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isaacthedruid · 3 years ago

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Steven Universe’s Representation and Music: an informal essay

As the first animated Cartoon Network show created entirely by a woman, Steven Universe’s run lasted for five seasons, a movie and a sequel-epilogue series. The show was far from perfect and its fandom wasn’t the best either but there is something so special about a show that followed lesbian space rocks and a young boy saving the world.

More specifically Steven Universe is about a young boy named Steven, who is half-Gem, half-human who protects the town of Beach City from evil. Gems are a kind of alien who take on the form of pastel-coloured women, to better assimilate with the rest of the world.

Rebecca Sugar, the creator, explains her colourful characters in a behind-the-scenes promo:

“I always dreamed of making a show that would have this mix of fantasy and reality. So, I wanted to make these fantasy characters that enjoy being with Steven as much, if not more than they enjoy being fantasy characters. The characters aren’t perfect and that’s what makes them so great.”

Steven’s family are known as the Crystal Gems, a group of rebels who fought against their government thousands of years ago and now live on earth. Steven’s mom, Rose Quartz was at the forefront of the fight, she did extremely terrible things and when she gave up her gem—-so Steven could be born—-she was left unable to form a body ever again. Steven, with only his dad and three alien women, must attempt to fix her messes and deal with the repercussions of his mother’s actions.

One of the main mechanics within the series is known as fusion, in which two or more Gems become a single being who is stronger and more powerful. The fused form takes on the physical, mental and emotional aspects of those who are part of the bond. As mentioned and discussed many times within this blog, fusions are a physical embodiment of different kinds of relationships. And for a show starring a primarily female cast, they do not shy away from using this mechanic to tell queer stories.

So explicitly that in 2018, the show had the first-ever lesbian wedding in a cartoon. Of course, representation wasn’t always as accepted in Steven Universe. Just two years before the big wedding, higher-ups at Cartoon Network told Rebecca Sugar, they not happy with the multiple queer relationships, so much so that they were ready to threaten cancellation.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she expressed:

“If this is going to cost me my show that’s fine because this is a huge injustice and I need to be able to represent myself and my team through this show and anything less would be unfair to my audience.”

Being LGBT herself, identifying as bisexual and non-binary, representation is important to her. For many queer people, especially grown-ups, they hope to see themselves represented in kids’ media today as they never had growing up. They want nothing more for children’s shows to say that being “different” or not fitting in with our heteronormative society is actually normal.

Within Steven Universe, you can find woman-loving-woman relationships, non-binary and intersex characters, woman-loving-non-binary relationships, asexual coded characters and basically every other letter in the acronym.

Rebecca Sugar even acted as the exciting force for LGBT inclusion within Adventure Time, originally working as a writer and storyboard artist before leaving to create her own show. She pushed for making the ex-romantic queer couple to be canonically part of the story and for it to not just coded into the dialogue.

A few years later, she returned to the show, multiple times, to compose over 20 songs that would air over the series 10-year-long run such as, “I’m Just Your Problem” which had lesbian subtext that would be confirmed later.

Some other iconic songs including “Fry Song“, “Remember You“, “Good Little Girl“, “Everything Stays” and even the finale song, “Time Adventure“.

Much like the show as a whole, there is something so special about the music she writes. In total, there were over 160 songs written for the franchise, some being short little tunes, no longer than a minute while others were full-blown musical numbers. No matter, all of them have their place within the show. Often when the character can’t express lines through speech, music is utilized to provide a more raw and poignant portrayal of their emotions.

Why Steven Universe is so widely loved is due to the music, as the overall story is not even close to perfect. Yet, everyone can agree on one thing, the music is unbelievably good. What is interesting is the different styles of melodies and backtracking used in the various songs, even more impressive is that every character has their own instrumental motif.

Steven’s motif is the ukelele as he is often seen playing the instrument himself, performing short little melodies and even writing the in-show version of the theme song. Additionally, Steven’s music uses a large amount of Chiptune synth, electronic music which is created using a programmable sound generator. Both instruments have a very childlike feeling to them, Chiptune especially as it is normally used in video game music like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the main musical inspirations for the show. As Steven is the lead, most of the music has Chiptune somewhere in the score and fun fact, the first song in the show, sung by Steven, “Cookie Cat” was actually written on an old Gameboy.

Amethyst is very loud and fun, her motif is electric drums which is extremely reflective of her character. As she can be angry from convincing herself that she is not good enough to happy and giggling from pranking Steven, her instrument can be used in so many ways as she is not a simple character. No matter what, for the few songs Amethyst has on her own (or in the score), her drums provide such an interesting emotional response to the situation.

Garnet is a fusion, so her motif is actually the combination of two instruments. Ruby is a drumbeat as she is a fiery and loud character, she is chaotic while Sapphire is her opposite. Sapphire is calm and collected, she has ice-related powers and is represented by Synth music. The characters together have a perfect unity, expressed by Garnet’s synth bass sounds, she is the equilibrium of two very contrasting characters. The music associated with Garnet, uses primarily the synth bass but Ruby and Sapphire’s individual instruments can be heard throughout her music. All three instruments are also heavily representative as Garnet’s main dancing style is Hip Hop which clashing with others’ softer dancing styles.

Despite, not being alive during the show, Rose Quartz still has her own musical motif as she plays a large part in Steven’s growth throughout the series. As well as being in many flashbacks, she is represented with strings, more specifically, the violin. Rose’s story is rather sad which quite is visible within her associated music, yet, she was also an extremely powerful character as she led the fight against the Homeworld government. Her strength can be heard with strong uplifts and swells in the music. She is never seen playing an instrument unlike the rest of the main characters but one person who plays hers is Pearl, a character Rose was possibly in love with.

For the complex and beautiful character, Pearl, her motif is classical and swing piano. She is visually represented as a ballerina for a large majority of the series, dressed in a leotard, a small skirt and ballet shoes. Apart from Garnet, she is one of the calmest characters in the show. She is a perfectionist and is knowledgeable on many topics. She has a dark past and her fair share of trauma, all of this is wrapped up in her music. From her traumatic past with Rose Quartz, the violin had been heard throughout her music, yet, when she finally dealt with everything, the violin was lost. Swapped out for a new instrument, a bass guitar which she learned how to play at the end of the series. Pearl is a character who has been through a lot and her music reflects it. As she grew, her music changed with her, becoming her own instead of something built off of Rose’s.

My personal favourite song is “It’s Over Isn’t It?” which is this heartwrenching and emotionally painful ballad sung by a broken woman. Pearl was in love with Steven’s mom. Yet, the feelings were not mutual or at least ended being reciprocated as Rose left her for Greg, Steven’s dad. It hurts because Rose didn’t just leave her, Rose Quartz also passed away. As the song goes:

That they didn’t really matter until you I was fine when you came And we fought like it was all some silly game Over her, who she’d choose After all those years, I never thought I’d lose … You won and she chose you and she loved you and she’s gone It’s over, isn’t it? Why can’t I move on? … Who am I now in this world without her? Petty and dull with the nerve to doubt her What does it matter? It’s already done Now I’ve got to be there for her son

Without Rose, Pearl has lost her place in the world as all she ever knew was her. Yet, now she is left to help raise a half-human baby and go on with her life. It makes it more difficult as this baby is the product of Rose and the man that she left Pearl for.

Pearl doesn’t want to hate Greg, she is angry at him but she doesn’t have hatred towards him. They may not be the best of pals at the start of the series but in the song called “Both of You“ has Steven, finally, begging for Greg and Pearl to just talk to each other.

Why don’t you talk to each other? Why don’t you talk to each other? Just give it a try Why don’t you talk about what happened? … You might not believe it but you got a lot in common, you really do You both love me and I love both of you … I know you both need it Someone who knows what you’re going through

An interesting thing about this song is that Steven is this to them, the person with Rose’s gem is singing to the two people who fought over Rose. It makes me wonder if this could be Rose speaking through Steven to her two loved ones. Whether it is or not, doesn’t really matter to the overall story but it is a fun idea to look at.

Overall, these songs are a literal representation of dealing with ones’ emotions in a healthy way, something that Steven Universe actively tries to teach their younger viewers about.

To say Steven Universe is a good show only for its music would be a false statement, it’s one of the strongest aspects but without the story or the characters, the music would fall flat and not have any of its passion.

#isaac rambles #steven universe #lgbt #steven universe music #cartoons #cartoon network #rebecca sugar #cartoon review

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peachywise · 6 years ago

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nullify

an umbrella academy fanfiction // klaus hargreeves x reader

- part i: the introduction || part ii ⋆ part iii ⋆ part iv ⋆ part v ⋆ part vi ⋆ more parts to be released

- synopsis: A child and a ghost whisperer walk into a diner. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but really it’s just the start of an odd, slightly painful night. Turns out they need you and your power to do something, and Klaus seems way to thrilled and fascinated by you and what you can do. (takes place after the events of the first season)

- notes: lmao how long has it been since i wrote a fic?? too long thanks anyways the reader is they/them pronouns and everything is pretty vague description wise for inclusivity and shit!! also even though this is klaus x reader focused ~romance~ wise i’ll be writing a shit ton with the reader interacting with the other guys like this part is deadass just as focused on number five as it is klaus. let me know if you guys want this as a series??? i won’t write more parts if people aren’t down but i left it open-ended so it could be a series but honestly, it’d be fine as a one-off too so read what you will k love you bye. tw for swearing

link on ao3

________________________________________

“Isn’t that a health code violation?”

