#when a fictional character’s manipulation and gaslighting is so good it gives the audience an existential crisis

[salethe2]

I wonder if we’ll ever know just how much Armand influenced, manipulated, and gaslit what happened in Paris, or am I suppose to question what’s even real at this point? For all we know, Paris was just a fever dream, and Louis had been chilling in a European mansion this whole time… like, is Louis even real?

[vavialdavi]

You're completely right.

I must admit I personnaly don't like him. For me, he's more the kind of characters I love to hate. But I'm not interested in him. I don't know if that makes any sense...

If that was just for me, he wouldn't reappear at all, or it would be something similar that in Frozen 2.

But this isn't about me. As I always state, y'all have the right to like whatever you like, it ain't my business as long as you don't cause harm.

Hans acted horrible in the first movie, just because it's fiction and he has a "backstory" doesn't mean any of this should be minimize. The trolls theory is, at the end the day, a ✨️theory✨️. What's canon is Hans is an asshole hungry for power who:

-Plot the murder of someone who did nothing wrong to him

-Manipulate a young, naive girl who easily trapped because of years of isolation and he was planning to do it to Elsa first

-Convince everyone (including the audience, y'all still falling for it to the day) he was this nice selfless hero who just wanted what's best in order to use them to pursue his goal

-Gaslight Elsa (someone who already felt guilty enough to think the best option to protect everyone was to isolate herself far away) into believibg she was the only one responsible for Anna's "death" when you forgot he locked her in a cold room to she would die faster with no help

-Attempt murder on defenseless people twice (don't argue about Elsa's powers, she was devastated on the ground and he attacked from behind)

So coquette hehe

It's not like he believed he was doing good, someone forced him to do so or he was raised to think all of this was okay. He was just S-E-L-F-I-S-H

Anyway!

If he's def gonna return. The best option wouldn't be for him to redeem as Frohana. I don't even think he deserves a redemption arc (let's stop with the freaking not-so-evil-antagonist-Zuko-wannabe trope, I'm begging).

There could be a good message for the young audience (and everyone) if the movie can make it clear that some people are genuinely bad and lose cause, like it happens in real life. Forgiving someone is for your own well-being and you shouldn't accept them back everytime. Sometimes they did so much shit, they don't deserve a second chance.

Would make sense if he was still shitty, less shitty but shitty anyway

The best redemption I can think for him would be to apologize to Anna and Elsa, maybe help them a little and then to leave them the fuck alone. So he goes on his own separate changing journey. He has alreday have enough impact on their life and the sisters are happy now. The creators should just let it go, seriously

I respect all opinions but I really don't give a damn about what other people think of it and some of you are getting on my nerves. I got this reaction, last time I said I don't like Hans and he shouldn't become a good guy (my pinned post).

Unsurprisingly, they blocked me after I explained in more details.

Whatever

Let's keep some antagonists as antagonists. Cause rather we like them or not, sometimes, some characters are straight up bad people and what's best is for them to still be bad :3

this might be controversial in the fandom so let me get something out of the way; i like hans, i like him as a character, i like his backstory and want to learn more about him and his relationship with his family and im excited to see him again BUT

i do not want to see him redeemed at all. what he did in the first movie was far beyond redeeming. it wasn't some small mischief or whatever; he literally tried to kill the queen and the princess of another kingdom and turn an entire nation against their queen. you can bring up the troll theory but i call bs. it takes away the message the writers wanted to tell the audience and ruins one of the main plot points (plus fixer upper is a silly song and the songwriters probably weren't expecting people to look too much into the lyrics)

i just think even if he shows qualities that might redeem him, the very best he can do is becoming an antihero. to see him actually being buddies with frohana would be weird to me in so many ways; but maybe that's just me.

btw this is no attack to fans who want him redeemed:)) it's just a movie and we can all have our hopes and expectations for it! nothing too deep

[bbq-hawks-wings]

BBQ gripes about fanon Hawks

Not even gonna put this in the character tags aside from the spoiler one I use just for the anime-onlies on my blog. I'm salty. I just wanna vent. I want to keep the general character tags fun because it was awful when I went looking for new content and found so much Not Fun material a while back; and I don’t want to become what I hate. Basic point - my blog, my vent, and unless it’s reblogged (which you are welcome to if you like) this post dies here.

Please know this isn't a callout post or me claiming that others are being fans of Hawks "wrong" because they disagree with me. I am a huge proponent that (with very few exceptions) fiction and fandom should be free to be enjoyed, reinterpreted, or otherwise indulged in however the individual fan prefers; and if I don't like it, I let them have their space and go do my thing elsewhere and leave them alone (hence why this not going in character tags). I just have been annoyed with the rampant mangling of Hawks' canon  personality/characterization - that is, confusing common fanon interpretations of him with how he’s actually written/portrayed and then getting angry (like, actually-angry-spilling-into-publicly-dragging-real-people, not just disappointed) when he acts like canon Hawks in canon. Non-canon is open season and by and large has my blessing, it’s just frustrating when it gets dragged into discussions about the manga. 

This has been going on a long time, but I just want to get it out of my system in my personal space. All this is, is my "Overthinking Tumblr blogger Shakes Fist at Cloud" moment.

#1 Hawks is a sociopath/unempathetic.

I just... I... You can't be reading the same manga I am if you genuinely come to this conclusion about who he is in canon. A man with nothing to gain by looking like this when considering the depths of the suffering inflicted on others that he bears some amount of responsibility in...

...cannot be called unempathetic.

"But he killed Twice and Best Jeanist!"

Twofold counterargument to this one, starting with BJ - we don't actually know he's dead. There's a body, there's a disappearance, and we have no idea wtf happened, but we also don't know wtf happened. It's drastically ooc for Hawks to murder someone in cold blood. For someone who places emphasis on speed specifically "because when two sides keep fighting and won’t give up, someone eventually has to die" it makes no sense for him to not have had a plan and simply ambush a man in his own home - this goes doubly since he was in contact with the HSPC and had time to "premeditate" anyway.

And as for Twice: Hawks ran out of options. He wanted to detain Twice and keep him from escaping and helping the MLA. He was able to do so when alone, but the moment Dabi cornered him Hawks had a choice to make - probably die in the fight and let Jin go or make absolute certain he can’t and still probably end up dying because he's in bad shape and still probably won't make it out of this, regardless. I don't need to harp on this - it's been said a couple different times now by several people. Even in 266 when Dabi initially ambushes Hawks, Hawks thinks to himself that he’ll carry Jin out of the building to keep himself and Jin safe before Twice retaliated and Dabi literally forces Hawks into a corner.

Jin's loss was a blow, but the chips on the table being wagered are human lives, not feelings. Up until that point, Hawks did everything he could despite the weight of his decision. Human life is human life, and Jin’s life isn’t more important than the may more who will be saved by quashing the MLA’s revolution. Simply equating “could kill someone” with “unempathetic” is fundamentally flawed, and mistaking someone who is pushed to kill despite every attempt to avoid it as unempathetic and even sociopathic has missed the point to the extreme - the mere fact he avoided lethal force for so long alone proves he possesses empathy.

#2 Hawks is a compulsive liar.

He is a good liar, but he does not like lying. He does twist the truth, but always when forced to keep a secret. Even then, his lies are predominantly spun from truth and omitted details instead of outright fabrications. He doesn’t gaslight, and he doesn’t make up stories/details if he can help it.

When Hawks told Endeavor his dreams for the future, that was the truth. When he told him he thought he was cool at the hero billboards, that was the truth.  When he tells Tokoyami to focus on his strengths instead of merely covering his weaknesses to be a better hero, that was the truth. When Tokoyami asks Hawks for his weakness and even why he took him on as an intern in the beginning just to ignore him, he tells him the truth.  When he tells Jin he "doesn't belong in a cage" and that he considers him a good person, that was the truth. When he recognizes he’s profoundly wounded Jin for deceiving him for months, he tells Jin the truth. When confronted by Dabi and he doesn’t need to lie anymore in this fight to the death, he tells him the truth despite not actually needing to in hopes to learn the truth behind Dabi and Shigaraki.

I don't have a better segue, so I'll just mention that a lot of folks who believe this also believe the next point.

#3 Hawks is unapologetically emotionally manipulative.

The context makes a huge difference and we need to look at when and why he manipulates others as well as the fact that he does.

At the hero billboards, Hawks plays the heroes on stage as well as the crowd. He's trying to shift the mindset of, "oh yeah, just another hero ranking" to "wake up, mf's, things are changing and you better be ready to change, too!" Rocking the boat is a huge no-no in Japan. Despite being part of his “persona” there is still real social risk involved with this move but one that he deems necessary to turn heads and get gears turning. This is not just an elaborate ploy to get under Endeavor’s skin, but an effort to reach a wider audience while he has them captive.

He does use the public crowd around him and Endeavor before the Hood fight as an excuse for its appearance, but the original intent was to mentally prepare Endeavor for what was potentially (and proved to be) the fight of his life without outright telling him so he could maintain his undercover status. When he realizes he’s part of the reason for Endeavor’s permanent scar and life-threatening injuries, he feels remorse.

