#I’ll take any kind of videos as long as they aren’t so overly negative like most RWBY content on YT seems to be :

[gvnchvcks]

Does anyone know of any positive RWBY YouTubers with solid content?? I’m bored and I’d like content to watch that isn’t just an hour long video on why the show and its characters are bad 😭 pls help me

#RWBY #I’ll take any kind of videos as long as they aren’t so overly negative like most RWBY content on YT seems to be :/

[moghedien]

Love Me, Love Me - An Overly Obsessive Analysis of All You Wanna Do

     Here it is. I’m finally writing a far too long and overly analytic essay that no body asked for (well one person did) about All You Wanna Do from Six the Musical. More realistically, I’m going to discussing Katherine Howard throughout the musical and specifically how she manipulates the audience throughout the show to make All You Wanna Do all the more effective. I use the word manipulate and will probably do so again, which has a negative connotation, but I don’t mean it in a negative way. It’s just the most effective word to use. I should also note that I’ve never seen Six…live. I may have happened upon some less than legal video, and all of the knowledge I’ll be pulling from beyond the cast recording and some audios will be from that. I know it was an earlier show and that there have been some changes since then, and I don’t have any way of knowing what those changes are so please bear with me if some details aren’t completely correct or still accurate. I do have every intention to see a production of Six eventually, but I live in the very, very Deep American South, so getting to a city where its playing is gonna take some time. Also, due to the nature of this song, I’m putting a heavy content warning for sexual assault, child grooming, pedophilia, etc. If you’ve listened to the song, you know what its about, so you know I’m going to be discussing all that.

     Now that the preliminary disclaimers are out of the way, let’s begin.

     From the beginning of the show, Katherine Howard is trying to win the audience over more than any other Queen. They’re trying in various ways, yes, but Howard is the one putting the most work in beyond just trying to make herself look better or justify herself to them. From her introduction in Ex-Wives she’s doing this. She interrupts Cleves’s dick joke with “Prick up your ears,” turning Cleves’s joke that probably would have landed somewhat, and making it her joke that definitely lands with the audience. After Ex-Wives, she looks directly at the audience when she delivers the line “The Thomas Cromwell Amongst the Royal Ministers, between 1532 and 1540” which is a line that only works because it goes on too long and is weirdly detailed and specific enough to be funny. She looks and points at people in the front row when she says “between 1532 and 1540” as an acknowledgement that she’s breaking from her stage persona for a moment to give them this line, and that sells it to the crowd. They know that she’s purposely being overly detailed and they’re with her. It’s not expected, especially not from her, and so its funny. The entire goal of K Howard throughout this show is the make sure that the audience stays with her and to use what people expect from her to her own advantage and, at some points, against them.

     Really, that’s the goal of all the Queens to win over the audience, but the rest approach it differently. Aragon tries to convince the audience that she’s right and therefore deserves to win the competition. Boleyn tries to make her whole situation out to be ridiculous (including the fact that she got beheaded). Both of them heavily fall into basically going “can you believe what Henry did?” And I mean, neither of them is wrong. Seymour tries to pull on heartstrings and play into love and loss. Cleves…is interesting. Cleves is basically just there to prove that she’s above Henry and his nonsense. Parr I’m not really going to touch on, because her song is more a reaction to everyone else and the scene that happens after Howard gets “real” with her song. The other queens will occasionally interject to try to further win people over to their side, but they do so using the same point they were making in their song. They aren’t subtle about it, though they try to be. To the audience, though, its always clear what they’re doing, and for the most part that’s the joke. The one who actually is subtle about it, though, is Howard.

     Being the fifth wife, Howard goes second to last. She knows this, and knows she can’t dump her trauma on the audience before her song, so what does she do make her case throughout the show, before she gets her shot in the spotlight? She makes sure the audience is on her side already by the time it gets to her. She steals Cleves’s punchline. She makes winky jokes with the audience and acknowledges that she’s doing so. She’s overall charming and she never once tries to convince them to be on her side in the competition, or at least never makes it seem like that’s what she’s doing. She just wants them to laugh at her jokes and like her, but that has nothing to do with the competition, surely? Well, considering she uses these exact same methods in her song, you can assume that this is an intentional manipulation. Again, I don’t mean manipulation maliciously, but she’s definitely making the audience want to like her before she even begins her story. But that’s for more reason than just winning the competition. 

     When it does get to her turn, the other queens try to again interject with their own points (the same points they’ve already made) and belittle her. It’s actually somewhat interesting because you can see Howard trying to speak up before Parr tells them it’s her turn, but she seems kind of meek in the background as the other queens bicker amongst themselves. Even after Parr has to kind of push her forward because its her turn, she looks intimidated. She seems to be trying to make herself small, and she’s holding onto the microphone like it’s a security blanket. She actually looks nervous, and she’s right in the middle of the stage, so all of the audience sees her being frightened and will probably feel for her in that moment. She looks like someone who needs help. 

     Then she begins roasting the other queens like chestnuts upon an open fire. It begins with their “Good luck trying to compete with us” to which she responds “You’re right, I mean your lives all sounded terrible, and your songs…” and then she shrinks back into her meek, awkward pose a moment before adding “…do a lot to convey that.” She’s using the sympathy she gained with the audience to pull off that joke, because they see that she’s being bashful but then she just pulls off this burn in the middle of that bashfullness. So they feel sympathy for K Howard, who’s already been charming throughout the show, who’s being shy now, but still manages to be funny. So the audience is with her already. Then she goes to the queens one by one and points out holes in their claims to having the Worst Time, but she does it in a humorous way. She does it in a way that makes the audience feels like it’s for them. She even looks at the audience when she gets to Parr, making a “can you believe her?” expression at them instead of actually addressing Parr. Howard is with the audience and the audience is with Howard. Its never been more true than in this moment.

     When she gets to Cleves, she doesn’t insult Cleves in any way and instead decides to use the moment brag about herself. Not in a way that has anything to do with Henry or the competition. “Being rejected for your looks legit sounds terrible. I wouldn’t know anything about that.” And its not Cleves she’s addressing at this point, because again, she’s speaking to the audience when she says “Look at me, I’m really fit,” and in the version I saw, there are lots of cheers at this. People were whistling at her. People not only agree with everything she’s saying now, but they love her.

     And then we get to her song. She drops her song like its her mic drop saying she has no idea how she’s going to compete with other queens. “Oh wait, like this” and the lights drop and the music starts and it’s a big seamless conclusion to the roast. Only its not the conclusion, you’re only just beginning, and haven’t even begun to realize what Howard is doing to manipulate you to make her point.  

     So Howard uses the audience in a way that others don’t do in their songs. In Aragon and Seymour’s songs, they act as though Henry is their audience. Boleyn and Cleves acknowledge the actual audience more, but its still as part of the song. Certain moments will be sung to specific audience members, but its only moments and again, its sung. It’s part of the song. Howard, on the other hand, doesn’t sing all of her story. A lot it’s a conversation with the audience; she’s telling them a story, and she’ll stop her song occasionally to continue the conversation. Bear with me, because I’ll be going line by line now.

     She opens by speaking to the audience:

“I think we can all agree

I'm the ten amongst these threes”

     And that’s both bold and presumptive, but by this point, she’s won over the audience. They do agree with her. They like her. They think she’s funny. They think she’s hot. And these lines aren’t only meant to boost her, but it gets the audience to belittle the other queens by agreeing with her. It’s also one last reminder that she’s on their side and they’re on hers. One last reminder that they can trust where she’s going to take them, and she trusts them.

And ever since I was a child

I'd make the boys go wild

 Take my first music teacher

Henry Manox

I was young, it's true

But even then I knew

The only thing you wanna do is...

     She starts out speaking these lines, then begins singing them as she goes on. Note the last three lines in particular. She’s going to mention her age again in a moment, but before she even gets to the exacts of that, she’s telling you that “even then she knew.” So she’s making it clear right off the bat that she at least wants us to think she knows what people want from her. Also note she’s not saying “the only thing men want” or “the only think Henry Manox wanted.” She’s using you. I’m going to go more on that later, but her switch between third and second person pronouns is interesting. Also she doesn’t ever finish the sentence of what it is “you” wants to do. You’re forced to fill in the blanks by the kiss and breath she gives instead of the completion of the sentence. Again, more on that in a moment.

Broad, dark, sexy Mannox

Taught me all about dynamics

He was twenty three

And I was thirteen going on thirty

    This is the first real indication that something’s off. This is also the first place that a lot of people will stop and think “wait what did she just say?” I remember the first time I listened to the song, I definitely noted the ages and I definitely was disgusted. In the live versions I’ve heard, Howard’s voice will fall a little when she says “I was 13” but she’ll immediately pick up again and add “going on 30” like it’s a joke that she’s telling everyone. Sometimes people laugh at it. Sometimes they don’t. When they do, it’s either that they don’t take in what she’s saying or it’s an awkward, uncomfortable reaction. A “oh ok that was a joke then?” It makes people uncomfortable, especially since she begins the verse by describing Manox as “Broad, dark, sexy.” She’s making him sound appealing, suggests that she finds him appealing right before dropping the fact that she was 13 and he was 23. That’s information she can’t drop and have it be ok without either breezing past it and hoping you don’t notice, or making light of it and trying to say it was ok. Howard does both of these, which makes it so that she doesn’t really accomplish either effectively. It sounds wrong. You, the audience, notice it, but you still go past it and keep watching/listening to the rest of her song.

We'd spend hours strumming the lute

Striking the chords and blowing the flute

He plucked my strings all the way to G

Went from major to minor, C to D

    This happens immediately after the age reveal, in the same verse. Howard just blows past the age thing and starts to make it clear the relationship was sexual. She tries to convince the audience that she was on board. She puts herself in an active role saying “We’d spend hours” but then two lines later puts only him in the active role. A subtle thing, but it’s as if she can't keep up the claim that they were both active, willing participants in this. Her tone is still suggesting that everything is fine, that she’s on board and being taken care of in some way. Look, she’s so much more excited and outgoing than she was earlier when she was standing meekly in the middle of the stage, so she’s probably ok. 

Tell me what you need

What you want, you don't need to plead

    She changes who’s she’s addressing here. She’s no longer talking to the audience, or at least makes it seem like she isn’t at first glance. She’s talking to Manox, and frames it as if she’s trying to reassure him. “You don’t need to plead” suggests that he is pleading, which is a weird way to frame a 23 year old man trying to pressure a 13 year old girl to have sex with him. But this is coming from the point of view is of the 13 year old girl, who’s already been trying to put herself in an active role in this. But note that she’s never actually saying “this is something I want,” and instead saying “this is something he needs.” She’s not framing herself as “needing” anything, but instead trying to make herself understanding to his supposed needs. She makes it seem like she’s doing something for him, again putting herself in an active role. Making it seem like this was something she decided to do. 

'Cause I feel the chemistry

Like I get you and you get me

    And now she’s explaining why she’s “deciding” to do this. She feels a chemistry with Manox. He gets her. You get her, because she’s still using second person when referring to Manox. Manox still isn’t he anymore. Manox is you. And isn’t it interesting that she’s putting you (the audience) in Manox’s role when she’s been addressing you and building up a rapport with you (the audience) for the entire show? She gets the audience and the audience gets her, right?

And maybe this is it

He just cares so much it feels legit

    She switches back to third person now, removing any suggestion that she might be referring to anyone but Manox. Because now she’s trying to justify this. To herself. To you the audience. It’s ok if she “lets” him do this because he might be The One, right? He seems to care for her, so wouldn’t this be caring for him? Didn’t she already say that she understands that he needs this? If she’s letting him, then it’s not bad...right?

We have a connection

I think this guy is different

    Ah, the first “connection.” This is the part in the song where Howard gets touched for the first time. It’s not too much. Parr and Seymour stand in either side of her, facing away from the audience, and they put their hands in her shoulders. You might not even realize that they’re doing it at first. Howard doesn’t seem bothered by it, and doesn’t acknowledge it. She looks at the audience while two people put hands on her and she sings that “this guy is different.” And the audience watches still, witnessing all that’s happening. The two people touching her are looking away from you, clearly not wanting to be seen, but still clearly doing it.

'Cause all you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is touch me, love me, can't get enough, see

All you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is please me squeeze me birds and the bees me

   The first chorus, and I should note the music at this point is very pop-y. It’s upbeat. It’s happy and gives you no reason to think anything’s off at this point.

     So for the chorus, Howard switches back to second person. All YOU wanna do is touch her. All YOU wanna do is love her. It’s obvious that the “you” here is Manox, but the frequent switches from “you” to “he” is disorienting, especially since she goes on to address the audience directly immediately after the chorus. So it’s not so much that she’s addressing You the Audience instead of Manox, and what she’s actually doing is making Manox a part of You the Audience. She’s focusing on him for now, but don’t these claims also apply to the audience? They cheered and whistled she said she was really fit. They laughed and agreed when she said she was a ten. They’ve been on her side every time she made a claim like that. So while You the Audience may not be Manox, Manox is among you, and you have some things in common with him. That combined with the plucky, pop music doesn’t seem bad right now. The audience doesn’t even notice the 23 year old man in their midst that is forcing sex on a 13 year old, especially since the 13 doesn’t seem to be suffering or anything. Look at her, she’s fine and she’s encouraging it, isn’t she? She seems happy. You’ve seen what it looks like when she’s afraid. And let’s be clear “birds and the bees me” leaves no illusion as to exactly what’s going on. She’s telling you what’s going on, so there’s no way to deny that or suggest otherwise. You know what’s happening. 

Run your fingers through my hair

Tell me I'm the fairest of the fair

Playtime's over

The only thing you wanna do is...

