#woke without the work

[varianwinchester]

You know following @thestorytimeguy has made me realize of all the stories and history that have been neglected from different backgrounds. Latino and Aztec/Mesoamericano stories but also African and African American stories. But neglected I mean we hear so often iterations of the Brothers Grimm, Aesops Fables, Hans Christian Andersen, etc. and not those stories. Stories from a racially diverse background.

We are getting a new The Little Mermaid.

I’ve always been distant with these live action remakes because they seem like a downgrade to the beautiful original. Flawed as some of them may be these originals have worth. It is way much more worth than these live action remakes that offer more often than not poor soundtracks, extra time and for what? The same exact story! Nothing new is really not added! And if things are altered the changes feel weird because you know they are changes! And the special effects although props to all the workers, they just don’t have the same freedom animation has and can’t do the scenes already done good justice. They cater to the nostalgia of their older audience and leave their new audiences confused on these attempts sometimes.

I digress, anyways… this “Ariel” is black and yk the rest of her sisters are racially diverse too (I hope this is given a purpose like each sister comes from and rules a separate ocean of the seven seas, that would be cool) but like when Ariel’s actress was announced I wasn’t one of those people who were like “that’s not how Ariel is supposed to look like” but I also don’t see their reasoning. Is this supposed to be representation? Because even though there’s not really a “supposed to” for a mythical creature this is a white story. I do hope there’s a purpose like the aforementioned because then you have your POC with a story that is not their own. That is not REPRESENTING them.

I mean unless you do something exciting with a remake or retelling. Because Disney is doing both with this Little Mermaid- remember Hans Christian Andersen’s little mermaid was some different. I think like despite the story of The Frog Prince being German, the remix The Princess and the Frog put on it- showing the culture of New Orleans, putting role model relationships and a role model princess- is representation going right. Although yeah I agree the whole half a movie as a frog is a bit of the opposite of representation you still have the cast diverse (the crew could use some work but through the movie you can at least tell they did their research). There’s a new trailer of the upcoming Little Mermaid out… and the first teaser was honestly exciting I had hopes anticipating what they might do for this remake. How naive I am. This new trailer showed the EXACT SAME SCENES AS THE 1989 MOVIE. Dude the EXACT same dialogue. I know because I know it like the back of my hand! (Ariel was my sister’s favorite princess) How disappointing it was! I will say maybe a wider view “I-can-show-you-the-world” Under the Sea sequence sounds cool and the way Ursula’s tentacles lit up was real cool.

I had some disconnect when I saw Halle Bailey react to her Ariel doll. Which is amazing don't get me wrong! I really don't know why I felt this, maybe because she said Ariel was her favorite Disney character and now it looks like her. I hope I am not insensitive in saying that I don't quite understand that?

I mean when it comes to dolls I know there's like a whole other history and issues- some I am sure linked to film, so that is a whole other branch in topic. But my feelings I am referring to is besides dolls. More of referring to the argument that it is good for Ariel to be a POC for the young generations to see “themselves” in roles they would want to emulate. I do hope that kids aren’t limited by skin color. I hope that they don’t look at these animated princesses and think “I can never be them, I’m not white.” Be whoever you want to be in heart and outfits/dress-up. (A different story if literally working in parks of course.) It’s not like I don’t understand though what it means to see your color on the screen. Even despite dressing up as Cinderella and Snow White when I was young, having a favorite princess in the former, I still had felt this ethereal connection to Pocahontas. Although not my culture (not anyone's really) it meant something that she looked like me.

I guess that is what they are striving for with this remake. But we have on come so far from the thinking of the 90s to just take that now. On the matter of it doesn't matter what the princess or hell superhero looks like, let me clarify: yes that is a bit of a “colorblind” statement and I still stand by that for I contend it is the right kind of clot blindness for a child to have. But as adults, as movie creators, and occupants of this society that race was built into, we can't be colorblind because you neglect the trials, tribulations, and triumphs behind the race. And that is what this "representation" does.