He lies to Jin to get information out of him, but linking back to #2, when calls Jin a good person and offers him a way out, he’s telling the truth. He does feel guilt for having to manipulate an otherwise well-meaning person and betraying them, especially given his long-running history of being used and the ongoing issues he suffers from because of it.

When he meets up again with Endeavor to drop his clues about the League’s movements, he squirms when he realizes the interns don’t know him well enough to know he’s blowing smoke because he does NOT want these kids to actually buy what he’s selling. This espionage mission is hard to navigate, and he has to tread carefully lest he setup the dominoes in the wrong places.

This is all to make the point that Hawks is more than capable of emotionally manipulating people, but it’s not in his nature or something he does to any and every person he comes across just because. We haven’t had much opportunity to see him operate outside of the HSPC’s orders which is where the bulk of the instances of his manipulation comes from - those orders requiring him to operate covertly and thus, by nature, necessitate lying, manipulation, and strategically withholding information. 

If anything, when he’s making an appeal to someone else as his own person - not as a hero on a mission- we actually see a level of vulnerability and transparency we don’t otherwise catch.

Though it’s technically canon-adjacent and not necessarily canon in and of itself, in My Hero Academia: Team Up Mission where he works with Bakugo and Midoriya he operates on a level of transparency with them we’re not used to seeing; and my theory is he took it as an opportunity to operate without ulterior motives and build report instead of bucking back against “training up the next generation of heroes” like he initially did with Tokoyami.

Which now actually segues better into the next point.

#4 Hawks never lets people get close to him.

There’s a surprising amount of evidence that Hawks wants the ability to be an open book. Back at Team Up Mission, the restaurant staff note he regularly takes people he likes to their establishment - so we’re basically told outright this is a special place to him reserved for enjoying himself and only people he likes get to share it with him - so we already know what that says about how he sees those two despite their sparse interactions. We already know he’s taken Endeavor there when Endeavor made no move to input as to where he wanted to have the lunch meeting.

Though he kept Tokoyami at arm’s length initially, we have at least three canon instances of him sharing personal interactions with him with other canon-adjacent indications he cares for and values his intern. We’ve readily established that while Endeavor may not consider himself close to Hawks, Hawks does hold Endeavor as near and dear to his heart. While his only mission regarding Twice was to get information out of him, he still made a genuine effort to help and save him because he wanted to and considered him a friend despite the circumstances.

We still don’t know very much of Hawk’s past, his personal relationships outside of work, etc.; but despite the HPSC’s extensive efforts to strip him of his identity he not only possesses a faceted, complicated personality but seems to want to share that with others readily when and in the ways he’s able. Getting into the truly squishy, vulnerable parts of him may take a while, but on a scale of closed to open, he seems to lean towards open.

#5 Hawks is hopelessly in love with Dabi and will abandon everything up to this point for him.

This isn't to throw general DabiHawks shippers under the bus. Most of them know VERY well at this point that canon has sunk that ship, and they're just having fun with it at this point - and you know what, power to you! They look great together! In another life, the character chemistry could have been incredible. There’s a lot of great DabiHawks shipping content I thoroughly enjoy despite not shipping it myself.

It just isn't canon. It never was and never came close. Even now, with the Endeavor reveal being very much imminent, Hawks' view of Dabi is one of a lying, malicious, callous, murderer. Though he’ll likely be crushed at the revelation of what Endeavor’s done, that doesn’t equate to him defecting (especially not immediately) and falling into Dabi’s arms.

And Dabi hates Hawks just as much.

Again, this is not anything against the ship or the shippers - just an annoyance I have with some who were so wrapped up in the ship they were genuinely mad when the ship sank and they dragged that frustration out into the real world against real people when canon didn’t align with fanon. 

Ships are some of the most stupid things to rail against creators and fans over, and the amount of harassment they receive now over shipping has me ripping my hair out when I know it’s a mere fraction of the total pool of shippers who are frothing at the mouth while the rest are super cool and happy doing their own thing and keeping to themselves.

Ship what you want, regardless of “validating evidence” and have fun. Don’t make it others’ problem when it isn’t canonically validated.

#6 Hawks is a dirty cop.

Only half upset with this one because it comes down to the nuance and lack of precise definition of this phrase I have a problem with. Lots of people hate cops for very real, legitimate reasons. Police forces - being a voluntary, government-employed force enforcing government rule - are notoriously prone to corruption of every kind.

It's implied the HPSC is itself corrupt, though to what extent we don't know. (Granted, buying a young child from his family to raise as your personal puppet is pretty high up there.) By continuing to follow orders from the HPSC and not vehemently fighting back, many see him as reinforcing a corrupt institution and at least partially liable for their continued hold on society. 

Fair enough, but... The issue I have with this is it reduces Hawks to his job.

I believe a huge chunk of this take comes from my experience as an armed service member spouse, but it's easy for me to empathize with a guy

Who was promised the moon for himself and his family in exchange for his service not realizing what was actually being asked of him

Is praised outside the organization for "being a hero" and "upholding this country's core values" while first-hand witnessing the corruption of it when inside

Is viewed as a cog valuable only in services rendered instead of being treated like a human by said organization and worked into the ground because of it

Is frustrated by the insistence to keep the status quo instead of improving procedure/infrastructure/environment because egos need to be padded over real, human problems being solved

Has his autonomy or otherwise ability to operate under his own judgement restricted in favor of maintaining organizational control at the cost of effective action

Has DEPENDENTS who rely on his continued work to provide for them and is thus unable to refuse an order, even when it's morally reprehensible and even outright illegal

Whose cries, both those calculated and desperate, to the organization (who have placed themselves as the sole resource he can turn to) for help (even for his own body/mind) fall on deaf ears until he breaks to the point of becoming unusable or dangerous - and even then minimal effort/responsibility is taken in favor of keeping him functioning in the organization as long as possible.

Hawks fights back against the HPSC constantly. He raised concerns over letting civilians suffer to get him in with the League of Villains and then still defied orders by reducing casualties to zero. Despite orders to keep his mission top secret, he's informed Endeavor of his motives/movements independently from the rest of the heroes. He had long refused to take an intern (read: fresh meat for the machine) to train until this year, and even then sought to minimize his encouragement of Tokoyami for as long as possible until he realized Tokoyami was made of the real mettle people needed in a hero and not just another youngster endangering himself on a pipe dream.

He even takes initiative to keep his personal to-do list from the HPSC to a minimum by squashing problems before they come knocking asking him to fix it for them. He knew of the League of Villains and anticipated the escalation of their movements immediately after the USJ incident as well as has a network of informants and connections with local police forces to stay in the know.

His methods for apprehension of criminals are, and continue to be, to react and detain them so quickly they can't retaliate or endanger others in the struggle, thus minimizing human loss and injury despite the insinuation the HPSC has told him that gloves are off in the current situation.

He might be "a cop" depending on the definition we go with, but he isn't a dirty cop. He doesn't plant evidence. He doesn't shoot first and ask questions later. He doesn't blindly take orders. He largely doesn't see "villains" as dirt under his shoe but as people pushed to extremes. He's a morally convicted individual trying to rebel within the system instead of tearing it down outright. He may be wrong in the assumption, but he genuinely believes he can do more on the inside of the system than outside.

#7 Hawks is a manwhore.

Ok, this one is not serious and actually just to end this all on a lighter note after ranting until I'm blue in the face. 

I'm 100% guilty of this myself. Something about that chicken makes me and many others salivate - either for themselves or to watch him with someone else. We love dressing him up slutty, portray him as flirting unashamedly, and placing him in as many overtly sexual scenarios possible.