    Last part of the chorus, and I wanted to separate it to point out the language. The language isn’t inherently aggressive or violent here. “Run your fingers through my hair” that’s almost nothing. We know what’s going on because the lines above tell us it IS sexual, but this is rather tame for the most part. The accompanying music is rather tame too, and still perky. The “fairest of the fair” allusion adds fairy tale language and the next line “playtimes over” here work together to reinforce the impression that she’s 13 here. She’s a kid who thinks that this man might be Prince Charming. She tells herself it’s romantic, it’s a fairy tale. But then playtime is over. The line repeats through each chorus but here it has two meanings: Manox is done with her, and childhood is done. She may not even realize the latter yet. She may not even realize that this man hurt her, but this man who “felt legit” and might have been “it” is clearly done with her. The only thing he/you wanted was to....

  She never actually directly says sex, but she makes every possible reference she can to make it clear that sex occurred. But she can never finish the line “the only thing you wanna do is...” She can never bring herself to claim it. Instead she just blows a kiss and makes you figure out the rest. The only thing you/Manox wanted was sex, and when he got it he was done. You know that. She knows it but can’t completely acknowledge it and make it real. It’s obvious though, and the audience is still watching this happen.

    So for the next lines, I’m going to use the spoken dialogue from the show rather than the cast recording because I think it provides better context.

[Spoken]

So then there was another guy, Francis. And at the time I was living at my step-grandma’s house and he was working for her. Working so, so hard. So he asked me to be his little piece of ass...sistant.

  So Howard speaks these lines rather than sing them. As I mentioned already, she’s the only queen who really stops her song multiple times to turn to the audience and talk to them. But she isn’t only acknowledging them, she’s giving them a story. She’s providing context. She’s being friendly with them. Yes, she’s the one performing on stage, but she knows that the audience is there and she knows what they want, and she’s so willing to please. To give people the entertainment and the story they want. It’s like she wants to make sure that the audience really understands. 

    So to get to what Howard actually says here, she just breezes past Manox and moves onto the next guy. She doesn’t let herself dwell on Manox any longer and quickly rushes forward and onto Francis. The context for Francis, like Manox, is unsettling. She’s living with her step-grandmother and her grandmother’s adult secretary turns his attention on her and gets her to “help” him. However, like with Manox, she makes a joke about it. She acknowledges that he wants her around so that he can objectify and sexualize her. She uses that fact as a punchline, and people do laugh at the line. Even when she’s clearly saying “he employed me because he wanted to have sex with me” the audience laughs, because her joke was funny, she seems to be fine, and she has a happy tone as she’s saying all of this. Manox didn’t turn out that bad, did he? She still seems happy, doesn’t she? The audience is still watching, aren’t they?

Serious, stern and slow

Get's what he wants and he won't take no

Passion in all that he touches

The sexy secretary to the Dowager Duchess

     A few things here. Howard’s tone is still meant to make it seem like she was into this, like these are attractive attributes of Francis, but literally the only positive words here are “passion” and “sexy.” She’s literally telling you that he doesn’t take no for an answer. She’s also pointing out again the Dowager Duchess, her step grandmother. The woman who was supposed to be in charge of keeping an eye on her, but didn’t. The woman who definitely could have given Francis the boot or made sure, at the very least, that he didn’t make Howard his “piece of ass…sistant.” It’s not something that happened once and no one could have known about it. Howard mentions the woman twice, pointing out her prominence here. A woman who probably saw what was going on and did nothing, or who decided not to actually see what was going on and still did nothing. Who else is seeing what’s going on right now and doing nothing?

Helped him in his office, had a duty to fulfil

He even let me use his favourite quill

spilled ink all over the parchment

my wrist was so tired

Still I came back the next day

as he required

     So Howard is again making it perfectly clear what’s going on without actually having to say it. If you didn’t get it at “his favorite quill” and “spilled ink all over the parchment,” you probably get it when she says “my wrist was so tired” which she speaks instead of sings and delivers it as if it’s a joke line. But then the next lines are “Still I came back the next day/as he required.” Her use of the word “still” really makes it clear how much agency she had in the situation, though at this point she’s still mostly trying to claim an active role in everything. What she’s saying here is “he made me do this and I did, but look, I still came back the next day.” You don’t say “still I came back” when you’re in a pleasant situation. The illusion she’s trying to create is starting to slip some. She’s starting to have trouble painting all of this out as something she enjoyed and chose.

You say I'm what you need

All you want you don't need to plead

'Cause I feel the chemistry

Like I get you and you get me

     This bit of the pre-chorus is nearly identical to what she says about Manox, and again she slips into second person. Instead of her asking you/Francis what you need like she did with Manox, though, you/Francis are telling her. She’s not acting, but being acted upon. Still, she has to reassure that you/Francis don’t need to plead because obviously you have chemistry. And you/Francis get her. So, the “you” now consist of Manox, Francis, and the audience. Those two men are among the people watching this whole thing go down.

And I know this is it

He just cares so much this one's legit

We have a real connection

I'm sure this time is different

     So the language here is notably different than it was with Manox. First I want to point out that this is the first indication from Howard herself that something with Manox was wrong. She’s “sure this time is different” meaning that she’s trying to convince herself that this time won’t be like last time. But she seemed so happy and into what happened last time? I mean, anyone with enough common sense to know that a 23 year old man should not be with a 13 year old would know that something was wrong, but Howard gave no indication herself that anything was wrong. Up until right now, retrospectively. And again, at the word connection, two of the queens touch her shoulders, grabbing her while they face away from the audience, wanting to remain anonymous while doing it.

     What she is doing is trying to convince herself that this time, its ok. Whereas before she thinks they have a connection, now she knows. She doesn’t think this guy is different, she’s sure this time is different. Francis doesn’t just feel legit, he is legit. She’s telling both the audience and herself, “last time was bad but this time is real and fine!” And yet, we continue.  

'Cause all you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is touch me love me can't get enough see

All you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is please me, squeeze me, birds and the bees me

You can't wait a second more

To get my corset on the floor

Playtime's over

The only thing you wanna do is...

     The only lines in the chorus that aren’t identical to the first are “You can’t wait a second more/to get my corset on the floor” replacing the lines about telling her she’s the fairest of the fair. So the line that alludes to fairy tales gets replaced with a line about her getting naked. Meaning that the previous line that suggests her youth and wasn’t inherently sexual is replaced with a line that directly sexualizes her. She’s not that much older here than she was when the Manox incident occurred, but ever since the incident with Manox occurred, playtime has been over. The repetition of that reminds you of that, and again, suggests that Francis is done with her once he gets what he wants.

[Spoken]

So yeah, that didn’t work out. Turns out some guys just employ women to get them into their private chambers. Different time back then. So I decided to take a break from boys. Focus on my career, and my dad got me this amazing work placement in court and you’ll never guess who I met.

     This time Howard does acknowledge that “that didn’t work out.” She acknowledges directly that her impressions about Francis were wrong. She was sure about him. She phrased everything in absolutes, not hypotheticals, and it still “didn’t work out.” But Howard is still working the audience here. She’s glib, makes it sound like a joke. Then drops the line “Turns out some guys just employ women to get them into their private chambers. Different time back then.” That may be the most important line here. It’s a joke, but one that we get because we know its ironic and not accurate. We know now more than ever that men still hire women to “get them into their private chambers.” We know that in this instance, times aren’t different. This still happens, and its something that has been ignored and not talked about until very recently. Howard knows that we know this. She knows that “different times back then” will land, and she uses that line and that knowledge to connect what has happened and will continue to happen to her to those abuses we know about now. We know those things happen, and they happened to Howard back then too, and we’re still just watching it happen to her.

     So this is where the song also really starts to shift. She says that she’s taking a break from boys and focusing on her career. She gets a good job. She stops sexualizing the situation and trying to justify what’s going to happen before hand. She’s starting to realize what she actually wants, and that’s to have a good job at court. She’s making career choices, not marital choices. She is now making the decision herself that she doesn’t want men or a relationship, but a job.

Tall, large, Henry the Eighth

Supreme head of the Church of England

Globally revered

Although you wouldn't know it from the look of that beard

     How she introduces Henry is already different. She attempted to sexualize the prior two men and make them sound appealing. In most audios I heard, Howard pauses between “large” and “Henry the Eight,” as if she’s trying to come up with some more appealing way to describe him but she can’t. The best descriptions she has is “he’s big and the head of a religion. Some people like him and his beard is funny.” Very sexy description. It’s like she can’t even make herself sexualize him. With the others she could at least tell herself that they were attractive so she must be interested in them. Not with Henry.

Made me a lady in waiting

Hurled me and my family up in the world

Gave me duties in court and he swears it's true

That without me he doesn't know what he'd do

     Still, Howard is doing nothing to attempt to sexualize Henry. She’s not even suggesting that their relationship was sexual or romantic, whereas before she was explicit about the sexual natures of her relationships. She’s talking about a job. He gave her a job. He elevated her family by giving her a high placement in court, and clearly its because she deserves it, as he says he doesn’t know what he’d do without her. She’s doing nothing to build to the marriage that we know is coming. She’s doing nothing to romanticize this. She’s here to have a career. She wants to do her job, and she’s proud that she seems to be doing such good work and making Henry (her boss in this situation) pleased with her work.

You say I'm what you need

All you want we both agree

This is the place for me

I'm finally where I'm meant to be

     These lines are, to me, maybe the saddest in the entire song. Worse than the chorus about Thomas Culpepper even. Howard has done nothing up until this point to suggest that she and Henry’s relationship is sexual or would become sexual. She’s been talking about her job in court. These lines, unlike with the previous two men, don’t read as if she’s trying to agree to their sexual advances. They read as if she’s meeting with her boss. They read as if she’s interviewing for a job or a promotion. She’s what he needs in court. They both agree that court is the place for her. And she’s finally realized that this, the work she does in court, is what she wants. Not a relationship with a man. She doesn’t even seem to comprehend that Henry could go after her. As she said earlier, she’s focusing on her career. Then Henry comes to her with this and she thinks they’re on the same page. But they’re definitely not talking about the same things.

     And once again, she’s making Henry a part of you. He’s in the audience with the other two. You, the audience, came here knowing what would happen. Howard is only here because Henry did go after her and married her. You know this. You know where he’s going with this. And you’re watching her not realize what’s happening until she accidentally agrees to this and gets into the situation. You’re still watching. You’re still with Manox and Francis and now, you’re with Henry.

Then he starts saying all this stuff

He cares so much he calls me love

     Now Howard is realizing that Henry wasn’t talking about her career. He was saying that he needs to be with her. And for the first time, we get no indication about exactly what’s going on except “he starts saying all this stuff.” But he does seem to care, doesn’t he? He calls her love, doesn’t he? That’s not nothing, right? That has to mean something. She legitimately struggles with this, because two of the queens try to touch her shoulders again, and she swats them away. She can’t even make it seem like she’s interested. The “he cares so much” is a half hearted attempt to comfort herself.

He says we have this connection

I guess it's not so different

     At this connection, two of the other queens grab her shoulders like they did before, but another comes from behind and puts an arm around her waist. She doesn’t see it happen and she can’t do anything to break away because she’s literally being held. But this time she isn’t the one saying they have a connection. He is saying they have a connection. She doesn’t seem to agree, and she has to tell herself that this relationship isn’t so different from the previous ones, and also that this outcome isn’t so different from what she wanted. Isn’t being queen like a promotion? But she literally has to use the two times she previously taken advantage of by older men to comfort her in this situation. It’s not so different from those times. This time it’s just your boss who is also your king, the head of your religion, physically imposing and by all accounts repulsive and sickly, about 33 years older than you, has a daughter that’s older than you, and also beheaded one of his previous wives who happens to be your first cousin. It’s not THAT different.

'Cause all you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is touch me, love me, can't get enough see

All you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is seize me, squeeze me, birds and the bees me

There's no time for when or how 'cause you

Just got to have me now

Playtime's over

The only thing you wanna do is...

     Before I even get into the language here, I’m want to talk about the choreography of this verse. Howard all but stops dancing. She’s pretty much just standing there, occasionally shifting or making a hand gesture, but she’s not dancing. She looks like someone who is trying to look like they’re dancing but failing terribly at it. She just looks so defeated. Before she could go along with it, or at least seem like she’s going along with it, but now she’s just standing there. And all around her the queens are still dancing, and their movements seem more violent juxtaposed against how little she’s doing here. They’re moving around her, touching her or almost-touching her, and she’s just letting it happen. Does nothing to protest it or join in with it.

     The language in the chorus is getting more and more violent. “You” no longer want to please her. Now its “All you want do baby/is seize me.” Unlike with the last two men, Howard didn’t know what Henry was after from the beginning. She was on a different page with him until she had gotten into the situation, so even though the other two men had also been predatory, even though they had taken advantage of her and lied and manipulated her, the situation with Henry is much more violent because it’s not expected. She doesn’t have time to mentally prepare herself or try to convince herself that she has a choice in it. “There’s not time for when or how cause you just got to have me now” shows how suddenly this all was to her. And with Henry, she has the added complication of him being Henry. He’s not only forcing this, but she’s now the queen. Please remember that Katherine Howard was most likely either 16 or 17 when she became queen. Right here we’re talking about someone who wouldn’t even be out of high school yet and a 49 year old man who’s already had four wives.

[Spoken]

So we got married

Wooh...

     Before, Howard can monologue a little bit between each chorus and verse, usually saying something that is supposed to make the audience laugh. After the chorus about Henry, though, this is all you get. She sounds so defeated/distraught and even chocked up when she says “So we got married,” and in some versions will sound like she’s trying to come up with more to say, but ends up just going “Woooh..” in a really unhappy way in attempts to make the audience laugh. A lot of people do laugh, because they’re supposed to. It’s a joke. It’s a joke being delivered by a teenager who just recounted one of the most horrifying experiences a young girl/woman in a job can experience, and afterward just married her boss who put her through it because she didn’t really have a choice. Wooooh. And you’re still watching this all go down, even now that you can see that she’s clearly uncomfortable because she can no longer pretend otherwise.