Looking up from your book you'd been reading for the past half hour, you heaved a heavy-handed sigh. Sitting on the back counter of the dead dinner you worked at was the least of this shitty establishments problems. “I’ll be sure to let the rats in the kitchen know of your concerns,” you replied simply.

Dog-earring the page of your book, you set it down beside you. Hopping off, you stepped forward towards the counter as the kid who just entered sat down on one of the stools, planting himself with a look of clear repugnance as he eyed his surrounding subtly. Resting your elbows on the counter, you propped your head on your hands and gave a friendly grin, “I’m sure they’d be happy to whip up some Mickey Mouse pancakes, special just for you.”

His face though perfectly deadpanned couldn’t hide the slight tick of annoyance in his eyes. “Just get me a black coffee,” he muttered.

“Coffee will stunt your growth.”

“You’ll be stunted if you keep up this horrible customer service.”

“Ouch,” sarcasm dripped from your tone as you raised your hands up in mock defeat, “the kitten’s got a bit of a bite there, doesn’t he?”

Quite honestly, your day was now veering on to a particularly delightful route you hadn’t expected when you first woke up this morning. You suddenly believed some sort of divine karma was finally rewarding you with some quality entertainment. He could banter— a bit on the aggressive side, but you would take what you could get out of the interaction. You knew it wasn’t going to last long.

“Look, are you going to give me the coffee or are you just going to stand around all day uselessly taking in the air that could be breathed in by more deserving people?”

Oh, so he’s got knobby knees and wit to match.

Letting a slow amused smile cross your face as you gave a lazy curtsy, you casually made your way over to the fresh pot and grabbed one of the porcelain white mugs, giving him a knowing look as you poured a good ‘ol black cup of joe. Setting the pot back down, you sauntered your way back over still holding the smile. The kid rolled his eyes, reaching out a hand as he impatiently said, “thank you,” in a refined and expertly practiced condescending manner. But you didn’t hand it to him. No, instead you casually leaned back against the back counter and took a long sip of the burning hot liquid.

Well, the little tyke certainly did not like that.

In what was an actually flash of blue light before your eyes, the kid vanished from his place on the rickety red vinyl stool and was beside you a moment later, ripping the mug from your hand with such force that caused the liquid to spill over the sides, scorching your hand and splashing it on your already grease stained, 50’s themed uniform. So, he was words and action. You could respect that.

“What, no screaming? Not even another smartass comment?” He half-heartedly asked, his eyebrow quirked slightly as he studied you. It was like he was waiting for some sort of delayed reaction from his little magic trick. While yes, it was a little jarring to see it in the flesh for the first time, the moment he had walked through those glass doors you expected a bit of a ‘powerful’ confrontation.

You knew he was Number Five. You knew he was a part of that Umbrella Academy.

“You know who I am,” he stated in his all brilliant glory. Well, look at that. Seemed he was a real Sherlock as well as a tiny space hopper.

Easily taking the cup of coffee back, wincing slightly as the cold air pressed against the new burn you tried to seem unfazed about, you took a sip and mumbled against the rim of the cup, “I’m a bit surprised you’re here and actually alive, but it’s easy to remember a face that hasn’t aged a day." Setting the mug down on the counter, you pressed a hand to your hip and questioned, “how is that exactly? Did you run from home just to make yourself immortal? Found yourself an Edward Cullen to bite you or something?”

Now, you’ve had people look at you like you were stupid before, but no one with a talent such as him. Even though he was looking up at you, he still mastered that beady squinty little look that read ‘you’re the joke of the earth’. Precious.

“I don’t know who Edward Cullen is, but I’m not immortal, and I don’t have time to explain the whole story to you in detail. Let’s just say I got stuck in time.” Doing his little magic flash again, he appeared back on the other side of the counter, continuing to speak as he added, “Is anyone else here? I assume you’d rather show me what you can do without anyone else around.”

Ah, yes. What you could do. So that was why he was here. Part of you wondered if someday it would happen. That’s why you knew who he was when he first walked in after all. You kept tabs on all of them, at least a bit. Yeah, the whole “Umbrella Academy” was famous for a little while when you were a kid, but most people had since forgotten them and the kids in the academy had grown up and had become almost unrecognizable. Well, apart from Five. And maybe Allison, but hell, she was famous for a while different reason now.

Like the others, you were born October 1st 1989 to a completely unexpecting mother who got the shock of her god damn life. If you were 9 months pregnant in under a minute flat, you’d probably be pretty shocked too. However, you were just stunned that something as odd as that could actually happen and result in you getting powers.

Unlike the others, when your parents were approached by professor evil monopoly Reginald Hargreeves, your mom rejected anything he offered in favor of her miracle baby. She was certain she was the new Virgin Mary despite absolutely not being a virgin and refused to give up that title up. At least at that moment, she didn’t want to anyway.

“You managed to figure out where I worked, and I assume at this point you know my name,” you started, “so why don’t you just tell me what I can do and let me know why you're here so I can turn you down and get back to my book.” Gesturing your hands around the extremely empty diner, you breathed, “I’m a very busy person as you can see.”

Five didn’t say anything, instead just giving you an almost thoughtful look. You didn’t trust it one fucking bit.

Quicker than you would have expected out him, he reached over and picked up one of the plates on the counter and threw it your way with such force you wondered for a second if the reason he'd been missing for so long was because he’d taken up a passionate love affair with baseball. On instinct, damn the treacherous thing, your body chilled as a static feeling pushed out of you, surrounding you in a soft, nearly invisible blue bubble-- your force field. The plate bounced right off and landed on the floor, shattering lamely and loudly.

It was legal to kill a kid who had been missing for years, right?

“Can’t you play a game of catch with the poor kid?” Came a new drama-dripped voice in the door, the little bell ringing softly as he spoke. “His father was a sociopath who didn't pay him any mind, he’s very stunted as you can see. So desperate for the affection and attention of strangers.”

Klaus. He’d been harder to track over the years, but from the feather collared jacket and lack of shirt, you could spot the eccentricity of him miles away.

Taking on a protective stance, you moved from behind the counter and positioned yourself in front of Five, stage whispering to him, “careful, looks like one of the kitchen rats got out. They’re very diseased.”

Klaus tilted his head to the side, his mouth snapping open and his eyebrows rising up in stunned amusement. Pointing at you, he turned his attention towards Five and stated, “I’m wounded! This seems to be going on spectacularly, don’t you think?”

Shaking your head with a slight grin, you started to speak to ream five out for throwing a freakin’ plate, but your words died off on the tip of your tongue when your gross ass boss pushed open the doors to the kitchen, his loud, gritty greased voice shouted, “what did you break out here?” His spine went rigid a bit when he seemed to finally note the presence of two other people, but his eyes quickly glanced at the shattered plate and his face continued to get splotchy and red. “Is that your kid who broke it? Jesus, that’s coming out of your paycheck.”

Wow, that 50 cent shitty plate? How would you ever survive?

Hands slipped around your neck in a hug as Klaus propped his chin on top of your head, his attention fully on your boss. “I’m so sorry sir, you know how it is with kids, gotta get all those angst and deep-seated feeling out somehow. Yesterday we found out he’s been pretending the family cat was his girlfriend. Had to take him to the hospital to get those scratches on his little friend checked out, if you know what I mean,” he smiled, moving away from you to pat the clearly seething Five on the head.

Before the kid could say anything or do something that would get you in more shit, you plastered your own happy little smile on and bent down beside him, wrapping your arms around his shoulder as you continue to address your boss. “He was just upset because he found out I told his teacher about his little bed wetting problem.” Five ripped your arm away with incredible force and stepped away from you both. Sighing dramatically, you rested the side of your face on your palm and slightly shook your head, adding, “It’s so hard, I just don’t know where we went wrong!”

Klaus snickered behind you, while your boss looked properly petrified and regretful about having walked in on the whole ordeal at all.

“Just uh-- forget about it. Clean it up okay?”

Giving him a wink and you stood back up, you flicked your wrist in a lazy salute. “You got it, Boss Man.” He couldn’t turn back around and get back to the back room fast enough.

Turning the face the two once again, Klaus grinned as he said, “brilliant work,” raising his hand for a knowing high five. You happily obliged.

“Was that really necessary?” Five ground out from between his teeth, as you shot him back an incredulous look. “Was it necessary to throw a plate at me?” you retorted, fully not expecting him to reply with, “Yes. It was the only way I could make sure you had a force field.”

Smartass.

Running your hand through your hair tiredly to get it out of your face, you crossed your arms again and didn’t bother to argue anymore. “Just tell me what this is about.” At this point, you were tired and really just wanted to get back to your quiet night. Klaus was also giving you a once over every thirty seconds and you weren’t quite sure what he looked so bloody excited and anxious about.

“I have a theory, and I’d like to test it out,” Five said. Klaus quickly interjected with, “and I’m one of the test subjects,” wiggling his eyebrows as he did.

Narrowing your gaze, you questioned “one of?”

“Well, it requires you, but before I explain, to what extent can you use your powers? Have you done anything more than just deflect things off your field?”

You shook your head, confusion still clouding your words. “That’s all. Some guy tries to knife me? He bounces off. Sometimes I get lucky and he stabs himself in the process. It’s a simple thing.

“How many times has someone tried to knife you?” Klaus asked with a small snort, but Five cut him off with a great little bomb of information. “I’ve done some calculations on how your power works, and I think that if someone like us was in the field with you it might nullify our powers.”Huh.

“And... math makes you think that?”

