#what i think is that conceptually not having the 6 episodes is a shame

[linipikk]

I really hope your optimism about the finale rubs on me at some point.

If I could inject just a little positivity to the news...

Season 2 has a lot of filler and stretches out a pretty simple mystery to six episodes. That's the appeal to some, I get it. But tightness and focus was not its strong suit. I remember feeling like it wasted a ton of time on side characters and it's possible shaving the story down to 90 minutes will skim things down to its most essential beats and be stronger for it. Basically, S2 got a lot of time given to it, and this is obviously my personal opinion but I don't think it used all of it well. I think S2 itself could have been half the length simply by employing more efficient storytelling and we'd not mourn too much.

A lot of S2's weaker plotlines feel built around people that Neil wanted to work with again, with so many recurring actors (I'm thinking of the zombies specifically, when that minisode could have easily been tighter without them). A lot of s2 to me feels like Neil just making work for the people he likes and wants to work with and a movie has to be more accountable to things like that.

Lots of entire fandoms exist around single movies. 90 minutes is not nothing. It's enough for many, many films to tell a complete story with cute character interactions and satisfying emotional arcs, especially when A&C are the only real significant connecting threads between both seasons thus far.

I don't think there are as many loose threads that absolutely need resolving as people may be thinking. Would I like to know why Aziraphale did the '40s apology dance? Would I like to see his bookshop gun? Sure. Are either of those necessarily essential to closing out the story? I don't think so. Really, what needs resolving is the second coming and, directly connected to that, Aziraphale and Crowley's rift. To me, not knowing the story obviously, that seems super reasonable to do in 90 minutes?

I don't think anyone involved in the final season can possibly be blind to the appeal of the show being Aziraphale and Crowley over anything else. That's certainly the reason why their roles were expanded to begin with from the book and why the second season was, nominally, all about them. They also now have to pay MS and DT for appearing in a movie rather than an ensemble show, there's no way they won't be front and center. Amazon wants a show that will make money and market itself; there's a reason why all the promo material for S2 was of Crowley and Aziraphale, because people engage with that stuff, reblog it, make art that promotes the show, etc. It makes no artistic or financial sense to make a movie that sidelines them.

GO is at its best when it has Terry's voice most strongly in it. That's why to me, S2 was a weaker, more meandering season overall (that, and I think the minisodes, while fun, just make the season feel comprised of different voices not always working in tandem towards a common goal). If I was a writer hired to condense a season into a film, and one of the authors had been rightfully disgraced, I would go out of my way to ensure the clearly Terry stuff is most significantly emphasized. It's telling to me that the Pratchett estate is producing and it's possible that the end result will result in more Terry, less Neil.

Think of it this way: everything we've gotten after S1 has always been extra. Imagine telling a fan of the book in the 90s that not only will you get a six episode adaptation, you also get a totally new second season, AND a movie?

Basically: I know this is disappointing but I think a lot of the pleasure of the Good Omens fandom was ALWAYS people picking up on and expanding on details, and y'all managed to do that just fine when A&C were only ensemble members in S1. You can and will do that with a movie too. And this solution both a) ensures first and foremost that Neil won't be involved or the allegations swept under the rug, and b) gives an opportunity for the heart of the story to be emphasized with greater focus, clarity and less filler.

Will we lose good stuff? Probably. But it's also possible we will get a tighter, more condensed, focused version of the best bits, the Terry Pratchett-est bits. I can easily see a 90 minute movie that, knowing they HAVE to focus on the important stuff now, is more Crowley and Aziraphale centric than ever.

[littleeyesofpallas]

i swear i've read Shaman King Flowers like 4 different times over the years and somehow nothing about the plot fucking sticks in my head, and watching the anime now I realize why; the plot straight up makes no sense. It's just a series of random encounters with zero causal links. No one's motivations actually influence the plot itself, people just show up, fight, and then exposit about things they want but that the fight had like zero impact on. When reading I think the delineation of discreet chapters made it harder to notice how the overall flow just makes no sense, but the anime cramming multiple chapters into single episodes each makes it super obvious. Not to mention the fact that Flowers specifically just kind of doesn't actually go anywhere by the end of things. Like the whole of these 13 episodes only consist of maybe 6 actual events and they're almost all just character introductions

It's such a shame because I do really love Takei's funky sensibilities as a creator, but even the original Shaman King suffered from a lot of clunky pacing issues, and he's just never gotten any better about it. I feel like what he really needs is to land himself a job doing character and concept design for a video game; like what Toriyama had going with Dragon Quest. I feel like that would really let him flex his strongest points both artistically and conceptually, while not having to leave the whole serialization schedule and overarching plot on his shoulders.

[being-of-rain]

Random thoughts from my Classic Who watch, the second half of season 4. I fell behind on writing my thoughts down, so I have a few of these to catch up on. And some of these stories are ones that I watched quite a while ago 😅 So these thoughts are a bit more random than usual.

I had to quickly skim through The Moonbase on my laptop to remember what happens it past the simple plot, but I think at the time I thought it was pretty simple and repetitive. My brother and I laughed at the Cyberman more than once sneaking into the medbay when Polly was the only witness, then running out when it got spotted. It felt like someone playing a stealth game they weren’t very good at. Also, late ‘60s Who’s portrayal of international collaboration in space is quite sweet.

I love physical comedy for the 2nd Doctor, like the bit in The Macra Terror where he goes into a machine that tidies his clothes and hair, then immediately goes into a second machine to ruffle them up again, much to his companions’ dismay. I found it interesting that these days the Macra are only referred to as giant crabs, but in their story they’re supposed to be a bit more ambiguous. They’re referred to as looking like insects more times than they are as crabs, and once as “some monstrous form of bacteria.”

The Faceless Ones is such a weird departure story; I had no idea going in that Ben and Polly were only in the first two episodes, before one final scene to say goodbye in episode 6. I guess the BBC just stopped their regular contract early or something? It was strange. Oh well, at least before they went we got that moment in episode 2 where the Doctor, Ben, and Jamie hide in a photo booth to talk privately, then quickly pretend to be smiling and posing for a photo when someone opens the curtain to see if it’s occupied 😂 The so-called Chameleons themselves were pretty spooky, and I enjoyed that. Early Doctor Who can do really good horror sometimes. Their backstory was summed up in a single line, which is “We had a catastrophe on our planet. A gigantic explosion. As you've seen, we have lost our identities. My people are dying out.” Which is at the same time one of the most scientifically ridiculous and conceptually fascinating backstories on the show. Tardis wiki tells me that the Chameleons only reappeared once, in a short story where the Sixth Doctor encounters the same group of them doing the same plan, which sounds boring as heck. Where is the prequel/sequel that actually explains how a gigantic explosion destroyed a species’ identities, and what that means for them going forward?? Big Finish be bringing in the Daleks for the 1,587th time when this is on the table.

Speaking of. The plot of The Evil of the Daleks is pretty fun, I think all the 60s Dalek stories are pretty tense and enjoyable. I’m glad they decided to retire them for a while after that instead of immediately running them into the ground. The way Kemel and Jamie strike up a friendship is quite sweet. It’s a shame about the racism. The Doctor becoming Victoria’s new father figure is sweet, it’s a shame all he does is take her round the universe and putting her in danger jsdklfj. Oh and I was surprised that the Doctor and Jamie’s relationship got so heated in this story, to the point that Jamie announces that he and the Doctor are finished, and it’s probably just Victoria joining the TARDIS team that makes him stay. The conflict doesn’t really ever get revisited in Victoria’s run, but the argument that the Doctor can seem too callous in his adventuring is something that a lot of authors reused in the future.

[spnwatch]

Season 1: The Rankings

WOW it’s been ages since I’ve posted here. But before moving on to s2, I wanted to talk about my TOP TEN FAVE EPISODES. 

Something that surprised me about spn now i’ve finally watched some of it is how variable the episodes are in terms of quality. They’re not afraid to experiment either, and that flexibility is probably one reason this show lasted so long. Some things worked for me, some things didn’t. ANYWAY these are my opinions etc. just from a first time watcher!!  1.) Episode 6: SKIN. This episode, man. Where to even begin: I could be here all night. Suffice to say that the sequence where the shapeshifter sheds his Dean skin to “Hey Man Nice Shot” is just. Chef’s kiss. For the first time, the true depth of Dean’s self loathing truly came to the fore. How socially outcast he knows himself to be, all that hidden shame, that resentment he harbours towards Sam for having (potentially) a way out of the hunter life, coupled with his desperation not to lose him to the “normal world”: somewhere that Dean knows he can’t follow him. After so much posturing and bravado, that inner parodox was SO interesting to witness - he SHOOTS HIMSELF at the end -- and, for me, really steered the character into more *~ thematically complex territory ~* All the songs were good tbh. In-a-Gadda-da-Vida? Yes. 11/10 

2.) Episode 11: SCARECROW. There was just so much going on in this episode, but the thing I liked most was the setting. It looked so good!! Autumnal and pastoral. After a couple of (in my opinion) not very good-looking episodes, it was a real breath of fresh air. I also loved Sam in this episode: he looked so small standing by the side of that road. I fully understood the argument, but I also loved how dean just... called him intermittently to update him on the case?This episode really drove home to me how alone they are, how they really have no-one but each other. It also really highlighted how far Sam has drifted from episode 1: he’s on the fringes now, too. All too quickly backsliding into the role of rootless grifter, an identiy he’d tried so hard to claw his way out of. Also, there’s a tome. 10/10 

3.) Episode 12: FAITH. This. Episode. Slaps. To be honest, this is probably technically the masterpiece of the season in terms of plot, visuals, antagonist, music etc. but w/e it’s my list. Right off the bat Dean is dying and he’s like it’s fine Sammy, I’m not even mad about it, which is fucked up but then what is more fucked up is that his dad doesn’t even come when Sam leaves him a message? Dean seems to view dying as like. A thing grownups just have to do sometimes. Like jury duty. It’s extremely,extremely sad. Anyway I love the drama of Sam smashing apart the altar, I love the big tent, I love the “don’t fear the reaper” montage. It’s all, quite simply, a *~cut above~* 10/10 

4.) Episode 7: HOOK MAN. I don’t know if I was meant to love this episode so much?? I just really, really liked it. I loved the central mystery, and I thought Sam in particular really shone when it came to dealing with the townsfolk and the afflicted girl. It was one of the most thematically coherent episodes when it came to tying the monster to sublimated fear, in this instance, sex and sexuality! Damn do Americans have a weird relationship with sex. And not just with women; this episode really shone a spotlight on Sam’s sexuality wrt his guilt over Jess, his desire for normality, his coltish nervousness in Lori’s presence. There was SO. MUCH. Bonus points for ugly mid-2000s fashions. 10/10

5.) Episode 3: DEAD IN THE WATER. This was the first episode which really made me sit up and go, oh, okay. I can see why people lose their minds over this show. When it’s good, Supernatural just. Shoots a volt of pure catharsis straight into your chest. This was also the first time I really sat up and took note of Jensen Ackles’ acting chops. There’s just so much going on with him every time he’s onscreen, and each little paradoxical turn he gives to Dean’s character is a joy to witness. It was a visually beautiful episode, with a strong supporting cast. The moment I saw her in her silky lavender nightgown, twisting up her unrealistically perfect chingoin, I wished to marry Amy Acker’s character. I know she doesn’t come back to spn but she should’ve!! She should’ve!! 10/10 

6.) Episode 5: BLOODY MARY. I’ve heard tell of this episode being a bit of a fandom classic, and I support it. The last few minutes at the end? When Sam sees Jess at the side of the road in that slow panning shot, to the Rolling Stones song Laugh I Nearly Died? It was just... I think it changed me as a person, honestly. This show. It’s lower down on the list for me because how how freaking dark the lighting was at the end, but that might have just been the poor quality stream I found. But yeah, I really liked the plucky teen girl who helped them; I was pleasantly surprised to see a glamourous queen bee-type portrayed as smart and competent, and remain alive by the end. Gold star for you, spn. I know it’s all downhill from here. 9/10 

7.) Episode 15. THE BENDERS. First off, I have to give it points for the production design on that house. My brother was of the opinon it would’ve made a good video game enviroment (according to him a lot of spn is akin to a video game which... yeah). This episode also made me really acutely feel for Dean. Could it be because I’m an older sister and this was a literal nightmare scenario? Perhaps. But again what really came to the fore was the single-mindedness with which Dean acted. Sam being dead was literally not an option for him. On a lesser show that might have been left as a given, but the time was really taken to give an almost sinister intensity to Dean’s thoughts and behavior. Some really pretty car shots too. 9/10

8.) Episode 17: HELL HOUSE. What can I say about this? It’s just fun. I love the two conspiracy guys, I love the sibling prank war, I love the concept of a monster created by shared belief. The set design was cool, as was the montage at the beginning where they’re interviewing all the witnesses. It’s a briskly paced and lighthearted episode, which was a breath of fresh air and welcome break after last episode left the Winchester boys abandoned by their father. Yet. Again. Ugh. Throw the whole dad away. 9/10 

9.) Episode 19: PROVENANCE. Haunted painting! Haunted! Painting!! This is a simple lil episode but it receives points for Sam and Dean’s best and least convincing disguises thus far -- art dealers -- and a fun, sweet love interest for Sam. He’s so bashful! I thought she was smartly written and I especially liked that she took a more active role and actually helped them solve the case than other side characters we’ve seen so far. I also liked when they were standing over the grave and she was like wow, your lives are really fucked up... it’s true wtf these poor guys?? Anyway 8/10 

10.) Episode 14: NIGHTMARE. This spot was a real toss-up between this and SOMETHING WICKED, but NIGHTMARE just edged it out because of the strong supporting character Max, as well as the sheer conceptual power of psychic Sam. Something about the way Dean treats his brothers latent psychic powers as... kind of a concern, but ultimately about on a par with him developing, like, a shellfish allergy, is hilarious to me. They have so many problems, it’s just low priority! Sorry Sammy. But what really clinched this episode for me was the three second-ish sequence where Sam shoves the dresser free with his mind, Dean gets shot in his vision, and Sam bursts into the room. Brilliance. Someone call the x-men. My heart was in my mouth. BIG minus points however for the extensive heart-to-hearts. It was just too much for me. It went on for so long. 7/10 

This certainly is a show. I see that now. Anyway. Onto season 2!

