#we are a lazy decadent society fandom

[justhereforthepies]

Just wanna thank the people in this tag for reminding me that sane people exist.

I guess you can't expect better when the premises of the book are diametrically opposed to one another. Of course, SJM can't square a circle.

- morally flawed complex aggressive protagonist AND selfless good 'pure' victim protagonist

- fair, moral leader who believes in equality & justice AND all-powerful autocrat

- rich city with amazing artistic culture, delicious food with international spices, and expensive fabrics & gems aplenty AND secret isolationist protectionist nationalist fortress city

- war as an evil, harmful reality that changes everyone's lives for the worse AND sexy, cinematic battle scenes where hundreds are vaporized, have their souls consumed, and are drowned by the protagonist's team (whose core members are personally immune to death)

- people are morally complicated, we should acknowledge that everyone has mistakes & regrets AND some people are 100% evil with no redeeming value

- intimate parter abuse includes isolating, controlling, aggressive, and jealous behaviour AND a love interest who does all of the former

It's difficult to address the first truths when you are writing in a genre (mass market fantasy adventure romance) whose narrative conventions typically rely on the second.

So SJM has the narrators say espouse the truths while the plot and characters act according to convention. She keeps the actual characterization and world building incredibly stereotypical, so much that her descriptions of people and nations become repetitive.

But people love repetition in storytelling, that's why tropes are a thing. So even when these thin caricatures are portrayed as completely different people from book to book, and from narration to action - they still act as readers expect them to because their actions are stereotyped so strongly in each scene. Some of the highest ranked (by kudos, comments, hits) fan fics on A03 could easily 'find & replace' character names to adapt them to almost any fandom with almost no tweaks. Because the characters aren't... characterized - they're just stock. They have complex and traumatic backstories, but those personal histories feel like distant gossip for all the effects that they have on a character's motivations and actions. The plot needs the actions, so the characters take those actions.

Luckily, a lot of those actions are smut that just so happens to coincide with some of the most popular fanfic conventions of the past decade.

So, the ACOTAR series sold really well, and honestly - the plot is a fun ride even if the disconnect between the text and reality is sometimes a huge chasm that was incredibly frustrating.

I think I was most frustrated at the 'mates' Feysand plotline because that trope feels sooooo lazy to me! It's fine where authors wanna 'skip to the good part' or do some morally complex dubcon, but this is a modern mass market novel... so why are we doing it? Couldn't SJM at least justify it somehow - like the characters were fated to help each other take some critical action so 'fate' (the cauldron, the mother, the weaver - any of those characters are readily available) tied them together or reincarnation or... anything?

Seriously, it seems like Feyre & Rys never even work as a team because the rare time they try, they get caught up in their feelings for one another. They are on the same side but always doing their own independent tasks that don't rely on the other at all. Or the text says they are 'working together' while they don't have matching objectives or perspectives because they are always lying to one another or keeping secrets.

No, 'mates' is just lazy. It's not needed, and it runs so counter to the "independence and freedom are core virtues" message the narrators keep saying (despite being imperialist autocrats in a semi-feudalistic society). It's one contradiction that she could have skipped, but I guess it makes money, so what do I know.

If anyone has reading recommendations, I'd love some.

[vashti-lives]

do you ever go looking for fic you read a long time ago and you find it on lj or whatever but then you see the author has added it to ao3 and it’s apparently like, 160,000 words and you had no idea because you read the entire thing, chapter by chapter and it’s just like, wtfff??? 

or is that just me

[ariainstars]

TRoS Speculation: Maybe It Was Intentional…

All right, since the subject obviously doesn’t let me go, new speculation on my side. WARNING: this is a longer post.

 Ever since the 80es, Star Wars has become a universal phenomenon with millions of fans all over the world. And while fans often agree, they more often than not disagree about the characters, the themes, the different turn of events etc. Star Wars touches very many different kinds of people deep down due to the emotions it provokes. Many of us have grown up with the saga, some with one trilogy, others with another. Others have read the EU novels or watched the TV shows first. The saga’s themes are so many that they appeal to all kinds of people, and the approaches are varying. There are very many topics on which we will never make everybody agree. Being the foundation for many fan’s view of the world, the root to a lot of their ideals, the source of many a dream, the saga has become a hugely personal matter. No wonder viewers all over the world can quarrel about it so venomously and get downright aggressive if you only introduce a new line of thoughts. Many fans feel that the saga belongs to them and not to the man who created it and the creative studios who are now employing it to develop new stories.

We have made our mistakes in our fandom, too, in the years since The Force Awakens came out. We were so excited in what we believed was investing into a redemption arc, love story and happy ending, connecting all kinds of dots throughout the saga and analyzing it from almost every angle. Some of us simply thought that who didn’t think like us was stupid. But many other fans believe that this saga is only about Good against Evil and not about human feelings. They keep seeing it as some superhero story, a comforting world where to retire when reality got too much, a place where bad things happen but then the hero eventually comes to take care of it. They stick to their conviction that the good guy (or the one you root for even if he’s a villain) is the one who’s the coolest. Many of them love the OT above all and plainly refuse to see anything positive about the PT or ST because they always expected to see the New Adventures of Han, Luke and Leia. Some of them have waited for literally decades for the OT’s continuation. We, who also love the other trilogies (or at least the sequels) were at times disrespectful and arrogant looking down on them and believing that they simply don’t know what the saga actually is about. And all of us need heroes. We apply our own problems, needs and expectations to them and wait for them to fix the problem as an example for us. That’s also why we expect them to get their happy ending.

I have seen videos and read articles about how highly divisive The Last Jedi was. Some fans (a few of them even with tears in their eyes) openly declared that the saga was ruined for them. Similarly to us, who identify with Ben Solo and / or Rey, they had often found courage in the examples set by their heroes and it was offensive and hurtful to them to see Luke Skywalker reduced to a hermit who drinks green milk, rejects the ways of the Jedi and was personally responsible for his nephew’s fall into his abuser’s clutches. They were entitled to their feelings of disappointment and inner numbness as we are now. I know of people who actually survived many ugly periods in their lives finding solace in the saga. Some in one part of it, some in another. And we all got duped and let down, each by one chapter of the sequel trilogy, like some naughty, sadistic kid was kicking apart our favorite doll house a few days before Christmas.

I assume now that The Last Jedi was an experiment to gauge the audience’s reaction. It touched many a sensitive issue. My personal approach is that in order to like it, you don’t only have to be a fan of the sequel trilogy and its characters in general, or a hopeless romantic who wanted to see Rey and Ben Solo’s love story. You have to accept in the first place what the prequel trilogy painstakingly tried to explain to us (though it wasn’t actually said but more shown): that the Jedi were no heroes but got destroyed by their own hubris, and that Anakin Skywalker was largely a victim and not someone who became a villain because he enjoyed being evil, like the typical Batman or Superman villains. The prequels are not a fairy tale like the original trilogy but a cautionary tale following the lines of “society creates its own monsters.” It was only logical to deduce that if the Jedi were so perfect and the Old Republic so idyllic as Obi-Wan described them to Luke when they first met on Tatooine, Vader’s rise and the creation of the Empire couldn’t have happened in the first place. This was never said as clearly and concisely as by Luke to Rey during their second lesson on Ahch-To:

“Now that they’re extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified. But strip away the myth and look at their deeds: the legacy of the Jedi is failure, hypocrisy, hubris. At the height of their power they allowed Darth Sidious to rise, create the Empire and wipe them out. It was a Jedi who was responsible for the training and creation of Darth Vader.”

This is the message of the prequels in a few sentences, and a pivotal change to the “superhero approach” to the Jedi which might qualified if you only watch the OT and never question its themes on a larger scale. If you accept the Jedi’s failure for a fact, all of the rest falls into place - Vader being but a broken, sad old guy, Luke’s disillusion, his decision to give up the ways of the Jedi, his first lesson teaching Rey that the Force is not some kind of superpower, his forgiveness towards his nephew, the glimpses of goodness we saw foreshadowing Ben Solo’s redemption. The prequels also make much more sense this way than watching them expecting to see the Jedi being super-cool heroes and Anakin becoming Vader because he thought it might be fun.

But many fans chose not to see or accept what The Last Jedi actually was trying to say: that things couldn’t continue the way they did, because the Old Republic and the Jedi (though they didn’t actually have bad intentions) were deeply flawed. Leia tried to build another republic without any major changes that we are aware of, and Luke wanted to rebuild the Jedi Order without effectuating the considerable changes their Code would have needed. Both failed. It was e.g. never explained why Luke spirited his students away to a lonely planet for their training, but the fact that they were taken from their families when they were too small to make a choice and stick to it - Ben e.g. wanted to be a pilot like his father and not a Jedi - already shows the same pattern. Luke had not learned from the faults of his teachers until his exile. Logically, Episode IX ought to have continued these themes and showed the ST protagonist finding a new and better approach to the Force. Instead, what we got was another (in my opinion: redundant) Ultimate Battle of Good Against Evil, in other words some kind of superhero film which largely ignores the themes of its predecessor.

Any fan is entitled to his opinion. If someone hates the PT because it shows a stagnant society and the Jedi as highly flawed, because they didn’t get to see Darth Vader becoming over-the-top cool but were confronted, in Anakin, with a deeply compassionate person crushed by expectations he never could meet in the first place, if they judged him a whiny brat instead of an intelligent guy who clearly saw through the flaws of the society he was forced to live in and simply didn’t find the right words to express it: they’re entitled to it. Same goes for not feeling the tension between Rey and Kylo in the ST, for judging Kylo quickly (again) as a whiny brat instead of a complex, tormented character, for not appreciating new characters like Rose on account of not being Star-Wars-y enough. These feelings mostly stem from the fans’ long-standing wish to see an actual continuation of the original trilogy, not a new instalment where a new generation takes over and the old heroes are relegated to the background and, additionally, their characters and past decisions are openly criticized.

We may claim that fanbros are simply too stupid to understand what the saga is actually about. Well, maybe they are, or they are just too lazy to look at the bigger picture. But they have a right to that.  Of course, it doesn’t entitle them to harass the studios, directors, creative team or actors the way they were, mind you: what e.g. Kelly Marie Tran, Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd had to endure was a disgrace. There are very many fans who disagree with the PT and ST without getting bitter or even vicious.

This doesn’t mean I have changed my mind. I still believe that the Jedi were everything but heroes, that Darth Vader is a tragic figure, that the main themes of the saga are family, hope and new beginnings and not “the coolest ones win, ka-boom, the end”; that what it means to say is that human feelings are in the end more important than power, even an enormous power like the one the Force can provide.