Five rolled his eyes. You got the idea he did that a fair bit. “I want to test out to see if that’s true, so if you will, please conjure up your field around you and Klaus and we’ll see if it works on him.”

Flashing your eyes to Klaus who almost seemed to jitter with excitement, your eyes got slightly wide when you asked, “wait, there’s a ghost here? Like right now?” You swiveled your head around like you would actually be able to see it.

Klaus nodded his head. “Ben, meet Y/N, Y/N meet our brother Ben.” Pressing a hand to his heart, he added, “forever in our hearts and forever by my side. I am his saving grace.” Turning his head abruptly, he quickly said, “shut up,” to the air-- or Ben, rather-- slicing his hand in a silencing sound.

Raising a hand hesitantly, you gave a flick of your wrist in that direction, squeaking out a small, “Hi Ben.”

“If you two idiots are done,” Five muttered, but you stopped him as you said, “three idiots. It’s rude to dismiss Ben’s presence. You're his brother, be respectful.” Five ignored you. “The sooner we test this, the sooner we can leave.”

Oh, now he was speaking your language.

Shaking out your shoulders, you widened your stance and clapped your hands, saying, “alright, let's go.” Klaus gave some excited little claps as he stepped to your side, telling Five, “field trips are always so much fun!”

Taking in a deep breath, you let the energy seep out of you until that familiar snap surrounded you, this time entrapping not on you, but Klaus as well.

The smiling man quickly went silent.

“So,” you started hesitantly, turning to study his face. “Did it work?”

Multiple emotions seemed to cross his features, and it revealed to you certain hopelessness and vulnerability that was so unfamiliar to you and what you had known about him. It dawned on you at that moment that you had no idea what this meant. To him. To Five. Christ, nerves started to wrack through your body when you realized they could be having you do this just to try and kill you because they see it as some sort of ridiculous threat. Still, that seemed unlikely. No, they needed it somehow.

And as Klaus turned towards you, looking at you as if you were some wonderous figure and not just some crappy diner waiter working two jobs just to get by, you realized that whatever they had been searching for, they had found. Whatever Klaus had been searching for, he had found.

“They’re gone.”

His voice was just a fraction above a whisper, but it sent a chill across your skin as his intense gaze once again studied you with incredible fascination. But as he took a step forward, his hand oh-so-gently reaching for your hand, your focus went away and the force field fell, all the sounds and senses of the real world hitting you all at once.

Five was staring at you both with an odd look you didn’t quite know what to think of.

“Alright."

Clearing your throat, you took a small step back as the fog cleared out of your head, stating back a dull, “huh?”

“We’ll be at your apartment in the morning. Get ready to meet the others.”

Wait, what the fuck?

“My apartment? You guys haven’t even explained what you guys want from me!” You blurted, moving your head rapidly as you looked back and forth between the two.

“I’ll explain everything tomorrow,” was all Five said, as both him and Klaus began moving towards to door, clearly content with what they came here to do. Well, that was nice for them. They could sleep soundly as you sat up in bed all night looking up fucking umbrella academy conspiracy theories to try and convince yourself what happened here was actually real.

“There’s no way in hell you’re getting those Mickey Mouse pancakes now!” You shot back as he exited the door, huffing as you turned around to go clean up the plate.

Then something smacked hard on the back of your head, landing on the ground with a little rattle.

“Oopsie.”

Spinning around, gripping the back of your head, you were about to yell obscenities at Klaus who’d just thrown a spoon of all things, but he was already halfway out the door calling behind him, “I thought your little bubble would just appear like a party trick, bye!”

Idiots. Idiots had just taken over your life.

#klaus hargreeves #klaus hargreeves fanfic #klaus hargreeves fanfiction #klaus hargreen imagine #klaus hargreeves x reader #the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy fanfic #the umbrella academy fanfiction #number five #five

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janiedean · 5 years ago

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Do you think book!Bran will get the same ending he does in the show? I mean, if he does, it will obviously be better written (I was like "Does Edmure know about the Three-Eyed Raven? Is Yara going 'the hell did you smoke' at the 'he couldn't walk so he learned to fly' part? Is nobody going to go 'ok but shouldn't we look for someone older and better known through Westeros, with experience in both politics and military stuff' at Tyrion?" through the whole scene), but do you think that's that?

(I had another anon that went like:

i can't believe there are still bran is evil theories. im pretty sure that bran ending up on the throne is likely bc it doesn't make sense in the show. d&d don't know anything about bran, but they do know this is george's ending

so I’m answering both XD)

the short answer is yes, but obviously it’s not gonna be written the same way as in this dumbass show for a whole lot of reasons.

now: actually, bran on the throne makes in hindsight a whole lot of sense...... if you take into account also what tropes he’s there to deconstruct. (I’m gonna cp some older meta of mine on the topic that I did ages ago but it still holds up lol.)

as in, when it comes to bran GENERALLY:

bran is the first pov chapter in these books. the first. should hint that he’s important;

bran has 90% of the magic-related storyline. I mean, if you don’t count the dragons/r’hollor + mel and the AA prophecy, there’s less magic in asoiaf than in regular fantasy for obvious reasons, but what there is of is all in bran’s storyline. all. of. it;

as it is right now, he’s arguably a powerhouse. possibly the most powerful powerhouse in westeros. he can probably warg dragons. he can time travel. if the show didn’t fuck it up, he can change things in the past while time traveling even if he shouldn’t;

the entire storyline is headed north/behind the wall and bran is the one main character who’s behind the wall rn. and bran is at a point where he basically is in direct connection with the north at least and when I say direct I mean literally. the guy can warg into anything. maybe he can’t walk but man he’s basically a hundred luke skywalkers put into one person;

he’s also tied to all the northern mythology - the trees, the children of the forest and the likes. him, his storyline, everything. and the north is arguably where this story started and will most probably end and he is the character more symbolizing that mythology, not anyone else.

when it comes to bran thematically.... guys. bran is the deconstructed fisher king. as in: the fisher king is a character from arthurian mythology who is absolutely fundamental in the entire scheme - also arthurian mythology is one of the basis people built modern fantasy on - and which has been rehashed and reinterpreted for a shitload of times since the middle ages. c/p-ing quickly from wiki because you don’t need to go in-depth to do 2+2 on this:

In Arthurian legend the Fisher King, or the Wounded King, is the last in a long line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin and incapable of moving on his own. In the Fisher King legends, he becomes impotent and unable to perform his task himself, and he also becomes unable to father or support a next generation to carry on after his death. His kingdom suffers as he does, his impotence affecting the fertility of the land and reducing it to a barren wasteland. All he is able to do is fish in the river near his castle, Corbenic, and wait for someone who might be able to heal him.

+Many works have two wounded “Grail Kings” who live in the same castle, a father and son (or grandfather and grandson). The more seriously wounded father stays in the castle, sustained by the Grail alone, while the more active son can meet with guests and go fishing.+The Fisher King appears first in Chrétien de Troyes’ Perceval (late 12th-century), but the character’s roots may lie in Celtic mythology. He may be derived more or less directly from the figure of Bran the Blessed (!!!!!!) in the Mabinogion. In the Second Branch, Bran has a cauldron that can resurrect the dead (albeit imperfectly; those thus revived cannot speak) which he gives to the king of Ireland as a wedding gift for him and Bran’s sister Branwen. +The Lancelot-Grail cycle includes a more elaborate history for the Fisher King. Many in his line are wounded for their failings, and the only two that survive to Arthur’s day are the Wounded King, called Pellam or Pellehan, and the Fisher King, Pelles.

now, what I said last year in that meta was:

then there’s the entire part where galahad (or whoever else in his stead but it’s galahad most times) heals the fisher king and saves the land which turns fertile again, but whatever, point is: asoiaf is a deconstruction of tropes, right, well sorry but I’m eating my own hat if bran isn’t a fisher king deconstruction where the wound actually makes him powerful rather than weak and where he definitely won’t need anyone to *heal* him, while at the same time he is tied with the (his) land directly and he embodies it and most of the magic storyline. and the fisher king is one of the main tropes/legends in western literature/arthurian mythology, if you have that kind of character in your book then you are not planning for them to be a second-rate player.