[totallypathet]

Episode 8

A rusical, okay! We like a rusical. Interesting how they've done it this year though, I don't think they've ever done a rusical where they weren't either singing live or lipsyncing to a pre-arranged track of vocals. Half of me thinks it would have been better if they'd just sung it live, but then I guess they couldn't have done the OTT choreo.

The rusical itself was a little weird, some of the writing was just odd, and the "jokes" really weren't that funny. Anyway, let's talk about it!

1. Denali

I was worried for Denali this week! It happens so often on this show where we see queens say "I don't understand why I've only been safe I have to really up my game this week" and then they promptly get the judges attention in all the wrong ways and get sent home. I also kind of think Rosé did her a massive favour by refusing to give her the role they fought over (I can't even remember the names, they were all bizarre), because I think Denali would have got so in her head about that role and just wouldn't have been able to let go and have fun like she did.

After the Anne Hathaway call though, she just seemed so much happier and more relaxed, and she kind of just went into it with a much better attitude and she killed it! She did an awesome job in the rusical, it was fun to see her play a sort of grungy, messy character because she's so polished usually. She did an amazing job, and she deserved to be in the top this week!

Her look for me was a little bit meh, I just wish the snake headpiece had been bigger and bolder. From a distance it kind of looked like noodles. But it was still good, she still looked great, and I'm proud of her!

2. Elliott

Why is Elliott still there? I don't get it. She should have gone last week, and then this week her performance was just okay, and her look was a worse version of Tina's.

She should have been lipsyncing for me, or at least in the bottom three! I don't get what they see in her.

3. Gottmik

Gottmik was great this week! I loved her performance, again it was fun watching her do something outside her comfort zone, she's not really known for being a dancer, so it was cool to see that. I really like that she really genuinely gave that her absolute best, like she knew she wasn't a great dancer but she worked really hard to get that choreography, and she did it great!

Her look was stunning, obviously! Gottmik and Symone are carrying the runway fashion this season. It was very cool, very conceptual, very Gottmik.

I dont know that I necessarily would have put her in the top this week. I think she was great, but I actually think Tina should have been in the top - which is something I never thought I'd say!

4. Kandy Muse

I feel like Kandy was mostly just unfortunate this week.

I think her recorded track was great - I did think there were to many vocal effects on it, but that's not really her choice, she can't blame her. I also think she's not a bad dancer, but I think she was thrown off to some extent by her wardrobe choices - the wig got in the way too much, and the skirt seemed to be a bit restricting, it just doesn't seem like she thought those choices through very well. It wasn't her best performance, but I also don't think it was a bad performance, which is kind of why I think she was just unfortunate.

Her runway this week I think was stunning. I feel like every week I say she's never looked prettier, but honestly this week she looked so pretty!! I loved the daisy's in her hair, and that long wig was so stunning with all that gorgeous fabric, I just loved it.

I think it's right that she was in the bottom, but again I don't think she did a bad job this week, I think she just delivered an average performance, when most of the other queens had a good performance.

5. Olivia Lux

Another great week for Olivia! She has such a stunning voice I was so excited to hear her do more singing. I kind of think she should have been in the tip three, but again I am biased, as an Olivia Stan 😂

My only real criticism of her this week was her outfit in the rusical? I get that she was a tech student, and I think she was just going for a casual look, it's just kind of unfortunate that it came off boring instead. I kind of wish she'd leaned into a more student look, and done like, stained sweatpants, and a really messy bun. Actually, it would have been really funny if, you know like you see art students with messy buns and a pencil through it? If she'd have done a messy bun and like a computer mouse through it or something! But overall her performance was incredible.

She always brings it on the runway as well, she brings these kind of pageant gowns, but in a really beautiful and modern way? I love it. I loved the big puff sleeve, I loved the fringe, she looked stunning.

6. Rosé

Rosé made me so happy this week! Her voice is so incredible, that Don't Rain on My Parade pastiche literally gave me chills! She is talented as hell, and I'm glad the judges are seeing it.

Her performance was really incredible - she's an incredible singer, and a great dancer - but I have a similar thing as Olivia about her outfit in the rusical? It just seemed like kind of an odd choice. I didn't get until like halfway through that she was meant to be like "the slutty friend", I just didn't really get that from her look. When the dress kept riding up it just looked like a mistake, you know what I mean? Again, it's a nitpick - they probably didn't have a whole lot of outfit choices for this challenge because they didn't know their roles before they came.

I loved her runway look as well! I loved the Mask reference, the only thing I wish is that she'd had a big hat, instead of that tiny fascinator. I'm so nitpick today, honestly! I just sort of wish she'd walked out with a big hat pulled right down and then revealed the green face when she hit the end of the runway. But that's just me! I did think it was stunning. I also don't think it was orange? Like it was the orange side of yellow, but it was definitely still yellow!

I'm really glad she won this challenge, she deserved it so much!

7. Symone

Symone had a bit of a rough week, and I feel for her. She really struggled with her vocals, and look not everyone is a singer, that's okay! But I can see how much she got I her head having seen other queens absolutely kill their vocals, and I think she just felt really insecure about it. I do kind of think it's unfair that they record their vocals in front of everyone else. When it's a team challenge, it makes sense, but when they're competing as individuals it just seems unfair and literally designed to make the queens who aren't singers feel bad!

Also, sidenote, they recors vocals in this huge, wide open runway room, that can't be good acoustics in which to record vocals, surely. In earlier seasons they seemed to use (at least something akin to) a recording studio? I'm confused.

Anyway, it was tough to watch this week, because she really did just get in her head about it, and it affected her whole performance. She wasn't having a good time, and that was rough. I do think part of the problem is that she was wearing sunglasses during the performance? When the audience can't see your eyes it's really difficult for them to connect with you while you're performing. It was just a shame.

Her runway look though! Honestly, her and Gottmik are going to need physio after carrying the whole of the fashion for season 13 on their backs! It was so stunning, that big coat, and the suspenders; she looked so cool and fashionable, I just immediately forgave the rest of her performance!

Unfortunately, I do think she deserved to be in the bottom this week, but I really hope she can pull back up to being the Symone we all know and love next week!

8. Tina Burner

I actually really liked Tina this week! I've been very underwhelmed with Tina this season, but I actually think she did a great job this week! I loved her very Liza Minelli rusical performance (and look), she was giving me that very old Broadway half talking, half singing; and I think it was great! Okay Michelle, she stopped lipsyncing like 2 seconds before the track when she died, but she really performed her track, and she sang it really well!

And then her runway look was great! It was campy, but it was also beautiful! It was fitted beautifully, it was cut beautifully, she looked stunning, the headlights on the tits was hilarious - and I noticed after the lipsync that those were actual lights! They actually lit up! So cute! And finally she wore something other than a red wig, and she looked so beautiful! Her face was gorgeous, the hair was perfect, it was great. So polished.

She did not at all deserve to be bottom three this week - especially not when Elliott with 3 Ks was safe.

9. Utica

I feel like my opinion on Utica goes up and down all the Time. Sometimes I think she's great, and other times I just feel kind of bored by her.

This week I was a little bored. I think she did well delivering that track, that's a tough vocal part. That's it.

Maybe that's not super fair. I just think her actual performance was a bit boring, and her facial expressions are genuinely becoming hard to watch. I am not looking forward to watching her lipsync when she lands in the bottom two.

I also hated hated hated her runway look this week. I know she was going for this medieval thing and she explained the cutout sides and all that, but it was ugly. And not even in a cool way of being ugly but fashionable, or so ugly that it's pretty; it was just fuck ugly.

I think it was right that she was safe, her performance was better than Kandy, Symone and Elliott, but her runway look was definitely the worst.

This week was kind of a weird one, because I really really didn't understand the judging criteria this week. I am still baffled that Elliott was safe, I'm baffled that she's still there at all, honestly. I'm also still shocked about Tina being in the bottom?! I don't get it.

I am kind of glad it was a double shantay this week - I just kind of feel like neither Kandy nor Symone actually did a bad enough job to go home this week.

Having said that, it is getting very tiring that there is still so many queens there! 8 episodes and only 4 queens have gone home? How long is this fucking series going to be???

[shadowofmoths]

fuck it, all the evens for the quarantine ask, there are no rules anymore

NO RULES NO RULES NO RULES!! putting this under a cut to spare yall lmao

2. Grilled cheese or PB&J?

GRILLCHEESE. i have recently developed an idealogical opposition to peanut butter but also have you ever been awake at like Too Late and ur jus vibing and u make a grilled cheese and have ur midnight grillcheese? fucking MAGICAL. avery and i all the time when it is Too Late will be like “i want something. what do i want what is it GRILLCHEESE” and then we grill a cheese.

4. Your go-to bar order, if you drink?

i dont drink ! but i do love to have fancy, nonalcoholic drinks....no go-to bar order tho rip 

6. Top three cuisines?

i like...italian food, ofc, as anyone who knows my last name would probably guess, but also my top fav is like mediterranean & middle eastern food ? like fuck man what i would not do in life for a good gyro 

8. What’s a job that you’ve had that people might be surprised to find out you’ve had?

i have not, uh, strictly had jobs, as such, but uh a fun fact abt me is that i did Literally Every Possible Volunteer Position at my church i think lkjhgfhfhs. 

10. Do you own any signed books/memorabilia in general?

answered!

12. What do you get on your bagels? What WOULD you get if you had access to anything you wanted?

OK SO. there is this place near my mom’s college that i think might just literally be called the bagel place and they have a kind of bagel named after their school mascot which is just. bagel, and then you toast it, adn put cream cheese on each half, and then you put some regular cheese on the top of it and put it in a broiler and melt the cheese and its SO GOOD and thats my ideal bagel. 

14. Favorite mug you own

THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION. sofia gave me a yellow mug and its little and v round and decorated w flowers and its SO GOOD and its my fav. i also have a black skull mug and a haunted mansion mug that i LOVe adn theyre all in MARYLAND STILL HELP. i miss them. 

16. Pick a song lyric to describe your current mood (and drop the name and artist!)

it took a concerted effort here not to choose something from next to normal which tells you how intensely GOING THRU IT i am. there’s a song called “better in the morning” by birdtalker that my spotify discover weekly hit me w during a late night breakdown that sort of encapsulates my “this fuckin SUCKS bro but we’re gonna keep goin tho” vibe.

18. What’s that one TV show that you’re a little bit embarrassed to watch but you still like nonetheless?

SHAME OVER INTERESTS IS BORING. ITS 2020. SOMETIMES I WATCH OLD EPISODES OF SHAKE IT UP WITH MY SISTERS. no but my real answer is....i really genuinely unironically love high school musical the musical the series. is it good? not, like, really! but i love it. its probably made me tear up. but im not embarrassed abt it lmao 20. Do you match your socks?

answered!22. What was your “phase” when you were younger? (i.e., Mythology Nerd, Horse Girl, Space Geek, etc)

JKHGSDAF my phase was “Undiagnosed ADHD” so it was , All The Phases really but no it was star wars for sure. but star wars wasnt a PHASE mom thats who i AMMMM 

24. What’s your opinion on Lazy Susan’s (the spinning tray in the middle of tables)?

i...no opinion? they’re..fine? 