We who are angry and disappointed with TRoS now like to blame how it went that way due to the influence of angry white dudebros, misogyny, Calvinism, racism, the overall political situation, the Mouse only wanting to make money etc.

But we ought to consider that The Last Jedi, which was so deeply controversial, hit theatres only two years ago. Have mentalities, politics and social structures and Disney’s overall approached changed so considerably, in so short a time, to produce two so radically different approaches to the saga within the scope of two years?

Sorry, I can’t believe it. it doesn’t really make sense.

The Mandalorian is met with universal acclaim, no doubt partly due to the fact that it’s a standalone story without the huge dynastic weight the saga has on its shoulders. Being a TV show, it had more time to introduce characters and situations and develop them. And it worked out fine. It had all the Star Wars themes - a lot of action scenes, sure, but it was also about belonging, family, redemption, protectiveness, friendship. Meaning that the studios didn’t lose track or are too dumb to think up a good story.

The Rise of Skywalker seems to bring the saga to a closure, but it could also be a wholly new beginning; the beginning of what I was foreseeing and still believe was in the cards - a new galaxy with a new and better political order kept together by a common belief in the Force as a whole; a new Jedi order where Force-sensitive children are not torn away from their families but can choose whether they want to become Jedi or not; and where Jedi are not taught emotional detachment. This would mean balance at last, a balance from which everyone would benefit. I have no idea how Ben Solo could be revived but I still am certain that he would be an excellent father figure, the perfect foil to his grandfather; and that the best thing for Rey would be to take care of children who are lost and abandoned the way she once was. And with Rey being a Palpatine, there is an interesting ground from which to explore her character’s tendency to the Dark, mirroring Ben’s. The basic approaches for this kind of development were all there in The Last Jedi. But a project like that would be something completely different from the original saga, and it would take a lot of time. Maybe that’s why the studios dropped it in favor of appeasing the angry fanbros who didn’t receive The Last Jedi well at all.

Anyone has the right to think that the original trilogy is the one and only and that the rest is rubbish. But the heroes of that story had their friendship, their family, their adventures, their successes, their happy ending. Even the heroes of the prequel trilogy had their moments, including Anakin Skywalker. Our heroes didn’t. That’s why this ending is so bitter for us and so hard to stomach. Essentially, we were right - we knew that Ben and Rey belong together, that Ben would redeem himself and make peace with his family, that balance would come. What we didn’t get was our happy ending.

The Force Awakens was still more or less accepted, because despite the many new themes and choices it wasn’t subversive and controversial in its approach. The actual wasps’ nest was stirred with The Last Jedi. No argumentation could convince antis that it is actually a well-made film and that their personal approach on the saga is too narrow-minded to appreciate it. They wanted the same villains, the same settings and costumes, the same heroes (or at least rehashes). And they had a right to want that, exactly as we had the right to expect a better development and ending for our new heroes. The hardcore OT fans wanted and expected The New Adventures of Han, Luke and Leia kicking ass. Well, it seems The Rise of Skywalker took care of that, finally giving them what they wanted and ignoring or “correcting” the course of events from The Last Jedi.

So, that’s it now. The OT fanbros got “their” Star Wars. I hope they’re finally appeased. They can ignore anything that happens next. That the saga is finished does not mean that the Star Wars universe came to a standstill.

If fans of the original trilogy felt entitled to ask for The Last Jedi to be removed from canon, or at least to be “fixed” in some way, so can we. In case you didn’t see it yet, the petition is already there: https://www.change.org/p/lucasfilm-continue-ben-solo-s-story

Let’s tell the studios to keep TRoS the way they prefer, but that we wish to have our Star Wars now. Let us not steep down to the level of who made the lives of actors who played characters they disapproved of a living hell (see above) or say over and over “Star Wars is dead” when we don’t know what’s in store for the future. With the Star Wars universe, you always have to be patient. In the meantime, we can write and read fanfiction and other stories and purse our own lives, telling our own happy endings.

Happy New Year everyone. Feel free to reblog. 😊

  P.P.S. On a side note: Rey’s last scene shows her where Luke used to be, on Tatooine watching the suns set. The twin suns. In A New Hope, this was shortly before he met the other half of his soul who had been separated from him right after birth - his twin sister. Considering that it was explicitly said that Rey and Ben Solo share the same soul, it might be a hint about the future. I’m not trying to make false promises or to fuel wrong expectations here. Just sayin’. 😉

[smokeybrand]

Psyren Song

Way back during the silver age of anime in the US, when Toonami was making Dragon Ball Z everyone’s favorite anime and the Shonen genre reigned supreme, there were a lot f contenders to the Big Three crown. Shonen Jump had exploded in relevance due to a sudden influx of US fans and, at the time, there were three major manga that found their way to the top of the charts; BLEACH, Naruto, and One Piece. Now, One Piece was, and is, the undisputed king of manga. It’s incredibly evident that Monkey D. Luffy wears that crown. Motherf*cker has been running since 1996, literally the year after DBZ ended in print form. The stories of the All-Sunny squad are the only misadventures still being told of the original Big Three, threw the insurmountable force that is the Will of D. And the millions upon millions of merchandising sales.

I got to the Gum-gum party late. For me, it was BLEACH. I thought that sh*t was incredible. The art was on point and the narrative was unassailable. I don’t think anyone will fight me if i said that the Substitute Shinigami and Soul Society arcs were some of the best Shonen ever written, head and shoulders above anything either Pirate or Ninja Goku were pushing out at the time. Plus, early BLEACH easily had the best art. Kubo came through, killing everything with his distinctly detailed yet whimsically realized flavor and i loved it so much. Oda was dope, don’t get me wrong, but his sh*t was nightmare Mickey and Kishimoto’s stuff always seemed wonky to me. To this day, i always point to those first two arcs of BLEACH as the best of Shonen content available for people new to the fandom. Unfortunately that quality didn’t maintain.

The Big Three, i think, were great for different reasons. One Piece had it’s grad ass narrative, one that is still intriguing, if a little bloated, to this day. Naruto had an air of originality with how it demonstrated it’s world. That ninjitsu sh*t allowed for a ton of imaginative abilities an the Jinchuriki was an interesting take on an OP form. BLEACH, for all of my b*tching, maintained the dopest art, even after Kubo gave up and got pretty lazy. Even so, around 2007, the Big Three began to show there age. The title holders were vulnerable and a ton, an absolute slew, of brand new manga came for their throne. Tsugumomo (a personal favorite which I've written about numerous times on this blog), Spice and Wolf, Rosario+Vampire, Maken-Ki, and Deadman Wonderland (another favorite i should probably get around to gushing about) all developing a massive following but, out side of the two i mentioned here the one manga i found myself completely infatuated with was Psyren.

Psyren is everything you could ever want in a Shonen manga. It has fantastic art, an imaginative world, a compelling plot, endearing characters, and one of the best OP form i have ever seen in my entire life. I love this book, man. I don’t want to spoil too much but Psyren follows Ageha Yoshina, your high school protagonist, who stumbles upon a really f*cked world through a calling card game called Psyren. I don’t want to get too deep into the plot, go f*cking read this thing, but, suffice it to say, that narrative is all over the place. This thing takes you on a ride. There are absolutely great supporting characters and timey-wimey shenanigans all over the place. Ageha is every bit the protagonist that Luffy, Ichigo, or Naruto are and he could, arguably, hold his own with any one of them in a fight. Dude’s ability, however, is probably the most spectacular, outside of Ichigo’s Mugestsu. Seriously, the visual aspect of this book is f*cking stunning. Toshiaki Iwashiro‘s art could give Kubo’s a run for his money, especially toward the end. Not just in aesthetic, but in kineticism and power. Some of these battle scenes were exceptional. That climax where we see Ageha lose his sh*t? Yea, that would have been fantastic to see on onscreen, which brings me to the biggest issue i have with Psyren; Where the f*ck is my anime adaption man??

Psyren had a finite run. There was beginning, middle, and end. Iwashiro had a story he wanted to tell and he told it. Admittedly, it feels a bit rushed toward the end but i think that may have had more to do with Jump and their shenanigans than anything else. Jump relies too much on popularity polls and sh*t so when the audience looks to be waning in interest, sh*t gets the axe. In Psyren’s case, i don’t think that would have been the case if there was an adaption airing weekly. Psyren lends itself to animation, man. It’s glorious to look at and a lot of the battles, if animated with care, could have been truly brilliant to see. Instead, Psyren got the axe and, a decade later, still no anime in sight. It’s mad frustrating because all of those other 2007 manga i listed, they all got to see the small screen. Arguably the best out of all of them? Not even a hint. Missed opportunity, for sure. Even without an onscreen adaption, Psyren still kills. It’s an excellent story full of great art and dope characters. It’s truly a hidden gem and, if you got the time, i suggest checking it out. It deserves way more yes on it and this is me driving that traffic. Go read Psyren and tell people how dope it is. Sh*t deserves all of the shine!

[super-hero-confessions]

Let me go through this one more time: Valkyrie is introduced in the film as a stumbling drunk that captures our title hero, regularly tortures him for stepping out of line or for fun, brags to his face about the money she was got for selling him into slavery, and has him sent to fight in the arena (before which he is physically and psychologically tortured some more) where Valkyrie fully expects him to die. It’s heavily implied that she’s done this several times before, which is why she’s the Grandmaster’s favorite – a position she’s notably proud of.

But it’s okay, because slavery is funny, I guess?

Tumblr loves to pay lipservice about how high are their standards for redemption arcs, placing special emphasis on how it is imperative that the misdoer actually faces the responsability for their actions and goes through the painful hard work necessary to atone for their past sins, but Valkyrie isn’t even given the proverbial slap on the wrist for spending decades – maybe centuries – as a unapologetic slaver and torturer because the movie itself never actually acknowledges Valkyrie has done anything wrong in the first place. And that seems to be enough for Tumblr to consider a satisfactory redemption arc even though there was absolutely no arc to begin with.

Valkyrie eventually joins the heroes because she also wants a shot at killing Hela to make up for failing her fallen comrades – the only thing both her and the movie seem to believe she needs any redemption for – and only then frees the slaves for the utilitarian reason of being part of the team’s escape plan. The slave insurgence wasn’t even Valkyrie’s idea (it was Thor’s), which is very telling, but even more telling is the fact that she’s shown to single-handedly start the mutiny by using her privileges to deactivate all the obedience disks and open the cells, showing she could have freed the slaves anytime sooner if she had half a conscience, but she chose to fall back into the comfortable position of the Grandmaster’s favorite scrapper because she was getting money and kicks from her slaver gig until she got a new individual motivation that required releasing the prisoners to further her own goals. How very selfless. But at no point in the film does she get any comeuppance for being a part of the interplanetary slave trade. No one even suggests that she was in the wrong for doing so. Yeah, Thor isn’t happy with being a slave, and Korg calls attention to the fact that she’s harsh, but neither of these are things that affect other characters. She doesn’t have a character arc about becoming a better person who develops real empathy for the class of people of Sakaar she’s been sending to be forced to butcher each other in the arena for other people’s enjoyment. We’re just supposed to roll with the fact that she’s nominally on the side of Good now without acknowledging that this woman’s destroyed people’s lives while sitting back with a smirk and a bottle of booze to watch. Because Hela killed her pals this is all forgotten.