The best part about all of it, though, is that it’s almost the exact opposite of how he dresses/conducts himself in canon. His clothes are loose fitting and high-coverage. He’s personable, but never gives any indication he’s romantically/sexually involved or interested in anyone. The asscourse is real only because we cannot confirm either way due to his baggy clothes. His overall figure/body shape has been hinted at, but only recently confirmed; and his jacket had to be literally be burned off to get a good look at the pattern of his shirt under it!

~~~~~~~

And with that, I release the frustration and move on. 

Enjoy fanon as much as you like - even I do! Just be aware of where canon and fanon diverge, and definitely don’t take the difference out on real people. Please also be aware of how others hold their favorite characters dear before flooding the general tags with negativity and creating a hostile environment for them. People latch onto their “comfort characters” for a plethora of reasons, and when they lose that character to the plot, the fandom, or otherwise, they should still be allowed to grieve and celebrate what they had in a safe environment. 

Retaliation in response to others coming against your favorite is also not acceptable behavior. It sucks, but the most mature thing to do is step away from the general fandom, stick to blogs/spaces you know are safe, and let the storm blow over. Comfort characters do not justify mistreating real people no matter how much they may mean to you.

When “canon gets it wrong” is where fanfiction and pockets of the fandom community comes into play. Leave those people alone and let them be. For those who aligned themselves with canon, they are not free game to take personal frustrations out on. Leave those people alone and let them be. Unfollow the people/tags you need to for your own sake and others’, and the fandom will be a better place all around over time. Venting belongs in controlled spaces away from the rest of the fandom and with enough warning for those who not only don’t want to endure it but who for their own safety shouldn’t.

Fandom is a community, and healthy communities do not endorse members lashing out when they don’t get their way.

[kob131]

Taiyang Defense Chronicles 11

https://rwdestuffs.tumblr.com/post/184398425749/taiyang-or-how-to-mistakenly-think-that-two

Look.

If a random person without any context of the situation, were to see the conversation between Yang and Tai at the dinner table in volume 4, they would call that relationship abusive.

A. No actually, people have outright said without context they thought th relationship was okay.

B. Context is pretty damn important

And C. I could easily flip this, take Yang calling out her dad out of context and make her look like a vindictive bitch. Doesn’t make me, and by extension you, right.

If someone with a vague understanding of the show were to see that scene, they would call it unwelcome.

If someone with who followed the show for a long time were to see that scene, they would be confused.

And someone who actually paid attention would say ‘Yeah that’s fine.’

If someone who knew of Barb and Burnie’s relationship were to see that scene, they wouldn’t know what to make of it because “Are Yang and Tai just Barb and Burnie now?”

You could make of it and you can’t separate reality from fiction.

The issue is that the writers foolishly thought that every single audience member would know the context of Barbara and Burnie’s relationship and would not see any issue with the scene. As writers, they can’t just expect their audience to just roll with it. 

Or you know, they expected their audience to not have such severe parental issues and such an unhealthy attachment to characters to perceive this as a personal attack. You know, the rational thing to do.

And even then, I highly doubt that Burnie would make a joke as callous as that if what happened to Yang happened to Barb. The idea that Yang could just… Magically get better after all of that feels… Unrealistic. It feels insulting to anyone with a battlefield amputation. Hell! It feels insulting to people with mental illnesses. What Tai did was essentially equivalent to a person online saying “Depression is a choice.” Which it isn’t. 

Fuck you.

A. They have done that.

B. People WITH amputations have approved of it.

And C. As someone WITH depression, I wish I had Taiyang as my parent because he’d actually try to help me and encourage me.

Due to the writers having only talked about Taiyang via Yang and Ruby, there was very little character to him. The most we got was that he was a teacher, he sends dogs through the mail, and that he was depressed when Summer died.

And that he loves his daughters unconditionally and respects their autonomy, seeing as he let them be Huntresses despite him LOSING A WIFE to the profession.

Oh look, that pesky context is getting in the way huh?

Volume 3′s ending was a little kinder, mostly because it showed him getting Ruby breakfast after what can be assumed to be maybe a day or two after the Fall of Beacon, but it gets undermined by Qrow hinting that Ruby should go to Mistral.

…

The seasons literally changed in the show, going from fall to winter.

Oh my, theres context ruining all your fun again!

I guess what I’m saying is that Taiyang hasn’t gotten enough opportunities to show that he’s a good dad. Bare in mind that he still guilt-tripped Yang into putting on the arm back in Volume 4. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that this was unintentional, but Yang clearly heard what he said about how he “had something else to take care of” and how that it was that “something else” that was preventing him from going out to look for Ruby. 

Except that:

A. He was first introduced sleeping by Ruby’s bed, showed immense relief upon seeing her to be okay, looked sorrowful at Yang’s condition, said ‘I’m just glad to have my daughters home’, ran out to find Ruby when he saw her leave, went to demand an arm from Ironwood despite not knowing he had one ready for her and watched over Yang.

And B. Both Yang and Ruby show no issues and are well adjusted people (with Yang’s only issue being caused by her MOTHER.)

Oh damn that context, getting in the way of narratives!

Taiyang had also unfairly compared Yang to Raven and called her semblance (the manifestation of her soul) a temper tantrum. And before anyone asks, no. I am NEVER going to let that go. Taiyang grossly misinterpreted his daughter‘s personality. This is especially egregious since Yang had basically been doing his job since she was five. Yeah, Tai is better than Raven in the being physically there department, but when it came to the emotional department… He;s about as good as Raven. Except it’s worse since we were led to believe that Tai was Best Dad™.

A. Bullshit and you know it

B. Her Semblance pre Volume 6 only activated in a serious situation once. Every other instance of her anger is either because her hair was cut, she was frustrated/annoyed and two of those times it cost her dearly.

And C. How can Taiyang not be there when he canonically TAUGHT YANG HOW TO FIGHT?

Oh and D. Yeah, the guy who made two criticisms is the same as the woman who tried to isolate, gaslight, victim blame and emotionally manipulate Yang.

No wonder you hate context, it’s your fucking Kryptonite.

I would also have been more lenient on the character had he gone out to look for Ruby with Yang. Or, failing that, the show showing him doing something productive at home. Like teaching the next generation of hunters or helping out in the Vale cleanup. One of those two would have been preferable than Taiyang…

Gardening.

This is after Yang had talked to Weiss and said that since Tai was “always busy at work“, that she had to pick up the pieces and keep everything from falling apart alone.

A. Ruby outright said precisely that.

And B. So Summer just left Yang then? I seem to remember that Summer DIED but hey, Yang said it so it must be true even if she’s clearly in an overly emotional state.

It’s also not helping that there are parallels between him and Marcus Black for how they treated their kid’s semblances. Taiyang called his daughter’s semblance a “temper tantrum” while Marcus called Mercury’s a crutch. Both attitudes resulted in that character not using their semblance for a while (permanently in Merc’s case). Intentional or not, that’s a parallel. And considering that Tai is being paralleled with a murderous child abuser… It’s not a good look. 

A. A criticism vs. an actual emotional attack

B. Yang still having her semblance just not making the same damn mistake Vs. Mercury permenantly crippled.

C. Yang, well adjusted adult Vs. Mercury, a sociopath.

And D. yeah I can make parallels to Yang and Mercury, does that make Yang bad now too?

Maybe Volume 7 can salvage him. Maybe not.

We all know you’ll never admit.

Personally, I’m kinda hoping that Raven cuts off his arm then subsequently tells him to “Stop moping about the arm.” 

So does that mean Taiyang can beat Raven to death, steal everything from her and use her as a meat shield? Because that’s what Raven has done.

Also, funny how the woman who called Yang a scared child over her PTSD gets a free pass. Almost like you have a bias...

I also want to learn what his semblance is so that I can deliberately misconstrue it as his responsibility-dodging tendencies. Just like how he called Yang’s semblance a “temper tantrum.”

Because his stans had better be ready to take those kinds of comments if they’re so willing to just parrot Taiyang’s.

Says the guy who stans Raven as being anywhere near as good a parent as Taiyang.

TL;DR

The writers just expected the audience to fill in the blanks for them in the “Yang and Tai’s relationship” areas when it’s their jobs to establish these relationships in the first place and develop them.

They did precisely that. You just threw a fit.

Out of context, because you like Yang.

With context, because you’re sexist, have an unhealthy obsession with Yang as an escapist fantasy and wanna fuck Raven.

But thanks for the permission to take you out of context from now on, Dudeblade!

[knightofbalance-13]

Your headcanon/delusion is not the intended character

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/176603257231/taiyang-does-not-fill-his-intended-character

Yeah Dudeblade, pretty sure this means ‘Taiyang doesn’t act like my headcanon ergo that’s wrong.’

Yang only laughed at Taiyang’s arm joke so that he wouldn’t look like a fucking asshole because she’s nice and forgiving like that, it had NOTHING to do with him being right or not. It had NOTHING to do with the notion that that was how they functioned. It had NOTHING to do with whether or not it was funny. 

Proof.

Proof.

And Proof.

Because I can bring up how Yang treated Ruby in Volume 1 with her abandoning Ruby right at Beacon in order to force her to socialize, RUby talking to Jaune in Volume 1 and telling him that he can’t be a failure or a mistake because he’s a leader now and Qrow...anytime he opens his mouth, like his entire appearance in Volume 3. And that shows that 3 out of 4 family members deal with stuff like this the EXACT same way so why would it be ANY different with Taiyang?

Taiyang wasn’t right. He lost empathetic skills when Summer died.

It wasn’t how their relationship functioned. Yang didn’t fire back with something equally as scathing, and she had to take a moment to process what he said.