26. You can only have one juice for the rest of your life, what is it?

ok theres a local like, dairy farm that makes a FUCKING MAGICAL watermelon lemonade in the summer and i would do anything to have that shit year round 28. What’s one thing you’re trying to learn/relearn in your downtime right now?

knitting! embroidery! uhhhh time management when ur trapped and have adhd! other assorted mental health strategies, like “how to explain to ur teachers that u need help bc ur brain is just Chaotic and also the WORLD IS ENDING, catriona, PLEASE no more essays.” 30. Where could someone find you in a museum?

depends on the museum! but ur best bet is “genuinely crying over van goghs” or otherwise having Very Big Emotions over someone like monet or agnes martin

32. Rainbows, stars, or sunset colored clouds?

ALL OF THESE. probably sunset clouds but also i cannot TELL you how much i miss stars when im out in MD being a Big City Boy.

34. Do you have more art on your walls or more photographs?

art! altho im thinking of disassembling the Art Wall™ and doing smth else bc its gotten a little chaotic in here lately 

36. Pick a superhero sidekick to hang out with

ok, like, define sidekick! which of the young avengers are “sidekicks” if its just a group of gay friends doing universe-saving together?? would you relegate billy kaplan to “sidekick” status? sidekick to WHOM? anyway the answer is teddy altman. 

38. Favorite mid-2000s song

answered!

40. Where do you sit in the living room (we all have a preferred spot, and you know it)?

the couch corner is MINE, babey!! (8 ppl in ur house does mean a big L shaped couch is relatively necessary.) altho recently ive developed a habit of whenever i see someone sitting in a spot i decide that is now My Spot. the person already there doesnt have to move! but i will also be sitting there now thank you. no, im not craving physical affection, why do you ask? 

42. A song you didn’t think you’d enjoy but ended up loving

i dont think i expected to Fall In Love with carly rae jepsen, i dont think ! but her power.....wow. 

44. Are you a “Quote that relates to the photos” caption-er, an “explanation of where I took the photos” caption-er, or a no caption kinda person when you post pictures online?

quote that relates to the photos, usually! with maybe a little explanation. most of the photos i post are arts so it’ll be like “this is carrion hes a bitch i love him” etc 

46. What’s the freezer food that you stock up on when you go to the grocery store?

i dont think...anything in the freezer in my apartment is mine? i think ive got some ben and jerry’s phish food in there tho which is DEFINITELY bad by now, FUCK, but also toaster waffles, conceptually, would be my answer. 

48. Do you like Jello?

yes ! it is . Fun To Eat. 

50. How are you at climbing trees?

pretty bad, bc coordination is a no and im afraid of heights, but i sure do love to try ! and then get too scared! 

[theusurpersdog]

The Battle of Winterfell

Okay, I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t particularly care for this episode. I came into it so hyped, because Miguel Sapochnik was in charge of the most important episode of the series to date and he has yet to disappoint, but in hindsight I realized this episode was never going to work. Not that I disliked the whole thing, because there were some moments which I absolutely love, but overall this episode was poorly conceptualized and executed even worse. Below the cut I’ll explain why I disliked it, and how I think the show could have done better. . . 

First, I think this episode was poorly executed in the writing room, not by the actors, directors, and behind-the-scenes crew. Watching the Game Revealed for this episode shows just how incredible the crew behind this show is, and its a shame that all that excellent work was largely wasted by D&D. 

Visually speaking though, this episode was stunning. The shots of Drogon and Rhaegal against the sky, lighting wights on fire, is legitimately breathtaking. Arya’s parkour is also stunning. Miguel Sapochnik and everyone else involved really did not disappoint, as far as they could carry the episode.

To me, this episode failed on two fronts: its approach to characters, and its approach to the battle. 

Characters

The biggest problem this episode had, is that it approached its characters through the lens of the action, and not the action through the lens of its characters. While D&D promised many character moments, there was only one - the Hound deciding to toughen up because Arya was in danger. Otherwise, all of the “character beats” were slow motion shots of people reacting to the battle. Those moments, its important to note, do not come from scripting - those scenes were Miguel Sapochnik desperately trying to ground his action within the emotions of his characters. But these scenes fail to carry the emotional burden the episode needed, because they are entirely generic; that’s what I mean when I say D&D did not consider the action through their characters. None of the scenes in these episodes were written from the perspective of “How would Jon, Daenerys, Tyrion, Sansa, et al, react and how does that change our episode?”, they were all written from the perspective of “These are the exact events we are going to have, what room does that leave for character expression?” - and of course, the answer was very little. Arya’s plotline this episode comes the closest to personalized, and even that falls very short. Listening to the Inside the Episode, the idea behind Arya’s story was “what if we took away her characteristics, what is she left with?” which leads to more near death fake outs, but prevents any real character moments. They intentionally took her back to season one Arya, instead of incorporating 7 years of growth into her scenes. 

Compare that approach to a previous episode, Blackwater, written by George Martin. Every single scene in that episode (except the dude bro scene with Bronn that GRRM was forced to write) is designed to show you something about Stannis, Davos, Cersei, Tyrion, or Sansa. It was a battle written specifically to highlight its characters. The perfect scene to highlight this difference is Sansa in the Sept during Blackwater, vs Sansa in the crypts during The Long Night. Sansa was not written to be useless this episode; her line “I will not abandon my people” combined with the unaired scenes of her killing wights, is quite enough evidence that the intent of D&D was to feature her. Yet, in the finished product, its very clear that D&D really didn’t understand how to feature her; the scenes in the crypts are entirely superfluous, because they exist solely to include Tyrion and Sansa. Whereas in Blackwater, GRRM wrote the scenes to highlight Sansa’s leadership, kindness, bravery, loyalty, and compassion. She is not even included in the “battle” portion of the episode, but many of her very best lines are from that episode and its corresponding book chapters - because GRRM worked the battle around his characters, instead of D&D who worked their characters around the battle. D&D genuinely didn’t know how to include scenes in this episode that weren’t action, and The Long Night suffered greatly for it. The best way to fix this problem would have been to re-examine each scene from a character’s perspective based on their specific story arc over 7 1/2 seasons. D&D were too focused on the base concept of fear, on how everyone is just terrified of death personified, that they forgot each character has their own story. Like I previously said, only the Hound has a scene like this, where we understand his specific reaction based on his specific story arc. 

This episode also failed to incorporate its characters even when the action called for it. While my above complaint is that D&D couldn’t look outside the action to make room for characters, this one is similar but slightly different - even when the action would have been greatly improved by individualized character beats, D&D chose to ignore that in favor of straight battle sequences. The obvious example of this is Daenerys, and her complete ambivalence in the face of Viserion. The only time her character was allowed to influence her scenes this episode, is when she as a Khaleesi decided she could not watch her Khalasar slaughtered; and the only reason that was included, was an excuse to get the battle rolling as D&D envisioned it. But wouldn’t dragon vs dragon content in this episode have greatly benefited from an emotionally bereft Daenerys? I am far from her biggest stan, but it is truly a slap in the face to pretend as if one of her dragons dying, and then being brought back to try and kill her, would not almost kill Daenerys. The dragons are her children; she looks at them and sees herself reflected back, both the good and the bad. Her self worth and importance is tied to them. To not only lose one, but to see it turned against her, is a scene literally begging to be about Daenerys’ loss. And yet, her emotional connection to Viserion is completely irrelevant to her battle with the Night King.

The previous complaints I’ve had with this episode were all things I think would have been relatively easy to fix within the episode itself, but the next problem I have has been building since season one, and was probably unfixable by season 6. And that problem is of Bran, Jon, and the Night King. Obviously I don’t know what GRRM’s plans for the Others are, but I am very sure Bran is at the heart of it. Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to see a Stark defeat the Night King; but, if we are being honest with ourselves, it was the wrong Stark. Since the start of the series, when we see the Night’s Watch deserter executed through Bran’s eyes, he has been the narrator of the Others. Yet for some reason, D&D made the decision in s1 that they weren’t going to include Northern Mysticism, or Bran’s more supernatural elements. They pretty much eliminated Warging from the show completely (which is entirely unthinkable in the books). By cutting Bran off from his plot with the Others, they filled his role with Jon. Now, Jon is very connected to the North and weirwoods and that sort of high fantasy element, but he is not connected to the White Walkers directly. Jon Snow has never even faced a White Walker in the books, compared to his show counterpart who has had run-ins with the Night King since s5. By making Jon a much more stereotypical Action Hero, they’ve already gutted what the White Walkers are in the books. Once they left Bran out of s5, there really was no going back. To me, its obvious that at some point midway through the show, D&D realized from GRRM just how important Bran was to the fight against the AotD, but it was too late to do anything about it. So Bran being in the Godswood, after an extremely vague explanation of why the Night King wants to kill him, was their desperate attempt to pick up the pieces. That left D&D with only one other option for taking out the Night King - shock value. They literally say as much in the Inside the Episode. All of the above doesn’t even mention how big a problem the Night King existing at all is, but it is a huge problem. The Night’s King, from the books, is not some all powerful figure; he is a man, who made a very stupid choice out of love. The Night’s King story is a deeply personal tale, which most likely revolves around a Stark, which ties the story back to our main characters (specifically Bran). By changing the Night’s King story into one centralized White Walker villain, they took away all the personality of the White Walkers while simultaneously pinning the entire narrative onto one character (which can only lead to an unsatisfactory ending). 

The Battle

Now that I’ve explained why I dislike the character element of The Long Night, lets break down why the battle itself falls short. . . 

They played this way too straightforward. If they weren’t going to ground this episode within emotional stakes and payoffs, they had to be way more creative within the battle itself. I know Dan Weiss gave his “reasons” for not including Ice Spiders, but they were stupid (for anyone who hasn’t seen the article, he said they didn’t think they could animate giant spiders well); Lord of the Rings came out more than 15 years ago and Shelob was very well done, and you’re telling me that Game of Thrones couldn’t pull them off?

Ice Spiders isn’t the only thing they could have done though. GRRM’s story is some Cthulu level horror and heavy metal stuff, and D&D should have embraced those elements. The shots of the dragons fighting worked so well because it was a visually new experience, but D&D scripted way too much melee fighting to be the backbone of the episode. Sapochnik did the best he could to make it stimulating throughout, but as an audience this can only be entertaining for so long. And D&D were obviously very attached to making this episode feature length, regardless - what I’m saying is, an editor needed to be more involved in the final cut. 

[chromsai]

Speaking of Sound Duel 4, that’s basically all I’ve had on loop since I got it this weekend and I just do not tire of it ever.

A quick review:

Pros: It’s fucking brilliant. Every single fucking track on here is unique in its own way and has something to give you chills from. For the most part, they chose to include more of the heavily orchestrated tracks from the later half of the last third of Arc V, but they all have their own particular rhythm and tension and each evoke not only just one unique emotion; their tones are diverse and versatile: one moment the tune will start building you up for an intense unleash of power and yet the very next brings in the soft but reassuring keys of a piano to slow you down so you can reminisce and build even more confidence, as just one example. It’s amazing to hear a story being told to the fullest in each track, and yet each track also builds up into an even grander story overall. I think Sound Duel 2 was closest to having its tracks meld as well together as this, but Sound Duel 4 definitely takes the cake in that cohesive respect. 

Cons: Oh man... we’re missing some tracks here. Leading up to its release, I had imagined this would be the case, given Marvelous hadn’t released an Arc V soundtrack in almost 3 whole years. It is sort of a shame that some tracks didn’t make it on here because there are definitely some iconic ones I would have loved to have in HD, but I naturally figured we weren’t gonna get everything we’d heard in the show since about early/mid-Synchro arc began, unless they had made this a 2-disc release. Don’t know why they decided against that, unless they plan to release a Sound Duel 5 in the future (which is very very VERY unlikely given that SD4 included Pendulum Beat + Dashing Pendulum & released it along with Arc V’s Vocal Best, which usually marks the end of a soundtrack era). I always believed in Sound Duel 4 happening, but I don’t have any hopes for a Sound Duel 5— I’m just being realistic. That said, if they decide to continue milking Arc V’s soundtrack for another quick buck and do something as out of the blue as a SD5, I am all for it and will be pre-ordering immediately once again (*cough cough js Marvelous/NAS/Konami*). For now, I guess I’ll just have to keep on rewatching those episodes that contain the few tracks I’m missing on here...