now, admittedly back then I was envisioning a finale when bran was either king in the north or in some similar position and not as endgame king but if we take the show finale for granted because as the other anon said it made no sense for d&d but it was george’s ending and they had to make it happen without understanding it.... well. actually:

if bran - ie deconstructed fisher king who becomes powerful because of his wound and doesn’t have to be healed by a knight to make the land fertile again because that wound gives him power - becomes actual eventual king it’s the full circle of that trope’s deconstruction because his wound means the eventual salvation of the entire continent, which works perfectly to bookmark how that specific scenario is turned on its head;

the problem is that d&d can’t write bran for shit and turned him into the heartless robot/3ER who might or might not have schemed the entire thing and didn’t make him do shit for three seasons because they can’t handle the magic storyline and then at the ending mAGICALLY we have king bran first of his name, but in a coherent version done by grrm and not by them where bran has his eye-opening experience beyond the wall, doesn’t magically lose his personality when he becomes the 3ER, keeps his sweetness and empathy after risking to lose them (which was his adwd storyline), helps greatly during the long night thanks to the fact that he’s a powerhouse and is eventually recognized as a savior of the realm in its own merit, then......... it’s actually very much coherent with grrm’s themes to have him become king, but not because he knew all along and played mysterious until now and whatever the fuck else, but because it’s the coronation of his entire storyline which starts with sweet young boy who just wants to be a hedge knight and then ends up saving the entire continent making the best use of what he has after that’s taken from him while using his connection to the magic roots of the story/to his land/to his family for the good of the entire realm, and that was a damn good story - sadly it’s not what d&d chose to tell except at the end;

edmure and yara were badly written but that entire scene was badly written and well-acted sadly, like no one objected because no one will object in the book storyline, given that ^^^^ happens, in the show they just basically tried to find a way to make it halfway plausible but it looks dumb because it’s badly written and it’s copypasting an endgame for a story that d&d have not adapted, but basically you had to buy that bran was it. it made no sense but like... what made sense, this episode’s salvation was the acting and that since the endgame was half grrm’s it wasn’t as shitty as 8x05 but like within itself it was incoherent af;

that said I think that bran being king + the small council being more or less what it was in the show (because LIKE HELL that’s brienne’s endgame like brienne is def. not going into any kingsguard in the books unless george smoked weed when he was writing acok/asos/affc) as in made of all discriminated categories in westeros or discriminated people in westeros after the throne’s destruction is absolutely a thing grrm would do, because basically we’ve gone from badly suited kings with a small council that’s basically the westeros equivalent of old white republican men to a realm where the king can’t walk (but can fly! ;) ) and the rest of the small council is a) a disabled man who’s been abused to hell and back all his life (REGARDLESS OF TYRION’S FAULTS let’s just look at the strict facts here), b) a former commoner who has been a lord for years but couldn’t read when the series began (davos), c) another former commoner (bronn) [note that both davos and bronn are former *criminals*/come from a really poor background, not from the wealthy side of the commoners], d) a woman who is also a knight ie something that pretty much disregards the entire status quo from before (brienne), e) sam who let’s all remember is a noble but was sent to the wall by his father because his skills were in his brain and not with swords/fighting/whatnot and who also was abused to hell and back when he was young - like, both the only nobles in it that were born nobles were disadvantaged and felt that on their own skin so they aren’t out of touch with the rest of the continent (sam was at the WALL where the only nobles go there for lack of options but it’s basically a glorified prison X°DDD). like, that is an ending I can absolutely see grrm going for because it’s basically the revenge of our forgotten-from-s1-and-dnd cripples, bastards and broken things that start the show the way they do and end it on top of things. that is absolutely a thing I can see grrm doing (with some changes bc again I really doubt the books small council would include bronn and brienne). the problem is that d&d wrote it like crap.

but bran becoming king and that being the general idea? I absolutely can see it same as while I was on team jon gets the throne and hates it before if this is how it goes... well, since I’ve been saying that if he wanted to be happy he should have just gone back beyond the wall if that is his actual endgame I have no issues with it. hell, it’s way better than the one I had envisioned for him for that matter.

that said bran being evil is a theory that makes no sense, it’s just that d&d can’t write him and they managed to make him look like an ass if we assume he knew everything from before. but like. it’s them being unable to write that story, not the story in itself being invalid or making no sense, because with the book elements we have.... it makes a hell of a lot of sense.

they just had to write it and they didn’t.

#bran stark #game of thrones spoilers #got negativity #janie writes meta #sorry my hand slipped #haljathefangirlcat #ask post

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rieshon · 4 years ago

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Best of 2019

It wouldn't be a best of the year post if it wasn't hopelessly late.

10: Shinchou Yuusha ~Kono Yuusha ga Ore TUEEE Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru~ ∥ White Fox ∥ Dir. Sakoi Masayuki: The title makes this sound like it could be terrible but this series has a Konosuba-like aplomb that makes it one of the best comedies of the year. Toyosaki Aki is absolutely brilliant as the shithead damegami Listarte and the animation consistently matches her over-the-top comedic masterclass. The show even has a real ending; opinion is split but I found it surprisingly satisfying.

9: Babylon ∥ Revoroot ∥ Dir. Suzuki Kiyotaka: This is the first Strand-type anime. Babylon is incredibly hard to describe and, having only seen it once, I'm not even fully confident in saying what it's about. It is a wild ride that meditates on some serious themes and seems to come to conclusions that won't be entirely comfortable for a lot of readers. This is one you really have to experience for yourself.

8: Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari ∥ Kinema Citrus ∥ Dir. Abo Takao: The most discoursed-about series of 2019 ends up being a surprisingly mature take on the isekai tensei genre. Like the best entries in the genre it features a protagonist who is deeply flawed and Naofumi's journey to learning to trust and love again is genuinely moving. It definitely does come off a bit like an incel fantasy at first but it is ultimately way more nuanced than that could ever suggest. Also, Raphtalia is best wife.

7: Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai ∥ Gemba ∥ Dir. Mizushima Tsutomu: Tsutomu, you son of a bitch, you did it again. While Kotobuki doesn't reach the rareified air of Garupan (pun not intended) it is very much in the same vein, and offers unending joy to any nerd who loves warplanes or just aviation in general. The script from the always-excellent Yokote Michiko is tight and compelling and gives a genuinely interesting backdrop to the frenetic plane action. Kotobuki is an excellent example of the power of showing rather than telling, something anime is woefully bad at: the fact that Kotobuki's isekai setting is never really expounded on makes it that much more interesting.

6: Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu ∥ C2C ∥ Dir. Anzai Takefumi: If Katsuwo's other work to be adapted into anime, Mitsuboshi Colors, is about being a child, then Bocchi is about the fraught transition from childhood into early adulthood. The titular Hitori Bocchi will be a frighteningly relatable character (my comment for the first episode on my blog was 'We Are All Bocchi') but unlike other series clearly aimed at alienated nerds, the show never feels sorry for Bocchi and most importantly, Bocchi doesn't feel sorry for herself. The show is explicitly about the importance of stepping outside of your comfort zone and although it's hard for Bocchi to do this, with the help of her friends she's able to work up the courage necessary to grow from a scared child into a functioning young adult. Also she's cute as fuck.

5: Machikado Mazoku ∥ J.C. Staff ∥ Dir. Sakurai Hiroaki: This is one of the best Kirara anime in ages. Kohara Konomi and Kitou Akari are a wonderful comedic combination, and Shamiko is probably the cutest girl of the whole year. She's pretty much the definition of the phrase "moe through helplessness" which makes her quest to be an evil demon truly hilarious. Like all the best Kirara anime, Machikado Mazoku slowly becomes a yuri anime as Momo's character develops and it becomes increasingly clear that she's just hard gay for Shamiko. I could watch these two be tsundere for each other forever.

4: Joshikousei no Mudazukai ∥ Passione ∥ Dir. Takahashi Takeo: There were a lot of excellent comedies this year and I always find them hard to review. Where Mudazukai particularly excels is the crassness of its characters: like the title suggests these aren't your typical cutesy anime JKs. They crack dirty jokes, take the piss out of each other, and feel more genuinely like friends than a lot of high school girls in anime. Akasaki Chinatsu in particular is pitch-perfect as 'Baka,' its like she was born to be stupid. Probably the funniest show of the year, even though I have one comedy ranked above it.

3: Senkizesshou Symphogear XV ∥ Satelight ∥ Dir. Ono Katsumi: The fact that a Symphogear series could end up this high on the rankings is something like a miracle. After years of me shitting all over it for incomprehensible plotlines and disposable characters, they somehow not only fixed it in the last season, but even retroactively redeemed some of the elements from those shitty third and fourth seasons and created some of the most thrilling moments of the year in the process. It even goes as far as to reach back to the first season and address the latent themes of Japanese nationalism that have always hung over the show in resolving Tsubasa's character arc. XV delivers such a satisfying conclusion that it fully justifies the past six years spent on developing the Symphogear series in a way I never thought possible. It's a beautiful thing to behold.

2: Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai ~Tensai-tachi no Ren'ai Zunousen~ ∥ A-1 Pictures ∥ Dir. Hatakeyama Mamoru: The romantic comedy is probably the most prolific genre in late night anime, and Kaguya-sama stands shoulder to shoulder with the greats. Everything from the voice acting (Koga Aoi should be a superstar, and Kohara Konomi is already on her way to being a household name) to the animation to the direction to the writing is superb. Kaguya even delivers in spades in the "romantic" side of "romantic comedy" which isn't something every rabukome can say. The number of series that I can say have made me cry from laughing and from emotion is pretty small, but Kaguya is proudly among them.

1: Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo ∥ Lay-duce ∥ Dir. Andou Masahiro & Tsukada Takurou: After all these years, Okada Mari has finally delivered her magnum opus. There has perhaps never been a more frank discussion of female adolescent sexuality than Araoto, drawing heavily as it does from Okada's own lived experience as a confused and bullied teenager. These girls are fragile people who are walking a knife's edge between childhood and adulthood, and they don't always keep their balance. As someone who didn't grow up as a girl, it's not something I can intrinsically understand, but it's a testament to Okada's writing that Araoto MAKES you understand what it's like to be a teenage girl going through puberty. It's ugly, it's dangerous, it's scary, and... it's something every woman goes through. Araoto deftly tackles themes of discovering ones sexuality, homosexuality, and the pressure put on young women by a society that both sexualizes them against their will but also demands that they remain chaste and pure. It is unlike almost anything else that's ever been made in this medium, and that's why it's my anime of the year.