Let me state this plainly, so my point is clear: a *slaver* becomes one of our heroes, and isn’t even given a redemption arc or cursory nod that she’s ever done anything wrong. Have we come to the point of our society that we’re no longer on board with demonizing slavery on principle?

I’m not saying that characters can’t be complete douchebags and still be sympathetic. But there’s a way to make these sorts of characters sympathetic and still condemn their more problematic actions. Rocket is a lying, thieving, violent jerk, but he has a character arc about being better to the people around him, and while his sociopathic tendencies are played for laughs it’s played deadly serious that he acts the way he does because he’s broken inside. You’d have to be a fool to not pick up that he’s probably robbed and killed a lot of people over the course of his career as a bounty hunter. The movies call attention to these personality traits, highlights them, and displays them as bad things that he should leave behind. He doesn’t, because being fixed once they’re told there’s something wrong with them isn’t how people work, but the film recognizes that what he does is wrong. Natasha is a similar case: she’s one of SHIELD’s top agents and before that she worked for the KGB. A good chunk of her career is spent killing people, she’s referred to as an assassin multiple times. But she acknowledges that she’s done terrible things. It’s clear that her past sins carry lasting consequences on her sense of self. When she finds out that SHIELD has been infiltrated by Hydra, she feels even worse because she’s told herself SHIELD is at least doing all that dirty work for something good, but now she’s got no idea how many of the things she’s done “for the greater good” are actually just to further Hydra’s agenda. She has done terrible things, and it clearly weights on her very heavily. Gamora is another great example of a character whose dark past wasn’t simply handwaved when she aligned herself with the good guys, being extensively discussed and incorporated into her current self’s decisions, psyche, moral code and identity.

Meanwhile Valkyrie casually torturing our hero because he’s annoying her by *trying to regain his own dignity* is played for laughs and framed as a mere personality quirk that is supposed to make her amusing to the audiences. Haha, look what a tough girl we have here #GirlPower. The implications of what she did working for the Grandmaster in Sakaar are played down to extremes because the movie is so desperate to sell her as a sympathetic character and is not clever enough to figure a balance between her dark and sympathetic traits like the GOTG movies were able to do so elegantly, so it just takes the lazy route and pretends the former simply do not exist. Who cares about the thousands of innocent lives destroyed because of her when she has such a charming personality (she doesn’t) and a Tragic Backstory™ to make it up for this?

She’s a terrible, amoral, person, but the story, characters and fanbase act as if she’s just a mostly-noble anti-hero who fell on some hard times. Despite, y’know, getting money and kicks out of the whole ‘slavery and torture’ thing. We never see her struggle with the morality of her actions nor express regret for the things she’s done, even though there was plenty of opportunities in the movie to show her doing so, nor is she called out by the narrative itself. She has more than enough legitimate reasons to be disliked and she is nowhere near as disliked as her fanbase likes to pretend she is, and any legitimate criticism against her actions is stomped under an avalanche of ad hominem accusations of racism and hypocrisy that barely even address the points being raised in first place. This is fandom, some people will inevitably dislike your favorite character, get over it. Specially when your favorite character has enslaved innocent people to get money for booze and has the personality of a major jerkass. And if the narrative is not willing to call her out for this, well, someone else has too.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Love Is Rationed

I love BLEACH, man. Way back when the Big Three was the big thing, my allegiance fell in with Kubo’s tale of swords and shinigami. I thought his story was far more compelling than One Piece, at the time. I later found out, at the behest of my chick, that Oda was about that long game. Luffy has had some emotionally gut-wrenching expeditions. I concede that now. back then, though, it wasn’t on my radar. I fell off of Naturo real fast, mostly because the fandom was ridiculous. I didn’t care for the Narutards screaming about it’s superiority at me, when Kishimoto had just gotten into the meat of the Chunin Exams and it turned into power wank high school for a while.  Admittedly, the Naruto got real dope toward the end but that took, what? Decades? No, for my money, it was definitely BLEACH. Kubo captured my attention with a brilliant and unique art style but, even more than that, a dope ass narrative.

The first two arcs of BLEACH, the Substitute Shinigami and Soul Society arcs, are manga masterpieces. Kubo did an excellent job of introducing the principal characters, ichigo and his little cadre of friends and frienemies, perfectly. HE was able to carve out a world chock full of lore, intrigue, and whimsy with those first, few chapters. We went from the desperate victory against Fishbone D, to the emotionally crippling battle with Grand Fisher, to the hilarious team-up dispatching of a Menos Grande; All while maintaining a true, narrative, focus. It was outstanding. We watched Ichigo and his friends claim victory after victory, which made their defeat at the hands of Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai so goddamn devastating. That loss scarred us because be had grown to love those characters so much. Kubo brought these imaginary creations to life in a way that i had not seen in some time. I thought he had peaked bu then he topped himself with the Soul Society Arc.

The second Ichigo recovered and we realized he had to storm heaven, itself, in order to save Rukia, i was on board. We watched him struggle. We watched his friends struggle. We watched everyone claw out narrow victories in brilliant fashion, all the while being introduced to so many more dope ass characters and even richer lore. The Soul Society arc was BLEACH at it’s best. You can tell there was a real passion there, in each word, written, and frame, drawn. That Urahara reveal. The first time we saw the Old Man. That fight with Kenpachi. That fight with Kurotsuchi. That Bankai for the first time. That first Zangestsu takeover. Everything was so goddamn excellent but it’s the Aizen heel-turn that cinched it for me. I legitimately did not see that sh*t coming and was blown away. I couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. And then the Arrancar arc farted out. At this point, there was a very real, very visible decline in Kubo’s Magnum Opus and it hurts to revist.

I like the Arrancar arc, I want to be very clear about that. There is a ton of good in that thing. I enjoyed most of the Visored. That concept, in itself, was outstanding writing. I absolutely adore most of the Espada; Cirucci, Ulquiorra, Nell, Grimmjow, Coyote, and Hallibel in particular. Those are some of my favorite characters within the entire series. I also liked the little detour we took with Turn Back the Pendulum that sh*t was dope. The best part of this entire arc, though, was it’s finale. Ascended Aizen. That Mugetsu. F*ck, that Mugetsu, man. “That's the logic of a loser!!. A winner must always think not of how the world is, but how the world should be!!!!” Bro. That line. Bro. Pure f*cking kino, dude. With that one line, we understand every motivation, every reason, everything fueled Aizen’s drive. That one line laid bare one of the most enigmatic villains in manga history and he was right. Absolutely brilliant. Everything else around it was bullsh*t powerwank and lazy retread though. The entire Arrancar arc is the worst of Dragon Ball Z. There are legitimate bright spots, but it’s mostly generalized shonen cliche. That said, what came after was even more pedestrian.

The Fullbring arc, if you can call it an arc, was balls. it was. The narration was sh*t, the new characters introduced were bogus, and the Fullbring powers were poorly executed. I didn’t give a sh*t about any of that so when it ended as abruptly as it did, i was okay. Then came the Thousand-Year Blood War arc and, holy sh*t, BLEACH was back! And then it wasn’t. By this time, Kubo had lost all passion for being a mangaka. Jump has burned him out. the pressures of maintaining a tent pole manga in a tent pole magazine was too much for a dude who just wanted to draw cool sh*t. I understand. The ill thing? It was Jump that cancelled BLEACH. That rushed “ending” we got wasn��t even Kubo being lazy. Honestly, after the first few chapters, it seemed he had been reinvigorated and wanted to end BLEACH on the highest of notes. Blood War was shaping up to be dope as sh*t. There were revelations, returns, brand new lore, expanded pathos; Sh*t was legit. and then he farted out that ending. and then he farted out that epilogue. Bro, for real? IchiHime? RenRuki? For real?

Look, if that’s where we land, that’s where we end, but there was no lead up. No foreshadowing. No build up. According to the narrative, it had to be Rukia. It had to be her. Literally all of the emotional hits were in service toward or directly instigated by Rukia. Orihime was little more than a plot device or constantly damseled. IchiHime doesn’t feel earned. It feels like a “F*ck you” to the fandom, Of course, there could be a shift. Of course, there can be a course correction. We saw that in the Boruto movie or last Naruto movie or whatever. the point s, that turn toward Hinata, after an entire series focused on Sakura, had a real, emotional, pivot. Ichihime does not. And that is the major through-line of this essay; Kubo’s decline. My man had plans. he built a world in his head that he wanted to share on paper. Then that world became incredibly popular. It became incredibly profitable. Kubo suffered the same fate as Toriyama and his work, just like his predecessor, suffered with him. The narrative fell apart, the plot got messy, and the art became pedestrian. Everything that made BLEACH great, fell by the wayside. Even when Kubo showed that spark, corporate greed snuffed it out. BLEACH died the day the Arrancar arc was artificially prolonged and that betrayal festered within Kubo for the rest of it’s run.

There’s been whispered and an unconfirmed but confirmed announcement for a BLEACH 20th anniversary anime. It’s probably going to be adaption of the Thousand-year Blood War arc. Does this mean we’ll get to see the true vision of this story on screen? Will we get to see the actual events Kubo envisioned on his sketchpad? Are they going to fix that rushed ass ending and god awful epilogue? Are we getting that initial Kubo passion or the disparate Kubo finale? I love BLEACH. I know that Kubo loves BLEACH. I’m hoping we can finally get the closure we deserves, for the creator more  than any of us fans. He, more than anyone, deserves to see this story to it’s proper end. After twenty years, it only feels right.

[pocket-luv101]

Spellbound by the Music || Ch. 1

Fandom: Servamp Characters: Mahiru, Kuro, Licht, Hyde, Snow Lily Pairings: KuroMahi (main), LawLicht (side)

Summary: Mahiru came to Kuro with an offer. He would help reduce his prison sentence if he solved a mystery with him. They have to work together to catch a serial killer. {Detective AU}

(Ch.1) || Ch.2 || Ch.3 ||

“It’s nice to see you again, Detective. I would make you a cup of coffee and be a good host. But that’s difficult with these handcuffs on me.” Kuro said in a dry voice and jingled the chains lightly. He was surprised that a man like Mahiru visited him in jail. Kuro leaned back in his chair and asked, “Why are you here? I already confessed to the robberies.”