Now for the real question:

“Was it worth the almost 3 year wait?”

My answer is: 95% YES, and 5% no. ‘Yes’, because I’m in love with this soundtrack and I can’t stop listening to each track and I keep getting chills from it and listening to it out of context (as I’m driving or just out and about or doing whatever, rather than hearing them through the show) gives me another perspective of them and I appreciate the work put into the composition of the music and the OVERALL Arc V soundtrack as a whole. Kotarou Nakagawa knows how to capture the perfect mood for a multitude of scenarios and I can definitely hear all the attention to detail to Arc V’s themes and story throughout the trajectory of this set of tracks, and their part in the show as a whole. And ‘No’ just because... well... I wanted MORE, lol. All that said and done, I am overall pleasantly satisfied with the tracks we did get on this ultimate Sound Duel 4. Sincerely and truly impressed. 

My Top 3 from this Sound Duel:

1. Track # 4: “Intense Back-And-Forth”. I’m ngl, this is the one I wanted to hear the most in HD... I’m a sucker for simple yet intense beats that call for battle.

2. Track #6: “Fighting Bravely”. Not a track I was exactly waiting to hear in HD, but now that I have, I have a whole new appreciation for it and I am utterly obsessed with that mid-piano bit call back to Swing! Pendulum of Souls!. The attention to detail and the added care means a lot and makes it insanely memorable. I’ve already been hearing it in my dreams. It’s stunning.

3. A hard tie for me between Track 15 “The Duelist Reiji” and Track 23 “A Fierce One-on-One Battle”. For one, Reiji absofuckinglutely deserve that grandiose, boss ass theme. But on the other hand, Track 23... that IS the definitive endgame boss battle theme of Arc V. Give them both a listen to, I’m sure you’ll understand my conflict. Both amazing in their own rights.

Final notes: I feel like a lot of the fandom takes this soundtrack for granted. I’ve heard the dub, I know a lot of you have heard the dub. I love the dub and all for it’s own dubious charm, but this show doesn’t feel the same without the soundtrack. You can certainly grasp the message and themes without the soundtrack, but the soundtrack is a major part of what helps Arc V feel grand and unique. I hear a lot of soundtracks in anime a lot, of course, and many shows have wonderfully composed soundtracks. The problem, though, is most have rather generic tones conveyed and are easily spliced and adapted from one anime to another. It’s hard to create a soundtrack that’s very distinctive in a sea of anime produced by talented but often seasonal-outlook-only studios. Nakagawa definitely understands the identity of a show and conceptualizes personalized music that will not only help define its greatest moments but also grasps the flare of that particular show, elevating it into something more— something that leaves an unforgettable impression not only on your ears, but on your mind and heart as well.

[surflove808]

All things “queerbait”, “so gay”, cranky shippers, etc ad infinitum.  Here’s my long-ass essay on why I think it’s destructive to this show and fandom mentality in general.  Part 1 :D

This is going to be sooo long.  Because I am sooo fed up with the bullshit I keep seeing on here.  So, I am going to break this into 2 parts.  Part 1 deals with the show and its FICTIONAL characters.  Part 2 will deal with the actual actors involved in making this show.  I'm pissed because what could have just been supposition and discussion among fans took a wrong turn somewhere, and turned into a forum for bullying and scandalizing the actors/show.  And seeing that even when they try to have a sense of humor about it, or be ingratiating to the fans about it, it always backfires on them....and ultimately, something that should be harmless (a ship) has become a toxic force of nature.

I'm going to give my 2 cents on the most annoyingly common misconceptions that I've seen being used as more can(n)on fodder because if I post and get this reblogged enough, maybe, just maybe... more people can be exposed to a more balanced interpretation.  

My problem is not with the possibility of Dean being gay/bi. My problem is not with Dean and Cas possibly exploring a romantic relationship.  Not at all.   My problem is with the dedicated and rabid group of people that have gone over the top with their harassment on public forums regarding these characters sexuality, and linking it to the real, live human beings that portray them.  Both crossing and blurring lines in a very destructive way, on Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, you name it... This show has so many incredible themes and messages regarding friendship, love, loyalty, trust, perseverance and family and THAT'S your takeaway?   An unhealthy obsession with Dean's sexual preference??

Dean, by virtue of his looks, charisma and personality, has chemistry with almost EVERYONE.  Have you noticed??  The character of Dean is written and portrayed as a naturally charismatic, flirtatious and sensual person.  He wholeheartedly dives into anything that he enjoys.  Eating, hunting, fucking, drinking.  He doesn't seem to really appreciate boundaries or restrictions.  So, what's stopping him from exploring his sexuality with men?  

As far as I can see, the character of Dean as originally conceptualized and executed brilliantly by his frigging creator, Eric Kripke, was then, as you see him now, many things.  But also hetero. He's also accepting, scarred, goofy, resilient, co-dependent, loving, protective, the list goes on and on.  

But what he is NOT and has NEVER been written as, is gay or bi.  And if you have a problem with that, that’s not a flaw in the program you’re watching.  That’s your problem.  If he undergoes character development that radically redefines not only how he sees himself, but how the viewer sees him, after 12 years?  That's a delicate task that I don't envy the writers having to undertake, considering, the only reason they would do that so late in the game, is because they caved to pressure from the "fandom".  And I use quotation marks there because, if you want an iconic character to represent your views?  Write them yourself.  Create them.  But don't try to bully your way into another persons creation.   Here's the kicker.  Out of 264 episodes that have aired so far, and countless canon instances of Dean being hetero.... here are the handful of examples that certain people have latched onto as gospel:

1. Dean and the Siren, season 4, episode 14, Sex and Violence:  I can't tell you how many times I've seen some Jr. detective go "A-HA!  Deans siren was a MAN!  Therefore, he is GAY!"  If you use just a smidge of deductive reasoning and pay attention to the season leading up to this episode, and the description of a siren that was helpfully included in the episode, you could easily and reasonably deduce that because a siren's powers of seduction come from the ability to be ANYTHING to ANYONE and be that persons greatest desire.... that it makes sense for the siren to take the form of a cool, non-judgemental, trustworthy younger brother-type who has the same taste in and love for music that Dean has.  Someone he can relate to.  A peer.

What do you get the man who can have almost any woman that he wants?  

Not a stripper, folks.  

And what does Dean really want?  At this point, he wants a brother who trusts his experience and instincts.  A  brother that he can trust.  A brother who doesn't feel like a complete stranger.  A friend, for fucks sake.  It's not implied.  It's not a theory.  It's literally written and discussed IN THE EPISODE, people.  Move on.

2.  Dean and Gunnar Lawless, season 11, episode 15, Beyond the Mat: If you know any guys who are into sports or bands, and have never seen them go batshit fanboy over one of their sports or music heroes...then you just haven't spent enough time with them on their turf.  

3.  Deans "gay thing", season 8, episode 13, Everybody Hates Hitler: If you've never been hit on when you weren't expecting it, especially by someone you weren't expecting it from, I could see why you couldn't comprehend his behavior.  If you HAVE, you were probably flustered by it. Probably didn't react as smoothly as you thought you would, amiright?  I know I haven’t.

It seemed he was flattered, but didn't know what to do with himself.  If he were bi/gay, and attracted to the possibility of a no-strings hookup with a willing and  anonymous stranger... a blow-and-go in the mens room, for example... I think Dean could/would have easily pursued it, based on his hit rate thus far.  The one area in which he has 100% confidence and zero shame, is sexual conquests. Sam wasn't around.  There was nothing holding him back.  So, aside from being uncertain of how to extricate himself from an awkward situation, and being flustered, I got nothin’.

4.  Dean and Dr.  Sexy, season 5, episode 8, Changing Channels:  Not much to say here.  Dean clearly had a man crush on Dr. Sexy.  Would he have boned him if given the chance?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Ask a guy friend who idolizes Aaron Rogers or Eddie Vedder (for example) if he'd let them stick it in his pooper based on principle alone.  Chances are, that guy friend would probably say "Hall pass!"  If the situation actually presented itself though?  He might just gush over the guy and call it a day.  Who knows?  WE don't.

5.  Dean and Crowley: Again, ask a guy friend if he would share a room and triplets with a buddy if there were no consequences (girlfriend, things getting "weird, etc), and see what he says.  The answer may surprise you.  Maybe I just know a lot of uninhibited, sexy bastards!

6.  Dean and Benny:  Brothers in arms who go through intense combat together can and more often than not, DO form close bonds.  There was nothing in this friendship that even intimated at these two having any sexual or romantic designs on each other, yet.... people still try to make it work.  Bless their hearts.

7.  The Big One:  Dean and Cas:  Dean has had countless opportunities over the years to make a move.  And I DO believe he loves Cas, very much.  Cas clearly loves and admires Dean.  They have been through some serious shit together since day one, that neither Sam nor anyone else can compete with. But some very good advice I heard once, applies here (and this is why the 10-year crush turning into romance in rom-coms is such bullshit):  If someone likes you - you WILL know.  They will make a move.  Or you will.  And neither of you will take 10 + years to do it if there are no barriers (significant other).  And if a move is made and not reciprocated?  It's not because they or you is holding something back.  That's just a lie we tell ourselves.  SOMEONE is just not interested.  

Though I love their dynamic, I'm not a Destiel shipper, but I'm willing to go either way with this one.  I will say, I don't by any stretch of the imagination think the writers, actors or directors are 'queerbaiting", though.  That's like accusing a crush of leading you on when it was really in your head the whole time. Their chemistry is incredible.  But from what I've seen with my eyes, in the actual episodes, his relationship with Cas does not say unrequited love, sexual attraction or romance.  However, if I went by the slowed-down, out-of-context gifs that are prevalent on Tumblr, I could see where people get the idea.  And because these are two men who love, admire and respect each other and sometimes bicker like an old married couple, I suppose that makes them different than us and our best friends, somehow?  This makes me sad, because this is a unique show, in that it deeply explores mens relationships with one another (because they're human beings too), and they just can't do that without a group of immature people giggling behind their backs in the hallways because intimacy is so intimidating that it must be mitigated by making fun of it or spreading nonsensical theories about it.  Right?

Small wonder that heteronormative men, as a general rule, have so much social conditioning and shame to wade through when it comes to expressing love and care for their same-sex friends and family.  (Yes, men have problems too.  Not as many as us, by a long shot.  But this is one of them) 

You see, menfolk are expected to behave in a manfolk way, and if their behavior isn’t within the traditional and narrowly defined parameters as “hetero male”, they face the perceived stigma that accompanies “coming out”, which involves the very real fears of supposition, persecution, politicizing, backlash, gossip, undermining. etc.

This show has taken many chances.  And they’re not afraid to write for and represent LGBTQ characters.  But Chuck forbid that emotionally resonant, well-written, vulnerable and emotional male characters exist AND allow them to be straight.  Unthinkable!  And that snarky, gossipy, “tee-hee” mentality is just what enforces rigid gender roles on men and women in the 1st place.  Every post I see that giggles about Cas and Dean being gay for each other because....gifs...just throws us back 50 years.  Your words do have meaning, people.

If you want to know what you can do to pave the way for LGBTQ representation in entertainment and the world at large?  Take the small step of acknowledging that same sex characters can feel the same range of emotions that you do for your same sex friends.  Can have sustained eye contact.  Can love one another, and can tenderly care for one another without you sexualizing it, fantasizing about it and policing it.  I’m asking you to think about this, because this way of thinking affects everyone.  Gay, straight, etc. 

Season 1 Sam and Dean:  Hetero.  Sam in an LTR at beginning, Dean with potential to re-enter his relationship with Cassie.  

This show was marketed towards males in the 18-24 demographic, but curiously, more women are interested in these boys and their story.  Because they’re allowed to care without judgement.  Ahem.

 *As seasons go by...*  Clearly, judging by the polls and hate mail...neither brother can ever have or sustain a romantic relationship with a woman.  EVER again!*  And it as been widely acknowledged by the cast and producers that the fans don’t want to see the Winchesters spend too much time with what they deem as a threatening female.

Why do you think Castiel was even allowed to make it this far?  Sure, he’s an amazing character.  But if it were Anna who dragged Dean from Hell and ultimately stuck around?  Yeah, no.  That was never gonna happen.  

Basically, these fuckers can’t win.  If they’re hetero and stay hetero, that’s a bad thing.  If their characters do a 180 to please the most vocal (unfortunately) fans - then they’re caving in to pressure.

Either way, I think it's safe to say, us fans are ultimately invested (I hope) in these characters achieving happiness, wherever they find it.  And personally, I'll be happy either way.  But seeing this hyperbolic, over the top bullshit online that this crew are queerbaiting, etc...and that "If Destiel isn't made canon, I'm gonna do X,Y,Z..." is disgusting to me.  