Honorable mentions... Like I said above, this was a strong year for comedy so some good series didn't make the cut. Ueno-san wa Bukiyou was a great showcase for Serizawa Yuu's comedic chops (which us Pripara fans have known about for years) and featured some of the most memorable gags of the year... Kemurikusa saw Tatsuki triumphantly return to television with his first full length work since Kemono Friends, and I frankly found it to be better than Kemofure; a truly enjoyable work of post-apocalyptic science fiction... Speaking of science fiction, I also feel compelled to mention Kanata no Astra, which seemed underappreciated but ended up being an extremely well-written SF series. Of course, we also have to mention Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO if we're talking about science fiction; I didn't particularly like YU-NO's second half that much, but it's worth watching if only to understand where so much of modern anime comes from in the first place.

The awards go to...

Best Actress: Koga Aoi as Shinomiya Kaguya, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai. I mentioned above that this girl should be a superstar, and it's frankly absurd that she hasn't gotten more leading roles considering the considerable talent she shows off as Kaguya. She's a one-woman wrecking crew in this series, with her ability to effortlessly straddle the range between "cold and detached psychopath" and "petulant 8 year old throwing a tantrum" being the lynchpin of a lot of the series fundamental humor.

(Honorable mention: Akasaki Chinatsu as "Baka," Joshikousei no Mudazukai; Yukino Satsuki as Magase Ai, Babylon)

Newcomer Seiyuu of the Year: Kohara Konomi. It's a sweep for Kaguya-sama, and the voice acting is a big part of the reason that show was so exceptional. It kind of feels like cheating to give this to someone who's already played a Precure, but Toei were just really ahead of the curve on this one. 'Koko-chan' exploded onto the scene in 2019 between her roles as Fujiwara-shoki and Shamiko in Machikado Mazoku, with a distinctive vocal style and a knack for comedic delivery. Several of the most memetic lines of the year, like Fujiwara's "Don da yo!" and Shamiko's "Kore de katta to omou nayo!" come courtesy of her, and I feel like that ability to stick in people's minds is a testament to her level of talent. Though I gave Koga the nod overall for her performance as Kaguya, it's clear that Kohara is the one the industry has earmarked for future success with the level of prominence she's had over the past year or so, so she gets this award.

(Honorable mention: Fairouz Ai. "Fai-chan" made a splash thanks to her unusual background, but she's also proven to be a talented actress after appearing from seemingly out of nowhere to play Hibiki in the Onegai Muscle anime. It's out of the scope of this post, but she really made an impression in Oshibudo as Eripiyo, but her body of work is still too thin for her to win this award outright. She's shown she has a knack for the funny with her brusque and aggressive delivery, but I'd really like to hear her as a dramatic lead sometime soon.)

#best of the year

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breastforce · 8 years ago

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Marco is a Trans Girl - The Megapost 2.0

So you’ve likely seen my big post on the theory that Marco Diaz from Star vs The Forces of Evil is a Trans Girl. It was made back in July of 2016 when Season 2 was just starting, and since then a lot of things have changed and we now know a lot more about what’s going on behind the scenes.

This post is meant to be an updated explanation of Trans Girl Marco theory, but now more in line with how things are actually happening. The gist of it being that Marco Diaz is coded as a closeted transgender girl. Expect less theorizing and more meta talk. I’ll be going over all the clues that indicate Marco is trans, as well as how the starcrew came to the desicion as Marco developed as a character.

I can’t give enough thanks to the members of the crew such as @arythusa and @hug-bees, whom have both done as much as they possibly can to communicate with the show’s growing LGBT fanbase, and given us so much insight into what’s going on

Full post below the cut.

Part 1: How it Happened.

“In my experience, almost no character goes into episode 1 totally finished. With such a long writing process, people end up changing and "discovering" more about the characters as they go on.” -Sabrina Cotungo [x]

A lot of aspects in Star Vs developed and matured along Seasons 1 and 2. Alfonso and Ferguson were written out and Janna joined the main cast, Ponyhead, Tom, and Glossaryk were given bigger roles, etc. So it’s pretty clear that Marco wasn’t originally penned as a Trans Girl. For the greater half of Season 1, they were simply a boy that ocassional feminine tendancies, with very few episodes indicating that there was anything else going on.

So what happened?

Well, individual writers and storyboarders have a bit of creative freedom when it comes to cartoon episodes. While they don’t have the ability to set much in stone, they can weave their own interpritations of characters into the outline that they’re given, inserting in small details that can enrich a character.

So while Marco was ‘officially’ a feminine boy, some writers interprited their feminity and general insecurities as indicative of something deeper.

One such example is in Mewberty:

While Star’s under an affliction that causes her to break out in hearts around boys, the writers have Marco not realize that they’re also a ‘boy’ for the first quarter of the episode, and when Marco’s hit over the head with something that would seem to be fairly evident for them, there’s a very noticable pause indicating that it’s something they are (or have just become) self-concious about.

And just to hammer the point home, there’s even a part in the episode where Marco’s outright mistaken to be a girl:

And Marco could have just been left at that.

The episode where I believe things changed though, is St. Olga’s School For Wayward Princesses

Marco disguises themself as a Princess to break help Star break into a boarding school, and the whole thing is completely natural. Marco doesn’t really try at all to be something they’re not - they’re just Marco.

Most media would have somebody suspect that there was something ‘off’ about Marco or constantly bring up how they’re the “odd one out” amongst all the other girls. Instead, Marco’s allowed to simply just be a girl for an episode without any objections from the narrative. Their gender is never made fun of, questioned, second-guessed, or even really brought up at all, even by the villain.

Not to mention the message of the episode - It’s Not Criminal To Be An Individual

It’s all about how there’s no wrong way to be a princess, but since royalty is a very narrow market in the United States, let’s just assume that the actual message is about how there’s no wrong way to be a girl.

And it’s likely no coincidence that Marco’s not only viewed as being no different from any of the other princess but also the keystone of the entire movement.

There’s no wrong way to be a girl, and Marco’s included in that.

I don’t know for sure whether the writer behind this episode, Piero Piluso, conciously wrote Marco with them being transgender in mind, but they wrote Princess Marco as a girl through and through.

And that’s likely when the lightbulbs started going off in the crew.

Season 2 brought in a slew of new writers and cast members, including people who’ve had previous expierience writing LGBT characters such as Giancarlo Volpe, Evon Freeman, Le Tang, Amelia Lorenz, Zach Marcus, Brett Varon, Gina Gress, and the aforementioned Sabrina Cotungo (whom had even tried to get a transgender character into Gravity Falls)

The new batch of writers now all had the existence of Princess Marco influencing their interpritations of Marco, which made it a lot easier for many of them to come to the conclusion that there was something deeper going on, and that this kid was trans.

Thus resulting in a MASSIVE explosion of hints occuring throughout Season 2.

Part 2: Scattered Evidence

“So if and/or when you detect LGBT-friendly themes on this show, it’s most likely there because the creators fought hard to put it there. They did the best they could to get any form of representation over, under or around those censors. They put it there to make a positive change in media.” -Amelia Lorenz [x]

Seaon 2 was where things really staarted to pck up.

Marco’s very first appearance is this:

Alright, they could be a feminine guy, Doesn’t exactly prove anything

They then spend the rest of the episode trapped in a closet that they want to get out of.

Which just so happens to be a Closet of Secrets.

Star even proposes at one point that it might be easier for Marco to just spend the rest of their life in the closet.

And, to top it all off, the writers specifically have Marco spend their entire time in said closet wearing a goddamn skirt.

In Mr. Candle Cares we get Marco outright saying they’d ‘Love to be Queen’.

Red Belt opens up with a dream sequence where Marco’s more shocked to find themselves buried in a suit than dead:

And upon seeing themselves in a suit (which they don’t want!), they’re reminded that they’re unsure of themselves and their future.

And how, to Marco, there’s something holding them down. Something that they’re missing. Something that sets them apart from the rest of the cast (!!!!!!!!).

And this dyphoria Marco’s expieriencing was set off by a suit covered in mewberty hearts.

Calling back to the ‘Boy Hands’ moment above:

Marco fears that they’ll spend their life closeted, that they won’t be able to progress in life because they spent it hiding away, unable to escape being a ‘boy’ just like what happened in Mewberty.

And the dream wasn’t just a one-off thing for Marco:

It’s a regular, recurring nightmare they’ve had to the point where they told Star about it. They’ve been unsettled over the long term, but the show hasn’t shown it, they just let us know in this moment.

Then we get Fetch, where in the last few minutes the writers do an animal-based dysphoria metaphor that puts Cartoon Network to shame.

It is pretty clear that the writers know what they’re doing because that’s legitimately one of the better explanations of what having dysphoria is like that I’ve seen on television: Rather than the dog talking about how they were “born in the wrong body”, they want to be a dog that is just like any other in order to calm their troubled emotions.

The book Star and Marco’s Guide to Mastering Every Dimension hammers down on the trans metaphor even further:

Willoughby is a dog. But in her dimension, dogs aren’t like dogs on Earth. They have very complicated feelings. So she stole my wand to make herself not have those complicated feelings anymore.

This passage can easily be translated to: “Some [women] aren’t like [other women]. They have very complicated feelings. So they [transition] to make themselves not have those complicated feelings anymore.” which is such a simple way of explaining what being trans is like to kids that it wouldn’t feel out of place on Sesame Street.

Not even a minute after the first exchange, we get this:

Which not only hammers in the idea that this is all about gender ever further, since they include a gender reveal that has no other real impact on the story, but if the dog’s in any way symbolic of Marco, then the scene pretty much speaks for itself.

And then in Gift of the Card, Heinous makes her return and the name “Princess Marco” is actually used in the show itself.

And after a season with a bunch of bits and pieces of foreshadowing scattered throughout:

It’s revealed in Nayasya that Marco does in fact have dysphoria, they’re so ashamed of their body that they can’t even look themselves in the mirror:

Marco Diaz covers the mirror when he shows because Marco is ashamed of his own body!