With Henry it isn't easy

His temper's short and his mates are sleazy

Except for this one courtier

He's a really nice guy, just so sincere

     So Howard does absolutely nothing to introduce Thomas before this moment. She doesn’t even say his name yet, and she never says his last name. Manox, Francis, and Henry all got introduced or hinted at before their respective parts of the song. With Thomas, she opens up with countering him against Henry and his sleazy mates. She’s making it clear she can’t even pretend to have a good relationship or good opinions of Henry. She’s queen and the only thing good she has is that one of Henry’s friends is nice to her and not a complete sleaze. Remember that prior to this, when she was describing court, she was so happy. She said that she belonged there, that she was happy and she liked it. She’s still in the same place and technically she’s higher in rank, and its miserable. Miserable to the point that even with what’s about to happen, her voice lifts slightly when she says Thomas is “just so sincere,” as if it’s a relief to her. As if it’s a pleasant memory, and not the thing that will soon end with her being taken advantage of once again and then beheaded for her “crimes.”

The royal life isn't what I planned

But Thomas is there to lend a helping hand

So sweet, makes sure that I'm okay

And we hang out loads when the king's away

     So Howard went from being excited for her job in court, to being thrust in an extremely powerful and heavily scrutinized role with little to no help. Except Thomas, who to her, seems to be genuine. Why wouldn’t he want to help her? She’s his queen, and the wife of one of his friends. And now she’s married, so there’s nothing that could come of their relationship anyway. Howard now might be the safest she’s ever been from men (other than Henry) because not only is she married, she’s married to the king. That should de-sexualize her entirely, right? So Thomas’s help must be genuine and his friendship must be genuine. Howard has no reason to worry about his motives.  

This guy finally

Is what I want, the friend I need

Just mates, no chemistry

I get him and he gets me

     Howard doesn’t switch to second person here, like she usually does. She doesn’t make Thomas a part of that “you” that consists of Manox, Francis, Henry, and the audience. Because she has no reason to. Because he’s just a friend. And she realizes that’s what she’s needed this entire time: a friend. Someone that will make sure she’s ok. Only now, after all that’s been through in her short life, does she realize that’s all she’s ever wanted or needed. Someone who can just help her and spend time with her without sexualizing her or having any kind of ulterior motive. She can pretend to have chemistry with the other men, but Thomas is and will always be her friend. Someone who gets that she just needs a friend.

And there's nothing more to it

He just cares so much he's devoted

     She feels so compelled to insist that there’s nothing beyond platonic friendship here. In some versions she sounds almost frantic to point out that there’s nothing more to it. He cares about her. He’s devoted to his queen. So that means that there’s no possible way he could want more. Men who care about her don’t want or expect more from her. She’s pacing the stage, pointing at people in the audience. At “And there’s nothing more to it,” Parr and Seymour put hands on her shoulder and she quickly shrugs them off without acknowledging it. She can’t acknowledge it, because she finally has a friend. He can’t want anything else from her. He can’t.

He says we have a connection

     At this point the music stops. The other queens surround her and grab her arms, her legs, her shoulders, her chest. She’s just frozen in the web of hands touching her from every direction. She just freezes for several seconds, doing nothing to fight the hands on her. Because she’s at the most secure and powerful she’s ever been and could ever be, and it’s not enough. 

I thought this time was different

Why did I think he'd be different?

But it's never, ever different

     The hands stay on her through most of this, and she mostly just stands there. Her voice goes from shock/disappointment in “I thought this time was different” to self-deprecating at “Why did I think he’d be different?” to fury at “But it’s never, ever different” to the point where she pretty much screams the last word. It’s not that she’s only just realizing now what’s been happening to her. She’s known. She’s known this entire time. She begins the song by telling the audience that “I was young, its true, but even then I knew.” It’s that now, she can’t lie to herself about any of it anymore. Because even if she knew that Thomas wanted sex from her, she also knew that he couldn’t do anything, because she’s the queen. If he tried anything, he’d be dead. He can’t touch her, so she can say that he’s just her friend and shrug off the moments where he suggests otherwise like she shrugs off Parr and Seymour’s hands initially.

     But now, apparently even that doesn’t protect her. Even being married to one of the most powerful men in the world, a man who has already beheaded men for supposedly sleeping with his wife, isn’t enough to protect her from every single man that wants to put his hands on her and assault her and abuse her. They’re going to do it no matter what, because its never different. Not even for the queen.

'Cause all you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Is touch me, when will enough be enough?

See

All you wanna do

All you wanna do baby

Squeeze me, don't care if you don't please me

Bite my lip and pull my hair

As you tell me I'm the fairest of the fair

 Playtime's over

Playtime's over

Playtime's over

 The only thing

The only thing

The only thing you wanna do is...

      I’m just going to cover all of this at once. Howard is still stuck in the same spot. Her voice is some combination of screaming, crying, and singing, and she’s constantly being grabbed by the queens and either trying to push them off of her or waiting for them to let go. She goes back to the pronoun “you,” finally putting Thomas among all those other men and the audience, and she’s screaming. She’s furious, she’s finally accepted that she can’t accept this, that “you” don’t want to love her, just touch her constantly. You just want to squeeze her and pull her hair and hurt her to please yourself, and you don’t care how she feels about it. You’ll say kind things to her while you’re hurting her, as if that’s supposed to make it better. It just makes you feel better. 

     Then she’s on the ground, and all the queens are facing her, surrounding her and gradually stepping closer and closer as they sing “Playtime’s over” at her. Because its over, and its not just that she’ll be tossed aside again. Everything is over now, because of what men have done to her. Her life is over, as she literally is going to be beheaded because of everything that happened to her. Katherine Howard was either 18 or 19 years old when she was beheaded because men have been sexually assaulting her for years, and it was only acknowledged when they decided to condemn her to death for it.

     After every version of this song that I’ve seen and listened to, there is a moment of shocked silence from the audience before they’ll start applauding. They’re startled by this turn in the song. They don’t expect Howard to start screaming at them or to start crying or to have this strong of an emotional reaction. Yet, they’ve been watching the whole time. They’ve been seeing everything that’s happened to her and listening to everything she’s said. And they have been listening and seeing because they’ve been laughing at her jokes and responding to her comments. The audience, or you, laughed at her jokes when she was making light of her sexual assaults. She has been making sure for the entire show that you were paying attention to her. You knew what was happening. And you just kept watching, shocked when at the end it got that dramatic.

     If you were wondering why Howard makes the audience a part of the collective “you” that includes Manox, Francis, Henry, and Thomas, this is why. Because they may not have been doing the acts these men did, but they just sat there and watched as it happened, pretending--like Howard--that this it could have been consensual acts and that those jokes were funny. If those who knew from the beginning that it wasn’t ok just watched and did nothing to get in the way or help, they may not be these men, but they allowed the men to abuse her.

     Howard does everything she can to endear herself to the audience and make herself noticed throughout the entire show, in preparation for her song. And by the time it gets to her song, they love her. They’re listening to her and interacting with her and noticing her, seeing everything she’s doing. And they still don’t stop what happens to her. So even if they don’t actually want to assault and hurt her, they might as well because it’s happening, they know it’s happening, and they did nothing.

     Now am I saying that the audience is actually, literally complicit in this. No, obviously not; this is a musical. But the audience is a stand in more or less for everyone else that had to have seen what was going on and did nothing to prevent it from getting to the point where Howard’s head was on the chopping block. But the audience is meant to feel complicit because there were people complicit in letting these men abuse her, just like there are people complicit in letting abusers and rapists get away with it to this day. Her step grandmother did nothing to watch her when around Francis. Her family did nothing to watch her when around Manox and they placed her in the position where Henry would take notice of her. People laughed at Howard’s “different times back then” joke because they know that this still happens today, and she knows that they know. So, what are people doing when they see it going on? Just pretending not to notice? Still? Howard, like so many others, is a victim of not just the men who assaulted her, but the societal structures that think its better to let one girl be hurt and killed than it is to upset the power structure or punish the powerful, important men who abuse that girl.

    Katherine Howard was a young girl. In Six, she just wants people to love her, and loving her is not sexual. In Megasix, she changes the lyrics so that its:

All you wanna do

All you wanna do, baby's

Sing along to your favourite queen's song

All you wanna do

All you wanna do, baby

Love me, love me

She wants to be your favorite queen, and she wants you to love her. The part where she’s trying to endear herself to the audience has never been a lie. She wants to win the audience over. Because if there’s one thing Katherine Howard has never had, it’s an adoring crowd that will listen and support her and sing along with her and just love her without wanting anything else. She’s done sexualizing herself in an attempt to make her point or to win people over, now she’s just telling you to love her, because she realized that all she ever needed was friends. So, love her, take care of her, be her friend, and ensure there aren’t other Katherine Howards in the world, because there have been too many already.

#six the musical #six: the musical #katherine howard #all you wanna do #catherine howard #long post

[merakiui]

Hey there! I hope you're having a great day, may I request some fluff headcanons of any 4 characters of your choice with an tactile and unknowingly affectionate s/o or crush! for example,,; they just absentmindedly play with their hands or hair to relax and drawing patterns on their skin, resting a hand on their hand-- those kind of things ! Not sure how else to explain- maybe because it reduces their anxiety if you're comfortable with that :0?

Anxious!S/O HCs (Youssef, Ell, Louis, and Kirr)

📚 Youssef 📚

Youssef is your go-to guy for therapy! He will listen to everything you say and give you proper advice that isn’t sugar-coated.

He’s got such a peaceful aura around him, so you’re always relaxed when you hold a conversation with him.

Compared to some of the other Reapers, he’s not overly affectionate or loud. Youssef’s got a mature and wise presence, so most of the PDA in the relationship comes from you.

Youssef doesn’t mind it. He likes every ounce of adoration you give him.

He’s aware of the pressure that comes with being a manager to twenty individuals, especially when one of your superiors is Nyang. It can get troublesome when you’re trying to get as much work done as possible.

You’re more than welcome to rant to Youssef about all of your worries. He knows a thing or two about consolation and how to calm someone down when they’re overworked.

“I understand. You’re rather troubled because of that, right? For now, why don’t you take a moment to relax and I’ll get you something to drink? You won’t be able to function if you’re dehydrated.”

He’s always so gentle when he speaks to you, and that eases your worries to a great extent.

Youssef will whisper certain phrases in different languages or read to you. Anything to help you de-stress.

He seems to have a solution for nearly everything, and that’s always reassuring.

He’s happy when you make him his favorite foods. After all, nothing can beat the cooking of the one he loves most.

If your stress prevents you from sleeping, Youssef will recommend healthy remedies to help you get back on track.

Youssef’s diligent when it comes to your well-being. He’ll make sure you’re eating your meals, resting well, and drinking water.

Sometimes he feels more like a butler than your significant other, but he means well either way.

At the end of the day, you know Youssef cares for you—even if he doesn’t show it as boldly as the others do.

☀️ Ell ☀️

Ell is over the moon whenever you show him your affectionate side.

His halo glows brighter, and he feels weightless when you hug him.

It’s hard to feel upset when you’re with him. He’s just so positive, always smiling and encouraging you.

You’ve got to match his energy! Sometimes you’ll hug him randomly or kiss his cheek, and he loves it.

Ell always claims he’s got butterflies in his stomach when you do that. It may catch him off guard, but he doesn’t mind. Your affection is what boosts his mood and prevents him from thinking negatively.

Despite your loving gestures, Ell’s aware that things can get stressful to an overwhelming amount.

He can tell when you’re overworking yourself, which makes him feel sad because his manager shouldn’t stress so much.

He’ll offer to take on any work you can’t finish. It might not turn out perfect, but at least his heart is in the right place.

“You can’t shoulder all of that work yourself, Manager. Let me help. I promise you’ll feel better if we work on this together!”

Teamwork makes the dream work, and despite his occasional clumsiness Ell’s a great partner to work with.

When you get anxious, he’ll sit you down and play the lyre, or he’ll tell you some stories from when he was an angel. He likes your smiling expression when he reminisces all of the silly moments he’s spent with his friends.

He’s like your personal cheerleader, always motivating you to do your best.

Ell has an affectionate side, too! He’ll show his affection in many ways, all of which give you a reason to keep pushing ahead.

You’re always helping each out. It’s an ideal relationship!

Ell likes it when you pat his head and play with his hair. It makes him feel all warm and fuzzy.

🌹 Louis 🌹

Louis is here for you! He knows it can get stressful managing so many Soul Reapers, and stress is simply not good for your complexion.

Contrary to what others see, Louis genuinely cares for people other than himself. He’s got such a carefree personality, so it’s easy for him to know when anyone’s troubled.

He’ll do anything he can to make sure you’re not stressed. Sometimes it helps to just take a moment and relax. He’ll suggest various methods of relaxation, such as a warm bath, a long nap, and even watching funny cat videos.

He’s an affectionate person, so naturally you end up adopting some of his habits the longer you spend time with him. There are times when you’ll absentmindedly stroke his arm or squeeze his hand.

Being near him is calming enough, and Louis doesn’t mind it one bit. In fact, he quite enjoys it when you hold his hand.

Louis will put everything aside in favor of helping you, even if it means sacrificing some time in front of the mirror. You’re his number one priority, and he won’t let you succumb to your stress.

You’ll cuddle with him when you’re exhausted from a long day of work. Simply listening to Louis rant about his appearance is more than enough to ease your nerves.

If resting your hand upon his or toying with his sleeve calms you, Louis will gladly let you do those things.

He wants you to feel comfortable and relaxed, not continuously on edge or worried.