The musings, wishful thinking and conspiracy theories are one thing.  And that's perfectly fine.  I’ve got nothin but love for fanficiton writers!  But drawing parallels and conclusions from some of the flimsiest crumbs available, and using that limited intel to cajole, threaten, bash and attempt to shame the actors, the crew, and the producers who work their asses off to bring us this amazing show, is pretty fucking shitty in my opinion.

These aren't public servants, guys.  We're not paying them to make this show.  If you want to know how a show on the CW gets funded and made - google it.  If you want to know how much of a time crunch/pressure cooker situation the writers are working in, not to mention the entire team in order to produce 23 episodes per season....again, google it.   And then tell me how they're able to not only craft compelling episodes and cram so much storyline, exposition, dialogue, character development, arc support, scheduling, casting, art direction, stunt coordination, set design, etc ad infinitum into each and every week, and STILL have time to drop easter eggs, and "queerbait"....

Just.  To.  Fuck.  With.  You.  And undermine LGBTQ efforts at representation? They are very kind and loyal to their fans.  And we DON'T OWN THEM.  If you don't like what you're seeing, don't watch.  But for fucks sake - do the fandom and yourselves a favor and direct your crusade towards ACTUAL threats to LBGTQ freedoms and rights.

Here's a list of places to lend support (to name a few): Family Equality Council Human Rights Campaign GLAD PFLAG Transgender Law Center Your local congressman, FFS

Rant over.  If you made it this far, thank you.  I owe you a fruit basket!  And feel free to engage, put me on blast if you want.  Let's have a discussion.  But if you agree with me at all, please reblog this.... just to give some folks another point of view.  

Blanket statement for those who are offended and have already called me an “asshole”, etc on their own tags:

1.  This is NOT by any stretch of the imagination an anti-shipper or anti-Destiel post.  I clearly stated that I don't have a problem with either.  And if it happened organically in the show, as opposed to under pressure?  More power to them.  And I do adore Castiel.

2.  This is NOT an anti-LGBTQ post.  Again, clearly stated throughout the post.

3.  This is NOT and never was anti-headcanon post.  We all have headcanons to some degree.   And If anyone wants to step up and tell me not to support an organization that's doing good work, just because I sunk their battleship... they can suck it.  I also belong to some of these organizations, and I'm pretty sure they're not as invested in your headcanon as you are.  And thejabberwock, I still admire your insights and posts, but am bummed that you missed the damn point of mine entirely.  Per your request, I have removed your association from the original post.

4.  This IS an anti-harassment post, directed at individuals who have taken this ship so far, that they've tainted the word and the concept for almost everyone else with their shitty, pushy behavior.  If this describes you?   I'm happy to have offended you.

5.  This IS an anti-ignorance post, directed at individuals who are presented with facts and reliable data from the writers, the actors and the episodes themselves, yet refuse to acknowledge anything out of their own headcanon.  Who insist on "knowing the truth" and using that arrogance to try to *Out* the characters, *Out* the actors and use threats and insults towards anyone who disagrees.  If you thought I was talking to you directly, after reading that?  I probably was.

6.  This IS an anti-misinformation campaign post aimed at clearing up some common misconceptions.

Lastly, reading comprehension is really crucial here.  I know it was a lot to read, I apologize for that. But if you're skimming through and picking and choosing something to be offended over, and continuing to feel personally persecuted regardless of whether or not that's the reality... rather than reading and understanding the entire message?  Well, there's nothing more I can say or do.  

[possibilistfanfiction]

hey jude!!! just read ur last anon abt being nb and wondered if u could talk abt ur own gender experience?

well basically i didnt grow up in a very open household, like rly Zero discussion of gender, so i know i Experienced gender entirely but i played almost exclusively with the boys in my class until probably grade 6 or 7, & at puberty, even tho i was a better athlete than most boys in my class still, i started hanging out with girls more, at recess, etc. i was always into androgyny, even if i had no idea (& i didn’t) what that was—i liked some femme things, absolutely, but i wanted nothing to do w skirts or pretty shoes. i wanted to be in adidas running sneakers 24/7 if i could help it, & i wore a uniform to school w the option of a skirt/pants, & im p sure i always wore pants. at the time this, to me, seemed more functional, & it was, but it was also, as i can understand now, something that made me feel Less like a girl, although not at all like a boy.

when i was older, 12, 13, 14, my parents wanted me to dress nicer, & i was v much into like american eagle shit, although by mid hs i was into some vintage stuff. one rly big odd style influence for me was mia wasikowksa in this weird movie called restless bc it was this v soft femme androgyny & i think for me this kind of gender expression became very important to see & understand. it wasn’t that she didn’t look like a girl, or that she wasn’t a girl, but she also sometimes looked like a boy, or wore boys clothes, but she wasn’t butch. idk this movie sent me for a loop honestly lol. 

& obviously my understanding of gender expression didn’t correlate (& doesn’t correlate!) w so many gender identities, & “passing” is extremely harmful as a notion, etc. but when i was younger my understanding of gender & sexuality was very limited & began to expand when i saw very femme but still andro ppl, even tho i couldn’t articulate it at the time. 

when i was a teenager i knew i didnt want to rly have a single thing to do w any boy, which made me sure i was a lesbian bc thats the only narrative i’d rly known abt queerness, or queer women, or even queer ppl who presented as femme. there werent any out lesbians at my school (no fucking way), & the only out queer kid at all was a white gay guy a year older than me, who was popular in the way white gay boys can be popular in high school. but i read voraciously, was fascinated by the crossdressing in shakespeare (paris in the merchant of venice was a particular fixation of mine?) & anyway. i knew i was queer, i knew i liked girls, & i knew i was outrageously uncomfortable w my body, particularly my breasts. for a long time i thought this was because i was ashamed of my sexuality, when i came to sort of understand that, but ofc now i know abt dysmorphia & dysphoria, so yknow. knowledge.

when i went to college i came out big time, & it became very important to me to both be queer & look sort of queer but not queer enough to be Queer—i wanted ppl to be like ‘maybe into girls, but maybe straight.’ as im sure many of us know, this was a lot of internalized shame abt a lot of things, so that sucks. however, i cut my hair which was like the first comfortable thing i had done for my appearance in a v long time, & also smth which my parents hated & i did anyway. i wore a Lot of rly femme stuff bc they hated it tho? so this was all v confusing for me bc my parents are v homophobic, & here i was in college starting to read queer theory & gender theory & falling in love w like. the most beautiful, brilliant girl, & also spiraling into a mixed episode after i got diagnosed w bipolar I, which sort of put everything else on the backburner for a year. 

eventually tho i sorted that out (as much as u can sort smth like that out) & i started to rly pay attention to androgyny. i went to europe & i think theres a whole bunch of nuances to fashion that exist there that certainly arent here, & i spent a winter in warsaw so there were aspects to fashion & expression there that were entirely abt functionality, which i was v attracted to. in college, as well, & especially after college, gender became smth i was v much invested in bc i was (& absolutely am) a feminist, so my place in the canon & zeitgeist was one as a queer female writer. it was so so central to who i was, & what i was writing abt. every single thing i wrote in college was in some way a balm, some sort of piece abt myself, learning abt trauma & the body. sorting through a lot of hurt. i could write a theory piece abt elizabeth bishop & reading it back now i know it was also abt me, that kinda stuff.

when i went to toronto i rly rly started being invested in looking critically at gender & my experience of it bc being read as a woman was smth that was grating on me, even tho i had identified as woman for so long, & had no desire at all to transition. i know 100% i am not a trans man, so that was confusing for a long time because i sort of knew there was a space between but it was very hard to conceptualize. eventually i sort of came to understand gender is a color wheel where cis boys are blue & cis women are pink & then theres literally a ton of other colors out there, so yknow. lots of different experiences of gender. some days i feel much more strongly like i identify w women (in mostly political situations, it matters to me to be read as “female” sometimes bc rights for ppl w vaginas AND trans women are FUCKED UP in so many places). some days i hate the idea of identifying as a woman. i also never want to identify as a man. so when i was in toronto i rly started to know a LOT of queer ppl w so many different expressions of gender. & we were all young & lovely & open & fucked up & we would get fucked up but we would also go read together in the park & wander around alleys in the snow & like. there’s a Muchness to toronto that i experienced that helped me, personally, understand these intersections between my own sexuality & gender & expression as much more than just a gay woman who isn’t butch & isn’t femme. i was rly lucky to become part of a community that identified as Queer, & so i became v much understanding of these different aspects of my own identity that fell outside of binary—my sexuality, my gender. Queerness is a vital & profound thing to me & i was rly able (& so fortunate) to have a close friend group of mostly queer ppl & then a few of the actual literally most incredible allies i’ve ever known & will ever know. 

so then from there i just rly kinda thought abt things & like i got a binder & stuff in TO but rly started to evaluate my dysmorphia & dysphoria (i had struggled really badly w an eating disorder in/post college) & was able to sort out that so much of it had to do w feeling uncomfortable in the way my body was read in the world. & that will always happen bc i LOVE makeup & i have a “feminine” voice & sometimes i love skirts & i shave my legs bc i like how it feels sometimes & i dont ever want to go on T—none of these things make anyone ANY gender, but ofc theyre coded as “female.” but i’m learning to just yknow educate where i can & take a lot of solace in the community of ppl i have fostered who support & understand my Being. i’ve also allowed myself to be invested in aesthetics & fashion & how much a role that plays bc like. yah fuck Yah i look cool shit bc my friends love it & absolutely i wanna wear the same vans maia mitchell has & i want a melodrama hoodie & i LOVE local toronto designers & their angsty patches abt sad songs & whiskey but i love fashion born out of histories that is connected to smth i can understand, like queer punk movements, or smth my friends & i share, like blundstones (which are gender neutral, which is cool). i’m fascinated in how ppl express their Selves, & we are so unfortunately Finite in our bodies in the sense that that’s rly how the world, in our day to day interactions, processes who & what we are. so i invest in the care of mine by trying to listen to it, trying to make it comfortable—& clothing is a huge thing that can do that. also its fun so anyone who thinks loving (ethical, cool) fashion is vain can eat my ass

anyway lmao now i have a p decent sense, atm at least, of what makes my body its most comfortable (even if that is v far from Comfortable at times). i love my tattoos, & i basically never rly want long hair again i’m p sure, & i love makeup, & if i could wear vans or blundstones every day for the entirety of my life at this point that would be incredible. those are easy things, & i try to allow my body, in its cultural place, to have access to them as much as possible, which is so important to me in a sense of having access to a physical space that matches my mental space of gender identity. politically sometimes i feel v v much a “woman” in terms of my lived experience, & i allow that of myself as well. sometimes when i write it’s important to me that my poetry be read as a queer person but also someone who is culturally coded as a woman, bc those are still always central concerns of my work—the trauma, the power there. but day to day i’m mostly happy spending my time obsessing over other things, like what to call this new genre of music halsey & lorde are making, or why my dog stevie is a Fanatic when it comes to ice cubes. ive come to enough terms w my gender, & my sexuality—& the expression thereof—that unless someone is talking abt gender, or someone asks me a question, it’s not smth that is constantly on my mind, which is. Nice. its so nice lol. 

also i would like to point out that i know my experience being non binary is rly rly white & western in so many ways & i get that. my cultural experience of non binary gender is also v much this like. ive felt frustrated before but never in my life have i felt scared to be non-binary while i was like out & abt in the world, bc i still pass as a cis white woman literally everywhere all the time (which has its pros & cons but like, still, a lot of privilege). so i do try to keep all of that in mind as well when i try to center myself & all that jazz

& who tf knows where all of that will take me. i feel like, bc ive learned to listen to my body & my brain so much better than i did when i was younger—even when they might hate themselves—i am so much better at filling up a space in the world that occupies smth healthy. which is not smth i take lightly, & i’m also so open to changes, as long as they feel good & beneficial & true. which is sort of new for me. who knows man ur mid twenties are a wild ride 

[thenichibro]

Summer 2017 Anime First Impressions

Well here we are again, four weeks into the season before I finally get around to catching up on the twenty shows I’m keeping track of. Not like anyone reads these anyway. Regarding this season, we can say one thing: at least it isn’t last season. Thus far there’s been nothing super stand out, with a lot of middle-of-the-road shows and a few ones slightly better. Much preferable to the shit show 16 weeks ago. As usual, here’s what I’m watching, with MAL links and original shows marked:

Tsurezure Children (MAL) Starting off, we have a webcomic turned serialized manga turned anime, and for good reason. Tsurezure is a 4-koma romcom focusing on way too many couples in bite-sized happy romance stories. Defined by reaction faces, exclamation points, and yet a surprising amount of exposition, it's a quirky comedy I glad I started reading. One of the main downsides of Tsurezure is that although it has overarching themes, minute-to-minute enjoyment is very much based on the current couple. Personally, I love the Class Prez/Deliquent, Chiaki/Kana, and anything with the Love Master. The problem, then, is that once you find the few you really like, it's kind of a shame you only get so much time with them. A simple art style that matches the manga belies an infectious humor that Toshiya has mastered. This is one short show I wish was longer. Watch this.