In addition, mirrors and showers are such common motifs in trans narratives that Sense8 had their trans character describe her dysphoria in nearly the same exact way.

“At that age I was really uncomfortable with my body and didn’t like to be naked, especially in front of other boys. But you had to take a shower before you went in the pool, so I would do it but I kept my swimsuit on.”

And the only point where Marco can apparently somewhat stand to look themselves in the mirror?

When they’re dressed like that. Indicating that this isn’t just some Teenaged Body Insecurity but rather dysphoria.

Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension, a canonical side book that fleshes out the lore of the show, also manages to expand on Marco’s thoughts on their stay at St. Olga’s:

I almost died at St. O’s. Twice. The first time was at the hands of some robot guards, and the second time I almost died emotionally in the Solitary Conform-ment Chamber. I did learn that I’d make a great princess. I really wouldn’t say that pink is my color... but I wouldn’t mind wearing a poofy dress every now and then. It’s kinda liberating.

Notice their word choice. Not only do they outright say “I learned I’d make a great princess”, not only indicating that they did infact themselves as a girl in St. Olga’s to a degree rather than simply seeing the whole thing as ‘just a disguise’, but they also call wearing a ‘poofy dress’ to be liberating.

There is a HUGE difference between “a guy enjoys wearing dresses and would like to wear them more often’ and ‘somebody who’s fantasized about being a girl finds a dress they didn’t even chose to wear to be personally liberating’. It’s not simply a matter of Marco wearing a dress, but rather that their attitudes towards it (and everything else) are something that a lot of Trans Women have found relatable.

Part 3: ‘Heinous’

“I can tell you that Daron is open to the idea of LGBT characters but beyond that the situation gets complicated. Also, as a board artist, I don’t have a lot of say in terms of larger story or character arcs, so I’m afraid I can’t comment on future plans.” - Sabrina Cotugno [x]

At this point there’s a number of members in the crew that all view Marco as a trans girl, and are writing her that way, but nobody has the power to make it explicit.

Then comes ‘Heinous’.

This episode pushed this concept to its absolute limit, where the writers for the episode did literally everything they could to get across the message that Marco’s trans and brought the theory to being as canon as they can possibly get at the time. (To the point where people on Reddit who either didn’t follow or dismissed the theory were struggling to figure out what the point of the episode was)

The basics:

Marco is consistently gendered with ‘she’ pronouns throughout the episode and the writers don’t have anybody ever question it

When in her Princess getup, Marco explictly refers to herself as a girl and seems to have a blast despite being blackmailed, to the point where they voluntairly keep on the dress for family game night.

The dialogue from Marco’s parents have loads of double meanings, where they’re talking about finding out about Marco’s interdimensional activities, but deliberately involk the image of somebody who just got outed as being gay or transgender to their parents.

And, most of all, Princess Marco wasn’t just a distant memory that didn’t matter. The episode revealed that Marco secretly kept up the ‘Princess Marco’ persona this whole time, getting royalty checks from merchandise inspired by her.

And to make things even more meta, Marco has apparently ‘influencing the next generation of princesses’ to be true to themselves.

The whole theme of the episode is Marco getting across a hidden message meant to inspire people despite being restricted in what they can say. So Marco says what they’re obliged to say, but phrases it in a way that makes the true message clear to the intended audience. This is essentially how the crew has been handling the theory in of itself.

Part 4 (for now): Conclusions

I’ll continue to update the post with relevant information as we move onto Season 3, so this part of the post will most likely change

The image that is being drawn is that the crew really really really wants to include trans representation within their work, and not only views but are actively writing a character as being transgender, but they can not come out and just say it due to legal reasons.

The crew’s response to the idea of Marco being transgender, as well as the prospects of LGBT representation within the show itself, has been nothing but positive. They’ve been consistently defending it to the point where one of the directors for Season 4 put out an argument as for why Marco being transgender girl is more important than them being a boy.

It’s not certain whether or not Marco will be able to come out and transition to being a girl during the series. The crew has many times expressed frustration about how much of a fight they have to put up to even get hints at LGBT representation past the censors. In the meantime, or in case they ultimately don’t succeed, the staff are deliberately giving trans people something to relate to in Princess Marco, and are doing everything they can to make sure we at least have that.

“I wish I could give a more reassuring or more substantial answer, but little by little people in the industry are trying to change things. The victories seem a bit small for now, but please know that you’re not forgotten.” -Ariel V.H. [x]

#svtfoe #trans marco #marco is trans theory

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mmeaninglessnamee · 5 years ago

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Best Things 2019 list

Welcome to my best of the year list, where you get ambushed by Anime at every turn because I refuse to make a separate anime-related category because all movies are films. [Pronounce this line very snobbily]

If you’ve never read one of my best-of-the-year lists, I don’t blame you, they are usually full of garbage except for this one which you should care deeply about. Anyway, this is the best things I first experienced on the past year, which often has a lot of things that didn’t come out this year, because I inevitably miss some things and there was a lot of good media from before I was born.

Anyway, on to the list! The one thing a year I actually use Tumblr to post!

Best Movies:

There’s only two movies that make this list entirely on their own merits this year. Last year I had a top ten, but I watched significantly more movies in 2018 than this year.

Angel’s Egg

Angel’s Egg is art-house anime at its peak. There’s not so much a story here as an uneasy feeling, symbolism, and probably 30 lines of dialogue total and an extremely limited color palette. You could interpret it as about becoming disillusioned with religion, or the complete opposite and see it as a lost, obsessed soul being redeemed. Or something completely different. It’s art for art’s sake.

I inevitably have anime on my best-of lists each year, and I try to not have it over-represent the scope of things I watched each year. But I’ve seen a lot less anime than other genres I like, so there’s a huge amount of really good anime I’ve never seen. I can watch 10 anime movies in a year and they can all be pretty good because there’s just a lot of good ones from a 50-year period that I haven’t seen, while I’ve seen most good sci-fi movies and a lot of the “classics” films and pretty much left with just watching new ones that have come out recently. And it’s not like I’m not watching western animated movies, there’s just not a lot that I would put on a best-of list. While last year had Isle of Dogs and Spiderverse, this year had some forgettable sequels. Anyway, that was a long aside to start this list, but I would love to get more good entries in my favorites every year. I can only hope Star Trek directed by Tarintino actually happens.

Synechdoche, New York

– ultimately will probably never make an all-time favorites list from me, but still a very good piece of filmmaking. It’s extremely dense with layered symbolism and tons of rewatchability. Yet, I don’t really feel the need to rewatch it. It’s very good, but not the kind of good that I feel the need to sing the praises of. If you like extremely well-planned, detailed filmmaking, there are many more-glowing reviews out there for it. This is a huge favorite among film critics, and I can respect why, but I am not a film critic. I don’t get burnt out watching bad movies because I don’t watch movies I don’t think I’ll like, unless they are into “so bad it’s good” territory.

Speaking of the act of watching movies: Best theater experience: Promare

Surprise, it’s Anime again! This movie wasn’t an all-time great, but it was big and stupid and exciting, and I got to see it in a packed theater with tons of Studio Trigger fans who cheered for every reference and visual nod. And the references were great, although they sometimes were a reminder that other similar plots were done better than they were in Promare. But Promare was definitely done gayer than any of the previous shows it took its style from.

That’s all for movies. I did not watch nearly as many that I loves as last year

Best short film:

There were no short films I loved this year. I saw some decent ones, and there’s always some interesting animation from short films, but there weren’t any that stuck out as much as anything last year.

A special mention goes to Age of Sail from John Kahrs with Chromosphere and Evil Eye pictures.( This was distributed by Google Spotlight Stories, so you can easily find it online.) This story had good enough characters that at the end I was left wanting more to their stories, and the visual style was memorable as well.

Best Shows:

The Good Place

I have a lot of things to say about The Good Place, but I really don’t want to spoil the show if you haven’t seen it, so I’ll try to be brief because most of the longwinded things I could say about it have to do with its reveals and plot progression.

What I will say is that one of the great things about The Good Place is that anything could happen, and suddenly, not just in a finale at the end of a season. But what initially got me to watch the show is its strong premise. Elenore wakes up to find out she is dead, but is in The Good Place. The only problem is that she was an awful person who doesn’t deserve to be there. So, she tries to learn to be a good person before she is found out so that she can stay. The show has a lot to say about ethics, morals, and what it means to be “good”, but it’s also primarily a comedy so it’s usually not very heavy-handed about anything.

The final season of The Good Place aired in 2019, but I’m not actually caught up on it yet so I don’t know what the ending is, just that it ended.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia

I like shows that are constantly surprising and unpredictable. I just said the same thing about The Good Place. Haruhi has a lot of faults, but makes up for them by being not just unpredictable but also very novel or sometimes just bizarre in its presentation. It has the same sense that anything could happen to suddenly change the story that The Good Place has, but in intentionally confusing ways. The two most interesting attributes of the show aren’t even its characters or premise, but two series of episodes: the first season episode order and the Endless Eight. The first 13 episodes of the show were initially broadcast completely out of order, and they are better that way. The first episode is entirely a bad student film that doesn’t even properly introduce any characters, and its backstory isn’t covered until the second season. But it’s an amazing introduction to the series. The series overall doesn’t have amazing visuals beyond some strange framing choices, but this episode also has lots of little details to sell that it’s a bad film, like camera shake and shots that aren’t entirely in focus.