He’s there to calm you down if you’ve had or are experiencing an anxiety attack. Louis is very gentle and surprisingly peaceful as he talks you through it, asking if you need medication (if it’s prescribed) and breathing with you.

“Take a deep breath in, hold it, and now breathe out. That’s it. You’re doing simply marvelous.”

Once you’ve managed to overcome it, he’ll be there to get you whatever it is you need. Louis values self-care days, so he’ll make sure you take as many self-care days as you need. You may be the manager, but that doesn’t mean you should give into the stress of it all!

When you’re feeling anxious about something, he gets even more affectionate, giving out sincere compliments that might not make the most sense.

Still, it puts a smile on your face.

🏹 Kirr 🏹

Kirr will protect you from anything. Vengeful spirits, harmful weather—you name it. That’s why you feel especially content whenever you’re with him.

Kirr might not seem like the overly affectionate type, but he cares deeply for you. He’ll show it in different ways, much like how you show your own affection.

He might not understand what you’re doing when you grab his hand and give it a firm squeeze. His first assumption is that you just want to hold hands, and he doesn’t have a problem with that.

But if he senses that you’re feeling or expressing any signs of anxiety, he’s quick to become protective.

He’ll ask if you need a moment or if you’d like to lie down somewhere. Kirr wants you to feel comfortable and safe, so your well-being is always important to him.

Kirr doesn’t mind it when you’re lounging with him, idly stroking his hair. If it calms you down when you’re feeling any sort of negative emotion, then he’ll let you do it for as long as you want.

You can talk to him about anything and everything; he’ll be there to listen.

Sometimes you’ll trace patterns into his arms when the two of you are cuddling, and the sensation is oddly soothing.

He likes to hold you in his arms in a protective manner, vowing that no harm shall ever come to his precious manager.

If you’re feeling particularly down or anxious, he’ll try to take your mind off of it by suggesting different activities. You could meditate or go on a walk to clear your head. Perhaps you’d like to stay inside and nap instead? 

Kirr is a tall Reaper, so he finds it cute when you have to stand on the points of your feet to reach him. If you happen to be taller than him or at his height, he doesn’t mind it. After all, he has no preference on height! You’re perfect the way you are.

He definitely wants to teach you how to make traps at some point.

If you aren’t opposed to it, he’d also like to take you camping for a day or two.

Nothing's more soothing than the sounds of nature, so he prefers to be in the outdoors with you. But if that triggers your anxiety, then he’s completely fine with remaining indoors.

Regardless of the method, your incredible smile and caring heart never fail to make him fall a little more in love with you each day.

#afterl!fe #after l!fe #afterl!fe the sacred kaleidoscope #afterl!fe youssef #afterl!fe ell #afterl!fe louis #afterl!fe kirr #afterl!fe youssef x reader #youssef x reader #afterl!fe ell x reader #ell x reader #afterl!fe louis x reader #louis x reader #afterl!fe kirr x reader #kirr x reader #afterl!fe headcanons #afterl!fe hcs #afterl!fe x reader

[natsubeatsrock]

Guide to Avoiding Fairy Tail Criticism

Fairy Tail is far from a perfect series. I'm not here to argue otherwise. I've made plenty of critiques about Fairy Tail over the years and I've been a strong proponent of people being allowed to say things they don't like about the series.

Though, as I watch the fallout of Hbomberguy's video on RWBY and how its fans are dealing with it, it's hard not to think about the stupid things people have said negatively about Fairy Tail. This series has its fair share of stupid, bad faith complaints repeated by critics over and over. While I've talked about some of these in the past, I think it's worth talking compiling a list of things that people who hate Fairy Tail say that I can't take seriously.

"Fairy Fail."

Let's just get this one out of the way. It's not clever in any way. I can't believe this has become as popular an insult as it has. I've seen so many people jokingly refer to this series with this name. No one who unironically uses this is genuinely interested in engaging the series on fair terms at all.

More than that, it's not even true. Despite any issues regarding the series, Fairy Tail is still a fairly popular series with fans, especially outside of Japan. It's one of Kodansha's most successful IPs of the 2000s. The fact that people put it on the same level as Shonen Jump's Big 3 is impressive. If this is what a failing series looks like, I can't imagine what success would look like for Mashima.

"Mashima didn't plan anything."

This is one I've fallen victim to in the past. To be fair, Mashima hasn't been the best at explaining this to his fans. For critics, it's easy to see that Mashima says he comes up with plot points as he goes. Of course, the reason this is a critique is that this is as far as many go.

As Mashima explains it, it's not that Mashima didn't have any plans for future events for the series and how future events would go. While he didn't start the series with many concrete plans aside from the basics, he has had plans for how the series would go. But rather than being fixed plans, Fairy Tail's decisions have been more fluid paths Mashima chooses to go down as the series continues.

This isn't a bad way to write a story. As a story progresses, you may realize that certain ideas may be less possible than others or things you've planned at the start make less sense than you originally thought. Again, the critique could be that Mashima's style of writing is responsible for some of the series' weaker moments. However, it's wrong to say that Mashima shot from the hip every week, as some people have described his writing. Luckily, Fairy Tail is the only series Mashima has written this way. Both Rave Master and Edens Zero have been planned more from the beginning.

"It's like One Piece, but worse."

I've seen it thrown around that Fairy Tail looks like One Piece. If that's all there was to it, I don't think this would be on this list. Despite what people tell you, Mashima was never an assistant for Eichiro Oda. Mashima got into the landscape without being anyone's assistant. That's easy to dismiss.

However, I've seen people argue that Fairy Tail is a poor attempt at trying to copy One Piece's formula. Ignore for a moment that Edens Zero is closer to following that model and even it isn't a copy. Or that every series this side of Dragon Ball has been accused of being similar to it and people have been doing the same with series after Naruto.

The focus of Fairy Tail isn't similar to that of One Piece. There is no grand treasure or giant goal that the series revolves itself around finding. A lot of the main conflicts to Fairy Tail present themselves less as threats to the individual goals of characters or but to the guild's existence.

"There is no point to Fairy Tail."

I've talked about this one in the past. One thing you'll see people say regarding Fairy Tail is that there wasn't a goal the series was getting to. People will often make the poor comparison to Bleach in this regard, despite Bleach's focus being Ichigo's growth towards being able to protect the people that care about him.

This is a point that even fans of the series miss. I've recently been describing Fairy Tail as a series told through the lens of its main characters about the guild. The focus isn't on how the Fairy Tail guild grows towards being the best, especially since they start at the top. We're meant to watch the characters in the guild as they interact with the world around them and the other guild members.

If that sounds like a weird way to run a series, it's not. Durarara has a similar setup but splits the focus from one core group of characters to several groups and individual characters split up across its main city. Its plot focuses on how each different group connects with each other in ways they don't know and we can't expect as viewers. I wish people would engage Fairy Tail criticism on this level because there are ways to criticize in its implementation of this. However, people see that there's no "I'm gonna be Hokage" or "I'm going to find the One Piece" plotline and think that the series has no point to it.

"Natsu/Lucy is a bad protagonist."

This is related to the last point. The series is less about how Natsu or Lucy achieve their specific goals and more about the guild after they meet each other and start working together. If the series were about those things, we'd get more time focusing on Natsu's search for Igneel or Lucy's growth in the guild. Once you understand what the series is about, the focus the series takes makes sense.

However, I want to spend some time explaining the functions that either character. Again. While the series is, for the most part, told through Lucy's perspective, Natsu is the main driving force of the series. The comparison I've been making for years now is the Sherlock Holmes stories. If Natsu is Sherlock Holmes, Lucy is Dr. Watson. Mashima's referred to both as the main character and the argument could be made that this focus expands to other main members of the Strongest Team.

"Juvia had no arc."

Yet another one I've been responsible for sharing. I've had a weird arc over the past few years of writing about Fairy Tail going from tacit defense to reluctant attacks to my current stance of nuanced critique. However, I've never been a huge fan of how Juvia's been written, despite liking Juvia herself. It's been thrown around that Juvia didn't have a real character or arc, especially outside of Gray.

Juvia's arc involves coming to experience love better. She goes from learning to love other people as friends to engaging with romantic love. She even gets the opportunity to share that love with others. While the focus of that arc becomes centered around Gray, it's not as if Juvia becomes less loving of others or that her arc focusing on Gray makes no sense considering he started her on the path of becoming more loving.

As much as I should sympathize with this argument, it's become a lot more annoying to see this kind of argument levied towards female characters. You're not seeing people argue that Jellal's change is too focused on Erza. I'm not even saying this as someone who loves how this has been played out in the series. It's just annoying to see at all.

"Watch Craftsdwarf's videos on Fairy Tail!"

I've talked about a few of the issues I have with the series already, but I keep seeing this brought up. I'll give credit where it's due. Craftsdwarf's "Overly Long Analytical Tirade on Fairy Tail" does make good points about the series. And considering it's broken up into different parts, it's more digestible than that rant about RWBY. I'm a big fan of the kind of media analysis videos and I've often linked some of my favorite videos in my posts here.

However, Craftsdwarf's videos aren't perfect. The videos come at the series from a hilariously uncharitable point of view, resulting in repeating many of the points I've already mentioned in this post. Their analysis of both Fairy Tail and Rave Master is often shallow and ill-formed. It might be helpful to watch the series to see a negative perspective about Fairy Tail. However, I worry that the points made in that series will be the foundation of future criticism of this series.

“Fairy Tail is the worst (popular) battle action shonen.”

It’s funny seeing this one levied towards plenty of series that aren’t Fairy Tail. People say this about Dragon Ball. People say this about the Big 3. People say this about other hits in Weekly Shonen Magazine like Seven Deadly Sins and Fire Force. People say this about the current popular stuff from WSJ like MHA and Black Clover. Fairy Tail is far from the first or last series to get this complaint.

Even ignoring how hilariously hard this is to quantify as objective fact as opposed to personal preference, I’ve noticed that most of the people making this claim don’t do the work to understand why things they don’t like happened. To be honest, I don’t know too many fans who are willing to do the same. A lot of fans have the infuriating mindset of “it’s bad, but I still like it”.

Despite whatever anyone tells you, Fairy Tail has internal logic outside of “nakama power”. Characters face genuine loss and win for logical reasons. Even if it’s not as consistent as fans would like it to be, I don’t think the anime/manga fandom is worse for this series being as popular and beloved as it is.

Let me know if I forgot any or if you’ve heard another one.

#fairy tail #to be clear #i haven't seen hbomberguy's video #not because i don't watch long form criticism #he's not doing it in good faith

[pens-swords-stuff]

idk if you're still doing the ask thing but uhhh what's it like being one of the best writeblrs in town? what's your primary source of inspiration? are there any old wips that you gave up ages ago but are tempted to go back and change/finish? are there any wips that you haven't told anyone about yet but are dying to share? (pls share if you want!) Finally, why do you like writing so much? (you don't have to answer all the questions i just really like asking people these questions bc they're fun)

Thank you so much for all of the questions! I really enjoyed answering them :)

It’s a bit long so I’m putting it all under a cut!

What's it like being one of the best writeblrs in town?

Oh my gosh, I really don’t think I’m anywhere near being one of the best writeblrs in town, but I’m super flattered that you think I am! 

Overall, I love being a writeblr, and I love the little community of friends, mutuals, and followers that I have. I definitely wouldn’t still be around if I didn’t enjoy the community so much! I love being able to support people, and sometimes sharing what little I have. The amount of passion, creativity and kindness here is phenomenal, and I’m really honored to be a part of it!

It’s pretty normal, honestly. I’m definitely not one of the super popular writeblrs that gets a whole lot of engagement (though I am really thankful for every bit of engagement I get 💙💙) so I think that I have a lot less going on than most people might think. That’s mostly my own fault though I think, because I haven’t shared a whole lot of my writing or projects. I reblog stuff, post stuff sometimes, I try to reblog and leave comments on people’s work when I’m feeling up to it, and occasionally I’m delighted by a very kind comment.

It’s not all roses and sparkles though, a lot of really hard work went into getting where I am. Being a bigger blog with a certain reputation also brings with it a lot of problems and frustrations that I usually don’t talk about because I think it’s pretty tacky to rant about publicly on my blog. 

But it’s worth it, you know? The positives definitely outweigh the negatives, and I met so many amazing people here which is the best gift. I just don’t think that my writeblr experience is that different from most other people haha!

What's your primary source of inspiration?

My writing partner is a really big one. She’s super creative and I absolutely adore writing with her. She comes up with the best ideas, and talking about our ideas and projects and characters with her is always a surefire way for me to get excited and inspired about something, even if I’m in a slump!

TV shows, movies, books, video games that I’m into also sometimes ignite a spark! When I’m creatively drained or suffering writer’s block, I always try to just disconnect from writing for a bit and immerse myself in other media until something clicks.

Otherwise, aesthetics are one of the primary ways I get into an idea or a concept so that’s pretty important as well!

Are there any old wips that you gave up ages ago but are tempted to go back and change/finish?

It’s been a really long time since I’ve written for any of the WIPs that I’ve announced on tumblr. For Queen and Country, Morsmordre, Post-Script, Wanderlust... Between me and my partners feeling burnt out, or stuck, or just otherwise busy with other things, they’ve all fallen to the wayside a bit and that makes me a bit sad.

I don’t think any of us have given up on them, but right now they’re not active and I really wish that they were.

Are there any wips that you haven't told anyone about yet but are dying to share?

YES!!! Two of them, in fact.

One of them is a fanfiction that will be accessible to people who aren’t part of the fandom and have no knowledge about it — it will have no spoilers for the fandom, and all of the fandom-specific worldbuilding and such will be explainable. But it’s an incredibly original idea; there’s no fic anything like it on AO3, fanfiction.net or wattpad, and I’m a bit paranoid that once I start talking about it, people might take the idea and run with it? Which you know, might not happen and I know I’m being overly cautious. But I’ve demanded a gag order until we’re ready to post the actual story. It’s so good and I can’t wait to tell people but I want to keep it a secret until it’s ready and faljdskhcnlkdsjcnlakdjn

The other one is my Nano project!!! I’m really close to being able to share it!!!!! So close, yet so far... Hoping to be able to announce within the next week or so.