“I just want to talk,” He shrugged and Kuro’s eyes narrowed. He sat across the detective in a private interrogation room and he wondered what the man wanted. Mahiru wasn’t intimidated by his crimson eyes and merely continued, “Would you like tea or something small to eat? I can ask the officers to get you a doughnut. I heard prison food is terrible.”

“You can skip the formalities, Detective. What do you want?” Kuro cut him off. He knew the detective must want something from him if he visited him even after the case was over. Kuro dearly hoped that Mahiru didn’t suspect that his siblings were involved with the robberies as well.

His family had stolen from wealthy homes without being caught for almost a decade. Yet, in only a month on the case, Mahiru came dangerously close to discovering their identity. Kuro wanted to protect his family and turned himself into the police so they would end their investigation. Every night in his cell, he would miss them but he took solace in the fact that they were safe.

“Something never made sense to me.” Mahiru opened his case file between them. “I talked to your siblings. They told me that you were so lazy that you would only leave your house if it was on fire. I checked your bank records and you don’t have expensive tastes. Also, you’ve been living off cup noodles. Sloth is more your sin than greed yet you went through a lot of trouble to steal almost a billion dollars over the years. Where did all that money go?”

“Well, I would be a stupid thief if I put all that money in my personal bank account. That would leave a paper trail right to me. The money’s in a bank account overseas. I already told you that the first time you interrogated me. If you’re just going to repeat these questions to me, I’m going back to my cell. It was nice to talk to you again, Detective.” Kuro started to stand up.

“Please, let me finished, Kuro.” Mahiru gestured for him to sit again. They were both surprised when Kuro lowered himself into the chair again. He took out several documents and placed them in front of him. “I know you lied about the money. I tracked down every penny. You donated everything you stole to charities and orphanages. You’re a modern Robin Hood, aren’t you?”

Kuro didn’t answer him. He watched Mahiru and waited to see what he would do next. The case was closed so he didn’t know why Mahiru continued the investigation privately. No mattered what happened, he would protect his family. “Did you come to lecture me? ‘You had good intentions but you went about it in the wrong way’. I doubt anything will change. I’m still going to prison.”

“Your trial is in a month and a lot can happen in that time.” Mahiru took a newspaper out of his bag and slid it in front of Kuro. “Have you heard of the serial killer targeting musicians? I’m in charge of the case and I want you to help me find him. If you do, I will use every connection I have to help your trial. My friend’s a prominent defence lawyer. We can have your sentence lowered.”

He had to admit that he was intrigued by the man’s offer. In the end, he had to shake his head. “As much as I would love to, I’m a thief and I doubt I can help you find a murderer. From the articles I’ve read, this man sounds troublesome. You’re a talented detective so I’m certain you’ll find this man on your own.”

Mahiru’s hands tightened into fists on his lap. He hoped Kuro would agree to help him once he offered to shorten his sentence. But there was one more thing he could bargain with. He stood and walked around the table to stand next to him. He placed his hand on his shoulder and leaned close to his ear. Mahiru whispered so the officers couldn’t overhear him.

“Robin Hood had a band of Merry Men helping him rob the rich and so did you. I can guess who they are.” He could see Kuro’s eyes widen subtly. Mahiru hated to threaten the man but he had too much to lose if he didn’t catch the killer soon. He straightened and leaned on the table next to Kuro. “You can help a lot of people if you solve this case with me. I know you have made several connections in the criminal world that can lead me to the murderer. I need you, Kuro. You need me too.”

“If you put it like that, I can’t say no.” He sighed. Kuro was taken aback slightly when Mahiru took his hand gently. He didn’t think a detective’s hands would feel so soft and kind. Mahiru only held his hands long enough to unlock the handcuffs around his wrists.

Mahiru smiled at him, “We’re a team now and I look forward to working with you, Kuro.”

“Kuro, you’re under my protective custody but I want you to feel comfortable. If you need anything, please tell.” Mahiru told him as he parked his car. It took him awhile but he was able to arrange for Kuro to be release that afternoon. Kuro assumed that Mahiru would drive him to the police station or his apartment after they left the jail.

“Detective, why did you take me to a grocery store? Didn’t you recruit me to track some serial murderer for you? I don’t think we’ll find him in the fruit aisle.” He pointed out. During the drive, Mahiru hadn’t discussed the case with him. Mahiru would rhythmically tap his finger on the steering wheel and casually asked Kuro about himself.

“You just got released from jail and I thought it would be best for you to adjust back into society before we jump into boring detective work. We’ll talk about the case tomorrow. For now, I need to buy more food since my fridge is a little low on food. It has been a long time since I had to cook for two.” Mahiru turned to face him. “You know my name is Mahiru Shirota so why do you continue to call me ‘Detective’?”

“It’s just easier?” He shrugged.

Mahiru pouted briefly and then said, “Detective and Mahiru are both three syllables. We’re partners on this case so you should call me by my first name. Now, repeat after me: Ma-hee-ru.”

“… Mahiru,” He whispered and Kuro found that he liked the sound of his name.

“See, Kuro, it’s not too hard.” He slipped off his seat belt and hopped out of the car. “Let’s go. The two-hour afternoon sale is going to start soon.”

Mahiru gestured for Kuro to follow him. He waited until he reached his side before he walked into the store. He picked up a basket before he handed Kuro a flyer. As they walked down the aisle, Mahiru placed several items into the basket. Kuro felt a little awkward and rubbed his wrists. He could still feel the cold steel of handcuffs on his hands.

That feeling disappeared when Mahiru wrapped his hand around his wrist. He pulled him out of the path of a cart. “Be careful, Kuro. You need to watch where you’re going. I can’t save you from every run away cart. Is there something you want to eat? I’ll buy it for you. But, if you’re going to ask for instant ramen, the answer is no. I’m cooking homemade ramen.”

“Did you know instant ramen is my favourite? You’re kind of a stalker.” Kuro said in a sarcastic voice.

Mahiru huffed and turned to face him with his hands on his hips. “As a detective, it was my job to investigate you. I’m trying to use what I learned to be nice. It’ll be nice if you put in the effort to get along with me too. I know you don’t trust me because I’m a detective but we have to work together to find who is behind the murders.”

“The only reason I agreed was because you blackmailed me.” Kuro reminded him.

“I didn’t have much of a choice. I have someone I want to protect too, Kuro.” His hands tightened on the basket but he didn’t look away from him. “I came to you for help because I think you’re a good person deep inside. My instincts told me that long before I found out you donated all the money to charities. That’s why I didn’t push the investigation after you gave yourself in even though I knew you couldn’t have done it alone. You have my word that your friends will never be implicated.”

His brown eyes were serious and Kuro was drawn into them. He took the basket from him and said, “I’ll carry this for you. I can’t wait to have ramen again in weeks.”

“You’re in luck. I’m as good a cook as I am a detective.”

Kuro walked out of the bathroom and stretched his muscles. He hadn’t been able to take a long shower or relax in a long time. His first thought after he settled into Mahiru’s apartment was to call his family. He missed them and he needed to tell them that he made a deal with the detective. There was a chance he could see them again. Hope warmed his chest for the first time in weeks.

He walked to the living room so he could ask Mahiru to borrow his phone. As he neared the door, he could hear Mahiru’s voice. It sounded like he was arguing with someone. Kuro peered into the room and saw him talking on his phone. Mahiru sat on the couch with his back to him so he didn’t realize Kuro was behind him.

“Just postpone your tour, Licht! Stop being so stubborn… How dare you call me the stubborn one? There’s a killer targeting musician and you refuse to take the slightest precaution.” Mahiru rubbed his temple and groaned. “I have another lead on who the serial killer is but I can’t tell you the details… It’s confidential and I can lose my job, Licht! If you want to help, you can make my job a lot easier by going to the safe house like I told you to.”

From his muttered curse, Kuro knew that the person on the other end refused his offer. Mahiru’s shoulders slumped and his voice softened. “I’m just worried about you, Licht. I called to make sure you’re safe… Don’t complain about me mothering you. Thinking simply, I wouldn’t have to if you weren’t so reckless… It’s late so I’ll let you go but I’ll call you again soon… I love you too, Licht.”

Kuro wasn’t a detective but he thought he pieced together why Mahiru was so motivated to solve the case quickly. He assumed that his girlfriend was a musician and he wanted to protect her. The floor creaked when Kuro stepped into the living room and Mahiru looked over his shoulder at him. He suddenly felt nervous with his honest, brown eyes watching him.

“I’m sorry for eavesdropping. I didn’t think I should interrupt you and your girlfriend.” Kuro scratched his neck.

“Girlfriend?” To his surprise, Mahiru began to giggle. The sound was light and warm. “I was talking to my cousin, Licht. He’s more of a brother to me though. We were practically raised as siblings. He’s working hard to become a pianist. I admire his determination but I’m worried about him as well. He has always acted like my big brother and helped me. It’s my turn to be the older brother.”

“I have to warn you, being the older brother is troublesome sometimes.” Kuro smiled sadly as he thought of his siblings. He remembered everything they’ve been through nostalgically.

“If I remember correctly, you have seven younger siblings. You can borrow my phone to call them. I’m sure you miss them. Just be careful not to tell them about the investigation.” Mahiru handed his phone to him with a kind smile. He jumped to his feet and picked up his laptop. “I need to send some emails. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.”

Kuro nodded at him. He knew that Mahiru decided to work in the kitchen so he would have privacy. He was thankful for Mahiru’s kindness and respect. Mahiru was a detective and Kuro was a criminal yet he didn’t treat him differently. He walked to the corner of the living room and leaned against the wall. He quickly dialed Lily’s number and waited for him to answer.

“Hello?” His youngest brother answered after a few rings. It was nice to hear his brother’s voice again and not have to worry about someone monitoring their call.

“Hey, Lily.” Kuro heard his brother gasp and chuckled slightly at his reaction. He could imagine how shocked his brother was because the jail would only allow him to call his family on the weekends. Immediately, Lily began to pepper him with questions. “Slow down, I can’t talk as fast as you can. Is everyone else with you right now? There’s a lot I need to tell you guys.”

“Hugh and Wrath went to talk with the attorney but everyone else is here. Everyone, Kuro is on the phone!” He could hear hurried footsteps through the phone. Kuro felt a mixture of fondness and guilt. He could tell how much they cared. On the other hand, he hated to make them worry about him. “Kuro, we’re all here and you’re on speaker.”

