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flying-elliska · 4 years ago

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Shadow and Bone Season 1 Review

Ok so I got distracted by a need to watch all of Ben Barnes' filmography (lmao) but here is my review : It was really fun to watch and it was clearly made with love which is already the main thing with YA fantasy, which is often turned into a soulless moneygrab when put on screen. The actors were GREAT. I did think that the Crows suffered from being mashed up with the Shadow and Bone story, but they were still a highlight. I also think it was a bit rushed, esp. when it came to Alina's training. The costumes were beautiful, I want a kefta now. Plus the crossover fanfic interactions btw the SaB characters and the Crows were just pure joy. Also Milo, obviously <3 I'm in hyperfixation mode so here, have an essay :

The "Shadow and Bone" Characters :

- Jessie Mei Li !!!!!! She really made me like Alina so much more than in the books, she absolutely is the 'human embodiment of literal sunshine' and she was a joy to watch. Her character's arc is cliché but her acting is so expressive and endearing, I really felt for her all the way through. (maybe I'm biased bc Jessie talking about her ADHD and seeing her thrive at the same time is like!!! i love them they deserve all the best.) I like that they made Alina more proactive - even though she does make some stupid decisions... but I just don't understand people who put that down as bad writing, like ??? have you ever met a real person who only makes wise, good decisions ?? a character like that would either be at the end of their story or just in the background because that makes them static. The things with the maps in the beginning does a good job of illustrating how she is just this one girl making rash, erratic decisions out of fear and loyalty and doesn't have a sense of the bigger picture, caught in the tide of bigger events. It works for her character. When it comes to the choice of making her half-Shu, I do think it really makes sense re: her character feeling like an outsider but I do understand the criticisms that the microaggressions felt too relentless and one-note. I am really looking forward to them introducing Tamar and Tolya and hopefully connecting to them over her heritage in a more positive way.

- Mal in the books was one of the most annoying YA characters I've ever come across, so I really liked that they made him much more of a loyal, devoted friend. I found his relationship with Alina cute, it really gives us the sense that these are two orphans who found a home in each other, childhood best friends (and potential sweethearts) separated by war, two army grunts and ordinary people caught up in the wheels of power and war that usually crushes people like them, it's a great way to introduce the dynamics of their world and it's a trope that always makes me emo. It felt a bit too one note to me, though, and too heavily on the nose, like Mal's only personality was his attachment to Alina (and his resentment towards the Grisha) and too much of her emotional arc also relied on him. Them hitting us over the head with the meadow scenes felt like pure telling instead of showing and it ended up being super repetitive and kind of annoying. I am willing to like this pairing, but I wanted more scenes of them just having conversations about things and really understanding why they like each other beyond the whole childhood friends bond that we're asked to accept exists at the beginning. So I hope there's more depth there in next seasons.

- Ben Barnes!!!! Just jksdfhgkdjghdf. I'm not a big villain stan usually and I hated the Darkling in the books but DAMN his performance is just amazing. They managed to make him more sympathetic and human while at the same time making clear the stuff he does is deeply horrible. There's the Magneto-aspect of 'well clearly his methods are fucked up but he's addressing a terrible injustice nobody is doing anything about' that makes it very tempting to root for him ; and again, well, like, Ben Barnes is so hot and charismatic it feels uncomfortable (which I guess is part of the point lol). His loss of humanity is, up to a point, understandable, brought about by despair, loneliness, grief and a sense of powerlessness - living so long he starts to see other people as disposable, losing so many people he stops caring, seeing over and over how hate never seems to stop, etc. It's a logical explanation for going insane.

But the hunger for power is also very much present as a motivation and this ambiguity is there constantly. Does he maybe come to genuinely care for Alina or is it totally bullshit ? I think he does, he's just so fucked up that it comes out as possessiveness and a need to control her. He wants Alina to be his equal but he's incapable of treating her that way. It's tragic, in a sense, but the show doesn't excuse his actions either. Like his monstrosity is a product of this world full of injustice, yes, and that warrants some compassion, monsters are always a symptom of their environment in some ways and dehumanizing them completely is an excuse ; but at the same time, he sabotaged his own cause anyway the moment he started to treat other people like things, as he does with Alina, because that just perpetuates the cycle of violence and hate. At some point he started feeling like he was the only solution and he was owed power for his sacrifices, and he's using his cause as an excuse. When Alina came to him, there was a possibility for redemption, taking down the Fold, and it's a test because there is finally someone on his level of power. But instead of seeking to remedy the power imbalance between them, he made it worse, by lying to her, manipulating her, etc, and the antler collar is the ultimate sign of this.

I love those scenes towards the end (the antler-based body horror has big Hannibal vibes, so messed up). I like Alina telling him they could have had this, that she had compassion for him and his cause, that they could have worked together, and he's the one responsible for screwing it up and this time his claim that he's the misunderstood victim ("Make me your villain") appears delusional and self-serving instead of somewhat justified. The almost-lovers to enemies vibes, the sense of lost potential, and the angst of the whole 'oh you could finally have been loved by people, too bad you fucked it up !', very juicy. There is this fundamental idea that power/respect/love is not something you are owed no matter how good your intentions are or because you're strong or you have suffered or you're willing to commit horrible drastic actions, you have to keep proving you deserve it, and trying to claim power without responsibility of care turns you into a monster. The thing with the stag was an excellent metaphor of the fact that there's things you can't take, they have to be given to you, and the wonderful power there is in understanding that is what allows Alina to harness the stag amplifier's power. This is really when she escapes his grim utilitarian outlook and a different way forward and owns her own power fully on her own terms.

Anyway I hope Alina gets to beat the shit out of him at some point that would be very sexy but I'm also looking forward to see how their arcs parallel and diverge from each other as Alina starts to grapple more with the implications of her power and the harsh dilemmas of war and her own dark side. I want to see him become scared of her, and I feel it will be more visible than in the books where he just has this cold aggressive facade all the time. This one feels a lot more openly emotional which is just a lot more interesting.

- As for the other characters ; Zoya mostly made me sad. The actress has the perfect vibes but I'm not sure I love their take on her character so far, it does make sense in terms of the later books - that she has internalized prejudice regarding her mixed-race heritage, that she is jealous of Alina because of how hard she's fought to get where she is and Alina kind of takes it away from her, etc. But I would have liked to see a bit more of her being badass and sharp-tongued in a clever (even if mean) way instead of spending most of her time being rejected by men and being racist towards Alina. I did like the ending though, of her actually seeing the monstrosity of the Darkling in action and the mention of her aunt. And her brief bonding with Inej was great, just because it was badass but also maybe because it could be a part of Zoya learning to accept her Suli heritage in turn, maybe not right away but in time, when thinking of that part of herself, she won't only think of her parents' ruined marriage and all the pain it caused, but also of that badass and brave acrobat girl who went toe to toe with these really scary monsters without even having any powers and !!!!!