The Endless Eight is the same episode eight times in a row. It’s was actually one of my favorite parts of the series, although I can see why people would loath it, especially if you were watching the show when it aired and had to wait a whole week to see the same thing happen again and again.

There’s also a silly dance with the ending theme. Every fad needs a stupid dance to go with it.

And then there’s the movie, the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumia, which caps off the series, or at least the anime’s run, and is nearly 3 hours long. It’s actually the second-longest animated film ever made, trailing the extended cut of Final Yamato, a space opera from the 80’s, by one minute. The movie caps off the whole series, reincorporating many events that already happened in the series and showing some characters in a new light. Before the movie, I had no idea why there was an alternate-universe spinoff series about a normal version of one of the main characters, but now I completely understand it. Although the erratic pacing of the whole series may turn people off, and it is far from perfect and filled with enough cliché moments to fill a uh, something large, the moments where the story hits hard are extremely memorable.

Best web original programming:

“4K cab view - Geibi Line Hiroshima Station to Fukuen Line Fuchū Station, Japan”

Let me try to explain why a 4-hour video of railroad tracks is amazing.

1: I like trains 2: It’s really relaxing to just look at the scenery going by

3: I think that this specific video is good rather than just the large amount of transport cab-view videos in general because it’s long enough to be an experience, not just a video. That might sound corny, but you really go on a journey with this video, from city to countryside, and perhaps more strikingly from pre-dawn early morning to full daylight. I did not sit and watch this all at once, but I certainly could.

Best Music Videos:

OK Go Music Videos

Do you like cool ideas for music videos? OK Go has cool ideas for music videos, to the point that the videos are better than the music. You may remember their original hit which was a dance on treadmills. They have only got more elaborate since, with a rube Goldberg machine, a super-slow-mo video, hundreds of choreographed dancers, a car used as an instrument, and my favorite: a video shot in zero-g. To make things even better, most of their videos are in a single take which just makes them all the more impressive.

BEASTARS Opening

Opening themes to anime are basically just short music videos. Usually they aren’t too special, but I also think the vast majority of anime shows themselves are nothing special either, so that’s not saying much. However, sometime you get something really good like the Beastars OP, which in addition to having a jazzy song uses stop-motion animation for its visuals. Stop motion animation is always cool. I think it’s also thematically appropriate for a 3-D animated show to have an intro using the oldest form of 3-D animation.

And since we’re on Music Videos, let’s just go right into the next main section: Music.

Music:

Gregory and the Hawk

Gregory and the Hawk is an indie folk artist with a weird name. She sings sweet-sounding songs about troubled lives, and I like how her music sounds. It definitely won’t strike a chord with everyone though.

Not much to say about her, I just like it. Her best song is “Oats We Sow”.

Mariko Goto / Midori

This isn’t anime music. Mariko Goto didn’t appeal to me because she made music for some anime that I liked. I just feel like my best-of lists get heavy with anime-related things a lot for reasons I already discussed that back in the movies section. Anyway, Mariko Goto’s music is weird. This also includes the work of the band Midori, which she was a part of.

Midori was a jazz-punk-fusion band. That probably doesn’t bring any particular sound to your mind, but I can’t describe it well either. Mariko as a solo artist is also kind of the same genre, except sometimes. Many songs never quite find themselves coming to rest, either on a major key or sometimes even all on the same beat, while Mariko does a kind of overly-cutesy screech over the instrumentals. I would describe some of their music as sounding like a waking dream you would have while trying to rest with a fever.

I would say her best songs are “Swing”(with Midori), “Drone”, and “@HφU☆少女。。”(however you pronounce this mess) and best overall album is “299792458”

Angelique Kidjo – Remain in Light (Album cover)

A.K. is a Beninese music artist. She did a full cover album of Remain in Light, one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite bands. Talking Heads were one of the first mainstream rock bands to use (or depending on who you ask, steal) African polyrhythms extensively, and now Kidjo has taken them back. I have heard a lot of good covers from this album, most notably another entire-album cover by Phish, but this is the best one by far.

Her other, original work is okay too, but wouldn’t get on my best-of lists by themselves. Remain in Light was released in 2018, but I didn’t hear it until this year. Here’s some more music from 2018 that I didn’t hear until this year:

Revue Starlight soundtrack

Revue Starlight was a pretty good anime that aired last year. But wait, aren’t we past the audiovisual media section? Yeah, we are, because Starlight had some problems in my opinion. The soundtrack, both the original songs and the background score, were not one of the problems. The soundtrack was the best part of the show, which is why I’m putting it on my best music list. The genre is best described as modern classical. Most of the orchestration is a traditional string orchestra, but with different songs having distinct accents, like mechanical distortion, a heavy electric bass line, more traditional Japanese strings and woodwinds, or a screaming guitar solo. I think some of the songs are actually better absent of the show, because especially some of the revue songs were not used particularly well. My favorite song from the show, A Song or the Blooming of Flowers, especially got shafted in the anime by having characters talking over most of it and having a rather lackluster fight. The best pieces from the score however, Rondo Rondo Rondo and the transformation theme, were used well. But it baffles me that someone decided that songs with thematic lyrics should be spoken over with dialogue saying basically the same thing thematically as the lyrics.

The Protomen

The Protomen have a lot of musical talent and I really like how they sound… on their second album. Their first album blows. Also all of their original music is based on made-up backstory to the MegaMan video game franchise. You gotta write about something I guess. Like I said, I really like some of their tracks, but I’m really not sure if I recommend they entirely.

Of Monsters and Men – all the tracks that didn’t get radio play

Of Monsters and Men is a pretty good band. I had already heard all their songs that were widely popular (so pretty much just Little Talks) so those don’t count for being something new I heard this year. But I also don’t really care for Wars, their new song that has got radio play this year. But I really like most of the rest of their tracks, and I also love the aesthetic of the visualizers for My Head is an Animal.

And here’s some individual songs where I didn’t like the artist’s whole catalogue but I liked certain songs.

God Knows – Aya Hirano

This is a rock song from The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumia. (oh no we’re back to anime) Haruhi is not a music show, but it nevertheless has a music episode out of nowhere. As in two of the characters perform this song in the show with no build up to it and with one of them never having shown any musical skill, so of course she can absolutely shred on guitar. This song basically got me to actually watch the show now on my favorites list even though I knew it was just a one-off in a single episode, so I think that’s a pretty solid statement for being one of the best songs I heard this year. Aya Hirano produced some other music as well, but I don’t like anything that I’ve heard as much, which might just be God Knows having the benefit of context. Since Haruhi, she’s performed with the stage theater company that inspired the anime Revue Starlight, the music from which was also just on this list. Everything’s connected!

Girls Dead Monster

Speaking of anime music, GirlDeMo is also anime-related music. GirlDeMo is the band in the anime Angel Beats, but they also produced some real albums with additional music, not just the songs used in Angel Beats. Unlike the Revue Starlight soundtrack, this isn’t a bright spot of an okay show, it’s on this list as a stand-alone because I really like female-lead rock music. Not every song is a masterpiece, but I like some of them enough to put them on this list. Best tracks: Crow Song (this was in the first ep. of Angel Beats) and Little Braver (was not in the show, but is coincidentally the only GirlDeMo song I’ve found a Clone Hero beatmap for, so someone else has good taste as well.) Also an honorable mention to the rock cover of the Angel Beats opening theme which is performed in-universe at the start of an episode.

I think that’s all the things related to anime on this list now. There’s a lot of anime with some very good high points, but yet very few that overall come all together to make a full package that’s good all the way through. Just having one aspect of something that people like a lot is better than nothing though, but that’s why it got spread all across this list instead of being confined to movies and shows, it spreads like a sickness across the land, creeping up and night and stifling life.

Speaking of creeping up at night and stifling life:

LEATHER TEETH – Carpenter Brut

This song is a piece of heavy horror electronica, and it slaps hard. Slashes hard? The music video is about a slasher-movie serial killer, but the track has plenty of atmosphere on its own. The rest of the album is also good, but does not reach the peak of the title track. They all have very high amount of violence and sex in their videos though, so beware who you watch them around. One of them has a YouTube-friendly version where all the gore is left intact but the nudity is censored with lots of guns.

Curses – The Crane Wives

This is a good song, but I don’t like most of The Crane Wives’ catalogue as much as this one song. That’s all I have to say about this one.

The chorus is really catchy, or maybe just the singer’s smoky delivery is inherently memorable.

I Am The Antichrist To You – Kishi Bashi

This is a surprisingly slow, melancholy song, from the title you would probably expect some heavy metal. This song is carried by the vocals.

Borodin – Polovstian Dances from Prince Igor (Choral version)

Here’s something not even remotely contemporary. Did you know that this piece was originally written to have lyrics? I didn’t. Did you know that this piece is AMAZING with vocals added to it? Now you do.

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here by Porcupine Tree

This was probably the best prog-rock song I heard all year. Yeah, that’s all for this one.

Dream Sweet in Sea Major

Joe Hawley, Allison Hanna and Bora Karaca are three people I have never heard of who make very strange alternative music that sounds like it belongs playing on a phonograph, except when it abruptly shifts to some other various genre. This song got the YouTube algorithm blessing, but the band the artists are a part of, Tally Hall, apparently has some amount of online following. I’d never heard of them. The side project that produced the album “Hawaii Part II” that this song is from has an entirely Japanese name for some reason. (None of the members are Japanese) I guess if you’re making a weird side project, make it as weird as you want.