“I’m borrowing someone’s cell phone so we don’t have to worry about this call being monitored. Have you guys stayed out of trouble like I told you to?” Kuro wanted to keep his words cryptic because he didn’t know how much he could trust Mahiru. “I have some good news and bad news. Do you guys remember the detective I told you about, Mahiru Shirota?”

“Is he the bad news or the good news?” Hyde asked and Kuro didn’t know how to answer him.

“A little of both at the moment. He suspects that I didn’t carry out the thefts alone.” A prolonged silence followed his words. Kuro could sense how tense they became and reassured them. “Mahiru and I made a deal. I’ll help him catch a serial killer and he’ll keep everyone as far from suspicion as possible. He also knows a lawyer who can help lower my sentence.”

“You might be able to come home sooner than we first thought?” Lily asked excitedly. “This is great! Can we see you right now?”

“Wait, can we believe this detective?” Hyde interrupted them. He was more cynical than his other siblings. While he wanted his brother home again, he had to be logical. “Mahiru may be lying to us so he could send us all to jail. What do we know about this man?”

“He’s a good man.” Kuro found himself defending Mahiru. “He’s a detective but he has his own reason to arrest the serial killer quickly. His cousin is a pianist and he could be the killer’s next target. Mahiru bent the rules to get me out of jail so I could help him. We can trust him. Anyways, I’m staying at his home and I can find any evidence he has on you guys while he’s asleep.”

“Hopefully, you won’t need to.” JeJe said.

They talked to each other for another hour and Kuro was happy to hear they were doing well. From the corner of his eyes, he watched Mahiru type on his laptop. The man was a complete mystery to him. He wasn’t as jaded or apathetic like the other detectives he knew. Mahiru was humming lightly to himself and that simple act filled the room with a pleasant warmth.

Once he finished talking with his siblings, Kuro walked to Mahiru. He lightly tapped his phone on his shoulder to get his attention. He placed his cell next to his laptop and said, “Thanks for letting me borrow your phone. It was great to talk to them again.”

“Tomorrow, we should head to the mall and buy you a new phone. Thinking simply, it’ll be easier for both of us if you had your own phone. I can easily call you if we ever get separated. Mostly, I don’t have to worry about going over my minutes every time you borrow my phone. Detectives don’t get paid as much you would think.” Mahiru lightly joked and smiled up at him.

“I’m going to sleep first. Can you show me where my room is?” Kuro asked and Mahiru nodded.

“Before we head to bed, can you give me your hand?” Mahiru asked and held out his hand to him. His warmth drew Kuro towards him and he placed his hand on his palm. A distinctive click echoed between them. Too late, Kuro realized that he was handcuffed once again. Mahiru secured the other end of the handcuff onto his own wrist. “There we go.”

“I don’t think kinky sex was in our agreement.” Kuro tugged on the cuff and it held strong. The chain was long enough that he could walk a few feet from Mahiru. He could see his confusion so he explained.

“This is to make sure you don’t try to run away while I’m asleep.” Mahiru told him simply. “We will only wear these at night and I’ll take them off you first thing in the morning. I promise. I set up two futons in the guest room for us to sleep. Please, follow me.”

Even though Mahiru phased it as a request, Kuro had little choice but to walk behind him. He walked into the guest room and there were futons laid on the floor like he said. He set them a fair distance apart but Kuro knew he wouldn’t be able to leave without Mahiru noticing. Kuro couldn’t blame him for being cautious though.

He slipped into a futon and stared up at the ceiling. Kuro heard Mahiru fall asleep next to him and soon his soft breathing filled the room. He rolled onto his side and glanced at Mahiru. Could he trust the detective? He sighed and fell asleep as well.

I am not ashamed to admit that this fanfic started and ended: “Mahiru handcuffs Kuro” and me snickering for hours.

[notevenjupiter]

RULES: Answer the questions you've been given, then write your own and tag 11 people.

A bit of a long post, so I'll put it under a read more.

1. When and how did you start roleplaying?

In early 2009, on a terrible little website called Sheezyart, I made a parody 4Kids account that went around censoring people. It’s all spiraled from there.

2. What kind of snacks do you usually go for? Sweet, savory? And which one is you favorite?

Definitely savory, often a bit salty too. Can’t go wrong w/ chips & hummus, and I also pick up a bunch of stuff from the Japanese market I live near.

3. What do you do when you have a writer’s block?

If it’s Tumblr, I’ll just take a break - set that thread to a lower priority on my manual tracker and then just go do something else.

For work, I unfortunately don’t have that luxury, so... I’ll brew some green tea, put some jazz on, and try to power through.

4. Favorite song of all time?

A surprisingly easy answer! It’s Insomnia by Faithless. I love everything about this - the silkiness of Maxi Jazz’s voice, the painfully relatable lyrics, and the stellar production. And above all else I simply love the way it builds, slowly going from a lush opening into one of the best trance riffs ever made. A lot of my other favorite songs change positions every couple months, but this song has been at the very top since around 2011.

5. What’s one thing you feel like your muse(s) would say to you all the time?

Well, cat puns from Sigma, naturally. I’d probably be egging on that horrible trait of his. Diana and I would probably talk shit about modern society together, and Phi would be asking the next time we could get drunk.

6. What’s your favorite thing about your muse(s)?

For both Sigma and Phi, it’s their banter. Both of them have such strong personalities, and it’s so much fun to write their dialogue, whether they’re bickering with each other or with other people. 

My favorite thing about Diana is how human she seems. I play a lot of narrative video games, and one of my common complaints for so many series is that the characters either seem like total caricatures, or exist solely for the plot, as just means to an end. With Diana, though, she feels like a fully realized human being, and I want to maintain that nature in my RPing.

7. What are some of your pet peeves? Can be from the rpc or just rl in general.

My RPC pet peeves aren’t too different from the norm! When someone’s theme is impossible to navigate, or I can’t see what the heck their icon is supposed to be, those are two of the biggest pet peeves. Also, if someone’s RPing a complex and difficult topic, but is doing so in a completely disrespectful, problematic way, I take umbrage to that. I don’t like giving lectures to people, but I’ve had to give a few.

In real life... I have to deal with some rich, inconsiderate asshole clients at work, and that can be really aggravating. Being micromanaged is another big one. And, just generally for life stuff, there sometimes feels like there’s such a profound lack of compassion in the United States, especially among older generations, and sometimes that really gets to me.

8. Hobbies?

Outside of RP, I play a lot of games. Not just video games, although that does take up a big chunk of my life. I really love tabletop games, whether it’s small scale things like Chess or Dominion, or long-form stuff like Pathfinder.

9. Something you’d say to your muse(s) as advice?

I’ve got no idea, honestly. I feel like I should actually be the one asking my muses for advice! Phi, for example, is half a decade younger than I am, but handles stressful situations a million times better than I do. 

10. Something you and your muse(s) would argue about?

Sigma and Phi both use arguments as a motivational tool, so - if I’m ever really lazy, or unnecessarily down on myself, they’d probably yell at me until I got up and did something useful.

11. What’s your favorite thing to write? Fluff, angst, smut? And why?

Regardless of muse or fandom, I really love writing fluff and silly things. It’s an especially strong desire with my current muses, who come from an incredibly bleak series, so I just want ‘em to have a little bit of happiness in their lives, you know?

Eleven questions for everyone else!

What’s your favorite thing about your muse(s)?

What’s your least favorite thing?

Seeing how they’ve lived their lives - if you were in their shoes, what would you do differently?

How independent is your muse(s) from your control? How much do you approve of their actions? 

If you were friends with your muse(s), what would you do together?

What’s one of your favorite fandoms, and why?

Are there any fandoms that you want to interact more with? Any AUs that you haven’t gotten a chance to try out yet?

What was one of your favorite video games as a kid?

What’s the best song you’ve heard for the first time in the past few months?

What’s the best meme you’ve found in the past year?

Is there something you’re looking forward to in the next few months?

Tagged by: @sarusu Tagging: @softestmood @panickypeachboy @unknownvariable999 @catharsi @junfivepei @imensus @vexingvixens @sunshinetrainer @shiftingpcths @iinevitable @salvation-for-humanity and anyone else who’d like to do it!

[starlightafterastorm]

I made a meta about why I was disappointed in both Chuck and Moose’s storylines here. In that meta I expressed a wish for the writers to have switched the two storylines. I felt that it would have been a better choice in several ways and would have given better depth to each character as well as built characters on the show with a better basis in their original comics counterparts. 

Now. That meta was written and posted in Season 1 BEFORE Chuck’s second appearance in Episode 10, Jughead’s birthday party. It was long before the latest episode, season 2 episode 3 where we got to see more of Moose. With that in mind I want to address this response I got this morning to that meta 

annademac

At some point, doesn't the "let's give a poc a story about struggling with being a poc" become far less helpful then casting a poc in a story line that has nothing to do with them being a poc? Honestly, I didn't look at the two characters and even think about one being a poc and one being white. They were just characters with the story lines that they had.

I want to start of by saying this I mean for this to be a totally rational discussion and I apologize if I sound inarticulate and incoherent. It’s early, I have had far too little sleep and I am sick and injured. But I do want to give a response to this.

Full disclaimer. I am Asian. So yes I identify as a poc, woc. But I’m not the same kind of poc that Chuck and his actor, Jordan is. I can’t speak for all of the nuances in his experience as a young African American male. Nor can I speak about how it felt as someone with that kind of experience watch his storyline. I can, however, speak about what I’ve observed about how our society treats young African American males. 

While you make a valid point that, yes, not all poc characters need to have a storyline about their poc-ness and that it’s great to be able to watch a show and just enjoy their characters, those characters, those actors, and those storylines don’t exist in a vacuum. What I mean is that you watched Chuck’s storyline and didn’t see an issue regarding his poc-ness. I watched Chuck’s storyline and thought “This country has a history of painting young African American teens, not just males, as aggressive monsters and this is just another example.”

Because that’s true. Historical narratives have painted African Americans as more aggressive and lesser for it for how many decades (centuries?). African American males are literally dying in this country today because of this false stereotype that they are more violent and aggressive, especially sexually, at a younger age.

The writers took the first male African American Archie Comics character, (because Valerie predates him by a number of years) a character who is part-jock, mostly comic book artist who is often kinder and more supportive than other members of the cast and made him into a sex fueled jock with no remorse. 

Again, I understand that Riverdale is its own thing. That they adapted this character out. That everyone in this town is corrupt and flawed, even our main characters. I actually am really enjoying most of the adaptation and how they’ve changed a lot of the characters. 