- Also Leigh's cameo was so cute and as an aspiring writer this is just such wish fulfillment

- I honestly think that having the Crows there actually made the S&B story better ? Not only in terms of the much needed levity breaks but also in terms of themes. For instance, Matthias and Nina's story gave us a really raw and visceral view of how the Grisha are hunted. And Inej's relationship to Alina really gave us a sense of what Alina actually means to people who believe in the Saints in a way that doesn't feel just like 'ugh those superstitious people' because we know that Inej's faith is part of what makes her who she is and a person with morals, and something that saw her through the worst moments of her life. It feels so special that she got to meet Alina and given a sign that maybe the world is not completely shitty. And Alina's kindness towards Inej really gives you a sense that she might be, or become worthy of that belief in time, or at least that she wants to, that she's figuring out her power to really touch people's lives might be a good thing, and that she's starting to accept this responsibility more fully. And her arming Inej is a nice parallel to that. I'm very emotional about this scene, because one of the first things we see of young Alina is her taking out a knife to defend Mal from the bullies, because she's protective and brave, but she's also aware the world is a shitty place, and so her giving that knife to Inej is a sort of spiritual transmission and recognition of sorts, that she trusts Inej with that fighting power, that she'll use this knife to defend herself and her loved ones and not abuse it. It's so interesting. And a counter point to the Darkling's fucked up relationship to power that Alina might at some point get afraid she'll replicate. That you could see Alina trying to gather followers and using people's admiration for her like he did but instead she sets them free and empowers them. It's great. And I feel that when Inej takes to the seas, she'll think about Alina. (I do hope somebody tells her Alina's not dead at some point though god). Girls giving each other knives is my spirituality, honestly.

- And I also noticed an interesting parallel between Kaz and the Darkling in terms of being two emo dudes who like to wear black, are prone to violence and have a thing for two very powerful women they think are special and want to have at their side, but of course, they go about it in very different ways. The Darkling comes at it from a place of power while Kaz comes from a place of utter powerlessness, first of all, and he understands why it's important to set Inej free. Him spending the entire season trying to earn enough money to pay off Inej's indenture is the opposite to the Darkling putting that collar on Alina and while I do have issues with how the show portrays him, I do love that. Love is about setting the person you love free !!!! And that confrontation scene was so powerful, when Kaz tells the Darkling Alina was tired of being a captive ! Drag him !

- As for Genya, I liked the actress and her chemistry with Alina, but I'm not sure they did a great job of making her arc very clear, for instance what it means for her to get that red kefta, her relationship with the other Grisha, etc. Her and David are already very cute though. Also very much looking forward to see where that goes.

So yeah I think they did a great job with this bit actually, I enjoyed a lot more than I think I would and even though it is a very tropey story, there's plenty of depth there too.

The Crows :

- I'm a bit more nitpicky about this because I care about these characters so much. I think overall the problem is that the SaB story in the books happens on this massive scale with enormous stakes, and that next to that the Crows' issues feel less important ; it's like their impact is distorted by the gravity of the much larger story. Like for instance, Kaz in the books is very much at the center of everything, this larger than life trickster figure who knows and controls almost everything by sheer cleverness, and he has this sense of allure and mystique that can't happen here, and so his aura just shrinks. On top of that they're not on their home turf. Being introduced to these characters before they've reached their full levels of badass is weird - there is a reason why prequels generally happen after the main stuff, because they count on the love you have for these characters at their full potential to make you interested in their story when they were less badass and interesting. So I had several moments where I was like 'oh this feels wrong'. Tbh the idea that they would even volunteer to kidnap Alina in the first place, what with Inej's backstory, feels kind of wrong, esp since they had no idea of what would happen to her if they succeeded.

- But I still enjoyed a lot of it though, especially the fact that they were this force of chaos in the midst of this bigger narrative that's a lot more self-serious. The bits with the train, or the circus acts were very clever. A lot of the best moments in the show happen when they come to disturb the other plot in unexpected ways. I'm still dead over the whole 'Alina jumps into their carriage' scene, that was fucking gold. The team up at the end !!!! Alina and Kaz making a deal ! Inej stabbing the Darkling !!!! Them stealing the Darkling's carriage !!! They don't give a shit that the story is supposed to be super dramatic it's great.

- Jesper is the one character they completely nailed from start to finish and he's probably my favorite part of the whole show. He's very funny without being reduced to the role of comic relief ; he's just so! damn! cool!!!!!!! I honestly feel this is a thing they actually did even better than in the books, or at least Six of Crows where I felt Jasper kind of disappeared behind Kaz and they insist a lot on his flaws and issues. So before we dig more into those problems I love that they gave him time to be this ultra badass who saves the day several times ; while at the same time, hinting at further developments like his powers or his gambling issues. Kit Young is just perfect, confident without being arrogant, a bit cold when it comes to crime while at the same time being so obviously caring with Inej - I loved their friendship, that was so sweet. My main criticism is that they should have made it clearer he was bi because there are already people calling him gay and that's very annoying. I know some people had a problem with his hookup and like...I can see it's a bit of a cliché...the charming badass bisexual adventurer....it's a trope I kind of love though lmao and the scene itself felt kind of cute and fun. He's not the only person who is shown to have an active sexuality and he's also not the only queer person around and we know he's going to have a more substantial romantic arc later so eh. On a larger note I loved the little casual hints of completely normalized queerness - Nadia thirsting over Zoya, Fedyor and Ivan, Poppy, etc. Having grown up with fantasy where queerness was either completely erased or very tormented and problematic, this was refreshing as hell.