Finally, why do you like writing so much?

I’ve been writing for my entire life basically, ever since I was 5 years old. It’s just been my choice of a creative outlet, I suppose, and I never really questioned it.

My first serious attempt at writing was play-by-post roleplaying, and I adored that because it allowed me to flesh out characters and character relationships with other people. That’s still a massive part of the appeal because I write with partners. Being able to collaborate on an idea, and endlessly talk about character relationships, dynamics, and plotting is definitely among the most rewarding experiences I’ve gotten with writing.

Like I said before, writing it my creative outlet. I’m a really creative person, but writing is really one of the only ways that I can express it because I’m not artistic whatsoever, and I don’t have a whole lot of other skills. Writing is something I can do though, and I often feel like I’m going to explode if I go too long without creating something. And it’s so immensely satisfying to be able to look at something I wrote or created and be like “Wow, I did really good.” My progress isn’t easily trackable, but I am able to look at my writing and see that I’ve improved, which is really motivating.

But when it comes to the question, why do I like it so much... I’m honestly not sure! Writing has always just been one of my things, and I’ve never actually delved too deeply into the why. It’s an interesting question though, and hopefully I’ll find an answer someday!

#undine answers stuff #Anonymous

[someobscurereference]

Would you recommend listening to critical role? I’ve been a long time fan of taz and I’ve heard a lot of people refer to it as the lesser version of taz, which I’m 99% sure is just people trash talking it because it is similar. I’d like to hear your opinion and what’s the story building like? Is it taz like where they get really invested into their characters and the plot or more pure shenanigans and random plot lines?

I’ll first preface this by saying that I only listened to like the first 10 or so episodes or Critical Role’s old campaign, not because I didn’t like it, but because there were already so many episodes out by the time I found it that it became daunting to get into. However, I’ve listened to all the episodes in the new campaign that just started (except episode 5 because I need to wait until Monday for it to come out because I didn’t catch the livestream), and with both campaigns I’ve enjoyed myself a lot. 

I’ve never heard anybody call Critical Role a lesser version of TAZ. That seems really rude and kind of senseless, actually, because they’re both D&D podcasts but they run kinda differently.

I think one of the key differences between Critical Role and TAZ is that DM Matt Mercer sticks to the rules more than Griffin did. Like that train scene in Murder on the Rockport Limited. Griffin let Travis do that and Magnus would have died if he’d made a bad role, but even though it was kinda silly and almost impossible to pull off, he let Travis do it. DM Matt from Critical Role, on the other hand, probably would have made the player do about four different rolls to see if they could manage it, and they probably would have had disadvantage on most of them because flinging yourself out a train window while the train is running super fast and then expecting to fling yourself around to the back totally uninjured is both unrealistic and dangerous. And there’s a good chance they might have failed pulling off a move so risky and died just like Griffin warned that Magnus could have. This may not sound very different from TAZ, but making sure a move like that succeeded in CR probably would have been more complicated and difficult than Griffin’s version of it. (Also, the worlds Matt uses are much less steampunk than Griffin’s. I don’t think there ever would be a train in the first place, though there are occasional airships or large boats and the like. But you get the idea.) 

In other words, the rules don’t get bent as much. This allows allows the CR campaigns to take on a kind of more realistic (though still fantasy) feel, and some actions that might not have been as weighty in TAZ are a little weightier in CR. The CR crew has to regularly pay attention to how much money they have, whether they’re doing something suspicious that will get them arrested, whether they’re a high enough level to pull something off because being a low level and really trying your luck has a strong possibility of getting you killed. Not that Matt is overly mean at all! He’s not working with the intent to kill all the players, and remaking a new character is a lot of work, so he very much doesn’t want that to happen. He really only throws events and enemies at his players that he knows they can handle, so long as they’re smart about it. So he’s not making a “Take one wrong step and you die” type of game at all! But if you don’t pay attention or get a really bad roll, there is the possibility of bringing something bad upon yourself because you chose to be risky.

There are a few home-brew elements that get brought in occasionally as well. For example, in the first campaign, one of the player’s weapons was a gun. But overall, because Matt is working within the confines and rules of what D&D allows, the world and what can happen in it is pretty understandable. You can scale up the side of the building if you want and because you’re a rogue maybe you’ll have advantage on being stealthy about it, but hey, if you fall four stories up because you get caught, that’s gonna be bad for your health. Maybe that doesn’t sound very different from TAZ at all, but I think if you listened to a few scenes of CR, the way the world and scenes feel different from that of TAZ would become clear.

I want to make it clear that any of the above is not a deterrent or negative to me at all. CR is different from the slightly looser way Griffin runs TAZ, but it’s very fun and the pictures it paints of the world is very clear. And I do mean clear! DM Matt is a brilliant storyteller, and the NPCs and the worlds he paints are very descriptive. You can very much see them in your mind’s eye. Because the DM and the players are all professional voice actors as well, the character voices are very well done too! The voices are all distinct, and you get an idea of how a character’s personality feels pretty quick. 

Again, I want to make it clear that I mention these things not because CR does these things better than TAZ in some way (or to imply that TAZ doesn’t have good storytelling or voice acting), but only to note that they are done well in a way that is different from TAZ.

Okay, on the character and story building stuff.

Just like TAZ, the CR crew get really invested in their characters. They put a lot of time and effort and feeling into them, and in the first campaign, they’d been playing those characters for quite a while before they show started. There are tears sometimes! The players are very invested in their characters and their storylines and their friends, and the idea that something bad could happen to them is treated seriously! They get torn up about it! The male players cry when they emotional occasionally too; nobody is above getting emotional or sad. On the flipside, good things are celebrated too. On particularly good roles, the whole table cheers. They laugh together. A lot of emotions are had, and the CR crew loves their characters and each other the same way the TAZ crew does. It’s a serious game, but nobody is above having fun with it. 

Though the world is a little more realistic in CR like I said, there are a lot of goofs too! The exchanges in and out of character are funny, and sometimes events go wrong in very funny ways! One time it took three characters ten minutes, two spells, and several failed attempts to open a very, very simply locked door. Sometimes characters shave each other’s faces while they sleep. Some NPCs are very eccentric. There are a couple one-off episodes where someone replaces Matt as DM or something and often those episodes are very funny too. The plotlines aren’t often too random for the sake of being random, but one-offs like that can be fun. Usually there’s some kind of goal the players are trying to reach though.

Story building is a bit different too. TAZ: Balance functioned as a “collect 7 items and save the world” type story with a plot that was clear early on. (When they met the BoB, I mean, most listeners realized it was going to function as a collect the artifacts type game.) With CR, the focus is a little more on the characters. This is not to say there are not overarching villains like TAZ, because there are, but if you listen to CR’s first campaign, you realize that some arcs are more focused on certain characters than others (Not with anyone getting ignored! Just as a result of where and when the characters are in the story. For instance, the Character A may get a bit more of a focus if they’re near Character A’s hometown, but that’s just for the arc plot. Everybody else is getting attention too.)

All the characters in CR have a type of backstory that haunts them or a goal they are trying to achieve, so when I say “character arc”, I mean the arc is then shaped around helping that character fulfill that desire. Usually through a lot of fighting, because nothing is ever easy. But it becomes less “gotta collect this item and save the world” and more “I’m going to kill the monsters that murdered my family and live on our land” or “I’m going to prove to my clan that I’m worthy of succeeding my mother as leader.” Things like that. And then there are less character focused arcs in between! It’s not always “time for Vex’s story” or “Time for Grog’s story.” There are times where it’s like, hey. There’s a dragon. Or a swamp monster. Or for some reason the children and elderly in this village are going missing. Time to solve this mystery and save these people or unravel a bigger mystery behind it. So it varies a lot too! 

The episodes are very long and there are a lot of them, so the story can sometimes move a little slower than you’re used to in TAZ. That’s something to keep in mind too. But it’s also a benefit if you’re interested in stories being very detailed and fleshed out as well.

If you’re interested in listening or watching at all, the new campaign just started! It takes place about 20 years after the first campaign and on another continent as well, so new listeners have an easy time of jumping in. New characters too! Episodes livestream on Geek and Sundry website on Thursdays, and archived episodes appear on Monday on YouTube. I think they appear in podcast form at that same time too, but you may want to look that up to be sure. The first episode of the new campaign is on YT here. The last campaign is fully archived in video and podcast format!

tl;dr Like TAZ, CR has some goofs, a lot of character building, a lot of world building, and really interesting stories are told. CR goes about these things differently than TAZ and is thematically different as well, but so long as you can enjoy a good story and aren’t too worried about all the D&D podcasts you listen to being told the exact same way, you’ll probably have a good time with it! The episodes are longer than TAZ’s for sure, but it’s easy to listen on the go or play in the background while you do other work. 

tl:dr 2: I would definitely recommend giving it a try! Maybe listen to the first episode of the new campaign first to see if you can get into that sort of style (because everyone has new characters and so they’re learning again just like you), and then maybe go back to the first campaign if you like it! And if you don’t like it in the end, that’s okay too. Some things appeal to different people.

I hope this helps!

#my text #asks #taz #critical role #long post

[x-wearethefuture-x]

👫 [for Amber and Seunghyun, Chanmi and Kyuhyun aaaand Jiho and Hyuna :D. I hope you feel better]

Send a 👫and I’ll write four headcanons I have about our muse’s relationship

Amber and Seunghyun1. Seunghyun tries not to go to Amber with his problems- he knows that she has enough of her own to deal with. But when he decided to tell Miran about his mutation, Amber was the first person he went to to help him decide if that was a good idea or not. She was the one who convinced him to be open about it if he really loved her. Also, Amber was the first person he told about his relationship with Miran. They keep some things from each other, but important things like that are things they take to one another immediately.2. They /definitely/ have the older brother / younger sister relationship. It’s not entirely stereotypical, though. He’s very protective of her, yes… but Amber is also fiercely protective of him. They look out for one another and are always there for each other when they need to be.3. That said, Seunghyun has accidentally gotten into the habit of introducing Amber as his little sister xD Most people don’t even question it because they look just enough alike that it’s totally believable.4. When they first met Seunghyun didn’t like Amber. Well, it wasn’t so much that he didn’t like her as it was he was /nervous/ around her. She was a kid still and he was a teenager who was terrified of his powers. He was always afraid that he would accidentally hurt her (because he’d accidentally hurt Sooyeon once before and knew that it might happen again at any minute). He warmed up to her quickly, though. Even before they were close he felt protective of her. He was close to Logan, as Amber was, so whenever Logan would leave he would leave Amber in Seunghyun’s care. The older male thought that this would help both of them come out of their shells a little, so to say. (He trusted Sooyeon with Amber, too, but Amber seemed to stick more to Seunghyun (possibly because he reminded her more of Logan than Sooyeon could). There was also the factor that Sooyeon was already integrating better and making some friends- Seunghyun was the one who needed the extra attachment more.)

Chanmi and Kyuhyun1. I just need to get this out of the way… Kyuhyun was a virgin when he and Chanmi started dating, mostly because he’d never really taken an interest in anyone enough to care about sex. It never bothered him. They still aren’t like overly sexual- their relationship is a lot more on the fluffy and romantic side- but he finally gets what all the hype was about xD On that note, he’s nearly insatiable when they do get that intimate. Sorry Chanmi oTL2. Kyuhyun sings to Chanmi ALL THE TIME. He has a mostly abandoned youtube channel where he would post covers of songs sometimes, but now that he has someone who appreciates him singing to them more often, he doesn’t feel a need to use it anymore. Possibly the most important time he sings to her, though, is when she’s woken up from a bad dream and he doesn’t know what more to say. At times like that he sings as smoothly and as quietly as possible, hoping that his voice can be a kind of lullaby. And even after she’s asleep he keeps singing to her for at least a little longer in the hopes that if she slips into a dream his voice will reach her there and ensure that it’s a sweet one.3. They communicate very easily. Chanmi and Kyuhyun both know that in order to maintain a good relationship they can’t hide things from each other. They’re the kind of couple that tells one another practically everything. If they have an argument they never go to bed angry because they talk it out. They’ve both gotten fairly good at talking to each other about things. There’s a lot of trust between them.4. People point out their age gap a lot. It’s not necessarily super noticeable to people that don’t know them (because they aren’t far enough apart in age that there’s a huge difference in appearances or anything), but some people who /do/ know about their age difference tend to mention it in negative ways. “How do you two have anything to talk about?” “Do you even have anything in common?” “Aren’t you afraid that they’ll leave you for someone closer to their own age?” and so on. Sometimes people say these things to purposely try to hurt them or upset them, other times they’re meant to be innocent questions but they end up not sounding like it. Either way, they really get to Kyuhyun- he has a lot of insecurities about their age difference that he would never have had if people hadn’t started questioning their relationship. For that reason he has a bit of a jealous streak. He tries not to act on it and it’s the one thing that he usually tries to keep from Chanmi because he knows it’s ridiculous. But she knows and, even if it causes small fights sometimes, they don’t last long. He hopes she knows that his concerns come less from a distrust of her and more from people reminding him from time to time that he’s probably too old for her.