But. This change with Chuck. Does nothing but turn him into a collection of negative stereotypes that is made worse by the fact that he is a poc. It feeds into this toxic narrative that perpetuates the image of African American males as sexual aggressors. 

My biggest problem with that storyline is that we’re not given any depth to Chuck’s character. In both of of his appearances we’re treated to a character who feels incredibly one note in comparison to the rest of the cast. His lines and his scenes give us no explanation, no back story for his character, and no reason for his actions. So, the viewers are left to assume that Chuck’s doing this just because he’s terrible. These are valid criticisms that would be accurate even if Chuck weren’t a poc. 

What I’m trying to say is that Chuck is bad writing. He’s honestly lazy writing. He’s not a character. He’s a plot device. 

These criticisms can be made for other members of the non main cast as well. Reggie, Dilton, Moose. They’re all pretty one-note. The difference is that we’re now getting more screen time for them to flesh out their characters. Which I’m super excited about. 

I love that Moose is now getting screen time with Kevin specifically. I love that we’re gonna get to explore that friendship (relationship?) now. I sincerely hope that, as much as I don’t like Chuck’s character, he does come back. And I think he will. I vaguely remember seeing something about him coming back. Because then he gets the opportunity to be more than just the “slut shaming black guy with no remorse”. I’m not looking to excuse his actions at all, but I’m saying that I want more from him and about him. Turn him into an actual character. Don’t excuse him but give him redemption. 

So yes, it is great for poc actors and characters to be able to have roles and stories that don’t revolve around their poc-ness. However that does not mean that their poc-ness is not a part of them and plays into larger implications of the cultural atmosphere. And in this particular instance, I believe giving Chuck that storyline did more harm than good. 

As a poc, you can never really disassociate yourself from your poc-ness. You’re always reminded of it. And as admirable as it is to think that we can watch a show and just think “that’s a character” without taking into account their poc-ness, that’s not really practical. 

If anyone else in the fandom who is more articulate or more familiar with this subject wants to chime in their two cents, that would be great. I’m gonna go take more painkillers and finish writing the latest chapter of my fic. 

[foundcarcosa]

cclxxii.

1. Do you have a nice yard? If so, do you spend a lot of time outside in it? If not, where do you go when you want to relax outdoors on nice days? >> I live in an apartment, so no yard. I... don’t spend a lot of time outdoors, even on nice days, unfortunately. The land around here doesn’t inspire me. Considering how long I’m stuck here, I might have to make some serious attempts in trying to enjoy the few months of decent weather per year, but I don’t know how I’m going to do that yet. That annoying “Just go outside! Find something to do! It’s all mind over matter!”-esque advice, which is a dime a dozen on the internet, is completely useless.

2. Is there a group of friends that you used to hang out with but no longer do? Why don’t you hang out anymore and how do you feel about them now? >> Sure. Because I don’t live in NYC anymore.

3. Do your parents enjoy any of the things that you enjoy? Do you bond over these things? >> We have a lot of artistic overlap, but since I haven’t seen him in years I’m not sure where else our interests connect.

4. Did you ever say or ask something that you assumed was a neutral subject, but the person you were talking to became offended and you had no idea why? >> Probably, but it’s definitely not as common an occurrence in my experience as some people make it sound. Also: not understanding why someone takes offence to something is a me problem, not a them problem.

5. What is the movie that you have waited the longest for/which film do you remember anticipating the most/are still anticipating? >> I don’t know, but I was really excited about Black Panther for months, and before that I was excited for Thor: Ragnarok, and both of those movies delivered superbly and lived up to (and beyond) their hype and I’m happy about that. It’s good to feel good.

6. Do you have any ideas for a story or movie you’re planning to write or you’d write if you got the time/had the talent? Please share a synopsis! >> Aside from bayou devils and graveyard angels, which is mostly a half-formed thing with no direction, I don’t really have any ideas.

7. Do you ever feel like anyone is “out of your league” or does that concept not make any sense to you? What do you do when you’re attracted to someone but find them out of your league? >> The concept doesn’t really make sense to me, but I understand not comprehending why someone would be interested in oneself. I try not to take that feeling too seriously. If I’m attracted to someone and I feel like they would have no reason to be interested in me, then I mostly just leave it alone. Occasionally I shoot my shot anyway, but it’s not really all that important to me anymore.

8. What is something that an interested guy/girl could comment about you, that would make you instantly open to them (e.g., “That book you’re reading is from my favorite author”)? >> I’m not sure, really. If they’re interested in me then we probably already have some common ground somewhere, so I promise it wouldn’t be all that difficult to get my attention back.

9. Do you refer to yourself by any sort of fan nickname (Belieber, Little Monster, etc.)? >> X-Phile was a big one for a while. I don’t remember if members of the Despair Faction called themselves anything individually. Uh.... yeah, I’m not too sure any of the fandoms I participate in now have fan names. Or maybe I just don’t know what they are.

10. Do you ever just get lazy and give up on your friendships? >> I get lazy about keeping up with social expectations. But I also don’t make friends with people who get hung up on that kind of thing easily.

11. Is there a person in your life (maybe barely) that you feel in constant competition with (even just in your imagination)? Maybe you feel they are consistently outshining you. >> No.

12. If you are single, even if you are normally happily single, are there certain specific things you witness that make you wish you were in a relationship (e.g., people getting engaged)? >> ---

13. What sort of situations make you feel most self-conscious or inadequate? Are there any people or places that just make you want to crawl into a hole? If you can’t think of anything specific, can you remember the last time (or any time) you felt this way? >> I’m not sure.

14. Out of all your usernames for websites, which one is your favorite? Do you use it for more than one site? >> I’m most fond of blackCarcosa / foundCarcosa, obviously. dimCarcosa is another offshoot that I like. Oh, I also have teslascrawlingchaos, which is fun, but it’s long and unwieldy.

15. Are there any cities near you that you’re afraid to go to because of the crime rate or its other bad reputations? >> No.

16. If you went to camp as a kid, was it a pleasant experience? Do you think that all kids should be able to go to camp? If you didn’t go to camp, do you feel like you kind of missed out on something? >> I only attended day camp as a child; all the actual camps I went to were as an adult. I don’t really have an opinion about camp for kids, seeing as I didn’t experience that or anything, and no, I don’t feel like I missed out. I loved going as an adult, and that’s good enough for me. (I probably wouldn’t have liked it as a child, honestly.)

17. Do you grandparents ever judge you or stick their heads in your business? If not, is there someone else in your life you dread seeing because of their unwanted input? >> There isn’t anyone in my life that I dread seeing because of their unwanted input. The closest person would be Sparrow’s mother, but that’s also why I don’t grace her with my presence, and I asked Sparrow not to divulge any details about me to her anymore. She can mind her damn business for once in her life.

18. Have you ever spent the whole day (or multiple days) just looking up one thing on the internet (e.g., videos of your favorite band, how-to videos, quizzes, etc.)? >> Probably, yeah.

19. Would you ever go on a media fast (i.e., avoiding tv, movies, the internet, and magazines for a certain amount of time, in an attempt to become aware of how media makes you feel)? Do you think that sort of thing would benefit you? >> No, I don’t think that’d benefit me. I know how media makes me feel, and honestly, I think I could do a lot worse than this. I think people do stuff like this to prove a point sometimes, or to seem like they’ve got it together (”I can quit any time! See? Wow this feels so great and wholesome! If only everyone could experience this, the world as it’s ~truly meant to be~ [blah blah blah]”) and I have nothing to prove to anyone.

20. Are you happy with where you currently live? If not, what don’t you like about the area and do you plan on leaving? >> No. I don’t really want to spend fifteen minutes detailing what, exactly, about Middle America, Michigan, Grand Rapids, etc I don’t like. It feels like I do that too much anyway. Suffice it to say that I’m sure it’s a lovely place if it suits you, but it does not suit me in any way, shape, or form, and having been mostly ambivalent or begrudgingly accepting of places I’ve lived, this is a new and painful feeling that I haven’t figured out how to modulate yet. Hopefully I’ll figure out a balance eventually. I don’t plan on leaving because that would require dramatically breaking the social contract of being someone’s long-term partner, but hopefully within a decade we’ll be able to move South. I’m banking on it.

21. If someone told you that we live in a society that hates women, how would you respond? >> “That sounds about right.”

22. When was the last time you were on a boat? Whose boat was it, and what were you doing? >> Probably the last time I was on the Staten Island Ferry.

23. Have you ever been completely blindsided by a break-up or have you sort of felt all of your relationships deteriorating before they ended? If you would prefer not to answer, what is the last instance you can remember being totally blindsided by news you heard? >> I’ve never been completely blindsided by a breakup, no.

24. Can you remember the last thing you thought and subsequently thought, “wow, I really shouldn’t be thinking that”? >> No, but it happens a lot, lol.

25. If you ever think about getting married, what are some aspects of the wedding that you would like to see in a non-traditional manner (e.g., a different color dress or “partners” over “husband” and “wife”)? >> I think most of our wedding is going to be non-traditional in some fashion. No bridal party, no overtly religious overtones (whatever... religious ~stuff~ that comes part and parcel with dealing with me notwithstanding), no expensive fluff like flowers and shit, a casual ceremony and reception, not inviting people for the sake of inviting them, no wedding registry, and so on. It might be traditionally New Orleanian, if we do get the second line package and all of that, though.

[ccborrega]

You realise the fanfic trope you're talking about is usually a self-insert thing right? It's not written very well, maybe, but in my experience its fantasy coming from the perspective of people who have been abused themselves. I dunno, that's what I've seen more often than not. People want to believe that the right partner will make them better and help them with trauma so it makes its way into fics but I like to think that irl life they know better.

Hmmmmmm. I’m…uh…OK, here’s what:

People are different from one another. The ways in which we cope with pain or trauma are different for each. Kinds of abuse are also so diverse that it’s pointless to try and fit the topic into any specification. This is just a general view from my personal experience as shared with me by other victims and experienced in my own flesh; BUT it does not mean to invalidate any other abuse victims who don’t meet what is described here. You do what it takes to survive each day, that’s how it is, and what can’t help me proooobably CAN help someone else.

My first thought is you may have mistaken ‘Projection’ for ‘Self-insert’. Since ‘Self-insert’ already implies a lot of wish fulfilment, it’s basically do-whatever-the-heck-you-want-time and trying to police that would be futile. There is literaly no way to write self-insertion wrong in my book. Projecting into a character, though, I believe makes for the most sincere forms of writting, provided that the writter doesn’t lie to themselves, in which case you’re just reading an ode to their ego that may or may not be well written but it tends to get boring very quickly.