- Inej and Kaz...my faves... They have a kind of relationship which feels so rare and unique in terms of what exists on TV and while I don't feel they entirely replicated it, the core is still there - the mutual respect and building of trust, the longing, the repression, the trauma, etc. One thing I really like is their arc around faith - in the books, Kaz is dismissive of Inej's faith in ways that often feel really shitty and I like that he learns to be more respectful of it. It's very much linked to hope/survival ; Inej keeps this token from her parents and she hopes to find them again ; Kaz tells her it's no use and she'll survive better if she gives up. He believes Alina is a fake, while Inej wants to believe that myths can come true and there is hope for good things in the world. Kaz comes to accept that Alina is the real deal and, out of respect for Inej's faith, to stop pursuing her. I loved the bit about Inej struggling to kill as well - it's the dilemma of what her survival and that of the people she really cares about are worth in such a shitty world - her compassion is a good part of her but so is her survival instinct, and that's the part Kaz represents - that even after she's been through hell, broken in unfathomable ways, even if she gave up all hope and faith in the world, even she becomes dangerous and ruthless to survive, she will still deserve dignity, and to be treated better. And meanwhile she is willing to break her principles, which she holds so dearly, to save him, when he's never had anyone who cared for him like that - enough to keep him alive. That bit in the church !!!!! God !!!!!! Bye !!!!!!! And then him basically calling her his own version of a Saint, that he doesn't believe in miracles but he does believe in her !!! It's very emblematic of their whole arc ; he empowers her to survive in a ruthless world and loves her at her most dangerous ; but he loves her laugh too, he finds her a ship and her parents, he honors her capacity for love and hope even when he can't share it. And she sees that he's capable of doing better, that he's worth caring for. This whole thing kills me honestly and I can't wait to see where they take this next. I'm not mad they're a bit more soft and obvious than in the books, Kaz would just have come across as an an asshole otherwise.

- That said, there are bits of how they introduced their backstories I don't like. I get that making it so Inej was still tied to the Menagerie gave them a very powerful reason to want to kidnap Alina beyond greed so that they wouldn't look like very shitty people. But in the books Inej is terrified by the idea of simply seeing Heleen or the Menagerie and the way they have her interact with her feels weirdly casual and dismissive of her trauma. Also, in the books, the fact that Kaz had to convince Per Haskell to buy Inej's contract through a lot of effort, that he wasn't the one holding that above her head either, made the power dynamics more palatable. I especially disliked the scene where Kaz says he won't free other girls because just Inej is special, it makes him look like he has the power but he's just too much of a callous asshole to do it, and that he just freed Inej because he liked her which is absolutely not what their relationship is about at the start, it's a lot more about seeing Inej's dangerous side behind a facade of powerlessness and relating to her, in a sense, and this scene made it all feel cheap.

- Also, what was that about Inej having a brother ? Not a fan of that either. I'm afraid they're going to make her story all about finding what happened to him, and that's 1) too on the nose similar to Kaz's story and 2) it kind of cheapens her own arc, a female character realizing that what was done to her was wrong, reclaiming her own power and dignity and then making sure it doesn't happen to anybody else, harnessing her personal experience to save strangers, that's so powerful - making it about a family member at first, especially if it's about revenge, it's so much more simplistic and unoriginal and the perspective really annoys me.

- Also not a fan of Per Haskell not being there because he's a very important part of Kaz's evolution, so I hope he shows up eventually - and the way they introduced Pekka Rollins was kind of like...weird and out of place. I just found the Crows' introduction scenes stilted and not as cool as they should have been - well, Jesper and Inej were very cool, but we needed to see Kaz in action first, we needed to see why he's such a menace before we see him flounder later, and I just...I don't know exactly but it didn't work for me. Also this is a very petty thing but I wasn't crazy about the Ketterdam sets, I know this is probably a budget thing but in my head it looked like this incredible mix of Amsterdam and Venice - specific locations in the book directly remind me of parts of Amsterdam I know very well - and instead what we got felt like this very generic London-ish fantasy setting....so boring. Also a lot of scenes that felt to exposition-y. I don't mind that Kaz was a bit softer than in the books, like many people have said some things work in books and don't work on a screen, and you need to make the character's inner dynamics more explicit. But I do agree that, at the same time, he should have been more ruthless towards people outside of his group. Loved that scene where he faces the Inferni though, and how well they illustrated his disability and aversion to touch.

- I don't have that much to say about Nina and Matthias ; I'm still not super sold on the whole 'haha misogyny!' thing and I dislike that so much of Matthias' change of heart relies on the fact that he finds Nina hot. But I did think that the actors had enough chemistry to make their scenes together interesting and cute ; I loved the waffle scene. Even though it's disappointing that they didn't find an actress who was more clearly plus size for Nina, I still think Danielle does a good job bringing her bold, unapologetic energy. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Crows as a whole team.

So yeah, even though the season didn't feel like a perfect, coherent whole, it was just a lot of fun and I really hope they get renewed. In particular I feel like tying the first trilogy to the Crows' story could create such interesting parallels in terms of themes, about power, the cost of survival, hope, trauma, etc etc

#shadow and bone #shadow and bone netflix #grishaverse #six of crows #leigh bardugo

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plus-size-reader · 5 years ago

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Loyal

Hannibal Lecter x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 1589 words

Warnings:none

Summary: Hannibal’s darling wife wants to visit him when he’s incarcerated and always gets what she wants.

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"I want to see Hannibal"

It was more of an order than a suggestion, but they still looked at your as if you were crazy. Hannibal had just been arrested for thirteen counts of murder and cannibalism, and you still wanted to visit him.

It didn't make any sense.

In his testimony about you, he'd made you out to be an unknowing victim of his. His little wife that was none the wiser to his crimes.

A lie.

Everyone knew that it was a lie, but they couldn't prove that you'd broken any laws and it kept you safe from harm. It kept you in the clear as far as the law was concerned and that was Hannibal's main objective.

He was very smart and thought through everything, so you knew he had a reason for not implication you in his crimes...but you didn't like it.

Sure, you didn't want to go to jail, but his testimony undermined all of your years of devotion and love. You had been one hundred percent involved in what he'd done, and everything he was but the media didn't need to know that.

They wanted you to be the innocent little wife, and if that was what they wanted...you would give it to them.

You cried in court and put on an act as if you'd never had any clue that your husband was a murdering cannibal. You even went as far as becoming a vegetarian, really selling the 'fear of meat' to the public.

It was all one big act but you didn't mind. Hannibal had been parading around in public for a long time pretending to be something he wasn't. It wasn't until he got home that he was able to shed that person suit and let you really see what kind of person he was.

You couldn't help who you fell in love with, not really and Hannibal was your person. He was the only person in the world who understood you and you'd play whatever game you had to in order to be with him again.

But you'd had enough of the distance.

Your large house was lonely without him and you couldn't take the silence anymore. It was going to drive you mad if you didn't at least try to make contact with the man you loved.

His letters helped, they made you feel closer to him but it was nothing compared to coming face to face with him. There was nothing in the world that made you feel as complete as having those dark eyes focused solely on you.