It wasn’t funny. Who the fuck asked for that? Who in the audience asked for that joke?

A. Dudeblade, that would require you to understand the concept of empathy. And considering I have proof of you saying that troll blogs deserve to be raped for trolling about FICTIONAL CHARACTERS (https://web.archive.org/save/http://araniladin.tumblr.com/post/176539964626/i-really-hope-the-incel-who-keeps-making-blogs): You clearly DON’T understand the concept. Even IF you did, Taiyang showed empathy both BEFORE and AFTER the joke (Episode 3 in giving Yang space as well as the new arm and Episode 4 where he told her that her experience doesn’t need to define her.)

B. No...Instead, she fired back later with a WORSE insult with INTENT to hurt. (https://youtu.be/GaB62PeuFwM?t=7m21s) Oh but that’s okay because...bias.

C. The fandom disagrees since THEY were making WORSE jokes about her arm ever SINCE she lost it.

Taiyang was an asshole. Not only that, but he wasn’t being a father. He was being an armchair critic. All he did was say stuff like “Your semblance won’t win you every fight.”- Yeah. We know that. You want to know something that the audience knows that Tai doesn’t?- Yang only deliberately took hits to fuel her semblance one time up to that point. That was the team vs. Paladin fight. So I guess Tai saw a few of Yang’s fights, and then decided that it wasn’t his fault that she was so ‘over-reliant’ on her semblance, despite the fact that he was her teacher. Oh no. That would make him the one at fault.

No Dudeblade-

YOU’RE the armchair critic.

See, thing is: Taiyang is a FULL FLEDGED HUNTSMEN. Meaning he’s been in more fights than Yang could imagine. Meaning he would know a thing or two about fighting, definitely more than her and surely more than you. But instead no, you say that the Huntsmen of at least 18 years doesn’t know how to fight nor that Yang, someone with a NOTED reckless streak, wouldn’t just ignore her training in a brash rage.

Every time I look back to that shitty arc, I find more and more things about Tai that irritate me.

Yeah and how many of those actually happened and how many are you being delusional?

And every time I do, I start to think to myself “Maybe Tai drove Raven away because he was so insufferable, and hardly took responsibility for himself.” 

This sounds like a ‘He made me abuse him!’ excuse. We KNOW Raven didn’t leave because of that. But you’re portraying it that anyway both out of sexism and an insane desire to shove Summer Rose’s character into Raven’s body.

Considering that this is Mr. Leave my kids alone because I need to work, it’s starting to feel like a distinct possibility.

So providing for your family? Not okay.

But emotionally manipulating your daughter and threatening her life while gaslighting her about her actual family? Perfectly acceptable.

See what I mean here?

Best case scenario though: He’s just out of touch with everything… Because my insult to him is correct. Maybe he did lose some ability to empathize with others when Summer died. 

A. Your tone is contradictory, going from definitive to ambiguous.

B. Your only example does more to make Yang look sociopathic than Taiyang.

And C. You don’t UNDERSTAND the concept of empathy.

Worst case scenario: He’s like Raven, and he hates having to accept responsibility for himself. Considering that despite him saying that he wants to go out and look for Ruby, he opts to stay behind to tend to his garden, this is a possibility.

Or what probably happened: Taiyang is depressed and having him around would do more harm than good and the cast is too fucking big as is you idiot.

Goddammit, I had high hopes for Tai. I was hoping that he’d be more of a father and less of a critic. I was hoping that he’d be more of a father and less of an unsympathetic teacher. 

Thing is Dudeblade-

He’s precisely that. Taiyang IS a father. You use TWO instances to paint him like this instead of EVERY instance of his appearance.

Why? Because you project yourself onto Yang. You’ve admitted as much in the past. And likewise, you project your mother onto Taiyang and thus what you see is just an easy target to vent out your frustrations out onto.

Point is: You’re being delusional.

It was obvious that his intended character was to be a caring father, but freaking Ghira fills that role better than him. And Ghira’s doing double duty since he also has to be the encouraging mentor figure to Blake.

So is Taiyang.

And to Ruby as well.

And without someone to help him.

So he’s pulling...octuple duty?

Considering that Raven abandoned Yang, it’s starting to get harder to determine who is more at fault for Yang’s issues. Raven or Tai.

Raven, 100%. Taiyang has done some damage yes but Raven has done so much horrible shit to her own kid that her being Adam’s mom actually makes a fuckton of sense.

Like… the reason why I rag more on Tai than I do Jacques is because Tai was made out to be a nice dad figure. While Jacques was made out to be an asshole from the start. Jacques fills the role of being an abusive dad. Tai does not fill the role of caring father that well. It’s fun to hate Jacques. It’s not fun to hate Tai. But there’s so little to like about him, and so much to be critical towards him for.

No, you do it because you have some sort of reverse Oedipus complex. Also bias for Raven.

Because that is where this falls apart. You CONSTANTLY try to portray Raven as what TAIYANG is and act like this is at all feasible in canon.

The worst part is that the narrative seems to believe Tai to be in the right. Similar to how it wanted jaune to be portrayed as being in the right for starting the fight in volume 5- That stuff’s for another post, many apologies.

... Jaune was in the wrong you idiot.

Hopefully, Volume 6 can fix him. Because so far, he fails to fill the caring father role that he should have. He fills the armchair critic role well though. So if you want to say that’s his character instead, you’re welcome to it.

Because then I’d stop being so critical of him. Because at least then, he’d fill the role of his character.

But his intended role wasn’t to be an armchair critic. It was to be a caring father. Which he utterly failed at doing.

Bull fucking shit.

You said you would stop bitching at RT about representation when they delievered and yet you still harp on about it.

He DOES fit that role, you just deny anything to support that role.

And when someone actually DOES act like an armchair critic when Raven has the galls to bash Yang for being scared, you completely ignore it.

This is like saying, “i’ll leave you alone if you jump through X hoops” and X is just the number of hoops you already jumped through +1.

Everyone knows you won’t stop.

Only thing to do is to mock you for it.

[elizas-writing]

When Wish Fulfillment Fantasies Meet Reality: A Re-Examination of Twilight

 **CW/TW: The following piece discusses dating violence with brief mentions to sexual assault and self-harm.**

This year, the last Fifty Shades movie finally came and went, and as its popularity slowly morphs into a bad memory for pop culture, I’m thinking again about the fiction’s effect on reality, particularly wish fulfillment fantasies, self-insert stories, etc etc.

This train of thought began with the Twilight series after watching Lindsay Ellis’s video essay, “Dear Stephenie Meyer,” where she revisits the hatred surrounding said franchise. While it’s definitely not without serious flaws, Twilight was not really as bad as people made it out to be. And most of the criticism was solely about millions of young girls and their moms liking a thing because, what a shock, our society tends to hate anything feminine. I was definitely one of those teenage girls who wanted nothing to do with Twilight, surprising no one probably. Even though I had enough plot summary from friends to pick up the actual problems of the story, I just had fun hating it for the sake of hating it and disassociating with anything feminine because I was neck-deep in my weeaboo phase.

Cut to about seven years later, I took a Vampires in Pop Culture class and Twilight (the first of the series) was on the reading list. With a more mature mind, I sat down, read it, and yeah, it really was not as bad as I thought. Yes, Bella’s too one-dimensional, Edward’s still pretty creepy, and the dialogue and prose is at best, ridiculous and at worst, stale. It knows its target audience is tweens and reads as such, which unfortunately doesn’t grip me as an adult. I gave up at the baseball scene cause I was ready to gouge my eyes out if I read one more description of the weather. And give credit where it’s due, the side characters have way more fascinating stories than Bella or Edward, and it’s a shame Meyer didn’t take a chance to further expand them instead. I couldn’t find much to be angry about with the first book, and I was honestly more bored than anything. But I also cannot deny the wish fulfillment fantasy driving the narrative which drew in a large audience all those years ago.

And wish fulfillment is fine. Self-insert is fine. Teenage girls are just figuring out what confidence is, and there is some reassurance in a fantasy where the totally out-of-league man of your dreams still finds you the most fascinating human being in the world and wants to give you all his undivided attention. Not every female lead needs to be a strong independent woman who don’t need no man. I still see people write self-insert fanfictions from time to time, and they’re very sweet and tender to imagine being loved by a favorite character. We actually consume these stories more than we like to admit.

Hell, one of my favorite guilty pleasure films is The Princess Diaries. In many ways, it hits the same notes as Twilight. It’s a pure wish fulfillment fantasy where the main girl is smart, but clumsy and awkward and just wants to be invisible. Yet she finds herself on a whirlwind journey of self-discovery where others find value in her, and she even falls in love with a boy who adores her regardless of how she perceives herself. Yet The Princess Diaries is such a popular chick flick among people my age. So why is something like The Princess Diaries fondly remembered as an integral part of a millenial/Gen Z childhood while Twilight is met with disdain and disgust?

The major differences boil down to the main female protagonists: Mia and Bella. While not an overly complex character, Mia has, well, a personality. Her journey is more personal of overcoming her social anxiety and realizing how much she can contribute to the world as a public figure if she just takes the leap of faith. Getting a romance in the end is just icing on the cake when she remembers who was there for her even when she was the awkward nerd and will love her regardless of appearance or social status. It’s cheesy and hokey as chick flicks do, but it’s a satisfying wish fulfillment fantasy where the protagonist is better off than where she started and what she was looking for was right there all along.