That said, in either of those scenarios it’d still NOT be OK to portray recovery as something that takes only for someone to love you. That is not how it works and as a victim there’s few things more damaging that getting told or telling yourself that getting ‘The right partner’ will magically make you well. It’s setting yourself up for more heartbreak when it doesn’t happen, and it isolates you even more because if abuse victims already tend to tell themselves they deserve the bad things they’re being put through, this impression gets only strengthened when getting a partner doesn’t help like the frigging world told them it would and it’s only after years of torturing yourself with the thoughts that you don’t get better because there’s something wrong with you that you get to know any better. In the particular case where an abuse victim is STILL suffering abuse, it can even be dangerous to them.

With the aggravant that now they’ve hurt someone else, ‘cause being involved with a person who suffers abuse is a constant struggle of wanting desperately to help them and not knowing how, and in a scenario where this person makes YOU directly responsible for their wellness, it easily becomes toxic for the survivor’s partner.

…provided that the partner does want to help because this whole ‘My partner will fix me’ mentality more often than not only sends survivors into yet another unbalanced relationship. I have some trouble seeing the preservation of this particular myth, even in fiction terms, as harmless.

I once learned of a situation where a survivor of abuse, literal decades after the actual abuse took place, was still over-compensating herself for it. She was told as a child that she was fat and had specific foods she liked locked in a cage at her plain view. Everyone else in the house was allowed to have them, except her, and she would have to go through life seeing everyone else eating at their leasure while she couldn’t so much as have a taste of anything her mother deemed unhealthy. This on top of being constantly bullied BY HER MOM for her weight, verbally abused and even sometimes physically abused for it (Spoiler alert, she wasn’t much fatter than you’d expect a healthy child to be and even if she had been I can’t fathom why being fat is a crime so severe that you have to punish a kid for it). As an adult, this person would still be unable to hold herself back at the sight of the specific foods that had been locked in the cage; I mean it in the most literal ways possible, she’d see them and consume them frantically without being able to withold herself until she’d made the food disappear. She knew it wasn’t healthy, she knew WHY it happened to her, but at some point during her recovery she made those foods her wellness, gave them the power to compensate her for everything bad that had happened to her, and is to this day unable to de-program herself from that mentality. All this to say: Even more dangerous than the incorrect ideas society puts into our heads about recovery, are the ideas WE put in there. Which is why I don’t think it’s healthy at all to convince yourself in any way that one magical specifical thing is going to solve everything. In the long run it might do more harm than good.

And might I add, saying a lie to yourself a lot of times is a pretty good way to make it seem real.

There’s a difference between portraying characters supporting a character with trauma or helping them recover and portraying characters fixing it with a kiss like it’s a booboo or something. My post on the matter refers to the latter, as you will observe, and I stand by what I said. Frenching =//= Therapy and the actual process of recovery.

Recovery isn’t pretty. Recovery isn’t easy. I can’t say this enough times. It’s one of the hardest things people go through. One day you get better, but it’s only after a long, tiring road. I don’t think it’s necessarily better to be aware of every excruciating step through it, but I don’t think there are any short-cuts, and I certainly don’t think that being like ‘Hey, I bet if I went down this other, shorter, more convenient road, it’ll amount to the same thing’ helps anyone.

Abuse messes up your head. Your trust in others, your turst in yourself, your capacity to funtion as an individual rather than an extension of your abuser, your reactions to everyday things like people raising their voice or loud noises. How people think being a relationship without recovering all it takes from you (Or growing it from scratch, in the case where the abuser is also the parent) won’t take any hard work on both parts (But specially the survivor’s part) is beyond me.

Of course, this is all just a general outline on why I personally don’t understand the trope. I never said the trope was like the ultimate capital sin of writting, though. Did I read it when I was younger? Yes. It wasn’t good for me, to say the least because the fact that the magical cure didn’t materialize before me in the shape of a romantical partner made me think ‘Woop, I knew it, I’m completely unlovable, I deserve what’s happening to me because no one could ever love me’. Did I WRITE it? I TRIED. Keyword being ‘Tried’. I recall writting something about a dude who hit the kids put under his care getting brutally murdered (I was a very angry smol) and one of the kids (A girl) being able to overcome it because oh at least now she had a boyfriend, she had love in her life. Someone being romantically involved with you fixes everything, right? Right? Wrong. It didn’t…really make me feel any better. So there, it might work for others, but personally and seeing the cases of other victims I know, I think it makes more harm than good. 

Finally, I…see some holes in the logic where abuse victims are the ones writting it. As in everything, there’s gotta be exceptions, but I find that a good 98% of the time, the people who write abuse recovery poorly are people who have never in their life experienced how HARD staying alive through it is, much less recovering from it. 

((Not having experienced it is still not a good excuse for not writting it properly, mind you. Stephen King wrote abuse rather well in Rose Madder and made a point in making his abused character climb out of the slope by her own will to live and make it through. She has help. She meets kind people who are willing to help, but there is a difference between getting aid and placing responsability for your recovery on someone else’s hands, and King does a really good job at painting the line. His character does this BEFORE even thinking of getting tangled in another romance and her new partner isn’t written as a magical cure, but as someone who comes into her life and happens to be good for her. Furthermore, he shows the consquences of the trauma still within her YEARS after her abuser has died and her dealing with it in a way that couuuuld be supernatural but it’s mostly a “Things might not be all good, but you can grow again” kind of message.))

Then again, it could only be a matter of you and I moving in very different fandom circles. The kind of fic I used to find with the topic of abuse would be 1)Fics where character A was not a victim of abuse in the canon material BUT they had potential partners B and C and the writter felt the need to make the one they didn’t ship them with look bad so boom now C is an abuser and character A needs B to save them. Or 2) A has strict parents so writer turns them into abusers so B can come and be the knight in shinning armor- ‘cause you know parents who take no nonsense from you and parents who will make you feel worthless and trapped at any chance are basically the same thing. Among these, not once did I read any work where I could find anything REAL in the way the abuse and the recovery was written. It was just a gratuitous and lazy way to have drama happen without having to think too hard about it. Which, no matter how I look at it, isn’t very respectful towards non-fictional people who are either still being abused or recovering, and sends the message, once again, that ‘They don’t have it as bad’.

So no. Nope. Still one of the worst tropes out there, in my eyes.

(To be fair I also find a lot of what are popular fanfic tropes VERY lazy in terms of character development or even making the story interesting but that’s another matter and depends mostly on the writer)

[smokeybrand]

Love Is Rationed

I love BLEACH, man. Way back when the Big Three was the big thing, my allegiance fell in with Kubo’s tale of swords and shinigami. I thought his story was far more compelling than One Piece, at the time. I later found out, at the behest of my chick, that Oda was about that long game. Luffy has had some emotionally gut-wrenching expeditions. I concede that now. back then, though, it wasn’t on my radar. I fell off of Naturo real fast, mostly because the fandom was ridiculous. I didn’t care for the Narutards screaming about it’s superiority at me, when Kishimoto had just gotten into the meat of the Chunin Exams and it turned into power wank high school for a while.  Admittedly, the Naruto got real dope toward the end but that took, what? Decades? No, for my money, it was definitely BLEACH. Kubo captured my attention with a brilliant and unique art style but, even more than that, a dope ass narrative.

The first two arcs of BLEACH, the Substitute Shinigami and Soul Society arcs, are manga masterpieces. Kubo did an excellent job of introducing the principal characters, ichigo and his little cadre of friends and frienemies, perfectly. HE was able to carve out a world chock full of lore, intrigue, and whimsy with those first, few chapters. We went from the desperate victory against Fishbone D, to the emotionally crippling battle with Grand Fisher, to the hilarious team-up dispatching of a Menos Grande; All while maintaining a true, narrative, focus. It was outstanding. We watched Ichigo and his friends claim victory after victory, which made their defeat at the hands of Byakuya Kuchiki and Renji Abarai so goddamn devastating. That loss scarred us because be had grown to love those characters so much. Kubo brought these imaginary creations to life in a way that i had not seen in some time. I thought he had peaked bu then he topped himself with the Soul Society Arc.

The second Ichigo recovered and we realized he had to storm heaven, itself, in order to save Rukia, i was on board. We watched him struggle. We watched his friends struggle. We watched everyone claw out narrow victories in brilliant fashion, all the while being introduced to so many more dope ass characters and even richer lore. The Soul Society arc was BLEACH at it’s best. You can tell there was a real passion there, in each word, written, and frame, drawn. That Urahara reveal. The first time we saw the Old Man. That fight with Kenpachi. That fight with Kurotsuchi. That Bankai for the first time. That first Zangestsu takeover. Everything was so goddamn excellent but it’s the Aizen heel-turn that cinched it for me. I legitimately did not see that sh*t coming and was blown away. I couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. And then the Arrancar arc farted out. At this point, there was a very real, very visible decline in Kubo’s Magnum Opus and it hurts to revist.

I like the Arrancar arc, I want to be very clear about that. There is a ton of good in that thing. I enjoyed most of the Visored. That concept, in itself, was outstanding writing. I absolutely adore most of the Espada; Cirucci, Ulquiorra, Nell, Grimmjow, Coyote, and Hallibel in particular. Those are some of my favorite characters within the entire series. I also liked the little detour we took with Turn Back the Pendulum that sh*t was dope. The best part of this entire arc, though, was it’s finale. Ascended Aizen. That Mugetsu. F*ck, that Mugetsu, man. “That's the logic of a loser!!. A winner must always think not of how the world is, but how the world should be!!!!” Bro. That line. Bro. Pure f*cking kino, dude. With that one line, we understand every motivation, every reason, everything fueled Aizen’s drive. That one line laid bare one of the most enigmatic villains in manga history and he was right. Absolutely brilliant. Everything else around it was bullsh*t powerwank and lazy retread though. The entire Arrancar arc is the worst of Dragon Ball Z. There are legitimate bright spots, but it’s mostly generalized shonen cliche. That said, what came after was even more pedestrian.

The Fullbring arc, if you can call it an arc, was balls. it was. The narration was sh*t, the new characters introduced were bogus, and the Fullbring powers were poorly executed. I didn’t give a sh*t about any of that so when it ended as abruptly as it did, i was okay. Then came the Thousand-Year Blood War arc and, holy sh*t, BLEACH was back! And then it wasn’t. By this time, Kubo had lost all passion for being a mangaka. Jump has burned him out. the pressures of maintaining a tent pole manga in a tent pole magazine was too much for a dude who just wanted to draw cool sh*t. I understand. The ill thing? It was Jump that cancelled BLEACH. That rushed “ending” we got wasn’t even Kubo being lazy. Honestly, after the first few chapters, it seemed he had been reinvigorated and wanted to end BLEACH on the highest of notes. Blood War was shaping up to be dope as sh*t. There were revelations, returns, brand new lore, expanded pathos; Sh*t was legit. and then he farted out that ending. and then he farted out that epilogue. Bro, for real? IchiHime? RenRuki? For real?