Jiho and Hyuna1. They argue… a lot. Not usually about anything major, just stupid stuff. It’s because they both have hot tempers and get annoyed over little things. That said, they also cool down pretty easily and usually end up laughing it off together a few minutes later when they realize how ridiculous the argument was. It’s this kind of back and forth, though, that makes it easy for them to calm down from even /larger/ arguments. They’ve argued so often about little things that they’ve learned to spot the ridiculousness of their fights so fast that even the bigger fights don’t usually last for more than half an hour or so before they’re both apologizing.2. Because their relationship is in the spot light, they get a ton of hate for it. Usually it’s all online and such- jerks leaving mean comments on articles about them (individually or together) and people purposely attacking them on their personal social media accounts. Sometimes, however, it moves over into real life. It’s not common, but it happens. Hyuna, personally, has had a small handful of run ins with some of Jiho’s fangirls where they try to antagonize her. She hasn’t bothered to tell Jiho about them because she doesn’t see a need to- they’re just pathetic fans with no lives and no respect for anyone, not even Jiho. Between this and the online attacks sometimes Hyuna comes home feeling kind of defeated. But Jiho always immediately makes her feel better. Jiho has probably had some similar issues as well, but like Hyuna, he’s never bothered telling her about them. It just doesn’t seem necessary.3. They always ALWAYS have each other’s backs. Neither of them are weak and neither of them /need/ the extra support… but they’re always there for each other just in case. Honestly, I could picture one of them accidentally (or even purposely) killing someone and the two of them going on the run /together/ even though one of them is innocent- they’re just that tight. Seriously, regardless of the situation, they’re always there for each other.4. Most people would assume that their relationship was mostly about sex (and, yeah, that’s a big part of their relationship too, of course), but they can be super cheesy, too. They sometimes leave cute messages for each other either pinned to the fridge or the bathroom mirror. They take a selfies together- both normal ones and just absolutely ridiculous ones. They actually get competitive when playing video games together- Hyuna has even bought this little plastic crown that the winner wears and then the other kind of waits on them and all of that kind of ridiculousness until they can’t keep it up anymore and they’re either just laughing at themselves and each other and making out on the couch. Also, despite the fact that they’re both rather emotionally closed off to other people, they can confide in each other. Hyuna has found Jiho after he’s literally shot himself in the head and Jiho knows about the past that not even her own mother knows about. They know how to handle the mess of each other and, actually, they love each other even more for the imperfections. They’re very affectionate in private, though much less so in public (though even in public Hyuna’s usually pressed against Jiho’s side and they’re not above kissing and such). Even when they’re sleeping, they’re usually pressed close together- the only exception being when it’s too hot out, especially because Jiho’s body temperature is already warmer than normal. But even then they usually end up falling asleep holding hands or something like that. They like to be touching whenever they can be because they tend to keep the bad thoughts away from each other even just by touching.They’re actually perfect for each other in just about every way.

#thenextleap #((I hope that these are okay~ #I kind of rambled about Chanmi/Kyuhyun and Jiho/Hyuna xD)) #abt;Nightmare #abt;Strike #abt;Bunny

[therealkn]

David’s Resolution: Day -1

Day -1 (December 31, 2018)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

“Dear God, I accept my death gladly but do not let me suffer too long. Will I be with You tonight in Paradise?”

If you look up lists of the greatest films of all time, you’re probably gonna find this film on that list. It’s one of those movies that critics and scholars and aficionados shower with praise and talk about at length, yet most people don’t know of the film. They may have heard mention of it a couple times, but otherwise they don’t really know about it. And this is where I talk a bit about the Criterion Collection.

I should have mentioned this before, but both films I’ve reviewed so far in the resolution series - It Happened One Night and The Night of the Hunter - were Criterion releases. I highly recommend them, or any film that I have and that Criterion puts out. But who the hell is Criterion?

The Criterion Collection is basically this high-end film distributor that deals in what they call “important classic and contemporary films”. (And which one is Armageddon, Criterion? No joke, Armageddon’s in the collection.) They started out in the mid-1980s with laserdisc releases of more mainstream films like King Kong and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and since then they’ve become known for their high-end, high-quality releases of all sorts of great films: from classic Golden Age films to more mainstream critically-acclaimed fare, plus a slew of foreign films held in high regard. Every now and then, they surprise you with a new release (I was surprised that they added Night of the Living Dead and The Breakfast Club and The Princess Bride), plus they have several of David Cronenberg’s films. But otherwise, their releases tend to be more for those with shall we say “refined” tastes in film, somewhat more cultured palates than your typical moviegoer.

But I am FAR from refined or cultured.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Criterion and I have dozens of their releases (I want that Ingmar Bergman box set they put out recently, but I can hear my wallet bawling at that...), and I absolutely love the care they put into their releases. The lengths they do for their god-tier restoration work, the bonus features from people who talk passionately about these films... every release is a work of people who genuinely care about these films. I’m just saying that I’m not work

And next time, I’ll be talking about another distributor whose work is similar to Criterion, but who usually deal with a different type of film. Some of you may know which distributor. But for now, let’s talk about The Passion of Joan of Arc.

You all know who Joan of Arc is, I trust. If not, really short version: she was a French peasant who claimed to have had visions from the archangel Michael, telling her to fight in the Hundred Years’ War and reclaim France from the English. She ended up captured by the English, tried in what was basically a kangaroo court, and executed as a martyr by being burned at the stake. But I said this isn’t the kind of Joan of Arc movie you’re thinking. And here’s why.

Most portrayals of Joan of Arc, like The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (the one with Milla Jovovich and which suggested that her visions were from mental illness and not from a divine source), focus on Joan as a soldier and a leader in war. But not this one. Director and writer Carl Theodor Dreyer decided he wasn’t going to do that. It’s called The Passion of Joan of Arc. This isn’t a movie about Joan the crusading warrior. This is a movie about Joan the martyr. This movie draws from the actual records of Joan’s trial, portraying the last hours of her life and ending with her death, with most of what is spoken actually from the records.

Joan is portrayed not as a woman who bravely defies the courts with the flair you’d expect in a courtroom drama, but as a woman who is clinging to her faith and her belief, desperately battling a court whose French judges are loyal to the English and are determined to see her punished for her actions against their English overlords. Renée Falconetti, who portrays Joan, delivers what many call one of the greatest performances in all of film, and I can see why people praise the shit out of it. The many close-ups of Falconetti let us see every moment of pain and sorrow and faith, and you can see it all in her expressions and in her eyes. It’s the rare thing in film when you feel like this person really is their character: the ultimate method acting where character and actor become one and the same.

The film isn’t flashy, either. It’s a very basic-looking film, at least in its setting. A plain-looking courtroom, Joan’s jail cell, the crowd where she is executed... not a whole lot of money put on screen. But what the film does have is a very distinctive visual style, even for a silent film. There are a lot of close-ups in the film, not only on Joan but on the judges and the priests, portraying them in an unflattering light. The judges look grotesque, like those paintings of hideous-looking and overly-detailed people brought to life - in particular the lead judge with his gnarled, monstrous face and another who has what hair he has left styled like devil horns (very subtle imagery, Mr. Dreyer) - and some people aren’t too fond of all these close-ups, but I like it. The many close-ups creates an unsettling atmosphere that makes you feel like you, the viewer, are being judged just like Joan. It gives it a distinct style that you remember for a long time after seeing the movie.

This movie’s a bit tricky to talk about, honestly, seeing as how so many people have talked about it already and there’s not much else to say that hasn’t been said. It’s one of those movies that’s better to watch and see for yourself. So do that. I highly recommend this movie.

Criterion’s Blu-ray release of the film comes with three different soundtracks for the film. That’s the thing about silent films: a lot of them don’t have soundtracks as we know it, as theater piano players back then would usually just improvise with the film. But when home video became a thing, you could assign a soundtrack to a film, even creating one of your own. The soundtracks they have are excellent. Richard Einhorn’s “Voices of Light” oratorio is the best of the three, and is apocalyptic and chilling and adds to the atmosphere wonderfully. The avant-garde score by Will Gregory and Adrian Utley is also excellent and surprisingly fitting for a silent historical drama. Mie Yamashita’s piano score is good, but can seem underwhelming if you listen to the other two soundtracks first. Or you can just watch it literally silent, the only silent film I have that actually has that option without having to mute your TV.

I should also mention that the story of this film’s survival is a doozy. The original negative (we’ll call it “Version A”) was destroyed in 1927 in a fire at Berlin’s UFA studios, and only a few copies of Version A survived. Dreyer had to assemble a second version of the film, which we’ll call “Version B”, using alternate and unused takes that weren’t in Version A. For decades, only Version B was available in various forms, which were subjected to censorship by governments and churches, the latter of whom especially shouldn’t be fucking with how a film is released. And when Dreyer died in 1968, he believed that Version A was lost forever... except it ultimately wasn’t. In 1981, a near-pristine copy of Version A was discovered in the most unlikely of places: inside a closet in a Norwegian insane asylum. And thank God the person who found it didn’t open the film canisters or else we’d have lost Version A. And that person would’ve probably lost their eyebrows because you shouldn’t mess with nitrate film.

So yeah. I recommend this movie. Even if you’re not really big into older movies or silent films, I still say to check this out. Nothing I say will compare to actually seeing it for yourself.

Next time: one of the greatest visual puns in all of cinema, and you have glowstick fluid to thank for it.

#David's resolution #The Passion of Joan of Arc

[theconservativebrief]

If you’ve ever experienced the misfortune of taking a photo of yourself that will end up on the internet, you have contemplated the weight of the following question: How should I move the muscles in my face to communicate my identity in the most socially correct way possible?

For many of us, the answer is clear: a smile, with teeth! And yet thanks to the proliferation of social media, dating apps, and technology that makes taking selfies infuriatingly addicting (curse you, portrait mode), human beings are now forced to pose for more photos than at any other point in history. And in that span of time, we’ve had to innovate.

Selfie trends are not new, exactly. Since the dawn of duckface in the mid-2000s — the act of pursing one’s lips and pushing them forward as if leaning in for a particularly theatrical kiss — we’ve replaced it with “sparrow face,” “migraine face,” belfies, T-rex hands, Bambi-ing, and that weird thing where teens cover their entire face with one hand, thus eliminating the purpose of a selfie in the first place.

Nearly all of said selfie crazes are performed by women, and we rarely discuss the ones percolating among men. But all along, there has been a single face that’s gone entirely unnoticed for the past decade-plus of its existence. It is this: raised eyebrows, and tightened lips.

“This is a face that says, ‘I’m kind of fun!’ but still reminds you, the viewer, ‘I am a tough, serious dude.” —Alex Kirshner

This face is everywhere. Though I have surely done it at one point or another, it is especially prevalent among guys who are somewhere in between teenagehood and middle age, the period of life most fraught with questions and doubts about one’s place in the world. It is a face that expresses this uncertainty — it is both happy and sad, surprised and indifferent, hopeful and cynical, studied and spontaneous.

And for a very long time, I despised it. Every time I’d see a crush doing it on Instagram (a lot!) I would experience a deep, full-bodied pang of cringiness. To me, it always recalled the fraudulent “who, me?” poses of early 2000s pop-punk lead singers, an expression of nice-guyness reserved for dudes who would later ask you for nudes via MySpace.

Today, though, I think the face communicates a certain world-weariness that I find incredibly relatable. The bewilderment of the raised eyebrows is offset by a tautness in the mouth that reads as disappointment. The eyes, too, often have a certain deadness about them. Which, same!

According to body language expert Traci Brown, what the face is actually broadcasting is that the person doesn’t really want to be taking the photo in the first place. “There’s no smile — their eyes are kind of wide. They’re doing it because they have to, like they’re forced into it,” she told me over the phone recently. It makes sense, then, that men might be more likely to make a face that screams, “I am uncomfortable!” while participating in an act that is often coded as feminine.

When I showed her a photo of professionally annoying 20-year-old social media phenom Nash Grier making the face, Brown described it: “He’s not showing emotion like he really wants to be there. He’s like, ‘Ah, I gotta take this picture.’ When his eyebrows are raised, that shows emphasis on a certain point. So he’s just trying to emphasize that he doesn’t want to do it.”

“The tightening of the face muscles you have to do to make the face in question here also comes with, like, a 5 percent smirk, almost a hint of a hint of a smirk.” — Richard Johnson

To find out why so many youngish men who are not former teen Vine stars are making this face, I asked a variety of them. As it turns out, there are a lot of reasons, from a desire to hide one’s “jacked-up teeth” to an attempt to erase all the sadness from one’s face and create a facsimile of happiness. Spoiler: A lot of the reasons are sort of dark!

“First, it avoids crazy eyes — not all of us can smize like Tyra. Second, it’s hard to get a real smile (with teeth!) right without looking like a goober. It took me roughly 1,500 selfies during my trip to Peru to get my easy, breezy, and convincing selfie smile down. Third, it mimics the face you make when you see someone and think, ‘Ah, what a nice surprise!’ Last but not least, it’s exactly what comes up when you Google ‘Confident Face.’ Try it.” —Max Garelick, 26, works in finance

“You start off wanting to get a selfie where you look natural, happy, and attractive, but in every picture, your eyes are closed or you smile like a serial killer. After, like, five attempts, you just do the face so at least you have a shoot with your eyes open [and] you don’t look totally pissed off at the world, and call it a day. Guys just don’t have the patience to take a good selfie.” —C.J. Martinez, 26, producer

“Why do I make the face? A few reasons:

When I force a smile, it looks like an alien trying to replicate a human smile for the first time.

When I press my lips together, my eyebrows kind of naturally rise, which does give an added benefit of reducing my fivehead back down to a forehead.

Unsure why I regularly include some sort of hand gesture. Thumbs-up, peace sign, hang loose, I’m also working on reclaiming the ‘OK’ hand sign. I think the hand just kind of helps fill out some of the negative space in the photo, or maybe it distracts the viewer from my face (another bonus).