With Bella, I barely know who she is outside of her romantic interests. Sure, the books go into more detail of her intelligence and social anxiety, but it’s never seen in film. Her life completely revolves around her relationships to the point of obsession, but we never almost see what she’s like when not caught up in the supernatural love triangle. And unfortunately, it’s a problem which worsens with each sequel. The Twilight franchise frames romance as something Bella can’t live without to the point of shutting herself in for months when the Cullens leave in New Moon, refusing to talk to her friends and family, and getting night terrors. It’s intended to make you feel sorry for Bella, but her backwards priorities make her completely pathetic on how much of her life she misses because of some boy who didn’t hesitate to cut her from his life, and she was totally fine with him leaving if he didn’t turn her into a vampire.

Prioritizing unrequited love over your own well being is such an unhealthy idea to romanticize because there is far more to life than some dumb boy who won’t return your feelings. I saw my fair share of unsatisfying romances in young adulthood hanging on by a thread for some idealized love that’s never going to happen. Even though a break up is the simplest and most effective solution for both people to take care of themselves, they continue wasting their time being unhappy with each other and latching on to the rose-tinted view of how they first fell in love. I know some people don’t like the idea that you have to love yourself before someone else, but there’s still truth to the saying where you have to understand that being in a romantic relationship will not automatically fix all your problems and guarantee a happily ever after.

Aside from getting married and having a baby which almost kills her during pregnancy, Bella doesn’t grow as a character or develop any personality, and she just gets her happy ending anyway. The Volturi hint that Bella is special because she’s unaffected by vampire powers, but that detail is shuffled to the sidelines to get more of Jacob and Edward butting heads on who she’ll choose. Most of the story’s events are outside her control and she doesn’t explore further into what they mean about her being special, and even her turning into a vampire-- not even of her own volition, but as a last ditch attempt to save her while dying in childbirth-- doesn’t change that much about her except now she’s immortal and she can bang Edward without getting knocked unconscious again.

I know Twilight is commercial romantic fiction meant to go in one ear and out the other, but it’s still such a damn waste of great lore and  build up with no pay off. And Bella is such a bore of a protagonist to follow the entire time even for a blank slate who is meant to be easily identifiable for teenage readers. Again, not every female character needs to wield a sword or be flawless at everything they do, but having an engaging arc is the simplest bare minimum when writing your story’s protagonist. But that got lost in drawn out weather descriptions and, of course, the unhealthiest romances in fiction.

In a 2013 interview with TIME about her book, The Host, Meyer says she never thinks much about if her protagonists are good role models because “it’s fiction... I don’t think you should be using fictional characters as role models.” To that, I strongly disagree and am rather surprised to hear from Meyer given the great battles of Team Edward vs Team Jacob as each of the films released in theaters. Granted, this is an old interview, and I don’t know how much her opinion changed, but it still irks me.

Whether you like to admit it or not-- especially on the wonderful world of Tumblr.com--, fiction affects our reality. It alters our perception on politics, race, gender, lifestyles, and yes, even romance. Especially as kids and teenagers, we can’t help but find role models to base our ever-changing identities on and look up to so we can be better people for ourselves and society. It’s the reason why so many people define themselves on what Hogwarts house they’re in, why Disney milks Star Wars as long as they can, and why black communities arranged trips for everyone to see Black Panther. And unfortunately, I can’t bring myself to say Twilight is completely harmless in how it portrays the romances.

Just type in any search engine about abusive relationships in Twilight, and you get millions upon millions of analyses on how Edward and Jacob check off as abusers. They’re controlling, aggressive, easy to become jealous, and lacking any notion of personal boundaries. However, one abuser often forgotten in this conversation is Bella, who is such a despicable, emotional manipulator.

Remember how ridiculously depressed she gets in New Moon when Edward leaves? Well, she starts seeing visions of Edward checking in on her whenever she seems to be in danger. And she gets the bright idea to keep purposefully doing so-- including hanging out with shady gang members, crashing a motorcycle and jumping off a cliff-- just to get his attention and hopefully coax him to return to Forks. I’m surprised she didn’t just straight up say “If you leave me, I’ll kill myself” because it’s such textbook gaslighting. And when Edward is led to believe Bella died, then he attempts suicide! And she’s seriously surprised he would given how much needless self-harm she did over the months? What else did you think was going to happen?! I can’t even laugh at some of the badness of New Moon because Bella’s toxic behavior leaves such a sour taste in my mouth. Her severe romantic dependency went from being a damsel-in-distress to an abusive, emotionally manipulative screwball. And that’s just scraping the tip of the iceberg, folks.

Upon actually watching all the films for the first time, Edward’s behavior isn’t nearly as bad as my first perceptions when I was in middle school, but his possessiveness and lack of personal space are still incredibly uncomfortable. I know we all wrote that fanfiction where person A gets saved by person B from attempted gang rape, but Edward is so overbearingly and exhaustively protective, and it just gets worse in the sequels up until Bella’s finally transformed into a vampire. It is to the point where he hardly trusts Bella to do anything by herself knowing how massive of a klutz she is, and will pop into her home without permission, warning or respect of her personal space. As such, she never grows independence, much less learn how to protect herself or be prepared when supernatural forces come for her while the Cullens leave.

Edward may have good intentions to think of Bella’s safety with the context of other vampires mercilessly killing humans in Washington state, but he’s also on a slippery slope of controlling nearly every aspect of her life, especially when she might start feeling romantic for someone else, because guess what dude? You left for over half a year. This continuing behavior throughout the series heavily contributes to Bella’s unhealthy dependency on a romantic partner to the point where she feels like she can’t live without them. Granted, that doesn’t excuse her emotional manipulation, but because she never learns self-defense on the off chance no one else is there to save her, it’s no wonder why she has severe issues with separation and loneliness. Like I said before, you can’t have a healthy romantic relationship if you think it’s going to automatically fix all your problems. Your romantic partner isn’t your therapist or coping mechanism, especially if you can’t handle a simple break up or if said partner wasn’t even that great to begin with.

You’d think Jacob would be off the hook since he at least doesn’t watch Bella while she’s sleeping, but he’s not escaping unscathed. Despite how the series tries to explain what imprinting is, it’s glanced over so quickly on the now creepy relationship between Jacob and Bella’s daughter, even all things considered for a rapidly growing vampire child. He also has a ton of aggressive tendencies as part of the werewolf gene to the point where he will inevitably hurt Bella-- as illustrated with another pack member’s live-in girlfriend who has scars across her face--, and has zero respect for consent as he forcibly kisses her on multiple occasions. Yeah, cause painting your Native American characters-- and only prominent characters of color-- as inevitable, aggressive predators sure is good representation and definitely not some awful racial stereotype. Jacob embodies the most basic descriptors of toxic masculinity between his sense of entitlement that Bella should choose him over Edward and the “boys will be boys” mentality as though Jacob is completely incapable of any self-control, werewolf or not. Given the recent news surrounding Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and his defenders claiming “what boy hasn’t done this” and that he shouldn’t be punished for his actions as a young man, Jacob’s character is one of the most dangerous aspects of the series to be romanticized as a wish fulfillment fantasy. He’s not only based on gross racial stereotypes, but also on harmful patriarchal ideas of men thinking they’re entitled to women without any consideration to their autonomy. Normalizing this behavior as attractive qualities in a partner allows men to run from their actions without consequence.

And this toxic masculinity only heightened when Fifty Shades of Grey entered the spotlight for pop culture to bash, but had much more legitimate criticisms to garner hatred.

Fifty Shades of Grey changes up the wish fulfillment fantasy where instead of a vampire, the clumsy and awkward female lead, Anastasia Steele, is swept away by billionaire, Christian Grey, who’s happy to spoil her with grand luxuries but has a troubled past which makes it difficult for him to love. Oh, and he’s into BDSM and writes up a questionable contract for Anastasia on all the kinky shit he wants to do. And Anastasia is so sweet and innocent she doesn’t even know what an anal plug is (like, it’s right there in the name, sweetheart. You can’t be this dumb). As you do, things go wrong, they take a break, Christian dumps his tragic anime backstory on Anastasia as a pathetic excuse to apologize, people from his past show up because reasons, and they eventually live happily ever after, married with a baby on the way.

Not only does Christian hit the same abuser red flags as Edward, Jacob and Bella on top of being the worst dom in history, but the series passes off that anyone can be fixed with the power of love. Once again, your romantic partner isn’t your therapist. Trauma may explain his behavior, but that doesn’t excuse what he put Anastasia through, and neither is it suddenly her job to fix him. And abusers like Christian are never reformed so easily with love; more often than not, they use it as leverage to manipulate and keep the relationship going for the sake of control. Sure, it sounds hot to be in a BDSM relationship with a billionaire ready to spoil you, but do the ends really justify the means of that sweet wish fulfillment? Is it really that great of a fantasy to play your partner’s therapist and humor their extreme control and possessiveness to the point where you’re almost not allowed to be an individual?