Look, if that’s where we land, that’s where we end, but there was no lead up. No foreshadowing. No build up. According to the narrative, it had to be Rukia. It had to be her. Literally all of the emotional hits were in service toward or directly instigated by Rukia. Orihime was little more than a plot device or constantly damseled. IchiHime doesn’t feel earned. It feels like a “F*ck you” to the fandom, Of course, there could be a shift. Of course, there can be a course correction. We saw that in the Boruto movie or last Naruto movie or whatever. the point s, that turn toward Hinata, after an entire series focused on Sakura, had a real, emotional, pivot. Ichihime does not. And that is the major through-line of this essay; Kubo’s decline. My man had plans. he built a world in his head that he wanted to share on paper. Then that world became incredibly popular. It became incredibly profitable. Kubo suffered the same fate as Toriyama and his work, just like his predecessor, suffered with him. The narrative fell apart, the plot got messy, and the art became pedestrian. Everything that made BLEACH great, fell by the wayside. Even when Kubo showed that spark, corporate greed snuffed it out. BLEACH died the day the Arrancar arc was artificially prolonged and that betrayal festered within Kubo for the rest of it’s run.

There’s been whispered and an unconfirmed but confirmed announcement for a BLEACH 20th anniversary anime. It’s probably going to be adaption of the Thousand-year Blood War arc. Does this mean we’ll get to see the true vision of this story on screen? Will we get to see the actual events Kubo envisioned on his sketchpad? Are they going to fix that rushed ass ending and god awful epilogue? Are we getting that initial Kubo passion or the disparate Kubo finale? I love BLEACH. I know that Kubo loves BLEACH. I’m hoping we can finally get the closure we deserves, for the creator more  than any of us fans. He, more than anyone, deserves to see this story to it’s proper end. After twenty years, it only feels right.

[life2strange]

It’s never too late to make the big bucks.

“I want to be a superhero” was a line you’d probably expect coming from young children, but as the case with a large portion of society I didn’t really grow out of my superhero phase and here I was 22 years old still lining up at comic book stores waiting to get a new Batman comic. Today’s social society being receptive to anything that is a result of mainstream media production is said to be acceptable in social circles, such as if Marvel came out with a ‘Spiderman’ movie, it would be acceptable to go see it regardless of your Age or gender as it’s a ‘popular narrative’ providing content to the masses and is easily accessible. I feel if one tends to go further into this narrative like I did with superhero’s and try to get their means of entertainment through more unconventional means like comic books, video games, and animated cartoons, would lead people to have a negative perception about being overly attached or interested in content that might not be regarded as acceptable by mainstream media at this particular point in time. I do however feel like this is becoming more lax and people are becoming more acceptable of ‘geek’ or ‘nerd culture’ as the rise in popularity of ‘Marvel’ and ‘DC’ movies has led to superhero’s and superhero culture being a more common topic of conversation in society and the rise in mainstream actors playing superhero roles such as Robert Downy Junior Playing ‘Iron Man’ and Ben Affleck playing ‘Batman’ tends to help audiences feel more at ease and accept superhero’s as being more common place as acceptable medium in story telling. Boothe talks about the ‘Spime’ of a fandom which is ‘the lifecycle of an object from initial design through physical substantiation to final digital trace. It changes the ‘object’ from a purely physical entity into a lifecycle of technological transformation, and uses time as another dimension upon which an object can be measured’. Booth, P. (2105). Fandoms like Batman which started off with the comics in 1940 and has amassed success over a wide stream of media platforms such as comics, graphic novels, television shows, movies, video games and now even virtual reality immersion technology that allows you to become ‘Batman’. Transmedia therefore allows the franchise to develop a larger following across the world and allows people to find out information regarding the fandom at the touch of a button. This would have led Batman to develop a large fan following across many countries and fans of many generations that come together to enjoy it no matter the means how the do so. The spime of Batman helps it remain relevant across time and helps retain its popularity. I remember getting my first glimpse of Batman from my father showing me an old Batman movie staring George Clooney. My father exposed me to a fragment of the fandom thus including me in the ‘spimatic wave’ associated with the Batman fandom. When the voice actor who played batman for a little over ten years went to twitter to put up an idea to bring back the classic animated show for a reunion episode I was up in arms for the idea. He and the other members from the cast of the show used the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to try and obtain financial means from their most loyal fanbase in order to provide funding to create the content that would-be tailor made to the fanbase paying every dollar to make it happen. The success of the Kickstarter campaign is dependant on successfully utilizing the fan nostalgia and acknowledging the presence of a group of like minded people forming the batman fandom and supporting the project at multiple nodes in the production process. With such experiences I can add ground to Boothe’s views that Fandoms by applying certain theories of the Spime towards fandom through the appropriate mode of crowdfunding would lead to a more emotional and effective process of media creation.” Fandom is traditionally participation after-the-fact; the Spime allows us to see fandom as generative of meaning throughout the entire participatory process” Booth, P. (2105).

Being a media and communications student, my passion has always been to get involved in the journalism stream and eventually turn that into a career in sports writing. Basketball in particular had always been an area of interest for me and the opportunity to try and work in a career related to my passion was too hard to pass on and therefore I had been looking into what it took to become a sports writer in todays world. New means of media has led to the evolution of transmission of news and information regarding a player or a team in the National Basketball Association and writers have been quick to adapt. While most of the main story pieces that provide in depth analysis and detail regarding a situation, team or player are done via websites such as ESPN, Bleacher Report and Yahoo Sports, applications have also been developed so access on various devices becomes easier as migration to accessible devices had been a key goal of sports media to become commonplace among new technology. Breaking news on the other hand needs to be reported at a moment’s notice to the public which has led to the large-scale use of Twitter as a platform amongst sports media content creators. Twitter as a platform allows instant transmission of ‘viral sports news’ such as an immediate player trade between teams, a sudden injury or altercation or even a player spotted in public. It allows the content to be received and reacted to at the touch of a button. Live-tweeting updates during games has become popular via twitter and writers would tweet from arenas thereby relaying tiny details they pick up from team personnel, player huddles, in arena altercations that might not be seen or heard on TV. This unique information available almost instantaneously allows these content creators to have an advantage over traditional media broadcasts in terms of specificity of information they would be providing.  Lets take the example of ESPN’s senior sports writer Arash Markazi, Markazi has been providing quality content through his stories and coverage of Los Angeles based sports teams for over a decade and had built a rapport amongst avid sports fans as being a reputable source of information. When the twitter revolution happening in the sports coverage world. Markazi began posting snippets of interesting information along with his regular stories on twitter, these included some off the court content that sports fan started to get accustomed to. He once posted a video on his twitter of a then unknown blonde girl doing a ‘dougie’ which was the popular dance move of the year live at a basketball game and as you would expect the video quickly turned viral and led to media companies picking up the video and then fame and fortune hit. That blonde girl is now married to World series winner Justin Verlander and is named Kate Upton who became internet famous which further led to her mainstream popularity in the past couple of years all due to this little snippet on twitter by a sports writer. The power of media in whatever form is astounding. As a social media content creator in this scenario Markazi exercised his power over his followers by sharing content that was good enough to be mass distributed leading to it going viral and therefore creating a buzz over information that if created and distributed by someone without such a platform or standing might not have stood out. In Wasike’s study he talks about the usage of twitter by social media editors in order to entertain a particular audience, he describes Twitter as a form of media that is built for personalization of people’s messages since it allows individuals to create a list of loyal and committed followers who share a common interest in a certain social media editor. Therefore, leading to Social media editors reciprocating and accepting this connection by tweeting information relating about their personal life, humorous content, memes, in-transit activities, etc. Finally, most of the Social Media Editors would go ahead and specifically start to use personalized themes in their Twitter bio sections to gain a sense of identity amongst the clutter. Apart from providing personal information such as native home town, spouses and hobbies, it was common to encounter phrases such as; music junkie, foodie, hobby enthusiast and other quirky titles that would lead to the audience being able to relate to the editor and make them seem almost like a regular everyday person thus helping them garner that nativity amongst their audience. (Wasike, B. (2013).)

A long time ago in a land far far away, a lazy teenager who shared a name and a birthday with me once thought of a plan to get rich quick with minimal effort along with him friends and scoured the internet in hopes of figuring out how to achieve this masterful plan. After google highest paid internet jobs and doing diligent research we wound up on Felix Kjellberg who goes by the internet nickname of pewdiepie who annuals earns 12 million dollars a year by creating videos on YouTube that amass millions of viewers every day. Now what did ‘Pewdiepie’ do you may ask, does he create his own music or do stand up comedy or tell stories, well no its not what one might assume. He garners millions of dollars every year playing video games from home and people are inherently very interested to see someone else play a video game, sounds easy enough right? Wrong again, after going through a lot of his videos we figured out that it takes a special someone to be able to obtain such an audience and maintain it over a period of years. People log on everyday to see this man play games of different genres while using a webcam to show his reactions to various thing that happen within the game. Suspense and intensity during horror games, humor and quick-witted jokes during funny scenarios and all out just an uncensored commentary is what Felix delivers during his gameplay segments that turned from a hobby to more income than most corporate millionaires. The world is changing, and people like to be entertained without really putting in much effort and Felix allows them to enjoy videogames that they really might not have enjoyed quite as much with his unique style and humor and thus game me my idea for internet millions. Till today my total YouTube earnings amount to 12 dollars and 27 cents as compared to Felix making 12 million in 2016. He wins …. for Now. Aggire and Young refer to user generated content in there work where it is said even though the historical novelty of the active behaviour of an audience is unpredictable at the least, and the use of of participation terms with respect to  activities that pertain to the audience usually are open for interpretation, the ineractive possibilities offered by new forms of media are what is seen as interesting here, These are usually  facilitators of interaction amongst users in the onlie world that have endless possibilities with the content. (Astigarraga, I., Pavon, A., & Zuberogoitia, A. (2016)).

 References

Astigarraga, I., Pavon, A., & Zuberogoitia, A. (2016). Active audience?: Interaction of young people with television and online video content. Communication and Society, 29(3), 133-147.

Booth, P. (2105). Crowdfunding: A spimatic application of digital fandom. New Media and Society, 17(2), 149-166.

Wasike, B. (2013). Framing news in 140 Characters: How social media editors frame the news and interact with audiences via Twitter. Global Media Journal - Canadian Edition, 6(1), 5-23.