Aho Girl (MAL) Continuing the notable increase in half-length shows, we have this half-witted one. Aho Girl, lit. "Clueless Girl," follows Yoshiko, an idiot, and her friends(?), mostly childhood friend Akuru, trying to deal with her idiocy. A suitably odd OP, both in sound and visuals (or relative lack thereof), leads into Yoshiko's introduction through getting a 0 on all her tests. I guess that confirms the title, now doesn't it? Tsukkomis, wild attitude swings, and bananas are the name of this show's game. One thing I love right off the bat is just how blatantly annoyed Akuru gets with Yoshiko's antics. It's not hard to see the "he's supporting her because he does feel something," but that being shelved in favor of faces of disgust is just funny on a very essential level. This show knows exactly what it is, a dumb comedy about a girl being dumb. And yet it's dumb fun all the same.

Isekai Shoukudou (MAL) A somewhat restrained take on the well-worn isekai genre, Shoukudou involves Nekoya, a resataurant that serves fantasy creatures once each week, connecting to "the other world" through the restaurant's front door. Right off the bat, the upbeat OP is coupled with some fantastic visuals. I missed having a food porn show last season, but Shoukudou brings it back in force. Further, throughout each episode the background music keeps pace with events and is a very nice touch to the cool tones of this show. Indeed, this show absolutely exudes cool. The smooth tunes while the last few customers (albeit they being beastmen, wizards, and the like) finishing their orders, Aletta and the Master cleaning tables into the night, it's just so nice. Aletta is the new hire, a demon girl homeless in "the other world" who finds the door to Nekoya by happenstance and promptly gets a job and a new outlook on life. She's real cute. Shoukudou has plenty of the "customer narrates the intricacies of how good the food is" every time a new customer comes in, but it's great all the same. If this show is a slow introduction of new characters to Nekoya for the rest of the run time, I will be more than satisfied. AOTS contender right here. Satisfied with an isekai? What is this season coming to?

Koi to Uso (MAL) Marraige is arranged genetically for happiness at 16, and other love is forbidden. As if there was a premise that lent itself more to a high school romance-drama. I have to say, I am in absolute disbelief that Koi to Uso isn't penned/drawn by the same creator as Scum's Wish. The artstyle and really the whole tone, albeit Koi to Uso being a bit more restrained, I immediately thought it was the same author. Wild. Anyway, we're dropped into a modern Romeo and Juliet, Nejima and Takasaki confess, to each other, just as the government - the external circumstances - are pulling them apart. It's not a new path forward, but I think the latter half of the first episode conveyed the emotions pretty well. The beautiful artstyle helps, and with shaking hands, red cheeks, and streaming tears the ending scene got me into it, despite the expected outcome. ...Is what I was thinking as Nejima fucking fell on top of Ririna (his assigned wife) in the second episode. Why. Why do that? Why have that 6 seconds into the show? At least the girls are cute - Takasaki in a hoodie, shorts and thighhighs was just incredible, but Ririna with her curious eyes and attitude beyond her height, hoo boy - guess I'm rooting for the underdog now. Time to suffer. With Ririna's schemes, Koi to Uso is perfecting anxiety - having something so treasured so close, being trapped by things out of your control, being trapped by things inside yourself - so much anxiety. This show can't go anywhere except emotional turmoil, but if it's already getting emotional responses out of me, I'm going to stay interested. Especially after episode three's ending.

Netsuzou TRap (MAL) Yet another shorter-than-normal show, we have NTR. Yes, that NTR. The "fuck over the caring guy and get off on cheating behind his back" kind of NTR. Just now with lesbians. Even moreso, I dislike Hotaru's archetype so much it just makes me feel bad for Yuma. If you're into that, watch this. If you're not, don't. I don't know why I did. There are better fetishes.

Clione no Akari (MAL) The fourth and last of the short shows, Clione no Akari begins with Takashi and Kyoko trying to help Minori, who is getting bullied. Its muted art style matches this tired premise. I know it's only nine minutes, but the first episode still felt like it dragged on for some reason. Moreover, both Takashi and Kyoko reflect on their weakness and that they want to stand up to the class for Minori, but then in the second episode all of that possible growth just gets passed over. They call out to her after she almost gets splashed by a car, and then Takashi says "After that, Kyoko and I grew so focus on how we could solve Minori's current situation, it was as if it were happening to us." So after they complain about their weak personalities, instead of forcing them to change, they simply get a way to help Minori while not directly standing up to the class. It seems like if it affected them that much you'd see a bit more exposition rather than nothing to "And then, we became super close to her" over the span of fifteen minutes. It might seem like I'm asking for a lot from a 9-minute show, but that's exactly the point - if a show aims to be an engaging drama about making friends and standing up for one another, it needs to have more substance packed into its short timespan, and Clione no Akari does not.

Hajimete no Gal (MAL) And the award for "highest percentage of animation budget used exclusively for cameltoe" goes to... First, make sure you eschew the HorribleSubs release on this one, because the censoring is bad. Not Terra Formars bad, not Shinmai Maou no Testament bad, but it's not great. Now then, this is a very simple decision: you watch for the fanservice, or you don't watch at all. I'm serious when I say the animation goes to Yukana, and to a lesser extent the other girls, because the male characters (even the MC) and everything else looks downright bad. The fanservice, however, is pretty damn nice. Junichi's delusions lead into some steamy scenes that are top tier gyaru action. Other than that, the OP/ED are generic, the other girls are lackluster, and the "comedy" is unfunny. Just skip through the dialogue until you get Yukana being cute, and this'll be somewhat enjoyable.

Gamers! (MAL) A nothing main character spoken to by the cutest girl in school because she's interested in video games and especially his passion for them, despite never talking prior. Wew. Karen, said cutest girl, is attempting to bring back the school's gaming club, where real gamers play games with their gaming friends. These are serious gamers, so serious about their gaming that they forget everything else except the game, like the true gamers they are. Episode one has fantastic lines like "I've been looking for new members who are undeniably true gamers" and "Why did you guys become gamers?," like it's something you have to awaken to. And yet even in spite of this, the glorification of gaming is still going hand-in-hand with the conceptualization of "gamers" as outside normal people. Karen hasn't told anyone about her gaming passion even though she's so popular (and it's foreshadowed she'll lost her widespread respect), and Amano gets the description "Games are his friends." Every character is just entranced with Amano's gaming spirit that they can't help but want to game with him. And just like a good MC, Amano is humble and pessimistic about his own gaming passion, but stands up for the game club and the gamers that make it up. This show feels like an E3 PR rep's ideal anime. The game references themselves aren't half bad, but that's certainly not saving this waste of my time. Guess I'm just not a true gamer.

Made in Abyss (MAL) I was originally off-put by the character designs, but I am glad I finally decided to watch it. A city sits on a massive hole - The Abyss - full of ancient ruins - and our main characters are delvers into the giant void. Importantly, Made in Abyss lets us know right off the bat that it will not be all idyllic landscapes - a close call with a dangerous monster now foreshadows so much better than suddenly changing the show's tone halfway through. Background music and art style both benefit this show greatly - the music rising and falling with he action while the art easily conveys the current state of the landscape - overgrown yet hiding secrets. Riko is a energetic girl at an orphanage guild, known for swiping Relics she finds and generally causing trouble. In the tussle with the monster, she is saved by a robot boy, Reg and promptly takes him back to experiment. Just the first episode sets up tone, characters, and the mystery of the Abyss with precision. The choice of children as main characters is an interesting one, but I almost didn't think twice because the rest of the people in Made in Abyss didn't think anything of it, either. Starting with a premise that has such a clear objective, like the Abyss' bottom, also relatively anchors the show against wild plot swings, which gives me more confidence in the story going forward. All these things combined are making for quite an enjoyable experience, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

Ballroom e Youkoso (MAL) Tatara is our typical despondent teen protag, who through a chance encounter is roped into trying ballroom dancing, and in it sees an opportunity to find himself. I picked this up solely on its premise, because I've never seen an anime about ballroom dancing before. It just seems so far from the typical slate that it caught my eye. This show's unique animation style, credit to Production I.G., has its ups and downs. For the most part, the show looks clean, the lines look great, and the motion is good. On the other hand, the actual dance scenes seem to lose a bit, in favor of dramatic freeze frames or showing the top halves of people rather than their legs moving or other intricate motion. I'm certainly not going to yell at the animators, for a show in which Tatara is won over by simply watching a ballroom dancing DVD, to get the viewers interested the motion, the visceral movements of the dance need to be shown, and more often than not they aren't. Oh, and the necks. Why is everyone's neck so long? Apart from Tatara, behind Sengoku's bombast lies a calculated, seriously powerful personality that is the perfect motivator for Tatara. And I don't know about you guys, but Shizuku is cuter in her practice/casual clothes than in a ballroom dress. Just my taste. Anyway, alongside the stalls in animation, I can't honestly say I like Tatara's VA. To me it just gives off the trying-too-hard-to-be-a-teen vibe too much for me to not notice it every time he speaks. While still enjoyable, these two faults are noticeable the entire time you watch the show. However, if you are interested in the premise, and don't mind animation quirks, then by all means, Welcome to the Ballroom.

[ORIG] Princess Principal (MAL) Alt history, 20th century steampunk London, and spies but also superpowers and made-up minerals, this is Princess Principal. Smooth jazz while a loli-ninja wearing a mushroom hat cuts up 20th century cars? Sure, why not? Cavorite, the aforementioned made-up mineral, allows for temporary control of gravity, allowing the girls to make their first daring escape with a VIP. Also, the girls are spying between the Commonwealth, or the West, and the Empire, or the East. Also the Princess herself is a spy. It's certainly a lot to take in immediately, but this show seems to revel in the craziness - echoing the fast-paced, spontaneous action of the spies themselves. Our main girl Ange lies to get through life, and is soft spoken and terse. The others in her immediate crew range from the authoritative onee-san to the cheerful loli. I personally feel like they could have made a perfectly enjoyable spy thriller with just alternate history and no supernatural element Take Joker Game from a few seasons ago - that even went so far as to be historically accurate in its place names and such, and aside from some same-facing was a wonderfully engaging show. While I do feel the personalities more in these femme fatales, I just don't see the "thriller" part as holding up as much. It's really not bad - I just feel my main gripe here is the overpresence of themes that don't need to be there. Still worth a watch if you don't mind it.

Centaur no Nayami (MAL) Having watched both MonMusu and Demi-chan and consequently becoming an Expert™ on monster girl shows, Centaur no Nayami is most certainly more of the former. I'll say at the very least that guys in school also being monsters is a welcome change, rather than including a harem. Hime, the titular centaur, acts just like her name. Nozomi is our sharp-tongued, tomboyish tsundere, while Kyouko (my favorite) is a terse, blonde tsukkomi. We get a surprising amount of world-building right out of the gate - the world is as it is thanks to a different evolution path, and to avoid the discrimination of the past, "equality" is aggressively and strictly enforced. The seemingly dark background behind the otherwise peppy slice-of-life is definitely off-putting, and seems immediately at odds with the tone. If while walking around town the girls maybe glimpsed an abuse or something similar, the aggressive equality mantra might seem like an understandable government reaction. Seeing nothing of the sort while hearing Kyoko not want to ride Hime because that's discrimination and she might get sent to a "correction facility" is more than a bit unsettling. Production-wise, the show looks and sounds great. Quirky music for quirky circumstances, and the motion of all the characters' different bodies is conveyed convincingly. The A/B Parts splitting the episode is something I haven't seen in quite a while, but I think it lends itself well to the SoL part of the show. Overall, this is a surprisingly endearing slice of life with a higher-than-normal amount of kissing, and I just wish they'd lay off the dramatic background. Worth a watch if you're into monster girls or slice of life more generally.