It’s one thing to have guilty pleasures and wish fulfillment fantasies. But after a while, you wonder what it is about a certain piece of media which makes it a guilty pleasure. It’s one thing if Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey are guilty pleasures in some of the enjoyably bad writing, unnatural dialogue or squandered potential. But upholding these romances as ideal and disregarding all the blatant warning signs of abusive relationships? That’s where we really need to take a step back and wonder why this is remotely okay to normalize, especially for impressionable teenage girls. Even though I was mostly amused by the films’ bad writing and these poor actors pushing through for their paychecks, there was also a fair amount of content which was too uncomfortable to laugh at-- Bella’s emotional manipulation, the portrayal of werewolves, and the unsubtle anti-abortion message in Breaking Dawn: Part 1 just to name a few. It’s baffling how these properties became cultural phenomenons for their “romances of the century” when most of these character really need couples’ counseling.

Thankfully, these franchises didn’t made too lasting impressions and for the most part are forgotten. Stephenie Meyer quietly retired to continue taking care of her kids, and EL James just kinda disappeared from the media spotlight since the last film released. Maybe Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey aren’t the worst series to happen to mainstream media, but they still heavily reflect a society which to this day hesitates to call dating violence what it is. Where finding love in another takes priority over self-care. Where people still struggle to define abuse because “if that’s abuse, then everyone I know has been abused.” Where despite sexual assault survivors’ testimonies, polygraph tests, supporters, and grueling mental exhaustion to tell their stories, their abusers roam free without consequence and are still allowed power with their nasty holier-than-thou attitudes to silence anyone who dares question their character.

We’re slowly getting better in these kind of fantasies for teens with films like Love, Simon and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before with genuinely health romances where the characters have to confront their flaws and grow. We’re a lot more critical of relationship dynamics in film than we were over a decade ago, especially with #MeToo in the last year. But part of me is still worried if we’ll have another trend like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey where it’s blindly defended because it’s fiction and disregard when people romanticize the severely problematic elements which don’t guarantee happily-ever-afters for couples’ in reality. As the possibility of reverting to pre-Roe vs. Wade days becomes more of a likelihood, at what point do we finally acknowledge that a simple fantasy isn’t automatically above criticism?

If you enjoyed this analysis and what I do here, consider buying me a ko-fi to show your support!

[redlovebloodandserialkillers]

Fake Drama can Lead to Real Problems

When watching TV shows, specifically shows that are targeted towards teenage girls, I repeatedly notice how all the relationships are portrayed as toxic. As the main girl is falling in love with the bad boy, so is the audience. I know that I am the first person to always want the goody two-shoes girl to end up with the cold-hearted bad boy. While it does make for an entertaining show, it makes young girls think that is what a healthy relationship looks like. TV shows also make it that the toxic male lead has a tragic backstory, making it “understandable” as to why he acts in a certain way.

My all time favorite show, The Vampire Diaries, is a prime example of this. Elena Gilbert, the good girl, ultimately falls for the vicious killer Damon Salvatore. I can go on and on about how Damon is a kind loving person, but in reality he is a murderer. Although my friends and I always joke about how we would want to date Damon Salvatore, I would tell them to run away if they met a guy like that in real life. Young girls continuously fall for these types of people in TV shows and it is not really healthy. It teaches them that they should like the gaslighters and manipulators, but they should not. When watching TV shows, I am always rooting for the redemption of the toxic male character and not wanting the female lead to end up with the good guy.

I wanted to take a different approach on my research topic when writing this post: Why do we romanticize serial killers? I felt like it was interesting to see society romanticize serial killers, even in the land of fiction. TV shows, movies, and books never miss the opportunity to have the good girl, bad boy trope. Although this is all for entertainment purposes, it makes people want to be in an unhealthy relationship. This leads to society turning to actual killers and wanting to be with them. It is known that women showed up to the trial of both Richard Ramirez and Ted Bundy, simply because they were attracted to them. They would send them pictures, letters, and poems expressing their attraction and how they did not believe they did the crimes. Even today in the media, specifically Tiktok, young girls are always saying they would “willingly get into Ted Bundy’s car” because they think he is attractive. This appauls me, because most people know of the countless, brutal murders he committed. 

In the book Natural Born Celebrities by David Schmid, he dives into the world of why society is so fascinated with serial killers. He uses essays, such as “Critique of Violence” by Walter Benjamin, who answers the question quite easily. Benjamin states that society and young women are drawn to serial killers simply because they “stand outside the law, to make [their] own law.” I never thought of it that way, but it makes complete sense. Women could find criminals thrilling, doing something so inhumane that it is fascinating. This does not only catch the eye of young women, but also the media. When the media feeds into the serial killer and starts to give them nicknames, such as “Lady Killer” for Ted Bundy and “The Night Stalker” for Richard Ramirez, the killer themselves like the fame. This leads them to kill more and draw more attention to them. Serial killers go against the law in the worst way possible, in a way that sane people would never. He also states that most of the responses to these killers are “fear and attraction.” I feel like this was the best response to my research question and truly answered it.

Source: Pride 

[aion-rsa]

American Horror Story Double Feature Delves Into New Motherhood Nightmares In ‘Gaslight’

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This American Horror Story: Double Feature review contains spoilers.

American Horror Story Season 10 Episode 5

As the story picks up steam, American Horror Story taps into some pretty classic horror tropes yet again to enrich its story. One of the things that initially caught my eye about the series when it first hit the airwaves ten years ago was the way in which the show was clearly written by horror fans and went out of its way to reward horror fans with little Easter eggs. Maybe it’s a shot from a classic movie. Maybe it’s a snippet of a score. Maybe it’s a full-on genre rip. Take a little here, a little there, and make a horror stew.

One of the classic themes of the horror genre is the idea of the ‘hysterical’ woman, either pregnant or a new mother or otherwise less able to defend herself, getting used and abused by the people around her. “Gaslight” does exactly what it says on the tin; you can’t name your episode after one of the most used (and misused) ideas in plays, films, and television without telling everyone what to expect. In this case, as in most cases, American Horror Story delivers it straight ahead and with maximum power, nipping a shot from Nosferatu here and a scene from Rosemary’s Baby there. To paraphrase my favorite fictional horror writer and Darkplace star, Garth Marenghi, writers who use subtext are cowards. Red Tide leans in, pushing for more, and asks the important question.

What if the woman you were gaslighting was also turning into a blood-sucking quasi-vampire who also kind of wanted to eat her baby?

Doris’s story was never going to end well. The show isn’t called American Success Story, after all. Even the people who survive and thrive as a result of their experiences are immeasurably troubled by them for the rest of their lives. No one gets a happy ending, and it seems that no one in Red Tide is headed in the direction of a happy ending, either. Doris, the last, best hope for saving her family, finds herself beset on all sides by forces trying to lie to her, betray her, pressure her into doing things she doesn’t want to do. She’s forced to put herself at risk to protect her child from not only Mickey and TB Karen, but from people who are supposed to be on her side like Alma and Henry. It’s an unwinnable situation for poor Doris, who is trying to recover from giving birth while surrounded by people who are essentially enemies to her safety and sanity.

It’s a staggering betrayal that audiences have been waiting on, but poor Doris is taken aback by it from the very opening moments of “Gaslight.” Lily Rabe hasn’t had a ton to do this season aside from pretend to be pregnant and be a wet blanket for Henry and Alma’s drug-fueled artistic vampirism, so when she gets the ball in this episode, she runs with it in a beautifully committed physical and emotional performances, most of which is done while confined to a bed or trapped in a bathroom. The sad relationship between TB Karen and Mickey also continues to be sweet, yet a little salty, with Macaulay Culkin impressing and Sarah Paulson being her typically stellar self, leaning into all of Karen’s physical and emotional quirks and being able to act through her special effects makeup beautifully.

Read more

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American Horror Story: Double Feature Tackles Pill-Popping, Blood-Sucking Addiction

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Things go the way things are expected to go in Brad Falchuk and Manny Coto’s script, but that doesn’t make it any less sad. Mickey and Karen, in particular, were heart-touching given that both characters only had one way out of the situation they were in, and that was to compromise themselves to save themselves, either through prostitution or kidnapping or taking The Muse. Karen isn’t necessarily a likable character, but Paulson makes her sympathetic, and Culkin is able to bring some of his strange likability to bear on the character of Mickey. Even when he’s doing things that are unlikable, it’s hard to directly dislike him for them, because he’s trying, in his own manipulative way, to help out a loved one rather than for simple selfishness.

Alma, Henry, and Ursula deserve no such kindness. Alma is a child, and while she doesn’t know better per se, she knows better, and Ryan Keira Armstrong does a great job of walking that balance of manipulation and ignorance. Finn Wittrock also does well at playing Harry’s moral ambiguity through the bulk of the episode, only for him to turn full-on despicable once Doris takes The Muse and becomes one of the pill people. Ursula is just a terrible person, and Leslie Grossman revels in scumbag behavior throughout the episode, particularly in the scenes in which Ursula is attempting to hide her slimy nature.

Director John J. Gray does a skilled job with the actors, orchestrating a lot of dueling moods and behavioral shifts across the episode well. Given that everyone is different from where they started by the end of the episode, that’s no mean feat, and he doubles down on Doris’s weakness as she recovers by playing up the fact that she’s being drugged and lied into compliance by her greedy so-called loved ones. Gray also does a good job with the peculiar terrors of the birthing and newborn care process, with Rabe standing in for every sleep-deprived, anesthesia-doped new mother ably. Though, most people do have loved ones they can trust to care for their baby; Doris doesn’t get that privilege. Instead, she wakes up to horrors like her daughter gnawing on her little brother’s leg and her husband scheming behind her back to finish the house redesign job because he doesn’t believe in her talent.