That's what this new Little Mermaid is. I applaud the representation of movies like Moana and Encanto, their flaws still present, these films gave the adventure and role models and lessons and culture behind the ethnicity of these characters. The cast and characters delivering their own new stories. THEIR OWN.

Like aside from race representation, what I think would be a bit more than surface level representation would be casting queer actors in the roles of Ariel and Ursula. This movie and story is a queer allegory through and through. The mermaid who had body dismorphia, who didn't belong. That was the story when (possibly queer) Hans Christian Andersen wrote it and that essence remained in Disney’s 1989 adaptation – of course in their version the mermaid gets the happy ending well in the OG she did not. As far as I can tell Halle Bailey is not queer. Melissa McCarthy is a strong ally, and in fairness she has performed as a drag queen. Which if you didn’t know the design for Ursula was inspired by drag queen Divine. And she apparently "stays true" to animated Ursula. Which again- mixed feelings after all if you are going to make a live action, make it your own! Not a copy, not Will Smith trying to be Robin Williams’ Genie. Make it Will Smith being Will’s Genie.

But Ursula I think they went the safe route because although the queer community has pretty much claimed the sea witch as their own, the issue of and complexity of queer coding villains arises. Yet I’m still in favor for Alex Newell playing Ursula. That’s based on merit too! Like did you HEAR their performance on Disney’s Pride celebration?? Since maybe with that fan-cast other issues might come about, hear me out, instead of a live action Little Mermaid, what about- another Alex Newell featuring project- Once on This Island?!

Once on This Island is a musical adaptation of 1985 novel “My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl” by Rosa Guy, a Caribbean retelling of Has Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid. It was nominated for 8 Tony Awards back in 1991. It would be an excellent story to put to the screen! A fact that Disney even acknowledged. Disney+ announced a pro shot of the stage version back in 2020 and no one’s followed up, so here’s me following up!

[noodles-and-tea]

Returning home

[serpentface]

The pylidaigh, a type of vampiric snow ghost, as imagined in folklore in and around the Highlands.

This is a ghost believed to come into being when a person dies in the snow and their body is not found before their soul (still trapped without its funeral rites) 'freezes' inside of it. The body then reanimates into a pylidaigh's twisted form. It looks like someone who slowly died of starvation, just a thin layer of flesh over bones. Its skin is as white as the snow itself, so pale it can blend seamlessly into a blizzard. Most of its body appears subtly stretched and lanky, save for its exceptionally unsubtle long, skinny arms, which drag on the ground behind it when it walks. After a big meal of blood, its belly swells like the abdomen of a tick.

A pylidaigh can only tread across snow and ice, and so doorways and windows are best kept clear of snowfall during the winter in order to prevent it from reaching inside. It mostly comes out to hunt during blizzards when there is little that can prevent it from catching its victims.

In spite of its fragile appearance, a pylidaigh is supernaturally strong, and can run at great speeds when it wants to. No mortal weapons can pierce its body, nor can any bonds known to craftsmen hold it in place. It is usually said that chains forged like iron but made out of ice can bind a pylidaigh and render it immobile, but this smithing technique remains tragically elusive to the average joe.

This ghost is either cast as a wildly dangerous but tragic figure, or one that is more simply malicious. In either case, it is described as experiencing nothing but bitter cold. It shivers endlessly. It retains distant memories of what it was to be alive, and it is motivated by a futile desperation to experience the feeling of warmth again.

In more sympathetic framings, it is described as using its freaky gibbon arms to capture its victims and pull them into an embrace, rather innocently trying to warm itself against their body. This inevitably fails, and the embrace becomes a bone crushing squeeze. When that too fails to warm the ghost, it rips out the person's throat and drinks their blood until the victim is as cold and drained as the pylidaigh itself.