[ORIG] Action Heroine Cheer Fruits (MAL) Last but not least, we have Action Heroine - Heroines (as in those live-acted hero shows) are now super-popular, and the show follows one town that is way behind the curve on popular heroines. Immediately, I like the art. It seems like not too much more than "generic anime-style," but Diomedia has a way of doing soft lines and expressive faces that just looks great. Now I don't pretend to like hero/heroine-type premises, but even I can see this show's got remarkable heart. Spurred by her sister wanting to see Kamidaio, the current most famous heroine, Mikan, an earnest, caring sister teams up with Akagi, an energetic Kamidaio-super fan to put on a small-scale show, and the rest is history. Their first performance is carried singlehandedly by the effort the two girls put into making Mikan's sister's dream come true. Action Heroine gives off the feel of an idol show (he says, having not seen LoveLive nor Idolm@ster), with a diverse cast of girls all trying to be the best for their fans. While I don't think this show is exactly going to enjoy LoveLive levels of success, as I've said - you can see the heart it has. Some individual moments were also very strange - like a flashback where one girl loses a tennis match because a bug flew in her face, and another girl talks to her imagined anthropomorphizations of model trains. If you're into the nostalgia of hero/heroine shows, this plays right into that. Otherwise, it's a show you can pretty easily avoid.

[diggerhome64-blog]

Can Ghosts Buy Drugs? The Haunting of Hill House (Eps. 6-10)

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Dear TV, and whatever walked there walked VERY FAST AWAY FROM THE FINALE OF THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE ON NETFLIX!

Jane Hu and Phil Maciak are back to finish their conversation about the second half of Netflix’s adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s novel (see the first part of their conversation here). There will be spoilers, so, if you haven’t finished the series, turn off the Paula Abdul videos, and get streaming!

Phil Maciak: Jane, welcome back to that gas station in Amherst, MA, where we’ve come together to buy all the gasoline we need to burn Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House to the ground. I’m only kind of kidding. To begin with my general take, I think the sixth episode of the series (the one with all the long tracking shots in the funeral home) is a god-level TV episode, I thought the rollout and tease of the reveal about Abigail was pitch-perfect, haunting, and entirely effective, and I love what the show did with a lot of the questions we (and it) had about the relative reality of the ghosts to the members of the Crain family over the last five installments of the show. But that finale. Jane. That was about as bad as it gets on your TV screen. What are your initial thoughts?

Jane Hu: I’m not entirely sure where to begin, Phil, except to point out that that finale was seventy-one minutes long, and when your finale is seventy ! one ! minutes ! long !, it is cruel to have it be that bad. Full disclosure, but I watched Flanagan’s Hill House finale at the end of a long night of TV binging, and might have drifted off around the 50-minute mark. But I did wake up in time to catch the…band getting back together?? Phil, this finale seems to answer our earlier thesis about the show’s generic messiness—and then some. Everything happens in this finale! From the proliferation of the Minor Character Ghost, to the tender family reunion inside the red room, topped off with the “ghosts are just our internal demons” cop-out ending. My cup of stars spilleth over. But it’s all so…boring? Hokey? Bad horror?

I have so many questions, Phil, like when did fucking Steve become the narrative voice of reason in this series? And how did Flanagan manage to adapt Jackson’s novel into a twisted moral tale about the couple form? And how exactly does time work again in this show? And is Olivia crazy? And who greenlit the soundtrack on this thing?? Help!

PM: More questions: When did Steve become a good writer? And when did the sign of being a good writer become very specifically and deliberately ruining the Shirley Jackson novel the series is pretending he wrote? (WALKED TOGETHER—WHUTTTT) And since when does finishing two whole pages in an afternoon constitute writers’ block? Is Steve secretly Jill Lepore?  

More importantly, how did that flapper ghost get the heroin to make Luke overdose? Did she take the PVTA bus to a Hampshire College house party and ask random white dudes with dreadlocks where she can score? And back to Steve: do you have any idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person? SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP SNIP SNAP!

JH: Oh my god, was it really three? I lost count tbh.

PM: Nah, I was just contorting it for the Office reference. (That said, youth vasectomy as a dramatic plot reveal probably wasn’t on anybody’s TV bingo card this year.) I cannot agree more with your feelings about this finale—it wasn’t scary, it flooded us with the sorts of monologues that only worked in this show because of their pointed scarcity, and it turns Hill House into, like, actually not that bad after all? If Hugh and the Dudleys are perfectly happy to stay in the house, if the scary sinister red room BOO! turns into a loving and inviting white room, what was the point of all of this? Are we forgetting that the house used Olivia as an avatar to KILL AN ACTUAL CHILD?

I don’t want to nit-pick—though, for real, I would like an answer about the heroin—and we should come back to the transcendent badness of the finale, but I think the thing that made this episode stand out so much is that the series, after the fifth episode was really gaining momentum and doing kind of thrilling work. Let’s talk about “Two Storms,” that badass funeral home episode.

JH: Yes, Phil! The funeral home episode was all sorts of things—Hitchcockian, naturalistic, experimental—but, perhaps most surprisingly, I found it actually funny. I don’t think I’ve ever liked Steve more? The transitions between past and present—between the “two storms”—were deftly done, and worked to deepen our understanding of the show’s main characters. The build-up was dynamite, and I loved the almost Fellini-esque argument scene toward the end, where everyone takes turns venting their own triumphant monologue. And that ending!!! Nellie’s bent-neck lady alone by her corpse. It was genuinely poignant. What did you think, Phil?

PM: Ordinarily, I’d be suspicious of this kind of film-jock magic trick on TV. I didn’t care about Cary Joji Fukunaga’s long-take in True Detective, and, as is evidenced by my long record on the Mad Men beat, the bottle episodes I like tend to be fairly mundane. But this episode is maybe the best episode of television I’ve seen all year, and that’s because it did something wild (Rope set in a horror film) and pulled it off in a way that enhanced absolutely everything about the series around it. It’s a kind of aspirationally cinematic move, but what was so surprisingly great about it was how it paid off in a very televisual way—this fake long take is an inflection point for Hill House, the series. It’s an entirely structural piece of pyrotechnics, and, rather than making the episode feel hemmed in or overly choreographed, it made everything feel looser and more at home. It was tense, yeah, but the Hitchcockian funniness that you point to, I think, is possible because of these generative constraints.  

JH: Wow, Phil, I love this observation—the idea that the single-take isn’t a constraint here, but a formal mechanism that opens up the episode to looser experimentation!

PM: Flanagan recently tweeted that, when he pitched the series to Netflix, the idea of a (seemingly) single-take episode set in the funeral home in the present and Hill House in the past was a central selling point. And that makes sense to me in two ways: the first is that it’s really the moment, after the aforementioned time-based reveal of who the bent-neck lady actually is, where the conceptual premise of the show begins to be more than a narrative gimmick. In other words, this episode’s tricky, transtemporal camera work uses the reveal of the bent-neck lady to begin to suggest that the two timelines are not as far apart as they seem. Second, though, it’s the one episode of the series that takes up Flanagan’s strongest and most exciting idea, which is a camera or a narrative perspective that moves freely across time and does not fundamentally discriminate between periods (or visible realties). The formal thrill of this whipping, gliding camera, combined with the ghost-standing-out-of-focus-in-the-shot trickery of the rest of the series suggests that the show takes the mental aspect of haunting more seriously than merely using ghosts as figurative representations of a traumatic past. Maybe it would have been too much to handle if the series had essentially fractured at this middle-point and carried this aesthetic through to the end, but there was something so magnetic, so clear about the visual storytelling in this episode. It was a bit of a letdown to have to leave this hypnotic style behind. I guess what I’m saying is that the series kind of peaks here—emotionally, narratively, stylistically—and part of what was disappointing about the fairly conventional horror and grinding ghost-exposition of the finale was that it took advantage of virtually none of the spookily moving aesthetic gambits of this episode.

JH: Yeah, I’m sorry, but we’re not leaving until we return to the profound badness that was the finale. Your reading of the funeral home episode is helpful for reminding me how much I was digging the show, because honestly, after that finale, all I could think about is how wildly uneven serial TV can be. Within the span of 10 episodes! That’s not that many episodes to be, well, consistent? It’s not even that the rest of Flanagan’s Hill House lacked the clarity of episode 6, it’s that it fell so very off the mark—so far away from what I thought were the central driving themes of the series.

PM: It was confused and confusing in the very particular way that only a piece of storytelling obsessed with *explaining* something to us can be. I’m all in favor of tying up loose ends, but, you’re right, Jane, that, when the package was all tied up, it looked like something fundamentally different than what we’d been seeing. And that’s not a cool, twisty, surprise. Instead, in the finale, it felt like the show—which had been building such terrific momentum—planted a foot and did a hard pivot away from itself.

JH: I still can’t get over the fact that it’s Steve who gets the last line? Steve!! The patriarch of the siblings. The one who doesn’t believe that ghosts and haunting are real is…the arbiter of Truth by the end of the series? It seems so deeply wrong-headed. But even more than that, I think the show simply goes off the rails. The crazy generic maximalism that we discussed as characterizing the first half of Hill House kind of goes to its logical conclusion in its second?

PM: Yeah, it’s a mess. And it’s a shame because one of the most economical, patient, shrewdly affecting threads of the show lands right before the finale and gives us the illusion that we’re headed somewhere really strange and gnarly. We’d been aware of Abigail, even seen her, from the first beginning—this little girl in a little bob—but she existed at the level of all of those ghosts and clockmakers we couldn’t really trust our eyes to confirm. She was just under the radar enough for us to assume that she made up part of the gauzy layer of ghostliness that would eventually be acknowledged—like the boy in the wheelchair or the tall floating man—but that we were just bookmarking for later.

But she was real the whole time! And Flanagan even dared us to look directly at her, twice, in both Dudleys’ monologues. (Mr. Dudley doesn’t mention her, but he refers to their stillborn child as their “first” child. And Mrs. Dudley introduces the idea that they’re hiding a secret child even as it’s easy for us to hear her revelation as the coping logic of someone who’s gone through terrible trauma.) It’s so subtly staged that, by the time Abigail drinks the poisoned tea—so sweetly and so trustingly—and dies, it’s a shock that she was ever alive in the first place. That moment was absolutely chilling, such smart and brutal stagecraft. Like the scenes that made the “Bent Neck Lady” episode so good, it reflected this show’s signature horror philosophy: the scariest moments are also the saddest moments.

JH: By the finale, it does almost feel like the show is too full of madness—or, indeed, sadness—to conclude any way but by exorcising its ghosts through the sheer collective will of the living. Jackson’s novel is one of the best things ever written about the death drive—a theory that crucially necessitates both life and death. This is the twinned dialectic, Freud argues, that we cannot do without. Instead of ending with Nell’s car “accident,” the final scenes of Flanagan’s Hill House enact a rapid series of forgetting, of sobering up, of waking up. It’s the cop-out ending none of us want or deserve!

PM: That’s such a great point, Jane, and it gives a very specific texture to the complaints about this show so faithlessly adapting Jackson’s novel. The finale’s happy ending—its yada yada’ing of the central problem that THIS HOUSE KILLS PEOPLE—seemed, again, confused and confusing. The careful architectural reading of Jackson’s novel that you suggested might be at the center of this adaptation last time we talked turns out to be a parasitic misreading after all. It’s as if, at the last moment, Mike Flanagan tells Shirley Jackson, “You know, Hill House isn’t all that bad. You just have to get to know it!”

JH: I think what makes Jackson so therapeutic to read is how she embraces an unflinchingly pessimistic view of what it means to be a woman moving alone in this world. In this way, she’s a deeply paranoid writer. So to give the Hill House finale such a reparative reading of the house felt like the final erasure of the woman who gave life to it. Some ghosts we should keep around.

Source: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/can-ghosts-buy-drugs-haunting-hill-house-eps-6-10/

[jediaretheworst]

“Chosen One” Pt 3

This was originally an essay I wrote as a freshman in college, so it’s a... little rough. I’ll add my sources again at the bottom just because force of habit will make me anxious if I don’t..... this is technically an “academic” paper I wrote lol. This is long. @npd-starscream

The Jedi Order's belief that emotion can only distract from seeing the world as it truly is, and that it can only conflict the person who has them, was a direct source of their failures in the second Star Wars trilogy, episodes I-III. Ignoring emotion and the passions, or pretending like they don't exist to try and gain objectivity tends to be a philosophically contradictory practice. Emotion is required to make logical decisions, for survival, motivation, and can serve all three parts of Plato's divided soul.

The Jedi Code & "The Slave Metaphor"  

"There is no emotion. There is peace. There is no ignorance. There is knowledge. There is no passion. There is serenity. There is no chaos. There is harmony. There is no death. There is the Force" (Simpson). The absence of emotion in the Jedi Code is meant to make those who follow it more rational, objective and fair. It is often times assumed that the lack of emotion equates itself to logical thinking, and this is generally accepted in society, even today, and is a common philosophical concept. "One of the most enduring metaphors of reason and emotion has been the metaphor of master and slave, with wisdom of reason firmly in control and the dangerous impulses of emotion safely suppressed..." (Solomon 3).  