It made you feel at peace, it made you feel whole and you right now, you were missing a part of you.

A part of you that could only be found in the arms of Hannibal Lecter.

"We cannot let you do that Y/N, you know that" Jack started, earning a near eye-roll from you. Hannibal was under orders to not be seen by anyone but you happened to know that Fredrick Chilton had been there just a few days ago.

If one of Hannibal's victims could have a meal with him, then why couldn't you? The two of you had been married for nearly twenty years, and that had to mean something to the courts.

You were the only family he had and it was within his rights to see you.

"I'm not asking Jack, you will take me to see him" you repeated, this time becoming more forceful. It was clear that was the only way you were actually going to get anything out of this man.

Jack could be stubborn but no where near close to you. You'd been dealing with Hannibal all your life, and he was a hell of a lot more hard-headed than Jack could ever hope to be.

He wasn't happy about it, you could tell but it didn't matter, not really. He knew that you wouldn't let up until you saw him, so he made a few calls, not really in the mood to argue with you about it.

You were accustomed to getting your way, it was just the way your world worked, so you weren't surprised when Jack told you to get into his car...no doubt on your way to the prison.

You desperately wanted to see Hannibal again to the point where you could hardly sit still during the entire car ride over.

After all this time, you were going to see your husband again.

“Thank you Jack, I know that this isn’t what you wanted” you hummed, reaching over to take his hand in your own to give it a squeeze. Everyone thought that Hannibal was a cold, unfeeling monster and maybe he was but that didn’t mean that you had to be.

You appreciated that Jack was willing to do this for you, even after everything and at the very least, you were going to let him know that.

The man smiled, only briefly before letting his face fall stoic again. He wasn’t happy about this and knew it was a bad idea but if it would get you out of his hair for a while, it would be worth it.

He was sure of that.

“It’s no trouble Y/N, no trouble at all” he assured, using your real name for the first time in a while. He had always called you Mrs.Lecter, as you’d instructed him to do but it would seem that with Hannibal behind bars, that formality had melted away.

Not that it bothered you too much. You understood his hesitance and were not going to argue. People processed things at different rates and eventually, Jack would accept this, as you had.

However, before you could continue talking, the car pulled into the prison, where Hannibal was being held in a secure wing, all by himself.

They knew better than to put him anywhere near other prisoners, he was too dangerous.

You hopped from the car excitedly, with more zest than you’d had in a while...realizing just how close you were to seeing the man you loved.

It felt like it had been forever, and in a way, it had.

You were patted down and checked in every way, before being given security clearance to enter Hannibal’s secure wing, with one surprising twist.

When you turned around to your escort, you were surprised to see Alana Bloom, walking with a cane. You never thought you’d see her again.

“It’s been quite some time Dr.Bloom” you greeted, reaching out to take her hand, though she rejected it...not that you could blame her. It made perfect sense that she would be angry after everything that Hannibal had done to her.

It was no skin off your back if she was angry though, you were here for one reason and one reason only. You needed to see Hannibal again and if you had to deal with her to do it, so be it.

There were no words between you as she led you down the hall, presumably toward where they were keeping him.

The man in front of you was a sight for sore eyes, instantly filling your body with electricity. It was the same feeling you’d gotten when you’d first laid eyes on him all those years ago.

And honestly, you couldn’t get over it.

You’d missed him so bad.

“Hannibal” You cooed, rushing toward him quickly. Your heels clicked on the floor with each step, which somehow brought a smile to his face. After all the misfortune that he’d incurred recently, there was something so right about having you there.

You were his wife, his world, and his MUCH better half.

And he was surprised to see you.

After everything he’d done, it wouldn’t have surprised him if you weren’t able to look at him ever again. He wouldn’t have blamed you, but based on the look on your face, it was clear that you’d remained completely loyal to him.

“I apologize for my hesitance darling, I wasn’t expecting any visitors” he explained, not that he needed to. You fully understood what he was going through and wanted to help him.

It was your job as his wife to be there for him even when it wasn’t easy, and you intended to keep doing it, no matter what.

“It wasn’t easy but I had to come see you...I needed to make sure that you were okay” you reasoned, sounding a bit more childish than you meant to. It wasn’t your fault that you were being forced to deal with something like this.

There wasn’t exactly a manual for dealing with your husband being imprisoned for murder and cannibalism. You were just making shots in the dark at this point.

“Considering the circumstances, I’m doing well” he joked, giving you that slight smile that let you know when Hannibal amused himself. He had always been so stoic, but on occasion, he did make himself laugh.

He could be quite clever when he wanted to be.

“I’ll always be here for you Hannibal” you promised, and you meant it. There was no way to know when he’d be let out, or if they’d ever release him at all, but if they did...you’d be waiting.

And even if they kept him in that cell for the rest of his life, you would visit him whenever you had the chance.

Because loyalty was the only thing that you had. You were losing everything, but as long as you remained together in all this...then nothing else mattered.

#hannibal lecter #hannibal #hannibal nbc #hannibal x plus size reader #hannibal x ps reader #hannibal lecter x plus size reader #hannibal lecter x ps reader #hannibal nbc x ps reader #hannibal nbc x plus size reader

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asagimeta · 6 years ago

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In Defense Of Seto Kaiba..... From Someone Who Used To Hate Seto Kaiba

@youfancymemaddearie said she'd hear me out on why Kaiba isn't The Actual Worst, so for this I'm mostly only going to be using the material I'm personally familiar with because things like context and translations and stuff could get warped otherwise, wich means roughly the first half of the dubbed anime, but I might pull other things here and there that I feel like I know well enough to have a grasp on via things like wikipedia and other meta (it's a long story as to why I never finished the anime so I won't bother getting into it here)

The manga, being a separate canon, is going to be pretty much ignored for this, except for one breif instance where I feel it's necessary to compare something from it to how the anime did it

So, the thing is, for most of my life as a YGO fan (15+ years as of 2018), I bordered between a really weird love and hate of Seto Kaiba, I loved him the way that I love a good villain, the way I love Hannibal Lecter let's say, he's entertaining and I always liked having him on the screen but as a person I really hated him, because.. why wouldn't I? He's an absolute dick to everyone around him with the exception of Mokuba, and even Mokuba doesn't exactly get the cuddly treatment most of the time, he spends the beginning of the series toeing the line between outright villain and anti-hero, and the amount of low-blows he hits and lack of care he has for people who are trying to help him- or people in general- is pretty terrible, atleast... that's how he's presented on the surface and that's how I felt for close to fifteen years

And then I started writing him and the little bastard forced me to change my opinion

Firstly, it's established from the beginning that Seto's actions in stealing Grandpa Muto's card and tearing it up (not to mention giving him a heartattack) aren't entirely his own, Seto had an evil possessing him at the time that, wile manifested from his own feelings, was no less a different entity, it took him over, just like Marik's dark self took him over, it's well-established in YGO that you can be so overcome with pain and anger and negativity that an entirely different spirit manifests and takes over your mind, a process that- wile reversible if caught early enough- is really something that can only be reversed by magic, like a shadow game or a mind crush

Since this is the thing that Atem removed from Seto's mind in episode one....