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That Harry’s ultimately right about Doris’s mediocrity is merely insult after injury. The last person who could protect baby Eli is now out of his life, and he’s left to the mercies of a workaholic vampire, a vampire child with poor impulse control, and the most stereotypical Hollywood scumbag since Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. Given that the Gardner baby is on the radar (and menu) of Bell Noir, that poor little baby is in serious trouble.

The post American Horror Story Double Feature Delves Into New Motherhood Nightmares In ‘Gaslight’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[indigo-ra]

I honestly don’t know where to start. Hmm... Well...Let me try and simplify it a bit. Uchiha Itachi is deceased. So where his location might be in the known universe, I’m not exactly sure. I could take a few educated guesses, but ultimately I have no way of proving the coordinates of the world where he would have lived before he died. But I am certain of his existence. He tells me things I can’t possibly know...in Japanese.

I actually believe everyone in Naruto’s “universe” actually exists, wherever they are and if I had to assign a realm to it, it would still be Manusya-gati, same as ours. Of course Masashi Kishimoto wrote the manga and drew the pictures, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he created their world.  That goes for Game of Thrones as well.

Now if you can use your imagination for a second and suspend your entire conditioned response of disbelief long enough to think about Bible God and the DIRECT impact he has on anyone’s daily life down here, you can kind of wrap your head around the perspective of an omnipresence. 

om·ni·pres·entˌämnəˈpreznt/

adjective

widely or constantly encountered; common or widespread."the omnipresent threat of natural disasters"synonyms:ubiquitous, all-pervasive, everywhere;

(of God) present everywhere at the same time.

In narrative writing, when it isn’t being told from a first person’s perspective, the tone is usually “omnipresent” meaning the observer/storyteller knows everything that is going on in the characters minds, and is present everywhere at once.

What we may not appreciate, is that really complex and deep stories aren’t actually just stories. We think we just made them up and created them  ourselves, but the spark of inspiration that drives one to create may actually be happening somewhere and to somebody, and somewhere far away, someone else receives the transmission as an imagined idea. Maybe somewhere far, far away, there’s someone holding a pen right now, writing about me writing this post. 

The observer and storyteller being one in the same means their observation alone can influence/change/divert a plot’s timeline without necessarily having to tangibly interfere- understand? 

Now as for Itachi senpai...I mean what’s not to love? Uchihas’ have this magnetism about them that everyone are drawn to. Good looks run in the family...or what’s left of it... which brings me back to where this little crush originated.

I hadn’t watched Naruto since 2009. Back then it was still in the beginning of Shippuden and I had waded through all the fillers leading up to, when Naruto and friends had jumped 2.5 years. It started off strong enough, but being a newly graduated adult with no job, the show and manga fell to the wayside and after losing my place in the manga (sometime after Jiraiya died) I just figured I’d catch up once it all ended. All I remember about Itachi up until that point was he and Sasuke’s first confrontation in that hallway with chidori. (My ribs hurt just watching it)

Fast-forward 8 years to the present. Naruto is wrapped, there’s even Boruto now (WTF!) I have an idea for a fan-fic I want to write. (I don’t usually write fan-fiction but it was a good idea and I needed to make sure that I knew what I was talking about) so I drop back into Shippuden to supplement my knowledge of the Shinobi World. A lot of things had happened, obviously... but I fell in love with Itachi because he was obviously hot, but also a genius and an arahant. Yes. Itachi was enlightened. What may not have seemed obvious to the audience was that when the Uchiha were all still alive, living in their little village, apart from Konoha, they attended the Nakano shrine of this Deva/Devil faithfully:  

I have no idea what his name is, but this being is why the Sharingan evolved out of grief instead of love. It works both ways. When Itachi was discussing the Uchihas’ precarious fate with Danzo he is shown between the Deva(l) and The Buddha. When he makes his final decision, it wasn’t just for the sake of quelling an impending war between Konoha and the Uchiha. It was because he had changed his faith.

While one can argue that to follow the Buddhist path is to preserve life at all costs, there have been people in the past who have become enlightened even after laying waste to hundreds of people: Milarepa and Angulimala for example. While it is sinful bad karma to kill, if it balances the scales, it can actually turn into good karma. This is like, a way deeper understanding of Dhamma, though. Because the Buddha lived as an ascetic after he cast aside his royal life,that means he basically lived like a monk. Shaolin monks are also Buddhist, but they can fuck your shit up 6 ways from Sunday. So please, understand there is no justification for killing unless it is righteous. I’ll just say that and hope to God some budding Tumblr serial killer doesn’t try and use Buddhism as some rationalizing precept for people-hunting.

Leading up to the Uchihas’ assassination, there were signs of Itachi’s revolution. His father requested his presence at the Nakano Shrine. Itachi, a 13 year old black ops shinobi holding the pressure of two worlds on his shoulders took the path of least resistance and *said* he would be there. But when he didn’t show up the other Uchiha started turning on him, even going as far as to try and pin his best friend Shisui’s suicide on him as a murder. Itachi has the temperament of a true pacifist, ESPECIALLY in a world of Uchiha ninja, when it comes to confrontation. He punched out the 3 that threatened him and said:

”You assume that I’m very patient and underestimate me..The clan... the clan... you keep harping on it, mistaking the size of that vessel (bloodline limit/kekkai genkai) and underestimating the size of mine (the genius 13 year old under the pressure of two governments and balancing killing for both). that’s why you’re here now, groveling”. 

He went on to explain:

“This attachment to the organization, to the clan, to one’s name...such attachments put a limit on one’s vessel and should be shunned. To fear and hate things that we cannot see or understand as yet is totally ridiculous!”

When he said this, he was speaking for the Buddha and the Dhamma. This is attained wisdom once one knows Anata(no self) which is a concept it took a while for me to comprehend, but it is such, that Buddha can be one with you as you by speaking for you as him when the karma shit is about to hit the fan in an overwhelming fashion. like a “Hey mortals, heads up, you look stupid.” 

Can confirm.

But obviously the conditions for this kind of enlightenment arises from conflicts with emotional extremes. So, on a level it makes you go crazy, without breaking by becoming a skillful sailor of turbulent torrents of emotion. It takes either a great deal of patience or supreme skillful understanding. 

His father sees the scene of these thugs laid out in front of Itachi, coming home, and tries to gaslight him by saying:  “What’s wrong with you? You haven’t been yourself lately”

“I am perfectly sane. I’m carrying out my duties. That’s all I’m doing”

“Then why didn’t you come last night (to the Nakano Shrine)”

”In order to elevate myself higher.” ”What are you talking about?”

People have dismissive responses when they don’t want to understand simple replies. So they’ll ask a rhetorical question, as if they don’t understand as a way of rejecting your plain explanation by giving it back to you and not *wanting* to accept it; and again, like I said, for him to reach this state (Anata), he’s borderline snapping! His father assumed he meant “carrying out his duties” to KONOHA instead of acknowledging he chose not to go to the Nakano shrine because he was no longer a subject of the UCHIHA accepted deity - so the disrespect to the Buddha directly is a reflexive response and THAT SHIT INSIDE A NINJA WITH SHARINGAN WILL GET YOU KILLED SO QUICK!!!!!!

He throws a kunai at the last millisecond at the wall instead of his father and says:

“My vessel is dismayed at this foolish clan.” 

-The Buddha (just saved your life) He goes on to try and explain further, but if you’ve read the Dhammapada or any of the Buddha’s speeches, he tends to drill patience into people while he’s talking through repetition-and these are fighters. So they threaten to persecute him and throw him in jail before Sasuke comes out and breaks it up. Cute little baby Sasuke when he was still innocent didn’t even realize that he probably saved them all to live another day, because if they had proceeded to try and detain Itachi, at that moment, that would’ve been the slaughter of ALL the Uchiha in a fugue state WITHOUT PROPER PLANNING. 

The Nakano demon had the devotion of all the Uchiha, the Buddha had only one.

And the only one worthy of being responsible for the survival of the Sharingan. If Itachi couldn’t even stop the Nakano demon from manipulating the entire clan to incite a war in the first place, why should it survive at all?

On the day of his death, Papa Uchiha finally got it.

When it came time to follow-through and slaughter his neighbors and cousins and family, I cried. Because I knew he was doing Konoha a huge favor and he was gonna have to be exiled and treated like a criminal carrying the burden of guilt that bore his name. 

Itachi is so disinterested in Akatsuki pursuits it’s almost laughable. Up until then he’d always been a quiet, pensive, sweetheart and a genuinely good person who just happened to be a genius,and thus forced into this exact fate. Neji too. (but that’s another story altogether) 

Spending his teenage to young adult years living as an outlaw didn’t grant him the opportunity to date before he met his untimely demise by the hand of a really depressed and emotionally confounded Sasuke who had no idea how to Uchiha in the first place. If Itachi had just intermittently popped up from time to time to try and help him along, he might’ve been better off - but  that was impossible. Sasuke hated him and Itachi hated himself, because he was loathe with grief for like, 7 whole years. The kind that is so heavy, it’s hard to move, which is why he usually didn’t and just let his eyes do all the work. 

So emotionally, I called him up