“All of this is probably just made up to make myself feel good and I do it totally subconsciously.” —Kyle Jackson, 29, project manager

“I think the hand just kind of helps fill out some of the negative space in the photo, or maybe it distracts the viewer from my face (another added bonus).” —Kyle Jackson

“This is a face that says, ‘I’m kind of fun!’ but still reminds you, the viewer, ‘I am a tough, serious dude, and I barely have time to engage in such trivial things as selfies.’ It’s the pictorial equivalent of putting exactly one foot in the pool, so I’m participating but not vulnerable in any real way, because who cares about looks? I need to grow up.” —Alex Kirshner, 24, college football writer

“This face is a male equivalent of the duckface. It’s an entry-level, go-to, easy-to-pull-off pose for a man to use in a photo without much effort or risk. I usually choose not to make this face in any photo taken of me. Instead, I opt for a laugh/smile that instead makes me so squinty it looks like my eyes are closed because I’m blinded by the sun. Also not a good look, but it’s really all I’ve got. I think bros make this face because they believe it gives off a combination of mysteriousness and quirkiness at the same time. The raised eyebrows signal, ‘Oh, wow, you caught me off guard! Ha! Oh, a photo of me?’ which deep down is a way for the subject to justify the fact that they’re taking a selfie. The smirk is like, ‘I’m too cool for school but I’ll still take this selfie because hey, I’m a fun guy.’

“Sidebar: For some reason, I think it’s fairly accepted that women take selfies — but if you catch a guy trying to get a fit pic off in a public bathroom, it usually makes everyone feel awkward. I believe we should work together to reverse this trend and support the dude that’s just trying to flex a bit to feel good about himself.” —Max Levitzke, 27, works in solar energy

“It’s an entry-level, go-to, easy-to-pull-off pose for a man to use in a photo without much effort or risk.” —Max Levitzke

“I don’t usually take these types of selfies very often, but I feel like what it’s communicating is, ‘I wanna send you a pic of me smiling, but I don’t want to fully smile because that’s too cheesy, so here’s a pic of me with somewhat of a half-smirk so you know that I’m excited about what you’re talking about but don’t want to come across as overly excited.’ I know that probably doesn’t make any type of sense, but the male brain can be strange. I feel like I’ve sent these type of selfies usually through Snapchat so they can disappear. Also maybe men just aren’t good at taking selfies? I know personally I’m quite trash at it.” —Joe Ali, 25, shooter/editor

“Some combination of shyness and plain old male lizard brain command me not to smile. It’s something I’ve increasingly tried to override — smiling is good and makes everyone feel good! — but my instincts don’t want me to. I guess smiling feels like it’s too much? Or maybe I’d just feel exposed. I’ve got pretty jacked-up teeth.” —Seth Rosenthal, 29, video producer

“Ugh, I have made the selfie face you are referring to but I’m not sure I ever realized I was doing it until now. Add it to the pile of things to be insecure about. I think it happens a lot more when you have to take it for a dating app. I think the raising of the eyebrows is meant to, like, soften your face? Like, eyebrows up means ‘hey! :)’ and eyebrows down or neutral means ‘hey.’ As far as the tight-lipped thing, that’s just dudes not wanting to smile because it makes you vulnerable or whatever.” —Ryan Simmons, 30, video producer

“I feel like I’ve sent these type of selfies usually through Snapchat so they can disappear.” —Joe Ali

“I feel like this may be inherently a look with a hint of shame among us men, because in the traditional sense, dudes aren’t even really supposed to be taking selfies, are we? When the selfie really started taking off in the Myspace 2009-ish days, duckface was all the rage thanks to the mirror pic and there was no way in hell 16-year-old me was going to be caught dead doing duckface (because that was for girls, of course).

“Fast-forward a decade or so and maybe I’m still a little held back by the faux machismo prepubescent me subscribed to in regards to the selfie. Besides that, I think the face is also pretty neutral. I’m not gonna frown in a selfie because that would look dumb. But then again, if I flash some toothy grin in a solo selfie, that looks kinda dumb too. I mean, how happy am I really supposed to be about taking a selfie? The tightening of the face muscles you have to do to make the face in question here also comes with, like, a 5 percent smirk, almost a hint of a hint of a smirk. I’m too cool for school (and by school, I mean emoting in a tangible way).” —Richard Johnson, 25, sports writer

“Something to do with the perceived masculinity of selfies. Smiling naturally would imply that I enjoy this teenage girl ritual way too much. The eyebrow raise and nonchalant smirk gives the appearance that I don’t care about my appearance and that I didn’t retake this five or 10 times — even though they did.” —Zach French, 32, business development manager

“Is this what happiness looks like?” —Mike Imhoff

“I think (generally) guys are less comfortable taking photos than girls. But I think everyone has a game plan when it comes to photos. Instead of having to wing it, you just have your go-to because you generally know the outcome, the same way girls do the cross leg/arm bent on the waist/lean-in formula. (I tend to do this open mouth grin thing like I’m doing a big laugh.)

“Guys also potentially feel a certain vulnerability, or perceived vulnerability, when it comes to photos. Like, it’s uncool to enjoy being photographed. So the more you downplay it, the more comfortable you feel (like how guys follow everything they text with ‘haha’ or ‘lol’ in text, even when they’re not even attempting to be funny). —Mark Topel, 30, senior copywriter

“I would say it’s the equivalent of unnecessarily crumpling and eating a journal entry just because someone walked in the room. You need to hurry up and get all that deep sadness out of your face before the camera goes off. Is this what happiness looks like?” —Mike Imhoff, 30, senior director

As I expected, men have a lot of very different reasons for performing this particular facial expression. All of them, however, support the idea that being a person with a face who sometimes has to post photos of that face on the internet can be a very fraught activity — even for men. Who knew!

Original Source -> Why do guys always make the same face in selfies?

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

[mononohke-archive]

Anime Roundup - Winter 2017 [Spoilers]

As always, this season flew by despite how disappointing it was (for anime that started airing during it, not leftovers from Fall 2016). Well, maybe it was also because near the end I started playing video games and fell behind on my normal watching schedule. Either way, it didn’t feel like a whole 3 months. I’m a little late, as usual, and I didn’t write as much this time around. (Chalk it up to laziness and distraction by the aforementioned video games.)

Overall: I think this season qualifies as the worst I’ve seen yet. So many disappointments but only one or two highs.

Featured Anime: Ao no Exorcist S2, Gintama., Rakugo Shinjuu S2, 3-gatsu no Lion, ACCA, All Out!!, ClassicaLoid, Nanbaka + S2, Onihei, Trickster

Total: 10 | Average Score: 6.8 | Word Count: 4,581

~ (DIRECT) SEQUELS ~

Ao No Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc [5/10]

Let me be blunt, the only thing I actually give a crap about in Ao no Exorcist is Yukio. Specifically, Yukio as a character and his brother complex for Rin. That is really what carried me through the first season of AnE and made me feel like it deserved more than a 5. In season one, the whole dynamic between them, Yukio’s complicated feelings for Rin, and their rivalry was the main theme of a significant part of the show. But in this season and arc, Yukio is barely there at all. The shift focuses more to Suguro, his family, and the Impure King. While I don’t dislike Suguro (Nakai Kazuya being his voice helps), I really don’t care enough to watch a whole cour about him and his family. There’s a lot of Rin too, of course, but he’s the main character and that’s obviously unavoidable. 

Well, at least there a little bit of Yukio, however. He’s there for a few episodes and there’s like half an episode dedicated to his and Rin’s relationship, but that’s a pittance compared to the last season. For those reasons, AnE has dropped one point and just went into boring/average territory. If Yukio is a major part of next season or some future season, the score will go up to 6 again, but this one will stay at 5.

To give some credit though, I’m really grateful that they brought back all the original cast for this long awaited sequel. Unlike D.Gray-man last year, I never felt like something was wrong because all the voice actors and art style were different. It is unfortunate that they couldn’t get Keiji Fujiwara to reprise his role as Rin and Yukio’s father, but still 99% of the cast is the same.

Gintama. [8/10]

It is with a heavy heart that I have to give a title in the Gintama series less than a 10 (only applies to the main show and not movies/specials/OVAs). Unfortunately, the recent change in Gintama’s pace is tiring and got boring rather quickly. This problem was beginning to show in the previous season, but at least that had enough episodes and arcs to have more change. 

This season honestly didn’t have a bad start... it was really great seeing the Joui4 together again especially Sakamoto (since he appearances are normally so limited) but then it went into Kamui and Umibozu’s backstory arc. To be clear, I like Umibozu, don’t care about Kamui, and love Kagura, but this whole arc was mostly about Kamui, Umibozu, and Kouka (Kagura and Kamui’s dead mother). Kagura herself felt like an afterthought in this arc. This was more about explaining Kamui’s issues with his dad and how Umibozu met Kouka. 

Now, aside from my general disinterest in Kamui, the problem is not really with the backstory itself. It’s the fact that Gintama had turned into a battle shounen. I really dislike the pacing in battle shounens, especially if they are done badly *coughsNanbakacoughs*, and the worst part is that Gintama normally does these bits right in previous drama arcs. In this one though, it was boring... maybe not unbearable, but I found myself tuning out a lot more than I would watching Gintama - y’know, one of my all time favorite anime. 

Personally, I think the comedy in Gintama has always been stronger than the drama. The drama, when done in arcs between a lot of comedy, is really when it’s at its best because that is when the show brings a necessary change of pace and adds more depth to the characters. When it’s just one drama arc after the other, the battle shounen portions tend to take over. Plus, I just really miss the humor. It always gelled with me and that’s why I loved the show so much from the beginning. I miss laughing my ass off every episode, but in season I only chuckled a few times.

There is one silver lining though and that is Utsuro, who is becoming more and more interesting. While it is kind of cliche that he came back from the dead and turned out to be immortal, I think the way it’s presented is really good, and I can’t wait to see more of him. The last episode giving his backstory definitely pulled me in for the next season. I just hope it lightens up a little more because the comedy is where Gintama always shined the best.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Descending Stories [9/10]

This show... how am I supposed to talk about it? I want to do a proper review that does it justice, but obviously that review would be spoiler free. In this post though, I think I’ll just quickly summarize my overall feelings.

First, let me say that Rakugo has totally met my expectations in S2. It expanded on the story pretty much just as perfectly as it needed to. There was one little thing that ruined it just a teeny bit near the end, but honestly it was otherwise masterful. For me to articulate exactly how I feel, I really need to rewatch both seasons. Sorry, I’m gonna skip actually putting effort into this lol, but I will try my best to get out a proper review on MAL later. Maybe one day I’ll even attempt an analysis, but that’s far off.

~ INDIRECT SEQUELS  & NON-SEQUELS~

3-gatsu no Lion [9/10]

3-gatsu no Lion is easily one of the best and most emotional anime that I’ve seen recently. I’m actually surprised that it is a Shaft production (most famous for the Monogatari series and Madoka Magica), but it has Shaft all over it with Akiyuki Shinbo at the helm. I know some people have mixed or negative feelings on his style of direction, but I like it in all the other Shaft shows I watched and I especially like it here. It’s the first time I’ve seen Shaft do an anime like 3-gatsu, which has no fanservice, no harem (elements), no strong humor, nor any fantasy or supernatural elements.

In my opinion, they did an excellent job. If 3-gatsu was not presented in the way it is, it might not have been as interesting as it is. It would’ve been so easy to make this a dry and boring adaptation, but Shaft brings it to life with such incredible bold, imagery. And it pulls off mood whiplash (sudden mood changes) a lot better than most anime I’ve seen. Normally, I think they clash with the overall tone, but when 3-gatsu does it, it feels like an exaggerated version of what happens in real life, where tone does not stay consistent between moments.

Then there’s Rei, the main character. He really skirts the line between being relatable or not. On the one hand, he is a Shogi genius and makes his own living at age 17. On the other hand, he has a complicated past, depression, and is a very down to earth and nice person. The whole series really rests on Rei’s shoulders, as he is the narrator and everything revolves around him. But I think he’s excellent written and relatable despite being essentially a child prodigy. 

Speaking of the shogi, I was also worried that it would be hard to understand the series because I don’t know shogi very well. Thankfully, that’s not the case. While there is a significant amount of focus on the shogi, the real focus on the characters. I’m sure for people who are familiar with shogi, it gives an extra layer to the narrative, but even for those who aren’t, it’s not so focused on the games that there’s nothing left. At least shogi has similarities to chess, which most westerners have a passing knowledge of. Still, even if you know fuck all about shogi and chess, I think the great depth of characters and the wonderful visuals carry the show and make it incredibly watchable.

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka [7/10]

I... liked ACCA. Don’t love it, but liked it well enough. It has a uniqueness to it that you don’t see often in anime. For example the cast are all adults and most of them are government bureaucrats, the plot revolves around a conspiracy, and the anime is fairly slow paced and is very light on action. More than half the series is spent on world-building, with very little romance or other cliches. I could probably go on.

The color palette and art style is also a highlight with lots of bright, pastel colors. ACCA is just a neat little package of an anime that I appreciated watching for being something a little different. Have to say though, I’m not sure how much this will stick to me in the long run. Some of the world, maybe, and definitely the art style/colors, but not really the characters or plot.

All Out!! [6/10]

What initially drew me to All Out!! is a) rugby, never seen that sport before in an anime and b) incredible diversity in body types with a very wide variation in height, muscularity (although most are muscular guys), and weight (never seen so many chubby guys in an anime). So, while All Out!! does have some things that set it apart, unfortunately in literally every other way, it’s pretty much exactly the same as other sports anime. The protagonist is, OF COURSE, a newbie who joins the sport for the first time as a high school freshman. He’s overly energetic and most of the rest of the team thinks he’s annoying, but he’s super motivated and improves at an incredible rate. And he has another freshman friend who is a lot more experienced and naturally talented at the sport who serves a foil (especially since they have opposite personalities). The captain is an extremely motivated guy who’s tough on his team, but he’s also incredibly protective of them ie. team dad, and so on. The cliches just don’t stop...