A Phantom Menace  

A Phantom Menace, while sometimes considered inessential to the entire story arc of Star Wars, is a shining example of the illogical nature of the Jedi Code.  The abandonment of emotion might be attainable for some forms of alien life in the Star Wars universe, but is it not only extremley harmful to human beings, it is also pretty much  impossible. One immediate issue that arises in The Phantom Menace is not only that this is harmful to people, but that this is extremely harmful to children and would effect them for the rest of their lives.  

A new study from UCLA suggests that a loving parental figure may alter neural circuits in children that could influence health throughout a lifespan. On the flip side, the negative impact of childhood abuse or lack of parental affection take a mental and physical toll can also last a lifetime. Childhood neglect increases adult risk for morbidity and mortality. (Bergeland)

This would effect every Jedi Padawan, although some of them turn out better than others. In The Phantom Menace, we are obviously not foreshadowing the failure of every single Padawan, and obviously some of them have made it through this process to become Jedi Knights and dismember droids and impose their holiness upon the rest of society, which is annoying but not at all the worst outcome that could've been a product of their childhood. Nor is the worst outcome when a Padawan walks away from the Jedi Order to wander the streets of Coruscant to impose their own sense of justice without any sort of governing body, like Ahsoka Tano (The Wrong Jedi).

No, obviously the worst possible outcome of these denials of attachment and emotional validation presents itself in the Star Wars universe is a tall, ugly, wheezing metal machine they call Darth Vader, who started out as one of these Padawans and grew up to me one hell of a emotionally stunted mass-murderer. It's not to say that he isn’t responsible for his actions, just as any murderer is, at least in part, responsible for what they have done. But the Jedi order claims to have the moral superiority, and condemn those who end up like Vader, but the reality is, even if Vader's action are truly his responsibility, and his responsibility alone, they could've been prevented by the Jedi order had they taught him to understand and accept his emotions.  

Now of course, the Jedi sculpt themselves not for their own benefit, or for any other Jedi's benefit, but rather to see how they could best serve others who cannot themselves. Eudaimonia is a Greek term used by Aristotle to talk about the concept of "the good life". Which on the surface seems utterly converse to what the Jedi believe in, duty, service, lack of worldly belongings, etc. But to Aristotle, this concept of Eudaimonia isn’t just having things or simply being happy, rather the concept is meant to say that life is not fulfilled until you reach your full potential. If the Jedi wished to serve their galaxy to the best of their ability, then they would have to come to the understanding that alienating themselves and the younger, perhaps unwilling, members of their order from emotion and from others does not further their goal of servitude, because doing so would mean that they would not and could not serve their galaxy to the best of their ability.  

Attack of the Clones

There is a really obvious metaphor in the Star Wars prequels about the modern western world and ancient Rome, and in the same parallel, there was a school of philosophy that existed in ancient Roman times called Stoicism. Stoicism can be explained simply as, "Stoics... hold that emotions like fear or envy... either were, or arose from, false judgements" (Baltzy). However the views of the Stoics oftentimes contradicted the environment and society they lived in, as Robert C. Solomon explains, "Stoics analyzed emotions as conceptual errors, conductive to misery... Emotions in a word, are judgements- judgements about the world and one's place in it. But the world of Roman society was not a happy or a particularly rational place," and goes on to note that Seneca, an influential Stoic who served emperor Nero, went on to commit suicide (5).

The Clone Wars

The Star War: The Clone Wars animated series provides a look at the missing pieces to Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side. There is one main plot event in the television series of particular relevance, that shows how his character is more prone and inherently drawn to the side of the dark, and showcases more information that provides insight to his final moments of weakness.  

These events occur when Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Anakin become stranded on a strange planet home to beings that are extremely powerful in the force. These beings are essentially embodiments of the light, dark and balance (Overlords). There are three episodes that take place here and involve these characters, and the central plot revolves around how Anakin must take the place of the 'father' of the embodiments of light and dark, because only he can 'control' them. This view is similarly expressed by Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith when he says, "You were supposed to bring balance to the force, not destroy it" to an immolated Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin makes similar, and poor, decisions in these episodes as he does in Revenge of the Sith. Overlords, Altar of Mortis, and Ghosts of Mortis, he lives up to Obi-Wan's statement of "destroying" the force. Instead of keeping the literal embodiment of darkness from getting to the rest of the galaxy, he instead decides to help it after it shows him his future. It's interesting because he sees all the stupid mistakes he's going to make, and for some reason believes in this dark side entity that promises, in essence, the best way to avoid making those mistakes later in life is to just make them as soon as possible. It is important to note that Anakin is willing to sacrifice himself and what he believes in for this entities' promise of peace. This is another example of how denying the need for Eudaimonia when wanting to serve others becomes harmful. Anakin is not at peace because he can't handle his own emotions, and does not care if he destroys himself to achieve the Jedi goal of peace, and this, by consequence, convolutes this idea of peace, and turns into this sort of "the ends justify the means" belief.  

At the end of these three episodes, Anakin says, "You will not understand what I have to do to end the clone war. You will try to stop me. I have seen that it is the Jedi who will stand in the way of peace" (Ghosts of Mortis). Even in the ugliest moments of Anakin Skywalker, he's talking about achieving peace, a goal set by Jedi, not Sith. But in the end of this, his memory is erased and he returns to being "light side" Anakin.  

However, there is another important concept that can also be explained by the episode of Star Wars: The Clone wars, Overlords where Anakin balances the force and holds back both the light and the dark. Descartes (1596-1650) had a view on emotion that was "value-oriented" (Solomon 7), meaning that they had a particular role to play in aiding reason, and where the two would be in coordination. Descartes'  provides this example of using courage to motivate,  

To excite courage in oneself and remove fear, it is not sufficient to have the will to do so, but we must also apply ourselves to consider the reasons, the objects and examples which persuade us that the peril is not great; that there is always more security in defense than flight, that we should have the glory of joy of having vanquished, while we should expect nothing but regret and shame for having fled and so on. (Solomon 6)

In this example, emotion and reason are in lockstep. Neither hold a higher balance than the other, rather both are important to survival, and emotion is necessary in making a logical decision. It allows the decision maker to motivate themselves to do what is right, by emotion alone, as Hume would argue.  

Revenge of the Sith

All the components that led to Anakin's fall finally break through to the surface in Revenge of the Sith (ROTS). The opening plot point to this movie, when then Chancellor Palpatine is "captured" by the separatists, shows the contradiction in the Jedi code and then the actual practice of the Jedi that Anakin had so obviously struggled with.  This contradiction lies in the line of the Jedi Code that goes as follows, "There is no emotion, there is peace" (Simpson). This seems to make sense at first glance, but its' shortcomings in comparison to other beliefs held by the Jedi, are clearly demonstrated when Anakin kills Count Dooku. Emotion is not the opposite of peace. Anakin kills someone who is a great threat to the galaxy, and their universe would have hypothetically been more peaceful without Dooku. Emotion drives Anakin to act for peace, not lack of it. This confliction further warps his views as the movie progresses, and this is where the ideals of the Jedi truly fail him.  

It was peace that truly drove Anakin, even for selfish reasons, up to this point in his life. But his story is a clear example of Hume's motivation theory, that reason itself cannot provide the will to take action. In Star Wars the Jedi code and their other ideals often parallel the Kantian idea of "duty", that is to do good for good's sake, or "A will estimable in itself and good without regard to any further end" (Kant 197). However, not conversely to this, Hume "came to question the role and capacities of reason itself, and in particular the power of reason to motivate even the most basic of moral behavior" (Solomon 7). Meaning, Hume wasn't directly disagreeing with the idea of doing good for good's sake, but rather what would motivate you to do so. Kant believed that this sense of "duty" was enough, but Hume believed that emotion was required to make someone act on this sense of "duty".

These arguments are played out at the end of ROTS when Anakin is provided with not only an idea of "peace", a dictatorship but also the will to do so, because he believes going down this path is the only way to save his wife. Anakin plays the part of Hume's argument, that there must be some incentive to want to take moral action, and he makes Hume look rather sinister. But Hume's argument doesn't have to end in fire, burning, and destroying a lot of things you care about, and nor would have Anakin needed to go that far to prove that point. Would he have made such a move for (what he believed was) peace had his wife's life not been threatened? Or conversely, on the side of Kant, would Obi-Wan been able to destroy his friend if not for his sense of "duty" to do so?  

In the end, however it is emotion that is the downfall of not only Anakin Skywalker, but the entire Jedi order (by his hand), so it is easy to return to the "Slave Metaphor" and blame this on emotion running amok. But is also the original denial of emotion early on in Anakin's life that led to the insecurity and lack of control over them. So what is it then? Reason is greater than the passions? Or as Hume put it, "reason is, and always should be, the slave of the passions" (Solomon 1)?

Return of the Jedi & Plato  

At the end of Anakin/Vader's story, he supposedly returns to the light. The idea that emotion is inferior to reason, especially when it comes to how they relate to making moral judgements, can be further discarded, by looking at why he returned to the light. He made this decision as he did all his decisions, emotionally. Seeing his son's loyalty to goodness and to the light is the final turning point where he seems to denounce the ways of the Emperor. But this doesn't make him a Jedi, and it's not a decision he made by the grace of reason.

How, then, would Plato describe such inconsistent moral judgements? "In book IV of the Republic, Plato's descriptions of psychological conflict include cases in which agents (people) perform acts contrary to what they take to be the best course open to them" (Lesses). However, it wouldn't be correct to assume that Anakin didn't think he did exactly what he had to do in ROTS. The blame for this isn't to be put on merely logical thinking, but rather on the fact that he was taught consistently that his emotions were worthless, and by extension himself. So destroying himself to help someone he loved would've seemed perfectly acceptable, and the correct course of action. Regardless of whether he thought he was being logical, however, Anakin did make an illogical decision.  

In order to understand how agents can act contrary to reason, we must examine Plato's parts-of-the-soul doctrine. Plato distinguishes three parts of the soul in Book IV (of the Republic): (I) reason (II) spirit, and (III) appetite. Agents are susceptible to several, relatively independent sources of motivation because each part of the soul has a characteristic motivation. (Lesses 148)

This then, supports the "Slave Metaphor". But Plato treats the passions differently, because his definition of reason is different. According to Plato,  

It (the sun) is the cause of knowledge and truth; and so, while you may think of it as an object of knowledge, you will do well to regard it as something beyond truth and knowledge and, precious as these both are, of still higher worth,… In our analogy of light and vision were to be thought like the sun, but not identical with it, so here both knowledge and truth are to be regarded like the good. (Fogelin 371)

This means that if someone is wise, they are closer to the light, that if they are closer to the light than they are closer to the "good" although those three things are not all the same. So here, making a logical decision would be the same as making a moral decision. Vader's sparing of his son and act against the emperor is an emotional decision, but it is a move towards the light, and therefore, by Plato's terms, also a move towards reason/wisdom. Most importantly, he would have not made this decision without the role of emotion.  

The incorrectness of  the light and dark binary in the Star Wars universe can be clearly seen here, and we can see how Anakin/Vader balances and is attuned to both. On one side, we have Plato's "light" and on the other side, we have emotion & what Plato calls appetite."Plato accepts the occurrence of weakness" (Lesses 148), and serving only the appetite would be seen as weakness. Plato did believe that reason should be above the appetite, but not for the same reasons as the Jedi. In fact, "Each part (of the soul)… involves different sorts of desire" (Lesses 148). The pull of the three parts of the soul, reason, spirit, and appetite, can explain the inconsistencies in Anakin's full story arch, and where the motivation to do good really came from. This binary of light and dark are not what the Jedi said they were, emotion can serve both the light and the dark, reason or appetite, destroy the Jedi or the Sith Emperor.  

Closing Thoughts

The denial of the passions leads to an imbalance, because they play a role in each part of Plato's divided soul, in motivation, in reasoning for survival, and personal well-being. No real life school of philosophy can truly entirely exclude the role of emotion without contradicting itself or otherwise causing harm, and so therefore neither can fictional philosophy. The Star Wars prequels show the harm in this, and even though it is fictional, the complete neglect of emotion and the consequent issues are supported in real life.  

Emotion does not belong to a "light" or a "dark" side as it is made to seem in Star Wars, but even the originals conflict this sentiment. If anything, the prequels exist to show that sentiment is actually the downfall of an entire order.  

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