Did you know Rob Cantor (who wrote Running for your life from Shia LeBeouf) is part of Tally Hall? Now you do. He didn’t work on this song, but looking up stuff about this song was a huge rabbit hole.

25 Color Twilight from City Connection from Voez

The rhythm game Voez has some good music. I put Night Keepers, the most-featured artist, on my list last year. This particular song is a reimagining of the main theme of City Connection, a NES game where you run away from the cops with a bunch of paint dripping out the back of your car. Why? Because. I’ve played it and didn’t think it was very fun, but anyway this song is great.

HM: Aqualung – Pressure Suit

HM: Heart of Glass - Blondie

HM: Locomotive Breath – Jethro Tull

These songs aren’t Honorable Mentions because I only kind-of like them, they are HMs because I had heard them before but only really listened to them a lot this year.

Locomotive Breath is just a good song that always leaves me wanting more at the end of it. So I listen to it again and again.

Heart of Glass is just really really catchy and I love how it draws attention to its own skipped beat in the chorus. There are lots of songs that skip a beat to smooth over a song transition, but this song skips a beat to become rougher.

Pressure Suit has a story to it. I first saw the song’s music video on an MTV-style channel on a TV at a college campus cafeteria. I was in middle school at the time. The video was very memorable to me, and the TV had subtitles on it so I remembered the chorus lyrics, but there was no audio. Amazingly, I remembered this and found the song much later, and even more surprisingly actually liked it.

Games:

The Beatles Rock Band

Since we’re coming off music, it only makes sense to start with a music game. Remember Guitar Hero? The series is still going with Guitar Hero Live, but it really died out years ago. Despite that, it’s still great fun, and the popularity of Clone Hero shows that people still love the idea. Most of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games really emphasized the aesthetic of grunge and heavy metal, and had some face-melting solos and heavily technical songs. The Beatles Rock Band has neither of those things, which is a lot of why I like it. I mean, I also like The Beatles, but that’s kind of assumed since I liked a game that’s entirely their music. Even on expert mode, this game is laid back and relaxed, with some of the songs have videos that travel from the studio to psychedelic landscapes. I never owned this game when it came out, but now I bought it for $3.

Celeste

The last section to write. I have so much to say about how good Celeste is.

Celeste is by far the best game I played this year. I have a hard time loving 2-D platformers because they so often feel slippery and imprecise but demand perfection from the player. Old Mario games are icons of the genre. Mario slides off everything and needs momentum to get anywhere off a jump. Meat Boy is a game with death everywhere for the slightest mistake, but by design you slide up walls while having to be very deliberate with your jumps to get the correct arc and height. Celeste improved the controls and feel of the game to the point that it feels perfectly precise, and mistakes you make are your own, not Madeline sliding a little bit too far or a jump having to have too exact an angle. Just a single linear dash in the air opens up so many possibilities for design, but the biggest aspect is wall climbing. You can just hold on a wall for a second or climb up over the top of a ledge instead of having to be constantly jumping, and this makes long sections without ground or with difficult timing feel much more manageable.

Also the game has a strong emotional story, which is now commonplace in well-received indie games but is still a rarity in platformers. Go rescue the damsel, the end. In Celeste, you’re only fighting against nature and yourself.

Also the soundtrack is beautiful, ranging from apprehensive to reflective and tense to triumphant. First Steps is a great, memorable introductory theme. Capping things off, Reach for the Summit drives you to have to finish the game. And the b-sides remixes are nice reinterpretations of the tracks to match the reinterpretations of the levels they accompany.

Also, I’m using “Also” to start another point too much, so let’s also talk about some other games.

Quiplash

It’s a great party game that you can play with people who aren’t gamers!

The Jackbox Party Packs overall are great party games, and Quiplash is the best for people for whom the hardest part of the game will be correctly operating their phone to connect to the Jackbox server. Take this to holiday gatherings and play with family.

Ultra Fight da! Kyanta 2

The only fighting game that came out this year that I actually like. It’s extreme kusoge. Technically it came out last year on itch.io and I did play it back then, but it came to Steam and got more popular and people ran tournaments for it starting this year.

You have teams of up to three characters, groove selection per character, parries, walk-through crossups, normals with free air movement , extremely high damage and ridiculous supers, roman cancels, and all sorts of other character-specific degeneracy like jumping lows or unblockable projectiles that hit both players, and that all adds up to a very fun game.

Oh yeah, and it looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint.

Tetris

Tetris has been around for decades, but there’s always new ways to reinvent the game and I want to talk about 3 different ones I got into this year.

First, Puyo Puyo Tetris. It’s three games in one, and pretty much the standard for competitive modern tetris. Or modern Puyo. Or Swap Mode, which forces you to play both games alternating every 30 seconds, which is where the game really shines.

Then, there’s tetris effect, which is the best single-player tetris game around, at least the best available to buy normally. The Tetris the Grandmaster series is also great but only on arcade boards. Tetris Effect is the only tetris game where the graphics and soundtrack actually matter, because it’s a visual masterpiece and great game experience. However, it has no direct multiplayer at all.

Finally, if you really want multiplayer tetris but beating up to three other people at once in Puyo Puyo Tetris isn’t enough, there’s Tetris 99, the tetris battle-royale game. Because there’s basically no downtime in matches and you can start a new match almost immediately, it’s easy to play one more match for hours in this game.

These three games together are just many facets of one great game: Tetris

I also played a Tetris The Grandmaster arcade board for the first time this year. That’s another good tetris game, but even better was its full name: Tetris The Grandmaster 3: Terror Instinct. And VideoGameDunkey did a video on Tetris this year, that was great too. Tetris.

HM: Defunct

This game is great. However, it’s an HM because it’s only about an hour long with not a huge amount of extra stuff to do. But the replay value is still very high, because mastering time attacks or just moving with style is very fun. I’ve considered doing speedruns of this game, but only actually did a full (20-minute) run once.

HM: Catherine Classic

This is an HM because I have played the game before on PS3. I’ve entered tournaments for Catherine. But I never played the story mode or actually owned the game until it came to PC. This is a very unique puzzle game that is worth your time, and a type of story about actual long-term relationships that games don’t tell often. Yes, the story has character portrayals that are problematic, but most of the time that’s the point; most of the characters are kind-of awful and are unable to move beyond their past relationship issues.

Books and other writing:

The Hero with 1000 Faces (1949)

This book is all about heroic myth around the world, and more specifically about how many myths worldwide have significant similarities. If you want a really in-depth look at the Hero’s Journey, this is your book.

This book is very well-known among writers and very easy to use to compare different works. George Lucas said it influenced Star Wars, so that’s something.

Mimusubi (Blog)

This is a blog by and Englishman who lives in Japan and works for a national Shinto organization. It is all about Shinto as a religion and its place in modern Japanese society. It’s an interesting read, although it ended up being entirely useless related to the research I was doing when I found it initially. I don’t frequently read blogs, so this is a weird entry on my best-of-the-year list.

Best Theater:

‘Romeos and Juliets’ by the machine lifeforms in the amusement park from Nier Automata So, I didn’t actually go to any plays and only one concert this year so I don’t have much to say about live performances, but this bizarre identity crisis misinterpretation of Romeo and Juliet is certainly entertaining (although quite short). And like all good stories within stories, it just maybe has a lot more to do with the overall plot than you would think.

This is really just another alternate way of putting in an Honorable Mention for Nier Automata, which is a good game, but I just have a lot of problems with the gameplay part of it that keeps it off my best games list. The ending is extremely strong, but it took me 30 hours to get there and its hard to ignore that significant portion of the game, especially when the actual gameplay part was often the least-interesting aspect.

Sorry if anyone was actually watching this for theater recommendations. Since I like things that are about theater so much (see Revue Starlight also being on my best-of list), you think I would actually get to more live theater like I have previous years. The one thing I went to was a performance of Dvorak’s New World Symphony, but again, I have nothing to say about that, I’d heard the piece before so it can’t even go in “best music” since it wasn’t a mind-blowing performance. I don’t know, maybe I should have just removed this section. If you want recommendations, watch Avenue Q I guess.

Best Credits Sequence:

Here, I found an award to give Nier: Automata.

Best Memes:

SA2 Realtime Fandub by SnapCube

I’ve come to make an announcement: Here’s one final thing from this list that was from 2018 but I didn’t find until a year later, but this one didn’t really blow up until then. Eggman pissing on the moon is the single biggest highlight of this hour-long epic, but it’s hilarious the whole way through and endlessly rewatchable. Sonic Adventure 2 is a perfect source for parody for so many reasons, but the improvised character dynamics here really highlight how absurd so much of the story is. Why is NASA there? Why is the camera zooming in? This is a must-watch if you loved SA2’s corniness, as long as you don’t mind some characters swearing like wounded sailors.

Places I discovered I want to visit:

Museum Meiji-mura

Here’s a new section for this year’s list that I probably won’t repeat!

A long time ago, in a country far, far away, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a hotel. Unfortunately, the hotel was in Tokyo, Japan. It survived the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake and World War Two, but did not survive the economic realities of being a low-rise structure in downtown Tokyo, one of the densest cities on the planet. It was replaced by a much larger hotel in the 70’s.

But, the entrance building was saved and rebuilt in Museum Meiji-mura, near Nagoya, and I absolutely want to visit there if I ever go to Japan, because it’s a large collection of architecturally historic buildings from Japan, and as a student of Architecture, that would be really cool to go see.

That’s all for my list this year. I’m planning on making a video version of the list this year, but that won’t be done for a while.

#best of 2019

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