That doesn’t mean AO is unenjoyable, just that the unique elements in the beginning wore off rather quickly and I was left with another run-of-the-mill sports anime (especially since this show is 25 episodes and not 12). My ratings for sports anime thus far have worked on a different scale than most other anime simply because sports is such an unusual genre with its own strict conventions that I have no choice but to rate them compared only to others in the genre. That means if sports anime were judged relative to the rest of anime I’ve seen, they would be rated lower (by between .5-1 points) because 95% of them have the exact same plot and many of the exact same characters. 

I mention this because as I’ve watched more and more sports anime, my standards have steadily been getting higher and are finally starting to match the rest of my rating scale. If this was one of the first sports anime I ever watched, it would easily be an 8/10. Now, as the dozenth sports anime I’ve seen, it’s only a 6/10. I am finally getting really tired of the old sports anime cliches and want more unique experiences. That’s why I praised Baby Steps so much for being different when I recently saw it. Looking back, I may have to re-rate some of the other sports anime I’ve seen, especially more recently like Days of the Summer/Fall seasons last year.

So, do I regret watching All Out!!? No, it has some good and fun stuff in there. Will I watch if there’s another season of it? Probably (even though I don’t necessarily want to) because I only avoid sequels if I give the first series a 5/10 or less... even then sometimes I’ll keep watching for the sake of keeping up (fcking K). Would I recommend AO in the end? Nah, unless you’re really interested in rugby.

ClassicaLoid [8/10]

I... feel almost ashamed to give this show such a high rating. Looking at MAL, my score is a whole 1.53 points higher than the standard deviation, and one of the most incongruous scores I’ve ever given - in the positive direction. In the negative direction, I happen to have some highly unpopular opinions on anime like Erased, Sword Art Online, and Mirai Nikki. 

For a long while, I just couldn’t decide on a score. Normally, I know pretty early on what score I’m going to give an anime, give or take a point in either direction (or two if the anime pulls something towards the end). By the end of a show’s airing, I usually pretty much know exactly what I want to give it. (This doesn’t apply so much to my precise ratings, but rather the broad score I give on MAL.)

For ClassicaLoid, I didn’t know whether I wanted to give this show a “guilty pleasure, I know this show is bad but I enjoyed it a lot” 6/10 rating, a “fuck it, because I loved this show that much 8/10 rating”, or a 7/10 as the balanced alternative. As you can see, I ultimately decided on an 8 (more specifically a low 8, but an 8 nonetheless) in the end. Yes, I really do love this show, and I did find it just that enjoyable and hilarious. It’s one of the funniest comedies I’ve seen recently and definitely my favorite comedy of 2016 (over the likes of Sakamoto Desu Ga? and Handa-kun).

The thing about ClassicaLoid is that if I didn’t love the characters so much and find it funny, it would be a pretty bad show. It seems pretty polarizing because a lot of people think this show is stupid and hate it for that reason. In my opinion, it is stupid, but it has some self-awareness and never takes itself seriously. The other thing is the humor. If the humor does not gel with you, you will hate this show, and that’s also highly subjective and polarizing. I think the humor is spot on most of the time, with great comedic timing and gags. There’s also, I guess, the “gimmick” of the show which is arguably the whole point - the remixes of classical music in the vocaloid style. 

Tbh, I’m not at all familiar with vocaloids and even so, I found the remixes to be mostly average or even a bit cringeworthy. They were the weakest part for me, but that only applies to the songs themselves. The actual visuals that accompanied the almost once-an-episode sequences? They were not bad. Sometimes they were even funny or resulted in hilarious things (Schubert’s fish adventure comes to mind), but most of the time they were a pretty mindless distraction. 

One of the real strengths is the characters. I seriously either love the characters* or I like them. They bring life to the show with their varied personalities. It’s kind of amazing because many of them skirt the line between being one-note quirky archetypes and actually being kind of deep. My favorites include (in no particular order):

- Kanae, who is mostly the straight man character, but plays beautifully off the rest of the cast because she has to put up with so much shit, but has her own silly and selfish sides. (Also, she’s one terrible idol.)

- Schubert, definitely my favorite classicaloid of the bunch. I was kind of surprised because he was introduced a little later than the rest, but Schu is so genuine... so weird, yet so underappreciated in-universe that I think is the opposite irl. His unpopularity is what makes him popular in the first place because aside from being a catty bitch to Mozart (who deserves it, btw), he tries really hard to be a good person.

- Liszt, who is amazing, I love that she’s badass and reliable (the only one who pays rent) but also a sucker for love. And she’s basically a trans women, isn’t she? She’s not the only originally-male-irl classicaloid to be given a female body, but she’s the only one who completely embraces it. 

- Chopin, who in my opinion is a little underused, although that’s partially justified because he’s always hiding. He’s definitely the most relateable, being a shut-in who just on the computer all day playing games or watching stuff (sounds familiar), but he’s also blunt af and has such witty lines. 

- Beethoven, I initially had mixed feelings on him, but came to love him over time. See, he may be voiced by my favorite voice actor (Tomokazu Sugita), but at first all his jokes revolved around GYOZA!!! and being a gigantic fucking ham. It got old kind of fast, but thankfully he gets more jokes and depth over time. I especially love his dynamic with Kanae and Schubert.

*The sole exception is Mozart. Here is where I rant about Mozart because thaT FUCKING PUNK BITCH IS THE WORST, AND IT SUCKS THAT HE’S A MAIN CHARACTER WHO GETS SO MUCH SCREEN TIME AND EPISODES DEDICATED TO HIM. ... Okay, I’m gonna calm down. I’ll stop shouting now and explain why I hate this pos. Here we go: He. Is. Not. Funny. Or. Likable. In fact, the only one who is not funny or likable. He’s always annoying, unhelpful, sexually harassing Kanae, and genuinely a terrible person except when it benefits him. Actually, the problem is not even that he’s terrible, but rather that he’s terrible and gets away with it. 

Compare him to someone like Sousuke, who’s a little similar in some ways, except... hey, get this, there are consequences (funny consequences) when he’s being a douche. Sousuke, along with Schubert, are the butt monkeys of the ensemble. Sousuke is even referred to as “tool” by Liszt and mostly everyone else. If Mozart was also a butt monkey, he would be a lot more tolerable, except he’s not. Mozart behaves like an annoying dick 98% of the time and the anime has the fucking audacity to try and make him sympathetic. 

I also have to bring up his voice actor, Yuki Kaji, who is easily my least favorite voice actor, so maybe I do have some inherent bias against him. See, if Mozart were played by someone who’s not annoying as shit, then maybe he would’ve been more likable, but Yuki Kaji has the range of a triangle (he’s one-note). Compare him to Beethoven, who could easily be so fucking obnoxious, except he’s played by the exceptionally talented and charismatic Tomokazu Sugita. /sighs. Well, I think I’m done ranting now.

Finally, I want to cover the jokes. It’s true, at first they appear to be of the very “lol random xD” type humor, but I think they are deceptively well constructed. There were many episodes where I was laughing out loud and some episodes where I spent the entire time laughing my ass off (again, I bring up the Schubert fish incident). With a few exceptions, I don’t think the humor or gags ever got old because the anime keeps doing more and more with the characters, throwing them into crazy situations. The absurdity of it all is hilarious and the likableness of most of the characters supports it. 

I’m probably one of 10 people in the west who is very excited and happy that there’s a season 2. Only two more seasons left until it’s back :D.

Nanbaka [6/10] / Season 2 [4/10]

I’m put in kind of an awkward position by this show... At first, it was going to be published with the Fall 2016 Roundup until I realized that there was going to be a second season. So then I delayed it for Winter 2017 except the quality of the show has gone down significantly between the first and second season. I wrote most of my thoughts for the first season already, so I’m just gonna talk about season one first by itself and then compare it to season two. Here are my thoughts on S1:

At first glance, yes, the character designs are incredibly silly… an anime podcast I listen to described them as “deviantart ocs”, (which is not too inaccurate), and everything sparkles like a shoujo manga for some mysterious reason. But aside from the strange design choices, the humor was pretty solid and characters are pretty likable. Not just the main 4 characters, but Hajime (my favorite) and the other prison wardens, and their fellow prisoners all have a charm to them.

The first half of the show is pretty damn funny, definitely a solid 7/10, but then the New Years competition arc starts and the pacing screeches to a halt. There are four whole episodes dedicated to this arc and they actually introduce a plot, drama, and some intense action near the end. It comes out of nowhere. The problems don’t stop there, unfortunately. I can forgive the terrible pacing somewhat if they kept up the laughs, but that’s not what happened. Instead, the genre switches and suddenly becomes a drama with a whole conspiracy plot about some of the main characters. Insofar, the only comedy anime I’ve seen pull off dramatic arcs is Gintama (but as I’ve said even that gets tiring after a while). Nanbaka is simply not as well-written as Gintama in either way, and the actual “plot” was a total let down compared to the humor which I genuinely liked.

This plot continues for another few episodes and it takes a little while to get back to the laughs. Humor and characters are the only thing this anime kind of nails. When the author attempts drama, it turns into another generic shounen anime. What a shame. If this anime stuck to being a pure comedy, I definitely would’ve rated it higher.

Ohhhhh boy, now onto season two. My worst fears for the anime basically happened. Imagine the New Years Competition arc I just complained about. Now, slow down the pacing another 500%, take out all the humor from the first season, and chuck in some boring ass cliche shounen crap. That is what S2 is in its entirety. It’s like they sucked out all the fun and hilarity of the first season just to “advance” the plot. I put advance in quotes because the pacing is seriously glacial. It rotates between plot exposition/backstory and “action” comparable to a Naruto filler arc for the entire run time. 

For example, my favorite character Hajime gets locked in a jail cell early on. Then some of the jail mates (including Jyugo, the main character) decide to break him out a little while later in the show. Guess when they reach Hajime? If you guessed the very last episode, you’d be correct! Inbetween is just pointless, boring fight after pointless, boring fight and fucking endless exposition! Either the character talks for minutes on end about their powers or the strategy of their enemies or about some thing in the past or there’s a flashback/backstory explaining the characters (by the way, a whole bunch of new characters are introduced except without the humor, they’re all shit) or the plot, it’s just UGH. 

Halfway through, I came to dread Nanbaka. Most of the time, I would put on the show and zone out as much as possible, although in reality, I spent a lot of time bitterly remembering how funny the first season is and how it actually had characters I liked in them doing funny shit and being likable. If the first season was a lot of fun but was bogged down by the action/drama, then the second season is the bog. Watching it is liking wading through a swamp about waist high. It won’t kill you and it’s doable, but it’s unpleasant, tedious, and you rather wished you just walked around it. 

If you really want to enjoy the show, just watch season one. Even then I only recommend the first half and the last couple of episodes. AVOID SEASON TWO AT ALL COSTS. I am certain there’s going to be a season three later this year or next year, but hopefully I’ll resist the temptation to watch it just because I watched the first two seasons.

God, it makes so angry how this show could’ve been a fairly pleasant humorous affair but ruins it completely and chucks it in the fucking garbage disposal. Way to waste your potential, Nanbaka.

Onihei [6/10]

Onihei is... unremarkable, but not a hard watch either. It’s just... alright? Very very middle of the road, but I can kind of appreciate that because it didn’t require much effort on me to watch, and I could just enjoy it without thinking too much about it. It helps that I’m already into samurai, but I admit I was hoping for more initially. Once I accepted that it was just going to be a simple collection of samurai/pre-modern japanese stories, then I began to enjoy it more. 

My biggest complaint is that there were too many episodes not focused on Heizo (aka Onihei, the main character). Heizo really was the best part of the show, and I liked it most when they focused on him and his backstory, but about a quarter of the show is about other characters that I just didn’t really care for aside from two or three of them. It’s fine that this show is mostly episodic, but because it frequently shifts focus, it is quite inconsistent because some episodes are better than others.

There’s also the fact the show looks very cheaply made, especially in those creepy ass CGI people in background shots. It has almost a B-movie feel, but not as much of the B-movie charm as I’d like. Still, it’s not really bad at all. It’s a good thing I like historical anime and that the main character is great because that is what pushes it up from a 5 to a solid 6. 

Trickster [5/10]

First, let me just say that Trickster baited me - and baited me successfully with the promise of attractive boys and homoerotic subtext. At least it delivered and pretty much met my expectations 100%, but unfortunately, it did not surprise me by being better than I thought it would be. It’s kind of a pity because Trickster actually has pretty good production values, but it falters in more important places: the characters and plot. Both of those elements are pretty clumsily handled. If not that, then they feel cliche, like I’ve already seen [x type] character and [y] trope countless times.

The characters in particular I feel like could’ve made up for the plot, but the anime chooses to focus on the least interesting ones (yes, I know this is a book adaptation). The main character, Kobayashi, is unlikable from the start and even when you unlock his tragic backstory late in the anime, it feels too little too late and it’s another overused trope. Hanasaki, the character who probably gets the most screen time is... actually alright. He’s annoying at first too, but his character development is not handled that badly either. The best characters are probably Inoue and Akechi; the former barely gets any attention at all, and the latter’s subplot is so fragmented by the rest of the characters and their own plots that it gets lost.

In fact, what I just said may just sum up the biggest problem I have with this anime. The whole thing feels fractured, like the writer wanted to give all the main characters (except poor Inoue) their dues, but didn’t know how to tie their separate plots together elegantly or didn’t know how to give all of them development/depth in one flowing plot. With tighter focus, I’m sure it would’ve turned out better, but the cliches and their rather bland execution still drag it all down.

The production values do deserve some praise though. The voice acting is great as always and the animation is overall good, but the music and direction had some standout moments that really elevated certain parts of the show. Unfortunately, the overall mediocreness of Trickster put it at a 5/10.

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