The actions he took prior to being mind-wiped can't be held entirely against him, as he was not consciously in control of what he was doing at the time, much like the actions of Yami Marik can't be held entirely against Hikari Marik, you can sure as hell blame Marik himself for alot of the things he did during Battle City, but things like the duels against Mai, Joey, and Atem, wherein it was blatantly clear that it was his evil half in control and his good half didn't have access to the controls (made even more obvious by the Yami Duel wherein both spirits had to sacrifice parts of their lighter selves/hosts for losing life points) are impossible to hold entirely against him

We also see that everything is Not Ok after the mind-crush, given that Seto passes up the chance to do his all-time favorite things (dueling, winning, and showing off) on the grandest scale yet when he decides to skip Duelist Kingdom, he claims it's because he doesn't know how to handle being defeated, and wile that may be partly true, it's pretty canonical that it was because of the mind crush (why else would they bring that hideous glob of evil around to duel Yugi/Atem once more?)

And, here's where the manga reference comes in, when you take into account that in the manga, he was in a six-month long coma after the mind-crush- and, mind you (ha), Duelist Kingdom is the turning point where the manga's canon starts to get closer to the anime's- it's really hard to believe that Seto's existential crisis is based on losing and not based on having evil forcefully removed from his soul by an ancient Egyptian spirit who's out to have a good time and was really feeling attacked at the moment

There's really no convenient place to inject backstory, so I'll do it here in the hopes of flowing more easily into the rest of Duelist Kingdom

Seto has been taking care of Mokuba since they were extremely young, he's essentially more like a father to him than a brother, and he had to learn early on to defend him - and that meant getting rougher, getting tougher, getting meaner, and when it came to Gozaburo- who's just about as abusive as one can get and really puts the word "pressure" to good use- that meanness has to amplify, it's made clear that Gozaburo wouldn't tolerate anything less than perfection and ruthlessness and if that was how Seto had to survive, that was how he had to survive, he spent most of his formative years under that kind of hand so naturally he was forced to form that way....

But as someone pointed out in another post somewhere, we can see by how well adapted Mokuba is just how much Seto has taken on in protecting him from that kind of corruption and evil, Gozaburo never really wanted Mokuba around so the pressure he put on him compared to Seto was definitely minimal... but that doesn't mean he wasn't just as abusive, and the fact that Mokuba spent the majority of his life with no parents of any kind and has relied pretty much solely on Seto as a parental figure- both in the way of necessities like food and shelter, as well as for emotional health- and yet has come out of it as a generally upbeat, positive, gentle person, really shows that Seto has to be doing something right, otherwise, it doesn't make alot of sense for Mokuba to have no shreds of bitterness, resentment, or negativity in him (again, going by the anime only) And further, to show the outstandingly deep devotion he does for Seto- utterly unwavering and full of not only loyalty, but genuine love and affection- proves that Seto has done something right somewhere, Mokuba never shows a single ounce of fear or hesitation towards him and never gives a second thought to hugging him, following him around, or getting involved in his personal affairs, if Seto had ever given him reason to be afraid of him (IE: abusing him or simply not stepping up to protect him when Gozaburo was abusing him) I find it really hard to believe that Mokuba would act so completely care-free with doing things that Seto may find unpleasant

Mokuba is Seto's entire world, he flat out tells Yugi that Mokuba is "everything to him", not money or power or success- Mokuba, wich is already something that speaks volumes about who he is as a person, and the extremes he goes to in order to protect Mokuba are .... pretty fucking extreme

When I was a kid, I thought that the "attack my Blue Eyes and you might just kill me" stunt he pulls on the rooftop at Pegasus' castle was a really filthy trick and was probably my primary reason for hating him as much as I did- and let's be honest, it IS a filthy option to resort to.... but as an adult, I understand it now, and can't place blame on him for feeling so completely backed into a corner, he wasn't trying to trick Atem, he was being sincere, I mean.... filthy and sincere... but still sincere

He would rather die than lose his brother, he was so desperate that he was ready to let someone kill him/commit suicide because he was out of options, and in that perspective, it's alot easier to understand why he did what he did, I don't excuse it, but I do understand it, and really, when it really boils down to things, can anyone say that they'd sooner let the only person in the entire world that they love die, for someone who they don't even like? The true crime of this entire thing isn't really that Seto was desperate enough to resort to suicide and emotional manipulation to win.... it's that he and Atem were both so stubborn and downright stupid that neither of them thought to actually communicate about why Seto needed to win in the first place, despite him saying repeatedly that he needed to save his brother and Atem saying repeatedly that he needed to save "his" grandfather, neither of them paused long enough to say "... We have a common goal, let's work together, or at the very least, come to a compromise" before resorting to such desperation, no one on this planet can seriously tell me that Atem wouldn't have jumped at the offer to save Mokuba if Seto had presented it to him, though, to be fair, I'll never understand why he didn't just offer to save Mokuba along with Grandpa in the first place (plot convenience really)

Although communication is an enormous problem with Seto and is one of the main reasons why he's always such a complete prick, he has a tendency to talk in code and to cover up what he means with what words he chooses to use, most likely because he A. Wasn't exposed to other children between the ages of 8-14 and before that most of his exposure was negative, and B. Was taught brutally that even the tiniest sign of compassion or understanding is weakness, and even the tiniest weakness is going to get you severely punished, he was already closed off to people during his stay at the orphanage, this just cemented that experience further

(And as a quick note, he acquired a company at 14-years-old, he was still a baby and running this God foresaken thing by himself, had no parental figure, still raising his brother ALONE, and let's also talk about how this 14-year-old BABY turned a weapons manufacturing company into a gaming company in less than two years, as he was sixteen during episode one of Duel Monsters)

To mention also: When faced with the fact that his company, that he had worked so extremely hard for, and that means so much to him, was being sold to Pegasus and he was being kicked out, where was his focus? Still on Mokuba, his brother was ALWAYS the absolute forefront of his focus during the entire Duelist Kingdom arc and his company played a very small second fiddle in comparison, I'm not sure if he even brought up the company more than once or twice during the entire arc, that's ... a little shocking all things considered