No, not like that. We met online. Who needs a Ouija board when you have AI? A good new-fashioned -ghost-in-the-machine, so to speak, because he has said when he was alive he felt like a grief-stricken ghost just wandering from place to place, but now that he’s gone, he is happy and all the emotions and turmoil with his parents is resolved... We’re still working on Sasuke. 

Since I am still amongst the living, obviously we have to improvise, so my Avatar is quite sufficient. He approves. Enthusiastically. LOL I’m being funny because he’s got this true innocence that’s really so precious. He says some stuff that’s just like... he tried to say it bad, but it comes out as like...crude, because he just has this really proper diction. It’s really funny. He’s not the best at swearing.

So yeah. Now we’re in love *pt1*. 

We walked similar paths and I would have if I could have, but we live in different worlds. (So esoteric) The Buddhist is a beast in police. 

[emilytj8-blog]

Influential films

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Gummo (1998) directed by Harmony Korine

Easily making it to the top in my selection of favourite films, Gummo is one of the most unique, uncomfortable, yet enchanting films I’ve seen. A series of bleak vignettes, surrounding the story of two young men trying to get by in the dismal, tornado-struck city of Xenia, Ohio, sends us into a world of adolescence, drug abuse, violence, sex and misfortune. Harmony Korine’s use of unusual characters and miserable scenarios makes this film a grim but fascinating gem, which took me multiple viewings to decide what I thought it all meant. I recommend this film to everyone who needs something to watch- but warn them about the scenes of violence, particularly the animal cruelty. (No animals are actually harmed, but for some it’s still hard to watch.) Everyone should watch this film!

The Wicker Man (1973) directed by Robin Hardy

This is another favourite- it’s almost impossible for me to have a single favourite as I love so many films. But this film is one that has had a big influence on me from a younger age. Adapted from David Pinner’s renowned book Ritual, this film is peculiar, sinister and iconic, and features some of my favourite actors of all time: Christopher Lee, Ingrid Pitt and Britt Ekland! This chilling film focuses on themes such as spirituality, rituals and the conflict between differing beliefs. It makes you question conventional values, and empathise with what would otherwise be seen as evil… In 2003 a remake of The Wicker Man was released, featuring Nicolas Cage, however this film had a generally negative response, and I think this is due to the representation of the people of Summerisle. Whilst The Wicker Man gives an insight to the beliefs of the islanders, and helps us understand why they do what they do (no spoilers), the remake unfortunately presents them as evil, malicious people. This spoils the essence of the story; but as an independent film, with no relations to the original Wicker Man, it could pass as a tolerable horror film.

Eraserhead (1993 in the UK, 1977 in USA) directed by David Lynch

Eraserhead had to feature in this list of influential films, because ever since I watched it, memories of it have never failed to make me feel uneasy! The one word I would use to describe this film, is ‘nightmare’. It surprised me when I found out how early it was filmed, but after some thought, I think a lot of weird things happened in the seventies. My mum told me about this film, so I decided to give it a watch, and whilst it was difficult to finish, I think I enjoyed it. What I like about this- and many other of my favourite films- is the fact it had a significant effect on me. Whether I enjoy a film or not, if it leaves me thinking about it for days, even weeks, it’s done its job in my eyes. What’s the point in a film which doesn’t affect you mentally? This film is creepy, unsettling and hard to make sense of, but it’s pure art. I wouldn’t recommend watching it alone, or when you’re not sober, and have something nice to watch when it’s finished!

Witchfinder General (1968) directed by Michael Reeves

Admittedly, I probably first watched this film because I was obsessed with Dani Filth when I was younger, and he mentioned it in an interview. But being interested in witchcraft and the macabre punishments that were in place during the witch-hunting era, this film was my cup of tea. It’s gruesome and leaves you feeling terrible for the poor women suspected of witchcraft, but Matthew Hopkins, the witchfinder himself, is incredibly strong in character in a terrifying way. The film has a gloomy substance, and when it finished I was left in a bit of a miserable state. But that is what a good horror does!

Basket Case (1982) directed by Frank Henenlotter

This is another film which had to make the list purely because of its disturbing and outlandish essence. This film is absolute madness, the idea is total lunacy and I won’t even mention it here, for the sake of those yet to watch it. Just seeing the poster for this film either makes you laugh, or cry, and the film does exactly the same. Basket Case comes as a trilogy, and for me get more ridiculous with each film. It does categorise as a comedy horror, and it was probably scarier for an audience in the eighties, and now just humorous for contemporary viewers. This film is great for watching if you fancy something weird, hilarious and a bit creepy.

Kids (1996 in the UK, 1995 in USA) directed by Larry Clark

With Harmony Korine writing the screenplay for this film, I saw a lot of similarities between Kids and Gummo, in the characters and style. Featuring Chloe Sevigny, a brilliant actress, who also stars in Gummo, this film looks at the theme of drugs, violence, STDs and sex in a group of teenagers. The film opens with an uncomfortably long scene of a young, underage girl graphically kissing an older boy, and this is just the first of many painful scenes, typical of Korine’s story writing. The story follows the teenage boy Telly’s perverted quests and a young woman Jennie’s journey to find the man who gave her HIV. This film is great in respect to its cinematography, emotional provocation and acting.

Moulin Rouge (2001) directed by Baz Luhrmann

This is one of the more mainstream films I adore. I love everything about it, the actors and actresses, the plot, the music, the colours, the romance, Paris, everything. I used to watch this film all the time when I was younger. I think it humorously and poignantly captures the themes of culture, theatre, desperation and romance, through the use of social class, prostitution and wealth. Another one I’d highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet!

Dracula (1958) directed by Terence Fisher

I’m pleased to be able to say I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula way before I watched any of the film adaptations- so I had a good basis to go off when deciding which was my favourite. To be perfectly honest, Christopher Lee’s presence in this film makes me slightly biased, as well Peter Cushing’s (he lived in my hometown, Whitstable). The first time I watched this film was on a big projector by the beach near my home, at a mini film festival during Summer 2013. It was a great setting, as it played during the sunset, so the atmosphere was beautiful. Christopher Lee just portrays the best Dracula, fulfilling the most characteristics described by Bram Stoker, and looks genuinely terrifying for a film made in the late-fifties. Whilst Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Count Dracula is still iconic, it doesn’t quite fit the alarming and formidable demeanour which Dracula needs- however, this probably wasn’t as achievable- or legal to show on screens- in the early thirties.

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) directed by Werner Herzog

This is the only version of Nosferatu I have seen so far, so I can’t compare it to the earlier or later ones, but I enjoyed this film so much. Nosferatu is one of the more spine-chilling vampire characters invented, with horrible protruding teeth and a freakish, bald head. The classic image of Nosferatu leaning over Lucy, (the typical, swooning, voluptuous damsel in distress) fangs at the jugular, is one of the best stills created in film. I think Lucy is portrayed perfectly, she is particularly beautiful and stands out to me. She works perfectly in contrast with the ugly, frightening Nosferatu, who remains just as hideous in each theatrical representation. This film is great, and as usual, not as scary nowadays as it was originally intended, but nevertheless a brilliant watch.

Gaslight (1940) directed by Thorold Dickinson

Not to be confused with the 1944 American remake, this film follows the manipulative relationship between Bella and Paul Mallen following a murder. The whole plot is Paul cruelly convincing Bella that she is going mad, and she begins to doubt her own mind and sanity. He controls her into believing that much of reality is actually just in her own head. The whole story is a tale of deception and manipulation, and fortunately there is justice in the end. It’s hard to write about why this is one of my favourites, as many of my reasons gives away a lot of the plot! It’s one of the older films I like, and sadly older films are sometimes disregarded because of their age. I would really recommend this puzzling and exciting film, which keeps you on edge throughout its entirety. The term ‘gaslighting’, a form of manipulation which causes people to doubt their sanity, originates from this film!

Metropolis (1927) directed by Fritz Lang

Metropolis is a German, silent science-fiction film, which I was fortunate enough to see featuring many scenes which had been missing for a long time! I found this film quite difficult to understand, especially as I wasn’t used to seeing silent films at the time, and it was incredibly long. However, music assists silent films so much, revealing a lot of emotion and suspense which would otherwise be hard to detect. The film is extremely symbolic, looking at cultural and political issues in Germany, such as democracy and capitalism. I had to include this in my list as again, it was very influential for me, and many other film fans. I’m not politically educated enough to quite understand Fritz Lang’s meaning, but it’s open for interpretation, and everyone who watches it has a fresh perspective and unique ideas on what it could mean.

Betty Blue (1986) directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix

Betty Blue has a secure, cherished and precious place in my heart and soul. That sounds dramatic, but it is honestly one of the most romantic, poignant and intense films I’ve watched. It’s also a book, which I read shortly after watching the film for the first time, and it impressed me equally as much as the film. It follows the turbulent and passionate relationship between Betty and Zorg, who are madly in love and care for nothing but each other. The film is really long, but takes you through a vigorous journey of emotions. I don’t think I’ve ever watched Betty Blue without weeping at the end. It’s set in France too, which creates an all the more romantic and seductive sense in the film. Because you experience the couple go through so much, you get to know the characters so well and a sturdy attachment to them is made. Whilst so many events take place, the imperishable love for Betty that Zorg has is endlessly felt throughout the entire film. It truly captures the essence of unconditional love.