In other cases, this more pitiable narrative of a ghost seeking warmth with no comprehension of its actions is discarded in favor of making it purely monstrous. Here it is a type of vampire with an insatiable thirst, practically a physical manifestation of the worst of winter itself. Some tales acknowledge both variants, suggesting a pylidaigh's violent attempts to warm itself may be initially devoid of malice, but turns into an act of furious jealousy of the warmth of the living after years of suffering.

The only (more or less) surefire method to permanently kill a roaming pylidaigh involves trapping it with fire. They are attracted to any source of heat, and will attempt to warm themselves with the flames (if not tempted away by a juicy living human body). The fire itself cannot kill them (as the sheer cold of their body is more powerful even than flame) but they can be trapped if kept near the fire long enough for the snow it depends upon to melt. This does not kill the pylidaigh either. The monster will remain in stuck in place (and potentially become a threat again if it snows more) for the duration of the winter. Only when the spring comes and all the snow melts does it revert into a normal human carcass (though mysteriously invulnerable to decay), at which point it can be cremated.

Pylidaigh in the wilds also revert to a human corpse during the snowless seasons, but will roam again each following winter unless it is burnt in the interim. It is of critical importance that any human corpse found in high mountain pasture is cremated- not only out of respect for the poor soul trapped as an earthbound ghost, but to prevent the threat of the possible dormant pylidaigh emerging next winter.

[liltaireissocute]

[PERC'ILDAN]

A phrase said by Vax in ep 29 3:50:30 had absolutely shattered my mind and soul with how much care, understanding and concern for Percy are in those words

+ version without subtitles

[mari-lair]

boys

[poisonouspastels]

can you believe these are statements made by the same fucking guy over 10 years apart

[devotion-disorder]

Where did you learn how to draw so goddamn deliciously? Damn bro i could eat your drawing for breakfast, lunch AND dinner<3 (i wish to know your drawing secrets oh great one)

🃏

thank u…i dont know if eating jpegs for breakfast is a good idea but!!! im happy to hear u like my stuff 😭😭😭

and for getting good at art i just keep thinking about that tweet thats like “to be good at any art you have to be some kind of pervert”

[pigeonstab]

Doing this to you and then running away hehehe >:3

Bonk! Hehehe, that's such a cute gif, we should be cats together, no responsibilities for you. You'd be a ginger car. Cause you're Irish. And I'm stereotyping you.

Also! Idk how I even got this fucked up but I just woke up at one AM with the light still on and one shoe on in my bed.

I've just spent like 5minyes explaining my dream in the tags and I replaced 'where' with 'were' two times so if you're going to read the novel I wrote be wary of that. Loll this post is a mess, goodnight Charlie!! I love you!

[not-poignant]

every now and then i forget how bad my chronic illnesses are and every now and then my body is like 'hmmm you seem to have forgotten what it's like to be cripplingly bedridden and disabled and we don't want you to forget' and then i'm reminded and it feels a little like being yeeted into a granite cliff wall at full speed and leaving a dent

[shatterthefragments]

And she fucking needs to reschedule her appt. She always wants to do it together with someone. But no. Of course you wouldn’t be able to sleep if you never sleep at those hours anyway. Of course not.

And fine. We’ll reschedule bc what other choice is there. But. Yeah. “I’m sorry”

I gave up my weekend to cater to this bc otherwise I could’ve gone another day to get my new Covid vaccine. I could’ve booked for another time. I could’ve used this day to go in and borrow dad’s car so I could’ve gone to a waterfall or beach even though it’s freezing.

And now I’m probably going to have to give up next weekend - ASSUMING there’s appointments left for then. My last two day weekend before my semester starts and I split my days off. Which is fine. It’s my choice. But I was hoping to do some stuff on my own :(.

And she probably doesn’t. Fuck. I still need to take her for bloodwork (overdue) and picking up an updated will since the sis and I are adults now and it might be A Thing that it needed to be updated. And not to be like especially given their health and that they’ve both had Covid now. But. I worry. I’m not really in a position to be able to support the household even if we inherited and there aren’t taxes. But I’d have to hold it together. I’m older.

