the vasque. lovely moment. that felt more dedicated to france than some of the "tableaux" of earlier that were more about clichés (the french cancan for example) or to "provoke" (the drag queens. seriously. why???)

céline dion being able to sing was a very nice touch. more moving for her than for me (covering edith piaf on the eiffel tower, like, honestly, cliché... again) but it's a sign her treatment is working, which is a very good thing for the people suffering from the same illness as she is. very nice.

la vasque being in a hot air balloon for the whole duration of the games is a pretty nice touch too.

overall it was better than i thought it would be, but there were some very cringe moments anyway. too much focus on the clichés associated to paris/la france overall as well.