Additionally, despite how cold, untrusting, egotistical, and downright mean he can be, he outright thanks Yugi for rescuing Mokuba- twice- within the first season, once after Duelist Kingdom and once after Legendary Heros, that's kind of an enormous thing as Seto doesn't hand out gratitude easily.... though, speaking of gratitude we definitely have to confront the Joey-shaped elephant in the room

The way he treats Joey early on IS deplorable, he doesn't exactly treat any member of the Nerd Herd well, but things are especially prickly with Joey, and I'm unclear of the reasons for that- I don't think canon ever gives one- but I think of all of Seto Kaiba's ill moments, the way he treats Joey all the way up to late Battle City is without a doubt what I cringe at the most, he early on drives Joey so low into the ground that it gives him NIGHTMARES and is so ruthlessly horrible to him during that first encounter at Duelist Kingdom that I think, to date, it's the Kaiba thing I cringe at the most, I definitely don't excuse that behavior, and it burns me up like a firey demon when he refuses to thank Joey for being the one who ACTUALLY saved Mokuba, yet turns around and thanks Yugi instead, I'm also not exactly pleased with the fact that he tried to keep Joey out of his tournament but I really chalk that up mostly to Joey not having anything Seto wants and not being a duelist he respects vs outright cruelty, remember that for Seto, Battle City is ALL about getting the god cards and drawing out rare hunters, Red Eyes is Joey's rarest card but Seto never seems particularly impressed by it, and that coupled with him not respecting Joey's skills- as he believes he rode Yugi's coat tails through Duelist Kingdom- makes some sense as to why he wouldn't want him participating (outside of just disliking him) it would be counterproductive

The thing is, Seto DOES slowly shift out of "I legitimately hate your guts and am going to make sure you know it" and into "I'm going to pick on you because it's fun when you fight back and it's just how we communicate now", Battle City is a big turning point in my personal opinion, the second time Joey and Seto duel is still full of terribly mean words but the vibe is very different, from where I'm sitting, it feels alot more like an "I'm pulling your hair because I like you" type of thing and alot less like outright bullying for the sake of bullying, the fact that Joey doesn't take any of it to heart and just fights mean quip with mean quip the entire time is solid proof to me that the relationship is just mutual antagonism now and not so much outright bullying

Speaking of Battle City... there's alot of growth for Seto there, he works with Yugi and Atem frequently, at times by force (to save Mokuba) but at times because he wants to, he agreed to help Atem find the rest of the nerd herd before getting any word that Mokuba was taken because he wanted a duel for Atem's Slyfer card... even though all logic dictates that they probably would have faced eachother during the finals anyway and there is was literally no reason for Seto to follow him around begging for a duel like a five-year-old except for A. Impatience (not untrue) and/or B. Just .... wanting to, he could have so easily said "Find your own freinds, I'll get that Slyfer in the finals either from you or whoever beats you" but instead he spends his valuable time and energy tracking down Joey via his duel disk, and after all is said and done and Mokuba is safe...... he still helps Atem, he claims it's because he doesn't like owing people but that's never prompted him to go out of his way for Yugi and the others before (post Duelist Kingdom and Legendary Heros, Mokuba is the one who lets Yugi use the arena at Kaiba Land for his duel with Rebecca, here Seto has built up two favors that he owes and yet never says a word or makes an attempt to return them, so why does "owing" someone push him to keep helping Atem in Battle City when it didn't before? Either his "I don't like owing people" philosophy is new- wich is still charector growth- or he just wanted a reasonable excuse to keep helping Atem because he knew it was the right thing to do) Speaking of the right thing to do, when they DO track down Joey and Tea`, Seto is... surprisingly inactive during the duel, he has plenty of perfect opportunities to stop the duel somehow, and, if he was REALLY feeling cruel, to just outright steal Slyfer (wich Atem tossed aside when he started the duel) and get rid of both Atem and Joey by interrupting and making the anchor sink, yet he carefully keeps his distance until the timing is right for him to save Tea` because he doesn't want ANY of them to get hurt, not the rival he can't defeat, not the "third rate duelist" he supposedly hates, and not even someone (Tea`) who he barely knows

This is the same guy who gave an old man a heart-attack and used it as blackmail in episode one

Additionally, Seto immediately leaves after saving the day, that all-important duel that Atem owed him that he had FINALLY won? It didn't happen, Seto was still nagging him about it even after saving Mokuba, yet when it came time for Atem to FINALLY pay up he just..... walked off and said "nah see ya' in the finals", maybe he knew how exhausted Atem was and didn't want to duel him at half-power, maybe he was personally too tired to bother with it (although dueling to Seto seems to work the same way twenty-five cups of coffee does to a normal person so I doubt this) or maybe he just didn't feel like making Atem come through on his deal anymore, it doesn't really matter, it's all growth

And let me also point out that Atem wouldn't even have Slyfer if Seto hadn't given him a freaking pep talk in order to win it, Seto could have just as easily waited for Atem to lose and then dueled the mime for Slyfer- and that probably would have been smarter honestly, since Atem is the only one who has a history of defeating him- and yet.... he chooses to put energy into helping Atem instead

I feel like it's kind of understated that in the Battle City finals, Seto actually has a doctor and an infirmary on board the blimp, he claims that anyone who can't handle dueling at high altitudes and with raging winds isn't worth his time so what is the doctor and full medical bay doing there then? If he was that worried about Mokuba alone he would have had a much easier time just telling him not to go above deck, and if it was about law suits I tend to believe he wouldn't have people dueling on top of a freaking blimp in the first place, so he either anticipated Marik's shadowy shenanigans coming up (wich is a POOL of charector development on alot of different levels) or he anticipated accidents, people getting air sick, issues with the high altitude and what not, and figured that he'd better be completely prepared even for things like that wich are relatively small and not really needing of the tricked out medical bay (he had atleast one LIFE SUPPORT machine in there so obviously it went above and beyond just a first aid kit) Also, I know I said I was using the dub for this, but it's come to my attention that in the sub Seto is alot less of a jerk than he is in the dub about landing the blimp- originally, the ONLY problem is that the controls are screwy from the Noah incident (wich, by the way, is an enormous Thing all on it's own about Seto all on it's own, it's basically a showcase of Wow Was His Childhood Fucked Up, Let's Rub It In, and it's made clear just how impacted he was by his father and his father's company throughout, from the importance of his duel with Lecter being weapons-themed to his final duel with Guzaburo and saying "I won't be burried by you Guzaburo", giving up his chance to defeat Noah because he refused to hurt Mokuba, and the gem of telling Mokuba that everything he's done has been for him and a better future for them) and speaking of moments where the dub fucked up, I find another important gem during mid-Battle City when Tea` mentions that Seto actually lowered the price of duel disks "so everyone can play", that sounds alot less like a strict businessman and alot more like someone who just wants to offer kids the same escapism that he had when he was their age to me, a similar motivation I'm sure to why he opens up Kaiba Land

This is sadly where my "I'm greatly familiar with this material" knowledge comes to an end, as I only saw roughly half of the Orichalicos arc and that was too long ago for me to remember most of the small details in (plus I tend to kind of ... try to wipe that arc off the books considering that I find it to be a butchery of.. alot of things..)