She won’t drive herself to go do these things.

(But I have to drive myself now if I can’t bus there).

And I get having anxiety. I am anxious too.

But for it to get so bad years and years ago that it severely affects your family AND your family has asked you to get help several times (on a regular basis too. Bc we’re not professionals and can’t really help you. Especially when you don’t even agree to come along and just sit in the car as I drive around) it’s frustrating. (How would we have turned out if you had actually sought help for your mental illness? And why do I just KNOW that you’ll blame yourself for our mental illness. That we have to hide any attempts to better our own so that you don’t blame yourself?)

Who could we have been if any of us had been diagnosed?

I shouldn’t have had to deal with that as a child. In elementary school. Especially when I was already suicidal on my own anyway.

And yes. I resent you.

“I bet you wish for a different mother”

Yeah. One that fucking tried a little bit harder to get help before it got this bad. Before having us preferably. One that when asked to get help - agrees. Even if we’d have to arrange and just get you in the car and escort you there.

One that even occasionally stuck to anything you say you’ll do.

When I couldn’t even rely on you as a child. An older child.

“At least I raised you to not do drugs or lie. Or drink soda.”

I never felt safe to tell the truth of course I lie to you sometimes. I’ve craved nothing more than the sweet release of oblivion sometimes. Painful violence with flavour isn’t fun.

And then now. You’re. Even now. You’re so judgemental. “You’re such a rebel now”

For what?! Getting tattoos?! That I’ve always wanted!!

I am frustrated.

You wonder why I try to go out of the house and do things?

I hate staying here. But where else am I going to have so much space? And not have to pay a formal rent?

Urges are there. But. Can’t. It never helped to hurt myself anywhere near as much I needed. And I have healing tattoo and touch up’s right now. Im ok though. I don’t. I don’t do it like that.

I need food is what I need but fuck I’m annoyed.

[dykephan]

you know what i HAVE to go to this tour because i can't believe i've seen drew gooden danny gonzalez and kurtis connor live and idgaf about them 😭 it's not right

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

I wish I had noise cancelling headphones right now :[

[ducktollers]

god i wish that new spiderman cartoon had hired josh keaton again for the main voice actor cuz i dont wanna watch it entirely bc this new voice actor seems like a fucking loser. like the animation looks kinda cool i wish it wasnt 3d but at least it looks intriguing. and i like the suit design cuz it looks so fucking silly and its kinda giving hockey jersey and i like that. and the premise in general seems cool. BUT THAT VOICE ACTOR MAN every time peter says anything im gonna think abt how the guy voicing him said he was scared the show would be annoying and woke. how is the guy voicing spiderman the type of guy who uses woke like a conservative dogwhistle. like are u fucking joking PLEASE fire him and get josh keaton back im serious

[punkrockisafulltimejob]

Shit morning. Very very shitty morning. The rest of the day better not suck or I swear to fuck I'm gonna riot

[I highly recommend not reading the tags, but I needed to vent]

[grandcovenant]

it's such a shame that sophia as a character is so reliant on keeping everything about her a mystery until.... literally the last chapter, because it makes her a lot weaker as.... one of the main characters. she's intended to have the same level of importance as geppetto in the narrative, however, in execution..... you can't really get invested in her because she doesn't really offer anything meaningful to you until the very end, and by then it feels a little too little too late. (and so much of it is wrapped around simon's plotline, which i have already expressed i don't really care for.)

i think it's why i try to make a bigger deal of things like the hermit's cave, or the thing about being a listener being "the devil's power", according to sophia's mother. these bits show her as an existing part of the setting she's in, and not as the walking Big Reveal set-up she... kind of is, honestly.

sophia is meant to be p's guide through his growing humanity, a counterpoint to geppetto, and i wish more was done with it!!!

[heybaetae]

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