#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

[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”

[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

[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

[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]

.

[wundrousarts]

Hi guys...... don't want to alarm you too much but I would like to give a heads up outside of the discord...... there seems to be like a 50/50 chance that Silverborn is delayed a whole nother year 😭😭😭

I'm doing my best to investigate and I am hoping that it's just a massive error where the wrong year was inputted on a publisher site that then triggered Barnes and Nobles preorder postponement emails to be sent out..... but I would say to perhaps prepare for the worst 😭

I will update if there's confirmation one way or the other 🥲

[solace-seekers]

screaming into the void <3

[transgirltrish]

today has been a very good day for me. I expected bad days, it literally hasn't even been a week since I got broken up with? it's been 5 days at most.

[august--and-everything-after]

I'm trying to create a new professional gmail account for job hunting purposes and I've tried firstnamelastname and firstname.lastname and firstname_lastname and it says those user names are taken.

So I try logging into google with them and it says the accounts don't exist ("Couldn't find your Google Account")

Hello??????

[draslihanxfahri-bailey]

📜𝙰𝚜𝚕𝚒𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝙵𝚊𝚑𝚛𝚒-𝙱𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚢 & 𝙾𝚙𝚎𝚗 (𝟸/𝟺)

Getting back to work full-time was both a blessing and a curse. Of course, she was still prioritizing time with her family and that was okay. However, after spending months taking things easy? Well, easy for her, that is? Asli hadn't realized how quickly she could fall back into her workaholic ways. How second-nature it was. And, frankly, how that wasn't exactly a good thing, yet she tried not to think about that. With Eli offering to hold down the fort concerning the girls and cats, she was off at the Midnight Club (perhaps a dangerous option, now knowing Jesse's presence still being around). Trying to get caught up on any work she didn't have Phoebe sneak in for her. With having been given the approval to curate the new wing and turn it into the Hall of Ancient Mediterranean History (name still a work in progress), Asli now has even more on her plate concerning the museum. And, after a few hours, she ended up falling asleep on a stack of files and plans. Her laptop screen eventually going black after awhile. Until, finally, she jolted slightly awake.

"Wha—?" Blinking, her eyesight was blurry as she narrowed them. Her fingers searching for her glasses as she tried to look around. "How lon... Wh-What time is it...?"

𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚛: 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚍𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚋, 𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 ; 𝚘𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶𝚝𝚑, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹 || @providencepeakstarters

[a-hollow-forest]

what if.... what if you had chronic fatigue... and you needed to lay down for naps...

but eeevery once in a while instead of having a nice chill little rest you got locked into an hours long state of hallucinatory half-consciousness while also having your entire adrenal gland dump into your blood system every 30 seconds or so

(i call it the torment nexus. i fucking hate it here)

[its-all-papaya]

my toxic trait is that i believe that if i could have one (1) day completely off work to do life-maintenance tasks and write before 7pm, i could finish dad lando in like a week or two.

unfortunately we will never find out bc my last day off was september 22 and i think my next one off is american thanksgiving (november 28)