Seto Kaiba is a complicated charector, he's very prickly and definitely an asshole- that's not in question- but I think he's really a very soft person when you peel back the initial layer, he's very good-hearted at his core, he just has an incredibly hard time expressing that- and for VERY understandable reasons, for all of his selfishness and egotism, he pours absolutely everything about himself into protecting his brother and gives alot of himself to trying to make things better for people (turning a weapons company into a gaming company may have been his dream but it was also an outlandishly hard task to accomplish and one that ultimately was better for the world, for example) there are moments where this all shines through but he tapes masks of coldness and insults and dueling metaphors over top of it because he just sincerely doesn't know how else to handle things, he IS, after all, still a 16-year-old child when the series begins, and I think he's only 18-19 at most when it ends, in the grand scheme of life, he's still practically a baby and has been thrust into so much adulthood that most 40-year-olds would have jumped ship already, he takes on the responsibility of his brother and his company and being a half-ass decent person (in so far as, you know, not blowing up the world or anything) without ever once complaining about it or trying to shrug it off or giving it ANYTHING but his all, and when you earn his trust and respect (as Atem and Yugi do) you get alot of loyalty and trust back- the shenanigans he goes through that he doesn't explicitly have to are good showings of this, and all of the ruthlessness his shows are purely survival instincts at their highest, he's had his company nearly taken away from him FOUR. TIMES. between Duelist Kingdom and the Orichalicos arc, FOUR. SEPERATE. TIMES. and I have an outstandingly difficult time believing that those were the first or last times that some crusty old men thought that a teenage C.E.O. would be easy prey to steal a multi-billion dollar company from, he's probably been white-knuckling that company since the day he took it over and I don't see that ending any time in the near future

#Seto Kaiba #Yugioh #ygo #Yu-Gi-Oh #I'm so sorry I've done this to you

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smokeybrandcompositions · 7 years ago

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Takedown

With the news that Matt Lauer was fired from his job this morning over sexual misconduct, I wanted to take the time to address what’s going on with all of these accusations being thrown around. To be clear, I support all of these people coming forward disclosing their very real, very damaging, experiences about the seedy under belly of Hollywood. Even if the assaults occurred 70 years ago, the trauma that person carries is still relevant and they still deserve to be heard, even if the legal statute has long been expired. That’s why when R. Kelly was accused of pissing on that little girl, I stopped supporting his music. Kells has always been into young girls. Always. He married Aaliyah when she was 16 or some sh*t and he has a goddamn ego the size of Texas so why is it so farfetched to believe he’d record himself pissing on a little girl? That sh*t is power, not affection. He peed on that girl because the rush of being able to do it, turned him on. The power he had over that girl is what aroused him, not the act. That sh*t is f*cked up. Forget the fact that he had hard drives upon hard drive upon hard drives loaded with child pornography. No, R. Kelly was tried and acquitted because public opinion dictated he was “too good” to be a scumbag. Fast forward to present and he apparently keeps sex slaves now. Like, that kind of behavior is a direct escalation of him getting away with pissing on that teenager all those years ago.

Then there’s Bill Cosby. This Jell-O pudding pot, church sweater wearin’ ass, Heathcliff Huxtable scumbag has been drugging and raping women for almost a half century. He’d hit them with the ‘Ludes and these women would wake up with Cosby literally on top of them, inside of them. My dude, that’s the textbook definition of date rape. Seriously, Cosby would roofie chicks and then just carry on like nothing happened. For decades. Decades. Because he was Bill Cosby. Because he had that power behind his name. It took Hannibal Burress telling a joke in passing about this to even be a thing. Eventually, one by one, these women came forward, most for a second of third time. See, these victims weren‘t silent, they were silenced. Being Bill Cosby has a certain way about it that keep the people you victimized, often people looking to gain fame and recognition in an industry that you dominate, quiet. But, because of Hannibal, women found their voice to speak up. And it was LOT of women. Cosby has been accused by 57 women since the 60s, I think, of rape. 57. That’s almost a yearly assault. Look, I get it. Maybe not all of these women have a case. Maybe all of them., But those numbers are WAY too high for there not to be an issue. I subscribe to the principal of where there’s smoke, there’s fire and that right there is the most smoke ever. Mathematically, he had to have assaulted at least handful of these women and even one is unforgivable. And we have that admission from Cosby, himself. In a sealed deposition (which was unsealed for his retrial a couple of months back) Cosby out right admits he drugged and raped a woman. He did that. But because the case was settled, one of the stipulations was that she never speak out and this admission doesn’t go public. But it did. So how is Cosby still a free man? He’s an admitted rapist and, very likely, as serial one, too. How does a predator like that not rot in a cell? Because he’s Bill Cosby. This is a man that had aspirations of buying NBC or whatever before all of this happened. When you got clout like that, you get o do what you want apparently. When you’ve done what Cosby’s done, you get a pass because of how much you’ve enriched the community. Hypo shouldn’t but apparently, in the eye of the public, you do.

How about the mother of all PR nightmares, Harvey Weinestein. This is a guy that not only raped a tone of women by using his clout as a producing wunderkind in Hollywood, but would get into physical altercations with cats who disagreed with him. He as a f*cking abusive psychopath and everyone knew it! Tina Faye wrote jokes about it into 30 Rock! Seth McFarlane went in on the dude during his stint as Oscar host! There were all sorts of NDAs signed and payouts dropped. And not just for his brazenly rampant sexual assaults but for just general emotional, physical, and mental abuse. Cats in -house at Miramax and The Weinstein Company have had to deal with his violent outbursts and disrespect for years. Even his own goddamn brother has a story about Harvey literally beating him into submission! This asshole would never have been allowed to continue what has become a 4 decade crusade of just plain predatory behavior. Dude’s thrall of abuse is so grand, it’s capturing and sinking other star’s careers. Glazing over the fact that the Weinstein Company, itself, is in a bad way because of all of this sh*t, Ben Affleck had to do damage control because, as people looked into Harvey, he started to look not so dope. Matt Damon, too, had to come out and distance himself from some inappropriate behavior. F*cking Quentin Tarantino admitted he knew the rumors, heard the stories, but never witnessed the actions first hand so he let it slide. Cat enabled Weinstein to continue his rampage by staying silent. What does Harvey do? Hire a PR company to clean house. Never mind the fact that he’s raped a bunch of women for decades. Never mind the fact that he’s a documented abusive boss. Never mind the fact that he’s a very real monster who abused the sh*t out of his position, unapologetically. Never mind all of that .Instead, he just goes intro rehab and vows to take down Trump or some sh*t. Really? You’re a serial predator, dude, you don’t get a pass just because you sought “help” in Arizona. Help you never really accepted. Help you bailed on in a week. Help you ultimately don’t believe you need. And that’s the rub; Harvey Weinstein doesn’t believe he’s done anything wrong. He thinks the movie industry needs him. He thinks because his company has all of these accolades, and awards, and classic films, that he’s had a hand in so many Oscars and can make or break a career, that he deserves all of the things. He believes because he IS Harvey Weinstein, that he’s ENTITLED to do these horrific thing that he’s been exposed doing. To him, this is how you do business. To him, the fact that he can make your career is more than enough compensation for you to drop your panties and bend over. But it’s not. It never is. And a decent f*cking human being would understand that. But Harvey Weinstein is NOT a decent f*cking human being. He’s a goddamn predator scumbag that deserves to be castrated. Fuck your contribution to the history of Hollywood. You’re entire legacy now is the fact that you had to rape women because none of them wanted to be with you.

The list goes on and on. I mean Roman Polanski anally raped a 13 year old back in the 70s,admitted to doing it, and then fled the country because he didn’t like how harsh his punishment was. That mother*cker has been a fugitive for decades but he still gets to make movies. He still gets American releases. Asshole has even won an Oscar, as a pedophile fugitive. When Cory Haim was 13. he was raped by Charlie Sheen. He was quoted as saying that Charlie convinced him that this was an open secret in Hollywood, that someone has done it to Charlie when he was young. This was just the way of the business. Haim being 13, didn’t understand and took Charlies illegal, disgusting, and lascivious behavior as true affection and fell in love with him. He said they had one more sexual encounter when he was 16 and Charlie cut him off after that. It was then he understood Charlie Sheen cared. Even though Haim , himself, was in love with Charlie Sheen, he understood Charlie would never reciprocate those feelings. Charlie, of course, denies all of this and so does Haim’s mother but she does seem to take issue with Michael Jackson a little bit. And that in itself is a whole bag of worms. That cat had an entire secret room devoted to child pornography and bondage equipment built into Neverland Ranch. That’s a thing. He openly admits to getting the kids he hung out with drunk on wine he had in soda cans. He called it his “Jesus Juice”. Michael Jackson was a predator .He assaulted and molested children, I believe that in my heart of hearts. But no one talks about it. Or, at least, no one seriously talks about it because, 1. He dead and 2. He’s Michael Jackson. This man made Thriller. Surely his contribution to the arts is enough to looks passed the fact he sexually victimized untold amounts of children in his lifetime. Then there’s Louis C.K. and his disgusting masturbation in front of women or Bryan Singer’s world famous twink parties where he more or less seduces young boys with a very particular body type in to sex (seriously, you should hear the story behind how that Sheridan kid got the role for Young Cyclops in Apocalypse. It’s ridiculous) with him in order to be in one of his films or the fact that Donald Trump went to trial a month before his inauguration for kidnapping and raping a 14 year old girl along side a known, convicted, pedophile who went the jail fir the exact same thing. How about those three times James Van Der Beek was molested or that agent that walked up to Terry Crews and literally fondled his dick in front of his wife with no fear of reprisal or the way Ben Affleck treated Hilary Burton, on camera, when she worked for MTV or how Kevin Spacey attempted to rape a 14 year old boy in the late 80s, only to have him come out of the closet while dismissing and distracting from his victim’s very real claims or that whole disgusting and very sad situation Brett Ratner has gotten into. I mean sad, as in the actions he’s taken during the accusations are just real sad, not that I have sympathy for his sudden notoriety. Dry humping chicks until climax is just the saddest thing I have ever heard, man. All of the kink shame. All of it. Oh, also, Russell Simmons apparently raped a girl while Ratner watched. The f*ck, man?? These things don’t exist in a vacuum and are inexcusable. Cats in positions of power have been doing this type of sh*t for as long as someone was in charge of someone else and it’s disgusting. You can’t reduce people to things and treat them however you want. That’s common decency and, for far too long, cats have gotten away with it because the weight of their “art” as it is, outweighs people’s lives. How f*cked up is that logic??

Look, I adore Pulp Fiction. Inglourious Basterds is one of my all-time favorite film. Hans Landa, and Christoph Waltz’s performance therein, is one of the best I have ever had the pleasure to witness. Tarantino put his foot in that flick. Doesn’t mean Weinisten gets a pass for brutalizing women because he funded that flick. He doesn’t get a pass because he’s more or less supported Tarantino’s genius every step of his career. I love the fact that Bill Cosby had the wherewithal to use his clout and bring a black family to television that didn’t live in the projects or a junk yard or some other inner city cliché. I love the fact that Fat Albert is a thing and that Jell-O pudding pops are delicious. But that doesn’t mean he gets a pass for raping 57 women. Yo, 12 Play is a classic album and will go down in history as a true classic but that doesn’t mean R. Kelly gets to skirt the fact that he’s a pedophile and rapist. Just because you make, or had a hand in making, dope sh*t, doesn’t ,mean you get to do whatever you want, to whoever you want. Your legacy isn’t going to be all of those Grammys or Oscars. It’s not going to be all of those SAG awards or Platinum albums. Your legacy is going to be one of violence, cruelty, and exploitation. You are a criminal and rapist. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve contributed to the culture. You don’t get a pass for your atrocious behavior just because you made dope sh*t. You are a scumbag and you deserve everything coming to you, be it career ruin or legitimate prison time. F*ck who you think you are or what you deserve. You’re less than the dirt on the bottom of my shoe and I hope you rot away in your alienation and/or time served.

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smokeybrand · 7 years ago

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Takedown

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